by P. S. Power
Burt walked with him and Nate into the House, to collect their charges, which meant grabbing the other women from his house too. It was mean, but no one could be trusting them overly, having last come from Holsom's bed, as far as anyone else knew. He signaled them over, and Nate got Karen and Robin to come, along with Cam for some reason.
The leader seemed friendly again, almost happy about things, relaxed and like this was perfectly normal. Jake had to hide his nerves, just knowing he'd say something wrong, or suspicious. Then... That didn't matter as long as he only acted that way towards Karen, did it? He made a point of looking at her. Not a soulless stare, but still, a nervous looking thing.
She looked away, but then back. Her eyes finally locking with his. She had brown hair and brown eyes, and a sore on her lip that looked diseased, herpes probably. Jake did not want to make out with her, he realized. Otherwise she was nice enough looking. A bit lazy, but then he felt that way about most of the people. She wasn't new, but they'd only talked twice before, the first words she'd said to him were actually “don't talk to me”, about four months back. She'd also spoken out against him later, when they'd voted him out.
It took work to remind himself that it was probably Holsom's influence, not her personal feelings that had caused all that. Unless it was. He doubted it was really about him at all. Holsom was probably just starving and cold and couldn't find enough corpses to eat for the winter, so he was trying to get the women at the House to take him back.
Ultimately that meant no Jake, and probably a few other people too. Dave, Vickie, probably Barry, who'd put a knife in the man if he could, Jake didn't doubt. It was just practical. Julio might go after him too. The man wasn't a fighter though. Brave, no doubt, but Holsom had been a cop before, which meant he was two things. Trained and a coward.
OK, not all police were without bravery, even thinking that would be crazy. But the training made them afraid, it was designed to. Everything was a threat and the only right way to deal with something was to get backup and use overwhelming force. If they didn't have it, they were trained to run away, cop movies and television shows aside. Really, it was a good plan. Back Before that had worked pretty well. Holsom wouldn't try doing anything too overt, most likely, just because of that.
Unless Jake was wrong, of course.
Nate looked at Kara and winked.
“Hey, we have a project for you, it's pretty special, sewing something, do you think you could help with it?”
The woman had been looking down the whole time, missing anyone's facial expression. She nodded without speaking, and cast a single glance sideways at Jake who smiled when he saw it. She winced a little and started to look down again.
“Relax. It's for something fun. No one blames you for having run into the wrong people.” Raising his eyebrows Jake tried to make himself sound friendly, Kara was, after all, one of his people, right?
“Really, none of the women are to blame for this. I... really wish that the others would have come and talked to us first, so that we could have tried to help them, instead of all this. Even just giving Holsom food so that he could go away would have been better.” It sounded like he meant it, because he did.
The part about Justine and Holly coming to him. Or even Nate or Tipper. Jake still would have hunted the bastard down, but maybe they'd have gotten to live? Karen watched him, a shocked look on her face. She tried to hide it, but couldn't, not really.
“You'd give him food?” Her voice tried for suspicious, but ended up being a lot more warm underneath than it should have, even if she still loved the man.
Jake looked back at her, realizing that his acting skills just weren't up to this kind of thing. After a second he just went with the truth. Part of it.
“To save more bloodshed? To keep these women safe? Yes. I was going to vote for the ones that wanted to leave originally to get full equal shares you know. Well, Nate does,” Jake looked at the man, who sighed and looked at Karen then, hard, a bit of steel in the gaze.
“It's true. I fear the Derrick never really understood Jake at all. He's championed him more than once, even when it's cost him personally. Not the situation at hand though. I noticed that you didn't have a partner yet, a replacement for Bobby? I'd like you to consider Jake for that,” he held up his right hand, to prevent speech, a habit of his.
“Just until you find someone else. Though, really, I think you two might get along pretty well, if you give each other a chance. The whole telepathy thing gives a bit of insight that way. Not perfect, but, well, what do you think?”
