Isolation (Book 3): Starting Anew, page 13
part #3 of Isolation Series
Ellie even came home early, so she and Hal and his family joined Gen and the Norsons, Ricky, and Nick and his scavengers in all eating a pleasant, if widely separated, dinner together. It almost felt like a cookout on a pleasant spring evening, with family and friends getting together to enjoy the nice weather and each other's company.
To cap it all off, that evening while watching the stars with Gen he actually found the courage to directly talk about their relationship. “Hey Gen,” he murmured, breaking the comfortable silence.
“Mmm?” she said. He saw her shadowy form shift as she rolled onto her side to face him.
He looked at where he guessed her eyes were. “I'll eventually be able to go through my 21 days. When it's safe, can I take you out somewhere? Maybe a picnic or something?”
There was a long silence. “Are you asking me on a date?” she eventually said. He thought he heard laughter in her voice, a “finally” she left unspoken.
“Well, I like to think these evenings together have kind of been dates,” Nick said, a bit sheepishly.
Gen laughed lightly. “Do you?”
“Yeah.” He sat up. “I mean, it's hard to have a real relationship from fifteen feet apart, and I didn't want to rush things when we were sort of stuck like this.”
“I don't think we've been stuck anywhere,” she said, tone warm. “And you're right, I like to think of these evenings as dates too.”
He couldn't help but grin like an idiot. “Is that a yes?”
“That's a yes.” She paused, tone becoming somber. “I just hope we don't have to wait too long.”
“Yeah, me too.”
They settled back into a comfortable silence until Gen finally pushed to her feet with a weary groan. “I should probably check on Billy and get to bed. I told Ellie and Hal I'd go with them to the camp tomorrow to help out.”
Nick stood too. “All right. Good night, Gen.”
“Night, Nick.” He thought she blew him a kiss in the darkness, and her tone became playful. “Hey, if these are dates, maybe you should be spending more time whispering sweet nothings at me. Telling me my eyes inspire poetry and you're burning with passion to kiss me.”
Ricky's voice drifted across the yard from his tent. “Eww!”
Nick burst out laughing in spite of himself, although his face burned with embarrassment. “Good night, son!” he called with mock sternness; they'd have to have a talk in the morning, see how Ricky felt about him having a relationship with Gen. He thought his son liked her and would be fine with it, especially since he was getting used to Ellie and Hal being together.
But best to communicate.
“Good night, Ricky,” Gen called, also laughing. “And good night again, Nick. See you tomorrow.”
Mulling on the night's events, and looking forward to what the future might bring, Nick headed back down the path to the camp. It was a bit of a tricky walk since he hadn't bothered to bring a flashlight, and like they'd agreed they'd put out the fire as it started to get dark.
Which was why he was surprised to see a dark silhouette sitting on one of the camp chairs around the dead fire as he stumbled into the campsite. He thought he heard a bit of sniffling until the person became aware of him, and then the silhouette straightened and Val's voice called out uncertainly. “Nick?”
“Yeah.” He cautiously made his way to the chair beside hers and settled down in it. “What's up? You okay?”
“If I'm being honest?” She sighed. “Lonely.”
Nick glanced around the quiet camp. “Makes sense when you're sitting here in the dark after everyone's gone to bed.”
The elegant woman chuckled wryly. “And I should too?” Her head swiveled towards her tent, and she slumped back down in her seat. “My big, spacious two-person tent, all to myself.”
Realization dawned. “Missing Lila?”
“Lila and Tallie both. Especially since I had to say goodbye to them both in one day.” She made a desolate noise. “When I'm alone I start thinking of everyone I lost. My sweet girls.” The faint moonlight sparkled on a tear slipping down her cheek, although she quickly wiped it away with her fingers and forced a laugh. “I-I don't do good alone these days.”
Nick's heart went out to her. He gently rested his hand on hers on the armrest for a moment. “Well, I'm not feeling all that tired myself. It'd be good to have some company until you're ready to head to bed.”
“That'd be nice.” Val reached across to his armrest and patted his arm, then turned to face the cold fire pit and continued glumly. “I wish we could have a fire, though. The only good thing about camping is gazing into the flames.” Her tone became thoughtful. “Almost hypnotic. Easy to just empty your mind.”
“Yeah.” Nick leaned his head back to stare up at the stars not blocked by the trees around the clearing. “Looking at the stars kind of works for that too.” He pointed. “There's Orion.”
“Where?” she said, giving a sheepish laugh. “I never really learned the constellations.”
“Well then let me show you them, at least the ones we can see.”
Nick sat with her for what felt like a long time, talking about the stars, scavenging, Stanberry, the confrontation with Jay earlier, and anything else to fill the silence and distract her from her loneliness and sorrow. Finally, though, she felt through the darkness and found his hand, her own warm with a hint of callouses on the palm from the hard work they'd been doing.
“Thanks, Nick,” she whispered. “I think I'm tired enough to pass out now.” She squeezed his hand, then pulled hers away and stood with a yawn in her voice. “See you in the morning.”
“Night, Val.” He watched her go, hoping she'd have a restful and more importantly peaceful night. Then with a weary groan he stood as well and headed to his own tent.
