by Jill Cooper
He looked more like a leader than he had before. Maybe that’s all it was, but how that happened in such short span of time . . .
“I’m going to check out that building.” Jake nodded his head toward it.
“Don’t.” Chase felt like he was being watched and then he saw it. A face flickered in the window, a slight movement behind an old canopy over the café.
There were people here.
Chase put the truck in park and grabbed his P90. “I’m going to check this out.” He slid from his seat.
Jake met him with a shake of his head. “I appreciate the offer—.”
“Then appreciate this,” Chase’s chest puffed out. “Without you, we’re all sitting ducks. I almost was, twice. You can’t die checking out some random, stupid building. I’ll go.”
“He won’t go alone,” Ginny said, and the sound of her door slamming shut caught his attention.
Anger blazed against his cheeks. “Ginny . . .”
She raised her eyebrows as her steps quickened to keep up with him. “You’re not at your best, and still limping. I’m coming with you one way or another, Chase.”
He tried to suppress his smile. “All right, but stay alert.”
“It’s not like I intend to not be alert,” Ginny muttered to herself.
“I’ll stay here and guard the children. Someone needs to check on Dirk.”
Dirk. Chase’s stomach was pelted with regret. After everything, Dirk did to save his stupid-ass, and now he had been unconscious, for what? Three days? But to help Dirk, Chase needed to check this place out. He needed medicine, bandages. More supplies than the Humvees had.
Ginny fell in line behind him as they approached the old general store. Chase’s leg was tight and he limped as they hurried across the street. The air was cool, but not as cool as it was the night before in the forest. The face of the building was faded and the wooden door was chipped. The handles an old, antique bronze, the curtains were drawn on the inside. Chase tried the handle and gave it a deft twist.
To Ginny, he nodded, and she readied her gun, pointing it at the opening of the door jam as Chase slid it open.
It smelled of pine from the old boards that made up the building, but there were no sign of people as they stepped inside. There were aisles of canned goods, medical supplies, and junk toys; the type made in China, before China was the first to fall to the glistenings. Chase pointed his gun toward the back wall for Ginny to check it out.
She nodded and rushed off as Chase took another slow step forward and his foot squeaked against the floorboards even though it was covered up with an old area rug. Curious, Chase threw the blue rug off with the nose of his gun . . .to reveal a trapdoor.
He snapped his fingers to get Ginny’s attention. With a nod, she hurried over and aimed her gun down to cover Chase. He ticked off his fingers one at a time, his leg bouncing slightly as he got up the nerve. Gripping the metal ring, he tugged the door open hard and with a puff of old sawdust; it clanked open.
A series of eyes peered up at him. “Chase?”
Thank, God, Chase sighed with relief. “Jeff? Marcus?” It was everyone, thank God. They reached the rendezvous point safe and in one piece, which was more than Chase could say for himself.
Ginny lowered her gun and offered her hand to Jeff, and then the others. “When did you get here?”
Jeff smoothed his shirt as he made way for the others to come up. “Yesterday. I broke off from Jake with a few others to help escort everyone here. When you didn’t immediately show . . .”
They feared the worst. Chase got it and he feared it too. “We ran into some trouble.”
Ginny held in a snicker. “That’s putting it mildly, but Dirk helped us, and then Jake.”
“Jake.” Jeff’s face cleared with relief and worry at the same time. “Is he okay?”
“He’s here with us. He has others with him,” Chase said.
“Others? What others?” The voice behind him was that of a female that had the twang of a southern drawl.
It was Sally. Chase wasn’t sure if he was glad to see her, but it was clear with how Ginny turned her back from the group how she felt. “Other glistenings. I don’t have the specifics, but I think he’s been converting them.”
“Away from Victor?” Sally’s eyes darkened. “That’s not possible. They’re . . . fierce.”
“We won’t know more until he catches up with us,” Chase said.
“Which I hope is soon. During the escape we lost some good glistenings. Henry. Mitch. A few stayed with Jake. Now, I’m all we have,” Jeff said.
