Author's note: Hi everyone. I'm so sorry that it has been so long since I've written. My mom passed away shortly after I finished The Remnants. I was in a very dark place for a while and it has taken me a long time to pull myself out of it. I thought about writing other stories and I still have some on the back burner, but I couldn't stop thinking about these guys. I hope you enjoy book 2 of The Remnants. It will not be as long a story as the last one, but I hope you like it just as much.
THE REMNANTS: Book Two
Chapter One: The Fragility of an Idyllic Life
MAIN CHARACTERS
FUNDY ISLES ARCHIPELAGO
Whitehead island
Owen (61) and Arlene (55)
- Philip (34)
- John (27)
- Sue (22)
Jack (30) and Gianna (32)
- Gus (5)
McManus island
John (48) and Nadia (48)
- Maddie (23)
Pendletonisland
Bella (31) and Edward (30)
- Finn (10)
Jasper (33) and Alice (30)
- Clara (12)
Ben (37) and Angela (35)
- Isaac (19)
- Nate (10)
- Hannah (six months)
Carlisle (57) and Esme (52)
- Chris (22)
- Chloe (10)
Masen (36) and Leah (34)
- Austin (20)
- Max (16)
- Lily (14)
- Emma (5)
Emmett (36) and Rosalie (38)
- Sage (7)
Embry (35) and Katie (29)
- Casper (6)
Jane (27) and Caroline (32)
Quil (29) and Claire (30)
Seth (28)
Tia (48) and Peter (52)
EDWARD
"Dad… Dad… Dad…"
With a groan, I tried to turn away from Finn who was poking the side of my face to punctuate each word.
"Come on, Dad," Finn whined, frustrated that I was ignoring him.
"It's too early, kid. Go back to bed," I groaned, throwing my pillow over my head.
"I just need to ask you one question. Just one…"
"No…" I said, clenching the pillow over my ears in hopes that he'd go away.
"The sun's up, so it's not too early," Finn said, tugging the pillow out of my death grip.
In resignation, I opened one eye and glared at him.
"This better be good," I growled.
Finn looked at me with a disarming grin, using all his charm to butter me up. Bella said that that look was all me and I really couldn't argue because Finn was practically my twin.
He grinned in victory when he saw that I was waking up.
"Speak," I said, flatly.
"Can Nate and I go to the brook?"
I sighed in exasperation, rubbing my hand over my face to try to clear my head. Only a faint light was coming through the window so it was early… way too early.
"Finn… We've been over this. You can't just show up at their house when it's not even light out. Ben and Angela have probably been up all night with Hannah. When the baby sleeps, her parents need to sleep too."
Finn looked at me with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
"Nate's already here," he said.
He snuck out again…
With a groan, I sat up, causing Bella to stir.
"What's going on?" she yawned.
"Nothing… I just need to have a word with our son and his partner in crime," I said, standing up and stretching.
It was freezing in the house, so I yanked on the wool sweater that Bella had knit me for Christmas.
I must not have banked up the fire properly the night before, so I could see my breath in the air. It was times like this that I wished electricity still existed in our world, so I could have a space heater.
"Go to the living room, so you don't wake your mom up anymore than you already have," I said, giving my son a little shove to get him moving.
"Ben's not going to be happy," Bella said, from our nest of blankets. I looked at them with regret, wanting to crawl back into the little cocoon of heat that I'd left.
"Nope," I said, as I walked out of the room and towards the fireplace so I could stoke the fire. At least I could warm the house up for Bella before I left with our little punk and his best friend.
Finn was waiting expectantly in the living room, practically hopping from one foot to the other.
"Where is he?" I asked, levelling a glare at my son.
"Just outside," Finn said. "Can he come in?"
I nodded curtly as I grabbed the loaf of bread that Bella made yesterday. I cut some thick slices and some of the cheese that I'd gotten last week from John.
"Hi Edward," Nate said, bringing in a gust of cold air with him as Finn threw the door open.
"Nate…" I said. "Have you eaten?"
"No, sir," he said with a smile.
"Sit down and eat and then I'm taking you back to your parents," I said, not looking up at him as I prepared plates for both of them.
"Aw, Dadddddd," Finn whined at the same time as Nate started "but… but… but…"
"No 'but' Nathaniel," I said, looking him in the eye. "You know that you're not supposed to sneak out of the house."
