by Eric Vall
“He’s a grouchy old man,” she huffed as she started to clean the wound. “And a few days ago I might not have felt this way, but then you and Tara showed up, fought off some rogue soldiers, and returned all of our stolen things. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t inspire me a little.”
“I’m happy to help,” I said.
“If more people had that attitude I wouldn’t have to use my skills to patch up combat wounds,” Marla said.
I heard the door clatter open and both Tara and Jenny stepped inside.
“We got everything back where it’s supposed to go,” Jenny said.
“The animals seem happy to be home,” Tara added.
“Good,” I said. “Things aren’t going as well in here. Briar’s pretty beat up.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Tara asked as she hurried over.
“I’m going to do what I can,” Marla said. “It looks like it’s mostly blood loss that has him down though. Actually looks like Briar here got pretty lucky. The bullet didn’t even hit bone.”
“That’s good,” I said.
“Yeah, I doubt I could save him if he had a shattered shoulder,” Marla said.
“Anything we can do to help?” Jenny asked.
“I appreciate everyone’s eagerness to lend a hand, but what would be best right now would be some quiet,” Marla said. “I’m going to have to take the bullet out, and I’ll need to concentrate.”
“Got it,” Jenny said quietly. “Sorry.”
The room fell silent as the blonde housewife worked on the unconscious farmer. Once the area around the wound was cleaned, she pulled out a fresh pair of forceps, an individually packaged scalpel, and some rubbing alcohol.
As I watched Marla cut away some wounded flesh and carefully work to extract the bullet, I wished Paige was here again. She would love to watch an actual professional work. I actually missed all the girls. Today would have been a lot easier if I could have had my entire team, and we could have taken care of Briar when we met him the first time.
Thirty minutes later Marla let out a long sigh and stripped off her gloves. “It’s done.”
“Way to go!” Tara exclaimed.
“He’ll need a week, maybe two to fully recover, but we’ll still have to worry about him getting an infection,” Marla said. She smiled and wiped the sweat off her forehead.
“That was intense,” Jenny said.
“Yeah, I was nervous and I was just watching,” Tara said.
“Well done,” I said with a big smile.
“Is it still okay if I take him back to my place?” Marla asked.
“Of course,” I said with a nod. “Jenny, do you think we can load all of your grandma’s stuff into one truck?”
“Yeah, I think we can make that work,” the redhead said with a nod.
“Awesome, let's do that then,” I said. “Marla, I’ll help you get Briar into the truck. Tara, you and Jenny compact everything.”
“We’ll be ready to go when you are,” Tara said. Then she and Jenny headed back outside.
Marla and I gently picked up Briar and followed them out into the dreary night.
“I’m glad you brought me along,” Marla said as we walked.
“Me too,” I said. “Tara and I wouldn’t have been able to do what you did.”
“It’s nice to do something besides hide at home with my family,” Marla said. “Justin and I were so worried about people like the bikers and the National Guard that we didn’t want to stick our necks out for anybody. We didn’t even go to visit our neighbors.”
“You do have children to look after,” I said.
“Hiding at home isn’t a great example for them though,” Marla said.
We got to the truck and got Briar buckled in to the passenger seat.
“I’m pretty sure they would have just grown up to be thankful their parents cared about them so much,” I said.
“Maybe, but I’m happy to actually do something,” Marla said.
“I sure do appreciate it,” I said. “Briar will too once he wakes up.”
Marla looked into the truck at the sleeping man and smiled. “Yeah, I think he’ll enjoy not spending so much time alone for a while. Justin and I will just have to remember to come up here and feed his animals while he’s with us.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing you guys can’t handle,” I said.
“It will be easy with two working trucks,” Marla said. She looked at me, smiled, and let out a small happy sigh. “I can’t thank you and Tara enough for all you two did today.”
“I’m just glad that it went so well, and that we could get everything back.” I replied.
“I can only imagine how grateful Jenny is for you guys right now,” Marla said. She gave me a small hug, tossed her medical supplies into the truck, and opened the door. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d really like to get home and see my husband and my boys.”
“Of course,” I said with a nod. “Once everything settles down, I will come check on you. Maybe we can do some trading.” Bullies like the bikers and the National Guard were going to keep being a problem until we had a community of good, honest people big enough to protect each other. I wasn’t sure how long that would take, but this was a good start.
“That sounds nice,” Marla said. “We’ll look forward to it.” She gave me a wave, hopped in the truck, and headed off towards home.
I watched the brake lights disappear and then went to find the girls. They sat on the back of the last truck with a blanket thrown over their shoulders for warmth.
“We got everything packed up,” Tara said.
“Yeah, the only stuff that’s left is Grandma Betty’s,” Jenny said.
“Well done you two,” I said. “Marla just headed home with Briar.”
“Does that mean we’re done here?” Tara asked.
“Yeah, let’s get Jenny home,” I said.
“I’m so ready,” Jenny said with a grin.
“Then let’s get on the road,” I said with a smile.
The three of us crammed into the front of the truck. I drove, and the girls strapped in and cuddled up next to each other. Nobody was going to ride on the ATV in this shitty weather, so I decided to leave it for the time being.
