Chapter Sixteen: New Beginning's (pt4)
When the Kim's finally pulled up in front of the preschool Juno couldn't hold back the sigh of relief from escaping her. They had already cleared out the Burgess house, grabbing all the perishable foods first so that the women in the school could make lunch for the kids before moving on to the canned goods and storing them in the apartment that no one had slept in the night before. After Juno had pointed out that it wouldn't be summer forever, they had also grabbed a bunch of the winter clothes and heavy blankets that the Burgess' had put in storage and transported them as well.
Juno had made sure to grab a bunch of Ethan's clothes and pull-ups in addition to what the others had considered as essential 'must-haves'. The majority of the kids under their care in the preschool weren't potty trained or were in the process of learning how to use the bathroom... so pull-ups were honestly one of her greatest concerns at the moment. After all, the kids each went through five or six of them a day.
They were going to have to come up with a system for storing their goods. Marie had suggested that they store all of the clothing and blankets into the "master bedroom" of the spare apartment, while using the second room for their cans and non-perishables. They were probably going to have to remove the beds or at least the mattresses from the storage rooms to help with maximizing their space. Maybe in exchange they could remove some of the shelving and bureaus from the other apartment to further help with creating a better divide between storage and living space.
"You guys cleared the street pretty fast." Hyun-Bin commented as got out of the truck and slammed the door closed behind him. "We have some fresh-"
"Damn. What the fuck is that smell?" Eun-Hyool groused, his face scrunching up in disgust.
"Fruits and veggies from the farm to share with you guys." the older Kim continued ignoring his younger brother's exclamation and follow-up gagging sounds. "How was last night? Any problems?"
Juno smiled at him wryly, "We spilt up the kids by age, but kept those that were siblings together. I had pretty much all of the two-year-old's with me last night... surprisingly it was the Morrison's siblings that gave me the most trouble last night."
"Ya! Don't ignore me! What is that smell? I mean it stank yesterday, but it has nothing on thi-"
"That is the smell of burning bodies." Marie snapped in annoyance, "Can you shut your yap now!"
Eun-Hyool winced, looking almost as if he'd been physically struck, "I-I'm sorry I didn-"
"Yeah, well, now you do know babo ." Marie's voice was dripping with frustration as she hauled a plastic container with clean clothes for the adults toward the preschool.
The oldest Kim slapped the back of En-Hyool's head, "Keep your mouth shut brother and just help, will you."
Danny jogged out of the preschool, the older man had been helping bring their ill-gotten goods upstairs into the refrigerators of the upstairs apartments, "Wow-wee! That's an amazin' haul!" the man praised as he reached the bed of the Kim's truck.
The Kim's had a huge grove of peach trees -it was their breadwinner- and a couple of apple trees on their farm. From what Juno could remember, from that one time she'd gone over to their property for a Korean-style barbeque, they had maybe five/six cows and two bulls -that were used for breeding purposes- and a flock of chickens. Hyun-Bin's only daughter, Anna, boasted rather gleefully that she had a small flock of lambs just for her -as a gift from her mother for her eleventh birthday, the woman had claimed that she should have named her daughter Mary since she resembled the girl from the children's song so well- and even three piglets that were all named after some famous pig characters: Babe, Ms. Piggy and little runt Wilber.
The truck bed had three crates full of peaches and one with apples. Considering the tough months they had ahead, it would be smart to turn as much of the fruit into jams and save them for when they were truly desperate. Preserves had a much longer shelf life than the actual fruit. Marcy actually had a real talent for making preservatives, her jellies were to die for.
"John! Help me bring this inside, Juan and Johnny can help carry 'em upstairs." Danny instructed as the black man joined them.
"You got it." John grunted as he hefted one of the crates over his shoulder.
Juno ran ahead of him to open the door and called out inside, "Hey boys, we need a little help here!" the two teens came in running from the back, "John's bringing in some crates with fruit, you boys are gonna help bring them up to the apartment." she barely gave them any time to respond, ignoring really their nods before shouting once more, "Hey Marcy! I need you to go upstairs with them and make some preserve out of the fruit!"
The black-haired woman looked frazzled as she made her way into the cubby room and John pushed past her with the crate of peaches. "What?" she asked.
"Preserves Marcy. Make some jams and apple sauce out of the fruit. We won't be able to eat all of these before they go bad and they can help stock our shelves for the winter."
The older woman nodded, "I'll need some jars for the jellies."
"There's a couple of empty jars in the basement near the back where the Christmas decorations are. I was going to use them to make some candles. I think I got like twenty. I'll raid the craft store for more later, just start making some jam now." she instructed her before making her way back outside when Alexis took over holding the door open for the men.
