Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost (13 page)

“I’d just go and pick the thing up. You could buy another X-box for what they charge to ship it to you,” Ian said, putting the paper back. Reaching down, Ian pulled out a massive barrel with a bipod. “Lance, he has one.”

Turning around, Lance’s eyes got wide. “No way, a big mac.”

Ian passed the barrel over, and Lance grunted at the weight. 50 caliber. Ian dove in and pulled out a monster receiver. “Oh man, it’s on like a chicken bone now,” he grinned, holding the massive lower.

“It’s going to take two cases just for this one gun.”

“We’ll leave some of the frozen shit.”

“Bullshit,” Lance snapped and looked up, ready to fight. “I saw stars when I picked that shit up. Be damned if we leave it.”

“Okay, we can strap it to the front if we have to,” Ian said, laying the receiver in one case, and it filled it from end to end. They were able to put several pistols and a tactical shotgun in with the barrel.

When all the safes were empty, Ian turned around and saw Lance counting. “Thirty-two cases for assault rifles, ten with sniper rifles, and fifteen pistol cases.”

“You do realize if Jennifer wouldn’t have come in here, we would’ve run out of cases and had to leave most of them,” Ian said, standing up.

Lance nodded. “Yes, Ian, I do. She is awesome, so there,” he said, grinning. “Let’s start carrying them out.”

They each grabbed two cases and headed to the garage. They walked out to see Allie and Carrie passing stuff into the trailer. “She unpacked the trailer,” Lance said, dropping his head.

“I’m sure she had a good reason,” Ian said, passing him by. “Didn’t like how we did it?” Ian asked, setting the cases down.

Jennifer stuck her head out. “I’ve seen how you two pack your backpacks, getting a ton of crap in them, but that idea seems lost to each of you packing anything else.”

“Hey, we are doing the best we can,” Ian said, putting his hands on his hips.

“Yes you are, so let me be in charge of the packing,” Jennifer said, taking stuff from the girls, and disappeared in the trailer.

Shaking his head, Ian passed the girls and stepped into the trailer. “Momma Mia,” he mumbled. Stepping back, he looked outside and noticed only a few more things for Allie and Carrie to pass up. “How the fuck did you do this? This trailer was almost three quarters full. Now, it’s barely a quarter.”

Lance dropped his cases and jumped over the girls, landing in the trailer. “Are you leaving shit and hiding it somewhere to make us look like jackasses?”

Using the bottom of her shirt, Jennifer wiped her face, and Ian spun around, bright red, and Lance’s jaw fell open. “No, asshole. I’m packing the shit right,” Jennifer snapped, dropping her shirt. “How many of those cases?”

“Like fifty big ones and fifteen little ones,” Lance droned, gawking at Jennifer’s chest.

“Bring them, and I noticed a room downstairs that had those metal boxes in them. Are those bullets?” Lance just nodded as a little drool ran out of the corner of his mouth. “Are those the bullets Doug wanted us to take?” Lance shook his head and pointed behind her at the wall of ammo cans in the trailer.

“So this is the ammo he wanted us to bring?” she asked, and Lance nodded. “Are we taking those?”

Ian glanced over his shoulder. “As much as we can,” he said, yanking his eyes away from Jennifer’s chest.

“I have something on my shirt?” Jennifer asked, looking down at the sweat-soaked shirt.

Breaking into a run, Ian yelped, “I’m going to get more cases,” and jumped over the girls. Lance didn’t say anything and took off after Ian.

Jennifer looked at Allie and Carrie. “Why are they acting weird?”

“Duh, they’re boys,” Allie said, shaking her head.

Lance found Ian in the office, panting and leaning over the desk. “Holy cow,” Lance said, grabbing two cases.

“Dude, she’s not wearing a bra,” Ian said, spinning around.

“Yeah, kinda figured that when I saw hooters,” Lance said, picking up the cases.

“They weren’t like the real hooters of those girls on the website had, but they were hooters. Kind of like training hooters,” Ian offered, grinning.

Relishing the sight in his mind, Lance smiled. “It’s a good day.”

They carried out the cases and avoided any eye contact with Jennifer at all cost. They arranged the ammo cans in the room and started carrying them out. Moving from room to room, Lance and Ian pulled out what they thought they’d need or looked really cool. At midnight, Lance called a stop and looked in the trailer.

