“Oh,” said Abby. She was almost, just a little bit, disappointed for some reason.
“But, Abby . . .” Noah stopped. “Juliet really seems to have taken to you. I think it would be a good thing for her if you’re around as much as you can manage.
“In fact, when Millie was giving her a bath, Juliet talked about you quite a bit.”
“Really?” said Abby. “I’ve barely heard her say two sentences.”
“Well, she knows Millie and the rest of us are strangers. And Millie said she’s rather shy most of the time. Nothing she won’t probably outgrow, eventually. But, I’d like you to take on as much of her care as you can; work out some kind of, um, custody arrangement with Millie. She’s willing, she knows her limitations; besides, she said you kind of resemble Juliet’s mom, you’re even about the same age.” Noah finished his speech.
“So, what do you say, Abby?”
Abby thought for a few minutes, as they continued to walk down the road. She’d never thought about having kids. Ever. Of course, this wasn’t like having a child, really. After all, she’d be “sharing” with Millie. And she was apt to be gone out in the woods, scouting or on guard duty, or making trips around the area.
Likely most of the work would fall on Millie. Or Ted’s babysitters. But still . . . it was an interesting proposition.
Abby stopped. Good Lord, what was she thinking?
“Noah, I don’t think this is a very good idea. I don’t know the first thing about kids, especially four-year-old girls. And I’m out in the woods half the time, or scrounging around town or wherever.
“I don’t think this’ll work.”
“Sure it will, Ab. You’ll see. It’ll be fun! And Millie is here, she can take over whenever you’re gone. Besides, think of the things you can teach Juliet…c’mon, Ab, say yes!”
Abby was silent for a few minutes.
“All right, fine. I’ll do it. But I’m telling you, Noah, you might want to consider someone else. Maybe Zoe. Or Candy. Or someone!”
Noah gave Abby a quick hug. “Knew I could count on you!” He grinned. “And congratulations, it’s a girl!”
Abby rolled her eyes and started walking again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Abby jumped out of bed and pulled her gun out from under her pillow. She heard the scream a second time as she was pulling on her boots; she flew down the path, in the dark, and reached the bottom of the hill almost before that second scream ended.
“Stay put,” she told Emmy. “I’ll let you know if I need you.” She knew from whom it was coming; it was Juliet, down at Site 2. She ran down the gravel road, more by instinct than sight as no moon was visible.
As she dashed across the bridge, she could see a group of people gathered outside Millie’s tent. She brushed aside the flap and went inside.
The lantern was burning brightly and Millie was rocking Juliet, trying to quiet her; Noah knelt beside the cot. Fortunately, Juliet had stopped screaming but she continued to sob loudly and tried to flail her arms and legs. Millie held her tightly, but it wasn’t working.
“Millie,” said Noah. “Try to wake her; she’s having a night terror, not surprising under the circumstances, but she doesn’t realize what’s happening or where she is now.”
Millie bent her head close to Juliet’s ear. “Honey, come on, wake up.” She shook the girl gently. “Juliet, wake up!”
The little girl gave one last shudder, then relaxed. Her eyes opened and she stared up at Millie. She stopped crying. Noah moved closer and stroked her hair.
“There you go, little one. Everything’s fine now. You just had a bad dream, didn’t you?”
“Y-yes,” said Juliet. “Want Abby.”
Abby had stuck her gun in the back of her jeans as she’d entered the tent, noting not a single threat that could be dealt with via weaponry. However, she’d had zero experience with a child’s nightmare, or anything else to do with children for that matter, and so she was a bit nonplused when faced with Juliet’s request.
Noah turned to her. “Well, Abby?”
“Of course,” she said. That was simple enough. She took Juliet from Millie and sat down on the cot.
Millie stood up and stretched and yawned. “Dang it, I’m too old for this commotion,” she said. “I need my beauty rest.” She crawled back into bed. “Young lady, you wake me if you need to, but I reckon you’ll be just fine.” She rolled over and was asleep again almost immediately.
Abby blinked. Now what was she supposed to do? Noah came back from telling the crowd to go on back to bed, that everything was fine, and she looked up at him.
