After The Pulse (Book 1): Homestead

by Hogan, L. Douglas

  Just outside the homestead on the nearest hill

  The scouts who found Larry and Shawn had just lain down on the ground at the crest of the closest hill. The leader of the trio had a pair of binoculars in hand. He was intently watching the scene unfold just on the edge of the upkept portion of the yard.

  “I see two women now. One of them is the lady I saw back at the ranch. The other one is crying pretty heavy. She must be the wife or girlfriend of the person on the stretcher. I don’t see the man anymore,” the leader said. “No, wait,” he said. “The man is coming back out of the house, and it looks like they’re moving the body of the person on the stretcher. Maybe to go bury him.”

  “Should we take ’em?” the second man asked.

  “No, Carl, we shouldn’t take ’em,” he replied with a cynical tone. “We’re going to wait here and scout. Not act irrational. Let them bury their dead in peace. When we know more, we’ll take reasonable action.”

  “But this could be the man who killed Larry, Shawn, and probably Max.”

  “My point exactly. If this is the guy who killed them, then we need to act responsibly and avoid certain death. Don’t you think so, Carl?”

  “Good point.”

  The man with the binoculars looked at the third man and said, “Russell, can you go scout a good spot for us to safely pitch for this evening?”

  “No problem.”

  The man backed down off the hill, leaving the leader and Carl alone together. Once Russell was far enough away, the leader looked at Carl and said, “I swear to God, if you do anything to compromise my life, I will kill you myself.”

  Carl was used to being threatened, but this threat in particular scared him. It was the look in the man’s eyes that frightened him. “I won’t do anything to place us in danger, Mark. I promise.”

  Later that night

  The chickens started clucking as three armed men crept silently alongside the coop. The moon was subdued with clouds, and the refracted light was barely enough to silhouette objects on the ground. The sudden sound startled them. They frantically moved away from the chickens, hoping to bring their incessant cackling to a halt.

  “They have chickens,” Carl said.

  “Shut up, Carl!”

  Carl had a knack for stating the obvious. The other two loved the fact that they could crack Carl jokes about him. Carl didn’t seem to understand the humor behind it. He was a short bald man with a full beard and mustache. He was overly hairy on every inch of his body except for his head, which had a remarkable resistance to sunburn.

  “I haven’t had chicken in weeks,” Carl whispered.

  “Shut up, Carl,” Russell whispered. “You’re going to get us shot.”

  Mark and Russell couldn’t see Carl’s face in the dark, but he was scowling at them. He hated it when they told him to shut up. Undoubtedly, Carl was told to shut up more than anybody he knew.

  “Russ,” Mark said, capturing his attention, “there’s way too much cloud cover. We don’t have enough light to safely maneuver.”

  Russell was a medium-built man with a taste for tobacco and was known to trade almost anything for a dip or a cigarette. Two years after the Pulse made tobacco products hard to come by, he was willing to make high-stakes bargains for something so rare.

  “What do you recommend?” Russell asked. Before Mark could reply, he heard crunching sounds.

  Crunch, crunch, crunch.

  Both Russell and Mark looked over in Carl’s direction. He was chewing on something that might not have been so loud if not for it being the dead of night in a valley.

  Click, click, Todd and Carl heard.

  Mark had his pistol out and pointing at Carl’s head. Carl felt the cool steel press against his temple. He kept chewing like he had to finish a task he had started.

  “If you get me shot, you’ll be dead before me. Do I make myself clear?” Mark said.

  “Perfectly,” Carl replied with a mouthful of peanuts.

  Mark uncocked his pistol and put it away.

  “Don’t be burning through our resources, Carl,” Todd said, smelling the peanuts on his breath.

  “Let’s get outta here,” Mark said, turning to leave the area. “We can come back as soon as we can see. Carl, you’ve got first watch.”

  Carl and Russell followed close behind Mark.

