by Payne, T. L.
“Is there a plan to recruit more?” Rank asked, following her.
She stopped and turned to face him. “There is. You want to join?”
Chapter 11
Spring Valley Creek
Summerville, Missouri
July 14th
Harmony opened the back door of the abandoned Ford Focus and shined a light inside. The small figure on the back seat wiggled under the blanket. When she sat up, her blonde hair stuck out in all directions. The small girl raised her arm to her face to shield her eyes from the flashlight’s beam.
“Bubby?” she said, rubbing her eyes with both hands. “I gotta potty.”
Harmony stepped back to allow Dillon to assist her. The child’s eyes grew wide when she realized her brother wasn’t alone.
“It’s okay. They’ve got food for us,” Dillon said as he led her around to the back of the vehicle.
When they returned to the road, the two-year old clung to her brother’s leg as they approached Harmony and the group. Her pink flowered dress was soiled and her shoes appeared to be too big for her feet. It was clear she hadn’t bathed in a very long time. They were both very thin.
Harmony reached into her pack and pulled out a biscuit. She knelt and extended the food to the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Chloe,” she said timidly.
“Go on. You can have it,” Harmony said, inching closer.
Chloe retreated behind her brother, so Harmony handed the biscuit to Dillon.
“We should go,” Erick said behind her.
Harmony stood and turned to face him. “We can’t just leave them here to fend for themselves.”
Erick grabbed her arm and led her to the opposite side of the road. Zach followed and slid his arm around Harmony’s waist.
“We can’t take them with us to round up the horses,” Erick said.
“You’re a father. Can you tell me you would leave these kids like this?”
Erick looked away.
“I agree, Harmony. We can’t leave them here, but that means we’ll need to split up,” Zach said.
Harmony crossed her arms over her chest. “Not necessarily. They won’t get in the way. I’ll keep them with me in the wagon.”
“It’s too dangerous. You know Nelson’s men have been chasing that same herd. What if we have a run-in with those boys? Do you want two small kids caught in the middle of a gunfight?” Erick asked.
Harmony looked over her shoulder. Dillon was breaking off pieces his biscuit and handing them to his sister. The starving girl was shoving them into her mouth as fast as she could. Erick was right. Those two had obviously been through a lot and it was too risky.
“Zach and I will take them back to the farm. Do you want to wait for us here or…”
“No. We’ll go ahead to Eminence and try to locate the herd. You take care of the kids. We can round them up. We’ll see you back at the farm,” Erick said.
Harmony’s shoulders slumped. She’d been looking forward to going to Eminence herself and seeing the herd while they were wild and free. She stared at the children. “All right. If that’s how it has to be.”
“I’ll go with them,” Maria said, picking up her pack and tossing it into the back of the wagon.
“Aaron, John, let’s go pack up. Harmony, Zack, and Maria are heading back,” Erick said, making a circling motion with his hand.
Harmony approached the children slowly. She didn’t want to frighten the little girl further. “Dillon, we’re going to take you to our place for now. We have food and there are other children to play with.” Harmony cocked her head to the side and peered around Dillion’s legs. Chloe pushed back wisps of matted hair from her face and stared back at Harmony.
“We have more biscuits and jam.”
A heart-warming smile spread across Chloe’s tiny face.
Just as the sun came up, they all began packing up camp. Aaron, Erick, and John saddled their horses and left for Eminence, leaving the wagon for Harmony, Zach, and Maria to drive back to the farm. Zach drove with his rifle across his lap. Harmony faced forward to keep an eye on the children and the road ahead while Maria watched for anyone approaching from their rear. They all seemed to have a heightened sense of vulnerability traveling with three fewer guns and small children to worry about if they had to react to a potential threat. Splitting up to take the children back to the farm was high risk for everyone involved, but Harmony wasn’t sorry they were doing it. With so few people left in the world, every life became that much more precious. What hope did two small children have of making it alone on the road? How long before they couldn’t find food and water or ran into the wrong sort of people? These kids were simply going to die without her help.
At first, Chloe had been reluctant to ride in the wagon, but an hour into the trip, Chloe suddenly climbed into Harmony’s lap, leaned her head back, and fell fast asleep. Harmony stroked her back and tried to imagine what the girl looked like under all that grime. Dillon hadn’t taken his eyes off Maria. Every time she raised her rifle to look through her scope, Dillon tensed. Maybe he hadn’t been around guns? But how was that possible these days? A lethal weapon was often all that stood between bad guys and your next meal. Could they have possibly gone this long with seeing violence?
Harmony thought about the children back at the farm. Prior to arriving in Texas County, Emma had witnessed more than any child should ever go through. Larry’s grandchildren had been through a lot as well, but after escaping Illinois, they’d been sheltered and protected at the farm. The group had been successful in shielding them for the violence that had since gripped the world.
As Harmony tucked Dillon and Chloe into the sleeping bag in the back of the wagon parked along the banks of Big Creek, she lamented again that she wouldn’t have the chance to see the wild horses of Eminence. She had begged her parents to take her camping along the Jack Forks River where the herd was known to graze, but they weren’t the camping type of people. Instead, her father bought her a horse and boarded it at a nearby stable. Even though she loved her horse and rode him often, it wasn’t the same as seeing them running and living free.
