Graham's Resolution Trilogy Bundle: Books 1-3

by A. R. Shaw

  6 Going on the Hunt

  Early the next morning Sam woke Mark, who in turn roused Marcy. Everyone spoke in hushed tones to keep from waking the sleeping ones.

  After dressing quickly, Marcy gazed over at her sister’s sleeping form. She contemplated saying good-bye, but somehow her pride kept her from giving into the urge. She didn’t want to be only Macy’s twin sister anymore. She thought of herself as more than just someone’s sister. In Mark’s eyes she was more than that; with him, Marcy—for the first time in her life—became separate from Macy. Finally, she thought.

  Marcy met Tala in the small kitchen, lit only by the kerosene lantern they used in the dark to help conserve the solar-powered electricity, where they packed the food the hunting trio would need. Tala gave Marcy a hug, and then a well-meant warning: “Marcy, listen to Sam and Mark. Keep yourself safe, and don’t take any risks.” There was an emphasis on the word risks; Tala was hoping to get a point across to the girl.

  “I won’t,” Marcy said with an incredulous smile. “I’m not a baby. Honestly, you guys treat me like I’m a fragile child.”

  “Marcy, we’re all fragile right now,” Tala said. “Please, mind Sam and don’t give him any trouble,” she repeated.

  “I won’t,” Marcy promised, remembering how “not fragile” meant “whole,” and to become less than whole, or dead, happened too easily now. Sifting through the events that had led them to this spot became harder as the months passed by. Trying to keep the right memories in place and let the others slip away, while at the same time trying to grow up, was a continuous task.

  Mark and Sam met Graham out by the Scout, which was already idling, and helped them load the equipment. When Sam went in to grab another load, Graham pulled Mark to the side and issued a warning, not unlike the one Tala had given Marcy. “Mark, listen to everything Sam tells you to do, and don’t let Marcy take advantage of you.”

  Mark began a mock coughing. He hadn’t expected Graham to come right out with it in this way.

  Graham smiled while Mark recovered, and with a grin Mark said, “Graham, Marcy and I have an understanding. I promised you I wouldn’t let her ‘take advantage of me,’ as you put it, until she’s eighteen. I plan to keep that promise, but only until then.”

  “If anyone else said that to me, I’d strangle him, but Mark, you’re just as important to me as she is. I’ll even give you away on your wedding day, as long as you keep your promise,” Graham said, still smiling. “In all seriousness, you guys listen to Sam, and be careful.” He hugged the young man.

  Sam, Marcy, and Tala came out, followed by Sheriff, who came to see what the commotion was at this early hour. Sam got behind the steering wheel and Marcy climbed in the backseat, claiming she hoped she could get a little more sleep as they drove.

  The sky began to hint at a purple hazy sunrise. With Tala at Graham’s side, they waved good-bye as family members would when leaving on a long journey. And that is what they’d become over this time—a family of sorts.

  As the engine noise dissipated in the cold morning silence, Graham led Tala back into the cabin, and Sheriff decided he wasn’t ready for this day either, so he trotted along inside as well and camped beside the warmth of the woodstove instead of returning to Macy’s bed.

  Graham halted Tala in the living room and contemplated “taking advantage” of her in the semiprivacy of the quiet early hour, but Macy or Bang would, more than likely, wander in. I can’t wait for spring building, he thought. He settled for wrapping her up in his arms and falling back to sleep on the couch instead. She still looked pale to him, and he questioned her insistence that nothing was wrong.

  ~ ~ ~

  No more than an hour later, Graham woke and reached over to stroke Tala’s long dark hair as she lay sleeping on his chest. Sensing something out of place, Graham opened his eyes to find Ennis sitting in his rocking chair, staring blankly at the flames inside the woodstove. Graham hadn’t heard him come into the room.

  “We’re not supposed to be here,” the old man muttered to himself or to a ghost; Graham didn’t know.

  Not wanting to wake Tala, Graham lay still and observed Ennis for a while. If he could figure out his curious behavior, he might be able to help him. It worried him that he’d walked the distance by himself from the bunkroom. Somehow, in Graham’s mind, the longer the old man was spared for them, the safer they’d all be. He just hoped he’d learned as much as he needed to from Ennis and, at the same time, hoped Ennis realized how much they’d all come to love and appreciate him.

