by J. B. Craig
Greg would laugh, and roll his eyes with his daughter, and keep spinning her in circles. His son Jared used to love being spun in circles in the hammock. It was attached with stout chain to the deck and a large gum tree. Greg would get Jared going so high, then spin him, with Jared’s distinctive ‘HA-HA-HA’ laugh (just like it’s written in books) bellowing out from the spinning hammock. Greg wasn’t sure if it was a certainty of physics, but somehow that boy would always end up in the dirt. He’d be curled into a laughing ball as the three dogs all jumped in to try to lick his face, and possibly pierce his tongue, and his mom splashed him from the pool. This created mud puddles made of Georgia clay, dog drool, and pool water. Spaceships were made of lesser stuff.
Of course, the knucklehead son would jump into the pool, creating an expanding circle of pink clay water, to the shrieks of the girls, and the groans of Greg, who would just hand his son the pool vacuum, and say, “Don’t go to bed without cleaning it, son.”
Out of his flashback, Greg gets poked in the chest, hard. “Um, Hello, Major Tom. How’s the weather up there in space.”
Greg snapped back into the present and looked down at Jen. She’s was looking at him with love, and concern. “You okay there, cowboy?”
“Oh yeah, beautiful. Just having a flashback to the two kids playing like I am with Annie. Worried about my boy. That kid was maddening, hilarious, disrespectful, and a badass. I hope he’s okay.”
Jennifer grabbed Greg’s hand and kissed it as they walked up the sidewalk to their home. “He’ll be fine, Greg. You are an amazing teacher, and he’s had 19 years to learn from you. If there’s any way, he’ll find it. I can’t wait to meet him! Annie needs an older brother.”
“Yeah, I need an older brother.” Annie smiled up at the adults, who both cracked up.
“I’ll get right on that, Annie’kins.” Greg high-fived the tyke. “Now you go do your homework and get ready for bed.”
Jennifer kissed her daughter before she ran too far away, and asked Greg to sit on the porch for a few minutes. “Greg, I need some time.”
Greg shot out of the chair with a smile. Standing at attention. “Quality time, coming up!”
Jen laughed, and asked him to sit down. “Not until Annie goes to bed, and I have to read her several chapters tonight. Just listen.” Greg nodded. “I talked with Maria and Bannon, and I offered them the top floor of my house. The school can stay downstairs. They were both weirded out about being together here with us, and I think that’s not such a bad kind of weird to have. So, while you were on shift, the off-shift ones moved to my old place.”
“Ok then, where are Kelly and Pete staying? Um, why are you looking at me that way?” Greg started to feel his backbone bend forward, like an acute case of Scoliosis was coming on. “Um, I’m sorry. What did I do?”
Jennifer replied, “You know where Pete and Kelly are going to be. Pete will be with Maria, and Kelly with Bannon. They’re grown-ups, and they lived through all kinds of hell before they got here. They need places of their own, and the two bedrooms upstairs over there are just fine. They’ll be close enough to watch, and far enough so that it’s not weird.”
While Jennifer talked, the blood had been progressively rushing out of Greg’s face, and he started to feel a little light-headed. “Stop. Please Jen. Just stop.” Greg took a few deep, cleansing breaths, then said, “I get it. I really do. I just need a little time. I’m going to go up to the Osprey Nest for a bit, and have a nervous breakdown, okay?”
Jen smacked Greg on the ass as he got up, smiled, pulled his face to hers and kissed him full-on sexy-like, and said, “My Hero. I love you. I’m going to read some American History with Annie. You better be in our bed by Midnight, okay?”
Greg looked at Jen’s body, still amazed that she loved him, and gave her a thumbs-up, but sideways.
“That sideways thing isn’t the way you do a thumbs-up, Greg.” Jen was smiling, waiting for the joke that she knew was coming, based on his raised eyebrows.
“That, Dear Jen, is for the horse that you rode in on. F-You, too, you lovely bitch of mine. That was underhanded, and brilliant. Thank you.”
