299 Days: The 17th Irregulars

by Glen Tate

  Then she saw them; a pickup load of cute guys. New guys she hadn’t seen before, and they came with guns. Way cooler guns than the hunting guns everyone else had. The guys in the truck had military looking clothes; not camouflage or uniforms. They looked like they were professionals, but not soldiers… like guys in all those movies she’d seen. She was amazed at how calm and confident they looked as they drove by. Luckily, they were driving slowly so she could get a good look at them. One of them smiled at her. He was so cute. She fell in love with one look.

  Kellie thought it was great that the guys in the truck were riding around and looking for bad guys, who they would shoot if they had to. They weren’t afraid of anything.

  Kellie was drawn to that: She had some bad guys in her life she wanted people to go get. She wanted to be protected, and these were the type of men who would do that. She felt so safe just seeing them. It was a peaceful and exhilarating feeling. Nothing could hurt her when they were around.

  It was a momentary feeling, though, because they drove by and then they were gone. She had to meet them, just had to. She would do anything to meet them, especially the cute one who smiled at her.

  She was in her yard when they drove by. Once they were gone, she panicked. How could she meet them? Were they gone for good? She was terrified she’d never see them again.

  Kellie found her mom, Sheila, hoping that she would know who they were. She frantically described what she’d seen and asked her mom who they were.

  “The Team,” her mom said. “Some guys from Olympia who are out here doing police things. Nice guys. I met them at the Grange a few nights ago. Were you scared by the guns?” her mom asked. Sheila still thought of Kellie as her “little girl.”

  “No, I wasn’t scared,” Kellie said. She remembered that her mom still thought she was dating Ethan so she stopped herself from saying that she wanted to meet the cute one, the smiley one.

  “I just wanted to make sure people with guns were OK to be here,” Kellie said.

  “Oh, they’re OK to be here,” Sheila said. “We’re lucky to have them. They apparently trained together before all of this, like a SWAT thing or something. I’m not really sure,” her mom said.

  “The Grange?” Kellie asked. “Are they at the Grange?”

  “Yeah,” Sheila said, “for the meetings at 7:00. They eat there, too,” Shelia said, starting to figure out why Kellie was so interested in meeting them. She saw this as an opportunity to get her daughter out of the house and do something productive.

  “You could volunteer to help serve meals at the Grange. It wouldn’t kill you,” Sheila said.

  “Great idea, mom,” Kellie said. It had been about ten years since Sheila had heard her daughter say that.

  “Great idea?” Sheila said, in complete shock at what her often unruly daughter had just said. “I love hearing that.” They hugged. Her little Kellie, the one who listened to mom, was back. Maybe these boys on the Team were actually going to be a good thing for Kellie, Shelia thought.

  “I’ll go up to the Grange now and volunteer,” Kellie said, impulsively grabbing her car keys.

  “Whoa,” Sheila said. “Gas. There’s no gas to just drive around. Remember? You need to walk. It’s only about a mile.”

  “Sure,” Kellie said. “Sounds good, Mom.” It was another shocking statement from the rebel child.

  “I gotta change,” Kellie said. Kellie got in her sexiest shorts and tight fitting tank top and put on some makeup.

  Kellie came out and Sheila said, “You look fabulous. You’ll be the most beautiful kitchen helper there.” Kellie realized she was being obvious about her true intentions with the kitchen helping, but loved that her mom was in on it. Kellie hugged her mom. She hadn’t done that in a couple of years.

  Kellie started walking, which was something she hadn’t done in so long. She was accustomed to driving anywhere and everywhere.

  Before the Collapse, Kellie had a job in Frederickson at a local supermarket, Martin’s. Her job sucked, but she was one of the few her age who had one during the horrible economy. Being beautiful might have had something to do with that; customers liked having a pretty girl around. She’d been working there part-time in high school and then, after she graduated two years ago, she went full time.

  Her mom wanted her to go college, but Kellie didn’t see any point to it. There were no jobs and the economy was terrible. She didn’t feel like going to college only to graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of loan debt and no job prospects. .

  Now, the economy was virtually non-existent. She quit going to her job in Frederickson when gas hit $12 a gallon and there was way too much crime in town. When it became obvious that life as they had known it was essentially over, Kellie started worrying about her future. Would she just sit at home and eat that awful deer meat, which is all they had? She couldn’t drive anywhere and be with her friends. Her little brother was so annoying. She needed a life.

  Then the truck went by and that boy smiled at her. That’s what she needed; a new and wonderful life could be hers if she could only get that boy. And he was so cute and new and exciting. It would be perfect. Everything would be perfect.

  Kellie walked up to the Grange and received a warm welcome from the ladies in the kitchen. They were happy to have a new volunteer and put her straight to work.

  It was dinner time and people started coming in for dinner. Kellie saw a big Asian guy with a gun wearing those contractor-looking clothes. She realized that the Team must be there, and her heart stopped when they walked in. She looked quickly to see if he—the boy who smiled at her—was with them. Sure enough, there he was. He looked great all sweaty and dirty with all those guns and all that gear.

  She decided to be forward. He probably was getting lots of offers from other girls, so she needed to snag this guy.

