The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3) (3 page)

Benny was mighty grateful that Mitch had agreed to take him and Tommy in, but Mitch had assured him he was just as thankful for what they’d done for April. Despite all that, Benny and Tommy both were determined to earn their keep around the place. And today, that meant finding whoever had fired those rifle shots and making sure they didn’t do anything else to threaten the security of everyone living there. He whispered a last warning to Lisa and Stacy before they got started:

“I want you both to stay back several yards behind me while we’re sneaking up there. If you see me stop, you stop! Don’t move, don’t talk and don’t do nothin’ until I do.” Benny knew the girls would follow his orders. They knew how to be quiet, and the soft rain would help, making stalking the shooter even easier. He handed Stacy the axe he’d been carrying so that he would have both hands free for his shotgun. Lisa had her own weapon—the Ruger 10/22 that she’d already been a crack shot with even before the collapse. Benny gave them both a reassuring thumbs-up and then he started working his way through the pines.

Four
 

T
HE
SHOOTER
IGNORED
THE
soft rain, focusing all his attention on his target as he centered the crosshairs of his riflescope behind the shoulder of the nearest of the grazing steers. The butt stock of the 30.06 slammed into his shoulder with its familiar punch and he smiled as he saw the unsuspecting animal go down—hundreds of pounds of meat secured with a single bullet! He opened the bolt to eject the spent case and slid it home to chamber another round, scanning the rest of the small herd to pick his next target while he still had the chance. The remaining animals were startled and disoriented, unsure what to make of the sudden rifle blast and the sight of one of their number thrashing about on the ground, kicking out its death spasms. They would probably panic and bolt at the next shot, so he had to make it count. Picking another steer about the same size as the first, the shooter squeezed off his second round and saw his target fall, then he rapidly racked the bolt again as sure enough, the rest of the herd turned to run into the cover of the woods. He took quick aim and fired again, hitting one of the yearlings and seeing it stagger but keep going. The bullet missed its vitals, striking the hindquarters instead because it was already running away. Before he could get a forth round in the chamber, the cattle were out of sight, but it didn’t matter. Two were down and the rest wouldn’t go far, judging by the quality of the fence, at least what he could see of it. They could be rounded up tomorrow or the day after. Tonight there would be a feast and when the rest of the herd was corralled, there would be enough to feed everyone for a good long while.
 

The shooter knew that a herd of cattle like this in one place inside a fence that was in good repair meant someone was still around to take care of them. There would be a house somewhere nearby, he was sure of that. Someone would lay claim the cattle, whether they were the original owners still hanging on here or simply wanderers who had taken up residence since the collapse, but it wouldn’t matter. Whoever they were, there would not be enough of them to resist. No one they’d encountered so far had been able to. That’s why he had no fear of his shots being heard and had acted to secure meat immediately while the opportunity was there. There were a lot of mouths to feed and they had been on the move for too long. What happened next would be dealt with as necessary. He turned to the boy who was lying on the ground beside him.

“Run back there and tell Mr. Drake and the rest of them what we got! Tell him to bring the horses and get on down here before it gets dark. Tell him to send somebody back to tell everybody else too, because we’ve found us a new place to call home for a while!”

The boy took off immediately, knowing better than to hesitate or question a direct order from his father. It wouldn’t take him long to get to where Drake and the others were waiting. They were on the road not far behind, just holding back a bit for the scouts to reconnoiter on foot. The rest were a couple of days back, traveling much slower because of the women and little kids and all of their stuff. It was always like this when they moved somewhere—the hunters and scouts going far ahead, checking things out and making sure the way was clear—and the rest of the community following, but not too closely.

The shooter watched the boy go until he was out of sight. Then he turned and with a wave of his hand signaled his eldest boy, Kenny, to move in and secure the kills. The tall, lanky teenager rose from where he’d been hiding on the hillside behind his father, and made his way down to the gravel road, stepping across only after making sure it was still empty. The shooter stayed put, remaining in the prone position from which he’d made his shots, the rifle still covering the lifeless animals he’d put down. He figured Drake and the other men would get there with the horses before whoever lived around here showed up, but he wasn’t taking any chances until they did.

