Jeepcats27
Senior Member
nice chapter, Thank you!
Story Nann
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you, was hoping for another chapter 
.
.
beaglemama
Contributing Member
Thank you for the new chapter!
Chapter 27
I told Mitch, “It isn’t the ankle. It’s the foot. Kinda like a rollover. And you watch me. I just hope the lantern works.”
Well the lantern worked, though we had to keep winding it up more often than we should have. It must have been sitting around for a long while not being taken care of properly. And the steps were fine except for one near the bottom that was squeaky ‘cause of rot around the nail in the riser and not ‘cause the carpenter ants had gone down that deep. And once Mitch got down to the bottom, he was real quiet for a moment before he whistled real surprised.
I called down, “Everything okay?”
“Sure is. I’m glad we put the camper back on the truck bed.”
“Lots of stuff?”
“Yeah. Come on down just be careful and watch your feet. Someone musta thought they’d be playing fort out in the woods for a while.”
When I got to the bottom I had to wait for Mitch to hang the lantern up on a chain and hook that hung from the ceiling before I could get a good look around. My head lamp was okay but the lantern lit up 360 degrees at one time. Off on one side there were military-style footlockers of that funky freeze-dried food; the kind that hunter’s and back country hikers take with them. Or those people that buy the ready meals to keep in case of emergencies. It was not un-interesting, but Mitch’s whistle of surprise was from what else he found. One wall down there was tiled over like a giant cork board. On this wall was a bunch of different things but the big one was an over-sized topographical map of our area that had all the buildings and what they were marked on them, who owned them, and other things like where there were orchards, working stills, the old grist mill, wells with pump handles, etc. I wanted to get a little outraged when I saw how much was marked on Uncle Hy’s farm … Mitch’s farm … and some other places I knew of that should have been no one else’s business but the owners’.
“Why does that map give me the heebies?” I asked.
The question had been kinda rhetorical, but Mitch understood what I meant. “We are liberating this map and anything else like it down here. No way no how do I want anyone to have this kind of intel, especially not a salvager.”
“Don’t we qualify as that? And don’t look at me like that, I’m here and helping aren’t I? I just mean …”
Mitch sighed and got his near pop-off back in the box just in time. “Yeah, you’re here. But …”
“No buts. But if we are going to call other people something derogatory like that, I don’t want to be hypocritical and make it okay for us to do the same thing but tie it up in a pretty package. I know you’ve already explained the difference between us and those land pirates that killed each other off but what is the difference between us and … and … I don’t know … whatever the owner of this place was planning on.”
Mitch crossed his arms and looked at me then shook his head and got back to taking the maps and other stuff off the wall. “Stop making me think so damn hard,” he snarked with no heat in it. “One, I like that term Land Pirate and think we should use it from here on out. Kinda like code or something. Two, yeah we’re salvaging. And I agree I suppose we could easily take this too far and might be taking from people that are counting on stuff being here just in case they have to evacuate from wherever they are right now. And if that happens, we’ll have to make good on it somehow. That said? Nann this place is set up like a quasi-military hidey-hole for someone. The fact that they went to all the trouble to map out all of these assets …”
“Assets?”
Mitch shook his head as if to clear it. “Sorry. Sliding back into the way we used to talk in my squad. Think of ‘assets’ like resources. And sometimes assets can also be people. Like you,” he added, obviously trying to make up for his near attack of temper.
“Oh. Okay. Don’t sweet talk me though, it’ll go to my head and turn me useless. I get it. I guess when you said they were playing fort you meant like boys playing pretend war games and stuff like that. Sorta like when Dale and some of his friends got into paintball games in the woods. But they lost interest when some groups they played against started taking things way too serious and turning it into a real war of sorts where they got into it in real life and not just when they were shooting paintballs at each other.”
“Okay, that’s a new story on me. And yeah, I kinda did mean it similar, but I don’t think whoever built this was playin’, not even sorta kinda playin’. And it might just have been one guy. Them totes hold some decent food but nothing you could support a family of any size with for very long.”
“Watch me play Dr. Watson to your Sherlock,” I told him being silly to prove his near-temper hadn’t bothered me none. “There’s only two bedrooms in the cabin above us. Bedroom one has a twin bed in it and just two other pieces of furniture … a nightstand and a chest o’ drawers. The other bedroom is barebones and has a set of bunkbeds in it and a couple of wood crates for cubby holes, but they only have those thin kid mattresses on them and no sheets. The table in what passes for the kitchen area is just a card table with four folding chairs and one of the chairs looks a whole lot more used than the other three. There’s a lounger and a love seat in the living area where the Franklin Stove is, both of them have them furniture covers on them, but only the one on the lounger needs washing. There’s not even a loft in this place. And the only thing down here is one military cot over in that corner.”
Mitched popped me on the head. “Add this to the sum … Watson … there’s a ton of dust and dirt covering everything down here just like there is up in the cabin. And the yard surrounding this place hasn’t been bush hogged in at least a year. And I can tell you that map is at least a year out of date.”
“How?”
“Someone from out of state bought the old water mill and turned it into a house. It is marked under construction. But I know the place has been finished for near a year and a half.”
I made a face.
“What’s that about?”
“I met the ‘lady of the house’ that belonged to that place. She and her husband came around right after their place had been finished looking for someone to play property manager – the Sheriff had suggested asking Uncle Hy. Uncle Hy and the man talked for a while and Grammy, being nice, asked if the lady would care for a glass of tea. The lady wanted to know what kind of water we used and whether the tea was organic and then went on to talk about the horrible labor laws in other countries and thank goodness Uncle Hy and the man got done with their business fast is all I care to say about the rest of it. I don’t think that lady was being insulting on purpose, but I didn’t like how she treated Grammy, like she was just some poor old hick that needed to be brought into the current century.”
Mitch shrugged, “Rich people tend to forget themselves sometimes.”
“Were they rich? They didn’t look it. I mean they dressed nice but not what I would say was super expensive brands or whatever.”
“Yeah. They are rich … or were,” Mitch answered. “Dad told me he’d taken the job of property managing their place and was going to do it for the cabins that were supposed to go in.”
“What cabins?”
“Exactly. Cabins were ‘supposed’ to go in. Didn’t happen because the developer pulled out. The guy that built the house we’re talking about was the primary investor and it was all spec builds. He lost his shirt, and the house and contents was supposed to get auctioned in a Sheriff Sale but got held up in court for some reason.”
“Speak English please.”
Mitch snorted. “Spec … like speck without the k … is short for speculation. The guy made his first fortune in the stock market, his second fortune in real estate, and lost both of them fortunes in the third market of spec-built bug out locations.”
“Okay, I’m not stupid. I know what a bug out location is. Dale and the guys talked about them. But what does a … okay never mind. I’m talking before my brain catches up. You mean someone planned on making money on people that got so scared of living in the cities they would go out and buy a pre-built bug out location in case of a zombie invasion or something like that. I think I heard something like that on the news a few times.”
“A little simplified but that’s basically the idea of it. Only then the real estate market tanked and a lot of people were in their first mortgages upside down so couldn’t risk buying more real estate even if was a quarter of what it had been selling for. Then you add in the foreclosures and …”
“Whoa Professor. You’re showing your college edumacation there Mitch and I haven’t even finished high school. Keep it simple so you don’t lose me.”
He looked at me and got a little cross-eyed. “That’s not making me real comfortable Nannette. Uncle John and Aunt Dina are going to expect me to …”
“… do nothing because it’s not for you to do. Mom and Dad had an agreement with Dale and I. Once we got in high school they’d facilitate but it was up to us to motivate.”
“Huh?”
“Mom said either I’d like learning by the time I got into high school or I wouldn’t, but by the time I was that age she wasn’t going to stand over me with a whip and chair making me learn. If my grades stayed up and I kept the attitude in check they’d let me keep doing virtual school, but it was my job to get things done in a timely manner and decide how educated I wanted to get and what I was going to do with it. There only real stipulation was that I had to be useful and so did the degree I went after, oh and they wouldn’t co-sign any loans. They’d help me by giving me room and board but any other bells and whistles I would have to pay for with scholarships, a job, or whatever. Mom wanted me to go to college, but she wouldn’t have had a conniption if all I wanted was technical school or something like that. I just wasn’t allowed to pick the road that meant I waited around on someone else to take care of me instead of learning to take care of myself.”
Mitch nodded as he wound the lantern up yet again, “Yeah. Grammy said that Aunt Dina turns practicality into an Olympic sport.”
“Hey!”
“That’s not a bad thing Nann. Sorry if it sounded that way. Just you know your mom comes off a little hard sometimes.”
“Maybe. But it hasn’t hurt me any. And I’d rather her be her than be like Aunt Fran.”
“From your lips to God’s ears. Let’s get this stuff loaded up. We’re wasting time and I want to at least take one look at the Old Mill House before we have to get back for the animals.
I told Mitch, “It isn’t the ankle. It’s the foot. Kinda like a rollover. And you watch me. I just hope the lantern works.”
Well the lantern worked, though we had to keep winding it up more often than we should have. It must have been sitting around for a long while not being taken care of properly. And the steps were fine except for one near the bottom that was squeaky ‘cause of rot around the nail in the riser and not ‘cause the carpenter ants had gone down that deep. And once Mitch got down to the bottom, he was real quiet for a moment before he whistled real surprised.
I called down, “Everything okay?”
“Sure is. I’m glad we put the camper back on the truck bed.”
“Lots of stuff?”
“Yeah. Come on down just be careful and watch your feet. Someone musta thought they’d be playing fort out in the woods for a while.”
