She grabbed it, stuck it through the belt loop of her jeans, and resumed looking around for danger.
After gathering the lug nuts into his pocket, Rafael yanked the tire off the van, hefted it up over his head, and ran back the way they’d come from. She jogged after him, her head on a swivel, alert for any Lawless—or more radiation victims. When they made it back to Woody’s Pizza without seeing another living soul, she finally allowed herself to breathe.
Maybe only a few of them came here? Do the Lawless know there’s dangerous radiation close to here? Stop panicking. It can take hours sometimes for symptoms to appear. He could’ve been miles away when he got irradiated and wandered here.
Rafael grabbed the jack from their van and raised the front end. Deacon and Annapurna walked outside to help stand watch. While Rafael changed the tire, Harper explained about the man she’d seen suffering bad radiation poisoning.
Annapurna fidgeted, her face paling a shade in response to the story.
“Anyone feel any tingling or anything?” asked Deacon. “The kind of radiation that’s fatal in a real short exposure, you can feel it.”
“No,” said Harper. “I hope. Nothing I noticed.”
Annapurna slung her AR-15 on its strap and helped Rafael pull the dead tire off. She dragged the bad one away to the side while he mounted the replacement. She returned, starting the lug nuts with her fingers while Rafael tightened them using the tire iron. As soon as he got three all the way tightened, she lowered the jack and packed it away in the van while he continued putting the rest of the nuts on.
Harper ran inside the pizza place. “C’mon. Time to go.”
“Umm…” Darci held up her bare foot. “Glass.”
Mrs. Parsons carried Eva outside.
“Grr. You need shoes.”
“No shit. Got any in your pocket?”
Harper ran over. “Get on my back.”
“Where’s the big dude?” asked Darci.
“Standing guard outside. Trying to save time here. Come on. We gotta go.”
Darci hopped on.
“Oof. You’re a bit heavier than I expected.”
“You’re a bit scrawnier than I expected.”
Harper raspberried, making Darci laugh. She almost made a joke about everyone being short on food, but what her friend did for enough to eat sapped any sense of humor from the idea, so she trudged outside without a word. Once they reached clean ground, Darci let go and scrambled into the van.
“Okay. Moment of truth.” Rafael reached in and turned the key.
Labored whirring came from the starter.
“Crap,” whispered Harper. “Please, no.”
“It ain’t that bad a walk. Twenty to twenty-five miles. Maybe ten hours on foot.” Deacon shrugged.
“That’s bad. It would be dark before we got home.” Harper lightly banged her head against the side of the van. “And we’d have to abandon all the TP and coffee.”
“Is that coffee radioactive?” asked Annapurna. “This place looks pretty bad.”
“Umm… the storeroom didn’t look damaged. No windows.” Harper bit her lip. “Does that matter?”
Rafael tried to start the engine again, but it only whirred. “This gas is probably jelly now.”
Deacon punched the side of the van. “C’mon you thing. Start. And the coffee’s probably no more radioactive than everything else around us now.”
“Sec.” Rafael hopped out, opened the hood, and fiddled around. “Gonna give this another ten minutes before I declare it a lost cause.”
“Are we gonna have food?” whispered Eva inside the van.
“Yes, honey. Soon.” Her mother stared out the window at Harper with an accusing look that hit her like a slap. The Army camp had been bad, but still better than being stranded out in the middle of nowhere.
Harper walked around to the side door and got in. “There’s food in Evergreen. We just need to get back there. Didn’t bring any supplies for a long trip because we thought this van would work and it’s only like an hour by driving.”
“Okay… here goes. Last try.” Rafael climbed into the driver’s seat. After muttering softly to himself in Spanish for a moment, he cranked the ignition and feathered the gas pedal.
Whirring came from the starter.
The engine chugged, then died with a loud backfire.
He turned the key again—and it started.
Everyone cheered.
Harper damn near cried tears of joy. Deacon and Annapurna jumped in. Rafael backed away from the wreck they’d hit, cut the wheel, and drove onward.
“We’re not clear yet.” Deacon aimed out the passenger door window. “That group on 93 didn’t chase us into town. Stay alert.”
