War Zone: Homefront

by Thomas A. Watson

  Everyone at the table turned to see Nathan pulling Emma off the counter where the cake was. “How in the hell did Emma get up there?” Aiden wondered out loud.

  “Janice, I think we need to let our boys train to go out. But they’ll only go out when I do,” Bill said with a long sigh. “And it wouldn’t hurt for you to get Jasmine to show you what she’s learned.”

  Thinking about what Bill said, Janice watched Nathan carry Emma back to the table. When he sat down, she cleared her throat. “Nathan, how long do you think Tyler needs to train before he can go out on patrol?”

  Knowing how Janice felt about her ‘boy’, Nathan took the safe road. “A month, tops,” Nathan replied, fighting Emma who was trying to climb down and head back for the cake. “Will you stop?”

  Janice turned to her son and nodded. “You heard him, and only when he and your father approve will you get to go out.”

  Tyler jumped up and hugged his mom. “Thanks, Mom,” he grinned and took off.

  “You could’ve waited taking your kids out,” Janice snapped at Nathan.

  “Stop it!” Nathan barked at Emma, then turned to Janice. “No. I’ve seen what’s out there just as they have, and I want them able to fight, not only for themselves, but for their family. I don’t want them to ever question, can they fight and kill. Nor do I ever want them to depend on others to defend them.”

  Jasmine came over carrying a tray and set a plate down, and Nathan glared up at her. “It’s a small piece of cake, Nathan!” Jasmine shouted. “My god, she’s kicking your ass! Let Emma have some cake for that reason alone!”

  Walking to Nathan’s other side, Amanda set down a plate for him. “I told Jasmine no, but you see how well that went,” Amanda mumbled, then headed to her chair.

  Turning around in Nathan’s lap, Emma saw the cake on the plate and dove for it, letting out a squeal. Nathan pushed the plate away and grabbed the spoon. “I don’t know if I like you today,” Nathan told Jasmine as he loaded the airplane.

  “Hey, if I’m going to be stuck with Emma, she damn well better be happy,” Jasmine told him. “Be happy I didn’t bring her the entire cake.”

  Watching Jasmine head to her chair, Nathan felt the spoon in his hand jerk and glanced down to see Emma had leaned up to it to feed herself. “Okay, eat your food and you can have the cake,” he mumbled.

  When John and Tom returned with their plates, they both narrowed their eyes at Amanda, Natalie, and Casey. “None of us know what you’re talking about,” Amanda shrugged, and since Natalie had never told what she and Jasmine overheard in Arkansas, she wasn’t lying on hers and Casey’s point.

  “Humph,” John grunted, pulling out an electronic tablet. While he and Tom ate, they stared intently at the tablet, scrolling the picture very slowly.

  “What are you doing?” Tim asked as he burped Nolan.

  “Memorizing our route,” John answered. “This was easier when we stayed near roads.”

  When Nolan gave a burp, Tim tucked him in the crook of his arm and started eating. “You haven’t changed the route, have you?” he asked Nathan.

  “No, but you and the others have hunted here, and know what I’m talking about when I say the ‘cave ridge’, ‘three mile mark’, ‘dead ridge’, or the ‘waterfall’. They don’t,” Nathan answered, just loading the spoon and Emma leaned forward before clamping her mouth over the spoon. “I don’t even have to make the airplane sounds,” Nathan mumbled, refilling the spoon.

  “How did Vince act when you told him about the patrol we’re going on?” Bill asked.

  “Thought it was a good idea,” Nathan replied.

  “Oh, it comes from Nathan and it’s a good idea, but from the security chief, it’s a risk we don’t need to take,” Rusty popped off.

  Nathan glanced down the table at Rusty. “No, I told him what happens if the bad guys get through. That if he was lucky he would die, but the women of his house wouldn’t get that kind of luck. I offered pictures, but he didn’t want to see them.”

  Jerking back, “Kind of harsh,” Rusty blurted out.

  “Just the truth,” Nathan replied. “After that, Vince wanted you to come up with a patrol schedule, and go over the current defense plans and watch schedules.”

  “Now we’re talking,” Rusty grinned and grabbed his coffee mug. “It’s time to be proactive.”

  “You’re not worried that being proactive will bring trouble down on us?” Libby asked her husband.

