Linny, a year younger than Ricky, was an absolute sweetheart. She'd taken to Ellie right away and never passed up an opportunity to sit on her lap or scoot up close to her side. She even let Ellie brush and braid her long, beautiful pale blond hair, bravely biting her lip whenever Ellie had to work out a tangle.
It had reached the point where Ricky sometimes got visibly jealous, and Ellie had to make a special point of holding and cuddling him as well.
The youngest, Denny, who'd they'd taken to calling Den so as not to confuse him with Denny Clarks, the leader of the Zolos survivor patrols, was an endless bundle of energy with bright red hair and an infectious grin. He was about Tallie's age, but seemed to take twice the energy to handle.
Thankfully Hal was up to that task, and the boy was more than happy to tail around endlessly hounding his big brother. Ellie was almost relieved that Den didn't pester her too much to play with him, since she just couldn't keep up with that much enthusiasm. But the little boy won her heart even so, always plopping down to rest his head on her knee whenever Hal had finished wearing him out with running around, at least for a little while.
In contrast to the others Todd, the oldest of Hal's young siblings, was a bit more guarded with his affection. He'd recently turned 10 and was very solemn and studious. Probably a lot like his big brother at that age. He was willing enough to talk to Ellie, but he became a plank of wood when she hugged him.
Well, hopefully if she kept trying he'd eventually come around. When it came to schooling she did her best to teach him new material, but with him so far ahead of the younger kids he spent a lot of time helping her out with them instead.
Which she had to admit she really appreciated, since she didn't have much experience with teaching, outside what she'd done in the Colorado Springs quarantine camp. She'd learned there that it was far different from giving instructional seminars and workshops to the employees of the businesses she consulted for, and it was no exception with her young son and soon-to-be brothers and sister.
Especially since it was hard to find ways to let the kids work out all their boundless energy in the small confines of the camp.
That was where Hal's portion of the schooling program came in. He not only directed their exercise routines, but also sat the kids down and taught them everything he knew about survival, camping, and things like that. Which in times like these were probably even more valuable than learning their reading, writing, and arithmetic with Ellie.
Not to mention the kids all had way more fun with it; she was almost jealous that she had to work hard to keep them focused on the boring stuff, while from her fiancé they got to learn things like building shelters, making fires, identifying dangerous plants (such as the poison oak Hal had had so much trouble with on their journey home), and making snares they couldn't currently use but would come in handy if it ever became safe to leave their camp.
As for Hal's mom, Cara, she showed zero interest in participating in the schooling efforts. If anything she acted like it was a huge inconvenience that they were all so noisy for a large part of the day, interrupting her as she lounged around scowling and complaining. An activity which she seemed tireless at; there was always something new and inventive to find fault with, either about their situation or the people in the camp with her.
Especially Ellie.
That was another reason why focusing on schooling the kids had proved so beneficial, since without it Ellie might've ended up in nonstop shouting matches with the bitter woman, unable to bear her constant cruel and devastatingly perceptive barbs.
At the moment Ellie was focused on trying to teach Ricky and Linny how to add the sides of a shape to find the perimeter, so she could admit she jumped a bit in surprise when the radio crackled with Denny's voice.
With Jay listening in on the airwaves and everyone in Stanberry and the quarantine camp hunkered down, it was the first time anyone had used the thing since yesterday. That surprise turned to concern at the sound of the Zolos survivors' leader's grim tone.
“Can I call everyone together for a meeting? Need to discuss a situation.”
There was a long pause before Darby's voice crackled over the radio in response. “What situation? You know it would have to be something serious to make us leave the safety of the barricades under the circumstances.”
Ellie couldn't believe the man would openly admit that, even if that was how he felt. How were the people in the quarantine camps, outside the protection of those makeshift barricades Stanberry had constructed around their town, supposed to feel about that?
Maybe that was why Denny's voice was tight when he replied. “Up to you, Mayor. But I figure you folks in town would be the ones to care, since Jay's trashing the outlying houses you abandoned.”
There was a long silence on the radio, almost as if time stopped, while Ellie shared a wide-eyed look with Hal. They had friends with houses outside the protected borders of the town; even the Norsons, who'd taken them in with the sort of genuine kindness that seemed to be becoming vanishingly rare in today's world, especially with Zolos rampaging across the globe, had their house at the town's edge, beyond the barricade where it was probably vulnerable.
Although not too vulnerable, hopefully, since tonight the stockpile in the basement of the Norson's house would officially be done with its three weeks of quarantine, safe to use. The family was planning on grabbing it and moving it into the safety behind Stanberry's barricades in the morning.
Ellie almost wondered if they shouldn't do it tonight instead, if Jay really was going after the houses around town. Nick was in charge of patrolling that area, and had specifically asked the volunteers from his scavenger team and their friends and family to keep an eye on the Norsons' house and shed, and the stockpiles in them, so they should be safe.
But could they really take that chance, if there was a possibility Jay would get his hands on those desperately needed supplies? Without them the next few months went from being scary to being truly terrifying.
