Forsaking Home (The Survivalist Series) (23 page)

I looked at Jeff and pointed at my eyes, then to them. He nodded and I motioned for Thad and Danny to follow me. As soon as I came through the door of the cabin, Taylor was there with her H&K.

“What’s going on?”

“Raiders. We’ve got them, though,” I said, then looked at the group. “I say we load them into the Suburban and haul them out in the middle of nowhere and leave ’em.”

“They could die out there,” Bobbie said.

“That’s their problem. They shouldn’t have stolen,” Danny said.

“All they wanted was some food. Why don’t we just give them some and let them go? They’re just kids,” Mel said.

“If we give them food, they’ll just come back. Or worse, they’ll come back with others, now that they have an idea of what we have here. We aren’t giving them a damn thing,” Thad said with a tone of finality.

“I agree,” Danny said.

“So do I,” I said.

Mel and Bobbie didn’t look too thrilled but didn’t argue any further.

“You want to take them in the morning?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, I guess. We’ll load them in the truck and have someone in Sarge’s buggy, just in case,” I said.

“Where are we going to take them?” Thad asked.

“Let’s see if we can figure out where they came from. Then we’ll take them in the opposite direction and dump them.”

“We should blindfold them so they can’t find their way back,” Danny added.

“Good idea. Let’s go see if we can find out where they came from in the meantime,” Thad said.

The three of us men slogged through the rain back to the canopy.

“All right, you guys needed food. You tell us where your camp is and we’ll give you some, plus we’ll take you there. But I’m warning you, if you try and come back again”—I paused and looked them each in the eye—“we will kill you.”

The three shared looks and Brian nodded at Julie. “We’re staying at the campground up the river.”

“How’d you get down here?” Thad asked.

“We came down in a canoe,” Brian said.

“How’d you guys find us?” I asked.

“We saw your camp one night when we were out on the river. We saw you had those pigs and the chickens running around.”

“Why didn’t you just come in during the day and ask, maybe try and trade or something?” Danny asked.

“Why? No one helps anyone today. It’s every man for himself,” Franco said.

“We’re working together. We’re not all family here,” I said.

“Maybe you guys do, but it’s not the way for most. Everyone wants to take advantage of you,” Julie said in a small voice.

“Where are you guys from?” I asked.

“We’re all students from Stetson. We stayed there as long as we could, but the good people of DeLand weren’t too concerned about a bunch of out-of-town students,” Julie said.

“You guys are law students?” I asked.

“We were,” Brian said.

“You guys must be from good families. I mean, Stetson isn’t a cheap school,” Jeff said.

Franco looked up, a quizzical expression on his face. “What does that have to do with anything? Your net worth doesn’t mean shit now. It’s about survival.”

“Well, the way you’re going about it isn’t going to work long,” I said.

“It’s worked so far,” Brian said with a sneer.

“Till now,” Thad said.

“You said you’d give us some food . . .” Julie said, her voice trailing off.

I looked at Danny. “Let’s go check the campground and see if they really are staying there.”

“Where’s your camp?” Danny asked.

“It’s on the first loop down the river,” Franco said.

I motioned to Thad. “Make ’em a pot of plain grits. If they’re hungry, they’ll eat it.”

Thad smiled. “Yeah, they better be real hungry.”

Danny and I took one of the buggies and headed for the campground. As we bounced down the road Danny asked, “Think there’s anyone else there?”

“I don’t know, we’ll see.”

Pulling into the campground, I turned on every light on the buggy scanning the trails as we drove through. Finding their camp wasn’t hard—it was a collection of a couple of tents and some other shelters constructed on site, with a fire burning in a pit.

“There’s got to be someone else here. In this rain, the fire would’ve been out by now,” Danny said.

“Yeah, someone’s out there,” I replied.

We scanned the area with the lights, looking for sign of anyone. “Hello!” Danny called out.

I looked at him like he was nuts. “What? Maybe they’ll answer,” he said.

“Let’s pull up a little closer,” I said as I eased the buggy forward.

At the edge of the camp we stepped out of the buggy, using our weapon lights to scan the area. “See anything?” Danny asked.

“No,” Danny said, peering off into the gloom.

“I don’t think anyone’s here,” I said as I reached down and pulled the rainfly up on one of the tents, looking in.

