Forsaken World:Coming of Age (29 page)

“Well yeah,” Lance said as she released the hug.

Jennifer looked behind him and saw Ian glancing at them repeatedly. Jennifer put her hands on her hips and looked up at Lance. “Ian wanted you to ask,” she stated, not questioned.

“He was as worried as I was,” Lance snapped in a low voice.

“You tell Mr. Ian from now on, he can ask me and not send you,” Jennifer whispered harshly.

Lance stepped over until his chest touched her, and he looked down at her face with a glare, making Jennifer a little nervous. “Jesus Christ, Jennifer, if you get mad at him, he mopes for hours, and I have to listen to it; you don’t,” Lance snapped in a low voice. “If I don’t ask you what he wants, he moans and whines.”

Stepping back, Jennifer patted Lance’s chest. “Just tell Ian from now on he needs to ask me if he wants to know something.”

“Fine,” Lance said, spinning around.

They joined the others, and after breakfast, Ian and Lance grabbed their gear, getting ready to sweep the area. When they walked out with Dino, Jennifer turned to Allie. “Allie, will you show Lilly how we open the gate?”

“Sure,” Allie beamed and took off for the door. “Come on, Lilly.”

When Lilly moved to the door, Jennifer grabbed her arm. “At the very least, take your rifle with you,” Jennifer said.

Lilly turned and saw Allie was carrying her small AR. “Thank you,” Lilly said and ran to the bedroom, grabbing her rifle.

Allie was standing in the door waiting as Lilly ran out of the bedroom. Seeing Lilly, Allie took off. When they reached the gates, Allie told her the combinations. “We only open the first one till we see them coming,” Allie told her as she pushed the gate with everything she had, barely making it roll back.

Standing behind Allie, Lilly grabbed the gate and helped Allie push it open. When it was open, Allie ran to the outer gate. “You have to hold your gun ready to use when I open it,” Allie said, undoing the chain.

Pulling her rifle off her back, Lilly watched the woods as Allie looked back at the cabin. As soon as Allie saw Ian driving around, she swung the outer gate open and waved as they passed. When Allie opened the outer gate, Lilly felt tension build, feeling exposed. Keeping an eye out, Lilly breathed a sigh of relief when the gate closed, and Allie locked it.

Lilly looked at the rolls of razor wire attached to the gate. “Bet that was hard to do,” she said as Allie finished locking the gate.

“You have to be real careful,” Allie said, walking past her. “It will cut you pretty good if you’re not.”

Helping Allie close the inner gate, Lilly felt incredibly lucky to be allowed the opportunity to join the group. She did feel despondent that she hadn’t been there to help with all the stuff they had done that Jennifer had told her about.

Walking back inside, they saw Jennifer in the kitchen. “Allie, Lilly and I are going to start the chores up here. Go down to the bunker with Carrie, and keep an eye on the monitors. Then, I’m taking over, and I want you and Carrie to run through drills with Lilly.”

“Okay,” Allie said, putting her rifle in the gun rack beside the door, and took off.

After putting her rifle up, Lilly followed Jennifer into the bedroom. “Bunker?” Lilly asked as Jennifer grabbed the laundry baskets.

“I’ll show you,” Jennifer said, walking past. “That’s what we talked about; we’re going to show you the other parts of the cabin.”

Excited, Lilly followed Jennifer into Ian and Lance’s room. As Jennifer headed to the end of Lance’s bed to grab his laundry basket, Lilly froze in her tracks. “Were they in the army or ROTC?” Lilly asked, looking at the neat and orderly room.

Jennifer snorted. “Hardly. Now you see what I mean,” she said. “Believe it or not, they have always been like this. The only thing I can say is when we were little, they did leave their toys on the floor, but that stopped by the time they were ten.”

Shocked to say the least, Lilly shook her head, breaking the trance. “Just how old are you?” she asked, grabbing Ian’s laundry basket, and saw even the dirty clothes were laid in it neatly.

“How old do you think I am?”

“Sixteen or seventeen,” Lilly said, turning around.

Jennifer laughed. “Let me ask; how old do you think Ian and Lance are?”

