by AJ Newman
Tom raised his hand and made a circling motion. Four of Tom’s people marched four strangers up to the meeting. Jackie said, “Tom, we found these guys hiding in the woods, kinda acting like snipers. We detained them for their own safety.”
Cliff said, “I guess y’all beat my snipers here this morning. It appears that neither of us trusts the other.”
Tom said, “That’s a healthy way to act these days. How do …”
Tom stopped talking when Sam and the strange woman embraced. Sam said, “This is my friend Emily. Let’s go in the office and get comfortable and see if we can find a way to work together.”
Cliff said, “If you stop pointing guns at my men, you can keep their weapons until we leave. We don’t need to start a fire fight because one of our team is overly cautious.”
Tom motioned for Jackie to lower her team’s weapons and move the group to a more comfortable position.
Tom looked from Sam to Cliff. “Let’s cut through the crap and get down to nut cutting. Are you replacing the current leader?”
Cliff said, “Our people don’t see him as their leader. Sam put the group together and led us to safety. We spent more time surviving than attacking Mendoza. If she comes back, we’ll kick the jerk to the curb.”
Tom asked, “Does he have many supporters, and will they part willingly?”
Cliff grinned, “I guess I should come clean with you. We will remove them, and they won’t cause anyone any trouble ever again.”
Tom frowned. “I don’t like that, but it’s your business, and we don’t need to create another enemy that distracts us from survival or ridding Mendoza from the area.”
Cliff asked, “How do we go forward?”
Tom replied, “We’ll go back and have a team discussion, and then Sam and I will come back and give you our answer. I think it will be positive, but I won’t know for sure until our team meets.”
Sam spoke up. “I need to leave with Cliff and oversee getting rid of that asshat.”
Tom said, “No! You promised to go by the group’s rules, and I’m holding you to the rules. You’ll have your chance to make your pitch to join your old group.”
The vigilante group left, and Tom met with Bill and Sam before leaving. “Sam, you know the rules you agreed to when we took you into the group. If you want to leave the group, we’ll take you as far away from here as possible and drop you off with a week’s food. I’ll add that if that happens, and we see you again, you’ll be shot on sight. We cannot trust anyone to leave the group and think they won’t tell someone where we live.”
Sam said, “You wouldn’t shoot me. You like me too much. I would have been married to you if I hadn’t been shot.”
Tom's head shook side to side. “I wouldn’t like shooting you, but I would to save our location from outsiders.”
Sam’s face matched her red hair, but she remained calm on the outside. She said, “Your house - your rules!” and walked several feet from Bill and Tom.
Bill gave Sam the finger behind her back and turned to Tom with a frown on his face. Bill grabbed his chest and stumbled to the ground. Tom gasped, dropped down, and lifted Bill’s head. “Hey bud, are you okay? What happened?”
Bill forced a laugh and said, “My trick knee gave out on me. Help me get up, and I’ll be fine.”
Sam turned when she heard the thud of Bill’s body striking the ground and ran to his side. “Are you okay? Be careful. You could have had a heart attack.”
Bill asked, “Sam, who are you? I know you’re not the ding-a-ling spoiled brat woman you led us to believe you were when we first met you.”
“Bill, I learned to do what it takes to survive a long time before I met Mendoza. Let’s just say I’m me, and that’s all you need to know right now.”
Tom and Sam helped Bill to his feet, and Bill walked away. Tom wiped his hand through his hair. “You are an enigma. I knew you weren’t dumb a week or so after we met, but you are hiding the real Sam if that’s your real name. Is Lucy even your daughter? She’s failing to act like a thirteen-year-old, and the guys drool one minute and then slap themselves later for lusting after a young teenager. Granny B thinks Lucy is about twenty-five. My bet is twenty-two.”
Sam smiled. “You know you can trust me,” she said as she batted her thick eyelashes at Tom.