"Mom's awake, but she's busy with Hannah. So, I just wanted to get out from under foot," he said, fidgeting as he spoke. He hadn't realized yet that it was his 'tell' that he was lying.
"Did you tell your mom that?" I asked.
"Ummm…" he said.
"Just say 'no,' Nate," Finn said, slumping forward so his elbows rested on the table with his chin in his hand. "You'll get into less shit."
"Finn, what did I say about bad language?"
"You use it all the time!" Finn accused, a scowl on his face.
"I'm 30 and you're 10. I've got twenty years on you, bud," I said, but I couldn't help the slight upturn of my lips. Bella was constantly telling me to watch my language.
"Ok, old man," Finn said, with a smirk.
I lunged at him playfully, and put him in a headlock so I could tickle him.
While all of this was going on, Nate sat at the table with his arms crossed, scowling at the table.
Coming from two easy-going parents, Nate was a surprisingly stubborn kid. I thanked my lucky stars that for the most part Finn was well-behaved.
It was at this moment that Bella came out of our room, looking only half awake.
"Morning everyone," she said, kissing me on the cheek and smoothing Finn's hair that was currently sticking up in all directions. I reached up and smoothed down my hair at the sight, feeling that it was probably in a similar condition.
"Nate, what are you doing up at this hour?" she asked, ruffling his hair too.
"Nothing…" he grumbled.
She paused and raised one eyebrow at him.
The look seemed to make Nate wilt and he sighed. "I snuck out," he grumbled.
"Uh huh," Bella said with a nod. "You know you're in trouble, right?"
"Yeah…" he said, slouching further into his seat.
Once they'd finished their breakfast, I ushered them both outside and down the hill towards where most of the other cabins were.
It was a beautiful morning. The sky was streaked with red, pink, and orange as it slowly overcame the dark blue and purple of the nighttime sky.
Morning dew covered the grass, dampening the cuffs of my pants as we descended the hill, but the air was fresh as it filled my lungs. There was a low-lying fog dappling the top of the lake as if clouds had dropped from the sky onto it. It was a beautiful sight that you'd only see if you were up before the heat of the sun had reached it.
Like most days in late summer, it was cold in the morning, but it would quickly warm up and be a hot day by lunch. After going fishing with Jasper, I planned on swimming in the lake while the weather was still good. I tried to join Jasper fishing at least a couple times a week, so that he and Peter didn't have to do all the work to feed a community that was steadily growing. The number of kids alone was increasing our food consumption.
Just as we'd reached the bottom of the hill, I saw the door to Ben and Angela's cabin fly open and Ben coming out of it.
"Your dad's pissed…" Finn hissed at Nate as they both tried to hide themselves behind me.
I glared down at him at the language at the same time as I grabbed the collar of Nate's jacket and pulled him out in front of me.
Ben looked up at that moment and ran a hand over his face in frustration.
"Nate, get over here!" Ben said, sharply.
Nate sighed and stomped over to his dad.
"What have I told you about sneaking out?" he said, flatly.
"That I shouldn't do it…" Nate said in a low voice.
"No… not that you shouldn't do it… that you're not allowed to do it… There's a big difference between those two statements."
"Sorry, Dad," Nate said, looking a little less rebellious.
"Sorry doesn't cut it, Nate. You can't just disobey us because you don't like the rules. Why did you sneak out in the first place?"
"I wanted to go to the brook and look for that cool algae," Nate said, rubbing his shoe in the dirt and not making eye contact with his dad.
"So, instead of waiting until people woke up, you decided to sneak out before daybreak, rope Finn into your plot, and then wake up Edward," Ben said, angrily.
"I guess so…" Nate said, sullenly.
"Well, sorry kid… There's no playing today. You're going to join up with Isaac in the back field digging potatoes and picking apples in the orchard."
"Finn's going to join you, so you can be partners in crime while doing chores," I added, much to Finn's chagrin.
"But Dad…" Nate whined. "Isaac's going to be with Chris and Austin. He always gets grumpy when I hang around with them. All he wants to do is talk about Maddie…"
Isaac and Maddie had been seeing each other for close to a year now and he was already asking Nadia and John if he could move to their island. He was in his twenties so Ben and Angela were in support of whatever he wanted to do.
