Madison looked down at the road they walked on, accepting her moment of selfishness. Since she hadn’t done anything more than feel inexplicably pissy without acting on it or saying anything mean, she didn’t apologize to anyone. Cliff, who she now thought of as Dad, said thoughts didn’t matter, actions did.
She let go of her moodiness and ran to catch up to the others.
Lorelei grinned at her as soon as she got close. The unbridled joy in the girl’s smile made Madison cringe in guilt for her momentary wish ‘family’ still consisted only of her and Harper. She playfully palmed Lorelei’s head and gave her a little shove, laughing.
Love isn’t pie. Harper can take care of us both.
“Hey!” chirped Lorelei, before hugging her. “Don’t push my head. I’ll fall.”
“Just playing around.” Madison grabbed her in a gentle headlock.
Lorelei didn’t fight, adoring being held.
She’s more like having one of those cats that goes totally limp when you pick them up than a sister.
Jonathan, Christopher, and Mila at the front of the group discussed the plan to help ‘defend Evergreen’ by keeping a lookout for a while. It sounded fun, somewhere between playing soldiers and really helping to protect the town. Consequently, Jonathan had brought a pair of binoculars they’d found months ago. After the ‘flea incident,’ their old fun pastime of exploring unused houses around Evergreen no longer had as much appeal. Lorelei suggested an ‘easy’ fix would be to just leave their clothes outside so no fleas got into them. No one else liked the idea.
“We’re not primitives,” said Christopher. “People aren’t going to be like that for a long time.”
“Is not prim-tive.” Lorelei pretended to scratch fleas. “Is smart. Fwees can’t hide in clothes if we don’t have any.”
“Lore?” asked Madison.
“Yeah?”
“There’s an L in fleas. Can you say fleas? Not fwees? You’re too big for baby talk.”
Lorelei grinned. “I’m not stupid.”
Madison tickled her. “You’re not. It’s why I’m telling you how to say it because I know you’re smart enough to say it.”
“Fa-lees,” said Lorelei, exaggerating the l.
Jonathan adjusted the machete he’d rigged in a back scabbard. “People might go primitive, but not until like our grandkids have grandkids.”
“If we survive,” muttered Christopher.
“We’ll survive.” Mila twirled one of her throwing knives around her finger. “Maybe not as long as we would have before, but we’ll survive. It’s not gonna be as bad as everyone thinks. People will be able to reinvent stuff because the hard part is getting the idea. We’ve already got all the ideas written down. Just gotta figure out how to do stuff all over again.”
“Uh oh. Mila’s saying happy stuff.” Becca laughed.
Mila twirled the little knife around. “I am a happy person… who sometimes feels the need to cut a bitch.”
Eva, Becca, and Christopher chuckled.
“She is.” Jonathan turned to walk backward a few steps so he could look at everyone. “She only acted strange to protect us. The shadow men really had been after her. Since they’re all dead now, she can be herself.”
He is totally in love. Madison looked off to the left across Route 74 at the quartermaster’s building and the old ‘Bark Inn’ dog place. To her, the idea of boys remained a solid ‘eww.’ She didn’t understand how Mila liked Jonathan kissing her, the girl being basically a year younger than her. Harper thought neither of them truly understood kissing and simply did it out of curiosity. Madison didn’t get how smushing lips against someone else was supposed to feel good. It kinda grossed her out. She hoped she didn’t have something wrong with her making her not like a boy the way Mila appeared to like Jonathan. After all, she’d seriously thought her dead parents would call her on a fried iPhone. Then again, Mila had some ‘head problems’ too, as Dr. Tegan called them.
Up ahead, a stop sign stood on the edge of a grass ‘island,’ beside a rectangular green sign with white letters spelling out ‘Evergreen Dental Group.’ The boys veered right, following the turn past the former dentist’s office toward the Wendy’s restaurant.
As with most buildings in Evergreen, scavenging crews already removed the locks. The militia collected everything useful from most places in town before Madison and her new family of Harper plus Cliff and Jonathan arrived. The boys pulled the doors open and stepped into the place.
