Operator (A Hat Films Fanfic)

- Eight -

Two weeks later

America fell backwards from her squat onto the pavement, blowing the hair out of her face only for it fall back down into her face. "I can't get it," she whined, whipping the sweat off of her forehead. 

We were working on the frame for her green house, but we didn't have much instruction and so far the roof wasn't even close to sturdy to hold the windows we had ripped out of the abandoned buildings across the street. I could tell America was getting frustrated, and the sudden heat wave wasn't helping her temperament. 

"Come on Mer," I said, pulling her up by her armpits and accidentally tickling her so she giggled and squirmed in my arms. Her ankle was healing, but I tried to keep her off of it as much as possible and she was easy to carry around on my back. 

"Where shall your noble steed bring you my lady?" I joked as she jumped on. 

The laughter had brightened her mood and she wrapped an around around my shoulders, pointing the other one forward. "To the garage!" she said like a battle cry. The Ramirez brothers,  Joel and Teddy, had taken over the shed near the apartment offices as their workshop, and were currently turning a snow blower in a plow to help finish the front gardens we had sectioned off for farming. We didn't have very rich soil, but with a makeshift compost that we had been working on for a few weeks consisting of what little food we couldn't eat and lawn clippings, we had hope to grow something. We mostly scavenged corn and potatoes to plant, but we also had a little grain from the supply store that had closed when this all began.  

Secretly I didn't think the farms would have much success, but how long could we really last on canned food? I didn't plan on dying in the next few years, and after the cans ran out we would need to be able to grow our on food. At least we had back up rations while we were learning to be farmers. 

"Hey Joel," America said, sliding off my back and limping over into the garage, "How's it going?" 

"Hey America, Alex," he said, setting down the wrench he had in his hand, "We're nearly done." He motioned for us to step around to the front. "We lowered the blades a couple of inches and added wheels from the lawn mower onto it so it can be moved easier. I just need to tighten up a few things and make sure the blades turn alright and then we can start plowing!" 

"That's great!" America smiled, "Where's Teddy? Is he feeling alright? Have you guys got enough water in here?" 

"Oh yeah, we're alright," he said, waving her off, "Teddy just went off to the wall to return the hand saw we had borrowed from them." 

"Keep up the good work," America called as we started to leave the garage, "We better go check on those guys." She hopped back onto me and I took her to the gate. 

This was where most of our people were. We had torn down all the fences between our gardens to make room for the farms, and all that extra wood and stone was put to use fortifying the walls and closing up the houses that substituted the walls on the north and west side of the apartment. Armed guards with bats and pipes were on the outside watching over those working out there, who were adding metal roofing to the top of the brick wall where it was just chain fencing. It back breaking and dangerous to be removing roofing from abandoned buildings around our complex, but I think we will all feel safer at night once the wall was finished. 

It was very patchwork-like and we were far from finishing, but at least it gave people something to do instead of just sitting in their dark homes and thinking up bad situations to make them paranoid. So far no one had protested to the work and we had plenty of volunteers. Katie went around to deliver water and lunch, while Ross, who was actually one of the chief architects to the wall, oversaw the building process. Trott was on the other side, helping with the metal sheeting.