“It’s a gift, cowboy.” She shook her ass his way and walked down the hallway to Annie’s room.
“I’m a lucky man.” Greg said to himself.
Jen yelled down the hall, “Don’t I know it, Greg! I love you too.”
Greg looked outside, and felt the breeze pick up. He thought that tonight might be the first taste of October weather, and actually walked around the house closing most of the sliding doors over the screens that had been open pretty much continuously since sometime in May. He went to the “stash closet” in the master bathroom and pulled on a Frog Skin jacket that he had spent some time over the summer sewing random strips of dark colored nylon to. This would be his first night checking out his Osprey Ghillie suit. He had created it to make it look like a pile of leaves on a roof. Undoubtedly this would be a routine event in the remaining neighborhoods of the apocalypse. There was no scarcity of piles of leaves , now that there were no working lawn mowers or leaf blowers.
44. Bannon’s Night
Bannon found Kelly after dinner had been served. He didn’t get to the off-shift meeting, as he was scouting the wilderness around the Rock Harbor Peninsula. He knew that forests wouldn’t stop a determined force, but it would be a good alert system, as most folks couldn’t be quiet in the woods. He set a few interesting alarms up while wandering, and just wanted to get home to his beautiful Kelly.
As Bannon left the kitchen, with a decent, albeit cold, to-go dinner, he saw Kelley walking back from the circle. She skipped a bit when she saw him leave the center, and his heart skipped a bit watching her skip. She bounced in so many joyous places, that he couldn’t help but smile. When she saw his eyes, she shook her finger back and forth at him, and he could read her lips saying, “Bad boy.”
He nodded and smiled as they closed the gap. Kelly jumped up into Bannon’s arms. She threw her legs around his hips and kissed him. We have a new apartment, Sexy. Let me show you where you’ll be making love to me next.”
Bannon, being no dummy, smiled at the beautiful Kelly, swatted her on the behind, and said, “Lead the way, gorgeous.” as he untied his boots on the porch and stepped out of them. With no vacuum cleaners, keeping the carpets clean was a lot harder to do. Kelly smiled at him as she kicked off her flip flops and skipped her way up the front steps of the school. She then continued right up the center-line stairs, to the top of the second floor. Bannon followed her, his curiosity clear on his face.
Kelley began, “We have some catching up to do. Jen and I spent a LOT of time together today, and we decided that it was best for all involved if we moved out, and became the protectors of the local school, or something. We have this master suite, with a nice balcony overlooking your Uncle’s place. Jen and I figured that Maria wouldn’t want her Dad to be watching her and Pete get diggity, you know?”
“Ugggh, yeah, she’s my cousin, I get it. Eww…”
“Okay, sexy. I’m going to go back out on the landing, and you can carry me across the threshold, because this is our first apartment, and we’re going to break it in right!”
Bannon quickly dropped his gear, and ran back out onto the landing, even skidding across the hardwood landing on his wool socks. He picked up Kelly, and carried her across the threshold, depositing her in the bed, curled up from being carried. He flopped down behind her, spooning her. He lifted her hair from the base of her neck and kissed gently. As he moved his lips towards her ear, she did a quick intake of breath, and moaned. “You know how I love that.”
“I know baby. It’s going to be our first time in our first real place. I’m going to take my time, and lift you to so many levels. Tonight is all about you.”
“It is until I decide that it’s about you. You’re not the boss of me, we’re a team… but you just keep doing whatever it is you’re doing. I don’t protest.” Then she let out a “Meep” as he smacked her butt and nib
bled on her earlobe just a little rough. “OK, you can be in charge for a while.”
That night, Bannon did indeed take his time, losing track of the number of times he brought Kelly to a raucous orgasm before she finally lost all strength and just begged him to fuck her properly. Ban did not disappoint. He only got one, but it was a righteous one!”
As their breathing settled down, he knew when she fell asleep, and spent another ten minutes or so caressing the curves of her body. Then he got up. It was time to guard his treasure while she slept soundly.
