Invasion_A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Novel Read online

  Nobody spoke and the unfriendly stares focused on the man made even Cole uncomfortable.

  “But, I was wrong. I just realized it. The fittest are people like you.” Scott pointed at Yesenia. “I saw you once, last winter. You were struggling to bring supplies back to your house. I was sitting in a truck, just having slept off drinking too much. I could have helped you, but instead, thought about taking what you had found. If I hadn’t had such a hangover, I probably would have. But, you were a lot stronger than me. Look at you. You survived with your children.”

  Yesenia shifted, darting looks left and right, clearly uncomfortable. Cole said, “I don’t think she’s going to feel grateful because you didn’t steal her supplies, so what’s your point?”

  “My point is, I was wrong. You organized this and brought all these people together. I guess that makes you the fittest.” He started to hand over the microphone, but brought it back to his mouth. “Once again, I apologize. If you could see fit to let these other men join you, I’d be grateful. I’ll go on my way, but please consider letting them be part of your group. They’re good men. Or were, until they met me.”

  Cole hopped off the block and reached the microphone with one hand, and wrapped the other arm around Scott’s shoulders as he addressed the group. “How about we let all of them share this feast with us.”

  At first, the claps of approval came only from Elly and Hunter, then Sean joined in, and Garret. Then, Amanda stood and clapped as well.

  “Scott. You and your men are welcome here.”

  A contrite group went through the buffet, then looked for a place to sit. Most of the tables were full, but Hunter stood. “Someone can have my seat.” That prompted others to offer theirs or scoot closer together until there was space for everyone.

  Cole resumed his speech, such as it was. He suggested a sheet with everyone’s address and said they would make copies and send them around in the next few days. When the discussion turned to specifics, such as where there were still supplies, and who had more of one thing than they needed, but not enough of another, Cole offered another list for that. People could put down what they had and what they needed. If others wanted to share or trade, they could do that.

  Dessert was announced and conversation only halted long enough for cake to be eaten or pie to be served. When it started getting dark, a few people started their cars, letting the headlights allow the party to continue. People had been hungry for more than just food. They’d been hungry for company, for laughter, and for sharing stories of hardship and triumph.

  Cole noticed a lot of hugging and tears, fears of the virus overwhelmed by the need to connect with other people. He worried about the disease, but for now, he was convinced it had gone dormant. Diseases were like that. The Spanish flu had ravaged the world for a few years, then disappeared. He prayed Sympatico Syndrome had ended as quickly as it had arrived.

  Elly strolled up to Cole as he spoke to one of the men who had ridden in the back of Scott’s truck. Cole smiled at her and wrapped an arm over her shoulders as he nursed a beer. “Guess what, Elly. This is Dave. He was a pharmacy student before the virus.”

  “No kidding? Did Cole tell you about the clinic we want to start? He and I will run the lab, Jenna will probably help train more nurses, and I’m sure a pharmacist would be a welcome addition.”

  “Oh wow. That would be awesome. My buddy, Ben, is a paramedic. I bet he’d love to work there too.”

  “Is he the one who bandaged Will?”

  Dave nodded. “Yep.”

  “Excuse me, Dave. I need to speak with Cole for a moment.”

  Cole waved goodbye then focused on Elly. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m a little tired. My feet hurt.”

  Looking around as one of the set of headlights went out, he realized the crowd had thinned. “I guess we should wrap this up.”

  Garret sauntered up to Cole. “I had a helluva good time, Cole. I was about to go crazy out there at my house.” The man’s jovial tone dropped and his voice cracked. “Thank you…for this. You saved me. I was thinking of…well never mind. I have hope now.”

  Cole stuck out his hand. “This wasn’t me. This was all of us. We survived Sympatico Syndrome.”

  Elly tugged his arm. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “One more push, Elly. You can do it.” Cole bit his lip as he did his best to help brace her as she pushed. He’d been present for Hunter’s birth, but they had been in a sterile delivery room surrounded by lights, several nurses, a doctor and an aide. A pediatrician had been at hand to take care of Hunter once he was born.

