Isolation (Book 3): Starting Anew, page 18
part #3 of Isolation Series
The old man looked irked about being put on the spot, but loudly agreed that as long as he could get volunteers willing to protect their loved ones, he should easily be able to defend against a few dozen troublemakers.
Then he pulled her aside to chew her out for a few minutes about his need for weapons, body armor, and other things to properly equip his people. As well as ammunition and a location for training, ideally, and materials for making fortifications so they had more than a chain-link fence to protect them.
Ellie promised that as soon as she got back, she'd press the Mayor into giving them what they needed to create a proper force to defend the camp. “After all,” she added, “it's less pressure on Darrel's people if we're not only defending ourselves, but the southeastern approach to town.”
“As long as that psycho who put a gun in your ex's face doesn't use Zolos as a weapon,” Starr grumbled.
Wasn't that the truth; angry as Jay was, not even he would stoop to that. Would he?
“Be right back,” she said again, then hurried on to the survivors' section of camp. Just for a second, to check on Tallie and fill Aimee and Brant in about what was going on. The fact that they were so close to the edge of the camp on the opposite side from the safety of the town was particularly worrying to her.
“We'll keep constant watch for danger, and make a beeline for the inner fence at the first hint of trouble,” Brant assured her. “Three weeks of isolation be darned, safety is our highest priority.”
“Thanks,” Ellie said, reassured. “I'll be back soon with Ricky and I'll check in again.” Waving and blowing a last kiss to Tallie, she hurried on to her car.
Jittery as she was after hearing Nick's story, she almost felt as if driving the streets just outside of town to get to the Norsons' house was taking her life in her hands. Like she might find the road blocked by angry people in vehicles around every bend.
Thankfully, she reached the house with no incident. And as she'd expected, Nick's car was parked where it usually was and all the moving trucks were gone; the scavengers were out at work for the benefit of the town, in spite of the tense situation.
Ellie couldn't believe Darby treated her ex-husband like he did, considering how Nick broke his back every day in a crucial role without asking for anything in return. Sure, the combative, almost sullen way he interacted with the Mayor didn't help, but even so a man with leadership experience like Darby should be aware how close the scavengers were to just quitting on him.
She'd need to address the issue when she got back and spoke to the Mayor; not just for her ex-husband's sake, but because the camp needed the supplies his team brought in and they couldn't afford to have that stop.
In fact, she should really talk to the Zolos survivors in the quarantine camp directly about getting Nick more scavengers, especially after losing the Drydens as workers. Darby was slow as molasses about recruiting for the job in spite of the obvious need, and being understaffed continued to be her ex-husband's number one complaint.
She made her way to her camp, where Hal was up in the observation post and Cara and the kids were at the edge of the yard, talking with Gen and Winn Norson. From their expressions it was obvious they were aware something was up.
“You know what's going on?” Ellie called up as she made her way to the tree her boyfriend was in.
“We heard about it,” he replied grimly. “Nick stopped to warn us about how Jay reacted to the truckload of supplies, and also to make sure Ricky was safe and I was keeping a close watch on the surrounding area. Then he and his scavengers left, headed northeast in the opposite direction of Wensbrook.” He shook his head, bemused. “I hope they don't run into trouble from Jay's group even so.”
So did she; going out before knowing fully what the situation was seemed reckless, but judging by Nick's mood at the roadblock he might not've been thinking completely clearly.
Or maybe he was. The town and camp didn't need supplies any less just because Jay was threatening them. The need was even greater, in fact.
In any case, Ellie would have to hope her ex-husband could fend for himself, since it wasn't as if she could safely go out and help him. And she had her own things to worry about. Speaking of which . . . she looked up at her boyfriend perched on the platform. “This doesn't seem like the best idea anymore.”
He frowned down at her. “What?”
“Nick had a gun shoved in his face today,” she said firmly. “Jay was a hairsbreadth away from murdering him in cold blood. That just made it a lot more real for me. At this point sitting outside of town, vulnerable to any enemies, is no longer acceptable.”
“But we planned this with the patrols as a sentry post for the town,” Hal pointed out.
“Well a sentry post seems like a terrible place to live when it might put Ricky or your siblings in danger.” She looked towards the house. “I haven't talked to Gen or the Norsons yet, but even before what happened today they were thinking of temporarily moving into town if this situation with Jay got too tense. I'm guessing this will tip them in that direction.”
“Oh.” He looked down at the platform they'd built, his rifle in easy reach. “You're not wrong,” he agreed forlornly. “I just hate to abandon this place. The stockpiles Nick scavenged for us are here. And is he planning on moving with his team, too?”
Ellie could only shrug helplessly. “He took off before I could ask him. But whatever they decide, I want to move inside the range of the patrols.”
There was a long pause, where she almost wondered whether her boyfriend was going to disagree. “Well, we have talked a couple times about moving closer to the camp so it's not so much of a commute every day,” he finally said, sounding rueful.
She let out her breath in a sigh of relief. “So can we move today?”
