BEYOND THE GRID BOX SET: The Complete Beyond The Grid series (book 1-4)

by Connor Mccoy

  The boy squealed, followed by a spate of smaller shouts, cut by coughs. Jacob’s heart quickened. What would the bear do? Was the bear ready to climb up to get the boy?

  I’ve got to draw his attention. Jacob spoke up. “Hey! Hey! Over here!”

  The bear turned its head in the Averys’ direction. Jacob held the spray behind his back, not that he expected the animal to recognize a potential weapon. Domino’s hand clutched her own spray, but her right hand remained free to grab her gun.

  At this distance, Doms could plug this animal right between the eyes, but Jacob hoped they wouldn’t have to do that. The bear’s eyes now were focused on the two Averys. The animal did not seem to have any malice. In fact, the bear took its paws off the rock and backed up a couple of steps.

  “That’s right, Gentle Ben,” Jacob said, referencing the title of an old movie that featured a bear of the same name. “We don’t mean any harm here, but you might not be the most welcome company for that little boy up there.”

  The bear stared at them. Jacob wondered what was going on behind those dark eyes.

  Jacob and Domino walked closer to the rock. The bear backed up a step, but not very far. The animal did not seem to want to give up all of its ground.

  Jacob kept his eyes on the bear. It was vital not to show fear. Bears respected strength, although there was a fine line between showing strength and provoking a fight. Jacob wanted this animal to know that the Averys were not to be trifled with.

  “Alright, buddy, here’s how it’s got to be. You’ve got to leave.” Jacob strengthened his voice. “There’s a ton of forest for you to frolic in. We just need this space to get that little boy down. Now get going.”

  The bear did not move. Jacob wondered if he should show more aggression. Perhaps stamping his foot would suffice. He didn’t want to spray the bear now, unless the bear got too close.

  Suddenly, a pair of small hands grabbed the boy and dragged him underneath the tree branches. The yelp of the boy and the rustling of the leaves caused the bear to spin its head upward. The bear let out a slight but concerning snort. The animal didn’t care for that little surprise.

  “Damn!” Jacob said. There was someone else up there, hiding under the leaves, and now the bear was alerted to his or her presence. The bear placed its paws onto the rock and seemed poised to make a climb.

  “No!” Jacob called out. “No! Stay off there! You’re not going up there!” Jacob stood to his full height and waved his arms. “Leave them alone!”

  The bear turned its head to Jacob again. Jacob did not advance. He wanted to keep as much space between himself, Domino, and the bear as possible so the animal did not feel trapped.

  C’mon, get a clue and leave. We could kill you if we wanted, Jacob thought. He kept his gaze locked with the bear’s.

  The bear snorted. Jacob called out to it again. “No! You will leave, now! Go!” He even stood up on his tippy-toes to gain whatever few inches of height he could.

  Domino’s arm twitched. She was growing increasingly worried. Be patient, Doms, Jacob urged silently.

  And then the bear turned its head in the opposite direction. With a kick of its hind legs, the animal fled into the woods. Soon it was out of sight.

  Jacob let out a long breath. “Thank God,” he whispered.

  Domino let her arms fall. “Incredible.” She laughed. “I never would have dreamed it.”

  “Jacob, King of the Jungle.” Jacob hitched his pepper spray onto his belt. “Even the animals obey him.”

  “Hey!” Mrs. Keenan jogged up to them. “Good Lord, if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it! You really can tell a bear to haul ass like that?”

  “A lot of times black bears will obey a shout to leave if you stand up to them like that.” Jacob turned to the rock. “Now we can check out our new friends up there.”

  He grasped onto the side of the rock, with Domino ascending beside him. “Hey!” Jacob called, “it’s alright! The bear is gone!”

  Jacob repeated his reassurances, but neither the boy nor the one who pulled him under the branches emerged, even when Jacob and Domino made it to the top.

  “Careful.” Jacob looked at the ground. “I don’t know how slippery this bird is.” He stomped the lichen-laden surface. It seemed firm enough.

  “Hello?” Domino cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hi there! We’re here to help you! Please come out!”

  “My name is Jacob! This is my wife Domino. We’re just farmers.” Jacob spread out his arms. “See?” Domino mimicked Jacob’s action.

