The McClane Apocalypse Book Three (26 page)

"Thanks, Miss Hannah," Sam murmurs.

She turns away and pulls her frail hand back
from Hannah's grasp.

Sam says sadly, "I don't think I want to
talk about it. Not ever."

"That's fine, honey," Hannah tells her.
"Nobody here would ever force you to talk about anything you don't
want to, Sam. Let's just make some pies, ok? A good pie always
makes everything seem a little better."

"Yes, ma'am," Sam agrees kindly.

"You can collect the items for me, and then
we'll get started," Hannah instructs, and they work together for a
few hours slicing apples, rolling out dough and making pies.

It's always been therapeutic for Hannah to
work in her kitchen. Sometimes toiling away at tasks that take a
lot of attention to detail is a good way to take the mind off of
things that one doesn't wish to dwell on. Or, at least in Hannah's
opinion, they do. And it seems to do the trick for Samantha, too,
because she talks quietly with Hannah—not about her family—but at
least she talks from time to time while they work. They discuss the
baby peeps in the barn, the stinky pigs that they both dislike, all
the while Hannah tries to keep the conversation light and pleasant
until she sees an opportunity.

"Do you know anything about Huntley's father
Frank?" Hannah asks her as they get the first pie into the hot
oven. Soon the smell of cinnamon and apples will be filling the
kitchen with a comforting, all-enveloping warmth.

"Um, a little," she mutters and turns on the
water in the back sink.

"Can you tell me about him?" Hannah pursues
this line of questioning with the girl in the hopes that they might
learn more about their guests.

"He's… he's kind of mean," she says.

"Like how?" Hannah asks.

"I don't know," she mumbles and pauses for a
moment before continuing. "He's kind of mean to Garrett and
Huntley… well, only Huntley now. He has kind of a bad temper. Yells
a lot and stuff like that."

Remembering the twin brother of Huntley is
too much for Hannah and apparently too much for Sam, as well,
because she doesn't elaborate further. They work side by side
cleaning the kitchen, wiping countertops, dumping a bowl of scraps
into the garbage bowl for the chickens and pigs.

"He's also unkind to the two women out
there," Sam offers out of the blue.

"Oh, my. That's terrible, Sam," Hannah tells
her and has stopped scrubbing. Another thought occurs to her. "Is
he also… mean to you?"

There is a long pause, and Hannah isn't sure
if the girl is shaking or nodding her head again like she used to
answer. Habits like that are hard to break.

"Sam?"

"Oh, sorry, Hannah," the young girl
apologizes. "No, he's not mean to me or anything. He pretty much
leaves me alone."

"Why is that, do you think?"

Her answer is a short mumble of, "I
dunno."

This reply is curious, but Hannah doesn't
push. Hannah believes there is an actual answer as to why Frank
leaves her alone, but she also knows that she isn't going to get
that answer. She understands that opening up to people is difficult
for Samantha for some reason. Hannah believes that the reason may
be something that comes from bleaker origins and not by
accident.

"And the others? What about Rick?" Hannah
asks of the man who is a cousin of Levon's. She doesn't need to
inquire about Levon. Everyone has pretty much figured that one out.
He is a definite problem, but nobody has said much about his
cousin, Rick.

"Rick is very nice, Miss Hannah," Sam
comments with more feeling this time. "He tries to help us kids out
by giving us extra food sometimes. One time he found a case of soda
in a house and gave it all to us when nobody else was looking. We
each had two cans. It was great. And another time he gave us a sack
of M & M's and a box of granola bars just for us that he found
in a looted supermarket. The others didn't find out, either."

"Good, that's good I suppose," Hannah
replies with confusion. Sam's whole soliloquy is baffling. Why
would the others traveling with them care if the kids were given
food first or given the only store of food items, especially junk
food? The children were the only ones who could've possibly
benefitted from the extra sugary calories. Why wouldn't the others
have wanted them to have those things? "And what about the other
men? There are two others, right? Billy and Buzz or something?"

"Willy, his name is Willy. And the other one
is Buzz. He's kind of nice most of the time. He mostly keeps to
himself. But Willy is…"

Sam doesn't finish but issues forth a
disgusted sound. Hannah isn't sure she wants to know why he is so
offensive that Sam cannot explain it or that she'd make an
unladylike sound.

