“It was worth checking out,” Allexa said, “and with the nice weather, the walk was delightful, although my knee will be happy to be going downhill now.”
“I guess this part was phase two of the subdivision,” Eric muttered. “I’d really like to see the other houses. Would you mind more walking?”
“Let me rest the knee with some ice when we get back, and see how it feels,” she replied.
***
Allexa sat in the lazy boy chair with an ice pack balanced on her knee, reading over her notes that she had left under the tray of the silverware drawer.
“There’s not much left in these houses, Eric. Jim and I took all the weapons and ammo we could find, plus alcohol and food. Some of that is still downstairs.” She looked at him while he wiped down his gun. “Unless you’re looking for something else.”
“There isn’t much in the way of baby clothes at the Nuns Shoppe. Alan is growing so fast, and so is Emilee. She’ll be fourteen in a few months, a young woman. Most of the clothes that fit her are getting really worn.”
“Clothing isn’t something I had thought about.” Allexa felt like slapping her forehead. “My knee is good enough for this flat walking, if you’re willing to pull the wagon. Between my wrist and knee I feel off balance.” She stood and put the ice pack in the refrigerator freezer for later. “Let’s see what we can find upstairs first.”
They looked through the children’s closets and dressers. Most of the boys’ clothes were too big for Alan and the girls’ were too small for Emi.
“Mom, would it be okay if I took some things for Rayn?” he asked hesitantly.
“Of course. She didn’t bring much with her and probably could use at least a new jacket, and maybe jeans…whatever you think, son.” Allexa wondered what the wealthy lady of this house had in the way of coats. She could use a warmer one too. “In my medical bag are face masks. We might need them to venture into that bedroom.”
Once Eric retrieved the masks, they cautiously stepped into the death room. The five corpses on the bed had mummified under the sheets and the odor of decay was now minimal.
“I think we should leave the masks on, as a contamination precaution,” Allexa said. Eric nodded and they went straight to the walk in closet.
Allexa opened a long, narrow box that sat in front of a mirror. “Oh, my…” Eric looked over her shoulder at the jewelry and whistled. Diamond necklaces, ruby studded bracelets, and rings were all lined up neatly.
“Should we take these?” Eric asked.
“No, we don’t need gold and precious gems. I’m going to slide this under the bed, in case the house gets broken into later. It will be harder to find under the bodies.”
“Wow, look at the furs.” Eric went back to his search and checked the sizes after removing one from a hermetically sealed bag. “I like this one, it looks warm. Can I take it for Rayn?”
“Sure. I’ll take another for Amanda. In fact, I think we should take everything in this closet downstairs, rather than spend a lot of time in here.”
They laid the clothes out on the large beds in the guest rooms on the main floor, making piles of what they wanted to take. Allexa added a dark brown calf length down coat to her selections.
“Don’t you want a fur, Mom?”
“No, I don’t. The down coat will suit me better. I’ve got an idea,” Allexa said. “I think we should hit every house here and do a rough inventory of what clothes and sizes are where. If we find baby clothes, we take them. Otherwise, this might warrant another trip back here.”
“I’m sure you noticed that we took a couple of your towels when we moved out. We could replace everything with what’s in these houses. Not only towels, sheets too. And the town can always use blankets.” His level of enthusiasm grew. “This is like a shopping spree on someone else’s credit card!”
Allexa worried he was having too good of a time.
***
They wandered from house to house, avoiding the two with known bodies. In the third house, Eric found what he was looking for. A nursery.
“I wish we could take this youth bed with us now. Alan is trying to climb out of the crib I made. I forgot how fast they grow.” Realizing what he said, he looked at his mother and said, “Have I told you recently how much I love you? You have always been the best mother we could ever have wanted.” He gave her a gentle hug.
“If there aren’t any tools here to take apart the bed, there are some in the Hummer,” Allexa said, swallowing her tears. Eric grinned and went looking. In the master bedroom closet, Allexa found two suitcases and filled them both with all the baby and toddler clothes that would fit.
When they found something they could use, needed, or wanted, they left the items in the living room and made note of the address. After they were done, Allexa sat on a porch swing resting her knee while Eric brought the Hummer back to load up.
“The youth bed first, then the baby clothes. There’s a house next door that has the teen clothes. We have to save room for the coats and the boxes of wine.”
Eric had proved to be very efficient at packing the big vehicle, managing to fit everything.
“Even though we’re only an hour from Moose Creek, I’m not comfortable with driving that road in the dark,” Eric said. “I vote we spend the night and leave early tomorrow.”
“I guess I better get some dinner started then.”
***
“I still can’t believe it took me years to make sergeant and you made colonel in a year, and you’re not even in the Army!” Eric laughed.
“Believe me I’m having trouble adjusting to it myself. It certainly isn’t something I had planned.”
***
Over the simple meal of a can of soup on pasta, Eric approached an area of concern.
“Even though we’re in town now, and I feel my family is much safer, I still worry that something may go south,” he said. “I’d like to figure out some kind of code that any of us could use to alert Emilee. Something that was so normal and usual it wouldn’t be seen as a warning by an outsider.”
