Nuclear Survival: Western Strength (Book 3): Make The Cut

by Tate, Harley

  Lainey glanced at her hands in her lap. He was right. Until she wrapped her arms around her mom and sister, she had to put them first. She swallowed. “You should think about leaving. If Denver isn’t safe, then Canada’s a viable option. The border will be jammed, but if we find a way across, we can try and help.”

  Rebecca smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Thank you. We’ll probably stay at home for as long as we can, but if things deteriorate, we might not have a choice.”

  Lainey understood. She fell silent and after a few minutes managed to fall asleep. She woke hours later to find the Hoefler family together in the back seat and Keith about to take the wheel. “What’s going on?”

  “We found an accident on the side of the road. Two older cars. Managed to fill the tank.”

  Jerry held up the plastic tubing they had used before. “I hid it in the camera bag.”

  “So we’re driving straight through?” She glanced out at the darkening sky. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “I figure we get close, scope it out, and wait until daylight to drive into Denver proper. At least we’ll be most of the way there.”

  “If you say so.” Lainey settled back in her seat, content to let Keith and Jerry navigate in the dark. She closed her eyes and drifted off.

  I-70 East

  Monday, 6:00 a.m. MST

  It wasn’t until the sky lightened with the oncoming dawn that she woke again. They were parked on the side of the road, tucked behind an overpass. In the distance, she could barely make out the beginnings of a town. “Where are we?”

  “Outskirts of Denver.”

  She leaned forward, holding onto the driver’s seat as she peered past Keith’s shoulder. “Did you drive all night?”

  “No. Been here for a few hours.”

  “You should have woken me up. I’d have kept watch.”

  “You needed the sleep.” When she glowered, he hedged. “I couldn’t sleep anyway.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Lainey squinted into the distance. It was difficult to make out much of anything except for the cluster of cars abandoned across the road. “Do you think they ran out of gas?” She pointed.

  “That or crashed and couldn’t restart. The highway headed west grew increasingly crowded as we neared the city.”

  Lainey tightened her grip on the seat back. “Will it be as bad as LA?”

  Keith’s shoulders lifted as he inhaled. “Only one way to find out.” He started the engine and merged back onto the road heading east toward the Denver city limits.

  Chapter Eighteen

  KEITH

  Outskirts of Denver, Colorado

  Monday, 8:30 a.m. MST

  “Isn’t this place a mile above sea level?” Jerry leaned down to peer out the passenger window as they passed a crazy old Victorian house with winged gargoyles flanking the front entrance.

  “Something like that.”

  “Then why is it so flat? Every time I think about Denver, I’m picturing a town nestled into the mountains with steep grades and treacherous corners.”

  Darren spoke up from the back. “We’re on a plateau. No hills at all. If you get up on the roof of one of the hotels by our house, you can see for miles.”

  “Things you learn trying to escape the end of the world.” Jerry fell silent and so did the rest of the SUV, each person lost in their own thoughts. Keith had tried to keep a positive outlook while sharing driving duties with Jerry overnight. But as they drove deeper into another city ravaged by a nuclear bomb, he was finding it harder and harder to stay optimistic.

  They passed no moving vehicles. All the cars on the road were either out of gas, crumpled in an accident, or empty. But what Denver lacked in moving cars, it made up for in people. There were people everywhere. Some stood on front porches watching them drive by. Others congregated at street corners, heads bent toward each other.

  A person slept on every bus stop bench.

  On the right, a large city park stretched along the road. Every inch of available grass housed a tent or a sleeping bag or a blanket with a person sprawled out on top. A woman sat on a concrete ledge with a small brown and white dog at her feet staring at the SUV as they drove past. Half of her hair was missing.

  Rebecca gasped as they passed. “Oh, Darren, it’s worse than I thought. Are all these people now homeless?”

  “They must be.” He pulled his wife closer in the back seat. “Do you think side streets would be safer?”

  Keith shrugged. “Don’t know. I’ve never been here.”

  Darren shuffled up from the back, trading places with Lainey to sit right behind the driver’s seat. “A block or two north of here the neighborhood improves. We can take the smaller roads to our place. Avoid the commercial zone.”

  “Fine by me.” Keith let Darren navigate, driving past the park and into a quaint residential area. All of the lawns were manicured, houses freshly painted. They were old, some Victorians, some Prairie style, a few Tudors. He couldn’t imagine what they cost today. A million? Two? More?

  The farther they drove into the neighborhood, the fewer people were on the streets. They drove past an elementary school and Angie perked up. “I went to school here.” She peered through the rear window, a smile on her face until it froze. “Wait, what happened to the tree?”

  Darren leaned toward the window. “It’s gone.”

  “What tree?” Keith glanced in the rearview as Rebecca and Angie stared open-mouthed out the window.

  “Angie’s class planted a maple right there on the corner. It’s been growing for twelve years.” Rebecca’s hand flew to her mouth as she gawked at the entrance. “Is that it? Did they use it as a barricade?”

  In front of the school, the main entrance had been blocked off with what looked like a beaver dam filled with tree branches and leaves. Beyond it, a man patrolled the front entrance, a rifle resting in the crook of his arm.

