Scorched Earth (Book 1): Good Fences

by Craven III, Boyd

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, buddy,” I said holding my arms out.

  He gave me a shy grin and then came closer to the end of the bed. I picked him up and Supermaned him over me until he started laughing and I set him down next to me.

  “It’s my fault, Spencer. I got too busy. I love you to pieces, little man and I never meant to hurt your feelings. I promise you I won’t let it happen again,” I choked that out, but still smiled.

  “You do?” He asked.

  “I do, I love you to pieces. You’re my buddy, I want you to know that.”

  “You love Mommy too?” he asked in an innocent way that totally disarmed me.

  “Yes,” I whispered, “I love your Mommy too. She’s my buddy too,” I told him, not able to lie to the little man, realizing the truth of the words when I spoke them.

  I heard a choked sob and turned to see Lucy standing in the doorway. I almost panicked, but Spencer was smiling. Had I crossed the line? She’d asked to take things slow, and other than random hugs and horseplay we’d not repeated the kiss. I’d wanted to, I’d wanted to do a whole lot more than that, but she’d lost her husband a lot more recently than I’d lost my Cathy. Her pain was still fresher and I wanted to give her all the space and time she needed.

  Lucy then said two words and tackled me.

  “Jam pile!”

  16

  I started seeing less and less people when it was my turn on the monitors. Not many were coming to the fences any more, and the ones who did were definitely on the survival diet. Gone was any semblance of baby fat, cheeks were starting to hollow out. It was a hard thing to watch, while we ate normal meals. We’d done the math and, with all the extra I’d stored, we’d easily had enough food to last us a year. I had about three months’ worth of animal feed before we’d have to do something about that.

  “You think it’s safe to get the rest of the stuff out of your van?” I asked Randy one day.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to do it too soon and risk having to shoot my neighbors, ya know?”

  “I do. I was just curious; I know there’s tools and supplies you’ve needed and things have been… dead,” I finished for lack of a better word.

  “It has. I don’t know, you’re probably right. It might help if Brenda and I go, or see how things have been lately. I’d kinda like to check on my house actually,” he admitted

  “Oh, yeah. That’s cool then. I was just curious, but I know what you mean.”

  “How about Brenda and I go tonight? We can have the girls watch Spencer for a bit so you and Lucy can have some alone time?”

  Damn, that wasn’t what I was angling for, and I didn’t know what alone time Randy was referring to. The kind his wife and family had upstairs, or the get to know each other better kind? He was really putting me on the spot and I knew that anything I told him would be repeated to Brenda - who would in turn tell Lucy.

  “Sure,” I said, taking the easy way out, “We can maybe have one of Brandon’s kids watch the monitors?”

  “Ha ha ha, yeah right. I’m sending the kids upstairs and leaving you two the downstairs. I thought you’d like to… have some alone time?”

  “Dude, don’t push it,” I said pushing him and then laughing.

  “Ok, if you’re not ready, you’re not ready. I just know she’s been talking to Brenda and—“

  “What’s she saying?” I demanded.

  “Now, you know that shit is private, man!” Randy complained as I needled him.

  “You know, Brenda knows… I’m just… curious. Would it help me if I knew?” I asked.

  “I think you already know. I just need you to put on your big girl britches, man up and—“

  “My big girl britches? I’m not the one who wears pink frilly robes,” I said laughing.

  “That was one time, and I was half awake when I did it.” Randy said, a little hurt.

  I laughed even harder, drawing the attention of Brenda and Lucy. Brenda came over to sit down at the table, but Spencer called his Mom and she went the opposite direction.

  “We’re talking about your husband’s cross dressing habits,” I said, giggling.

  “You should see him in my leather…”

  That shut me up. Like a faucet that had been turned off, my laughter dried up as Randy looked at his wife incredulously, his jaw almost hitting the ground.

  “Whoa, TMI, TMI Brenda…. So give me the dirt. Randy is telling me you two are going to give me and Lucy some alone time. You obviously know more than I do so…” I held up my hands as if to plead or pray.

