"Keep on goin. You ain't welcome here." He shouted, bringing the rifle to his shoulder and sighting down the barrel. His hair was dirty and shaggy, which went well with the scraggly beard and teeth so green I could see what was left of em. I could swear I could smell him and wrinkled my nose at the thought.
"We intend to mister, but we were wonderin if the road ahead is clear.” Mason shouted.
"It’s clear, git." He motioned the gun to the direction indicated and swung it back on Mason again.
Mason slowly began moving down the road with the rest of us taking up the rear. Lacy said that dirty old man stood there "pointing that canon at us" until she couldn't see him anymore. The bridge was a nightmare. It looked like it was built during the Spanish-American War. Several of floor boards were broken leaving big holes in the floor and I could swear it swayed while we were on it. We decided to take it one at a time. By the time we got back to the highway, we were all exhausted. Mason pulled up behind an abandoned convenience store and we assembled beside him. It reminded me of the circling of the wagons at the end of the day like in the old westerns, but we didn't park one behind the other, just next to each other so we could leave quickly without being stuck behind someone.
"Ok, that’s it, I'm done. It's been a long day but we made good time, still I can't move another inch." Sarah second the motion and began to throw some grub together.
Mason saw a concrete water tank next to a windmill full of warm water. That began a lottery to see who got the first bath and who got to hold the curtain. I was at the table examining the map when Howard and Bubba came in, ruffled my hair, got a bowl down and poured some of his water in it for Bubba.
"Right interesting day, but I'm glad it's done. Bubba said he didn't need any more drama and was hitting the sack early. I think he might be right, so we're just gonna grab a pop tart and head back. You plannin an early morning, kiddo?"
"Think so, I want to be headed north tomorrow at this time, we should be seeing less civilization by noon at least."
"We could handle that couldn't we Bubba? Come on boy, let’s find us a nice tree then hit the sack." Bubba stood on his hind legs and begged to be picked up. Howard tapped his chest and the dog jumped into his arms. Touching his hat in farewell, they casually walked over to a cusp of oaks. Mason came later, still damp from his dip in the tank. "You gonna tell me where we're headed? I may not want to keep heading west."
"Well, me and Lacy want to go home... Montana, southwest corner. Winter sounds wonderful about now and all that cold weather has to affect the walkers. I'd understand if you want to go somewhere else but that's where we're headed."
He thought on for a few moments then said, "Always wanted to go to Montana. I love the mountains too. Sounds perfect to me. Thanks for inviting me along. I appreciate it."
I nodded; secretly pleased he wanted to come along. I don't know what it meant, me being so happy about it but I wasn't going to give it much more thought. I just nodded at him and finished the kitchen cleanup. Me and Lacy got the big bed so she helped Mason make the bunk up. He had wanted to sleep in the truck, but the RV had solar panels and we'd be able to run the air all night. I think that was the deciding factor for him. Lights went out in the four outfits slowly and we were left with just crickets for background noise. It sure beat motorcycles and car alarms I thought as I started to relax. Then I went to sleep in a flash and didn't dream a thing that night.
CHAPTER 3
The next day we were in New Mexico a little after noon. After a brief lunch and a long discussion we decided to start heading north as soon as possible. There were oil wells everywhere making you wonder why we used to import oil and the scenery ranged from wide, rose colored deserts to broken mesas and high, snowcapped peaks on the mountains in the distance. We saw numerous cacti and yucca which kept Lacy busy looking up plants in her New Mexico travel guide she had checked out of the Texas library. There were wild turkey, porcupine, deer and an abundance of other wildlife. I knew there were rattlesnakes around and the black bear had been adopted by New Mexico as their state animal, so although I hadn't seen any, I just hoped we could avoid them.
