Sympatico Syndrome Trilogy Box Set

by McDonald, M. P.

  Packed and ready to go, he checked his compass. The gray sky gave no hint of sunshine nor of direction, but if he kept due east, he’d run into the lake eventually. Then it was just a matter of going north or south. He’d tried to head due west when he’d left the island, but tracking the deer and then getting lost in the storm had him completely disoriented. What if he had gone further south than he’d thought and ended up on the Door Peninsula? Even an address he found on an envelope in the tack room hadn’t helped because he had never heard of the town listed. It was probably one of the dozens of villages in the eastern part of the state.

  Even road signs didn’t help much as he passed county highways or rural roads. At first he tried to lead Red, but the snow was too deep and he tired too quickly. He’d just have to dismount when the deer got hung up on something. His travois making skills weren’t as good as they could have been and he made mental notes on design changes he’d need to make in the future. This one could have used a steeper angle to glide over the largest drifts. A plastic toboggan pulled by ropes might have worked better, but he hadn’t expected snow. He had anticipated dragging a deer over hard-packed snow, not snow drifts.

  After struggling up a low hill, they rested at the top for a moment as Cole tried to get his bearings. The wind had abated somewhat. It still gusted at times, but between gusts everything was still and the swirling snow settled.

  Occasional signs jutted from the snow in a line from north to south as far as he could see. A road, but he wanted one going west to east. Shading his eyes from the glare of the brightening but still overcast sky, he scanned the countryside. A straight gap of trees in a wooded area stretching towards the east hinted at a road. Trees didn’t grow that straight naturally. From where he stood on the hill, the road seemed to go on for several miles. It would be a lot easier to navigate that stretch without worrying about boulders.

  The road led into a small town with a water tower emblazoned with the name of a town he recognized. It was located slightly north of where he wanted to be. In fact, it wasn’t far from the compound Sophie and Jake had been taken to, although he was still several miles west of there. He decided to go east a few more miles and then cut south. His mood lifted. At least he knew where he was now. It would take him a couple of hours to get home, but he’d make it.

  26

  Hunter paced the edge of the island. Where the hell was his dad? He knew he should have searched for him first thing. He’d kept the fire burning all morning, at times scavenging downed branches from the woods that bordered the edge of the shallow beach.

  Between keeping the fire going, he’d dashed back to the house and checked on everyone. Thank God Jenna was starting to feel a little better. She was up and about.

  His stomach rumbled and he threw several more logs on the fire and headed back to the house. It was time to get dinner started for everyone. All but Joe were finally starting to recover. Hunter had stopped in to see the older man, but he was still feverish, and his cough had sounded worse than it had the day before. After building up the fire in the stove there, and making sure Joe had fresh water and some crackers from the small pantry in the cabin, he left. He hoped Jenna had taken a look at him. After he saw Sophie, and made dinner, he’d bring something good and hot to Joe and see if he could get him to eat a little bit. The last few days, he’d either let the food sit untouched or had declined it altogether.

  Hunter entered the house and edged up to the sofa. Sophie lay curled on her side, one hand resting on her abdomen. He brushed her hair back from her forehead and dropped a soft kiss on it. She was still warm, but not as hot as before. Her eyes opened and she gave him a tired smile. “Hey. Is your dad back?”

  His lips pressed together as his shoulders slumped. “Not yet. I’m about to go out and look for him. How are you feeling?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not coughing as much, but I still have cramps.”

  “Does Jenna know?”

  “Yeah. She told me to rest, but I feel like that’s all I’ve been doing for days. Your dad, and now you, have been doing everything.” She used her elbows to hike herself higher on the couch. “I feel like I should be helping.”

  “But you’ve been sick. We all have—except my dad. Rest is what you do when you’re sick.” Even ill and with her hair all fuzzy and matted, he thought she looked beautiful. In his head, the baby was a miniature version of her. He reached out, pushing a curling strand of hair behind her ear. “How’s the cramping?”