Tom snickered. “Like I trusted you when you went missing to try to bring the vigilante’s sick and walking wounded group into the ranch.”
Sam shrugged and replied, “So you’re into conspiracy theories and think Lucy and I are Russian honey traps.”
Tom wanted to shake her until the truth came out. His fists clenched as he stepped up to her. “Sam, any mother would have slapped me or gotten really pissed off if someone told them the men were lusting after her young daughter.”
Sam huffed and turned away just as Kate and Jackie walked up. Kate said, “You just pissed her off. I’m pretty good at reading lips, and she just mumbled something about yo momma and something about her being a female dog.”
Jackie broke out laughing until Tom raised his hands. Jackie and Kate stopped gabbing. “I just struck a nerve when I said we thought Lucy was at least twenty-two. I called her out for not being indignant when I mentioned several young men lusted after her thirteen-year-old daughter. She knew I’d trapped her, but she just got madder and walked away.”
***
The group meeting to decide on joining the vigilantes was held the next day at the bunker. Tom gave everyone the background information and filled them in on the meeting with Cliff, the vigilante. Tom then said, “Sam is in favor of allowing the vigilante group to join us and wants to give you her reasons.”
Sam stood up and smiled at the group. “The main reason I want us to join the other group is they are good people that would fit in with us. They are hardworking people and will pull their own weight. Their current leader is a dictator whose family was brutalized by Mendoza, and revenge is all he thinks about. We all want to end Mendoza’s reign over Ashland, but we have to get stronger to fight the gang, as Tom says. Adding this group will double the number of fighters and farmers for our team. I would lead them and report to Tom if they were allowed to join us.”
Kendra said, “Why would you lead them. We have several men and women who should get that responsibility.”
“I should lead them because I was their leader for several weeks before I was wounded. They know me and trust me,” Sam said.
Granny B wasn’t convinced. “For several months, you tried to convince us that you were an airheaded spoiled girlfriend of a drug dealer. Why trust you now?”
Sam smiled. “Granny B, your family spent years learning to prepare to survive in a safe environment. I learned to survive from the time I was five years old, doing whatever I had to do to stay alive. I’m not proud of some of the things I’ve done in my career … err life. I am glad I did them because they kept me alive. I’m a survivor, no different from the rest of you.”
Kate asked, “Will you and your group do what Tom says as soon as he says it? He is our leader.”
Sam nodded, “Yes, of course.”
*
Chapter 9
The Ranch
All scavenging trips and movement between the Community and ranch stopped the next day when an early winter storm blanketed the area with six inches of fresh powder. This made travel dangerous because their tracks could quickly be followed back to the ranch. The cave and community were abandoned for the winter. The folks at the Community were brought down to the ranch when a freak snowstorm threatened the area. Tom was also worried about the smoke from the Community’s chimneys being spotted from the farms below.
Alan and his folks at the community were surprised by the bunker. They’d hoped to settle in the cave, and none of them was prepared for the relative luxury of the bunker. Alan caught Tom. “You can sure keep secrets. We hoped to move to that drafty cave and now find ourselves in this warm bunker with electricity and hot water. What’s your next surprise?
”
Tom laughed. “Sorry, but keeping our business close to the vest has kept us alive for many months now. It’s not that we don’t trust you ….”
Alan replied, “You don’t trust anyone until you get to know them, and then you keep a close eye on them. I think that is the best way to go to keep us all safe. Lou and her ladies balked at first, but when I reminded them about where they lived before, they became grateful.”
This also stopped all progress on joining the vigilante group. Sam was furious but understood the weather had blocked her efforts and not Tom’s team. She watched the weather closely and kept begging Tom to take her to meet with Cliff. Every time they thought it might be possible, the weather turned for the worse.
Four more inches fell one night, and there was no sign of it stopping. Tom sent help to move the people over to the ranch, and the truck’s tracks were covered quickly by the falling snow. The bunker was full, but Tom’s people were much safer and warmer.
