“That’s your dominant eye,” He informs me. “Now align the front and back sights with your dominant eye. Focus on the gun sights.”
We practice shooting until my shoulder feels like it’s been ripped out of the socket. My aim is improving dramatically.
“God, I’m dying!” I complain about my shoulder, entering the kitchen.
“Then you’re damn lucky that I’m cooking!” Jessie exclaims.
I grab some comfrey cannabis salve, drop in a chair, massaging it into my aching shoulder. “How long did you suffer like this when you were learning to shoot?”
“I don’t know,” Jessie shrugs, not much help. “A couple days maybe. It’s hard to remember.”
“Somebody beat you up?” Dixie asks, bouncing into the kitchen.
I laugh and shake my head. “Just learning to shoot.”
The gang settles at the table to review the day and plan for tomorrow.
Eli shares, animatedly, “I’m really good with a shot gun!”
Rob discusses fencing and their progress extending our yards. “We extended our land up two more houses to the south and north.”
“Tomorrow we need to get gasoline and a pump to siphon it. Rob has a small one we can use, but it’s slow,” Jose explains.
“We need to return to the farm. We said we would check on them and we need more milk,” Sam adds.
“If it’s possible, I’d like to stop by my farm to check on my cows,” Jessie suggests. A debate ensues about group priorities.
“I want to go by my house to get our food. I know we have good snacks there.” Faith is dying for more snacks.
“Faith, we have to focus on needs, not wants,” Sam explains firmly. “If we’re going to take risks to go outside where there are groups of violent crazies, we have to think about how much we need these things. Snacks don’t qualify.”
“How does stopping by Jessie’s qualify based on that?” Faith asks.
“That’s a good question,” I validate her concern. “We have to evaluate that. Her farm is right on the way, so we’re not risking another trip. She has vegetables and fruit; her animals could be milk or meat. We might stop there on the way back if all goes well at Polyrock.”
“I’m with you,” Rob says.
“Assuming all goes well with gas collection, we can then head to Polyrock,” I summarize. After a lengthy discussion the groups are decided.
“Danielle, where would you and the girls like to sleep?” I want to make sure everyone is comfortable, feeling as safe as possible. “The neighboring houses have a room each. Here we don’t have any rooms that are empty, only floors.”
“Bree, Gini?” Danielle checks in with the girls. I look at them and they both look stricken. It hits me that they are probably terrified, not wanting to leave this house.
“I want to be with Gracie and Gini, here with you guys.” Bree looks right at me.
I walk straight over, hugging her.
“I understand. We’ll make room, even if it’s on floors.”
“Faith and I could go next door with Jessie and Jake, couldn’t we?” Morgan looks pointedly at Faith.
“I guess,” Faith says lazily.
“I could sleep on the couch that’s getting vacated,” Katie offered. “That would open a bedroom.”
“Gracie, will you be in there?” Bree looks at Gracie, waiting.
“I guess I could. I’ve been sleeping with my mom but I don’t need to.”
“Gini, would you like to sleep with me?”
She just nods, walking over, leaning on me.
“There are some mats in the house next door,” I assure her. “We could bring one over.”
Twenty-Seven
Sam
Penetration
After breakfast they leave. “Bye all. Safe voyage. No tripping!” Eliana and Sam hug.
“Watch it. I could get klutzy!” Sam flicks her hair back, like being klutzy might be cool.
“Better not. We don’t take Klutzes on these missions!” Rob shoulders Eliana, then hugs Sam. “Take care of our girl,” he whispers. They’ve become better friends than ever these last few days, like siblings almost.
Jose walks up to Eliana and holds her close. Sam knows he still loves Eliana. She doesn’t think Eliana realizes it, but it’s obvious to her. Sam can’t hear what he says, but she is curious.
As they leave, Sam turns to the remainder of those still at the table. “What do we need to get done around here while they’re gone?”
“I think we should just have a party to distract us from worrying about them!” Jonathan suggests.
“Let’s party!” Morgan agrees.
“Let’s get some cute guys!” Sam goes along with it for fun.
