by Deb Rotuno
“She’s fine!” Joel snapped, giving her a rare impatient glance.
Ruby rolled her eyes. “It’s not a bite, I swear. I ran into trouble in the lab. Two bastards snuck up on me, and one of them shoved me into one of the tables. There was a sharp corner. It’s a cut. Nothing more.”
“’Cause you didn’t fucking listen,” Joel muttered, shaking his head, but he turned to my dad. “Could ya at least check it?”
Dad grinned, kneeling in front of Ruby. Carefully, he tore the denim a little, eyeing the wound. He pulled his pack around and reached in for a bandage. Pressing on the wound a little, he was able to see the damage.
“You’re gonna be fine. The bleeding has slowed down already. And I can’t see that you’ll need stitches unless you want them to keep the scar down. I can clean it and patch it up once we’re on the road.”
“Fine! Perfect!” Ruby sighed, throwing her hands up in surrender. “Just tell him I’m not dying, okay?”
I barked a light laugh, smacking Joel’s shoulder and giving Ruby a fist bump. “She’ll live to give you a shit-ton of hell tomorrow. And the next day…” I rounded on my dad. “Speaking of women giving us shit… Can we get back to mine now? Have we covered all the bases, gotten every bit of equipment, and finished every fucking list? I’m over it. I’m done. This town is empty, it seems, of all surviving life.”
Joel and Ruby were clearly in agreement, and my dad nodded, pulling out the notebook he’d brought with notes and lists. He was still nodding slowly when Derek called up.
“We got company! And I’m pretty sure these dead bastards haven’t learned to drive!”
We all froze for a heartbeat or two and then rushed to the window. Using my rifle scope, I followed the direction Derek was pointing. It was straight up the street that I caught the movement. It took a moment to realize what I was seeing.
“Oh, fuck me. I spoke too soon. We have company, all right. I’ve got military-style vehicles moving up the street. Hummers, transport trucks, ATVs with heavy artillery on top…” I pulled the scope away from my face and saw that Joel was looking as well.
When he pulled back, he was shaking his head. “I say we haul ass. There’s no telling if that’s true military or some sort of crazy survivalist bullshit. Either way, I don’t wanna know. Technically, I’m retired Army, dude; I don’t want nothin’ to do with it.”
“I hear ya,” I sighed, pointing toward the chute. “Slide down. I’ll have to take the stairs with Sasha.”
“No, you don’t,” Dad said, patting the window ledge. “Get up here. I’ll set her on your shoulders. Let’s move!”
Joel called down to Derek and Quinn, and both shifted into action on the ground, pulling the chute out of the dumpster and angling it to the sidewalk so it was more like a slide. I sent down my compound bow and rifle, steadying myself when a disgruntled Sasha was draped around my shoulders.
“Hang in there, big girl,” I soothed her, holding her paws with one hand and guiding myself slowly down the chute.
When my feet touched down, Derek reached out to help me lift her up and off. “Give her here, Jack,” he said, casting glances up the street, but we were clear so far.
Ruby was right behind me, followed closely by Joel’s weapons and then Joel himself. Dad was the last to land, and then we ran toward the truck.
“Move, move, move,” I ordered, tugging open the driver’s-side door. “They were about seven blocks away, with that blocked-up intersection that’ll slow them down, so we’ll take a few streets over to avoid them.”
“Everything’s strapped down in the back and in the trailer, Jack, so punch it,” Quinn told me, crawling into the middle part of the backseat.
“I’m gonna take the bed of the truck. I’ll clear your way if we run into trouble,” Derek stated, standing up just behind the back window.
“Perfect,” I stated, starting the engine and peeling out of the circle entrance of the hospital. Instead of taking the way we’d come in, I headed west, going over two streets before aiming east for Klamath Lake again.
Ruby and Joel slipped the sliding window open so they could communicate with Derek, who’d pounded on the top of the truck.
“Slow down!” he yelled. “Let them pass by going the other way, and then you can take off.”