Jenny helped me navigate back to the road and head in the direction of her grandma’s farm. She told me I just had to follow the road for a couple miles until I noticed the welcome sign on the left side.
When I looked over a couple minutes later both her and Tara were fast asleep.
I chuckled and kept my eyes on the road ahead. It was nice to know what we were so close to the end of this. Today had been more exhausting than the biker assault and my scouting mission combined. I had never been more ready to stop and get some sleep.
The cab was quiet, and I struggled to stay awake as the constant sound of rain tried to lull me to sleep. I let out a large yawn and rolled down the window. The cool air helped to refresh me and kept me awake long enough to notice the small homey welcome sign nailed to a tree on the side of the road. I pulled off at the sign and followed the gravel path through a copse of trees and up towards Betty’s farm.
“Hey, we’re almost there,” I said as I nudged the girls.
“That’s good,” Tara groaned.
“Thanks for letting us sleep a little,” Jenny said with a yawn.
“You guys didn’t give me much choice,” I chuckled.
“Sorry, I guess I was more tired than I thought,” Tara said.
“That’s fine,” I said. “You both deserve a little rest after all the work you put in today.”
“I didn’t do much,” Jenny said.
“You helped us sort all this stuff out and give it back to the farmers,” Tara said.
“Yeah, plus I can only imagine how exhausting the first part of your day was,” I said.
We pulled through the trees and onto the farm proper. The headlights lit up the quaint farmhouse, but there wasn’t a soul in sight.
I pulled the t
ruck to a stop and flashed the lights at the house a couple times. Hopefully it would signal to the others that we weren’t a threat.
“Step out of the vehicle and show yourself,” I heard Anna call out.
“Alright,” I chuckled as I hopped out of the truck with my hands up over my head. “Was that slow enough for you?” I cracked a smile as I tried to figure out where Anna was hiding.
“Don’t shoot us please,” Tara said as she scrambled out the other side. “We’ve already had such a long day.”
A flashlight clicked on, and I had to shield my eyes at the sudden brightness.
“Oh shit,” Anna muttered. “I’m sorry guys!”
“It’s alright,” I said. “You were only doing what I told you to do.”
“I guess we did kinda pull up in one of their trucks,” Tara said with a shrug.
The light clicked off and Anna came out from where she had been hiding. “I’m so glad you guys are okay. I was starting to think you might not be coming back.” She ran over and threw her arms around me in a warm hug.
“Careful,” I winced. “Just got patched up not too long ago.”
“You got hurt?” Anna asked with a frown.
“Yeah, but it could have been a lot worse,” I said. “Things went pretty smooth though. We got Jenny back and have already returned the stolen items to the other farmers.”
“That’s great to hear,” Anna said. She let go of me and then turned to wrap Tara in an equally large hug.
“Is anyone else awake?” Jenny asked as she hopped out of the truck and joined us.
“All of us are,” Rolly said and lit up a small candle lantern. The flickering candle revealed the large smile on his wrinkled face. “Everyone else is inside though.”
“It’s good to see you again,” I said to my handyman.
“You as well,” he replied. “Anna and I were just talking about maybe taking off to see if we could find you two and help out.”
“Glad it didn’t come to that,” I said.
“Me too,” Anna said. “This is a much better end to the day.”
“We should get inside,” Rolly said.
“Yeah, I’m tired of being wet,” Tara said.
“Guess that means you gotta leave then, Tav,” Anna joked.
“Hey, that’s not what I meant,” Tara chuckled. “I’d never complain about that.”
Jenny cleared her throat to let us know she was still there.
“Alright, come on,” I said. “Let’s let Jenny get back to her family.”
Rolly led us inside. The interior was dark, but he quickly started to light candles placed around the main couple of rooms.
“You guys can come out,” Anna called. “Tav and Tara are back. They got Jenny.”
A door adjacent to the living room burst open and both Betty and Dan stepped out into the dim lit room. The grey haired old woman’s eyes welled up with tears as she looked at her granddaughter. Dan stood behind her and did his best not to tear up himself. The two rushed over and enveloped the young red headed woman in their arms. The three shared happy tears, and for a moment it was like the rest of us weren’t even there.
“You have no idea how much this means to them,” Rolly whispered to us.
“Yeah, they thanked us repeatedly throughout the day just for trying to get Jenny back,” Anna said.
“I take it things were quiet here then?” I asked.
“Yeah, our day was easy,” Rolly said.
“Well, kind of,” Anna added.
“What do you mean?” Tara asked.
“The waiting was hard,” Anna explained. “Rolly had to talk me out of following you guys more than a couple times today.”
“I’m just lucky she listened to me,” the old man chuckled.
“We did pretty well on our own,” Tara said. “I mean, like, more guns wouldn’t have hurt, but turns out Tav’s pretty good at this stuff. You know, Army Ranger and all that jazz.”
“We got pretty lucky too,” I said. “There were numerous times we easily could’ve gotten killed.”
“He’s being humble,” Tara said.
“Nothing new there,” Anna said with a smirk. “Next time though I want to be in the fight.”
“Oh, there’s plenty of fight ahead,” I said.
