Forsaken World | Book 6 | Redemption

by Watson, Thomas A.

  “No, we watched the episode on ball bearings before this. The smelter, we’d used before this and knew how it worked. We just enlarged it each time we built another one,” Lance told him. “But there are episodes we’re going to watch just to figure out how to make more stuff.”

  Not wanting to know, Dwain just pressed the accelerator and continued up the valley. Reaching the driveway on the right to the build house, Dwain turned and guided the UTV up the steep drive. “Give me copies of what you and Ian are going to watch, so I can help,” Dwain offered.

  “Cool,” Lance chuckled then stopped, seeing the only greenhouse that wasn’t completed yet. “So much shit to do,” he moaned, letting his head flop back and looked at the roof of the UTV.

  Not replying, Dwain parked at the build house and gave a shiver while looking at the newest creation under construction. If the thunder bots terrified Dwain, this one made his sphincter tingle. Years ago he’d had a hover drone at one time, and had even played with the one Denny had. The drones he and Denny had were four bladed and the size of a shoe box. There were two drones flying in circle patterns around the perimeter now that the boys had built. Each was six feet across and carried thirty pounds of cameras. The newest creation was a drone that was fourteen feet across and with the landing gear down, stood seven feet off the ground.

  There were only three of the six motors mounted and only one had a propeller, a six-foot-long propeller, because Denny had wanted to put it on. What petrified Dwain and everyone else was the gun bot slung to the bottom of the drone. All Dwain could imagine were the alien microbes taking over the flying bot to kill the humans the stinkers missed.

  That’s what was on the schedule for the next four hours, working on what the boys had dubbed, Angel. It was Sandy who’d asked about the name. Lance had told her to those here, if they needed help the bot would be an angel of mercy, but to those it was shooting at it would be an angel of wrath. Dwain had wanted to beg the boys to test Angel without the gun bot but wasn’t about to say it. Even though the gun bot weighed seven hundred pounds, they had no doubt it could work.

  Dwain was certain it would work, but the microbes would use it because it could fly and kill.

  Lance climbed out, taking off his gear and hanging it on racks at the back of the build house and then turned to see Dino galloping toward him from the driveway. “Hey, boy,” Lance said, hanging up his mask and then bending down to love on Dino. “Did you run off and leave Ian?” Lance laughed when Dino licked his face.

  “Oh, that’s gross,” Lance said, wiping the dog slobber off his face with his gloves. Turning to the buggy, he saw Dwain rooted to the ground and staring at the Angel drone they were building. Noticing Dwain was gripping his AR really tightly, “Dwain, you shoot Angel and I’ll kick your ass,” Lance warned, getting off his knees.

  “It will fly and kill,” Dwain told him, not taking his eyes off the drone. Moving over and hanging up his gear, Dwain almost hung his pistol up but left his drop holster on. If the bot cranked up, he was just going to take the beating.

  “Dude, it doesn’t even have the flight computer or three motors. We’re wiring up those today, and I should be able to hook up the computer tomorrow. The battery won’t be ready till next week,” Lance said as a line of UTVs pulled in from the valley.

  Ian and Heath climbed out of the first one as the others from their work crew parked. “Dino, you just left our asses,” Ian laughed as Dino lopped over and hung his head low. “I knew where you were going,” Ian said, bending over and petting him.

  There used to be three small drones flying around in a pattern, but one had blown up from a battery failure. One thing they had learned was the smaller the special battery, the fewer safeguards they could put on it. After the drone had blown up, Lance and Ian blew up. They’d been clearing Barbourville at the time, and the two had turned their fury on a house that sat there mocking them for their failure. Jumping behind centrifugal guns, they’d leveled the house. After the house collapsed, Ian and Lance had left and come back with two dozers, driving over the wreckage. Only when Lilly and Jennifer had joined in the destruction did the two finally stop.

  Like all battery failures up until then, it was because the battery had started making too much power and fed back on itself. That evening it had been Jennifer who’d come up with the solution, but she hadn’t told Ian or Lance. Jennifer had gone to the research area and told Percy and Gail what she wanted. When Jennifer was done, Percy and Gail had looked at Jennifer like she was the best thing since sliced bread.

