The Jared Chronicles | Book 4 | The Devil's Bastion, page 16
part #4 of The Jared Chronicles Series
All ten shots found their mark, and the shooting lesson was over in less than five minutes. Now Jared would sit on the back porch and supervise weapons cleaning while Essie talked nonstop and Jared had to prod her to finish up so he could go inside and eat, get off his feet, and start thinking about bed. The early evening was peaceful as Jared sat staring across the pastures, his mind in awe of what lay out there, invisible, waiting, scheming and preparing to wage war on their little community.
The polar opposite of peaceful lay beyond the tree line in the form of other men and women with weapons, intent on taking the ranch and disposing of its residents. Jared’s eye wandered to Essie sitting cross-legged, cleaning the barrel of her rifle. A soft strand of hair swept down across her left eye, having escaped the hair band. The girl neither brushed at the stray nor seemed bothered by its presence.
Jared rubbed his beard, wishing he could free his mind of all his everyday worries the way a child lived—the manner in which adults used to live before the solar flare. Concerns from Jared’s previous life were so first world, they were embarrassing to even think of in his current life. Now instead of worrying about getting a table at a restaurant, his fear was whether he’d find something to eat. These items of food weren’t hamburgers or some gourmet French cuisine, no, sir, they ranged from squirrel, deer, and basically anything Jared or his friends could scavenge.
“When those guys come down from the hill,” Essie said, waving the rifle’s barrel in the direction of the distant tree line, “I’m gonna hammer one of them.”
Jared’s mouth opened slightly. “Jesus, Essie, you’ve been listening to your uncle John a little too much. You’re not hammering anyone. The only thing eight-year-olds hammer are shovels and their schoolbooks,” Jared finished, his brows knitted together in genuine concern after what Essie had just stated.
“Why not? You always say we need everyone helping,” Essie retorted defiantly, but not in a disrespectful tone.
Jared shook his head preemptively. “No, hammering another person isn’t something even an adult should have to do, so you’re damn sure not hammering anyone,” Jared said, trying to drive home his point.
Essie held Jared’s gaze a moment before going back to cleaning the rifle.
“Listen, Essie, there’s going to come a time when you will have to go out and get your own food and maybe even fight off someone who thinks they can take what’s yours, but now is not that time. Now you learn the skills you’ll need later, but also you need to be a kid, play on that structure out there,” Jared said, waving his hand at the Thackers’ play structure.
Essie glanced out at the wooden structure with its two swings, a slide, and a raised crow’s nest, then sighed. “It might not be up to you,” Essie responded rather self-importantly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jared asked, almost not wanting to hear Essie’s answer.
“Barry said we’re all going to die here,” Essie answered.
Jared was both shocked and angry at hearing this. “When did he say that?” Jared demanded.
“Yesterday, I heard him in the barn, talking to himself, and that’s what he was saying.”
“Where was Devon?” Jared pressed the girl.
Essie slid the barrel back into place and shrugged her tiny shoulders. “He wasn’t there.”
Jared stood. “Finish up here and come inside.” Before leaving, Jared made sure he’d taken the magazine, leaving the rifle inert, good for only two things, cleaning and carrying.
Inside the house, Jared sought out John, who’d retired to a couch in the living room, where Stephani and Rip also sat chatting in the waning light of another long hard day.
“Hey, Barry seem like he’s okay to you?” Jared asked John, getting right to the point.
Everyone on the couch looked up as John scratched the side of his nose in thought. “Now that you bring it up, he hasn’t really been helping out other than going out with me. I mean, he’s in that barn all day doing whatever with that heap of junk—I don’t know, why?”
“Essie heard him saying we are all going to die. He didn’t say it to her; she overheard him talking to himself,” Jared clarified.
John stole a quick look Rip’s way, then locked eyes with Jared. “If this depopulation mission fails, he might be right.”
