Jacqueline Druga - No Man's Land

Hearing the clanking of cups and the chattering between her and Hannah, I realized the way to get to know her wasn’t just by the photographs, but by talking to her as well.

Tea sounded good and I joined them in the kitchen.

Mama Mavis was a wonderful woman, at least to us. She missed her family dearly and was definitely a ‘Pleasantville’ version of an apocalypse survivor.

She cooked a wonderful stew of fresh applesauce and biscuits. I was happy with the pie; we arrived so late, the dinner was a welcome surprise.

I had washed up and she gave me a clean shirt and jeans and I thanked her for them. “Best I felt in days.”

“You don’t look it,” Mavis said. “Here.” She rattled a brown pill bottle and placed it in front of me. “Antibiotics. Take them. The whole bottle. They’ll help. You don’t have far to go to Sanctuary City, they won’t let you in if you’re sick. Right now, you just took a beating, couple days you’ll look better.”

“Thank you again.” I clutched the bottle.

“Supper’s on the table, Hannah. Come eat,’ Mavis said.

Hannah stared out the backdoor. “George is chasing something out there.”

“Probably a mouse. We have many back there. He’ll get one,” Mavis said. “Then he’ll calm down. It doesn’t take much to calm them down. Few bites. They really don’t ingest it. They just chew. I guess it seems kinda sadistic to keep them. Because he was my husband I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill him”

“Calvin is gonna shoot his wife in the head first chance he feels ready for it.”

“Oh stop. I did not say that,” I said.

“What happened to him?” Hannah asked. “How did George get like that?”

“He got bit,” Mavis responded. “Was helping a neighbor down the road. Trying to pack them up and get them going. Their boy was sick. He bit him. George turned within a couple days. I guess I’m just waiting for the good Lord to take him.”

“I see you have a stable. Did you have horses?” I asked.

“At one time. I don’t anymore.”

“Did George eat them?” Hannah asked.

“Hannah!” I scolded.

Mavis smiled and shook her head. “No. That would be way too much for George to eat, now wouldn’t it. No. I bartered them. A man named Jason came up with the idea to start a transportation service from different places in the area to Sanctuary Sixteen and Thirteen. They pay him with stuff and he takes them. I bartered for goods in our deal, I gave him the horses and cart and made a nice deal with him for what people paid him. He’s a good man. Stays true to his word. Drops off supplies on his way there every single trip. Usually him and his traveling folks spend the night. Then they go on their way. He’s been doing it for several weeks now. He’s about due. Takes a different road back up north and this one down.”

Hannah gushed with excitement. “Oh, Mama Mavis, we would’ve met anyhow. I was waiting on the next transport. He was taking a while.”

“Sometimes he hangs out at the sanctuary to rest up. Plus it’s been raining a lot.”

Hannah asked, “What’s it like? Do you know? Did Jason tell you? What’s Sanctuary City like?”

“Well, little one, they’re safe there. He said they’re like tent cities. He said sometimes they get kind of rough. They clean the rift raff out of there. Get rid of the rowsers pretty fast, I hear.

“Did you ever think to go with him?” I inquired.

“No, heavens no.” Mavis shook her head. “Have you looked around my place? I have it made. My own water, garden, food supply, and even if the bartering doesn’t last, I have enough. It’s safe from those things. Very few come up this way. That hill is a trudge.”

“Then why the explosives?” I asked.

“Amongst other things I spent seventeen years in the service back in my heyday. I’m pretty good.” She winked. “The traps aren’t for the infected, they’re for the people that try to get my stuff. I know when they’re coming. I have battery operated sensors out on the road. Been hit enough. Jason taught me those lessons. Gotta love that man.”

Hannah paused in eating, then a dreamy look came over her. “You’re so pretty and smart. Just like my grandma.”

Mavis sighed out with an ‘ah,’ laying her hand on Hannah’s face. “You are welcome to stay here. You know that?” Then she looked at me. “You as well. I can use the help with the wood during the winter.”

“Wow, thank you. I’ll think about it. Part of me wants to make it to sanctuary. Like a goal, but if the invitation will stay open.”

“Absolutely,” she said.

“Hannah,” I said. “If you want to stay…”

“Not without you, Calvin,” she said. “You need me. You saved me.”

“What?” I laughed.

“Calvin’s a hero?” Mavis questioned.

“Yep.” Hannah nodded.

“Oh, I am not a hero. Never was and probably never will be. I don’t have it in me. I’m an accountant. Besides, you…” I pointed my fork at her. “You saved me. You saved Edward.”

“That’s how you saved me,” Hannah said. “Them men, they weren’t nice men. Not at all. They were at Pastor Jim’s. Pastor Jim sent me with them to Mr. Mills.” Then oddly, she grew sad and spoke in a serious way like I hadn’t heard her do. “The night with you and Edward. Two of them had me. Said they wanted to have fun. Then Edward kept fussing.” She looked at Mavis. “He was doing that scream thing he does. Over and over. The men stopped ’cause they said they wanted to go get him. Kill him. Crush his skull. Kill Calvin. They left me and I followed. They didn’t touch me. So you see, Calvin, you being there saved me.”

Mavis laid her hand on Hannah’s. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“That’s the way it is, right?” She shrugged. “It was tried before so I went to Mr. Mills. Always was told to go to an adult. Well, he just said, ‘Girl, deal with it, you wanna live here, live anywhere, you’ll do what it takes.’ When them men got me, I guess I thought I had to do what it takes.”

At that instant, I got sick. I jumped up with an “excuse me” and darted out the door, trying my hardest not to get sick. I grabbed the back porch railing, trying to catch my breath, stop the gagging. Then when I spotted George eating that mouse, I lost it.

Every bit of my stew left my body. My stomach wretched. I was so focused on getting to sanctuary, my survival, Edward’s, even Leah’s, I never paid attention to what was happening in the world around me. That poor girl lost everyone and still was getting hit hard. It sickened me, physically sickened me.

I got my bearings and went back into the house.

“You alright?” Mavis asked.

“You okay, Calvin?”

I nodded and crouched down before Hannah. “I am so sorry for everything you have gone through. Everything. I can’t do anything about what happened, but I can about what’s gonna happen. You are a kid, Hannah. A kid and you should never have to do what it takes, not in this world, not in any world. As long as you are with me, you’ll be a kid, never more than a kid and I’ll try my damndest to make sure you never have to do… what it takes. Got that?”

She nodded a couple times and wrapped her arms around my neck.

I had seen Hannah as a child, but sadly it never registered. It would from now on. I made a promise to myself. I may not have been the strongest man or the bravest, but I would do what I could to protect Hannah as much as I did my son. They were our future. Not me, not Mavis and not those things out there… the children were.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many left.

Hannah’s twelfth birthday was not forgotten. Not by me and not by Mavis. She made her some applesauce to go, and we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ over a pancake. Hannah was thrilled, her eyes lit up and she smiled.