A Very Good Man (26 page)

  Hit hard too apparently. When the older women walked in, holding a damp cloth to her face, the bruise looked decent already. They couldn't have that, but it wasn't exactly a killing offense either. What else could they do, ground her? She didn't want to leave the house at all... Spank her?

  Well... that could work. After a fashion.

  Corporal punishment. It just had to come from the right person. It couldn't be Nate or him, or people would think they were just jerks, beating up girls. Lois was a pacifist and hurt, so that wouldn't work.

  Vickie came to mind, but that might end up with Tammy dead on the floor, which was tempting, but wrong. Tipper had the same problem and while Sammi had the guts, short of giving her a baseball bat she wouldn't be able to do a lot. Really there was only one person he could think of that would work.

  “Sammi, would you go get Carley please?” Jake said, almost sweetly. The women in the chairs in front of them both cringed.

  Heh. Yeah, good call then. They at least thought something was going to happen. Possibly a scolding for letting their “sisterhood” down. They'd be shocked then, wouldn't they?

  The curly haired blond came in, looking a bit hesitant, Jake smiled at her and stood.

  “Tammy, stand up please. Carley would you come over here for a second? This won't take long.” He led Tammy by the arm, moving her firmly, until the distances looked right.

  “Tammy here punched Lois for not letting her steal food. She has to be punished, but it needs to be equal to the crime. Hit her in the face please. Hard.”

  It took a second and Tammy gave first him a disbelieving look, then Carley, just as the woman's fist came around in a big wide swing, hitting the dark hard looking woman in the face, about where Lois had been hit. It was really a nice solid punch too. The blow took Tammy to the floor and caused Carley to bite her lip, holding her hand as if it hurt. She didn't cry out, just making a light hissing sound. After a bit she shook her hand lightly.

  “Anything else?”

  Their leader, unshaved and a bit red eyed looked at the woman and nodded.

  “Yes... We need to get everyone together after dinner for a serious discussion. There are some things we've left unsaid and undone that really need to be fixed. This shouldn't have happened at all and the next time it does the reason better not be someone trying to push around someone else. We aren't a gang, this is a community and we need some kind of order. Thank you Carley, if you'd let everyone else know? After dinner, in here please.”

  Jake just stood up and walked into the kitchen with Lois and Yvonne.

  “OK, I don't know what to do, but we have two people injured, if only mildly, so I'm here to help.”

  Sammi, eleven years old or not, took over instantly.

  “Ken, wash and prep the carrots, please, we have some meat, raccoon, so stew tonight. We need a fire in the stove and the big pot filled half full with water. Some potatoes need to be sliced up as well, about one for each person, they're small. We have some sprout bread already, but some mashed turnips might round things out nicely. I'll do those. Jake, could you get the fire going and then the water? Maybe grab another body for us?”

  Lois sat at the little kitchen table working even with her aching face, parting out the two raccoons they had. They'd already been skinned, so Carl or one of his team had probably gotten them. The deer skin from the one he'd killed had gotten a bit trashed when Randy dressed it down, having to work in the dark like he'd been. Collecting skins seemed like a good idea though. There had to be something that could be done with them. Clothing or something. Hats.

  Sammi, it turned out, was a bossy little thing. She also knew what to do, so he followed her orders and had not one, but three, of the adults helping them inside two minutes, simply by walking into the house and pointing at the first three he saw not doing anything, two men and a woman. They just followed and didn't ask what was going on. No one wanted to cook, but they all liked to eat, didn't they? It was so weird really. What else did they have to do in the house? Jake would have thought people would have been fighting to get a job doing something useful.

  He got the fire going after two tries, using wood shavings as starter and a coal from the earlier fire. The men carried water in and got to work on the potatoes with minimal instruction. The woman was put with Lois cutting up meat into fine, fast cooking chunks.

  They had some salt and a few seasonings from the garden, so the whole thing actually smelled pretty good as dinner approached. When they finished Jake looked at the people in the room with them and nodded.

  “Alright, you three are the new kitchen assistants, at least until after the harvest, that means you're on the canning, drying and prep team with Lois too. This is vital work and you'll probably have to teach other people what to do too, so pay attention to what she says. The kids are in charge of you for now, but we need them to do other work, I want to start them on guard duty soon, maybe as cleaners. So you need to learn and be able to take over their jobs within a few weeks. If you slack off I'll have Ken shoot you in the head. If you think that's not a credible threat, then just say so now. I'll have him take you three out, so that your replacements will know the real situation.” He turned to look at the thin older woman that seemed pleased suddenly.

  “I get help? I figured it would just be the regulars here, with Mary gone...”

  He gave her a nod.

  “Yes, you have everyone at your disposal if you need them. Up to the cleaning teams and Burt if you need us. You know that Nate will do it if you ask too. Tell me how many you need and when, I'll get them for you. The people here now are the team leaders under you, if anyone hassles you, let me know that too and we'll take care of it. Food is too important to stint working on now. We can't afford to lose half our harvest because we were too stupid to figure out you could use a hand in time.” He looked at everyone and gave them a nod, then helped set up things for dinner.

