“I ‘ad her Lance,” Holly panted, coming over.
Turning to Lilly, “Should she be running?” he asked, looking at Holly’s protruding belly.
“She was very active before this, Lance, so Holly is fine,” Lilly assured him. About to turn away, Lilly stopped, watching Carrie and Allie taking off their vests and camouflage tops dropping them to the ground. Both were in black tank tops now and she glanced over at Lance but wasn’t surprised when he didn’t say anything to the ladybugs. “Anyone else would get their ass chewed out but not the ladybugs,” Lilly mumbled as the ladybugs slung their short ARs across their backs.
There were sandwiches, but nobody wanted one as they sucked down fluids. Beeping sounded around the group and everyone let out groans before pulling out cellphones. Looking down at his cellphone, Lance felt panic grip him. “That’s the road coming in,” he gasped.
Shedding his airsoft vest, Lance grabbed his real gear. “Ian, flank the right side, I’ll take the left. Lilly, pull everyone here behind the rides. The tigers will be moving, and I don’t want little ones exposed,” he said, pulling his mask down.
“Why don’t we just get to the cabin?” she asked.
“If they are in a vehicle, they will be on you as everyone is loading up. But anyway, this is the deepest breach in our defense. This area has the fewest traps going to the cabin. It’s best to deal with them here, besides, the tigers will be moving here, and I don’t want you moving through them with the little ones,” he answered and trotted off.
Running hard, Lance jumped the barbwire fence heading for the trees. Dropping on his hip, Lance slid across the grass into the tree line. Crawling around on his belly, he looked down the road at the gate they had put up. “Movement,” he called in his radio.
“I see it,” Ian answered.
Feeling his phone vibrate, Lance groaned. “Lilly, make sure someone is pulling rear guard, so the tigers don’t take you by surprise,” he called out on the radio.
“We got it, Lance.”
He bent over his rifle, seeing horses round the corner. “Five horses with two riders,” he called out.
“Lance, there are kids with the riders,” Ian told him.
About to tell Ian he didn’t give a shit, Lance’s hand froze over the PTT. The riders looked at the gate, then looked around like they were wondering where they were. Then one pulled out a map, showing it to the other. “Are they lost?” Lance wondered.
Now he could see the kids. One was sitting in front of one rider and the other riding behind the other. The one with the kid in the front moved to the gate, leaning out and undid the chain. Opening the gate, they came in and held it open for the other rider. After they were in, the rider closed the gate and wrapped the chain back around, locking the gate back up.
“Lance, are you seeing this?” Ian called out.
Trying to make sense of what he was observing, “They’re courteous at least,” Lance offered.
“What the hell is going on?” Jennifer asked.
“They closed the gate back, and even wrapped the chain to lock it,” Ian told her.
Trying to process that, Jennifer didn’t answer for a few seconds. “Since they’re nice, let’s at least see what they want.”
“We were going to do that anyway, Jennifer,” Ian popped off. “They could be bringing a message about our parents.”
“Hey, ass wipe, I have a big pussy sitting back here in the cedar trees looking at me, so drop the attitude,” Jennifer barked. “I don’t like big pussy any more than you do!”
“Sorry, Jen,” Ian mumbled.
“Ian,” Lance cut in to stop Jennifer. “When they reach the fence, and before they enter the field, we come out and challenge.”
“Copy,” Ian said as they both watched the group very cautiously moving down the road.
Then Lance noticed, they were in the very center of the road and had been the entire time, with the exception of the gate. Fifty yards away the lead rider took their hat off, wiping their forehead and Lance’s heart nearly stopped. Those at the buggy saw Lance just stand up and his AR was just dangling under his arm. “They are nearly on him, what the hell is he doing?” Lilly howled.
Ian glanced over to see Lance walking numbly toward the road. “What the fuck are you doing?” he hissed over the radio, but Lance wasn’t listening.
“Momma?” Lance called out in a normal voice and Ian jumped, whipping his head back to the riders as the lead rider stopped, searching for the speaker. “Momma!” Lance said louder, and the lead rider locked in on the voice and saw a camouflage figure with a skull.
