Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost (22 page)

“I’ll take your word for it; I just saw it raining stinkers,” Ian said and felt his hands going numb from gripping the handle so hard. After prying his hands off, he open and closed them.

As Lance rolled down his window, everyone took a deep breath and yelled with him. “H1 Alpha, bitches!”

Lance reached forward, laughing, and everyone looked at him, stunned, as he pulled out an iPod from the center console. “You’re not having a blinking match with the road, Lance,” Jennifer said as Lance’s thumb rolled around the iPod.

“I’m watching,” he grinned and tapped the screen. “Uncle Doug played this once, and I think it’s fitting.”

A disco melody started, and women started talking, and Ian busted out laughing. Jennifer listened carefully then, then the chorus yelled, “It’s raining men.” Jennifer laughed as everyone joined in singing and dancing in their seats.

Chapter 16

After another song, Lance turned the music off, but the mood was much improved. They moved between big, dirt roads and small blacktops, and Jennifer tried to contain her excitement as they headed into a valley that wasn’t even a quarter mile wide. The outlines of mountain tops could be seen around them.

They saw a few stinkers as they passed a sign that Jennifer read, “Dewitt.” Allie tapped her arm, and Jennifer looked down to see Allie pointing out the window at a school.

“We’re almost there,” Allie said and grinned.

Jennifer wanted to laugh, looking at the helmet and goggles on such a little head. She smiled. “I’m glad.”

The Hummer rolled up in the valley, and the spaced out farm houses went from few and far between to nonexistent. Ten minutes later, they all let out sighs as the GPS announced, “You have reached your destination.”

Looking around, Jennifer saw trees around them but a field in front of them. “Where’s the cabin?”

“It’s further up. We have to take the road past the field,” Ian said, checking his AR.

“Well, let’s get the hell up there. My butt is killing me.”

“We need to check the cabin first, Jen,” Lance said, cracking his door, and a thumping sounded at the back of the Hummer. He sniffed and started grumbling.

The thumping stayed at the back of the Hummer as Ian looked over at Lance. “Whatever it is, it’s staying there.” Without responding, Lance threw open the door and launched out, closing it as he went. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Jump out without a plan and act insane,” Ian mumbled, following.

He moved to the back of the Hummer, bringing up his AR. Stopping at the back, he shook his head, seeing a stinky impaled on the trailer jack. “Another one is trapped under the trailer,” Lance said from the other side. Ian glanced up and saw Lance pull out the Ruger.

As the Ruger let out a cough, Ian watched the stinker’s head snap back. “Check under the Hummer,” Lance said, walking to the side of the trailer as Ian knelt. He saw enough body parts caught up in the undercarriage to make a few stinkers but didn’t see a whole one as he heard the Ruger cough again.

Walking around the Hummer, Lance holstered the Ruger and opened his door, turning off the Hummer. “Wait here. Keep the doors locked, and if you see anything, call on the radio,” he said, about to leave, but stopped. “Turn your radio on.” Jennifer thought of a dozen comments, but Lance closed the door.

Ian walked around to the front of the Hummer, joining Lance. “How you want to do this?” Ian asked as he checked his gear.

“Follow the road up and check the cabin out and turn off that ‘Lethal Deterrent.’ Move to the back, and look at the shed, shop, and gym.”

“You want me to take point?”

Shaking his head, Lance said, “Nah, I got it, but let’s stay close together.”

Seeing Ian nod, Lance moved up the farm road at the forest edge of the small field. Barely noticeable was a small road between a stand of cedar trees that led up into the woods. Lance peeled off, following it up as the forest closed around them. Lance wanted to turn around and tell Ian that it wasn’t as spooky out here when he had an AR and other weapons.

NNNNNNN
sounded, and Lance jumped three feet in the air and started beating his hip.
NNNNNNN
sounded again, and Lance quit jumping around. “A phone call? Really?” he whispered, and Ian fought not to laugh as Lance pulled out his phone, and his goggles shut off. “God damn it,” he hissed, flipping them up. “Hello, this isn’t a—” he whispered.

His dad started, “Lance, you ma—”

“God damn it, Dad, this isn’t a good fucking time. I’ll call you back,” Lance whispered harshly then pulled the phone away.

