Invasion: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Novel (Sympatico Syndrome Book 3) Read online

  He woke up to music filling the vehicle and disoriented, he glanced around. He hadn’t heard music for so long, he thought he must be dreaming. Then he glanced at the cord from a cellphone resting in the center console to the dashboard. “Where’d you get that?” He rubbed his eyes. It had started raining at some point and they passed drab brown fields, overgrown and unplowed from last summer. Ragged stalks of unharvested corn lay bent at angles, pressed nearly flat by the snow they’d had.

  Sophie tapped her fingers along to the beat, her shoulders swaying as she sang along to the music. During a pause in the lyrics, she said, “Piper let me use her old phone. She’s using Trent’s.”

  Hunter picked up the phone and checked out the playlist then made a face. His cousin always had different taste in music than he did. She liked hip-hop and pop while he tended to like rock. Mostly new stuff, but also some classic. “Hey, did I ever tell you I used to play in a band?”

  Sophie slanted him a look. One eyebrow quirked. “You? No way.”

  He laughed. “It’s true. I played lead guitar and sang.”

  “Were you any good?”

  “No. I sucked. But it was fun.” Grinning, he scrolled through the list of tunes and found a few he liked. They weren’t going to play for a while, but he was just so thrilled for the rare sense of normalcy the music lent the trip, that he settled back and even sang along a little bit, much to Sophie’s amusement.

  A ballad came on and he grimaced and Sophie, grinning, belted it out. She was pretty good. “You should have been in a band. You have a good voice.”

  “Why thank you. I sang in choir all through school.” She finished singing the refrain, then turned the music down. “Do you ever wonder what’s up with your dad and Elly?”

  “Wonder? I don’t know. I mean, I know they like each other and stuff.” He shifted in his seat. His dad and Elly shared the same bed most of the time but he tried not to think about that too much. “Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, no reason. I’m just wondering if maybe I’m not the only one who’s pregnant.” She glanced at him with a coy smile.

  Hunter straightened and turned to her. “What? Why do you think that?”

  “Because…well, you know our girl products, right?”

  “Yeah, I had to get them.” His face still burned at the memory of loading the cart.

  “Well, some of the supplies you tossed in the cart weren’t even sanitary products, but pregnancy tests.”

  He shrugged. “So?”

  “I saw one in the trash. It was positive and it wasn’t mine.”

  Hunter faced forward as he mused. “It could be Jenna.” That was the likely scenario.

  “Nope. Your aunt had her tubes tied a long time ago. She was telling me how she wishes she hadn’t now because of Trent.” The amusement that had been in Sophie’s voice faded with that observation.

  “Oh.” He rested an elbow on the armrest and propped his head against his hand. “Piper?”

  “That’s what I thought, so I was hinting around to her, asking if she and Jake had…you know.”

  “And?”

  “Nope. Not yet anyway.”

  “Oh wow. I thought they liked each other?”

  “They do. They just haven’t had any privacy over the winter, I guess.”

  “True. We have been living in each other’s laps practically. It’s been too cold to leave the house, except for chores, and too many people in the house.” Hunter grinned as he said, “And I guess they never went out to collect nuts.” That had been his and Sophie’s excuse to get away from everyone. It had been warm then. Or warm enough.

  “Yep. So that leaves Elly. She and your dad have been pretty tight all winter.”

  “But my dad is like, forty-two or three.” Physically, he knew it wasn’t too old, especially for a man, but that would make his father really old when this possibly hypothetical baby became an adult. Okay, maybe not that old, but not exactly young. He knew he’d been born while his dad was still in college. In fact, he’d been about the same age Hunter was now.

  “So?”

  “And Elly…isn’t she too old to get pregnant?”

  Sophie laughed. “I think she’s still in her thirties. Late thirties, but still. And no, that’s not too old.”

  “Well, whatever. That’s just weird. My dad will be a new father and a new grandfather in the same year? His baby will be our kid’s aunt or uncle?”

