The McClane Apocalypse Book 4 (31 page)

“That’s actually good knowledge to
have,” Sam speculates as she places the last few items in her box.
“We should probably all learn that from you.”

“Trust me, it’s
mostly
what
grasses in a yard or field that you can eat. And berries, wild
mushrooms, that kind of thing. But we’d have starved for
sure.”

“Where’d you go from Kentucky?” Reagan
asks.

“We left our group and made
our way here. It was rough and mostly on foot with a toddler, but
we finally made it. Even
though
I don’t like horses, one of those
would’ve come in pretty damn handy back then. Tennessee isn’t very
on-foot friendly terrain.”

“No shit!” Reagan agrees. “That
would’ve been a bitch for sure.”

“What’s a bitch?” Kelly asks from the
door, startling them.

“Hey!” Reagan yells. “We’re having a
private moment here, Hulk! Do you mind?”

Kelly just laughs at her. Sam smiles.
Reagan and Kelly have become like brother and sister over the
years. He watches over Reagan protectively when John’s not around
or on a run or at the clinic when she’s not.

“You girls finish your moment and then
you’re haulin’ ass. John’s ready and so is Doc,” he informs
them.

“Beat it, or I’ll tell Hannie you were
swearing,” Reagan teases.

“Yeah, yeah. Takes a cusser
to know one, half pint,” he razzes her. Reagan
good-naturedly
punches his big
shoulder. He just smirks before leaving. Sam believes that Kelly
may have been just as worried about Reagan during her bout with the
flu as John.

“We’re glad you made it here, Paige,”
Sam says, trying to make her feel welcome. She’s been rather
standoffish since her and her friends arrived. This is by far the
longest conversation they’ve had with her.

“Thanks,” she returns. “There were a
lot of other bad things that happened and things we had to do to
stay alive, but I don’t really want to talk about any of
that.”

“I don’t blame you,” Reagan says. “And
we’ve all had to do bad shit, Paige. That’s why we’re still alive,
too.”

Paige nods and there is a
sadness in her
gray-blue
eyes. Sam understands it well.

“We should get going,” Reagan tells
them. “There are bound to be people waiting for us. Besides, we
don’t want our men to get their panties in a wad.”

Paige laughs heartily, but Sam
refrains. She certainly doesn’t want to be overheard laughing at
Simon or Kelly. She wouldn’t want to hurt their
feelings.

“Right,” Sam mumbles. “Ready,
Paige?”

She gets a nod in return
from Simon’s sister. They leave the shed, find the men waiting for
them near Grandpa’s SUV, pack in the crates and all pile into it.
John drives while Grandpa sits shotgun. Reagan and Paige share the
middle seat. Gavin has stayed behind with Kelly and Derek, and
Talia is also remaining
at the
farm
to watch Maddie, who is fitting in
just great with the other McClane kids. The milder weather has
driven the children out of doors, which is a benefit to everyone’s
ears. The backseat is reserved for Sam and Simon. As usual,
contingency plans are being covered.

John starts it off with, “If there
would be any people that come to the clinic with weapons, I’ll
disarm them before they get in.”

“Roger that,” Simon agrees.

“We’ve never had a problem
yet, John,” Reagan says. “We’ll be
fine
. Everyone’s thankful that we’re
doing this.”

“Doesn’t matter, honey,” Grandpa
argues. “John’s right. We could have other people from farther away
who will hear of the clinic and want help but don’t know our
rules.”

John adds, “So
we all know
the
procedures, right? If anything goes down, Doc will secure the back
entrance and
….
well, it will be me and Simon who will hold down the front.
I’m going to stop by the Reynolds and pick up
Chet.
We could use an extra
set of eyes at the clinic today.”

Chet and John have become friends,
despite their rocky start. Sometimes he’ll come over to the farm
and hang out with the men in the evening. He also helps out with
road security and like today since Cory isn’t around, he’ll come to
the clinic with them.

John goes on and on about
security as they drive down the rutted oil well road between the
two farms. When they hit a particularly deep hole, Sam is jostled
against Simon. He looks down at her and
scoots
farther away.
The narrow double seats in the rear of the
SUV are less roomy.
Unless he climbs over
the seat and into the trunk, there’s nowhere else to go.

“Sorry,” he mumbles and resumes
reading his medical book.

The conversation in the car
is loud as Reagan explains more about the clinic to
Paige; and
Grandpa
and John converse about security and procedure. Sam figures it’s a
good time to try to talk with Simon.

“Is everything ok, Simon?”

“Yeah, sure,” he says without turning
toward her.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asks
as she twirls a loose thread from the hem of her
sweater.

“No, everything’s fine, Sam,” he
responds and finally turns toward her.

He offers a grin that
reveals it was born of a pained effort. Sam is disheartened by
this. He’s normally so full of good spirits and is easy to be
around. He’s
quiet-spoken
, but always tries to find
the bright side of most situations. He’s night and day different
from their beloved Cory. Sam believes that’s why they get along so
well. Cory has always been cynical and just
…
darker. Despite everything that
he’s been through, Simon tries to see light and goodness in the
world.

“Wanna’ go for a hike and look for
some herbs later when we get back?” she suggests with a hopeful
tinge in her voice.

He quickly points out the window
without answering her, “There’s the Reynolds farm.”

They pull in and park, taking a moment
to track down and pick up Chet.

“Have you met the Reynolds yet,
Paige?” Grandpa asks.

“Yeah, I met the brothers and Bertie
and their little girl the other day,” Paige offers.

