The McClane Apocalypse Book Three (53 page)

"Napalm," he answers simply.

His blue eyes bore into hers with an
intensity that she's beginning to recognize as desire.

"Like the napalm that the military used
during the Vietnam War?" Reagan asks and pushes in on his hip and
rotates it back out.

"Of course you know that. Yeah, like in that
war. We'll mix some gas and these rubber bands and make some
tweaks, show the boys how to do it. They can be very effective
incendiary devices," he says with a smile.

John presses the back of his hand against
the side of her cheek. The one with the scar.

"Sounds violent," she says and then smiles.
"I like it."

John laughs and pulls her down on top of
him.

"Remember when you wanted to be the boss so
bad? This might be your chance, kid," he quips.

He flips her quickly until she's straddling
him on the carpeted floor of her closet.

Reagan places her hands on either side of
his head and presses herself down against his erection.

"Now where's that bag of ice?" he jokes.

John kisses her mouth and then many other
parts of her, leaving them both breathless and exhausted and her
without any more questions about the use of ice. And later as
Reagan is falling asleep on his chest, he stands and hoists her in
one fell swoop into his arms and carries her with his limp to her
bed. John places her gently down beside Jacob. Reagan falls asleep
thinking of John and the protection he so selflessly offers to her
and her family.

"Are you sure, Cory?" Kelly asks his brother
for the third time. Weeks have sped by since the departure of the
visitors, and the entire family has been working on refortification
projects, harvesting the last of the summer's crops and butchering
livestock. The men are slated to go in a few days to pick up the
processed and smoked pork products from the Reynolds family in
exchange for two pigs for breeding.

"Yeah, man. I told you already. It's cool,
Kelly. I'm actually glad," Cory says as they join the family for
dinner.

John is holding Jacob who is already
clanging a spoon loudly against Reagan's plate. Reagan simply
confiscates the spoon and gives him what looks to Kelly like a
dog's rubber chew toy. Apparently kids like them, too. Reagan takes
Jacob and sets him in his new-used high-chair behind them where the
baby proceeds to bang his chewy thing on the plastic tray in front
of him. They seem to have adapted well to parenthood for two people
so young and unmarried and un… everything.

Kelly takes his seat next to Hannah who has
healed almost completely from her attack and who keeps pressuring
Kelly to sleep with her again. Out of respect for her grandfather,
the respect that he should've maintained before, he hasn't been
with Hannah since their discussion in his office.

Somehow his Hannah is not mentally
traumatized from her episode with Crazy Willy, thank God. The other
day he spoke with her about it after she insisted on being kissed
first, to which he'd complied but had only done so hesitantly. As
they sat for a spell under a brilliantly-colored maple tree on the
hill at the top of the cattle pasture, the one that overlooks the
entire farm, she opened up and talked to Kelly about her attack and
how she felt about it. She even told Kelly that she forgave Willy
for doing it. She has a bigger heart than him because if he could,
Kelly would like to have gone back and killed that bastard more
slowly, more painfully, show him what it was like during an
interrogation of Syrian terrorists done by men who had the
government's full authority to do whatever was necessary to prevent
another D.C. attack. If anything, she's been trying to be in closer
proximity to Kelly than usual. He's left to believe that she has
some residual insecurity about being out of his perimeter, and
that's fine with him because he prefers to keep her within his
direct line of sight for many reasons, some just for the pleasant
view she affords.

"Hello, Kelly," Hannah says in her heavenly,
lilting voice. "Have you had a good day?"

"Uh, yeah sure," he answers with
hesitancy.

Sometimes when Hannah talks, it's like there
isn't anything going on in the rest of the world like World War
Three, tsunami and nuclear apocalypses, mass spread disease,
devastation and sickness and basically the end of the world, and it
never fails to shock him. With Hannah, it's more like the right
here, the right now and that's it. It keeps Kelly grounded, and he
likes just being near her. Plus, she always has a very soothing
effect on the kids, as well, when they could all so easily sink
into depression and despair. Just being near her optimism and high
spirits makes everyone feel a tiny bit better.