“Gardening always needs to get done. Plus, the fencing still needs work up the hill,” Jose gets serious.
“Cooking is a constant. We never have leftovers anymore with a group of how many? Twenty?” Sam can hardly believe they’ve gathered that many together.
“Wow, there’s twenty of us? I can help cook or garden,” Danielle offers.
“Last night, when we were getting ready for bed, mom and I talked about making soap,” Gracie suggests. “I know we have the ingredients for it, that’s another possibility.”
“With twelve of us I bet we could do all those things if we just divide up.” Dixie hops out of her chair.
“Papa?” Gracie checks with Jose.
“The fence-work is priority. You guys can figure out the work in here.”
“I’ll work on weeding the front yard while guarding the house,” Jonathan suggests.
“I’ll help.” Jake is on the ball.
“That could work. I can take Eli with me to move fence sections.” Jose looks pointedly at Eli.
The rest divide into a soap group and a cooking group. The girls want to make soap, while everyone takes turns at the stove.
“I leaded the cows to lunch. Now I’m hungry!” Jedaiah exclaims, abandoning his blocks and wooden animals.
“Here, babe.” Gracie sets Jedaiah at the butcher block with cheese and crackers.
“Gotta have music to manage this freak show!” Sam horses around, bouncing one way to tickle Dixie, bouncing the other way to gently tickle Gini.
“Gotta dance to keep us motivated!” Dixie hip bumps Sam and wiggles.
“Dixie, can you get the lye down?” Gracie points. “It’s in the cupboard above the fridge.”
“Sure, baby!” Dixie wiggles sideways, making Gracie laugh.
“Danielle, do you want to dice an onion, while I go pick some meat to cook?” Sam heads for the large freezer.
“Just one?” She asks.
“Two,” Sam says, heading towards the garage. The freezer is thinning out. Sam hopes they manage to get to Polyrock today. She takes out three pounds of ground beefalo, thinking meat balls, a couple loaves of their home-made bread. She heads back into the kitchen. “I’m thinking we make meat balls. How does that sound?”
“Great, yum!” They work steadily for an hour or so, mixing meatballs while the girls mix soap ingredients.
“I think we’re ready to pour it into the mold,” Gracie says.
Sheba starts growling at the front window. “What could that be?” Sam asks as Jedaiah starts crying. Gracie picks him up, murmuring in his ear. They run to the front window as Sheba starts barking furiously, viciously. Alex, Jake, and Jonathan are in the front yard and Bud’s head can be seen over the fence, with several other crazies.
Sam runs to get her knife and gun. “Get armed, now! Gracie, take Gini and Bree and go hide in the cellar.”
Morgan, Dixie, and Danielle grab knives and guns, racing back to the living room, while the other girls head for the cellar. Bud has dropped into the yard with two other men. Sam assumes they are crazies. Alex is pointing a weeding tool at them. Jonathan and Jake have guns drawn. Sam heads out to help. “Watch my back,” She tells the others.
“Back up, get out, or get shot!” Jake is saying as S
am enters the yard. The crazies don’t appear to have guns but have knives.
Bud swoops down to grab at Jake’s feet, stabbing at his legs. Jake shoots Bud at point blank range, right in the head. Bud drops like a stone. Sam holds back vomit, as blood and brains pour over the grass. The other crazies move towards Jonathan and Alex, but there is enough distance for Sam to aim her pistol, hitting one in the shoulder. He falls as Alex stabs the other one with his weeding tool. Screaming, he goes down, kicking Alex’s ankles out front under him. Jonathan pulls Alex back, leaving the guy screaming and frothing on the ground.
“You guys have been plotting to get us, plotting against us but we’ll get you now,” the crazy spits out. We’ll come after you again, when you’re not looking. There are more of us than you know over the fence.” He rolls over, starting to drag himself up. Jake’s Ruger flashes in the sun as he shoots the crazy in the back. He stiffens as he lunges toward Jake with the knife, dropping to the ground.
“Two dead, one injured,” Jake summarizes. “What do we do with them?” Sam runs to look over the fence.
Jake says, knowingly. “No one, right?” Sam nods. The other guy is moaning.
