Madison bowed her head, tears gathering but not falling. “I can’t even stand killing fish. Yeah, I shot the one guy but didn’t even think about it. Just a reaction. Maybe I could do it if someone was about to kill me or hurt you, but it’s stupid of me to be out here when I don’t have to be. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have demanded you bring me along. It’s like I made you choose between me or Dad. I’m still too small to do this. A bullet bounced off the road like right next to me. You’re right. I should stay in town. The best way I can help you help Dad is to stay where it’s safe. I’ll go home if you want.”
Harper hugged her. “You can stay in town for the next crisis. We’re too far out for you to be alone. I can’t send you on an hour-long walk by yourself.”
“Sorry for shooting. I jumped when the bush turned into a guy and started to throw an axe at me. Then another guy came out of nowhere. I’m gonna have nightmares about bush monsters now.” Madison gave an uneasy laugh.
Harper gasped. “At you?”
“Uhh. Looked like it.” Madison fidgeted. “He popped up so fast with an axe up in the air, I just wanted to stop him from attacking us. Didn’t really look at him much before shooting. Maybe he was gonna throw it at Deacon, but he looked right at me.”
“Does sound kinda silly to sacrifice surprise and lose his hiding spot to attack a little kid, even if she did have a gun pointed at one of his buddies.” Deacon shook his head. “Probably meant to take me or Logan out. Got the feelin’ those dudes had other plans for the ladies.”
Harper shivered. “Other plans… yeah, right. I’m sure they did. Exactly why I let her carry a weapon.”
“What is wrong with people?” yelled Madison, shaking her hands in the air. “The world burned. We should all be trying to help each other.”
“Dudes could be crazy. Maybe criminals before the war, or just the sort of people who always wanted to do illegal crap but were too afraid of jail to bother. Now, ain’t no jail.” Deacon kicked Bill’s corpse. “War didn’t make these fools do dumb crap. The itch was always in ’em.”
Leigh half walked, half slid down the hill carrying a bolt action rifle in her left hand, the M-16 in her right hand. “Looks like a .308. Not in bad shape. Worth bringing back. Saw a light on in a small house a little up the road from here. Probably where these idiots lived.”
“A light?” Harper blinked. “They have electricity?”
She nodded. “Gotta have solar panels.”
“Do we have time for scavenging?” asked Logan.
“No, but we do have time to make sure these creeps didn’t kidnap any other women.” Harper searched the man she shot in the face, recovering a few handfuls of .40 caliber pistol ammo plus collecting the Sig handgun, which landed a few yards away from the body.
Leigh rummaged the pockets of the FedEx guy.
“Damn, that’s nasty.” Deacon walked up beside Harper, wincing. “Why’d you shoot homeboy in the kisser?”
“Baggy coat. Didn’t know if he had Kevlar on under it.” Faces are the same size as plate targets.
“You okay, kid?” asked Deacon in a lowered voice. “Getting’ that thousand-yard look in your eyes.”
She exhaled. “Yeah fine. Just bad memories. Well, not bad memories, but they feel kind of psychotic now.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Nothing too crazy. Just thinking about being thirteen and going to the range with my dad, shooting plates out of the air and thinking it was super fun. Laughing, cheering, the first time I hit one… never even thought it trained me to kill people.”
“Ahh.”
“The twisted part is my brain associating how happy I was to get to a point where I could reliably hit flying targets and imagining my younger self cheering and laughing over blowing some dude’s head out like a hollow egg.”
“Ick,” said Madison. “Can you please talk about something else?”
17
Marksman
A short distance farther down the road from the ambush site, Leigh led them up a tree-studded hill toward a house on the south side.
“I don’t think Cliff and Roy could’ve gone past here and not run into those guys,” said Logan. “Wood around those bullet holes looked newly exposed.”
Harper stared down. “Yeah. I know.” She couldn’t bring herself to say she also wanted to search the house for Cliff or Roy’s possessions… or bodies. Didn’t make sense those ‘survivalists’ would bring bodies home unless they’d gone way off the deep end into cannibalism.
