Overcoming Fear (Pandemus Chronicles Book 3) Read online

  Overcoming Fear

  By Grace R. Duncan

  Pandemus Chronicles 2.5

  It’s been four years since a global pandemic has ravaged the world and almost a year since Mark and Duncan had their fateful meeting at a tiny pharmacy. Duncan has spent that time doing everything he could to ease Mark’s fears of losing him—fears that go beyond the normal danger of their new world. When a minister and his wife seek out Mark for help, Duncan sees an opportunity to show Mark another level of commitment—if Mark will dare to take it.

  Readers love Grace R. Duncan…

  Celebrating You

  “This is a sweet, lightly steamy story with a very touching ending; perfect feel-good holiday reading.”

  —Novel Approach

  “I thoroughly enjoyed the story. What happens when the worlds population is decimated and those left behind have to put their lives back together. A heart warming story of finding love.”

  —MMGoodBookReviews

  Healing

  “Healing’s plot is well developed, and I didn't feel that I was missing a piece of the puzzle by starting with book 2 in the series. The characters are understandably damaged yet retain their humanity, which makes them endearingly earnest and easy to empathize with. Healing delivers a powerful emotional combination of sweetness and strength.”

  —Carly’s Book Reviews

  “That being said, the writing is excellent. Ms. Duncan draws a perfect picture of a broken world without much hope for the future but still manages to infuse her characters with almost reluctant promise.

  I will be looking for more in this series in the future.”

  —Love Bytes

  Forgiveness

  “The story is written in a sweet, considerate, positive, and emotional way, with a lot of love exposed.

  I love stories with wolf pack. They have an unconditional bond I wish people had.”

  —Diverse Reader

  By Grace R. Duncan

  From Dreamspinner Press:

  Beautiful boy

  No Sacrifice

  Turning His Life Around

  What About Now

  Forbes Mates

  Devotion

  Patience

  Acceptance

  Forgiveness

  Golden Collar

  Choices

  Coronation

  Deception

  Pandemus Chronicles

  Celebrating You

  Healing

  From the Abbey of the Brew City Sisters

  Lockdown, part of the Turn the Page…. charity anthology

  Self-published

  In Her Honor

  Secrets

  Three Hearts

  White Rabbit, part of the Resist and Triumph anthology

  Overcoming Fear (Pandemus Chronicles)

  Overcoming Fear

  © 2016 Grace R. Duncan

  Second edition, 2019

  First edition published by Dreamspinner Press, 2016

  Cover Art

  © 2019 Jess Small

  Edited by Tricia Kristufek

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  To Joe for helping me get past my own fears so I could have my own happy ending…

  To Sara Testarossa, Elizabeth Noble, Jen, Sheryl, and Patricia for your help. I appreciate it so very much. Thank you!

  WHEN HE heard a shout, the first thing Duncan did was reach for the Glock that was never far from him. He checked it to make sure it was loaded, then glanced at his partner, Mark, before crossing to the window.

  “Hello, the house!” The man outside looked tall but lean—probably because of how hard nutritious food was to come by—and wore jeans and a simple green flannel button-down shirt. His dark hair likely hadn’t seen scissors since before the pandemic hit and was pulled back, though Duncan couldn’t tell how. The man had his hands up in the universal pose to show he held no weapons.

  Duncan frowned through the window. A woman stood next to the man, dressed similarly, except for the sneakers on her feet instead of boots. Even from that distance, Duncan could tell something was wrong with her. With a deeper frown, he threw another glance at Mark, opened the door, and stepped out onto the porch.

  “Oh thank God!” The man lowered his hands. “Is this where the nurse lives? My wife needs help.”

  A creak sounded behind Duncan, and he turned as Mark stepped out onto the porch, though still mostly behind him. “I’m the nurse. What seems to be the problem?”

  Duncan didn’t like leaving Mark exposed. Just because he couldn’t see a gun didn’t mean the man didn’t have one somewhere, and Mark stayed unarmed as much as possible. As a healer, he hated the thought of using a weapon. So, despite Mark’s protests, Duncan took it on himself to be their defense most of the time. Because unlike Mark, most people—in fact, Duncan would gander to say pretty much everyone—had a weapon of some sort on them. Even nearly four years after the pandemic, there was still a lot of violence and people thinking they could do anything.

  Unfortunately, most of them were right because law enforcement didn’t exist. Law didn’t exist anymore if you didn’t go into the cities, and the “law” in the cities was anything but.

  However, Duncan wasn’t going to stop Mark from treating someone. He’d only started doing so again some nine months before, when they’d met in a pharmacy after Duncan had broken his ankle. Mark’s willingness to help others was still somewhat shaky, and Duncan didn’t want to do anything to set that back.

  So he lowered his weapon and stepped to the side to let Mark move forward.

  The couple came closer a few feet. “I can’t seem to hold anything down,” the woman said.

  Duncan looked over at Mark in time to catch his gaze sharpening on the woman. Mark echoed Duncan’s worry with his next questions. “Any coughing? Breathing problems?”

