The Land of the Shadow (13 page)

Justin grinned. “As long as there’s nothing for him to trip over.”

She gave him a reproving look and a playful swat. “Be serious.”

Justin sobered. “I understand where you’re coming from. You never truly know someone until you’re under fire with them.”

“Take Stan,” she said. “Leave Kaden here with me. Tell him he’s needed to watch over the place or something. Please.”

“All right, if it will make you feel better.” He drew her into his arms, and Carly laid her head against his chest. She heard the strong, steady thump of his heart, the heart that held her whole world.

Carly glanced over at Pearl again and found her deep in conversation with Veronica, the little girl Mark and Stacy had brought with them when they arrived right after the Infection swept through Colby. They had also brought a little boy they called Michael because of the St. Michael medallion he wore. He didn’t speak. They didn’t know if he had been unable to talk before the Crisis or if it was due to the shock and horror he had endured. He was of Asian ancestry, so they had speculated at one point that he might not speak English. But he responded to requests and was an avid reader, according to Stacy. He simply wouldn’t communicate, not even in sign. Unlike Veronica, he spent most of his time in his room, emerging only for food and bathroom breaks.

Before Pearl had come, Veronica spent most of her time in the fields, working from dawn to dusk, just like the adults, hoping Justin would notice her diligence. Yet she somehow still had the energy for that endless stream of conversation she directed at anyone who would listen. Pearl’s house was only a couple of doors down from where Veronica lived, and if she was overwhelmed by Veronica’s exuberant chatter, she never said a word.

Veronica now spent as much time with her “neighbor” as possible, following Pearl around and helping with the daily chores. It was understandable. Stacy had little time outside of her frantic medical study, and Veronica was starved for attention. She also seemed to think Pearl would be an ally in her quest to be treated like an adult. Veronica was eager to prove she was as intelligent, capable, and responsible as an adult so she could be in Justin’s classes, instead of having to wait four more years until she was fifteen, which she said was ridiculous.

Justin followed Carly’s gaze and watched Pearl for a moment. She had a somewhat bemused smile on her face as she listened to Veronica’s narrative about all her friends here in town.

He turned back to Carly. “I think she’ll do fine, honey.”

Carly put her arms around Justin’s neck and held him tight. “I can’t help but worry about you, you kn—”

“What the hell is that?” Justin blurted. They both stood, transfixed by the odd chugging noise that was getting louder with every moment. Then it turned the corner and they saw the source of it—the bright red Massey-Ferguson tractor, a wood gasifier tank mounted on its side.

Carly gave a scream of delight and took off running across the field, jumping over the rows of potatoes. Everyone else was doing the same, surrounding the tractor in a cheering crowd. Jason looked proud enough to burst. He grinned at all of them and patted the tractor’s hood.

Over the engine’s loud rumble, Carly could hear Justin explaining to Pearl how it worked: “. . . double tanks. There’s a fire in the outer tank that heats up wood inside the inner tank. Once the right temperature is reached, the wood in the inner tank will release a combustible gas.”

Carly put an arm around his waist. “This is a historic day, you know. We need to remember this.”

“A new holiday. Tractor Day.”

She looked around at the faces of her neighbors and friends and saw something in their faces that made her even happier than having the tractor: hope.

The next afternoon, Carly ran the roller brush over the carpet, trying not to think about the dust and debris worked down into the fibers where the roller brush couldn’t reach. This wasn’t really sweeping, she thought, a grumpy frown turning her lips. It was just picking up crumbs on the surface.

Justin didn’t get how squicked-out Carly was by the idea of her baby crawling around on that carpet. He’d said they’d just get another carpet whenever Carly felt it was too dirty to use anymore.

“We can’t just throw things away when they get dirty!” she had said, aghast.

“Sure we can. It’s not like there’s a shortage of area rugs.”

She had given him a reproving glance. “No, we’re not starting up a disposable consumer economy again, Justin. We need to start as we intend to go on, using resources wisely.”

Justin had looked like he was going to say something but just sighed. He’d rolled up the carpet, taken it outside and lain it over the fence, where he’d beaten it with a baseball bat until no more dust would come out.

Next on Carly’s list was mopping the floor, and it brought to mind that it wouldn’t be too much longer before all of the cleaning products from Before were gone and she’d be reduced to using the handmade soap to clean.

She was heating up some mop water on the stove when someone hammered on the screen door and shouted her name. Carly darted over to the door and saw Stacy on the other side, her eyes wide and scared.

“What is it?”

“It’s Veronica. She’s missing.”

“What? How? When?” Carly took the pot off the stove and grabbed her baby carrier from the wall. She plunked Dagny inside and strapped her to her back.

Dagny let out a squeal of delight, kicking in her eagerness. “Go, go, go!”

“I don’t know. She was doing schoolwork after breakfast. That was the last time I saw her. I searched the entire house.”

“We’ll find her. She can’t have gone far. Go to the courthouse and ring the bell. I’ll go find Grady and take Dagny to the Reverend’s house and meet you there.”

Stacy nodded. “It’s—it’s all my fault. I know it is.”

“Stacy, there will be time for that later. Right now, I need you to ring that bell so we can get help for our search.” Carly nudged Stacy out the door and took off down the sidewalk toward Grady’s post on the Wall. He manned the area beside the retractable door, shaded by a beach umbrella mounted on the back of his chair. A rifle rested across his knees.

