Go Loud (The Molting Book 4)

by C A Gleason

Jonah’s jogging route.

  Hauling in a holiday tree.

  The tears.

  The laughter.

  All the hugs and kisses and love between him and Doreen.

  And seriously, how many times had they used the outhouse? How many times were the ladies grumpy because one of them needed to go in the middle of the night and Jonah stifling a chuckle thinking it funny?

  For a while, Jonah considered wiring the cabin to explode, in case a backup plan needed a backup plan. But he’d changed his mind. The cabin didn’t belong to them. And he’d never planned on them to live there permanently.

  And for some reason, Jonah really liked the idea of someone else finding the cabin and living in it one day. Because he knew it wasn’t their home. Not anymore. Someone else living there, or a family, it would be like Jonah and his people still lived there.

  The thought didn’t make much sense but over the years, it had occurred to him consistently. He’d learned not to ignore the repetitious thoughts of the subconscious.

  They’d found the key to the door of the cabin easily upon their arrival, even though Henry hadn’t even mentioned it when he’d sent them here.

  Possibly someone had the same idea as Jonah did now—Jonah liked to think so—so it was fitting they did the same. The key was left in the doorknob of the lone door leading into the cabin, as it was when they’d arrived there.

  Jonah also left the lock on the cellar door. Slightly open and with the key in it too. He hoped someone would one day think of the cabin as a home as much as they had.

  Jonah glanced at Doreen and saw the same emotions he was feeling. “I know.”

  She smiled at him, and for a few seconds everyone stood around.

  “We’re about to get on the road,” Jonah said. “Anybody got anything?”

  “Along the way,” Sven said, addressing everyone, “if anyone isn’t feeling well, please let me know.”

  “You all heard him,” Jonah said. “If we need to, we’ll stop. Where it’s safe, and secure the temporary perimeter. Anybody else?”

  “If you need to, and you can’t make a shot, you let me know,” Donnelly said.

  “And if you need to make something disappear, you let me know,” Salgado said.

  The laughter was a welcome sound and suited the end of their time at the cabin.

  “That reminds me, keep earplugs in your ears, or on hand,” Jonah said. “I found thousands of them over the years, so don’t worry about wasting them.”

  Jonah wasn’t sure why, but he was delaying the inevitable for a while longer. Under the circumstances, by there not being any foreseeable danger, it was allowable.

  But eventually, it was time.

  “Ready?”

  Doreen nodded and wiped at her wet cheeks.

  “All right,” Jonah said. “Time to leave.”

  Jonah waited until every vehicle started up and everyone was inside a vehicle. He wanted to be the last to enter a vehicle and was waiting on Doreen.

  Doreen looked to him, and before she got inside the pickup truck where Henry was behind the wheel, she kissed two fingers and pointed them at the cabin, their home since Henrytown. “Tschüss.”

  CHAPTER 13

  For those who wanted to nap in vehicles before dawn, it was allowed. It was possible to take advantage of Jonah’s control of the immediate territory. He’d been confident they’d be able to.

  So far, the day was uneventful. In the best way possible, because it meant there wasn’t a need for shooting.

  But Jonah couldn’t ignore the part of his inner radar sensing when a bad thing was going to happen. Maybe even very bad things were on the horizon. With the weather creeping toward summer, inevitably they would encounter more Molters than ever before.

  Looking over the terrain before them, it didn’t seem anything dangerous would happen any time soon. Or not at all. The sun blanketed green trees on both sides of the road and cast a warm, pinkish hue over the snowy mountains beyond.

  His hands began to sweat. He was really going to do this.

  Seeing no obstacles—at least for enough time necessary—Jonah crouched down into the cab of the UV from the gunner’s hatch, sat, leaned forward and grabbed the mic.

  Jonah hesitated . . .

  He thumbed the mic. “Doreen, do you copy?”

  He waited.

  “What is it, Jonah?”

  Jonah visualized her. “I have something to ask you.”

  Philip shifted his view from the driver’s seat to see Jonah in the reflection of the rearview mirror. Sven patted him on the shoulder.

