by Muga, D. M.
Alexander looks over at him. “Are those animals hard to come by? And how do we raise them?”
“Raising them is easy enough. You just need to keep the pigs corralled up. Same thing with the chickens. You let them out when you want to, and where you want to. And they didn’t used to be hard to come by. Now between the recent re-emergence of the Newcastle Disease with the chickens and the Radius situation to top it off… it will take some heavy bartering.” Steven explains.
“Newcastle Disease?” Alexander questions.
Steven continues. “Yeah, several years ago… the state had to euthanize a whole lot of chickens because they had this deadly disease. It took a while for that particular disease to die out and people started raising new chickens. That combined with our current situation… people are being pretty careful on what livestock they sell and get rid of.”
“So, is there any hope?” Alexander asks.
“As luck would have it, there are some folks down the hill that I spoke with over Ol’ Betsy yesterday. They are willing to part with four grown and producing chickens, as well as two piglets.” Steven explains.
Eileen and Ben walk into the room, visibly smelling the air. “Sure smells good, Uncle.” Ben admits.
“Yes, it does.” Eileen adds.
“Here are your plates, you two. Have at it.” Steven says, offering them two plates identical to Alexanders.
The two gladly take the breakfast plates and sit at the table with Alexander.
Ben starts eating right away and talks with food in his mouth. “Did I hear right? Are we getting chickens and pigs?” He then proceeds to lightly choke on the food in his mouth.
Eileen chimes in. “That's what you get for talking with food in your mouth. I swear, you are a grown man-child.” Eileen grins at him and the three of them laugh at Ben, while he catches his breath.
A moment later, he’s able to speak again. “Wrong tube.”
This elicits another round of laughter, Steven gets his own plate and makes his way to the table. “But yes, it’s looking that way. We just need to make a trip down the mountain. To Yucaipa. And part with two Golden American Eagles.”
“Two of them?!” Ben blurts out. “That doesn’t seem like a fair deal for four chickens and two piglets!”
“Ben… it’s a fair trade. Now try not to choke on your food again.” Steven replies and chuckles at his nephew.
“You must remember about the times we are in, and how much food those animals will give us. It’s simple supply and demand. We are lucky to have found people even willing to make a trade.” Steven explains.
“What are you all huffy and puffy about, Ben? You did just give away a whole pouch of those coins.” Eileen adds.
Alexander notices that Ben’s eyes go directly to his Uncle. “That was different. It was for the Bradley families… and the tubes I gave them weren’t even full… at least the gold one. It only had ten Gold American Eagles left in it. The other one was full with twenty Silver American Eagles.” Ben admits defensively.
Steven puts up his hand. “You don’t have to explain your reasoning to me, Ben. You did what you thought was right… Besides, most of that gold and silver was yours to give away. You invested way more into those coins over the years than I have.”
Alexander wasn’t sure how much the coins were worth, but it sounds like Ben had given the Bradley family quite a bit.
Good. They likely needed it with Jim Bradley’s passing.
Alexander changes the subject, “So when are we going on the drive down the mountain?”
Ben, eager to get the subject off of him, “How about tomorrow Uncle?”
Steven smiles at his nephew. “I was thinking it’d be just me and Alexander. I don’t think we should leave this place unattended for a whole day. And I'm guessing it’ll take the day.”
“I don’t know Uncle… splitting up doesn’t seem like a great idea.” Ben responds.
Alexander and Eileen don’t respond but wait for Steven to reply.
He nods and speaks. “It’s a risk, I admit. But it’s a necessary risk. I will be fine, and Alexander has shown he’s capable of taking care of himself, too. It will only be for the day. We’ll leave in the morning and be back by evening. If we run into trouble, we’ll be back the following day, finding somewhere to hideout for the night.”
“I still don’t know, Uncle…” Ben adds.
“Don’t worry, Benjamin. Eileen will be here to protect you and make sure you don’t get yourself shot... again.” Steven says, as he grins at his nephew.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I was worried about you!” Ben shouts out defensively. “And it was shrapnel… I wasn’t even shot.”
