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Iggy turned toward me and held out her hand. “Please, Cael? You’ve ridden a horse before.”

“Not since Blaze threw me.”

She crooked her index finger, beckoning me. “I promise you’ll be okay.”

I bit my bottom lip and repeatedly squeezed my sweaty hands into fists. She motioned for me to come closer and gave me her toothy, white, princess smile. Iggy was nearly a foot shorter than me. If she could do it, I could do it. I gave in and moved toward her, placing my hand in hers. My arm was like a separate entity as she tugged it, slid her palm over the top of my hand, and guided my hand to the horse’s neck. Together, our hands smoothed over Black Jack’s glossy coat until she edged her hand away and I was left petting him by myself.

“See? It’s not so bad, is it?”

“I guess not.” I flinched when Black Jack snorted, but I didn’t move away. I ran my hand up his neck to his cheek, which felt like a stone plate. Iggy took my hand, stretched it out so my palm was flat, and then she dug out a sugar cube from a pouch hanging on her belt and placed it on my palm. Black Jack’s velvet lips skated across my hand as he found the cube, and then he looked away with renewed disinterest.

Iggy nodded. “Good job.” She led Black Jack back to his stall and returned to say, “Hop on the four wheeler, Cael. I’m taking you for a ride.” She unclipped a set of keys from her belt.

Cody whined, “What about me?”

“You didn’t earn it. Next time I ask you to meet my horse, you should do it.”

I climbed on behind Iggy and shouted to Cody, “See you later!”

Cody flipped me off.

Iggy warned, “Hold on.” I wrapped my arms around her waist and then we surged forward out of the barn. She was fast, flying down a path and into a plowed field at top speed. I leaned around her as we bumped across the dirt, wind blasting my eyes. When we exited the field, Iggy made a sharp left and fishtailed. I squeezed her tighter, but she seemed to be in perfect control. Then she braked suddenly, and my chest pressed into her back.

“Your turn to drive.” She hopped off and stood with her hands on her hips.

“You know I’ve never driven one of these. You wouldn’t ever let me.”

“Well, I changed my mind. Just take it easy until you get a feel for it. I flipped one of these once. It hurt like hell.”

I scooted forward. Iggy swung a leg over and wrapped her arms around me while giving instructions. I asked, “Ready?”

She shouted something incomprehensible and squeezed my hips with her thighs.

Cael

We were gone longer than fifteen minutes. By the time we returned, Cody was smoking a joint while rocking in a chair on the veranda. He looked sheepish when Iggy saw his red, puffy eyes, sniffed the air, and then wrinkled her nose. I expected her to be pissed, but all she said was, “You know my dad’s a cop, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said on a slow exhale.

Iggy nodded. “Then your choices are your responsibility.”

“Is it lunch time yet?” he asked, eyes half-mast. “I’m starving.”

We ignored him and continued into the house, and then Iggy’s phone beeped several times. She stopped, snatched it off her belt, and then frowned at something on the screen. I tried to peer over her shoulder. “What does that mean?”

“Front gate,” was all she said before opening the foyer closet and grabbing a rifle.

I trailed her out the door past Cody, who was slumped down in the chair, snoring. I let him sleep and followed Iggy up the gently sloped driveway to find a black Cadillac parked behind the gates. The driver got out and held up his hands. Iggy snapped, “What do you want, Jensen?”

“I just want to talk to you, Ignacia. A civilized conversation without weapons.”

I studied the guy. He was average height and fairly thin, with conservatively cut brown hair and a baby face. The badge clipped to his suit jacket indicated he was with the Centers for Disease Control. I was confused by his presence, but if Iggy didn’t like him, neither did I.

“If you brought your guard dogs, I’m warning you now that this guy,” she tipped her head at me, “can take them down faster than you can blink.”

Whatever her reason was for bluffing, I decided not to contradict her. If only she knew I had never hit someone without the strike being sanctioned. However, I wasn't about to ruin her perception of me.

