by Connor Mccoy
“Please be careful.” Jubilee’s nervousness was understandable. Who knew how this was going to turn out?
“We will.” Domino hugged her daughter, then moved on to her son.
“Watch yourself,” Sheryl said to Jacob.
“Compared to what we’ve been through, this should be a piece of cake.” Jacob chuckled. “We’ll be fine.” Leaning close to her ear, he said, much more quietly, “But just in case anything does happen, we’re very close to Skylar. You know that town, right? There are some good people there. We haven’t checked there since the EMP hit but I’m sure it’s in better shape than most towns. Take the kids there.”
Sheryl nodded once. “Okay.”
Jacob drew back. “Alright. With any luck, tonight will be the last night for a long time that we have to sleep under the stars.” He fished his fingers in between his wife’s. “Ready?”
“Ten kinds of ready,” she said with a smile.
As Jacob’s boots touched the grass on the other side of the fence, he muttered a silent thanks to himself that he had not outfitted this area with barbed wire. Of course, that omission probably had contributed to that jackass trespassing on his land and shooting his daughter in the first place, but he vowed not to kick himself over that oversight any longer.
He took hold of Domino’s arm. They had avoided creating torches, as they still couldn’t be sure no one in the house was awake. It only would take one of them gazing out the window and seeing a pair of orange flames approaching the homestead to set off an alarm.
Fortunately, Jacob knew his land. He had spent years cultivating it, creating its crop rows, building pens for his livestock, and setting up a chicken coop. While he may not know the land down to its inches, discerning where everything was proved to be simple. Still, he did not rush. He didn’t have to do so. The sun would not break the horizon for a while longer.
The trip to the house had its bumps—literally. Jacob misjudged exactly where the cow pen was as well as the chicken coop. Although, fortunately, he didn’t hurt himself. He simply corrected his course while continuing to lead his wife along.
The house lay just ahead. In the darkness, it looked like a simple shape, almost like a solid wall.
Okay, this is the west side. It has to be. I didn’t walk far enough to go around the house. I know that much.
So, if that was the case, the den should be just ahead. He took even lighter steps, fearing that anyone inside might hear the crunching of grass and soil.
All the while, Domino remained silent. She knew that speaking out loud could give them away. The two of them were truly of one mind. They knew what they had to do.
Jacob crept closer to where he knew the den wall would be. Once his shoulder tapped a solid surface, he crouched down to the ground and felt along the house’s exterior. Where’s that gap? I ought to find the underside of the house right…now!
His fingers had discovered the gap. Upon finding the soil under the house, he pushed his arm up until it hit underneath the den floor. This part of the house was built on raised cinderblocks, providing enough space for an adult to slip underneath if he or she crawled.
I just hope I don’t run into any cats or raccoons under here. His fencing had helped keep away a lot of unwanted wildlife, so he felt reasonably sure he wouldn’t run into any nasty surprises.
He dropped down onto his stomach. His wife let go of his arm, but would tug on his belt and then his leg as he crawled under the house to let him know that she was still with him. Jacob went nice and slow. He didn’t have reason to hurry.
Once he was submerged fully underneath his home, he felt Domino clutching his ankle. She now was shimming under the house behind him. Jacob kept crawling to allow her to get underneath the house with him.
Okay, Jacob, now you just have to find the secret latch. I wish I had thought of how to find it in the dark. I didn’t think I’d be under here without a flashlight. He had done a few practice runs with the secret door, so he should remember what the route was like. Did anything mark the trail under the house to the latch?
A slam against his head cut his thoughts short.
“Ow! For crying out loud!”
“What?” Domino said. “Jay, what happened?”
“I hit my head!” Jacob rubbed his forehead. It was pretty solid, too, like metal. “What the hell was that?” He groped in the darkness and felt something cold and cylindrical. Pipes. He had hit part of his plumbing.
“It was the pipes,” he said, though knowing that didn’t make the pain go away any faster.
But maybe it was a blessing in disguise. He remembered seeing the pipes before during his practice runs. “Okay, maybe this actually will help me. I went down through the secret door. I crawled. The pipes were to my right. The pipes are now in front of me. So, we just need to turn right, and the door should be that way.”
He crawled, though more slowly this time, not just because he feared another hit to the noggin, but so he could find the place where the concrete overhead would turn to metal. Jacob had outfitted the latch with a sheet of metal. He didn’t want to use wood for fear that it would attract termites, plus metal was stronger and a better reinforcement.
The space is supposed to open up a little. I’ll know soon when I’ve found the metal sheet.
His fingers felt and felt along the concrete until they reached air. He pushed upward a few more inches and encountered damp metal.
“Got it!” Jacob scampered until he was sure he was right underneath the metal sheet.
“Thank God,” Domino whispered.
Jacob started groping the sheet. “Okay, let’s find the latches. Remember how it works? I can uncouple it from underneath and take it down. That will expose the door.”
He soon discovered the first latch, a rolling pin on one end of the sheet that Jacob easily could slide loose. “One down,” he said. Now for the second one.
Locating the other latch was no problem. Sliding it loose, however, was.
“Shit.” He pushed on it. It didn’t budge.