  “Not quite as bad, I guess.”

  Taking her hand, he gave it a gentle squeeze. “Do you need anything?”

  “No. I’m fine.” She slid down to her side again and closed her eyes, but then blinked a few times and focused on Hunter. “You said you’re going to search for your dad?”

  He braced for an argument, but she went on, “I think you should. He’s been gone too long. I’ll be all right and even if something happens to the baby, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

  He didn’t know how she was before the pandemic, but since he’d known her, she had always been pragmatic. “I know. And I want to search, but I don’t know where to start. What if I miss him?”

  Her expression turned thoughtful. “Are there any tall buildings you could go up into and have a look around?”

  He pictured the layout of the town. “I think the tallest building is about three stories. Why?”

  “What about that old house on the hill? The one just a bit north of town? You might see him from there. Maybe he’s lost and can’t find his way back. With the snow, everything is going to look different.”

  Hunter considered her idea. It wouldn’t take very long to get to town if he rode Princess. She could use the exercise anyway. He could take his rifle and maybe get lucky and get a deer too. Not likely, but possible. And maybe there was something useful in the old house. The stench should have dissipated by now, and he could wear his mask. “Okay, maybe I will, but first, I’m going to rustle you up some dinner.”

  “Rustle up? What is this? The old west?” Sophie started to chuckle, but it turned into a harsh cough.

  “It kind of feels like the old west—or like I imagine it felt like—with people all on their own.” Hunter handed her the glass of water on the end table when she coughed again. “And you stay in bed just like Jenna said. I’ll be back soon.”

  It took a few minutes for him to gather food from the last cabin and bring it back to the house. He had potatoes, carrots, a few chunks of venison, and a big bone with shreds of meat still clinging to it. From the size of the bone, he knew it was from the buck Sean had bagged but he couldn’t identify what part of the animal it was from. Judging by the length, probably a leg. He knew it would help flavor the stew he planned to make. It was one of the few things he was decent at cooking because he could throw everything in a pot with some salt and seasonings and water.

  Once it was bubbling, he’d have some time before it was ready. Jenna entered the kitchen just as he’d cleaned up the counter. Hunter wiped his hands on a towel. She looked exhausted. “Hey, Jenna, I have a stew started. How are Piper and Uncle Sean?”

  She gave a tired glance at the pot on the stove. “Oh, good. I think it was my turn to cook, but I don’t think I’m up to it just yet.” She threw him a weary smile. “They’re feeling better, just sleeping. Piper probably still has a few days to go, since she was the last to get it, but Sean is talking about heading out to find Cole tomorrow if he isn’t back by then.”

  Hunter nodded. “Good. Anyway, thank you for taking care of Sophie.” He turned and leaned back against the counter. “Aunt Jenna?”

  “Yeah?” She checked the kettle of water they always kept warm on the stove, and set a used tea bag in a cup, drowning it with hot water.

  “Do you think she’ll lose the baby?” There. He’d said it. He’d voiced his fears and hoped Jenna would laugh at him and say, ‘of course not’, but that’s not what she said.

  “It’s hard to say, Hunter. Women lose
babies for all kinds of reasons and the majority of them can’t be prevented or predicted. But she has a lot going in her favor. The usual, she’s young and strong, but also even though we haven’t been eating like kings, what we eat is nutritious, and she’s getting enough of it, but overeating, at least for now, is a thing of the past. That takes care of a couple of pregnancy concerns right there.”

  “Concerns?”

  “Like gaining too much weight or eating too much sugar—that kind of thing.”

  His mouth twisted into a smile. “Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Jenna nodded, covering her mouth as she yawned. “Her illness has her a little dehydrated. If we can get her through this, I think the baby will be okay. I found some vitamins with iron in the stash you and your dad brought back when he was shot, so I’ve had her start taking them so long. I think she’s a little anemic. Aside from that, the only thing I can really do—any of us can do—is just to see that she gets enough food, exercise, and rest.”

