With the chores done, everyone loaded up and headed to Jack’s farm. This was where they parked all the vehicles and equipment now. Not to mention most of the stuff they had hauled back. There were mountains of stuff stacked in rows beside the barn.
As Shawn stopped in front of the barn, he looked at the long stack of chain link fence and a wall of pallets loaded with cinder blocks. Shawn didn’t think there were any cinder blocks or bags of concrete left in a fifty-mile radius.
“Shawn, hook up the trailer with the plugs of grass,” Arthur called out. “Andrea, hook up to the trailer with the trees. Kirk, you drive the tractor. Shelia, you take the tract steer. Pat, you drive the mini excavator.”
Seeing the kids take off, Arthur headed for the Suburban and backed up to a trailer he’d had the kids help him on. It had solar panels mounted on one side and was loaded down with batteries and a large water pump.
After hooking up the trailer, Arthur did his walk around and counted heads. Checking the kids in the Suburban, Arthur picked Robin up and hugged her tight at seeing that she still had all her clothes on. Climbing in, he led the caravan down the valley at ten miles an hour. They were only going three and a half miles away, but it took a little bit to get there.
Vicki was sitting up front with Arthur and of course, Nicole riding in the crook of Arthur’s arm. Beth and Jodi were in the back, singing to Lucas and Pam. Arthur was enjoying the sound of the kids as he slowly drove along, passing Tammy and Ted’s house. Glancing over, Arthur saw the two graves they had dug and buried Nicole’s parents in.
Turning south at the fork, Arthur couldn’t help but think about how much Wendy would’ve loved having all these kids at the house.
“Is that the house?” Vicki asked, pointing ahead.
“Yep, Mike Kercher,” Arthur said. “We call it the Kercher farm, but they don’t farm anything.”
“And we are going to hide this road?” Vicki asked with disbelief.
“You bet,” Arthur grinned, pulling in front of the house. “Where do we set up the baby area?” he asked Vicki as he put the Suburban in park.
Looking around the area and giving the question very deep thought, Vicki finally pointed at the front yard. “I think the front yard. That way, it will be easier for everyone to switch out,” Vicki answered.
“Then that’s where it will be,” Arthur said, climbing out.
Moving to the back of the Suburban, Arthur punched the fob to open the cargo door. Reaching in, he pulled out the playpen. Carrying it over to the shade of an oak tree in the front yard, Arthur grabbed one of the folded-up corners and jerked his hand back. He grinned as he watched the pen fold out, but not all the way. He placed Nicole in the bottom and then finished folding out the pen and locked the sides.
Turning around, he saw Vicki carrying Lucas and Betty carrying Pam over. Arthur watched as Betty placed Pam in the pen and then headed back to the Suburban. Nobody watched Vicki with the babies, that’s who the kids went and talked to. To everyone, Vicki was considered, ‘Little Momma’.
Carrying over three baby swings, Arthur grinned as the kids gathered around and Vicki told everyone the order that baby duty was going to go. It did hurt Beth’s feelings because she was one of the ones that had to be watched. But Vicki told Beth it was her job to watch Robin, and the others would watch her. Beth always seemed to like that and didn’t complain.
“Today by age, starting with the youngest and going to the oldest,” Vicki called out and Jim groaned, since he was the youngest of the babysitters. “Unless Arthur says your job can’t stop, you take your turn,” Vicki said, looking around at the group with hard eyes.
She stopped when her eyes reached Andrea. “If the baby poops, you’d better change them and not leave it for the next person,” Vicki told everyone but stared hard at Andrea.
“I only did that once,” Andrea cried out and Vicki held up her hand.
“At feeding time, I’ll come and help,” Vicki said, dropping her hand.
“I would like to help,” Andrea spoke up and Vicki gave a nod.
“Tony,” Vicki snapped and Tony jumped. “Don’t run with a baby in your arms.”
Stomping his foot, “Robin was naked and wanted me to hold her,” Tony whined.
Holding her hand up again, “No excuses,” Vicki said and then turned to Arthur. “I’ll try to feed Nicole, but she only likes her Arthur to feed her.”
