She clung to her sisters, half protecting them, half seeking comfort herself. Too many worries swam around in her head to allow sleep in easily: starvation, radiation, attacks, the Lawless gang, what became of her friends, and lingering survivor’s guilt over her parents’ deaths.
Eventually, the warmth of a cozy bed and two small bodies cuddled up to her lulled her into a bleak dream of wandering endless fields of rubbled city. Madison, Jonathan, and Lorelei called her name repeatedly from every direction at once, leading her through the ruins.
Madison screamed from right beside her. In her dream, Harper spun to find her sister standing there in a nightgown, mouth wide open, shrieking for no apparent reason. The instant Harper grasped the girl’s shoulders, she snapped awake to find Madison screaming for real.
“Maddie?” Harper sat up and pulled her into an embrace. “Shh. It’s okay. You’re safe.”
Madison clung, her screaming fading to soft sobs.
The bedroom door opened. Cliff leaned in, one eye open wide, the other still closed.
“Nightmare,” whispered Harper.
Cliff nodded, emitted a zombie-like moan, and backed out, closing the door.
Lorelei didn’t react, not even a twitch.
Harper sat there holding Madison for a while, sometimes gently rocking her, sometimes patting her back or squeezing her arm. Eventually, the girl stopped crying and stared into space.
“Wanna talk about it?” whispered Harper.
“I gotta go to the bathroom.”
“Okay.” Harper relaxed the hug.
Madison stared at her, pleading.
Oh, boy. That must’ve been a good one. She nodded, eased Lorelei to one side, and slipped out of bed with Madison, who refused to let go of her hand until they closed the bathroom door.
“Don’t watch. Just… be here.”
“’Kay.” Harper turned her back, ‘standing guard’ at the door.
A moment later, the toilet flushed. Madison walked up beside her. “Sorry for being a scaredy cat.”
If I don’t pee now, I’ll have to go an instant before I fall asleep. Grr. “It’s fine. The stuff we’ve survived, I should be having nightmares, too. Sec. Gonna pee.”
Madison turned her back to wait.
Once finished, Harper took her sister’s hand and walked with her to their bed. Madison curled up at her side, head resting on her shoulder. As if sensing their return in her sleep, Lorelei rolled back into place under Harper’s left arm.
“It’s totally fine to have bad dreams and freak out,” whispered Harper. “We saw… you know.”
Madison shivered. “Yeah. Thank you for protecting me. It’s really scary now. I’m like constantly afraid and I hate it. I want the world to go back to normal. Is it ever gonna feel safe again? I wanna wake up from this nightmare.”
A gurgle slipped out of Harper’s throat, her heart nearly breaking at those words. Warm tears fell from her eyes, rolling down the sides of her head to gather in her ears. “I dunno, Termite. I’m doing everything I can to keep you safe, but… I can’t say that we’ll ever feel safe again like we used to.”
“I know.” Madison clung tighter.
Harper squeezed her hand. “Hey, at least we don’t have to worry about being hit by cars anymore.”
“That’s not really a good thing. I’m sorry you can’t go be a party girl at college.”
“Hah. Me? Party?”
Madison emitted a whispery chuckle. “Thanks for keeping me safe. Sorry you had to shoot people. But I’m glad you didn’t let them hurt me.”
“I’m going to say something sappy.”
“Shocking.”
Harper smiled despite tears still running from her eyes. “You’re the only reason I didn’t just give up after Mom and Dad died. I had to protect you. And now, I’ve got Jonathan and Lorelei, as well.”
“Are we gonna make it? Starving sounds really bad.”
“We’re working on it. It’s not going to be easy, but there’s no way I’m going to give up.”
Madison managed a feeble smile. “I promise I won’t still be a little wimp when I’m grown up.”
“You’re not a wimp, Termite. You’re the toughest ten-year-old I know.”
“I’m not tough. That’s Mila. She threw a knife at some guy’s eye—twice.”
Harper brushed Madison’s hair off her face. “Everything we’ve seen, and you’re still able to smile right now… you’re as tough as it gets.”
