In the Darkest Days

[Sequoia]

"I'd like some...jerky please." AJ said with a large smile, cheeks dimpling.


He held up the bunny. "This is Jackson. Mommy said he was a general in the civil war. And also, I just like the name." He said. "Can you hold him while I eat, Mister?" He asked. This was big for him. AJ was very protective of Jackson and almost never let anyone hold him. If he let Derrick, it showed how much he trusted Derrick and how safe he felt around the man.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick nodded slowly, He opened his bag, and pulled out one of the bags he had, it was a simply sandwich bag he'd rolled the air out of. It was full of simply beef jerky, He offered it to AJ and accepted the bunny gently. He stared at the thing with a slightly stunned look on his face. A moment later, he spoke to it, "Hello there Jackson. I'm Derrick. Welcome to my families cabin. Hope it meets your standards pal."


He glanced back to AJ, then out beyond him, he nodded to the kid, "You best get back upstairs to your mom Pal. She finds you gone when she wakes up she'll have a heart attack. I'm pretty sure losing you again would be the worst thing ever for her." he said carefully.

 

[Sequoia]

AJ giggled as he spoke to Jackson, munching on the jerky.


AJ nodded. "Wait...losing me again? When did she lose me the first time?" AJ asked, brow furrowing with confusion.


He knew that he and mommy couldn't live together before but she had always visited...they had never lost each other.

 

[Kazanna]

Glancing up at the ceiling, he shrugged, "How would I know pal? I wasn't there." He said flatly. He wrinkled his nose at the boy, humoring the kids Naivety with a slightly childish response. He knew that the kid wouldn't be mature enough to see past it, it's just how boys were, You could feed them what they wanted to hear, and keep them from getting suspicious.


Then again, Derrick had no real reason to not explain things to the kid, he just didn't want to rob him of the sense that things had been okay for a long time. There would be time for growing up later.


"So how'd you get here anyways? I mean, How'd you know to come here of all places?" He asked nonchalantly.

 

[Sequoia]

AJ nodded. "I was with Mrs. Rogers, the lady I stayed with since I couldnt stay with Mommy. The monsters hurt us so I ran, I wanted to find mommy. She had told me stories about how she used to spend her summers in the woods in a cabin so I went into the woods to find it. Mommy never told me where she lived so this was the easy way to find her..." he shrugged, pulling Jackson close to his chest.


There was a creak from upstairs and a small cry. "AJ!" Ally had woken up. Not finding her son, she paniced. She flew down the stairs and froze, seeing the two of them just sitting together.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick waved at her, then glanced back to AJ, "Told you she'd freak buddy. I think she needs a hug." He motioned for the boy to go to his mother, sighing quietly, a knowing half grin on his face.


Derrick felt unfocused. He'd been with someone else. Someone that had gotten hurt, or killed by the monsters, and so he'd come here. He let the words play over in his head. It all felt like a manipulation.


"What's next..." He murmured curiously.

 

[Sequoia]

AJ nodded and ran to his mother who scooped him up in her arms, slightly berating him for disappearing like that.


AJ cried indignantly. "I was with mister Derrick!" Ally looked up at him.


She set her son down and walked up to him. She reached up and kissed his cheek. "I'm sorry...are we still...together?" She whispered, biting her lip, her eyes drifting back to her son who was happily munching on some more jerky.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick raised an eye at her and nodded, "Yeah. I'm just trying to figure things out. AJ said you told him about this place before." He lowered his voice, whispering to her, "Ally, I don't want to interrogate him, just ask him a few questions about what he remembers. What he knows, could save us all." Derrick looked at her, and then to her son. "I know I can survive, It's what I do. But Unless I have certainties, I don't want to risk you, or AJ. It's not worth your lives to spare a bit of emotion." He shrugs lightly as he finishes speaking.

 

[Sequoia]

Ally places one hand on his arm, smiling slightly. "Yeah...I used to tell him lots of stories about us. It was the next best thing to telling him his dad was a monster..."


