by Eric Vall
After I had finished with my tux fitting, I placed the outfit in a zip up bag like Tara had instructed.
“Ready,” I said as I came out of the dressing room.
“Great,” Anna said. “Now we just have to get all of these into the jeep.”
I looked down at the pile of zip up bags just like mine. It was huge, and I shook my head. I had warned the girls that this would happen. I was sure we could find room for them, but there was no guarantee that the girls were going to be comfortable.
We carried all the bags out to the jeep and placed them in the very back. Unfortunately, after they were all in, there wasn’t really room for any of the girls to sit back there.
“I got it,” Paige said, and she shut the hatchback. “We can sit on the floor.”
“On the floor?” Kimmy asked with a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t people’s feet there?”
“We can cross our legs,” Bailey suggested.
“I have some room in my seat up front,” Betty said. “Jenny, dear, why don’t you sit with me. Then that’s only one more girl to squeeze into the back.”
“Perf,” Tara said with a grin. Usually the platinum blonde would complain about having to sit so close, especially on such a hot day, but I think she was too excited about the clothes to care.
I tried to hurry home as best as I could, but the roads we had taken were somewhat windy. And with all the girls squished in the back, I didn’t want to go around curves too quickly and squish them even more. Still, it didn’t take us too long before we were back in our own driveway. I glanced into the backseat and saw that all of the girls were sweaty as hell, though I’d had the window down the whole time. It was a hot day, overcast or not, and I chuckled to myself about their sacrifice in order to get some dresses.
The girls spent a good portion of the rest of the day inside doing preparations for the wedding, while I stayed outside and helped Rolly and Henry cook dinner. We got out the grill again, and the smell of cooked meat made my mouth water.
It had been a long day of shopping, but I was looking forward to the next morning. Kimmy and I were going to bag a couple of deer for the party, and I was excited to get some alone time with the beautiful woman.
I didn’t think she knew much about hunting, but I was ready to show her the ropes. It would probably be a quicker process to go with a more experienced hunter, but I didn’t mind one bit.
I’d get some alone time with Kimmy, and that was all I could ask for.
The next morning I woke before dawn and headed down to the living room. There I found Kimmy, baby Anthony, Rolly, and Betty.
“Morning,” I said, surprised to see everyone up so early. I figured I was the first one awake for the day.
“Good morning,” Betty greeted me.
“How long has everyone been up?” I asked as I took a seat.
“Oh, not too long,” the older woman said with a wave of her hand.
“I had Betty wake me when she and Rolly got up,” Kimmy explained. “I might have been a little overenthusiastic about our hunting trip.”
“Enthusiastic is good,” I chuckled.
“I’ve never really been hunting before,” Kimmy admitted, though I already knew that. “But I’ll try my best.”
“You’ll do fine,” I assured her. “Just follow my lead.”
“The most important thing is where to aim,” Rolly added.
“That’s right,” Betty agreed. “You don’t take out a deer with a shot to the head.”
“Where do you aim?” Kimmy asked, and her eyes widened with surprise.
“There’s a spot just behind their front shoulder,” I said. “That will be the best way to get them in the heart or the lungs, if you narrowly miss the heart. That way their death is as quick as possible.”
“Oh,” the dark skinned woman said. “Well, I suppose that makes sense. I wouldn’t want it to suffer more than absolutely necessary.”
“Right,” I agreed.
“Made you two some coffee,” Rolly said, and he scooted a couple of to-go thermoses toward us.
“And some power bars,” Betty added as she placed them next to the travel cups.
“Perfect,” I said with a smile. “We’re going to take one of the ATVs, too.”
“Sounds good,” Rolly said. “You two be careful out there. I’m sure there’s still animals prowling around here from the fire.”
“We will,” I assured him, then I turned to Kimmy. “Ready?”
“Ready,” she said, and she kissed baby Anthony on the cheek before she passed him to Betty.
I grabbed my rifle from by the door and led Kimmy out to the ATVs. I attached our rifles to the back first, then hopped on and started the small vehicle.
Kimmy climbed on behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. I could feel her breasts pressed against my back and her breath on my neck. It was almost enough to make my pants grow tight, but we were headed into the woods, and the drive to protect her was more powerful than the one that made me desire her.
Since it was still early, and I didn’t want to scare off our prey, if there were any around, I took it slow as we made our way into the woods. The light of the dawn had just come up, and I heard a few birds chirp with the new day.
I made our way to one of my favorite clearings, stopped the ATV, and hopped off.
“We’re here?” Kimmy asked.
“Yup,” I told her with a smile.
“I don’t see any deer around,” she said as she scanned the area.
“There aren’t any at the moment,” I said. “We’ll probably have to wait for a bit. That’s a large part of hunting.”
“Waiting?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Afraid so,” I said as I unstrapped our rifles.
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Kimmy said, and she flashed me a sweet smile that made my heart rate accelerate.
