In the last few days, she had been sitting on nine eggs. With Sophie’s help—she had a knack for calming all the animals, but especially the chickens—all of the eggs, and then the hen had been carefully moved into the back of one of the new SUVs. They had accomplished the transfer two nights ago in hopes that by the time they got on the road, the hen was comfortable and secure enough not to abandon her nest. Having the hen nest inside was going to make the vehicle stink, but Cole hoped driving with the windows cracked would minimize the stench. Because it was brand new, the SUV had the smoothest ride and the box with the nest had been cushioned with old quilts and blankets beneath it. Cole had checked on the hen this morning, and so far, she seemed content. With any luck, there was still a chance the eggs would hatch. If not, well, they would still get more eggs from her later. If her egg laying days were over, she was bound for the soup pot. His mouth watered at the thought of fresh chicken soup. Soup would have to wait. A batch of chicks would be much better in the long run than one pot of soup. Still, as he drifted off to sleep, his mouth watered as vivid memories of homemade chicken noodle soup flooded his mind.
He rolled over, doing his best to ignore the craving. If the eggs did, by some miracle, hatch, that would be a great start to a real flock. At some point, they would have enough chickens to add soup to their menu. It would be too much to hope that one was a rooster, but he hoped anyway. All they needed was one.
13
Sean rummaged behind the seat of the rental truck as Cole approached and called out, “Hey, Jenna, did you pack my extra boots?”
“Not Jenna.” Cole grinned as Sean turned his head, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “I just want to make sure you have your maps and stuff.” Dawn hadn’t yet broken, but the sky to the east was lightening.
“Oh, sorry.” He gestured over the seat to the dashboard. “I have the map right there. I know how to follow a map, Cole.” He resumed searching for the boots.
“Of course you do. I’m just double checking with everyone. With how hectic everything has been the last few days, it wouldn’t surprise me if things get lost. That’s all.”
“Yeah, I know.” Sean found his boots stashed behind the driver’s seat, and apparently satisfied, shut the door and faced Cole. “Look, Cole. I’m sorry. I get why we’re leaving. I really do, but that doesn’t mean I’m thrilled to go, you know?”
“It’s hard to leave. Despite our problems, the island was a pretty good home when we needed one. I’m going to miss it.” Cole gazed out over the bay. The island wasn’t visible from where they were even if it had been light enough to see, and that saddened him. Would they ever get back here? He chose to believe that they would someday.
Jenna approached, arms laden with last minute items. “I guess this is it.”
Cole nodded. “See you guys at lunch.” He waved as they finished stashing items and moved down the line. Maps had been scrounged up for every vehicle, with their intended route marked in pencil. Cole didn’t know what the actual route would hold and they would adjust accordingly. Besides fuel, his other worry was communication, and he’d asked Sean about CB radios. Was that something that would still work if the power grid was down, and what were the chances of finding any? Steve had offered that he’d driven a truck while in the Army, and had done a short stint as a truck driver after leaving the service. He said that CB radios were still widely used by truckers, so chances of finding them would be good.
His speculation had proven true and now every vehicle had been outfitted with one, and each vehicle also had a hand-held radio—walkie-talkies—as Cole knew them. They had been useful over short distances while scavenging for supplies.
Cole made one last check of every vehicle. Because of the stink from the hen, he drove that vehicle alone while Elly rode with Joe, Luke, and Zoë right behind Cole in the Sean’s SUV. It wasn’t as new as the others, but it had brought the family to safety last year when the virus hit. His brother hadn’t wanted to part with it. Cole couldn’t blame him.
Next in line came Hunter and Sophie in the truck they had found on the trek to the island. It already had a hitch but they used a larger horse trailer so they could take the goats as well. It was an added plus that Hunter was used to driving it. Buddy the dog rode with them as well.
Next vehicle in the caravan was an SUV being driven by Jake and Piper. She loved the cats the most so it was natural for them to bring them in their car. Behind their SUV they had a small trailer similar to the kind they were using for the extra gasoline and tools. Theirs held the chickens in a coop Cole had built right into the structure. It would be easiest for traveling. Joe and Mike had jerry-rigged some extra shocks on it to help absorb the bumps they would encounter on the trip and the sides of the trailer protected the chickens from too much wind, while still allowing air to circulate. A few trials around the town had shown that the birds hadn’t been too perturbed by the set-up.
Sean and Jenna drove the rental truck filled with more than half of their supplies—the other half had been portioned out to each vehicle. Everyone had at least one rifle or shotgun, and a few handguns and appropriate ammunition.
Steve and Mike brought up the rear in a pick-up with a cap on it. They also pulled the trailer filled with extra gasoline. It made sense for them to bring up the rear so they could be flagged down by anyone who needed gas.
Cole leaned down to peer into Hunter’s window. “You guys have your water and snacks?”
“We’re all set, Dad.” Hunter glanced in the review mirror. “We have plenty of extra water for Buddy as well.”
Right now, water was plentiful, but they had to treat any to be used for drinking. Cole worried more about water once they were west of the Mississippi. The highway didn’t always pass close to sources of water.
