Apocalypsis: Book 4 (Haven) (17 page)

“It is the second most amazing thingk I have ever seen. I think dat Nina is more better, but da pigeons are good.  Definitely good.”

“I just can’t believe none of the Miccosukee or Creek knew about this.  It would have been so helpful for them.”

“Dey alwayss wanted to be alone.  Dey wanted to hide out dare, not talk to udder people.”

“Isolation is not the answer,” I said, mostly to myself.  Isolation was the best way to become a sitting duck as far as I was concerned.  And the idea that we’d have a network of friendly spies all over the state was just blowing my mind.  I could see peace on the horizon.  Real, lasting peace.  I was almost giddy with it.

We reached the porch to find all of the kids sleeping, even Chantal.

Katy was sitting in a rocking chair with a big metal needle and some yarn.

“What’s that?” I asked, walking up the steps.

“Crochet.  Ever done it?”

Thoughts of Winky sitting there like her crossed my mind.  “No.  Never.”

“I’m makin’ a blanket.  Can never have too many of ‘em in the winter seems like, now that we don’t have any heaters anymore.”

She was right.  Even in winter, Florida could get cold.  It made me glad we were staying in a place that had tons of blankets and sheets already made.  Hopefully, by the time we’d need to make more, we’d have looms, sheep and everything else that was part of that equation.

“So ya’ll want some cows, eh?”

“Yeah.  We really do.  And we’d be willing to trade something for it, but I guess we’d have to go get it since we came here with nothing.”

“Well, you brought us these here hands.  I guess that’s a pretty fair trade for a bull and a cow.”

I felt a little sick.  “I’m not sure I’m cool with trading people.  Sorry about that.”

She shrugged.  “Whatever.  Your call.  But we ain’t just gonna let you take two animals from our herd ‘cause you’re the ball-biter.  Gotta have more juice than that.”

I sighed heavily.  “Please don’t call me that anymore.  It makes me sick to my stomach, and I really don’t want to see that stew come up and land on your front porch.”

She stopped crocheting and lifted an eyebrow at me.  “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Don’t push it.  Seriously, that’s a memory I’d like to forget forever.”  I shuddered for effect.

“Whelp, I have to say, I admire a girl who’d go that far to live.  I might’ve died that day if it were me.”

“No, you would have bit the guy too.”  I sat down in front of her feet on the porch.

“Ha!  Then I’d be the world famous ball-biter, the girl all the kid-eaters wanna kill.”

“Why all the hate?” I asked.  “I mean, it was just one fat asshole who’d had too much to drink and thought he was going to rape me.  Why do I have such a big target on me now?”

“Well, the EWS say it ain’t just that.  I guess you also kicked a few butts up near Orlando and caused a ruckus out by the Amazons’ place.  And those particular kid-eaters were all related somehow.  They move up and down I-95 keeping in touch.  They do it the old fashioned way, though - using cars and motorcycles.”

“They’re going to run out of gas eventually.”

“Yeah, maybe.  Or maybe they’ll figure out or find an alternative energy source, who knows.  We just gotta hope they never catch on to our EWS is all.”

“What could they do to it?  I mean, countries used them in the old wars, right?  And they weren’t a secret, but they still worked.”

“Yeah, but if them cannibals know where the control points are, they could come in and smash us up and kill the birds.  We’d have to start all over, and it’s work, let me tell you.”  She sighed.  “I ain’t complainin’, though.  We got a good thing going on here, and even if someone comes in and smashes us up, I know we’ll press on. We’ve got friends now.  More than we ever had before, really, even when the world was all put together right.  And what’s funny is, no one seems to care anymore that Jackson and me grew up on a dirt patch and talk different.  We’re all judged by how we survive and what we do for others now, and that’s all right by me.”

I looked around, out into the mostly empty fields and at the dogs goofing around with a stick in the dusty yard.  “But don’t you get lonely out here with just your brother to keep you company?”

“Nah.  Well, maybe a little.  But that’s okay.  It beats being dead.”

“You know, you could come live with us.”

“In a prison?”  She chuckled.  “No, thanks.  Our daddy spent most of his time in one-a those places.  I ain’t in a hurry to continue that particular family tradition.”