“We need to get them out of here,” Alex says. “They’re going to stink.”
“Burying them is going to be too hard. I think we should put them in the side yard across the street,” Jake suggests.
“They can decompose there….” Sam trails off. The world seems far away.
The last guy begins to pull himself up with his right arm. Jonathan puts his boot on the guy’s back. “You’re done moving.”
The crazy attempts to crawl toward the fence. “I’m leaving but I’ll be back. You’ve been plotting to get us all this time. We had to come after you to protect ourselves. We know you’re part of the government, using normal citizens to test your poisons on. You won’t test them on me. No way!” He bucks, Jonathan losing his leverage. He pulls on Jonathan’s ankle, knocking him to the ground. He stabs the knife at Jonathan as Jonathan grabs his wrist. They’re so close, Sam can’t get a shot in. In a flash, Jake discharges his gun in the crazy’s temple, before the crazy stabs Jonathan.
Sam leans down, hugging Jonathan. “Are you okay?” She pulls away looking him over, carefully.
“I’m okay, Sam. Thanks, Jake. I could have a serious knife wound if you hadn’t done that. He tried to stab me but hit my leather boot…”
Alex pulls the body toward the gate. “Sam, can you open the gate and cover us so we can pull these guys across the street?”
“Sure,” Sam feels nauseous, opens the gate, and vomits in the street. She spits and heaves again. “God, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Jake says, dragging a body down the steps.
Jonathan takes the remaining body, following them. Sam covers them with her pistol. She is rigid on high alert. It’s surreal, watching them take the bodies to the side yard of the house and return. Then everyone heads indoors, sagging onto the couch in silence. Minutes pass.
“Is everyone okay?” Sam asks, hearing every tiny sound, magnified.
“There’s blood here,” Jake begins unlacing his boot. “Weird. How’d he get me?” He gets his sock off, finding more blood.
“He must have stabbed you right through the eyelet.” Jonathan bends down to look at it. “Hold on, while I get the first aid kit.”
“Are you guys okay?” Gracie and Dixie chorus, followed by Morgan, Bree, and Danielle. Gini trails at a distance.
“Basically,” Sam assures them, not wanting them to worry. “It was just scary and shocking.”
Jonathan returns, cleansing the wound and putting comfrey salve on before the bandage.
“I’ll make some tea. I bet we all could use something. Lemon?” Gracie heads back in the kitchen to start the teakettle boiling.
Just then Jose and Eli walk in the back door. “What’s going on? It looks like a group chat or something,” Eli teases. They come through the kitchen, Jose peering closer at the group.
“What happened? You’ve had a wound bandaged.”
“We had some crazies climb over the fence to attack us. We had to kill them. One of them stabbed me and the knife got through the eyelet of my boot,” Jake explains.
“They stabbed me but my boots protected me,” Jonathan adds.
“¡Cochinos! I guess we do need barbed wire above the fences,” Jose exclaims. “Maybe we need guards?” No one answers.
“Have we heard from the other group?” Jose asks. Sam looks toward the kitchen.
“Not yet,” Dixie says.
“If I’m out and they check in, ask for a large spool of barbed wire from Home Depot,” Jose says.
“Okay,” Gracie and Sam chorus.
“What about you, Sam?” Jose asks Sam then, coming over.
“I don’t know…” Sam’s spaced out. “I need to pull myself together.” She’s talking to herself more than to anyone else, disconnected from reality, which seems far away.
“Should you go lay down?” He asks. Sam heads toward Gini, tense and vigilant. Gini stands rigidly, eyes wide, as Sam reaches for her hand, pulling her close. They walk to the couch as Gini snuggles under her arm.
“We’re safe and Eliana will be home soon. Don’t worry, Gini. It was just a shock but we’re all okay.”
Twenty-Eight
Eliana
Double Mission
“Alright load up guys,” Rob says as we reach the trucks.
We divide into two groups and pile in. Rob and I, Nick and Faith in one truck, Jessie, Simon, Nadir and Katie in Jessie’s.