“Good. And don’t forget to say if you have to stop to use the bathroom.” Between the little ones and Sophie, Cole had factored in frequent breaks even though Sophie had insisted that she didn’t need special treatment. That was when Cole used the excuse of the children. They would need breaks and time to stretch their legs.
“Don’t worry, Cole. I’ll pee every chance I get.” Sophie’s eyes twinkled and Cole returned her smile. She was finally becoming more relaxed around him. He backed away, giving the roof of the SUV a couple of thumps as he returned to his vehicle.
With a final glance back, he put the car in drive and led the caravan west.
“It’s still hard to believe we’re leaving the island.” Hunter craned his neck to see past Elly’s SUV. She had snaked around a nasty pile-up near an entrance ramp. It was a tight squeeze for him to get around the wrecks with the horse trailer, but he went slow and came through without mishap. Those behind him did the same.
“Why is it hard to believe? I’m glad we’re leaving.” Sophie was keeping busy by cracking black walnuts collected last fall. The meats went into a jar, the shells into a bowl at her feet. Buddy, excited when they had first left, now lay curled on the back seat.
“I just mean the island was a pretty sweet set up.” And it was safe. Maybe because not quite a year ago he had traversed the country with the island as his goal, it represented safety and security. “We had everything we needed there.”
“Pretty much, but you have to admit, having to transport everything over the water was kind of a hassle.” He glanced at her as she cracked a nut. After a brief inspection for weevils, she dropped it in the jar with a plunk. “I’m glad we’re leaving.”
Surprised, Hunter sent her a longer look. Driving was easier for the moment. This stretch of highway was fairly clear and with the only moving vehicles belonging to the caravan, he didn’t have to worry about other traffic. “You didn’t like the island?”
“Oh, I loved the island. Last fall, especially, it was beautiful. But as much as I love your family, it would be nice to meet other people. I mean, if we stayed on the island forever, who would our baby marry? His or her cousins? There would only be Luke or Zoë in the same age range.”
She grinned. “Not quite. I’m just being practical. Besides, the prospect of electricity is so tempting. Can you imagine popping a DVD into a player and sitting down to watch a good movie? It would be almost like the pandemic never happened.”
“I’m not sure I’d want to watch a movie.”
Now it was her turn to be surprised. “Why not?”
“Because it would be…depressing.” He thought of his favorite television shows. Seeing the world as it was would be like pouring salt on a wound. It would be cruel reminder of everything that was gone and they could never get back. Not in their lifetimes, anyway. Maybe in a hundred years mankind would be back to some semblance of what they’d been, but he thought it would take even longer. For the foreseeable future, they would be getting by with scavenged goods and parts. The future of his grandchildren looked bleaker the more he thought about it. By then, everything would be picked over or degraded to the point of not being usable. “I think I want to concentrate on what we have now, and making the best of it.”
“The best of it?” Sophie was quiet for several moments. The only sound in the car was the soft snoring of Buddy in the back. “I don’t want to keep bringing it up, but for me, I would watch a movie and remember all the times I’d be sitting in my living room with my family, curled up on the sofa next to my mom and watching a favorite movie together. Saturday nights were always movie nights. We took turns choosing—” Her voice broke and Hunter reached for her hand, but she was still busy cracking walnuts. “—and we’d make a big bowl of popcorn.” She shrugged. “I miss my family and watching a movie again would make me feel…I don’t know…close to them again, I guess.”
She blinked hard as she stared into the bowl of shells at her feet. Hunter caught her hand this time, giving it a gentle squeeze as he steered around the remains of a vehicle fire. “First thing we do when we get electricity is find a stash of movies—maybe we could break into one of those boxes outside a store—and stock up on all of your favorites. We’ll find some popcorn, cuddle up, just you and me. It’ll be like a date night. And you get the first turn at picking the movie.”
“Any movie I want?”
“Absolutely.”
“My mom and I used to love to watch chick flicks.”
Hunter swallowed hard but nodded. What did he know of chick flicks? “Oh…okay. Chick flick it is.”
She laughed. “I’m kidding. My mom was a Star Wars fanatic.”
He grinned. “Yes! We can do a marathon.”
Sophie brushed bits of walnut shell off her rounded belly and reclined her chair. “I can’t wait. And on that note, I’m going to take a little nap.”
After a brief mid-morning break, they resumed their trek. Sophie had offered to drive for a bit, so Hunter leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes. All of the preparations for leaving over the last few weeks had meant days ranging miles from shore to scavenge followed by countless hours of packing and loading vehicles. Last night, as exhausted as he’d been, he couldn’t sleep. Nervous excitement for the journey had him tossing and turning. On one hand, he couldn’t wait to see what was out there. He couldn’t help hoping things had improved since he’d last been beyond their little bubble of relative safety.
He woke up to music filling the vehicle and disoriented, he glanced around. He hadn’t heard music for so long, he thought he must be dreaming. Then he glanced at the cord from a cellphone resting in the center console to the dashboard. “Where’d you get that?” He rubbed his eyes. It had started raining at some point and they passed drab brown fields, overgrown and unplowed from last summer. Ragged stalks of unharvested corn lay bent at angles, pressed nearly flat by the snow they’d had.