“It’s not like that, though.  We’re turning it into a nice place.”

“I’m sure you are.  And maybe someday we’ll join you.  Who’s to say what tomorrow will bring?  But I thank you for the invite.  That’s awful generous of you.  I know you got a lot of mouths to feed there.”

“Yeah,” I said, falling back into the reality of my life and why I was even here in the first place.  I stood.  “We gotta get going.”

Jackson came walking up at a fast clip from around the corner, taking two steps at a time.  “You’re right.  You gotta go now.”  He pushed past me and into the house, letting the screen door slam behind him.

“What’s got into him?” asked Katy, no longer rocking or crocheting.

I shrugged.  Whatever it was, it didn’t look good.  I stood, suddenly nervous.  “He got a message from one of your birds right before I came back here.”

Katy jumped up and ran in through the front door, abandoning her yarn and needle on the chair.

“What does dis mean?” asked Bodo softly.

I turned to face him.  “I hope there’s not a problem at Haven.”

Jackson came bursting through the front door with a shotgun in each hand.  He came right up to me without stopping, shoving the heavy weapon at me.  “Take it.”

He stepped to the side and did the same with Bodo.  “Take it.”

He reached behind himself and pulled a box out of his pants.  “Take these.  They’re shells.  You have to go.  I expect to get those guns back when I see you next.”

“What’s happening?” I asked, fear straining my voice.

“Your friends in the Glades are in trouble.  The Miccosukees.  You need to get down there and fast if you want to help.”

“How do you know that?” I nearly cried, freaking out about my friends and what Jackson’s words actually meant for them.

“Amazons got the message from the ‘hood near their place.  Big old group-a kid-eaters are headin’ that way.  You gotta move quick.”

He ran down the stairs and around the side of the house.

I stared at Bodo, searching for solace or something in his expression that would make me feel better.  He looked as panicked as me, though and was no help at all with calming my racing heart.

“Good luck.  I hope we see you again,” said Katy, all her vigor gone.  She sounded sad.

“What about us?” asked Chantal, sitting up and wiping her eyes.  “Can we go too?”

“No, you stay,” I said.  “You’re too weak to help, and it’ll be too dangerous.  We’ll come back for you, or we’ll send someone for you.  They’ll ask for you by name, so you’ll know they’re good people.  Don’t forget Dane on the side of the road.  Maybe you could go get him, Katy?”

“Who in the sam hill is Dane?”

“He’s a friend of ours.  I could show you where he is,” said Chantal.

“Fine.  I got a four-wheeler with a trailer we can use if he ain’t far.”

I turned to walk down the stairs.

“Where are you going?” asked Katy.

I drew up short, turning around.  “What do you mean?  I’m going to the Everglades to help my friends.”

“Well, you gotta wait for your ride.”  She frowned at me like I was stupid.

“You want us to drive that truck?” I asked, gesturing to the semi.

“Dat’s too loud.  Dey will hear us coming from very far away.”  Bodo was shaking his head no.

“No, I ain’t talkin’ about that truck.”

“Well, what then?!”  I was losing my patience with her redneck accent and slow way of explaining herself.

The sounds of running came from the side of the house again.  And it wasn’t the running of a person, either.

Katy smiled.  “Your ride has arrived, my dear.”

***

My eyeballs nearly fell out of my head when I saw Jackson riding up on a horse.  He stopped with a sliding of the animal’s hooves right in front of the porch, dropping down out of the saddle like a real cowboy.

“Here ya go,” he said, handing me the reins.  “This ain’t my best horse, but she’s strong, and she’ll get you where you need to go.  I just gotta ask you to get her back to me if you can.  She’s special, like all our animals are.”

“Oh my god.”  It was all I could think to say.

Bodo walked up without saying a word, taking the nearest stirrup and making an adjustment to it.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he walked around the front of the horse to the other side of the saddle.  He made an adjustment over there too.

“I’m fixing da stirrups. Dey are too short for me.”

I looked at Jackson.

He just shrugged back at me before addressing Bodo.  “Guess you know what you’re doin’.  That’s good news.”  Jackson moved to the side so Bodo could take the reins from me.

