"Are you sure about this, Rick?"
"Yes, Commander. I'm sorry it took so long; I know we've been living here for more than a month and it looked like I was doing nothing even though I was spending my days in front of my laptop but it hasn't been easy to reorganize my team. My whole network of hackers was damaged after the outbreak of the zombie virus and only a handful of us have the necessary knowledge and access to resources to pull off something like this after the attacks to the refuges. I've had to find them, create a new secure network to communicate and then I've been digging into some people's background to make sure they were suitable for our purposes and trustworthy also. I've erased all traces and I'm fairly sure nobody knows we're still alive or what we're planning. But I finally made progress."
"All right, when's the meeting?"
"Everybody must be in the communications room in half an hour."
"Nat, call the girls and Iselen go to find Adrian. I think he's in the backyard shed near the wall."
"Yes, sir." I leave the armchair and walk across the house till I reach the back French doors that lead to the garden. I hear my wife laughing in the kitchen and then scolding Charlie because he tried to steal a piece of freshly baked warm bread. Despite all days are similar here and nobody can go outside the property, my family is trying to make the best of the situation and they've assigned tasks so that there's always something new to do. Keeping yourself busy is the key to not going crazy. Luckily this house is big and keeping it clean and tidy living all together is big enough challenge in itself: two days ago my wife ordered me to take a ladder and help her wiping the highest glasses of the windows with some water and soap, my arms are still sore but it was funny and exercise is always welcome.
I take one of the jackets from the coat rack and zip it up to my neck before opening the door. It's December already and, even if it hasn't snowed yet, the ground is frozen and a light drizzle falls nonstop. The garden looks a bit sad with all the trees without leaves when I walk towards the shed at the back of the yard where Adrian has his kingdom: our handyman found out that non-violent patients had special classes of crafts and carpentry in order to keep them busy and teach them a productive and useful trade. All the equipment was piled up in the shed and he has cleaned it and got it ready to work with it again. I knock at the door and wait, no one walks into this place without permission, and particularly not the kids since they could get hurt in here with the knives and gouges he uses to carve wood.
"What are you doing standing there? Come on, you're going to freeze." Adrian opens de door and grabs my jacket dragging me inside.
"We have a meeting in half an hour..." I whisper looking around.
"Okay, let me wash my hands before..."
It's nice here, it's hot thanks to the wood stove in a corner that Adrian stokes with the scarps of wood he doesn't use for his carvings so I unzip my jacket. It smells of paint and glue, I guess that most part of these supplies was brought here by the restoration company Gabriel hired when he bought the property and that's why it wasn't dry and unusable. Several objects grab my eye on the work table: little figures and animals that are still wet of red and green paint. I hold my breath with when I realize what they're, I think I'm about to cry...
"Have I ever told you how much I love you, brother?"
"A whole bunch of times but I never get tired of hearing it," he answers getting closer to me.
"These are beautiful," I whisper pointing at the finished decorations: bells, reindeers, Santa Claus' faces, stars, candy canes, squirrels and bears.