  She shook her head quickly, swaying a little, and her husband caught her, wrapping his arms around her. “Nothing like that. Not like the….” She swallowed hard. “Not like the virus. Just stomach problems.”

  Mark nodded slowly, looking at Duncan with his eyebrows up. Duncan gave a minute nod to the silent question of whether to allow them in. Mark turned back to the couple. “Come in, then, and let me take a look and see what we can figure out.”

  They all moved into the main room of the cabin Mark and Duncan had settled in some six months prior. It was still not set up quite like they wanted. The small bedroom on one end of the first floor served as Mark’s “exam room.” Instead of an actual exam table, Mark used a twin bed on one side of the small space for that purpose. Shelves lined the opposite wall and held the medical books they’d managed to collect and Mark’s pathetic hodgepodge of medical supplies. A couple of chairs filled in the rest of the small space.

  After Mark and the woman went into the exam room, Duncan turned to the man and smiled. “I’m Duncan. That’s Mark.”

  “Oh, Pastor Bryan Nez. Nice to meet you.” He held his hand out, and Duncan hid his surprise at both the profession and the offer of a handshake as he took Bryan’s hand. That sort of courtesy had become exceedingly rare since the pandemic hit. People barely spoke to each other, much less touched. Most of the contact Duncan had had—besides Mark—had been at a distance: just close enough to hear and not a single foot closer, if at all possible.

  “Preacher, huh? I don’t imagine there are too many religious folks left.”

 
“No, there aren’t.” Bryan shrugged. “It’s what I do, though. Not sure I know anything else.”

  “I can understand that.” Duncan scratched the back of his head. “I have to admit, I’m one of those nonreligious people.” When Bryan waved that away, Duncan shook his head at himself. “Sorry. Have a seat.” He held a hand out at the round wooden table in the portion of the great room that acted as their dining area. The room itself stretched two stories, with a loft bedroom on one end, a study on the other, and a wide balcony open to the lower floor connecting the two that ran along the front wall above them. A large stone fireplace sat cold on one end of the first floor, outside the master suite. A spiral staircase next to it led to the study above. On the other side, two doors opened off the main room: one for Mark’s exam room and one for another half bathroom. Stairs between the two led to the second floor on that end. “We don’t have coffee or the like, but we’ve got some bottled water, if you want some.”

  Bryan shook his head. “Thanks, but that’s all right.”

  Duncan took a seat with him and nodded toward the exam room. “Was she your wife before…?”

  “No. Laura and I met about two years ago on the outskirts of Memphis. We’d both ended up in the same Kroger, looking for anything left behind. For a long time, she had trouble believing I wouldn’t kill her or rape her.” He sighed. “I finally got her to believe me. It took a while, though.”

  Duncan frowned. “Yeah, that’s unfortunately too common these days.” He shook his head. “I don’t get it. You’d think human life would be more precious now, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know. And, well, I’ve seen some incredible things—people helping in ways I never expected. Yet at the same time, cruelty that—as much as I’ve seen—I’d never have believed people capable of.” He cleared his throat. “Uh, listen, I don’t, uh, have anything to offer in trade. I mean, we’ve got a little bit of food—”

  Duncan held up a hand. “Don’t worry about that. Mark is happy to help.” He tilted his head at Bryan as an idea came to him. “Actually… uh… I wonder if you might be willing to do something for us.”

  Bryan blinked. “What could I possibly do?”

  “Well.” Duncan frowned, wishing he hadn’t brought it up. The man was a minister and thus not likely to be open to this. He took a breath. Too late to back out now. “Um… how do you feel about, uh, same-sex couples?”

  Bryan gave a crooked smile. “Even before the pandemic, I thought it shouldn’t be an issue. I can’t believe how people can get all up in arms over two people in love. Doesn’t matter what their gender is.”

  Duncan let out a breath of relief. “So, uh, would you maybe be willing to officiate a wedding?”

  “A wedding?” Bryan’s eyebrows went up. “You mean you and the nurse?”

  “Mark, yeah.” Duncan nodded. “He… before we met, he’d lost a lot of people, even before the world went to hell. Sorry, uh, heck,” he corrected himself, blushing.

  Bryan laughed and waved a hand. “Don’t worry about language on my account. There are bigger fish to fry. I thought you weren’t religious, though. Is Mark?”

  “No. And we could do it without a preacher. It just seems more… official, I think.”

  “Have you asked him yet?”

  “No.” Duncan frowned. “Um… like I said, Mark lost a lot of people even before the pandemic. His family was estranged; his wife was a real piece of work.” Duncan shook his head. “So, when the pandemic hit and all his friends and coworkers started going too… it was too much. Took a lot for me to convince him to stay with me. To let me love him.” He swallowed as the fears he’d been fighting for almost a year nearly stole his breath again. “Anyway, I do what I can to prove I’m not going anywhere—not by choice, anyway. But it’s not always enough. So, I was thinking, if we got married, it’d show him again how much I want to stick around.”

  Bryan nodded slowly. “I can see that. I’m sorry for what he’s been through. It’s good he’s found you, though.”

  Duncan smiled. “Thanks. Do you think you might be willing to?”

