We filled the boat we found in the Megamart parking lot with supplies and any building materials we could find. A storage trailer would have been better, but it gave us more room than a pickup bed.
“Is it going to be enough to make our funnel?” I asked Jack.
“Hard to say,” Jack said, looking through the rear window. “I can use pieces of the boat itself, so that’ll help. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
I had agreed to tell Jack all about my plans, so I laid out all the details I had on the funnel plan on our way back to Sisco.
“Risky,” Jack said.
“Not if we follow the plan.”
“Still…”
“When have I been wrong?”
“Since I’ve know you? Or in the handful of days since you started this war on the dead?”
“Pfft! Seems to me like I was born for this.”
“I’d feel better if it wasn’t just the two of us on this one.”
“It won’t be,” I said. “We’ll need to find someone to get the gate open.”
I honked the horn as we approached the very gate we were speaking about. It swung open and we drove through to the top of the overpass.
“Is that a boat?” Ferguson called from his booth.
“For now. How many slipped through?” I asked, stepping out of the truck.
“None this time. Closed the gate just in time.”
I got back in the truck and let out a big sigh.
“Don’t look so miserable,” Jack said. “You can always climb over the wall with your machete.”
After dropping all the supplies off to the proper places we hauled the boat, along with the building materials inside it, to Jack’s garage.
Jack showed me what he had done on the funnel so far. It seemed pretty simple to me, but Jack got on talking about gap control and resistance testing. I listened and nodded, for the most part. It didn’t seem like something I had to know much about. Jack knew it, and I knew Jack. That was good enough.
I glanced toward the front of the house and noticed Daffodil wandering down the street.
“Still want more people in on the plan?” I asked Jack. “Hey! Daffy!”
Daffodil turned and drifted toward us.
“What are you up to?” I asked.
“Absolutely nothing. Which is why I’ve been looking for you. Aren’t you supposed to find me things to do around here?”
“Damn, boy. You’re the first person in this settlement that wants to work to do.”
“Might as well. It’s boring here.”
“That’s all about to change. Where are the other two?”
“I don’t know.”
“Go find them. Tell them to meet back here so we can talk about some work we’re going to do together.”
“Is this going to be like that truck engine?”
I gave him a playful boot in the ass.
“Go on, get! Don’t come back without the other two.”
I turned back to Jack with a smile on my face. He was already removing mouldings from the boat.
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re making this up as you go along?” he asked.
“Cause you’re a smart guy? I gotta go do something real quick.”
“What? You’ve got Daffodil bringing people back here and you’re leaving?”
“I’m coming right back.”
He started to argue again, but I closed the garage door from the outside. I jogged down the street, heading for Dawn’s place with a backpack full of the supplies she had asked for.
I turned a corner and nearly ran into Jansen, Ferguson and five other guards.
“Look, boys,” Jansen said. “It’s the errand boy. Anyone order groceries?”
They laughed. I held back the urge to start punching.
“Where you headed, grocery boy?” Jansen asked.
“Wouldn’t you know it? I’m just delivering groceries.”
I tried to walk past them, but Jansen reached out and put a hand on chest.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he said. “Ferguson tells me you’ve been treating him poorly. Names, insults, and a physical assault? I told him it couldn’t be true, but he’s persisting.”
“He ain’t lying. But I’ll bet that he didn’t tell you what he did to deserve it.”
Jansen and Ferguson exchanged a quick look that said they’d be having words later.
“Who are the supplies for?” Jansen asked.
I considered telling him to mind his own business, or to lie, but I just wanted to be done the clowns.
“Dawn.”
Ferguson stepped forward. “Nice. I’ll take them to her.”
“Nah, I got it.”
“Give him the bag,” Jansen said.
I hesitated, looking from Jansen to Ferguson, who had an infuriating smile on his face. I handed bag over, holding one of straps tight enough that Ferguson had to yank it away from me.
“I’ll make sure she gets it,” Ferguson said.
They all laughed again.
“I think I smell a romance blooming for old Fergie. What do you think boys?” Jansen said.
More laughter.
I turned to head back to Jack’s.
“One more thing,” Jansen said.
One of them kicked me in the back of the leg. Then I was curled up in a ball, on the ground, just waiting for the honourable Sisco security team to get bored of beating my ass.
