Novels2Search
Life in the Aftermath
12. Working on a farm

12. Working on a farm

It has been a month since I started working on Alex's farm and let me tell you that it is not easy. He started me off slowly with some basic feeding of the Kwehs then started moving me up until I knew everything that needed to be done from day to day. I even got to sell off some of the Kwehs to Kevin whenever he came over to meet the new farm hand Alex 'hired' quote unquote.

He was a nice guy and I was able to get him to tell me a little bit about how he goes about training his Kwehs to be mostly battle oriented. He said that up until recently he was just letting the wolves come through and into his arena that he built up, but with the risen danger recently and the mysterious stop to the wolf attacks, he isn't as keen to leave that area open anymore so he sealed it off for the time being. He took some losses a month ago when the wolf packs attacked but that was only because he was training up some of the Kwehs that had gotten big enough to be trained and so that was their first fight.... Poor things.

He left after a bit with some of the hens to bump up his egg supply since now he needed another stream of revenue and everyone always needed food. After he left I got back to work and finished up my daily chores of cleaning out the coops and gathering any eggs I was able to find... The problem is that the Kwehs are more dangerous than normal eggs so what ya have to do is bribe them with food and while they are munching down they don't really care about what you're doing.

Once that was all done and I took a shower to wash off atleast a little of the stink that now permeated my existence, I walked over to Bubba's coop and let the girl out. She was excited to see me and I gave her a head a quick pat as we were leaving the coop.

"Hey girl how are ya tonight? You ready to train some more?" I asked Bubba and she gave me a short Kweh! as a response. Oh that's right! After a week of working under Alex he taught me how to use my ability to tame monsters and I was able to create a bond with Bubba. So from now on me and her will always have a connection. I'm able to slightly comprehend what she is feeling and Alex said the longer we bond, the more I'll be able to comprehend what she is feeling to the point of it almost being telepathy.

We trained for a couple of hours, mostly just me getting used to riding on her back, but other times Alex would come out and teach me a little about using the axe that I got and I even had he even taught me some basics on harvesting useful materials from monsters. Ofcourse he only gave me some verbal tips and nothing hands on, but still to know some things to keep in mind for the future is better than nothing.

Another week passed in an blink of an eye but still no sign of the wolves coming back. Jack and his team still used Alex's farm as a base and went into the woods everyday but to no avail. I was sititng down at the dinner table while staring outside at another beautiful nightsky and was about to eat when the team came inside with a crash and Jack was carrying Paul by the shoulders. Claire and Hannah were already sitting down against the walls, panting and covered in blood.

"CLOSE THE DOOR! ALEX WE FOUND THEM!" He yelled and it was like time stopped as the sight of a puddle of blood oozed out from under Paul and that's when It registered in my head.... There was a giant hole through his torso!

"HOLY FUCK!?" I yelled as I ran over along with Kelly that was carrying a bowl full of 'Mush' but she slowed down as she neared...

"I'm sorry Jack." She whispered as tears welled up in her eyes. I looked at her and then back at Paul.... He wasn't breathing. I should have known that, It's common sense that a person with a hole through their body ofcourse would be dead... But... Seeing all that blood, seeing that gaping hole, how could something like that be real? My mind didn't want to accept it at first but slowly it came to understand and realize what was going on. This was a real death in front of me, A reminder of how vicious and wild this new world was.

"What happened Jack?" Alex said quietly as he stood near the windows looking out. He was looking out vigilantly but he saw nothing outside. The only movement outside was the wind moving the leaves up in the trees.

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"We.... We were doing a routine sea...Search.... But all of a sudden the wind picked up and next thing I know Paul had a hole in his stomach and if felt like we were getting slashed by a thousand swords! Thanks to Claire we were able to get back here... unfortunately Paul was already gone before he even hit the ground... BUT I WASN'T GOING TO JUST LEAVE HIM THERE!!!!" Jack cried out as tears rolled down his face. He was still hanging on tight to Pauls Shoulders as if by some miracle him holding on was what was going to bring him back.

"Jimmy, help me." Kelly quietly said as she knelt down and placed her hands over Jacks. "Honey, we need to get Paul cleaned up ok darlin? the blood will attract monsters." Kelly quietly tried to get Jacks hands off Paul but Jack just shrugged her off.

