Evergreen

by Cox, Matthew S.

“There kinda is.” Madison pointed at Harper. “Militia.”

  He cringed. “But they don’t arrest anyone.”

  Harper stood, took them by the hands again, and resumed walking toward school. “We do, but those guys started shooting first. The militia doesn’t simply shoot everyone for everything. Enough people have already died.”

  Jonathan looked down. “Yeah. Too many. Thanks for chasing me.”

  “What?”

  “If you didn’t chase me, you wouldn’t have found Cliff and we wouldn’t be a family now. Is it wrong that I’m happy about that?”

  “You can be happy about that and still miss your parents.” She smiled at him. “Love isn’t pie. There’s enough for everyone.”

  “I miss pie,” said Madison.

  “Yeah, Termite. Me too.”

  28

  First Date

  Seeing Madison settle in at school without protest offered Harper hope that her sister might eventually heal and stop being this broken shell of her former self.

  Mila stared eerily at her the whole few minutes she stood in the classroom to have a brief chat with Violet. The other kids either waved or ignored her, except Lorelei who ran over for a hug and yelled “Hi!”

  Harper headed straight home to get the shotgun, checked in at the HQ, and swung by the quartermaster’s place to see about winter boots. The building had become a scene of controlled chaos between two tractor-trailer loads of stuff and an attack. She spotted Liz Trujillo, the person in charge of resource distribution, standing by a huge pile of clothes with a clipboard. The woman had to be in her later thirties with high cheekbones, darkish brown skin, and long, straight black hair. She gave off an air of friendliness, but also authority… which might’ve come from her personality, or the giant silver revolver hanging from her belt.

  “Hi.” Harper walked up to her and tried not to smile when the woman turned out to be shorter than her. “Miss Trujillo?”

  “Bah. Don’t call me that. Makes me feel old. Liz is fine. You’re the new girl, right?”

  “Yeah. Are you on the militia, too?”

  “Nope. I manage this place, make sure people who need stuff get stuff and we don’t run out.”

  Harper gestured at the pistol. “But you’ve got a… is that a .44?”

  “Yep.” Liz smiled. “Big rats around here sometimes. And the militia doesn’t collect all weapons, just major hardware.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Does that happen often?”

  “First time. Usually, everything’s inside, so this place doesn’t look any different than an office building… but big pile of stuff out here at the moment.”

  Harper nodded. “Speaking of stuff… It’s gonna snow soon. Got anything better than sneakers? I used to have boots, but we kinda got chased out of our old house.”

  “Aww. What happened?”

  She gave Liz a brief version of the day her parents died. “We ran out the door with only what we had on.”

  “Well, you’re gonna need boots with the militia. Kids can stay inside if it’s too snowy, but no sense leaving stuff sitting here. Bring the little ones by later today or tomorrow and we’ll see if anything fits. There’s gotta be boots in this mess. Still working on sorting it.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  She shook hands and left Liz to her duties. For the remainder of the day, Harper walked around northern Evergreen, exploring and trying to memorize the lay of the land between Hilltop Drive and the middle school. The whole area west of Route 74 would become farm soon, though work on that project didn’t exactly progress too fast in November.

  Later in the afternoon, she spotted a handful of kids wandering along, among them Madison, Jonathan, and Lorelei. Most of the people not originally from Evergreen with children had been assigned to houses in the streets she’d been patrolling all day. Given the lack of cars, Anne-Marie had decided to keep them close to the school building to make life easier. Their house on Hilltop Drive made for a long walk. Only a handful of kids had to go that far.

  Walter told her to go ‘off shift’ when the kids got out of school. It kinda irked her in a way that he expected her to watch the kids while Cliff stayed with the militia all day, but her sister needed not to be alone. It didn’t seem right to leave ten-year-olds home without someone to watch them, especially with an active fireplace. More so with Lorelei along. Harper fell in step with them and walked home.

