Apocalypse Unleashed (9 page)

One of the girls smacked Snake on the back of the head.

“Hey,” he protested.

“Maybe you could tell her what it
said
about her husband,” the girl said icily.

“He’s fine. He was running a supply route. Took some fire. They killed the bad guys. End of story.”

Megan breathed a sigh of relief, but she added another nugget of information to her cache about Snake. He was relaxed with the military-speak. Either he was a gamer or he had a parent involved in the armed forces.

“Probably catch it later, too,” Snake said. “That hot chick on OneWorld was covering the story.”

“We don’t refer to women as ‘hot chicks’ in my house,” Megan said.

“Yeah, well, if you saw this one, you might change your mind.” Snake colored. “I mean, if you were a guy.”

And he embarrasses easily,
Megan noted.
Maybe you’re not as tough as you act like you are, Snake.

“You are such a jerk,” Kendal said. She smacked the skater in the back of the head again.

“Hey,” Snake protested again and stepped to the side so he’d be out of reach. “Don’t be such a—” He brought himself up short. He’d already been warned about language.

“Neanderthal,” Kendal said, folding her arms and frowning with as much displeasure as a fifteen-year-old could muster. “Maybe you should find a cave to live in.”

“Enough,” Megan said, putting the teacher edge into her voice that she’d learned helped to keep order in her house.

The kids quieted. They kept passing food around.

“Joey was watching television,” Megan said. “Then what?”

Snake shrugged. “He blazed. Got up. Walked out. Sayonara, baby.”

“Did he say where he was going?” Megan didn’t feel good about Joey’s sudden departure. The last time he’d disappeared like that, he’d come back days later with his face a mass of bruises and afraid of his own shadow.

“I offered to go with him,” Snake said. “He told me no.”

“Did he say where he was going?” she repeated.

“No. He just left.”

“Was he upset?”

“I don’t know.”

“He knew Goose was all right?”

“Yeah. We talked about it.”

“What did he act like?”

“Like he wanted to go somewhere else. That’s why he left.”

Frustrated, Megan turned her attention back to the latest batch of French toast and barely managed to rescue it from burning. “Who has class with Joey?” she asked.

A few of the kids raised their hands. Most of the classes were a lot smaller these days. With none of the lower grades to teach, the teachers had divided up the rest of the students.

“If I haven’t heard from him before I leave, please let him know he’s supposed to call me. And make sure he does.”

They said they would.

This isn’t a problem,
Megan told herself.
God didn’t bring Joey back into your life just so you could worry about him all over again. God, please. My plate really isn’t big enough to handle this again.

But she kept thinking about the bruises on her son’s face and the fear in his eyes the night he’d returned to her.

8

United States of America
Fort Benning, Georgia
Local Time 0635 Hours

“Pull the bicycle over to the side and stand down,” one of the men in the jeep ordered.

Joey’s mouth went dry, and his first instinct was to flee. He just knew the soldiers were there because of what had happened at the mall. They were going to arrest him for murder. He didn’t know how his mom was going to deal with that.

Dawn was starting to light the eastern sky, but the soldiers still needed light to see well. The one in the passenger seat got out. He shined his flashlight in Joey’s eyes.

“You got ID, kid?” the soldier asked.

Joey calmed a little at that. If they didn’t know who he was, that was a good thing.

“Yeah,” he answered. He made sure to keep his hands where the soldiers could clearly see them. Goose had taught him that, saying that night patrols were often performed by young and inexperienced soldiers who could overreact. “My dog tags are under my shirt. I’ve got a driver’s license in my wallet.”

“Lemme see them.”

Joey caught the chain around his neck with a thumb and lifted the dog tags free. He remembered how cool he thought they were when he’d gotten them. Then they’d become something he had to have with him.

The guard checked the dog tags and the driver’s license.

“You know Sergeant Gander?” the guard asked.

“He’s my stepdad,” Joey said.

“He’s a good soldier.”

Joey didn’t know what to say to that, so he kept quiet.

“What are you doing out here, Joey?”

“Thought I’d clear my head.”

“We haven’t had any problems in the camp, but it might not be safe on the streets.”

“Don’t see why it wouldn’t be. You guys are out here.” Joey gave the guy a smile.

For a moment, the soldier held his expression; then he grinned too. “Yeah, we are. What do you have on your mind?” He handed Joey back his license.

“My mom is one of the camp counselors. She’s taken in a lot of kids.” Joey shrugged, borrowing one of the teen habits he knew adults attributed to kids. It was camouflage for the moment. “Kind of crowded at my house right now.”

“I bet. I heard your mom is doing really good things.”

Joey nodded, but he wanted to scream. “Just wanted to catch a breath of fresh air. Maybe ride down to the main gates and look out at the city.”

“There’s not much to see,” the soldier said. “Things there are still pretty confusing.”

“I know. I’ve seen it on television.”

