Eva’s expression hardened with angry satisfaction.
She watched it… or at least knows what happened. “I… wow.” Harper bowed her head. “Don’t know what to say. You need to get out of here. Evergreen is nice.”
Mrs. Parsons looked up with a blank expression. “The Army is trying to discourage crime here by more or less shooting people on the spot if they believe they did almost any sort of crime. Even stealing food or clothes. I killed a guy by reporting what he did.”
“No, you didn’t. That guy got what he deserved. There’s no prison anymore.” Harper glanced back at the roughly one-fourth of the tent rows she hadn’t checked. Ugh. That’s going to take too long. They’ll leave without me. Maybe I should start shouting names from the courtyard? And crap, I still need to warn someone about the attack.
“Waste of food,” muttered Eva in a dead voice.
Harper gasped, horrified.
The girl looked up at her. “One of the soldiers said that after they shot him. I think they’re right. Bad people shouldn’t take food away from good people.” The child’s stomach growled.
“Yeah… Umm. You guys wait here a sec, okay? I need to go talk to someone.”
Mrs. Parsons nodded and collected Eva into a hug.
Harper jogged around the van into the large Quonset hut. She stopped a short distance inside the big garage door, looking around at various soldiers at desks or tables in search of someone higher in rank than a private. Not that she really understood the insignias, but anyone who looked near in age to her would probably not be too high up the chain of command. When she spotted a stern-looking black woman wearing sergeant’s stripes, Harper approached the desk where the soldier sat cleaning a combat rifle, it’s parts disassembled and arranged in front of her. She didn’t look too much older than thirty, but practically radiated badassery.
“Excuse me, sergeant?” asked Harper.
The woman looked up, seeming about to snap at her, but held her tongue, her expression going from annoyed to concerned. “I’d say you’re out of uniform, but I don’t recognize you. Civilian?”
“Yeah. Well, kinda. Evergreen militia. I’m here with the people dropping off food.”
“You’ll need to talk to Lancaster for that.”
Harper shook her head. “This isn’t about the shipment. I wanted to go along on this trip to look for my friends who I thought might have been here. We used to live in Lakewood. Didn’t have any luck finding them, but three guys dragged me in a tent and tried to rape me.”
Sergeant Garner—according to her nametag—leaned back in her chair, making it creak. “Who did it? What did they look like? And… are you okay?”
“Yeah. I got away. Just rattled.” She took the knife out of the holster and explained how the one guy grabbed her from behind, and she’d disarmed him as soon as he gave her the opportunity. “The guy who grabbed me at first has a broken wrist and maybe elbow. I heard it pop. The other guy grabbed me, so I stabbed him here”—she poked a finger into her abdomen, on the left side—“and he let go. Last guy, I just wanted him to go away but he kinda ran into me flailing with the knife and I cut him on the neck. Just a scratch really.”
Sergeant Garner nodded. “Since you’re not a resident, I’ll assume you don’t know their names. What did they look like?”
“Umm. I didn’t really get a good look at the guy who grabbed me. Thirty or so, short black hair. Red shirt. The guy I stabbed was like twenty, shaggy brown hair and beard. Woody Woodpecker on his shirt. Last guy’s like forty, kinda heavyset. Big droopy face, and he’s like half black. The other two are white.”
“Okay. Will you be prepared to make an identification?”
Harper bit her lip. She wanted to get back home as fast as possible, but if those men grabbed her… they’d attack any woman they thought they could get away with assaulting. “Yeah. I will.”
24
Bad Trip
Sergeant Garner instructed Harper not to leave the camp until they finished investigating, likely not more than an hour given that the injuries she’d inflicted on all three men would make them easier to identify.
Harper returned to the van to wait with Mrs. Parsons and her daughter, mostly so she could make sure Rafael and the others didn’t leave without her. She sat on the floor in the open side, one foot up in the van, one on the ground outside. None of her militia buddies were anywhere in sight, perhaps still off with Colonel Fowler.
