The McClane Apocalypse Book Five (62 page)

The three in the front talk animatedly about
the return of Robert. Sue seems happy. Derek is non-committal but
probably happy for Sue, and Grandpa is rationing his comments with
great conservative reserve.

“Hannah will be so glad,” Sue says.

Reagan just rolls her eyes out of view behind
her sister’s head.

“You ok?” John inquires, his forehead
pressing close to her ear.

Reagan nods and whispers so that the
others can’t hear, “It’s just weird. He hasn’t been home since Sue
got married. He’s never even seen their kids. And now what? We’re
just supposed to usher him and a busload of people onto the farm?
Where the
fuck’s
he been? We
thought he was dead.”

“Let’s just hear what he has to say, babe,”
John says, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and squeezing
gently. “It took Paige a long time to get home to Simon.”

“She’s a kid,” Reagan hisses. “He’s an adult
man, a Marine, no less. And why now? Why didn’t he come home sooner
if he could have?”

John just frowns and shakes his head. What
can he say? There isn’t a good excuse for not coming home to the
farm.

She glances periodically over her
shoulder, spying the one working headlight of her father’s bus in
the foggy distance. They arrive at the farm, and everyone gets out.
Kelly immediately comes off the back porch with his shotgun raised
in a defensive manner. John quickly goes to him to explain as
others file out of the house and barns to greet them and inspect
the new vehicle. Huntley gets the scoop and runs for the
house
, probably to announce the newcomer
to anyone still inside.

Her father comes down out of his bus
again and stands there looking around at the place. Outlines of
other figures are almost visible through the dark tint of the bus’s
windows, but nobody else comes out. Reagan notices what can only be
a wide smear of blood on the side of the white bus. It’s not fresh,
but it’s still there, nonetheless. He is still looking at the
house, the barns, the back porch which no longer matches the rest
of the porches because it had been burned and rebuilt. If he feels
any sort of disappointment in how they have kept the farm running,
then that’s too damn bad. Reagan would like to point that out to
him. That’s when she notices the cane in his right hand that he’s
using for support. Grandpa must
notice
it at the same time because he steps forward to speak with
Robert.

Hannah comes onto the back porch, allowing
the screen door to slam uncharacteristically loudly. Huntley
follows protectively behind her.

“Is that my Hannah?” the Colonel asks with a
smile.

Kelly is at her side in a second, helping her
down the porch stairs. He guides her closer until she is within a
few feet of their father. She doesn’t say anything or offer a hug
or touch, which is strange for Hannah.

“Your traveling companions must be
hungry, Robert,” Grandpa says with a
cordiality
that the rest of them just don’t feel,
except maybe Sue.

“Yes, sir,” he acknowledges with a nod.
“We’ve been on the road for months.”

“Yes, I would imagine,” Derek says
kindly.

Her father leans into the open door of the
bus and calls to the other people. One by one they file out, all
three of them. They appear healthy and well kept, in stark contrast
to her father. The woman’s dark hair is nearly black, touches of
silver threaded through the strands at her temples. Her hair is
pulled back into a neat, tidy bun. Her long dress comes almost to
her ankles and reminds Reagan of something a schoolmarm would wear.
She is tall and thin but seems healthy, which is good because they
don’t need any more germs brought to the farm. The boy is maybe in
his early twenties or so and neatly dressed and turned out. He
looks like someone her father would’ve had working under him in the
Corps, like a young cadet. He is very tall and handsome. The girl
is younger, perhaps early teens. She also has the dark hair of the
other two, but it is cut into a short, pixie style. She is not
dressed like a cadet. Her clothing is grungy and looks to be so on
purpose. She wears torn jeans and a black leather jacket that is
too big for her over a man’s flannel shirt. Her hazel eyes regard
Reagan with caution.

“Sir, I’d like you to meet my family,” the
Colonel says.

Nobody says anything. Everyone just stands
there trying to pick their jaws up off the ground.

“This is Lucas, my son,” her father says.

Grandpa extends his hand to the young man’s
already outstretched hand. Lucas has impeccable manners, nothing
short of what the Colonel would expect if this is his son.

“And my daughter, Gretchen,” he says.

