Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 3 | The Farm

by Craven III, Boyd

  Roscoe’s foot twitched as he dreamed. His human Andrea needed him. She’d been hurt before, and it was his job to make sure she didn’t get hurt again. When he’d first met her, she had smelled young. Healthy. In her prime. Her mate should be proud to have such a fine one to have a litter with. When she’d returned with the smelly things that held her bones together, her shell itself had changed.

  Roscoe thought he knew what that smell was, but he was a simple dog. Big, powerful, and loyal. He wasn’t smart the way his Beta Ranger was. But that smell he’d smelled on Andrea had been death, he was sure of it. She was healing from whatever hurt her, but death had crept into her life and had hidden itself within those white smelly things that held her bones together. He wanted his human here, right now. He would sit next to her, and just by his presence, he’d scare death away. He scared almost everything at some point, why not the blackness of the void?

  His leg twitched, and his hind end started moving like riding a bike as, in his dreams, Roscoe started walking across the farm to her cabin. In his dreams Roscoe stepped up on the porch and he got on his hind end, looking into the high window on the door thing. Nobody home. Roscoe felt sad. Had they forgotten him? Had something happened to his human, the poor hairless monkey?

  Roscoe whimpered, but then the scent hit him for real, and he twitched, startling himself awake. Roscoe rolled to his stomach and raised his head, before lifting his tail and farting. The night was cool, but he didn’t mind. His coat was thin, but he had enough flesh that it took him a while to cool off from laying in the sun during the day. He smelled something. It wasn’t death, not like he had been dreaming about. It was something else, but close. Not the four legs the humans cared for, nor the flutter feathers that made his breakfast. It wasn’t the fat pink ones who rolled in the mud, the way Roscoe wanted to do, but nobody let him.

  What was that smell?

  Roscoe knew he was going to need his energy, so he emptied his food dish on the porch, then took a long drink, emptying out the other bucket the humans served his water in. He stretched, his back arching as much as he could, his back legs one at a time, before getting off the porch. The scent seemed to be coming from the area where the people he owned and his second in command had been digging these past few days. Roscoe walked off the porch, and marked the grass on the edge of the long hard path that led to the driveway.

  That way if Ranger, his second in command decided to follow along, he’d know. Roscoe thought about waking Ranger, but he decided he was more curious than he was worried. He could let out his hunting call if he needed to, after all. On silent paws, Roscoe padded down the path towards the buildings his other humans lived in. He knew his Andrea was still gone, but the others were there. He decided to check on them one at a time.

  Leaving another scent pool in the grass, he sniffed the door of the darker skinned man and his mate Leah. Roscoe could tell she was going to have a litter of pups soon, so he didn’t want to bother them much other than check to see if that smell had come from here. Not finding it, he moved on down the line. The man called Steven and his mate Anna lived in the next building. He walked up on the porch, sniffing around.

  The porch light coming on startled him.

  “Dammit, Roscoe,” Anna hissed, “you about scared the life out of me!”

  “I wonder if he heard whoever it is?” Steven asked.

  “Heard it, smelled it, he’s awake and here. Dante and Leah didn’t answer--”

  “That’s because we saw the alerts and were pulling our stuff on,” Dante told them quietly, startling everyone but Roscoe.

  Leah was with him. Both were kitted out in their vests, with side arms and rifles. Anna and Steven had done the same.

  “Who’s our eyes in the sky?” Dante asked.

  “Me,” Luis’s voice came over the radio as he cracked the door open on the porch of the fourth cabin.

  “Good, are you going to the main house?” Anna asked.

  “Si, I’m going to follow along on the big monitors and cameras. That way I can give up better… information.” Luis rubbed his eyes. He didn’t keep talking, but they saw him clip the radio on his belt, and push the earwig in place. “Can you hear me ok?” Luis asked.

  “Yup.” “I hear you.” “Loud and clear.” “You’re good.” The group all said at once.

