“Wanna come in for a bit?” asked Harper.
“Sure.”
Cliff sat in his usual recliner, reading. All three kids sprawled on the living room floor around the board game. Harper considered it a ‘win’ that Cliff didn’t give this girl the same kind of stink eye he’d given Tyler.
“We waited for you a bit, but you were taking too long so we started,” said Madison. “We can start over if you want.”
“Hi!” Lorelei jumped up and ran over to hug the new arrival. “I’m Lorelei. What’s your name?”
“Grace.”
“That’s pretty.” Lorelei faced Harper. “Is she gonna live with us?”
Harper laughed, as did Grace. “No, kiddo, she’s just a friend. Hanging out for a bit.”
They flopped on the couch and kept talking about random stuff. The former popular girl’s old life reminded Harper somewhat of her present situation, an introvert who’d rather be left to her own devices forced into people’s faces. Thankfully, Grace didn’t ask her if she’d killed anyone.
The last hour and a half before dusk shot by in a blink. When Jonathan remarked that it had become difficult to see the game board, a reality check smacked Harper upside the head. Sitting there chattering away with Grace had been so much like being with Renee or Christina, she’d almost forgotten that society crumbled. Before she grew too maudlin over her old friends, a surge of elation at making a new one hit her, and she wound up slightly on the happy side of neutral.
“Yeah, it’s getting dark.” Madison set her cards down. “We can finish this tomorrow. Can we leave it set up?”
“Umm, sure,” said Harper, eyeing Cliff as if to ask him if it was okay.
“Knock yourselves out.” He squinted at his book. “Yeah… getting about that time.”
Lorelei scrambled to her feet and ran around hugging everyone, including Grace, before zooming down the hall to get ready for bed. Jonathan stretched and let off a fart.
“Eww!” yelled Madison, before crawling away into a run.
“On that note…” Harper got up and grabbed the Mossberg. “Might as well walk you home.”
“You don’t have to go back outside. I’m just down Hilltop a bit. Anne-Marie’s place is right next to the city hall or whatever they call it.”
Drat. I didn’t get a chance to tell Cliff about what Emmy said. “Nah, it’s cool.”
“You seem worried. Is there something I should be concerned about?” asked Grace.
Cliff looked up.
“Well… I don’t know if it’s anything yet. One of the kids at school, Emmy, supposedly said that someone had followed or watched her. It could be nothing.”
“Cameron reported seeing something moving the other night. He’d been at the buses on sniper duty, thought he saw something cross the road behind him near the old kennels. Could’ve been anything from a raccoon to a bear to someone who had too much of Earl’s moonshine.” Cliff stood and set his book on the cushion. “If it makes you feel better, go on and walk her home. Just don’t stand there talking for hours. I’m the one stuck paying the phone bills.”
Both girls laughed.
Harper led the way out the front door. After a short walk down Hilltop and up an overly long driveway shared among three houses, they stopped at the porch to Anne-Marie’s rather large dwelling, possibly a five- or six-bedroom house.
“It was cool meeting you. Sorry for being a basket case.” Grace blushed. “I’m not handling this well.”
“Don’t think anyone really is. We’re all stuck in varying degrees of OMG.”
“That’s one way to put it.” Grace sighed. “See you around.”
“Yeah. Definitely.” Harper smiled, excited and—for the first time in a while—hopeful.
Grace wasn’t a child she needed to take care of, nor a person who would take care of her, but another teen at the same level. Having a friend again soothed a wound inside Harper she hadn’t fully even realized existed, or at least consciously acknowledged beyond a persistent sense of grief over her old friends. It made sense how reuniting Madison with Becca had helped her kid sister so much.
It would be much cooler if she had all her friends back, but she couldn’t change the world, undo the nuclear war, or resurrect the dead. She felt fairly certain her friends would’ve survived the strike, since none lived all that far from her old home. What happened to them after that, she had no idea.
She closed her eyes and wished that they were all okay, even if she never saw them again.