“We can get started right now. Not like anything's stopping us.” He hesitated. “Um, Darrel and his people aren't going to stop us from moving within their patrol range, right?”
“With this trouble with Jay brewing I don't see how they could refuse us,” Ellie said with more confidence than she felt. “Although if they do, I guess we could make a new, clean section of the quarantine camp and move there. Starr and Hardy and Betty and the others should support us.”
“All right.” Hal slung his rifle across his back and began to climb down. “Let's go tell everyone.”
They made their way over to join Cara and the kids. Ellie would've expected Hal's mom to complain about having to move, just on principle, but to her surprise the woman seemed all for it.
As for Gen and the Norsons, it turned out Bruce was already in town, arranging for them to move in with friends until this trouble was over. The man planned to check on the house regularly, and possibly even sleep there to defend against opportunistic intruders; Ellie just hoped he had a plan to sneak away to safety if Jay's people attacked in a group.
Gen promised to continue helping out at the camp when she could, and then she and Winn headed inside to make their preparations to leave, while Hal led the way back to camp so they could pack up as well.
“How do you feel about moving?” Ellie asked Ricky as they took down his tent.
He shrugged. “If it's really dangerous here then I guess we need to.” He made a face. “Besides, we spend most of our time at the quarantine camp anyway.”
Yeah, the novelty of managing the camp had long since faded for him, which left him effectively tagging along bored out of his mind as she worked a far more than full time job. Maybe with their new camp closer she could leave him there with Hal's siblings, and they'd all be happier.
Although she wanted to cheer her son up right now if she could. “Hey,” she said suddenly, stepping closer to him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders, “you know octopuses have tentacles, right?”
He gave her a confused, wary look. “Yeah?”
Ellie resisted the urge to smile. “Would you like to have tentacles?”
Ricky's confusion faded to excitement at the idea. “Hey, that would be pretty cool!”
“So you'd like to have tentacles?” she pressed. He nodded, and she finally let her grin burst free. “Okay!” She began tickling him while shouting in a rush, “One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten tickles!”
He collapsed into peals of laughter on the ground. “I get it!” he shouted. “Ten tickles! That's awesome, Mom!”
Hal's siblings all laughed too, and the youngest Denny demanded his oldest brother do the ten tickle joke with him, too. For a few minutes the camp was noise and merry chaos, alleviating the tense atmosphere that had descended over it.
Finally, Ellie and Hal got everyone back to work getting ready to move, and the kids reluctantly returned to their tasks.
The job took less time than she'd expected. Maybe they were motivated to hurry, or maybe packing up even a long term campsite just didn't take long, but in less than a half hour they'd finished lugging everything to the cars and said a last goodbye, at least for now, to the place that had provided them a new home.
Then they piled in and drove to the camp.
Once there, Hal once again took the lead in finding a place between the camp and the town's perimeter. Somewhere they could set up a hidden camp of their own, in a hollow or clump of trees or behind a conveniently placed fence.
As the others focused on their new accommodations Ellie reported in to Darby, who was already with Johnny and Starr at the visitor's area discussing the precautionary measures they could take for the camp, and how the town could help.
“Good of you to finally join us,” the Mayor groused. “Take care of your family?”
“As long as you have no argument with us moving closer to the town, between it and the camp, where we'll be more safe,” she answered.
The tall man didn't look best pleased about that, but he just shrugged in resignation. “I suppose you practically live here anyway, what with your work. Although I'm taking pains to assure everyone living on the edges of town that the patrols will protect them.”
“Which isn't stopping them from moving in with friends in town?” Ellie guessed dryly.
“Indeed it isn't.” Darby sighed. “Come on, let's figure out how to best protect the camp and keep everyone calm, in case there's trouble.”
✽✽✽
Nick almost had to wonder if there was some quirk of human nature that made people treat you like crap if you were too generous to them without expecting anything in return.
It didn't make any logical sense, since you'd think that the more generous you were, the more people would like you and want to be generous in return. Or if nothing else show the slightest bit of gratitude or at least consideration. And yet the exact opposite seemed to be happening with Darby and Darrel and the rest of the town.
On the subject of being rational, deep down he was aware that it was probably his confrontational attitude with the two men that was the problem. That he made it hard for them to see the good he was doing for them and the town when every encounter with him either began or ended unpleasantly.
Usually both.
Still, at the moment he found himself bitterly wondering if they'd be just as ungrateful and entitled if he was more pleasant about disagreeing with them, or even was a complete doormat and rolled over to their every demand with an obsequious smile on his face. The famous saying “what have you done for me lately?” hadn't appeared out of nowhere, after all.
Either way, Nick was beginning to wonder why he put up with this BS. He couldn't quit, not when Ellie and the quarantine camp were depending on him, but he almost wondered whether he should stop taking the supplies to the town stockpile and make a new one specifically for the camp.
Darby wanted to factor him out of every consideration? Maybe the man should see what it was like when the shoe was on the other foot. And maybe at the same time he and Darrel could grow a pair and actually send people out beyond the borders to do their own work. Or at least be forced to negotiate some sort of compensation for the people who risked themselves and worked their butts off for their benefit.
