Lines in Shadow: Walking in the Rain Read online

  “Well, that’s good. So, no word on her parents?” Scott asked, more to make conversation than anything else.

  “No, nothing we’ve heard,” Hazel replied. “She’s still upset, of course. They were very close, and she’s not willing to give up hope just yet. According to Kat, her mother and father seemed to have been very resourceful. They may still turn up.”

  Scott nodded. Kat hadn’t seen the shredded tents or piled bodies. The men who’d murdered those campers hadn’t left much except destruction in their wake, and despite the footprints his team identified out from the camp, Scott doubted many of the camp’s residents had managed to escape.

  “Why tell me, Hazel? Heck, I barely know the woman.”

  “Well,” Hazel said carefully, “she was asking about you. Curious, you might say.”

  Shaking his head, Scott turned for the door.

  “Yeah, Hazel, that’s all I need. Somebody else to have to look out for. Need it like a hole in the head.”

  Hazel sighed.

  “You can’t keep going like this. Alone. It isn’t good for you, and you know it. When was the last time you had anybody in your life, Scott?”

  “Well, I’ve got Bella, and I have my family. Maybe that’s all I need,” Scott replied, and even to his own ears the words sounded hollow. But then, he cut right to the heart of the matter, as he often did.

  “Hazel, you’re probably right. Back before, I let myself get absorbed in work, and my hobbies, and maybe it was because of, well, you know what happened. I couldn’t really find anybody I could see myself trusting. Not again.”

  “But you need someone, Scott. We all do, sometimes. Maybe not this Katrina woman, but look around, for goodness sake,” Hazel replied, a tiny bit of exasperation working its way into her words at the end.

  Scott had to laugh, which made Hazel’s eyebrows rise for a split second, and then her eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “I hope you weren’t laughing at me, Scottie. That would be a grave mistake, young man.”

  “No, no,” he hastened to reply. “I wasn’t laughing at you. Not at all. Just thinking there should be a dating guide for the apocalypse, is all.”

  Hazel gave a wave of dismissal.

  “Lil’ brother, this isn’t the Apocalypse, or the End Times. This is just a bump in the road for this old world. We’ll climb back out of the hole, sooner or later, and go back to making all the same mistakes like we did before. Sure, things are rough right now, downright terrible at times, but the human race is made up of some pretty stubborn stock. Just look at both of your brothers. Times will get better, and when you are an old man, you will wish you’d taken the chance to meet a woman to grow old with.”

  “See?” Scott said, fighting not to laugh again, “That’s why I can afford to be the doom and gloom pessimist. I’ve got you to balance me out with your optimism. Well, you and Darwin.”

  “Pshaw,” Hazel muttered, “Don’t let him hear you call him that. My Darwin insists he’s just a realist. But I understand what you mean. Way things are now, hard to tell if a woman is interested in you, or the food you can put on the table.”

  “And speaking of food on the table…” Scott hinted broadly, levering open the screen door with his foot as he mounted his retreat.

  “I hear ya’ stomach grumbling. Let’s go get you fed, but you think about what I said. You hear?”

  Scott offered her a solemn nod.

  “I’ll at least take a look around. Satisfied?”

  Hazel gave a sniff of disapproval but let her brother-in-law hustle her inside. She’d said her piece, and now she just hoped he would listen.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Dinner went fast, as was often the case these days. The casserole, bland but filling, went down without much comment except a compliment to Hazel for her recipe. That was the way of mealtime. The portions were just large enough to give everyone the necessary amount of nutrition, nothing more, and still the guilt seemed to hang over the adults in the room. They had food, and too many people outside the community did not.

  By silent communication across the table, Scott made plans to visit later with his brother and nephews, but now was bedtime and he headed upstairs for his time with Bella. Since bath time came for the little ones in the morning, all he had to do was wait for Isabella to change into her little pajamas and he was ready for duty.