  “Oh, so you want your best friend’s wife to set you up, fill you in on the inner secrets of a woman’s mind? Betray a girlfriend’s confidence? Is that what I’m hearing you ask?” Brenda said, smiling at me.

  “Yup.”

  “Good, I just wanted to make sure. Uh… make your move dumbass. You had her heart the night you two were wrestling around on the bed. She told me if Spencer hadn’t been in the room you would have been staked and claimed,” Brenda told me.

  “Staked and claimed?” I asked incredulously, wanting to hear the rest.

  Footsteps started approaching and I turned to see Lucy walking towards us.

  “It’s a paranormal romance thing. We read the same books.” Brenda whispered back.

  That made no sense at all to me, but whatever. I was happy, but there was one problem I could foresee: no preacher, no wedding no… God forgives all sins if you repent. Good deal, because I was hoping to sin at least once tonight. My face was burning red when Lucy took the seat next to me.

  “Poor Spencer, he doesn’t like to go to the bathroom alone… What?” She asked the silent table.

  “Uh, Brenda and Randy are going to check things out at their place later on. They said the twins would watch Spencer for us.” I said that and waited for her to explode or cry or…

  “Good, I hope he doesn’t give them any problems,” she was also red in the face.

  * * *

  Dinner was a quick affair. I made sure to make something quick with easy cleanup. Fresh veggies for stir fry, rice and some diced radish for some kick. It wasn’t how I usually made things, but I didn’t have a grocery store to make sure I had all the right ingredients. The Sanderson boys finished off the last of the food before taking a plate back for Kristy. Brandon told me she was out of it most of the time and he asked if there was a place he could use when it was time. I nodded and told him we’d figure it out.

  The twins had been instructed well and told Spencer he was going to sleep in the middle of the floor tonight, and they’d read him all the books they wanted. It was obvious to everyone in the crowded house that the grownups were trying to give Lucy and I some time alone. I tried not to get too red in the face. It’d been over three years for me, and I’d married the first woman I’d fallen in love with. I was more than a bit nervous, but as soon as everyone was out, Lucy pulled me into the bedroom.

  “Do you love me?” Lucy asked, closing and locking the door behind me.

  “I do,” I admitted.

  “Would you marry me someday, when things are safer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good,” she said, striking a match and lighting two candles.

  In the flickering candlelight she pulled her clothing off slowly, one piece at a time. I stood and watched her, mesmerized. When she was finished, she stalked over to where I was standing and started pulling at my clothing.

  “You sure you’re ready for this?” I asked her, trying not to let my hoarse breathing be too loud, too noticeable.

  “I’ve been ready for a bit now. I was just waiting on you,” she said as her soft hands caressed my chest.

  * * *

  Gunshots. I awoke from a dead sleep, Lucy’s nude form laying across me, as if to steal my warmth. I pushed her off gently and she stirred awake.

  “Somebody’s shooting out there,” I said searching for my clothing.

  “Here,” Lucy flicked a lighter on and found the c
andles, the matches from earlier probably for effect.

  I got dressed as quickly as I could and ran to the monitors while Lucy ran upstairs to check on the kids. It wasn’t true night vision on the monitors, but with enough moonlight you could make out things. Everything had a green cast to it, and I could see the grass laid down in one spot as something thrashed.

  “Oh shit. Watch the kids, grab your gun out of the safe.” I yelled and pulled my vest on and got my AR ready.

  I didn’t slow down to grab my Glock, but I was out the door almost at a dead run. The thrashing form in the grass was at the house just north of George Landry’s, at either the lawyer’s or his neighbor. I prayed it wasn’t Randy or Brenda, and I prayed hard. The only time I slowed was going through the gate and then I was off again. I wasn’t going for stealthy, I was running wildly into a firefight to save my friends.

