Nikki followed Kathleen out to the hallway, far enough away so David wouldn’t be able to hear them. “Would you be all right being alone with him for an hour or two?” Kathleen asked. “I know that’s a lot to ask, but I want to find Matthew and have a word with him.”
“It’s no problem,” Nikki said with a smile.
“Are you sure?” Kathleen pressed. “David isn’t an easy patient.”
Nikki’s smile widened. “Oh, that’s nothing new,” she said. “I’ve dealt with difficult patients before. His attitude means he’s a fighter, which only means good things for his recovery. It’s part of the job description to deal with attitudes like that.”
Kathleen reached out and squeezed Nikki’s arm. “When David said you were a saint, he wasn’t lying. When I say it, I’m not being condescending. I am so grateful to you for being here.”
“Okay, sure, but if you leave me for more than eight hours, we will have words,” Nikki joked as Kathleen slipped back outside.
The sun blinded her as she walked down the front steps and headed toward the back of the hotel. Warmth covered her arms, and when she looked at the clouds, she could make out the shape of a duck and a ship. When all this was over, she wanted to lie down in the green grass and stare at the sky, making up stories out of those shapes and telling them to Patton. But right now, she had to find Matthew and tell him to get inside to see his father.
She heard them before she saw them. The grumble and deep laugh of masculine voices talking over each other and then the sharp sound of approval or denial of a suggestion. When they came into view, the group was standing close together, all peering downwards at the well.
“We should at least try sludging,” one of the men said, putting his hand up to stroke his chin in thought. “We have a big enough crew that we could use logs to build a rudimentary scaffolding, saw off a rusted or used PVC pipe, and then can take turns boring the pipe into the ground. It would be time intensive, but it’s way easier than hand digging.”
“Hand digging makes sense though,” another man, who Kathleen had been told was named Shawn, said, “because it lets us start off slow to evaluate how far we need to go for water to start filling the well. We can still take shifts and then at least see how far we need to dig before we get water.”
“It’s way too dangerous,” Wyatt cut in. “Someone could get buried or hurt if there was a cave-in. There isn’t a lot of oxygen down there, so the rotation would keep endangering people. That’s not to mention how much we would have to dig. Maybe there was a reason the old owners capped the well before the log fell on top of it.”
“We can’t worry about bacteria,” Matthew said. “If we need to boil the water, that’s far easier to do than trekking down to the river every day, hauling it all back, and boiling it. You’ll just have to take the chance on giardia.”
Matthew grinned. Wyatt glared. Kathleen crossed her arms and coughed politely. The men turned as one to look at her, and she gave a little wave. “Hi there,” she said. “Mind if I borrow my husband for a moment?”
“Only if you can convince him this hand digging idea is dangerous,” Wyatt grumbled, turning back to the other men who either nodded in agreement or rolled their eyes in disagreement. Split party, it seemed.
“I’ll be right back,” Matthew said, breaking from the pack. “Don’t decide on anything without me.”
Kathleen led him far enough away from the well and the others so that they could still hear the murmur of debate, but have some semblance of privacy. She turned to Matthew and said, “I think it might be a good idea if you take the rest of the afternoon and visit your father.”
She immediately hated how she sounded like a mother to her own husband. It made her wince, but Matthew simply wasn’t seeing clearly. He needed a strong hand, and if that was to be Kathleen, then so be it.
Irritation crossed Matthew’s face. He wouldn’t meet her eyes, instead staring at the sunbeams cutting through the trees. “Kathleen, they’re just starting to make a decision on how we should start repairing the well. The guys need me here. Wyatt is being too cautious, but there are a few young bucks who are far too eager. We need to find a common ground of agreement.”
“You haven’t been to see him since you brought him to the hotel,” Kathleen pointed out. When Matthew didn’t look at her, she emphasized, “Three days, Matt. It’s been three days.”
