With Ellie and Ricky and the others now in Stanberry, they couldn't leave without not only risking contact with Zolos, but effectively exiling themselves from the town unless they went through another quarantine period. That had been hard for Tallie, not being able to see her mom and brother when the threat of attack had kept Nick from being willing to risk the short trip to the barricade with her, even along the most protected route between the town and camp.
And perhaps it was premature now, so soon after such a big fight, but there was a group of other Zolos survivors wanting to visit friends in town now that things felt safer. It was good timing, and in his view the risk was small.
Safety in numbers.
So off they went, Nick and the McCleese men and the other armed people around the edges of the group keeping an eye on their surroundings, while Tallie stayed with Aimee and the few other children at the center of the group.
They hadn't radioed ahead about the visit, for obvious reasons, but the sentries on the barricade were alert and waved them over, then sent a few runners to fetch the people in town they'd come to visit.
Gen was farther down the barricade, but when she realized Nick and Tallie were there she shouted hello and waved, and he carried his daughter over to talk to her.
“How you holding up?” he called up to her as she leaned over the wall.
“Pretty good. I was at home with Billy during the attack and wasn't in any danger, although when the fires started I went out to help fight them.” She gave him a sympathetic look. “How about you? I heard about what happened with Jay.”
“Jay shot Larry!” Tallie told her, clutching tighter around Nick's neck with eyes wide with fright at the memory. “It was really scary.”
In spite of his daughter's distress, in a way Nick was relieved she'd replied so he didn't have to. The truth was he was still numb from what had happened in the clearing, doing his best to focus on other things so his mind wouldn't flash back to it.
And often failing.
“Oh honey,” Gen said in a gentle voice, looking at the point of tears at Tallie's expression. “I can't believe that monster would point a gun anywhere near a sweet little girl. And that poor woman in the tent.”
Nick nodded grimly. “Well, he's not a threat to anyone anymore. And hopefully neither are his followers.”
“Hopefully,” she agreed. “Don't we have enough problems with Zolos and trying to rebuild our lives?”
“Well, with Jay dealt with hopefully we can get back to doing that,” he said. “We're ready to be done with our 21 days so we're not on the outside looking in anymore, right Tallie?”
She nodded fervently. “I want to see Mommy and Ricky and play with Billy! And then you and Daddy can go on your date!”
Gen looked surprised for a moment, then laughed at that, and Nick felt his cheeks redden. He'd told Tallie that Gen was his girlfriend and they'd planned a date as soon as it was safe to be together, but with their relationship still quasi-long distance it was a bit embarrassing to have her just blurting out things like that.
“That's right,” Gen said. “And I can't wait to give you a big hug too, sweetie.” She glanced over her shoulder, brightening. “Hey, here comes your mom and big brother. And Billy too!”
Tallie excitedly yelled a hello to the unseen new arrivals, and began waving wildly as Ellie, Ricky, Hal and his family, and the Norsons with Billy all climbed up onto the barricade to stand beside Gen.
“Mommy, we came to visit you!” she shouted practically in Nick's ear, making him wince slightly. “Daddy says things should be safe now, and we'll be able to visit all the time!”
Ellie smiled down at her daughter, although her face was drawn with weariness and the strain of the earlier battle. “I hope so, sweetie. I've missed you so much.”
“Me too,” Ricky declared. “You need to do your three weeks and come play with Linny so she'll leave me alone.”
Nick couldn't help but chuckle at that, and Ellie and Hal laughed outright. “Well, if things with Wensbrook really are over then you guys can get started on your 21 days right away,” Ellie said. “I've waited too long already to hold my baby girl.”
“Me too, Mommy!” Tallie called, giving Nick a hopeful look. “Can we start right now, pretty please?” She batted her eyes the way she did when she was trying to be especially cute.
Nick laughed again and tussled her hair, although he was slow to answer. “Soon. I want to wait a few days to be sure they aren't going to try anything else, but then I think our group will go through isolation again. We've all been separated for too long.”