Jared already knew the Thackers would refuse to leave their home, and Calvin at his age had made it abundantly clear he would stay with them. The months seemed to have aged Calvin like years recently, and Jared had spoken with him about getting out of Dodge and been met with a resounding no every time Jared broached the subject. Being trapped with no options because of something like a box canyon was bad, having the same situation because your moral compass refused to allow you the choice of least resistance really sucked, Jared thought to himself.
“Well, then I guess we’d better not fail,” Jared replied sardonically.
No one answered or gave an opinion; everyone already knew what they were up against and was processing the impending clash in their own way. Jared also sat in silence, listening to John and Rip talk about places and people they’d served with, trying to find common connections, which they did on a couple of occasions. Once while in Africa, the two had been on the same mission, albeit John was part of the takedown team while Rip and his SEAL team friends had been used as a blocking force.
The light conversation continued until Stephani went in search of a candle. This was usually Shannon’s cue to get the two children into bed. Once the sun disappeared, they usually didn’t offer much of a fuss about being herded down the hall and into a bedroom. A few moments later, Shannon returned, dropping into the same cushioned chair Jared sat in. The candlelight licked the walls with its shadowy phantom silhouettes as the flame danced back and forth, influenced by unfelt air currents in the house.
The low conversations became even more unenergetic as each man’s and woman’s body began transitioning into a more relaxed state, working hard to recover from what the day had put the body and mind through. Sleep was the only real antidote, and even sleep didn’t leave them feeling fresh the following day. Once things settled down, they would need to designate a day of rest, a day no work was done for the most part and a person could sleep for fifteen hours if they needed it. Jared swallowed, his throat feeling dry and pasty as if he’d tried eating cinnamon, then washed it down with flour.
Jared leaned close to Shannon. “I think I’m done for the night,” he said, shifting in the chair to get his legs under himself.
“I’ll see you in a little bit,” Shannon said as Jared squeezed her shoulder and headed toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms.
Shannon sat alone in the chair, listening to the soft murmurs of John and Rip’s reunion conversation for two minutes before she too got to her feet and moved to the front door. Outside, Shannon took a pail off the porch and walked to the well, where she pumped cold water into the vessel. Back inside the house, Shannon hauled the small pail of water to the bathroom and lit a candle.
Shannon’s shimmering image in the small mirror almost depressed her, hair slightly askew and eyes that told of worry and tremendous lack of sleep. Shannon began with her hair, brushing it out and then tying it back to expose her oval-shaped face. Next, she used a cloth dipped in the water to wash her face. When she was presentable from the neck up, Shannon pulled off the shirt she’d been wearing and scrubbed her upper body for a full two minutes.
When Shannon was finished, she stood fully naked, her skin glistening with the wetness of her improvisational bathing session. Her body was lean, her muscles exposed in the absence of most of the body fat she’d carried before the solar flare, which hadn’t been much. Shannon opened the vanity under the sink and withdrew a clean shirt and a light pair of shorts. Shannon slipped into the clean clothes and discarded her dirty clothes in the pail of now cloudy water. She’d wash her soiled clothing the following day, but tonight she would sleep in clean clothes for a change.
Quietly in bare feet, Shannon exited the bathroom, glancing up the hallway, where she could still hear Rip talking in a low tone. Shannon moved stealthily across the hallway, pushing open Jared’s door. Essie usually slept on the second bed in the room, but Shannon had put both Salvador and Essie in Salvador’s room for the evening. Inside, she could hear Jared’s deep breathing; the man was already asleep. That is all about to change. Shannon smiled to herself as she closed and locked the door behind her.
Chapter 15
When Jared awoke, he found Shannon hovering over the top of him, her hands deftly removing his clothing. Jared stiffened at first, then relaxed, lying back and allowing Shannon to quietly disrobe him. When he lay naked as the day he’d been born, on the bed in the flickering light of a single candle Shannon must have brought in, Jared wasn’t ready for what came next. The cold application of a wet cloth to his chest nearly caused him to cry out. Shannon’s deft hands traced a wet cloth across the contours of his body, working away the day’s grime as Jared stared up into her beautiful eyes that looked like almond orbs never leaving his.
