Surviving Home

by A. American

  When they heard the engines, Ted’s back stiffened. Sarge rested his elbow on the top of the seat and propped his head up. The four ATVs came into the clearing from Sarge’s nine o’clock, not exactly where he’d thought they would, but good enough.

  • • •

  Marvin knew kinda where he had heard the choppers. He lead them in the general direction, hoping he would find it. Avery was bringing up the rear and when they stopped at a branching trail he asked Marv why they weren’t seeing any smoke or fire if the choppers crashed. Marv told him, again, just how damn stupid he was, and fat, and so Avery wasn’t exactly in the best of moods as he followed along, eating the dirt and dust from the three machines in front of him.

  Marvin pulled into the clearing that used to be Baptist Lake. As he passed through the trees, Avery didn’t immediately see the buggy and the two men with it, but Marv did. He stopped as soon as he cleared the trees.

  Ned and Willy rode up beside him. Willy was smoothing his long goatee, a perpetual unconscious habit. It was about six inches long and had earned him the nickname Goat.

  “What’cha think, Marv?” Willy asked, tugging at his beard.

  “Fancy-ass buggy. I think I want it.”

  “They look kinda like soldiers,” Ned said.

  “Soldiers, my ass. Where the hell soldiers gonna come from? Ned, you stay here with fatass. Goat, come with me.”

  Marv and Goat slowly rode toward the two men. Marv was watching the one standing up. From the way he stood there, Marv was of the opinion that the man thought he was a real badass. Well, he was about to find out differently. The second man was sitting in the buggy, the buggy that would soon be Marv’s. The man raised his hand and waved. Marv didn’t wave back.

  • • •

  “There’s one still inside the tree line,” Mike called over the radio.

  Sarge raised his right hand to signal to Mike he’d heard him. Two of the men approached. The third stayed back by the trees and the fourth was still inside the trees. The two men rolled up and stopped twenty feet from him. Sarge sat there, making a show of just how relaxed he was. The men shut down their rides and sat there. Sarge smiled and nodded to them, stuck his cigar between his teeth, stepped out of the buggy and crossed his arms, not in a threatening manner, but in amusement.

  The two men sat there looking at him, trying to mean-mug him. Ted just stood there looking back, no expression, no emotion, all business. Ted wouldn’t say anything before Sarge did, and Sarge damn sure wouldn’t say anything. The other guy would have to break first.

  So the four men stood there staring at one another with no one saying anything. Sarge smoked his Rocky and the two men on the four-wheelers sat there looking at one another, then back at Sarge. With his arms still crossed, Sarge pulled the cigar from his mouth, leaned forward a bit and spit a small piece of tobacco out, then took another long drag, squinting one eye as he did. Ted stood there rubbing his thumb on the safety of his carbine. The very tip of his index finger rested on the front edge of the trigger guard. It would happen so fast they wouldn’t even be able to react.

  • • •

  Marv sat there watching the old man. That’s how he thought of him. He was wearing a camo uniform and had a nice .45 in his holster. He looked just as cocky as the other dude did. The way he was smoking that damn cigar really pissed him off too. Looking at the other man, he could tell he was itching for a fight. Goat glanced nervously at Marv. He wished someone would say something, he didn’t like the silence one damn bit. When Marv saw the old man spit, he waited a second before hawking up a loogie and spitting it out between him and the old guy.

  The old guy looked down at the phlegm, then back up, and smiled through his clenched teeth. He reached up and took the, cigar from his teeth, blowing out a cloud of smoke as he did.

  “Who are you guys?” Marv asked. The question actually startled Goat, who jumped a little.

  “We’re just a couple of guys in the woods,” he answered with a smile.

  “Well, this mornin’ I heard a couple of choppers. Y’all seen any choppers?” Marv asked.

  The old one looked over at his younger buddy. “You hear any choppers?”

  “No,” the young guy answered. His eyes never drifted from the two men.

  The guy bugged Marv. “You got a problem, man?”

