Forsaking Home (The Survivalist Series) (14 page)

“Bunch of bastards,” Aric said, shaking his head. “Is someone coming to get these?” he asked, gesturing toward the trays.

“Mmhmm. They should be here soon.”

Aric nodded and plucked a French fry from one of the serving trays. It wasn’t long before two men came into the kitchen.

“Hey, Kay, these for us?” one of them asked.

“Yep, they’re all yours.”

“Hey, Cortez, what’s up?” Aric asked.

“Hey, Vonasek, SOS, how ’bout you?”

“You called it, just waiting for the next mission outside the wire.”

“Dude, you’re so lucky, getting to leave here,” the other man said.

“It ain’t all that much fun, Hamner,” Aric said.

“Yeah, well, it’s better than dealing with that shit over there.”

Aric saw his chance to ask some questions and pounced on it. “How many you got locked up over there?” he asked casually.

“There’s five in there right now, those murdering bitches and a couple of guys they caught with weapons outside.”

“Oh yeah, those girls who killed what’s-his-name?”

“Yep, that’s them.”

He was afraid to ask the next question, but knew he had to. “What are they going to do to them?”

“I don’t know, they haven’t said yet, said there’s some
mitigating circumstances.
Might just leave them in there to rot for all I know.”

Aric felt his pulse rising, but he knew he had to play it cool.

“Hey, man, can I go with you and check out the place?” Aric asked.

“Sure, we could use the help,” Cortez said, shoving a couple of trays into Aric’s hands and picking up the others. “Follow me.”

 • • • 

Jess was sitting with her back against the wall. She’d been dreading the moment when Shane woke up, but it was a moot point—it was so dark he couldn’t see her anyway. When he started to come around, she slipped out from under the blankets and put her jumpsuit back on. He reached out to her.

“Hello?”

“Hey, I’m Jess. They put me in here to warm you up. You were pretty close to being hypothermic.”

“Oh. Um, hi. Thanks. Where are my clothes?” he replied.

“I don’t know, they brought you in here without them,” she said.

Shane was embarrassed at the thought of being naked with her. “Oh, sorry about that.”

“No problem. Wasn’t your fault. So . . . why are you and your dad in here, anyway?”

“The DHS jumped us out on the road, shot up our truck. Pretty sure they killed some of my friends and then brought us here.”

“What’d you do wrong? I mean, why’d they start shooting?” Jess asked into the dark.

“Wrong? You don’t have to do anything wrong these days, all you have to do is be seen by DHS. That’s all we’re guilty of.”

“Where did they take you the other day?”

“I got . . . interrogated,” Shane said. He shivered at the thought of what was awaiting him the next time.

“Oh wow, I’m sorry. We haven’t experienced anything like that yet.”

“Pray you don’t. I have a feeling things are going to get worse the next time I see him.” Shane pulled the blankets tighter around himself.

Hearing voices outside, Jess said, “Shhhh.” Shane closed his eyes. Fear swelled in his throat. The door opened and the voices got louder and closer to them. Jess’s stomach dropped as the key slid into their cell door. Jess quickly lowered her eyes to avoid the light that was surely coming. Shane pulled the blankets up over his head.

The door opened and the light poured in. “How’re our lovebirds today?” Cortez asked.

“Is he still alive?” Hamner asked.

Jess kept her head down, but nodded to the affirmative.

“Why are they in here together?” Aric asked.

Cortez pointed to the lump under the blankets. “He had hypothermia, ’bout froze to death. The nurse put her in here to keep him warm, said body heat was the best thing.”

“Yeah, I see she’s got her clothes back on now. Too bad,” Hamner said.

Aric looked at him. “You made her take her clothes off?”

“Yeah, nurse said it was the best way.” He looked in at Jess and grinned, the light illuminating his face like a jack-o-lantern. “
Skin-to-skin contact
is how she put it.” He laughed, then looked back at Jess. “You get yourself some skin, darlin’?”