When Jared was washed, their bodies came together, gently, but with an earnestness born of pent-up energy kept at bay for far too long. No words were spoken in the dimly lit room as, for the first time, they explored one another, hands tracing the outlines of flesh that until now had only been seen and not touched. Jared smelled Shannon’s breath close to his face, mixed with the scent of her skin at the nape of her neck. He was fully awake now, his breath coming in short gasps with every new inch of his flesh Shannon’s hands sought to investigate.
Jared felt Shannon’s body arch as he slid his hands to her waist, a sign he told himself that she was as ripe as a soft tomato. Shannon slid atop Jared, the wood bed making only a slight creak under the combined weight of the two writhing bodies. The coupling was neither hurried nor was it frantic in nature, but instead slow, controlled, and emotionally meaningful. To Jared, it was the most profound interaction he’d ever experienced with another person.
When they finished, both were exhausted. Shannon did not get dressed and leave; instead, she lay next to Jared, stroking his hair until she finally rolled over and blew out the candle, shrouding their exposed bodies in the black of night. Jared lay awake for some time, thinking wild thoughts of Shannon and him leaving, starting a life with just Essie and the two of them. Suddenly, the rest of the world didn’t seem to matter after what had just happened. Half an hour later, fatigue overcame Jared, and he slept, Shannon’s head on his chest, his arm running down her back.
As the sun rose, cresting the lands to the east, John was up, dressed, and headed toward the barn. It was time to go direct Devon out into the field so the teen could pinpoint Carnegie’s positions along the tree line closest to the ranch. As John pushed his way past the heavy barn door, he wasn’t surprised to see Barry at the worktable. What was out of place was Barry’s motorcycle parked next to the table.
“What’s up with the bike?” John queried before he climbed the ladder to the loft.
Barry whirled around, apparently not having heard John enter. “Uh, yeah, the bike. I was using the battery to test some of this stuff,” Barry said in a hurried voice.
“Any luck?”
Barry gave a brisk shake of his head and turned back to his work. John stared at the man for a moment longer, then spun and headed up the ladder. In the loft, John found Devon at the back, watching the far-away tree line through his binoculars. Devon lowered the optic as John shuffled up next to him, the youth’s face looking up expectantly.
“We need to get a spotting scope the next time we drop into town,” John commented.
Devon nodded his agreement, not fully understanding the difference between what a spotting scope could offer and what he saw through his own binoculars, but if John was suggesting it, then they must need a spotting scope. The two stood gazing out across the pasture for a bit before John clapped Devon on the back.
“You ready to get out there and see what is up?”
Devon’s face brightened at the mention of his getting out of the loft and out into the countryside. “Sure, now?”
“No, tonight, not trying to get you killed.” John chuckled. He had grown fond of Devon and gotten used to the teen’s quirky mannerisms along with Devon’s conversational droughts.
Again, the two stared out the back of the barn, both wishing they could see what the men in the hills were up to. Devon shifted, turning his face up to meet John’s, and when he did, John jerked his chin in the direction of Barry. Devon’s eyes widened as his lips tightened in a gesture of uncertainty.
“I’ll get someone up here in a while so you can get some sleep before you go out. You need to come in the house and eat something before you leave. Drink a couple of bottles of water too. Maybe one now and one or two later, get your body fueled and rested before you go,” John recommended.
In answer, Devon withdrew a water bottle from his pack that sat on the floor next to his observation position, and started drinking.
John grinned. ‘Good lad.” He laughed, turning and walking back to the ladder. Before John grabbed the rail, he studied the top of Barry’s head, but his attention was drawn to the ground next to the worktable. Barry had a pack, complete with a tent and sleeping bag attached to its outside. Slowly John lowered himself to the floor, glancing at Barry, the bike and pack, hesitated, but then continued through the barn door.
