Black Flag | Book 1 | Surviving The Scourge Page 4

  “Joe, this is Hank,” said the voice on the phone, “You need to clean out Room 222 in Building Three.” He sniffled and coughed.

  “Are you okay? You sound sick,” said Joe.

  “I’m fine. Can you please just do your job and clean it out?

  “I thought they just moved in?”

  “Well, they died, and the Westons on the top floor want the apartment for their kid.”

  “Okay, I’ll clean it up next week.”

  “No, you need to get it ready by Tuesday. I need you to go in there today and start getting it ready.”

  “Fine, I’ll check it out right now.”

  He was bored anyway, so he thought he should at least see what kind of shape it was in. Building Three was new, and most of its tenants were rich, and half of them hired housekeepers.

  Knock, knock, knock.

  He hadn’t buzzed anyone in, so he thought it had to be one of the other tenants in his building.

  When he opened the door, he was surprised to find Blender standing there.

  “How’d you get in the building?”

  “I have my ways.” Blender smiled as he walked around Joe and headed straight to the kitchen. “You got any food?”

  Joe closed the door.

  “Not really. And what are you doing here? I have things to do, you know.”

  “No, you don’t.” He opened the fridge and started moving stuff around. “No beer, no milk, no nuttin’.”

  “I thought your parents just died. Shouldn’t you be in mourning.”

  Blender tasted a piece of cheese. “Nah. He was only my step-dad, and he was a total idiot, and my mom didn’t think much of me since they got married.”

  “You know you would have got along with them better if you weren’t still living in their basement at 30 years old.”

  “First of all, I’m only 28, and second of all, this cheese tastes funny.”

  “Look, I have to go to Building Three to check on an apartment of a couple that died. Maybe you should come back later.

  “No way. I’m coming with you. Building Three has all the richie rich people in it. Maybe we’ll find some cool stuff, like a safe with millions or leftover pizza.”

  “I’m sure the family has already taken away most of the good stuff, but if you want to, let’s go.”

  When they got to Building Three, the first thing they noticed was a tall police officer getting into his car.

  Joe waved to get his attention. “What’s going on?”

  “Are you in charge of this building too?” It was Officer Reginald. Today his pants reached his shoes.

  “Oh, hi Officer Reginald. Yes, I look after this building too. What’s going on?”

  Reginald had his cruiser door still open. “Someone broke your window.”

  “Who?”

  Reginald looked like he had been working non-stop for the past two weeks. He had dark circles under his eyes, his shirt and correct length pants were full of wrinkles and dirt stains. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve got real problems out there,” he said, then ducked his lanky frame into the cruiser.

  Joe leaned in closer. “Where’s your partner today?”

  He was sitting in his car, but the door was still open. He looked up at Joe with sad, tired eyes. “Mike’s dead.”

  “What? How?”

  “Some whack job killed him with a rake. Do you believe that? An effin’ rake! Mike was all excited about finally having trained his dog and then this. Look, I got to go.”

  He shut the door and drove away.

  Blender ran up to him, chewing on a small piece of something orange and blue.

  “What was that about?”

  “Remember how I told you about my escape from Ray’s Grocery?”

  “Was that the time some guy with an axe tried to kill you?”

  “It was a hatchet, but no, this was the pregnant lady in the grocery cart. Anyway, that crazy guy with the rake must have killed Officer Mike.”

  “Who’s Officer Mike?”

  “He’s the guy that saved me from the hatchet guy in Building Two. Never mind - what are you eating?”

  Blender took another bite. “Oh, this is cheese.”

  “It’s blue.”

  “It doesn’t taste like Blue Cheese.”

  “That’s because it’s cheddar cheese with mould!”

  Blender rubbed the blue off. “If you’re trying to avoid brushes with death, you should try not poisoning me?”

  Joe knocked the cheese out of his hand before he could take another bite. “Don’t eat that. That guy with the rake that was chasing me and my grocery cart brigade killed Officer Mike.”