When I got to the bottom I had to wait for Mitch to hang the lantern up on a chain and hook that hung from the ceiling before I could get a good look around. My head lamp was okay but the lantern lit up 360 degrees at one time. Off on one side there were military-style footlockers of that funky freeze-dried food; the kind that hunter’s and back country hikers take with them. Or those people that buy the ready meals to keep in case of emergencies. It was not un-interesting, but Mitch’s whistle of surprise was from what else he found. One wall down there was tiled over like a giant cork board. On this wall was a bunch of different things but the big one was an over-sized topographical map of our area that had all the buildings and what they were marked on them, who owned them, and other things like where there were orchards, working stills, the old grist mill, wells with pump handles, etc. I wanted to get a little outraged when I saw how much was marked on Uncle Hy’s farm … Mitch’s farm … and some other places I knew of that should have been no one else’s business but the owners’.
“Why does that map give me the heebies?” I asked.
The question had been kinda rhetorical, but Mitch understood what I meant. “We are liberating this map and anything else like it down here. No way no how do I want anyone to have this kind of intel, especially not a salvager.”
“Don’t we qualify as that? And don’t look at me like that, I’m here and helping aren’t I? I just mean …”
Mitch sighed and got his near pop-off back in the box just in time. “Yeah, you’re here. But …”
“No buts. But if we are going to call other people something derogatory like that, I don’t want to be hypocritical and make it okay for us to do the same thing but tie it up in a pretty package. I know you’ve already explained the difference between us and those land pirates that killed each other off but what is the difference between us and … and … I don’t know … whatever the owner of this place was planning on.”
Mitch crossed his arms and looked at me then shook his head and got back to taking the maps and other stuff off the wall. “Stop making me think so damn hard,” he snarked with no heat in it. “One, I like that term Land Pirate and think we should use it from here on out. Kinda like code or something. Two, yeah we’re salvaging. And I agree I suppose we could easily take this too far and might be taking from people that are counting on stuff being here just in case they have to evacuate from wherever they are right now. And if that happens, we’ll have to make good on it somehow. That said? Nann this place is set up like a quasi-military hidey-hole for someone. The fact that they went to all the trouble to map out all of these assets …”
“Assets?”
Mitch shook his head as if to clear it. “Sorry. Sliding back into the way we used to talk in my squad. Think of ‘assets’ like resources. And sometimes assets can also be people. Like you,” he added, obviously trying to make up for his near attack of temper.
“Oh. Okay. Don’t sweet talk me though, it’ll go to my head and turn me useless. I get it. I guess when you said they were playing fort you meant like boys playing pretend war games and stuff like that. Sorta like when Dale and some of his friends got into paintball games in the woods. But they lost interest when some groups they played against started taking things way too serious and turning it into a real war of sorts where they got into it in real life and not just when they were shooting paintballs at each other.”
“Okay, that’s a new story on me. And yeah, I kinda did mean it similar, but I don’t think whoever built this was playin’, not even sorta kinda playin’. And it might just have been one guy. Them totes hold some decent food but nothing you could support a family of any size with for very long.”
“Watch me play Dr. Watson to your Sherlock,” I told him being silly to prove his near-temper hadn’t bothered me none. “There’s only two bedrooms in the cabin above us. Bedroom one has a twin bed in it and just two other pieces of furniture … a nightstand and a chest o’ drawers. The other bedroom is barebones and has a set of bunkbeds in it and a couple of wood crates for cubby holes, but they only have those thin kid mattresses on them and no sheets. The table in what passes for the kitchen area is just a card table with four folding chairs and one of the chairs looks a whole lot more used than the other three. There’s a lounger and a love seat in the living area where the Franklin Stove is, both of them have them furniture covers on them, but only the one on the lounger needs washing. There’s not even a loft in this place. And the only thing down here is one military cot over in that corner.”
Mitched popped me on the head. “Add this to the sum … Watson … there’s a ton of dust and dirt covering everything down here just like there is up in the cabin. And the yard surrounding this place hasn’t been bush hogged in at least a year. And I can tell you that map is at least a year out of date.”
“How?”
“Someone from out of state bought the old water mill and turned it into a house. It is marked under construction. But I know the place has been finished for near a year and a half.”
I made a face.
“What’s that about?”
“I met the ‘lady of the house’ that belonged to that place. She and her husband came around right after their place had been finished looking for someone to play property manager – the Sheriff had suggested asking Uncle Hy. Uncle Hy and the man talked for a while and Grammy, being nice, asked if the lady would care for a glass of tea. The lady wanted to know what kind of water we used and whether the tea was organic and then went on to talk about the horrible labor laws in other countries and thank goodness Uncle Hy and the man got done with their business fast is all I care to say about the rest of it. I don’t think that lady was being insulting on purpose, but I didn’t like how she treated Grammy, like she was just some poor old hick that needed to be brought into the current century.”
Mitch shrugged, “Rich people tend to forget themselves sometimes.”
“Were they rich? They didn’t look it. I mean they dressed nice but not what I would say was super expensive brands or whatever.”
“Yeah. They are rich … or were,” Mitch answered. “Dad told me he’d taken the job of property managing their place and was going to do it for the cabins that were supposed to go in.”
“What cabins?”
“Exactly. Cabins were ‘supposed’ to go in. Didn’t happen because the developer pulled out. The guy that built the house we’re talking about was the primary investor and it was all spec builds. He lost his shirt, and the house and contents was supposed to get auctioned in a Sheriff Sale but got held up in court for some reason.”
“Speak English please.”
Mitch snorted. “Spec … like speck without the k … is short for speculation. The guy made his first fortune in the stock market, his second fortune in real estate, and lost both of them fortunes in the third market of spec-built bug out locations.”
“Okay, I’m not stupid. I know what a bug out location is. Dale and the guys talked about them. But what does a … okay never mind. I’m talking before my brain catches up. You mean someone planned on making money on people that got so scared of living in the cities they would go out and buy a pre-built bug out location in case of a zombie invasion or something like that. I think I heard something like that on the news a few times.”
“A little simplified but that’s basically the idea of it. Only then the real estate market tanked and a lot of people were in their first mortgages upside down so couldn’t risk buying more real estate even if was a quarter of what it had been selling for. Then you add in the foreclosures and …”
“Whoa Professor. You’re showing your college edumacation there Mitch and I haven’t even finished high school. Keep it simple so you don’t lose me.”
He looked at me and got a little cross-eyed. “That’s not making me real comfortable Nannette. Uncle John and Aunt Dina are going to expect me to …”
“… do nothing because it’s not for you to do. Mom and Dad had an agreement with Dale and I. Once we got in high school they’d facilitate but it was up to us to motivate.”
“Huh?”
“Mom said either I’d like learning by the time I got into high school or I wouldn’t, but by the time I was that age she wasn’t going to stand over me with a whip and chair making me learn. If my grades stayed up and I kept the attitude in check they’d let me keep doing virtual school, but it was my job to get things done in a timely manner and decide how educated I wanted to get and what I was going to do with it. There only real stipulation was that I had to be useful and so did the degree I went after, oh and they wouldn’t co-sign any loans. They’d help me by giving me room and board but any other bells and whistles I would have to pay for with scholarships, a job, or whatever. Mom wanted me to go to college, but she wouldn’t have had a conniption if all I wanted was technical school or something like that. I just wasn’t allowed to pick the road that meant I waited around on someone else to take care of me instead of learning to take care of myself.”
Mitch nodded as he wound the lantern up yet again, “Yeah. Grammy said that Aunt Dina turns practicality into an Olympic sport.”
“Hey!”
“That’s not a bad thing Nann. Sorry if it sounded that way. Just you know your mom comes off a little hard sometimes.”
“Maybe. But it hasn’t hurt me any. And I’d rather her be her than be like Aunt Fran.”
“From your lips to God’s ears. Let’s get this stuff loaded up. We’re wasting time and I want to at least take one look at the Old Mill House before we have to get back for the animals.
Chapter 28
“Somebody liked them some metal footlockers,” Mitch said stretching popping where we’d hauled all of those footlockers up from that weird hidey-hole room.
“Good for them. Means less mouse problems for us. I still don’t get all that electrical gear. There’s no power. And when you noticed there were no guns or ammo it made me think maybe the guy was just fantasizing and up here playing weekend warrior for some reason.”
“Hmmm,” Mitch said looking around.
“Watcha looking for?”
Mitch seemed to be thinking and pacing off something in his head. Then he spotted a shed off to the side hidden by the tall grass and trees. “Nann. Get down on the other side of the truck. Now.”
“I am already.”
“Then duck down. Don’t move until I say to.”
I knew the tone I just didn’t know the reason.
After a couple of minutes Mitch said, “I was right. Stay there ‘til I call you.”
Well that was a fun time and me nearly peeing myself.
Finally Mitch called, “Okay. Come over here and let’s get this done double time. I want away from this place.”
I came running and said, “Do I get to ask now, or do I have a quiet breakdown wondering?”
“The shed was boobied. I had to disconnect it and move it.”
“It was what?! Where? And …” I looked around. Good thing I had a belt on my pants or they wouldn’t have been able to keep up and they would have slid down and tripped me.
“Settle down. I’ll explain while we get these batteries and panels and the other stuff in there. And the what and where is down in the hidey hole and I don’t know if it is going to go boom or not so we are going to leave it down there and not play with it.”
“Tell me you’re playin’ me, and you just did not defuse a bomb and put it down in that hole.”
