by Payne, T. L.
They spent hours stringing the fishhooks between any opening in the trees along the road. On the one hand, Lucy worried about trapping themselves on the farm. If they needed to make a hasty retreat, they themselves could fall victim to the spikes and hooks. Lucy ran her finger over the sharp barb of the treble hook hanging at eye level. Although the wounds from their boobytraps might not prove immediately deadly, they’d slow an attacker down. Without antibiotics, the wounds could cause a deadly infection.
She stared at a gash in her finger from stringing the fishing line. What would they all do to treat cuts in the future? Minor wounds were inevitable. A splinter from carrying firewood could get infected. Wouldn’t it suck to survive all this and be taken out by a papercut?
Lucy and Sheena carefully backtracked, ducking under strings of deadly fishhooks to make their way back to the house. Brandon, Antonio, and Tom had the windows boarded up, and the house was wonderfully warm.
“Is that coffee I smell?” Lucy said as she stripped her coat off at the front door.
“Yeah. I thought we’d likely not be getting much sleep tonight,” Tom said.
Lucy hung her coat on the hook in the closet and slipped out of her boots. Her toes were numb. What she wouldn’t give for a warmer pair of boots.
“I’m starving. Is there any clam chowder left?” Lucy asked. They were going through the store of canned goods a lot faster than Lucy thought they would. When they’d arrived, and she’d taken the first look at the pantry, she thought they’d be good for the winter, but with so many mouths to feed and the amount of physical labor it required just to keep the house warm and animals cared for, they’d gone through a lot of food already. Rationing would need to be a topic of conversation soon. She’d wait until Raine got back. If she made it back. Lucy was still pissed at her for running off with Scott.
She’ll be back. They’ll find JJ and they’ll all be back. She refused to think otherwise.
Lucy and Sheena warmed their hands and feet by the wood stove as Antonio dumped cans of veggies into a stockpot and placed it on the stove to heat. The coffee warmed Lucy’s insides, and the heat made her eyelids feel heavy. What she wouldn’t give for a hot bath and a very long nap.
As she watched DeAndre folding paper into shapes at the table, she pictured her nephews and nieces gathered around her mother’s table. Were they warm? Did they have something to eat today? Her son was strong and resourceful. She was sure he’d do what he could to see that the family ate. Lucy refused to allow herself to think that her family had to fight for survival the way she’d had to do. It was safer in the small town they lived in. Lucy's family was well known, and their community would have pulled together. Father Murphy would have seen to that, no doubt. The thought of her family made her homesick. When things calmed down here, when Raine and the others got back, she would tell them all about her plan to head home. The idea of traveling alone terrified her, but her desire to be with her family overrode her fear.
“Someone’s here,” Brandon yelled.
Sheena grabbed DeAndre by the arm and pushed him toward the basement door. Lucy was already heading to the back door, rifle raised. “How many, Brandon?” she yelled.
“I can’t tell yet. Hold on.”
“You stay down there and hide until one of us comes for you. You hear me?” Sheena said as she kissed DeAndre on the cheek. He hugged her tight and wouldn’t let go.
“Stay with me, Momma. I’m scared.”
Sheena peeled his arms from around her neck and pushed him toward to the first step. “I can’t, Dee. I have to stop the bad men.”
“Momma!” DeAndre cried.
“I’ll be right back. Now go.”
Sheena slammed the door shut.
“There’s at least two moving through the woods,” Brandon yelled.
Lucy stopped at the corner of the house and looked down the drive toward the gate.
“See anything?” Sheena asked.
“I see four. Looks to be two men and two women.”
“Armed?” Sheena asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m going to try to make it to the barn. I’ll have a better shot from that angle. Cover me,” Sheena said. She took off running and dropped behind the tractor.
Lucy pulled the rifle to her cheek and looked into its scope. She sucked in a quick breath.
“Sheena! No! Don’t shoot,” Lucy yelled a second before hearing the report of Sheena’s rifle.
"Oh my God, Raine. Tell me you’re okay. Please be okay,” Sheena yelled as she sprinted toward the gate.
Lucy arrived a second before her. She dropped to her knees beside JJ. “Where is she hit?”
“I so sorry, Raine. I thought—” Sheena cried.
“I’m okay. I just tripped when I heard the shot. I’m fine,” Raine said. “Help me up. My ass is freezing.”
Lucy couldn’t take her eyes off JJ’s battered face as she and Sheena helped Raine to her feet. “It’s so good to see you, JJ.”
JJ turned and walked off. “Thanks,” she said over her shoulder.
Lucy leaned in close to Raine. “Is she okay? I mean, besides the bruises?”
“She’s been through a lot.” Raine glanced back at Scott and Aiden. “We all have.”
“What happened here?” Aiden asked.
Lucy turned to face him. “We were attacked.” Her heart sank as she realized they didn’t know about Nick.
“Wait! JJ. Wait up. I need to tell you…”
“Is it clear?” Buddy called as he and Jim stepped into the clearing.
“It’s clear,” Sheena yelled back.
JJ turned. “What do you need to tell me?”
“I think we should all go inside,” Sheena said. “It’s cold, and Dee will be worried.”
