Raging Storm

by Vannetta Chapman

  “Where did you find that?” Shelby asked.

  “Supply room. I guess people figured it wasn’t edible.”

  “Then what do you plan to do with it?”

  He grinned, scooped out a big handful, and proceeded to smear it on the rails of the trailer.

  Realization dawned over Shelby, and she found herself mirroring Lanh’s smile. “Brilliant.”

  So they’d spent a half hour greasing up anyplace on the trailer where someone might try to grab hold.

  When it seemed there was nothing left to do, they’d all taken a thirty-minute break, spelling one another in the lookout positions. And then, finally, it was time to go.

  Same plan as before, but in reverse. Bianca and Lanh would ride in the Dodge, pulling the trailer. Shelby and Max would ride in the trailer, protecting the contents from anyone who tried to climb onto the sides.

  Bill would follow in the sedan, the nose of his car practically resting against the trailer’s gate.

  Shelby stood in the back of the trailer with Max as they pulled out of the school parking lot. If she looked out the back, she could see Bill. Though he had wanted to try and pull the trailer with his old sedan, it just hadn’t been possible. The engine would handle the weight, but they couldn’t come up with a way to hitch the trailer since the sedan had no towing package.

  “I would have thought of something,” Bill muttered.

  “Yeah. You would have ended up with those goats in your backseat.”

  Actually, the backseat and passenger seat of the sedan were full of items they’d found that might prove useful. No one was coming back, so anything they wanted to take had been crammed into the sedan.

  “Better not get shot again, Bill.” Bianca had wiggled her eyebrows and slapped Bill on his good arm. “Looks like we’re fresh out of Max’s version of medical supplies.”

  “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

  They’d left a single gap on each side of the trailer—Shelby manning one and Max the other. In front of those gaps, the bales were lower so that they could rest their rifles on the hay and point them out the lone gap in the railing.

  “Which also means they could shoot us through the hole.”

  “It’s possible but not likely. Few people out there have a rifle, and we’re not going to let them get close enough to use a handgun.”

  She’d nodded, though the thought of shooting someone else made her hands clammy. As if reading her thoughts, Max squeezed her shoulder. “One hour, Shelby. We’re going through fast. One hour and we’ll be out of this.”

  “And then?”

  “We leave the supplies with Clay and head home. We’ll be there before sunset.”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  “I can, and I will.”

  She felt better for his confidence, though she wasn’t sure she believed him. They had been gone five days for what would have been a ninety-minute one-way trip to Austin before the flare. They had encountered more trouble and grief and pain than she had imagined possible. Max might intend for them to be home by sunset, but life had a way of messing with your plans as well as your best intentions.

  The drive was uneventful for the first ten minutes. They wound back through the neighborhood filled with McMansions. The large fortresses remained impervious to the chaos around them.

  “Do you really think people are living in those?”

  “Maybe,” Max said. “But I wouldn’t want to be one of them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because one day they’ll have to come out. Can you imagine that? Spending the last three weeks in a bubble. We’ve had time to get used to what has happened. We’ve seen it change day by day. Whether they come out tomorrow or a year from now, whoever is in those houses will have gone from a preflare world to an apocalyptical one instantly.”

  She hadn’t thought of it that way. It seemed to her that their entire lives had changed in the blink of an eye, but Max was right. They’d had hours, days, even weeks to see things deteriorate. If she’d had to accept the devastation and death all at once, she wasn’t sure how well she would have handled that.

  A ping off the side of the trailer brought her mind back to their present situation.

  “Someone threw a rock.”

  Shelby glanced back to see Max scanning left to right, the barrel of his rifle following his line of sight. She checked Bill and saw that he had closed the three-foot gap. He was nearly on their bumper. Bianca had accelerated to thirty miles an hour, exactly as they’d planned. The trailer bucked and swayed and the goats bleated, crowding in around their legs. Shelby braced her feet and focused her attention on the streets they were hurrying through.

  At first it looked the same to her, but then she noticed the differences—more bodies stacked on the sides of the roads and more people simply milling about. Fewer structures intact. Trash everywhere. The smell was overpowering, and she had to fight the urge to cover her nose with her arm.

  The people looked more tired, hungrier, and increasingly desperate. Most stared at the trailer. Some pointed, but it wasn’t until they were once again near the retail section that anyone tried to jump aboard.

  At first they simply fell away, unable to grasp the trailer thanks to Lanh’s grease. But eventually the grease wore away, or perhaps they’d missed a few spots. Somehow a young man with a beard and wild eyes managed to hold on and cross over to her opening.

  She pulled back her rifle to take the shot, and then Max was there—slamming the butt of his rifle into the man, who gasped and fell into the road.

  “Shoot if you have to,” he said, hurrying back to his side of the trailer.

  Seconds later she heard him take a shot at the same moment she felt the trailer jostle. She looked back to see Bill driving with his right hand and holding a handgun out the window with his left. He fired twice, and two more of the men hanging on fell away.

  She and Max glanced up at the roof when they heard several thuds, followed by scuffling.

