Snareville II: Circles

by David Youngquist

  She smiled up at him, her blue eyes twinkling. “Anytime the rest of us are. You’re not shaking us that easy, Danny.”

  He wrapped his arms around her less swollen middle and kissed her as well. “How’s the morning sickness?”

  “Gone,” she said. “I feel human again.”

  “Good.”

  They walked on into town. At various pastures they stopped and turned horses out. Greetings were bellowed through town as herd members called to one another. The pack saddles were unloaded into the golf carts. Wally’s two stallions were given separate paddocks in an equestrian farm on the edge of town where the protective walls had been extended over the last fall.

  Chapter 7

  The packs had been unloaded, food distributed to the central storehouse. Medicine was taken to the village’s infirmary in the fire station. Doctor Leary was on duty, as Doctor O’Shea was out helping one of the Marine Corps women give birth. They were going through a real baby boom in Snareville.

  “How about you, Pepper?” Leary asked as he examined and cleaned Cherry’s wound. “You having any contractions? Baby drop or change position?”

  Pepper rubbed her belly. “No,” she said, “None that I’ve noticed. This one is different than his brother.”

  Leary grunted as he rewrapped the wound. He looked up in Cherry’s face. “You, young lady, are lucky that Jinks is such a good student. It’s clean, no infection and it ought to heal without much scarring.” He turned to Cindy.

  “How about you, Cindy? Feeling anything out of the ordinary?”

  “Feeling fat and bloated,” Cindy smiled, “But I haven’t thrown up yet today.”

  Leary grinned. “That’s a good thing. You’re going into your second trimester. The morning sickness should about be over. Sounds like you’re on your way to a normal pregnancy. You’ll have something to compare your next one to.”

  “Great,” Cindy chuckled. “Can we go now, Doc?”

  “Yes, go, go. Go do something productive. Pepper, you’re close. Next month or six weeks I’d say. No heavy stuff. And you’re off patrols. There’s enough people in town can handle it. We don’t have the facilities if you go early.”

  “Okay, Doc,” Pepper nodded, “So you’re saying to have Danny wait on me?”

  Leary grinned. “You mean he doesn’t already?”

  The women laughed in response.

  “Funny, Doc. Put ideas in their head.” Dan grinned as he headed for the door.

  “Thanks for the medicine,” Leary called as the door closed behind them.

  Dan walked up the street toward his house. A cluster of younger kids played in the park on the swings and slides. Two adults who watched them waved at Dan and his little group. Ella had already rushed home, cleaned up and left to see Bill Jaques. Wally had tucked his stallions away in their stalls. He trotted across the park with one of the teenage girls that trained the horses toward Dan. He caught up to them, out of breath.

  “Sounds like someone needs some more PT, Lieutenant,” Dan said with a grin. “If you like, I’m sure Corporal Cody can have you out in the morning running with his Marines.”

  “I might take him up on that,” Wally gasped. “Didn’t realized how much I’d let myself go on that island. I think I’ll have to start getting my people in shape too.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Pepper said. They moved aside as a small troop of soldiers, both men and women, jogged past them. “Just good practice, to keep the lungs up, but since we’ve started taking in a lot of military people, it’s become a necessity.”

  Wally nodded. “I’d like to see how you do things.” He turned to Cherry. “What’d the doctor say?”

  “I’ll live,” she said. “Not infected, I’m not zed positive either. I’d have gotten sick by now.”

  “That’s good. That antivirus really works.”

  “Yep,” Dan said. He had slid both his hands into those of his wives. “Everyone in the whole area around here has been inoculated, including Cherry now. When you walk back that way, it’s your turn.”

  Wally nodded. They turned down a side street. Bill and his wives had made it home first. The door to the house was open and the group stepped inside. Dan offered the house across the street to Wally and Cherry to stay in as long as they were in town. Dan picked up one of the packs that had been left on the porch. Wally picked up another, as did Cherry. He led them across the street. The door swung open to a fully furnished home. Dan pulled the key out of the back of the lock on the door and handed it to Wally.

