Forsaken World:Coming of Age (10 page)

“Nothing, and we haven’t stopped looking at any monitors,” Jennifer called back.

Ian eased his face over to Lance’s. “No sounds,” he barely whispered, and Lance nodded, agreeing the forest was dead silent.

“Dino doesn’t like something,” Lance breathed.

“He can join the club,” Ian said, slowly rotating his head to look everywhere.

Lance eased back up and moved down the slope where Dino was looking. They had moved a few steps when they heard leaves on the ground rustling, and they froze. Lance kept his eyes where he thought the noise came from as he stepped back and leaned over to Ian. “How far away was that?” he whispered.

“With this damn bionic hearing aid, I can’t tell, but it wasn’t close,” Ian whispered.

Agreeing with a nod, Lance eased forward, scanning the woods, and again, they heard leaves moving and some small twigs breaking. Stepping up, Ian grabbed Lance’s shoulder. “That was off to the left,” Ian whispered, pointing where Dino was looking. “It’s near the path we took.”

Starting to doubt the wisdom of chasing invisible shit in the woods, Lance nodded and moved up. Walking over an animal trail, Lance froze, as he looked down, and his jaw dropped. A two-foot-wide disturbed area was across the path. It looked like something crawled across the trail.

Ian moved up and looked down, sucking in a breath. “Motherfucker, if there is a snake out here that big, I’m leaving. I’ll take my chance with stinkers,” he mumbled, and off in the distance, they heard some twigs break.

“Hush” Lance hissed for Ian to lower his voice as he looked past the trail but couldn’t see any other disturbances. “Not so loud,” he whispered as he grabbed his squawk box. “We are near the camera but found a trail. Following it,” he whispered over the radio.

“Still haven’t seen anything near you but saw deer running on the east side past a camera,” Jennifer called back.

Reaching over, Lance patted Dino’s back and noticed the dog’s body felt like rock.
Love you, Dino,
Lance thought as he moved toward the sound. Creeping down into a small ravine, Lance froze as the smell hit him.

“Lance,” Ian whispered in his ear, “if there is a stinky snake that big here, we leave tonight. I don’t give a fuck where we go.”

Agreeing with a nod, Lance eased down the ravine and saw a drag mark going up the other side. Coming up the other side, they heard the rustling of leaves on the forest floor moving toward them, and the smell was getting stronger. Moving ahead slowly for thirty or so yards, Lance came to a stop and straightened up, exhaling with relief. “You have got to be shitting me,” he said in a normal voice, making Ian cringe.

Moving around Lance, Ian stopped. “A crawling stinky? Are you shitting me?!”

Really pissed off, Lance stormed over only to have Dino get in front of him and stop him. “Damn it, Dino, move! That motherfucker had me shitting pink Twinkies!” 

Dino just stared at the large man crawling toward them and snapping his jaws but not making any noise. The stinky was a few yards away as they studied him. “His throat has been cut,” Ian said.

“And he has a bullet hole in the small of his back,” Lance said, pointing as the man crawled closer. Lunging over on the man’s back, Dino bit the stinky on the back of the neck. Pulling out his knife, Lance moved over and drove the blade into the stinky’s skull, and the body went limp.

“All that freaking out for nothing,” Ian sighed, walking over.

Wiping his blade on the stinky’s shirt, Lance patted Dino as he let the neck go. “Good boy,” Lance said, reached in the man’s back pocket, and pulled out a wallet. “Ian, help me roll him over.”

As he moved over and helped roll the body, Ian asked, “Why?”

“Like you said, his throat was cut, and someone shot him in the spine,” Lance said, looking the body over. “They shot him in the spine after he was dead. There’s not a lot of blood on those wounds like the wounds on the front,” he said, pointing at the upper body that was covered in blood. “He didn’t come from far away either.”

Seeing what Lance was talking about, Ian nodded. “Yeah, his clothes are barely torn.”

“Someone that doesn’t play well with others is close,” Lance said. “Call Jennifer, and tell her we will be there soon.”