  The leaves rustled. A boy, a different boy this time, emerged from underneath the branches, though a young voice spoke after him. “Wait! Don’t go out there.”

  The boy who emerged showed off shaggy dark hair, a light blue shirt that seemed a size too big for him, and a pair of beige athletic shorts. He wasn’t the one whom Jacob and Domino had spotted. He must have been the one who had pulled the younger boy into the thicket.

  “Hey.” Domino walked in front of Jacob. “Was that your little brother you pulled under there?”

  “Yeah, and he’s not coming out until you…you…” The boy stammered. He hadn’t thought through what he wanted.

  “Ford, please!” cried the voice behind him.

  “Jamie!” The older boy turned around. “Just stay there! I got this!”

  “But you don’t know if they’re going to eat us!” Jamie cried back.

  “They’re not going to eat us!” Ford replied. “Jeez. They might be okay, but I got to make sure.”

  By now Mrs. Keenan had finished her own climb up onto the top of the rock. “Oh Lord, what’s going on up here?” After climbing to her feet, she brushed lichen off her pants before joining the Averys.

  “Who are you?” Ford jabbed a finger at Mrs. Keenan. “Name, rank and serial number, now!”

  Mrs. Keenan grinned. “Fine. Dot Marianne O’Hara Kennan. And no, my friends don’t call me Dottie, so don’t you get any ideas. My rank is Captain, General, and President, because I got nobody else in my household but yours truly. And I ain’t got a serial number, but I do have a Social Security number. Which I could give you since the damned government isn’t going to mail me another check ever again. So I ain’t got to worry about identity theft.”

  Jacob stifled a laugh. Domino didn’t.

  The younger boy, Jamie, stepped out from under the branches. “Hey!” Ford said.

  “I think they’re okay.” Jamie nodded to Mrs. Keenan. “She’s not gonna kill us. She’s just a weird crazy lady.”

  Now Jacob could not hold in his laughter. Mrs. Keenan, folding her arms, asked, “Is it too late to get the bear back?”

  While Jacob and Domino chuckled, Ford wandered closer to Domino. His eyes widened; his lips opened up a little.

  “Hey,” Domino said, “What’s up?”

  Ford did not answer right away. He was entranced by Domino. “You,” he said slowly, “you look like our protector.”

  “Protector?” Domino asked.

  “Ford, do you really wanna tell them about the protector?” Jamie asked with alarm.

  “She needs help! She got hurt.” Ford backed up to halfway between Domino and the branches. “Maybe if she’s like her, she’ll help us.”

  “You mean there’s someone else in there?” Domino asked.

  Ford nodded. “Our mom and our protector.”

  “The protector made us hide in here.” Jamie lifted the branches. “But she fell asleep after that.”

  “Unconscious.” Ford pronounced the word slowly, as if Jamie barely had heard it before and needed reminding.

  “Well, if your protector is hurt, we must go in there and help,” Jacob said.

  Jacob pushed aside the branches to reveal two women. The first, identified by Jamie and Ford as their mother, sat huddled, grasping her legs by her chin with her hands. Her brown hair was wild and greasy. Even when Jacob and Domino tried talking to her, she was unresponsive.

  The other woman
lay flat on her back. Jacob could see why the two boys identified Domino with this woman. She was dressed in camouflage pants and a green shirt, and the belt and holster she wore looked similar to the gear Domino was packing. A rag was tied around her leg, and a bandage adorned her neck. The side of her face also was marred with a scratch. Clearly, this woman had been through some tough scrapes.

  “My word!” Mrs. Keenan leaned over the unconscious woman. “She does kind of remind me of you, Domino.”

  “Who is she?” Jacob asked.

  “The protector,” Jamie responded.

  “I know that, but what’s her name?” Jacob looked to their mother, but she remained silent.

  “Miss Joey,” Ford replied, “but we call her the protector because that’s her warrior name.”

  “Joey?” Jacob turned to Domino. “Is that a woman’s name?” His wife shrugged.

  “She’s helped us. She took us all the way from Fall Crossing,” Jamie said.

  “Fall Crossing?” Mrs. Keenan whistled. “Child, that’s a pretty long walk.”

