Reclamation (Best Laid Plans Book 4)

by Nathan Jones

  Aspen Hill looked like it had been shelled. Shelled after being a war zone for an extended period of time. The perimeter had been reinforced with roadblocks, fences, and earthworks, but most of those were in shambles along with just about every house near the edge of town. Some of the dwellings sported blackened, gaping holes, while others were completely collapsed or burned to ash. Even Main Street itself hadn't been spared the devastation, with a small apartment building half destroyed and the remainder sagging into the wreckage.

  “Oh no,” Lucas whispered, coming to a stop beside him.

  Trev stared at the ruined town in horror, feeling sick. This was what he'd left his friends to deal with?

  He'd worried about the town through most of his trip to Michigan, and on the trip back that worry had been building with every mile closer to home they got. Even so, he'd half expected to get here and find that the raiders had just given up and left, probably not too long after he started east.

  Once again, just like when he'd first left, he found himself torn in two by conflicting guilts. He knew objectively that if he hadn't gone looking for his family Lucas might not have found them, and if he had they might not've been able to escape during the chaos after the nukes flew. He'd done what he needed to do, and because of it his loved ones were all alive and safe.

  And returning to a scene of devastation.

  He jumped slightly at a hand on his shoulder, his uncle awkwardly trying to offer some comfort. “We knew this was a possibility,” he said, looking tired.

  “I left them to this,” Trev answered, tearing his eyes from the ruined town to look towards the two hills the shelter nestled between. He couldn't see it, but for all he knew it was a blackened crater, too.

  Lucas's grip tightened. “Remember how we all used to get on Lewis's case about trying to put responsibility for everything on his own shoulders?” Trev nodded and looked back towards the grim sight ahead, although he couldn't think of anything to say. He got the hint, he just wasn't sure how much it helped.

  To his relief his attention was drawn from the town towards a figure hurrying their way from the south with a gun slung over one shoulder, waving wildly. He was far enough away that Trev couldn't make out his features, so he got out the binoculars he'd purchased in Newtown.

  It was Rick Watson, his thin and slightly haggard look offset by the huge grin he wore. He was holding his own binoculars in one hand and had obviously seen them, and it seemed that Trev's worry about not being spotted by a patrol before now was because his friend had been at the southernmost end of his route.

  Trev found his own grin, relieved that the younger man had made it through whatever nightmare had left the town looking like that. He waved one arm over his head in response, then broke away from his uncle to meet his friend halfway and shake his hand.

  Rick wasn't having any of that; he went right past Trev's hand and pulled him into a crushing hug. “I can't believe you made it, man! When we heard that a nuke hit northern Michigan we feared the worst.”

  “I don't blame you. We got a good close up view of the mushroom cloud.” Trev stepped back, losing his smile as he looked over Rick's shoulder at the halfway demolished town. “I left you guys in a mess, didn't I?”

  His friend lost his own smile and nodded grimly, also turning to inspect the damage. “I'm used to the sight so I've forgotten how shocking it looks.”

  “How bad was it?”

  “Bad.” Rick squared his shoulders and turned to look at him, forcing a smile. “But we cleaned it up. We wiped the raiders out and sentenced the ones who surrendered to death, including Turner.”

  “Turner?” Trev nearly shouted in disbelief. “Lewis didn't get him?”

  His friend opened his mouth to answer, then paused and stepped forward to offer his hand past Trev to Lucas as he arrived. “Mr. Halsson! Last I heard you were in Norway. I wish I could see Lewis's face when he finds out you're here.”

  Lucas accepted the handshake, a bit of tension going out of his shoulders. “He's all right?”

  The younger man's grin returned. “He's doing great, all things considered. In fact, he just got-” he cut off with a slight cough, looking embarrassed. “Actually, that's probably his news to share.”

  Trev exchanged glances with his uncle. “Good news, right?”

  Rick's smile turned a bit mischievous. “Maybe not the best for you, Trev, since from what I hear you kind of, um, well . . .” he trailed off and glanced back towards town. “Actually I can't think of any way to finish that without spoiling the surprise.”

