“Violet?” Harper walked over to her. “Where’s Madison?”
The woman started to point at the cluster of nine- to eleven-year-olds, but froze, looking around the room. “Umm.”
“How can you just lose her?” blurted Harper, nearly shouting.
Violet winced, but hardened her stare. “There’s fifty-four kids in here.” Her glower softened with an apologetic sigh. “If one of them wants to sneak off, there’s only so much I can do. I’m sorry… I’ve been asking Ned to give me at least one more person to help out here, but no one wants to put up with this many kids all day every day. Only two expressed interest. One guy couldn’t read, and the woman had too short a fuse.”
“Argh.” Harper grabbed her hair and paced, then shouted, “Madison!?”
“The shadow man took her,” said Mila in an emotionless voice.
Everyone fell quiet.
“Mila’s weird,” said Christopher. “She just says stuff like that to be scary.”
“The shadow man took my mom, too.” Mila stared into Harper’s eyes. “Mom’s not coming back. When the shadow man takes someone, they never come back.”
Violet pursed her lips, looking at Mila, and whispered, “I got this. Don’t panic.”
Harper’s hands resumed shaking. No way in hell did she seriously believe some supernatural shadow entity had taken her sister. Perhaps a living, breathing threat followed Mila here from wherever he’d attacked her mother, but no one could have plucked Madison out of the classroom without being noticed, but if she’d run off… what might Mila have seen out the window?
“Madison?” shouted Harper, flying into a panic.
She ran out of the room, going up and down the school hallways, calling for her sister over and over. Upon finding no trace of her in the building, she raced outside running blindly in random directions and shouting her sister’s name. Tears streamed out her eyes, blurring the trees and houses into a meaningless smear of color. People emerged from doors, watching as she zoomed by. Her brain re-engaged with the idea that Madison probably ran home, so Harper headed as straight south as she could, cutting across a stretch of golf course before jumping fences into another residential area. Giant houses with lots of space between them probably meant the people who used to live here had been well off.
In the fifth yard she crossed, an athletic man wearing sunglasses, a pink bathrobe, and sweat pants observed her from an elevated deck beside a pool. A tumbler glass in his left hand held about an inch of brown liquid. He looked a little rough around the edges, but would clean up into a pretty boy if he shaved. Something about him seemed kinda familiar.
“Hey,” said Harper. “Have you seen my sister? She’s ten, black hair, skinny.”
“What are you doing in my yard?”
She pointed the shotgun at him. “Missing child. Have you seen my sister?”
“Whoa there, hot pants. Take it easy. This is my house. Don’t you know who I am?”
Harper scoffed. “No. Didn’t anyone ever tell you people who say ‘don’t you know who I am’ are usually assholes. I have no idea who you are, but you do kinda look like I’ve seen you somewhere.”
He bowed his head, sighed, and raked a hand over his dark, thick hair. “Well, that didn’t take long at all. Lucas Garza?”
“Nope. Sorry. I really don’t care who you are right now while my sister’s missing.” She shivered at the sight of him. “You realize you have no shirt on and it’s like forty degrees, right?”
“Yeah.” He toasted her with the glass. “This stuff keeps me warm.”
She approached the deck. “Hey, I get it. You’re upset. Everyone’s messed up now. I need to find my little sister before she gets hurt.”
“Pirates of Whitebone Cove?” He struck a swashbuckler’s pose. “The Night Sword series?”
“Nope, sorry. I think I might’ve seen you on TV or something. You an actor?”
“Was. Used to be famous, wealthy, girls throwing themselves at me. All that money… it’s gone. Maybe it wasn’t ever real, just numbers in computers.”
Harper couldn’t quite feel too sorry for a rich guy who lost it all when the banking network melted. Money didn’t matter anymore. “Yeah. That really sucks. Sorry. I gotta go.”
Lucas toasted her again and took a sip from his drink.