“I ain’t playin’ Nann. It was a couple of demolition packs. I’ve run into them before when some jackwipe played the ‘if I can’t have it then no one can’ game. It shouldn’t blow since I got it completely disconnected but since demolition isn’t my specialty how about we just leave it where I put it.”
“Uh … sure? I have no problem with that. Why don’t I get the dolly so we can go even faster.”
“That’s my girl.”
Thirty minutes later we had everything out of the shed that Mitch wanted and I was driving to the next way point that was on the day’s planned route trying real hard not to have an adjustment reaction.
“You okay Nann? Want me to drive?”
“Well I ain’t fine and dandy but I’ll live. Gawd bless Mitch. You … you coulda been … we coulda been …”
“We coulda … but we weren’t. And before you ask, it was you and one of your thousand and one questions that made me wonder and take a few extra precautions. You were correct. That was a lot of wires and gear down there for there not to be a power source. And a real set up for not having any way to defend it.”
“And that’s what all those batteries and solar panels were for?”
“Yeah, for power. But he was smokin’ dope if he thought he had enough equipment for the juice he was planning on pulling.”
“Especially in winter.”
He looked at me strangely then asked, “Do I want to know how you know about solar power?”
“School science project, AP Physics teacher was a green warrior type … the world is evolving and humans need to evolve or get left behind and all of that puke. One entire semester we had to build a virtual farm that was as self-sufficient as possible.”
“Got Dad to help did ya?”
I grinned. “For some of it. He just asked that I keep his name and the farm out of it. So when the teacher asked how I’d thought of some of the things I had in the schematics and reports … like the all those Fresnel lens projects, I told him I had researched a lot of dystopian fiction and gotten ideas that way. I had also watched a bunch of youtubes and then followed up with that stuff in technical magazines and stuff. The projects that didn’t work I dumped from the report and the things that did work I kept to see if I could use them on my ‘farm.’ It actually wasn’t bad, I just got tired of the teacher shoving all that ‘necessary depopulation’ stuff down my throat. I know the guy meant well but he was a few beans shy of a casserole on some days.”
“You … er … still have that report? I’d like to read it.”
I shrugged and took the next turn and could just make out a fancy gate over grown with weeds and junk up ahead. “Uncle Hy had a copy on his bookcase at one point. If it isn’t there I don’t know. I can look for it on my jump drives, but we don’t have a working printer.”
“You let me worry about that. I’m getting ideas and they’re making my head itch.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Not a bad thing just makes me wonder what else we can come up with between the two of us and Dad’s notes and stuff that he always dreamed of trying out.”
I coughed to clear the pollen from my throat. Everything seemed to be blooming and doing its best to terrorize my sinuses. I told Mitch, “I don’t mind talking but lets not pan fry bugs.”
“What?!” he laughed.
“Grammy talked to sometimes about Uncle Hy’s ‘wild fantasies’ and one of them is what would happen if the GMO plants and stuff killed off all the naturally growing plants and then went kaputz. He studied up on what all was edible in the area and it included how to eat bugs. And no thank you, I have enough padding that I’ll take a pass on that thank you very much.”
“Grubs are bad they just …”
“Ew! No. Nope. Uh uh. Not happening. And if you want me fit to fix dinner tonight you will pick a different subject.”
Mitch kept chuckling and then go serious. “Back up a little from the gate.”
“Mitch?”
“Better safe that sorry Nann.”
“Somebody liked them some metal footlockers,” Mitch said stretching popping where we’d hauled all of those footlockers up from that weird hidey-hole room.
“Good for them. Means less mouse problems for us. I still don’t get all that electrical gear. There’s no power. And when you noticed there were no guns or ammo it made me think maybe the guy was just fantasizing and up here playing weekend warrior for some reason.”
“Hmmm,” Mitch said looking around.
“Watcha looking for?”
Mitch seemed to be thinking and pacing off something in his head. Then he spotted a shed off to the side hidden by the tall grass and trees. “Nann. Get down on the other side of the truck. Now.”
“I am already.”
“Then duck down. Don’t move until I say to.”
I knew the tone I just didn’t know the reason.
After a couple of minutes Mitch said, “I was right. Stay there ‘til I call you.”
Well that was a fun time and me nearly peeing myself.
Finally Mitch called, “Okay. Come over here and let’s get this done double time. I want away from this place.”
I came running and said, “Do I get to ask now, or do I have a quiet breakdown wondering?”
“The shed was boobied. I had to disconnect it and move it.”
“It was what?! Where? And …” I looked around. Good thing I had a belt on my pants or they wouldn’t have been able to keep up and they would have slid down and tripped me.
“Settle down. I’ll explain while we get these batteries and panels and the other stuff in there. And the what and where is down in the hidey hole and I don’t know if it is going to go boom or not so we are going to leave it down there and not play with it.”
“Tell me you’re playin’ me, and you just did not defuse a bomb and put it down in that hole.”
“I ain’t playin’ Nann. It was a couple of demolition packs. I’ve run into them before when some jackwipe played the ‘if I can’t have it then no one can’ game. It shouldn’t blow since I got it completely disconnected but since demolition isn’t my specialty how about we just leave it where I put it.”
“Uh … sure? I have no problem with that. Why don’t I get the dolly so we can go even faster.”
“That’s my girl.”
Thirty minutes later we had everything out of the shed that Mitch wanted and I was driving to the next way point that was on the day’s planned route trying real hard not to have an adjustment reaction.
“You okay Nann? Want me to drive?”
“Well I ain’t fine and dandy but I’ll live. Gawd bless Mitch. You … you coulda been … we coulda been …”
“We coulda … but we weren’t. And before you ask, it was you and one of your thousand and one questions that made me wonder and take a few extra precautions. You were correct. That was a lot of wires and gear down there for there not to be a power source. And a real set up for not having any way to defend it.”
“And that’s what all those batteries and solar panels were for?”
“Yeah, for power. But he was smokin’ dope if he thought he had enough equipment for the juice he was planning on pulling.”
“Especially in winter.”
He looked at me strangely then asked, “Do I want to know how you know about solar power?”
“School science project, AP Physics teacher was a green warrior type … the world is evolving and humans need to evolve or get left behind and all of that puke. One entire semester we had to build a virtual farm that was as self-sufficient as possible.”
“Got Dad to help did ya?”
I grinned. “For some of it. He just asked that I keep his name and the farm out of it. So when the teacher asked how I’d thought of some of the things I had in the schematics and reports … like the all those Fresnel lens projects, I told him I had researched a lot of dystopian fiction and gotten ideas that way. I had also watched a bunch of youtubes and then followed up with that stuff in technical magazines and stuff. The projects that didn’t work I dumped from the report and the things that did work I kept to see if I could use them on my ‘farm.’ It actually wasn’t bad, I just got tired of the teacher shoving all that ‘necessary depopulation’ stuff down my throat. I know the guy meant well but he was a few beans shy of a casserole on some days.”
“You … er … still have that report? I’d like to read it.”
I shrugged and took the next turn and could just make out a fancy gate over grown with weeds and junk up ahead. “Uncle Hy had a copy on his bookcase at one point. If it isn’t there I don’t know. I can look for it on my jump drives, but we don’t have a working printer.”
“You let me worry about that. I’m getting ideas and they’re making my head itch.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Not a bad thing just makes me wonder what else we can come up with between the two of us and Dad’s notes and stuff that he always dreamed of trying out.”
I coughed to clear the pollen from my throat. Everything seemed to be blooming and doing its best to terrorize my sinuses. I told Mitch, “I don’t mind talking but lets not pan fry bugs.”
“What?!” he laughed.
“Grammy talked to sometimes about Uncle Hy’s ‘wild fantasies’ and one of them is what would happen if the GMO plants and stuff killed off all the naturally growing plants and then went kaputz. He studied up on what all was edible in the area and it included how to eat bugs. And no thank you, I have enough padding that I’ll take a pass on that thank you very much.”
“Grubs are bad they just …”
“Ew! No. Nope. Uh uh. Not happening. And if you want me fit to fix dinner tonight you will pick a different subject.”
Mitch kept chuckling and then go serious. “Back up a little from the gate.”
“Mitch?”
“Better safe that sorry Nann.”
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
A very big thank you from me.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
what a nice surprise, wasn't expecting the chapters! Thank you!
Chapter 29
The only problem with the gate was that it was chained closed with a bike lock and that wasn’t much of a problem because Mitch had brought bolt cutters. The road back to the house, once a nice grated limerock, was now a hot mess of grass, potholes, and wash outs until we got closer to the house. When we finally pulled into the roundabout that doubled as a parking area I just looked and blinked.
Finally I turned to Mitch, who’d been doing his own looking and said, “Sure is … er … red.”
“Yeah. Supposedly they took it back to the original paint color on the grist mill.”
“Suuure they did,” I said shaking my head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a building that … red. Not even the old brick mill on the river in town … the one they were going to renovate into some kind of tourist trap.”
Mitch was still looking around. He wasn’t ignoring me, but I didn’t have his undivided attention either. That made me look around trying to figure out what he was seeing that I wasn’t. Since I’d finally stopped talking I’d noticed how quiet it was and started to say so to Mitch. Day late, dollar short.
I saw them a second too late. I took my foot off the break but didn’t get to give it enough gas before a guy had run up on my side and reached in and was opening my door to pull me out. I finally got my foot to obey my brain and stomp the gas, but all I did was knock down the guy that had been coming on Mitch’s side. Apparently I also kinda knocked down and squished a third guy who had run between the trailer and the back of the truck which had been a dumb move on his part.
