The McClane Apocalypse Book Three (42 page)

Kelly clarifies something for him. "They
won't step in."

Levon spits tobacco juice angrily at the
ground near Kelly before turning away and shirking off his cousin's
hand. Kelly just looks at the spot on the ground where the other
man has marked and then at Levon and sees that the fight in this
one isn't done yet. The storm is brewing; it's not over.

The two groups go back to their respective
areas on the farm: the McClanes to their home for dinner and the
hadj to their tents and RV for sulking, growing anger and
resentment. Kelly paces back and forth across the front porch for a
long time, though. He's lost his appetite and prefers the solace of
solitude and watch duty for the time being. What the hell has the
world come to when people sold their kids for drugs and
peaches?

A family meeting is called after breakfast
the next morning before Derek and Doc turn in for some much-needed
sleep. John had caught up on his own yesterday afternoon. He'd come
in after returning from the condo village again with Cory and Simon
and had taken Jacob up with him to their attic space. They'd both
zonked out like logs for a few hours in Reagan's bed. That kid let
off sleep toxins or something because John had only meant to get
the baby down for a nap while he worked in the closet on organizing
the rest of the demo supplies. He'd awakened with Jacob tugging on
his shirt and doing his baby babbling in his ear. Oh well, they all
need to find sleep where they can until the visitors leave for
good, which will be in a few days.

Now the adults are assembled in the dining
room while Simon keeps an eye on the children in the music room.
Cory watches over the shed and Samantha, who is acting as nurse
while Reagan is inside for the meeting. She is seated next to him,
which makes it difficult to follow along with Doc's conversation
about the wheat grinding procedure. John has a firm hold of her
hand under the table and is rubbing her soft palm with the pad of
his thumb. The slow, steady rise and fall of her chest has
increased, though he's sure that nobody has noticed. He can't help
the grin that escapes his features as he remembers her practically
attacking him last night. He'd tried to dissuade her manipulations
so that she could let her body rest. It hadn't worked. She'd vented
at first and then ran a hand over his chest, down his stomach and
lower. It had been all the convincing John had needed. He'd only
laughed and complied with her voracious appetite. He truly had
awakened a sleeping tigress.

"Right, John?" Kelly asks him.

"Yeah, sure," he agrees to something.
Perhaps paying attention might be a good idea.

"Doc, do you think we should go out and get
them another car or a van or something?" Derek asks.

"We could give them the Johnson's church
car," Kelly offers. "Or we could run into one of the surrounding
neighborhoods and jack a vehicle."

"You know how to do that?" Hannah asks with
unveiled amazement.

Kelly just smiles at her. His friend is
completely infatuated with Hannie. Poor guy. John knows the feeling
all too well.

"You'd be surprised what we know how to do,"
Kelly answers.

Hannah doesn't respond but instead gives a
funny little half frown.

Reagan snorts and butts in with, "I
wouldn't."

"Moving on," John intervenes. He doesn't
really want to go over any of his special talents in front of the
family. It's bad enough that Reagan knows some of them. "They have
plenty of room on that one RV since we're keeping the kids. I don't
think we owe them anything else," John intervenes.

"Yeah, but they were acting like they might
give us some trouble if they can't take the other RV when they go,"
Kelly says calmly. "I don't want any trouble with these idiots.
Sorry, Grams. I didn't mean your brother."

"It's fine, Kelly. I understand, dear," she
forgives so easily.

"I think they'll go peaceably without the
extra vehicle," Doc says.

"Are you sure about that, Grandpa? They
seemed pretty pissed yesterday," Reagan comments beside him.