Aric set two trays down in the cell, resisting his urge to snap the guy’s neck. Cortez threw two water bottles in and quickly turned off the light. “Have fun finding those,” he said as he slammed the door.

Fred listened to the exchange and knew there was someone else with them today. Hearing the key slide into her door, she hid her face in her knees. The cell was soon flooded with light.

“This one here is a little firecracker,” Cortez said.

Aric’s heart stopped when he saw Fred.
She
at least looks okay
, he thought. As Cortez and Hamner were talking about getting the nurse back in for Shane, Aric knelt down and slid a tray toward her.

“Hang on, Fred,” he said, barely a whisper.

Fred thought it sounded like Aric, but she wasn’t sure, and she couldn’t risk looking into the light. Trusting it was someone friendly, she gave a quick thumbs-up with her left hand. Aric saw it and smiled to himself. Cortez threw a bottle of water in, bouncing it off Fred’s head.

“There’s some water, sweetheart,” he said with a laugh.

Aric sucked in his breath. They moved on to Mary’s cell. Opening the door they found her lying on the floor in a fetal position.

“This one is a fucking
wreck
,” Cortez said.

Aric slid a tray in. Mary made no movements. There was no indication that she was even alive.

“Is she dead?” Aric asked when he stood up.

Cortez snorted. “Not yet.”

Calvin didn’t bother to cover his face when they shone the light into his cell.

“How’re them ribs today, Grandpa?” Cortez asked.

Hamner looked at Aric. “Yeah, he wanted to play tough guy. Had to take a beatin’.”

Aric slid a tray toward him. Cortez stepped into the doorway and tossed the water bottle into the far corner of the cell, then slammed the door shut.

“What’s he in here for?” Aric asked as they moved down the hallway.

“I don’t know. He was caught outside the wire somewhere,” Cortez said.

Aric nodded, and they headed for the door. “Well, thanks for the tour. I’ll see you guys later—”

He was cut off by the camp siren going off.

All three men took off running toward their respective assigned posts. Aric ran toward the motor pool where all the vehicles were kept. A Hummer pulled through the gate as he was going through it.

“Vonasek! Get in!” his supervisor shouted, jutting a thumb over his shoulder.

Aric climbed into the still-moving vehicle. “What’s going on?”

“Get up in the turret! Someone’s hit the rear gate!”

Aric got up into the web straps for the turret gunner and checked the weapon.
I didn’t hear any shots
,
he thought to himself as the truck bounced across the camp. It took several minutes for them to get to the gate. Several others were already there when they arrived. It was obvious there wasn’t any kind of a fight, as people were just milling about. Pulling to a stop, they jumped out.

“What the hell happened?” his supervisor asked.

“They’re gone. All the guards on duty. They’ve disappeared,” one of them answered.

“How many were on duty?” another asked.

An agent came up to Aric as he walked around, checking the trail by the gate. “All three of them are just . . . gone.”

“A vehicle must’ve come in here and loaded them up. See all these tracks?” Aric said, pointing at the ground.

Soon there were a number of people in the trail, walking over the only evidence they had of what happened. Aric shook his head and walked back toward his truck. It seemed impossible: someone was able to come in and snatch three of their people and get away, without a shot being fired.
How in the hell did they do that?

T
had, Jeff, and I worked together to get the plastic on for the roof. We’d made two ladders out of cane that may have looked like crap but actually worked very well. After getting the second layer of plastic on, we took a break from the action. The past few days had been filled with projects for making this camp more like home, and man, was it hard work.

“Daddy, can we check the squirrel traps?!” Little Bit shouted as she jumped out of her chair. I sighed, having just sat down after being on my feet all afternoon.

“They were empty yesterday,” I said.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky today,” Danny said. I shot him a look.

“How’re the spots, man?”

He ran a hand over his side. “Not as bad as you’d think. There’s only a couple that actually bother me.”

I looked over and grinned. “The ones Doc picked at?”

