Avenging Home (13 page)

“Oh, thank you. This will be really nice,” Mel said.

“You’re welcome. Come back anytime,” the woman said.

“Do you have any milk?” I asked.

“We do, but we’re out. Folks with little ones really want the milk. But we have it every morning,” the man replied.

“I’ll check back then,” I said with a wave as we walked off.

With her treasures in hand, Mel said, “Let’s see what else we can find,” and led the way through the market.

I stopped by the stall of the man I’d talked with before. He’d set up a nice wet wheel to sharpen tools. Now, in addition to the sharpening tools, there was an assortment of various other tools offered for sale.

“How’s business?” I asked.

The old man wiped his hands on a rag and came out from behind his grinder. “Good, good. Can I interest you in an axe or a saw?”

“No thanks. I’m good there. Just wanted to see how business was going,” I replied.

“Oh, it’s pretty good.” He patted his belly. “I ain’t getting fat, but it’s keeping me in vittles.”

I laughed. “That’s about all you can hope for these days.”

“Yes sir, it sure is. Come see me when you need some sharpening done.”

“I will,” I said as I turned to leave.

I found Mel and Lee Ann looking at some jewelry and told them I wanted to get to Gina’s before it got dark. I was kind of curious why Mario wasn’t here, but I’d be seeing him tomorrow anyway. As we got back in the truck, Mel was looking at the jar of butter.

“This is going to be so good with the bread Kay makes.”

“I want to try that cheese. What kind is it?” Lee Ann asked.

“It’s a soft cheese. But I bet it’s good,” Mel said looking at the bag containing the cheese.

As I turned onto Gina’s road, Mel commented on the oak trees hanging over the road and how nice it looked.

“Yeah, it’s like old Florida,” I said as I pulled up to the gate at Gina’s.

Dylan came out from around the side of the house. He smiled and waved when he saw us. “Hey, Morgan!”

“Gina, Morgan’s here!” Dylan called out.

Gina came out of the house, a big smile spread across her face when she saw Mel. Coming out on the porch, she said, “You must be Mel.”

Mel greeted her with a hug. “It’s nice to meet you finally!”

Holding Mel’s hand, she asked, “Would you like a cup of tea?”

“That would be wonderful. Come on, Lee Ann. Let’s go inside,” Mel said, waving. Lee Ann followed them into the house as the two chatted away.

Dylan looked at me and smiled. “I’m glad you brought them. I think she gets tired of talking to me.”

Slapping him on the shoulder, I said, “It ain’t just you buddy.”

Dylan jerked his head. “Hey, come here. I’ve got something for you.”

I followed him back to the greenhouse. It was warm and humid inside. Everything was damp, even the ground felt spongy. It was like entering a jungle. If a monkey were to drop down onto my shoulders, I wouldn’t be surprised. Well, not much anyway.

Dylan pointed to a large basket on a bench sitting along one wall. “You take these with you. We’ve canned all we are able, and got nowhere to put any more of them.”

Walking towards the basket, I asked, “What is it?” Seeing over the top of the basket, it was full of tomatoes, red, green and yellow peppers and onions. “Wow, Dylan. That’s a lot of veggies, man. You sure?”

With a dismissive wave, he said, “Hell yes. If I have to blanch one more mater, I’m going to lose my mind. We can eat canned maters every day for every meal for a year!”

“I really appreciate this. It’s a lot of produce. I’ve got something for you too. I was hoping to make a trade, but this is way more than I expected. Come out to the truck.”

He followed me out to the truck and grabbed the bag of meat and held it out. He took and opened it, “What is it?”

“It’s gator meat. The old man killed one. We butchered it today. It’s fresh,” I said.

“Oh, man! I love gator meat. Thanks, Morgan. I can’t say how much we appreciate you bringing this kind of thing over to us. I mean, we’ve got plenty of veggies, but no meat. So this really helps out a lot.”

“We try to get what we can, and I always think of you guys,” I replied.

“Let me take this into Gina. She’s gonna love it!”

“I’ll go get the basket and load it in the truck.”

As I was stowing the basket in the back of the truck, everyone came outside. Gina and Mel were still chatting away.

“Thank you guys so much for the meat. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it,” Gina said.

“Don’t worry about it. Remember what I said about the butter too. You should go up there and trade for some.” Mel said.

Gina looked at Dylan. “Mel said there’s someone at the Kangaroo selling butter and cheese. Can we go up there and trade for some? Butter would be so good.”

“Of course. We’ll go tomorrow.”