  “How do you get to have so many harrowing adventures? Nothing ever happens to me.”

  “I could live without my terrifying brushes with death.”

  They walked up to the front doors to Building Three. The big bay window beside the front door was smashed.

  Joe reached to unlock the door as Blender walked through the broken window. “Are you going to fix this?”

  “Not now.” Joe unlocked and opened the door, and then met Blender already standing on the other side.

  “I’m hungry,” said Blender.

  They walked across the shiny new linoleum floor now covered in tiny pieces of safety glass towards the elevator. Joe pressed the up button.

  “How are you not sick from eating bad cheese?”

  He patted his overweight belly. “I’ve got a stomach lined with titanium.”

  “That doesn’t even make sense.”

  The elevator door opened. A small brown bundle of a child with black braided hair sat hunched in the corner, crying.

  “Ayesha, what are you doing here?”

  She continued sobbing.

  “This isn’t even your building. Where’s Zach?”

  Her face pressed against the wall. She refused to respond.

  They stepped inside the elevator, and Blender looked at the buttons. “What floor?”

  “Two.” He turned to the girl on the floor. “Hey, Ayesha, where’s your mother? Do you need me to take you home?”

  Without turning away from the corner, she shook her head.

  The door opened on the 2nd floor.

  “We’ll be back in a minute. Don’t go anywhere.”

  They exited the elevator leaving the girl behind.

  “You’re just going to leave her there?” asked Blender.

  “Doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere. This building is pretty safe. We’ll get her on our way out.”

  They walked a short way down the plush carpeted floor to Room 222. Joe found the master key and opened the door. “I’m hoping they don’t have much stuff-”

  They walked into the room, but then stopped when they heard Reggae music. The apartment wasn’t empty. The living room in front of them still had furniture, and the walls had baseball and landscape pictures. The shelves contained books and knick-knacks. Shoes and sandals sat messily in front of the closet, and spring coats and a baseball hat hung on the black hooks by the door. Beneath the coats was a small silver dish filled with an assortment of keys and a large Blue Jays key ring. A glove and aluminum baseball bat sat in the corner.

  “I thought you said they died.” Blender moved Joe aside, so he could walk around him into the room.

  “Wait!” Joe whispered loudly.

  Blender paused. “Did you just whisper loudly?”

  “I hear someone.”

  “That would be Bob Marley,” he whispered loudly back. “And why are we whispering loudly? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of whispering?”

  “Someone’s in the kitchen.”

  They both stopped and listened. There was a clinking sound coming from the kitchen.

  “This sounds like the start of another of your harrowing adventures where you encounter brushes with death,” said Blender

  “Hello?” Joe said a little louder and walked into the living room where he could see into the small eat-in kitchen.
>
  “Hey, Zach,” he called out. Zach was sitting at the dining room table, eating a mini-wheat type cereal without the frosting.

  Joe looked back to see Blender flat against the wall with a bat in his hands.

  “Are you coming?” asked Joe.

  “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t die first.”

  “Don’t worry, its safe, George Bell.”

  Blender walked out into the living room, still clutching onto the bat.

  “Who’s George Bell?”

  Joe ignored the ignorant comment.

  “Blender, this is Zach. Zach, this is Blender.” He pointed back to his friend.

  Blender finally put the bat down at his side. “Hey Zach-man, whatcha’ eatin’?”

  “Blender?” said Zach, his mouth still full of cereal and milk. “That’s a funny name, and what’s with the bat? This isn’t the zombie apocalypse.”

  Joe sat down at the table across from Zach. Blender opened the fridge and pulled out the milk.

  “Zach, what are you doing here?” asked Joe. “This isn’t your apartment.”

  Blender grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, found a spoon and sat down beside Zach. “Zachariah is a weird name too, big guy?”

  “First of all, don’t fat shame me, baseball boy, to cover up your insecurities and obvious cowardice and two, that milk is bad.”