“Lance—” His dad’s voice cut off as Lance turned the phone off.

“That scared ten years out of me. I thought some demon from hell was trying to attack my goober,” Lance whispered, shoving his phone in his pocket.

Once again, Ian followed Lance up the rise toward the cabin. Halfway there, Lance stopped and motioned Ian next to him. “You hear someone talking?” Lance asked.

Listening for a second, Ian nodded. “Yeah, but I can’t tell what they are saying.”

“Let’s move off the tract into the woods,” Lance whispered.

Ian followed Lance as they eased up the rise. The closer they got, they could make out a new word. When they were a hundred yards away, they heard a woman’s soft voice. “Do not approach structures; lethal countermeasures are in effect. Your warning has been given, and your fate is your choice. To be here without invitation is fatal.” A few seconds passed, and the voice repeated the warning.

Ian crept closer, putting his mouth near Lance’s ear, whispering, “I swear I know that voice.”

“Dude, that’s the Borg Queen,” Lance whispered.

“If the Borg are here, we are truly fucked,” Ian mumbled.

“You smell some weird shit?”

Sniffing the air, Ian nodded. “It smells like burnt stinky.”

“Someone shoots a phaser at us, I quit.”

Ian nodded as Lance moved toward the cabin, and the burnt rotten egg smell got stronger. And the queen kept repeating the message. The cabin wasn’t in a true clearing but only had small trees around it with a cleared out area fifty yards around it.

Approaching the cabin from the east, they stopped by a tree as Lance looked around, and Ian pointed at the front porch. “What the fuck is that?” Ian whispered.

“A burnt statue?” Lance offered, seeing what looked like a statue that had been set on fire, and then he saw the head twitch. “No way,” Lance whispered in awe, moving forward, and Ian grabbed his arm.

“Let’s turn the damn queen off before she calls for help.”

Liking that idea, Lance nodded and moved to the side of the house, pulling the massive key out. He opened the plastic electrical box and stopped after removing the false fuse. Bending down, he brushed gravel back from the house to uncover metal. Finding the edges, Lance opened the box and pulled out a rubber lineman’s glove.

Putting it on and pulling the end to his shoulder, Lance inserted the key and turned. The queen’s voice cut off in mid-warning. “She was getting on my nerves,” Lance said, pulling the glove off and putting it back in the box.

Moving around to the front of the cabin, the statue was twitching more. “That’s how they did it,” Ian mumbled, and Lance looked at him. “The porch is concrete and is even with the ground. I couldn’t figure out how they could ground someone to shock them. I forgot about the metal grate along the porch for ‘wiping the mud off before coming in the cabin.’”

“Shit, I never thought about it,” Lance said, moving closer, but stopped from getting on the porch because he would have to step on the metal mat. “Is it really off?”

“Pussy,” Ian said, pushing him out of the way and walking over to the burnt stinky. “Fucker had a crowbar.”

Lance looked at the door and saw a crowbar lying on the mat by crispy stinky. “Wonder who it is?”

“Who cares? It can barely twitch, and even the eyes have been cooked out.”

“That is scary shit,” Lance said as Ian moved to grab the body. “Let’s check the back then deal with crispy.”

“Motherfucker, dead people are moving around. Be damned if I’m leaving one intact at my back.”

Lance nodded, pulling out his Ruger and squeezing the trigger. Thankful for gloves, they dragged it off into the woods. Circling the cabin, they found everything locked and undisturbed. “You think he had friends?” Lance asked.

They followed the tract away from the cabin to a heavy duty steel gate. They always laughed at it because there was no fence; you only had to walk or drive an ATV around the gate to get to the cabin. “I’m sure he does, but the question is, were they here when it happened, or are they waiting for crispy to come back?”

“When we get in, we can review the security video,” Lance said as they strolled down the hill, and Lance pressed the transmit box on his radio. “This is Lance; the cabin is fine. We’re on the way down.”

“Can you hurry? It’s spooky,” Jennifer whispered.

“Told her it was spooky at night out in the woods,” Lance mumbled.

Ian looked at his watch. “We should be able to get the stuff unloaded and get the meat in the freezer before dawn.”

Lance looked at his watch. “Amigo, it’s almost five. It took us most of the day to pack it, and you want it done in two or so hours.”