She doesn't look up from what she's
preoccupied with doing. Her hair is in a messy ponytail, and John
is positive that she hasn't brushed it yet today. No matter. Reagan
is perfect to him. She's also taking notes on some disease or
something equally gross on a yellow legal pad. Her brain never
rests. Heck,
she
barely ever rests. That's probably why she
tends to crash so hard when she does. Last night as they'd rested
in each other's arms after making love, Reagan told him that she is
planning on doubling her studying efforts. She doesn't like that
the sickness in the shed has killed at least seven people for sure
that they know of and possibly hundreds, maybe thousands more
across what's left of their country. She's sure that more diseases
of this nature will come their way some day. She's way too stubborn
to go down without a mental fight. John had just been happy that
she wasn't pulling away from him anymore or that she's not
disgusted by his touch. She did return to her own, much larger bed
after being with him in his small twin bed. Too much intimacy is
still hard for her, but John finally has a little hope.

"I don't want any of the men leaving the
farm in the next few days. Just until things settle back down," her
grandfather suggests.

Derek also weighs in on this. "I think we
should stick around for a few weeks afterward, too, just in case
they decide to come back… or come back armed or something crazy
like that."

"Agreed," Kelly says.

His friend looks immediately at Hannah who
is sitting docilely like a white-haired angel. John's not sure what
has transpired between the two of them, but he is sure that it
isn't the same as what's happened between himself and Reagan. John
and his friend don't talk about their sexual escapades. They never
have. But he doesn't believe that Hannah and Kelly have a sexual
relationship of any nature. He knows they hang out a lot and maybe
his friend has stolen a kiss or two, but there can't be anything
more than that between them. She's too innocent and religious for
any sort of inappropriate relationship. Reagan on the other hand is
no angel. He's not even sure if in her scientific mind she believes
in God. She never speaks of such things.

"We just need to stay vigilant for the next
few days," Derek tells them all, looking from man to man.

"I'll set the demos at the end of the lane
and on the sides of the drive again after they leave," John
volunteers. Reagan's eyes dart to his. "Yes, you can help."

At this, her lovely face lights up into a
full smile, which blows him away because she rarely does so. Derek
laughs.

"Good," Kelly says. "Even if they'd try to
come back, they won't take us unaware. We'll be more secure after
they leave."

"And we won't have to do the double man
patrols twenty-four seven," Derek adds.

Sue nods and appears happy to hear this.

"Right," Doc agrees. "They won't give us too
much cause for worry before they leave. Besides they should be
fairly busy the next few days packing their belongings into the
remaining RV and picking vegetables and apples."

Kelly chuffs as if he is disbelieving of
them doing so.

"That's up to them," Derek says. "They can
do it or not. We made the offer and if they choose not to help
themselves to free food by doing a little hard work, then that's
their own problem."

"We're only giving them the things that were
negotiated and that's it. Anything else is up to them," Kelly
affirms.

Hannah frowns. She is just too kind-hearted
for people like the visitors who do not deserve to be the
benefactors of her goodness of spirit. Hannah is so unlike Reagan
in so many ways that it's sometimes hard for John to remember that
they're sisters.

"It's not like they have a ton of shit to
load up. They could've left today," Reagan swears.

However, it's not hard to remember how
different they are. She gets the look from Grams.

Doc explains his decision. "I felt like if
we allowed them to stay long enough to make sure that Frank's son
was well again, it might go more smoothly. At least that way he'd
know his son was going to be ok."

Reagan snorts, writes something down. Sue
must agree with Reagan because she chuffs with irritation and says,
"I don't think he gives a crap, Grandpa. I think we're the only
people on this entire farm who care about any of those three kids.
Simon's aunt, Amber, didn't fight too hard to keep him. What the
heck? She knows he's an orphan. Her own sister was his mother for
goodness sake!"

"Yeah, and we still don't even know which
one of those creeps Sam even belongs to," Kelly adds. "Cory tries
to talk to her about it, but she just shuts down, won't talk to
him. She's keeping some pretty big secrets if you ask me."

John nods. "Yeah, something isn't right
there."

"I don't know if any of them are related to
her or if they just picked her up somewhere along the way like they
did Jennifer," Reagan adds.

