Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Throwing back his head, Lance busted out laughing as did Ian. “We wouldn’t do that,” Ian laughed.

  “Don’t want to take the chance,” Dwain mumbled from the back, but was scanning his area. After the dog attack, he and Heath got everyone together and practiced driving around the yard while watching their area. Then they would act like they were under attack by different things from dogs to humans and respond to each attack.

  Ian stayed in the trees heading back up the slope until he reached the ridgeline again. The same ridge that ran west of the cabin, just half a mile away and past where the draw started for the build house. “Why didn’t we stay on the ridge and move around the diversion fence?” Dwain asked from the back.

  “Didn’t feel like disarming traps,” Ian said over his shoulder. “These on the outer edges are more lethal, so they take longer to disarm and rearm.”

  As Dwain shivered, Lance poked his head down to face Dwain. “A person can’t make it to the cabin. Deterrents start half a mile out in most places inside the diversion fence, but others start a little further out. The reason we could let you drive in is we took Lori and Denny on a sweep this morning and disarmed the traps on the rear path. They will have to go out tonight with us and rearm them. Traps on the outside along the diversion fence only cover easy areas to travel.”

  “Has Jodi patrolled?” Kathy asked with a worried expression.

  “She stays in the buggy until we think she’s ready,” Lance replied, pulling his head up and scanned around. Kathy gave a small sigh of relief as she watched her area.

  Half an hour later, Ian coasted to a stop east of Hinkle on a ridge. Turning the buggy off, he climbed out as Lance pulled his feet up and jumped off the roof. “These boys know this area too damn well,” Dwain mumbled, climbing out and saw the boys checking their weapons.

  Letting his AR hang, Lance grabbed his bow and quiver of arrows before clipping them to his right side. “We need to practice with bows,” Kathy told Dwain.

  “Yep, ya sure do,” Rhonda said, shouldering her M4 and cradling her crossbow.

  “You want point?” Lance asked, and Ian shook his head. Spinning around, Lance turned over his shoulder. “Single file five yards from each other and Ian will be at the back.”

  The others fell in behind Lance as he moved down the slope behind the house Rhonda had noticed changed. Stopping in the trees at the edge of the backyard, Lance held up his hand and everyone froze. In the backyard right outside the door was a kid’s red wagon loaded with stuff.

  Glancing over at Dino and seeing he was panting, Lance waved Ian up. “Stay here,” he whispered to the others and then he and Ian crossed the backyard with Dino. Stopping at the open backdoor, Lance glanced at Dino and then went inside.

  “They need to let us do that with them, so we can learn,” Rhonda huffed.

  “Rhonda, they want us to learn under controlled conditions, not actual combat,” Dwain explained in a low voice. Realizing what he’d just said, Dwain shook his head. “Teenage boys have more experience and are protecting the adults.” When Lance and Ian came out and waved them up, Rhonda led the others over. They stopped looking at the red wagon loaded with canned goods. Reaching down, Kathy picked up a package of pullups.

  “Someone is shopping for a kid?” Kathy asked.

  Reaching over, Lance patted her arm. “Very good,” Lance genuinely praised. “And I’m betting it’s a little girl since we found a pile of girl clothes on the couch. My guess is something spooked them.”

  “You can’t hear our buggy until we are like twenty yards away,” Dwain challenged.

  “No, can’t you smell?” Lance asked and Dwain sniffed. The smell of stinker was always present to a lesser degree, but it was stronger now. As Lance headed to the side of the house, everyone followed. Rounding the corner they stopped, seeing nine stinkers sprawled out.

  Moving over to the first one, Lance knelt down to look at a hole in the forehead. He turned the stinker’s head and saw the back of the head was intact. “That’s not a bow,” Ian said, kneeling down. “Look how the skull is crushed at the impact area.”

  “It could be a spear,” Rhonda offered, and both ignored her. Wanting them to talk about what they were thinking, Rhonda moved over beside Lance as he inspected the wound meticulously.

  “It damn sure wasn’t a gun,” Lance huffed, grabbing Rhonda’s hand as she attempted to turn the head to her. “There’s a divot around the hole like you said,” he told her, pointing at the wound.

