“I’m ready to leave,” Nikki announced and walked out the door. She waved at Wyatt, who raised his eyebrow at her.
“Did you find something of value?” he asked.
“Oh yeah,” Nikki said, patting her satchel. “It’s not the greatest, but we’ll be set. I think we can head back to the hotel now.”
Wyatt turned skeptical eyes on Jade as if asking her if she noticed Nikki’s uptick in positivity. Jade shrugged at him. Wyatt didn’t need her opinion.
Jade Harrison, after all, was a grunt. She needed to remember that and keep her opinions to herself.
8
When Max finally stepped out the front doors of the hospital, he felt the sensation of gloom slowly shrug off him, like a too-heavy blanket being pulled away. Hospitals had never been an issue for him, but the eerie quiet along with actual dead bodies around every corner was making him rethink his stance on the matter. The musty smell, the dust on the shelves, the used medical tools…he suppressed a shudder. Hospitals always balanced on that borderline of places of healing or demise, and to be frank? The place could now officially be labeled a mausoleum.
Jade took the lead, heading back the way they came. For a moment, Max looked at the road leading back up the mountain and felt a wash of despair. He was so tired. The idea of walking up that mountain again—what, like the fourth or fifth time in a day—made him want to whimper. If he could have found a brewery, requested a pale ale, and sat in the corner listening to trashy indie music in a dark corner, he would have sold his soul for it. His feet ached, his legs quivered, and all he wanted was to rest.
But Jade was starting to pull ahead of him and Nikki had already walked past him without complaint. With a begrudging sigh, he followed his companions.
Galena seemed to be one of those quaint, touristy towns full of cute shops and small streets. So much different from the bustle of Chicago. He somewhat got the appeal, why Kathleen would want to live here, or at least, why she’d wanted to live here before the world ended. Maybe it was the quiet that was getting to him. A few people crossed streets, power-walking away from them or giving them the side-eye. Max couldn’t blame them. If he came across Jade carrying her pistol with that determined scowl, he’d stay clear of her too.
They walked by a road section of big-box stores in a shopping center with wide awnings over their roof and entrances. Stalled and dead cars filled the large parking lot in front of the stores. Max looked up to the sky, his thoughts getting lost in the slow drift of wispy clouds. When he looked back down, he slowed to a stop.
Just across the parking lot, three men were walking up to a hardware store sandwiched between two others in the shopping center. The larger man in the middle wore a stiff cowboy hat that contrasted with his dirty, oil-streaked gray jumpsuit. He balanced a shotgun against his shoulder and looked pleased as Punch when he discovered the broken windows of the hardware store. The other two men flanking him looked more out of place in the suburban dream of Galena. They had the composure of those who were used to standing out because of their power or knowing they were protected. Cartel.
Max let out a hiss and motioned to Wyatt to crouch down behind one of the cars. “Jade,” Max whispered, “Nikki.”
The two women turned, and Max beckoned them to get down. They hustled back to Wyatt and Max, taking refuge behind one of the groupings of cars.
“What is it?” Jade asked.
Max pointed over the hood toward the three men, who had now reached the front door. The one with the shotgun tested the door, and finding it was locked, used the butt of his shotgun to break the glass. The ring and tinkle of the door shattering filled the air. The two men—cartel men who Max now recognized from the shootout—laughed and pretended to invite one another inside with hand flourishes and bows, as though they were being presented to a queen.
“It’s Samuel,” Jade whispered, a thread of steel hardening her tone.
“The guy from the hotel?” Max asked, eyeing the man in the jumpsuit. Kathleen had told Max about the guy when he first arrived, but in all honesty, it had been the highlights without the details. “The one who thinks he owns the hotel?”
“The very same,” Jade said.
“The two men with him are part of the cartel,” Max explained. “Guess you were right to bring me along.”