  “Potty break,” Henry radioed.

  The convoy parked in the middle of the road. Engines idling. Jonah got out of the lead vehicle, leaving the door open and walked south to the truck. Henry was grinning from the driver’s seat, and Jonah knocked on the passenger window.

  Doreen rolled the window down. “You could have asked me whatever over the radio.”

  “Not for this.” Butterflies flew around in Jonah’s stomach. “Will you step out please?”

  Doreen smiled and the corner of her mouth wavered. She must have sensed his excitement. “Is something wrong?”

  “Not at all.”

  Others, except for drivers, exited vehicles too. Either to stretch or do as Henry suggested; relieve themselves out of sight. Jonah pointed to his eyes and then outward.

  From the rear vehicle’s gunner’s hatch, while behind the fully automatic grenade launcher, Salgado nodded.

  Jonah got down on one knee, and Doreen gasped. He took her hand, gazing up. “Doreen, you are the love of my life, will you marry me?”

  Doreen’s chin quivered, glancing quickly at Heike and Henry, who nodded. She flattened her hand against her chest.

  “Yes.” She swallowed thick emotion. “Yes, Jonah. Yes!”

  Jonah rose up, closed his eyes, and kissed her. As always for those brief moments, the world was a wonderful place with zero danger or worry, only happiness.

  “Way to go, Jonah!” Heike said.

  Patty was next to her on the bench seat and tapped her on the shoulder. “Don’t you mean dad?”

  Heike blushed and shrugged. Then she nodded. It was Jonah’s turn to get emotional as the people before him became his new family: fiancé, stepdaughter, and father-in-law.

  “Homie!” Salgado yelled from the gunner’s hatch. “I mean, congratulations, and this is punching us all right in the feelings, but do we really have time for this? Maybe we can do this part on the road?”

  “I’m not getting married over the radio, Salgado!” Doreen said.

  “OK, OK. But we stay too long and they’re going to eat us up like wedding cakes. I’ve got a lot of cousins and I’ve been to a lot of weddings so I know what I’m talking about!”

  Jacobs, Donnelly, Sven, and Bernard stood guard. Nico and Philip were guarding the front of the convoy but within hearing distance. Patty and Heike remained seated on the bench seat of the truck with the door open.

  Salgado was probably right, Jonah thought, but how often did they get to do normal things these days, especially celebrate?

  Maybe not exactly normal. Jonah couldn’t recall ever seeing a wedding when all of the groomsmen were armed.

  Even though Jonah noticed the nervousness on Henry’s face after Jonah asked him to marry them now, Henry couldn’t be happier.

  “I, we, want you to be the one,” Doreen said.

  “I don’t even know the words,” Henry said.

  “You know the last words, right?” Salgado shouted.

  Jonah laughed and shook his head at him.

  “All right, all right,” Salgado said. “You’re lucky you all got me pinned behind this weapon.”

  “I suppose I do,” Henry said.

  “No, that’s what we say, Henry,” Jonah said.

  “Ha!”

  “Make something up.”

  “Say whatever comes to mind,” Doreen said.

  Henry bumbled along, talking about how m
uch Heike reminded him of her mom when she was her age, and explaining how confusing it was how quickly kids grew up, because of how it seemed to him Doreen was born yesterday.

  And then Henry said what has been said uncountable times before. A sapling of happiness planted for any two getting married. What would grow them into what would be the rest of their lives.

  “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

  Jonah and Doreen kissed as man and wife for the first time. Doreen’s passion sent him signals his inner radar didn’t recognize, radiations of emotions women possessed when they were truly happy.

  A strong bond strengthened even more in the moment. In ways only the universe understood. Once the kiss ended and Doreen opened her beautiful eyes to look into his, Jonah felt something change between them.

  Doreen knew Jonah had wanted her to be his wife. And Doreen had accepted Jonah to be her husband. Getting married meant choosing.

  What a wonderful choice for both of us.