  Ian moved over to a smaller female stinker and saw the left eye blown out. Turning the head, he found an exit wound. “If they are using a gun, they are shooting light loads, maybe subsonic. Have an exit, but it’s almost the same size as the entrance.”

  Leaving the bodies, Lance moved around the yard in a slow circle. Ian moved to the other bodies and then joined Lance walking around the house. “You realize they brought us down this road to that house with all the food?” Kathy asked as they followed the boys to the front yard.

  “Yeah, that farm is only half a mile further down the road up the draw,” Dwain answered and stopped, seeing a stinker fall with an arrow in its face. He turned and saw Ian still looking at the ground as Lance pulled another arrow out when another stinker stumbled off the road toward them. “Fucking boys could give Robin Hood a run for his money.”

  Pulling back the bow, Lance barely paused before releasing the arrow, hitting the stinker in the face and dropping it. “That was a sixty yard shot and he turned away before the arrow hit the stinker,” Kathy gasped.

  “They have killed a lot of stinkers with those bows,” Rhonda stated, walking away as Ian knelt down looking at the tall grass. “What are you doing? There are too many stinkers around to track.”

  Letting out a sigh, Ian lifted his head and turned to Rhonda. “Well, Miss Davey Crockett, I guess I shouldn’t tell you I can see where they pulled the wagon off the road,” Ian droned behind his mask. “You keep on interfering and you’ll have to flash your hooters at us,” Ian warned, lowering his head back down to the grass and crawling forward on hands and knees.

  Rhonda gasped as her face turned red. Behind her Dwain and Kathy snorted. “I should tell Jennifer,” Rhonda blustered.

  “I said us, that meant all of us,” Ian chuckled. “Jennifer almost passed out when Lilly joined us, then you come along and make Lilly look small. I’ve seen her bras and we could launch watermelons with them.”

  Rhonda’s mouth fell open as Lance lightly snapped his fingers and everyone turned, but Ian got up and walked over. Stepping up, Dwain grabbed Rhonda’s arm. “Don’t take it personal. They’re picking,” he whispered.

  “I know, they’ve picked on me before. The ladybugs told me when they tease like that, they like you for a friend. Lilly and Jennifer told me, I should be honored because they both look at me like a buddy and I am honored,” Rhonda shrugged. “I just want to learn what they know. Hello, they are city boys and look at ‘em. They can do everything I can do but only better, and a million things I can’t even think of.”

  With an envious expression, “Well then, you’re the only one they see as a friend in our group,” Dwain pointed out, watching Lance crawl along the ground on his hands and knees with Ian covering him. “I think they see the rest of us as idiots.”

  Rhonda turned to Dwain and Kathy with a serious expression. “Dwain, I think; think, mind you; that they are beyond honored that you and Heath entrusted your kids to them to learn,” Rhonda claimed. “I was going to ask Jennifer and Lilly, but just by the way they are acting towards you, that’s what I’m going off of.”

  Turning to Rhonda, Dwain nodded. “To be honest, Kathy and I didn’t feel we had a choice. It still takes all of us to work, and we don’t have the time to teach the kids.”

  “I know, and in my opinion, you and Heath did the right thing. The kids are safer in that cabin with those two on guard than with a whole division of tanks,” Rhonda grinned, then jerked her head toward the boys. “Let�
�s see what they are doing, please.”

  By the time they reached them, Lance had crawled all the way to the road. “Let me guess, you found tracks,” Rhonda stated in a low sassy voice.

  Turning his face up, Lance looked at Rhonda and then at Ian. “Yeah, she keeps on, we better see hooters,” Lance smirked behind his mask.

  “Have you ever said that to Lilly?” Rhonda grinned, and Lance jerked his face back to the ground as Ian chuckled.

  “Yep,” Ian snorted, scanning around. “I thought Lance was going to pass out before he took off running when Lilly grabbed her shirt to lift it up.”

  Dwain snorted with Ian as Kathy elbowed him, biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing. Losing the battle, Kathy spun around and kept watch behind them as she laughed quietly. Lance jumped up, brushing his gloves off.

  “My god man, those aren’t hooters,” Lance declared. “They have to be small planets because they have their own gravitational pull. I felt my eyeballs getting sucked out of my skull.”

  “So what did you find?” Rhonda giggled.

  “Two sets of tracks,” Lance said, and the laughter stopped.

