by Jadyn Chase
I set her down and her mouth found mine. I kissed her and she kissed me like we were the last two people alive on the planet. I didn’t care what happened. I could never let her out of my arms. I couldn’t touch her hair fast enough. I couldn’t stop petting her flushed cheeks and gobbling at her lips.
An eerie stillness crept over the scene. I looked up. My Pop, my uncle Luka, and my brothers all stared at me in shock. They blinked at me kissing Nora. No one said a word. Then I realized they weren’t staring at me at all.
A motor crept up behind me and stopped. A heavy sense of foreboding and disaster gripped my heart. I didn’t want to turn around, but I had no choice. Nora and I looked back the other way.
A tan and brown striped SUV crept into the driveway. The words Tennessee State Troopers emblazoned the door. An officer opened the rear passenger door, and an older man with greying hair got out.
Nora ran at him and grabbed him around the middle. “Daddy!”
He clutched her with the same heartfelt ardor I just experienced. He blinked back tears and kissed her hair. My chest ached to watch this. He traveled a long distance to take her away, back to wherever she came from. He traveled all that way to take her away from me. She broke away from me to run to him. Only a fool would misunderstand the subtext of that.
I looked away, too anguished to see straight. I couldn’t watch her leave, not after everything that just happened. I could kiss her goodbye and press her hand and wish her well, but I’d be damned if I stood there and watch her drive out of my life forever. I would run into the forest and hide my heartbreak there where no one could see me.
Just then, she called out, “Ezra!”
Nora led her father by the hand to where I stood. That amazing, open-hearted smile transfigured her face. No one would ever suspect she just slaughtered Sam Lynch with extreme prejudice.
“Daddy, this is Ezra Kelly, the man who rescued me. Ezra, this is my dad, Frank Price.”
He extended his hand to me. Tears stood in his eyes. “Thank you, son. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for my daughter. I don’t know how to show my gratitude. If there’s anything I can do, her mother and I are forever at your disposal.”
I shrugged. “That’s all right, Sir. It was the least I could do, and your daughter’s been a credit to you since we first found her.”
Nora beamed at both of us. She kept looking back and forth between us. She bestowed the same glorious adoration on both of us. I couldn’t bear to see her love another man, even if he was her own father. A lump stuck in my throat. It wouldn’t go away, no matter how many times I swallowed.
She turned aside. “And this is Isaac Kelly, Ezra’s father. This is his place. Their family has taking care of me since the attack. And this is his brother Luka and his other son, Liam.”
Her father shook hands with everyone. “Thank you all for taking care of my little girl. I don’t know what I would have done if anything happened to her. You people really are guardian angels.” He wiped his eyes and his lips trembled.
“It was our pleasure,” Pop told him. “Like Ezra said, it was an honor to have your daughter in our house. She’s welcome under our roof anytime. You both are.”
Nora’s father nodded and waved toward the Trooper’s vehicle. “Well, come on, sweetheart. We have a long drive ahead of us back to Tennessee.”
She drew her hand out of his. “Sorry, Daddy. I’m not going with you.”
My heart stood still. I could barely breathe. I didn’t want to let myself believe it.
Her father stiffened. “What do you mean, darling?”
“I’m not going back to Tennessee. I’m staying here.”
He looked around him for the first time. He took in the bodies of men lying in various states of demolition and the smoking embers that used to be our house. “Here? You want to stay here? But…. where will you stay? What will you do? You can’t turn your back on medical school and all you’ve worked for.”
She drifted over to me and put her arm around my waist. I seemed to observe the whole scene from ten feet away. This miracle seemed to be happening to somebody else.
She hugged me against her side. “I found something here that means a lot more to me than medical school. I’m not going back. We’ll rebuild this place. I know we will. This is where I belong, Daddy. The years I put into medical school don’t mean a drop in the bucket to me compared to this.”
He frowned more than ever. “Are you sure?”
