Avenging Home (4 page)

Dalton raised his brow. “Taking the fight to them? What’s your plan?” Sarge went over what he’d said back at the garage.

“How many people are going on this?” Aric asked.

Sarge glanced over at him. “You looking to get some scalps for yer belt?”

Aric worked his arm and nodded. “I think I’m ready to get in the game, coach.”

Sarge smiled. “That’s my man.”

“I need to go to the power plant tomorrow. Anyone want to come with me?” I asked.

“I’ll go,” Aric said.

Looking sideways at him, I asked, “You getting tired of being cooped up around here?”

He nodded. “Kinda. Plus, it’s about time I started doing my part around here. The arm’s better now and I can help out more, and I want to.”

“Good deal. We’re going to go meet with the engineers at the plant and see if it’s possible to get it up and running.”

“Some power would be a wonderful thing,” Sarge said.

I grunted. “Yeah, well even if the plant will run, there will be a shit ton of work to get the power out. We’ll have to check all the lines and open or cut a number of them to get it where we want. Then we’re going to have to hope the transformers are still good.”

“Let’s see if the plant will run first,” Sarge said.

As we got back to the bunker, I replied, “That’s the plan.”

Dalton left to go get Mike so they could play demo man together. Thad was with Lee Ann talking, and I wandered over to them.

“How’s it going?” I asked.

Thad looked at her, “We’re good.”

I smiled, “Glad to hear it.”

Lee Ann looked at me and grinned. “I’m OK.”

“Hey, Morg. I’ve got an idea on something I want to do,” Thad said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s getting harder to feed the pigs. I want to go out behind the pasture there and string some hot wire around as much land back there as we can, and let the pigs loose.”

Nodding, I replied, “Let them fend for themselves. Good idea. We’ll just need wire and insulators.”

“I’ve already got it all. Been going through all the places around here and piling them up. We’ve got enough to wire a hundred acres probably.”

“When do you want to start?” I asked.

“How about after lunch?”

The girls were going to take on duty at the bunker for the rest of the afternoon. Thad, Danny and I were going to go grab something to eat real quick, then go get started on the pig project. Sarge said he’d join us. After all, Miss Kay was at Danny’s.

Chapter 3

M
el, Bobby and Miss Kay were sitting on the back porch when we got to the house. Mary was out in the garden and Thad quickly excused himself to join her there. Mel smiled and looked at Miss Kay. “I think there’s a relationship in the works there.”

Miss Kay giggled just as Sarge walked out onto the porch. Bobbie smiled. “Speaking of relationships.”

Miss Kay reached over and swatted her on the arm. Mel and Bobbie were laughing as Sarge announced, “Good afternoon, ladies.” He looked around. “What’s so funny?”

Mel tried to get herself under control as she replied, “Nothing, nothing. We were just talking about something is all.”

Sarge narrowed his eyes. “Mmm, something huh? It’s been my experience that a bunch of women sitting around are never
just talking.
”

As Mel and Bobbie started to laugh again, Miss Kay got up and told Sarge to take a seat. I looked at Mel with a questioning glance. She waved me off. Guess I’ll hear about it later. We took seats at one of the picnic tables as Miss Kay carried a large pot out and set it on the table. Bobbie went in and came back out with a stack of bowls, and we were each handed a steaming bowl of soup.

After blowing the steam off, I took a bite. “This is really good. What is it?”

“Just a vegetable stew,” Miss Kay replied.

Looking at the bowl, I asked, “No meat?”

“We’re running really low on meat,” Mel said.

“I can’t hunt the squirrels anymore. There’s nothing left to hunt now,” Little Bit said. She was sitting on the floor working on a large puzzle.

“Oh there’s always something to hunt, kiddo,” I said.

“Yeah. We’ll find something,” Danny added.

“This sure is a good stew, Miss Kay,” Sarge said.

“Thank you, Linus,” she replied with a smile.

“You guys need to figure something out about meat,” Bobbie said.

“Thad, you gonna eat?” Danny called out.

Thad looked up and smiled. He spoke to Mary and headed for the porch. As he took a seat, he said, “Sorry, I just gotta tend my plants.”

“Yeah. You’re tending something,” I replied with a smile.

Thad visibly blushed and I laughed at him. He shook his head and said, “You a mess Morgan,” and set to the bowl of stew in front of him. After a couple of bites, he looked up at the ladies. “This is really good.”

“Miss Kay cooked it. We just prepared the veggies,” Mel said.