The light Leigh mentioned in the window appeared to be a fairly weak electrical light inside the house, undoubtedly powered by solar panels on the roof. Assuming she didn’t find anything in this place too disgusting, she made a note of it. Jeanette and her people could come out here and grab the panels for Evergreen. The group crossed the flat pavement of a long, switchback driveway twice on the way up the steep incline. At the end, the asphalt expanded into a bit of a courtyard where a huge separate garage stood catty-corner to the main house, a massive two-story structure.
Whoa. Whoever lived in this place had a lot of money. She whistled in awe, mentally. This is like one of those houses they use for murder mystery movies. “Okay… time is short. Not here to go crazy and tear the place apart looking for stuff. Just search for victims, maybe ammo…” Harper sighed. “Maybe Cliff and Roy’s stuff.”
Everyone fell quiet.
“Sorry,” whispered Harper. “The guy with the sniper rifle didn’t shoot himself in the leg. Who else would’ve gone past those jackasses recently?”
Logan held up a finger. “But, no blood on the road. Could be a good sign.”
Deacon cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed, “Anyone here? If some crazy sons o’ bitches grabbed y’all, we here to help.”
Silence.
Leigh headed over to the garage and peeked in via a normal person-sized door at the corner. She recoiled after only a moment. “Ack. It’s a bloody mess in there. Six dead. Doesn’t look like anyone familiar.”
“How can you tell so fast?” asked Logan.
“They’re all laid out in a row, naked on the floor like someone was preparing them for burial… or maybe cremation. Doesn’t smell too bad in there, so they all died pretty recently.”
Harper shivered. Please be burial and not butchering.
Deacon led the way to the house, nudging the front door open with the tip of his rifle. “Hello? Anyone in here? If you’re bein’ held against your will, speak up and we’ll get you out.”
“We’re not trying to trick you,” yelled Harper. “I know he sounds scary, but he’s not.”
The crying of a small baby started.
“Aww, shit,” whispered Deacon.
Leigh and Logan headed upstairs while Harper and Deacon rushed from room to room on the ground floor, rapid-clearing in search of armed threats or prisoners. Madison remained in the living room, watching the door in case anyone tried to sneak in behind them. The lump sitting in Harper’s throat shrank little by little the more she looked around and didn’t see any items or clothing belonging to Cliff or Roy.
If they did get into a shootout with those idiots, where are they? Did they chase the idiots away or did the idiots chase Cliff and Roy into the woods, wounded? Are they buried out there? She grumbled to herself. Ranger and ex-cop or not, two on six, eight, fifteen, or however many there’d been the other night didn’t make for wonderful odds. Their sniper had been wounded in the leg, not killed. But they had a sniper. Did the guy manage to hit Roy or Cliff before they got him in the leg? Logan pointed out a lack of blood on the road. It didn’t seem at all likely these fools would’ve cleaned any up.
Yeah… I’m sure Dad saw the ambush coming. Probably opened fire right away. People with good intentions don’t set up a crossfire ambush.
In a back bedroom, Harper located the source of the crying: a maybe-one-year-old boy in a makeshift pen. From the looks of it, the ‘survivalists’ hadn’t bothered with diapers. The bab
y wore only a coating of his own runny poo he’d evidently been frolicking in for some time.
“Oh, gawd.” She coughed at the rancid sour-milk smell, then checked the last bedroom.
Fairly certain the ground floor contained no threats, she slung the Mossberg over her shoulder and headed to the bathroom to test the faucet. It produced a weak trickle of water. Gotta be a ground well… maybe an electric pump. The lights aren’t too bright. System’s not producing much power. She left the sink filling and crossed the hall to collect the baby from the foulness he’d been stuck in. Holding her breath, she gingerly reached down to grasp him under the arms. The instant she touched him, he stopped screaming, staring up at her in awe.
“Hey, little guy. You don’t belong here. Oh, my. You have a bit of a poo situation going on.”
He emitted happy baby noises.
