The McClane Apocalypse Book 4 (52 page)

“Got it,” she answers and shoots him a
gentle smile.

Her husband pulls her forward by
placing his hand to the back of her head. He presses a hard kiss to
her forehead. Whatever unspoken communication they have, Simon
isn’t privy to it, but Reagan gives John a quick nod.

“We’re gonna have to repair that
porch,” Derek says as Doc enters the kitchen.

“Yes, we can get right on that,
Derek,” Doc adds. “There should be plenty of wood around here or we
can mill some trees and seal the fresh wood with some stain if need
be.”

Sam comes in the back door,
her feet bare, her hair still with blades of straw and hay poking
out of it, her cheeks pink from just wak
ing
.

“Hey, kid,” Kelly greets her jovially.
“Where you been?”

Sam’s eyes dart to Simon,
but she says, “Oh, just out for a walk… in the
barn
…
you
know, checking on the horses.”

Kelly considers her answer with
suspicious eyes but says, “Ok, just don’t go out without your gun
anymore. All right?”

“Yeah, sorry,” she mumbles.

She comes over to Simon and stands
right beside him, then wraps her arm around his back. Nobody even
acknowledges it. This is the way Sam always behaves. She’s always
been his tiny shadow. Em had shadowed Cory, and Sam has always
clung onto him. Sometimes when things get heavy like their current
situation, she clings on literally.

“I’m off to check on
Hannah,
and then
I’ll come out to help, Derek,” Kelly says to the room and
Derek,
in
particular.

“Cool,” Derek replies.
“Take your time, brother. The work’s not going anywhere. It never
does. We have some
burying
to do. We’ll work on that
grave-site
while you guys are gone.
We’ll wait for you to get back to hold a service.”

When Kelly leaves the room, Derek asks
his wife, “Hannie ok? It’s not like her to sleep in.”

“I checked on her already. She’s just
tired, scared, kind of traumatized, you know? Talia, too. She’s
still asleep downstairs with the kids,” Sue answers.

Derek nods. Simon looks
away. He feels an enormous amount of guilt over the attack on the
farm. It’s
completely
unjustified, but he feels it all the
same.

“Let’s roll,” John says quietly to
him.

He also seems like he wants to get out
of the house, out of the kitchen and away from the tragedy that
happened last night.

“I’ll be right there,”
Simon tells
John,
who nods. “Gotta take care of something first.
Gimme’ five minutes?”

John nods and leaves.

Sam grabs his arm, “Wait! Where are
you going?”

Simon lays a hand over hers, “I’ll be
back soon, Sam. Don’t worry. I’m just going with John to check on
the people in town. Stay close to the house, ok?”

She frowns hard before throwing her
arms around his middle. Simon returns it but with much less
passion.

“Be careful,” she
beseeches.

“We will.
You
be careful while I’m
gone,” he orders firmly. “No riding or going out in the woods.
Remember, some of them got away. They could still be close. Stay
near the house. Just help with the kids or something
today.”

When she pulls back and nods
vigorously, Sam also looks up into his eyes. He lays a hand against
her soft, unscraped cheek for just a moment. Simon swallows the
lump of guilt in his throat he always feels around Sam. Today it
has elevated to epic proportions. He steps quickly away and leaves
the kitchen. He goes to the back of the house where Doc’s bedroom
is located and where his sister should still be.

He enters without knocking
only to find his sister in the bathroom. Simon sits on the unmade,
still warm bed to wait for her. A moment later she emerges, still
rumpled from sleep and
clearly
exhausted. He’s glad she is
staying in the house. She’s wearing the same dirty clothes from
last night. Doc will probably check her as soon as she goes to the
kitchen. Simon is worried about his sister’s concussion and head
injury.

“Hey,” she says sleepily. “What’s
going on?”

Simon decides to adhere to Sam’s
advice and get straight to it.

“Sit,” he orders softly and pats the
bed. His sister does as he says. There are dark purple circles
under her light blue eyes. Her red hair is a tangled bird’s nest
around her head. The white bandaging on the side of her head makes
him cringe.

“I need to tell you something,” he
says and takes her hand. Her eyes jump nervously to his. “Your
friend didn’t make it, sis.”

She inhales sharply and squirms on her
bottom, “What? What do you mean? Gavin?”

Simon nods and proceeds to tell her
what happened to her trusted companion. She cries, turns into a
ball of mush in his arms. He knew she’d take it hard.

“I didn’t want to leave without
telling you,” Simon acknowledges. “I wanted you to hear it from me
and not someone in the family.”

This doesn’t seem to make a difference
because she sobs quietly against him. A few minutes later a soft
knocking at the door alerts them. Sam is standing there.

“Go, Simon,” Sam offers. “I’ll stay
here with her.”

“Go where?” Paige asks and squeezes
his hand almost painfully.

“Just checking on the people in our
town. I’ll be back real soon, ok?” he says to his darling,
red-nosed, puffy-eyed sister. She’s a mess of tears and
anguish.

Sam crosses the room and sits on
Paige’s other side. She gives Simon a nod. He feels reluctant to
leave but knows he must. He lightly squeezes Paige’s bony hand
again, nods with appreciation to Sam and leaves.

He heads out of the kitchen, following
John’s path to the Hummer. He knows before he even gets there that
this isn’t just a check-on-the-townsfolk kind of run. A
bullet-proof vest and weapons are waiting for him on his seat. He
pulls it on and zips it, slaps down the Velcro patches. Then he
jams a full mag into his rifle and fastens his holstered sidearm
onto his hip. His K-Bar gets strapped to his ankle. Apparently John
had placed all of their weapons on the seat. He’s geared up and
ready to go, too, as he climbs in behind the wheel. Simon consults
his watch. It’s not even seven a.m. yet.

