The McClane Apocalypse Book Three (15 page)

Kelly and Cory move closer to Derek, and
Kelly even tugs at her husband's arm to hold him back. But Sue
can't seem to get over the glare that Levon is still spewing toward
the two Rangers and Cory. There is so much open hostility in his
glare that she fears for Derek. Levon realizes that she's
cautiously regarding him and his amber eyes next meet Sue's. His
expression toward her is not like that of the look he pinned on the
three men in her family. Sue's not completely naïve when it comes
to this look in a man's eyes. His gaze makes her shudder and inch
closer to Derek.

"You get up and run your mouth again, I'll
break your jaw the next time," Derek cautions in an eerily low
voice to the father who slowly gets to his feet.

Sue has not seen Derek react so violently
before or speak to someone like that, and even she knows that Frank
had better stop acting out.

Kelly jumps in to help, "Now Doc did
everything he could for your boy. What the hell did you think him
and Reagan have been doing out here twenty-four hours a day for the
last week?"

Frank nods and doesn't meet her husband's
eyes or any of the other men's eyes in her family for that matter.
Uncle Peter is also not moving toward Derek for a confrontation
with the man who just shoved his friend. After seeing Derek's
explosive reaction, however, she can't blame them.

"I'm sorry, Frank. I truly am," Grandpa
explains patiently and professionally. "My granddaughter and I did
everything we could for him. If it wasn't for her, your son
probably would've died the first night you people came here. There
isn't a better doctor in the country than her on studying diseases.
He was just too far along for us to save."

Sue wonders how many times in his life that
her grandfather has had to give similar speeches to waiting family
members. She could've never been a doctor.

"Ok," Franks says with resignation. "Ok,
man."

"We can hold a service and bury him here on
the farm if you'd like," Grandpa suggests as Hannah and Grams draw
closer.

"Whatever," Frank emotes childishly.

"We'll prepare the body, and the men here
can give you shovels to dig and show you where," Grandpa
offers.

Grandpa's eyes belie his calm demeanor, but
unless someone knew him it wouldn't be obvious. There's grief and
remorse written there that breaks Sue's heart.

"Go back to your camp and we'll come and get
you with the shovels," Kelly adds.

It's apparent to Sue that Kelly doesn't want
them going into any of the barns with them to retrieve the shovels.
Grandpa has a lot of tools and equipment in the buildings that the
men don't want these intruders to find and get any ideas of
stealing.

"Come on, Frank. Guess we'll wait to be
summoned," Levon says to Frank in a horrible, fuming voice.

Again, he gives Sue the creepy-crawlies up
her spine. This man has cool, light-colored eyes, a strong jaw line
and shoulder length dread locks. There is bulk to his shoulders and
forearms, and he seems like he could be a formidable opponent if he
wanted to be. A shiver passes through Sue when he looks overly long
at her. By the reaction of Derek, her husband has also noticed
Levon's highly scrutinizing stare because she watches his fist
clench at his side.

"Grandpa, can I help?" Sue asks when the
visitors finally retreat to their camp.

"No, honey. I don't want anyone in there.
I'll do it myself. When Reagan returns and the site has been
prepared, you can retrieve my Bible for me, and we'll speak over
this boy before he is buried. Kelly, I'll call for you when he's
ready and have you carry him. He doesn't weigh much. But I want to
wrap him and clean him so that the germs don't get on any of you,"
Grandpa tells her and turns to go.

Sue crosses the yard to Sam who is still
standing with Huntley, who in turn has his face buried in the
girl's stomach. Hannah and Grams are with them and are both trying
to comfort the kids. Grams is explaining, without too many of the
finer details, what will take place with Garrett. Huntley sobs
quietly, and Sam is barely containing herself as she presses the
boy against her side. Her eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, the
blue color of them on fire in bold contrast.

"Why don't you both have a seat on the back
porch, and I'll make a pot of hot tea?" Grams offers kindly.

Sue understands that it is all she
can
offer at this point. The boy has just lost his brother
and likely his best friend in the world so what can anyone offer
him?