The following day after the move, Granny B was up before everyone except Kate and Greta. They sat in front of the windows with steaming hot coffee, watching the snow fall for the fourth straight day. It wasn’t a whiteout, but visibility was cut down to only a few yards. The wind blew over the top of the bunker and away from the windows. The canyon and woods were beautiful when they could see them.
Granny B poked Greta. “I saw you and Colt sneak out last evening. Did yo momma give you the birds and bees talk?”
Greta didn’t flinch or smile. “No. Granny B, she didn’t. Could you do that this afternoon? We want to have sex, but neither of us knows what to do or where to put what.”
Granny B’s face flushed, but she kept a straight face. “I have a book from the 1930s that delicately explains your wifely duties for the man of the house, you smart assed brat!”
Greta used her best southern voice. “Why Granny B, I do not understand you making light of my ignorance on the topic.”
“Kate, please splain my rules on unmarried sex under my roof!”
Again in her most southern voice, Greta spoke. “Why Granny B, I’d never break your rules. That’s why Colt and I are freezing our butts off making out in the hayloft.”
Granny B said, “TMI. Kate, let’s plan their wedding. I got a bible and a shotgun. You can plan the cake and reception afterward.”
Tom walked up and snuck a sip from Kate’s cup. “I heard shotgun and bible in the same sentence. When is Colt going to decide which of our women he wants to settle down with?”
Greta choked and spewed coffee on Tom. “That was pure meanness Uncle Tom. I was going to ask you to walk me down the aisle, but I guess any one of the men will do.”
Kate laughed. “So, have you two set a date?”
Greta smiled. “Yes, I set a date for this Friday. We both decided that it was too cold to sneak out to the barn anymore.”
Tom snickered and poked Kate under the table. “I need to check the cameras in the barn and see if we caught you two making out. I hope you kept your clothes on while the cameras were working.”
***
Tom took a hot cup of chocolate out to Kate and relieved her from manning the drone’s remote control. Kate was bundled up but sitting in Tom’s truck flying the drone around following Jack was dull. It was also twenty-eight degrees that day, and Kate didn’t want to burn up their gas staying warm by running the engine. “I’m freezing my butt off, and he’s only been tending to the cattle.”
Tom handed the steaming cup to her. “I’ll take over so you can go get warm. The folks in the bunker think we’re checking on the gang and the vigilante group.”
Kate said, “You might as well come back with me. He’s just about finished.”
Tom said, “I’ll stick it out until he gets close to the barn. I’m going to tell Bill and him to stop going up into the far pasture. Granny B says the snow will stop tonight. We don’t want to leave tracks to be followed back to the bunker.”
“How does Granny B know it will stop snowing?”
Tom chuckled. “She says the air blowing this way is too cold to hold the moisture.”
Kate walked away and then turned back to him. “I’m taking a shower in thirty minutes.”
Tom grinned. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
***
The snow let up Friday morning, and Greta became Mrs. Colt Roberts right after lunch. Kate noticed Sam hadn’t been out of her room all day and knocked on the door. There wasn’t an answer, so Kate rapped a bit harder.
Lucy came out of the room. “Mom’s under the weather, and she won’t come out of the room. I think she’s sulking because she thought she’d be married by now.”
Kate went back to the reception and had a glass of wine while secretly enjoying Sam’s pain. Tom and Kate danced and enjoyed too much food that afternoon. Tom went back to their room and opened the door only to be met with a chill. His brows furrowed as he wondered why the room was so cold. Suddenly a gust of wind lifted the window, and snow blew into the room. Tom looked down at the ground and saw footprints that stopped a few feet from the glass. The snow had filled the prints.
Tom ran out of his room and yelled. “Gather everyone in the dining hall. I need a body count. Someone left the bunker from our room!”
A few minutes later, everyone gathered in the dining hall. Kate said, “Tom, everyone I can find is here. Only Sam is missing.”