“All right, squirmy. Sit still. Let’s get you cleaned up.” As if transporting a small crucible of radioactive waste, she held him at arm’s length while carrying him across the hall. “Sorry, kiddo. But a pooptastrophe of this magnitude is more pressing than a lack of hot water. It’s not ice cold, but the water heater is apparently having mood swings or an existential crisis at the moment.”
Predictably, he squealed when she plonked him seated in the tepid water.
Deacon poked his head in. “Aww, man. What the hell?”
“They left him alone when they ran out the door to ambush us.” Harper washed the boy as fast as she could. “Maybe they wanted to grab me or Leigh to deal with him.”
“Yeah, right,” muttered Deacon.
She closed her eyes under the weight of a sudden guilt crash. “Crap. Please tell me we didn’t just kill his parents.”
“If we did, just the dad. No women around.” Deacon made a silly face at the baby.
“One of them could’ve been the father.” Harper sighed.
“They shouldn’t have tried to kill and kidnap us then,” said Madison from the doorway. “I’m not saying it’s good they died, but it’s not our fault. Besides, they probably stole him from someone. Parents would take better care of him.”
Harper exhaled out her nose. “Yeah. Good point. He looks way too healthy—as in fed properly—to have been here long.”
“Doubt any of those dudes were breast feeding him.” Deacon chuckled.
“Eww,” said Madison from the bathroom doorway.
Harper raised an eyebrow. “What do you expect mothers to do now? Run to the store for formula and Gerber?”
Madison rolled her eyes. “Not eww-ing at the idea of breast feeding. I’m eww-ing at the idea of a man trying to breast feed a baby.” She stepped into the bathroom, holding up a purple bundle. “Here, I found a big towel.”
“Give me a minute… he’s got poop everywhere. It’s in his damn ears.” She glanced sideways at Deacon. “I’m surprised you’re not retching. Most guys can’t handle baby poop.”
Deacon chuckled. “Saw plenty o’ things in the joint way, way worse than this little dude. I’ll spare ya the details. You don’t wanna know.”
“Eww.” Madison cringed. “Umm. I should really go back home. I’ll take him with me. It’s not that far.”
“No way, Termite. I don’t want you running off alone.” Harper twisted toilet paper into an improvised ear-cleaning device. Miraculously, the baby tolerated the cleaning, amusing himself by gripping Deacon’s finger. “Aww, such a good boy. You know. You don’t want poop in your ears, do you?”
He cooed.
“But he’s just a baby,” said Madison. “We can’t take him with us on a mission.”
“You’re not going off alone. Carrying a baby is still alone. We stay together like you said, right?” Harper spun the boy around to clean his left ear.
Madison gestured at him. “You want to bring a little baby to wherever Dad might’ve gotten hurt?”
“Kiddo, that’s how your sister feels about bringin’ you along here.” Deacon ruffled Madison’s hair.
“He’s a little small to carry a gun,” deadpanned Madison. “I can sorta defend myself if I get cornered. He’s completely helpless.”
Deacon shook his head. “Dunno, Harp. I ain’t at all comfortable sendin’ a ten-year-old and a baby off alone.”
Harper looked over at her sister when the girl didn’t point out she’d turn eleven in two months. Madison stared glumly at the floor. She thought it. Definitely thought she’s ‘not really ten’ anymore. Dammit. She’s going to have a hard time on her birthday. I think we both are. How am I going to keep her mind off Mom and Dad for a whole day? Harper drained the sink, refilled it with clean water, and rinsed the baby, pouring cups of water over his hair a few times before lifting him out of the sink. She didn’t even notice her tenth birthday. We were all still too numb from everything.
Madison wrapped the boy in the huge towel. “Hey there, little man. What’s your name?”
The baby made a face at her. Harper pictured him thinking ‘who the heck is this bitch’ based on his expression, and cracked up.
Madison responded to the silly face with a sillier face. The boy smiled, laughing.
Deacon shook his head. “Well, you two got the baby situation under control. Gonna keep checkin’ the house.”
