Chase laughed. “Albert, a pretty girl is always a good thing to have around.”
Wyatt didn’t laugh. “It isn’t like that. She’s smart. She knows how to hunt and trap. I haven’t seen any of you guys bring home fresh meat.”
Jack nodded. “There is that.” He unrolled another row of barbed wire between the trees while Chase and Wyatt wrapped the top layer at about the six-foot mark. “And she’s pretty,” he added with a laugh.
“What about Caitlin?” Wyatt asked. “Are you going to tell me any one of you would be okay sending a little girl off into this world with only her mother to look out for her?” Wyatt’s blood started to boil. He couldn’t believe any one of the men he’d been living with the past couple months could be so heartless.
Albert finally caved in. “Wyatt, this one is on you. If you think she’s an asset, you go right ahead and ask her to stay but keep in mind, you don’t know her. She may be a plant. She may be with a group already and trying to see what we have.”
“I think it’s safe to say she isn’t working with anyone. She does seem kind of cranky,” Chase grinned. “They probably kicked her out.”
That got a chuckle from all the guys. Wyatt was going to ask her to stay, but he had a feeling she wasn’t going to be too keen on the idea. He vowed to convince her otherwise.
The men worked for several hours, pulling barbed wire tight and setting various booby traps along the way. The cans would serve as an early warning system. Intruders wouldn’t see the fishing line under the thick wire.
If they tried to stretch the wire, it would shake the tin cans, which had pebbles in them, causing enough noise hopefully to alert them. Their goal was to create the illusion of an easy entry point. The corner that boxed in the stream was the best place to funnel anyone that was trying to get in. The clear line of sight from the house meant Wyatt’s sharpshooting skills could pick them off easily.
While the guys worked to run more barbed wire, Wyatt thought he heard a noise. The rest of the men had moved down the line a bit and were busy stretching wire and talking about what they missed most. Since the guys were perennially hungry, most of their conversation centered around food. When Jack brought up the roasted pig he and Willow had eaten on their honeymoon in Hawaii, they shifted the conversation over to favorite barbeque restaurants and burger joints.
Wyatt tuned out the conversation as he scanned the area and thought he saw movement through the trees. He put down the hammer he was using and quietly walked through the trees, following the stream.
He froze the second he saw what had drawn his attention. It was Megan. She’d stripped down to her underwear and bra and was taking a mini bath in what had to be very cold water. His first thought was why would she choose a cold bath after just having a warm bath yesterday, but figured she might actually like the cold water.
He watched for a few seconds before he realized what he was doing. He quietly and quickly spun around and headed back to his work on the fence. His heart was racing. He felt bad for spying. Guilty even. But she was beautiful. It was hard not to look.
Wyatt started back towards the guys when he felt the hairs on his neck stand up tall. He stopped moving and breathing, taking a second to focus his senses. He didn’t hear or see anything, but he felt something.
He slowly released his breath and turned to face the woods on the other side of the stream. Straining his eyes, he watched to see if he could detect movement. Nothing. Wyatt stayed put for several minutes. He trusted his gut and knew there was something out there. What he didn’t know was whether it was friend or foe, human or animal.
Scanning the area again, he could no longer sense anything out of place, assumed it was probably a wild animal and chalked it up to too much hard labor.
Walking back to the guys, he thought about Megan bathing in the stream and couldn’t help grinning. If she found out that there was something worth trapping near the cabin, he’d bet she’d be annoyed with him for not telling her.
Kyle Grice stood on the opposite side of the stream, deep in the woods. He’d heard men’s voices and followed the sound. He’d become a master at stalking prey and was confident in his ability to move through the forest without being detected by the average person.
His journey north had been one of desperation. This apocalypse had given him the opportunity to start over. He could be anyone he wanted to be and Kyle intended to become the leader of this entire area and that meant he needed to be viewed in a certain way. As far as the people who were desperately loyal to him knew, he was a grieving widow from an upstanding family. He was a man of integrity and more than ready, willing and able to be their leader in this scary new world.
Kyle had been making his way north from southern Oregon for the past couple months. Along the way, he’d managed to acquire a completely new identity and managed to represent himself as a humble man of means with strong leadership skills.
In reality, he was a smooth talking conman with the uncanny knack of charming wealthy women out of their money without them even realizing what was happening. He’d so many different identities; it was hard to keep them all straight. When the world was turned upside down and inside out, he was given a clean slate. He could be plain old Kyle Grice, the man from Portland, Oregon, who’d made a nice living working as a car salesman before opening his own dealership. That was basically true.
It was a story he crafted and cultivated. The people he’d met loved the idea of an underdog making something of himself. His story had evolved as time went on. Not only was he a wealthy businessman, but he was also a humanitarian. It helped solidify his role as a leader. People trusted him because he’d been a good person before the collapse. He knew he was well on his way when he ran into his brother out here. They’d been out of touch for several years and it was pure luck finding him in the middle of nowhere. Having a sibling willing to follow him without question made his plans that much more tangible. Granted, his brother was as gullible as everyone else was.