  “Hey, it happens. And your brother or sister.”

  “Oh wow.” He tried to wrap his mind around the idea of a sibling. He shook his head. “You don’t sound at all upset about this.”

  She looked confused. “Why should I be? And just remember, I don’t know for sure it’s Elly.”

  Hunter laughed. “Yes, but that leaves only one other female and that….ew. I can’t even finish that sentence.”

  “Exactly. Zoe’s not a factor so that means it has to be Elly.”

  Hunter let that sink in for a few moments. “Do you think my dad knows yet?”

  “Has he said anything that makes you think he might?”

  Shaking his head, he replayed past conversations in his mind. “Not that I can recall, although they were both looking forward to there being a hospital in Las Vegas for you.”

  She pursed her lips to the side in a manner he knew meant she was doubting herself. “I could be wrong. Maybe it was a false positive?”

  “Does that ever happen?” He was surprised at the pang of disappointment he felt at the idea of the test being wrong.

  “I don’t know. The only test I took was the one for this little guy.” She patted her abdomen.

  “Or little gal.” Hunter leaned over and dropped a kiss on Sophie’s shoulder as he covered her hand on her belly.

  He turned up the music, singing along, badly, while Sophie tried to sing over him. When a slower tune came on, Sophie said, “Do you think our baby will be okay?”

  He wished he could answer with a hundred percent certainty, but how could he? What did he know about babies and pregnancy? He said the only thing he could. “Of course,”and scooted as close as he could, massaging the back of her neck. “Humans have been having babies since, well, forever, I guess. The baby will be okay, and so will you. I’m positive.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “You seem to have remembered how to drive.” Joe set a bottle of water in the cup holder for Elly and offered the kids a drink from another.

  “I guess it’s like riding a bike.” She sipped the water and set the bottle back in the holder. The familiar action returning naturally once she was behind the wheel. “It still feels weird to be driving. I keep wanting to reach over to the radio and find a good station, you know?” She glanced at Joe, who nodded as he gazed to his right. She knew he wasn’t much of a talker, but she hoped he’d be a little chattier within the confines of the car or she’d go nuts. The kids were looking at books and occasionally laughing at something. “I knew the roads would be bad, after seeing the streets of Chicago, but I didn’t expect this.”

  Elly stopped suddenly when Cole’s brake lights flashed. She rested her hands on the wheel and as Cole opened his door and stepped out. He held up a hand and motioned something. She put the SUV in park and exited. “What’s wrong?”

  “Just some debris ahead. I’m going to clean it up. It’ll only take a minute.” He waved towards a pile-up of vehicles blocking most of the highway. From where she stood, it appeared that there was enough room on the right to go around it.

  “We can’t go around?”

  His scratched the back of his neck as he threw a glance toward the pile of cars. “Um…not really.”

  He was withholding something. She tilted her head and tried to read his expression, but he’d turned away and opened the back of his SUV and rummaged around. He donned latex gloves then grabbed a shovel and a gallon of bleach.

  This was no ordinary debris. She started forward, but Hunter and Sophie pulled up followed by the rest of the caravan.


  “Why are we stopping?” Hunter’s head popped out of the passenger side window, pulling himself up until he sat on the window ledge. He held the luggage rack with one hand while shading his eyes with the other.

  “Your dad says there’s debris in the road.”

  Hunter shrugged and pivoted, popping off the ledge as only a young person can before he jogged past Elly. “I’ll give him a hand.”

  Elly returned to her seat and explained the delay to Joe and the kids.

  “Maybe I should go help, too.” Joe opened his door when Hunter came back into view, his face ashen. He didn’t look at Elly or Joe, but grabbed another shovel from the back of Cole’s vehicle and tugged on a pair of gloves.