Slamming on the brakes, I came to a standstill just inside the view of a cross-street. The military caravan was bigger than I’d seen through the scope. There were more Humvees than just the one leading, not to mention two more armored ATVs with machine guns up top. What I noted even more than anything was the people. All dressed in camo, all with rigid posture, some even jogging alongside the vehicles. The sound of short bursts of rapid fire met my ears, even with the several-block distance as they cleared their way.
“Oh, my hell… They are military.” I turned to Dad. “What’cha think? Fort Warner? This far south?”
Dad scoffed, shaking his head. “Could be the National Guard base too, son,” he added, shrugging a shoulder. “But I’m with Joel on this one. We’ve got our own base,” he said, leaning on the last word. “Personally, if we’re going to run into them, it better be on our turf.” He glanced down the cross-street again. “You’re clear to move. Go.”
I pressed the gas, winding my way back to the 140. We’d cleared a path all the way here, and I wanted to take it back. Going home would be clearer, easier than clawing our way in. My hope was that we’d be home by dark.
Klamath Lake, Oregon
“Jack, let me help you put them to bed,” Sara whispered, but amusement was all over that beautiful face of hers.
I was covered in kids. Freddie was leaning on my right shoulder, Rina was on my left, and Aiden was crashed out sprawled across my chest. I’d been back for a few hours—just long enough to be tackled by my family, unload the truck and trailer, shower, and eat. And now we were up in our suite, just the five of us—six with the lightly snoring Sasha on the floor.
“No,” I argued softly, shaking my head. “Leave ’em. Just for a few minutes.”
Her giggle was soft and sweet, and she leaned down to drop a kiss to my lips. “Well, at least let me take Aiden. It’s those two who had the hardest time.” She gestured to Rina and Freddie.
Nodding, I dropped a kiss on the top of his head, and she lifted him carefully off me. I wrapped my arms around the other two, staring into the fire as the cold rain poured down outside. I could hear voices outside as some protected the fences, but it was a minimal-sized swarm of zeaks. In fact, it was the first trouble they’d had since we left.
Sara returned from the kids’ room, leaving a lantern just outside the door as usual. She leaned over and kissed me again.
“How hard?” I asked softly against her lips, my brow wrinkling.
“Oh, pretty rough. These two fought like feral cats from the second you pulled out. She had nightmares. Freddie became…bossy.” She grinned, shaking her head. “Said you left him in charge.”
My chuckle shook both kids, but they barely stirred. “Sorry, Shortcake. I needed to—”
“Give him focus, yes. I get it.”
She sat down on the ottoman in front of me, and I set my feet on either side of her, pulling her close. She wrapped her arms around one of my knees, setting her chin on top.
“What’d they fight about?” I asked her, running my fingers through my son’s hair.
“Everything,” she stated, shrugging a shoulder. “Little stuff, big stuff, all the stuff in between. He tried to tell her you’d come back. She told him to shut up. Then it was toys and games and food and bedtime.” She sighed, shaking her head a little as she wore the sweetest smile.
“Did they give you trouble?”
She was shaking her head before I even finished the question. “Nah, but her nightmares woke the boys up the first night, so I kept her with me in our bed.” Her lips pressed to my kneecap, and then she spoke again. “Late at night, she’d ask for stories about you, so I told her some. Then she asked about how we m
et, about Freddie, and she asked about her mom. She wanted to know if Olivia really made us promise to take care of her and her brother, and I told her yes. It was your son who explained it to her. He told her all about what a promise means.”
Smiling, I shook my head.
“He also read your poem to her, Jack,” she whispered, tears welling up a little, but she pointed to the little table by the couch, where Freddie’s scrapbook was open to the Longfellow poem. “Sweetest thing I’ve ever seen, I swear…or maybe I needed to hear it too. I don’t know.”
“Did it help?”