Chapter Seven

Jennifer felt her foot being pulled and lifted her head off the bed. “I’m up,” she croaked. When she saw Ian close the door, she flopped back down. “How in the hell can they manage with only five hours of sleep?”

It was eight as all of them sat at the table after training and exercising. Jennifer really wanted to eat but was still feeling a bit queasy, so she just nibbled as Lance and Ian dug into breakfast, making her feel inadequate. “Carrie and I want to train with the guns like you do,” Allie announced as she grabbed a biscuit.

Lance looked at Ian, who just shrugged, then Lance turned to Jennifer. “I think they should,” Lance told her.

“Shit, I find out until this happened, Carrie has shot more than me,” Jennifer said, feeling her stomach settle down as she sped up her eating. “And I agree they need to know guns and be ready to use them.”

Grabbing his glass of orange juice, Lance looked at the girls. “If you do this, you do it right, and if you ever don’t follow the rules, then it stops. Understand?”

“Yes,” they said, smiling.

“So you figure out where that crawling stinker came from?” Jennifer asked, grabbing more food.

“His address is a few miles on the other side of the ridge past Hinkle,” Lance said.

“What did you find out new from your downloads?” Ian asked.

“Nobody is seeing the stinkers rot even after they are shot in the head,” Lance said. “A lot of people are saying now they have seen them chasing animals but not really catching any.”

Letting out a groan, Ian looked down at his plate. “That’s not good.”

“No, what’s not good is some people are reporting stinkers trying to open doors and other basic stuff,” Lance said, and the table became quiet. “I didn’t even make a dent in what I downloaded, but I found several posts on that.”

“Really not good,” Ian huffed. “You think they will follow crawling stinky’s trail?”

“It rained last night, and we burned the body, so we can hope,” Lance said, finishing his plate and grabbing the jugs of powder. After pouring scoops in two glasses, Lance handed Ian one, and they cringed, drinking the mix down.

As Allie and Carrie headed down to the bunker to watch, Ian and Lance headed outside. Walking to the shop, Lance grabbed an electric chainsaw and extension cords. He looked over to see Ian carrying the same things. “New Age lumberjacks,” Lance laughed.

Moving to the front gate, they ran extension cords from the cabin to the marked line they had laid out a few days ago for the chain-link fence. There would be at least a ten-foot area between it and the first fence. Lance moved over to the gate as Jennifer came around the cabin in an electric buggy.

Checking his weapons, Ian climbed on the buggy with her as Lance opened the gate. “Just drive till you can’t hear me,” Lance said as they drove slowly past.

“Dude, you think we’re going to the movies?” Ian snapped, looking at the forest outside the fence. “Trust me; we aren’t going any further than we need to.”

After they pulled out and parked on the road, Lance closed the gate. He walked over, grabbed the electric chainsaw, and moved over to the first tree. When Lance started sawing, Jennifer slowly drove down the road pulling out her hunter’s ear.

“Ian, you keep your bionic ear in,” she said, slowly moving down the dirt track. “I’ll tell you when I can’t hear it, and we will pull down till you can’t.”

He whipped his head around to stare at her aghast. “You realize just how far out we will have to go?”

“It shouldn’t be that far,” Jennifer said, and Ian just snorted. They were less than three hundred yards away when Jennifer turned to Ian as she coasted to a stop. “I can’t hear it anymore.”

“Keep going because I can,” Ian huffed. Taking a deep breath, Jennifer slowly continued on. When she reached the tree line at the valley, Jennifer started getting worried about the wisdom of this. “Okay,” Ian whispered. “I can hear it but can’t tell what it is.”

Reaching up, Jennifer put her hunter’s ear on and barely heard a soft whine. “We better be the only ones using these,” she whispered, backing up.

“What, you didn’t trust me?”

She shook her head. “No, just couldn’t believe that something so little could pick up sound that far away.”

“Half a mile,” Ian said as she turned around and sped back. Ian grabbed his radio box. “Coming back. We lost the sound at the half mile mark with the hunter’s ear. We lost the sound before getting three hundred yards with regular hearing.”