  Doreen would be his woman for the rest of his life, and Jonah would be her man until his last breath.

  Doreen didn’t need to ask if Jonah had asked Henry’s permission to marry her. She knew he’d done it because he’d said he would.

  “I love you,” Jonah said.

  “I love you, too,” Doreen said.

  Jonah looked to Henry, who grinned, and nodded with fatherly approval.

  “Yay!” Heike said.

  “Congratulations!” Salgado shouted. “I want to be your best man!”

  Jonah cupped a hand to the side of his mouth. “We’re already married!”

  “You can be his best man, Salgado!”

  “Thanks, Doreen!”

  “Wait a second,” Jonah said, “isn’t it supposed to be my decision?”

  Doreen shrugged and kissed him again. This time they hugged, and as they did there was applause.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Well, shit.”

  “You sure said it.”

  Jonah snickered.

  “No way I can do my necessities with it down there.”

  “You think I can? I’d have to watch it happen. At least you’d have to imagine it. I’ll go right on it. It’s inhumane or something.”

  Doreen tittered.

  “Where’s our brave little hunter when we need her?”

  “Inside the cabin where I wish we were.”

  “Unfortunately, we have to do something about this.”

  “It sure is hideous.”

  “Like all of them.”

  “Good thing I heard it thrashing around.”

  “I know. I’m glad you came and got me. They can open doors so I guess it was eventual they’d figure out the latches on the outhouse.”

  “Then it must have lifted the lid and . . . why would it go down there? None of them ever did it before.”

  “None ever have.”

  “Even though we were prepared for it to happen, it’s weird.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  Doreen laughed. Both of them crowded inside the space of the outhouse designed for one and peeked over the bowl.

  A Molter stared up at them, standing in years of waste that sloshed up to its chest. Its tooth-filled jaws worked up and down and its bulbous eyes flicked all over as it tried to figure out a way to escape.

  “What the hell drew it down there? It really doesn’t make any sense. I don’t mind getting dirty but not like this.”

  “So, the mighty Jonah doesn’t like to deal with number one and number two?”

  “Real funny.”

  “It is to me.”

  “Number two. My Achilles heel.”

  “Hey, it’s ours.”

  “It’s still number two.”

  “You could shoot it from here and then leave it.”

  “Would you really be able to forget it’s beneath you every time you sit down?”

  “Definitely not.”

  “Me either. This is gonna be messy. I’m really gonna need a bath after this one.”

  “You’re actually going to climb down there?”

  “I have a choice?”

  “How will I get you back out?”

  “You’ll have to pull me out.”

  Salgado’s voice over the radio pulled Jonah out of the memory. Dangerous times, and it was when Doreen was pregnant. Before miscarrying. Jonah decided against climbing down into the outhouse.

  Instead, they’d lowered a two by four at the end of a rope into its depths. Jonah taped a baseball glove to his forearm. Doreen aimed Jonah’s 9mm pistol, while Jonah pulled the rope with gloved hands.

  The Molter clawed onto anything, so of course it held on. When it was nearly to the top, below the toilet lid, Jonah offered the baseball glove. The fearsome creature happily bit into the leather.

  Doreen, quickly and as precisely as she could, handed over his 9mm. As Jonah hauled the snarling and thrashing Molter out of the outhouse, he shot it in the head.

  The Molter in the outhouse was one of the funnier things happening to them while living at the cabin. It already seemed so long ago.

  What did Salgado say?

  Jonah turned around in the gunner’s hatch as he listened to the radio chatter beneath him.

  “. . . and she was like, why you looking at my booty? And I was like, because I look at booties. Then she was like—”

  Jonah made a swiping motion at the front of his neck and dropped back into the UV, reaching forward for the mic, thumbing it. “Remember, young ears.”

  “Shoot. Sorry. Your wedding and all. I just miss my wife. Even though she’s gone.”

  How many experiences did Salgado have with his wife similar to the one Jonah was thinking about having with Doreen?

