The Unchanged (Book 3): Safe Harbor

by Starnes, T. M.

  Caroline smirked, “Since my brother is rude, let me introduce myself: I’m Caroline Charbonneau, this guy’s older sister. This is Sebastian, and thanks for helping us.”

  I introduced everyone.

  Over the next thirty minutes or so, each of us told our own short version of our adventures over the last week. How we met, what we encountered, who we lost, and how we made it to the Outer Banks.

  Ugh!

  When your big sister, when told by other people how they feel he, meaning me, saved them and led the way here, sits and silently grins giving you a ‘don’t get a big head, I’ve changed your diapers’ kind of look, it just makes you cringe.

  “Taylor has always been good about helping people.” Caroline smiled, “He was made for this kind of thing.”

  I frowned. Who are you and what did you do with my sister?

  “He always identified with the superhero. The life saver. The knight in shining armor. Kids teased him all the time growing up.” She smiled at me. “Always living in a fantasy world, but when it came down to time to do the right thing for the right reasons, you could find Taylor there.”

  Dear lord. A body snatcher has taken her over!

  “If only he didn’t write those murder mysteries. Yech.” She rolled her eyes. “And always, always, women surrounded him.” She motioned at the women around the room. “The jocks in school, idiots, of course, thought he was gay because he was always around women.”

  “Nothing wrong with that,” Julie interjected and popped a bubble.

  “No, not at all. But try to tell idiots that.” Caroline agreed.

  “Females are the deadlier of the sexes after all.” Cheyenne grinned.

  “And the smartest,” Janessa added.

  “And the bravest.” Lexi smiled.

  Julie popped a bubble, “And the cutest.” I gave her a sidelong glance, “Well, you’re cute handsome, but come on, look at these ladies around you!” She grinned.

  Cheyenne waited for me to disagree, I shrugged, nodded, and leaned over to kiss Cheyenne’s cheek.

  Caroline snorted, “I knew it. I knew it.” She pointed at Cheyenne and me. “You’re his type.”

  “Why does everyone tell me I have a type?” I frowned.

  Janessa finished taping the bandage over her eye and offered her a couple of pain pills.

  “’Cause you do, that’s why.” She swallowed the pills. “Taylor could you, or really any of you, watch Bass while I rest my eyes for a minute and let these pills go to work? I trust all of you if my brother does.”

  “You sleep.” I said, kissing her on the forehead, “We’ll take care of Bass. He’s already asleep.”

  Julie stepped forward, “I’ll take the little guy. You got a bed up in this palace?”

  “My old bedroom upstairs. Give them the tour, Taylor. Put Bass down in my old room. It smells like mommy.” She paused, “I’ve got nothing that smells like his daddy.” She began to tear up again and Cheyenne caressed her head until I handed Bass over to our fauxhawk-haired road warrior.

  “Come on, everyone, let’s do the tour.” I motioned everyone after me, giving my sister a few moments of solitude and peace from the horrors she experienced. She still looked horrible. Her bug bites, sunburned skin, the boniness of her figure, all of it together made me sick to my stomach. She was supposed to be worried about me. Me, the youngest, shouldn’t be worried about her.

  I showed them the house. Comment after comment was made about my family, how nice we looked together in photo collage after collage my mother liked hanging around the house. Their opinions included that my brother was more handsome than me, poor eyesight on their part, obviously. My sister took after my mother, which was true. My family looks too smart to have me as a member. Julie will pay. Was Nash single? Cheyenne will pay. That I looked cute as a baby, absolute truth. That I was a nerdy looking kid and obviously never grew out of it. Maybe a bit of truth there. How beautiful my parents’ house looked, etcetera, etcetera, as we went from room to room and floor to floor.

  As Julie set Bass down in my sister’s room, Cheyenne and Janessa waited out in the hall, talking. The Atkin sisters carried toys up to the room from Caroline’s backpack in case Bass woke up.

  “Hey, Taylor?” Cheyenne called from the hallway as Janessa, grinning happily, came in the room and joined the others hovering over my nephew.

  I glanced over my shoulder at her, “Yeah?”