Nodding his head, Thad said, “Whoever did, it’s good. You ladies surely do make the most of what we have.”

“So you guys are going to string some fence today?” Sarge asked.

“Just hot wire. Give them pigs some place to forage,” Thad said.

Sarge nodded and scooped another spoon full. “Out behind that pasture in the woods?” Thad nodded and Sarge added, “I’ll send someone over to provide security for you guys.”

“That would be good,” Danny said.

Finishing up lunch, I gave Mel a kiss as she was filling a bowl with stew. “Is that for Taylor?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, she’s sleeping. I’ll take her some lunch.”

“How’s she feeling?”

Setting the bowl on the counter Mel replied, “She was in good spirits before taking her nap.”

And that made me feel good too, very good.

She turned around. “You going to be here for dinner?”

“Of course. We’re just going to be putting up some wire. I’ll be over by Thad’s house.”

She smiled, “Wonderful.”

“Thank you ladies for the lunch. It was delicious as always,” Sarge said as he picked up his carbine.

“You’re welcome, guys,” Bobbie said. Then she added, “go find us some meat.”

“Some meat would be nice,” Miss Kay said.

Slinging my carbine I said, “I’ll see what we can do.”

We headed off to get started stringing the wire. It would make it a lot easier dealing with the pigs, not having to feed them in the pen. We stopped by my place so I could grab a machete and an axe before heading over to Thad’s. At the barn, Thad pointed out a large pile of yellow plastic insulators and a couple rolls of wire.

“I been scrounging them all over the neighborhood. There’s still a lot out there I didn’t get.”

“Yeah. Almost everyone around here used it in one form or another,” Danny said.

Hearing us at the barn, the pigs started making a ruckus, squealing and banging into the sides of the pen. I looked in at them. “Looks like they’re hungry.”

Thad smiled. “They’re always hungry. They’re pigs.” He then pointed out a large sow, “Look how low her belly is. She’s going to drop a litter any day.”

Danny laughed. “Looks like she could use a skateboard under that belly.”

I picked up a bucket full of insulators and said, “Well, let’s get to it.”

Thad went to get a couple hammers and Danny grabbed the wire. We walked out to the back of the pasture and looked the woods over. When Thad showed up, I asked him what he was thinking.

He pointed to the south. “The woods go back there for a couple hundred yards before turning to pasture again. I was thinking of clearing a line right off the edge of the fence there and running straight through, then cut across the edge of pasture. Then cut a line back on the other side and we’ll have them hemmed in.”

“You want to keep the wire about a foot off the ground?” Danny asked.

Thad nodded. “That’d be plenty. They only need to touch it once or twice before they figure it out.”

Pulling the machete out of its sheath, I said, “I’ll start cutting a line.”

And so we got to work. I started clearing brush with the machete. It wasn’t always a straight line as I would weave back and forth to allow for large trees. They would make good places to nail in the insulators. Thad and Danny worked behind me hanging those. The bush in the area wasn’t very thick and made the job of clearing it pretty easy. The hardest part was actually the edge of the pasture.

I made it through the wood line without too much trouble. But once at the transition line between the woods and pasture, the grass proved to be quite thick. It took a lot of chopping to clear it and the other brush. It was hard work, but I actually enjoyed it. It kept my mind off things that had taken place earlier, something I still haven’t really processed. But lately, I enjoyed any kind of work that put a tool other than a firearm in my hand.

I was on my knees hacking at the tall grass when Jamie walked up. I looked up to her holding a sickle and looking at me with a smirk on her face.

“Wouldn’t this be a lot easier?”

I shook my head. “I guess it would. Didn’t even think about trying to get a better tool.”

She tossed it to me. “I watched you for a while and finally took pity on you and asked Thad if he knew where one was.”

With a smirk of my own, I asked, “Just how long did you watch before taking pity on me?”

“Till I started to get tired,” she replied with a laugh.

Picking up the curved blade, I said, “Hope I didn’t wear you out.”

It certainly made the job of cutting the grass a lot easier. Thad and Danny caught up to me because of the slow going and pitched in to help. With Jamie and Ian hanging around to keep an eye on us, we finished up the line and had insulators hung all the way around the patch of woods by early evening.

Thad wiped his forehead with a rag as he looked down the cleared line. “We’ll string the wire tomorrow and let those hogs loose.”

Ian looked around the patch of woods. “Is there anything in there they can eat?”

“Oh yeah, plenty,” Danny replied.

