Forsaking Home (The Survivalist Series) (30 page)

“Right across the road from me,” I said.

“Oh cool! Whose house is it? I mean, could they come back?”

I thought about how to answer that. “No, they are not going to come back. It belonged to Lake County sheriff’s deputy, but he died.”

From the back I heard Brandy. “Oh.”

“Not in the house, though. Don’t worry about that,” Danny said.

“Oh, okay, good. I was worried there for a minute.”

“I don’t think he’ll be haunting you,” I said with a smile, then thought,
But he might haunt me.

As we pulled up to the house that would be theirs, I saw a Hummer sitting at Danny’s gate. Pointing to their new house, I said, “This is your place, but we’re going down here real quick.”

“Sure,” Tyler replied.

I pulled up into my yard and parked near the fence between our houses.

We found everyone sitting on the back porch, along with Sarge, Mike, and Ted.

“You finally get cleared by Doc?” I asked, stepping up on the porch.

“I don’t need to cleared by no one. I cleared my damn self,” Sarge said from where he sat sprawled on the big lounge chair.

Little Bit was sitting beside him. When she saw the kids, she hopped up. “Mister Sarge, I’m glad you’re back, but I’m going to go play with my friends now.” Sarge smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and quickly ran off. From the amount of squeals from the two girls, you’d have thought there were thirty of them.

“So you guys heading down to the river?” I asked.

“Yeah, we’re in vacation mode now,” Ted said.

“There are extra houses here if you guys want to stay,” I said.

“No, we want to go to the river, it’ll be nice down there,” Sarge answered.

“Cool, you guys just drop by for the hell of it?”

“They brought us a present,” Mel said, kicking the big box of TP.

“Well, aren’t you girls lucky,” I said with a smile.

I pointed to Tyler and Brandy. “For those of you who haven’t met them yet, this is Tyler and Brandy. They’re going to live here as well.”

“Nice to meet you all. This is really something, so many people,” Tyler said.

“Yeah, we’re like grapes, come in bunches,” Mike said.

Sarge looked at him, shaking his head. “More like a basket of fruits and nuts.”

Looking back at Tyler and Brandy, I said, “You’ll have to forgive him. Sarge here is our resident curmudgeon.”

Sarge leaned forward. “Come a little closer, sweetheart, and I’ll club your mudgeon.”

“Don’t worry, Morg, a newborn could outrun him right now,” Ted said with a laugh, without thinking of where he was standing. Sarge’s crutch quickly came around into his kneecap. He was leaning against a post and nearly fell over when he jerked his knee up.

“Ow, dammit, old man!” Ted barked.

Sarge was laughing. “One mudgeon crushed.”

Tyler and Brandy looked unsure about what they’d just seen, so I reassured them. “Don’t worry about him. Contrary to how it may appear, he’s actually a nice guy.”

“Are you guys hungry?” Mel asked.

“Uh, I hate to say it, but yes, something to eat would be nice. Thank you,” Brandy said.

“Don’t thank us yet. This is all we’ve got right now,” Thad said as he passed a half case of MREs to Tyler.

While they ate, we all talked, mainly about all the work that lay ahead of us.

Sarge said he didn’t know what was going to happen next. “That’s above my pay grade. All I know is what I was asked to do”—Sarge jabbed his thumb toward Mike and Ted—“and these guys went above and beyond.”

With a big cheesy grin, Mike said, “Was that a compliment? Did that grumpy ole bastard just give us a compliment?”

Ted reached over and covered Mike’s mouth. “Shut up and take it for what it’s worth.”

Mike mumbled through Ted’s fingers for a second, then let out a sigh.

“You two about ready to go? We have to get things set up before it gets dark tonight,” Sarge said.

Ted and Mike both got up. “Yeah, let’s get this show on the road,” Ted said.

We all walked out to the Hummer, saying our good-byes. It was nice to know they were
temporary
good-byes. These guys were safe—for now.

“It’s all downhill from here, Morg. I think the hard part’s over,” Sarge said as he closed the door.

“Really? I think the hard part is just getting started,” I replied.

Taylor was standing beside me. “Dad, is this the end? I mean, is the government still going to try to kill us? Are they going to leave us alone now?”

I looked at Sarge. He gave a little shrug, then I looked at Taylor. “To borrow a phrase from history, ‘it’s not the end, it’s not even the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning.’” Sarge winked at me and slapped the side of the truck.

Mel looked at Brandy. “Let’s get you guys settled.”

As the Hummer pulled down the street, the three youngest kids chased after it. The afternoon was beautiful and with all the laughter from the kids it was like being transported back to a happier time. I hoped that the move back here would bring us full circle—that we’d find real happiness again. A lot of work lay ahead of us, but it was good work: rebuilding our home, our community. We were on the road to recovery. I didn’t know the path we were on to get there, but I had high hopes for it.