by Lee Wise
“Jacob, think before you do anything rash.” Mike said.
“Anything rash! What would you do if Nick,” he said pointing to Nick who was in a corner, “were to take off? Would you just stop and think for a while?” Jacob demanded. Mike didn’t respond. “Exactly.” Jacob grabbed his gun and the rest of his stuff. He stuffed a few vegetables and some cans into a backpack.
“One second.” Angela said. She opened a drawer and took out a hand can opener. “We have extras. Here.” She handed it to Jacob.
“Be safe out there. “ Mrs. Ford said.
He turned around. “Thank you. I will. Thank you all for your concern. I’m going to find my son
and we will be all right. Good luck everyone.” He walked out and was soon gone. We were all quiet. Jenny was crying.
“He didn’t even say goodbye! “ Jenny cried. Cathy hugged her.
“We have to get back to work people.” Mike said. “I know how hard it is, but there are still dangerous people out there. We need to be able to survive.”
We all agreed. Jill and I began to make breakfast right after I brought the kids downstairs. “Have you seen my garden?” Angela asked. With all the events yesterday, most of the ladies had not seen much of the property outside. Sammie was the only one who had from scouting the property the previous day. Most of the rest of us had stayed close to the house due to the danger. A lot of us knew how to use a gun, but preferred not to.
“After breakfast, I will show you my beautiful garden as well as the beautiful ladies who made those eggs for you. I think the children could join in too.” Angela said.
“Yay!” Sarah, Megan and Mary shouted.
“Can I help guard the outdoors?” Nick asked.
“No.” Jill said. “I’d rather you help us.”
“None of the guys are helping.” Nick argued.
Jill was trying to come up with a response when Angela quickly chimed in, “Come with me Nick, I have a special chore for you!” Nick smiled and followed her.
“Can we come too?” Mary asked.
“No!” Nick shouted. “She said it’s special for me.” They stuck their tongues out at each other and got ready to start slapping at each other.
“Actually Mary, I could really use three girls who are good at cracking eggs and setting the table. If only I could find three girls.” I pretended to look around as Angela left with Nick. “I just don’t know where they could be!”
“Right here mama!” Megan giggled.
“I’m really good at cracking eggs!” Mary agreed.
“Really?” I asked. “Well, let’s see those skills.” I split up the eggs between the three girls and they started cracking them.
“Jill, Aleisha.” Ben said coming to the kitchen. We looked at him and he motioned for us to go with him into the other room.
“Be right back girls. Don’t get any shells in the bowl.” I said.
“Okay Mama!” Sarah agreed.
We went into the living room with Ben. “One of our scouts saw a group of six people walking
down the road.”
“Oh no!” I exclaimed.
“Exactly. We don’t know if they are dangerous or not.” Mrs. Ford came into the room. “You heard?” He asked her.
“Yes.” She said. “Jenny, Rose and I will get the kids hidden. Angela has a second shed a little in the woods where she stores stuff.” Mrs. Ford said as she hustled out of the room.
“We would like for you guys to help us guard the area. We can be the front line and you guys can stay back with Cathy. Can you do this?” Tears came to my eyes. I hated not being right next to my girls, but I completely understood that there was strength in numbers. Jill and I agreed.
We walked into the other room. Ben spoke to Mrs. Ford. “Get the kids hidden quickly.” I hugged and kissed my girls.
“Mama? What about breakfast?” Sarah asked.
“Aren’t you coming Mama?” Megan asked as tears started rolling down her cheeks.
“We need to hurry.” Mrs. Ford said. “Don’t worry about your mom. I need you guys to help me in the old shed.”
“What’s in the old shed?” Mary asked.
“Let’s go find out!” Mrs. Ford said. They headed towards the door.
“This way!” Rose said coming in the house. “Quickly, hurry!
The five of them hustled away. “Where is Nick?” Jill asked.
“He’s already there with Jenny.” Rose responded as they headed into the woods.
