Fermata: The Winter: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series (The Fermata Series: Four Post-Apocalyptic Novellas Book 1) by Juliette Harper Read Free Book Online

rose awkwardly to her feet, falling against him.
    “There, there,” Quentin said softly, holding her loosely. “My office is only a couple of blocks away. Come now.”
    Vick allowed herself to be led out of the room. At the door, she paused and looked back at the figure of her daughter lying on the rug. “I shot her, Quentin,” she said. “Why did I shoot her?”
    “You had no choice,” he answered, putting an arm around her waist and ushering her toward the elevator.
    At the doors she stopped and looked at him. “What do I do now, Quentin?”
    “You survive, my dear.”

    January 2015: The Cabin

    Abbott sat looking out the window when Vick finished speaking. She waited, watching him chew on the stem of his pipe, apparently lost in thought. "How do you live with that?" he asked finally. "With what you had to do to your daughter?"
    The words surprised her. "I don't know," she answered with quiet, painful honesty. "At first I didn't want to go on at all. Sometimes I still don't."
    "Did you try to kill yourself?" he asked, turning to look at her.
    "After a fashion," she said. "I took increasingly foolish risks, almost dared those things to kill me. And then I found Lucy in that alley and everything changed. I couldn't leave her alone, so I had to go on."
    He turned and looked at her with sad and knowing eyes. "I understand something about that," he said. "I'm sorry you had to live through that."
    "Thank you," she said simply. "So do you believe us now? Do you believe what we're telling you?"
    "In as much as it is possible to believe something so insane, yes."
    "Can we stay here until the spring?" Vick asked.
    He looked surprised. "There was never any question but that you would stay. Did you think you had to ask?"
    "You've lived alone by choice for many years, and now there are four extra people in your house."
    He smiled. "I like you all," he said simply. "It was the maddening crowd I didn't like. You are perfectly welcome here for as long as you wish to stay. I do, however, have one request."
    "What's that?" she asked.
    "Will you play chess with me?"

Chapter Seven

    Abbott proved to be not only a congenial host, but an inventive one. In the coming days, he transformed his home on their behalf. With tarps to serve as curtains, he created a "room" for Hettie and Beth, claiming the kitchen corner for himself. By virtue of her injury, Vick continued to sleep in the narrow bed, and Lucy occupied a corner of the same room on a makeshift pallet.
    The weather was so bitter, only Abbott left the cabin to bring in more firewood or to retrieve supplies from the nearby shed. On days when it wasn't snowing, he hunted, but he was always careful to clean his kills far away from the cabin so Beth wouldn't see. His attitude toward the child grew increasingly grandfatherly. She delighted in his attentions, as did Hettie, to whom Abbott directed a kind of courtly regard that both Lucy and Vick found gentle and endearing.
    Although Vick's wound was healing well, she remained weak and exhausted, admitting only to herself that she'd been running on empty for months, maybe years. Her slow recuperation had as much to do with long-term exhaustion as the gunshot itself. Because she dozed at odd hours, she often found herself awake late at night when the others were asleep.
    One afternoon, Abbott came into her room with a book in his hand. "I thought you might like to have this," he said, holding out the leather-bound volume. It was handmade, a strap holding the flap in place. When Vick untied it, she found the book was a blank journal. She looked at him questioningly.
    "Introspection is my vice," he said, putting a box of pencils on the table by the bed. "When I decided to leave the world, I commissioned a book binder to make these journals for me. I was prepared to live as a hermit, but I was not prepared to be without the ability to write." Seeing the indecision in her eyes, he added, "Please. It isn't the last. I'd like you to have it.