by Eric Vall
I led Kimmy into the woods far enough that we wouldn’t be heard in case she was embarrassed, then I found a small but sturdy twig and handed it to her.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“That’s your knife,” I told her.
“My practice knife, you mean,” she chuckled.
“Exactly,” I agreed. “Now, follow my lead.”
I set my legs a bit further than hip width apart and bent my knees, then I brought my hands up almost in a boxing like position, with my knife in my dominant hand.
Kimmy looked down and tried to position her feet like mine, which she did quite well, but she struggled with her arm positions.
“Like this?” she asked.
“Lower your elbows,” I told her. “You don’t need them out that far.”
The way she had them it was almost as if she was doing the chicken dance, and I had to stifle a laugh.
Once she pulled them in she seemed more confident, and I could tell she was getting the feel for how she should position herself.
The more I tried to correct her stance, though, the more I caught myself staring at various parts of her. The sharp line of her clavicle bones, or how wide and full her hips were, even her deep, brown eyes. I had to remind myself that I was here to do a job. This was for Kimmy’s benefit, and I shouldn’t be staring when I was supposed to be teaching.
We practiced moving through positions slowly, and I had her attack me a couple times so that I could show her how to counter blocks. Her knife skills were sloppy, and she clearly wasn’t confident in stabbing or slashing, but her stance was good, and her overall positioning wasn’t bad. It was the fear of the blade that she needed to get over.
I had thought that giving her a practice weapon would make her less afraid, but it looked like this would be something that would take a few rounds of practice before she got over it, which was fine with me. I didn’t mind working with a beautiful woman, especially not when the work had her pressed up against me every now and then.
“Okay, again,” I told her, and I readied myself to block her attack.
She came toward me quickly and pushed her arm out to try and stab my abdomen, but I turned to the side and grabbed her wrist instead.
“Good,” I told her when she switched the makeshift knife to her other hand like we had practiced.
Her chest rose and fell quickly and I knew her heart rate had to be up. Her curls bobbed up and down as she lifted the hand with the knife and went for a throat stab.
I had been so busy staring at her perfectly smooth skin that I instinctively grabbed that wrist as well, and she wound up with her face just an inch or so away from mine.
I stared into her beautiful brown eyes and felt her ragged breaths against my lips. My stomach seized up with longing as I tried not to kiss her right then. She was absolutely beautiful in the yellow light that shone in the late afternoon, and I watched as her eyelids grew heavy and she leaned closer to me.
Suddenly, a ‘shhh’ sounded from behind me. and I released Kimmy and spun around to find Tara and Bailey at the edge of the trees.
They each had a dinner plate in their hands, but Tara looked positively giddy while Bailey was red with embarrassment.
“We’re sorry,” Bailey said. “We just were bringing you some dinner.”
I looked back to Kimmy, but her whole face was flushed from embarrassment, too, and she looked down at her feet and refused to make eye contact with me.
“Oh, come on,” Tara said, and she cocked her hip out to the side. “Don’t let us interrupt.”
“Nothing to interrupt,” Kimmy said quickly, and in much too high of a voice to be normal.
“Uh-huh,” Tara said, and she rolled her eyes and turned to Bailey. “It’s gonna be another six months before they get back there again.”
“Tara,” Bailey hissed, and she grabbed the plates and set them down before she turned to me. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why?” Tara asked. “We didn’t do anything, they were totally about to--”
“Come on,” Bailey growled, and she grabbed Tara by the arm and pulled her through the trees, but I could still hear the platinum blonde say something about how hot that was.
“I’m sorry about that,” I told Kimmy after they’d gone.
“Uh, that’s alright,” she said, but she still wouldn’t make eye contact with me.
“Do you want to take a break and eat some dinner?” I asked.
“Oh,” she said, “I should probably go check on baby Anthony. Thanks for the lesson, though.”
With that she started back through the woods, but I walked over and picked the plates up that Bailey had left.
“Uh, Kimmy,” I said, and she turned around. “I think you might want this.”
“Oh, right,” she said, and she bit her lip.
It was absolutely endearing how embarrassed she was, though I hoped she knew that there really wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about. We had definitely come close to kissing, but even if we had gone through with it it wasn’t a problem for the girls, and as long as they were okay with it then that was all that mattered to me.
I stared at her soft, supple lips as she came back over to me and took the plate.
“Thanks,” she said, and I reached out and brushed her bottom lip with my thumb just to feel it. Her breath caught then, but I just gave her a crooked smile and told her we should get back to camp.
I was a patient man, and I had found over the years that a little bit of tension went a long way.
I’d kiss those lips eventually, but until then I could wait.
Chapter 11
The next morning I woke up well before dawn and put on the clothes I had laid out for myself the night before. We had everything already in the jeep and packed, all we had to do was get dressed and grab our weapons. Aside from that, the trip was planned out.
Once I was dressed, I woke the girls up with gentle shakes on their shoulders, but it was game day so none of them protested. Everyone was up and ready in a matter of minutes.
