Dark Days of the After Special Edition | Prequel & Book 1

by Schow, Ryan

  “Yeah?” she asked, looking over and brushing aside a few loose strands of hair blowing around in the wind.

  “Can you be my mother?” she said, serious.

  Orbey laughed and then she said, “Only if you pull your weight.”

  Nodding, she said, “I will.”

  “That means when I tell you to shoot someone, you shoot them,” she said, looking at her sideways.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “When we get to town, we’re going to the feed store. There’s a guy that works there, Ned. He’s big and really nice to older folks, but two years ago he got out of jail after raping a thirteen year old girl. Word has it this was just the one he was caught for.”

  “He’s a sex offender?”

  “The worst kind, yeah. I just want you to get a good look at him.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’ll be the first.”

  “The first what?”

  “The first person we kill,” Orbey said. “Well you, rather. Skylar said you’re good up close. I’ll watch your back. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we’ve been planning for a total meltdown.”

  “Have you been planning for the Chicoms though?” Harper asked.

  “Yes. We’re going to get them on the way into town.”

  “You didn’t see the convoy I saw.”

  “So?” she said, turning off the dirt road onto the main road.

  “They have tanks.”

  “I have a guy who’s making grenades.”

  “Did I tell you I want you as my mother?” Harper asked with a big, contagious smile.

  “Indeed you did,” she replied, grinning.

  When they got to town, the first place they went was to was Five Falls Feed & Seed, named after the town they were in—Five Falls.

  Inside the hulking wooden structure, it smelled like feed, a smell she loved but forgot even existed. “Dear Lord, that smell is better than sex.”

  “Shhh,” Orbey said.

  Just then a tall man with black hair, a bit of a gut and solid arms walked over. He had to be close to six and a half feet tall. Harper was five foot eight and a little over half his weight. He looked down at them and asked, “Ladies, how can I help?”

  Orbey said, “Looking for seed.”

  “What about you, young lady?” he asked, smiling as he looked her over. All she could think of was that this man took advantage of a child. She had a gun in the Jeep. Orbey was packing right there.

  “I’m with her,” she said of Orbey.

  “Follow me then,” he replied, congenial. “Are you looking for conventional seeds or heirloom seeds?”

  “Heirloom, of course,” Orbey said. “Why would you carry conventional?”

  “Some people don’t know the difference, but they know a bargain when they see one,” he said. “Are you new in town?”

  Harper swallowed hard. “Just visiting.”

  “Interesting,” he said, turning around to look at her.

  She was in her mid-twenties and had a face and body that did not stand out. He, on the other hand, did stand out. She lowered her eyes. In her mind, she thought of ten different ways to kill him. None of them played out right. In each scenario, he’d get the upper hand. All it would take was him grabbing her, punching her or tackling her. If he did that, it was game over. She decided the bullet was the way to go. That brought her to forensics. Trace evidence.

  “There’s nothing interesting about it, sir,” she said, her eye clearing. “Someone comes into town, they enter a feed store, they want some seeds. That’s about as interesting as a dog fart.”

  Now he turned and looked at her and that thing in his eyes, the thing he was hiding until he was ready to come out and play, it flashed her for just a second.

  Then it was the smile.

  “Are you Ned?” Harper asked.

  “I am,” he said, not looking at her. Instead, he walked them to a long row of wooden bins, each containing seed packs. “I gotta bucket over here if you want. Plants up to an acre. Some interesting veggies in here.”

  He turned and hit them with a smile, one that was propped up hard.

  He didn’t like Harper.

  “There’s that word again,” she said.

  “More interesting than a dog’s fart, if that makes a difference,” he said before he walked away. “Grab me if you have any questions.”

  “Are you crazy?” Orbey hissed.

  “I wanted to see that thing in his eye. Did you see it?”

  “Yes.”

  “There’s a killer in there.”

  “I already told you he was the worst,” Orbey said.

  “I can do it now.”

