by Eric Vall
“Enjoy them,” Betty laughed. “We’ll have plenty still.”
“Hey,” Anna said seriously. “Wasn’t Briar supposed to show up today?”
“He was.” I nodded, and I pursed my lips.
“I’m glad he decided to come up here,” Betty said. “Give him ‘til tomorrow, he’s probably just having a hard time leaving home.”
“Good idea.” I smiled gently, though I was still worried about the old grump. “Should we get dinner started?”
“Sure,” Jenny said. “I can help. What are we cooking?”
“Turkey,” Bailey said.
“You all gave two turkeys to the people at my farm,” Betty said. “How many did you get today?”
“Five,” I said.
“Five?” the old woman laughed. “Why so many?”
“We had a bet,” Anna muttered.
“I see,” the old woman said with a raised brow. “And who won this bet?”
“Who do you think,” Tara said, and she rolled her eyes.
“And what did you win?” Betty asked me with a smile.
“I get to choose the board game and booze for tonight,” I said.
“Good wager,” she said. “Next time I’d like a place in that bet.”
“You got it,” I said.
Tara, Jenny, and Paige headed down to start a fire and cook the turkey, and I went to retrieve the game and booze for the evening. We had picked up plenty of games during our runs, but I decided on one of my old favorites: yahtzee. I also picked out a nice bourbon from our liquor stash, and I met the girls back upstairs.
“Well,” Tara said. “The turkeys are cooking, but it will take a while, so what are we playing?”
“Yahtzee,” I said, and I pulled the game from behind my back.
“Oh, hell yeah,” Anna said. “Now you’re really going down.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” I chuckled.
“It’s a game of chance.” Paige shook her head. “You can’t actually be good at it.”
“Just you wait,” Anna smirked. “I’m a beast at Yahtzee.”
“You’re a beast at everything,” Tara laughed.
“I’m pretty good,” Jenny said. “I’ve beat Dan like a hundred times.”
“It has not been that many,” the dark-haired young man scoffed.
“It looks like we’ll have a good game,” I said.
“Appears that way,” Anna said calmly, but her eyes said ‘bring it on.’
“What’s to drink?” Tara asked.
“Bourbon,” I said and I pulled out the bottle.
“Oooh,” Tara reached for the bottle. “Elijah Craig, nice choice.”
“I thought so,” I said. “You’re sure the turkey is good down there?”
“Yeah,” Tara said with a nod. “It will be fine.”
“Why don’t you all go down there and play?” Betty suggested, but it sounded like more of a command. “Rolly and I can handle watch duty.”
“Okay,” I said. “You all want some bourbon before we go?”
“We have some.” Rolly smiled, and he pulled out a bottle of his favorite that the girls had stocked up for him.
“Oh,” I said, and I raised an eyebrow. “Sharing the good stuff with her, huh?”
“Well, she is my lady,” the old man said.
“Have fun, you two.” Tara smiled as she headed toward the door, and I saw Dan roll his eyes.
“Oh, we will,” Betty called.
I chuckled and shook my head as we made our way down to the fire pit, then I poured everyone a good sized drink and set up the game.
“Anyone care to make a wager?” I smirked, and the girls all rolled their eyes.
Chapter 6
I woke with the dawn as usual, but today I decided to wake up the girls as well. I figured Rolly must’ve been on guard duty because all four girls laid cuddled around me.
“Time to get up,” I said.
“Okay,” Anna groaned, but she sat up, yawned, and then stretched. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“I sense a joke coming on,” I said.
“I just thought you might be tired after all that losing you did at Yahtzee last night,” the redhead smirked.
“No,” I said. “But your attitude is exhausting me.”
“Pffff,” Anna scoffed with a smile. “Oh, you are in for it.”
The redhead pounced on me, and I fell backward with her on top of me.
“Hey,” Tara groaned, and she hit us with her pillow.
“Dogpile!” Paige exclaimed, and she jumped on top of Anna causing her to fall harder against me.
“Let me in on that,” Bailey laughed, but she climbed gently to the top of the pile.
“Come on Tara,” Paige chuckled.
“I’m good here,” the platinum blonde pouted, and she tried to close her eyes again.
Anna looked down at me and gave me a wicked grin.
“Dogpile on Tara!” the redhead shouted.
“Don’t you dare!” Tara exclaimed, but it was too late, Bailey and Paige had scrambled over and landed on top of her, and Anna hopped on with an audible thud.
“My turn,” I laughed, and I placed myself gently on top of the girls, but Winchester decided he wanted to join in on the fun, and he hopped on my back.
“Too heavy,” Tara breathed.
“I’m barely putting any weight on you,” I chuckled.
“Still too much,” the platinum blonde laughed.
“Is that a fat joke?” I teased.
“Yes,” Tara said. “Now get off!”
“Alright, alright,” I laughed and I hopped off, and the other girls followed suit.
Tara faked a large inhale as if she truly hadn’t been able to breathe.
“Oh, you’re so dramatic,” Anna joked, and she hit the platinum blonde with a pillow.
“You guys weigh a lot all together,” Tara scoffed.
“That was fun,” Paige said.
