“Hands up,” a voice said, almost cheerfully.
Avery yelped with fright and threw his hands up. “Don’ kill me!” he pleaded.
“That’s up to you. Move slow an behave an’ you’ll be fine,” the voice said.
Mike walked a very compliant Avery over to Sarge. Doc already had Ned there by the time they got there. Marv and Goat were kneeling on the ground beside Ned and Mike told Avery to get down with them. He pushed Avery down to a kneeling position and the man obediently put his hands on his head.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I ran out and jumped on the Polaris, then realized I had left the key inside and had to run back in. All the girls were in the kitchen looking at me. I paused for a moment, flashed a big smile and waved the key at them and turned and ran out the door. Meathead was unfortunate enough to be standing outside it when I crashed into it and it into him. He jumped off the porch and looked back at me in what could only be the dog version of sum bitch. He got over it and was at my side as I started the ATV and put it in gear and took off for the gate.
I was in a good mood despite everything that had happened. The thought of Sarge and crew showing up gave me hope that we could stop all the damn raids. I turned right at the road and raced off down the road towards Reggie’s place, Meathead hot on my trail. Thad and Jeff had decided to stay and look after him, the painkillers had knocked him right out.
As I pulled through the gate, Jeff came around the corner of the house with his Mosin shouldered at low ready.
“Where’s Thad?” I asked him as he tried to keep Meathead from licking his face. That damn dog had some reach when he stands up on his hind legs.
Pushing the dog off and wiping his face with the back of his hand he replied, “He’s inside. Stupid ass mutt.”
“What? He likes you,” I said with a grin.
Jeff looked at the dog then at me. “I was talking about you,” he said with a smile.
“I like you too,” I said, bouncing my eyebrows.
He let out a laugh and headed for the house. I followed him, but Meathead smelled something and with nose to the ground headed around the back of the house. Thad was tending to the fireplace when we came in. There was one of those enameled tin coffee pots, the kind you buy in the camping section of Wally World, sitting on the coals. He looked up and flashed a big smile. Reggie was lying on the couch snoring.
“Hey man, you need to come with me,” I said to him.
His smile faded. “What’s up?”
“It’s a surprise, I can’t tell ya.”
Thad’s brow furrowed, causing wrinkles almost to the crown of his bald head. “I don’t like surprises anymore.”
“Come on, get up, it’s a good one, promise.” Looking over at Jeff, I asked if he would hang out.
He looked at his wrist, then back to me. “Don’t be long, I have an appointment with boredom in an hour.”
“Don’t worry, this surprise will take care of your boredom,” I said with a grin.
While he didn’t look thrilled with the idea, Thad did finally get up and follow me to the door. He stopped at the door and picked up his trusty old scattergun and put on his coat. I looked around for Meathead and couldn’t find him and headed around the side of the house to look for him.
I found him out by the old barn where we had had the cookout. He was eating something on the ground and I went over to see what he was up to. After all the shooting and people running and diving for cover, much of the food was spilled, except for the pig thankfully, which Thad had taken inside. I was watching him eat mac n’ cheese when Thad rode around on his four-wheeler. He pulled up beside from me and stopped.
He sat there for a minute looking at the dog. “Get that.”
I looked over at him. “What?”
“That,” he said, then drew the big Bowie knife I had given him during our walk home, flipped it so he was holding the blade and threw it. It stuck in the ground and I looked where it landed.
I didn’t see anything, but walked over to it. Caked in dirt and dried grass was a finger. I nudged it with the toe of my boot. It was the tip and second knuckle. I reached down and picked it by the tip, looking at it.
“What’da you want to do with it?” I asked, looking back at him.
“Don’ know, jus’ don’t want your dog to eat it.”
I walked over to the fence and threw it out into the woods. What else could I do with it, feed it to the pigs?
There really wasn’t anything else to do so I walked around the house and got on my machine. Thad followed me out the gate as I headed for the roadblock. We rode along without talking and when we got there Thad still wasn’t talking. He just leaned against the logs and looked at the people walking by. It wasn’t a horde or anything, but there was a steady stream of people walking north into the forest.
After a few moments of staring at people walking by he looked over at me and said, “What’s this ‘bout?”
“Believe me, it isn’t a bad thing,” I said, then kinda looked off to the side. “Well, that’s debatable.”
Thad stared at me for a moment. “Alright, I’ll play your game. You better hope it ain’t debatable.”
We silently watched the people pass by for a while. It was the same crop of poor, pathetic looking souls as before. None of the people we saw going by looked like they had any hope, any fight left in them. It made me reflect on our situation, on how fortunate we were to have what little we did, and that little was getting littler every day. I was absentmindedly watching the people, lost in thought, when I realized the people had stopped. They were all just standing in the road, looking north. They didn’t appear scared or anything, just stopped, almost as one, looking down the road. A couple of them were shading their eyes to get a better look.
With the roadblock set back off the road as it was, we couldn’t see down the road to what they were looking at. Thad noticed they had stopped as well and straightened, resting the old coach gun over his shoulder. “Somethin’s comin’.”
