Willow's Town Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  WILLOW'S TOWN

  First edition. May 25, 2022.

  Copyright © 2022 Alice Sabo.

  ISBN: 979-8201711160

  Written by Alice Sabo.

  Also by Alice Sabo

  A Changed World

  Lethal Seasons

  Scattered Seeds

  Gleanings

  Lessons Learned

  Desperate Measures

  A Changed World Box Set

  Asher Blaine Mysteries

  White Lies

  Dark Deeds

  Blood Relations

  Asher Blaine Mysteries Collection

  Children of a Changed World

  Willow's Run

  Circuit Breaker

  Willow's Town

  Micah's Ordeal

  Children of a Changed World Bundle

  Interstellar Protectorate of Earth

  Station Down

  Oleander's Irregulars

  Arcane Detective

  The Released

  Tales of Haroon

  High Barrens

  Greenvale

  Shattered Landing

  River Flowing

  Obsidian

  Tales of Haroon Books 1-3

  Transmutation

  Facade

  Charade

  Dilemma

  Entangled

  Crux

  Transmutation Box Set

  Standalone

  Unintended Consequences

  Watch for more at Alice Sabo’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Also By Alice Sabo

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

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  Also By Alice Sabo

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Thunder cracked overhead as the rain came sheeting down. Willow hoped that everyone had heard the storm siren and was heading for shelter. This was going to be a bad one. The emergency system hadn’t been used in years, and she’d never had a chance to test it. She hoped that people understood what it meant.

  The housing hadn’t been inspected, and the infrastructure was woefully inadequate. This town was just a loose collection of families with no leadership or oversight. She had made sure to get the storm shelters organized first, so she could rest assured that there was a place for people to retreat to, but would they?

  Everything about this endeavor had been an uphill struggle. In the three weeks that she’d been mayor, she had very little to show for her time. According to the reports, there should be over a thousand people living here, but she’d spoken to only a handful, and they were elusive, wary and uncooperative. Her attempts to form a town council had been met with shock and resistance. Their first meeting had been pointless. The second had been a surprise to them. They hadn’t realized the position lasted for more than a day.

  She hadn’t even been able to get a consensus on the new name of the town. Everyone agreed that they’d be happy to discard the old name of Washburn, but they also had no opinions or preferences for a replacement. Sometimes she felt that they just wanted to thwart her at any level for any small advancement. It was painfully obvious that this wasn’t High Meadow where everyone had the same goals. It had taken her this long to realize that this was a tentative confederation of people who’d been struggling to survive under the erratic dictatorship of a bully.

  She went down to the temporary Crisis Room to check in with Micah. The room was empty. She had hoped that since her staff were all people she’d already worked with that things would go easier, but that wasn’t happening either. She was beginning to wonder if the land itself was disgruntled about something, and the toxic emotions just percolated up to make everyone prickly.

  Micah came in shaking the water off his dripping rain gear. “It’s bad out there.”

  “That’s why I set off the siren,” Willow said patiently.

  Micah rolled his eyes. “Yep.”

  She waited, but no report seemed forthcoming. “How is it?” she prompted.

  “Half the town thinks you’re up to something. That the siren is just a reason to get them out of their houses, so we can go through their belongings and steal their supplies.”

  Willow already knew about that part. It was a rumor that had spread through town like wildfire as soon as the siren began. “And the other half?”

  “They have decided that your weather contraptions are unreliable.”

  “It’s predicting tornados,” Willow said morosely. She knew that there would be deaths. She couldn’t feel the weather as strongly as her father could, but she could read the tell-tales. The barometer was crashing.

  “I saw it, too.” Micah pushed his damp hair back and shook out his wet hands. “I guess that means we should figure out how to deal with whatever’s coming.”

  “Right,” she said firmly. She needed to get back on track. “I suppose people can stay in the shelter temporarily until we can inspect more of the housing.

  “That’s not going to work,” Micah said slowly. “It isn’t large enough.”

  “I thought we could hold the whole town,” Willow said with a frown.

  “For the length of a storm, maybe,” Micah said. “It’s just chairs and tables down there. If we’ve got to house some families, we're going to need cots and lockers.”

  “Which we haven’t received yet,” Willow said.

  “Nope.”

  Jake stomped in, trailing water off his soaked poncho. “I need some help,” he said and turned to leave.

  Micah grabbed his jacket, and Willow went to get her rain gear. The wind was howling and the rain was coming down sideways. She was glad she taken the time to pull on her waterproof pants. The street was full of soggy, panicked sheep. Jake’s dogs were doing their best, but the flock was frightened.

