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and fruit and coffee, heard the clank of silverware and glasses and
serving trays-they were suddenly ravenous.
The room buzzed with conversation. About one hundred fifty people were
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gathered in the cafeteria, sitting at long tables, standing in line with
trays, and standing around the coffee pots. Several of them looked up,
appraising the new arrivals as Smokey led them into the room.
Smokey described himself as an ex-hippie. He was still in pretty good
shape for a man in his sixties. A long, gray ponytail hung down over his
flannel work shirt, and a matching gray mustache covered his upper lip.
Friendly
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and talkative, he'd been assigned to show the three of them around.
"Where do you get the food for all these people?" Jim asked.
"The building had some restaurants and this cafeteria," Smokey answered.
"All fully stocked. Plus, there were vending machines on most of the
floors, as well as miscellaneous food items in the apartments and offices."
He leaned down, put his hands on his knees, and looked Danny in the eye.
"I bet you like blueberry pancakes, don't you, kiddo?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, because Etta and Leroy and their crew make the best darn
blueberry pancakes you've ever eaten. Let's get in line."
Danny grinned in anticipation, and Jim began to relax. It felt strange
after countless days spent on the run. His shoulders loosened a bit, his
muscles relaxing. Maybe they would be all right after all. He thought
back to his second wife, Carrie, and their unborn baby, both killed at
the start of his quest. Then he thought about Baker and Martin, and all
the others. Perhaps the deaths and the bad times were behind them for a
while. He sighed.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Smokey asked.
Jim nodded. "It does. It's-a community."
"That it is. About three hundred of us here, all told. Folks work in
shifts, so you won't see everybody at once, unless we have a community
meeting in the auditorium- and even then, there will still be folks on
watch. The cafeteria is open twenty-four hours a day, to take care of
folks on night shift and guard duty and what not. But we ration the
food, and if you're not one of those folks, you won't
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get served when it's not your turn. People come here just to hang out,
play cards, talk. Breakfast is when it's usually most crowded."
"I don't mind the crowd," Jim mused. "I'm just happy to be here. Feels
like we've been on the run forever, going from one bad situation to the
next. It's hard to believe I can let my guard down."
They got in line and each took a tray. Smokey joked and chatted with
every person they passed. He seemed to know everybody. He introduced the
three of them, but Jim and Don soon lost track of the names. Jim's
wounded shoulder began to ache from all the hand shaking.
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A young woman approached them and playfully pushed Smokey out of the way.
"Watch it, Val." He grinned. "Hey, meet Jim and Danny Thurmond and Don
De Santos."
"Hi," Val said, flashing white teeth. "You're the group that Quinn and
Steve brought in."
"We are," Jim replied. "How did you know that?"
"Val is one of our communication specialists," Smokey explained. "She's
also eating for two."
"I'm pregnant," she confirmed. "Only two months, though, so I'm not
showing yet."
Jim and Don congratulated her, and then she moved on.
"So what does everybody do around here, other than guard duty and radio
monitoring?" Don asked.
"You name it, we've got it," Smokey answered. "Doctors and nurses.
Scientists. Soldiers. Janitors. We've got a hydroponics lab and a
greenhouse, so if you've got a green thumb, you could volunteer for
that. Couple of teachers have started a school on the twentieth floor,
so Danny here will be able to continue his learning."
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"School?" Danny groaned. "Yuck."
Jim smiled at this. It felt good to hear Danny reacting like a kid to
normal things-almost as if the zombies had been a bad dream.
"There's lots of other kids your age," Smokey told him. "You'll like it."
Danny considered this.
Smokey turned back to Jim and Don as the line moved forward.
"We've got janitors and cooks and a maintenance department," he said.
"If you're good with plumbing or electricity or can hammer a nail
straight, they'd be glad to have you. There's a full-sized movie theater
and a pretty good library-not that I'm much for reading, mind you. We've
got a group that puts on plays once a month, and an orchestra too-mostly
musicians who banded together once they were inside here. They all use [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]