Mrs. Parsons flattened herself out on the floor with Eva. Darci also hit the deck. Harper kept watch on the right side, favoring the rear while Annapurna covered the left. Rafael nursed the van along at a frustratingly slow pace, but they still moved faster than walking, or even running. After a harrowing few minutes, he took a right turn onto a larger highway. Enough spaces existed between the ruined cars that he could accelerate up to about forty and have no trouble weaving among them. The engine rattled and gasped like it would quit at any second.
Once it seemed highly unlikely that the men who initially attacked them on Route 93 would be a threat, Harper relaxed and flopped to sit on the floor, shotgun draped across her lap. She didn’t know if the close call had been a warning from the universe that she shouldn’t gamble with leaving Evergreen again, or if going to look for her friends had been the right thing to do.
Eva lifted her face away from her mother’s shoulder to smile at Harper. Even Mrs. Parsons appeared to have finally set her apathy aside, appearing almost to be in a good mood. Darci lay flat on her back, staring at the roof, her expression unreadable.
Okay. Maybe going to Eldorado was a risky idea, but a good one.
“What are you thinking, Dar?” asked Harper.
“I really want some damn weed.”
Harper laughed. “At least you got your priorities straight.”
“Damn right.” Darci grinned.
28
Dangerous
The most difficult task of Harper’s life waited for her upon returning to Evergreen: not telling Madison that she had found Eva right away. She hadn’t intended to turn it into a big surprise on purpose, but she wanted to sleep that night. The doctors would be busy with the girl and her mother for the rest of the evening, and Harper needed sleep. Madison basically stayed up all night when she looked forward to something the next day. It took a nuclear war to get her to fall asleep on Christmas Eve for the first time in her life.
They’d returned a little past the time the kids had gotten out of school, and dropped Darci, Eva, and Mrs. Parsons off at the med center first thing. Considering the child’s malnourished condition, Tegan wanted to keep her there for at least a few days under observation. Both doctors, as well as Grace and Al Gonzalez, appeared shocked at the Army allowing the girl to get that thin. Harper suspected Mrs. Parsons’ depression more than the soldiers might have had something to do with it. Hopefully, the woman would improve in better surroundings.
When Harper returned home, all three of her siblings swarmed her, making it clear she knew how freaked out they’d been when she didn’t show up to walk them home. Carrie had stepped in to keep an eye on them. As expected, Madison gave her grief for leaving town, but upon hearing why—likely the only chance to ever check the Eldorado Army Camp for her friends—her little sister stopped being angry. Instead, she fired the guilt cannons: getting clingy and telling her how sad she’d be if something happened to her.
Cliff’s reaction to her going with them on the trip made her feel like she’d snuck off to a party after her father told her not to. Only, she didn’t end up grounded. He merely looked at her with a ‘do you have any idea how worried I was’ expression. With Cliff, Carrie, and all three siblings staring at her, she relayed a simplified and kid-sa
fe version of the trip (that left out finding Eva and Mrs. Parsons). The description of the camp conditions caused Madison to cling even tighter, curled in a ball beside her on the couch. As soon as she mentioned encountering Lawless, her little sister fell quiet.
Harper spent the rest of that afternoon and evening worried and guilty, and almost caved in about mentioning Eva. She didn’t want to because Madison would demand to go straight to the med center, and the doctors may or may not let them have visitors yet. The girl would either have a screaming meltdown or spend all night bouncing around like a chihuahua on ten espresso shots.
Board games made for a decent time kill, and also gave Harper a chance to spend time with the kids. Later that night once the kids went to bed, she stayed up a little longer to talk with Cliff and Carrie about the trip, with full detail. Carrie gasped at the mention of what happened to Mrs. Parsons.
“She’s gonna kill you.” Cliff chuckled.
Harper exhaled, not quite able to smile. “Hopefully, she’ll be happy enough not to think that I didn’t say anything tonight. Planning to take her to visit in the morning. How radioactive do you think the place was? That guy I saw… did I do the right thing?”
