Piper grinned, feeling good about having helped them find each other, however accidental it may have been.
“I want you to know how much of an asset Travis has been. He’s been worth his weight in gold. And now that your family is complete, I had a couple of the boys get to work on that log cabin I promised. Can’t have you all sleeping separately; Hope needs to get to know her brother.”
“Thank you, Piper,” Scarlett said sincerely.
“You’re more than welcome. You’ve got two beds; a double and a single. And there’s an en suite. The cabins all run off solar power, so you get your very own working toilet and hot water.”
“If nothing else, you only gave birth a few days ago,” Kate chimed in. “It means you get privacy. And if you wanted me to check you and the baby over, you only have to ask.”
“This is Kate, our doctor,” Piper explained.
“Well, I was only a few weeks away from qualifying, but the world had to go and end…”
“This lady is the reason I won’t be limpin’ forever,” Travis added. “She fixed my leg.”
“I really appreciate everything you’ve done for my family,” Scarlett gushed.
“So, does this mean you’re stayin’?” Piper questioned. “Travis is a great hunter, but he said he was always better with you by his side.”
Scarlett looked at Travis admiringly and nodded.
“Yeah, I think we’re going to stick around.”
While Piper and Bill high-fived, celebrating the happy fact that they could continue to enjoy a variety of fresh meat, Scarlett turned to Riley and rested a hand on his knee, “Are you okay?”
He looked at her and smiled, overlapping her hand with his own.
“Yeah,” he answered, “I’m alright.”
Piper reached behind herself and retrieved a battered acoustic guitar. On seeing it, Vaughan let out an embarrassed groan.
“Oh, come on, Piper!” he laughed.
“Now, Vaughan, we have guests. I need you to help me welcome them with your beautiful voice.”
Vaughan grudgingly took the instrument and rested it across his lap, readying his hands to play. He started to pick at the strings, and the guitar purred a melody. After a short introduction, Vaughan started to sing:
“The day that we met
I'll never forget
I knew from the moment she spoke
That she was destined to be
My favourite regret.”
Scarlett hadn’t realised until that moment just how much she’d missed real music. The sound of the guitar caught her off guard, and Vaughan’s smooth, gentle voice complimented it seamlessly. As he continued to sing, Scarlett reached for Travis’ hand. She was overwhelmed with emotion, and the day’s events were finally sinking in.
Travis squeezed Scarlett’s hand gently. Of all the campfires he’d sat beside, this one was his favourite. It felt warmer, brighter and far more beautiful than all the rest.
Riley tried to be positive and enjoy the moment, but his chest ached listening to the lyrics. He didn’t want to hear anymore.
“I’m gonna see if I can get some rest,” he whispered to Scarlett.
“You’re not going to eat?”
“I’m not hungry. Honestly, I’m exhausted.”
He stood, and Scarlett watched him walk toward the house, not grasping the reason for his sudden loss of appetite. She was soon distracted when James began to stir, waking up grumpy and hungry. Scarlett knew the song, and was starting to feel brave and accepted, so she leant on Travis’ arm and sang a verse to soothe her son.
“He's gentle and kind
And totally blind
To not see the life we could lead
And he, is destined to be
My favourite regret.”
Piper looked on, smiling. She could see the happiness, comfort and relief in Scarlett’s eyes and the pride on Travis’ face. James was temporarily lulled back to sleep being rocked by his father, but Scarlett continued to sing anyway. Vaughan joined in, and the two of them harmonised effortlessly to the end of the song.
Once the song finished, the rest of the group gave a small clap, shocked by Scarlett’s sudden confidence. She nodded a ‘thanks’ before Piper spoke.
“Well, you’re full of surprises, Miss McKenzie.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” Scarlett chortled. “If I’d been told about the free entertainment and working toilet, I’d have turned up here a lot sooner. You should advertise.”
She spent the rest of her evening getting to know Homeside’s residents, laughing and eating. More than anything, she cherished watching Travis stare at their son. He only handed James back so that Scarlett could feed him. She suspected that Travis may have become suddenly envious of her ability to lactate.
