Chapter 2: The Wood Ranch
One Month Earlier:
Alexa was walking the property lines checking the warning system and antennas after a big windstorm had blown through the last couple of days when she got a warning someone was at the gate. Turning in that direction she took off at an easy jog to see who was there.
"Hey Joe, what brings you out here? Aren't you supposed to be at the tower?" the kid was around 18 with brown hair and hazel eyes with the familiar wings on his right chest. "Yeah, but got a special request for the next shipment from HQ. They said they wanted 15 of the Mighty Man packs." "15's a lot of packs what do they need those for?" The kid grinned, "We reached the East Coast last week. Need them for the scouting parties." "Well damn, what do I get for them?" "We found a stash of batteries in Montana." "You got my attention." "HQ said you could have one." "Just one? How bout 5?" "Thats three packs per battery, how bout two?" "Four." "Three." "You got yourselves a deal! Three batteries in exchange for 15 packs." They shook hands and Joe headed back to the Gator he had used to get out to the Ranch. Alexa watched til he was out of sight before pressing the two buttons on the band she had around her neck. "Hey Sammy, get 15 of those Mighty Mans together to go out on the next shipment." "Aww, c'mon Alexa, I got to get the greenhouse to finish and tag the animals that are gonna be butchered this year. Get Jozie and Jake to do it, they ain't doing nothing." "They better be doin somethin! We got too much to get done before the rains start for anyone to be sittin on their hands." "They were making lye for the soaps, but after they got that all setup, I haven't seen them." Another voice chimed in. Alexa let go of the buttons and started cussin, after a few minutes she got back on the line. "Has anybody seen Jozie and Jake in the last hour?" She got a round of No's and one of the girls said, "I saw them heading into the woods about 45 minutes ago. Figured the were just getting some more plants for drying." "Did ya see if they had comms?" "I don't know, I just assumed they did. They know we're not supposed to leave the yard without them." Alexa let go of the buttons again, "Son of a bitch, if those two have wandered off to fuck again I'm gonna kill them myself!" She pressed the buttons again, "Did ya notice what direction they were heading?" "Up the road is all I noticed." "Alright thanks Lara, I'll see if I can find them and drag them back to the house."
She set off back towards the house keeping an eye out for signs of the two teenagers. "Damn hormonal teenagers. How the hell did I get stuck with a houseful of damn hormonal teenagers when shit hit the fan? Huh! What did I do to deserve this?!" She ranted as she went. About 3/4 of the way back to the house she noticed where they had left the road and headed into the woods. With a grim expression she followed the tracks for a hundred feet before she heard them. She snuck up on them and got within 5 feet of them before she spoke. "What the hell do you think you are doing?!" The two teenagers yelped and pulled apart real quick. "You realize if I was one of the dead, you'd be dead now?! I got within 5 feet of you and you didn't even see me! Too busy sucking face and groping each other! Get your asses back to the house! There's work needs done!"
Jozie sniffed, "I don't see why some of the others can't do some of it." "Girl this ain't no place for your pampered princess routine! Everybody else does their share of the work and you gotta too! So get that nose outta the air 'fore I chop it off and get your ass back to the house and get your chores done! It's been damn near six months since you got here and you still skirting chores and handing them off to someone else because you think your too good for 'em! I tell ya next time you pull this shit I'm sending you out to The Orphanage and Jake'll be stayin here! I don't make empty promises neither, Girl! Now GET!" Jozie huffed and flounced of into the trees toward the house while Jake stood there with his head hung.
"As for you, you know better'n this shit! What got inta your head to leave the yard without your Comm, huh? Thinkin' with your southern head instead of the one on your shoulders is somethin that'll get you killed out here nowadays and you know it! Don't get drawn into her drama bullshit and quit skippin out on yer chores. Now get back to the house, we got a special order of 15 Mighty Mans that need put together before the next shipment in three days." Jake turned and started back to the house.
Alexa sighed and and activated her Comm. "I found 'em. Jozie should be comin in first. Can somebody please make sure she gets her chores done? I hate askin cause I know how busy everybody is, but please?" "No problem Alexa, I'll keep an eye on her." "Thanks Liz, I appreciate it. She gives you any trouble let me know." She sighed again and started back to the house.
When she made it back to the yard she stood at the top of the hill and made sure everybody was were they were supposed to be then started down the hill to the house. When she made it to the house she went in to the office/communications room where Lara was manning the radio and writing something in a spiral notebook. "Whatcha doin Lara Bear?" "I think we need more people to help out around here," she said, "I think we need at least 7 more but 10 would be better." "Now see I agree with you on that but is 17 people a sustainable number for us?" "Huh?" Alexa chuckled, "If we were suddenly cut off from the supply route could 17 people survive on what we got for, say six months?" "Oh, I didn't think of that." Lara said sheepishly, "How do we know?"
