“Candyman, if you leave that group there, they won’t be there when we go back.”
“As many infected that are showing up, they will tear the house down. This group won’t last for more than an hour. They have guns and are holding us off, and the sound is drawing infected.”
“Fine, but check on Scooter and his disciples. They are hitting that pharmacy and may need some help.”
“Okay, we’re cutting out.”
Lance looked through the recordings and found another transmission on the same frequency, but it was garbled with only breaks coming through. Pausing the playback, Lance triangulated and saw it was on the west of Barbourville over twenty miles from the cabin to the southwest. He pulled a binder down beside the radio, looked up the frequency they were using, and found it was a police band.
Writing the frequency down on a note card, Lance wrote: Donnie—in charge? Candyman—over a group. Scooter—
Looking at the last name, Scooter, Lance pinched his lip. “I know I’ve heard that before.”
Leaning back in his chair, Lance took a breath to yell for Ian but stopped. “I’ll ask him later,” he said and went back to listen to the rest of the recordings on that frequency.
“Hey, where’s Psycho?” a voice rang in the headphones.
“He and Knuckle took that new honey for a ride.”
“Who’s this?” the first voice asked.
“Shank, who’s calling?”
“Hey Shank, it’s Hoot. When you see Psycho, tell him Bones wants to go over tomorrow’s run.”
“I’ll tell him Bones wants to see him,” Shank chuckled. “I hope the boss won’t be mad because I’m sure he won’t be back for a while.”
Lance paused and pulled out another note card and wrote: Bones—boss at the top?
Then, he wrote down all the other names he heard so far. Using the computer, he worked out where each one was. He narrowed Hoot to just north of the town of Pineville ten miles south of the cabin, and Shank was at the town of Fourmile eight miles south of the cabin. Looking at the list, Lance hit play again and listened to people calling out and talking to each other. Just from the talk, he knew they were all the same group and didn’t play well with others.
Hearing just banter over the radio, Lance paused it and looked at the map hard then drew out the line of triangulation with the mouse for Hoot. It stopped at a large building in the town of Pineville. He hit the print button then held up the page and wrote “Base” across the top of the picture.
Hitting play, Lance added more names and then went back to other frequencies to see if any others came from the town of Pineville. Seeing six other frequencies, Lance narrowed them out of the recording and went through them.
Lance froze when he heard, “Just bring them to the clubhouse.” He knew that voice and had heard it over the radio before.
“Boss, they are going to fight, and we will lose a lot of disciples.”
“How sure are you on losses, Clutch?”
“Boss, they have several dozen fighters, and it seems they have a lot of ammo. I tried being nice, but they told us to leave, and if we came back, they would shoot first.”
Reaching over, Lance paused the playback and triangulated where Clutch was. He stopped his line just over ten miles to the east of the cabin near a small valley. The closest town was Stoney Fork five miles further to the east. Lance printed out the spot and wrote “Fighters” at the top of the picture and drew a big circle, not sure where they were.
He went over transmissions, but only Clutch transmitted from there. Sighing, Lance hit play and listened to the broadband scan again. Getting lost in the voices, Lance started reading the downloads from the boards. When a hand tapped his shoulder, Lance jumped two feet in the air and screamed.
Landing back in the chair, Lance spun around to see Ian standing with his hands up. Grabbing his chest with one hand, Lance took his headphones off with the other. “You tryin’ to kill me?” Lance gasped.
“Sorry, but supper’s been ready, and we’ve been waiting on you,” Ian said and looked at all the notes. “I take it you’ve found some shit.”
“Yeah,” Lance said as he stood. “Some of the friends we met on the way are close.”
Ian looked at him, confused. “Huh?”
“The Devil Lords,” Lance said, and the color drained from Ian’s face.
Chapter Nine
“Should we worry?” Jennifer asked.
“Well, it’s not like we can just go running around,” Lance said as he started eating. “We are way off the beaten path here, guys. They can’t just ride down the road and see us. If they do come down this road, they have to realize that the bare spot in the field is a parking area. Then, they have to find the dirt track through the cedar trees. People see the ‘No hunting’ signs on the fence and think this is just a hunting area.”
