This was true. Olivia had packed him a bag of food, and he’d stupidly left it sitting on a post back at the barn at Grayson’s house. Like an old fish-wife, his belly had been haranguing him all day about it and he’d been tempted to wake Emma, knowing she probably had something in that bag of hers.
He did have plenty of water though. But the water wasn’t what he was worried about. He’d give them the water… he had plenty more at home.
The two men were mere feet from the back of the trailer, wobbling as they ran their hands down the hay, making their way to the back.
Elmer tried one last time. “Look here, boys,” he said loudly—loud enough for Emma to hear. “There’s a dead body in that wagon. I’m taking her home to bury her. You don’t want to see that—the girl got her face blown clean off. It might scare you to death,” he yelled loudly.
The men kept walking… less than a foot from the end of the trailer now.
“I’ll not have your blood on my hands! Stay outta there!” Elmer yelled in frustration.
He jerked and nearly fell as the man behind him roughly jabbed him in the back with the pointy end of his rifle, and laughed again. “Shut up, Old Timer.”
Elmer found his feet, straightened up, and grit his teeth against the pain in his old back. He shook his head and gripped his own shotty tighter, squeezing his eyes shut. Without a doubt, he wasn’t fast enough to pull the gun up, turn around, and take aim before the man behind him made him a new breathing hole.
He was outmanned anyway. They all had guns. Even if he could shoot the one behind him, there were two more in front of him. He didn’t see a way out of this.
Just gonna have to take a wait and see approach.
He tensed… waiting.
In just a moment, no one would be laughing.
18
Jake pulled Ruby into Tullymore slowly, the old red ’57 Chevy purring like a kitten. He was doing his best not to jar his passengers who stood in the back, leaning against the cab.
Grayson sat in the passenger seat, his head pivoting from side to side, a rifle nestled between his legs, his cheek swollen with pain. “So, we’re going to see your karate-kid friend first?”
Jake scoffed. “Dude, not every martial art is called karate. He does MMA. Mixed martial arts. But yeah. Let’s head to Tucker’s first, see if he can talk to Doc for you, and then we’ll stop by my house when we leave.”
Tina and Tarra were in the back of the truck. Both had laid down their rifles, but held their pistols casually in their hands, not taking any chances.
Jake passed his own house, happy to see it intact. On their way out, they would stop and grab the clothes and food at the house, and anything else Grayson thought might be useful.
With their current predicament, Jake was happy he’d listened to his brother-in-law when he and Gabby had spent one long day learning how to put up food in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and seal it before putting it into five-gallon buckets. They had at least had some long-term food at the house—if Tucker hadn’t taken it yet.
He cringed at the thought of telling Tucker his four-wheeler had been stolen.
As he drove slowly past the rows of houses, he was impressed to see that several neighbors who owned trucks had parked them up tight with their house, re-routing gutters to drain any rain into the beds of the trucks, which were tightly covered with tarps for water collection. That was a good idea to make them water containment vessels, especially since they couldn’t drive them without gas.
Some others had rain barrels in place with the gutters routed to them; if only they’d get some rain. Several people looked busy building small wooden boxes of some sort, or splitting firewood.
All stopped working to stare in surprise at the truck moving through the neighborhood, throwing up a wave of greeting to Jake. He felt sure he wouldn’t get this same reception a few days from now, when reality really started setting in. Even now, he watched several in the rear-view mirror put down their projects and casually follow him on foot. He hoped there wouldn’t be trouble at Tucker’s when he had to tell them no, that he wasn’t taking them anywhere.
Slowly, he turned onto Tucker’s street. The doctor lived right beside Tucker. Jake passed that house, a little worried to not see anyone outside, and pulled into Tucker’s driveway, bringing the truck to the far end of the drive, closest to the back yard. They’d check with Tucker first and then walk over to Doc’s.
The scene that unfolded from Tucker’s backyard was surreal.
A swing set had been adapted to hold four large pots, and a fire blazed under each one of them. A line had dwindled down to just a few people standing at two of the pots, and he recognized Katie serving from one with her daughter standing beside her, and her dogs at her feet. Kenny was serving from the other pot. Tables had been set up and neighbor sat with neighbor, elbow to elbow, sharing a meal.
A heap of firewood sat off to the side of Tucker’s shop with three axes leaning against it. Stacked up beside the garage was a huge, neat pile that had already been split and stacked. Small kids and more dogs ran and played around the yard.
A group of teenagers were squatted around the swimming pool with long nets, skimming bugs and other debris from the bluish-green water. Jake recognized the other three of Tucker’s kids in the crowd. Several water-filtering stations stood at the end of the pool.
Near the back of the yard, on a tree held a sign with the word ‘latrines’ that pointed to a trail that went off into the woods between Tucker’s and the next-door neighbor.
Tucker had it going on up in here. It looked more like a block-party than the apocalypse.
Jake and Grayson stepped out of the truck at the same time that Tina and Tarra jumped down, after holstering their guns. They all made their way over to Katie, following Jake.
“Jake!” Katie yelled, handing her serving-spoon to her daughter and running to meet him halfway.
She hugged him tight as Jake’s ears began to burn, and then suspiciously eyeballed the two women standing a few feet behind him. “Where’s Gabby and Olivia?”
Olivia was well-known in this neighborhood by Gabby’s friends, as she and Gabby were generally locked at the hip.
“They didn’t come this trip. They’re back at Olivia and Grayson’s house.” He turned and waved a hand at the women shadowing his steps. “These are two of Gabby’s friends, Tina and Tarra. They’re from out of town and stuck here for a bit.”
Tina and Tarra both greeted Katie with a warm smile and a hand out. She shook amicably with both of them, and welcomed them to Tullymore.
Jake looked around again at all that was going on within the community. “Looks like y’all have done well here. I’m impressed with the organization. Everybody on-board with it?”
Katie shook her head. “No. About half. The other half is stuck up Curt’s butt and causing nothing but trouble.” She pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. “If the power doesn’t come back on soon, we anticipate a lot of problems from them.”
Grayson clicked his tongue and then regret it, holding a hand up to his jaw.
Jake noticed his discomfort. “Sorry to hear that, Katie. I hope y’all can work it out. Where’s Tucker?”