by Harley Tate
“What do we do with him?”
Anne stared down at the unconscious man.
“Mom!” Madison’s voice rang out from across the property. “Mom are you all right?”
Madison, Brianna, and Peyton ran into the clearing in front of the main cabin, stuttering to a stop when they spotted the man.
Brianna rushed up with a handgun drawn and ready. “We came back and you weren’t at the compost pile. When I saw the shovel on the ground, I thought the worst.”
Anne smiled. “We’re okay. This guy, however, is in a bit of trouble.”
“Who is he?”
Tracy snorted. “Claims his name is Hampton Rhodes. Said he was a messenger.”
Madison’s mouth fell open. “Are we under attack?”
“I don’t know.” Anne turned to her with a smile. “Find some rope and a dishtowel in the supply cabinet. We can tie him up and gag him for now.”
Madison ran toward the cabin and Anne turned to Peyton and Brianna. “Start a patrol of the perimeter now.”
“What do we do if we find someone?”
Anne glanced at Tracy before responding. “Shoot on sight.”
Day Forty-Four
Chapter Six
DANI
Northern California Forest
7:30 a.m.
The damp, never-ending rain of the last few days turned the crunchy forest floor into a soft, mushy carpet beneath Dani’s feet. Mushrooms popped up on rotting logs and under canopies of ferns, but Dani refused to pick them.
One wrong guess and she’d be dead as a doornail. Nope, mushrooms weren’t her thing. Neither was begging a home from yet another family.
A tangle of fallen tree branches blocked her way and Dani kicked at them absently, splintering the soaked wood. Creepy, crawly bugs of all sorts scurried away from her wrath and Larkin snorted beside her.
“What?” She glowered up at the army major. “It was in the way.”
“You vertically challenged all of a sudden? It’s not like you couldn’t have stepped over it.”
Just for that Dani stomped on the next clump of logs, but instead of disintegrating, they rolled and slipped and Dani lost her balance. She landed hard on the moist ground and the cool wet soaked through her jeans before she could clamber up.
Damn it.
She wiped at the wet spots on her behind while Larkin laughed into his hand.
“It’s not funny.”
“Is, too.”
For a military man, he sure liked to poke fun. “Why is everything a joke to you?”
“Because what’s good living if you can’t make light of it?” His smile faded as she fell back into step behind him. He leaned closer. “You gonna tell me about it?”
“What good will that do?”
He shrugged as he walked. “Maybe nothing. But I’m a decent listener.”
Dani frowned. She didn’t want to discuss her dilemma with anyone, especially not a guy who didn’t seem to care where he went as long as he could laugh along the way. But keeping it all bottled in hadn’t done much good, either.
After traipsing through the brush and trees in silence for a few minutes, Dani caved. “I don’t think we should go with Walter to his cabin.”
“Why not?”
“Because every time we try to make friends, they die.”
“I'm not dead yet.”
Dani cut him a glance. “One out of eight isn’t the best odds.”
“True. But you have to stop blaming yourself.”
Dani stopped and threw up her hands. “Would you cut it out? I’m so sick of everyone telling me what not to feel and how not to think. You can sugarcoat it all you want, but Gloria, Harvey, and Will are dead because we showed up at their house. Melody and Doug are dead because we dragged them into a fight that wasn’t theirs to begin with.”
Larkin stood beside Dani, not saying a word. His lips pressed together like the cover of a hardback book, straight and unyielding. Dani shook her head in disgust and resumed the walk to the Camaro. Walter could have it for all she cared.
“What would you have done differently?”
The question startled Dani and she glanced over at Larkin. “When?”
“Ever since the EMP. If you’re so convinced all these people died because of your actions, looking back, what would you change?”
Dani inhaled and thought about everything that happened, from sneaking out of Gran’s room to Colt rescuing her from the national guardsman in the street. If they had left right then, Jarvis wouldn’t have known who they were. They could have walked out of Eugene and never looked back.
