I'm with George and on my way to you with wings on my feet, love.
You better never let anyone else hear you talking to me that way, or they'd laugh you out of the state. About that time George let out a big snort and I knew she had 'overheard' him. Smiling, I went in search of him.
Later in the afternoon we stopped simply because we were pooped. Finding some boxed meals, I whipped us up some yummy chicken Alfredo on pasta, yuck. We ate anyway cause we were starving. We loafed the rest of the afternoon away and went back inside just before dark.
Standing in the near dark of the cavernous building we just stared around us. Nearly as one unit, we turned and went back outside and dragged mattresses off the bunks, with sheets and pillows and made up sleeping arrangements inside the office. Leaving the lights on inside the motor home for the time being, we managed to get settled in before Ken drove the pretty semi and trailer full or washers, dryers, freezers and any other useless junk we could fill it with and parked it next to the motor home in nearly the same place the other one sat the night before. He would go back out around midnight and shut off the lights before locking us inside for the night.
I'd found some inflatable mattress and put them to good use. Riley huffed and puffed as he inflated one while Mason put padlocks on the inside of all the doors and the hatch leading inside from the roof. We were as secure as we were going to get. A little past midnight Ken went out and turned the lights off in the motor home Then we settled down around the monitors and waited for the fun to begin. I must of fallen asleep because I was awakened by someone saying "Here they come."
Jumping up, I stood behind Mason as we watched the motorcycles slow down on the highway before shutting off their lights. Then they pushed, yep, I said pushed, them the rest of the way to the other side of the parked semi. You'd think with that much energy they'd loaded their own trailer...just saying. One crept very quietly to the door of the truck and worked till he got the locked door (Kens idea) open and crept inside softly closing the door behind him. The creative one, moved around the bus, painting different words of wisdom no doubt until he was satisfied. Then they climbed on their bikes and gave some signal telling them all to act stupid which they did rather well. The guy in the truck gunned it once then the truck gave a big lurch and died. Popped the clutch. By the time he got it started again, the others had to wait for him to catch up at the parking lot entrance. Then they were gone.
"Why didn't they just send a few people to do what they did? I mean, they just needed a driver and painter and the rest could've stayed on the road." George looked at each of us like she was serious. Riley was red in the face. "Because my dear, they aren't nearly as bright as you." Then he bent down and kissed her nose. "Let's turn in so we can finish up early and get out of here."
So we did just that. I was feeling frisky but in the close proximity of others I knew sleeping would be less embarrassing. Mason cuddled up close to me and I could tell he was having the same problem. It took me a bit to fall asleep, mostly due to Kens snoring, but weariness finally overtook me and I slept.
The next morning we found the words 'suckers' written over the stuff they wrote last night. No college graduates there, I think. We spent the next few hours of the morning finishing up. Since our route resembled the one the thieves took last night we were a little apprehensive. We decided to arm ourselves just in case we ran into them then ate breakfast and headed home.
Mason and I were in the lead with Ken and Jill then Riley and George. Ken had worked his butt off filling the huge tanks of the big rigs so I don't think he planned to let some fool take his trucks. He was loaded for bear, ammo wise that is and spoiling for a fight.
We had to move from one side of the interstate to the other because of the traffic jams and that meant crossing the median. We didn't have too much trouble but we had to be extra careful with the loaded trailers so the going was slower than we would've liked. We started into the canyons and we could see right away how fast the river was running beside us. The snow had melted in the mountains and the rivers were raging. I hoped the many bridges that crossed the river would still be there when we got to them because the alternative of backing up and turning around was intolerable.
This was what was on our minds when we rounded a particularly sharp curve and Mason hit the brakes grabbing for the trailer brakes at the same time. I grabbed the CB and yelled "STOP, STOP, STOP.!" We just managed to keep from hitting the trailer that was once hooked to a shining, Canary yellow semi. I know it was theirs cause I had written on the back with spray paint "Clean up your act." You know washers and dryers? Never mind.
There was one body laying to the side, his motorcycle probably in the river and a lot of skid marks but that was all of the bad boys we saw. I walked to the edge and watched the river below as it boiled and roared. Whole trees and limbs churned and tumbled as they headed to the Pacific Ocean. I looked back and saw one semi nearly sideways in the road, the other one had nearly hit our trailer and sat nearly sideways next to ours. Doors were flying open and people bailing out. A motorcycle hung off a portion of the bridge and dangled over the water by mere inches. A large branch would grab it and take it away any minute.
I was so angry I vibrated with the need to kill someone. I wanted to go home, dammit. "No. No way. You bastards." I yelled and stomped my foot at the same time. Wrong move. The road gave way under my feet and I started to fall. Strong hands grabbed my shirt and twisted me as I swung back and smacked my face into the edge of the broken pavement. I was stunned and blackness was swimming in my vision. I was gearing up for a scream when another pair of hands reached down and pulled my hands loose from the rock they had grabbed onto.
Suddenly I felt a pair of hands grasp my ankles and pushed up from below and I nearly flew back onto the road above where Mason crushed me like a beer can. He's so possessive. I was trying to gasp as much air as I could. Finally I was able to gasp "Someone... below... pushed me up." Legs walked past me and stopped at the edge. "Careful, Riley it's unstable as hell," Mason said, as he held me tight to his chest. I could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest in tempo with mine.