  Gloves, shovels, Cole’s evasiveness and Hunter’s suddenly sober demeanor clued Elly in. They must be dealing with a body—but why be secretive? Cole knew it wouldn’t be the first time she had dealt with death. As she puzzled out the mystery, both men returned, sans gloves, and doused both shovels with the bleach solution before sticking them back in the SUV.

  Elly rolled down her window to ask Hunter about it as he walked back to his car, but head bowed, he passed by as though deep in thought as he returned to his vehicle. She glanced at Joe.

  “Well, that was weird.”

  Joe nodded. “Yep, but I imagine Cole did what he had to do. That’s what he does.”

  She slanted Joe a look. “You know, I really like that Cole faces problems head on, but I really wish he wouldn’t try to spare everyone else the details. I’ve worked out in the field before. I traveled deep into the forest to find villages ravished by Ebola.” The scenes would stick in her mind forever. “Mothers died and their babies just lay there, crying and crying but nobody came because everyone else was too sick to take care of the baby.” Or too afraid. The fear and revulsion shown to the surviving babies and children had nearly broken her heart. Zoe laughed at something and she was reminded of her own fears when she and Zach had found the children. She couldn’t really blame the survivors of Ebola. At the time, the virus was in full-swing.

  They drove for several hours before taking a lunch break on a long stretch of road that was one of the few sections they had come across that didn’t have countless abandoned vehicles. Cole was following county highways as much as he could, eschewing the major highways due to so many crashed and abandoned vehicles.

  By then, Elly was chomping at the bit to get out and stretch her legs. Riding in a car for a long time was something she hadn’t done in almost a year. On the island, she had kept busy almost constantly

  The stretch Cole had chosen was in front of a farm that clearly looked uninhabited. A large tree limb had fallen from a tree and blocked a long, winding drive. Patches of snow still dotted the shaded areas, but most of the ground was covered by a thick mat of brown weeds, but a pasture along the edge of the road showed a few early shoots of grass. The horses, goats and even the chickens were given an hour to graze, and a hand pump on a trough at the far side of the pasture took only a few strong pumps by Jake to get water for the animals and themselves.

  “So do you think we’ll cross the Mississippi today?” Elly took a sip of water to wash down the last of her lunch. She sat on the lowered tailgate of Sean’s truck, her legs swinging.. Cole had the remains of his meal balanced on the tailgate beside her, but he stood, watching the animals in the pasture.

  He shook his head. “No. Not even close, I’m afraid. We’ve barely gone ninety miles east to west. If you factor in the detours we took due to blocked roads, we’ve gone probably well over a hundred miles, but we’re not going as quickly as I’d hoped.”

  “But look on the bright side—no traffic.” She smiled and Cole’s mouth turned up as if he was trying to return it, but his eyes were troubled. “What is it?”

  “I’m just worried about crossing the river. We have no clue what to expect there.”

  “What do you mean?” There were dozens of bridges crossing the river. Sure, it was a wide river, but the bridges should be fine. It wasn’t as if there had been a natural disaster in the physical sense. Just a lot of cars and trucks to navigate around on the roads. That would probably present a problem on the bridge as well, but they had plenty of strong backs to muscle the vehicles out of the way.

  “I’m probably just worried over nothing. Forget I mentioned it. It’s not like we can do anything until we reach the river anyway.” He sent her a half-hearted smile as he pushed off the truck and headed towards the pasture, whistling for the horses.

  It took another quarter hour to get the animals back in their trailers and get everyone settled and ready to go. It was Joe’s turn to drive, so Elly settled in for a nap, a blanket pulled up to her shoulders. The kids had fallen asleep within minutes of hitting the road. They had been so excited to leave this morning that they had been racing up and down the line of vehicles as last-minute items were packed, getting in everyone’s way. She smiled as she recalled the good-natured way everyone had treated them children’s excitement

  While she felt she and Cole had become surrogate parents to the kids, everyone else had also come to love them as well.

