by Morris, Kate
“Yes!” Abraham yelled as if she were annoying him, which was probably true. They were siblings, after all.
“Yeah, we’re good. Finally,” Elijah called back more patiently as they approached the cab of the truck. “All done. Let’s move, man.”
“No doubt,” Roman echoed him, and they were off.
Avery didn’t argue about driving. She didn’t have any experience driving something with a long trailer attached. Roman seemed confident, or was faking it well, so she let him go.
“Where should we take all this?” Roman asked. “It’s gonna need divided and separated out of those crates.”
“I hadn’t even thought about that yet,” she realized out loud. “Um, we could do it in our garage. There’s a lot of room there. Tristan moved a lot of my father’s things out of it.”
Mentioning her father made her tear up, so she looked out her window instead. Thinking about her father hurt, and most days, she just tried not to think about any of them at all, which also felt wrong. He was out there somewhere. Maybe alive. Maybe not. But he wasn’t at home and safe. He wasn’t even himself anymore.
“Cool,” Roman said and then realized it came off weird. “Oh, sorry, Avery. I didn’t…”
“No, it’s okay,” she said and touched his arm. “I understand. I’m not the only one, right? We’ve all lost people.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“We got a lot of stuff,” Wren said, redirecting their conversation, which she did a lot, Avery noticed in their brief interactions.
“That’s great,” Avery said. “In all the craziness,” she remarked, not wanting to say ‘murder’ or ‘killing and defending,’ “I totally forgot to ask.”
“We think it was a shipment going to one of the military bases,” Elijah said. “At first, I felt bad, but hey, it’s not going to get there now. Whoever was driving the trucks were long gone. All that stuff was just going to sit there in the road until someone else took it or it got ruined. Heck, we’ve got a lot of people in our group, and growing still, that we gotta feed, right?”
“Yeah,” Roman agreed. “If we hadn’t taken it, someone else would have. And we have a lot of people to feed, including kids.”
“Yes, I’m so grateful to you guys for this. I think it will help a lot. Oh, hey!” she remembered. “I forgot to tell you. When you guys were gone, a radio signal came on, and they announced that there would be a message tonight from the President.”
“Good, maybe it’s some good news for a change,” Roman said.
Avery noticed the other two didn’t share that sentiment or voice it. She felt hopeful like Roman, but also didn’t speak it in case her hopes were deflated.
They pulled down her lane, and Roman was able to back the truck up most of the way to the garage before it spun out too much on the snow. Everyone came out to greet them, and Avery briefly explained what took so long.
“Oh, Ave,” Renee said and reached out touch her arm. “That’s terrible. Sorry, I should’ve gone with you guys.”
“It’s okay,” she said, trying not to show how much shooting people bothered her. Of course, it bothered her, but one of the kids in their group getting shot instead would’ve been worse. Renee being shot and killed would’ve been the absolute worst since her friend suspected she was pregnant. “Let’s go through all of this and divide it up.”
Then Tristan came out of the house like a bull. He was scowling hard and only wearing a flannel shirt and jeans and boots, no coat. He was angry. Elijah and Roman looked scared.
“I’m fine,” she explained and led Tristan away. “We’re fine.”
His jaw ticked. Then he swallowed hard.
“We’re fine,” she repeated. “Tristan, listen to me. Nobody was hurt. The kids needed my help. They were in a bad position.”
She explained it again to him and watched his eyes flash at the mention of the shootout.
“You should’ve woke me up, Avery!”
She gave a scowl of her own this time.
He hooked his arm around her neck and pulled her close to his chest. “This won’t happen again. I won’t have you in danger, Ave.”
“I know, but there wasn’t anyone else,” she said softly, her own stress melting away in his embrace. “Don’t worry, Tristan. I’m okay.”
He nodded against the top of her head, but she could feel the pent-up rage inside of him. She just ushered him inside to get his coat and gloves while she went back to the barn. Tristan would just have to get used to this. She couldn’t sit idle while everyone else was always going out into danger and putting their lives on the line for the good of their group.
Spencer headed up the project in a supervisory capacity, and Renee helped with organizing items into duplicate piles of three. Tristan and Kaia also unloaded and stacked items to be sorted. Even Remmie came out to help, which seemed a good thing to Avery. The girl was withdrawn and sad, and she had no idea how to help her. Her mother would know what to do, and Avery wanted more than ever for her to be with them. Where honesty dwelt in her heart, she knew she really just wanted her mother for her own selfish reasons, though. She wanted to curl up on the sofa with her mother in front of the fire and cry her eyes out in her arms. Ophelia was like that. She made everything feel better, more manageable, and she always had sage advice and warm words for her children. Avery teared up again.
“This is a ton of scheisse,” Kaia swore. “I’d say we’re good for a while.”
“Plus, I can get another deer,” Roman said, to which her little sister wrinkled her nose.
“Hey, young lady,” Avery told her, “you might feel different about it in a few months.”
“I’ll be a vegan.”
“And eat all the canned vegetables? I don’t think so,” Avery said and hooked an arm over Kaia’s slim shoulders, pulling her close. She was glad when her little sister rested her head on Avery’s shoulder a moment before pulling away.
