Joshua Gayou - Commune - The Complete Series - A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Box Set (Books 1-4)

“That’s an outstanding call,” Gibs said. ”We upcycle what we can; put the rest in the pits.”

“That’s agreed,” Jake said. “Okay, final item: supplies. To put it bluntly, we need to find poor Fred a pair of pants that fit.”

“God bless you, sir,” Fred boomed, and the rest of us laughed our asses off.

The comment about pulling the seats out of the bus got me thinking about ways we could quickly get everyone into their own homes. After the meeting broke up, I ran over to Jake to talk to him about it.

“Hey, what’s up, Oscar?” he asked.

“I got an idea about housing everyone, but I’m gonna need to borrow your truck.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Trailers, dude,” I said. “Fifth wheels and stuff. That truck already has a ball hitch. I just gotta go out into the neighborhoods, find them, and bring them back.”

“Okay,” he nodded. “Not bad at all but do you think you can find enough?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe not. I’m pretty certain I can find at least two to start. They usually sleep at least six people, so that would be twelve taken care of on the first night, assuming I get lucky.”

“Good… good, that covers the short term. What about long term? People will want their own place to live eventually.”

“Two options,” I said. “For one, there’re a ton of trees around here. I’m pretty confident I could put up a simple cabin with a raised floor if I had some people to help me.”

Jake raised his eyebrows and leaned back all surprised. “You think you can build a log cabin?”

“Oh, shit yeah, man. I could build a house by myself if I had enough material. I used to do it all; framing, plumbing, roofing, and drywall. The only stuff I never got into was electrical and tile, which aren’t a big deal anymore. The interior finish work might be a little jacked ’cause I didn’t do cabinetry and all that, but the place would be livable. I’d almost just recommend doing that but we can’t ’cause there wouldn’t be enough material. The local Home Depot or whatever they got around here probably wouldn’t have enough framing lumber for more than a couple of small homes; not enough for everyone.”

“That’s true, but now that you mention it, we should probably head down there anyway and clean the place out,” Jake said, almost like he was talking to himself.

“Yeah, sure, we can do that, but it won’t solve the housing situation. Anyway, we can do cabins, but I’ll need help for that because the logs’ll be too fuckin’ heavy to lift on my own. I’d need, like, a couple of dudes to help me. The main drawback, though, is that it’ll take so long to build them.”

“Yes, but it sounds like the most desirable thing, long term. People used to fantasize about such things not long ago. So, a couple of campers now, which we think covers twelve people, and then start to work on cabins?”

“Well, that’s twelve if we find two campers. We might find three or only one. But I got another idea in case that doesn’t work out at all.”

“Yes? What’s that?”

“I’ll explain if it goes that far,” I said. “For now, I just wanna get out there and start looking.”

Jake thought it over; absently scratching at his beard while looking off toward the bus (we hadn’t moved it since we arrived). “Take Amanda with you. She’ll keep you safe,” he said. “Go in the jeep first to scout. I want to minimize diesel use; that stuff is always hard to find.”

“Aw, look, man. I’ll be fine. What can she do? She’s even shorter than I am!”

Jake looked at me, then, and the look on his face shut me up. He wasn’t trying to mad dog me or anything; don’t think of it like that. The dude can just go from chill to goofy without warning. We used to see dudes like that in the barrio back in the day. I grew up in a pretty tough area, so you had to be tough to get along. The thing is, a lot of us spent a lot of time just acting tough, putting up a front to try to keep from getting fucked with. A lot of times, that was enough because you can’t actually tell if you’re dealing with someone who’s tough or someone who’s faking. Then you had those loco motherfuckers. For the most part, you knew who they were, stayed away from them, and it was cool. I even had a few friends who were like that. You just didn’t want to catch them on a bad day.

I never seen Jake lose his cool before. I’ve seen him go to work a few times and I know he’s hard, but he ain’t mean or cruel. Irregardless of all that, sometimes he gives me that look, and I’m pretty sure I’m looking at another loco motherfucker.

“She’s little,” he said, “but you haven’t seen what she can do, either. Take her with you, please.”

“Uh, yeah. Okay, bro.”

I found Amanda not long after that; she was off to the side talking to her daughter Elizabeth while my girl Maria and Rose stood close by. Like an idiot, I happily walked up to them only to find out that Lizzy was getting told.

Amanda was saying, “I don’t care that you’re in a group now. You three need to stay close to the cabin. Period.” She put out her index finger and started stabbing it at each of the girls in turn: “Every… one… of you. Got it?”

The kids all had that pissed off look that they get when they decide to disagree silently. I decided to weigh in and said, “ Mija, ya . You remember what it was like getting shot at? Either of you remember Kyle and Jessica? This ain’t a world anymore where you get to disobey and just get grounded. If you screw up now, people die. Ain’t no grounding for that. You get somebody killed because you’re feeling like rebels; you just won’t ever be able to forgive yourself… and neither will anyone else around you.”

The looks on their faces fell, and I wondered if I hit them too hard. They were all remembering their own friends that were gone; all of the fight had escaped them. Amanda was looking at me funny, and I couldn’t tell if she was upset or what.

“Sorry to butt in,” I said.

“No, it’s fine,” she said. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard someone else speak Spanish. It was nice to hear.”

“Oh, man,” I smiled. “There’s more where that came from.”

She shook her head and asked, “What’s up?”

“Jake asked me to get you. I want to head into the city, and he told me to take you with me.”

She looked back at the girls and chewed her lip, almost certainly wondering what to do with her kid. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Jeff must have been in earshot because he spoke out from behind us.

“I can keep an eye on them if that’s what you’re worried about. Jake is taking some of the others out in the Dodge to go looking for food, and stuff and I think Gibs and Fred are going to start digging those pits. I don’t have much to do right now.”

“Okay, that works,” Amanda said. “Thanks.” She looked back at the girls, “You all pay attention to what Jeff says, okay?”

They nodded, and Lizzy mumbled a “yes, ma’am.”

“Lizzy, come over here,” Amanda said. She took the girl over to the other side of the porch and whispered to her a while. I couldn’t tell what she was saying, but she looked serious as a heart attack, so I looked away to give them their privacy.

As I waited, I looked over at my little girl and said, “Like Amanda says, okay Mijita ? Do as you’re told.”