Forsaken World (Book 3): Rite of Passage

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Just a tad shorter than Lance, Lilly leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, we really want to help you two. We don’t like seeing our guys working so hard and we aren’t helping,” Lilly smiled, releasing Lance’s hands but he kept holding onto hers.

  “You two always help,” Lance stuttered.

  Leaning forward, Lilly kissed his other cheek. “We want to help more,” she said and Lance let her hands go and nodded.

  Jennifer stepped up to Ian and grabbed his face, kissing him hard. “I finally got your ass, so you’d better start telling me how I can help,” Jennifer sassed, holding his face.

  A stupid grin filled Ian’s face as he nodded. Letting Ian’s face go, Jennifer turned around. “We’ll fix breakfast, so you two can tell us about your plans,” Jennifer called over her shoulder, heading to the cabin with Lilly.

  Both boys watched until the two were inside. Then they slowly turned to each other, grinning. “We’re their guys,” Ian said proudly, puffing out his chest.

  “Lilly kissed me, did you see that?” Lance cried out, punching the air.

  Ian nodded with a grin and then looked back at the rock saw. “I thought we told them,” he mumbled, dropping the grin.

  “Who cares? We can tell them again!” Lance cried out, jumping in the air.

  After checking on a few things, the two ran for the cabin. Walking in, they saw Allie and Carrie setting the table. Lance ran over and hugged them both tight, then darted for the bedroom. “Why are they so happy?” Allie asked, looking over at Lilly.

  “Just told them we wanted to help them more,” Lilly said, stirring the eggs.

  “All right!” Allie said, pumping her fist in the air. “I want to help on the parabolic reflector!”

  Lilly and Jennifer spun around, seeing Carrie and Allie jumping up and down together. “The what?” Lilly asked.

  “The parabolic reflector,” Allie repeated, beaming.

  “When did they tell you about it?” Jennifer asked.

  “Duh, the night we were sitting on the couch after the pirate movie,” Allie moaned, rolling her eyes.

  Pinching her bottom lip, “That was like a week ago,” Jennifer mumbled.

  “Yeah, they quit talking when you smooched Ian,” Carrie giggled.

  Grabbing the pan of scrambled eggs, Lilly scraped them out onto a plate. “What else have they talked about?” Lilly asked somewhat timidly. She remembered the time Allie referred to vividly, but not the conversation.

  “A bunch,” Allie said and saw Lilly and Jennifer just stare at her. “Well, like the stinker muncher machine they want to build. It has rolling jaws that stinkers will fall in and get ground up like hamburger.”

  “When did they talk about that?” Lilly asked.

  “While they were wrestling yesterday,” Carrie answered and Lilly started blushing.

  “Ladybugs, wash your hands so we can eat,” Lilly told them and they ran to the bathroom. Lilly grabbed Jennifer’s arm. “The only thing I remember about them wrestling on the mat was they were in very small and tight shorts.”

  “And nothing else,” Jennifer blushed.

  Glancing at the boys’ bedroom door that was closed, “Jennifer, go make sure they wear clothes,” Lilly said.

  “Why?” Jennifer groaned.

  “Jennifer, if Allie and Carrie can remember it, then they have talked about it. It seems when they walk around half naked, we aren’t paying attention,” Lilly whispered.

  Cocking her head to the side, Jennifer nodded. “I can see that,” she said and took off. Knocking on the door, “Ian, can you and Lance like wear shirts and pants when you talk to us? If we see your bodies, we lose focus,” Jennifer shouted at the door.

  Inside the bedroom, Ian and Lance froze and turned to look at each other. “Um, okay,” Ian called back, then lowered his voice. “Girls look at boys like that?”

  “I thought girls only looked at a guy’s face,” Lance shrugged. A grin slowly spread across Lance’s face. “They think we’re hot.”

  “But what part?” Ian whispered loudly.

  Shrugging his shoulders, “I don’t know,” Lance admitted. “We always wear shorts, so it must be our chest and legs.”

  Looking down at his chest, “We don’t have hooters, why would they want to see our chests?” Ian asked.

  “Dude, I’m a guy, I don’t know,” Lance complained, grabbing a pair of pants. Putting his pants on, Lance glanced in the mirror at his hair. His normally short neat hair was longer than it had ever been. “Ian, we haven’t had a haircut in like four months, think that’s why?”