Somehow, it still smelled like a Wendy’s.
“Wow,” whispered Madison. “Does anyone else think this place smells like hamburgers?”
“Whoa, it does.” Becca gawked. “Like they’re still cooking in here.”
“Yeah.” Eva blinked. “So strange.”
“I don’t smell anything but old building,” said Christopher.
“It kinda smells like burgers.” Jonathan sniffed the air.
Mila looked around. “I don’t smell anything. You’re probably imagining it because you expect a fast food place to smell like a fast food place.”
“Maybe.” Madison shrugged. “I’m used to feeling sick from all the murdered cows. Mom used to say people smell and taste the stuff they hate more strongly than other things.”
Christopher wandered behind the register counter. “My mom used to be a vegetarian. She doesn’t really care anymore. She mostly hated the cruel factory farms.”
“If Harper was here with us, she’d point at me and say ‘don’t get her started’ or something.” Madison exhaled, lips fluttering. “No point complaining about them anymore. They’re gone. But they used to be really mean to the animals. Cutting off chicken’s beaks. Forcing them to live in crammed cages, and—”
Becca grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth. “Shh. Let it go. Chill out. Nature won. Corporate farms lost.”
Madison sighed out her nose and held a thumbs-up.
The boys explored the kitchen while Becca, Eva, and Madison reminisced about the time Madison drove the cafeteria lady nuts at their old school by debating her on the evils of meat and having a too well-reasoned argument for a frazzled cafeteria worker to process during a lunch rush.
“Aww. Someone’s already taken all the money,” said Christopher.
“Who cares?” Madison shrugged. “Money isn’t good for anything anymore except starting fires.”
“Or for wiping,” said Jonathan from the kitchen. “They probably took it for TP.”
“Eww,” chimed Becca and Eva at the same time.
Lorelei played with one of the dead cashier terminals, pretending to talk to customers.
Wow. She sounds just like a cashier at a fast food place. Did her mother work at McDonald’s and bring her there?
The kids explored the place for a while. Except for an assortment of knives, none of the equipment in the kitchen proved dangerous, useful, or terribly interesting. Someone had already cleared the place of food, though they’d left behind sauce packets no one dared open. After eleven months sitting around unrefrigerated, Mila declared them ‘chemical weapons.’
Eventually, Jonathan located a ladder. Except for Lorelei, who continued playing cashier, the kids climbed up to the roof and used the Wendy’s building as an elevated lookout point. Jonathan ‘assigned’ everyone to a spot, so they collectively had a wide field of vision to the north and east. Alas, their view mostly consisted of tree-covered hills surrounding the golf-course-turned-farm further north. However, if any bad guys came down Lewis Ridge Road, they’d definitely see them coming.
“This is stupid. We can’t see anything from here.” Mila pointed west, across Route 74 at the tall mountainous hills on the far side of the main farm. “We should go up there.”
Jonathan scrunched his nose. “We’d be too far away to warn anyone if bad guys showed up.”
“Up there, we’d be able to see bad guys for miles. Way more than from this roof.” Mila rolled her eyes. “You’re not thinking. If anyone attacked and we’re up
here, by the time we saw them, we’d be chasing them into town, not running ahead to warn anyone.”
“We could ask for an air horn,” said Madison. “Early warning.”
Eva, flat on her stomach by the edge of the roof, looked over. “What happens if bad guys come over the hill? They’d get us first.”
“We’re not supposed to go that far away from town, anyway.” Christopher took the binoculars from Jonathan and used them to look east along the road.
Jonathan scrunched up his face in thought. “Maybe we should go on the roof of the school. It’s taller and it’s basically the north end of town. There’s lots of houses past it, but no one lives in those.”
“That we know of,” said Mila.
“View would be better from the school.” Madison shrugged. “And if we’re supposed to be scouts, we should be at or a little outside the edge of town. We’re sitting right in the middle of it here, more or less.”
“Yeah,” said Jonathan. “But we might not be able to get out to the roof.”