She looked up at him and nodded. "Just...please...don't be rough with him...He's still just a baby..." She whispered. She pulled Derrick's chin down, rising on her toes to meet him half-way. she placed a soft kiss on his lips. "He's as much your son as he is mine. We're a packaged deal, me and AJ." she whispered against his lips.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick's arms wrapped around her, and hugged her against himself, muttering, "I know. He's smart though, He'll be fine, and I know you two are. I wouldn't have guessed it would be any other way." He pulled himself back from her after returning the kiss. He pulled back away and knelt down to address AJ, asking him, "Hey pal, can I ask you a few questions? Just about how you made your way here."

 

[Sequoia]

Ally smiled and snuggled into his chest smiling. She leaned against the counter in the kitchen, watching carefully as Derrick talked to AJ.


AJ looked up. He nodded but made his way to his mom asking to be held first. Ally lifted him up into her arms, letting him play with her hair.


"Ask away Mister!" He smiled over at Derrrick.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick nodded to him, and asked carefully, "You said the monsters had hurt you, and then you came here, We know they followed you, and they've left now, but where were you before." He asked calmly. He'd take things slowly.


Derrick knew that if he asked the boy too much all at once, it would be useless, you could ask a few questions here and there of a child, but you'd be hard pressed to get any other details unless you took your time.

 

[Sequoia]

AJ nodded. "Me and Mrs. Rogers were at home when it happened...She didn't tell me what was going on, just that she needed to find mommy." AJ shrugged. So we hid. And we ran. But yesterday...the monsters caught up with us and Mrs. Rogers told me to run...We were near a large river...."


Ally gasped. "You were so close to us." She looked up to meet Derrick's eyes.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick nodded slowly, muttering, "Could have been one of the tracking groups following us even..." He looked to Ally and sighed, his eyes lowering down, "Were out of the line of fire for now, but we need to build a barricade around the property. There's only a few gaps so It shouldn't be too bad... a couple of days of work ought to secure the place..." He shrugged lightly. We can bunker down here, and survive for a while Ally. They don't double back unless they know there are people in an area. They smelled us out and they're going to be tracking us backwards."

 

[Sequoia]

Ally nodded and lowered AJ to the floor. She stroked his hair. "Baby, I want you to go upstairs and stay there, okay? I'm going to help build a wall to keep the monsters out." She grinned at him.


"Like a castle!" AJ said, excited. "Mommy! You can be the queen, Derrick can be the King and I'll be the knight who is a prince in secret!" He said before shooting up the stairs, yelling about horses and swords.


Ally laughed and turned to Derrick, eyes sparkling. "What now...your majesty?" She teased, wrapping her arms around his neck.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick snorted at her, and sighed, he let his head fall back and ran hands through his hair, "Now... we do horribly hard work as fast as we can and pray they don't show up while were doing that. If were lucky, we'll be able to have the entire thing set up and scent masked before they make a pass back this way... I can make the house disappear but... it's going to take some doing." He looked back down to her, and sighed, "Four or five more military trained soldiers would be nice right about now..."

 

[Sequoia]

She leaned up and kissed under his Jaw. "I'm worth at least two!" She said, grinning.


"Well. Come on then. Let's get started!" She shrugged on a jacket to ward off the chill from outside.

 

[Kazanna]

It would take them at least an hour to get the supplies needed from the garage. Derrick was cautious, he didn't want to use any power tools, the noise would attract too much unwanted attention. So he chose a manual axe, a cord to pull the timber where he wanted it, and he would set up a pulley system when it was called for to lower timbers into place. He'd put the supplies he knew he would need into a small crate and carried them outside, the double bit axe over his shoulder.


"One lumberjack joke and I'm gonna throw you in the lake." He told Ally, making a face. "Grab a shovel and start digging a trench in any area that's not surrounded by the fence. make it four feet deep, and three feet wide. Remember to make a stair case as you go or you'll need my help out every time as you go down into it." He motioned to the shovel, the post hole digger, and the pick axe in the garage. "There are gloves there, wear them, or you'll regret it later." He felt like his old drill sargent, "And remember, If it's not deep enough, the things will get in in a heartbeat. Four feet, by three feet. Try to make them even."


