by Connor Mccoy
“Thank God,” Sheryl said as the two closed in.
“Mom!” Jubilee cried. Brandon repeated the greeting as he and his sister raced out into the open.
Domino squatted down to hug each of them. Sheryl, meanwhile, eyed Arnie, who looked at her with a slight smile.
“Hello,” he said.
Sheryl, smiling awkwardly, wiggled her fingers at him. “So, uh, Domino. It looks like you made a friend.”
Domino stood up. “Yeah. Arnie, this is my sister-in-law, Sheryl. Sheryl, Arnie.”
Arnie frowned. “Sister? Law?”
“Uh, she’s a friend,” Domino said. “She’s Mister Jacob’s sister.” With a chuckle, Domino said to Sheryl, “I’m sure he’s trying, but some words are just going to go over his head.”
Sheryl, leaning closer to Domino, whispered, “Is he, you know, okay?”
“I wouldn’t worry,” Domino answered. “He’s like a big child. Just don’t drink any coffee around him. I’ll explain later.”
“Mom,” Jubilee approached Domino, prompting Sheryl to back up and let mother and daughter talk. “Is Dad all right? You won, right? I know you did.”
“We’re both fine. Your dad is back home guarding our new houseguests.” Domino chuckled.
“So, you mean we finally can go home?” Brandon asked.
With a grin, Domino nodded in approval.
“Yes!” Jubilee shouted as she jumped up and down. Brandon joined in her euphoria. Arnie cheered along with them, although he probably didn’t know what the fuss was about.
As the trio carried on, Sheryl stepped closer to Domino. “Hey,” Sheryl said, “it sounded like everything went okay. I guess I was wrong to be worried about you two maybe going too far. You did your best not to hurt anyone.”
“Thanks.” Domino smiled a little. “And you kept my babies safe. I guess we both kind of know what we’re doing, don’t we?”
“I guess we do,” Sheryl said.
Jubilee and Brandon had finished cheering, but Arnie still carried on, jumping around so erratically that he nearly bumped into Sheryl. “Whoa!” Sheryl cried as she leaped away.
Arnie stopped. “Sorry! Sorry!” He held his hands up as if to deflect an oncoming blow.
“It’s okay.” Sheryl softened her tone. “I guess you just got a little too excited there.”
Sheryl looked up into Arnie’s eyes. Domino studied the two of them. They seemed fascinated by each other.
“I’m Arnie,” Arnie said, “What’s your name?”
“Domino told you my name.” Sheryl shrugged. “It’s okay. You probably forgot it. I’m Sheryl Avery.” Sheryl stuck her hand out to receive a handshake.
But Arnie didn’t understand what to do. He just looked at her with a confused expression. Blushing, Sheryl withdrew her hand.
Domino whispered into Sheryl’s ear. “There’s a lot to tell you. I’ll explain on the way back home.”
Well this is certainly the most pleasant job in the world, Jacob thought as he kept watch on Terri Boss and Guy Wickers, who were both tied to chairs on the back porch. Courtney, meanwhile, spent time both in and out of the house. Jacob was content to let her be after all she had been through.
Wickers had regained full consciousness after Jacob had knocked him cold out in the corn row. Wickers and Boss had remained mostly silent at first, but as time passed, they grew more talkative, if not necessarily more pleasant. Jacob took the time to get to know these two and what their involvement was with Sykes. As it turned out, the pair had hooked up with Sykes only recently, and out of a need to find food and shelter. Sykes had been gathering other people in a similar fashion, finding abandoned farms for them to occupy and work in.
Jacob’s anger toward this pair faded, though not completely. He wasn’t sure if he could trust them. They would have to show some solid cooperation before he could determine what to do with them.
His stomach rumbled. He would have to find something to eat. He wondered if Wickers or Boss were hungry as well.
Before he could entertain further thoughts of food, he spotted movement on the horizon. Domino, Arnie and Sheryl were on their way through the fields, with the kids in tow.
“Perfect,” he said with a smile.