It was a change to the plan, since Karen was supposed to have been assigned to Jake, possibly with a bit of a fight about it. Burt didn't seem to have a problem with it at all, and just smiled at Robin, giving the girl a sly look. Then he sobered up and seemed a lot older suddenly.
“Um, this is a little awkward Robin, but Sammi suggested that you might have the aptitude to be my new helper? Justine had the job, but, she died last night. One of the ones with Derrick. It's alright if you don't want to, I can probably find someone else. It's a lot of work, but it's useful. Plus, well, sometimes you'll need to go into town and I have a problem with that still. So, it's alright if you say no.”
The girl shrugged, as if the whole thing wasn't part of some kind of plot to get messages to the outside. To their enemies.
“Sure. No problem. What do I do?”
Burt walked away with her, explaining things in hushed tones, Kara got dragged along too. Then she had that Santa project to get to.
That just left Karen to make her “choice”, Jake got ready for her to go ballistic, just refuse or even run off to find someone else there and then, but instead she stepped closer to him and put her arm around him. They were about the same height he noticed, about five-seven or eight. He nearly flinched away.
“Um, alright I guess. I... Jake and I haven't always gotten along, I mean I was mean to him, a bitch really, but that was more me than... All me. I guess. Sorry.” She swallowed and licked her lips, which reminded him of that thing on the upper one.
Jake wanted to shy away from her but didn't. Freaking disease vector. Holsom cooties too. Ick.
Nate smiled, nearly laughing and Jake got the idea, but Karen smiled as well.
“He's a good provider though. I mean a lot of the food has been because of him and he's nice looking and clean. I never thought that “clean” would be one of my major criteria for a partner... Sure though, I'd like the help, I mean, if you're willing?” The woman tried to look alluring, or flirtatious.
Instead she came off looking like a crack whore from a movie, thin, jittery and desperate for her fix, willing to do anything to make that happen. Even cozy up to him.
Heh.
Wonderful.
It was odd, but Nate had picked up on something, hadn't he? Really the woman should have just freaked and gone silent and scared. Not, well... looking at her, she seemed almost happy about the outcome. Jake knew he was still “creepy” to her, so it didn't fit. Unless creepy was alright for some reason? Or didn't matter?
She probably intended to try and kill him, if she could.
That would be possible. It always would of course, if a person were smart about it. He had to sleep and if she was willing to die, a knife to the throat then would get the job done. Or a bullet to the back of the head when he wasn't looking. Maybe an ambush? Well, better to have an idea of where it might be coming from than not. Jake smiled and nodded, trying not to look too off-putting.
“It's a plan then. Hey, um, do you think you could help me with some stuff? Mostly taking notes, light work like that. Maybe some other things, helping with sewing and things? I'm supposed to be working on that in the evenings, if I can.”
Karen laughed.
“You're... learning to sew? You?” She obviously thought it was a joke.
“Yeah. It's important work too. We won't have clothing from town forever, so repair and making our own will eventually be important. That and shoe making
. I have some leather put aside for that, but I have no real clue how to start. Do you?” He tried to go conversational, which got a nod from Nate.
“Good. I think you two will find that this works out pretty well, if you both try.” Then he walked off, leaving them to talk about footwear.
She had no idea how to do it either, but had talked to one of the new women, who did.
Sue.
Jake filed that one away, or almost did. Instead he got some paper and a pen from Carl and started making the rounds, finding out what was needed and who had what skills. That lasted until Darian, Robert and the hard looking gray haired woman from the day before popped into place, near the back of the living room.
Oh, right, an afternoon meeting. Here it was, right on time even. Jake waved at them, trying to make it look happy. Like he hadn't forgotten.
“Hi everyone! Um, let's get you some chairs and, uh, something to drink maybe? I don't know what we have, but let's check...”
Karen who had followed him grinned at the newcomers, but didn't say anything to them.
“Do you want me to check with Lois?”