  Pulling a shirt on, Ian looked in the mirror. “I’m not cutting mine then,” he said quickly.

  When they were dressed, Lance grabbed a stack of papers and they headed to the table to see the girls waiting. Ian sat down beside Jennifer as Lance set the stack of papers on his seat and then moved around the table, moving the platters of food from his spot.

  Getting in his chair, Lance held out his hands and everyone said grace. As everyone loaded their plates, Lance spread a topo map out on the table. Lilly grabbed Lance’s plate and fixed it as Lance put the papers in separate stacks. When he was done, Lance turned to his plate and saw it had food. He looked up and saw Lilly smiling at him.

  “You were busy,” she said and Lance smiled back.

  “Okay, our first task is to put barriers around us to steer the stinkers away. They always follow the path of least resistance,” Lance said, pointing at the map. In the center was the cabin. “We don’t have to put another fence all the way around us, only where it’s easy for the stinkers to move.”

  Pointing to the main road, that the road to the cabin turned off of, “One tree fell here and it steered four times the stinkers we usually get. So what we do is, any area that can be easily walked, we put up a fence to steer them away. We’ve been watching and stinkers move like water. Not always downhill, but always the path of least resistance,” Lance repeated, then grabbed several clear sheets of plastic and laid them over the map.

  When the clear sheets were down, everyone saw partial lines framing somewhat of a circle around the cabin, but the closest point was half a mile away. “If this works, this will turn away most stinkers,” Lance said proudly. “I say most because as everyone knows, if a stinker sees food, they will try to get to it. We saw one flip over a fence just trying to get some cows but mostly, they just bounce against and along the fence.”

  Putting her fork down, Jennifer raised her hand. “How much fence are we talking about?” she asked.

  “Almost two miles to start off,” Lance said. “Ian and I think we can have it up in two days.”

  A loud clatter sounded and everyone turned to Lilly, who had dropped her fork on her plate. “Lance, I’ve put up barbed wire fences, there’s no way,” she said in shock.

  With a cocky grin, Lance winked at her. “Trust me,” he said, then looked around the table. “Ian and I talked long and hard on this and believe we need four days to safely close the gaps. Doing that would make the fence just over four miles around. Remember, we are using trees as our posts, except a few metal posts we will set in concrete in the valley floor.”

  Seeing Jennifer take a breath, Lance held up his hand. “Wait before comments,” he snapped and Jennifer relaxed. “On the first day, Jennifer and Carrie will come. Jennifer to drive, Carrie to keep lookout, and then on the second day, Lilly and Allie.”

  “Oh,” Jennifer said. “Well, they can sure keep a lookout. I know they’ve killed several dozen stinkers on sweeps.”

  “They will be killing loners and small groups while we are out. If it’s a large group, the driver will help them. Ian and I will concentrate on the barrier only,” Lance said, turning to the girls.

  “Can’t we go out together?” Allie asked.

  “Allie, Ian and I thought about that hard, and no. To be honest, you two know the monitors better than anyone, and we need one of you here,” Lance explained with embellishment. Slowly, Allie nodded while
looking over at Carrie. Putting her hands on the table, Carrie nodded rather elegantly.

  Raising her hand, “When do you want to start this?” Lilly asked.

  Looking at his watch, “In two hours, but since we have to tell you our plans, we will start tomorrow,” Lance said.

  “I’m certain we will get fewer stinkers,” Lilly said. “How certain are you and Ian?”

  “One hundred percent,” Lance answered. “We figured one or two would breach a week until we’ve closed all the gaps, then it would be more like one or two a month, unless they hear us.”

  Shoving her chair back, Lilly jumped up and looked at Jennifer. “We can wait, let’s start this now!” Lilly said excitedly.

  “Hell, yes! The kitty cats will kill that many,” Jennifer cheered, jumping out of her chair.

  “So, everyone wants to start now?” Lance asked and everyone nodded. “Let’s go then.”

  Grabbing his plate, Lance carried it to the bedroom. Setting his plate on the dresser, Lance shoved food in his mouth and then moved to the rack on the wall where his gear hung. Grabbing his vest as Ian walked in, Lance put it on. “I’m still worried about the kitty cats,” Lance admitted, finally emptying his mouth. “The stinkers give them something to do.”