Anna had her hair pulled back into her usual braid, and she wore a pair of black athletic pants and a dark green athletic hoodie paired with some running shoes. Her clothes formed to her body perfectly, and they showed off how toned and fit she was.
Tara had on a pair of black leggings she must have picked up at Nordstrom when we stopped in Fort George, and she paired them with a black tank top, but she threw on a dark blue hoodie over the shirt and her hiking boots to top it off. Somehow it was as if her makeup was magically done, and her hair as well. She looked as beautiful as she did every day.
Bailey wore the same dark green beanie as she had the day before, and she had on a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, a black, form fitting long sleeved T-shirt, and her hiking boots. She looked like a sexy criminal you would see on television.
Paige opted for athletic pants similar to Anna’s, and on top she wore a dark blue under armor shirt with long sleeves. The top formed to her skin and showed off every curve and muscle.
After everyone was dressed we snuck down to the living room, but just as we came down the stairs I smelled coffee.
“Is Rolly up?” Tara asked.
“Or does our living room just always smell like coffee now?” Paige chuckled.
“I’m up,” Rolly called out, and we made our way into the living room to find Betty and he in their usual spots.
“It’s early as hell,” I told him. “You have at least a couple hours before dawn, what are you two doing up?”
“Yeah,” Bailey said, “we were just going to sneak out.”
“We knew you were headed out early,” Betty said, “we thought we’d make you some coffee and breakfast to go.”
“You made us breakfast, too?” Paige asked as she filled a travel mug with coffee.
“Well, actually, no,” Betty said.
“Not to be rude,” Tara said, “but that was kind of a letdown, Betts.”
“You still get breakfast,” t
he old woman laughed. “I just wasn’t the one who made it.”
“Hey,” a small voice said, and we turned around to see Sophia in the doorway of the laundry room with a tray in her hands.
“Hey,” Paige said. “What are you doing up?”
“I just couldn’t sleep,” she said, and she carried the tray over to the coffee table and set it down. It was filled with danishes and sugar sprinkled donuts.
“You made these?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “One of the women at the fort taught me how. I thought it was the least I could do after you all have been so nice to me.”
Sophia spoke in a small, high pitched voice, and her long light brown hair was so thick that it almost overshadowed her face. She was clearly shy, and there was no way she weighed more than Bailey. It was hard to believe that someone would take advantage of such a sweet girl, but I’d seen enough of the world to know that people were capable of a lot worse.
“Thank you,” I told her, “but you didn’t have to do that for us. You don’t work for anyone here but yourself. We take care of each other, you don’t need to give anyone here special treatment.”
“I wanted to make these for you,” she said, and her small innocent eyes crinkled when she smiled. “Besides, I have more baking for everyone else when they get up.”
“Oh, my god,” Paige moaned and breathed at the same time, and we all looked over to see her with half a danish in her mouth. “It’s so good.”
The pastries were still warm from the oven, and they looked and smelled decadent, but I didn’t want Sophia to think she had to make up for anything or prove her place. She was welcome to make our home hers.
“We really do appreciate you making these,” I told her. “I’m sure everyone will appreciate it, too. And we all want you to know that this is your home for as long as you want to consider it that.”
“Th-thank you,” the young girl stuttered.
“Especially if you keep makin’ pastries like this,” Rolly said through a mouthful.
“Rolly,” Betty laughed and elbowed him in the ribs, which made all the girls giggle.
“This is damn good,” the old man told Sophia.
“How’d you like the books I brought you?” Paige asked through a bite of dough and fruit.
“I’m halfway through the first one now,” she said, “about the princess named Marigold and the troll.”
“What kind of books did you give her?” Anna laughed.
“It’s a children's book,” Paige admitted. “But it’s one of my all time favorites, and it’s really sweet. I thought she could use something happy and easy to get through.”
“It’s great, thank you,” Sophia said.
“Alright, ladies,” I said as I stood up. “It’s time to go.”
“Thank you again for the donuts,” Paige said as she grabbed another from the tray.
“Oh, all of those are for you to take,” Sophia said. “I have plenty more cooking.”
Paige looked at me, grabbed the tray, and then headed for the door.
“Oh, my goodness,” Betty laughed. “At least leave me the tray!”
“Oh, fine,” Paige chuckled, and she set the tray back down and got a large Tupperware container to put them in instead.
“I’ll take those,” Tara said, and she snatched the tub from Paige.
“Hey!” the brunette protested.
“It’s so you don’t eat them all,” Anna told her.
“You can’t be trusted with baked goods,” Bailey said sadly.
“Fine,” Paige pouted, and she took another bite of the donut in her hand.
We all headed out into the dark morning. The sun wouldn’t begin to come up for at least an hour, and the moon was still overhead along with the millions of stars that lit up the sky now that there wasn’t any light pollution from the rest of the world.
It was cool out, so I grabbed my zip-up jacket from my backpack and threw it on before we hopped into the jeep. All of our other supplies were already in the vehicle, so once we were all in I set off down our driveway and turned out onto the highway toward Burlington.
