Midnight Skills Read online

  “All right. With you so far.” Luke replied, keying in on what Mike was saying. Everyone at the ranch knew how important getting a new source of diesel would be to the long-term success of the farming side of the operation.

  The resurrected farm tractors, many repaired by Mike’s crews of machinists and mechanics, meant agriculture could continue, at least locally, with the benefits of mechanization. No one, Luke included, was looking forward to having to plow with a team of horses or oxen. The Messners, thanks to Gus Messner’s obsessive planning, at least had the old-style equipment and a few horses broke to plow. They were in the minority, though.

  “When you were coming south, did you see any pumpjacks still working?”

  Luke sat back, closing his eyes as he reviewed his memories.

  “I didn’t see any. Amy, how about you?”

  “Uh, Luke?” Amy fidgeted, then leaned closer to whisper in his ear. “What’s a pumpjack?”

  Copying her move, Luke shifted his lips to her ear.

  “The thing that looks like a mechanical bull, with a walking arm that goes up and down? That pumps oil out of the ground.”

  “Oh,” she whispered, then speaking for the group, her face flushed in a blush when she caught sight of the eyes watching her.

  “No, I didn’t see any pumpjacks operating, either,” Amy confirmed. “How can any still be working after this long, anyway?”

  “The ones tied into the grid are dead, of course. Out in the country, though, there are ones that run off casing gas from the well itself,” Luke answered, then like Amy, his face reddened a bit when he saw the surprised expressions of the adults at the table.

  “What?” he exclaimed. “I got curious one day and Googled it.”

  “Oh, Lord, I miss Google,” Beth Elkins moaned, and they all laughed at this common complaint. Except Gaddis, who asked under his breath, about who this ‘Google person’ might be.

  Luke, warming to the conversation, continued.

  “Mike, we avoided Kilgore and Longview coming back,” he explained. “Went east at Daingerfield.” When he paused to shiver at the memory, his mother started to ask what was wrong, and he just looked at her hard and shook his head. He’d explain about the cannibals later. Maybe.

  “We’ve heard that area was pretty well overrun by the Dallas horde,” Paul Sandifer piped up. “We got out ahead of that plague of locusts and moved south off I-20, but the rumors sounded terrible.”

  At the mention of Dallas, everyone looked at David Metcalf, who up until this point had remained silent. He’d been invited to join the council after bringing in over fifty new additions to the community and several truckloads of food, tools, and weapons. Despite some grumbling from some of the neighbors, the addition of this many willing hands and experienced trigger pullers made the rapidly growing community a tough nut to crack.

  David could have demanded a more prominent position on the council, but he was content to assist with the defenses and shepherd his growing group of foster children. The man who’d showed up at the ranch after months on his own was very different than the boisterous, friendly school teacher who the Messners had gotten to know at the numerous shooting competitions they’d all attended. That was before the lights went out, and the new David was a quiet, thoughtful man. And as Luke had learned, a man haunted by his own demons.

  “We moved through Kilgore and Longview, looking for salvage items. Picked up some spare parts at a nearly untouched Advanced Auto, then cleaned out almost five hundred pounds of salt from a pool supply company near the mall in Kilgore. I’m sorry, but I don’t remember any active pumps. Or collection tanks.”

  Mike nodded and made a show of shrugging his shoulders. “If you weren’t thinking about it, easy to overlook. But, we need to check. I’m going.”

  Luke’s eyes moved to Beth, Mike’s wife, and even the teen, still learning the hidden mysteries of women, could read the stormy expression on Beth’s face.

  “We’ll go with you, Mr. Elkins,” Amy volunteered. “I don’t know the area that well, but you know I can drive that Humvee of ours.”

  Luke’s father cleared his throat at this and looked around at the gathered. “We’ll discuss the makeup of the team later, but everyone needs to understand, this is only the first step, and we will need more diesel. Recovering existing stocks will only get us so far, and much of what is still out there is being claimed by the Guard.”