Carly called his name and he stood when she approached, and turned to smile at her. He had the look of a stereotypical suburban dad, soft around the middle and of thinning hair, but under that pleasant exterior was a sharp-eyed former police dispatcher. It was what made him so good at organizing their security. “Hey, Miss Carly! What can I do for you?”

“We have a missing child,” Carly said, sparing no words. “Veronica.”

Grady was at the base of the stairs in an instant. “Any sign of struggle?”

“Not that Stacy mentioned.”

He nodded. “I’ll check the fence.”

She understood. If someone had taken Veronica, they would have had to cut through the fence. There was no way they could climb it with a child in their arms, especially one which might be struggling. But Carly didn’t want to think about that possibility.

“Thank you.”

The bell in front of the courthouse began clanging, and people soon spilled from their homes and returned from the fields, hoes in hand, puzzled looks on their faces. Carly headed toward the sound just as they did, lost in thought.

It seemed unlikely that Veronica had been taken by force. Someone would have seen or heard something in this quiet world. There were no background noises, no radios or car engines to muffle the sound of a cry for help. But where would Veronica have gone? The answer occurred to her just as she was starting to wish Justin and his tracking skills were here.

Pearl
. Just yesterday, Carly had been thinking about how Veronica idolized her. What if Veronica had followed them on their scouting mission? Brewster was some distance away, and it was possible they would be gone overnight. Could an eleven-year-old girl follow Justin’s small band and not be detected? Carly doubted it.

Despite her suspicions, Carly decided it was best to mount a search, just in case she was wrong. She would feel awful if her hunch turned out to be false and something had happened to Veronica.

In the courthouse was a box of flashlights, the cheap plastic type powered by D cells, kept handy for just these kinds of emergencies. Carly went inside and grabbed it while a choked-up Stacy explained to the townsfolk why they’d been summoned. Carly then distributed the flashlights outside and passed out assignments of regions to be searched, while Stacy’s boyfriend, Mark, passed out whistles so they could alert others if they found something.

“I’m sorry,” Stacy said. Tears flowed down her cheeks. “It’s all my fault.”

“Yes,” Mark said. “It is.”

Everyone froze in place and turned to stare at Mark. He didn’t seem to notice. He was staring at his girlfriend, his eyes blazing. “How many hours was it before you noticed she was gone, Stacy?”

There were soft gasps from the small crowd. Pete stepped forward and put a hand on Mark’s shoulder. Though in his mid-forties, a lifetime of working outside in the sun as a roofer had made Pete look far older. “Now isn’t the time, son,” he murmured.

Mark ignored him, shrugging hard to knock Pete’s hand away. “How many times, Stacy? How many times did I tell you that you were neglecting the kids? Neglecting everything but that damn clinic and your
studying
?”

Stacy put her hands over her face. Mark’s words had the air of an argument that had been repeated many times. “I don’t have a choice, Mark! I can’t have someone on the table for an emergency appendectomy while I look up how to do it in a reference book! I have a responsibility—”

“Your first responsibility is to your family,” Mark shouted. “Look at Michael. He’s still not talking, and what’s your solution? Ignore it and hope he gets better on his own. Because it’s easier having him hiding in his room all the time, isn’t it?”

Stacy’s eyes flashed beneath the sheen of tears. “I am not a child psychologist and neither are you—”

Carly stepped between them.

“Stop this.” Her tone was hard enough to startle the both of them into silence. “Pete is right. Now is not the time. Now is the time to look for Veronica and—”

“They’re back!” Carly spun and saw Kross standing atop the Wall, waving his arms. The seventeen-year-old boy was one of Justin’s students, one Justin relied on to keep the younger kids in line. He’s got the kid with him, and . . .
holy shit
!”

Oh no, oh no
, Carly thought as a million possibilities of what had made Kross swear spun through her mind.

Pete ran over to the chain beside the door and yanked, pulling down hard with all of his body weight. The door lifted and revealed the wagon, pulled by Shadowfax, with Stan and Justin walking alongside. Pearl was in the driver’s seat and Veronica was seated beside her, staring down at her hands in her lap. Carly gaped at the creature tied to the back of the wagon.

“A
cow
?” She ran over to Justin, giving him a swift hard hug of greeting. “Where did you find it?”

“I didn’t. Veronica did,” Justin said, nodding toward the little girl. “I knew someone was following us, so I hopped off the wagon when we went around a curve and doubled back. I found Veronica walking along, leading this thing with a dog leash.”

“It was all I could find,” Veronica said in a small voice. “I was going to bring it back for you, Carly.” Stacy ran over and yanked Veronica down from the wagon into a tight hug.

“Thanks.” Carly blinked. It was a big, heavy beast, a shiny red-brown in color, with stumpy horns curving from above its ears, the dog leash clipped around them. She bent down to peek beneath and saw it was male. It stared at her with that Zen bovine placidity, and Carly gave its head a tentative pat. It butted its nose against her arm and licked her with a gritty, slimy tongue. She withheld a grimace with effort.

“It likes you already,” Veronica said before she remembered that she was in trouble and ducked her head back down.

Stacy gave her a little shake. “You scared the life out of me! Why did you do that?”

Veronica’s answer was lost in the murmurs of the crowd of townspeople surrounding them, edging closer, eyes shining with eagerness. Almost everyone was here, save for Grady, who was probably still on his perimeter check.

“When will we butcher it?” Jason asked. “If we do it tomorrow, I can help.”