The guy on my side had me halfway out of the truck and Mitch was fighting with a fourth guy. All I can remember thinking is, “I ain’t doing this again. Nope. Uh uh. I ain’t doing this again.”
I was falling out of the cab headfirst, but I wasn’t coming out all the way because my seatbelt was still on. I was out and upside down enough to grab a decorative brick that held in the gravel at the edge of the house’s turnaround. The guy is so busy trying to pull me out he doesn’t realize I can’t come out ‘cause I’m tied in and being cut in two from the feel of it. Then I start banging at him with the brick and get him on the ankle and side of his knee real good. I’m sure it hurt him but what it really did was make him mad enough that he remembered to undo the belt and I finished popping out with him helping me to go flying on the gravel.
Before I could pull myself together, he took two giant steps and made to grab me. Uh uh. I was not doing it again. No guy was gonna rape me and I knew what to do to fix him wanting to. All him getting close to me did was make it possible for me to fight back. I grabbed him in the front of his pants and wrenched like I was yanking out a stubborn burdock specimen. Oh my Lord, the guy suddenly sang soprano, “Let go let go let goooo!!!!!”
Then I turned pit bull and bit him on the thigh right near where I was yanking at him. Yowzer. Who knew a guy’s voice could get that high and loud? He turned loose of me and tried to back up but all that did was cause him to trip and … well this is the gross part, but when he fell the back of his head came down on one of them cockeyed bricks and … and his head couldn’t take the punishment. No rest for the wicked and I wasn’t running away and leaving Mitch. He wasn’t likely to be most girls’ idea of Prince Charming, but he was mine and then some and I wasn’t losing him. No way, no how.
Guy #3 was recovering from his getting squished. Sorta anyway. But having rough housed with Dale all my life I was in a mood and decided to play mean. I took Guy #3 down at the knees with a Little Sister Tackle and he made a woofing sound as he went down and got the wind knocked out of him. He stayed down because I jumped up and then stomped him in the head a couple of times in a move that Dale had said was in the rule book of what girls are allowed to do to guys that try and do you know what to them. Have I mentioned I am not built like Thumbelina?
I heard a bang and turned to find that Guy #4 and Guy #1 were ganging up on Mitch and that Guy #4 had a gun but apparently could hit the broad side of a barn because how he missed Mitch while being that close to him is a mystery. And then the nutcase pulled the trigger again right as Guy #1 had decided to try for another go at Mitch. Guy #1 went down due to “friendly fire.” He went down when his friend fired.
Guy #4 was cussing, and I will not admit how I knew what he was saying even though he was doing it in Spanish. Even Dale would kill me for that one. Mitch and Guy #4 are really going at it. I see the gun go flying and run for it only I see a woman come running at me with a bat that she’s turned into a honest to gawd mace … as in driven long landscaping nails through it so that there are spikes sticking out all over at the business end. What … the … heck?!
Instead of grabbing the gun my foot decides to go *PING* and don’t you know I wound up kicking the gun under the truck. ARGH! I barely get out of the way of her first swing or my head would have gone sailing over centerfield fence … if there had been a fence anyway. Only thing that is handy for my self-defense are the long bolt cutters that are on the floorboard on Mitch’s side and I use ‘em to keep the crazy lady with a bat from perforating me with her zombie killing toy. I don’t feel like running anymore and go on the offense. The next part is even more gross than Guy #2’s head. I was just trying to damage the bat enough so it wouldn’t be so good of a weapon. I opened the bolt cutters and turned and ran at her surprising her enough that she didn’t swing at me and … well … instead of getting the handle of the bat I got her wrist. And before either of us realized what I had done I … er … closed the bolt cutters and … the bolt cutters did what they were designed to do.
The woman dropped the bat – really didn’t have any choice – and grabbed her … well, she ran off and there was a lot of blood. I’m freaking grossed out at what I had done but turned to find Mitch and Guy #4 still going at it only the guy now has a knife. I figure in for a penny, in for a pound and … I bolt cutted the guy’s leg right below his butt cheek. I was going for his kidney but … uh … missed. I don’t know what I cut … I mean besides the obvious … but blood gooshed out.
There was a bang that came from the house and my arm starts burning and then goes numb. Mitch finally has time to grab his rifle and takes out the guy that had been in the front door and then another that was stupid enough to be leaning out an upstairs window. He then drags us to the relative safety of the other side of the truck.
“Stay here!” he ordered before disappearing.
I know I should have been more concerned with that, but I was looking at my arm. There’s a hole in my jacket sleeve. I carefully take it off. There’s a hole in my shirt sleeve in the same place. I knew somehow that was wrong. There was no blood, but something was still wrong. I pull my sleeve up and there’s a bullet in my arm. It was a little .22 but that still qualifies as a bullet. Actually it was about three-quarters of the way into my arm. I can still see the end sticking out. I knew it couldn’t be in very far and there wasn’t any blood. I just couldn’t seem to compute it and just keeps staring.
I don’t know how long I was just looking at this bullet part in and part out of my arm and thinking there should be blood. Suddenly Mitch was there and was saying something but it wasn’t registering. I looked at him and said, “Get it out. I don’t like it.”
“Nann?”
“Get it out. There should be blood but there isn’t and that’s just wrong.”
He finally saw what I’d been looking at and I swear his face went white as a sheet, but he stayed calm. “Are you hurtin’?” he asked me as he tried to put his jacket around me.
“Don’t do that. I’ll get blood on it and then have to wash it and you’ve only had it on once since the last time and …”
“Nann … look at me Sweetheart. You’re in shock. Just let me put this around your shoulders and then … then I’m going to …”
“Get it out or I’m going to pull it out. I want it out right now.”
Well when I grabbed it and finally yanked it out I caught him off guard.
“Dammit Girl. Hold still. Hold still I said!”
When I saw the blood everything finally fell back into place but all I could do was say, “Guess I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I ain’t gonna have a single hair left on my head. I’m gonna have to go around in one of Grammy’s old wigs in the winter to keep my noggin’ from freezing.”
For some reason that set me to giggling; however, by the time Mitch was done putting direct pressure on the puncture I was more than a little lightheaded.
I was finally sure that I wasn’t going to upchuck every place only then the embarrassment set in and I realized I’d been acting really ditzy. To show I was tougher than I had been acting I said, “Deckers 1, Land Pirates 0? Right?”
He looked at me funny then kissed my forehead. “That’s right.”
“Are … are there anymore of them? The woman I was fighting with ran off.”
In a real matter of fact tone Mitch said, “She didn’t get far.”
The only problem with the gate was that it was chained closed with a bike lock and that wasn’t much of a problem because Mitch had brought bolt cutters. The road back to the house, once a nice grated limerock, was now a hot mess of grass, potholes, and wash outs until we got closer to the house. When we finally pulled into the roundabout that doubled as a parking area I just looked and blinked.
Finally I turned to Mitch, who’d been doing his own looking and said, “Sure is … er … red.”
“Yeah. Supposedly they took it back to the original paint color on the grist mill.”
“Suuure they did,” I said shaking my head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a building that … red. Not even the old brick mill on the river in town … the one they were going to renovate into some kind of tourist trap.”
Mitch was still looking around. He wasn’t ignoring me, but I didn’t have his undivided attention either. That made me look around trying to figure out what he was seeing that I wasn’t. Since I’d finally stopped talking I’d noticed how quiet it was and started to say so to Mitch. Day late, dollar short.
I saw them a second too late. I took my foot off the break but didn’t get to give it enough gas before a guy had run up on my side and reached in and was opening my door to pull me out. I finally got my foot to obey my brain and stomp the gas, but all I did was knock down the guy that had been coming on Mitch’s side. Apparently I also kinda knocked down and squished a third guy who had run between the trailer and the back of the truck which had been a dumb move on his part.
The guy on my side had me halfway out of the truck and Mitch was fighting with a fourth guy. All I can remember thinking is, “I ain’t doing this again. Nope. Uh uh. I ain’t doing this again.”
I was falling out of the cab headfirst, but I wasn’t coming out all the way because my seatbelt was still on. I was out and upside down enough to grab a decorative brick that held in the gravel at the edge of the house’s turnaround. The guy is so busy trying to pull me out he doesn’t realize I can’t come out ‘cause I’m tied in and being cut in two from the feel of it. Then I start banging at him with the brick and get him on the ankle and side of his knee real good. I’m sure it hurt him but what it really did was make him mad enough that he remembered to undo the belt and I finished popping out with him helping me to go flying on the gravel.
Before I could pull myself together, he took two giant steps and made to grab me. Uh uh. I was not doing it again. No guy was gonna rape me and I knew what to do to fix him wanting to. All him getting close to me did was make it possible for me to fight back. I grabbed him in the front of his pants and wrenched like I was yanking out a stubborn burdock specimen. Oh my Lord, the guy suddenly sang soprano, “Let go let go let goooo!!!!!”
Then I turned pit bull and bit him on the thigh right near where I was yanking at him. Yowzer. Who knew a guy’s voice could get that high and loud? He turned loose of me and tried to back up but all that did was cause him to trip and … well this is the gross part, but when he fell the back of his head came down on one of them cockeyed bricks and … and his head couldn’t take the punishment. No rest for the wicked and I wasn’t running away and leaving Mitch. He wasn’t likely to be most girls’ idea of Prince Charming, but he was mine and then some and I wasn’t losing him. No way, no how.
