Forager (9781771275606) (25 page)

Frank sat up a little straighter. The muscles in his jaw
tightened, as if he knew I wouldn’t like what he was about to say.
“It’s a big job, an important one, too important to trust to any
single person—”

Oh great, here it comes.

“—
that’s why Josh will be going with you.”

The mayor and Frank looked at me, waiting for me to argue. I
wanted to, but I kept my head and spoke calmly, “Are you sure
that’s a good idea? Wouldn’t it be less risky to just send
me?”

“
We’ve discussed this,” Frank said. “In fact, we were talking
about it when you woke up. We think it’s best if there are two of
you. That way, if one runs into trouble, the other can still report
back.”

“
Should we get Sawyer’s advice on this?” I asked.

“
I already did. Sending two was his idea.”

Thanks a lot, Sawyer.
Still, I doubted he had chosen Josh. Another
argument popped into my head. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to send
someone with more…experience?” What I really wanted to say was
“someone more trustworthy.”

“
It wouldn’t matter who we sent with you. None of us has ever
done anything like this,” said Frank.

I looked the mayor straight in the eye. I had one more card to
play. “You’ve already got one kid in trouble. Are you sure you want
to risk another?”

His eyes narrowed, his lips tightened, and his jaw clenched.
There was fear and guilt in his expression, but there was also pure
stubbornness. “Everyone else is busy collecting the ransom.
Besides, Josh needs to make up for his mistake. He has to prove to
the townsfolk, and to me, that he has this town’s best interests in
mind. I realize the two of you don’t like each other. So I’m
betting neither one of you will want to spend any more time
together than you have to. That makes it easy. The sooner you
complete your reconnaissance, the sooner you’ll be away from one
another.”

Josh shoots the Scavengers’ leader and the mayor calls it a
mistake?

Frank spoke again, “Under no circumstances are you to try and
rescue Chane. Don’t get any closer to the Scavengers’ camp than you
have to, and make sure you’re not seen. If you do it right, you
shouldn’t be in much danger.”

What, exactly, was his idea of much danger?

Before there was time to think of another argument or a way to
leave Josh behind, one of the stable hands entered. He signaled the
mayor, who nodded. “Good, your horses are ready. Dillon, you’ll be
riding the Forager’s mare. Josh, you get Bonnie.”

“
As soon as you’ve finished eating,” said Frank, “you and Josh
should head out. There’s still plenty of daylight left, so best
make the most of it.”

There was no getting out of this. Josh was coming. I hoped he
understood there wouldn’t be any place for his bullying on this
ride.

Scooping up the last of the spaghetti with my fork, I shoveled
it in my mouth. I got up to take my plate to the dish water, and
the mayor said, “Millie can take care of that.” He looked at Josh.
“Stay safe.”

“
Find out as much as you can, but don’t get caught,” Frank
said. “When the sun goes down, you two hightail it back here. We’ll
be waiting.”

I waved at Millie as we headed out. “Thanks for the spaghetti.
It was great.”

She waved back. “Glad you liked it. You be careful, you hear?”
I smiled Same old Millie.

Not wanting Josh behind me, I made it a point to follow him
outside. I clenched my jaw in frustration. This was not a good
idea. How could I work with someone I didn’t trust?

I checked Fred before I mounted. Everything was in place,
including Sawyer’s rifle and bow. The saddlebags held small rations
of food for both me and Fred. It wasn’t even enough for one good
meal—they didn’t expect us to be gone long.

Josh gave a low whistle when he saw the rifle in the scabbard
attached to the saddle of the stout dapple-gray mare. “At least
we’re not going out there unarmed.”

I’d almost rather we were. I’d seen what could happen when
Josh put his hands on a gun. Whatever his father said to him about
shooting Rasp, I hoped it hit home. I didn’t have a bulletproof
vest.

“
C’mon, Orphan Boy, let’s get going,” Josh said as he climbed
into the saddle.

There was that name again. Anger rose in me like lava in a
volcano.
It wasn’t easy to force myself to
stop it from erupting. I wanted to have it out right then,
but I would wait.
Quenching my burning blood as best I could, I wondered if bullying
was so ingrained in him that he couldn’t stop, even to find his
sister.

The thought gave me pause. Maybe I was reading too much
into the nickname. Maybe he’d used Orphan Boy for so long that for
him it
was
my name. Maybe his sister’s kidnapping was affecting him
more than he was letting on.

I mounted Fred. “Have you ever been further than the
fields?

“
No. What’s out there?”

As much as I didn’t want to speak with him, it would be easier
to judge his mood by his voice rather than his silence. I told him
what I’d seen.

“
What about where the Scavengers have my sister?” he asked.
“What’s that area like?”

“
I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention to the road while they
were shooting at me.

I nudged Fred, and Josh started Bonnie walking alongside. We
rode through town and onto the highway.

“
How far is it to where we turn?” Josh asked.

“
Two miles, then east.”

“
And how far that way?”

“
That’s the problem. I’m not sure. When I was attacked, I cut
across a field to the next mile. I was so relieved to have escaped
that I didn’t pay attention to how far it was to the
highway.”

“
I’m glad those Scavenger’s missed,” Josh said.

Here we go again.
I waited for a sarcastic comment, and decided to
stop this before it started. Whatever our feelings toward one
another, I was smart enough to put them aside. Couldn’t he do the
same? We had to find Chane. Our feud could wait. “Josh…this isn’t
the time. We need to focus on finding your sister.”

“
I was serious. If you’d been hurt, or killed, no one would
know where Chane is. Don’t get me wrong. I’m going to smash your
face to pulp when this is over, but my sister comes
first.”

