Forsaken World:Coming of Age (31 page)

“Let’s talk it over with the others,” Lance said then grabbed the radio. “Almost home,” he called out.

“They’re outside waiting,” Carrie called back.

Ian pulled over the rise, and they saw Lilly opening the gate with Jennifer covering her. Ian pulled through, and Lance looked at his watch. “That sweep took us seven hours, and we didn’t even cover the south side. It usually takes us four to do the whole area.”

“We have pussy with teeth out there,” Ian said, glancing over at him. “I’m happy with our time.”

When they closed the gates, Jennifer and Lilly jumped in the back of the buggy, and Ian pulled around the cabin. “You two smell like stinker nut juice,” Jennifer said, covering her nose.

“Hey, those puddy cats ripped some of them stinkers to pieces,” Lance said as Ian parked in the shed. Lance got out and explained why he thought they should leave the tigers alive. Then, he said why Ian thought they should hunt them.

“They are both sound theories,” Lilly said. “The question is, do we feel comfortable enough to sweep the area with tigers close?”

“Not really,” Ian said.

“I’m going to agree with Ian,” Jennifer said. “Lilly said we shouldn’t let the little ones open the gates with the tigers around.”

“Lance said the same thing,” Ian said, grabbing the .22 rifle out of the buggy.

“I can say this,” Lilly said as they started to the cabin. “Those cats were someone’s exotic pets. That’s probably why they stopped here.”

Everyone stopped and looked at her. “Come again?” Lance said, taking his helmet off, and turned off his helmet camera.

“The inner chain-link fence around the cabin,” Lilly said, waving her arm around. “It probably reminded them of home.”

Looking around at the ten-foot-tall cyclone fence, Ian shook his head. “We aren’t taking it down.”

“I wasn’t saying that,” Lilly said. “But also they followed commands. The male clearly ‘laid down’ when Ian shouted it out, and the female started playing when Ian said, ‘Play.’ They seemed really comfortable around humans.”

“No matter where they came from, they’ve been around humans,” Lance said and started walking to the cabin.

“Yes, but zoos don’t teach their cats tricks,” Lilly said as they followed Lance.

“Lilly, the damn cats could’ve come from a circus,” Lance said, pulling out his key.

“Yes, and they’ve been trained. I’m just saying they are very comfortable around humans.”

Sliding his key in the door, Lance nodded. “Yes, and that makes them much more dangerous.”

“Well, there is that,” Lilly said as Dino almost knocked them down as he charged past them. “Dino needs a siren to warn of his approach.”

“Hey, Dino did great,” Lance said as he started unbuckling his vest. “Even he was scared of the big puddy cats. I’ve seen Dino charge a full-grown bull.”

“Where?” Jennifer asked, heading to the stove.

“The bull that followed us to the school,” Ian said, walking toward the room.

Jennifer spun around. “You admitted it!”

“To you,” Ian said over his shoulder and stopped. “You’re part of the team,” he grinned and walked in his bedroom.

On cloud nine, Jennifer turned around to the stove, smiling. “Lance, will you and Ian bring out your clothes? I really want to wash them,” she said then started humming softly.

“I’m the only one that moved the bodies,” Lance said, dragging his vest to the bedroom.

“Lance,” Jennifer said then continued humming. Groaning, Lance just walked in the bedroom and shut the door.

Lilly moved up beside Jennifer and hit her with her hip. “Told you that boy had it bad for you.”

Jennifer glanced up, still smiling. “Took him long enough to show it,” she said.

“Remember, their time and our time are two totally different sets of reality,” Lilly said, helping Jennifer with supper. “Should I make something for them to snack on since they missed lunch?”

“In the fridge,” Jennifer hummed. “I made them some sandwiches.”

Ian and Lance went from their room straight to the showers. Not asking, Lilly went to their room and grabbed the baskets with the foul-smelling clothes. She carried them down and put them in the washer. When the washer started, she stepped in the bunker and saw Carrie looking at the monitors and Allie reading on a tablet.

“You guys coming upstairs?” she asked, walking in and staring at the room in awe again.

“They didn’t say we could,” Carrie said, not looking away from the monitors. Not wanting to upset the status quo, Lilly ran upstairs.

“Can the ladybugs leave the monitors?”

Jennifer gasped, spinning around. “I totally forgot to tell them.” Lilly ran back down and told the girls they could go. They all ran back upstairs and found Ian and Lance at the table, eating sandwiches.

