Graham's Resolution Trilogy Bundle: Books 1-3 (52 page)

Clarisse watched the doorway as the voices got louder, heading her direction. Dread built within her, a feeling she often found herself vulnerable to after becoming a surrogate mother. Somehow she sensed what she was about to learn would cut a hole clean through her heart. Becoming vulnerable was a price she would gladly pay again to have loved this child as her own.

She hardened her resolve as Dalton entered the room with Rick right behind him. Dalton’s expression told her everything she dreaded and more.

“Clarisse. Rick got the call from Graham. They found Addy.”

“Is she—?” The words would not come.

“She’s alive. She fell through the ice. She’s been exposed, Clarisse. They had to expose her, they didn’t have a choice.”

“I need to go to her,” she said quickly. She began to grab necessary items out of refrigeration and put them into her backpack.

Rick glanced at Dalton as if pleading with him to step in, to make Clarisse wait and listen to reason. Dalton moved into the center of the doorway. Rick joined him.

Clarisse knew what they were doing but donned her backpack anyway. She took along another sterile suit. When she met them at the door, and they didn’t budge, she said the one thing she knew would get them out of her way.

“If you don’t let me go, I won’t develop the vaccine.” She made the threat in an ominous and level tone. She meant it. “I’ll leave here and go off on my own.”

Dalton put a hand on her shoulder. “What can you do for her, Clarisse? She’s been exposed. You, of all people, know what that means.”

“There’s only one thing I can do for her now, and that’s give her the working trial. It needs time to develop the antibodies, but so does the virus. Hopefully she inherited some of Sam’s immunity. If I get the vaccine to her now, she might have a fighting chance. Otherwise, she won’t. Now, move.”

She made that demand, looking Rick in the eye rather than Dalton. Rick not only moved right away but offered to go with her.

Dalton interrupted him. “No, they need you here, Rick. Please go ahead and tell Graham that Clarisse and I are on the way.”

“No,” Clarisse protested. “You can’t go, Dalton. Your sons need you. All the preppers need you.”

“Clarisse, I’m coming with you. Rick will tell them. They can minimize the risk. I can’t let anything happen to you. Please don’t take any more chances than necessary. We need you,” and then, in a lower tone, added, “
I
need you.”

She saw the pain this admission caused him. Despite his grief, maybe even because of it, Dalton needed to keep her close to him now. She was not alone in her fears for Addy, and he’d never leave her to face such a possible loss without him by her side.

“They’re coming,” Macy announced, out of breath, in the doorway as she and McCann had finally put the frozen deer carcass away in the greenhouse and walked in from the front door to the bunkroom.

“Why are you letting them come here?” McCann asked for the second time as the rest of them sat silent. He wondered what the preppers’ arrival meant and why they took such a chance. There was nothing anyone could do to save the girl at this point, he figured; she was going to die no matter what anyone tried to do. From McCann’s experience, once they were exposed the noncarriers always died, despite medical attention.

So why did I fight so hard to keep her alive after her near drowning?
McCann couldn’t answer his own question. He’d known exposure to any of them meant death to the little girl, but instinct, he supposed, had driven him. A life was in danger. His automatic response had been to save it.

“Rick said Clarisse has something they think might save her. We have to give them room, so we don’t risk exposing them, even though they are wearing those suits. Graham, what do we do?” Macy asked. “Stay in the bunkroom?”

McCann couldn’t believe this. One of them had threatened him with a gun and, worse, would have killed a little kid just for stepping across a small river. He whirled toward Graham. “You don’t seriously trust them, do you?”

Sam didn’t give Graham an opportunity to respond. “
I
trust them. Dalton’s a good man, and Clarisse is a scientist. If she’s got something to help my daughter, they’re welcome to bring it.” He returned his attention to Addy as Tala and Marcy brought more hot containers wrapped in towels to replace the ones that had cooled.

“We trust them, McCann,” Graham said. “They have more reason to fear us than we do them. They don’t have the virus. They never have had. If they’ve decided to come here, they are the ones in danger. We will all remain in the bunkroom while they’re here, and let them help Addy in any way they can.”

McCann huffed, but he trusted Graham, and if the man said yes, then he would comply. In his short time with these people he had already come to care for them. Especially Macy; he didn’t want anything to happen to her. He knew Graham was right about the preppers’ tremendous risk coming here, despite their biohazard suits. They must feel like they were walking through the valley of death. Their willingness to do so certainly said something of their character if coming was only to help save this little girl who would die in three to five days’ time anyway.