“There’s like a shopping center on the other side of the school.” Becca took the binoculars and looked through them. “It’s not too far outside town. We shouldn’t get in trouble.”
Jonathan swished his feet back and forth, chin in hand. He looked far too serious for an eleven-year-old. “We haven’t cleared those buildings yet. Don’t know what’s inside them. Probably not going to have bugs since no one keeps pets in a store. Tomorrow, we can check them out if you guys want.”
“Okay.” Christopher nodded. “We stay here now and practice?”
“Sounds good.” Jonathan looked around at everyone.
Mila, Becca, and Eva appeared okay with it. Madison didn’t care either way. Lorelei remained downstairs talking to ‘customers.’
Becca handed the binoculars to Madison.
She took them, sighed, and held them up to her eyes, gazing up Route 74 as far as she could see. ‘Playing soldier’ had never interested her before, but they didn’t really ‘play.’ Dangers that didn’t exist in a civilized world could appear at any time from any direction, and the town only had so many militia people. Even kids their age could help out if only by keeping their eyes open.
The reality of laying on a rooftop seriously looking out for outsiders who might be dangerous put a sick feeling in the pit of Madison’s stomach. She felt silly for ever being scared prior to a dance recital. The worst thing to result from her messing up or falling during a performance in front of an audience would be embarrassment, possibly some people laughing… maybe a sprained ankle. Screwing up here could get someone hurt… sort of. The town didn’t officially rely on the kids for any early warning. If they all got bored and went off to do something else, no one would yell at them.
But, Madison wanted to help… or at least not be caught off guard.
She stared at the empty highway, thinking about how much the world changed. It had been months since she’d bothered practicing anything from dance class. Except for building flexibility and endurance, nothing she learned there would be of any practical use anymore.
No more dance recitals. No shows, movies, theaters… School’s all different now. We won’t even have ‘real’ high school. College is definitely out. She half smiled. Won’t have to get a bad job I hate. She sighed away the sorrow from thinking about how her parents sometimes spent most of the night complaining about their jobs. Mom and Dad had been unhappy at work, but not so much so they’d wanted to quit and find new jobs. Dad seemed to believe it normal for everyone from middle management—whatever that meant—down to hate their jobs. It made no sense for everyone to work so hard to obtain and keep jobs they hated.
Everyone has the same job now—staying alive. Dr. Tegan is right. I should probably stop hoping someone’s going to fix the world and life will go back to normal in a couple months or years. We’re really stuck like this. When I’m Harper’s age, we’ll be living in Skyrim.
Eva, on her left, poked her. “Let me see.”
Madison handed her the binoculars, then rested her head on her folded arms. “Knock yourself out. It’s a road.”
“I can’t see anything. It’s all super blurry.”
Without looking up, Madison said, “You’re holding them backwards. Look in the tiny lenses. Big ones point forward.”
“Oh.” Eva laughed. “Duh.”
“Wow, she’s not even blonde.” Christopher laughed.
Becca threw a pebble at him, bouncing it off his head. “Take that back. I didn’t mess it up.”
“Wasn’t talking about you being dumb. It’s just a joke.” Christopher rubbed the spot where the tiny rock hit him. “Ow.”
“Do you have any idea how many times people think I’m stupid because my hair is blonde?” Becca rolled on her back and sighed at the clouds. “So annoying. Not so much anymore, but it used to happen every day. In school, I never asked questions because people would laugh at the ‘stupid blonde’ for not understanding. I had to pass Madison notes and ask her to ask.”
“Truth,” muttered Madison. “Girls with black hair are geniuses.”
“And psychos.” Mila smiled innocently.
Eva looked over. “What about brown hair?”
Everyone looked at each other, shrugging.
“Wow, you guys. I’m kidding.” Madison lifted her forehead off her arms. “Black hair doesn’t make anyone smart. Hair color doesn’t mean anything.”
Eva passed the binoculars to Mila, then wiped her eyes. “Those almost gave me a headache.”
Mila observed the area for a few minutes, then passed the binocs back to Christopher.
