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Tom shook his head. “And if that ain’t the damnedest thing I ever saw.”
“I won’t even reprove your language,” Cynthia said, her eyes wide with interest. “Wherever did you get him, ma’am?”
“Please, call me Carly. I found him as a puppy on the streets of Juneau. I couldn’t just let him starve. I, uh, didn’t know he was a wolf.”
“You lived in Alaska and didn’t recognize a wolf when you saw one?” Tom was amused, and he wasn’t the only one. Mindy giggled, too, and Carly gave her a playful scowl.
“People seem to think everyone from Alaska is a rugged outdoorsman who hunts bears armed with just a knife. I lived in Juneau. It’s not a big city...” Carly’s voice cracked as she thought of her hometown, knowing she’d never see it again. She took a deep breath to push back the tears. “But I lived in town all my life. I went fishing with my dad, but that was about the extent of my outdoor experience. The only time I’d ever seen a wolf was in the zoo in Anchorage. Sam just looked like a dog to me.”
“How did you tame him?”
Carly shrugged. “I guess he was already tame.”
“He’s not aggressive?”
“Only when he feels I’m in danger. But he listens to me if I tell him everything’s okay. Sam is very smart.”
“I’m sure you can understand why some people would be wary of him.” Cynthia seemed a little tentative, as though she was afraid Carly would be offended.
“Oh, sure. Justin was kind of leery of him when we first met, and Sam was still a puppy back then.”
“And the horses?”
“Carly attracts animals,” Justin said with a wry quirk of his lips. “We were followed by a moose for a while in Canada, and I just kept praying, ‘Please God, don’t let it decide to become one of Carly’s pets.’ I had this horrible picture in my mind of the thing trying to crawl into the tent with us.”
“You’ve seen a good bit of the country in your travels.” Cynthia poured another glass of lemonade. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, and Carly realized that this was probably the first news they’d had of the outside world in a very, very long time. She wished she had something better to tell them. “Can you tell us... Can you tell us what it’s like... out there? We’ve seen just a few survivors, and you were the only ones who had a baby. A living baby, that is.”
A question came unbidden into Carly’s mind, but she wasn’t about to ask when the answer could be so horrible...
“We’ve seen a fair amount of other people,” Justin said. “But no other babies or pregnant women. I can’t estimate a total number of survivors, but it’s high enough that the grocery stores along our path have been emptied to the bare walls. Food is becoming scarce, and people are getting desperate enough to do... things they wouldn’t normally do.”
They were all silent for a moment before Cynthia spoke. “We need more watchers on the wall.”
Tom hesitated for a moment, as though he wanted to say something but thought the better of it. He changed the subject. “Those who survived, did they share a common characteristic?”
Justin and Carly exchanged glances. “I have a theory for at least some of them.” Carly explained about the flu shots from Cederna and the documents they had discovered.
“There was bound to be some level of natural immunity even though the lethality rate was artificially high,” Justin said, “as with our horses and the wolf, but we have no way of researching this. How many people remember who manufactured their flu shot, anyway?”
“I do,” Tom replied. “It was Mantis Medical. I remember seeing it on the form I signed and remembered it because it reminded me of a praying mantis.”
The sun had dipped low in the sky during their conversation, and the crickets were beginning to chirp. Tom rose to his feet and put his empty lemonade glass on the tray. “You folks are welcome to stay the night, if you like. We’ve got a few empty houses. There’s a barn on the Connell property. Your horses would be comfortable in there.”
“Thank you.” Justin glanced over to Stan and Mindy to see if they had any objections. Mindy thanked Tom and Cynthia, and Carly realized Mindy hadn’t said much during the conversation, something that was unusual for her.
“What’s wrong?” Carly asked her as they climbed into the wagon, pitching her voice low so as not to be overheard.
“Do you trust them, Carly?” Mindy asked. She settled into the seat beside Carly and kept her eyes on the hands clasped in her lap.
“What do you mean? I don’t think they’re out to hurt us, if that’s what you’re saying.”
Mindy gnawed on her lip. “No, that’s not what I mean. It’s just... this seems too good to be true, you know? Lemonade on the porch? It made me remember all of those summers I used to spend at my grandma’s farm when I was a kid. It doesn’t seem like things like that should exist anymore. Not with how much things have changed.”
They drove the wagon to the house, and Tom walked ahead with Justin and Stan to show them the way. They passed a group of young children playing kickball in the street, who froze in place to silently watch the wagon pass as their ball bounced away into the underbrush unnoticed. Carly understood what they were feeling. It had been a year since the Crisis began and Tom and the rest of the town council had decided to seal off the town, a year since they had seen any outsiders. And it had been a year since Carly saw any children at play. She pressed a kiss to Dagny’s forehead and thought of how lovely it would be if there were other children for her to play with.
The Connell house turned out to be a turn-of-the-century Craftsman style bungalow with a low-pitched roof and overhanging eaves. The furnishings inside were simple, functional, and uncluttered, and Carly loved it immediately. Justin took the horses out to the barn while Carly explored the rest of the house with Mindy.
“This place is amazing,” Mindy said. “I’m trying to remind myself to be alert and suspicious, but it’s just so nice here, like a slice of the world the way it used to be. I almost expect to sit down in the living room and turn on the six o’clock news. Did you notice the door wasn’t locked when we got here?”