Everyone at the table bursts into a round of laughter at Ben’s expense.
After the group calms down, Steven adds. “It’ll work out one way or another. Simply put, this needs to be done.”
This gets a round of nods from the group. “Now, Alexander. Why don’t you tell us what you found out this morning on Ol’ Betsy?”
All eyes turn to Alexander, and he gulps down a big bite of food. “To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what to make of it, if anything. But here’s what happened…”
Alexander explains his conversation with Desert Eagle to the group. Not one of them interrupts and listens to his version of events, following with his varying theories of what could've happened and what his concerns were.
5
Benjamin Reilly
Ben’s following his Uncle’s Blazer in his Dodge truck, navigating through the neighborhood. Eileen’s sitting next to him in silence. The group was rather quiet after Alexander had explained his conversation with Desert Eagle on Ol’ Betsy, along with his thoughts on the situation. As they drive the very short drive to Lake Gregory Regional Park for their day at the lake, Ben’s mind shifts to what Alexander had said and what it meant.
Are the people from Earth Two here, already? I was hoping we had more time before we had to deal with them. Things were just starting to reach some sort of normalcy. Should we even be going to the lake today?
As Ben follows the Blazer onto a short bridge over a small portion of the west part of the lake, Eileen breaks the silence. “If the people are here from Earth Two, it doesn’t sound like a good thing. Does it?”
She was thinking about it too. Of course she is. We all are…
“Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines. If it’s them, up at Edwards Air Force Base… it’s not a good sign. When a foreign force doesn’t announce itself and goes directly to a military installation, and then communication ends with the installation, that’s not a good sign at all.”
Eileen looks over to him. “We don’t know for sure that has happened though, and no news is good news. Right, Ben?”
Ben noticed that she sounded concerned and even scared. This made him feel unsettled. He had always known her to be strong, sometimes even a tad bit crazy, but still very strong.
“Normally, I would say yes. But there’s nothing normal about our current situation Eileen.” Ben turns right onto Lake Drive, heading toward the parking lot at the northwest side of the lake.
“We have lost communication with many areas since the Blue Hole Radius caught back up with real time. None of the news that we found out about those areas was good news at all.” Ben adds.
Eileen nods. “I suppose you are right.” She says as Ben pulls into the parking lot and parks the truck next to his Uncle’s Blazer.
She goes to open her door and get out, but pauses and looks over to him. “Well, whatever’s about to happen… let’s enjoy today, even if it’s only for today. We don’t know when we’ll get another chance to take a day like this.”
Ben looks at her. She really is something. She seems like she’s scared out of her gourd, but then clicks it off… like a switch. How does she do that?
“You have a point there, beautiful.” Ben smiles at her. “Enjoying the small things is important. And I'm hoping that your bikini under those clothes gi
ves us one of those small things I get to enjoy in the very near future.” He chuckles at her.
Eileen blushes, but she turns away to open her door and hop down from the truck. “I’m sure you are, Benjamin, now stop being a perv and let's unload this truck.”
She winks at him and he can’t help but laugh.
The four of them unload the two vehicles and load up their picnic and fishing supplies into the two foldable wagons that they had brought from his Uncle’s cabin. Ben looks around the lot and notices several other cars in the lake parking lot.
“Looks like we weren’t the only ones with the fine idea of enjoying some sunshine lakeside.” Ben announces.
“Yeah, but this is nothing compared to regular summer days. It looks like we’ll have this part of the lake pretty much to ourselves.” Steven replies.
Once they are finished, two more cars pull into the lot. The cars pull up on the other side of his Uncle’s Blazer. Ben watches as Todd exits one of the vehicles with his wife, Jamie, and daughter, Claire. Jim’s widow, Amanda, and her daughter, Chloe, exit the other vehicle. Ben waves at the combined Bradley family.
