by Max Lockwood
"Michelle thought me and Dante ran off together for the night," she explained, giving Cooper a dry look.
"Well, you are having a secret affair," he pointed out.
She flinched with a wince. Like she could have forgotten. She heard his use of present tense, though, and corrected him.
"You mean we were having a secret affair."
He frowned. "What?"
"It's over," she informed him gently.
It took a moment for it to sink in for him, but when it did, he seemed pleased by the news, like Clara had expected he would be. He'd been after her to end it for so long, he was probably more relieved about it than she was.
"Why don’t you go out to the garden with me?"
Clara just groaned, leaning her head back as she closed her eyes. "I was on a bike for the better part of today, Cooper. I am so tired I don’t think I can still stand."
He just chuckled at her. She felt the couch shift as he pushed himself up, and took both her hands to tug her up after him. She whined in complaint, but he was stronger than her. He pulled her up and held onto her with an arm around her shoulders. She could have told him she wouldn’t actually fall if he let go of her, but she was enjoying the touch too much.
"You didn’t say no," he told her as he dragged her forward.
Not that it took much dragging. They went outside, and found Viola and Tessa in the garden. Clara was surprised her sister had gotten out of the house, even though it was in their own backyard. But she probably didn’t spend all her time in the house when Clara was out working, anyway. She was home mostly early mornings and evenings, so she didn’t get a lot of chances to see Tessa leave her room without prompting.
"What are you guy's doing?"
Viola looked up and smiled. She looked of sound mind, not even the slightest confusion. Both looked like they'd been outside for a while.
"Oh, hello, honey. I didn’t know you'd gotten back."
"I haven't been here long," she assured, drifting closer.
"Well, that's good. I planned to grow some vegetables in the garden, just in case everything doesn’t blow over. I asked your sister to help me, and so was your nice young man until he heard something outside. Once I'm finished with my own garden, I think I'll help the neighbors."
She winced at Cooper being her nice young anything, they were only friends, but she cared more that Viola remembered their situation. She wondered if the memories just came back when she woke or if someone else had to remind her.
"How much do you think you can grow here?"
She hummed, digging her fingers into the dirt. "Plenty of vegetables can grow here, if you know what you're doing. Did you know I grew up on a farm? Though I left when I was younger. My mother used to have her own garden. Out there, we mostly ate off the land. My family survived just fine for years, until I met your grandfather and we moved into the city."
She looked up, looking a little proud of herself, and Clara felt a burst of affection for her grandmother. She didn’t speak a lot about her life when she was younger, or their grandfather, who'd passed away when Clara was too young to remember him. She moved so she was kneeling next to Viola, forcing her aching muscles to just take it.
"Actually, I have some news. It could be good." She felt the giddiness from earlier come back to her and threw a big smile to her grandmother.
She got a confused, but happy smile in return. It took her a moment to realize the look was because she didn’t smile often. Even this would improve her usual lackluster mood, especially if it panned out.
Cooper sat beside her, and Clara discussed her meeting with the Mayor. She glossed over most of it, but mentioned the possible agreement made for food that would be coming in the next day. Her grandmother laughed in obvious delight, dragging Clara in for a hug.
"I'm so proud of you, Clara. I'm sure everyone would be happy to hear the news."
"Grandma, we're not sure yet so it's still too early to celebrate," she warned.
"Oh, forget about that. Even if it falls through, I am still going to be proud of the woman you're turning out to be."
Clara returned the hug, forgetting her own insecurities for the moment. Then she noticed Tessa glaring at her, but she tried to brush it off, allowing herself to feel pride for a moment.
Chapter Twenty-One
The next morning, she went back to the police station to discuss with the police her meeting with the mayor. She gave the details of the deal, and the cop she was talking to looked so relieved and pleased, she felt a little proud of herself for helping.
"This is good. This is very good. Do you think he would stick to the deal? His terms seemed fine, but if you're worried…"
"He said the food will be coming in, we just have to stick to our end. I can't say I trust him, but we get the food before we hand anything over."
"Well done, Ms. Thomas. You've done your town a great service. Continue with the good work in more of our neighboring towns."
She frowned. "Do you need me to go anywhere else today?"
"No. For today, just go wait for this truck. Someone needs to look over this deal, make sure it goes smoothly. I'll send the message over to the gas station, it’s the biggest one in town. I'm not sure when this truck will get there, but get there at your earliest convenience. We'll assign you something new after that."
She gave a sharp nod. She was going to leave when something else occurred to her and she stopped.
"Can I have company again, the next time I'm sent to another town?"
He frowned slightly and looked beyond her. "Well, you can. But the guy you went with before, Dante Townson? He called in earlier—well, came in, actually—just this morning. Said he couldn’t go on another trip. If you really need to go with someone, we'll find someone else. Can I help you with anything else?"
"No. I'm good, but thank you."
She walked away frowning, wondering what was up with Dante. He hadn't said anything about quitting, though when they stopped by the previous evening to talk to the few officers left, they hadn't been told they would be going out on more negotiation missions.