“Shit!” I yelled as I jumped back.

Danny swung around. “What?”

I had my weapon trained on the tent. “Come out! Hands first!”

“Someone in there?” Danny asked, raising his weapon.

I nodded. “Come out now!”

The zipper slowly opened. I stepped back a little, keeping the muzzle on the growing opening. After a moment a set of hands came out. “Don’t shoot,” someone said nonchalantly. A head followed the hands as a figure crawled out into the mud. As he finally stood up I was surprised to see it was Andy, Chase’s son.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Gotta be somewhere.”

“Why’d you leave your dad’s?”

“Just wasn’t big enough for both of us.” He looked over his shoulder. “Come on out, Walt.”

Another figure crawled out of the tent.

“What are you two doing with this group?” Danny asked.

Andy smiled, looking at Walt. “They got their uses.”

“Like what?” Danny asked.

Andy nodded at him. “Jus’ like you guys, it’s easier to survive in a group.”

“You guys got any guns?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I got my shotgun.”

“Them three said they didn’t have any guns,” Danny said.

Andy smiled again. “They don’t.”

“Which is why they’re tied up over at our place right now. You sent them over there, didn’t you?” I asked, my temper flaring.

“They go to do their part, we do ours,” Andy said.

“And just what is your part?” Danny asked.

Andy spit into the mud. “Them yuppie kids don’t know how to survive out here. They’d be dead if it wasn’t for us. We keep them alive, show what they can eat and how to get it.”

“Like stealing?” Danny asked.

Andy shrugged. “Ain’t nuthin’ personal. We gotta eat too. You got more of them hogs than you need, and more chickens than you can use too.”

“So you showed them where our place was and sent them over to try and steal them,” Danny said.

Andy crossed his arms. “We went with them the first time, but that little booby trap you set up got us.”

“Not to mention you guys shootin’ at us,” Walt said.

“Was it you who shot us out on the creek?” Danny asked.

Andy smiled broadly, showing the plaque caked to his teeth. “Someone shot at you?” He looked at his buddy Walt. “Ain’t that a shame.”

Danny stared intently at the boy, and Andy returned his stare with empty eyes.

“Let’s get your stuff loaded up,” I said.

“Why? We ain’t going anywhere.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You
are
going. One way or another,” Danny said.

“What gives you the right to tell us that? You ain’t shit. We ain’t going anywhere,” Walt said.

Danny raised the muzzle of his carbine so it was pointing at Walt’s chest. “This gives me the right.”

“I know you think you’re King Shit on Turd Island, pushing those college kids around, but you aren’t going to push us around. You’re a liability to our security and you’ve gotta go,” I said.

“Or what, you gonna shoot us up?” Andy asked.

“That is entirely up to you,” Danny said.

“So where are we supposed to go?”

“We’ll take you some place where you can set up a new camp, it’ll just be far from here,” I said.

“Wherever you take me, I’ll find my way back,” Andy said with a chuckle.

“Come back and we’ll kill you. This is your only chance,” Danny said.

“Now what?”

“Time to pack up. Where’s your shotgun?”

“You ain’t taking my shotgun, old man.”

“We’ll give it back to you later, but for now we’ll hang on to it.”

Andy glared at Danny. “If I’d known you assholes were gonna be like this, I’da shot your asses when you showed up.”

“Yeah, well, you missed that opportunity. Now where is it?”

“I ain’t tellin’!”

“Keep an eye on them. It’s got to be in the tent,” I said as I stepped toward it.

“You two get over here and sit on this log,” Danny said, motioning with the barrel of his carbine. Neither of them moved. “Now!” Danny shouted.

Reluctantly, they moved to the log and sat down. I knelt down and stuck my head in the tent. Nearly gagging, I jerked my head back.

“Oh my God, that stinks.” Looking back at the two on the log, I asked, “How in the hell can you guys sleep in there?”

Andy simply shook his head and shrugged.

Inhaling deeply, I stuck my head back into the tent, using the light on my carbine to search for the shotgun. My lungs quickly began to complain as I searched through the soiled, damp sleeping bags. Finally when I didn’t think I could hold my breath another fraction of a second longer, I saw the muzzle under one of the bags and quickly pulled it out.