  Kellie walked right up to him and said, in her sexiest voice, “Is there anything you’d like?” and winked. That was pretty obvious.

  The other guys laughed and teased Wes, but he was just silent, staring at this beautiful woman who obviously liked him. Wes was a proper Southern gentleman. Courtship was a subtle dance where he was from. But, then again, a gorgeous woman was coming on to him. There was no harm in that. Subtle wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

  “Hi,” is all Wes could manage. The guys laughed at him for that, too. “I’m Wes,” he managed to add.

  Wes stuck out his hand. She shook it with a soft and gentle shake and kept staring him in the eye with her most seductive look, which was intoxicatingly powerful. No guy could resist it.

  “I’m Kellie and I just wanted to meet you,” she said. Their handshake was still going; they were basically holding hands now. They were just staring at each other.

  The guys quit laughing at Wes. They realized that this was a very serious moment for him and this hot girl. They were happy for him. Wes had apparently snagged a great girl and they didn’t want to ruin that. They were silent for a few seconds, waiting for Wes to say something.

  “You asked what I’d like,” Wes finally said. “I’d like you to join me for dinner, ma’am,” he said in his Southern accent. There. He’d put some subtle courting back into this encounter.

  Kellie smiled a huge smile. She started to hug him, but caught herself. It was too early for that. She needed to let this play out a little more, even though she wanted to hug him. A lot.

  The Southern gentleman in Wes took over. “I will be serving you tonight, ma’am,” he said, in what could be a reference to dinner…or whatever else might happen later that night. He left to wash up and then went into the kitchen to get a plate of food for Kellie. The guys moved around so Kellie had a seat next to Wes, of course.

  At dinner, Wes and Kellie had the most amazing conversation. They talked about everything. Wes found out that Kellie lived with her mom and younger brother. Her dad had left them a few years ago, which was a good thing since he regularly hit Kellie and her mom. They were still worried that he would come
back, although they heard he was in jail. They also knew that the jails had been emptied.

  Wes sensed that this was one of the reasons Kellie was so attracted to him. She wanted a man to protect her from any bad people who might come, like her dad. This bothered Wes. He didn’t like the sexist idea that a woman needed a man for protection. He had been raised that men and women were equal. Well, they are, he thought. But why deny that this woman is looking for something if he had it? Kellie wanting to feel safe was not a terrible thing. Everyone wanted to feel safe. Wes desired it, too. He wanted to be with the Team since he was so much safer with them around.

  Wes realized that he, too, was attracted to her for a sense of safety and protection. It wasn’t safety and protection from bad people, though. It was a sense of safety and protection that he could provide for someone. He could help Kellie by making her safe. He could help her. He could make her life spectacular. He wanted to do that. He wanted to be the best boyfriend ever, or maybe the best husband, if life provided him that opportunity.

  Whoa. It was way too early to be thinking about that, he said to himself. Then he took it all in. The conversation, how fabulous she looked, how he had been put in this place at this time with her. He just knew this was it. He’d met the woman he’d be with for the rest of his life.

  One by one, the rest of the Team finished dinner and were taking their plates into the kitchen. They were talking with the Grange ladies and others while all the other diners were finishing their meals. But not Wes and Kellie. They just sat there, talking and laughing, until their butts got numb on the picnic table benches in the Grange.

  “Hey, Wes, you comin’?” Ryan asked, which startled Wes back to reality.

  “Oh. Yeah,” Wes said. “Wait. Goin’ where?”

  “Back to the ranch,” Bobby said, referring to the yellow cabin.

  Wes looked back at Kellie. He didn’t want to leave her, but Kellie didn’t want to be the only girl out at the cabin, either. She wanted to be the most popular girl at Pierce Point by inviting her friends to meet these guys.

  “I have some friends who would like to meet the other guys,” she said with another wink.

  “Female friends, I’m hoping,” Wes said with a smile.

  Kellie nodded slowly and said, “Some girls you guys will like to meet.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint your friends,” Wes said. Could this be going any better?

  “Why don’t you tell my colleagues about your friends?”

  “Can I bring some of my friends over to meet you guys back at the ranch?” Kellie asked the Team.

  Ryan blurted out, “Are they hot like you?”

  Everyone laughed, including Kellie.

  “I think you’ll be happy to meet them,” she said, using body language that suggested they were as hot as she was.

  “We’ll be back in about an hour to pick you and your friends up,” Pow said with a giant smile.

  “OK,” Kellie said and hugged Wes for the first time. He felt so strong when she hugged him. He returned the hug, warmly and softly, but strongly. She felt amazing to him, so soft and so outrageously sexy.

  “Let’s go,” Ryan said. The Team started walking out and Wes made an effort to break off the hug with Kellie and walk out to show the Team that he wasn’t smitten. He actually pulled it off, which surprised him. He was being deceptive because he was, indeed, smitten.

  “See you in a while,” Wes said to Kellie, who just stared at him with puppy love eyes.

  After the Team left the Grange, Kellie got her phone out and started texting the girls. She was glad that texting was working then; sometimes texts wouldn’t work for a day or two.