Unfortunately, his plan to build an empire of survivors with him as the leader was threatened by one little brat. A brat he planned to silence before she could tell anyone her story. He’d already decided her mother needed to be taken care of as well, in case the little girl had blabbed.
Kyle peered through the trees and saw one of his targets. It was the mother. He’d been tracking them for the past three days. She was quick considering that kid of hers had to be pretty sick or dead by now. He was hoping dead. Maybe she was. Maybe that was why the mom was out here alone.
He heard the men’s voices again and walked through the trees, following the stream. He froze when he spotted four men. He crept closer, trying to hear what they were saying. They were talking about a woman. He could only assume the woman and child he’d followed out here to the middle of nowhere had holed up with them.
He needed to find out where they were camping. From there, he’d figure out a way to get the little girl and her mom away from the men. This was a job he had to do. If any of his followers knew about Jessy McCaulin, they would abandon him or worse.
He’d worked too hard to gain their trust to lose it over something so trivial. Unfortunately, Jessy didn’t think it was quite so trivial and had questioned his actions threatening to tell the others. Kyle couldn’t allow that, not after everything he’d worked towards. Shooting Jessy had been an easy decision.
Kyle didn’t regret killing the young man. His only regret was not being more careful who was watching. While he didn’t mind getting blood on his hands, he much preferred to get someone else to do it for him.
He thought back to the first time he experienced the high of being in control of other people. He had only been eight years old and had learned how easy it was to manipulate and control people. Money talked. People would do just about anything for money.
The two boys who bullied Kyle every day for being poor made his life miserable. At least until Kyle had been lucky enough to stumble upon a wallet that had ten dollars in it
. Back then, that was a lot of money. He had taken the money, found two of the biggest kids on the block and paid them to beat up the bullies.
That was the turning point in his life. He realized then that everyone had a price. He could’ve offered someone a bottle of tequila to kill Jessy, but he hadn’t and now he was in this mess.
The little girl with the jet-black hair had been standing there, at the edge of the clearing, watching the whole thing unfold. Kyle had tried to explain that the man was going to hurt him, and he was simply defending himself. She hadn’t said much, but he wasn’t convinced she believed him. His charms worked better on women with no self-esteem than little kids who asked too many questions.
He did the only other thing he knew would work with kids, he gave her a treat. That seemed to earn him a few points with her and would hopefully solve the issue of a witness to his misdeeds once the poison took effect. With everything on the line, the only option was to eliminate the risk altogether but he couldn’t simply kill her and expect to get away with it. After Jessy, there would be too many questions. Except that instead of dying, this risk disappeared with her mother and he’d been forced to hunt them down.
Kyle watched and evaluated. He was cunning. He was methodical. It wasn’t going to be easy; the woman had some rather large bodyguards but before he could do anything to her, he had to find the child first. Today wasn’t going to be the day. He would go back to his camp and come up with a better plan.
As he slowly faded back into the trees, he took one last look at the woman bathing in the stream. It was too bad she was going to have to die; she would’ve made a beautiful first lady in his new city.
10
Megan walked back to the cabin, doing what she could to stay out of the guys’ way. She didn’t like Albert and wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. She’d shown Ryland how to skin and prep the rabbit. Given how easy it is to skin a rabbit, the initial skinning part had gone relatively well even though Ryland had been completely grossed out. She’d showed him how to pinch the hide on the rabbit’s back and held his hand over the blade while he cut through the skin. He’d refused to use his fingers to hook them under the skin; choosing instead to use the knife.
Originally, she was hoping to save the fur, which probably would’ve happened if she’d been smart and removed it entirely before showing him how to remove the innards. Thankfully, in his zest, he didn’t cut into the bowel or intestines or they could’ve contaminated the meat making it unusable. Luckily, Ryland did get the hang of things and the process wasn’t a complete disaster but it was a messy one. He would certainly need more practice, but Megan was confident he would be able to do it on his own eventually.
Willow had offered to heat some water for her so she could clean up but Megan really wanted a few minutes alone. She didn’t mind a cold bath now and again. Ryland didn’t get a choice and was quickly ordered into the bathroom to wash the blood from his hands and arms.
When she got to the stream, her intention was to wash her arms and face. The water was cool and refreshing and before she knew it, she was stripped down and taking advantage of the privacy. While it invigorated her, it wasn’t long before the water became too cold.
The feeling of someone watching her had been strong. She couldn’t ignore it any longer and decided to get dressed and head back to the cabin. The entire way back, she kept checking behind her, expecting to see someone following her. She simply couldn’t shake the feeling.
Megan swelled with pride at the smell of cooking rabbit. She’d contributed and it made her feel like she belonged. The women were chatting away about the garden they were going to plant.
Megan had to ask. “Where are you getting seeds for the garden?”
Rosie smiled. “Well, that was another thing Dale planned for. We have seeds tucked away in the root cellar. They aren’t just any seeds,” she said with a smile. “They’re heirloom seeds that were originally cultivated for this area. This way, hopefully they’ll be resistant to disease, pests, and can withstand the weather up here. Given our limited water resource, I would love it if we didn’t have to use any sort of chemical pesticide on our food.”