“And?” she asked.
“Well, Abby, I guess you have a little girl for the night. Or what’s left of it. See if you can get her back to sleep, and maybe sleep some yourself.
“You’ve really got to stop this running around in the middle of the night . . .” He grinned and disappeared into the darkness outside before she could call him any one of the several names on the tip of her tongue.
“Well,” she said.
She looked at Juliet. Juliet looked back at her. Abby smiled.
Juliet smiled back.
“All right, Toots, let’s get you all tucked in. Again.” Abby laid Juliet down and pulled up the covers. Juliet rubbed her eyes and yawned.
“Abby, will you stay here with me?”
Abby sighed. “Sure, kiddo, scoot on over so I can lie down.” It had been a long night already. Wait a minute. Abby realized that she probably shouldn’t put a loaded gun under a little girl’s pillow, safety locked or not. Then she thought that, probably, it would be a bad idea to have a loaded gun in the tent. However, she was unwilling to imagine having to need that gun within seconds, and still be trying to find the ammo and load it.
“Juliet,” she said, pulling out the gun and showing it to the little girl. “Um, I know you’re only four but you know what this is, right?”
“Yes,” said Juliet. “A gun.”
“Good. And you must never, ever touch a gun, right?”
“Right.”
“Especially this gun.”
“Okay.”
“Now,” said Abby, “I’m going to set this gun under the cot. You are not to touch it. This is very important, okay?”
“Okay.” Juliet rubbed her eyes again. “Abby?”
“Yes?”
“Will you tell me a story?”
Abby sighed. Did she know any stories? Well, yes, but for little kids? She thought about it for a minute. The Three Little Bears? Dogs? Wait, that wasn’t right. The Three Little Pigs. Of course!
She snuggled next to Juliet and began. “Once upon a
time . . . ” But Juliet was already asleep.
Early the next morning, Abby woke with a start. It took her several seconds to realize that she wasn’t in her own tent, then another moment to gather her memories of the previous night.
She carefully disengaged her arm from beneath Juliet and eased to a standing position. She stretched and yawned, then made her way quietly outside and across the bridge. Within a few minutes, she was climbing the hill to pick up her shower bucket.
After a quick shower and fresh clothes, Abby went in search of coffee. The fire crew was hard at work and Ted was directing his cooks; he paused to hand her a steaming mug. She sat down at a table and waited for Cal and the others. After all the excitement yesterday, the usual nightly meeting had been postponed until this morning.
Emmy sat beside Abby. “How’s the little girl this morning, Ab?”
Abby yawned. “Sleeping, I guess. She had a nightmare or something last night.”
“I heard. Well, we all did, actually.” Emmy looked down at her coffee. “I’m glad you could be there for her, Ab. Poor little thing, she must be so scared.”
“Well, yeah. I mean, we’re all scared, Em. I mean, well, you know.” Abby was a little rattled, having just now appreciated that they all might just be in a really big jam, something it might be impossible to work th
eir way out of any time soon.
Finally Cal arrived and the meeting began. Abby was grateful to have something else, something practical, to occupy her thoughts.
“All right, here’s where we sit: Noah is still working with me, trying to access files and checking on the overall situation. It appears that, as you know, it’s not confined to just our area, or even the entire US. It’s global.” Cal paused for a moment, then cleared her throat.
“What this means is that we’re on our own. We’re also trying to connect with additional groups that may be out there; this is Meg’s department, but she’s not having much more success.
“Sorry to say, in a nutshell, we’re still pretty clueless.”
Everyone was silent. There was really nothing to say. They all, each one realized, had been hoping for better news without being aware of that hope. And, too, what had seemed almost surreal the last few days was rapidly becoming a new existence, for the duration.
“So,” Cal continued, “Here’s what we’re going to do. Almost everyone will remain with their assigned duties, unless there are any objections?
“No? Good. We’ll be sending out salvage crews over the next week, starting tomorrow. Brad’s going to compile a list of needed materials, and Lorie will provide a list of needed supplies for the commissary, along with Ted’s requests for the cooking crew.