The temperature hadn't improved any and the heat was beginning to get to the vehicles. Duke's bus decided to act up just south of Albuquerque, so we stopped under a small grove of trees while Howard checked it out. We were on a gravel road although there wasn't much gravel and we hadn't seen any walkers for a while, which was a welcome relief but the dust however, was horrible. We decided to have a small siesta while we rested, but Mason decided to go hunting. While I entertained thoughts of a roasted turkey, Sarah and Mandy dozed in the shade of a pinon pine.
Soon, I saw Howard and Duke walking toward us frowning and I knew the news wasn't good. "Well, near as I can tell it's all this blasted dust. It's clogged up the air filter and I would imagine if I looked at all the outfits they'd need their filters cleaned. I have some new ones, but the ones we have just need to be blown out so I'd rather do that than replace them. The heat isn't helping either. I need to change the thermostat in the bus."
Just then Mason came around the RV with a turkey slung over one shoulder. I know my eyebrows climbed up into my bangs which brought a smile to his face.
"There's a farmstead about two miles down the road."he said. "It has the biggest barn I've ever seen and several pole barns. But before you get too excited I think you should turn around and look toward the west. We have a nasty looking storm headed this way and I sure would like to be out of the weather before it hits."
We all turned toward the area indicated like we were all tied to the same string and sure enough there was a black nasty wall cloud rolling towards us.
"Howard can the bus make it two miles?" I asked
"Far as I'm concerned." He and Duke hurried over to the bus and everyone scurried to their rides with Mason leading the way once more. When we arrived at the farmstead I was really impressed. It was one of those Mexican haciendas painted a rose color with rounded roof corners and wood beams sticking out along the bottom of the roof. All it lacked was several clumps of red chili's hanging from the rafters and Mexican music blaring.. In the rear there was indeed the biggest barn I'd seen and more pole buildings than a normal person could ever use.
When I pulled up, Mason had opened the barn door and disconnected his trailer. Inside was a huge black cavern. Mason pulled in all the way to the opposite door, got out and opened the door while I pulled inside and as close to his bumper as I could get. He pulled the trailer under cover of the smaller pole barns, then ran back and closed the huge barn door.
I parked and ran outside to make sure the bus and wrecker were safely in the pole barns although the rear of the wrecker stuck out a bit. Howard just shrugged and came outside with the rest of us to watch the approaching storm.
There's something about a thunderstorm. It's scary, exhilarating and humbling. You could feel the electricity in the air making the small hairs on your arm stand up and smell the rain in the air. Mother Nature is a rough taskmaster and she lets you know on occasion that there is something in life bigger than you. The storm rumbled toward us and when it was near we retreated into the barn to wait it out.
Rain was dumped on us by the truck loads. Hail followed in intervals on the tin roof sounding like a machine gun going off. The thunder sounded like volleys of canons firing repeatedly in the distance and lightning zipped across the sky blinding us. The temperature plummeted compared to earlier. The wind pushed the rain almost horizontally in it intensity scaring the hell out of everyone. Mandy ran to Duke, crying, as the noise continued for half an hour, then it tapered off and ended. Bubba was jumping up on Mandy trying to get her attention. When he did, he let her chase him around the barn. It was still dark out but I realized it was late in the day and we were looking at dusk. We left the rear door of the barn open, letting in the clean air and slight breeze.
"I think we have a problem," Duke said.
We all turned toward to him and saw he was looking
out the barn through a crack in the wall. Mason and I made our way to the wall and peeked out a crack also. Parked behind the house were two Humvees. They must have come in during the worst of the storm. I went back to the RV and retrieved a walkie talkie and turned the sound on low.
"Yes, sir...we're sitting out the worst of it." static, then “We’ll be heading out in about five minutes." We looked at each other, and then motioned to Sarah to retrieve Mandy, while Duke slipped out the back of the barn. He'd be busy spreading the new tarps over the wrecker and bus. We continued to hear static but the men in the Humvee remained quiet. After several minutes, one man got out and went to the back of the house to relieve himself, then returned to the Humvee and both vehicles pulled out and went back the way we had come. “Sir, we went all the way to the next town and saw nothing. All clear." We listened a while longer but didn't hear anything of value.