That was comforting. “A truce, then.” I reached across my
body, holding out my hand.

He looked at my hand for a moment. I saw the struggle going on
in his bruised face. Slowly, like he was pushing through a stiff
current of running water, he leaned toward me and took my
hand.

It was the first time I’d ever seen one of his hands pointed
in my direction that wasn’t in a fist. When his hand enclosed mine,
it reminded me of a mouse getting swallowed by snake.

“
A truce,” he said, “but only a short one.”

We rode on. This part of the highway was familiar, so when the
house with the collapsed roof came into view I wasn’t
surprised.

“
That’s the first mile gone,” I said.

“
Is that the road you found the alternator on?”

“
No, it was the same one we need to go down. Wait…how’d you
know it was me that found the alternator?” I was half afraid
Charlie ratted me out.

Josh snorted. “I overheard Frank telling Dad. Me and Jason
didn’t waste any time letting the rest of the town know. Everyone
likes watching you squirm in the jolting ropes.”

Maybe I should have been worried about getting more jolts, but
instead, I was relieved to know that Charlie wasn’t to
blame.

Josh asked, “Were you attacked before or after you found the
alternator?”

“
After.”

“
That means if we come to the place where you found it, we’ll
know we’ve gone too far.”

“
True, but I doubt we’ll get that far. With those Scavengers
holding Chane, they’re not going to leave the road unguarded. We’re
going to have to be very careful once we get a couple of miles down
that lane.”

“
We could go cross country,” he said.

I pointed at the barbwire fence separating the overgrown
meadow from the shoulder of the highway. “It would mean having to
jump those now and then. I’m not the best rider.”

“
Don’t you have some tools in those saddlebags? Surely there’s
something in there we can use to either cut or break the
fences?”

I turned Fred toward the shoulder and rode her straight to the
fence.

Josh and I dismounted. The three strands of barbwire that
separated us from the field were placed at intervals from my ankles
to my waist. The closest fence post to me was a cracked and worn
tree limb as big around as my forearm. Kicking it only gave me a
sore toe. A thin piece of baling wire, twisted into a tight knot,
held the barbwire to the fencepost. Opening the saddlebags I rifled
through Sawyer’s tools until I found a pair of wire
cutters.

“
Think these will work?” I asked.

“
Yeah, they’re perfect.”

Closing the wire cutters over the topmost strand of baling
wire, I tried to untwist it. The pliers slipped off, and I managed
to stick my sore knuckles into one of the barbs. I bit my bottom
lip to keep from crying out.

“
Here, give me those,” Josh said.

I handed him the cutters and watched as he cut right through
the rusty twist. The barbwire sagged, but not enough.

Once again, I wanted to slam my forehead with my palm. Why
were tools so hard for me?

Josh quickly cut through the remaining twists. “Now stand on
these sagging wires while I lead the horses through.”

“
First it was the pry bar, now the pliers,” I said as we
remounted and rode on. “How’d you get so good with
tools?”

He surprised me with an actual answer. “When I was little, I
hung around Charlie Meyer a lot. He showed me all sorts of tools
and how to use them. He’s the one that showed me how to break into
a house.”

“
What was Charlie doing breaking into a house?”

Josh grinned. “It was actually his own house. He’d accidently
locked himself out.”

“
Why are some of the houses still full of furniture and
things?” The question slipped out. I didn’t even think about where
it was leading.

He eyed me for a moment before he said, “I probably shouldn’t
tell you this. It’s not something a lot of people know, but then,
it’s not really a secret. When the cache was completed, every
unoccupied home was stripped. The job was done. The problem was
that as the years went by people died.”

“
So the houses that are still furnished are from after the
cache?”

“
Yeah”

I’d never thought of that. It made sense, but it didn’t answer
the whole question.

“
Why didn’t someone collect the items after those people
died?”

“
I asked my father about that. He told me there were two
reasons. One, there wouldn’t be anything in those houses that we
didn’t already have a bunch of, like tools. The second reason is
that the dead were friends and family of other townsfolk. No one
was comfortable taking their things.”

My parents’ house was the same way. All the furniture and
household items I hadn’t moved to the RV remained inside. I
wouldn’t want someone to go in and haul off all their
things.

“
How many houses have stuff in them?” I asked.

“
No one knows for sure, but I’ve been in at least
thirty.”

It surprised me that he admitted entering the furnished homes.
I carefully calculated my next question, doing my best to make sure
the tone in my voice carried nothing but curiosity. If Josh thought
I was accusing him of something, he’d clam up. “Why?”

He shrugged. “Because I can.”

I knew there was more to it than that. I would have to draw it
out of him. “I bet you’re looking for something. Something left
over from before the Collapse. Something someone told you
about.”

“
Shut up, Orphan Boy. It’s none of your business.”

If I could irritate him just a touch more, maybe he would
blurt it out to keep me quiet. It was a fine line, though. If I
pushed too hard, he’d either stop talking or throw a punch. Most
likely the second option.

“
I’ll bet you’re stashing your own little cache somewhere.” I
gulped and hunched my head into my shoulders. So much for being
careful. Where had that come from? I’d just accused Josh of
stealing. I waited for him to nudge Bonnie closer and punch me in
the face.

Instead, he shouted, “I want to know what life was like
before, all right? Now shut up, Orphan Boy! Go make yourself useful
and find those Scavengers.”

I must have touched a raw spot for him to explode like that. I
never expected Josh to be curious about anything, unless it was new
ways to bully me. It occurred to me to ask him what he’d found, but
I decided I’d pushed him hard enough.