  “Uh, okay.” Trev gave his uncle a confused look, and Lucas shrugged.

  His friend hastily continued. “Anyway I radioed in your arrival. I'd expect to see your cousin and Matt and everyone stampeding down the road any minute now.”

  * * * * *

  They'd named the lambs Sunny and Snowy, a male and a female respectively.

  When the time came Lewis had been afraid there'd be complications he wouldn't be able to handle, although he'd done his best to study up on the process. Thankfully Daisy, the mother, looked like she'd birthed lambs before. She handled things well and there were no complications, so the births went surprisingly smoothly, with Snowy born last just before dawn.

  A recently awakened Sam immediately fell in love with the adorable newborns, and was at the fence for half an hour cheerleading them through every moment of their first awkward steps, spindly little legs splayed out and trembling. Aaron and Paul joined her for most of it, asking nonstop questions and trying to sneak into the pen to pet the animals.

  Jane was slightly more pragmatic. She just as happy and excited as her friend, but her focus was on helping Lewis go through the checklist they'd prepared to make sure things were going smoothly and they were ready to help with any possible complications, not only as the lambs were born but in the vulnerable time afterwards when other problems could arise.

  All in all the mood of the group was jubilant over breakfast at the shelter, with yet another step taken towards being fully self-sustaining, and the good mood continued as everyone worked at their morning chores.

  By the time lunchtime rolled around the celebratory mood had faded somewhat. In spite of that Sam still wanted to go into town and give Matt the good news about the lambs, since he'd taken a rare overnight shift covering for Chauncey, who'd come down sick the day before.

  Lewis wanted to go into town anyway and talk over what he'd observed from the lambing with Pete, as well as offer his help when his friend's ewe finally birthed her lambs. So he asked Jane if she wanted to go for a bike ride with him before they continued the day's work.

  “Sure,” she replied, swallowing her last bite of the roast rabbit and wild greens they'd had for their meal. “That'll take us in the direction of the garden anyway, so we can do the watering and weeding and check on the traps.”

  Decided, they cleaned their dishes and got ready to leave. Lewis was just checking over Daisy, Sunny, and Snowy one last time before they went, to make sure everything was all right, when the radio crackled with Rick's voice.

  “We need to rework these patrol routes,” their friend complained. “Or at least change up the roadblock shifts to have people farther out watching the roads. I was on the southernmost leg of my route, and by the time I got back around to the northern road I found some folks within shooting distance of town.”

  Lewis had been raising the radio to ask if there was a potential problem when Matt's voice came on, asking the question nearly word for word.

  “No, I recognize the family.” Rick's voice had an odd edge to it. “Lewis, I'm guessing you'll really want to come meet them.”

  The comment sent a jolt of electricity through him, and Lewis finished raising the radio. “You're kidding. Trev and his family?”

  “Them too.” His friend abruptly laughed, unable to contain his excitement. “You're going to lose your mind.”

  Lewis exchanged a confused look with his wife. “What does that mean?”
<
br />   He could almost hear Rick's grin in his reply. “I don't want to spoil the surprise.”

  “I'll meet you out there,” Matt said into the silence following that cryptic comment.

  Lewis had already fumbled his radio back onto his belt and grabbed his bike. Jane was just a heartbeat behind him getting on hers, and he was about to tear off when he remembered Sam. “Go!” she called, wheeling out Matt's bike. “I'll meet you out there too.”

  She'd barely finished the first word before Lewis was off, Jane close behind him as he tore down the gravel road leading past the shelter at borderline unsafe speeds. He couldn't help but whoop a few times.

  Trev was back. He'd managed to survive a round trip of almost four thousand miles and bring his family home. And holy cow, had he done it in record time! Even on bicycles Lewis hadn't expected them back so soon.

  The shelter wasn't far from the north road, and the road he was on actually connected to a street leading to the road outside of town. Thanks to that he and his wife came out on the road behind the rise overlooking the town, and he was able to see the group laboriously hauling an almost absurdly overloaded handcart and two wagons up to the top ahead of them.

