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33) Home Invasion

It turned out that it was the paper packets blocking me, looking at the seeds in the palm of my hand after I tore open a packet and poured them out gave me all the information I needed just like all the other plants.

I also found out that eleven young men, plus two older ones, could tear up a lot of sod in a few hours.

The three women with them stood guard, at least as well as they could between petting Blue and trying to lure a little green girl in a Dallas shirt out of the branches of her tree.

The thirteen guys also tore up the soil, mixed in the fertilizer, dug the holes for the grown plants, and watered the whole thing after everything got planted.

The sergeant guy went up to both the half burned down house and the old store with a wrench and did something to let the army guys hook up a hose to both places and water the even larger gardens that now stood to either side of me.

Walking around while everyone else was working, I could see that even the hard packed alleyway behind the house had become nearly a solid mass of green from the plants struggling to grow back there.

About the only thing I did during all this was to go around with a stick poking holes in the freshly turned dirt and dropping seeds into them. Or rather around them as Acey who had climbed down for her tree at some point appeared behind me and began following along behind me putting the seeds I had missed into each hole.

Walk walking along waist deep in the dirt, with her shirt pulled halfway up and held in one hand as she moved along through the ground without disturbing the soil, or the seeds in it, at all.

That got some stares.

"I know, but I didn't think to get her any underwear while I was at the store. Besides she can't take clothes with her when she does stuff like that so I think she would have just taken them off anyways."

The Captain sent off two of the girls with his credit card in Johanson's big jeep.

And Acey was being all shy and overbehaved by not whipping fruit at anyone with metal tabs on his collars, although she did seem to pick up that I didn’t like the guy and shot him some dark looks.

I slid up to him at some point. "If anyone comes around for her because they heard about her from you, I will soak these damned plants in gasoline and light them up. Both on and off my land."

Shoot. I should have gotten more gas while I was out.

The Captain nodded. “I’ve seen some reports, she’s not unique, and they can take care of themselves.”

He pursed his lips in thought. “Someone tried something stupid with a couple of others… they don't have to look like that. They can take on another form if someone tries to… abuse them.”

I smiled. “Good. I hope they suffered.” Guess I don’t need to worry about my little girl so much. She glanced up to smile and wave at me.

The guy standing next to me gave her a haunted look as he whispered. “Turns out they can bite. And chew.”

I blinked, then coughed into my fist to hide the laughter. It sounded like someone got what they deserved.

While checking out what the work on the front lawn of the burned out wreck next door, I noticed Acey had stopped following me. Turning around I could see her about thirty feet past the end of my property, looking a little sad.

Seeing me look back she smiled and seemed to settle in to wait. Hands behind her back and swaying side to side in place.

I stared, then walked over a bit toward her. “Is that as far as you can go from your tree?” It was about fifty feet away from her tree.

She grimaced and nodded. Reaching out towards me with her hands, she leaned forward until she began to fall. Before I could jump forward to catch her, the air in front of her seemed to slow her down until she was leaning forward far past where she should have fallen to the ground.

Lifting her head nearly to her back, she grinned up at me.

I nodded at her. “Are you going to be able to stand back up from there?”

The green girl looked a bit concerned, turned her head from side to side, and began to awkwardly back up, her body sinking downward with each half step since she couldn't really push against the air to lift herself back up.

Before I could try to help her, she just went limp and sort of slid back slowly as she sunk to the ground, then scrambled to her feet with he body shaking from silent giggles.

The remaining woman on guard, the red haired girl who had helped me with my shotgun had appeared nearby. While still keeping an eye on her surroundings, she asked. "She can't talk?"

I gave her a dull look, not seeing how it was any of her bullishness. But this was the woman who was most likely going to be helping me with my shotgun tomorrow… so.

"She hasn't yet. Don't know if it's just her or all the… free roaming spirits I guess you call them?"

Reaching forward I began brushing off the green girl's shirt from all the dirt and ground bits the soldiers had tracked onto the sidewalk she had fallen on.

“Can she write?”

I hadn’t even thought to check that. I know she seems to understand me. “I don’t know.”

Too many people. Too many questions. I wasn’t used to this anymore.

People.

“I’m hungry.”

I went inside the house and sat in my room until I heard the soldier leave.

There had been some voices calling for me until the Sargent guy called for them to "Fall in."

Acey had followed me into the house, right into my room. She gave me an apple and a concerned look.

"I ran out of gas for dealing with other people. It's been so long since I hit my limit like that, I didn't even know it was coming. It… just hit me that I needed not to be around anyone for a little while."

She stood up from where she had been kneeling on the floor at my feet, giving me a sad look.

I sighed. “Not you little girl, you’re quiet when I need quiet. Still when I don’t mind someone being around if they're… not bothering me. But the Coyotes might need water, can you take care of that for me?"

She nodded eagerly and scampered out of my room. A moment later I heard the toilet seat hit the tank as she flipped it up.

I sighed and got up.

Somethings got to come before my ‘lie down in a dimly lit room and not think or feel’ quality time.