“Would you please? That would be great. Oh, if you'd get Sammi too and, um... Vickie or Tipper if they're about and Cam?”
“Cam?”
“Cute new girl, orange eyes and bright red hair?” Jake held his right hand up, just above shoulder level. “About this tall? Probably in the kitchen with Sam.”
Darian looked down his nose at Jake then, a hard thing that seemed displeased, a bit like he smelled something bad.
“You make them work together? More, you let a scalli like that have access to your food? You must like the taste of teleport spit.” The man was good looking enough, strong and in shape.
Also apparently a complete ass.
Morris started to stiffen, but Jake shook his head.
“Cam is a good worker and Sammi is making an effort to get along with her. If we don't cooperate here, we all die. Besides, it's the others I'd worry about spitting in my food. Cam is actually a little sweetie. So is your granddaughter. Good sense of noise control.”
The Val gave him a nod and held out her right hand to shake.
“Odina North, Yalla. My people here both spoke most highly of you. Suggested that we put a few more of our people in here to get some training. That's no light praise. Victoria is Freya second for this continent for a reason. Tiberia Skolu is a solid warrior in her own right. Should I get with you on that or your telepath? Nathaniel?”
Holding up a single index finger, Jake closed his eyes. He didn't know what it looked like, but needed the time to not bust up laughing.
“Um, first, yes, Nate. He's in charge. Though we do have some dangerous cannibals coming soon, maybe within weeks or less, maybe more. So if you want to send some people in for practice or whatever, that might work. Second, um, Tipper's name is Tiberia? That's...” His eyes lit, but he held his tongue.
“Oh, no, her name is Skolu. Tiberia is her title, basically... Gunnery Sargeant? Not that high given her age, but she's spent a lot of her time teaching, which lowers the speed of advancement.”
Karen came back with the others, and Jake ran to get chairs in, which clearly made the visitors uncomfortable. Not the chairs, which were basic, but serviceable, but that he was the one getting them. The others didn't blink. Darian made significant eye contact with Sam, but the girl didn't react at all.
Instead she just looked at Jake, who had to make several trips to get enough chairs for everyone, setting them up in a little circle. It made his stomach ache but that was no huge thing. He ended up with a space next to him and Sammi to his right, sitting well away from Darian, and Vickie to his left, but at a remove on either side, as if he was important, but smelled bad.
God he hoped not. He'd washed that morning, but the walk in might have done it, that and the tension. Well, nothing for it now.
Getting another chair he waved Karen over and introduced her.
“Not to be a jerk, but if you'd take notes as needed and see to the drinks and all that?” He sounded apologetic, but she just smiled, nodding big. Happy.
“Certainly.” Then she set to work as if it had been the plan all along.
The information that came in was slow and in pieces. Really, it seemed like these people didn't want much from him at all. Some visits, hosting some of their people, having a few of the people from the House go and help out other places. It hardly seemed like stuff they should have bothered coming for at all. Certainly not spent hours chatting about as if it was important. A simple list would have done as well.
For drinks they had tea and fruit juice, both things that Lois and Mary had come up with, before a super-z had eaten a big chunk of the other woman on the front porch. Jake had shot her in the head to keep her from turning. Really, to keep her from suffering, he admitted to himself, glad the telepath guy wasn't around. It sounded both psycho-hard and wimpy at the same time, if you heard the thoughts.
For some reason they all seemed pretty cheerful about what they'd accomplished for some reason, which meant they wanted to come again the next day for more talks. Jake shook his head though, but smiled.
“Sorry, I need to work on the forge for a few days. I have some ideas to try and frankly, I still suck at it. Unless someone knows a master blacksmith? That would help a lot. Especially if I can learn anything fast enough. I want to try making some air rifles, but really powerful ones...” Jake grinned and knew he probably sounded stupid.
