The McClane Apocalypse Book Three (40 page)

Kelly offers a grim smile because this story
isn't going to have a happy ending. He can just tell. Doc's blue
eyes are sad and full of regret.

"Anyway, we helped hundreds maybe thousands
of women give birth to their babies. Made house calls on the rich
women of the Boston elite. Had a very large practice. And we also
performed abortions," Doc says and looks away from Kelly to stare
at the plaque again. "I would've been better off at that damn E.R.
At first I didn't think anything of it. I'd been raised in the
church, attended regularly while growing up, but I never really
thought anything of aborting babies because my scientific mind
didn't think of them as children. They were just unwanted fetuses,
not a life. That's when I met my Maryanne. I think she likes to
tell people we met when I was in med school or we met after I
started my practice here, but that's not the truth. She only says
it so that she doesn't have to explain where I worked and what I
was doing when we first met. She worked at a salon back then near
my practice. She'd cut my hair a time or two. I was smitten from
the moment I met her. Had to go back a lot of times for hair
trimmings I didn't need. And when she found out over the course of
dating that I performed abortions, I nearly lost her. You see,
Maryanne lives her life and always has by the Good Book, and she
has the strictest moral code of anyone I've ever known. Without my
Maryanne, I might be working at that damn women's clinic still
today, taking money for taking lives. I grew to regret the choices
I made after we moved here and I set up my own family practice. And
it didn't matter how many lives I saved, I never forgave myself for
what I did up in Boston. I was young and stupid, you see. And I
always figured that's why God never gave us all the children we
wanted, Maryanne wanted. He was punishing me. I've never told my
wife I felt like that about why we couldn't have more than one
child, but she probably knows. I don't think there's much that she
doesn't know. Hannah's so much like her, too."

Kelly is silent, and his hands shake. He
doesn't even know what to say. There isn't anything to say. The doc
is also so haunted by his own past, and Kelly has never known
anyone but himself who was so troubled over the lives he's
taken.

"So, you see? You aren't the only person who
has ever led a conflicted life, Kelly. But the choice is yours to
make as to what you want to do with it from here on out. Someday
when I meet my maker I'll have to atone for my past, but you won't.
You don't have any reason to feel guilty about your past, son. You
did what any soldier does. You were trained to do a job. You
defended our country. You should, at the very least, be proud of
what you contributed to keeping our nation safe," Doc explains.

Kelly cannot answer. The emotion in his
throat from this absolution is too much for Kelly to talk around.
He just nods instead.

"I'll give you some time, not a lot of time,
mind you. But I'll give you few weeks or so to decide what you want
to do about Hannah, and I'll respect your decision," Doc says
calmly.

Kelly thinks he's misheard him. "Sir?"

"I'm not a fool, Kelly. I know that Hannah
can be very persuasive when she wants something. And my Hannah
tends to not hold back her feelings, even if she should," Herb
astutely remarks. "But I still don't appreciate the out of wedlock
sexual contact."

"Yes, sir," Kelly says and feels like a rat
bastard again.

"But for what it's worth, you have my
blessing whether you should want it or not. I don't know a better
man for the job," Doc says and goes to the door which he opens.

"Yes, sir," Kelly says because he knows when
he's being dismissed. But before he can cross the threshold, Herb
lays a hand on Kelly's shoulder.

"You're a good man, Kelly Alexander. I have
faith that you'll do the right thing," Doc tells him quietly.

Kelly has to look at his feet and nod.

"Yes, sir," he says and leaves the room.

When he gets back to the kitchen, Kelly is
surprised that Hannah isn't there, but Grams still is.

"She's with the children in the barn playing
with the baby goats, Kelly," Grams says.

What the hell? He hadn't asked her where
Hannah was. Does everyone know about them?

"Uh, thanks. I'm not looking for anyone,
though. I need to… gonna take a run, ma'am," Kelly tells her and
retrieves his running shoes that John found him in the city. He
just needs to be alone for a while and clear his head, digest
everything that he's just discussed with Doc. Ten miles won't be
enough time to think over what they've talked about, maybe
twenty.