When her eyes started to droop with exhaustion, Travis took Hope from the bed in the main building and carried her gently to the cabin. At Scarlett’s request, he placed her down on the double bed, and Scarlett climbed in next to her. Travis toed off his boots and lay down behind Scarlett, sliding an arm around her waist.
“I missed you.”
Squeezing his arm with one hand, Scarlett sighed deeply, “I missed you too.”
Chapter Fifteen
Two weeks passed. Two weeks of bliss. Two weeks of revelling in the feel of Travis’ arms being wrapped around her and his breath on her cheek when she woke.
Hope sat on her mother’s abdomen, beaming down at her.
“Mornin’ Mama,” she said excitedly.
“Morning, baby.”
Hope dropped forward and Scarlett held her tight, kissing her cheeks. Travis was watching, lying next to them.
At four years old, Hope was a fickle child. She was done greeting her mother in a matter of minutes and stood at the cabin door, looking at her parents.
“I’m hungry,” she announced.
“Okay,” Travis said, sitting up, “I’ll bet Piper’s saved the best eggs just for you.” He got to his feet and picked up his daughter before turning to speak to Scarlett, “I’ll get you somethin’. Come out when you’re ready.” He opened the door to leave, “You don’t have to come out right away. Get a shower if you want. Go back to sleep. Whatever you want.”
“Thanks. I’ll be out soon.”
Travis left with Hope, and Scarlett crossed the room to a pine chest of drawers. The bottom drawer was open and being used as a make-shift bed for James. He was awake, his arms and legs moving as though he had no control over them. But his eyes fixed on Scarlett as she stood over him.
Picking him up, Scarlett sat on the edge of the bed and began feeding him. She took in her surroundings in the daylight. The small cabin was clean and rustic. The four-poster bed sat proudly in the middle of the back wall, with matching, pine bedside tables. On the wall opposite hung a huge mirror. When Scarlett caught a glimpse of herself, the first thing she noticed was that she had a permanent, ridiculous smile plastered on her face. It had seemed like a lifetime, but she had finally managed to bring her family back together.
James was asleep again soon enough, and Scarlett seized the opportunity to get clean.
She was careful not to use too much hot water, mindful that there were many people living at Homeside. The warmth was a welcome change to the streams or bottled water she’d been used to, and it felt good to be properly fresh.
James was strapped securely to his mother when she joined Travis and Hope at the food tent. Piper and Bill were serving the other residents and, on seeing so many people, Scarlett instinctively zipped up her jacket to hide her son.
Piper was singing to herself while she changed the gas canister that was hooked up to the tabletop cooker. When she’d finished, she noticed Scarlett standing with Travis and Hope. Travis kissed the top of Scarlett’s head and peered into her jacket at James.
“Travis, I know you were apart for a long time, but do you have to be so blatant about checking out the barnyard-boppers?” Piper smirked. Travis just looked at her
, confused. “Scarlett’s flabbergasters. Her double-lattes.”
“Piper, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Travis enquired.
“I saw you lookin’ at Scarlett’s lady-bubbles,” she smirked. “The baby-buffets.”
“She’s implying that you were looking at my breasts, Travis,” Scarlett whispered sympathetically. “She’s playing with you.”
“They’re a nice lookin’ set of snuggle-pups, but do you have to in front of everyone?”
“What? No!” he protested. “She’s got James in there, I was lookin’ at him. Fuck sakes, Piper, I thought you’d lost your fuckin’ mind.”
“Sorry, Scarlett, but since I discovered Travis’ aversion to sexual humour, and the shade of red he turns when anything like that is mentioned, I just can’t help it!”
“Fuck off, Piper. You’re an asshole,” Travis scowled.
Piper wailed with laughter at Travis’ expense.
“Oh, Travis, I need to ask a favour,” she said, unfolding a map from her pocket. “I’d like to send you and Scarlett here, on what I’m calling your ‘reunion run’.” She pointed to a small town.