  “Right now?” the older woman asked.

  “No, not right now,” she said, grabbing a few seed packs. “When the time is right.”

  “Get the bucket,” Orbey said, stilling Harper with a hand on her wrist. “We’ve got a big garden with wood and soil to spare.”

  She set the seeds back, then grabbed two buckets of heirloom seeds and walked it to the counter.

  Ned was there, towering over them, smiling. And that awful, predatory expression? Gone. He rang up the order, gave them the price, then said, “So how long are you staying in Five Falls?”

  Harper looked up into his eyes and said, “I’ve got business to attend to. So maybe a few days, maybe a month, maybe forever. I don’t know, Ned. I just go with the flow.”

  Now he smiled, this time genuine. Nodding his head he said, “A woman after my own heart.”

  Not to own it, she thought. More like to cut it out.

  “It was nice to meet you,” she said as she and Orbey took their purchase and walked it out to the Jeep.

  Harper got in and saw Ned watching them though the small, dusty window.

  “What a creep,” she said.

  Orbey started to back up and then she slammed on the brakes, shaking Harper. “Orbey, what the hell?”

  Harper glanced over her shoulder, saw the Sheriff’s car blocking their way, the lights flashing.

  Orbey got out, but before she did, she said, “Come with me.”

  A skinny man with a handsome face and a clean shaven jaw line stepped out of his car, frowned when he saw Orbey and smiled when he saw Harper. Now she knew why Orbey wanted her to come—to soften the Sheriff’s temper, should he track them down.

  “Heard you had a spot of trouble at the house,” he said.

  “Some people shot at us, we shot back, it was very civilized,” Orbey said. “You look rather dashing today, Sheriff. That’s a new aftershave, isn’t it?”

  Ignoring her, he said, “And you are?”

  “Curious,” Harper said.

  “About?”

  “Whether or not that’s a new aftershave. I like it, but I don’t. Makes me wonder if you have another.”

  Standing a little straighter in the back, he said, “You must be related to this one.” He glanced over at Orbey.

  “This one what, Sheriff?” Harper asked. “What is she to you?”

  “I was referring to Orbey.”

  “That’s a she, or a her, but not a ‘one’ as if she were something inanimate rather than a human being.”

  “I just meant—”

  “I know what you meant,” she said. “I saw it in your expression. That’s why I asked. So you’d know that I know.”

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “A woman whose day is being interrupted,” Harper said with a smile.

  Shaking his head, he knew he couldn’t win that battle. Finally, to Orbey, he asked, “What happened to that boy?”

  “What boy?”

  “The one you shot,” he replied. “Jackson Moore.”

  “I didn’t shoot anyone, Sheriff. I merely fired a warning shot after my woodpile and my home was peppered with lead from him and his douchebag friend.”

  “That’s not what I hear,” he said.

  “When was the last time there was a complaint levied against Orbey here f
or trespassing?” Harper asked.

  “I’m not talking to you,” he said, refusing her his eye.

  “It’s a valid question, Sheriff,” she challenged, crossing her arms. “You’re still the Sheriff, aren’t you?”

  “Of course I am.”

  “Then you work for the people and the people want to know how many times Orbey’s been caught trespassing, or doing things like poaching, or causing a disturbance on private land.”

  His nostrils flared and he looked down his nose at her.

  She stood her ground.

  “There’s been no such incident reported.”

  “Good, then get your skinny ass and that shit box out of the way and let us through,” Harper said with a fair amount of conviction.

  “There’s a man missing,” he said, red in the cheek.

  “Then go find him.”

  “He was last seen at your place,” Sheriff said turning to Orbey.

  “So you’re admitting to me that you knew he and his buddy Craig were trespassing?” Orbey said.

  “Craig told me as much,” the man said.

  “And where is he?”

  “At the bar, in his bed, working on his car,” he said. “You know those guys.”

  “I want to press charges,” Orbey said.

