After The Virus (Book 2): Homesteading

by Archer, Simon

  “I’m a nerd, I guess.” she shrugged. “I liked tech, so I learned as much about the things I was interested in as I could.”

  “I might see about getting your help with the next attempt I make at building a solar array,” I said.

  “Like, real hardware?” she asked, wide-eyed.

  I just pointed to the field of panels we’d put up in one of the clear fields near the farmhouse. Penny grinned.

  “I’d love that.”

  My foot scuffed on the gravel of the driveway as we both fell silent. Ahead, folks had gathered and milled around, waiting for the promised dinner.

  “About time,” Gene called to us as we reached the house. “We were about to eat yours.”

  “That’s how you start a fight around here, old man,” I teased.

  Jackie, Angie, and Virgil, probably with ‘help’ from Tommy, had set up several picnic tables in the yard in front of the house. They were loaded with food: fried chicken, smoked venison, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, cornbread, and pecan pies. Three of them.

  “Damn,” I said as I sat down. “Y’all really outdid yourselves.”

  “Don’t expect this every night,” Jackie said with a broad grin.

  “Virgil brought us the meat,” Angie added.

  “Even the chickens,” Jackie threw in.

  Virgil just kind of ducked his head and looked embarrassed.

  Before everyone could load their plates and tuck in, I stood, stuck my pinkies in the corners of my mouth, and let out an ear-piercing whistle. Everything stopped immediately. Even the dogs stopped begging and sat down, eyes wide and ears up.

  “I was thinking about saying a few words to welcome y’all to our little piece of Alabama,” I drawled. “But then, I figured this meal kind of said it all.” With that, I looked over at Virgil. “You mind saying grace, kid?”

  He looked up at me and practically beamed. I was almost surprised when no one protested as he held out his hands to the people closest to him. Everyone knew what to do, and once we’d all clasped hands, Virgil spoke.

  “Thank you, Lord, for new friends and old ones, for family, and for this truly amazing meal cooked by Jackie and Angie. Please bless and keep us, and grant us peace and happiness for the rest of our days. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

  Amens rippled around the tables, and we all sat down to eat.

  I mostly just watched while I ate, as did Angie. Jackie dove into any conversation that caught her fancy, while Estelle confined her attention to those people immediately nearby.

  Penny kept trying to get Virgil talking, although the young man became positively laconic the moment she turned her attention on him. Tommy was a free-floating point of chaos, chattering away in his high-pitched voice so quickly that I quickly lost track of whatever he might have been trying to say.

  Meanwhile, Susan ate quietly and watched, as did Michelle, while Gene was a generally affable talker once he’d finished his second plate. The pies were cut and devoured, one by one, and then Angie brought out the more adult beverages. Virgil made his excuses and went to put Irene and Tommy to bed.

  It was well after dark at this point, and the temperature had dropped a fair bit, as it tended to do on some evenings in late spring.

  Michelle rose and said, “I think I’d like to go get settled in.”

  “Oh, right,” Jackie bounded to her feet as well. “Let me show you around.”

  “I’ll go too,” Penny said. She stared after Virgil, and I suspected it was a good idea she was going back to the Roberts’ place.

  “Anyone else?” Jackie asked.

  “I think we’re good,” Susan answered as she looked around the tables.

  Gene nodded. “Sleep well, Penny. You, too, Michelle.”

  The rest of us said our goodnights and settled back in to nurse our drinks as Jackie led the other two women off towards the dark house across the road. At least we had hooked up a generator for the garage. Maybe they’d get other necessities plugged up, too, and hopefully, Goldeneye wouldn’t keep everyone awake.

  “So,” I leaned over to Angie, “I got you something.”

  “Really?” she asked. “What?”

  “I’ll show you,” I said, then looked over at Bill. “I need the keys to the BearCat.”

  He nodded, fished them out of his jacket pocket, then tossed them to me. I got up and walked the Marine over to the SWAT vehicle, opened the back, and pulled out the Milkor MGL. In the light from the truck’s interior, I watched her brown eyes go wide.