  She went to one side and Micah took the other. She wondered if the animals could even hear her over the drumming of the rain. She chased a sheep that bolted and saw Connor coming down a side street with a calf in his arms. He added the animal to the herd and helped push them along.

  Willow lost her hat to the wind, and her hair was soaked by the time that they got the sheep into the underground animal shelter. It had been a parking garage at one time and hadn’t needed too much prep to make it into a massive barn. Out of the rain and wind, the animals calmed down a little.

  The sound of hoofbeats warned her even as Micah pulled her aside. Another herd, this time a mix of Silvers, Bronzes and Night Striders thundered down the ramp. They didn’t need to be forced into s
afety. Jake was training some juveniles for the Circuit Company, but there were enough veterans to guide the herd.

  Jake and the dogs were segregating the sheep from the horses. Bernard arrived with a small herd of cattle. He had three men helping him wrangle them. The noise level was getting unbearable, but more animals arrived. This time it was a flock of goats and more horses. The rafters and hayracks had chickens perched on them, clucking and pecking. It made her think of Noah’s Ark, but she was grateful that a few of the farmers believed in the warning.

  Willow went for the interior stairs that would take her back up to the street level when she heard the sound she’d been dreading. Wind as loud as a freight train. She looked back across the shelter hoping that everything would hold.

  Micah was pale with tension, his eyes on the ceiling. Bernard braced himself as if standing on the moving deck of a boat. Jake kept sorting the sheep which gave her some hope that this place would be as safe as she’d planned.

  There were a few loud crashes followed by a significant boom that rattled the foundation. The tornado moved quickly which was the only good she could say of it. The rain petered off almost immediately. It was as if the tornado had snatched the storm up like a cloak and carried it along with it.

  The animals finally parted letting her get through the garage. She trotted up the ramp to street level dreading the devastation that would be waiting. The road was littered with debris. Two buildings had collapsed pouring bricks, pipes, lumber and furniture out into the street.

  Micah came up beside her with Bernard a step behind. “I’ll get search and rescue,” Micah said as he dashed off.

  “Warn the hospital,” Willow said to Bernard. She turned back to see Jake and his dogs coming up the ramp. “I’ll need the dogs to search the wreckage,” she yelled.

  Nan set up an emergency kitchen to start making coffee and sandwiches for the searchers and victims. She knew an operation like this would take hours, if not days. Jane arrived with her medical crew and set up a triage area. Everett brought in the construction crew to clear away the debris from areas that had already been searched.

  Willow was glad to have experienced heads in her various departments. This was the first time the townspeople would see them at their best. And she hated that it had to the worst of times for them to witness what her people could do.

  “I need anyone with a wagon to hitch up horses and report to Jane to transport wounded,” Willow told Mason as he reported in. “Get a couple of men to go with you. Go door to door if you have to.”

  He ran off to round up more members of the town guards. Willow looked around searching for familiar faces. She’d only met a few residents and none that she could rely on. She knew that the siren would have sent her people into shelters. They should be all right, but she would still be nervous until she could find them all.

  Jane sent a runner to say she needed wagons. Willow let him know they were on the way. Micah was on the radio checking in with the substations. They had set up four on the periphery of the town with headquarters in the center. She wasn’t sure if they would always need that many, but for now, it was what they’d planned.

  “Everyone accounted for,” Micah reported.

  “Thanks. That’s good to hear.”

  “The bad news is the tornado went straight through Wingate’s farm.”

  “Is the family okay?”

  “Joe’s on his way out to take a head count.”

  Willow tried to remember what might be in the field this time of year. “I hope he’s harvested the spring wheat,” she said.

  “It’s still early in the season,” Micah said with a nod. “Hard to say.”

  “Losing a crop is going to scare people,” Willow warned. Fear made people act rashly. She expected some looting and probably heavy drinking. “I need to check in with Nan.” She picked her way through the debris on the street down to where Nan had set up in an old shopfront. The town had a lot of abandoned buildings. It was one more thing that needed to be addressed.

  There was a line out the door of worried people waiting for food despite the presence of a full-scale feeding kitchen in the school. She tried to send them over there, but no one would budge. She could feel the level of fear in them. They didn’t trust her, but they’d heard there was food here, and that was all they wanted. It was more people than she’d seen in one place before. They were consistently lean, wary and anxious.

  Willow went around to the back of the building. She didn’t want anyone to think she was cutting in line. Nan had set up a portable stove in a dusty storage area and had a few big pots of soup going.

  “How’re you doing?” Willow asked.

