Untoten Kreuzung
Chapter 26
After the small dinner and verbal abuse between Dempsey and Richtofen the rest of the night went on like any normal one, besides the constant fear of zombies breaking through the windows at any time. They'd all gathered in the living room and Dan was the conversation starter most of the time, asking about their war experiences and what it was like on the frontlines. Dempsey was more than happy to tell his tales, but the other three were not as open. There were times when Dan would cross the line in his questioning, but they did not go into a fit of rage, they just stayed quiet for a bit and changed the subject.
With all the questions and answers even Rune was surprised at some of the stories and replies she heard. To know that Nikolai was once a baron in the middle, northeast part of Russia was a surprise to everyone in the room. Takeo had killed his first man when he was only twelve due to the man being a mugger and ambushing him in the streets of Nakamura. Dempsey had a seven year daughter that he left to join the marines and he'd sent her to his aunt and uncle.
Dan rarely asked questions that directed to Richtofen, mainly because he was a Nazi. But the questions he did ask were a bit out of line, and forced him to respond very carefully in order to not offend greatly. He didn't say much in the way of personal history, but he did mention some 'off' things about his family. The fact that they were related to several of the German princes back when Germany was just a mass of separated territories.
When Dan ran out of questions to ask all of them subconsciously decided it was time to head to bed. Without further ado they all split up and found places to sleep. Nikolai was asked to sleep somewhere off the furniture so he wouldn't rub off his stench on them. Takeo took to the chair in the second living space, and Dempsey took the couch in the same room. Of course Dan and Jeremiah took their upstairs rooms and left the guest bedroom just for Rune only.
Richtofen found out the hard way about Jeremiah's "no boys allowed with the girls" rule. Especially when the punishment was a swift kick in rear coupled with a nice chilling bowl of water and a strict verbal warning. At least this let Rune think to herself without any distractions or worries. Most of her thoughts went along with getting a way to travel to Ste. Genevieve and the best route from their current location. However, they were in the wrong condition to be heading off in such a rush, it would be better to rest up on Jeremiah's farm and then head off with much needed supplies than to go it at the moment.
The next morning was a prelude into something that none of the five expected to handle.
"C'mon if ya'll are stayin' here ya'll are gonna work to pay yer' keep." Jeremiah ordered as they all made their way to the run-down barn behind the house.
"Farm verk, never in my life have I ever dealt vith livestock, und now it chooses to vex me, hier in America of all ze places in ze vorld." Richtofen complained.
"Quit your whining Richtofen, or you might just get left with the worst jobs." Dempsey warned.
Inside of the barn there were only a few animals due to the zombies taking the rest. Two dairy cows, a pregnant goat, two hens and one rooster.
"Well at least there aren't a lot of them, I was expecting more." Rune admitted.
"I did have five cows, four goats and twelve chickens before ya'll came here, but as you can guess those zombies got the bulk of them." Jeremiah explained.
He sat down two buckets and climbed up a rickety ladder to the upper level of the barn. From there he tossed a few plastic egg containers, two pitchforks, and one shovel.
"All right, now I don't care which one of ya'll does what but I need someone to gather the eggs, another to milk the cows, one to replace the hay, and the last to move the crap outta the barn." He ordered from the upper level.
"And you will be…..?" Rune questioned.
"Yer supervisor, now get to it."
Takeo took off for the pitchforks and grabbed one before any of the others could take them. The other pitchfork was taken by Dan so he wouldn't get stuck with any of the truly laborious jobs. Dempsey ran for the buckets, but was outmatched by Rune's sprinting. She tossed one of the buckets at Richtofen and the two strolled over to the cows.
Dempsey and Nikolai both eyed each other dangerously; they both took off for the egg containers. Nikolai tripped and fell in the hay while Dempsey gathered the containers and started for the makeshift chicken coop.
"Well, it seems that the Russian will be able to take care of something that matches his stench." Takeo chuckled.
"Laugh while you can Takeo, just know that one day it will be you cleaning up the pile of shit you bury yourself in." Nikolai warned.
"Enough lollygaggin' ya'll are burnin' daylight." Jeremiah urged.
