Susie put her arms around my neck and embraced me. As Susie was hugging me I thought to myself, What are you doing, Sean? You barely know this girl. Just because you spent the night with her you are promising to protect her from her crazy ex-lover Israeli commando who has a bad drinking problem. Of course you’re going to protect her, it’s who you are. Besides, the world could flare up again tomorrow and that would be the end of all of us.
Susie’s embrace now turned into more and she started kissing me passionately. She slowly took off my t-shirt she was wearing and threw it on the ground.
She wants to go again? She is going to kill me. At least I will die with a smile on my face.” I thought to myself as she coaxed me into round three of the bedroom Olympics…
It was about 1100 and I was still naked with this beautiful creature sleeping next to me with her head on my chest. Susie opened her eyes and slowly made her way to my face and kissed me on the lips saying, “I guess we should get up now.” I was relieved she didn’t want to go for round four, that would have killed me to be sure.
What about birth control? How do I bring that up now? I wasn’t being responsible with her.
I sat up in the bed and nervously said, “I guess it’s a wee bit too late, but what about birth control?”
Susie burst out laughing, “Yes, it is a wee bit too late, the toothpaste is definitely out of the tube.”
Susie explained that she had “female problems” as a teenager and she had to have surgery to correct her condition. This meant that she wasn’t able to have children.
As she was explaining this, her face turned sad and I could see the pain in her eyes. Now I felt like a complete asshole for bringing all of this up. It was all very awkward and a mood killer.
Susie abruptly moved towards me and said, “Don’t worry stud, you can’t knock me up. Not that we wouldn’t have cute kids together.”
What a relief! She isn’t pissed off at me or going to go into some depressive episode in front of me. I put on my happy face and gave Susie a hug. This reaffirmed my belief that this girl has her shit together and wasn’t going to fall apart at the seams in a painful situation.
It was time for me to get up and start the day. Holy shit! It’s almost noon and I’m still in bed. I can’t remember the last time I was in bed this late in the day. Having a beautiful, horny, half my age woman in bed with me is a good reason. I had to figure out how to get out of Susie’s apartment without looking like an asshole who just wanted to have sex.
How do I say goodbye to her? Should I invite her back to my place? Does she even want to go back to my place? I started to look around the room for my clothes.
Susie could tell that I was starting to get anxious and said, “I guess it’s time for you to leave now, we can’t spend all day here being naked and having sex, or can we?” She started to giggle and sprung from the bed putting on a different T-shirt than mine. Her laughter was infectious and she was just so damn hot! I was so lucky. She walked around the room and gathered my clothes for me. She went in the bathroom with a towel for me and offered her shower. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and hot water is certainly a luxury.
Taking a cold shower right now probably wouldn’t be the worst idea for me, I thought to myself as I caught the towel Susie tossed my way and walked towards the bathroom. It had been a long time since I was in a bathroom that a woman occupied. There was a full complement of female accoutrements complete with smelly soaps and many hair products that would never find their way into my bathroom. It was a far cry from my bathroom at home.
The water started hot and that lasted about 2 minutes and it turned ice cold. I let out a loud groan and I could hear Susie giggle in the next room. I finished rinsing the female soap and shampoo off my body and jumped out of the shower. Susie had placed a toothbrush that was still in its package on the sink for me. As I started to wash the stale whiskey away from my breath, I took a long hard look at myself in the mirror. Not too bad for a middle-aged guy. All of my battle scars from my time in the military and police department were visible and I was proud of them. My beard and mustache we’re about 4 to 5 days old. I tried to keep clean-shaven because the gray hair stood out now when I had growth on my face. I’ve been a lifelong gym rat and was able to maintain my physique during the time in my basement with lots of push-ups, sit-ups and other exercises. I also had I have a heavy bag that I would kick the shit out of on regular basis.