  “Do you think it’s risky? Having a baby… now, I mean, without doctors and hospitals.”

  “Women have been getting pregnant and having babies on their own for all but the last hundred or so years of human existence, Hunter. And they’ll keep having them whether we rebuild hospitals or not.” Jenna stirred her tea. “Since it’s my turn to cook anyway, and you’ve done most of the hard work, I’ll keep an eye on the stew if you want to go lie down. You were up really early.”

  Hunter shook his head. “Thanks, but I think I’ll head over to the town. I’ve given my dad more than half the day to get home, like I promised Elly I would, but now I have to try to look for him.”

  Distance was deceptive in the flat, snow covered world. What had looked close from the top of the hill had turned into miles. At midday, Cole had to stop and rest Red. He found shelter in a tiny clearing in the middle of a stand of trees at the bottom of a hill. The hill blocked the wind near the base, and had drifted a few feet away from the trunks of a thick line of trees, leaving the area directly beneath the trees almost devoid of snow. Red even found a few tufts of dried grass. Cole checked the horse’s feet, scraping ice from Red’s shoes. He wondered what they would do when the horse needed new ones. He was no expert, but had a feeling the shoes should have been changed already. He pried a ball of ice from the edge of one, then let the horse drop his foot. He patted Red’s flank and rummaged in his pack to see what he had to eat. It would take too long to build a fire and cook meat.

  He found a bag of walnuts, and a couple of strips of beef jerky. He tucked the beef jerky between his t-shirt and the plaid flannel he wore over it. The beef was frozen solid and he’d break a tooth if he didn’t thaw it a bit. The walnuts were frozen too, but he found a couple of rocks and broke the nuts into small pieces he could hold in his mouth for a few minutes as they thawed. Then he could chew and swallow. He drank water from his canteen then poured what was left in the bucket he’d confiscated from the barn. It made giving the horse a drink a lot easier than the bag he’d used earlier. The bag had worked initially to melt snow, but as the weather became colder, he worried that the packed bag of snow would chill the horse, so he’d abandoned the idea, using his own body head to melt snow in smaller batches. He used a stick to force snow into the mouth of his canteen, packing it full and putting it between his flannel and his jacket. He hoped it would melt quickly.

  An hour later at the top of a rise, he finally spotted what he was almost certain was the town. Two cellphone towers at the edge of town had become a familiar sight that he hadn’t remembered until he saw them again. Of course, lots of towns had towers, but these two were very close and on top of a hill. They must have had great reception when everything worked.

  Shaking his head, he urged the horse forward, glancing north when movement caught his eye. He drew back on the reins. What the hell was that? A squall? Snow billowed from one area, swirling into the sky like a miniature tornado made of snow. The sky was clear above it though. Something was disturbing the snow. A herd of deer? Or maybe cows. That would be really great if they could find some wandering dairy cows. Or a steer. He was close enough to town that if he could down one, he could go to the island and get help transporting the kill home.

  Cole nudged Red forward again, keeping his eyes on the disturbance. A line of trees blocked their view for a minute, and just as they emerged from the other side, Cole drew back on the reins harder than he’d intended, and he hoped he hadn’t hurt the horse’s mouth. Shock at the sight before him had triggered his reaction.

  The disturbance wasn’t cows or deer. It was a line of traffic led by two white pickup trucks with plows attached to the front. Had they seen him? Would it matter if they did? So far, their encounters with other survivors hadn’t ended well. The trees should break up their silhouette enough that unless someone was looking directly at them, they’d be hard to see. Cole’s tan jacket had snow clinging, and Red’s coat and mane had snow scattered all over it too. That would help camouflage them as well.

  His heart pounded in his chest. It was crazy how a few months had changed his reaction to seeing strangers. Before, he assumed most people were friendly. There was a veil of civility over everything. People behaved within norms, and those who didn’t were ostracized. But now? The norms hadn’t just changed. They’d evaporated almost as quickly as his breath did in the frigid air.

