by P. S. Power
Maybe. Burt looked considering and went to do something, waving Justine to come with him. As he watched them move away, something tackled him to the ground. Someone. A tiny person.
Darla.
“Jake!” It was a whisper, young and innocent. So probably a lie.
“Can I come with you too?”
“No.” He said instantly. The girl gave him a hurt look.
“Why not.” That came out petulant, demanding and a little whiny.
He raised his eyebrow at her, or tried to, his face was already going a little numb from the cold.
“Well, because I don't want you feeding on any of my people. Or me. Most of these women are too weak to spare the energy and...” The next words were that it was creepy, but honestly, it was better than a lot of things. People would make more blood after all.
“Pfff.” She said. “Soon though? We can take a couple of my people along for snacks.”
Jake suppressed a wince, “that sounds like a plan. We need more mattresses though, and wood stoves. Really we need more now.”
Three beds downstairs, seven people. It was going to be tight. Maybe someone could sleep on the sofa in the living room. Jake thought about it and decided that would work. After all, it was comfy enough. He could take that for a few days. It was a bit of a chilly room, on the far side of the house, but if he bundled up a lot it probably wouldn't be too bad. Possibly.
Or he could move it into the kitchen at night? That sounded warmer at least.
The trudge back went silently, only the crunching of really cold snow under their collective feet. For some reason the lack of human sounds didn't really seem to bother the zombies this time. In fact they had nine come after them in the three mile trip. All shamblers. This time no one ran away however, Sammi and Vickie doing most of the work on the left and Jake hitting the right. Jill got one herself, though it took her a dozen shots. Not a good use of ammo, but it was all practice.
The other women froze, but again, didn't run, just standing a little nervously for the most part. Now if they'd just aim their weapons it would all look a lot more professional. Not that the dead cared what it looked like. They just died.
The good part was that Vickie helped him get the heads and limbs off. She may not be as strong as say, Carl, but she was nearly twice as strong as he was. Maybe more. A fact that he would have found intimidating Back Before. Now he just accepted it. The fact was she could take a head off with two blows and he took nearly a dozen or more. Strength made a difference.
When they got to the house there was still a lot of light, so Jake figured it wouldn't hurt for him to make a spiral around the place, looking for zombies, or animals. Just in case there was anything left. Vickie shrugged and followed him out. Sammi didn't. Jake had a small sense that she thought he was judging her over the attempted murder.
Like he'd judge someone over that?
The woman had her reasons. Really, other than the “being wrong” portion of things, trying to protect him from kidnapping worked pretty well in his world as a rationale. What if Cam's people were into something weird, like... Very Good Man stew? That would explain why no one saw them again. Protective custody might as well. Though why anyone would want to hurt someone like that, he couldn't tell. Or even hurt him. Well, some of the people at the House might, since he'd killed their friends and loved ones for flipping out, sure. But in the world as a whole? Who'd care?
Well, other than Derrick Holsom.
But that was just prudent. After all, if he wasn't dead yet, he would be as soon as Jake could find him. If the man didn't get that, then he hadn't paid attention to what was going on at all. It wasn't personal. The man was just a huge threat to everyone he met.
Well, part of it wasn't personal.
A little was.
Maybe a tad more than a little.
Jake grinned, not saying anything, Vickie looked to be about to ask why, when the three cows wondered past. They went down fast, Jake hitting two with head shots from about a football field away. Using his rifle, which almost seemed to aim and fire itself. Vickie picked up the third as it slowly ran away. A quick walk, a waddling kind of thing. They weren't emaciated, but the animals didn't look as fat as cows used to either.
But they had three of them. All of which they got to drag back. Yay.
It took three trips, but the effort stirred up a few shamblers too, so they took them out well away from the dwelling. It was a great thing. He really didn't want to go out in the morning and have to fight a mini-hoard off by himself. That would suck and make people feel uncomfortable. He had guests now, and really wanted to impress Vickie.
She'd said he was her boyfriend. Unless that was a joke, and really, he decided just to pretend it wasn't. If she didn't want him, well that would be... incredibly normal, came to mind. Acting like he expected to be rejected wouldn't help at all though. He wouldn't want to be around some whiner that kept acting like that either. So he'd just go with the idea that she was his girlfriend.
A really hot, super-human girlfriend that thought his shooting skills were pretty awesome. He knew that when they got back to the house and she told him so, with a smile.
“That was good shooting. I barely got mine and you had two down already. I mean, I have training and reflexes bred for things like this and you beat me. You sure you didn't have training before all this?”
Jake winked at her, hoping it was charming and playful, not creepy.
“Does sixteen hours of first person shooter play per day count as training? If so, then yes. Captain Jake of the virtual corps at your service.”
“Hell yeah that counts. Those games are basically combat simulators. Special Forces were using them to sharpen their skills. That's probably part of it. Your subconscious mind had already accepted that you just went around shooting things already, so when things went down, you didn't have to make as big a leap as some.”
Didn't he? What had others gone through then? It felt pretty bad at the time, but that might have been the loss of his parents, his world. Did others have to go through more? It was still hard for him, but then again, other people still killed a little reluctantly, too. He'd killed people without considering it consciously, not just often, but almost every time.
