Climbing Fish

chapter 3.

Bryar shook his hand, and he helped her to get up.
"I'm so sorry this is happening while you're pregnant, and I'm even more sorry that I'm putting you to work."
Bryar waved it off.
"I'm sure it won't be that bad, Eddie."
He gave an apologetic smile and pointed her again towards Terry. Bryar walked over to him, while simultaneously putting her hair up into a sloppy ponytail.
"Hi, Terry, right?"
He pushed up his notorious hipster glasses by the bridge and nodded.
"Yeah, that's me, and you are?"
"Bryar."
He nodded again and handed her a roll of duct tape.
"Alright, let's get started."
She followed him to the back of the store. As he started climbing on top of a shelf to reach a high window, Bryar studied him. He did not seem like the type to be following a huge bearded man in some apocalypse club. He seemed more the type to be instagramming a latte, and working on screenplays in a library. At least he was not like the stereotypical doomsday prepper. Crazed and condescending.
"It's cool, I don't expect you to climb on top of these shelves and board up these windows."
He said when Bryar put her hands on the shelves and looked at him questioningly .
"Could you just get those windows over there? Cover all of the glass."
She nodded and headed over to the lower storefront windows, and began making X's with the tape. After completely covering one she moved to the next, there were about 6 in total, and her feet were tired, but she was grateful for the busy work. Terry came up beside her with afresh roll and began helping her. After finishing one, they took a break and sat down.
After a bit of silence, Bryar spoke;
"I have to ask you, who are all of you and why are you doing this?"
He looked at her and asked;
"Do you have any family?"
"No"
"Dead?"
"Estranged."
"Oh, I suppose I shouldn't say that's good, but... that's good. No one to worry about. Our group had to act quickly to establish a base. You have no idea what it's like out there."
She sighed,
"I was just out there, not 2 hours ago."
"It spreads fast. Look, I know our group looks crazy, maybe we are, I don't know, but we just want to save as many people as we can. We need to establish trust between the people. These strangers will become your family."
She stared at him.
"You still haven't answered my question, why?"
He started right back and said;
"Like we've already said, we wanted to save as many people as possible and establish a community, safety in numbers and all that. As for who we are, well..."
He looked at sneakers and started picking lint off of his socks. After a moment of silence he said;
"We're crazy, alright? We are a group of crazy people who stocked up on guns and non-perishable goods and warned everyone that the world would end, with signs on street corners. Only we were right, we knew this would happen, and we were able to save about 60 people, not including us."
Bryar paused, and stood up.
"We should probably get back to work."
She said.
He also got up and nodded. As he began taping up the third window, Bryar put a hand on his shoulder and said;
"Thanks."