"What is it with Willy?" she presses
anyways. The family desperately needs information about these
people.

"He's… I don't know how to put it. I'm
sorry. He's just kind of creepy or something," Sam tells her.

"Oh," Hannah returns with confusion. "And
the women? Are they a problem at all?"

Sam pauses a few moments before answering.
"Um, Jasmine is pretty nice. She… I don't know, I guess I feel
sorry for her is all."

"Why is that?"

"She's sad a lot. I think her life before
all this was bad, too. I think Jasmine's just had a bad life," Sam
offers.

"And the other one? Her name is Amber?"

"Yes, ma'am. She's a lot like Frank. I think
they knew each other or were friends or something before. She's
mean like him," Sam says in a very hushed voice.

Hannah is amazed by Samantha's frankness.
This is big for her. They normally can't get much more than a
short, one word answer of "yes" or "no" from this girl.

"This is all helpful, Sam. We just want to
make sure our family is safe," Hannah tells her. Then adds, "We
want to keep you safe, too, honey."

"You can't," Sam says morosely and moves
away from Hannah.

"What do you mean? We'll do whatever it
takes…" Hannah is cut off as the screen door opens on its squeaky
hinges and slams shut again, followed by the sounds of Simon and
Cory in full conversation.

"Oh, hey, Hannah," Cory offers promptly.

His interruption abruptly ends her and Sam's
private conversation.

"Hi, Cory. Simon?"

"Yes, ma'am. Hi. Sorry," Simon blusters with
embarrassment over the non-verbal gaffe.

"Hey there," Hannah greets him.

"Hi, Sam," Cory adds, but Sam does not
return the greeting.

If she nods any acknowledgement at all to
Cory, then Hannah is unaware of it. But she highly doubts if
Samantha does so because she is more withdrawn and reserved around
Cory.

"We were just talking about our guests,
those men out there in particular," Hannah informs them and
immediately hears Sam's sharp intake of breath. "It's ok, Sam.
Nothing is taken outside these walls. Same goes for you, Simon. If
you feel like there's anything we should know about that group,
then you need to speak up and tell someone. We just want to keep
everyone safe."

"I understand, Miss McClane," Simon says so
formally.

She and her sisters have given them liberty
to use their given names, but Simon is reluctant to do so.

Since she's finished with the pies, Hannah
starts on cutting up vegetables for this evening's meal of tacos
and burritos. Grams said that they should start using up the store
of last year's beef to make room in the freezer for the steer
they'll be butchering soon. And they've all agreed that
non-perishables like store-bought items should be used before they
expire, thus the taco shells. All of the kids, even the teens, had
been excited about the prospect of taco night. Hannah would much
prefer a hot bowl of soup to ethnic food, but she also realizes the
importance of conserving what they are able to of their home-canned
goods in place of the items Grams had purchased from grocery stores
that will not have nearly as long of a shelf life.

"Is there any of that chocolate cake left,
Hannah?" Cory asks with a smile in his voice.

He has a sweet tooth like Reagan. Hannah
smiles gently to herself and turns away to wash the mixing bowls in
the sink.

"Yep, in the pantry, Cory," Hannah tells the
boys. She hears Simon murmur, "cool."

"Can Simon have some, too?" Cory asks.

"Hm, I don't know. What has he been working
on out there with you today?" Hannah teases.

"Um, well, we've been stacking hay in the
horse barn," Cory says honestly.

"Cory, I'm just kidding!" she cries with
laughter. "You don't have to work hard to deserve a little cake.
Besides, Miss Samantha and I have made apple pies for dessert
tonight. So we kind of need to finish off that cake anyways."

Cory and Simon chuckle with the nervous
laughter of unsure teenage boys.

"Oh, ok," Cory concedes.

"Sam, would you like to dice those peppers,
honey?" she asks to re-engage the girl again. "Or would you like to
take a break and have some cake with the guys?"

"No, thank-you. I'd rather just help." Sam
agrees. "I'm not quite… what do I do?"

