Jared cocked his head, but stopped short as Barry pulled up to the OP and cut the engine. He flicked the kickstand down and dismounted, leaving the bike standing upright this time. Next, Barry unslung the rifle and hung it on a handlebar. John liked that Barry was reciprocating a gesture intended to ease John and Jared’s reservations about Barry, who was a complete stranger showing up. John had done it twice: once when he gave Barry his weapons back, and the second time when he allowed Barry to get his motorcycle and meet them at the OP.
Barry knew he could have left and not returned, but he liked the way John had handled a very tense situation where Barry had been at a tremendous disadvantage. He slung the rifle over the handlebar and was about to take off his belt holster, but decided against it. He didn’t want to appear completely defenseless.
“Barry, this is Jared, Jared—Barry,” John said by way of introductions.
The two men shook hands as Barry stopped next to the OP.
“Funny story, Jared,” John started. “Barry here is the Barry I was after the night of my helicopter crash.”
Jared scrunched his brow, then turned to Barry for confirmation.
“Yep, seems your friend and I have a bit of history,” Barry said, looking at John with brows raised. “You’re not blaming me for the crash, are you?”
John wagged his head. “Nope, not at all, that shit had nothing to do with what happened back at your place.”
“So what now?” Barry queried.
Jared looked at John with the same question written on his face. Jared wasn’t sure what had happened out in the hills that resulted in John trusting Barry enough to invite him back to the OP. In Jared’s recent experience, he learned to distrust people more than trust them. This change in attitude came after he was nearly beaten to death, shot at, and witnessed all manner of atrocities perpetrated on people by other humans. Jared wanted to question John about Barry, but didn’t want to do it in front of the guy.
“Why don’t I go get the rest of the crew and have ’em walk out here and meet Barry,” John said as he stepped back, gesturing with his chin in the direction of the ranch house.
Jared dipped his head in acknowledgment, and John was off, sauntering toward the ranch house. Once John was out of earshot, Jared turned to Barry.
“Hard to trust people nowadays, especially when you have something they might want,” Jared declared, staring Barry squarely in the eye.
Barry smiled easily. “You mean like a motorcycle, food, shelter and everything else I have stashed in that pack?”
Jared held the man’s gaze for a second before smirking. “Yeah, like that kinda stuff.”
The two men sat in silence for a bit, staring out across the hill country. Jared’s mind was temporarily taken off the fact that his best friend in a chaotic world had passed the day before. Barry sat wondering what the hell he was doing wasting his time with these people.
Barry had a plan, which was to get farther out into the farmlands and hook up with a community where he could be useful with his technical skills. People would need to get machines running in order to plant and harvest crops, and Barry was fairly sure he had the ability to do just that. Jared shifted next to him, allowing Barry to notice for the first time that although the man was unshaven and relatively unkempt in his appearance, Jared was not gaunt like many of the people Barry had seen after the event.
Jared thought about what Barry just told him and wondered why the man had given up so much information about what he had in his possession. It didn’t make sense to Jared that Barry would have a sinister motive after divulging all the information about what he possessed. Nowadays, people tended to hide anything of value they owned in order to avoid bringing unwanted attention to themselves. Barry must be offering an olive branch of sorts, and suddenly Jared felt compelled to do the same.
“We have it good here, food, shelter and just enough people to run a pretty good security system,” Jared blurted out.
Fuck, thought Jared, why did I say that?
Barry squinted in the bright sunlight and thought about what this other man just told him.
“You all have any plans of planting crops or anything like that?” Barry inquired.
“We have food,” Jared said with obvious reservation returning to his voice.
“Listen,” Barry started, “I’m not the bad guy here. I didn’t turn the lights out, and I sure as hell didn’t fly in riding a Black Hawk and try to snatch anyone. I’m trying to find a community that I can live in, live with, and help.” Barry shifted his body, lining it up straight with Jared. “What did you do before the lights went bye-bye?”
“I was a computer engineer, worked for—”
Barry cut him off, waving his hand and shaking his head. “So you’re unemployed now,” Barry quipped. “You gotta get that who-you-worked-for shit out of your head. They don’t exist anymore; therefore, they don’t matter.”
Jared frowned. “Who’d you work for?” he asked, irritation seeping through in his tone.
“There you go again, with the who crap. I told you it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all gone, man.” Barry swept his hand across his front. “In a flash the foundation of society…gone. Man had the carpet pulled right out from under him, and now he’s paying for his arrogance.”
Jared sighed. “Okay, what did you do before all this?”
“Again, my boy, you are off base with your question. The question everyone should be asking the person next to them is how can you apply what you learned in your former life to your present life?”
Jared thought about it for a moment and realized Barry was right.
