Forsaken World:Coming of Age

by Thomas A. Watson

  “Ian,” Lance said, guiding her around the sectional. “Lead her. I’ll get the ladybugs.” Ian came over and guided Jennifer to the bedroom as Lance went over, picked up Allie, and carried her to the bedroom. Ian guided Jennifer to her bed as Lance put Allie on the top bunk then ran to get Carrie and put her beside Allie on the top bed.

  They walked out, closed the door, and Ian stopped, turning to Lance. “They almost act like we went too far,” Ian said, and Lance shook his head. He walked to the couch.

  “Nah, they are just blown away by our awesomeness,” Lance said, grabbing the remote and flipping the screen to the port his laptop was plugged in to. “They are the first ones we’ve ever let know and watch us do the deed,” Lance said as Ian sat down, and they watched what they had done.

  It was afternoon when Jennifer came out of the bedroom and smelled food. She saw Ian setting the table as Lance worked at the stove. Jennifer put her hair in a ponytail as she walked over. “Sorry, guys,” she said and started helping Ian set the table.

  Looking over his shoulder as he stirred a pot on the stove, Lance furrowed his brow. “Ah, don’t get mad, but what are you sorry for?”

  “Wimping out,” Jennifer said, walking to the refrigerator and grabbing the pitcher of tea.

  Ian blew a raspberry, waving a hand at her. “Girl, please, it is a bit much to watch us work.”

  Setting the pitcher on the table, she looked up at him with a straight face. “How can you two move that fast? You’ve never done anything like that before, I’m sure.”

  “About moving that fast, lots of practice, and we learned quickly,” Lance said and paused as he carried a pan to the table from the stove. As he set it down, he looked up at her, grinning. “You must plan it out to a T and go over that plan dozens of times. Then, you do dry runs so you don’t leave behind evidence a deed is in place. And we may not have done stuff like that, but we have done similar stuff.”

  Putting her hands on her hips, she said, “Oh yeah, like what?”

  They looked at each other then turned to her. “Nothing,” they said together.

  “Come on, guys, it’s not like I’m going to tell, and even if I did, who can I tell?” she whined, stomping her foot.

  Lance looked at Ian and nodded as he went back to the stove to bring over the rest of the food. Ian took a deep breath. “Okay, we’ve made a shit bomb before, just not on that scale,” he said, pouring tea into glasses. “We’ve done the cable thing across the road before as well, but we used rope. Now granted, we never set a trap with stinkers, but that was just too good to pass up.”

  Grabbing the glasses as Ian filled them, Jennifer set them around the table. “Who did you shit bomb?”

  “Principle Hugh,” Ian replied, looking up with a grin.

  Jennifer sucked in a breath. “That’s why he was sick last year?”

  “Yep,” Lance said, putting down two pots. “He put us in detention for no reason. We didn’t roll the school in toilet paper, but he blamed us and put us in detention.”

  “Yeah, like we would do something as trivial as roll the school in toilet paper,” Ian chuckled. “I’ll get the ladybugs.”

  Ian headed to the bedroom, and Jennifer looked over at Lance as he sat down. “Principle Hugh quit last year; do you think both of you are the reason?” she asked, hoping not to make Lance upset.

  “Probably,” Lance nodded as he fixed his plate. “Don’t come down on us because you’re a dweeb.”

  Not able to help it, Jennifer grinned as she sat down and glanced at Lance’s laptop still hooked up to the DVD player. “Have you two ever filmed your exploits before?”

  “Yeah, we started that two years ago,” Lance said as Ian led the ladybugs to the table. “Remember when Mr. Oliver’s brand new Cadillac got super glued?”

  Throwing her head back and laughing hard, she howled, “I knew Randy didn’t do that.”

  “Well, the police and Mr. Oliver thought he did, and we couldn’t let Randy take the fall for it,” Lance said, chuckling as he watched Jennifer beat the table.