We had timed it so we would get there just as the sun began to rise, that way we would beat Brody and his men up there. We’d need to find a place to stash the jeep first, then we’d have to walk to the country club, which would take some time, but we knew the way well, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. We’d just have to keep on the lookout for any of the druggies that were possibly patrolling the area.
Brody had been up there recently, so he had the advantage of knowing what the setup was like. We had the map from the last time we took out the National Guard, but we’d have to play it cool when it came to seeing what was really going on in the camp now.
I just hoped that our initial plan would be all that we needed for the mission. We might have to make a few adjustments, but I hoped that the druggies weren’t industrious enough to make too many changes to the way the place was run. It was set up to be an outpost, so if they used the material that was already there then it should have been easy for them to take over.
The girls were quiet as we drove, and I sipped my coffee and ate a donut covered in sugar. It was still slightly warm, and the dough melted in my mouth and paired perfectly with the coffee Rolly had made. It did make me wonder though what we would do once we no longer had sugar and flour and things like that. Sure, we had a decent reserve at the moment but it wouldn’t last forever. We’d eventually have to figure out a way to make it ourselves or replace it in our cooking. If it meant no more donuts, though, that’d be a dark day.
“Where are we going to park the jeep?” Anna asked.
“There’s that firehouse that we used last time,” Bailey said.
“That’s pretty far away,” Paige said. “Hang on, let me check out the map.”
Our navigator pulled out a map of the area and examined it before she gave me directions on how to get to the other side of the country club.
“If we park on the other side we can just walk across the golf course and get to the lodge that’s there,” she explained.
“That should work,” I agreed. “The place is blocked off by trees so we shouldn’t have a risk of being seen.”
“It’s always kind of funny to me now how places like this are just abandoned,” Bailey said. “Only because I’d never have been able to go there before the EMP hit, but now anybody can just waltz in.”
“Yeah,” Anna said. “It’s kind of fun to be able to check out places you never would have seen before.”
“You guys had never been to a country club before?” Tara asked.
“Nope,” Paige said, and the other two girls shook their heads.
“We’ll have to find a better one for you to visit,” the platinum blonde said. “This one is pretty small.”
“Of course, you’d say that,” Paige laughed.
“It’s true,” Tara said with a shrug. “The really fancy ones are so much cooler.”
“Wait,” Anna said, “you’ve been to more than one country club?”
“Don’t people usually have one club that’s theirs?” Bailey asked. “It’s like a membership, right?”
“Well, yeah,” Tara said. “But not all my friends belonged to the same club, so we’d go wherever we felt like that day.”
“That’s nuts,” Anna chuckled. “The closest I came to a country club was grange camp.”
“Me, too,” Bailey agreed.
“Grange camp?” Tara asked. “Is that like a club for poor people or something?”
“It’s a summer camp,” I explained. “I went a couple summers myself when I was a kid.”
“It was pretty fun actually,” Bailey said. “You just did activities each day, like fishing or going out on canoes. You’d go swimming and stuff, and at the end of the week each group would put on a little concert.”
“Concert?” Tara asked. “So it was a music camp?”
“Not exactly,” Anna said. “If Bailey’
s was like mine then we all picked our groups at the beginning of the week.”
“Yeah,” Bailey said. “You’d have a singing group or dance group, and there was always a theme you went along with. I always did singing group, even though I can’t really sing, but we’d do Elvis songs or Disney songs. It was great.”
“I hated that they made us sing for our food, though,” Anna sneered.
“Yeah, that did kind of suck,” Bailey agreed.
“It’s amazing to me what poor people do for fun,” Tara said.
“Oh, shut up,” Anna laughed, and she reached back and playfully hit Tara on the thigh. “We’re all poor now.”
“I’m not poor,” Tara sniffed.
“Show us your money, then,” Anna chuckled.
“It’s in the bank,” Tara said.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s how it works anymore,” Paige laughed.
“Eh, it’s fine,” Tara said. “I’m cool with being poor now.”
“You kind of have to be,” I said, and all the girls giggled while Tara rolled her eyes.
I followed Paige’s instructions and took some back roads around the side of Burlington until we came up on the golf course that was part of the country club. It would be a good spot to camp out as well if we didn’t feel safe staying in the country club.
The sun had just begun to rise when I found a large patch of trees to hide the jeep in, so we grabbed our stuff out of the back and started the walk to the club. The sides of the golf course were blocked by rows of trees, and they had only become more overgrown since the last time we’d been there, so we had plenty of coverage as we made the trek. I imagined that privacy fences like that were pretty common among country clubs in order to give the appearance that they were isolated from the rest of the world who wasn’t allowed in. I had to agree with Bailey, though, it was somewhat funny to see places like this abandoned. They had tried so hard to keep people out for so long, but now it was open to anybody.
The sun rose higher as we walked, and the sky lit up with oranges and pinks, but it wasn’t fully risen when we reached the lodge.
“Looks like we made it here before Brody,” Paige said.