  How had they managed to bring a cart with them from Michigan so quickly?

  Rick was right, there were more people than just Trev's family. Nine people in all, since Rick was there helping Trev pull the overloaded cart along with-

  Lewis braked so hard he almost went over the handlebars, staring ahead in disbelief. Then, just to be sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, he fumbled out his binoculars and raised them to his eyes.

  Trev, Uncle George, Aunt Clair, and his cousins Linda and Jim were all there. Along with Lewis's parents and his sister Mary.

  He began pedaling furiously again, awkwardly holding the binoculars and handlebars with one hand. His brain couldn't comprehend how his family had got here from Norway, but at the moment he didn't care. He passed a confused Jane, who didn't understand why he'd stopped. He'd showed her pictures of his and Trev's families on his recharged phone a few times, but she didn't seem to have made the connection.

  “It's my family!” he shouted over his shoulder as she hurried to catch up.

  By the time she did he'd reached the cart, and he threw himself off his bike and lunged the final few feet to wrap his arms around his mom, who was laughing and crying as she hugged him back so tight it hurt. He was laughing and crying too, and had no idea what he was even saying as he babbled a confused barrage of greetings and questions about what they were doing here.

  Moments later he was swarmed by his family. He pulled Mary into the hug along with his mom, while his dad hugged him from the other side, while Trev's family huddled close around them adding to the general din of the reunion.

  Trev, he was grateful to see, had noticed Jane hanging back by herself and, while keeping a generous space, had delayed his own reunion to go over to greet her. That was good, because Lewis could clearly see the awkwardness in his wife's posture, and the sight of at least one other familiar face calmed her down a bit.

  Given her nature she probably dreaded this meeting, but Lewis couldn't see how to navigate the reunion without coming right out with the news about the wedding that he'd kept from Matt and his other friends for weeks. He couldn't do that to his family.

  Besides, Mary was already looking over at Jane, and from her growing excitement he could see she was putting two and two together. His sister always had been pretty good at staying back and observing what was going on between people, rather than taking part in it herself.

  Lewis extricated himself from the family to make his way over to his wife, who gratefully leaned against him as he put his arm around her. Trev gave him a shocked look at that, and he had a feeling his cousin was rapidly doing the math as well.

  “Everyone,” he said quietly. “This is Jane. She's very reserved and a bit uncomfortable around crowds, especially people she doesn't know, so I hope you'll do your best to give her some space.” He hugged her a bit tighter, noticing how tense her muscles were, but she turned and gave him a nervous smile and a nod, so he continued. “We got married a few weeks ago.”

  Most of his family had probably come to that conclusion by that point, but even so for the first few seconds after the announcement he could've heard a pin drop.

  “Congratulations!” Trev shouted. Since he was closest he only needed a few steps to shake Lewis's free hand while grinning broadly at the two of them. Jane gave her new cousin a grateful look, probably more because he'd remembered what she was like and hadn't tried to hug them both or shake her hand than because of his congratulations.

  After Trev broke the silence the rest of the family swarmed in. They made some attempt to respect his request to give Jane space, but in the excitement of the moment the two of them still ended up in the middle of a huddle of well-wishing. For her part Jane didn't take Lewis up on any of the openings he made for her to back off a bit, resolutely doing her best to not dampen the celebratory mood.

  And, to him at least, it seemed as if his wife wasn't quite as uncomfortable as she would've been in a normal crowd, probably because everyone was family and it was impossible not to feel their warmth.

  Mary, bless her heart, helped too. His sister interrupted their mom's lengthy hug with her new daughter-in-law for her own, much briefer, hug, mostly hugging Lewis with only a light hand on Jane's arm. After that Mary sidled over to stand on Jane's other side, giving her plenty of space, and acted as a buffer there to prevent crowding as the congratulations continued.

  Jane gave her new sister a grateful look as well, and Lewis had a feeling that with that small act of thoughtfulness Mary had earned a new friend.