“Better than opossum,” Spencer remarked with a laugh.
“Gross,” Renee said. “I’d eat anything before that.”
“Cat?” Elijah joked.
Kaia shouted, “Ew! Dang, that’s nasty. No!”
“Wren’s dog?”
“Hey!” Wren said and swatted his forearm, to which he chuckled with a softening in his eyes.
Avery wasn’t sure what was going on between them, but she was about fifty-fifty on their relationship status. There was never time just to hang out and get to know one another. They needed a girls’ night in, which seemed ridiculously silly in their current situation. However, they should get to know each other a lot better, which would also deepen their bond as allies and friends.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” she suggested. “Why don’t you guys all come over tonight for dinner? We could watch the broadcast and maybe play some board games. I just feel like we don’t know each other that well, and maybe we should. Ya’ know? We’re going to be in each other’s lives. We should know each other better.”
Roman said, “Yeah, and each person could write stuff down about themselves to give to Avery as a master copy. Like our blood type, or allergies, and important stuff for medical reasons.”
“Wow, Roman,” Wren said in a droll tone. “You really know how to be the life of the party.”
Everyone laughed, but Wren kept her poker face.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he agreed with an impish shrug.
Avery said, “No, that is a good idea, though. The more we know about each other, the better. I think it’s going to be important for our survival, don’t you?”
“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Spencer agreed.
Everyone else slowly nodded or agreed, too.
“Good, then come over sometime between five and six,” she said.
“I thought Tristan…” Remmie interrupted and stopped to stare at her feet.
“We are,” Roman told her and reached out to touch her but drew back. “Don’t worry, okay?”
>
Tristan came over and said, “We’re going after her tonight. Night attacks are better. We’re getting her no matter what. We’ll go after dark, after the broadcast, okay?”
The girl hit him with gratitude brimming in her tear-filled eyes and nodded.
“So,” Avery said to turn the attention away from her, “Tonight. Come early or whatever. We’ll make dinner, and we’ll break bread together before you guys go.”
“Can Dixie come?” Wren asked.
“Absolutely. And bring everyone from your place, too, Roman,” she encouraged and got a nod.
“Sure,” he said.
They left a short time later with some of their portions of the bounty, and Avery felt a little lighter in her step than she had in a long time, despite the fact that she’d probably murdered or helped in the murder of people today, including a possible state highway police officer.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Elijah
He was standing in the small bathroom upstairs in his underwear and a t-shirt. Wren was perched on the ledge of the lime-green bathtub fully dressed, but he was in boxer briefs and a wife beater. He was used to being naked around people, but that was mostly from being in a locker room with a lot of other dudes, not some girl he was attracted to. She seemed oblivious, which also didn’t help his ego.
“I don’t know,” she pondered with a jaunty tip of her head that caused her ponytail to fall to the side. “It’s not bleeding again, but it does look a little red around the wound.”
“I told you it’s just sore. No big deal.”
“How are your ribs?” she asked and lifted his shirt without his permission. She narrowed her eyes for a closer inspection. “Bruising’s getting a lot better. Still hurt to breathe in deeply?”
“Not as much. I think I’ll survive it,” he joked, which earned him a glare. The beatings he got from those men were horrible, but what they’d done to Jamie, he’d never get out of his memory. He’d watched her caretaker die. The life force of such a strong, powerful man like Jamie had been taken from him, and Elijah had been too weak to stop it from happening. He vowed the night Jamie died that he’d never let that happen to her. He’d throw down his own life first.
“You won’t if you keep saying stupid things,” she said and poked him in the abs with her skinny finger.
He just chuckled and said, “You seem like you’re losing weight. Are you eating?”
“Of course, I’m eating.”
He wrapped his hand around her entire bicep. “You sure? You look like you’ve lost more weight. You’re not sick, are you?”
She shook her head and pursed her mouth as if he were annoying her.
“Hey,” he said and stopped her from putting away their supplies in the medical tub. “You need to eat more, Wren. You can’t afford to lose a bunch of weight. We’ve got plenty now.”
“For how long?”
“For as long as we need it. When I’m back on my feet a hundred percent, I’ll be hunting and fishing, bringing in more meat. For now, we’re good, though, so don’t skimp.”
“Aye-aye, captain,” she mocked. “Or should I say, aye-aye, caveman hunter-gatherer?”
He chuckled.
“We should shower,” he said and got a wide-eyed expression in return. “No! Not together. I mean, if you really wanna’…”
She slugged his arm.
“Right,” he said with a grin. “But you know how it is. We were out there in it. Who knows who packed all that stuff into that truck or touched the handles or anything else.”
“We had on gloves and masks, but you’re probably right,” she said with a sigh. “We better get a move on. I’ll go see if your brother needs any help while you get yours first.”
“Okay, and thanks. For helping Alex, I mean.”
She gave an awkward nod and ducked around him out of the small bathroom. Elijah was hopeful that she was coming to like Alex and vice versa, but it probably wasn’t true. He needed to know that if he was killed that his brother would take care of her. At this point, he figured Wren would leave the second he croaked. Later tonight, he was going to try to remember to sit down with Alex and discuss it.
