Jenny turned to me and her smile covered her face." Here it is, just like I said. The Dell."
Chapter 9
“Into the valley of the shadow of…?”
"Isn't it beautiful?"
I turned to see the rest of the group standing behind Jenny and me. It was Judy Aikens that had asked the question I could tell from the look on her face how she felt about The Dell. To be honest about it though, it really was a beautiful setting. The grass was a dark green and long enough it swayed in the slight breeze. Wild flowers grew along the fringes of the woods and could be seen in clusters thorough out the valley giving a nice touch of color. Kat would have been pleased, she does love her flowers. From what I could tell of the little village in the center of the valley, most of the structures were a uniform white and had it not been for the totally deserted feel, would have presented an inviting image.
From our vantage point I couldn't tell much about Dell, Tennessee, so I suggested we re-mount the vehicles and take a closer look. I admonished everyone to keep their eyes open. We didn't know for a fact if the town was deserted and I didn't want to get caught with our pants around our collective ankles.
The vehicles crept forward, gunners swiveling their turrets from side to side. Vegetation had started to creep onto the edge of the road and grass had started to grow in the cracks in the black top. Other debris had either washed in from rain or been blown in by wind also did it's best to obscure the road. A few small animals darted across the road, disturbed by our passing. Dave, who rode behind me in the gun truck, leaned forward between the seats. "Into the valley of the shadow of..."
I stopped him before he could finish. “If the next word out of your mouth isn't dreams, I'm going to make you walk back." He looked at me with that silly, mischievous grin of his and held both hands up in surrender. I turned back around to look out the windshield thinking to myself, 'It had better be dreams, not death. I'm going to be really pissed if it's not dreams.'
My vehicle was in the lead as we approached the edge of the village. I could see the sign proclaiming, "Welcome to Dell, Tennessee, population one hundred and eighty seven." The road ran straight through the center of town and someone had hung a hand painted sign under the welcome sign. This one was slightly more to the point. It said simply, "Go away." Not likely, I thought, we've come too far.
I told our driver to stop the vehicle and he braked to a halt. I told Dave to get everyone out except the drivers and gunners. We'd walk from here with the trucks creeping along behind to provide cover. I wanted to get a good first look at this place and I couldn't do it from the tiny window in the Humvee. We dismounted and a few of the security folks moved up front as a point element. The vehicle mounted gunners alternated the guns to cover 360 degrees and the non-combatants clustered in behind Dave and me as we started moving down the main drag into town.
We eased our way toward the edge of town, carefully watching for any sign of Stinkies or anything else that might be a danger. A deer jumped up out of the tall grass on the right shoulder of the road and dashed across right in front of us. I'm not sure who was more startled the deer or our point man. I saw one of the security guys tracking the deer with his rifle and I told him to let it go. I feared the shot might bring more than a possible meal. The security guy gave me a disappointed look but continued down the road.
I had been right about the houses, they were all white. Either the inhabitants of Dell didn't care for color or there had been a sale on white exterior paint. All of the construction was uniform, as well. All the houses were two story farm styles with clapboard siding. The Church, Post Office, and General Store were of the same type of construction. Every building had a front porch except the church and every porch had at least one rocking chair sitting on it.
It looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting except for the fact that the place appeared to be completely deserted. There wasn’t a car to be seen anywhere. I thought this was strange. Even in the places where everyone was dead or un-dead there had been signs of one time habitation. This place didn't have the feel of having been lived in for a long time. It was like it was frozen in time about fifty years ago, not five.
We continued down the center of Dell until we came to the spring house and the artesian well. Jim immediately ran over to the catch pond and leaned over looking into the water. I moved up beside him. "Jim, don't run off like that. We can't cover you if you aren't with the group," I warned.
He looked at me. "There's no one here, this place was deserted long before the Event. I don't know why everybody left but they weren't here when it happened." He went back to looking in to the pool. He looked like a kid staring into a wishing well. Finally I asked, "What’re you looking for?"
Without raising his head he replied, "Crawfish."
"Crawfish?"