“I know how long it’s been,” Matthew said angrily, as if she’d pointed out some kind of flaw. “I’ve spent that whole time trying to guarantee that we have clean water to help with his recovery. That’s more important than me holding his hand and starting up some useless small talk.”
Concern rattled through Kathleen. “I know it might seem useless, but connection is just as important in the healing process,” she tried to say gently. “David is having a bad day and is feeling useless. He could use some support. The kids have been to see him every day, but it’s you he really wants to see. Matt. Matt. Matthew, are you listening to me?”
Matthew had his head cocked as if he had completely zoned out, but Kathleen knew he was focused on the conversation happening behind him. “Hey, you can’t take a vote without me!” he called over his shoulder, and Kathleen heard the titter of laughter from the men. “I’m serious!” Matthew said.
“Hurry up, then,” Shawn called back. “Wyatt’s making some strong points, right about now!”
Matthew huffed and turned back to Kathleen. “Look, honey, I’ll come and see my dad after this gets done. I promise. As soon as I can. I know you’re all doing everything you can to help him, but this is the best way I can help him.”
“You can help him by not making him feel isolated and useless—Matthew, seriously?”
But her husband had turned his back on her and began to walk back to the men. The guys folded Matthew back into their conversation. Kathleen watched a relieved smile cross his face when Wyatt made some kind of joke at his expense. Anger filled her. If the situation were different, they’d be having a full-on fight right about now. She didn’t like being brushed off, or turned into a nag, simply because Matthew couldn’t deal with his father’s life hanging in the balance. Repairing the well was simply a way to avoid the issue altogether, and while she knew he didn’t need the reminder of the first heart attack, David needed some diversion from being sick. The kids and Jade were always welcome company, but nothing would replace Matthew’s presence for David.
Kathleen knew David missed Matthew most of all. She just wished Matthew could see that too.
10
The problem with suddenly being thrust into an apocalypse was that it made it difficult to figure out what made you valuable. For Allison, this had been a lifelong struggle, one that had become apparent when she’d been faced with deciding what she wanted to be when she grew up—not figuratively, like an astronaut or a president, but her real calling in life. College was a looming presence—or at least had been a looming presence—where she’d had a heart to heart with herself, thinking about who she was going to become.
She was good at socializing. She was excellent at going with the flow. She didn’t let things bother her. When her parents decided to up and move them, she’d kept her cool for the most part. She thought she’d be heading back to Chicago solo to embark on a career in marketing like her dad. Maybe go to some parties. Have fun. Take an art class.
Now, she was the girl who fainted from eating cereal. What an embarrassing disaster. She didn’t know where she fit into this new world. Patton was, in a way, taking to it like a fish to water. But Allison, without friends or a direction, felt hopeless.
That wasn’t to mention the knot in her gut when it came to her grandfather. She had a terrible sensation of dread that followed her every hour of the day. If the world were sane, she might wonder if she had developed a complex or clinical anxiety. Now, she knew she simply had to deal with her feelings. As she walked down the hallway to visit her grandfather because she didn’t know what else to do with her da
y, she nearly ran into Nikki storming out of the room and shutting the door with a loud bang.
Frazzled. That was the only term that fit Nikki. Her usual calm demeanor had frayed. Her shoulder-length auburn hair stood on end, as if she’d been running her fingers through it constantly. Nikki’s hazel eyes were wide with a kind of frustration that said if she didn’t get a moment alone, she was going to snap.
“Hey,” Allison said, peering around the doctor to the door leading to her grandfather’s sick room. “Everything okay?”
“If you can call a man on the brink of being strangled okay,” Nikki said. “I’m trying to take some vitals and he’s fighting me with every step. He needs someone to take his mind off things, or do the actual vital taking themselves.”
“Any way I can help?” Allison said, trying to keep it cool—it was one of her things, after all—but hoping Nikki would say yes.
“What I actually need is your grandmother,” Nikki said, to Allison’s disappointment. “He’s always so much better behaved when she’s around.”
