Cole’s jaw clenched and she knew she’d hit a nerve. She realized the last thing he wanted to do was fight in front of Sean, but what did he expect of her? If the shoe had been on the other foot, he’d have put that foot down on the idea and squashed it like a roach under his heel.
“We’ll talk later, okay? We have to get going before we lose Amanda’s group.”
“What? In all the traffic?” Sean laughed at his own joke before returning to the truck.
Cole climbed in his SUV and sat staring forward. She reached in through the open window and stroked a hand down his cheek. “Listen, Cole. I want to help too. I can’t help it I’m a little scared, okay? But we’ll talk it over after we settle in and see what’s up?”
His expression softened and he caught her hand, pressing it to his lips for a brief kiss. “I would never risk you or the baby. Not if I can help it.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” She returned to her car, worry still lingering but she had decided for herself that if Cole felt these new people warranted their help, then she would do whatever he asked. He had earned her complete trust over the last year.
Following Amanda’s group over a highway that looked to have been cleared enough to get through at a reasonable speed, Elly explained the situation to Joe. “I trust Cole’s judgement, but damn it, I wish he didn’t feel like it was his responsibility to save everyone on the planet.”
Joe chuckled. “He does seem to have a hero complex. But he has a point about needing locals. They know this area while we mostly only know about Las Vegas or the Hoover Dam, and what we know of that is just surface stuff. What we really need to know is how to grow anything in this desert.”
The statement was the longest speech Elly had ever heard from Joe. “That’s true. Jenna’s a great gardener but I don’t think she’s ever tried to make a garden thrive in a desert environment.”
Elly alternately fumed and worried as she unpacked just the items she’d need for one night, setting the bag on the ground, grabbing her go-bag too. She wasn’t about to leave it, not trusting their safety here.
Zoe and Luke came around the back of the SUV. “Kids, get your go bags.”
Joe ambled around to the back, scanning their surroundings. A light on the barn flooded the farmyard. He gave his head a shake. “I don’t know if it’s smart to have the light on or not, but it sure is nice to not have to stumble around in the dark.”
Elly glanced at the flood light. “Doesn’t seem smart to me. It’ll pinpoint this place as being a place with people.” She shook out the mask she’d stashed in pocket They were running low on masks and this stop forced them to use up precious stock. Making sure the kids had theirs secured once they returned with their packs, she headed towards Cole and Travis, glad to see that Cole had at least worn his mask and had made Travis do the same.
Car doors slammed as the others in their group exited their vehicles. The local group had already parked, circling around so all of the cars faced out, they stood near them, but appeared to be unarmed. She knew they had weapons, but they had the grace to not carry them openly while meeting with them.
Elly looked at them. She picked out the one Cole had spoken to, Amanda. The woman was gathering her people close, talking to the group, presumably about them.
She took the moment to study the locals. What struck her was that other than a few much older women, and an older gentleman wearing gray coveralls like a mechanic would wear, the rest were very young. The woman speaking to them wasn’t old by any definition, but she looked to be the oldest of the younger group.
Elly counted six other young women who ranged in age from about fifteen to twenty-two or so. A couple of teenage boys stood glowering at Elly’s group, their stares directed at someone behind her. She turned to see who they were focusing on, and saw it was Jake.
Surprised, it took her a second to realize that Piper stood near Jake had a hand on the small of her back. That was a new behavior. She knew the two had a thing for each other, but she had never seen Jake tense. If the stakes hadn’t been so high, it might have been amusing to watch the interaction. Hiding her amusement, she stepped up to Cole. “So now what?”
“Amanda is just briefing her family on what’s going on.”
“Her family? All of those people are her family?”
Cole shrugged and she could tell he was still a bit miffed about her outburst at the standoff. Well, she wasn’t going to apologize. She caught a sidewise look from him, his gaze roving her face. Then he extended his left hand to her. She accepted his peace offering, giving his hand a light squeeze.
As the rest of their gathered around them, Cole stepped forward, still holding Elly’s hand, so she moved with him.
With Elly’s hand folded into his own, Cole felt a surge of protectiveness. He hoped he’d read Amanda correctly and that her group wasn’t so different from theirs. He rubbed his thumb on Elly’s palm, not sure if he was trying to soothe her or himself.
What if he was wrong? Amanda could have an ambush set-up. The fact that there were only three men in the group facing them should have put him at ease, but it made him even more apprehensive. Where were the other men?
He cast a look around, but in the now full dark, it was impossible to see beyond the perimeter of the floodlight attached to the barn. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. There could be snipers up in the hayloft aiming at them right now.
Only the proximity of Amanda’s group gave him a sense of safety. Anyone firing from a distance would have to worry about hitting one of their own since the barn was to their right and slightly behind them. In fact, at this angle, Amanda’s family would be in even greater danger since at least Cole’s group had their vehicles between themselves and the barn.