Allie moved over and climbed in Lance’s lap. “Those were big kitty cats,” she said, laying her head on Lance’s chest. Lance wrapped an arm around her with a sigh. “Lance, I changed my mind; I don’t want one, and neither does Carrie.”

Relief flooded over Lance as Carrie climbed in his lap from the other side. “Yeah, those cats are scary,” she said. Lilly smiled at the sight as she walked past to help Jennifer.

“Ladybugs,” Lance said, hugging them. “Thank you because those cats even scared Dino.”

“He wouldn’t really have tried to get those kitties for the girls, would he?” Lilly whispered.

With an expression that spoke volumes, Jennifer cut her eyes toward Lilly. “Don’t bet on it.”

After supper and the table was cleared, Jennifer ran everyone to the living room as she ran downstairs. The others watched a cartoon until she called them back to the table. Stacks of poker chips were at each of their chairs.

“Tomorrow is Sunday; we are playing poker tonight,” Jennifer, said putting a bowl of chips on the table. “I have a list of hands in order of rank,” she said, sitting down.

Ian looked at her as he sat down. “You don’t know what hand beats what?”

“I’ve only played once,” Jennifer told him, grabbing the deck of cards.

“Easy pickings,” Ian said, grinning and rubbing his palms together.

Shuffling the cards, Jennifer looked over at him. “I’m sure the ladybugs need them too.”

“Uh-uh, they’ve played with us before last hunting season. They wiped out Dad,” Lance said, sitting down.

Jennifer looked over at the two smiling faces. “Remember, I sleep in the same room with you,” she said, and the smiles fell off. “First hand is…” Jennifer said, picking up a small pamphlet, “…five card draw, deuces wild.”

Lance and Ian grinned at each other as Jennifer started dealing. The game ended at 2 a.m. with Jennifer wiping everyone out.

Chapter Twenty-One

Crawling up to the lip of a gully, Ian pulled out his binoculars as Lance eased up beside him. Glancing to the east, Ian saw the sun halfway over the mountains. After talking about it Sunday, the two decided to head out at midnight and set up the remote camera Lance had put together. They were over two miles outside of their three-mile perimeter, just southeast of Baughman.

The cell tower sat on the top of the hill behind them. It didn’t take long to set the camera up and wire it to the tower’s solar and battery power even in the dark. The most terrifying part had been driving out of the cabin in the dark knowing the tigers were around. Sunday afternoon, they had gone out and burned six more stinkers the tigers had killed.

Ian brought the binoculars up and looked at Highway 25E that stretched out along the valley below them. “Looks like they have cleared the lanes all the way past Baughman,” Ian said as Lance scanned through his binoculars.

“Well, they need to get paid for that service,” Lance grinned. “I wonder if they will like our gifts.”

“Humph,” Ian grunted. “They damn well better after we set them up in the dark. They should realize that is commitment to our relationship we are establishing with them.”

“Look to the east,” Lance said with his face breaking into a grin.

Ian swung his binoculars east and saw three motorcycles riding abreast, speeding down the highway toward them. “You know how long it’s been since we got to actually see a deed done with our own eyes?”

“Yeah,” Lance said as his grin turned into an open-mouth smile.

The three motorcycles sped around a curve, and suddenly, all three fishtailed wildly and dropped, skidding across the highway into the ditch with their riders sliding after them. When the riders hit the shoulder of the road, their slide turned into a cartwheeling tumble. “That had to hurt,” Ian grinned.

“Ah, they’re tough,” Lance said, watching one of the bikers struggling to stand. “Told you that would be enough motor oil.”

Lowering his binoculars, Ian grunted. “I just wanted to make sure they enjoyed the ride,” he said. “You sure your camera is online and is looking where you want it to? Because we aren’t coming back.”

“It’s good,” Lance said, watching the biker that was standing check on his buddies. One was barely moving, and the other hadn’t moved yet. “You ready to head to Artemus?”

“Yep,” Ian said, putting his binoculars up and sliding down to the bottom of the gully where Dino sat waiting on them.

Moving quietly, they headed up the gully to the buggy and climbed on. Lance pulled up his AR as Ian got behind the steering wheel. Creeping down the slope, Ian paused at the tree line as they both pulled up binoculars, scanning the highway. “Clear my way except for a few dozen stinkers,” Ian said. “That curve blocks us from the three musketeers.”

“Boogie,” Lance said, lowering his binoculars.

Stomping the accelerator, Ian bounced over both lanes and slowed, pulling into the tree line. They broke through the bushes where the area opened up, and he weaved around the trees. They drove across several roads and stayed in the trees. They were both of the thought that roads were dangerous and to be avoided at all cost.