"Well, you'll just have to deal with it and I'll talk to Isaac," Ben said with a note of finality.
"I've already fed them," I said to Ben.
"Thanks, Edward," Ben said, looking at me apologetically. "Go get your boots on Nate and then you, Finn, and I will head over to Isaac and Chris' house."
I looked down at Finn who looked to be just as happy about doing chores as Nate was.
"You too, Finn. Run up to the house and get your boots," I said, patting him on the back. It wasn't really his fault that Nate showed up at our house so early.
"Okay, Dad," Finn said before running up the hill.
"I'm really sorry, Edward. I don't know how to stop him from being so rebellious all the time," Ben said in exasperation. "He's not adjusting well to having a baby in the house."
I clapped Ben on the back in understanding.
"Maybe the kids just have too much time on their hands. Chris, Isaac, Austin, and Max, all have jobs to do every day. Maybe we need to find work for the younger ones too. Or at least up their training," I said.
I'd been teaching Finn about bows and arrows for a few years now, but I knew that I'd have to eventually teach him about guns too. I just didn't want to take away his innocence. However, we lived in a dangerous world and I needed to make sure he was prepared if heaven forbid something happened. I had nightmares sometimes of Finn being surrounded by zombies without me there to protect him.
Clara, who was only twelve, already knew how to fire a gun because Jasper started teaching her before she'd even turned nine. Many people in the colony were horrified that he'd started so young, but Jasper wanted Clara to be prepared.
For the most part, our kids were oblivious to the chaos of the world on the mainland. They'd heard about the "monsters" and we'd done drills on what to do if one of them ever got into camp. I also knew that some of the older boys, that remembered the dead, had told the younger children stories about them. However, none of it was real to them and I was both thankful and worried about that.
From the news that we were receiving from the Seawolves, the mainland was still a mess. Over the years, there had been some attempts at creating an organizational structure linking all the communities in the area, but they failed for a variety of reasons. Even though the number of dead wandering the streets had decreased considerably in comparison to ten years ago, people still turned when they died, so many communities were destroyed because of it. It only took one zombie to wipe out a gated community. Also, a lack of resources was always an issue because, unlike us, it was difficult to maintain a stable food supply when there was a constant risk of being overrun by the dead. That led to wars between communities who would fight each other for whatever they could get their hands on. Then, there would be a resurgence of zombies hunting humans. Seth told us that the Fundy isles which we belonged to was the only functioning cooperative he'd seen. Even though we mostly stuck to ourselves, besides socializing with McManus and Whitehead, we traded with almost all the islands quite regularly.
"As much as I hate to do it, I think we need to start teaching the kids more about how to defend themselves. We don't need to make it scary. We can make it seem like a sport to them," I said, resignedly. Then, I had an idea. "I'll talk to Benito about getting paint ball guns and equipment so that they can learn how to shoot a moving target without thinking about the killing aspect. If we got all the equipment to go with it, they would be safe."
"I've played paint ball before," Ben winced. "It fucking hurts!"
"I know, but maybe that will help them take it seriously. I don't want to scare them, but I need Finn to be prepared," I said, feeling guilty for even thinking about teaching Finn about guns. I hadn't touched one in years. I also knew that Bella wouldn't be happy.
"Did you hear what happened on Wolf island?" Ben asked, looking at me seriously.
"No," I said, surprised by the concerned look on his face.
Wolf island was a larger island further out to sea that we traded with frequently for wheat.
"There was a fire," Ben said. "Two families' homes were burned down and one family died in the fire."
Before I was able to voice my thoughts, Ben interrupted. "No zombies were created. The bodies completed burned up in the fire."
He looked sick for a moment. "It's terrible that I'm relieved that there was nothing left of the bodies of a family."
I didn't have time to say anything because at that moment Nate came out of their cabin and I looked up the hill towards mine and saw Finn running down the hill.
"We'll talk later," I said. "Do you and Angela want to join us for supper? I don't know what we're having, but Bella has been stockpiling berries for desert."
"That sounds great. I'll let Angela know when I get back," Ben said with a smile.
A few hours later, I headed to the eastern shore of the island with my fishing net and poles to meet up with Jasper.