“All right. I need to get down there.” Ben declared. He pointed at Cathy, “She’ll get you geared up.” He hurried away down the driveway.
“Well, this is something I never would’ve imagined last week!” I sighed as Cathy handed me a gun. “I’m still thinking that this is a nightmare. Maybe I will wake up from it.”
Cathy agreed. She led us to a spot outside and then said, “Okay so they want us beside the driveway right here is probably good.” We all stopped. “So we have a walkie-talkie so we can hear everything going on. I’m not sure how far the group was but it sounded…”
“Cathy, are you guys in position?” Robert asked over the walkie-talkie.
“Aren’t you supposed to say over?” She said into the walkie-talkie.
“Seriously?” Robert growled and sighed. “Over.”
“We’re in position. Over.” Cathy responded.
“They’ll be at the gate any minute. Our scout told us that they’re a few minutes out.” Robert said and then added, “Over.”
“Okay, but please keep us updated. Over!” Cathy announced.
“Who is the scout?” I asked.
“Sammie.” Cathy replied.
“Oh. Where is she…” I was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. We got our guns ready. The gunfire stopped as suddenly as it began.
“Should I say something on the walkie-talkie?” Cathy asked. Jill and I didn’t respond. We were trying to hear if there were any sounds down the driveway.
“Guys, what should I do? Should I say something…“ Cathy began. Jill and I hushed her. We could hear shouting.
“What is he saying?” I whispered to Jill.
“I can’t hear either.” She responded. Suddenly there was movement hustling up the driveway. We got our guns ready.
“Don’t shoot!” Mike said as he continued running. “Also, you are supposed be hidden. I saw you immediately.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Run with me. I’ll tell you on the way.” We all started running. “Jill!” Mike said. “Give me the gun. You’ll shoot your foot off. Aleisha, you have the safety on.” I looked at my gun. He sighed. “Might as well keep the safety on now.”
“Why are we running?” Jill asked handing her gun to her husband.
We saw Rose running for the house. “I’m getting the doctor’s bag!” She shouted to him.
“I’m grabbing the car and I’ll drive her up!” He shouted back.
“Mike Alberts!” Jill demanded.
“Angela’s been shot.” He announced, he got in the car and drove off.
We went to the house and saw Rose hurrying to clear the kitchen table. “Help me! Quickly!” She said. We helped clear the table.
“I’ll grab a blanket!” Cathy said running off.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. I didn’t get much from Robert, just that she was shot.”
“How come we didn’t hear that on the walkie-talkie?” I asked. She just shook her head.
She started getting things ready. “I’m just a nurse. I know I worked in the ER, but…”
“You are our best hope. We believe in you.” Jill said. “Mike has had some EMT experience so together, you can do it.”
We heard the car pull up in a hurry and then we heard Angela’s voice.” It’s just my arm. Relax.” She walked into the kitchen. Her shoulder was bleeding. “I’m not laying up there.” Jill and I laughed. “It’s barely a scrape.” She said.
“Well, have
a seat still. I’ll take a look and put a bandaid on it!” Rose demanded.
John walked over to me and we went to talk in the other room. Cathy and Jill joined us. “It was
some thugs.” He explained. “Angela told them to keep walking that this was her property and they shot her in the arm. They didn’t see us in the bushes. Mike yelled for them to leave. Two of them ran off and the other three started shooting so we took them out.” He sighed. “Thing is, the two that ran off, they were just kids.” He sighed again and looked down.
Ben walked into the room. “John.” John looked over. “Why don’t you and me see if we can find those two kids.” John nodded his head.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked. “I mean what if it’s a trap and those kids are really dangerous?”
“They looked like two scared kids to me.” Ben replied.
“Me too.” John agreed. Fifteen minutes later, John and Ben were back with the two kids.
“My name’s Sabrina. This is my brother Caleb. I’m 17 and he’s 11.” Sabrina began.