Hyun-Bin and Eun-Hyool were on the truck bed helping Danny get one of the heavier crates down onto the pavement. Juno fingered the keys that were jangling inside of her pocket before looking up to Hank's window. The dirty blonde-haired man was still there, stoically keeping watch over them from his spot. She could see the man smoking a Marlboro, holding his cigarette with his left hand and his shotgun in the right.
Hank wasn't an idiot. When he'd tried to commit suicide all those years ago he'd been suffering from a concoction of PTSD, depression, and survivor's guilt. Juno didn't really think the man would attempt to opt out anymore, but she couldn't help but feel that it would be the wrong move to unlock the chains keeping the rooftop closed. If anything, the chained roof only provided more security for her own building that way... in case any more geeks ever made a resurgence in the town and Juno needed to go rooftop hopping again to try and take them all out from the sky.
She was already thinking about making a couple more gardening squares and planting some veggies on Hank's roof, maybe even putting up some rafters so that she could cultivate some grapes and create a vineyard for the next year. After all, Juno already had some sprouts that her mother had sent her almost a month ago after she'd commented on wanting to grow some indoor fruits in the house... she had never known that grapes could be grown indoors until her mother had proudly proclaimed that it was in fact possible.
Juno had however promised Hank that they would unlock the rooftop for the man, perhaps they could compromise and make it so that they could lock the door from the inside of the building instead of from the outside so that Hank could come and go as he pleased without threatening the safety of the building.
The familiar ringing of her cell phone brought Juno out of her thoughts. Juno practically tore at her jean pocket to reach for the cellular device, barely giving pause to press 'talk' before letting out a frantic, "Hello?"
"Juno!" her brother's familiar voice gasped from the other end, "Sis, you okay?"
Her brow furrowed in concern, "Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Why? What about you José? Are you hurt? Where are you hermanito?"
"Gracias a dios." her brother breathed out in relief, "I heard on the tele that LaGrange was overrun. Apparently, someone had been bit on their vacaciones and infected their neighbors, 'course that news bitch and her camera crew were eaten alive while reporting their damn story."
"Fuck that José. I don't give two shits about the news. How are you? Where are you? You haven't been bit right?"
"Calmate. I'm fine. Not a scratch on me. Remember when I helped the Lopez family, you know mis vecinos , move across town three days ago. I still had the U-HAUL trailer I rented so I rigged it to my truck again."
"Dios José, what does that have to do with anything? Where are you pendejo?" she asked in frustration.
"Man, what crawled up your ass and died there, puta?"
"José!" she snapped.
"Fine! Fine, geez learn to take a damn joke Juno. I rigged it so that I could bring supplies. I already filled it up with all the cans I've been finding on the road. Hell, there was this over turned Costco truck on the highway about a town ago... so I took the chance to stock up before the damn biters tried to swarm me."
"Wha-What!?"
"Chill-lax Juno. Not a scratch on me. Anyway, I'm gonna be out of Virginia soon. I'll hopefully be by Atlanta in three days if the roads ain't all clogged up. I do got a couple gallons of gas in the back but you never know what's gonna happen. Anyway, I don't think my phone is going to be useful anymore. Papi said the phone lines were gonna come down in like a day or two, so I figured I'd call you on the cell for old time's sake. I mean- I just finally finished paying off the damn thing. I wish I hadn't coughed up so much dough for what's essentially gonna become a fucking paperweight."
"Alright," Juno interrupted before José could continue babbling about his poor financial decisions, as if he should have been able to magically divine the cannibalistic pandemic plaguing them now, "do you have your radio at least- so that we can keep in contact?"
"Claro! I'd have to be a real dumbass to leave that behind. I'll contact you through there every night around eleven when I can." José reassured her.
"Please, for el amor de dio s, be careful hermanito." she pleaded with her brother, ignoring the looks she was getting from her compatriots.
"Hmm, I'm always careful Juno."
"Uh-huh." she snorted, "Do you at least have the snow plow attached to the front of your truck?"
"Hell yeah. I know you girls are always sayin' that I'm a stupid shit, but I'm not completely bruto, cabrón."
"Watch your fuckin' mouth." she shot back, it was silent for a moment before the Moreno siblings burst out into hysterical laughter. As soon as they both stopped laughing Juno sighed, "Just be careful José, I'll be waiting for your call tonight. Be safe. Avoid the shelters hermano. People are gonna be flocking to them and it'll just attract more shamblers the louder those places get."
"You got it Juno." he answered cockily before murmuring softly, "Te amo."
Juno smiled shakily, turning her back to the others so they couldn't see the tears threatening to stream down her face. "Y yo a ti, te amo muchisimo José. Que dios te bendiga." she whispered.
When the call dropped Juno squatted-letting her head come to rest against her knees. Her little brother was crossing through state lines by himself to reach her. She couldn't afford to lose her shit just thinking about it.
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(So... I totally thought I updated this fic on here and I didn't... oops? Seriously guys... my bad.)