He laughed. “Yeah, the ones he made
better.
”

“You got polka dots!” Little Bit said, giggling.

I rubbed her head. “Maybe we should start calling him Spot, what do you think?”

“Yeah!” she shouted and pointed at Danny. “Your new name is Spot!”

He grabbed her up real quick, swinging her up onto his shoulders. “I got your spots, you little booger!” She squealed with delight as she feigned fighting him off. Seeing her smile melted my heart, especially considering what she had been through the past few days.

“All right, Ashley, we can check the traps.”

“Yay!” she shouted.

The first trap we came to had a squirrel hanging from one of the snares. It was still alive and was doing its best to get free.

“We got one!” Little Bit shouted. She looked at the rodent for a second then asked with wide eyes, “Are you going to shoot it?”

“Naw, shooting it would be a waste,” I said as I looked around for a stick.

Walking over to the set, I grabbed the squirrel quickly by the tail and pulled it tight against the wire, then delivered a swift hard blow to its head.

“Eeww! Poor little squirrel,” Little Bit said, a frown creasing her face.

“It’s the fastest way, dear,” Danny said as he removed it from the snare.

We checked the rest of the snares, finding five more.

“It’s weird, nothing yesterday and six today,” I said.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, kinda strange. Maybe they needed a day to get used to it.”

“Good as any reason. I’ll go with it,” I said with a smile.

Little Bit was skipping along in front of us, holding a squirrel by the tail in each hand. I was shaking my head and smiling at the scene before me. An eight-year-old girl a hundred and fifty years ago would do this. An eight-year-old girl of this generation would run away screaming. Hell, most boys would too. For some reason society has been bent on destroying the idea of anything masculine or self-reliant. The effects were really starting to show before things changed like they did.

I wondered for a moment how the urbanites fared, the ones that never left the city. I mean, during normal times, everything you need is nearby: grocery stores, transportation, all that. But when the world changed, what did they do now? Did they possess the skills to provide for themselves? As hard as this all was on me, I can only imagine what it was like for them.

Back at the camp we cleaned the rats. It was a simple process, but some of us had never done it before, so I took the position as teacher again.

“All right, first you pinch the skin on the back and make a cut across it. Stick a finger in either side and pull. The skin comes off easily. Then it’s like taking off his furry little pants and shirt. Pull the skin down to the feet and cut them off. Then push the skin down the tail and cut it off. See! Now his pants are gone. Push the skin up toward the head and cut the head off behind it, his furry shirt is gone.”

There was very little blood during this. Once they were skinned, we gutted them by making small slits in their bellies and scooping their innards out. We took out the meat and saved the entrails for the dogs, who were happy to get them.

“I’ll cook these in some water. Maybe we can mix ’em with some rice later,” Thad said as he picked up the cleaned carcasses.

Jeff and I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting wood. It was a never-ending process that was now requiring us to venture farther and farther into the woods. Keeping a fire burning all the time was nice and convenient, but it was starting to become a chore to make it happen. Taylor, Mel, and Bobbie all helped with the wood. While we needed nice pieces of split wood, we needed smaller stuff as well. This was where Little Bit really helped. She was a pro at finding kindling-sized pieces.

Danny spent his time by the fire—doctor’s orders, of course. I was splitting wood when I noticed Lee Ann had joined us. She had her feet up in the chair and her head resting on her knees. I was getting worried. She wasn’t interacting with any of us. Laying down the maul I was splitting with, I went over to her and knelt down. I put a hand on her head and ran my fingers through her hair.

“Hey, kiddo, are you all right?”

She wouldn’t lift her head. All I got in return was a nod. I tried to raise her head. “Hey, look at me.”

She resisted at first then finally looked up. What I saw scared me more than I could have imagined. Her face was blank, completely devoid of any expression. It was hard to witness. The face I was looking at was not the same beautiful girl I loved. It was truly disturbing.

