Ashley was nearly hysterical, wailing and clawing at Stanley’s shirt. Her eyes were swollen and red, long soaked from the tears she’d wept while they were apart. Nate leaned down and pulled a tiny girl from the backseat. She wrapped her arms and legs around him as best she could as he held her, silently weeping, clearly emotionally exhausted. My chest burned at the sight of her. She was about Halle’s size, and I knew immediately that she belonged to Nate. Seeing them reunite made the need to see my daughters unbearable.
Another man, a head taller than everyone but Bryce, climbed from the backseat. He scanned the house with wary eyes, making me feel on edge. He was different than the others. He moved differently, and his eyes took in everything.
“Where’ve you been?” Stanley said.
Miranda’s face turned instantly annoyed. “She made us wait at the corner by the water tower. I finally got her to agree to let us leave at dark.”
Stanley’s head jerked to look at Ashley. “I told you I would meet you here,” he scolded. “It made more sense for us to cut across. Why would you wait at the road? Are you nuts?”
More tears spilled down Ashley’s red cheeks.
Miranda raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I told her. We could have been here with Dad and not listening to Zoe freak out for the last four hours!”
Nate hugged his daughter tighter.
The man with no name smirked. He towered over most of the others. Just the sight of him made my fingers grasp my rifle tighter. His chest bulged from his white T-shirt, which was speckled with blood. The red stains were spattered down his jeans, too, varying from specks to large splotches. “Are you just getting here?” He clearly wasn’t impressed with their time.
Stanley nodded to the top of the hill and the mess of bodies in the yard. “It’s not a straight shot, and we had company. We ran into hills, and a creek. It was rough going. We tried leading the ones that caught up to us away from the house, but then ran into more. And, Nathan had to rest a few times.”
Oh. His name was Nathan. That fit him better, anyway.
“Where are you guys coming from?” I asked.
Nathan paused from whispering things into his daughter’s ear. “Shallot. It’s about ten miles straight across.”
I glanced around, grabbed the flashlight from Nathan, and jogged out to the fishing line. The shufflers had pulled it loose and a few sections were lying on the ground. I pulled the line from the some of the shufflers’ decaying ankles and then rewrapped it around the stakes, pulling them taut.
Pulling the downed shufflers into the field and burning them crossed my mind, but it was nearly dark. Resigned to leave it until the next day, I joined the others inside the house.
Miranda met me at the door. “Where is my dad?”
I glanced at Ashley. The sisters had already been through hell, and I hated to make it worse. I just shook my head a little, unable to say the words.
Miranda lowered her chin. “What?”
“When I got here, he was . . . Leah had . . . I buried them. By the tree.”
Miranda turned on her heels, ran through the living room and kitchen into the laundry room, and pushed out the storm door. Bryce followed her. I walked over to the window and peered between the wooden slats. Miranda fell on her knees and covered her face; Bryce began to touch her face, but then acted like he couldn’t decide where to place his hand, finally settling on his neck. He paced back and forth, offering words of comfort.
Ashley was sniffing and crying quietly, most likely already cried out for the day.
“She should come back in,” I said softly. “It’s not safe out there.”
“Thank you,” Nathan said. His voice was so smooth and calming. “For helping us. That was pretty impressive.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “I’m glad everyone made it here safely.”
Nathan walked away, twisting his upper body and whispering something into his daughter’s ear. His shaggy hair was opposite his gray suit and boring tie. He glanced back at me, and I looked away, realizing at the same time he did that I was still staring. It had been a while since I’d felt anything but fear. Next to the nightmare we were all living, embarrassment didn’t seem so bad.
I looked at Nathan again from the corners of my eyes, trying not to get caught. The girl’s eyes were getting heavy, and I found myself curious about their situation: Where was her mother? Did they find themselves together much like Andrew found himself now with the girls?
“He’s nice,” Stanley whispered. His voice was tired and sad, but the corners of his mouth were turned up ever so slightly. “If you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t,” I said, shaking my head and dropping my eyes to the ground.
