“Don’t care,” Ian said, taking his helmet off. “Lance, you realize we will now have to carry the ammo over the ridge to hide it. We have emptied over half the damn four-car garage, we have enough.”
Looking over at Lilly, “You still good?” Lance asked and she nodded and Ian groaned, only on the inside. “Okay, when we are done eating, let’s load up the trailer and I’ll leave the fire bomb in the house,” Lance said and Ian jerked his head to look at Lance.
“So, you’re good with burning the rest?” Ian asked shocked.
Nodding wearily, “Yeah, the rest is fifty caliber and we only have one Ma Deuce. We have enough ammo for it,” Lance said.
“Dude, we don’t even know how to operate the damn Ma Deuce yet,” Ian snorted.
“We will learn,” Lance proclaimed, taking his helmet off and dumping a bottle of water over his head.
Draining her bottle of water, Lilly turned to Lance grinning. “Have to say, I’ve learned a lot already,” she said.
“I feel like I haven’t learned shit,” Lance confessed, putting his helmet back on and Dino gave a soft growl. Without looking around, Lance picked up his bow and grabbed an arrow before he turned to the other side of the house to see two stinkers walk around the corner.
Pulling back the bow, Lance released the arrow and watched what had at one time been a young woman jerk back as the arrow buried into her forehead. “Glad we are leaving because you’re right, a lot more have come up today,” Ian said, releasing an arrow and dropping the other stinker.
Pulling out his lighter, Lance walked over to the two. “And I don’t understand why,” he said. “The house smells more like bleach than stinker and we burned all of them outside.”
Watching Lance light the bodies, Lilly reached out to pet Dino. “When I came down this morning, more were in the backyard than the last time I was here,” she said, then looked up at the dark cloudy sky. “Going to have rain soon.”
“Fuck it,” Lance swore as he walked back. “Let’s load up and head home. I’m sure the kitties have been killing and we need to clean up.”
It took an hour to load the trailer and Lance pulled a jug off the back of the buggy that had wires and a timer taped to the side. “How did you two learn to make bombs? Have you used them before?” Lilly asked.
“No,” Ian and Lance answered together, way too quickly to be convincing. Not believing them, Lilly smiled as Lance walked inside and Ian climbed behind the steering wheel.
Closing the door as he walked out, Lance turned to Dino and pointed at the backseat beside Lilly. Dino jumped in as Lance climbed in up front. “I need to take George and Judy out on more patrols and sweeps,” Lilly announced as Ian drove up the draw. “They are getting pretty good.”
“You can take one out with Dino until they learn to listen,” Lance said over his shoulder. “Sorry, but they tend to get sidetracked when stinkers get close.”
Giving a huff as she glanced around, “You should’ve seen how they acted when this shit started. I almost had to keep them on a leash,” Lilly said. Turning to look at the valley below them where the road was, Lilly saw the destroyed bikes that Lance had told her a military helicopter had shot up with the Devil Lords. “In a few more weeks, I will have them to Dino’s level,” she said confidently.
“Don’t get mad but until they are at Dino’s level, only one will come out with Dino,” Lance said, looking ahead and saw a stinker through the trees. Giving a sigh, Lance grabbed his bow.
“What the fuck?!” Ian gasped in shock, making Lance jerk his eyes ahead. The stinker had moved behind a small tree and stopped. They could see its shoulders and knew it was facing them, but the small tree blocked its face.
As the buggy came to a stop, the stinker slowly leaned to the side ‘peeking’ out from behind the tree at them, and then ducked its head back. All three stared ahead wide-eyed and mouths open as the stinker again leaned out ‘peeking’ at them. “That is bullshit!” Lance exclaimed, climbing out and looking around but not seeing anything else.
Patting his leg, Lance nocked an arrow as Dino jumped out. “It’s hiding, or thinks it is,” Ian mumbled as Lance eased up toward the hiding stinker.
“It can’t see us, so it thinks we can’t see it,” Lilly muttered behind him. It still amazed Lilly how the boys shot their bows by instinct, never bringing the bow up in a traditional aim.
When Lance was ten yards away, the stinker leaned out and spotted him. Moving from behind the tree the stinker reached out, almost jogging toward Lance.