  Keith tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Is the school a designated shelter or evacuation area?”

  “Not that I know of.” Darren shook his head. “It’s just a school.”

  “From the looks of it, it’s not just a school anymore.” He made eye contact with Darren in the rearview. “What’s the best way to your house from here?”

  With his eyes trained straight ahead, Keith followed Darren’s directions, driving down one small residential street after another until they emerged at a road separated by a grass- and tree-filled midway. A row of plastic white and orange Jersey barriers blocked access.

  “What is this?”

  “No idea.” Darren shook his head.

  “Was there a construction project going on?”

  “No.” Darren frowned. “Nothing nearby.”

  The longer he stared at the intersection, the more Keith’s unease grew. “Where is your house?”

  “Ours is about a mile, but my sister lives two blocks straight ahead.” He pointed past the barricade. “I was directing you to her place. My mother lives with them” He shook his head. “They must be worried sick.”

  “Should we get out and move the barricades?”

  “What if it’s a trap?”

  “I say we try and find a way around.”

  Everyone in the vehicle shared their opinion on what to do. None of the options were the obvious winner. As the car idled at the intersection, a man wearing head-to-toe camouflage and carrying a long gun appeared. He held up his hand and walked toward them.

  When he reached the driver’s-side door, he motioned for Keith to roll down the window. Keith hesitated. The man wore no identification. Was he military? National Guard? Or just some guy with a penchant for blending into his surroundings? He glanced back at Angie and Rebecca. He didn’t want to frighten them for no reason.

  Keith buzzed down the window about an inch so he could hear. “Can I help you?”

  “Do you have a reason to be in this neighborhood, sir?”

  “Is there a reason I can’t drive through?”

  �
�We are on lockdown. Cherry Creek is restricted access only.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “In order to enter, you must have identification establishing your residence inside the perimeter.”

  Darren leaned forward. “We live closer to City Park, but my sister lives here. Claire Hoefler. She’s on the corner of Adams and Fourth.”

  “Identification?”

  Darren shoved his driver’s license toward Keith, but Keith buzzed the window up before he could stick it out the window. “Are you crazy?”

  “What?” Darren blinked. “My sister does live there.”

  “We don’t have a clue who this guy is. He could be casing the place for somewhere to rob or have escaped from a mental hospital two blocks away.”

  “There are no mental hospitals in Cherry Creek unless you count the private rehab center across from Nordstrom.”

  Keith stared at Darren in disbelief. After spending a week trapped in Las Vegas, he assumed the guy would know better than to trust anyone. Keith held up a finger to hold him back. “Give me a second.”

  He turned back to the window and the man waiting with the rifle on the other side. He inched the window down. “How do we know you’re not a scammer?”

  The man reached into his front pocket and pulled out a wallet. He flicked it open and a badge appeared.

  Officer Harris Haverty

  Denver Police Department

  Zone 3 Community Resource Officer

  Keith glanced back up. “That doesn’t tell me you’re in charge of traffic in Cherry Creek.”

  Officer Haverty flipped the wallet shut. “It tells you I’m a member of law enforcement. That should be enough.”

  “Why aren’t you in uniform?”

  The guy tilted his head. “You want me dead? I walk out here in police blues and I’m liable to get shot before I see who’s coming. At least this way I blend in.”

  That he did. Keith didn’t see him until he was practically in front of him.

  Behind Keith, the passenger window buzzed down and Darren shoved his arm out before Keith could roll it back up. “Here’s my ID. Like I said, my sister lives at Adams and Fourth. We’re just trying to get there and check on her.”

  The officer took Darren’s driver’s license and stared at it for a moment before handing it back. “Who are these other people in the vehicle?”

  “My wife and daughter,” Darren pointed them out.

  “And the rest?”

  “Friends who helped us escape Las Vegas. Without them, we’d have been trapped.”

  The cop turned back to Keith. “Is that so?”

  He nodded, reluctantly filling in the cop now that Darren had given the man his life story. “We’re from Los Angeles. Trying to make it to Chicago to find missing family.”

  Keith could tell the cop didn’t know what to do. If it had only been Darren and his family in the car, he would have let them pass. But Keith had rubbed him the wrong way. At last, he sighed. This wasn’t about him. It was about the Hoeflers. If bowing to this self-appointed neighborhood watchman would get them through, then so be it. The guy hadn’t tried to kill them yet. Keith rolled down the window all the way. “Look. We aren’t staying. We’re just dropping them off and heading out of town.”

  “Is that so?”

  Darren nodded. “They’re welcome to stay if my sister has room, but I know they want to get on the road.”

  At least he didn’t explain the entire ordeal and use all of their names. Keith propped up his lips in a smile. “We promise, after we leave, we’ll never come back to Cherry Creek again.”

  The cop stared for a moment longer before giving in. “All right. But only because Mr. Hoefler there was so nice.” He stepped back from the vehicle. “Tell your sister as soon as the power is back on, I’d love a batch of her chocolate chip cookies. My daughter Annabeth is in school with Olivia.”