  “Yeah, guys,” Gaddis piped up in his gravelly voice. “Thanks for nothing,” he announced with disgust.

  “Gaddis,” Sam said, his voice trying for placating and failing. The retired gunnery sergeant just didn’t have it in him to play peacemaker all the time. “They are trying now. Once Major Warren figured out he was being played, he did the right thing. He thought he was acting under legitimate orders. And if he and his troops are going to keep patrolling the area, they need the fuel.”

  “Nah,” the old man said, chuckling a little. “I’m just busting your balls, Sam. But seriously, you think we can restart one of those refineries?”

  “We? No, not alone. But a group of like-minded survivors working together? I believe so. But, for our own uses, Mike actually came up with another idea.”

  “What’s that?” Isaac Stanton asked, curiosity evident in the man’s face. He was in charge of the livestock and specifically, the horse breeding and training side of the ranch, and over the months since the lights went out, Ike and Luke’s father had attained a relationship that went well beyond employer and employee. Shared hardships had a way of cementing those bonds, Luke knew.

  “A mini-refinery,” Mike said simply. Looking around at the surprised expressions, he relented by giving more details. “I wish I could claim some brilliant research, but the truth is, the company I used to work for, sometimes used them for remote site service. If we have the crude oil, we can distill out diesel, kerosene, and the like. They used this setup for jobs out in the Arctic, or other places lacking a power grid.”

  “And you think they will still work? After the pulse?” Claire Messner’s question was loaded with the woman’s doubt. “Sorry, it just sounds too easy.”

  “Well, easy isn’t what I would say, exactly,” Mike retorted. “This won’t solve the area’s fuel issues, given the system can only process a few hundred gallons a day, and we need to go to Kingwood to get these models and haul them here on flat-bed trucks. Then, we’ll have to secure tanker trucks to transport the crude oil, store it, and then store the resulting production. No, not easy, but doable.”

  “We are in,” Luke said, echoing Amy. “We’ll go scout the tank farm in Kilgore, and then make the trip with you to Kingwood to pick up these units.”

  “No!” Claire Messner barked, her face set in a hard mask. “I forbid it. You are not going, young man.”

  Luke just shook his head sadly. “I am, and that’s part of the reason why. Amy and I will help with getting this process set up, and then we will be moving out of the house.” Looking around the room, he looked each of the other council members in the eye, and even Angeline Stanton, wife of Isaac and mother of Luke’s teen friend Alex, gave him a subtle nod.

  “Like I said,” Sam Messner growled, “We will talk about the composition of the team later. The main thing is to determine if such a mission is feasible. There’s oil storage in several places, but only the one source for mini-refineries in the area.”

  “We’ll go with you,” David said, addressing his words to Mike. “I’ve got a pretty good away team that has already developed the salvaging mentality, and we’ve got those three semis up and running. Should be able to run any roadblocks, as well as haul home those refineries when you get ready to go pick them up.”

  “Sounds good,” Sam Messner agreed. He was ready to finish this meeting and see if he could do some salvage work of his own.

  CHAPTER 3

  “I am telling you, Claire. You keep this up, and Luke will be out of here,” Sam said angrily. He was aggravated, and tired of having this conve
rsation.

  “This is our house, Sam, and he has no business dictating to me, to us. First, he moves that little girl into his room like she’s got a right…”

  “Just stop it, Mother.”

  The voice was that of her son, but the tone was so icy cold, she didn’t recognize it at first.

  When his father had asked him to join his parents in the library that morning, Luke would admit, if only to himself, that he’d felt a tingle of nerves at the thought. After being home for over a month, he was still feeling his way through the changes in himself and his parents since the lights went out. He wasn’t anywhere near the same dutiful son who’d left that day in early May, and his stark, resolute position regarding Amy, confused and baffled his mother.

