Race to Refuge

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Mallory

Like anything new, it took a few weeks for me to feel like I'd really settled in at Crepe Myrtle Lane. For one thing, Annie's appearance had totally unnerved me and the fact that I hadn't seen her since didn't exactly make me relieved. It only meant that she was still out there somewhere.

I saw exactly why Ginny was such a fan of her brother. Ty was a great kid and completely changed my opinion of teens. He was mature and capable and a hard worker.

And Charlie seemed warm and funny and smart. The only problem was me. I had this huge emotional and mental barrier I had to somehow get past. My relationship with Brendan had been damaging in many ways and one of those ways was the fact it eroded my ability to trust. I was working to get over it, but it was tough.

One day, a few weeks after we'd moved in, Ty went out for his shift of weed pulling and crop watering and Ginny was tossing the ball to a joyful Mojo. It was a hot summer day and I was trying to clean our dirty laundry by hand so that I could hang it outside and dry it. Charlie was in the front yard, building more shelves so we could better organize food and other supplies.

My blood ran cold when I heard it. A sharp, alarmed, throaty warning bark from Mojo and a piercing scream from Ginny. Everyone was outside, so with shaking hands I found the gun that I hadn't shot since the day Ty and Charlie joined us.

I yanked open the door and saw Mojo lunging back and forth between Ginny and the back of a disfigured, gaunt form dressed in an outfit that I recognized. Annie. And Annie, or what had been Annie, was standing between Ginny and the safety of the house.

Charlie ran around the side of the house and stopped at the sight. Ty quickly joined him. "Ginny! Run into the woods!"

But like a bad nightmare, Ginny seemed immobile, eyes fixed in horror at the creature that had been my friend. I remembered she'd done much the same when we'd seen the zombie woman at the shack in the woods.

Charlie said, "Mallory, unlock the front door and I'll come in and grab the gun."

"There's no time," I said, suddenly feeling a calmness and a certainty that I hadn't felt in a long while. This was something I needed to do. And Annie wouldn't have had it any other way.

"Ginny, you don't have to try to run," I said in a measured tone. "I know you're shaking and scared. Just move to your right."

Ginny, white-faced, stumbled off to the right with Mojo backing up to protectively hover in front of her, showing his teeth.

With a strength, resolve, and ability that seemed to come from nowhere, I jogged up closer to Annie so there would be no misses and no accidental friendly fire toward anyone else, and pointing the gun at her head, put her down.

Then I was the one shaking. Hard. Silent tears ran down my face. But when Charlie folded me into his embrace, I finally felt myself really relax and release all of the fear, mistrust, and hurt into his capable hands. The past was in the past.

Ginny and Ty both joined in our embrace and from that point on, we were a family.

Epilogue: Mallory

In some ways, I'd never felt safer in my life. I had a real family for the first time. People who actually cared for each other and worked for a real purpose—sustainability. There were some days, it's true, that I didn't want to feel like a pioneer family and grow crops, weed, and can and chop wood for fuel. But I got something out of it that I didn't get when I was working in government: a feeling of purpose. And I think Charlie felt the same way. It's why he quit sales in the first place.