Guy #3 was recovering from his getting squished. Sorta anyway. But having rough housed with Dale all my life I was in a mood and decided to play mean. I took Guy #3 down at the knees with a Little Sister Tackle and he made a woofing sound as he went down and got the wind knocked out of him. He stayed down because I jumped up and then stomped him in the head a couple of times in a move that Dale had said was in the rule book of what girls are allowed to do to guys that try and do you know what to them. Have I mentioned I am not built like Thumbelina?
I heard a bang and turned to find that Guy #4 and Guy #1 were ganging up on Mitch and that Guy #4 had a gun but apparently could hit the broad side of a barn because how he missed Mitch while being that close to him is a mystery. And then the nutcase pulled the trigger again right as Guy #1 had decided to try for another go at Mitch. Guy #1 went down due to “friendly fire.” He went down when his friend fired.
Guy #4 was cussing, and I will not admit how I knew what he was saying even though he was doing it in Spanish. Even Dale would kill me for that one. Mitch and Guy #4 are really going at it. I see the gun go flying and run for it only I see a woman come running at me with a bat that she’s turned into a honest to gawd mace … as in driven long landscaping nails through it so that there are spikes sticking out all over at the business end. What … the … heck?!
Instead of grabbing the gun my foot decides to go *PING* and don’t you know I wound up kicking the gun under the truck. ARGH! I barely get out of the way of her first swing or my head would have gone sailing over centerfield fence … if there had been a fence anyway. Only thing that is handy for my self-defense are the long bolt cutters that are on the floorboard on Mitch’s side and I use ‘em to keep the crazy lady with a bat from perforating me with her zombie killing toy. I don’t feel like running anymore and go on the offense. The next part is even more gross than Guy #2’s head. I was just trying to damage the bat enough so it wouldn’t be so good of a weapon. I opened the bolt cutters and turned and ran at her surprising her enough that she didn’t swing at me and … well … instead of getting the handle of the bat I got her wrist. And before either of us realized what I had done I … er … closed the bolt cutters and … the bolt cutters did what they were designed to do.
The woman dropped the bat – really didn’t have any choice – and grabbed her … well, she ran off and there was a lot of blood. I’m freaking grossed out at what I had done but turned to find Mitch and Guy #4 still going at it only the guy now has a knife. I figure in for a penny, in for a pound and … I bolt cutted the guy’s leg right below his butt cheek. I was going for his kidney but … uh … missed. I don’t know what I cut … I mean besides the obvious … but blood gooshed out.
There was a bang that came from the house and my arm starts burning and then goes numb. Mitch finally has time to grab his rifle and takes out the guy that had been in the front door and then another that was stupid enough to be leaning out an upstairs window. He then drags us to the relative safety of the other side of the truck.
“Stay here!” he ordered before disappearing.
I know I should have been more concerned with that, but I was looking at my arm. There’s a hole in my jacket sleeve. I carefully take it off. There’s a hole in my shirt sleeve in the same place. I knew somehow that was wrong. There was no blood, but something was still wrong. I pull my sleeve up and there’s a bullet in my arm. It was a little .22 but that still qualifies as a bullet. Actually it was about three-quarters of the way into my arm. I can still see the end sticking out. I knew it couldn’t be in very far and there wasn’t any blood. I just couldn’t seem to compute it and just keeps staring.
I don’t know how long I was just looking at this bullet part in and part out of my arm and thinking there should be blood. Suddenly Mitch was there and was saying something but it wasn’t registering. I looked at him and said, “Get it out. I don’t like it.”
“Nann?”
“Get it out. There should be blood but there isn’t and that’s just wrong.”
He finally saw what I’d been looking at and I swear his face went white as a sheet, but he stayed calm. “Are you hurtin’?” he asked me as he tried to put his jacket around me.
“Don’t do that. I’ll get blood on it and then have to wash it and you’ve only had it on once since the last time and …”
“Nann … look at me Sweetheart. You’re in shock. Just let me put this around your shoulders and then … then I’m going to …”
“Get it out or I’m going to pull it out. I want it out right now.”
Well when I grabbed it and finally yanked it out I caught him off guard.
“Dammit Girl. Hold still. Hold still I said!”
When I saw the blood everything finally fell back into place but all I could do was say, “Guess I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I ain’t gonna have a single hair left on my head. I’m gonna have to go around in one of Grammy’s old wigs in the winter to keep my noggin’ from freezing.”
For some reason that set me to giggling; however, by the time Mitch was done putting direct pressure on the puncture I was more than a little lightheaded.
I was finally sure that I wasn’t going to upchuck every place only then the embarrassment set in and I realized I’d been acting really ditzy. To show I was tougher than I had been acting I said, “Deckers 1, Land Pirates 0? Right?”
He looked at me funny then kissed my forehead. “That’s right.”
“Are … are there anymore of them? The woman I was fighting with ran off.”
In a real matter of fact tone Mitch said, “She didn’t get far.”
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you, one does , what one has to do. They could have been friendly instead of attacking, but that isn't what they did.
Chapter 30
I suppose that some people would think that Mitch should have rushed me back to the house and me wind up in Grammy’s rocker with my feet hiked up on a poof stool acting all fragile and stuff. Well, I’m not breakable. And so long as nothing banged into my arm I wasn’t doing too bad. It was bruising, but I wasn’t dying.
“Seriously Mitch, the only reason we need to go is if you think there might be more of them.”
“Nah. Unless they got reinforcements coming … dang it Nann. Darlin’ are you sure you …? I need to teach you a few things. Dammit to hell, I knew something felt a little off but …” He shook his head, angry enough at himself that I didn’t want to see him take it any further.
“I’ll be a girl about the whole thing later when it is more convenient if it will make you happy. For now … let’s just do this. ‘Cause I know you Mitch Decker. Unless you can make sure that there aren’t any more Land Pirates around, we aren’t going to be doing any more salvaging – though you just might decide it is still necessary and go off on your own.”
He gave me a thoughtful look. “You know a guy should start worryin’ when he is so easy to read.”
“You aren’t easy to read, I just know you. And I hope you know me well enough by now that I’d rather us do things together than be left on the farm worryin’ myself sick that you … that you won’t ever come home.”
He put his forehead to mine for a moment then straightened back up and sighed. “Your dad would kill me for this but … you’re right. Just don’t hide when that starts hurtin’,” he said while looking at the bandage he’d put on my arm.
“It probably won’t start ‘til tonight, after that horse pill you gave me starts wearing off. And … and … I might need you to hold me some. But not because I got hurt.” I couldn’t look where Mitch had dragged all the bodies.
“Tell you what, we’ll hold each other. My heart still ain’t climbed all the way back in my chest from you getting hurt. That … wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Things like this never are. Just don’t start thinking it is your fault. These are Land Pirates and that’s the sorta thing they do.”
“Yeah they do. Just in case I’m not correct, you stay close, you hear? And I’m fitting a holster for the Glock for you. Doesn’t do a damn bit of good in the glove compartment.”
“Uh …”
“We both gonna have to change the way with think and what we do. It’s just gonna have to be Nann. God help us both.”
I’m not going to bother recording for posterity how slow and careful we were giving everything our first look over. However, the number of sleeping areas proved to be fewer than the number of Land Pirates which was easily explained by the fact that two of the dead were females … the one I’d been in a fight with and another that looked road hard and hung up nasty that had obviously done for herself by taking something. The foam wasn’t even completely dry around her mouth and nose.
“Why would she do something like that?” I don’t know if it was pity or disgust I was feeling.
Mitch looked like he wasn’t eager to explain that bit of life to me, but he did which made me respect him even more than I already did.
“Not all of women in the Sal … er … Land Pirate groups start off being in there willingly. Either they are drug along by a boyfriend or husband or they’re … they’re … uh …”
I sigh. “Party favors.”
Mitch looked at me then shook his head. “I’m not sure I even want to know how you could know that sort of term.”
“It was in the news one time. I wouldn’t have caught it, but Dad and Dale turned off the TV all of a sudden and started acting the way they do when they are trying to distract me from noticing something. I let them but then went online and figured it out for myself. So you think that girl … woman … whatever … was one of those types?”
“Or she was already a drug addict and took up with this group in exchange for something to help with her habit.”
“I hope …”
“What?”
“I just hope they’ve got Lisa on a chain so she doesn’t get this stupid.”
“Sometimes you can’t save people Nann.” I could hear him thinking about his bio-mon.
“Fine. I get that. But whether we can save Lisa or not, this is not the way I’d want her to go.”
“Just don’t let it eat at you. We got enough to worry about.”
I nodded in understanding and we finished our first look around.
We were standing by the truck and trying to come up with a game plan. Mitch said, “The easiest would be to try and get everything on the trailer then I drive the van that is already loaded. You up for it?”
“Right now I am. Where’d all this stuff come from? This is even more than those Land Pirates that killed themselves had.”
“It’s possible one of those groups were part of this group. That van with the roll-down in the back with the bullet holes could be a twin for the one parked at the backside of this place.”
“If you say so. They both had Mississippi State Fair stickers on the rear bumpers.”
“Okay. If you say so,” he said back to me with a grin. I gave him an atomic eye roll, but he got serious and concerned. “Nann, you need to tell me if you start hurting. I’ll admit I need your help getting this stuff loaded but having to ask isn’t making me feel real good and I’m worried it’s going to make you hurt worse for longer.”
“Let me back the trailer up next to the van. They set up a ramp back there and it will make it easier to move everything with the dolly. At least it was my right hand. Being a lefty seems to have some benefits this time.”