“But—”
“Jennifer,” Lance said, cutting her off. “From what I’ve read so far, over half of the population is stinkers. That’s over a hundred and fifty million. One guy put it the best: ‘We will all be stinkers at one point.’ That’s a lot of stinkers wanting to kill us, and you want me to worry extra about some biker gang?”
“They shoot back,” Jennifer said hesitantly.
“Yeah, but so do we. I heard them attacking a house yesterday, and them shooting drew in stinkers, which ran them off. If we do what Uncle Doug has laid out, we don’t have to worry. When the fence gets up, we start laying booby traps all the way out to the outer perimeter, funneling them to the cameras,” Lance said with a shrug. “We do like those other fighters: Make it not worth the effort to come after us.”
Liking that, Jennifer nodded. “So will we put traps on the road in the valley?”
Ian laughed. “And what, tell them someone is down here?”
“Yeah, that was stupid,” Jennifer said, cringing.
Reaching over, Ian patted her back. “No, you just didn’t think it out,” he said. “Lance and I have experience at this.”
Throwing her head back, she laughed, “Oh man, they are so screwed if they come up here!”
Looking over at Lance, Ian raised his eyebrows. “Seems she knows some of our work.”
“Yeah, she is rather smart,” Lance grinned.
“I’m thinking we will be done with the fence in two days,” Ian said, grabbing his glass of tea.
“That’s going to be pushing it.”
“Well, after that, let’s devote two days building our supplies for the booby traps that Uncle Doug has listed and some of our own,” Ian said, leaning back in his chair. “You know we’ve always wanted to do this, and now, we don’t have to worry about getting in trouble for hurting someone.”
An evil grin spread across Lance’s face. “I think we should get a prize for each one we hurt.”
“Lance, you have to teach us how to use the computer so we can help listen to the radio,” Jennifer said.
“Oh I am, but I need to build a better computer to do it,” Lance said. “That laptop is a good one, but that recording program is working the shit out of it. It can only record forty hours.”
Jennifer got up and started gathering plates. “Well, go put up your toys. It’s time for bed.”
Ian fell out laughing as Lance stared at her in shock. “I’ll just stay up all night then,” Lance said.
“I don’t care. You’ll be the one paying for it tomorrow.” Jennifer smirked, making Ian laugh harder.
Giving Ian a disgusted look, Lance shook his head. “You need to get a handle on your wife.” Ian froze in mid laugh as his face turned red, and he stared at Lance. Lance grinned and looked at Jennifer and found her face red. Seeing Lance look at her, Jennifer spun away, heading to the sink.
Allie leaned over to Lance. “When did they get married?”
“When Ian kissed her instead of the frog,” Lance said, getting up. Ian jumped up and ran down to the basement, avoiding all eye contact.
Carrie looked over at Jennifer. “Yo
u didn’t tell me about that.”
“Lance, enough,” Jennifer said as she loaded the dishwasher.
“What?” Lance said, getting up. “You’re the one that dared Ian to kiss you or the frog.” Seeing Jennifer’s face turning redder, Lance chuckled as she pulled her long, blond hair around her face, hiding it as she continued to load the dishwasher.
The next morning, Lance and Ian rolled the ten-foot-long round rolls of chain-link fence out of the shop and onto the trailer. Sitting on the four-wheeler, Jennifer watched them climb up on the trailer with the two rolls, and she drove around to the front and between the poles and the fence.
As Jennifer drove, the boys threw the chain-link rolls off then went back for more. It only took a few hours to place all the rolls out. Then, they grabbed tools and boxes of connectors and put them on the trailer and moved out to the front of the cabin.
Unrolling one of the fifty-foot-long rolls, they soon found out it was hard to stand it up. Stepping back to think, Ian and Lance soon came up with a way to do it easier. Connecting the end to the heavy mounting pole that would form the second gate, Ian stood up on the four wheeler and used wire to tie up the fence at the next pole as Lance held it up. Using that method, they soon had a wall of chain-link fence across half the front.