“That might explain it. And here my parents had said I was wasting my life. Little did they know, huh?”
That brought up what had happened the day before. So far he hadn't really thought about it, and there wasn't a lot to think of, nothing that could be changed. It still burned in his head, even worse than things normally did. That got him to go silent as they hung up and took care of bleeding the animals. They had to work fast, because they were starting to go solid in the cold. Take too long and they'd lose the meat. Or at least make it too hard to work with.
Vickie kept working, helping with the cleaning and skinning, parting out the animals into quarters and saving the entrails that they could. Organ meats were disgusting to Jake, but the pregnant women needed the vitamins and stuff, right? Everyone might.
Finally as they finished hanging up the cows in the barn so they'd freeze evenly, Vickie put her bare hand on his back. He'd worked in leather gloves that he kept just for things like this. They were a mess right now, but he had all his fingers. Vals didn't get as cold though, Vickie had mentioned something like that. He'd thought that meant chilly at the time, but maybe it was more than that?
“OK Jake, what's wrong. Is it this thing with Sammi? If so I wouldn't let it get to me, if I were you. They'll work it out. The Bawdri are pretty famous for that kind of thing. It's why they basically get to be in charge. Sure the... Cam's group, they can be a pain in the rear when it comes to security, but Sammi will come around. Teleporting can even be kind of useful. I've never done it, but I hear good things. It's not supposed to hurt at all.”
Jake sighed.
“It doesn't feel like anything. She had me close my eyes though.”
“You got to try it? How neat is that?” Her tone had a fo
rced cheer to it, the kind people used when they knew someone was a little down and didn't want them to be.
Ah.
“I... The hardware store? It's my family's place. Was. Where we went to get the fittings and stuff. My parents...” He stopped talking and looked at her hard.
Would it be stupid to tell her? She'd think he was weak or something. Then again, that almost couldn't matter now, could it? Her facial expression didn't change at all.
“Before, the second day, I shot them. With my dad's gun. He still almost got me. I got mom first and took her to the ground, then puked all over myself. He nearly tore my right leg off as I did it. I'd hit him enough to knock him down and thought it was enough.”
“Oh, God Jake, I'm sorry. That's horrible. I can't imagine what it must be like.” She sounded like she meant it. Maybe Vals loved their families too?
“But, I didn't know to take the heads. So, yesterday, they were in the shop.”
“Oh.”
“Yep. That's why I'm a little quiet, I guess. It's not really the stuff with Sammi acting like a complete dork suddenly. There's a problem there too, but, seriously I am not equipped to handle it. I don't know what to do at all.”
The blonde kept looking at him, hard, and for a long time. Finally she held her hands up.
“Tell. I don't have a clue what the difficulty could be at all. You haven't been fighting that I know of and I noticed that you very carefully didn't shoot her over all this, which I half expected you to. I would have.”
Jake looked at the ground, not so much embarrassed, but confused and afraid that no matter what he did, it would be the exact wrong thing.
“She... told me she loves me the other day. As in, you get the idea, really in love, not just like her pet cat or best buddy. I think she messed with my mind to make me think I loved her too. It lasted for a few hours, but after that I just went back to normal. I mean, I really do like her, don't get me wrong. Probably one of my favorite people in the world right now. But, God Vickie, she looks eleven. I know, intellectually that she's way older than I am. It's just...” He swallowed and waited for the ridicule, or the scorn for not knowing what to do.
Instead she hugged him and gave a quick kiss on the lips.
“Well, in short, I got to you first, so you're mine, unless you want to break up already? I figured you'd at least get some sex out of it first. As to the other issue... Well, we, the Valkyries, call it the 'Bawdri problem', they all end up going through something like that, sometimes a lot, before they look old enough for the people around them to handle it. Not a huge problem a century ago, since they could normally score about the time they hit puberty, which my guess is our little miss in there is just about to do, if she hasn't already. On the good side, they can control if they get pregnant or not, like we can. The bad side is things like this.” The warrior woman that looked like a hot ski bunny, one from a horror movie given the blood splatters from the meat, gestured to him.
“No one wants you sleeping with twelve year old girls, but she isn't. She's not just your intellectual equal either, she's way older than you'll ever live to see. More skilled and knowledgeable. Normally, if this were any other situation, I'd tell you to shut your eyes and suck it up. Right now though, she's trying to steal my boyfriend, and hasn't asked about sharing at all. Can't have that.”
Jake snorted.
“Hey, she didn't suggest anything of the sort, she just said she loved me.”
“And then influenced you to feel the same about her. They don't do that by accident. It takes a real act of will to influence someone that strongly. Even if you're predisposed to love everyone. Like, say, if the person being influenced was a VGM.”
Oh. Well, there was that, wasn't there? Jake hadn't really even considered it. So many people had pushed him so hard he almost didn't notice that part of things most of the time anymore. It had always been there. Before. Even as a kid. Now it still was, but he couldn't let that influence him.
They turned to walk back to the house when Vickie leaned into him and whispered in his ear, warm breath sending a thrill through him for a moment when it hit flesh.
