Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 131

BREN

I listened to Vivian listing off the ingredients in the sponge cake she was making for my birthday in the kitchen, surprised that she could still have such things more than a hundred days since the pandemic began. I shouldn't be. Vivian and Dr. Evans—David—had made a self-sustainable home, a farm with goats, chickens, cows, and a greenhouse, where I saw Vivian plucking out the juiciest-looking tomatoes. I ate those with my toast and my eggs for breakfast.

And I hadn't had cake in three months. I deserve this, I thought. I didn't know why I felt so guilty being excited about it. Out here, the real world seemed a distant memory.

"And you never had looters or raiders come out here?" I asked, realizing how sudden and out of the blue it was. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that."

"Oh, no! It's alright to ask. This country got into strange troubles these past few months, don't we?"

I smiled. "We sure do."

"See, we may not look like we can handle ourselves, but we've been around these parts to know the lay of the land. Hardly some city folk would find us out here unless they look too far. We're lucky we've got some good neighbors."

I perked at that. "There are others?"

"Of course! Some tried to flee to the bigger cities and refugee camps, but some stayed like us. It would be a mistake to go to where many of the sick are. Here the air is fresh. Less likely to get sick. A shame what happened to Harrisburg. We can still hear the fighting some nights."

I pursed my lips. I don't think that's how that works. "Surely some have come by knocking?"

"Some do. Our neighbors mostly ask for a cup of sugar or to share a loaf of bread. Some they ask for food from my gardens, and the Townsens gave us milk. They have more cows than we do."

"So, no one...bad?"

"Bad is such a strange word, don't you think?" The old woman gave me a pitiful smile. "I would say desperate...yes. That's the right word. Of course, we gave them some food, and they tried to rob us, but they're good honest folk inside. Had families and children with them, and we gave them some of what we had before they went on to only God knows where. We only run into them at least once a week or so. By God's grace, a man and a woman with a three-year-old girl came by from Baltimore, having not eaten for days! You were still bedridden—poor child—but my husband gave them some rations to help them with their journey."

Baltimore? "Did they say anything about what's going on there?"

Vivian frowned. She crouched in front of the oven, peering through the door glass, watching over her baked cookies, before raising her head back to me. "It was as if Death had slept over the city."

I shuddered. Baltimore was one of the critical cities the government was trying to secure for Reclamation Day, the military's largest offensive into the Red Zone since D-Day. The city was only forty miles away from the capital. President John Marshall's campaign to retake what was left of Northeast America was getting thinner and thinner by the day, and Harrisburg was barely hanging on by a thread based on the reports I've heard from the radio.

With the vectors encroaching upon the White House, rumors spread that President Marshall and the rest of his cabinet had been evacuated and secretly abandoned the capital. There were impeachment talks from several congressmen and senators who stayed in Washington, with several protests and rallies breaking out across the country. #RunMarshallRun was trending.