45. Watching the Ghost
Greg was settled back into his Osprey Nest after he found out that tonight would be less exciting than it could have been - at least for a few hours. After watching Jen go in and start reading history to Annie, he went up top and watched for a while. There was no real activity to speak of, except an occasional outburst of enthusiasm from one of the youngsters across the way. He ground his teeth and told himself that they were all grown-up’s and could make up their own minds. After about two hours of this torture, he slid down the ladder, and quietly entered the house through the sliding glass doors. The house was pleasantly warm, being closed off from the breeze. Greg stuck his head in Annie’s room, and saw Annie playing with her mom’s hair while Jen was snoring. Greg smiled and kissed Annie, whispering, “go to sleep, my little puka shell, all is well.”
Greg tiptoed down the hall and pulled one of grandma’s quilts out. By the time he returned to Annie’s room, his little sweetheart was also asleep. Greg covered up his beautiful girls and closed the door behind him. He figured he would keep watch another hour or 3, since it was probably only around 10pm. Greg pulled on some warmer gear and threw the leaf suit over him. He quietly crept back up the stairs with his 8mm hunting rifle and his .40 caliber Springfield, and settled into a depression in the roof line, looking just like a pile of leaves that spent the whole summer decomposing on the roof.
After about an hour, Greg heard a sliding glass door open. He looked towards the sound and saw the unmistakable silhouette of Bannon walk out on the porch. Bannon walked to the railing of the porch and peed through the slats in the deck. Greg chuckled to himself, and whispered, “You go boy. No flushing means nobody wakes up.”
While Greg thought he was whispering so lowly that he was talking to himself, Bannon’s head snapped up, and he looked around. He didn’t zero in on the sound, but his body language went into a deadly stance. Bannon slowly, almost imperceptibly crouched down until he was below the railing. Then he slid back into the door, coming out 30 seconds later in Jeans, a Henley shirt, and a camouflaged Marine BDU cap. Bannon walked back to the edge of the porch, looked both ways, and lifted himself onto the railing that he was just peeing under. Then he stood up, grabbed the overhang, and pretty much LEVITATED up the corner of the house, and onto the roof. Greg didn’t see what happened, and it couldn’t have been magic, but Bannon seemed to bounce up the side of the house by touching it in three or four places.
However he did it, Bannon was on the roof, and perched at the peak, turning his head in a full circle. When he was pointed at Greg, Greg muttered a hoarse greeting, with his voice at about 3% of full talking volume, “Nice Job, Bannon, but I still got you. Bang.”
Bannon’s eyes and finger pointed right at the pile of dead leaves that was Greg. He said in a slightly louder voice, “Pretty good, Unc. I guess I still have some stuff to learn. Was that you I heard earlier?”
Greg said, “Affirmative, Son. Nice job. I have this covered in case you want to crash. Sorry to alarm you.
46. Nellie the Barn Owl
Nellie ate dinner and headed to her post in the barn. She had her shotgun strapped over her shoulder out of habit, as tonight’s shift was a “scope and report” guard duty. She had one of their few night-vision goggles that came to the community with the Dahlgren team. Her daughter was sleeping at her shift-mate’s house. Nellie allowed Nancy, one of the widowed moms from Dahlgren to move in with her, as their daughters were the same age. Both of the widows wanted to fight AND be present mothers. They always worked opposite shifts and slept when they could. Nellie slept when the girls were in school, while Nancy slept a more natural day-shift sleep.
As Nellie sat in the hay loft of the barn, she looked through the clouds to the stars behind them. The night was quiet… maybe too quiet. After a few minutes, she heard the sound of shuffling feet and voices speaking in a hushed tone coming down the approach road. Because it was so quiet, she double-squawked the short-range walkie-talkie, and turned down the volume on her end. She had been trained not to whisper while on night watch. A whisper was higher pitched and could be heard farther in the evening than a normal, more bass voice could be at the same volume.
