We Survivors [Published Version]

7: Electricity | Jake

After we joined the others it became clear to me that meeting Nadia—and whatever I had with her—had nothing to do with survival strategy. I should've been happy to Coby and Zara to our group. Safety in numbers, many hands make light work, the more the merrier, and every other cliché that tries to tell you it's wrong to be alone. But I couldn't make myself trust them.

And I wanted more time alone with Nadia.

Coby took me to a home improvement store first, where we loaded the Mustang with grill propane tanks. Several were stuffed into what little space there was left in the trunk with all our gear. The others were crammed into the backseat.

"What's the plan?" I asked as we pulled up to the hospital.

He grinned. "Electricity." When he saw my puzzled expression he added, "You'll see."

"Let's make sure we have the place to ourselves first."

He nodded as we got out of the car. "Zara and I call it 'checking the coasts'. You know, like 'the coast is clear'?"

Coby pulled a crowbar from the trunk and bashed a hole in the glass front doors of the hospital so we could reach through and unlock them. We scanned the lab side-by-side, lighting the way with flashlights, but like most of Newbury it was clean. Even after all this time the halls had a faint whiff of disinfectant.

On the second floor we found a small wing that had been cordoned off with caution tape, and a sign that read "Quarantine" and detailed the symptoms of the first strain of the virus. There were likely bodies beyond those doors, but I wasn't itching to find out.

"Do you think we could get the virus from...?" Coby asked.

I shook my head. I'd seen enough to know that I was immune to all three strains. And you couldn't contract the first or second strains from a dead host anyway.

"The coast is clear?" Coby asked.

"If we stay away from this part, yeah."

He led me down to the maintenance room in the basement and pulled a piece of metal piping from his bag. He knelt beside a gas line that led to the furnace and grinned. "All we need to do is switch out that nozzle for this one and we can run the generator on propane."

"I had no idea you could do that." I'd been living without electricity for nearly a year now and tried to think of what parts of it I'd missed. Mainly food preservation.

"Yeah, my dad showed me how. He's the best at all this stuff. Has a real mind for the mechanics of things. He says I do too, but—"

"Says?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Coby's face flushed pink and he stammered, "I mean—I meant 'said'." An awkward pause. "He's gone, of course."

"Sorry," I said, wishing I hadn't said anything. But hadn't we all got used to being alone, to them being gone, by now? "I'll grab us a tank."

He looked relieved as I left.

By the time I made it back down the stairs, hoisting the heavy propane cylinder in my arms, Coby was ready to hook it up. The light smell of natural gas hit my nose as he switched the supply line.

"Ready?"

"Fire it up," I said. He turned a switch and the generator shuddered to life. I crossed to the control panel on the wall and switched on the lights.

We went back upstairs, the atmosphere of the hospital completely changed now that it was lit. It wasn't long ago that I'd been living, hermit-style, in the woods. Now we had a car, electricity, and everything that comes with it. But I didn't know what use it for, now that I had it. Then I remembered Nadia saying how no one would ever go to the movies again. There were large TVs in the waiting rooms, and I'd seen a microwave in at least one of them. If we could find some popcorn...

I explained my plan to Coby and he readily agreed. "Zara will love it, too," he said. "She's always up for this kind of stuff."

We chose the largest waiting room and arranged two couches in front of the TV. There was a DVD player, and in a cabinet full of puzzles and coffee accessories, I found a few DVDs.

"Check it out," I said, showing him Breakfast at Tiffany's, one of my mom's favorites.

"What's that?" Coby asked.

My brows pulled together. "You know, Audrey Hepburn?"

"Who?"

I frowned. "How about these ones. Babe? You've Got Mail? Die Hard?"

"They don't ring a bell," he said. "But I've never been much for movies. Hey, do they have Star Wars? Zara and I watched them on a laptop a few weeks back. I loved them."

"No Star Wars," I said, trying to keep suspicion out of my voice. "We'll go with Breakfast at Tiffany's, I think. We can save the rest for future movie nights."

"Sounds like a plan," Coby said. "And hey—here's some popcorn." He'd been digging around in the cupboards beneath the microwave and pulled out a half-empty box.

"Great," I said. "We're all set."

"Think Nadia will like it?" Coby asked, looking up at me from where he was crouched next to the cupboard.

I swallowed. "Yes. I'm sure they both will."

He continued to dig through the cupboards, and I had to stop myself from peering at him as he did so. Something was off about Coby. I'd have to keep an eye on him.

~~~

author's note: Sorry guys, I know I've been absent from Wattpad for a long time - turns out being a published author is a lot of work! I hope you'll enjoy this latest update :)