Cruel World (The Tribe Book 1)

31. Secret Smooch

Martin's POV

"Look, there's the farm!" Jack exclaims as we emerge from the shrubbery and trees to see an old homestead.

I move to the front of the group since I will be the main one negotiating, and as I'm the only one who knows of the person in charge of this farm, Alice, due to Leia briefing me. Reg and Lex are behind me, as they are in the chain-of-command within the tribe, Jack, Dal and KC in the middle as the youngest of the group, Ryan pushing the wheelbarrow with batteries and cans of food to trade for the chickens, and Beau and Flynn at the back of the group.

Along the fence line, we spot a makeshift wooden sign with a skull and crossbones inside the symbol for female, warning people off but also indicating that most likely all the people living here are girls.

"Let's go and say hello then," Lex says.

"Let me do most of the talking," I tell him.

"Why's that?" Ryan asks. "Other than you being one of our leaders."

"Well I don't know if you recall the last couple weeks, Lex, but you've tarnished your sparkling track record with the girls a bit," I smirk at him, and he can't help but chuckle.

"Fair, I'll cop that one," he shrugs it off. "Anybody home?!" he calls out, and two Doberman's tied up come out of a shed on the side, barking at us.

"What do you want?" One girl comes out of the shed with an attitude.

"We're just hoping to trade for some meat and maybe some fresh stuff too, we're about to have a wedding and were hoping to cook a nice meal," I let her know, being quick to try and calm her attitude down. "Is Alice around? Leia said she runs this farm."

"Alleia?" she says her full name, and I nod in response, causing her to drop her guard a little bit. "I'll go grab Alice for you. Any of you lot getting married?"

"I'm marrying Leia, and Lex over here is also getting married to his missus," I tell her, and she nods.

"You're a lucky man," she tells me.

"Don't I know it," I grin, which she returns and heads off to find Alice.

The girl comes out with who must be Alice, a dominating girl with fiery red hair which I'm sure matches her personality.

"I hear you guys are looking to trade for a wedding, and one of you lucky mongrels is marrying Alleia," she scans the group, and I raise my hand up so she knows that's me. "She's a gem, that one. Don't let her get away."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I tell her.

"What you got to trade, and what are you hoping to get?"

"Batteries and some canned food, Leia said you guys trade for those every so often and you were due another lot," we move to show her the wheelbarrow and open the bags with tins.

"She's not wrong, we were thinking of making a trip into the city soon," she nods. "Last I knew though it was just her and Jacky-boy over there," she waves at him, and he gives her a big grin and a wave. "This is Dawn, by the way," she nods to the girl on her left, and we nod at her, as she nods back.

"Yeah, we've got a tribe of over 20 now, probably one of the biggest in the city if I'm correct, and this is all within the last few months," I tell her.

"She always has been the motherly and big sister type, so I'm not surprised," she chuckles, and I join her.

"We're hoping to get a few chickens, 3 or 4 since there is a lot of us," I tell her, and she agrees to that.

"No problem, we've got a couple that are fresh kills today, so you can take those, and next time we make a trip into the city to trade with Alleia you'll get a bit more fresh meat and we'll trade fresh stuff that we don't grow out here," she says, shaking my hand as if to sign off on the trade before sending Dawn to go get the chickens.