  Blender poured the cereal into his bowl. “Where is the frosting on this cereal.”

  Joe attempted to interrupt. “Hello? Why are we sitting in a dead person’s apartment eating mini-wheats?”

  Zach looked at him with a serious look on his face. “These aren’t mini-wheats.”

  Blender poured his milk and went to take a bite. “He’s right, they don’t have frosting, so they’re not mini-wheats.”

  “Yeah, more like small hay bales.”

  Suddenly Blender spewed his milk across the table towards Joe, who moved to the side just in time.

  Zach continued eating. “Told you it was bad.”

  “But what are you eating, then?” Blender dumped his bowl in the sink.

  “This is almond milk. It lasts longer.”

  Blender rifled through the cupboards. “Yeah, well, that’s gross. It’s not milk unless it comes from a farm.”

  Joe waved his hand in front of Zach to get his attention. “Again, what are you doing here? How did you even get in?”

  “I got hungry, okay? They hide their key above the door, in that little crack.”

  “But why are you even here?”

  “The Florento’s family died, and my family is gone. I ran out of food, so I came here, looking for chocolate. I didn’t find any chocolate, but I did find some almond milk and this weird cereal.”

  “What? Your family died?”

  “My dad left on a business trip when I was three. He never came back, and I hope he’s dead. My mom ran off with some landscape gardener guy, and I haven’t seen her since.”

  Joe discovered a can of something and sat back down beside Zach. “Did he carry a rake?”

  Zach looked at him with a quizzical look. “What? I don’t know. She told me to find my Uncle Ted and stay with him, and she would come back for me when they got settled. Whatever that means.”

  “Oh, Zach, I’m so sorry, I’m sure she’ll come back.

  Zach tilted his bowl up and drank the last of his milk. “My mom hardly even paid any attention to me. I was raised mostly by Uncle Ted, anyways.”

  “Blender, what are you eating? That stinks!”

  “It’s sardines. It’s good for the brain.”

  Zach barely paused, eating his cereal. “You need all the help you can get.”

  “And where is Uncle Ted?” Blender asked, still scooping up his sardines.

  Zach put his bowl down and plugged his nose. “I don’t know. He left a couple of days ago. Said he was going to find some food, but never came back.”

  The three of them suddenly stopped talking when they heard the front door close.

  Blender picked up his bat. “Did you leave the front door open, Joe?”

  “Uh, you came in last, so technically you left it open, and put that bat down before you hurt someone.”

  Ayesha peeked her little brown head around the corner. “What stinks?”

  “That would be Blender here.” Zach pointed a thumb to his left.

  Ayesha wiped the remnants of her tears off her face with the back of her arm. “That’s a silly name. Is there more cereal?”

  Over a meal of sugar-less hay bales with almond milk, Ayesha told them that her mother had died. Her aunt was supposed to look after her but never showed up. She too had run out of food, was all alone and didn’t know what to do.

  “Well, both of you are coming back to my place. I’ve got lots of space, and we’re going to figure out where you kids can go,” Joe announced.

  “Joe, I was hoping for a harrowing adventure, not starting a daycare. Can we at least find some food first?” asked Blender.

  Joe attempted to call Hank back to let him know that he had checked the Florento’s apartment, but Hank wasn’t answering. Blender and the kids convinced him to look for food in the apartment before they left.

  The Florento’s had prepared for the apocalypse. They had boxes of canned and dried food stored away in a spare room. Strangely they also had several cases of toilet paper, which seemed like an odd supply to be storing. Zach found a newer model laptop and a box of electronic paraphernalia. Ayesha grabbed a box of Disney Blu-rays. The three of them made several trips carrying the boxes of food and supplies back to Joe’s apartment.

  Chapter 7

  The world around Joe appeared to calm down over the next few weeks. People were still dying of the virus, but there seemed to be less chaos in the streets. He wasn’t sure if it was because society was calming down or there was so few people left.