  Tonight, Bella would be sleeping, as was often the case, close to baby Sophia in Ruth and Stan’s room. Bella’s bed, an Army surplus folding cot, was too small for the tall man to lay next to his little girl, so they’d long before worked out the protocols where he would sit on the floor and read aloud to Isabella before the girl fell asleep. They’d been doing this since before the girl could walk, much less read to herself, and Scott knew the sound of his voice had what he called a narcotic effect on his daughter.

  Tonight’s book was Treasure Island, and Bella’s only comment as Scott worked his way through the first chapter was she thought her father’s British accent sounded funny. By the middle of their second chapter, she was sound asleep. Checking his self-winding watch, he grunted in satisfaction. Ten minutes until eyes closed. As he shifted his weight painfully, still feeling the dig into the tendons in his quads, he heard Bella’s breathing change. When he turned, she was regarding him with those impossibly large, brown eyes.

  “I love you, Daddy,” she lisped dreamily, her words slightly slurred by sleep and the two missing front teeth. She was late to be losing all her baby teeth, but a quick visit to the family’s dentist before the lights went out revealed no problems. She was just working on ‘Bella time’, his niece Ruth had concluded.

  “I love you, too, sweetheart. Get some sleep.”

  “Okay, Daddy. Nighty night. And I hope your legs get to feeling better soon.”

  “They will. Just a little outchie is all.”

  As if they timed it down to the minute, Stan and Ruth were ambling in the direction of their room, Ruthie gently rocking a dozing Sophia against her shoulder, when Scott entered the hallway. This was a common event, and for the hundredth time he thanked the Lord for having the help of his family.

  “She down?” Stan queried softly.

  “Getting there,” Scott replied in a similar tone. “I’m sitting down with the Head Office if you’d like to join us.”

  The Head Office was shorthand for the group of Darwin, Nick, and whoever else might be handy and who had a leadership role on the farm. Sort of the Keller inner council and separate from the Guard leadership, though Conners might be found there as well more often than not.

  “James going to be there?” Stan asked, and Scott shrugged before replying. James Pearson, the de facto leader of the Branson crew, was always invited to command group functions. He’d proven to be a steady and thoughtful leader of men, and Scott appreciated his measured and calm demeanor.

  “Don’t know. I think this is just a chance for the family to grill me over the decision to help out a bunch of distant neighbors in exchange for a handful of magic beans.”

  Stan nodded and gave his wife a significant look.

  “By family, you mean Gary, right?”

  Scott didn’t respond, but the sour look on his face meant he didn’t have to say a word.

  “Sometimes I wish Luke had…”

  Scott didn’t finish the statement, but Ruth growled under her breath before hissing.

  “Uncle Scott, he’s your brother.”

  “Honey,” Scott replied with a shake of his head. “Brothers are supposed to look out for each other, lend each other a hand, and generally be responsible for looking out for the family. For example, just look at how your brothers act with each other, and toward the family. Can you remind me of the last time any of us saw Gary doing any of those things? ‘Cause I’m a lot older than you, and I can’t recall ever seeing it.”

  Ruth looked down, but couldn’t deny the truth in her uncle’s words.

  “Stan, why don’t you go and keep my uncle from doing anythi
ng rash?”

  “Sweetheart, Scott isn’t likely to need…”

  “I wasn’t talking about Uncle Scott, honey,” Ruth said, and her voice had a sharpness directed at neither man. She was simply frustrated with the situation, and they all knew it. She didn’t have to say more, but the intention was clear. If her Uncle Gary started mouthing off yet again, then Stan had the green light to act in her place.

  Bestowing a quick kiss on his bride, Stan fell in with Scott as they headed back down the stairs and toward the study, which Darwin had long ago turned into an office. There, the duo found Darwin, Nick, and Mark seated with James Pearson. The tall black man was the ‘ambassador’ from the Branson group ensconced in the farm across the road, and his poise under pressure and his own military background served to solidify his position in the Kellerville hierarchy. James might not be blood-related, but like Bruce Collins, he was family just the same. Ties bound on the battlefield had a way of making men brothers, and they’d seen plenty of battle since the Branson contingent had taken up residence.

