by L. L. Akers
Gabby jumped out of bed. “Get up, Mei. We’ve got to go. We’re going to make it home today. Where’s Olivia and Emma?” she asked while pulling on her sneakers. She peeked into the pitcher to find it full of water, but she wasn’t interested in drinking it yet. They’d had their fill last night when Elmer, the farmer, had brought them home and now, she needed to empty her bladder.
She also needed to do the other. She’d stuffed herself when Edith, the farmer’s wife, had happily prepared a late supper for the girls. Cold chicken, cheese, sliced tomatoes and cucumber salad had been ready and waiting for them when they’d walked into the cozy home.
“Don’t know,” Mei muttered.
Gabby poured some water into the bowl and used a washcloth to rinse off her face and hands. She turned and shook Mei’s shoulder gently. “Come on, if you’re going with us, you need to get up. You’ve got five minutes.” Standing over her, Gabby could see trails of mascara dried on Mei’s cheeks.
She, Olivia and Emma had fallen asleep nearly the second their heads hit the pillows, but apparently Mei had been awake at least part of the night. Those tear trails hadn’t been there when they’d gone to bed. She wondered if the tears were because of the little girl in the picture. She couldn’t blame her for that, but they all missed their loved ones. She missed her husband, Jake. Olivia missed her own husband, Grayson, and her step-daughter, Graysie. And Emma especially could feel Mei’s pain. Emma had hardly made a peep about her husband, Dusty, and her son, Rickey. It was sort of unspoken between the three of them that they wouldn’t whine and cry over their families. Instead, they’d focus on just getting back to them.
Gabby opened the bedroom door to the aroma of bacon cooking. Sighing in appreciation, she followed her nose to the kitchen, which was just a few feet away in the small farmhouse. Edith stood at the counter in a brightly-flowered muumuu dress and pink bunny slippers, sliding homemade biscuits off a flat pan and onto a plate. An antique wood stove held a percolating pot of coffee. Gabby’s mouth watered.
“Good morning, Edith, where do I…um… use the bathroom?”
Edith’s silver hair was piled in a large flat bun atop her head. She turned and smiled. “Good morning, honey. It’s the second door down the hall.”
She wasn’t sure if she was expecting Edith to point her outside or what. She had no idea how far outside of town they were and didn’t want to assume they were on their own well and septic tank. “Does the toilet work?”
Edith nodded. “Yes, of course. When you’re finished doing your business, just pour water into the tank. You’ll see a green line inside where the waterline has set for years. Just fill it up to there. After you flush, pour a bit into the bowl for the next person, if you don’t mind.”
Gabby stepped into the bathroom to find it ready for use. Five buckets stood lined up against the wall, some full and some only half full. The shower curtain was pulled back from the claw-footed tub and it was still wet. Her sisters had probably taken a spot-bath.
She too would love to clean all her lady parts, but she was up late. They needed to get on the road. She could relax in a bath at the homestead, maybe even today. She did her business and flushed and then did as Edith asked, making sure the toilet bowl had water in it too.
Another station with soap and a towel was set up in the bathroom on top of a low antique apothecary, this time with only two metal bowls, for washing and rinsing, and a Tupperware pitcher full of water. She washed her hands and went back to the kitchen, clearing her throat to alert Edith she was behind her. She didn’t want to startle her.
Edith turned and greeted her once more with a smile. “You look well-rested. Your sisters beat you out of bed. They’re outside with Elmer.”
Gabby smiled back at the adorable little woman, wondering if this is what their mother would have looked like if she’d lived to see her golden years.
She accepted a cup of coffee and took the first sip, sighing in pleasure. “Thank you so much…for everything.”
Elmer had been a god-send; sent by Edith, of course. The old couple took them in, fed them, and listened to them re-hash their story—leaving out the part about how they found Mei— before Edith tucked them all in for the night, assuring them they were safe and kissing them goodnight as though they were little girls. Even Mei had stoically accepted her affections.
They were good people, even if Elmer tried to come across as cantankerous and put-out.
