The Ranch

by Sean Liscom

  “I have it on good authority that the leadership of the ARK is either not there or incapacitated. I also know the ARK wasn’t fully staffed at the time of the EMP. Security is minimal, at best. You want some downtime? Why not do it in the safety of the ARK?”

  “Huh?”

  “Jason, I’m offering you the ARK on a silver platter. Take everyone from here and move them in down there. It’s a fortress, an impenetrable fortress and all of you could live there for a very long time.”

  “What? Abandon this place? I don’t think so!”

  My father leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. His bearded chin rested on the back of his hands and his brow furrowed causing the lines on his forehead to deepen. He shifted his gaze to Braden and then back to me.

  “As the ultimate leader of the ranches, I could order you to go, but I won’t do that.”

  “Damn straight you won’t!” I interrupted. “You may have built this ranch and you may still feel that you have some pull here, but you don’t! WE are the ones that have shed our blood on this ground. WE are the ones who have made this ranch succeed. WE are the ones who live and work here. Ultimately, I’M the one in charge here, not you. If you want help with your equipment and supplies, we’ll help, but we’re NOT going to L.A., am I clear about that?” I said heatedly.

  “I see.”

  “I hope you do!”

  “Would you change your mind if I told you that it’s only a matter of time before the Coalition is strong enough and rolls in here and takes this ranch from you? Will you wish you had changed your mind when they have you lined up against that wall out there and start executing YOUR people?” he asked. “The one thing you don’t seem to realize, Jason, is they will stop at nothing. They will destroy any opposition. They’ve used nuclear weapons in major cities. They brought the world to a grinding halt with a coordinated EMP attack. The people of the ARK will stop at nothing. Nothing is sacred and they will use any means necessary to finish their mission. Their sole driving force is to return the planet to a sustainable population that can coexist with nature. Now is the time to finish them. Now is the time to break their grip.”

  “You and YOUR ranch don’t fit into their equation! They could be here tomorrow, next month or next year but make no mistake, they will come! Every day that we allow them to exist, they gain strength! Right now, they are at their weakest and NOW is the time to strike!”

  “If they show up anywhere near here, we’ll deal with them when we have to! You don’t seem to realize that we’ve been dealing with this shit for over a year. First it was Marvin and his gang of reds. Then it was that asshole, Ray Judge. And while you’ve been lurking around in the shadows, WE’VE been in the middle of every shit storm that has rolled through here! We’ve had enough! The answer is still NO.” I replied pointedly.

  The looks on Kari and Isabella’s faces said it all. This was the first time they had ever bore witness to anyone opposing my, our father and his will. While his face was as stoic as any professional card player, the surprise and fear in their eyes told me everything I needed to know.

  “Ya know, Jack,” I softened my tone a little. “Since the EMP, we’ve been doing one of two things. We’ve been fighting or we’ve been getting ready for a fight. We must be doing something right because we’re 2-0 now. My people are tired, I’m tired, and we’re ready to stand down for a little bit. Instead of sitting here, pleading your case, you need to take it to President Dixon and get the military involved.”

  “I’ve dropped all of this on her desk and let me tell you something, she’s useless! You know what she told me? She told me that she doesn’t have the assets to take on a mission like this. She told me she’s got bigger problems! Once again, a clear and present danger has been dismissed by a politician! Once again, they can’t see the bigger picture because they are too busy with their own agendas!”

  “I don’t know what to tell you then.”

  “Tell me you’ll get involved. Tell me you won’t sit here on your asses while others write the last chapter in the book of mankind!”

  “The best I can tell you is that we’ll fight them when we have to. People like us, like Mayor Jim Calvert and Sheriff Darren Watson, we’ll fight them, but we are not going to take the fight to them. We don’t have the resources nor the manpower. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a community that wouldn’t fight them,” I said, keeping my voice even.

  “So that’s it then?”

  “Yeah, that’s it. We’ll get you some help with your equipment, but we are NOT going to Los Angeles.”

  “Too bad, really. I expected more from you.” he muttered and leaned back again.

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “You sit here, behind your walls. You sit here like some spoiled, medieval prince. You’ve got guns, ammo, food, water and fuel. You live in relative safety. Someday, sooner than you think, all of that will run out. Your guns will be useless because you’ve exhausted your ammo supply. Your vehicles will be parked because you’ve run out of fuel and oil. Yet here you sit like privileged royalty.”

  “I’ll ask one last time that you join me in going after the ARK. I’ll give you one last chance to secure your place by my side. One last chance to ensure the future of your ranch and your family....” his voice trailed off.

  “The answer is still no,” I said. I expected him to blow up, to at least get mad. The reaction I got instead froze my soul. He looked at me for the longest time with those hard, jade green eyes. He didn’t react.... At all. He stood from his chair, stepped behind it and pushed it back in.

  “So be it. Never, ever say I didn’t warn you about what was coming. Never say I didn’t give you every chance and then some,” he broke eye contact with me, finally, and looked at each of his daughters. “Don’t stay up too late. We’ve got a lot of preparations to make before our departure,”

  “Yes, sir,” they replied in unison.