I was surprised to find Emmett on the shore with Sage, his seven-year-old daughter.
"Are you guys coming fishing too?" I asked, as I came up behind them.
"Hi, Uncle Edward!" Sage said with a big goofy smile that was all Emmett.
"No," Emmett said as he grabbed a hold of the back of his daughter's shirt so she wouldn't tumble into the ocean. "We just decided to go for a walk, so that Rose could sleep in a bit."
I nodded in understanding.
"It must be a full moon," I said with a smirk. "The munchkins are restless."
"I'm not a munchkin!" Sage said indignantly.
"Nate?" Emmett asked with a knowing look.
"Nate…" I said with a sigh.
"What about Nate?" Sage asked, practically climbing up Emmett's leg to get into the conversation.
"Nothing, sweetheart," Emmett said, kissing her loudly on the cheek once she was in his arms.
"Yuck, Dad!" she complained, wiping furiously at her cheek.
"We should get back," Emmett said, hitching Sage higher in his arms. "Are you going out with Jasper today?"
"Yeah, I thought I'd give Peter a break," I said.
"Sounds good," Emmett said. "I'll see you later."
At that moment, I heard Jasper coming down the hill, carrying his own fishing equipment.
He passed Emmett and Sage on their way up the hill and I laughed as the only acknowledgement that they made as they walked past each other was a fist bump.
"Ready to go?" Jasper asked, as he met me by the water.
A cool draught of air whipped over the waves as we pushed the boat out into the water. I could already feel the chill of the misty air as it settled into my sweater. However, once we were out on the open water the sun would warm me up.
I climbed into the front of the boat and left Jasper to start the engine and steer because he was a pro after years of being one of our community's main fisherman.
It was a godsend that we'd had enough of a harvest a few years ago that we could trade with the Seawolves for a motorboat. Our rowboats and even our sailboat weren't dependable modes of transportation for ocean fishing.
Once he had steered us out of the labyrinth of hidden rocks that surrounded our island, he dropped the anchor and threw out nets and his fishing line.
As we waited for the fish to take the bait, I enjoyed the quiet and fresh air.
I watched as Jasper tilted his head upwards as he pondered the weather. Jasper had developed an uncanny way of predicting the weather based on the clouds. He tried to explain it to me once, but I wasn't able to catch on to it.
After a decade in the open air, out in all weather, Jasper's skin was more tanned than the rest of us and he had the beginnings of crows-feet at the corners of his eyes. But the biggest difference between the Jasper of ten years ago and today was that he didn't have that constant nervous energy that he used to have. On the open water, he was relaxed.
"What's with the staring?" he asked after I'd been looking at him for too long.
"Nothing," I said. "I just spaced out there for a while."
"Late night?" he asked with a leer.
"Stop it," I said. "It was nothing like that. The kids woke me up early this morning."
"Ah, the dynamic duo are at it again?" he asked with a huff of laughter.
"They wanted to go searching for algae," I said, smiling.
"I bet it was to get back at Clara and Chloe. Yesterday, she came back covered in mud and moss, saying that they'd set a trap for the boys. My little girl is getting pretty good at camouflage," he said, proudly.
"That's probably it," I said. "Well, there's worse things that they could be getting into."
I was then reminded of my conversation with Ben from earlier.
"I think its time to start training the kids on how to protect themselves. I know you've already started with Clara, but I think it's time for Max, Nate, Finn, Chloe, and Lily to learn," I said.
Jasper nodded.
"I hated teaching Clara about weapons, but I don't ever want her to be unprepared like we were when the zombies first came," he said.
I explained to him about getting paint ball equipment so that we wouldn't have to use ammunition and it would give the kids as close to a real situation as we could give them without putting them in danger with the right safety gear.
He thought it was a great idea, but in the mean time we should work more on bows and arrows with them.
A few weeks later, the Seawolves had brought us the equipment we needed to begin training the kids. They brought us more than we needed since paint ball equipment wasn't something that was high in demand in the zombie apocalypse, so we had enough to work with everyone. A lot more than the children wanted to participate because most people worried that they'd become rusty over the years. It was the first time that I realized that it wasn't just me that had it in the back of my mind that our idyllic life could be ripped away from us at any moment.