Jacob waited until the party arrived. He greeted his kids with hugs and a celebratory cheer that their house was liberated.
Wickers, chuckling, quipped, “There’s so much cheer I almost feel good we got our asses kicked.”
Boss shook her head. “Okay, now that everyone’s back home, could you please untie us?”
Jacob looked to Domino. “I’m feeling a little better about them. If they don’t have any weapons, I think we could entertain them for dinner.”
Domino, smirking, asked, “Shall I make my special lasagna for them?”
“Would that be the one that put me on the toilet three times that night?” Jacob asked.
Domino slapped his right shoulder. “It was twice!” Shaking her head, Domino turned to Boss and Wickers. “Promise not to say anything bad about my cooking and you’re free.”
Wickers and Boss, exchanging looks, laughed. “Sure,” Boss said.
Chapter Fifteen
Jacob rubbed his face. Fatigue finally had set in now that he was home. It was as if his body had proclaimed he could come off his hours of adrenaline high and finally crash.
Seeing his wife and daughter seated in the living room added to the sense of familiarity. Sheryl was there as well, standing amongst the Avery family and Courtney and Arnie, both of which sat near the hallway door. Brandon was standing near them, entertaining Arnie with one of his old contraptions, a pulley attached to a rope that was intended to drop a fishing lure into the water and automatically pull the fish in once the fish bit on the lure.
At the moment, Terri Boss and Guy Wickers kept Jacob’s attention. The pair reclined on the sofa, with Guy appearing partially relaxed, while Boss sat so stiffly that she reminded Jacob of a department store mannequin, if one could have a scowl on her face. Jacob was relieved that he did not have to kill anybody while liberating his house, and it seemed these two were eager to get away from here as quickly as possible. Jacob was inclined to let them go, but not without asking some questions.
Sykes.
Jacob bristled at the thought of the name. He knew this game wasn’t over. He had asked them some questions upon capturing them, but he wanted some facts to be explained again for the benefit of Domino and the rest of his family.
“I overheard your chat with Sykes in my front yard.” Jacob rolled some emphasis onto the word “my.” “He put you up to this. Tell me how this happened. How did he find my home in the first place?”
“One of his men came by this place a few days ago,” Guy said, with all the ease of addressing a friendly acquaintance. “He scouted it out, didn’t find any trace of anybody living here. He let Sykes know, and then Sykes came to us and told us to take up shop here.”
“How do you know Sykes?” Jacob asked, “Did you work for him before the EMP?”
“No, not before everything shut down. I used to do oil changes and car maintenance. After the EMP, there wasn’t much use for my skills. But soon after all hell broke loose, someone I worked with told me that Sykes still had operable trucks. Terri and I went to him. We thought he’d have an answer for what was going on, like maybe the government was giving him supplies as part of a big rescue operation.” Guy chuckled.
“Turned out the guy was just crazy prepared. He had heard all the stories about the sun activity and figured something big was about to go down. So, he switched over to older trucks and made sure they still could run, even after an EMP hit the Earth.”
“And that’s why he’s going after all the gas he can find,” Domino said.
Guy chuckled again. “The man’s like J.R. from Dallas, if you cross him with a James Bond villain. He’s got some men helping him. They’re taking down all the gas stations in the area, raiding them, stealing the gas. That will let him carry t
ons of food and supplies across this state.”
“And anyone who doesn’t give him what he wants can starve, right?” Domino asked.
Sheryl scowled. “God, I can’t believe this is happening. Can’t anyone stop him?”
“That’s what happens when society breaks down.” Jacob bit his lip. “It’s the Golden Rule, but not the one you’re thinking of. ‘He who has the gold makes the rules.’ Sykes’s gold is fuel, running trucks, and all the food he can lay his hands on.”
“It wasn’t a bad deal for us.” Boss finally spoke up, still sounding bitter.
“It’s not as if the government flew down from the skies in choppers to save us, to give us food and water. We did what we had to do.” Boss pointed to the wall behind her. “As far as we knew, this place was ditched. No one was coming back here.”