  “I’ll take my leave for the evening. Braden, please thank Megan again for the wonderful meal and her hospitality,” after that, he walked out of the dining room and out the front door.

  When the front door slammed shut, I let out a sigh of relief. That was the first time I’d ever stood against my father. It was the first time I’d ever had a reason to. It’s not that I didn’t understand his position, I did. Maybe a little too well. I had others to think about and trying to uproot everything we’d built here wasn’t in their best interest. This wasn’t just my home and I had to keep that in mind.

  My people were tired, that wasn’t a lie. Hell, I was utterly exhausted. That was due in part to my recent adventures gallivanting across the state. The stress of the fight in Vegas. The worry about Jill and the well-being of the ranch I’d left behind to save. Worrying about my brother and how he would handle things if my absence had become more permanent.

  Once again, I’d left the ole grim reaper empty handed, and that thought had been weighing on me too. How many more times could I outsmart him? How long until my luck ran out? No, I wasn’t ready to take on another fight. This one would have to wait. My father’s wishes be damned. Don’t get me wrong. I was happy that my father was alive. I was happy to see him again. Maybe it was the opportunity to ask him all the questions I had or maybe it was simply that another part of my family had cheated death too, I don’t really know....”

  “Jason?” Isabella interrupted my thoughts.

  “Yes?”

  “He’s not a bad man. You know that, right?”

  “I don’t know what to think, Isabella. That’s the honest answer and it’s the best I got right now, sorry.”

  “He just wants what’s best for you, for all of us. Sometimes he can get, well.... He can be very outspoken about these things and I think it clouds his judgment a little,” she explained.

  “Isabella, Kari, you’ll have to forgive me, please. This evening has been more than a little overwhelming for me. I’m kind of at the point where my brain and my mouth are working independently o
f each other and that’s not good for anyone. So, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to call it a night and go to bed,” I said as I stood. Jill stood with me.

  She didn’t say anything, just followed me to the base of the stairs. We stopped there and I looked up the rather foreboding stairwell. God I was tired.

  “You go on up and get in bed. I’m gonna to go check on Luke and Tara,” Jill said.

  “As fast as I’m moving, you might catch me before I get to the top,” I half joked. I looked over my shoulder to see my brother and sisters still at the dining room table.

  “Go on,” Jill urged.

  “Okay, I’m going,” I replied and took the first of many steps. She shot me that smile of hers and continued down the hall.

  I was moving slow. Real slow. In a matter of minutes, my thoughts had gone from decisive to pure mush. The exhaustion train had arrived, and it looked as if I was going to be in for a long, long ride.

  Friday, September 1st, 2017

  There are those that say that when you are as exhausted as I was, you don’t have dreams. They say your body just shuts itself down, subconscious thoughts included. I can tell you from first-hand experience, they’re full of shit. It’s true to say that you can lose all sense of time. You are disoriented and confused because you can’t fully wake up. You can get just far enough out of the dream, or in this case, nightmare that you can make it stop. As soon as you surrender and fall fully asleep again, the nightmares pick right back up where they left off.

  It’s a horrible place to be if you’ve never experienced it. Reliving, over and over, the nightmare of being killed by Marvin. The dream of returning to the ranch only to find death and destruction. The dream of your own father chasing you with the reapers scythe. Horrible, terrifying dreams.... Waking up could be just as frightening. If not for you, for those around you. In my case, Jill knew that if we were in bed, she needed to stay away from my elbows and fists. A gentle, soft voice and softly rubbing my sides or chest could calm me down.

  If she were waking me from a bad dream, shaking my foot and calmly calling my name could do it. Again, stay out of striking distance. It’s not that I wanted to hurt anyone. It’s that I wasn’t really in control of my faculties when being awoke from that state. This morning was no exception. After a night of non-stop nightmares, I was gently pulled from that fitful slumber by Jill’s body pressure against my back. Her arm was around me, slowly and softly stroking the muscles of my chest. Her warm, rhythmic breath on my neck was soothing. It was a full five minutes before she said anything.

  “Bad night?” she whispered.

  “Yeah. Sorry,” I apologized. When I didn’t sleep well, she didn’t sleep well.

  “It’s okay, babe. A lot happened last night,” she pulled herself closer to me and intertwined her legs with mine.

  “Damn,” I muttered. “I was almost hoping that was a nightmare too.”

  “No such luck! It really happened,” she giggled a little.

  “What’s your opinion about what happened at the table?”

  “You were right to turn down the mission.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “We’re stretched thin. Too thin. We’re worn out and if we went hurtling into combat again, mistakes would be made.”

  “If Jack’s right, eventually we will have to face them.”

  “We’ll do what we have to. It’s kinda become the way we operate.”

  “They’ll be stronger....”

  “And so will we,” she reassured me. “Don’t second guess yourself. You made the right call for all of us.”

  “What do you think of Kari and Isabella?”

  “They’re quiet and they seem a bit docile. Although, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be on their bad side. There’s probably a whole bunch of whoop ass between the two of ‘em. Looks can be deceiving.”