I put my clothes on and walked back to living room where we started the night before. Susie was sitting on the couch that started our night of carnal lust cross-legged sipping on some coffee. There were also two plates with what looked like scrambled eggs on them on the coffee table we almost rolled on to the night before. “They’re powdered eggs and the coffee is not the best, but thought you would appreciate it,” Susie said as she handed me a hot cup of black coffee.
I thought I died and went to heaven. A beautiful girl with whom I had the night of my life with it Is now feeding me breakfast. I don’t think it could get much better than this. She even had my PP-K and M&P on the table next to my food.
I was famished and finish my eggs and coffee quickly. I got up and strapped my weapons in their appropriate places on my person. Susie got up when I did and walked me to the door. She handed me a key, “Collin gave this to me a while ago, I’m sure you’re going to check his apartment again.” I nodded in agreement and we both went into his apartment. Nothing was disturbed and I felt a wave of depression hit me.
Susie wrapped her arms around my neck and said,” Don’t worry Sean, we will find them.” She then gave me a long kiss goodbye. She held my hand and led me out to the hallway.
“Goodbye for now Susie, I will see you soon.” With that I walked out of the apartment building looking back one more time at Susie.
I made my way back to my 4-Runner with mixed emotions. It was difficult saying goodbye to Susie, but I had business to take care of. This time I would take I-94 home which was more of a direct route, but had more checkpoints. Hopefully there won’t be too many and I could get home quicker than the country roads I usually took.
Everything had changed. Susie was now in my life and I had to consider Nick’s proposition. Let’s see where this road takes me.
15 Road Block
I was lucky, traffic was light and I was making good time. When I got into my truck back in Madison I checked my phone for messages. I was angry with myself because I went so long without checking for them. What if there were some new leads on Sean or Collin? No, I was self-absorbed in my little world of sex and companionship with Susie. I will never let that happen again, I vowed as I checked my phone.
There were two messages patiently waiting for my attention. The first one was from Nick and the second from Susie. I opened Susie’s message first and my heart started to race. Was she okay? Did she already regret our liaison? What’s wrong with me? I’m usually not this emotional. I thought to myself as I clicked the button on my phone to read the message: I’m so happy you’re in my life now. Please let me know when you get home safely, Susie.
At the end of the message there was a heart. What did that mean?
I don’t have time to think about that. It’s time to focus. I opened up Nick’s message next: My boss wants to meet you. He was talking about starting you out with some contract work. Considered it a trial basis. Be in Johnson’s Creek at 0900 tomorrow. Remember, I’m vouching for you so don’t be late and make me look bad. Text me when you get close and I’ll tell you where we will meet.
This was ironic because I just passed Johnson’s Creek about five minutes earlier. Right as I was entering Jefferson County traffic started to slow down to a crawl. Just my luck, there was a road block up ahead. I slowly made my way through the line looking down and reading Susie’s message over a couple times. There were two soldiers in BDUs armed with AR-15s and side arms. Both of them looked so young, no more than 20 years old. I guess that’s what happens when you get
old like me. Everybody looks young. They motioned me to the side of the road and instructed me to turn off my truck. I watched as other soldiers slowly walked around the vehicles that were behind me letting them go. This made me nervous. I didn’t have all day to mess around with glorified security guards. Some of these guys took their jobs a little too seriously. It felt like the old days of being in an airport going through security and dealing with TSA agents.
I sat quietly with my hands on the steering wheel wondering how long I would be detained. I didn’t want them going through my truck because of the cachet of weapons and ammo. It wasn’t illegal to have what I had, but I certainly did not want to go through the hassle of trying to explain that to some pimply faced kid playing soldier.
Finally, the beret wearing soldier came up to my window and asked me for identification. He was very serious and didn’t crack a smile. Who knows what this kids story is. Maybe he lost both parents, his brother or sisters or girlfriend in the war. I should give this kid the benefit of the doubt, I thought to myself as I pulled out my badge and ID to the outside of my t-shirt. As I was pulling out my IDs, and badge he grabbed the handle of his AR-15 and put his thumb on the safety. “Step out of the car sir… slowly.”
