Alpha Farm: The Beginning (Prepper Chick Series Book 1)

by Annie Berdel

  Not one of them had noticed that Cowboy Jack had started dinner for his hungry guests. Pulling out some home-canned jars of beef stew from the cellar, he had the stew and cornbread in the fireplace baking along with some homemade rhubarb wine he had made the previous year. It was enough to envy the best chefs in Paris, Angie thought.

  “Hold on there, big guy,” Ridley said. “You aren’t up for all of that yet, especially the wine. Angie yes, you no,” she said, pointing a finger at his disappointed face. “I’ll mash up some of the stew to make things easier, but slow and easy. OK?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Scott shot back.

  “I like that!” Ridley exclaimed. “Especially since you are almost my parents’ age,” she added without thinking.

  “Ouch,” Scott said, dramatizing how she had hurt his feelings.

  Laughter echoed throughout the rooms of the house, the first since the calamity had started. It was a good start for all of them considering the times ahead.

  152

  While Emma’s family was busy getting settled and exchanging stories in front of the fire in the living room, Nina gathered her closest advisors for a meeting in one of the tents set up in the field below the barn.

  “We seem to have too many mouths here lately. Mouths talk and can sink ships,” she said. “We can’t risk letting our whereabouts known right now. There’s just too much at stake. Our whole country is counting on us to gather it back together and rebuild.”

  “Ma’am. What are you proposing?”

  “A relocation,” Nina said.

  “You want us to move everything somewhere else?” he asked in disbelief. “Do you know how long that would take?”

  “I do know, “Nina said, shaking her head in agreement. “That’s why I think Emma and her family need to be the ones to vacate.”

  153

  “What are you proposing?” Ben asked, flattered that Nina confided in him.

  “Well, after thinking about it, the only way this is going to work is if she is out of the picture. She has too much power here with these people. She is taking that power away from you! You should really be in charge but it seems to me that everyone looks to Emma for answers. You are the law here, damn it, not her!” Nina dug the knife in deeper until she was certain Ben’s small, Neanderthal brain was riveting with anger.

  “Ya, I can see what you’re saying,” Ben replied deep in thought.

  This was too easy, Nina thought to herself… and just a bit more to send him over the edge.

  “Once Emma is gone, her husband will follow. Good thing, too, because his advances are getting a little old and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold him off. He obviously hasn’t had sex in a long time.”

  Ben’s face turned red with emotion as the corner of Nina’s mouth turned up. “Bingo,” she thought.

  154

  Shelby talked Mountain Man on the walkie talkies several more times before she lifted the 72-hour ban of separation. The one thing that she didn’t want to happen was her children to be contaminated from the fallout of the explosion that they witnessed over Memphis. She had walked Mountain Man through getting as much of the dangerous toxins off himself as he could. Staying away from him was the hardest thing Shelby had ever had to do, especially not being able to contact him and knowing how he was doing.

  By the time they were able to leave their underground bunker, Shelby’s leg had swollen and turned all shades of blues, purples and yellows. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain when Mountain Man entered the room and picked her up to carry her to the house. He had sent one of the older kids to the local doctor’s house on Bella with another horse in tow, hoping he would bring the doctor back as fast as possible.

  Laying his hand on her forehead, Mountain Man knew she had a high fever. Taking some cloths, he soaked them in as cold of water as he could get from the spring and laid them across her head, and then he waited.

  What seemed like hours later, his son finally returned with the doctor. Ushering the man hastily into their bedroom, Mountain Man stepped outside as he shut the door behind him. His girls would oversee the visit but if there was one thing he couldn’t stomach it was his wife in so much pain. He needed to be strong for her, and as tough as he was, Shelby had the ability to bring him to his knees. Walking into the kitchen, he looked around at what little mess he had left to clean up. Glass from the windows had covered the inside of the room when the initial blast happened. Most of it had been dredged from its resting spots and safely discarded but he figured he would be finding shards for quite a while.