“Just stay back from the gate. The guys there have jobs to do. The general has given orders that everyone’s to stay on post. If you leave, it’s going to be hard to get in again.”

“No plans on leaving,” Joey replied.

“Take care of yourself, Joey.” The soldier climbed into the jeep.

Joey waved, then got back on his bike.

Columbus, Georgia
St. Francis Hospital Chapel
Local Time 0641 Hours

“Miss McGrath?”

Jenny McGrath blinked her eyes awake. For just a second, panic filled her because she couldn’t remember where she was. Bright lights reflected off white walls. She felt stiff and uncomfortable, and she was aware that the back of her thighs had gone numb.

“Jenny?”

Someone shook Jenny’s shoulder. Instinctively, Jenny reached for the hand that held her, gripped two of the fingers, and prepared to pull the hand from her. She’d had to defend herself against unwanted attentions before. She was used to moving quickly.

She looked up into Ester Pryne’s face. A diminutive woman in her forties, Ester wasn’t at all a threatening figure. She was a nurse in the cardiac ward, where Jenny’s father was currently awaiting a miracle.

That’s what the doctor had finally come out and said a few days ago: that it would take a miracle for Jackson McGrath to recover from the car wreck he’d had a few weeks ago.

“Are you all right, child?” Ester wore granny glasses and kept her peroxide blonde hair short. Laugh lines—she refused to allow them to be called crow’s feet—surrounded her eyes and marked the corners of her mouth.

“My father,” Jenny said, because that was the first thought in her head every time someone woke her. Jackson McGrath hadn’t regained consciousness since the accident.

“Your father is still with us,” Ester said. “I’m worried about you, though.”

“I’m fine,” Jenny said. “Thank you.” Conscious of the slack way she was sitting in the church pew in the hospital’s chapel, she sat up straighter and felt for her backpack at her feet. Thankfully it was still there.

“I thought I might eat breakfast this morning after my shift. I’m off at seven. If you don’t mind, I could use the company.”

Ester’s ploy was so thinly disguised that Jenny thought she would have had to still be asleep to be taken in by it. Still, she felt grateful for the attention. “Don’t you think you’ve bought me enough breakfasts lately?” Jenny asked.

“No. I don’t think you’ve gained an ounce. In fact, I’m worried that you might have lost weight.”

Jenny knew that she had. Her jeans no longer fit her the way they had, and she’d needed to tighten her belt. Before the last few weeks, she’d always been in good shape. Working extra jobs to pick up the slack left by her father’s drinking had kept her fit.

“Let me buy breakfast today,” Jenny said. Three weeks ago, one of the hospital administrators had offered her a job in janitorial. With all the people who had gone missing, St. Francis was seriously understaffed. Jenny suspected the nurses had made the suggestion. Since then, she’d been working forty-hour weeks, and the hospital had turned a blind eye to the fact that she was sleeping in the waiting rooms and the chapel.

“Well, I appreciate the offer,” Ester said. “Do you want to come by the nurses’ station and get me?”

“Sure.” Jenny glanced at the clock on the wall. “Do I have time for a shower? And I want to go by and check on Dad.”

“You have plenty of time. I’ve got some paperwork I can noodle around with if you’re running late.” Ester held out a plastic bag. “I also brought you this.”

Jenny hesitated. Growing up as Jackson McGrath’s daughter had brought only two kinds of attention: scorn and pity. Over the years, she hadn’t cared for either of them.

“What is it?” Jenny asked.

“A gift. Something a few of us got together and wanted to give you.”

“Ester, I don’t want charity. I just—”

“This isn’t charity, child,” Ester interrupted. “It’s a gift. There’s not a nurse on this floor who hasn’t seen hard times. A lot of us learned not to believe in much outside our own skins, but we learned to accept small kindnesses that came our way. If we hadn’t gotten them, we might not have made it through those dark times. One thing we know: you don’t get through them alone.” She pushed the bag forward.

Reluctantly, Jenny took the bag and peered inside. A pair of jeans, khakis, and a handful of blouses were neatly folded inside.

“We know you’ve had to struggle to keep your clothes clean,” Ester said. “We’ve seen you washing your clothes in the bathroom and drying them outside.”

Jenny’s face burned with embarrassment. She’d been doing all she could do to keep herself clean. She hadn’t wanted to get thrown out of the hospital, and being unclean would only have made her feel like everything she had to deal with was impossible.

“We had to guess at the sizes,” Ester said, “but most of us are pretty good at that. You’ll have to let us know how good we did.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Jenny whispered.

“You say, ‘Thank you.’ That’s all.”

“Thank you,” Jenny said. Surprising herself, she reached out and hugged the older woman.

“You’re welcome, child. You’re welcome.” Ester patted Jenny on the back and hugged her. “Now you get your shower. Both of us need to eat.”

Fort Benning, Georgia
Local Time 0649 Hours