The Recovery - Solar Crash Book 4: (A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Series) Page 7

  “Not a problem,” Katie replied. “Go on and sit down. I’ll be with you in a second!”

  Amy followed the instruction and led James toward the large couch that was placed in front of the fire. The heat was already working wonders on her bones and she could see the effect it was having on James too—his cheeks were slightly redder in color and his eyes didn’t look quite as pained.

  Quietly Amy handed him a bottle of water and took a sip from her own. She watched Katie preparing some biscuits out of the corner of her eye and pondered everything that was happening. She couldn’t deny the cabin in the woods seemed safe, but there was something about the number of times Katie had already said it was safe that made Amy retain her feeling of suspicion. The phrase “too good to be true” occupied her thoughts, but now that they were inside she knew she had to give it a chance. Something else that had also grabbed her attention was the fact Katie kept mentioning a community of some sort, like their cabin wasn’t the only one around. As the woman appeared and handed her a plate of biscuits and dried fruit, Amy sat back and prepared to listen to her tale. James was comfortable for now, and Amy was eager to learn the truth about what was happening within the woods.

  “Feeling better?”

  “Yes, thanks,” Amy replied, anxious to skip the small talk and move on to what was happening in the woods. “So do you live here? Have you always lived here?”

  Katie let out a small chuckle and shook her head. “Not always no, can you imagine? Derek has stopped from time to time; he’s a keen woodsman so he used to come out here every other weekend. Jessica would join him sometimes, but it’s never really been my cup of tea.”

  Amy smiled during the natural pause of conversation, reluctant to say anything that would put Katie off her train of thought. She wanted details and she didn’t want to wait much longer to get them. James was munching his way through the food Katie had provided, but once he was finished Amy was going to make an excuse to leave—unless Katie could somehow convince her otherwise.

  “There’s quite a little collection of them out here—guys like Derek, I mean,” Katie continued. “These cabins are spaced out throughout the woods, different locations so wherever the men are after a day out, there’s always one nearby to come back to. There’s obviously an ample food supply because of everything we can hunt and there’s a fresh water stream that runs out back—clean water still. Derek has checked it several times.”

  “So there are a lot of you?” Amy questioned, slowly beginning to understand the community Katie had referred to.

  “Not too many,” she replied. “There are about nine cabins out here in total and five of them are occupied now. There are a few people staying around here who didn’t know about the place beforehand—like you, if you want to stay, that is.”

  Amy offered Katie a polite smile, not yet having made up her mind about what would happen. The story was believable, but she was still reluctant to trust Katie and her family.

  “There’s Graham,” Katie continued, “and his son Marco who live the closest by now. I guess they all had a similar idea as us really. Once everything happened and the looting and rioting started, we just knew we had to get away. Our youngest, Sammy,” Katie paused for a moment, choosing her words just like she had before in the woods.

  “Well, as I said, she’s not very well. She suffers from autism and being surrounded by people wasn’t good for her in the best of times. With all that going down we literally grabbed what we could and got out. I don’t know where you’ve traveled from, but I’m sure you’ve seen everything that’s happened. Sure, we’re a bit cut off here, but we figure everyone is now—it doesn’t matter if you’re in the woods or in the biggest city. Derek and I knew we had to do what was best for Sammy, and for Jessica too, and that was coming out here.”

  “Oh,” Amy didn’t know what to say; now that she’d learned a bit more about why Katie and her family were living in the woods, she understood it. Whether your child is ill or not you have to do what is best for them. Amy couldn’t imagine what it would have been like for them when everything started going wrong. “I’m sorry,” she continued eventually, feeling ashamed for how she had felt about Katie and her family earlier. “I should’ve trusted you.”

  “No need to apologize,” Katie smiled sweetly, something Amy now saw as a truly genuine smile. “Like I said, I don’t know what you’ve been through. It’s probably wise not to trust everyone you meet now. Especially when you have a little one to look after, right?”

  “That’s right,” Amy sighed, smiling down at James who already looked like he was close to falling asleep. “Thank you for bringing us inside, I know a lot of people would’ve preferred to keep this place to themselves.”

  “The way we see it,” Katie straightened up slightly where she sat. “Almost everything else has been lost already; there’s no need for us to lose our humanity as well.”

  The statement struck Amy like a powerful gust of wind. She was reminded of Giles and the kindness he’d shown to her and James, even when it wasn’t required of him. Katie and her family were doing the same, and cruelly, she hadn’t given them the benefit of the doubt. What Katie said was true, humanity was the most important thing any of them had anymore and it was something they needed to hold onto if any of them wanted to get through this alive.

  “Please can we stay? For tonight at least?”

  “Of course,” Katie beamed in response. “Stay for as long as you’d like. Here, why don’t you come upstairs with me and I’ll get you some blankets? You can meet Sammy too. You’ll have to sleep down here on the couch if that’s all right. We’re getting a little crowded upstairs.”