Nathan
Four hours of worrying and being in an unfamiliar situation had exhausted Zoe in every way anyone could be exhausted, and while I was watching the woman with the fiery red hair and staggering blue eyes break it to Miranda and Ashley that their father was dead, I noticed a pair of French doors right off the living room and peeked in, seeing a king-size bed that took up most of the room around it. There were piles of clothes everywhere, and opened dresser drawers. Odd, because the rest of the house was immaculate.
Zoe didn’t flinch when I peeled back the covers and let her sink into the pillow-top mattress. The luxurious down pillow and high thread count of the sheets didn’t match the farmhouse. As I thought about the custom-made tree-trunk coffee table in the living room, and the seventy-inch flat screen, I decided that wasn’t true. There were a few oddly placed expensive items peppered inside the old, outdated house. That puzzled me, much like the tiny woman with a huge set of balls holding the rifle in the living room.
I waited to be sure Zoe was sound asleep, and then stepped into the living room, listening to Ashley weep quietly on Cooper’s shoulder. She was asking the mystery woman how her father died and about a woman named Leah. The answers were vague, I assumed on purpose. The details didn’t really matter, only that two girls had lost their father, and everything they expected to find here was gone with him.
Cooper held Ashley as she shook and moaned, rubbing at her face and raking her back in frustration as she bounced between devastation and anger. Finally, she met the woman’s eyes.
“Why are you here, Scarlet?”
Scarlet sighed, and then scratched her head. “It seemed like the safest place, and I knew there was a chance my girls would come here.”
Ashley sat up as Scarlet sat down on the couch. She seemed to be suddenly exhausted, as if saying the words out loud took the last bit of energy she had.
Ashley sniffed and wiped her nose with the sleeve of her jacket. “Why aren’t they with you?”
I braced myself for what she might say.
Scarlet fidgeted, clearly trying not to break down. Ashley obviously knew her, but from what I could gather from the bit of conversation I’d caught earlier, their father’s significant other was buried outside with him. The woman sitting on the couch didn’t seem to be family, so I wondered how she would know about this place, so far removed from everything.
“Scarlet?” Ashley prodded. “Where are your girls?”
“They’re coming.”
“Here?” Ashley said, sounding surprised. “How do you know?”
“Because I left them a message. On Andrew’s wall.”
The conversation made less sense as it went along, and Ashley didn’t seem to understand, either. Agitated, Scarlet stood up and disappeared into the back of the house. Ashley and Cooper traded glances, and then we all looked to the side door leading to wherever the father was buried. Bryce was leading Miranda inside the house, shutting the wooden door. The bottom half was wood, the top half Plexiglas.
“We’re going to need to board that up,” I said. “Tonight.”
Joey nodded and stood up from the corner. I’d almost forgotten he was here, he’d been so quiet. “I’ll help you.”
Bryce jerked his head toward the door, careful not to take his arms from around Miranda. “There should be some leftover wood in the barn. Be careful. There’s a bull out there.”
As Joey passed Miranda, she watched him walk by, and I assumed by the way her eyes fell to the floor that something wasn’t right. I had been conditioned by Aubrey for years to detect a problem and buffer it before it got too far out of control. These people were still strangers, but I had a very real fear that if the delicate fibers of our group broke down, Joey, my daughter, and I would be the first to go. The others seemed to know each other. We were the outsiders, and I needed to ensure my and Zoe’s place here.
With the flashlight Scarlet had given me, I shined the light around in the darkness until it highlighted the side of the barn. I could already hear the grunts and movements of the bull. Fortunately the boards were in a different part of the barn than where the animal was corralled.
“Let’s get this and get back in,” I said. “We don’t want anything sneaking up on us out here.”
Joey nodded and lifted a stack of boards up into his arms with a grunt. I picked a stack as well, and we made our way back to the house. Scarlet brought a small, red, carry toolbox and set it on top of the dryer. “I didn’t board this because there aren’t many nails left.”
