Silencer, p.39
Silencer, page 39
Sammi snorted at him, looking at the long blade.
“Sorry, I had to get some tools before I came out. Tweezers. A miracle tool that has been around for about four hundred years in one form or another. Let me see what I can do, here. It will hurt. Not as much as what you were just doing, though.” She worked with a will, carefully but not stopping at all, since he didn't bother yelling or passing out.
It took her twenty more minutes to get the last one. Several people stood back, watching, seeming to get that Jake was more or less fine.
He hoped it was the last pellet, that one was number five at least. She poked and prodded for a while then washed the wound and dusted it with penicillin powder. That all stung but less than being shot had. Way less than what he managed to do himself with the knife. When she finished the tiny girl, woman really, gave him a frank look.
“So, you had an adventure? We need to go over medical care. Hold classes on it, perhaps. It isn’t my strong suit, to be honest. I can do a bit, to help my friends, but that’s all.”
They bound the wound together, given that. Tight but not so much he wouldn't be able to walk on it. Cutting off the blood flow wasn’t needed. The shock had taken him down, for a bit and the wound stung, but that was all. He wasn’t bleeding to death.
The rest of them were busily telling Nate and a gathering of people about what had happened on their way back. Meaning Jake had time to do some real work. The story was fine, but it was over, for the time being. Even if they needed a group to go and bury some bodies. He signaled Burt to come over to look at the stuff. Then it started to rain again. That would make washing interesting at least.
Justine ran over too, happily looking at all the new tools and bricks. Almost like she thought they were presents, just for her. Which, honestly, it kind of was. If to share with everyone. They had three carts full of good stuff, too.
The large boned girl, tall and sturdy, seemed pretty pleased, pointing at the new materials she spoke.
“So, a hot water heater and some covered buildings for it. What else do we need?”
A tiny voice, Sammi, came from behind him.
“A way to make bullets or weapons that will work which don't need them. Cradles for the babies, more warm clothes if we can get them, and more meat. We have a lot but it will go faster than we think in the cold months ahead. People will need to eat a lot more. Plus, we can cut down on potential problems by simply being able to take in some of the people who might come. If they reach us at all, people will be desperate, and an offer of food and warmth for the winter will probably get them on our side fast.”
The others kind of stared at her but Jake nodded.
“Carl has a hunt going on, and I won't be walking into town again for a few weeks. We can send Vickie and some others for cradles maybe? Or Tipper. I don't know what to do about the bullets. Check out gun smiths and shops? Westwood didn't have one. We were too small to support that kind of thing.”
Burt shook his head and muttered.
“Clyde did though, on route nine? About forty miles from here, and in an area we haven't cleared at all. Can that truck make it there and back on the fuel it has?”
Jake didn't know. It had over half a tank full of the wonder juice but how far that would take them was just a guess. They could try it though and load a cart for the gear if they had to walk back.
“But I can't do it if I'm hoofing it for a while. Maybe someone else can go? I guess I should work on the water heater, and the forge.”
He limped to the wooden cart he'd made trying to keep his momentum up and started unloading fabric with Rita, who kept staring at him as he limped along. Jake didn't get it. They had used some of her cool new fabric. It had been an emergency though, so hopefully the woman understood. She didn't look too angry, just watching him closely, seeming off a bit. She finally wandered off with an armload of stuff and came back with Carley in tow. Pointing at him. Accusingly.
Carley went hard.
“Jake! What the hell? Go sit down. You’ve been shot. Hey, people get out here and unload these carts!” She had to go get people, what with real yelling not being an option but she sounded happy enough about it, enthusiastic to see all the new supplies. Especially real wood that didn't have to be used as raw logs. She nearly freaked out over that.
“So cool. What's the plan?” She said, watching Jake as he stood.
Jake shrugged and gave her a soft look that came with a smile.
“You tell me. If the wood collection is going well for now, we can start on the bath houses. Pick who you want to work on it and we'll all make it happen. I'm on the water heaters for those myself, so we need to work together to make sure it all lines up.”
She could manage it after all. Carley was actually pretty competent once she forgot that in her world women weren't supposed to be in charge... Even if they actually were. For a second she looked like she'd have a problem with the idea but then she nodded.
“Right. I see what you did there, getting me to work like that. We'll start tomorrow. I'll get with Justine. She's good at building things. Who knew, right? It makes me glad you didn't kill her and everything.” She smiled and started unloading the cart, waving Jake away.