He took a fast shower and even took the time to shave. Everything they did now was to conserve energy and water, so they tried to be as efficient as possible. No more letting the water run while shaving or brushing teeth. He dressed in clean jeans but didn’t have a shirt with him. After rubbing his hair to take out most of the moisture with a towel, Elijah hung it on the hook behind the bathroom door to dry. When he opened the door again, Wren was standing there, and he startled her.
“Sorry,” he apologized as she stared at his bare chest and skirted awkwardly around him.
He got shuffled out and the door slammed in his face. Without dwelling on it too long, Elijah grabbed a clean t-shirt, a flannel shirt, and a hoodie. Roman said he’d come back and pick them up since he had to return Tristan’s truck anyway. When they were ready to go home later, however, they’d probably walk, and it was a haul in the snow.
Jogging down the stairs, he met Alex in the kitchen, still packing away the rest of the boxes from their third of the take.
“Think this will last us until summer?” he asked his older brother, who lately wore a permanent scowl on his scruffy face.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” he said distractedly as he poured a box of dried rice into a plastic storage container. Avery said that’s what they were doing to keep out moisture and possibly rodents just in case, so they were all going to mimic her. She seemed to know a lot about that kind of stuff. “I’m not sure, E.”
“We should go back and get the rest tonight,” he told Alex.
Surprisingly, he shrugged. “That sounds like a good plan, except for the word ‘night.’ Besides, we have to go get this girl’s sister. That is if she’s still alive to rescue.”
“I know. I was just thinking we could divide forces again.”
“At night?”
Elijah nodded and leaned against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “I think I could do it. Maybe if two people went with me. We could hook up that trailer to our truck. Two of us could load while the other person watches out for us. Or we could take three people.”
“We’ll figure it out when we get to Tristan’s.”
“What’s wrong, man? You seem upset lately,” Elijah inquired of his brother, who he worried about.
Alex stopped what he was doing and paused. “I just worry that making these friends could burden us, weigh us down when it gets worse.”
“What do you mean by ‘worse’?”
Alex mimicked his pose and said, “This isn’t as bad as it’s gonna get, Elijah. We’re only fooling ourselves that it is. We’re eventually going to run out of things to steal, empty semi trailers to hit up, stores to loot. Food’s going to run out, supplies, gas, everything. The only thing we’ve got for sure is this house and plenty of firewood. If a large group of people come down our lane, I don’t know if we could even defend it.”
He sighed. “I know. I’m worried, too, but I think sticking together with the other two groups is our safest bet. Besides, Tristan’s really good at what he does. He’s like you. He…”
“No, he’s not like me. Tristan is from some sort of Special Forces unit, something way above what I was. I never got the opportunity to go any higher.”
“Sorry,” Elijah said because he knew it was because of him that his brother’s military career got cut short.
Alex rested his hand on his shoulder and squeezed firmly. “Don’t say that. I don’t regret it. You’re my brother, man. I didn’t mean it like that, like you were some kind of burden or some shit.”
Elijah tried to offer a nod but still felt remorseful.
“Listen, I’m just worried. Wren’s not much to keep, but the two of us eat a lot more than her, and if we end up having to take in other people like Tristan and Avery seem to keep doing, then we’re going to run out fast.”
“O
h, yeah, now I get you,” he said, thinking of Spencer, Renee, the new girl Remmie, and maybe her sister. “They’ve got a lot bigger burden over there, what with their friends and all the siblings, too.”
“I know. Tristan told me he got a lot of supplies from temporary military instillations up in the city. You know, where we tried to get stuff?”
Elijah nodded. “Guess he had better connections.”
Alex shook his head, “Nah, he told me he bribed ‘em with coffee, booze, smokes, and silver coins.”
“Oh, wow.”
“I want you to watch out for yourself. You aren’t healed yet. You go getting hurt, you could cause a lot of damage, maybe permanent.”
“I will. I’m being careful.”
Alex nodded but stared him down with intensity. His leg was a little sore, the ribs, too, but his shoulder was also sore from shooting and the way those men had hung him. He just needed a few more weeks to fully heal, but he had no doubt that permanent damage wasn’t going to happen. The way he felt now, a few days out from it all, was familiar, like two-a-days in the summer when training season came back around and he’d loafed around with friends all summer instead of continuing to lift and workout hard.
They finished putting away their items until Wren came down ready to go back to Tristan’s place. She must not have washed her hair because it wasn’t wet at all. She had great hair; long, dark, wavy. He also knew it was soft. Elijah frowned and followed them out.
Roman showed up with their ride, and they piled into the bed with some other people while Roman and Jane rode up front. Her father and Roman’s little brother Connor road in the backseat. He tried to help Wren up, but she ignored his hand and called for her dog to jump up, which it did. He had no idea why it listened to her because before a few months ago, it had belonged to his neighbors up in the city. Maybe it was some sort of shared trauma kind of thing. He’d brought a throw blanket from the back of their sofa, one his aunt had crocheted or whatever it was she’d done to it. He laid it across their legs when he took a seat next to her. Alex perched on the wheel well on his other side.
“Hey, guys,” Elijah greeted their fellow bed riders.