Invasion: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Novel (Sympatico Syndrome Book 3) Page 26

  Cole nodded as he rolled his sleeves up to just below his elbows. He worried about bringing pregnant women to this meeting. What if there was violence? He had no clue how tonight would go. It could be nobody would show up and they would eat and come back here.

  He picked up his holster, hesitating. Would it be better to go unarmed? Would it scare others away? They hadn’t discussed it but they carried. With no law, they had to. Sighing, he strapped it on.

  Everyone pitched in loading food. All of the lawn chairs, and Piper found a Frisbee she and Trent had packed what seemed like a lifetime ago. Cole wished they had the volleyball net they’d left at the island. He wanted a fun atmosphere. When they reached the park, he didn’t see anyone but Jake, Derek, and Daniel. They had gone ahead early to get grills going, set up folding tables, and make bring coolers of drinks. Cole still couldn’t get over that they had actual ice. Of course, they had plenty of ice on the island all winter, but he’d missed having it last summer and fall, and while traveling.

  As he parked, he paused for a moment to take in the scene. They had scrounged up four tablecloths. Two white, one red, and the last, yellow. The colors looked festive and cheerful.

  The kiddie pool that had found the day after Travis had joined them was set up to one side, just a few feet from a hand-pump. He couldn’t see if it was filled, but a blue plastic bucket lay discarded near it, so he would bet it was.

  The scene pulled memories from Cole’s mind. Memories of Fourth of July picnics, block parties, and birthday celebrations with his family and neighbors when they all ate too much, got sunburned, or sprained an ankle playing softball like they were still eighteen years old. Then having a cold beer and laughing over it at the next picnic. It was difficult to accept that this was picnic was different. He sighed.

  “What’s wrong?” Elly shot him a look.

  “Nothing. Just worried how things will go.”

  “It’ll be fine.” She leaned over and gave his cheek a kiss. “I’m going to go put this bowl of veggies to heat up.”

  Cole nodded and started lugging pans of sliced ham to the grill to warm, and went back for the baked beans. They were already baked and the pot, still hot. He had to use potholders to carry it to one of the folding tables Elly indicated they were putting food.

  “I thought everyone can serve themselves buffet style.”

  Piper arrived with Sophie. Piper had a large basket covered in kitchen towels. “I sliced the bread.”

  Sophie carried the cake and sent Cole a panicked look when she stumbled on a stone. She recovered her balance with a little laugh. “Piper would have killed me if I dropped the cake. I told her she shouldn’t trust it to the pregnant girl who can’t see her feet.”

  Cole laughed and took the pan from her. “How are you feeling?”

  She waved a hand. “Oh, I’m fine. Ready to have this baby though.”

  “Not yet you aren’t!” Jenna approached the table, bearing a bowl of fruit. “No baby for you for at least another three weeks. Then you’ll be at least thirty-nine weeks. Forty weeks would be even better.”

  Cole looked at the fruit. “That looks delicious.”

  Jenna shrugged. “It’s only canned fruit cocktail, but it smells good. Sean found an industrial sized can at a school.”

  By quarter to five, Cole noted everyone who was coming from his group and Amanda’s was there. Food was heating and the brisket Amanda had cooked over a low fire on the grill back at the ranch, had been transferred to the third grill at the park. There was nothing left to do but wait for others to show up.

  Cole sat in a lawn chair and Sean ambled over and offered him an ice cold bottle of beer. “Surprise! I found a few cases, but kept it for a surprise.”

  “Oh, man. You are the best brother ever!” Cole took the bottle, twisted the cap and watched as a sliver of mist swirled from the mouth of the bottle.

  Sean took the chair beside his and held his bottle out. “Here’s to a great meal, and hopefully, new friends.”

  “New friends,” Cole echoed, clinking his bottle to Sean’s. He took a long swig, closing his eyes as the carbonation prickled his mouth and slid down his throat. “Ah, that tastes unbelievably good. I don’t even know this brand and it doesn’t matter.”

  Sean laughed. “I only brought one case though. If figured you wouldn’t want a bunch of drunks, but offering the people who show a nice cold beer? That has to count in our favor, right?”