  “Mr. Oliver’s insurance company had to buy him a new car,” she howled louder. “You super glued the windows, doors, hood, trunk, and the locks then super glued it to the driveway. When the tow truck loaded the car up, it pulled up four chunks of concrete from the driveway!”

  Ian laughed at her hysterics. “Yeah, that was a masterpiece,” he said, sitting down.

  “Well, when the police brought Randy to the police station to question him—” Lance stopped when Jennifer quit laughing and looked at him in shock.

  “No, you two did that,” she gasped.

  Ian nodded. “Yeah, we had to let them know they had the wrong kid.”

  “You two super glued those four patrol cars up like you did Mr. Oliver’s car?”

  Ian nodded as Lance grabbed his glass. “We also left a note informing them of their error, and if they made another mistake, more glue would follow,” Lance said, taking a drink.

  “My dad never said anything about a note,” Jennifer mumbled then looked up at them. “That’s terrorism.”

  “Maybe, but Mr. Oliver had pushed the HOA to ban the riding of all bikes on grass, even if it was yours,” Lance snapped. “Now that’s a dictatorship, and I’m willing to use terrorism to fight a dictatorship.”

  Leaning back from the table, Jennifer held up her hands. “Hey, I’m not judging,” she said. “I wanted to roll and egg the Olivers’ house, but he had that video system put in.”

  “It’s wireless and very easy to jam,” Lance grinned. They bowed their heads and said grace, then Lance looked over at her. “That’s when we started filming our deeds. Never our face and voice, but the action. We didn’t want someone blamed for what we did.”

  Jennifer cut her eyes to Lance’s laptop. “You mean you have all of them?”

  “Not on my laptop. Are you insane?” Lance snapped, making her jump back. “My mom and dad always checked my computer and message boards I went on before and after anything happened.”

  “Yeah, you know how hard it is to scrub your history so they didn’t see we—” Ian stopped as a blush crept up his face, and Lance gaped at him. “Um, that we didn’t do it,” Ian added quickly.

  “So, ah, where are the videos at?” Jennifer asked, looking from one to the other.

  “Most are here,” Lance said. “We have a metal can buried in the woods. Each deed is stored on its own zip drive. Our last two deeds are buried in Ian’s backyard. We were going to bring them out when we had a chance, but neither of us thought they were a priority with people trying to eat us.”

  Jennifer picked up her fork, nodding. “Very understandable.”

  Clearing his throat, Ian grabbed his tea. “So Lance, what’s next?”

  “Get the rest of the traps around the fence set up then come up with a way to make that equipment quiet. But first, we finish cutting all those trees we have down into lumber. We do that tomorrow, and when all the logs are done, finish the traps around here.”

  “Are we going to make the goats a house?” Allie asked, feeling much better and filling her mouth with food.

  “Why, they won’t stay in it,” Ian huffed.

  “It would be nice if they had a place to feed,” Lance said with a shrug. “Then if we had to, we could close them up.”

  Sighing, Ian lowered his head. “Fine, but it’s at the bottom of the list.”

  “What are you two doing for the rest of the day?” Jennifer asked, praying it wasn’t watching the videos they had filmed.

  “Going to try and figure out what the blue and silver pins are,” Lance told her then drained his tea.

  “You think those mean bikers will stay away?” Carrie asked, looking around the table.

  “If they know what’s good for them,” Jennifer mumbled.

  “Don’t worry, Carrie. The majority are still miles away looking for us. Seems they ran into a large group of stinkers,” Ian chuckled.

  “Are you two going to do an
other deed?” Jennifer said.

  “Not soon—unless we have to,” Lance said then looked around the table. “If we wipe them out, then the troops north of us can concentrate on looking hard around here and may get lucky and find us. The Devil Lords and the stinkers around here make good guard dogs, taking pressure off of us if anyone starts looking hard for survivors.”

  “I like Dino being our guard dog,” Allie chimed in.

  “Not as much as we do,” Ian said, shaking his head and looking over at Lance. “We really need to find more dogs. Dino has saved our asses so many times he has become priceless.”

  “I want a puppy,” Allie cheered, throwing up her hands.