She follows them and sits on the porch swing
taking note that Huntley and Sam sit together on a wicker sofa
across from her rather than either of them join her. Huntley is no
longer crying but they all, Sue included, have red, puffy faces and
look fatigued by this horrid new tragedy. There is so much death
everywhere in this world. Cory also joins them but sits on the
porch step near them. He has not shed any tears, but Cory has been
through so much that maybe all he can feel is numbness when someone
loses a loved one. He'd been in the same house when his parents had
been murdered and had discovered their bodies. His despair and
grief have taken hold and grown a root of hardness within him that
Sue knows will be his hardship to bear for many years.

In the distance, Kelly and Derek are
carrying shovels and pick axes toward the visitors' campsite. When
she looks up, Sam's eyes have followed hers and the tears flow
again. Sue quickly decides that she ought to distract the kids if
at all possible and clears her voice to speak.

"Um…Sam, are you from New Mexico, as well,
dear?" she softly asks of the girl as Hannah brings out a plate of
cinnamon scones, along with a pint of blueberry jam, setting them
on the wicker table. Sam regards her sister and her cane with
curiosity. "Sam and Huntley this is my sister, Hannah, in case you
haven't been introduced yet."

"Hello," Hannah says warmly and extends a
hand, palm out.

Sam doesn't take it but regards Sue
anxiously. The girl has clearly never been around a blind person
before.

"She just wants to introduce herself the way
that she does. She can't see you, so this is how she deals with
meeting new people if you don't mind," Sue explains as Hannah
smiles gently toward the general area of the sofa.

"Hello," Hannah repeats and holds out her
arm again, bending over toward them.

This time Sam takes Hannah's hand in hers
tentatively.

Sam mumbles a faint, "Hi."

"There you are," Hannah says and smiles
fully, allowing her hand to glide up the girl's arm and onto her
face.

Poor Hannah, she has no sense of personal
boundaries. Sam's eyes widen as Hannah lightly touches her face.
Sue knows she should stop her sister's intrusiveness, but this is
the only way Hannie knows.

"Oh, you're quite pretty, aren't you?"

"No, ma'am," Sam answers awkwardly and
sniffs.

"Yes, she is, Hannie," Sue corrects as Sam
blushes. Hannah's fingers trace Sam's head, and she frowns.

"What happened to your hair?" she asks
bluntly.

Her sister runs her fingertips through the
girl's hair and pulls at the tips of Sam's bizarre, jagged cut.

"Hannah!" Sue scolds her little sister who
can be too forward sometimes.

"What? Her hair is messed up. Did you do
this yourself?"

"Yes," Sam says, squirming under Hannah's
scrutiny. "I couldn't find scissors."

"What did you use, a weed-whacker? We can
have Grams fix it for you, honey. Not I or it will look like you
did it with a weed-whacker and then a chainsaw!" Hannah jokes.

This makes Sam actually smile and Huntley
chuckle once.

"No, she cut it with a knife, and it wasn't
very sharp, either," Huntley offers up.

"It's ok. I don't want to be a bother.
Neither of us does," Sam refers to Huntley who reverts to staring
at his shoes.

"It isn't a bother," Grams says from the
doorway.

She carries out a tray with a china tea pot
and small tea cups. Sue jumps up to help.

Grams continues, "I used to cut hair
professionally until I married Dr. McClane. I miss it sometimes,
but the girls let me cut theirs and so do the men around here. I
actually like your hair. It just needs a little snipping here and
there, honey. You have such a tiny face, like a porcelain doll,
that it suits you just fine."

"And Huntley? May I introduce myself to you,
sir?" Hannah asks.

She makes her way carefully around the table
without bumping it, the scones or the cups full of tea. Grams is
serving the tea with sugar and honey to the kids, Cory included,
and Sue makes her own, adding a splash of milk.

"Sure, I guess," Huntley tells Hannah with a
pathetic shrug.

Sue has to look away because she's afraid
she'll start crying again. The boy looks so lost, sad, abandoned
and about a thousand other forms of depressing.

But Hannah works her magic and touches his
arm first, remarking about a scar that Huntley tells her he got
from bumping into Frank's cigarette two years ago, and then trails
up to his face. Sue hopes to high heaven that his story is true
about it being an accident.