“We have to go guys,” I said.

“Mel, thank you so much for coming by. It’s nice to talk to another lady,” Gina said. Looking at Dylan, she continued. “I love Batman, but we’ve been together so long there really isn’t much to say to one another anymore.”

Dylan snorted. “You sure talk an awful lot for someone with nothing to say!”

Lee Ann started to laugh, giving a little snort. Gina smiled. “You just wait. You’ll see someday. I bet your momma and daddy run out of things to say.”

“You’re half right, Gina,” I said. Mel backhanded my shoulder. “Use your words, honey,” I said.

Dylan laughed and Gina shook her finger at me. “You better watch it, mister.”

I gave Gina a hug and shook Dylan’s hand, thanking them for what they’d done for us. This was yet another in a long list of lopsided trades. Gina hugged Mel and Lee Ann as well, telling them both to come back soon.

Once we were in the truck and headed back towards home, Mel said how much she liked Gina.

“She’s so sweet.”

“They’re nice people for sure. Every time we do any trades with them, they give far more than they get,” I said.

“We need to help them as much as we can,” Mel said.

“I like her. She’s really funny.” Lee Ann said. “I’d like to go visit with her.”

I looked at her in the mirror. “You and the girls should drop in on her. It would do her good. It’s close enough to walk to.”

“Or, we could use the four wheelers.”

I smiled. “Or you could use the four wheelers.”

We took the food we’d collected to Danny’s house. Lee Ann went off to find Fred and Jess. Miss Kay was puttering around in the kitchen when we came in. Her face beamed when she saw me carrying the large basket of produce.

“What do you have there, Morgan?” She asked as I set the basket on the island.

“We did some trading and got some good veggies.”

Mel set the butter and cheese down. “We also got these.”

Kay snatched the jar of butter up. “Butter? Where’d you find butter?”

“There’s a couple trading it down at the market. They said they have milk too, but were out,” Mel replied.

Kay’s mouth fell open. “Milk, I’d love some milk.” She turned her attention to the basket. “Look at all these tomatoes. There’s more here than we can eat, so I’ll can them. I’ll also make up some sauce. This will be so good.”

“You want some help?” Mel asked.

“Of course dear! Come, let’s get a kettle on. I’ve got an idea for dinner.” Kay looked at me. “Shoo, shoo, you get out of here. We’ve got work to do.”

“Alright, I’ll leave you ladies to it. I’m going to check on Taylor.”

“Bring her over here. She’d enjoy this,” Mel said.

Walking out on the back porch, I saw Danny out by the pond with Jace, Edie and Little Bit. It brought a smile to my face seeing those kids in such a normal activity. Not to mention, Little Bit had her young friends back. Looking out at the garden, I saw Thad and Mary out there. They were laughing as they worked on the beds. Such a peaceful scene belying our reality.

I wandered over to the house and found Taylor asleep on the sofa and woke her up. “Hey, kiddo. Come on. Let’s go over to Danny’s. Mom and Kay are going to be canning a bunch of veggies and mom wants you to help.”

She sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Really? Like in jars?”

“Yeah. Come on.”

She got ready and I held her arm as we walked over to Danny’s. She got around pretty well, and was able to walk; but she was a little wobbly on her feet, so I held on to her despite her protests.

“You can let go, Dad. I can walk.”

“I know you can. Just making sure you don’t topple over,” I said.

Once she was up on the porch, I gave her a hug and told her I would see her later. Wandering over to the garden, I interrupted Thad and Mary.

“Hey, Thad. Tomorrow we have to go to town with the tractor. We need to get those fields planted.” Then I looked at Mary and smiled. “Hi, Mary.”

She shaded her eyes with a gloved hand covered in soil. It was a pink gardening glove. Made me wonder where in the hell she came up with them. “Hi, Morgan.”

Thad stood. “Yeah, we need to get those seeds in the ground. I’ll be ready when you are.”

“We’ve got to stop by Mario’s place on the way and load a generator on a trailer I’m taking, then drop it off at the power plant.”

“Sounds good to me. When you want to leave?”

“After breakfast I guess.”

Thad smiled. “I’ll be ready. You wanna go handle that business across the road?”

I didn’t. I really didn’t. But it needed to be done. “Yeah, let’s get it done.”

Thad left the garden and walked towards me. I stepped off the porch to meet him. He nodded towards the pasture across the road. “Tractor’s already over there.”