The “land pirates” had a good-sized operation. Not the biggest one Mitch has ever seen but these guys were not small fry either. He was pretty sure they’d been using the Old Mill House as their base of operations for a couple of months at least. The evacuation of town might have caught them off guard or that could be when they moved in, might have found the location by accident. We’ll never know. They had run through whatever gas was left in the propane tank because you could tell they were cooking and heating water on the fancy fire pit in the outdoor seating area that must have been real fun once the mosquitos started hatching.
There were two delivery vans on the grounds … the one that was loaded and was the twin of the one Mitch had already run into, and another one that was disabled and looked like what was left when a bear decided it wanted whatever was inside. The van that proved it wasn’t bear-proof wasn’t drivable. The other van only had about half a tank of fuel in it.
“They mighta just brought in a load or were about to bug out to a new location. Hard to tell. I don’t see any extra fuel so it’s an either/or situation. They’d obviously loaded their best stuff into the van at some point. Might have been planning to come back for the rest ‘cause there is more than a van-full left inside. Once we get what all else we want, I need some help finding the septic tank.”
It took little over an hour to load what was left in the house onto the trailer. Would have taken longer but Mitch said we’d go through it once we got it back to the farm, that for now speed was more important than curiosity. I was giving things in the house a last look over while Mitch used the septic tank to “get rid of the bodies” since there was too many to bury or anything else other than what we were doing to them. He wanted anyone that might come afterwards to think this group had double crossed them and run off or something along that order. Thankfully Mitch didn’t want me to help or watch or anything and told me to do the final walk through.
The house had been really nice and could still be nice … after a huge cleaning team went to town on it. There was expensive furniture still inside in every room but it hadn’t weathered being abandoned very well, and it hadn’t been treated kindly by the Land Pirates. Everything was nasty. Not as nasty as it could have been I suppose, but it wasn’t what I would call hygienic. Walls and counters were grimy. Bathrooms were infested with mold and mildew and the linens that had been in there weren’t worth messing with since we weren’t desperate for more. The dishes and silverware still in the kitchen wasn’t clean either and we didn’t need it. There was enough of that sort of thing back at the farm to feed the whole family and a bunch of fieldhands too all at the same time. I did take down one of the broken blinds cause I wanted the slats out of them to make garden markers with because my seedling identification skills weren’t quite ready for prime time.
I made myself go in every closet top to bottom … nothing in the attic thank goodness. Then I started wondering where the basement access was. I knew there was one because Dad, Dale, and I used to hike this way before the land and mill had been sold and the area fenced off. I tried to remember what the place had looked like back then and where the basement stairs had been. There was a room where you put bottles of wine over that area now, but all of the bottles were gone or drunk up by the Land Pirates. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to look and when I was done giving it a look I stomped out onto the porch and cranked at Mitch, “Land Pirates are stupid and rich people are crazy.”
Mitch turned a carefully blank face to me then something about the way I looked – hands on hips and completely out of patience – caught him sideways funny.
“Oh Lord, what did you find this time?”
I suppose that some people would think that Mitch should have rushed me back to the house and me wind up in Grammy’s rocker with my feet hiked up on a poof stool acting all fragile and stuff. Well, I’m not breakable. And so long as nothing banged into my arm I wasn’t doing too bad. It was bruising, but I wasn’t dying.
“Seriously Mitch, the only reason we need to go is if you think there might be more of them.”
“Nah. Unless they got reinforcements coming … dang it Nann. Darlin’ are you sure you …? I need to teach you a few things. Dammit to hell, I knew something felt a little off but …” He shook his head, angry enough at himself that I didn’t want to see him take it any further.
“I’ll be a girl about the whole thing later when it is more convenient if it will make you happy. For now … let’s just do this. ‘Cause I know you Mitch Decker. Unless you can make sure that there aren’t any more Land Pirates around, we aren’t going to be doing any more salvaging – though you just might decide it is still necessary and go off on your own.”
He gave me a thoughtful look. “You know a guy should start worryin’ when he is so easy to read.”
“You aren’t easy to read, I just know you. And I hope you know me well enough by now that I’d rather us do things together than be left on the farm worryin’ myself sick that you … that you won’t ever come home.”
He put his forehead to mine for a moment then straightened back up and sighed. “Your dad would kill me for this but … you’re right. Just don’t hide when that starts hurtin’,” he said while looking at the bandage he’d put on my arm.
“It probably won’t start ‘til tonight, after that horse pill you gave me starts wearing off. And … and … I might need you to hold me some. But not because I got hurt.” I couldn’t look where Mitch had dragged all the bodies.
“Tell you what, we’ll hold each other. My heart still ain’t climbed all the way back in my chest from you getting hurt. That … wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Things like this never are. Just don’t start thinking it is your fault. These are Land Pirates and that’s the sorta thing they do.”
“Yeah they do. Just in case I’m not correct, you stay close, you hear? And I’m fitting a holster for the Glock for you. Doesn’t do a damn bit of good in the glove compartment.”
“Uh …”
“We both gonna have to change the way with think and what we do. It’s just gonna have to be Nann. God help us both.”
I’m not going to bother recording for posterity how slow and careful we were giving everything our first look over. However, the number of sleeping areas proved to be fewer than the number of Land Pirates which was easily explained by the fact that two of the dead were females … the one I’d been in a fight with and another that looked road hard and hung up nasty that had obviously done for herself by taking something. The foam wasn’t even completely dry around her mouth and nose.
“Why would she do something like that?” I don’t know if it was pity or disgust I was feeling.
Mitch looked like he wasn’t eager to explain that bit of life to me, but he did which made me respect him even more than I already did.
“Not all of women in the Sal … er … Land Pirate groups start off being in there willingly. Either they are drug along by a boyfriend or husband or they’re … they’re … uh …”
I sigh. “Party favors.”
Mitch looked at me then shook his head. “I’m not sure I even want to know how you could know that sort of term.”
“It was in the news one time. I wouldn’t have caught it, but Dad and Dale turned off the TV all of a sudden and started acting the way they do when they are trying to distract me from noticing something. I let them but then went online and figured it out for myself. So you think that girl … woman … whatever … was one of those types?”
“Or she was already a drug addict and took up with this group in exchange for something to help with her habit.”
“I hope …”
“What?”
“I just hope they’ve got Lisa on a chain so she doesn’t get this stupid.”
“Sometimes you can’t save people Nann.” I could hear him thinking about his bio-mon.
“Fine. I get that. But whether we can save Lisa or not, this is not the way I’d want her to go.”
“Just don’t let it eat at you. We got enough to worry about.”
I nodded in understanding and we finished our first look around.
We were standing by the truck and trying to come up with a game plan. Mitch said, “The easiest would be to try and get everything on the trailer then I drive the van that is already loaded. You up for it?”
“Right now I am. Where’d all this stuff come from? This is even more than those Land Pirates that killed themselves had.”
“It’s possible one of those groups were part of this group. That van with the roll-down in the back with the bullet holes could be a twin for the one parked at the backside of this place.”
“If you say so. They both had Mississippi State Fair stickers on the rear bumpers.”
“Okay. If you say so,” he said back to me with a grin. I gave him an atomic eye roll, but he got serious and concerned. “Nann, you need to tell me if you start hurting. I’ll admit I need your help getting this stuff loaded but having to ask isn’t making me feel real good and I’m worried it’s going to make you hurt worse for longer.”
“Let me back the trailer up next to the van. They set up a ramp back there and it will make it easier to move everything with the dolly. At least it was my right hand. Being a lefty seems to have some benefits this time.”
The “land pirates” had a good-sized operation. Not the biggest one Mitch has ever seen but these guys were not small fry either. He was pretty sure they’d been using the Old Mill House as their base of operations for a couple of months at least. The evacuation of town might have caught them off guard or that could be when they moved in, might have found the location by accident. We’ll never know. They had run through whatever gas was left in the propane tank because you could tell they were cooking and heating water on the fancy fire pit in the outdoor seating area that must have been real fun once the mosquitos started hatching.
There were two delivery vans on the grounds … the one that was loaded and was the twin of the one Mitch had already run into, and another one that was disabled and looked like what was left when a bear decided it wanted whatever was inside. The van that proved it wasn’t bear-proof wasn’t drivable. The other van only had about half a tank of fuel in it.
“They mighta just brought in a load or were about to bug out to a new location. Hard to tell. I don’t see any extra fuel so it’s an either/or situation. They’d obviously loaded their best stuff into the van at some point. Might have been planning to come back for the rest ‘cause there is more than a van-full left inside. Once we get what all else we want, I need some help finding the septic tank.”
It took little over an hour to load what was left in the house onto the trailer. Would have taken longer but Mitch said we’d go through it once we got it back to the farm, that for now speed was more important than curiosity. I was giving things in the house a last look over while Mitch used the septic tank to “get rid of the bodies” since there was too many to bury or anything else other than what we were doing to them. He wanted anyone that might come afterwards to think this group had double crossed them and run off or something along that order. Thankfully Mitch didn’t want me to help or watch or anything and told me to do the final walk through.
The house had been really nice and could still be nice … after a huge cleaning team went to town on it. There was expensive furniture still inside in every room but it hadn’t weathered being abandoned very well, and it hadn’t been treated kindly by the Land Pirates. Everything was nasty. Not as nasty as it could have been I suppose, but it wasn’t what I would call hygienic. Walls and counters were grimy. Bathrooms were infested with mold and mildew and the linens that had been in there weren’t worth messing with since we weren’t desperate for more. The dishes and silverware still in the kitchen wasn’t clean either and we didn’t need it. There was enough of that sort of thing back at the farm to feed the whole family and a bunch of fieldhands too all at the same time. I did take down one of the broken blinds cause I wanted the slats out of them to make garden markers with because my seedling identification skills weren’t quite ready for prime time.