  “Wow,” Angie said, reaching out reverently to take the heavy grenade launcher from my hands. “Oh, wow.”

  “There are only twenty rounds of HE,” I told her as I handed the weapon over. “But plenty of tear gas. We’ll see if we can get more elsewhere.”

  “I won’t insist on test firing it tonight, then,” she said, a hint of disappointment in her husky voice.

  A moment later, she kissed me deeply, her left hand catching behind my neck as her fingers tangled in my hair. We held it for a long moment, then she pulled away and shouldered her new toy with a broad grin.

  “Thank you, love.”

  “Glad you like it,” I said happily. “I’ve got stuff for Jackie and the kids, too, so let me go find her. Think Virgil will like a CAR-15?”

  “I don’t see why he wouldn’t,” she replied. “I think she’s still up at the Roberts’.”

  “Probably,” I said, then stole another kiss and slipped away.

  Jackie met me at the road and paused. “Everything okay?” she asked, tilting her head quizzically.

  “Oh, yeah,” I said. “I got you a couple of things.”

  “Really?” she said brightly. “You know you didn’t have to.”

  “I wanted to,” I told her. “One of them is in the truck because we need to figure out where to put it, but here’s the other.”

  She took the bag I offered and fished around inside it for a moment, a curious expression on her face.

  “What is…?” She drew out a good-sized fuzzy ball with little feet, yellow eyes, and a black nose. “Oh, my God! Fizzgig!”

  “Yep. He’s a puppet, too,” I said.

  A moment later, she crashed into me hard and kissed me happily as I caught her. “I love it,” she said, gazing into my eyes. “Thank you.”

  “This one,” I said, “is for you to play with. The other one is a bit fragile, I think.”

  “Other one?” she asked curiously.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “It’s one of the actual puppets from the movie, but it’s in a plexiglass display.”

  Her eyes went even wider if such a thing was possible.

  “See, I remembered you mentioning that you liked fantasy stuff, and they had a Dark Crystal display at the Puppetry Center in Atlanta, so…”

  “What were you doing there?” she asked.

  “Looking for gifts,” I replied honestly. “Think Tommy will like a Kermit puppet?”

  “Who wouldn’t?” she said, laughing and shaking her head. “Did you get the actual Kermit, too?”

  “Well, actually, yeah,” I admitted, then I bent in close and whispered, “Bruce got a stuffed Emmet Otter.”

  “He did!?” she exclaimed, then covered her mouth with her free hand, Fizzgig fully occupying the other. “I never would have thought he’d like that show!”

  “Hell,” I said, “I can’t imagine anyone not liking Emmet Otter.”

  “So,” Jackie asked as we turned to head on back to the farmhouse where everyone was still sitting around, “what did you get Angie?”

  “A grenade launcher,” I replied.

  32

  The next few days were a blur of activity as we worked ourselves to exhaustion, getting all of the new people settled. In the span of a few days, we’d doubled our population and really hadn’t taken the time to prepare the homestead beforehand.

  Our first order of business was getting running water going at the Roberts’ place. With six
people residing there, that was probably the most important challenge to take care of.

  Like my house and the cottage, the Roberts’ place was supplied by a well with a storage tank and pump pressurization. Unfortunately, it needed a solid, working power supply. A propane generator was the first and fastest option until we could put together a solar array for that side of the road.

  Acquiring said generator and hooking it up took most of the day, but in the end, we emerged triumphantly. The generator was a fairly powerful one used to power the massive lights used in roadwork and put out enough wattage to cover the pump and the house lights.

  Goldeneye, of course, chose this particular time to decide that he was going to go nuts, and when Jackie wasn’t looking, broke out of his cage and escaped, not out into the fields, but into the house.

  “Henry,” Jackie ran up to me, breathing heavily. “He’s gone.”

  “What?” I asked. “Who?”

  “Goldeneye,” she replied. “He opened his cage while we were working on the generator.”