“What do you have to tell me?” JJ asked again, more insistent this time.
“Sheena’s right. We should go inside,” Lucy said.
JJ whipped back around and headed toward the door. Brandon was standing in the doorway, his pistol at his side. He stepped aside and let her in.
Chapter 32
Lucy stared at the cut on Jim’s face. The fresh blood dripping from the gash just below his left eye told her that he’d been hooked in one of their traps. Jim reached up and dabbed the blood with a bandana. He glared at her, and she looked away.
Everyone peeled out of wet outer clothes and huddled by the stove in the family room. Jim sat on the sofa next to JJ. He slid his hand into hers. He looked so pained as he stared at her bruises. Antonio lit several candles and took a seat in a chair pulled in from the kitchen.
Buddy leaned against the wall by the door to the kitchen. “You mind if I stay a sec and find what happened here?” Buddy asked. Raine shook her head. James handed Buddy a kitchen chair, and the two joined the others near the stove. Antonio shoved a stick of wood into the stove. He avoided eye contact with Raine as he took his seat.
Raine glanced around the room. “Where’s Gage?”
No one answered her.
“Tell us what happened,” Jim said.
Brandon cleared his throat. “As you may have noticed, while you were gone, we were attacked.”
He sat awkwardly with his leg extended in front of him. His jeans were torn and bloody. Raine’s breathing quickened. She swallowed hard and blinked back tears. Raine lifted DeAndre onto her lap and pulled him tight. In his hand, he held his toy soldier. Raine stared down at the little soldier as Brandon and Lucy described the attack on the farm.
Aiden jumped up and stomped around the living room, vowing revenge, but Jim sat still and silent. He lowered his head into his hands and wept. It was heart-wrenching. Raine looked away. She tried with all her might to rein in her emotions, but witnessing their grief threatened to unleash her own. She’d often been ambushed by grief in the last few years since her brother’s death. This was not the time. This family had lost a son. JJ and Aiden had lost a brother. Raine fought the urge to get up and run from the room. She needed to stuff her
own pain down and be there for them. She knew all too well that there was nothing to be said that would ease their pain in the slightest. But her action or inaction could make it worse.
Raine wiped tears from her chin and placed DeAndre on the floor next to Sheena. Scott slid his arm around JJ, and she stiffened. She looked up. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She looked so broken—so defeated and so unlike the strong, confident woman of a few days ago. That was to be expected, Raine imagined. What she’d been through in the last few days would break anyone. The whole scene just broke Raine’s heart. There’d been so much death, so much pain and anguish since the lights went out. It was almost too much to bear. Raine stroked DeAndre’s arm and glanced over to Sheena. If the two of them could bear it, so could she. She just needed some air—just a minute to pull herself together—and then she’d be there for her friends.
“I’m going to bring in some more firewood,” Raine said, sliding her arms through the sleeves of her coat.
“I’ll help you,” Buddy said.
When they reached the back door, Raine whispered, “I just need a minute.”
“I know. I’ll have your back. You guys need to be more defensive after today. You should never leave the house without a buddy.”
“I thought that it would be over now that the threat from the cartel was gone,” Raine said.
“Let’s talk outside,” Buddy said, pushing open the storm door.
“It could get worse as news of the slain girls spreads through the community. They’ll all have dozens of grieving relatives, many with reactions just like Aiden's. They’ll want someone to pay. JJ’s husband and the cartel are dead.”
Raine leaned against the tractor’s tire. Her head was spinning. They weren’t safe here. They’d never be safe here. DeAndre! They couldn’t keep him safe.
"What are we supposed to do? We have nowhere else to go." Raine held her hand out, palm up. "And this damn weather isn’t letting up. We’d freeze to death on the road. We don’t have the gear to head off into the woods and survive. We don’t have the skills."
She felt herself slipping down into a familiar pit of despair. The hopelessness of their situation crashed into her like a tidal wave.
“I’ll pull together some people. Good people. Folks like Maggie, Clive, and James. We’ll help you secure this place and see what we can do to calm people down. I’m going to call a town meeting tomorrow. With the sheriff gone, the community needs to decide if they want to elect someone to be their local law enforcement.”
Raine sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Who does that?
The man who, until today, had been a stranger to her was offering to risk his life to protect her and the group. It was overwhelming beyond words. The cynical part of her didn’t trust that his motives were that pure. People just didn’t put their lives on the line for complete strangers like that. Raine looked up. She studied him for a moment.
“What did you say you did for a living—before the world went to shit?”
“Buddy?” James called from the door.
“Over here.”
Raine wondered if James would be one of the ones that Buddy asked to help them secure the farm. He seemed very capable. Didn’t these people have homes and families of their own to protect?
“Jim wants to leave now. They’re talking about making a litter and dragging his son’s body all the way home to Marble Hills. That’s over fifty miles. There’s no way they’d make it that far. They aren’t thinking straight right now.”
Buddy pursed his lips. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked to the sky.
“I guess we could loan him that old white truck. It needs a battery and a tank of fuel, but it should start and run okay,” Buddy finally said.
“I got a battery if you have fuel to spare,” James said.