  “Storm brewin’ an’ we’s in for some trouble, now,” Ennis muttered, nodding his head up and down. This time the old man looked directly at Graham.

  “What trouble, Ennis?” Graham whispered. He knew Tala would wake, but he didn’t want to startle her.

  “Them, over the river,” Ennis said and gestured with a raise of his hand toward the prepper camp.

  The old man’s eyes wept. Graham didn’t know if old men’s eyes just did that or if Ennis meant the tears. “The preppers are in for trouble?” Graham asked him. He could understand where Ennis would come to this conclusion since the death sentence of H5N1 still loomed over everything and everyone.

  “Yeah, they’re in for some trouble,” Ennis repeated, nodding again, then returned his milky stare to the woodstove’s lingering flames. Eventually he nodded off slumping, his head lolling over toward one shoulder.

  When Graham had first come across Ennis here in the cabin, the old guy frequently tossed out some eerie phrases. Some people might have thought they were premonitions, but at the time, Graham suspected the old man was putting on a show for them. Now, with Ennis slowly slipping away from them, the unfathomable warnings had returned. As before, Graham took them as the mere wanderings of a tired mind.

  Tala rose from her comfortable position and sat up, smiling at Graham. “Did we have an audience?” she asked.

  “For a while. He’s fallen back to sleep, I think,” Graham whispered. Pulling herself away, she went to check on Ennis. He had drooled on himself, so she retrieved a clean rag and gently wiped his face. After touching his cold hands, she decided he needed a blanket. Graham handed her the one they shared, and as she tucked it around him, she looked up, frowning. “Something’s wrong, Graham. He doesn’t seem right.”

  Graham stretched his tall frame and widened his eyes in an effort to wake up, having had too little sleep lately. “Yeah, he mumbled something about a storm brewing and the preppers being in trouble,” Graham said.

  “I’ll be talking to Clarisse today. Maybe she can give us some tips to help his pain,” she said concerned. Graham saw fright in Tala’s eyes, and he reached out to hold her. “He was just a gift for a short time, but we both know he won’t be with us for much longer. We were lucky to have him to begin with.”

  A scuffling sound came from Sheriff. He was having his “chase the squirrel” dream again. Both of his front and back legs moved as he lay on his side in front of the woodstove with an occasional grunt exerted toward the hunt. With this distraction, both Graham and Tala relaxed a little.

  “I hope he gets it this time,” Graham mused, and Tala laughed quietly.

  “Me too, poor guy,” Tala said and slipped away to make the first pot of coffee of the day, patting Ennis’s shoulder along the way.

  7 A Call In

  “Has he taken in fluids in the last twenty-four hours?” Clarisse asked after Tala relayed their concerns over Ennis.

  “Yes, he had a glass of water, but not much more. He had a little fish and grits this morning, and biscuits and gravy for dinner last night,” Tala explained.

  “Has he used the facilities?” Clarisse asked tactfully.

  “Um, he goes in the bathroom, but I don’t think he’s passing much, if any. He’s admitted to being in some pain. We’ve given him antibiotics, but we don’t have the numbing pain meds for this. Do you think there’s some locally?” Tala said.

  Asking for pain meds from the preppers would be
no use since they probably didn’t have enough to spare. Instead Tala hoped to be able to find them somewhere in town.

  “The antibiotics won’t kick in for a few days. The elderly seldom show urinary tract pain symptoms unless the infection is quite severe, so the fact he’s in pain concerns me. He’s admitted to being in pain, he’s running a fever, and is probably holding back. Yes, I believe he needs phenazopyridine and cranberry juice, which will limit the amount of bacteria able to adhere to the bladder wall. You can also give him a hot water bottle to ease the pain. An anti-inflammatory would help a little. If you found the numbing meds, that would be best. I hate for him to suffer from the pain for so long.”

  “Clarisse, my grandmother used a tea of sage and bearberry for urinary tract infections. Every time she fed me the stuff as a girl, I’d gag. I never thought I’d revert back to the old days, but do you think the medicinal teas would be safe to use?”