  Giving a shrug, “Trouble’s going to find us. Like I told Vince, we can stick our heads in the sand and hide, but someone can still come up and kick our asses still stuck up in the air,” Rusty replied. “I’d like to whittle trouble down before it gets here.”

  “Yeah,” Nathan nodded as he started feeding Emma the cake. “I tried several times to be ‘humane’, and each time, it was a mistake. Now, I’ll just drop the hammer on any I cross who I deem a threat.”

  Emma gulped the spoonful of cake and looked up at Nathan with a huge smile. “Take,” she mumbled.

  “Cake,” Nathan corrected as he laughed. Then Nathan made the ‘Ca’ sound several times while he reloaded the spoon.

  “Caca-ke,” Emma giggled as the spoon moved toward her mouth.

  “I’ll take it,” Nathan grinned, watching Emma engulf the spoon. Refilling the spoon, he lifted his gaze up and saw the posse and their wives staring at him. “We’re working on correct enunciations,” he told them.

  “She’s two,” Libby huffed. “All ours could say was ‘no’, and they could say it very well.”

  With a soft smile, Janice leaned her head on Bill’s shoulder as she looked across the table at Jasmine. “Oh, we love you so much,” Janice sighed.

  Shaking her head as she grabbed her coffee cup, “The kids did that to him,” Jasmine stated. “Emma knows other words,” Jasmine said, cutting her eyes to Nathan at the end of the table. “And she can enunciate them very clearly.”

  “Been there,” Bill laughed. “Robin’s first words were momma and dada. Her third word was bitch.”

  “Bitch!” Emma sang out from Nathan’s lap, and Jasmine dropped her head on the table with a thump.

  Jerking her head off Bill’s shoulder, Janice slapped Bill’s arm rather hard. “Look what you did!” Janice shouted with fire in her eyes.

  Lifting her head off the table as Janice was rearing her hand back for another smack. “Janice!” Jasmine called out, and Janice turned with her right hand still held high. “That’s one of the words Emma knows very well.”

  “Oh,” Janice said lowering her hand, and Bill rubbed his arm.

  As usual, Nathan ignored it and just shoved cake into Emma’s mouth. “The ‘B’ sound is very hard to make and yet, Emma has no trouble,” Nathan said somewhat proudly.

  “But you get on me,” Amanda mumbled before she took a bite.

  “And me,” Casey sang out with a smile.

  “Girls, not in the mood,” Nathan said, shoving more cake in Emma’s mouth, so she couldn’t talk.

  Looking up from the tablet, John turned to look down the table at Amanda and Casey. “Well, both of you string multiple words together. Emma usually only says one,” John told them.

  “Pfft,” Amanda huffed. “Then you haven’t listened to her.”

  “Firecracker, just drop it,” Nathan advised, putting the last of the cake in Emma’s mouth.

  Turning to John, Amanda stuck her tongue out at him and then quickly turned away, filling her mouth full of food. “Nathan, I want to start dipping,” John stated, staring hard at Amanda.

  “Good luck finding some tobacco to dip,” Nathan chuckled. With swollen cheeks full of food, Amanda turned to John and just smiled.

  Shifting his gaze from Amanda, John turned to Jasmine. “You better give me and Tom some brothers,” he advised, then looked back down at the tablet. “We have too many girls in our family now.”

  “I don’t make that choice, John,” Jasmine grinned. “That’s all on Nathan.”

  �
�He does what you say,” John mumbled, and Tom gave a snorting laugh.

  “I want a bra to wear,” Casey sang out of the blue.

  A loud ‘clank’ sounded when Nathan threw Emma’s spoon on the plate. “What the hell?!” Nathan cried out in shock. “Do you girls wake up each morning just thinking of new ways to shock my system?!”

  The entire table turned to Nathan as he stood up, glaring down the table. Moving Emma to the crook of his arm, Emma looked at the table with her weird grin and started clapping. “Come on! My little girls and bras aren’t what I want in my mind!” Nathan cried out.

  Bill stood up nodding as he turned to his daughter Robin. “You tell ‘em, Nathan,” Bill sang out.

  Pushing back from the table, Aiden jumped up before turning to his daughter Gina. “And a daddy never wants to hear ‘I want some thongs’ from his little girl!” With her face turning pink and her mouth hanging wide open, Gina stared wide-eyed at her daddy.

