Quaranteam - North West Ch. 22

I had to fight the urge to go to her, and I almost lost. "Everything is forgiven," I said. "OK? Everything. And we can't change what our families did or were. Now get your fine ass inside and lock that door. Barricade it even. And call me for anything, even just to talk."

"OK," she sighed and nodded. "OK. I will. I promise. Thank you, Harrison. For all of this. For being you."

"I'll always be me," I said, forcing a smile. "I'll see you soon, OK?"

She picked up the last bag of groceries and propped it on one hip as she watched me get back into my truck. Once I was inside, I let out a deep breath and closed my eyes while she couldn't see me. I wanted to tell her I could get her a dose right now. I wanted to tell her I would love her just like I did when we were teenagers, and we could pick up where we left off. For all that Erica was judgemental of her, I knew they would get along after things got settled. They were similar in a lot of ways, but different in other important ones.

I wanted to tell, but I knew what it would mean for me to offer it to her right now. It would mean, in her eyes, that I was giving up on the rest of the people in need. It would look like I was just trying to scoop her up like the hand of God and deus ex machina her survival.

I needed to trust Miriam and hope that she could shake something loose. That was the only way I could do what Kara would wantand what she needed.

And even if I did offer, and even if she said yes, and evenif she chose me and not to save a man from the community, that choice would haunt her. Maybe I should have let it be hers to make anyway, but I couldn't put that on her. I would carry it.

I pulled away slowly and saw Kara give a little wave and head back into her house, the door shutting behind her.

"Fuck!" I shouted in the closed cab of my car. I pounded the steering wheel with my fist.

I followed the dirt path down around a dozen more properties before it let out onto a road, and I started tracking back towards the main street and the exit from the Rez. Already frustrated and feeling a tightness in my chest - the muscles, not my heart - I tried to block out the horrible little things that dotted the homes and shops. There wasn't anything I could do, and I hated feeling that way.

Unfortunately, blocking things out wasn't helpful when it came to avoiding trouble. I made a turn that should have brought me one road over from the main drag and I slammed on the brakes as I came within ten yards of a crowd. It was maybe thirty people and they looked.... Crazy. They were hooting and cheering, and a lot of them looked like they were dressed in the ceremonial garb that was usually kept for festivals and cultural events. The few men in the crowd were bare-chested, and everyone had daubs of paint on their faces and bare skin. It took me a moment to realise it was supposed to be warpaint. Plenty of them turned at my approach, but many of them were still focused as a few people were putting more paint on a man who was on his knees in the front yard of a house. He was a little gaunt, and his bare chest was heaving as painted hands were slapped on his chest and back. His face already held streaks of blue and red, and he was wearing a feathered war headdress.

"What the fuck?" I muttered.

I grabbed the microphone from my dash and brought it to my lips, my eyes narrowing as I looked at the assembled crowd. They were all dead people walking, congregating during an outbreak. I triggered the mic. "For your own and public safety, disperse immediately," I said, my voice echoing out from the speakers built into the lightbar of the truck.

Then Feather turned from painting the man on his knees, snarling at my vehicle as she narrowed her eyes. "A false warrior of the white devil!" she cried, pointing at me accusingly with a hand dripping with red paint. "You have no authority here, pig! The earth rises up to send you back across the seas, and we shall inherit her protection once more."

Well, now I knew where thecrazy was coming from. She'd always been particularly nasty at any protest over the years, but this was something else.

"You are all risking your lives by congregating like this," I said into the mic. "The virus is contagious for two weeks with almost no symptoms before two days of brutal death. Many of you are likely carriers and causing the deaths of your friends and neighbours."

"He speaks with the false promises that destroyed our ancestors!" Feather shouted. "Drive him out!"

A brick came flying out of the crowd and panged off the hood of my truck heavily. Then I noticed other people in the crowd raising things that they'd been carrying. Some had rocks and bricks and sticks. Others had bows and arrows, and hatchets, and I spotted at least one shotgun.

