by Deb Rotuno
“And watch over Freddie and Sara?”
“No, they’re going with me,” I stated firmly. “I um… I can’t…”
Dad nodded and gripped my shoulder. “I understand. You gotta do what you feel is right, son. They’ll be in good company, I’m assuming.”
“Yes, sir. Hank’s going. Not to mention Derek. I was thinking Ruby, but Lexie would be a good one. Quinn too.”
“Brody?”
“Unfortunately.”
Dad nodded but frowned. “Good. Don’t leave him behind. I can’t guarantee his safety with Joel’s temper…and mine.”
I laughed. “Neither can I…”
He snorted and clapped my shoulder once. “C’mon, Jack,” he said, starting for the tables. “Let’s eat.”
Dinner was full of good food and plenty of it, not to mention hopeful chatter. The fire burned warm to ward off the chilly fall air. As people split up to take the younger kids to bed or to take positions of protection for the night, Quinn pulled out his guitar, strumming lightly and singing softly. Even Mallory sang a little, which was a surprise to everyone, even the ones who knew her prior, until she told us she used to sing in church.
Freddie started to fall asleep sprawled across my chest, but I stopped Sara from taking him to the cabin just yet, simply pulling her down beside us and wrapping my free arm around her. A few minutes of peace, of something light and easy… That was all I wanted. To hold my family like I would have before the virus, but instead of watching useless TV, we were listening to songs about what drove us on, what made all this shit worth it. Quinn picked out a few love songs, a classic about coming home, and one about times changing.
I kissed the top of my son’s messy head, only to do the same to Sara’s, which made her eyes meet mine, a smile playing on her sweet lips, and I kissed those too.
“Jack,” she whispered, and I followed her gaze to my parents, their heads together, as they flipped through a file folder as thick as my damn arm, using a battery lantern for light. “What’re they…?”
“Research,” I whispered back. “Mom… Mom wants to find a cure, an immunization, something.” I shrugged a shoulder. “Until we can find her a place to work, equipment… If we can get a bigger place, maybe we can scout for equipment. I don’t know.”
Sara studied my face, then looked to my parents. “Well, if anyone can…”
I smiled at her faith, her loving nature. “I’ll do my best to give them a chance as soon as we’re able, Shortcake.”
She smiled, cupping my face and kissing my lips. “I know you will, baby. We’ll all help, I’m sure.”
Nodding, I pulled her back to me, keeping my family close. Survival came first, as far as I was concerned. If I felt they were safe, that the people around us were safe, only then would I feel like we were getting somewhere. Until then, I’d count my blessings and hold on to what I had.
Chapter 3
SARA
Clear Lake, Oregon
6 months & 10 days after Hurricane Beatrice
“I THINK WE SHOULD HEAD straight down 97 and make our way across to Rocky Point,” Dad said, looking to Jack as they spread the map out on the hood of Jack’s truck. “We can start on this side of Klamath Lake.”
“I’m willing to bet anything the highway is jammed up right in there,” Jack countered, tapping the map. “People who were trying to get into California…and out. I’d bet both sides are deadlocked.”
“You’re probably right, son,” Dad sighed, running a hand down his face. “But we could push cars aside to get through, not to mention find some fuel.”
“True. We’ll have my truck and my dad’s, which you’re driving, and both can handle it.” Jack nodded, gripping his hair before cracking his knuckles. He glanced around, only to look to my dad. “What are we truly hoping to find? A new location? Or simply supplies?”
“Both?” I suggested, shrugging a shoulder before I placed two backpacks into the back of the truck.
“It won’t hurt to look for both,” Dad agreed. “I’d like a bigger place, something with fences. If not at Klamath Lake, then I can’t think of where else to look. Moving this many people just to that lake would be testy, but any place farther and it could prove dangerous. What other facilities are close by?”
Jack grinned, shaking his head. “Not much. A few county jails, some National Guard locations.”
“National Guard… Any armories?” Dad mused, running his fingers along his temple.
“I don’t know, Hank.” Jack hedged. “It seems that every military base we saw along the way… They were a cesspool of zeaks all trapped inside the fences and buildings.”