As they pass their neighbors’ farms
and turn left onto the county road, Simon asks, “Got any
ideas?”

“I don’t know, man,” John answers.
“They could be just about anywhere, but most people don’t go too
far. They’re gonna need provisions, food, weapons, supplies. They
could have relatives nearby. Who knows? We’ll head over to that
town again. Then we’ll come back to Pleasant View to question
people, see if they heard or know anything.”

“Yes, sir,” Simon replies.

“We need to offer
assistance
with
the man that was killed for information about the farm. It’s
only right we bury him if the townspeople haven’t yet.”

Simon says
on
a nod, “Right.
I feel
bad
that happened.”

“Everything ok with Sam?”
John asks a few minutes later as he navigates the Hummer around an
abandoned
motor-home
on the road.

“Yes, she’s
fine
,” he says,
looking out his window.

“Was she pretty shook up?” John
inquires.

“Yeah, yes, she was,” Simon concurs
and shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

“She’s a tough kid. I think she took
out a few of those punks last night,” John says.

“I don’t know. Probably. I didn’t ask
her,” Simon responds without looking directly at John.

“Well, you two slept in the barn loft
last night,” John slides in slyly. “What were you doing if you
weren’t talking?”

Simon’s head whips to the side to look
at his friend and big brother.

“I…I
…
”

“Relax,” John says
with
a chuckle. “I
know you’d never do anything wrong by her, Simon. I was just
messin’ with you.”

“Oh,” Simon says on an
expelled breath. “Sorry. I didn’t want to stay out there, but she
didn’t
want
to be alone. She was upset.”

John nods and says, “I’d be
more surprised if she wasn’t
upset
. It’s cool. I was just giving you
a hard time. Sam’s close with you. It’s understandable that she’d
want to be with you and not anyone else. She relies on
you.”

“I know,” Simon blurts and shakes his
head. “I wish she wouldn’t. Heck, look how last night
went.”

John regards him with a frown, “What’s
that supposed to mean?”
“It means she could’ve been killed. My sister could’ve, too. It’s
bad enough that I have to look after Paige, but not Sam, too.
That’s what it means. She’d do better to find another
protector.”

“I disagree, Simon,” John tells him
and pulls over to a curb.

John pulls out his .45 Kimber and
checks the mag before jamming it back into its holster. Then he
looks at Simon before turning off the Hummer.

“There’s nothing wrong with
you being Sam’s protector,” he punches Simon’s shoulder. “You’re
the best man for the job, Simon. You’ve had all the training we
could give you. Plus, Sam’s a tough kid. She’s good with a
knife,
and she’s
small and fast, too. She’s also a good shot, but she’s probably
always gonna need someone to look after her. She’s innocent and
frail sometimes, too, which can be dangerous. She needs you to set
her on the right path. You’ll do fine by her. I reckon you always
will.”

Simon has to look away.

“We might have to work with
your sister, though,” he adds
with
a chuckle. “She needs some practice
on tactical maneuvers and weapons.”

Simon grins and turns back to John.
“Yeah, I know. She’s a fast runner, but not faster than a bullet.
I’ll start working with her soon, when we have some
downtime.”

John nods and gives him a smile. “Good
shooting last night, by the way.”

Simon doesn’t want to accept his
praise because it feels wrong to do so since people were killed on
their team and in their town. He mumbles a quick,
“Thanks.”

John nods, pockets the keys, and they
move out. John is an easy man to be around. He’s a man’s man. He’s
quiet when the situation calls for it. He’s fatherly when Simon
needs it. He’s a friend to him all of the time.

Together they do a fast
sweep of the small town surrounding the Target’s direct vicinity.
They work as a team for a few hours checking buildings,
alleyways
and
houses. They come up with nothing. There are very few people even
still living in
Coopertown
. This town has not fared as
well as Pleasant View. There are no gated or fenced off areas, no
armed guards to protect the citizens. It’s a ghost town with the
exception of the recently destroyed Target city. That’s empty, too.
John and he
torch
it after they ascertain that there is nobody in it
and not much worth salvaging there. They spend another forty
minutes out and then head back. There is much to do at the farm.
They’ll likely come out again tonight. Sometimes rats move around
at night. They’ll be easier to find in the dark scurrying around
and inflicting pain on more people.

They bury
Gavin;
Doc says
some kind words, as do Talia and Paige. The family is unusually
quiet as they go about their chores and tasks. Nobody is even
talking and chatting like normal. The cleaning up process is
finished near dinner time, so Simon decides to do some reloading in
the back of
the med
shed in the arsenal and wait to be called. He
knows that a lot of ammo was expended last night and should be
replaced as soon as possible.

Simon drags the padded
stool over to the pine reloading bench made from salvaged wood and
takes a seat. His rifle and shotgun also
need to be cleaned
, so he’ll run a
cleaning rod down the barrels of both and oil them down. The other
men sometimes bring their weapons to him for cleaning, but today
they will likely forego the cleaning until things settle down. He’s
only a few minutes into reloading shotgun shells, measuring out the
correct grain count and setting the primers when Paige comes into
the shed.

He pulls a stool over for his tall
sister.

“Dr. McClane just checked me again,”
she states.

“Oh, good,” he says.

“It’s not necessary,” she
complains lightly. “I’m
fine
. I wasn’t shot or anything. I just
got
nogged
.”

“Concussions are
very serious
,
sis,” he explains. “They are even more
serious
now that we don’t have
adequate medical care or a facility with a CAT scan. That bastard
knocked you out cold.”