  Every special battery they built, Ian and Lance built it to provide power to what it would need to operate at maximum load, or as close as they could get it. Jennifer had Percy and Gail build the next battery to meet only eighty percent of maximum load and put real batteries in to supply power if the machine needed one hundred percent load. Using Jennifer’s simple solution, no other batteries had failed so far.

  Ian and Lance had actually rearranged two days to do that for the tracks, thunder and gun bots, using Jennifer’s plan.

  Finally tearing his eyes away from Angel, Dwain looked toward the back of the lot where two thunder bots, four gun bots, and Phoenix were parked. Each had a thick cable running to them and it looked like they were recharging, but they were actually being used to power the build house. When Phoenix had been upgraded, Dwain wanted to move. A bot that could shoot fire wasn’t needed by anyone as far as he was concerned. Then there was what looked like a twenty-foot-long miniature airplane that didn’t have a cockpit.

  Patrick’s brother Colton had flown model planes and had been a pilot, so the boys got his help in designing a drone. It had only flown once, just to test it, and now was being fitted with cameras.

  Hearing leaves crunch, he turned to see one of the tracks coming down through the trees from the cabin. Before the track even stopped, Denny jumped from the gun turret and ran over to Angel so he could help. “I think Lance and Ian are a bad influence on Denny,” Dwain mumbled as Heath came over to hang up his gear.

  “You ask about the gun bot they built?” Heath asked and Dwain shifted his eyes over to the barn. Outside the main door was a gun bot. It looked like the latest generation sitting on a powered trailer, but around the housing there was a red stripe painted.

  Shaking his head, “No,” Dwain answered. That stayed on the ground, so he didn’t even care about those anymore. “You think if I gave them Jodi, they would stop building Angel?” he asked.

  “Nope,” Heath answered. “I offered to give them my kids, wife, and fifty years of servitude as a slave, and they wouldn’t even think about stopping work on Angel.”

  Glancing over at Denny pulling tool boxes closer to Angel, “You need to get control of your son,” Dwain said.

  “I’m telling you, Robin dropped Denny on his head when he was a baby,” Heath sighed, not understanding his son’s joy in the flying death machine. Neither turned when the other track pulled out of the trees with the rest of those at the cabin.

  Jennifer climbed out of the driver’s spot and Lance smiled when Lilly got out of the track, but his smile fell off when she took off her combat vest to hang it up. Lilly saw the smile drop and glanced down at her shirt, wondering what had knocked the smile off Lance’s face. “What, sweetness?” she asked coming over, and Lance just looked at her confused. “You were happy, then looked like someone broke your video game when I took my vest off.”

  A blush hit Lance so hard Lilly moved closer, thinking Lance was about to faint. “Oh, um, it… There… It wasn’t anything,” Lance coughed out.

  “Lance,” Lilly sighed. “Am I your girl?” she asked and he nodded. “Then tell me.” Lance’s face went from red to purple. Dropping her vest and grabbing Lance, “Breathe, babe,” she told him.

  As the purple subsided, Lance wouldn’t even look Lilly in the eyes. Lilly knew he wasn’t mad and to be honest, didn’t know what the hell Lance was experiencing. “You can tell me anything,” Lilly assured him in a low voice be
cause what she felt from Lance was embarrassment, and he was only really embarrassed about one thing. One thing that had a mind of its own and affected all males, regardless of age.

  Swallowing nervously, “Um,” Lance paused, glancing around to make sure none were close. “It’s not really anything,” he whispered, and Lilly took a hint from the Ladybugs and put on a sad face. When Lance gave a sigh, Lilly nearly passed out because it had worked. “You… um, you… you’re wearing a sports bra,” Lance mumbled looking away.

  Lilly knew that but dropped her eyes down and immediately understood. Her breasts weren’t as big and there was no cleavage in her polo shirt. She knew Lance looked at her all the time, but this was the first time he’d ever admitted it. Then it was Lilly’s turn to blush. “If you want, I’ll go put a regular bra on?” Lilly told him, making Lance give a strangled cough.

  “No,” he rasped out. “You always look beautiful.” Leaning over, he kissed Lilly quickly and then stayed hunched over to walk inside the build house. Ian, seeing Lance distraught, took off after him. Lilly glanced over at Jennifer, who Ian had left to go check on Lance.

