What Survives of Us (Colorado Chapters Book 1) (33 page)

Naomi inclined her head in acknowledgement.  When his attention returned to the crowd, she glanced sideways at Verity and Martin.  “He
feels
different, too.  Stronger.”

Verity just hummed, a noncommittal sound.  Martin, however, frowned, and his face stayed set in troubled lines as the three of them listened to Jack give instructions.

“I’ve organized you all into groups – we need to start a methodical search of the city.  You’re looking for anything that might prove useful, with food and medical supplies highest on the list.”  He paused, and looked around.  “You also need to be on the lookout for bodies that had been left exposed to the elements.  If possible, these bodies need to be buried, or at the very least, moved inside where they’ll be protected from the weather and further degradation.”

The crowd shifted uneasily at this last directive, and Jack paused
again, looking around, his eyes probing.  “I know it’s disturbing,” he said in a quiet voice that somehow carried to each person’s ear as if he were speaking to them alone.  “So many of us never saw death up close before the plague.  But it’s about more than the threat of further disease.  These are our friends and neighbors.  They deserve better.”

Jack’s persuasive
power
settled over the crowd like oil on turbulent water.  As if they were one organism, they settled, the restlessness dissipating.   Naomi didn’t know whether to be impressed or disturbed.  Her own intuitive sense was humming a soft alert, sending unease tickling down her spine.

Instructions received, the crowd broke up in purposeful knots and swiftly exited the lobby of the church.  Jack spoke to a few people, shook a few hands, then headed towards them.  Hades took two steps forward to angle his body in front of Naomi’s.  He didn’t growl, but his still watchfulness reinforced Naomi’s unease.  Something wasn’t quite right.

Jack didn’t miss Hades’ body language.  He stopped a few feet away, eyes on the big dog.  “I’m sure he doesn’t remember me.”

“He does.”  Up close, Naomi could see the lines of strain and tension aging Jack’s face.  He looked tired, like a man regularly pushed beyond his resources.  She remembered that he too had survived the plague and was probably still recovering.  “His breed is naturally reserved and cautious, and very protective.  You shouldn’t take it personally.”

“I’ll try not to.”  Jack met her gaze.  “I’m sorry for your loss.  Truly.  She was a lovely young lady.”

Naomi’s throat tightened on words of thanks, so she just nodded.  Jack turned his body slightly, angling his thumb towards the office area.  “Layla will want to see you.  Will you stay for a while and talk with us?”

Naomi nodded again, and the whole group followed Jack down the hallway, Verity’s step so light she hardly seemed to touch the ground, Martin bringing up the rear with Persephone still cradled in his arms.  When Naomi glanced back at them, he gave her a broken smile and unselfconsciously shrugged a shoulder to wipe at the escaping tears.

“It’s comforting, to hold her, isn’t it?”  He smoothed a finger between Persephone’s eyes and around a perky ear, and the little dog’s eyes drifted shut in bliss.  “She feels like a baby, warm and solid.  I bet it helped a lot, having her, when your little Macy passed.”

Naomi nodded, dropping her hand to Hades’ head.  “They kept me alive.”

Martin gazed down at Persephone.  “I’m glad you had them.  When my son…”  He pressed his lips together, swallowed, then looked up at her, his eyes liquid with the same bottomless sorrow she stared into each day.  “My son.”

“I’m so sorry.”  Naomi stopped walking and touched his forearm.  “With my whole heart, I’m sorry.  Parents should never outlive their children.  We shouldn’t have to figure out how to keep breathing without our babies.”  On impulse, she sent his heart a pulse of comfort, just like she did with the animals.  Martin started, then laughed a little.

“Wow.  That’s pretty cool.”

Naomi dropped her hand, and her shoulders rose self-consciously.  “It’s just something I do with the animals.  I wasn’t sure people could feel it.  I’m sorry if I…intruded, or over-stepped.”

“It’s okay.  We’re all trying to figure out what the new boundaries are.  It’s a strange new world.”

“Very.” 