  “So, you’re not from Skylar?” Jacob asked.

  “No. But we came here to find shelter and food, and then—”

  Ford was interrupted by his mother’s soft voice. “Ford, Baby.” The woman turned her head. “They don’t…need…to hear everything.”

  Jacob steadied himself. “Is there a problem?”

  Domino leaned closer to him. “They probably have been through a lot and don’t want to revisit the gory details. I mean, if they’ve been traveling all the way from Fall Crossing, my God!”

  Jacob took a fresh look at the dirty clothing of the two boys and their mother. If their protector’s injuries were any indication, coming here entailed a lot of fighting and running. It must have taken all of their protector’s strength to get this trio up here and under cover.

  Jacob kneeled over “Joey” as Jamie had called her. “Ma’am, I hope you’ll accept our goodwill. We only want to help you. You can spare the details of your ordeal for later if you want. Right now, we have to get you off of here and help your friend.”

  Domino put her ear to the woman’s chest. “She’s definitely alive. Heart rate and breathing are regular.” Domino next took hold of the woman’s wrist to feel her pulse. “Nothing seems weak, but God knows, if she’s sustained a bad injury, that’ll change.”

  “Skylar is no place to help her. We need to get her back home,” Jacob said.

  Mrs. Keenan chortled. “That’ll be one hell of a trip.”

  “Not as much as we might think. I know it’s going to look weird, but there were some wheelbarrows in Skylar that we passed up. You know that garden supply store we passed up? It was mostly in one piece. We can grab a wheelbarrow and get Joey here up onto Road 22 in it.”

  “I hope she doesn’t wake up before you get her home. That’s going to be one hell of an explanation you’ll have to give her!” Mrs. Keenan replied.

  Domino turned to the boys’ mom. “That is, if you want to come with us. Really, it’s the best thing for you. We have food, water, medicine, almost anything you might need.”

  The mom nodded, exhausted. “It sounds good. Thank you.”

  “Oh, my name’s Domino. You probably heard it earlier.” Domino reached out her hand.

  “Domino.” The lady took Domino’s hand. “I’m Krysta. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Krysta finally dropped her legs down, revealing her face for the first time. Domino gasped. Mrs. Keenan cursed loudly, but then shut her mouth and in a gesture that evidenced her Catholic roots, crossed herself. Jacob couldn’t blame them, for Krysta clearly had taken some punishment of her own. Her left eye was black, and her right cheek was swollen.

  No wonder she doesn’t want to talk about what happened to them, Jacob thought.

  Chapter Five

  Courtney, leaning over the dining room table, looked at the display with her mouth dangling open. “I can’t believe this. I mean, I never knew you could do this with light bulbs!” Behind her, Arnie clapped his hands.

  Sheryl, seated close by, chuckled. “I never knew either!” Turning to Brandon, who was seated to her right, she said, “Thanks to you finding that book in the attic.”

  Jubilee was the only one besides Arnie standing. “I just hope Mom and Dad don’t kill us for making this mess on the table.”

  Sheryl cast a glance over Jubilee’s shoulder to the open door to the living room. We didn’t exactly leave the living room spic and span, she thought. The mess on the dining room table required them to dig out the TV trays to go eat in the living room. It was a funny development, since there was no television in there to watch. The trays still were there, with their dinner plates still on them.

  Jubilee was holding a light bulb in her hand. The inside was completely hollowed out. “How many more are left?”

  “Three.” Brandon pointed to three bulbs off to the right side. His hand brushed against them, setting them into a slow roll toward the edge of the table.

  “Brandon!” Jubilee stopped the first of the bulbs from sliding off the table. “Be careful! We can’t get these anymore!”

  As she placed the bulb carefully onto the table, she asked Sheryl, “Hey, do you think Mom and Dad needed these for anything?”

  Sheryl looked at the bulbs on the table. Once Brandon had discovered the book in the attic that laid out how to make hourglasses from light bulbs, he and Sheryl quickly set out to find any bulbs available in the house. Many of them had been taken out of their outlets and placed in a box during the past months as it had become evident they never could be turned on again. Neither Jacob nor Domino had discussed disposing of them.