"Yes, if the water is clean there should be crawfish and frogs. Unless it's contaminated there will be something living in here." Dave walked up on the other side of me away from Jim and his approach startled a frog that immediately bailed into the catch pond and swam toward the sluice that ran from the spring house. Jim clapped his hands and laughed. "That's it, there’s a frog in the pond. The water might not be drinkable but at least it's not contaminated."
"Well, there's only one way to find out,” Dave said, and before either of us could stop him, he reached down and scooped up a palm full of water, sucking it into his mouth. "Damn, that's cold, and good, too." Jim just shook his head and I pointed out how big of an idiot he was. Dave didn't seem to care; it’s like he was high on something. The smile never left his lips as he leaned over and stuck his whole face in the water of the pond. When he straightened up he shook his head back and forth like a dog to get the water off and loudly proclaimed, "Shit this place is great. We need to get started right away. I can't wait to move here." With that, he turned and walked toward the old General Store that sat across the road from the spring house.
I looked at Jim and he just shrugged his shoulders. "Don't ask me. He's your friend."
"Yeah, uh ... I guess this means the water is okay?" I asked.
Jim answered that he would take a sample back for Doc to study under his microscope but, yes, the water was most likely good. Unless Dave keeled over in the next few minutes, Jim thought we'd be alright to drink from the spring.
As Jim and I finished our exchange, I turned in time to see Dave walking up the steps to the porch in front of the store. I started heading that way, reminding Jim to stay where we could see him. Dave stood on the porch now looking in the plate glass front window of the store. As I started up the steps, Dave opened the door and went in. I yelled for him to stop and sped up to catch him. I went through the door with my rifle up at the ready. There’s no way of knowing what’s in these buildings and I didn't want to lose anybody because they were distracted and not thinking clearly.
Dave stood in the center of a large open room with shelves lining both sides all the way to the back where a counter ran across the width of the room. More shelves lined the walls behind the counter and there were still a few items sitting on them. I saw all this in the couple of seconds it took to realize we were alone. I was too pissed to notice more as I turned to Dave. “What the fuck are you doing? You know better than to enter a building without a partner.”
Dave ignored my rant and I walked over to where he stood. I intended to get his attention so I could finish chewing his ass when I noticed what he stared at. A corpse sat moldering in a nylon web lawn chair beside a small table. I took a breath to calm down. "Dude, you have to chill. You can't run off like that."
Dave just nodded; his eye’s never leaving the corpse.
Whoever he was, he had been dead for a long while. I estimated a couple of years. Bone showed at the top of the head where the skin is thinnest. The rest of his skin was shrunken, all wrinkled, and a mahogany color. He was dried up like a mummy but his clothes were still mostly intact, except for the discoloration where body fluids had leaked into them
.
I stood beside Dave as we studied the corpse. He continued to look at the body. "I guess we know who wrote the 'Go away' sign." I had to agree, we hadn’t seen any other signs of people. Unless our mummy here had friends that had stuck around and I didn't think that was likely or they would have helped him.
The small caliber revolver on the floor at his feet and the dark stain on his shirt where blood had drained from his mouth answered the question of how he had met his end. An open rusty can of food sat on the table with a spoon stuck in the dried remains of whatever it had been. Dave looked at me. "Do you think he drank the water?" he asked.
I nearly choked trying to keep from laughing. When I finally had it under control and could trust my voice, I replied, "No I think he became despondent over the lack of real meat in his Alpo there, and decided to end it." Dave nodded his head and turned and went back out the door on to the porch. I followed him back into the sunlight and met the rest of our group standing at the base of the steps. I explained what we had found inside and told them we needed to check the rest of the little village for signs of life or … well, you know.
Dave hoped off the porch without using the steps and walked over to where Jenny Moss leaned against the fender of her gun truck and began an animated conversation. She smiled and laughed at whatever he told her.
I went down the steps to the rest of the group and Jim suggested we check the other community buildings before looking at the private residences. It made sense as the Store, Church, Post Office, and Community Center were all together here in the center of town. As a group, we headed over to the Community Center. This was a long single story building with double doors in the center. Its construction was identical to the rest of the town, clapboard siding and white paint.