They started walking again.  Jack and Verity were waiting for them in a doorway at the end of the hallway, he frowning, she beaming.  Both expressions gave Naomi pause, but she didn’t have time to puzzle either out before they were
stepping into the room.  Layla rose from where she’d been seated in a leather wing chair.  She looked as wrung-out as Jack.

“Naomi, I’m so happy to see you again.”  Like Verity, Layla stepped forward to take both her hands.  “I
felt
it when your Macy crossed.”  She squeezed Naomi’s hands.  “I hope you’re not offended, but I cast for you, a spell to strengthen and comfort you in your sorrow, and of remembrance for your daughter.  There’s nothing evil in what I do,” she added, her eyes sliding briefly to Jack.  Naomi sensed the divide between them on this, as well as Layla’s steady defense of her position.  “No Satan, no devil-worship.  It’s just a different way of approaching the Divine, to ask for blessings on your behalf.”

“It’s fine with me.”  Naomi squeezed back, feeling her throat tighten yet again.  She forced words out past the knot.  “Thank you.  For caring.  And most of all, for remembering her.”

They settled around the room, and Naomi spoke.  “Is Rowan here?  I wanted to thank her.  For trying to help.”

Layla answered.  “She’s out on her rounds.  She never stops.”  She looked down.  “We’re starting to lose more people.  Some of them to disease – not plague, but dysentery.  Some of them to suicide.  Rowan
feels
every death, but the suicides hurt her the worst.  She
knows
when people are going to make the attempt, but nothing any of us has tried so far has prevented someone from following through.”

“Now that the worst of the plague is over, people are facing what the world has become,” Jack added.  “Some of them don’t want to go on.  They feel they have nothing left to live for, and the new world just seems too hard.”

Naomi swallowed and glanced at Martin.  “I understand that,” she said softly.  “It hurts to live.  Dying looks so peaceful and painless.”  She cleared her throat and spoke with more strength.  “But I can’t leave my older daughter.  Piper.  I need to find her.  I know she’s still alive – I can
feel
her.  She’s in trouble, and she’s angry, but I know for certain she’s alive.”

“You don’t need to convince us,” Martin said with a wry smile.  “Strange new world, remember?”

Naomi smiled back, then swept her gaze around the group.  “Piper may be on her way to the cabin – that was our plan - so I need to wait before I go looking for her.  At least until next spring.  In the meantime, I need to prepare.”  She outlined what she needed; when she finished, Layla nodded.

“We’ll help you gather the resources you need.”  She looked at Martin.  “You have some survival skills, don’t you?”

“I would need to brush up, but yes, I do.”  To Naomi.  “I’m retired military.  Marine.  Where will you start looking?”

“I’m not sure.  Logically, I should go to UNC first – that’s the last place I know for sure she was.  She might have left a message for me there.  She told her dad about a friend who had a place to go in the mountains, but nothing was ever confirmed and I don’t have any information about this friend at all.”  She pressed her hand to her chest and closed her eyes, feeling stupid, but knowing that she would be believed.  “I
feel
her in that direction.”  She pointed to the northwest.  “Fairly far away, maybe a few hundred miles – I’m terrible with estimating distances.  But I can find her.  I know it.”

Martin leaned forward, radiating excitement and purpose.  “My older kids are in Limon, with my ex-wife.  That’s only 100 miles or so from Greeley, as the crow flies.”  He smiled.  “I’m very good at estimating distances.  We could team up.  Look for them together.”  He set Persephone on the ground, then snagged a piece of paper and a pen off the desk, bending to draw a quick sketch.  “Okay, here’s Limon and here’s Greeley.  You defini
tely want to avoid Denver, so-”

“Hold on.”  Jack’s voice was weary, with an edgy frustration underneath.  “Martin, we’ve talked about this.  About the importance of community, and each person doing their part.  You’re the only person we have with military experience, and one of the only people who knows how to operate a firearm.  We need you.”

“My kids need me.”  But Martin sat back down, abandoning his map.

“Martin, you know how sorry I am to say this, but the likelihood that they’re still alive is so slim…”  Jack’s voice trailed into silence for a moment as Martin absorbed the words Naomi was certain he’d heard before.  Jack went on.  “Is it worth abandoning this community that needs you, this new family, on such a remote chance?”