“Amen to that,” Gen said fervently.
He returned her wry smile as he continued. “Although I did have one thought about our 21 days . . . I think we should spend it in the Norsons' house.”
Ellie frowned. “Take Tallie out of the safety of the quarantine camp? I'm not sure I like that.”
“We can set a 24/7 watch,” he argued. “The house is close to the barricade, and Denny's patrols will still be combing the surrounding area.”
Bruce Norson cleared his throat, not looking terribly pleased at this line of discussion. “Why our house?”
Nick paused, choosing his words carefully. “Well when you went to pick up the cache in the shed, it had been stolen. And we know Jay's thugs have been out ransacking and destroying houses. If they went in yours it might be contaminated with Zolos, and they had to have gone in at least the part of the yard around the shed. To be safe it should probably go through three weeks, too.”
The older man's frown deepened; had he not considered that, and he'd been planning on moving back home soon now that Jay's group seemed to be dealt with? “You may have a point about that,” he said grudgingly. “But why do you want to stay there now?”
“To guard it,” Nick said simply. “Our group's long term plan was to move back there when it was safe, right? Focus on our future survival from there. I want to keep a watch on it, make sure nobody else wanders in and potentially contaminates it.”
The Norsons exchanged a look. “That's not the worst idea,” Winn admitted. “I don't like the idea of some infected person coming in and jiggling our doorknob and killing us all, like what happened to the poor McCleeses and Masons.”
“Also I know we were going to start a garden, and we're almost past the planting season already,” Nick added. “We've got the seeds and the tools from our scavenging, so we can get to work on it right away and do something productive during our 21 days.”
“Yay!” Tallie said, wiggling excitedly. “Can we plant strawberries? Can I help?”
“Yes and yes,” he said with a laugh, kissing her forehead. “We'll get a nice big garden planted, enough to feed everyone. And we can get started on other projects too, including maybe another house on the neighboring vacant lot. Or at least some lean-tos so we can get out of our tents.”
“It's a good thought,” Bruce agreed grudgingly, although he obviously still had reservations about them living in his house. “With all this trouble with Jay, we've let our future plans fall by the wayside for too long.” He sighed. “All right, stay at the house. Just be sure to take off your shoes when you go in, or Winn will never let me hear the end of it.”
“We'll take good care of the place,” Nick promised. “I'll set up a rotation for chores . . . when you finally get back it'll be cleaner than when you left.”
“I suppose that settles it, then,” Ellie said. “Until we can join you in the house, we'll do what we can in town. Hal's great at construction, and he can start gathering materials for the new houses.”
“It's kind of miraculous to think about,” Gen said, tone thoughtful. “We've been so fortunate here that all the houses are still occupied by people untouched by Zolos, and we've also got refugees needing homes. Meanwhile over half the houses in the country are vacant.”
That was a sobering thing to think about . . . with all the trouble with Wensbrook Nick hadn't given much thought for a while about just ho
w catastrophic the pandemic had been for the rest of the world.
“Well, unless we want to return to KC and hope the plague has died down there, and our apartments aren't burned down, we'll have to make do with building houses here,” he said.
There were solemn nods all around. “It's nice to be thinking of the future again,” Hal said, taking Ellie's hand. “Crazy as it sounds, I'm looking forward to diving into rebuilding our lives.”
“Three weeks,” Ellie agreed, leaning against her husband; Nick was surprised to find that the sight didn't bother him as much as he might've expected it to. “As long as Jay's really gone, we'll all be together and making a new start in three weeks.”
They spent a little while longer catching up and making plans, and then the group of survivors who'd come with Nick began clumping up to head back to camp, so he and Tallie reluctantly joined them.
It was good to think of the future, but for now he was looking forward to finally getting some decent sleep.