“Do you want me to go and get her?” Allison asked.
“God, would you? You’d be a lifesaver.”
“Of course,” Allison said, putting her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “I’ll send her in as soon as I can.”
Nikki looked relieved. “I think I could hug you,” she said.
Allison smiled in response and headed out the door. She checked the kitchen first, but found the space empty and quiet for once. Then she headed outdoors. The sunlight was too bright and she wished for sunglasses. But when she rounded the corner of the hotel, she saw the slender frame of her grandmother with her hair in a loose bun, focused on the patch of turned earth beneath her.
The garden patch had been an evolving project, starting out small and then expanding when they realized they had the space to plant the new seeds Wyatt had brought back. But the sunlight required for different seeds meant multiple patches for growth optimization. This particular garden patch was in an area that would have partial shade throughout the day. It was near a series of brambly gray bushes that looked close to dead, or at least wouldn’t be coming back to life this summer.
A set of tools had been laid out on the ground, most likely brought up to the hotel by the young woman who was puttering around the garden with her grandma. She had a short pixie haircut. Jade was there too, and she stood up from digging into the earth with a trowel to stretch her back. Allison waved at them. “Hi!” she called out.
The new young woman stood up too fast and stumbled over a root. She bumped hard into Ruth accidentally, and Allison watched in horror as both tripped and fell into the sharp brambles. Allison winced and jogged over to help her grandmother up. Jade held out a hand to the other young woman and pulled her back upright.
“I’m so sorry!” the young woman said as Ruth waved the apology off.
“No need to be sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” Ruth said, swiping at the broken branches that had snagged her shirt and picking out some of the brambles caught in her hair. Scratches covered her arms, some them looking quite deep and beginning to bleed.
“You should go and see Nikki,” Jade said, gesturing toward Ruth’s arms.
“Oh posh, no thank you,” Ruth said, wiping her arms and smearing the blood. “She’s got enough on her plate dealing with David.” Ruth turned to Allison and said brightly, “It’s good to see you, honey. What are you up to today?”
“Well, I didn’t expect you to lose a battle with the brambles, that’s for sure,” Allison said, letting go of her grandmother’s arms.
Ruth cracked a smile. The young woman laughed loudly. “Yup, that’s your granddaughter for sure, Ruth.”
“Be nice to me, Lauren,” Ruth said to the young woman. “You never saw any of that. I won against the brambles. Agreed?”
Lauren held up her hands in surrender. “As long as you don’t spread rumors about my clumsiness, I’ll tell everyone you won ten battles against the brambles.”
Allison grinned, warming to the conversation, but not sure how she could contribute to it. She liked this young woman immediately and wondered how they could become friends. If she had her phone, she’d look up her social media and befriend her right away, but now she had to do things old-school style. “Speaking of Nikki, she wants to see you. Grandpa’s in a mood,” she said to Ruth.
The light in Ruth’s face dimmed, and she looked out on the small garden, the tools, and the seed packets, ready for planting. “I don’t think I can,” she said mournfully. “There’s so much work to do. Our small garden needs a lot of help getting off the ground. Or, at least that’s what Lauren has been telling me.”
Lauren rolled her dark brown eyes and said to Allison, “Just because I was in 4H doesn’t mean I’m an expert.”
“You certainly have put me in my place. I wanted to plant the zucchini in full daylight!” Ruth exclaimed.
“You just had to read the back of the packet,” Lauren said. “This is what happens when you graduate high school,” she confided to Allison with a wink. “Everyone thinks you’re smart for doing the easiest things.”
“Are you a recent grad?” Allison asked.
“You bet,” Lauren said. “Planned to go to college and everything, but that stalled out.”
Allison nodded in sympathy. She studied the garden, finally seeing what Ruth and Lauren saw. Instead of a turned-over plot of earth, she was beginning to make out the tree roots that had crept into the place, the snarls of weeds waiting to be pulled, how some of the dirt had an old, gray look to it that spoke of unhealthiness. Ruth was right. There was a lot to do, but her grandmother couldn’t be in two places at once.
