Chapter 19


The next morning,

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Tex asked Larrin as they were ripping up another slab of carpet, it was the last piece to come out of the top floor of the house. They'd decided to pull all the carpet out and then move onto the wallpaper and stripping off.

"You already have." Larrin said in a mocking manner, Tex gave her a droll look as he yanked on the carpet peeling it back even further to reveal beautiful floorboards, there weren't vanished but they were in great condition with very little wear and tear. It meant that they'd only have to sand them back a little and

"Smart ass." he said with an amused smile as he had left himself open for the joke.

"What?" Larrin said with a chuckle as she stood up and placed her hands on her hips and looked at him.

"Kat talk to you about the pandemic and being on the mainland?" He asked her, he watched as Larrin's features shuttered up. "You don't have to go into details, I just want to know she's talking to someone." Tex added as he wanted to bring it up with Kat but he was afraid by the time he found the right moment to do so that Kat would be completely closed up about it. Larrin looked at him as Kat and she talked about once but she knew it would come up again. She just didn't feel right sharing without Kat's permission but didn't want to be caught between her and her father either.

"Yeah, we've talked about it." Larrin admitted. Tex gave a nod.

"You'd tell me if I had to worry right?" he asked her, Larrin paused in her work and looked him seeing the concern in his eyes as she knew he wanted to know but didn't want to push her too much. The concern a father had for his daughter pulled at her heart strings as she wished her father had been the same.

"Sure, but she's ok." Larrin told him frankly, she truly believed it to. Sure, Kat like everyone else had experienced a horrible time during the pandemic, she lost her mother and her friends, the life she had once known but she was adapting well and coping with the loss as best as anyone her cage could. Tex gave a nod and they went back to work at pulling the carpet out for a few more minutes before Tex spoke up again.

"What was it like out there for you?" Tex asked.

"Lonely, frightening, loads of other negative adjectives." Larrin said with a wave of her hand and wry smile. Not that she didn't want to talk about it, she was just afraid of how Tex would think it was the same for Kat and frankly she was afraid of being pitied or worst looked at like she was broken.

"I saw how worried you were about the others setting off." Tex said casually.

"It's dangerous out there." Larrin said with a sigh, which to her felt like an understatement but then she wasn't a soldier. Sure she had skills but it wasn't the same, she sometimes wondered if it would have been easier if she had been military like Wolf. As if it would have made her choices easier.

"No doubt." Tex said in agreement.

"I know they'll be fine but it's just that I was alone, no weapons or food. Just me." Larrin said trying to explain away her worries but she was concerned for them.

"You survived, don't think that doesn't count for nothing." Tex said, he could see Larrin's mind running a million miles an hour on something bad.

"Yeah well, my Dad was Navy and felt us kids had it too easy. We needed to learn to survive and be tough. So we had martial arts lessons. Escape and evade training in the scrub from 10 years old up. Whoever aced his grade system was the 'perfect child'. So you know, he wasn't really impressed with my interest in playing with Barbies and wanting to be a scientist." Larrin said with a wry smile as she went back to ripping up the carpet again.

"Sounds like he was building an army." Tex said wryly as while he wasn't the best parent in the world but he never considered putting Kat through that kind of training though he was rethinking the self defense training for Kat. Just so she could protect herself if she was ever in trouble.

"In a way, he was unhinged." Larrin gave a shrugged, like it was just her version of normal. "After every time he came back from sea he'd go walkabout for a week. He'd come home with this wild look about him, he'd dump his gear onto the front verandah and just disappear. He'd always come back. Until one day he didn't." Larrin said with a another shrug, she had no idea why she was telling Tex this. Maybe she felt it would help him see that as a father he was doing a good job, but then she never hid what her family was like, she felt her upbringing was normal until she meet other people's parents. then she found out it was just weird to not be hugged or kissed by your father, that a lot of things her father did and was wasn't normal.

"How old were you?" Tex asked.

"19," Larrin said in manner that said it didn't really affect her. "Wolf and my brother tried to find him or his body for years but he was just gone. No trace." she said with another shrug, Tex was starting to see it was tell. That while she outwardly appeared fine and accepting of whatever she was talking about that there was deeper emotional play going on inside. Now that he thought about he noticed that Wolf did the same thing as well.

"How'd your mother take it?" Tex asked, he knew he should drop the subject but felt like it would be better to let it play out naturally in case Larrin felt he was shutting her down.

"She thinks he's still alive out there." Larrin said with a soft smile. "She genuinely believes that once he's straightened his head out that he'll be back." she added like she found it amusing which she did as her mother was caught up in her own world most of time but it wasn't a bad thing. She was still a fairly rational and functional person, she just liked to think the best of the situation. It kept her happy and Larrin was all for her mother being happy.

"You think that?" Tex asked her.

"I think that it's easier to believe someone is alive than feel the pain of their loss. But his absence is just as painful as the thought of him being dead. So to me there's no difference." Larrin told him honestly.


Wolf and the others had been driving for the last few hours, they'd been slowed down by road blockages and avoiding contact with the locals. It wasn't their intention to be invisible but they had seen a lot of profanity in graffiti aimed against the Navy and other Military bodies like the Air Force or Army.

