The Siege (7 page)

     “Sure,” Hannah had said. “It’
s the least I can do. After all, it was nice of you to volunteer to get shot so I didn’t have to.”

     “Yeah, sure. Let’s go with that.”

     As Hannah applied the oil and gently rubbed it in to soothe the itching, Sami asked her, “Hannah, I can’t see the wound on my back. I’ve tried to see it in the mirror but I can’t. Tell me the truth, is it ugly?”

    
“You want the truth truth or the ‘gotta spare my best friend’s feelings' truth?”

     “I want the truth truth.”

     “Okay. The truth truth is that it isn’t pretty. David might be great at making sutures in people’s mouths after he extracts teeth, but he’d never make it as a plastic surgeon. Please don’t tell him I said that.”

     “I won’t. But he already knows. The whole time he was stitching me up he was apologizing to me. He said he knew he wasn’t the best stitcher-upper in the world, but that he was more concerned with stopping the bleeding. And after all, he saved my life, so I could never be upset with him.
”

     She suddenly laughed out loud.

     “I’m sorry, did I hit a ticklish spot?”

     “Oh, no. I just remembered something else David said when he was stitching me up. I told him I was worried that
Brad would find me ugly when he saw my scars.

     “He told me not to worry. That Brad was a man. He said anytime I was self conscious about my scars, just to get naked. And as soon as Brad saw my boobs he’d forget all about the scars.”

     She looked at Hannah and giggled.

     “And guess what?
After I finally got brave enough to let him see me in the light, I found out it works!”

     Hannah shook her head, then wiped the oil from her hands and put a new dressing on Sami’s wound.

     “You’re hopeless, you know that?”

     “Yep. I know.”

     “So, when are you and Brad gonna get married and stop living in sin?”

     “It’s funny you bring that up. We were going to ask
Bryan to marry us that day they attacked the compound. Then it kind of got shoved on the back burner. I asked Brad yesterday if he still loved me, even though I’m ugly and scarred.

     “He said that despite the scars I’m still the prettiest girl in the world, and that he still wants to marry me as soon as all the fighting is over.”

     Hannah grinned.

     “The prettiest girl in the world, huh? He must have forgot
ten about me.”

     “Yeah, right. Very funny.”

     “Knock knock! Anybody home?”

     Sarah walked into Sami’s RV.

     “Hey, brats. I thought I could find you here.”

     “Hi, Sarah.”

     “What are you two laughing about?”

     “Oh, Sami was just telling me how Brad said she was the prettiest girl in the world.”

     Sarah scoffed and said, “He must have forgotten about me then.”

     Hanna
h burst out laughing and said, “See! Great minds do think alike. That’s the same thing I said.”

     Sami was having none of it.

     “Wait. Go back a minute. I must be hearing things. For a moment I thought I heard you referring to yourself and Sarah, and saying something about great minds. I must have misunderstood. Surely you were talking about great big butts.”

     “Oh no, you di’ent
.”

     “Seriously, girlfriend. You are beautiful, inside and out. If Brad doesn’t mind the scars, then nobody else matters. If he still loves you even though you have big feet and snore, then he’s a
winner. Grab onto him and make him yours.”

     “I don’t snore!”

     Hannah and Sarah looked at each other, then back at Sami. In perfect harmony, they said, “Yes. You do.”

     “Really? Brad never mentioned it.”

     “Well, if Brad doesn’t mind, then he’s definitely a keeper. Marry that man before somebody else does.”

Chapter 13

     Sarah stretched and watched from the bunk in the RV as
Bryan dried himself off and got dressed.

     “What’s on your agenda for today?”

     “We’re going to start digging out this end of the tunnel today, so we can remove the bodies and bury them before they decompose too badly. If we leave them in there too long, they’ll stink up the tunnel and the smell will never go away.”

     “Where are you going to put them?”

     “We still have that huge mound of salt in the back of Bay 24, from when we originally dug the tunnel. We’re going to put them back there and cover them with salt. The salt will absorb the bodily fluids as well as the smells, and will mummify them over time.”

     “Can the tunnel be repaired?”

     “Oh, yes. We still have plenty of railroad ties and arched ceiling braces in the back of that same bay. We’ll shore it up as we go. Should only take a few days to dig out the first debris pile. Then we’ll replace the damaged cameras and rerun power for the lights.”

     “Wha
t about the second pile of dirt? The one at the other end of the tunnel? If you take it out, they might attack us again.”

     “I’m not sure about that one. John wanted to have a meeting today with Mark and Bryan
and me to discuss our next move. He wants to meet in the dining bay at ten. Why don’t you bring the girls so y’all can have some input too?”

     “Okay. I’ll make sure we’re there.”

     Bryan walked over to the control center. Joe was on duty.

     “Anything going on?”

     “Not a thing. It’s been quiet all night. The bad guys slaughtered one of the pigs first thing this morning. He’s hanging in the barn now. I guess they’ve decided they want pork chops for dinner tonight.”