A few minutes later, Eva pointed out the door. “I’ve seen her before, at Maddie’s house.”
Harper looked.
Darci Sutherland emerged from the second to last row on the left, an area Harper hadn’t checked. Her friend didn’t look as much in need of food as Mrs. Parsons or Eva. Somehow, she still appeared to be strung out, either high on weed or desperately in withdrawal. Smudges of black lipstick marked her face, though the cosmetics had mostly been wiped away. Her former pixie cut had grown out to touch the shoulders her crop top exposed. Grime smeared her bare stomach above a dingy purple miniskirt. She wore fishnet stockings, but like Eva’s leggings, they’d disintegrated below the ankles, likely from walking around outside with no shoes for weeks.
She had the wardrobe of a refugee, but still had the same laid-back, ‘whatever happens, happens’ demeanor as always.
Transfixed, Harper simply stared at her friend as the girl walked across the open dirt.
Darci paused in front of her, thumbs hooked in the waistband of her miniskirt, bony hips peeking out the top. “Hey, Harp. I hate to ask, but you got any kush or something?”
Harper blinked in shock, not quite able to process seeing her friend behaving so… normally. “You look so weird without black toenails.”
“Umm, what?” asked Darci in a sleepy tone.
“Sorry, I think my brain shut off. Dar!” Harper leapt to her feet and grabbed her in a hug. “It’s good to see you!”
“Whoa. Calm down. You’re acting like we almost died in a nuclear war or some crap.” Darci hugged her back. “Oh, wait. We did.”
Harper leaned back to arms’ length and stared into her friend’s sapphire-blue eyes. “Are you high?”
“No. That’s the problem.”
“Oh. My. Gawd!” Harper again clamp-hugged her friend. “Darci! You’re alive.”
The girl didn’t embrace her back, standing there like a post. But she always did that. “Still kinda trying to figure that out.”
“What?” Harper kept squeezing her.
“Not sure if I died in the blast and this is a weird afterlife thing or if I really am high as shit right now at home and seeing this crap.”
Harper looked her friend over. The girl seriously needed a shower, reeking of sweat, BO, and even puke. “I’m sorry. It’s real. You have any stuff in the camp? You’re coming with us, out of here.”
“Nah. Just what’s on me.”
“Cool.” Harper pulled her friend into the van. “Is anyone else here?”
“Yeah. Lots of people.”
Harper couldn’t quite laugh. Darci may or may not have been joking. “I mean, Christina, Andrea, or Veronica.”
“I haven’t seen them. Been here for a couple months.” Darci yawned, her bloodshot eyes struggling to focus on Harper. “You didn’t mention Renee.”
“Found her already. She’s okay.” Harper pulled the towel away from the passenger seat and recovered her weapons.
Eva gasped in awe. “You have guns.”
“Yeah.” Harper slung the Mossberg over her shoulder and stuffed the .45 back in its holster. “Things have… changed. I’m part of the militia now.
Darci laughed. “You? In a militia? Get real. You can’t even step on beetles.”
“Some people out there are lower than bugs.” Harper sat in the van’s side door, feet still on the ground outside.
“Have you actually shot people?” Darci opened her eyes a little wider, almost seeming awake.
“Yeah. But only when they were going to hurt me.”
> “Wow.” Darci whistled. “How the hell did you wind up on a militia?”
“Dad didn’t want to leave the house right away. Like two months after the strike, these bastards calling themselves Lawless broke into the house to steal our stuff—and probably kidnap me an’ Maddie. They killed Mom and Dad. I choked and couldn’t pull the trigger on a person, so I grabbed Maddie and ran. To make a long story short, a group of survivors going by about a month before that tried to talk us into following them Evergreen, said it was safe there. After I ran, we made our way up there. They wanted me to give them Dad’s shotgun for their militia to use, but I couldn’t part with it. I had to protect Maddie. So, I wound up agreeing to join.”
“Wow.” Darci whistled. “I never pictured you doing anything like that.”