  In about twenty minutes, Kellie’s friends started showing up. She made sure there was one girl for each guy. The guys came back earlier than the one hour estimate and took them back to the yellow cabin, but as soon as they got to the yellow cabin, they had to go out on some mission or something and said the girls had to go back. Luckily, about two hours later, the guys returned and picked them up, bringing them to the cabin, yet again.

  The next events of the day were pretty predictable. Wes had a private room in the cabin. After about two minutes of small talk, he and Kellie tore each other’s clothes off. What followed was amazing. Kellie had never been loved like that. Ethan was nothing compared to Wes.

  Chapter 174

  Team Chicks

  (July 6)

  The girls were throwing off the Team’s focus. Actually, the Team had no focus on their jobs; the girls quickly became all they thought about and did. Two or three days after meeting them, the Team stopped patrolling. They spent most of their time hanging out at the yellow cabin and having sex. Tons and tons of amazing sex.

  After the first night, each guy had a girlfriend. Everyone was getting along so well. The girlfriends, who became known as the “Team Chicks,” had all been friends since grade school. They loved being a Team Chick. It gave them status in the community. They had the best guys, who were new to the community and weren’t the same old Pierce Point guys that the girls had grown up with. To be a Team chick, a girl had to be hot; really hot, and have game. The Team could get any girl they wanted out there.

  Grant was busy doing his civil affairs work. He was organizing things and being the judge. He wasn’t out with the Team so he didn’t notice that they were pretty much hanging out in the yellow cabin, or the “Love Shack,” as they started calling it.

  Chip noticed, though. He was busy guarding the Grange during the day and kept track of what was going on there. He saw the Team and the Team Chicks come in for brunch. Brunch? Was this a survival situation or a party?

  When Chip went home to the Morrells, he went by the Love Shack and saw what was going on. The Team wasn’t patrolling; they were just getting laid.

  Chip talked to Grant about it.

  “Crap,” Grant said. “They are bringing their girlfriends to the Grange to eat? Only people working for the community get meals. This is bullshit.” Grant knew he had a discipline and political problem on his hands. The other residents would be jealous that the Team Chicks got meals without working for the community. The guys on the Team were his friends and he was happy that they had girlfriends, but this had to stop.

  Grant and Chip went to the Love Shack in the late afternoon and asked the girls to leave for a while. They had “operations” to discuss with the Team.

  The guys on the Team were not happy about this.

  “What operations?” Ryan said with an edge to his voice.

  “That’s my point,” Grant said. “There have been no operations for a few days while you guys have been getting’ your groove on. Guys, I’m all for a little R&R for you. It’s well deserved.” The Team was stunned that Grant was basically lecturing at them.

  “But, c’mon, guys,” Grant continued, now with a near-yelling tone. “Letting your girlfriends eat at the Grange? When food is scarce and we’ve worked hard to get the community to buy into a system where only those who work get fed. You guys go and do this? The rumors are flying that the ‘Team Chicks’ are earning their meals in the Love Shack.”

  That got the guys pissed off, which was good. It was the reaction Grant intended, and was why he made up the part about the rumor, although it was probably true.

  “No more Grange meals for your girlfriends,” Chip said. “Does everyone understand?”

  They nodded. It made sense. They had been working so hard and everything in life had changed. It felt so great to be able to take their girlfriends out for brunch. They had been escaping from all the horrible things going on, but escaping too much. They’d forgotten about reality.

  “You guys know what happens if these ladies get in the way of your ability to do your job?” Grant said. He was using his dad voice.

  Silence.

  “Off the Team. That’s what,” Grant said. “Will that suck for Pierce Point? That some very talented and well equipped fighters aren’t patrolling and ready to help? Oh, yeah, it
’ll suck for Pierce Point. But can we have an elite group who doesn’t have to follow the rules? Hell, no. Guys, we’re on political thin ice out here. All it takes is that douchebag Snelling to make some speech at a Grange meeting and all of a sudden these people turn on us. Trust me, I know politics.” They knew Grant spoke with authority on this topic.

  “This is a survival situation, gentlemen,” Chip said in a calmer tone, appearing as the voice of reason. “We have to get through it. We can have some fun.” Chip had a huge stash of condoms—that he was hoping to use himself—and had given them to the Team. “I am the one getting you rubbers so don’t think I’m against you having fun.” Good point.

  “But what the hell good is a girlfriend,” Grant asked, “if we get kicked out of here or there’s nothing to eat because everyone is squabbling and jealous?” He didn’t think the girlfriend situation was as dire as he was making it out to be, but he and Chip wanted to keep control over the Team. Small, elite groups tend to do things their own way and not listen to authority. Grant and Chip wanted the Team to be an asset to Pierce Point, not be perceived as out of control.

  “OK, but how do our girlfriends eat?” Scotty asked.

  “They need to work at the Grange or do some other work for the community,” Grant said. “Or bring their own food over. Hell, they can help garden or go get oysters. They need to follow the rules so no one says Team Chicks are above everyone else. We’re done for out here if that happens. Life is pretty good for us here. We can’t blow it.”

  The guys started nodding. This made sense. They were realizing they had gotten a little out of control over the past few days.