Fending Them Off Page 4

  “I don’t want to help strangers,” was the first thing he said, and it diminished her hopes. “They can help themselves. Now please go away.”

  But Clara couldn’t leave just like that. The answer was also to be expected, but they needed the tire, and these people probably didn’t. If they came across a car around here, chances were pretty high it wasn’t one that was operational, unless they just hadn’t realized that there were cars that could still be useful.

  She stopped them from closing the door, pushing back with a hand, still holding the other one up when they were suddenly on guard again.

  “Look,” she quickly explained, “my friends and I are going through the area and one of our cars got a flat tire, we bumped into something on the road. We just need a spare and we’ll be gone.”

  She waited anxiously, noting the slight interest in those eyes, before they darkened.

  “What can you give in return?”

  Clara opened her mouth, but it was more to curse than give any actual answer, but she held herself back at the last moment. Not that she thought they would be getting any help now. They couldn’t give up any of their supplies, and she could imagine, from their position, that a lot would be asked of them for the sake of a spare wheel, supplies they couldn’t afford to lose. Neither could she just agree without speaking to the others, and mentioning just how much they had with them was probably just asking to be attacked again.

  When she couldn’t answer, he closed the door in her face.

  Chapter Four

  They were having no luck with this, and Clara hadn’t really expected to. People got especially selfish when they were scared, which these people obviously were.

  Clara couldn’t even blame them. Strangers came into their town and started knocking on doors. They probably thought Clara’s group was there for nefarious purposes. There were usually some kind people that would help regardless, but clearly there weren’t any in this town. With how tightly they were all holed up in their homes, it wouldn’t surprise her if they weren’t even interacting with each other.

  It was so far removed from the situation at her home. Yeah, in her neighborhood, they weren’t exactly leaving their own homes to suddenly go and meet the neighbors, but their town did interact, with the police bridging the gap for them. She wondered where the station in this town was, before deciding it was pointless. If the citizens weren’t willing to help, the police would just ask for more in exchange, and they couldn’t afford it. They might as well leave these people the food it would take for her and her friends to be able to fit into the other cars, but suddenly she wasn’t feeling all that charitable.

  If these bastards weren’t going to be nice, they didn’t deserve the charity.

  She went to the next house, and got the door slammed in her face the second she opened her mouth to greet the man on the other side, only to be shouted at to leave when she kept knocking on the door.

  “We just need a spare tire!” she shouted, hoping against hope that he would do it, if only to get rid of her.

  But after a moment, he shouted back, “Get the hell off my property before I make you!”

  She wrinkled her nose and moved away. He was probably serious that he would hurt her if she kept annoying him, and she couldn’t afford to be injured over such a stupid reason. She met up with Cooper as he came back from a different house, his face grim as his eyes met hers and he shook his head.

  “Is this even going to work?” she asked despairingly, turning desperate eyes to Cooper. He usually had answers for most things. “If we keep doing this, are we going to get what we need? Or are we just wasting our time?”

  Cooper shrugged, his hands going to his pants’ pockets. “Who’s to say? We might find someone with a car or a spare tire lying around, and they may help us for a small price, but it could take going through a lot of the houses.”

  “So, it’s a long shot, and only after we waste a lot of time here.”

  “You can't call the time a waste, Clara,” he chided. “This is something we need, right? Even if it takes until nightfall, we just need to keep trying. If there was another option… I would rather not go this route. Depending on strangers is never a good idea.”

  Yeah. But Clara wondered what they could safely offer these people.

  Maybe… if there were others that didn’t want to stick around anymore than her group did, she could offer to take them along? But she somehow didn’t think these people would take that lead. They were facing uncertainty at home as it was; why leave only to go and face it in a place you didn’t know, and especially with people you didn’t know? These people were strangers to them, but the reverse was also true; Clara’s group were the strangers here, of course these people would be doubly as wary as her own group.

  Besides, if they’d had a choice, some of the people in her group would have gladly stayed at home, she and her family included. It was desperation and need for survival that drove them.

  Most of these people just wanted security, and currently, it was available at home.

  Did something happen in this town before we came along? she wondered.

  It would make sense, and it would explain why the town was this quiet when there were clearly people in the houses.

  “Do you think we’re going to be okay?” she asked without thinking, her voice low.

  Cooper turned to her with wide eyes that almost immediately turned worried. “Clara?”

  She winced, wishing she could take the words back. The last thing she needed was a chink in her armor. There were people depending on her. Cooper and Tessa were among them, and she didn’t want to disappoint them.

  But Cooper… she couldn’t help but think everything he’d gone through since the EMP was because he’d been following her blindly. She didn’t realize until much later, that a great big part of it was probably because he was in love with her. Clara didn’t know her own feelings quite yet, she just knew she didn’t want to be away from him. If anything happened to him on this trip because she’d dragged him along as usual…

  He might have died anyway if she’d just left him at home, if he’d even agreed to being left behind in the first place, which she doubted. It just wasn’t like him.

