by Stalter, D
“You are that Wilson character’s sister?” Allison stopped drying the plate in her hand and stared at Sherrie. “What have I brought into our home?” She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, then back at Sherrie.
“You know you didn’t help Riley by telling me that. Now I have to think about the fact that he brought the sister of a known kidnapper into my home.”
“Just because my brother is an asshole, that doesn’t make me one,” Sherrie huffed.
Allison bowed her head before raising it to meet Sherrie’s eyes. “You’re right,” she whispered. “I apologize. This whole week has been a disaster and I’m just a bit lost. I’m making decisions for people that I never wanted to make. I second guess everything I do. I’m so afraid that I’ll make the wrong choices and get someone hurt or killed. I’m sorry.”
Sherrie flicked the water off her hands and reached out to wrap her arms around Allison. “From what I’ve seen, you’ve done a fabulous job. I couldn’t put together what you’ve done. Be proud of yourself for what you’ve got here. And, didn’t Don tell us that you are a private person who doesn’t spend a lot of time around people?”
Allison laughed. “He’s got that right. The lack of privacy has me on edge every minute of every day. I just tell myself that every single person here is going through this rough time with me. That’s the only thing that gets me through each day.”
She gave Sherrie a quick squeeze before she backed away, picking up her dish towel. “Thanks. Thanks for understanding, and thanks for being here.”
When the dishes had been put away, Allison led Sherrie to a door on the lower level of rooms. “This room was designed for a family. It’s still tiny, but it has two beds. Will that suit you and Benny?”
“It’s perfect! We’ll be very comfortable here. I do have some fresh bandages for Benny. I’ll get them changed before bed. Is there anywhere I can wash his dirty ones?”
“Jaden is in charge of laundry. But only until we find a permanent laundry person. That Jaden is amazing. She’s twelve years old and wants to do everything. She helps in the kitchen all day. She helps with the young ones. She’s so good in the kitchen that, if Mary were to get sick, I completely trust Jaden to handle the kitchen duties for a few days. Anyway, I’ll make sure that Jaden sets a separate tub aside with some bleach for your bandages.”
Sherrie smiled. “If you don’t mind, I could do the laundry duties for a few days if Jaden will show me the procedure. And, I’ll still help out in the garden.”
Allison paused, then said, “That’s very nice of you. I think we will take you up on that. I’d like to see Jaden get a break. She’s so enthusiastic that it’s easy to tell her to go ahead and do things.”
She sat down on one of the beds. “Actually, every single person here seems to be enthusiastic about getting the work done. If I ask them if they’d be willing to take on a chore, they always do it with a smile. And, they often come to me and offer to do extra work. We’ve been real lucky.”
Sherrie nodded. “It’s understandable. Look what you’ve created here. A safe, comfortable environment that they all appreciate. When they feel safe and comfortable, they are sure to be happy. And, I’m sure they are all willing to do whatever it takes to keep it like this. I admire what you’ve done.”
Allison smiled a tired smile. “It just sort of came together. I’m lucky James has so many friends. Everyone seemed to want to be a part of this. I was so scared. Hell, I’m still terrified.” She lifted her hands and rubbed her eyes. “I know it’s got to be a living hell out there. Don has a ham radio and has been keeping up on things. It sounds worse every day. I don’t know if we can hold this together.”
She stood and walked to the door. “We have sheets in the store room. Let’s get you a couple of sets. And, I may have been wrong about your friends Will and Riley. We have an extra room they can share tonight.”
“Thank you,” Sherrie said, following her out.
Day 4 - Riley
When they emerged from the barn, laughter broke out from the group still sitting at the tables. Don had joined the group and an ice chest sat on the table next to James. Long neck bottles poked out of the top.
“Hi, Allison,” Don called. “I can’t stay but thought you guys might want a treat.”
“You are a saint,” she called back. “Thanks!”
“Want an ice-cold beer?” Allison asked Sherrie.
“Are you kidding me? Yes! How?”
Allison shrugged. “Don occasionally drops by with an ice chest full. He never says where he gets it. Doesn’t matter. I’m just glad he does.” She grinned and pulled two dripping beers out and handing one to Sherrie, then turned to Riley. “We’ve got an extra room if you two want to sleep inside tonight.”
Riley set his beer on the table. “I appreciate that, but Don has offered us a bed. We plan on leaving before sunrise so that’ll work out better for everyone. Don’s gonna let us use his wife’s truck. With any luck, we’ll be back by tomorrow night. The next night at the latest. Then we’ll get out of your hair.”
Allison nodded but her attention was on the garden where several women were supervising six kids while they weeded between rows. From where Allison stood, it looked better than it ever had. Between Jaden and Mary, any weed was eliminated as soon as it emerged and the morning waterings had filled out the garden in a way that Allison had never seen. It wouldn’t be long before it would be time to can and put away the produce.
Riley sprang from his seat, and before Allison could blink, his handgun was in his hand.
Eyes wide, she swung around to see what he stared at.
“Put your gun away,” she said when she saw the man and woman walking up the road from the creek. “Those are neighbors.”