  “That’s more than enough,” Amy smiled back, sliding off the couch and standing beside Katie. James had dozed off and he looked so peaceful. All she wanted now was to curl up beside him and get a good night’s sleep.

  Walking up the stairs behind Katie, Amy wondered how long they should stay in the woods. If Katie and her family had been here since everything happened then it was surely a safe place to be. Could she be sure the lake house would be the same? The question circled around in her head as Amy collected the blankets and said a brief hello to Derek and the children—although Sammy had fallen asleep. It was still on her mind as she lay down beside her son, covering him gently with a blanket and tucking him in beside the dying fire. Maybe staying in the woods was the best option for them; maybe this would be the end of their journey.

  Chapter 10

  “Good morning!” Derek’s cheerful voice bounced down the staircase the next morning, rousing Amy from her still half-asleep state. “How’re you feeling today?”

  “Good, thank you,” Amy replied. “And thanks again for letting us stay here last night. It really means a lot.”

  “I told you before,” Katie’s pleasant voice came from upstairs, “you don’t need to keep thanking us. It’s the least we could do for you.”

  “Well still,” Amy smiled as she stood up from the couch. “It means a lot. Anything I can help with this morning?”

  “I’m about to go and get some more water to boil for breakfast,” Derek replied. “You’re welcome to help with that if you want.”

  “Of course,” Amy cast a cautious look at James as she started to walk toward Derek. He was still fast asleep, his small chest rising up and down as he breathed.

  “Oh, don’t worry about him,” Katie laughed lightly, “as soon as the girls are up he will be too!”

  “Okay,” Amy nodded, trusting James would be safe inside and knowing she wasn’t going out of earshot if he did need her. “You’ve got a stream out back, right?”

  “We do indeed,” Derek grinned. “Follow me.”

  Amy allowed Derek to lead her out of the log cabin, down the stairs and around the back of the building. Now that the sun was up, the woods didn’t seem quite as scary as they had the night before and Amy found it easy to believe the family—and apparently several others—were living in them. The shade from
the trees meant the sun wasn’t as hot and for the first time in a while Amy was comfortable in the clothes she wore. As each new thought entered her head as she looked through the trees surrounding them, the more confident she felt about staying with Derek and his family for a bit longer. She still wanted to make it to the lake house eventually, but with James being injured and there being no proof of what state Ellen and Maria’s lake house could be in, staying in a safe place for a few days—perhaps even longer—couldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

  “It’s still good,” Derek remarked as he pulled a device out of the small stream they stood behind. “Some of the freshest water still around, I’d imagine.”

  “What’s that?” Amy questioned as she looked at the device Derek was now dismantling. It looked like an old-fashioned thermometer; one like her mother had used to take her temperature as a child.

  “It monitors the pH levels of the water,” Derek smiled back, holding the device up in his hand for Amy to get a closer look. “We use them quite a lot when we’re out hunting these woods just to be sure nothing’s polluted the water system. Nothing ever has, by the way. Not before all of this and not after.”

  “That’s clever,” Amy said half to herself, thinking how useful it would’ve been to have had one of them with her since South Haven. She hadn’t drunk any dirty water herself, but she could still remember how ill Giles looked that morning they’d woken up in Dunes Resort. Before everything had happened with James, Giles had been her main concern that morning. With everything then changing so suddenly, she’d barely given it a second thought since then. Now she hoped his illness from drinking the lake water had passed. She pictured him sitting happily around a table with his mother and father in Grand Rapids, all of them safe, secure, and simply waiting for aid to reach the city.

  “Could you hand me that extra canister?” Derek asked from where he now knelt beside the steam. “We’ll probably need it now that we’ve another two mouths to feed.”

  Amy did as she was told, unsure whether Derek was taking a dig at the extra people now staying with them or merely stating a fact. She chose to believe the latter. Until she was given a reason not to trust these people she was going to, they had shown her nothing but kindness up to that point.

  “So how long have you been out here?” Amy asked as she screwed the lid firmly onto the first canister Derek had filled.

  “Just under a week now,” he replied. “Getting out of the city took a little longer than we’d have liked with all the gang activity. But as soon as everything started happening I knew coming here would be the safest option.”

  “Which city have you come from?”

  “Oh, Katie didn’t tell you?” Derek looked surprised. “We’re from Grand Rapids. I’ll be honest with you; I feel sorry for anyone who didn’t do exactly what we did and get out immediately. I wouldn’t want to still be there now.”

  Amy’s mouth dropped open at Derek’s words, shocked and concerned by his words. “Grand Rapids?” She eventually stuttered in reply. “Why? What’s happened there?”

  “Massive gang activity,” Derek replied nonchalantly, not picking up on the expression on Amy’s face. “As soon as the power cut out and everything started failing, they appeared out of the woodwork almost as if they’d been waiting. Now, don’t get me wrong, Grand Rapids has always had a bit of a reputation for gang activity, but this was something else. We’re lucky; we lived pretty far out of the center on this side of the city. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like further in.”

