The McClane Apocalypse Book Five (56 page)

“Turn left here, Simon,” she says,
disconnecting him from his thoughts.

He follows her orders, knowing that arguing
won’t do any good anyway. Simon tries to maneuver them down some
side streets to keep away from the school that Cory had deemed as
dangerous. He can still see the tall brick structures of Vanderbilt
University over the trees. The peppering of stray vehicles and
debris in the road makes the trip slower. A few minutes later, a
shopping district comes into view and so does the sporting goods
retailer. Simon pulls up near the front of the store, confident
that it’s safe or Cory wouldn’t have them meeting at this
location.

“Do you think we beat them? It’s a few
minutes after nine,” she informs him as she consults her watch.

“Maybe,” he says. “We’ll wait a minute here
and if they don’t show up, I’ll pull into that alley over there. I
don’t want to be sitting ducks.”

“Sounds good,” Sam says.

As he’s getting ready to pull around to
the alley, he spots Cory and his sister jogging across the parking
lot. Simon puts the vehicle in park and gets out. Sam joins him on
his side of the car as they wait for Cory. He’s carrying a crate of
goods that looks
fairly
heavy
, and Paige is carrying a box full of things
that poke out the top.

“Hey, guys!” Sam calls and waves with a smile
when they are within ten yards.

When they get to them, Paige says, “Hi,
Sam.”

“How’d it go last night? Everything ok?” Sam
asks after their well-being as she helps pack their loot into the
trunk.

Cory and his sister both start
stammering and mumbling at the same time with non-committal answers
of “
fine
,” “
cool
,” and “uneventful.” Simon feels an edge of
angry apprehension coming on. His friend had better not have
treated Paige poorly or upset her. Then his sister looks at her
feet, which are clad in new shoes.

“Shoes?” Simon asks.

“Um, yeah, Cory brought me here yesterday.
They still have quite a few pairs in the back. We thought maybe we
could take a lot of them to the farm and then the remainder could
go to people in town,” Paige answers quickly.

Sam blurts before he can even answer Paige,
“That’s great, Paige. Wow, Cory, that was so thoughtful!”

Cory just shrugs and says, “Yeah, well, I
didn’t want her slowing me down. It wasn’t anything.”

“Seems very thoughtful to me,” Sam argues.
“Let’s get going then. We should pull around back and get those
shoes. The kids at the farm are growing like weeds. Huntley’s
taller than me already.”

Cory adds, “That’s not exactly hard to be,
kiddo.”

“Cory!” Sam reprimands and gets a smirk from
Cory. “Two people tried to steal the Suburban this morning, so we
should be careful.”

“You shoot them, kiddo?” Cory asks.

“Cory!
Of
course
we didn’t. They weren’t even armed,” Sam tells
him and gets a chuckle in return.

She scuffs the toe of her
short leather
boot against the ground.
Her snug black riding pants cling to her curvy thighs and derriere.
Simon would like to find her some baggy, oversized jeans today if
possible. She’s wearing his black turtleneck. He’d insisted because
it was warmer than what she brought for herself. He knows she has a
pink tank top on underneath it because he’d insisted that she dress
in the same room instead of out in the hallway this morning. That
made him nervous last night; he wasn’t about to allow her to repeat
it. He’d tried hard not to steal a glance as she’d changed. He
hadn’t
really
succeeded.

Cory interrupts his nefarious thoughts about
Sam by asking, “What the hell happened to the Suburban? Were you
playing bumper cars with someone, Professor? Try parallel
parking?”

Sam laughs gaily and says, “Hey, I
never
said I was
a good driver.
It was from me, not Simon.”

Cory chuckles and wraps an arm around her
slim shoulders, “That’s all right, little sister. We’ll buff out
those scratches.”

She smiles up at Cory in all his scruffy,
manly glory and gets a snarky grin from him in return. Simon knows
that Cory is just being kind. Those scratches aren’t repairable at
all.

“Women drivers,” Cory teases.

Sam, not one to be intimidated by Cory, slugs
him in the stomach to which he laughs.