Clara wondered if his sudden decision had anything to do with Michelle and their argument. Clara hadn't been there to hear the rest of it, once they got home she'd only heard silence from her neighbor's place. She thought briefly about going over to talk it out with them, before deciding it wasn’t any of her business, and she had no right to butt in more than she already had.
With nothing else to do for the day, Clara went to the gas station to oversee the trade between the two towns. She felt cautiously optimistic, pushing away the negative thoughts that wanted to eat away at her mind. She was going to be positive. Food would be coming in, and that was a good thing. She still had plenty at her place, it would last the four of them a good while, but having more couldn’t hurt.
When she got there, she realized there were a few people around. When she got closer, she saw Cooper among them, and when he saw her, he grinned and jogged her way. She looked at the people behind him, suddenly feeling nervous. These were more people that depended on this deal. Somehow, it just had to go well.
"Hey! I wasn’t sure when you would get here. A few of us were eager and we made it kind of early."
She waved a hand the way she'd come. "I passed by the station first… Cooper, what are these people doing here?"
"Hmm?" He glanced back. "Oh, right. Several of the townspeople came down here to help. When that truck eventually turns up, you won't be able to empty it yourself."
Right. She hadn't even thought of that, had she? She wondered if it was Cooper's idea, but gave him a smile of gratitude anyway. Not long after she'd made it, the truck they were expecting rode up.
They heard it long before they saw it. It was an old truck with a really loud engine. They didn’t have anything that size in town, but Clara wondered if they could find something that could work. Even if a smaller car could carry less, it would still be better than nothing. The truck came to a sto
p, the sudden silence leaving her slightly disoriented. But when the driver stepped down and walked around to open the back, she followed with Cooper, and a few of the people in the small crowd.
"Here's your delivery."
Clara spared a nod for the driver, her eyes locked on the inside of the truck. As soon as she got close, the smell coming out of it made her wrinkle her nose in distaste.
What the hell was this?
She held her hand out, motioning for Cooper to get closer. "Can you help me get up there? I need to inspect the goods."
The smell coming out of the truck was giving her a bad feeling. That, or it was just making her sick to her stomach. Cooper helped her up, and she stepped inside the truck. There was food, a lot of it, but the smell only got harsher once she was inside, and it made her stomach lurch.
It was food, yeah, but she noted the quality of the food sent to them was not up to good standards. There was more fresh produce than packaged goods, but they were all cheap or out of date. She stood in front of a crate with some tomatoes and thought she was going to be sick. A lot of them already looked like they'd gone bad, the smell wafting from them alone told her that better than her eyes. The rest of it wasn’t exactly any better. She moved to the end of the truck and jumped out, breathing in fresh air and looking at the driver in disgust.
"What the hell is this?"
But he just shrugged, looking unconcerned. "Don’t look at me, lady. I was just told to drive the truck, I didn’t touch any of what went in there."
"Clara?"
She looked to Cooper, noticing the heavy frown on his face, on the faces of plenty of the people there who also seemed to have caught wind of the problem.
"This is the food they sent for us. What the hell…"
She wanted to yell at the driver, but that wouldn’t lead to anything. And she'd been feeling so proud of herself for getting a deal. The man never intended to be fair with them. A full tank of gas for a truckload of food? He just wanted to unload this on them knowing it wouldn’t be edible for long, while keeping most of his resources to himself. Clara wondered if it was edible, anyway.
"Mayor Charleston can't get away with cheating the deal, Clara."
"But the truck is already here. A truck full of food he said, and I took him at his fucking word," she muttered.
"It's not your fault. He's trying to trick us. There's no way you could have known."
She knew that, of course, but that didn’t make her feel better. What was she supposed to do now? If she accepted the food with the current agreement, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t try to take advantage of them in the future. Even for food, the deal was going to grow detrimental to them, the opposite of the help she'd gone to look for.
What was that man even thinking?
It was a split second decision and an easy one to make. They couldn’t afford to make him think he could step all over them, or it would never stop. She turned a glare to the driver.
"Get in your truck and go back where you got it from."
He looked surprised, the first expression other than boredom that showed on his face in the space of time since he arrived. "What about the gas? I was told to collect—"
"You're going back with what you brought and no more. Hurry it up. You can come back when you have something useful for me."
She watched him sputter for a moment, and then realize she wasn’t standing alone. He looked nervously at the people behind her, and she followed his gaze. They were obviously displeased, but Clara felt relief and some satisfaction that those glares were not pointed at her. She would have wavered if she thought they would take the food anyway. But they were nowhere near starved enough to just take bad food.
They all stood back and watched as the man closed the back of the truck then hurried to the front, a few people already grumbling and walking away. She turned to leave herself, if there was nothing for her to do there, she didn’t need to stick around. Cooper, of course, stuck with her.
"Was that the wisest thing to do?"
She glanced at him, to find him looking back at the truck. "What?"