It took an hour to drive the three and half miles to the hill they wanted south of Artemus. They broke their rule and had to move to a bridge because the river was very high. When they crossed the river and headed back in the trees, Ian glanced over at Lance. “You know that was the Cumberland River again, right?” Ian said with a grin.

“You just had to tell me, huh,” Lance groaned.

Following a ridge, they stopped on the hill that overlooked the small rural road leading into Artemus. Getting out of the buggy, Lance grabbed a box out of the back and looked over at Ian. “You ready?” Lance asked.

“Let’s share the love,” Ian said, bringing his rifle up to his shoulder.

With Dino leading them, they carefully eased down the slope to a small country road that led to the small town of Artemus. When they reached the tree line, Ian brought his rifle up. “Three stinkers,” he said, pulling the trigger then shifting his aim. Ian fired two more times then scanned around. “Clear,” he said, and Lance darted out of the tree line, running for the road.

Ian grabbed Dino as he started to follow Lance. “Dino, stay,” Ian said as Lance reached the road.

Dropping the box, Lance ripped the tape off and grabbed a handful of roofing nails throwing them across the road. Grabbing another handful, Lance was very thankful he always wore gloves. With the box half empty, Lance grabbed it, moved to the shoulder, and threw handfuls in the ditch and shoulder. Moving to the other side, Lance tossed the rest out on the other shoulder and ditch.

Running back with the empty box, Lance burst through the bushes and stopped by Ian, grinning. “You believe that? Someone carelessly threw twenty pounds of roofing nails on the road and ditch.”

“When we get the chance, we need to report it,” Ian said, taking the box and breaking it down until it was flat. “Let’s move,” he said, heading back up the hill.

They jumped on the buggy, and Ian soon pulled up on a pipeline and followed it west. Feeling very exposed, they stayed near the edge, and before they topped a ridge, they would walk up and scout ahead with the regular and thermal binoculars.

They pulled up on a hill overlooking a small road heading toward Jarvis and climbed out. “I like moving through trees,” Ian said, grabbing his binoculars.

“No shit,” Lance said as he looked through the thermals. Slowly scanning the road, he stopped at a house that looked like stinkers had broken in. A tree in the front yard had a stripe around it with a square in the middle of the stripe. It was warmer than the tree. Looking around, Lance didn’t see another tree that had anything similar. Lowering his binoculars, Lance strained his eyes but couldn’t even see anything different about the tree.

“Ian, that house on the other side of the road,” Lance said, raising his thermals again.

Swinging his binoculars over, Ian saw the house just over two hundred yards away. “Yeah, looks like stinkers broke in. There isn’t a window intact on the ground floor.”

“Yeah, but look at that oak tree in the front yard. It has a stripe around it about three feet off the ground and a square. It’s warmer than the tree, but I can’t tell what it is.”

Holding steady on the tree, Ian zoomed in as much as he could. “Yeah, there’s something there, but it looks like a knot on the tree,” he said, studying it.

“That’s not a knot,” Lance said, looking at another tree then swinging back to the original.

Putting his binoculars down, Ian walked back to the buggy, pulled out a spotting scope, and opened the tripod stand to mount it. Taking the lens covers off, Ian sat down and peered in the eye pieces, moving the scope until he found the tree. Reaching up, he rotated the eyepiece to maximum.

“Lance, it’s a trail camera,” Ian chuckled.

“No way,” Lance said, moving over and pushing Ian back from the spotting scope. Looking through, Lance could tell it was a trail camera. “We know a hunter didn’t put that there,” Lance said, turning around and stepping over to the buggy.

“You really think the gang put it up?”

“If they did, then I have to say they aren’t complete idiots,” Lance said, pulling out his night vision scope. He put a cap on the end that had a tiny hole so the scope could be used in daylight without burning it out. “Even if the gang didn’t, someone did to monitor traffic.”

“What are you doing?” Ian said, leaning down to study the trail camera.

Bringing the scope to his eye, Lance grinned. “Looking at the IR beam the camera puts out.”

“Oh man, you’re a genius,” Ian said and got up. When Lance took his eye away, Ian took the scope and saw the infrared beam shooting out like a fan from the tree across the road. “You see the size of the field? That has got to be a good one. The ones we have barely go out twenty yards, but that one looks like fifty.”

“I didn’t see any other beams; do you?” Lance said, checking his rifle.

“Nope,” Ian said, lowering the scope, and saw Lance press-checking his AR. “I’ll get the stuff for the deed.”

“Wait, let’s check this out first. If it’s someone monitoring the gang, I don’t want to set the deed up here.”