“Bloated, purple, and moaning? Yeah, I’d wanna be shot in the face, too.” Cliff shivered. “Whatever exposure he already suffered killed him the instant he soaked up that many rads. Even if real hospitals remained working, they couldn’t have done anything for him other than make him comfortable for the last few hours or days he had left.”
She sighed. “Thanks. Still feels like I killed a guy.”
“That’s understandable, but know that you didn’t. He was already dead… just didn’t realize it yet.”
“Heh. So, umm… Eva like hugged her mother and I, umm…”
Cliff held his arms open.
She clung to him, letting her guard down for a few minutes so she could enjoy the feeling of having a dad. His embrace soothed the part of her not yet ready to be an adult, the inner child she had to tuck away in an armored bunker. “I’m so glad you’re teaching me that hand-to-hand stuff. I don’t wanna think about what would’ve happened otherwise.”
“Did you honestly expect me to let you be on the militia without showing you that stuff?”
She pulled her hair off her face, managing a weak smile. “No, not really. But thank you for teaching me.”
“However, you did scare the crap out of me.” He patted her back. “Thought you were just going to ask them to keep an eye out. Didn’t expect you’d end up going on the trip.”
“Neither did I. Kinda all happened at the last minute. I started trying to describe my friends, and Anna kinda got overloaded and suggested I go with them. Wow, that place was horrible. I guess it’s better than starving in the ruins of a city… but holy crap. Walking around those tents was almost as scary as my first couple days running around Lakewood alone with Maddie. I never want to go back there.”
He patted her shoulder. “So, don’t.”
“Not planning to. Oh, Dad?”
He glanced at her.
“Check that cabinet.” Harper pointed.
Cliff narrowed his eyes in playful suspicion. “If something comes flying out at my face…”
“Swear.” She held up a hand.
He maintained his challenging stare for a few seconds more before relenting and taking the two steps across the kitchen to open the cabinet door—revealing twelve one-pound bags of Starbucks dark roast. Cliff’s expression shifted to worshipful awe.
“You look like you’re peeking into the Ark of the Covenant.” Harper chuckled.
“That wouldn’t be this impressive.” He plucked one bag, cradling it like a newborn infant. “Where’d you find this?”
“Looter’s privilege.” She grinned, and explained finding twelve cases in the storeroom. “I had to. Call it thanks for getting my stuff back. Though, I dunno if that’ll make you cry.”
“Damn near might.” He fake sniffled.
Harper chuckled.
He set the bag back in the cabinet and winked at her. “Thanks.”
She exhaled. “Okay. Gonna go to bed before Maddie and Lore drag me down the hall.”
“Night, kiddo.”
Harper stuck her tongue out at him. He returned the gesture with a ‘nyah’ sound. Trying not to laugh too loud, she headed down the hall to get ready for bed. Three steps later, the emotional weight of the day crushed the humor straight out of her. She grabbed her nightie from the bedroom, went into the bathroom, and stared at the tub.
I can’t stand in a shower for as long as I want to right now.
Instead, she soaked in a hot bath, letting her mind drift from horror to horror as it cared to. She watched herself mercy kill the irradiated man between replaying the men attacking her. Somehow, despite what they wanted to do to her—had likely done before, and would do again—she couldn’t feel pleased with their execution. Relieved, yes. Pleased, no.
The hot water leeched the soreness from her muscles. She didn’t bother with soap as that would require moving. Each passing minute lessened the tension in her body. Being disgusted with the world seemed like the natural reaction to the day she’d had, but the world had been plenty horrible before. The worst parts of it—school shootings aside—just hadn’t occurred anywhere inside her bubble of awareness.
People suck.
Right as she started to slide down a black well of thinking that the annihilation of eighty percent or so of the world’s population had been an improvement to living conditions, the door creaked open.
“You comin’ to bed?” Lorelei poked her head in. “Baf time?”
The innocent face framed in platinum blonde felt like the hand of an angel pulling her back from the precipice of apathy. “Not really. Just sore and needed to soak a bit or I’d never be able to go to sleep.” Okay. Most people suck, but not the ones here.
Lorelei walked in. “Gotta pee.”
“Knock yourself out.” Harper closed her eyes and let her head rest against the back of the tub, debating sleeping there the whole night. But… the water would eventually become cold, not to mention neck cramps.