  There wasn’t any doubt by Lilly that the only reason Ian was still a virgin was because of Ian himself. Jennifer had told Lilly she had gotten ‘hands-on’ twice and Ian had panicked. The first time at the pump house at the cabin, Ian had actually taken off running. The second was there at the build house. Ian had panicked, telling Jennifer someone would come inside. Any day, Lilly was expecting Jennifer to just throw Ian’s ass down at the cabin, regardless of who was around.

  Staring at the side of Jennifer’s face, Lilly could actually see Jennifer putting the pieces together. When she finally did, Lilly knew Ian wouldn’t be able to stop her. Jennifer had asked many times what the boys’ deal was, but Lilly wasn’t about to tell her. Like the boys, Jennifer would have to figure it out and take that step on her own.

  “What’s wrong with Lance? He looked sick,” Sandy asked walking over. She stopped when Lilly turned and gave her a deadpan expression.

  Realizing Sandy wasn’t making the connection, “What did I tell you about a make-believe problem men shouldn’t have?” Lilly asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Oh,” Sandy gulped, turning toward the house.

  “Just a word to the wise,” Lilly said, and Sandy turned to her. “Your adopted daughter will be figuring it out soon.”

  “Oh,” Sandy said with a smile. Sandy almost marched inside to inform Lance, men never got control of that until death, and Sandy wasn’t even certain on that. “That means Ian will figure it out and then Lance will know,” Sandy said, walking off, and Lilly stumbled back into the side of the house.

  Ian ran inside about to ask what was wrong and saw Lance ‘adjusting’. “Yeah, I know,” Ian nodded. “Last night, Jennifer sat next to me on the couch half-naked in her sleep shorts. I could’ve pounded diamonds into dust!”

  “Ian, meditation isn’t working,” Lance stated. “Heath and Dwain owe us. Let’s ask one of them how in the hell you control it,” he suggested.

  “And be seen as punk ass little boys?!” Ian snapped. “Everyone here sees us as the badass motherfuckers we are! I’m not about to ‘ask’,” Ian quoted in the air, “about how to control that. We’ll just meditate more.”

  “Ian, since we’ve brought in three more to help in the research area, we can’t get to our stash,” Lance reminded him.

  Thinking about the three from the Geek Squad who’d been brought in, Ian tried to think of a time they could just go to the research area. The only time they really could was when everyone was asleep, and sleep was taking a high priority these days. “We move the stash,” Ian countered looking around.

  “Bitch, there are more people here than the research area!” Lance cried out. “I never would’ve thought you could get wood so bad it hurts.” If his dad had been there, Lance would’ve asked him. He could ask his dad anything. He could talk to Mom about most anything but in Lance’s mind, his mom didn’t know anything about this. The first person Ian would have asked would’ve been Jason. Ian would’ve asked his mom before his dad, but because of how Mary had acted toward Jason and his womanizing, Ian wasn’t about to ask her.

  Snapping his fingers, “There’s a fifth wheel camper at house ninety-one. Let’s pull it here as our new ‘break area’ and move our stash. We can leave the entire camper locked,” Ian offered.

  Thinking it over, Lance finally nodded. “Okay, but let’s meditate at night also,” Lance nearly begged.

  “Brah, we meditate every morning but as soon as our women come into the gym, all that meditation goes out the window,” Ian reminded him.

  Coming to the realization that even if Lilly dressed up like an eskimo he would still have the problem, Lance shook his head in disgust. “You know, there are whole classes of drugs to make it hard but I haven’t found any that make it go away!” Lance grumbled.

  “Why in the hell would anyone want to make it stay around longer?!” Ian cried out. “It’s awake before I am, all through the day, and still awake when I go to sleep. When Jennifer grabbed me in here last week, I almost fainted. I’m surprised she didn’t break her hand. I tried as hard as I could, but the damn thing wouldn’t go away! What do I do? Push her back saying someone might come in? That sounds like some pussy shit!”

  “Dude, if Lilly grabbed my stiffy I would’ve died because she would know I had no control,” Lance confessed.

