“Well hot damn, there it is,” Maddox declared, clapping his hands together. “His one good idea this week. Come on, let’s go have us a chat in comfort.”
CHAPTER FOUR
The four rednecks sat there, dumbfounded, staring at the trio after the long tale they’d just been told. Maddox reached over and grabbed the bong from Henry, taking a long hoot and holding it in for half a minute before exhaling a massive cloud of smoke towards the ceiling.
“Jesus fucking christ,” he groaned, “no military, mercenaries have taken over, and there are flesh-eating zombies rampaging everywhere.”
Tate buried his head in his hands. “So we’re really on our own?” he asked.
Dante nodded. “Yep,” he replied. “Military just up and abandoned us.”
“So what are you wanting us to do about it?” Maddox asked, throwing up his hands.
Ace jerked his thumb in the direction of his companion. “Dante here had the bright idea of starting to grow our own food.”
Maddox burst out laughing, his bloodshot eyes filled with mirth. “Ole McMaddox had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!” he sang, and Henry guffawed, joined in by Maddox’s girlfriend, who’s name had turned out to be Teagan.
Tate, however, sat in contemplative silence, rubbing his chin.
When Maddox realized his brother wasn’t laughing, he calmed down, pushing against his shoulder. “Come on, you aren’t taking that seriously, are you?” he asked.
His brother shrugged. “If those mercenaries are killing people in broad daylight, and the military is gone…” Tate trailed off and then shook his head. “We have to assume this situation is far worse than we can imagine.”
Maddox chewed his lip, glancing over at Teagan and Henry, who were still singing Ole McMaddox and laughing. “You two knock it off,” he snapped.
Henry clamped his mouth shut, and Teagan pouted.
“You’re really gonna talk to me that way?” she whined.
“Yes,” he replied. “And if you ever want to smoke any of my shit again, you’re gonna be quiet.”
She crossed her arms and flopped back against the couch, screwing her face into a comically dramatic scowl.
Maddox contemplated for a moment and then leaned forward. “Man, I’m not even sure where to begin,” he groaned. “Henry, what do you think?”
“What the hell are you asking that teenage burnout for?” Lily blurted, motioning to the red-eyed redneck.
Tate pursed his lips. “Because he’s our plant specialist,” he said.
Henry sighed, rubbing his eyes before blinking rapidly. “How much food we talking?”
“Assuming we add more to the group,” Dante paused, thinking for a moment, “revolving food supply for twenty people.”
Henry pulled a phone out of his back pocket and started hammering away at the calculator. He twisted his lips as he ran some numbers and then shook his head.
“Well, for starters,” he said, “we’re going to need a much larger setup than we have here.”
Maddox cocked his head. “How big are we talking?”
“School gymnasium size,” Henry replied.
Ace threw up his hands. “Where the hell are we supposed to find that?” he asked.
“How about we just take over a school gymnasium?” Tate suggested.
Dante shook his head. “Even if we could take one over,” he replied, “it would be a huge target if QXR gets this far out.”
“That’s the beauty of it,” Tate declared with a smile. “This school is abandoned. Has been since the nineties.”
Maddox nodded, snapping his fingers and pointing at his brother. “And it’s isolated,” he added, “a couple miles outside the city. They built it out in the country since a lot of the smaller towns fed into it. Then, in the late nineties, the town decided to build one closer to downtown.”
“We still have extra solar panels, right?” Henry asked.
Maddox jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Yeah, I got a few I haven’t broken out yet,” he confirmed. “Hardware store guy couldn’t pay his bill, so he gave me solar panels instead. Best deal I’ve made in a while.”
“You tell us what we need, and we’ll get it for you,” Dante said.
Maddox shook his head. “Shit man, what we really need is Francis,” he said.
“You ain’t kidding,” Tate agreed. “He’d be loving this right now.”
“Who in the hell is Francis?” Ace asked.
“Our cousin from Florida,” Tate explained. “He moved up here a few months back, been helping out with things around here.”
Maddox clasped his hands together. “We really should go get him,” he said slowly.
“That’s gonna be a hell of a job,” Tate reminded him, letting out a deep whoosh of breath.
“It’s okay,” his brother declared, motioning to Dante. “We have a big badass over here, ain’t that right?”
Dante raised his eyebrow, chuckling. “We can certainly add Francis to the list,” he agreed. “But we really need to get the food going.”
“Francis needs to come first,” Maddox insisted. “Because as luck would have it, he’s on the clock, so to speak.”
Ace furrowed his brow. “Where is he that he’s on a clock?”
“County jail up in Ridgeland,” Tate replied.
Lily gaped at him. “You want us to break into a jail for one of your lackeys?”
“He’s much more than a lackey, sweetheart,” Maddox said, and she grimaced at the endearment. Teagan scoffed with disapproval, but simmered down at her boyfriend’s icy stare.
“And knowing those boys up at the jail,” Tate continued, “they probably bailed out at the first sign of trouble. Which means he hasn’t had food or water in a few days.”
Ace shook his head. “Man, that is one hell of a risk,” he said. “Do you really think he’s worth it?”
Maddox bristled, but Tate leaned forward to defuse the situation.
“Before he moved up here, he would get work every Halloween as a celebrity impersonator,” he said.
Ace raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?” he asked. “Who was he impersonating?”
“Andre the Giant,” Tate declared.
Ace let out a low whistle and then slapped his knees. “Okay, I’ll get the truck,” he said. “We got a jail to break into.”
“Before we do that,” Dante said, holding up a hand, “we’re going to need a plan. I imagine breaking into a jail, even a county one, isn’t going