It was quiet and felt empty with Tallie gone to the quarantine camp, and he empathized with Val's fears of being lonely; maybe he'd sat with her so long to avoid just that feeling himself.
Thankfully, sitting up had left him tired enough to quickly settle down, the night noises of the thicket lulling him into sleep.
Chapter Seven
Discoveries
Their first scavenging location the next morning was a humble little stopover, not much more than a gas station and a few houses along the highway about a half hour's drive northeast of Stanberry. Half of which, including the convenience store, were prominently plastered with Zolos contamination warning signs.
Unfortunately, the pickings were just as humble.
“Don't know what to say,” Val murmured as they poked around the ransacked convenience store. “This place had stuff when I stopped here on the way down. And the Zolos warning signs should've kept people away.”
With Lila gone she'd asked to team up with Nick, and he honestly couldn't say he had any complaints; she was much more pleasant company than Chase. Besides, if he wasn't teamed up with the would-be scavenging tycoon, he wouldn't have to worry about getting on his case if the guy tried to filch any more valuables right in front of him.
Maybe it was a bit hypocritical to not enforce the rule he himself had stressed so hard. But he had more important things to worry about at the moment than a cynical opportunist sneaking jewelry and other stuff that wouldn't have any value for a long time, if things ever settled down, and didn't have any immediate survival use.
Like the fact that this first scavenging prospect as an alternative to Wensbrook was a bust.
He shook his head as he rummaged through cans of motor oil on a shelf, hoping to spot something useful hidden behind them. “No way of saying what's happened since then. Maybe other immune survivors came through here. Or maybe an employee or owner decided to risk infection and grabbed it all for their own stockpile.”
His teammate looked morosely at the small pile of goods, not much food among them, that they'd scraped together near the door. “So I guess we lug this to the truck and see what everyone else found?”
Nick glanced at the backroom, where the brothers had disappeared a minute or so ago. He was about to suggest they go see if the two men had found anything when Chet appeared in the doorway, arms full of cases of beer.
“Just in case every place we check today sucks as bad as this,” the young man said in response to the look Nick shot him. “Something to help drive away our woes.”
“Or so we can celebrate if we have a great day scavenging!” Ben called cheerfully as he appeared behind his brother, arms also loaded down with beer.
Nick shook his head. The brothers had knocked a few back on evenings after a long day of work before, but this seemed a bit excessive. He wondered if they were as conflicted about the Wensbrook survivors showing up as he was. Or maybe bummed out about Lila leaving them for the safety of the camp, or the fact that the reliable scavenging spot they'd been searching this entire time was no longer available and the alternatives didn't seem promising.
“Just don't overdo it,” he told them. “We've got to work tomorrow.”
“I hope you'll take your own advice when you join us,” Chet said, heading for the door with his haul. “At least for a drink or two.”
“I sure will,” Val said. “The idea of knocking back a few of those sounds great right about now. Might make a day of hard work more bearable.” She peered at the door the two had come through. “Any wine back there?”
“Sorry,” Ben called over his shoulder as he followed his brother out the front door. “But they've got some cases of hard lemonade and sodas.”
“Good enough.” The elegant woman started for the backroom. “Maybe this place isn't a complete bust after all.”
Nick hadn't noticed her drinking before now, and hoped it wasn't a bad sign that she'd decided to start right after mentioning that she was lonely now that Lila was gone. Then again, maybe she'd just been avoiding it before so she wouldn't be a bad example for her teenaged roommate and Tallie.
He could admit a couple brews did sound good about now, when he was still conflicted after watching a furious man threaten to cause trouble for Stanberry over a problem Nick had helped cause. Besides, with his daughter staying at the camp and his son almost done with his 21 days so he could be reunited with Ellie, Nick also didn't have to worry about being a bad example.
He'd never been much of a drinker, aside from a few parties in high school and college. And he and Ellie had agreed to no alcohol around their children when she got pregnant with Ricky, so aside from special occasions when they'd hired a babysitter for a few days or had the kids stay with friends so they could go off on anniversary trips or the like, they hadn't really done much drinking in the last nine or so years.
Of course, after the divorce he'd had a few drinks every now and again when Ellie had the kids. It usually meant drinking alone, which he hated, but there were just some particularly hard days where he was in the mood.
Nick followed Val to the back, discovering that the massive trove the brothers had hinted at was only enough to maybe fill his and his teammate's arms for one trip to the truck. Although to be honest, he was surprised the people who'd completely stripped the store bare had left even this much.
If anything, he would've expected the alcohol to be the highest priority grab for most people. Maybe the previous scavengers weren't really drinkers either.
They carried the rest of the cases out to the truck, then got to work on the small pile of stuff they'd picked out as worth taking. After that Chet and Ben split off to search one of the few remaining houses the Drydens and Charlie and Chase hadn't checked, and Nick and Val made for the last one.
The fact that the front door was open to the elements wasn't hopeful. Nick exchanged a glance with his teammate and kept his hand on his pistol as he cautiously approached to peer through. As he'd feared, the place was similarly picked clean of anything useful, with hints that the other scavengers had taken less useful things as well.
