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The gathering before Bryan had "intervention" written all over it. He had been seated by the fire, stuffing the usual amounts of fodder into it to make a good warm blaze when Silver approached him.

She sat down beside him and put her hand on his shoulder in a manner that made him look up. His eyes met hers questioningly and she frowned, as if unsure of what to say. She seemed as if she were about to speak twice before audible words came from her lips.

"Bryan," she said. "There's something we've been meaning to talk to you about."

His eyes focused beyond her and he noted that they were not alone for the first time. Rob, Jack, Andrew, Amanda, Jamie, Derek, and Cassie were all seated before them. No one was smiling. All looked concerned and some even a little sheepish. Bryan looked them all up and down, a shiver running down his spine as the implications began to unfold in his mind.

It was Rob who broke the silence.

"Bryan," he said. "I want to say thank you for taking us in and keeping us safe first of all." He paused and everyone nodded their agreement.

"I sense a 'but' coming on," Bryan said somewhat sarcastically.

"There is," Rob continued. He paused for a moment, trying to find the right way to say what he was thinking. "A big 'but.'"

Bryan raised his eyebrows questioningly, irritation beginning to form below the surface in the back of his mind.

"You, as you made clear when we came are the owner of this property," Rob said slowly. "We agreed to follow whatever you dealt out for the time being."

Bryan nodded, a frown beginning to form on his face. Where was this going?

"Well," Rob continued. "We have observed that while you are a brilliant planner and excellent a lot of things, you're overall strategizing has been lacking somewhat."

Silver cleared her throat at this. She turned to Bryan and gave him a look that he was well familiar with. It was a look that said "I'm looking out for your best interest here." Bryan had seen it hundreds of times over the years when Silver asserted her spousal authority.

"What we are saying her Bryan," she said solemnly. "Is that you have carried everything on your shoulders for weeks now. You're not sleeping well. You're grumpy, irritable, and sometimes unpredictable."

"And sometimes your decisions are questionable," Derek added.

Derek had been walking about on crutches for the past week. The delirium and fever had finally passed and he was well on his way to healing. Andrew pronounced that he would walk again, though likely with a limp for the rest of his life. It had been he that night, who had made a fifty yard shot in semi-darkness that had neutralized the last invader and saved Bryan and Maggie.

"I am not trying to criticize you by any means," Derek continued. "However, you don't have the training and know how to really lead what amounts to a military campaign. Our OPs are understaffed, our internal patrols are largely unnecessary except in rare cases where someone actually gets past out Ops. We were apparently observed from a distance and noted that we had escape tunnels and were using them. They used those tunnels and it was only by sheer luck that we had people in place that prevented tragedy." He took a deep breath. "And as much as it seems like a good idea at the time, never ever disarm yourself when dealing with a hostage situation. I had to make a potentially dangerous shot because you almost got all three of you killed. You bargained away your leverage in the situation."

Bryan sat, aghast as he listened. He looked around the room at the people he had trusted, feeling more than a little betrayed. His mind was spinning out of control, unable to grasp the situation at hand and hang on. Finally he simply asked for clarification.

"So," he began. "What you're saying is I am being removed from my duties so to speak?"

There was a collective wince throughout the room. Apparently he had struck a nerve.

"Well not exactly," Rob said. "We still acknowledge your ownership and head of household status. What we are saying is that there are people whose expertise is beyond yours in certain areas and we feel like we should divide the duties somewhat, according to ability."

Bryan's frown lessened a bit, but it was still quite prominent. "So what do you want me to do?" he asked cautiously.

"Relinquish a few responsibilities," Silver said quietly. "Delegate. Give some of these burdens you are carrying to someone else for a change."

Bryan looked doubtful. Delegation was not one of his best skills. Organizing so that he could take care of everything was more his speed.

"For God's sake Bryan," Andrew spouted. "You have six kids and you are the one collecting eggs and feeding chickens every morning. We know handing tasks over doesn't come easy but you can't micromanage everything and expect for rosy results every time. You nearly got killed out there, not once but twice."