Chase slapped him on the back. “You’re worth at least three glistenings. We know we’re in good hands.” Truth was, Jeff was a good guy. Maybe a little mild mannered for Chase’s taste . . .
“I appreciate that, but we can’t stay here forever.” Jeff shook his head and rubbed his mouth. “A glistening patrol circled last night. When we heard you guys coming . . .”
That’s why they were hiding under the floorboards. Chase nodded. “Let’s worry about that tonight. First, let’s get the kids inside. Some are injured, tired, and getting cranky. We could all use some sleep; and a meal.”
“Good idea.” Jeff pointed to the hatch in the floor. “It’s not too spacious down there, but there is a shelter. We can get enough blankets and lanterns to keep us reasonably warm. Enough to lay low and sleep. Get ready for watch tonight. There are a couple strategic points I can have Paulette show you; she’s a few buildings down, on point.”
“Great.” Chase signaled to Ginny and she followed out after them.
Sally rushed to meet up. “I can show you one of the towers.”
Outside, the kids were escorted off the truck with relief on their little faces. Sad and void of hope, now they were springing back to life like a well-watered flower. Cheesy as hell, but it was the truth. “Why don’t you stay here, Sally? Help get the kids settled. They need food, blankets. You know where the supplies are, I’m guessing.”
“Yeah, but,” her voice was low, disappointed. “I wanted to show you this one spot.”
“Jeff can show me.” Chase’s voice edged up. He didn’t want a confrontation in front of everyone and Ginny shifted away, clearly uncomfortable. He wished she’d stop doing that.
Sally’s eyes narrowed. “Who the hell put you in charge anyway?” She didn’t wait for an answer, but stormed off back into the store.
“Dirk did!” Chase yelled after her anyway with a sly smile. For a brief moment, he watched Jeff and Jake embrace as father and son. The way Jake clung to his dad, the relief on his face, made Chase wish he knew whom his father even was.
“It’s good to see you, Dad,” Jake said with his eyes squeezed tight.
Jeff slapped his cheeks with affection. “I knew you’d be okay. I knew I’d see you again.”
“Help me with Dirk, will you?” Jake’s face was serious and all business. “He’s been injured and I think he’s coming down with a fever.”
Jeff’s face was solemn as Chase broke eye contact.
Ginny bit her lip, her eyes gazing after Sally. “I have a good relationship with the kids, I could’ve—.”
Chase held up his hand. “You’ve had my back since we left the old base. Since New York, if I want to be honest about it.” Gingerly, he stroked her arm. Her skin so soft, it almost didn’t feel real.
Ginny smiled, and bashfully, her eyes fluttered away.
“I don’t want that to change now.” He touched her chin briefly, but then cleared his throat, aware of what he had done. Chase wasn't sure if it was acceptable, or even if he should do it in the company of others. “So, Jeff, these points of defense you want to show me?”
He hurried off to find Paulette, but Ginny was never too far behind. Thank God for small favors, she was right there the whole time.
****
Outside the Silver Street café, was a gas grill. One that even still had a propane tank half-full. Chase couldn’t remember the last time he had
a burger, but when they found the treasure trove of frozen patties and buns in the diner, Chase thought he had died and gone to heaven.
Ketchup and mustard were the dynamic duo slathered on the patties, with even a few pickles. It was a meal fit for a king. Might even be their last meal, depending how the night went. Every night could be the last, Chase was consciously aware of the passage of time, but the others?
Chase didn’t know how they coped, but he liked listening to their well-earned happiness.
Everyone gathered at the tables. There was laughter and even some songs. Gummy grins from some of the smaller kids, and eye rolls from the older teens, but Chase saw happiness behind their bright eyes.
A long time coming. Most of their parents had died or were captured by glistenings in the raids. Happiness was a far off concept to everyone there and Chase felt some of it himself. It was a dangerous thing to feel when they needed to be on guard. Alert. They couldn’t afford to go soft now.
