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basics.”
He leaned in, kissed the top of her head. “You’re happy.”
“Yes. Aren’t you? Sheriff?”
With a laughing shake of his head, Max pulled back. “I think we’ll pin that one on Mike.” From where they stood on the front porch, he scanned the street, the buildings. “Strange times, Lana.”
“You’ll write again. You’ll write about strange times. People need stories, Max, and the ones who tell them. So I’m going to set you up an office.”
“So far, it sounds like your day’s going to be busier than mine.”
The door at the far end of the porch opened. Joe dashed out to greet Max and Lana. Eddie sauntered after. “Howdy, neighbors.”
“You’re set?” Max asked him.
Eddie tapped his backpack, shifted the rifle over his shoulder. “Yep. Poe and Kim are right behind me. Speaking of.”
Lana gave Joe another rub as Poe and Kim came out. A good thing, she thought, out of all the tragic. They’d found each other, and seemed to fit so well.
“Anything you need for the apartments?” she asked them. “Bill Anderson said he’d help with that.”
“Joe and me are all good.”
“We figured to live with it awhile.” Kim glanced up at Poe. “If this ends up being home base, I wouldn’t mind slapping some paint on the walls. And there’s some really ugly wallpaper that just needs to go.”
“No argument on that. We want to get a better feel,” Poe added. “No complaints so far. Who’s this Aaron we’re going out with? We met Jonah. Do they know their shit, Max?”
“It’s clear Jonah does, and since he suggested Aaron, I’d say yes to both.”
He spotted Jonah walking up the street with another man. A bit younger, slighter, moved like a dancer, Max thought. “You can get acquainted. Be safe.”
“Could use some more Milk-Bones,” Eddie said.
“We’ll see what we can do. Anything on your wish list?” Kim asked.
“Actually, if you come across a decent set of kitchen knives.”
“Like the ones you had in the mountains?”
“Anything remotely close to those would be great. In fact, any decent kitchen tools.”
“We’re on it.” Poe nudged Kim’s arm. “Let’s go shopping.”
“I’ll go scoop up Flynn and … Shit, there he is. You never know when that dude’s going to show up.”
Flynn stood, silent as smoke, in the middle of the street, Lupa beside him. Joe let out a happy bark, flew down to have a morning tumble with the wolf.
“Ready to rock and roll?” Eddie called out.
Flynn nodded, then smiled. “I’m driving.”
“Hell.” Eddie pulled off his ball cap, scratched at his mass of hair, replaced it. “We’ll be back if he don’t run us into a tree. Elves can’t drive for shit,” he added before he strolled down.
“That must be my group.”
“Good luck.” Lana lifted her face for another kiss. “Be safe.”
“Don’t overdo it,” he warned.
She watched the three groups merge, then walk to the lot beside the school.
She told herself not to worry. Worry didn’t help. And Max had gotten them all here. Through storms, through raiding parties, through roads washed out by spring floods. He’d led, she thought, because someone had to. Because one by one, those who’d joined them had looked to him, trusted him.
And he’d done it while grieving for a brother who’d gone mad with power.
* * *
Yes, she’d set up an office for him, she decided as she added a haze of light, began to unplug cords. They both had to take back at least a part of who they’d been. He’d become a leader, a man of authority through circumstances. A witch whose power had grown with every mile of the journey.
And he was a writer. He was someone who could write about what had happened in the world and to it, who was left and how they fought to rebuild even while others still fought to tear down.
He needed to write, to take that time for himself. And wouldn’t it help him with the grief he still carried?
Just as she needed to make her place in this strange new reality. To make a home for their child, to find work—not just that had to be done, but that satisfied her needs.
So she’d organize a kitchen. She’d cook. It’s what she did best.
He’d asked if she was happy, and she was. Happy to have a chance to make a place for herself, for him, for the baby. If part of her wondered whether she would forever miss New York, the life she’d known, she understood she had to put it aside.
That life was the fairy tale now.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Jonah navigated the road, weaving through abandoned cars.