Before he hits the trail, however, he runs
in to John who is hooking up the grain binder to the tractor for
cutting the wheat. Then it will be put through an old-fashioned
thresher that will take all of the men working together to operate.
The stalky parts of the straw will be baled and used to bed down
the horses and cattle this winter. The wheat will be processed in
the hog barn where Doc keeps the wheat grinder. Some of it will be
rough crushed and mixed with dried, field corn to feed to the
horses and cows during the winter season, and some will be ground
more finely for use by the family. Kelly knows more about wheat
production than he ever thought he would need or would care to
know. And he understands that it's going to be a tough,
back-breaking process to bring in the field of wheat and then oats,
but if they don't get it done, they could starve and so could the
animals who provide them with transportation and food. In the
spring, they'll replant again in a different pasture using the old
grain drill in the equipment shed. And Doc talked the other day
about planting winter wheat, whatever that is. He and Derek have
been talking about taking the combine from the Johnson farm next
year and using it instead, which would cut the time the job would
take down by about eighty percent. But for this year they all need
to learn how to do it the old way because eventually gasoline and
diesel fuel could run out, and they have to stay alive somehow.

But despite all the hard work on the McClane
farm, he likes his life here and so do his brother and sister. It
is peaceful in this valley, secluded from the harshness outside of
it. The life is simple, uncomplicated unless you count
relationships.

"Hey, man, everything ok with Doc?" John
asks.

He's lining the binder coupler up to the
tractor.

"Uh, yeah. Everything's fine, dude. Don't
worry about it," Kelly says as he helps John with the binder.

"Doc's equipment may be antiques but it all
looks like it just came off the showroom floor," John remarks to
which Kelly agrees.

After another ten minutes of struggling with
the binder and then getting the tractor backed and lined up to it,
they finish with the hook-up. Derek walks up to them from the
cattle barn where he was working on a leaky water line. He's
carrying a toolbox which will immediately get put away, no
doubt.

"Thanks, bro. You comin'?" John asks
Kelly.

"Nah, I think I'm gonna go for a run. Do a
perimeter check," Kelly tells his friend. "Cory and Simon are
watchin' the hadj."

"Hadj three and four are starting to get a
little mouthy around here for my taste," Derek remarks.

"Yeah, a couple of them need their teeth
knocked out," Kelly says, knowing which ones Derek is referring to.
Hadj three is the bulky, black man named Levon who leers at Sue
every chance he gets, and hadj four is Bobby the punk. Kelly has
had enough of that kid.

"What teeth?" John asks.

All three men laugh. Leave it to John.

"You got that right," Derek chimes in and
bumps fists with his brother. "Sue said that Peter was given a
crate of our canned goods the other day to share with his friends
and that they were wanting more already this morning. She also said
she doesn't think they're milkin' that goat regularly."

"Lazy bastards," Kelly remarks. John is
calm, quiet, the same way he gets before he kills someone.
"Anyways, I'm headin' out."

"Sure, Kelly. I've got you covered in the
wheat field. Derek can help and make sure it doesn't malfunction
since none of us knows what the heck we're doing," John says as
Derek jumps in.

"Yeah, no problem, man. You work your ass
off around here, Kelly. Take a run," Derek agrees.

"Thanks, guys. Hey, John?" Kelly asks his
friend, and John looks at him squarely and stops messing with the
tractor. "You got that thing I wanted you to get for me in the
city?"

"Coloring books for Em?" his friend asks on
a laugh. "I'm just kidding, man. Yeah, I got it."

"I'm gonna need that," Kelly says to which
John smiles approvingly. He is so easy to be around, his carefree
friend, who also so easily kills bad people.

"What is it, a baby? John got one of those,
too," Derek jokes, and John just goes with it.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya'," he replies with
his usual good humor as he jumps down from the tractor seat.

"Yeah, man, what was up with that? I mean we
know you like the little Doc and all, but that was kind of
fast—even for you, lover-boy," Kelly razzes.

"Really fast," Derek adds. "Go to the city,
come back with a baby. I think you missed a few steps somewhere in
there, little brother."