She goes back to her book and flips to a new
page. Her multitasking is something like John's never seen, and
every time he sees her doing something like this it never fails to
amaze him. She just goes right on scribbling notes while the
conversation ebbs and flows around her. She is listening, though,
because she comments along with the rest of them.

"Surely not," Grams says with wonder. "She
must be related to
one
of them."

Reagan just shrugs before making another
note. John can't make out most of what her words are, but the ones
that he can read he can't understand their meaning anyway.

"I don't think it would've mattered," John
confides what he's been thinking, what's been bothering him for the
last day since they came to terms with their guests.

"What do you mean?" Derek asks him.

"They didn't care about taking those kids
with them," he explains. "They were going to use them as a
bargaining chip to get what they wanted. It's the same reason Peter
came here in the first place with them. He knew that the moment we
saw the sick kids and woman that Doc would never turn them
away."

"Yeah, that's probably true," Kelly
agrees.

Hannah reluctantly nods. Grams is quiet
which makes John feel terrible for insulting her brother.

He tries to smooth over her damaged feelings
by clarifying, "When Doc threw out the idea of an offer for the
kids, they were all too compliant with it. Normal people would've
had their kids in the RV and out the drive in a flash if that
happened to them."

"Yeah, that was way too easy," Derek says
with a grim nod.

"Kids tagging along with a group like that
would just be a burden," Kelly confirms. "They only felt like they
were a benefit when they could haul water or cook or do the
laundry. Feeding them and taking care of them, especially the
younger ones, was just a responsibility that none of them
wanted."

"Frank sure didn't fight too hard for
Huntley," Derek adds.

"He's probably glad we're going to keep
him," Sue says sadly. "I can't imagine."

"Probably is glad," Doc concurs. "But I
wanted to give the option anyways. I don't know what we would've
been able to do about it if he wouldn't have yielded."

"Me, John and Kelly would've become more
persuasive, Herb," Derek adds with a certain amount of confidence.
"Besides, I don't think any of them will miss the kids for any
reason other than for making them do all the work."

Doc sighs loudly. "I'll just be glad when
they're gone."

Everyone agrees with either a nod or a
verbal affirmation. Even Grams gives a curt nod.

"We still need to go over a schedule for the
rest of the harvest," Derek says to Doc, who nods.

"Well the hay's done unless we'd get some
unusual weather. But it's probably done for the season," Doc
informs them. "The wheat still needs finished and we need to grind
the corn for the livestock."

"Right," Kelly says. "We'll get on the wheat
today."

"The garden will need finished out," Grams
tells them.

"I know, Grams," Sue says. "I'm going to
have Simon and Cory help me get some of the plants into the
greenhouse for winter. The cabbages are still going, but I want to
move the lettuces inside now."

"Good," Doc says. "If we'd get a hard frost
too early, that would destroy your plants outside."

John makes the mistake of glancing down at
Reagan's book. She's studying some nasty picture of a person's skin
that looks like leprosy has taken over. No wonder she doesn't eat
much.

"Gotta' butcher that cow, too," she adds
in.

She's so ladylike. Well, she is beautiful
and sexy so that makes up for her lack of femininity. Her small
fingers work dexterously taking notes again without missing a
beat.

She adds while still scribbling, "Should
butcher a few more chickens, too. We only have six downstairs in
the freezers."

"Yeah, and once the Reynolds finish their
solar panels then they'll be ready for freezer meat again," Derek
tells them.

"How did it go at the condo village the
other day, John?" Doc questions.

"Went well," John tells them all. "Paul is
going to start working on their own panels as soon as he can. Said
his son could help. I think they'll figure it out. They seem pretty
smart. We'll be able to take meat to them if you want, Doc."

"The Reynolds will need to butcher at least
two cows this fall according to Wayne," Doc says. "They're dry and
not producing, so it's time for them to go. Nobody can afford to
feed animals that don't produce anymore."

"What if Paul could find something to trade
for a cow, Herb?" Derek asks. "Do you think he could keep one milk
cow in the area around the condo community? I mean, heck, they
could fence off a section of the golf course."