Rob nodded. "The thing of it is, there are three military people here. We each had different specialties and different branches, but the bottom line is we need to use those skills where they are greatest. You are not the greatest here at the tactics involved with keeping the place secure. Rely on those that are."

Bryan's shoulders slumped. He shrugged, holding his hands out in defeat. "It's clear I've been outnumbered here." He glared at Silver with a look that seemed to say "et tu, brute?" He got up from his seat and walked down the hallway toward the Master Suite. No one followed.

Though it was only sometime after seven o'clock in the evening, and the sun had still not set he got undressed and climbed into bed.

For a time he lay there, looking at the ceiling, feeling the itch upon his skin where the wounds from the shotgun blast were healing. He tried to sleep, but kept tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable or relax. Every time he closed his eyes a vision of the gun barrel waving into his face frightened them into opening again. The sight of the man's face exploding from Derek's bullet was next. The only saving grace of the entire fiasco was that Bryan had been unable to see his bullets strike the three people he had killed. But the sounds of the battle haunted his nightmares, both waking and sleeping.

"I'm a killer," he thought to himself. "I have shed the blood of three other human beings. I have ended lives."

He pondered this thought longer than he should have, rolling it over in his head. He had felt justified in doing the things that he did, in nearly getting killed to save the lives of those inside the compound. And now everyone had ganged up on him, trying to convince him that what he had done was somehow strategically wrong and harmful. They had felt threatened because of what he had done.

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Chapter 29 Videos

Carrying OnChapter 2

Silver opened the kitchen door and found Amy, their youngest daughter sitting at the kitchen bar with a coloring book and a pile of crayons strewn all over the surface. The determined look of concentration on her face was comical. She was peering at the paper before her moving a green crayon in maniacal circles, sticking her tongue out of one side of her mouth, and twirling her strawberry blonde pigtail with her other hand. Oblivious to Silvers' approach she held her tiny pose long enough...

Carrying OnChapter 10

It was after seven when Bryan came pulling into the driveway for the second time that day. The load that he had in the trailer wasn't nearly filled to capacity but was definitely at the weight limit. Bags of concrete were heavy and to haul them over 100 miles he had to stop and let the tires on the trailer cool down every thirty miles. That had worked out fine because the state police had checkpoints at about that distance on the interstate highways. After the first trip into the city he...

Carrying OnChapter 35

The trio had started off at dark the first night without event. They had walked down the road, and then trekked down the abandoned right-away until they were a few hundred yards northwest of the city limit sign. At that point they had split up, Matthew moving south along the western edge of town until he reached a small hill overlooking the school. Rob had moved along the northern edge of town, and then using the cover afforded by a large drainage ditch, moved more into the town itself....

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Cooper and Callia looked up as the doctor walked into her room and then looked at each other, the look on his face did not look like they were about to receive good news. ‘What’s up doc?’ Callia asked, trying to lighten the mood. ‘Callia, your body isn’t expelling the fetus,’ the doctor began. ‘What does that mean?’ Callia asked. ‘Usually what happens in the case of a miscarriage is that the fetus is for a lack of a better term is delivered. Your body isn’t doing that,’ he answered. ‘Since...

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‘Where were you at?’ Cooper asked when Callia walked into the apartment. She set her purse on the small table by the door before walking into the kitchen with the paper grocery bag. ‘I was at Simmons College,’ Callia answered. ‘Applying for classes for the fall,’ she added. ‘Good,’ Cooper said, unpacking the bag. Callia watched him for a moment before pulling out a large frying pan. ‘How was orientation?’ Callia wanted to know. ‘Long.’ ‘What the hell is your problem Coop?’ Callia asked,...