“You, too.” Madison’s lip quivered, but she didn’t cry again. “We should go to sleep before Cliff yells at us.”
“Good idea.” Harper closed her eyes and waited.
Sleep. Yeah right.
10
A Box of Ghosts
Saturday, June second, 2019 started like any other day after the end of the world.
Harper and Madison both overslept a bit, but it didn’t matter since neither of them needed to be anywhere specific that day. By the time she’d had enough of lying awake in bed, hit the bathroom, got dressed except for shoes, and walked out to the kitchen, Cliff had left the house. She emerged from the hall into the dining room area between kitchen and living room and stopped to yawn a few times. Jonathan sat on the sofa, reading a book on plant identification.
“Hey.” He twisted around to look at her. “Cliff had to do some militia stuff. He said you don’t need to worry about it and he’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.” She trudged over to the kitchen and reached for the cabinet above the sink for some of the box cereal they had left.
A scrap of whitish pink caught her eye to the right: a small nightgown on the floor by the back door.
Not again.
With a sigh, she peered out the window over the sink at the yard, where Lorelei sat in the grass playing with some old Barbie dolls. Neither the six-year-old nor any of the dolls had a scrap of clothing on. Shaking her head, Harper set the cereal on the counter and stepped to the door, leaning outside.
“Lore!”
The girl looked up, smiling.
“C’mere.”
Lorelei sprang to her feet and ran over, a Barbie in each hand. “Morning!”
“Why is your nightgown on the floor?”
She swayed side to side. “Daddy said I couldn’t go outside wearing it.”
“Why are you naked?”
“’Cause I don’t have anything on.”
“Why are you outside naked?”
“’Cause Daddy told me not to go outside with a nightie on.”
Harper face-palmed. “Please, go get dressed.”
“Okay.” She ducked around Harper and zipped down the hall, nearly crashing into Madison in the doorway.
I’d ask why she didn’t get dressed before, but she’d say Cliff didn’t tell her to. He probably assumed she would change.
Madison walked into the kitchen, doing the T-shirt, jeans, and barefoot thing, too. She pointed over her shoulder with a thumb. “Lore forgot her clothes again.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” Harper picked up the nightgown, set it on the counter for the time being, and dumped cereal into two bowls.
“It hasn’t been that long since the nukes. We’re not supposed to go tribal already, are we?” Madison swung around to face the hall. “I’ll go make sure she doesn’t do something silly like just put on a hat and call that dressed.”
“We have hats?” Harper raised an eyebrow.
“No, just saying. You know how she is. She’ll put on just socks, or just a shirt, or wear her underpants on her head.”
“Yeah. But that, I think she does to make us laugh on purpose.” Harper carried the bowls to the table and sat, getting started on her dry Corn Pops cereal.
A few minutes later, Lorelei ran by in an off-white dress and went outside again. Madison took her seat and proceeded to eat her breakfast by the handful. The two of them eating filled the silence with munching for a while.
Madison looked up with a quizzical expression. “There are nineteen
cows on the farm. Why are we eating cereal dry?”
“Because, the doctors have been protesting raw milk until they figure out a way to pasteurize it. Plus, we didn’t have refrigeration before. I don’t think they trust that the power’s going to stay on yet either. It’s been going in and out all the time.”
“Yeah.” Madison frowned.
“Fuzzy!” yelled Lorelei.
“Uh oh.” Harper leapt to her feet, nearly knocking her cereal across the table, and rushed to the door expecting a bear—but found Lorelei waving at a small, brown rabbit. “Ugh.” Since a small rabbit didn’t pose a threat, she returned to the table and resumed eating.
After finishing her cereal, Madison ran outside to keep Lorelei company. Harper dusted off the bowls and put them away before retrieving the compound bow from the hall closet. Jonathan, evidently having had enough of the plant book for the time being, also ran outside.
When Harper entered the yard holding the bow, the kids relocated around to the front of the house, trying to stay clear of her archery practice. She’d gotten much better at grouping, but didn’t want to take any chances a weird bounce or misfire could hurt someone. That would’ve been horrible enough in the modern world. With the limited medical assistance available, she worried about even the smallest injuries.
