Chapter Twenty-six

November whispered its way across Burninghead Farm, and all around the farm the trees showed off their resplendent fall coats, a mixture of scarlet and gold. The month began surprisingly warm, but the air carried a crispness that spoke of a harsh winter to come. The trees picked up on this and, despite the mild temperatures, the ground was quickly becoming littered with fallen leaves. As nature waged the eternal battle between style and substance in its preparation for the cold, Duncan was consumed by the fierce urgency of now.

They had made great progress on the wall that would protect them from the world, completing it on two sides of the farm. They were about halfway finished with the western wall, but it was clear they were running out of time. Winter in Indiana could be unpredictable, and despite the fine weather they were currently experiencing, all it would take was a little breeze from the north coming across the Great Lakes to turn the ground into a frozen tundra that would rival Siberia for its impenetrability. So Duncan picked up his pace, hoping that with a little luck and a lot of hard work, they could outrace the wind.

Duncan was a man on a mission, and he was not the only one. Although they had not spoken of it, his entire crew seemed to sense that time was of the essence, and they worked with a new determination to get the job done. Beside him, Taylor set a hard pace, but she had lost the anger and desperation that had worried him only a few short weeks ago. She seemed content now, working to finish the job simply because it needed finishing and not because she was trying to fight a war she could not win. That made Duncan smile.

They had lost time the day before, only a few hours but time being as precious as it was, the loss had Duncan working even harder today. A new family had found its way to the farm, a man, his wife, and their ten-year-old son, looking famished and exhausted. Buck had spoken to them a while, given them food and water. Eventually, Buck had done what he always did, which was invite them to stay and call all the farm’s residents together to break the news.

Duncan was lost in his work and his thoughts and barely heard the pickup crunching the dirt as it pulled up to a stop only a few feet away. Margie jumped down from the driver’s seat, closing the heavy truck door with a deceptively soft click. The tightness of her lips told Duncan something was wrong. He hopped up and out of the ditch just as Margie reached its edge. She spoke before he could ask the question, but her words were not directed at him.

“Taylor.”

Taylor looked up, shading her eyes with her hand against the afternoon glare. She smiled at Margie. “What brings you out here?”

“Dad needs to see you,” Margie said. Her voice was all business, and yet Duncan sensed a certain sadness beneath her words, and it was directed squarely at Taylor.

Taylor’s face dropped. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” she asked even as she jumped up out of the ditch to stand next to Duncan. “Is everyone okay?”

“Everyone’s fine,” Margie said reassuringly. She even gave a hint of a smile, but it quickly faded. “Something…Dad just really needs to see you.”

“Is Kate all right?” Taylor asked, still somewhat panicked. Duncan’s mind raced over what Buck could need to see Taylor so urgently about, and why it would have Margie upset. Kate seemed like the logical answer.

“She’s fine,” Margie said, squeezing Taylor’s shoulder. “This isn’t about her.”

Taylor relaxed slightly but her concern remained.

“Then what?”

“Better for Dad to explain. Just come with me, okay?” Margie said, turning back to the truck. “You come too, Duncan,” she said over her shoulder.

Taylor looked over at Duncan, but he was as confused as she was. He shrugged slightly and followed Taylor over to the passenger side.

Clearly they were not going to get any answers out of Margie, and they rode back to the farmhouse in silence. Duncan’s mind flew through a dozen possibilities, analyzing and rejecting each one in turn. Tension radiated off Taylor, and he could tell it was taking every ounce of her control not to yank the steering wheel out of Margie’s hands and demand she give them some answers. Duncan felt the same. Patience was definitely not one of his better qualities.

Taylor sprinted up to the farmhouse when they finally arrived. Duncan was fast on her heels, bursting through the doorway.

“In here,” Buck called out, and they ran into the kitchen.

“What’s going on, Buck?” Taylor demanded before her feet had even stopped moving. Duncan looked around the kitchen in complete confusion. If they had not been cryptically summoned to the farmhouse, Duncan would not have had any clue that anything was going on. Buck sat with the new man, two half-drunk cups of coffee sitting before them on the worn kitchen table. Duncan was not sure what he had expected, but this was definitely not it.

“Have a seat, Taylor,” Buck said with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

“I’ll stand, thanks,” she answered curtly. “Is everyone all right?”

Clearly Margie’s answer to that question had not satisfied Taylor, just as it had not satisfied Duncan. Duncan tried to read Buck’s face, but it was an impenetrable mask.

“You meet Adam yesterday?” Buck asked, nodding toward the man at the table.

Taylor gave a terse nod, waiting for Buck to explain something of relevance. “Buck…” she said warningly.

Buck sighed. “Adam’s got a bit of a story to tell. Better to let him tell it.”

Taylor immediately looked at Adam.