  Knowing how Shelby loved her tea, he set her wood stove to heat a kettle of water and filled her tea strainer with dried chamomile leaves. Turning, he went to the cupboard to retrieve her favorite cup when he noticed it sitting on the far side table. She must have been sitting here before the blast went off, he thought. Walking across the room, his heart was relieved to find the cup still intact and not broken save for a small chip on the side. Picking up the cup, he ran his thumb over the nick. “Ouch,” he mumbled out as blood ran down the side of the china.

  “Mountain Man!” he heard the doc yell out. Finding himself still staring at the blood flowing from his thumb, he quickly grabbed a towel and wrapped it up and headed off towards Shelby and the doctor.

  Once in the room, the doctor instructed the children to “Stop hovering and go get about dinner,” as he needed to speak with their father alone. “Don’t worry about Shelby,” he said. “I gave her a sedative and she will be resting for a while until it wears off.”

  “How’s her leg, doc?” Mountain Man asked once the children were out of the room.

  “That’s what we need to discuss. It’s not good, Jeremiah,” he said using Mountain Man’s given name. Having known the man since birth, he saw past his tough exterior and knew what he had to tell him would hurt him as much as it would Shelby “Her leg is destroyed. She is risking blood clots and further infection if we don’t remove it immediately.”

  “WHAT! You mean amputate her leg?” Jeremiah wailed in disbelief.

  “Yes. Right below the knee. I see no other choice,” the doctor replied.

  155

  Nina set her plan in motion and was met with obstacle after obstacle. Ben was no help, as he was more concerned with getting into her pants than actually following her orders. Every time they were together, Nina spent more time shoving his hands off of her than working out the details to getting Emma off her farm. It was to the point that Nina was getting extremely agitated. This had to work and needed to be carried out with precision if she were to get what she wanted.

  Ben was an expendable in her book, something she could afford to lose. A loose end that would have to eventually be disposed of. He had his purpose, but quite honestly, she could find any dimwit with an overactive libido to do what she needed.

  Tom, on the other hand, was different. He was a challenge Nina couldn’t just dismiss. She saw how he looked at his wife; the adoration was visibly written across his face. And who could very well blame him, Nina thought. Emma was every man’s dream. She built Tom up on a pedestal and did whatever she needed to make sure he stayed there. A lady in public with the will power of a saint to control her tongue, Nina was positive she devoured her husband between her sheets whenever he needed it. Nina had tested both of her theories over the last couple weeks by not only pushing Emma past the point she had ever tested anyone, and still the bitch held her composure. And Tom, dear sweet Tom. Nina’s advances had been dealt with by a cold wall that only a true gentleman possesses. If only she could make Tom love her the way he did Emma. She just needed to rework her plan some more. She would eventually figure it out, she always did, Nina thought with a frown. Damn it if this one was wasting too much of her time. She had a deadline to keep and the bitch was about to ruin it.

  “A deadline,” Nina thought.

  “Dead…. Line,” She let slowly roll over her tongue.

  “Dead.”

  156

  The doct
or made arrangements with Jeremiah on when they would be removing Shelby’s damaged leg. He would need to bring extra equipment in from his office and several of his staff to assist. The fact that they didn’t have power was not helping the situation. The extraction of the damaged part of her leg would have to be done without any of the fancy equipment that present-day hospitals used.

  Two days later, the doctor and two of his nurses arrived to begin the amputation. Shelby was given a sedative to hopefully help with the pain but without being able to use an anesthesiologist, they were hoping she would be strong enough to handle the pain if it wasn’t enough.

  “I want to explain this procedure to you, Jeremiah,” the doctor said.

  “I don’t need to know. Just get it over with.”

  “Yes you do. And you need to know how to take care of her after this is over as you have no one here to help except you,” the doctor returned, a bit irritated.

  Jeremiah looked at the doctor with utter dislike on his face. He was a farmer and dealt with issues like this on occasion with his animals. Just never with someone he loved to the extent he loved his wife. Taking a deep breath and blowing out the air, Jeremiah looked at the doctor. “Alright.”