“We’ve already passed some houses,” Kim pointed out. “Abandoned houses almost always have something useful.”
“We can hit some on the way back. Medical supplies are priority. There’s a hospital about ten exits up. We got what we could about six weeks ago. We need more.”
Poe scanned the road, the scatter of houses. “We’ll have room for more in this UPS truck, but if we run into trouble, it’s sure not going to burn up the road.”
Jonah had weighed that in before deciding on the big box truck. “We need to avoid trouble. A couple of gas stations at the interchange up ahead. We might be able to fill the tank and the ten-gallon cans we brought. On the way back.”
Kim leaned up in her seat, gestured. “Is that a mall?”
“Yeah. Indoor/outdoor place. Kind of an outlet.”
“Could be handy. Have you hit it yet?”
Now Aaron turned slightly in his seat. “We tried a few weeks ago. Another group had claimed it. They weren’t friendly.”
“You’ll find Aaron has a tendency to … underplay,” Jonah decided. “They started shooting at us before we’d even turned into the parking lot. About, what, twenty of them?”
Aaron moved his shoulders. “About. What they lacked in strategy, they made up for in firepower. If they’d waited until we’d gone into the lot, they might have picked us off.”
“It’s worth another look, right? Twenty people probably didn’t strip it,” Poe pointed out. “And maybe they’ve moved on. I mean, why live in a mall when there are houses?”
Jonah sent Aaron—who said nothing—a sidelong look. Sighed. “Aaron’s mentioned that, a few damn times. We’ll circle back after the hospital.”
* * *
As Jonah’s group turned off toward the hospital, Eddie stared out the side window of the scouting pickup. “There should be more people. And yeah, I know I’ve said that before, but, man, there should be more people. How far have we gone?”
“Twelve miles. Not far.”
“Maybe another ten, then we should check out some of the side roads. Maybe we’ll find another settlement like ours, get some word of what the fuck from anybody who’s come up from the south.”
Before Eddie had finished the sentence, Flynn whipped the wheel right, rattled the truck onto a skinny road that immediately curved hard right.
“Jesus, Flynn! I said—”
“Engines.” He pulled the truck off the road, stopped it where the curve and the trees blocked it from the main road. “Wait.”
Flynn jogged over a hillock, then—and though he’d seen it plenty now, Eddie still gaped when Flynn simply merged into one of the trees.
Sort of … became the tree. A weird-ass, and, hell, pretty damn cool elf thing.
But it still gave him the way-out willies to watch it happen.
“Just hold on, boys. Stay,” Eddie ordered Lupa and Joe as he eased out of the truck, crouching beside it with his rifle ready.
He heard the engines now, bikes mostly to his ear. That deep, throaty roar. Coming hard, coming fast. By the tree—in the frigging tree—Flynn would have an unobstructed view of the road.
Eddie hoped he wouldn’t have to use the rifle; was resigned to using it. He’d shot a man—a big, burly Raider—during
an attack on their group south of Charles Town, West Virginia.
It wasn’t a moment he’d ever forget. It wasn’t an act he wanted to repeat.
But …
The roaring built, blasted, then began to fade. On a shaky breath, Eddie pushed to his feet.
Flynn slid out of the tree. “Raiders.”
“You sure?”
“Five motorcycles—three of them doubled with women riding pillion. A truck, four inside, two in the bed. A camper. I could only see two in it. Skull and crossbones painted on the side. They had a naked man strapped to the roof of the camper. Dead.”
“Christ. Just when you think the world can’t get more fucked-up. Good ears, dude.”
Elf ears, Eddie thought, which meant he might not have to kill anybody today.
“They’re heading away from New Hope, so that’s something.” Relieved, Eddie looked back toward the truck. “Might as well keep on this road, right? No point taking a chance of them turning around. No point taking on that many.”
“We should walk first.”
“Because?”
“They can hear engines, too. And some of these plants?” Flynn gestured to the small grove of trees. “The wildflowers and weeds? They can be useful. We should dig some up.”
