Hungry Independents (Book 2) (34 page)

“I don’t believe that.”

“Why not? Look at all the things that came
from that day. Look at yourself and the amazing thing that happened
to you.”

“What? I’ve been invaded by someone that
doesn’t help out when I’m getting my ass handed to me. I just heal
up and keep taking it.” Hunter shifted his feet and shoved his own
hands into his pockets.

Jimmy stared at him with unwelcomed scrutiny.
“What happened?”

Hunter’s body convulsed and he stumbled away,
not wanting to talk about anything with anyone. This was his
mess—his life. Hunter was always alone. He accepted that long ago
when his parents died, regardless of how much Jimmy had been there
to help him through it. The greatest thing that ever happened was
when Hunter rode his motorbike out of Independents for the first
time. He was free in that moment to do whatever. He didn’t have to
return. Not really. Not if he didn’t want to.

Jimmy grabbed his arm before he stepped into
the street. “What happened?”

“You left me!” Hunter said. “Just like Mom
and Dad.” He couldn’t stop the pain from ripping out of him. “I was
the one who was supposed to leave, but instead you took that from
me. I’m afraid.”

Jimmy dropped hold of Hunter’s arm, but he
remained close. “Afraid of what?”

It was a simple question. What was it? Hunter
had been trying to figure this question out for so long. He was not
scared of anything. Scared meant you ran. Hunter never ran. He
would never back down.

But he was afraid, and that was something
totally different. Being afraid meant you didn’t want to face
something intangible.

“I’m afraid of being home.”

Jimmy’s silence was loud.

Another brush of hot air ran over them,
prompting Hunter to continue. “I can’t be the only one left when
this is over. I can’t come back here and find everyone gone. But I
can’t stay and do nothing. I have to take this fight away from
here.”

“Where is all this coming from?” Jimmy
asked.

“Damn it, Jimmy, don’t you see? I’m the
reason all this is happening here in Independents. It’s like you
said, these things happen for a reason, but I’m the one that it’s
all circling around. I find Catherine, Molly, and now Barbie. I die
and when I come back I have this archangel inside of me. Maybe if I
leave, then the rest of you will be saved.”

“But this is your home,” Jimmy said.

“And that’s why I have to leave.”

“Leave?”

“I can’t allow this to follow me home
anymore.”

“Look, you’re putting too much on yourself.
We need you, Hunter. Regardless of what you think, this is
happening to all of us, not just you and not because of you. This
is happening for bigger reasons that don’t have anything to do with
us. We just have to survive. We’re all in this mess together. You
going away would not change that.”

Hunter nodded, but inside he knew he was
right. He saw it with a clarity that shocked him. If he left,
Independents would be saved. He’d never convince Jimmy. He didn’t
have to.

“Hunter?”

“You’re right.” He sighed, trying to release
some of the tension, but he already felt most of it slip away. If
he was wrong about this, wouldn’t the angel inside tell him? “I’m
just a little upset right now. Molly and I broke up.”

“When did this happen?”

“About fifteen minutes ago.”

“Why?”

Hunter shrugged and told the truth. “Because
of all the changes.”

Jimmy rested his hand on his brother’s
shoulder. It made Hunter feel like the younger brother again. “Why
don’t you come inside? We have room.”

“No, I’m ready for a good night sleep in my
own bed. Molly said I could have the apartment. I’ve actually been
thinking about my bed for the past couple days.”

Jimmy smiled at him. “See, it’s not so bad
being home.”

Hunter rubbed the back of his neck. Being in
his bed and being home were two very different things to him. His
bed would be a relief for his many aches and pains. The loss of a
true home would never heal properly.

Jimmy pulled Hunter close and hugged him
fiercely.

Hunter returned the love with just as much
strength. “I’m glad you’re back alive.”

“I’m glad you’re here with me.”

* * *

Hunter slowly climbed the top step to his
apartment. His whole body felt trashed. Someone stepped out of the
shadows and Hunter thought Molly had a change of heart. Maybe she
wanted to forget about all that breaking up mess.