Tom turned to Lucy. “Where is your mother?”
Lucy shuffled her feet as she stared at the floor. “I don’t know.”
Tom walked over to the young woman and used his index finger to lift her chin so he could look her in the eyes. “When did Sam leave?”
“I don’t know. She was in our room when I came out to the wedding and gone when Kate said to check on her.”
Tom said, “Kate, go with Lucy to see if anything is missing from her room and then check our room. The rest of you check your possessions. I’m checking the armory and security room. Everyone meet back in the dining hall when you’re done.”
The armory was locked, and after Tom looked inside, there wasn’t anything missing. He went to the security room and searched the recordings to see when Sam left. He checked the camera covering the windows to the canyon and cursed.
All the others had finished checking their rooms and possessions. Tom said, “Anything missing?”
Kate spoke first. “Sam’s pistol and AR are missing along with her winter gear. She took one AR mag from each of our vests and your map of the area.”
Tom asked, “Which map?”
“Not the one with our locations marked on it. Sam didn’t find it.”
“The others reported food and magazines missing.” Tom then looked at Lucy, who squirmed in her chair. “So, we know she’s gone, well-armed, and has winter clothing. Lucy, how did she gather all of our stuff in an hour or so?”
“I don’t know.”
Tom said, “I do. Kid, did you two forget we have cameras all around the bunker. You helped her steal the equipment, and she left as soon as the reception started. The recording shows you helping her out of the window and pulling the rope back into the room. There’s a fifteen-foot drop to the ground, so you helped her escape.”
Lucy said, “I’m sorry. Mom said she had to go join her group. I told her they might kill her. She left anyway and made me promise not to say anything until she’d been gone for a day. I tried to talk her out of going. She’ll die in this blizzard.”
“Jerry and Jack, lock Lucy up in the small bedroom at the end of the hall. Give her a chamber pot and a jug of water.”
Lucy shouted, “At least let me get some things from my room.”
Tom started to allow her to go to her room. “No! Take her now! June, search her before locking her up. We have to assume she’s hostile to our group.”
Greta balked, “We know Lucy. She wouldn’t …!”
Tom barked! “We thought we knew Sam, and she’s done some very sketchy things that put us in danger. I’m just a hair fro
m throwing Lucy’s ass out into the snow.”
Jerry took Lucy’s arm and led her down the hall to the room. Tom turned to the others. “Granny B, Kate, and Jackie, please search Sam and Lucy’s room for anything suspicious. Throw everything out in the hallway so you don’t miss anything. Lucy wanted something from that room.”
The entire contents of the room were now in the hallway, and Granny B and Jackie stood wondering if they’d missed something. Rick walked up to them. “Did you check the books and mattress?
Granny B’s eyes flashed open. “Tom always hid his nudie books under the mattress. We stripped the bed.”
Rick chuckled. “Sam had time to think things through and has probably had to hide her treasures all her life. Open all of the books and check the mattress seams.”
Jackie had only opened a handful of books when something fell out of a fat book. “Well, lookie here. Why would she hide a bottle of clove oil?”
Granny B said, “Rub a drop below your eye, and you’ll know.”
Jackie touched her finger to the open end of the bottle. She rubbed the liquid below her left eye. “Damn, my eye is watering.”
Tears streamed down her left cheek. Jackie huffed. “Well, now, we know how the little bitch turned the tears on so easily.”
Granny B said. “Between the tears and shaking her assets, she had most of the men wrapped around her finger.”
Kate had been running her fingers along the seam in the mattress when she hollered. “Pay dirt! The bitch had a small walkie-talkie!”
Kate took the walkie-talkie to Tom. She had a mile-wide grin on her face that abruptly disappeared as soon as she arrived in front of Tom. Tom kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “You can hardly hold back the I told you so.”
Kate whispered back. “I would never do that to my hubby. Remember I won your heart – she just played with it.”