Harper chuckled. “Yeah, I figured you’d be upset about that. I also knew you wouldn’t be able to sleep last night if I’d told you, since the doctors wouldn’t let anyone see her.”
“Okay. That makes sense.”
Carrie, next door, made a noise loud enough to hear over the video game.
“Is Aunt Carrie in trouble?” asked Lorelei, wide-eyed with worry.
“Umm.” Harper’s cheeks burned red. “No. She, umm… probably just saw a mouse.”
“Had to be a really big mouse if it made her scream,” said Madison.
Harper blushed even harder. Fortunately, the innocent look on her sister’s face proved she hadn’t meant that the way it sounded. “Could’ve been a rat. Don’t worry. Cliff’s there. So… tomorrow’s Saturday. You guys wanna go back to the pool?”
“Yeah!” cheered the kids in unison.
30
Acting Weird
Saturday passed in a pleasant blur of swimming, hanging out with Darci and Renee—who reacted to seeing Darci almost the same way Madison had reacted to Eva—and unwinding. True to Madison’s guess, the doctors allowed Eva to leave the med center that morning, and she joined the kids to play. She wound up swimming in her dress since Renee hadn’t had a chance to make a suit for her.
That afternoon, Cliff and Carrie watched the tween squad while Harper slipped off with Renee and Darci to Earl’s—at Renee’s insistence. She spent a while talking about her now-official ‘job’ with the quartermaster, dealing primarily with sorting, repairing, storing, and assigning clothes. Once the farm began producing materials, she would start working on manufacturing cloth from scratch and sewing new garments.
Darci had—somehow—located weed, and sparked up a joint right in the middle of Earl’s.
Renee and Harper declined her offer of a toke.
“Where the heck did you find that?” whispered Harper.
“Oh, chill out. Nothing’s illegal anymore.”
“Uhh, Darce…” Renee nodded at Harper. “Harp’s basically a cop now.”
Darci burst into laughter. “Yeah, well. I’m sure they don’t care about a plant.”
Renee fidgeted.
“No, not really. Though, I am curious how you managed to find it.” Harper waved the smoke away from her face. “And please puff that the other way.”
“Some Spanish guy has a hydroponic thing in his basement. Had a whole bunch stashed away. Dude kinda looked familiar.”
“Lucas Garza,” deadpanned Harper.
“Yeah, that’s him.” Darci snapped her fingers. “Nice guy.”
“He was in movies or something, right?” asked Renee.
“Something like that. Might’ve been a made-for-TV movie or a series. Nothing I ever watched though. Used to be a rich celebrity, but not like super big.” Harper sipped her beer.
Darci’s eyes opened to normal human width. “Wow. Seriously? I was chillin’ with a legit celebrity?”
“Yep.” Renee laughed. “You finally got to meet someone famous, but they weren’t a musician.”
The door opened.
Harper looked up to glance at who walked in and gasped at the sight of Logan not-quite-limping in. She jumped out of her chair and rushed over to help him to the table, letting him have the booth spot where she’d been, then dragging a loose chair to the table end.
“I’m not supposed to have beer since I’m on pain meds. Just needed to get out of that place and be social.”
Renee’s cheeks reddened a touch.
“No wonder you insisted we go here.” Harper looked around. “Damn. No pretzels to throw at you.”
“Sorry,” whispered Renee.
“Naw, it’s great. Thank you.”
“Not bad.” Darci looked him over. “So you’re the one Harper’s stupid for, huh?”
“Something like that.” Harper grinned.
“Umm. She’s not blushing.” Renee blinked. “Or denying it.”
Darci took a few seconds to react, again opening her eyes all the way. “Wow. Now I know the aliens stole Harper and replaced her with a pod person.”
“Naw. I’m still me. Just… I guess I decided to stop worrying about trivial bullshit since there’s actual deadly bullshit to worry about now.” She took another sip of her beer. “And you know what’s really worrying me?”
“Killing people?” asked Renee.
Logan rested his hand atop hers. “Madison?”
“You don’t wanna die a virgin?” Darci grinned, leaking smoke between her teeth like some kind of Cheshire dragon.
“All of those things bother me to some degree.” She held up the beer. “But what’s bothering me right now is that this stuff doesn’t taste overly strong to me anymore. Maybe I should lay off. I don’t wanna turn into a drunk.”
Her friends chuckled.
That night, Harper sat on the sofa between Logan and Renee while Jonathan and Madison clobbered each other in Mortal Kombat. Lorelei played with an Etch-a-Sketch the kids had found in a closet earlier while going house-exploring among the unassigned homes.