Ugh. Harper dried her hands on the towel. Cliff’s not going to like me bringing Maddie out here. Now a damn baby, too?
She and Madison returned to the living room, where Logan and Leigh searched a collection of metal Army style boxes.
“Not a crapload, but some ammo we can use.” Leigh looked up smiling, but gawked when she spotted the baby.
Logan gestured at the stairs. “House is clear. No prisoners or dead here.”
“The bodies in the garage… were any of them women?” asked Harper.
“Nope.” Leigh poured all the bullets from different ammo cans into one. “Someone’s going to get stuck sorting these later, but I’m not carrying eight cans for three-quarters of one can’s worth of ammo.”
“So… baby.” Harper glanced at Logan. “Cliff’s going to ream me out already for putting Maddie in danger.”
“Maybe, but there’s more than physical health to think about. We’re not in the same world we grew up in. She’s going to inherit a totally different reality. Hiding from bad guys and foraging for food instead of sleepovers and cheer practice.”
Madison scoffed. “I am not a cheerleader. You mean sleepovers and dance class.”
Logan laughed.
We just got into a shootout where she shot a man and she’s making jokes about dance class. Either she’s coping really well or on the train to crazytown. Hell, we’re all on the train to crazytown. I shot a dude in the face without batting an eye, but I won’t step on a stupid beetle? Yeah. I’m totally sane. Not.
“Maddie’s learning important skills.” Logan patted her on the shoulder. “Any person from a normal world would think it’s crazy to bring her along, but it’s good she’s getting a little learning on this messed up reality we’re stuck in.”
“You could’ve said the trip was educational and I’d have stayed home.” Madison smiled for a moment, then looked sad. “Sorry. I should’ve stayed so you didn’t worry about me.”
“It’s all right. I should’ve been firmer about insisting you stay safe… but I’m worried about you.”
“Obviously.” Madison poked her in the side.
“I mean up here.” Harper tapped her head. “We have to stick together.”
“Yeah. I’m good. Not going to start talking to dead phones again. I’m… adjusting.” Madison looked over at Leigh. “Any 9mm in there? I’m short one.”
Logan and Deacon chuckled.
Leigh stared at her in disbelief.
“All right, guess I’ll carry the little guy.” Harper reached for him.
Logan intercepted, grabbing the baby from Madison. “Why would it be your job?”
“Oh, come on. You’re not that dense. Leigh and I are the only women here and she’s already carrying ammo
cans and two rifles. Maddie’s a little small to lug a one-year-old baby for miles.”
“You’re also a way better shot than me.” Logan winked. “I got him. Just need to bundle him a little better.”
The instant Logan unwrapped the towel, the baby shot a stream of pee into the air, hitting him close to square in the left eye.
“Gah!” Logan pivoted, aiming the stream off to the side.
Madison and Leigh cracked up. Harper covered her mouth so she didn’t laugh quite as obviously.
Deacon’s baritone laugh vibrated the walls. “Looks like Harper’s not the only marksman in the room.”
18
No Signal
Once confident the house contained no kidnap victims or any items belonging to Cliff or Roy, they left to resume searching the patrol route.
Harper cut down the hill to the longer section of driveway, following it to the road. Logan moved to the middle of the group, right behind Madison, since he carried the baby. Deacon advanced to walk beside Harper up front while Leigh had rear guard.
A few minutes short of an hour later, they reached a split where the highway forked from Squaw Pass Road to Old Squaw Pass Road on the right and Colorado 103 on the left. Based on her notes, she headed left. Minutes later, she spotted an elevated dirt road veering uphill to the left from Route 103. A metal swing gate somewhat blocked it off. No signs indicated what the trail was, but it definitely did not look like Route 475, so she kept going.
“Let me carry him,” said Madison. “If we find more bad guys, they’re not gonna realize you’re holding a baby and shoot you.”
Logan sighed. “All right. I could use a break. He may be small, but he’s heavy after an hour. Be careful. He’s not a doll.”
Evergreen (Book 5): The Nuclear Frontier Page 15