There was only a little room at the front of the trailer, but the rest was packed tight, and they still had the back of the Hummer. “How about we take a break and practice with the night vision like Doug told us to?” Lance said, proud of the group.

“Shit, sounds good to me,” Jennifer said. “I’m taking a shower and putting on some of those clothes I got out of that room.”

Lance didn’t look at her as he stepped out of the trailer. “Use the bathroom downstairs; it has shutters over the windows so light can’t get out.”

They all moved into the house, and Ian took off upstairs as the girls laid down on the couch. Lance moved over to the dozen hard cases in the dining room that Doug had pulled out. They had found shelves in the basement filled with more, and Lance opened them up, taking several different kinds. It was when Ian pointed at one case with stenciled letters that said “Thermal” that Lance ran to the dining room and saw half of the cases were thermal and the other half night vision.

Downstairs, they found monoculars, double eye pieces, binoculars, and scopes. Taking several of each, they loaded those in the trailer. Doug wanted them to have these, so they were going in the Hummer. The rest got crammed into the trailer. Lance opened one up that Doug had set to the side and pulled out a bulky piece that was four tubes. Figuring out how to put it on and that he needed a harness, Lance realized he was going to be looking through those tubes. Looking in a cabinet on the other side of the dining room, he found some helmets.

Getting up, he stopped from getting the helmets and went over to the list. Ian had come in and marked off the items they had loaded. They had completed it long ago, but at the bottom were the cases in the dining room and helmets in the dining room. Doug gave a description of how to clip each one to the helmet or a harness. The last line said, “The PNVG18, the really fucking big ones with four tubes, wear with a helmet or you will get a headache. Use these to drive with; bigger field of vision and you have a better idea of depth perception. Don’t have helmets small enough for the little ones so use a harness with them but they have helmets. Make everyone wear a bullet proof vest like I gave each of you. In foot lockers upstairs last room on right are combat vest. If you have room take them and you don’t have to wear the vest under them.”

Putting the list down, Lance remembered the vest and seeing soldiers on TV wearing them, but the damn things were heavy. Sighing, he mumbled, “We’ll take them because we can make room.”

“You talk to yourself a lot,” he heard Jennifer say, scaring the shit out of him and making him yelp.

“I’m putting a bell on you,” he said, glaring at her as she leaned against the kitchen table with an armload of clothes. Then, he started to blush. Jerking his head away, Lance walked past her to the dining room.

“What is with you two?” she asked, following him. “I tried to talk to Ian, and all he can do is mumble and look at the wall.”

“Nothing,” Lance said, picking up a helmet and trying it on. It was low cut and very light. Snapping the chin strap on, he tightened the leads from the side until it fit snug against his head.

“Come on; tell me. Did I make you two mad when I yelled at you?”

“Ah, no, you were right. We can’t pack for shit.”

Grunting, Jennifer put the clothes on the dining room table then put her hands on her hips, looking at Lance avoiding looking at her. “Look at me,” she snapped. Slowly, Lance turned toward her. “Hello, I’m not stupid; you’re looking over my right shoulder.”

Lowering his eyes, he looked in her face and felt his cheeks getting warm. “I’m looking at you.”

“Yeah, and blushing,” she said, crossing her arms. “Did you and Ian talk about me or something?”

“No,” Lance snapped, and his eyes dropped lower, and he jerked them up. “Why don’t you ask Ian?”

“I did, and he wouldn’t turn away from the wall. You’ve already surpassed him,” she said, getting mad. “What did I do? If we are going to do this together, I have to know.”

“Ah, well…” Lance said, looking away. “You aren’t wearing a bra, and you used your shirt to wipe your face,” he barely mumbled.

Shocked, Jennifer’s arms fell to her sides. “That’s it?”

“Uh, yeah,” Lance said, turning around to the other helmets.

“Hell, yours and Ian’s cones are bigger than mine,” she snapped.

“Ah no, why didn’t you just keep the bra you had on?” Lance asked, feeling his face on fire.

“Hello, I haven’t had one on since I ran out of my house. I was in my night clothes and don’t wear a bra to bed.”

“You could’ve got some of my mother’s bras. I showed you where they were.”

She walked over and spun Lance around. Seeing him look off, Jennifer grabbed his chin and turned his face to hers. “For one, your mother is a C, and second, she’s a thirty-six.”