  Sadly, Scott also noted the presence of Gary, his other brother and the object of Ruth’s scorn. She didn’t like her uncle any more than her brothers did, and she wasn’t shy about expressing that opinion. She considered Gary to be a selfish, bitter man who treated his own family poorly, and possessed the compassion of a junkyard dog.

  Scott, and recently Darwin, had come to share that low opinion of their middle sibling. Since taking a beat-down from a sixteen-year old boy who looked so skinny he was in danger from a stiff breeze, Gary’s stock had plummeted, and rumor was, the same kid offered to take care of Gary as his gift to the family for their hospitality. Scott interpreted that to mean he’d offered to put down Gary like that junkyard dog gone rabid, and Scott regretfully recognized the possible need to do just that.

  Still, Gary tried to stay involved in what he considered family business. Scott, for his part, was willing to give the man enough rope, but that was the limit to his patience. If Darwin didn’t act soon, though, Scott thought his nephew Nick might arrange for a fatal training accident for his scheming uncle.

  “So,” Darwin said, once all the players had gathered to their seats, “what is the next move?”

  “I’m pretty sure Conners will be paying a visit to Nick tomorrow,” Scott reported. “He’ll want some of us to help scout the enemy base. Look for weak points and get a head count. Over two thousand is pretty vague. He will want numbers, disposition, equipment, and the like. Then we’ll report back and pass word up to Devayne and maybe to the Colonel.”

  “Who you thinking to take?” Nick asked, and by his words he signaled his acquiescence to the mission. Not that Scott had any doubts. His nephew still thought like a soldier, and soldiers need intelligence if they were going to fight effectively. At least, soldiers in command needed that information, and Nick was shaping up nicely as a junior officer in the local self-defense force.

  “I’ll need my full team,” Scott replied. “A force that size is going to occupy a considerable amount of territory. We’ll also take our time, so count on at least two days on site. Timing guard rotations, picking out the officers, and all that jazz. You know what we will be looking for, of course.”

  Nick laughed, and Mark gave him a curious look so Nick elaborated.

  “Shit, usually we had some intel weenie come in and brief the officers, and then they’d call a meeting and deliver the key points to us grunts. I had no idea at the time just how much even the simplest missions we pulled involved folks we never saw, or heard.”

  “Amen to that,” James piped in, giving a short nod of agreement. Mark just shrugged.

  “I just drove the tank, and later, the big gun. Strategy was for the bosses. I can see the importance, though. Especially when you are outnumbered the way we are with these bozos. Anybody hear if Devayne got any intel out of that joker Scott caught?”

  Scott shook his head. In the rush of the last few days, he’d nearly forgotten about the wounded Homeland shooter he’d turned over to the Guard. The big thirty caliber round cratered the agent’s chest, so he’d required better medical care than the farm could provide. If the man could be broken, Scott reasoned surely he’d have better information than a brain-damaged cannibal lawyer.

  “Excuse me? Why are we even doing this?” Gary asked, and for once, he made the effort to keep his voice from sounding like a scold, or a whine. Scott knew those were Gary’s two favorite modes, followed closely by what the man thought of as ‘straight up bully’. Maybe Luke managed to beat some sense into the man after all.

  “What do you mean, Gary? Doing what exactly?” Darwin responded cautiously.

  “Look, I know you guys don’t think I understand the severity of the situation,” Gary began, “But trust me, I do. This is just another group of looters moving through the area. Maybe bigger than the others, but fundamentally the same. We just need to keep our heads down, though, and these asshats will move on just like the others. We don’t need to be feeding our rivals to help us, when they really represent the biggest threat to our survival. The smart move here is to tell the Army to do their own fighting, let them tangle up with these nomads, and for us to just lay low and wait for them all to starve.”

  Much as he hated to admit it, his brother did have a point, Scott thought. This newer version of Gary was starting to make too much sense, but Scott still didn’t trust him. And, he was just flat wrong.

  Every family has one, Scott decided. One asshole that you can’t trust with the silverware, or turn your back on in a tight spot. The weak link, Scott thought, but maybe it was an overdeveloped sense of self preservation. Before he could say anything, though, Nick spoke up.