  The caravan snaked its way across the state in a roundabout way as they detoured when needed, and the massive vehicle pile-ups reminded Elly of Cole’s worries. As she drifted to sleep, they crossed a bridge over a small creek and the roiling water surging just feet below the bridge had her wondering if Cole was right to worry after all.

  Their first night on the road they spent at a dealership lot that had sold recreational vehicles. Most of the stock was gone, no doubt taken by people looking to escape the virus, but several campers at the back of the lot had been left. They were older and used but perfect for what Cole wanted. They had beds and from all appearances, hadn’t been touched in over a year. It only took them a few minutes to find the keys in the office. The dealership had been abandoned before anyone had died there, but precautions were still taken. Every surface of the interior of the camper was washed down with a weak bleach solution. If nothing else, it got rid of any mold and dust.

  Cole and Elly got a queen sized bed at the back of one while the kids and Jake slept in a loft on the other end. Joe took the bench that converted to a bed when the table was removed.

  There was still propane in two of the campers tanks, and dinner was beans and rice. Piper had been so excited to find real ovens that she had baked four loaves of bread for their breakfast in the morning. She’d burned the first one—a small trial loaf—but she found a pizza stone in one of the campers and it seemed to help even out the heat.

  While Elly, Joe and Piper got the campers aired and cleaned, Cole, Sean and Hunter had partially unloaded one of the pickup trucks and explored the area for foodstuffs. They could never have enough as far as Cole was concerned. If they had to get another vehicle to transport it, then so be it. Steve, Mike and Jake took another truck in the other direction. They agreed to meet back at the campers in ninety minutes.

  Cole stopped in front of a strip mall, dismissing the convenience store and gas station at the far end. Even from a quarter of a mile away it was easy to see the caved in roof, soot, and twisted wreckage around the gas station. It looked like an explosion had occurred and most of the windows in the stores on that end had been blown out. But, at this end of the mall was a garden center. Tools were always a great find, plus fertilizer, seeds, hoses and other items.

  Cole motioned for Hunter to stay behind him as he entered the store, his flashlight shining the way. Sean was staying with the truck this time. They had brought the handheld radios and checked them before entering the building. If Cole needed help, or Sean saw someone approaching, they could communicate quickly.

  He kicked aside a mound of debris from an overturned shelf near the doorway, at first worried the mess heralded what they would find within the rest of the store, but he was happily surprised.

  “Come on in, Hunter. It looks as though gardening wasn’t foremost in people’s minds when the virus hit.”
/>   Hunter, gloves and mask in place like Cole’s grabbed a red plastic shopping cart that lay on its side, blocking the aisle. “I don’t even smell death in here.” Hunter righted the cart and used it to push other debris out of the way.

  His son was right. Cole only smelled a dank odor that reminded him of going into a garden shed that had been closed all winter. It was the scent of molding leaves and grass clippings, the acrid scent of various chemicals and fertilizers, and wet wood. Most of the mess was confined to the areas where candy and snacks were usually kept. There was nothing left there, not even a bag of peanuts, but after pausing to listen and not hearing anything, they made their way through the store, stopping to grab items they could use, quickly passing those they didn’t.

  They collected every package of seeds they could find. Even flower seeds were kept because some varieties were useful for medicinal qualities. Plastic bins to store everything were a great find, and when they found one with wheels and a handle, like a cooler, but for tools and storage, Cole loaded it up like a second cart. A corner of the garden center was set up with animal feed. Most of it was spoiled by rodent droppings, but Hunter found two forty pound bags buried beneath the mess that had been protected by the torn bags of the feed above and beside them.

  After loading up their finds, Sean slammed the tailgate and leaned against it. “How about the pub?” He pointed across the parking lot.

  Cole looked at the building and joked, “What? You feel like a beer?”

  Sean laughed. “Don’t you know it. But, I was thinking maybe there’s something in there we can use. Even some big industrial sized pots or kettles might be good. We have a big group now.”