Lance scoffed, “My mom is forty-two, and made straight As in school.”

“Hello, not her age, her bra size. The C is her cup size. I’m a size A, and C is much bigger than A.”

Totally blown away, Lance stepped back. “There’re different sizes of bras?”

“Lance, don’t be an idiot,” Jennifer snapped. “Everyone doesn’t wear the same size pants.”

“Yeah, but…you know, hooters like, don’t have bones in them, so they can mold, right?”

With a hopeless expression, Jennifer stepped back, shaking her head. “Your parents told you about the facts of life, right?”

“Duh, yeah, when I was nine, they told me all about sex.”

“They left a lot out,” she said, turning around and grabbing her clothes.

“Uh, I’m…like sorry…um…if I made you mad,” he stuttered.

She laughed and turned around. “No, I just never would’ve believed this from you two.”

Glancing around nervously, making sure they were alone. “Jennifer, can I ask you a question since I answered yours?” he whispered.

“Sure, why are we whispering?”

He stepped closer. “I don’t want anyone to hear.”

“Okay.” She smiled.

“What’s a tampon for?”

Jennifer’s face turned instantly red, and the red flowed down her neck. “I’m going to take a shower,” she yelped and took off running.

Seeing her run off, Lance shook his head. “A tampon must be bad.”

Chapter 10

March 13

“Lance, wake up,” he heard a soft voice say and felt a hand shake his shoulder. Slowly, Lance opened his eyes to see Ian leaning over him with a huge grin. Lance opened his mouth to talk, but Ian put his hand over it. “Shh, don’t wake them,” he whispered.

Sitting up on the sectional, Lance looked at his watch and saw it was nine a.m. Blinking, Lance looked around the sectional and saw Allie and Carrie curled up together and Jennifer sprawled out on the couch across the room. Lance stood and stretched as Ian came around the couch, grinning. “Dude, come on; you’re not going to believe what I found.”

Not waiting, Ian walked away, motioning Lance to follow. Lance looked at the floor at his bulletproof vest, chest rig full of magazines and drop holster, boots, and weapons. In the mess, he saw his socks and shirt. Bending over, he just grabbed the XDM still in the clip-on holster and shoved it in his pants. Yawning, he walked around the couch barefoot. “That’s too much shit to put on when you wake up.”

He found Ian in the hall in front of the door to Doug’s bedroom. Thinking it was awful cold and they needed to turn down the air conditioner, Lance wrapped his arms around his chest as he walked in, and Ian closed the door. “Dude, you’re not going to believe what I found. It’s the most awesome stuff ever.” 

“Unless it’s an atomic bomb or rocket launcher, we aren’t taking any more guns. Hell, we took the bloopers for the grenade launcher even though we have no idea how to use them. I really don’t think we should take more shit like that.”

Shaking his head and grinning, Ian pulled Lance to one of the two walk-in closets, saying, “I only found one gun in here, but look at this.” Lance saw DVD cases lining a shelf at the back and magazines stacked on the floor. Ian grabbed a magazine and showed it to Lance.

All grogginess left Lance’s brain instantly. “Whoa, no way,” he gasped, snatching the magazine. “I didn’t know they made magazines like this. I thought you could only see naked women on the internet.”

“I know, right, but look at this,” Ian said, pulling down a DVD. “It’s even in Blu-ray.” Lance’s eyes expanded more, and all thoughts of being cold were long gone.

“Where the hell do you buy stuff like this, and why hasn’t someone told us about this?” Lance said, staring at the DVD in one hand and the magazine in the other.

“Hey, I’m with you. You know how hard it was keeping my browsing history wiped from my parents?” Ian said, grabbing a magazine.

“We could’ve hid this under our beds, and no one would’ve ever known,” Lance cried out and held up the DVD and magazine. “We could’ve kept dirty movies and magazines under our mattresses, dude. I bet our parents would’ve never thought of that. All that work of scrubbing our web history, and they just come out with this.”

Ian looked up. “We are taking some, right? Because if you aren’t, I am.”

“Hell yeah, this is a gold mine,” Lance said, looking at the stuff. “We can’t take it all; we don’t have room.”

Startled at that but agreeing, Ian looked at the DVDs. “How the hell do we know which movies are good?”