  The reunion naturally shifted into sharing news, a disorganized jumble of questions and descriptions of experiences as Trev, Uncle George, and Lewis's dad led the way to the handcart and got the group heading back towards town.

  On the way they met up with Matt and Sam, along with Mayor Tillman and a few other townspeople. The couple met Trev with their own hugs, genuinely happy their friend had made it safely home. And if Lewis's mom and Aunt Clair had been disappointed about not being able to shower Jane with their full enthusiasm, they found another opportunity when Matt introduced his new wife and the conversation got around to the child they were expecting.

  Sam seemed to enjoy the unexpected flurry of hugs and well-wishes, and Matt endured the neighborly stories of his childhood mischiefs with good grace.

  Catherine interrupted the amiable exchange of greetings to officially welcome the family back to Aspen Hill, and invited them to the town's weekly movie night the next day as an opportunity to reconnect with their neighbors. Then, with handshakes and hugs all around, the Mayor let them continue on their way to the shelter while she led the small crowd of onlookers back to town.

  “She didn't bring up the elephant in the room,” Trev mentioned, nodding at the precariously stacked bags of wheat they were hauling. “I'm a bit surprised, actually.”

  Lewis felt some of his good mood sour. Not at the sight of the wheat, of course; hearing that his family had risked and suffered so much to bring over a ton of grain home with them was incredibly good news, and a huge relief. He hadn't even considered that aspect of things during the reunion, but if eight people had showed up empty-handed that would've put an even bigger strain on everyone at the shelter.

  They were struggling to make sure everyone was getting enough as it was, although on the plus side everyone in his family was resourceful and hardworking, definitely not useless eaters. Even in the worst situation they could've made it work if they needed to. He was just glad it wasn't necessary.

  Uncle George must've been thinking along the same lines, because he spoke into the silence caused by Trev's comment. “I think one of the first things we need to do is figure out exactly how long the wheat we brought is going to last us, and how strictly we should ration it.”

  “I guess that depends on how mu
ch we want to donate to the town,” Trev said. Lewis winced, and an uncomfortable silence fell as everyone stared at his cousin. Seeing it Trev hesitated. “What?”

  Lewis cleared his throat. “I think we should be planning in terms of keeping it all.”

  His cousin gave him an incredulous look. “What? Didn't we have this discussion the last time the town came to us needing food and we agreed to sell the cache? I thought we'd decided that we can provide for ourselves enough to share a bit of what we have. I mean you told us you guys have chickens, sheep, and rabbits now, not to mention our gardens! And we can hunt and forage too.”

  “That was before the Retaliation,” Lewis said firmly. “Now we're looking at nuclear winter, when we might not be able to provide for ourselves in any other way than making sure we have enough stored up for it.”

  “Not to mention from the sounds of it we've also got the Larsons and Jane's group to worry about along with our own family,” his dad added. He glanced over at Matt and Sam. “No offense.”

  Matt held up his hands. “Hey, we're sincerely grateful you're including us in the consideration at all.”

  Trev looked around miserably, and Lewis felt a bit bad for him. Everyone was looking at him like he was crazy for even suggesting helping the town, when at worst he was just guilty of not properly thinking the situation through.

  “I guess you're right,” he said heavily. “It's just that from the first moment I saw those silos in Newtown I've had it in the back of my mind that the grain would help the town. I guess it would've, if I hadn't gotten our truck stolen and we'd been able to bring a full load in.”

  Aunt Clair rested a hand on her son's shoulder. “I know helping the town was one of the reasons you wanted us to get that grain,” she said gently. “But think about how much we have, compared to how many people we need to provide for. It's not really all that much after all.”

  Trev nodded, and they continued on in a heavier silence. Nobody wanted to think about the people in town who needed this grain as desperately as they did, probably even more desperately. But Lewis wasn't about to give in this time; he'd had his doubts and regrets about selling the remainder of their cache to Aspen Hill to begin with, even though he was the one who'd argued for it, but this time he wouldn't second guess himself.