Smiling at everyone, I warmed up my coffee and finished my breakfast. "You are amazing." Mason said, as he put his arm around the back of my chair. "I never thought of that."
I shrugged, "What can I say? I'm good." He started rubbing the spot just below my ear, that spot that makes me sweat. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Yes, you are. Very good." Then he kissed my ear making me shiver.
"Good grief, can you not do that at the breakfast table. I'm eating here."
"Shut up, Randy. You're just jealous." Laughter caused the morning to return to normal.
We continued to fix things up and get ready for the holidays. Thanksgiving saw us roasting three turkeys and I lost count of the number of pies we made. We couldn't find candy canes so Sarah was experimenting with making some and we spent one day making reindeer fodder, which goes a long way and the kids did it justice.
Thanksgiving day the kids did the turkeys justice, too. They had fattened up a bit and was filling out to the point we had to make extra trips to town for new clothes. There would be new clothes for them under the Christmas tree also.
It seemed we went to town every day, getting supplies for one reason or another. Joe and Sandy was busy teaching the new women, Lucy and Angie, about medicine. They were fast learners. Lucy was learning to be an EMT before the virus hit and her and Angie was in charge of the children when they were all put in a 1960's style fallout shelter. They were there a long time and that's where the children learned to be quiet, to keep the walkers from hearing them. It made sense now, where the kids came from, since the schools back then had emergency drills during the cold war.
For the next month all went fairly well. There were fights with the kids, you just can't put that many kids together and not have fights. The older kids were being trained to hunt, Flynn taking over that job, and we always seemed to have venison. Duke's fancy helicopter, similar to the one he had at the lodge, found a herd of cows so a day was spent by anyone old enough, to help herd cattle. Of course, there was a run on building a corral big enough then the worry of how to feed them.
I was sure they'd figure it out and went back to making, stealing and finding Christmas gifts for 17 adults and 15 children. We finally decided to put a tree in each house as well as one in the cabin. It couldn't be very big because the tables were filled each time we ate and there just wasn't any room. I didn't think the kids had celebrated any holidays since the virus hit so this had to be a special time and we worked our asses off to make it so. The oldest of the kids were being taught to hunt, fish, catch turkeys and all the stuff that goes with it. Nevada and Abby were more interested in electronics so Duke had his hands full teaching them along with Angie on occasion. The smallest of the kids were learning how to recognize different herbs and gardening.
One day, I talked Mason and the guys into taking me with them when they went to a new electronics store. There was a library across the street and I needed to get a truckload of books. Lacy tagged along, because she wanted some new magazines. I didn't have the heart to tell her there were no new magazines but I could use the help so she tagged along with me.
The building was a newer one. The walls were mostly glass so there was plenty of light but you could also see inside so I was really uncomfortable. I grabbed the book cart and started in the aisle holding the survival books. Not being too particular I grabbed books left and right. Lacy headed to the children's section with her own cart and we preceded to provide the guys with the perfect hernia material. They groused about all the heavy books but it couldn't be helped.
I cleaned out the medical, gardening and animal husbandry isles before hitting the cooking and canning books. Lacy worked on children's, art, computers and videos. I was checking out, or looking in this case, at the history section when a noise made me turn. A walker grabbed for me but missed before coming at me again. I hollered for Lacy to climb the racks while I was doing just that. A hand grabbed my foot just as I was nearly on top, pulling me down towards its mouth.
I hadn't realized I'd been hollering in my mind at the time but I guess Mason heard me that way. I'd been so scared, I hadn't said anything else after yelling at Lacy. I felt the walkers breath on my ankle and just as it was ready to take a bite, Mason barreled into it, knocking it to the floor with me on top of it. It came back up from the floor to grab my arm, but I grabbed a book of poems and smacked it in the face, just as I was getting ready to smack it again, a large knife appeared in its left eye and it died, again.
