WILLA, стр. 26
I could understand the feeling. Even though my mother could make me crazy, she was my mom, and I wanted nothing more than to crawl up next to her and sleep for a year. I couldn’t bear to think about my dad.
The next morning, after a breakfast of canned peaches and more bottled water, Sam asked, “What should we do to fortify the house?”
“Nothing really,” Uncle Jamie replied. “We’ll make sure all of the doors and windows upstairs are locked tight, and we’ll continue to keep watch at the top of the stairs. We won’t be here long enough to need more than that.”
“I know you’ve said that, but I think we should reconsider. This basement isn’t as big as Grandma’s, but it’s plenty big enough for us.”
“We aren’t staying here. I’m not telling you three again. We’re too close to the city for us to stay here for too long. If the zombies don’t overrun us, then looters will,” Uncle Jamie repeated, taking up a guard post at the top of the stairs.
Chase opened his mouth to say something, but Sam put a hand on his arm to quiet him.
“But this place is perfect,” Chase said in a low voice to his brother. “And you and I have a legal claim to it if anyone tries to force us out.”
“None of the old laws matter anymore,” Sam said. “I think we could be safe here, but Uncle Jamie has a point.”
Sam’s words shocked me. He’d been on Uncle Jamie’s side every step of the way from day one.
“We’re only here long enough to regroup. Don’t get too comfortable,” Uncle Jamie said, from the top of the stairs.
I doubted he’d been able to hear the boys, but it was apparent what they were discussing. The three of us dispersed. I don’t know what the boys did. I went to the pullout to nap before my turn at watch.
Sam, Chase, and I tried not to make ourselves at home in the days that followed, but the feat was near impossible for the boys, considering we were in their home. After a day or so, I started settling in also. Uncle Jamie never did, though he did eventually go through his brother’s things for more clothes.
18.
By the end of our first week in Uncle Carson’s basement, my cousins and I had made up our minds that the house was safe, and we would find a way to convince Uncle Jamie to remain there. We’d brought down all the furniture, board games, clothes, and other useful and nonessential items that we could. We’d submitted to his hours of training each day and took our shifts on guard. However, when we could, we pretended life wasn’t falling apart.
Uncle Jamie tried to dissuade us from letting ourselves become complacent, but his attempt was only half-hearted. He was losing strength, and we knew it. And we took advantage of it.
Considering all that we’d been through, we should’ve understood what he was feeling, should’ve helped him more, should’ve listened to his protests. It’s incredible how quickly we became comfortable, though. We let our guard down. We forgot the type of world in which we lived. Or maybe we wanted to ignore it and pretend everything was normal.
“I’m going into town,” Uncle Jamie announced on our last day in Uncle Carson’s house.
Granted, we had no way of knowing it was our last day.
“Why?” I asked, even though I knew the answer, and the annoyed look he gave me told me to shut up.
Each of us had eaten one pack of instant oatmeal with water for breakfast, and that was all we’d had. All we had left was three cans of soup, two cans of peas, a can of pineapple, and a three-ounce pack of tuna. That wasn’t enough to feed four people for much longer.
Uncle Jamie only had to go out one time since we got to Uncle Carson’s, and that was two days after we arrived. He’d come back with a backpack loaded with stuff: toilet paper, stale cereal, Vienna sausages, Ritz, and other things. We’d rationed, but it hadn’t lasted long with what little we’d brought with us.
“I’m going with you,” Sam said.
“No, you aren’t. You’re staying here with your brother and Willa. I want the three of you to hide in the back closet and not leave no matter what until I return,” Uncle Jamie said.
“We aren’t babies. We can take care of ourselves,” Sam argued.
“I know you can, but I still want you in that closet. All the doors and windows upstairs are closed. I’ve changed the lock on the basement door so that you have to have a key to open it. I’ll lock it when I leave.”
“What if you don’t come back,” Sam asked.
Uncle Jamie reached into his pocket and handed Sam a key.
“This is a spare. Use it only, and I mean only if I don’t return by tomorrow morning. The only time you leave that closet is if you have to use the bathroom. I’m holding you to the honor system on all of this, but please...please do as I say.”
Sam opened his mouth to say something, looked at the expression on Uncle Jamie’s face, and said, “Okay.”
I also wanted to argue. If Uncle Jamie was locking us in the basement, then why did we need to hide in the closet? I felt he was overacting, and I wanted to tell him that his request was something Mom would ask, but the sad set of his eyes kept me quiet. I merely nodded my head in agreement.
Chase said nothing. His face was unreadable, but I thought he was okay with hiding. Of us all, he was the one who was the most willfully blind to the world outside. Sam and I, at least, took our training and watch shifts seriously. Chase mostly acted as if he were in a Star Wars movie when we practiced fighting and slept through