“Okay, I’ll tell Lance if he didn’t hear you. He’s cutting down a tree,” Allie came back over the radio.

They were almost to the gate when they heard Allie tell Lance what they said, and Jennifer was almost at the gate. Jennifer stopped away from the gate as Lance walked over and opened it up. “You cut down three trees already?” she asked as she pulled in.

“Jennifer, these trees aren’t that big. Hell, the biggest one we have to cut down is barely thirty inches around,” Lance said, closing the gate. He walked over to the buggy as Jennifer climbed out. “How about we do a whole line then limb and cut the logs down to twelve feet?”

Taking off his vest, Ian nodded. “Sounds good. I just want to be done with this fence fast.”

“Well, we won’t be getting this one done in three days,” Lance said, walking away.

Leaving the buggy, Jennifer went inside to make lunch then headed down to let the ladybugs go to the bathroom. She tried to tell them one could stay while the other watched the monitors, but they kept telling her it took both of them.

Walking back outside, Jennifer stopped looking at all the downed trees. “How in the hell do they make them fall towards the inside and between the other trees?” she said, walking over and putting her gloves back on. No matter what, everyone wore gloves almost all the time.

Ian and Lance were done with the south section between the gate and the east corner and were walking around as they cut the limbs off and cut the logs.

Jennifer watched Lance fight with his extension cord. Looking up, Lance saw her walking up with a grin. “It’s not funny,” he snapped. “The trees are trying to grab the cord so I can’t kill them.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Jennifer said as she started pulling the branches out of the way. They cleared the area that would be between the two fences as well as the trees that would be close to the chain-link fence going up.

Reaching the southeast corner, Ian looked back at the track they had cleared. “Well, one part is done,” he said, walking over and grabbing his saw. He unplugged it then walked around the pile and just pulled the cord out from under the debris. “You want to hook up logs or continue cutting?”

“I’ll cut,” Lance said, yanking his cord out like Ian did.

Spinning around, Ian nodded and put his saw in the back of the buggy as Jennifer climbed in. “Just how and where did you two learn how to cut down trees like that?” she asked.

“Merit badge,” Ian said, pulling a chain from the back of the buggy.

“I feel so cheated,” Jennifer mumbled, backing up to a log as Ian wrapped the chain around it then hooked it to the buggy. Ian jumped on as Jennifer pulled the log behind the house to the side of the ATV shed. After Ian unhooked it and jumped on, Jennifer pulled off. “I will unhook them now while you use the other chain to get the next one ready,” she said, and Ian just nodded.

Only stopping to eat, the three moved quickly at the task. It was late afternoon when they stopped because they had drained both electric buggies by pulling the logs. They had cleared the area all the way around the fence but were only halfway finished, still pulling logs from the back or north fence line.

“Let’s grab our gear and call it a day,” Lance said, wiping his face. “I’ll finish cutting limbs off and sectioning the logs tomorrow. It’s not worth starting up the hybrid buggy for just a few hours.”

“Lance, why don’t we use Uncle Doug’s four wheeler?” Ian said as he started rolling up extension cords. “It has that super quiet muffler on it, and you can barely hear it. I’m worried about hurting the engines and transmissions on the electric buggies.”

“Hey, you’re the engine guy,” Lance said. “If you think we’ll hurt them, let’s do that tomorrow.”

Throwing a rolled up extension cord over her arm, Jennifer looked over at them. “Won’t that make a lot of noise?”

“No,” Ian said. “That damn thing is barely louder than the hybrid buggy. Uncle Doug spent some time on it to make it quiet. Because he was the size of a mountain, Uncle Doug couldn’t really ride on the electric buggies, but he loved how quiet they were. So he worked on his four-wheeler, making it quiet.”

“I take it the four-wheeler that is the size of a small car is his?” Jennifer smirked.

“It’s the biggest one Polaris made,” Ian laughed.

When they went inside, they all headed for the showers. As they came out, they smiled at Allie and Carrie working on supper. Lance headed downstairs to the bunker as the others helped with the meal. When he came back, he was carrying a stack of laptops and tablets.

