“It was a nice thing to say. Leave it at that,” she warned softly.
Jared and Shannon sat in silence, listening to the hushed voices of the rest of their growing community. At one point, John sent Devon out to check the perimeter and familiarize himself with the property. The teen didn’t hesitate, leaving the .22-caliber rifle behind as he slipped noiselessly out the front door. Shannon’s hip was hard and should have felt uncomfortable against his leg, but Jared somehow found enjoyment feeling Shannon’s body against his.
The evening ended when Shannon showed Claire and Stephani to a room the three women and Essie would share, while the men split the other two rooms for sleeping purposes. Jared knew if they wanted to be comfortable, their community would need to add structures or move.
Chapter 37
The following day, John waited until he saw Jared leave the house, then followed him out. John caught up to Jared as the younger man walked out to the OP to relieve Barry and Devon.
“Hey, man, we gotta talk about a couple of things,” John said as he drew abreast of Jared.
Jared stopped and turned to face John, blowing air out through his mouth in an exasperated manner. He knew what was coming and didn’t want to hear it. The world was dangerous, that was a fact, and sometimes, the people who still survived had to take chances or stop living altogether.
John gritted his teeth, knowing Jared was not going to be receptive to any criticism about the stuff he’d grabbed for Essie. “Listen, man, you can’t go off task like that when there are people counting on you. I get the ask-for-forgiveness-later thing, I did that shit all the time before this whole thing blew up in our faces, but things are different now. People are dying every day because they took a chance, and I don’t want any of those people to be one of us.”
Jared cocked his head and gave John a closed-mouth smile. “True—but people were dying before the event. How many people were dying every single year in car accidents?” Jared didn’t wait for John’s answer. “Thousands, John, thousands of people died every year in car crashes, yet people would still load their families in a car and drive to Disneyland, not school or the doctor—Disneyland, a place for fun. They’d risk it all for fun. All I did was bring a little light into a girl’s life who has pretty much seen nothing but darkness since day one of this whole mess.”
John was quiet for a moment, staring at his boots. “Nice metaphor, but you still should have run it by the rest of us. I’m sure you asked Stephani out there if she was good with it, but that girl looks at you and me in the wrong light. She sees us as invincible, and we are not. One of these days one of us is going to get it if things don’t stabilize at least a little bit,” John said, looking up at Jared.
Jared wagged his head. “Well, if one of us gets it, I hope it’s you and not me,” he said with the beginnings of a grin starting to crease his youthful face.
“Fuck you, bro,” John said, feigning shock. “But seriously, I get you like working alone and are used to handling things by yourself, but we all have to see this thing from the thirty-thousand-foot view, not the ten-foot view.”
Jared relaxed and licked his dry lips. “Yeah, I know, but you would have been against it and—” He paused for a moment. “You’re right, but Essie is happy, so you’re also wrong.”
“Jeez, man, just be more careful is all I’m saying,” John said by way of letting Jared know he’d spoken his piece and was finished. The men walked slowly towards the OP again, neither speaking for a few steps.
“One other thing,” John piped.
“Really?” Jared moaned.
“No, it’s not about you. I think this creepy kid Devon needs to be used for what he is.”
“What is he? And stop calling him creepy. You never know when someone is going to overhear you,” Jared admonished, remembering his faux pas from the night before.
“Whatever,” John said. “Either way, the kid is straight badass at sneaking around and not being seen. The fact that we came in contact with him bewilders me after seeing how he can operate. I was thinking we send him out on his own to find a trailer. He’s totally suited for the job, and once he’s located what we need, he can act as a guide. I can make sure he knows how to use a map, and then we send him on his way.”
Jared thought about John’s idea for a minute. “You should teach him how to shoot first. Give him a real weapon, not that little squirrel gun he has.”
“No way, man, that’s the beauty of this kid. If I trained him to shoot, he might think he could take someone on and end up getting himself killed. I like that he’s a shifty surreptitious little bastard. I don’t want him out slinging lead with some idiot.” John was visibly excited by his idea.
“Shouldn’t we ask him if he even wants to do something like that?” Jared asked in Devon’s defense.
“I guarantee that kid will jump at the opportunity to do something for all of us that entails him skulking around all by his lonesome—I kept the phone book, so it’s not going to be some needle-in-a-haystack search. We can give him several places to check that are close to Solar Green, and send him on his way.”
“Okay,” Jared said, seeing more pieces of his plan falling into place through his mind’s eye. “While Devon’s gone, we can get to know this Carlos guy a little better. He’s talking about setting up a water line fed by gravity to the house. Says he already started the project while we were gone. I for one would like to see what he’s