“Our mother went crazy in the store and this guy named Snake, one of the guys you shot, shot our mother. She was trying to kill us!” Caleb cried.
“Are you hungry?” I asked. I just noticed my stomach growling.
Angela walked in the room with a bandage around her arm. “There is a lot of cracked eggs in there that are ready to be cooked!”
“I’m starving.” Sabrina and Caleb said at once.
“Snake gave us cereal but the milk was sour this morning. He said he was going to take a cow and get milk from it!”
“Well, we have plenty for breakfast. I just have to go make it.” I said.
“Can I help?” Sabrina asked. “I used to cook all the time at home. Mom wasn’t really around. Well, before all this started.” She said looking down.
“Of course.” I agreed.
Mrs. Ford walked in the room with the kids. “Yes! Another boy!” Nick said. “Hi! I’m Nick.”
“Caleb.” He said quietly.
“You want to see the tree fort I found?” Nick asked Caleb.
“Definitely!” Caleb said excitedly.
“Wait!” Jill said. “Is it safe?” She asked Angela.
“Of course! I built it for my nephew, before… “ She stopped.
“Go ahead. Be careful though.” Jill said. They ran out.
“We want to go too!” The girls chased the boys out.
“I’ll keep an eye on them.” Jenny said following them. The door slammed shut behind them.
We looked at Angela. ”I really shouldn’t say anything, but I’m sure you must know since you all know Sammie, right?” We shrugged our shoulders. “I guess you don’t know her that well then.” She sighed. “So, Sammie’s practically my sister or at least she was before… well when she was 18 she had a baby. When he was four, he drowned in their pool. She moved away from this town after that. It was probably really hard for her to see the town again.”
We were all shocked. We knew Sammie. Our town had been really close, but none of us knew this. All small towns have their secrets though and I was sure that this wouldn’t be the first one that I would learn as I got closer to everyone.
“Anyways, I never had kids but I adored Max, Sammie’s son. Sammie’s husband and I built a tree fort for him.” Angela said. She smiled from the memory, but you could see the sadness in her eyes from how much she missed him.
“Husband?” I asked.
“They separated soon after Max’s death. Last thing I heard about him is that he was living in New Mexico and had a whole new family.”
“Oh wow!” Jill said. We were all quiet. “We should make breakfast. “ Jill added.
“Sounds good to me.” Angela agreed. “I need to go see what’s going on at the front. “ Angela began to head to the door.
“Be careful with the arm!” Rose warned.
“Yes mother.” She walked out the door. We went into the kitchen where Mrs. Ford and Sabrina were working on breakfast.
“Oh wow! What is that smell?” I asked while smelling the air. Delicious aromas wafted through the kitchen.
“It’s my favorite recipe.” Sabrina said. “Blueberry pancakes with a hint of vanilla and some other secret ingredients that make my recipe special!” She added. “I have taught Mrs. Ford my recipe, but I can’t give it out to anyone else.” She said laughing.
“That’s perfect!” I announced. “Then you’ll be the chef here!” We all laughed.
Breakfast was made and we all ate in shifts once again. There was a lot of talking but nothing really important happened. It had been an eventful morning and past couple days and all of us just wanted to relax at least for a little bit. I’m sure that everyone had as many thoughts running through their minds as I did though.
After breakfast the kids went in the other room to play while they waited for us to go look at the garden. I could hear giggling and luckily no fighting so I knew that Jenny was able to watch them. She used to babysit my girls, but this was more kids. I figured that Sabrina could help her out. John took Cathy, Jill, Mrs. Ford and myself aside. “We were talking and we have almost as much kids as we do adults.”
“That’s right.” Jill agreed.
“We are thinking of looking around the town and recruiting people.” John said.
“Recruiting?” I asked.
“We need more people to protect the property. If anyone gets killed or anyone leaves, we will be too low on protection.”
“That’s true.” I sighed. “I’m really not the most comfortable with a gun.”
“Me neither.” Cathy said.
