The ride to the junkyard didn’t take as long as she thought, but it wasn’t a ride she enjoyed. The speed that Adrian rode was too fast to her liking, and she held around Adrian like her life depended on it, which it probably did. Adrian maneuvered the bike with such ease, zigzagging in between abandoned cars and cracks in the road, past bodies long decayed and eaten by crows. It was a surprisingly quiet ride, as they didn’t see any zombies on the road and the ones they did were far away, and no were fast enough to even catch up to them. Had it been those scary runner zombies, they might have been able to keep up for a short while, but with the bike being faster than them, they would had fallen behind quickly.

Heather wondered how Ella faired the ride, but they couldn’t just stop and ask her, so all she could do was just hope she was ok. She hadn’t heard her cry or anything, which was hopefully a good sign, but she was worried about her as they drove.

When Adrian slowed down, Heather looked up and saw a huge sign, dangling a little where it probably had said something about a junkyard but was sprayed over and now it said danger. They rolled up to the entrance, but the gate was closed, and Heather could see why. On the other side of the gate zombies shuffled around, aimlessly. Heather looked back at Ella as well as she could and noticed she was asleep. She let out a sigh softly and smiled as she reached back with one hand to softly stroke her head. Then focused on Adrian.

“Welcome to mi casa,” Adrian said, gesturing with one hand at the junkyard, as he rolled to a stop. Heather got off the bike, her legs and back feeling sore from sitting in an unnatural position for a long time.

“It looks… cozy,” she said a bit hesitantly as she looked at the gate, eyeing the zombies.

“Yeah, well don’t worry, that’s just the defense line,” he grinned as he started to move forward, pulling his bike with him. Heather raised an eyebrow in question as she followed behind him. “Ya’ know, in case someone wanted to enter. The whole area is surrounded by zombies,” he gestured to the junkyard and Heather noticed that the zombies were actually caged in an outer ring. She looked impressed at it before she looked at him and noticed he was heading towards a metal sheet.

“If they are to keep people out, how do we enter?” she asked. Adrian flashed her a grin before he pulled aside the metal sheet and a hidden tunnel appeared.

“Through a secret tunnel,” he said as walked in. Heather followed him in, the sounds of the zombies on each side of the tunnel made the hair on her back stand on end.

“Here, hold this,” he said and handed the bike handle to Heather. She quickly took a hold of it, and watched as Adrian pulled the metal sheet back and closed it with four big metal latches, two on each side, one at the top and one at the bottom, meaning it could only be removed from the inside. The tunnel was surprisingly bright, and Heather noticed small light bulbs on the ceiling, glowing, and she wanted to ask about it when Adrian took the bike back and kept going, forcing Heather to follow him and forget about the question.

On the other end of the tunnel was the same system, which meant the tunnel could also be used as a protection in case something should happen. Again, Heather had to hold the bike while Adrian opened the laches and moved the sheet to the side, letting them out into the inner part of the junk yard.

The junkyard was indeed filled with junk, no surprise there, but in the middle of the junkyard there was a big yellow school bus, or it used to be yellow, but was covered mostly in metal sheets, with spikes on the wheels, huge pointy bumper, like it was meant to plow into and remove obstacles, and metal sheets over most of the windows, with small cracks with bars, so that light would still enter but breaking it would be harder. She was impressed with the work that had been put on it and wondered if that was the bus he talked about.

“Isn’t she gorgeous? I know, she isn’t done yet and she’s in a need of a paint job, to help hidin’ her better, but when she’s done, she’s goin’ to make life much easier for us,” Adrian smiled proudly at it before he pushed his bike towards a container. Heather looked after him then around and she noticed a container where she could see a double bed, a chair and a bedside table made of a wooden box, then a container with a kitchenette, a squared black metal table, and four red chairs, all with chipped paint. On the side of the container was a ladder leading up to what looked like a homemade garden on top of the container, with a simple made roof on the top, to protect it.

Heather waited until Adrian was done parking his bike then gestured to him to help her with Ella. Together they got Ella out of the baby carrier, and he took her over to his bed, putting her down gently as Heather took off the carrier and placed it on the floor by the bed. Adrian left Heather’s backpack on the floor, with the carrier, and they quietly walked out and over to a couple of metal chairs which was outside in the open, all in different colors, a mixture of white, yellow, light blue, and black, with the paint chipped away here and there on most of the chairs, showing the rusted metals underneath it. The chairs were placed around a light blue metal table, the same kind of table that was inside one of the containers, with its paint also chipped. They took a seat, and both seemed to let out a sigh of relief, exhausted from the ride. Heather felt like she could take a nap, but at the same time she wasn’t sure she could. Now that they were here, safe and sound, she wondered how well it was going for the others.

“Do you think they are on their way now?” Heather asked Adrian who looked at her a bit confused for a moment until he remembered who she was talking about.