  “Yeah. That’s the same impression I got from Kari when we were in Vegas.”

  “Are you going to try and get to know them?”

  “I don’t know.... It’s all so confusing. I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that we’re even related,” I rolled onto my back and Jill put her head on my chest.

  “You want to know what I think?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Give them a chance. No matter what happens between you and your father, give the girls a chance. They deserve that much.”

  I had to think about that one for a minute. Jill was right, they deserved the chance. The bigger question was, would I have the time to give them their shot. Looking back on last night’s conversation, it sounded like Jack intended to leave as soon as possible.

  “You want to know what else I think?”

  “What?”

  “We were at that dinner table for almost an hour last night. I asked questions. You and Braden asked questions, but we never really got any answers. Did we?”

  “No, no we didn’t.”

  “Jason, remember back when you first came to the ranch? When you and Allan had that little verbal sparring match”

  “I remember.”

  “I told you that Allan had become a little rusty with his skills and I told you that the way you handled him was exactly what your father would have done. You set Allan up and let him fall into your trap.... Much as your father did to you last night.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch,” I muttered.

  “He’s a grand master when it comes to verbal warfare, babe. You’d do well to remember that.”

  “You’re right. He ran that entire conversation all night. Damn!” our conversation was interrupted by a knock at the bedroom door. Jill and I both pulled the sheet up to cover our bodies. Another quick knock at the door.

  “Yes?” Jill said loudly.

  “Ma’am, its Melissa Lange. I’ve been asked to relay to you that Major Jackson and Dan Hawkins are leaving Elko as we speak, headed out here,” Melissa said through the door.

  “Thank you, Melissa. We’ll be down shortly,” Jill answered. I looked at the wall clock for the first time since waking up, it was 7am. Jill pushed herself up onto her elbow so she could see my face.

  “Your father did a lot of talking last night but he didn’t really tell you anything, did he?”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “Remember that today, okay?”

  “I will. Thank you,” I said and pulled her closer for a sensuous kiss. When she finally pulled back, there was a sparkle in her eyes. One that wasn’t easy to mistake

  “You’re all sweaty and gross from tossing and turning last night. I’m all sweaty and gross from trying to keep you halfway calm. What say we go jump in the shower and see about washing all the sweaty and gross off and getting a good start to the day?” she asked coyly.

  CHAPTER 3

  Friday, September 1st, 2017

  A long, hot shower and some fresh, clean clothes went a long way toward erasing the haunting memories of my nightmares. I felt like a new man with a new perspective on the arrival of my father and sisters. It wasn’t any less shocking, to be sure, but at least I had a better outlook and I was armed with the information Jill had given me. I had a lot of questions to ask my father.

  We went downstairs to find Megan in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on her breakfast. Braden was seated at the table sipping a cup of coffee and looking out the window. He was so deep in thought; he didn’t hear us enter the dining room.

  Kalin and Allison were also seated at the table with Luke and Tara between them. For two young children who had been through so much in the past few weeks, they seemed to be holding their own quite well.

  Jill and I slipped into the kitchen and filled our coffee mugs. Jill leaned against the counter and spoke to Megan about the kids while I walked over to my brother. He still hadn’t realized we were even there.

  “Hey,” I said. My intrusion into his thoughts startled him enough to cause him to spill a little coffee. He looked up at me, annoyed.

  “What?”
/>
  “Where’s Jack?”

  “He’s out at the warehouse,” he replied and wiped up the coffee on the table.

  “Come on, we got a lot of unfinished business from last night,” I started to walk away. Braden followed me out the front door.

  “It’s weird, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “Which part?” I chuckled.

  “The whole damn mess.”

  “Dude, weird doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

  “Yeah, well.... I’m still freaked out about him knowing so damn much about me and my family. It’s....”

  “It’s creepy, I know!” I finished his sentence for him. “Listen, I don’t know what to expect but let me do the talking, Please. I’ve got a lot on my mind this morning. Okay?”

  “It’s all you, bro,” Braden replied. We walked the rest of the way to the warehouse in silence. That was good, it gave me time to solidify my resolve.

  Both roll up doors were open on the warehouse. Inside were parked two Hummers, one with the hood up. There was a flurry of activity around them. We found Jack on his knees as he was removing the axle shaft from the front of one of the rigs. I was surprised when he spotted us approaching and smiled a big smile.

  “Mornin’, boys!” he greeted us and passed the shaft to one of his people. He stood and wiped his dirty hands on an even dirtier shop rag.

  “Morning, Jack. You got a minute?” I asked.

  “Sure, gimme just a second....” he turned to the man holding the axle shaft. “Clean that up really well, Pat. We might be able to build it up with the welder and then mill it back into shape,” he instructed. He returned his attention to the two of us. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I need you to explain some things for me.”

  “Like?”

  “Let’s start with the ranch up north. You never finished telling us about it.”

  “There’s not a lot to tell. We haven’t heard anything from them, so we have to assume the ranch is lost.”

  “You’re willing to give up on them so you can pursue the mission to Los Angeles?” I asked.