Carrying On Ch 03

Here it is, chapter 3. I hope everyone enjoys it. Big changes have come and more are coming with future parts. If you haven’t read the other stories, you may be pretty lost. Start with Becky’s Marine and work your way through. Don’t forget to rate, comment and leave feedback. I greatly appreciate it all. Special thanks to Rnebular for his editing and suggestions. ******* Dawn came all too early, the sun filtering though the curtains cast little rays of light around the room like tentacles...

Carrying the FlagChapter 4 First Flight

"Matt, what're you doing here?" "Long story. Come on, let's get warmed up." "Warmed up for what? What're you doing here? Didn't you graduate? Aren't you in college?" "You see before you an abject failure," he admitted, seemingly okay with it. I found that hard to believe. He'd been as good at boys' gymnastics as I'd been at girls'. But that was silly, really -- comparing apples 'n' oranges. Different apparatus. Different body types -- doh! He was older than me, and...

Carrying OnChapter 7

Bryan pulled into the driveway at five minutes past six. Silver was standing there waiting for him. He pulled Amy out of her seat as she was exhausted from all the riding around and slung her sleeping form gently over his shoulder. She looked at the truck and trailer, packed down like a gypsy caravan and gave Bryan a questioning look. "Do you have the news on?" he asked. "No, should I?" she asked. "Yes," he said. They sat down in front of the television and watched as the announcer...

Carrying OnChapter 21

Sunday came into existence in Bryan's consciousness with the ringing of a telephone and quickly turned into organized chaos. The new arrivals had all been waiting since well before dawn. They had waited patiently as the sun had risen, and then tried contacting the house with the intercom. Since no one was in the kitchen at the time, they had gotten no response and waited for perhaps another hour before phoning the house. Jake had been the one to answer the phone so there was additional...

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The End ‘Have you had enough shopping?’ Callia asked Laura as she pushed a sleeping Mason in his stroller. ‘I think so,’ Laura said as she released a deep breath. ‘Are you alright?’ Callia inquired. ‘I hurt and I feel achy. Like something is squeezing me and letting go,’ Laura answered, stopped and grabbed the railing next to her. ‘It sounds like you’re in labor Laura,’ Callia said excitedly. ‘Oh God,’ Laura moaned. ‘It’s okay Laura, just breathe,’ Callia coached. ‘I’m going to take...

Carrying OnChapter 40

Silver tapped her foot impatiently on the floor, watching as Derek choreographed the entire battle like some sort of sadistic composer. The radio chatter indicated that the enemy had split into three groups and that the middle group had been pinned down before being convinced over the radio that they should surrender. Even more amazing was that Meredith had managed to come through with the freed townspeople and had more than doubled the available firepower. She had also plugged the...

Carrying the Flame Ch 01

If you have NOT read ‘Life Lost and Love Gained’ or ‘Life Goes On’, please do NOT continue reading this story, you will not know the characters. Please read both stories before you read this story. Thank you. Ashira * Callia walked into the high school, her eyes glued to the piece of paper that told her what her locker assignment was. ‘Hey, watch it!’ an angry voice shouted. ‘I’m sorry!’ Callia apologized. The boy looked her up and down and grinned. ‘Aren’t you a hot little piece of ass,’...

Carrying the FlagChapter 3 Bruises

Water off my pigtail streamed down the crack of my naked butt. I wiped my face with a towel. The fronts of my thighs burned like a son of a bitch. Coming up short on a front two-and-a-half does that, especially after a dozen tries. Or whatever it was. I don't give up easy. I was gonna be black and blue by lunchtime. Early morning practices can be a pain. Literally. "Why can't I get that dive, Terrell?" "Don't ask me. I'm a musician." "Were you even watching? Or were you waiting...

Carrying OnChapter 3

The kitchen had emptied some time later and only Amy sat still eating, working at her third serving. She was chewing slowly a sign that she was growing tired. She sighed, knowing that the rule was: to take extra food was to eat extra food. She reluctantly shoved the last bit of lettuce into her mouth and watched Bryan and Silver at the other island, gathering up their dishes. She watched them as they carried them to the sink and began doing the dishes by hand. Dish washing was a ritual that...