Seeing her face, Lance reached up to push his mask off before letting it fall to the ground. “Momma!” he shouted, and broke into a sprint.
“Lance!” Sandy cried out, leaping from the saddle and hitting the ground running.
Levitating to his feet, “MOM!” Ian screamed, throwing his mask off.
Sandy and Lance’s chests hit as they engulfed each other in hugs, crying. Ian nearly reached Mary before she got off the horse shouting, “Ian!”
Ian wrapped his arms around his mom, squeezing her tight and lifting her off the ground. “MOOOMMMMIIIEEEE!” Allie screeched from the top of her lungs, barreling across the field and holding Carrie’s hand. “MOMMIE!” they both screeched, running for everything they could muster.
Relaxing her arms but not letting go, Sandy leaned back to look into Lance’s face. “My baby boy!” she cried and pulled him tight as they both sobbed hard, falling to the ground.
With legs burning, Allie and Carrie pushed harder as Ian and Mary opened their hug for them. When the ladybugs reached them with tears raining down, the four wrapped up. Mary and Ian dropped to their knees as the four hugged each other tight.
Sandy and Lance sat up to hear running feet. They turned to see Jennifer charging for them and bawling. “Momma Sandy!” Jennifer cried and dove on the two, taking them down. Hugging Jennifer tight, they just savored the moment.
It was nearly five minutes before the two groups stood up and swapped mothers and hugged again. Then they came together and all hugged tight. “Mom, where’s Dad?” Lance asked.
“Are they in Dewitt making sure you weren’t followed? We can go get them,” Ian said, wiping snot off his face.
Mary and Sandy looked at each other and grief flooded their expression. “They were killed, babies,” Sandy whimpered. “We wanted to stay with them, but neither one would let us. They told us we had to get home. We wanted to try and bring them, but they wouldn’t let us. They made us promise to reach you. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, Momma,” Lance said with a breaking voice.
Still at the buggies, Lilly watched at almost the same time all the kids dropped to their knees around the moms. “Guys, stay together because the tigers are close, but we are going to them,” Lilly told the others and they jogged across the field.
Sitting on the horses, Tyler and Chris just cried quietly, not wanting to interfere. Sandy and Mary held their arms out, pulling the kids back into a hug as they cried. The joy felt just moments ago was tarnished by the raw grief. Sandy lifted her head hearing more running feet, and saw a woman and kids she didn’t know. “Sorry,” Sandy told them with tears.
“No, Ms. Sandy, we’re sorry,” Lilly said.
Looking at Lilly’s face hard, Sandy couldn’t place her. “Momma,” Lance sniffled. “Who are the boys?”
Sandy and Mary jumped up, apologizing to the boys. “This is Tyler,” Sandy said, pulling him off the horse.
“And this is his brother, Chris,” Mary said, putting him on the ground. “We found them run up a tree by a pack of stinkers.”
“The military had them in a camp and wouldn’t let their mom escape when the stinkers broke in,” Sandy added. “After their mom got killed, the boys tried to get back in the part of the base that wasn’t overrun, but the soldiers threw rocks at them, so stinkers would come over and the boys could draw them off.”
“Mother
fuckers,” Lilly snarled.
Sandy looked up at her and nodded approvingly. “Sorry,” Lance said, moving over and introducing the group. When he got to Lilly, even with the emotions she was feeling, Sandy could tell, Lilly was very important to Lance.
Jodi ran over to Allie and Carrie, hugging the two sobbing girls tight. “Ca-ca-c-can w-we go home?” Allie bawled.
“Momma and Momma Mary, go with Lilly and them to the buggies and take Chris and Tyler. Ian and I will bring the horses. With all of them the tigers won’t try anything, and they won’t bother Ian and I with the horses because we’ll take Dino with us,” Lance said.
Both moms turned. “Tigers?” they said together.
Nodding and wiping more snot from his face, “Big pussy,” Ian sniffled.
Slowly the group headed home, thankful to be present for a miracle, and some much needed joy was felt by all, but the grief still spilled out, demanded by this forsaken world.
The End
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming Page 42