She hoped Erick and the others would be able to find the horses and round them up with three fewer people. They’d likely never get another chance—not with Clark Nelson’s goons causing trouble.
Chapter 12
Henson Farm
Texas County, Missouri
July 14th
Over her mother and Jacob’s protests, Maddie insisted on riding along with Aims, Harding, and Gene to visit Quincy, the ham operator she’d met last fall. He was the only ham operator still left in the area. The last time they’d heard anything from the outside world, it had been from him. She wanted to make sure that if there was a way to confirm what Stephens had said about the west coast, they found it. She couldn’t just sit back on the farm and wait for the news.
“You think he’ll still talk to us now that he’s working for Nelson?” Maddie asked as they turned their horses toward Licking.
“I’m not sure. I’m not sure what he was thinking by signing on with that bunch. I thought I knew the guy, but I guess not,” Gene said.
“It’s hard to judge people for trying their best to survive. When his boys were killed, he didn’t have anyone left to help him. He was forced to take down his antenna tower and solar panels and hide them to keep thieves from killing him for them. He told everyone in town that he traded them for food. We now know that wasn’t true,” Gene said.
“How can you be so sure?” Maddie asked.
“What skill would the old man have that would entice Clark Nelson to bring him to his ranch?”
Gene was right. Someone Quincy Henderson’s age would have a difficult time providing for themselves all alone. It was likely that no one else would hire him, either. Nelson was hiring all the skilled workers he could persuade to join him. He had his own town filled with businesses to supply his workers. Nelsonville had sprung up out on Route U almost overnigh
t. The shacks used to house workers were barely livable, and Maddie imagined they’d be downright miserable come winter.
“Gawd. I hate that he’s able to buy people like that. It’s disgusting that he can prey on desperate folks like that, and there seems to be nothing we can do about it,” she said.
“Yeah. Once they sign on with him, there’s no way out, either. He runs the company store. He owns where they live. He makes sure they’re so deep in debt and dependent on him that they can’t leave,” Harding said.
“I just can’t fathom being that desperate. I hope that day never comes,” Maddie said.
She thought about what she would have done had she gotten stuck in Illinois without her family. Had she and Emma not made it to Uncle Ryan’s, what would she have been willing to do to survive, to protect Emma? Would she be one of the poor souls laboring at the work camps in central Illinois and over in Iowa? She shuddered at the thought of being separated from Emma. How many children had they taken from their parents? How could they separate families like that? Was south-central Missouri at risk of the same fate with Nelson in charge?
As they pitched camp that night in a field about fifteen miles from Salem, Maddie thought a lot about what the rest of the country must be going through. When her mother left California, they still had power, but things were quickly breaking down there as well. The last she’d heard coming out of the west was that they weren’t faring all that well either. The water woes they’d had before the lights went out were now a dire situation. She’d also heard that the violence was really bad out there. It was worse than they’d experienced there in the middle of the country. She supposed that was to be expected in such populated places.
Since she’d been unable to sleep, she took Aims’s shift guarding camp and woke the others just before daybreak.
They rode without speaking for the next few hours before reaching the Salem city limits. The guards there were a little more inquisitive than those in Rolla.
“State your business in the city,” the young guard demanded. Maddie kept her eye on the man’s right hand that was resting on his holster.
“Just passing through heading north to check on a friend,” Aims said.
The guard cocked his head to one side and stared up at him. “Oh yeah, and who might that be?”
Aims looked over to Maddie. “We’re looking for her father. He went looking for work about a week ago. He never returned home.”
“Nelson’s?” the guard asked.
Aims hung his head. “We believe so.”
“Okay, but do me a favor. Avoid the city on your way back,” the guard said. “We don’t want trouble with that bunch.”
Aims nodded and nudged his horse forward through the checkpoint. They weaved back and forth between the barricade of cars and trucks and continued through town. It was depressing to see the state of the homes and business. Many of them were concealed behind a wall of weeds. The apocalypse had been hard for the folks in Salem. Many of the residents had left looking for food. Very few of those who had gone to the Red Cross shelters had returned home. Those left behind, and those who had returned, seemed to be doing their best to rebuild. There were shops open offering various services. They passed a tool repair shop, a cobbler repairing shoes and boots, a fabric store with a seamstress, and even a dentist. None of this would have been possible if Sheriff Tidwell hadn’t returned and secured the city.
I bet his services are in high demand.
“Look! They have a vet,” Maddie said as they passed the animal hospital. The sign out front read, ‘Farm calls for a dozen eggs.’ “That’s good to know.”
“That’s a long way to travel for a dozen eggs. I think he might charge more to come out to our place,” Harding said.
Maddie nodded. “That’s true, but he might have meds he’d sell.”
