Isolation (Book 3): Starting Anew, page 24
part #3 of Isolation Series
That wasn't outside the realm of possibility, considering the man had snuck into Nick's camp so easily. But it would've just been pessimism to point that out. “Anyway, I figured you should know.”
“Yeah.” The Mayor sighed, looking at the sentry post they'd created. “Well, I guess you're mostly out of it, now. Enjoy your three weeks, Statton.” He turned to leave without another word.
That seemed to be that. Nick was just glad he and Darby would never have to butt heads over anything again. Fingers crossed.
In spite of the safety offered by the camp, the mood was fairly tense. He spent some time getting to know the residents in the five isolation spaces around theirs, all of whom were more recent arrivals among the Zolos survivors. Most groups had at least one immune person among them, tending sick friends or loved ones who were too weak to care for themselves. The one exception was a group of five who'd all recovered from the virus and recently built up the strength to stand and care for themselves, and now wanted to go through their 21 days and enter the town.
Later in the afternoon Gen, Billy, and the Norsons came around with Ellie, Ricky, and Hal. They'd visited Ellie's camp first to say hello and were here to visit Nick and Tallie.
Unsurprisingly, the main topic of conversation at first was Nick's scavengers relocating to the quarantine camp.
“Is our house going to be safe with no one there?” Winn fretted. “Our stuff, the stockpiles?”
Nick could only shake his head helplessly. “They might be safer with us gone. If Jay comes back to the camp and finds us gone, he's not going to stay to poke around the nearby houses. Not with the patrols keeping such careful watch.”
“We've got the shed and the basement and the house all locked up tight,” Bruce said grimly. “And we can visit regularly to check on the place. Aside from that, we'll just have to hope the patrols do their job, and you're right that Jay isn't interested in our place.”
Ellie just shook her head. She hadn't said anything, but it was obvious she was bothered that Jay had gone after him like this twice now. And Nick had to agree; even though the bald man hadn't done anything to hurt him or his friends, the fact that he was so interested in them couldn't be good.
Moving to the safety of the quarantine camp was looking more and more like a good idea, especially with Starr having them help guard the survivors' section. He just hoped Jay wouldn't be so brazen as to visit the camp like he'd hinted at.
When Nick finally had a minute to talk to his ex-wife about it, while the others went to say hi to Tallie, she just shook her head. “We'll do our best to make sure he doesn't get support in the camp itself,” she said. “With its small but solid core of resentment towards the town, him getting a foothold in here would be a nightmare.”
With that she made her way over to talk to her daughter, while Gen drifted over to talk to him. His girlfriend gave him a bright smile, equal parts sympathy and hope. “Well, whatever the circumstances, I'm glad you have a safe place to go through your three weeks.” She held out her hand towards him as if inviting him to hold it over the distance. “We're still on track for our official first date, right?”
“Right,” he told her confidently, extending his own hand. “And fingers crossed I should be well out of this fight with Jay. Nothing to do but wait until I'm safe to be around.”
“The sooner the better,” she said. Her shoulders slumped, pleasant features drooping in sorrow. “I just want all of this to be over.”
“Things will be back to normal in no time,” he promised her with more confidence than he felt. “All the awful plagues of the past eventually went away.”
“Actually most of them are still around,” Gen pointed out, tone gently amused. “They were just mostly eradicated.”
“And Zolos will be too.”
“Of course.” She forced a smile. “How are things in your new camp? Settling in comfortably?”
Nick allowed her to change the subject, focusing on more pleasant, hopeful things. He could do with less thinking grim thoughts anyway.
Sometimes a more cheerful outlook on its own was enough to make the world seem better. Especially if you had someone to share it with.
✽✽✽
“This has been too long coming,” Ellie sighed, settling back against Hal's chest and snugging his arms tighter around her.
The kids were in bed, Cara having reluctantly agreed to keep an eye on them so Ellie and Hal could have a night out. Which they'd done by bringing a couple blankets up to the top of a small hill near the woods northeast of the quarantine camp, which gave a great view of the town, the camp, and the surrounding area.
More importantly it was a peaceful spot, showing the beauty of the orderly campfires in one direction, and candles and flashlights twinkling out the windows of houses in another. And most importantly of all it was completely secluded, giving them a chance to be alone together for the first time in, well, who knew how long.
Since the quarantine camp, probably.
“Mmm,” her boyfriend agreed, resting his chin on her head. “Being under siege by a crazed lunatic doesn't exactly foster a romantic atmosphere.”
“And we've both been working so hard, and spending the rest of the time with our families,” she murmured. “Which has been wonderful, but I still miss the quiet, peaceful moments in the quarantine camp when we could just be together.”
He chuckled. “As I recall, we were pretty busy in there, too.” He kissed her head. “Never a dull moment with you.”
“Good.” Ellie shifted around, grinning up at him. “With the kids in bed and us finally having time to ourselves, the last thing I want is dull.”
There were probably plenty of good bantering comebacks he could've made, but thankfully he got the hint and chose the best one, leaning down to press his lips to hers.