For the next few minutes Hannah works with
Sam, showing her how she'd like the vegetable base for the taco
beef to be diced. When they get to jalapeno peppers, she dons a
pair of thin, rubber gloves and cuts these herself so the girl
doesn't have to. The boys devour cake and gulp milk with enthusiasm
while chatting about fast cars, music and things that used to exist
before this mess their country has turned into.

"Hey!"

Reagan's loud, gravelly bark comes from the
door opening as it slams, making Hannah jump. Good grief! For being
small and slight Reagan can sure cause a lot of noise.

Her sister just continues on in the same
tone, "Nobody said it was cake time."

"I told them they'd better hurry before you
got in here," Hannah teases. Cory laughs, but the other two remain
silent.

"Man, sold out by my own sister," Reagan
complains good-naturedly.

She does, however, plop herself down at the
island and from the sounds of it begins tearing into her own cake.
Hannah walks over, feels for Reagan and finds her. She pulls her
toward her and plunks a kiss to the top of her sister's head. It's
encouraging that Reagan doesn't pull back.

"How is it going with the repairs on the bus
thing?" Hannah asks of Simon.

"The RV?" Cory asks to which Hannah
nods.

"Not too good," Simon comments finally.
"It's a fairly complex machine, Miss Hannah. I don't know that they
will get it running again."

"That could be a big freagin' problem,"
Reagan swears through a mouthful of cake.

Her sister's manners are caveman-like
sometimes. Hannah shoots her a scowl of disapproval which gets no
response though she's quite sure Reagan saw it.

"Yes, it could," Hannah agrees readily.
Those people need to get off their farm, and soon.

The back door opens and closes again, this
time slightly less noisily.

"Hey, babe," John's sultry voice comes
through crystal clear.

What the heck is he thinking? Reagan won't
like him joking around like that. He chuckles quietly, leaving
Hannah to wonder what her sister has just done.

"Don't go teaching these nice kids your bad
habits like the one finger salute."

Never mind. Hannah understands perfectly
clear.

"Yeah and if Grams catches you doing that,
she'll chew your ear for sure," Kelly's baritone adds in.

Hannah lights up. She can't help it. She'd
also like nothing better than to go to him and fling herself around
him for a long, sweet kiss.

"I… I'm done. Excuse me," Reagan
mumbles.

Her sister sets her dish in the sink with a
clatter and dashes back out the door. That was rude even for her,
leaving Hannah to wonder at her rash behavior. She's obviously
missed something as usual.

"Good grief, I was just kidding. Grams isn't
even around," Kelly extends apologetically.

John laughs once. "It's not you, bro."

Hannah finds this all intriguing but can't
take the time to question John about it right now. She'd been in
the middle of a high level interrogation. Sort of.

"So the RV repair isn't going well?" she
asks of Kelly or John. They both sigh long and loud. "That good,
huh?"

"Don't worry. We'll figure something out,
Hannie," John says lightly.

"If we have to we can always go jack… I mean
borrow a car from an abandoned house. We've got enough gas around
here for a car fill-up," Kelly says, earning a laugh from John.

"I'll let you do that one, bro. I think the
boss has seen enough of my special talents for a while," John says
on another chuckle.

"So maybe you need to show her some other
ones," Kelly says with a tinge of racy humor in his voice.

Hannah believes that this is a crude
implication because the teen boys chuckle and John shouts with
laughter. She gives Kelly a scowl of disapproval of his own to
think about. It gets the same reaction as the one she'd offered to
Reagan.

"Yeah, maybe I should. But we gotta get our
guests moved on as soon as Jennifer is… better," John says about
the sick woman in the med shed who nobody believes will get better
at all.

"What is it, man? Simon?" Kelly asks.

"Nothing, sir," Simon says evasively.

He passes behind Hannah as he goes to the
sink to rinse his dishes.

"Ready to go back at it?" Cory asks probably
Simon because a moment later they are both out the door again.

"What's going on?" Hannah asks of Kelly. Sam
is quiet as she continues to chop vegetables for Hannah.

"I don't know. He just had a funny look on
his face when we were talking about the RV," Kelly tells them.

"Like what?" John asks.

Apparently he hadn't witnessed what Kelly
had.