Putting his foot in the stirrup on the left side of the horse, Bodo hiked himself up, swinging his other leg over until he was straddling the beast.  He sat up in that damn saddle like he’d done it every day of his life.

“Uhhhh …”  I was so stunned, no words were coming.  We were about to enter a battle on a massive scale, and the boy I loved, who was ignoring me and hurting me on purpose with his pettiness, was sitting up there like a friggin’ cowboy supermodel.

“Come closer, and I’ll give you a leg up,” said Jackson.  “But first, put them shells in your pockets.”

I placed my shotgun on the ground and opened the box that was on the stairs.  Pulling out the shotgun shells a handful at a time, I shoved them into my front pockets until they bulged.  I brought the ones that wouldn’t fit over to Bodo and he put them in his pockets.

“Be right back!” said Katy, running back into the house as I was finishing up.

I walked back over to the horse, eying it with trepidation.  It was so tall.  Falling from that height would be more than painful.

“Bend your leg at the knee,” instructed Jackson.

I was looking up at Bodo, but he was just staring straight ahead, his shotgun lying perpendicular across the front of the saddle, muzzle pointing out towards the truck.

I bent my leg as instructed and Jackson put his hand on my shin.

“Use the pressure on your leg to get up.”

This was different then the laced-fingers technique I’d seen before, but it worked just as well.  As I pushed down on my leg, trying to straighten it, he pushed up and hoisted me to a point that I could throw my other leg over the back of the horse.  I wasn’t on the saddle, but I had a bit of blanket under me, just in front of the round part of the horse’s rump.

I hurriedly wrapped my arms around Bodo’s waist.  I’d been on a horse before, but they scared me; I wasn’t afraid to admit that.  Now in addition to worrying about my friends being attacked, I was panicking that I was going to break my neck by falling off the back of a horse.

“You can run her full out for about a hour, maybe two.  That’ll get you there.  But please, when you’re done, point her home and smack her hard on the bum.  Don’t let her stay there.”

“Why?” I asked totally mystified.  “I mean, why smack her on the butt?”

“She’ll find her way back home.  She just needs a little motivation to get going.”

“Like the birds?” 
How come I didn’t know all these animals had such a strong sense of home?  Are they so different from us, really?  Does everyone and every thing need a place to call home and feel safe in?

“Yeah, kinda.  But different.  Anyway, good luck.  You’d better go.”  Jackson bent down and picked up my shotgun.

Katy came bursting out of the front door, carrying some leather straps with her.  “Put these on!  So you don’t have to hold the guns!”

Jackson handed up two shotgun holsters.  After a little bit of finagling I was finally able to attach it to my body and get the gun inside, over my back.  I felt like a real cowboy outlaw now.  Only one that didn’t know what the hell she was doing.

“You sure you know how to do this?” I asked Bodo as he adjusted his holster.

“Yes.  I had many horses in my life.”  He slapped the reins a little and kicked the horse in her sides, making a clicking noise with his tongue.

There was so much about my boyfriend I didn’t know - things he hadn’t told me.  And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out if it was because he’d withheld the information deliberately or because I just hadn’t bothered to ask.

I turned to watch the ranch fading behind me as we transitioned from a walk to a trot.  Every face looking back at me had an expression of worry.

I had to turn back and hold onto Bodo tighter so I didn’t start thinking about all the ways I could die.

The jarring trot quickly turned into a gallop that threatened to throw me off the horse’s rear end.  Bodo pointed the horse to the road that would take us to the highway, and in no time we were running down the shoulder of I-95, headed in the direction of Kahayatle.

I held on for dear life, praying to my father and any invisible gods who might be listening. 
Please don’t let us die, please don’t let us die, please don’t let us die…

Chapter Five

THE HORSE WAS FOAMING AT the mouth with white gooey stuff by the time we arrived at the small store that used to serve as a canoe rental place.

Bodo got down, reaching up without a word to help me off, taking me by the waist and lifting me down.

I had a hard time standing when I reached the ground, my butt and back were sore from the constant pounding they’d endured on our trip.  I massaged my lower back through my shirt as I got my equilibrium back.  I was so not in fighting shape right now.

Bodo didn’t seem bothered by the hard ride at all.  He turned the horse around, tied the reins to the saddle horn and whacked her really hard on the butt.