  Lorelei wanted to come over and play and Tyler hadn’t been at the school to pick her up, so Madison invited her over. Harper worried about him on the way back to the house. He’d seemed preoccupied with leaving Evergreen. Being bothered by that idea caught her off guard, and not entirely because it meant he’d be abandoning Lorelei. That made her angry with him, but she found herself feeling sad at not seeing him again.

  This, of course, pinked her cheeks with blush and got her scolding herself for being foolish the rest of the way to the house. Once home, Jonathan went straight to the fireplace. Everyone kept their coats on for the better part of the next hour until the house warmed up. The kids had eaten lunch at the school, though Harper hadn’t. She nibbled on stale pretzels while pretending to be a mother. Fortunately, the kids didn’t go too wild and spent the afternoon either doing dance routines, playing Uno, or running around the yard.

  A knock came from the door about an hour after the fire warmed the house enough that they no longer needed their coats on inside.

  Harper got up from the couch and hurried to the window, peering out at Tyler. He stood with his hands stuffed in his pockets, half turned away from the house like he almost regretted knocking and contemplated running.

  She pulled the door open. “Hi.”

  “Hey.” He looked up at her, but shied away, taking a step back. “I should probably go. Just wanted to check up on Lori.”

  “She followed Maddie and Jon. You didn’t pick her up at school. She’s a bit small to be on her own.”

  He scratched at his hair. “Sorry. I got lost. Went out for a walk and couldn’t figure out which way to go to get back to town.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m not still lost.”

  She folded her arms. “Obviously. You’re here.” Something about him triggered her need to take care of people. “C’mon in before you freeze. It’s a little warmer in here.”

  Tyler hesitated.

  “Heat’s escaping. Come on.”

  He stepped inside. “Where are the kids?”

  She shut the door. “Backyard.”

  They sat together on the couch.

  “Guessing your dad doesn’t like me that much.”

  “Probably thinks he has to protect me from all the boys or something.”

  Tyler chuckled.

  “I mean, not like there’s tons of boys here.”

  “Yeah.”

  They sat in awkward silence except for the joyful shouts and squeals of the kids outside.

  Harper thought about her handful of past boyfriends. None had progressed much beyond making out. Most lasted only a few weeks since they hadn’t been into her as much as fascinated by ‘the redhead.’ Of the two she stayed with for a couple months, one she broke up with after a fight because he wanted to go all the way and she didn’t. The other skipped arguing over her desire to wait and got what he wanted from another girl on the sly. Not that Harper had any old fashioned need to ‘save herself for marriage’ or anything like that. She just wanted it to ‘feel right’ before taking things that far. For most of her high school days, she’d fantasized about an idealistic romantic moment when she finally agreed to give up her virginity to the storybook-perfect boyfriend in a storybook-perfect moment.

  She fidgeted at her jeans. That fairy tale moment would never come, at least not without a dusting of nuclear ashes. Someone changed the genre of her life story from cute romance movie to wasteland survival. At least they left out the zombies. She still felt no great urgency to hook up with a boy, especially considering an unexpected pregnancy had far worse potential complica
tions now than simply screwing up college or causing her to become socially ostracized. She doubted anyone in Evergreen would look down their noses at a pregnant seventeen-year-old. In fact, reproduction had become super important. No, the problem lay in knowing they’d metaphorically gone back in time. Pregnancy could kill her.

  However, she couldn’t help but feel something about Tyler. Exactly what, however, eluded her. Worry for him, worry that he might not be equipped to handle Lorelei, pity for the boy who didn’t get along with his parents, a bit of attraction to his disheveled, shy demeanor, and the way his broken smile stirred a sensation deep in her stomach all mashed together into a giant ball of confusion.

  Perhaps Cliff’s reaction to him had come from noticing her reaction to him. Had she been giving off signs of interest without even knowing? Gah. I don’t even know him. It’s not like me to go after the first boy I see in a new town. She smirked to herself. It’s not like me to shoot people either. How messed up is it that I’m more afraid of speaking in public than shooting a bad guy now? Crap. I’m as broken as Maddie.

  “So, umm… what happened with your parents that you guys don’t get along?”