Carrying OnChapter 19

With water streaming down his face, Andrew massaged his temples. The hot water combined with the steam from the shower, his second of the day, helped to relax his muscles and settle his mind somewhat. Something was totally wrong, he had decided, completely and totally wrong. Silver had prepared a wonderful meal of beef stew and they had finally been introduced as he sat down for the biggest meal that he had eaten in nearly a month. Andrew had found himself unusually impressed with Silver....

Carrying OnChapter 36

Silver rarely drew sentry duty, but it was her night in the barn. She sat on the chair listening to the sounds of the night. The sound of crickets was a constant white noise atop the backdrop of howling coyotes or some kind of dogs. Wild dogs had been a problem of late, having banded together. They had reverted to their feral nature, and eliminated the smaller breeds, as well as anything else they could catch. It was not uncommon to see a German shepherds alongside a Rottweiler or Pit-bull....

Carrying the Flame Ch 05

‘Callie, wait!’ Greg called as he ran after her. ‘I don’t want to talk Greg,’ Callia said ‘I’m sorry about the other day,’ Greg said after he’d caught up to her. ‘About going over a rape scene until I wanted to vomit?’ Callia asked grumpily. ‘For being an inconsiderate jerk. I know most women don’t like the idea of rape,’ Greg answered. Cal, we’re late,’ Keely said as she and Laura walked up to their friend. ‘Do you guys really think this is necessary?’ Callia asked as her friend dragged...

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‘Oh my God, what did you say??!’ Callia asked, stunned at her friend’s announcement. ‘Did you just say that Gray proposed to you?’ Callia shared a look of absolute shock with Cooper who had just walked into the kitchen after putting Mason down for a nap. ‘You heard me correctly, Gray proposed to me,’ Laura sighed. ‘What did you say?’ Callia wanted to know. ‘I told him I’d think about it.’ Laura accepted the mug of tea from her friend and took a soothing sip. ‘I never wanted to get married...

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‘Hey Laura, Coop just called. Callie’s home and she’s safe. Patrick let her go, I guess he has a conscious after all,’ Gray called as he walked into Laura’s apartment. ‘Thank God!’ Laura exclaimed. She stood up and threw her arms around Gray’s neck. ‘We should go over there,’ she added. ‘Laura, give them the rest of the night to themselves,’ Gray said as she pulled away from him. ‘I want to make sure she’s okay,’ Laura protested. ‘She has some bruises and some scrapes, but Callie and the...

Carrying On Ch 01

Thanks to everyone who left comments, it really is nice to hear your kind words. Sorry this one took so long, life has a way of keeping us from what we enjoy. This is more of Andrew’s story, and more will come as I find time to write. I hope you all have enjoyed it thus far and continue to enjoy it. ********** Deployment was over, but returning to life afterward is a whole new battle. Sure it seems easy, but when two people have been apart from each other for so long, leading separate lives,...

Carrying the FlagChapter 2 The Devil Laughs

Late was not an option with Devers. I hustled to her new office. I'd canceled my afternoon diving practice, so when she was done dragging me over the coals I'd join Terrell for some music appreciation. That was something to look forward to. Assuming, that is, that my head wasn't mounted on Devers's office wall. I'd had sessions with her before -- for things like using one of the short stair railings as an angled balance beam or doing cartwheels down an almost empty hall. Hey! That was...

Carrying the FlagChapter 13 Asalam Alaikum

Can’t breathe! Can’t scream! Fight! I try to get my hands up – CAN’T! FIGHT! Help! I need help! My whistle! Blow my whistle. No whistle! No air. I woke up soaked in cold sweat, early morning sunlight filtering through familiar curtains, rolled on my back, tangled in my sheets, my pigtail draped across my throat. Fumbling it loose I grabbed a desperate breath. Finally unwinding everything I sat up and slumped. Shit! How long had it been since I’d had a nightmare that bad? A long...