  “Me too,” Carrie cheered with her.

  Lance nodded at them with a grin. “If we come across some, we’ll get them.”

  “Your moms won’t like that when they get here,” Jennifer said. “They both sneeze their heads off. When they get here, we are going to have to scrub down the whole cabin because of Dino.”

  Ian sighed with wonder at Jennifer’s conviction that their parents would make it to the cabin. “I’m sure they won’t mind,” he said with a wishful grin.

  After lunch, Ian and Lance headed down to the basement and brought the map Jennifer had copied with the pins over to the control desk. Pulling up satellite images, they zoomed in, trying to figure out the blue and silver pins.

  The girls walked in as Lance pointed at the largest monitor, which showed a satellite image. “There’s nothing there but fields, Ian. They aren’t farmers, so what is so important about fields?”

  “Shit if I know,” Ian said, writing in a notebook. “The blue pins are over three houses, a building, a barn, a bridge, and now a field.”

  Clicking the screen, Lance shook his head. “Better than the silver ones. They are all on roads, and nothing is even close.”

  “Close? Hell, all the spots are away from everything,” Ian said and looked up. “There’s nothing around, and the places marked are too narrow for a large group.”

  “Huh,” Lance said, sitting up sharply as Jennifer and the girls joined them. “What did you say?”

  Ian looked over at him then pointed at the screen. “Look, Lance, all the places marked with a silver pin are in choke points. There’s nothing there or nearby.”

  “Choke points,” Lance mumbled and turned to the monitor. “Maybe that’s why they’re marked.”

  Tossing the notebook on the desk, Ian shook his head. “Where are you taking us this time? We’ve both been wrong the last dozen trips.”

  Grabbing the mouse, Lance zoomed out, and Jennifer saw he had put colored markers that coincided with the colored pins. “Ian, look where the silver pins are. They form a circle. Granted, it’s big as hell, but it forms a circle with Pineville at the center. What if that’s where they are watching the roads, making sure their area is secured?”

  Ian shook his head vehemently. “Lance, those are small back roads. None of them are on any main road.”

  “Right, those are packed with stinkers.” Lance grinned. “Those might be ambush points.”

  “You’re grasping again,” Ian said, grabbing his notebook. “Even if they are, there are still several other small roads into the area. I don’t care how big that gang is; they can’t cover all of them.”

  “Exactly,” Lance said, slapping the desk. “You watch the ones most likely to be used—the bigger back roads, not the tiny dirt roads and logging trails. Anyone with a brain is going to know to stay away from the main roads and big towns. The only ways to travel are the back roads.”

  “I still think you’re grasping,” Ian said. “So do you have another thought on what the blue pins are marking?”

  “No,” Lance sighed. “They don’t have a rhyme or reason that I can see.”

  “Um,” Jennifer said timidly. “I think Lance has a point. On all those DVDs we train with, they talk about ‘fatal funnels,’ and all the silver pins are in areas like that.”

  Looking at the screen hard, Ian finally nodded. “Okay, he might be right.”

  “Oh, she agrees, and suddenly, I might be right,” Lance said, throwing up his hands.

  “Your first thought was they were fishing spots, Lance,” Ian droned.

  “Fishing spots?” Jennifer asked, turning to Lance.

  “Well yeah, most are near a bridge,” Lance said, waving at the screen.

  “I wouldn’t have thought of that,” Jennifer mumbled.

  “I almost agreed with him, but it didn’t make sense why they would fish,” Ian shrugged.

  The group sat around, and they couldn’t even come up with a theory about what the blue pins represented but made plans to visit the closest silver pin to the northeast. Giving up, Lance said it was time to take a break. As the ladybugs ran out, Jennifer grabbed the boys’ arms, stopping them. “Guys,” she said sheepishly. “I’m sorry about how I acted with your deeds.”

  “You think we went too far?” Ian asked, watching her face.

  Shaking her head, Jennifer looked up. “No, I don’t feel sorry for them if that’s what you mean.”

  “If you don’t mind, will you tell us?” Lance asked.