“Looks like it,” I replied as I stepped around the barricade. Thad followed me and we walked out to the road. A few of the dozen or so people close to us saw us as we approached. Some of them moved away from us, and others simply looked away, back down the road.
Out on the road we could see something but couldn’t make it out. It looked like a large object, long, but not real tall or wide. We could see the walkers on the road step out of the way and off the side of the road as whatever it was slowly worked its way past.
“What the hell is that?” Thad asked, more to himself than to me.
I was straining to see when I remembered the binos. I pulled them from the pocket on my vest and took a look. Without knowing I was doing it, a smile spread across my face. Thad must have looked at me and seen it. “What the hell you smilin’ at?” He looked back down the road. “Gimme them,” he said, reaching out for the binos.
Taking them down from my face, I looked at him and smiled, then handed them over. He took a look after adjusting them so he could see. Thad stood there for a long minute looking down the road.
“What the hell?” Then he dropped them and looked at me. “Is that who I think it is?” Before I could answer, the binos were back at his face. “I’ll be damned, it is. You knew he was comin’?”
“I just got the message this morning, said we had friendlies coming. Didn’t know for sure it was him though, and it looks like the guys are all there too.”
Thad took another look through the glasses. “Looks like they got some other people with ‘em too,” he said, then handed them back to me. “Look”.
I took another look down the road. They were closer now and I could occasionally see two or three other people step out from behind the buggy Sarge was riding in. Naturally the old man was in the passenger seat and looked lik
e he had his feet up on the dash.
“Almost looks like they’re tied up,” I said.
Thad said, “What I thought too.”
It didn’t take long for the two buggies to make their way to us. Sarge was grinning from ear to ear. Ted was beside him driving what was beginning to look like one hell of an ATV buggy of some kind. Mike and Doc were behind them and in between them there were four men. Their hands were bound and they were tethered to some kind of strap. Fortunately for them, the ATV wasn’t going too fast.
It rolled to a stop in front of us. The people that had been standing there looking at their approach stared at them for a moment before continuing on their way, showing little interest at all in what was happening. Sarge sat there with a foot up on the dash and hands resting on his knee. Thad was grinning ear to ear.
“Look at this pair of nuts, Teddy,” Sarge said by way of a greeting.
“You boys lost?” Thad asked.
“You know the old man could get lost in a round room,” Mike called out.
“Shut up, dickhead,” Sarge called out. “Nah, I knew you two would get yer asses in some trouble an I’d have to come bail you out.”
“Who’re your friends?” I asked.
Sarge looked up at me, jutted a thumb over his shoulder and asked, “You know any of these shitbirds?”
The four men just stood there. One of them looked pissed. At first I didn’t realize I’d seen him before. I was looking at the biggest of the bunch, who looked as though he had been crying. Before that realization came to me one of them spoke up.
“I know who you are, Haywood.”
I looked at him and a thin smile spread across my face. “Oh yeah, I know you. Looks like you boys really screwed the pooch.”
“Tell this sum bitch to let us go. You know who we work for.”
I got a chuckle out of that. I remembered the exchange we had had at the store. He didn’t say much that day to give me much of an impression of him either way. But here he was, tied up behind Sarge’s war wagon, and that was all I needed to know.
“How’s your little girl an’ the other casualty?” Sarge asked.
“She’s doing okay, but I’d like Doc to look at her. Reggie is alright, he’s just pissed that he lost the finger,” I answered.
The man that had been speaking snorted.
“Anyone else hurt?” Doc asked.
Thad pointed at me. “Him, he took a round to the chest, magazine stopped it.”
“Were you hit the same time as they were?” Sarge asked as he stepped out of the wagon. Mike, Ted and Doc also got out and walked up and we all shook hands.
“Yeah, I was standing in front of a big smoker, lit me right up, I imagine,” I said, then reached down and stuck my finger through the hole in the mag pouch.
“Damn, how’s your ribs?” Doc asked.
“Still a little sore, but I’m alright. Can you come up to the house and check out my daughter for me?”
“Sounds good. Mike, you an’ Ted stay here an keep an eye on things. We’ll take our friends with us,” Sarge said as he walked around and climbed in behind the wheel of his war wagon.
Doc got in the other one while Thad and I headed for our ATVs. Sarge looked back over his shoulder at his prisoners. “Y’all keep up now, ya hear?” and started to pull through the barricade. I sat on my Polaris as they came through, the one in the lead, the one I remembered, had a look of disgust on his face. The next two looked resigned to whatever was in store for them. The last one, the chunky guy, looked me in the eyes as he came past. He looked pained, scared maybe.
Thad raced ahead to show Sarge the way and I brought up the rear. As we eased along, the old boy in the rear looked back at me once. Something was there. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was definitely something.
As we came up to the house, Mel, Taylor and Little Bit came out on the porch. Little Sister was barking at all the activity. When the girls saw the four men, they stepped behind Mel. Mel was looking around, first at Sarge and Doc then at the other guys. Sarge was out of his buggy and untying the men from the tag line. They still had on the flex cuffs that bound their wrists.