"Fuck this," I grunted, dropping the mic and slamming the truck into reverse, turning in my seat to look out the back as best I could as I peeled away. More rocks and bricks came flying my way, and I jerked when someone shot a fucking arrow at my truck and it glanced off the windshield with a sharpcrack, leaving a jagged scar across it. I rounded the corner before anyone took a shot with a firearm, burning it back to the next intersection and then putting it into drive and speeding down the street. I whipped by abandoned cars, circling around the insane mob, and found myself in an area that I remembered. It took me another minute of fast driving before I reached the barricade.

I slowed to go around it then, muttering to myself, I threw the truck in reverse again and backed up into the car that had been moved. I pushed it back into place, then drove off.

It wouldn't stop anyone determined, but it was something.

I thumbed open my phone, keeping one eye on the road, and called Kara.

"Harri?" she asked, surprised since I'd just left.

"Yeah, I'm out," I said. "But I figured out the ringleader of your 'people going insane during a quarantine' problem. It's Feather."

There was a moment of silence. "Shit," she sighed. "Did she see it was you?"

"I don't think so," I said. "But if she asks around, people might be able to pinpoint that I was in your area just by my truck. They shot fucking arrows at me. Are you safe, or should I try and find a way to get you ladies out?"

"We should be fine," Kara said. "Feather is... she's always been a lot, and all of this must have pushed her over the edge. She might threaten us, but I don't think she'll actually try to attack us."

"That's a pretty thin line, Kara," I said.

"I know, but I can talk her down," she said.

"Tell me if something changes."

"I will," she said. "Be safe."

"Be safer," I countered.

The drive away from the Rez was way less full of anxiety and much more frustrating. People could be real cockbags.

- - - - - - - - - -

Showering at the compound was an unpleasant affair as I stretched and saw the bruising on my side, along with the aggravation to my leg. My headache, thankfully, had faded and the other bruises weren't so bad that I couldn't play them off. I also hadn't gotten a broken nose, which I'd left two of the bikers with, so that was a good thing.

Adding the trip to the Rez onto my timeline, not to mention the black market, had me a little worried about the frozen and dairy items in the truck, so I washed myself as fast as I could before wiping down the inside of my truck in case I'd pulled anything in on my clothes. Once that was done, I headed over to the Falls to make the delivery.

"What happened?" Erica asked me as soon as she saw me in the parking lot. Several of the ladies were there to help carry in the groceries. "And don't tell me it was nothing, Harrison Black."

Erica, apparently, was getting used to her Matriarchal role. I hadn't heard my last name said like that since my Mom had passed, but I'd definitely heard it throughout my childhood when she had a bone to pick with my father.

"A couple of things," I said.

"Well, you can start with the arrow sticking out of the side of your truck."

"What?" I asked, rounding the truck with a frown. Right there, stuck in the passenger side door, was an arrow. "Fuck me."

I told her about the drop off at the Rez, all of it, as we sat outside on the grass next to the parking lot and she held my hand and looked into my eyes. She was frowning and nodding as I told her how frustrated I was with the whole thing.

"You did what you could reasonably do, babe," she said when I was through. "Other than going all caveman and throwing all three of those ladies over your shoulder and carrying them out by force."

"You know-"

"I know," she stopped me. "I know. Now tell me whatelse happened."

Erica could read me as easily as Kara did. I had a moment where I could have chosen to play it off, but looking at my fiancee I knew that was the wrong choice. I could also tell that she had somethingshe was holding back. So I told her about the black market but downplayed the fight and how I got out of it. She narrowed her eyes slightly and I could tell she was stopping herself from either criticising my recklessness, or calling me on the downplaying. Probably both.

"Well, at least people are getting food," she said. "The news said that shortages are going to get worse.We might end up needing that black market sooner than later."

"Doubtful," I said. "We can eat with the construction workers if we need to, and between Vanessa and Miriam we can probably syphon off resources for here."

"Still, it's good to know it's there for now," she said.

"So what do you have to tell me?" I asked.