Edith waved off her thanks with a red-checked gingham dishtowel and began cutting bacon into biscuit-sized strips. She sliced each butter-topped biscuit in half and loaded them down with the bacon, delicately arranging them on a napkin-covered plate.
Gabby stepped to the screen door and looked out, once again, nearly not believing her eyes.
Emma and Olivia were out in the pasture with Elmer, all three walking in a robotic fashion, dragging their feet—Olivia’s feet wearing a pair of the loudest Nike sneakers in fluorescent pink and orange that Gabby had ever seen—and walking back and forth, sliding past each other as though they were magnetically attached to the grass.
“What are they doing?” Gabby asked.
“Gathering dew for drinking. We’ve got plenty of water, but Elmer doesn’t want you girls out there on the road again not knowing how to get some if you need it.” She handed Gabby a buttered bacon biscuit. “Here, you can have one, but call your sisters in to breakfast for me.”
Gabby cupped the biscuit to her face, inhaling the smell of melted butter, fresh baked bread and bacon. “Thank you, again.” Edith nodded and gently pat Gabby’s back. “You’re welcome, dear.”
The screen door squeaked as Gabby stepped out.
She walked over to the pasture, waiting to call them for breakfast until she could get a closer look at what they were doing. She nearly laughed when she was close enough to see both of her sisters trailing blue shammy towels—like they used to dry their cars—tied around their ankles. They scooted through the tall grass like little energizer bunnies with their brows furrowed and elbows bent.
Even funnier was that Elmer was doing it too, dressed in the same overalls and John Deere cap that he’d worn the night before, dragging his boots with his head down and back bent.
She laughed and he looked up. “’Bout time you got up, your sisters here are doing all the work.” He waved Olivia and Emma to him and together they walked toward Gabby, passing her to get to the four metal water bottles lined up on the stoop.
Emma and Olivia squatted down to untie their shammy towels and proudly held them out to Elmer, who wrung each one, squeezing and twisting the morning dew out over the open water bottles. With the water from his own towels, he was able to top them off.
“Wow.” Gabby nodded in approval, wondering how many passes that had taken. “Can we drink it just like that? It’s safe?”
He handed each of them a bottle and held onto the fourth. “Of course it’s safe. It’s dew. Straight from God.” He looked around. “Where’s your friend?”
“She’s not up yet. I’ll go in and roust her again,” Gabby answered.
“Your sisters’ told me where you found her.”
So her story was out too. Gabby was embarrassed for her. She looked to her sisters, who refused to meet her eyes. Gossipers.
Elmer clicked his tongue in sympathy. “That’s a sad thing. Y’all did good getting her away from those men. But that girl’s in bad shape. I could see that last night.” Elmer put one foot on the stoop and his hands on his hips. He chewed the inside of his mouth while he thought for a moment. “I’m not sure she’ll make it the rest of the way. I figure you girls have about another day—and maybe more—of walking before you’re scraping the welcome mat.”
Olivia shrugged. “I think she’ll feel better when she gets up. We were all tired and dehydrated last night. I feel a ton better.” She tapped her god-awful sneakers together. “See what Edith gave me?” she asked Gabby.
Gabby nodded. “Nice,” she lied.
Elmer sn
iffed loudly. “It’s not about being tired. That girl is a junkie. She’s was hurting last night and it’s only going to get worse. It’ll could take a month to get drugs out of her system. It looks like she’s only been without a few days.”
Olivia looked at him in confusion.
Gabby cocked her head. “Yeah? What makes you think so?”
Elmer chewed the side of his mouth again. Then he turned and gave them his back. The pause was so long, Gabby was beginning to think he wasn’t going to answer. Finally, he turned around. “I’ve seen it up close and personal, just like that. I lost my boy to that mess. She’s scratching, and muttering. Probably confused. Paranoid. And she’s still in bed, so she’s already feeling it suck her energy away. You can’t trust her. I learned that the hard way. She’ll beg, borrow and sell her own mother to get that stuff back into her system. Best y’all part ways soon… not here. But somewhere before you get home.”