Remnants of the Immunes and Valkyrie's propaganda against the Nathan James. They stopped for petrol and the owner had warned them about trusting the Navy or the cure nonsense. So they kept their mouths shut given they'd passed on the cure to the guy shaking his hand thanking him for the information. They had to hope his station was a popular place. They decided it was best to pretend they were drifters like everyone else just trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and get home.

The one warning that had them worried was about scavengers, apparently those who were immune but hadn't fallen into the cult of Immunes had turned into rovers running around and killing off survivors on the roads and stealing their supplies. They weren't worried about themselves but more for their families. The stories the man told weren't good and it made Wolf wonder if Larrin had been caught by them, she was a fighter but the problem was that she wasn't invincible.

"It's coming up." Miller told them as he was sitting in the front passenger seat, he'd been directing Wolf as he wanted to take in the place that had been his home for over 18 years before he joined the Navy. The one thing he liked about going home was they it never changed, sure it grew a little in population but otherwise it was still the quintessential small town with only one road in and out. There was a doctor's office, a bar, a convenience store that doubled as a petrol station, supermarket and hardware store. There was also a bakery and church. That was it besides his family bookshop.

The bookshop stayed in business because his mother had a coffee machine and people liked being around his mother because she was a good storyteller. She also used to babysit kids when they were too young to help the families during harvest and so they tended to get a lot of fresh food from trading services. It was a great place to grow up as they all held onto the old world of helping one another and never being shy of hard work.

"This is it?" Wolf asked as they slowly drove through the main street, there wasn't any signs of life as they passed by Miller's heart dropped into his stomach as red X's were painted on walls, windows were smashed on the buildings and the doors to the pub and convenience store were wide open. He knew the people who had owned those shops. He knew they would never have let it go like this. They had been proud of their businesses. They were just about to pass his mom's shop, he didn't even think as he opened the door and jumped out the car. Luckily Wolf had been driving slow enough so he didn't lose his footing but he heard Wolf and the other's shouting for him to stop.

He jumped up on the front porch barely noticing the layer of fine dirt that coated it telling him no one had been here in a while as he opened the front door to the shop. His mom never locked it, it just that kind of town. He stepped into old bookshop and looked around frantically for his mom.

"Mom?" he called out, he moved around the shop checking the aisles before moving to the front desk where the coffee machine and register had been. The register was trashed on the floor. He stepped over it to the office that was behind it and opened the door as it lead to the office and a staircase that lead upstairs to the apartment above. He raced up the stairs and looked around seeing no signs of her. Only then did he stop in his place.

"Miller!" Wolf shouted in an annoyed tone. "Dude, you shouldn't have jumped out like that." he chastised him as he was out of breath from getting geared up and chasing him.

"She's gone." Miller said in disbelief as he never thought she'd leave the shop. He always in a morbid way thought she'd died from old age in her shop than leave it.

"Well, she couldn't have been gone long." Wolf said as he looked over the small apartment. It was clean and well kept, but what stuck out was the lack of dust. Something that had to be a good sign.


Kara kicked off her shoes as she entered the house and moved to kitchen to grab herself a glass of water. She had spent the better part of the morning trying to find out what was happening with her bank account and pay. As well as putting out feelers about whether the new government was contacting their allies like Australia. she was rather surprised when Michener had come out and spoken with her personally about it. She figured he'd think she was below him, thus not worth his time.

Surprisingly, they ended up having what she felt to be a pretty good discussion where she told him about her house in a laughing manner not a complaining way, she said the difficulty of not having access to her money as she and the others she were living with would need some assistance in that regard until the banks were open and they could access their accounts. He listened to her problems and like any politician promised to get them fixed as soon as he could. She didn't really believe him because she preferred to seeing action than hearing promises but it was nice to be acknowledged for the moment.

He was even open to her discussion about Larrin and her situation. She didn't use her name but spoke of people who were displaced from their countries and asked how they would be helped them reconnect with home and find assistance in their current situation until flights were running to the countries of origin. His answer to that wasn't exactly pleasing as he said his priority was to the Americans first. She on one hand understood his position for focusing on getting the economy up and running again, something that was dependent on civilians with social security numbers and bank accounts working, paying their taxes and spending their money again. But he did say that it would be addressed as they would soon be mass producing the cure and distributing the cure to world which was better than nothing.

Either way after she left his offices and headed off to the hospital in search of an OB/GYN. She had some success, which was a relief as she hadn't wanted to rely on Rios. He was a good doctor but she figured the Nathan James would be back out at sea by the time she gave birth. She just wanted to have someone who could take up from Rachel and be with her through to the end. The hospital had a functioning maternity ward and her being military meant she didn't have to worry about medical costs as it was all covered. She met with the Doctor on staff and was able to book in an appointment for a proper check up and ultrasound. It wasn't normal to go the hospital for prenatal work up unless something was wrong but there wasn't any functioning medical centres for her to go to. So she made it for a couple week's time hoping Danny would be back in time so they could share it together.

From the brief radio conversation they had last night, it seemed like they were making slow but steady progress. She figured them to be in or near Miler's home town. She just hoped the rest of the trip went quickly and successfully for all them. She really wanted them all keep winning as they were given all the heart ache and losses they'd endured.