“The fire guys will be off in the woods as much as we can spare them, getting wood for the winter. Yes, I’m aware that it’s just late August, but you all know as well as I do that the weather in Missouri is weird at its best.” She smiled. “At any rate, we need to start thinking and preparing. That electric grid isn’t going to last much longer. Neither are the cell towers.”
Well, thought Abby. This should be interesting. Most of them had grown up without cell phones; CBs and walkies worked just fine, after all. But they’d sure all gotten used to cells pretty quickly; and the Internet. Wow. On the other hand, there wasn’t much online at the moment; no one seemed to be around to post any new information, or they didn’t have any in the first place.
Cal wasn’t finished, but Abby needed more coffee. She refilled her mug and strolled over to the edge of the shelter, lighting a cigarette.
“Emmy,” said Cal, “I’m pulling you off hostess duty—we aren’t likely to get any new folks in here, unless we pick up one or two like we did yesterday. You’ll work with Lorie over at the commissary most of the time, but I also want you to sit in with Meg and me in case we have any, um, disagreements with anyone. You know, help mediate.” Cal was well aware that she tended to be all business, and Meg could be rather blunt; Emmy would provide a little more conciliation.
“Okay, that’s it for today. We’ll all kind of take it easy around camp here today, a little R&R, and meet at the commissary tomorrow after dinner.
“Oh, and I need to see Abby and Zoe for a minute.”
Everyone got up to leave, pleased at the thought of having no schedule, at least for a short time. No one even thought to ask any questions or for clarification of anything Cal had said. The part about not knowing much at all had temporarily shocked them a bit.
Abby put out her cigarette and fieldstripped it. She and Zoe sat down with Cal.
“All right,” said Cal. “Zoe, since you have your degree in forestry and have been using it for quite a few years now, I want you to take over the fire crew.
“Ted’s been nominally in charge, since he uses them for the cooking fires, but starting today we’re going with cold lunches so the crew can be out in the woods most of the day.
“We need to go pretty far out, but still stay on the property; we certainly want to keep our cover here, nearby. I also need you to make a plan as to what areas and when, so Abby can know where you all are while she’s out and about. That way, in case we need to communicate and radios are down in your location, Abby can find you.”
“Got it,” said Zoe. “I’ll have the info to you by lunchtime today.”
“Sorry to make you work when everyone else is off today,” said Cal with a smile. “I’ll make it up to you and Brad later.”
The petite redhead blushed. Everyone knew she and Brad were an item, even though they mostly tried to hide it. Zoe left and Cal turned to Abby.
“Congratulations,” she grinned. “I hear it’s a girl.”
Abby groaned and put her head down. Why did everyone keep saying that? Cal laughed.
“Okay, okay. Sorry.” She looked anything but repentant as she grinned at Abby. “Seriously, though, how do you plan to handle this?”
“Me?” said Abby. “This wasn’t my idea—and besides, Noah said that Millie was going to take care of Juliet, that I’d be like a backup person or something. And Ted’s girls said they’d babysit too. What am I supposed to do?”
“Well, Abby, clearly she’s attached herself to you. And while she knows Millie, and has since she was a baby, it’s you she wants.
“I’ve seen her run to you, speak to you, and hang on to you for dear life—not to mention last night, as soon as she became coherent she asked for you. Not Millie.”
“Geez, Cal, don’t you ever sleep?” grumbled Abby. “No,” said Cal, “Not really.”
“Again, what exactly do you want me to do?” Abby asked, yet she feared the answer.
“Glad you asked,” said Cal with a snicker. “She can stay with Millie at night; I’d rather you be free in case, er, anything urgent comes up. But the rest of the time, when you’re in camp at least, I’d like you to take charge of Juliet.
“Millie is no spring chicken, if you didn’t notice, and she just can’t keep up with a four-year-old all day.”
“What about when I’m in the field?” asked Abby. “She’ll have to stay here, either with Millie or someone else.”