Ben feels heartache at the thought that one of them was missing. Ben was still very sour about Jim’s passing. And if he was still sour about it, he knew that Todd was much more sour about it. Something still didn't sit right with the whole situation. Sure, they had lost people in the MS13 Battle. But something seemed different about Jim’s death. He wasn’t sure what, but he had a feeling. Whenever Ben went down this road of thoughts, he chalked it up to not liking that Corrections’ Officer, Richard Stevens.
Before Ben can get lost down that path of thoughts again, little Claire comes running up. “Auntie Eileen!” The little girl shouts and gives Eileen a big hug around the bottom half of her body.
Ben laughs. “What am I chopped liver, Claire? Come and give me a hug, squirt.”
Eileen smiles. “What can I say? I'm her favorite.” Eileen grins at Ben.
Claire rushes over to Ben and gives him a hug too, and then goes straight back to Eileen.
“See. I told you.” Eileen adds.
“Eileen! Eileen! Eileen! Are you going to go swimming with us?!” Claire asks. She then looks at Eileen. “Where’s your bathing suit? Did you forget it?” She points to her bathing suit. “I already have mine on!”
Eileen laughs. “Me too, kiddo. It’s under my clothes. You’ll see once we get down to the shore.”
Claire brightens up. “Good! We can go swimming then! You, me, and Chloe!”
Amanda and Chloe walk up to the group. “Chloe, you want to go swimming with me and Auntie Eileen?!”
Chloe looks at Eileen and Ben, steps back slightly and grips her mother’s hand. She then looks up to her mom. “It’s okay, Chloe. These are friends. You remember Ben, don’t you sweetie. Ben was friends with daddy when they were kids.”
Ben walks over to the timid child and kneels down in front of her. “Hey little one. It has been a while. I haven’t seen you since you were a little baby. Here…” He reaches into his pack and pulls out a couple of squirt guns. “These are for you and Claire. Why don’t you go give her hers?”
The little girl’s face brightens quickly, then goes back to blank as she looks up to her mom. “Go ahead sweetie.” Chloe’s face brightens up again with a silent smile and she rushes off to Claire and begins to giggle.
He stands and gives Amanda a firm hug. “You need anything, let me know. Okay?”
She holds him for a little bit. “Thanks, Ben. Jamie told me what you did. You didn’t have to do that. But thank you very much.”
He steps back and sees tears begin to well up in her eyes. Jamie walks up. “Benjamin! We have been here all of two seconds and you are already making my sister-in-law cry.” She punches him in the shoulder.
“Ow!” Ben says, rubbing his shoulder, exaggerating the pain.
This gets a laugh from Jamie, Amanda, and Eileen.
“What say we head on down to the shore!” Uncle Steven announces.
The group agrees and starts heading down to the lake. After about twenty minutes of setting up, Uncle Steven and Alexander make their way down the shore toward the docks, with fishing poles and tackle gear in hand.
“Wish us luck!” Steven announces.
The group waves them off as they make their way to the docks, leaving the Bradley family, Ben, and Eileen, to their secluded part of the beach. Ben notices that there are a few other families that he can see along the beach but not many people at all, and they are spread pretty far out from each other.
Ben kicks off his shoes and stuffs his socks into them, then takes off his shirt, and pulls his PX4 Storm out of his boardshorts and tucks it into the wagon. He looks over and sees Todd doing the same.
He digs his toes into the sandy shore and plops down, looking out onto the lake. He looks over at the two young girls, already playing in the water, and sees Amanda and Jamie talking, wading in the water and watching their daughters.
He stops thinking as his eyes find Eileen pulling down her pants, revealing her bikini bottom. Ben watches in amazement as she displays her light-browned body in a green bikini. After Ben looks over her body, his eyes go to her face, with her hair up in a ponytail and those bright green eyes.
From a few feet away from him, she notices him staring at her and laughs. “Stop being a creeper, Ben.” She chucks her clothes at him.
“Auntie Eileen! Come swim with us!” Claire shouts. Having seen that Eileen was now in her bathing suit.
“Coming girls!” Eileen shouts back. She looks at Ben and winks, then strides off into the water to play with the two little girls.
