Forsaken World:Coming of Age (11 page)

That wiped the stunned look off Jennifer’s face. Snapping her mouth closed, she looked at Lance. “I’ve read the rules, and it clearly says only your families were members. Everyone else has to be voted in after a trial period,” she said then picked the pot of food up again.

“Well, you’re right,” Lance said, nodding. Shocked, Jennifer glanced at Lance, and Carrie gasped. “So Ian and Allie, I say we vote and allow Jennifer and Carrie to be full members here.”

“Yes!” Allie shouted, throwing up her hands.

Ian looked up at Lance like he was about to attack. “There is no vote,” Ian snapped. “They are full members, and if anyone says anything about it, we go outside.”

Putting the stuff he carried up on the table, Lance held up his hands. “Hey bro, I’m with you, but she wants a vote. You and I have always said they were part of this team.”

“Fine,” Ian snapped. “I vote yes again formally,” he said, turning to Jennifer. “Say something like that again, and I’ll pop you.”

Letting out a squeal, Jennifer bounced around the table, grabbed Ian’s face, and kissed his cheek. The grumpy expression fell of, replaced by a goofy grin. “Thank you,” she said then kissed Lance’s cheek. Carrie ran over, hugging and kissing them, then Jennifer and Carrie hugged Allie.

A ding sounded, and Jennifer ran over to the stove as Lance leaned down to Ian. “Never in my life would I have thought you would ever threaten to hit Jennifer,” he whispered.

With the goofy grin still on his face, Ian looked up at Lance. “She earned it,” he said as Jennifer carried over a pan of rolls.

Lance laughed and pushed two boxes over to Jennifer’s spot. “Here is a watch and alarm clock,” he said, sitting back down.

The next morning, Jennifer felt something tapping her face. As her brain slowly pulled out of sleep, she heard a loud beeping in the distance. Realizing what the beeping was, she opened her eyes to see Carrie tapping her cheek. “The clock is beeping. It’s time to get up,” Carrie said, yawning.

Sitting up, Jennifer looked at the clock. “Four thirty,” she mumbled and saw Allie climbing off the bunk bed Ian and Lance put in the room the night before. When the girls had climbed up in Lance’s lap after supper and asked if they could have one of the bunk beds from upstairs in their room, he got up and went to work. Before Lance reached the upstairs, Ian stood up and followed him, snarling at the girls.

The fact that both girls slept on the top bunk made Jennifer grin as she sat up in bed. “What do we wear?” Carrie asked.

Jennifer stretched with a yawn. “Pants, shirt, and hiking boots,” Jennifer said then stood up, feeling her entire body was sore. “We change before going to the gym.”

After they dressed, they found Ian and Lance waiting. “Thought you were going to let that alarm ring till tomorrow,” Lance said, walking over to Allie and Carrie.

Lance put chest rigs on them then got on his knees and tightened them up. “Carrie slapped my face till I got up,” Jennifer said then smelled coffee and took off.

“Okay, ladybugs, they don’t make these small enough for you, but we can make do,” Lance said and clipped a holster on each of their hips.

Ian walked over and handed them each an airsoft submachine gun that looked like an MP5. “You two know the rules and better remember them,” he said in a firm voice as Jennifer came back with a cup of coffee.

Lance pushed play, and they copied what the men on the screen did for ninety minutes then changed and headed to the gym for another ninety minutes. After breakfast, everyone showered and started the day.

As the ladybugs sat down at master control, Allie turned to Carrie. “The sun is barely up, and look at all we did already,” she said, and Carrie nodded.

“We did more before it came up than we used to do all day,” Carrie grinned, putting her tablet on the desk. “You watch, and I’ll read for fifteen minutes. Then, you read for fifteen minutes while I watch.” Nodding with a grin, Allie looked up at the monitors and watched the three older kids start the day.

Sitting on the massive four-wheeler, Jennifer looked like a very little kid as she pulled logs over to the growing stack next to the shop. Just before noon, Jennifer came in to make some lunch and found stacks of sandwiches on the table. She went to the basement and found Carrie reading and Allie staring at the monitors.

“Who fixed lunch?” Jennifer asked and saw a laptop on the desk with a timer running backwards.

“We took turns,” Allie said, not blinking as she stared at the monitors. When the timer ran out, it beeped, and Carrie looked up, restarting it as Allie started reading on her tablet.

“Effective,” Jennifer said and walked over to hug the girls then carried lunch outside.

