All That I See - 02 by Shane Gregory Page B

stone as the fence. The materials weren’t local. This part of Kentucky doesn’t have big stones like that, being mostly clay. Factoring in the size of the house, the age, and the fact that the stone had been imported, I could assume the original owner had been wealthy. This had probably been the central home place for a large farm. Things like that got the history buff in me intrigued, but I shouldn’t have been wasting time thinking about stuff like that.
    I got out and went up to the gate. The front door opened and Ron came out on the porch with a rifle in his hands. When he saw that it was us, he waved.
    “The gate isn’t locked,” he yelled out to us, “Just make sure you close it behind you!”
    I swung the gate open, and Sara pulled the Crown Victoria inside. After I’d shut and latched the gate, we drove up to the house.
    Ron stepped off the porch and greeted us.
    “Good morning,” he said. “Did your friends come back?”
    The front door opened, and Ben stepped out.
    “You two change your minds?” he asked.
    “Nicholas and Judy aren’t back yet, but we needed to go out for some things, and we thought we stop by.”
    “Glad you did,” Ben smiled. “Come on in and meet the rest.”
    Inside, we were introduced to Mr. McAllister, a frail man with a blanket over his legs. He nodded to us from a recliner, but didn’t speak. Molly came out of the kitchen, and little Adam hid behind her. He looked like he might have been around three.
    “He’s shy around strangers,” Molly said, smiling and shaking my hand. She was a plain, but pleasant-looking, woman in her forties. She had red hair pulled back in a ponytail.
    “Molly is making some food,” Ben said. “Are you hungry?”
    “No,” I said. “We had some of the cereal you gave us.”
    The house was old. The ceilings were high, and the rooms were small. It was in need of repair. I noticed a ladder, drop cloth, and several gallons of paint in the corner.
    “This was my great-grandfather’s place,” Ron said. “I started trying to restore it back in January, but the virus happened….” He shrugged.
    “Have you had any trouble out here?” I asked.
    “We did early on,” Ben said. “But they never managed to get into the interior of the property.”
    “Any problems with survivors?” I asked.
    “No,” Ben said. “Not here. A guy shot at us at Wal-Mart about three weeks ago, but he got away, and we never saw him again.”
    “There are some survivors a couple of roads over,” Ron said. “They haven’t been too friendly either. I guess everyone is scared, and they don’t want to take the chance. They shoot first.”
    “The reason we stopped by is we want to take you up on your offer to go in together,” Sara said.
    “Yeah,” I added, “or at least work together. We plan to get a garden started soon, and we were going out today to look for seeds.”
    “A garden?” Ben said. “What for?”
    “For food,” I said. I thought I sounded like a smartass stating what I thought was the obvious.
    “There’s food everywhere,” Ron said.
    “But what about when it runs out or goes bad?” I said.
    “It’s only a matter of time before these thing s die,” Ben said. “I figure they’ll resume food shipments from out west when they know it is safe to come back in. It might not be right away, but it shouldn’t take more than a year, two at most, and really I doubt it will be more than a couple of months. We have enough canned goods around to keep us fed until then. Besides, Ron and I sent our families to Oklahoma to stay with my sister.”
    “But…” I started but didn’t know what to say.
    “Don’t’ you know?” Sara said. “The rest of the world is like Clayfield. It’s all infected.”
    Ron and Ben gave each other concerned looks.
    “You must be mistaken,” Ron said.
    “It’s true,” I said.
    “How can you know this?” Molly said, stepping forward. “You don’t know that for sure.”
    I shrugged, “I’m sorry. I