“Essie, I know you miss your parents. I miss mine too—”
Essie cut him off. “You don’t need your mom and dad like a little kid does.”
Jared fought the urge to seek help from Shannon after Essie’s sharp retort. “True, but understand this, Essie, relying on and loving someone are two different things. I miss my parents because I love them, just like you loved your mom and dad. Now I love you, and you rely on me and Shannon to do what your parents used to do for you—right?”
Essie shook her tiny head, then buried her forehead into Shannon’s back. “It’s not fair,” came her muffled response.
Jared gulped and for a split second prayed for Shannon’s intervention. The woman’s eyes were affixed directly to her front, and not for a moment did Shannon turn in Jared’s direction. Jared realized he would be on his own with Essie. Shannon had probably already dealt with her own Essie moment and wasn’t about to interfere with Jared’s.
“Essie, you’re right, it isn’t fair, but it is your new reality. If things hadn’t turned bad, you would have left your parents behind to attend college when you were eighteen years old. Because everything is messed up, you had to leave them when you were almost eight, ten years sooner than normal.”
Jared paused, collecting his thoughts, arranging them in a manner he hoped would best serve the little girl. “I’ve had to do things I never dreamed of having to do since all this happened. You will be doing things at a much younger age than you would have before the bad thing happened. You need to remember your mom and dad, but don’t let their absence ruin your life going forward. I mean, you can’t be sad all the time, it isn’t healthy, and when the time comes for you to be the leader of this group, you won’t be able to do it if you’ve spent your whole childhood crying over something you had no control over.”
Essie looked up when Jared mentioned her leading the group. “I can’t be in charge.”
Jared scoffed in feigned mockery. “The heck you can’t. You’re going to grow up to be far more capable of living like we live now because it will be all you’ve known. You’re going to be a great queen,” he said with a huge grin. “Now that I know you’re eight, we need to teach you how to shoot and handle guns safely. Everyone else here knows how to handle them and so should you.”
Essie didn’t answer, but her eyes narrowed as the wheels turned in her child’s brain at the thought of growing up, being in charge, and being trusted with a real-life gun. Essie had never seen a real gun before she witnessed her father being murdered with one. She’d never slept outdoors before Jared took her from her home, and now she was going to learn to shoot a gun. This thought helped carry her mind away from the terrible memories of the night her family had been decimated by gang members.
Jared saw the change in Essie as her mind moved away from the horrors of losing her parents and toward her future role within the group. She relaxed, allowing her elbows to hang free while her chin rode a little higher and her shoulders straightened considerably. Jared smiled to himself, breathing a sigh of relief while at the same time knowing this wasn’t the first time Essie had showed signs of mental duress, and it surely wouldn’t be the last. Jared knew he faced a monumental task ahead of him in raising Essie after what she’d been through, not to mention the abysmal conditions he would be doing it in.
As Jared rode, he searched for a sign from Devon. Jared agreed Devon would take Crank and Jared’s bike in order to scout ahead of the group. The kid was such a wraith, half the community hadn’t realized he was missing until they were underway. Before Devon departed, Jared instructed him to find a camping spot off the road the group could reach within four hours of travel. Devon would use a rock to leave a large scratch mark on the opposite side of the road he’d chosen for a campsite.
Jared was beginning to worry Devon somehow misjudged how far out the camp should be when suddenly his wandering eyes landed on the ragged score on the left side of the road. He smiled inwardly, wondering if John would have thought of this. The thought of his friend sent a pang of sadness that was quickly replaced with anger through his body like a jolt of caffeine. Jared let out a low whistle as he slowly brought the rifle around to his front, eyes scanning, heart rate slightly elevated.
A moment later, Crank’s head emerged from a thicket alongside the right side of the road. Devon appeared a second later, stepping out onto the pavement, holding his rifle and four dead squirrels by their tails.