Inside the ranch house, John politely asked Margie if she would prepare something special for Devon before he departed, something, John described, that would stick to the kid’s ribs. Margie agreed and set about gathering what she’d need for Devon’s meal. Jared was not yet out of bed, which was out of the ordinary since Shannon was MIA as well, while Essie was up and sitting at the kitchen table, her legs swinging back and forth under the chair, not yet long enough to find the floor.
John sat and smiled at Essie. “Where’s Jared?”
Essie’s eyebrows shot up, unknowing of an answer to John’s question. “Maybe bed,” she offered.
John grimaced, thinking it wasn’t like Jared to sleep in, especially during a time when they needed to make use of every waking hour. Before John could give Jared’s absence another thought, Stephani came through the back door, setting her rifle against the wall and heading straight to the kitchen table, where she sidled up next to John.
“You seen Shannon this morning?” Stephani asked, adding to John’s perplexing morning.
“No, no, I haven’t. You seen Jared?”
Stephani shot a quick glance Essie’s way, then shook her head.
Prior to any further conversation, Essie piped up, “I think Shannon slept in my bed next to Jared.”
When John locked eyes with Stephani, she gave him an almost imperceptible shake of her head, letting him know it was time to drop the subject in the presence of Essie. John got up, glanced down the hall, then set about helping Margie throw together something resembling breakfast for everyone at the table. The morning routine had evolved into a system of helping, which rotated on its own. If someone missed the window in time that found Margie preparing breakfast, they had to fend for themselves.
The more John thought about Jared, the more he felt Jared wouldn’t give two shits about missing breakfast after spending the night curled up in bed with a warm body of the opposite gender. John and Stephani had shared a moment months before, but with all the long days and hard work, neither had found time to follow up on that fleeting moment in time. The undercurrents were there in the evening when Stephani came and sat next to him, but John was beginning to feel as though their relationship might evolve into something more akin to a brother-sister bond. John remembered making the decision to allow Stephani to make the first move since every time John interacted with her, he put his foot in his mouth.
Now with Jared and Shannon in a room twenty feet from him, he realized the error of that decision. He had to act; women were attracted to men who were strong, yet gentle and men who were decisive, or at least that was what John thought he’d read somewhere. His only problem was how to act without pushing Stephani away, which seemed to be his method of operation when dealing with the sophisticated likes of Stephani.
John ate in silence, as did most everyone else at the table except for a few polite thanks when John and Margie brought the food. When John was finished, he laid a hand on Stephani’s. “If you see Jared, will ya tell him to come find me?” John gave her small hand a slight squeeze before releasing it and heading out the front door. It wasn’t much, but John was trying to up his game with the woman, and a gentle hand squeeze was all he could come up with at the moment.
Quinten was already out at the side of the barn along with Carlos and Quinten’s ranch hand Raul, loading planks of wood into the bucket of the tractor. John jumped right into the work, helping fill the bucket. When the planks were loaded, Quinten started the machine and moved it around to the rear of the house where the large hole was carved out next to the basement. Rip was working inside the hole, ensuring the breached concrete basement wall didn’t have any sharp pieces of rebar that could catch a leg or shoulder during a hurried pass through.
The ranch, to the untrained eye, would have seemed like it was filled with hardworking men and women all doing their part to keep the property up and running. Alternatively, a professional soldier would have watched the ranch’s activities for half an hour before they realized the men and women at this outpost were fortifying the area around the main house.
Thirty minutes after John linked up with Quinten, Jared showed up, looking less than rested. John held his tongue, since things like relationships seemed to have been put on hold after the solar flare. Having one burgeoning right in their midst was something of a new thing—for everyone. As much as John’s first instinct was to rib Jared, he knew better. One’s romantic connections before the solar flare hadn’t seemed so intimate as they now did, so John kept a lid on any harassment he felt inclined to send Jared’s way.