  The next morning

  August 15th

  Mark was up before the break of dawn. He left Russell and Carl to go stake out the property on his own, not being completely confident in his team. The house had plenty of blind spots that he thought he would remove if he were the one in charge of it. But for now, he thought to himself, There’s wooded areas, an old car with overgrowth, a barn, all of which are viable positions to take cover and watch from a reasonable distance .

  He began to make his way closer to the house, being careful to note any indications as to how many people were living at the homestead. He was moving from one concealed location to another, making mental notes as he progressed.

  Okay, first glance, recent deconstruction on the barn reveals that they are actively trying to hide their location.

  Chickens! Chickens are a smart sustainable food source that can provide both meat and eggs.

  An underground well.

  Toys! They have at least one child.

  Peanuts! Peanuts? Carl!

  Mark was livid. Carl had left evidence of their visit last night. Fortunately, it appeared as though it had not yet been discovered. No sooner than he reached down to collect the evidence, he heard the back door of the house as it was opening. He rapidly withdrew his extended arm and hid himself.

  Darrick stepped outside to survey the land. It was a routine of his to make sure things were the way he’d left them. The security of the homestead was of the utmost importance. Especially because they had recently been discovered by three men, all of whom he’d had to neutralize. He gazed around the backyard and saw that everything seemed to be in order. As he was turning to reenter the house, he saw the chickens were scattering. He froze. His eyes began searching the area, looking for something out of the ordinary. He listened intently.

  Somebody’s here .

  He backed toward the door and reached out for the handle, never taking his eyes off the environment near the chicken coop. He could see a pair of boots under the wooden table structure that was between the back door and pen.

  Mark was crouched down, looking through a crack in the structure at the man he’d tracked the previous day from the ranch house. He felt a surge of adrenaline shoot through his veins, and his heart began to pound deeply.

  I think he sees me , he thought, being careful not to move an inch.

  Darrick remained frozen as he considered his next move. He wanted to run at the intruder, but he had no idea whether or not the stranger was armed. He couldn’t see anything but men’s boots on the ground, not enough to make a sound decision. He finally decided to err on the side of caution and reenter the house. Grabbing a weapon would be priority one. Once he reached the door and the handle was firmly grasped, he stepped into the house and locked the door behind him.

  “Tonya,” he called out. She was still asleep in the front room with Kara and Andy.

  “Tonya,” he called out again, this time running into the front room and grabbing a rifle. “There’s a man out back,” he said.

  Kara quit rubbing her eyes and shot up off her end of the couch.

  “Let’s go,” Darrick said, kicking the sleeping Tonya in the feet. No sooner than she was startled awake, he said, “Lock this behind me,” and he stormed out the front door.

  “What’s going on?” Tonya said, standing up from the couch.

  “I think he said something about a man outside,” Kara answered. She was already grabbing a rifle. Andy was still sound asleep, oblivious to all the noise and slamming doors. “I got this,” Kara said. “Take Andy upstairs and tell Carissa what’s going on.”

  Tonya scooped the sleeping lad up into her ar
ms, barely able to lift the deadweight, and headed up the stairs.

  A few moments later

  “Get up,” Mark said, grabbing a backpack from the ground and throwing it at Carl. “Somebody’s coming.”

  Russell sat up. “Did you say somebody was coming?”

  Mark was frantically stuffing his sleeping gear into the backpack.

  “You went off without us, didn’t you?” Russell said as he joined Mark in packing their belongings.

  “I didn’t want to risk being seen,” Mark said, trying to explain his actions.

  “Well, so much for that.”

  “Just pack up. I’ve yet to see more than one man. I suspect he’ll be coming over that hill real soon, so I think we should head in that direction over there and avoid the conflict altogether.”

  Russell looked at Carl and then back to Mark.

  “Let me get this right,” Russell said, dropping his pack and grabbing his rifle. “You want to avoid a confrontation?”

  “That’s right,” Mark answered without hesitation.