He had hoped his comment would come off as a joke, but like all of his jokes with Jade, it only seemed to make her pricklier than before. Her frown intensified as Samuel and the three men walked back outside. Samuel hefted his shotgun back against his shoulder while one of the cartel members pushed what looked like a wheelbarrow without the barrow and with the wheels full of spikes. The other one had a tool that looked like a rake with curved iron points at the end.
“What are those things?” Max asked.
“Cultivators,” Wyatt supplied. “Although why a guy like Samuel needs them at all is beyond me.”
“He might be trying to start a garden,” Nikki said. “Sounds like you don’t like him, but honestly, that’s probably one of the smarter items for him to pick up.”
“Steal, you mean,” Jade said.
“Well, yeah,” Nikki said and shrugged as if semantics were the least of her problems. “Everyone is gonna be thinking about long-term food storage. Even if we are in the summer months, we need to be prepared for the winter. Even this Samuel guy. Nothing here is sustainable. He’s probably thinking long-term because looting isn’t going to be lucrative in the long run.”
“You’re wrong,” Jade said in a low voice full of venom. “That man is dangerous. He won’t be thinking about the future. He’ll just wait until people have something for him to take. I wish I’d let Matthew kill him when he had the chance.”
“What do you mean?” Max asked, unable to imagine Matthew pushed to the point of murder.
“Matthew managed to get Samuel ousted from the hotel after he tried to take it over and had Patton and Ruth serving him. Matthew tried to shoot Samuel, missed, and Ruth knocked him out. Then, when they got Samuel out of the hotel, Matthew was about to shoot him again, but I made him stop. Told him murder wasn’t worth it.”
“Makes sense that Colin’s cartel buddies would befriend a guy like him, then,” Max said, feeling bewildered. He didn’t get people sometimes. “I don’t know those members personally, but I do know they’re part of the cartel. I don’t get it. Why would those cartel guys stick around here? Plus, why would Samuel want to take over the whole hotel? Wouldn’t it have made better sense to become allies of the hotel or even the gun club?”
“The gun club isn’t on friendly terms with Samuel either,” Wyatt put in.
Max turned to see Wyatt focused on the three men walking away from the hardware store, watching them until they disappeared from view. The intensity unnerved Max a bit, and he realized that he didn’t want to ever be on Wyatt’s bad side. “How come?” he asked.
“He joined, but he didn’t respect the rules. To him, the concept of safety was only something to be broken to show how ridiculous the rules actually were. I can’t prove this, but I’m fairly certain he came to the club high one day, and expected me to let him shoot with our members.”
“How did you know he was high?” Nikki asked.
“He was acting weird. Stumbling around. Everything was too funny to him. Put me on edge. I’d heard rumors he was dealing drugs, and I didn’t want any of that around the younger members who might be susceptible to it. The gun club was supposed to be a haven away from that.”
Nikki made a humming sound in her throat as the conversation stalled. “We shouldn’t waste too much time here,” she said as Samuel and the cartel members disappeared from view. “I need to get back to David.”
“You’re right,” Wyatt said, “but I think it would be a mistake not to go into the hardware store now that we are here. There might be supplies that could be useful.”
Nikki waited a beat but then nodded in agreement. Jade didn’t look happy about the decision, but she tended to keep h
er thoughts to herself. Max didn’t want to go anywhere the cartel members had been, but the others had a point.
The four of them jogged across the parking lot and stepped through the broken door. Even though he’d seen Samuel and his crew leave, Max didn’t trust that the cartel were completely gone. He was on high alert when they entered the store. He didn’t want to take any chances.
Inside, Max saw the same chaos that was becoming par for the course these days. Carts were overturned in the middle of the aisles. Large bags of soil had been punched through, and the rich dirt covered the smooth tiles of the floor. Merchandise lay in strange places where people had strewn it. Wyatt walked to a rotating wire shelf near the counter which was full of seed packets. He took as many as he could and stuffed them into his pockets, and then dumped more into Nikki’s already bulging satchel.
Jade walked along the aisles, searching the empty shelves. “I think Samuel took the last cultivator,” she said. “I don’t see another one around here.”