“Ugh,” Shannon groaned at the sight of the dead varmints. “I guess at some point I’ll come around, but I’m just not there yet,” she voiced defeatedly.
Jared chuckled softly, shaking his head and thinking how none of them were where they needed to be. The fact was, the slower one moved toward getting there, the less chance of surviving a person had. Life before the event was all about the bottom line. If it wasn’t making you money, then you abandoned it and moved on to something that did. Now, if it wasn’t helping you eat, drink, or providing you shelter, you moved on to something that did. Everything had changed, yet nothing really changed, Jared mused ruefully.
As Jared drew closer to Devon, he called out, “We have a place to stay?”
Devon nodded awkwardly as usual and moved the barrel of his rifle toward the countryside off to the right side of the road. As Jared closed on Devon’s position, he saw the youth was standing next to an old gated road, which was mostly overgrown. Devon had apparently used a rock to break an old rusted padlock off a chain, which both lay uselessly on the ground next to the open gate.
Chapter 4
The group filed through the gate, following Devon along a narrow and winding dirt road. The horses pulled the VW up the road, which inclined as it followed the contour of a hill before flattening out and then dropping the group into a large open area nearly a quarter of a mile from Mines Road.
The ground was typical of the area, rocky hard earth with lots of scrub brush and some pines that didn’t appear to get enough water by their stunted size. Wordlessly, Devon pointed down to a lower area, where Jared could see a green mossy pond about an eighth of an acre in size. Jared thought they could water the horses there, but was inclined to forego any human consumption even with a filtration system. They had enough water for several days as long as they were able to find something for the horses. He’d hold off on refilling the group’s water containers until they reached lake Del Valle.
Barry and Carlos strung the horses together and led them to the marshy pond after everything was unpacked. Jared would have rather left the horses packed and ready to move, but knew they needed rest, water and food like everyone else. Jared helped Calvin and the three women set up four two-person tents, using a hammer to drive the stakes into the rocky soil. When the tents were up, the sun was already set, leaving them with more shadows than sunlight.
Jared stood in the middle of the flattened area, turning while he studied the terrain. He wasn’t admiring the landscape, he was evaluating his tactical standing in this encampment. His former place of employment previously placed significant value on intellectual capital since it directly translated to their standing within Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies. Now Jared placed a considerable amount of value on his tactical capital. Sure, intellectual capital still interested him greatly and was the reason they were able to get lights and a working refrigerator, but its importance had been significantly reduced.
They would need to have two sentries on at all times in order to adequately secure their current position for the evening. Jared would place one person on the high ground, where they could watch or listen for intruders moving up the dirt road, along with a second sentry patrolling inside their camp. Jared’s heart quickened as he mulled over possible scenarios they might have to address. The likelihood of someone coming at them from anywhere other than the dirt road, in Jared’s opinion, was very low. This helped calm his nerves as he ran through several more scenarios. The sentry who held the high ground would have to be able to whistle. A whistle could easily b
e heard from the distance Jared thought he would place the sentries apart, allowing the camp sentry to wake everyone and begin an emergency action plan.
Jared glanced down toward the murky green pond and saw Carlos had used all their rope to build a two-strand fence around the animals. The horses all had their heads down, eating the grass and whatever weeds grew along the banks of the murky pond as Carlos and Barry slowly trudged back to the camp. Seeing other people in the group taking initiative gave Jared more peace of mind than he could ever have put into words. With John’s absence, Jared felt an almost unbearable weight on his shoulders.
“You good?” Shannon asked in a soothing voice. She seemed to have appeared out of thin air, causing Jared to start.
“Yeah—jeez, where’d you come from?”
Shannon stood close to Jared, maybe closer than was normal, her hip brushing his leg once as he looked down on her upturned face. She was really a pretty woman, Jared thought as her face went from motherly concern to one of humorous curiosity.
“What?” She breathed softly.
Jared twitched his head, then turned, squaring up on her. “Naw, I mean—you’re a really pretty thing to look at in a world that has a lot of ugliness in it lately.”