  “Both ingredients contain proven scientific antiviral properties, so yes. If you get a hold of clean, dried ingredients, then use them. As time goes on, I believe we’ll need all of your grandmother’s medicinal recipes. Try to remember them, and write them down. All the major med producers are gone these days.” She added, “I wish I could give you the meds, but our supply is very limited, and there are a lot of us here. The rules are, unfortunately, the rules, and I have to abide by them. Graham may need to run into town. I’m sure the meds would be at the old doc’s house. I’m sorry, I wish I could be of more help.”

  “I want to do something for him to make him more comfortable. Last night his fever seemed to cause him some delusions, and he warned us trouble was coming to the prepper camp. Of course, he also keeps asking me for banana bread. I wish I could make some for him as a treat.” Tala laughed, but began to cry at the same time.

  Clarisse tried to comfort her. “Aw, Tala, you guys gave him a life to live, a life with purpose. At least he hasn’t been wasting away in a nursing facility. Don’t feel bad.”

  “I know. It’s just that we’ve all come to love him in such a short time. He’s a part of us here. Even Sam will sit with him for hours, talking on occasion and whittling little animals for Addy. How is she, by the way?”

  “She’s better, and with Dalton right now. It breaks my heart that she can’t be with Sam. I’ve got an experimental vaccine in the works, but it’s not tested yet. Unlike all the others before, this one shows some promise. I’ll be able to determine whether or not it will be useful soon, but I don’t want to get her hopes up. I know the separation is hard on Sam, but for a seven-year-old-girl to be indefinitely kept away from her own father has to be worse.”

  Tala heard tears clog Clarisse’s voice too.

  “Well, for now, she’s loved and cared for, and Sam is doing okay here. We know the situation with the cameras upset Rick, but I think it gave Sam a little release on his anger to take them all down. Seeing him do that, Macy thought he was crazy until he explained to her we were all on camera,” Tala said.

  “Yeah, Rick’s that kind of guy. He cares deeply and has a scorched-earth mentality when it comes to those he cares about, but no regard to personal privacy,” Clarisse explained. “He’d rather forgo some liberties to be safe.”

  “He sure has Macy trained on the radio,” Tala said, then remembered a personal question she’d meant to ask Clarisse earlier. “Hey, before you go, I wanted your advice on our young romance here.”

  “They’re not doing that already, are they?” Clarisse asked.

  “Um, I don’t think so, but I want Marcy to be safe when the time comes,” Tala said.

  “Well, coupling is perfectly normal for human nature during a crisis. Couples pair up and mate out of a need to procreate. The term is biological imperative. But I’d be concerned about the effects of the virus on a fetus. I’m not certain if a pregnancy would carry to term. At birth, will the fetus be born with immunity or a half chance at immunity? Or will the baby be born without any immunity? There are many unanswered questions. So let’s think about putting her on birth control for now as a precaution.”

  Tala was quiet for a moment, and Clarisse thought perhaps they’d lost the connection. But then Tala said, with some concern, “She’s only fifteen.”

  “Yes, precisely. In fact, both girls are fifteen. They’re at a young but reproductive age, which means if they, by chance, run into the wrong fellow, the consequences would be terrible for them. I’d like to recommend you pull the pill packets out of the med kit we sent back with you. I added several, enough for you and the girls for at least three years. I also included quite a few pregnancy test kits. Hopefully we will not need those for a while. Good luck getting Macy to take them. She seems like my kind of gal.” Clarisse chuckled.

  Inadvertently Clarisse had already answered one of Tala’s pressing questions. She was relieved she didn’t have to try and weasel a fake question for her deepest concern.

  “Yeah, but I think if I explained the consequences to her, she might be willing to take them. She’s a sensible sort,” Tala said.

  “Well, you’ve got your hands full, that’s for sure. I’ve just had a sweet seven-year-old girl fall into my lap, and I’m loving every minute of the time she’s with me. She’s given me a greater purpose.”

  “The twins can be a challenge at times, but more than anything the bickering between them bugs us,” Tala said.

