Evergreen (Book 4): Nuclear Summer

by Cox, Matthew S.

  A weary-looking tween boy, rail thin and dirt-smeared, wandered out of the cluster of pines, staring at her the way someone stuck in the desert for months might stare at water. Fine blond hair hung past the shoulders of a lightly torn black T-shirt. Large holes in the legs of his jeans revealed scratches on his thighs and shins. His battered sneakers looked one long walk away from completely disintegrating. He didn’t carry any obvious weapons, merely an apparently empty blue backpack that probably once held school books, decorated with little superhero pins.

  Oh, crap. Did this kid get hit by a bus? “Hey… you okay?”

  The boy raised his hands. “Please don’t shoot. We need help.”

  Harper looked around, but didn’t see anyone else in the area. “We?”

  “I’m alone. I mean where I live. I came to get help.”

  She slung the Mossberg over her shoulder on its strap.

  He slouched with relief.

  Harper didn’t get a bad vibe from the kid, so she hurried over to him. “Are you hurt? Hungry? Thirsty?”

  “Not hurt. Tired. And I haven’t had any food or water like all day.” He slouched, breathing hard. “Can I have some water, please?”

  “Of course. C’mon.” She waved for him to follow, continuing straight west past the corner in the road. Faster to bee-line to Route 74 on the other side of the trees and follow it straight down than weave among the residential streets. “I’m Harper.”

  “Daxton Oliver,” said the boy. “Are you alone here?”

  “No. We’re a pretty big town. Where’d you come from?”

  He pointed generally north. “I live with my mom and some other people up at Kriley Pond. There’s like fifteen people left, and we’re not doin’ good. Don’t have a lot of food and these crazy people keep attacking us. There’s a shootout like every day. I don’t know who they are ’cause my mom makes me stay down and not look outside.”

  “She let you run off on your own to get help?”

  Daxton whistled innocently and kicked a rock. “Umm, she’s probably gonna be mad at me. I didn’t really ask if I could go.”

  “Oh, boy.” Harper exhaled. “Wow. She’s probably going crazy with worry.”

  “I had to do something!” Daxton flailed his arms. “The bad guys never attack at night, so I left in the dark. Mr. Cortez said he heard there’s people in Evergreen and it’s safe there, but no one wants to ask for help. Mr. Henderson thinks we’ll be okay, but I’m scared.”

  “Who’s Mr. Henderson?”

  “He’s like in charge. Tells everyone what to do.”

  Harper raised both eyebrows. “What do you think of him?”

  Daxton shrugged. “He’s okay. Keeps telling everyone we’ll be fine, but I don’t think he believes that. He knows we’re in trouble, but he says it’ll be worse if we try to go somewhere else, since we got the pond and can fish. My mom’s had to shoot people, and it’s givin’ her bad dreams. She said that Mr. Henderson just tells us it’s going to be okay so no one is scared.”

  “Sounds about right.” She shook her head, sighing.

  “You ever shoot anyone?” Daxton peered up at her.

  “I have. Yeah. But only bad people who tried to hurt me.”

  He nodded. “Cool. I mean, that you beat the bad guys, not that you gotta kill and stuff.”

  This kid needs food. She walked faster, leading him down Route 74 to the medical center.

  He followed her in, looking around. “Whoa. This looks like a doctor’s place.”

  “It is.” She smiled, heading over to the desk. “Hi, Ruby. Are Tegan or Dr. Khan available?”

  “Who’ve you got this time?” Ruby smiled at the boy. “Aww, poor thing. He get hit by a truck?”

  Daxton glanced down at himself, half chuckling. “Fell down a hill.”

  “Ouch.” Ruby sucked air in through her teeth. “That looks like it hurt.”

  “Nah. Not really.” He looked at Harper. “They have food at the doctor’s place?”

  “I’m gonna go get you some food while the doc checks you out.”

  “Okay.” Daxton stuffed his hands in his pockets.

  “Go on back, hon.” Ruby smiled at her.

  Harper led the boy down the hall, peeking into each room until she found Tegan in Room 3, still reading her novel. “Doc?”

  “Good morning… and that’s not Elijah. Unless he soaked up a lot more radiation than we thought.” Tegan chuckled, set her book down, and walked over.