  “He’s back in the wild, then?” I wanted to know. “He is a wild critter, and if he’s feeling well enough to run away, then-”

  “He, umm, didn’t get out of the garage,” she answered, looking down at her shoes for a minute. “He got into the house.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Shit.”

  Gene just started laughing when I got everyone’s attention and told them what had happened. Fortunately, the house was empty. Michelle and Susan were up at the main house with Estelle, baby Irene, and Gwen, while Jackie, Gene, Bill, Angie, and I worked on the generator. Virgil was around somewhere with Tommy and the four-wheeler with the mission to keep the kid out from underfoot.

  “We’ll find him,” Jackie said assuredly. “Will you guys watch the doors? I think all the noise spooked him, so he’s probably hiding.”

  “Sure thing,” Bill said rather uncertainly. “What do we do if we see him?”

  “Yell,” I replied. “If he makes it outside, we probably won’t see him again, and we need to make sure he’s up to surviving in the wild.”

  “Right,” Gene said, still chuckling. “I think we can handle a coyote.”

  Jackie and I exchanged glances. They didn’t know Goldeneye very well.

  I went with her as she took the lead, going in through the side door closest to the generator. We’d guessed right, he hadn’t been waiting on the noisy side, but he could be anywhere in the house, and if he was as sneaky as any other ‘yote, we might not find him until he decided to run for an open door.

  Starting on the ground floor, we went room by room. Both of us had our sidearms, but Jackie wouldn’t be happy if we had to use them. So we made plenty of noise, and she kept calling for the big hybrid as if he were a tame dog.

  The trashcan in the kitchen was upset, and its contents scattered over the tile floor.

  “Well,” I mused wryly, “he was definitely here.”

  Jackie giggled softly. “Did you check behind the couch?”

  “And in the laundry room,” I replied. “The basement door is closed, so I went ahead and locked it.”

  “Upstairs, then,” she said, and we headed for the stairway.

  We found him in the main bedroom, sprawled on the bed with an empty can of Campbell's, probably filched from the garbage. He was even still wearing his cone.

  “How the hell did you pull this off?” I asked, regarding the coywolf from the doorway. He looked back at me, jaws open and tongue lolling out of his maw as if he were laughing.

  I swear he winked at me.

  Jackie slipped past me, and there was a brief moment of staredown before he rolled partway onto his back and looked up at her. She put her hand on his throat for a moment, then rubbed his nose and stepped back.

  I just shook my head and got out of the way as she escorted Goldeneye from the bedroom. She even picked up the can. Once he was safely ensconced back in the garage, the two of us rejoined the others at the generator.

  “Find him?” Angie asked.

  I nodded.

  “We probably need to let him go soon,” Jackie said with a sigh. “He’s not even limping anymore.”

  “That was fast,” I said.

  “I’m sort of curious as to the story behind you folks having a coyote-wolf hybrid in a garage and wearing a cone,” Gene said, looking between Jackie and me.

  “This is all you,” I told the young woman when she looked at me.

  “Well,” she began, “it started like this.”

  While we sat around the idling generator and the shadows grew longer, Jackie told the story of how we’d been raided by the animal’s pack and decided to go hunt them. She’d been convinced she could befriend the creature and convinced me to give her one chance.

  She’d ultimately been right, but the coywolf had gotten hurt in the scuffle with his suddenly rebellious packmates. With Estelle’s help, he’d gotten patched up, and he was recovering in the garage, away from the dog pack that guarded the homestead.

  “That’s crazy,” Bill said as Jackie finished the story. “Wow. You guys really went out of your way.”

  “I hated how we had to do it,” she said.

  “But they were a bit too bold for both their own good,” I added. “And ours.”

  “Yeah,” Gene said thoughtfully. “Back in the eighties, I flew a chopper in Alaska for some guys that wanted to try hunting from the air. Pissed me off when they started shooting wolves for laughs. I took them back to the airport and returned their money. On the way, one of them threatened to shoot me if I didn’t keep letting them have their fun. I looked that bastard right in the eyes and said, ‘If you do that, I hope your ass can fly.’ That settled them down a bit, but I still took us up to the operating ceiling, just in case they got froggy.”