  “We lock up after sunset. We haven’t had any zeds get in so far this year, but curfew is dark. No one goes out without at least a pistol. There’s three bedrooms in this place, two up, one down.” Dan walked further into the room. He dropped the pack on a couch, turned to the newcomers. “You get hungry, the bar’s open downtown. Tradegoods for pay normally, but just tell them you’re my guests and we’ll work it out. If you want to cook yourself, the store’s open. Same policy.”

  “Wow,” Cherry said in a soft voice, “it’s almost like it never happened here. The zombies, the death, the insanity.”

  A small smile tugged at the corners of Dan’s mouth. “It happened, we just decided as a group not to roll over and die like most of the rest. We’re trying.” He tossed Wally the key and let himself back out the door.

  Dan walked back to his place to find Pepper in the kitchen pulling out pots and pans. Heather came down the back stairs. Dan slid his arms around his wife from behind, gave her a soft kiss on her cheek.

  “I’m glad to be home,” he said into her soft neck. “I’ve missed you guys.”

  Pepper turned in his arms as Heather started to find food in the freezer. “We’re glad you’re back too. But you smell like a horse. Go get a shower.”

  Dan grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “You don’t like me stinky?” He tried to kiss her, pull her closer, but her belly got in the way. With mock terror, she pushed him away.

  “Git, you stink,” she said as Dan headed towards the steps. “Cindy beat you. She took her shower while you were visiting.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realize she stunk?” Dan said.

  “She wanted to smell better for her hubby,” Pepper shouted as he was halfway up the steps. Both women giggled. He did notice that Bill and Cathy were missing as well. It was good to be home. He started the shower, let the warm water work the knots out of his muscles and washed every thing he could reach. He toweled off, ran the beard trimmer over his face quickly to even things up and stepped into his bedroom.

  Cindy lay on the bed, her long blond hair tossed over her shoulder. She hadn’t had time herself to shave, but no one really bothered with that anymore. She had pulled on a pair of black thigh-high stockings. She looked up as Dan came in, gave him a wide grin and tried to adjust and get comfortable with her little belly.

  Dan slid onto the edge of the bed, planted a deep kiss on her lips and rolled her onto her back. Cindy laced her fingers around his neck as she pulled him down to her.

  “I am so glad to be back, little girl. I missed you,” Dan said as he brushed her lips. His fingers traveled the length of her body; his palm rubbed her belly, paused at the thick V of her womanhood. She wriggled under his attentions as he kissed her neck, then moved on to her swollen nipples.

  “I’m glad you’re back too, baby. We were so scared the whole time you were gone.” Her fingers traced the curve of his back as he nibbled her shoulder. They slid to the center of the king sized bed. “The bed feels empty without Pepper,” Cindy said.

  “She’s too far along to be doing this. She makes up for it when she can.”

  “I know. Glad I’ve got you to myself for awhile. They’re right when they say pregnant women are horny as goats.”

  Dan nipped her neck. Cindy giggled. “You gonna baa for me?” He grinned.

  “Baaaa…” They both laughed as she slid a leg over his back and welcomed him home.

  Chapter 8

  I ran my hands across Cindy’s hip,
down her leg. She’d lost her stockings somewhere along the way. I spooned her, found her belly button and gave it a tickle. She giggled. “Nope, not done yet.”

  “What?” She rolled onto her back in my arms, smiled up into my face.

  I ran my fingertip around the soft rim. “You’re not done yet, the timer hasn’t popped out.”

  “You goof,” she laughed as she pushed my hand away. “Git.”

  I grinned as I rolled over. It was good to be home. She laid her chin on my chest.

  “Okay, now that I can think again, how was the trip? You brought friends home.”

  “Trip was good. Productive. I think we’ll have Savanna in the alliance when Wallace goes back home. He’s got some good ideas and he’s pretty organized.”

  “Get the mares knocked up?”

  “I think so. We bred them each about three times. Those studs have more endurance than me.”