“Hmm,” Allexa contemplated the idea. “Something that would cause her to seek safety?”
“Yes.”
“Other than town, the safest place for her would be at the Collins compound,” she said. “What does she call Art?”
“Mr. Collins. Beth insisted on proper names for Emi’s elders,” Eric grinned. “Even though Art has told her she could use his first name, she still calls him mister.”
“So, if you told her to visit Uncle Art that would be out of the normal to her, though wouldn’t be suspicious to anyone else, right?”
“That’d be perfect! We never refer to him as uncle. In fact, we could couple that with other more specific instructions.” Eric was enthused with the solution to the problem he’d been concerned with.
“If Emi was in any danger, so would Jacob and Alan be. Let me know what you come up with.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“There’s still some room in the back, Mom. Let’s take a quick walk back to the house with the nursery. I forgot about toys!” Eric said after their breakfast of canned fruit. He had finished packing all the boxes and clothes in the back of the Humvee and they were almost ready to leave.
He was so excited about all they had found, Allexa kept quiet about wanting to get back on the road.
***
He watched the two soldiers walk up the long driveway of the big house pulling a wagon loaded with children’s toys. From his hiding spot across the street he couldn’t see them enter, but in the silence that now surrounded everything, he heard a door open and close.
This is my place! I found these houses first! Everything here is mine! his drug deranged mind screamed at him. And they can’t have any of it!
He moved quickly up the same drive then veered off to the left to get behind the house, the gun he found in the house with the bodies in his pocket.
He crouched behind the garage and inched his way to the slidin
g door. He was in luck—it wasn’t locked. From behind the heavy curtains he could see one of them go down into the basement and the other disappeared from his view. He silently slid the glass panel aside and entered.
***
“There’s something upstairs I want to get. If you would get a bowl of ice cubes from the ice maker behind the bar, I’d really appreciate it. I want to take an extra ice pack with us for my knee,” Allexa said, climbing the long, graceful staircase again. She opened a door she recalled being the walk-in linen closet and turned on the overhead light. Neatly labeled shelves were stacked with colorful sheets and blankets. Standing in front of the wide shelf marked ‘master bedroom’, she pulled down a set of bright blue king sized sheets and stuffed them into the matching pillowcase. Taking a second set of deep green, Allexa picked up both bundles and a two-toned comforter, knowing they would be well received by Eric and Rayn for their makeshift king bed.
Halfway down the staircase, Allexa heard a gunshot echo from below. She dropped the linens and pulled her gun. Running silently down the thickly carpeted stairs, she looked around the corner to see Eric lying on the floor and someone standing over him aiming a gun.
“NO!” she screamed, and when the guy turned, she pulled the trigger.
Allexa knelt down beside her bleeding son. “Oh, Eric!” She sobbed, stroking his face gently with her fingertips. He opened his eyes and winced.
“He surprised me. Man that hurts!” he said, breathing hard and struggling to sit up. Allexa kept him on the floor, helping him to lean against the nearest cupboard. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his upper arm where blood was oozing out.
Confident he was temporarily stable Allexa retrieved her gun from the floor and stood over the assailant. He didn’t move. She kicked his gun further aside, and then picked it up. A .22 could do some damage, but her 9mm hollow point did more. He was dead, and Eric needed medical attention or he might be too.
She inched around the ornate doorway to the front door, where the bundles of sheets spilled out into the slate foyer. She dashed to the side, quietly throwing the lock so they wouldn’t be taken by surprise if this assailant wasn’t alone. “I’m getting my medical bag from the Hummer. I’ll be right back.” She pulled the Glock from his holster and handed it to him. “If anyone comes through that door that isn’t me, shoot them!”
***
Allexa cut the sleeve off from Eric’s shirt to better see the wound. After washing it with bottled water, she wrapped and bandaged it.
“We’re only an hour away from Moose Creek. You need Doctor James to remove the bullet,” she said.
“Mom, I know this is going to sound weird, but it doesn’t hurt as much now. And the first thing we need to do is drag this piece of human garbage outside into the backyard. Then we put the rest of what we collected in the Hummer. Are you okay with that?”
Allexa looked at her son, admiring his strength and resolve, and she started shaking.
“Hold it together, Mom!” Eric yelled. “Grab one foot and I’ll take the other. Now move!” She did as he asked, stopping only to open the sliding door wider.
***
With everything else already in the back of the Hummer, plus the pillowcases filled with sheets, the toys, the youth bed, and clothing, the big vehicle was full. Eric rested in the passenger seat while Allexa lowered the garage door, put the keys back where she had found them, and shut off the propane and the generator.
“There still could be more of them, Mom. I’ll keep watch while you get us out of here,” Eric said through gritted teeth, his Glock resting in his lap. The pain that had initially abated had returned in full force.