Letting out a huge breath, I stood up, shotgun in hand. “Got it.”

“All right, you two pack this shit up,” Danny said.

Walt and Andy went about packing up their soggy camp as Danny and I watched. Their idea of packing the camp consisted of taking the tents down and wadding them into a ball with their contents still inside. They collected their cooking equipment and tossed it on top of everything, not bothering to wash anything out.

“This place is a fucking mess,” Danny said.

“Yeah, they live like damn animals.”

“Sorry we don’t meet your approval. We ain’t got a nice cabin to live in,” Walt said.

“Shut up,” Danny snarled. Turning to me, he quietly asked, “Where are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking Salt Springs. I know a place up there we can take them, out in the middle of the woods.”

“That’s kinda close, isn’t it?” Danny asked as we got in the buggy.

“A little, but I don’t want to go far. It’s too dangerous. I don’t want to get myself killed over these losers.”

As he started the buggy, he replied, “Yeah, I guess not.”

“Now what?” Andy asked.

“Turn around,” Danny said as he pulled a length of paracord from his pocket.

“Why, you tying us up?” Walt asked.

“Yep.”

“This is bullshit!” Andy shouted.

“It is what it is, now turn around,” I said. They tried to fight me a little, but some swift kicks to the shins made the process a lot easier.

Once they were tied up and loaded into the buggy, we headed back toward the cabins. By the time we got back to the camp, Thad had already cooked up the grits. He was standing with one foot up on the bench, resting his elbows on his knees, watching the three scrape the sides of their bowls. Thad looked up as we approached.

I looked at the nearly empty pot. “Guess you guys were hungry.”

Brain looked up. “You have no idea—there’s just nothing out there to eat.”

“Did you find our camp?” Julie asked, hesitation in her voice.

“We found it,” Danny said. “Your buddies too.”

The three looked toward the buggy, where Andy and Walt were still sitting.

“Any grits left in that pot, Thad?” I asked.

Thad was looking at the buggy as well. “Yeah, how many are there?”

“Just two,” Danny said as he walked off to get them.

He followed them back to the table, telling them to have a seat with their friends.

“Thanks for ratting us out,” Walt said.

“Leave ’em be, Walt. We’ll deal with this later,” Andy said.

Thad slid bowls of grits in front of the two boys. Walt immediately started to eat the meager portion of grits while Andy eyed the bowl with suspicion. “What’s this?”

“What’s it look like?” Thad asked.

Andy took up a spoon and sampled a small bite. “These are the worst grits I’ve ever tasted!”

Thad reached over and grabbed the bowl. “Then don’t eat ’em.”

Andy reached out with his bound hands, grabbing the bowl. “Hang on, there, biggun, didn’t say I wouldn’t eat it, damn.”

Thad let go and set the bowl in front of him. Despite them being the worst grits Andy ever tasted, he was soon scraping the sides of the bowl for every last piece.

“At daylight, we’ll take you to your new home,” I said.

Julie looked at the two guys. “Where are you taking us?”

“To a place much like this one, just farther away.”

“And remember what we said, should you find your way back here it will not end well for you,” Danny said, looking at Andy.

Julie looked at the carbine he cradled and nodded.

“Don’t worry, there ain’t that many places they can take us,” Andy said, then looked at Danny. “I can find our way back.”

“You’re just too damn stupid for your own good, aren’t you?” Danny asked.

“You think we should take him to his dad?” Thad asked.

I looked at Andy. “No, you heard what Chase said about him.”

Andy’s eyes narrowed. “What’d he say?”

We ignored him. “Let’s build a fire and hang out till sunup now that the rain’s stopped,” Danny said.

“I could use a fire,” Jeff said.

Instead of just building the fire on the wet ground, we laid several logs on the ground and started the fire on top of them. By slowly building the fire up, we managed to get it going strong and hot in short order. Our guests were still sitting under the canopy, far from the warmth of the fire.

“Can we move closer to the fire? I’m cold,” Julie said.

“Yeah, me too. I want to sit by the fire,” Andy said.

“We’ll let you sit by the fire, but if you try anything we’ll be feeding your carcass to the gators in the creek,” Danny said.

“We won’t do anything, I promise,” Brian said.