“Very much.” She nodded against my knee. “All of us, actually. She… She stopped yelling at Aiden for calling me mom. She calmed down a little but asked if she could sleep with me until you came home.” She swiped at her tears, and my hands itched to do it for her, but she rubbed my leg. “Until, Jack. She changed from expecting the worst to believing you’d be back. It was…good. And when you showed up this afternoon, she was…so damn happy, especially when you picked her up and swung her around. Oh, and your son simply smiled at her and said, ‘I told you Dad would be back.’”
Sighing deeply into Rina’s sweet-smelling hair, I met my wife’s gaze. “Last scouting trip, Shortcake,” I told her. “We don’t need to go out anymore. We brought back everything my mother needs to work with, we have enough seeds to plant our own vegetables, and we have plenty of meat, even without hunting or fishing.”
“Oh yeah, and Lexie wants a cow. A few of them, actually. Where she’ll find one, I have no idea, but still…”
I laughed softly. “Oh, there’s probably some wandering around somewhere. If not, we can go back to Yellowstone for a bison or two.”
“Uhh, no.”
Grinning, I nodded. “Okay, then. Lexie will have to live without cows.”
Sara giggled a little, but it faded quickly. “And those military vehicles you saw? What about them?”
I sniffed a little, shaking my head. “I don’t know, baby. If the military is regrouping, that may show a sign of things improving. If that’s the case, then that’s a good thing. It gives hope for the future. It gives hope that things everywhere are starting to get better, that the surviving people are starting to come back. It’s a long road, but…it’s their road. We’ve got our own worries—our people, our place, our survival. Like Joel said, ‘I’m retired Army now.’ The only thing that won’t last is our ammo, but…what can we do?” I asked, shrugging a shoulder. “We’ll either start rationing it or stop using it altogether. Derek has considered building bows and arrows for everyone to learn or finding them in sporting stores. He’ll turn them all into Robin Hood. Freddie will love it.”
Sara’s eyes were warm, sweet, and such a welcome sight. She nodded, seeming to relax a little at my explanation, but we fell quiet for a moment. Her hand ran up and down my leg slowly, but it was a comfortable, easy feeling. When Sasha snored a little from her spot by the fireplace, I shook my leg gently to get Sara’s attention.
When she met my gaze, I smiled a little. “C’mon, Shortcake… We’ll tuck them in.”
Sara stood up, reaching for Freddie. He mumbled sleepily, gripping my T-shirt, but finally relented enough for her to scoop him up and carry him. Rina was out cold and light as a feather as I carried her to bed. Though both kids stirred a little when they were set on cool sheets.
I kissed them both, leaving Sara to do the same. I checked the fireplace, making sure it was dying down, even though the rain outside sounded like it would last through the night. When I turned around, Freddie’s scrapbook caught my eye. I walked to it, skimming over the poem I knew so well. As always, it was the last part that resonated with me.
Be still, sad heart! And cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
“Jack?” Sara asked softly, and I pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her waist. “You okay?”
“I’m okay.” I sighed deeply into her hair. “I was just reading that poem. It always… I always made sure to keep it in my head, even in the harder times. I just… I guess it means more now.”
She smiled against the skin of my neck, whispering, “I’m sure.”
“It does. We’ve seen some really ugly shit in the last year, and we came through the other side unscathed, if not richer. I’m just…grateful, I guess. I feel like…now I can…” I fumbled for the right words, but she pulled back to look at my face.
“Relax?” she offered.
“Breathe,” I finally finished. “I feel like I can finally breathe, like for the first time since I woke up in Florida, Sara. I’ve been so focused on survival and safety and you guys and this place. Even if my mom doesn’t find a vaccine or whatever, I can at least breathe easy that my family is safe, fed, and they have a roof over their head.”
Sara smiled softly, pulling away from me but taking me by the hand. She led me into the bedroom, where she proceeded to dress for bed, and I followed her lead.
“I missed you…here,” she said, getting into bed and holding the covers up for me to slip in beside her.
Wrapping an arm around her, I pulled her to me, our legs tangling together. “I missed being here. I’m sorry it took so long.”
She smiled sweetly before kissing me. “You’re here. You’re safe. That’s all I care about. Late is fine, as long as you arrive.”