"I'm just saying, you took a big risk. I didn’t even walk in there and I could tell most of that food was bad, but won't doing this make him angry?
"So what? We're the ones that should be angry. That wasn’t just cheap food, Cooper, some of it had already gone bad, and it wasn’t fit to eat. We don’t have room to give things up for a low price, especially not when it's going to leave people sick anyway. We don’t have medical supplies, either, in case that happens."
"Even then, you realize he might just refuse to help us?"
She heard the unease in his voice and acknowledged it, but she refused to think she was wrong about this. Because she knew she wasn’t.
"It's a calculated risk, a necessary one. This proved he has a vehicle for transportation, so he will still need gas. He's trying to save on resources, so he'd want to get more from outside. It's survival of the fittest, remember? We need to be strong, not let others think they can walk all over us because we're desperate enough to take anything."
She wasn’t sure whether or not he believed her, but he sighed and looked ahead, shrugging his shoulders.
"I can't say I entirely agree with you, but I don’t think anyone would have eaten the stuff anyway. Not with that smell. We just haven't reached that level of desperate yet."
Clara wondered how far they would have to go to 'reach that level of desperate.' She shuddered just thinking about it.
"Hey, you mind if I ask a favor?"
He peered over at her, curious. "Sure, anything."
She smiled at how quickly he agreed. "I might be taking another trip out of town. I went with Dante last time, but I think he's stopped volunteering. I realized I don’t want to go by myself, and I want you with me for the next trip."
His shoulder lightly bumped hers as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
"I'll do whatever you need me to, Clara."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Another day, another task.
She'd decided to use her parents' bikes, so the police could give the others she and Dante had used before to someone else getting sent out. Because they were done a lot sooner than she'd expected, because of the bad deal, they'd taken a look at the bikes to be sure they were safe for use. She'd stopped by the station to get her next assignment as she reported on the deal.
Uncovering her parents' things made a lump stick in her throat for most of the rest of that day, but the bikes were fine.
The next day, Clara set out with Cooper on their bikes to a nearby town, Bridgeton. There, they were hoping to find medical equipment to treat the victims who'd survived the plane crash, and trained staff who could help out. They were short staffed, and when she first heard, she remembered how she'd gone there and quit in a day. But Cooper had been right, it wasn’t a job suited to her. She wondered if she could find something that did suit her.
The town was luckily closer than the last one. Less distance to travel meant they could take up a good pace without tiring themselves out. They were still moving fairly fast, with Cooper matching Clara's pace as they rode side by side.
For the first time in a long time, Clara could admit to feeling some peace. Riding had been a good escape when she was younger, though usually when she rode, it was on a family trip. But she didn’t think of that time now, not when she had Cooper riding beside her.
"I can't imagine what hospital workers go through each day," she mused, thinking back. "I was traumatized by my own experience there a few days earlier, and I didn’t even last that long."
She'd gone so readily, nearly given up right in the middle but rallied on, only to walk away in the end without the intention to go back. She'd felt bad about it, but even if Cooper hadn't insisted on it, she didn’t think anything would have made her go back there. It was one thing to know people were dying, another thing to actually see it, and she would rather not.
"Well, technically, they're
trained to do it," he reminded her. "I knew a guy in college who was taking medicine. He went to a morgue and got to see a dead body as part of his studies. And there's on the job training, though I don’t know just how far that goes. But I'm sure they have some exposure, they don’t just get thrown into it, and they have some mental preparedness you didn’t get. That was why you freaked, why it got to you so much. I'm pretty sure the people working in hospitals don’t remain unaffected."
"Yeah," she murmured.
She'd conveniently forgotten about that fact. Clara had wanted to help, had been a tad overzealous about it. If she had stopped to think, she would have remembered how the day of the crash had been draining on her, looking for survivors and helping them out. She would have ruled it out as something she was not equipped to handle, had she been thinking clearly.
"Bridgeton has one of the best hospitals in the area, actually," he added. "I can't talk about size, but I do know they have plenty of staff and medical supplies."
"Even then, though, do you think they'd be willing to lend a helping hand?"
After dealing with Charleston, not to mention plenty of other little things, her faith in humanity had lowered immensely in the past few days, not that it had been impressive to begin with.
"They're good people. And I do mean they have a lot of supplies here. Even before all this, when our own smaller hospital needed a helping hand, people were sent there. I broke a leg once as a kid and had to go there for surgery. They will likely be willing to help us out if they can."
That made her feel a bit of relief. Cooper had a generally positive and happy personality, but he didn’t let it blind him. If he said that, and he really believed it, then Clara had faith he wouldn’t steer her wrong.
"I've been to Bridgeton, too, actually. Not all that recently, though. I was fifteen, but I sort of remember the area."
They rode on until the town came into view and they made their way through the streets, heading for the center of town. When Clara and Cooper arrived in the town square, they found hundreds of people. It seemed like they were all gathered outside a clock tower. It reminded her of the last town she'd gone to and she wondered what was going on.