The storm soon ended outside but the clouds remained. They all began to keep themselves busy, just another day at the shelter except for the waiting for Dave to come back again.
Later in the morning they heard footsteps coming into the house and going up and down stairs shouting. They heard dogs outside from the kitchen microphone. Bob got up and reviewed video that was just recorded. He fast-forwarded through a gang of Red Shirts walking up the driveway with dogs on leashes, then saw a Red Shirt take some raw meat he was carrying in a large backpack in a plastic bag and throw it into the yard and let the dogs go into the yard. They closed the gate of the yard, locking the dogs in. The Red Shirts were laughing and could be heard over over the loudspeaker as they settled into Bobs dining room and opened to curtains to watch the dogs through the rear sliding door. He switched to real time video.
Bob could see them gathered behind the sliding door glass looking into the yard through one of the cameras mounted in a tree. They watched as the Red Shirts move his and Jennifer's chairs and sit down to a position in front of the glass doors to get a better view of the backyard.
The two women, Emma, and Bob sat down in silence to watch live footage.
They watched the dogs eat the meat, a small Yorkshire Terrier laid back on the ground with its head resting on its front paws watching the other dogs eat. It didn't seem to be hungry. Bob commented that it just sat there and watched the other dogs in the same way that they were. Only the Red Shirts upstairs were watching with a strange anticipation. A pecking order began to emerge as the largest dog tore off and took a large share of the meat and walked away. It barked and growled at the others when they came near it as it ate.
Most of the dogs finished eating soon after they started, they didn't seem very hungry. The largest of the dogs continued to eat while the others ran around, challenged each other and got in small fights while avoiding the largest dog. The largest dog stopped eating and went for a walk around. It walked by a Yorkshire Terrier and turned to look at the other dogs. It was young, naive and badly coordinated, only big physically mature.
The Yorkshire Terrier jumped up and grabbed its throat. It didn't let go. The bigger dog jumped around, shook its head and blood started pouring out of its neck as the other dogs stood still and watched the Terrier get shaken around from a distance. The Terrier wouldn't let go. The larger dog soon tired and fell down and continued to bleed out. The bloodied Yorkshire Terrier let go and started barking and staring at the other dogs and they each backed away. The pack leader was established. The Yorkshire Terrier went over to the meat and began to eat.
"Might is right with the animals." Bob said. Lisa added "Might is right here too. We can't leave until those dogs upstairs leave this property...and I don't mean the canines.". They watched the Yorkshire Terrier finish eating then walk around and growl at the other dogs, looking each one in the eye. It didn't have any challengers.
The dogs laid down, all huddled together beside a tree in the wet cold. The Red Shirts had quieted down and were sitting around in the living room talking about what was going to happen next. They started talking about the houses and which ones they wanted. They talked about how they were going to use the people down at the river to serve them. One joked about putting the dog collars they had taken off the dogs on them. Another added "Social insurance numbers too. We can put a number on each collar!" and they laughed.
They talked as if they were going to live in the houses, not have to do anything and be served water, food and whatever else they wanted. One said "I saw a really cute red head and a brunette I want to stay at my place with me." Another one added while laughing "I have a family down at the river. I guess I need two houses.".
One of them said that there were two of them that didn't come back to the river a few days earlier. One of the Red Shirts said "Maybe they got into a liquor cabinet somewhere and are still sleeping it off.". Another one suggested "Maybe there are people in these houses that don't agree with what we are doing and expressing their opinion with bullets.". The whole bunch of them broke out laughing "You are a conspiracy theorist!" another one shouted "Feed him to the dogs!" and they continued laughing. Bob and the others heard banging, thumping and yelling over the loudspeaker "No don't! Please! Fuck off! No! Come on, I was only joking! " then more laughing and screaming as they saw them open the rear sliding doors.
They did it. Bob turned off the speaker and shut off the video. None of them said anything. After a few minutes they had to turn it back on for the sake of their own safety. Another Red Shirt said "I like this house, I think I will fill the basement with skeletons from the body pile as an art piece. I'll put skulls around the fence outside, all looking outward. Maybe make a pile in the backyard" Another one exclaimed "That would be sick!". "That would be sick" said Susan and they remained in silent agreement.