The power flickered, but didn’t falter enough that the game quit. Everyone looked up at the lights. Another power dip happened a few seconds later, but the game didn’t seem to care.
“So eerie,” whispered Madison. “I hope they aren’t dropping more bombs.”
“Is it ghosts?” Lorelei gasped, then clung to Harper.
“No. The electrical system we have is so iffy right now, if a bird lands on a wire somewhere, the lights flicker.” Harper stared at the floor lamp by the front window, daring it to flutter again.
“Reminds me of my old apartment,” said Cliff from his favorite recliner.
“Hah.” Carrie—in a second recliner beside his that appeared in the house that afternoon—laughed. She told them about her younger brother’s house in backwoods Virginia. Whenever it rained, snowed, or did anything else but be sunny, he’d lose power for days. “That town probably had one guy with one truck and the electricity stayed off until Jim-Bob whatever felt good and ready to go out there and fix it.”
Cliff couldn’t stop snickering for far longer than that deserved, evidently struck funny by some mental image.
“’Nee, Darce has smoked so much weed she probably still hasn’t realized the war happened. It’ll probably hit her in about three months.”
Renee chuckled, but it sounded sad. Logan said ‘wow’ with his eyebrows.
“I’m kidding.” Harper sighed. “She knows. Just handling it in her own way is all.”
“Cool.” Renee nodded. “Least wherever she was, she had enough food.”
Harper squirmed. “Yeah. She did.”
Cliff, in whom she’d confided that particular truth, glanced over his book at her with pity and a bit of anger—probably directed at the war itself.
“Can’t think of what to talk about. Usually, I always talked about movies, but there aren’t any good ones coming out this summer,” said Logan.
“Yeah. Guess we better grab books on how to live like the 1800s and start talking about that stuff.” Harper let her head flop back. “Ugh. But hey, we’re alive, right?”
“I’d rather be bored than terrified.” Renee managed a weak smile.
Harper and Renee exchanged a meaningful look. Between Darci’s experience in the survivor’s camp and Renee being held captive by the Lawless for a few months, Harper couldn’t decide which one had sucked more. Both Darci and Renee had lost their parents as well, then had to endure even more awfulness. Compared to the two of them, it sure felt as if she and Madison got lucky.
We’re all broken a little bit. But, at least the glue seems to be holding the pieces together for now.
Eventually, it got late. Harper reminded the kids of it being Saturday night, time for baths. Jonathan ran off to hop in the shower. Madison put the PlaySt
ation away and spent the next twenty or so minutes playing dolls with Lorelei until the boy finished. As soon as Jonathan exited the bathroom, Harper assisted Logan down the hall to his room. Jonathan had agreed to share the room, relinquishing his bed to the wounded and using a sleeping bag on the floor for the duration.
The girls ducked into the bathroom and shared the tub. While Madison washed Lorelei’s hair, Harper scrubbed Madison’s. The six-year-old mostly played with her boat, only half paying attention to any effort to teach her how to wash herself. When the bath ended, Harper dried Lorelei off, then herself. They all put on their nightgowns and clustered at the sink.
She felt a bit strange standing there with both of her sisters, all brushing their teeth at the same time as though they’d become rural farm kids who’d never known about cars, electronics, or air conditioning. The modern world she’d once lived in increasingly felt like some strange dream that couldn’t possibly have been real.
Teeth done, they crossed the hall in a group and crawled into bed together, Lorelei on her left, Madison on her right. A few minutes passed, Harper staring at the ceiling. Nothing particular worried her awake, merely the general anxiety of wondering what messed up thing would happen next.
Am I going to wind up getting into a gunfight with one of my old teachers? The way things are going, next week Mrs. Carroll, that nice old crossing guard, will show up and try to burn down the quartermaster’s building.
“Harp?” asked Madison.
“Yeah?”
“Eva’s acting weird. She’s real quiet now. You’d always yell at her to quiet down since she was really loud.”
And you used to be goofy and bubbly all the time. “Yeah. I remember. She saw some bad things.”
“So did we,” whispered Madison. “I’m acting weird, too. Aren’t I? Not being silly like I used to be.”
“You’re doing great, Termite.” Harper squeezed her close. “We saw some real bad stuff, too. You know I wish the war never happened. It’s awful and horrible, but maybe it’s time we stop thinking all the time about the bad stuff. There’s still some good here.”
“Like what?” asked Madison.
“Me.” Lorelei grinned. “Mommy didn’t want me. Now I got a family who loves me.”