~ ~ ~

Clarisse rushed over to Addy, and Dalton took one look at Graham sitting at the far end of the bunkroom on a dining room chair with his injured leg propped up on another. “Where’s Mark?” he asked.

Marcy pointed down at him, where he lay on his bunk. Dalton took one look at his young cousin, used the back of his gloved hand to wipe condensation off his face screen, and strode in to survey the damage. “What in the hell happened to you people?”

“Oh, you know. Tangled with the locals,” Graham said with a shrug.

Dalton used his gloved hand to stroke the bruising on Mark’s face.

“I’m all right, Dalton.” Mark’s voice held little power.

“Like hell.
Look
at you, Primo! You’re a mess,” Dalton said, staring at Mark’s neck. “You look like someone tried to slit your throat.”

“Yeah. That was Sam. So I wouldn’t suffocate. Marcy, show him my straw.”

“No. And you quit talking,” she said. “Dalton, he had to have a field tracheotomy, his neck was swelled so bad. He got beat up by an old woman with a big club.”

“Jesus!” Dalton’s voice went high.

“Things happen,” Mark whispered. “I hear you guys had a fire. What happened there?” he asked, still barely audible.

Dalton nodded. “Yeah, things happen. Um, we lost several.” He dropped his gaze. “Kim, too, from smoke inhalation.”

Mark’s eyes widened, and he tried to sit up. Dalton laid a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder. “No . . . don’t, Mark.” He wanted to move the conversation along without bringing more attention to his loss.

Disregarding the risk, Dalton said, “I’ll get Clarisse to examine you as soon as she’s done with Addy.” He turned half around. “Your leg looks pretty bad, Graham. Did you wake up a bear or something?”

“Just a pack of wild dogs. McCann, here, shot them for me.” Graham’s eyes misted over for a moment. “Dalton, I’m sorry to hear about Kim. I do know what that’s like.”

“Yeah,” Dalton acknowledged. “I know you do.”

“How are your boys?” Graham asked.

“They’re as expected, man. They’re young. They don’t understand yet. Hell, I don’t get it yet. I fell asleep in the spare partition, the next thing I knew . . . Steven . . .” He shook his head as the memories from the prior night flooded in. “It’s hard, man.” He turned and went back to the living room. He didn’t want to talk about it.

Clarisse looked up at him, tears she couldn’t wipe away streaking her face inside the hood of her suit. She understood his awkwardness and, to move things along, she offered a diversion. “I gave her the first injection,” she said. “Now all we can do is hope.”

“First injection?”

“Yes. I’ve developed a vaccine. We hope to be administering vaccinations in another week.”

Clarisse stroked her gloved hand down the side of Addy’s pale face and slid her wet hair back. Tendrils of it had just begun to dry. “With Dalton’s permission, Addy just got the first one.”

“You mean, you won’t be susceptible to the virus anymore?” Tala asked.

“That’s right. It will be another month, but I’ll test everyone, and if they have sufficient antibodies, then, we will be basically like you—carriers.”

Everyone digested this in awed silence. Graham was the first to speak. “That’s amazing news!”

Dalton only nodded. “Time will tell.” He wasn’t ready yet to accept anything good. This all seemed like some sick dream he hoped would wake up from soon.

Sam said, “Dalton, Clarisse told me. About Kim. I’m . . . sorry, man.”

“Yeah.” Dalton looked downward; it was the only way to divert attention from his own pain. He was grateful to Clarisse when she stood and moved off to take care of Graham’s and Mark’s wounds.

“Well, this looks a little infected,” she said, and everyone’s attention turned to Graham. “But, for the size of the wound, I’d say you were lucky.” She began pulling items out of her bag. Graham sucked in his breath a time or two as Clarisse cleaned up the wound and added a topical antibiotic. “Whoever sewed you up did a great job, considering. You must have lost a lot of blood.”

“It was our new resident, McCann. He’s come in quite handy since he got here.”

“Your injury, our fire, Addy’s misadventure. That’s quite a string of unlucky events,” Dalton commented.

“Yeah, but that’s not all. First, the hunting trip ran into some trouble with someone who, unfortunately, was a little too far gone in this world to deal with the living. Then, I went into town to find something I thought I’d need and got myself attacked in the process, only to be saved by McCann.”