Sophie tapped her fingers along to the beat, her shoulders swaying as she sang along to the music. During a pause in the lyrics, she said, “Piper let me use her old phone. She’s using Trent’s.”
Hunter picked up the phone and checked out the playlist then made a face. His cousin always had different taste in music than he did. She liked hip-hop and pop while he tended to like rock—mostly new stuff, but also some classic. “Hey, did I ever tell you I used to play in a band?”
Sophie slanted him a look. One eyebrow quirked. “You? No way.”
He laughed. “It’s true. I played lead guitar and sang.”
“Were you any good?”
“No. I sucked. But it was fun.” Grinning, he scrolled through the list of tunes and found a few he liked. They weren’t going to play for a while, but he was just so thrilled for the rare sense of normalcy the music lent the trip, that he settled back and even sang along a little bit, much to Sophie’s amusement.
A ballad came on and he grimaced and Sophie, grinning, belted it out. She was pretty good. “You should have been in a band. You have a good voice.”
“Why thank you. I sang in choir all through school.” She finished singing the refrain, then turned the music down. “Do you ever wonder what’s up with your dad and Elly?”
“Wonder? I don’t know. I mean, I know they like each other and stuff.” He shifted in his seat. His dad and Elly shared the same bed most of the time but he tried not to think about that too much. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, no reason. I’m just wondering if maybe I’m not the only one who’s pregnant.” She glanced at him with a coy smile.
Hunter straightened and turned to her. “What? Why do you think that?”
“Because…well, you know our girl products, right?”
“Yeah, I had to get them.” His face still burned at the memory of loading the cart.
“Well, some of the supplies you tossed in the cart weren’t even sanitary products, but pregnancy tests.”
He shrugged. “So?”
“I saw one in the trash. It was positive and it wasn’t mine.”
Hunter faced forward as he mused. “It could be Jenna.” That was the likely scenario.
“Nope. Your aunt had her tubes tied a long time ago. She was telling me how she wishes she hadn’t now because of Trent.” The amusement that had been in Sophie’s voice faded with that observation.
“Oh.” He rested an elbow on the armrest and propped his head against his hand. “Piper?”
“That’s what I thought, so I was hinting around to her, asking if she and Jake had…you know.”
“And?”
“Nope. Not yet anyway.”
“Oh wow. I thought they liked each other?”
“They do. They just haven’t had any privacy over the winter, I guess.”
“True. We have been living in each other’s laps practically. It’s been too cold to leave the house, except for chores, and too many people in the house.” Hunter grinned as he said, “And I guess they never went out to collect nuts.” That had been his and Sophie’s excuse to get away from everyone. It had been warm then. Or warm enough.
“Yep. So that leaves Elly. She and your dad have been pretty tight all winter.”
“But my dad is like, forty-two or -three.” Physically, he knew it wasn’t too old, especially for a man, but that would make his father really old when this possibly hypothetical baby became an adult. Okay, maybe not that old, but not exactly young. He knew he’d been born while his dad was still in college. In fact, he’d been about the same age Hunter was now.
“So?”
“And Elly…isn’t she too old to get pregnant?”
Sophie laughed. “I think she’s still in her thirties. Late thirties, but still. And no, that’s not too old.”
“Well, whatever. That’s just weird. My dad will be a new father and a new grandfather in the same year? His baby will be our kid’s aunt or uncle?”
“Hey, it happens. And your brother or sister.”
“Oh wow.” He tried to wrap his mind around the idea of a sibling. He shook his head. “You don’t sound at all upset about this.”
She looked confused. “Why should I be? And just rememb
er, I don’t know for sure it’s Elly.”
Hunter laughed. “Yes, but that leaves only one other female and that’s….ew. I can’t even finish that sentence.”
“Exactly. Zoë’s not a factor so that means it has to be Elly.”
Hunter let that sink in for a few moments. “Do you think my dad knows yet?”
“Has he said anything that makes you think he might?”
Shaking his head, he replayed past conversations in his mind. “Not that I can recall, although they were both looking forward to there being a hospital in Las Vegas for you.”
She pursed her lips to the side in a manner he knew meant she was doubting herself. “I could be wrong. Maybe it was a false positive?”
“Does that ever happen?” He was surprised at the pang of disappointment he felt at the idea of the test being wrong.
“I don’t know. The only test I took was the one for this little guy.” She patted her abdomen.
“Or little gal.” Hunter leaned over and dropped a kiss on Sophie’s shoulder as he covered her hand on her belly.
He turned up the music, singing along, badly, while Sophie tried to sing over him. When a slower tune came on, Sophie said, “Do you think our baby will be okay?”
He wished he could answer with a hundred percent certainty, but how could he? What did he know about babies and pregnancy? He said the only thing he could. “Of course.” Then he scooted as close as he could, massaging the back of her neck. “Humans have been having babies since, well, forever, I guess. The baby will be okay, and so will you. I’m positive.”
14
“You seem to have remembered how to drive.” Joe set a bottle of water in the cup holder for Elly and offered the kids a drink from another.
Sympatico Syndrome Trilogy Box Set Page 65