She frowned, but blushed, which was a weird combination on Erica. "Well, I figured out why I've been freaking out so much lately when things have gone wrong."

"OK," I said dubiously. "Why is that?"

"My hormones are way out of whack," she said. "I'm told that comes with being pregnant."

"That- I-" my eyebrows raised as my brain took the extra second to click on what she was saying. "Really?"

"Yes, really," she grinned. "I grabbed a bunch of tests a little while ago because Kyla and I are both trying, and I took one last night and one this morning and they were both positive."

I tackled her, softly, to the grass and kissed her as she laughed and hugged me.

I was going to be a father. I was going to have kids with the most wonderful woman.

"You'll be an amazing mom," I said in between kisses all over her face.

"And you'll be an amazing-"

"Guys!" Josie called, jogging through the parking lot towards us.

"Little busy, hon," Erica called to her.

"No, you need to come inside," Josie said as she got closer. I sat up from leaning over Erica at the tone of Josie's voice.

"What is it?" I asked. "Something happened."

"It's all over the news," Josie said. "It's- I don't know what's going to happen now."

The President of the United States collapsed and fell into a coma shortly before 3:30 PM on July 7th. We watched the next hour on the big TV in the rec room of the Falls with all the ladies. As the reports went on we switched from channel to channel. Faces we'd never seen on major stations were covering the events. No one was contradicting the other stations, though plenty of different narratives were spinning out of it.

I made eye contact with Leo when they announced that, with President Trump in a coma and unresponsive, Vice President Pence was going to be temporarily sworn in under the 25th Amendment. Leo was a lot more liberal than I was and had been staunchly disgusted by Trump, as had Erica. I had been a lot more... forgiving wasn't the word, but I respected the Office and I respected the democratic process. He was the President, and while he was something of a garbage fire when it came to his personal life, he was still duly elected. The fact that it was two equally shit choices between him and his opponent hadn't helped matters.

Leo, and Erica, both thought Pence was even worse than Trump because of his religious dogma. I didn't have a care either way on that, having grown up without religion really affecting me at all. He seemed a lot lessturbulent at least, so maybe he'd be a steady hand at the head of our country when it needed steadybadly.

The Vice President of the United States collapsed at 4:15 PM as he was stepping up to take his oath and assume the mantle of President.

After that was some chaos. Many of the ladies were frightened, and some were vindictively pleased if they were in the anti-Trump camp. I comforted people as I could, trying to assure them things would be fine even if I didn't know what came next.

In the middle of all that, as the commentators on the news were pointing out the line of succession put the Speaker of the House as next up, I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I stepped away from the rec room and pulled it out, seeing it was a text.

Greerson: Have a job opening if you're interested. Super stressful but great benefits. Comes with a big house and staff. Interested?

I raised my eyebrows high at the gallows humour. I also had no fucking idea how I had his contact in my phone. Before I could even reply, I got another text.

Greerson: Too soon?

I snorted and shook my head, smirking. It was a historical tragedy in the making and Agent Greerson, big shot in the shadowy OGA world, was texting me quips. I was a military man, and I understood gallows humour well, so I sent him back a crying-laughing emoji as I shook my head again. Then I sent another message.You're probably a little busy, but I could use a favour.

Nothing came back within a couple of minutes, so I headed back in. There was no telling what kind of shit he was dealing with at the moment.

Speaker Pelosi was sworn in, and I couldn't help but scoff a little. She was the US's first Female President, even if it was starting out as temporary, but that didn't matter so much to me as the fact that she'd seemed so damned out of touch and made that stupid Late Night show bit where she showed off an entire freezer full of expensive ice cream while the country was in lockdown and people were already dealing with food scarcity.

Politicians, as I'd pretty much always believed, were fucked no matter what side they were on.

Things started to calm down, and I found my hand in Ivy's as she smiled and pulled me towards the door. She, along with Dani, had the least care for the happenings of American politics in the short term, and I'd already sat with Ivy through multiple sessions of her cursing in French at the computer screen as Trudeau up in Canada seemed to put his foot in his mouth as often as Trump had. Dani often had few good things to say about the leadership back in Australia, either.