Ian looked back at the house and nodded. “Yeah, I always hate catching unintended targets when we do a deed.”

“Hey, that was Mr. Collins’ fault, not ours.”

“I still felt bad,” Ian said, checking his AR. “He just saw a kid’s bike in the playground.”

“It wasn’t his, so he should’ve left the fucker alone,” Lance said, tightening his helmet. “The shock only knocked him out for a few minutes.”

“Dino,” Ian said, patting his leg, and Dino came over, panting. “Lance, he shit and pissed himself. I told you the electricity was too high.”

“I’m just glad we were able to move the bike before he woke up and called the cops,” Lance said, moving away from the buggy. “We went through a lot of trouble to rig that up for Mr. Bates.”

Ian snickered. “I never understood why he stole my bike. He was way too big for it.”

“Fucker never stole another one, did he?” Lance grinned, walking down the hill. “He even stopped riding his own bike after touching the bait.”

“You remember how far he flew back after he touched that bike? Man, that had to be some kind of human leap record,” Ian chuckled then became serious. “I have to admit I never would’ve dreamed we would be doing deeds without worrying if we seriously hurt or killed someone.”

Lance glanced back. “Sucks to be them.”

They eased down the hill and crossed over the road into the trees on the other side then moved north toward the house. Staying just inside the trees, they looked at the house and yard. They could see several burnt patches around the yard. Ian pointed and Lance nodded.

“It seems weird that stinkers burn down to dust,” Ian mumbled.

“I’m moving to the tree to see if I see any booby traps,” Lance whispered. When he eased forward, Dino moved with him, and Ian let him go. Feeling exposed, Lance fought the urge to run to the tree but crept forward.

When he was ten yards away, he saw tire tracks in the mud along with some cigarette butts. Seeing boot prints leading to and from the tree, Lance relaxed and moved up faster. When he got to the tree, he saw why it was so hard to see the camera. The strap around the tree had been wrapped in camouflage cloth that looked like tree bark, and the housing for the camera was wrapped the same way. Staying to the side, Lance pulled up the cloth, exposing the nobs that screwed down, holding the camera housing closed.

Unscrewing them, Lance opened the camera and nodded. “Yeah, it’s an expensive one. This is the one I wanted, and Dad said no way,” he mumbled. He unclipped the two alligator clamps off the large, 9v lantern battery then pulled the memory card.

Looking over at Ian, Lance waved him over then pulled out his camera. As Ian trotted over, Lance put the card in his camera. He looked at the view screen. “It’s the gang,” Lance said when Ian got to him.

Turning the camera screen to Ian, Lance looked at the housing. Ian took the camera and started going through the images. “How did you know it would capture them?” Ian asked.

“When have we ever set up a camera and didn’t get a picture of ourselves?”

“You’re right on that.” Ian smiled, looking at the pictures. “This card was put in two days ago,” Ian said and looked at his watch.

Lance looked up in the tree then around it. “Wonder how long they leave them before they check them?”

“Hey,” Ian said, grabbing his arm. Ian showed him the camera screen. “Three men on motorcycles ten minutes after the card was put in.”

“Ah, you think we messed up their job,” Lance said with a fake sad face.

“They were slackers,” Ian said, looking back at the camera. “You want to set the deed up here or on the road?”

Looking at the inside of the camera housing, Lance took out the large battery and stared at the area it occupied. “How about we take our deeds to another level?”

Ian looked up from the camera and saw Lance looking at the housing. “What do you have in mind?”

Reaching for a pouch on his vest, Lance pulled out a hand grenade. “This,” he said, still staring at the housing.

Involuntarily, Ian took a step back. “Lance, we’ve never fucked with explosives, much less a hand grenade.”

“Time to learn,” Lance said, pulling out a handkerchief. Wadding it up, he stuffed it in the area where the battery was. “How about you step back in case this doesn’t work?” he said, pulling the pin.

“You are fucking insane,” Ian said but trotted back to the trees.

Taking a deep breath, Lance pushed the grenade into the wadded up handkerchief. He kept the spoon or safety handle forward, facing the door of the camera housing. With one finger, he held the spoon and closed the housing until the door pressed against the safety spoon.

Letting out a long breath, Lance pushed the door closed and quickly screwed the knobs down, securing the housing. Pulling the cloth over the housing, Lance checked the area to make sure they didn’t leave anything.

Seeing the pin he pulled out of the grenade, he grabbed it. “Yeah, someone might get suspicious seeing that on the ground,” he said then trotted back to Ian.