He scooted to the roof edge, propped himself up on his elbows, and scanned the east. “What are we looking for again?”
“Anyone walking around you don’t recognize,” said Jonathan. “Bad guys might attack or someone could be out there needing help.”
“It’s after eleven!” yelled Lorelei from inside the Wendy’s. “We don’t have breakfast after eleven.” Pause. “I am the manager.”
Mila raised an eyebrow at Madison. “I’m not sure if that’s cute or sad.”
“Got something!” whispered Christopher. “Two people riding horses down the highway.”
Jonathan crawled over to him. “Let me see?”
Christopher handed the binoculars over.
“Yeah. Wow.” Jonathan looked for a moment, then handed the binoculars to Becca.
Madison squinted, straining to make out two indistinct figures approaching Evergreen at a walking pace. When Becca handed her the binoculars, she zoomed in on a suntanned man and black woman riding side by side on horses. Both looked ‘old’ to her, as in obvious grown-ups, though Cliff would call them young. They wore light brown long coats in the same style, like something out of the Old West. The coats appeared fairly new, obviously hand-made. He had a tired sort of expression while the woman flashed a big grin at the world. She also carried a rifle in a saddle sheath. The man didn’t appear to be armed, but might have handguns or knives under the coat. Double saddlebags hung from both horses, all packed full.
They rode toward Evergreen in a casual manner, out in the open in the center of the highway.
“I don’t think they’re here to attack us,” said Madison. “Maybe they’re like merchants or something.”
“Merchants?” asked Mila.
“Yeah, like from a video game. Wander from town to town selling stuff like healing potions or weapons.” Madison shrugged. “I realize we’re not in Skyrim and healing potions aren’t real, but yeah. They could be selling other stuff. Clothing, ammo, guns… not ‘healing potions.’”
“Mommy!” yelled Lorelei. “Please stop yelling at the lady.”
“Ugh.” Madison handed the binoculars to Eva and stood. “Be right back.”
Jonathan followed her to the ladder opening. “Let’s go see what they want.”
The others ran over as Madison gingerly stepped onto the metal ladder and climbed down. She ran down the little ha
llway past the bathrooms and manager’s office to find Lorelei pretending to have an argument with herself, playing the parts of angry mom and scared daughter. As soon as she saw Madison, she stopped making faces and grinned.
“You okay, Lore?”
“Uh huh.”
“Did your mother yell at people like that?”
Lorelei shook her head. “No. My old mom was the stupid dumbass who wanted breakfast after eleven and started screaming over it and calling people bad words.”
“Ack.” Madison winced. “Someone called her that?”
The little blonde girl nodded.
“It’s not nice to call someone that.”
“I know. I wasn’t calling anyone that.” Lorelei grinned again. “Just telling you what they said.”
The other kids ran across the room to the front door one by one.
“Well, don’t say those words again until you’re older. Harper will go ballistic.”
Lorelei tilted her head. “What’s go ba… liss…tick mean?”
“Get mad.” Madison took her hand and led her to the door.
“She doesn’t get mad.” Lorelei ground her big toe into the floor. “If I do bad stuff, she gets sad.”
Madison shoved the door open. “Yeah, that’s Harp. Everyone used to call her ‘too nice.’”
“How can someone be too nice?” Lorelei hurried to keep up with her as the kids ran up the road leading to Route 74.
“Like, you know how most people find a bug, they step on it? Harper carries them outside.”
“Tha’s not bein’ too nice. Just bein’ nice.”
“She used to not get mad at people when she really needed to because she didn’t want to make them feel bad. People took advantage.”
“I don’t know what that means,” said Lorelei.
“I’ll explain later.”
“When?”
Madison ran a little faster to catch up to the other kids. “Three or four… years.”
Lorelei laughed.
Jonathan reached the bus barrier the militia placed across the highway as a defensive sniper position first. He ran around to the ‘inside’ of the wall formed by a pair of city buses, announcing that his ‘team’ spotted two people riding horses down the road.
Evergreen (Book 5): The Nuclear Frontier Page 10