"Can we move the semis back a few hundred miles so they don't go over too. I don't want to go through something like that again." I'd started shaking so bad my teeth were chattering. Riley was joined by Ken after he'd moved his truck back quite a ways. They were talking together then Ken lay on his stomach and reached down. Riley looked around until he found a long branch and then he lay on his stomach too. Fine, I didn't care. Mason was smoothing my hair and saying stuff into it and I let his voice soothe me into relaxing.
"We need some help, Mason, if you got a minute."
I nodded my head and shoved in the general direction of the two men lying on their bellies on the road. He kissed my chin and went to see what was up. Jill came over and sat near me putting her hand on my knee. I guess that's as close as she was going to get to letting me know she cared. That's okay, I spoke the same language.
A few minutes went by while the guys worked at whatever they were doing before they pulled another man up from the river. He looked to be around 25 years old, slight of build to the point of being skinny, dirty blond hair that needed trimming and a dark mustache. His clothes were nearly falling off and he'd lost one boot. It looked like those black leather things the bikers used to favor, with the buckle across the top of the foot.
He lay and tried to relearn how to breathe while Riley spoke to Mason who was staring down at the man. "You have anything to do with this bridge coming down?"
"Fu...a, hell man, if it was up to me I'd have left it up. That..."throwing his arm to indicate the river..."was mother natures idea. And she took every member of our gang with her."
"Everyone?"
"Yep, I was taking up the rear. I always have to take up the rear. Dudley didn't think I was much use for anything else. I was the grunt and gopher and general scape goat. Anything went wrong, and it always did, I was blamed. Couldn't do anything right according to them. T
hanks man, for helping me out. Where you all from anyway?" Then he looked back at the semis, frowned then looked back at each of us. "Never mind, I think I know and that wasn't my fault either."
Mason walked over to me and helped me to stand. Steadying me until I nodded my okay he led me over to a large rock where I happily sat nursing the bottle of water George handed me and watched the guy for a few minutes.
"Thanks for giving me the hands up down there. What happened here?" I asked.
"I don't know. I was following the trailer like I said, protecting the rear, like always and I glanced at the river, thinking it was running awful full. When I glanced back at the road, the trailer was stopped like it is now so I swerved to miss it, and the bike slid of the road and into the river. I don't know why I didn't go with it but I managed to land on that ledge and stayed there trying to figure out what to do. Good thing you came along when you did, that ledge was getting smaller by the minute. I'd have been a goner if you'd taken any longer to get here.'
I stood up and found my legs working again. My face, however, was another matter altogether. It felt like someone had inflated it with an air hose. One eye was swelled shut and my cheek bone had been bleeding but it'd stopped now. George was finishing up putting a butterfly bandage on a cut on my nose. She'd already put one over my eye. Brushing off my clothes and thanking George, I turned to my rescuer and tried to smile. "Well, thanks for the boost up. I hope you get to wherever you were headed and you don't have any more trouble. Bye now."
Everyone just stood there staring at me like I'd grown two heads. "What? You think we ought to take this thief with us? If you remember correctly this guy and his friends flattened all the tires on the motor home and stole a trailer of food from us. I am not helping him anymore than we have already." With that I staggered to the truck, climbed on board and lay was down in the bunk. I was done. I hurt and I was tired and I wanted to go home. Now, everyone wants to help the last living person who had delayed us doing just that. I was damned if I help him. I was past my ability to care.
They talked for a while then Mason finally got into the truck. "You doing ok back there? Need anything?"
"Home. But that ain't gonna happen. Give me a few more minutes of feeling sorry for myself then ask again."
"Okay, brat, you rest a bit, we're gonna try to back these things up and find a place to turn around so we can regroup. Till then, just rest a bit. You got a right to feel sorry for yourself, I'd do it myself but I'm too stubborn and it would ruin my cowboy persona.
See? Now that's a cowboy. It wasn't my face, cause I couldn't stand to look at it right now. So it must be love.
We backed up for what seemed like miles or till we got to an off ramp, then we were able to park on the overpass where there was a nice breeze and regroup. I knew better than to hope no other bridges were gone but that didn't stop me. The new guy, I think his name was Alan, pointed out a couple of places that were impassable especially with the trucks. Another possible route was shot down when he told us the bridge was too narrow for big trucks. I was getting ready to rearrange his face when he pointed out a route that might be ok. The road, however, crossed the river in not one but three places. The same river that was carrying half a load of washers and dryers downstream.
"What about going upriver? Isn't the river smaller closer to it's source. I read that somewhere." This little snippet came from George. Looking at the map I saw if we went west we'd have to cross nearly half of Idaho then go north and then east some more before getting north of where we were. We wouldn't make it home till at least tomorrow night. I was ready to throw another fit but remembered the last one so settled for bulling. So sue me.
To make myself feel better I glared at the one person I didn't care about. Alan just sat there looking stupid, dirty and hungry. I was so not going to feel sorry for him.
"What were you doing with those fools?" I just can't help it. I had to know.
