Chain Breakers (Nuclear Winter Book 3)

by Nathan Jones

  Pete glanced at Kathleen, who looked away. “I suppose I'm not doing much with my wages,” he admitted grudgingly. “When I actually receive any.”

  He was surprised when the young woman chimed in. “I guess I could see if we need an extra pair of hands in the laundry,” she muttered.

  The aid worker beamed at them and bustled away without a word. Pete watched her go, a bit baffled by what had just happened. “So, uh, I guess that's what's happening?” he said.

  Kathleen turned and glared at him through her glasses. “I didn't expect to become a foster mother or big sister or whatever when I agreed to come along.”

  “I don't think she's asking for quite that much,” Pete said, feeling like a jerk for dragging the young woman into this. “Anyway if it's more than you signed up for you can go. I'll do as much as I-”

  “Oh, shut up.” Kathleen plopped down on the ground, not seeming to care if her pants got dirty. “Now that I've met the little scarecrow I can't just leave her to her fate. That stupid aid worker knew that, with all her guilt tripping.”

  Pete settled on the ground beside her, not sure what, if anything, he should say.

  Thankfully Lily reappeared before the silence could get awkward again, her tanned skin scrubbed pink and her wet hair looking more dark brown than blond. She still looked ludicrous in baggy, oversized clothes, but at least they were clean and would keep her warm.

  The first thing the girl did was look around frantically, and her relief was obvious when she saw Pete and Kathleen seated on the ground nearby. She started to walk over to them, then caught sight of the shoes he held and glanced down at her clean feet and the dirty ground between them.

  Pete hurried over and handed her the shoes, glad to see that they had a clean pair of socks tucked inside. Lily did that awkward dance of trying to put them on while standing on one leg at a time, reaching out for his arm whenever she wobbled.

  Kathleen had come to stand next to him, smiling down at the girl. “Listen, Lily,” she said as if the thought had just occurred to her. “I was thinking it might be fun if you came to work with me cleaning laundry.”

  Lily paused putting on her first shoe and gave the young woman a doubtful look. “Laundry?”

  “Yeah. There's only so many kinds of jobs in a military camp if you're not a soldier, and cooking and laundry top the list. The work might be a bit tough but I think you can handle it.”

  The girl wrinkled her nose. “I know all about laundry. They made the grownup women do laundry at the camp, and it didn't look very fun.” She gave them both a dark look. “I thought I wasn't a slave anymore.”

  Kathleen gave Pete a helpless look, and he sighed. How did he even begin to tackle the philosophical quagmire that was needing to work to survive as opposed to being forced to work to a thirteen year old?

  “I know it doesn't seem fair to have to work at your age,” he said, “but the way the world is now there isn't enough to go around unless everyone pulls their weight. You can choose to do something else. Or nothing at all. They'll do what they can for you if you don't work, but it might not be everything you need. Meanwhile those willing to work will have the stuff no one can afford to spare for you.”

  Lily scowled. “I'm not afraid to work,” she protested. “As long as it's not laundry.”

  He couldn't help but smile, and noticed Kathleen hiding hers. Kids seemed to have the magical ability to look cute even while scowling. “I can guarantee it won't be as bad as at the slave camp,” he promised. “Wouldn't you like to work with Kathleen so she's there to help you and look out for you?”

  “Can't I stay with you?” the girl asked plaintively.

  “No,” Pete immediately replied, more sharply than he'd intended. Clinginess or not, he was a soldier and his time wasn't his own. He wanted to nip any silly ideas on her part right in the bud.

  Still, it was hard to stay firm against the hurt look she gave him, and he sighed again. “Even if I wanted to, and I was willing to take you into the danger I'll be going into, which I'm not, it would be impossible to get permission from my superiors.”

  Lily nodded sadly. “I know.” She looked up, green eyes swimming on the verge of tears. “But you'll visit me whenever you can, right? You and Kathleen are the only people in the world who care about me.”