"I don't care! Let them come, I'll kill them all!" Jack yelled at Kelly as she just knelt there quietly and took it. She knew he was hurting.

BAAAM

"You dipshit! Whose house you think you're in! Fuck your dead friend and get that corpse outa my house! You aint gonna risk my family you got that." Alex however, did not care if he was hurting because as soon as Jack raised his voice at Kelly it was like a switch flipped and the caring man I lived with the past month traded places with someone that gave no shits.

Gasps were heard from Claire and Hannah and I saw as they got visibly irritated and tried to stand up, but Jack just raised his hand at them before he placed it onto his jaw that was starting to turn red and swell.

Jack took a deep breath and controlled his emotions before speaking. He looked up at Alex with anger in his eyes but it was a cold anger, rational. "Thanks for that.... But you didn't have to call my friend a corpse, have some respect for the dead." He breathed in again and let it out after a couple of seconds. However Alex was calm from the get go but after a moment he too shook his head and let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry I disrespected Paul, I lost it a little. But Kelly is right that the blood will attract more monster other than just the wolves. Take him into the bathroom and put him in the tub. It's not the best but atleast the blood will be in one spot." He turned to me and pointed towards the barn.

"Go turn on the fence and see how Bjornson and the girls are doing. Don't go out without Bubba by your side and have your axe ready understood?"

I nodded and ran out the door while using my link with Bubba to let her know something dangerous was around and to let Bjornson know I'm coming to check up on them. Last time I came in unannounced I got a nice swift kick to the chest that sent me flying a few dozen feet. I learned from that and vowed to never surprise Bjornson.

Once I'm inside I take the time to get Bubba out of her coop and I see out of the corner of my eye that Bjornson is at the entrance of the barn staring out towards the treeline. I quickly run over to the switch for the fences and flip it on before running out of the barn and looking off towards the treeline aswell. Nothing except a few strands of moonlight reached through the canopy of trees but I could swear that in those brief moments I thought I could see something move quickly from between the trees. I didn't hear anything, not a rustle of the bushes or anything and that is why I thought that maybe the shadows were just playing tricks on me... Until I looked over at Bubba and Bjornson and they both had their eyes glued towards that direction and nothing else. Their feathers on the back of their necks were raised and I could see them flexing their muscles in anticipation for.... something.

"What's wrong girl? Is something over there?" I asked Bubba while trying to calm her down but all I got in return was a slight head nod and a soft Kweh.

"I want you to go get your brother and stay here with Bjornson. watch over the others while I go get Alex ok? Can you do that for me aswell Bjornson?" I looked over at the big cock o' the walk around here and all I got was a side eye and a snort as if to say 'No shit, I was gonna do that anyways.'...... Dick

But after that I ran inside the house and told Alex about how the animals were acting. He nodded with a severe glance back towards the wood line. Something was coming, or was already here, because even a newbie like me could feel it in the air and see the level of readiness for action that were deep in everyone's eyes. Even the grief stricken Jack and his team were still at the ready for whatever would come our way.

"What should I do Alex?" I was worried about what was going on but at the same time I knew that if it was something that would cause these experienced hunters to be cautious, what the hell was someone like me going to be able to do? Logically, bait lol.

"You turned on the fence right? Then Your job is that when shit gets real, I want you to throw whatever you can and activate that fence. I don't care about the cost but even if you have to take a dead body again like last time, I want you in charge of making that baby light up like the 4th whenever I say so. Hey Jack? Why don't you have Hannah set up in the loft on the barn, that way she can have a vantage point and I can have Jimbo here out of harms way but still doing something essential."

Jack nodded as he looked over at Hannah and waved his hand towards her. She gave a quick nod before hoisting her large sniper rifle and left the house with me following close behind. When we got up to the loft she had to knock out a good chuck of the wall as the only window was facing the wrong direction.

"I'll pay Alex for this later." She mumbled as she setup a tripod to stabilize her cannon of a rifle and with a flick of a switch her lens went from normal to heat sensing... And that was when her breath hitched and she whispered in a fearful tone. "Oh god."

Before her eyes was a tree line filled with a mass of 4 legged bodies that covered every inch past the line. In the front were smaller wolf like creatures but the further back she looked, 6 of the biggest and most vicious looking wolves were sitting there just staring.... Right at her!