by Eric Vall
“I’m sure you’re right,” I chuckled, and I was happy our team mascot was with me to calm me a bit.
“I’ll fry up these fish for breakfast,” Rolly said.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll feed the horses and be right back to help.”
“Did you find the coffee I left out?” the old man asked.
“We all did,” I said. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” The old man waved a hand at me. “Winchester and I got up early, so I figured we should get the day started.”
“Good call,” I said. “But next time wake someone else up to go with you to check the traps. I don’t want anybody alone in these woods right now.”
“I won’t argue with that,” Rolly said, and he shook his head. “Those footprints gave me the willies.”
I chuckled at the old man’s use of the word willies, then I went to Gray Lady and Buttercup’s pen and tossed in a couple pieces of hay for each of them.
“Hey, pretty girls,” I cooed to the horses, and I reached my hand in to pet them. They snorted and Buttercup rubbed her face against my hand, so I scratched behind her ear, then did the same to Gray Lady. They were mild mannered animals, and I figured they were both at least five years old, but they were gorgeous, and regardless of them being in that Guard camp they had proven to like it here with the girls.
I made my way back to the fire pit, but stopped at the meat shed to grab some breakfast for Winchester.
“Smells good,” I told Rolly as I sat down on the bench across from him, and Winchester came to sit in front of me, so I gave him a few commands before I allowed him his breakfast.
“He’ll shake, too,” Rolly said with a grin, and he pointed at Winchester who sat happily eating his breakfast at my feet.
“You teach him that?” I chuckled.
“I think he already knew,” the old man laughed.
“Doesn’t surprise me.” I smiled and watched the black headed dog eat. “He’s well trained.”
“Should we tell the girls about the footprints?” Rolly asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “They know about the ones I found the other day, but they should know about these too.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Rolly asked with a frown.
“I found them when the civilians were here,” I said. “You were having a good time with Betty, and I didn’t want to ruin your fun.”
“I appreciate that,” Rolly said, and he smiled softly. “But next time, please let me know.”
“I will,” I said.
“Breakfast is just about ready,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said. “I told the girls to enjoy their coffee before they started their chores.”
“Well, now they can enjoy some breakfast too.” The old man smiled, and he picked up the skillet of fish and vegetables.
Rolly and I made our way up to the girls, and Winchester pushed past us and onto the roof to go say hello.
“Hey buddy,” Bailey cooed, and she petted the brindle dog.
“Did you give him breakfast?” Paige asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “And Rolly made us some fish.”
“Oh yum.” Anna grinned. “Thanks, Rolly.”
“Yes, thank you,” Bailey said. “And thanks for the coffee this morning.”
“No worries,” the old man said, and he went to sit on the ground, but Tara quickly gave up her chair and insisted that he sit there instead.
Rolly and I served up breakfast, and we all ate quietly for a moment.
“So are we going to gather stuff from the farms today?” Anna asked, and I remembered a discussion about that the night before.
“Yes,” I said. “Thank you for reminding me, I almost forgot, I was so tired last night it was hard to focus.”
“Not too tired, it seems.” Tara raised an eyebrow at me, and I heard Anna snicker.
“I suppose not,” I chuckled.
“We do have some bad news,” Rolly said, and he cleared his throat.
“What’s wrong?” Bailey asked, and she eyed the old man with concern. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Rolly waved a hand at her. “But I found some footprints in the woods this morning.”
“Shit,” Paige breathed.
“Tav found some the day before last,” Anna said with a frown.
“That’s what he said,” Rolly agreed.
“What does that mean?” Tara asked, and she looked at me with wide eyes.
“We still can’t be sure.” I shook my head. “It could’ve been one of the civilians or farmers, but we can’t rule out that it was someone else either.”
“Like that meth head from our trip,” Anna muttered, and she pursed her lips.
“Yeah,” I said. “There could be more people like him around here.”
“What do we do?” Bailey asked.
“We stay vigilant,” I told the blonde. “Keep an eye on the woods when you’re on guard duty.”
“We’re not going to go out there and check it out?” Anna pushed.
“Not right now,” I said. “We need to assess the situation, and right now we don’t have a lot to go on. Make sure that you use the buddy system anytime you go into the woods, and you let me know if you see anything suspicious.”
“Okay,” Paige said.
“I wonder if anybody knows who else lived around here,” Tara commented.
“I’m not sure,” Rolly said, and he pursed his lips. “I’ve lived here for a long time and I never thought about it, but I heard stories way back when about some inbred hillbilly type people who lived in the woods.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that earlier?” Paige gasped.
“I always thought they were just tall tales to scare kids,” the old man said with a frown. “But it seems maybe there was more to them than that.”
“We could ask around,” Anna suggested.
“Good idea,” I said. “But we don’t want to cause any concern right now, so let’s focus on keeping an eye out. If it’s a small problem, we’ll handle it, but if we need more information, that’s when we’ll go to the others.”
“Right,” Anna said. “We don’t want them to panic.”