“We sure Chase hasn't been through here?” Val said wryly as she flicked open one of those felt-lined wooden silverware cases, revealing that all the depressions where the silver cutlery would've been placed were empty.
“That's what he says,” Nick replied, opening a few cupboards and finding only moldy bread and hamburger buns.
She glanced at the stairs. “Check the bedrooms?”
He shook his head and started for the door. “No point wasting our time hoping to find something those other guys missed. Let's just move on to the next likely scavenging spot.”
“And hope they didn't hit that place too,” the elegant woman muttered as she fell into step beside him.
The good news was, the other scavengers hadn't. The bad news was the reason why.
Their next destination was a small town not far from the stopover, but as Nick drove into view of the place he immediately slowed to a stop, then reached for the radio. “Back it up, guys,” he told the other three trucks. “We've got a roadblock.”
Suiting his own words, he laboriously turned the truck around, hunching down behind the wheel in the possibility that the people manning the distant barricade might decide to open fire. Val must've been thinking the same, because she sank down below the level of the dashboard as he drove back down the hill he'd just come up.
The radio crackled. “Should we stop for a second and check it out, boss?” Chet asked.
Probably a good idea, if for no other reason than so they could report it to Darby. “Yeah, let's park and find a good spot behind cover.”
By the time Nick had parked and hopped down, leaving the truck running in case they had to get out of there quickly, his other scavengers had already gathered behind a wooden fence at the top of the hill, peering over cautiously. He and Val moved up to join them, taking their own places along the fence.
“Mind if I borrow those?” he said to Chet, motioning to the binoculars the young man was peering through; the brothers had scavenged them from a house a few days ago and kept them in the cab of their truck for just this sort of thing.
“Yeah, take a look.” Chet held the bulky field glasses out.
Nick took them, adjusting the focus slightly as he peered down at the obstacle below. Sure enough, a closer look at the roadblock didn't change the fact that it was manned by half a dozen people with hunting rifles and shotguns, blocking the way into the small town.
“The radio people in Stanberry didn't say anything about this place still being occupied and closed off,” he murmured. “Or at least, if they did the Mayor didn't think to let me know.”
Charlie cursed softly. “So I guess we find a way around and keep looking?”
“Yeah.” Nick passed Chet back the binoculars and eased away from the fence. “I'll let Darby know about this when we get home. He might want to make contact with another community of confirmed Zolos-free people.”
Val snorted. “Not if it involves leaving the safety of Stanberry, and it doesn't look like these guys are reaching out with a radio for news.”
“Well, I definitely know we're not doing anything here.” He motioned for the others to follow and started down the hill towards the trucks, already thinking ahead to the next destination.
Hopefully it wouldn't be picked clean . . . with thousands of people depending on them, they needed to find another place that offered prospects as good as Wensbrook.
✽✽✽
They returned their first truckloads in the late afternoon. The combination of slim pickings and having to travel from one potential location to the next slowed the scavenging down to a crawl, not to mention being super demoralizing.
Nick could tell his team was ready to stop after unloading that first truckload, but Stanberry couldn't afford for them to go that slow. So with a bit of wheedling he managed to get them all back in their trucks and back on the road, searching the dwindling number of possible scavenging locations hoping their luck improved.
By the time he finally turned them back to town around sundown, they'd managed to fill maybe a third of their space in the trucks. At a generous estimate.
Hoping to lift their spirits, as they approached Stanberry's roadblock he turned off towards their camp instead of continuing on towards town. “We'll unload in the morning,” he announced over the radio.
His people's mood was so glum that nobody even responded to that good news. Even Val just shook her head morosely. So he lifted the radio again. “Also, in the middle of our thicket a fire probably won't be too visible, so I say we get a good blaze going and break out the drinks we grabbed today. We can also cook up some of the better stuff we've found to have for dinner.”
“That's more like it,” Chase said over the radio, while Ben simply cheered.
Nick shook his head wryly, noticing Val's faint smile in the fading light. “Let's not go too wild, though. We still need to get started bright and early tomorrow, and I'm going to go find Darby and Ellie even earlier than that and try to track down some better prospects for us.”
That seemed to do the trick of improving everyone's mood. Once they were all back in camp Charlie got a fire going, the brothers passed out drinks, and they all rummaged through their food supplies looking for the most appetizing choices.
After some debate they decided to cook up their own chili using cans of kidney and chili beans, canned tomatoes, chopped up jerky, and various spices. Denna and Tony agreed to handle the task, since apparently their chili was famous at cookouts and block parties, so they dragged a huge pot over the propane stove and got to work.
The rest of them snacked on chips and candy and tipped back a few drinks while they waited, the mood relaxed with lots of banter.
Nick excused himself for a few minutes to say goodnight to Ricky and Gen. He also let his new girlfriend, at least he hoped it was safe to now assume she was at this point, know that he'd probably miss watching the stars with her since he'd promised his team he'd spend time with them, explaining their poor spirits and the sort-of party they'd thrown together.
“Wish I could be there too,” she said, tone wistful. “Sharing drinks with friends around the fire sounds really fun.”