  Turning along the path Lance crawled, “I can track animals,” Rhonda said, and Lance reached out to grab her arm and pulled her to the side of the road.

  “Look here,” Lance said, pointing down at tracks in the dirt beside the road. “That first one is a size seven, I know because we had to tear apart the area looking for size seven boots for Lori. But if you look close, you can tell the shoe doesn’t fit the wearer very well. The shoe is too big, so we know they aren’t all that big. The second is a toddler. I say this because I can see where they came around the house. The tracks disappear and then reappear like someone was picking the toddler up and running, but then putting them down to shoot.”

  As Rhonda stared at the tracks, Lance grabbed her chin and turned it across the road. “See those stinkers? I’m willing to bet they have those weird holes in their heads,” Lance finished. “Did you notice the dead stinkers when you were here?”

  Shrugging, “Yeah, but like you, we don’t burn them anymore since the smell doesn’t seem to draw them in, unless they are close to the house. We only do that for our own benefit. We just figured it was some you two had killed,” Rhonda explained.

  Moving up beside Rhonda, Ian pointed further down the road. “That’s one we killed on our last patrol. See how bloated it is? That’s because the organism is producing hydrogen sulfide like crazy after the brain is destroyed,” Ian told her.

  “What are we going to do?” Kathy asked panting, looking at the tiny footprint.

  “Duh, find them,” Lance droned, shaking his head. “Whoever the older one is, she knows what the fuck she’s doing.”

  “She?” Rhonda asked.

  “Yeah, she. Guys don’t use tampons or douche,” Lance snapped. “I learned that much.”

  “Those were in the wagon,” Kathy whispered to Rhonda and Lance stepped over, patting Kathy’s arm again.

  “I see where Jodi gets her observation from, but I think she gets her shooting ability from Dwain because you can’t hit a stinker until they are twenty yards away,” Lance chuckled, then turned to Ian.

  The two just stared in each other’s eyes for several seconds, making the rest feel left out. “I don’t want to stay out that long,” Ian finally said. “We do have a meeting tonight.”

  Pointing at the ridge across the road, “Our perimeter is just over that ridge, less than a half mile. I bet we find them on the border or just past it,” Lance dared.

  Glancing at his watch, “We have six hours until sundown, and I’ll give you one hour after that before pulling out,” Ian offered.

  Lance held out his hand. “I bet we find them in three hours. If I’m right, you tell Jennifer to get off my ass when you two are having a spat. She can talk to you just as easy as I can.”

  “No bet,” Ian replied, shaking his head. “Because you come and tell me what the fuck I did to piss her off. Not one time we’ve had a ‘spat’,” Ian paused, quoting in the air, “I even knew we were having a spat. I thought everything was fine.”

  Dropping his hand, Lance groaned. “Fine.”

  “Want me to get the buggy?” Ian asked.

  “Yeah, take Dwain and Kathy. Rhonda and Dino will stay with me and I’ll see if I can find the trail across the road,” Lance answered.

  Rhonda followed Lance across the road as Ian headed back to the buggy. As Lance looked in the dirt along the road, Dino walked past and stopped at one of the fresh stinkers. “Rhonda, can I ask you a question?” Lance asked, staring hard at the ground.

  “You just did,” Rhonda grinned, and Lance glanced over and huffed behind the mask. “Yes,” Rhonda smiled, looking down the road. The road they were on fed into a valley below crossing over the road that led to the meeting house. This road continued on through Hinkle, leading straight to the dual battle bots they had put out. She could see stinkers in the distance, but they were all stumbling through Hinkle and following the road leading to the battle bots.

  “What’s your question?” Rhonda asked as Lance moved off the road toward Dino.

  “Do you wear a size Z bra?”

  Scoffing so hard she blew snot out her nose, Rhonda jerked her body back and wiped the snot off. “Have you asked Lilly what size she wears?” Rhonda chuckled, looking around.

  “No, and the size isn’t in the damn bra. I found one in the clothes basket,” Lance huffed. “I’m betting it’s like a Q.”

  “Lance, when we get a chance, I’ll set down with you and explain how bras are sized, but we don’t have the time now,” Rhonda told him, and watched Dino walk off from the stinker to the tree line at the base of the slope.