“But we do have to do the work,” Willow added.
“Wow. He really thought of everything didn’t he?” Megan was impressed and wished she could’ve met the man who had so much foresight.
“Yes, he did. The man didn’t trust the government and wasn’t buying into the idea that we would never have to worry about war or an economic collapse,” Rosie explained.
Megan watched as Willow dumped what looked like rehydrated vegetables into the pot with the rabbit. She had an assortment of spices that she tossed in, which made the entire room smell delicious. Her stomach growled. The food smelled amazing.
“Can I help with anything?” Megan asked, needing to feel useful.
“You can help me make some bread to go with the stew,” Willow told her.
Megan couldn’t even imagine fresh bread. It’d been so long since she bit into warm, crusty bread that she felt her mouth water in anticipation. Bread was definitely another one of those things she was adding to the list of what she never wanted to take for granted again.
“I would love to!” she jumped off the stool she’d been sitting on. “Let me check on Caitlin and I’ll be right back.”
Caitlin looked much better and was responding to voices. She wasn’t answering questions, but she would move or moan, which according to Rosie was a good sign. They were going to keep giving her the tea every couple hours.
Megan worked alongside Willow and Rosie in the kitchen, learning how to make bread from scratch. They had to grind the wheat by hand first, which was definitely a lot more work. Rosie explained the wheat would store longer and it’d been cheaper.
Since the woodstove would be used, they needed to get a fire going. Megan volunteered. That was one thing she was very comfortable doing even before the EMP. The guys had already brought the wood supplies into the house and Megan took a moment to enjoy having others around to help with all the work. Chopping and carrying wood had certainly helped her develop muscles, but it was definitely a chore she wouldn’t mind delegating to someone else.
She quickly got a hot fire going using the firestarter next to the kindling. Willow put the bread inside a cast iron pot and covered it with the lid before setting it on the stove. The aroma of fresh bread was almost instant. Megan’s stomach was empty and all the tantalizing smells were making her mouth water. She’d gotten used to being hungry, but smelling all the good food had her stomach dancing around in anticipation of a good meal.
The ladies were opening cans of chili and dumping them into another cast iron pot.
“More food?” Megan asked in astonishment.
“This is lunch,” Willow explained. “You can help me whip up some cornbread next. It only takes about thirty minutes on the stove.”
Rosie had a small bowl of water and was wiping down the countertops. The kitchen was always so clean and now Megan knew why. She sniffed smelling lemon in the air.
“I add some lemon essential oil to the water to disinfect,” Rosie explained. “It kills the germs, bacteria, and viruses that stick to the surface.” She grabbed a small box and showed it to Megan. Inside there were probably twenty dark-colored bottles.
“What are those?” she asked.
“These are my essential oils,” Rosie explained. “I’ve been using them for years to clean as well as medicinally.” She reached in and pulled one out. “Peppermint,” she said removing the lid and inhaling deeply before holding it under Megan’s nose.
“Wow that smells great. And powerful,” she said, suddenly feeling her sinuses clear.
Rosie put the lid on and replaced the bottle. “It smells great and can help relieve congestion. It’s also great for easing a headache. In fact, each one of these oils has a number of uses. They store for a long time and won’t lose potency unlike things like chlorine bleach and Lysol.” She smiled. “And I just love
the smells!”
Megan appreciated everything she was learning but despite how easy they made it all seem, she didn’t want to get too comfortable. They were a close family and she was still a guest.
A guest who would be leaving the minute her daughter was healthy enough. For now, she would continue to learn as much as she could from them and hopefully put it to use when she found somewhere safe to start over. While she knew that she could never build a home for Caitlin that was even close to what these people had, no matter what, she would take pride in creating a home without depending on anyone other than herself. It was better that way.
Rosie put down her cloth and focused her attention on Megan. “Sweetie, you are welcome here. Don’t go making plans to run off. With all of us working together, we’ll all be better off.”
Megan smiled at her. “I appreciate that, but we need to move on. You guys have something great here and I’m very grateful for your generosity and hospitality, but we can’t impose.”
Rosie shook her head. “You’re safe here. Your daughter is safe here. What more could you want?”
Megan knew Rosie was being sincere, but it made her nervous to think about settling down with people she didn’t really know. She’d put her trust in others before only to end up bitterly disappointed and alone anyway, she didn’t see any point in building a relationship since she had no intention of staying. For now, she would play along and be the nice houseguest. Once her daughter was on the mend, they would leave.
Wyatt and the guys had returned and quickly ate the chili and cornbread. There wasn’t a lot to go around, but with the promise of a hearty stew and fresh bread, it was enough. Megan and the ladies each managed to get a small bowl and a piece of cornbread. It was incredibly filling, which Megan realized was the point of serving the bread with the meal. Another mental note for her future utopia, make lots of bread.
EMP Lodge Series Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 8