Trudging straight up the steep hill with the heavy bucket wouldn’t work, so she followed the driveway, an easier, albeit longer, path up to the top. By the time she reached the house, flames belched out from the second-floor windows like the breath of dragons. She followed the others heading for the front door. Unprepared for the blast of intense heat, she mostly closed her eyes, held her breath, and dashed in long enough to fling her water at a burning patch of wall a few steps inside before fleeing from the heat.
Back down the hill she went for more water.
Three grueling trips later, the entire upper story glowed with flames. Annapurna, Deacon, and another man she didn’t recognize held full buckets, but didn’t approach the door. Harper hesitated with them.
“Hang back!” shouted Walter. “It’s too dangerous. Buckets aren’t gonna do this. Too late. Everyone stay out. That’s an order.”
Harper backed away until the heat radiating from the house ratcheted down from scary to annoying, and set the bucket on the ground. Since she wouldn’t be throwing the water on the fire, she crouched and scooped a few handfuls into her face to cool off.
Walter hurried around to the various militia personnel there. Eventually, he approached Harper. “Hey. This is gonna burn itself out no matter what we do. Just focus on keeping people at a safe distance, okay?”
“Okay. Will do.”
He nodded at her and ran over to give the same order to Annapurna.
Harper retreated from the burn even more, then put her back to the house, standing guard in case someone tried—for whatever reason—to go inside. Upon noticing Dennis at the top of the driveway not too far from her, she walked over to him.
“Hell of a thing,” muttered Dennis.
“Yeah.” She peered over her shoulder at the fully-engulfed house. “I hope no one’s in there.”
“Nah. Jimmy got out. Said he’s the first one to come home from the farm and found a fire in the back. The other three guys he shared the place with hadn’t been here yet. Sounds like the circuit breaker or some such. Guess you figured out by now that Jeanette flipped the switch. North part of Evergreen’s got power. Either they’re running the voltage a little hot, or when the transformers blew up on the poles during the attack, it melted something inside this place.”
“Yeah, maybe…” She cringed at the thought. Crap. Is our house gonna burn, too? “At least no one got hurt, right?”
“Truth.” He patted her on the back.
“Aww, son of a bitch,” muttered Cliff.
She gasped and spun, near to screaming with joy at seeing him alive and back from his scavenger run in one piece.
Cliff came tromping around the side of the burning house, an empty water bucket in each hand. He looked more angry than anything else.
It took every ounce of self-control Harper had not to run over and pounce-hug him. He’s okay! He paused by Walter for a short conversation to complain about them just turning on the master switch before going around to every house and making sure the breakers in each one had been shut off, or at least scheduling it with an announcement asking people to be home to catch crap like this before it burned out of control. Walter mumbled something she couldn’t hear over the roaring flames, but it seemed to placate Cliff enough that he nodded and walked over to her and Dennis.
With him in arms’ reach, she couldn’t resist any more and grabbed him.
“Hey, kiddo. Good to see you, too.” Cliff dropped the buckets and returned the embrace. “You okay?”
“Sorry.” She let out a huge sigh of relief and ceased clinging to him. “Just bad thoughts. The power came back, Madison actually made a joke, and I thought the universe would punish me for being happy by doing something bad. You were out on a scav…”
“Ahh.” He chuckled. “Never did believe much in that woo woo stuff. Thinking about that’ll drive ya crazy.”
“You’re sure no one was in there?” asked Harper.
“Yeah, few of us got here before it went up big. Checked it m’self.” Dennis gestured at the inferno. “Shame to lose such a nice place, but no one’s hurt.”
Harper leaned against Cliff, staring into the blaze and wishing as hard as she could their new home didn’t burn like this. Of course, even if it did, it’s not as if they’d end up homeless and broke. Anne-Marie Marbury would simply assign them to a new building. “You’re gonna check our breaker panel when we get home, right?”
“You bet.” Cliff spat to the side.