  He called Child Services to find out if someone could take the children. After waiting over an hour to talk to someone, they told him that because he was taking care of the children, they would be on the bottom of their priority list. They promised to send someone as soon as they could.

  He still wasn’t able to reach Hank, his boss.

  The power stayed on, and grocery stores, hardware stores and other essential services had limited hours. Half the grocery store shelves were empty, and most of the protests had died down. The government was bailing out many businesses and sending cheques to keep the remaining population from extreme poverty. The hospitals and morgues became overrun. There was more talk of China developing a vaccine. The government enacted curfews and martial law to help curb looting and vandalism.

  Joe, Blender, Ayesha and Zach lived together in Joe’s apartment for the rest of the summer. They played video games, watched television, went for walks and even had a dart tournament. Zach hated darts and had thrown a wild shot in frustration, which had stuck briefly in the side of Blender’s right thigh. Joe fixed leaky pipes, replaced the window in Building Three, and kept most of the remaining tenants relatively happy. He still hadn’t heard back from his boss, and Hank’s voicemail was full. They had some food left, which they were rationing. Joe and Blender made a couple of trips to the grocery store, but the shelves were almost empty.

  August rolled on, and Mother Nature had decided to present another heatwave for its final summer performance.

  Blender was cooking grilled cheese in the kitchen. Ayesha was watching the first Frozen movie again while Joe napped, and Zach browsed the internet. Joe’s window air conditioner struggled to keep up with the hot summer sun.

  Zach was commenting on the latest news that no one but him ever seemed to pay attention to. “Did you know that the virus isn’t as bad in China? There is talk that they already have a vaccine or may have had one the whole time.”

  Nobody responded. Joe mumbled some half-asleep retort while Blender flipped the bread over in the pan. Ayesha was still engrossed in Elsa’s song.

  “Hello…morons.” Zach was frustrated by th
eir lack of attention. “You know the world could end and you idiots wouldn’t even know it.”

  Blender flipped his grilled cheese over again in the cast iron skillet. “That would suck, especially if grilled cheese was going to be my last meal. If I had known, I would have cooked steak or lobster. Or both – surf and turf, baby.”

  “Okay. Seriously guys, this is major news.”

  Blender heard the sound of breaking glass from outside. “What was that?”

  “The voice of reason.” Zach didn’t look up from the computer screen.

  “No, outside.” Blender walked over to the window and pushed it up as far as it would go.

  Joe woke up. “What are you doing? You’re letting the cold air out.”

  Blender stuck his head out the window and looked down. “I heard breaking glass.”

  Zach now looked up from his computer. “If he falls out, I’m claiming that grilled cheese.”

  “Guys, I’m trying to watch something here,” Ayesha said. “This is the best part.”

  “Let it go, Ayesha,” laughed Joe as he stood up and stretched. “Is it the Building Three window again, because I just fixed that.” He squeezed beside Blender, and they both looked out the window.

  The sun was performing its last act of the day, still giving off some of its remaining light on the outside world. The shadows were lengthening, but they could still see a lot from the fifth floor. They saw a group of about 20 rough-looking biker types. They gathered around the front entrance to Building Three. The front window was smashed again. Two pick-up trucks, an SUV, three vans, a yellow school bus, and about a dozen Harley-Davidsons were in a line on the road. The biker at the front was directing his followers, and he wore a white bandana with a black skull on it. He held a sawed-off shotgun in his hands.

  “That’s the rake guy!” Joe exclaimed.

  Blender was still beside him, looking out the window. “That doesn’t look like a rake.”

  As they spoke, the man in the bandana looked up at them. Blender pulled back inside, and Joe bumped his head awkwardly on the window when he tried to do the same. He backed away from the window.

  He looked over at Blender. “Did he see us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Ayesha paused her movie and ran to the window. “What is it?” She started to move the blinds aside to lookout.