  Mark finished packing his bag and threw it over his shoulders. “I scoped the place out, and there’s no evidence that these people had anything to do with the deaths of Larry and Shawn.”

  “I’m not buying it,” Russell rebutted. “We tracked the man from Larry and Shawn’s bodies to this house and you’re saying he had nothing to do with it.”

  “No, I said there’s no evidence that they had anything to do with it.” Mark began walking away.

  “We’re not allowed to split up, Mark. If Denver finds out you abandoned us, he’ll kill you.”

  “Only if you tell him I abandoned you, Russell,” Mark turned to say.

  Russell looked at Carl and said, “I’m not leaving until we find what we’re looking for. Mark would be wise not to return to the Enclave without us. I say we leave our stuff here and ambush the man when he arrives.”

  Carl hadn’t said a word since he’d been awake. He simply grabbed his rifle and took a position in some foliage. Russell did the same. They waited.

  Darrick stopped well short of their position and took his time scouting out the area.

  I wish I would have brought my pack .

  He had run off in such a hurry that he completely forgot to grab some essentials. He lowered his body and assumed a prone position, which he used to inch his way to the crestline of a hill. Once he broke the horizon, he knew he was at risk of being seen. Without binoculars, he would have to rely on his eyesight. The day was young and the sun was casting long shadows, making it difficult to see things that were out of the ordinary. One thing stood out. Amidst the broken colors, foliage, and overgrowth, Darrick saw a solid olive drab-colored one-man tent out in the open. He figured it belonged to the intruder.

  I don’t see anybody .

  He looked long and hard, but there was no movement until something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He was too late.

  Busted!

  “No sudden movements, pal,” a man said from behind him.

  Darrick offered up no preemptive cooperation. If this guy wants me to let go of my gun, it’s not going to happen.

  “Let go of the rifle and scoot backwards, nice and slow.”

  Russell was standing over Darrick with his rifle pointed squarely at him.

  I think I can take him, Darrick thought.

  Russell looked out over Darrick toward Carl’s position and waved him in. Darrick was strongly considering a fight until he saw the big burly man come out from the green foliage and start his ascent to their position on the hill. He knew he could take one armed idiot who was standing over him, but not two, even if he had the elevation advantage. Too much could go wrong.

  “I’m not telling you again, pal. Let go of the rifle,” Russell said. When the man on the ground didn’t cooperate, he hit him on the back of the head with the buttstock of his rifle.

  ***

  “Open the door,” a husky male voice demanded. The command was followed by four heavy pounds on the back door of the house.

  Carissa was awake by now and looking to Kara, hoping that she might find the voice familiar. Tonya and Andy were still upstairs. Andy was shown where to hide again, and Tonya stayed with elder Mitchell. Turned out, she reminded him of his deceased wife, giving her an ability nobody else had: she could get him to cooperate if she used a sweet voice to do it.

  Kara shrugged her shoulders at Carissa and mouthed, “I don’t know,” to her. Carissa was terrified. Darrick was gone and a stranger was beating on the back door. Both of them grabbed a rifle and headed for the kitchen. Carissa peeked through the back-window curtains and saw a stranger. In the background, on the wooden table structure, Darrick was tied down, and there was a second man with a rifle pointed at Darrick’s head. His finger was on the trigger. Carissa didn’t recognize the man at the door or the man who had Darrick at gunpoint.

  The man at the door was Russell, but the ladies of the Mitchell homestead didn’t know him.

  “You know this man?” Russell asked with an authoritative voice.

  “What do you want?” Carissa answered with a question of her own.

  “I’m the one in charge now, woman! Open this door right now or my friend will pull the trigger on ol’ boy’s head.”

  Carissa looked at Kara. “What do we do?” she mouthed.

  Kara knew they had them trapped for action.

  “Is there anything we can do?” Kara mouthed back.

