Darkness Rises: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (After the EMP Book 3) by Harley Tate

Author:Harley Tate [Tate, Harley]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harley Tate
Published: 2017-06-20T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

MADISON

Agriculture Department, CSU, Chico

10:00 a.m.

“I told you I should have come with you from the start.” Madison leaned over a row of bright green plants, foraging among the leaves to find the plastic signs with the variety names written in neat print. “Then all of this would already be done.”

Brianna lifted a pole bean plant from Madison’s hands and placed it on the table of things to take. “You’re lucky your dad even let you trade places with your mom. The way he stared down poor Steve, I thought he was going to shoot him.”

Madison glanced up at her father as he leaned against the far wall of the greenhouse. “The graduate student? One look at him and it’s obvious he’s not dangerous.”

“After the communications building, your dad seems to think everyone’s a threat.”

Madison puffed up her cheeks and blew out a stream of air. When her mom came back from the greenhouse and told her to go pick plants, she didn’t mention anything about her father being this…intense. “He’s really that shaken up?”

Brianna nodded.

Crap. Madison knew the incident in the radio building shook her father. He could barely look at her without emotion lining his face and pinching his brow. But he couldn’t take what might have happened and turn it into something more. She survived.

If anything, her father should see how capable she had become. Instead, he wanted to wrap her in bubble wrap and hide her away. It would never work. Not now.

“Finding what you need?” Steve, the graduate student, entered the greenhouse with Madison’s father close on his heels. Although he traded the rifle for a handgun, her dad still kept a weapon trained on the poor guy. At least Steve stopped shaking.

Madison smiled. “Are you sure you don’t mind us taking a few?”

“Not at all. Like I said, none of the plants in that section are part of my thesis. I was watering mine, so I figured why not water them all, you know?”

“I found heirloom pole beans and peppers. Do you know if there are any tomatoes?”

“Heirloom only?” Steve scrunched up his face in thought. “I think so. Harriet was working on a research project with tomatoes and squash. Those would be over on the far row.”

Madison made her way there and rummaged through the plants until she found the ones Steve mentioned. She pulled out three tomatoes and three squash.

As she handed the plants over to Brianna, her roommate raised an eyebrow. “Why heirloom? They don’t look as big and healthy as the plants in the middle.”

Steve spoke up. “All of my research plants are grocery-store varieties. They’re hybrid plants whose parents were pollinated by hand. The tomatoes will be big and red and just what you expect in the grocery store. But if you save the seeds and try to grow them on your own next year, they probably won’t turn out.”

“Seriously?” Brianna glanced around at all the plants in the greenhouse. “Why would anyone grow plants with worthless seeds?”

“Because they produce the most attractive fruit.

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