  “Lance, I almost did die!” Ian cried out. “I suspect Jennifer thinks it just did that when she grabbed it. I finally got her and I can’t let Jennifer see I’m still a boy because I can’t control it.”

  Realizing there was nobody they could ‘talk’ to, Lance just sighed. “If we had time, I know we could figure it out but no, we have to be fucking grown-ups, working our asses off nearly every waking minute of the day.”

  “If that’s the case, the ‘wood’ needs to stop,” Ian said and Lance agreed with a nod. A ringing sounded around the room and outside and nobody even jumped. Grumbling, Ian walked over and grabbed a cordless phone off the wall.

  “Build house, Ian,” he answered with the phone on speaker.

  “This is clubhouse. Amie. We have three helicopters coming from the north, twenty-three miles out.”

  “Fuck!” Ian and Lance both screamed. They headed for the door and Ian nearly kicked it off the hinges. “What’s the speed?” Ian asked, moving over to put his gear back on.

  “Forty M-P-H,” Amie answered.

  “What kind?” Lance asked, pulling on his vest as everyone moved to put on gear.

  “Two Blackhawks and one Kiowa,” Amie answered, and Lance gave Ian a blank look.

  “Kiowa is the one with the bulb above the rotors. It’s bigger than the egg-shaped helicopter,” Ian answered and Lance nodded. “Amie, is defense up?” Ian asked.

  “Turned on when they were spotted,” Amie answered, and Ian stared at Lance.

  “Let’s just shoot their asses out of the sky,” Lance moaned. “I’m not in the mood for shit today.”

  “Ian,” Amie’s voice called out from the phone. “We’re getting a radio call by a captain on the choppers. He’s saying they’re from the military unit in Buckhorn.”

  Never taking his eyes off of Lance, “Want to see what they have to say?” Ian suggested.

  Shrugging, “Why? I’m killing every military unit we come across,” Lance answered, and Ian tilted his head back to look at the sky.

  “Lance, I’m with you on that but hell, the fucker may be coming to offer supplies and lick our boots because we’re so awesome,” Ian offered.

  A huge grin spread across Lance’s face, “You think?”

  Dropping his gaze back to Lance, “Dude, they’re flying at a slow speed. Those choppers could be here in seconds but they’re approaching slow and easy,” Ian pointed out. “I’m just saying they might be coming to pay homage to the Wild Ones but nonetheless, they’re approaching their betters as they should, carefully and respectfull
y.”

  Not really wanting to, but Lance could see Ian did, “Okay, but you even suggest leniency, we throw down,” Lance warned.

  Setting the phone down, “Bitch, you want to suck my dick?!” Ian snapped squaring off. “I’ll go up there now and gut every fucker there. You know I want to. But I like it when bullies cow beneath us.”

  “That’s no shit,” Jennifer scoffed.

  Walking closer to the phone, “Clubhouse, this is Lilly. Radio out for the choppers to hold while we discuss this,” she said, then turned from Ian to Lance. “You two are discussing this and I didn’t want the military to interrupt.” None present were even surprised that the boys had no fear of the military now.

  Cocking his head to the side, “You too?” Lance gasped.

  Shaking her head, “No, I really don’t like either of you talking to an enemy. I’ve seen it and don’t like it but even I have to agree, it is cool watching bullies grovel to my man and his best buddy,” Lilly said with a grin.

  Puffing out his chest, “I’ll back your call,” Lance said.

  “Clubhouse, put the frequency on the phone,” Ian said and the speaker gave a click.

  “This is Captain England with the US Army. We are holding five miles east of Manchester,” a voice called out.

  “Hey, dildo. This is the Wild Ones. You know how to read a map?” Ian smirked.

  “Yes, I can read a map,” England replied in a cold tone.

  “Let’s see then. In fifteen minutes from now, your choppers will set down and we will grace you with our presence, to bask in the Wild Ones’ magnificence,” Ian said, trying not to laugh, and gave the grid coordinates to the valley below.

  After reading back the coordinates, “Copy. Contact in fourteen minutes, thirty-two seconds,” England replied.

  “Very good. You realized I marked the time, not you,” Ian congratulated. “A word to the wise, you’re already in our kill zone so don’t deviate from your instructions. You live only at our pleasure,” Ian advised with arrogance.