“I was surprised when you volunteered to come along,” I told her as I handed her a rifle.
“Yeah,” she said, and her cheeks darkened with embarrassment. “All the girls were so excited about the wedding, but I’m not very good with crafty things like flowers and all that. I didn’t want to risk messing anything up, so I figured I would volunteer for something else.”
“That’s kind of what I figured,” I chuckled. “Not that you weren’t crafty, but that you weren’t really into the wedding arrangements like the other girls.”
“I like mechanical things,” she said. “I’ve never really paid much attention to frilly things and weddings tend to be pretty frilly.”
“I’m with you there,” I told her as I led her to the trees.
I cleared out a little spot in the pine needles for us, then I laid down on my stomach with my weapon propped up and ready at a moment’s notice. Kimmy followed my lead and laid down next to me.
“So, we just wait like this?” she whispered once we were in position.
“Just like this,” I agreed with a smile.
“How do we know when it’s the right moment to shoot?” she asked, and her brown eyes were filled with concern.
“Don’t stress too much,” I told her. “You remember where to aim, right?”
“Behind the front shoulder,” she said with a nod.
‘Right,” I agreed. “So, once we see some deer just pick one and line up your shot. When you have your shot, look over at me to let me know, and I’ll give you a nod. After I nod count to three in your head, then pull the trigger.”
“Okay,” the dark skinned woman said, though her voice was still a bit hesitant. “That doesn’t seem too bad.”
“You got this,” I assured her.
After that we both went quiet as we waited. With the fires and everything there was no guarantee that we would be able to get a deer, but it was worth a try. There were bound to be some around, though whether or not we’d chosen the correct spot for the day remained to be seen. As a hunter you knew that sometimes you’d go out and not get a damn thing. That was just something
you had to deal with.
Kimmy’s company was nice as we laid on the forest floor in the early hours of the morning. It was still cool out, and there was a nice level of comfort in not feeling like we had to speak. It was best to be quiet anyway, of course, but it was nice to be quiet with someone you were comfortable with.
Every so often we’d look over at each other and exchange a small smile, and I thought about our time in the supply closet recently. When Kimmy had moved in with us I hadn’t seen us getting together, not since I had the girls already. A few months later, though, here we were, and I couldn’t have been happier about it.
Not only were Kimmy and I involved romantically, but she had become a valuable asset to the group.
I heard a noise, then, and I looked up to see a small herd of deer hesitantly make their way into the clearing in front of us. It was mostly does, but I saw a couple of younger bucks with them as well.
Kimmy looked at me, but I held up one finger to indicate that she should wait to line up her shot.
After a few minutes the herd settled into the clearing and began to munch on the grass and leaves that they could find.
I found a good sized doe and lined up my shot on her, then I turned to Kimmy. She still had her eye in the scope, but after a few seconds she looked at me, and I nodded.
One.
Two.
Three.
I pulled the trigger on my rifle, and I heard Kimmy’s weapon go off at the same time.
My doe went down with a small bleat as the rest of the herd took off. I scanned the area and saw Kimmy’s deer. She hadn’t hit it at quite the right spot, so it struggled to get up.
I quickly lined up another shot and put the thing out of its misery. I hated when it wasn’t a clean kill. It just caused unnecessary pain for the animal.
“I didn’t get it,” Kimmy said, and she looked at me with a frown.
“You did good,” I told her. “Great for your first time, actually.”
“Thank you for showing it mercy,” she told me softly.
“Of course,” I said, and I reached over and squeezed her hand.
I inspected our kills then and found that they were around the same size. They were each probably a little over a hundred pounds, which would make plenty of meat for the wedding.
We loaded the deer onto the back of the ATV, but they took up a decent amount of room so Kimmy and I had to squeeze a bit further forward. I didn’t mind, though, the more she pressed against me the more I liked it.
When we pulled back up on campus everyone was up and moving around. Betty and Rolly were by the fire making breakfast, the civilians finished up some chores, and the girls stood near the edge of the trees and waited for us.
“Hey,” I greeted them.
“We heard you coming,” Anna explained.
“Yeah,” Paige said. “We wanted to see what you got.”
“It was Kimmy’s first time, right?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah,” Kimmy answered with a frown.
“Oh, no,” Paige said, and her eyebrows pinched together with concern. “What happened?”
“I didn’t hit it in quite the right spot,” the dark skinned woman said.
“You did your best,” Bailey said with a smile.
“Oh, I see,” Paige said as she inspected the deer. “You were pretty close.”
“It was still alive, though,” Kimmy explained.
“Not for long it looks like,” Paige chuckled as she pointed out the second bullet hole.
“Tav did that,” she said.
“I’m sure that it didn’t suffer long,” Bailey comforted Kimmy.
“It didn’t,” I assured her.
“You guys want some help skinning and cleaning?” Paige asked.
“I think we can handle it,” I said. “You help the other girls with the wedding stuff.”
“Alright,” the brunette agreed with a shrug.