7
Crash and Burn
Wednesday evening, approximately five hundred residents of Evergreen gathered in the rolling fields to the northwest of the quartermaster’s building for a ‘town dinner.’
More or less everyone who lived in the north part of town showed up. The residents in the southern end where Janice Holt ran the militia would have a separate simultaneous gathering, mostly so no one had to travel two miles or more to dinner.
Anne-Marie Kirby, Summer Vasquez, and the staff from the quartermaster’s set up all the folding tables they could scavenge from the middle school, and the former senior-care facility that had become the quartermaster’s. Janice’s group raided the old high school down in the southwest part of the city for tables. That building probably wouldn’t serve as a school again any time soon. Not like any kids would need to prepare for college or have to obtain a high school diploma to get a job.
The schools also provided an army of cheap metal folding chairs.
Harper sat across the table from Cliff, Madison on her right with Grace beside her on the left. Lorelei sat on Cliff’s right, Jonathan on his left. People who worked with Liz Trujillo, the quartermaster, went by with pushcarts doling out food to everyone. Evidently, a mountain lion had gotten into town and mauled one of the cows. This initially prompted the somewhat-rushed ‘feast,’ so as not to waste the leftover meat. Along with that beef, they tapped industrial-sized cans as well as giant plastic bags intended for restaurants. Those provisions hadn’t been allocated out to individual people or families due to their size, as without working refrigerators, the contents would spoil before any individual person or small family could’ve finished it.
The farm hadn’t yet produced anything edible as the planting process only started a week ago. Still, between the farmers’ reasonable attempt at making cheese, bagged beef stew, canned mashed potatoes—that according to Cliff came from the Army—and piles of canned corn, it appeared they had plenty to feed everyone for at least one meal. No doubt the entire population of Evergreen had the same constant gnawing hunger that had plagued Harper since early February. Stretching scavenged canned goods over a whole town made things lean. The unexpectedly dead cow provided a much needed bit of relief. Prior to the animal attack, the farm manager hadn’t wanted to slaughter any of the cows until they bred up to a more stable population.
She took her time with the portion of fresh, grilled beef, savoring every bite. This ‘town meal’ reminded her of a cookout from the civilized world.
“It’s wrong that we’re eating a whole cow,” said Madison, though she didn’t hesitate at attacking her portion. “She wanted to live, just like we do. How much does it suck that the poor cow survived a nuclear war only to wind up on our plate? We’re humans. We can eat anything we want. There’s no reason we have to make animals suffer.”
A few people close enough to hear glanced over with varying degrees of ‘is she for real’ in their expressions.
“No one killed that cow for food. A, umm, mountain lion got it.” Harper winced. “Don’t worry, they cut away the parts the cat touched. But they didn’t want to waste anything since we’re kinda low on food. The poor cow was dead anyway. Why throw away food people need?”
“Eww, really?” Grace stared at her portion. “That’s unsanitary.”
Jonathan grinned. “They got rid of the parts the cat chewed on. Besides, it’s been cooked. All the germs would be dead.”
“Oh.” Madison frowned. �
��That’s not so bad, but I still feel guilty.”
“Be guilty and well nourished,” said Cliff. “There’s starving children in… oh, North Dakota who’d sell their souls for that food.”
“That’s not funny,” muttered Harper.
“Wasn’t trying to be. I respect how she feels about animals, all life being sacred and that, but… as long as she’s a kid, and I’m looking out for her, I’d much rather she be a depressed idealist than a dead one.”
“This is so weird,” whispered Jonathan. “Having everyone all together for dinner.”
“In medieval times,” said Cliff, “people used to do this sort of thing all the time. Though… not quite with the whole town. People would cook big dinners and share it with any neighbors nearby. Makes more efficient use of resources and food.”
“They said it’s to help people be friends.” Jonathan stabbed a hunk of steak with his fork.
Harper looked out at the crowd, still feeling conspicuous for having the shotgun over her shoulder. “Mayor Ned is trying to build a sense of unity among everyone. Like going back to the forties or fifties when everyone in town knew everyone else in town.”