“You, hush!” she scolds with a bright
smile.

“Just a small accident,” Simon elucidates.
“She had to drive while I… disabled another vehicle. She did
well.”

Paige remarks with concern, “Glad you guys
didn’t get hurt. That’s all that matters.”

“We should take anything else from here that
you guys think we could use,” Cory adds.

“Sure, hop in,” Simon offers.

In the rearview mirror, Simon notices that
Cory and Paige sit as far apart in the second seat as possible and
his sister keeps looking out her window. There is something
unusually suspicious about her behavior. He wonders if everything
is all right with her.

“Feelin’ ok, sis?” he asks.

“What?” she asks as if she is
distracted. “Um, yes
, I’m
fine.
”

He says, “I hope you weren’t in the weather
too long last night. I don’t want you getting sick. Were you able
to get warmed up? It got so cold last night.”

Her eyes widen and she looks out her window
again, “Yes, fine, not sick.”

Paige’s mumbled response is strange. He needs
to speak with her alone sometime today. He doesn’t like her
withdrawn manner.

“I almost fell four stories to my death,”
Paige adds nonchalantly as if she is making a joke.

Simon whips his head toward her with
disbelief.

“Don’t worry, Simon,” she adds quickly. “Cory
saved me.”

“What was that about?” Simon
asks
of
his friend.

Cory pauses and tells him, “Trap. Set
by a bunch of creeps. She’s
fine
.”

“You take care of them?” Simon inquires.

His friend shrugs and says, “Nah, let ‘em go.
I didn’t want to get into it with Paige tagging along with me. They
were armed. We were outnumbered. We just did some E and E.”

Simon nods solemnly and turns left.

“Cory got stabbed yesterday, though,” Paige
drops like a bomb. “You might want to look at that.”

“What?” Sam screeches, nearly breaking
Simon’s eardrums.

“It’s fine. Let’s not all get dramatic about
it. It’s just a scratch. We’ll treat it later tonight,” Cory
reprimands.

Unlike Paige, Cory seems in a foul mood,
other than teasing with Sam. He’s aloof and staring out his own
window.

“Sure, no problem, bro,” Simon offers. “I’ll
take a look at it tonight in the cabin.”

“The cabin?” his friend asks.

“Yeah, I think I’ve found somewhere we
can stash the Suburban so that we can sleep out at the cabin
tonight. Kelly wants us to check on it anyway, make sure nobody’s
been there. I
was thinking
that
we’d stay there for the night and kill two birds with one
stone.”

“That’ll probably work,” Cory replies. “The
cabin will be a better place to sack out, safer.”

Simon pulls around to the back door,
and they get out. Cory shoves the employee entrance door inward
since it is stuck, the hinges probably rusting from lack of use. He
also volunteers to stand guard, watching the SUV, especially after
the incident at the Parthenon. They make fast work of tearing shoes
out of boxes and hauling them to the trunk. By the time they are
done,
the space
starts to get
cramped. Simon isn’t sure how much more they are going to be able
to haul. Sometimes they stack items on the roof and strap them
down. However, now Sam’s salvaged paintings are up there. The girls
even bring armloads of clothing with yellowing
price tags
still hanging from them.

When they are done, Cory suggests going
to a brewery to see if they can steal the alcohol-making equipment
there. Simon’s not sure where they’re going to fit it, but they
drive over there anyway.
This time,
they leave the girls to guard the back door and alleyway
while he and Cory go into the restaurant brewery.

“See?” Cory comments with enthusiasm.
“This
thing’ll
work. We could
make moonshine out of grain.”

Simon looks at the monstrosity, not sure how
the hell they’ll ever get it back to the farm.

“What’s the plan?” Simon asks his friend.

Cory smiles and says, “Not sure. Don’t really
have one. Too bad we don’t have that trailer we stole a few weeks
back. We should’ve brought it with us.”

Simon nods and thinks about their predicament
before saying, “Or one of the pick-up trucks the guys took home
yesterday. It would fit in the bed of one of those.”