“Then we’ll have to see what the lake has to offer,” Dad conceded. “If anything, we’ll come out of this with supplies, ammo, maybe even hunt along the way back.”
“Fair enough.” Jack wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the side of my head. “You all set?” When I nodded, he glanced around. “Where’s Freddie?”
“Getting last-minute instructions from Joel.” I pointed toward the table, where Joel was chatting with Lexie, Quinn, and my son, but I looked at Jack’s amused face. “Is Sasha coming with us?”
He sighed and nodded. “I don’t think I have a choice this time around. I think we’ll need her. Plus, I’d feel more comfortable with her watching over Freddie.” Jack whistled loudly, waving an arm. “Let’s load up!”
Our group consisted of eight people plus Sasha: Derek, Lexie, Brody, Quinn, my dad, myself, Jack, and Freddie. My dad had wanted Mose or Joel, but Jack had argued that we needed the biggest and strongest left behind to guard the camp, leaving Rich in charge. We were taking the bare minimum of food rations with us because Derek was convinced we’d hunt along the way. Those left behind had Josh’s freshly caught wild ducks to tide them over. We were only planning on being gone a handful of days—allowing for snags and hindrances.
Derek and Lexie loaded up into the bed of Jack’s truck with their gear, as did Sasha. When Brody walked by, she stood firm, tense on the tailgate, making Jack grin, but it was Lexie’s snarky tone that caused laughter.
“Well, I was always taught that dogs could sense evil…”
I snorted, shaking my head, but Brody merely rolled his eyes, opting to ride with my dad. Lexie hadn’t exactly been his biggest fan since the night he got drunk on patrol. She still stayed quiet but not as reclusive as when she’d first arrived at the camp. It seemed she was slowly fitting in, not to mention her crush on Jack had either abated or she was covering it up. She was still nursing some hefty grief, along with a bit of guilt over her family, but she was at least a huge help around the place. Her ability to fight and her knowledge of farming was invaluable.
Derek grinned at her, only to watch Brody step up into the back of the other truck. “He’s gonna be a ray of sunshine through this whole thing.”
“Mmm,” Jack grunted, shaking his head. “He’d better watch his mouth and his fucking step the entire trip. I’m not joking.”
I knew my husband was about five seconds from lodging an arrow in Brody’s ass…or his head—I wasn’t quite sure which, but I wasn’t sure anyone cared.
Leaning up on my toes, I kissed Jack. “You’re cute when you’re all threatening. Want my baseball bat?”
That caused a smile to curl slowly up his face. “Nah, Shortcake. You look much sexier holding a bat.”
“Then I’ll get our boy, and we can get going.”
Freddie had always been Jack’s shadow before the virus had started. He was just as adorable then as he was now, if not more, because he was determined to prove to his dad he could go with us.
I set Freddie in the cab of the truck, waiting until he situated his rifle on the floorboard. Cupping his face, I whispered, “Look at me, kiddo.” When he did, I kissed his forehead. “No matter where we go, stop, or scout, I want you in Daddy’s or my sight at all times, mister. Okay?”
He nodded, rubbing his hands on his jeans and then cracking his knuckles.
“Yeah, okay. Dad already told me…”
“Well, I’m telling you again, ’cause I can,” I teased him, squishing his face a little until he giggled. “Love you,” I whispered.
“Love you too, Mom.”
“Good.” I raked my fingers through his hair. “You nervous?” I asked, but he shook his head. “Just checking. This’ll be like the ride up here from Sandy, okay? You just…do what you do.”
Jack slid into the other side of the truck but stayed quiet as he watched us.
“You mean like watching for zeaks?” Freddie asked, and I smiled at the term he’d adopted from Jack.
“You’re really good at it, you know.”
When my son nodded, I kissed his forehead, meeting Jack’s warm gaze across the seat of the truck. I could see he was a little on edge with this scouting trip, and adding Freddie and me into the mix probably wasn’t helping, but he shot me a wink and checked Freddie’s seat belt.