“All right ladies, take a seat and behave. Try anything an’ you won’t live to see what happens,” Sarge said. “Doc, grab yer sack of goodies an let’s have a look at the little girl.”
Doc reached in to pull his bag out as Sarge headed for the porch. I met him there to introduce him to Mel and the girls, who were still hiding behind her. I’m sure to them he was quite intimidating: camo uniform, all sorts of gear and weapons hanging off him, and his personality took up a lot of room.
As he stepped up to the porch he took off his boonie hat and said, “Ma’am.”
“Sarge, this is Mel, my wife, and my daughter Taylor,” I said.
Little Bit had stepped over behind me, hiding behind my legs. Mel greeted each of them. Lee Ann was a little shy, but they were friendly. Little Bit wouldn’t come out.
Sarge knelt down. “An’ who’s this little lady?”
She buried her face in my leg. I reached back and put my hand on her head. “This is Ashley. We call her Little Bit.”
Sarge let out a laugh. “Well if there ever was a Little Bit, she’s it,” he said with a smile.
She relaxed a bit and came out from behind me. Mel and Taylor relaxed as well. Doc came up with his big pack and I introduced him. Sarge asked Thad to stay out and watch the men on the ground. Thad nodded and tilted the old shotty over his shoulder. The rest of us went inside to see Lee Ann, who was still lying on the couch.
She looked up as we came in, a little nervous at first with the new people, but Doc had a great bedside manner was soon checking her over. She got a little nervous again when he asked her to lay back and started pressing on her belly. His diagnosis was that she was okay, but that the wound looked a little red, not infected yet, but it could be heading that way. He was concerned there could be some foreign debris in the wound, maybe a piece of denim from her pants. As a precaution he was going to give her an intravenous antibiotic that he said he had brought just for this.
Lee Ann wasn’t real thrilled with the idea of the needle but she took it like a champ. Doc told her to just rest and let the medicine run in. Then he made himself a hero by pulling three cans of Coke and Hershey bars out of his pack, distributing them to the girls. They all squealed with delight when he handed them out, each saying thank you before tearing into them.
Thad opened the door and stuck his head in. “Morg, you guys need to come outside.” From behind him we could hear shouts and arguing.
The three of us went out the door. Mel started to follow but I stopped her, asking her to stay in the house. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on and I didn’t want her or the girls outside. She nodded and said she would keep the girls in the house. Outside I saw that one of the men was sitting off from the others and the other three were yelling at him, telling him to shut up.
Sarge wasted no time, wading into the three men and telling them to shut up. They ignored him so he had to get their attention.
“Shut up dammit!” Sarge shouted.
“You keep yer mouth shut, fat ass!” the one the fat guy called Marvin shouted.
Sarge kicked the man in the chin. He sprawled out onto his back, unconscious. The other two quickly looked away, not wanting the same. Sarge looked back at Thad and said, “What the hell’s goin’ on?”
“Morg, you need to talk to that one,” Thad said, pointing to Avery.
I looked over at the man that was separated from the others. He looked as though he had been crying. He sat on the ground with his bound hands in his lap. I asked Thad what was up.
“Ask him,” he answered.
Sarge was still standing amidst the other men and Doc was on the porch leaning on
the handrail. I walked over to the old boy and nudged him with my foot. “What’s up?”
He looked up at me and his face started to contort. “I didn’t mean to shoot the girls, it was an accident, I’m so sorry,” he blubbered.
It took a minute for it to sink in. “What?” He looked away from me. “You sayin’ you’re the one that shot at us the other day?”
“Yes sir, I was told to come back and try to scare you folks. If you’d a just went to the camp it wouldn’t uv happened.”
I looked back at Sarge, then over at the other guys, then back to the one on the ground. The man Sarge had kicked was starting to come around. He was moaning a bit and rolling his head.
“Wake up, asshole,” Sarge said as he kicked the man in the thigh.
I stood there thinking. These were the men that had attacked us the other day, and probably the same ones who had been in on the previous attack. I was getting pissed. I hadn’t noticed that Doc had walked off the porch and was standing beside me. I stepped away with my hands on my head. This guy almost killed Lee Ann.
“I was jus’ doing what I was told,” the man whined.
I spun around and started towards him. The carbine was across my chest hanging from its sling, but I didn’t think about it and instead drew my pistol as I approached. The man still had his head down as I started to bring the pistol up. Doc grabbed my hand. He was shaking his head. “Not now. We need to talk with these guys.”
“They almost killed my daughter! There’s no talking now!” I shouted at him.
“Don’t worry, Morgan, they’re going to get what’s coming to ‘em, but first I need to talk with ‘em a bit,” Sarge said.
The other two men on the ground were suddenly restless. The third man was finally sitting upright, rubbing his chin and spitting blood. He glared up at Sarge. “You dumb sum bitch, you don’ know who yer fuckin’ with.”
Surviving Home Page 39
