Enduring Anarchy (Dark Nation Book 2) Page 3

  “Sure did, Mick.” Laura had never liked Michael Higgins. He was the kind of guy whose nose was pushed out of joint if you drove a fancier car than him, who liked parading his latest thin, blonde girlfriend in front of the neighbors, who invited them over for barbeques so he could brag about how much money he’d made that month. But he was strong and, right now, she needed strong more than she needed nice.

  “Jerry, you think you can give me a hand here?” Mick gestured to the tree and Jerry’s face paled.

  “I can try, Mick.”

  “If you can lift it, just a little, I can get free,” Laura said. “Argent will help me.”

  Mick looked skeptical—he’d never had much time for Argent—but nodded. “Okay, we’ll count to three then go for it. Ready?”

  Laura nodded. “Argent, boy.”

  Without her even needing to show him what to do, Argent dipped his head so she could put her arm around his neck.

  “One…” Mick shouted. “Two…” Laura braced herself. “Three!”

  As Mick and Jerry—mainly Mick—heaved the tree branch up by a couple of inches, Argent began to pull.

  “I’m losing it!” Jerry shouted.

  “She’s almost there. Hold it!” Mick replied.

  “I can’t! I’m slipping!” Jerry let out a loud cry and Laura heard the branch thwack back down to the ground.

  She winced, breathless, still hanging onto Argent, then dared to look down at her legs. By some miracle, she was free.

  “Oh, thank you,” she breathed, almost laughing with relief as she nuzzled into Argent’s fur. “Thank you.”

  Jerry was rubbing the back of his neck, looking completely traumatized by almost crushing Laura’s feet when he dropped his end of the branch, but Mick was grinning. If he’d had a working cell phone, he probably would have videoed the whole thing and uploaded it to YouTube.

  “Second hero mission of the day,” he said, clapping his hands together to indicate, job done.

  “Second?” Laura had managed to sit up, but her head was spinning.

  “Didn’t you hear the explosion? Must have had to do with something up on the train tracks. Debris came flying through our window, and I pulled Carmel out of the way just in time.”

  Laura was struggling to keep up with what Mick was saying. Carmel? A train?

  “My girlfriend,” Mick added. “You guys haven’t met. We’ll do a barbeque next week.”

  Laura exchanged a look with Jerry, but didn’t bother to tell Mick that barbeques were likely to be off for a while. Unless they were barbecuing over a campfire, that is.

  “You all good here?” Mick asked, already moving back toward the gate.

  “I just need my chair.” Laura peered around the yard. “It should be here.”

  Jerry cleared his throat and pointed shakily toward the tree. “I’m sorry, Laura. I’m not sure it’ll be any use to you now.”

  She followed his gaze and almost buried her head in her hands; her chair had been crushed under the weight of the main tree trunk. Unsalvageable. Unusable.

  “Shit,” she said quietly, even though a voice in her head was telling her to be grateful she’d been thrown from it rather than being crushed herself. “Shit! What am I going to do?”

  Laura expected Mick to shrug and walk away but instead he headed back into the yard. Bending down beside her, he began to scoop her up.

  “Mick! What are you doing?”

  Argent began to growl.

  “Ah, quiet down, Benji.” Mick waved his hand at Argent. “I have a spare chair over at my place. It was my ma’s. She died a few years ago and I kept it just in case.”

  In case? Laura tried to smile and patted Mick’s shoulders. “Okay, great. Maybe you could bring it over? My back’s not great.”

  Mick shrugged. “Sure.” Then, looking around, he started to move toward the outdoor table and chairs.

  “Mick!” Laura’s heart was thundering in her chest. “Would you mind taking me inside?” Her mouth had suddenly become extremely dry and her tongue felt too big. Even Mick would notice a dead body if he came across one.

  He paused for a moment, casting a glance at Jerry that implied, Jeez, women. Never happy, are they? “Sure,” he said tightly. “No problem, Laura.”

  “Thank you,” she breathed. “Thanks.”

  Half an hour later, after Mick and Carmel had made as big a scene as possible of delivering the wheelchair, making sure any neighbors who were around had seen their act of kindness, Laura breathed a sigh of relief. As they closed the door behind them, Jerry laughed. “Quite a pair, those two.”