“Go and sit somewhere. Read a book maybe? It'll be good for you. All you do is work anymore.” She said it as if it were a bad thing.
Jake stuck his tongue out at her and gave a nearly silent laugh.
“Fine, I'll do that but when everyone complains about how lazy I am, it's on you. Just know that in advance.”
“Deal, if they complain to you about that, just send them out here, and I'll let them take over your jobs for a few days. That should stop any noise like that.”
Going inside took longer than it should have, his leg stiffening up now that it had a chance to. It made him limp worse, which he hid, if for no particular reason. No one watched him or anything, not that he noticed, so it wasn't that he didn't want them to see him in a weakened state, to prevent attack. He stopped and went to the wash area and scrubbed himself, which made his leg even stiffer, from the cold, then got dressed in clean, if very worn, clothing. If he was going to touch books, he wanted not to ruin them. Plus, it was like a ritual for him to wash as soon as he could after he killed anything. Trying to dilute the filth that death tried to spread over him.
The fiction section on the shelves inside had a lot more books, hundreds of them, since he'd added some from various houses, just grabbing what he could find. A few non-fiction were in there too but only one of them seemed to be about firearms. It had pictures of very nice and decorative weapons on the front at least but turned out to be about air-rifles instead.
He nearly put it down when a random passage caught his eye.
It was possible to make fifty caliber air rifles. They could be charged by hand and even have multiple shots. The designs were in the book, looked... complicated and tricky but currently they didn't have anything with that kind of stopping power. It could punch a hole in a car door for instance. Through a car door it actually said when he re-read it carefully. They needed more weapons, and if they could make that sort of thing, it would be useful. Even if it weren’t good enough and could only be used for hunting, not in a firefight, it would be worth it.
The hard part looked to be the air cylinder, which had to be made very precisely but the rest of it could be done with available materials. Once he had the forge working at least. He liked the basic idea, and if he could figure out how to make it fire faster...
It was hard to come by bullets but with something like that they might get by.
He sat for hours reading the book, trying to figure out what was needed, then going over the texts they had on blacksmithing too. That really would have to come first but it would be useful to have a weapon like that if it could be managed. He'd try it if he ever got a chance. Maybe. His leg throbbed through dinner, a meal that made the room look empty with the ten-person hunting team still gone. They planned to be gone four days, preserving things as they went somehow. Jake needed to learn how to do that, whatever it was they were doing. It could come in handy.
After dinner he helped dry dishes with the kids in the kitchen. Yvonne still helped as well. The slightly older woman looked happier now, more than he'd ever seen and told him that she was just feeling good for some reason. Better, like kicking a bug or something.
Jake simply spoke. The time for hiding was ending, after all.
“You’re kicking your addiction to the chemicals that Holsom used to brainwash you.” He was willing to describe the whole thing, but Yvonne went still, then nodded.
Her voice was calm.
“I’ve been wondering about that. I don’t know why I did those things. It made sense at the time. He was drugging us?”
Sammi shrugged.
“Pheromones, most likely. Possibly something different than that. He was producing it though, I’m nearly certain. I could smell it on him, but it didn’t affect me. I’m too young, I guess.”
He chuckled, as Ken kept working. The berserker. After a moment, Jake shook his head.
“Sammi has powers. A few of them. A better sense of smell is part of that. She’s also a lot older than she looks. It’s not a problem, but we all need to start using all of our abilities now. Still, I’m glad the ladies are all starting to feel better. We need to have a meeting about that soon. So they can understand what happened to them.”
Sammi gave him a look, which seemed a bit sharp, for telling her secrets, but Ken nodded, speaking softly.
“I’ve seen a lot of things here. We don’t talk about it, but lots of people have weird things going on.”
Again, Jake nodded.
“Right? We need to hold a meeting on that. Soon. You two can help with that. You as well Yvonne. Really, can you work out which women were being abused by Derrick and make a list? They might need help. That we haven’t been doing that... It’s my fault. I should have seen to their care.” He’d been angry at them, to start with.
Only now, it was clearly not their fault. That meant forgiving them all was clearly in order. A thing he’d already done, he realized.
The others nodded, but no one spoke about it any longer.