  “I will kill the big pussies,” Ian said, putting on his gear.

  Moving to the dresser, Lance refilled his mouth and then continued gearing up. “If they like this plan so much, wait till they hear the others,” Lance muffled with a full mouth.

  “Hell, yeah. We are badasses,” Ian grinned, tying his boots. “I’m not wearing the ghillie suit, working with barbed wire. Sorry, dude, but we are going to be cussing enough.”

  Nodding as he refilled his mouth, “Me either,” Lance muffled.

  When they were geared up, Lance grabbed his empty plate and put it in the sink before they headed outside. Hooking up the trailer, they loaded it with what they needed. Then they loaded the hybrid side by side.

  When Jennifer and Carrie came out they stopped, looking at the loaded trailer. “It takes all that to put up a fence?” Carrie asked.

  “Carrie, you’ve watched them put up two fences, they know what they’re doing,” Jennifer replied confidently, walking over and seeing the cement mixer. Before she could ask, she saw a metal box with two chimneys. “Ian, what’s that?” she asked, pointing at the box.

  “Ten-thousand-watt generator,” Ian answered. “We put a shroud around it, so it’s not loud.”

  Very impressed, Jennifer nodded and then froze, seeing the electric auger. “Aw fuck!” she cried out and Ian and Lance turned around.

  “What?” they cried out.

  “I hate that fucking auger,” Jennifer moaned.

  Turning to Lance, Ian grinned. “Just shows how smart she is,” Ian said.

  Moving to the side by side, Carrie and Jennifer climbed in the front. Jennifer smiled, watching Carrie sit sideways while holding her short barrel AR so it was pointing out the side. “We have grown up since we got here,” Jennifer mumbled, grabbing the steering wheel. “Lilly is at the gates with Dino. She wants me to take George out today.”

  Ian and Lance climbed in the backseat. “Sounds good,” Lance responded. “Just stop outside the gate until she gets the outer gate closed, so we can cover her.”

  Pressing the accelerator, Jennifer nodded driving around the cabin and Lilly opened the outer gate. As they passed through, Dino trotted along with them. Stopping outside the gates, Jennifer called George and he trotted over as Lilly closed the outer gate. When it was locked, she gave a wave and Jennifer took off on the rarely used road.

  Pulling through the cedar trees everyone had their guns up, expecting tigers to leap out any second. When they came out the other side, Jennifer stomped the accelerator to speed across the field. Carrie raised her hand and pointed ahead. “Stinker,” she called out.

  A lone stinker was walking on the road to the field. Slowing down, Jennifer stopped at the entrance in the fence where the road ended. “Take it, Carrie,” Lance said from the backseat, looking around.

  Stepping out, Carrie knelt down and rested her left elbow on her knee. Putting the crosshairs on the stinker’s face, Carrie flipped the safety off as the stinker raised its arms, breaking into a trot and Carrie squeezed the trigger.

  A muffled shot rang out and the stinker’s head jerked back as half its head exploded. Watching the body drop, Carrie flipped her safety on and climbed back in. When Jennifer took off, Ian looked over at Lance. “I think it’s cool those ten inch barrels can reach out that far,” Ian said as Jennifer drove around the body.

  Passing the spot where they’d burned the bodies, Lance pointed ahead. “See that oak at the base of the slope? That’s where we start,” he said and Jennifer slowed.

  As Jennifer stopped, Carrie jumped out and dropped to one knee, raising her rifle. Everyone turned and saw a stinker a hundred yards away on the road. Before the stinker reacted to them, Carrie squeezed the trigger, dropping it. “We need to work with the ladybugs on shooting while standing,” Ian said, getting out.

  “They do, but anything over fifty yards they like to have a stable shooting position,” Lance explained as he helped unload the trailer.

  With the trailer unloaded they both groaned, grabbing the auger and plugging it to the generator. When they turned the generator on, Jennifer moved away and could barely hear it twenty yards away. When the boys engaged the auger, she jumped because she could damn well hear it. Seeing Carrie raise her rifle Jennifer spun around, just in time to see another stinker drop.

  Not seeing anymore, Jennifer turned around as the auger quit, filling the area with silence. Lance and Ian moved away from the hole and started again. With George beside her, Jennifer helped keep an eye out.