  “I’ll never be able to do deeds like that, guys. You had that demonic toilet set up in ten minutes. The diarrhea house was done in thirty, and that warehouse you had done in three hours. I’m worthless helping you in those,” she said, looking down at the floor.

  “Hey,” Ian said, lifting her chin. “We have the deeds covered. You just need to learn how to fight and survive so we have backup.”

  Giving a weak smile, Jennifer nodded. Lance moved over and put an arm over her shoulder. “It took us a long time to do deeds like that, and you really don’t need to devote the energy to learning them; we have that covered. Like Ian said, we need you to fight beside us.”

  “I can do that,” Jennifer said, finally smiling.

  Before supper, everyone watched a movie upstairs just to relax. The only condition was it couldn’t be the snowman, and with everyone on the sectional, they watched other cartoons.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was the first week in May as Ian and Lance crept through the dark woods, closing in on a stinker that had tripped the motion detectors off. “Want to wait on him?” Ian whispered, looking around with his night vision. They were working on their fear of moving around at night but still hated it with a passion. Several weeks before, they had even stayed out all night. Neither slept by a long shot, but they did scout. The entire night, neither of their heart rates dropped to normal levels.

  “Hell no, I hope we can get him before he trips any traps,” Lance shot back. “That last one set off nine, and it took an hour to reset them, and it was daylight then.”

  “Well, that deadfall broke his back,” Ian grinned.

  “Yeah, and that’s what took the longest to reset.” Lance nodded. “Let’s go.”

  They moved up the draw and soon found the stinker impaled on spears on the other side of the creek. “Glad we didn’t wait,” Ian said, lifting his goggles then raising his bow. He could see the stinker’s outline clearly and released the arrow. When it struck, the stinker stopped struggling. It never occurred to Ian that he was thirty yards away and barely smelled the stinker.

  “You were right to use bows when we can,” Lance said, looking at the rushing stream. Like Ian, Lance didn’t connect the dots; they saw the stinker before they smelled it.

  “It’s still a challenge to use a bow in the dark with night vision, and we only have so many bullets.” Ian shrugged, looking over at Dino, who had sat down and was panting. “I know we have almost a million .22, but let’s save what bullets we can.”

  “Ian, this stream has never been this high,” Lance said, waving at the rushing water. “I know it’s May, but you can’t even call it a stream anymore.”

  Ian looked at the rushing water and agreed with Lance. The stream that they used to jump over except a few wide areas was now a roaring creek. “It’s like the pump ho
use; water is steadily flowing out the overflow pipe.”

  Jerking a thumb over his shoulder, Lance pointed toward the valley below them. “The creek this flows into is now a small river,” he said. “We have had rain but nowhere near enough for this.”

  “We can think about this another day. Let’s cross and burn our guest before his BO brings friends,” Ian said, stepping into the cold water.

  They waded across a narrow area that had no traps in the water and pulled the stinker off, torching him. “Stinker down,” Ian called over the radio, putting the arrow he used back in his quiver. That was another reason he liked the bow; he just had to pull his ammo out and could use it again if it wasn’t broken.

  “Copy, see you,” Jennifer called back.

  Glancing around, Lance stepped back as the stinker’s fire took hold, giving off that blue flame with much more hints of orange. “I don’t like to start my days off burning stinkers, especially before breakfast,” Lance said, putting his zippo up. After he turned away from the fire, he lowered his goggles back over his eyes.

  “Hey, it was your idea to sneak out here before breakfast. I was willing to wait till you left on patrol and let you and Jennifer take care of it. She needs to get used to moving and fighting with the night vision.”

  Sucking in a breath, Lance waded back in the cold water. “I don’t like it when they bring friends,” Lance said, cringing from the chill. “Those nine last Tuesday almost made it through the outer ring. You still need to lead the ladybugs on the morning DVD training. Go over that first one you and I did.” Ian nodded, carefully following Lance and making sure Lance didn’t hit one of their traps. With so many out now, that was becoming a chore.