On the outskirts of town, they were waved through the barricade without being questioned. The road out of town was in rough shape. It was likely full of potholes before the lights went out, but now, it would be hard to drive a wagon on. With no way to repave it, they’d be better off chipping up the blacktop and making it a gravel road. It was surprising how fast the infrastructure had deteriorated. The roads and bridges in rural Missouri had been terrible before, but without the constant patching and spot repairs, some had become impassable.
“There are guards at the gate,” Aims said, lowering his binoculars.
Nelsonville was protected by a twelve-foot fence and tall bluffs.
Harding pointed to their right. “There. We’ll have to go through the woods.”
“How will we know where it is? Have you ever been here?” Maddie asked.
Harding looked to Aims. “No, but we know the layout.”
“How?”
“We’ve been talking to people.”
Maddie cocked her head slightly. “Why?” After what Larry had revealed about human traffickers, she had her suspicions. “Have you guys been planning something?”
“We thought it prudent to know our enemies,” Aims said.
“Does Lugnut know?”
“Yeah.”
“So, everyone is in on this but me?” That came out much more whiney than she’d wanted.
“There was never anything concrete. As long as he left us alone, we’d leave them alone. But if that changed, we’d need intel on them,” Aims said.
“All right. Lead the way,” she said, gesturing with an outstretched arm.
They stopped on a bluff overlooking the Nelson ranch.
“Why would they not have lookouts up here? This is the perfect place to surveil Nelson’s compound?” Maddie said.
“They don’t think anyone can get this far up the cliffs is my guess,” Gene said, bending over and trying to catch his breath.
“Or his security detail doesn’t want to climb them every day,” Aims said.
A long, paved, tree-lined drive led to an enormous three-story Georgian-style house. Maddie counted five large steel buildings on the sprawling ranch. At first, she thought maybe they housed the workers, but she doubted they lived in anything that nice. The white board fence went on for what seemed like miles. Fields were divided up into sections, and hundreds of cows and horses dotted the landscape. Workers were tending crops in the fields closest to the house. One field contained more horses than Maddie could count. Nelson had a good setup. She could see why he’d need so many guards to defend it. He was living a life of luxury while everyone else scraped by just trying to find food for one more day of life. The sight made Maddie sick.
It wasn’t that Nelson was doing well. She wouldn’t begrudge anyone that. It was that he was prospering off the suffering of others. He pushed people off nearby farms to expand his kingdom, and then made the owners work for him. They didn’t receive a fair price so they could feed their family and get by. His offer was “give me your property and live. Resist and die.” Wasn’t that extortion or something? He was able to continue doing it, over and over, because there was no one to stop him. Maddie lifted the binoculars to her eyes. A young girl, likely Emma’s age, was weeding between a row of knee-high corn stalks. Emma was probably doing the same work at the moment, but the difference was she was free to leave.
“How are we possibly going to locate Quincy without being seen?” Maddie asked.
“See that tower?” Gene pointed. “That’s where he’ll be.”
To the east of the big house was a steel building. Attached to it was a one-hundred-foot antenna. Nelson was interested in communicating with someone. Maddie wanted to know who.
Maddie pointed toward the building. “How do you plan on getting in there?”
Gene pointed to the creek behind the steel building. Trees lined its banks as it ran along the east side of the ranch and wound its way west through the pasture. The steel building with the tower sat at least one hundred yards to the south of it.
“I’m going to use that for concealment. You guys cause a diversion, and I’ll run across the field and locate Qu
incy.”
“That sounds awfully risky. What if he turns you in?” Maddie asked.
Gene smiled and picked up his pack. “Then you’ll come rescue me.”
Maddie watched Gene disappear into the woods. She placed her binoculars back in her pack and took cover behind a large oak at the edge of the field. Maddie pulled her rifle around to the front and peered through the scope to see if she could spot Gene moving through the trees. She knew that if she could, so could Nelson’s guards. They likely had better weapons and more powerful scopes. If they were looking, his security seemed to be a little lax. They shouldn’t have been able to get that close to the ranch. The bluff should have been well guarded too.
“So, what are we using for a diversion?” Maddie asked.
Aims pulled a small box from his pack. “I’ll take care of that.”
“What’s in it?” Maddie asked.
Aims lifted the lid.
“It’s a toy? What are you going to do with that?”
“You’ll see,” Aims said.
They waited twenty minutes for Gene to give the signal that he was ready for the diversion. His birdcall sounded more like a sick animal. Maddie waited for the guards to descend on Gene, but none did. They weren’t nearly as trained as Maddie had heard. Any member of her group would have spotted the fake call.
“Get ready to move,” Aims said as he disappeared into the brush.
A minute later, Maddie heard the toy siren. Men dressed in black poured out of buildings and fanned out, looking for the source of the noise. Through her scope, Maddie could make out Gene racing across the field toward the steel building.
“Let’s go,” Aims said, making a chopping motion with his hand.
Carefully, the three moved east away from the noise and back toward where they’d tied their horses.
Harding rode up beside Aims’s horse, grabbed its reins, and led it south toward the creek. Maddie quickly mounted hers and rode right behind him. She looked back as they entered the water. Aims was facing the trail, rifle raised and braced across his forearm covering their retreat.