"What did you do today?" she asks.

She turns toward him with her sightless,
mismatched, beautiful eyes that are more expressive than a person
who has their vision.

"We finished the oats and got 'em sacked up.
Then John and I repaired the roof on the hog barn 'cuz it had a
leak. You know, the usual," he tells her with a grin. "What did you
do today, Miss Hannah?"

She gives him one of her light-filled smiles
and says, "Mostly I was wondering why I wasn't with you."

"Is that so?" he asks her in a playful
manner and glances nervously around to make sure nobody else has
heard her. But not everyone is in the dining room yet, which Hannah
probably already knows.

"You're always so busy that I hardly see you
anymore," she says.

Her comment holds a touch of pouty sadness
that makes Kelly long to kiss her… and then maybe just ravish her a
little, too.

"I sat with you yesterday during Sunday
service," he reminds her, and she nods with a half frown.

"Yes, but you wouldn't hold my hand. I miss
you, Kelly. I miss
all
of you," she sensually adds.

Kelly squirms uncomfortably in his chair and
clears his throat loudly. When his Hannah talks like this, it
always knocks him off guard. He just never expects anything naughty
to come from her innocent lips. He's made the mistake of
underestimating her since the moment he met her, and it is probably
the reason he can't do anything but think about her most every hour
of the damn day.

They are interrupted from further
conversation because the family is gathering in a noisy hoard to
the table, the teenage boys being the most excited. If they take in
any more teenagers, Kelly thinks they should definitely add on an
additional dining room with sound-proof walls and a steel door.
They are both excited about a flock of turkeys they saw this
morning and plan to take shotguns out tomorrow to shoot a few. Cory
has taken to sitting next to Sam, though the girl does not talk to
him. Sometimes she'll scoot to the far edge of her chair so that
she doesn't have to be too close to him. Most of the time she looks
scared of his brother, but it's understandable. He's a big kid,
getting bigger every day it seems. He has to be about six-two or
three now, and Sam is only about Hannah's height at around
five-four.

Kelly talked to Cory about Sam last week
because he doesn't want his brother to get any ideas where she is
concerned. But Cory had confided that he just felt protective of
her because of what she'd been through, that he didn't look at her
"that" way. Kelly had given him a stern lecture about her, though,
just in case. Sam is only fifteen. Simon is a year older and Cory
will be eighteen next month. Simon will turn seventeen the month
after in December, the same month as Kelly's birthday. But Sam has
only just turned fifteen this summer. Kelly can't imagine going
through what she's been through at such a young age. When he was
fifteen, all he worried about was playing football, basketball and
chasing girls. This girl has lost her family in one day, her whole
way of life and had likely been repeatedly raped, though nobody has
confirmed this. The teens on the farm don't need to be making the
same mistakes that he and Hannah have made. However, the way that
Sam looks at Cory, Kelly's fairly certain that won't happen any
time in the foreseeable future. She'll hang out with the boys, but
only for a short period of time. She sticks by Sue or Reagan most
days and avoids overly long contact with Cory. She is most trusting
of Simon. She carries a sketch pad with her almost everywhere she
goes, and Sue said that the girl is a very talented artist. They
like drawing and painting together.

It probably doesn't help Sam feel
comfortable around Cory since he has the same dark looks as Bobby.
His brother has a ruggedness about him, though, whereas Bobby
could've been a teen model if it hadn't been for the coldness in
his black eyes. Simon is simply tall, lanky and a bit geeky.
They've put both of the young men on firewood chopping duties, and
they are already bulking up, even Simon who had come to the farm as
skinny as a rail. Firewood is a bitch of a chore, and he'd been
glad to put the boys on that particular job. His dad would be so
proud.