Bella and Esme didn't like the idea of teaching Finn and Chloe how to use weapons. I understood where they were coming from, but I felt it was a necessity. They didn't argue much against it because I knew that they understood deep down inside.
Now all I had to do was convince Finn that it was something he needed to learn.
"Why?" he asked me one day after I found out from Jasper that Finn had skipped out on his lesson.
"It's important, Finn. I don't want you to be scared, but you need to know how to defend yourself," I said.
"You and Mom will take care of me," he said, looking uncomfortably at the paintball gun that I'd placed in his hands.
"Of course, we will," I said, soothingly. "But we're not with you every moment of every day. What if we're not around some time when something dangerous happens? Or what if you see a juicy bird and I'm not there to shoot it for lunch?" I asked, trying to make our conversation lighter.
Finn smiled faintly.
"Okay," he said, quietly.
"Let's go, practice together," I said, reaching out to take his hand. "If you can hit the target, I'll let you have the biggest piece of blueberry cobbler."
Finn's eyes brightened up because he knew it was my favorite.
I tried to train with him every day after that with either the bow or one of the paintball guns. It made him nervous practicing with other people, so we did it together.
Once he was adept and relaxed when shooting at a target, I talked to the others about having a big game of capture the flag. It would require everyone to try to move quietly through the woods and shoot the other team with their paintball guns to get the other team's flag. I promised Finn that I would stick to his side because he didn't like the idea of shooting at other people.
On the day of the game, Bella and I could tell that Finn was anxious.
"You won't leave me, right?" Finn asked nervously.
My heart clenched at the anxiety written across his face.
"I promise, buddy. I won't leave your side," I said as I pulled him into a hug.
We dressed the kids in thick clothing and helmets to keep them as protected as they could be from the paintball bullets before we headed out to play.
It ended up being quite fun, even Finn seemed to be enjoying himself.
Because there were so many of us playing, it took most of the day to whittle down the teams so there was only a handful of us left. Finn and I were in the opposite team's territory, but I still had no idea where their flag was.
We were both hiding behind a large uprooted tree when I saw Emmett creep out of the woods.
I leaned down to Finn and whispered in his ear.
"Okay, you're up. Take your time aiming."
With a smile, Finn used the scope to focus on Emmett once he'd turned around to look in the opposite direction from us.
With a loud crack, Finn fired and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that he'd shot Emmett in the butt.
With a loud yelp, Emmett dropped his gun and grabbed his left ass cheek.
"We got you," I laughed as I stood up to tease Emmett.
However, before I could say anything else, there was another loud crack and I was suddenly splattered with green paint across my chest. It was so startling that I fell backwards.
For a moment, I was stunned at the sting and suddenness of it. Then, I saw Clara's head pop over the overturned tree. She wasn't wearing thick clothing like the rest of the kids. Instead, she'd covered herself in mud and had strapped fir branches around her.
"You need to look up, Uncle Edward," she said with a smile that was all Jasper. "I've been watching you guys from that fir tree for a while. Dad taught me to be patient and to keep my eyes open."
I laughed and said, "You're right. I should have been more careful."
However, when I looked over at Finn, my laughter immediately stopped.
Finn was cowering behind the tree with his hands covering his head and his gun a few feet away from him as if he'd thrown it.
I quickly crawled over to him.
"Hey buddy," I said, pulling his hands away from his head. "You're okay..."
With a sob, Finn crawled into my lap and hugged me so tightly that it was hard to breathe.
"I hurt Uncle Emmett," he whimpered. "Then, you got hurt. I was supposed to protect you."
"Shhh," I murmured, kissing the top of his head. "We're both ok. It's just a game, Finn. We're both ok."
Emmett joined me on the ground.
"I'm okay, Finn," he said, gently as he rubbed Finn's back. "Were you aiming for my butt?"
Finn turned his head slightly and looked at Emmett.
"Yes," he said with a watery smile.
"Well, you succeeded, kiddo," Emmett said with a grin. "Auntie Rose will be so proud. She's always telling everyone I'm a pain in the butt."
"And you hit your target," Clara said from her perch on top of the tree. "Even though Uncle Emmett's butt is an easy target because it's sooooo big."
"Hey!" Emmett whined.
Finn giggled, but burrowed his face against my chest.