“Any chance I could help?” Allison said. “Grandma, I can take up your duties. Just tell me what to do. At least for a little while. Nikki was insistent that Grandpa needed you.”
Ruth looked conflicted, her teeth catching on her lower lip with worry.
“Lauren can be our team lead,” Allison said, using jargon learned from her father. “I’ll do everything like an expert. By the time you come back, you won’t even recognize the place.”
“You should focus on David,” Jade cut in softly. “There’s no shame in going to see him.”
“I know,” Ruth said, her eyes filling with tears. “I just feel so selfish being with him while you girls are out here doing so much back-breaking labor. It’s such a big project just for a few people.”
“It’s no problem,” Jade said. “Nikki can check out your scratches and give David a reprieve from being the injured Riley of the bunch.”
“You can come out and check on us any time,” Allison said. “The garden is important, but so is Grandpa. You need to spend some time with him. There’s only so many times he can ask me to explain Twitter to him. And Twitter doesn’t even exist anymore!”
Ruth let out a soft laugh that sounded somewhat like a sob.
“You can be a little selfish,” Allison said and Jade nodded, taking Ruth’s arm and helping to steer her inside.
“But just for a little bit,” Ruth said over her shoulder. “If you need any help, please come get me.”
“We will,” Allison said as the two women rounded the corner and left her line of sight. Allison turned back to Laruen and gave her a small smile to hide the sudden sensation of being overwhelmed. “Now that that’s over with, I gotta admit, I know little to nothing about gardening.”
“That’s okay,” Lauren said, handing her a rake. “You’ll learn.”
11
Patton swung the stick he’d picked up through the tall grass like a machete, pretending that he was cutting through the slinking vines of a tropical jungle. The swish-swish sound filled his ears along with the chirp of bugs, none of which he could name. He wasn’t a scientist on this adventure, though. He was the grizzled warrior, bashing the heads of his enemies and forging a path through the underbrush. He was the leader of this crew. He was the…
He was the young boy of the River Roc
k Hotel. He raised his hand to gently probe the bruises on his face that he’d earned from the gunfight when his father and uncle had come to save him. Even though he might wear the wounds of a warrior, Patton didn’t find any pride in them. The scratches across his cheeks still hurt. The cut on his neck was healing, but it was still a raised, red line. Looking at the stick in his hands, he snarled at it, and threw it into the brush. If he kept wandering around the property simply imagining stuff, he was of no use to anyone. He needed to get his head in the game. It was these stupid daydreams that got him kidnapped in the first place.
Walking past his sister who was on her hands and knees in the rough-looking garden patch, he considered picking up one of the rakes and helping her out. But she was smiling and gossiping with the other short-haired girl, and if Patton had to listen to girl-talk about…he didn’t know, unicorns and other boys, he’d puke. Grimacing, he snuck by them, hoping they wouldn’t notice him, and redirected his path toward the back of the hotel.
The tall familiar shape of his father came into view, huddled with a group of other men. They were trying to figure out how to fix the well. That was all anyone could talk about for the past three days. If it was so important, then Patton wanted in on the action. As he approached, he heard the men grumbling about how to construct a safe and easy way to lower people down inside the darkened shaft. Some of them had begun talking about “masonry” which went completely over Patton’s head, but he stored the word away so he could look it up later. Approaching his father, he tugged on Matthew’s sleeve. “Dad,” he said. Insistent.
Matthew didn’t pay him any attention because he was so focused on what Wyatt was saying.
Patton tried again. “Dad.”
Matthew glanced at him. “Hi, kiddo. Give me a sec, okay?”
“We need someone to go down inside the well who isn’t too heavy, that we can haul back up if something goes wrong,” Wyatt finished.
EMP Catastrophe | Book 3 | Erupting Chaos Page 8