Chase couldn’t keep his eyes off Ginny; even in a crowd, she shone bright. He didn’t know what it was about her—why he was so drawn to her. She was kind, naïve, everything he wasn’t. How she managed to survive this long always surprised him. But in battle, she was clear headed. She didn’t shy away when Chase expected her to. Her spirit was tough. It shined on, even as the cold, harsh realities of their world tried to tarnish her.
Maybe that was it, but her ass did look nice in the tight jeans she wore. That certainly didn’t hurt.
“Anyone sitting here?” Sally came to his table with a plate of food.
Chase glanced at Ginny who was clearly sitting there and she gazed down at the tablecloth. “Ginny is sitting there, Sally. Why don’t you—?”
“I was just getting up anyway.” Ginny grabbed her plate as she scooted off the bench.
“Wait a minute—,” Chase’s voice broke off as Ginny rushed to the kitchen. Why did she do that all the time?
Sally slid into Ginny’s bench, but Chase stood and threw down his napkin. “You like doing that to her, don’t you?”
His eyes narrowed, but Sally munched on a pickle with wide, open eyes. It was the look of innocence, but Chase knew better. He had been around girls like her all his life and he didn’t want to be a notch in one more lady’s belt. Tired of being a sought after prize, because he was none of that.
“Forget it.” Chase waved his hand at her. She wasn’t worth the effort and not Ginny’s either. He found her in the kitchen washing dishes. From her posture, she seemed fine, as she used an old woven cloth in the sudsy soap. Her profile was pleasing to look at, from how her ass rounded and the perkiness of her breasts pushing against her red, knit top.
But her face, well, it wasn’t happy. Her lips were drawn together in a sad expression and to Chase, that was the more important. “Why’d you run off?”
She jumped at the sound of his voice. “Chase.” Ginny turned off the water, but still scrubbed a dish that looking sparkling clean to him. “I just thought . . . well, now that we’re back with everyone, I didn’t see a need . . . I mean—she wanted a place to sit.”
“There are lots of spots she could’ve taken. You’re spot was taken.”
Ginny’s brow furrowed and it showed how perplexed she was. “I didn’t think you’d care that much about my seat. It’s not that big a deal, Chase. You can stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” The corner of his eyes crinkled.
“Like you’re worried my feelings were hurt. I’m fine. I’m a big girl. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“You can’t tell me what to worry and not worry about, Ginny Shannon. You shouldn’t let yourself get pushed around by Sally. She’s all bark, but she ain’t got a thing on you.”
Ginny’s eyes widened. “You think that? Next to her, I’m just a—.” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head.
Chase didn’t like what he saw. He took her by the waist and led her away. Her hands still dripped soap, so he grabbed a towel and dried them off as he spoke. “Whatever you think she reduces you to, she doesn’t. You’re a fine woman. A lady. Something she’ll never be. I watch how you let her push you around, and I don’t like it. I know it’s probably not my place to say—.”
“It can be your place.” Ginny laughed and bit her lip. “I mean, if you want it to be.”
Chase took her hand in his. “I want it to be. I know in the cabin I came off rough; callus even, but those glistenings, I didn’t mean to bark at you the way I did.”
Ginny nodded and gazed at their woven fingers. “I know you were just trying to keep us safe. How you hold it together the way that you do . . . you’re our Hero.”
Chase snorted. “Nothing of the sort. I’m just scraping by like I always have. Only now, more is at stake.” Like the kids, and like her.
His hands rested on her hips and Ginny put her hands on his shoulders. It made him rock her closer to him.
“You’re kind, kinder than you know,” Ginny said.
Chase gave her a lopsided grin even as his cheeks blushed. “Maybe we both see something in the other, that we’re blind to ourselves. Maybe in the end, what we are doesn’t matter. Only matters that we’re together. If well, if you want us to be.”
Her eyes fluttered closed and Ginny nodded. Not a moment too soon Chase thought as he leaned in to kiss her. His mouth engulfed hers and the passion in which she returned the favor, surprised Chase.