I knew that it would go a lot faster with Paige around, but I didn’t mind spending some extra time with Kimmy. Besides, if we got done too fast then Tara might put us on flower duty or something, and I wasn’t sure I could handle that.
I grabbed a large tarp from the tool shed, then I offloaded the deer onto it near the side of the dorm building so we weren’t in everyone’s direct eye line. After they were both laid out, I started with mine and had Kimmy follow along with her own.
Her cuts were somewhat sloppy at times, but I could tell that she was trying hard, so I didn’t bring it up. Besides, this was her first time skinning a deer. I didn’t expect her to be perfect at it. Honestly, I was just surprised that she wasn’t extremely grossed out. Some people couldn’t handle something like that, but Kimmy did just fine. She managed to follow along with all of my instructions and before long we had all the skin off and we were ready to move forward with the butchering process.
It took us a couple of hours to get them completely done and cut up, but all in all I was happy with Kimmy’s work ethic. Once we had finished, we put the meat into one of the refrigerators we’d put in the dorm building and reported to Tara for wedding duty.
Tomorrow was the big day, so Tara had us set out chairs and rearrange tables in the courtyard so that everything was perfect. The girls worked on making flower arrangements and decorating the makeshift archway that they’d created. Kimmy and I mostly just moved around the chairs and things, but once dinner time came I was quite exhausted.
Betty had cooked up some venison chili and cornbread, and I dished up my plate quickly, but I noticed that the girls all headed upstairs, so I moved to follow them.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Tara said, and she wagged a finger at me.
“What?” I asked. “Are we not eating inside?”
“We are,” the platinum blonde said. “You guys can eat inside, too, but keep it downstairs.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Bachelorette party, duh,” Tara told me with an eye roll.
“Bachelorette party?” I chuckled.
“Yup,” she said with a wide grin. “I left some booze with Rolly and Henry for you guys.”
“Um, alright,” I said.
“Go on,” Tara told me, and she spun me around and gave me a small push.
I saw the guys across the courtyard, then. They waved at me from where Tara had made me move the picnic tables earlier that day.
I walked over and took a seat.
“Hey,” Rolly laughed. “We saw them kick you out.”
“They could’ve given me a heads up,” I chuckled.
“I didn’t even know about it until Tara told me I couldn’t go inside,” Rolly said.
“At least I wasn’t the only one,” I laughed.
“Here,” Jeff said as he poured some whiskey into a glass and pushed it toward me. “This should help.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile, and I took a sip of the amber colored liquor.
“So, Rolly,” Jeff said as he turned to the old man. “Tying the knot, huh.”
“Appears that way,” Rolly chuckled.
“I admire you for getting married with the state of things,” Joe, the bald headed man who’d taken a bullet during winter, said.
“No admiration needed,” Rolly said with a shake of his head. “I just love that woman is all.”
“It’s sweet,” Jeff said, then he turned to me. “I suppose you’re next, huh, Tav?”
“Why me?” I chuckled. “Aren’t you with Donna?”
“Well, yeah,” he laughed. “But you’ve got four weddings to get through, I’d just have one.”
“Or is it five now?” Joe teased.
“Would you have five separate weddings?” Dan asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said with an amused smile.
“Who would you ask first?” Jeff asked.
“You can’t ask one first,” Dan protested. “You have to do it all at once. You can’t have anybody getting jealous.”
The boys continued to tease me about getting married, but I
just sipped on my whiskey, ate my chili, and laughed along every now and then. What they said got me thinking about whether or not I would ever marry the girls.
If society was still the way it was before the EMP, then we’d probably have our own TV show or something, but since everything had changed I wondered what the protocol was for this. Did the girls want to marry me? And if so, how would we do it?
I had thought it was so silly when Rolly was nervous to propose to Betty, but just one mention of marriage had me questioning my entire existence.
I shook the thought from my head and focused on the whiskey in front of me.
Tonight was about Rolly. I’d figure out if I was getting married later.
Chapter 16
It was the big day, and I woke to find that all the girls were already down in the courtyard. The sun was bright in the courtyard, and I realized that I’d overslept some. Nobody had bothered to wake me up, though, so I didn't figure it was too big of a deal. Besides, the boys and I had drank a decent amount of whiskey the night before, so I felt we all deserved a bit of extra rest.
I threw on some clothes and headed downstairs. The courtyard was busy with people moving things or setting things up.
“Tav,” Kimmy called, and I turned to see her and baby Anthony in front of the fire.
“Hey,” I said as I walked up. “What’s going on?”
“We’re on meat duty, remember?” she asked.
“You already started?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I hope that’s okay.”
“Fine by me,” I chuckled, and I reached down and squeezed baby Anthony’s foot. “What time is the ceremony again?”
“This afternoon,” Kimmy answered. “Like, just as evening hits, I think.”
That made sense considering it was going to be another hot day. If they waited until it cooled off some then everybody would be a lot more comfortable.