We decided to keep the walkie on and have someone monitor it at all times. Howard and Duke had been working on the bus and checking the filters in all the vehicles. We were trying to decide when to leave knowing we needed to put some distance between them and us.
There was no telling if they would return or not. We didn't want to be here if they did. We had been discussing it at great length when I noticed something odd about the house. I couldn't put my finger on what it was that was bothering me. I motioned to Mason and he wandered over from the truck. "What's up?" he asked as he cleaned dirt and grease from his hands on a rag.
"That house, does it seem strange to you and before you say anything, please just look at it a moment." He had opened his mouth to say something and then closed it and turned to study the house. I was glad to see him really look at cause most people would've argued with me. Then he tilted his head a bit, leaned forward and really looked at it.
"Grab your bow" he said then turned and went to his truck. I geared up and grabbed my night vision goggles while I explain to Lacy what we were doing. She wasn't happy but promised to watch things, oh and yea "How do I get that turkey into the oven? It's huge."
"Don't mess with it right now or at least till we get back, we won't be long. If we have to we'll cut it up a bit." She seemed to be ok with that idea and went back flipping through a magazine. I'd have thought she had read them all by now.
Mason and I crept up to the side of the house...peering into every window we came to. A flash of light coming from the front of the house gave us a start and we froze. Luckily I was next to an electrical meter and that’s when I finally realized what the low humming sound I was hearing was coming from. Tapping Mason on the arm, I pointed at the meter and then we both leaned towards it and stared closely until we saw the little wheel turning at the bottom. We turned to look at each other at the same time, smacking the goggles, and pulling a squeak from me before we jumped back.
I really needed to chill out, my nerves were a mess.
Mason slowly walked around the house and stood in front of the picture window. When I got there, I did the same thing, watching the snowy static on the TV set. Yee haw! I tapped Mason on the arm excitedly. He tilted his head at me, which was getting irritating but knew it was an inquiry. I whispered, "electric water heater, electric stove, electric freezer...ice cream, ice, pizza, blah, blah, blah."and danced a bit in place to emphasize my excitement.
He straightened up and looked back and forth from me to the TV and back. About then the damned walker stumbled into the front room. I tilted my head back and forth slowly and thought, some things are worth working for but damn, come on.
We headed back to the barn, both quiet but eagerly anticipating all the many wonders electricity provided. When we arrived in the RV everyone looked at us, waiting. "Well," I said, "The house has electricity". Everyone started to talk at the same time.
"Wait a minute...we have to finish the work on the outfits and while that is happening I think we should at the very least, find out if there is a freezer in there."
"Oh hell yea" Lacy said excitedly. "I'll help you". Mason cleared his throat and said, "I think we need you here so when we're ready we can leave."
"But I thought we were at the very least staying the night. Why do we have to leave so soon?"
"The Humvee’s that were here earlier? We don't want them to come back and find us here. We need to get the outfits road ready, check out the house and leave say around midnight. Is that ok with everyone? We can stop somewhere tomorrow morning and sleep a bit before going on."
"We need some more fuel to. We're all low and 'though I plan to use the back-up gas cans, we need to replace them as soon as possible."
"I agree, Howard. So let’s plan on leaving at midnight. Can everyone be ready by then?" When everyone nodded including Mandy, Mason and I returned to the house. We planned to make some noise entering the house. Walkers are attracted to noise and it beat sneaking around getting surprised by one. That almost happened anyway. The walker that was in the front room came barreling right at me but Mason nailed him in the top of the head with a huge knife. We'd come in the back door, stomping and slamming the door then swept through each room like police officers. Yelling "Clear" and going high and low like we saw on TV shows we made our way back to the front room. Mason turned off the TV, and unplugged the clocks and microwave so no lights were visible within the house. If our military friends came back we didn't want them in there on top of us. So we met back in the kitchen and grinned at each other like kids.