I made myself go in every closet top to bottom … nothing in the attic thank goodness. Then I started wondering where the basement access was. I knew there was one because Dad, Dale, and I used to hike this way before the land and mill had been sold and the area fenced off. I tried to remember what the place had looked like back then and where the basement stairs had been. There was a room where you put bottles of wine over that area now, but all of the bottles were gone or drunk up by the Land Pirates. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to look and when I was done giving it a look I stomped out onto the porch and cranked at Mitch, “Land Pirates are stupid and rich people are crazy.”
Mitch turned a carefully blank face to me then something about the way I looked – hands on hips and completely out of patience – caught him sideways funny.
“Oh Lord, what did you find this time?”
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Aaahhhh, now we have to wait to figure out the latest find! Thanks for the chapters, a nice treat!!!!
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you.
Chapter 31
“Yep, you’re right.”
“I am?” I asked, surprised that Mitch had sorta agreed with my tantrum.
“Yep. People are stupid and crazy. Guess there was a reason we brought the long, livestock trailer.”
“Yeah, in case we rain into livestock,” I told him deadpan. “Galvanized trash cans full of stuff do not qualify as livestock.”
“Sure they do Sweetheart. Over there is powered milk. If I’m believing the label on the one I stubbed my toe on is full of freeze-dried steaks. And a couple of them are labeled freeze dried ground beef. That’s a herd of cows right there. Now this one is full of powdered eggs and that one is freeze-dried chicken meat. There’s us a flock of …”
“Ha … Ha,” I said right before sticking my tongue out and making Mitch laugh. “So tell me just what I’m supposed to make of those cases of canned ostrich and emu meat, canned snails, canned golden berries from South America, and canned pork brains. And I’m not sure I even want to know what canned spotted dick is. I mean seriously?!!”
Mitch is snickering and trying to answer me but can’t get nothing to come out.
“And on the other side of the grocery aisle there is semi-normal stuff like canned hams, canned spam, canned cheese, canned butter, canned bacon, and canned brown bread next to the weird-o vegetables like canned mushy peas, canned candied chestnuts, canned artichoke bottoms, and I don’t even want to know what black garlic and canned jackfruit is.”
Mitch is starting to hold his stomach at this point.
“Now I can understand all the canned seafood ‘cause most of it is normal food though someone did love them some sardines, pate’, and caviar … and even if I just barely know what a conch and an abalone is I still kinda understand it. But what rancid brained individual thought canned chocolate covered silkworms belonged this side of hell’s gate?! And to make it worse there are canned chocolate covered scorpions in that same crate! You know, rich people aren’t just crazy, some of them appear to be as crazy as a peach orchard boar drunk on sour mash!”
Mitch is near howling by this time and all I can do is stomp over to a folding ramp that had been installed where the old coal chute had been and start pulling it down.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa there Nann. Have a snit but don’t re-injure that arm. Let me get it.” He’s snorting and coughing around the laughter he is trying to get control of but also trying to move me so he can pull the ramp down instead of me.
I told him, “We are not bringing them canned bugs. I don’t care if they are dipped in chocolate and me with PMS from the devil’s smelly armpit. I don’t care if we are close to starving. I ain’t havin’ ‘em in the house.”
“What about all them Hershey bars I spotted?”
That stopped me. “Welllll, maybe they weren’t completely useless individuals but even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
He chuckles. “And the canned peanuts, canned hominy, canned bamboo shoots and water chestnuts?”
“I’ll take them over the canned roasted eel. Yuck.”
He snickered before asking, “Think I could talk you in to making salmon croquettes out of one of those cans of salmon?”
“You don’t need to talk me into it. If you want it I’ll fix it. Um … you mind me trying out a recipe for street tacos I have using one of those cans of pork roast? I just have to remember how to make corn tortillas. It’s been a while.”
He starts snickering again. “What my Nann wants my Nann gets,” he finally manages between snorts.
“Well,” I told him my disgust finally winding down a few pegs. “Your Nann is pretty sure this ramp is a neat idea and she wants one too.”
“Great minds think alike. Let’s get the dolly and when I come up with the first load you can help me by taking measurements of it. If this one fits, we can come back tomorrow and get it assuming I can figure a way to detach it.”
“I’ve already looked. It’s just long pins in the hinges … like the ones on the old well house.”
He took a quick peek and agreed with my assessment except he added, “There’s a couple of springs here. I can get them off but reinstalling them is not going to be fun or easy. Let’s just focus on this stuff first. You want any of the furniture in the house?”
“Uh uh. I’ve already got enough to take care of, and what we have looks to be holding up better than the fancy stuff upstairs. Not to mention it would look really weird next to your farmhouse style.”
“Our farmhouse,” he told me making my head feel on fire and my brain cave in at how big an idea that was. “And if there is something you want to change, just say so.”
I shook my head and had to clear my throat before I could say anything. “I was serious about the stuff at home being better suited than the stuff here. If we want to change anything, we can start by looking in the attic. Grammy used to laugh and say the family had a couple more houses hid up there for just in case. I’ve looked a few times and she wasn’t really kidding. I was supposed to help her go through the stuff in there this summer.”
I stopped because my feelings had started getting sad. I may not have lived with Grammy and Uncle Hy full time, but I spent a good part of my life with them, and it was still hard to believe I would never see them again … at least not on this plain of existence. Mitch sensed what I was feeling and shared it, but he could be nearly as practical as Mom and got us back on track.
An hour later and I was starting to get tired. “How you holding up Sweetheart?”
I looked and though tempted to lie so I wouldn’t hold us up I stuck to the truth. “I’m sorry Mitch, I’m … I’m running out of steam.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long.”
“But there were those other two places you wanted to stop.”
Mitch thought about it. “You up for driving the long way back to the farm? It’ll probably be a little easier on the trailer.”
I thought about it. “How much longer around?” I asked letting him know I really was losing steam.
“Only adds about 30 minutes of driving time. Depends on what, if anything we find.”
“You mind eating soup for supper?”
“Nann, I don’t expect you to cook tonight.”
“You sure? ‘Cause I could use a night off. Gonna need one after we get this stuff unloaded tonight.”
Mitch shook his head and wiped his face with a bandana. “We aren’t unloading this tonight. I say we back the trailer into the tractor barn, I’ll drive this van into the tool shed, we padlock them tonight, and we stay around the house tomorrow.”
“But … you … you aren’t leaving me tomorrow are you?”
“Nope. I want us to … er … take stock. This is a lot to try and find a place for and we need to …” He got a suddenly serious look on his face. “Nann we need to talk about security and how we’ve been doing things. I’ve let things slide because we haven’t seen anyone beyond PeeDee and those first two salvage … I mean those first two groups of Land Pirates. That was a while back. Now this bunch comes along and … it could have turned out a lot worse than it did. This bunch didn’t have any military training, but they still got the jump on us and they shouldn’t have. I felt something was off and didn’t act on my instincts. That’s gonna stop. Now. It has to. I know your aim is good but we need to talk a few things through and set a different way of doing things than you … er … might be comfortable with.”
Having already thought about it I said, “First, I need to stop talking so much until we’re sure the coast is clear. And second, you need to know I can shoot someone if I have to.”
“Sweetheart …”
“You don’t need to baby me Mitch. Me yakking like a song stuck on repeat is a bad habit that I’ve never had before and shouldn’t have now. I’ll work on it. Just don’t think something is off if I practice around the farm instead of having diarrhea of the mouth like I have been doing.”
“Nann, you don’t need to be so mean to yourself. Yeah, it’ll help if … er … look, you aren’t the only one that has gotten into bad habits but I’m the one that has the experience and should have led us down a different path. Let’s just … look, today was a shock to you and you are already getting tired. We’ll get into the details tomorrow. I’d take you straight home and let you rest if I could but we need to finish this out so we don’t have to do too many repeats on the roads and eat up fuel we have.”
“You lead, I’ll follow,” I told him.
He got a real warm look on his face and though I hadn’t meant it any other way than what was said, apparently that kind of thing makes a guy feel good. It’s a thing I’ve observed my entire life … Dad, Dale, the guys in the crew, etc and etc. Mitch isn’t any different except he respects me right back and gives me credit I used to only get from Dale and even with him I was always the little sister.
# # # # #
“Nann you shoulda let me pull those onions,” Mitch said as he replaced the bandage on my arm.
“You were busy and we are in this together. I won’t sit around while you do all the work.”
He gave me a look and shook his head and muttered, “Stubborn as all get out.” After he finished tying the new bandage off he said, “At least let me load those bags. Next time let me know what you are getting up to.”
“You were busy.”
“I wasn’t too busy. I coulda helped and it might have saved you the hurt.”
I knew what he was saying and nodded my understanding but added, “I know what’s important and seeing if you could get into that farm tank was important. I didn’t realize how many of the Egyptian walking onions there were. It was just hard to stop once I started pulling them up.”
“And that asparagus?”
“A lucky find. Mitch, I’m fine.”
“You woulda been if you had stopped after the asparagus but you went a bit more than you needed to when you pulled them beets.”
“Well … I was just surprised to see them. I thought you said no one lives here.”
“No one does, long as I can remember it has only been a hunting lodge. And you can tell the garden hasn’t been cultivated. Only thing the trailer has in it is mildew and no one has been around to walk down the grass since it started coming up from the look of things. Someone was here, I grant you that, but it is abandoned now.”
I looked around. “Just seems strange to have a garden … or a sorta garden … and nothing else. I mean except for the farm tank.”