  “Have any coffee?” the doctor asked.

  “Really! You want to take my wife’s leg off but want me to fix you a cup of coffee first. Can’t we just do this thing? If I hadn’t have tried to find them, If I had been home, NONE of this would have happened in the first place!” Jeremiah screamed at the doctor, startling himself in the process.

  “Do you need to talk about something?” the doctor asked Jeremiah.

  Jeremiah fell back into the chair behind him and dropped his head into his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. His back started to heave up and down as the sobbing overtook his body.

  The doctor motioned everyone out of the room. A man needed to cry and get it out of his system when he needed to, is what he always said. And this man had a lot of crying to do.

  An hour later, Jeremiah walked outside to find the doctor sitting under a big tree in the yard. “Get it all out of your system?” the doctor asked.

  “How did you know?” Jeremiah asked.

  “Been in your shoes. I didn’t get it out and ended up hurting the woman I love the most in the world even more by my actions afterwards. Listen, things happen that we have no control over. It’s a part of life. But you can’t get yourself all wrapped up in ‘What Ifs’ or it’s going to eat away at your soul and turn you into a bitter old man. Deal with it and then walk away and get on with life. That family in there needs you right now. You, all of you,” the doctor said pointing his finger in circles at Jeremiah. “Not just parts of you.”

  “Yes sir,“ Jeremiah responded, “and thanks.”

  “My pleasure. Now, we have to get down to business. I would like to discuss putting the surgery off for a couple days, though, as Shelby’s blood pressure is way too high right now,” the doctor said.

  “Won’t that run the risk of the infection getting worse?”

  “Well, I have her on some pretty strong antibiotics among other things. It’s honestly me weighing the infection against a cardiac problem. I’m thinking right now let’s give it a couple days, and no more than a couple to get her pressure down. She’s been through a lot the last couple days. Hell, we all have,” the doctor added.

  157

  “It’s going to be about a full day’s ride considering the shape you are in. I don’t want to do anything to cause any setbacks,” Ridley said to Scott.

  “Stop babying me,” Scott returned.

  “Oh trust me. No petting pouters is my mom’s philosophy in life and mine too. Suck it up, buttercup! So, that settled, we leave in the morning,” Ridley said to the room.

  “You’re going with us?” Angie asked in astonishment.

  “Sure! Why not? Besides, I have a mission that my mom is sending me on!”

  “But you’re pregnant!” Angie said.

  “Yep! And not dying! So we leave in the morning. And I’m not going to wait for you so don’t be late!” Ridley yelled over her shoulder as she walked out of the room.

  “It will be nice to have a doctor along, even if she didn’t finish college,” Angie said to Scott.

  “I’ll be fine,” Scott chirped back. “I wonder what this mission is she’s on?”

  “No idea. If she wanted us to know, don’t you think she would tell us?”

  “Excuse me, don’t mean to interrupt but thought you folks would like something cold to drink besides water,” Dee walked into the room with a pitcher of iced tea and sat it down on the side table.

  “Ah, that’s so sweet of you! How in the world did you get ice?” Angie asked astonished.

  “I have one of those little table top ice machines. Hooked that bad boy up to one of our solar batteries and whammo! Ice. Consider it a delicacy going forward, so enjoy it!”

  “What’s the secret mission you are sending Ridley on with us?” Scott blatantly asked Dee.

  “Scott!” Angie squealed.

  “What? You want to know too, you just don’t have the balls to ask!”

  “Secret mission?” Dee repeated, thinking. “Oh! You must mean the quilt?”

  “No idea. Ridley just said she is going with us on a secret mission you are sending her on.”

  Dee laughed. “Well, yes. I could see why she would say that!”

  “Well? The suspense is making my wound hurt,” Scott added, acting hurt and weak.

  “Funny boy! No, actually, it was rumored that during the time of the actual Underground Railroad movement that quilts were used to convey messages to passerby’s or visitors.”