It all surprised him. Finding a woman like that at the end of the world that wanted him just as bad as he wanted her? It might have been stupid, with the world burning, but Chase would count himself lucky.
“If we get out of this,” Ginny said softly, leaning her head up against his.
“Not if. When.” Chase reminded her, but his heart wouldn’t return to normal speed. It was still galloping wildly in his chest. Just to smell her, to know Ginny allowed him to touch her in any way excited him.
“When we get out of this,” a small smile on her lips made Ginny blush and Chase’s heart skipped a beat, “I’ll be glad to have you by my side. If you think you’d like that too.”
Chase didn’t know how she missed the point. He hooked his fingers through the belt hoops of her jeans and wouldn’t let her go. “I’m not letting you out of my sight. Not now. Not when all this gets fixed. You get me?”
“I get you.” Ginny leaned her head against his chest. Chase wrapped her body with his arms and didn’t say anything after that. He didn’t need to.
Chapter Fourteen Ginny
“And the farmer takes a wife, the farmer takes a wife, hi ho . . .” Ginny’s voice trailed off as Kim finally drifted to sleep. The little girl’s hand relaxed on the half-stuffed teddy bear she had been carrying around for months. It had a missing eye and the ribbon was frayed, but it was the last thing she had of her mother and father.
A young glistening. One day she would go through the hormonal change and then she would have to pick between her humanity and her monster. Ginny knew what she hoped the young girl would pick. Hoped that Jake was right and with the proper raising and counseling, Kim would pick humanity.
But not everyone was so sure.
Ginny left the small quarters underground, in the bomb shelter, were the kid’s slept. She heard whispering as she turned the corner toward the ladder.
“It’s different with Jeff and the other’s.” Bob Crane, an old farmer, joined them after the Saskatchewan revolt failed. “They were imprisoned in the NH. These kids, they don’t know anything. And when the hunger strikes . . .”
“So what are you suggesting?” Maggie Thomas, a seamstress from Boston asked. “We execute the children? We hang them out to dry before they’ve even done anything wrong?”
“Before they get us? Maybe, Maggie—maybe. You weren’t in Swift Current. You didn’t see the carnage I did.”
“I saw the towers of Boston fall. I saw the Tobin collapsed by Glistenings. Don’t tell me I didn’t see, but these kids deserve a choice. We follow Jake just like
they do.”
Ginny didn’t usually speak up, but with her hand on the ladder, she found her voice. “We’d be no better than Victor, if we hurt these children.”
Bob’s face fell as his eyes flashed over to her. He took off his old, worn baseball cap and held it to his chest. “I didn’t . . . Ginny, listen.”
“They want our help, Bob. They’re just kids.”
“For now.” Bob nodded. “What happens when they grow up? Bruce is almost seventeen. You know that’s when it starts. That’s when Jake first turned.”
Ginny knew that’s when it happened, but if that made it right to forfeit Bruce’s life? She didn’t know what the answer was. Wait and see seemed almost like suicide, but he didn’t want to be a slave to Victor any more than Ginny did. She just didn’t have all the answers.
It gnawed at her heart as she climbed the ladder back up into the storefront. Ginny closed the trap door and covered it with the rug before she picked up her P90. Outside, the darkness was her cover as she made way to the old high school. Sneaking inside, the place felt like a ghost town.
Jackets were still on the backs of chairs. A mug half-filled with coffee sat on the desk.
Ginny wondered what it had been like right before the glistening raids started here. How long had the people survived, going downstairs into the shelter? Had they drawn straws on who was safe and who wasn’t?
The lack of answers made her soul feel heavy, but Ginny continued—she didn’t have a choice. She found Chase leaning against the window in the principal’s office. From there, he had a clear view of the city, leading off toward the lake. So far, the sky appeared clear.
No glistenings. At least not yet.
“Kids are tucked in.”
He flashed a small smile at her. “Good. At least someone will get some sleep.”
Chase was all business again. Ginny guessed he couldn’t help himself and she tried to mask her disappointment. “I’ll go cover the western front.”