The project would take them days, he knew, but it was something that had to be done. He'd build a reinforced wall that would conjoin with the fence his father had built years ago. The fence had been designed to repel bears, and had worked quite well, but it had had a gate in place. That gate had been removed two summers before for maintenance and never rebuilt, so now it had to be walled off. The hole left by the gate was fifteen feet wide, so Derrick knew it would take them at least five three foot wide timbers to create the ballasts, which was why he wanted the three foot wide holes, a snug fit would allow him to anchor the wall he was to build appropriately. It would take him hours to move a single one without a crane, but the pulleys and the rope he'd gathered would help with the process.


He sighed, and paused, muttering, "I bet my dads laughing at us right now... Long and hard..."

 

[Sequoia]

Ally bit her tounge to keep from making a joke. "He's a lumberjack and he's ok, he sleeps all night and works all day!" She sang under her breath, smirking at him. She took the shovel and went where he directed. She started digging and carefully made the stairs.


She called up to him. "I think both are dad are laughing at us babe." A childish laugh rang out from the house. AJ was laughing at them. Ally chuckled. "My son too apparently!"

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick looked up at the house, and spun the axe, muttering, "Yeah... Damn... Lets get to work."


They would spend the next day working, it would be slow going, even with the haste he was employing. Derrick would be careful as he worked however, he'd spend as much time as needed to move the logs along diligently, getting them close to the trench that Ally would be digging. Derrick took the time to cut down one of the largest trees near the house and tip it so it landed in front of the trench so it would be minimal, to low work to construct the wall.

 

[Sequoia]

Ally came up behind him, wrapping herself around him. "I know we have to work but you need to take a break. You've been working non-stop for hours. Sit." She commanded, kissing his neck, not caring if he was sweaty and grimy.


AJ was near the door of the house, holding two bottles of water. "Mummy! Dad! I have water!"


Ally looked up in surprise. "Dad?" She whispered, looking at Derrick.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick shrugged, and smiled lightly, "Kids are quick to imprint on good role models, he and I were talking a bit while you were asleep. He's a smart kid... Knows what's good for him I figure." He grinned and nodded to AJ, "Thanks Son, Wanna see what were working on?" He said returning the sentiment wholeheartedly.


He'd taken Ally's words to heart, They were a package deal, and he saw no reason why he shouldn't embrace the boy. Blood or not, Ally was his family, and AJ was her child, so the boy was as much family to him as she was.

 

[Sequoia]

Ally stood gaping at her two boys while AJ nodded enthusiastically and ran over to see what he was working on. As AJ set the bottles down once reaching them, Ally threw herself at Derrick, kissing him for all he was worth. Her legs wrapped around his waist. "Thank you." She whispered between kisses.


"Ewwww! Stop kissing! Girls have cooties!" AJ said, wrinkling his nose and tugging on Derricks pants.

 

[Kazanna]

Derrick Caught her and laughed lightly, kissing her back, he gave her a squeeze and then pushed her away childishly, "Ewww! Cooties! No!" He pushed at her, a playful grin on his face. The game was on, it was nearing the evening as it was, he'd cut two of the lengths he would need to shape and size. He was ahead of schedule as it was so he didn't mind relaxing a bit.

 

[Sequoia]

Ally laughed and made to scoop up AJ who hid behind Derrick. "Who told you I have cooties?" She asked, hands on her hips but a smile on her face.


"Michael Johnson!" was the reply from her son.


"Michael Johnson should know that Mummies don't have cooties!" Ally said, capturing and blowing a raspberry on his stomach, making him giggle uncontrollably. "Now is daddy allowed to kiss mummy?" Ally asked her son, shooting a look at Derrick.


AJ nodded. "But I want in the hug too!"