“We have to get the meat out and in the freezer. It’s in an ice chest, and after all the effort we put into getting it, I want to make sure the shit stays good so we can eat it.”

“Let’s just pull it out and get the rest after a nap.”

Chuckling, Ian said, “I guess you forgot what the trailer looked like after Jennifer packed it. We will have to unload it or half of it to get the ice chests.”

Lance just sighed as they walked out of the trees but stayed on the farm road. “Miss us?” Lance asked as he got in.

“Hurry, I have to poop,” Carrie groaned.

Firing up the Hummer, Lance shifted to drive. “Well, that is an emergency.” As he pulled into the tree line, Lance felt relief.

When they topped the rise, Jennifer shook her head. “You call that a cabin?”

“Uh, yeah, what do you call it?” Ian asked, looking at the building.

“A freaking house. I know it’s got logs on the side, but it’s big,” Jennifer said, looking at the roof with the two shuttered windows on the front. The porch ran the entire length of the house with chairs and a swing. A big door sat in the middle of the house. Shuttered windows lined the front, and as they drove around the east side of the house, Jennifer saw more shuttered windows.

As Lance parked by the back porch, Jennifer saw it was only half the size of the other one but saw a hot tub next to the back door. She turned and noticed two massive, covered awnings on each side of the house that RVs could park under. On the rising slope behind the house, three buildings were built into the hillside. One looked like a regular building, and the one in the middle had a wide door and a normal door. The next on had double doors running down it. Making a quick count, Jennifer counted eight sets.

“That’s the gym and rec center,” Ian said, pointing at the one she had thought was a regular building. “The one in the middle is the shop, and the last one is the ATV shed.”

“And this is a hunting cabin?”

“Well, I thought so, but little did I know my parents were making a safe area. I was always told to come home or go to Lance’s, and we would go to relatives if something went wrong.”

“At least they had a plan,” Jennifer said, looking down. “We didn’t have a plan other than if we had a house fire then to meet at your house. If it wasn’t for you and Lance, Carrie and I would be dead.”

“Well, you’re not, so let’s get moving,” Ian said, and Jennifer looked around and saw it was only the three of them in the Hummer. “They took off as soon as the Hummer stopped. Take your goggles off; they have a small LED bulb turned on at the back door.”

Ripping her helmet off, Jennifer jumped out, seeing Dino trying to get under the Hummer. “Dino, unless you want to sleep outside, leave it,” she said and sniffed. “What the hell is that burnt smell? Did you two pour gas up a stinker’s ass and light it?”

“No, the Borg Queen killed him,” Ian said, walking to the back door. Jennifer watched as Ian pulled out a big key and opened the door. “The door automatically locks. That’s why we wanted to always have someone inside.”

Walking in, Jennifer stumbled to the side. The back door opened to a large table she was taking for the dining area. Tucked away in the far left back corner, Jennifer saw a desk with a computer monitor and a staircase leading down. Just to the right was a large kitchen area with a large, long island, with barstools around it.

On the left side of the house, she saw four doors. Looking back on the right side, she saw very steep stairs going up halfway into the house with a pantry under them. From the kitchen out, the house was open. The area she was taking for the living area was massive. Two sectionals had been moved together, forming a massive U with a large coffee table in the middle.

On the wall was a white screen that made the one at Ian’s house seem tiny. Looking at the stairs on the right wall, Jennifer realized the roof over her head was much higher now that she was out of the kitchen. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the edge of the loft. “I’ve got friends who don’t have houses this big.”

“I said the same thing,” Ian laughed. “Dad just told me to shut it or I would sleep outside in a tent.”

Hearing beeping, they looked over to see Lance dialing on his phone. Holding it to his ear, Lance sighed then hung up and dialed again. Inside with real light, they looked at Lance’s sweat-soaked clothes, and his hair was caked to his head. “He looks like I feel,” Ian mumbled. “I don’t think I could’ve driven us here. I would’ve panicked at the wrong time. It was easy for me to tell Lance what we should do sitting beside him. But he knew he had our fate in his hands and didn’t choke.”

Lance groaned, hung up, and dialed again. “You did excellent, Ian. Lance couldn’t have done it without you or you without him. Do you think he will lay down and let us unload? He really needs to rest,” Jennifer said in a low voice.