The McClane Apocalypse Book 4 (27 page)

This is not their first
run-in. She’s been shadowing him for a week, even though he’s
chased her off a dozen times. She’s also underweight and skinny.
She’d
followed
him the other night in freezing rain and sat patiently under a
tree while he slept in a cave. The stallion doesn’t seem to mind
her, but Cory doesn’t need another mouth to feed. Plus, she could
give him away when he’s trying to stalk creeps.

“Damn dog,” he gripes.

She belly crawls closer until she’s
right at his knee where she licks his hand.

“Damn it. Fine! One night,
ya’ damn dog,” he
complains,
and she whines louder.

Knowing
h
e’s
never
going to get any sleep unless he does something, Cory retrieves the
squirrel carcass and tosses it over to her. She wags her tail
vigorously and goes to work on the remains.

Cory returns to his sleeping bag and
within a short time, finds restful peace from his memories. He rubs
with his thumb and forefinger at the gold bracelet on the leather
cord. He notices that the damn dog has curled up and is sleeping on
his feet. He doesn’t kick her off, though. The extra warmth isn’t
such a bad thing tonight.

Chapter Fourteen

Sam

It’s
been almost a full month since Paige and Simon
were reunited. For the first full week, they’d
been
stuck together like two
peas in a pod. Wherever Simon had gone, Paige had trailed after
him. He has become frighteningly protective of her. He’d taken her
with him and Sam to check on a sick cow at the Reynolds farm. That
was almost two weeks ago. One of the local, single dads who had
stopped by to visit Wayne Reynolds had made a pass at Paige. Simon
had nearly come
across
the cattle gate and had the guy by the scruff of
his shirt. His soft voice and refined behavior had instantly
disappeared. Sam’s eyes had grown wide and then she’d just
smirked
and shook
her head. He has such an old soul. He’s always been protective of
everyone on the farm, but it’s never been anything like what he
displays for his sister. It’s almost comically endearing. The
single dad had originally come
in
to
the clinic the month before with
a
third-degree
burn on his arm. They’d treated him as best as they could.
That day when he’d hit on Paige, Simon had
simply
handed him more bandaging
and cream out of his satchel and sent him on his way, even though
he certainly had no right to do so since they were at the Reynolds’
farm. Wayne had just chuckled at his distress.

It wasn’t as if the man had
meant any harm. His wife had been killed the first day of the
tsunamis. She’d
been
in Los Angeles for a modeling gig. The tsunami
that had blasted California had set off the San Andreas Fault
again, causing it to split open and once again shift. What wasn’t
engulfed by the tsunami was soon destroyed by aftershocks and fires
that reached inland hundreds of miles. She distinctly remembers
listening to the radio and sketchy television reports with her
mother and father and feeling sick to her stomach at the images.
Sam can understand the widower’s heartbreak and loss. He’s probably
just feeling desperately lonely. He’ll just have to find someone in
the surrounding communities, though. These are the neighborhoods
that the men on the McClane farm have worked so hard for the last
few years on getting re-established. There are over six hundred
people now thriving in Pleasant View. The community has
rebuilt,
and the
people pull together to help one another, most of the time.
Everyone has turned their manicured lawns once full of neatly
trimmed hedges and shrubberies and decorative flower beds into
thriving vegetable gardens during the summer months. Many of these
families have resources like electricity from solar power, running
water and heat, care of chopping firewood from whatever source they
can find.
It’s nothing like it was
before, but Sam knows that it may never be again, at least not in
her lifetime.

Today they are riding
together through the forest as the early morning sun glares
blindingly bright as it shoots shafts of light onto them. It’s
finally a more temperate day than it’s been in the last few months.
Sam tilts her head back, letting the warm rays touch her skin. Her
denim jacket almost feels too
warm
for the weather over her blue
hoodie.

“Are those tracks?” Gavin asks as he
points to his left.

Paige’s friend has also
tagged along and is fitting in just fine with the rest of the
family. The men have s
aid
he’s rather thoughtful when it comes time
for
chores, even
though he hasn’t caught on
to
most of the work yet. His heart’s in
the right place, and Sam’s sure that he’ll eventually get it all
figured out. It’s not exactly an easy transition to go from city
slicker to apocalypse survivor to farmer.

“Those are just from deer,” Simon
explains patiently. “See how they kind of slide in the mud? These
are from a cloven-hoofed animal. Not a threat.”

They still haven’t found whatever
animal attacked the pregnant mare, which is why she has been
forbidden to ride alone for the time being.

Paige rides behind her brother. She’s
not at all a lover of the horses. Simon literally has to coerce her
to ride with him. She’s only done it twice, including
today.

“Oh, sorry,” Gavin remarks with
embarrassment.

He’s catching on to the riding and
seems to enjoy it. They’ve also given him an older gelding, who is
slightly sway-backed and very mellow. Sam’s mount is spirited and
fun to ride. Her chestnut coat is a lovely tan color that contrasts
with her lighter mane.

“No problem,” Simon returns with a
friendly grin. “Took me a while to learn this stuff, too. Hey,
you’ll get it. No big deal.”

“Yeah, we’ve all learned some pretty
strange things on this farm,” Sam agrees.

“Oh yeah?” Paige asks from behind her
brother’s back where she holds around his waist with a death grip.
“Like what else?”

“How to make butter and bread and
soap,” Sam says with a chuckle and disbelieving shake of her head.
“I never knew how to sew before and now I do. Even know how to sew
stitches on someone if I have to.”

