by Payne, T. L.
By the time they reached the hangar, Maddie was so torn. How could she ask him to stay there with them and not join the cause of rebuilding the nation? Hell, seeing the operation up close, with the soldiers using equipment to load an actual working plane, almost made her want to join them. She actually considered it for all of two seconds before recalling how much she hated the Texas heat.
I wonder if they have air conditioning.
“I’d forgotten how large those planes were,” Beth said as the driver pulled to a stop.
“I bet that baby uses a lot of jet fuel,” Maddie said.
“No doubt.”
A soldier opened Maddie’s door and extended his hand to help her out. “Dang! Is that all gold?” Maddie asked.
The soldier didn’t answer her question. “Colonel Sharp is waiting for you in the office.”
Beth came up alongside Maddie and took hold of her uninjured arm.
“I can walk, Mom.”
“I know, but you might feel lightheaded from the blood loss and dehydration,” Beth said as they were led to the back of the hangar and through a door into an office that had been set up as a medical bay.
She was on her back, staring up at the ceiling, when Lugnut arrived.
“You got your first battle wound,” he called as he walked through the door.
“And her last, I hope,” Beth replied.
He winced as the doctor pulled the last stitch tight, closing her wound. “You going to be able to ride?” He pointed to her shoulder.
“She shouldn’t,” the doctor said. “She might open the wound and restart the bleeding.”
“I can ride. We’ll just have to walk them,” Maddie said.
Lugnut laughed. “You better ride Hazel then. You know Bluejeans only knows how to trot and run full bore.”
With her shoulder stitched up and her pain manageable, Maddie and Beth followed Lugnut to the control tower. Rank was seated between Harding and Stephens. Aims stood and offered Maddie his chair.
“What’s up with all the people at the gate?” Maddie asked.
“They heard the plane fly in, I imagine,” Aims said.
“I thought they were soldiers trying to break down the gate at first,” Maddie said.
“Stephens did say they were looking for recruits,” Harding said.
Maddie fought to urge to look at Rank. He was avoiding making eye contact with her, too.
“Rank?” Stephens called. “We’re about to take off.”
Aims and Harding stood.
“We’re going,” Aims said, holding out his hand to Lugnut.
“I figured,” Lugnut said.
The normally-stoic Harding looked more emotional than Maddie had ever seen the man.
“Thank you for everything, Lugnut. I hope to see you again someday.”
“We'll all miss you both very much. I hope it all goes well down there. Put in a word for us with the president. Maybe he could send some resources up our way—when he can,” Lugnut said.
“I’ll definitely do that. I have a feeling we’ll be back this way sooner rather than later. I’m thinking the president is not going to like the fact that Dempsey has placed spies in his military. We’ll have to deal with him and his band of merry men—and women—soon, I’m sure,” Harding said, turning toward the plane.
“I’m glad I had a chance to say good-bye,” Beth said, opening her arms to embrace Harding.
Harding wrapped his arms around her. “Aims and I are going. I apologize that we didn’t come and tell everyone good-bye. We were anxious to come and speak with the commander and hear about the new government from him.”
“I understand. We’ll miss you both,” Beth said.
Harding appeared to choke up. “I’ll miss all of you as well.”
“Rank?” Beth said, stepping around Harding.
Rank rose to his feet. “I’m going too, Beth.” When he looked up, his eyes met Maddie’s. She knew his mind was made up, and there was nothing she could say at that point. Unlike when he and Lugnut decided to go against her wishes and enter St. Louis to rescue Jason, Maddie wouldn’t allow him to leave thinking she was mad at him this time.
Maddie closed the distance between them and held her one good arm out to him. As Rank wrapped his arms around her waist, Maddie whispered in his ear. “I’m so very proud of you. I know this wasn’t an easy decision. I’m going to miss you terribly.”
