by Ellis, Tara
“They don’t even need our horses,” Ethan added, stepping next to Tom. “I’ve been helping to care for them and the soldiers here don’t even know how to handle the horses they’ve got. They were letting them graze on the wrong grass, and the field they’ve set up isn’t big enough. Before they start stealing more, or especially any cattle, they should take better care of the ones they already have.”
“Requisitioning more from the farmers here isn’t the answer,” Tom rushed to say, not wanting to lose the sergeant’s attention. “They’re a valuable resource and if you alienate them, they won’t want to help. Set up a system that benefits everyone. Let them keep and tend to their own cattle and trade with them for what you need.”
“Enough,” Dillinger said without vigor. “We aren’t wasting any more of Sergeant Campbell’s time.”
Campbell turned to Ben, the soldier Tom saw Ethan with the night before. “Do you know where the rest of these people’s belongings are stored?”
Ben nodded emphatically. “Yes, sir!”
“Get it.” Turning back to Tom, he pointed at Lilly. “Take your horses, and go home. I never want to hear your name again, Thomas Miller.”
When Dillinger began to object, the sergeant cut him off. “I want to start by talking to the sheriff of this town.”
As Campbell waved his men forward and began to walk toward the police station, Corporal Dillinger paused next to Tom, his face a mask of contempt. “I know where you’re going, Miller.” His voice was low and dangerous. Dillinger leaned in even closer, so that Tom could feel his breath on his face. “I won’t forget you.”
Chapter 22
PATTY
City Hall, Mercy, Montana
Patty sat staring at all of the different ongoing projects represented by the piles of paper on her desk. The mayor’s office on the second floor of city hall wasn’t large, but the desk was. It was solid mahogany and over a hundred years old, passed down through several generations of the town’s leaders.
Patty felt small behind it. Insignificant. Like she was an imposter, the way she had felt as a small child when she snuck into her father’s home office and climbed into the plush, leather desk chair. Patty knew she would get in trouble, yet kept doing it, and she wondered if her tenure as mayor was following the same path.
The early-morning meeting with the city council and team leaders had just concluded. It went well, and there was currently a score of people out gathering up supplies and people to begin work on the spring.
Patty fingered another list on the desk, a completed plan for the farmer’s market. Construction was to begin on it as soon as the spring was done, which she expected the majority of that to happen before the end of the day. The way Bishop presented things, it was feasible they’d be producing drinkable water by dinner. She thought he was rather optimistic, though the spring was capable.
Tapping a pen, Patty stared out the nearest window, which overlooked the town square. They’d left the stage erected, and the barbeques and tables were still there. That had been another topic of discussion. Sandy had arrived at the meeting with the promised schedule and the first steer would be butchered the following day. Everyone was happy to agree to a weekly town BBQ, and the tasks of preparing the cuts and smoking the appropriate amount were assigned.
While Sandy didn’t voice any objections, she avoided eye contact with Patty and left immediately following the adjournment. Patty knew her friend was hurting. Tom and Ethan were her world, and if they didn’t come back, she didn’t know what would happen. It turned out to be a good thing that Bishop and the girls had come into Sandy’s life.
They’d had some good news from Dr. Olsen. Melissa was happy to report that there weren’t any new cases of the cholera-like illness. They seemed to have dodged a massive bullet. There was only one person in quarantine, and no new deaths in twenty-four hours.
Patty shook her head. She never thought she’d be celebrating going a day without anyone dying. The reality was that in spite of their best efforts, they were going to be dealing with it a lot more in the coming months. People were already running out of their medications, ranging from allergies, to heart conditions, to psychiatric illnesses. They’d begun adding a “medication wish list” to the Pony Express trips, in hopes of being able to set up a bartering system between towns.
A knock at the office door startled Patty, and she looked up at the clock on her wall, out of habit. It ran off a battery and was fried during the flashpoint. She kept meaning to track a working one down from Al, but it seemed that whenever she spoke with the storeowner, there were much more pressing needs at the time.
“Come in,” Patty called out, although the door was already opening.
Gary stuck his head inside and raised his thick eyebrows at her. “Do you have a minute, Mayor?”
Patty sighed inwardly. Anytime the councilman called her by her title, she knew it would soon be followed by some sort of complaint. “Of course I do, Gary. Please, come in. I was just going back over everything from the meeting. There was a lot of good information shared. I feel like we’re making some great progress in critical areas.”
“Funny you should phrase it that way,” Gary said casually as he sat in one of the two leather chairs facing her desk. “Information. You’re right, there was a lot of it revealed today. Enough to satisfy the majority of the people in the room. My concern centers on what wasn’t discussed, Mayor. Such as your making unilateral decisions that impact this town without the consensus of the council or team leaders.”
Patty stared blankly at Gary while carefully folding her hands on top of the desk. Her heart hammered in her chest and her mouth went dry.
“Come on! Don’t play dumb with me,” Gary pushed. “It isn’t going to work. I gave you the opportunity to bring us in on your ploys at the meeting, but you chose not to.”
