“
God, I missed you. Can you put up with me for a while? I told Tom I’m taking some time off. I need to be home with my family.”
A slow, easy smile spread across Pepper’s face. “I think I can handle that. I missed you, too."
She nodded toward Cindy.
"Is our family growing?”
Danny examined her face. “If you’ll take her in. We’re not married or sleeping together or anything, but she followed me home. Can we keep her?”
“
I'm no stray puppy,” Cindy said, one arm around Ella. She still held her rifle in her other hand. “It’s up to you, Pepper. You’re the wife. I’ll understand either way."
Pepper hesitated. She gazed from one face to another. Her family. She could add another.
“
Come in," she said, "but be quiet. All the babies are asleep. Oh, and… I’ve got a surprise for you.”
The small crowd followed. Pepper flipped a switch on the wall, and the room lit up with a soft, warm glow.
Danny's jaw dropped.
“
We got lights?” he whispered.
“
We got lights," Pepper confirmed, "and a furnace and hot water.”
“
Wow… civilization is back,” Cindy said.
“
Well, it is here, anyway. Some places, not so much. But we’ll enjoy it now that we’ve got it. The other towns on the loop are tied in. Even the River Rats down in Henry have moved off their houseboats back into town.”
Danny grinned. By spring, maybe life would be back to some form of normal. Two years. A long two years had flown past like the river itself. They'd just have to see what spring would bring.
Snow rolled off the right edge of the plow in a giant wave. Windshield wipers beat time as they tried to keep up with the blizzard we were driving through. We slammed though another pothole. Everyone in the truck grunted.
“
You’re going to bring this child into the world early if you’re not careful, Dan,” Pepper said from the seat beside me.
“
Want me to drive?” Cindy asked from the back seat. “You can sit back here with the babies.”
“
Funny, girls,” I said. Snow rattled against the window. “We’ll stop up here in Geneseo and drop off the last gift. We’re only a few miles out of the Arsenal then.”
The plow behind us pushed more snow out of the way. Gibson drove it. Catfish rode with him, along with Shar in the backseat with Ella. The girls played with Cat’s little boy, named for Tony.
We’d dropped off deer and hog to the different towns along the trade route as we went. Geneseo was the last town before we hit the Quad Cities. We'd finally settled a hundred people there from Kewanee that we rescued in late October. They were the remnant population of a town of over fourteen thousand. What the Zeds hadn’t killed off, they'd done to themselves in a nasty little civil war. They were part of the Alliance now, and we needed to make a social call on Christmas Eve. Food was still a priority, and we had two hogs and deer for them.
We followed Route Six into town. Ours were the only tracks in the snow. Along I-80, folks had done what we did in Princeton: dragged as many dead cars and trucks up to block all of the off-ramps. Scavengers couldn’t get back into town, and any Zeds stumbling along come spring would have a heck of a roadblock to climb though. Locals would know the way in, and the canal was open for business when the ice was out. It would be the first time since it shut down in the 1950s that it’d seen any kind of commercial traffic.
We turned off the highway and rumbled into downtown. At a large iron gate, courtesy of Tom, we stopped. Two guards stood bundled against the storm, rifles in hand. They motioned for us to get out.
“
I’ll be right back,” I said to Pepper as I jumped out of the cab.
A quick conversation later, and the guards dragged the gate open. It ground through the snow and screeched against the frozen pavement. I drove through with Gibson behind me. We plowed our way past the storefronts until we came to a former real estate office in the middle of the second block. Several people came out to meet us.
“
Jose radioed ahead,” said a short, black woman as she stuck out her gloved hand. A scar ran the length of her face from left to right, and she was missing a front tooth. Torri was tough. That’s why she lived. That’s why she was put in charge by the Kewanee people. “Says you got something for us, Cap’n.”
“
Merry Christmas,” I said, grinning. “Bring your people around back of the truck. You’ll need some help with it.”
She nodded her head in my direction as I walked the length of the big, orange mechanical beast. At the back, I climbed up a ladder into the dump bed and called for a couple of the men to give a hand. Together, we handed the meat over the side. First the deer, then the two hogs. Torri sent for some of the people who knew how to butcher. There were tears in her eyes as she shook my hand.
“
Thanks, Danny. This’ll get us through until we get some more of our own.”
“
It’s okay, Boss. What’s left of us have to look out for each other.”
From behind the buildings, people started to appear. They hung the deer up on the overhang of the office and began to peel the hide off.
“
You folks got time to stay an’ eat?” Torri asked.
“
No, we’re actually on the way to the Arsenal to have Christmas with my brother Tom,” I said. Pepper climbed out of the cab. Cindy followed.
“
You got power now?” Pepper asked.
“
Yep, got the windmills workin’,” Torri said.
Two windmills sat on the hills a mile out of town. They'd been nearly completed when the Z-virus hit. Tom had sent some of his engineers to finish the project. Now, as long as the wind blew, these folks had power. If there wasn’t wind, there was a grid system to store surplus.
“
How you holdin’ up, girl? Baby jumpin'?”
Pepper rubbed her belly under the heavy coat. “He’s keeping me awake some nights, but not bad.”
“
You think the time gets close, you need a midwife, you just get me word.” She turned to Cindy. “He made an honest woman out of you yet, girl?”
Cindy blushed bright red. So did I.
“
We’re still talking things through,” Cindy said. “We don’t want to rush things.”
“
Girl, you don’t rush things, you’re gonna die cherry.”
I grinned and pointed the girls toward the truck. Pepper was laughing so hard she could barely stand. “Goodbye Torri. We’ll stop in for a visit some other time.”
She laughed and waved as we climbed into the cab.