“Hell, I don’t have any to spare. They won’t be making any more of it, but I can’t let them folks walk that far. Not after all they've been through. Especially that girl. She wouldn’t make it a mile in her condition.”
“Okay. I’ll go tell them,” James said, turning toward the house. He took a few steps and turned back around. “I’ll stop by and see if Derek and Saul will ride along with them. They may need an extra hand or two—just in case they encounter trouble on the road. Those two can bring the truck back after they drop them off.”
“That’ll work,” Buddy said.
He paused.
“And James, send Taylor and the boys over this way, would ya?”
“You staying a bit?”
“Yeah. I want to find out who strung up all those damn fishhooks in the woods,” Buddy said, holding up his hand.
“Gotcha, did it?”
“Hell yeah. The hooks caught me in the throat and damn near took my eyes out.”
James laughed and went inside to tell Jim and Aiden about the truck.
It took some convincing, but Jim and Aiden agreed to wait until morning to leave. James returned at sunrise with two well-armed men and the most beat-up truck Raine had ever seen.
“Are you sure that thing will make it?” Raine asked, leaning in close to Buddy.
“Oh yeah. She’s mechanically sound. She just looks beat to hell.”
“She looks like she rolled down a mountain,” Raine said.
“Nope. I got that old truck from Russell’s daddy. He used it to feed that old bull of his.”
“A bull did all that?”
“Not all of it. Some of it was that devil ram. I swear, those two are the meanest animals on the planet. Russ Senior just keeps them around for amusement. Someone pulls down his drive, and he gets a free show.”
Raine chuckled.
James backed the truck up to the barn and hopped out. He and the two men helped Jim and Aiden carry Nick and place him into the bed of the truck. Raine closed her eyes. Anger rose inside her. How many times was she going to have to witness this very scene? It was like a looping nightmare. At this rate, would anyone be left alive by the end of winter?
Scott led JJ to the barn and opened the truck door. She stood in the opening and stared into the bed. Raine slowly approached her. She didn’t know what to say. She felt such a connection to JJ. They’d shared so much in such a short time, and now they’d both lost brothers. She hated that JJ had to feel that pain. She knew how much it hurt to lose a brother. Raine's David had been an encouraging mentor. JJ’s David turned out to be a sadistic, evil man that had brought all this pain to them. No one would mourn him.
Raine stepped close and took JJ’s hand in hers. “I’m going to miss you. I hope I’m able to see you again someday. Maybe when the world is back to normal.”
JJ looked up. Her face was expressionless. “The world will never get back to normal, Raine. You better toughen the hell up, or you all are going to die.”
JJ pulled her hand away, turned, and climbed into the truck. Raine just stood there with her mouth open. She felt like someone had punched her in the gut. Raine gulped back tears and backed away. JJ pulled the door shut and stared straight ahead.
“She's just hurting,” Scott whispered.
Raine glanced at him.
“She didn’t mean it.”
Raine bobbed her head. “Yes, she did. She did, and she’s right.” Raine turned and walked down the drive. She was right. There wasn’t time for weakness or grieving anymore. They were in a battle for their lives. People were dying. They were losing people nearly every day. Raine watched as the old truck approached her. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever see them again. Fifty miles in the apocalypse might as well be five hundred. They’d made an imprint on her. They’d taught her valuable skills that would help her survive. For that, she was truly grateful.
She would toughen up. She would fight to keep her friends alive. The people of this community may come seeking revenge, but what she wanted was justice. She wanted the people that had attacked her friend, who’d killed Nick, Gage, and Dale’s tee
nage son, to be held accountable. But it seemed there was no one left to administer justice. They’d need a whole new way of thinking. Revenge. Justice. Were they now the same thing?
Raine stared at JJ as they slowly pulled toward the newly-repaired gate. Justice Jeanine Durham. Raine had wondered what JJ’s initials stood for.
The Ward Farm
Farmington, Missouri
Three days later.
“What’s that?” DeAndre asked, pointing to the map spread out on the kitchen table.
Scott pulled a chair out and lifted him onto it.
“That is a map,” Scott said.
“What’s a map?”
Raine sometimes forgot that kids DeAndre’s age, growing up in the digital age, didn’t know about things like paper maps. A few weeks ago, they’d be staring at the maps app on their smartphone. Siri would have routed their map for them. Scott couldn’t bring himself to consider that he wouldn’t make it to Florida to find his daughter. The symptoms he was experiencing from his concussion were lessening. It wouldn’t be long before he was ready to put his plans into action. How Buddy and James had convinced him to hold off this long, Raine wasn’t sure.
He and Lucy had been spending a lot of time studying the map since they’d dug it out of one of the boxes in the basement the day before. Lucy hadn’t said, but she no doubt was thinking about her own family down in Arkansas.
Staring at the dot on the map labeled Panama City, Raine’s heart ached to find her mom and dad. Raine watched DeAndre trace the outline of Missouri. How could she even consider leaving? Buddy, James, and several others from the community rotated in and out, helping them to secure the farm and deter any of the slain girls’ families from making trouble, but eventually, they would go back to their own homes and lives. There would no doubt be other enemies to battle.