That afternoon, Ian and Lance carried out an electric, two-man auger. At the gate, Jennifer used a can of spray paint and put an X on the ground and used a rolling measuring wheel to mark the line where fence posts had to go. She would stop and spray an X at each spot for the posts.

Plugging in the auger, Ian looked at Lance. “You know this is going to suck ass nuggets, right?”

“Shit, we had to do this at the Keller farm with post hole diggers the first time, and that super sucked donkey dicks,” Lance said as Ian walked over, and they each grabbed the handles that stuck out.

“Lance, that was a field, and now, we are on a mountain. Remember what they said about laying that cable: rocks everywhere.”

Picking up the auger, they stabbed it in the center of the X, and Lance squeezed the trigger. They barely went a foot when the auger stopped, and it tried to throw them. “Okay, this is going to be ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag,” Lance said, gripping the handles hard, and waited until Ian nodded.

Holding on tight, Lance squeezed the trigger as they bounced the auger up and down, watching rocks the size of their fists roll out. Then, it stopped going down. Pulling it out, they saw a rock that took up the bottom of the hole. Grabbing shovels, they went to work and finally pulled out a rock bigger than their heads.

As they picked the auger up, Ian looked back to see Jennifer already starting on the east fence line. “This is going to take forever,” he said as Lance squeezed the auger’s trigger.

Chapter Eight

It took four days for Lance and Ian to dig the holes for the fence. Neither could remember how many times the damn thing had thrown them off as it hit a rock. It was the third day they started thinking about just using the mini excavator, but they didn’t want to spend days making it quiet.

With the holes dug, the two were at the shop. They pulled out an electric cement mixer and hooked it to the back of the four-wheeler. Their arms and chests were covered with bruises from where the auger handles had hit them before throwing them. Needless to say, they were beyond sore from the auger, and the morning exercises didn’t help but did loosen up their muscles.

Putting his hand on the small of his back as he stood up, Ian groaned. “I feel like someone beat the shit out of me with a bat.” He glanced over at the auger lying on the ground and fought the temptation to pull out his pistol and shoot the damn thing.

Looking at the sacks of concrete, Lance wanted to cry. “Yeah,” he said as he turned to see even Jennifer was moving slow. She had taken turns giving the boys a short break from the auger. When it hit a rock, it would throw Lance and Ian down when the handles hit them. Little Jennifer would get slung several yards through the air when the handles hit her. After giving them a break, she would pull out the poles for the fence, spread them out, and put them in the holes until the boys needed another break.

Lance looked over at the east fence and saw the tall, silver poles standing up in the holes. After lunch on the second day, they were drilling holes. They had shown her how to use string staked to the ground and hold the pole up and use a level to make sure it was straight.

Doing this, Jennifer had to have one of the girls come out to help. Allie or Carrie would come out for an hour then change places. It was one of these times watching Carrie walk back to swap out that Jennifer wished she could take an hour watching the monitors.

Jennifer looked at the poles that she didn’t use laying in on the ground. “Are you sure we don’t need those?” she asked, pointing at them. “I’m just saying because we aren’t taking this damn thing down if we find out we didn’t do it right.”

With a tired face way beyond his years, Ian shook his head. “On the diagram for the fence, it said nine feet, eight inches apart. That is four hundred and sixty-two holes. Those are just extra poles, and the other poles in the shop are for the gate. I’ll be damned if we ever take this fence down.”

Sighing with relief, Jennifer gave a weak grin. “Thank God,” she said, rubbing a large bruise on her shoulder that the auger gave her.

Slowly, Ian looked over at Lance and brought up his right hand in a fist then laid it in the palm of his left hand. “Loser takes concrete mixing first.” Groaning, Lance brought up his hands, and Ian counted while they hit their palms with their fist. At the count of three, Ian held out a flat hand, and Lance held out two fingers with a grin. “Knew I should’ve gone with rock and not paper,” Ian mumbled, grabbing his gloves from his pocket.

“Let’s take a cue from the ladybugs; change out every hour,” Lance said, pulling on his gloves.

“Sounds good,” Ian said without enthusiasm as he moved to the stacks of cement.

Lance moved over to the small barrel of the cement mixer. “Jennifer, when you drive around, make sure this side is the side next to the poles,” he said, tapping the mixer.

“Okay,” she said and pulled the water hose over.