Doc leads the family with a prayer, and the
chaos begins and eventually ends with apple pies for desert made
from freshly-picked apples from the orchard. The women, even
Reagan, have picked the last of the season's apples and have turned
them into applesauce, apple pie fillings and put crates of them in
cold storage in the old part of the basement where they will stay
good most of the winter. Each of the kids, the teens included, had
been taught to make the apple-sauce, as well. It is a good idea to
teach them as much as possible for survival. The future is so
uncertain, and they may not all live long enough to take care of
and raise these kids.

The men have worked on deepening their
security efforts after their guests left, including going to town
and blowing that bridge which Reagan had tagged along for because
she needed to see how it would work. What a nerd. She'd even
laughed loudly as it went down, something Kelly's never heard from
her before. If a woman could have a rotten, bawdy laugh, then
that's how he'd describe that little nut job's laugh. They'd cut
the tree barriers at either end of their road with Cory and Simon.
In addition, they snagged two additional security cameras from one
of the mansions in the burbs that they'd immediately tied into
their own. These cameras will cover the end of the driveway and the
road. For as long as the solar power will last, the McClane spread
should be covered for security purposes. John and Derek have
started both of the teens on basic training, minus all of the drill
sergeant screaming in your face stuff. But they do have them on
long runs, weapons training, hand to hand combat and a whole lot
more than those kids probably ever would've thought a year ago that
they'd need to learn. Simon had found John's missing weapon out on
a patrol one morning with Cory, and Kelly thought his friend was
gonna cry like a girl over it which he'd kindly pointed out,
earning him a punch to the shoulder. It was like a fly landing
there, also something he'd pointed out. And they've been asses and
elbows deep in farm work and getting everything finished before
hunting season starts in the middle of November, in the middle of
the deer rut, which is in three weeks. It is amazing to Kelly, but
there is always something that needs done around the farm, and he
really can't imagine how Doc and the girls would've managed if they
hadn't made it home to this farm.

As the meal concludes and people begin to
rise from their chairs, Kelly stops them with an announcement.
"Hey, everyone, if I could just take a minute of your time," he
says and stands and then takes Hannah's hand in his, pulling her to
her feet.

"Oh, where are we going?" she asks
musically.

She acts as if he's tugging her along to hop
a plane and go on some exotic vacation. She never fails to surprise
him with her cheerfulness and absolute trust. Hannah allows him to
lead her to the opening of the dining room doorway. He takes both
of her frail hands into his mammoth ones.

"Hannah, I wanted to do this in front of
your family and my family and our new family," he says directing
his gaze toward Sam, Huntley and Simon. Simon and Cory smile
knowingly.

"What did you want to do, Kelly?" she asks
with a smile.

Her brightness gives him the courage to
continue.

"I love you, Hannah McClane. And it's
screwed up to even say this but I'm glad for what happened in the
world because I might not have ever met you or come to this farm. I
would have never had you in my life, and before I met you I didn't
even know what I had been missing. You never try to change me or
make me any different than what I am: a rusty, old, ragbag of a
soldier, I guess. When you were attacked, I was so scared I'd lost
you for good when I couldn't find you. I don't ever want to feel
that way again. You've never asked me to be something I'm not. And
you're so good and pure and hopeful, Hannah, that you make me feel
hopeful for the first time in a long time. I want that long time to
be forever. I want to be with you forever, here on this farm with
our families. I'll defend this farm to my dying breath, and I'll
defend you against anything that comes our way. I promise I'll
protect you and love you forever. Will you marry me, Hannah?"

Kelly goes down on one knee and presses a
ring from his pocket into her palm so that she can feel it because
he knows she certainly can't see it, which is probably a good thing
because it's small, salvaged from the floor of a raided Sam's Club
in the city that John had snaked per his request. Hannah doesn't
answer but starts crying in earnest and hugging Kelly's head to her
stomach. When he lifts his gaze to meet hers, she is nodding and
weeping at the same time.

"Yes, Kelly, I will marry you," she finally
says.

Everyone in the room starts clapping. He
slips the ring onto her slim finger and it's just a tad loose but
not so much that it will twirl around. He's vaguely aware that
there are other people in the room, but all he can see is his
Hannah. She's lovely and crying and smiling as she places her hands
on his face.