Chuckling at her, I kissed her silly. She was repeating the words she always said to me when I’d apologize for being late. The last time was the day I’d finally shown up at the cabins in Clear Lake.
But it was the day we’d been looking at our house in Sandy that came to mind. God, I’d had such plans for that place. Sara had been beautifully pregnant with Freddie, and our goal had been to have a big family. Now we did. Sara and I loved Rina and Aiden as much as we loved our own son, and we’d continue to love them all, and if one day we felt safe enough to add to it, our love would simply expand.
It was that thought that had me rolling my wife onto her back and looming over her. She fought her smile for a split second but broke out into the sweet, soft laugh I lived to hear.
“Well, I’ll make it up to you, Shortcake,” I whispered, leaning down to brush a kiss across her throat, up her chin, and finally on her lips.
She laughed again, shaking us both. “You’d better.”
Grinning down at her, I brushed her hair from her beautiful face, the face I’d known I wanted to look at the rest of my life from the second I’d met her in Shelly’s Bar that night in Sandy. We’d been through so much even before the virus, and she’d been my rock, the mother to my son, and now mother to two more who meant the world to us. As I gazed down at her, I sighed deeply in want and love and just…awe of what we’d accomplished—apart and together. I realized that I’d do it all again—every mile, every fight, every setback—if it meant I’d end up right where I was at that moment. I’d do anything for her.
I kissed her lightly, pressing my forehead to hers. “I will, Sara. I promise.”
Epilogue
SARA
Klamath Lake, Oregon
2 years after Hurricane Beatrice
“THAT’S SOME Mad Max shit right there,” Tina muttered, shaking her head at my soft chuckle. Her eyes were narrowed on the rather tense conversation we couldn’t quite hear from the lodge’s front porch steps.
Rich had just returned, and his posture was casual, relaxed, but Jack, Joel, and my dad were rigid in front of the large group on the other side of the fence. Soldiers…about a dozen of them. A military Humvee, in all its camo glory, was parked right in front of the lodge gate, but leading the way was a truck that had been…altered. Welded to the front of it were two large steel plates that swooped down to a point, almost like the front of an old train engine. The truck was essentially a clearing machine. Not only could it shove zeaks out of the way with no effo
rt at all, but it could push cars and debris off to the side of the road.
The troop at the gate was the same one Jack had seen in Medford a year prior. It had taken them several months, but they’d eventually gotten around to Klamath Lake. When they’d stumbled upon us, it had been a strange experience.
Jack and Joel knew them—or at least, some of them—as did Rich and Dottie. The men ranged from all over, having been thrown together for martial-law detail in the Portland area, but they’d started making their way south when the city was complete overrun by the dead. The man in charge was General Grayson. He was originally from Fort Warner, the same base Jack and Joel had been stationed.
At first Grayson had been shocked at not only how secure the lodge was but just how many of us there were and how well we were doing. Once he’d realized there were former military on site, he’d tried to recruit them. Jack had said no, and Joel had told the general to go fuck himself. And that had almost started a huge fight with Grayson’s men…and women.
Rich had stepped in, explaining in a calm manner that no one was going anywhere. He offered them a place to camp for the night and a hot meal, but he’d told them that we’d all been there for over a year and a half, and no one was leaving.
Once Grayson had heard Rich’s story, where’d he’d been when the virus took hold, and what he and Dottie had been doing, the general had been in awe. He’d explained that Fort Warner had been able to transfer and print files concerning the virus just before all communications had gone down. He had another doctor—a scientist by the name of Alex Hart—who’d been doing his own work.
That had begun a tentative relationship. We had a hard time trusting someone outside our iron gates. Grayson, however, had information and ammo, for which he traded for various things—eggs, chickens, and fresh vegetables were the most wanted, but it was Dottie’s research that was the key.
“Mark my words,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes on Grayson. “One day they’re gonna wanna take Dottie to their lab. They won’t be satisfied with taking Rich for a day or two.”