* * *

April Gibbs stood at the sound of the second two rifle shots. She had been sitting in the rocking chair in the living room of the Henley house with Kimberly asleep in her arms. The first shot that seemed to come from out front, in the direction of the road, caused her to stop rocking and ponder who fired it. But when two more followed, she began to really wonder. It had to have been Tommy if it was anyone from among her friends. Benny and the girls were out there somewhere, but they didn’t have a high-powered rifle. Benny’s weapon of choice was the 12-gauge shotgun he’d been carrying the day she’d met him, and Lisa had her trusty .22 carbine, as always. But they wouldn’t be shooting while out looking for a Christmas tree anyway, and neither would Tommy or David, who were on patrol—unless there was a really good reason.
 

April carried her daughter into the bedroom and placed her gently in the baby bed Mitch had pulled down from the attic where his parents had stashed it when Lisa had outgrown it. She waited a moment, watching Kimberly to make sure she didn’t wake before leaving her, then grabbed her carbine and opened the door to the front porch. A light rain was falling, and the sky had gotten darker than it should be at that hour, indicating the weather wasn’t going to get any better. She was sure Tommy had probably fired those shots, but at what?
Maybe he had seen a deer while he and David were making their rounds?
She was sure it was something like that, but after all she’d been through, she couldn’t help but be nervous.

The few short weeks since she and Kimberly and David had arrived here at the farm were really the only time since the lights went out that she’d not felt like she was living with the constant threat of another attack. Most of the time it felt safe here, especially when Mitch was at home, but she knew the others added to their security too. Like Mitch, Benny and Tommy were competent woodsmen before the collapse, and Jason was learning fast, as was his cousin, Cory, who had arrived long before April with his girlfriend, Samantha. Lisa and Stacy, Mitch and Jason’s little sisters, could do their share too, even if they
were
only fourteen. If there was anyone in their group they couldn’t really count on for much, it was David Greene, April’s former fiancé and father of her child.

April had been done with him as a partner even before their journey down Black Creek to seek out Mitch, but she couldn’t abandon him entirely, for Kimberly’s sake. The attack on the sandbar where he was left for dead had in some ways made her life easier, because David no longer knew who he was, let alone April. The sad part of that though was that he didn’t remember his child either. Little Kimberly still called him “daddy,” and he went along with it, believing that she had lost her real daddy and mistakenly thought he was her father. When he’d questioned April about this, she’d agreed, saying that must be it, because he looked a lot like her father. It was a lie, but it satisfied him and solved the problem of further confusing their child. April didn’t know if David would eventually regain his memory and recognize the two of them or not, but she would deal with that when the time came, if it ever did. But at least he was alive, and lucky to be so, thanks to Mitch. She had to admit he was making himself more useful now that he didn’t know who he was. It was good to see he seemed to have forgotten his former obnoxious, self-entitled attitude that had made it so difficult for him to adapt in those first months after the blackout. Now, with his new personality, living entirely in the present moment, he was showing some interest in learning how to survive in this harsh new reality, and was cooperating and at least trying to do his share. Maybe there was hope for him after all…

April stepped off the porch walked around to the backyard to the shed attached to the barn, where she knew Samantha was busy scraping deer hides.

“Did those shots sound to you like they came from out by the road?”
 

“I think so,” Samantha said. “I figured it was Tommy shooting at something. I didn’t hear anything else.”

“You haven’t seen Benny and the girls?”

“No. They must not have found a tree yet. I figured they would come back when it started raining.”

“I’m sure Benny would have, but knowing Lisa and Stacy, they probably won’t let him turn around until they get the tree they want.”

“Probably not. I sure hope Corey and the guys got lucky and can come back tonight. I’d hate for them to have to camp in weather like this.”

