by Mark Mathews
“We’ve got to get going. It’s getting really bad.”
The fear and apprehension he’d felt upon waking was mirrored on Wren’s face, but he could see she was trying to be brave for him and everyone else that saw, too. That was something he admired in her. She was willing to tamp down her own fear and push it aside to make someone else the priority. She was a lot like him, and that was probably part of why he felt so strongly for her. Wren guided him down the stairs and toward the basement. Seth’s earsplitting shrieks of fear already easily were heard. As Garrett crested the stairs, he saw his family was huddled under blankets in the most comfortable part of the basement, Alice doing her best to rock Seth and put him at ease. His heart beat painfully in his chest. He went down and wrapped his arms around as many of them as he could embrace. Even then, he tried stretching himself even further to accommodate everyone. Alice was shaking, and she found his eyes with her gaze.
“I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you. This is the second time I could have gotten someone hurt because I didn’t listen.”
Alice was on the verge of throwing a pity party, and he’d finally managed to recognize the warning signs. He knew how to make it stop before it started now, and he wasn’t going to waste any time. Garrett immediately backed up. He knew that if he let her, she would pile all the blame on herself. Then he would have to comfort her, and he didn’t have the time for that right now. He got to his feet and started pacing back and forth in the little space that the basement provided. He needed to get himself together. This family of his, even though it seemed to be growing all time, needed him.
Ben was shaking in a corner of the basement because his PTSD was getting worse as time went on. Athena was doing all she could to calm him down, but a wife only could do so much. For the first time, Garrett wondered if Athena alone would be enough to help Ben able get through his attack. There had been times when Garrett had been gripped by such anxiety and fear from PTSD that no one in the world could have talked him down and made the feelings go away. That was why he’d always been so in awe of Athena. She seemed to make those feelings go away so quickly and painlessly, almost as if they never had existed. Max sat in a corner by himself, and calmly read a book. That was what Garrett loved about the guy. He was always the rock that Garrett could count on when he needed a second in command. He would get the job done whatever it took. That’s why it was good to have his army buddies with him.
Kayleigh and Nat were together, and that made Garrett happy. Kayleigh had been upset that her son, Nat, was going to hate her forever for shooting her abusive husband in self-defense, but it seemed the storm was pulling the two of them together. That left his own family, huddled around their mother, who was doing her best to keep a strong back and a confident face, and Wren. He didn’t want to put her in a category by herself, but he wasn’t quite sure where to put her. She’d come by herself, and he’d found himself falling for her, even as his ex-wife did her best to get a family going with him again. That was what had made Brooke so angry with him. She’d walked in on him and Wren, after Alice had done her best to rekindle the fire. He still hadn’t been able to decide what was going on in that situation, but he was forcing himself to push it aside to ensure the safety of his ever-growing family.
Right now, there was a storm raging. With the world the way it was -- well, his world -- there was no telling who would survive, or how that would impact the way people in the area would start acting. Austin already had made an appearance, trying to see his son and take Alice. Garrett couldn’t help but think it would help him enormously if Austin was out somewhere by himself when the winds came and the natural disaster would help solve that little problem.
Looking over the group, he was glad he was able to keep everyone together and, most importantly, from killing each other. The latest blow-up between Alice and Wren had been something he’d worried about. Now that they were in this small, enclosed space, he thought it might come to a boiling point again. He sent a silent prayer up to whomever was listening in the turmoil of the times, asking them to get him through anything he couldn’t handle. Yet he also knew if there was something he couldn’t handle alone, he had an intelligent group that would help him out if he asked. He was very confident of that fact. He paused for a moment, then gave thanks that he had found the people he had in his life, and that they had contributed, for better or for worse, to the person that he was today. If they hadn’t done what they had to him, he might not be able to survive this.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BY THE TIME everything calmed down, and nothing could be heard rattling around the house anymore, it was almost three in the morning. Garrett wanted to go investigate, to see what damage had been done to the house, but he didn’t want to leave the rest of his family in the basement unprotected. Wren was watching his every move, and he knew if he wanted to go topside, she would insist on going with him. He didn’t want to start a fight with Alice in front of the kids as to why he didn’t want Wren coming with him, but he also didn’t want Wren to think Alice had a chance in the endeavor she was planning. There was no way he could take her back and just be a family again. Even without everything else that was going on at the moment, he didn’t know if he still loved Alice the way he’d thought he did after meeting Wren.