Cory is squatted down looking at
the
pipework
and valves. Then he
sets his rifle on the floor and lies down where he can shuffle
under the big tank of the still.

“Oh, yeah,” he mumbles. “I think we could
build one of these pretty easily. Doesn’t look too hard.”

“No, it doesn’t, but are we going to be able
to get the parts? That’s the problem,” Simon replies.

“I think we can do this,” Cory says again.
“I’ve got an idea.”

He shimmies back out from underneath
the tank and goes to the SUV again. He returns a moment later with
an
instamatic
camera and takes
three pictures of the piping and the tank.

“This is good,” Cory tells him. “I think me
and Derek can figure this out by these photos.”

“Good,” Simon confirms. “I think we should’ve
given you the name of ‘Mechanic’ instead of that Dave guy.”

Cory chuckles and says, “I don’t think so.
But those guys seemed cool.”

“Yeah, I thought so, too. Sam didn’t like
them, though,” Simon tells his friend quietly so that she doesn’t
overhear.

Cory glances up at him from his squatted
position where he’s monkeying around with the valves. “I’m sure she
didn’t. I don’t think your sister was crazy about them, either.
They just don’t trust men too much. But can you blame ‘em? I
wouldn’t either if I was a woman.”

Simon
jabs
, “You mean more of a woman than you already
are?”

Cory stands and punches his shoulder.

“How’d everything go last night with my
sister?”

Cory’s eyes jump quickly to Simon’s. Then he
turns away before saying, “Um, fine.”

“Really?” Simon asks with disbelief.
His friend is
obviously
trying to
cover for whatever transpired. “You two don’t exactly get along,
Cor. Were you fighting or something?”

Cory grabs his rifle and says, “No, not
exactly. We’re trying to put it behind us and turn over a new leaf
and shit.”

“Well said,” Simon remarks with sarcasm.

“I’m not a senator’s son. I’m no great
orator,” he jokes.

Simon chuckles and would like to remind
his friend that he really isn’t the
son
of anyone. His parents are both dead, that part of his life
long gone.

“Looks like you guys had some luck at the
hospital,” Paige remarks when they join up at the hatch of the SUV
again. “There’s a lot of stuff back here.”

“Yes, it was good. Right, Simon?” Sam asks
for confirmation.

He nods in agreement but says, “We need to
find gas, people. We don’t know how it’s going to go with the CNG
for those trucks, if it even works. We need fuel to continue making
trips to the clinic each week. We’re getting more and more patients
every week who are hearing about the clinic. We have to continue
our work there.”

Cory snaps a picture of Paige and Sam. His
sister gives an uncomfortable grin, but Sam smiles happily, of
course and wraps an arm around Paige. She’s always quick to offer a
kind smile to Cory. Apparently the night before hadn’t gone as well
as Cory had said with Paige. She seems to be keeping her distance
physically from him and even walks around to the other side of the
SUV to get away.

“We’re gonna need to think outside the
box to find somewhere with gas. Everything’s already been picked,”
Cory remarks as they get into the SUV. “Maybe we’ll
find
another trailer, too.”

Simon notices that his sister is
sitting in the back seat with Sam this time. Naturally, Sam is
going on and on about the Parthenon, the architecture and the art
there while Paige either nods or
simply
stares out her window again.

“We could head over to the river marina.
Maybe steal some fuel out of boats if nobody else has thought of
it,” Simon suggests what he’s been thinking for a few days.

“That’s usually a dangerous area,” Cory
comments with a serious furrow of his thick brow.

“I know, but we need it,” Simon argues.
“Maybe we could take the girls to the cabin later and come back
just me and you.”

“At night,” Cory suggests to which Simon
nods. “Where to now?”

“Doc said to look for some new valves for the
gas lines if we can find any at a home improvement store,” Simon
tells him. “There’s a big box store, a Lowe’s or something like
that, to the south of us.”

“Cool,” Cory agrees. “Let’s head there.”

“Good,” Sam says from the back seat. “I need
to go to the bathroom.”

“Me, too,” Paige puts in. “Drive faster.”