  “Ewww,” Nathan shivered at that thought, dancing away from the table. He turned to Natalie, Amanda, and Casey, “Ask for ‘em, and I’ll ground you till you’re thirty,” Nathan warned. In shock, the girls looked at Nathan like he was possessed.

  “And little girls don’t need their belly buttons pierced!” Bill scowled at Robin. “The only reason a teenaged girl needs a belly button ring, is to put the lock on the chastity belt!”

  “Preach it to us, Bill!” Aiden sang out, raising his hands in the air.

  “Nathan?” Penny called out as she tried to pull Aiden back into his chair. “If I’m not mistaken, you dated not one or two, but three underwear models.”

  “Hello!!?!!” Nathan hollered out. “They weren’t little girls, and they damn sure weren’t MY little girls.”

  “She wears thongs!” Amanda cried out pointing at Jasmine, and Jasmine’s head hit the table again while her face turned red.

  “She’s my WOMAN!” Nathan cried out. “Not my little girls! I’m warning you now, ask for a belly button ring, you won’t leave the cabin till you’re sixty.”

  “Tell ‘em how it is!” Aiden cheered. “Daddies don’t want to hear it!”

  Leaning back in his chair and watching the spectacle around him, Rusty gave a relieved sigh. “I’m so thankful we only have boys.”

  Casey took a breath to speak and Nathan raised his finger, pointing at the ceiling. “Ah,” he warned. “I’ll get Vince to put you and Amanda on bedrest for the next decade.”

  “I didn’t say anything,” Natalie said, offering a forced smile.

  “I’m going to pee on something,” Nathan said, spinning away from the table and heading for the door.

  Jerking her head off the table, Jasmine jumped up before chasing Nathan. “Give me Emma!” she cried out. “The last time she saw you pee, she tried for two days to pee standing up.”

  Handing Emma off, “You need to talk with them,” Nathan advised.

  “Nathan, they’re girls, not babies,” Jasmine snapped. “You wouldn’t act this way if John or Tom wanted to wear thongs.”

  Startled at just the thought, Nathan stumbled back. “Well, you’re right,” Nathan admitted, and Jasmine smiled. “I would grab their underwear and yank it up to their throat. By the time they pulled the wedgie from their ass, they wouldn’t ever want to see a thong again.”

  The smile fell off Jasmine’s face as Nathan grabbed his gear. “You need help,” Jasmine mumbled.

  “I need help?” Nathan huffed, pulling his tactical vest on. “Our little girls are talking about thongs, bras, and belly button rings.”

  “No, only one, and she only mentioned bras,” Jasmine corrected. “The rest came from the other daddies in the room.”

  “Damn right, it did!” Bill shouted out, leaving the table.

  As Bill grabbed his gear, he mumbled, “I swear, they do it just to see how many colors my face will turn.”

  “I’m having second thoughts about a daughter,” Tim said, rocking Nolan in his arms.

  “Oh no, you said you wanted several little girls,” Sherry smiled.

  Turning to Sherry, “I would like to change my order,” Tim replied with a straight face, and Sherry busted out laughing.

  Turning the tablet off, John stood up grabbing his tray. “The thought ever crosses my mind about wearing thongs, and I’ll kick my own ass,” he mumbled, then carried his tray off.

  Watching Nathan walk out, Jasmine spun around storming over to the table. She stopped across from the girls. “What have I told you?” she snapped, looking at all three of them. “You talk to me about that shit and I’ll talk to Nathan.”

  “Shit,” Emma sang out, clapping her hands.

  Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Jasmine let it out slowly. “Girls, we are still a shock to his system and I’m sorry, but he sees each of you as his little girls,” Jasmine said slowly. “Casey, don’t ever do that again.”

  “Jasmine,” Casey whined, and Jasmine turned to her with a glare. Casey stopped instantly.

  “Now, do we have a deal? Because if you keep upsetting Nathan like this, I’ll take his side from now on,” Jasmine warned, and all three girls’ mouths fell open in shock. “Let’s see how far you get without me in your corner. Nathan will have each of you in full tactical gear with chastity belts under it till you’re married.”

  Slowly, Amanda raised her hand and Jasmine turned to her. “What’s a chastity belt?”