Surprised by the speed, Ian lifted his AR as Lance released the arrow. The stinker’s head jerked back and it collapsed in a heap. They saw Lance look around, then wave Ian up. When Ian stopped beside Lance, they saw Lance’s hands had a mild tremor. “Did you see how fast that fucker moved?” Lance cried out, flipping his lighter open.
“It was trying to hide and ambush us,” Ian insisted, staring at the stinker. It was a body of a young man and he saw a small bite on the neck. “It looks like one that turned near the beginning.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out. They could tell the ones that had turned at the beginning by how much was left of the body after it reanimated. They had come across a few bodies where the only thing left by other stinkers had been a skull with enough flesh attached to work the jaws.
Seeing Lance bend down to light the body, “Lance, it’s dry,” Ian cautioned, glancing around at the underbrush. “I didn’t hide that shit just so you could burn down the damn woods.”
With the lighter in his hand, Lance looked up at the sky and saw the dark clouds. “We will have rain and I don’t give a shit,” Lance huffed. “I don’t want other stinkers grabbing a Ouija board and asking the body how to do that.”
Climbing out of the buggy and thinking that was sound reasoning, “Lilly, drive the buggy,” Ian said, then turned to Lance and pointed ahead. “There’s a clearing up there. Let’s pull the body there and you can torch it.”
Lilly drove the buggy as Lance and Ian pulled the body along the ridge to the clearing. As Lance struck his lighter, thunder rumbled across the sky. Touching the flame to what was left of the stinker’s pants, Lance pulled back as the flame quickly grew. “Can both of you still smell it?” Lance asked, closing his Zippo.
“Yeah,” Ian said and Lilly nodded, looking around and really wanting to head back to the cabin.
“Okay, just making sure because I barely can,” Lance told them, moving to the buggy. “Lilly, if you don’t mind, drive us home.”
Knowing how well the two shot, Lilly had no problem as Ian climbed in the back. “Lance, let’s just shoot their asses,” Ian offered from the back seat. “This is bullshit, they can’t be changing the rules after the game has started.”
“Cheating motherfuckers,” Lance snarled, raising his rifle and shooting a stinker ahead.
“Want me to slow down so you can burn it?” Lilly asked.
“Not unless we see another one trying to hide,” Lance said and Lilly sighed with relief.
Driving along the ridge, Ian and Lance killed ten more stinkers but none played ‘peek a boo’. Two miles down the ridge, Lilly started down the slope, pausing at the tree line on the valley floor. Getting out, Lance eased up to the tree line with the binoculars and scanned around.
Stepping back from the tree line, Lance walked back to the buggy. When he didn’t climb in, Ian took a breath and then stopped, seeing Lance grab the thermal binoculars. Lance looked up at Ian with a worried expression and put his index finger on his lips.
“Fuck,” Ian whispered as Lance eased back to where the trees stopped, looking north with the thermals. Leaning forward to Lilly’s ear, “Lilly, keep a watch out behind us and don’t use your radio,” Ian breathed as more thunder rolled across the sky.
As Ian walked up to Lance, Lilly climbed out to look up the slope they had driven down. When lightning flashed overhead, Lilly dropped to her knee. A few seconds later, thunder sounded with a loud boom. “Glad we left early,�
�� she mumbled as Ian moved up to Lance.
“What do you see?” Ian asked, attaching his thermal to his AR.
“It’s the bear trap people,” Lance said as Ian lifted his head up, looking north up the valley. The only structure was a mobile home that had just been put in before the infection had started. The other two houses there had burned down after Lance and Ian had started a fire the day the military chopper showed up.
Only seeing a shambling mass, Ian lifted his AR to his shoulder. “What the hell did they do, send out invitations?” Ian asked, looking at stinkers closing in on the mobile home. Two women and one man were on the front deck shooting bows and crossbows into the approaching group. “Yeah, it’s the bear trap people because I remember that woman with the red hair. Remember, the one with huge boobs?”
“Yeah, red knockers,” Lance grinned, watching the stinkers getting closer. “I’m telling you, she wears a W or an X. She makes Lilly look average.”
“Shit if I’m arguing that,” Ian said as a man ran out carrying bags and tossed them in the back of a side by side. “How did they attract so damn many?”