  “Wow,” Jackie said as Angie nodded appreciatively. “What assholes.”

  “This was before they made it illegal, too,” the big man said. “So I couldn’t actually report them, but hell, I can understand not wanting to hike around the woods in the snow for an elk or two, but I draw the line at killing for your jollies.”

  I started softly whistling Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere” as I walked over and double-checked the generator.

  Gene chuckled.

  “Did you wire up the water heater, too?” he asked.

  “The whole house should have power,” I replied. “I wouldn’t use the air conditioner yet, though.”

  “Sounds good,” he said. “It’s bath night.”

  “Don’t we know it,” Angie teased.

  We were interrupted by the sound of a small engine as Virgil turned the four-wheeler up the driveway and headed in our direction. Tommy rode behind him, whooping it up as they bounced over the uneven concrete plates.

  The teenager braked to a halt and scanned us really quickly.

  “Miss Susan wanted me to tell you folks that dinner was about ready,” he said, smiling.

  “Sounds good to me,” I told him as my stomach rumbled. “Let them know we’re on our way, and the house here has water.”

  “Yes, sir,” he called.

  “Hi!” Tommy yelled at us. “Bye!”

  Virgil gunned the small vehicle’s engine, spun it around, and took off while the younger kid squealed happily.

  I smiled after them.

  “Shouldn’t they wear helmets?” Bill asked.

  “If you can convince them to do that,” Angie said, “go for it. They’ll be safer for it.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  We did a quick clean up and pick up, putting our tools away, then walked off down towards the farmhouse. The feasts and such would probably taper off over time, but for now, extended family meals were a great way to get everyone together and help us all get to know each other. This one was Susan’s. I was really curious about what her spread would say about her.

  Since the weather was nice, we had the outdoor tables, and they were all neatly set with baskets, plates, and serving dishes.
We had various kinds of dishes set out: shepherd’s pie, green bean casserole, mustard greens, biscuits, and a cold plate with crackers, cheese, and strawberry compote.

  It would never do to have anyone go to bed hungry.

  After dinner, I got a chance to see Susan in action. She took over the cleanup and got everyone moving before we settled down for drinks and conversation in the wake of the meal. What was interesting was just how efficiently she took care of things.

  Even more interesting was the effect she had on Ghost and Pepper. The two cats adored her. They were even a little standoffish with Jackie and had taken to being annoyed with me a lot more than usual as more people crowded into the house.

  Maybe I should have asked their permission first.

  Still, Susan immediately made friends with the pair. I hadn’t seen that before, and I could tell that Jackie was at least a bit envious. The young woman had been trying to make friends with the house cats since day one with only a few slight successes.

  Still, everyone went to bed feeling good, or at least the four of us did.

  Unfortunately, the weather the next day took a dive. I woke up with a pressure headache. Then, by the time breakfast was done, distant thunder grew close, and a chill rain was falling. The animals huddled under their shelters, watching us two-legged folks as if the foul weather was somehow our fault.

  We did our chores in raincoats and rubber boots, dispensing feed and attention to the livestock in the closer fields and pens before heading up to the Roberts’ house. The cows were out and about in the rain, grazing calmly while water splattered and ran off their hides.

  They did look up at our approach and happily came over when we filled their feed troughs. Jackie went off to take care of the horses, the Roberts’ two and hers. They got the most attention, probably, while Angie, Virgil, and I did a quick check of the gates and the generator.

  Gene stood on the porch of the house in a pair of overalls and a sweatshirt, a thermos of coffee, or some other hot beverage in hand. He gave a wave as we went about our business, and it occurred to me that we needed to distribute duties between the houses. We could acquire more livestock since we had more people, but getting everyone checked out on proper animal care was something that probably needed to be done. At least three of our new folks had no experience on farms.