Putting the swings down, Arthur picked Vicki up in his arms and set her on his hip. “She needs to learn that others can feed her, but I’ll do it if she won’t eat. How about that?” Arthur asked and nuzzled his face into Vicki’s neck, making her squeal.
“Okay,” Vicki laughed out and he put her down.
Arthur turned to the kids. “I’m going to show you your jobs one at a time. Those of you on equipment, whose job is it to watch for others?”
“The operators,” everyone answered.
“All machines are to be in low. Now, let’s hide the road,” Arthur said, leading the group to the creek that ran behind the house. “Pat, you will dig a hole here in the creek,” Arthur said, walking out in the six-inch deep water. Grabbing rocks, Arthur outlined a circle. “You will dig it six-foot-deep, that’s to the elbow of the arm.”
Pat nodded and Arthur led them over to the tractor. “Now, that is a rotary tiller on the tractor and is very dangerous. Shawn will start off. We are tilling from here,” Arthur said, pointing at a spot on the road. “All the way down the road to where that dirt track leads to the Kercher barn.”
The kids looked back at the track to the barn that was across the dirt road. Going through an overgrown field, the track formed a circular drive that hit the dirt road just around a small curve a quarter of a mile away.
Walking around, Arthur continued laying out the jobs and then told the kids to get to work. He jumped up on the tractor and drove it to the road. Turning on the PTO shaft, Arthur lowered the tiller until the teeth were sunk in the packed dirt road.
Seeing Shawn understood, Arthur stopped and let him take over.
Arthur headed over to the trailer that had dozens of sapling trees with their roots bound up in burlap. Grabbing a bundle of orange flags, Arthur marked a line from the creek over the road Shawn was tilling up all the way to the hill that sat in front of the house.
After he did that, Andrea and several others started laying out metal fencing posts along the line Arthur had marked. Picking up a can of spray paint, Arthur moved past the line of flags and started painting Xs at random spots. Then, he had Shelia move over with the track steer that had an auger attachment on the front.
After the hole had been dug in the creek, Arthur pulled the trailer with the water pump over and unhooked it. Before he could go and check the work, Vicki called over the radio that Nicole refused to eat. Taking Nicole and the bottle, Arthur fed her as he walked around and watched over his kids.
Just before noon, they ate and then pulled over the forty-foot trailer that was carrying the pallets of sodded grass squares. Starting where the road was tilled up, they put the grass squares down over the road as Pat drove the truck very slowly, something Pat was very good at, down the tilled up road. They only had enough grass for several hundred yards.
As Arthur showed the kids how to use the seed spreaders, Shawn pulled the tractor over to the other trailer. Using the bucket, Shawn carried the trees to the holes that had been dug with the auger and dropped them in.
At two, they were putting up the barbed wire fence as Arthur pulled coils of water hoses from the trailer and laid them out. Kirk followed Arthur, carrying tripod water sprinklers that were five feet tall. When the sprinklers were set up, Arthur put a large hose in the hole that had been dug in the creek and turned a switch on the water pump.
The kids all turned as the sprinklers coughed and spit, then started sending out jets of water on the new trees and grass. “Holy shit, we hid a road,” Shawn said, looking back from the front yard.
“I know where it was at,” Shel
ia said, pointing at the very green grass.
“In a few weeks, you won’t,” Shawn said in amazement. “We can still use that dirt track to the barn but if anyone comes down this road, it will look like a dead end.”
Walking over, Arthur patted Shawn’s shoulder. “Now you’re getting the idea. Work hard, but always work smart,” Arthur told him. “We’ll grab a ‘Dead End’ sign and put it on the road to finish the job.”
“What about the north road?” Andrea asked.
“We will do the same where the road Ts off and crosses the north creek,” Arthur said. “But that can wait. We have much more work to do; this was the road I was worried about.”
“Guns now?” Jim asked, crossing his fingers.
“Not yet, we have work to do in the greenhouses and then we hit the gun range,” Arthur said and Jim started jumping up and down cheering.
Pointing over at the pump trailer, Andrea asked. “What about that?”
“We’ll leave it for a few weeks or so,” Arthur said as the others started gathering up the stuff. “It’s on a timer, so it will water the area for five hours every day. By then the grass should be set and if not, we’ll leave it longer.”