Seeing Ian carry over a bag, Lance plugged the mixer up then grabbed another extension cord and headed to the front. After dumping six bags in, Ian pointed inside the drum. “Fill it to this line,” he said and leaned against the four wheeler, panting. When it was full, he turned on the mixer and leaned back again on the four wheeler. “Remember; don’t go fast, and don’t turn sharp. This thing is heavy.”

Giving a nod, Jennifer climbed on the four wheeler and waited until Ian told her she could leave. “How did the ground where the fences are get leveled?”

“Dad said they did that when they built the cabin. He brought up a small dozer and smoothed it out just enough so it would look natural when the grass grew back,” Ian said, leaning over and checking on the cement. “You’re ready,” he said, turning the mixer off, then unplugged it.

Starting the four wheeler, Jennifer slowly pulled around the cabin and up to Lance, who was standing by the first pole and pointing at the spot he wanted her to park. When she stopped by the pole, Lance plugged the mixer back in and turned it on. He then reached under it and pulled a two-foot-long chute that was on a swivel.

With the chute aimed at the hole the pole was in, Lance grabbed the handle, tilting the spinning barrel. Concrete hit the chute and flowed into the hole. When it reached the top, Lance let the handle go and put a level on the pole. Seeing the pole was still level, he just pointed to the next pole, guiding the extension cord for the mixer.

When the mixer was empty, Jennifer headed back to Ian as Lance pulled the extension cord back to the cabin then walked it through the trees in the yard to the spot where they had stopped.

It was mid-afternoon when they finished. After cleaning the mixer out and picking up the tools, they called the girls out to feed the animals. When they went inside, the three hit the couch and were asleep almost instantly.

***

Feeling something shaking his arm, Ian opened his eyes to see Allie smiling at him. “The clock went off,” she said with a smile.

Blinking to get Allie in focus, Ian looked past her at the monitors on the wall and saw they were all dark. With a grunt, he held up his arm, looking at his watch. “It’s four thirty in the morning?”

“Yeah, silly. All of you went to sleep yesterday before it was even dark,” she giggled. “We made coffee.”

Sitting up, Ian looked around him and saw Lance passed out on one side, Jennifer on the other. He shook both awake then got up, following the smell of coffee.

Lance sat up, rubbing his face. “What the hell ran over me?”

Allie and Carrie giggled at him, and Carrie held up a coffee mug. “Lots of cream and sugar,” Carrie said.

“Thank you,” Lance said, forcing a smile and taking the mug.

“You didn’t get me one?” Jennifer asked, trying to get her sore body to move, but the pain from her muscles and bruises were making her grimace.

“No, Lance is super nice,” Carrie said and stuck out her tongue at Jennifer. Carrie turned back to Lance as Allie grabbed her hand. “Lance, we are dressed and ready to practice with the training guns with the TV.”

Taking a sip, Lance couldn’t help but smile at the two. “Give us a few to get moving,” he said, trying to stand. Feeling something hit his shoulder. Lance turned to see a huge bottle of Ibuprofen.

“Here,” Ian said. Lance took the bottle and set his mug down, shaking out three pills. He tossed them down and handed the bottle to Jennifer.

With her face twisting up in agony, Jennifer sat up, taking the bottle. As she shook out three pills, Ian handed her a mug. “Here, Jen,” Ian said and looked over at Lance. “Dude, I have never been this sore or tired.”

“Shit, if this is what growing up and working means, no wonder why our parents bitch about going to work,” Lance said as Ian wobbled around the sectional, and Lance could tell Ian’s legs were shaking.

Ian sat down very slow, groaning with the movement. “I’m not going to be pushing hard in the gym today, bro.” Thinking about skipping the morning schedule, Lance looked over at Ian, who shook his head. “No, Jason always said if your body was sore, it was growing, so we have to work out, just not hard.”

“Even he only worked out five times a week,” Lance said, taking a sip of coffee.

“Twice a day,” Ian said. “But he did cardio every day.”

“I miss Jason,” Allie mumbled. Setting his mug down, Lance reached out and hugged her.

“Ladybug, we all do, but we can’t let it get us down, or we will make a mistake,” Lance said as he rubbed her head. “Since you and Carrie are moving pretty well, you two think you can do twenty pushups while we get ready to start?”

Allie leaned back, wiping her eyes. “Easy,” she said with a forced grin. Carrie and Allie ran behind the couch, dropped down, and started doing pushups.

Taking a deep breath and grimacing, Lance stood up slowly. “Time to start the day.”

“I’m sleeping all day the first Sunday we have off,” Jennifer said, struggling to stand up.