She held down the transmit button as she watched from the shadows cast by the slivered moon. She was in the dark of the hay loft but had a clear view down the approach road. She knew that Ski was monitoring communications from his recovery bed, so decided to let him get the word out where he could speak in a normal voice. “Polish Sausage, this is Hotty Shotty. I have about one-five assorted foot-mobiles walking down my road like they own the place. There are armed females in the group. Numerous and varied weapons at shoulder arms. Send back-up. Announce yourselves and I’ve got your back. Going silent.”
47. Reunion
Greg’s radio squawked out Nellie’s report, and while Bannon couldn’t hear the report, he looked over at his uncle. Uncle Greg pointed towards the community center, and said, “Deer Path, gather up the dogs and meet me there.”
Bannon gave his uncle a thumbs-up, stomped on the roof three times, pulled off the Marine cap his brother gave him, and LEAPT through the air, hooking his hat over the power lines feeding the house, and grabbing the other end. He slid down the wire for about 50 feet, and then dropped into the drainage ditch in a crouch. He looked back and saluted his uncle, just as he saw Kelley step out onto the porch with her M-4, and he heard Uncle Greg giving orders on the radio as Bannon ran towards the deer path in bare feet.
As Bannon approached the community center in his running crouch, he noticed armed members of the community streaming out of their homes silently. They were pulling up behind Bannon, pacing him, until they all got to the entrance to the deer path. Bannon looked at Ski, who was on his feet, even if he had crutches on one side. Ski said, “I’ve heard about you, Dragon. Go scout South – come up behind the barn with Este. I’ll let Nellie know you’re coming.” The then looked around at the others, “The rest of you, go with Gunny in a show of force. Stay behind cover.
Este smiled at Bannon and pointed to their left. “How about I follow you, little brother. Consider it your final exam.”
Bannon smiled and grasped Este’s wrist, shaking firmly. “Stay close, stay quiet, stay alive. You might want to lose those size 18 boots, big man.” The two men disappeared into the wood line without a sound. Ski leaned against a tree watching, and Bannon heard him say to, “I’ll hold this spot, Gunny. I don’t have any fight in me yet. Standing is all I can swing.”
Bannon walked through the tight pine and cedar forest, avoiding snapping boughs on the ground. The soft pine needle ground cushioned his steps nicely, and very rarely did anything dig into his feet. To his surprise, Este was just as quiet, if not more so. Every time he looked back, Este was smiling, and looking beyond Bannon to check out the lay of the land. Eventually, the duo made it quietly across the street and through the woods across the road to the back of the barn with Nellie in it. Este made a whippoorwill call by sticking his head into the back of the barn. He was awarded with a scratching of a barn beam above him. Este pointed Bannon to the right side of the barn, and then made the “hold” sign. Este then went around the left side. Bannon held in place, watching a line of men and women with weapons held un-threateningly walk down the road in front of the barn.
Just as the leader of the line of troops on the rod held up his hand, Gunny came out of the woods with her rifle pointed at the line of troops. “Halt! Leader of
this party, please advance and be recognized.”
The second man in the line took two steps sideways and held his rifle at a 90-degree angle from Gunny. “Yes, Ma’am. I’m setting down my weapon. I sure hope you’re one of the good guys I’m hoping to meet.”
“Don’t call me Ma’am, and I’m definitely not a guy. I am good, though. Be good yourself and we’ll all be just peachy.” Gunny bristled out.
“Oh, you work for a living, huh?” Said the presumed leader of the team. He smiled at Gunny who tilted her head at him and smiled back with a question in her eyes.
Bannon looked left, and saw Este walking past Northeast corner of the barn. Then he looked up and saw Nellie’s shotgun pointing from the loft of the barn. Bannon started jogging towards the front of the line, and yelled, “Everyone hold your fire! Stand down! That’s my cousin!”
Bannon saw the leader turn towards him, and his gaunt face lit up with a huge smile, making his white eyeballs and teeth create a huge hole in the darkness of the evening and the dirt on his face. The leader of this group of men looked as if the weight of the world were taken off his shoulders as various flashlights kicked on, stealth no longer being necessary. He smiled, looked around to his troop and said “All good, family is here. At ease. Bannon, that is you, right, Cuz?”