“It’s not like there is anything else to do once it gets dark.”
She had a point. Hmmm…who knows, maybe the apocalypse will give us more sex. Yeah, my mind went there. Wasn’t about to say that out loud, though.
“I was going to make you some coffee. But…” I started.
“Yeah, we are going to have to do it the old fashioned way. Boiling water poured over the grounds.” She said. “Damn. I wish I would have gotten that french press.”
She grabbed a pot and put it on the stove, lighting the burner with a match.
“At least the gas is still working today.” She joked.
Then she took a strainer and set it over a stainless steel pot, and lined it with a coffee filter. When the water began to boil, she tossed the coffee into the boiling water, then shut off the burner.
After letting it sit for a few minutes, she poured it through the strainer.
“Ta-da!” she said, as she poured us both a cup.
We put our sugar and creamer in it and gave it a taste. It was much stronger and more bitter than we were used to, but it would work and was still quite delicious. It always amazed me how some of the simple things in life could make life easier. Like a good cup of coffee.
“I will make it less strong next time. I have to figure out the right amount of water to coffee and how long to cook it.” She said.
We both went back outside and sat on the back porch in the cool morning air. She leaned up against me, scooting closer to keep warm as she put her head on my shoulder. For a moment, it felt like a normal weekend morning. I liked the feeling and didn’t want it to end.
The chickens were doing their normal thing when one of them came out of the coop crowing that she’d just laid an egg.
Kat and I both looked at each other wide-eyed. With the lack of noise from everything, the crow of the chicken would be heard for quite a ways away and we really didn’t want to attract that kind of attention. Just a few of our closer neighbors knew we had chickens and we wanted to keep it that way.
“Babe, we need to find a way to keep that noise down. Otherwise, we are going to have people coming to steal the chickens.” Kat said to me. I knew she was right.
At the moment, they would probably be fine, but in a day or two if people were starting to get hungry, we could be in for a fight over the chickens. And we couldn’t let them be killed. They provided more to us with their eggs at the moment and the eggs would go a lot farther than the chicken actually would.
She hurried over to the crowing chicken and talked to her a little to calm her down so she would shut up. It amazed me how well she knew how to deal with them. They looked up to her. She squatted down and petted the chicken, acknowledging her accomplishment. In a moment, the chicken was off quietly scratching at the ground again looking for bugs.
After calming the chicken she came back and sat down.
“I think we need to build a shelter in the basement.” She said.
“What? The basement? I don’t know babe. Keeping the chickens inside? Do you really think that’s a good idea?” I asked.
I didn’t really want hens in the house. I mean, they are birds and I wasn’t sure how clean it would be if they were inside. I just didn’t want to expose ourselves to anything that might make us sick.
It was then I noticed what sounded life footsteps coming up the driveway. I couldn’t see from where I was at, but I could hear the crunching of the leaves that we had yet to rake up.
Then a man appeared over by the gate which was the one spot that you could see into our back yard from the front.
Kat quickly hopped up and went inside.
Shit, I should have had my pistol on me. I had hoped that she was grabbing the gun just in case there was trouble.
“Hey man, wat you gonna do wit does chickns?”
I had not seen this guy before and didn’t want a confrontation. We
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