Shannon cocked her head, a smile creeping across her feminine features, making her even more beautiful in Jared’s opinion. “Thing to look at?” she asked, attitudinizing umbrage.
For once Jared was too tired, hardened or something to get flustered. “Yeah, Shannon, you’re a beautiful woman. There, I said it. If you’re uncomfortable with that, I won’t ever mention it again.”
“You’ve said it twice now, and I enjoyed it both times,” she said, turning her back to him and moving closer. “If you find such pleasure looking at me, then I’m guessing you wouldn’t mind touching me.” She closed on him, her buttocks just lightly touching the front of his legs. Shannon turned, craning her slender neck, and again rotated her face up toward his. “Would you mind rubbing my shoulders for a few seconds?”
Jared realized he’d been holding his breath, and he let it out in a long exhalation. He searched the camp, making sure no one was watching the two of them, finding everyone busy with some task related to setting up camp while the kids played with Crank inside one of the tents.
“What about John?” Jared whispered.
Shannon pivoted slowly until she was facing him. “What about John?” She repeated his question with a smirk.
Jared hefted his shoulders and didn’t answer. He’d asked a question and was content waiting for the answer.
Shannon studied Jared long and hard, the smile fading into something more endearing. “There is no John. You two came slamming into my life at a time when I didn’t know whether or not I would live to see the sun rise. John was what any woman would be attracted to under those circumstances. I’m no different,” she explained insouciantly, the smile returning to her lips.
Shannon’s frank honesty completely disarmed Jared. He’d fully expected some half-baked denial, which would have turned him off to the woman, but she’d done the opposite.
“John’s a great guy,” Shannon continued. “That’s it. He’s a great guy, but not the right guy, at least not for me. We will always be friends, and I will always care for him like I care for Calvin or any other close friend.”
Jared placed both hands on Shannon’s shoulders, turning her gently around. When she faced away, he began to knead the knots in her shoulders. Shannon let out a soft moan as Jared’s hands dug into her muscles. They were taut as piano wire, and as he worked through Shannon’s stiffness, he could feel the hard knots of tension every inch or so. Shannon relaxed, and Jared imagined her lids closed over those beautiful eyes. Holy smoke, was he falling for this woman? He found her very attractive, but his days were so completely full of duties tethered to everyone’s survival, he hadn’t allowed himself a deeper look at how he really felt until this moment.
Jared leaned close to Shannon’s ear. “And what about me?”
He didn’t see her smile as she heard his question. “I guess we’ll have to see,” she purred, still enjoying the rhythmic movement of Jared’s hands on her overtaxed muscles.
Dinner consisted of canned beans and peas warmed over a fire built by Calvin using a flint, striker and a ball of cotton dipped in Vaseline. Once the cotton ball was set aflame, Calvin added small bits of wood and leaves until soon he had a strong enough fire to heat their meal. The fire wasn’t Jared’s first choice, but they were a quarter mile from a very remote road, so the chances of being discovered due to their fire was low enough to merit saving the fuel that powered their small camping stoves.
Each member of the group finished the dinner still hungry, but that was the new norm—everyone was hungry before and after a meal. Jared tried to make sure the kids never went without. They were both still growing, and the last thing their community needed was one of the children falling ill with a sickness caused by malnutrition.
Jared set up three security watches for the night. Each stint was three hours in length, and the sentries were paired, leaving two of the adults free to sleep undisturbed throughout the night. Jared assigned himself the final watch from 0300 hours to 0600 hours when they would get up and begin preparations for their departure. He paired himself with Shannon, intending to leave her in camp while he went to the high ground.
Next, he matched Devon and Stephani, instructing the teen to take the high ground. Jared waited for Stephani to argue, but she was too tired, letting him off the hook this time. Barry and Carlos were partnered, and Jared left the who went where to them.