She watched them approach. The man, tall, grey-haired and slender, wore a green polo shirt tucked in to his jeans. He had a bag slung over his shoulder. The woman, short with curly blond hair, carried a rifle over her shoulder.
“Hi Curt. Hi Linda,” Allison called.
“Hey, ya’ll. We brought you a gift,” Linda said, stepping up to the table. Curt lifted the bag off his shoulder and set it on the ground before untying it and holding it open. A half dozen squirrels and a couple rabbits lay in the bag. “Come on,” Linda said to Allison. “I’ll help you dress them.”
Don reached in the cooler and handed a beer to Curt and one to Linda. “Take a break and have some fortification before you clean them.”
Curt’s eyes opened wide. “Cold beer? How did you manage that? Nevermind, doesn’t matter. I thought I’d never enjoy another cold beer.” He took Linda’s and opened it for her before handing it back to her.
Two men came around the back of the barn. “Hey, Curt! Hey, Dead-eye.”
Allison recognized them as men who had joined the group on the third day. Friends of James. They were both on the security team, both thickset and jolly. You seldom saw one without the other, and most the time, they were arguing with each other.
“Dead-eye?” Riley asked.
“No one’s ever seen her miss,” James offered.
“That’s not true,” one of the new guys shouted. “I seen her miss.”
“You have not!” The other one punched him in the shoulder.
“Have to!”
“When?”
“That day Johnson fell in the river. She missed that day. I saw it happen. You’se guys were too busy laughing at Johnson.” He spun around to face Linda. “You did miss. Didn’t you?”
Linda straddled the bench, beer in hand, and grinned. She took a long drink before setting the beer on the table with a thud. “Yep.”
There was a collective intake of breath as all eyes turned to her.
“You did?” James asked.
“Hey! It happens.”
“But not to you.”
“Well obviously it does.” She looked up at Allison. “Well, we should get started on these.” She turned to pick up the bag, but it wasn’t there. “Where’d they
go?”
James pointed to the water pump behind the house. Will and Riley were carefully, but quickly cleaning the game.
“Well, that’s awfully nice. Who are those guys?”
“They’re from Rockford. Just here for a day or two. The guy with the long hair is a cop. I’m not sure who the other one is, but they’re together.”
Curt shook his head. “They won’t go back to Rockford if they know what’s good for them.”
“Why?” Allison helped herself to another beer and sat.
“We were in Wisconsin when this happened. Just south of the Dells. Actually, closer to Madison, heading home. We had the Camero. When the flare happened, we didn’t experience any problems, but some people lost control of their cars. Some cars just died. We could have kept going, but people went batshit crazy.”
“You know how packed I-90 gets by the Dells. Bumper to bumper. Some people just abandoned their cars when the flare hit. Others restarted their cars and tried ramming their way through. Luckily, we were just a couple hundred feet from an exit. Linda here was cussing at me the whole way because I was driving in the ditch and she was yelling that I was wrecking her car.”
“Well, it was a classic.”
“Yeah, and well-built too. Anyway, we got off the interstate and headed west. Went about 30 miles because I wanted to get far enough away from the Interstate to miss any people who were doing the same thing I was trying to do. When we turned south, it wasn’t bad. We had a map and we were able to get almost to the Illinois border before gas got low and traffic got heavy. I figured we were far enough away from Rockford to miss most of the trouble makers.”
He took a drink. “We got off the state highway we’d been on and took county roads. We ended up just a couple miles past the Illinois border near a town called Dakota. Linda checked the map and we were a lot closer to Rockford than I ever wanted to be. We only had about a quarter tank of gas left and when I saw a farm that had fuel tanks, I dropped Linda off in the ditch with our bobs and her rifle where she could watch in case there was trouble while I got gas.
“I’m glad she was with me. When I pulled in to the driveway, I saw a couple guys near the tanks. They didn’t look like farmers. I stopped about 30 feet away where I was sure that Linda could still see me and waited.”
He nodded towards the ice chest. “Any chance you got one more for me?”
James reached in and handed a dripping bottle to Curt. “So what happened?”
“Well, they walked out to me. There were two of them. They sure didn’t look like farmers. They had the sagging pants, one of them held his right hand behind his back. I was pretty sure he was holding a gun. I’d left mine in the car. Don’t judge me. This was only a couple hours after the flare, and I knew Linda had my back. Even though for a split second, I worried a little that she could pull the trigger on a real person if she needed to.”
He took a long drink before setting the bottle on the table. He ran his thumb around the rim. “They asked what I wanted and I told them that I just needed some gas. That’s when the guy brought his hand out from behind his back and pointed that gun right in my face.”
He smiled. “Linda didn’t let me down. When he pulled that gun out from behind his back, I almost shit my pants. I don’t think he’d even finished raising the gun when his hand just blew apart. He fell on his ass. The gun went flying. Blood flew like a busted water balloon. His buddy took a step backwards and tripped over his pants. He went down too. Now the first guy is screaming and crying for his momma. The second one is scrambling around, but his pants were around his knees and he was too scared to figure out how to pull them up so he’s flopping like a catfish out of water.”