  Cheyenne petted King on the head. “I haven’t seen your place yet? Isn’t that part of the tour?”

  “Oh yeah! This I gotta see.” Julie popped to her feet, but Janessa grabbed her arm and pulled her around in a circle, pulling her close to whisper in her ear.

  “Come on,” Cheyenne held out her hand for me, “Come show me.”

  Julie broke into a grin, “Oh. Riiiight.” Julie popped a bubble and waved dismissively in our direction, “We’ve got to watch over your sister and the baby. Shoo. Go away. Shoo. Shoo.”

  “It’s that little mother-in-law suite we parked in front of,” I told Julie, “Come see.”

  Cheyenne made a loud sigh and grabbed my hand, “No. They’re busy. Come on. Show me.”

  Cheyenne led me out of the house, past my sleeping sister, down to my place. I tried not to make clumping sounds with my cane as we went down the stairs. It was a lot easier than when I went up. We still carried our weapons and I received a reprimand from Cheyenne because I ran away from my dropped weapon to go to my sister, but she would forgive me.

  The MIL suite was just a square building raised slightly off the ground but not as much as the house. Three feet or so, resting on a raised manmade hill. It matched the house, with a covered porch the length of the front of the building. There were two slim, tall windows on either side of the front door, a high slender window along the roof on the left side of the house with two round windows evenly spaced on that side, and glass windows along the rear and other side hidden from the main house’s view.

  I found my spare key and opened the door to my place.

  It was hot inside. Musty. Humid. It had that smell of too hot of a place closed for too long and not aired out.

  Cheyenne took it all in as King entered ahead of her and plopped down on the thick carpeted floor.

  The main room had three sectionalized rooms with wall to ceiling glass on the back side and right side with amazing views of the bay, and the trees separating the neighbors view.

  The front wall and the wall on the left from the front door was my library and study. The tall windows were tinted beside the doors and the circular windows on the left were frosted. A small dining table, 17” flat screen TV and my desk with room for my laptop made up my furniture. The bookcases lined the left wall and were covered with the plethora of novels I enjoyed reading.

  My desk was covered with notes and paperback copies of my mystery that became a bestselling, award winning, self-published novel. The cashed check from my new publisher was in a frame above the desk. My novel, in mass print form, would have been out in another month.

  Ah, well, staying alive overrules fame, I guess.

  The bathroom, that Cheyenne was peeking in, had a large, clear glass shower and artificial stone interior with a built-in seat. The shower was big enough for two people. My grandma, mom’s mother, was having difficulty standing and she appreciated it.

  The third and largest room was the bedroom.

  The main room and bedroom could be separated by a retractable sliding set of panels splitting the rooms in two, cutting the building into thirds.

  My bed comforter was deep red and black, queen sized, the footboard pointed toward the front door. Waist high shelving stretched around the bedroom section with mirrors at the head and side of the bed to reflect the bay making the room appear bigger than it was. The drapes were open, and the sun was roasting the room.

  No air conditioning, no power for the ceiling fan.

  Cheyenne grinned as she examined the room, standing beside the bed and fluffing out her
tank top, “This is really nice, Taylor. Not as geeky as I feared. Hot though.”

  King sighed with contentment as he found a softer area on the carpet nearest the front door and stretched out across the entry in some minimal shade.

  I moved around the bed. “Yeah, I wasn’t planning to be gone so long. Mom usually shuts the drapes if I’m gone too long.”

  As I pulled the drapes closed, a piece of cloth hit me from behind.

  I pulled it off my head and realized it was Cheyenne’s tank top. It smelled like her, and she smelled nice.

  I grinned, started to turn and a light piece of lacy purple fabric landed on my shoulders.

  When I looked up, Cheyenne was topless, crawling on the bed, untying and kicking off her boots.

  I waited, slack jawed at Cheyenne’s physical beauty and athletic physique as she leaned back on the pillows on her elbows, giving me a smirk, crooking her finger at me with a “come here” motion. We had learned in the past week, you take opportunities when they’re presented.