  Dang it. Kids really knew how to tug at the heartstrings. “Whenever I've got free time,” he promised.

  She seemed to accept that, or at least didn't protest any more. Kathleen gave him an approving nod and took the girl's hand. “Come on, let's find Leann and see where you'll be sleeping.”

  Lily held out her other hand for Pete, and he shook his head slightly and took it. Together they found Leann, who led Lily to a small tent where all the girls among the freed slave children would be sleeping.

  “I need to report in with my squad,” Pete said before Lily could get clingy again. “Branson is going to kill me as it is.”

  At the girl's crestfallen look Kathleen squeezed her hand. “Would you like me to come in and brush your hair?” she asked. Lily made a face at the prospect of her long, tangled locks receiving attention for probably the first time in months if not years, but nodded reluctantly. “Okay. How about you go in and let Leann show you where you'll be sleeping while I say goodbye to Pete.”

  “Okay.” The little girl threw her arms around Pete, looking up at him. “Remember you promised to visit me as much as you can!”

  “I remember,” he said, smiling down at her.

  “Okay bye!” Lily followed Leann into the tent, waving goodbye one last time before disappearing inside.

  That left Pete alone with Kathleen. But it was a good sign that she'd wanted to say goodbye, right? “Sooo . . .” he said, shifting uncomfortably. “This is probably an awkward time to ask this, but you up for dinner if I've got the evening?”

  In spite of the young woman's earlier grumbling he could've sworn she tried to hide a pleased smile. “As in “this was a long, eventful day, let's get something to eat,” or “this was a long, eventful day, let's go on a date?”

  Pete scratched at his jaw. “Well I'd ask you to a movie, but . . .”

  Kathleen's smile slipped out. “A date, then. In that case sure.” Behind her glasses her gray eyes appraised the river mud crusting his boots and the bottom of his pants, and her nose wrinkled slightly at the combination of less than pleasant odors wafting off him whenever he shifted position. “As long as you take a shower first.”

  Pete felt his face flush. He'd forgotten that he wasn't exactly at his best at the moment. He was lucky she'd agreed in spite of that, and anyway he was more than ready to wash up. “Yeah, probably a good idea. Meet you in fifteen?”

  Kathleen's smile widened as she looked him over again, then ran a teasing finger over the 5 o'clock shadow along his jaw. “Make it a half hour. It'll give me time to brush Lily's hair and give her a short tour of the camp before we meet you.”

  His smile faltered. “Oh. Uh . . .” It made sense the kid would be tagging along, since she hadn't eaten either and he had sort of convinced Kathleen to help her out. It definitely changed the tone of the date, though, if it could even still be called that.

  The young woman gave him a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, I know, but remember who dragged who into this.” She patted his cheek just a touch harder than was necessary. “I'll make sure our second date is just the two of us.”

  Pete perked up at that. He'd gone from wondering if Kathleen was even interested in him to a promise of a second date. That was definitely a silver lining. Besides, there was no reason they couldn't enjoy themselves even with a tagalong.

  “Thirty minutes,” he agreed.

  Chapter Three

  An Unexpected Honor

  Trev had a kid.

  No, Deb was still in the first trimester of her pregnancy, and her and the baby were both doing just fine. Specifically, Trev finally had the kid doe the town had promised him for helping build the barn last fall. Robert had already g
otten his pair of newborn animals as promised, and the mother too, before he left to build his new town. Now the next dairy goat in line had finally kidded twins and Trev was getting his.

  Deb immediately fell in love with the wobbly-kneed black, brown, and white kid, and doted on her ridiculously in the few hours after meeting her. Although Trev had a feeling that when it came time to name the little goat his wife's cravings might've been behind the wheel: she decided to go with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, or Cookie for short.

  And Cookie wasn't their only recent windfall. After Lewis's trip down to San Antonio there were the profits from the sale of the guns the volunteers had captured from Gold Bloc forces, then donated to Aspen Hill. Matt was as good as his word when it came to parceling out a share of the proceeds to all of the volunteers.