  “Luke, I don’t know what has gotten into you, son, but you will not talk to me that way,” Claire retorted angrily. “As long as you live under this roof…”

  “Which is why we will be moving out,” Luke replied, his voice now steady. “I’ve already spoken to Gaddis, and he’d be glad for the company. I was hoping to finish this diesel operation first, but so be it. Honestly, though, I really don’t understand why you are acting this way.”

  “Acting this way? Are you kidding me?” Claire sputtered, suddenly at a loss for words. “You show up with this little girl, this child, in tow and you expect me to be okay with her sleeping in the same room, the same bed, as you? Yes, I understand, she is your girlfriend, and you’ve grown…close in your travels, but that is no reason for you to set a bad example for your sister and the other children we have here.”

  “Why is it a bad example? We aren’t fucking, if that is your concern, so you won’t be a grandmother anytime soon,” Luke said in such a matter-of-fact way that his father, almost a bystander to the brewing fury, had to suppress a laugh at his son’s blunt statement.

  When Claire’s hand shot out to slap his face, he barely swayed back in response to the blow. His bland expression also did not budge. Sam, on the other hand, felt his own frustration at his wife’s actions grow.

  “The reason we sleep in the same bed is because we both have nightmares that wake us up in the middle of the night,” Luke continued, as if nothing had happened. “We hold each other, and that’s it. Well, there is a little kissing and such,” Luke did redden slightly at this admission, his father noted, “but we decided to wait until after we get married for anything else. Honestly, when we were on the road, the idea to fool around just didn’t occur to us.”

  “Didn’t occur to you?” his mother repeated, incredulous. “I find that a little hard to swallow.”

  Luke sighed, then braced himself for what he needed to say.

  “I will tell you both this story, one time. Never repeat it, if you want us to continue as a family. Do you understand?”

  Sam responded immediately with a nod, sensing his son’s turmoil at sharing this tale. Claire, still off-balance at her own unexpected violent response, stared at Luke like he was a stranger. Luke, his face like stone, stood regarding his mother for nearly a minute in silence before the woman muttered, “I promise.”

  “Amy will tell you that when we met, I saved her. What she won’t say, is that I rescued her from three men who were planning to rape her, then most likely, kill her. They’d done it before to other women and girls in that community. So, I killed them first, then looted their corpses, before giving her a spare shirt and dragging her out of that house.

  “I don’t know what she thought that first night, but I know she was alone and scared. No family; stuck with a violent stranger and an uncertain future. I wasn’t really in a good place at the time, either, but I decided to share as much training with her as I could, until I found a safe place to leave her. So, we were traveling companions for a time, and I taught her how to rig snares and build fish traps near our sleeping spots. And how to scavenge from abandoned houses, and how to use the weapons I found for her. I never touched her the whole time, except to share body heat when we huddled under a tarp in the rain.”

  As he spoke, Luke was staring at his mother. Claire, for her part, looked a bit unsure as she glanced between her husband and her son. Sam watched his son with an unreadable expression while Luke continued speaking.

  “What happened between us, I don’t understand it myself. I had nothing to offer her, and I was little better than an animal myself when she met me. But being with Amy, well, it reminded me there’s more to life than just living,” Luke said, beginning to get worked up over the subject again. “I started to have feelings for her, and I came to realize just how amazing Amy is as a person. As a partner. And I get you are concerned about the ways I’ve changed, but trust me, without Amy to act as my conscience, you wouldn’t like what I was becoming. She reminded me of what it was like to be human.”

  The silence that followed stretched out for nearly a minute as Luke’s parents tried to digest his words.

  “She seems like a very resourceful girl,” Luke’s father finally agreed. “Good head on her shoulders, regardless of her age.”

  “You have no idea, Dad. Smart as heck, and brave as anything you’ve ever seen. She didn’t hesitate to jump at helping Mike when the ranch was in danger of being overrun, even after seeing Miss Connie cut to shreds by those assholes.”