  Bryan’s smile spread wide. “I’d be honored.”

  MARK AND Laura emerged from the exam room a short while later. Laura looked sheepish, and Duncan raised his eyebrows at Mark. Mark winked and crossed the room to stand next to him. Duncan reached up and took Mark’s hand as Laura sat next to Bryan.

  “So, uh, there might be a simple explanation for my stomach problems.”

  Bryan glanced at Mark, then turned back to Laura. “Might?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, uh, well, we don’t know yet because Mark doesn’t have a test to be sure.”

  Bryan frowned. “What test?”

  Laura licked her lips. “A pregnancy test.”

  Bryan’s mouth fell open and his eyes widened almost comically. “Preg—Laura, are you pregnant?”

  She looked terrified as she shrugged. “I, uh, don’t know, but Mark, um, helped me realize I haven’t, err, bled in almost two months.”

  Bryan blinked then and a huge smile crossed his face. “A baby! Oh, Laura!” He pulled her close, then lifted her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her.

  “Bryan….” She chuckled and let him hug her for a moment, then pushed at one arm. “Bryan… how do we raise and take care of a baby in this world?”

  Mark spoke up. “Well, first, by staying close to me.”

  Duncan grinned up at him, thrilled at the suggestion—thrilled by what it showed in Mark.

  “Close to you?” Laura asked.

  Mark nodded. “I wouldn’t feel even remotely right about letting you go anywhere. You’re young enough that there shouldn’t be complications, but we have no idea what the virus—if it’s still around—much less the inoculation would do to you or the pregnancy or subsequent baby. Any effects from the inoculation should be long gone from your system, but….” He shrugged. “There’s too much we don’t know about the virus and what was done to counter it.”

  Laura nodded. “That much is true.” She turned to Bryan. “Um… how do you feel about that?”

  “If he hadn’t suggested it, I would have asked. I don’t like the idea of you being any farther away from a medical professional than necessary.” He turned to Mark. “How sure are you?”

  Mark shook his head. “I’m not entirely. Without a test….” He frowned. “But the symptoms point to it and, frankly, there aren’t a lot of other possibilities that aren’t scary as hell. We should go find a test if we can and go from there.”

  “I’ll go—” Bryan started, but Duncan cut him off.

  “Not so fast,” he said. “Are you armed?”

  Bryan frowned. “No. I mean, I can fight with my fists if I have to, but—”

  Duncan shook his head. “No offense, preacher, but that’s not enough. How about I go along? I have the Glock and can keep an eye out for you.” He turned to Mark, who was doing a good job of hiding his terror. Duncan saw it, but that was only because he’d learned how to read the man he loved. Mark had gotten better about the few times they’d had to be apart, but most of their food and supply hunting they’d done together. “I promise not to jump off any ledges.”

  Mark’s terror seemed to fade a bit. “No chances.”

  Duncan pulled him a little closer and wrapped his arms around Mark’s waist. “I promise, baby.”

  Mark’s cheeks colored and the red at the base of his neck spread upward—the bane of ginger-haired people. He mumbled something about “other people,” but Duncan couldn’t make it out. Mark did hug him back, though.

  Duncan smiled. “Bryan knows we’re together.”

  “Oh?”

  Duncan nodded. “Yes. And he’s fine with it.”

  Some of the red faded from Mark’s face. “Oh, okay, then.”

  That reminded Duncan of Bryan and Laura, and he looked over to see them smiling.

  “Don’t mind us,” Laura said, winking.

  Duncan nodded and looked up to see the red coming back to M
ark’s face. “Anyway, Bryan and I could go together. Better chances for both of us. You can stay here with Laura. If she is pregnant, the last thing we want to do is put her in any kind of danger right now.”

  “You’re right,” Mark said, rather reluctantly. “All right.” He glanced toward the window. “It’s late today. How about tomorrow?”

  “That works. Bryan?”

  Bryan nodded. “Fine with me.”

  “All right, then.” Duncan stood. “We’ve got some fresh fish to make for dinner. Ever cleaned one?”

  DUNCAN and Mark had chosen the cabin they had for two reasons: its proximity to the lake and the relatively short distance to a somewhat small, mostly unlooted town. It looked a lot like a resort town, aimed at serving the lake visitors. Duncan suspected the cabin they’d taken had been a rental for the vacationers. There’d been no personal touches—no personal pictures or knickknacks, nothing that said anyone lived there permanently.

  Duncan had actually been grateful for that fact. He still felt weird taking over someone’s house. They’d had to more than once. After his ankle had healed, they’d moved on from the first family home they’d taken near the pharmacy they’d met at. But he hadn’t been able to go far for long. Before they’d made it a full five miles, he’d stepped funny and hurt his ankle again.

  With a lack of prescription-strength painkiller, Mark had immediately ordered Duncan off his feet. They’d found a house nearby that didn’t have steps—so Duncan couldn’t fall—and settled in again.

  He knew the original occupants weren’t coming back. Most likely they’d made a one-way trip to the hospital or possibly didn’t even make it all the way to help. Still, walking into what had once belonged to another person and helping himself had always felt odd to him.