Emma commented that she saw a lot of boys her age with pictures of skulls on their shirts when she drove through town. Lisa explained that the skull displays were all part of nihilism and propaganda to slowly prepare the population for the next stage of a communist revolution. It would get people more accustomed to seeing death and its grotesque sights.
Emma wanted to know why the boys would actually want skulls on their clothes. Lisa explained that it was part of the propaganda and that the music stars they saw on TV had that style and the young people copied them. Emma asked who got the music icons to wear that kind of stuff. Lisa said that it was the crony capitalists who wanted a communist revolution and paid the music stars buckets of money in return for managing their style and appearance. Lisa went on to explain that a lot of music stars came out about the music industry and talked about on web sites and on the computer but a lot of kids didn't know and just thought skulls were cool.
She went on to explain that being like everyone else is a lot more important than thinking to most people and that was a big reason that people could be controlled and manipulated. She said that there is safety in number and people want to be associated with other people for their own safety.
After a couple of hours talking, one Red Shirt got up and said "I guess its time to get the dogs out of here and into the neighborhoods, … Ken you get the gate." One said, they heard the cocking of one pistol, then another. Moments later they watched one Red Shirt as he appeared poking his gun out of an open bedroom window and start firing randomly in the direction of the dogs. Bob jumped up and turned down the speaker to prevent the gunshots from being heard through the basement floor as an echo.
They watched another Red Shirt, who was carrying a handgun open the gate to let the dogs escape. He started shooting at the dogs as soon as they had all left the gate. The dogs ran across the front yard to escape the shots and disappeared.
Shortly after that the Red Shirts started to leave. One said to the last one leaving "Shut my fucking door!" and a Red Shirt walked back, stepped over the remains of dead cohort and closed the sliding glass doors. Susan commented that all of the Red Shirts must have seen a lot of bodies. They watched the Red Shirts walk through the yard to the gate and down the driveway and across the yard in the direction of the river in the rain.
No one talked about what they had avoided to see on video. After some silence Lisa started asking Susan and Bob more about what they had seen outside earlier, if they had seen any bodies. Susan told her that it was just dogs they had seen and that Dave knew how to stay hidden from the Red Shirts and that the Red Shirts patrolling the neighborhoods were usually stupid. After talking about it again briefly they all went about normal activities, still in a state of mild shock after what they had seen in the backyard.
Jennifer did some gardening while Lisa, Bob and Emma shot some arrows into a target and kept score then Bob challenged Emma to a game of table tennis since she was the reigning champion. Lisa was quiet and kept an eye on the video, periodically looking up at the screen and through the camera that was trained on the front yard as she read a novel.
They played
for a few games, all of which Bob lost, Bob put his paddle on the table for a moment while Emma prepared to serve, looked at Jennifer and said "You know Susan needs some closure on Joe. Its been well over a week. I don't think we can go back to get the body for a burial, and it would be a little gruesome to do that now. Its a luxury we no longer have, we cannot risk lives for that. If someone died to do this, Susan wouldn't be able to take that. We should get Susan to talk about Joe and how they met so that she can start the grieving process and we can help her through it.".
He went to Susan's door, knocked on it and went in and sat down. Emma put her paddle down. He explained to her what he had just said to the others and Susan came out. They sat around and drank pine needle tea and listened to Susan talk about Joe.
Susan explained that she married Joe because he had integrity and would make a good father and support a family well. She had never fallen deeply in love with him until years later. She thought it happened one day when he called her to pick up lunch for him and the guys at a job site. She arrived to find Joe down in a ditch digging around a pipe with some of the workers. Joe owned the company and it had over twenty employees. Joe understood people and didn't want the ones around him to be unhappy or think they were mistreated on a tough job. He inspired them rather than pushed them. She explained that her respect and admiration for him eventually made her truly love him in a different and more profound way as they got older.
She talked about their kids and how they both had become overworked and over ambitious and had little to talk about outside of work when they visited. They had moved away for better jobs and contact had slowly dwindled to weekly phone calls and visits during holidays. She said she didn't have any grandchildren yet and neither of their sons were married.
She said she thought her sons would be strong enough to survive this but she was doubtful about ever seeing them again. They all talked about the relatives they would never see again and whether or not they thought the relatives would survive. Many people they knew would be dependent on modern medicine and could die or already be dead in the nearly two weeks since the power went out.
They continued talking about the people they would never see again through the evening until bed.