  How many of the men were married and lost their wives too, like Salgado? There is never enough time spent with a loved one. It isn’t quantity. It’s quality. Jonah was about to say so but changed his mind.

  Instead, he simply said, “I’m sorry, man.”

  Jonah couldn’t imagine life without Doreen.

  “Me too. Thanks,” Salgado radioed. “Easy for my thoughts to get carried away up here. Boring right now.”

  Jonah spotted an opportunity. “Better than the alternative.”

  Nothing better for a soldier—even a former one—than a mission to keep their mind occupied. Jonah knew the lesson all too well.

  “True. True.”

  “Keep your eyes open.”

  “Shoot, dude. I can talk and shoot with my eyes closed.”

  “Don’t prove it.”

  Salgado laughed over the radio before it went silent.

  CHAPTER 15

  There were vehicles, two of them. Pickup trucks. They were practically replicas of the ones appearing when Jonah was abducted on the road by Perry and the others who enforced the Draw.

  They must have belonged to the intruders who got near the cabin. The men Jonah and Doreen—but also a Behemoth—had killed.

  Jonah was currently riding in the back seat of the lead UV. He was resting his legs on purpose. Taking advantage of the down time. He’d be standing in the gunner’s hatch later.

  Reading minds, Jonah thumbed the radio mic. “I imagine we’ll see a lot of things of interest or potential use, but we can’t stop for everything.”

  “Yeah, just for weddings,” Salgado radioed.

  Laughter filled the lead UV. Sven was next to Jonah, Philip was driving, and no one was in the passenger seat. Jonah imagined there was laughter in the other vehicles as well.

  He thumbed the mic. “When it is necessary to stop, we will.”

  At the moment he was taking advantage of his vigilance of going through his self-appointed missions. Especially the ones atop the ridges to eliminate cocoons. Sitting was the payoff. He could only guess how many cocoons he’d destroyed with a rifle. He’d never counted.

  But they’d definitely put a dent in the local Behemoth population. Enough to allow the—presently—five-vehicle convoy to be uno
bstructed. For now. And safe for now was good enough.

  Jonah thumbed the mic. “I’m not sure how far the protection of my clearing will go, but I’m ready to stand up and man the S-A-R whenever it’s necessary. Still, keep eyes open for Molters. And also Behemoths. And barrels pointed.”

  “Behemoths haven’t been seen much. Saw more at the firing line than I did in the last year,” Salgado radioed. “Good thing too. Behemoths shed those Infector bastards.”

  The radios stayed on in every vehicle and on the same frequency. Myers had driven the UV ahead and checked in recently. He’d nearly arrived at Fort Perry, and they would join him shortly.

  Convenient to have access to military radios again, Jonah thought.

  There was even a radio set up on the dashboard in the backup truck from the cabin Henry drove. Jonah could imagine how scrunched it was on the bench seat with Heike, Patty, and Doreen alongside him.

  It crossed Jonah’s mind to offer up the empty passenger seat. But if anything happened, the lead vehicle would encounter it first. Jonah wanted everyone else protected as best as possible. He could decide differently whenever. Middle vehicles of a convoy were safer than the lead one.

  The vehicles without military radios were the two extra pickup trucks transporting the newcomers. Nico drove one, and Bernard the other. They both drove alone as the trucks were fully loaded from the cabs to beds.

  The rear UV was driven by Donnelly. Jacobs was in the passenger seat, and Salgado was in the back seat. Salgado was as ready to rise up into its gunner’s hatch as Jonah. It was the one with the fully automatic grenade launcher attached at the gunner’s hatch.

  “Probably not many Behemoths because they’re being hunted. By Molters. Then whatever the heck is going on with them. Everything’s so different now. I bet there’s some of everything we know of, out there somewhere.”

  Jonah thumbed the mic. “You didn’t want to talk about any of this stuff at the dig site and now you won’t shut up about it.”

  “Hey man, I change my mind all the time, don’t you know? We gotta talk about something.”

  Sven looked to be chewing on multiple thoughts.

  “Speaking of which, I’m going to chat with Sven for a while.”