He did the old stumble back and two step when he opened the pantry, though. I don' know how it got in there but a walker was locked in the pantry until he opened the door. I don't think I could have stumbled about so wildly and kept my feet so I was really impressed when he did. I pulled up the bow and planted an arrow in its left eye. Thump! Then grabbed it by its foot and gave Mason a look that encouraged him to grab the other foot. I'm good at giving looks. Takes years of hard work and dedication, but you have to be good at something.
We dragged it into the front room out of the way then went back to the kitchen. I figured anything in the fridge was gonna be a chemist’s delight, with the green fuzzes and all, so I just went to the freezer. Bingo! Yep, I knew there had to be ice cream in there...one of those big two-gallon tubs with a handy dandy carrying handle and it looked new, well not opened anyway. There was hamburger, steaks, pizza, and butter. I knew we couldn't take it all, we didn't have one freezer among us, but I just couldn't help myself.
I found several plastic totes filled with clothes and blankets on the floor of the closet. Dumping the contents on the floor, I took them back to the kitchen and began to load food in them. Mason watched with a smile and when one was full he put the lid on it and began to drag it to the back door. I stopped him, held up one finger and thought to Lacy, Sis, would you ask Howard and Duke to come to the back door of the house?
Sure, is everything ok?
Yep.
I then told Mason to watch for the boys while I searched the area for other things we might be able to use. He thought back at me, I didn't know you could that. It might come in handy in the future. Is Lacy the only one you think to?
Yep, don't tell the others, though, they might feel uncomfortable being around us and I don't want that . He gave me the thumbs up and went to the door when the boys arrived to help carry the heavy totes back to the barn. After filling the oven with three pizzas, I continued my search. I stumbled onto fudge, caramel and strawberry sauce along with coconut and peanuts...yep, I was thinkin the same thing.
We ended up with three totes of food. Carrying three pizzas and silverware I hurried back to the Rv. My mouth had been watering as the smell of the pizza filled the house and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into one.
The party was in full swing when all of a sudden I got an uneasy feeling. I held a hand up and everyone instantly quieted. I listened but couldn't hear anything. It was then that Bubba went into a crouch and growled low his hackles standing straight up. I grabbed my bow and while Lacy turned out the lights, Mason, Howard and Duke follo
wed me out.
"What is it?" Howard whispered.
"I'm not sure, but there is something out there. It's too quiet. We need someone in the loft." I whispered.
Duke when to the loft while the rest of us tried to see what the problem was. Mason started to say something else to me, but I put my hand across his mouth. I moved my head from side to side, trying to get the best reception; that's the best way I can explain it.
There were two of them in the house, the same guys that were parked out back during the worst of the storm. I had the feeling they weren't supposed to be here as I kept getting the thoughts of apprehension and haste. I couldn't pick out any specific thoughts as we were too far away. Howard locked the barn doors. The wrecker and bus had already been covered with tarps earlier so I wasn't worried about them. We watched as their flashlight beams moved from one room to the other. A lot of time was spent in the bedrooms when it finally dawned on me they were stealing jewelry.
The back door of the house opened and I tensed. Mason began to screw the silencer onto the end of his rifle while I armed my bow. We waited, ready, while the man approached the barn. Then the other guy came out "I must be going crazy," one whispered to the other, "I smell pizza" the other guy tapped him on the shoulder "come on, we're wasting time". The soldier that had been headed towards us hesitated a moment then they both turned back toward the house. Soon we heard the sound of a truck and watched as they went back down the road.
"Let's get out of here, I can't take much more tonight." I said as Mason leaned against the door. He looked at me, grabbed me behind the head and pulled me to him. The kiss was long and hard and completely satisfying. While I was learning to breathe again, he muttered something and walked back to this truck.
Walkers (Book 1): The Beginning Page 3