“For you maybe,” Tara laughed.
“Well, maybe next time you’ll join in when we tell you to,” Anna retorted.
“Fine,” Tara sneered. “But I call last.”
“You got it,” I said. “Let’s get dressed and meet outside.”
I threw on some pants, a black hoodie, and holstered my pistol before I headed downstairs and got the fire going.
“Hey,” Rolly called down. “You want me to come make coffee?”
“Yeah,” I hollered. “Since I’m not allowed anymore.”
“Come trade me places,” the old man laughed, so I headed upstairs.
“Thanks.” I smiled at Rolly as I walked out to the roof.
“No worries,” the old man said. “You all are going on a run today, right?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “Betty and Jenny and Dan offered to help the Millers herd their livestock today so we could go look for chicken food.”
“Right.” He nodded back at me. “I’ll find some travel mugs.”
“I’m taking Anna and Bailey,” I said. “Paige and Tara will be here.”
“Okay,” he said. “Some coffee to go coming right up.”
“Thanks, Rolly.” I smiled, and the old man headed for the door, but the girls came out just then.
“What’s this I hear about being left behind?” Tara asked with a raised brow.
“It’s a small run,” I chuckled. “And I need you and Paige to go check traps today.”
“Fine,” the platinum blonde pouted. “But I call next time.”
“Deal,” I said, and I reached down to pet Winchester.
“Is Rolly making us coffee?” Paige asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Should I grab some protein bars or something for breakfast?” Anna asked. “We can eat on the way.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” I said. “Days are shorter now, so the earlier we leave, the more daylight we have.”
“Okay,” Anna said, and she headed for the door.
“Hey,” I said to stop the r
edhead. “You and Bailey both, I want vests on you before we leave.”
“Okay.” Bailey nodded, and she stood up to follow Anna.
“You two as well,” I said, and I looked at Paige and Tara. “I want you in vests when you go to check the traps. And let me know if you see anything while you’re out there.”
“Okay,” Paige said. “I’m a little worried about the woods lately, do you really think somebody could be out there?”
“It’s possible,” I said gravely. “And we have to treat everything like a real threat until we find out it’s not.”
“Can we take the horses?” Tara asked with a smile.
“Yes,” I said. “But take Winchester too.”
“Okay,” Paige said. “Is there anything you want us to work on while you’re gone?”
“We need to add the supplies from Betty’s house to our inventory,” I said.
“Right,” the brunette said with a nod.
“I think one of you should take over for Rolly for a while after you get back from checking traps,” I said. “He was up here part of last night, and I don’t want to overwork him.”
“I’ll do it,” Tara offered. “Paige is better at inventory than I am anyways.”
“Good call.” I grinned, then I stood up. “I’m going to get ready, you two good here until Rolly gets back?”
“Of course,” the brunette said, and I smiled and headed inside.
I strapped on my vest, grabbed a couple spare magazines for my pistol, and two for my rifle, and flung it over my back before I headed outside. Then I gassed up the truck and headed over to where Rolly sat by the fire.
“Coffee’s done,” the old man said. “Just putting it in to go cups now.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Did you see Anna and Bailey?”
“They’re in the gym,” Rolly said, and he pointed at the building.
“Must be getting us our to-go breakfast,” I said and I headed toward the gym.
“Hey,” Anna said when I entered. “We got breakfast stuff and stuff for lunch if we need it.”
“Good,” I said.
“We put it all in one bag,” Bailey added. “And we grabbed plenty of water.”
“Good job, girls,” I said. “You ready to go?”
“Yup.” Bailey grinned, and she picked up her rifle from where it sat leaning against the wall.
When we came back out Rolly was gone, but I saw three travel cups sitting on the hood of the truck.
“Have a good run,” Paige called down from the roof.
“We will,” I hollered back. “Be safe today.”
“We know,” Tara yelled. “You too.”
“Thanks for the coffee,” Bailey called up to Rolly.
“Don’t worry about it,” the old man called, and the three of us piled into the truck.
“Man,” Anna said as she closed the passenger door. “It’s nice not to have to squeeze in here.”
“Yet somehow I still end up riding bitch,” Bailey laughed.
“It’s because you’re the smallest,” Anna said. “Smallest always rides bitch.”
“That’s a universal rule,” I chuckled. “Smallest rides bitch.”
“Alright.” Bailey pursed her lips and nodded. “But I’m going to activate the rules of shotgun on the way back.”
“Bring it on.” Anna narrowed her eyes at the blonde.
We headed out to the road, and I followed the way that Paige had laid out for us the night before. We were headed to a small town about twenty miles away that we hadn’t hit yet. It didn’t look like there was much around it, but Paige said that with so many farms around as there were, there was almost certainly a feed store at least.
“What are we going to do when the animal feed starts to go bad?” Bailey asked.
“Well,” I started. “We’ll grow some.”
“Yeah,” Anna said. “And I bet Paige can figure out a way to make some crazy food pellets or something.”
“She was pre-med,” Bailey laughed. “She’s not an evil scientist.”
“I didn’t say evil,” the redhead said with a shrug. “But she is basically a scientist.”
“She did a lot of the work for our water filtration system,” I contended.