  Now, it was just Jenna, Sophie, and Amanda and they were in a small exam room at a clinic that had belonged to some doctor who had succumbed to the virus. The clinic had been thoroughly cleaned and had already served as the birth site of his granddaughter, Belle.

  Elly sank back against him, panting, eyes closed. She didn’t speak to him or anyone. She’d already sworn at him a few times, but she was past that stage.

  “I can feel the baby’s head. It’s right there, Elly. Next contraction, I need you to bear down as hard as you can.” Jenna stood waiting to catch the baby. Sophie waited next to Elly’s left side, clean towels in her arms.

  “Almost done, Elly. This is the hardest part.” Cole smoothed damp strands of hair from her face. Her eyes opened.

  He felt her body tensing as the beginning of another contraction brought her up off the bed. Gripping her knees, she almost squatted as she bore down. Cole tried to steady her and get out of her way at the same time.

  “The head’s out! Hold on. Don’t push.” The wet sound of a bulb syringe came, and then Jenna said, “Last big push. When you’re ready, hon.”

  Elly took a deep breath, her face scrunching with effort as she grunted long and loud.

  “The baby’s shoulders are out!” Sophie peered over Elly’s leg, her arms out.

  More suction sounds, then a loud, hoarse cry. Jenna grinned at Elly, then Cole. “It’s a boy. And he doesn’t sound too happy about coming out to this cold, bright world.”

  Unlike Belle, Sophie and Hunter’s daughter, this baby flailed his little arms and legs, crying loud enough to make everyone laugh. Tiny Belle had frightened everyone when she’d been born early. Born blue and limp, her first cries had been weak. Barely louder than a faint mew from a kitten.

  Elly collapsed against Cole’s arm, a smile breaking through her fatigue. “He’s okay?”

  “He’s perfect, Elly. A healthy baby boy. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s about seven and a half pounds.”

  Sophie took the baby from Jenna, who gently massaged Elly’s abdomen to help her expel the placenta. She dried the baby, set him on chest, indicating that Cole should hold him there as she tossed away the wet towels and replaced them with dry blankets. Quickly, she swaddled the baby. “Here’s your beautiful baby boy, Elly.”

  Cole blinked hard, the little pink face swimming in front of him. He rubbed the heel of hand against his eyes and laughed. “He’s so tiny!” While bigger than little Belle, he still appeared fragile and helpless.

  Elly peered at him, seemingly oblivious to the ordeal she’d just gone through as she bent and kissed the still damp, matted hair on the baby’s head. “He’s so precious.”

  Cole reached out, grazing a finger down the baby’s cheek, chuckling when he turned his head to the side and started rooting. Elly’s eyes flew wide. “What do I do?”

  Sophie reached over and helped guide the baby to the breast as Jenna said, “Let him nurse. It’ll help with getting you all back together down here.”

  The baby latched on the third try, with more help from Sophie, who was now an expert at breastfeeding.

  For several moments, nobody spoke. Mesmerized by the infant, Cole barely noticed when Sophie moved away and started cleaning up, only aware that she had done so when Elly began shaking and Sophie appeared with a warm blanket, draping it over her.

  Jenna no l
onger stood at the end of the delivery bed, and had somehow managed to change the linens without Elly having to move. With a push of a button, the bed went from almost a chair to a regular bed, with the back raised for Elly to lean against. And even more incredibly, Jenna and Sophie had somehow managed to change the sheets with Elly still in the bed. A few half-rolls in each direction, and it had been accomplished.

  “What do you think we should name him?” Elly gently broke the seal as the baby seemed to lose interest in nursing, but his eyes were wide as he blinked up at her.

  Cole edged to the side to get another look at him. “I have no idea.” Many had run through his mind, but he hadn’t voiced them out of fear that picking a name would jinx the birth. That something would happen to Elly or the baby. She hadn’t spoken of any names either.