She ran across the yard, scaling fence after fence before running through trees, down a hill to a road crossing her path. A solid reddish fence with stone posts every twenty feet or so blocked further progress directly south. The roof of a large building with a narrow strip of windows barely peeked over it, suggesting the other side had quite a drop. She turned right, heading for Route 74. The red fence gave way to pickets, then trees overlooking a series of fluffy white inflatable buildings. The ground still looked too far down to risk climbing, so she kept going west until she hit the intersection with Route 74, and veered south.
She contemplated blaring the horn to call for help, but wasn’t sure Madison cutting school deserved a 911 blast, especially if she’d only gone home. However, if she didn’t find her at home, Harper would use up that whole air horn until they found her.
Leigh Preston jogged up to her when she passed by the medical clinic. “Hey, Harper.”
“Leigh!” She darted over and grabbed the woman’s arm. “Maddie’s missing! She ran away from school.”
“Oh, no.” Leigh looked around for a few seconds before she blinked like an idea hit her in the head like a rock. “Oh! Sadie said she saw a kid crossing the highway an hour or two ago, heading west.”
“Why didn’t she stop her?” shouted Harper.
“Hey. Calm down.” Leigh squeezed her arms. “No need to yell at me.”
“Sorry.”
“Sadie’s at the buses. She spotted the kid a couple hundred yards away.”
Harper whined out her nose. “Crap! Was she alone?”
“I think so. C’mon, let’s go check.”
Leigh jogged down the road to the bus barrier, where Sadie, Cameron, and Annapurna stood sentry.
“You saw Madison?” asked Harper.
Sadie shrugged. “I saw a kid. Too far away to recognize. Long black hair, blue coat.”
Harper’s stomach churned with worry. “That sounds like her. Where’d she go? Was she alone?”
“Yep. Headed west off the road, little south of the farm.”
“Where? Show me. Please.” Harper bounced on her toes.
“Can’t leave this post unless there’s a serious emergency… Tell ya what. Head up the road, and I’ll give a pip when you’re at the spot.” Sadie pulled out her air horn can. “Soon as I chirp the horn, you’ll want to go to your left off the road.”
“Okay. Thanks.” Harper hurried back up Route 74.
Leigh ran to catch up, her AK47 clattering in her grip. “We’ll find her.”
“It’s so stupid. This other kid at the school keeps talking about a shadow man taking people. I’m terrified something might really be out there.”
“Ehh. Some of those kids saw some nasty shit on their way here.”
Harper glanced over at her. “I’m one of those kids. Though… I guess the nasty I saw was my fault.”
“Don’t blame yourself.”
“No, I mean I shot a guy right in the face from like four feet. His head exploded.”
Leigh coughed.
“He was trying to kidnap Maddie.”
“Sick bastards out there.”
“Yeah. I hate it. What idiot thought launching nukes was a good idea?” Harper fumed. “I don’t even remember what pizza tastes like!”
Leigh stared at her.
She lapsed into sobs for a few seconds, but composed herself. “Sorry. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with me. Maddie’s missing and I’m bitching about pizza.”
“Hey, it’s normal. You’re upset. The brain does weird things.”
A distant meep came from an air horn.
Harper stopped and turned to look back toward town. At that
distance, the buses appeared as little more than a whitish line across the road. Sadie only looked about as tall as tall as a grain of rice.
“Here, tracks.” Leigh squatted and pointed at the dirt. “Looks like a kid.”
“Madison!” shouted Harper. “Where are you?”
Her voice echoed over the tree-dotted field. A hundred or so people to the right paused in their effort to construct a farm, looking her way. Various incomplete buildings, pens for animals, storage barns, and so on, stood in different degrees of completion. A few dozen chickens roamed about a fenced area beside the only intact structure, a large shack. Harper disregarded them and walked out into the grass, going in the same direction the tracks indicated.
They walked past trees, dirt trails, and hills. Here and there, Leigh paused to look at the ground, but didn’t find any more tracks. A fair distance ahead to the left, Harper spotted a tall mound of rock. It looked like a reasonable spot to climb for a better view of the area, so she jogged for it.