  Firefight, now there’s a word. I hadn’t heard more gunshots. Just the four or five that woke me up. Had there been more that I didn’t hear or register in my sleep? I literally stumbled upon the corpse before I even saw it. It was one of my pigs, and it’d been shot through the neck. I checked the barrel of the AR for any debris from my fall and listened, letting the night calm down because of my wild run.

  “Who’s there?” Randy’s voice boomed out of the darkness.

  “It’s me,” I said standing up.

  “Me who? Turn around.”

  I did and heard the click of a safety and froze.

  “Sorry about that, I have my NVG’s on,” Randy said, coming under the fence by Landry’s backyard.

  “What’s going on? Who shot the pig?” I asked.

  “Well, we uh… It wasn’t us,” Brenda said.

  “I sort of pulled a ‘you’ and things went south.” Randy admitted stopping in front of me.

  The NVG’s made him look like some weird alien bug, and he kept scanning around behind us.

  “You pulled a me?” I asked.

  “George Sr. saw my pen light while I was digging through the truck. Apparently Jr.’s cast was supposed to come off and he was asking to borrow a hacksaw or something,” Randy said.

  “You didn’t loan him one did you? After trying to get your van thrown out of the HOA?” I asked hardly believing it.

  “No, worse,” he said softly.

  “What did you do?”

  “I cut it off for the kid. George was thankful, but they were looking pretty sickly. Apparently a bunch of people heard about that guy’s suicide. He’d had a ton of food, apparently he was some sort of conspiracy theorist on top of everything else. Had a ton of MRE’s. Anyways, they’d been eating all of that and he was asking me to talk to you about buying some animals when I heard a shot. I ran out and a guy with a rifle shot at me, so I uh…”

  “He froze and I lit him up,” Brenda finished.

  “The neighbors are pissed. Apparently the couple who came to investigate said we shouldn’t have stopped him from killing the pig. They’d had to watch them grow up, and felt entitled to…”

  “Aww shit man. No.” I said.

  “Yeah. We ran before more people with guns showed up and escaped out of George’s backyard. I don’t know if you want to stay out here and watch the fence tonight, but I sort of think… Wait,” he said, pulling the NVGs off and looking at me in natural light, “Did your date go well?” He was grinning in a way that left no doubt as to what he meant.

  “We had a couple of dates, we’re cool man,” I admitted.

  “A couple of dates? Randy, you are such a slacker you no good, low life—“she started belting him on his arm.

  “Hey now, neighbors. Let’s be serious,” I whispered loudly.

  “Right, yeah. Ok, so… Do we give them the pig? Do we take it back? Do we stop people from crawling under the fence? Brandon Jr. said he’s run people out of here more than once, and they always head west,” Randy said.

  “I don’t know man, part of me says yes, but I really don’t like that these people think that they can just come in here and take our—“

  “That’s why I stopped you with the water,” Randy interrupted, “It’s going to get worse now, I think.”

  “Do you think they’ll come through tonight?” I whispered.

  “Probably not, but maybe a couple to look for the pig,” Brenda said quietly.

  “I’ll stay out here, I’ve got a few hours’ worth on these batteries before I need to recharge them. Then I’ll sleep in the daytime. What do you think?”

  “Sounds good. I’ll bring the quad back here so we can load the pig somehow, we’ll hang him in the garage and process tomorrow.”

  “Ok. You’ll know if I run into trouble,” Randy patted his gun.

  “Let’s pray you don’t.”

  Brenda and I walked back; she headed in to let Lucy, and whomever else was awake, know that things were OK. I stopped in the dark barn and found my quad and got a tow strap. I pulled out and debated the headlight. In the dark, the noise alone would give me away but if I went too slowly, they could pinpoint me if they wanted revenge. I debated my options and decided to pick my way through slowly till I could silhouette Randy in the moonlight.

  17

  Butchering the hog wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, and we smoked two of the hams on the top shelf, leaving room for slabs of meat all the way down. The book that described the process of butchering a pig was quite a bit like butchering a deer, just a lot more parts on the hog you could eat, if you chose to. I fed the entrails to the chickens and tossed the rest into a hastily dug hole with the head. Then I made my cuts and fired up the smoker.