“That’s a hell of an assumption.” Domino approached a step closer. “It’s not like we were an hour’s drive away. It may have taken us about a week, but we made it back.”
“Well, I guess you’re the lucky ones,” Boss replied.
“Guy and I were in East Palm just a couple of days ago before Sykes drove us out here. There were bodies up and down the street. Some of them had been shot. Some of them, who knows, maybe they died on the street from the stress of it all. I counted them. I got up to thirty-five before I stopped and puked. So, yeah, I didn’t think anyone caught in this hell was likely to make it home.”
“Fine, you two were desperate,” Jacob said quickly, before Domino could speak up. “I can understand that, just as long as you understand that this house is back with its rightful owners. So, what I say from here on goes. Now, I want to know what Sykes is going to do next. He’s coming back here, right? He wants your latest haul.”
“Yeah,” Wickers said, “At least two more days. Sykes could come at any time after that.”
Sheryl walked up to Jacob. “That means…”
“Yeah, we’re going to butt heads with him,” Jacob replied.
“He doesn’t look like the type of guy who’s going to take this lying down. He’s going to want this house back, and I get the feeling he’ll fight for it.” Narrowing his eyes at Wickers, Jacob asked, “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Yeah,” Wickers said, his voice sounding dry. “I don’t doubt it. Sykes can get real ugly when he wants to be.”
“Which is why Guy and I don’t want to hang around here any longer,” Boss said.
“We know that,” Domino said. “We heard your plan to ditch Courtney and plug Arnie.”
“Like I said before, can you blame us?” Boss asked.
“Murdering a man who’s got some mental issues?” Jacob asked. “Yeah, I damn sure can blame you. I also don’t like the idea of leaving a teenage girl by herself with no adults to look after her.”
“Look, you have your house back. No harm, no foul.” Wickers spread out his hands. “You know our story. We got nothing against you, and we don’t want anything more to do with Sykes or your farm. Just let us go.”
Jacob exchanged a look with Domino. He guessed they were thinking the same thing. There was no point in punishing these two. If they wanted out and they weren’t going to be a problem for the Avery family in the future, then so be it. Jacob rather would worry about the inevitable meeting with Jimmy Sykes then spare another second thinking about these two.
“You two plan on getting far away from here, like you said earlier?” Jacob asked, recalling Boss and Wickers’s earlier conversation.
“You bet. I don’t want to be in the same state with Sykes,” Wickers said.
Jacob glanced out the window. “Well, there’s no sense letting you two loose in the dark. It’s going to be night soon. Here’s the deal. I’ll let you sleep here tonight. I’ll give you some canned foods, some water, and you’ll leave early tomorrow morning. And I want you to make good on that pledge to get your asses far from here.”
Wickers smiled. “Hey, I won’t argue with that.” Boss nodded once.
“One more thing,” Domino said before the pair rose from the sofa. “Did you run into a man named Alexander Cowell? He would be part of Sykes’s men. He’s got a reddish-brown beard, pretty thin, a bit of a hard face, and he might look about as tall as my husband.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Wickers said.
“He wasn’t the guy who found the place,” Domino quickly added.
“Nope. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t,” Wickers said.
“Oh.” Domino shrank back. “Okay.”
“Why?” Wickers asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t really want to think about him,” Domino said.
Jubilee stepped into her bedroom for the first time in a while, and yet coming back here felt as ordinary as if she just had returned from an outing at a friend’s or from a sporting event. Except for the dim candle lights and warm air, nothing seemed that different.
Well, scratch that. To her annoyance, Jubilee discovered the clothes in her drawers and closet had been rummaged through.
She groaned. Courtney slept in here, didn’t she? She must have been looking for something to wear.
She heard footsteps at her door. Jubilee turned around. Courtney was looking in on her with a somewhat fidgety stance. “Hey,” Courtney said. “Um, I wanted to tell you, you could have the room back.” She smiled. “I mean, not that you needed me to say that. I know you’d probably kick my ass and take it back yourself.”
Jubilee almost smiled. That was a pretty funny line. “I guess you know about my MMA stuff.”