The silence on the radio finally erupted into cacophony as what seemed like every single person in Stanberry with a radio began speaking at once. Asking questions, demanding details, or just generally asking what the heck was going on.
Darby's strong, authoritative voice overwhelmed the chaos for a few seconds. “You're right, we should have a meeting. Everyone calm down and let's get it organized. Usual spot.”
Meetings like this generally took place near the front entrance of the quarantine camp, between it and Ellie's camp. The Zolos survivor patrol route passed close to it, so Nick and Denny and the other leaders could make an appearance, and they kept a lane open for Zolos-vulnerable people coming into the camp and another lane open beside it for guaranteed Zolos-free visitors from town.
It was probably the only place in the area where everyone could gather within speaking distance without being in danger or being a danger to others.
As acknowledgements sounded over the radio Ellie exchanged grim looks with Hal. “We sort of figured Jay might go for the nearby houses,” he said.
She nodded, sighing wearily. “It's just one thing after another, isn't it?”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her in comfort. “Maybe Nick and the others can expand their patrol routes a bit to cover them. It shouldn't be too much of an added strain.”
Ellie wasn't sure about that. She was always there when Nick took what time he could from his duties to visit Ricky, and she'd seen how exhausted and harried he was. And she was there at the planning meetings with the various leaders as they discussed patrols and sentry duty, and heard reports of how thinly stretched everyone was.
Hal was there for those too, but he tended to be the more optimistic of the two of them.
She hugged him back, resting her head on his shoulder. “Houses can be repaired or rebuilt, at least. Thank goodness Jay hasn't killed anyone.” Yet, she barely managed to keep from adding.
Even so, it hung unspoken between them as they wa
ited for the others to gather for the meeting.
✽✽✽
Nick Statton genuinely felt for the McCleeses. They'd suffered so much already, only to have the house they'd fled destroyed by a vindictive lunatic and his goons.
He felt equally bad for the other poor people who'd chosen to flee to the safety of Stanberry, whose houses were being threatened with similar destruction. Assuming it hadn't already occurred. He could only imagine how it must feel to be trapped helplessly behind the town's barricades, unable to protect their homes for fear of a deadly disease.
He could see the pain and fury in the faces of the McCleese brothers at what had happened to their house, as his group made their way with Denny and a handful of other leaders among the Zolos survivor volunteers to a section of the patrol route near Ellie's camp, where the meeting had been planned.
Listening to Chet and Ben describe how family mementos like pictures had been destroyed with obvious vindictiveness was sickening.
Nick hadn't had much attachment to his new apartment in Kansas City, especially considering he'd moved in during the bitter months of separation leading up to his divorce. And while it had hurt a bit to see his family home of a decade burned to the ground, he'd long since cut ties with it because, again, after the divorce it had become Ellie's house, no longer his in his mind.
But for all these people in Stanberry who'd fled to the town as a temporary measure during the Zolos crisis, they still looked to a future where they could go home and get back to their lives. A future that had been threatened by Jay's spite.
Sure, Nick could see the hypocrisy of being outraged, when he and his scavengers had broken into Wensbrook houses and taken things. But although he wasn't trying to downplay what he'd done, there was a difference there.
Most of the poor citizens of Wensbrook had died to the virus. They weren't coming back, and Stanberry and its quarantine camp had desperately needed the supplies rotting in their houses. Meanwhile, Jay knew the owners of the houses around Stanberry were still alive and hoping to go home, and he'd done it anyway.
Then there was the fact that Nick and his team had done their best to respect the properties they scavenged from, taking only essentials and trying to leave everything else untouched. Meanwhile Jay's thugs were running around engaging in wanton destruction, out of pure vindictiveness and the joy of breaking things.
How could they go around stomping on family photos and trashing kids' bedrooms, even pissing on beds, when they knew those families would be coming home to that? Hadn't their own experiences given them even a shred of empathy?
Nick grit his teeth and turned his focus back to the coming meeting. The truth of it was that trying to understand why Wensbrook was doing it was all philosophical, because they were.
This was just another attack from that bald psychopath, another thing they had to deal with if they could.
Johnny and Starr were already leaning over the main camp's fence, and of course Ellie and Hal were in their camp. But as Nick and the others from the survivors' camp got comfortable in their usual meeting spot it quickly became apparent that, once again, Darby and Darrel and Stanberry's other leaders wouldn't be coming in person for the meeting.
Ellie was the one who opted to call in, confirming that the town's representatives all intended to participate by radio. Which complicated things for everyone else, but was something they'd gotten used to by this point.
Stanberry's residents had been quick to close off their borders when the pandemic began, and in many cases even refused to leave their homes if they could avoid it. Their leaders were similarly reluctant to leave the safety of their closed off community, even to visit the quarantine camp just to the southeast.
That reluctance had, understandably, become full blown paranoia when Jay and his vengeful Wensbrook mob began terrorizing Stanberry. Especially after Nick and the other Zolos survivors began patrolling around the town to protect it, at which point anyone who left the safety of its borders risked contamination by the virus.