Clarisse listened to the men talk as she examined the hole in Mark’s trachea. She finished closing it; it had started to seal up on its own, but needed a little help. She applied new bandages. He would have scarring, but the swelling was sufficiently down.

Then she checked on Ennis, who slept through their ongoing conversations. His pulse was steady, and she listened to his heart and lungs. She nodded and smiled at Tala, who looked at her questioningly to confirm that the meds were doing their work.

Finally she turned her attention to Sam, who only let her take his daughter from his arms long enough for her to check out the knife slash on his chest and make sure the back of his head was only bruised, not caved in. Right now the only thing that could be done for Graham, Mark, and Sam was to let them rest. They should all be in bed to let their bodies do the work needed to heal them, along with the aid of antibiotics, in Graham’s case. Sam just needed a lot of rest and the reassurance Addy was safe, for now.

Clarisse could only hope that Addy would not come down with the virus at all. Only a few days would tell them for certain. Having done everything that she could do, Clarisse hugged Addy one last time and told Tala to call her several times a day with updates. With a last good-bye, Dalton led Clarisse out of the cabin and back to their own side of the Skagit River, where they had many other crises to deal with.

Sweat poured off Graham’s forehead as Tala mopped it with a cool, damp towel. It had been a long night for the both of them. Once again, Macy arrived with a pail full of clean snow.

Tala smiled at her. “That should be enough for now.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Macy sounded scared. The hand she placed on Tala’s shoulder had a tremor.

Tala gave her a reassuring pat on the arm. “Yes, I think so. He’s over the worst part. The meds are kicking in now. So, you go get some sleep for now. I’ll need you to take over for me in the morning.”

Macy walked away quietly and climbed into her bunk with Sheriff by her side. She gazed over at McCann, sleeping with his hat over his eyes. He snored, finally getting the sleep he’d needed for so long. As her own eyes closed, she prayed to God that Graham would pull through. She was afraid to go on without him. He had become more to her than even her own father had ever been, though Graham was much younger than her own dad. They all needed him in their lives—even McCann, though he wasn’t aware of it yet.

~ ~ ~

Tala held Graham’s hand while she sat by his side. She glanced around the room where they now had no beds to spare. Everyone was in a state of sleep or dreaming, and she would stay up through the night for them. Graham’s fever had broken, and she now waited to see if he might wake up and open his eyes or ask for water.

As soon as the preppers had left the day before, Tala and McCann had put Graham back to bed. His fever spiked again. The few times he was conscious, they hadn’t spoken about his trip into town. She searched his pockets for Ennis’s meds and found them along with the others. She gave the pain meds to Ennis, and then set the others on Graham’s side table. He’d see them when he was well again, and then they’d have the necessary discussion.

Soon, though, Tala had to watch in horror as Addy fought the first signs of the virus they all recognized from past loved ones lost. She held her hand over the new life that grew within her, having second thoughts about Graham’s wishes. Would it be kinder to terminate this child?

Tala stared off into space across the light of the lamp on the radio table. They had come so far, living in the ways of the past. No one knew about tomorrow yet; no one had time to worry about it. They were all too busy relearning the lore of yesterday in order to survive.

“Tala,” Graham said, startling her. “Where’s my jacket?”

“I . . . put it away.”

“And the pills from the pockets?” he asked, his voice low.

She wasn’t ready for this. She feared seeing Addy fight the virus, a battle Tala was pretty sure Addy would lose despite Clarisse’s vaccine. Would she still have the strength to argue with him when he asked her to take the pills that would destroy her unborn baby?

Tala shifted her glance to the box on the tableside.

He stared at her deeply while she retrieved what he wanted her to take. He held his hand out for the box and turned the foil packs out into his hand. He began popping the pills out one by one into his hand, creating a mini pyramid. He reached for her hand, dropped them all in and closed her fingers over them. He gazed at her and reached up a hand to brush away the tears streaming down her cheeks. “Get rid of these,” he whispered.

She saw fear in his eyes, but a resolve too. She said nothing, only nodded, and went to the woodstove, where she tossed the handful within. She went back to Graham, and he reached for her hand once more and pulled her to him on the bunk. “We’ll give life a chance,” he said, and then kissed her.

Tala placed her head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat as he held her and stroked her long hair by candlelight. He wiped her tears away again, and laid his hand over the place where the new life grew within her like a promise.