He took another short drink. “I grabbed the gun the first guy had dropped and kept them both on the ground until Linda got there. Then, she got in the trunk and found the zip ties. We tied them up and went looking for the owners of the property. Found them in the barn - locked in a stall. It was an old guy and his wife. The wife didn’t seem hurt, but the old guy was beaten pretty bad. We got the stall door opened, the old man staggered out, and went to a barrel against the wall and pulled out a shot gun. Didn’t say a word to us. He limped to the door, brought the shot gun to his shoulder and blew those two gang bangers away. Unfortunately, the Camero was behind the gang bangers and it got blown away too.”
A collective groan rocked the table.
Curt continued. “We ended up spending three nights at the farm. We helped them bury the bodies. Linda helped Emma, the wife, clean up and bandage Thomas, the husband, and get him settled in. We couldn’t just leave them, so we stayed three days until Thomas was back on his feet.
“I hauled most of their stored food up from the cellar and Linda helped Emma make jerky. Thank God their stove was propane. When we determined they were as ready as they could be, we headed home. Since Thomas had shot my Camero, he gave us their old truck and filled it with gas before we left. It’s not a bad truck for an antique.”
“If those guys are planning on going back to Rockford, they should know that there isn’t much left there. On the night before we left, some relatives of Emma and Thomas showed up. They’d walked from Rockford. According to them, The city is gone. Burned to the ground. Even as far away as we were from there, we could still see the smoke. It’s not somewhere I’d want to be.
“We got home a couple days ago and spent our time cleaning out our freezer. Meat was still good. We keep the freezer in the basement and it was covered with moving blankets. We got all that dried and put away. Set up our perimeter alarms and traps. Then decided to come check on you guys and get a little hunting in.”
Allison shook her head. “I was so scared when it happened. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than what I saw. But, I’m so glad you guys made it home, and so happy you were able to help those people.”
James’s walkie talkie crackled. “James, you there?” Don’s voice came over the radio.
James pulled the radio out of his belt clip and pushed the button. “Yeah, Don. What’s up?”
“There was just a couple of mean looking guys here looking for Allison. They are on their way.”
“Who were they?”
“Got no idea, but they didn’t look nice. Be ready. They should be there in a minute. I made them go out to the highway, but that’ll only take a couple minutes to get there. Me and Peter will work our way to you. Hang on til we get there.”
Day 4 - Wilson
Riley and Will approached the table with a tray of fresh meat.
“What’s going on?” Will asked.
“That was Don. He said there are some guys looking for Allison. Mean looking guys.”
Curt and Linda had moved away from the table and were standing at the tree line. When Allison looked over at them, Curt pointed at the narrow driveway that led to the river and then pointed at Linda and himself. Allison nodded.
She turned to the group at the table. “You three,” she said pointing at the three sitting closest to her, “make sure your weapons are ready and disappear. Linda will be just over the hill so remember that if you have to shoot. Don’t shoot Linda.”
She pointed at the two who sat next to James. “You guys slide behind the barn. When the guys get here, work your way around the barn so that you come up behind them. Remember where Linda is. Don’t shoot her.” They nodded and disappeared. James stood and followed them.
“What do you want us to do?” Riley asked.
“I want you in the barn. Go inside the arena. You’ll be able to hear everything and know if you have to step in. Remember, don’t shoot Linda. She’ll more than likely be behind the guys that come.”
The sound of a vehicle could be heard as Riley and Will slid into the arena and stepped behind the door. Allison followed them in. “I decided I didn’t want it to look like I was waiting for them. I’ll step out as soon as they pull in the driveway.”
They heard a vehicle pull up. It was turned off and three car doors slammed. Allison
stepped out of the arena.
“At least three people,” Will whispered.
“I can count.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot. You just have a hard time reading and speaking.”
“Bull snot.”
“Yuck!”
“I’m looking for Allison,” a voice bellowed.
“Son of a bitch!” Riley spat. “It’s that damn Wilson. What’s he want with Allison?”
“I don’t know. Want me to go ask him?”
“As a matter of fact, I’m going to go ask him. I don’t want him even close to these people.”
Will raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Remember how it went last time he saw you?” He pulled his pistol out and quickly checked it. “OK. Let’s go.”
They stepped out of the barn in time to see Wilson striding towards Allison.
“Stop right there.” Will brought the weapon up. Wilson’s face turned red and he glared at Will who held his gaze. “Not one more step, Wilson. Allison, get back in the barn.”
“I want to know what he wants with me?”
“It’s not you he wants. It’s Benny.”
Allison gasped. “Is that Benny’s father?”
“It is.”
“Well, he’s not getting Benny.”
“No, he’s not. Now get in the barn.”
She narrowed her eyes at Wilson before turning and striding to the barn. She passed Riley who winked at her.
“This is on you!” she hissed.
Riley turned to Wilson. “You’re not taking Benny. Let me guess. Phil told you we were coming here.”
Wilson chuckled. “Good ole Phil. He never could keep his mouth shut.”
“Did you kill him?”
“Couldn’t find the little asshole. One minute he was there, the next he was gone. But that’s OK, we’ll find him.”
Riley felt his jaw tighten. “Leave the man alone.”
“Tell your buddy to stop pointing that gun at me and we’ll talk.”