“I hate guns.” Mrs. Ford admitted.
“Who is going and where?” I asked.
“Well,” John began.
“You?” I groaned.
“Yes. “ He said. “Sammie is good at guarding the place, so we can’t lose her. Ben, Angela and I were going to go.”
I sighed. “I know.” He agreed. “But, well this is something we need to do.”
“I understand. I still don’t like it.” I sighed.
“Let’s go look at the garden right now.” John suggested. We went out to see the garden, but my heart wasn’t really in it. John explained their plans for the garden and how handy it would be to continue to have fresh vegetables. He talked of canning for winter and also about building a greenhouse. He seemed excited about everything and not thinking about his upcoming search. We started heading inside while he continued to talk about the upcoming plans. He then noticed my complete disinterest and sighed. “We’re going in a couple minutes. We’ll check in every hour.”
“Every hour?” I asked.
“There’s a lot of ground to cover. There’s a lot of wooded area.” I sighed as we walked into the kitchen. Mrs. Ford was wiping down the counter.
“Maybe you should check with Sabrina.” Mrs. Ford suggested. We looked at her. “She’s been traveling this town for a couple days. Maybe she knows some spots where there’s people and what areas to avoid.”
“That’s a really good idea.” John said.
“What is?” Ben asked us as he walked in with Angela.
“We could check with Sabrina on what areas we could travel.” John said.
“Yeah,” Angela said but looked cautiously. “We just have to make extra sure that we’re careful about that.” She whispered
“What do you mean?” Cathy asked.
“I just want to make sure her story is completely true. I did just get shot by her friends.”
“She didn’t have any choice. She needed to have some protection by them.” Jill added. She had been listening to our conversation while drinking coffee at the table.
“Just the same,” Ben agreed.” I will make sure we take all the necessary precautions. We won’t be doing anything half assed.”
The three of them talked to Sabrina and then headed out. John kissed the kids and I, said goodbye and left. I had a pit in my stomach. I knew what they were
doing was necessary, but I was still very nervous for them. Anything could happen while they were gone. They could get attacked or we could and neither group had enough people if a big group would come along.
I think Sabrina could tell I was nervous. “I think our group took care of all of the bad guys around here.”
“When you were out there, did you meet a boy named Greg?” I asked.
She shook her head. I was relieved. That kid was too innocent to be going off on his own. “What grade were you in when all this started?”
“Grade? Oh no. I dropped out a few years back.”
“Really? So what have you been up to?”
“You sound like my mom!”
“Sorry! I am a mom. I guess it’s just our way of talking.”
“Yeah.” She said kind of glaring at me. Mrs. Ford walked over at that moment and I was relieved.
“Sabrina, would you like to help in the garden?” Mrs. Ford asked.
“Nah. I don’t like getting my fingernails dirty.” She walked off.
Mrs. Ford looked at me. I was unsure what to say, but she wasn’t. “I think we should keep an eye on that one. Her brother was just caught trying to steal from Nick.”
“Oh great.” I said.
“Yeah.” Cathy said coming over to talk. “We might have to send them on their way.”
“They’re just kids!” I groaned.
Cathy shrugged her shoulders. “We need to keep our kids safe, which means that we need to trust that everyone around us cares for the others. I just…”
Sabrina walked into the room. She looked at us. “What? Oh, were you talking about me? Excuse me for interrupting.” She left the room again in a huff.
I looked at the other ladies. “Okay!” I said shocked.
“She’s been giving me attitude for a little while now.” Mrs. Ford announced.
“Really?” I asked. “I must not have been around her enough.”
Mrs. Ford shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll be right back and then we can talk some more.” She left the room. I looked at Cathy and she sighed. I knew what she was going to say.
CHAPTER 6
“We need to inform the others about what is going on.” Cathy said.
“I just… “ I began. “It’s a teenager with an attitude and an 11-year-old boy who doesn’t know any better. Maybe…”