“Jay, what’s wrong?” Domino whispered.
“I don’t know. It’s stuck.” Jacob released the latch to feel along the metal close by. It wasn’t as smooth. In some places the texture was flakey.
“Rust,” he whispered, “the thing must be rusted shut.”
“Rust? Didn’t you treat the metal?” Domino asked.
“I did. I treated the metal on both ends. I do it every now and then.”
Domino’s fear turned to annoyance. “How long is every now and then?”
“I know I did this door about three months ago.” He sighed. “But we did have a few bad floods from those heavy rainstorms last month. The moisture buildup under here must have been too great.”
Domino let out a sigh. “It can’t be that bad off. Can you knock it loose?”
Jacob groped his belt. He could knock the pin through with a hammer, though the tight quarters would present a challenge. Unfortunately, he hadn’t brought such a tool. He did carry a number of smaller devices, mostly intended to pick locks in case something went wrong with one of his doors.
Well something is indeed wrong with a door, but I didn’t expect it to be a rusted latch.
He pulled out one of his lock picks. “Doms, do you have any oil on you? A liquid spray, anything?”
“Give me a moment.”
Jacob waited as Domino searched herself, which in this tight space could not have been easy.
Doms, I hope you can pull off a miracle. I might be able to scrape some of this rust loose, but without lubricant I can’t say for sure.
“Found something!” Domino passed the small bottle to Jacob. “It’s some bug spray.”
“I think it can work.” Jacob grabbed the rusted latch and mentally calculated where to aim and spray. “Okay, here goes.”
He sprayed the latch. Jacob coughed. The smell was pungent this close up. He fished the pick between the rod and the latch and started scraping.
; This is one crazy night. I’m under my own house trying to pick a rusted lock with a bottle of bug spray.
He almost laughed if he didn’t remember that the sun was approaching, and the more time he spent down here was less time inside his house plotting his next move to take it back.
Chapter Ten
Jacob squirted the bottle’s contents again. He worried about emptying it, but time was growing short and he had no time to be too cautious with his work. After his latest squeeze on the trigger, he fished the pick back into the latch and continued prying at it.
“Damn this thing. I know I felt it move. Don’t you dare play tricks on me, you bitch. You moved. You’re going to move the rest of the way,” he muttered at the uncooperative lock.
Behind him, Domino gasped.
Jacob stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“Something in here tickled me.” Domino kicked up her leg. “It’s probably a cockroach or a spider.”
Exhaling loudly, Jacob resumed his work. The thought of insects and arachnids did not bother him, though he hoped they didn’t run across something that was poisonous. To come all this way just to get poisoned by a spider. What an ill-fated way to go.
His latest spray had done the trick. The latch budged another few inches. “Almost there.” Gritting his teeth, he pushed on the latch with all of his strength. It slid a little more. “Come on…”
The latch progressed almost fully out of the hole, but it stopped before it could slide all the way through. Unfortunately, there was no more latch to push on. Jacob had to pull on it from the other side to get it all the way through.
He gave it a shot, but he simply couldn’t exert the strength by pushing. If he could push it, he could give it the needed burst to clear the hole.
“I come this far.” Jacob fingered the pick in his hand. “Okay, I can’t push on it, but maybe I could hit it.” He fitted the end of the pick against the latch. “Yeah, I can use the pick like a punch. But I need something to hit it with. Doms, do you have anything heavy I can use to hit this?”
“You do. Your gun, Silly. Use that.”
Jacob reached down for his belt. “You’re right, although I might damage it. Even if I take the magazine out, striking it that hard might foul up something, maybe the chamber…” He suddenly groaned.
“What is it?” Domino asked.
“I just thought of something. I could have blown off the lock with my gun all along.”
Domino laughed. “That’s true. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
“You didn’t think of that? I’m supposed to be the fearless leader and I can’t think of something so basic?” He raised his gun to the latch, but stopped. “Although, I don’t like the idea of shooting at this thing so close. The bullet could ricochet, or a piece of the lock could blow off and hit us.”
“We can’t avoid risk, Jay. The sun’s coming up soon. Can we make this idea work?”
Jacob quickly ran through several ideas to make shooting the latch safer. Yes, they could do this.
“Back up a little and put your hands over your head,” Jacob said, “I’ll duck down as far away as I can.”
Jacob waited until Domino gave the okay. From there, Jacob flattened himself onto the ground while keeping his gun aimed at the latch. He mentally calculated the likelihood that his shot would dislodge the latch and blast the debris outward, so it would not hit him or Domino.
He was ready.
He put his head down and covered it with his free arm while keeping his gun aimed at the latch. After sucking in a deep breath, he pulled the trigger.
The bang was loud, though Jacob took care to cover his ears with his arm, so the jolt wasn’t too bad. Still, he wondered if the shot would awaken anyone in the house. He had forgotten about that possibility. Even so, perhaps the noise would be muffled by the layer of concrete above their heads, or Wickers and Boss might think the noise was the house settling, nothing that would alarm them.
With the shot fired, Jacob raised his head and reached up to the latch. He felt the metal lock now separated from the metal sheet. He ran his finger up the gap between the panel and the rest of the metal.