But that would have meant leaving her grandmother alone in the nursing home. Something Dani would never have done. She sighed. “Nothing. But that doesn’t change anything.”
Larkin slowed and Dani glanced up. His brows hid the blue of his eyes and his bent head forecast troubled thoughts. “We’re all responsible, Dani. Not just you or Colt. We all had a role to play in their deaths. But it’s the past and we need to carry on. Not just for all the people we’ve lost, but for the future.”
Her lip slipped between her teeth and Dani nibbled on the chapped skin.
“We need to find a way to survive so we can rebuild. This can’t be the end of our country as we know it.”
Dani was less concerned about the millions of people in the United States who never even knew she existed than she was about making through the next few days alive. That’s all life had ever been to her: a series of struggles, one after the next, with no long-term vision allowed. How could she think about stitching a country back together when they weren’t sure where to go or how to get there?
Trekking all the way to Walter’s cabin to only turn around and leave again would waste time they didn’t have. Dani kept walking, but she couldn’t talk to Larkin about the future. She needed time to think through her options and what she would say to Colt to convince him to tell Walter goodbye.
An electronic beep sounded out of a thicket of brambles and Dani jumped. Larkin walked up to the mess with the Camaro’s car keys in his hand. “Help me out, will you?”
Together they pulled away branches and thorny vines and all manner of debris to reveal a mud-covered silver Camaro. “I couldn’t even see it under there. How did you hide it?”
Larkin smiled. “Drove it off the road and dragged all that stuff on top of it. Not too hard.”
Dani swallowed. This was it. As soon as they got inside and drove it back onto the road, they would be on their way to pick up Colt and Walter, and any chance of setting off on their own would be over. She stared at the passenger-side door.
“Do you know how to drive?”
She nodded. “I hot-wired the pickup, remember?”
“And drove it straight to us. Right.” Larkin held out the keys. “Then I have an offer.”
Dani raised an eyebrow.
“If you don’t want to go with us to Walter’s cabin, then don’t. Take the keys and the car and go.”
Her eyes went wide. “What?”
“You heard me. If you want to leave so bad, do it. You can have the Camaro. Drive it as far as the gas will allow. Get yourself somewhere safe where you can build a life.”
Dani shook her head. “I can’t take the car. What will you do?”
“Walk. It’s what Walter planned to do from the beginning.” He thrust the keys out to her. “Take them and go. You’ll be free.”
Dani reached for the keys, but she hesitated with her fingers still an inch away. Ever since Colt rescued her on the streets of Eugene, he’d stayed by her side. No matter the obstacle or the danger.
The man broke into an apartment full of soldiers and jumped from the three-story window to save her. And she was going to leave without saying goodbye?
As much as she wanted to, Dani couldn’t take the keys. She couldn’t walk away from the only man who ever gave a damn about her. She owed him more than that.
Dani dropped her hand. “I can’t do it. I can’t leave like this.”
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Larkin pulled the keys back. “So you’ll go with us?”
After a moment, Dani nodded.
“Atta girl.” Larkin reached out and gave her shoulder a pat. “Now let’s load up and meet Colt and Walter on the road.”
9:30 a.m.
Larkin pulled the Camaro over to the designated spot just off the state road. Dani peered into the forest, waiting. “Where are they?”
“It’s a lot to carry. That skid can only go so fast. With the soggy ground, they could have gotten stuck.”
Dani reached for the door handle. “We should go find them.”
“Someone needs to stay with the car.”
“You stay. I’ll go.” She shoved the passenger door open, but Larkin grabbed her by the arm.
“No. You stay. I’ve got fifty pounds on you at least.”
She pursed her lips. “So what?”
“I can bench press you with one hand. Let me do the heavy lifting.”
Dani pouted. “Fine. But I’m coming after you if you’re not back in half an hour.”
Larkin grinned. “Deal.”