As she did every few days, Harper proceeded to practice firing the compound bow, working on rapid aiming as well as grouping. At some point soon, she’d have to go out to Route 74 and set up a long range target, since her backyard only had so much space.
Becca and Mila arrived not quite an hour later, along with another eleven-year-old from the school, Christopher Dominguez. Harper paused her archery practice as the kids ran into the backyard, cutting through on their way to the street behind the house. There, they proceeded to organize into smallish teams to play street soccer.
Harper found it difficult to imagine shooting a moving target with a bow just yet, though more often than not, she landed her four practice arrows inside a four-inch circle. Cliff had rambled on the other day about medieval archers, saying they hadn’t usually worried about pinpoint accuracy since they merely lobbed thousands of arrows in the general direction of a huge crowd, hoping to hit someone in a vital spot.
If I need to use this thing for real, it’s not going to be an invading army… at least I really effing hope not.
While practicing, she kept her attention on the children to the point her accuracy suffered a little. Not as much as it should have, which quietly impressed her for being able to aim while only one-third focused on the target. Dread that someone could jump out and hurt the kids at any minute haunted her. Nothing specific had her on edge, but between the shadow men and Scott the barista more recently, the notion of Evergreen being as safe as a pre-war suburb shattered, perhaps irreparably.
Shortly before noon, Cliff exited the house via the back door and walked over to her.
“Hand-to-hand time?” Harper lowered the bow.
“Actually… I had a slightly different idea in mind.” He stuck his fingers in his mouth, letting off a loud whistle. When the kids all looked, he beckoned them with a wave.
“Are you going to start teaching jiu-jitsu to the kids, too?”
“Nah.” He put an arm around her. “Well, maybe. But not today.”
Suspiciously, the kids ran by and went inside as if they’d been expecting his summons.
Cliff guided Harper to the door and into the kitchen where the kids, Carrie, Renee, Grace, and Logan stood beside the table, surrounding a plain brown cake. A Post-it note affixed to an ordinary house candle in the middle of the cake bore the number 18. The sight of everyone there smiling at her felt like a hug that came with a knife slicing her belly open for a painful samurai death.
It gutted her to face the first birthday her parents wouldn’t be there for. Seeing her friends, siblings and sorta-parents smiling at her prevented her from having a complete emotional breakdown. The clash between sorrow and feeling loved closed her throat off with a giant lump.
“Guys,” she rasped.
“Happy birthday, Harp!” Madison beamed at her, clearly having been in on it.
“Please excuse the sticky note. Wasn’t much icing left.” Carrie ushered her up to the table. “Go on, make a wish.”
She looked at her siblings one after the next, and closed her eyes. Please let them be safe and healthy. Harper leaned forward and puffed out the candle.
Everyone clapped.
“What ’cha wish for?” chirped Lorelei.
“She can’t say, or it won’t come true.” Madison shook her head.
Carrie handed her a pink book, a blank diary. “Not sure if girls still even do this, but I figured you might be interested.”
“Thank you.” Harper hugged her, still barely able to talk.
Madison gave her a small faerie music box, knowing she had a thing for faeries. “Happy birthday, Harp.”
“Thanks, Termite.” She squeezed her.
Jonathan gave her a box of Hostess cupcakes.
“Thank you, kiddo.” She hugged him.
Lorelei handed her a white sundress still in the Walmart packaging.
“Aww. Thanks, sweetie.”
Renee gave her a bundle of novels, and Grace handed over a pack of black, lacy underthings.
“Oh, umm… wow. Thanks.” Harper blushed.
“That’s more a present for him,” muttered Cliff while wagging his eyebrows at Logan.
Harper wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.
Logan coughed, his cheeks reddening slightly. He pulled a large teddy bear—the size of a three-year-old child—out from behind his back and handed it to her. “When I was roaming the shelves at the QM, I couldn’t stop going back to this little guy. Maybe it’s silly, but the war took too much innocence out of the world. I hoped I could maybe give you back a little.”
