Jack crawled across the floor, still desperately trying to find the pistol, but as intently as he searched, he just couldn’t find it. His hand finally curled around a cold, solid steel item, but it wasn’t the pistol. It might do, though, he thought grimly, it might just do. Mark staggered across the cellar, laughing darkly … and then he was upon Jack, and the two of them were rolling and roaring and stabbing and slashing at each other in the dark, like two rabid wolves battling in the night forest.
Epilogue
“That’s good, Nick. Hold it there while I get these screws in. Hold it steady,” Kate said, directing Nick, who was using all of his strength to prop up a freshly cut pine log. The log would form one of the final supports for the living room ceiling and would bring the repairs to the cabin—largely flattened by the huge explosion—almost to a close. Thus far, the repairs had taken most of the summer, but they were almost finished.
“It looks good, Mom, almost as good as new!” Susan remarked.
“I know, right?” Kate said with a smile as she lined up the screws and screwed them into place with her screwdriver. “Who would have known I’d be any good at woodworking, and just with hand tools, too!”
“The cabin almost looks as good as new,” Susan said. “Almost…”
“Looks pretty good from where I’m sitting,” Jack said, grinning at the two of them from the balcony, where he was seated.
“I know you wouldn’t be sitting at all, even with that wooden leg of yours, if I hadn’t expressly ordered you to do exactly that, Jack!” Kate said. “I told you I could handle this on my own!”
“I know, I know,” Jack said with a laugh. “And I was only pretending to doubt you. I knew you could do it all along, honey.”
“Hey, pegleg,” Arthur said, walking out of the woods with a pile of firewood on his shoulder. “Having fun sitting around, telling other people what to do? You must be feeling like you’re back at that city slicker office job you used to love so much!” he added with a playful wink.
Jack could only laugh; he still couldn’t believe Arthur had survived after so much blood loss. His survival had been the result of two miracles: first, the fact that the bullet hadn’t hit any major organs or arteries, and second, the fact that Susan’s blood had been the same as Arthur’s and Jack’s. In the aftermath of the battle, she had saved both of their lives, transfusing a substantial amount of her blood to her uncle and her father.
Jack itched his wooden leg, feeling a sensation that wasn’t there as phantom limb syndrome struck. The shot that had struck his lower leg had shattered the bone into so many pieces that the only way to save his life had been an amputation … without anesthetic. Nick had taken Jack’s leg off just below the knee with a powerful swing of a wood chopping ax, and Kate had performed the emergency surgery to close up the gaping wound.
For at least a week, both brothers had hovered between life and death, and it had seemed that neither of them would pull through. Miraculously, though, both men had managed to fight hard enough to get the fire of life back into their hearts. And now, months later, both were almost as right as rain. Jack walked with a limp on his wooden prosthetic leg—which he had designed and made—and Arthur got tired a lot more quickly than he previously would have, but otherwise, both men had made full recoveries.
Jack itched at his wooden leg again, and a memory of that fateful morning popped into his mind … how he had somehow found the tomahawk on the floor of the cellar in the nick of time, how he and Mark had fought like wild beasts, how he had fended off Mark’s frenzied attacks with the knives, coming away with only a few cuts across his arms, before burying the tomahawk blade deep in Mark’s neck, and finally watching the light fade from his enemy’s eyes.
He glanced across at his father’s grave, down at the bottom of the yard just where the trees started, and a pang of intense sadness hit him. He missed Kenneth terribly, as did everyone else, especially Elizabeth, who had not fully recovered from his death, and probably never would. Everyone regarded Kenneth as a hero, of course, and everyone took a few moments every day to visit his grave and put fresh flowers on it.
A sob tightened like a knot in Jack’s throat, and he shuddered as the nightmarish recollection of the battle faded from his mind. The less frequently he remembered that dark episode, the better.
“It’s done!” Kate announced triumphantly. “That’s the last of the major work finished! Well done, everyone. It’s all gonna be a lot easier from now on.”
Everyone gave a celebratory cheer.
“C’mon!” Jack said, heaving himself up from his chair. “There’s still plenty of daylight left, and there are summer berries to harvest. Let’s get picking!”
Laughing and joking, they all left the cabin, heading for the places where the berries grew beneath the trees, and above the sky was as clear and richly blue as they had could have wished for, and the bees buzzed, and the birds sang … and all was well in this strange new world.
THE END
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Survive the Day Boxset: EMP Survival in a Powerless World Page 74