“Knowing Mitch, he’s probably gotten them far enough from home that they’ll have to. It’s all part of the fun for him, and his way of testing Jason and Corey.”

“I know, right? Guys are so weird. We already know they’re badass. They don’t have anything to prove at this point, but they’ll keep doing it anyway.”

“No doubt about that! Well, hopefully Tommy and David will be back soon. I’m curious to know what that shooting was about. I’m going back in to make sure Kimberly is still asleep. If you hear anything else usual, come get me.”

Five
 

T
OMMY
E
VANS
HAD
STARTED
his day cutting and splitting firewood, like he did every day. If there was one downside to living on the Henley Farm, it was the routine chores that were never done, always the same, over and over, day after day. When Tommy and his daddy were living out of the canoe, ranging up and down Black Creek as needed to find enough game, he’d had to gather firewood too, but not on a scale anything like this. Camping on the creek bank and moving often, enough driftwood and fat lighter knot could be found on the sandbars and in the nearby woods to meet the needs of the two of them with minimal effort. Tommy and his daddy had shared the modest workload, each of them paddling and poling the canoe, setting up and striking camp, hunting and butchering game, and building the cooking fires. But here on the farm, things were different. With so many people living in one house in a fixed location, chores like wood gathering and splitting needed to be delegated and shared among them. Tommy still went hunting once in a while, but he and his daddy both had a hard time keeping up with Mitch and the other young guys, who were now ranging farther and farther afield in the pursuit of whitetail deer. So with the choice between endless miles of walking and packing home meat, or staying home and doing chores, Tommy usually picked the chores.

He still got his share of walking most days, even if it wasn’t as far. After Mitch Henley had returned, shortly after Tommy and Benny first got there with April, there had been many discussions about security. It was impossible to watch over the entire 600-acres of woods and pasture twenty-four seven, but after the encounter with the men who’d taken April and Kimberly captive, Mitch said they had to do more. And since there were now more of them among which to divide the duties, it was decided that someone should make the rounds at least once a day, roughly following the perimeter of the property. Doing this would increase their chances of spotting any unusual activity or signs of trespassers, while also keeping a check on the gates and the barbed-wire fences that bounded the property. They couldn’t watch every part of the perimeter at all times, of course, but it was better than doing nothing. Tommy liked this duty much better than cutting wood, and he looked forward to making the rounds each afternoon, usually at a leisurely pace.
 

Today, like most days, he had David Green tagging along. When Tommy had first met David he looked like he’d been wallowing around in the mud for days. His hair and bare feet were caked with it and his clothes were filthy and torn. He had a wild look about him and didn’t seem to know what to do or how to act when Mitch first brought him to the house. Tommy had been shocked to learn soon after that David Green had actually been April’s fiancé before the lights went out and that he was the father of her little girl. David didn’t know any of this though; because he’d been hit so hard in the head he didn’t remember anything about his past.
 

Tommy figured that was probably a good thing too because it quickly became pretty obvious that April was more interested in Mitch Henley than David Green, even if she did have a kid with him. It was also pretty obvious that Mitch was just as infatuated with her, and Tommy sure couldn’t blame him. It was all he could do to keep his eyes off her ever since that first day he’d met her down on the creek. April was one of the prettiest girls Tommy had ever seen, and not only was she pretty; she was tough too. He saw that real quick with the way she carried herself in the woods and also around the farm after they got there. Tommy knew all he could do was dream about having a girl like April though. She’d never take an interest in a shy 40-year-old country boy that had always been nervous around pretty girls and women. Tommy had never even had a real girlfriend and he had certainly never been married. He hoped he would one day, but with the way things were, it seemed less likely than before. But sometimes when he was making the rounds, especially out by the road, he daydreamed about finding another girl like April—but one that was lost, alone and afraid, and looking for a place to stay and someone to protect her. Tommy was sure that if he found a girl like that she would agree to marry him, because things were different now and the things he knew how to do like hunting and chopping wood were useful.