  In half an hour, the boys were putting the auger on the trailer and Jennifer moved over to look at the line of holes. “They’re not straight across,” she mumbled. The holes were at a slight angle to the road. Walking the line Jennifer nodded in understanding, the fence didn’t block, it led to a gentle slope up the hillside. “Only ten holes for fifty yards.”

  Thinking that wasn’t enough, Jennifer moved back as the boys unhooked the trailer and hooked up the mixer. Lance drove the side by side to the stream as Ian carried round pipes to each hole. From the way Ian was grunting, Jennifer knew the pipes were heavy.

  Using a pump, Lance pumped water into the mixer and dumped bags of cement in before waving Jennifer over. “You know what to do,” Lance said, moving over to the last hole as Ian dropped the pipe in. Using string, they leveled it as Jennifer drove over.

  Pulling the mixer with the side by side proved more of a challenge for Jennifer than the four-wheeler had. Finally getting to the spot, Lance tilted the mixer to fill the hole around the pipe.

  Jennifer pulled down the line and stopped at the road, seeing the pipe there was twice the size of the others. “Ian, how did you carry that?” she asked, hearing a muffled shot and turned to see Carrie drop another stinker.

  “I rolled the heavy bitch,” Ian huffed as he and Lance lifted the pipe up, standing it in the hole. Hearing another muffled pop, Jennifer glanced over and saw Carrie lowering her AR.

  Moving to the other side of the road, they stood up another pipe. “You’re putting a gate here?” Jennifer asked, looking around.

  “Yeah, it’s beside the oak tree on the ground,” Ian said as Lance poured cement. “We took it from a farm down the road.”

  When the pipes were all up and set with cement, Jennifer pulled over to the stream for Lance to wash the mixer out. Getting out of the side by side, Jennifer slapped her thigh. “George, get out of the water,” Jennifer commanded, watching George splashing around.

  Lowering his head, George slunk out of the water and stood beside her. “Pull back over to the trailer, so we can load the mixer back up,” Lance instructed, putting the pump in the back of the side by side.

  Stopping beside the trailer, Jennifer got out of the side by side and
moved over beside Carrie as she dropped two more stinkers. “You okay?” Jennifer asked, stopping behind Carrie.

  Lowering her AR, Carrie nodded and stood up, looking around. “Yeah,” Carrie answered softly, then lowered her voice even more. “It’s more spooky this far out.”

  “Not going to argue that, little sis,” Jennifer agreed, patting Dino who was sitting beside Carrie. “If you need me, don’t hesitate to call.”

  Looking up with a very serious face, “Don’t worry,” Carrie said emphatically.

  Patting Carrie on the back, Jennifer moved over to the side by side and saw the boys had taken the trailer hitch off and were putting a rack on the back. The rack held four rolls of barbed wire stacked over each other. “The shit they come up with,” Jennifer mumbled as they finished and grabbed tool belts.

  Lance moved over to Jennifer and pointed up the slope. “Pull just past the oak tree and stop,” he said as Ian told Carrie to get in the side by side. “After we secure the barbed wire, drive up the slope staying as close as you can, following the angle we have the fence at,” Lance explained, pointing up the slope and moving his hand in a line.

  Climbing in the side by side, Jennifer nodded as Carrie climbed in. Making sure Carrie was ready, Jennifer slowly drove over to the oak tree and stopped. Glancing back, she saw Lance and Ian pulling the barbed wire out and securing the bottom roll about six inches from the ground. Each strand after that was spaced out from the one below, so the top strand was just over four and a half feet off the ground.

  With the wire secured, Lance walked in front of the side by side and motioned for Jennifer to follow. Stopping ten yards away, Jennifer looked up the slope and then turned around as the boys tacked the strands to the trees. Seeing how Lance had her move in and around bigger trees, Jennifer turned back around to study the slope.

  When they were done, Lance walked back to the front of the side by side and Jennifer stopped him. “Lance, let me see if I can do it without you showing me,” Jennifer said and didn’t wait for an answer.

  Lance watched her drive up the slope and nodded, watching Jennifer take the easiest route and keeping near the bigger trees. When she stopped and looked back, Lance gave her a thumbs-up. Moving over to the loose strands, he helped Ian tack them up.