Shaking his head, Lance was stunned when the man ran back inside the mobile home. “There isn’t anything that important,” Lance mumbled as the three outside continued shooting arrows. Suddenly, the man jumped off the deck and took off running at the stinkers. He would pause his stride for a second, then run around some more.
It took a second for Lance to realize the man was retrieving arrows. Making a quick count, “They had to start retrieving arrows and only have thirty-six on the ground,” Lance noted.
“Shit, red knockers can shoot that crossbow like a single shot rifle. I bet she’s averaging fifteen shots a minute,” Ian said, shifting his line of sight. “More coming from the north.”
Moving his thermals, Lance shook his head at seeing at least another fifty or so stinkers heading for the mobile home. “They need to bug out and call it even,” Lance said as the man came out of the house carrying more bags. The man tossed the bags in the side by side and even from almost a mile away, they heard the engine crank up.
“Well, now we know how they got such a crowd,” Ian said. In this new world, the sound of the UTV seemed loud when it was just a normal engine noise. “Why didn’t they make it quiet?”
“Can’t fix stupid,” Lance commented as the others piled on the side by side. “I know they aren’t,” Lance cried in shock as the man drove the UTV around the mobile home and up the ridge behind it. “He’s heading straight for their house.”
“He’ll be there long before the stinkers reach the top,” Ian said, hearing the engine whine and then several gunshots rang out, making both boys drop to their knees. “Well, now they just told everything around here where they were.”
The entire group of stinkers charged for the trees as Lance looked around and saw a few stinkers to the south. “I only see like four or five stinkers that will spot us crossing,” Lance said as the area brightened up when lightning flashed, followed instantly by exploding thunder.
Swinging his aim down the valley, Ian saw the small group of stinkers on the road. “Ah, Lance?” Ian said nervously. “Those stinkers to the south are heading to the trees.”
Lowering the thermals, Lance looked at his watch. “Oh, the radio cut on inside Bones’ house,” Lance divulged. “I opened the front door, so stinkers can fill the house. The fire bomb won’t go off for another two hours.”
“Just how loud did you set it?” Ian asked, lowering his AR and turning to Lance.
“Wide open,” Lance grinned as three more gunshots rang out to the north. “I don’t know how they survived this damn long,” Lance confessed, dropping the grin.
As rain started to fall, Ian jerked his head back to the buggy, “How about we get the fuck home?” Ian offered, cradling his AR.
“Sounds good to me,” Lance said and then moved back to the buggy. “Let Lilly drive, so you can stay on your gun.”
“Be damned if I’m going to complain with stinkers trying to hide,” Ian confessed, walking past Lilly.
“What was that?” Lilly asked, climbing behind the steering wheel.
Pointing ahead, “The bear trap people getting stuff from a house and acting stupid,” Lance answered as Lilly eased up to the forest edge.
When the front end was out of the trees Lilly stomped the pedal, throwing them all back. Ian reached out to steady Dino in the backseat. “That’s what I’m talking about, girl,” Ian chuckled as Lilly streaked across the road, barreling to the opposite tree line.
“Lilly, if you wreck us, we’ll have to walk,” Lance said calmly, looking around.
Feeling the heavy trailer jerking the side by side around, Lilly took her foot off the accelerator and tapped the brake as they neared the trees. “Should we see if they stopped at the ridge? They might have seen us cross,” Lilly said, pulling into the trees.
“If the bear trap people stopped, they are stinkers now,” Lance said confidently.
Pulling up the ridge Lilly weaved between the trees, hoping she was heading the right way as the rain started coming down harder. Stopping at the ridge, Lilly pointed to her right and Lance nodded. Giving a sigh of relief, Lilly turned the wheel and followed the ridge.
Seeing the old logging trail ahead Lilly headed for it, only to have Lance grab the wheel. “Raining too hard, and we will leave tracks,” Lance shouted over the rain that was now pouring down.
“I should’ve known that,” Lilly said, staying in the trees.
An hour later, they pulled over the ridge behind the cabin. “Home,” Lance called over the radio and pulled out his cellphone and tapped the screen.
“Good to hear because we have motion detectors going off everywhere,” Jennifer called back.
