“Your son died a hero.” The words were out before Derek could stop himself. “It’s too bad you never knew the warrior James became. As for Jenna, she’s an adult. Like James, she can make her own decisions.You don’t own her.”
“You’d best watch your—”
Derek ended the call, fury slamming through him.
It wasn’t often that a person could provoke him like this, but thatson of a bitchhad dared to judge Jimmy’s life and death without knowing a damned thing about it. Hamilton had never put on a uniform, never faced live fire, never had to make a split-second decision that meant life for someone—and death for himself.
Fuck Hamilton.
Sniper!
Rat-at-at-at!
Derek shoved the memory away and reached for the next box of MREs.
5
Jenna dragged the refrigerator out of the way to reveal the entrance of the safe room. It was easy to make out the edges of the doorway, but there was no handle on the outside. The idea was to pull the refrigerator back into place to hide the door before closing and locking it from the inside. She pushed the panel, and the door swung open, cold, musty air hitting her in the face.
Mina leaned in to look. “I hope we never have to go down there.”
“My brother said we should practice.” Jenna turned on a flashlight and stepped through the entrance into the dark.
She found herself on a small landing above a concrete flight of stairs that led down to a small room below. There was no handrail, so she took each step carefully.
Cobwebs stretched through the air in front of her. Or were they spider webs?
God almighty.
She brushed them aside, trying not to look into the cracks and crannies as she made her way down to the safe room. It wasn’t a big space, just large enough to hold the hospital’s staff and a handful of patients. There was no furniture, but concrete benches had been built into the walls, perhaps so that patients could lie down. Thankfully, there was an electric light.
She pulled the string, glanced around. More webs. Rodent droppings were scattered across the floor, making her wish she’d worn a mask. This was going to be more work than she’d imagined.
She went back upstairs. “We need to clean it. There are rodent droppings. We need to find some way to protect the food so that mice don’t get into it.”
She and Mina put on masks and gloves and got to work with brooms, mops, and bleach to make the safe room habitable.
“I never thought becoming a midwife would mean cleaning up mouse droppings,” Mina said.
Jenna laughed. “Neither did I.”
When the room was as clean as they could get it, Jenna washed her hands and then sent Derek a text, explaining that there was a mouse presence and that the food and water, which was in shrink-wrapped boxes, would need some kind of protection.
I’ll see what I can do.
Twenty minutes later, he buzzed her to tell her he had located some clean and empty fifty-five-gallon steel drums that had once held medical supplies.
She found him carrying one of the drums, his coat off in the sunshine, his biceps visible beneath the fabric of his long-sleeved shirt. “Those will be perfect.”
He flashed her a bright smile. “Is three barrels going to be enough?”
“I think so.”
He set the barrel down beside her. “Are you able to carry this?”
“Sure.” She tried to pick up one of the barrels but found it heavier than she’d imagined. “I could get it inside. The problem is going to be getting it down the stairs.”
“I’ll talk to Farzad.” Derek jogged off, leaving her standing outside the back door.