  “They are,” Laura replied, taking a sip from the bottle of water Jerry had given her. “Listen, Jerry, you should get back to Barb. She’ll be worried about you.”

  Jerry looked at her for a moment, then looked away. Were his shoulders trembling?

  “Jerry?” A heavy sense of dread had settled in the pit of Laura’s stomach. “Is Barb okay?”

  Screwing his eyes shut, Jerry shook his head and sniffed loudly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “She’ll never cope with this, Laura.” He waved his hands around the room. “With all this. She just won’t. She’s too fragile. Someone said they’re helping people up at the high school, setting up some kind of emergency center. I thought about taking her there, so she’s with other people, but I’m not sure she’ll come.”

  Laura sat up straighter in her chair, already missing the more comfortable back of her own, expensive version. “The school?”

  Jerry nodded. “A triage center, I think. Advice. Help.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s a bad idea. I just thought it might be better than sitting around here waiting to be robbed.”

  Laura pressed her lips together. “No, Jerry. It’s not a bad idea. It’s a great idea. In fact, I’ll bet that’s where Alex and the kids have headed. They were on a school trip. He went to find them.”

  “Makes sense they’d go back to the school,” Jerry said tentatively.

  “It does.” Laura was looking around for a pen and a piece of paper, uncertain whether she truly believed Alex would have headed for the school or whether she was convincing herself of it because she was pretty sure she’d go mad if she had to stay in close proximity to the dead body in the backyard. Locating the notepad they kept by the barely ever used house phone, she scrawled: Alex, I’ve gone to the school. They’re setting up a walk-in center. I’m okay. I’ll wait for you there.

  “Right,” she said, slapping the note down on the table. “Let’s see about convincing Barb to take a little walk with us.”

  4

  MOLLY

  As Alex headed inside with the kids, Tommy and Molly helped Colton over the trashcan and into the store.

  “Sit over here,” Molly said, indicating an upturned chair near the checkouts.

  As Colton limped over to it, Tommy set it up the right way and handed him back his cane. “Will you two be okay alone?” Tommy asked, glancing back at the wedged-open doors.

  Molly nodded. “I have the gun. I’ll keep watch on the front of the store. You and Zack catch up with the others, and if you find any aspirin….”

  “You bet,” Tommy replied, patting Zack on the shoulder. “Let’s go, bud. Aspirin and food. Let’s see what we can find.”

  As the brothers sped off down the nearest aisle, stepping over empty packets and broken jars, Molly turned back to Colton. “Right… let’s sort out this leg of yours.”

  “Go find yourself something to eat first,” he said. “You look tired, Molly.”

  “First, your leg. Then food. The kids will find something, I’m sure.” She stood up and looked up and down the store, then handed him the gun. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

  Toward the back, among a small section of cheap clothing, Molly found what she’d been looking for—a shelf of discounted scarves.

  “You’re going to use those to tie a splint?” Jenna was beside her and was gesturing to the scarves.

  “Yes,” Molly sai
d, taking one of the scarves and wrapping it around Jenna’s neck. “But I also think we should take these.”

  Jenna frowned at her. Over the next few weeks, the temperature would continue to climb until it reached the mid-seventies on a good day; they’d have little need for winter clothing. Turning around and taking a bunch of hoodies from a second discount rack, Molly handed them to Jenna. “Why d’you think these are still here, Jenna, when the rest of the store is practically empty?”

  Again, Jenna frowned.

  “Because everyone’s thinking about now. Tomorrow. Maybe next week. They’re not thinking about next month or a few months from now when it’s freezing outside. Wet and cold, and with no central heating.”

  Jenna swallowed hard. “Right. I get it.”

  “We’ll hand these out to the others.” Molly grabbed as much as she could carry from the reduced-price winter goods section, then started back to the front of the store. “Did you find any food?”

  “Not much. I’ll keep looking.” Jenna was about to break away and head back toward the food aisles when she stopped abruptly. Molly bumped into her and peered around her stack of hoodies and hats. Jenna was staring at something on the floor.

