The Last Orchard (Book 1): The Last Orchard by Hunt James

Author:Hunt, James [Hunt, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Dystopian | EMP | Survival
Published: 2018-06-11T04:00:00+00:00

After Charlie helped Doc wrap up Don’s body with the bedsheets, he placed him out back, then walked into Liz’s room and sat with her, the pair holding hands.

“Don makes four,” Charlie said, counting the number of people that he’d lost under his charge. The number had plagued him for the past hour.

“It’s not going to get easier,” Liz said. “But you do get used to it.”

Charlie gently massaged the top of her hand. She had long, slender fingers, and while she was tired, he knew there was strength in those hands.

Adelyn’s giggles drifted through the living room. It was the first time either of them had heard the little girl saying anything since Charlie delivered the news.

“You did good with her,” Liz said.

Charlie nodded, praying that he never had to bury a little one in the ground. He wasn’t sure if he could come back from something like that. “How did you deal with it? Watching people die at work?”

“Everything happens so quickly in the hospital, especially when I worked the ER. All you could do was jump from one patient to the next and treat them with the skill, knowledge, and supplies you had in the time you had them. And then you moved on.”

Charlie turned toward the bedroom window, the curtains open, giving him a view of the road out front. “One of the worst things that can happen to a farmer is rot.” He frowned. “It’s contagious, and it spreads, and it can affect the very soil the plant was growing in.” He gestured toward the window. “There was another orchard a few miles south of us, kind of a competitor over the years, but they were good people. About eight years ago one of their trees contracted the rot, and they thought they caught it in time. They removed the tree, inspected the soil, and then checked the rest of the trees to make sure it hadn’t already spread. And after their due diligence, and not finding anything, they thought they were free and clear.”

The creases in Charlie’s forehead deepened as he remembered the news articles that came out after the farm had gone under.

“But the one thing they didn’t check was the water lines that were feeding the trees,” Charlie said. “A fungus had grown into their water supply, and by the time they realized what happened, the whole damn farm was infected. They couldn’t salvage a single tree, and the soil was so bad that they were buried in debt even after they sold everything.”

“That’s terrible,” Liz said.

Charlie nodded, then looked away from the window and back toward Liz. “I remember what it did to the family. It was like the rot had gotten into them too. They just withered away and died like the land they’d live on and worked for so many years. I don’t know what happened to them afterward. Moved to Kansas, or Iowa, somewhere like that. But I do remember feeling ashamed after they left.”

“Why?” Liz asked.

“Because I was just glad it didn’t happen to me,” Charlie said.

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