“Perhaps you’d like to fill me in?” Patty said evenly. “You know, on what it is you’re accusing me of.”
Gary leaned back in the chair and folded his arms over his chest, exhaling loudly in a huff. “We all agreed on the very first day to make decisions together. You, we council members, and the people we all chose as our community leaders.”
“And we have,” Patty insisted. She couldn’t help but sound defensive.
Gary stood and slammed his hands down on the desk. “No! We haven’t.”
Flustered, Patty stood and copied Gary’s stance, placing her hands opposite his and leaning forward. “You have some nerve coming into my office, where I’ve spent countless sleepless nights these past twelve days trying to figure out how to save us all!”
“Including Mr. Craven?” Gary smiled smugly when Patty was unable to hide her reaction. “Don’t you think the decision to take—no, steal from the people of Mercy wasn’t one for you and the sheriff to make on your own?”
“Where did you hear that?” Patty demanded.
“It doesn’t matter, if it’s true!” Gary retorted.
Patty took a deep breath and sat back down heavily in her chair. There was obviously no point to denying it and arguing with Gary would get her nowhere. “Gary, you can’t expect me to share every single private conversation I have with you and the council. Just because something might have been discussed, doesn’t mean that any sort of a decision was made. There’s a huge difference. You have to appreciate that. I didn’t bring up the potential need to eventually resort to stronger tactics when it comes to food, because I’m hoping it’s never an issue. I think it would be premature to even place that topic on the table for debate. It’s something that could divide us when it’s a critical time for us to work together.”
Gary nodded slowly while grimacing at the same time. “Good recovery, Patty, and I even agree with you. Except that still doesn’t explain the dissemination of false information that Mercy is still actively fighting an outbreak. Your attempt to effectively cut us off from the military also prevents us from potentially having access to any possible aid.”
Patty paled. “We received reports of the military taking over towns, Gary. Of people…farmers being killed for their horses.”
“So without consulting the council or community leaders, you took it upon yourself to seclude Mercy.” Gary stood. “Funny how you use the excuse of the military’s strong-arm tactics, when it would appear those are the very actions you yourself are considering carrying out against your own people.”
Patty tried to object, but the fight was gone from her so Gary easily cut her off. “There are those of us who won’t stand for it.” Going to the door, he pulled it open but turned back to issue one last parting shot. “Remember that I offered you this warning.”
Staring numbly at the papers that only moments before had filled her with hope, Patty desperately tried to justify her actions to herself. Was Gary right? That was her fear, what had kept her up for half the previous night. They had made a decision for the whole town. Herself, Caleb, and Sheriff Waters. It was a gamble, and as mayor, she’d felt it was up to her to make a quick call, one she didn’t think the council and community leaders would have made. That was her obligation and prerogative as mayor…wasn’t it?
A cross between a sob and groan escaped Patty as she placed her head in her hands. She’d have to come clean to the council at their next meeting and in doing so, give them the opportunity to overturn the decision, if that were even possible. According the Caleb, the past twenty-four hours proved to be full of even more silence on the radio.
Caleb. She needed to talk to her husband. To be reassured and comforted, the two things he was best at. She rose wearily and headed for the murky upstairs hallway. She’d never wanted the title of mayor, or the responsibility that came with it. Caleb should be mayor, or maybe Sheriff Waters. Not her.
The trek down the two flights of stairs to the basement seemed so much longer than usual, and Patty was winded by the time she reached the underground space. A nap was what she needed, but there was too much work to be done. She would need to go out to the courtyard in a few minutes to join the workforce for the spring. Patty might not be able to dig very effectively or haul heavy stuff around, but she could manage driving the wagon, deliver and help unload the soil for the new community garden, and then help deliver the fresh water once they had it flowing.
Blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dark, Patty edged farther into the large, open space of the basement. The supplies she’d primarily sorted the first two days were still neatly organized into rows of goods, dimly illuminated by an assortment of battery- and solar-operated lights on the floor. They created a pathway through the supplies, and led to where Caleb had his radio station set up in the back.
Patty knew calling out a greeting to her husband was a futile act, since he always wore his headphones when listening and transmitting. For this reason, her arrival was unannounced and her presence was as much of a shock to the man seated in her husband’s chair as his being there was to her. He turned around with his hand poised over a notebook that was full of scribbled words.
“Bishop!” Patty exclaimed, noting how he calmly turned the notepad over. “What are you doing here?”
Bishop smiled sheepishly while removing the headphones. “Hey, Patty. Do you know where Caleb is? I was hoping he could give me a quick run-down on the radio before we had to leave.” He looked around briefly and then shrugged. “I figured he’d be down here.”
Patty stepped back and moved aside as Bishop stood and walked past, still frowning at him. “He must already be outside.”
Nodding, Bishop pointed toward the stairs. “Well, we better go find him. Time to get that spring producing.”
“Right,” Patty muttered. She began to follow Bishop, then paused, looking back at the desk.
The notepad was gone.
Chapter 23
CHLOE
Natural Spring Site, Mercy, Montana
“Geeze, Chlo, I’m burning again.”