  “You keep up with us fine. Why’d he come back with you?”

  I explained that he had some ideas on how to get O’Shea’s zed killer out there and figured to ride along and talk with us to run the ideas past the group. Plus, he could have the rest of our mares bred while he was here and we wouldn’t have to make another trip. I think he just wanted to get out of town too. See what the world looked like past the wire. Can’t say’s I blame him.

  We washed off in the bathroom, pulled on some clothes and headed downstairs. As much as I just wanted to lie in bed with my wives, there were things to do now that I was home. Pepper was just laying lunch out on the table as we got downstairs. Bill and Cathy had beat us down and sat with Heather on one side of the table. The babies played in the front room. Ella was still out. The three of us sat on the other side of the table. Talk revolved around the trip, what happened, what we saw and how Savanna looked.

  We told them about Cherry, about Wally’s little island. How there was a lot of people who simply lived on the river now. Piracy and general lawlessness I couldn’t comment much on. There were pockets of problems and the Mongol Horde and the Militias popping up here and there might be a worry, but mostly people were still learning to survive with zeds wandering the countryside.

  We finished lunch as the kids tromped into the room. Rachel climbed up into my lap, Mikey simply held onto my chair and patted my leg as he grinned up at me. I cuddled Rachel and she touched my face as she jabbered on at me about butterflies. Bill had much the same reception. I thought about the fact there would soon be four more children in this group. We had to expand, or one of our little groups had to move to a new house. One of the reasons we had the place across the street in working order.

  Pepper stood, woke me out of my thoughts.

  “Kenny’s going to want a report. I’ll walk with you if Cindy can handle the dishes.”

  “That an order, Sergeant?” Cindy grinned.

  “Yes, Private. You had your time with him. My turn.”

  “I never had this problem three years ago,” I said as I stood.

  “Funny,” Pepper smiled. “You complaining? I’m sure Cindy and I could arrange for you to have a break.”

  I pulled her into my arms. She slid her belly beside me so we could get closer. “Don’t you dare,” I said as I kissed her softly.

  Cindy and Cathy shooed the rest of us out the door. We gathered Wallace and Cherry from across the street and made our way down to Kenny’s office at the library. I laced my fingers into Pepper’s and just enjoyed the quiet afternoon.

  “Did you know our daughter wants to get married?” I asked Pepper.

  “She finally told you, did she?”

  “Yeah. Right after we fought through a swarm.”

  “You didn’t mention how bad the swarm was.”

  “Didn’t want to worry Cindy.”

  “Ah. Well, Ella didn’t want to worry you. She didn’t know how you’d react to having your fifteen year old daughter want to go and get married. So, what’d you say?”

  “How long you known about this?”

  “Since he asked her.”

  “Why not tell me?”

  “She did tell you. Just not right away. Dan, you’re the commander around here. You got a heavy rep. She knows you love her, but there’s still a touch of fear, like any girl would have at her age asking to get married.”

  “Makes sense.” I kicked a little rock with the toe of my boot. In the distance, I could hear the troops on the firing line as shots echoed through town.

  “So what’d you say?” Pepper looked up at me. Her big brown eyes full of questions. I smiled and kissed her forehead.

  “I told her she could get married. Hundred and twenty years ago, she’d already be married and have a kid and he’d be working in some mill somewhere.”

  She was quiet for a few steps. “So we’ve reverted that far.”

  “In some ways. Things aren’t the same, Baby. Look at the four of us. Most of us here in town have gone tribal. We’ve doubled up and some of us have tripled up. And I don’t think couples like Jake and Rick will be adding to the population. We’ll survive, but it won’t be the way it was three years ago for a long time.”

  “If ever,” Cherry said from behind us.

  “If ever,” Pepper repeated.

  Chapter 9

  As we walked into the library Kenny was sitting at his desk, going over reports. We seemed to have become the central location for the alliance, outside of the Rock Island Arsenal. Our computers were linked through what was left of the internet. My brother, Colonel Tom Jackson, had sent out his engineers to repair as many systems as he could and get them running again, so we could all communicate with one another. Kenny spat daily reports out of his computer to go over. From there, he would make replies if needed, or file away for attention later.