  She smirked her naughtiest smirk. “I know you’re not well. But this is the cleanest we’ve been in a week, and I’m not expecting much ‘cause you need to take it easy, but I can tell you’re energetic and happy about finding your sister, so let’s give you some physical therapy while it lasts, cowboy.”

  I sighed as my gun belt dropped to the floor.

  Yeehaw, giddy up.

  Chapter 16

  Not enough time passed before someone stomped loudly on the front porch before knocking on the door.

  “Hey? Guys?” Julie yelled through the door. “Don’t know if you guys are busy, but Mrs. Gale is calling over the radio for everyone to come back to the rec center. She says some of our group are worried about Taylor and want to see you’re okay and the lookouts up on the lighthouse say they’ve been picking up some radio chatter that sounds like military. She says since you’ve been so good at leading us, and keeping us relatively out of trouble, and our peeps seem to respond better to you, that you should come back. And Caroline says-”

  “Julie!” Cheyenne yelled, rolling her eyes.

  “Yeah, gorgeous?”

  I laughed. “We’ll be out in a minute.”

  “I’m babbling again,” Julie mumbled against the door. “Y’know I’ve been doing that a lot lately. I’m wondering-”

  “Julie!” Cheyenne yelled and laughed.

  “Right! Got it! Sorry!” She laughed. “I’m going!”

  Cheyenne pushed herself off my chest, flipping back her long, tousled hair. “I swear. Sometimes her timing is so good, and other times her timing sucks.”

  Sweat glistened on her body as she pushed herself all the way up, carefully crawling back over my legs, and examined my leg bandage, peeling it back.

  Another knock came at the door.

  “What!” Cheyenne yelled.

  “You two are so cute together.” Julie laughed and banged heavily on the door enough to make King jump, then her laughter receded in the distance as she ran back to the house.

  “I’m gonna kill her.” Cheyenne grinned.

  Her nose wrinkled as she looked at my wound, “I told you to take it easy. You’re bleeding again.”

  I frowned, “If I recall, I didn’t have much say in the matter.”

  She gave me a dirty look, the good kind, and her eyes traveled down my body; she shut her eyes as she reached my belly button.

  “Nope.” She laughed and crawled off the bed and handed me my clothes. “Nope. Must resist. We’ve gotta go check on our people.” She smiled and laughed as she fell over trying to put on her underwear.

  Her laughter was musical, and her smile looked like Fourth of July fireworks.

  “C’mon, c’mon, stop looking at me like that and get dressed.” She tossed my shorts at me.

  We were dressed and walking toward the house when Caroline, covered in layers of calamine lotion, exited the living room’s doors onto the patio. She made my arm and leg bandages look reserved in comparison. Sebastian was strapped in a carrier across her chest with Julie trailing behind her with Janessa zipping up her medical kit. The Atkin sisters were closing the door behind them.

  “Hey, let me carry Bass, you need a rest,” I said, limping with the cane toward the staircase.

  “She’s not going to let you,” Julie warned, “I’ve already tried. Stubborn runs in the family, Cheyenne, you ought to know.”

  Caroline nodded. “From what Lexi, Janessa, and Julie have been telling me since I woke up, y’all are better at protecting people than me. I’m taking care of Bass, you take care of everything else.”

  Caroline stopped and took a good look at Cheyenne and me and grinned, “Well, I see you’re being taken care of.”

  “Caroline.” I squirmed.

  As she passed us heading toward the Rubicon she winked at Cheyenne, “Don’t you look relaxed.”

  Cheyenne grinned and shrugged.

  Janessa shook her head. “We’re in trouble. Caroline’s got Taylor’s sense of humor.”

  Caroline chuckled, “Oh, please, I’m much funnier than him.”

  “Are not.” I opened the Jeep door for her.

  “Oh, please.” She said, climbing in, “I’m covered in calamine lotion and I look good doing it. Now that’s funny.”

  Janessa and Cheyenne looked at each other.

  “Well. Just when you thought you could get used to him,” Cheyenne smiled, “Now we’ve got her.”