Chloe barely noticed the irritating nickname Crissy insisted on using, as she stared at her friend’s red arms. Crissy was right. The girl’s thin arms were burned again. They had finally recently faded to a nice tan after more than a week of healing from the intense burns they all suffered while in the mountains after the flash.
“That sucks,” Chloe said while looking at her own arms. It appeared that her darker complexion was still enough to prevent her from burning outright, but they were definitely getting hot. More so than she’d expect.
It was late June, although Chloe wasn’t positive what day of the month it was. It would have been normal for temperatures to be in the nineties where they were, like it had been on their hike, but the thermometer at the courthouse before they left that morning was registering barely eighty, in spite of the sun being out in full.
“Whaddya think?” Trevor asked, comparing his paler arms to the girls. “I put some SPF 100 on this morning, so I’m still okay. “Kind of weird though, right, Chlo?”
“Uh-uh,” Chloe retorted, pointing a finger at the younger teen. “I might let Crissy get away with it, but not you, Trev.”
“Sure,” Trevor replied, raising his hands in mock surrender. “Whatever you say, Chloe. But, seriously. Don’t you think the weather is off, and the sun is, like…stronger than it should be, even though it’s not that hot?”
“It’s the UV rays,” Bishop offered as he walked up. His arms were full of shovels and picks and he was on his way down to where his crew was working on digging out and making the filtration system. Chloe had been happy with her assignment to oversee digging the holding pond, as they were calling it, around the source of the spring.
“Ultraviolet rays?” Trevor asked.
Bishop nodded and then handed one of the shovels to Trevor. “I’m stealing Trevor,” he said to Chloe. “I need one more set of hands.”
Trevor took the shovel and shrugged at Chloe. “Sure. But about the UV rays,” he pressed, turning back to Bishop. “That’s because of the gamma-ray?”
“The gamma-ray burst likely destroyed a good chunk of the ozone layer,” Bishop explained. “In doing so, it not only converted certain gases into smog-forming compounds, thereby lowering the temperature, it’s also allowing more UV to reach the surface of the Earth.”
“Is that what’s causing the dead trees and stuff?” Chloe asked, pointing out the brown foliage along the tops of the evergreens that covered the mountainside above them. She’d noticed that it was increasing over the past week, and the level of die-off was working its way lower on the trees affected.
“I think that’s a logical assumption,” Bishop agreed. “Go check in with Fire Chief Martinez,” he continued, addressing Trevor. “He’ll let you know what needs to be done. I need to stay back here for a bit and make sure everything is going to line up when we’re done.”
“I’m going to go eat some lunch,” Crissy said while rubbing at her arms. “And find some sunscreen.”
“Bishop,” Chloe said when the older man began to walk away. He stopped and looked back at her questioningly. “Do you have a minute?”
“I always have time for you,” he replied. Lowering one of the shovels, he leaned against it and tipped his head toward her. “What’s on your mind?”
Chloe should have been happy with his response, but instead was put on guard. Bishop knew full well that he’d been avoiding her and tap-dancing around her since his return. “You’ve been avoiding me.” Chloe decided to be blunt. Nothing else tended to work that well for her, anyway.
Bishop chuckled and kicked at a rock near his foot. “I’d say avoiding is a strong word. Pretty hard to do, too, when you’re living in the same house.”
“Then what would you call it?” Chloe asked, her frustration growing. He was still doing it! Trying to disarm her and divert the line of question by making a joke of it.
“Look, I told you that Hicks wasn’t at the resort, and that’s the truth.” Bishop’s brows drew together and he leaned closer to Chloe for emphasis. “I just figured I’d spare you the details sin
ce you’ve already been through so much. I didn’t think it mattered.”
“Well, it matters,” Chloe answered, some of the heat fading from both her face and voice. “I want to know everything you found out, and I’d also like to know how you pulled those ninja moves on Jason and his friends.”
Bishop pushed up from the shovel and adopted the teacher stance that Chloe had become accustomed to when he was about to go into some long dissertation. “When I got to the resort Hicks and the boys were supposed to be at, I found it burned to the ground.”
Chloe sucked in some air and her eyes widened.
“No,” Bishop said quickly, putting up a hand. “I walked through and didn’t find any sign of bodies or their gear. Jason told me they found it still smoldering, and that no one was there. It obviously burned as a result of some surge caused by the flashpoint.
“Anyway, Jason claimed that he met up with his friends shortly after and decided to stick with them when Hicks made the call to go back to the Trek office, instead of Mercy.”
“Why would he do that?” Chloe asked, her confusion growing.
“I don’t know,” Bishop answered. “Best I can figure, after the letdown of not having any shelter, food, or replenished supplies, Hicks might have been frustrated and done with the unknown. While the Trek Thru Trouble headquarters would have been a little farther than Mercy, Hicks was more familiar with the journey in that direction. There would have also been more water available, and unless the office was looted or burned down, it would have plenty of supplies and facilities for them, where there were no guarantees with Mercy.”
“Do you believe Jason?” Chloe thought she already knew the answer.