“They have naked women; all of them have to be good,” Lance said, and Ian raised his eyebrows and nodded. “If we put two disks in a case, we can take most of the movies,” he said, grabbing a rolling suitcase. “Put as many as we can in here; then, we can fill the rest with magazines.”

Ian grabbed the suitcase. “Go keep a lookout while I pack,” he said, pulling down DVD boxes.

“Did you even sleep?”

“Yeah, I slept in Doug’s bed. I just couldn’t look at Jennifer,” Ian said, doubling up the disks. Lance wanted to comment on how fast Ian was moving and packing the boxes neat and tight but didn’t.

Instead, Lance told Ian what Jennifer and he had talked about. “Boobs have to have a lettered cup size? They can’t just…you know…fill it or sit there?” Ian asked, confused.

Shrugging, Lance said, “I guess they get heavy if something’s not holding them up,” and Ian lifted a magazine up with a woman sprouting giant jugs.

“Then she should have trouble walking upright,” Ian said.

“Jennifer said my mom wore a C. That woman must wear a Z.”

Tossing the empty cases away, Ian’s hands moved at a blinding pace. “Glad she wasn’t mad we saw her hooters, but I hope she doesn’t do that again. It’s real hard to look at her afterwards.”

“Ain’t it,” Lance moaned. “You practice with the night vision?”

“Yeah, and I can’t believe you want to take those damn vests.”

“Doug thought we would need them.”

Ian looked up. “Then I’ll even wear one sometimes because he’s providing this,” he said, holding up a DVD.

“Where’s your chest rig and stuff?”

“Beside the bed. I showered after you and just threw it in here.”

“How long do you want to let them sleep so we can take a nap this afternoon?”

Pausing, Ian looked up. “Till I’m finished with this and it’s loaded.”

Hearing something outside, Lance walked out of the closet. “All the alarms have stopped.”

“I didn’t hear any when I laid down last night,” Ian called out of the closet.

“I think I just heard a garage door open up outside.”

“It damn sure wasn’t this one,” Ian popped off.

“I’m going upstairs to see,” Lance said, heading to the door.

Poking his head out of the closet, Ian said, “Just shut the door. I don’t want anyone to see our stash.”

Grinning, Lance closed the door and jogged into the den and saw Dino sitting up, looking at the shuttered windows and panting. Lance grabbed his AR as he jumped over the couch and took off upstairs. Standing back from the window, he didn’t see anything, so he eased forward.

Hearing a clanking noise, he turned to it. Two houses down on the opposite side of the street, a man and woman were running around, throwing stuff in the bed of a pickup truck as it rolled out of a garage. With dead stinkers sprawled everywhere, Lance saw only a few moving toward them, but all of the moving infected were fifty or more yards away.

The man and woman jumped in the truck, and Lance heard the engine crank up. The truck rolled out on the street, and Lance saw it was three people in the truck as the truck squealed its tires, speeding down the street, dodging dead stinkers sprawled out on the road. It hit an old lady, sending her sailing through the air.

Shocked, Lance looked at the damage the old lady did to the truck. “You messed her up, but she hurt your ride big time,” he said, seeing the hood and passenger fender bent pretty badly.

“You are talking to yourself,” Jennifer said behind him.

Lance jumped and spun around in midair. “Don’t do that!” he snapped. “What are you doing up here?”

“Heard a car start up, and as I was coming up the stairs, I heard tires squealing.”

“It was a truck from a house on the other side of the street.”

“So people are alive in the neighborhood?”

“Well, the truck didn’t mow down an old lady by itself.”

Smiling, Jennifer walked past him. “Touchy this morning, aren’t we?”

“Getting the shit scared out of me first thing in the morning does that,” he snapped.

“Sorry,” Jennifer said over her shoulder. “There are people in that house over there.”

He moved beside her. “Where?”

“The house next to the one with the garage door open.”

“It could just be a person and not people,” Lance said, pulling her back from the window.

“Not unless they can peek out windows from first and second floor at the same time.”

As Lance watched, he saw the curtains part at an upstairs window. “Do you know them?”

“No, they only moved in a few months ago. I know it’s a young couple,” Jennifer told him as Lance pulled her further back from the window. “Where are you pulling me to?”

“Away from the window, duh,” Lance said with a stupid expression. “We are standing in front of a window with the curtains wide open, and anyone outside can see in here.”

“Oh shit, I think one of them saw me then,” she said, stepping further back.