He set a laptop and tablet at each person’s spot. “I have the electronic library wireless now. Everyone needs to devote time to reading.”

“Okay, like what?” Jennifer asked, carrying over the food.

“First, we all need to learn how to fight, so that takes priority. There are a ton of books on shooting. We all pick one and read it. If it’s good we put it on a list for everyone to read. Then, we will all pick an area to study. There is a whole course on DVD that was uploaded on gunsmithing. I would like to study that.”

“I’ll do electric engines,” Ian said.

Jennifer looked at them, embarrassed. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“We need someone to learn hydroponics. And I mean really learn it. Ian and I know how to cut up game, but we don’t know how to store food. How about you start on those?” Lance offered, hoping she wouldn’t spin off. “What anyone learns, they have to teach everyone else so everyone can do it.”

“Okay, I like that.” Jennifer grinned.

“What about us?” Carrie asked, putting a jug of Kool-Aid on the table.

“You two will have to learn as well, and when we get to a point that we can get in a routine, there are home school courses that we will all be taking,” Lance said. “Until then, you two will need to read the books on chickens, goats, and pigs plus the ones on preparing meals.” 

Carrie smiled and looked over at Allie. “We can do that.”

Dropping in his chair, Ian looked over at the two girls. “Allie, Carrie, I’m not going to lie; all of the books are mostly boring, but you still have to read them. If you don’t, we will, and it will put us further behind,” Ian said. “Don’t rush, and if you see a word you don’t know, look it up. Get a notebook, and make notes to help you.”

Allie rolled her eyes at her brother. “Gosh,” she sighed. “We’re not stupid, Ian.”

Holding his tongue, Ian looked over at Lance. “I’m really thinking we need to factor in a day of rest.”

Sitting down, Lance nodded. “Yeah, we are all getting worn down. How about we take Sundays off unless we have something important to do?”

“Sounds good to me,” Ian said.

“Ah,” Jennifer said, leaning over the table. “Tomorrow is Sunday. I really think we need that other fence up before slowing down.” Lance and Ian both looked down at their watches and started pushing buttons.

“Whoa,” Ian said. “Yeah, I say we start that after the fence is up.”

Lance nodded as Jennifer sat down and looked over at them. “Guys, are there any more wrist watches here? I really want one,” she said with a pained face. “I’ve never worn one, but damn, I think I need one now.”

Lance held up his wrist. “We have some like this. I haven’t found any girl watches.”

“Little pansy ass girl watches can kiss my ass,” Jennifer laughed. “Can I have one of those? I got an alarm clock from that house we went to, but it doesn’t work. There isn’t an extra one here, is there?”

Lance just dropped his hand to the table. “You don’t have to ask that, Jennifer,” he said, getting up and heading to the bunker. “What is here is yours as well as ours.”

When Lance headed downstairs, Jennifer grabbed a pot and leaned over, putting a spoonful on everyone’s plate. “Carrie and I weren’t part of the group your parents had coming out here. The stuff here is for y’all,” she mumbled.

Glaring at Jennifer, Ian slapped his hand on the table with a loud boom, making the girls jump. “Say that again, and I’ll slap the shit out of you,” Ian growled. Stunned, Jennifer’s jaw fell open as her arms went numb, letting the pot of food hit the table with a thump. Fortunately, the pot landed on its bottom and didn’t spill.

Trying to make her voice work, Jennifer’s jaw quivered.

“Don’t,” Ian snapped, pointing at her. “You and Carrie are part of this. Full members.”

Lance came back up and froze, seeing Ian glaring at Jennifer as he pointed at her. “Never thought I would see this,” he said, walking over. “What the hell did she say that pissed
you
off?”

“Jennifer thinks she and Carrie aren’t real members of this group,” Ian snarled, never taking his eyes off her.

Reaching over, Lance pushed Ian’s hand down to the table. “Bro, chill,” Lance said, turning to Jennifer, and found she was still stunned. “Can I ask you to explain your reasoning and not use female rationale?”