“How many before the rain started?” Lance shouted over the radio and cupped his hand over his ear so he could hear Jennifer.
“Over a dozen. The tigers killed six in the field, four to our east and three in that small clearing on the west side,” Jennifer called out. “That’s just what I’ve seen on the monitors. I’m sure there are others.”
Giving a groan, Lance flopped back in his seat then dove over to the driver’s side, grabbing the steering wheel and jerking it to the right. “Trap there,” Lance shouted as Lilly stomped on the brake.
“Can you drive without stomping the brake?” Ian cried from the back.
“Sorry,” Lilly said and steered where Lance pointed. When she drove around the spot, Lilly could see where they had covered up a small gully. “That’s why Jennifer and I won’t do sweeps around the cabin without one of you,” she mumbled.
When she saw the fence, Lilly gave a sigh of relief and drove along it until she reached the south side, then turned for the gate. Pulling onto the road, they saw two figures wearing ponchos at the gates. Knowing the bigger one was Jennifer holding open the outer gate, Lance waved as they rode past.
Lilly stopped inside the second gate and Ian jumped out trotting back and grabbing the second gate as one of the ladybugs covered Jennifer closing the outer gate. When the outer gate was closed, the smaller figure ran to the buggy and Lance motioned them to him.
As the figure stopped beside the buggy, Lance saw it was Allie. Picking her up, Lance sat her in his lap. “Dino is taking up most of the backseat,” Lance said, smiling at Allie.
Looking out the front of the buggy at the sheet of water rolling off the roof, Allie turned to Lance. “I almost floated away,” she shouted as Ian jumped in and pulled Jennifer in his lap.
Not waiting, Lilly took off. “Pull under the RV awning on this side,” Lance shouted over at Lilly.
When Lilly stopped under the awning, everyone jumped off and ran for the back door. With Allie in his arms, Lance let Lilly pass him as she yanked out her key. When she had the door open, everyone piled in and Dino knocked them all down, letting them know he was tired of the rain.
Getting up, Lance helped Allie up and then took her small AR, “You got
wet, ladybug,” Lance grinned.
Pulling off her poncho, Allie looked up at him with quivering lips, but still smiled. “That rain is cold,” Allie said.
“Go get some dry clothes on,” Lance said, taking her poncho and hanging it by the back door. Turning around, Lance saw Lilly set her AR on the table as she unbuckled her vest. “Come here,” Lance said, walking over.
Seeing Lance reach for her vest, Lilly held her arms out. Undoing the sides, Lance undid the drop platforms on each leg then pulled the vest over Lilly’s head. “Thank you,” Lilly said, shivering and sitting down.
Hanging Lilly’s vest on one of the chairs, Lance saw Ian taking Jennifer’s boots off. Smiling, Lance started taking his vest off as Jennifer looked up at him. “You could be nice and take Lilly’s boots off,” Jennifer encouraged and Lance just looked at her as he took off his vest and hung it on a chair.
Lilly looked up at Lance with a small smile and Lance moved over, dropping to his knee and untied her boots. “Thank you,” Lilly said, shivering and undoing her outer shirt. “Holy crap! That is some serious rain.”
Pulling her boots off, Lance nodded. “Yeah, we only get a few storms like that thankfully,” he said, setting her boots to the side and saw Ian was taking Jennifer’s socks off. Grabbing Lilly’s legs, Lance pulled her socks off, seeing her pruned feet. “If you were Allie or Carrie, I would tell you it’s time to get out of the bathtub,” Lance chuckled, tucking the wet socks in the boots.
Standing up, the chuckle caught in Lance’s throat as Lilly pulled off the 3D jacket and then her outer shirt, leaving only a soaked white t-shirt on. A warm flush hit Lance as he tried to act cool, sitting down and undoing his own boots. “I can get them,” Lilly said, reaching over.
“Thank you, but you can get dried off,” Lance declined, not looking up and knowing his cheeks were bright red. Suddenly, Lance realized he wasn’t cold anymore. Hearing Ian give a cough, Lance glanced up to see Jennifer standing in her bra, pulling off her wet pants. Looking back down quickly, Lance realized he was almost panting.
Forsaken World (Book 3): Rite of Passage Page 6