The latch wasn’t there.
His shot had blown the latch clear of the metal. With the latch unlocked, Jacob was free to slide the metal loose.
“It worked!” Jacob pushed up on the metal. “Okay, it’s coming open.”
With a little more shifting, Jacob worked the metal sheet loose from the overall frame. He allowed the metal to drop down and expose the secret door. Now it was just a matter of unlocking it with one of his keys.
“Thank God,” Domino said, “For a moment, I thought we might be in a real jam.”
Jacob finished unlocking the door. “Remind me to get one hell of a lubricant for this door latch when we’ve finished taking back our house.”
“And a whole new latch,” Domino added as Jacob pushed up the door, exposing the den’s storage closet above.
Jacob reached up into the space. “Alright. Wait until I get all the way up. I’ll pull you in.”
Domino held onto Jacob’s arms tightly as he fished her through the passageway into the closet. “Thanks.” She fell back against the wall. “Now I know what a canned sardine feels like.”
Jacob raised the door back up. “I swear the roaches down there were laughing at us.”
Domino chuckled. “You’re sounding like Brandon. It’s something he would say.”
Jacob put a finger to his lips. Domino quieted. The two of them were back in their home, but it wasn’t truly their home yet. They still had to evict the four intruders sleeping in their beds.
They successfully had climbed up into the den’s storage closet, which only afforded several inches of room, with the two of them and some cardboard boxes and a trunk occupying the rest of the space.
Jacob shut the secret door as quietly as he could. After fastening it back in place, he put his ear to the closet door. He detected no sounds.
“They’re probably still out for the night.” The den, if its door remained open, was a pretty good place to hear the sounds of the house. If Wickers or Boss or anyone else was up, the two Averys in the closet could hear them.
“You still want to wait in here?” Domino asked.
“For the moment. The sun’s got to be rising. If they want to get in a good day’s work, they have to be rising about now.”
Courtney’s eyes opened. To her great surprise, she had slept like a log. Maybe because for the first time since the electricity had gone out, she had slumbered in a soft bed.
She pulled off the light sheet. The circulating air flowing through the open window kept the room’s temperature tolerable. She wondered if she was getting used to the lack of air conditioning. The first few nights spent in stagnant air had been unbearable.
Rolling to the edge of the bed, Courtney pushed her hair out of her face. The sun was still mostly below the horizon, but the sky clearly was lighting up. Courtney knew she would have to start some kind of chores very soon. Boss and Wickers would give her the lowdown.
Work. God, I don’t want to wear my normal clothes. This farm’s got to have some working clothes.
Unfortunately, a search of Jubilee’s closet and dresser yielded the same result—all the clothes were too small for her.
Now what was she going to do? The couple who owned this house did not have any other girls. What did that leave her?
She grimaced. It seemed like her only option, but she had to go along with it.
Boss and Wickers looked her over. Rubbing his chin, Wickers tried to force a smile. “I think it…it works. Terri, you think so, right?”
Boss just smiled with even less sincerity than her partner.
Courtney had come in a short time ago asking for clothes from the Averys’ closet, believing some of them might be big enough for her. One of the button-up shirts belonging to the Avery wife fit Courtney, if a little bunched up at the wrists. But none of Domino Avery’s pants fi
t the bill.
So, Courtney had to don a pair of Mister Avery’s overalls instead. At least Courtney could get them on. However, they were also loose enough that Wickers had to tie a belt around Courtney and tie it the tightest it could go. The long pant legs were also a major pain. Wickers and Boss had to cuff them high just to expose Courtney’s feet so she could put on some work boots.
“I look like shit,” Courtney said flatly.
Wickers cast a look at the closet behind them. “I’m sure we’ll find some better clothes for you soon enough. There might be some in the attic.” Boss added another smile as Wicker spoke.
Courtney looked down at herself, her expression remaining as dour as it had been.
Wickers quickly looked at Boss. “How about we start breakfast? I think we’ll all do better once we get something in our systems.”
Courtney turned toward the bedroom door. However, as she took her first step, her boot caught in the floor and she fell down.
“Ow!” Courtney cried.
Boss shook her head. “Dear Lord.” She reached down and hoisted Courtney to her feet. “Are you sure these are the best boots we could find?”
Wickers shrugged. He didn’t want to think about spending time looking for better footwear. Courtney was in adequate shape to handle the day’s tasks. “We’ll just have Courtney tend to canning duties for the morning. She won’t have to walk around a lot.”
“Great. I get to fall onto my ass, what, just four or five more times?” Courtney asked as she took another, slower step. This time she completed the step successfully. The boot made a loud clomping sound as it hit the floor.
Courtney was walking, though not very fast. Boss, her pleasant façade trying to keep from busting out laughing, circled around Courtney and fled into the hall ahead of her.
Jacob and Domino kept perfectly still as they listened to the conversation coming down the hall and into the den. It was hard to make it out fully. It sounded as though that couple was trying to find clothes for Courtney from the Averys’ closet. The results sounded mixed. Then, Jacob and Domino overheard Courtney say, “Great. I get to fall onto my ass, what, just four or five more times?”