“That’s a bummer,” Wyatt said, putting another set of shears into a ragged-looking plastic bag along with more seed packets and a trowel. “At least there was some useful stuff left. These seeds will be invaluable. I think we can head back up the mountain now.”
Max couldn’t stop it. The groan escaped him before he could tamp it down. The thought of the trek before them filled him with dread. “I don’t know about you guys, but I am sick of walking up that stupid mountain.”
Silence met his declaration. Jade’s shoulders hunched. She rounded on him with fury blazing in her eyes. “Do you ever think of anyone other than yourself?” she demanded.
“Hey,” Max said, feeling hurt by the force of her words. “I’ve been beaten and bruised on that road. I walked all the way from Chicago to get to the top of that road. I don’t need you to make light of my sacrifices. I’m here, aren’t I? I’m on this little mission of yours. Not sure that means I’m the selfish one here.”
For whatever reason, that seemed to incense Jade further. “You don’t get to count this as an example of your unselfishness. I forced you to come with us. You tried to get out of it. I think that clearly puts you in the self-absorbed category.”
With that, Jade pushed past him and shoulder-checked him as she walked outside. Nikki and Wyatt silently followed her. Max let out an aggrieved sigh and followed, not wanting to be left behind.
9
It had been three days since Nikki, Wyatt, Max, and Jade had come back from Galena with their pockets and bags overflowing. Kathleen had felt every single hour. Escaping outside with the excuse of using the privy, Kathleen was really grabbing five minutes alone. Standing in the shade, she leaned against the wall of the hotel as though she were in hiding, and rubbed her eyes.
Caring for David had become her whole life, which meant her whole life was confined to that one room. Monitoring his breathing, checking his heartbeat, ensuring his vitals were normal, not so slow or so fast as to be deemed traumatic to his system. Wiping his sweat, cleaning his body, coaxing medicines and bottled water down his throat, along with some meager gruel Ruth concocted for him. The time went by so quickly and yet so slowly.
Looking up into the morning sun, she wanted to step into the light and let the warmth seep into her bones. But she feared losing this moment of silence. She feared that her children might spot her and ask for a favor. That a visiting member of the gun club might approach her and ask for guidance or direction. When she wasn’t caring for David, she was making meals for everyone or looking into structural issues with the hotel, or having Matthew chatter to her about well restoration. The world felt so overwhelming—even more so than when she had a phone ringing off the hook or buzzing with a slew of texts. When she had papers to grade every night and a family to feed. Just a different set of tasks, she thought, looking into the cloud-filled sky. Same, but different.
It wasn’t completely hopeless. She started to count all the good things to keep her from spiraling into thoughts of the futility of it all. Her children were thriving and a constant source of light and presence around their grandfather. Even though she knew the medicine was helpful in keeping David alive, she thought it was more due to Patton and Allison that he had his spirit back. And she was beginning to understand medicine as though by osmosis by simply being around Nikki, an area that she never envisioned herself taking an interest in. Yet it had been so empowering to watch Nikki work. The short, no-nonsense woman could look at a problem and see a multitude of different solutions. If one didn’t work, she never took it to heart. It was as if she never doubted herself. Never made herself feel bad when things didn’t go as planned.
Kathleen liked that. She also liked that when Wyatt had inventoried the seeds and discovered he had an abundance of spinach and collard greens, Nikki’s smile had lit up the whole room. Those greens were helpful for reducing blood pressure and lowering heart disease, she’d told them. And here Kathleen thought they were just diet rabbit food. Staring at the mountains, she counted some of the other facts she’d learned. Green beans helped reduce blood pressure and inflammation. Tomatoes might be bad for heartburn, but they would help defend against heart attacks. She imagined one day pulling up bulbs of garlic from the rich earth and knowing it would lower cholesterol and reduce blood clots, along with the good flavor it added to their bland meals. Patton might try to ward off imaginary vampires with it, but she didn’t mind. There was so much depth of knowledge about everyday produce that she hadn’t understood before. She had gained a whole new appreciation for the food she would have to grow and care for, and with Nikki’s guidance on medicinal properties, Kathleen hoped she could put her knowledge to the test.