Once they finished with the dishes, leaving the plates, cups and bowls in the racks, it was bedtime. Even though it couldn't have been more than six-thirty or so at night. No one was really sleepy yet, except him, because being wounded did that. As he lay in bed trying to sleep, he heard them.
A lot of them.
Almost all of them.
People making love in the dark. Soft moans and groans of pleasure mixing with the gentle sound of body hitting body. He heard this off and on for hours. Finally, feeling very alone, even if Molly had offered to service him if he wanted, he tried to fall asleep anyway.
He was hit then, with a wave of pain, and desperation. A thing he hadn’t felt that keenly for a long time. Not for years.
The zombies hadn't pushed him to that, or super-zombies, not corrupt police or near starvation. But this... He shook his head slowly, tears that hadn't fallen for so many other things creeping down the side of his face. Tears he'd never cried for Rachel, or his parents came out now. Silently but it made him feel weak. Unloved. Unworthy of love from anyone. The loneliness was sharp too, aching in his gut. Finally he tried to force himself out of it.
Life wasn't fair but it still wouldn't be fair in the morning, so he might as well get some rest.
He woke up in the dark to the sound of soft snores and heavy breathing, signs of sleep, with something rubbing on the wounds of his leg. In the moonlight from the window he saw green shining eyes. Sammi. She shushed him and crawled up his body putting her lips nearly in his ear.
“I'm using a cloth, so just relax. I know the licking freaked you out, though it really does work better. It releases more healing factors. Let me get the bandage back on...” Which she did quickly, working his jeans enough that anyone watching would have thought some very bad things were going on. Then she touched his neck and he suddenly dropped to sleep, wondering if it had really happened at all.
In the morning Jake ate breakfast. Something inside of him shifted again, in a flash and he felt... Fine again. As if the depression that had come was battled back. He felt fine, again. Not perfect, but filled with compassion and love for everyone, letting go of selfish feelings like he’d had the night before. That had been...
Odd. Now that he had a chance to think about it. True, things could build up and the world had gotten freaking bleak on them all, but he normally blocked out people doing things in the dark. It wasn’t a major happening at all. Not even a new one.
He blinked.
“Okay... So, what happened? Did... Someone poison me?” Who that could be, he didn’t know, but it felt right to him. Now that this mind was back to nearly normal, he got it. It was probably paranoia, but it also made sense.
Someone had forced him into what he’d felt. Possibly using a power against him. That or something else. A chemical, like what Holsom had going on, only in reverse, perhaps. If that was right, then he needed to be careful and possibly to get out of there, soon. Unless he could find the source and make it stop. Talking to the person, perhaps.
Hopefully that sudden depression wouldn’t be impacting everyone. It would be too much for them to take or could be.
Jake simply set to work on making the huge water heater. It wouldn't make itself and the charcoal was still warming the ground, so the smoldering fire hadn't gone out yet. For once, without asking, everyone else, almost everyone, came out and worked too. The ground was cold now, though not frozen. Winter would be upon them all soon, and even the lazy people were starting to feel a bit of panic set in.
They had less than six weeks before they could expect snow and that was just on average. It could come even sooner, in as little as a month. Jake thought about it for a second, then remembered the stove for the greenhouse too and worked faster.
There really always was more to do. That was life though. A manageable thing, too. At least if no one was working against him personally, controlling his emotions. If that was the case, then he needed to find the source and stop it. That or remove himself if the other person couldn’t help but do it.
Only, the last time he’d left, things hadn’t gone very well at all. He needed to think about the issue. Hard and soon.
Chapter Ten
They’re splendid and no doubt hard working group of intrepid hunters didn't come back on day four, like they were supposed to. Or day five. Jake wondered if they were coming back at all. It hit him hard, since he truly wanted them too. There was just so much that could stop that now. Zombies, other groups or even fighting amongst themselves. Just because he'd come back to the house, which didn't mean no one had a grudge or two saved up for other people. Everyone started getting a little tense, worried about it. Waiting and wondering. Clearly feeling afraid.
Well, not Jake but the others there seemed that way. He felt it, but hid it pretty well, pretending to be happy and relaxed. The hunters were mainly men of course and a lot of the women had selected partners once given the idea, not just the pregnant ones. They had more women than men too, so eight guys being gone all at once made a big mental difference around the place.