  Holding up his hands, he said, “Now, now, now let’s not be hasty.”

  “You heard the girl, move that shit box out of my way or I’m going to move it for you,” Orbey said.

  “Whose Jeep is that?” he asked, studying the stolen vehicle.

  “Your mother’s,” Orbey said.

  Standing there, his shoulders now slouching forward just the slightest little bit in defeat, he said, “We used to be on good ground, you and I.”

  “You’re the Sheriff,” Orbey said, her trademark sweetness on hiatus. “Yet you look to the townspeople for assurance in the decisions you make. We elected you to be your own man, to follow the law and to have a spine. If we can’t count on you to do your job, then really, what good are you as the law, or better yet, as a man?”

  Harper drew a breath. That was cold.

  “I like you, Sheriff,” Orbey continued, trying to dial it back. “I just want justice and so far you’ve only given me excuses.”

  “I will find out what happened,” he said.

  “I hope you do,” she said. “And when you find that little pipsqueak, you let him know next time he trespasses on my land I’ll send a round right through his heart.”

  Before he could say anything, Harper stepped up and said, “I decided I like your aftershave, Sheriff. Are you married?”

  “Are you hitting on me?” he asked, to the point, almost like it was a jab.

  “What if I was?” she teased.

  “I’d say that’s inappropriate,” he replied.

  “And that’s why you’re not married, Sheriff. Perhaps you should take what you can get while you can still get it.”

  “Care to explain yourself, young lady?” he asked, looking between Harper and Orbey, as if checking for Orbey’s take on Harper’s shenanigans.

  “The Chicoms are coming, and you can pretend to be the law, and be nice, and be diplomatic, or you can cower to the idiots who trespassed and hope that by the time all hell breaks loose with China you’ve grown a substantial pair of balls. You do have balls, don’t you Sheriff?”

  “Yes, I do,” he said, his cheeks going flush again.

  “Both of them?” Harper pressed.

  He nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

  “And yet, as the most powerful man in town, you’re still single. And good looking too, if I look past that dumb mustache. What a shame.”

  “You’re something else,” he said, at a loss for words.

  “Orbey may not like you,” Harper continued, her charm so candy sweet, “but I have a thing for men in uniform.”

  “Yeah, seems like you enjoy toying with them.”

  Smiling, looking at him a different way, she said, “I like toying…”

  “That’s our cue, Sheriff,” Orbey said, clearing her throat as she walked back to the Jeep. Harper followed, then turned and blew the Sheriff a kiss one last time.

  He seemed confused.

  “What the hell was that?” Orbey asked, red in the face herself.

  “The conversation’s done, we told him nothing and now he’ll think twice before he confronts us next.”

  “It was embarrassing, but effective,” Orbey said, backing out fast, the rear bumper nearly clipping the Sheriff’s front bumper as he kicked up a storm of gravel getting out of the way. He laid on the horn and Orbey ignored him.

  “Connor said he was a pushover, in so many words,” Harper said. “I used to be fun back in the day. Back before I saw the end of the world approaching. It was nice to feel a bit of my old self again.”

  “I think I’m going to like you,” Orbey finally said.

  “I think you will, too.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Harper’s day went well. They shot at strangers, ran over someone’s home, met a child rapist they planned to kill and went toe to toe with a Sheriff. That and the Five Falls Drug Store had a sale on batteries and tampons, as well as a big box of matches, a five pack of women’s underwear that weren’t ugly and an army green t-shirt that said, “I survived Five Falls.”

  When they got back home, Harper helped in the garden while listening to all the things that would be important for her to keep and maintain her own garden up at the barn.

  “When should I seed it?” Harper asked.

  “Depends on how you like having your butt looked at by carpenters,” Orbey said.

  “I’m not sure it’s going to be the distraction you think it would be,” she replied with a laugh.

  “Not in those pants, but maybe we can get you something tighter.” Smiling, her eyes bright, Orbey said, “You handled yourself with the Sheriff well back there.”