  And of course, far more importantly there were the profits from the sale of the bullets Trev, Lewis, Jane, and occasionally Deb and Jim had spent the winter reloading. A healthy chunk of those profits had gone to purchasing more reloading materials, but they were still expecting Aspen Hill's payment for what the town had purchased.

  Last but not least, Trev was more than pleased when Matt announced that the town would be giving all the defenders, as well as a few other volunteers who'd spent a lot of their time during the winter months basically working for free, as much compensation as the town could manage for their service, to be given out immediately. Not only that, but he promised a generous stipend going forward for everyone who continued to serve the town, now that Aspen Hill could afford it.

  All of that added up to enough food to feed the entire Smith family for months, especially when they added Deb's share of all of those windfalls to the total. Between that and the beehives Jim was continuing to nurture, the shelter group's sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, and soon to be turkeys, the greenhouse gardens and the outdoor crops that were thriving in spite of being at the mercy of the elements, and last but not least their efforts hunting, foraging, and scavenging, they were in good shape to survive the next nuclear winter that was bearing down on them.

  And of course everyone in the shelter group had their own irons in the fire. In fact, they were hopeful that they might have enough surplus to start purchasing other stuff besides food on the town's future trade runs down to San Antonio.

  Things that would've been considered necessities before the Gulf burned were only a step below luxuries at this point. Competing for a place at the top of that list were items like toilet paper, hygiene products of all types, presentable clothes, and last but certainly not least underwear. For most families a strong nod was also given to books, cards, board games, and other forms of entertainment.

  That was less of a priority for the shelter group thanks to Lewis's archives and solar panels, which offered books, music, videos, and other entertainment in a huge variety. And his cousin shared his archives with anyone else in town who had electronics, although that was a small number. But there was talk of getting a generator, possibly rigging the creek that ran down the new Aspen Hill valley through the town with turbines to produce power, and purchasing more solar panels or windmills if they were available.

  If that happened more people would be able to get power for devices, and hopefully would be able to purchase those devices as well, or share them out among friends.

  Trev hoped they managed it: he had plenty of his own experience with the grinding boredom of long hours with nothing to do. Not so much this last winter, thanks to having Deb at his side and their family and friends with them, not to mention full use of Lewis's archives. But as for the first winter after the Gulf burned that he and Lewis had spent up at their hideout in the mountains not far to the west . . .

  Well, to say those months had been boring was an incredible understatement.

  Deb eventually left the barn, since even as enchanted as she was with Cookie she could only sit around watching the kid's antics for so long when there was so much work to do. She half joked about taking the little goat with her, even letting her move into their room with them. From his wife's slight disappointment when Trev adamantly refused, he had a feeling they would've found themselves with a house pet if he'd been on board.

  He stayed behind as Deb disappeared through the door. Now that they had an animal in the barn (apparently rabbits and chickens didn't count) he was part of the rotation for caring for the town's livestock. Starting the moment the little goat was born and Matt shook Trev's hand to officially transfer ownership, which meant the morning's chores had just doubled.

  Even so it wasn't terribly difficult work. Actually the Watsons, Larsons, Tillmans, Halssons, and other people in town using the barn had been batting around the idea of putting the care of all the animals on rotation.

  Which made sense. One or two people could take care of all the animals in half the time it took half a dozen people to manage their own livestock. And that applied double now that the animals were being moved out into fenced-in areas to graze during the day, which was more labor intensive. In fact, Trev had a feeling some of the young children in Aspen Hill might find themselves employed before too long, so the adults had time to do more complex and difficult work.

  As Trev was finishing up the last items on the checklist Sam wandered in through the open door, with baby Olivia slung in a carrying harness against her chest. The baby turned to look at Trev and immediately held out her arms to go to him.

  “I see how it is,” the raven-haired woman said with a grin. “This is because you see Uncle Trev all the time when Daddy takes you to the town hall tent, isn't it baby girl?” Now that the weather was getting warmer Matt had been bringing Olivia to work with him to give Sam a break, so the town hall tent was becoming almost a second home for the baby.