“We can’t just leave her,” Olivia said indignantly. “She’s all alone, and she only has one hand. And she’s hurt. I told you, Elmer. They branded her like…like… a cow. We have to help her.”
Gabby looked from Olivia to Elmer, praying he’d have wise words to convince her sister otherwise. Mei had been setting off her alarms since they’d rescued her—if that was indeed a rescue—and Gabby agreed with Elmer; it was time to cut her loose. People on drugs brought nothing but trouble. Not my circus; not my monkeys.
Elmer squinted his eyes and gave Olivia his full attention. “This ain’t about her physical disabilities. It’s about her mental state. You can’t help people like that. They won’t listen to you. The demons in their heads talk louder. And if the power doesn’t come back on, they’ll be in the first wave.”
“What wave?” Olivia asked.
“The first wave of people to kick the bucket. Anyone on drugs, whether they have a doctor script or not, is going to be hurting.” He looked over his shoulder at Edith working in the kitchen and lowered his voice. “Elderly people and drug addicts both are going to die. When my heart and blood pressure pills are gone, I won’t last long myself. But I’ll go quick. People like your friend though, they’re going to suffer mighty badly. And there ain’t no clinics open to help them. They’ll be wishing for death within a week. Like I said, I watched it with my son. Me and Edith suffered along with him. And you’ll be suffering too, if she goes home with you.”
Elmer swiped at an eye and cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t wish that kind of suffering on anyone.” He turned suddenly and stepped into the house, leaving Gabby, Olivia and Emma alone.
Gabby and Emma both squeezed Olivia’s hands. She stood stone-still with watery eyes.
“I agree, Olivia. We should have seen the signs. They’re all there now that he mentioned it,” said Gabby. She looked to Emma for support.
“Me, too. I knew there was something wrong with that girl,” Emma said, nodding.
Olivia shook her head. “I’m not leaving her.”
Gabby knew there was no use trying to talk Olivia into it. Once she had broken free from her first husband who’d physically abused her, she’d dedicated her life to helping other woman in bad situations. Man problems, drug problems, job problems. Didn’t matter. Olivia wouldn’t turn one away. It was admirable, but sometimes Olivia needed to put herself and her family first. This was one of those times.
Gabby shrugged. “I know you want to help her, but I won’t let her put any of us in jeopardy. I think she’s trouble, and if she gives us a hassle, she’s gone. I’ve got one goal, and that’s to get us home safe and sound with no more drama on the way.”
Mei stood shaking beside the open bedroom window, with her back against the wall. She waited until the girls had stepped into the kitchen before quietly pulling the window down.
She’d known all along they were talking about her behind her back. Now, she’d caught them. She had barely slept a wink last night, and no one really cared, other than the one ditzy sister. She’d listened to their steady breathing all night, envying their peaceful slumber. Envying their lives. They had each other. And they had husbands.
Elmer and Edith had each other, too.
She had nobody.
And no one cared.
But by the time she was through, they’d all care. And in the end, maybe she’d finally get a good night’s sleep, too.
She awkwardly dug through Gabby’s bag. Frustrated, she cussed to herself. She couldn’t find what she was looking for. But that was okay. She’d find a way to make them pay…
26
Jake
Bright light poured through the window, waking Jake.
One eye squinted open.
He was home. Alone. Gabby still not here.
After his run-in with the thugs at the shop, Jake had changed his mind about coming home. He just wanted to get somewhere safe. Home was closer than Grayson’s so he’d made a bee-line back to the neighborhood, and shut off the 4-wheeler at the entrance, quietly pushing it down the street and into his garage.
He hadn’t wanted to deal with the neighbors again. He’d had enough stress.
Slowly, he pulled himself out of bed, his head and body aching. Time to get on the road before someone discovered he was home. Especially Tucker. He might want his four-wheeler back after all.
And for all Jake knew, his wife might be sitting at Grayson’s right now wondering where the heck he was. He’d actually hoped she was there. He’d gladly take a chewing-out from Gabby, if only he could see her today.