“Absolutely,” said Cal. “We’ll make arrangements for that. I’m sure you’ll get lots of help. Speaking of . . .” Cal got up to leave as Juliet came running to Abby.
Millie was close behind the little girl, Bob at her side, and she sat down beside Abby. “Whew! She practically ran all the way here! Hang on a minute, honey, let Grammy catch her breath and we’ll get us some breakfast.” Juliet obediently sat down on the bench.
“Abby can help me,” said Juliet.
Millie looked at the younger woman. “Maybe, but you have to ask her first.”
“Abby, will you help me get breakfast?”
“Sure, kiddo.” Abby stood up and Juliet took her hand and smiled up at her. Huh, thought Abby. How hard could this be?
She helped the little girl fill her plate with bacon and scrambled eggs, but was stumped when it came to the coffee. She was pretty sure that caffeine wasn’t the best thing for a four- year-old to drink. Ted came to her rescue, and offered Juliet a mug of milk.
“Thank you,” said Juliet. Abby smiled at Ted in relief. The two sat down and Juliet ate her breakfast.
“So,” said Millie cheerfully, “What do you two have planned for today? Just so you know, I usually lie down for a bit right after lunch…and so does Juliet. Sometimes.”
“Um, what do we have planned?” Abby looked nonplussed. “Uh, for instance?”
Millie took pity on her and patted her shoulder. “It’s okay, dear, it can be quite a shock taking care of a small child all day. You just bring her back to my tent after lunch for a bit. Maybe take a walk, or play a game?”
“A game?” Abby repeated. She sure didn’t remember playing games at that age; heck, she couldn’t remember even being that age!
“Yes, a game. Like hide and seek, or tag, or catch; Juliet loves baseball. Oh,” Millie added, “Guess we don’t have any baseballs around here. Well, maybe just a nice walk then.”
Abby loved a challenge but this . . . this would take some doing. She looked at her watch. 9:00 a.m. That left, oh, a few hours at least. Surely she could handle a small girl for that amount of time.
“Right,” said Abby. “Come along, Jules, we’ll find something to do.” She lifted Juliet off the bench
, told her to tell Millie goodbye, and showed her how to put her dishes in the waiting tub by the fire pit. She whistled for Bob and they climbed the hill to Abby’s tent.
“This place,” said Abby decidedly, “Is a mess. Jules, you can help me clean up; whatever I hand to you, set it on Emmy’s bed. Yes, that one,” she added, as Juliet pointed.
Within a few minutes, Abby was able to make up her bed, left in disarray from her hasty departure in the middle of last night. She swept the floor and showed Juliet how to hold the dustpan. When they were finished, Abby started to slide out her gun case.
“Oh. Right. You’re four, aren’t you Jules?” The girl nodded. “Hmmm. Well, it’s a bit of an early start, but under the circumstances . . .” Abby opened the case, and when Juliet looked inside her eyes grew wide.
“First,” Abby told her, “Never, ever touch these, or this case, or any other gun, ever, unless a big person tells you to, got it?” Juliet nodded solemnly.
Abby took out what she needed and closed and locked the case. Pushing it back under the cot, she sat down on the floor. Juliet followed suit.
First, Abby pulled out her .357, checked the safety, unloaded the gun, and began to clean it. Juliet watched her every move.
“What’s that called, Abby?” Juliet asked. So Abby explained the parts of the handgun and exactly what she was doing. Before reloading, she handed the gun to Juliet.
The little girl was surprised at how heavy it was and almost dropped it into her lap. But she didn’t. She hung on to it and turned it over, carefully examining it.
“That’s enough for today, Jules. One more thing: never, ever point a gun at a person unless you intend to shoot him. And you better have a darn good reason.” Well, Abby thought, maybe that’s a little too much for a four-year-old. But she shrugged it off; the world had changed, and a little knowledge, even of things so unthinkable just a few days ago, certainly couldn’t hurt.
Abby reloaded the .357, checked the safety, and stuck it back in her jeans. She pulled her knife out of the ankle sheath and began sharpening it, while Juliet watched. When she was done, she replaced the knife and stood up.
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