Simon breaks in, “How to birth a calf
if the cow can’t do it on her own.”

“Ew, gross. Man, I don’t know about
that one,” Gavin says.

They all laugh. It’s good.
It’s
a good
thing. Laughter has been gone from the farm for so long and
had come so few and far between since the death of Grams and then
Em. Neither of them would want the family to be so sad and mournful
all of the time.

“Simon’s great with the animals!” Sam
praises with a smile.

When she looks over at him,
he turns in another direction and
coaxes
his horse farther away from
hers.

“I’m getting the picture on that one,”
Paige says.

Sam knows she is thinking
of the other day when her brother had taken her to the neighbor’s
farm again to deal with a sickness that seems to be plaguing the
cows at the Johnson’s. There is a vet in town again, but his
services are already spread so thin that many of the bigger
farms
are trying
to keep their livestock healthy without his aid. He is also a heavy
drinker of homemade alcohol of some kind and not reliable. He’d
lost his wife and son when the world fell apart and has not been
the same since. Sometimes he also disappears for days and even a
week or so at a time. Nobody knows where he goes, but they also
don’t question him. Grandpa explained that not everyone deals with
grief in the same manner and to give him time. Sam remembers him
distinctly, though, being a different man before the apocalypse
happened because he took care of her show horses. He’d
always
been
professional, mild-mannered and courteous. On the rare
occasion
that she
has encountered him since, he is unshaven, scruffy even, and
ill-tempered.

Most of the townspeople and
the small neighborhoods have
chickens,
and some of them are keeping
pigs or a few cows fenced in on the surrounding properties. Any and
all animal antibiotics that were found
on
raids by the Rangers are being
stored on the McClane farm, though. They are perfectly fine,
according to Grandpa, to use on humans in different dosages. The
people who’d needed them hadn’t seemed to mind that their sick
child would get well again versus not being able to use the
antibiotic on an ill hog.

Gavin doesn’t notice the aloof and
detached interaction between her and Simon and chuckles
again.

“No kidding. You’re like a doctor and
a vet and a botanist all in one,” he says.

“Nah, I’m not that skilled. Not like
Reagan or Doc,” Simon returns with a shrug.

He is being very modest, and Sam would
like to point that out but knows Simon will only argue. Grandpa
says that Simon is quite accomplished and a very fast learner. She,
on the other hand, needs to be shown many times how to do a
particular procedure. Sewing sutures had taken a ton of practice.
Her hands always shake, too. She doesn’t particularly like getting
in the trenches. She’d much prefer to stand by and offer assistance
than be in charge. She’s just not that kind of person. She’d
actually much prefer to be at the farm riding or sketching to
working in the clinic at all but understands the importance of what
they are doing there for their small community.

They ride a short while longer talking
about the farm and how different it is than being out where Paige
and Gavin have been.

“We were offered shelter
here and there. Usually it was from
nice
people like the McClanes,” Paige
explains.

“But most people didn’t want three
more people and a little girl to feed,” Gavin says.

“We don’t let people stay here,
either,” Simon says with a solid shake of his head.

“I can’t blame the family,”
Paige says. “The McClane family has
a good
thing here. It’s safe, safer than
anywhere I’ve been that
was
n’t guarded with a couple hundred
Marines. But that was a long time ago that I’ve felt that safe.
Those camps didn’t last long. People aren’t looking to take in a
bunch of orphans right now. Mostly they are just trying to keep
themselves alive.”

Gavin says, “Right. This
place is like a utopia compared to what’s out there. The best place
we ever stayed was that old farm up in Pennsylvania. We were the
only ones there, but at least nobody found us and tried to rob us
or kills us or
...
” he stammers and stops.

Sam wonders at what Gavin
isn’t saying, which sometimes tells a person more than what someone
does say. He looks troubled by his thoughts. Paige looks away, too.
She fiddles with the thin strips of leather she has tied around her
wrist. She seems
to wear these
constantly
like a piece of jewelry, and Sam
has wanted to ask her about them but hasn’t had the chance
yet.

He continues on, “I never
used to be like that, ya’ know? I used to want to be around people
all the time. I’d go to my dad’s job sites and interact with the
guys and work alongside them and shoot the crap and go out for a
beer after. It was a social life. It’s not like that anymore. Being
secluded and away from people is the way to go now.
It’s just so weird.”

“And I hung out with my friends in
college and was social. You guys probably had friends and social
lives before, too,” Paige admits.

Sam smiles sadly, remembering her old
life which is sometimes too painful to do.

“Science Club, Chess Club, those were
fun,” Simon acknowledges and gets a few chuckles, although he
frowns unknowingly.

“We try to help where and
when we can, though,” Sam says brightly. “We take as much food that
we won’t need at the end of the harvest to the local food bank.
It’s just the library actually. But people know to go there at the
end of summer if they need supplies to make it through the winter.
Everyone does. Some of the older
people
in town can’t take care of
themselves, so we all try to help and look after them. The men, you
know the Rangers and Simon and Cory, see to the distribution on
those days. That way it all gets passed out evenly and nobody
fights over it. Right, Simon?”

“Uh
…
yeah, right,” he
agrees.

He looks away again. Why is he so
distant and strange? It doesn’t have anything to do with his
sister’s return. He was acting this way before she came to the
farm.

“That’s really great, Simon,” his
sister praises.