in. He kept going back to the years that he lived in the house by himself. He hadn’t much minded it at the time, he was usually out gathering supplies or exploring new conquests most of the time anyways. Besides, most of what he ate came pre-cooked in a can or raw from a plant. Now that he had a family to take care of, losing the town seemed unbearable and frightening. He lost his appetite around about the same time he reached the half-way point of his still-expanding list of new concerns. This latest quandary seemed more than just another setback; at first glance, it appeared to be nearly insurmountable.
If the city had fallen, there would no longer be police patrols keeping the evils of the world at bay. Protection was no longer something that was just there. So, unable to admit defeat the first thing Daniel decided to do was install window shutters. This required rummaging through the large pile of lumber sitting alongside the west side of the house in the narrow portion of their yard boxed-in by fencing and overgrown shrubs.
The quantity of wood had grown over the years. Bits and pieces always found their way into the pile after Maintenance Department jobs were over. Several dirt-streaked sheets of ¾ inch plywood already leaned against the compromised, moss-covered privacy fence behind him. Daniel was now searching for the straightest, nail-free 2x4’s and 1x3’s that he could find within the shifting heap.
All of the super gangs had been wiped out almost a decade before. Still, Daniel did not want to be the test-piece for a new gang suddenly getting too big or dangerous that they garnered the ire of the D.o.C., Police, or National Guard. These seemed to be the criteria that would result in instant termination for pillaging mobs.
Daniel had no way of knowing for certain that the area would no longer be protected by the local police, or that the armored convoys of the D.o.C. were never to come through again. Suspicion about it though, made him come up with the plan to make sturdy frames around the windows, where plywood could be easily slid in and secured or removed to let light flow back in. Corinne was vehemently opposed to Daniel permanently covering over the windows. She had told him this after exclaiming it would make her feel trapped inside her own home.
It was past noon and the barely diffused light of the sun was pressing down on the two raised-bed garden patches that dominated one corner of backyard. You did not have to be part of the flora to sense the willing life that the sun gave off. His head raised and his eyes closed, face tracking the warmth like a newly sprung seedling.
Only as he had gotten older did Daniel realize what the sun coming back truly meant. Most certainly, he had gotten used to the cooler days when he was younger, working all those long hours out in the open, multiple layers of clothing on as his only protection. Now, standing in unfettered sunshine, he felt his spirits lifting, worries dissipating. Of all the things that he had gotten used to missing, it seemed strange that he had never added this one to the list; especially since it had pushed the mosquitoes back into hiding. It was probably for the best that what he felt at this moment had not caused him additional sorrow in the past.
Finding just enough wood to complete the windows, Daniel walked the length of the cracked and pitted concrete patio, being very mindful of one particularly open and raised fissure that he had already twisted his ankle on twice in the past. Beyond the sliding door, he approached a 55 gallon drum sitting at the corner of the house, which served as one of the rain catches.
He had been standing next to a similar barrel while at the wood pile, but that one had a weighty lid and a circular hole cut into the side six inches from the top with a flexible gutter extension attached. This would lead any overflow away from the house so the basement didn’t flood. There was also a black barrel at the front of the house, which was rarely used, except in the worst of the dry periods.
The thick, white plastic barrel that he walked up to was raised 32 inches above the ground by four courses of 8 inch cinder block. An old house spigot a couple inches up