“Morven?” Travis asked, confused. “What the fuck is in Morven?”
“It’s the closest town with access to a library.”
“It’s twelve miles away, can we spare the fuel?” Scarlett interrupted.
“We all want Homeside to thrive and grow. I’ve been considering what the future might look like for us. If you guys can bring back some books, we can learn how to make a better range of foods. We can build farming equipment, make our own medicines.”
Travis continued to stare at the map. He couldn’t help thinking about the knowledge that the building possessed, and what they could do with it.
“We could take camping gear; make it an overnight visit,” Scarlett tried.
Travis nodded, “Alright. We’ll head out in the next couple of days.”
“Great. Let me know what you need,” she beamed.
Her cheerfulness was short-lived when her walkie-talkie sounded from her pocket. It bleeped and crackled, before a man’s voice sounded from it.
“Piper, the forest is on fire!” he said. “I don’t know how, but it’s on both sides of the road. Can you hear me?”
Piper looked around her. She didn’t know what to do. Retrieving the walkie from her pocket, she threw off her apron and abandoned the food tent. Bill watched her leave, baffled.
Scarlett and Travis looked at each other. They both felt a rush of adrenaline and knew they couldn’t let it go to waste. Riley was next to approach the tent, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Scarlett hastily unfastened the sling containing a sleeping James and smiled sweetly at him.
“What?” Riley said knowingly.
“We just need ten minutes, Riley,” she pleaded. “You can catch up with Hope while James is asleep.”
Riley nodded and grinned at Hope. Scarlett kissed him on the cheek as she handed over her son, and she and Travis, after saying a quick goodbye to their daughter, made their way toward the edge of the woods.
The skyline above the trees was glowing orange, and thick, black smoke billowed through it into the clouds. The flames, driven by the breeze, were climbing the trees like they were ladders to the sky. The scorching timber crackled and cracked in the heat and the air around it swayed. The warmth was intense and suffocating, and the acrid, choking smell filled Scarlett’s nostrils as she and Travis drew closer. Scarlett had had enough of fire.
Piper stared up at the flames as they battered and abused Homeside’s main resource. Sweat glistened on her brow while she watched the inferno devour the forest and anything living there like it was nothing. She couldn’t tell whether she was imagining the shrieking of animals being engulfed by the blaze, but she could conceive the terror they felt at that moment.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and it served as a nudge for the tears which had been teetering in the corners of her eyes. She could faintly make out that somebody was calling her name, so she faded back to reality to listen.
“There’s nothin’ we can do, Piper,” Travis said, “We’ve gotta go, let it run its course.”
Piper nodded absently and turned and walked back to her home without protest. Scarlett stood at Travis’ side while he observed the burning ground.
“This wasn’t an accident or act of nature, was it?” she asked knowingly.
“Someone started this,” he replied, shaking his head. “Look at the scorched trails on the ground.”
“But who would do this?”
“I’ve got a hunch. Piper was talkin’ about some guy called Ethan Grey.” Scarlett’s eyes widened and her whole body tensed at the mention of his name. “He wanted Homeside, but Piper and her group put him in his place. I guess now he feels like if he can’t have it then no one else can. And now it seems to be a personal dislike for Piper.” Travis looked at Scarlett on hearing no response and quickly became concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“You definitely said Ethan Grey, yes?” Travis nodded. “I need to speak with Piper, right now.”
With that, Scarlett left Travis at the edge of the woods. He suddenly ran to catch up with her, “Scarlett, what is it?”
“Grey,” she began, walking so quickly that she was almost jogging, “he’s the guy I was telling you about; the asshole we got stuck with.”
“Wait, so you know him?”
“Oh yeah, I know him.”
The fire ended after hours of torture. Dead. Gone. The forest was nothing but ashes and dead animal. It was no longer alive. The magnificent display of greens and browns was no longer there, and had been replaced with charcoal black, powdery remains. The spark; the magic; the resources, were gone.