“They’re good people,” Grandpa
adds.

“Yes, they seem very nice,” Paige
agrees.

Reagan scoots to the middle
as John comes out of the barn with Chet. He gets back in the
driver’s seat as they all wait for Chet to
come
out of his house with his
shotgun. He also has a pistol strapped to his hip when he emerges.
He jumps in the SUV beside Reagan and jovially blurts a greeting to
everyone which is returned. He shoots a smile over his shoulder at
her which Sam returns with one of her own accompanied by a wave.
He’s like another adopted big brother, one of so many that she has
now.

The conversation of
security picks back up as she and Simon still brood silently in the
back seat. His mulish behavior and withdrawn attitude
does
n’t sit well
with her. She tries to clear her mind of the issues between her and
Simon, and there are definitely issues, of that she is certain. She
just needs to concentrate on the clinic and doing her job as a
nurse for Grandpa and Reagan.

Simon almost always takes
care of the children with Grandpa, and Reagan tends to the adults.
Her job is usually more gruesome and involves a lot of suturing and
broken bone settings. Many of the men in their community will
injure themselves but put off seeking medical attention at the
clinic or calling on the radio for help. It makes Reagan’s job of
fixing their injuries even
gorier
and
difficult
. So many people rely on their
little clinic, and Sam is always happy to be going there to help
them. Helping others is all that matters right now. Helping those
less fortunate. Helping those who can’t help themselves. Helping
the good, kind people of their tiny, deconstructed and broken
community.

Chapter Fifteen

Paige

It takes slightly more than
twenty minutes to make it to the small town of Pleasant View where
the family used to interact, shop, go to church, attend high school
and have a medical practice that served their
small
community. It’s quaint
and has a real hometown cozy and comfortable feel about it. Or at
least it probably used to look that way. Now it looks more like a
deserted ghost town with some of the streets barricaded off to keep
outsiders from getting in. They pass three of those areas. And as
John drives slowly through the small burg, Paige spies through the
cracks and crevices of those barricades and sees children playing
here and there, people milling about and walking around and some
others doing outdoor chores. Some of the barricades have graffiti
spray painted on the sheet metal and wood that in no friendly terms
lets trespassers know that the area is secured by
heavy
firepower.
She doesn’t blame them.

“Here we are, everyone,” John
announces.

He pulls the vehicle around to the
back of the clinic. Paige takes note of the thirty or so people
waiting for treatment at the front door of the building that was
explained to her as being Herb’s old practice. It’s his practice
again. The services just come a bit cheaper.

“All ashore who’s going ashore,” Dr.
McClane adds in a light tone as he alights the big SUV.

Sam chuckles behind her.
Dr. McClane is always making jokes and being funny. Sam told her
the other day that she
loves
him as much as she’d loved her real parents. She
feels the same about the rest of the family. Paige thinks that the
McClanes are very generous people, but she doesn’t feel any
certain
connection
to them yet other than being eternally grateful to them for taking
care of Simon and now for opening their home to her and her
friends.

Paige tips her seat forward
so that Simon and Sam can exit the SUV. He holds out his hand to
help the other girl down. She jumps to her feet and her long black
ponytail swings side to side like one of those huge horses’ tails
back at the farm. Her bright blue eyes regard Simon with hopeful
expectation. He just turns away from her and guides Paige through
the back door. Paige finds his behavior odd. He’s told her quite a
few times how close he is
with
Sam. She glances back in time to
witness Samantha’s face fall with disappointment

He’s also close with the
absent kid, Cory. He also explained why that guy is gone. That
story had been about as depressing as one could get. Paige had even
wept for her brother’s pain at losing this young girl named Em,
although he did not. There was
a
cool
hardness in his
deep
blue eyes that had left
Paige feeling as if she was looking at a stranger instead of her
younger brother.

“Hey, when we get back to the farm,
could I move into the cabin with you?” Paige asks. She’s been
meaning to ask this of him. She doesn’t like being in the big house
while he’s out, what seems like, so far away from her. She’d lost
him once. She doesn’t wish to do it again. Paige knows that he’s
never going to be her kid brother again, but she still wants to
keep him close.

“Oh, um sure, sis,” he answers as he
holds the door for her and Sam.

They are lugging the full crates into
the back room of the building. Reagan rushes around opening the
blinds and setting up the rooms. Sam follows after her with
supplies and things they’ll need to treat patients. This is weird
as shit. Such a short time ago, she’d been worried about where
they’d get enough food for Maddie for the day. For the day! And
here she is volunteering at a clinic in some small, re-established
community.

Simon had been right about
the food at the farm. They certainly have enough to go around.
She’d cried like some sort of lunatic when he’d taken her down to
the basement in the big house and had shown her where the food
pantry was located and the root cellar that holds packing crates
full of vegetables and apples. He’d just
comforted
her again. As
usual.

“Don’t like it in the big
house? Is there anything wrong there? Here, ditch your jacket in
this closet,” her brother says as he
swipes
a clump of hair from his
forehead.

His red hair has darkened
so much in the last four years since she’s seen him. He used to
have a lighter red like her. She used to like to get blonde
highlights painted
into
her own. That seems like a hundred years ago.
After a week of hot showers at the farm, she’d broken down when
she’d
picked
up the bar of homemade soap and the small bottle of shampoo.
She’d
cried
over that, too. Luckily, Simon wasn’t there for that one.
She’d
been
standing under a warm stream of water in the shower and had
been naked, of course.