The three slowly stretched then grabbed their vests for the airsoft training. During the workout, the three moved around slow as Allie and Carrie bounced around, working out. As they moved down to the mat to learn Krav Maga, Lance felt really envious of the ladybugs as they hit the bags like the man on the TV showed them.

When they left the gym, they found Dino outside chasing a billy goat. Allie and Carrie stopped Dino and went to gather eggs with Jennifer. Leaving the girls, Ian and Lance headed inside to shower. When Ian got out of the shower and grabbed a towel, he looked at Lance’s outline behind the curtain standing motionless. “You asleep?” Not getting an answer, Ian opened the curtain and found Lance asleep standing up.

“Bro!” Ian snapped, startling Lance awake. “You bust your ass in the shower, and it will hurt.”

“Damn, I never did that before,” Lance mumbled.

Ian laughed and wobbled to the bedroom. When he finished dressing, Lance hobbled in.

“I’m going to start breakfast,” Ian said, walking out.

Lance only lifted his chin in acknowledgment as Ian left. Seeing the girl’s bathroom door was closed, Ian headed to the kitchen and saw the eggs in the sink. He washed them off and put them in the fridge, leaving a dozen out.

When Lance finally made it, Ian was almost done with the food, so Lance pulled the concentrated orange juice from the freezer. “We will make that excavator quiet,” Lance said, mixing up the orange juice. “We will not dig that damn hillside out with shovels.”

“I’m all for that,” Ian said as he pulled biscuits out of the oven. “How about let’s take tomorrow off? Lance, we can barely move, and all of us are tired except the ladybugs.”

“Shit, how about today?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to say it because I didn’t want you to say I should wear a dress,” Ian chuckled.

Lance turned around with a straight face. “Find one, and I’ll put the damn thing on right now with high heels.”

Grabbing the plate of eggs, Ian raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, let’s take today off.”

When the girls came out, Lance looked at them. “We’re taking today off,” he announced. “To prove I’m worn out, I’ll put on a dress.”

Walking to the kitchen with the girls, Jennifer froze. “Yeah, we need a day of downtime.”

After breakfast, Lance went to the couch and lay back down. He was asleep before his head was on the couch, and Jennifer and Ian soon joined him.

Hearing quiet singing, Lance tried to open his eyes, but they felt like they were nailed shut. Struggling harder, his eyes cracked open to see a little girl on the massive projection screen singing about a snowman. Lifting his body up, he saw Allie and Carrie sitting on the floor, singing softly with the TV. “Hey, guys,” Lance croaked.

“Hey, Lance,” Allie said, not taking her eyes off the TV.

Looking around, Lance didn’t see Ian or Jennifer. “Where is everyone?”

“At the table reading,” Carrie said.

Still sore but feeling better, Lance pushed off the couch and looked at his watch. He pushed a button and saw it was still the same day. “It’s only two? I feel like I slept days,” he mumbled, walking around the couch, and found Ian and Jennifer at the table, looking at laptops making notes.

“Sleeping Beauty is awake,” Ian said, looking up.

“Where is the prince so I can kick his ass for kissing me and waking me up?” Lance grinned as he walked to the fridge. “How long have you two been up?”

“Barely an hour,” Ian said, looking back at his laptop. “Food’s on the stove.”

Grabbing a plate, Lance piled it high and sat down. “Damn, I needed that nap.”

“Don’t feel like you were the only one,” Jennifer said, staring at her laptop.

When Lance was done, he headed downstairs to the bunker and sat down at master control. He turned on his laptop, grabbed some headphones, and plugged them into the laptop he had connected to the ham radio. Tapping the keyboard, Lance started the playback as he pulled out his notebooks then started going through the computer downloads.

Voices came and went as the computer played back what it recorded. Many were voices calling for help, and some were talking about what they knew. “Don’t let them get out the back, Candyman!” was suddenly shouted on the playback, making Lance look up.

“Donnie, they are barricaded up, and infected are starting to get thick,” a voice answered on the playback with gunfire in the background.

“I don’t care, Candyman; there are three split tails in there.”

“Donnie, we have lost three disciples so far, and we can’t get behind the house. Infected are all in the woods. If we don’t leave soon, we will be cut off!” played with gunfire in the background.

Reaching over, Lance paused the playback and saw he had been listening for three hours. Typing on the keyboard, Lance brought that recording up and saw it was from the day before at 16:18. He looked at the strength of the signal and what frequency it was on. Grabbing the mouse, he opened the receiving history and had the computer triangulate the signals.