As Jensen approached the gate, he made a signal that had two other men in suits exiting the car to flank him. He looked me over. “Is that so?” He made a silent gesture and one of the men pulled out a cell phone and took pictures of me. Weird.

“Is this your new boyfriend?” he asked, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“Hurry up and say what you came here to say so that I can get back to my knitting,” she said.

Jensen scowled. “We need you to come in for another check-up.”

“Piss off.”

I glanced at her, feeling lost. Was Iggy sick or something?

“Where’s Wesley?”

“He won’t go with you, either,” she snapped.

“Why don’t you let
me
ask him?”

“Because I’m bored with this conversation and I’m leaving.”

As she turned away, Jensen grabbed hold of the bars and raised his voice, “I’m trying to help you, Ignacia. If you don’t cooperate, you might die.”

While I looked at the man as if he were insane, Iggy merely tossed over her shoulder, “Death would be better than being your lab rat.”

I fell into step beside her as she headed back toward the house. Wesley was running up the driveway, aiming a shot gun toward the gate and looking pissed.

Jensen hollered, “Tell her I’m right, Wesley!”

In response, Wesley aimed just above the fence and fired his weapon. I jumped at the sound. Iggy didn’t even bother to look, nor did she break her stride. Seconds later, I heard tires squealing and looked back to find the Cadillac gone.

“What the hell is going on?” Cody ran toward us, rubbing his eyes.

Iggy and Wesley exchange looks, and then he hugged her tightly to him. She whispered something in his ear. Looking grave, he pulled back and nodded, and they headed for the house.

Cody looked at me and repeated his question as we trailed behind them. I said, “I have no idea. All I got out of that exchange is that Iggy would rather die than be a lab rat for the CDC.” I caught up and put a hand on her shoulder. “What did that guy mean?” I asked her.

Wesley turned and knocked my hand away. “Don’t touch her.”

“Wesley,” Iggy warned, stopping to turn and face him. “He’s my cousin. Take it easy.”

He glared at me but addressed Iggy. “There’s not a drop of blood between you two. He’s a stranger.”

Cody shoved Wesley and growled, “What the fuck is your problem?”

Wesley threw a punch. It was so unexpected that Cody staggered backwards, looking stunned. Three seconds later, he’d recovered and was ready to fight, but enough time had passed for me to step between the two of them and for Iggy to grab two fistfuls of Wesley’s shirt. I pushed against Cody who spat curses and threats while lunging toward Wesley. Iggy yanked on her friend a couple of times before he turned his back on us and strode off toward his motorcycle. Iggy called after him, but he ignored her and soon disappeared down a trail into the woods.

She turned to face Cody with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry about that. Wesley overreacts sometimes.”

“That’s an understatement,” I ground out. “A little overprotective too, isn’t he?” I put a hand on Cody’s shoulder, but he shrugged it off and stalked toward the house without a word. Iggy and I watched in silence until he disappeared.

She took a deep breath and said with false cheer, “What an exciting morning we’re having.”

On the veranda, I grabbed her upper arm and kept her from going inside. “I want to know what he meant. Why did he say you would die if you didn’t cooperate? Are you sick?”

Iggy looked as if she were considering what to say, then she waved her hand dismissively. “It was just a meaningless threat.”

I rolled my eyes. “Did you take a course on how to spout bullshit, or does it just come naturally to you?” Her lips pressed into a thin line, but she remained quiet. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I don’t deserve to know, right? I’m just a stranger here.”

I left her to go check on Cody.

Chapter 4

Cael

“Last time I saw you, you were knee high to a grasshopper!” Aunt Kim threw her arms around me, squeezed out the air, and stepped back. “Now look at you. You’re huge!”

Uncle Chris gave me a brief hug that included a couple of hearty slaps on the back. Last time I’d seen him, he’d been an intimidating man in uniform wearing a badge. Now, I was several inches taller than him.