“Thank you, Maddie. That means a lot to me. I’m going to miss you, too—very much. I’m very proud of the woman you’ve become.” He leaned back and looked her in the eyes. “And I know that your dad would be so proud, too.”
“Colonel, we’re loaded and ready for takeoff,” a soldier called over the radio.
Maddie fought back the tears as she released Rank, and he grabbed his bag from the floor. It was sad watching Rank and Lugnut say good-bye to one another. Their friendship had weathered the storms of battle for many years and many miles. Maddie hoped they’d all be back together someday, but realistically, she knew this was likely to be the last time they’d all be together.
“Aims. Harding. I appreciate all you’ve done for our group. I hope you’re able to help get this country up and running again. I’m looking forward to hot showers…” Maddie wiped her brow. “And air conditioning.”
While Lugnut retrieved their horses from the field near the hangar, Maddie and Beth waved as everyone loaded into the plane, and the cargo door closed. As the jet engine roared and the plane raced down the runway, Maddie felt a rush of excitement. She yearned for their old way of life as the plane took to the air. She was sure there would be many days that she missed Rank, but at that moment, she felt more hope than she’d ever remembered having.
Chapter 31
Phelps County Trade Fair
Phelps County, Missouri
August 5th
At the next weekly trade fair, the goods for sale included many of the things taken from Nelson’s. People Maddie had never seen before had booths filled with useful items, and a few even offered produce from their gardens.
Maddie walked from booth to booth studying the items on display. At the end of one row, she saw a familiar face. Aubrey? Maddie felt panic rise in the pit of her stomach as she was taken back to the dark, wooden box. She turned and walked back the way she’d come. She didn’t want to remember, and she didn’t trust herself to not deal with that traitor.
Yelling caused her to spin around, causing fresh pain to shoot through her healing shoulder. She scanned the aisle looking for the source of the shouting. Two rows over, several men were wrestling on the ground. Everyone was just standing there watching. No one attempted to intervene. Lugnut appeared, followed by Zach and Dustin. The three of them were able to pull the men apart.
“What’s going on?” Maddie asked as she approached.
“That son-of-a-bitch was one of Nelson’s spies. I saw him meeting with those DHS goons from up north,” one of the men yelled.
“Where?” Lugnut said, releasing his grip on the man.
“Where the Gasconade meets the Missouri River. That’s where my little brother and I escaped when they were transferring prisoners from the wagons onto boats,” the short, thin man said with wild gesticulation.
Twenty minutes later, the man suspected of being one of Nelson’s goons was handed over to deputies of the newly-formed Phelps County Sheriff’s Department, and everyone went on about their business—everyone except Lugnut. He followed the deputies to the sheriff's department. When he returned, he seemed satisfied that the thin man had been telling the truth.
“We need to take a trip up to Hermann and check this out ourselves. That’s the only way to be sure if stopping Nelson actually put a stop to the human trafficking going on in the area. Dempsey might well have recruited someone new to pick up where Nelson left off. We won’t be sure until we go there,” Lugnut said.
Dustin raised his hand. “I’m up for a road trip.”
“Count me in,” Jaxon said.
Lugnut glanced over to Dustin and Jaxon. “Absolutely!”
“Maddie, Maddie,” Zach yelled as he ran down the aisle toward her. People knocked over displays as they parted to allow him through
“What?” Maddie asked, pulling her pistol and pointing it toward the ground as she moved toward him.
“You aren’t going to believe what I found. You’re going to freak,” Zach said when he reached her.
“What?” she asked impatiently.
“You’ll have to see it to believe it.”
“What the hell is it, Zach?”
Her brother was four years younger and even in the apocalypse, he continually got on her nerves. When she and Jacob got married, she’d insisted they move into one of the trailer houses on the Henson farm so as not to be living under the same roof with her mother and brother. She loved them both, but they could get under her skin at times. “Just tell me, Zach.”
“Come with me!” he said.
“Hurry. It’s just down here,” Zach called as he ran down the path ahead of her.
Maddie stood in the doorway. The frigid air nearly took her breath away. She covered her mouth with her hand. Maddie choked back tears at the sight of the enormous blocks of ice. When Zach had described it, she hadn’t believed him. How was it even possible to have ice in the summer? But there it was, at least fifty blocks of it.
“I need to shut the door, Maddie,” a male voice behind her said.
She glanced over her shoulder, only half-hearing what he’d said. “What? Oh, okay.” She stepped back onto the grass. She shook her head, trying to comprehend all the possibilities if she were able to recreate the icehouse at her place. The springhouse back at her parent’s property by the river had been great for storing things that needed to be refrigerated, but to have the ability to have ice in their water and mint teas would be such a treat.
“So you’ll trade then?” the man asked.
Maddie whipped around to face him. John David had once been a husky, broad-shouldered man. Now, nine months into the apocalypse, his skin just draped over his bony frame.
“Trade. Are you kidding? I’d sell my soul for ice cream. How much cream do you need?”
That wasn’t the strongest trading position, but who wouldn’t be overly enthusiastic about the prospect of ice cream? She had imagined she would never again taste the frozen concoction.
“About two gallons,” John David replied.
Maddie’s eyes widened.
“I know it’s a lot to ask. Cream is hard to come by these days,” he said.
She thought about what two gallons of ice cream would look like. The thought of it was beyond words. She’d have to figure a way to get three gallons of milk out of the barn without detection. Her mother would understand, but she really wanted to surprise everyone. The cows were producing enough, so maybe no one would notice. They would, however, think it strange for her to go down to the milking shed. She was still on light duty, and milking had never been one of her favorite chores anyway. She’d make up some excuse—she had to. She might have to enlist Amy and Erick to help her. They did the inventory. Could they keep a secret?
Maddie tilted her head to the side and narrowed her brow. She didn’t want John David to see how eager she was to complete this trade. It was frivolous in these desperate times, she knew, but what just a taste of ice cream would do to improve everyone’s spirits… That was worth the trade right there.
“Well, that's a lot of cream, but since it’s for your son’s birthday and all, I think I can do two gallons.” Maddie turned her back to him and bit her bottom lip. She fought the urge to do a happy dance. “And in return, we get one gallon of ice cream?”
“You only want a gallon?” John David asked as he slid the hasp closed and locked the door to the icehouse.
“You can make more?” Maddie felt almost giddy now. She was sure it was evident in her voice.
“If you bring me four gallons of cream, I can give you two gallons of ice cream.”
Maddie felt lightheaded.
“So, do we have a deal?” John David asked.
Maddie smiled an ear to ear and nodded.
She couldn’t wait to show everyone, especially Emma and the kids. A picnic at the river had been planned for Harmony’s surprise birthday party. After all the hard work the group had done over the last several weeks trying to get crops in the ground, they all needed this badly. Harmony would be so surprised. She hadn’t wanted to celebrate her birthday, but she’d still love it.
“I’ll have Zach bring it by on Friday. Does that work?” Maddie said, extending her right hand toward him.
“That’s perfect. If Zach wants to stick around, I’ll send him home with the ice cream later that day.”
“Oh, he’ll stay. No problem.”
Maddie waved over her shoulder as she walked back up the trail to the road. Zach helped her into her saddle and threw her leg over her horse. She nudged Bluejeans, and he trotted back to the road where she’d left Lugnut standing guard.
“Are we good?” Lugnut asked.
“We are fabulous!” Maddie said as she turned her horse onto the gravel road.
Lugnut didn’t even ask about the icehouse. Maybe he wasn’t surprised. In all his travels throughout the county lately, maybe he’d already heard of it. She imagined it would be a hard thing to keep secret.