“Just G,” the girl corrects, earning a frown
from her father. “Nobody calls me Gretchen, just him. Everyone just
calls me G.”

Reagan almost laughs. Gretchen
obviously
feels the same about the
Colonel as Reagan does.

“Nice to meet you, dear,” Grandpa says.

Reagan can tell that he’s in processing
overload; they all are. It’s like the world tipped just a little
off its axis while they were at the clinic today.

“And my wife, Lucille,” her father introduces
his supposed wife.

The woman shakes Grandpa’s hand and
greets him with a cordial smile. She
mus
t feel out of place.

“Wait just a goddamn minute,” Reagan
says.

“Still using colorful language I see,” the
Colonel remarks with a tight frown.

“Since you haven’t been a
pa
rt of my life since I was Sue’s second to
the youngest’s age, I’ll refrain from feeling put in my place by
you,
dad
,”
Reagan says with a glower of budding hostility.

Her father frowns harder. This is the same
frown that would’ve caused fear in Reagan’s heart when she was a
little girl.

“How old are you, Lucas?” she asks of her
father’s son.

“Um, hello, ma’am,” he stammers uncomfortably
and extends his hand which Reagan refuses. “It’s nice to make your
acquaintance.”

“Don’t call me ma’am,” Reagan corrects
angrily. “We’re supposedly related. How old are you exactly?”

“Reagan, that is enough of the
interrogations,” her father warns.

“Excuse me?” Reagan counters. “Tell me this
is an orphaned family you’ve adopted. Tell me this isn’t really
happening and you aren’t related to these kids by blood,
Robert.”

“I said that’s enough, young lady,” he states
slowly. “This is my family. You need to settle down.”

“Uh-uh, I don’t think so. You aren’t getting
off that easy. You think you can come home after how many years and
stake a claim here and set up your family here like you have a
right to?”

Everyone falls silent at this. John takes a
step forward, a little closer to her, assertively showing his
relationship to her.

“Oh, yeah! This is my husband,” she states
angrily and indicates with her hand toward John. “And the big guy?
That’s Hannah’s husband. And they have a kid, and so do we. And Sue
has three now. And we have a farm full of orphans. Some are even
gone on a run getting supplies for us. Oh, and they’re about to get
into some shit with some dirtbags tonight, into an all-out military
scale battle, but you wouldn’t know that now would you? No, because
you haven’t been around too much for the last fifteen years or so.
And no fucking wonder. You’ve got a whole new fucking family, don’t
you, pops?”

“That’s quite enough now,” Robert says with
his own amount of anger aimed at her.

Sue asks, “How old is Lucas, Dad?”

She has apparently caught on to the point
that Reagan is trying to get across.

“I’m twenty-three, ma’am,” Lucas answers and
looks at his feet.

Reagan is sure that the young man has no idea
what is going on. He just knows that it is something bad and
uncomfortable.

“Holy shit!” Reagan shouts to the heavens and
hits her father with a venomous glare. “Wow, you are a real piece
of work. Did you even wait for Mom’s grave to get cold, you
bastard?”

Grandpa comes over and rests a hand gently on
her forearm. Then he looks at his son, fully expecting an
explanation.

“Don’t speak to me that way. I’m your
father. Show some respect,” he
disciplines
.

“Respect?” Sue whispers and turns her head
away to shield her face.

“I loved your mother…”

Reagan snorts and laughs loudly at him.

“I did,” he insists. “But when she got sick,
I just… I couldn’t…”

Reagan interrupts him in a lower tone and
spits, “You’re so weak. You ditched us. You ditched mom when she
needed you the most.”

“I did the best I could,” her father
admits.

“You left!” Reagan shouts through a haze of
hatred. John pulls her closer and wraps his arm securely around her
waist.

“But I’m back now,” he says pathetically and
hangs his head.

“Where have you been?” Sue asks.

Their father looks relieved for a break from
her questioning. Reagan doesn’t care. She’ll get back around to
that line of interrogation soon enough.

“When things started getting bad,” the
Colonel
starts
, “I was sent up to
Colorado to make sure the President made it there
safely.”

“Did he?” Derek asks. “Because we had so many
mixed reports even before we were released from service by the
general.”