  “I don’t think so.” Sheryl picked up one of the hollow bulbs. As per the instructions, the bulbs had to be cleaned out first. That meant the interior tube, wiring and the bottom tip of the bulb had to be removed to free up the inside of the bulb so sand could be poured into it. “But if they do blow their top, I’ll take the heat.” She laughed.

  “I think we still have some new ones in the closet.” Jubilee took two of the hollow bulbs and placed them end to end. “We could make maybe ten of these.”

  Courtney craned her neck to look at Brandon. “Hey! Um, Brandon, could I look at that book for a minute?”

  Brandon was resting his arm on the open book. “Sure!” After a little fumbling, he picked it up and let Sheryl pass the tome to Courtney. The teen placed the book before her and read it with evident intensity.

  This is great, Sheryl thought. Courtney had maintained her sullenness for the first half of the day, but when she learned of the hourglass-making project, she began to perk up. Now she acted excited. Soon the bad feelings brought on by the wasp sting would be a distant memory.

  Jubilee looked through the doorway into the kitchen. The window was visible, showing a dark evening sky. “Wow, it really is late. Should Mom and Dad be gone this long?”

  “Dad said they might need to stay overnight if they make a big haul,” Brandon said.

  Sheryl followed Jubilee’s gaze. “A lot of time has passed, hasn’t it?” They had been so occupied with their project that time slipped away from them. It hadn’t occurred to Sheryl to worry about her brother and his wife.

  “Well, knowing those two, I’m sure they’ve rescued a whole town from a horde of invaders with their bare hands by now.” Joking aside, Sheryl was gripped with fresh concern. So many bad things could have happened to those two.

  A knock at the door jolted her. With great trepidation, she thought the worst. An invader? She fumbled at her sides for her firearm. Damn, I took my holster off! She looked to the living room. Did I put it in there?

  “Stay here.” She rushed through the door to the living room. A second knock greeted her.

  “Hey!” called an unfamiliar female voice. “Don’t mind me, it’s just Dot Kennan. Jacob and Domino sent me. Oh, wait a sec. I have to say the secret code, so you know I’m not a murderer or a rapist. Those two always think of everything. Can�
�t have a total stranger coming to your door and expect you to open it.”

  Sheryl froze as the stranger made what sounded like shuffling sounds. Jacob had told her about a secret code he would give someone if that person absolutely had to come here without Jacob or Domino so that Sheryl and the kids would not be fooled.

  “Okay, here it is.” As she talked, Brandon and Jubilee jogged into the room. “Okay, what is ground beef? No wait. I screwed it up! That’s the punch line. Let me try again!”

  Brandon walked to the door. “We know who that is. It’s Mrs. Kennan.”

  “She’s been here before,” Jubilee added, “By the way, she’s supposed to ask, ‘What do you call a cow with no legs’ and we’re supposed to say ‘ground beef.’”

  Sheryl walked past them to the door. “Let me look anyway.” She checked through the peephole. Only an older lady was present. “Back up.” She unlocked the door, allowing Mrs. Kennan to enter.

  “Hey you two!” Mrs. Kennan reached out and hugged the two children before either of them could get in a word. “Oh goodness, you sprout a little more each time I see you.” Turning to regard Sheryl, she said, “and you! You’re Jacob’s big sis, aren’t you? I don’t see the family resemblance. Oh well.”

  Sheryl took another look out the door. No one else was approaching the homestead. “You said Jacob and Domino sent you?”

  “Yeah.” Mrs. Kennan let out a long breath. “Lord, my butt’s so tired it’s about to fall off. I pedaled all the way over here ahead of them. They’re bringing in some new houseguests, but it’s an ordeal getting them down the road. We need to bring some fresh supplies.” Mrs. Kennan braced herself against a nearby wall. She took some time to gulp in deep breaths. “I definitely am not as young as I used to be.”

  Courtney stuck her head out of the doorway, with Arnie behind her. “Hey, what’s going on?” she asked.

  Arnie pointed to Mrs. Kennan. “New lady!”

  “She’s a friend,” Sheryl quickly said, “Brandon, Jubilee, can you fill these two in?” Sheryl did not want Arnie to panic about their new guest. She also wanted to learn more about who Jacob and Domino were bringing in and what she needed to do to help them.