"Vicki!" Melissa shouted when she saw her adopted daughter coming through the door.
She ran to embrace Vicki, tears streaming down her face. She didn't notice the Changeling girl until Vicki pulled away slightly and turned to shrug her rifle off her shoulder.
When Melissa saw little Cindy, her hand flashed down to the pistol that she wore constantly.
Vicki's hand flashed out like a striking snake to catch her mothers hand ad stopped her from completing the draw. "No mom!" she spoke rapidly. "This is Cindy. She's my sister and she's OK."
Melissa backed off several steps, but she didn't try to continue drawing her gun, although she kept her hand on the butt. "You have some explaining to do young lady."
Cindy saw the naked hostility in Melissa's eyes and cowered back against my side for protection and comfort.
"I'll take Cindy around and introduce her to everybody," I said. "That way there'll be no misunderstandings about her status here."
Vicki met my eyes for a long moment, and then nodded slowly. "Thank you father."
She turned back to Melissa with a lopsided smile. "Is there any coffee made mom? This is going to take a while. "
Melissa nodded abruptly and turned to lead Vicki into the kitchen.
I looked down at Cindy and put my arm around her shoulders. "Come on short stuff, I'll show you off to everyone and let them know that you are part of the family."
She smiled up at me with trusting eyes.
This wasn't going to be easy at all.
In the kitchen, Vicki and her adopted mother sat across from each other cradling cups of coffee and just looking at each other for a long moment.
"Well Mom, it's like this," Vicki began.
*Vicki's story*
After Tammie was killed on the raid to wipe out the major Changeling nests in town, I was obsessed with killing every Changeling I could. I knew that Dad wouldn't let me go on any more raids for a long time if ever.
I talked Matt into making me a sniper rifle and practiced with it until I was confident that I could hit my target every time.
I slept with Jack while he worked up some special ammunition for the rifle. A lot of it since I knew I would be out there alone for a long time."
(She looked steadily into Melissa's eyes.)
"I knew exactly what I was doing. I waited for you to give birth, then I saddled my horse and rode out while everyone else was celebrating,
I knew that you and Dad wouldn't approve of what I had to do to make those creatures pay for Tammie and everyone else that they've killed.
(Vicki waited for her mother to pour more coffee and sit back down before she continued.)
I headed for the Miller's place to establish a base of operations.
It's close enough to Billings that I wouldn't have any trouble getting to and from town, and far enough out that the Changelings wouldn't be likely to come out that far.
I spent the week of that first blizzard holed up there in the Miller house studying maps and making plans.
I found a cellar in the basement that held canned food and other supplies that we had missed when we made our earlier sweeps.
There was plenty of firewood and I brought in hay bales and bags of grain from the barn before the storm got too bad.
There wasn't much to do except to keep the horse and myself inside and try not to freeze to death until the storm broke.
When the dawn came on the 8th day, the sky was clear and bright even if it was cold as hell.
I saddled my horse and went out for a scouting trip. I tied my horse to a tree just down the slope of a hill that overlooks Billings and belly-crawled up to some bushed on the summit. Peeking through the branches with my binoculars, I could see a few Changelings moving around, scavenging anything they could find that was even remotely edible
The urge to start shooting was almost overpowering, but I remembered Dad's lessons. .
Never set up a snipers next without scouting at least 3 escape routes before hand.
I slithered back down the hill to where the horse was and started back to the Miller place.
I didn't want the tracks I was leaving in the snow to lead straight back to my lair, so I found a creek that was still flowing and rode downstream for about a mile before coming out on the opposite bank and turning for home.
The hill I had just left was a lousy place to start sniping, Only one way out of there that was even remotely secure, and a limited field of fire.
I needed a better place so that I could start making those bastards pay for killing my sister.
A week later I found the first of the snipers nests that I would use.
I scouted the escape routes like Dad had taught us, then I moved on to look for another nest.
When I had several places scouted and memorized, I felt I was ready.
I went to the first nest that I had scouted and set up the spotting scope and my rifle.
I didn't know how many shots that I could get off before the Changelings figured out where I was, so I made my preparations for a quick getaway.
Looking through the spotting scope, I found my first target. A male Changeling wearing a blanket draped over its shoulders.
I quickly found him through the scope on the rife and calculated the range at about 600 yards.
I tracked him until he stopped to sniff at the air by a burned out house and squeezed the trigger slowly.
The suppressor worked perfectly and the rifle made very little sound.
I had held the crosshairs just above the Changeling's head and was gratified to see the bullet strike him just below the neck dead center in the spine.
I watched for any signs of life, but the bullet had performed exactly as designed and the beast was dead.
I worked the bolt to chamber another round, and then put my eye back to the spotting scope to look for my next target.
I made 6 more kills from that nest, and then decided that I had pushed my luck far enough. I gathered my scope and rifle and headed back for my lair.
Over the next couple of months, I raised merry hell with the Changelings. Then I decided that I needed more ammunition.
Besides, my food supply was getting low, and I was starting my period, I didn't dare risk the changeling scenting my menstrual blood.
I started visiting places I knew that we had missed on earlier sweeps. I made a travois to haul my booty back to the lair, as I had no other way to haul stuff around.
I found a reloading press and enough powder, primers and bullets to keep me in business for a long time at one house.
Another house provided more than enough food to last me a long time. I made several trips to get everything back to the Miller place.
I considered coming back home, but I knew that you and Dad wouldn't let me go out again, and I still had too much killing to do.
I found an old Remington 12 gauge shotgun and a hacksaw at one of the places I visited, along with a few boxes of shotgun ammunition.
I sawed off the barrel of the Remington to make it easier for me to carry and swapped the bird shot in the shells for some steel ball bearings that I found at another empty place.
If I got into a close fight with Changelings, the shotgun would be a better choice than the rifle or my pistol.
At last I was ready to get back to killing Changelings.
It was starting to get warmer, and the Changelings were becoming more active again.
The Changelings were near starvation by now, and I found that I could get several easy kills if I shot one Changeling at the far side of a pack, then let the others start feeding on it's corpse.
My days started to blend into one long blur of shooting, retreating and shooting some more.
But somehow I still hadn't had enough. The Changelings still hadn't paid nearly enough for Tammie.
Then a couple of months ago, I was headed back from a particularly successful sniping session when I heard singing.
I stopped the horse and listened for a while.
Sure enough, it was a girl's voice, singing a happy tune. I had to check this out.
I dismounted and secured my horse. I made the decision to leave my rifle in the scabbard and just took the shotgun and my pistol.
I eased through the trees until I could see the clearing where the voice was coming from.
It was a Changeling girl, sitting on a log idly drawing in the mud with a twig as she sang.
My first thought was that there was just another monster to kill, and I started to bring up the shotgun.
I still don't know why I held my fire that day.
I saw movement behind the Changeling child, and realized that an adult Changeling was stalking her.
I reacted on instinct and fired at the adult Changeling.