Barbie moved into the moonlight. “I was
starting to worry.”

Hunter smiled. “Oh yeah? What about?”

“I didn’t think you were coming back.”

Hunter tilted his head, trying to read her
face in the dark to see if she had guessed. But then he thought she
meant something else. “Are you talking about me or him?”

She closed the small distance between the
front door and the top step. Barbie looped her arms around his neck
and leaned close to his ear. “I wanted to see you, Hunter.”

Hunter circled his arms around her and held
her close. It felt right this time. He opened the door and followed
her inside.

A candle was lit on the coffee table, sending
a soft glow throughout the room. Catherine sat on the couch in her
pink pajamas holding a teddy bear.

“Where have you two been?”

“I had to drop Tommy somewhere safe,” Hunter
said. “What are you doing in here?”

“I wanted to let Jimmy be with his family
tonight. I think tomorrow Barbie, Margaret and I should find a
house to live in. What do you think, Barbie?”

“I...” Barbie began to say and looked at
Hunter and then at Catherine, who was busy fussing with her teddy
bear’s fur. “You’re right. That would probably be best.”

“Great,” Catherine said and stretched into a
giant yawn. “We’re going to steal your bed tonight if that’s okay,
Hunter? You don’t mind sleeping on the couch, do you?”

He stared at the couch as the girls left him
there for the comfort of his bed. He turned in time to see Barbie
closing the door, staring at him with a blank expression. Then she
was gone and Hunter was alone in the night, wiped out from his trip
to Cozad and his flight to the mountains. He sat down on the couch
and waited for morning. When sleep finally came, he passed into it
thankfully, and once again found his parents living in his
dreams.

The next day Scout sat with his knees
bouncing, reading over his sermon again, making sure it sounded
right. The congregation shuffled into the pews while Vanessa
powered through old hymns on the church piano that desperately
needed tuning. There were more kids filing in than Scout had ever
seen on a Sunday morning, plus with the addition of Cozad, every
row was packed full. The stained glass windows were open and a
breeze drifted from one side of the building to the other, flapping
pages in the open hymnals. Sweat moistened the collar of Scout’s
white button-up shirt, which he absently swiped a finger around.
After scriptures and singing, Scout stood at the pulpit.

“I believe in God. I can’t tell you why
exactly. Maybe it’s because my parents taught me to. Maybe that’s
good enough. It’s comforting to know that one of the things my
parents taught me before they died was to believe in God.

“You may not believe like I do, and that’s
okay. You woke up this morning and came to church looking for
answers. It starts with questions. I’m still searching for answers
just like you.

“I put my faith in God. Everything we are
going through will be so much easier if we all put our faith in
Him.

“Why?

“Because I believe it will. I believe in
God.

“Belief isn’t easy. It’s so much easier to
not believe, to give up and let the Big Bad roll right over you.
But I believe in God, and that means I put my faith in front of my
fear. My faith shields me from all the fears that would swallow me
whole without my belief in Him.

“Every chance we’ve ever taken is because we
believe that the outcome will be something good. When our parents
died from the plague, why did we leave our homes and follow the
road that eventually led us here? It was belief that something
better waited for us if we had the courage to go out and find
it.

“That’s what faith is. Faith is courage.

“God is waiting for us to ask for His help.
He has seen to our needs every time, even when we didn’t know what
those needs were. So now we have a big need. A long winter lies
before us without our normal food supply. We will ask for God’s
help and, with His blessing, we will survive like we have since the
plague took our parents.

“Will bad things continue to happen?

“Yes.

“Why?

“Because that is the nature of the world, the
nature of being human. That is the price we must pay to earn our
place by God’s side in Heaven.

“You might say that’s not fair. Why us? Why
can’t He just give us what we need? Why does it all have to be so
hard?

“Life has to be, because he gave us something
special when he gave us life. We were given the freedom to choose
between what’s right and what’s wrong. Everyone has that choice and
it makes us stronger. It will make us worthy when the time comes to
stand in God’s presence and say I did the best I could.