Even so, it felt weird to be talking over the radio to the people in Stanberry who'd lived nearby and fled to the town for safety. It meant Chet and Ben had to impersonally give their friends and neighbors the news that the houses they'd fled had potentially been ransacked and vandalized, just like the McCleeses' had been.
Nick could hear the pain in the voices of those poor people as they pressed for answers about the state of their homes, but unfortunately his patrols and the others watching the other approaches to town hadn't had a chance to visit many of the other outlying houses, so they just couldn't say whether any of them had suffered the same fate.
Denny had to patiently explain that into the radio, for the fourth or fifth time as he tried to be heard over the frantic babble of townspeople and the leaders trying to shout them down and restore order.
Having the town's leaders chime in over the radio would've been difficult at the best of times, but with the news about Jay ransacking homes it seemed like every single person in Stanberry who had a radio were all trying to talk over each other. It was the most chaotic Nick had ever seen it.
Finally Darrel spent a good full minute cursing a blue streak until everyone finally shut up.
“Can you check all the other houses in the area?” Darby asked once his cousin was done. “Make sure they're okay?”
There was a wary pause as Denny exchanged glances with Nick and the other volunteers standing along the patrol route. Thankfully Starr, in the main camp, fielded the question. “You really should be talking about this with us in person,” he growled. “The hills have ears.”
He was referring to the recent unpleasant revelation that Jay and his goons were listening on the radios, overhearing everything said over them. They'd been forced to take precautions since then to make sure they didn't reveal anything sensitive, but in the heat of the moment Darby must've forgotten.
“Oh,” the Mayor said, too dignified to be sheepish but definitely sounding a bit abashed. He had to know that if Jay had even the slightest inkling the survivor patrols might be going somewhere, it would be easy to set up an ambush for them.
And considering that Nick and a few others on patrol had recently shot and killed one of Jay's men, and nearly captured the bald psycho himself, there was little doubt that the Wensbrook leader would jump at the chance for some payback.
Which meant that by asking them to check the abandoned houses so Jay could hear, Darby had basically guaranteed that they could no longer safely do so. In fact, by publicly talking about what the Wensbrook survivors had done to Chet and Ben's house, and the shock and rage it had fomented, they might actually guarantee that Jay's thugs would trash more of them.
“Radios off,” Nick said to the people around him, stepping back farther from Ellie's camp.
Denny frowned about him giving orders to the group, but nodded his assent and was one of the first to turn off his radio. “What's this about?” he asked once the others had done the same.
“We might've just tipped Jay off to the fact that he's really getting to us by hitting the outlying houses,” Nick replied. “If he didn't already know. And if he thinks we're going to be checking them out he might try to ambush us.”
“Yeah thanks, I already got all that,” the volunteer leader said, biting back a sigh.
Nick shook his head grimly. “Well, just because we didn't mean to let that all slip over the radio, it doesn't mean we can't use it to our advantage now.”
Denny canted his head slightly, interested. “What've you got in mind?”
Nick glanced at Chet and Ben, who were looking back eagerly; they obviously wanted payback, and while he didn't want things to turn any uglier than they had been, that didn't mean they could just sit around while Jay did whatever he wanted until he was finally satisfied with his vengeance.
Assuming the man ever could be satisfied, no matter how much destruction he wreaked.
“Well if the enemy knows where you are, that can also tell you wh
ere the enemy might go,” he replied. “We don't want to try to go to those houses or we'll probably get ambushed, but we also know Jay's probably going to go to them. This could be another chance to try to capture him, if we can find a good choke point on the way to one of the houses that's a likely target for them and do some ambushing of our own.”
“The drive to the Drewsburys' place, not far from our place,” Ben suggested.
Denny frowned. “Remember, I'm not from around here. What's the setup look like?”
“It runs down a gulch between two hills, with a stream and woods on one side and the Drewsburys' orchard on the other,” the young man replied. “If the house hasn't been hit yet, we can set up on both hills by following the road leading to our place and the Drewsburys' orchard road, then wait for Jay to show up.”
Denny nodded thoughtfully. “That might work. If we can get them with overwhelming numbers, we can pin them down and force them to surrender without further bloodshed. Better than playing defense and having a bunch of firefights that really make things messy.”
Seemingly decided, the patrol leader maneuvered around to where he could talk to his boss Starr. “Keep the meeting going,” he called. “Radio included. We'll chime in where we can, but we're going to head out. Make sure everyone keeps quiet about us leaving on the airwaves.”
The old veteran gave them all a gimlet glare. “Going to go raise a ruckus out there?”
“I hope not. But fingers crossed we might be able to end this fight right now.” Denny motioned to Nick and the others. “Come on, let's go gather up everyone available in camp.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ellie asked anxiously, eyes on Nick.
He returned a reassuring look. He wasn't sure if she was worried for him and their other volunteer friends, or that any fight they got into would just escalate the conflict, as she was constantly cautioning them.
Isolation | Book 4 | Holding On Page 2