  “Really?” Jasmine moaned.

  “Is it a designer belt?” Amanda asked, and Tim gave a snort as he shoved Nolan in Sherry’s arms and bolted for the door.

  “Amanda, think of it as metal underwear that can be locked, and your dad has the key to take it off,” Jasmine offered as Emma sang out “Shit!” again, clapping her hands.

  Cocking her head to the side, “But I’d have to get the key just to go to the bathroom. What’s the purpose?” Amanda asked as they ignored Emma.

  “Amanda, you and I are having a talk today,” Jasmine sighed, then spun on her heel heading back to her chair.

  “But we would need the key to the metal underwear, not Nathan,” Natalie chimed in, and Casey nodded.

  Leaning her head back and staring at the ceiling, “Momma, I’m so sorry for the way I acted,” Jasmine said with sincerity.

  Trying hard not to laugh, “I’ll watch Emma and Chip while you and the girls have a talk,” Sherry offered.

  Dropping her head to look at Sherry, “I should make his ass do it, but Lord only knows what he would tell them,” Jasmine moaned.

  Shaking her head, “Don’t even entertain that idea, Jasmine,” Penny huffed. “Trust me, just do it, and then tell Nathan to keep his mouth shut about it. Aiden gave Gina the talk after I did, and it took me a year to convince Gina her daddy was full of shit. He had her convinced most boys would put an alien into girls that busted out like in the movies. Only the boys daddy liked wouldn’t put aliens inside.”

  Completely at a loss for words, Jasmine just gawked at Penny. “Yeah, he got that from Bill,” Janice growled. “Robin beat the shit out of the little boy next door, yelling at him, ‘You aren’t putting an alien in me! Because Bill hated that kid.”

  Having no trouble or doubt that Nathan would do something similar, Jasmine nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’ll take care of it.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Leaving the horses in a small depression, it was noon when Nathan led the group to a tree-covered ridge line overlooking a valley. The closest town to the compound was Trout Creek, Montana. Calling it a town was a stretch, with a population of 261, as was calling it ‘close’. Trout Creek was almost twenty miles away by air. If the patrol had been on foot, the group would’ve been pushing it to reach Trout Creek before sundown, but they were on horseback.

  Bill was the first to voice his displeasure at the idea of riding horses, and Nathan told him he could walk. Having no such plans, Bill saddled up his horse. Like the rest of the posse, his family’s horses used to be kept at Nathan’s house, since he had a pasture.
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br />   With Nathan leading, the posse soon felt way under par while watching how Nathan, John, Tom, and Natalie rode. They were actually patrolling from horseback, scanning around themselves nonstop. But it wasn’t until they were a mile away from the compound that the posse paused.

  That was when Nathan pulled out the Mew 2. The unit Nathan had told them about, but they’d had a hard time believing it really existed.

  The posse gathered around, watching Nathan while Tom went to each person, making sure their radios were off. When the unit came on, they turned to the screen and saw a few white dots near the center. Each wanted to ask questions, but Nathan just turned the unit off and packed it back up.

  Then, every two miles they would stop, so Nathan could hook up the Mew 2.

  Looking across the valley three miles away, Bill saw the collection of houses that made up Trout Creek. He turned to see Nathan turning on the MU unit. “Houses are burnt,” John said, and they turned to see him laying prone on the ridge and looking through a spotting scope.

  “Any movement?” Nathan asked, punching in the code.

  “Won’t that tell us if someone’s there?” Aiden asked, pointing at the Mew 2.

  “Only has an effective range of electronic detection around four kilometers. Human electrical fields are under two kilometers,” Nathan answered, watching the screen come on.

  “I’m not seeing anything right off the bat,” John said.

  Tim was standing right behind Nathan, staring at the screen of the tablet in Nathan’s hands when it came on. When a red light appeared just outside of the second circle, Tim dropped to one knee looking down into the valley.

  “John, glass that house two clicks to the east at the base of the hill,” Nathan said, not looking away from the screen when another red dot sprang up near the fourth ring, but higher up on the screen.

  “I don’t see anyone outside, but someone’s staying there or has been recently. I see a fire pit still smoking in the front yard,” John said as Nathan sat the tablet down. “Tom, something is almost four clicks to the northeast.”