We crossed the dirt road and walked out into the pasture. The bodies were laid out in a row, ready for burial. I stopped at the end of the line and looked down. “There’s a lot of them.”

“Yeah, there’s a bunch.”

Waving a finger over them, I asked, “Anyone go through their stuff yet?”

Thad shook his head. “No, but Sarge said he wanted to before we put ‘em in the ground.”

Digging around in my vest, I pulled out a pair of nitrile gloves. “Let’s do it then.”

Putting on the gloves, I started at one end of the line. These guys were pretty well equipped. Each had a rifle and a pistol. The pistols were mounted in either a thigh rig or on their load-bearing kit, usually a vest with DHS in big white letters on the back. It was kind of surreal to be stripping the bodies of dead federal personnel. I’ve always been a law-abiding person, and this was just over the top.

I removed all equipment from the bodies and handed it back to Thad. He piled it according to what it was. Rifles in one pile; vest, packs and the like in another. I also went through their pockets and removed whatever was there. On a couple of them I found personal effects like photos. I looked at them, seeing the faces that meant something to these men starring back at me. In each case, I placed them back into a pocket.

There was also the assortment of knives, and oddly enough, cigarettes and lighters. Finding a full pack on one body, I tossed it to Thad. “Wonder where they’re getting these.”

Thad checked it out. “They’re European. Someone, somewhere is sending stuff over.”

“We’ll give them to Perez when we see him.”

There was no real intelligence, not that I could see. But we would still need to go through their kits to see if there was anything. When I was done, I stepped back, stripping the gloves off my hands and tossing them onto one of the bodies. We stood looking at the bodies for a moment, then Thad said something that caught me off guard.

“What about their boots?”

I hadn’t even thought about that. Never occurred to me. But they were surely a resource, and one we shouldn’t just bury in a hole.

“I guess we should take them. I mean, it’s a shame to just bury useful stuff. Someone could certainly use them.”

After stripping the boots from all of the bodies, Thad went to work digging the hole. It took a long trench, which was actually easier to dig as Thad could drive down into it to scoop out the earth. Once the hole was big enough, we dragged them into it. Wearing leather gloves, I grabbed each by the feet and pulled them down into the trench. As soon as they were all in the pit, Thad started immediately pushing dirt in on them.

Once they were covered, we loaded all the gear into the bucket of the tractor. Thad said he’d take it all to the old man’s house so he could go through it and make sure we didn’t miss anything. The weapons would end up in our inventory, which was now immense. But these weapons were really nice, and I was going to trade mine for one of them. These carbines were all select fire, which mine wasn’t. I’d already set one aside with an ACOG on it. I liked the optic, and it would make for a nice replacement. Thad left to go deliver the goods, and I walked out to the road.

I wanted to go talk to Sarge before dinner, and took a walk down to the bunker. Passing the scorched remains of Brandy and Tyler’s house, I stopped at the gate and stared at what was left. I thought about Thad and Danny digging through those ashes trying to find them. I shuddered to think about what they found. I’ve been so lucky. We’ve been so lucky, but I was being selfish and thinking more about my family and the fact that I hadn’t lost any of them yet.

But it’s been close. Lee Ann and then Taylor. Our luck couldn’t hold out forever. The law of averages simply assures that our luck will eventually give out, and someone close to me will die. The thought crushed me. Just imagining burying one of my girls or Mel was more than I could bear. Trying to wipe the thought from my mind, I continued down to the bunker.

Sarge and Dalton were there resting over the top of the structure. As I closed on them, I was about to call out to them when Dalton spun around. His ankles were crossed and his arms were spread out behind him on the log. He smiled and his face resembled the Joker.

“Alow, you cheeky basta’d!” He shouted.

It was just what I needed. The horrible thoughts rolling around in my head were gone in an instant. Not that the replacement image was any better. Shaking my head, I replied, “You simply are not right in the head.”

Sarge snorted. “And that’s saying something around here. The bar’s been set pretty damn high.”

“Well we all have a gift!” Dalton replied.

Looking at Sarge, I asked. “You heard from the guys yet?”

He shook his head. “Nah. I won’t worry about them until late tonight. If they aren’t here before the sun comes up, then something’s wrong. You never know what you’ll get when you turn them two loose.”

In a heavy hillbilly drawl, Dalton asked, “Prone ta wanderin’, are they?”

“Wanderin!” Sarge shouted. “Hell, once at Camp Rhino I sent those two idiots over to Camp Gibraltar to handle a little deal I had with some lads from the 102nd Royal electricians and engineers.”