“I wonder what she would’ve wound up as if none of this ever happened,” Anna mused.
“She’d probably be a doctor at a fancy hospital,” Bailey said.
“Maybe,” Anna said with a nod. “Or maybe she’d be working in a lab somewhere curing cancer or something.”
“You think highly of her,” I said.
“She’s way smarter than I’ll ever be,” the redhead chuckled.
“And she’s nice,” Bailey added.
“She’s smart in a different way,” I said. “You are far more street smart than she is.”
“I guess,” the redhead said with a shrug.
“I’m smart with plants,” Bailey said proudly.
“And I’m smart with planning and weapons,” I said.
“What do you think you’re smart at?” Bailey asked the redhead.
“Hm,” Anna thought for a moment. “I guess I’m smart at leadership. I was always team captain.”
“See,” I said. “We’re all smart in our own ways.”
“And Winchester is the smartest at being a good boy,” Bailey chimed in.
“Yeah,” Anna said. “But we all know Bailey is the best shot, and Tara is the best cook. Paige is the smartest, I’m not mad about it, it’s just a fact.”
“Alright,” I chuckled. “As long as you know your worth, I won’t try to convince you of it.”
“Oh, I know my worth,” Anna said. “I’m the Major, remember?”
“That you are,” I laughed.
“Is there anything else we need to pick up today?” Bailey asked.
“We’re going to a pretty small town,” I said. “But we’ll take a look around and see if there’s anything we can use.”
“Mayo!” Anna exclaimed, and I looked at her wide eyed. “Sorry, I just remembered.”
“You scared me,” Bailey chuckled.
“Me too,” I laughed.
“Sorry,” Anna repeated. “I just got excited.”
“We could tell,” Bailey laughed.
“I like mayo,” Anna said. “Sue me.”
“I haven’t had mayo in years,” Bailey sighed.
“Oh yeah,” I said. “Mayo isn’t exactly vegan, is it?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Vegan mayo is pretty good though.”
“I ate a garden burger once,” Anna said.
“You did?” Bailey asked with surprise. “You never told me that.”
“I ordered it on accident,” the redhead said.
“How do you accidentally order a garden burger?” I asked with a raised brow.
“I thought it just meant that there were a lot of veggies on it,” Anna chuckled.
Bailey and I burst out laughing.
“So how did you like it?” the blonde asked.
“I didn’t,” the redhead said, and we all laughed once more.
As we drove I saw nothing but farmland, and it didn’t take long to find the small town that sat in the middle of it.
“This is it?” Anna asked as I pulled off to the side of the road by the welcome sign.
“Braxton,” I said with a nod. “This is where Paige said to go.”
“It says there’s a population of like two hundred,” Anna laughed.
“There’s the general store.” Bailey pointed to the left.
The town looked like it was made up of only that road, there was a post office, a liquor store, the general store, and a small restaurant.
“Let’s go check it out,” I said. “We’ll see if there’s anything left over here before we pull the truck around.”
“I’m not sure there was anything here to begin with.” Anna shook her head. “This place doesn’t even have a stoplight.”
“There’s a stop sign,” Bailey laug
hed, and she pointed at the intersection.
We made our way to the general store and found that the windows were intact, but the door was unlocked.
“That’s strange,” the redhead said.
“It is,” I said with a nod.
“I don’t know,” Bailey said. “It’s a really small town, if they left they probably just didn’t lock it.”
“You could be right,” I said. “But we’re still going to clear the place.”
“Right,” Anna agreed, and she put her hand on the side arm at her hip.
“I’ll go middle,” I said. “Anna, you go to the right, Bailey to the left.”
“Got it,” the blonde said, and she pulled out her pistol.
We cleared the small building easily, and much to my surprise, most of the shelves were filled with dusty bags of different kinds of animal feed.
“Looks like a score,” Bailey said as we looked over the shelves.
“I misjudged this place,” Anna said.
“I’ll go pull the truck around,” I said. “We’ll load up as much as we can, then we’ll check out the other buildings.”
I headed outside, but I had barely got the front door open when I stopped in my tracks and slowly closed it so as not to make a sound.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked, but I held up a hand to silence her, and I walked to the middle of the room so we couldn’t be seen from the windows.
“The Canadian women are out there,” I said.
“What?” Bailey asked with wide eyes. “Are you sure it’s them?”
“Yes,” I said. “Red bandana and everything.”
“What are they doing?” Anna asked.
“They’re poking around our truck,” I said.
“They must’ve been hiding,” Bailey said, and her eyes narrowed.
“Probably,” Anna agreed. “Do you think they’re trying to steal it?”
“I assume so,” I said. “But if they don’t know how to hotwire it, that will be difficult.”
“What are we waiting for?” Anna asked. “Let’s go kick some ass.”
“Right,” I said. “But we need a plan first.”
“Okay,” the redhead said, toning back her excitement. “What did you have in mind?”
“There should be roof access out back,” I said. “Bailey, I want you up there.”
“Right,” the blonde said, and I could see the look of determination in her eyes.
“Anna,” I started. “I want you to go around the back of the buildings and get a line on them.”