  The guy didn’t answer.

  “Don’t worry ’bout him. He ain’t a mornin’ person, if ya know what I mean,” the old man replied.

  Marv sat there looking at the younger one—he thought of him as Junior—for a second.

  “An’ who might you fellas be?” Old Guy asked.

  “Ma name’s Marvin, an’ I’m the head of the North Lake County Militia.”

  “Militia? What are you guys doing around here, then?” Old Guy asked.

  “We’re responsible for the security ’round here, an’ since we don’t know you fellas, yer gonna need to come with us.” Marv watched the old man for any reaction. “An’ we need yer guns too.”

  Old Guy made an exaggerated surprised face. “Oh, so you boys are the law, then?”

  “Yep,” Marv said.

  “Says who?” Old Guy asked.

  “Says the DHS—” Goat was saying before Marv cut him off.

  “Says me!” Marv snapped.

  “An’ here I thought we would become friends, but I ain’t feelin’ the love. You feelin’ the love?” Old Guy asked Junior without looking at him.

  “Nope.”

  Marv’s hands were still on the handlebars of his ATV, but he’d had enough. It was time these shitheads saw the light. He let go of the handlebars and went to lean back. His rifle was lying in his lap. Before his hands even left the grips, Junior had the safety off his carbine.

  “I wouldn’t do that, friend. You boys just need to be on your way an’ leave us the hell alone,” Old Guy said.

  Marv was pissed. This was not the way things were supposed to go. “I have more men. You think you’re gonna get out of here? I already sent men to fetch the DHS, and your ass’ll be sorry when they get here.” When Goat heard Marv say he had sent men to get the DHS goons, he showed his hand by looking over at Marv.

  “You do have other men, that part is true, but there ain’t no one else coming.” Old Guy paused for a moment and looked at Goat. “Is there?”

  “Keep yer mouth shut, Goat,” Marv said.

  “Goat!” Old Guy shouted in amusement. “Where’s the rest of it? I see the ass on yer chin.” He laughed.

  Goat didn’t say shit. He was scared, these were nothing like the people they usually dealt with. They were hard and he had no doubt they were ready to kill.

  “Tell your other men to come on so we can all get to know one another,” Old Guy said.

  “I got men in the woods, they’ll cut you down!” Marv shouted.

  Old Guy grinned and keyed his mic. “Round ’em up, Mikey.”

  Goat was surprised and Marv was furious. He looked back over his shoulder at Ned just as another man walked out of the woods with a damn machine gun pointed at him. He watched as Ned put his hands up, climbed off the ATV and was forced to kneel down.

  Avery was sitting in the woods watching. He couldn’t hear anything, but everything looked all right. It looked like they were just talking. Then he saw the other man come out of the woods with that big-ass gun. His heart leapt into his throat, and he fumbled with the key, trying to start his old Honda. His hands were shaking so bad, as bad as the other day when that bullet had sliced his ear.

  He didn’t hear anything, but he damn sure felt the cold. At the moment it was so cold it was as if it were burning his skin, just below that same ear.

  “Hands up,” a voice said, almost cheerfully.

  Avery yelped with fright and threw his hands up. “Don’ kill me!” he pleaded.

  “That’s up to you.
Move slow an’ behave, an’ you’ll be fine,” the voice said.

  Mike walked a very compliant Avery over to Sarge. Doc already had Ned there by the time they got there. Marv and Goat were kneeling on the ground beside Ned and Mike told Avery to get down with them. He pushed Avery down to a kneeling position and the man obediently put his hands on his head.

  Chapter 34

  I ran out and jumped on the Polaris, then realized I had left the key inside and had to run back in. All the girls were in the kitchen looking at me. I paused for a moment, flashed a big smile and waved the key at them and turned and ran out the door. Meathead was unfortunate enough to be standing outside it when I crashed into it and it into him. He jumped off the porch and looked back at me in what could only be the dog version of sumbitch. He got over it and was at my side as I started the ATV and put it in gear and took off for the gate.