  “Do we want to wait for him to get on the cameras?” Dante asked, turning on the group.

  “I don’t know, where was the last sensor tripped?” Steven asked them quietly.

  “By the chicken barn.”

  Anna hissed in frustration. “Didn’t they learn from the last time?”

  “If it’s people on cameras, you still want me to call the police?” Luis asked them over the radio as he went into the house.

  “I mean, sure, why wouldn’t we?” Steven asked.

  “Just asking,” Luis said. “Ok, I’m in here. Looks like three figures about a hundred yards between the equipment barn and the chicken barn. I don’t see any guns.”

  “Do you recognize anyone?” Leah asked, motioning for the others to follow along.

  She turned and started walking quickly along the drive, being careful to stay on the grass instead of the gravel. The crunch of stones was a sound they had all learned carried far, and on a quiet night in the middle of nowhere…

  “No, it looks like a big guy wearing a cowboy hat, the other two figures are wearing some sort of ball caps.” Luis’s answer was immediate. “I’ll keep an eye on them, but I’m going to call the police while you guys figure out what you’re going to do.”

  Ranger awoke when the old man came into the house. On silent feet he went to the door and followed him to the station with the bright screens. His hands shook as the radio squawked, and one of his humans’ voices came out of it.

  “We’re going to set up in the shadows by your cabin. When the police get here, go ahead, and open the gates. We’re not going to wait for backup,” the human called Anna said through the black radio.

  “Got it,” Luis said.

  Ranger walked up and put his cold nose on the old man’s left wrist. He startled and turned to see Ranger was merely there to offer comfort and support. He got his head patted.

  “Ranger boy, go get Goldie for me,” he said softly.

  Ranger chuffed, then turned and headed to the bedroom the older woman claimed for her own. He pushed the door open with his nose, but it wasn’t moving. He pushed and then stood up on his hind legs and put both paws on the door. The added weight was enough to make the stuck door pop open. The human called Goldie was starting to stir when Ranger stood at her bedside and let out an anxious whine.

  “Ranger?” she asked, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

  Both of them heard Luis using the radio and Ranger again gave her a nervous whine and buried his head into the covers a moment, then using his teeth carefully, he pulled them off the bed.

  “Alright, alright. I’m getting up. Luis, did you send the dog after me?” Goldie called to him.

  “Si, I need you to get Harry and get to the basement. Hurry.”

  All side effects of sleep disappeared, as Ranger saw his older human hustle toward the steps, he rushed to the couch where the sleeping boy was, getting her attention. Luis saw him watching.

  “You’re spooky sometimes. Do you want me to send you out there with the others?”

  Ranger considered the question then looked down the stairwell for a long bit, then turned back to him and sat down.

  “Good, somebody needs to keep a watch on them. I just wish Rob and Angelica were here to help.”

  Ranger chuffed in agreement, then turned to look at the bright screens where three humans were working on something on the ground with the tool the humans had to use to dig or move his poop.

  Twenty-Four

  They knew they were going to get caught. His wife had dragged him along regardless. She’d learned the layout of the cameras and sensors from the glimpse she’d gotten when he’d broken his arm. Now, h
e was trying to keep an eye out while they worked. He couldn’t have used the shovel one-armed effectively, so the two ladies were doing the hard work. It was about something their mother had told them growing up.

  How the caves around the Langtry Farm hid secrets. Treasure, gold. Enough to set them up a new life some day. That’s where they should look when they were grown. Their mother was adamant that this was a well-known fact, but you can’t just go digging for buried treasure on somebody else's property. Their aunt had even married Dewayne, so it wasn’t a big concern. Then he’d died suddenly, and somebody else had bought the property.

  At the reading of the will, their father had gotten his baby sister’s journal and other personal effects. That’s where they’d also came up with the map. Almost at once, Steff had known the map was probably related to their mother’s stories, and Jennifer had agreed. Don was skeptical, but it seemed like whenever he turned around his wife was trying to sneak under the fence to search the caves.

