Jet #2
Elliott wiped the dirt from his hands onto his jeans. Looking at my full baskets, he said, “Wow. You picked a lot. Good job.”
Jet Russo, are you blushing because of a little praise from a cute guy?
We washed our hands with the hose and a bar of soap kept in a plastic container for that purpose and climbed the stairs to the back deck. The ops alphas normally ate lunch under a canopy out there, so I didn’t go inside with Elliott.
As my colleagues arrived, they sat at the picnic tables.
Since Lynn, Emma, and Brandon had trained with me, I knew them pretty well.
Anson and Joel shared a cabin with me, so we’d bonded quickly.
Allen and Tom were friendly and talkative, and I’d been slowly getting to know them.
I barely knew Kirk, though. I watched him filling a plate from the buffet table set up to the side of the deck.
His nose had been broken at some point and never set properly.
His thick, straight eyebrows were a shade darker than his strawberry-blond hair, and his hazel eyes were set deeply under them.
I wasn’t sure if he frowned all the time or if his mouth just naturally turned down at the edges.
I was pretty outgoing and probably would have gotten to know him by now if he didn’t hoard words like money.
Brandon was his cabin mate, and I wondered if they talked or remained silent all the time.
Allen and Tom came from the buffet table and sat with me. Kirk joined us a moment later with his plate.
Emma, Lynn, Joel, Anson, and Brandon sat at the other table, which was close enough that we could all join in the conversation. Lynn was saying how she was afraid of pigs, and since she was assigned to Ren today and the pigs were his responsibility, she was having a difficult time.
“Are the pigs mean?” Emma asked.
“Not usually. But I lived on a farm growing up, and my big brother once locked me in the pig pen when I was around twelve. A mother pig was being very territorial and scared me to death.” She shuddered.
“I finally got out. By that time, my brother had forgotten about me and gone to the movies with a friend.”
Joel chuckled. “Did he get in big trouble?”
“Are you kidding? He’s the golden child.
Even though I got better grades,” Lynn said, rolling her eyes.
“But as I got older, I got bigger and stronger than him. Once he realized I could beat him up, he left me alone.” She grinned.
She was tall for a woman, with thick chestnut hair that she wore short.
I’d noticed she was really good with the horses, which probably came from living on a farm.
As everyone was finishing up, Anson stood and said, “Let’s have a quick review of this morning. Three new calves were born last night. They seem healthy. One of the cows was limping, and she’s been penned until the vet gets here later this afternoon. Anyone have anything to add?”
No one did, so Anson concluded with, “Everyone make sure you refill your water bottles and stay hydrated. I’ll talk to you this evening.”
I waited for Elliott and followed him back to the garden where we worked for another hour before carrying the full baskets up the stairs to the kitchen.
Eric walked in from the living room. “I just saw one of the Alpine goats heading for the far pasture.” The goats had a run, but they were always escaping and causing havoc around the ranch.
“We’ll get him,” I said.
Outside, Elliott and I walked briskly toward the far pasture, keeping an eye out for the loose goat. One of the horses whinnied at us as we passed by the fence, and I fanned my face when a horsefly came at me.
When we reached our destination, the sun shone hot in the sky, and all the cows were clustered under the copse of cottonwoods in the middle of the pasture like it was an umbrella in a rainstorm. Spotting a hole in the barbed-wire fencing, I called Elliott over.
“Looks like he’s around here somewhere,” I said. I held up the top wire and waited to see if Elliott would come that close to me.
He did, although hesitantly, then, after a slight pause, he ducked his head and stepped between the wires.
Then he surprised me by holding the top wire for me while I did the same.
But as soon as I was in, he immediately strode off, putting as much distance between us as he could while looking for the goat.
He checked a patch of brush while I scanned the fence for more holes, hoping the goat hadn’t nibbled his way out and gone into the woods. I heard Elliott cry out and turned to see the goat running across the pasture with Elliott chasing after it.
“Head him off!” Elliott yelled to me, and I spread my arms and ran toward the galloping goat.
It veered off in another direction and wiggled through the hole in the fence it had come through originally.
Elliott and I followed, but just as I was pulling up the top wire for him to duck under, both of our phones went off with a short beeping alarm.
A text message from Laura.
“Code Red. All omegas immediately head to the nearest bunker and wait for further instructions.”
I looked up at Elliott. His face had gone white.
“Probably a drill,” I said.
“What about Pickles?” he asked.
I frowned. “Huh?”
“The goat. He ran that way.” Elliott pointed toward the ranch.
“Maybe we’ll be lucky and he’ll go back into his pen,” I said. “Come on; we need to get you in the bunker.”
I wanted to take Elliott’s arm, but I knew he wouldn’t like that, so I waved him forward. “It’s this way.”
When we got to the spot, I had to look for a certain fence post that corresponded to a Quaking Aspen growing at the edge of the forest. Exactly ten steps from the fence line, I found the well-hidden mat of grassy turf that covered the wooden door to the bunker.
I had to feel around in the grass with my fingers for its edge, and then I lifted it. I motioned for Elliott to go down.
He looked at me with big, scared eyes.
“Will you go with me?”
The ops alphas were only supposed to get the omegas inside, not go down with them. We would busy ourselves with ranch work and keep the government guys away from the bunker areas.
“I don’t know if that would be a good idea,” I said.
Elliott glanced down into the dark bunker. “Please? I don’t want to be alone. You’re on suppressants, and we can sit at opposite walls.”
I couldn’t turn down that sad face, and we needed to hurry.
“Okay. I’ll go. Careful,” I instructed as he slowly descended the ladder to the floor of the room, thirteen feet below ground.
As I started down the steps, I told him to light the lantern kept down there.
Once the light glowed, I lowered the mat of grass using the handles that had been installed on the inside.
The 200-foot room made of lightweight steel combined with other materials to promote better signal penetration featured a hidden ventilation system, a signal booster, and a wall of shelves reaching the seven-foot-high ceiling that were packed with nonperishables and bottled water.
Taking a seat on the floor across from where Elliott was sitting, I looked at my phone. No new text messages.
We sat in silence. Elliott had his arms around his legs and his chin propped on his knees. Every few moments, he checked his phone, as I did, even though we both knew we’d get a Code Green notification signaling we could leave the bunker.
When the lid of our hiding place suddenly lifted, letting in sunlight, I was on my feet in seconds, adrenaline coursing through my body, placing myself between Elliott and the ladder while reaching for my gun strapped to my ankle.
“It’s me.”
Recognizing Kirk’s voice, I replaced my gun in its holster.
“Where did you come from?” I asked.
He replaced the cover and continued down the ladder. He sat down against the wall across from me, his large frame eating up space.
“I was walking the perimeter of the ranch and saw two official-looking black cars pull in the drive. I immediately notified Laura. The driver let a couple of guys out before continuing on toward the house. I didn’t want them to see me way out this way with no reason to be here, so I hurried to this bunker. ”
“So, this isn’t a drill,” I said.
Kirk shook his head.
I hoped all the omegas got into the bunkers in time.
“Damn,” I muttered, glancing at Elliott, who sat against the wall, curled in on himself, as though he was trying to take up as little space as possible while keeping his eyes on Kirk.
When Kirk suddenly shifted on the floor, Elliott jerked and inched toward me.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly.