He grabbed a couple of gas cans from a display outside. Swimming pools and lawn chairs were stacked alongside. She wished the world were sane again and that people still needed those things.
“Stewart,” Bradley said, and nodded at the car.
“On it,” he said. He trotted back to the truck and pulled his ruck over the side. She watched him dig around and come up with a piece of tubing with a bulb on it. A hand siphon.
“The man carries a hand siphon around in his backpack. I think we should be friends,” she said.
Stewart looked up and cracked the first smile she had seen from him yet. He gave her a nod. “Only if you call it a rucksack. I’m no schoolboy.”
“Deal.”
Jared opened the cap and fed in the tube to the car’s gas tank. Stewart worked the other end. She wandered around the parking lot, not straying too far. Bradley was doing the same, she noticed. The night air had helped wake her a bit.
Pop!
A searing heat grazed her arm and she looked around, confused.
“We’re taking fire!” Bradley yelled.
Pop!
Not again!
Another round punctured the car that Jared and Stewart had just been siphoning before they moved on to the next one.
“Anna!” she heard Jared yell. She glanced back and saw him running toward her. Bradley and Stewart began returning fire. Jared pulled her along and they crouched behind the truck.
“Stay down!” he ordered.
She nodded and glanced at her arm. Blood oozed from her bicep and was dripping from her elbow to the concrete. She was hit. It didn’t look too bad, so she didn’t want to say anything yet.
Jared took a knee and fired his rifle over the bed of the truck.
“Roof, right side!” he yelled.
The older man crouched behind a car that had a door wide open. She watched around the edge of the truck as he ran to the gas cans and picked them up. He walked quickly and put them in the bed of the truck.
“Everybody in!” Bradley shouted.
She got in the passenger side as Stewart laid down covering fire for them. Jared took the wheel and Bradley helped the older man jump in. She looked back. Maria crouched over her children. The other woman cowered against the corner of the cab with her eyes closed. Extraordinarily enough, Violet was still sleeping.
“Go! Go! Go!” Stewart yelled. He tossed himself in while Bradley covered him.
Jared sped out of the lot, tires shrieking against the new asphalt.
“Is everyone okay,” he shouted.
Anna clasped her arm and turned around. She gave Alejandro and Carlos a slight smile.
“Sí, we are okay,” Maria said, still clutching her sons. “I do not think she is okay.” She pointed toward the woman cowering in the corner and drew her sons further away. She was crying.
Anna turned carefully and got on her knees. She clumsily reached back with her injured arm while still clasping it to stem the blood flow. She grimaced at the pain. It was almost as bad as the pain of the gouges on her stomach.
She shook the woman but there was no response. She took the headlamp from around her neck and pointed the feeble beam of light at the woman’s face. Oh God.
She turned around quickly and sat down, dizzy. “She’s gone. She was hit in the head.”
Jared looked back quickly. “Damn it,” he breathed.
“I got hit in the arm. I think it’s just a flesh wound.”
“What!” He stared at her in shock. “And you waited this fucking long to tell me!”
“It’s no big deal. Really, it’s just a graze.”
“You should have told me right away!” He was pissed, maybe rightfully so. She would have been too.
“Well, we were kind of being shot at…” she said drily.
He huffed and seemed to come to a decision. “We’re going to my house. I wanted to avoid that, but the way this night is going…we all need to rest and deal with shit before we go to the armory.”
She was relieved.
“What about Bradley and Stewart?” she asked.
“They can wait. It can all wait.”
Chapter Nineteen
R & R
“Where are we?” Bradley said, jumping down as soon as they pulled into Jared’s garage.
“Maria, take the boys out that side and go in.” She pointed to the doorway to the house. Maria glanced over at the dead woman and nodded quickly. She kept Alejandro’s face against her chest as she got out. She couldn’t stop Carlos from gazing curiously at the body. He was pale, but he didn’t freak out.
She sighed and leaned her head back. There were a couple of times...alright, five times...that she thought she might not see this place again. She gathered up her bat and her bag with her good arm. Jared yanked open her door.
“She’s been shot,” Jared bit out. “And the woman in the backseat is dead. Head shot. Maybe a ricochet.”
Bradley and Stewart rushed over to Anna, but Jared elbowed them out of the way and picked her up. She could have walked. He carried her into the house and laid her on the couch. It felt like Heaven. He knelt on the floor next to her and looked at her arm. She had been right, it was a flesh wound, but it was still fairly deep.
“It needs cleaning,” Stewart said, and rifled through his bag…his ruck. He pulled out a pouch and sifted through. He found some antiseptic and a bandage. Jared moved aside, barely, so Stewart could do his job. Apparently, this wasn’t new to him.
She winced as he cleaned the wound. “You don’t have any antibiotics in there, do you?” she halfway joked.
“Actually yeah. You should probably take a course. Are you allergic to penicillin?”
“Nope. We were supposed to go get some from a pharmacy today. Guess things got a bit crazy.”
“Massive understatement,” Jared said tiredly.
“Why do you need antibiotics?” Stewart asked, looking her over.
She pulled her shirt up to her ribs and winced. It looked hideous. The bandages were blood and sweat-stained and they reeked. “I got clawed by a couple of crazies this morning…well yesterday morning now.”
“Damn. May I?” he asked.
She nodded and he peeled back the filthy gauze. His face gave nothing away, but she knew it was nasty. Hopefully not infected though.
Jared brushed her hair back from her forehead. “You want to go shower before we get these cleaned? We may still have hot water.”
“She should,” Stewart agreed.
Jared grabbed her bags and things from the spare bedroom and took them into his own bathroom. She hadn’t been in here before and she was surprised at how luxurious it was. There was a jacuzzi tub and a glassed-in shower. A hot bath would have been amazing, but she couldn’t be selfish. They all needed the hot water.
“I’ll let you get cleaned up. Tell me when you’re finished. I’m going to go tell those yahoos out there where they can sleep and maybe scrounge up some food.”
Like he’d have to scrounge up anything with the pantry he has.
She smiled and nodded. She was going to crash soon. He came and carefully pulled her into his arms. She wrapped her good arm around his waist and laid her head on his chest. He smelled better than he had a right to, and she relaxed instantly. He pulled away too soon again.
“See you in a few,” he said and left.
◆◆◆
The shower had been wonderful. She wanted to linger but Jared and the others probably wanted to get cleaned up as well. She washed her hair quickly twice to get everything out. She carefully washed her wounds, gritting her teeth at the sting. The gashes didn’t look inflamed at all, just irritated. She dressed in some comfortable lounge clothes and brushed her teeth. She finally felt human again.
In the bedroom, she noticed that Jared had given his bed to Violet. There was a neat pile of sleeping bags, pillows, and quilts on the floor nearby. She set her bags and belongings just inside his closet and closed the door.
“I thought we co
uld share the bedroom with Violet. I gave her the bed because she’s old,” he said with a grin at old woman in question.
“I am. I’m an old woman and there’s no use tiptoeing around it. If I were fifty years younger, I’d give your young lady there a run for her money though. You’re a handsome young man.”
Bradley snorted as he spread a sleeping bag in a far corner of the living room. Stewart was nowhere to be found.
“Hey, I can’t help that I was born with this face,” Jared replied. He looked at Anna. “There’s food on the stove. Just some beef stew I had frozen. The gas here is still working, miraculously. I figured Jimmy Don’s fireworks might have changed that.”
She nodded her thanks and went to grab a bowl. Her stomach was gnawing on itself with hunger. She dipped up a generous portion and grabbed a spoon.
“I gave Juan, Maria, and the boys the spare bedroom. Hank will take the couch,” he said.
She supposed Hank was the older gentleman. “That was some quick thinking back at the store,” she told Hank. “I kind of froze, but you grabbed those cans and got back to the truck tout de suite.”
“It wasn’t my first time being shot at,” he confided.
“Vietnam?” Bradley asked from the table.
Hank nodded. “I just drove trucks. Sometimes we made it where we needed to be, and sometimes we didn’t.” He didn’t elaborate.
“People underestimate the dangers of working on the supply line in any war,” Bradley said knowingly.
“You think it was the same guy that was shooting at us that first night?” Anna asked Jared.
Bradley scrutinized them both. “You were shot at before?”
Jared nodded. “Yep, sniper took shots at us when we went to her apartment. Fired off several rounds, large caliber.”
“Pretty sure last night’s shooter was firing a pistol. They were firing from the roof. I saw the movement, but I couldn’t see much beyond a shadow,” Stewart said.
“We’re damned lucky they didn’t use a rifle,” Bradley said, nodding at Anna’s arm.
“Well, we didn’t all get so lucky,” Hank reminded them.
They were silent for a moment, remembering.
Juan and Maria gathered up their boys and ushered them into the bedroom. “Thanks for letting us stay here, and for helping us get out,” Juan said to them.
“No problem,” Jared told him. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Maria, I brought some of my clothes here. I think we’re about the same size. I’ll grab you some things,” Anna said.
“Gracias. It will be nice to be clean,” she said, tugging at her grimy clothing.
Anna agreed and went to grab her some sleeping clothes as well as something to wear tomorrow. Then she went back to her meal.
“Stewart will be in shortly and he’ll finish bandaging you up. He’s been through several medical courses,” Bradley said.
She finished her stew and considered getting more, but she was too sleepy to chew right now. “What’s his first name?”
“James,” Bradley answered.
“James and John. If we had a Peter and a Matthew, we’d have the New Testament.”
His lips curved in a small smile. “We had a Paul too…”
She immediately felt bad and frowned.
“Don’t worry. It’s okay,” he said and left the table. “I’m going to go take my watch now so Stewart can come in and get you fixed up.”
Jared came back in from the garage as she put her bowl in the sink. He tested the various locks around the house and checked to make sure all the blinds and curtains were closed. “I had to lock some things up,” he said quietly. “Don’t say anything about my supplies, okay? I’m sure there all good people, but we need to keep things like that to ourselves. For now, at least.”
“Okay, that’s probably wise.”
Stewart came in and had her lay on the couch while he applied more antiseptic and bandaged her various injuries. He gave her some antibiotics and a painkiller. She took them gladly.
“Let’s go get some sleep,” Jared told her before turning back to Stewart. “Wake me when it’s my turn to take watch.”
In the bedroom, Violet was already fast asleep on the bed. Jared spread out the blankets on the floor. She lay down and he covered them up. Her eyes were so heavy, and the dark was relaxing. She yawned.
Under the light blanket, she felt Jared take her hand. It was warm and comforting. He squeezed it gently. “Goodnight Buttercup,” he murmured in the dark.
“Goodnight.”
Flashes of their dead went through her mind before she drifted off. Paul and a woman whose name she didn’t even know…Mr. Hubbard. Darla. Gina, who was probably going to die soon from dehydration or her wounds. Jared’s mom and sister. The people in town. So many dead or dying…
◆◆◆
She cracked open an eye and groaned. Sunlight filtered in over the top of the blackout curtains. She had no idea what time it was. She wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. She felt around with her hand. Jared’s place was empty. She sat up and hissed at the pain in her stomach. Her arm ached and she rested it on her lap. She sat a moment, hanging her head with her eyes closed. The bed was empty as well. She heard voices in the living room and smelled bacon and coffee. Her stomach growled and her mouth watered at the smell of the bacon. Food was a good enough reason to get up.
She stood and stretched carefully. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and straightened up the blankets on the floor, wincing at the pain in her arm the entire time. She wasn’t sure if she should fold them up or not, so she left them.
She had slept surprisingly well next to Jared. She wasn’t used to sleeping with someone. She hadn’t woken up once though. It would probably be a different thing altogether if they had been alone, well-rested, and uninjured. She flushed at the thought and shook her head.
She followed the bacon smell to the kitchen and found a platter full. Maria was frying up Jared’s entire stockpile, it looked like.
“Good morning. This looks great,” she told her.
“Thank you. Help yourself. Jared said we should cook everything in his fridge today, so I volunteered.”
“You are an excellent cook. I always loved it when Juan brought in your food for everyone,” she told her.
“Gracias, my Mamá had many children and we learned to cook a lot of food. Juan makes fun of me for it. He says, ‘Why do you cook two pounds of frijoles for only four people?’. That is just how I was taught to make them.” she shrugs.
“Well, keep on doing it because Jared and I love it.”
Maria turned back to the eggs. Anna grabbed five pieces of bacon and a cup of coffee and went to the table. She sat and ate the bacon; she tried to act somewhat civilized, which meant she didn’t shove it all in her mouth like she wanted to.
“Where is everyone?” The house was empty.
“John and Hank are burying the woman out near the trees. James is teaching Juan and Carlos how to shoot. Jared is teaching Violet. Alejandro is coloring,” she said, pointing with the spatula. “Jared said you are to go outside when you wake up. He wants you to shoot.”
“I’d rather color,” she mumbled.
She sipped her coffee and finished off her bacon. She didn’t think Jared would let her get away with putting off the shooting much longer. It’s not that she didn’t want to learn. She was just a little afraid of it. What if she accidentally shot someone?
What she really wanted to do was go back to sleep but judging from the sun’s place high in the sky it was already getting later in the day. She took her dishes to the sink. “I’ll wash these in a little while, since you cooked.”
“Don’t worry about it. I enjoy it. It makes me feel more normal. Go shoot,” Maria said, waving her away.
Anna sighed. She wasn’t getting out of it today. She pulled on a pair of cargo pants that she packed. They were for hiking and other outdoor activities. She’d always meant to get around to going o
ut around the lake nearby, but she had been wary about going alone. A t-shirt followed. She laced her shoes up at the door and went outside. She waved at John and Hank far off, near the tree line. They didn’t see her wave and she felt a little embarrassed.
Loud bangs reverberated through the woods beyond the gravesite. She guessed that is where they were shooting today. She walked toward the men digging the grave and saw the wrapped body nearby. It was already starting to smell, and she covered her nose quickly. She had smelled a lot of death the last couple of days, but she didn’t know if she would ever get used to it. It was an almost palpable stench and it lingered in her nose.
Hank wiped his head and propped himself on the shovel for a moment. “Good morning. Sleep well?” he asked.
She felt guilty for sleeping so long while everyone else was working. “Yes. I didn’t mean to sleep so long.”
He waved off her explanation. “You needed it.”
Bradley, John, looked up from the hole he was digging. “Follow that trail. There’s a clearing about two hundred meters along. That’s where they’re shooting.”
“And two hundred meters would be…?”
He grinned. “A little over a tenth of a mile.”
She walked on and the bangs became louder. Sometimes they were interspersed with little pops that she knew belonged to a pistol. It sounded different than Jared’s bigger pistol though. She filled her lungs with the fresh air. She closed her eyes for a moment and imagined she was out on a hike and everything in the world was back to normal. She wished she could hear the birds, but they had gone silent.
Flowers, large trees, and thick vegetation lined the heavily traveled trail. She wondered if Jared owned this land. It was beautiful and wild. It felt safe and untouched by the violence. She spotted wild blackberry bushes scattered among the evergreens and the other scrub trees. They were heavily laden with berries and she thought it would be a good idea to get as many as they could later.
The shooting paused and she hurried to catch them before they started up again. At the end of the trail was a large clearing. It looked like an old field. At the end, there was a large build-up mound of dirt where someone had placed targets.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 18