“Probably, if everything goes as planned,” he said and smiled. “Why don’t I cook us some food while we wait?” he got up from the chair then over to the ladder and climbed up. Heather watched him as he walked around up there, picking up some ingredients and curiosity got the best of her. She got up from her chair and went up the ladder and gasped. She had seen the garden from the ground, but what was up here was not what she expected. The garden was full of different types of plants, all full of life, growing happily and clearly had been taken good care of.

“Wow!” she said which surprised Adrian and he looked at her wide eyed.

“Don’t touch anything!” he said hastily, almost in a panic. Heather flinched a little surprised and looked at him confused.

“Don’t worry, I won’t” she replied.

“I mean it! Only I can touch it,” he said very determined, frowning. She held up her hands, trying to reassuring him.

“I heard you the first time,” she replied, furrowing her brow, showing she was serious. He looked at her, hesitating for a moment until he nodded and returned to pick some tomatoes.

Heather eyed Adrian for a moment, wondering why he was so protective over the garden, but decided not to ask as she walked around, looking at the labels which had the names of the plants. She was impressed with the variety of the plants, most of them vegetables, with a few exceptions on a strawberry plant, tomatoes, a few herbs and flowers. The vegetables he had planted were squash, potatoes, cabbage, two types of chili plants, bell peppers, carrots and green beans, all plants that made her mouth water.

Eating canned food all the time was both unhealthy, as they didn’t get that much nutrition, but also getting a bit boring, as most of the food had similar texture, and she missed the feeling of crunchy fresh vegetable. She licked her lips with the thought of homecooked meal and followed Adrian down, when he was finished with gathering the ingredients, and to the kitchen, where he started to prepare everything. Heather watched him as she took a seat on one of the metal chairs, and she even offered to help, but he told her to just relax, so she did.

She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but when someone softly shook her, she woke up a bit confused for a moment as she didn’t recognize the place, then remembered where she was. She looked up at Adrian who stood in front of her, smiling.

“Good morning sunshine, dinner is ready,” he said and placed a bowl of pasta, in front of her, covered in tomato sauce and full of vegetables. She looked at it, blinked a few times before she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sat up straight. Her mouth watered as she pulled the bowl closer to her and then picked up the fork, dug it into the pasta and gave it a twirl. She then lifted it up to her mouth and took a bite of it.

The taste of the slightly sour tomato sauce, with a nice balance of spices and the sweetness of carrots, made her close her eyes and smile while chewing. Adrian chuckled and sat down with his own bowl of food.

“I’ll take that smiling face as a good sign,” he said and dug into his own pasta, eating it happily. Heather opened her eyes and looked at him, nodding as she chewed. She had food in the safe camp, but it wasn’t anything like this, for several reasons.

First of all, the ones who cooked weren’t the best at it.
Second of all, their crops had taken a toll because of the drought, and they couldn’t really spare their drinking water to use it on all of the plants, so only a small amount of the plants got water, which also meant the food was a bit plain.

Third of all, only people who had been there for longer time and had contributed enough, where allowed to get the best quality food. And Heather, who hadn’t been there for long and had barely gotten a chance to help out, where left with leftovers.

They ate in silence, Adrian eating faster than Heather and finishing it before her, even though he had more food than her, got up to clean his bowl. He took Heather’s bowl when she was done to clean it too and made sure to make a small bowl ready for Ella, in case she woke up hungry. There was also food enough left for the others for when they got here.

“Get some rest,” Adrian said and looked at her smiling. “Ya’ can sleep on my bed, since Ella is already there.”
Heather shook her head and smiled. “No, it’s fine, that small nap was enough for me,” she lied, but she felt a bit wrong to sleep in someone else’s bed. Kind as Adrian had been, Heather didn’t trust him enough to sleep in his bed.

“Ya’ sure?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, but thanks for the offer,” she smiled kindly.

“Suit ya’ self,” he shrugged and returned his focus on the dishes. Heather decided to get up and go outside, to get some fresh air.

She looked at the junks laying around, frowning a little as it didn’t seem like a safe environment for a small kid, when her eyes stopped on the bus. Curious she went over to it and looked at it. It was made to defend who ever was inside of the bus, with extra metal plates on the outside, the plow in the front and the spikes on the wheels, but Heather couldn’t help but wonder how in the world he managed to do all of it by himself. He must have some pretty nice tools to be able to make all of this. She had noticed there was power at this place, but she didn’t know why. She looked around to see the source of the power when her eyes stopped at the gate, where she could see the zombies. A shiver ran down her spine and she couldn’t help but worry that, if that gate should break one day, those zombies would swarm the place.

“How did you manage to get all of these zombies?” Heather asked when she returned to Adrian. He looked at her as he dried his hands, and a wicked grin appeared.

“Let’s just say, I have a knack for rodeo.”