Ian shook his head. “I don’t see anything.”

“You get out there and root around and you’ll find plenty,” Thad offered.

Jamie laughed. “Yeah, Ian. Get out there and root around. Want me to help rub you face in the dirt?”

Ian snorted, “You wish.”

Jamie smiled, “You have no idea how much.”

Now I had to laugh. “Why don’t you two just go ahead and bump uglies and get it over with.”

Jamie looked as though she’d just seen a unicorn. Ian, however, broke out in a raucous laugh, bending over and holding his stomach. Jamie’s face narrowed and she glared at me but didn’t say anything. It made me laugh. Shrugging, I said, “Just sayin’.”

Thad started to laugh as well, until Jamie cut her eyes to him. The smile on his face faded as he started collecting tools and headed for the barn. Danny was smiling and shaking his head as we followed Thad’s lead. We left Ian and Jamie to stew. Well, Jamie was certainly stewing.

“I’m going to the house and get cleaned up before dinner,” Danny said.

“Sounds good to me,” I replied.

We met Thad at the barn where he was putting tools away as the pigs complained. He turned as we walked up. “What are you two going to do now?”

“Go take a shower before dinner,” Danny replied.

Thad smiled. “Me too. That water tower is the best thing since sliced bread.”

I snorted. “You got sliced bread you’re holding out?”

Thad laughed. “I wish. I guess the water tower is better than sliced bread since we ain’t got any.”

“How’s the water temp?” Danny asked.

“It’s perfect. It’s warm, but not too hot. Perfect.”

“Bet it gets a little colder in the winter,” I said.

“I been thinking about that. I’m going to look around for all the black spray paint I can find and paint the tank. During the winter it’ll help keep it warm,” Thad said.

“Better than nothing,” Danny added.

With a nod I said, “Alright, lads. I’m off. See you at dinner.”

Thad went in the house and grabbed a change of clothes and a towel before heading down the hall to the bathroom. He could hear the water running when he got to the door and knocked.

“I’ll be done in a minute,” Jess’s voice called back.

Thad smiled and went back out to the living room and sat down on the couch. Since the water tower was installed, the girls were showering every day. Thad kept an eye on the tank; and just as he’d suspected, the level dropped dramatically the first couple of days before seeming to slow some. He was going to have to fill it soon, like tomorrow probably. But there was still sufficient pressure for a shower and to fill the toilets.

He sat on the couch for what seemed like an eternity. Getting a little annoyed, he got up and started down the hall. Just then, the bathroom door opened and Jess stepped out wrapped in a towel with another one wrapped around her head.

She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, it just feels so good!”

Thad smiled. It was his natural response. “I know it does, but you know I have to fill that thing.”

Bobbing her head, she replied, “I know, I know. It just feels so good. The water is warmer than at Danny’s, and I can take one every day.”

His smile broadening a little as he replied, “And you can help fill that tank tomorrow too.”

Jess stepped over and, standing on her tip toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you too, Thad.” Then she kissed him on the cheek before quickly heading to her room.

Blushing, Thad replied, “I love you too.”

“I know you do!” She shouted back as she shut the door.

Smiling and shaking his head, Thad went into the bathroom. He’d take a little longer with his shower too. After all, it was really warm water.

We stopped by the bunker as we passed. The girls were gone and Mike and Ted were there with Dalton now.

“You guys on for a while?” I asked.

Ted nodded. “Yeah, me and Tweedle Dumb here.”

“Guess that makes you Tweedle Dee then,” Mike shot back.

Looking over his shoulder, Ted said, “Yeah. I got the D and the umb.”

Mike shrugged, “You are a subject matter expert on dumb.”

Ted laughed. “After spending so many years with your dumbass, I am indeed.”

I laughed and looked at Dalton. “So what’s that make you?”

He jumped up on top of the bunker and struck a pose with his hands on his hips. “Why, the Mad Hatter of course!” And he followed it with a maniacal laugh.

Ted looked up at him. “Yes, yes you are.”

Laughing, I added, “Indeed.”

Danny pointed to a long green tube leaned against the side of the bunker. “What’s that?”

Mike smiled. “That’s a Goose. It’s a recoilless rifle. It blows shit up.”

Danny was impressed. “Nice.”

“Yeah, those assholes show up with another MRAP and I’m turning it into scrap metal,” Mike replied.

“It’s nice to have something to deal with them,” I added.

Ted nudged the weapon with the toe of his boot. “This will more than deal with them.”