She turned her face up to me, and our eyes met. Only then did I realize it was all startlingly, amazingly true. She was really staying. She loved me as much as I loved her. I didn’t have to let her go. My spirit exploded in the unbearable joy of it all.
She rose on her tiptoes to kiss me. “I’m sure.”
He scratched his head. “Well, this is all very unexpected. Your mother is waiting for you back in Memphis. She’s counting down the minutes until I bring you home. She’s been on the edge of her seat since we heard what happened at Jacks River.”
Nora left my side and took his hand again. She escorted him back to the Trooper’s vehicle. “I’m sure she’ll understand when you tell her what’s going on. We have phones here and internet and everything, and it’s not that far a drive. You can come and visit me anytime.”
He scanned the compound, but his eyes didn’t register anything. He paused at the door. “I’m not so sure about this, sweetheart. I don’t like leaving you like this.”
She broke into a brilliant grin. “That’s all right, Daddy. I can be sure enough about it for both of us. Trust me. It’s for the best.”
“All right. When you put it like that, I guess I can live with it.” He got into the seat, and she shut the door on him.
She kissed him through the window. “Have a safe drive back, Daddy. I’ll call you tomorrow, and we can talk about it some more.”
He said something inside the car that I didn’t hear. The Trooper fired up the engine, and the SUV motored down the driveway and out of sight. Nora waved until it rolled around the last corner. Then she turned to face us all.
She blushed and lowered her eyes. “I hope y’all are all right with me sticking around for a while.”
“Of course we are,” Pop exclaimed. “You know that. I just hope you’re as good with a mop and bucket as you were with that gun.”
The whole Clan burst out laughing, and the party broke up. They wandered off in different directions to start the long, arduous process of cleaning this place up.
Nora took a hesitant step toward me. “I hope you’re all right with it, too.”
I gulped, but I couldn’t speak above a whisper. “Yeah. I’m all right with it.”
She migrated to my side and her warm fingers slithered into my hand. “I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to leave you.”
I couldn’t speak. She meant more to me than a mountain of gold, and here she was, all mine. I slipped my arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the forehead. My throat cracked when I tried to whisper. “I couldn’t let you go, girl. I thought I would die rather than watch you leave.”
She buried her precious face in my chest. I clamped my eyes shut to hold back tears. She was here. She was real. She was in my arms, and that’s where she would stay. She would help us rebuild this place, and she would become a powerhouse in Clan Kelly just like my Ma.
11
Nora
Ezra jerked his chin over his shoulder. “Come with me to get Ma and Lucy out of the bunker. She’s going to flip when she realizes you’re staying.”
“Hold it.” I grabbed his hand.
“What’s the matter?”
My eyes drifted toward the wreckage of the house. “Kylen. I can’t see your Ma until I find out for sure what happened to him.”
He squared my shoulders at the pile of cinders. “All right. Let’s go.”
We wandered over to the foundation piled with embers and charcoal. I paused at the edge. “I can’t go in there with bare feet. You’ll have t
o see.”
He crunched over the charred beams in his sturdy boots to the spot where Kylen went down. The roof covered everything. When Ezra tried to pry it up, it crumbled in his hands. He whipped them back and shook them out. “Aargh! It’s hot.”
He hunted around for a beam strong enough to get a decent hold. He flexed his muscular shoulders and heaved. It creaked back, and a plume of dust and ash wafted into his face. He coughed and spluttered.
“Do you see him?” I called.
He waved the smoke out of his eyes. “Nope. Nothing here.”
I surveyed the yard one more time. “If his body was under there, we ought to at least see his skeleton or something. He must have gotten out.”
He let the roof drop and made his way to solid ground. I kept looking around and not finding what I was looking for. “Now what? Where could he have gone? He couldn’t just vanish into thin air.”
Ezra stopped Liam as he passed. “Have you seen Kylen?”
“I haven’t seen him.” He went on his merry way without a thought in his head.