  I was in a good mood despite everything that had happened. The thought of Sarge and crew showing up gave me hope that we could stop all the damn raids. I turned right at the road and raced off down the road toward Reggie’s place, Meathead hot on my trail. Thad and Jeff had decided to stay and look after Reggie, since the pain-killers had knocked him right out.

  As I pulled through the gate, Jeff came around the corner of the house with his Mosin shouldered at low ready.

  “Where’s Thad?” I asked him as he tried to keep Meathead from licking his face. That damn dog had some reach when he stood up on his hind legs.

  Pushing the dog off and wiping his face with the back of his hand, he replied, “He’s inside. Stupid-ass mutt.”

  “What? He likes you,” I said with a grin.

  Jeff looked at the dog then at me. “I was talking about you,” he said with a smile.

  “I like you too,” I said, bouncing my eyebrows.

  He let out a laugh and headed for the house. I followed him, but Meathead smelled something and, with nose to the ground, headed around the back of the house. Thad was tending to the fireplace when we came in. There was one of those enameled tin coffeepots, the kind you buy in the camping section of Wally World, sitting on the coals. He looked up and flashed a big smile. Reggie was lying on the couch snoring.

  “Hey, man, you need to come with me,” I said to him.

  His smile faded. “What’s up?”

  “It’s a surprise; I can’t tell ya.”

  Thad’s brow furrowed, causing wrinkles almost to the crown of his bald head. “I don’t like surprises anymore.”

  “Come on, get up. It’s a good one, promise.” Looking over at Jeff, I asked if he would hang out.

  He looked at his wrist, then back to me. “Don’t be long. I have an appointment with boredom in an hour.”

  “Don’t worry, this surprise will take care of your boredom,” I said with a grin.

  While he didn’t look thrilled with the idea, Thad did finally get up and follow me to the door. He stopped at the door, picked up his trusty old scattergun and put on his coat. I looked around for Meathead and couldn’t find him, so I headed around the side of the house to look for him.

  I found him out by the old barn where we had had the cookout. He was eating something off the ground, and I went over to see what he was up to. After all the shooting and people running and diving for cover, much of the food was spilled, except for the pig, thankfully, which Thad had taken inside. I was watching him eat mac ’n’ cheese when Thad rode around on his four-wheeler. He pulled up beside me and stopped.

  He sat there for a minute looking at the dog. “Get that.”

  I looked over at him. “What?”

  “That,” he said, then drew the big bowie knife I had given him during our walk home, flipped it so he was holding the blade and threw it. It stuck in the ground and I looked where it landed.

  I didn’t see anything, but walked over to it. Caked in dirt and dried grass was a finger. I nudged it with the toe of my boot. It was the tip and second knuckle. I reached down and picked it by the tip, looking at it.

  “What’da you want to do with it?” I asked, looking back at him.

  “Don’ know, jus’ don’t want your dog to eat it.”

  I walked over to the fence and threw it out into the woods. What else could I do with it, feed it to the pigs?

  There really wasn’t anything else to do, so I walked around the house and got on my machine. Thad followed me out the gate as I headed for the roadblock. We rode along without talking and when we got there Thad still wasn’t talking. He just leaned against the logs and looked at the people walking by. It wasn’t a horde or anything, but there was a steady stream of people walking north into the forest.

  After a few moments of staring at people walking by, he looked over at me and said, “What’s this ’bout?”

  “Believe me, it isn’t a bad thing,” I said, then kinda looked off to the side. “Well, that’s debatable.”

  Thad stared at me for a moment. “All right, I’ll play your game. You better hope it ain’t debatable.”

  We silently watched the people pass by for a while. It was the same crop of poor, pathetic-looking souls as before. None of the people we saw going by looked like they had any hope, any fight left in them. It made me reflect on our situation, on how fortunate we were to have what little we did, and that little was getting littler every day. I was absentmindedly watching the people, lost in thought, when I realized the people had stopped. They were all just standing in the road, looking north. They didn’t appear scared or anything, just stopped, almost as one, looking down the road. A couple of them were shading their eyes to get a better look.