  She smiled into the baby’s face. “Now that he’s here and I can see him. I think I have the perfect name for him. Fox.”

  Startled at the choice, Cole tilted his head, watching the baby’s eyes. He leaned in closer, and the baby, seeing the movement, shifted his look to Cole’s face. “Fox…”

  The baby blinked, his body jerking slightly as if in response. His legs kicked the blanket. Cole grinned. “Yeah. I think he likes it. Fox. With a big brother named Hunter, you’re in good company with a strong name.”

  Elly smiled at Cole, then dropped a kiss on Fox’s head. “Welcome to this new world, Fox.”

  Epilogue

  “I’m going to go deliver this beef to Garret after I’m done at court. Do you have anything you want me to take?”

  Elly came from the kitchen, one arm around a squirming Fox as the toddler fought to get down. In the weeks since he’d learned to walk, that’s all he wanted to do. He kept them all on their toes. He probably wanted to find Belle, but Cole knew she was napping. “Yeah. Piper baked up an extra loaf of bread and wanted you to send it. It’s on the counter. And ask him if he has any more potatoes.”

  With a head-start on growing potatoes at the beginning of the pandemic, Garret had become the main source of them. Willingly trading them for other goods. Wisely, he’d saved most of his first harvest, subsisting on canned goods he’d taken from empty homes, and used his first harvest to increase his second one, giving him enough left to plant while leaving him surplus to trade.

  As the unofficial peacekeeper, in addition to helping on the ranch that now, effectively was theirs after Scott and Don had vacated Amanda and Will’s family ranch, Cole was kept busy settling disputes. Most of them were minor, thankfully. Someone didn’t feel a trade was fair and sought out a neutral third party. For some reason, he was the one most turned to.

  At first, he’d gone along and helped settle matters to keep the peace, but some weeks, he’d had to drop what he was doing four or more times to go hear out both sides. Now, he set hours at an abandoned office and people started referring to it as the courthouse. Twice a week went in between ten and two p.m.

  Anyone who had a problem, could come in on those times and Cole would hear them out. Often, both parties would eventually agree upon an outcome with him only guiding the conversation. Afterword, more often than not, both parties also left him payment in the form of food, or goods.

  Sometimes he got a bottle of whisky, other times, a chicken, but he didn’t set a fee and accepted whatever was offered. He’d tried to decline at first, but Garret, Amanda and Will convinced him that his time spent away from the ranch should be compensated, so reluctantly, he took the offerings. Consequently, with the number of chickens he’d received, their ranch had grown into a chicken farm.

  With the abundance of eggs, Piper was able to create baked goods that were sought after by other folks, and she and Jake had moved into a house next to an abandoned bakery. Jake put his diving skills, learned over many summers at his dad’s house in Florida, to good use when he and another diver had succeeding in cleaning the intake pipes on the Hoover Dam from being clogged with mussels. It had been the biggest threat to their electrical supply. A couple of Dam employees had survived the virus and had trained a few others, so electricity still flowed unimpeded. Sean had taught Hunter some basics, and the two of them, with another man who had arrived from Arizona, and repaired broken power lines.

  Their world had returned almost to normal. The population had grown, as Cole had predicted, when survivors migrated to the Dam area. Last fall, an unofficial count had their numbers close to three thousand people. He guessed another five hundred had taken up residence since then. Housing wasn’t an issue, but food always was a worry. In the spring, nearly every man or woman who could sit a horse scoured the hills in the area for cattle that had wandered away in the first days of the virus. Everyone who participated in the round up was entitled to a share of the cattle collected. Those too old to ride, but helped in other ways, such as preparing food for the cowboys, was also given a share.

  Cole had gone along, as had Hunter. Each of them received ten steers for their efforts. Sean hadn’t needed to since he was often paid with calves when he got someone’s power up and running, or fixed their air conditioning. He gave Hunter a share of what he received, but since Hunter was still learning, he didn’t get a full share.