  “Dammit.” Harper scowled at the ceiling. “Darci didn’t bring him in?”

  “Oh, she did. Yesterday. Hello, young man. I’m Dr. Hale, but you can call me Tegan if you like.”

  “Hi. My name’s Daxton, but my mom usually just calls me Dax. Umm, does she have to be here for you to do doctor stuff to me?”

  “Once upon a time. Looks like you’ve got a few cuts and scrapes that could use cleaning up.” Tegan guided him over to the exam table.

  He shrugged and hopped up to sit on it.

  “I’ll be right back with food.” Harper waved and hurried out.

  She ran across the street to the quartermaster’s building and had a brief chat with Liz Trujillo to explain why she wanted to grab a meal from the communal cooking area that prepared food for residents of Evergreen who had no families. Mass cooking ended up being more efficient for power or firewood, since allocating food to single people resulted in all of them needing to cook separately. People like Harper who belonged to a ‘family unit’ eligible for a food ration each week usually got frowned at for hoarding food if they tried to use the ‘buffet.’

  After collecting a venison burger and some potato salad—or at least someone’s best attempt at it in a world that lacked mayo—on a plate, she fast-walked back to the medical center. She stepped into Room 3 and nearly choked on the smell of rubbing alcohol in the air. Daxton lay stretched out on the table in his underpants, his expression somewhere between bored and grimacing each time Tegan dabbed gauze at several nasty scratches on his left side. Scratches on his legs appeared already cleaned, and he had a few on his arms and chest as well. Though his expression remained mostly stoic, tears rolled from his eyes. Tegan coaxed him through it with soft spoken words of encouragement.

  “It stings,” rasped Daxton.

  “I know. I’m sorry. You got some dirt in these scratches. Gotta clean them out so you don’t get sick.”

  Harper stood there holding the plate for a few minutes while the doctor worked on cleaning out all the scrapes.

  “There. All done,” said Tegan.

  Daxton shoved himself upright to sit and reached for the plate.

  Harper handed it to him, then went out to ask Ruby for a cup of water, which she brought back. The boy devoured the food like he hadn’t eaten anything in several days, a distinct possibility given his prominent ribs and bony physique. He didn’t look as dangerously thin as Lorelei had been when she first arrived in Evergreen, but she worried he’d end up that way if she didn’t help.

  “Here, take this, too.” Tegan handed him a reddish pill.

  “Wmm?” asked Daxton over a mouthful of food.

  “Just a vitamin.”

  He shrugged, accepted the pill, and downed it, chugging water.

  “Daxton’s borderline malnourished. It’s not merely from a couple days not eating during a journey.” Tegan ran a fine metal comb through the boy’s hair, then studied it. “No fleas or lice at least.”

  “Yeah. We don’t have a lot of food. Fish don’t like to bite. That’s why I knew we needed help.” Daxton turned his attention to the potato salad, picking it off the plate in his bare hand.

  “Oops. Forgot a fork.” Harper bit her lip.

  He gave her an ‘I don’t care’ look, and kept eating.

  While he finished off the meal, Tegan applied a small gauze bandage to his back. After he’d licked every trace of food from the plate, the boy hurriedly put his shirt, jeans, and sneakers back on.

  “Give me a sec and I’ll give y
ou his slip to take to Anne-Marie.” Tegan walked over to the counter and opened a drawer.

  “Okay. He might not be staying here. Apparently, he’s got a mother at another settlement. And a bunch of other people,” said Harper. “I gotta go talk to Walter.”

  “Either way, let me do the slip. It won’t take long.” Tegan grabbed a pad from the drawer and scribbled a few lines on it before tearing a page off and handing it to her. “There. By the way, Elijah seems fine. I don’t think he suffered a significant dose of radiation.”

  “Whoa, there’s rads here?” asked Daxton, his dark blue eyes widening.

  “Not here… someone collected some bad junk they shouldn’t have touched. It’s been cleaned up. And, it’s at least a mile south from here.”

  “Oh. Whew.” He slapped himself on the forehead. “Radiation sucks. So, umm. Can you guys help us?”

  She waved for him to follow. “That’s why we need to talk to Walter and Anne-Marie. They’re basically our leaders.”