He clambered out the driver’s side and turned to lean back into the car. “Get in the driver’s seat. If you see anyone coming, drive.”
“Where to?”
“Anywhere they can’t catch you.”
Dani nodded before watching Larkin walk away. As his lumbering shape disappeared through trees, she thought again about his offer. She had a running car, a handgun tucked in her belt, and a rifle in the backseat.
She glanced at the dash. It was 109 miles to empty. She could make it all the way to Lake Tahoe. Somewhere no one knew her and no one counted on her for anything.
Part of her shouted inside her head, “Go, go!” Did she really owe Colt? Did she really need to stay?
The other part of her couldn’t bear the thought. No matter how much she denied it, no matter how independent and cold she wished she could be, Dani loved Colt. She couldn’t leave him even if it was the right thing to do.
Not now. Not ever.
Movement caught her eye and a muddy Colt and Larkin emerged from the tree line. Their arms braced heavy logs on their shoulders, weighed down by a skid full of dehydrated meat and preserved roots and plants and a million other things. Walter came behind, lifting the rear of the skid as best he could to elevate the logs out of the worst of the wet.
They were a sorry sight, sweaty and exhausted and covered in dirt. But Dani couldn’t leave them. It might be the worst decision of her life, but she’d see Walter to his cabin. After that, all bets were off. She rolled down the passenger-side window and leaned over. “You fellas need a ride?”
Chapter Seven
MADISON
Clifton Compound
7:30 a.m.
Mud squelched through the lugs of Madison’s boots as she stalked through the forest. All night the three college kids took turns keeping watch, one canvassing the front of the property, one the back, and one asleep. Each one slept in fits and starts for a few hours, but it was enough.
Madison couldn’t sleep any longer if her life depended on it. Not when a group of interlopers could be plotting right now how to tear the Clifton property apart. She shook her head at her foolish actions over the past two weeks.
When they arrived at Brianna’s family compound, relief consumed Madison. They were safe. Secure. Home. But it was all a fantasy.
No one would ever be safe again. Why had she let herself believe that? Madison stomped in frustration. Two weeks and she’d gone soft.
Shoving the anger aside, she focused on the task at hand: clearing the forest. At first light, she’d woken up Brianna and along with Peyton the three of them set off to search the surrounding area for any sign of Hampton’s crew.
The man couldn’t be alone. Based on what he’d told her mom, there could be a whole gang of people hiding and waiting. If they were lurking in her section of the forest, Madison would find them. She wouldn’t let them hurt her family or Brianna’s.
Early morning light filtered through the trees, shafts of warm yellows and oranges lighting up the forest floor and casting shadows beneath the new leaves. Any other day and Madison would stop to enjoy the stillness and the beauty of it all. Nature, unadulterated and serene.
But danger lurked behind every hardwood and around every bed of brambles. Madison checked the safety on her rifle before easing around a thicket of wild blackberries. White flowers and small green lumps dotted the vines. In a few weeks, the bushes would be covered with thick, ripe berries.
Her mouth watered at the thought. Jam, pie, juice. The possibilities were endless.
Madison cleared the bush and moved on, working in ever-increasing circles away from the cabins and the main portion of the Clifton property. Soon she would reach the end of their land and the start of the national forest.
Part of the allure of the property the Cliftons owned were the three sides of national forest land as its border. Fences might have made good neighbors before the grid collapse, but no neighbors was better now.
At the edge of a steep grade, Madison paused. Leaves and pebbles skittered down the slope into a gulley at the basin. Where Sacramento and Davis were flat and endless, the foothills were full of hills and valleys and hidden dangers. Crouching low, Madison braced herself on the edge of the slope before easing forward.
Her heels slipped on the loose debris and she skittered a few feet. Her heel caught on an exposed root and Madison lunged for something to hold onto. She scrabbled for a branch, a twig, a winding root. Anything.