  He wished he’d kept his mouth shut though, because he may have given them the key to finding what was on the original map. The girls had assumed the x’s on the map related to the caves on the property that held treasure. He’d just asked if maybe those x’s weren’t related to the caves, and could they find anything else on the map as a point of reference? That’s why he found himself at 2am on somebody else’s property. He didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if they had tripped something and Rob showed up, shooting at them.

  Their farm had a lot of hairy issues, and Don wasn’t comfortable putting his small family at odds with them after they had literally taken a beating, then had been offered a hand in friendship. His arm was healing well, and he’d gone in to his general practitioner a couple of days after the fall. They’d looked at the before and after x-rays that Dante had sent him with, and his normal doctor agreed the set looked good and that he’d heal up fine. He had, however, given Don some pain pills.

  Don fished the bottle of Vicodin out of his pocket and took the cap off, shaking one out into his awaiting palm.

  “This one looks like it’s been dug up too,” Jennifer hissed.

  “It has to be the group here, the dirt is too fresh,” Steff whispered.

  “I mean, it’s their land and all,” Don said softly, so his voice wouldn’t carry.

  A low rumbling like a piece of heavy machinery startled all three of them and the volume suddenly went up a level as Roscoe stepped out of an inky pool of darkness.

  When the girls had both stood up, Luis was on the radio in a heartbeat. He didn’t want to see anyone hurt. “It’s the neighbor’s daughters and the guy who got a cast.”

  “Copy,” Dante said. “We got our hands full, will talk in a sec.”

  “Steff, Jennifer?” Anna called out when Roscoe had thoroughly startled them.

  “Anna?” Jennifer asked, her voice sounded like she was near panic.

  “Yeah, it’s all of us,” she said, leaving out that they were actually four short. “What are you doing?”

  They started to answer, but Dante and Leah came in from the other direction. They both had their NVGs on, giving them a spooky, bug-like appearance. As everyone stepped in closer, Roscoe continued to growl, but that tapered off as the three interlopers caught the breath that had been scared out of them. Dante flipped up his NVGs, then put the safety back on his AR before turning on his flashlight. The others followed the motion.

  “Nobody? Anybody?” Leah asked them. “This is like, the second or third time we’ve caught you out here, now in the middle of the night.”

  “Fourth?” Dante asked.

  “I’m fast losing count, and I’m not believing any more bullshit answers,” Steven said. “You might have fooled Rob, but this is ridiculous.”

  “You have no idea what we’re looking for,” Steff said finally.

  “Judging on where you keep poking around, you’re looking for ammo cans of pre-World War II gold and silver coins.”

  Jennifer winced and Don just looked at them, raising one hand slowly so they could see his palm. “They have this cockamamie idea that there’s gold their mom and aunt buried here on the property.”

  “More like an urban legend; we wanted to see if it was true,” Jennifer said, looking down.

  “We already had the same idea,” Dante told them. “And we’ve been trying to figure out what to do ourselves. What did your mom tell you, exactly?”

  “That the caves over here held a ton of mystery and riches. Gold, silver, jewels. Treasure that could literally change our lives.”

  “So, you’re sneaking over here to find buried treasure?” Steven asked, chuckling.

  “Yeah, and obviously you guys have found it already, so I think we’ll just be going,” Steff said abruptly, feeling confident.

  “Just hold it,” Dante said, putting his arm out.

  “Don’t,” Don said, though nobody knew if he was talking about his wife or the group stopping them.

  “You getting all this, Luis?” Leah asked suddenly.

  “Yeah, I can hear it. I sent Goldie and Harry to the place that we found, Rob and Angel are in sniper positions crisscrossing to make sure nothing else is going on.”

  Leah’s eyes went wide a moment, then she realized he probably knew their radios could be heard by the Owens’ and was adding some psychological pressure to them.