  One thing I learned that morning was that the smaller cook hole was very efficient, but I had to keep adding wood to it until it had a good bed of coals. I made a note to ask Brandon Sr. if a larger hole, at least at the bottom, would be a big deal. I could fit larger chunks in there… But since it was already cooking, I kept it going while Brenda and Lucy patrolled the parameter.

  We’d talked that morning about heightened security. I don’t know if the neighbors saw what or who happened to whomever it was that Randy and Brenda had had to light up, but we were all concerned about backlash. Randy decided to man the gate with one of the Sanderson boys, and we all were on edge. I had my eye on the kids while I worked, and I’d taken quite a bit of time showing them what we were doing and why. The twins thought it was boring, but Spencer hardly left my side at all.

  “Can you make chicken nuggets like that?” he’d asked me more than once.

  “If you like them smoked.”

  “Yuck!”

  “You like jerky?” I asked the kids, “Or how about smoked ham?”

  “I like them on sandwiches,” Ashlynn said.

  “It’s sooooo good,” Lindsey told me.

  “Well, this is my first time, so we’ll see how this goes. We didn’t soak or brine the meat, so it’s going to be like people did things in the olden days!”

  Then Ashlynn produced an old soccer ball from some of the stuff they’d brought over, and the kids soon had a soccer version of keep away, running all over the hard packed gravel of the turnaround between the house and the trailer. I watched them play and felt kind of cheated a little bit. During my childhood, there wasn’t a ton of kids to play with until I’d gotten to school. Back then, there were no subdivisions, in fact, our only neighbor was Mr. Matthews. I couldn’t be resentful towards the kids though, it was just my situation.

  Feeling thoroughly lazy, I did feel a bit guilty. Food and kid patrol wasn’t as difficult as walking the perimeter or trying to watch out for angry mobs of mutant zombie wannabes.

  Two shots rang out, and I let out a shrill whistle. Scanning, I didn’t see anything, but I knew those shots had come from the gate. We’d talked about this also, so when the girls ran up, I sent them inside the trailer with Mrs. Sanderson and one of the boys who’d stayed behind to watch over their mother. I went into the house and double checked the monitor and saw the outlines of a small mob of people at t
he gate. The fence was clear, and I could see Lucy, who was learning from Brenda, move into their pre-arranged spots to cover the fence. If a big firefight broke out, then they would decide if they could back us up if they could. With me, and the Sandersons minus one son, we’d all converge on the fence.

  Randy and Brandon were already there as I worked my way closer. Brandon Jr. and his older brother were jogging to catch up with me. I patted my hand up and down in the air to let them know to slow down, keep low. They seemed to understand, and noticed that I was using the cover of the trees on the North West side of the drive to make it up towards Randy and Brandon.

  I’d taken to wearing my .45 on my hip instead of concealed, for comfort and ease. I had the AR as well; I didn’t have my vest handy, but I did have a spare 30 round mag stuffed in my back pocket. Sixty rounds. That may sound like a lot, but I’d always read that even the best trained police miss six for every four shots in a heated gunfight.

  I hoped I wasn’t about to get involved in my first one.

  * * *

  “… was just trying to get some meat. He didn’t know it was a farm animal!” A belligerent neighbor shouted, his words carrying to me through the wind.

  In another half a minute I’d be standing near Randy, but I could only hear his words as if a whisper.

  “Our pigs are pink, you idiot?”

  Murmur from them until Randy yelled “… wild pigs are hairy,” Randy’s voice was shouting volume.

  “Back off,” this from Brandon.

  Two figures started climbing the fence, somehow ignoring the barbed wire until one of them screamed and jumped backwards, scarlet drops falling from his hands.

  “Listen, what’s it going to take to buy some food then?” an angry voice shouted, and it was a voice I recognized.