“I agree, I’ll never let another piece of shit walk away.” BJ agreed, his eyes narrowing. The two men got back into the truck and headed back to camp. When they arrived, the women were back outside, at the pressure canner. Brian smiled when they came into the drive. Getting out, he walked to the children, who gathered around him. He hugged each of them and whispered reassurances. Then he walked to Paadi and hugged her hard.
“Sorry we didn’t end them the first time.” He whispered into her hair.
“I’m sure you won’t make that mistake again.” She said, her dark brow raised and a sardonic smile on her lips.
Brian snorted and he shook his head.
“No, no I won’t.” He agreed. He turned to Emma and pulled her to him. He rocked her and felt her body vibrating. He pulled away and looked down into her eyes.
“You sure you’re okay?” He asked softly. She smiled, and it trembled, but she nodded.
“I’ll do, but honestly, I think I felt a hell of a lot of gray hairs spring up, not to mention ten years off my life.” She laughed shakily. He hugged her tight and let her go.
“We’re going to go find the other one. We’ll make sure he doesn’t make it another step closer to this place.” Brian said. Then, he and BJ left the camp and headed into the woods. They moved quickly and with purpose. Brian’s mind kept going back to when they’d first discovered the men and he kept kicking himself for not killing the men that first time. That was the old world pushing in on the new world. He had to forget the old ways of thinking. Now, letting someone like that live was a liability that could end up costing them all. It wasn’t a price he was willing to pay.
As a firefighter, he was used to saving lives, not taking them. With each killing, it took a small piece of him. The alternative however, would take all of him. To lose his new family to pieces of shit like them. No, he had to change his way of thinking or none of them would survive. He was thankful that they’d all kept in practice with their weapons. He couldn’t imagine what he’d have come back to, if not.
The topography changed and he and BJ started on a decline and began to smell the camp. They slowed their descent until the camp came into view. It was still nasty and reeked. Crackhead was in his chair, drinking a beer. Brian and BJ moved slowly toward him, both holding their Glocks. Brian stepped on a twig and it snapped loudly, like a gunshot. The man’s head jerked up, sluggish. He was drunk or high, or both. His eyes grew large at the appearance of two men aiming guns at him.
He started to get up, his hand feeling around for the shotgun that laid at his feet. Brian was the first to fire and then BJ’s weapon went off as well. Brian hit him twice as did BJ. It was overkill, but Brian thought that it was satisfying, knowing that the lowlife wouldn’t get a chance to hurt or kill anyone. They walked down into the camp. The fire was blazing away. Both he and BJ began to kick dirt over the fire. They were amazed that these men hadn’t started a forest fire. They looked around the camp.
“You think we should take these ATVs?” BJ asked, looking at the vehicles.
“No, they can’t carry much and in a few more months, gas won’t be worth anything. Neither they nor the trucks will run. It would be junk laying around.” Brian shrugged.
“True. I don’t see anything in this camp worth salvaging.” BJ said, looking into the filthy tents. Nothing but bottles and cans littered the ground. It would get covered eventually by vines and bushes. The body would rot into the ground. Brian didn’t think anything would eat it, so poisoned by drugs and booze. They turned to leave, neither regretting their actions, Brian was sure.
Ӝ
Flynn walked into the cottage, Xandra was on the couch, trying her hand at knitting. Sarah had been teaching her. She looked up and cried out happily, throwing the yarn and needles aside.
“I’m so glad you’re home. No problems in the cabin?” She smiled, wrapping her arms around Flynn’s neck.
“Only that Cliff snores like a damned train.” Flynn laughed, hugging her to him. She felt good after the week long isolation. It was late afternoon and Xandra would be heading to the main house later, to the kitchen to start dinner preparations.
“Ah, well, tonight, you’ll sleep peacefully.” She grinned.
“How was your day?” He asked going to the couch, pulling her into his lap.
“Oh, you know, the same. Weeded the garden, and we started canning. Man, that’s some hot work. Sarah has a stove outside, in a small kitchen shed. She said they do their summer canning out there, too hot for the indoors. Just standing near the canner was hot. But it was so amazing, leaning how to can all the things we grew. We were doing tomatoes today. We had to scald them, you know, to get the peelings off. Then, I was in charge of squishing them. That was kind of fun. Then, we put them into quart jars. There were a ton of them. She has a whole shed full of jars, lids and rings.” Xandra said, shaking her head.
“That’s awesome. I would have liked to have done something; it was boring as hell. I did finish the book though.” He grinned and kissed her. Soon, they found something to do, other than work.
At dinner a couple weeks later,