  “Okay.”

  Harper led him across the street and down a bit to the militia HQ. Since they didn’t have a ‘desk clerk,’ she walked right up to Walter’s office and knocked on the doorjamb.

  “Come in,” said Walter.

  “Mr. Holman?” Harper peeked in. “Got a minute?”

  “Of course.” He looked up, spotted the boy, and stood. “Aha. New arrival?”

  “Yes and no. This is Daxton. I found him up by the school. Apparently, he’s been walking for a while trying to find help for another settlement.”

  “Oh?” Walter raised both eyebrows. “Another settlement? Whereabouts?”

  “Kriley Pond. My mom’s there, and like fifteen others. We’re almost out of food and these crazies keep trying to attack us and steal our stuff. This guy, Mr. Cortez, said that he heard someone talking about Evergreen and how a lot of people went there. I thought you’d have an army or something and you could get rid of the bad guys. Maybe send food even.”

  “Hmm.” Walter rubbed his chin. “Kriley Pond is a ways northwest of here. Too far away for us to commit to any sort of long-term protection. We could probably spare a little food. Problem is, all our vehicles are down. No gas left, and Rafael hasn’t gotten any biodiesel to run longer than a couple minutes. If you ask me, it’s a problem with the fuel more than his machinery, but I’m no mechanic.”

  “Umm… so you can’t help?” Daxton looked up at Harper, his expression wide-eyed and heartbroken.

  “It’s not logistically possible for us to transport a sufficient quantity of food that distance to make a difference. This long after the war, I doubt there are any usable stores of gasoline left anywhere in the country, barring the strategic petroleum reserve. But that’s not gasoline, and it’s no good without a working refinery.” Walter rubbed his forehead. “About the best solution I can think of would be for your people to pick up and join us here in Evergreen. You say it’s only about fifteen?”

  Daxton nodded. “Yeah. Maybe less if anyone got shot after I left to get help.”

  Walter looked at Harper. “Are you up for leading a team out to the place to escort them back here?”

  Her heart sank. How would Madison react to her leaving town, even temporarily? She’d been so thrilled when the militia officially stopped doing scavenger missions and Harper no longer needed to go anywhere. However, the scrawny, desperate boy staring up at her and his giant, pleading eyes proved utterly impossible to resist. Only a heartless bitch could say no to that face.

  This is where I get killed, isn’t it? Finally starting to think life might not be so bad. Dammit. Oh, hell. That could’ve happened when we raided Kittredge. An attack mission has to be karmically worse than trying to rescue a bunch of people, right?

  “Okay.” She patted his shoulder. “How far away is this place?”

  Walter approached the giant map on the wall of his office, hunted around for a moment, then poked a finger at a spot. “About twenty-five miles, give or take. Roughly a ten to thirteen hour walk depending on how fast you go.”

  It’s not quite noon yet. It’d be dark before we got there.

  “Wow. Okay. Guess we better get moving. Give me a bit to get ready.” Harper patted Daxton on the shoulder and pointed at a chair. “Wait here.”

  “I gotta show you how to get there.” He grabbed her arm.

  “I’m just running to get some supplies together before we go.” She smiled. “Not going to make you wait here while your mother’s out there.”

  “Oh. Okay.” He smiled sheepishly and sat in the indicated chair.

  Harper jogged out, heading toward home. I am such a sucker.

  25

  Permission

  Obligation dragged her up Route 74 instead of across to Hilltop Drive and the house.

  Before she did anything else, she had to confront the Madison situation head on. Not only had she promised never to ‘trick’ her sister again, she also owed it to her to be up front and honest. If her sister begged her not to go, she’d most likely try talking Cliff into leading the trip instead. Of course, Walter would probably complain about the town’s only Army Ranger being elsewhere—but that hadn’t stopped him from being sent on scavenging trips. Harper felt reasonably sure she could use either logic or guilt to convince him to let Cliff go.

  Walter did have a point in saying that Daxton, an unarmed eleven-year-old, had made the trip alone. But, skinny tweens could hide in places even Harper couldn’t fit. He hadn’t said anything about being chased or attacked on the way here, only that he’d fallen down a hill. Whether or not he’d slipped or been running for his life, she had no idea.