  “I knew it was fucking complicated,” Lance grumbled, walking past the body still staring at the ground.

  “Lance, I think Dino is following the trail,” Rhonda stated, staring at Dino standing and waiting on them.

  Lifting his head up and turning to Dino, “Dino doesn’t know how to track,” Lance said.

  “Lance, I’ve been watching. Dino is ahead of you and everywhere he stopped you ended up,” Rhonda pointed out. “Tell you what, I tell you my bra size, we follow Dino.”

  Spinning around, “Deal,” Lance snapped.

  “40DDD,” Rhonda answered.

  “Triple D, didn’t know they went past double D,” Lance mumbled.

  “Lance, I kept my part,” Rhonda grinned. “And I’ll give you a bonus. Lilly wears something close to a 36DD. The reason they look bigger is her waist is very small.”

  “Oh,” Lance said, turning around and heading for Dino. “Wish I would’ve had you for a friend sooner.”

  “Why?”

  “To explain girl stuff,” Lance sighed over his shoulder. “I wanted to ask Jennifer stuff like that, but was scared she would tell the girls at school. Now I’m scared she’ll tell Lilly, and Lilly will find out I don’t know shit about girls.”

  “Lance, you can ask Lilly,” Rhonda replied as Lance stopped beside Dino.

  Standing beside Dino, Lance glared down at him. “You’ve been holding out on us?” Lance asked Dino, and Dino just turned walking into the trees. “I should’ve let the ladybugs paint your claws pink last week.”

  Hoping the ladybugs didn’t do that, Rhonda stopped beside Lance and looked down at a patch of dirt. She saw the same size seven shoe pattern and the small shoe print. But halfway across, the small shoe print vanished. “So, you goin’ to ask Lilly these questions?” Rhonda asked.

  “I don’t want her to know I don’t know this stuff,” Lance mumbled, dropping his head and following Dino up the slope. “I don’t want her to see me as a kid.”

  Jogging into the trees to catch up to Lance, Rhonda caught Lance’s arm and turned him around. “Lance, nobody looks at you or Ian as kids. Lilly looks at you like she wants to throw you down and fu-,” Rhonda paused, not sure how to proceed or if Lance was ready for the X-rated version. Then she decided to
come down a few levels to PG, “She looks at you like she wants to marry you,” Rhonda finished.

  “Rhonda, I found out what a tampon was when we got to the cabin. I asked my dad before they left Hawaii. A man should know shit like that.”

  Scoffing, “I’ll bet you my crossbow, here and now, Dwain doesn’t know what size bra Kathy wears,” Rhonda challenged. “I promise you; Lilly would be very happy you wanted to know stuff like that and would be happy, more than happy to tell you.”

  For the first time, Rhonda saw Lance as a kid the way he was acting timid about Lilly. Never had he acted this way about anything else. At first, Rhonda had felt a little uneasy when she’d found out the ages of those involved. But she couldn’t lie to herself. When she first saw Ian and Lance, Rhonda thought they were hot, and still did.

  “I’ll try,” Lance said, holding out his hand and Rhonda shook it. “Thanks,” he huffed and then turned, moving up the slope.

  Rhonda watched the way he glided up the slope with his bow ready and his rifle dangling under his arm. “Lilly dumps him, I’m going after him,” Rhonda vowed with a nod, and followed Lance up the slope.

  Chapter Nine

  Ian joined them when they reached the top of the ridge and Lance moved over to Ian’s door. “Dude, Dino is tracking whoever it is,” Lance informed him, and Ian did a double-take at Dino.

  “You sure? He’s never had a class,” Ian reminded Lance.

  “Brah, the path he took up the slope, I found four prints of size seven,” Lance said, turning to Dino standing twenty yards away looking back at them. “Mastiffs look so sad,” Lance noted.

  “That may be, but they are the size of a horse,” Dwain said, standing up out of the roof.

  “Let me and Rhonda follow the path. You stay about twenty yards back,” Lance rang out, and Ian nodded. “Dwain, remember to look behind you,” Lance said, looking up and Dwain nodded turning around.

  Putting the bow across his back, Lance walked off with Rhonda behind him. “Stay behind me,” Lance said over his shoulder. “Dino doesn’t always point out booby traps, even though he will walk around them.”