  “Yes. That is them, pulling away from one another and becoming individuals. That’s normal at this age. The behavior will pass in time. Just make sure they don’t get physically combative with one another.” Clarisse chuckled again.

  “There are days . . .” Tala said, now laughing. She was about to come clean with her friend, right there, but was too reticent to admit her suspicion out loud just yet. Instead, she let the conversation end and said, “Well, I’ve got to run now. Good luck with Addy.”

  “Oh, thank you. Let me know how the pill goes with the girls. I’ll call in next week and see how the introduction went. Bye for now; Clarisse out.”

  “Tala out.”

  Tala sat there, a bit stunned, knowing the thing she had to do and afraid of the confrontation. The unknown and possible risks to an unborn child lingered in her mind. She stared out the window of the bunkroom, watching the way the snow blew from one direction to another. The trees were swaying in a heavier breeze than before, and she knew what Ennis warned was true: there was a storm coming.

  8 Hunting

  Sam pulled the Scout into a draw between the snow-loaded trees on an old logging road. The condition of the cypress boughs indicated the path hadn’t been used in recent years. He crept along so slowly he’d lose the race to a slug, then came to a stop and put the truck noiselessly into park. To quiet the innocuous jingle of keys as he turned off the ignition, he cupped them in this fist. This would be the first spot they’d try for a few hours, and then later, farther down the snow-covered highway if they found nothing here. He and Graham had had good luck in this area the last time they’d tried. He told Mark and Marcy to disembark without a sound, and they made less than a click closing their doors. Sam did everything mute.

  Going to the back of the truck, he lifted the gate, which used to have a little hydraulic hinge. He’d dismantled that on an earlier trip because it made a sound he didn’t want scaring off the game. One by one, he pulled out the rifles—a bolt action .30-06, a seven-millimeter magnum with thirty inch barrels of various brands, scavenged at various times in the past months. The two teens were giggling at the side of the truck. Before they had an opportunity to get louder, Sam admonished them in a deep, hushed warning. “Knock it off, or you’ll scare them all away. They’re listening to you. They’re keener than you, and you’ll starve; and your babies will starve too unless you learn to be more clever than them.”

  That got their attention.

  Sam handed them their gear and repeated, “Remember the rules—don’t get smelled; make sure you’re downwind at all times. Don’t get heard; take ten-second steps. Alwa
ys keep the wind in your face, Marcy. Got it?” He directed his question mostly at her, since he had already taught Mark much of the hunting lore.

  “Wind in the face, check.” Marcy repeated in a whisper, “but the ten-second steps look pretty stupid.”

  “If you want to eat, ten-second steps are worth it,” Mark reminded her.

  Sam pulled out several sets of snowshoes that he and Graham had made; they were a necessity in this terrain. He’d always used the commercial aluminum-framed variety, available at any sporting goods store, but as they’d learned time and again, tricks and crafts long forgotten now needed to be relearned. One day there would be no foraging for things like snowshoes; they’d all be gone. Graham’s father had taught him the art of willow drying and weaving the pliable strips into snowshoe form when he was a boy. Sam and Graham had spent many evenings by the fire this winter weaving and teaching the kids this lost craft. Now Sam, Marcy, and Mark pulled the straps over their hiking boots and took a few steps to make sure the snowshoes were on tight.

  Next, Sam checked the wind direction by lifting the end of his gun barrel into the air. The thread tied to the end of his gun floated up and slightly behind them. Perfect, he thought, and hoped the breeze would maintain that direction. They’d make their way down a narrow valley surrounded by tall Chuckanut sandstone cliffs.

  For Marcy, walking with snowshoes took some getting used to; she found the waddling gait awkward, but she soon got used to the longer and wider steps needed to keep balance and move efficiently. With her rifle slung over her shoulder and her pistol strapped to her chest she was ready for action.

  She’d hoped to get a deer to prove to Mark she was capable of hunting and helping him in the event that someday they started off on their own; she wanted to prove she was strong enough to live alone with him. So far, of the two girls Macy had proven herself the stronger hunter, the better defender, and more worthy at almost everything. She would not be outdone by her twin.