Read Online Hidden (Final Dawn) by Darrell Maloney - Free Book Online

the tarp covering the compound. Marty Hankins looked up and commented, “Well, I was wondering how we were gonna get that snow off before it tore through the canvas and buried us. Looks like Mother Nature’s gonna do it for us.”
         His friend and fellow trucker Joe Koslowski nodded in agreement and said, “Good. I didn’t much want to deal with three feet of snow on the ground in here.”
         Their compound was working like a charm thus far. In the center of it, between the trucks, they’d kept a large campfire going, burning the lumber they’d pilfered from a flatbed trailer the day they built their compound. Once it was gone, they started burning anything they found inside the trailers that they didn’t need or want. Furniture, mattresses, children’s clothing. In one of the Walmart trailers they even found four pallets of charcoal briquettes, which would be great for providing heat during the coldest days.
         They’d been worried that the campfire would cause problems with carbon monoxide, but found that the one inch gap between each trailer provided an ample supply of fresh air, but not so much that it chilled the camp.
         Joe took a cast iron skillet and dumped several pieces of frozen chicken and some water into it. Then he put it on the campfire to thaw out and cook. Once it was almost done he’d throw a bag of frozen vegetables and some seasoning into the skillet and end up with an edible stew.
         Marty said, “While you’re doing that I’m gonna go dig in a couple of the trailers and see if I can find some coffee. We’re running pretty low.”
         As he walked past Scott Burley’s truck, he chuckled and slapped his hand against the fiberglass sleeper cab three times. Scott had stood guard the previous night, and was probably sound asleep. The two of them went back several years, and always enjoyed messing with each other. It was all good natured, of course, but he just couldn’t help needling his friend every chance he got.
         Marty saw Tina come out of a trailer on the north end of the compound and enter one on the south end. They had spent a whole day a few days before restacking the cargo in some of the trailers so they had a path to each trailer’s front panel. Then they drilled peep holes so that whoever was on watch could move to one trailer on each side of the compound every few minutes and get a clear view of anyone who might be lurking about. Tina had the current watch.
         Marty looked behind him to make sure Joe wasn’t watching, then entered the same trailer as Tina.
         As Marty stepped into the trailer, his eyes met Tina’s and she asked, “Where’s Joe?”
         There was no mistaking the look in her eye or what she meant by the question.
         “Oh, he’s back at the campfire, cooking chicken.”
         She said, “Good. Keep an eye on him.”
         Tina went down to her knees in front of Marty and unzipped his jeans. He leaned back against the side of the trailer and enjoyed Tina’s talents, while peering outside the door where he could barely see Joe a mere fifty feet away.
         When she finished, she put him back together again, rezipped his zipper, and stood up to face him.
         “I’ve been hankering to do that all morning long. Why did it take you so long to get here?”
         “Well, if I knew that’s what you had in mind, I’d have been here sooner.”
         “Tomorrow morning, come sooner.”
         Marty smiled and said, “I can’t wait.”
         Tina stood at the front of the trailer, peering out the peephole, while Marty dug through several of the boxes looking for coffee.
         When he came across things they’d never use, like baby clothes or diapers, he threw them out the back door of the trailer into a pile. They’d make good fuel for the campfire.
         He said, “What do you think Joe will do if he ever finds out?”
         Tina laughed.