  “I mean, we aren’t home anymore. We don’t even have a home anymore. When something happens… like with Viola, even if we have a body to bury, we’re probably just going to have to leave them and move on.”

  Cooper sighed, moving closer to her and pulling her into a quick hug, then stepping back and holding her by the shoulders.

  “You can't afford to think about that.”

  “I know, but I can't help it. I keep thinking of Viola and how we just left her behind—”

  “We didn’t have a choice,” he cut her off. “If you chose to run, I believe there’s a really good reason, you don’t even have to tell me. You wanted to stay with her more than anything, Clara, I know you did.”

  She and her sister both. It just wasn’t possible for them. But she took a deep breath and released it in a gust, then pulled away from Cooper, sending a smile up at him.

  “Sorry for that. Moment of weakness,” she said, waving it away, ready to pretend it never happened.

  “Clara, you’re allowed to worry. Just talk to me when it gets to be too much, okay?”

  She nodded, but she didn’t think she could. Before, when the world was going around as usual, it was pretty much what she did all the time. Cooper knew about all her worries to deal with her work, her family, her lost dreams, and her relationships. But ever since the world changed, Clara had been trying her best not to burden Cooper too much.

  Besides, she’d gotten stronger, emotionally, if not all that much physically, and she could put up with a lot on her own now without talking to him about it.

  “Let’s keep going down this street,” she finally said. “We still have work to do.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her, and she knew he would bring this up again if he thought she was getting too stres
sed. But she would be happy if he just left it alone for a while. She’d gotten pretty good at hiding her feelings, after all.

  “Fine,” he said, loosening up. “But we’re doing it together now.”

  Not that she thought it would make much of a difference, and she was right.

  Clara and Cooper tried several houses, with similar effect.

  She groaned as they moved on to another house, letting Cooper take the lead this time as she looked around and tried to spot the others to gauge their progress. Just how far had they come, anyway? It was far enough away that she couldn’t even see where she’d left the cars, and she wanted to go back.

  Had this been a bad idea? She couldn’t say, because it wasn’t like they had that many options, when she refused to consider leaving others behind. But at this rate, they were going to be stuck in this town for a while as they looked for someone that would willingly help them. Just how difficult could it possibly be, just handing over a single tire you don’t even need?

  Clara was more than just a little upset by everyone’s unwillingness to help. Yeah, they weren’t in one of those movies where people just helped strangers, no question, and they should be grateful the worst they had gotten were a few rude words and demands to leave, but still. When Cooper came back, shaking his head at her questioning look, the frustration rose up and she wanted to scream at someone. Instead, she took in a deep breath, held it, and exhaled it in a huff.

  Cooper, as usual, seemed to know what she was thinking, patting her on the shoulder.

  “You knew this would be hard, Clara.”

  She grumbled, then sighed. “Well, yes,” she conceded. “I knew that, but I still don’t get it. None of them have use for wheels when their vehicles aren’t even working. What the hell could be so wrong with just handing over one when they don’t even need it?”

  She knew she was complaining to the wrong person about this, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “They’re all scared, Clara,” he pointed out. She scoffed, because, of course, she and her friends were scared, too. Cooper went on as if he hadn’t heard her. “Doing favors for strangers is the last thing on everyone’s mind. Unless we’re willing to give something up, we won’t get anywhere here.”

  Clara didn’t want to agree with him, but she couldn’t see this going any other way. By the way he firmed his jaw, she knew he was of the opinion that they shouldn’t hand over their stuff. At this point, Clara would be happy if they could just offer something in exchange for the tire, as long as it wasn’t anything big.

  “I understand, Cooper, I really do. But I can’t help being frustrated about it, regardless.”

  He shot her a worried look. “Why don’t we check a few more houses and if we get nothing again, we can check in with the others?”

  It was a desperate ploy to appease her, and she felt a little guilty, actually. As simple as it would be to just go back to leaning on Cooper for strength, she couldn’t afford to. That meant getting pissy over small matters had to stop. She sighed heavily, and went to a separate house from the one he picked.

  No luck.

  After a few more doors, even her guilt wasn’t enough to stop her. Cooper suggested gently that she just go back to sit with her sister and wait for everyone else to return, and Clara thought that would be the best thing.

  Clara returned to the cars, with only a little hesitation. She would be no help when she felt like the next refusal would make her a little too aggressive than the situation really merited. They weren’t looking to make enemies, after all.

  But a distance from the cars, she realized pretty quickly that something was wrong. Two of the cars were gone, as were the people guarding them. She came to a total stop, looking around the area and not seeing any other vehicles.

  Clara was confused, wondering where everyone was, and moved with a little more caution. She was getting a bad feeling about the situation, but she needed to see her sister. She was already cursing herself for leaving her behind at all. There was no sound in the area as she got closer.

  She found Tessa crumpled behind one of the remaining cars, passed out.