They came back on the eighth day. Loaded down with meat that had been smoked and cut into large roasts, hunches and chunks. They carried all of this on two-man litters and had four of them full. The smoking had taken longer than Carl had thought it would, since they had to build the little smoke house too. The hunters had used part of the wood from the barn at the place Jake had started working on for that, just pulling the boards off the side.
They had actually taken a lot of animals but lowered the carrying weight by getting rid of most of the bones. That was a good enough idea but Jake still lamented the loss of the barn. He'd have to go and fix it if he ever got a chance before it let too much rain and snow in and fell apart. Not that he had animals to go in it but it had been his. Kind of. Was still his.
It was set up for him to live there. Which, if things were what he thought, he might need to use again, soon. To prevent falling into a depression. So far, that day, he was fighting it off pretty well, but constant nights like the last one would take him out, eventually.
Everyone seemed very glad to have the team back, which he felt for himself. There was a sense of relief in the whole event which left him feeling much better. It was a fifth of their people now, nearly, and Carl along with Barry and Spence from Vickie's team were a good part of the remaining cleaners. If they lost them, it could be effective.
Plus, they were some of his favorite people. Dave and Carl at least. Barry and Spence were decent people as well, even if he wasn’t close to them, yet.
For one thing Jake would have to stand extra night watch duties if they died or vanished. Truly, they needed to get Molly on that, as soon as possible. She didn’t sleep at all. That meant being up already, having something to do should go over well enough. Guard duty was kind of boring, of course. She took turns at it already but didn’t need to fake sleeping in the mornings any longer.
They had real, honest and official bath houses now, with an insulated outdoor hot water heater. It could hold five hundred gallons of water at a time and was high enough to fill up tubs inside each of the low structures. They had two baths in each but several sinks too, so people could wash up that way if they didn't want to wait.
The floors had crude drainpipes that carried the water away but they'd freeze if they weren't deep enough. That meant someone had to dig the three-foot-deep trenches to the underground wash out plain that Burt designated. It was about fifty feet of pipe, which they had already but meant a lot of work if anyone wanted to take a bath anytime soon. They cleared the charcoal first, finally, and then Jake started digging while the pregnant women chipped large pieces of burnt wood into smaller bits.
By taking turns digging and being careful they got the pipe in the ground at a downward angle, so that the water would always be flowing downhill and set up broken rock shards in a large pit at the end so it would always soak in.
“Sorry, I had to get some tools before I came out. Tweezers. A miracle tool that has been around for about four hundred years in one form or another. Let me see what I can do, here. It will hurt. Not as much as what you were just doing, though.” She worked with a will, carefully but not stopping at all, since he didn't bother yelling or passing out.
It took her twenty more minutes to get the last one. Several people stood back, watching, seeming to get that Jake was more or less fine.
He hoped it was the last pellet, that one was number five at least. She poked and prodded for a while then washed the wound and dusted it with penicillin powder. That all stung but less than being shot had. Way less than what he managed to do himself with the knife. When she finished the tiny girl, woman really, gave him a frank look.
“So, you had an adventure? We need to go over medical care. Hold classes on it, perhaps. It isn’t my strong suit, to be honest. I can do a bit, to help my friends, but that’s all.”
They bound the wound together, given that. Tight but not so much he wouldn't be able to walk on it. Cutting off the blood flow wasn’t needed. The shock had taken him down, for a bit and the wound stung, but that was all. He wasn’t bleeding to death.
The rest of them were busily telling Nate and a gathering of people about what had happened on their way back. Meaning Jake had time to do some real work. The story was fine, but it was over, for the time being. Even if they needed a group to go and bury some bodies. He signaled Burt to come over to look at the stuff. Then it started to rain again. That would make washing interesting at least.
Justine ran over too, happily looking at all the new tools and bricks. Almost like she thought they were presents, just for her. Which, honestly, it kind of was. If to share with everyone. They had three carts full of good stuff, too.
The large boned girl, tall and sturdy, seemed pretty pleased, pointing at the new materials she spoke.
“So, a hot water heater and some covered buildings for it. What else do we need?”
A tiny voice, Sammi, came from behind him.
“A way to make bullets or weapons that will work which don't need them. Cradles for the babies, more warm clothes if we can get them, and more meat. We have a lot but it will go faster than we think in the cold months ahead. People will need to eat a lot more. Plus, we can cut down on potential problems by simply being able to take in some of the people who might come. If they reach us at all, people will be desperate, and an offer of food and warmth for the winter will probably get them on our side fast.”