Soft crying coming from the other side stopped as she drew near.
“Maddie?” yelled Harper, breaking into a run.
She scrambled to the hill, grabbing trees for balance on the shifting dirt as she climbed to the other side. Madison sat on the ground in the shadow of a huge boulder, her back to the rock, staring at the dead iPhone in her hands. She looked as though she’d been crying hard for hours, but other than having blue lips, didn’t appear hurt.
“Maddie!” Harper ran over, skidding to a stop beside her. She dropped the shotgun and grabbed her sister in both arms. “Please don’t hate me.”
“Why did you leave? You told me you wouldn’t go away.” Despite the girl’s surly tone, she embraced her.
“I’m sorry. They said it was safe and wouldn’t take long. We found a Walmart and got a whole bunch of good stuff. Food, clothes, shoes… even some medicine.”
Madison sniffled.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
“You scared the hell out of me!” cry-shouted Madison.
Leigh exhaled in relief.
Harper jumped at an air horn going off behind her with three short pips. She looked back and up at Leigh. “What’s that signal mean?”
“All clear. Sadie should understand that as ‘we found her okay.’”
“Oh.” She squeezed Madison so hard the girl gurgled. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not mad at you.” Madison clung.
Harper’s heart all but melted as her second worst fear dissolved. She knelt there holding her sister for a few minutes, unable to talk. Finally, she found a voice. “Why’d you run off?”
“I wanted to be alone. The school was too peopley.”
Leigh stifled a snicker.
“I hate it here. I wanna go home,” said Madison. “Mom and Dad are gonna be mad at us for being gone for days without calling.”
Harper burst into tears. No… I thought she understood… She shifted from kneeling to sitting and pulled her sister into her lap. “Mom and Dad are…”
“No.” Madison’s face scrunched up with grief, and she, too, burst into sobs.
Leigh sat on a nearby rock, hand over her mouth, eyes wet.
A minute or six later, Harper gathered herself and exhaled slow. “Maddie, Mom and Dad aren’t going to be angry. They’re gone.”
“I know,” said Madison, her voice warped by grief. “But if I keep talking about them like they’re alive, I don’t have to believe it. It hurts too much.” She coughed, and lapsed back into sobs.
Harper held her until she quieted. “I know you don’t like it here. Please give it a chance, okay? It’s the safest place for us.”
“I don’t really hate it here. I hate that we can’t go home. I hate that the world broke. I hate that I lost my friends. I hate that Mom and Dad died.”
“I do, too, Termite.” Harper rocked her back and forth. “I do, too.”
Madison sniffled. “Sorry for being a butthead.”
“It’s okay. Just don’t run off again?”
“’Kay.”
“C’mon.” Harper patted her on the leg. “Your lips are blue. You’ve been out in the cold too long. We should go back to the house.”
Madison stood, bowed her head, and sighed. “You can call it home if you want.”
“Are you sure?” Harper got up and took her sister’s hand.
“Yeah. We live here now. I have scary dreams about our old house. It’s not home anymore. Mom and Dad died there when those people broke in. It’s a grave. A grave of memories.”
Harper felt as though a knife hit her in the heart. She couldn’t find the will to take even one step, her mind awash with scenes from her old house: holidays, friends over, even boring days or arguments with the parents.
“You okay?” asked Leigh.
“I’ll get back to you on that.”
Madison tugged on her arm. “C’mon, Harp. Let’s go home. I don’t wanna be alone anymore.”
25
A Whole lot of Used to
Leigh walked with them back to the bus barrier.
Sadie and Annapurna both hugged Madison and asked her not to run off again. She begrudgingly apologized and promised not to. Harper hugged Sadie, tearfully thanking her for spotting Madison going across the road.
“Walt stopped by.” Annapurna nodded toward the militia HQ. “We told him about Madison. He wanted us to tell you to go on home for the rest of the day. Stay with her tomorrow, too if you need. Given what happened at the Walmart, you’re off the hook for a bit. Another group’s gonna be heading back there in a few minutes.”