“Well, you see, Kim and I—Kim’s my wife—we were huddled up with a few of the other survivors from our town. We had our boy…did you meet him? Well, we were real lucky, all of us making it through and everything. It was a miracle, I’ll tell you that.”

Adam grew quiet, lost in the notion that somehow his whole family had survived intact, Duncan supposed. Taylor shifted impatiently.

“Oh, sorry. Anyway, a bunch of us were doing fairly well over in Iowa, for a while anyway. Eventually, food started running low, and JJ—he was the leader of our group—well, he started acting kind of crazy. Started thinking folks were stealing food and whatnot, just getting real paranoid. Of course I started thinking that I was the one who was being paranoid, but we had a family meeting one day and Kim felt the same, and we decided we’d best be leaving. A few nights later we took off. I felt bad sneaking off in the dead of night like that, but it seemed better that way somehow. We thought we’d head to Kim’s brother’s place near Columbus. We didn’t know whether he’d made it through the plague or not, but it was someplace to go. We’ve been traveling for a long time. It’s tough with the boy, we have to take it kind of slow, but we wouldn’t change that for the world. And then we stumbled upon this place and here we are.”

Duncan looked back and forth between Adam, Buck, and Taylor, trying to figure out why they had been summoned to hear that story. Taylor was trying to figure out the same thing, and Duncan watched a tide of frustration and bewilderment ebb and flow across her face.

“I’m glad you found this place and you’re safe,” Taylor said more compassionately than Duncan would have expected. The question of what in the hell was going on hung in the room like the proverbial 800-pound gorilla. Duncan had never really understood that expression, but it seemed fitting nonetheless. “But why did you call me up here to tell me that? Buck?”

Buck looked up at her, his face a world of concern. The knot in Duncan’s stomach grew.

“Tell her what happened in Illinois.”

“What about Illinois?” Taylor asked, the tension in her body exploding through her vocal cords.

“Oh right,” Adam started nervously. “Well, after a few weeks my son got pretty sick. I didn’t think it was the plague, not after all this time, but we were terribly worried. We knew he needed medicine. Luckily, about then we stumbled on a small town that had a group of survivors. They were real nice and welcomed us in, like you folks here, and they had antibiotics and stuff. They were starting to run a bit low on supplies, but they shared with us anyway. I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t found them. We stayed there for about a week and then left. That was about two weeks ago.”

Adam stopped again, and Duncan still had no idea what any of this meant or had to do with them. But he saw Buck staring up at Taylor, watching her, so he turned to look at Taylor, too. Her skin had gone pale, as if she had just seen a ghost.

“It’s not possible,” she muttered.

“Tell her the name of the town, Adam,” Buck prodded gently.

“Asheville.”

Taylor stumbled backward, the simple word knocking her back with its weight. Duncan, for his part, was too stunned to react to steady Taylor, but she recovered her footing. For an instant, Duncan was consumed by a joy he had not known was possible at the revelation. All hope was not lost. There was still a chance Taylor’s family, or some of it anyway, was alive. Duncan did not know he could be this happy for another human being, but he was, and it thrilled him. He started planning the search party in his head, the rescue mission that would bring Taylor’s family home.

And that was when it hit him, why Buck was looking concerned. What if her family was still dead? What if she had just been given this gift of hope only to have it dashed again? Taylor had nearly come undone the first time she had found out her family was really and truly gone. Duncan did not think she could survive the loss a second time, even as the person she had become here at Burninghead Farm. Plus, there was the added factor that for Taylor, Illinois was home. If her family had somehow survived, Taylor might not be coming back. Duncan now worried that no matter what Taylor found in Illinois, they might lose her. It was completely selfish, Duncan knew, to be thinking such things, but for this one moment he did not care.

“Are you sure?” Taylor asked woodenly, quietly. “Are you sure it was Asheville?”

“Yes,” Adam said, nodding.

“Could you describe it?” Her voice was childlike, and tears began to gather.

“It was like most towns, I suppose. I’m not sure I really know how to describe it. They were all staying at one end, had taken over some houses on this cul-de-sac. On the way out of town there was this really pretty church, with a big white steeple. I remember it because there was this huge stained glass window in the front, of the Virgin Mary kneeling before the crucifixion.”

Taylor gasped. Duncan knew without even having to be told what it meant. It was written all over Taylor’s face.

“That church is on the east side of town,” she said, tears brimming over to meet the stunned smile on her cheeks.

She turned to Buck then. “Buck?”

Buck stood. “Go pack a bag. Duncan, go help Kate out in the barn. She’s getting one of the horses ready and some supplies.”

Taylor seemed startled by the knowledge that Kate already knew, as Duncan was himself. He figured Buck had his reasons. Taylor ran out of the room, the screen door slamming behind her. Duncan’s mind was chaos. He was happy for Taylor, yet he feared losing her. He could only imagine how Kate was feeling.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31