Other guys he lived with… oh, crap. “Dennis?” Harper grabbed his arm. “Who else lived here?”
“Some single guys. Uhh, Jimmy, Hank, think there’s a Rob.”
“Logan?” Harper tensed.
“Aww, no. He’s all the way down the end of this road where it loops back around. They’re assigning people along this street in the order they arrived in town. Them boys is fairly recent.”
“Oh, whew.” She sagged with relief.
“Wait, you’re dating this kid and you don’t know where he lives?” Cliff raised an eyebrow.
“Shouldn’t you be happy I don’t know where he lives? That means I haven’t gone to his room unsupervised.”
He put on a stern ‘Dad face,’ but a twitch in his lips from fighting a smile made it amusing rather than scary. “You make a good point.”
Timber, perhaps the second story floor, collapsed inside the house with a loud crash and a massive belch of sparking flames into the sky, glowing orange snow going upward into dark indigo. She jumped, gasping, and stared in awe at the spectacle.
“Hope they had insurance,” muttered Cliff, again spitting to the side.
Dennis shook his head, chuckling. “That ain’t right, man.”
Eventually, little remained of the house but a glowing pile of embers and timber.
By that point, someone had arrived dragging the ‘body cart’ loaded with hose from the fire station. They’d also brought the necessary tools to open the hydrant all the way down at the end of the road some 400 feet away. The hose crew sprayed the remains of the house until it stopped glowing. Walter sent the four guys who’d been living there to the quartermaster to pick up some additional clothing as they’d lost everything but what they had on.
Harper and Cliff walked home together, arriving after dark—but the inside had plenty of light.
“Feels so strange having working electricity again,” said Harper.
Cliff held the door for her, then stepped in, closing it. “That it does. Almost like a dream.”
“Is our house going to catch fire?”
He glanced around with an unreadable expression. “If it was going to, it would’ve already lit up. But I’ll check the panel.”
“Eep.”
Madison, Jonathan, Lorelei, Renee, and Carrie entered via the back door. Evidently, Becca and Mila had already gone home for the night.
“What happened?” yelled Madison. “Can we eat now? I’m starving.”
Lorelei looked up at her. “No you’re not.”
Everyone stared at each other in uncomfortable silence.
“Umm.” Madison cringed, guilt all over her face. “Sorry. You’re right. I mean I’m really hungry.”
“Don’t be sad.” Lorelei hugged her. “Be happy you’re not really starving.”
Harper closed her eyes, trying not to think about how close they really all were to literal starvation. Any of a dozen different things could go wrong with the farm and that would be it. She still didn’t quite trust the fish from Lake Evergreen, but perhaps the mountains between here and Denver shielded the water from collecting too much fallout.
“Wow, you’re like a cop and a firefighter, too?” asked Renee.
“Not really. Buckets didn’t help much.” Harper rubbed her sore arm. “Some guys evidently raided a fire department for hose and tools, but it took them so long to get there, the house was a lost cause.”
“So what happened?” Jonathan leaned on the counter.
“A house caught fire. They t
hink the circuit breaker panel burned when the power came on. It might’ve been damaged from EMP. But no one got hurt. Just lost a building.”
Carrie and Cliff murmured with each other in the living room. She seemed mildly annoyed at him, but he merely smiled at her. She said something to the effect of him being too sweet for his own good, though Harper couldn’t eavesdrop too effectively while surrounded by loud tweens.
“So can we eat yet?” asked Lorelei.
Cliff entered the kitchen, sniffing the air. “So what are we cooking tonight?”
“It’s a bit late to start a fire, isn’t it?” asked Harper before realizing she already smelled ravioli.
He grasped her head gently in both hands, turning it so she stared at the stove—which held a simmering pot. “I think we can save some firewood tonight.”
“Oh, duh…” She whistled. “I didn’t even think about the stove working.”
“Already heated food.” Jonathan smiled. “But we waited for you to come back.”