It was obvious I was surprised, so I tried to play it off. “Hey, what’s the matter? You’ve been acting funny the last few days.”

With that same expressionless face she replied, “Nothing, I’m fine.”

I looked straight into her eyes. “Bullshit,” I said. I knew it would shock her and let her know I was being serious.

She suddenly dissolved into tears. She was trying to say something but I couldn’t make it out. She was completely unintelligible. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered in her ear, “It’s okay, whatever’s wrong, it’s going to be okay.” I leaned back and wiped her face. “Hey, calm down, just try and calm down.”

Finally, through her sobs, she said, “It’s not okay. It’ll never be okay.”

I stood up. “Come on, let’s go to the cabin.” I grabbed her hand and led her back to the cabin and to her bed. She lay down and I lay beside her, rubbing her hair.

“Look, I know you think it’s the end of the world, but it’s not. It’s really not.” She didn’t respond, and she was lying facing away from me so I couldn’t see her expression.

“It’ll all come back someday. It may take a long time, but it will come back.”

“No, it won’t. It’s all gone, and it’ll never be back,” she said in a soft voice.

This is what I was afraid of: she thought the life she knew was gone forever. It was gone for now, but to dwell on that fact could eat you alive. I hoped someday everything would come back, and, of course, I didn’t know whether it would. But I wanted to express a hopeful opinion. Being stuck in a mind-set like Lee Ann’s would only bring more trouble.

“Hey, I haven’t told anyone yet, but I saw a satellite the other night when I was out sitting by the fire.” I paused. “You know, if there’s still satellites, then everything isn’t gone. Maybe it’s just around here that people are experiencing this. Maybe there are places where things are normal.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Doesn’t matter, we couldn’t get there anyway.”

I rubbed her head again. “I know it sucks and I know you think life is over, but it isn’t, I promise you that.”

In a robotic voice, she replied, “I want to go to sleep.”

I lay there looking at the back of her head, then leaned over and kissed her. “Okay, I love you, know that. And it will be all right.”

I got up and walked toward the door. We’d taken to keeping all the guns by the door, because it was easier to pick them up as you left. I paused by Lee Ann’s H&K and picked it up. As I came back to the fire, Mel was sitting in a chair.

“What’s going on?” she asked as I laid the H&K on the table.

Sitting down I told her, “She’s depressed. I’m worried about her.”

She pointed at the weapon. “Why’d you bring that out?”

“I don’t want her to be left alone with a gun.”

Danny looked up from the fire. “Whoa. It’s that bad, you think?”

Mel looked at him, then back to me. “What? She’s not going to do anything like that.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anything else.

“Well, I don’t want to give her an opportunity,” I said as I kicked at a log.

“If you’re that worried, you better keep an eye on her, Morg,” Thad said.

“I think so too. She has been acting a little weird, withdrawn,” Bobbie said.

“What’s the matter with Lee Ann?” Little Bit asked.

I looked at her and smiled. “She’s just sad.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine.”

“She isn’t talking to me either,” Taylor said.

“I think everyone just needs to help keep an eye on her,” Danny said.

At dinner, Lee Ann didn’t come out, despite Mel and me both trying to get her out of bed. It reinforced our fears. The rest of us sat around the tables in the light of a lamp and had our dinner, but conversation was slow and Mel and I were both clearly distracted.

After dinner, we cleaned up and sat around the fire a bit longer. Danny was antsy after sitting around so much and offered to take the first watch. I lay down but had trouble falling asleep, my mind busy thinking about how to deal with Lee Ann.

Danny woke me up around midnight and I went out to the fire as usual. I’d been out there for a couple of hours when a sound caught my ears. After so much time without man-made noises, I was acutely aware when they were present. This one was certainly an engine. I listened to it for a while until I was able to determine that it was getting closer. In fact, it sounded as if it was heading straight for our little camp. I jumped up and ran over to Thad and Jeff’s cabin, knocking on the side.

“Hey, get up! Someone’s heading this way.”