“Yes, he’s alive,” he says. “He was
air-rescued out of D.C. at the beginning. Some of his staff made
it. A few senators. That’s about all. The rest were killed.”

“And that would’ve been right after, around
March or April maybe? Then what?” Sue presses.

Her sister is holding her husband’s hand very
tightly. Reagan knows how upset she is about their father’s
appearance and, more importantly, about the appearance of his new
family. What was just a short while ago a happy reunion for Sue has
turned dark and depressing so quickly.

“I was ordered to go to Texas, but I
couldn’t,” he tells them.

Derek says, “The last we heard of you, you
were heading northwest. Did you go that way?”

“Yes, Derek, I did,” he answers. “That’s
where my family was. I led a unit up there and left them to find my
family once we got close enough.”

“What?” Reagan asks with even more disbelief.
This story just keeps getting worse. He ditched his men, too?

“I had to, Reagan,” he answers rather
testily. “I got word to Lucille, Lucy, that she should get the kids
and head to a cabin we owned outside Portland. I knew it was gonna’
be a crapshoot if she’d even make it. Things were falling apart
fast.”

“No shit,” Reagan says. “Things fell apart
fast for a lot of us. We all could’ve used some help.”

“I’m sorry for whatever struggles you’ve all
been through,” he says. “But I knew you’d all make it here to the
farm. My wife and children didn’t have anywhere like this to seek
sanctuary.”

“Where were they living before the fall?” Sue
asks. “We thought you were working in Germany.”

“I was, for a short time,” he answers. “My
family lived in Tacoma. I mean Lucy and Gretchen were living there.
Lucas was in Seattle. They met up and traveled to the cabin where I
did meet them. It took a while for me to get to them, but we were
prepared. We were sort of prepared. We had some food stores and
supplies up there in the cabin. We were all right for a while.”

“With no thought at all to your
entire
other
family
?” Reagan drills.

“That’s not true,” Robert argues with
fatigue. “I had no way of communicating with you at that point. I
knew my parents would be here for you. I knew Derek would make it
home to Sue and their kids.”

“He almost didn’t,” Sue
says softly
.

“And it looks like you are all doing a whole
lot better than most folks out there. A lot better than we were,”
her father says.

Grandpa steps forward, snapping out of his
quiet trance and says, “Why don’t we go inside and discuss this
later after you’ve all had some food and rest?”

“That sounds great, Dad,” Robert nods
with
agreement
. “There is so much
more I have to tell everyone before it’s too late.”

“Before what’s too late?” John asks.

Grandpa interrupts and says, “Let’s just eat
dinner and let them get showers. Then we’ll talk once the children
have gone to bed.”

John nods, but Reagan can tell that he’d like
to further question her father and get to the bottom of
everything.

“It looks like Hannah’s been cooking with Mom
again,” Robert remarks.

Little does he know yet that their
grandmother has passed away. She knows how Grams always had a soft
spot for her only son. Nobody breaks the news to her father that
his mother is dead. The smile on his face is too hopeful.

“I sure am glad to see you again,
Hannah,” Robert says to her little sister, who just stands there
beside her giant warrior wringing her
hands
in her pale blue apron.

“Colonel,” her sister says, lifting her chin
just a notch with nothing less than a haughty disdain. “I suspect
we’ll need a few more places set.”

And with that
cool
greeting, Hannah turns and allows Kelly to
help her back to the house. Kelly doesn’t come back out. Everyone
else slowly files in. Reagan notices that her father’s new family
doesn’t bring in bags, luggage, boxes of supplies, backpacks,
nothing. Even Paige and her friends had packs full of their
valuables, which hadn’t been much. They seem unsure of themselves.
The kids whisper to their mother, who mostly looks at her feet and
shakes her head. It almost makes Reagan feel
bad
. Watching her father
hobble
slowly on his cane with his son’s help also
almost makes her feel bad. And then she remembers that his son is
almost the same age as Hannah and that her father was likely
unfaithful to their mother during her darkest hours at the end of
her precious life. So many times over the last four years she has
wished for the comforting words or touch of her mother. She’s never
once wished for her anything from the Colonel.