  Tyler shrugged. “We, uhh, didn’t get along. I got tired of hearing how much of a failure I was going to be, so I left.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. A friend of mine had demanding parents like that, too. They used to scream at her if she got Bs. To hear them go off on her, you’d think she got caught doing cocaine and cutting school.”

  “That sucks.”

  They talked for a while about life before the war. She spoke of missing her friends and how she still hadn’t really come to terms with losing her parents. Hearing him be so blasé about his parents possibly being dead bothered her, but she likened it to how she felt about Mr. Cartwright, the mean-spirited chemistry teacher she’d had sophomore year. No one at her old school liked him, especially girls who he always graded more harshly. Rumor said he didn’t believe women belonged in science, so he tried to make the experience so awful they wouldn’t pursue it. If that man died during the bombing, she wouldn’t really care.

  Tyler told her of how he’d lived with a couple guys his age in an apartment after he’d stormed out of his childhood home. For a little over a year, he shared a place with two potheads, a yoga instructor, and this guy Carl, a computer geek who totally didn’t fit in with the others. Still, the nerd had the best job and probably could’ve made rent on his own, so he wound up being the ‘adult in the room.’ Tyler had no idea what happened to any of them. He’d been at work when the blast happened. By the time he got back to his apartment, they’d all left.

  “Stayed there for a while in the basement, raiding other apartments for food. Finally decided to go check out the world. Grabbed most of my stuff and headed out. Couple days later, I heard what I thought was a cat stuck in a sewer. Turned out to be Lori talking in her sleep.”

  “That was so sweet of you to help her.” Harper leaned against him.

  “What else could I do? She looked so pathetic. She’d been alone ever since the blast. Couldn’t just leave her there to die, yanno?”

  “Yeah.” She stared into his eyes, wondering if her presence put him on edge and made him sit in such a rigid posture.

  He swallowed. “So, umm… you’re happy here?”

  “I guess. I’d rather the war didn’t happen, but since it did…” She caught herself leaning closer to him, not understanding why.

  Tyler sat as still as a deer paralyzed by the headlights of an approaching big rig, staring at her as their lips drew closer. Seconds after their lips made contact, the doorknob rattled. Harper jumped back, certain her cheeks had become as red as her hair.

  Cliff walked in, not looking at either of them on his way to the kitchen. “Hey. Got more venison.”

  “Cool.” Harper squeezed Tyler’s hand and whispered, “Relax. Please don’t go. It’s fine.”

  He nodded.

  She got up and hurried after Cliff. “Need help?”

  “Harper…” He set a bundle of meat on the counter next to a giant can and turned to face her. “It’s not my place to tell you who you can or can’t get involved with. I just want you to be careful, okay? I realize there aren’t really any other kids here your age, but don’t think you’ve gotta do anything with him because he’s here.”

  “I don’t.” Harper glanced away, certain he’d rattled the knob on purpose to give her warning. “And thank you for being protective. It’s sweet.”

  He smiled for a few seconds, then shot a serious look at the living room.

  “You don’t like him,” whispered Harper.

  “Ehh. Might just be too much time as a mall guard. He’s the kinda kid I’d have kept my eye on. Something about him I can’t put my finger on. Just be careful and don’t get hurt, okay?”

  Harper nodded. “Okay.”

  The giant can looked like something from a school cafeteria, big enough for a severed head to fit inside. Peas. This hunk of venison almost doubled the size of the other one he’d brought, so it would be plenty to feed everyone. Tyler excused himself and left with a ‘be back in a bit.’ Perhaps twenty minutes later, he returned with a loaf of sliced bread, some kind of heavy grain-and-nut health food creation they’d brought back from Walmart because it hadn’t looked bad even after sitting for two months.

  It did have a little mold, though Cliff sliced the fuzzy parts off and declared the rest safe. Harper practically gagged at the idea of eating bread that had been moldy, even in a small spot. Mom would’ve fainted in disgust. Still, the desire not to starve proved more powerful than a non-broken society’s definition of edible.

  The kids came inside while the food cooked and occupied themselves with Uno. Cliff tended the pots while Harper ran around the house tidying up and cleaning as best she could with the supplies on hand.