I heard them both scuffing around, and Jeff yelled out, “We’re coming!”

I ran over to Danny’s cabin and did the same thing, then headed back to my cabin.

I opened the door and stuck my head in. “Mel, wake up.”

“What is it?” she asked as she sat up.

“There’s a vehicle headed this way. Get your weapons and be ready just in case. Stay here unless you hear me call for you.”

“All right,” she said as everyone, Lee Ann included, woke up.

As I ran up to the guys I asked, “Do you guys hear it?”

“Yeah, we hear it,” Jeff said.

“Sounds like it’s going to come right down the road there,” Danny said.

“Let’s take up some positions where we can see them if they come in here,” Thad said.

“Good idea. Let’s break up in pairs,” I said.

“Me and Jeff will go out by where the driveway cuts off the road,” Thad said.

“All right, Danny, let’s go behind the chicken coop.”

As we split up the dogs started barking, announcing that whatever it was was a lot closer now. They ran toward the road, tails up.

“What do you think it is?” I asked Danny as I looked for lights.

“Sounds like a four-wheeler or something.”

“That’s what I thought. And whoever it is, is riding blacked out. There’s no lights.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to get my eyes,” Danny said as his head bobbed and weaved, looking through the brush and trees.

As the sound grew closer, I tensed up, my carbine at low ready. I had my thumb on the safety, ready to flip it off and start shooting. We both had lights mounted to our rifles. They used the CR123 batteries, so we seldom used them, as there were no replacements.

“It just turned off the road,” Danny said as he gripped his rifle a little tighter.

I looked through the NVGs and could see a large UTV pulling in.

As it pulled in past my cabin, I nudged Danny and we both stepped out, turning on the lights and illuminating the buggy. At the same moment, Thad and Jeff jumped out.

“Stop right there!” Danny shouted.

I followed. “Show me your hands! Hands up, all of you!”

A light way brighter than the ones on our rifles lit up on the buggy. “Morgan, it’s us,” a voice called out.

I shielded my eyes and could see Ted standing up in the rear of the buggy. “Holy shit, man! You guys scared the shit out of us.”

The buggy shut down and they started getting out as we gathered around it.

“Yeah, looks like you guys were ready,” Mike said.

“Almost, I didn’t see Ted up there! He would’ve cut us in half,” I said.

“No, he wouldn’t have. Ole Thad was about to blast him with that scatter gun of his,” Jeff said.

Ted turned to look at Thad. “I’m hurt.”

Thad smiled. “Not as bad as you woulda been.”

Ted and Mike both laughed. Danny peered into the back of the buggy. “What’s with them? Are they DHS?” he asked, pointing, shock apparent on his face.

“Oh, they’re a surprise for the old man,” Ted said.

“Let’s get ’em out,” Mike said to Jamie and Perez.

They pulled three people out. I was surprised to see one of them was a woman. She was trying to mumble through the tape over her mouth. The two men stood there looking around, then looked at each other with a quick glance. Suddenly they bolted for the trees. With their hands cuffed behind their backs they weren’t exactly making a graceful escape.

The one in the lead almost made it to the tree line. Jeff was closest to them and he swung his AK like a bat, clipping the guy in the back of the head. It was a perfect hit, knocking the guy unconscious. He fell like a sack of bricks. The second one was caught by Mike, who grabbed the guy’s cuffed hands from behind. His feet went out from under him and he crashed to the ground as well.

“Nice try, boys, nice try,” Mike said as he rolled the one he had ahold of onto his stomach. Ted had forced the woman to the ground too, in case she tried to make a run for it. She was still running her mouth through the tape.

Ted leaned down and pulled the tape back. “What the hell do you want?”

“You dumbasses have no idea the trouble you’re—” She was cut off when Ted slapped the tape back onto her mouth. He was laughing and said, “No, you have no idea who
you’re
messing with and what sort of trouble
you’re
in! I suggest you shut up.”