He thought about it for a long time, then he shrugged. "I don't know. When things went south and I had to kill my sister, when she turned into one of them I just didn't give a shit anymore. It seemed people like you, the smart ones, had the security and know how to survive, but didn't want me around. Said I'd eat too much and didn't have anything to give back. So I wandered around some, got me a sweet bike...I always wanted one...and ran into these guys. They said I could stay but had to earn my keep."
"That must not have included food. You need to put some weight on bub."
"Yea, well, I got the scraps and with those guys, there weren't much in the way of scraps. I'd find vegetables and fruit and fill up on that but that was about it. I been with em 'bout six months I guess and to tell the truth, I'm in worse shape now than when I was on my own."
"Why did ya stay?" George asked.
"No place to go. I don't know what's safe anymore. I've taken to sleeping in the trees just to get a good nights sleep. The others have a small forested area where they pretended they were Robin Hood or something in tree houses. I hadn't been there long enough to have my own tree house but I found a tree with a nice wide area way up and planned to make it my home. One of the guys saw it and was getting ready to evict me though. Said I hadn't earned it yet, but I think he was just lazy."
They were all looking at each other with 'that' look. The one that said 'oh this poor little man, we need to take care of him...blah,blah,blah. When they turned and looked at me I threw up my hands and climbed back into the truck. I flopped down into the bunk face first which was a big mistake and quickly rolled over, trying not to cry. Soon, Mason climbed in, shut the door gently and lay beside me, pulling me into the curve of his body and wrapping his arms around me. He didn't say a word, but he didn't have to. That's what cowboys do... isn't it?
Chapter 11
I allowed myself almost an hour for my pity party, mostly because I liked the way Mason felt. I knew it was just hormones but I'd take what I could get. When things started to heat up we agreed to leave the bunk and cool down.
So when we couldn't figure out another way to waste more time, we got into our pretty trucks and went back in the direction we'd come. We drove a little over two hours before turning west. Then the nightmare began. The road was horrible with traffic jams and I swear we spent more time in the median and shoulders than we did on the pavement.
One point we had to stop because we saw a herd coming our way. Turning off the engines and locking the doors, we climbed into the bunk, closed the curtain and opened the window to get some relief and waited. These particular walkers were energetic to the extreme. They actually tried to get into the trucks, rocking and tilting them so badly we had to grab onto anything we could find so we weren't thrown to the floor. This went on for a good half hour before they moved on. By the time we could open a window, I was drenched with perspiration. Mason climbed on the roof of the trailer to watch them and when the last of them went around a curve behind us we started the trucks and continued on our way.
The end of the day found us just turning north. It had been a long, exhausting day avoiding walkers. I swear, they all must of made it to Idaho before stopping and waiting just for us. The land was flat, with snow capped mountains all around us and I was relieved to finally turn north but then any direction that pointed me home made me very happy.
We stopped once to let Duke know we were once again going to be late. We ended up saying we'd see him soon. We had enough supplies to last a while at the lodge before trips to town for the winter stock up so when we got home, it would take something really big to get me out again. But that seemed to be my last words lately.
We were streaming along nicely, crossing some bridges that made me really nervous but held just the same. My face was as swollen as it was going to get, I hoped because I could only see from one eye. If we'd had some ice it would've helped a lot but I had to content myself with holding a cold, wet rag on it, I was still in pain, but until we found some drugs that wouldn't change.
Ken was driving while Mason snooz
ed in the bunk. Mason had found me a new toy. It came from a small police station we came across in a little town. The boys couldn't stand passing it by so we waited while they hunted. I would've been right in there with them but I was done in. Maybe another time.
I had a sleeve gun, an auto-loading handgun that was a double action revolver. Robert DE Nero used one in 'Taxi Driver and it was featured in 'Desperado. Just a flick of a wrist and the gun slides into your hand ready to fire. I'd just loaded the thing in preparation for the next dinner break and target practice, when we came around a corner and before us was a line of motorcycles. I wondered briefly what these fools drove in the winter before Ken brought us to a stop. Trouble babe, might want to slip a gun into that sling. George tell the others to arm themselves, discreetly. There appeared to be a dozen riders, a few female but mostly men. They appeared heavily armed so we'd play along for the time being. A rather large man had a bull horn he was rather fond of. "Shut off the trucks and get out slowly with your hands up." You ever tried to get out of anything with your hands up? No? Well, give it a whirl next time you get the chance.
"Oh for heavens sake. This is really starting to piss me off."
"Just do what they say for the time being, JD. We'll get out of this."
What are we doing JD? Do we do what they say? George asked.
For the time being, we play along George. Ken, you getting any of this?
Yea, but I don't like it.
Neither do we but right now we have no choice.
So we did what they said. They lined us up beside the trailers with some rather impressive guns pointed at us while they checked out the trailers.
"Where did you get this stuff?" asked one rather large, leather-clad man with the greenest teeth I'd ever seen. I could smell him six feet away but I couldn't tell if it was body odor or bad breath.
"You really shouldn't wear leather in this heat. Unless you're shooting to loose some weight which..."
Walkers (Book 2): The Rescue Page 10