  Darren grinned and was about to break into pleasant conversation when Keith rolled the passenger window up and glowered in the rearview. “First rule of surviving in unknown situations is to divulge as little information as possible.”

  “He was a cop.”

  “That’s what the badge said. Doesn’t make it true.”

  After the officer moved the barricade enough for them to squeeze through, Darren directed Keith to his sister’s house. They pulled up outside of a brick two-story with a front gate and a tidy garden just beyond. Angie climbed up into the middle row as her father opened the door. She tumbled out and raced up the steps before Keith could caution them to take it slow.

  He shook his head in wonder.

  Rebecca Hoefler stopped, one foot out of the vehicle and one in. “You all need to rest. Park this beast of a vehicle and come inside. Officer Haverty wasn’t lying when he said Claire makes a mean cookie. If she’s found a way to bake, you can bet there will be enough to share.”

  Keith began to protest when Lainey laid a hand on his arm. “We don’t have to stay. But we need to regroup.”

  After another moment’s hesitation, he agreed and shifted the SUV into park.

  Chapter Nineteen

  LAINEY

  401 Adams Street

  Cherry Creek, Colorado

  Monday 6:00 p.m. MST

  Lainey stared at the table full of happy, laughing family members and never felt more sad. She should be happy the Hoefler family was reunited and everyone was safe. But all Lainey could think about was her mother and sister. The longer that went on without hearing from Midge, the more she began to fear the worst.

  “Can you pass the fruit cocktail, my dear?”

  Lainey glanced over at Angie’s grandmother, an elderly woman with a twinkle in her eye and a shake in her hand. She picked up the bowl of canned fruit and tried to smile.

  “Angie tells me you’re trying to find your mom. Is that right?”

  Lainey nodded. “She lives in Chicago. My sister told her to head north out of the city, but I don’t have confirmation that she did.” She set the bowl on the table between them. “I’m worried that she never left.”

  The older woman reached out and pressed her wrinkled fingers onto Lainey’s arm. “You just have to have some faith.”

  “I’m trying, but it’s hard.”

  “One day at a time. That’s all life is.” The older woman reached out and picked up the serving spoon. It shook as she tried to scoop the fruit, spilling half of the pieces before it cleared the bowl.

  “How can you be so optimistic? Everything is falling apart.”

  “Not everything, my dear. I’ve still got my health.” Her hand wobbled and the fruit sloshed out of the spoon. A bright red cherry plopped onto the table. “Well, maybe not one hundred percent of my health. But what I have will do.”

  Lainey wished she could share in the elder Mrs. Hoefler’s optimism, but it wasn’t easy. As she picked up the fruit bowl and put it back in the middle of the table, Keith caught her eye. He tipped his head toward the backyard and she nodded, excusing herself from Angie’s grandmother before scooting back her chair and heading toward the door.

  Keith joined her on the patio and closed the door behind him, drowning out the sound of comfort and warmth and family that wasn’t theirs. The high elevation combined with the setting sun produced a distinct chill in the air and Lainey shivered.

  Keith reached out and rubbed her upper arms to warm her up. “Worried?”

  She nodded. “I have a bad feeling. What if something happened to Midge? What if she couldn’t even reach my mom?” She hated to think the next thing, but she couldn’t help it. “What if they’re both dead?”

  “Then we will just keep on, keeping on. Has Owen been able to get online?”

  Lainey shook her head. “Not yet.”

  “But the satellite phone worked in Las Vegas. Why not here?”

  Lainey frowned. “Something about the satellite in relation to our elevation and position on the ground. He can’t triangulate a signal.” She waved her hand. “I don’t know,
it’s all over my head.”

  “When will it work?”

  “Not until we leave Denver.”

  “Then first thing in the morning, that’s what we do. Head to Chicago. Keep trying to get online and see if your sister has made contact. If not, we head straight to your mom’s condo. See if she’s there.”

  “You mean see if the building is there.”

  Keith held up his hands. “Do you have a better idea?”

  “No.” Lainey sagged and leaned against his chest. He had been nothing but amazing ever since she told him about the bomb and rather than thanking him, she was spreading her doubts all over. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so negative.”

  “It’s not your fault. It’s been a brutal eleven days.”

  “Is that how long it’s been?” Lainey snuffed back tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. “I had no idea.”

  He pulled her close and wrapped her up in a hug. “Let’s go back inside, make painful small talk, and pack up. We can leave when the sun comes up.”

  Lainey leaned back to look him in the eye. “Thank you for sticking with me.”

  “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

  Abandoned Parking Lot

  Lincoln, Nebraska

  Thursday, 9:00 a.m. CST

  “Are you sure this will work?”

  Owen nodded. “It’s the first clear morning we’ve had in days. If we can stay here long enough for me to figure out how to recalibrate the phone, I should be able to connect.

  Lainey ran an absentminded hand through Bear’s fur. They had crawled across Colorado and Nebraska, running out of gas twice. The first time, it had taken an entire afternoon to find a car to siphon. The second, they’d been lucky and managed to find an old Buick in a post office parking lot in a small Nebraska town with a full tank. Since then, they’d made good time, stopping to sleep somewhere secluded overnight and moving on as soon as the sun rose.