  “I need more hands,” Nan said without looking up from slicing bread.

  “I tried to send them over to the school,” Willow said. Obviously, these people hadn’t heard that there was food at the school, or they flat out didn’t trust the information.

  “They’re spooked,” Nan said simply.

  Willow went out to the front of the shop. She couldn’t tell what had been in there. Everything had been torn out leaving a big open space with faded paint splashes on the walls. She looked down the row of anxious faces and pulled a couple of people out of the line. They were nervous and confused.

  “Come on, you just volunteered,” she said. And when they were out of earshot she added, “and that means you can eat as much as you want.” She felt them cheer up immediately.

  “Got some volunteers, Nan,” she said as she led them into the back.

  “Good.” Nan looked up. “Can I get two more for cooking, and I need somebody to set up tables.”

  Willow went back to the line and pulled out a few more people to set up tables as trays of food came out. She rearranged things to ease the flow in and out of the room. Then sent the helpers into the back to get their own meals. The line started moving, and the level of panic shifted a little lower.

  She went back out to check on the search and rescue. The dogs were still nosing through the rubble of the collapsed buildings. She went to stand nearby and concentrated on blocking out all the other distractions.

  Micah slipped up beside her and waited for her to open her eyes. “Anything?” he asked.

  “Nothing alive under there,” Willow murmured.

  “We’re missing at least six people,” he said consulting a hastily scribbled list.

  “I’ll set up a missing board at the school,” she said. “Please have the stations report back to me there.” She headed down to the school. It wasn’t one of the safest buildings, but it did have three lower levels that they were using. As she approached, she could see that there was more damage here, too. A couple of windows were broken, and a tree had been thrown against the building cracking open a wall.

  She went into the auditorium on the main floor. The power was out. Their grid was still a little wonky.

  Ellen arrived arms full of necessities. “What first?” she asked as she dumped everything on the floor.

  Willow opened a closet. “Let’s get the blackboards out. There’s no telling when the livewall might come back up.”

  Ellen helped her wheel out three large chalkboards.

  “Have you got a list from Jane yet?” Willow asked. She started writing on the boards. The first one she titled Hospital, the second was Deceased and the third was Missing. As the Watch reported in and runners brought her names, she listed them on the boards. Family members began arriving. More names were added. The disaster had broken through some of their resistance. Loss on top of fear had pushed them into recklessly trusting the new authorities. It might not last, but it was an opportunity.

  She sent runners for lanterns and coffee. Ellen organized some volunteers to set up chairs. People who had no safe place to sleep arrived wet and angry. Willow had requested blankets, cots and lockers from High Meadow for her emergency shelter first thing, but still hadn’t received anything. She had some blankets stockpiled and sent another runner to fetch them.

&n
bsp; “What are we supposed to do now?” a man with a bloody bandanna on his head shouted at her.

  “You’re injured,” Willow said. “Have you been to the hospital?”

  “Why? So you can get rid of me?” he snapped back at her. His angry words were almost too much for him as he swayed on his feet.

  Willow beckoned over another runner wearing one of the bright yellow vests. There seemed to be a lot of them who didn’t look familiar. Micah must be conscripting them because she hadn’t. “Take this man over to the hospital,” she said.

  She got a new list from Micah of confirmed dead. One of her councilors, Margo, wandered over to the chalk boards.

  “What are you doing?”

  Willow tried not to snap. She thought it was pretty obvious what she was doing. “I’m making a list of the missing.”

  “Why?”

  “We know how many people we have to look for.”

  “But why are you looking for them?” Margo asked.

  Willow stared at her for a moment. The woman was frightened. She realized now that all of the people in the room were fearful. “One of the buildings that collapsed had people living in there. If they are under the rubble, we want to get them out. When we know we’ve found everyone, we can stop looking.”

  Margo stared at the names then went to whisper to people in the crowd. Slowly, Willow felt a change. Some of the top notes of fear eased back, but no one was comfortable.

  As she moved three people from the Missing board to the Deceased board, there was more whispering, and a woman began sobbing. This was the worst part of her job.

  Chapter 2

  Dawn couldn’t come soon enough. Micah was muddy to the knees, and his feet were numb with cold. He’d conscripted dozens of people as runners, but now the yellow vests were showing up in strange places. He collected three from a pile of rubbish by Nan’s makeshift feeding center.

  Bernard met him in the street where Everett’s crew was working by floodlights. They had uncovered the last of the victims and were just marking a safe path through the remaining rubble. “I’ve got five more,” Bernard said indicating the bundle under his arm.