  Over dinner, Cliff mentioned he’d arrived home a bit later than normal due to having to deal with a deceased guy found in one of the houses to the southeast. He kept the details kid safe, but it sounded like natural causes. They’d found old insulin injectors in the kitchen trash, so as best anyone could figure, the man had been diabetic and ran out of medical supplies.

  The story seemed to rattle Tyler. He fell silent, head down, refusing to look at anyone. Harper prodded him with a few inquiring glances, but he didn’t make eye contact. He fidgeted and kept looking at the front door. Given his unkempt longish hair and frumpy clothes, she thought of him a bit like Jack Dawson having dinner with the high society crowd where he totally didn’t belong. Only, Tyler didn’t fake it anywhere near as well.

  Madison again cried the whole time she ate, but finished her portion of venison. Dad had teased her when the whole vegetarian thing started a few years ago. Madison stumbled across a video of someone keeping a chicken as a pet, and it appeared to show affection for its owner the way any cat or dog might. Ever since, her little sister couldn’t bear the thought of eating animals. Dad thought it silly at first and teased her about hugging trees and such. Despite him not being mean about it, a few too many jokes eventually set off an explosion of tears. Ever since, he’d let the little vegetarian have her meatless existence in peace.

  After dinner, Harper sat with Tyler on the sofa, Cliff in the recliner off to their right. He’d moved the chair from the other side so it didn’t put his back to the door. They talked about high school and the sorts of crappy jobs teenagers worked as though everything remained normal. He seemed to relax, and no longer looked ready to run screaming out the door the second no one watched him.

  With Cliff right there, Harper couldn’t bring herself to even think about kissing him again, or even going for his hand. That she wanted to confused her.

  Eventually, it started to get dark. Between the danger of candles and lack of electricity, ‘bedtime’ coincided with the end of daylight. Not being able to see a darn thing tended to get in the way of doing stuff, so the kids didn’t protest going to sleep way earlier than they would have norma
lly. Of course, they also woke up at sunrise, so it balanced out.

  All three kids scrambled into the living room and stood in a cluster, eyeing Cliff and Harper.

  “Can Lorelei sleep over?” asked Madison.

  “Pleeeeease?” chirped the six-year-old.

  “Sure,” said Tyler without any hesitation.

  Cliff shot him a look, then made a ‘what do you think’ expression at Harper.

  She scrunched her eyebrows. Why are you asking me? Am I big sis or Mom? “Umm. Okay.”

  Harper set up a sleeping bag on top of a sleeping bag (for extra padding) in her and Madison’s room. She left the kids to get ready for bed and headed back to the living room. Cliff sat alone in the recliner, reading by candlelight.

  Did he leave? She looked at the front windows, the kitchen, and back down the hall—the open bathroom door said he hadn’t gone in there.

  “Where’s Tyler?”

  Cliff pointed at the kitchen. “Went out the back door.”

  “Excuse me?” asked a tiny voice.

  She turned to find a rather naked Lorelei standing there holding one of Harper’s T-shirts. Madison and Jonathan peered around the doorjamb of the girls’ bedroom, snickering.

  “Is it okay if I wear this to sleep?” asked Lorelei.

  Harper laughed. “Yeah. It’s fine.”

  “Thank you!” Lorelei pulled the shirt on and ran back to the bedroom.

  “That one’s going to be a handful.” Cliff chuckled. “Fearless and full of energy.”

  “So happy, too,” whispered Harper. “Even after everything she’s been through.”

  “Kids are resilient.” Cliff turned a page and glanced over at her with a ‘that goes for you, too’ wink.

  “Some more than others.” The relatively happy sounding chatter coming from the bedroom eased her worry about Madison. She crossed the kitchen to the back door and pulled the curtain away from the window.

  Tyler stood a short distance into the yard, staring up at the sky. She ran to the dining room to grab her coat from the back of a chair, then slipped outside. The blast of chill shocked her; she hadn’t realized how warm a simple fireplace could make a house.