  “Gary, you are operating under some huge assumptions there. You haven’t seen their capabilities, and you are underestimating the possible weight of their numbers,” Nick reasoned, ticking off points on his fingers as he spoke.

  “Plus, how long do you think we can hide back here? Sooner rather than later, somebody is going to rat us out in an effort to save their family. We don’t have the fighters to hold off over two thousand cannibals, and what if there IS another camp? Someone else will need to confirm, but my gut tells me it’s real. So, we need allies, and we need to be able to engage these bastards away from here.”

  Gary just shook his head, giving Nick a look reserved for particularly backward children and little old ladies who mailed their retirement checks to a televangelist with bad hair implants. Some of the man’s smug attitude leaked out and he couldn’t help running his mouth, Scott noted.

  “We have guns, and we have food. Everybody else around here wants what we have, and my foolish brother and that halfwit Bruce go around stirring up the neighbors. And making deals with scum! Bikers and illegals and who knows what else? We need to be guarding what we have here, no going off looking for trouble.”

  While Gary spoke, Scott watched Darwin, not Gary. In the dim lantern light, it wasn’t easy to read his oldest brother’s expression, but Scott saw the set of his jaw and knew Darwin had heard enough.

  “We? We have guns and we have food? Gary, just shut the fuck up. I am tired of hearing your gums flap.” Darwin rubbed his face, his work-hardened hands looking dark and misshapen in the flickering light.

  “You have no standing here,” he continued, his voice brittle and angry. “None. Everyone else in this room contributes, and has a role to play. Bruce should be here, and would be if his wife wasn’t feeling under the weather. James, Nick, Mark, and Scott all have reason to be here and you too, Stan. You’ve all shed sweat and blood to keep us fed and safe, and to insure the safety of our community here. What have you done? Sleep in a warm bed every night after walking the fenced perimeter, looking for looters to shoot? What about scouting the woods, or manning the outposts? What about working in the fields and harvesting food, or herding the cattle, or even cleaning out the hog house?”

  “No, Gary. I won’t hear it any more. Out of deference to Brenda and Glenn, I wil
l not cast you out, but your days of walking around, spewing your ignorance, are over. You got me? I’ve told you this before, and yet here you sit, running your mouth without your brain being engaged. Listen close, because you get no more warnings.”

  After that, no one was surprised that the meeting went quickly and with little discussion. When Nick got the request, Scott and his boys would be ready. That ended the meeting and folks looked ready to get out of the suddenly suffocating room.

  As they were walking out, James slowed and Scott noticed the man wanted to say something. Guiding the tall, slender man out through the back door, the scout gestured for the driveway and James took the hint. They could walk while James was headed home.

  “I need to go with you. Gotta give Mike and Ben the word to get ready for in the morning.”

  James nodded and took the lead.

  “Sorry to be so obvious,” James said as they walked quickly along the dusty dirt and gravel track. “I just have never seen your brother ever get so mad, and about something that, well, I see there are two sides to the argument. Not that I disagree,” James hastened to add,” but Darwin isn’t usually so direct about shutting somebody down.”

  Scott nodded, a gesture lost in the dark, so he spoke up to explain.

  “Look, there’s always been a little tension there between Darwin and Gary, but Darwin has always tried to take the high road. The problem is, Gary is just ‘that guy’, you know? The one that pushes and pushes and can’t see what he is doing to hurt others. Ego, I guess. Anyway, Darwin’s already had Gary leading the opposition, as Gary calls it, and Darwin is probably just tired of the bullshit.”

  “So, Darwin just got a belly full?”

  “That’s Gary in a nutshell. A little bit goes a long way. I haven’t been around him this much since I was a kid, and after all these years, I can’t see how his wife Brenda hasn’t installed an air conditioning duct in his forehead.”

  That caused James to pause, thinking about it, and then grinned, his bright white teeth standing out in the dark like the Cheshire Cat’s smile. “Yeah, I can see the urge.”