The others kind of stared at her but Jake nodded.
“Carl has a hunt going on, and I won't be walking into town again for a few weeks. We can send Vickie and some others for cradles maybe? Or Tipper. I don't know what to do about the bullets. Check out gun smiths and shops? Westwood didn't have one. We were too small to support that kind of thing.”
Burt shook his head and muttered.
“Clyde did though, on route nine? About forty miles from here, and in an area we haven't cleared at all. Can that truck make it there and back on the fuel it has?”
Jake didn't know. It had over half a tank full of the wonder juice but how far that would take them was just a guess. They could try it though and load a cart for the gear if they had to walk back.
“But I can't do it if I'm hoofing it for a while. Maybe someone else can go? I guess I should work on the water heater, and the forge.”
He limped to the wooden cart he'd made trying to keep his momentum up and started unloading fabric with Rita, who kept staring at him as he limped along. Jake didn't get it. They had used some of her cool new fabric. It had been an emergency though, so hopefully the woman understood. She didn't look too angry, just watching him closely, seeming off a bit. She finally wandered off with an armload of stuff and came back with Carley in tow. Pointing at him. Accusingly.
Carley went hard.
“Jake! What the hell? Go sit down. You’ve been shot. Hey, people get out here and unload these carts!” She had to go get people, what with real yelling not being an option but she sounded happy enough about it, enthusiastic to see all the new supplies. Especially real wood that didn't have to be used as raw logs. She nearly freaked out over that.
“So cool. What's the plan?” She said, watching Jake as he stood.
Jake shrugged and gave her a soft look that came with a smile.
“You tell me. If the wood collection is going well for now, we can start on the bath houses. Pick who you want to work on it and we'll all make it happen. I'm on the water heaters for those myself, so we need to work together to make sure it all lines up.”
She could manage it after all. Carley was actually pretty competent once she forgot that in her world women weren't supposed to be in charge... Even if they actually were. For a second she looked like she'd have a problem with the idea but then she nodded.
“Right. I see what you did there, getting me to work like that. We'll start tomorrow. I'll get with Justine. She's good at building things. Who knew, right? It makes me glad you didn't kill her and everything.” She smiled and started unloading the cart, waving Jake away.
“Go and sit somewhere. Read a book maybe? It'll be good for you. All you do is work anymore.” She said it as if it were a bad thing.
Jake stuck his tongue out at her and gave a nearly silent laugh.
“Fine, I'll do that but when everyone complains about how lazy I am, it's on you. Just know that in advance.”
“Deal, if they complain to you about that, just send them out here, and I'll let them take over your jobs for a few days. That should stop any noise like that.”
Going inside took longer than it should have, his leg stiffening up now that it had a chance to. It made him limp worse, which he hid, if for no particular reason. No one watched him or anything, not that he noticed, so it wasn't that he didn't want them to see him in a weakened state, to prevent attack. He stopped and went to the wash area and scrubbed himself, which made his leg even stiffer, from the cold, then got dressed in clean, if very worn, clothing. If he was going to touch books, he wanted not to ruin them. Plus, it was like a ritual for him to wash as soon as he could after he killed anything. Trying to dilute the filth that death tried to spread over him.
The fiction section on the shelves inside had a lot more books, hundreds of them, since he'd added some from various houses, just grabbing what he could find. A few non-fiction were in there too but only one of them seemed to be about firearms. It had pictures of very nice and decorative weapons on the front at least but turned out to be about air-rifles instead.
He nearly put it down when a random passage caught his eye.
It was possible to make fifty caliber air rifles. They could be charged by hand and even have multiple shots. The designs were in the book, looked... complicated and tricky but currently they didn't have anything with that kind of stopping power. It could punch a hole in a car door for instance. Through a car door it actually said when he re-read it carefully. They needed more weapons, and if they could make that sort of thing, it would be useful. Even if it weren’t good enough and could only be used for hunting, not in a firefight, it would be worth it.
The hard part looked to be the air cylinder, which had to be made very precisely but the rest of it could be done with available materials. Once he had the forge working at least. He liked the basic idea, and if he could figure out how to make it fire faster...
It was hard to come by bullets but with something like that they might get by.