Are you kidding me? This child is giving me shit? I could kill him in more ways than he could ever think before he would ever raise his rifle. I carefully exited my vehicle.
“What do you have in the vehicle sir? We are going to have to conduct a safety search of your vehicle.” The soldier said as he motioned over a female soldier that had even a lesser bedside manner than him.
“Hey. I don’t want trouble here. I’m in a bit of a rush. I’m a retired cop and I was a soldier just like you a long time ago. I know you are doing your job, but a little professional courtesy would be appreciated,” I said as I was thinking of any way out of this.
“You know I’m sick and tired of old timers like you who think just because you were a cop a hundred years ago the rules don’t apply to you.” The soldier said staring at my badge and ID dangling from my neck. His female counterpart was tensing up and looked confused. Unfortunately for me, she looked like she was getting ready to do battle.
I took the badge and IDs off my neck and handed them to him. The female soldier was now the cover for the asshole that I was dealing with. Her left hand was under the barrel of her rifle and her right thumb switched off the safety and her trigger finger was just outside the trigger guard. I tried not to let on that I saw her disengage the safety. She was shaking and that made me very nervous. Too bad she was standing in such a way that she would most likely shoot her partner before shooting me. It was obvious that I was dealing with some rookies.
The soldier was now looking confused. It was as if he was trying to remember the standard operating procedure for a roadblock and said, “I’m guessing you are armed sir?” I nodded at him reassuringly trying to look fatherly and give him a sense of calm. We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity and he told me he would have to run me. I told him that I understood and he fumbled scanning my documents and took my picture. He waited and fumbled with a tablet trying to get what he wanted out of it. Either the equipment was malfunctioning or it was operator error, but he didn’t get what he wanted from the computer gizmo he had. He got on his radio and requested help.
This isn’t happening to me! I should have taken the country roads and took my chances with land pirates.
Two more soldiers appeared and had a conference with him off to the side. They were both in their late 30s and looked tired and seemed annoyed by all this. The female soldier had Lieutenant bars on her shoulders and there was no mistaking she was in charge.
She had my ID and badge in her hand and looked me over with a smirk. “Mr. Walsh, out for a Sunday drive?”
I looked at her with respect and said, “Actually I was in Madison looking for one of my kids. He has been missing since the bombs started going off. I’m just a dad trying to find his son and I don’t have time for this.” I realized things were going good until I said I didn’t have time for “this.”
The good Lieutenant was no longer smirking and looked serious now. “Well this is our job and I don’t appreciate you giving my soldiers a hard time pushing your service as a cop in their faces.”
I shook my head and looked as humble as possible, “Ma’am, I’m frustrated, tired and just want to get home.”
The Lieutenant eased up a bit and told me she would see what she could do for me. It suddenly dawned on me that Nick gave me his card. Hey, they all play for the same team. Maybe it will speed things along. What’s the worst thing that could happen? I thought to myself as I told her I was going to go into my pocket.
“I don’t know if this will help, but I’ve recently been recruited to work for this person.” I handed the business card to the Lieutenant and her eyes got big as saucers. She pulled out a smaller cell phone and made a call a couple of feet away from me. “Yes sir, of course sir, consider it TCO.”
She had a look of being pissed and frustrated with me as she handed the card back to me, “You’re free to leave Mr. Walsh. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
She gave me back all my credentials and gave a hand signal to the other two soldiers that were behind me. I wasn’t going to ask questions, just get the hell out of there.
Okay, Nick has some serious juice. Tomorrow should be very interesting.
16 Meeting X
It felt good to be home again, but at the same time I felt alone. I inspected my house and was pleasantly surprised that nothing was missing or disturbed. I put my supplies and weapons away from my truck and walked into my bedroom. The last time I was in here Karl had just passed away. I know I didn’t know him for a long time but it was nice having him here. I burned the bedding that was on there as a precaution. A box spring, bare mattress and fond memories were all that were left of poor Karl’s legacy.