He knew he was falling for the tough woman who made a point of befriending his daughters, and he couldn’t give Alice false hope that he would come back. Just because he was good with his children, and now Seth, didn’t mean he wanted to be with her. He could be a good father without being with her. Eyeing the staircase again, he made a break for it, but he barely touched the first step before Wren was at his heels. He decided to let it go, and just deal with whatever fallout from Alice later.
Emerging from the basement, the first thing he saw was the kitchen. His heart skipped a beat. A tree had fallen and completely destroyed it as well as the little bathroom next to it. He had no idea how he would get those repaired in the type of world they lived in now. Most heavy duty tools required electricity, and now he realized just how little you could do without it. The rest of the house seemed to be okay, just messy. Except for one little thing…every single window was smashed. If he boarded them up, no sunlight would come through at all, and that meant that they would have to resort to candles for light. He didn’t want to do that unless he absolutely had to do so. Giving the house a last cursory check, he decided to look out at the backyard and the garden.
Despair rained down on him when he saw all the crops were destroyed, and the chicken coop was crushed flat. It was almost like every single thing he’d built up to help them was gone and now he had to start from scratch. He’d wasted all his time and effort, whatever little resources he could scrounge up, and now he had nothing to show for it. It was the most wasteful thing that had happened to him since he couldn’t remember when. He didn’t know how they would bounce back from that one, or if they even could. He sat down sullenly on the deck steps, thinking out loud as he did his best to calculate what they had left as far as food supplies. This was the largest portion of what they were going to survive off of, and now it was gone. It was like some thief had come in the night and taken it all, leaving them destitute. He put his head in his hands and let out a bellow of anguish. In seconds, Wren was there, hands on his shoulders, trying to comfort him. He didn’t know if he wanted to be comforted or not, but it did feel good to have someone here with him. Trying to get himself under control, he looked up at her with fear in his eyes. She was one of the few people to whom he could tell the truth and have them understand.
“I know it looks bad, but if you tell me how bad it is, maybe I can try to help fix it, okay?”
She gave him a soft look, letting him know that whatever happened, she would be there with him. He put a hand on hers and squeezed gently. Everything that he was feeling came through with that one touch, and rather than trying to sort it all out, she just accepted it. That was what he needed in his life. Someone like her who would be the
re to strategize with him, talk to him, and tell him what she was needing so he could try fixing the problem before it became a disaster. Not someone who got up and left to see if he would follow. He shook his head. He shouldn’t be thinking about women right now; he should be worrying about what his next move was going to be. Unfortunately, he thought that tackling the problem of which woman to be with was the easier of the two. He allowed himself a wry smile at the situation, then got his head together. He needed to focus on what was best for everyone before he tried going after his own happiness.
“With the crops gone and the chicken coop crushed, we’ve lost the biggest chunk of what we were going to survive off of. Right now I’m not sure the supplies will last very long. Maybe six months if we tighten our belts a little, but then there’s all the repairs that we’re going to have to make, and I don’t even know where to start on those. It’s not like I can just go down to Home Depot and tell them what I need. They can’t order it and deliver it for me, or install it, so what do I do?” Wren smiled at him.
“I don’t know if I told you, but I’m pretty handy. If we get to the Home Depot and find what we need, I’m pretty sure I can make it happen. Even without all those fancy electric tools.” That was the other thing he’d been thinking about. How would they be able to do all of the repairs without electric tools?