“Don’t tell me there’s more of them,” Rolly groaned.
“There is, but we’ll talk about it later,” I said. “For now I think we should take a moment to enjoy our victory.”
“Your guys’ victory you mean,” Anna said.
“Yeah, we didn’t do much,” Rolly said.
“I disagree,” I said as I looked at them and raised an eyebrow. “You guys helped these people feel safe after they got attacked and offered them hope just by being here.”
“Plus I feel like taking out that many bad guys is a victory for everyone in the area,” Tara said.
“I guess that’s fair enough,” the red headed athlete said with a shrug.
“Still feel like I didn’t do much,” Rolly said.
“I’m pretty sure Betty would’ve fallen apart if you weren’t here,” Anna said. “You were able to calm her down every time she got upset.”
“I bet that won you some points with her,” Tara said with a smile.
“Wasn’t trying to do nothing but help,” Rolly said as he blushed.
“I’m sure that meant a lot to her too,” I said.
The family broke up and started to dry their tears as they came over to us. Each of them had a large smile on their tear-stained faces.
“I can’t thank you all enough,” Betty blubbered. “I owe you so much.”
“You don’t owe us anything,” Rolly said.
“He’s right,” I agreed. “We didn’t do this for a reward.”
“You risked your life for us though,” Dan said. “That’s huge.”
“You’d do the same for me if the tables were turned,” I said.
“I… I don’t know if I would,” Dan stammered, “Until today I kinda hated you and Rolly. I thought you two were just being nice as a way of getting close to us before you robbed us blind. Hell, for a moment there I thought that you guys might have sent the National Guard this way.”
“I assured him that was nonsense,” Betty said.
“Yeah, once Anna and Rolly showed up I realized I was being dumb,” Dan sighed.
“The world seems full of crazy right now,” Tara said. “It’s hard to blame you for being suspicious.”
“I guess, but I know better now,” he replied. “I’m sorry for being a dick when we first met.”
“It’s alright,” I said. “Being a little suspicious of newcomers is a good thing.”
“All that’s important is that Jenny is back, and that it’s all thanks to you guys,” Betty said.
“Again, we’re just happy to help,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s what we do,” Anna said.
“Someone has to look out for the good people left in the world,” Rolly said.
“We can’t just let assholes run around and do whatever they want,” Tara said.
“Well you guys are heroes to us,” Betty said, but as she smiled at us I noticed that her gaze never drifted far away from Rolly.
“I’m just glad everything worked out,” I said. “All the livestock are alive, unharmed, and ready to be put away.”
“Oh yeah, I suppose we better do that,” Jenny said.
“Let us take care of it,” Anna said.
“Yeah, you guys have had a long enough day already,” Rolly said.
“Are you sure?” Betty asked “We weren’t the ones doing any of the actual work.”
“Please just let us do this for you,” Tara insisted.
“Alright, I won’t stop you,” Betty chuckled.
I led my group outside to the truck. It didn’t long for the four of us to get everything back where it belonged, but by the end of it I was beyond exhausted and dragging hard. As I looked around at my team, I could tell that they we
re too. I had planned on driving back to the campus, but I felt that getting behind the wheel right now would be a bad idea. The four of us could barely keep our eyes open, and the road back was dark and wet.
“You guys all did great today,” I said. “I think we should call it a night and get some sleep though. Rolly, do you think Betty might let us stay here for the night?”
“I think she’d let us stay here forever after what we did today,” Rolly laughed.
“Good point,” I chuckled.
“What about Paige and Bailey?” Anna asked.
“I think they’re probably comfortable enough where they are,” Tara teased.
“That’s not what I meant,” Anna said as she rolled her eyes. “Someone should go back and let them know what’s going on.”
“You’re right,” I sighed. “I’ll see if Betty can make me some coffee and I’ll head back tonight. You two stay here with Rolly and come back once you’re good and rested.”
“No way,” Anna said. “I’ll go back to the others. You need the sleep way more than I do.”
I wanted to argue with her, but she was right, and I was too tired to disagree.
“I don’t think that either of you should go,” Rolly said. “There’s more than enough room for all of us here. Tav, I know you are a tough Army Ranger, and you can probably push yourself through the exhaustion, but is it really worth it? If you have an accident out in the rain and get hurt, we are all going to be worse off.”
“You’re right, Rolly,” I agreed. “Paige and Bailey will be okay for a night. We’ll get back tomorrow and fill them in on everything that happened.”
“Alright, I guess that makes sense,” Anna said.
“Good,” the older man chuckled, and then he opened the door and walked inside.
I yawned and looked at the cows who now peacefully grazed in their pasture. Today had been a lot of work, but it felt good to be helping people. I just wished that taking out the convoy had been the end of it. None of the girls were going to be happy to learn about what we had to do next. At least I knew that they were up for the challenge.
“Can we go inside now?” Tara asked.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod.
The three of us made our way inside to find Jenny and Dan laying out blankets and pillow in the living room. Rolly was at the kitchen table with Betty and the two of them just stared at each other with a smile on their old and wrinkled faces. They were so engrossed in each other than it took Betty a moment to realize we had walked in.