  I introduced him to Wallace and Cherry. We all sat, after some chairs had been dragged in from the other room. Conversation went around the room as we settled. Soon talk turned to the trip. We were successful in getting the mares bred Wallace brought the studs back down here to continue to breed the rest of our mares.

  “Can that militia group get across the river by you, Lieutenant?” Kenny asked.

  “No sir. We blew the center of the bridge deck out between us and Sabula. Little det cord and some C-4 and there’s a nice big hole followed by a drop straight to the water.”

  “What about Dubuque?”

  “Friends own Dubuque. Bridge is well controlled up there. Between Fulton and Clinton, we blew the whole thing. Next stop is the Quad Cities and you folks control those. Only way for them to cross right now is swim or boats.”

  “That would most likely put them on foot then, as I don’t think they could find a ferry to get their equipment across.”

  “Correct, sir. I have the only ferry outside of Minnesota that I know of.”

  “The Mongols?”

  “Used to be a biker gang. Mostly still are. They won’t try us unless they’ve gotten a whole lot bigger. They’re hit and run scavengers.”

  “And that pack of zeds managed to move from Plano to Prophetstown in a week?”

  “That’s what I figure, Kenny,” I said. “There were some people in there from Princeton too, from some of the shirts I saw. I don’t know if that means they’re clustering up somehow, or if they’ve been in the same pack the whole time.”

  “We’ll have to put word out, then and see what our other communities have noticed.” He turned to Wallace. “Now, Lieutenant, supposed you tell me why you rode all the way back down here with Danny?”

  Wallace grinned. “Well, Sir, what if I told you I might have an answer to your zed problem?”

  Kenny sat back in his chair. “I’m all ears, young man.”

  Wallace went on to explain that he was part of the Chemical Weapons Division of the Army National Guard stationed in Galesburg. He used to drive south to his duty weekends when he lived in the Quad Cities. He had moved up to Savanna and rather than transfer to a unit with a different MOS, the military allowed him the extra drive
time. He was supposed to report in for duty about the time hell broke loose with the infection and he was trapped up north. He lost contact with his unit and didn’t know how they fared, or even if they were still in existence.

  “So what you’re saying, Lieutenant Wallace, is that if your equipment and gear are still intact in Galesburg, we could use it as a delivery system for Dr. O’Shea’s zed killer juice?”

  “Yes, Sir. All we’d have to do is get there and run an inventory of what we have. I doubt there’s much left of the rifle company, but the gas passers are probably still in order. Equipment wise, that is.”

  Kenny looked at each one of us. “You up for a road trip?” he asked me.

  I looked at Pepper, then at my other troops. “Damned right, Boss.”

  Chapter 10

  “Whatcha think, Boss?” The man lay in the weeds next to his leader. Heavy leather vest, ripped jeans, thick work boots weren’t the best for going concealed, but they weren’t the kind of group that relied much on stealth.

  His boss, Venom, watched Prophetstown smolder though a set of five hundred dollar binoculars. “I think someone was here, Shitter.”

  “Why’s that?” Shitter took the binoculars passed to him.

  “Look around the bridge. Lot of dead zeds. Town didn’t set itself on fire.”

  Shitter scanned the bridge deck, around the park on the other side. Smoke rose from the last building on the west side of the street downtown. A few zeds still stumbled around in town, most of them by the high school. He could see charred skin and burnt clothes on a few.

  “Who you reckon? Someone still alive in town?” He handed the binoculars back to Venom.

  “I don’t think so. Town looks too empty. If someone was still alive, it’d make sense to hole up in the school. I think someone was passing through and torched it. Trail of corpses lead through the park. Lot of empty shell casings on the road too. I think someone had to fight across the bridge.” He looked at Shitter. They both eased back down past the crest of the hill.