Carrying OnChapter 8

Bryan opened the door and found Silver leaning over the side of the hot tub. She had her back to him and she appeared to be staring aimlessly off into the distance. Her body shook as she gasped, trying to control the sobs that rocked her body with endless tremors. Both her hands were clasped into fists. Her left hand twirled a tuft of hair, her right hand pulled at a handful of her bangs. She twisted and tugged, shaking and rocking as she sobbed. Bryan climbed into the hot tub behind her,...

Carrying OnChapter 11

At some point in the night, Silver had determined that it was not proper to sleep in their living area, and had awakened Bryan to go to bed. Bryan wasn't the type to get up and move about easily when he had been sleeping soundly. He stumbled and wove like a drunkard, had to stop twice and steady himself and fell into their bed sideways when he finally got there. Silver wrapped the blanked around him and snuggled next to him despite the odd angle as he fell back into restful sleep. Bryan...

Carrying OnChapter 18

Bryan snipped the last of the wires across the roll of welded wire. He had enlisted the help of the three boys to help him in the construction of the new bay of rabbit cages. Of the three, only Jake was truly interested in the project. He held the other end of the tape measure for Bryan, who had measured out a twenty-four foot strip of wire mesh. It was the third such piece and the other two boys were struggling to unroll the fourth, roughly guessing the length in relation to the other...

Carrying OnChapter 27

Amy was combing her hair in her room when the light flickered. First there was a flutter, followed by it dropping out twice, and then darkness. Panic followed. Amy was afraid of the dark, and darkness in an underground house at night was absolute. She wailed helplessly, unable to see anything and felt her way to the hallway tearfully. Maggie had found a candle and was walking from room to room lighting the lamps that had been installed in each room as a permanent fixture. Amy wrapped her...

Carrying OnChapter 28

The buck and report of the rifle was neither felt nor heard as the audible over-rides that a human body goes through in combat took effect. Bryan did, however notice that time seemed to stand still. The first bullet hit the target with relative ease as the man was standing straight, the orange of his cigarette looking like a dot of neon against the darkness. The muzzle flash blinded him briefly making him unable to find the other two culprits in his sites. He pointed in the general direction...

Carrying OnChapter 34

The mood around the gathering was very somber. Everyone had heard Bryan's report, at least secondhand. The adults which were not on watch duty had gathered in the main room of the house because it was the most spacious. The four women, starting with Meredith, took turns introducing themselves one by one. Bryan heard their names, but the vision of the hand coming out of the vent from the cattle trailer now haunted his thoughts and distracted him from the goings on. He had counted an...

Carrying OnChapter 37

The first day of August started as a normal, hot sultry day. The sun rose, and so did the temperature. The mosquitoes, which had stayed at bay most of the summer, were out in force. The change of the guard occurred at 0900 hours. It became clear very quickly that something was terribly wrong. The Militia had spent nearly two weeks reinforcing their position in the newly conquered town. They had found this locale so sparsely populated that the threat from the locals or anyone else was...

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Cooper sat in the chair next to the bed and watched Callia sleep, afraid that if he took his eyes off of her that she would disappear but a sound in the doorway had him looking up. ‘Hey Luke,’ Cooper said quietly. He stood up and slid out of the room, not wanting to wake Callia. ‘How is she?’ Lucas asked. ‘Sleeping finally,’ Cooper answered, followed his father in law to the kitchen where Olivia was making a pot of tea. ‘What did the doctor say?’ Olivia wanted to know. ‘Callie and the baby...

Carrying On Ch 02

Well folks, it’s been a while and I deeply apologize for the delay. Life gets in the way and soon the wife and I will welcome a new baby boy. This should be an interesting chapter and it took quite a while to get it the way I kinda wanted it to go. Before we get to the good parts, I have a request to you, my readers. Which direction should this story take? Should Andrew be given more free reign with sexual partners or should things stay fairly the way they are now? I have plans for Lauren and...