Her five minutes had turned into ten. With a sigh, she turned away from the bright sunlight and walked back into the hotel. As she neared David’s room, she heard a brewing argument. Steeling herself, she entered to see David propped up on a throne of pillows, his pale face pinched in distress. He’d been responding well to the medication, giving him hours of lucidity at a time before his body would pull him back under into a healing sleep. When David was awake, though, he wasn’t a pleasant man to be around.
“I can do it myself,” he growled as Nikki held a spoon filled with what looked like microwavable oatmeal up to his mouth.
“That’s what you said last time and got boiling-hot breakfast all over your chest,” Nikki responded in a pleasant tone. “Let’s do it my way for a change, huh?”
“I’m not a child,” David said. “I can feed myself.”
“I’d rather not have to treat you for a second-degree burn,” Nikki continued, her bedside manner impeccable. “Save me the hassle, why don’t you?”
“I’m not a hassle. You’re the hassle, woman,” David said. “Weren’t you supposed to go back to the gun club last night? Don’t know why you spend the evening sleeping in the chair next to me. Take a hint and give me some space.”
“Wyatt wanted me to go back and get some rest, yes,” Nikki admitted, “but unfortunately, you’re going to have to do much more to scare me off. Another heart attack will just make me a permanent resident in your life. Do we really want that?”
“No,” David nearly shouted.
“No, we don’t,” Nikki said. “So the best solution is for you to get better. And the way to do that is to eat the damn oatmeal.”
Kathleen suppressed a grin as she walked into the room and helped prop David up further with the pillows. “You seem to be in a mood,” she offered to her father-in-law.
“It’s two of you now?” David grumbled, still refusing to eat. “If it’s not you or her, it’s Ruth. Like circling crows.”
“I think we’re full of more love than crows,” Kathleen said. “Don’t be a pain, David. Eat.”
“What’s Matthew doing?” David asked suddenly.
A moment of silence followed his question, and Kathleen’s heart clenched in her chest. “He’s outside with some members of the gun club, trying to restore the well,” she said, tryin
g to keep her tone light.
“I should be out there helping them,” David said. “Matthew will need me. He knows nothing about architecture. When he was a young man, he couldn’t figure out how to replace a part in the washing machine.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Nikki intervened quickly. “You won’t be getting out of this bed. You can take that to the bank.”
David muttered under his breath something about being in a prison, and Kathleen couldn’t help but roll her eyes. The man was irritating to say the least. The drapes around the open window fluttered with a breeze, bringing fresh air into the sickroom. David breathed in deeply and looked longingly out at the blue sky. Kathleen knew he wanted to be out helping the other men rebuild the well, but more than that, he wanted to see Matthew.
She bit her lip and put a new bottle of water on the nightstand next to David. Matthew had been stubbornly absent from his father’s side, a fact that did not go unnoticed by anyone. She hadn’t wanted to pressure him, not in the beginning, but now something needed to be said. David’s first heart attack had rattled Matthew, and she knew that this second one had sent him spinning with guilt and fear that he refused to address. It was hard seeing David so wan and pale, a shadow of the man he’d been, but he was still David. And David needed his son, more than he needed food or water at this point.
Nikki looked up at her, and Kathleen motioned her head toward the door. Taking the hint, Nikki put the spoon back in the small bowl and handed it to David. “Have it your way,” she said. “If you can eat this whole thing on your own without spilling by the time I get back, I might consider giving you food privileges.”
“What a saint,” David said sarcastically, but he took the bowl with shaking, if enthusiastic hands.
“We’ll be right back,” Kathleen said and couldn’t help but notice David’s relief at finally having a moment to himself. He probably was just as overwhelmed and exhausted by them as they were by him. Love was like that, though. Necessary and annoying all at once.
EMP Catastrophe | Book 3 | Erupting Chaos Page 7
