She watched as Brian moved the tiller, and her heart broke. She’d known he and Christa for years. She and Christa had work together, and she’d been there to celebrate the triumph over the breast cancer. Now Christa was gone, taken by that horrible virus. She knew Brian was grieving, it was etched into his face. She was glad he’d taken the boy. And, she was glad the boy had him. She couldn’t imagine how many children were out there, and by now, many will have died without the help from an adult. She could only hope that others had stepped in to become a parent. She’d not seen any children, and only a few adults in the past few weeks.
This world had gone back in time. And, it had wiped out most of the population. The human race would be lucky to come back. It would never be the same again, at least not in her lifetime, and perhaps, not even in Cooper’s lifetime. There would be no more new technologies and the old technology would die away, with no one to maintain it or bring it back. They could get the solar panels and set that up, but in a generation or so, those would be gone as well. She knew gas would be gone in a year or less, degraded beyond use. Diesel would work, if a person could get it, but again, that would only last so long.
Any illnesses that came along would take their toll, with no hospitals, no more antibiotics, people would die younger now. Any major accidents would kill as well or minor ones for that matter. Infection would be their enemy. She was glad she had the book on plants. She’d have to start learning how to use that to treat and to heal others. They had a chance here, but should something happen, that she couldn’t mend, death wouldn’t be far off. If any of them developed cancer, their life span would be shortened. Coop might end up alone in twenty or thirty years. It was a dark thought and Emma shook her mind free of it. It did no good to look at the doom and gloom of the future. She needed to concentrate on the here and now.
She looked up as Cooper went screaming with laughter, across the lawn. Buddy and Daisy were galloping around the child, all of them having the best of times. She laughed and looked at Brian and Paadi, who also were watching the antics.
“I’ll swear, if I had a tenth of that energy, I could rule the world.” Paadi laughed, shaking her head.
“If only we could harness it. My god, what we could accomplish!” Brian snorted.
“At least the dogs are getting along.” Emma grinned.
“Wait til Daisy comes into heat, they’ll really be getting along.” Brian laughed.
“Oh crud, she’s intact?” Emma said, her eyes growing wide.
“Yeah, my neighbors, Pat and Terry were going to breed her next year. And if I’m not mistaken, Buddy wasn’t neutered. So, I guess we’ll have a good supply of guard dogs, handy.” Brian grunted and he wiped at his forehead.
“Well, guess that’s a good thing, an early warning system!” Paadi smiled broadly.
“I’d say you’re right. Guess we’d best be getting plenty of meat set aside.” Emma said, thinking about the dog food she’d picked up. She had several hundred pounds of it, but that wouldn’t last that long.
“Don’t worry, I picked up a nice smoker at Lowes. I’ll be going hunting in a few weeks, let the deer put on a bit more weight. I’ll also be hunting bear. The more meat we can put away, the better.” Brian said.
“I’ve never hunted, but I’d sure as hell like to try.” Paadi grinned, her dark brows moving up and down. She had such an expressive face, it made Emma smile.
“I’d be happy to show you the ropes Paadi, it just takes patience and we can perhaps build a tree stand near a natural deer trail. That helps too.” Brian said. He went to the gas can and began to refill the tiller. He’d cleared an area of about fifty feet long by twenty feet wide.
“How big are you going to make this thing?” Emma asked.
“As big as I can. Not sure how much we can grow, but I’d like to give it a try. When we go back, I’m going to pick up a few more fruit trees that were in the garden section of Lowes. I’ve planted some over there. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few more pear and apple trees. That way in the fall, we have fruits. I’m not sure if they have any nut trees, but we can take a look. I do know that this park has walnut trees, but I can’t remember where I saw them. When I’m out hunting, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for them.” Brian said.
“Having walnuts would be great for cooking. That’s a good idea about more fruit trees. Maybe in a couple years, we’ll have a good batch of apples and I can try my hand at apple sauce and apple butter. Let’s also see if they have grape vines. We can always use those and make raisins.” Emma said, her mind already thinking ahead. Brian began tilling again and she and Paadi went back to pulling up clumps of grass and shaking the dirt out. There were so many things to do and get before the gas ran out. She could only hope that they could get it accomplished.
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Paadi shook her bucket out, they were making great progress. Brian had really done a hell of a lot in the very short time he’d been there. She liked