Carrying On

Chapter 1 Ivy and I met in college, we were both at a party in her dorm, she was a second-semester freshmen and I was in my junior year. She was a willowy blond with grey eyes who was dressed in a thin white lacy blouse and a short skirt showing the long legs that I've admired ever since. I could see that she was bare under her top, her dark nipples did make themselves known, especially their hardness poking out so provocatively. It was obvious that she knew she was sexy and was comfortable...

Carrying the FlagChapter 7 Hadiya Naked in School

Sunday is a quiet day in our house. No radio, no TV, no phone, no computer. Cha even turns off the answering machine. Speak low if you speak at all. It's his day to meditate. He follows the religion of his ancestors, a mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. And if that's not confusing enough, Me tells me each Vietnamese village has its own variation. The main thing is devotion to thần, which are sort of like spirits or gods. Or maybe they're ghosts of ancestors. I think you have to...

Carrying the FlagChapter 8 Hadiya Sleeps Over

I wanted to put my arm around her but it was too hard to coordinate lurches as we headed down the empty hall from our lockers. We were both limping, her leg and my ankle. Cheering practice hadn’t gone well. At least we could hold hands, so long as I was on her left. “Do you think we should walk home like this?” Hadiya asked “You mean, like, naked?” “Yes!” she hissed enthusiastically, giving my hand a squeeze. Her first day in The Program and she’s suggesting walking home naked? We’d...

Carrying the FlagChapter 10 Experience Gained

When we pulled into Matt’s driveway Haddy heaved a sigh of relief. Lestat was there, trying to look casual, leaning on his gleaming Harley Davidson, reading a book. She began to quiver. I think she was more than a little bit conflicted. For that matter, he wasn’t doing a very good job of looking casual. The moment we’d pulled up his eyes flicked up off the book and went right to her. I’d seen that look on gymnasts and divers just before they went into action at a meet, at the end of the...

Carrying the FlagChapter 12 Judy Flies

Devers was as stone-faced as Shakespeare’s bust on the shelf behind her, maybe more. Willie was wearing the clown nose and hat I’d left with her. It kinda gave him a rakish look, and was that a smile on his face? It felt like all that had happened a long, long time ago. Devers looked older, and tired. I heard she’d passed up promotion to principal because she didn’t want to lose contact with us students. I wondered if she was regretting that. “Suppose you tell me what happened in that...

Carrying OnChapter 4

Bryan flipped the light switch and grabbed without looking for the notebook on the nearby counter. He leaned over and touched the power button on a computer sitting nearby, letting it run through its routines while Feeling his fingers fall upon it, he was already walking down the aisle, checking the inventory of each section as he went along. "Need two of those, need one of those. Need to get another case of that..." Walking down the aisle he made notes in the notebook. The store room was...

Carrying OnChapter 5

As Bryan became aware of his senses and dim light began to filter between his eyelids, he also became aware of the tiny arms wrapped around his bicep and the wet feeling on his shoulder. Opening his eyes, the tiny red pigtails poking into his line of vision were plain and easily identified. Amy had crawled into bed sometime in the night, wrapped her arms around his right arm and laid her head on his shoulder. From there she had proceeded to drool and snore lightly. Finding the situation...

Carrying OnChapter 6

"Sean!" Bryan exclaimed. "What's going on?" "Just listen," Sean said. "This is important and I need you to do me a favor." Without pausing for affirmation Sean began. "Today the Federal Reserve is being dissolved. By the time that the announcement comes on the evening news tonight any American dollar will be absolutely worthless, not even worth the paper it's printed on." He stopped momentarily for breath. "The plan is to replace the dollars with some kind of universal North...

Carrying OnChapter 9

Bryan awoke with a start. It was still dark, but he could feel a small body wedged under his arm. Silver was still lying with her head on his chest, but the sound of snoring came from behind her somewhere. He reached up and managed to get his fingers around Silver's phone. He flipped it over and slid it down the headboard toward him. With it firmly in his hand he touched the screen, lighting it. The clock said 4:35 AM. The light showed him that the child on his side was David. The snoring...