Grabbing the tightener, they pulled the slack out of the first section and connected it to the support poles. Lance went and got one of the electric buggies as Ian drove the four-wheeler then helped Jennifer stand the fence up and tie it to the poles. By the time Lance came back, they were halfway done.
Lance helped, and when the section was pulled tight and connected to the end pole, Ian and Jennifer started on the next as Lance connected the fence to the other poles along it. They were on the east fence and now were getting a fifty-foot section up in half an hour.
“Lunch is ready,” Carrie called over the radio.
Seeing Ian and Jennifer shake their heads, Lance stopped to wipe his face then called back, “Carrie, can you bring it out here? We really don’t want to stop.”
At four o’clock, the three were putting the rolling gate together. “Shit, we worked fast,” Ian said, bolting the wheels on.
“Yeah, we had to tighten each strand on the other fence and tack it up. On this one when the section was tight and connected to the poles, we were done with it,” Lance said, stepping back from the guide and mounting brackets on the fence for the gate.
“I don’t care. I really like a second fence,” Jennifer said then looked at the first one. “But I have to say, the fence you two put up is much more intimidating. Hell, I don’t even like getting near it.”
“Yeah, it does look like something out of a horror movie,” Ian laughed. “Ready to stand the gate up?”
“No,” Lance said, throwing his wrench in the buggy. The three grabbed the twelve-foot-long, ten-foot-tall gate and walked it up. It took all three of them to set it in the track. Lance looked at Jennifer. “You can do the honors,” he said with a bow.
Smiling, Jennifer grabbed the gate and pulled. It rolled across the driveway to the other post. It took some effort, but Jennifer was sure even the ladybugs could do it. She looked at the four-inch gap between the gate and the ground. “I’m happy,” she said, turning to the boys.
Ian walked over to the buggy, pulled out a chain, and put it on the gate with a combination lock with four rollers at the bottom. “Combination is 9876,” he said, locking it. “Same as the lock for the outer gate.”
The three stood and looked around at the ten-foot-tall silver wall around them. “Let’s put the stuff up and feed the critters,” Lance said, climbing in the buggy.
With the animals fed, the three headed inside and showered. When Lance came out, he saw the ladybugs in the kitchen working on supper. Pulling on a t-shirt, he walked over. “Need some help?”
“No, we got it. We’ll call you when it’s ready,” Allie said, looking over her shoulder at him as she stirred a pot.
Though he really wanted to help, Lance knew they needed to start counting on the ladybugs. Plus, he was tired. So Lance headed to the sectional, grabbed his laptop and notebook, and continued studying how to fight in close quarters battle or CQB.
Seeing Lance on the couch, Ian walked around and sat down. Jumping over the back wasn’t possible with how sore he was. “I take it the ladybugs didn’t want help?” Ian said, grabbing his laptop.
“Nope,” Lance said as he made notes. “We need to let them function some without supervision to show we trust them.”
“Fine by me. I’m wore down to the bone.”
Looking over at Ian with tired eyes, Lance nodded. “That’s what I told myself anyway so I could sit down for a little while.”
“Hey, I agree with you,” Ian said as Jennifer came out of the bathroom and saw them on the couch. Seeing the girls in the kitchen cooking, she headed for them.
“Get out; we can do this!” Carrie shouted at her sister.
Ian snickered as he picked up his notebook. “Glad I didn’t offer. Allie might have thrown something at me.”
Scrolling through the book he was reading on his computer, Lance shook his head. “She was very polite when I asked.”
“That’s because you’re Lance,” Ian smirked.
Jennifer came over and dropped down between them. “Shit, I thought my sister was about to hit me with a pot,” she said then grabbed her laptop.
“From the love in her voice, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been hard,” Ian laughed, and Jennifer elbowed him in the side.
Realizing how sore her arms were, Jennifer grimaced at him then sniffed the air. “Whatever’s in the oven is burning!”