“Yeah.” Courtney looked past Jubilee, toward her closet. “How long have you been doing that?”
“A few years,” Jubilee said. “It seems like I’ve been doing it forever.”
“Have you ever got in a fight?” Courtney asked.
“What, you mean a real fight?”
“No.” Courtney shook her head. “God, I don’t know what I’m saying. A match. Yeah, that’s it.”
“I’ve done sparring, but I’ve haven’t had my first match. I was training for that.” Jubilee sighed. “But I’m sure I’m never going to do that now.”
Jubilee’s fingers tapped on one of her open drawers, which exposed a pile of rumpled up shirts. Courtney gazed into the drawer, her cheeks turning red. “I guess I left your room a bit of a mess.”
Jubilee shrugged. “It’s okay.”
Courtney chuckled. “It’s not like anything in here fit me anyway. Don’t worry, I never wore anything of yours.”
Jubilee took a look at Courtney’s frame. She had changed out of the overalls and boots and now was wearing her old clothes, which, although a tad baggy, didn’t hide the fact that Courtney was bigger in build than Jubilee.
I wonder what’s going to happen to you, Jubilee thought but did not ask out loud. Are you going to stay here? Jubilee’s dad indicated that might happen. Where would Courtney sleep? Would she bunk out in here with Jubilee?
“Oh, your dad gave me a sleeping bag. I can catch some Z’s in the living room. I’m sure you want your room to yourself,” Courtney said.
“Oh.” Jubilee breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “That’s cool.”
The two paused for a while. Jubilee wondered what else to say. If the two were about to become housemates, they probably should get to know each other. It might be cool to have another girl around here, Jubilee thought.
“Say,” Jubilee asked, “do you like fishing?”
“Fishing?” Courtney gave it some thought. “I haven’t been fishing, but it sounds cool.”
“I could show it to you outside in the back.” Jubilee looked at her arm, finally un-bandaged. The wound from the arrow was far less conspicuous.
Courtney leaned in closer to Jubilee’s right arm. “Wow, that must have hurt.” Courtney’s eyes met Jubilee’s. “You got to tell me about that.”
Jubilee let her arm drop. “Where do you want to start?”
Jacob held onto the doorknob before backing the rest of the way into the hall. H
e studied the expressions of Wickers and Boss carefully. The pair faced him from the den. Jacob had gone ahead with his choice to lock them up in the den for the night. He wondered how much resentment would boil under their flesh, but so far, the pair had been accepting of their terms of staying under Jacob’s roof for the night.
“I know there’s no bathroom in there, but in the event you absolutely need to take a piss…” Jacob began.
“Your wife already explained it to us.” Wickers pointed his thumb behind him. “The pan’s all ready for us. Don’t worry, we didn’t drink a lot in the past couple of hours. Oh, and thanks again to your wife for the great meal.”
Jacob kept his eye on Terri Boss. Strangely, she seemed quite at peace, more so than in the first few hours that Jacob had known her. Perhaps, since she had been relieved of her duties as one of Sykes’s farm hands and no longer had to take care of Courtney and Arnie Lerner, she felt more relaxed. The stress of those roles no longer weighed on her.
“I promise we’ll be up very early. I want you to be on your way sometime before six o’clock.” Jacob shook his head. “Of course, my clocks are all dead, so I’m just going to have to go with the angle of the sun as my guide to what time it is.”
Wickers chuckled while Boss nodded in a “yeah, I get what you mean” kind of way.
Jacob began pulling the door closed. “I’ll see you two in the morning.”
“Wait.” Boss pulled back on the door. “I was just wondering how Arnie and Courtney…well, are they settled in?”
“Sure. They’re doing fine.”
Jacob was a little surprised that Boss would show any concern for them. I guess it’s easier when they’re no longer your responsibility, he thought. Or maybe Boss was a kinder person underneath that rough exterior of hers. With the harsh circumstances of the world around her, she likely had little chance to show her compassionate side.
“We have places for them to sleep,” he added, “and they seem happy.”
