Free Southern Zombies 4: Southern Revenge by Ann Riley Page B

right now?” I ask.
    “Gabby and Brittany are at the front. Tammy is in the north end of the barn loft and Robert is in the south end barn loft. Trey is on the roof with a walkie talkie so that he can let us know if he sees anything and we will take care of it.
    Becky and I are going to take over for Gabby and Brittany, Bobby and you will take over for Tammy and Robert, Mitchell is going to relieve Trey, Diane and Kelley are covering from the inside, and all of the children are in the safe room.” Marc says.
    “I want Riley in there too. If I don’t, he will try and follow me to the barn.” I say.
    Marc gets his walkie talkie and tells Hayley, Tammy’s daughter, to come and get Riley. He is not very happy when she picks him up and whisks him away and I hear him bark as she enters the safe room. He is mad at me now.
    “How long do they have left on watch?” I ask.
    “A couple of hours.” Marc says.
    I nod.
    “I am going to look around.” I say.
    Bobby shoots me a look that says I had better be happy that he does not have any type of mind control or he would be using it on me now.
    “I will be careful.” I tell him.
    “Fine. You’ll do it anyway. Just pay attention.” He says.
    I nod.
    I walk toward the barn. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking when I decided to do this. But now I am having second thoughts. Only because I can’t see through the trees. If there is someone out there, they would have no problem shooting me.
    I continue on anyway. If I turn around they could just as easily shoot me in the back. Well, fuck.
    I follow our little pathway to the barn. I can see Tammy in the loft window. She has her rifle up looking through her scope at the woods. I hope she can see if anyone is out there.
    I get closer to the barn and stop when I hear sticks popping, like someone has stepped on them. I look back up at Tammy and she shakes her head no. I am going to assume she meant she doesn’t see anyone. However, she did hear it. I take another step and hear popping sticks again. So I stop again.
    Well, this is just wonderful. Out in the wide open and someone is trying to ambush me. As I lift my foot to take a step, I hear it again so I make a move to the left corner of the barn door entrance. As I get to the corner and start to run inside, I run directly into a wall of warm muscles and long hair.
    “Tombstone.” I say through gritted teeth. My horse.
    “How did you get out of your stall?” I ask him.
    He snorts in my face and gives me a push with his nose.
    I almost had a fucking heart attack and we haven’t even started with the shooting yet.
    I lead him back to his stall and see Tammy looking down at me laughing. I flip her the finger.
    I’m too old for this shit.
    As I head back to the barn entrance, I hear the popping again. What the fuck? Is someone deliberately breaking damn sticks out there?
    It sounds like it is across the pond. I am not far from the pond plus sound travels across the water.
    I look at Tammy and give her the signal to watch my back. She nods.
    Bobby is going to kick my ass if I go out there. Like the old saying, better to ask forgiveness than permission. I think that’s how it goes. I probably should ask permission first.
    I walk over to the edge of the pond and squat. It’s close to three in the afternoon, so the sun is still out. The woods are shadows around the edges at this time of day. Even though the sun is shining, it’s still dark in the woods. The fish are jumping in the water so it’s hard to hear any leaves crunching now. I sit there and listen for a few minutes.
    I should go back to the barn. I am not in the mood to get shot today, so I turn and head back. I still see Tammy watching the woods.
    I finally get back inside and head to the south end to see if Robert is still there. He is.
    I hear someone behind me and turn to see Bobby is coming in.
    Tammy and Robert come down from the loft and fill us in on nothing. Since nothing has happened today.
    Bobby and I