“Ain’t much fuel in it but I siphoned off what I could. Gonna need to treat it and let it set though. Don’t know how old it is. But second wind or not, it is time I get you home. The animals need takin’ care of too.”
“I know the one before this was a bust, but this knocks all the places off your list right? I mean the ones for today?”
He looked at me and smiled gentle. “Yeah Nann, it does. You held up real good. But now let’s get you home. You agree?”
I sighed. “Yeah. I’m good with that.”
“Yep, you’re right.”
“I am?” I asked, surprised that Mitch had sorta agreed with my tantrum.
“Yep. People are stupid and crazy. Guess there was a reason we brought the long, livestock trailer.”
“Yeah, in case we rain into livestock,” I told him deadpan. “Galvanized trash cans full of stuff do not qualify as livestock.”
“Sure they do Sweetheart. Over there is powered milk. If I’m believing the label on the one I stubbed my toe on is full of freeze-dried steaks. And a couple of them are labeled freeze dried ground beef. That’s a herd of cows right there. Now this one is full of powdered eggs and that one is freeze-dried chicken meat. There’s us a flock of …”
“Ha … Ha,” I said right before sticking my tongue out and making Mitch laugh. “So tell me just what I’m supposed to make of those cases of canned ostrich and emu meat, canned snails, canned golden berries from South America, and canned pork brains. And I’m not sure I even want to know what canned spotted dick is. I mean seriously?!!”
Mitch is snickering and trying to answer me but can’t get nothing to come out.
“And on the other side of the grocery aisle there is semi-normal stuff like canned hams, canned spam, canned cheese, canned butter, canned bacon, and canned brown bread next to the weird-o vegetables like canned mushy peas, canned candied chestnuts, canned artichoke bottoms, and I don’t even want to know what black garlic and canned jackfruit is.”
Mitch is starting to hold his stomach at this point.
“Now I can understand all the canned seafood ‘cause most of it is normal food though someone did love them some sardines, pate’, and caviar … and even if I just barely know what a conch and an abalone is I still kinda understand it. But what rancid brained individual thought canned chocolate covered silkworms belonged this side of hell’s gate?! And to make it worse there are canned chocolate covered scorpions in that same crate! You know, rich people aren’t just crazy, some of them appear to be as crazy as a peach orchard boar drunk on sour mash!”
Mitch is near howling by this time and all I can do is stomp over to a folding ramp that had been installed where the old coal chute had been and start pulling it down.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa there Nann. Have a snit but don’t re-injure that arm. Let me get it.” He’s snorting and coughing around the laughter he is trying to get control of but also trying to move me so he can pull the ramp down instead of me.
I told him, “We are not bringing them canned bugs. I don’t care if they are dipped in chocolate and me with PMS from the devil’s smelly armpit. I don’t care if we are close to starving. I ain’t havin’ ‘em in the house.”
“What about all them Hershey bars I spotted?”
That stopped me. “Welllll, maybe they weren’t completely useless individuals but even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
He chuckles. “And the canned peanuts, canned hominy, canned bamboo shoots and water chestnuts?”
“I’ll take them over the canned roasted eel. Yuck.”
He snickered before asking, “Think I could talk you in to making salmon croquettes out of one of those cans of salmon?”
“You don’t need to talk me into it. If you want it I’ll fix it. Um … you mind me trying out a recipe for street tacos I have using one of those cans of pork roast? I just have to remember how to make corn tortillas. It’s been a while.”
He starts snickering again. “What my Nann wants my Nann gets,” he finally manages between snorts.
“Well,” I told him my disgust finally winding down a few pegs. “Your Nann is pretty sure this ramp is a neat idea and she wants one too.”
“Great minds think alike. Let’s get the dolly and when I come up with the first load you can help me by taking measurements of it. If this one fits, we can come back tomorrow and get it assuming I can figure a way to detach it.”
“I’ve already looked. It’s just long pins in the hinges … like the ones on the old well house.”
He took a quick peek and agreed with my assessment except he added, “There’s a couple of springs here. I can get them off but reinstalling them is not going to be fun or easy. Let’s just focus on this stuff first. You want any of the furniture in the house?”
“Uh uh. I’ve already got enough to take care of, and what we have looks to be holding up better than the fancy stuff upstairs. Not to mention it would look really weird next to your farmhouse style.”
“Our farmhouse,” he told me making my head feel on fire and my brain cave in at how big an idea that was. “And if there is something you want to change, just say so.”
I shook my head and had to clear my throat before I could say anything. “I was serious about the stuff at home being better suited than the stuff here. If we want to change anything, we can start by looking in the attic. Grammy used to laugh and say the family had a couple more houses hid up there for just in case. I’ve looked a few times and she wasn’t really kidding. I was supposed to help her go through the stuff in there this summer.”
I stopped because my feelings had started getting sad. I may not have lived with Grammy and Uncle Hy full time, but I spent a good part of my life with them, and it was still hard to believe I would never see them again … at least not on this plain of existence. Mitch sensed what I was feeling and shared it, but he could be nearly as practical as Mom and got us back on track.
An hour later and I was starting to get tired. “How you holding up Sweetheart?”
I looked and though tempted to lie so I wouldn’t hold us up I stuck to the truth. “I’m sorry Mitch, I’m … I’m running out of steam.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long.”
“But there were those other two places you wanted to stop.”
Mitch thought about it. “You up for driving the long way back to the farm? It’ll probably be a little easier on the trailer.”
I thought about it. “How much longer around?” I asked letting him know I really was losing steam.
“Only adds about 30 minutes of driving time. Depends on what, if anything we find.”
“You mind eating soup for supper?”
“Nann, I don’t expect you to cook tonight.”
“You sure? ‘Cause I could use a night off. Gonna need one after we get this stuff unloaded tonight.”
Mitch shook his head and wiped his face with a bandana. “We aren’t unloading this tonight. I say we back the trailer into the tractor barn, I’ll drive this van into the tool shed, we padlock them tonight, and we stay around the house tomorrow.”
“But … you … you aren’t leaving me tomorrow are you?”
“Nope. I want us to … er … take stock. This is a lot to try and find a place for and we need to …” He got a suddenly serious look on his face. “Nann we need to talk about security and how we’ve been doing things. I’ve let things slide because we haven’t seen anyone beyond PeeDee and those first two salvage … I mean those first two groups of Land Pirates. That was a while back. Now this bunch comes along and … it could have turned out a lot worse than it did. This bunch didn’t have any military training, but they still got the jump on us and they shouldn’t have. I felt something was off and didn’t act on my instincts. That’s gonna stop. Now. It has to. I know your aim is good but we need to talk a few things through and set a different way of doing things than you … er … might be comfortable with.”
Having already thought about it I said, “First, I need to stop talking so much until we’re sure the coast is clear. And second, you need to know I can shoot someone if I have to.”
“Sweetheart …”
“You don’t need to baby me Mitch. Me yakking like a song stuck on repeat is a bad habit that I’ve never had before and shouldn’t have now. I’ll work on it. Just don’t think something is off if I practice around the farm instead of having diarrhea of the mouth like I have been doing.”
“Nann, you don’t need to be so mean to yourself. Yeah, it’ll help if … er … look, you aren’t the only one that has gotten into bad habits but I’m the one that has the experience and should have led us down a different path. Let’s just … look, today was a shock to you and you are already getting tired. We’ll get into the details tomorrow. I’d take you straight home and let you rest if I could but we need to finish this out so we don’t have to do too many repeats on the roads and eat up fuel we have.”
“You lead, I’ll follow,” I told him.
He got a real warm look on his face and though I hadn’t meant it any other way than what was said, apparently that kind of thing makes a guy feel good. It’s a thing I’ve observed my entire life … Dad, Dale, the guys in the crew, etc and etc. Mitch isn’t any different except he respects me right back and gives me credit I used to only get from Dale and even with him I was always the little sister.
# # # # #
“Nann you shoulda let me pull those onions,” Mitch said as he replaced the bandage on my arm.
“You were busy and we are in this together. I won’t sit around while you do all the work.”
He gave me a look and shook his head and muttered, “Stubborn as all get out.” After he finished tying the new bandage off he said, “At least let me load those bags. Next time let me know what you are getting up to.”
“You were busy.”
“I wasn’t too busy. I coulda helped and it might have saved you the hurt.”
I knew what he was saying and nodded my understanding but added, “I know what’s important and seeing if you could get into that farm tank was important. I didn’t realize how many of the Egyptian walking onions there were. It was just hard to stop once I started pulling them up.”
“And that asparagus?”
“A lucky find. Mitch, I’m fine.”
“You woulda been if you had stopped after the asparagus but you went a bit more than you needed to when you pulled them beets.”
“Well … I was just surprised to see them. I thought you said no one lives here.”
“No one does, long as I can remember it has only been a hunting lodge. And you can tell the garden hasn’t been cultivated. Only thing the trailer has in it is mildew and no one has been around to walk down the grass since it started coming up from the look of things. Someone was here, I grant you that, but it is abandoned now.”
I looked around. “Just seems strange to have a garden … or a sorta garden … and nothing else. I mean except for the farm tank.”
“Ain’t much fuel in it but I siphoned off what I could. Gonna need to treat it and let it set though. Don’t know how old it is. But second wind or not, it is time I get you home. The animals need takin’ care of too.”
“I know the one before this was a bust, but this knocks all the places off your list right? I mean the ones for today?”
He looked at me and smiled gentle. “Yeah Nann, it does. You held up real good. But now let’s get you home. You agree?”
I sighed. “Yeah. I’m good with that.”