Another 20 Miles
Page 21
Once they got past Bolton, outside of a couple of small subdivisions, they didn't see many people. The ones they saw all gawked at them, but the sight of Will and Amanda in the back with long guns showing kept the residents from approaching. Joel dodged more stalled cars then they entered a mostly rural area. When they saw the sign for Tracy Road, there was a chorus of shouts and cheers. They were almost there. They crossed Austin Peay Highway and a half-mile later they were there.
They pulled up Elliott's driveway, drove to the back, and were met by him and the boys charging out onto the porch. Carly barely let Joel get the engine stopped before she started trying to climb over her mother to get to the door.
"For heaven's sake, Carly, let me get out first!" Lauri admonished her. Lauri opened the door and stepped out. Aaron and Cameron jumped off the porch and ran to the car as Carly scrambled out the door.
"Mom! Nana! Pops! You made it! You're here! I can't believe it!" Cameron was running around hugging everyone who was out. Will and Amanda climbed out next. "Uncle Will! Oh my god! This is awesome!" He hugged Will, then spontaneously hugged Amanda, too. She grinned and hugged him back. Cameron stood back, looked at her, and said, "Sorry, I don't usually hug strangers, but since you're with them you must be a friend."
Aaron held his mother tight as he said into the top of her head, "Thank God. Pap said Pops would figure it out. Looks like he did."
Carly hugged him tight then opened her other arm to pull Cameron in. "I was so afraid I'd never see you again! I love you both so much! We're never separating again!"
Cameron tried to pull away a bit. "Ow! Can't … breathe …"
Carly laughed as she loosened her grip but didn't let go. "I missed you both so much!"
Aaron chuckled. "It's only been like three days, Mom."
"It seemed like a lot longer than that." She started crying and pulled them tightly to her again.
Elliott had walked to Joel and was shaking his hand and patted him on the shoulder. "I knew you'd make it. I told the boys you'd find a way. Where'd you get this old beaut?"
"That is a story to be told over coffee or whiskey — or both. I'm just glad we got her here. It was a hell of a trip, let me tell you. We —"
He stopped mid-sentence as he turned toward the house at the sound of the screen door opening on the back porch. All eyes darted that way to see who it was. Carly spoke before anyone else could.
"Ethan? What the hell are you doing here?"
“Ethan?” The surprise in Joel’s voice was mirrored across the faces of his family.
Amanda leaned over to Will and whispered, “Who’s Ethan?”
Will replied in a louder than needed tone, “The sperm donor for my nephews. No one that matters.”
Carly looked at Elliott. “What is he doing here? He’s not staying.”
“Carly, this is Elliott’s house. You don’t have the right to say who stays here,” Lauri said quietly.
“Fine. If he’s staying, we’re leaving.” She turned on Ethan. “I guess I should have figured you’d do something like this. The world goes to shit and you’re looking for someone to take care of you, right? Figured your dad would know how to make it through so you’d come here. It’s so like you to show up on someone’s doorstep, expecting them to help you —”
“Aren’t you doing the same thing, Carly? You came here looking for a place to stay, too!” Ethan barked at her.
“We were invited!” she screamed back at him. “Since no one has heard from you in years, I’m pretty sure you weren’t!”
“Carly, Ethan, please stop,” Elliott said. “We all need to sit down and talk this over calmly. Let’s all go inside. We can work this out.”
“There’s nothing to work out, Elliott. If he stays, we’re leaving. Boys, get your things.”
“And go where, Carly?” Joel said. “We have nowhere to go.”
“We’ll go back home. We can figure out how to get water. That’s all we needed, right? We had food, heat … we just needed water. We could get it from the pond.”
“We can’t go back, Car,” Will replied. “It’s going to get bad there, really bad. All of my visions involved city streets, neighborhoods like ours. We have to stay away from anything like that.”
“Well, I can’t stay here with him. I won’t.” She crossed her arms and glared at Ethan. A thought crossed her mind and she asked Elliott, “How long has he been here anyway?”
“Since Sunday night. He was already on his way here before the pulse hit. He walked five miles from where his car stopped.”