“No,” I said. “And regardless of what is happening now, this will be the safest place for winter, we can’t have anyone getting cold feet about coming up here.”
“Shouldn’t we tell them what’s going on, though?” Bailey asked with a frown.
“We will.” I smiled softly at the blonde hippie. “But we’ll wait until we have more information.”
“Okay,” she said.
“Now,” I said. “Let’s head to the farms and load up some supplies.”
“I’ll stay on guard duty,” Rolly offered.
“Okay,” I said. “Keep Winchester with you and don’t leave the roof unless you absolutely have to.”
“Right,” the old man agreed.
“We’ll try and make this quick,” I said. “I don’t like you being here alone.”
“I got Winchester,” Rolly said. “And my rifle.”
“Alright,” I chuckled. “Do you need ammo before we head out?”
“No.” The old man shook his head. “You all go, I’ll keep this place on lockdown.”
“Thanks for breakfast, Rolly,” Bailey said, and she reached down to pet Winchester. “Be careful while we’re gone.”
“Always,” the old man said.
The girls and I loaded up into the truck and headed toward the farms. The sun was just above the horizon, signifying the end of the dawn and the start of a new day, and I rolled my window down as we drove and breathed in the cool fall air.
“You’re crazy,” Tara breathed, and I looked over to see her zipping up her hoodie. “How are you not cold?”
“It feels good,” Anna said, and she tilted her head up, and the wind blew a few stray red strands of hair across her face.
“I’m with Tara,” Bailey said and snuggled closer to the platinum blonde.
“At least some
body has some sense,” Tara muttered, and she wrapped her arms around Bailey.
“Alright,” I chuckled, and I rolled the window up.
“Thank you,” Paige sighed.
“You too?” I asked with a raised brow.
“I didn’t want to say anything,” Paige said. “But I was definitely cold.”
“You and I are the only ones who like fresh air, apparently.” Anna smirked at me.
“I guess so,” I laughed.
“I like fresh air,” Tara pouted. “Just not freezing cold fresh air.”
“You are such a drama queen,” Anna chuckled. “This is fall, I can’t even imagine how you’ll feel in winter.”
“I can,” Tara said dryly. “Cold.”
“Picking a college in the mountains of Vermont was a great idea,” Anna added. “Guess you didn’t get into Pepperdine?”
“Some of us got into college because of our brains,” Tara sniffed. “We didn’t all get athletic scholarships.”
Paige snickered at her witty remark, and Anna and Tara playfully hit each other, but I had to break up their play when I saw a group of people on the road ahead of us.
“Girls,” I commanded, and they all looked over to me, then followed my eyeline to the road.
“Shit,” Anna breathed.
“More Canadians,” Paige said.
“I think so.” I nodded.
“Have they seen us?” Tara asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said, and I narrowed my eyes on the distant group. “But I don’t think so.”
“They’re women,” Bailey said with surprise, and I looked closer to see that she was correct.
“Yes,” I said with a nod.
“We should try and talk to them,” the blonde suggested, and I pursed my lips.
“We should assess the situation,” Anna said sternly.
“There’s five of them,” Bailey said. “And I only see one with a shotgun.”
“They could still be armed,” Paige said with a frown. “They could have pistols hidden on them.”
“Or knives,” Tara added.
“They could,” Bailey said. “But we can handle it if it goes south.”
It looked like the group was heading toward us, and I figured they had spotted us by now.
“I don’t like it,” I said. “But I think Bailey’s right, let’s try to talk to them first.”
I had a soft spot for a woman in distress, but I wasn’t about to underestimate my enemy, woman or not.
“I’ll go,” Bailey offered.
“We’ll both go,” I said sternly. “Anna, Tara, Paige, I want you behind us.”
“Okay.” The redhead nodded, and I could tell she was in Major mode.
“Keep your distance,” I said. “And keep your weapons out of sight, but be ready.”
“Got it,” Paige agreed, and her messy bun bobbed as she nodded.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
I hopped out of the truck, and Anna and Paige hopped out after me while Tara and Bailey got out on the other side. We met at the front of the truck, and I nodded to my team before I walked forward toward the group of women.
“Hey,” I called out, and the women stopped.
“We just want to pass through,” the one in front said. “We don’t want any trouble.”
“Okay,” I hollered back, but I saw the one with the shotgun reach her hand back to grab it. “If you don’t want any trouble, then let’s not pull that shotgun around.”
“We don’t want trouble either,” Bailey added, I shot her a look, so she whispered to me. “It’s okay, the girls are ready.”
I didn’t like it, but she was right again. The girls behind us had our backs, and we were all strapped and would be able to handle this situation if necessary.
“What do you want?” the one in the front asked, but she put her arm out to the one with the shotgun to keep her from reaching for it.
“This is our area,” I told her, and I kept walking until Bailey and I were about ten feet away. “We just want to know what you’re doing coming through here.”
“We came from the border,” a brunette in the group informed us.
“We figured.” I nodded, and glanced back to see my three girls fanned out behind us. Tara was to my right, Anna in the middle, and Paige on the left.