Martin didn’t reply, but slumped back in his chair, arms folded across his chest, expression stormy.  If not for the liberal silver in his dark hair, he would have looked for all the world like a sullen teen.  Naomi’s eyes bounced back and forth between the two men, and she frowned in confusion. 

Martin was older, and radiated a natural authority.  Somehow, though, Jack had tapped into something that reversed their logical roles.  Again, Naomi’s intuition pinged a warning.  She folded her lips tightly against the urge to speak up on Martin’s behalf, even though a partner on her search would increase her chances of success exponentially.  Martin was a big boy.  It wasn’t her place to interfere.

Verity sidled up to perch beside her.  “Fascinating, isn’t it?”  Naomi glanced at her, and Verity nodded encouragingly.  “Well, go on, then.  Jump in there.  I’ve been wondering how this would play out.”

Her place be damned.  Instinct gave Naomi the words.  She leaned forward, ducking her head until she met Martin’s
troubled gaze.  “He’s not your father, you know.”  Martin’s eyes narrowed angrily, but she plunged on.  “You can tell when people are lying, right?  You can
hear
truth.  And what he’s saying is true, logically speaking, so you listen.”  She leaned forward.  “But what’s
your
truth?  What are your instincts telling you to do?”

“Naomi.”  Jack’s voice was gentle, but not for a moment did she miss the anger simmering under the softness.  “With respect, this isn’t your business.  You’re not part of this community yet, and though we’d love to have you join us, I would ask that you stay out of this discussion.  Martin and I have talked this over, at length, and we made an agreement.”

Naomi straightened her spine and raised an eyebrow.  She hadn’t just survived Piper’s turbulent teens; she’d learned a thing or two.  Her daughter’s ability to twist words and use emotions to manipulate had been second to none.  Until she’d witnessed Jack in motion, that is.

“I will consider being a permanent part of this community,” she said, holding Jack’s gaze, “When I have found my daughter and brought her safely home.  I am asking for some help, it’s true, to learn the skills I’ll need in order to do that.  In exchange, I can share what surplus supplies I have.  And I can teach people how to shoot and to properly care for their firearms.  I’m not a hunter, so I can’t teach those skills, but I can help you arm more of your people.”

She paused, then went on with the same honesty and authority she had finally learned to use with Piper.  “But I won’t be manipulated into staying, Jack.  You can’t use guilt or obligation to get me to stay, like you have with Martin.  This is something I have to do.  You don’t have to agree with it, but you must respect my decision.” 

She stopped talking, and the silence in the room was absolute.  Beside her, she could
feel
the slowly growing boil of Martin’s anger as her words sank into the place in him that knew
truth
.  He stood abruptly, glaring at Jack, then shifted his fierce gaze to her.

“I can teach you some of what you need to know.  I know a rancher outside of town that can teach you more.  When you’re ready to start, let Layla know and she’ll get in touch with me.”

Without another glance at anyone, he strode out of the room, leaving strained silence in his wake.  Naomi felt a spurt of social discomfort, and almost laughed aloud at herself.  Such feelings were a thing of the past, and a waste of time.  She’d set this in motion, and she couldn’t be sorry.  She sensed that Jack was essentially a good man, but he didn’t seem to be using the best judgment when it came to the new
power
he possessed.

Layla must have been thinking the same thing.  She leaned forward, speaking in a voice that both comforted and confronted.  “Jack, Naomi is right.  We can’t coerce people into doing what we want.  We can only invite them, ask them, then let
them make their own choices.”

“Oh, really?  Is that what ‘we’ should do?  Say what you mean, Layla –
I
need to stop manipulating people, isn’t that right?”  Jack glared around the room, at Verity, then at Naomi, then returned his gaze to Layla.  Even though it wasn’t directed at her, Naomi felt the force of his frustration and fear like a punch.  Layla gasped and put a hand over her heart, and Jack sneered.  “Whoops, sorry, didn’t warn you in time to get your shields up, did I?  My bad.  Sometimes I forget that we live in the Land of Oz now, and it would appear I’ve been elected Wizard, whether I want to be or not.”