Harper kissed her atop the head. “Absolutely. And, now, we’ll stay a family like people used to do long ago. I won’t be moving to college or getting my own apartment somewhere far away where we’d only see each other once or twice a year on Christmas and Thanksgiving. That’s not so bad, right?”
Madison hugged her. “Yeah.”
Eyes closed, Harper allowed herself a moment of hope. Lorelei’s soft breaths brushed warmth over the left side of her neck while Madison’s head rested on her right shoulder. Sure, a semi-automatic shotgun leaned against the wall in easy reach, but their bedroom felt safe and cozy. She lay there trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep for several minutes until the unnatural silence of a world without cars or airplanes started to pull her under.
“Harp?” whispered Madison.
“Yeah?”
“It’s okay if you wanna go out with Logan. He’s nice. But, he’s gotta stay here so you don’t go away.”
Chuckling, Harper squished her with a one-armed hug. “Slow that down a bit, Termite. Not like I’m gonna marry him next week.”
“So, two weeks?”
“Bit slower than that, but things might possibly end up that way.”
Madison let out a bright, chirpy giggle… the way she used to when something hit her funny, but not quite so funny that she doubled over in laughter. The girl hadn’t made that sound once in the past eight months.
Hearing a trace of the old Madison watered Harper’s eyes. She stopped trying to fall asleep so she could stay awake and enjoy this quiet time with her sisters.
For the first time since her father dragged her out of bed a few minutes before six in the morning the day civilization died, she dared to believe that happiness might still exist in the world.
fin
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading The Lucky Ones – Evergreen #3. The story of Harper and company will continue… soon.
Additional thanks to Lee Sheridan for editing and Alexandria Thompson for the wonderful cover art!
About the Author
Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place. Along with being an editor at Curiosity Quills press, he has worked in IT and technical support.
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom RPG systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Visit me online at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mscox
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/matthewcox10420/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox
Email: mcox2112@gmail.com
Other books by Matthew S. Cox
Divergent Fates Universe Novels
Division Zero series
Division Zero
Lex De Mortuis
Thrall
Guardian
Harbinger
The Awakened series
Prophet of the Badlands
Archon’s Queen
Grey Ronin
Daughter of Ash
Zero Rogue
Angel Descended
Daughter of Mars series
The Hand of Raziel
Araphel
Ghost Black
Virtual Immortality series
Virtual Immortality
The Harmony Paradox
Prophet of the Badlands Series
Prophet’s Journey
Divergent Fates Anthology
(Fiction Novels - Adult)
The Roadhouse Chronicles Series
One More Run
The Redeemed
Dead Man’s Number
Faded Skies series
Heir Ascendant
Ascendant Unrest
Ascendant Revolution
Temporal Armistice Series
Nascent Shadow
The Shadow Collector
The Gate to Oblivion
Vampire Innocent series
A Nighttime of Forever
A Beginner’s Guide to Fangs
The Artist of Ruin
The Last Family Road Trip
The Phantom Oracle
How Not to Summon Demons
Standalones
Wayfarer: AV494
Axillon99
Chiaroscuro: The Mouse and the Candle
The Spirits of Six Minstrel Run
Sophie’s Light
The Far Side of Promise anthology
Operation: Chimera (with Tony Healey)
The Dysfunctional Conspiracy (with Christopher Veltmann)
Winter Solstice series (with J.R. Rain)
Convergence
Containment
Catalyst
Alexis Silver series (with J.R. Rain)
Silver Light
Deep Silver
Silver Quarrel
Samantha Moon Origins series (with J.R. Rain)
New Moon Rising
Moon Mourning
Vampire For Hire series (with J.R. Rain)
Moon Master
Dead Moon
Maddy Wimsey series (with J.R. Rain)
The Devil’s Eye
The Drifting Gloom
The Dark Mercy
Samantha Moon Case Files series (with J.R. Rain)
Blood Moon
Immortal Operative series (with J.R. Rain)
Broken Ice
Young Adult Novels
The Eldritch Heart Series
The Eldritch Heart
The Cursed Crown
Evergreen Series
Evergreen
The World That Remains
The Lucky Ones
Standalones
Caller 107
The Summer the World Ended
Nine Candles of Deepest Black
The Forest Beyond the Earth
Out of Sight
Evergreen
Middle Grade Novels
The Adventures of Ubergirl series
My Dad is a Mad Scientist
Tales of Widowswood series
Emma and the Banderwigh
Emma and the Silk Thieves
Emma and the Silverbell Faeries
Emma and the Elixir of Madness
Emma and the Weeping Spirit
Standalones
Citadel: The Concordant Sequence