“Shortcake, you sure you don’t wanna ride up here with us?” he asked once I’d closed Freddie’s door and walked around to his side.
“Nope, I’m good. You boys talk all the trash you want up here,” I teased them, finally getting matching smiles from them both. God, they were like bookends, which made me chuckle. “No off-roading, though. Keep my poor butt safe, okay?”
“I love your butt,” Jack whispered against my lips salaciously. “It would be a sin against humanity to harm such a perfect thing.” He kissed me roughly, smiling at my giggle. “Your dad’s plan is to at least get to 97 and camp for the night before trying to start south.”
“Gotcha.” My eyes slid passed him through the back window of the truck to see Derek and Lexie with their heads together. He was showing her something about her rifle, and she nodded, but their body language was all sorts of intriguing. “Well, that’s an interesting turn of events,” I muttered, and Jack’s gaze shot to the rearview mirror.
His eyebrows rose high, but he turned to me. “He’s like…fifteen years older than her.”
“So?”
He huffed a laugh, shrugging a shoulder. “Nothin’, I guess. New world. New rules.”
“The world’s changed, baby. The rules of attraction stay the same. Be grateful,” I sang, kissing him one last time before I hugged Rich, Dottie, and Millie and then hopped up into the back of the truck. I took a seat next to Sasha, who shifted and then put her head down on my lap.
Jack started the truck and followed my dad out of the driveway. I watched Mose and Joel put the gate back, and the camp slowly disappeared, leaving us surrounded by woods. The air was chilly in the back, but Sasha’s body heat kept me from being too cold.
Once we were on NF-770, we turned right on 20. I kept my eyes out on the road, barely hearing Derek and Lexie talk to each other. The main road out of Mount Hood Forest was just as empty as the day we’d pulled in. A few miles after we left the camp, there were a few straggling zeaks, but they posed no threat. Some were simply wandering aimlessly near the edge of the woods, but a few were writhing on the side of the road.
I hoped it stayed that quiet, but I had a feeling the closer we got to the main highway, the worse it was going to get.
The sun was setting by the time we’d reached an overpass where we could stop for the night, just west of 97. We parked each truck at either entrance, and Quinn was currently stringing his tin-can alarm system around us. Derek was helping him. The fire burned low, a couple of rabbits on a spit over it.
Dad and Jack spoke in low tones, my husband’s face solemnly in planning mode, not to mention even tenser than before we’d left the camp. Highway 20 had stayed quiet most of the way toward 97, but the second we neared the busier highways, we’d run into trouble. There had been a pack of about twenty zeaks blocking the intersection. We’d had no choice but to take them out.
Derek and Jack had used their compound bows, and my dad had used one of the military rifles, all on the ground, while the rest of us had aimed from the trucks. With Sasha’s help rounding them up, the pack had been decimated in less than a few minutes. Freddie had been high on adrenaline and victory and praise from his dad for almost an hour afterward, but now he was slowly falling asleep next to me in his sleeping bag.
“Freddie,” I whispered, raking my hands through his hair. “I want you to eat something before you crash out on me.” I smiled when he nodded and groggily sat up.
Being the only two girls on this trip, Lexie and I sat together on one of the logs the boys had dragged over.
“Is this the first time you’ve left the camp?” Lexie asked softly.
Smiling a little, I nodded. “Overnight, yes. I went on a few hunting trips but only within a day’s walking distance.”
“Was it like this when you came through?”
“Worse.” I wrinkled my nose, pointing to Derek. “Derek, Brody, and I came through when everything seemed to have just shut down. Anyway, we had to push our way through. It seemed people had just started to turn, or they got trapped, so there were packs of them everywhere.”
Brody nodded but didn’t say anything as he continued to turn the rabbits over the fire. The fact that he was being civil was nice—shocking but nice.
Derek shot a wink my way but didn’t say anything for a moment. He finally pointed with an arrow he was fixing. “We lost Millie and Josh’s RV about fifteen miles before we got to 770. It’s why they’re staying in Hank’s cabin. The pack came at us out of nowhere, and she hit one or two, causing her to accidently wreck.”