“Which no one here cares about, I'm sure... Would it be alright to set things for, three days from now? That's what, two days before Christmas? Oh... we're also having a bit of a celebration here, if you'd like to come? I know most of you probably don't do that as a holiday, but you're all welcome. Kind of a homey thing, so no need to dress up. A bit crowded but if that doesn't bug you, it won't bother us, I don't think.”
Morris clapped his hands twice.
“Oh, a party? Something nearly civilized even? I don't know about the others, but If I could bring a few people that would be wonderful. My wife and say, three others? We can bring something to off set the extra bodies.” It sounded almost like a negotiation suddenly.
Next to him the Odina North Yalla got a funny look. Almost constipated. At first Jake thought she just didn't want to come, or maybe didn't like crowds. That could be a problem if it was the case, but Vickie leaned in and pushed his arm a bit, playfully. Darian looked at her sharply as if he suspected assault, but relaxed when she winked.
“Yalla has no clue what to expect or bring. Really I don't know either, so I can't just sneak the info to her before she leaves, which would be what would normally happen.”
“Oops, sorry.” Jake hoped it wasn't him being a complete moron, but feared it was, he knew they didn't have the same customs after all, didn't he?
“Um, well, we're kind of making stuff up this year. We'll have some food, probably a full diner,” Next to him Sammi nodded once, indicating that was the plan. Cam did too, so it wasn't some secret thing then. “Traditionally there are presents, and we've,” Jake whispered, leaning forward. “Got some things, but you know, guests don't have to do that. Then we'll sing some songs, probably down in the underground rooms, by candle light, and chat, watch the kids play with their presents and possibly go fight some zombies. You know, fun things like that.” The last bit was a joke, but Darian looked suddenly very impressed.
“That sounds like a wonderful event. May I ask for, shall we call it five? Robert... is he welcome do you think?” The words were delicate.
“Why wouldn't he be?” Jake said, really feeling baffled.
Sammi hid her smile behind her hand and stared at him.
“Jake, normally it's considered a big deal if people are pulling weapons on each other in anger.”
“That? I'm a little fast on the draw sometimes and yes, I was feeling tiny bit put out, but boo-hoo, right? It wasn't his fault, and you know, I'm sure he gets that. I hope so at least. I suppose I shou
ld apologize to him, huh? Actually, Darian, would you ask him to come for me? Or maybe just show up and visit? He's cool. I was a jerk to him, I guess I should fix that.” This was embarrassing, and the visitors all looked away for a second, no doubt feeling awkward.
In all there looked to be nearly thirty extra people coming. It was a lot, but they were bringing food and drinks, so Jake figured it would about work. They had enough for the time being. The huge amount of supplies they'd already brought, teleported in by Morris's people after they arrived by armored vehicle the day before. The barn was full as were all the cellars. Jake was amazed to find out that, the day before, when they'd left, Morris had taken all the vehicles back with them.
Not at once, one at a time, still, the things were huge if Jake had it right. He hadn't seen them, but … wow.
Cameron slid forward in her chair and stuck her tongue out at him.
“I know what you're thinking, “Cam is a big slacker” but I'll have you know I'm doing pretty well for fourteen, thank you very much.”
Morris inclined his head toward the girl and then addressed Jake, sounding pleased.
“It's true. I expect many great things from her.”
With that, they started saying their goodbyes, which took way longer than “see ya later” and a handshake should have. It was like they didn't want to leave. Jake didn't want them to either, because he realized that he'd just invited thirty extra people to an already big party, without asking anyone. Nate would be fine with it, they had the resources, but Lois might just decide to round out the Christmas feast with a side of his testicles.
She was a pacifist, but there were limits to everything. He stalled by putting the chairs back to the side of the room. The others didn't help at all, doing the same thing. In half a minute it was all cleaned up.
Sigh, oh potentially final sigh.
Well, nothing for it now. Jake headed to the kitchen without saying anything, at a bit of a march, which had everyone else follow without speaking. They probably wanted to watch the beating he was about to get. Yeah, he deserved it. Hopefully it would just be words though. His stomach and back still hurt.
