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“You have horses?”
Carly felt relief wash through her. Shadowfax and Storm must be in the barn. Maybe they had been smart enough to hide from these strangers. Not Sam, though. He was napping, his feet twitching in his dreams. The only way such a thing was possible must have been that Sam didn’t see them as a threat. “Yes, I have two horses. One is just a baby.”
“A baby. A wolf. A cat. And two horses. Am I missing anything?” A smile played around the corners of his lips.
“A man. My husband. You didn’t see anyone coming this way, did you?”
The man shook his head. “Listen, if you aren’t going to shoot us right now, could you put the gun away? I’m very nervous around guns.”
Carly put on the safety and stuck it in her back pocket. “I can draw it really fast,” she said. “So don’t try anything.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. May I ask your name?”
“Carly.”
“Hello, Carly. I’m Stan. And this is my wife, Mindy.” Mindy poked her head around Stan’s body again. “Hello.” She gave a little wave and then ducked back to her hiding place.
“This is Sam,” Carly said and pointed to her wolf. “He’s... uh... really protective of me and the baby.”
Sam rolled over and used Tigger as a pillow. The long-suffering cat just let out a sound that seemed to be the equivalent of a feline sigh. “Tigger is the cat.”
“And the baby?” Mindy sounded eager.
“Dagny.” Carly backed up until she was standing by the open drawer.
“Please, may I? I just want to look at her.” Mindy’s eyes were bright with excitement, and in her Carly could see something she recognized in herself: hope. Carly glanced down at the snoozing Sam and decided to trust his judgment. “I’m taking my gun back out. Don’t you dare touch her, or I’ll shoot you.”
Mindy nodded. She walked slowly around Stan and then into the bedroom, her hands held up like a bank robbery victim. She peered down into the drawer and gasped.
“Oh, Carly, she’s so beautiful!”
Dagny was dressed in a light pink cotton smock with matching socks. She had fallen back to sleep and lay on her back with her head turned to the side, her only movement the gentle rise and fall of her chest.
Mindy had tears in her eyes. “She gives me hope.”
Carly put away her gun. She could not have explained it if asked, but she felt a strange kinship with Mindy. Maybe it was the same sort of instinct Sam had about the couple, and Carly almost laughed aloud, picturing the expression on Justin’s face if she tried to tell him that. She said, “That’s why I named her ‘Dagny.’ It means ‘a new day.’ ”
“I didn’t have my pills,” Mindy murmured. “But I haven’t gotten pregnant. I thought, maybe exposure to the Infection made us sterile.”
Carly considered telling her how Dagny had stubbornly persisted in being born—a broken condom and a dose of the morning-after pill—and decided against it. But Mindy’s remark about the Infection made her remember the envelope on the table.
“You both had flu shots? Made by Cederna Pharmaceuticals?”
Mindy blinked in confusion at what must have seemed like a non sequitur to her. “I’m not sure who made them, but yes, we both got a flu shot. On the same day. We went to the drug store to pick up a case of soda and thought ‘Why not?’ when we saw the nurse at the table.”
“Justin and I both had flu shots from Cederna.” Carly’s heartbeat accelerated with excitement. Maybe there really was something to her idea after all.
Stan scratched his head. His expression was slightly skeptical but interested. “Do you think that has some kind of connection?”
“I can’t say for sure. But it’s a pretty big coincidence.”
“CARLY!” It was Justin’s voice, and he sounded panicked.
“Did you leave a vehicle outside?” Carly asked quickly.
“Our bicycles, but we—”
Carly snatched her sleeping baby out of her makeshift cradle and dashed past them to the door. It banged behind her as she flew through it into Justin’s arms. He checked her and the baby. Dagny gave a little disgruntled sound at being shaken around when she was having a really nice nap.