  After the meal he planned to go and help wash things up, but Nate called him over, along with Burt, Lois, Vickie and Tipper. They sat at the front of the room, while things got hashed out. Tipper looked at him sadly for a few seconds but just shook her head. Hopefully feeling ashamed of herself, Jake thought.

  Probably not, she was probably thinking what a jerk he was. That wasn't true though. She could have just been upfront with him, right? Or god, she seemed to like sex enough, maybe she could have even just put out? Was he really that bad? Of course he probably was, given how everyone treated him all the time.

  He kind of wanted to get washed up before bed, since he'd likely be getting cuddly with Heather, an idea that amazed him when he thought about it. Maybe life had some kind of value after all, if someone like him had a real shot of finding love? Or at least a good friend. It was enough to almost make him forgive Tipper. Eventually at least.

  Possibly.

  Nate went on for a while. He could do that when he thought people weren't listening closely. Like talking more made people listen harder? When Jake wanted people to listen he said less. Well... and pointed guns at them. That tended to work pretty nicely too. Finally he got to the point, and it made an impact. If he'd said it half an hour earlier it still would have made an impact. Jake thought so anyway.

  “So, all the pregnant women need a partner. We don't have time for niceties, so they need to get with someone capable of pulling their share of the work as well as a pregnant person's for the duration. Ideally this would have been the father of the child, but that isn't going to happen, so someone else gets stuck with your problems now. If you can't find anyone, then... Then you need to make other arrangements. We don't need children right now and really, the fact that six of you are having one man's child is a slap in the face to every unattached man here. You've created a real problem for us and it has to be taken care of now. You have a week to find someone or clear out, and no, this time I won't be available for you. Good luck.”

  The room went silent.

  Nate wasn't available. To Jake that made sense, most of his effort went to everyone else anyway. Taking on a child like that and a woman, well it would have been asking too much. Besides, he was gay. If he had to be attached to anyone it would have been another guy. What amazed Jake is that other people had noticed the whole Holsom taking all the women thing too and felt it was wrong. He'd thought it was just him the whole time, being a bit pissy because none of the women thought he was worth anything. Apparently it wasn't. If the gay guy noticed, then chances were good it was a real issue. That didn't make Jake feel better about it or anything. Not much.

  Maybe a little.

  People looked shocked, subdued. A few of the women cried, probably because they understood how hard it would be to ask other people for help when they were already barely making it. Jake waved to Carl who got up and walked over with a smile.

  “I knew it Jake, you want me to be the father of your child. It's my good looks and charm isn't it?” The man smiled easily, laughing at his own joke.

  Jake nodded seriously.

  “Yeah. That's it exactly, who could resist?” Letting a smile come to his face, he otherwise deadpanned for a while. It reminded him of back when he actually had a sense of humor still, if only for a few moments. Carl grinned after a few seconds too. “Actually I wanted to line up a hunting trip, salvage and collection too, for tomorrow, if possible, I can shoot stuff, but I don't really know what to do with it after, I need to learn ASAP and we need to preserve things if we can. You in?”

  “Hell yeah, anything to get away from the crying fest this place is about to become. I don't blame Nate for his decision on that, but no one wants to be saddled with Holsom's kids and most of these women were pretty cold to everyone else back then, not exactly a good way to make friends. Say what you want about the guy, but he certainly had a way with the ladies. You'd have thought they'd have been upset because he slept around so much, wouldn't you? They all seem fine with that part though, I haven't heard of any complaints or fights over it anyway.”

  Neither had Jake, which was weird. How had the guy managed that anyway?

  That part done, they just had to recruit a few more people, they ended up with ten, all men except Tipper. Dave wanted to come too, which Jake thought sounded fine. It was a trip to kill things after all. About perfect as far as the kid was concerned. A good time to be had for all the good little would-be psycho's. They'd need rifles, but they all could use them at least. Even most of the homebodies had the skill. They didn't work well for clearing houses, not compared to shotguns, but early on you could just sit and snipe from building tops and second story windows. They'd all gotten pretty good. Later the easy ones had already been taken mainly, so the cleaning crews were developed.

  That night Heather didn't sleep by him, not in the room with them at all.

  Jake kind of missed her, but it wasn't a huge deal, though he'd kind of thought she might ask him to help with her baby. They were pretty close and he thought he could do it. It would be a lot of work, but if you were going to be there for someone, that meant you had to be there when it got tough too, right? He just hoped she wasn't too worried about things, because he'd do it, even if she didn't want to have sex yet. All that trauma with this on top of it, yeah that would be hard. He wouldn't push her. Even if it meant her never wanting to be with him at all. It would suck, but he'd deal, if that's what she needed.