Maddie had gotten up three times during the night to check on the ice cream hidden in the chest-type freezer buried in the ground. The ice John David had sent it in had melted some on Zach’s ride home, but it appeared to be holding the temperature down enough to keep the ice cream frozen. The YETI cooler did a good job keeping it from melting too much. Maddie was like a kid waiting for Christmas. She’d fought the urge to try a sample, wanting to experience it with the rest of her group later that day. It had been so hard to keep it a secret. Almost everyone suspected she had a surprise, but she doubted anyone would be able to guess what it was.
Before sunrise, Maddie moved the cooler filled with the two gallons of vanilla ice cream to the springhouse up at their old place. Right after lunch, she’d surprise everyone. If she could wait that long. Ice cream for breakfast sounded amazing. Surprisingly, it had been a challenge getting everyone to agree to a day off. Everyone was concerned about not having a repeat of last winter. Jacob was so busy with the new co-op that he too was reluctant.
“Maddie, can you put this purple ribbon in my hair?” Emma asked, holding out the strip of cloth. Maddie took it from her, grasped two handfuls of red ringlets to form a ponytail, and tied it up with the ribbon.
Emma, having lost her family during the riots back in Chicago right after the lights went out, thought of Maddie as her big sister. They’d fought their way out of the city together to make their way to Uncle Ryan’s place in Marseilles, Illinois. When Maddie had left her with Larry and Ella in Peoria, Illinois, it had been one of the toughest decisions she’d ever made in her life. Somehow, fate had brought them back together, and throughout the winter and spring, they’d grown as close as any blood sisters could be.
“Hurry, Emma. Lugnut is stringing up a rope swing,” Rylie, Larry’s grandson, called from the riverbank.
As Emma raced off, Maddie surveyed the group gathered on a gravel bar of the Big Piney River. The last time they’d all gathered like this was for her and Jacob’s wedding. After their brief honeymoon, she and Jacob—along with Lugnut, Rank, and some of the others—had spent weeks scavenging for supplies to grow crops to feed their group through the winter. Since getting the seeds in the ground, she’d hardly seen her husband. He and Beth practically slept in the fields trying to ensure they would have as much food as possible come fall harvest. Maddie had no idea it took so much work to grow food. Less than a year ago, she’d obtained most of her food from drive-thru fast-food restaurants and pizza delivery. After a lean winter on very little food, she understood their w
orries.
As Maddie leaned against Jacob’s chest, he raised a lock of her hair to his nose. “I like it. It smells like watermelon.”
Maddie smiled. “It’s some of Nelson’s wife’s stash. Maria brought it back for me.”
It felt good to have proper soap and shampoo again. The only thing missing was hot running water. Maddie thought of Rank and pushed the memory away. Today was about fun.
Lugnut looked even sadder than Maddie about Rank's absence. He hadn’t spoken much about it. When she brought it up, he’d change the subject. They’d been like one big family. Now three of them were missing. Over the course of the winter, Maddie had even grown to think of Aims and Harding as family, too. The former FEMA officials had played a crucial role in saving Emma and others after they’d picked up some type of disease from the crowded shelters along Missouri’s border with Illinois. They were all missed, but Rank's absence was the one that left a hole in her heart.
Maddie felt a cold hand on her sunburned shoulder and jumped, twisting to face the offender. “Zach. What the hell. Your hands are like ice.”
“Sorry, sis. I wanted to ask how long before we can—”
“Shush!” Maddie slugged him.
“Ouch! I wasn’t going to say it. Sheesh!”
Beth turned toward them.
Maddie and Zach smiled and waved. It hadn’t been easy for her since Maddie’s stepdad, Jason, had been killed in the tornado that demolished their cabin, but Beth seemed to be doing better lately. Maddie thought it might have something to do with her lead role in their mission to put in as big of a garden as possible. Beth needed to feel productive. Maddie worried that her mother was pushing herself too hard. She also wasn’t taking care of herself as she should and had been giving her portion of some meals to the little children. Everyone was, but Beth seemed to be suffering from the acts of goodwill the most.