Although once again returning to rationality land, this dispute would probably have to wait until after the problem with Jay was settled.
Part of him wondered if right now he was abandoning Ellie, Ricky, and Tallie by going off scavenging. If he shouldn't have talked his team into maybe focusing on guarding the Norsons' house or the quarantine camp. But Ellie and Darby were always talking about how they didn't have enough supplies, which was only going to be a bigger problem after giving Jay a truck full of stuff. Besides, they were already out here on the job.
Nick would just have to trust that Ellie and Hal would watch out for Ricky, and Tallie would be protected along with the rest of the people in the quarantine camp.
So he shook off those worries as best he could for now and pulled his new moving truck, the one the Drydens had been using until they got locked up in the quarantine camp, into the parking lot of a gas station at the outskirts of a town that looked abandoned.
Although that was pretty much the default look of any place these days.
Nodding to Val, he hopped down from the truck and raised his radio to his mouth. “Everyone be sure to keep an ear out for approaching vehicles. We're over an hour and a half from Wensbrook and out in the middle of nowhere, but better safe than sorry. Especially since Jay might not be the only threat out there.”
“No, just the one that waved a gun in your face,” Ben grumbled; the two brothers obviously blamed themselves for not covering him properly, even though the circumstances hadn't been ideal and at least he'd escaped with his life.
“Well it's more important than ever that we gather whatever we can find,” Nick replied. “While facing a potential siege isn't the time to be starving or missing out on necessities.”
“I still think we're blowing this threat way out of proportion,” Chase said, radio to his mouth as he hopped out of the truck he shared with Charlie. “I mean not to you personally, boss,” he added hastily. “Getting held at gunpoint is no joke. But between the camp and the town we've got over three thousand people. What does Jay even think his couple dozen are going to do here?”
“Whatever he can,” Val muttered. She'd fussed over Nick the entire drive after learning what had happened, genuinely worried about his welfare. Which he appreciated, even if he would've preferred to just forget about his run-in with the Wensbrook leader and move on as if nothing had happened.
As much as he could, at least.
The convenience store had no Zolos contamination warnings on it, but it also showed almost no signs of either being bought out of its stock when the crisis first started, or being looted afterwards. The shelves were loaded down with food and other potentially useful supplies, and the backroom had a modest stock of items.
They got to work emptying out the place, but didn't put up flyers; maybe Darby would get on his case about it, although Nick kind of doubted it after today. But either way, he didn't want to point any more angry or opportunistic people towards Stanberry as a potential target.
Once done with the gas station they moved on to the nearby houses, knocking at each one and calling warnings, then heading in. It was almost routine at this point, and even after seeing the impact on the Wensbrook survivors Nick was starting to lose his hang-ups about it.
He wondered if he should be worried about that.
When they reached a street with houses that showed clear signs of being ransacked, then a heavily barricaded one that looked inhabited, he concluded that they'd done as much as they could in this town and called it, having his people pack up and move on to the next place.
Thankfully, it appeared completely abandoned. Slim pickings, but at least nobody had gotten there first.
The day had that blustery feel of a storm coming in. Sometimes those storms took a day or more to arrive, but from the way the wind turned from the north in the late afternoon, bringing a sudden chill that hinted at temperatures in the 40s or even high 30s to come, Nick had a feeling it would be coming that night.
If not sooner, judging by the ominous clouds on the northwestern horizon; storms could blow in awfully fast at this time of year.
“How the heck does it get so cold in the middle of May?” Ben griped as they gathered around their trucks eating a hasty dinner. In spite of his best efforts to appear stoic he was surreptitiously rubbing at his arms, clearly chilled since he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt today; Nick doubted he'd brought a sweater.
Chet snorted. “It's almost like you haven't lived on a farm in Missouri closely watching the weather your entire life, little bro.”
That drew amusement from pretty much everyone in the group. Anyone who'd lived in Northern Missouri for any period of time knew that the weather was a merry yo-yo that could swoop from perfect temperatures to below freezing in a day, then swoop back. It could go from balmy to frigid and back again in less than a week.
Nick shook his head wryly. “Every time it gets warm, I end up stowing my cool weather clothes hoping the balmy weather will stick around until summer.” He clapped the young man on the shoulder. “We've all been there, shivering in shorts on what we thought was a nice day. Just grab some warm clothes from one of the places we're searching.”
“Or we could just pack it in early today,” Ben grumbled. “What's Darby going to do, complain?”
It would be petty to stop work to spite the Mayor, but the young man wasn't wrong that the weather was turning foul. It might be smart to get back and get what they'd scavenged unloaded before a storm blew in.
At least they wouldn't have to worry about Jay attacking in this weather, not unless he was insanely zealous. Which, come to think of it, he might be. Or he might've already attacked.
That thought, and a resurgence of worry for his family, spurred Nick to action. “You've got a point . . . let's get home ahead of this weather. We can finish eating on the drive.”