"I wondered when you two were gonna get
around to this," John remarks with a smile.

He wipes his face with the front of his
shirt, removes it and hangs it on the tractor fender. He folds his
arms patiently across his chest. Kelly notices a scratch on his
friend's chest, but he doesn't comment. He's no fool. That isn't
from a barn kitten.

John adds with good humor, "You two
done?"

"Yeah, come on, Romeo. We'd better get this
wheat cut before sundown. Looks like a bitch of a job," Derek says
and leaves to return the tools.

"Doc wants us with him later," Kelly relays.
"He's gonna tell the creeps they're leaving in three days whether
they want to or not. And that we're keepin' the kids."

"Oh, good. This oughta' be fun," John says
with a smartass grin. "Catch me after dinner tonight for that other
thing, 'kay?"

"Sure, man. See ya'," Kelly says and takes
off for his run.

An hour and a half later he joins Derek and
John in the field because he feels too guilty leaving such hard
work for the two of them. Naturally they tease him about missing
them. It's always like this when he's around them. They say a lot
without saying much at all, and he appreciates the quiet, male
camaraderie of his two friends.

Before dinner is served, Grandpa has Derek
tell Uncle Peter to bring his friends and come to the porch front.
Kelly, John and Derek take up opposing points near the porch, close
to their unwanted guests. Cory stands with his pistol beside Doc
who is not brandishing a weapon. Kelly's sure that it's just
leaning where it cannot be seen. The women have been asked to stay
inside, though Kelly knows they are eavesdropping at windows. The
visitors approach and look all too happy for a bunch of misfits
about to get thrown out. They are probably hoping they are getting
more free food that they haven't earned.

"Peter," Doc starts with a friendly
salutation.

"What's up, Doc?" the idiot says.

He's mimicking the classic Bugs Bunny
character, making his friends laugh. Kelly fails to find the humor.
They really are dipshits. Their women amble up behind them, and
Jasmine spends her time eyeing up John, as usual. Poor guy. John
told him a few days ago that the stripper had cornered him again
near the horse barn. Kelly had laughed at his hardship and punched
him in the shoulder.

"We've been more than accommodating to you
and your friends there, but now it's time for you to move on. We
did what we could for your sick companions, but they're gone and in
three days I'd like you to be, as well."

"Frank's kid is still sick, so how are we
supposed to leave?" Peter asserts.

"He's on the mend and should be just fine
very soon," Doc answers back.

"And what if one of us gets sick after you
kick us out?" Amber accuses.

Kelly takes in her haggard appearance and
stringy, dirty hair with disdain. They've been given soap and
shampoo, but this woman is obviously not a big fan.

Doc doesn't even acknowledge her. "I'm
giving you the three days so that you can pick apples and the rest
of the corn you didn't pick. We'll give you some containers for
your goat milk, but she'll need to stay behind because we have two
babies who will need her milk," Doc says.

They all start bitching. Uncle Peter steps
forward to take the lead but is interrupted by one of his
friends.

"Amber's right," Buzz butts in. "What if we
get sick next?"

He's normally quiet and hangs back in the
shadows of his more mouthy traveling mates. Kelly still doesn't
trust him.

Derek fills in the gap for these people with
a quick, to-the-point explanation. "Then you'll be on your own. You
can't come back here. Ever."

"Our other RV ain't runnin' yet, Herb,"
Uncle Dipshit whines.

"You have less people with whom you are
traveling now, Peter, so you should all fit in just the one," Doc
explains simply.

His analytic common sense is hard to argue
against. Kelly had run six clicks earlier trying to outrun it and
had failed.

"Hey, this is bullshit, man! We don't want
to leave it behind," hadj three complains.

His light amber eyes grow ominous. His
dread-locks look unkempt and dirty, just like the rest of him. He's
managed to add on some bulk weight since coming to the farm. It is
a sign that it is past time for them to leave.

"Yeah, you got more than enough space here
for us," hadj one, or Uncle Peter, says.

"Yeah, man, we could live in those barns,"
Rick throws out.