“Heh. Neither did I.” She stared down at her sneakers. “Doesn’t matter what happens to me anymore. It’s like all I care about now is keeping Maddie safe. And my two new siblings.”
“More siblings? Your mom wasn’t preggers.” Darci scratched at her stomach. “I’m not either.”
“Random much?” Harper smiled. “No. Found Jonathan on the way to Evergreen and Lorelei happened after.”
“You had a baby?” Darci blinked. “Wait, no. That wouldn’t be a sibling.”
“Well, I’m basically her mom. She’s six, adorable, and… brittle. Had a rough life.”
“Oh.”
“Gawd.” Harper exhaled hard. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Sergeant Garner and about a dozen other soldiers carrying M4 carbines crossed the courtyard before breaking up into groups of three and entering the tent rows.
Guess they took me seriously.
Darci squinted at the sky. “Sorry about your parents. That’s a total bummer. I was sleeping when the blast hit.”
“Lucky you had a basement bedroom.”
“Yeah. The whole basement. I had a big ass bedroom.” Darci held her arms out to the sides, swaying as if still high. “At first, I thought Dad put a war movie on way too loud.” Her dazed smile fell to a somber stare. “He never even woke up. Like, all this junk hit our house and some of it landed on him in bed.”
“Oh, no.” Harper covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
“I dunno what happened to the others. Veronica’s probably kicking someone’s ass right about now.” Darci grinned. “Everything was so chaotic and fast. I don’t remember too much about the first couple days. I just stayed home until I heard a lot of people outside. They were leaving in a group to get away from radiation.”
Cross-legged, mellow as can be, Darci spent a few minutes describing walking past rioters, looters, Army soldiers shooting anyone with a weapon, small kids screaming for their parents, mobs hunting down anyone who looked Asian since everyone seemed to think China started the war.
“One old guy even tried to tell people we deserved the nuclear fire because of God or something… they beat him to death, too.”
Harper shivered. “You look pretty healthy, all things considered.”
“Yeah, food’s a bit strict here, but I’ve found a trick to getting extra food.”
“Trick?” asked Harper.
“Yeah. Guys will pay for sex with food sometimes, but I always make them give me half their plate first so they don’t cheat me.”
Umm. What? She stared in horror at her friend, more at the total blasé way in which she’d said such a thing. Darci had been the first of her group of friends to go all the way with a boy, but she never imagined the girl capable of basically turning into a prostitute. A cold chill spread over her insides. Harper pictured herself and Madison swept up by the Army and brought to a survivor camp like this. Faced with watching her little sister turning into a half-starved waif like Eva, she probably would’ve offered herself in trade for extra food, too.
Shit… that could’ve been me.
Overcome by grief, Harper grabbed Darci’s hand. “You’re getting out of here. Okay?”
“Sure.” Darci shrugged. “This place is kinda shitty at night. I think the only reason I haven’t been jumped is everyone knows I’ll put out for food.”
“Put what out?” asked Eva from inside the van.
“So, I found Renee,” said Harper, trying to change the subject.
Darci laughed. “Cool. She still scared of everything?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“How’s she holding up with this nuclear bullshit?” Darci waved her hand about randomly. “This sobriety crap really sucks. Seriously, you got anything? I need to take the edge off, bad. I haven’t lit up in months.”
Harper smirked. “Are you for real? You’re asking ‘Follows Rules Girl’ for weed?”
“Guess that’s a no.” Darci scratched at her bare midriff. “What about clothes?”
“That, I can definitely help you with… once we get to Evergreen. Did you leave your boots in your tent?”
“No. Someone stole them off me when I slept.”
“Whoa.” Harper tilted her head. “You slept in your boots?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Darci laughed. “So no one would steal them. Bastards nicked my coat, too. And my bag. I had most of a pound of kind bud left, too. Sons of bitches.”
“She says a lot of bad words,” whispered Eva.
“Yeah, I do. The world has become one big bad word. It won’t care about a few more.” Darci glanced at the girl. “Hey, that rugrat kinda looks familiar.”
