hands. “Bernard, next time, throw something at me,” Matt said after he shut off his chainsaw.
“Thought about that, but as small as that chainsaw is and how big you are, I figured you would’ve thrown it at me,” Bernard laughed, looking over at Nelson dropping a big oak tree.
“Like I would throw one of Nelson’s chainsaws,” Matt scoffed. “He would use that giant son of a bitch on me.”
“It’s lunch time; go get Paul Bunyan, and let’s eat.”
Taking off his helmet and goggles, Matt looked at Bernard. “Bullshit, that damn blade on that chainsaw is thirty-six inches long. He turns around fast, I’m in two pieces.”
Bernard laughed. “That’s why I’m letting you go get him.”
Putting down his stuff, Matt glared at Bernard then eased over to Nelson and waited until the massive pine tree he was cutting hit the ground. Yelling and waving his arms, Matt slowly walked over to Nelson, who was climbing up on the trunk of the fallen pine. Nelson walked down the trunk, cutting off limbs as Matt came closer.
Seeing something out of the corner of his eye, Nelson turned to see Matt jumping up and down like he was dancing. Killing the saw, Nelson lifted up his earmuffs. “You are not MC Hammer,” Nelson said, walking back down the trunk.
“Well, I sure as hell wasn’t about to walk up and tap you on the shoulder to get your attention,” Matt said, waving an arm around at all the tree stumps. “I don’t want to join the ones you’ve attacked with the saw. Bernard just keeps driving over and hauling their bodies off to the sawmill.”
Nelson laughed and looked past Matt as Bernard walked up. “He’s scared of me when I’m cutting,” Nelson said, jumping off the fallen tree.
“That’s why I sent him,” Bernard said, smiling. “Lunch is ready.”
Taking off his hardhat, Nelson looked around. They had cut a hundred yards back from the road across from the house and several hundred yards east along the road. The house was hidden behind the berm this far out, and only the top of the roof could be seen.
Shifting his gaze from the berm around the house, Nelson sighed, looking at the massive barn. It was several hundred yards away on the other side of the road, but there was nothing they could do to even attempt to hide such a massive building. “That barn blocks a lot of what we can see to the east,” Nelson said, balancing the chainsaw on his shoulder as he held the bar, and the engine was past his head.
“Gerald said he had that covered a year ago,” Matt said, grabbing the smaller chainsaw. They walked back to the UTV and unloaded the gear in the back.
“When you boys start after lunch, you need to head west and clear the tree line back,” Bernard said, jumping beside Nelson. Matt grabbed their weapons and gear, loaded them in the back, and climbed in.
“Yeah, we’re good here. If they want to hide and watch us from here, fine by me,” Nelson said, starting the UTV, and sped back to the house.
Pulling up behind the house, they saw the UTV Nancy, Michelle, and Gavin were using already parked. They heard a motor coming and turned to see Gerald and Ashley pulling up with Duke, Gerald’s dog, running behind them.
Stopping in a cloud of dust, Ashley jumped out with a smile. “Hi, guys,” she said, slinging her AR over her shoulder and bouncing inside. They turned to see Gerald dragging his sweat-soaked ass out of the UTV. Wiping the sweat off his face, he stormed over to Matt and pointed a finger an inch from his nose.
“We are fucking trading jobs!” Gerald spat. “Your wife is a slave driver!”
“I work with her all the time; no she’s not,” Matt growled.
“Fine, you can work with her. I’ll work with Paul Bunyan.”
Nelson grinned as he grabbed his vest and AR out of the UTV and followed Bernard in the house. After hanging up weapons and vests, everyone sat down as Nellie came over putting platters of food on the table. “Gerald, Hank called on the radio and said