PART TWO
REBUILDING
THREE WEEKS LATER
Chapter Thirteen
Long Awaited Reunion
Nick paused to mop his face with his sleeve, using the opportunity to glance up from his weeding to check the position of the sun.
Just a few hours until their 21 days of isolation was finally done.
He was looking forward to this reunion with the anticipation he usually associated with childhood memories of Christmas mornings, and as an adult more important events like his wedding. That said, it was shaping up to be the oddest reunion he'd ever had.
Normally when you reunited with all your friends and family after a long time, you went to them. But in this case the Norsons' house and yard was finally going to be confirmed Zolos free, so Gen and Billy and his grandparents were all coming home, along with Ellie and Hal and their family.
Combined with pretty much all the scavengers and their loved ones who'd joined Nick in isolation in the house, all in all 26 people would be making the place their home. It had been a busy three weeks getting ready for them, starting with building more permanent shelter for Nick's group and Ellie's family.
And, of course, his current sweaty labor in the massive garden they'd cleared, planted, and were doing their best to nurture. Which was turning out to be a surprisingly challenging task, even though the McCleeses and a few others in their group were experienced farmers who were familiar with the local weather.
Nick would've thought that with plants managing to cover just about every bit of ground on Earth where they could survive, including on top of other plants a lot of the time as they competed for sunlight, giving specific desirable plants the royal treatment would be all that it took to produce a bumper crop.
But apparently it wasn't so easy, especially when they'd planted so late.
Speaking of local weather and planting late, today had to be the hottest day yet this year. Only a few days into summer, and it already had to be in the high 80s. Although with the humidity it felt like a hundred degrees out here, especially when he was working out under the sun.
A small, dirty hand abruptly shoved a clump of green at his face, making him jump. “This is a weed, right Daddy?” Tallie asked.
Nick nodded. “Yep, good job sweetie.”
She made a satisfied noise, tossed the weed away, and squatted to dig at another one with her little trowel.
At first she'd been as big a terror to the garden plants as to the ones they were supposed to be getting rid of as she “helped” with the weeding. But after some patient explaining, and several reminders along the way, she'd finally gotten the hang of the task and had thrown herself into it with her usual enthusiasm.
If watching the little plants poke out of the soil and slowly grow up towards the sun over the last few weeks had been satisfying, seeing his daughter's excitement at the process made it all new again. Sometimes when he was doing other work in the yard or just resting or eating outside, he'd see Tallie make her way over to the garden to talk to the plants, telling them to grow big and strong or just chattering to them about whatever was on her mind, as if they were her pets.
It was absolutely adorable to watch.
“Hey,” he told her, “Mommy and Ricky and Hal and everyone will be here soon. Want to make sure everything's ready for the party?”
She lit up like the sun in excitement. “Okay!” She turned away from the garden as if she'd completely forgotten what she'd been doing and rushed towards their camp, Nick walking quickly to keep up.
“Camp” was a bit of an unfair term, after three weeks of hard work. They'd cleared the wooded lot beside the Norsons' house back a dozen yards and used the green logs to make crude dugouts, basically half-underground cabins with sod roofs. They were rough compared to even tents, but were much cooler in the summer heat.
Hopefully they'd be warmer in the winter too, although that seemed like an eternity away.
Val and Charlie looked up from the cooking area as Tallie ran up. The plan was for there to be a potluck tonight, with Nick's group and the new arrivals all preparing dishes, and the two had volunteered to whip up a big pot of chili made with chopped up jerky and canned beans and tomatoes.
Nick's own contribution was going to be digging up junk food from their stores, and mixing up powdered lemonade and fruit punch in a couple coolers. He'd volunteered to cook something as well, but after over a month of tasting his cooking when it was his turn to make meals, his friends had insisted he be in charge of picking out the dessert and drinks.
“Big day,” Val said, beaming down at Tallie as the girl came and peeked around her leg to see what she was doing. “You excited?”
“Yep!” Tallie shouted. She stood on her tiptoes to peer into the pot. “Can I help cook?”