"Oh, you're a rather handsome boy. Very
strong bone structure. And your hair is long. You are Native
American, I've heard?" Hannah asks, and Huntley gives a subtle nod.
"I can't tell your response. Yes?"

Hannah asks and holds her hand on the top of
the boy's head so that she can feel his answer.

Her sister says, "Well, I'd bet your hair
would look so neat with some braids in the front, and we could tie
the ends with leather and beads and a feather. You'd make a rather
dashing chief."

He doesn't say anything, but he does give a
half smile full of more sadness and fatigue than a boy of ten years
should feel.

Huntley finally answers, "My mom used to
braid it."

Sue weeps again. She mentally berates her
impotence to make it stop. She needs to be strong for these kids.
They will need her and Hannah and Grams to get through this. They
sure as hell won't get any help from Frank.

"You just drink your tea and have a scone,
ok? It'll make you feel better, honey. We'll do your hair another
day," Hannah tells him and then squats where she lays a hand to his
dark mocha cheek. "Huntley, I am very sorry about your brother. I
know how much you're hurting. But we're all here for you, ok? You
don't have to go through this alone, sweetie."

Huntley flings himself into Hannah's arms
and hugs her tightly. She simply strokes the boy's back and coos
and whispers to him as he cries softly until he's cried himself
out. She has a way about her, a gentle, reassuring way about her
that just makes everyone in her presence feel immeasurably better.
When he's finished, Hannah dries his cheeks with a linen
handkerchief pulled from the wide pocket of her apron. Then she
rises again and takes a seat on the swing since there is one
available while Grams sits on her favorite rocking chair.

They sit for a while all sipping tea and
eating scones, even the new kids, while Grandpa and the visitors
prepare the body and the grave site. Sue tries to get the kids to
talk again so that the family can better understand what is going
on with their group and more importantly to distract them from the
death of Huntley's twin brother. Nobody has been able to speak with
either of them for a few days because they are being kept away from
the family by what Grandpa believes is no accident.

"So, Sam, are you from New Mexico, or are
you from one of the other states that your group has traveled
through?" Sue asks again, and the girl looks at her teacup.

"No, ma'am," she says without giving away
details.

Grams prods gently, "Are any of those people
out there your family, dear?"

"No, ma'am," Sam answers honestly.

Her eyes jump anxiously toward Cory. He
looks away, out toward the horse pasture.

"Do you have family elsewhere? Where are
your mother and father, dear?" Grams inquires as she rocks.

Samantha would do well to learn that Grams
is like a dog with a bone when she wants to be.

"They're… gone, ma'am. I don't have any
family left," Sam tells them. "Thank you for the tea, but we should
go."

"Wait, you don't have to go," Sue says
regretfully. Now she feels terrible because she hadn't been trying
to scare her off but was just trying to get to know about them.

"We need to go. They get mad when we're over
here," Sam says and looks furtively over her shoulder.

"At least take these. Just hide them and
share with whoever you want or whoever you don't want, either,"
Grams says.

She uses the linen napkins which are
embroidered with purple violets around the edges to wrap the
remaining scones. Sometimes Sue forgets just how intuitive her
Grams can be.

"No, we couldn't…" Sam tries to protest.

Grams firmly presses them into Sam's frail,
bony hands and closes hers over the girl's.

"I insist. And you come back whenever you
can. Both of you come back and that Simon boy is welcome over here,
too," Grams tells the girl who tears up and nods.

"Thank you, Mrs. McClane," Sam says and nods
again.

Sam has a split lower lip that has partially
closed up and healed over. Sue's not sure, however, if it is from
an injury or from being hit or which was the more likely
scenario.

The little waif takes Huntley's hand and
entreats, "Come on, Huntley. We better get over there."

"I'll walk you back," Cory offers and
rises.

Sam shakes her head and scoots uneasily
around him to get down the stairs. She's the most timid kid Sue has
ever known, and she's left to wonder at the origins of it, and the
split lip. Cory trails after them but stops at the edge of the
porch. He doesn't come back to sit again, though, but stands there
watching the other two kids make it back to their camp. He's going
to be so much like the other men of the family.