  “Quilts? Really?” Angie asked.

  “Yes. And don’t forget, this was just rumored as I do not believe there was any evidence provided to back it up. Emma and the coop girls just thought it was a good idea and adapted it into our group. Anyhow. Supposedly, quilts were used to communicate information about how to escape to freedom. They say quilts were hung on the clotheslines to signal a house was safe for runaways, the colors and shapes of the blocks were then used to convey the message if you knew what you were looking for. I finished another quilt to give to a new coop girl who Shelby knows and needed to get it to her. We are going to use these to identify each other in case of an issue. I’ll be right back.”

  “Wow, that’s pretty interesting. Think there’s any basis behind the story she just told?” Angie asked Scott.

  “Possibly. Don’t forget, history books are always written by the ones who won the battle. There’s always two sides. Take the cowboys and the Indians. Cowboys win and it’s was an epic battle. Indians win and it was a massacre. It all depends on which side of the fence you are sitting on.”

  “I get your point,” she said, smiling at Scott.

  Dee walked back into the room holding a beautiful handmade quilt. Trimmed in black with a solid black backing, the facing was of blocks of solid green with blocks of daisies in between. Directly in the center was a block with the silhouette of a woman holding a rifle with a feather in her hair.

  Angie started laughing, “Emma has this same woman on the mantle above her fireplace. A friend of hers made it out of copper.”

  “Well Lonnet, one of the Sister Chicks in Kentucky made these specifically for all of us girlies. Aren’t they beautiful? Now you know what to look for!” Dee said to Angie smiling.

  “Does this mean I’m a coop girl now?” Angie laughed.

  “I think you were all along, you just didn’t realize it yet,” Dee said, giving Angie a hug.

  158

  Scott, Angie, Ridley and Cowboy Jack were all saddled and ready to ride as soon as the sun came up the next morning. Dee had packed enough food and supplies for a week’s worth of travel, which they packed on a fifth horse.

  Sticking mainly to using a topographical map along with tributaries, the group arrived at Shelby’s farm ahead of schedule. Word passed to Mountain Man that the group was approachi
ng and he went out to meet them.

  “Jack old friend! Ridley!” Mountain Man sang out as he approached their horses and reached up to give their hands a shake.

  “Mountain Man, I have some guests I would like you to meet” Jack began. “This is Angie and Scott. I’m thinking Shelby might already know of them.”

  “I’ve heard her talk, yes. Welcome, but I’m afraid Shelby is a bit under the weather. Bella trampled her leg and Doc is looking at removing it.”

  “What?” Ridley exclaimed, not waiting for an explanation as she took off towards the house on her horse.

  “Come on to the house and let’s get you all settled. How long can you stay, Jack?” Mountain Man asked.

  “For a few days, anyways. Let’s see how we can pitch in and help,” Jack said more to Scott than Mountain Man.

  The three men and Angie rode the dirt road back through the trees until they came to a clearing with a log home. Several outbuildings were scattered around the property. Angie loved what she saw before her. A self-sufficient homestead. Emma had taught her over the months how important permaculture was to the design of your land. It was one thing to plant your garden in neat little rows in raised beds. The concern was that anyone walking by could see it and instantly know you have food of some type. In a down grid situation, Angie could appreciate that sentiment even more now. Riding back into Mountain Man’s property, it would be easy for anyone who didn’t know what they were looking for to just see a nice cabin.

  Scott looked over and saw Angie sitting straight in her saddle with a big smile across her face taking it all in as they rode along the path. “You seem to be enjoying yourself,” he said.

  “Oh Scott, it’s beautiful! The nut trees, the orchard. All the perennial herbs and plants. It’s like uncovering layer after layer of paradise! And it comes back year after year! I guess that’s why it’s called permanent culture. And to think I spent years just growing tomatoes in a pot on my porch because the HOA wouldn’t allow a garden. I could have planted all of this right under their noses and they would never have even known!” Angie rattled off.