Everyone loaded up and took the new dirt track to pass a very dilapidated barn. Driving slow, Arthur felt like Pat as he glanced in the mirror to see the others following. Glancing to the backseat, Arthur saw Robin was passed out between the baby seats. “Holy shit, she’s still wearing panties,” Arthur mumbled. “And her boots.”
“I wrestled her to get those panties on,” Betty grunted from the back.
“It doesn’t do any good,” Vicki sang out. “Momma said she would grow out of it.”
As soon as Vicki said ‘Momma’, Arthur heard a change in her tone and looked over. “Hey,” he said and tapped the center of Vicki’s chest. “As long as you’re alive, she’s right there with you, along with everyone you knew and know right now. We can only be sad now for short periods of time because each one of us is counting on the other very much.”
“Do you get sad about Miss Wendy?” Vicki asked and Arthur swallowed a lump in his throat.
“Very much and I think about her every day,” Arthur answered. “But I know she wants me to work hard and to be happy for this new family.”
Looking over timidly, Vicki mumbled. “I feel bad sometimes when I’m happy.”
“Baby girl, nobody would want you to feel bad about feeling happy. Especially after what’s happened. We were once all separate but now, all of us are family. Not many in the world can say that now, so enjoy it,” Arthur told her.
Looking ahead, Vicki nodded. “And you’re the daddy who cusses and is super cool.”
“Can I call you Poppa?” Jodi asked, climbing between the front seats.
Leaning over, Arthur kissed her on the cheek. “If you want to,” Arthur said.
By the time they were finished in the hydroponic greenhouse, the greenhouse buried in the side of the hill, everyone was calling Arthur, Poppa.
All the kids were at the gun range on the other side of the knoll the greenhouse was buried in. Arthur had two 10/22s and two ARs with ten inch barrels for those who didn’t have one to practice with. Each rifle had a suppressor. Jim was shooting the AR that Arthur had put together for him and was very proud.
Unlike Shawn and Andrea, everyone else was on probation with their guns. That meant they could carry them, but couldn’t carry them with a round in the chamber. And Arthur always checked. Not only to see if a round was chambered, but if the weapon was on safe. To be honest, everyone was terrified if they were caught with a weapon off safe, so they checked constantly.
Watching the kids shooting, Andrea came over and stood beside Shawn and Arthur. “I never would’ve believed I would agree with giving a six-year-old an AR,” Andrea said.
“He’s almost seven,” Shawn chuckled.
“End of this month, he’ll be seven,” Arthur said, watching Shelia change magazines on her AR.
“I know,” Andrea huffed, rolling her eyes. “I was just saying I can’t believe I agreed to it, not that I had a say.”
Stepping over to Shelia, Arthur showed her how to change magazines by rocking the rifle to throw out the empty magazine. Walking back to Shawn and Andrea, Arthur nodded as Shelia did it. “I need all of you armed as fast as possible,” Arthur said, never taking his eyes off the firing line.
“Yeah, it’s dangerous out there,” Shawn mumbled.
“We are way back in the woods,” Andrea pointed out.
Shaking his head, Arthur headed back to the line to work with Tony. “I assure you, trouble will find us here and we will fight for our lives in this valley,” Arthur said over his shoulder. The certainty in Arthur’s voice startled them.
Both Shawn and Andrea jumped and fought not to look around. They knew the areas around the house and barn were monitored, but most of the cameras were set up for predators going after the farm animals. Not predators coming for them. Even the monitoring software that the cameras ran through was set up for animals. Until this morning, the only raccoon anyone had seen was on TV. And most of those were animated.
Arthur had it on his to do list and wasn’t worried about it yet.
When Arthur came back, he stood between them. “You two will help enforce the probation by checking safeties and making sure a round isn’t chambered,” Arthur told both and both looked at him. Arthur’s eyes roamed back and forth over the kids, watching their every move.
“How old were you when your dad taught you guns?” Andrea asked and Shawn groaned silently.