Crank stayed close to Devon most of the time, only running off when Essie and Salvador tossed sticks for him to chase. The dog drank from the pond and ate a little off everyone’s plates and now seemed content to lay next to Devon, enjoying the warmth from Calvin’s fire. The weather had grown colder as they moved through December and into January. Jared knew they were high enough to get snow but hoped they wouldn’t have to endure yet another hardship.
When bedtime came, Jared slept in a tent with Essie and Devon. It seemed as though Jared’s head had just settled into the wadded-up sweatshirt he used for a pillow when he was ripped from his slumber by the rich rumble of a motor, not far off and running hard. It was unmistakable even in Jared’s hazy post-sleep fog. The motor grew closer, and Jared heard a low whistle in the distance. He almost laughed out loud at the needless act, trying to see his watch in the darkness in order to put a face to the unnecessary signaler.
The sound of the motor was deafening in the quiet night’s air as the machine drew closer. The approaching machine sounded like a quad or some other recreational motorsport type vehicle to Jared’s sophomoric ear. He hurriedly pulled on his boots, grabbed his rifle, and was out the tent flap in less than twenty seconds from the time he’d opened his eyes.
Others were coming out of the tents as Jared sprinted toward the sentry post on the high ground. He couldn’t see his watch in the dark and still had no idea who was on watch as he ran. When he reached the high ground, he found Barry nervously scanning the blackness below them. When the sound of the vehicle seemed directly across from their location, the engine pitch changed slightly as if the rider had let off on the gas ever so slightly.
Jared wondered if the rider smelled their fire from the night before. He only heard one vehicle, which could mean one rider or maybe four if it were a larger vehicle. Suddenly a light stabbed through the darkness from the direction of the vehicle. A strong searchlight of some sort raked the hillside as if searching for something. The light flitted about the trees and bushes, but never came close to reaching Jared’s position. Suddenly the light disappeared, and the engine revved and began to fade as the vehicle passed their campsite, continuing south on Mines Road.
Jared walked back to camp, wide awake now and wishing the episode had happened closer to 0600 hours so his sleep wouldn’t have been interrupted. Calvin met Jared as he reached the area where all their tents w
ere pitched.
“Lot of country boys out in these hills, probably doing a little spotlighting, trying to kill something,” Calvin rasped as he tucked in his shirt and adjusted the rifle slung across his boney back.
“I bet they smelled our fire,” Jared surmised regretfully.
“Maybe, but they kept going,” Calvin pointed out.
“Yeah, I don’t want any more trouble. I’m so over all this sneaking around,” Jared whispered through clinched teeth. He was feeling the cold now that his adrenaline had begun to ebb.
“Maybe we should go down and wait for ’em to come back this way. Take some canned goods, and see if they are in the mood to trade a little meat,” Calvin proposed.
Jared thought about this for a moment, then smiled at the older man. “That’s a good and potentially dangerous idea, Calvin,” Jared cautioned.
Jared called Barry and Carlos over in order to fashion a quick plan for contacting whoever rode past in the event they returned. Calvin would be the first to make contact since he seemed to pose the lowest threat with his grandfatherly appearance. They would build a small fire next to the road so the rider would not be startled by Calvin suddenly appearing out of the darkness.
Jared assigned Barry and Carlos to elevated positions with clear fields of fire should the rider prove to be the swarthy pirate type. The two on overwatch were instructed not to reveal themselves to the rider even after things seemed peaceful. Jared wanted to convey a trusting presence toward the person they hoped to trade with while maintaining an unseen advantage. Trading was based on relationships and trust, which would be eroded should their would-be trade partner see two men with rifles pointing in their direction.
Jared would hang back behind Calvin in case things went sideways and the older man needed assistance. Jared would come out only after Calvin wasn’t shot at. Calvin waved Jared’s concerns off regarding his safety, reiterating the culture out in the hills was different than back in the city.
The Jared Chronicles | Book 3 | Chains of Tyranny Page 4