“No, I know they saw both of us. Someone looked out a window upstairs with binoculars.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, it was either binoculars or someone with the biggest eyes ever.”

“What if they come over here?”

“We won’t invite them in for lunch,” Lance said, putting the sling over his head, letting the AR hang at his side.

“What if they break in?”

“Unless they have a blow torch and jackhammer, their odds aren’t that good. But if they try, we’ll shoot their ass.”

Jennifer grabbed his arm. “Show me that rifle you and Ian pulled out for me.”

“Let me get dressed, and let’s fix some food, and I’ll go over it with you,” Lance sighed.

Looking at Lance from top to bottom, seeing his defined muscles rippling across his chest and arms, Jennifer raised her eyebrows. “You run around without a shirt and blush when you see my cones? Kind of a double standard,” she grinned.

“Be nice,” he said, spinning around and trying not to blush.

They ran downstairs, and Lance got dressed and looked over at Jennifer. She was wearing tan tactical pants and a black polo shirt with a small logo of Doug’s company. They were a little big but fit better than the clothes Lance gave her. She put on the bulletproof vest they had given her the night before and the boots Lance gave her. “I thought you found some other boots and shoes.”

“I did, but these are already broken in. If I have to run, I want shoes that have done it before.”

Not able to argue that reasoning, Jennifer put the boots on while Lance finished gearing up. He looked down at the chest rig with a little loathing. They had found a box of them and found out that’s what they were called. Grunting, he pulled it on and buckled it then felt he hadn’t taken off the clip-on holster. Digging around, Lance pulled it out and tossed it on the couch. When he finished strapping everything on, he started praying he wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom in a hurry. Grabbing the pistol out of its clip-on holster, he slid it in the drop holster on his thigh.

Tapping the Ruger under his left side where Doug had told him to put it, Lance pulled it out, dropped the magazine, and ejected the round from the chamber. The gun itself wasn’t big, but with the suppressor on, it was long.

With the gun empty, Lance practiced drawing it from the holster. Holstering the pistol, he took off the rig and tilted the holster a little forward then put the chest rig back on. Practicing a few more draws, Lance liked the new position.

“You practicing to be a gun fighter?” Jennifer asked, clipping her pistol on.

“Just want to know when I need it, I can get it out,” Lance said, grabbing his AR and helmet. “I feel like I’m going to war.”

“If you think about it, you are,” Jennifer said, looking down. “We all are.”

“Then I have to say we will kick some ass then,” Lance chuckled.

Looking up with a smile, she said, “Yes we will,” and turned for the kitchen. “I’ll fix something to eat. You go keep an eye out.”

“Okay,” Lance said, walking over and grabbing the chest rig, AR, and helmet they had put together for Jennifer. He grunted, carrying the stuff around the couch as Ian came down the hall with a rolling suitcase, wearing a huge grin.

“What did you get?” Jennifer asked, putting pans on the stove, and panic flooded Lance.

“Clothes for me,” Ian said without missing a beat as he headed for the door to the garage.

“Well, leave it, and I’ll make sure it’s packed right,” she said, pulling eggs out of the fridge.

“You most certainly will not!” Ian snapped with an irritated expression. “I have underwear in here, and you will not look at them,” he said, lifting his chin and yanking the door open.

Startled, Jennifer took a step back. “Ooookaaay,” she dragged out, not sure how else to respond as Ian walked out. Slowly, she turned to look at Lance for an explanation; he shrugged and went upstairs.

Putting Jennifer’s stuff on the floor, Lance made his XDM safe and practiced drawing it, making adjustments to his equipment until he was happy. Then, he made the AR safe and practiced changing the ten magazines across his chest, pulling them out of the chest rig one at a time and feeding them into the AR.

After doing that twice, Lance looked across the street to the house he had seen someone at and saw someone upstairs looking around with binoculars. Feeling he was missing something, Lance ran downstairs into Doug’s office and opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a small box. Closing the door, he ran back upstairs and stopped before going to the window.

Walking down the hall, he went into a room that still had a lot of stuff in it, but they were maxed out for room as it was. He pulled down a case and ran back to the window. Opening the case, Lance pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked at the house.

He was shocked to see a young woman looking at him with binoculars. She waved at him. Not knowing what else to do, Lance waved back and looked around the area. He didn’t see but one infected walking around and three crawling; one was the old woman the truck hit.