It had been a while since she'd had to remind herself about the boundaries they'd set to their relationship. Then again that was probably why she had to remind herself of them tonight, as she had to push down the temptation to throw her previous resolutions to the wind.
Since the agreement had been no sex before marriage, Hal definitely needed to get around to popping the question already. If they hadn't adequately displayed that their feelings were genuine and both wanted a committed lifelong relationship by this point, she wasn't sure what else more waiting would accomplish.
They could set the date for next week as far as she was concerned.
Finally, though, mutual weariness and the need to restrain themselves gradually dimmed the passion until they were contentedly cuddling together, looking up at the clouds scudding over the stars overhead.
“Love you,” Ellie murmured, burying her head in his shoulder.
“Love you,” he murmured back. “I'm glad we made the time for this.”
“Mmm,” she said, eyes drooping. She allowed her weariness to take over, comfortable under the blanket against his warm, solid presence, and allowed sleep to claim her.
What felt like a long time later her pleasant dreams became troubled. At first she thought she was just having a nightmare, one that included distant screams, a lurid glow flickering far off, and cries for help.
Then she jolted awake with a gasp, bleary eyes darting to the west. They widened in horror at the realization that lurid orange light was licking several houses in the otherwise dark, sleeping town below.
Flames. And she could still hear the distant screams, cries for help, and shouted orders.
“Hal!” she hissed, shaking him.
He snorted and sat up, looking around frantically for the threat. Considering how on edge he'd been ever since this trouble with the Wensbrook survivors had started, with them living outside of town so close to the quarantine camp, he must've finally let himself relax to be so out of sorts. In a way she regretted interrupting his peace, emergency or not.
“Fire,” Ellie said in case he hadn't noticed the glow of flames to the west. “Looks like it's coming from town.” She tossed the blanket aside and jumped to her feet, hurrying down the hill towards their camp with as much speed as was safe in the dark.
Stanberry had firefighters, but it looked like a bunch of small blazes and she wanted to see if they needed help. Assuming there was anything she could do when she wasn't allowed into town. But whatever the situation, she'd probably be needed to make sure the camp was safe and everyone was staying calm.
Hal joined her, blankets bundled in his arms and matching her fast pace. “Jay's work, you think?”
Under the circumstances that seemed almost certain. “Unless his thugs are still lighting fires, that's something to worry about once we get these under control.”
“At least they don't seem to be targeting the camp,” he said, waving at the dark sea of tents ahead. “That would be a disaster.”
Ellie shuddered, imagining all those very flammable temporary shelters going up in flames. “Let's hope it stays that way. We should talk to Starr to make sure his people are staying vigilant.”
As they crossed the distance to their own hidden camp, the burning town in view to their right, she was suddenly struck by just how scattered the fires were. There seemed to be a dozen or so burning buildings, but rather than all being grouped closely together, or even situated on the same side of town, they were all over the place.
What was the arsonists' motive for doing it this way? If they'd been going for maximum devastation they would've tried to light as many fires as they could before being chased away, but there were too few fires for that, far too separated to make any sense, and she also didn't see any new fires starting up anywhere.
If they'd wanted to attack Stanberry from all sides then there would be fires all around the outskirts. Or, if they'd really wanted to do damage, they would've targeted the storage unit complex where Nick had been hauling the supplies he scavenged, along with the other nearby buildings that made up the town's stockpile.
But this? There was no rhyme or reason to it.
Some fires were on the perimeter, some closer to the center of town, but most separated by at least a block. It would've taken ten times the amount of coordination and manpower to sneak in, start so many widely spaced blazes, and then flee without getting caught. Aside from that one fire seemed to have spread to nearby houses, most of the places going up were on large lots where they could be easily contained.
Since a single person with a dozen firebombs could've just run in and set an entire neighborhood ablaze and gotten out with far less risk, that was seriously fishy. Something else was motivating the arsonists than just mindless destruction, she was sure of it.
Back at their camp the kids were up and peering out of their hidden spot in the direction of town, although Cara was nowhere to be seen; was it possible she was sleeping through the chaos?
“Big bro, the town's on fire!” Linny shouted when she caught sight of Hal, rushing over and throwing her arms around him.
“I saw,” he replied grimly, picking her up and hugging her. “You guys okay?”
“Well duh we are,” Todd replied, still peering at the town. “The fires are all over there.”
Ellie left her boyfriend to manage the kids while she grabbed her radio. Even turned down to low volume for the night she could still tell the quarantine camp's channel was going crazy. Johnny was shouting orders, calling for reports from the other camp leaders, while Starr was shouting conflicting orders and asking for reports from his sentries. Then there were all the people trying to talk when they had nothing pertinent to say, so it was all just a confused muddle.
She grabbed the radio and turned it up. “Ellie Feldman here, clear the airwaves!” she barked, creating a minor lull in the chaos. She hastily spoke into it. “Everyone, one at a time starting with Starr's reports from his sentries and follow-up orders to keep the camp safe, then Johnny's checks to make sure everyone's calm and upholding isolation.”
“You think we have time to hold hands and take turns during an emergency?” an unfamiliar man's voice demanded.