Carrying OnChapter 12

The entire fourteen acres resided as an elongated rectangle. On the north side was the nearest road. The driveway intersected it at an angle and the veered off toward the southwest in such a way that no one could see into it easily. The entire property was surrounded by a wall which Bryan, always miserly, had constructed out of used tires. Initially Bryan had gotten some used tires to serve as planters for a potato bed. Some people on a web forum which he frequented had reported success...

Carrying OnChapter 13

Inside the gates, inside the robust and misleading exterior of the property, was a system of design that had taken Bryan months to plan out. Nearly every square inch of the fourteen acres was utilized for something. The front half of the property sloped away from the crest of the hill near the road. It sloped down to a small creek which ran across the property at almost precisely the center. On the uphill side of the creek there was a culvert which came through the wall. The creek meandered...

Carrying OnChapter 14

An hour later Bryan was in the shed unloading the trailer and sorting the supplies into categories diligently. The three trailer loads of supplies had seemed like so much when he had paid for them and hauled them home, but stacked into piles they really didn't look like all that much. He frowned, wondering how he was going to get all the food into the storage room without anyone knowing. He could enlist the kid's help, but quite honestly what they didn't know they couldn't tell. He...

Carrying OnChapter 15

Bryan sat down after getting the fire lit. He stared into the flickering flames, mesmerized by the glow and almost organic quality it displayed. The room was not lit and the flickering flames slashing orange light around them gave the stone benches around the fireplace a wild, almost primal feel to the room. He scooted closer to Silver, who was also mesmerized by the flames. She was chewing on her lip, a sign of worry and concern. Her left hand was draped across her lap and he grasped it...

Carrying OnChapter 16

It was fairly late by the time that Bryan had finally gotten into the house. With all of the night's excitement, it seemed as if hours had slipped by. The house was dark inside, almost silent if not for the sound of the refrigerator and a slight crackling from the nearly dead coals in the fireplace. Otherwise silence was the only thing within hearing. "Like a tomb," he said to himself, considering the possibilities that had presented themselves. "An intruder got to within fifty yards of...

Carrying OnChapter 17

The phone rang loudly, waking both of them from their slumber with a jolt. Bryan grasped it, knowing full well who it was. "Bryan?" the man's voice on the other side asked, just a bit of tension in his voice. "Yep," Bryan answered sleepily. "This is Rob Henkel," the voice said again. "I got your email." "Ah," Bryan said, rubbing at his eye wearily. "We have fourteen acres. We're two hours north of the city. Come up, camp out and let things blow over from here." There was...

Carrying OnChapter 20

After leaving Andrew to his own devices, Bryan had found Silver in the hot tub again, this time simply relaxing. She was floating along on a cushion of bubbles and it was apparent that she had turned the jets up as high as possible. Her figure lay just under the surface of the rolling froth, steam obscuring the details from inside the door. Her arms were outstretched, her legs spread wide to balance her atop the churning water. Her nudity was not unexpected, as it was almost obligatory for...

Carrying OnChapter 22

Dinner had been eaten. Dishes had been washed. The islands and tables had been cleared and everything was clean. Bryan had lit a fire in the fireplace and was readying himself for addressing the group for the first time in an organized manner. Everyone had seated themselves around the fireplace in an ellipse, some on the floor, some on the benches that surrounded the focal point of the fire. Everyone was there except for the five youngest children, who had been sent to get ready for bed...

Carrying OnChapter 23

"So how did you do it?" Rob asked. Bryan shot him a questioning look as he took another spade full of dirt from the hole beneath them both and added it to the pile on his side. "Do what?" Bryan queried, not quite sure what he was being asked. "Build all this," Rob gestured around him. "The house, the barns, the walls..." he dropped for a moment. "It's like you built everything out of nothing. You said yourself there's not much money tied up in any of it." "There's not,"...