“Seventeen,” she said with a straight face. “They don’t look it, but from the way they talk and act, I figure they’re seniors,” Lilly said, and Jennifer busted out laughing.

“Nope,” Jennifer chuckled. “I’m the oldest one here at fifteen. I’ll be sixteen in a few months though.”

The basket in Lilly’s hands hit the floor as she stared at Jennifer. “You are joking, right?”

“Now you understand,” Jennifer said, walking over with a smile. “They’re in advanced classes in the eighth grade. They’ve already taken college courses last summer.”

“Just how old are they?”

“You ask them,” Jennifer grinned then spun on her toes and left.

Quickly snatching up the basket, Lilly ran after her. “Can’t you just tell me?”

“Why’s it so important?” Jennifer asked, waiting for Lilly at the stairs.

“Because…” Lilly paused then gave a sly shrug, feeling a little embarrassed. “I don’t know.”

“Yeah, they’re hot, aren’t they?” Jennifer said, walking down the stairs. “But I’m telling you now; Ian’s mine, so don’t try anything,” Jennifer said very sternly.

Lilly chuckled, following her downstairs. “Ian has it for you bad,” Lilly said, a little nervous going downstairs for the first time. Walking off the stairs, she looked around at all the full shelves lined up across the floor. She saw a metal door that looked like it belonged on a freezer on the back wall.

Following Jennifer to the washing machine, Lilly stopped, looking at another door propped open in the west wall. Then she realized it wasn’t a door but part of the wall. Inside, she could hear Allie and Carrie talking.

“If Ian has it so bad, why doesn’t he at least try to just talk to me like a girlfriend?” Jennifer asked, separating the laundry.

Knowing that room would be explained in time, Lilly put the basket down and helped separate. “Sorry, but most boys in love act like that,” she said, and Jennifer looked up with a shy grin.

“You really think he’s in love with me?”

“Jennifer,” Lilly said, standing up, “that boy has it so bad for you he can’t think straight.”

As Jennifer gave a sigh full of content, Ian pulled to a stop. “A bra,” he said, looking over at Lance. “A bra makes that big of a difference?”

“Hey, I’m just telling you what she told me,” Lance whispered, getting out and grabbing the bow and quiver.

“Drop that shit,” Ian spat. “We have kitties from hell, and we are both staying on guns.”

Lance looked over at him with a nod. “Valid point,” he said then turned around. “The last detector went off up the ridge.”

“Seriously, she said bra,” Ian whispered, moving around the buggy.

“Ask her yourself,” Lance said, checking his gear and press-checking his rifle. “She told me I’m not allowed to ask for you anymore.”

“You told her I wanted to know?” Ian gasped in panic.

Letting out a sigh, Lance looked over at him. “No, she just looked at you and knew it.”

“How—” Ian stopped when Lance raised his fist up like he was about to punch him.

“Brah, we are in the shit, so get your mind here and off Jennifer,” Lance said, narrowing his eyes. “A big pussy bites my ass because your mind is on little pussy, I’ll fuck you up.”

“Sorry,” Ian mumbled then took a deep breath. He checked his gear as Lance grabbed his squawk box.

“Moving up the ridge,” Lance called over the radio.

“No movement anywhere,” Allie’s voice answered.

Dropping his hand to his rifle, Lance looked around and noticed Dino was right beside him, looking around. “Don’t know if that’s good or bad,” Lance mumbled, looking over at Ian.

“Ready,” Ian said as he scanned around.

“I have point, and you better keep your eyes to our rear; that’s how tigers attack,” Lance said as he moved off. Feeling his ass pucker, Ian followed, almost walking sideways so he could watch behind them.

Moving slowly, they soon found a massive paw print on the trail. Lance held up his hand and moved off the trail, following the print. “We aren’t hunting them, motherfucker,” Ian hissed.

Ignoring him, Lance continued and soon stopped, seeing the tiger had walked around one of the punji pits they had made. Lance pointed. “That’s what I wanted to see; they avoided our traps.”

“We made those traps for people, not animals,” Ian hissed, backing up until his back touched Lance’s. “Our scent is concentrated on each one.”