I fell to one side off it just to get off it's rotting, nasty, stinking body and tried to catch my breath. "Did it bite you? Did it bite you?" Mason kept asking. I finally had to opt for shaking my head, cause I just didn't have enough air to talk. I was seeing spots before my eyes when he pulled me up, then picked me up and took me to the couch near the checkout desk. He sat me on his lap and rocked me as I fought off the panic attack I had started having after being under the mountain in Flagstaff.
I closed my eyes and just breathed until I got things under control again. He managed to clean some of the gunk from the dead walker off my face and when I finally was able to track better I saw Lacy sitting on the top of a bookcase, eyes big, face white as she watched me. I thought for some reason that it was a funny sight because I started laughing. Mason looked where I was looking and I guess he thought it was funny too, cause he started laughing. Lacy, however, did not think it was funny.
Flynn finally helped her down, neither of them amused at us but we didn't care. I finally got enough sense back and calmed down so I could finish what I started and we left the library and the walker behind. The guys finished at the electronics store, making Duke a very happy man and the kids even happier for Christmas with video games. I'd happened upon a present for Mason so I was happy for the whole day although bruises were sprouting up everywhere on my body. I hurt in some places I'd forgotten I had but mostly the places I'd had other bruises. I should be used to it by now, but I wasn't.
When we returned we found several bookcases had been 'borrowed' from the surrounding houses ready for the books. I left that for the ladies so they could see what we had, while I took a change of clothes to one of the hot springs to soak. I gave my gift for Mason to Lacy to hide so he couldn't rifle through my mind and figure out where it was. He sat lightly on my mind as he helped unload the trucks and reposition the trailer so it could be accessible for inspection. It seemed like Christmas every time we brought a trailer in, so we let everyone who wanted to inspect the contents have a look see.
We worked like fiends after that to finalize the plans for Christmas. The kids stayed out of our way, learning how to play again while we put up trees and gave them ideas on how to decorate them. They learned how to draw, color within the lines which according to Mandy was 'vitally important' and pretend play. She took her job very seriously and wouldn't tolerate any shirkers. We spent a lot of the time trying not to laugh at them. Mandy says it hurts their little feelings when we laugh at them so we really tried not to.
No one else got hurt, no one tried to kill anyone, people learned to live in a crowd and we had a wonderful Christmas. Unlike that first morning, the screams could almost be heard to Montana. The Montana crew had managed to find the four people who were going to come to the Lodge before the explosion and had to be turned back. They were helping set up the new place. It seemed like Ken and Jill were going to be parents about the time we would arrive next spring. It gave me something else to worry about.
We had a rough time a few days after Christmas when Lacy miscarried. I wasn't sure why and neither was Joe but we would managed to survive, like we always did. It was a world of surviving now and we'd deal with it. We had a bunch of people to prepare for the life ahead without us while we prepared for the trip back to Montana in several months. I didn't know how we'd do it but if it had to be done, we somehow managed to find the way.
Meantime, me and Mason loved to the extent we were able. I didn't know you could love that much but sometimes I was consume
d by the feelings I had for him. We laughed and fought and loved through it all just to wake up the next day to do it all over again. Wasn't that the way it was supposed to be? Wasn't survival for a reason?
Mason said "We're going through this for a reason and I think that reason is to be happy, love and be loved and find a way to smile through it all. We'll come through this because we're made of good stock. We were taught to survive and we learned well. We need to teach others and we will, because we're survivors."
To Be Continued....
Reindeer Fodder Recipe
2 pounds white almond bark
2 T vegetable oil (I substitute a small jar of peanut butter here.)
3 cups each of three different cereals
1/2 cup favorite nuts (I use pecans)
1 cup pretzel sticks, broken
1 cup coconut (optional)
Melt almond bark, add oil or peanut butter, mix well
Add remaining ingredients together mix well, then pour the melted mixture over all and coat well.
cool on wax paper, break up and store. Makes a bunch.
You can throw in some raisins or cranberries, small marshmallows whatever to make it yours.
I am currently working on book four in the Walkers Series and hope to have it done and published the first of June 2013.
walkers the survivors Page 16