We had a new President.

I had more pressing concerns.

- - - - - - - - - -

I celebrated again, more thoroughly, with Erica alone in her room. We were both a little giddy about the idea of being parents, but we decided to keep it just between us for the time being. Not long, we both wanted to tell the others and especially not make it seem like we were hiding it from them, but with us all being split on where we were living and the investigation and the stuff on the Rez it didn't feel like the right time. Erica also assured me she could do all the early research we needed to do in terms of finding a doctor and getting her set up properly for what came next.

Keeping it from Kyla was especially hard for me when we had our time together, though she was distracted from reading me by my latest injuries and what had happened on the Rez. She, more than the others, had the least experience with Kara and the tribe in terms of the legal and protest issues since she'd joined us later than that.

"Why didn't you just offer it to them, Harrison?" she asked me with a sigh, softly shaking her head. "She wouldn't have said no."

"I don't think she would to save herself over others," I told her. "And if she did, she would regret it."

"Sometimes I forget how long you were alone," she said, looking at me intently as she lay next to me in her bed. I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but she kissed me and soon she was fucking me and I was entranced by her as she rode me with languid grace, staring her love down into my eyes.

Vanessa, once I was back on the site and she came home after work, was just as upset with me for the biker incident as Erica and Kyla had been. The fact that the story of a fistfight with some bikers also seemed to turn her on, she swore, was not a reason to do it again. She also needed a good amount of quiet time between the two of us, cuddling as she decompressed. Her father and a lot of the male crew on site were Trump supporters or at least 'old school' Republicans, so the events of the day had brought on a lot of friction among the crews, the upper staff, and the Imprinted ladies who leaned more Democrat since most were from the city.

Politics, it seemed, often wasn't that important to most people until it was thrust right up in their faces. Surprise, surprise.

Agent Greerson didn't text me back again until later that night, and when I asked if he could help with the Rez issue he told me he wasn't in a position to shake loose anything, especially when similar situations were happening all across the country. It had been a long shot anyway, but I still felt a little more defeated at the possibility getting cut off.

The next few days, thank God, calmed down and I didn't get shot at or find myself in any more fistfights. Most of my time was spent piecing together a timeline for the whereabouts of the recently deceased Poole brothers and their unidentified fellow raider. With all my other leads played out, and the serial number for the pistol not looking like it would lead me anywhere without showing up with warrants at every firearms dealer in the State (which could still end up being a dud), the receipts were my only real clue.

Creating the timeline was fairly simple, though it wasn't exactly comprehensive. There were days between them pretty frequently, and they jumped up and down the state. I tried mapping them out with pins and running a thread to track the timing, but I wasn't able to get a clear picture of a home base area. They were definitely more active in the northwest of the state, but weren't limited to it. There were even a couple of trips up into Washington State, though not particularly far based solely on their fast food stops.

In between that work, and starting to call up the fast food locations to ask for any security camera footage they had for the dates and times on the receipts, life seemed to settle into a little routine.

Vanessa was working hard. The second bunkhouse was getting filled up since the renovations were finished to make it Partner-friendly, which brought even more unskilled (in the trades) hands and mouths to the site. She was doing her best to divvy out what jobs she could if they made sense - they had a full-time medical response team with the nurses, and she proved to me that their cafeteria was putting out some pretty impressive food now that several ladies who had been in a Culinary Arts college program before being offered a spot in the testing program were on site. The offices got filled out more as well - accounts needed to be managed, and shipping and receiving had records to streamline and organise. Brent had almost too much of an office staff and could pick and choose the most experienced potential staffers for any role.

The rest of the ladies were getting crash courses in site safety, and then crash courses starting trades apprenticeships. With the third bunkhouse going up as planned, and in record time, I had a feeling Vanessa could put 'Trade School Headmistress' on her resume sooner than later, she'd be managing so many students at once.