“I’m not sure how we’re going to manage, but I’m willing to give it a shot if you are.”
He tried to give her a little smile of encouragement, but he was afraid that it came out more like a grimace of hopelessness. He really wasn’t looking forward to telling everyone about their current situation. Unfortunately, he knew he didn’t have a choice, either. Maybe he could hold off on telling them until he had a plan that would fix some of it, if not all of it. He went back down to the basement, and headed straight over to a small desk that he’d had set up down there for years. He sat down, trying to mutter a plan into existence. Ben came over, and Garrett could see right away that Ben’s hands were shaking. He was just as aware of the situation as Garrett was, and yet he was doing his best to hold it all together.
“Maybe there’s something I can do to help? I just don’t want to sit here and do nothing while you’re struggling.”
It was kind of Ben to want to do that, but Garrett was defeated at the moment, and he didn’t want anyone to know it. What he didn’t know was that the tables would turn in the near future, and Ben would remember Garrett turning away his offer of help. He would feel the same way that Garrett was, but he wouldn’t handle it very well.
“There’s not really much you can do to help. We can’t even try looking for replacement supplies because the cars all were crushed by trees and other debris.”
That was the biggest loss for Garrett. He would have been able to get other things from farther away to replace what he lost, if only they had some vehicles to get to them. Alice was within earshot and the blood drained from her face. Seth was asleep, and Brooke was holding him, so she got to her feet, panic on her face.
“What are we going to do? There’s no way out of here without a car! We’re going to die here! We’ll starve to death because we can’t get anywhere to get more supplies and food! What are we going to do?”
Garrett could see red already, and her panic really was starting to rub him the wrong way. The first thing he could think of was the cartoons where the little kitten slapped the crazy puppy across the face to snap him out of his panic attack. Part of him wanted to do the same thing to Alice right then, but he knew it wouldn’t have the same effect. Still, the thought was enough to make him laugh inside, and it was what he needed to keep his cool.
“If you just would have listened to me from the beginning, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” He finally had snapped, and Alice stared at him, still as a statue.
He’d never yelled at her like that before, not even when they were fighting at their worst. She burst into tears, standing there in the middle of the basement, looking for all the world as pitiful as a puppy that just had been kicked. This just grated on Garrett’s nerves even more, and he closed his eyes, gritting his teeth and counting to ten so he could calm down. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked back at the woman he’d once loved.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped like that. I’m a little stressed out right now, and adding panic to the situation isn’t helping. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t listen to him, Mom.” The voice that had so much poison in it belonged to Brooke, and it cut Garrett to the quick. “He doesn’t know what’s going on, and we should go find out for ourselves. Let’s go into town and see what’s going on.”
Alice smiled at her daughter. She felt like Brooke needed her, and that made her square her shoulders and wipe the tears from her face. Garrett had to count to ten again because Brooke wasn’t helping anything by trying to split up the family right now.
“I don’t think anyone should be leaving right now. I think we should stick together and try to get the fort back in order as much as we can. Maybe come up with a plan to get the things we need to fix the windows.” He was thinking out loud, but he also didn’t want to have to justify his reasoning.
“No. We’re going into town. You’ve done enough damage already. I think we’re better off without you.”
If looks could kill, Brooke would have murdered him where he stood. As it was, she looked a little like a vengeful Medusa. Once he got past the looks, the words actually sunk in, and it felt as though Brooke had skinned him alive then disemboweled him while he watched. Garrett couldn’t help but think this was just more fallout from Brooke catching him with Wren. He should have known that that incident wasn’t over. She hadn’t been happy at all with the fact that it had happened, but she had promised not to say anything. Would she keep her word? He would have liked to believe she was trustworthy, but putting a child in between her parents was the worst thing he could do. Nothing he said or did stopped them, however, and Brooke and Alice got on their bikes and left. There was nothing Garrett could do but watch them leave. When he got back in the house, Wren had Jenny and was keeping her busy while Ben and Athena were sitting on the couch. Max was standing over the coffee table pointing to something on a piece of paper. As Garrett got closer, he saw it was a map. They were talking about where to get supplies and how to make a plan to get there and back.