“We brought a couple cans since we’d be eating over here tonight.” Renee lightly kicked the ‘empty can bag’ by the counter, which clattered.
Harper patted him on the head. “Nice. You guys could’ve had dinner. Just save me some, but I appreciate you wanting to wait.”
“Hey, we could even keep like deer meat in the fridge for a while now.” Jonathan pointed at it.
“Eep.” Madison grimaced.
“Or fish.”
“Fish doesn’t keep that long even in a fridge. And it makes everything else in the fridge smell like fish.” Carrie scrunched her nose. “But we do have freezers. Though, I’d like to wait and see how stable the power is before trusting them. Nothing stinks as bad as rotting meat left in a freezer you didn’t know conked out.”
Harper and Carrie went for the pot of ravioli at the same time. They locked eyes. A sudden sense of deference came out of nowhere, as though the woman had already started to fill in the hole Mom left despite being a bit younger at thirty-four. Mom would’ve been forty-three this year.
“I can get it if you don’t mind, hon,” said Carrie.
“Oh, umm. Sure. Thanks.” Harper backed off and took her seat.
Carrie portioned out food for everyone.
Madison shot Harper a look under flat eyebrows that could mean resentment at the woman trying to be Mom as easily as it might’ve been questioning if the woman had intended to come off that way. Harper tried her best to send an ‘it’s okay’ with her eyes. The challenge in her little sister’s expression lessened.
For the rest of dinner, Harper wondered what would have happened to them if their parents had died to something like a car accident instead of looters after nuclear war. Would the courts have made Harper be adopted at seventeen, or would she have ended up on her own with Madison? Dad made a mortgage paid off joke soon after the bombardment, so she definitely would’ve lost the house to a bank. No way could a seventeen-year-old have earned enough money to pay for a house, at least not with any legal job. So, if she had been adopted or forced into foster care, the people would have been doing her a massive favor. Of course, she would have been grateful to them and not resentful that they tried to be her parents.
Harper decided to appreciate Carrie’s attempt to become part of their family. She clearly had feelings for Cliff. Perhaps tonight had been a test to see how the kids would take to the idea. So far, the siblings appeared either accepting or oblivious except for Madison who’d already forgotten whatever mood hit her earlier. They couldn’t use Lorelei’s reaction, since the girl adored everyone. Though, she did insist on clinging to Harper at night, so perhaps that meant something.
I used to hate this canned crap. She stared at one of the mass-produced raviolis on her plate. Once we finish this batch, I’ll never see this stuff again. What had once been cheap, mass-produced laziness now felt like a near delicacy. Harper took her time eating, sectioning each piece into four small bites to make it last as long as possible.
“What are you doing?” asked Madison.
“No one’s gonna make this stuff anymore. Once it’s gone, we’ll never have it again. This is like filet mignon now.”
Jonathan’s face said ‘oh, wow.’ Lorelei didn’t react at all. Carrie and Renee both appeared saddened at that thought.
“That doesn’t mean we’ll have no food. Just not this particular form of processed stuff.” Cliff ate a whole pillow in one bite.
Jonathan and Madison started talking in fake fancy voices about their ravioli as though they’d gone to a super expensive restaurant. Harper laughed at the silliness so she didn’t cry at the truth of their situation. Living in a constant state of dread at what would happen five minutes into the future had to be as unhealthy as the radiation she worried hung all around them.
Smiling felt like a lie, so she kept her head down, hiding her face behind her hair while eating in small, slow bites, savoring the canned pasta as though she’d gone to a thousand-dollar-a-plate restaurant.
7
Playing the Odds
After dinner, Harper sat on the couch with The Secret Garden, attempting once again to read it. At least, the return of electric light made it less hard on the eyes. The kids sprawled on the rug playing a board game while Cliff sat in his recliner, also reading—only Carrie sat half in his lap. Renee curled up on the right end of the sofa, holding a book, but her head kept nodding forward. She’d probably be asleep in minutes.