  “I used to be pretty and thin, and there was a day when I felt comfortable enough with myself and my body to run a little game on the players and the haters. Not for real, but just to do it, you know?”

  “Yeah? How long ago was that?”

  “A few years back. Times are tough in the city, though. The routine of it takes the life out of you, but so does the emotional struggle. You watch people you know, people you like and people you love fall to those…sons of bitches. Those freaking Commie turds.”

  She stopped talking and stood up straight. A powerful surge of emotions flowed through her, hitting her high in her chest. What was this? She hadn’t had this kind of welling of emotion in forever.

  “Do you have any family left, Harper?” Orbey asked, reaching out to take her hand.

  Her eyes began to glisten and she shook her head, the divulgence a soul crushing weight in and of itself.

  Orbey brushed a little dirt from herself then came in and hugged Harper. She apologized, embarrassed that someone as tough as her had been reduced to this kind of weakness. When you were out of the fight though, when you were safe—as she was for the time being—the emotions you tried so hard to bury had a way of charging to the surface to be dealt with. This was an inescapable fact, one she was apparently dealing with.

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” Orbey said, rubbing her back. “Family is going to be a different kind of thing in the future. Sometimes it’s the ones you love, the ones you’re closest to, the ones who can see you for who you are that become your family.”

  Nodding her head, standing back, she wiped her eyes and said, “I appreciate you, Orbey. Thank you. And I think I need to have my butt stared at a bit, just to feel like life is still going on, even if it’s at a Neanderthal level.”

  “Well then I’ll have Connor or Stephani help you and seed the garden tomorrow. Let’s make a light lunch then prep for supper. Then, if you want, we can head to Connor’s firing range just down the hill for some practice, unless you want to lay down for a nap. Did you sleep well last night?”

  �
�Not really,” she said.

  “Then perhaps a nap will suit you,” she said.

  “Where’s Stephani?”

  “At the hives. She’s making the move to double brood chambers. Plus she’s checking for mites. She said she’s only doing one hive today, but she’ll probably try to go through them all. I swear, that girl loves those bees to the point of obsession.”

  “Seems funny to love something so small,” Harper said.

  “Yeah, it does, but it’s more than that,” Orbey replied. “It helps me and Connor. I’m not sure if you know this, but the sugar in honey is better for diabetes than regular sugar. It’s high in antioxidants, which keeps our blood pressure low and helps stave off heart attacks and possible strokes. Plus it does wonders for our cholesterol levels.”

  “Is that it?” Harper asked with raised eyebrows.

  “It’s also good for topical wound healing,” she added. “And Stephani uses it as a cough suppressant. It doesn’t work for us so well, but for her, it’s nectar from the gods.”

  “Wow,” Harper said. “I didn’t know all that.”

  “Now that I’ve done the whole pitch,” she said with a smile, “would you like a peanut butter and honey sandwich?”

  “Heck yeah, I would!”

  When they were in the kitchen making the sandwiches, Connor tromped into the house with a stack of mail and said, “Got a letter from Skylar. It’s dated a few days back, so don’t get your hopes up.”

  Orbey washed her hands, dried them then said, “Don’t tell me how to feel, Connor. Here, let me take a look.”

  She opened the letter, pulled it out and read it first to herself, then aloud.

  “Dear Orbey, Connor, Stephani and Cooper. It’s coming. I heard there was a countdown to an EMP. I don’t know what it is, hopefully Logan will find out, but I think I might be in trouble here. I have a sick feeling. No matter what happens to me, get ready for it. I’m thinking days, or weeks, not years. Maybe sooner. Be safe. Love all of you.”

  “What is she doing?” Orbey asked.

  “Her job,” Harper said.

  “Which is?” Connor asked. “Specific is better than not.”

  “She infiltrated the Ministry of Propaganda.”

  “How?” Orbey said.

  “Through the Minister himself.”