After a few moments, Todd laughs. “Man! You have it bad don’t you!”
Ben’s shaken out of a daze and looks over at him. “What?”
This elicits more laughter from Todd. “Yup! You have it real bad, brother!”
Ben laughs, catching on. “Well? Can you blame me?”
Todd shakes his head. “No, sir. I cannot... I know the feeling.” Todd replies as he gazes upon his wife, Jamie. “I definitely know the feeling.” Jamie looks over and waves at her husband. Todd gets up. “Well… it’d be smart of us to go join them, my friend.”
Todd strides over to his wife and Ben watches the scene in front of him, good people enjoying the moment.
God, I hope there are more moments like this in our future…
Ben sees Eileen wave at him, motioning for him to come in.
You don’t have to tell me twice.
Ben gets up and goes to join Eileen and the others in the lake.
The group spends the rest of the morning and the early afternoon playing in the water. All the while, Alexander and Steven are fishing down by the docks. Around lunchtime, Alexander and Steven wander back to the group, having caught seven fish.
Steven puts them in a cooler that he brought along with them, promising to split the fresh fish amongst the families. Also promising to catch more after lunch.
The group have sandwiches and fruit for lunch along the shoreline of Lake Gregory. After lunch, the girls go back into the water. Alexander and Steven go back to the docks to catch more fish. Ben finds himself happy that his Uncle and Alexander were getting along so famously.
After Ben and Todd clean up the mess from lunch, he goes back into the water on this warm July day. He wades over to Eileen and wraps her in a hug.
“This is a good day.” She says.
“Yes, it surely is.” Ben admits. “I'm glad that I thought of it.”
“A little proud of yourself, aren’t we?” She smiles at him.
“Just a little bit.” He replies.
She grins and then kisses him. Ben holds her in his arms in the cool water of the lake, with the sun beating down over them.
It doesn't get much better than this.
A few moments later, Ben hears Todd’s voice from the shore. “Hey Ben!”
Ben and Eileen look over at Todd, putting his shirt on and starting
to grab his shoes. “Now what's he doing?” Eileen asks.
“I’m not sure. But he looks like he’s in a hurry.” Ben replies.
Finding his shoes, he waves over at Ben. “Hey Ben! You got a minute?!” He shouts over to him.
“Well, you better go see what he wants.” Eileen says.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Ben grudgingly admits, not wanting to leave Eileen… in a bikini, in a lake, in his arms.
She pushes himself away and turns. “I usually am.” She smiles at him.
He shakes his head and wades out of the water toward Todd, who now has his shoes on and is putting his sidearm into his waistband.
Well this doesn’t look good.
“Hey Todd, what’s up?” Ben asks.
“Not sure, yet. But apparently I had several missed calls from Cassandra Patterson. Harold’s wife.” Todd explains.
“Sheriff Patterson’s wife. What about?” Ben asks.
“Harold never came home last night. She said he went to make a house call because he was invited to dinner at a newcomer's home in Lake Arrowhead.” Todd explains.
“Shit, that doesn’t sound good. Does she know who?” Ben asks.
“Yeah, doesn’t sound good at all. Even worse, he isn't answering me over the radio and no one else has heard from him since yesterday. Hell, I saw him yesterday over at the Lake Arrowhead Marketplace.” Todd replies.
“Todd, do you know where he went and whose house it was?” Ben asks again.
“Yeah, that’s the kicker. You remember that asshole Correctional Officer that shoved a gun into our faces the night of the MS13 Battle?” Todd asks.
“Yes...Yes, I do. Richard Stevens was his name, and something didn’t feel right about that guy.” Ben admits, while gritting his teeth.
“So, it wasn’t just me? I thought it was a combination of adrenaline and just finding out about Jim.” Todd answers.
“So, what do you want to do? Call the other Deputies and surround the place?” Ben replies.
Todd shakes his head. “The guy may be an asshole, but we don’t know enough yet. And we can’t go wrongfully accusing people. There could be a reasonable explanation for all of this. And I don’t want another situation like yesterday.” Todd explains.