Nikolai grudgingly picked up the rusted shovel and began his search for the unwanted remains in the barn. Dempsey hopped into the chicken coop as quickly as possible and started for the eggs. His plans were thwarted, however, by the aggressive rooster that also made the coop its home. Before he was spurred Dempsey leapt out of the coop without any eggs and watched the rooster peck at the fence.
"Careful now, that rooster ain't too friendly. If ya don't keep an eye out he'll get ya." Jeremiah warned.
Dempsey got back to his feet and watched the rooster carefully in order to time his attempt right. As soon as the rooster was on the other end of the coop he jumped in again and took off with two eggs before he heard the furious flap of wings and returned outside of the coop. While Dempsey was occupied with that Takeo and Dan were off to the side cycling the hay. They deconstructed the fresh bales and moved the old hay out near the garden.
Rune and Richtofen were having problems of their own with the two diary cows. Milking the cows was not as easy as they thought, especially since they couldn't even yield the tiniest sprinkle of milk.
"Hey Jeremiah, could you come down here and help us with the cows?" Rune asked. The rugged man obliged by climbing down the ladder and going to her side.
"All right ya got the hold right, but yer not squeezing hard enough. Ya gotta do it like this." He instructed. After a few minutes of quick tutoring Rune got the hang of it, so Jeremiah went back up the ladder and continued supervising.
"He helps you, but not me. I see how it is." Richtofen mumbled to himself. Rune sighed and stopped milking the cow to take care of him.
Nikolai shoveled up large and small piles of animal feces and dropped them off in an old metal barrel labeled "Fertilizer". There were moments when he would stop what he was doing and take drinks of his vodka, then return to his task. He would mumble Russian curses whenever he found a particularly littered area and begin to shovel aggressively. As terrible as it may have seemed it was actually one of the easier jobs.
Dempsey on the other hand had more problems with the rooster. After getting spurred three times, getting caught on the fence, and only coming up with six eggs he was beginning to get a bit angry. In his anger he began to formulate a plan to stop the rooster's assault and save himself precious time. He put down the egg container and stalked around to the other side of the coop where the rooster was hanging out at.
Dempsey looked around for something he could put around it to trap it. He found his salvation in the far corner of the barn. A faded red plastic ring with a thin sheet of old chicken wire that rose up about three feet was exactly what he needed. He took it and began to aim it above the rooster in order to trap him where he wanted him. As soon as the rooster was in the farthest corner away from the eggs he let it fall and encircle the enraged animal.
Dempsey leaped over the fence and grabbed the last three eggs and ran out of the coop before the rooster made its way over the trap. He laughed in triumph and closed the egg container.
"How do ya like that you damn dirty cock?" Dempsey insulted the rooster. Jeremiah got down from the ladder and took the container from him and inspected each egg. He was satisfied that he'd not broken any of them and patted him on the shoulder.
Takeo and Dan were finished with cycling the hay and were now putting up the pitchforks. Nikolai was still hunched over looking for any more animal crap and he still cursed when he found some. Rune had gotten done with milking her cow while Richtofen was still occupied with the one he was milking.
"Zhis is vhy I never vent to farms." He mumbled under his breath.
"C'mon Ed, you're almost done." Rune reassured him.
Once Nikolai and Richtofen were done they all headed back to the house.
"That's a pretty good day of work. To be honest I thought ya'll would screw it up completely. Glad to see I was wrong." Jeremiah admitted.
"We're happy to not disappoint you then…" Rune hesitantly thanked.
Once inside the house Jeremiah took the milk buckets and put them in the kitchen.
"Ya'll have earned yer stay for now, but just know that this was an easy task compared to what I might have ya do. Depending on how long ya'll plan to stay." He foreshadowed.
"Oh we won't be staying too terribly long, we've got to go to a rendezvous point a ways from here." Rune assured.
Jeremiah nodded and went back into the kitchen to prep the items they'd gotten today.
"Ugh, what do you think he's going to make us do?" Nikolai shuddered.
"Oh be quiet Nikolai, we won't be staying that long." Rune scolded.