I introduced my aunt and uncle to Cody. He shook their hands and then looked at me with his eyebrows raised and mouthed,
Knee high to a grasshopper
? I shrugged and answered Kim’s questions about my parents. After explaining my worry at not having heard from them, Kim put a hand on my arm and said, “Don’t you worry none. Your mama was a Marine. She can take care of herself and your daddy.” Her accent was just like Iggy’s.

Chris put an arm around Kim’s shoulders. “Still, I’m only gonna give them twenty-four hours before I go through official channels to find them.”

Iggy entered the kitchen through the back porch. I hadn’t seen her in hours. Her mouth was pinched and her hair was tousled, and I figured she wasn’t done being angry about the CDC guy. She asked her parents about their trip and they gave her a brief recount of what they’d bought. Then her dad said, “The convenience store up the road was robbed. Jonas was finishing up taking statements from witnesses when we stopped in on the way home. Apparently, a group of people tried stealing gas. They held the clerks at gunpoint and forced them to turn on the pumps. Most everyone out there with any kind of container was filling up and taking off.”

I said, “Looks like what happened in New York might happen in a lot of cities.”

“We stopped at the Costco in Kennesaw on our way back to get some more canned goods,” Kim told us. “The store was wiped out.”

Chris looked at me. “We used to be considered freaks for stockpiling food. Now, everyone’s doing it.”

“But it’s too late,” Kim pointed out. “Everyone’s scrambling for dry goods. Buying out stores. But stockpiling correctly takes years. There’s a science to it.”

Chris scratched his jaw. “I think people are getting real nervous. I want to make one more trip to Walmart tomorrow before they run out of food.”

“Walmart is going to run out of food?” Cody’s eyes were wide. “Is that possible?”

Kim sighed. “You wouldn’t believe what we saw coming back into Georgia. Riots. People shooting each other for nothing. A knock-down, drag-out fist fight over pickles. Hell. I wouldn’t be surprised if people looted all the stores and then started barbecuing their own dogs and cats.”

Chris looked back and forth between Kim and Iggy and said, “We need regular patrols along all fence lines now. I expect it won’t be long before people start trying to steal our livestock.” He ran a hand through his dark hair, sprinkled with gray at the temples, and then he looked at me. “Maybe you and Cody could start helping out with that.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed and Cody nodded. I thought my uncle might be overreacting, but I was willing to earn my keep.

“Iggy. Start working on rotation schedules and let’s see if we can get this going by tomorrow night. Brad and Gina have nowhere to work as of now since their boss left Georgia today, so you can add them to the schedule.”

She nodded. “Will do. I’m going down to grab the meat for tonight’s chili. I figure I can at least get the beef cooked before Jamie gets home.” She turned to me and Cody and said, “Follow me. I’ll show you where we store the food.”

Beneath the staircase that led to the new wing was a door I hadn’t noticed before. When we stepped through the opening, florescent lights flickered on automatically, revealing a steep staircase. We followed it down into a huge, cinder block room. My jaw dropped and Cody gave a long, low whistle. The place was its own warehouse food store. Rows of metal shelves filled half the room and were stocked with canned goods, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper. Lining the walls were more than a hundred labeled, plastic tubs in which dry goods were sealed. Opposite the shelves were deep freezers and refrigerators that were probably packed full of food. Iggy headed for one of the refrigerators. She yanked open the door and grabbed family-sized packages of ground beef. She handed them to me and had Cody follow her into the rows of shelves, which rose almost to the ceiling. She passed him several cans of crushed tomatoes and beans before loading up herself and leading us out.

“What’s behind that door over there?” I asked, tipping my head toward the only door in the basement.

“That’s the gun room,” she told me. “We have about two hundred weapons in stock. Plus ammo. I’ll show it to you one of these days.”

I glanced at Cody, whose eyes were bulging. He shook his head and followed us up the stairs. He told Iggy, “Well, if the zombie apocalypse hits, you guys are well prepared.”