"I think I'm going to take him home," I said, standing up with Finn still nestled in my arms. He was too big to carry, but neither of us wanted to let each other go.
That night I was so restless that I got out of bed, so that I didn't wake up Bella.
After pacing the house for a while, I found myself in Finn's room.
He was so peaceful, curled up in his bed and clutching the stuffed horse that Maddie had made for him when he was a baby. He hadn't played with it for a long time, but now he had it tucked tightly against his chest. It broke my heart that he felt that he needed the security of it.
"He'll be okay," Bella whispered as she wormed herself under my arm.
"I shouldn't have pushed him," I said, sadly.
"You're trying to teach him how to protect himself," she said, stretching up to kiss me. "He's just going to take a little time and reassurance from us."
I sighed and kissed her before letting her go and sitting down on the edge of Finn's bed. I smoothed back his hair and was relieved to see the little smile that he got in his sleep when Bella or I petted him.
"I'm going to stay here for a bit," I said to Bella.
"Okay," she said, kissing me on the side of the head before she left.
After that day, I didn't push Finn to learn how to shoot. I hated guns and I didn't want to force Finn into using one. I never wanted him to think that he was a disappointment to me, so I never mentioned it again. Instead, I took him to Carlisle and asked him to teach Finn about first aid. Finn was thrilled to learn how to help people when they were sick. He came back to the house one day in an absolute fit of excitement because he'd watched Carlisle stitch Katie's hand.
"Uncle Carlisle told me that he'd teach me how to stitch. He said it's just like sewing, but way cooler," he practically shouted.
I shuddered, remembering the time I had to stitch up Bella's arm. There was nothing cool about stitching together flesh. However, maybe my little boy was a doctor in the making. It was a wonderful thought.
It was another morning, up early with Jasper, that we headed out to fish. It was getting a lot colder and we didn't have enough food stockpiled yet. Therefore, we decided to stay out later and fish as much as we could. By the time Jasper called it quits, we'd caught a large amount of herring and salmon that we could salt pack for winter.
However, on the trip back to the island, Jasper suddenly cut the engine of the motorboat.
"What—" I began, but he cut me off.
"Do you smell that?" he asked.
I lifted my head to the breeze and inhaled deeply, noticing right away the acrid smell of smoke on the wind.
"Something's burning," I said, immediately on alert.
We were frozen for a moment, smelling the air to try to determine where it was coming from.
"It's not our island," Jasper.
My relief was short-lived when I realized that if we could smell it, it must be nearby.
"It must be Whitehead island," I said in a panic.
Jasper immediately started the engine and swung the boat in the direction of Whitehead.
We saw the flames on the beach when we got closer and my heart relaxed a little seeing that it wasn't on the side of the island where Owen or Jack's cabins were located.
On the shore, I saw Owen and his family frantically grabbing buckets of water from the ocean to douse the fire. They'd created a chain to pass the water-filled buckets to the burning bushes and trees that were lining the beach.
Before we'd even dragged the boat onto the shore, I jumped out grabbing our bailing bucket and filling it with water.
Lily and Philip had fir branches to fan the flames in an attempt to counteract the wind coming off the water that was pushing the fire inland.
"Where are Jack and Gianna?" Jasper asked, his voice hoarse from the smoke as he threw another bucket of water on one of the trees.
Owen shook his head grimly. "Haven't seen them," he puffed as he gulped for air.
It took us another ten minutes of frantically dragging water to soak the bushes and trees before the fire was extinguished.
By that time, a boat from McManus island had arrived, carrying their own buckets to stop the fire.
"What happened?" John asked as he jumped out of his boat.
"Don't know," Arlene said. "We smelled smoke and came running, but there was no one here, just the fire."
"Where's Jack and his family?" John asked, looking around. "Either he or Gianna should have smelled the smoke."
"We need to check on them," I said in concern.
Something was very wrong here. I couldn't figure our what had started the fire. It didn't just magically start itself. And why wasn't Jack here? There was no way that he hadn't smelled the smoke.
We must have been thinking the same thing because almost as one we started running, heading through the woods to get to Jack and Gianna's which was the only other cabin on the island.
I crashed through bushes ignoring the way that they scratched me even through my pants. Branches snapped against my face, but I pushed them aside. I barely felt them as I worried about Jack and Gianna and their little boy Gus.
