I shook my head. “Okay then. For once it didn’t try to kill us.”
“That’s only happened once,” said Samantha.
“Details, details,” I said, feeling the tension lift. I even got a smile or two.
“That was a damn big turkey,” said Mike, still looking at the woods where the bird had disappeared. “It’d have fed the bunch of us for Thanksgiving. Maybe two Thanksgivings.”
“Turkeys don’t attack people, do they?” asked Sheila with a nervous voice.
“No,” he said, turning toward her. “I mean, if you ran up to one and tried to kick it, it might jump at you. But it’d probably run away, and you’d never get that close anyway. They’re nervous birds and run from anything that might hurt them.”
“Since when can turkeys fly like that?” asked Anthony. “I thought they only walked.”
“Farm turkeys are too fat to fly,” said Samantha. “Wild turkeys can fly quite some ways. That one was two or three times bigger than a farm turkey, but maybe the System is helping it somehow.”
“At any rate, it didn’t attack us so I count that as a win,” I said. “Off we go, everybody.”
They got the hint. Those of us with bags picked them up, the line re-formed, and we moved on down the road.
Chapter 16
Admin Override
We reached another cabin, or at least the driveway up to one. The hill was steep and apparently the building wasn’t tall enough to stick out over the treeline.
“We do what we did for you at all the cabins we find,” said Danielle to Sheila. “We have Joe do it by himself so people don’t get scared of a big group.”
Joe, meanwhile, was handing his bat to Mandy and getting ready to walk a little further ahead of us in preparation for that very thing. He looked excited. And not at all tired, damn him.
“Were we the first ones you found?” asked Sheila quietly.
“No,” I said. “There was one couple who decided to stay put. Maybe because they saw Kaa before we could warn them.” I didn’t mention the three men who’d attacked us, or the pistolero.
PARTY CHAT / MANDY: I think we should tell them about the hunters.
I blinked. That was unexpected. I thought about this while we inched up the steep driveway, all bunched up except for Joe.
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: Why?
PARTY CHAT / MANDY: Because they need to know.
That wasn’t getting anywhere.
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: They’ve seen how we are now. We might as well, unless anybody has a reason not to. But let’s wait until we can tell them privately. The kids don’t need to hear.
By the time I got that mentally typed in, we were at the top of the drive. A small but neatly kept cabin was in a small clearing. There was a beat-up old truck in the driveway.
Since he’d been ahead of us, Joe was in position already. After looking back to make sure we were ready, he yelled, “Hello! Anybody there? We’re here to help!”
There was no answer. He called again. Still no answer. The curtains were drawn on all the windows, and I didn’t see any movement.
Our tank walked back to the group. “Nobody home,” he said.
“Wait,” said Sheila. “Look there.” She pointed at a little wagon just off the small front porch.
“What about it?” asked Mandy.
“Look how neat this yard is,” said Sheila. “Whoever lives here takes care of it. But they didn’t put the wagon away. Maybe because the kids were going to play with it again.”
“So?” said Mandy. “Maybe they forgot.”
“They could be in there hiding,” said Sheila. “The kids could be all alone.” She was shaking.
“Or they could just not want to come out,” said Mandy. “Not everybody is going to be friendly.” She gave me a pointed look.
PARTY CHAT / MANDY: This is why.
I walked over close to Sheila and waved to Bruce. “I need to talk to you both for a minute. Danielle, can you please keep the kids occupied?”
“Yes,” she said, giving me her best smile. I felt a little dazed, and I was used to it. She could probably recite the alphabet to them and keep their attention for an hour.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling back. Danielle started telling the kids about a ‘cat-lady’ she’d heard about in a story. The three of us walked several feet away.
“We did find one other group,” I said in a low voice. “Three men in a hunting cabin. They tried to kill us.”
Sheila gasped and Bruce’s jaw dropped.
“Just like that,” I said. “They had guns, they tried to get us to put down our weapons. When we didn’t do it fast enough they started shooting.”
“What… what did you do?” whispered Bruce.
“We killed them all,” I said in the most neutral tone I could manage. “We had our Class Skills. They didn’t. Or at least they didn’t use any.”
“Did… did you lose anybody?” This time it was Sheila who choked out a question.
“No. I got shot. So did Joe.” I pointed to the worn spot on my jacket. “You heal really fast with the System. And their guns didn’t work very well on us. It hurt like Hell, but it didn’t make big holes like they would have before.”
“You’re bulletproof?” said Bruce, a little too loud. Fortunately the kids were enthralled by whatever Danielle was telling them. I could hear a really loud “rawr” from time to time.
“No,” I said. “More like their guns weren’t part of the System, so the bullets didn’t work very well. If they’d shot us enough times we still would have died. And there are System weapons, like that gun Samantha had, that are much more dangerous.”
“Where’d she get that?” asked Sheila suspiciously.
“Long story,” I said. “Short version, it was a Perk, like the Special Skills you each got.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” she asked, still sounding very suspicious.
“We didn’t want to scare you or the kids.” I let my voice go from ‘neutral’ to ‘please believe me,’ or something like it. “And when we found out you had no water and no Class Skills, you couldn’t stay there and you couldn’t go on your own. We only want to help you get to town, I swear. But that’s why we don’t get close to the houses. We don’t want Joe getting shot again.”
“Is that where you got the guns? The regular ones, I mean?” asked Bruce.
“Yes,” I said. “This is the gun that shot me, I think.” I didn’t pat it or raise it or even smile. “It’s not a trophy or anything sick like that. Mike took the best one, he gave me the second best, and it was the one that shot me. Simple as that.”
Sheila had turned away from me to stare at the house. “I’m scared,” she said. “But I still think there could be kids in there.”
“Are you willing to risk your kids by maybe starting a fight?” I asked pointedly.
“No,” she said in a tiny voice.