  “Oh, dear sweet baby—”

  “Don’t,” Dante said again. “The cops are on the way, if you try to leave, we’ll stop you and then you’ll be hurt or sore and still talking to the cops.”

  “Whatever,” Steff said. “You know, this is basically illegal detainment if not kidnapping, on top of all kinds of gun related charges.”

  “Hun,” Anna said, handing her gun over to Steven. “I don’t need a gun to hold you here. We don’t like people just breaking into our property. That’s why we keep installing more cameras, sensors, microphones, and other fun stuff.” She finished that by taking her earwig out of her ear and then taking her vest off.

  “But… you said—” Don started to say to Steff when Jennifer interrupted.

  “I’m not waiting here, they can come talk to us. I mean, the map was left to us in the will, and Dewayne’s wife was our aunt. It’s not really trespassing if it’s family.”

  “You don’t seem to understand some simple fucking facts,” Anna said, taking off her gun belt and the strap on her leg that held her race gun, and handing them over to Steven, who was looking on, amused. “Dewayne sold us the farm, so everything in our property is our property. Whether it’s in a cave or buried. And like I told you guys, you aren’t going anywhere, and I don’t need a gun to make you stay.”

  Steff huffed, then turned to Don. “You going to let this happen?”

  Don thought about it, then nodded in her direction. “I just came out here to make sure you two didn’t fall down and get hurt. I knew this was a bad idea—”

  “Shut up! This was our mom’s legacy!” Steff’s voice rose to a scream.

  “Well, your Momma sure did leave you some legacy,” Steven told her, “just not one I think you’re going to be comfortable with. And remember,” Steven tapped his earwig, “we’ve got a couple of people in camouflage up high with really big guns, so nobody does something stupid.”

  “Stupid?” Jennifer screamed, looking at her sister, who just nodded. “Like this?”

  Both girls lunged at Anna, who had the biggest gap between the four they could see. Anna stepped back and snapped a front kick into Jennifer’s stomach, making her crumple. Steff hesitated, then started swinging. Anna’s workouts with Angel came back to her in a flash. She’d heard the docs talk about muscle memory and repetition, and knew it to be true. It was how she was a terror in the shooting world.

  This, though, was different. Anna had never been in a fight in her entire life. Now she found herself dodging wild swings and slaps from a near hysterical and panicked Steff.

  “Stop, I don’t want to hurt you,” Anna said, s
tarting to breathe hard.

  “Oh, I’m so going to scratch your fucking eyes out,” Jennifer spat, pushing herself off the ground.

  “Want some help to even the odds?” Leah asked.

  “I think I’ve got this,” Anna said. “Just make sure Luis is recording still.”

  She needed some room, but didn’t want to give any and give the two ladies a chance to bolt. So instead, she started pushing back. She fainted another kick, and when Steff dodged to the left, Anna brought her left fist in a short devastating punch right to a C cup. Steff let out a gasp of pain, then her legs were swept out from under her. She hit the ground hard, her breath knocked out of her.

  Don winced and looked at the guys, who were holding the rifles a little more in their direction. “I’m not going to be a problem,” he said quickly.

  “Call them off,” Steven said blandly.

  “Or not,” Dante said. “This is kind of hot.”

  Leah smacked him in the shoulder in a backhand.

  Jennifer, however, had her center of gravity lowered, and ran at Anna who had just stood up, thinking the fight was over. She put her shoulder into Anna’s gut in a classic tackle that any Razorback fan would have been proud of. Anna left the ground a moment, and then the wind was knocked out of her. Jennifer landed a few solid punches to Anna’s head when Anna got back in the fight.

  She got both arms up in front of her face, forearms out like a boxer protecting himself. Jennifer slid further up Anna’s body, straddling her chest, as she continued to try to rain blows down. Anna shifted back and forth, Jennifer sliding up further, so her knees were in Anna’s armpits.