  Carissa was overwhelmed with anxiety and confusion over the situation. She couldn’t make out what Kara said. Just before she could ask her to repeat herself, there was a loud bash to the door and it flew open, breaking the frame where the lock bolted in.

  In response, Carissa pointed the rifle and pulled the trigger. The man was in the process of charging into the room when he heard the gun go off. It stopped him dead in his tracks. He groped his abdomen, expecting to see blood or feel some kind of pain, but there was nothing. She’d missed completely.

  Russell looked over his shoulder at Carl and Darrick. When he did that, it reminded Carissa exactly how high the stakes were. Had they been given more time to plan, Kara supposed she might have left out the front door and jumped the men from behind. But all that was behind them now. The man with a gun on Darrick hadn’t pulled the trigger yet.

  The man in the doorway pulled his rifle up. “Easy there, pretty lady. My buddy over there’s got a rifle on that man’s head. All I have to do is give the word and, boom, he’s dead. Do you understand?”

  “What do you want?” Carissa asked.

  “I’m looking for a friend. A man by the name of Max. I think you might know where he is or maybe have some information for me.”

  Carissa shook her head.

  “Is that a no, as in no, you’re not going to help me, or a no , as in no, you don’t know?”

  “We don’t know nobody by the name of Max around here,” Carissa answered.

  Russell looked over her and glared at Kara. “What about you? You were there. You were there with that man on the table out there where I found my dead friends, Larry Upton and Shawn Hillerman.”

  “We were looking for Jimmie Mitchell,” Kara answered. “We found him dead with your friends. We figured they killed each other. We brought Jimmie home. The rest is history.”

  ***

  Upstairs, Andy was doing his best to remain silent and still, but elder Mitchell didn’t have it in him to do the same. The crashing sound of the door startled him from his sleep.

  “Shhh,” Tonya said to elder Mitchell. She was trying to hold him down with one hand and keep her hand over his mouth with the other, but the whole thing only caused more confusion in the old man’s mind.

  When he finally could break away from her, he punched her in the face and charged out the door.

  ***

  Russell heard a loud noise coming from the upstairs. “Who else is here?” asked, withdrawing toward the exit.

  Kara seized the moment and
yelled, “Roy, Bob, Tommy, get down here now!” Of course, she completely made the names up on the fly, hoping to frighten the intruder out of the house. Her plan worked. Russell shot out the back door and headed toward Carl and Darrick. He ducked behind the yard table and pointed his rifle at the back door, fully expecting to see men running out. When that didn’t happen, Russell knew he had been duped.

  Just on the other side of the kitchen door, elder Mitchell was storming into the kitchen. “What’s all this ruckus?”

  “James, you need to go back upstairs,” Carissa said, pushing him back through the corridor that led to the front room.

  Tonya came running down the stairs. She was holding her face where he’d punched her. “Come on, James,” Tonya said, but he wasn’t having it.

  “I demand to know what this ruckus is all about!” He looked at the door frame and saw that it was shattered around the locking mechanism. “What did you do now, Pudge?” He tried to push through Tonya, but Kara joined in to help restrain him.

  The back door pushed open again, and Russell aimed his rifle sights on Kara. “That was a bad idea, woman,” the intruder said.

  Kara had a rifle, but it was at her side. Helping control elder Mitchell took much of her focus. When she looked back and saw the man had a rifle pointed at her, she let go of elder Mitchell.

  James looked at the man and said, “What’d you do, Pudge? Look at that door! What’d you do?”

  Carissa used the distraction to her advantage and pointed her rifle at Russell. He grabbed the barrel end and jerked it out of her hands. By that time, elder Mitchell was making his approach on Russell. He was just within arm’s reach when Russell backhanded the elderly man and knocked him down. He then used the stock end of the rifle to strike Carissa in the abdomen. The pain was excruciating. She bowed over and winced. When she did, Russell pulled her in and held her between himself and the rifle that Kara was now pointing at him.