  It took Harper a few minutes after reaching the farm to find Madison among the squash plants, dragging a big basket along while picking any ripe ones. She had a look of grim determination, clearly not having fun, but dealing with it because she didn’t like starving. Plus, she figured if they had tons of veggies, she wouldn’t be pressured to eat meat.

  “Maddie?” asked Harper. Please don’t freak out.

  “Hey. Look at this one?” Madison peered up from a squash she’d been examining. “Is it ready to pick? I can’t tell for sure. It’s a little small.”

  Harper shrugged. “Umm. No idea. If you’re in doubt, might as well leave it to grow longer. Hey, I gotta tell you something.”

  “Uh oh.” Madison whistled. “You’re not preggo, are you?”

  Instant blush. “No. Maybe worse.”

  “You’re sick?” Madison’s already pale face went whiter.

  “Nope.” Harper hugged her. “I need to go on a mission away from Evergreen. Might be gone for two days.”

  Madison tensed, clinging tighter. “Why? You’re not gonna go kill the blue gang are you?”

  “Nah. Some people need help. We’d be going away from Denver. Shouldn’t be any Lawless out there.” Harper explained meeting Daxton, the fifteen or so people barely surviving at Kriley Pond, and her plan to help them relocate back here. “If it bothers you, I’ll nag Walter until he lets Cliff go instead.”

  “It’s okay.” Madison leaned back from the hug and smiled up at her. “You’re turning back into old Harper who wants to help everyone all the time. It’s fine if you want to go, but please be super careful.”

  “I will. Hey, the boy walked here all alone and he was fine. We’re not going anywhere near Denver.”

  “Can I come with you?”

  She debated the idea. While her sister would worry much less if they stayed together, having her out there would make Harper worry constantly. And if anything happened to her… “I’d really rather you stayed here safe. If you go, then Jonathan’s going to ask to come along. Then Lorelei, and Mila, and Becca and Eva and… the point here is to bring those people to Evergreen, not move Evergreen there.”

  “Yeah. Figured you’d say that.” Madison laughed, but it trailed off to a sad sigh. “I’m going to be scared until you come back, but I missed how you used to be.”

  “How did I used to be? Other
than shy and quiet?” Harper chuckled, bowing her head against her sister’s.

  “You’ve started smiling again. And you always wanted to help people when they needed help. You’re not as quiet as before, but you used to be too quiet. Now, you’re brave.”

  “Or foolish.”

  “Nah.” Madison leaned back, grinning. “Foolish would be going back to Lakewood and getting shot at by the blue bastards just to get some clothes from your bedroom. You’re going to help people. That’s not foolish. That’s brave.”

  Oh dammit. I better not screw this up. She’s going to shatter into a billion pieces if I don’t come back. Daxton got here okay. I’m not going alone. Right. We can do this. “Thanks. You’re brave too, willing to trust me not to mess up. Let me get going. Faster I start, faster I’m back.”

  “Okay.”

  After one more hug for good measure, Harper hurried down Route 74 and went to the house. Renee and Carrie laughed and chatted next door, but she didn’t go over there. That conversation would take too long. She already expected to run out of daylight as it was. Maybe she could make up time by walking faster. Average walking speed for people was something like two miles an hour. It shouldn’t be too hard to go a little faster than that.

  In her bedroom, she crawled into the closet and rummaged her stash of shotgun shells. Between bundles of fifty and loose, she counted 220 left—an amount she could blow through easily in a weekend practicing for a competition. Like much else in the world she once took for granted, she never paid much attention to how many she used when a simple drive to the store could easily get more. Never in her life did she imagine 12-gauge buckshot would become a critical commodity that had to be nursed carefully. Some practice sessions, she could go through hundreds of shells in a few hours. That didn’t matter when a simple trip to the store could replace them.

  I should really practice harder with the bow… especially at longer ranges. These are going to be gone before I know it. But… better to overdo it than not have enough. Maybe we’ll get lucky and I won’t need to fire a shot. Daxton didn’t even have a gun. She counted out forty shells and dumped them into a hip bag, which she clipped around her waist. Expecting to be gone at least overnight, she raided the stash of MREs that they found in the cabin, packing two in a small backpack as well as some water bottles.