“Don’t know who my dad is. My mom was a crack-smoking whore,” Arthur said nonchalantly. “I shot my first gun at sixteen. In case you’re wondering, I stole it from a federal building in Nashville. Still have it, but I keep it buried in a metal box. I’m sure you understand why. But, I’m thinking it will be safe for me to dig it up now.”
Andrea’s mouth fell open in shock as Shawn wanted to bow down and worship Arthur like a god. “Are you kidding?” Andrea gasped.
“Nope,” Arthur chuckled. “Hope you don’t think that’s the only one I stole from the feds.”
“You are so awesome,” Shawn droned.
“Can I ask, when was the last time you stole?”
“Two days after my eighteenth birthday, October 23rd,” Arthur answered. “Broke into an army depot in Kentucky and stole two M-16s with 203 grenade launchers. They’re buried with the others. Before you ask, Wendy hadn’t met me yet but I knew her. I knew if my luck ran out, I was an adult and I would be sent away for a long time, so I stopped. But I still kept up on the know-how.”
“Poppa,” Shawn said, making Arthur smile. “How many foster homes did you live in?”
“Sixteen,” Arthur answered and then finally, Arthur glanced away from the firing line to Shawn. “Shawn, Wendy didn’t take my last name when we married, I took hers. My birth name is Arthur Johnson, not Steele. I wasn’t going to honor that skank by passing on her name.”
As Arthur turned back to the firing line, Andrea mumbled, “Holy shit, sixteen.”
“Guys,” Arthur said as everyone on the firing line had stopped shooting and were listening, so Arthur glanced at them. “You know when I had my first real birthday party? You know, friends coming over, cake, and presents?” Arthur asked and then headed to the firing line to help pack up.
Grabbing the 10/22s, Arthur checked them and winked at those on the firing line and then looked up at Shawn and Andrea. “My son was ten years old and he and Wendy threw me a surprise birthday party down there in the office house. We lived there until I finished this house. I have to say, it was worth the wait,” Arthur smiled.
Seeing Jodi and Betty had their ARs, Arthur walked over and picked Nicole up from the playpen. “We are so throwing him a party,” Shawn mumbled, watching Arthur walk away while surrounded by the kids.
“Okay, we need to find out when his birthday is,” Andrea nodded as the group rounded the knoll.
T
hrowing up his hands, “He just told us,” Shawn snapped. “October 21st.”
“He remembers the day he chose to walk the line,” Andrea said.
“Poppa also told me the reason he stopped doing the stupid shit was he was on a full academic scholarship,” Shawn said, heading to the house. “He said colleges and corporations don’t support people who resist them.”
“The government better be glad Poppa decided to settle down. If he hadn’t, I’m sure he would be rich and they would be poor,” Andrea chuckled, heading to the house and heard a small splash.
“Robin!” Arthur shouted. “Take your boots off, not your panties before you jump in the swimming pool!” Arthur bellowed and Andrea heard a much bigger splash.
Chapter Thirty
A fear can be passed on
Hearing a giggle, Wendy opened her eyes as she sat up. Beside her on the blanket, Noah was playing with Ryan. Holding a stuffed toy, Noah would hold it over Ryan until it touched his face and jerk it back. Ryan would let out a giggle and then Noah would do it again.
“Did they wake you?” Jo Ann asked and Wendy turned to see Jo Ann sitting on the small trailer, looking out of the barn Wendy had pulled into last night.
Glancing at her watch and seeing she had slept for six hours, “I was supposed to be up two hours ago,” Wendy said, pushing herself off the ground.
“Nah, you’re driving, so Sally and I took watch,” Jo Ann smiled. “Clouds are moving in.”
Walking to the door, Wendy looked up at the dark clouds rolling in from the south. “Glad we left when we did,” she said, feeling the fear building in her gut from storm clouds. Feeling Jo Ann step up beside her, Wendy looked down.
The only one actually wearing clothes was Noah. They were still wearing the wetsuits. The twins were wearing t-shirts over the wetsuits and Wendy saw Jo Ann had on a pair of tennis shoes they had picked up. “Pants didn’t fit?” she asked and Jo Ann shook her head.
They were just north of Raleigh, Florida which was just a dot on a map. “How long until Sally gets up?” Wendy asked, moving to the trailer.
Viral Misery (Book 1) Page 33