Amanda turned from her group. “Sorry, I was just clarifying some things with my family.” She didn’t smile, but she nodded at Elly and held her arms wide in a welcoming gesture. “As you may know, Cole and I agreed to have you all as our guests tonight, and in the morning, we’ll talk about a situation we—my family—finds themselves in. We’ve only just moved onto this ranch a few days ago, so we haven’t checked it all out, but we did clean out remains and wipe up the place. Luckily, whoever lived here before seems to have not been home when they were overtaken by the virus. The only bodies we found belonged to a poor dog trapped in the house, and a few chickens that seemed to have been killed in the henhouse. All that was left of the chickens were a handful of feathers, so I’m guessing a fox or something got to them.”
Cole lifted a hand. “Speaking of henhouses, we have a few chickens. Would it be okay to let them into the henhouse for the night? We even have some eggs that are showing signs of hatching any day now.”
Amanda shrugged. “Be our guest. The barn has an office with bunkbeds, probably used by some cowhands at some point, but it looks like it hasn’t been used in a while. It’s a bit dusty. We have a broom you all can use to sweep it. And, the main house has plenty of room for the rest of you. The people who built it must have had a huge family. Six bedrooms! And the basement has an office with a pull-out sofa. Our boys here,” she gestured to the sullen teens, “have agreed to bunk out in the old camper beside the house.”
Cole ,looked to where she swept her hand out, and saw the front end of an RV. He caught one of the boy’s eyes and nodded. “Much appreciated.”
The boy’s sullen expression melted away and he shrugged. “No problem.”
Elly released Cole’s hand. “Hello, Amanda. I’m Elly. Thank you for your hospitality and I would really love to talk with all of you, but the kids are getting hungry, and we’re all tired.”
“Of course. There’s just one more thing. We have been setting up a couple of sentries at night. I know you’re all tired, but if a couple of you could take a turn with ours, it would really help us out. We do three hour shifts with two people each shift. With how it works out for us, it allows everyone to get an undisturbed night’s rest every other night.”
Cole nodd
ed. “Absolutely. I’ll take one of them and ask for a couple of volunteers for the other two slots.”
“And we have an electric stove, so you can use that to cook, or there’s a grill out on the deck out back.”
“An electric stove? That’ll be a nice treat.” Elly bit her lip for a second before asking, “Won’t we be in the way?”
“No, we’ve already eaten dinner.” Amanda turned away. “Sandy, why don’t you show the women where they can put their stuff, and Derek, please show the guys where they can bunk.”
“If you don’t mind, while I won’t be bunking inside, I would like to take a quick look around first.”
Amanda’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh wow. Yeah. I wasn’t thinking. Of course you’d want to make sure everything is okay. Be my guest.”
Cole followed Sandy, who didn’t appear to be older than sixteen. Her name fit her, with her long, blonde hair and golden complexion.
The house was an old farmhouse on the outside, but it had been renovated not long ago, judging from the granite countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the stainless steel appliances. One of the younger girls opened the fridge and took out a pitcher of water. Cole stopped to look at the lighted interior for the brief instant it had been opened. If someone had asked him if he would miss that welcoming little light that came on every time the refrigerator opened, he’d have laughed. And yet, here he was getting a longing in his gut for a stupid refrigerator light. He shook his head and trailed Sandy through a spacious living room with a stone fireplace, a large screen TV anchored on the wall above the mantle. A black leather sofa and love seat sat a comfortable distance in front of .it.
Cole stopped dead and Elly ran into his back. A movie played on the television—a DVD no doubt—but it was surreal to see the overly bright lights flashing in the darkened room.
“It’s like going back in time,” Elly said in a hushed voice.
“I know.”
“Um, excuse me, but the bathroom is this way, and there are two bedrooms at the end of the hall. You might have to double or triple, in the case of the kids, on the beds, but feel free to grab towels or blankets.”
Cole dragged his eyes from the TV screen. It wasn’t that he missed any specific show, but he missed not worrying about survival, and just being able to kick back in the evening and click on favorite show or movie. In short, he longed for the security he’d felt his whole life—that all of them had felt and not even known they’d had.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cole rode with Amanda the next morning so she could take them by their family farm.
Her family’s ranch was several miles away by road, but this road had not been completely cleared. At times, they were forced to go off road to avoid obstacles.
Cole sat in the passenger seat gazing at the mountains in the near distance. “So, how have things been out here? What’s survival been like?”
She bit her lip, her expression pensive. “Hard. We lost several family members, including my mom and my uncles and two cousins. They all worked in the city and got trapped there. Roads became impassable as everyone tried to escape to the country.”
She paused, and drew a deep, shaky breath and Cole wished he hadn’t asked his question. He hadn’t meant to bring up her own personal losses, just a general sense of how things were. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
Amanda shook her head. “I know, but I’m sure you’re no stranger to what’s happened. We all have similar stories. This is mine.”
Cole nodded.
She continued, “So, we got a string of really bizarre texts from my mom, and my aunt got a strange phone call from her husband—my uncle Lyle. We never heard from the others. When nobody ever arrived home, we realized they’d died.”