  “Come on, Princess.” Hunter patted the mare’s neck. The little horse had gamely plowed through the drifts. The town looked serene as the sun broke through the last thin layer of clouds and bathed the homes in soft, golden light. It was hard to believe most of the occupants lay dead within the homes.

  He found traveling through the alleys was easier going than down what would have been the main roads because the alleys had funneled the snow, usually forming large drifts behind the garages, leaving a narrow lane between the garages on either side where the snow was only a foot or so deep, instead of the two plus feet it was everywhere else.

  Finding the home wasn’t a problem. It was visible from most places in the town. Hunter pictured Scrooge McDuck inside, diving into piles of gold coins. He chuckled at the thought. Duck Tales had been one of his favorite shows when he was a kid. He’d watch the DVDs for hours. As he got closer, he realized the home was hardly a mansion like McDuck’s. Already, the elements were taking a toll. A window on the second floor was broken and a curtain flapped out of it. Had that happened during the panic of the pandemic, or had it happened later? A hailstorm had come through in late fall.

  He dismounted and led Princess to the back of the house, finding a stockade around the backyard. It took a bit of effort to open the gate due to the deep snow, but he leaned a shoulder against it and shoved. He just wanted to leave the horse somewhere out of the wind.

  “I won’t be long, Princess.” He stroked her muzzle as he studied the back of the house. He could probably jimmy the back door pretty easily. Taking his rifle from where he’d tied it behind the saddle and a tire iron from the saddlebag, he headed towards the back deck, taking a moment to loop a facemask over his ears. He tucked the ends of his scarf inside his coat, not wanting them to brush up against anything contaminated.

  Patio furniture had blown and overturned on the deck. The frame of what must have been a glass table lay on its side, an inside out umbrella still in the center hole. He tried the doorknob first. You never knew. A panicked family rushing out the door might have forgotten to lock it. No such luck. Shrugging, he jammed the wedge side of the tire iron into the space between the door and jamb and shoved. The wood cracked and splintered as the door blew open.

  The stench hit him even through his mask, and he spread his scarf wide too, covering his nose, mask and all, with it. Yeah. Time had helped, but not a whole lot.

  He picked his way through the home, checking the cabinets and pantry out of habit. His diligence paid off when he found cans of baked beans, fruit, and several varieties of soup. Nice. Examining the cans to make sure they were clea
n, he tossed them in his backpack.

  Feeling like a professional cat burglar, he made quick work of the first floor, rifling through cabinets and drawers, keeping an unopened bottle of aspirin, and some prescription medication. He didn’t know what it was for, but Jenna would.

  Taking the steps two at a time, he raced up to the top floor, finding the stench on the second floor even worse than the first. He avoided the bedrooms and instead looked for stairs to the third floor. Spotting a rectangle on the ceiling of the hallway, he reached up and pulled down on the handle. The door opened and he tugged on the stairs. The air up here, while musty, wasn’t filled with the scent of death. He lowered his scarf, leaving the paper mask, but drew in a deep breath. Whew! The sun shone through the window and he rushed to it.

  Sophie had been right. The view from up here was spectacular. He could see for miles. He looked straight west, then south, disappointed when he didn’t spot his father anywhere. He’d expected that by now, his dad would be crossing the farmland west of town. Turning, he looked north and rose on his tiptoes as if the extra inch would give him enough height to see even farther.

  Snow billowed into the sky. At first, he assumed it was just another blast of wind swirling particles into the air as it had been doing all day, but this was different. It was constant and concentrated. Dad? Puzzled, he watched as the billowing snow crept closer. It wasn’t moving fast. In fact, it crawled along at a pace that ruled out the wind. Could one horse and one man kick up that much snow? If so, he must have done the same and he wondered if anyone had been around to see him.