The sandbox was approximately twenty feet in diameter and filled with soft sand. The sides were eighteen inches in height, making for the perfect place to fight from. It was like a Silicon Valley fighting hole if you were a Marine, or foxhole if you hailed from the Army. Either way, John was elated. Jared was vaguely aware of the tactical advantages the sandbox offered, but what excited him the most was he would be sleeping on the soft cushion of the sand and not the rock-hard earth like he had the night before.
The men set up camp in the bottom of the sandbox and began preparing their meals. John or Jared always remained vigilant and took turns eating while the other kept watch. The park was flat and offered a spectacular field of view in the daylight in case anyone attempted to walk into their position. Night would be a whole different game, and Jared knew this from his time spent on the golf course with Bart.
It hadn’t been that long ago, yet Jared felt like a lifetime had passed since he’d spent the night on the open greens of the course with Bart. Now, Jared doubted he would see all the imaginary shadows he’d seen then. Since that time, not only had his body began to toughen, but so had his mind. The change in his mental endurance had all really begun that day in the supermarket when he’d been beaten senseless and had his bicycle stolen. It hadn’t stopped since, and he doubted it ever would.
“I say we stay here until you two are a hundred percent. Anyone trying to sneak in here on us is gonna draw the short straw,” John said with a wide smile.
Jared chuckled quietly. He’d never seen John so happy. It was the little things in life that mattered now more than ever before. The only thing that had sparked John’s happiness was being a little safer than they’d been since they left Dwight’s place. After the men ate, they went in pairs to do their business. The park’s restrooms were beyond what Jared would have classified as a disaster, so they moved off into the surrounding bushes. The original three had brought toilet paper and still had a respectable amount, which they all rationed for fear of the day when it would be gone.
The following morning, the men packed their gear, ate breakfast, and drank all the water they had in their bottles. Jared had gone for a walk and found a pond on the far side of the park. The body of water had been filtered before the event, but was now looking a little murky. Jared filled his water bottles using his water-purification pump and then returned to tell the rest of the group about his aquatic discovery.
The pond was less than one hundred yards from the sandbox, so the men went one at a time, with the other three men keeping a watchful eye on the surrounding area. If something were to happen, the man at the pond would return posthaste while the other three men did whatever they had to to ensure the man’s safe return to their ad hoc bolt-hole. The filling of everyone’s water bottle went smoothly, and before long, they were all lounging in the sand, allowing their muscles a badly needed rest.
The prior evening, Jared and John had spoken of taking the day off and decided they would rest the two computer boys for the entire day and into the following night. John figured with roughly thirty hours of rest, Barry and Dwight would be good to move out at 0300 hours and make it most of the way back to the ironworks shop under the cover of darkness. John hoped most of the people who skulked about in the night looking for easy prey would be done by 0300 hours and back in whatever hovel they slept in, allowing a safe passage for the foursome.
Calvin and Shannon didn’t sleep well after the three left them alone with Essie. Calvin knew there was no way the two adults could pull security watch during the night with just the two of them for any length of time. They had to deal with feeding and schooling Essie, and those two things, in Shannon’s opinion, would not be set aside.
The first night John and Jared were gone was the worst. Both Shannon and Calvin tossed and turned, waking at the slightest sound and sometimes waking for no reason other than their haunted dreams. Essie was well rested the first day and ready to go, while the two adults were dragging, managing to sleep perhaps two hours total.
Shannon pushed through making Essie breakfast, then spent four hours teaching her reading and mathematics. Shannon had removed a small dry-erase board from the side of the refrigerator and used it in the absence of workbooks. She would create the workbooks a page at a time for the little girl. Calvin ate breakfast and then moved out to the OP, where he rested and even nodded off a couple of times.
At around noon, Calvin made his way back to the house and dropped onto the couch. Shannon was just finishing making some lunch for Essie and offered to make more for Calvin, but he declined. He found he ate less these days, and over time he felt less hungry, as if his body had adjusted to the reduction in the availability of food. After lunch, Shannon suggested a nap, which Calvin again declined before returning to the OP and taking a nap there. Shannon and Essie napped inside the house for an
