Page 15 of Apricity (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse)

Hawk

Yes! This is exactly what we need. Something new. Something to prep for and focus on that’s fun. It’s giving me the same feelings I had when Cole suggested new sexy time ideas - pure thrill and satisfaction.

“Come on. Come on. Come on! Put your foot up here and let me lace up those boots for you, sweetheart.” Once we finished our coffee and simple breakfast made of campfire toasted bread smothered in peanut butter, I couldn’t wait to get started.

I threw clothes, boots, everything across the room in an attempt to get moving as soon as possible.

For some crazy reason, the others don’t seem as enthusiastic about our excursion as me, though.

Aly tries to wiggle her foot out of my hand, swatting at me on my knees in front of her. “I can do it myself—”

“I know you can, but this way it’ll be faster and we can go and raid the shit out of those farm houses over there and get all kinds of stuff and—”

“Ok… no more coffee for the fire chicken,” Cole says pointing a pen at me.

He’s making a list. A LIST! About what we might need on our little scouting trip.

I mean, has he ever celebrated any winter holiday?

Like ever? Christmas? Hanukkah? Kwanza? Boxing day?

The fucking solstice? Even if he doesn’t know what we need off the top of his head, I do. I know what we need.

Right now, we need to get our asses moving before my head explodes.

I mean, if that's the case at least it'll be festive as fuck in here with all the red that'll be splattered on the walls.

And to that I say, mission fucking accomplished.

But I'd rather decorate the old-fashioned way, thank you very much.

Jax takes Aly’s foot from me and places it on the ground, allowing her to do it herself like she wanted but that’s not the point. Why are we holding up the line? Let’s go! Let’s do this! This is what we’ve been waiting for!

New.

Exciting.

Awesomeness!

I’m gonna deck the fuck outta these halls. Tinsel and streamers and a tree and—

Wait…What the hell are we gonna decorate the tree with? We can’t do lights… no electricity and all. Just gonna have to find a butt-ton of ornaments, garlands and other Christmas crap to throw on it.

GNOMES !

That was the big thing before the virus hit. Christmas gnomes fucking everywhere. Creepy ass little shits but, hey, they’re festive!

Oh yeah… this is going to be epic.

After five more minutes of waiting and twenty minutes of walking we finally get to the farmhouse up the road. Sheesh, taking all damn day here.

There's another house in between this one and Jax’s place but we scoped that out when we first got here.

Didn't really have much since they were snowbirds. Just some minor staples to keep throughout the year for when they finally returned every winter. I definitely don't remember them having any sort of generator, either. No, they were regular customers on the good old-fashioned power grid from what we saw. I also knew as we went past the place to not even try to look for any decorations. It would have been a waste of time since no one found any seasonal stuff stashed away during our raid. But Aly, on the other hand, lucked out and was able to nab up some ladies’ things while the rest of us focused on what did remain of any food and fuel on the property. It’s probably where Cole managed to find all that chocolate.

“Alright, I’m gonna go check out back to see if they have a generator. You guys head inside and see what they have left.”

I race up the steps, dancing at the top as I wait for Aly and Cole to saunter leisurely up the stairs. I give them both a hard and serious stare at their deliberate delay but that just makes Aly laugh.

“Ok, Hawk, let’s go find some decorations. Hey, maybe they’ll have some other fun stuff here, too! ”

Hopefully. We could use a few more board games.

I for one am sick and tired of Scrabble.

Risk would be good. That game takes even more time to finish than Monopoly.

It would keep us busy for days… actually never mind.

Don’t want to neglect Aly cause I’m too busy conquering the world.

Maybe some new books for Jax’s collection.

He’d like that. Booze would be nice, too.

A little bit of liquor would make our celebration extra jolly.

“It’s a pretty big house and we haven’t checked it out yet.

It’ll probably have a bunch of stuff we could use,” Cole adds before lifting his gun and taking a cover position.

I lift my own gun before trying the door knob.

It’s surprisingly unlocked and swings in on its own.

“Hello?” I yell. There might still be living, breathing people inside and I don’t want them to accidentally shoot one of us for breaking and entering. When no one answers, I nod at Cole to ready for entry.

“Aly, take out your gun and stay against the house. We’ll be right back. Five minutes.”

Cole and I do a quick sweep of the downstairs and upstairs before calling, “CLEAR!” letting Aly know it’s safe to enter. There’s no sign of the original residents and, from the overwhelming amount of dust on everything, I doubt anyone’s been here in a while.

The place is large but cramped, filled wall to wall with furniture and collectibles.

It almost looks like what my grand-parents’ house used to.

There’re even doilies on the side tables and those little strawberry hard candies in a dish on top.

I’m half tempted to take one, ‘cause you know those bitches last forever and taste amazing, but not now. We’ve got memories to prepare for .

Aly walks through the front door, her pistol still in one hand as she shuts the door with the other.

“Alright, be careful. The place looks to be old as fuck and in bad repair. Tread lightly and watch where you step, there are some floor boards missing in a few rooms,” Cole says as he takes her hand and directs her to the kitchen.

I point a thumb over my shoulder towards the hallway. “I’m gonna go check that back room. It had a bunch of storage boxes, might be hiding something good.” Cole and Aly nod before turning and opening the cupboards, scoping out what food stores the old residents might have left.