Carrying OnChapter 24

Rob and Bryan had crawled back into the Observation Post to watch helplessly as the situation unfolded six hundred feet in front of them. The drivers of the vehicles that were now crammed into the driveway entrance had apparently not seen the two men or at least had made no indication as such. The radio call that brought everyone inside the wall to arms had been made almost fifteen minutes prior, but nothing had happened. There had, thankfully, been no gunfire. But there had been no other...

Carrying OnChapter 25

The most immediate issue that Bryan needed to address was the extra people. There was Sean and Annie Callahan and their three daughters, Josephine, Olivia, and Ashley. In addition there was Brenda, Annie's sister, and her husband Jeff. They had no children of their own but she was reportedly expecting, though there was supposedly seven months to go. Derek of course would need special care and space for a while if he managed to pull through. His girlfriend Cassie was by all accounts nine...

Carrying OnChapter 26

The man's name was Jim Roberts. He was a plain type of guy. Short, balding, shirt and tie kind of gentleman. The gray hair around his temples was thin and wispy, sticking out more than was stylish or even acceptable. But then the comb-over that he sported was neither stylish nor fooling anyone, so the fluffy temples weren't that noticeable. He had droopy jowls below his unobtrusive chin that shook twice for every time he shook his head. All in all, he was the epitome of a stereotypical...

Carrying OnChapter 30

The restructuring of leadership seemed to strengthen the group in the weeks that followed. Bryan's stress level went from oppressively huge to manageable as his duties shrank from total care to simply feeding everyone. Silver, having been delegated the task of food inventory, had found the vault full of stored food to be both a monumental task and a challenge. For the first time since the financial crisis had hamstrung her company, Silver now had both a purpose and a daunting task. The...

Carrying OnChapter 31

It was the last day of June, three days after Camelia's seventh birthday. It started out like any normal day, or at least as normal as any day had been of late. Bryan was pulling weeds in a garden bed and watching out of the corner of his eye as the boys moved the portable cages which held the rabbits and chickens. This was a three time a day routine which needed done on a rigid schedule. Placed on the bare ground the chickens shredded the turf, picked through any stray manure left over...

Carrying OnChapter 32

The room was hot. Well actually hot was an understatement. Hot would have been nice. The room was an old classroom in the local middle school building. On the wall behind them a clock ticked loudly, bringing back nostalgic, though not particularly happy memories for Bryan. Many an August afternoon had been spent in just such a classroom. Bryan wiped the sweat from his brow. The people in front of him were all dressed as lightly as they could muster and retain their modesty. From the smell of...

Carrying OnChapter 33

Silvers lips tasted of strawberries; the after-effect of a romantic dessert shared under the stars. Her eyes were closed, but it was as if she could feel the prickles of light that shone down upon her bare skin. The cacophony of crickets and cicadas had deadened the sounds that she and Bryan had been making, though not as well as they would have liked to believe. Bryan lay upon the ground, shielded by a blanket from the moisture beneath. Silver's breath was heaving at ragged intervals...

Carrying OnChapter 38

August 16th was a dreary, rainy day. The weather had turned somewhat unseasonably cold and there was a light drizzle falling. Still it wasn't unreasonably cold out, so even wet the men weren't terribly troubled by the weather. They grumbled in a true soldier's fashion, but were not held back by it much. The assembly area was full of fully armed soldiers, ready to be sent off on their first real mission since taking the town weeks before. They were to root out a nest of locals who had been...

Carrying OnChapter 39

There is nothing more frightening to a soldier, than turning to find a comrade missing that had just been with him a moment before. And as this began happening all up and down the line while the Militia advanced, the resolve began to fall away from some of the men. It started on the flanks, the men on the end of the line would look around and realize that their buddy who had just stood next to them was missing. Shots were fired blindly into the thick underbrush, despite the order not to fire...

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