We head down to the main road. Cruising through an intersection, we narrowly miss a group of crazies, exiting the apartments and streaming into the road. They begin throwing rocks at us, while Rob peels away from the intersection, barely avoiding the missiles. My breath hitches, chest and stomach tight. We zigzag a little, moving in and out of abandoned cars.
Reaching the next intersection, crazies are swarming the Fred Meyer. I crane my neck, stiffly watching, wondering how it will be at the gas station. We head around the back to Home Depot. It’s pretty quiet. We park and disembark.
“I’d like to go in with Nadir. We’ll need a couple more hands.” Rob says.
“I’ll go. Katie, you want to come?” I suggest.
“Sure. Nick, you guys want to keep watch?”
They nod and we head in. “Nadir, can you go with Katie and look for rolls of barbed wire and whatever else you think we could use? I want some supplies to reinforce our fence line for more security. We’ll go look for a siphoning tool.”
“Done and done,” Katie says, heading off toward the other side of the store.
Rob leads the way as we head down long aisles of tools. We push a basket and Rob begins putting things in it. I hear noises. “Did you hear that?”
He stops, whispering, “Yeah. Let’s peak around the end of the aisle.”
I nod, not making a sound. My heart speeds up, pounding in my chest. We peek out the end of the aisle, spying a group of adults, perusing the aisle. We pull back. “Should we wait?” I ask, unsure.
“Yeah, let’s wait,” He whispers back.
We crouch, silently, waiting, listening to the group move further away. We creep out the end of the aisle.
“All clear.” I tell him, still quiet. We make our way past more tools, gaskets, and hinges, then turn a corner, and Rob slows down, perusing the shelves.
“Here. This is what we want.” We’re still quiet. It’s the biggest siphon and claims how fast it is. He puts it in the cart. It’s still hand-pumped but nearby is a foot pump. I grab some gas stabilizer.
Just then, the group shows up in our aisle and Rob’s gun is out before I’ve thought of mine. “We’re just here to get a few things and we’re leaving,” Rob explains.
“We don’t want any trouble. Are you guys healthy?” The other guy asks, pointing a gun at us. He’s youngish, thirties maybe, a little scruffy brown hair with a few days of facial hair. He’s
lean, dressed clean. I realize the rest of the group look clean and calm. There are three men and two women all in their thirties or forties.
“Yeah. We’ve been lucky. You guys okay?” Rob asks, guns are still held but less firmly.
“Yeah, if you call this lucky!” He chuckles a little. “So, we could all lower our weapons, right?” He sounds friendly. I nudge Rob.
“Slowly, okay? I think we’re good. You guys have more folks in your group?”
The guns are lowering. “We have a few more back at the house. We’re trying to get some fencing supplies to secure the area. I’m Judd, by the way, this is Jason, Nate, Justine, and Sasha.”
“I’m Rob.” We walk towards each other to shake hands. “This is Eliana. We’re working on fencing too. Are you guys nearby?”
“Just up the way, Hawkin’s Heights area. There are about fifteen of us up there.”
“We’re near there too, closer to Eighteenth.” I inform them. “We’ve got a few more than you.” We clarify locations so we can meet up later.
“Do you have enough sun? Are you growing any food?” I wonder how they’ll survive.
“Not much. We’re gathering food from neighboring houses. Why don’t you guys come up and visit? It’d sure be nice to see some other people who’re healthy once in a while. How’re the crazies down your way?”
“Violent, but not many until you get onto Eighteenth. They seem to be banding together. You guys are welcome to visit us too. You’ll see the fence out front and know where we are.”
We have a brief discussion about trading and head back towards the front door.
Just then Rob’s walkie talkie crackles with Simon’s voice. “Rob, Faith’s been shot! We need help out here. Be careful.”
We race, nearly reaching the front door, crouching behind the service desk. Shots ring out. Rob’s gun is out. I get mine out, knowing my aim isn’t as good but better than nothing. I see someone shooting and return fire. They drop to the ground and I can’t believe my aim, until I realize that Rob was shooting too. My focus is razor sharp as my vigilance amps up, agitation tingling in my arms and chest.
Considerable Destruction Series (Book 1): Evasion ( Page 26