“What about factories? I don’t think people would realize to check factories for supplies. There could be a couple around here that we could go investigate.” That was something Garrett never had thought about before, and now he was kicking himself for the slip-up.
“That would be great, but we have no way of getting there. Our cars are out of commission.”
Garrett hated that he had to remind everyone of that, because he still felt as though it somehow was his fault. Max stared off into the next room, and Garrett knew he was about to suggest something that might not be taken very well.
“Well, why don’t we strike a deal with the sheriff? We could barter a portion of our supplies for the use of one of their vehicles for the day.”
If the sheriff didn’t have such a horrible team, and one of them wasn’t out to kill him, then Garrett probably would have thought about that himself, but as it was, he didn’t want to go anywhere near any law enforcement whatsoever.
“It could work. If Ramsay’s car survived the storm. I’ll go down at daybreak and ask him. Hopefully he’s in as dire straits as we are, and that would make our offer one can’t refuse.”
He’d meant to throw a little bit of humor into the situation by referencing The Godfather, but no one picked up on it. He decided to try to cleaning up a little and walked away. Before he could get too far, Wren called out to him.
“Max and I will go with you.”
There was no debate about it. Garrett looked back at Max to see if he was okay with Wren just volunteering his services like that, and saw Max was staring at him intently, as if daring him to go against what Wren had said. So Garrett just shr
ugged and went out to the backyard. He hoped Alice and Brooke would be alright without him there to protect them, but they already were gone, and there was nothing he could do to help them now. Hell, he didn’t even know where they had gone. His time would be better spent doing something productive.
CHAPTER TWELVE
AFTER THINKING until smoke came out of his ears, Garrett decided there really was nothing else to do but go ask the sheriff if they could borrow a vehicle. Provided, of course, his wasn’t out of commission as well. Knowing that Sheriff Ramsay had nothing but the job stung Garrett a little, because he really was a good man. Garrett wished he could have convinced him to come stay at the fort with them. It would have helped to have an extra gun in case Austin decided to try anything. They had come up with a way to look for the factories, but now was the crucial point of the plan: finding out if there was a vehicle to be had and, if there was, how they would get it. Kayleigh and Nat were in charge of security, but Garrett wished he felt a little better about the whole situation. Nat never had fired a gun, and Kayleigh’s last shot had killed her husband. It was not exactly what he wanted in the way of defense, but there was nothing to be done about it. Athena was left in charge of Seth, and the rest of the troupe were coming with Garrett to the sheriff’s house. Luckily, he only lived a couple of blocks down the road. They could walk, since Alice and Brooke had taken the bicycles.
As they strode along, Garrett looked around. It hurt him to look at the remnants of the town now. It had been so quaint, so beautiful, and now… The only word to describe it accurately would be destroyed. It wasn’t just the storm, but the way the people had changed and turned into villains. He hated that he couldn’t let his kids play out in the street or even in the backyard unsupervised anymore. To make matters worse, some of the teenagers in town had found it quite funny to run around vandalizing the empty homes of people who had left, or who had been killed over supplies. He winced. That was something he never thought he would see in this happy place, people killing each other ruthlessly over a few cans of food. Granted, in this new world, a few cans of food could mean the difference between life and death. They passed a house that looked as though it almost had been untouched by both the storm and vandalism, and Garrett thought it was a miracle indeed. Then the stench of rotten milk reached his nose. How long it had sat there, he had no idea, but he had to pinch his nose shut hard to stop himself from throwing up right then and there. That was the worst part, he thought, that the garbage trucks didn’t come by anymore. All the garbage that had collected was still there and now, of course, the rotten food from the failed refrigerators was added to the cloying smell of decay that lined the streets. His eyes still were watering from the stench, but he had to breathe.