  Molly followed the girl’s gaze, and instinctively stepped back when she saw what Jenna had seen; a pool of dark red blood and a series of drips that led in the direction of the exit.

  “We shouldn’t stay here long,” Jenna whispered.

  “No,” Molly replied, stepping around the blood. “We shouldn’t. Go tell the others to hurry up.”

  As Jenna scurried away, looking horribly pale, Molly returned to Colton and set her stack of clothes down on the empty checkout beside him.

  “Smart,” he said, nodding at the hoodies.

  Tilting her head, but not bothering to say ‘thanks’, Molly waved a scarf at him. “And this should help with your leg.”

  She gestured for him to stand up. “Sorry. I need your chair.”

  Colton did as he was told and leaned back on the checkout as Molly turned his chair upside down and unscrewed two of the cylindrical plastic legs. When she’d finished, Colton almost smiled at her.

  “Smart?” she asked, bending down and examining his leg.

  “Smart,” he replied.

  Gently touching Colton’s swollen knee, Molly looked up at him. “Shall I splint the whole leg or just the lower half?”

  “Whole thing, I think. It’ll make it hard to walk but it’ll stop me flexing the knee and give it a chance to heal.”

  “In that case, we’ll need four chair legs.” Molly set to work unscrewing the other two legs and had only just finished tying them in place at the back and sides of Colton’s knee and calf when the kids re-emerged from the aisles.

  Erik and Scarlett were tucking into an already half-empty bag of potato chips, and Lucky had managed to find a stack of soda, but none of them seemed to be carrying any water.

  Alex Banks gestured to Colton’s knee. “I looked for something frozen to take down the swelling, but it’s all either gone or melted.”

  “Thanks.” Colton stood up, reached for his cane, and tested the splint. “This should help. I’ll be walking like a robot for a while, but it’ll take the pressure off.”

  “Did you find any water?” Molly asked.

  Tommy gestured to his backpack. “Not much. A few bottles. We’ve stashed all we could find.” He reached into his pocket and handed her a can of diet soda and a chocolate bar. “No coffee, though,” he said, grimacing. “Or aspirin.”

  Barely blinking, Molly opened the soda and took several huge gulps; then she opened up the chocolate bar. Next to her, Colton was doing the same. When they’d finished, she nodded at the group. “Okay, everyone grab a hoodie, hat, gloves, and scarf from this pile. I know I sound ridiculous, but…” She was about to explain, but the kids were already doing as they were told. Alex and Tommy did the same.

  “We do have hoodies at home,” Erik muttered to his father as he crammed the items into his backpack.

  “Yeah, we do. But someone else might need them, so….” Alex widened his eyes to indicate, just do it, Erik.

  Molly looked at each of them in turn. They were ready. Not rested, but refueled at least.

  “Alex, what’s the quickest way back to your house from here?” she asked as they made their way back outside.

  Alex rubbed the back of his neck, then pointed left of the gas station. “Toward the bridge. But…” he trailed off, sucking in his cheeks. “It was pretty chaotic down there when I left.”

  “Miss O’Neil?” Jenna tentatively interrupted.

  Molly turned to her. “Yes?”

  “I have an idea.” Jenna’s hands were laced together behind her back, and she was swaying nervously from foot to foot.

  Molly waited for her to continue.

  “Not far from here, there’s a section of woodland. There’s a clearing. I go there sometimes. It’s a quicker route back to town and I have a few more supplies there that we could grab. A first-aid kit. Some food.”

  Alex’s eyes brightened. “Quicker?”

  Jenna nodded.

  “Why didn’t you say so before?” Erik asked her, stepping up beside his father, already bouncing on the balls of his feet, eager to get going.

  “I guess ’cos I haven’t told anyone about it before. I go there when I want to be alone. Not many people know about it. Maybe no one.” Jenna’s cheeks flushed. She looked embarrassed.

  As Erik rolled his eyes, Scarlett elbowed him in the ribs and said, “Well, thanks, Jenna. We appreciate it.”

  “Yes,” Molly said brightly, finally feeling the smallest sense of relief. “Thank you, Jenna. Quicker is good, and quiet is even better.”

