“This is my friend Stephani; we met a few days back, and we’re just out trying to find her some shoes and—” His voice trailed off when he couldn’t think of a graceful way to say female accoutrements.
Alisi spoke to Atamai in a low hushed tone, then spun on her heel and was gone.
“You can come in and eat with us tonight. Alisi likes you.” Without another word, Atamai also turned, motioning to a younger man to replace him at the gate before leading Jared and Stephani through the gate and into the yard.
Atamai did not lead them into the house, but instead walked around the side of the large home, where flickering lights became visible once they were inside the confines of the wall. The backyard was large on its own, but Atamai and his people had taken the initiative of knocking down all their neighbors’ fences, opening their property up to nearly two full acres. There were torches here and there, creating just enough light to navigate the yard. Jared saw Atamai and his people had used the fence sections they’d removed to double the height of the existing fences on the back side of the property. With no vehicles or other mechanical breaching threats, all Atamai and his people had to worry about was the force humans could muster.
The fences were reinforced with four-by-four stocks of lumber. The tops of the fence and the rooflines of all the surrounding houses were lined with the same razor wire Jared had seen at the front of the house. Jared wondered where in the hell these people had acquired the razor wire from.
He would later find out Atamai and his family had scavenged it all from tow yards, police parking lots, and any other place they could find the precious security element. Someone trying to access their two- to three-acre parcel of land would not only suffer dearly as they made their way through the wire, but would make enough noise to alert the family of their presence.
Jared imagined if someone were caught trying to climb through the wire, Atamai or one of his family members would shoot the person dead and probably leave them hanging in the wire, much like ranchers hung dead coyotes on the barbed-wire fences as a warning to other predators. Nearly an acre of the family’s land was being gardened, from what Jared could tell in the darkened conditions. One area was more developed, telling Jared the family had kept a working garden before the solar flare, then added to it.
Atamai stopped under a large awning, which jutted twenty feet from the back of the house, covering a patio area. There were mats on the ground, covering all of the concrete patio along with nearly a thousand square feet of dirt. Jared glanced inside the house, which was dimly lit with candles, and could see the same mats covered the floors from wall to wall.
Atamai offered Jared and Stephani a seat, which they took, leaning their rifles against the back wall of the house. Jared surveyed the property, observing three large Pacific Islander men on guard in the rear yard. He hadn’t counted the number of men up front and wondered how many people lived at the house.
Jared was curious how Atamai and his people were feeding themselves. He saw the garden, but it didn’t seem large enough to feed the nearly dozen people he’d seen at the house. They must be doing something more than gardening, but this remained a mystery to Jared. While Jared mulled over the food mystery, two men stepped out of the house and walked over to a lump in the ground. Jared Immediately realized the lump was the source of the food smell. The men worked in the darkness for a few minutes before returning to the house without so much as a glance at Jared or Stephani.
The scene was surreal for both Stephani and Jared as Atamai’s people went about their duties with no concern that two strangers sat in their midst. Jared chalked it up to a cultural thing he didn’t quite understand. There was also the fact that Atamai was armed and sitting next to them. Sure, if Jared intended to do bad things, he could have accomplished some level of violence, but who knew how many of these people there were. Jared didn’t doubt for a moment that if someone came inside the wire with less than friendly intentions, they’d be dead right quick.
Jared heard the sound of clanking metal as the two men returned to the lump in the ground along with four additional fellows. The men were carrying a metal table they dropped next to the source emitting the delicious scent of cooking meat. On closer inspection, Jared realized the thing he thought was a mound of dirt was actually a piece of one of the mats the men had lying everywhere. Under the mat, the men had laid a section of wire fencing roughly half again the size of a hole it was set on. The fencing was curved slightly to allow a narrow gap, which was where the smoke came from.
The men removed the section of mat and fence, revealing a four-by-two-foot hole. Inside the hole was most of an animal, which was laid on a grill near the bottom of the pit. Under the grill were glowing coals or embers of some kind. Jared couldn’t be sure what type of coals were being used other than they looked hot. The men pulled the cooked animal from the pit with four fire pokers and dropped it on the metal table. Using large forks, the men began pulling the flesh from the bones. Within less than two minutes, the men had the bones in one pile and the meat in a second pile.
It was such a dazzling display of teamwork, Jared almost clapped. Stephani’s eyes darted back and forth from Jared to the meat on