“Yeah,” I agreed sadly, nodding a little. “In fact, that was just about the time we found Tina and Janie.”
“Oh, that’s right,” he sighed, shaking his head. “That was messed up.”
We went quiet for a moment, and my dad and Jack put away their plans to join us to eat. Jack sat down behind me, pulling me close. It wasn’t much food, and Jack made sure to give most of his to Freddie and me, but I fed him anyway, making him smile.
“You eat it, Shortcake.”
“Nope. We all have to stay strong, Jack. Shut up and take it.”
He chuckled but did as I said. Quinn had brought his guitar and picked at it softly as Derek leaned back against a truck tire, my dad taking one as well. Lexie curled up in her sleeping bag, and Freddie barely made it ten minutes after a full belly before he was out like a light.
Leaning back against Jack, I asked, “You aren’t gonna sleep, are you?”
“No.” When I tilted my head to look at his face, he dropped a kiss to my forehead. “I usually don’t sleep much outside like this. C’mon, baby,” he urged sweetly, patting his thigh. “I’ll happily provide your pillow, though. Lie down.”
I curled around Freddie but did as Jack said, and his fingers played with my hair. The sense of safety that he brought to my soul was almost the polar opposite of how I’d felt the last time I’d camped outside, which had been on the way to the cabins. Knowing he was there, that he was a tangible thing, made me almost ridiculously relaxed. Just before the darkness took me, I blearily gazed around the camp.
Dad was asleep, or was attempting it, with his baseball cap pulled down over his face. Derek was sitting up, arms folded and eyes closed. Lexie and Freddie were just lumps in their sleeping bags. Sasha’s adorable little snore sounded from the other side of Jack’s lap, so I was sure she was curled up next to him. Quinn set his guitar case against one of the overpass pylons and curled up on his side. My eyes sought out Brody, narrowing at his demeanor. He was still awake, taking a drink from his canteen as he leaned against another pillar.
Something about that bothered me, simply because the last time he’d used that same canteen, it had been filled with liquor. I didn’t trust him, but when I glanced up to Jack from his lap, I could see I wasn’t the only one. Jack stayed quiet. His eyes were sharp, his jaw rolling with each clench of his teeth, but his fingers in my hair were gentle, soothing. When they trailed over my ear, across my cheek, and down my back, it only took two passes before I let sleep take me.
/> JACK
Klamath Lake, Oregon
“Well, what’choo know ’bout that?” Quinn sang low as we all stepped out of the trucks just outside the gates. “Ever see The Shining?”
Grinning his way, I simply nodded, reminded of Wyoming and his comment about Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I glanced to the left and the right, sizing up the black wrought-iron fence in front of me. It was over six feet, with sharp points at the top of each spike. Every ten or twelve feet, there was a solid brick post. The damn thing seemed to go completely around the rather large lodge in front of us.
Sasha sniffed the air, her hackles rising, her teeth flashing, but I’d smelled them before she did. The problem was the breeze was kicking the stench of decay up around us, and I couldn’t figure out if the zeaks were inside the fence or out.
Pulling my compound bow to the front, I turned to Derek. “I smell ’em.”
“Me too,” he agreed, loading an arrow.
Hank hopped up on the back of one of the trucks, using the binoculars. He rotated all the way around but then hopped back down. “They aren’t behind us,” he stated, pulling out his gun and eyeing the padlock that held a chain around the gate.
Sara and Lexie walked to the fence, both studying the grounds. It seemed the lodge had tried to incorporate as much woods and nature on the property as they could. The lake glimmered just barely from the other side of the main building, and there were two clusters of trees on either side of the place. The fence seemed to disappear into them, but I could see what they were looking for.
“We got movement,” I stated, snapping my fingers and pointing to the tree line. “Don’t open that gate yet!”
Hank’s gaze snapped up, glancing at me and then inside the property. “We can draw them to the fences. Clear them out first.”
“Roger that,” I agreed, turning to Sasha, who was shaking as she waited for me. “Sasha, separate.”
With a deep growl, she darted down the fence line, barking and pawing at the zeaks on the other side. They immediately fell for it, lunging at the fence.