Scarlett called a meeting with Travis, Riley, Piper and Bill, with the intention of telling them everything she knew about Grey. But the more she thought about it, the more she realised that she wanted to hold back. She was terrified of Travis finding out what she’d done. The five of them stood in the dining room of the main house. Scarlett leant on the back of a chair while the others looked at her expectantly.
“What’s this about, Scarlett?” Piper asked impatiently.
“Sit down.” Nobody budged. “Please.”
Travis was the first to sit to support Scarlett and eventually the others followed suit.
“Is this about Grey?” Riley probed.
“What?” Piper blurted. “You know Ethan Grey?”
“We met him a few months back,” Scarlett nodded. “He was living at a military base that was used as a medical facility when the shit hit the fan.” She paused briefly, hoping she would know when to stop herself. “Anyway, I started getting to know him, against Riley and Quinlan’s better judgement. I should have left straight away. He was intense and cold, but I worked for him, recruiting people, in exchange for food, shelter and medicine. He said he needed more people to hunt the Empties-- Roamers. At first, I thought he was telling me the truth… I was wrong.”
“What happened?” Travis interrupted; his brow furrowed angrily.
“He wanted us to stay there, but me being pregnant was a problem for him. He offered me drugs to induce a miscarriage. Obviously, I refused, and for a while he seemed okay. At that point I was still able to go out and find people. But when I started to show and I couldn’t do as much anymore, he lost interest in keeping me alive. He tried to kill me. I was looking for medicine in the bathroom of a building we were scavenging in. We had an argument. He knocked me out, locked me in… and started a fire just outside the door.”
Scarlett noticed Travis’ right hand on the table, clenched into a fist. Glancing up at his face, she saw that he had broken a sweat just trying to contain his rage. It was also the first that Riley had heard of the incident, and his tear-glazed eyes were fixed on Scarlett while he asked himself why she hadn’t told him before.
“How did you get out?” Travis asked through gritted teeth.
“Grey saved me.” Observing everybody’s raised
eyebrows, Scarlett hastily clarified, “He realised that he’d have had a tough time trying to explain where I was to Riley and Quin, and he knew they’d come looking for my body and know that it wasn’t an accident. He broke the bathroom window from outside and pulled me out of the fire. He tried to convince me to give my baby to Riley and stay at the base after he was born…” she sat down. “I was so close. He had me convinced that I’d never see you and Hope again. And he was selling me this idea of eradicating the Roamers. I know it’s ridiculous now, but at the time, I almost bought it. Why wouldn’t I want to wipe them all out?”
“Then that’s settled,” Piper interjected. “For everything he’s done; to you, to us… he has to die. We’ve been tryin’ to figure out a way to end him and his people, and he knows that. And now we know how he was suddenly able to pick more of us off; he was hirin’. I think it’s finally time to stop thinkin’ about it and do it already.”
“I’ll go and do it now, just tell me where he is,” Travis said furiously.
“We don’t know. Otherwise we’d have made a move already. We know he has numbers; men and women just like him. They wanted this place soon after they realised how self-sufficient Homeside is,” Bill piped up despondently.
“Well he ain’t just gonna get away with it.”
“You’re right, Travis,” Piper soothed, “but we need to go about this the right way. Like Bill said, there are more of them than us, so we need to be smart about it. Give me some time, I’ll think of somethin’. We know he’s been plannin’ to take this place for a while. A few of us have gone out into the woods and not come back because he places some of his men out there to watch us. If we get too close, they just shoot us.”
“Scarlett, you must know where he is,” Bill suggested.
“I did,” she answered, “but his compound got overrun. Riley and Quin saw to that when they worked out what Grey was. We assumed he’d died.”
“If only,” Piper scoffed. “It seems as though you pissed him off though, and he’s takin’ it out on us. Travis, Scarlett, we should have a meeting. See if we can work something out. Riley, I think you should be there too.”
Roamers (Book 2): Fear. Loss. Survival. Hope. Page 15