  “Luke, I know you feel this way now, but you are both too young to be making these kinds of decisions,” Claire protested, but Luke was heartened that at least now, she seemed to be listening to his words.

  “I’ve tried to explain to you just how bad things are out there,” he continued, “and Mom, I think you have an idea, based on things you’ve heard since we’ve been getting more residents here. But hearing about something and experiencing it are very different. Those DHS stormtroopers who killed Uncle Billy and Wes and Miss Connie? Yes, they were terrible human beings, and I don’t feel any remorse over killing them, or even killing their wounded. But, at least we didn’t have to worry about them eating our dead, or defiling the corpses. That’s what it is like out there.

  “You worry I’m too young? In the old world, maybe so,” Luke agreed. “You’d want me to finish school, then go on to college, or at least serve a hitch in the Marines before making any kind of a long-term commitment. I get that. Today? I can’t promise we will survive the winter.”

  “Luke, I know things are unsettled right now,” Sam Messner interjected. “But every day, the situation gets a little bit better around here. Surely, we can hold out until the spring, now that we have David and his people here to help.”

  “I hope so, Dad. But you heard the same radio reports I did about that supergang up in Arkansas, and how they were working in conjunction with those DHS thugs and that renegade Missouri Guard unit. We get hit with a force that size, I don’t know how we could survive. My point, though, is Amy and I want to do the right thing, whatever that is, and get married. I don’t know if we can ever have kids, not after the effects of our extended malnutrition, but we want to make our own family. For now, at least we can continue to help each other when the nightmares get too bad.”

  As he spoke, Luke became aware of his mother’s tears when they streamed down her face. When he’d finished, Claire strode quickly across the room to grab her startled son in a tight embrace.

  “Luke, I’m so sorry,” Claire said through her tears. “I got you back, and I just wanted everything to be the way it was. I don’t have anything to complain about with Amy, but I saw her as a threat, I guess. A threat to having you back, the way things were. But things are never going to be the same, are they?”

  “No, not for a long time, anyway,” Sam replied on behalf of their son, who was now overcome by his own emotional outburst. “Too much has been lost, and too many with valuable knowledge have died. Things would be so much better if we didn’t have to fight part of our own government, of course,” he added bitterly.

  “That’s why this mission of Mike’s is so important,” Luke finally managed to say. “We have lost a lot, but if we can keep our produ
ction going, and keep the diesel flowing, then our little enclave here should survive. Cracking the transport and fuel issues are key. I’m still going. I can be of use out there, and I might be able to help keep others safe.”

  “Well,” Sam replied, “I’m not happy to see you go, but I agree the need is there for somebody to check. Mike wants to go in two days, and that gives us a little time to make more detailed plans and fill out the roster of volunteers.”

  “I’m not happy about it,” Claire added, “but I’m not going to keep at this subject like some harpy. I hate so much to see you go out into danger, but you’re not a little boy anymore. And Amy is not a child anymore either. But please, don’t let Paige get involved with this plan.”

  Finally, Luke began to see the edges and deeper hints of his mother’s concerns. Things she’s said, and things she’d hinted. Then realization hit, and Luke felt he understood her more.

  “Mom, there’s no way Paige can go out into that mess. Or Sierra. Heck, I don’t want Lori or Summer going with us, either. Yes, I know Lori is older than Amy, but I don’t want her out there. They are good people, and we need them here, but not outside the fence.”

  Claire sagged with obvious relief at her son’s words.

  “Oh, Luke, ever since your grandfather died, Paige has been chomping at the bit to get her revenge. Then, with the way we lost Billy, she seems more determined than ever. If you will have a talk with her, then I won’t have to keep her chained up in the basement until she turns eighteen.”

  Luke nodded his grudging acceptance at this request.

  “I’ll talk to her this evening, after we get back with Scott. Miss Beth wants the doctor in town to take a look at his wounds.”

  “Is he okay? I thought his burns were doing as well as could be expected.”

  Luke reassured her they were, but Beth wanted a second opinion.