“Didn’t think of that,” Lance said, looking around, then he slowly started back up the draw. They moved another three hundred yards, and he stopped when the smell hit him. “Damn, been a while since I smelt one that strong.”

“No shit,” Ian said, breathing through his mouth, then realized that only made him taste it.

It didn’t take long to find the source, and they both stopped, staring. A stinker was impaled on spears, but its head had been ripped off. “Fuck me,” Lance said.

“That’s some mean pussy,” Ian said, looking behind them.

Lance moved over to pull the body off, and Ian moved to help. “I got it,” Lance said, stopping him. “You keep an eye out.”

Bringing his rifle up, Ian nodded and kept looking everywhere. When Lance pulled the body off Ian looked down at Dino, who was looking everywhere and sniffing the air. “Don’t know if that’s good or bad,” Ian mumbled and continued looking around.

Dragging the stinker to a small clearing, Lance pulled out his lighter and stepped back. Taking out his bottle of lighter fluid, he squirted a line from him to the stinker. When he lit the fluid, the flame followed the line, and at the halfway point, the stinker erupted in blue flame with a
whoosh
.

“Moving,” Lance whispered and moved up the ridge to the next spot that a motion detector went off last night. As Ian followed, walking sideways again, Dino moved up beside Lance and stayed at his side.

It took them an hour to move the two hundred yards to the next spot because they were going real slow. Lance moved to the traps around the area, checking them because they could damn sure smell a stinker. It was faint but, there was no mistaking it. Giving up, Lance started following the smell and soon found a stinker lying face down.

Its head was twitching but not the rest of its body. Easing up to it, Lance saw huge claw marks on the stinker’s back. Looking up, he saw the back of the neck had been ripped open, severing the spinal cord. “Kitties are effective,” he said then looked around.

Ian stopped his scanning and looked down at the body. “Mean pussy,” he said then looked around. “You know, now that we talked about it, this stinker doesn’t smell as bad as they used to,” Ian said. “It damn sure doesn’t hold a candle to the other one.”

“Yeah,” Lance said, pulling out his knife and driving it in the back of the stinker’s skull. “For the first time, I swear I smell rot,” he said, wiping his blade off. Pulling out his camera, Lance took some pictures of the stinker then put his camera away.

“You want proof we have bad pussy running around?” Ian whispered as Lance pulled out his lighter.

“No, just want to be able to compare wounds and make sure we only have two kitties from hell around here,” he said, squirting lighter fluid on the body. “Most people that keep exotic pets keep a lot of them.”

An involuntary shiver ran down Ian’s spine. “Stupid motherfuckers,” Ian hissed. “Why in the hell would you want a pet that can eat you for supper?”

“I wouldn’t,” Lance said, watching the body slowly start to burn. The orange flames gradually turned to hints of blue. “We’re moving back to the buggy and driving it to the back of the fence. If we have to move fast, I want to do it in the buggy.”

“Lance,” Ian said, turning to face him. “You do realize tigers have been clocked at fifty. Even if our buggy could go that fast, we couldn’t in the trees. Our best bet is staying mobile on feet so we can use the trees for cover if they charge.”

Seeing Lance was thinking, Ian went back to scanning around them. “You do know tigers attack motherfuckers in boats, right? If they can get someone in a boat on the water, a buggy is no challenge at all,” Ian whispered.

“Moving,” Lance said, moving up the ridge.

Watching Dino move up to Lance’s side, Ian nodded. “Thought you would see it my way,” Ian said, following. They found another stinker, but its head was ripped off, and the smell from the body was starting to make their eyes water.

After shoving a knife in the skull, Lance put the head on the body and set them on fire. “Moving to the buggy, then we check the other side where the detectors went off,” Lance said, moving past Ian.

“Motion detector east side, number sixty-four,” Jennifer called over the radio.

Feeling his pocket vibrate, Lance dropped to one knee and pulled it out. He tapped the screen, looking at the map where a red dot showed the motion detector. “That’s not far from where we have to go,” he said, and another red dot next to the first appeared, then another as something moved parallel to the line of motion detectors.