“Sidearm ready, two watchers in the brush to the left. Laugh.” She sounded serious, so Jake chuckled warmly and nudged her with his shoulder a bit, as if she'd said something naughty.
Then they both dove away from their position without pausing, Jake losing track of her as he awkwardly rolled and aimed at the brush. When he looked up and around, Vickie was a good fifty feet away, using the edge of the barn as cover. He didn't have any of that. Nothing to hide behind at all.
Too bad, it would have been nice.
Oh well, he'd make up for it with shooting. That seemed to work pretty well. He was just about to fire, the trigger almost home, aimed at the dark head inside the bottom of the bush when he noticed something. He recognized them.
“Don't shoot.” Jake said, loud enough for Vickie to hear. Not too noisy he hoped, since there were zombies around. “It's Dave and Ken.”
Why they were in his bushes he didn't know, but guessed that it wasn't to kill him. If that were the case they would have fired already.
Naturally. Probably from a better position too.
“Come on out.” He said, voice tired already, even though the day wasn't but half over.
The bush still had some leaves, but they weren't really green, and the boys rustled a lot when they exited, Ken looking sheepish and embarrassed. Dave not so much. He just smiled and waved at Vickie when he saw her.
“Did you miss us?” He was cheery sounding too.
Vickie started to say something, her tone a bit dark sounding, scolding. Jake cleared his throat.
“You might as well come in. We'll give you something to eat before you go back. I take it you came to check on Sammi and make sure we weren't beating her too hard or something?”
Ken looked at the ground and didn't speak for a bit, scuffed a black booted foot and finally shook his head.
“I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I don't know if she's coming back and, we're kind of a team. Like family.” His words were gentle enough. Not angry, but a little sad.
Jake shrugged.
“OK. I don't care if you visit. Of course you don't get to stay the night, not yet, and if you get eaten by zombies on the way back you better freaking put a bullet in your own brains. If I have to kill zombie Dave and Ken in a week I will not be happy.”
Dave laughed, an off-putting sort of thing that said he didn't think anything as mundane as that could ever get him. Maybe he was right. If the kid was armed, paying attention and didn't hit a swarm of the things that just wouldn't stop. Jake just kind of figured that if it came down to it, the boy would stand and fight, instead of sensibly running. The same went for Ken. That wasn't a good way to survive.
Not now.
They followed him into the house, Vickie taking the rear, obviously on purpose, as if the kids were prisoners, or might try to flee. That didn't make any sense though, they were getting what they wanted, to see their friend. Probably skipping out on work to do it, but hey, they were kids, and it was a special case. It wasn't like they ran off every day. Of course wondering out in the snow alone could have been a problem, and so could running into a few dozen z. That was on them though.
Jake found Sammi in the kitchen, fixing something that smelled mouthwatering. Early for dinner, but it seemed like some kind of stew, so that could take a while. His big pot, the one for dishes, was being used for it. When she saw him she smiled, but went a bit still when she saw the boys.
“What is this then?” She said, a little more harshly than Jake felt warranted.
“Visitors. They wanted to make sure we weren't beating you and that the slavery here is no worse than at the House. I told them they needed to wait a week or so to get a really good sense of things. See the shackle marks and all that, but here they are anyway.”
“Oh.”
Ken looked at her and didn't say anything for a long time, he wa
s good at that, being quiet. One of the best. Jake really liked that about him.
“You left. You didn't say goodbye.”
The woman walked across the room and gave him a firm hug.
“Because I'll be back soon. This is just to make sure I don't harm the... Hurt Cam. I gave my word, but emotions could be running high and all that. I'm sure that in a few days, maybe less, I'll be back. Why would you think otherwise?”
From behind the table, taking the few remaining nuts out of pine cones that had been set in the fire briefly to open, Billi made a noise. “Hmph.”
Then she pointed at Jake.
“Probably because everyone expected Jake to kill you for attacking someone. Then you got brought here instead, which is a treat, not a punishment. Half the people there are wondering if you're ever coming back at all. You might just die in the woods or something. Can't kill the little girl in front of everyone. It would make people scared. But you could decide to 'run off', or 'accidentally' get attacked...” Her face was blank, and her voice a little bland as she spoke.
Did people really think that about him? That he dragged people off to the woods to kill? That was insane. If he was going to kill her, he would have done it right there, in the kitchen, not a day later. It didn't make sense at all, but Dave looked kind of like that had been what he'd been thinking.
“Kind of like that, Jake. I mean I know that you wouldn't let her die, not unless there was a good reason, but people forget that part and just remember the bodies hitting the floor. So I brought Ken here, to check it out for himself. If it was you in our place, wouldn't you have come?” It was meant to be a leading question.
Jake didn't bother trying to dodge it.
“Heck yeah. I'm not even blaming you. This time. Make sure you don't neglect your chores though. I'll be back in...” Jake thought, and figured that two days would work. He really needed to get to the forge work and there would be more needed. He had enough meat for a full cart load already, but the cart would be a huge pain if the snow got any deeper. Even empty it had been a bother.