“We’ve had... trouble with Canadians coming through here,” Bailey said softly.
“We’ve had trouble with them too,” the woman in the front said, and I noticed that she wore a red bandana around her forehead.
“What kind of trouble?” I asked and I narrowed my eyes on the woman.
“They’re violent,” she sneered. “They’re rapists, and thieves, just as bad as the guys from the Guard.”
“I’m sorry you’ve had so much trouble.” Bailey frowned. “Where are you headed?”
“We’re going south,” the woman said. “We can’t stay here for winter, we’ll die out here. You all should head south too.”
The woman was acting calm enough toward Bailey, but I noticed that she continued to eye me warily. It could have been her bad experiences with men, but something else seemed off about these women. They didn’t look scrawny like a lot of the Canadians we had seen pass through. These women looked to be well fed, and their backpacks looked to be quite full. I couldn’t pinpoint it, but I just knew there was something off about the group.
“We’ll be okay,” Bailey said. “How are you all on supplies?”
“We’re fine,” another woman in the group said, and she eyed me up and down.
“Okay,” Bailey said with a nod. “We have some extra water in the truck, I was just trying to offer some help.”
“Thanks,” red bandana said. “But we’re fine on our own.”
“Okay,” I said in a very serious voice. “Like I said, this is our area, pass through quietly.”
“We will,” red bandana said. “We don’t want any trouble.”
I waited for the women to pass by us, and I watched them walk past our truck. Somehow I didn’t believe that trouble wasn’t on their agenda.
“I don’t like the way they were eyeing Tav,” Anna commented after the women were out of earshot.
“Me either,” Tara agreed.
“They said they’ve had to deal with the Guard and other Canadians,” Bailey said. “Maybe they were just scared.”
“They weren’t acting scared.” Paige shook her head. “They were acting confrontational.”
“They can pass through if they pass through quietly and stay off the mountain,” I said in a stern voice. “Otherwise we’ll have a problem.”
“You don’t think they’ll try to go to the campus, do you?” Paige asked.
“I don’t think so, not with the warning I put up by the bridge,” I said. “But even if they did, Rolly is there, he can handle it.”
“They did look like they didn’t have a lot of guns,” Tara said.
“Their packs looked pretty full though,” Anna chimed in with a wary voice. “Everyone else we’ve seen has been starving.”
“Yeah,” Paige agreed with a hard nod. “I wonder how they’re so well off.”
“They could just be smart,” Bailey said softly. “We’d be well off if we were traveling.”
“They could be.” I smiled gently at my innocent blonde hippie. “But something felt off about them.”
“As long as they keep going we’ll be fine though, right?” Tara asked.
“Yes,” I said. “As long as they get out of our territory we’ll leave them alone.”
I was glad to know that the other girls had got the same feeling as I had from the women, but for now there wasn’t much to do about it, so we piled into the truck once more and headed toward Betty’s house.
“They came from this direction,” Anna said as we drove. “I wonder if the farmers saw them.”
“We’ll ask when we get there,” I said, and my eyes narrowed on the road. For the time being I had decided to let them pass
, but if they had caused issues for the farmers, then that would have to change.
We pulled into Betty’s driveway, and I saw a few of the women outside, along with Dan and Jenny.
“Hey,” I called out the window as we drove past them, then I parked the truck in the driveway and hopped out.
“Hey,” Dan said as he ran over to us. “Are you all here to pick up some of these canned goods?”
“That’s the plan,” I said. “Who was on guard duty this morning?”
“Grandma,” Dan said, and he pointed to the attic window of the house, and I saw Betty waving down at us. “Why?”
“We saw some women on the road,” Anna informed them.
“Women?” Cathy asked, and her head was cocked to the side.
“Canadians,” Paige said.
“What were they doing?” Jenny asked.
“They said they were passing through,” I told them. “But we wanted to be sure they hadn’t come up here.”
“No.” Dan shook his head. “Nobody’s tried to come up here in a while.”
“Good,” I said, then I clapped my hands. “Alright, let’s get this truck loaded.”
Everyone pitched in to help load up the truck. Jenny had prepared for our arrival and had already set aside a couple boxes for them to keep at the farm for the time being. We put the rest in the truck, and it was almost completely full by the time we were done.
“Looks like we’ll have to make a separate trip to Justin and Marla’s,” Anna said as she looked in the back of the truck.
“Yeah.” Paige nodded. “There’s only room for a couple of boxes.”
“We could swing by Briar’s,” Bailey said. “He has maple syrup for us.”
“Good call,” I said. “It’s on the way home anyways.”
“Oh God I want some turkey bacon glazed with maple syrup,” Tara moaned.
“And it’ll be good to check on him,” Paige said.
“He’s a stubborn old goat,” Jenny added. “Please let us know if it looks like he needs anything.”
“We will,” I said. “I want to go to talk to your grandmother for a moment, I’ll be right back.”
“Okay,” Dan said. “Just follow the stairs up, the attic door should be open.”
“Thanks.” I smiled and headed inside.