  Bianca still wasn’t slowing down, and Shelby couldn’t imagine how the person was managing to stay on top of the trailer. She checked Bill again and saw that he had backed away enough to give him a shot. The first bullet apparently went wide, because he slowed, took aim, and fired again. This time she heard the person groan and then saw him roll off the trailer.

  “Hang on,” Max warned her.

  Bianca had to slow down for the turn, and the group of men congregated at the corner knew it. In fact, they’d set up there for just that reason.

  “Get ready to fire.”

  The men stormed the trailer at the same time. Some fell off because there was nowhere to grab on. Some grabbed hold of a ledge that was greased and slipped off. There were so many that Shelby feared someone would get through. And then she saw a hand reaching through her space, holding a handgun.

  She fired before he had a chance to shoot. Didn’t even see who it was that she hit because his body was immediately replaced with another.

  And then they were skidding into the turn and the people tumbled off like so many bowling pins dropping to the ground. Shelby thought the trailer would tip over. The tires of the Dodge squealed, Bill temporarily disappeared from her view, and the trailer rocked. Max grabbed her and pulled her toward his side, and fortunately the goats followed. The trailer bumped back down on four wheels, and she turned in time to see Bill careen around the corner after them. He narrowed the gap just as someone jumped onto the center gate.

  The man saw Bill accelerate toward him and jumped off a second before the sedan slammed into the trailer.

  Shelby stumbled backward into Max. Several of the goats were lying on their sides, not moving, and Bianca was still accelerating. It wasn’t until Max nodded toward the road outside their opening that she saw they were under the highway and speeding toward the barn.

  SEVENTY-FIVE

  Bill climbed out of the sedan. Donna and Clay were standing next to the Dodge when Max helped Shelby out of the trailer. She
had to step over the goats to get out. Half of them were standing. The other half were lying on their sides.

  Donna enfolded Shelby in a hug. Clay pumped Max’s hand. Bianca and Lanh and Bill joined the group, and everyone began talking at once.

  Max nodded toward the school bus. “Are the children okay?”

  “They are. We’ve been waiting in the barn.”

  They all trooped inside. Bill’s wound had begun to bleed again. Fortunately, Clay had plenty of medical supplies. Bianca rewrapped his arm with a warning. “Stop hanging out windows shooting. If at all possible.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Now I’d better go and see to the goats.”

  “I already have someone doing that,” Clay assured him.

  Max stood completely still, taking in the scene in front of him. Younger children sitting on bales of hay, older children in the hay loft, adults with each group. Mats had been laid out on the barn floor, and the youngest children were crawling or lying on the padded surfaces.

  “Organized and calm, just like at your school.” He turned to Donna. “What’s your plan from here?”

  “Clay has found four more families who are willing to take two children each. The rest of us will continue west.”

  “West?”

  Clay nodded. “The Remnant is growing, especially in the western counties. We’re taking the children to Llano, where we think we can find homes for all of them. There’s even a place where Donna may be able to open a school.”

  “Wow.” Shelby and Bianca joined their group.

  “These kids…you saved their lives.” Shelby’s hair was a mess with pieces of hay stuck to it in places. She had dirt smeared across her face, grease on her shirt, and goat hair all over her pants.

  The sight of her could always make Max smile, but when he saw her this way—completely unaware of how beautiful she was—he wanted to pull her into his arms like he had back at the school. As if sensing his attention, she raked her fingers through her hair, which did nothing but cause her curls to stick out more.

  “I wish I could have saved their parents,” Donna said. “But finding them good homes is the next best thing. I want to thank you all for helping Bill. I can tell from the condition of the trailer that you took a few bullets.”

  “Nothing we couldn’t handle.” Max glanced at Shelby, who nodded.

  “I want you to know that it’s worth whatever you had to do. You say that I saved these kids’ lives, but look around you. Without milk, without meat…they wouldn’t make it. Now we have a viable means to keep them nourished once we find a place to stay.”

  “There’s a vet in Llano who is quite interested in helping with the goats,” Clay added. “According to him, they’re easier to maintain than a cow, and the milk has a higher fat content, more calories, and more calcium.”

  “Speaking of which, I’d better go supervise the milking of said goats. They’re not patient creatures when their udders are full. As for your trip back to High Fields, may you travel in mercy and arrive in grace.” Donna thanked them again and walked away.

  Lanh glanced around and said, “I wanted out of the city, but to tell you the truth, I’ve never been in a barn.”

  Which caused them all to laugh, though from the blank look on his face he had no idea what was so funny.

  “Can you stay for a few hours?” Clay asked. “It might be smart to rest up a bit.”

  Max shook his head. “We’ve already been gone too long.”

  Shelby had walked over to a little girl, who was playing alone. She’d squatted down in front of her, and Max could hear her asking the girl questions about the doll she was grasping.

  “We found the insulin,” Max said.

  “In the capitol?”

  “Yes and no.” He gave the man a quick rundown of what had happened, emphasizing the betrayal of Danny Vail.

  “So Governor Reed is fighting a battle on several different fronts.”