Grace and Renee whispered, “Aww” simultaneously. Madison and Lorelei grinned. Jonathan looked off to the side. Carrie wiped a tear. Cliff gave Logan the ‘you hurt her and you’ll regret it’ stare.
“Umm.” Harper took the bear, choked up at the gesture. “Thanks.”
“What’d you get her?” asked Carrie, eyeing Cliff.
“Oh, just a few random things.” He held up a ‘one sec’ finger and headed to the front door.
Harper, too overcome by the teddy bear, didn’t pay much attention to a slight commotion in the living room. She hugged Logan with one arm, the bear clutched in the other, trying her damndest not to give in to tears. Why did he have to make me think of Mom and Dad?
“Hope you’re not mad at me,” whispered Logan.
“No. It’s really sweet. Just emotional about everything.” She bit her lip, resisting the urge to complain that she had been hoping no one made a big deal of her birthday.
Cliff, Ken Zhang, Fred Mitchell, and Deacon came in lugging two large trunks between the four of them.
Confusion blanked Harper’s mood. “What the heck?”
“Did you guys break the one item rule?” asked Renee.
Cliff backed into the kitchen and set his end of the box down. Ken lowered the other.
Fred and Deacon set the other trunk next to it, then approached to wish her happy birthday.
“Used to tell people two more to the big one when they turned eighteen.” Deacon patted her on the back, grinning. “If someone hit twenty-one, I’d say ‘all downhill from here,’ but I ain’t gonna say that no more. I’ll get back to ya next year when I come up with a new birthday line.”
“Heh. Thanks.” She hugged the big guy.
“Go on, open ’em.” Fred winked.
Harper eyed Cliff. “What did you guys do? That better not be full of like deer meat or something.”
“Nah. You’re either going to be happy or wanna kill me.” Cliff fake cringed.
“Oh, boy.” Harper walked up to the box on the left, knelt, and lifted the lid, getting a blast of ‘wet fabric’ smell.
Inside l
ay a collection of clothes, books, and random junk. She stared at it, not sure what to make of such a bizarre treasure chest… until she spotted a tiny gold shotgun on the tip of a trophy sticking out from under a green sweater. Hand shaking, she lifted the wool, revealing the award she’d won for shooting when she’d been thirteen. She stared at her name engraved on the small plaque at the bottom, her mind replaying her father going nuts with joy that whole day.
The sweater she moved had been a Christmas gift from Mom two years ago. The contents of the trunk slam-shifted from miscellaneous junk to all the stuff she’d been forced to abandon in her bedroom back home in Lakewood. Some of it had a coating of plaster dust. Framed pictures of her parents with her and Madison at varying ages, more trophies, a fair amount of her clothes, another pair of sneakers, and the small army of stuffed animals that had been on her bed.
Madison squeaked and gawked at Cliff in complete shock.
Too stunned to even breathe, Harper lifted the second trunk’s lid. That one contained things from Madison’s room. Mostly clothing, dolls, music boxes, some dance awards, and even the ceramic Starbucks mug she always used for hot cocoa. He’d essentially collected what he considered useful (clothing) or highly sentimental.
Madison ran over, pawed at the stuff for a moment, then clamped a hand over her mouth.
“We made an unscheduled stop on that last scav run to, umm, grab you a birthday present.” Cliff hooked his thumbs in his pockets.
Harper stared at the framed photo that had been on her dresser: Mom, Dad, her at about fourteen, and Madison at seven. Her parents looked a little strange. It hit her that she’d started to forget exactly what their faces looked like. The entirety of it all—the day in general, everyone being there, the reminder of all that had been lost—proved too much. She collapsed over the trunk, bawling.
“Ahh, shit,” muttered Cliff. He took a knee and put an arm around her back. “Sorry. I didn’t think—”
She spun into a hug, clinging to him while managing a teary, “Thank you.”
“You didn’t tell me you were gonna go there.” Madison gawked at him. “You said you wanted to know what our old address was so you could avoid the bad guys.”
The Lucky Ones (Evergreen Book 3) Page 10