  “You’re brilliant. And your daughter is too. That cake will win over anyone not convinced by the beer.”

  Beaming, Sean took another sip from his beer, then straightened in his seat. “Here comes a car.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Cole stood, unsure whether to keep the beer or set it down. He opted to set it on a picnic table. Sean did the same.

  The car slowed, started to back up as if they were going to leave. Stopped and after a hesitation, crept forward. The window rolled down to reveal a woman of about thirty. Her long dark hair framed a gaunt, tan face. “Is this the meeting?”

  Cole didn’t remember her but Hunter and Derek could have invited her. He smiled. “Yes. It sure is. Welcome.”

  Elly approached, her smile warm, and a hand resting on her belly. “Hi. I’m Elly. Why don’t you join us?”

  The woman’s eyes flicked to Elly’s hand and where it rested, then past Elly to where Sophie sat at a picnic table. The tension in her mouth eased into almost a smile She nodded. “Okay.”

  Before she had parked, a pick-up truck roared into the lot. Cole braced for something, not sure what, but he took a step forward, shielding Elly.

  Hunter trotted over beside Cole as the truck sped into a parking spot. “I think I know who this is.”

  The door flew open and Hunter grinned. “Hi Garret! Glad you could make it.”

  “Hunter! I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Been counting the hours.” He slammed the door and strode towards them, his hand out to Cole. “I’m Garret Richards.”

  Cole couldn’t help but smile back at the man. His enthusiasm was infectious. “Cole Evans, and it seems you’ve already met my son, Hunter.”

  “It’s a pleasure, Cole. And you raised a fine young man.” He turned to Elly. “Mrs. Evans?”

  Elly shot Cole an amused look, then shrugged. “Yes, sir. Please, call me Elly.”

  The other woman approached, a young teenaged girl and a boy of about twelve following her. All three looked frightened half to death.

  Cole waved Sean closer. “Garret, this is my brother, Sean.” With the man delivered to Sean’s care, already hearing a beer offered and gleefully accepted, Cole turned his attention to the woman.

  Elly had already approached her. “I’m Elly. This is my husband, Cole. He arranged this meeting.”

  “I’m Yesenia, and this is my daughter, Margarita. Brian is…well, I guess he’s my son now too.”

  Brian, whose Asian features bore no resemblance to mother and daughter, shot Yesenia a look, his eyes widening, then he ducked his head.

  Yesenia bit her lip. “I…I wasn’t sure if we should come. Someone drove down the street announcing it on a loudspeaker. I wasn’t sure if it was a joke, but if it was some kind of trap…”

  “Loudspeaker? That wasn’t us.” He turned, spotting Hunter talking to Garret and waved him over. “Derek didn’t have a loudspeaker on his truck when you were contacting people, did he?”

  Hunter’s brows knit in confusion. “No.”

  Garret laughed. “That was me! I was so excited that I drove all over the place announcing it. You all did tell me to spread the word, right?”

  Hunter nodded, grinning. “We did.”

  Cole motioned to Garret. “So it seems Garret here was the one. I’m glad he was able to reach you and that you came. What this is all about is just trying to bring the community back together. I’m going to talk a little bit more about it after we eat.”

  Margarita darted a look at the grills and the table. “You have food?
”

  All three were painfully thin and Brian raised his head, watery eyes peering at the table. “Can we have some…Mom.” His voice held a note of hope and questioning that went beyond a request for food. Yesenia looked to Cole, eyebrows raised.

  “Of course. We have plenty for everyone, and Brian, you look about the same age as one of my boys.” He looked around and spotted Travis racing around with Luke. “Travis! Luke!” The boys stopped then ran to him.

  “Yeah?” Travis panted, his eyes dancing at beating Luke.

  He noted Yesenia looking at Travis dark skin and back at Cole, understanding dawning as Cole introduced the boys to her. He continued, “Travis, this is Brian. Why don’t you guys get out the Frisbee and get some snacks from Piper before we start serving. Margarita, you’re welcome to join them or you can hang out with your mom.”

  Both kids looked at their mother, who hesitated.

  Elly said, “They’ll be within sight at all times.”

  Finally, she nodded, smiling. “Okay. But stay where I can see you.”