He opened the refrigerator and then quickly slammed it shut, cursing his laziness. Something stunk. Gabby would probably kill him over not throwing away all the food or cooking what could be saved. He hadn’t done a thing since the power went out. It wasn’t like him.
He cursed the demon on his back, grabbed a Gatorade and ate a bowl of dry cereal, and then he hit the road. Grayson would have plenty of food later.
Loose rocks spun through the air as Jake slid the four-wheeler to a sudden stop on the dirt road. He’d heard a woman scream. He looked over his shoulder at the woman standing in the middle of the road waving at him; she must’ve stepped out of the woods as he passed by. He backed the ATV up and turned it around, and sped back to her.
“Hi,” the woman said in a friendly voice. “I saw your hat. It matches mine.” She pointed to her head. “See.”
The woman wore an exact replica of Gabby’s favorite hat, with the TSS Logo; she also wore a pistol in clear view, holstered to her side. He watched her carefully but her hand didn’t hover anywhere near it.
“You’re with The Shooting Sisterhood?” he asked, in confusion.
“Yeah, like what are the chances of that, huh?” she answered and laughed. “My friend and I were here for a shooting competition. Power went out. No gas to get home. We’re sort of stuck.”
The shooting range was on the way here, although he hadn’t passed it himself. He’d taken a short cut to get this far.
Jake took his hat off and looked at it to be sure. Perfect match. “This is actually my wife’s hat. Her name is Gabby.”
“Gabby is your wife? I know her! Well, from our group on Facebook. We chat sometimes. We were hoping to meet her in person while we were here but we didn’t see her at the shoot. My name’s Tina.”
“We?
“Yeah, I have another friend with me. She’s in there.” The woman pointed her thumb toward the trees.
“What are y’all doing out here?”
She shrugged. “Camping out. What else? The only motel we could find in this area was a hole in the wall. Toilets were overflowing. People were getting upset. We don’t know another soul there, so we headed out of town limits to be safer—get away from the crazies. Been camping here for a few days now.”
Jake thought about it. The odds of running into two of Gabby’s friends, on the way to Grayson’s house, during an apocalyptic event such as this were probably a million to one. But he did know the motel she was speaking of, it was the only hotel near t
hem in York County without walking a very long way, and she was right. It was a rat hole even before the power went out.
But the paranoid side of Jake wondered if Gabby had mentioned the homestead as a bug-out location to her. Women who liked to shoot were more times than not also preppers, and it could’ve come up in a private conversation. Maybe they’d set up camp here on purpose, hoping to run into Gabby.
“What’s your plan?” he asked suspiciously.
Tina threw her hands up in the air. “To get home. But we have to wait for the power to come back on or find some gas. What else? Don’t have much choice,” she said and laughed.
Jake raised an eyebrow. For a woman, she didn’t seem all that panicked about being stuck away from home, squatting in the woods. This wasn’t passing his smell test. Grayson had always warned about The Golden Horde; people who hadn’t prepared that would eventually come creeping out of the chaos of town into the country; people who’d do anything to get to your food and supplies if the shit ever hit the fan.
Tina watched him carefully and laughed again. “Look, cowboy. We’re not looking for a knight in shining armor. We both have one of those at home and we intend to get back to them. I was going to quietly watch you go by like I have a dozen other people, but I saw the hat. That’s all. Thought it was weird and before I realized it I called out. You can get back on your way.” She stepped out onto the road and held a hand out. “Tell Gabby that Tina and Tarra say hi.”
Jake took her hand and slowly shook it, looking into her face for any sign of duplicity. He saw none. Now that he thought she might not want his help, he couldn’t just ride away without seeing if they were okay, even though she looked healthy enough. Actually, more than that. She was attractive with her long hair and cat-shaped eyes. She wore a tight black T-Shirt, emphasizing strong arms, and camo pants covering a shape that would definitely turn heads. She wasn’t dirty or desperate at all.
