Read No Shelter (#1) A Post-Apocalyptic Love Story Page 5

CHAPTER 5

  President Edward Kane was elected three years before the event. The president before him, Horace Waters, had refused to heed the signs of impending natural disaster. He was ousted when Kane promised radical changes that would help save the environment and prevent the end of the world. It didn’t take long for people to realize Kane was in way over his head—literally.

  There was nothing Kane or anyone else could do. Still, it didn’t stop millions of people from becoming Kane loyalists. And President Kane and his family were the first people welcomed into Umbra.

  “Is this a joke, because it’s not funny, at all?” I say, but I can already tell by the look on his face that he doesn’t find it funny either. The stupid grin he’s been sporting the past few days is gone.

  We walk in silence until we reach the cave. I don’t know how I’m going to tell the others what Daedric has told me. Maybe I won’t need to tell them. Maybe I can back out of our deal and tell him to find someone else to help him. Maybe if Isaac could talk he would tell me that Daedric didn’t even save his life. Maybe Daedric attacked Isaac and the cougar had the misfortune of getting between them.

  That’s way too many maybes. I decide to forget Daedric and his sister, President Kane’s lovechild. I’ll deal with Daedric in the morning.

  After two more proper doses of penicillin, a good smattering of antibiotic ointment, and a good night’s rest, Isaac is alert enough to ask for some fried cornbread. Cornmeal and water stirred up then fried in animal fat is a luxury, but it’s something I can give as we still have some cornmeal and lard left in our stores.

  Mary fries up the bread and I feed it to Isaac while Daedric and Eve are outside. Eve is showing Daedric how to set up a rabbit trap. I’ve been trying to keep Daedric occupied outside the cave in case Isaac wakes up. I don’t want him to get upset at the sight of an outsider in our home. I’m not sure he remembers Daedric or the fact that Daedric saved his life.

  After a few mouthfuls of cornbread Isaac is stuffed. He takes a sip of water and lays back.

  “Lay with me,” he whispers. “Please. I’m so cold.”

  I squeeze into the nook between his body and the cave wall so I’m on the side of his good leg. He holds his arm out for me and I lay my head on his shoulder. I pull the blanket up so it covers him all the way up to his chin.

  He falls asleep instantly and, though I’m relieved he’s getting his rest, I can’t help but feel a bit claustrophobic. I try to slide out from underneath his arm, but he tightens his grip. Finally, I give in and shut my eyes.

  I wake to find Daedric staring at Isaac and me from where he sits at the mouth of the cave. He turns away quickly and starts poking the fire.

  It’s pitch black outside. We must have slept all day. I never take naps during the day. I guess I was exhausted from the trip to the marketplace.

  I try to sit up without waking Isaac but his eyelids flutter open.

  “Where are you going?” he asks.

  “You need your medicine.”

  I grab the bottle of pills and pop one in his mouth. When I hand him the canteen he grabs my hand.

  He pulls me close and whispers in my ear. “Why is he still here?”

  I look him in the eye searching for some sign that I might be wrong about Daedric. “He saved your life.”

  Isaac sneers as he lays back. “It’s easy to fight off a cougar with a baseball bat.”

  Baseball bat? That must be one of the items Daedric claims to have found with the baseball cap. So that’s how he saved Isaac.

  “I’ll be right back,” I say to Isaac.

  I slip my feet into my boots and step outside into the darkness. Daedric follows me, as I expected.

  “Come with me,” I tell him. “Bring Eve.”

  Daedric and Eve meet me outside where Mary is busy gutting a rabbit they must have pulled from a trap.

  “Tell them what you told me,” I say to Daedric.

  Without hesitation, he tells Eve and Mary everything he told me, even adding a few details about how his mother disclosed the truth about his sister’s father just before she died. Eve is quiet, but I can tell this new information has only made her even more anxious. Mary, on the other hand, has a lot to say.

  “I’m not going to the Salton Sea. Your sister can rot in there for all I care,” she says as she cleans her knife on the dry grass.

  Sometimes, I don’t know if I trust Mary.

  She materialized eight months ago the same way Daedric did. Isaac and I had been going it alone for over a year, and doing just fine, when Isaac shows up at the cave with Mary after a trip to the marketplace. She was clearly starving, but there was something about her I didn’t trust. Isaac insisted I was paranoid. I insisted it was her proclivity for knives. I always wondered if there was more than friendship between them because everything changed between Isaac and me with Mary around—until last week.

  “How about you, Eve?” I ask, as Eve tries to shrink into the forest behind us.

  She steps forward and shrugs. “I don’t want to go, either.”

  After keeping Daedric around for four days, dragging him to the marketplace, and making him help with the hunting and gathering, I would feel awful backing out on my offer to help him. But my loyalty is to our little tribe.

  “We can’t help you,” I tell him. “I’m sorry, but it’s just too dangerous.”

  Daedric runs his hand through his shoulder-length blonde hair as he contemplates this news. “There’s somethin’ else I haven’t told you guys.”

  “Something,” Mary corrects him and I shoot her a look. “What? He has to learn to stop dropping his g’s.”

  “Go on,” I say to Daedric.

  He takes a seat on a log before he speaks. “I have something I can offer you in exchange for your help.”

  “Unless you’re carrying a few thousand gallons of water in your pocket, I don’t see what you have to offer.”

  “How about a few million gallons?” he replies. “I know where we can find shelter and enough food and watuh to last for years.”