  With the roadblock set back off the road as it was, we couldn’t see down the road to what they were looking at. Thad noticed they had stopped as well and straightened, resting the old coach gun over his shoulder. “Somethin’s comin’.”

  “Looks like it,” I replied as I stepped around the barricade. Thad followed me and we walked out to the road. A few of the dozen or so people close to us saw us as we approached. Some of them moved away from us, and others simply looked away, back down the road.

  Out on the road we could see something but couldn’t make it out. It looked like a large object, long, but not real tall or wide. We could see the walkers step out of the way as whatever it was slowly worked its way past.

  “What the hell is that?” Thad asked, more to himself than to me.

  I was straining to see when I remembered the binos. I pulled them from the pocket on my vest and took a look. Without knowing I was doing it, a smile spread across my face. Thad must have looked at me and seen it. “What the hell you smilin’ at?” He looked back down the road. “Gimme them,” he said, reaching out for the binos.

  Taking them down from my face, I looked at him and smiled, then handed them over. He took a look after adjusting them so he could see. Thad stood there for a long minute looking down the road.

  “What the hell?” Then he dropped them and looked at me. “Is that who I think it is?” Before I could answer, the binos were back at his face. “I’ll be damned, it is. You knew he was comin’?”

  “I just got the message this morning, said we had friendlies coming. Didn’t know for sure it was him, though, and it looks like the guys are all there too.”

  Thad took another look through the binoculars. “Looks like they got some other people with ’em too,” he said, then handed them back to me. “Look.”

  I took another look down the road. They were closer now and I could occasionally see two or three other people step out from behind the buggy Sarge was riding in. Naturally the old man was in the passenger seat and looked like he had his feet up on the dash.

  “Almost looks like they’re tied up,” I said.

  Thad said, “What I thought too.”

  It didn’t take long for the two buggies to make their way to us. Sarge was grinning from ear to ear. Ted was beside him
, driving what was beginning to look like one hell of an ATV buggy of some kind. Mike and Doc were behind them and in between them there were four men. Their hands were bound, and they were tethered to some kind of strap. Fortunately for them, the ATV wasn’t going too fast.

  It rolled to a stop in front of us. The people who had been standing there looking at their approach stared at them for a moment before continuing on their way, showing little interest at all in what was happening. Sarge sat there with a foot up on the dash and hands resting on his knee. Thad was grinning ear to ear.

  “Look at this pair of nuts, Teddy,” Sarge said by way of a greeting.

  “You boys lost?” Thad asked.

  “You know the old man could get lost in a round room,” Mike called out.

  “Shut up, dickhead,” Sarge called out. “Nah, I knew you two would get yer asses in some trouble an I’d have to come bail you out.”

  “Who’re your friends?” I asked.

  Sarge looked up at me, jutted a thumb over his shoulder and asked, “You know any of these shitbirds?”

  The four men just stood there. One of them looked pissed. At first I didn’t realize I’d seen him before. I was looking at the biggest of the bunch, who looked as though he had been crying. Before that realization came to me one of them spoke up.

  “I know who you are, Haywood.”

  I looked at him and a thin smile spread across my face. “Oh yeah, I know you. Looks like you boys really screwed the pooch.”

  “Tell this sumbitch to let us go. You know who we work for.”

  I got a chuckle out of that. I remembered the exchange we had had at the store. He didn’t say enough that day to give me much of an impression of him either way. But here he was, tied up behind Sarge’s war wagon, and that was all I needed to know.

  “How’s your little girl an’ the other casualty?” Sarge asked.

  “She’s doing okay, but I’d like Doc to look at her. Reggie is all right, he’s just pissed that he lost the finger,” I answered.

  The man who had been speaking snorted.