Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

harmonica that I knew was in his pocket.
    “She won’t get hurt,” I said quietly, walking up to help him get it in his bag. “Not by this thing, anyway.”
    “I’m going to keep her away so she won’t get near dis stuff.”
    “Where is she now?”
    “I’m not sure. I will go out and see. I don’t want to call her down or it will cause too much attention to come to us.”
    “Yeah, don’t do that. Just tell me if you need me to do anything, okay?”
    “I will. You do da same. I got your back, Bryn.” He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.
    “I got yours too,” I said, reaching up to stroke his arm once. I didn’t want to make a scene, but I had to feel his skin one time before we started this thing. It was warm and muscled underneath. Its strength gave me a little hope that we’d get out alive somehow.
    “So, what’s next?” asked Peter in a slightly trembling voice. He cleared his throat and smiled tremulously at me.
    I gave him a big grin in return to try and lighten his mood a little. He looked like he was about to wet his pants.
    “We go in groups of two to the canner house. Last ones out close the garage door, lock it, and leave through the back door of this house. Lock the front door and secure this place as best you can first.” Kowi stepped out of the garage for a second and returned. “Memorize the address of this place: 4247 Magnolia Drive.”
    Fohi reached into his backpack and took out a pen. As it sat poised above his arm, Rob said, “What the hell are you doing, Fohi?”
    “Writing it down,” he said innocently. “I don’t want to forget it.”
    “Oh, that’s just friggin brilliant. Why don’t you just print out some fliers and hand them out to the canners as we arrive. Here you go, guys. This is where we’ll be staying in case you want to visit.”
    Fohi slowly put the pen away without writing anything down, mumbling under his breath. “Asshole.”
    Kowi rolled his eyes and took a moment before continuing. “Like I said … memorize the address. It’s 4247 Magnolia. If anything goes bad or when we finish, come back here and wait in the car in the garage. Do not leave until everyone is back. The keys will be in the magnetic case clipped under the tire well. Rob, put it there now.”
    Rob did as he was told and we all watched him secure it in the tire well behind the passenger-side wheel. A loud clunk told us it was well-attached.
    “So who’s going where?” I asked, moving closer to Kowi who’d opened up the map Celia had helped make, spreading it out on the hood of the car.
    “We are somewhere over here,” he said, pointing to a spot off the edge of the map. “We need to walk due east, down to the end of this road, go one block north, and then go east again. That road will go all the way up and dead-end into the road that the canner place is on. I’m pretty sure it will be at the end of the street and a little to the left.” He pointed to the edge of the canner place that had the wall of bushes. “Here’s where we’ll be coming in.”
    Everyone who could get close enough studied the map while he continued.
    “Distraction team goes here, on the east side of the house by the front doors. The front gate is kept open - the lock is broken, or so Celia said. Bryn’s team goes over by the tree Celia used to escape on the north side. My team goes to the south side by this other little door.”
    “If I’m on Bryn’s team, what am I supposed to do?” asked Winky.
    “You guys will be observing the house from up that tree if possible. Peter and Bodo will distract the dogs with some barking, giving you time to get up inside it. If the dogs start barking at you once you’re up there, give someone on your team on the ground a hand signal to pass to us so we can send Peter back in.”
    “Who’s going to pass our signal to you?”
    “I will,” said a guy whose name I couldn’t remember. “I’ll stay on the northwest corner of the wall, in the bushes. I’ll watch for signals from Bryn’s team. If I get one, I’ll run to the southwest corner and signal you at that garden door.”
    Kowi nodded. “That’ll work. Peter … Bodo … you guys keep one eye on your job and one eye on us. One of you is going to have to stand at this southeast corner, watching for signals we might send.”
    “I can do dat,” said Bodo.
    “But you have to watch out for Peter, too,” I said, imagining little Peter standing all by himself out there in the front of that