He sat for hours reading the book, trying to figure out what was needed, then going over the texts they had on blacksmithing too. That really would have to come first but it would be useful to have a weapon like that if it could be managed. He'd try it if he ever got a chance. Maybe. His leg throbbed through dinner, a meal that made the room look empty with the ten-person hunting team still gone. They planned to be gone four days, preserving things as they went somehow. Jake needed to learn how to do that, whatever it was they were doing. It could come in handy.
After dinner he helped dry dishes with the kids in the kitchen. Yvonne still helped as well. The slightly older woman looked happier now, more than he'd ever seen and told him that she was just feeling good for some reason. Better, like kicking a bug or something.
Jake simply spoke. The time for hiding was ending, after all.
“You’re kicking your addiction to the chemicals that Holsom used to brainwash you.” He was willing to describe the whole thing, but Yvonne went still, then nodded.
Her voice was calm.
“I’ve been wondering about that. I don’t know why I did those things. It made sense at the time. He was drugging us?”
Sammi shrugged.
“Pheromones, most likely. Possibly something different than that. He was producing it though, I’m nearly certain. I could smell it on him, but it didn’t affect me. I’m too young, I guess.”
He chuckled, as Ken kept working. The berserker. After a moment, Jake shook his head.
“Sammi has powers. A few of them. A better sense of smell is part of that. She’s also a lot older than she looks. It’s not a problem, but we all need to start using all of our abilities now. Still, I’m glad the ladies are all starting to feel better. We need to have a meeting about that soon. So they can understand what happened to them.”
Sammi gave him a look, which seemed a bit sharp, for telling her secrets, but Ken nodded, speaking softly.
“I’ve seen a lot of things here. We don’t talk about it, but lots of people have weird things going on.”
Again, Jake nodded.
“Right? We need to hold a meeting on that. Soon. You two can help with that. You as well Yvonne. Really, can you work out which women were being abused by Derrick and make a list? They might need help. That we haven’t been doing that... It’s my fault. I should have seen to their care.” He’d been angry at them, to start with.
Only now, it was clearly not their fault. That meant forgiving them all was clearly in order. A thing he’d already done, he realized.
The others nodded, but no one spoke about it any longer.
Once they finished with the dishes, leaving the plates, cups and bowls in the racks, it was bedtime. Even though it couldn't have been more than six-thirty or so at night. No one was really sleepy yet, except him, because being wounded did that. As he lay in bed trying to sleep, he heard them.
A lot of them.
Almost all of them.
People making love in the dark. Soft moans and groans of pleasure mixing with the gentle sound of body hitting body. He heard this off and on for hours. Finally, feeling very alone, even if Molly had offered to service him if he wanted, he tried to fall asleep anyway.
He was hit then, with a wave of pain, and desperation. A thing he hadn’t felt that keenly for a long time. Not for years.
The zombies hadn't pushed him to that, or super-zombies, not corrupt police or near starvation. But this... He shook his head slowly, tears that hadn't fallen for so many other things creeping down the side of his face. Tears he'd never cried for Rachel, or his parents came out now. Silently but it made him feel weak. Unloved. Unworthy of love from anyone. The loneliness was sharp too, aching in his gut. Finally he tried to force himself out of it.
Life wasn't fair but it still wouldn't be fair in the morning, so he might as well get some rest.
He woke up in the dark to the sound of soft snores and heavy breathing, signs of sleep, with something rubbing on the wounds of his leg. In the moonlight from the window he saw green shining eyes. Sammi. She shushed him and crawled up his body putting her lips nearly in his ear.
“I'm using a cloth, so just relax. I know the licking freaked you out, though it really does work better. It releases more healing factors. Let me get the bandage back on...” Which she did quickly, working his jeans enough that anyone watching would have thought some very bad things were going on. Then she touched his neck and he suddenly dropped to sleep, wondering if it had really happened at all.
In the morning Jake ate breakfast. Something inside of him shifted again, in a flash and he felt... Fine again. As if the depression that had come was battled back. He felt fine, again. Not perfect, but filled with compassion and love for everyone, letting go of selfish feelings like he’d had the night before. That had been...
Odd. Now that he had a chance to think about it. True, things could build up and the world had gotten freaking bleak on them all, but he normally blocked out people doing things in the dark. It wasn’t a major happening at all. Not even a new one.
He blinked.
“Okay... So, what happened? Did... Someone poison me?” Who that could be, he didn’t know, but it felt right to him. Now that this mind was back to nearly normal, he got it. It was probably paranoia, but it also made sense.