“I’m not a rugrat,” said Eva in her toneless voice. “I’m ten.”
“She looks familiar because you’ve seen her before. She’s one of Maddie’s friends.” Harper cast a heartbroken glance out over the tents, thinking about her little sister trying to text the girls on a broken cell phone. She hadn’t expected to find all of her friends here, but had hoped for more than just one. That only Darci had apparently survived twisted her guts into a knot. She clung to hope that the Army might have other camps, or maybe her other friends’ families had taken shelter elsewhere. Evergreen couldn’t be the only settlement.
Besides, at the end of this summer, they would all have gone in different directions for college, life, and whatever anyway. But that didn’t matter. In this new world, friends stayed together. Kids born or living in Evergreen would likely spend their entire lives there, the same way people did in the old days. No one back then went out of state to school or moved out of their parents’ home the instant they turned eighteen.
Anyone who still had parents and friends would keep them close.
Deacon, Rafael, and Annapurna emerged from the big Quonset hut and approached the van.
The big guy appeared surprised to find Harper there. “That was fast. Searched this whole place already?”
“As much as I could.” She explained locating one of her little sister’s friends, introduced Mrs. Parsons and Eva, then told them about Darci finding her. “Darce has been here for weeks. She’s sure Andrea, Christina, and Veronica aren’t here. So, no point roaming around back there. It’s kinda dangerous.”
Darci patted Harper on the leg. “Her walking around is like waving meat at starving dogs.”
“That bad?” Deacon looked out over the tents. “Damn.”
“If they think they could get away with it, yeah.”
Harper looked up. “Yeah… we can’t quite leave yet.”
“You got in trouble?” asked Deacon.
“Yes and no. I got in trouble in the sense that trouble found me, but I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Deacon, Annapurna, and Rafael crowded around her like a pack of protective older siblings.
“What happened?” Annapurna stared into her eyes.
Not wanting Eva to overhear, Harper nodded to the right then walked a little ways past the van. The other three followed. She went over the story of her attack. By the time she finished, Deacon looked ready to go help the Army search—and assist with the execution part.
“I think I need to start asking Cliff
to show me some moves.” Annapurna patted her arm. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“More or less. I’ll be fine until I try to sleep tonight.” She fidgeted. “Never had a knife at my throat before. Have you ever been so scared shitless you stayed calm? Like the needle went right past ten and broke. I think I’m still at twenty or something. If I randomly freak out later, that means I’ve calmed down.”
Rafael chuckled.
A few minutes later, a large group of soldiers walked two of her attackers out of the camp at gunpoint. Shaggy, his hands bound with zip ties in front of him, still clutched his gut wound, barely able to walk, his weight supported by the soldiers ushering him along. They hadn’t tied the hands of the guy with the broken wrist, probably since it had swollen up and appeared painfully unusable.
Another pair of soldiers dragged the pudgy guy with the slash on his throat out of a smaller Quonset hut bearing a medical cross on its front wall. They’d tied his hands behind his back, but he also had clean white bandage panels on his neck wound.
They bandaged him up only to execute him. Wonder what excuse he gave the doctor for how he got hurt.
A bald, confident soldier at the later end of his twenties approached her. Despite being thin, he stood half a head taller than Deacon. An insignia of a single black bar marked the center of his field cap. “Garner, is this her?”
“Yes, lieutenant,” said Sergeant Garner.
“I’m to believe these three men attacked you with intent to commit a crime of a sexual nature?” asked the lieutenant, Boyd according to the name on his uniform.
They were going to kill me. Why do I feel guilty that they’re gonna die? Despite her dread at what she expected would happen in a few minutes, Harper kept her chin up and tried not to appear nervous or guilty. “Yes, sir.” She re-explained looking for her friends, being grabbed, and fighting clear of them. “These are the ones.”
“Gotta be a special kind of stupid to pull that shit after what happened last month.” Garner shook her head at the men with a glare that said she just waited for the lieutenant to give the order.
The Lucky Ones (Evergreen Book 3) Page 22