I went into the kitchen and prepared one of my favorite meals, corned beef hash from a can. My ex-wife would make fun of me when I ate this calling it, “dog food.” I guess it reminded me of my childhood because that was one of my mother’s go-to meals for us. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up and sometimes dinner was whatever was in the cupboards. If we were lucky there would be some bread and butter and chocolate milk to go along with our hash. That was a big deal back then, I would love some chocolate milk and bread and butter now. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that.
I cleaned up the kitchen and was pondering what I would go downstairs and go to sleep. I checked my phone and remembered, “Oh shit! I was supposed to let Susie know when I got home safely.” I immediately tried calling her, but the signal was too weak. Damn cell towers are out again. I hit the redial button. No luck. I tried texting next to no avail. I typed the letters, SUSIE out one more time and hit send. My heart was beating hard with a sense of urgency. I didn’t want to be an asshole and I knew she cared about me. I didn’t want her thinking that I was taking advantage of her.
I put the phone down on the table and paced like an expectant father in a maternity ward. Beep, beep. I picked up the phone quickly and saw the “new message” alert. It was Susie: I was starting to worry about you. Is everything okay?
I hit her number that was now saved in my ‘favorites’ and hoped for the best.
“Hey stranger! I was hoping you weren’t going to dump me that quickly,” said the familiar voice that made my heart beat a little quicker on the other end of the phone. This made me smile and I think she could tell by the infectious giggle she made after she talked. I went on to explain what happened to me at the checkpoint and my appointment with Nick in the morning. “Does this mean you are going to be visiting me tomorrow?”
I told her that I would try my best, but didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. I wasn’t sure if she wanted to see me so soon after our last meeting. I guess she did. We exchanged small talk and the signal was starting to break up. It was time for t
he awkward goodbye. We both told each other that we hoped we would see each other tomorrow. There was silence between us where a committed couple would both say “I love you,” but for us there was just silence and the signal was gone. For the first time a long time, I was happy there was such bad cell coverage. I wasn’t sure what to say. I felt so adolescent, but I couldn’t help it.
I checked the doors to make sure they were secured and made my way down to my dungeon. As I laid in bed I thought to myself how empty my house was. I hadn’t felt like this for a long time and enjoyed my solitude. Time to get some sleep. It was going to be an interesting day tomorrow.
I was woken up buy my phone ringing impatiently next to my head on my nightstand. The wind up snoopy alarm clock that my kids gave me for a Father’s Day gift read 0600. That old windup alarm clock came in handy when there was no power and it reminded me of my kids. They were very young when they gave it to me and it reminded me of a simple happy time in my life. Who the hell is calling me this early? I cleared the cobwebs out of my head. It was Susie. I sprang up out of bed and answered.
“Is everything okay?” I asked in a gravelly voice.
“Yes. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t oversleep.” Susie explained that she knew this was an important morning for me and she wanted to hear my voice. She also suggested that I wear a suit to my meeting. That was a good idea and I would dig out my blue pinstripe for the occasion. Susie told me that since I would already be dressed up she would have a nice dinner waiting for me if I came and visited. I wasn’t above getting bribed by a beautiful woman. I would be halfway there so it made sense that I would meet her.
The last time I wore this suit was for my last court appearance for my divorce. I consider that a happy time and a celebration. This was due to me enduring a two-year divorce that nearly ripped myself and my kids apart at the seams, but we made it out in one piece. I was very happy that it was over and I got 50/50 custody of my kids, much to my ex-wife’s chagrin. Sam was vindictive and cruel, but I guess I wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore. Karma’s a bitch and it caught up with her. My only other suit was a charcoal gray that I kept on hand for funerals. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to put that to use for a long time.
Mad City: Book One of the Sean Walsh Post Apocalyptic Series Page 8