We drove the rest of the way with the radio on. One AM station in the Quad Cities broadcast now—no set format, just whatever the d.j. on duty wanted to play, mixed in with the news when they could find some. It was a bit like listening to a college radio station. That was life in a dead world.
Rachel stirred and fussed a little. Cindy pulled a bottle from under her coat and passed it to my daughter. We rolled to the Arsenal as the disc jockey spun "Silent Night." For a moment, the world fell away, and it was just us, going to visit family for Christmas.
On the island, the streets were plowed. Troops jogged along the road doing their P.T. In the distance, I could hear the crackle of rifle fire. Tom had started a training program for people who wanted to join the service on a full-time basis, along with the irregulars in the towns that fell under his jurisdiction. The Arsenal was a going concern again.
I turned into the drive of the Commandant’s home. Tom was waiting for us on the porch with Star on one side and Tess on the other. They came to greet us as we shut off the trucks. Hugs, laughter, and questions made the rounds again. We bundled up babies, baby gear, and presents and hauled them inside. Rifles crackled behind us on the other end of the Island. I looked at Tom.
“
They’ve got tomorrow off,” he said, grinning. “They want a taste of the real military, they’re getting it.”
“
How’s the Alliance?” I asked.
“
Good. Last count, five thousand or so people in two hundred towns scattered out to Iowa City, north to Dubuque, and across the river out past you to Ottawa.”
“
Pretty good size… anything officially left of Washington?” I asked as we walked to the house, bundles in arms.
“
Not much in the way of politics. President went Zed, from what I hear through the official channels. So did most of Congress. If they survived, they scattered. Not much left."
“
What about chain of command for us?” Gibson asked.
“
Spotty at best. Our area is one of the best organized, but there’s not much out there to organize anyway.”
“
Boys,” Tess rebuked, standing on the top step of the porch with her hands on hips. Her belly pushed out against her sweater. “We agreed no shop talk, remember?”
Tom grinned. “Yes, dear. Sorry.”
“
Get three men together, and they’re as bad as a bunch of old women at a bridge party,” Tess muttered, chuckling. She turned with Star and the other women to go into the house.
“
Two at once, eh, Major?” Gibson asked with a wink.
“
Yeah, remind me not to do that again. One was bad enough, then Tess. What was I thinking? How’s Cori?”
“
Getting fat. She was already sassy.”
“
That leaves you, bro,” Tom said. “Pepper keepin' you in line?”
I smiled. “Yeah. This one’s easier than Mikey was.”
We stepped up on the porch.
“
And what about Cindy?”
I looked at my brother. I knew what he meant. Same thing everyone meant. Where did we stand, the three of us? Not just me and Cindy, but the whole dynamic. All of us.
“
None of your business, bro.”
We all laughed and went into the house. The smell of roasting bird hit us as we walked inside, along with the aromas of pie, potatoes, and any number of other treats I couldn’t place. A fire crackled in the hearth, giving the room a live heat. Babies were unbundled and passed around. Trevor clung to Tess’s leg as his mother chatted. Only the boom of a howitzer reminded us that life wasn't quite normal yet.
Talk turned to the harvest, trade routes, how the little towns were holding up. Some places were better off than others. They had the cold weather to adjust and prepare before spring brought the Zeds out. We seemed to be doing the best we could. Tom and his troops had made trips to several military posts. Some had organized with troops, but most were still empty. The empties had been scavenged for supplies. Those with personnel were brought into the command system. They were growing. Hopefully by spring, the newbs would be able to support themselves and what was left of the communities around them.
When a town or military base wanted to join the Alliance, they had to agree to abide by the laws we'd laid down. Most of it included the old laws from before the plague hit, but some of it was specific to what was going on now. Capital punishment was pretty quick. Some people grumbled that we'd backslid justice, but frankly, it wasn’t much of a problem, and we didn’t have the time or the space to warehouse prisoners.
“
It’s worse where they don’t get any snow, you know?” Gibson asked. “I been in touch with some of the survivors out in Cali. Dry weather, no frost in the south… they got dried-up Zeds been runnin' around for nearly two years now.”
Tom grunted over the top of his beer. Some creative guys had figured out how to brew their own. It quickly became part of the trade system.
“
I’m hopin’ O’Shea’s juice will take care of that. Figure in all those warm, dry states, you got the same problem.”
“
We’ve seen O’Shea’s anti-Zed spray work. We just need a lot
of
it, plus a good delivery system. I don’t exactly wanna walk into a swarm with a backpack sprayer and hose them down.”
Grunts and nods followed as both took another swig of beer. I saw Star—Tammi, I had to remind myself—head into the kitchen. In her left hand, a cane swung forward as she took a step. I stood and excused myself.
She stood at the oven by the time I caught up to her. The bird was about finished. I took some oven mitts that she'd been using and hoisted the bird onto the top of the stove. She glared at me for a moment. Then her eyes softened.
“
Thanks,” she said, glancing away.
“
No problem. It’s a big bird.”
“
Yeah, Tom got it out by the river. It should feed us all.”
I stood for a minute, not knowing what to say. I didn’t want to be here, but I wanted to talk to her for a moment. Finally, I put some words together.
“
Look, Star…”
“
That’s not my name,” she said.
I winced, too late. “Sorry.”
“
I’ve gone back to my real name. I stripped as Star. After… after the Zeds ran crazy, I just went by it. Everything else was gone. So was the old me. That’s when I became Star for real.”
“
But not anymore,” I said.
“
No. I’m Tammi again. The star on my face… and other places, well… I’ll have to explain to my kids someday. If we all make it that far.” She rubbed her belly. She was further along than Tess, but she was taller, so she didn’t show as much. “You come out here for a reason?”
“
Yeah. Okay. Tammi, I… I just wanted to apologize for trying to kill you. A couple times. I… I wasn’t really in my right head.”