Nothing gave her purchase. She slid more. One foot, then two, faster and faster until too many trees to count passed her by.
The ravine kept going and going on down below her, at least thirty feet. I can’t fall. Not from here.
Madison leaned back, twisting and shifting her weight onto her backside, trying in vain to stop the slide. The rifle hampered her efforts, but Madison couldn’t let go. She had to stop herself.
The slope veered straighter and straighter and Madison picked up speed. She would die falling down this ravine. One stupid decision to slide down a hill and she wouldn’t ever make it home to see her parents, pet Fireball, or thank Brianna for saving her life.
No.
She couldn’t let that happen. Rock emerged from the dirt-covered slope and Madison angled for it, digging her nails into the pocked surface.
Her fingers found a crevice and Madison shoved them inside, hanging on with all her strength and wincing as her body slipped below the rock.
She dangled from the edge, four fingers away from free fall. What appeared to be a shallow gulley from the top of the ridge was in fact a massive crevasse with rocks and water and nothing but sharp edges and slick surfaces.
Her grip on the rock loosened and Madison swallowed. She couldn’t pull herself up with one hand. The rifle would have to go.
She cursed herself for not taking the gun with the shoulder strap. With an anguished gasp, Madison dropped the rifle. It clattered to the ground amongst the rocks below, but she didn’t watch.
Inhaling as deep a breath as she could muster, Madison tightened all her muscles and swung her free arm up to the rock. She grabbed ahold of the same gap her other hand clung to and heaved.
Her biceps burned, her abs screamed, but little by little she pulled herself up. First one forearm, then the other, belly scraping against the rock face, feet clambering onto the surface.
She collapsed against the side of the slope, panting and begging for oxygen. The boulder was barely big enough to sit upon, but it saved her life. Madison sucked in breath after breath until she could breathe and her muscles stopped burning.
After a few minutes, she risked a glance over the side of the rock. Her rifle lay in the shallow water twenty feet straight down. Thanks to the angle of the hill, she hadn’t seen the sheer drop from her vantage point on top. But now it was plain: she was lucky to be alive.
Madison glanced up. The top of the ridge looked
so far away. How would she ever claw her way back up?
She frowned. I can do this. I’m tougher than some hill in the woods.
Gritting her teeth, she eased up onto her feet and stretched up the slope. It wasn’t all that different from the rock wall she’d climbed at the college gym. Only this wall was covered in leaves and dirt and loose rocks.
Madison reached for a rock to pull herself up, but it crumbled away in her hand. She grabbed at a root, but yanked it out of the dirt before she could climb a single foot.
Damn it.
Using the toe of her boot, she tried another tactic: digging her own hold. Once her foot disappeared inside a wedge of dirt, Madison eased up onto the ball of her foot. It held.
She tried again with the other foot a bit higher, kicking at the slope until the debris fell away and she exposed a sturdy little ledge.
Agonizingly slowly she ascended, one kicked-in ledge at a time. Her fingernails ripped and tore as she dug at the dirt to give purchase to her hands. Mud soaked through her jeans and coated her face and neck.
But still she climbed. Up and up until at last, level forest floor rewarded her efforts. She heaved herself over the ledge, slipping on the leaves in her haste. It took the last surge of strength from deep within her core to scale the edge, but Madison prevailed.
She kissed the ground beneath her face as tears of exhaustion mixed with the dirt on her cheeks. Nature didn’t win.
Madison flopped over onto her back and laughed through the tears. I did it. I really did it.
She closed her eyes and thanked everyone from God to her yoga instructor on campus to her dad for forcing her to accept the boots Brianna offered upon their arrival.
When leaves crunched nearby, Madison didn’t hear them. She was too busy congratulating herself on surviving.
When a twig snapped ten feet away, she blew it off as a squirrel or a bird.
When a pair of boots stopped beside her head, she blinked.
A scream bubbled up her throat and Madison scrambled to escape. It was too late.