  As the kids wandered away, Luke’s chatter floating back to them and Zoe ran up to them, taking Margarita’s hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. Cole’s heart swelled at the little girl’s innocent trust and acceptance. He’d grown to love all the kids as if they were his own. Cole smiled. “Kids. They’re the most resilient of all of us.”

  Yesenia agreed. “Yes. As you can see. Brian is not my son by birth. His family all died and he must have seen movement in our house, because a month after the virus hit, he knocked on my door. Said he’d gone door to door for days and I was the only one who answered. I couldn’t turn him away.”

  “Of course not.” Elly dabbed at her eyes. “I’m sorry. I cry at everything these days.”

  Yesenia tipped her chin to Elly’s stomach. “When are you due?”

  Cole took that as his cue to leave, so he excused himself as other vehicles arrived. To his surprise, the man who had threatened them from his front porch arrived with his son, introducing the boy as Tim. He even brought an apple pie. Where he got it, Cole had no clue, but everyone exclaimed over it and the man, whose name was Kevin, blushed and stammered that it was nothing. Before long, his son was playing with the other kids and Kevin clutched a beer.

  By five thirty, the guests had swelled to around forty people. Cole tried to remember everyone’s name but managed to offer a few words of welcome to everyone.

  The beer had been handed out, but a few other people had brought some and added it to the cooler. The buffet table was laden with more food than Cole recalled them preparing. His eyes widened at the dessert table.

  Elly approached. “I can’t believe so many people showed up.” Her face wreathed in smiles, she swept an arm out at the people standing in groups. Some of the guests spoke with other guests, some with Amanda’s family and some with Cole’s group. Music started playing and Cole spun to look at Derek, who had set up a Bluetooth speaker with a cellphone. The boy grinned and shrugged. “It’s not a party without music.”

  A parking block just behind the buffet table was the perfect platform for Cole to get everyone’s attention. He motioned for Derek to turn the music down. Spreading his arms wide, he drew everyone’s attention. “Hello and welcome! If I haven’t had a chance to meet you personally yet, my name is Cole Evans. We planned this feast to get to know other survivors and hopefully, this will be the first step in forming a community where we can help each other. But first, I know everyone is hungry, so why don’t we dig in?”

  Applause accompanied his suggestion and he hopped off the block.

  When the guests hesitated to approach the buffet table, Piper made a show of marching up to it. “I call dibs on the first slice of ham!”

  That broke the ice and a line formed as Jake and Daniel manned the grills, serving sliced of ham and brisket. Several steaks had also appeared on the grill and Cole learned they had come from some of the guests, to be sliced up for anyone who wanted some. The spirit of giving had gone beyond anything he’d hoped for and his throat swelled. Thankfully, nobody chose that moment to speak to him, and he merely grunted when Jake offered him a slice of ham. Giving him an odd look, Jake set the slice on his plate along with a portion of brisket and slice of medium rare steak.

  Cole found a seat beside Elly, and welcomed guests to sit with them. Conversation quieted while everyone ate, Jake and Daniel claiming the last two seats as they put down their serving tongs.

  A few people offered prayers before eating and then conversation turned to compliments to all the cooks, exclamations about the bread, and warnings to save room for dessert.

  As people finished dinner, but before dessert was offered, Cole approached the block again. He knew speaking to hungry folks would never go as well as speaking to those who had just eaten a delicious and filling meal, but still anticipated dessert.

  He hopped up on the block, and was surprised when Derek handed him a microphone. “It’ll go through my speaker, so everyone can hear you.”

  “Thanks.” He must have looked puzzled because Derek lifted one shoulder. “I used to do Youtube videos, so I had all the gear still in the truck.” The teen returned to his seat.

  Cole drew a deep breath, then startled when it blew across the microphone, drawing everyone’s attention. “Whoops. Well, I guess this thing works.”

  Chuckles followed his blunder and Cole grinned. “Once again, I welcome everyone and look forward to getting to know all of you better. I’d like to thank Amanda and her father, Will, for allowing my group to stay with them these last few days. I don’t know how this would have been accomplished without them. Amanda, if you could stand up.”