“Better to go a little slower and focus on what's important than all shout at once and accomplish nothing,” she replied. “Starr, go.”
Things settled down a bit, the leader of the camp's defenses getting to work making sure the fences were secure and Jay's people weren't trying anything. Ellie was about to jump into it with him, do what she could from the outside, when Hal spoke in a concerned tone. “El.”
She joined him and the kids looking at the town. He handed her a pair of binoculars he kept with his hunting equipment, and as she squinted through them he directed her gaze towards a burning house right at the southeast end of town, only fifty or so yards away.
Flames were licking up its eastern wall, what looked like just a small blaze on the exterior at the moment. A few dozen people, most in their pajamas, were standing on the street nearby, obviously agitated. A huddle of them comforted a frantic man and woman carrying two frightened children, with a crying boy in his early teens standing beside them.
Probably the house's owners.
Ellie handed the binoculars back and lifted the radio, changing to the town's main channel. “Ellie Feldman here,” she said. “I've got a house near the southeast side of town that needs a firefighting team. It looks like it can be saved pretty easily if you get to it soon.”
“Perhaps it can, Ms. Feldman,” Darby answered, voice thick with frustration and fury. “Most of these houses could probably be saved. But to reiterate what I've already said several times to people who were actually listening, we will not be fighting the fires unless they threaten to spread. It's too dangerous.”
She stared blankly at the radio in her hand. “Stanberry has a good firefighting force, and there are a bunch of people around who could help. Form a bucket brigade and things like that.”
“The danger comes from who set the fires!” the Mayor snapped, producing a screech of feedback with the force of his outburst. “Better to let some houses burn to the ground than risk exposing ourselves to Zolos.”
“Then enlist the survivors from the camp,” she pressed. “There's no reason to lose houses that could be saved.”
Darrel's voice cut in, even harsher than usual. “Are you stupid? You want us to have even more Zolos carriers running all over town? As it is we're going to have to put the neighborhoods around the fires under quarantine until we can figure out what routes Jay's people took to get in, and find a way to decontaminate them.”
“I bet you wouldn't be so casual about letting all these houses burn to the ground if one of them was yours,” Ellie said defensively.
“One is my house, you smug bi-” Darrel started to snarl, then was drowned out in a distortion of static as Darby and half a dozen other voices simultaneously spoke up with roughly the same response.
She waited until the hubbub died down a bit before speaking up again. “Jay burned down Darrel's house? That doesn't seem like a coincidence.”
“Of course it isn't a coincidence, Ms. Janey-Come-Lately to the conversation!” Darrel snarled. “As we've already established, every single house that's burning, aside from the fires that spread from original targets, belongs to one of our town's leaders. This wasn't just Jay's mob running in and lobbing firebombs at random buildings.”
“How could he even know where we live?” Darby complained bitterly. “It's not like we're all on the same street or anything.”
“Maybe we have a traitor among us who's feeding him information,” another of the City Council members suggested.
Ellie rolled her eyes impatiently. “Or maybe they pulled the addresses out of a directory or off a map,” she replied. “Let's not jump straight from being attacked to jumping down each other's throats in paranoia.”
“That sounds like something a traitor would say!” the man shot back.
Was this guy for real? She did her best to keep her tone calm. “Jay hit these targets for a reason, to send the message that his argument isn't with Stanberry, it's with our leaders. Which means that if our leaders are willing to sit down with him and try to negotiate, he might be willing to listen.”
“Why would we negotiate with a maniac who just burned down our houses?” Darrel shouted. “I say we have our guns ready and meet them with force the next time they come at us.”
“This was a message,” Ellie pressed, raising her voice over the tumult. “We didn't meet their demands, and we sent a messenger with a single truck instead of our leaders meeting them face to face to explain our position.”
“You taking his side?” the Council member from before demanded.
“No, but conflict resolution is my thing, and in order to resolve a conflict we have to be able to see both sides, understand what everyone wants in a situation. Jay's incensed about the fact that his people's homes were looted, and that insult is what's really bothering him. I'm sure he'd like to get back everything we scavenged from Wensbrook, but what he really wants is for us to make it right.”
Darby burst in, sounding exasperated. “How? We apologized, and we gave them enough supplies to sustain their group. In thanks he burned down our houses! What sort of conflict resolution magic do you have for that?”
Ellie hesitated. “I don't know,” she admitted. “But sitting down with him and talking it out, really talking it out, is the first step.”
“If you want to talk it out so much then why don't you go do it yourself?” Darrel asked, tone suggesting he was losing patience with her.
Well, the feeling was mutual; were they even listening to what she was saying? “Because I'd just be another messenger. The Wensbrook survivors sent this message specifically to you. They know you ordered their town to be scavenged . . . their grievance is with you. It's you they want to talk to.”
Darby sounded helpless. “And what if we make that overture, actually risk Zolos by leaving town to talk to Jay, and in response he and his thugs put bullets in all our heads? Who does that serve?”
“I don't know,” Ellie said tiredly. “Security at peace talks aren't my area of expertise. But I'm sure you could think of some way to arrange it so you'd be safe.”