“That’s what I believe. I don’t pretend to
know all the answers. I believe in God and I’m asking you to have
faith with me. Have faith in God.

“I believe that God also has a plan for each
of us. I know he has one for me. I don’t know what it is, but I
know He’s working in me so I can become something better than I am.
He does that with all of us. It’s our choice to follow the path
He’s laying out for us. I know the path is hard, but with God’s
help, with His blessing and His guidance, we can survive anything.
He will help us through the dark times when we feel all alone.

“God’s first action was to bring light into
the world. God is the light. He is the shining candle in the pitch
black that holds every one of our futures.

“There was a time I doubted God’s plan. It
wasn’t that long ago either. I doubted His existence because we
were living in a dark place. Our parents were dead and everyone
else was dying. I asked myself how God could allow this to happen,
and when no one responded, the doubt crept in and the world became
darker. I couldn’t see His light for a very long time.

“And then I met a little girl. She brought
light back into the darkness, shining bright with God’s light,
bringing his healing power to my friend, Hunter. Not once, but
twice she healed him. And in those moments I realized that God’s
light had been shining the whole time. I was just too blind to see.
I was too busy following my own plan, wanting things back the way
they were before, instead of realizing that God had been there
protecting me, giving me strength through my sister, guiding us
through dark times across the Big Bad, to deliver us safely into
Independents.

“So what does God have planned for you? I
don’t know. I think life is about finding the path that God has
laid out for you from the moment you were born to the moment you
die. Sometimes we go off course, and sometimes things happen or
don’t go the way we plan. That’s when we need to stop, look and
listen for God’s plan to come to us.

“That’s what I believe.

“I don’t know what you believe. I’m just glad
you’re here. I hope my words will shine a light for you to find
God’s path. I hope you’re looking. God has a plan for you.”

* * *

Everyone filed past Scout into the sunshine.
Some shook his hand, and some even met his eyes as they did. Not
everyone had heard his message, and that was okay. They had come
for one reason or another, but at least they had come.

Too bad Raven had left before hearing the
sermon. Scout thought she would have liked it, but she was off
following her own plan. Whether that was God’s intention, Scout
didn’t know. He missed her and he wasn’t going to question her
leaving, at least not with God. Time, a lot of it, was needed to
shed the hurt of her absence.

The Brittanys served lunch outside, setting
up the tables on the brick cobbles in the middle of Main Street
after passing them through the empty window frames. They covered
the tables with an array of colorful tablecloths. Vibrant bolts of
fabric were rolled out and hung from the buildings. These crossed
the street and provided cool shade under the August sun.

They served the food hot, buffet style, and
Scout was amazed at the fare. Dylan had brought Chef Brittany hams
from the smokehouse that Famine had not destroyed. Jimmy and Samuel
had spent the morning before church digging in the fields for
potatoes and carrots and beets that lay beneath the ground,
protected from the grasshopper onslaught. Everyone loaded up a full
plate and found a chair.

They asked Scout to give thanks and bless the
food. Scout knew the kids of Independents had already been blessed,
making the thankful part important.

Scout ate with Hunter, planning a trip into
the Big Bad to start bringing back items desperately needed by the
town. They talked about where they had seen the things they needed.
They would search for livestock, mainly chickens and hogs, to
replace the ones that were lost. They would look everywhere for
things to eat, and then they would look everywhere again.

Jimmy walked up with little James asleep in
his arms. Fatherhood suited Jimmy, but the whole town saw their
leader as Dad anyways. Hunter smiled and pulled the tiny blanket
back for a better peek at his sleeping nephew.

“You guys are heading out tomorrow.” It
wasn’t a question. Jimmy knew the best thing for the town was to
get Hunter and Scout out into the Big Bad as soon as possible,
looking for stuff to bring home. “If you’re done eating, I want you
guys to go meet Mark at that farmhouse where you found the baby
furniture and sewing supplies last year.”