Once the subdivision was behind them, Allexa sped to the hidden loop that took them to the 150. Going back to Sawyer might have been quicker, though not by much, and they both wanted to go home now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Allexa bounced over a large rock and skidded when she took the Hairpin a little too fast. Eric moaned. The towel she had wrapped around his arm was already soaked bright red with his blood. Once past the tight bend in the road, she sped up slightly only to hit a couple more deep potholes. Minutes later they were back on pavement and she floored the gas pedal.
Allexa churned up gravel and dust as she pulled into the parking lot of the small field hospital, and jumped out.
“James! I need help!” she shouted into the stillness.
The young doctor, a third year medical student thrust into practice over a year earlier when Dr. Mark died from the flu, emerged from his office.
“Eric has been shot. He’s in the Hummer, unconscious,” Allexa said, running back outside. Dr. James grabbed the wheelchair that sat in the waiting room and followed her. After some difficult tugging and lifting, they managed to get the inert Eric into the chair and into the hospital.
***
“You might have been better off going back to the medic at Sawyer,” Dr. James said, removing the blood soaked towel and bandages. “I’m sure he has more experience removing bullets than I do.”
“How many have you done?” Allexa asked from behind her face mask, dropping the towel into the sink.
“None.”
“First time for everything, Doctor. Just fix him!”
They worked silently for several minutes while the doctor probed the wound. Finding the small caliber bullet, he eased it out and dropped it in a dish. He cleaned the wound again and stitched up the hole.
“That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.” The doctor smiled and realized how inappropriate that was to say. “I’m going to give him some antibiotics for the infection, but he’s lost a great deal of blood, Allexa.”
“I’ll go get Jason,” she said, peeling off her surgical gloves.
“I can’t cross type,” James said, reminding her of their lack of facilities.
“You don’t need to. They’re the same type and have already proven compatible.” She dashed out the door to find her other son.
***
Jason was walking down the street toward the school when he saw the Hummer careen around the corner. He had just left the house he’d been working on for over a week.
“Get in!” Allexa yelled, slamming on the brakes. “Eric’s been shot and needs some blood!”
***
“You know, bro, you probably have as much of my blood in you as I do,” Jason chided his brother when Eric opened his eyes.
“Hey, any time you need it back, just say so.” Eric closed his eyes again and slept.
Jason left, concerned for his brother, and passed Rayn coming in to trade places. “He was just awake and talked. I think that’s a good sign. Dr. James said he could go home when he can stay awake.”
“We will all be glad for that,” Rayn replied. “When are you going to take Allex to the new house?”
“Not until Eric can be part of it.”
***
The following day, Tom White walked up the street with Allexa.
“Where are we going?” Allexa asked.
“You’ll see, just be patient,” Tom said.
They passed Bradley’s Backyard, and Harold waved at them. Tom stopped at the gate that was the entrance to the fenced in yard at what had been Bradleys’ house, where they met Jason and Amanda, Eric, with his arm in a sling, and Rayn. They ushered Allexa to the porch, knowing she couldn’t see her green camouflage ATV parked in the garage.
When Eric opened the door for her, Allexa looked perplexed, until she stepped inside. The living room held her couch, TV, all her DVD’s, her end table, lamps and bookshelves. Even her paintings were on the walls. Her lip began to quiver. She wandered from room to room with the group following her. Her bed and the familiar patchwork spread were in the bedroom, along with her dresser, and the closet held her clothes. Even the curtains were hers. The second bedroom had been converted into a pantry with the shelves from the one at the wrecked house. There wasn’t as much on the shelves as before. Many of the canning jars had been bro
ken when the tree fell on the greenhouse during the tornado, claiming much of her remaining home canned food supply.
Jason came up behind her and whispered, “Eric and I combed through the wreckage and found what we could of your…umm…arsenal. Everything we could find and the buckets of ammo are in this closet.” He tapped his hand on a door. “If anything is missing, let me know and we’ll take another look, okay?”
Allexa nodded and left that door closed for now.
In the kitchen she lost her composure and started crying when she saw her wood cook stove and her rocking chair beside it. “How did you get the stove here? I thought it was crushed.”
“Only the pipes were damaged and we got them bumped out. What Earl Tyler couldn’t fix he made new,” Jason told her proudly. “I couldn’t salvage that table though, the one you hid under. The cupboards were splintered, but oddly the countertops were mostly intact.”
Allexa ran her hand across the familiar green marble surface and saw her favorite cookbook, A Prepper’s Cookbook: 20 Years of Cooking in the Woods, sitting on a bookstand. She spotted her refrigerator and the basic gas stove she’d used for so many years.
She opened drawers to find the flatware she had had for over thirty-five years; the cupboards held her dishes and cookware.
“It’s a good thing you had spares of the dishes in the barn, Mom. Most of what was in the house were smashed. Sorry, we could only save a few of your wine glass collection though,” Eric apologized. “The other day you said you didn’t have a home anymore. We hope this will be it now.”
“How did you get this done so quickly?” Allexa asked, stifling another sniffle and trying not to dwell on what Eric had just said.
The Journal (Book 6): Martial Law Page 15