“We’re getting it out, smarty pants!” Carrie shouted back.
Shaking her head, Jennifer sighed as she opened her laptop. “I love them both, but sometimes, I want to pop them.”
“I wouldn’t. They have Lance as backup,” Ian grinned as he jotted down notes from his reading.
“Will you two leave the ladybugs alone?” Lance sighed as he read. “They are trying to help.”
Jennifer glanced over at Lance’s computer to see a page with a series of small pictures of a man drawing a pistol from a holster. Looking over at Ian’s screen, she saw a chart and at the top of the screen labeled “Ballistics for 7.62.” Then, she looked at her laptop screen: “Canning made easy.” “Guys, I’m not complaining, but I’m not in the mood to read another book on canning,” she said, grabbing her notebook.
Picking his notebook up, Lance flipped to a blank page. “We said fighting was first, then we would study the rest. We have food for now, but if we don’t know how to fight, food really isn’t that important if we get killed,” Lance said as he started making notes.
Closing the tab, Jennifer pulled up the library and moved to those marked as fighting and noticed over a dozen books already marked as read, and five had stars beside them. “The stars are the books everyone needs to read?”
“Yeah, after we read all of them,” Ian said, making notes. “Lance, I really like the 7.62 for a sniper rifle. It may not have extreme range, but it has nice ballistics.”
“My book says you can reach out to a mile with it if you have a good scope,” Lance mumbled. “Anything past that, and I’ll leave it alone.”
Jennifer sighed. “Where are the beginner books? I’m sure they had some of those for the moms and girls.”
Both leaned over, putting their heads on each of her shoulders and started pointing out books. Jennifer clicked them open as they pointed them out. “There’s eight to start off on,” Ian said, sitting back up and studying his laptop.
“So what constitutes it being worth everyone reading?” she asked, grabbing a pen and scrolling down the first book.
“First if it’s interesting and holds your attention,” Ian chuckled, and Jennifer couldn’t see that happening as she read the title: Introduction to Side Arms for Defensive Carry and Backup Carry.
“Allie, can you bring me a glass of tea?” Lan
ce called out as he jotted down more notes. “Also if the book uses a lot of grandiose words, don’t mark it. It’s not an author who knows what he’s doing with guns. Remember KISS: Keep it simple and sweet.”
Giving a grunt, Jennifer started reading then looked up as Allie came in smiling and holding a glass of tea. “Here, Lance,” she said, smiling as she held it out.
Looking up at Allie with a smile, Lance took the glass. “Thank you, ladybug. You two need any help?”
“No, we’re almost done,” she said with a giggle and spun around, running back to the kitchen. “You’re welcome.”
Jennifer and Ian both turned their heads to look at Lance as he drained half the glass and continued reading. “How much you want to bet if I ask for a glass of tea, they will tell me no?” Ian said, shaking his head.
“Shit, I was trying to get my own, and they started yelling at me,” Jennifer snorted.
“Well, quit being so nasty to them,” Lance said, never taking his eyes off his computer.
Ian sat back and went back to reading. “I rest my case; Allie should’ve been your sister.”
“Hell, Carrie too,” Jennifer smirked and started making notes.
The three continued studying for almost half an hour until the girls called them for supper. They were pleasantly surprised with the food. It didn’t look half bad. They all sat down together and said grace then fixed their plates.
“So we starting on area deterrents tomorrow?” Ian asked, scooping mac and cheese on his plate.
Jennifer looked up in confusion. “I thought we were doing booby traps?”
“Same thing,” Lance grinned, piling on his instant mashed potatoes that the girls hadn’t stirred very well. “Yeah, let’s make the supplies for them then set them up around us.”
“Lance, we really need to take a look around us,” Ian said, taking the bowl from him. “If those douche bags set up close to us, we really need to know.”
Jennifer looked over at Ian. “You mean attack them? Won’t that let the others know we are nearby?”
Forsaken World:Coming of Age Page 12