  “How confident are you that you can get us back to town this way?” Colton was leaning on his cane, but with the aid of the splint seemed a little more like his old self again.

  “If we can get to the clearing, one hundred percent,” Jenna said confidently.

  Colton studied Jenna’s face, then looked at Molly for confirmation. When she nodded at him, he said, “Okay. Then lead the way, Miss Cruz.”

  Molly had expected to feel safer away from the abandoned cars and the anticipation of being discovered by other people. However, as soon as they stepped off the main road and into the trees, her skin started to crawl with uneasiness. Out in the open, the usual morning brightness had been muted by the smoke coming from town, but it had unmistakably been daylight. Beneath the canopy of the trees, the air was thick with shadows, and Molly was fighting a familiar twinge of panic in her chest.

  “Okay?” Colton asked as she helped him navigate a fallen tree trunk.

  “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” she replied, pushing loose hair from her face.

  Colton smiled thinly, wincing as he lowered his weight onto his bad leg; the splint was helping, but it was no substitute for proper rest and medical attention.

  “This way.” Up ahead, Jenna was weaving effortlessly through the trees, pushing branches out of her way, navigating the woods as if she knew them by heart.

  “You know,” Molly said, trying not to keep looking at Colton’s leg as he walked awkwardly next to her. “I have a cabin in a place like this.”

  “A dark wood?” he asked. “Sounds idyllic.”

  Frowning, because she couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic or sincere, Molly replied. “Yes. A dark, quiet, middle-of-nowhere wood.”

  Colton leaned heavily on his cane as they followed Jenna and the others down an uneven slope covered in leaves and twigs.

  “But, more importantly, a dark secluded wood. Off the beaten track. The kind of place people wouldn’t easily come across.”

  When Colton didn’t reply, Molly chewed the inside of her cheek. She couldn’t figure out why she was telling Colton this. Was she hoping he’d ask where it was and suggest joining her there? Or was she hoping he’d tell her things in town would get better and she wouldn’t need to worry about the cabin at all? Ex
cept for her usual summer and weekend visits.

  Before Colton could say anything, Jenna’s voice drifted through the trees. “Here! It’s here!” Jenna was out of sight but Lucky appeared in front of them, as if from nowhere, waving at her through the darkness.

  “Not far now, Miss O’Neil,” Lucky said politely. As he spoke, Molly couldn’t help but smile at him. Just twenty-four hours ago, he’d been the irritating class clown who she’d assumed would probably never get his act together and behave sensibly. Today he was different. Perhaps it was because she’d trusted him with the responsibility of escorting the prison guard, Fox, back to the bus. Or because she’d allowed him to keep his lighter. Or just because the whole world had changed, so he had too. Whatever the reason, Molly was grateful.

  “Over here.” Lucky pointed up ahead.

  As they stumbled through a thick cluster of trees, they emerged into a small clearing. Somehow, Alex and Tommy had maneuvered their bicycles through the woods and had leaned them up against a nearby tree.

  In the center of the clearing someone, presumably Jenna, had positioned four large logs. Perfect for sitting on. The kids lingered in the middle. Despite the gas station hiatus, they still looked exhausted.

  “Can I suggest that we take a break?” Tommy beat Molly to it and looked around the group. “I know you want to get home.” He was speaking to the Bankses. “But it’s going to be a long day. When we get free of these woods, we’ll need our wits about us. If we take half an hour, rest, eat, and plan….” He trailed off. Alex Banks was nodding in agreement; he could see his kids were struggling, and he was probably running on reserves himself.

  Molly expected Erik to protest, but for once, he didn’t. Sitting down on a log next to his sister, he swung his backpack from his shoulders and opened it. “Guess we shouldn’t eat too much, though, huh?” he asked, looking to the others for confirmation.

  “I have these too.” Jenna had fetched an old ammo can from behind a tree and was prying open the lid. “Just chips and candy bars, but there’s enough for one each.” Dishing out the snacks, so they could save their gas station spoils for later, Jenna smiled. “Knew there was a reason I kept these up here.”