Someone had forced him into what he’d felt. Possibly using a power against him. That or something else. A chemical, like what Holsom had going on, only in reverse, perhaps. If that was right, then he needed to be careful and possibly to get out of there, soon. Unless he could find the source and make it stop. Talking to the person, perhaps.
Hopefully that sudden depression wouldn’t be impacting everyone. It would be too much for them to take or could be.
Jake simply set to work on making the huge water heater. It wouldn't make itself and the charcoal was still warming the ground, so the smoldering fire hadn't gone out yet. For once, without asking, everyone else, almost everyone, came out and worked too. The ground was cold now, though not frozen. Winter would be upon them all soon, and even the lazy people were starting to feel a bit of panic set in.
They had less than six weeks before they could expect snow and that was just on average. It could come even sooner, in as little as a month. Jake thought about it for a second, then remembered the stove for the greenhouse too and worked faster.
There really always was more to do. That was life though. A manageable thing, too. At least if no one was working against him personally, controlling his emotions. If that was the case, then he needed to find the source and stop it. That or remove himself if the other person couldn’t help but do it.
Only, the last time he’d left, things hadn’t gone very well at all. He needed to think about the issue. Hard and soon.
Chapter Ten
They’re splendid and no doubt hard working group of intrepid hunters didn't come back on day four, like they were supposed to. Or day five. Jake wondered if they were coming back at all. It hit him hard, since he truly wanted them too. There was just so much that could stop that now. Zombies, other groups or even fighting amongst themselves. Just because he'd come back to the house, which didn't mean no one had a grudge or two saved up for other people. Everyone started getting a little tense, worried about it. Waiting and wondering. Clearly feeling afraid.
Well, not Jake but the others there seemed that way. He felt it, but hid it pretty well, pretending to be happy and relaxed. The hunters were mainly men of course and a lot of the women had selected partners once given the idea, not just the pregnant ones. They had more women than men too, so eight guys being gone all at once made a big mental difference around the place.
They came back on the eighth day. Loaded down with meat that had been smoked and cut into large roasts, hunches and chunks. They carried all of this on two-man litters and had four of them full. The smoking had taken longer than Carl had thought it would, since they had to build the little smoke house too. The hunters had used part of the wood from the barn at the place Jake had started working on for that, just pulling the boards off the side.
They had actually taken a lot of animals but lowered the carrying weight by getting rid of most of the bones. That was a good enough idea but Jake still lamented the loss of the barn. He'd have to go and fix it if he ever got a chance before it let too much rain and snow in and fell apart. Not that he had animals to go in it but it had been his. Kind of. Was still his.
It was set up for him to live there. Which, if things were what he thought, he might need to use again, soon. To prevent falling into a depression. So far, that day, he was fighting it off pretty well, but constant nights like the last one would take him out, eventually.
Everyone seemed very glad to have the team back, which he felt for himself. There was a sense of relief in the whole event which left him feeling much better. It was a fifth of their people now, nearly, and Carl along with Barry and Spence from Vickie's team were a good part of the remaining cleaners. If they lost them, it could be effective.
Plus, they were some of his favorite people. Dave and Carl at least. Barry and Spence were decent people as well, even if he wasn’t close to them, yet.
For one thing Jake would have to stand extra night watch duties if they died or vanished. Truly, they needed to get Molly on that, as soon as possible. She didn’t sleep at all. That meant being up already, having something to do should go over well enough. Guard duty was kind of boring, of course. She took turns at it already but didn’t need to fake sleeping in the mornings any longer.
They had real, honest and official bath houses now, with an insulated outdoor hot water heater. It could hold five hundred gallons of water at a time and was high enough to fill up tubs inside each of the low structures. They had two baths in each but several sinks too, so people could wash up that way if they didn't want to wait.
The floors had crude drainpipes that carried the water away but they'd freeze if they weren't deep enough. That meant someone had to dig the three-foot-deep trenches to the underground wash out plain that Burt designated. It was about fifty feet of pipe, which they had already but meant a lot of work if anyone wanted to take a bath anytime soon. They cleared the charcoal first, finally, and then Jake started digging while the pregnant women chipped large pieces of burnt wood into smaller bits.
By taking turns digging and being careful they got the pipe in the ground at a downward angle, so that the water would always be flowing downhill and set up broken rock shards in a large pit at the end so it would always soak in.