Turning around, I head down the hallway leading towards the back of the house. In our brief tour, Cole and I found a living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, four bedrooms, a bathroom, a linen closet, and a padlocked door that, I’m assuming, goes to the basement.

I reach the end of the hallway and make a left into the bedroom filled to the rafters with plastic storage totes.

The floor is jacked. There’re floorboards broken and even missing all together in some spots but that won’t stop me.

Not when there’s treasure within reach. There must be at least thirty of them stacked on top of one another and just my fucking luck… absolutely none of them are labeled.

Alrighty, here we go.

The first box I bring down is heavier than a pregnant rhino, which makes no sense at all when it’s on the very top of the stack.

Who does that? Put that shit on the bottom, you psychos.

I open the lid, see it’s full of dishes and chuck it in the corner, wincing when the sound of breaking glass hits me immediately after.

Oh well… moving on.

The next five boxes are the same, absolutely filled to the brim with China sets, coffee mugs, all kinds of shit. How many fucking sets of dishes does a person need?

One.

The answer is one.

No one in their right mind needs seventeen different sets of fucking China and anyone who thinks so is either a psychopath or a serial killer. Probably both. Doesn’t matter, though, they all get put into the corner as well. Where the naughty kids belong.

Boxes seven, eight and nine all contain children’s toys. I shake my head at the sight and decide to hide them in the closet under a pile of clothes, just in case Aly comes in here. She doesn’t need that shit taking over her brain space again.

Reaching up, I pull box number ten down and my eyes just about pop when I hear a telltale jingle ring out from the inside. Oooooh baby, here we go! I get a little tap happy, bouncing on my toes as I lift the lid but turn murderous when I see what’s inside.

Bells?!

BELLS?!

Who in the fuck keeps a twenty-gallon plastic tote full of antique goddamn fucking bells?! I don’t even care if they all break when I heave the thing across the room.

Christmas shit. Winter holiday shit. That’s all I’m asking for. This place looks like it was owned by fucking geriatrics. It should be covered in Christmas crap! Where the fuck is it?!

A knock at the sliding glass door pulls me out of my frustrating internal dilemma. When I pull the curtain aside, Jax is outside with a confused look on his face so I open the door to ask him, “What’s up, dude?”

“What the hell was that noise? Sounded like a damn avalanche out here. Everything ok?”

“Yea, just… bells and a China shop,” I sigh, rubbing the back of my neck as I point my other hand over to the giant pile of absolute garbage I was gifted. He looks over with raised eyebrows at the mess I made of the room.

“Any luck with the decorations?”

“Nope.” I pop the P at the end, my frustration displayed in neon colors on my sleeve. “Any luck with the generator?”

He nods back and points behind him to a lawn mower with a trailer attached. “Sure did. It’s not big or anything but it’ll suit our needs for powering the bungalow. Plus, I figured we could fill this thing up with any supplies and shit we find, that way we won't need to haul it all back by hand. ”

“Uh… you sure it’s a good idea to ride a lawn mower right now? Those things make a fuck ton of noise. Gonna attract all kinds of shit our way.”

He winces, placing his arms on his hips while looking back at it. “Yeah, I thought of that too but it’s only just up the road. Hopefully I can put this baby into rabbit mode, speed my ass all the way back home and not draw too much attention.”

“Ok, and what about when we get back home? You do remember how loud a generator is, right?” He stops my question in its tracks with a shake of his head.

“Actually, this type is a lot quieter than the one I had. It’s smaller, uses less kilowatts, so it’s probably a good thing the old one got busted up.

It won’t be able to power the entire place but it’ll give off enough energy so we can at least use a few things.

” He lifts his fingers and starts ticking them off.

“The water pump, for sure, so we’ll have running water again, warm water at that since the water heater will also be able to work now, and some lights when we need them.

Can even power the fridge… maybe. You know, now that I think about it, with the weather being so cold we probably won't even have to worry about that just yet. I don’t know.

We’ll figure it out. Gotta get those other ones tapped in first.”

I turn back to the doorway when I hear the hinges creak. “How goes the search?” Cole asks, looking at both of us.

“Great!”

“Shitty…”

He places one hand on the door frame and raises the other in question as his eyes dart between Jax and myself.

“You found a generator?” he asks and Jax nods excitedly, happier than I’ve seen him since the hurricane.

“Wonderful,” Cole replies, definitely not as excited but he’s doing his list thing so I’ll let him off for now. “Decorations?” he asks me next.

I throw my arms up, huffing out a defeated sigh. “These people must hate Santa or something. Can’t find a damn decoration in this entire place.”

He looks to the pile of totes tossed unceremoniously in the corner then back to the ten or so still untouched.

“Uh… what about those?” He points to them, proving that I did not actually rummage through the entire house yet like my temper tantrum had so plainly indicated and there may still be hope.

Well, screw him and those bells. There’s only one person that can make my day better and…

“Where’s Aly?”

“Oh, bathroom. She’s stocking up on everything she can get her mitts on in there. Not sure why she thinks she needs bunion cream but she seems to think it’s important so I’m just gonna let her do her thing.” He looks back to the boxes. “Want some help?”

Jax enters from the deck and together we tackle all but two of the leftover totes when Aly enters the room. I open the second to the last box and tilt my head at the contents. Unable to tame my curiosity, I reach in and grab one, lifting it for the others to see.

“What in the motherfucking produce aisle from hell is that? ”