“What happened at the Walmart?” Madison looked up.
“Umm. We ran into a couple bad guys.”
Madison’s eyes tripled in size.
“I… didn’t mess up again.” Harper looked down.
“Hey…” Annapurna crouched and rested a hand on Madison’s shoulder. “They’re not sending her back there. It’ll be okay.”
Madison sniffled.
“Thanks.” Harper smiled at the women, and led her sister down the road toward Hilltop Drive. She crossed the dirt strip to the smaller highway paralleling Route 74, and followed it past the medical clinic. Deacon emerged from the building in mid conversation with Fred. Both men appeared in good spirits and waved at her. Harper figured Deacon passed his medical check and headed over to have his talk with Mayor Ned.
Up ahead, a shadow moved behind a large wooden sign reading ‘Elk Meadow Center.’ Someone appeared to be trying to hide from her. Harper shifted Madison to the right, putting herself between the sign and her sister. She started to raise the shotgun, but froze when Tyler stepped out with his hands up.
“What the heck are you doing?” asked Harper.
“Sorry. Just… I dunno.” He scratched his head. “Was on my way to the school to pick Lorelei up and kinda got sidetracked.”
She narrowed her eyes. Is he stalking me? “Sidetracked by what?”
“The hills.” He gestured off to the west. “It’s so quiet here. Doesn’t really look like anything happened. I guess I zoned out on a daydream. Kept thinking about walking off into those hills and just keeping on going.”
“Oh.” Harper relaxed, but thought it odd he refused to look directly at her. That ‘weird kid’ vibe hit her again, but he wouldn’t be the first boy who got a bad case of the awkwards while talking to her. “You look worried about something. Is Lorelei doing okay?”
“Yeah, she’s hanging in there. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken her in though.”
“Why?”
Madison leaned against her.
“I’m… I dunno. What do I know about raising a kid? She gave me this look and I just kinda agreed right away without thinking about it. I’m only nineteen. Didn’t exactly have the best example of parents. Lori would be better off with someone else.” Tyler stuffed his hands in his coat pocket and gazed out over the hills. “Evergreen’s probably not right for me.”
“What do you mean? This place is pr
etty nice.” She looked down at Madison. Blue lips, shivering, but a content expression. “I should probably get home. Maddie’s been out in the cold.”
A distant squealing cheer broke the silence. Harper twisted to look behind her at a fast-approaching streak of white. Lorelei, in a winter coat a little too big for her, sprinted down the road, emitting a joyful non-word. The six-year-old crashed into Tyler, beaming. “Hi!”
Harper opened her mouth to comment about him letting a girl that small run home alone, but Tyler didn’t seem at all concerned about it. Her non-confrontational nature got into a brawl with her role on the militia. Only her doubt as to whether or not what remained of society would still consider it wrong for a six-year-old to be alone outside kept her quiet.
“Hey, kiddo.” Tyler patted her on the head. “How was school?”
“I had fun!” Lorelei bounced on her toes, little lights in her sneakers flashing. She proceeded to ramble about what they’d learned—mostly writing, reading, and basic math.
Harper sighed at them. In all likelihood, by the time that girl was old enough to have a child, kids would be thrilled to have shoes at all, and couldn’t care less if they lit up, wouldn’t even imagine such a thing as shoes-with-lights could exist. They warped into a metaphor for a society that had gone way off the rails and had nothing better to do with its resources than put blinking lights in kids’ sneakers.
“We need to get inside,” said Harper. “Before Maddie freezes.”
Tyler nodded and started to wander off, but hesitated when Lorelei started chatting with Madison. The little platinum blonde sprite was about as opposite as possible to her: energetic to glum, nearly white hair to black, thrilled to bits with life to a burden of grief too heavy for a ten-year-old. Before the war, the two of them would’ve been quite alike.
“Might as well walk together.” Tyler fidgeted again, not looking at her.
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