“We’ll make do,” I said, pulling the hammer out of the box. As I hit the nail head and watched it slide easily through the board to the wood on the other side, I thought of Gary and Eric from the church in Fairview, and wondered if they were alive. And then I thought of Skeeter, and of Jill and their unborn baby. I hadn’t had much time to mourn them, so I took out my anger and pain on each nail as I buried it into the boards.
The last nail was used to secure the second board horizontally across the center of the Plexiglas. It wasn’t enough, but it would keep something out long enough to give us time to react.
We left the stack of wood in the laundry room, and returned to the living room, where Miranda and Ashley were comforting each other. Scarlet had rejoined the group, sitting in the same spot she couldn’t stand to be in less than half an hour before. I wondered about her daughters and why they weren’t with her, but didn’t want to upset her again by asking. I followed her eyes to a frame on the wall across the room. A creased picture of Scarlet, a man, and two girls was inside.
Beyond the walls of the farmhouse was blackness only a place far away from city lights could provide. Even the moon had hidden away behind thick clouds. Scarlet stood up and busied herself with pulling hanging dark sheets across the wooden slats, and then brought a box of matches to light a few candles around the room. We sat in silence for what seemed like forever, and then a low rumble echoed from miles away.
“Thunder,” Ashley said, looking around.
“I noticed some pretty dark blue clouds back there,” Scarlet said, pointing her thumb to the east. “The wind is blowing west.”
“It won’t miss us this time,” Joey said.
Scarlet glanced at the soldier, and a light of recognition touched her eyes. Joey met her stare, seeming hopeful that she might say something. Scarlet was the first to look away. The awkwardness between everyone was bugging the shit out of me.
“So are you guys family?” I said to Miranda, motioning to Scarlet.
Miranda shook her head. “Scarlet works with my dad . . . worked with my dad.”
Scarlet nodded and smiled. “I’m an X-ray tech. Miranda’s dad is Dr. Hayes.”
“Was Dr. Hayes,” Miranda corrected, staring at the flame dancing above the candle on the coffee table.
“Stop it,” Ashley hissed.
“I’ve been so mean to him,” Miranda said, holding her shaking hand to her mouth. “I’ll never get to tell him I’m sorry. I’ll never get to talk to him again.”
Bryce squeezed her to his side. His eyes were moist, too, and it was apparent that the boys were close with the doctor as well. “He knew you were having a tough time with the divorce. He knew you loved him.”
“Did he?”
Ashley lost her battle to hold in a sob. She kneeled in front of Miranda and then rested her head on her sister’s knees.
Scarlet nodded. “He knew, Miranda. I promise, he did.”
Miranda and Ashley cried together again, with Bryce and Cooper on each side.
“Did everyone that Dr. Hayes worked with know where he lived?” I asked. The more they talked, the more confused I became.
Scarlet seemed to be amused by my nosey question. “I cleaned for him when I was in X-ray school.” Her eyes glistened. “He was very kind to me. They both were.”
“Both?”
“Wes and Leah,” Scarlet said.
Ashley leaned against Cooper, thinking fondly of the two. “Leah was my dad’s girlfriend. She was very sweet.”
“She was,” Cooper nodded.
Ashley shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe she’s gone. That they’re gone.” She looked to her sister. “I hate this. I want to wake up and this all be a bad dream.” She began to rock back and forth a bit, struggling with the new reality we all faced. “I don’t want this.”
“None of us do,” Miranda snapped. She sighed, realizing she was too harsh. “We’ve had a long day. Bryce and I will take my room; Ashley and Coop have their own. Scarlet, I guess you’ve been sleeping in dad’s room?”
Scarlet nodded. “Yes, but the girl is in there. I’ll take the couch.”
“You sure?” I said.
Scarlet offered a small smile, and then looked to Joey. “There is a couch downstairs in the basement, but it might not be big enough for you. I can switch with you if you’d like.”
Joey shook his head. “The basement sounds good to me. I’ll make a pallet if I have to.”
“I’ll show you the linen closet,” Scarlet said, standing. That prompted everyone else to stand, and Scarlet laughed once without humor. “I’m glad you all made it,” she said, her voice breaking. “I was afraid I was the only one left.”