Alexa went over to the shelf and got 4 binders off of it. "These are our counts on things like Animal Products," pointing to the yellow binder, "Which include the eggs, goat milk, and butchering animals." She pointed to the green one, "This is what we got in the greenhouse and garden, plus what we can gather on the property." She pointed to the brown one, "This is the current inventory of the pantry, and this one," she said pointing to the blue one, "is our products that we use for trade and the ingredients needed for them. You have to take all of this into consideration to decide if we can sustain with an additional 10 people." "Oh! How do you figure out if you have enough?" "First look at the pantry, it has been inventoried at least once a week for the last two years. See what gets used the most and what doesn't and how much of each is used." She said pulling a chair to sit down beside Lara. "Then you have to keep in mind this is just for 7 people, you have to add about 200% to it so we would triple our pantry." "Why triple? There aren't gonna be that many people." "Because you always want more than you need so if things get really rough you have enough." "Oh, I understand, so if it was like it was at the beginning we aren't starving." "Exactly."
The two worked on their sustainable number for the next few hours. Alexa explaining how she was getting her numbers as she went. When they were done Alexa sat back. "So according to the calculations, can we practically sustain 17 people on the resources we have?" Lara looked at her notebook and nodded, "Yes!" "Well alright then, I'll ask Pete to keep an eye out for some extra hands for us. Sound good?" "Yep!" "C'mon, lets get supper started before the rest of them starve." Alexa pushed away from the desk and went out the door to the top floor of the house where the kitchen was. "Can we watch a movie tonight?" Lara asked. Alexa shrugged, "Sure, should be fine, just one though, everybody has to be up early to start getting the animals butchered and processed." "OK!" Lara said excitedly. Alexa chuckled, "C'mon girl wash yer hands and help me get supper made 'fore you get lost on what movie you want to watch, besides its Seren's turn to pick." "Awww, hes gonna pick one of those movies with explosions and stuff. I want to watch something good!" "Well he thinks those types of movies are good. You just want to watch one of those sappy romances." Alexa teased. "Yep!" they both laughed until Alexa's comm came online. "Alexa we got a problem out here. I need some help, Liz and Jozie are trying to tear each other apart." "Damn!" She activated her comm. "I'll be right down, where are ya?" "Far end of the chicken coops." "Alright be right there, Sam." She looked at Lara, "You okay getting supper started?" "Yeah I'm good," Lara answered, "Go kick that spoiled princess's butt!" Alexa chuckled as she started down the stairs and out of the house to the chicken coops.
She heard them before she saw them, Jozie was screaming at the top of her lungs about chicken shit in her hair and on her clothes, while Liz was was calling her everything but a white girl. She rounded the corner and saw Sam holding Jozie with her arms pinned trying to stay between the two girls. Alexa waded into the fray and grabbed Liz by the collar and threw her off of Sam. "Don't!" She said pointing at Liz who had started back. Then she turned and slapped Jozie across the face, "Shut up yer caterwailin girl, yer gonna bring the whole county down on us!" Jozie stopped screaming with a look of shock on her face. "You hit me!" "I'm gonna do more than slap you if you don't shut up!" Alexa took a deep breath and motioned for Sam to let Jozie loose. When she was standing on her own she looked between the two girls, "Now anybody want to tell what happened?" Jozie just crossed her arms with a huff and turned away, while Liz hung her head. "Anybody?" "We were collecting the eggs and Jozie refused to listen to me about making sure all the birds were out of the house before she tried to get the ones in the back corner." Liz shrugged, "One of the chickens shit on her while she was collecting the eggs. Then she started yelling and kicking at the chickens, and when I tried to stop her she turned and started yelling and swinging at me. That's about when Sam showed up and the little hell cat turned on him."
"I hate chickens," Jozie whined, "Why cant I make soaps and oils, instead of taking care of these stupid chickens?"
Alexa groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Jozie, I can't have someone here who only does the soaps and oils. I can't." "Well, why not?" "Because, it takes a long time, with a lot of waiting to complete a batch of soaps or oils. Sometimes weeks, depending on the product. I can't have somebody sittin on their hands waiting for the next step in the process, when there are other things that need to be done. Like, taking care of the chickens and collecting the eggs." Jozie pouted.