     “That just ain’t right. They’re over there living high off the hog, on our livestock, and we’re stuck over here eating eight year old MREs.”

     Bryan looked at Joe and smiled.

     “Did you catch what I said there? Living high off the hog? Get it? Eating our pigs? High off the hog?”

     “Don’t quit your day job, Bryan. And John asked me to remind you of the ten o’clock meeting when I saw you.”

     “No problem, I’ll be there. Have you seen Brad and Mark yet?”

     “No, why?”

     “Whenever they haul their lazy asses out of bed would you tell them to meet me at the tunnel? I’m g
oing to move a couple pallets of arches and ties over to the entrance so we can get started with the digging and repairs.”

    
Bryan walked to the entrance of the tunnel and entered it to get a look at the job ahead. The debris field stretched from floor to ceiling and sloped downward. It was easily several tons and would require a lot of digging.

     When they dug the
original tunnel they’d done it by hand, filling one five gallon bucket at a time and then hauling them out of the tunnel entrance one by one. It had taken them almost two years to finish the project, but back then they weren’t in a hurry. They knew it would be five to seven years before the earth thawed out enough to reinhabit, so they had time to burn.

     Now, though, they were anxious to get out of the mine and go back home. They had plenty of water and diesel fuel for the generators. They had enoug
h MREs to last them at least six more months. But none of them wanted to stay here that long.

     Karen wanted to get back to the plants in her greenhouses before the men she called “heathens” managed to kill them all.

     Bryan and Mark wanted to get the corn, wheat and sorghum crops planted so they had time to harvest and plant a second set of crops before mid summer.

     Everyone else just wanted to go home again.

     “What do you think, little brother? Think we can whip it out in a couple of days?”

     Mark and Brad had walked up behind him.

     Without turning, he said, “I’d guess more like three or four, but we won’t know until we get started.”

     “A true statement if I ever heard one. Joe said
you were going to fetch some ties and arches?”

     “Yep. I’m heading that way now.”

     “Okay, then. We’ll get some buckets and shovels and get started while we’re waiting for you.”

     By a quarter of ten they’d made a good sized dent. They were sweaty and covered in dirt, and needed to take a break to meet with John.

     In the far end of the bay, out of sight of anyone walking down the main passageway, they had a makeshift shower system set up. It was nothing but a two by four mounted on the wall, to which three shower heads were fastened.

     Each shower head was fed by a garden hose, which went through a small water heater. Mounted on the wall high above the shower was a fifty gallon water tank which provided their water.

     They utilized the shower daily when they were digging the tunnel, but this time they chose to pass it by. None of them had thought to bring a change of clothes, and they were going right back into the tunnel anyway. So instead of utilizing the shower, they dragged their dirty selves down to the dining room to meet with John and the others.

     Hannah couldn’t resist commenting.

     She said, “Well,
that’s
a sexy look for you guys.”

     Mark walked in her direction and pretended to take it as a compliment.

     “Well, thank you, baby. How about a big sloppy kiss?”

     “Na-uh. Not me. Y’all went and played in the dirt together, you can kiss each other if you want to.”

     “Oh, come on, honey. You always said you liked it when I got dirty.”

     “Not what I meant. Not at all.”

     John cleared his throat.

     “Okay, you two. How about you save it for later so we can get down to business?”

Chapter 14

     “As I see it, we’ve got a couple of options. There are only six of them left, once we get the bodies out of the mine. We outnumber them now. Plus, we have the element of surprise. And they still haven’t figured out that the security cameras are still working over there. We can see them and they can’t see us. We have radios and they don’t.

     “So as I see it, the odds are in our favor.”

     John spoke up.

     “That’s true, Mark. But let’s not get overconfident. As a general rule, it’s harder to take ground than it is to keep it. Any general will tell you that.

     “And even though there are only six of them now, they’re still doing a pretty good job of standing guard. They haven’t left the roof or the gate unattended for the last three days now. It’ll be hard for us to sneak up on them.”

     “We can go through the tunnel. They’re not guarding it.”

     “Maybe. How soon before you can get it clear?”

     Mark looked at Bryan, who merely shrugged his shoulders.

     “I’m guessing three to four days to clear the first pile and get the lights and cameras working again. Half a day to move the bodies and cover them up with powdered salt. Then we’ll get a chance to look at the second debris pile.”

    
Bryan said, “One of the problems is we haven’t been able to see what the second pile looks like, because they shot out the camera on that end of the tunnel, and the other side of the pile was in the darkness. It could be about the same size as the first, or it could be much larger.”

     “True. So let’s say five to six days on that one. Or less. So we’ll have the tunnel cleared in ten days or so.”

     Sarah spoke up and expressed her concern.

     “Who’s to say they don’t meet you there in the tunnel as soon as you clear out the far end, and shoot you on the spot?”

     “Well, as we said, we outnumber them now. We can post armed security down there with the diggers to defend against such an attack. Plus, we haven’t seen them go anywhere near the feed barn for the last three days, except for the one man who’s feeding the livestock twice a day. And he hasn’t lifted up the floor to the tunnel access.”