Harper’s luck with that book held up. She’d barely gotten four pages deeper into it before Grace knocked and poked her head in.
“Hey. Am I interrupting?”
“Nah.” Harper replaced the bookmark and set the novel aside. “What’s up?”
Grace entered and flopped on the couch at her left. “Bored. Just wanted to hang out. Kinda freaking out over seeing lights on again.”
“Yeah, me too.” Renee sat up, also setting her book aside and seeming much more awake at the concept of doing something other than reading. “I hope the people who don’t have it yet aren’t gonna get mad.”
“It’s only the north part of town at the moment.” Harper tried to remember the map in the militia HQ. They haven’t connected anything south of Stagecoach Boulevard yet. Jeanette and her people still need to make sure the system they put together can handle stuff.”
“Lot of the power lines here and west of 74 are underground,” said Cliff. “The wires should be okay. The transformers are the tricky parts.”
“Yeah,” muttered Harper. “They’re more than meets the eye.”
Cliff looked around. “Need something to throw.”
Harper chuckled.
“I heard they’re going to link the school in, combining the panel system there with the rest of it.” Grace examined her hands.
“Something wrong with your fingers?” asked Harper.
Grace looked up. “No. It still feels weird having normal nails instead of French tips. And I mean, I don’t miss it. Mom always demanded I look perfect.”
“Ugh. Sorry, that sounds annoying.” Renee picked at her nails. “But I’d rather have reliable food than electricity.”
“Electricity helps there be reliable food. We can use freezers and fridges again.” Cliff peered over his book at the girls. “Assuming, of course, we have luck with hunting… and the panels don’t break down in a week.”
Harper cringed. “It is kind of a small solar farm even if there’s only like a hundred occupied houses connected to it. I guess we should expect it’ll crap out at some point.”
“People managed to get by without electricity for centuries. If need be, we can do it again.” Cliff turned a page. “The world still had some places without it even before the war.”
“Oh, guys… Did you hear? Beth is pregnant.” Grace fidgeted.
“That’s shocking,” deadpanned Harper. “I hear them going at it three times a week when I’m walking around on patrol.”
Cliff coughed. Carrie whispered something that made him c
ough louder.
A few minutes of general gossiping about what Beth and Jaden would do occupied them for a little while. The way they talked to each other after Harper caught them together in an unassigned house, she figured they’d stay together. The boy did seem genuinely in love with her.
“I’m kinda worried about that,” whispered Renee. “We could like die from getting knocked up now. Like back in the 1970s before they had real hospitals.”
“Don’t you mean the 1870s?” asked Harper, suppressing a laugh.
“Whatever.” Renee rolled her eyes. “That’s what I meant.”
“The 1970s were dark times indeed.” Cliff shook his head. “Disco…”
Carrie laughed.
“That’s a hundred year ‘whatever.’” Grace made a pinchy gesture. “Quite a bit of difference in medical technology.”
Harper looked at her. “How bad is it? You’re working with the doctors now, right? What did they say?”
Grace exhaled, lips fluttering. “I’m so overwhelmed with reading stuff that I’m not really paying attention to what they talk about except for when they are deliberately trying to instruct me or bring me in to observe a patient session. But, I think having a baby is still reasonably safe. The biggest problem we’d have here would be certain complications like internal bleeding, sepsis, or like pre-eclampsia. Stuff we don’t have the right meds for or the surgical facilities to really deal with.”
“So, like, how deadly are babies now?” Renee gnawed on her finger.
“Depends on what kind of weapons they get their hands on,” muttered Cliff.
Carrie swatted at him. “That’s not funny.”
“I dunno really.” Grace stood. “You’d have to ask one of the doctors. Things probably aren’t going to be any worse than underdeveloped countries before the war. Then again, the US did have a shamefully high maternal mortality rate for a superpower. Be right back, need more water.” She walked past the arch to the kitchen.
The Lucky Ones (Evergreen Book 3) Page 7