  “And the battle within her own camp, she may not even realize it’s started.”

  It was five thirty by the time they walked out to the Dodge. The trailer had been unhitched and pulled off to the side. Once again, Lanh sat in the backseat and Bianca, Shelby, and Max squeezed into the front.

  “Be careful,” Clay warned them. “As far as we know, the Remnant hasn’t been infiltrated, but it’s bound to happen. Until then, watch your back, and don’t trust anyone who isn’t kin to you.”

  “You’re not kin to me,” Max reminded him.

  “Brothers of a different sort.” Clay tapped the top of the car, Max started the engine, and then he turned the Dodge toward home.

  SEVENTY-SIX

  When they finally hit Highway 183 again, Shelby breathed out a sigh of relief and turned to Bianca.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about something back at the university. What was going on between you and Patrick?”

  “It was what it was.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Bianca shrugged, and Lanh laughed from the backseat. “Seemed pretty obvious to me what it was.”

  Shelby had sort of forgotten he was back there. She turned toward him. If he hadn’t decided to ride along, would they have been ambushed coming from the school? Would they have ever met Agnes Wright? Would she have the insulin that was stacked up beside him in the seat?

  “Are you sure you want to live in the country?”

  He hooked a thumb back in the direction of Austin. “It has to be an improvement over that. Plus I was getting tired of eating squirrel.”

  “Or slop,” Max said.

  “Or stale crackers.” Bianca checked her side view mirror. “I can hardly wait to get home. When you taste what mamá can cook, you will think you’re in a restaurant. I miss her cooking, her smile, even the way she would scold me. I never thought I’d miss home this much.”

  “Even with your sister there?” Shelby teased.

  “Even with.”

  The ride was uneventful. They slowed when they passed the convenience store in Briggs. The place had been burned to the ground. There was no sign of Danielle or Joel or Zack—not that Shelby could see.

  They made good time and pulled up to the southern roadblock outside of Abney within an hour of leaving the barn. Jake Cooper signaled for the men to let them through.

  “Been waiting for you.” He slapped Max on the back and nodded at the rest of them. “Where’s Patrick? And Dr. Bhatti?”

  “Long story.”

  “The mayor’s eager to hear it. Did you get the meds?”

  “No.”

  Jake pulled down on his ball cap and shifted his rifle to his left hand. “Can’t say I’m surprised. Austin must have been a mess.”

  They drove straight to the mayor’s office and returned the radios she had loaned them. The debriefing took less than fifteen minutes, and though they didn’t bring back what she needed, Perkins fulfilled her half of the bargain and refilled their tank and gas can with fuel. “You tried. You risked your life. I couldn’t have asked you to do more.”

  She had turned and was walking away when Max called out to her. “Mayor, you need to be ready. What’s left of the state government—it’s going to fall.”

  Perkins pulled in a deep breath, nodded, and walked back toward her office.

  They dropped off Bianca, staying only long enough to make sure that her mother and sister were fine.

  “Mamá, have you heard anything about a black couple coming into town? They have a small boy.”

  “You must mean that nice Allen family. They’re staying in Pastor Tony’s RV.”

  It was an improvement over the convenience store, and though Abney was still vulnerable to attack, there was a measure of safety in numbers.

  Bianca walked them to the Dodge. At the last minute, she turned to Lanh and said, “You’re welcome to stay here.”

  “Thanks, but I’ve about had it with towns of any kind.”

  “If you change your mind, someone can bring you back.”

  Shelby alm
ost laughed at the stubborn look on his face. Yeah, he’d fit right in at the ranch.

  By seven they were headed north out of town. The sky had been growing progressively darker, and rain began to pelt the windshield. Shelby’s mind flashed back to their previous trip to High Fields—the bandits, Max’s collapse, the fear that she’d be shot by a teenager protecting his homestead.

  They had none of those problems this time.

  The bandits were gone.

  Max drove cautiously, with his eyes fixed on the road ahead and his hands resting lightly on the wheel.

  “Tomorrow is the Fourth of July,” he said.

  “I wouldn’t mind a day without fireworks.”

  “We should celebrate, though. The grid went down, the world changed, but America’s still standing. Maybe it’s not the America we know, but for now at least…we’re still here.”

  “Speaking of which, why did you insist on the refrigerator and solar panels? Your parents’ refrigerator was still working.”

  Max shrugged. “It was, and hopefully it still will be, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Plan for the worst—”

  “And hope for the best. Yeah. I remember.”

  The roadblock opened as soon as they turned the corner toward High Fields.

  “Someone must have called ahead,” Max murmured. He raised a hand in greeting but didn’t stop.

  The rain had turned the caliche road into a slippery mess, but the Dodge had no trouble moving forward. They crossed three more cattle guards, and then they turned into the lane that led to High Fields. Shelby wondered if Lanh saw what she did—safety, a refuge within a raging storm, home.

  Roy was on the porch before Max had turned off the engine of the Dodge.

  Shelby flew from the car, but Roy stopped her from entering the house.

  “I need to talk to you first.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s Carter.”