  “Probably more because Uncle Trev ends up as the designated babysitter whenever Daddy has to run off on town business and can't bring her along,” Trev replied. “Not that I'm complaining at all, mind you.” He made his way over to tussle the baby's soft wisps of hair, which were every bit as dark as her mother's.

  “Well you'll have one of your own to spoil rotten soon.” Sam patted his arm as she passed him on her way to the chicken coop, where she pulled on a glove and began gathering eggs into an old, dirty carton.

  Trev pushed down the surge of ever-present worry he felt for Deb and the baby and got back to his chores. “Speaking of which, how's April doing?” he asked over his shoulder.

  “About the same as when she dropped the bombshell on us yesterday,” Sam replied lightly.

  Matt's sister had announced last night that she and Terry were expecting another child, to the excitement of everyone who'd been there to hear. Especially Aaron and Paul; the young boys were firmly convinced they were going to have a baby sister just like Olivia, which seemed unlikely considering the entire Lynn family was blond, and they were overjoyed at the prospect.

  Trev chatted with his friend as they both finished up their work. They were heading out of the barn together, Sam with a dozen or so eggs and him with a pail of goat's milk to be strained and put in the town's icehouse, when Matt burst out of the town hall tent just down the street.

  The Mayor caught sight of them and bolted their way, grinning. “You're not going to believe it!” he yelled. Olivia stared wide-eyed at her daddy's excitement, face scrunched up in that odd way of babies as if she wasn't sure whether or not to start crying.

  Big news, looked like. And good news, which Trev never complained about. “What?” he called back.

  Matt skidded to a halt in front of them. “We just got word over the radio. Mr. Lassiter is touring the various towns and camps for his campaign, and his staff wants to add Aspen Hill as one of his first stops.”

  Sam furrowed her brow. “Because we're close to Manti?”

  “Probably,” Matt admitted. “I can't think of any reason he'd be interested in our town. Even so, it's a chance for the citizens of Aspen Hill to get to know a candidate. See who they're going to be voting for.”

  �
��Or not voting for,” Trev pointed out.

  His friends grinned at him. “Still pulling for what's-his-face?” Sam asked.

  Trev smiled back ruefully. The words were teasing, but he had to admit she had a point: aside from Lassiter almost nobody knew any of the candidates. Their names often drew a blank even among people following the election. “When's he coming?” he asked.

  Matt jolted as if zapped by a cattle prod. “Two days.” He ran a hand through his hair. “That's not much time to get ready to greet a potential future President, is it? We've got to clear a field, construct a platform, put up decorations, spruce up the town, neaten the roads, fill in the old latrine pits and dig new ones, patch or replace the-”

  Sam gently put a hand on her husband's arm. “We should probably get busy then,” she suggested.

  “Right,” the Mayor said, giving his wife and daughter a hasty kiss with his mind obviously far away. “I'll get the town leaders together. Trev, I need you to-”

  “-round up as many defenders as I can put to work,” Trev cut in wryly. He shook his head. “At least you're paying us now.” Waving a quick farewell to his friends he started off.

  Almost without realizing it his feet took him in the direction of the small, sturdy log cabin Gutierrez had built. It was reflexive at this point, since his friend was always his first stop whenever the defenders were needed for something big.

  Trev was halfway there when he abruptly remembered and stopped dead, feeling a pang of regret. Gutierrez had been gone a week, but it still hadn't sunk in yet. Maybe it was his friend's assurance that Aspen Hill was still his home and he'd be visiting whenever he was in the area, but Trev kept expecting to see the former soldier around every corner.

  He changed directions and made for the Lincoln cabin instead. With Gutierrez gone he'd asked Trent to take over as his second in command, and considered it a good choice. The man didn't have formal combat training, but he'd been a volunteer with the rest of them fighting the blockheads down near Huntington.