Cole nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Amanda tipped her head, indicating she’d heard him, but she remained quiet for a few minutes, seeming to concentrate on driving. With a half-shrug, she finally said, “It’s been almost a year but I still miss my mom every single day. There’s so much I don’t know. Every year, we’d can veggies from the garden, but we always did it together. If I had a question, I could always ask her, you know?”
He nodded along, even knowing it was rhetorical. Amanda sniffed, a tear tracking down her cheek that she didn’t wipe away. “Now, I have a million questions, but she’s not here. And my younger brothers, Derek, and Tyler, have had a really hard year. Teen years are already hard on boys, but going through this as a sixteen year old?”
“They’re twins?”
She nodded. “Yep. Not identical though. Anyway, we managed on what we already had on the ranch. We had a about fifty head of cattle and the boys rounded up four steers that had wandered away from their own ranches. A ranch hand who did most of the care for the cattle died, though and I don’t know how many cattle we have left. We knew the brands and checked on the owners, but they didn’t make it.” She cleared her throat. “They were good neighbors.”
“I’m sorry.” There was nothing left to say about the losses. Every person left alive had probably lost many loved ones and good friends.
“We butchered two steers—one had gone lame and had to be put down anyway. Along with what we had in the garden, we’re doing okay as far as food goes, but we’re running out of other items like
medicines, coffee, flour, sugar—staples. ”
“Can I ask how you all avoided catching the virus?” He hoped that didn’t come out as skeptical or accusatory. His goal was to know everything he could about the virus, from an epidemiology point of view.
“Well, that’s the crazy thing. We only survived because the twins got a nasty stomach bug. And then my little sister got it. I had taken a vacation from my work—I was a hostess at a casino—and had plans to be in my college roommate’s wedding. Maid of honor. But the day before I was to fly out I felt a little queasy and thought for sure I’d caught the stomach bug too. I didn’t want to get the whole wedding party sick so I rebooked for two days. Luckily, I’d planned to go out early so I had wiggle room in my plans. I don’t even know if they ever had the wedding, but I doubt it.” Her voice became soft and wistful.
With a shake of her head, she continued, “That’s a long explanation to say that I was home taking care of everyone. My mom didn’t want to go to work, but she was a lab tech at the hospital and they were swamped.”
Cole nodded. “You didn’t come in contact with anyone because you all already had a different illness.” They had self-isolated due to a run of the mill stomach bug putting them out of commission for the two or so days between when the virus still seemed like a distant threat—just before it tore through the country.
“Yep. And the others at the farm came over later, during the winter. They had run out of food and were looking for some. What could we do but take them in?”
“That’s generous of you.”
“Not really. Everyone makes contributions and worked around the ranch helping with while we had something they needed. It was scary being around other people at first, but nobody has shown signs of the virus.”
“It could have gone dormant. We can only hope it’s gone for good, but I wouldn’t count on it.” He wished he could give assurance, but there had never been a virus that just disappeared completely without a vaccine being the reason it disappeared in the wild.
Amanda sighed. “I was afraid of that.” She maneuvered around an overturned semi-truck, her moves practiced. It was obvious she’d driven this stretch more than a few times since the truck had overturned. Throwing him a grin, she said, “You want to hear something funny?”
“Sure.” A laugh was always welcome in this grim new world.
“My friend, Tina, was so busy binge-watching a bunch of DVDs of her favorite 90s television shows that she didn’t even know the world was ending until four days had passed. She was feeling nostalgic, I guess, and didn’t notice when streaming services stopped working since our power didn’t go out. It flickered a bit, but someo
ne must have hit the right switches before they died, or maybe they’re still hard at work at the power company.”
Cole smiled at the story, but his thoughts went to what Holland had said, about how power had been kept on in D.C. and wondered if something similar was at work here. He wanted to ask more questions, but Amanda stopped at the end of a long, winding drive. Set well back from the road, protected by a set of closed gates, he saw a large home, several buildings that might have been barns or housed equipment, and pens. The pens contained several horses and a dog lolled in a patch of grass beneath a tree.
“We’re here.” She scowled, peering through the front window. “They chained the gate. Assholes.”
“It’s beautiful.” Cole didn’t know what he’d expected—maybe something closer to the red or white barns common in Wisconsin, with fieldstone foundations surrounded by cornfields and cows grazing in a green pastures. The house was large and modern with a green lawn protected by a few trees, but beyond that, the landscape, dotted with scrub and clumps of dark grass, spread out flat and far, fading to various shades of brown— from the palest tan to deep rust. Mountains in the distance provided a backdrop he’d never find in Wisconsin.
Several horses ambled around an enclosure that looked like a long shed that had been chopped in half length-wise. He guessed that was a stable and on the side away from him would be stall doors. Beyond that was another larger building with various gates and fences around it.
“At least it looks like they’re caring for the horses. I hope the cattle are okay.”
“Are there a lot of cattle around here that survived?”
“Sure, if they had access to water.”
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