“Let’s go find Pop,” Ezra told me. “He’s bound to know what happened to Kylen.”
We hunted around and found Isaac and Luka in a huddle with a bunch of other Kellys I didn’t recognize. Ezra tapped his elbow. “Have you seen Kylen anywhere?”
Isaac’s eyes flew open. “I thought he was with you. I haven’t seen him since you left the house. I thought you left him to guard the bunker.”
“He fell getting us out,” Ezra told him. “There’s no sign of his body in the wreckage, so he must be somewhere.”
“I don’t know, but find him. Don’t stop until you do.” Isaac turned back to his meeting.
Ezra scowled and guided me away. He made sure we got far enough away before he muttered under his breath. “Well, that was about as helpful as a chocolate firebox.”
I couldn’t laugh. This was getting serious. Where could Kylen have gone?
Ezra passed his hand across his eyes. “Listen, girl. We gotta go get Ma and Lucy out of the bunker. We can’t leave them down there overnight thinking we all might be dead. We’ll just have to explain the situation to Ma. She’ll understand when we tell her we’re still looking for Kylen and that he definitely didn’t die in the fire.” I hesitated for a moment, and he shook his head. “I know, I know, you promised to find him, and that’s what we’re doing. Now come on. We can look for Kylen as well with her out of the bunker as we can with her in it, and you don’t want to keep his disappearance a secret from her, do you?”
My shoulders slumped. “No, I don’t.”
“I didn’t think so. Besides, the boys’ll be getting rid of the bodies in a few minutes, and you definitely don’t want to hang around for that.” He took my hand, and we walked back to the wreck.
I couldn’t look at it. I didn’t want to think about Kylen being injured or dead somewhere and no one knowing about it. He made the ultimate sacrifice so Ezra, Caroline, Lucy, and I could get out of the house. Now he needed us to return the favor. I owed him that much.
Ezra guided me around the embers to the path leading into the ravine. I headed for the entrance. I knew the way now, but Ezra stopped. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at the back wall still standing skeletal and ghastly in the morning light.
“It’s all right,” I murmured. “We’ll find him.”
He pointed down at the ground. “Right there.”
“I don’t see anything.” I inspected the soft soil. “What is it?”
He took a few steps still pointing at the ground. A skid mark gouged into the delicate grass to reveal the sticky mud underneath. “Tracks. He crawled out the back door behind us. He collapsed more than once before the house came down, but he made it out. See those grooves? He dug his feet in here to push himself up, but he couldn’t do it. He fell over…here.”
He pointed to an indentation. It didn’t look like anything to me, but Ezra started walking faster. “He bolted into the woods. He’s down there…somewhere.”
He plunged down the path into the trees. He strode so fast I had to trot to keep up with him. He marched down the switchbacks and stopped again so suddenly that I collided with him from behind. “His tracks stop here.”
He cast a glance from right to left. Then he veered sideways and plowed into the undergrowth. He bashed branches out of his way, and his stout legs snapped twigs underfoot. He barged several hundred paces into the thicket before he rushed forward calling out, “Kylen!”
He dropped onto his knees. I hustled up behind him to find him crouched over his brother. Kylen lay unconscious and black with soot. The dense vegetation completely obstructed any view of him.
Ezra panted trying to lift him up. “He must have crawled here to hide from the fight. All right, boy. I’ve got you.” He murmured to his brother while he gathered the younger man’s senseless form in his arms. He heaved him up and set off for the path.
I hurried ahead until we found the trail again. “Where will we take him? He can’t stay outside. He needs medical attention.”
“The bunker,” Ezra panted. “It’s got everything we need, and it’s close.”
I bolted down the ravine. Ezra staggered behind me with his burden. I halted by the bunker door. “Give him to me so you can enter the combination.”
“You do it,” he croaked. “It’s 78-55-2.”
I blinked at him. He just told me the combination to their family bunker. In one quick breath, he made me an official member of Clan Kelly.