A moment after the toilet flushed, the shower curtain pulled aside. Lorelei grinned at her. “Please come to bed. I need hugs.”
“Okay.” Harper patted her on the head and sat up. “Give me a bit to dry off.”
“Yay!” Lorelei bounced on her toes, then ran back to the bedroom.
Sleep took its sweet time arriving that night.
Harper expected a dream about zombies, and her brain didn’t disappoint. Perhaps since she’d been ready for the sight of hundreds of that irradiated man chasing her around Golden, what might have otherwise been a nightmare ended up merely depressing.
She awoke to Madison and Lorelei arguing over underwear. Apparently, Lorelei didn’t want to put any on because ‘they all smelled.’ Madison kept insisting she had to and she should pick the least stinky ones. Harper sat up and glanced to her right. Both girls had on dresses so dirty her mother would’ve freaked at sight of them. Of course, post-end-of-the-world, they looked about normal.
Eagerness to reunite Madison with Eva obliterated the last of Harper’s fatigue. She hopped out of bed, walked straight past the great underwear debate of 2019, and headed to the hall closet. There, she retrieved an unopened packet of undies that would’ve fallen straight off Lorelei a few months ago, but should fit her now that she had improved from severely underweight to simply underweight.
“Here.” She tossed the pack to Madison. “Those should work. I’ll do laundry this afternoon.”
“Have you been hoarding clean underwear?” Madison blinked at her. “I’ve been wearing the same six pairs for months.”
“No, just a couple packs a little too big for her before. Excuse me.” Harper scurried into the bathroom.
Madison followed, but hovered outside the door. “Can you maybe do laundry more often? Yeah, a nuclear war happened, but do we have to be disgusting? Serio
usly, we—Lore! They don’t belong on your head!”
Lorelei giggled.
Harper face-palmed. She’s doing that on purpose to make us laugh.
After she finished in the bathroom, Harper got dressed. True, she had let the laundry go a bit too long. Rather than spend half the day wearing a towel, she’d stop by the quartermaster’s and try to find a plain dress or something for herself and the girls so she could wash all the dirty stuff at once. Her least funky outfit had probably been worn six or seven times since the last time it saw hot water.
Oh, holy crap. The machines might work again. She blinked. I might not have to scrub crap by hand in the bathtub. Whoa. Laundry might not be an all-day project.
Buoyed by that awesome thought, she hurried to the kitchen for a breakfast of toast with orange marmalade. The taste of it momentarily made her sad at the thought she might never see oranges again in her lifetime. They wouldn’t grow in Colorado and nothing even close to interstate cargo transport existed anymore. All rumor suggested the East Coast had been pummeled beyond recognition, so any produce growing in Florida for the next hundred years would likely glow in the dark.
When they finished eating, the kids scrambled out to the backyard. Harper cleaned up the dishes since Cliff had to run off for a patrol. Until or unless Cliff made things official with Carrie, Walter considered Harper responsible for the three kids, so she got to stay home to watch them on the condition she be prepared to respond to any emergency air-horn blasts. If the day ever came where her more-or-less parents made things legal, Carrie would assume responsibility for the kids while Harper went out on patrol. She didn’t mind that idea, either.
Deciding to roll the dice of chance, Harper put all her clothes in the first load of laundry along with as much of the girls’ stuff as would fit and wore a towel. The clothes Cliff had brought back from her old home still stank like mold and wet dog, and a hint of dead person. They’d have to be washed before she’d be able to bring herself to wear them. She nearly jumped right out of it in a celebratory dance when the machine worked. After scurrying to the living room to grab The Secret Garden, Harper spent the next hour or so sitting in the laundry room since she had only a towel on, reading. Within minutes of her taking clean stuff out of the dryer and getting dressed, Becca, Mila, and Christopher showed up. Perhaps due to the warm day, none of them bothered with shoes. All four girls wore simple dresses, making the kids look like a scene out of a movie set somewhere in 1930s rural America: a bunch of innocent, slightly grubby, happy children running around outside to play in a time before video games or scheduled youth sports.
The Lucky Ones (Evergreen Book 3) Page 25