When we first reached their cabin, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary besides things being abnormally still. There weren't even any sounds of the wildlife that usually surrounded us.
However, as I got closer to the cabin, I noticed things amiss. Someone had been doing laundry, but the newly washed blankets were lying on the ground not having made it to the clothes line and the tub of soapy water was knocked onto its side and was soaking into the ground.
The front door to their cabin was wide open, and as I got closer I realized it was hanging off its hinges.
Something bad had happened here.
I reached down unconsciously for my gun before realizing that I didn't have one. I never travelled with one anymore.
Jasper tapped me on the shoulder and motioned that he was going to check the perimeter and I nodded. Looking around, I found the only weapon I could, which was a jagged rock that I kicked free from the ground.
John and Owen were with me, each having grabbed whatever they could to defend themselves as we approached the cabin.
I chose to go first, creeping up the stairs as quietly as I could.
Stepping inside the dark cabin, I saw right away that a struggle had taken place. Jack and Gianna kept a pretty spotless home, but now there were broken things strewn everywhere. And worse than that I noticed brown splotches dotting the floor… blood.
Steeling myself, I continued into the cabin, looking everywhere for an intruder, but what I found was worse.
Jack and Gianna were on the floor in their bedroom, their bodies covered in bruises and splattered with blood.
"Oh my god," I gasped, rushing over to them.
Gianna lay half sprawled on top of Jack, her face pressed into his chest.
I reached down and brushed her hair back from her face. For a moment, I thought she was dead until she coughed and her eyes fluttered.
"Gianna," I said, smoothing her hair back from her face and gently shaking her.
However, it was Jack that jerked awake with a cry.
John who'd knelt next to me, put a settling hand on Jack's shoulder.
However, Jack's eyes were unfocused and I knew because of the blood that soaked his pale blonde hair that he'd been hit in the head hard.
Behind me, I heard Owen moving around the rest of the house looking for Gus. I prayed to god that the little five-year-old was ok.
"Jack?" I tried to ask soothingly. "Jack, who did this?"
Jack fought to sit up, but I kept him still. I didn't know what kind of injury that he might have had.
"Where's Gus?" he asked, his voice garbled.
I looked behind me to check with Owen, but the bleak look on his face told me that he hadn't found the little boy.
"We'll find him, Jack," I said, squeezing his shoulder.
It was then that Jack noticed Gianna.
"Gigi!" he whimpered. "Oh my god…"
He tried to crawl towards her, but I kept him where he was. He could have a brain injury or internal bleeding.
John was using water from their rain barrel to try to wake Gianna up. With a water soaked rag, he wiped down her forehead and placed it on the back of her neck.
It was clear that she was starting to come to when she started whimpering their son's name.
"Gigi…" Jack sobbed.
Now that she was awake, John quickly assessed their injuries and saw that Jack's were the worst, so we changed places.
Owen and I helped Gianna to sit up.
"Gianna, what happened?" Owen asked her gently. "Who hurt you, honey?"
Over the years, Owen and Arlene had become like parents to the young couple and by extension grandparents to Gus.
"I don't know. I heard banging coming from the cabin and then I heard Jack cry out. I was outside doing laundry, so I wasn't… I couldn't…" she stuttered.
"It's okay…" Owen soothed, rubbing her back gently. "Take your time."
At that moment, Jasper entered the cabin, looking around warily.
I stood up and walked over to him, leaving Jack and Owen to tend to the couple.
"Where's Gus?" Jasper asked, in a calm dispassionate voice.
I looked at him carefully, recognizing that detached quality even though I hadn't heard it in ten years.
"He's not here," I said. "Did you see anything?"
"I found a trail of maybe three or four people that led down to the shore," he said. "I'm sure they set the fire on the other side of the island to draw us away."
I looked at him in shock, not having thought it through yet.
"Why?" I asked out loud even though Jasper didn't have the answer any more than I did.
"They wanted Gus," Gianna said, pushing Owen's arms away and standing up woozily. "We were just in the way. Before they knocked me out, one of them apologized and said they just needed children."
A feeling of dread hit me so hard that I felt short of breath.
I needed to get home. I needed to get to Finn.