  The sight had her heart jumping in her throat, and she slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the scream that wanted to come out. In the next second, she was rushing and falling to her knees beside Tessa, hands fluttering over her body, for a moment a little afraid to even touch her.

  “Tess?” she called, her voice sounding a little shaky.

  With matching trembling fingers, she reached for her sister’s, touching her gently and trying to shake her awake. There was no reaction, and her panic raised up a notch. No. Just not her sister. Nothing could have happened to her, after Clara just left her behind…

  But she realized, once she calmed down enough to check, that her sister wasn’t gone. After checking, she found Tessa had a bump on her head and blood crusted to her scalp. Her hair was a little tamer than usual, so it was hard to find, but she felt it with her fingers, worried about the injury and how it would affect her sister once she did wake up.

  “Clara?”

  Cooper’s voice startled her, and he was there before she could speak. His eyes met hers, then roved over Tessa’s prone form, and he knelt beside them. He passed his hand over her hair, his hand encountering what hers had, and she watched as he clenched his jaw and got up and looked around.

  “Those fuckers,” he growled. “They must have knocked her out and taken the cars, leaving while we were looking around for a spare wheel.”

  Clara sympathized with the anger in his voice, but she couldn’t feel it just yet. She lifted Tessa off the ground, Cooper getting the idea as he opened the car door for her and Clara set her on the backseat, unsure how to help her.

  Lucky for her, Felicia returned in that moment. She must have seen them from afar, because she was suddenly there, pushing Clara gently out of the way and taking her place to tend to Tessa. Clara could only watch, hand rising to cover her mouth as she slowly backed away, freezing with a gasp when she accidentally bumped into Cooper. She looked up at his grim face, and felt her own crumple.

  Cooper quietly took Clara aside, and she went with him willingly.

  “Clara, we need to leave.”

  She looked up at him, blinking tears out of her eyes. She noticed the reserve in his expression and frowned at him, realizing he meant they had to leave right then, but they couldn’t. There were people that had gone seeking with them, probably gone farther. They couldn’t just leave them, and she was pretty sure that was what he was suggesting.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “We have only one car left,” he reminded her, “with very little food to feed double the amount of people as earlier.”

  She frowned at him. She could deduce the facts for herself, that wasn’t what she’d been asking at all. He must have seen the censure in her own expression, because he tightened his mouth and grabbed onto her arm.

  “Clara, we could just take some supplies and go. What the hell else can we do? The situation was bad before, but now…”

  Now it might as well be hell. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand, because she did, terribly so.

  Basically, their chances of survival just went down. They were screwed over by the others in their group, and Tessa even got injured in the deal. But just thinking of the others, who were probably still out there, and for their sake, Clara couldn’t just leave them behind when she’d been adamant about not leaving Barbara behind.

  She understood that Cooper was worried, but she really didn’t believe this was the answer. Doing to the others what had already been done to them wouldn’t make anything right, and Clara had been worried before, so she didn’t think this was something she could stomach.

  But still…

  “We can't, Cooper. You know that.”

  He growled a little. “If we’d just stuck with us, as a family, then none of this…”

  “You don’t know that,” she argued back. “Anything could have happened to us
, Cooper. My grandmother would probably still be dead, we’d still not have a place to stay. The situation wouldn’t be better just because there were fewer of us. It wouldn’t last.”

  “But traveling in a large group is problematic. This proves it, doesn’t it?”

  She shook her head stubbornly, and pointed at Felicia, who wasn’t even listening to them, busily checking Tessa’s injury. The situation wasn’t all that different, Felicia still wouldn’t leave her sister behind, and Clara wouldn’t leave her behind. And the two of them weren’t the only ones she was willing to stand up for.

  “Face it, Cooper. We’ll either need them, or they’ll need us at some point. We can't just live as the three of us anymore. A lot of the people left over here were people willing to risk their lives to help my family get revenge, remember? I owe them all.”

  She could tell he wasn’t happy, but she knew it was because he was just worried. She had her ruthless moments, but Cooper tended to be the practical one of the two. When Tessa showed her all the food she’d stored away in their backyard and she was wavering whether or not to tell people, Cooper had been the one to talk her into keeping it a secret, after all.

  “I don’t want to betray my friends,” she told him. “Felicia, Michelle, and Dante. Felicia is here, but her sister isn’t, and we don’t know how many of the others left us behind. We have to stick together.”

  He held her gaze for a moment, before releasing and abruptly hugging her, tugging her into his body so suddenly she was surprised and thumped into him, the only reason she didn’t bounce away was because his arms went around her in the same move.

  “I’m scared, Clara,” he admitted. “We don’t have a home to go back to now, no plan B for when we run out of food, your sister is hurt…”

  He didn’t finish as Clara squeezed her eyes shut and fiercely hugged him back. She was scared, too, and Cooper admitting it to her did make her feel just a little better.

  “We’ll all work it out together,” she promised.