“Yeah, like when kids could just roam around safe because the whole community would look out for them, or Maude at the diner knew which guys cheated,” said Grace with a hint of a chuckle. “Or I’ve watched too much old TV.”
“Right. Back before people who lived next door for thirty years didn’t even know each other’s name.” Cliff scooped mashed potatoes into his mouth.
“Kids at school are saying we’re running out of food ’cause the farm isn’t growing fast enough. This big dinner is to make stuff last longer.” Madison stared at the hunk of meat on her fork. “Are we gonna starve?”
“No.” Harper put an arm around her sister. “You will probably have to cheat a bit on the vegetarian thing, but I won’t let you starve. If it gets to that point, you can have some of my food, too.”
“So you starve?” Madison shook her head. “That’s not good either.”
“There’s gotta be more cans out there.” Cliff reached across the table, gingerly grasped Madison’s wrist, and made airplane noises while nudging the hunk of steak toward her mouth.
She shot him highly unamused side eye, but bit the meat off the fork.
Conversation over dinner started off about school, which had changed somewhat with the arrival of adults who’d come in with the hockey team. Violet had help, three people who had been legit teachers before the war. Due to the small number of kids, and that they’d gotten used to being all together, the teachers hadn’t yet separated the students into different classrooms. However, each age group now had a dedicated instructor who worked with them all day instead of Violet trying to scramble around and cover everyone at the same time.
Lorelei loved school. No surprise, the girl seemed to love everything, though she had no reaction to everyone being together—almost as if she’d never been to school before the war. Jonathan thought it ‘cool’ to have everyone from six to fourteen in the same room. Sometimes, projects crossed grade levels and they got to work with kids older or younger. Madison didn’t seem thrilled about having to go to school after the end of civilization, but she didn’t complain too much. Mostly, she dragged her feet or groaned here and there, but kept up with the work. At least none of them had homework. Lack of textbooks to give out, lack of electric lights after dark, learning on the farm, and just trying to survive made the mere idea of homework impractical.
Harper and Grace drifted off into a separate conversation about ‘stuff to do around here’ as well as what sort of job Grace should ask for. Since the girl had been interested in advanced science, Harper nudged her toward working with the doctors as it seemed the most scientific thing around. Grace appeared open to the thought, but laughed because she hadn’t wanted a career that forced her to deal with people, preferring to sit in a lab somewhere… and the girls found their situations ironically similar. Both Harper and Grace felt awkward in social situations and took ‘jobs’ that forced them to deal with people.
Cliff, Jonathan, and Lorelei discussed what they’d been learning on the farm as well as their plans to go ‘house exploring’ again soon.
Madison bounced back and forth between the two conversations for a little while until she silenced the girls with one line: “That boy keeps staring at you.”
Harper glanced where her sister looked, at the hockey team sitting one table over and a little to the left. Twenty-one players, two little brothers, and five cheerleaders had been on that bus, along with four adults. The teens more or less stuck together with a few outliers drifting off to sit elsewhere. The boy Madison referred to appeared to be a senior, still wearing his varsity jacket. His dark blond hair no longer had the perfect ‘sculpted’ appearance it did when they’d first arrived, and he’d sprouted a rough beard—as had most of the men in town. The whole team had evolved from yearbook-perfect preppies into rejects from a lame grunge-country fusion band. Three of the cheerleaders sat with the team, the girls also looking in her direction.
That boy made eye contact and smiled.
Heat rushed to Harper’s face. She averted her gaze back to her plate. “They’re probably just wondering why Grace is over here instead of sitting with them.”
“Doubt it. I never really got along with the others. They all thought I got squad leader because of who my father is. Brittany wanted to be head cheerleader, so she’s been like my nemesis for the past year.”
Harper laughed. “Brittany? Seriously?”
“What?” asked Grace, eyebrows furrowed.
She shrugged. “You know, it’s just like… in every movie with a stuck up clique, there’s always a Brittany.”