I spun around and rolled the tumbler. I entered the combination, and the door swung open. Electric lights illuminated a long tunnel plunging into the mountain, and Caroline stood there wide-eyed and breathless.
“Kylen!” she cried.
“Look out,” I told her. “We have to get him inside. He’s injured.”
Ezra marched ahead to a big room buried far underground. Racks and racks of every kind of weapon and crates of ammo lined the walls. Shelves of canned goods and packages of MREs covered every inch of space.
“Open the med lab, Ma,” Ezra barked.
Caroline pushed open a pair of swinging doors, and Ezra carried Kylen into what looked like a very respectable emergency clinic. He laid his brother on a table and switched on a monitor by the boy’s head.
“Power up the O2 pump, Ma,” Ezra ordered.
I went to his side. “I’ll handle this. Go tell your Pop you found him.”
Ezra opened his mouth. An argument dangled on his lips, but it died when he saw the look on my face. He nodded and left.
Caroline held Kylen’s hand across the table from me. “Is he going to be all right?”
“I don’t know. He probably inhaled some smoke in that fire, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he broke some ribs or some other stuff, too. He took one hell of a pounding protecting our escape.”
I slipped an oxygen mask over his face and listened to his lungs with a stethoscope. To my surprise, I heard only a few faint rattles near the very top of his airway. If he had inhaled a lot of smoke or burned his lungs, they would have filled up with fluid by now. I would have heard more rattles or maybe even no lung sounds at all.
I rummaged through the clinic and found what I was looking for—a portable ultrasound machine. These Kellys knew how to stock up for the apocalypse.
I carried it back to the table and set it aside while I made a thorough physical exam of Kylen’s body. His arms were intact, as was his skull, face, and neck. I found one broken rib and a broken ankle. Dang, that kid got off easy!
Caroline watched me work. “How do you know so much about this?”
I bit back a smile. “I was going to be a doctor before I gave it all up to stay here with your son.”
Her eyes flew open. “My…. you’re staying?”
I nodded. “Love conquers all, right? I spent years working as a paramedic on the Search and Rescue Team up in Memphis. I was going to be an emergency medical doctor, so I guess I can do the same work here.”
I grasped her hand for dear life. “I would never lie to you about something like this. He’s going to be just fine. He got really lucky, and he’s a strong, brave kid. You have nothing to worry about.”
She gasped, and when she looked up, a tear streaked down her cheek. “Thank you!”
I taped up his ribs and I was in the middle of splinting his ankle when Ezra returned with his father and Liam. “How’s the patient, Doc?”
“He’s fine,” I told him. “I did a scan on his lungs. He has a little bit of fluid down in the very bottoms, but that should clear up on its own in a few days. He’s got a broken rib. That’s the worst of it. I’m amazed he got off as easy as he did.”
Isaac frowned down at his son. “If he got off so easy, why is he still out?”
“I can wake him up if you want me to,” I replied. “He probably just passed out from shock, but he isn’t in shock now.”
I pulled out a capsule of inhalant, cracked it open, and held it under Kylen’s nose. He shot up gasping for air, and his eyes stared in all directions. “Ma! Are you…Pop! Are they…?
“Easy, son.” Isaac held Kylen’s hand down on the table. “It’s all over. You did real good getting your Ma and Lucy to safety. I’m proud of you.”
Kylen sank back on the table. His gaze sought out Ezra. “I’m sorry, man. I tried, but I couldn’t…..”
“You did it, man,” Ezra told him. “You did it. You have nothing to be sorry about. You did more than anyone could have asked. You saved all our keisters. Now be quiet and heal up. You’re in good hands.”
His Ma moved forward, and I felt myself shunted to the periphery. There was nothing more I could do anyway. I inched aside. Isaac held one of Kylen’s hands while Caroline held the other. When I peered up at Ezra, he inclined his head out of the room.
I joined him in the corridor outside. “Is he really going to be all right?” he asked me.