  Between what Sean received, and what Jenna accepted when she created the clinic and treated everything from cuts and scrapes to heart attacks, his brother’s family was doing well. Jenna even spoke of having a baby. She was forty now, so it was a long shot, but Cole hoped they were successful.

  Belle and Fox weren’t the only babies delivered. Thirty more had either been born in their new community, or had arrived within weeks of birth their families arriving to look for other survivors.

  As Cole walked to his car, one that ran on electricity, since that was much easier to come by than gasoline, he scanned the skies. A few pilots had settled in New Vegas, as some had begun calling the area. The first time he’d seen a plane overhead, he’d marveled at it with everyone else. It seemed like a miracle. Now, he was more apprehensive. It was one thing when it was a local flying, but another when an unknown plane approached.

  A buzz from the air made him look east. It wasn’t a plane this time, but a helicopter. As it came closer, Cole froze, his hand on the door handle.

  The helicopter flew past, but low, and looked to be landing somewhere a mile or so up the road. He hopped in the car and took off in that direction.

  He wasn’t the only one drawn to the helicopter’s landing and he nodded to several men who parked alongside the road as the helicopter’s rotors slowed. It had landed in the middle of their main road. That irritated Cole already. While most people walked or rode horses to conserve fuel, the road was used every day for people to deliver goods and livestock to other parts of the community. Jenna’s clinic was on this road and so was his court.

  It had to be an outsider. Even with the Air Force base so close, helicopters were unusual because the local pilots didn’t know how to fly helicopters. So, when a helicopter had been spotted months ago, it had been news. Someone had gotten out of the copter, asked a few people who were close at the time of the landing, what the name of the town was, who was in charge, and other questions.

  Cole had spoken to the people questioned. Nobody had given the man any names, but one person had said that Cole’s name had been brought up. He had pretended not to know who the man was talking about, telling Cole at the time, “He looked like military, you know? They weren’t around to help us so I don’t owe them shit.”

  The helicopter door opened and Cole wasn’t surprised when Holland stepped out. Damn him.

  Well, he couldn’t hide forever. Might as well see what the guy wanted. Cole straightened his shoulders as he approached the man.

  “Holland?”

  The man turned to Cole, surprise splashed across his face. “Cole Evans? I did not expect you to greet my arrival.” He smiled as if they were long lost friends and approached, his hand extended. Cole ignored it.

  “What do you want? If you want me to leave with you, forg
et it. This is my home now.”

  “And a fine job you’ve done creating it.”

  “It wasn’t me. It was all the local folks, and the amazing survivors who have flocked to the area.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of what this place is like. You see, we got word of this community back east.”

  Cole opened his eyes wide in surprise. “Really?”

  “Yes. And we sent someone out here to scout the area to see if the story was true. It was, and your name popped up.”

  “That’s not how I heard it. I heard someone was asking for me, specifically.”

  Holland waved dust from in front of his mouth, spitting to the side. “Sorry. The helicopter must have stirred up a lot of dust. Why don’t we go somewhere more comfortable to talk.”

  “Here is fine.”

  Holland sighed. “Okay. Well, nobody is here to take you away. Instead, I’m here to offer you a chance to make the vaccine right here. I even have some key information for you. Your medical record from when you were infected, along with a sample of the virus you were exposed to—before it was modified to create Sympatico Syndrome. With your antibodies already in you, it’s possible you could make a vaccine with this.”

  Cole’s jaw dropped. “How did you get all of that?”

  Holland grinned. “I tried telling you I wasn’t a bad guy. I was just determined to get a cure. I haven’t yet, but you are the key. We can’t ever let this virus destroy us again.” He put a hand out. “Will you help me?”

  “I’m no expert on creating vaccines. Hell, I’m no expert at all. I had an idea to make one, but no clear way to go about it under these conditions.”

  “I have a couple of people to help with that. Good people from the CDC. What’s left of the CDC anyway. They’re coming out even as we speak and should arrive tomorrow.”