The auburn-haired woman exchanged amused looks with Charlie. “I think we're pretty much done except for stirring,” she said.
Nick hastily spoke up before his daughter could offer to do that; he could almost imagine the potential disasters there. “How about you help me stir the lemonade and fruit punch, sweetie?”
“Okay!” Tallie ran over to where the coolers were waiting to be filled with water, with effort picking one up and bumbling her way across the yard to the pump.
Nick had shown her how to work the pump, although she wasn't quite strong enough to do it on her own. That didn't stop her from plopping the cooler down beneath the spigot, then running around to grab the handle and try to lift it up and down, grunting with effort.
Biting back a laugh, he hurried to catch up to her with the other cooler, pausing to take the lid off the one she'd carried. Then he helped her work the pump, cold clean water gushing out into the open container, until it was full.
Watching Tallie manhandle the big wooden spoon they used to stir the powdered drinks into the coolers was an endless source of amusement. Thankfully she didn't knock the coolers over, drop the spoon in or on the ground, or have any other mishaps.
Once the drinks were stirred he lugged them into the Norsons' cellar to stay cool, then hurried to wash up and change into clean clothes, helping Tallie do the same and thoroughly brushing her dark brown curls.
“Are we going to Mommy's wedding again, Daddy?” she asked as he helped her clip barrettes to hold her hair back behind her ears.
Nick couldn't help but laugh; he tried to make sure they both stayed clean and presentable, but the last time they'd gone to this much effort had been for Ellie's wedding. “Nope, but we're going to have a party with Mommy and Ricky and Gen and Billy and everyone, and we want to look nice when they get here.”
“Oh, okay.” She looked around. “Can I have your mirror to see if I look nice?”
He laughed again and dug around to find his shaving mirror. “I think you look adorable,” he said as he held it out for her to see.
She regarded herself solemnly for a moment, then nodded in satisfaction. “Yep.”
Once he was satisfied they were looking their best, he le
d the way into the Norsons' house to do a last inspection and deep cleaning. His group had moved out into their new dugouts days ago, and had cleaned the place up then, but even so he wanted to make sure it was looking its best for the hosts who'd done so much for them.
Nick might've gone overboard and lost track of time, because while he was in the middle of sweeping the front porch he heard voices coming from the direction of the street, and looked up to see a familiar group heading their way.
Breaking out into a grin, he waved and glanced over at Tallie, who was sitting on the lawn nearby plucking up blades of grass, making them into a nest for two round rocks she'd found that were vaguely egg-shaped. “Tallie, look!” he called, pointing at the approaching people.
His daughter looked up at the excitement in his voice, then hopped up and stood on her tiptoes to stare down the driveway. Then she gave a shriek of pure joy and rushed across the yard.
After only a few steps she suddenly paused, looking back at him with an expression like she was expecting him to call her back. Nick's grin widened and he motioned her on. “Go ahead, we're safe now,” he encouraged.
She turned away with another happy shout, just in time to see that Ellie had broken away from the group and was rushing towards her, arms outstretched. “Mommy!” the little girl yelled, little legs pumping as she bolted forward to meet her mom.
Ellie swept her up in her arms, laughing and crying at the same time. “My sweet baby,” she said, peppering Tallie's cheeks with kisses. “My sweet, sweet baby girl.”
Tallie clung to her as if she'd never let go. “I missed you so much Mommy. I thought I'd never get to hug you again.”
Nick felt tears prick his own eyes at the sight. His daughter had been through so much, but she'd come through it like a champion, and now things were finally on track to get back to normal.
The rest of the group arrived, starting with Ricky and Billy who jumped around Ellie, wanting to say hi to Tallie too. But the little girl clung to her mom's neck determinedly, although she looked down and shout-talked to her brother and friend. Hal's siblings hung back a few feet, but they had caught the excitement of the moment and were also talking over each other.
Isolation | Book 4 | Holding On Page 20