  “W-what do you mean? What were they doing?”

  “Terrorizing everything. Almost every building that contained anything useful was immediately broken into. Supermarkets, department stores, hospitals. And then they got into the police department—that was when everything started to get really bad. As you can imagine, they pretty much all had weapons to begin with, but once they found that arsenal things went to a whole new level. You should’ve seen…” Derek trailed off, noticing Amy had turned very pale of a sudden. “I’m sorry,” his tone of voice changed, “are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” Amy mumbled in response, “I…I think I just need to sit down for a second.”

  Stumbling backwards Amy found an overturned log and almost collapsed onto it, her vision blurring as she tried to steady herself. Derek’s words spun through her head and she pictured the most gruesome scenes she could imagine. What Derek was describing had happened a week ago as well, she could only guess at how life in the city had deteriorated further since then. And now Giles, the man who had tended to her son’s bullet wound, tried to talk Mel out of committing suicide and walked by Amy’s side for many miles was entering that city. Would he already be there by now? Would he have managed to make it in alive?

  Amy remembered what Derek had said about the gang members breaking into the hospitals. Giles had said his parents lived right next to one of them. Would they be safe? If by some stroke of luck Giles managed to make it to their house, what would he find?

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Derek’s voice sounded woolly as he spoke, even though Amy could see him standing in front of her, a concerned look etched across his face. “Oh, oh, I’m sorry,” he continued to speak, realization filling his eyes. “You didn’t know anyone in the city, did you?”

  All Amy could manage to do was nod, her eyes threatening to fill with tears. “A friend,” she murmured eventually. “He was making his way back there.”

  Derek paused for a moment, uncertain of what to say next. “When?”

  “Just over a day ago,” Amy sniffed, “we parted ways with him so he could go back and find his parents.”

  “I’m sorry,” Derek replied after another long pause. “He could have made it though. Just because the city was like that when we left doesn’t mean it’s still like that now. Things might have died down. I’m sure your friend could have made it home.”

  Amy looked up at Derek and saw that he meant well with the words he was trying to say. Unfortunately, she could also see in his eyes that he didn’t believe what he was saying. She couldn’t believe him either. Derek had sounded so certain when he spoke about the destruction of Grand Rapids just a few moments ago, and no kind words could make that certainty go away. Sniffing once more, Amy let a thought enter her head that she had so desperately tried to avoid. Giles was dead and she wasn’t ever going to see him again.

  ***

  It took four days of Amy moping around in the log cabin before she finally began to feel like herself again. She went through all the early stages of grief more than once. Denial, where she questioned Derek and Katie over and over again about the state of Grand Rapids and whether they could’ve been wrong about it all, whether the city could still be standing. Anger and bargaining, where she lashed out, spilling a full canister of water inside the cabin and then trying to convince Derek to take her to the city in exchange for the possessions she carried. Depression lasted a full day where all she did was sit on the couch in front of the fire and cry, her son James watching her with a pained and confused expression on his face as to why all of this was happening. It was only on the fourth day when Amy woke and saw him watching over her that she knew she had to snap out of her downward spiral. Giles was dead, but James still depended on her. For now she needed to put her friend out of her mind and focus on the lives she could help, the life of her son.

  “I’m sorry,” Amy whispered in James’s ear as the two of them were sitting by the stream having a bath that morning. “I’m sorry I’ve been a bit useless these past few days. Are you okay?”

  “It’s all right Mom,” James replied quietly, squirming around and looking slightly awkward at the question. “I’m okay. Are you?”

  “Yeah, I’m good, darling. How do you like it here, out in the woods I mean? Have you been enjoying yourself?”

  James nodded. “It’s fun,” he replied in his quiet voice. “I like the dog.”

  “Ah yes,” Amy smiled; she had seen James and D
ash playing with one another on several occasions over the past few days. “You and that dog have made quite a connection haven’t you?”

  “He’s fun to play with. We play chase.”

  Amy’s smile grew as her son continued to talk, telling her about the games he’d been playing with Dash. She felt a slight twinge of sadness that she hadn’t been there playing with him as well, but she was happy nonetheless that he had managed to enjoy himself. Derek and Katie had been very understanding, Derek explaining to Katie immediately what he had told her about Grand Rapids and why Amy was acting the way she was. Now after everything had passed Amy was ashamed of her actions and made a mental promise to apologize to them both sincerely. They had enough on their plates already with Sammy and everything that had happened—she was sure they hadn’t bargained for another child to look after when they’d welcomed her through their front door.

  Amy kept true to her promise and as soon as she and James were washed up she went inside and apologized to Katie and Derek. As usual they were their fabulous, understanding selves and refused to try and let her make amends in any way. According to them she was a part of their family now and, as Amy made her way back outside to check on James, she started to feel that way too. Perhaps the lake house was a step in her journey too far, perhaps she was meant to live out the solar crash in the woods.