  Caroline smiled at Cheyenne, “I need to tell you about when Taylor went swimming when he was a boy and discovered crabs pinch really, really, hard.”

  No! Not the crab story! No!

  I shut her door in mid-sentence.

  “We don’t speak of childhood,” I told Janessa and Cheyenne.

  “Yes, we do.” They replied.

  “No, we don’t.” I motioned for them to get in.

  “Yes, we doooo,” Caroline yelled from inside as they went around to the other side of the Jeep.

  “I want to hear too!” Julie yelled as she handed a box to the sisters.

  “What’s in there?” I pointed.

  “Caroline told us to get all the food we could for the survivors.” She pointed. “That’s most of the food. I remember the rule about not taking everything. I listen to your teachings, Obi-wan.” She grinned and made a formal martial arts bow. “I mean Sifu Walker.”

  I’m outnumbered.

  I’d rather take on the Changed.

  * * *

  By the time we arrived at the recreation center our people and a crowd of survivors were gathering in the basketball area of the center.

  Demetri, Patty, and Randy had driven out to the Alpha wall to see if the plow could be of any help at the barricade in addition to the bulldozer already there. Diego was waiting for us beside Mrs. Gale.

  Our group of survivors were energetic. There was no reason why not to be. Fresh clothes, baths, water, and breakfast! Real breakfast. Eggs, grits, hash browns and every sort of pork the Bruxton survivors could find in the empty homes or in restaurants. Generators were all over the island in case of storms creating power outages. It saved many restaurants supplies.

  Mrs. Gale was separating the healthy from the ill. The mentally impaired were a group of their own. Thirty of those, ours and theirs. Volunteers agreed to watch over them in a nearby building without windows near the rec center to try to make them feel safer.

  Of the healthy able-bodied, we considered that group to be twelve to seventy-year-olds. Of the healthy but not as able, were the retirees of advanced age or infirm, physically disabled in one way or another from before the Change, to those harmed during or after the Change, fighting mutants.

  Then we had infants and toddlers and children too young to do anything other than be frightened. Lori and Sheila and a few other I didn’t know looked after them.

  Mrs. Gale informed us that both groups now numbered around the upper two hundred. Many remained on the Alpha wall, or constructing the Beta wall, patrolling th
e beaches, patrolling through town, or manning the sea-worthy vessels.

  Over a hundred apparently were lost building the walls further out that never came back. It was a horrible blow to morale. As Diego previously informed us, they were the combat vets, engineers, grizzled, hard-working retirees, and the strongest of the Bruxton and Outer Banks survivors.

  Now the people around us were what remained.

  This was our safe harbor.

  Mrs. Gale was elated to see Caroline and Sebastian and immediately sent them to the triage area for first aid, something to eat, and washing.

  The kids on the lighthouse reported they were picking up bits and pieces of chatter over the radios that sounded like call signs and military code words. The lighthouse radio was powerful and had an extensive range. The nearby coast guard radio tower south of the lighthouse wasn’t operational, smashed by rampaging Changed. They weren’t certain about the call signs, because they weren’t military, and the words were so broken up and static filled, they just assumed it was military. It could have been anyone. Mrs. Gale told them to keep repeating our location every fifteen minutes to half hour, just in case.

  Before I knew it, Cheyenne, Janessa, Julie, Diego, the Atkins, and Mrs. Gale had formed a group at the table where I sat and everyone around us was looking toward our table. Slowly, each eye focused on me.

  Talk about pressure? Maybe it was just my imagination.

  “Well, Taylor,” Mrs. Gale asked, “Have you got any ideas on what we should do now?”

  I frowned. “Why are you asking me? You’re in charge.”

  She gave me that same grin I knew from her classes. The “you-know-the-answer-to-this-question-already” look.

  She gave me a slow head shake. “Young man, I’m no more in charge of this group than any of these others. The people in charge are gone. I’m a coordinator. A teacher.” She waved her hand at all the expectant faces watching us, me. “Some of these people have chosen you as their leader. They’ve told other people about you and your friends. You see they’re not looking at me. You see where they’re looking.”

  Yeah. I do.

  I’m not ready for this.