Alexa sighed, "Jozie, when I was explaining what we did on the ranch I talked about this, were you not paying attention?" Liz snorted, "More like she was making googoo eyes at Jake." "I don't want no comments from the peanut gallery at the moment. Don't you have chores to finish?" Alexa said. "Yeah go do your chores, butch bitch." Jozie sneered. Alexa rounded on Jozie as she stepped between the two girls again. "Jocylyn Marie Hunnywhether! I don't want to hear nothin like tha' come outta yer mouth again! Ya hear me! That was uncalled for and I won't have it! You have caused enough trouble around here today! First, you convinced Jake to skip his chores and sneak off with you into the woods WITHOUT his comms. Then, this shit with the chickens. Now you want to push it even further by sayin' somethin' like that! I won't have it! This is yer last warnin girl, one more screwup and I am adding your name to the next shipment out! The Angels'll deal with ya, find ya somewhere that'll teach ya to grow up and stop actin' like the spoiled little rich girl you were before everything went to shit two years ago! I don't have the time, nor the patience to deal with your shit! Now get yer chores finished cause you ain't comin in for supper til they are done, correctly, if that means you gotta do them 10 times til they are, that's what yer gonna do!" Alexa took a deep breath to calm down and turned to Sam, ignoring Jozie whining behind her. "Can you supervise her to make sure she gets her chores done?", she asked. Sam nodded, "Yeah, I'll watch her." "Don't let her sucker you into doin them for her either. She needs to learn." "I won't, don't worry." "Thanks Sam, I gotta get back up to the house and help Lara with supper." She turned and headed back to the house.
When she got back to the kitchen Lara was stirring a pot on the stove. "Mmmm, Whatcha got cookin?" Alexa asked "Decided chicken and noodles with vegetables sounded good, thickened it up with a bit of goat's milk and corn starch, so its more of a stew than a soup. Figured we could slice one of the loaves of bread we made this morning and set out some butter to got with it." "Girl your only 14 where did you learn to cook like that?" Lara smiled, "It was either learn or starve, Mom wasn't around much and when she was all she did was sleep. Had to take care of myself and my brother. He certainly wasn't going to do it. Besides I like cooking, makes me feel useful." "You're useful. You keep the communications up and going and keep in contact with the others so we know what is going on out there. Besides the fact you got a good mind for numbers 'tween those ears o' yours." "Yeah but I can't help around the ranch with my arm and foot the way they are." "Nonsense, so you're missing a hand and got a club foot, no big deal. The arm is healing fine and when it is healed good enough we'll get you back out working with the rest of them, just gonna have ta work around it, find the way that works for you. So, you said slice one of the loaves and the butter?" Lara hummed an agreement as Alexa went to the bread box and got out a knife to slice the loaf.
A half hour later they heard everyone coming up the stairs as the sun was setting. Jozie and Sam being the last ones through to door. Jozie unusually subdued and Sam with a contemplative look on his face as he watched her sit at the table. Dustin, Jake, and Seren were rough housing around, mock wrestling over who would sit beside her. While Liz went to help Lara and Alexa carry the bowls, bread, and butter to the table.
"Alright, enough. You boys find a seat and get comfortable or I might change my mind about a movie tonight." Alexa joked, with a smile that widened when every body let out a cheer and started talking about what they were going to watch as they settled down to eat.
When supper was finished and the kitchen cleaned up Alexa said, "It's Seren's turn to pick," and turned on the laptop with an external harddrive connected to the TV. then moved out of the way to let Seren pick from the ever growing movie collection on the harddrive while everybody settled down in front of the TV. He finally settled on a war movie called "We Were Soldiers" and hit play. About halfway through the movie Alexa got up and went down to the office. Sam followed her a few minutes later and found her sitting behind the desk with her face in her hands. He could almost see the frustration coming off of her.
"You know you were a little harsh with her today?" he said leaning against the doorway. Alexa sighed and dropped her hands to look at him, "I know. She just frustrates me! Why can't she understand that this is not where she was before? It's dangerous out here." "I think she knows, but she's scared. Everything she knows was stripped away overnight." "It was for the rest of us too, though. Everybody's scared." "Different people deal with things differently. I understand where you both are coming from, but you have to look at it from her point of view. She has a nice safe place, sturdy walls and gates, her family, and suddenly she has nothing. She was the darling little princess, nothing really changed for her two years ago. Then suddenly the walls were breached and she's all alone, left to fend for herself in a world that her previous place didn't prepare her for. Then she is dropped here and she doesn't want to believe she is safe. She did that once already and it bit her in the ass, almost literally. You gotta give the girl a little slack." "It's been six months Sam! How much slack can I give her, without giving her enough to hang herself with?" "You just gotta trust that she won't. Look, Lara is almost healed up and I know she wants out of this room and back to work. Why don't you shuffle the duty roster and put Jozie in here part of the day and let Lara get back out there? Two birds, one stone." Alexa let out a heavy sigh, "I guess I could do that. I'll look at the roster, see what needs done when." Sam came around the desk and kissed Alexa's cheek. "Thanks Sis, you'll see, everything will work out. It always does." He turned and left the room.