  She did, with a mock bow.

  “And Will?”

  Will didn’t stand, merely waved his arm. “Too busy eatin’!”

  “Will and his family are ranchers from this area. I’d hoped to have Will say a few words, but I guess he’s busy.”

  Laughter accompanied his comment and encouraged, Cole launched into an abbreviated account of how they had come to be in Las Vegas. “And my son Hunter had learned that electricity might still be working here, so we came out. He was right.”

  Nods all around as people picked at what they left on their plate and a few went back for seconds.

  “I know I’m not from around here, but I can tell you first hand that between here and D.C. there’s not much left. I don’t want to be a downer so we won’t dwell on that. We all know the situation. We have to focus now on what happens next. And what happens next will be determined by how all of us move forward from tonight. We can—”

  Loud music and revving engines cut him off. He turned to find three pickup trucks, music blaring, turning into the lot. Dust flew in the air as the trucks spun their tires before peeling around the parked cars.

  Anger raced through Cole. He recognized Scott and Don driving two of the trucks as they pulled up behind him, rolled down their windows and whooped and hollered as their music blasted. Each truck had two men in the cab and a two more riding in the bed. All carried rifles.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Piper rush to cover the desserts from the cloud of dust. After the initial alarmed voices, all chatter ceased as parents drew children close.

  Cole turned to face Scott’s truck, one foot anchored on the first block, and planting the other foot on an adjacent block. He raised the microphone. “Welcome, Scott, Don. Henchmen.”

  Scott’s smirk faded as the crowd behind Cole chuckled at his dig. He hadn’t meant it to be funny, but the look of confusion on Scott’s face made him wish he had done it on purpose.

  “Hey, you invited us, remember?”

  “I do. And you’re welcome to join us, but leave the long guns in the trucks. This is a peaceful gathering.” Cole had looked for them and hadn’t been sure if he was relieved or disappointed that they hadn’t shown. But, now that they were here, he couldn’t hold his anger that they had scared everyone. He waved a hand back to the
people eating. “Look what you’ve done. You’ve scared the kids, sent dust flying all over the food, and have people ducking under the picnic tables, worried that you all have the virus. What made you think such an entrance would be welcomed?”

  “Don’t forget they stole our ranch!” Amanda’s voice carried even without the microphone. Murmurs of anger and questions of why these men were invited rose behind Cole. The men in the beds of the trucks had gone from wild jubilation to abashed feet shuffling.

  “We’re not sick.”

  Cole shook his head. “I’m afraid it appeared that you all were. Too bad too, because we have baked beans, ham, brisket…” The men in the back of the trucks looked worried, darting glances at each other.

  “Hey, mister…” One of them waved to get Cole’s attention. “We didn’t mean any harm. We thought we were just having a little fun. I had a daughter, before. I don’t want to scare kids.” His look had landed somewhere behind Cole and when he glanced over his shoulder, he saw Zoe, her head buried against Elly’s stomach.

  Shoulders stiff, Cole stared hard at the man. “What your intentions were and what you actually did are not even close. You owe everyone here an apology.” He scanned all the men, including Scott and Don. “If the people behind me accept your sincere apology, you can join us. If not, you’ll have to leave.” He was outgunned and he didn’t want any shooting at all, but he drilled Scott with a look. “It’s your call.”

  Scott returned Cole’s look for a few seconds, then it slid to the folks behind Cole. He nodded and put the truck in park, shutting it off. His followers did the same. Immediately, the quiet had a calming effect. He hopped out, holding his hands out. “Folks…I am, sincerely, sorry.” He glanced at Cole, then focused on Amanda for a few seconds, seeming to get an idea. He looked at Cole and the microphone. “May I?”

  Cole shrugged and handed it to him, but didn’t offer his blocks to the man. Scott tested the speaker, then said, “When I met Cole a few days ago, he asked me why I took Amanda’s family’s ranch, and my only answer was because I could. I’m ashamed of that answer now, and I guess Cole’s question has been percolating in the back of my mind since then. I wanted to come here tonight as, I don’t know, I guess to prove to myself that I was right to take over the ranch. That in this new world, it was survival of the fittest, and I thought we were the fittest.”