“Or a Claire,” said Madison. “Or a Brooke, or Heather.”
Grace and Harper giggled.
“Madison’s a snooty name, too,” said Grace, booping her on the nose.
Madison raspberried her. “I’m not snooty.”
“Buffy?” asked Jonathan.
“Think that one’s too stereotypical. No one actually names their kid that.” Cliff scraped the last bit of food off his plate onto his fork.
“So who is the boy checking my sister out?” Madison peered over at Grace.
“Zach Alexander, team captain. Not a bad guy really, if you don’t mind an ego that barely fit in a school bus. His dad was on like the board of directors for some giant chemical company. Bought him a new Mercedes for his eighteenth birthday.”
“Eww.” Madison scrunched up her nose. “Why would he be interested in Harp?”
Lorelei blinked, confused. Jonathan started to laugh but covered his mouth.
“Be nice,” mumbled Cliff past a mouthful of food.
“No, he’s like popular and rich. He’s supposed to date the head cheerleader.” Madison reluctantly stabbed another piece of steak with her fork, and grinned. “I didn’t mean Harp’s face looks like a butt.”
“Hey!” Harper attacked her with a playful fake choke hold.
“He tried, but we only dated twice.” Grace nibbled on a bit of bread. “I got tired of his attitude that since he made captain and some people considered him the most popular guy in school that I had to be with him. I really hate that superficial crap.”
Madison stopped pretend-struggling and stared at her. “Wow, really?”
“Yeah. Trust me, I didn’t ask to look like this. Or even to be on the cheer squad. Or to be anything. The only thing I ever did that I liked was drama club. Makes sense as my entire life is basically me playing a role… spoiled princess.” She paused a moment, sighed, then muttered, “Was.”
Harper looked at the hockey team again. Sure enough, Zach continued making eyes at her, but that didn’t strike her as new. Boys at her old school often assumed the pale blue-eyed redhead would be the wild girl. Hopefully, if he bothered to approach her, he’d get the hint real quick she had no interest in a casual hook up. At this point, she couldn’t really see hersel
f becoming involved in a real relationship either. Too much could go wrong and she didn’t want to deal with another emotional wound. The ones from losing her parents still hadn’t stopped bleeding.
In some strange way, she almost felt grateful that Tyler had attacked Madison. That let her hate him enough to blank out whatever feelings she might have had toward him before that. She’d gone from ‘that kid is weird’ to wanting to kiss him too fast to make any sense. Carrie called it a mixture of teenage hormones, fear, and grief. Or, as she put it, ‘people do dumb things when they’re scared and lonely.’
Harper forced herself to keep her head up and observe the people around her, despite wanting to crawl into a secluded spot. Every time she looked in Zach’s direction, she caught him staring at her. Once, he elbowed the kid next to him and grinned. Probably wrongly assumed Harper checked him out, too.
Most people went over to the row of carts for seconds, which no one minded as the goal of this feast had been to get good use out of this food before it went bad—and everyone could use the extra food. Anne-Marie and Summer had done a good job estimating how much to prepare, and eventually, only a few scrapings remained in the aluminum serving trays.
For the first time in weeks, Harper actually ate until full.
As people finished, adults got up from the tables and gravitated into clusters to talk, some popping open beers from Earl’s place. Younger kids ran around playing tag. At the sudden appearance of a soccer ball, the tweens and up organized themselves into teams—except for Mila Cline, who hovered off at the edge of everything, sitting in the grass and observing. She seemed neither interested in being social nor distressed at being left alone. At least Madison joined the soccer game, though demanded she be on the same side as Becca.
If she had a choice, Harper would’ve been happy to go home and curl up with a book and avoid the massive crowd. Technically, she was ‘working’ at the moment, so had to stay. However, that didn’t mean she couldn’t go check on Mila. She felt sorry for her, even if the kid made Wednesday Addams seem bubbly.
The World That Remains (Evergreen Book 2) Page 7