Will laughed. “It took you all day to walk five miles? I walked fifteen that day, and still got home before dark. Still underachieving, I see.”
“Lay off him, alright?” Cameron shouted. “He’s dying!”
The stunned silence that followed was deafening. Ethan looked at his youngest son with a small, grateful smile as the rest of the group’s faces held varying degrees of shock.
“Bullshit,” Carly finally said. “That’s just his latest lie to get what he wants, and that lie is so you, Ethan.” The hatred was pouring off of her in waves. “How sad that you would treat your father that way, though. Make him think you’re dying —”
“It’s the truth, Carly. I have pancreatic cancer, like my mom had. I’ve only got a couple of weeks left.”
Carly stared at him then. She could see that his face looked sunken in, how his clothes hung on his body. She let her arms fall to her sides.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Ethan. No matter how much I despise you, I wouldn’t have wished that on you.”
Ethan nodded but didn’t reply. Elliott spoke up. “Can we just go inside? I’d like us all to sit down and talk this over. We can unload your things in a little while.” He looked at Carly in particular. She rolled her eyes.
“Fine. Let’s go in. I need to pee anyway.”
They filed into the house. Amanda and Will were bringing up the rear. She leaned over to him.
“Interesting family you have here.”
He shook his head. “You have no idea.”
Acknowledgments
This has been a phenomenal year and it’s only half over! This series has been well received, and I am grateful for the support from all of you. You make me want to be a better writer. I hope I’m doing that with every new book.
When I decided to write a prepper story about people who aren’t preppers, I had no idea how hard it would be. To describe them as so trusting of others and wanting to help everyone, along with not wanting to hurt anyone who might be trying to hurt them or take their things – it is not easy. My brain says, “How can they not have a way to cook without electricity? That’s insane!” or “They shot at you, just shoot them!” But if such an event happened, most people wouldn’t have the means to even heat their house to keep from freezing to death. Maybe if they read this series, they’ll at least keep an extra tank of propane on hand for their grill or get a firepit for the backyard. We, the preppers, can only hope.
I’m going to take a break from this series for a little while. I’ve been asked to do a collaboration – actually, a couple of different ones – and I think it will give me fresh eyes to come back to this story later. I don’t have a time frame for the next book yet, but it will probably be early next year. Don’t give up on me. There’s still a lot more of this story to tell, and I want to share it with you.
My thank you list is the same, but I can’t not take a moment to do it. My husband, Jim, drops what he’s doing to get my covers done, and believe me he does a lot of other stuff around here. He cheers me on, listens when I need to read something out loud, and lets me sleep when I stayed up too late to finish that chapter. We are a team in every sense of the word. I don’t know what I’d do without him, and I don’t want to find out. I love you, Baby.
My Aunt Carol is another cheerleader who stops any other editing jobs she’s got to give my books priority (sorry other authors but she was mine first) and helps me put out clean work. I c
an’t tell you how many reviews talk about how few grammatical errors there are in my books and that’s because of her. Thank you, sweet aunt.
My advanced reader team is comprised of voracious readers. They get back to me in days, sometimes as fast as twenty-four hours, with their comments and any little issues we’ve missed. I know my books are better because of them. You guys rock. Thank you so much for the help!
And then there’s the rest of you. The ones who heap praise on me on Facebook, in emails, and the thing that helps the most – reviews. You guys and gals are what makes all this possible. You devour the words and beg for more. You call me out on situations that you don’t think are plausible. Even if we don’t agree, you’re still there, waiting impatiently for the next installment. I never thought my books could or would reach so many people, and I am humbled by your love of my work. I hope I can continue to entertain you for many more years.
It’s been two years since I published my first book. So much has changed in my life in that time. I’m excited to see what the future holds for my writing career. I welcome you to join me on the journey.
Last, and most important, I give the glory to God that He blessed me with this gift to tell stories people want to read. I placed my life in His hands and all I have is because of Him. Thank you, Lord, for the many blessings you bestow upon me every day.
Please take a moment and leave a review for any of my books you’ve read. Reviews are written gold for indie authors. Thank you in advance for doing that!
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