We cautiously opened the doors and went in. Dust floated in the air visible in the shafts of light coming through the windows. A few old tables and chairs were the only things in the large room that made up the inside of the building. A large American flag hung across one end of the building and a few framed photos showed people with handmade quilts and prize winning vegetables. Other photos showed group meals that were held in this same room. The clothes worn by people in the photos were of recent style but I couldn't find any information concerning the exact dates of the photos. There wasn't much to inspect so we filed back out into the sunlight.
Once we were all back outside we proceeded to the Church. A sign beside the double door proclaimed this the First Baptist Church of Dell and it was a clone of the rest of town, single story, and white clapboard. The only thing that set this building apart was the steeple. We opened the doors and reverently entered. The inside was just what you would expect from a small town southern church. A walkway ran down the center of the large open room with rows of pews on both sides. Hymn books sat in the little pockets on the back of each pew. At the front of the room was the pulpit raised on a small dais with pews for the choir and deacons on each side.
It dawned on me that this was the first church I'd been inside in over a decade. I hoped the roof didn’t cave in. A couple of smaller rooms for Sunday school classes were located in the back and were quickly cleared. Again, dust lay on everything and had not been disturbed in a long time.
The Post Office came next and it looked like everything else we had seen so far. Inside, a caged counter cut the building in half with the public half in front. Dead potted plants sat on tables in the lobby along with a few chairs. What few postal service posters that hung on the walls were all ten to fifteen years old. A half door led through the counter to the back of the building. Rows of cubbies lined the walls and I realized this was where the mail had been sorted. A few old pieces of mail lay on or below the counter and were like the posters, ten years or older. The most recent piece of mail we found was postmarked December 2008. Most likely a Christmas card, I thought.
We decided to continue the search and moved to the houses that lined the main road running through Dell. None of the doors we had encountered so far had been locked and the first house we searched was no exception. All the furniture seemed to still be in place but a fine layer of dust had settled on everything indicating that nothing had been moved or touched in a very long time. The pantry in the kitchen was empty of food but a few dishes and flatware remained. No clothes hung in the closets and the mattresses in the bedrooms were bare. I still couldn't figure out what had happened here. It’s as if the residents had packed what they could and left behind all their furnishings. I wasn't sure if we'd ever be able to solve the mystery but at least there would be furniture for us to use when we moved.
We didn't have time to search every house; it turns out there were sixty-eight houses along with the four common buildings. Most of the houses sat on half acre lots and the whole village covered an area roughly half the size we would be able to enclose with our barriers. That would leave around forty acres of land for crops and pasture for our animals inside the enclosure. I was still having a hard time figuring the place out. This was a farm community, it was apparent the land around the village had been cultivated in the past but there was only one barn in the whole town and there was no old or new farm equipment anywhere. It was all a mystery.
We congregated at the spring house and discussed the remaining issues. Jim was all smiles and said he thought that any problem we might have with the location was minor and could be overcome quite easily. Judy Aikens was in love with the place and all she could talk about was where to plant what crops and where the animals would be cared for. Dave and Jenny were still huddled together and, after a couple of tries, I finally got him to give his opinion on how security would work. He answered that it was no sweat and all we needed to do was get the heavy equipment moving.
I was dumbfounded, these people nearly always argued with me about everything. Now they were all on board with my idea and excited to get started. I always become nervous when everyone agrees with me without a fight. It was like this valley had put a spell on them. Once again, I had to play Devil's advocate just to find out if there were any real problems that we would have to deal with.
The vehicles had pulled into the town proper and were parked on either side of the road in front of the General Store so we didn't have far to walk to get back to them. The entire group laughed and smiled as if they didn't have a care in the world. This is about the time I start looking up waiting for the sky to start falling. I tried to point out to Dave that we weren't taking security very serious and he told me that we were safe here and everyone was just happy to be in a place this peaceful for a change.
I couldn't believe my ears. This is the guy that saw security problems lurking behind every tree or bush. If this place affected everyone like this we would never get anything done. He asked if it would be okay with me if he rode back to Lebanon in Jenny's vehicle. It finally got through what was happening there. The way he had reacted to her being late a couple days ago. The strange look she had given him, and then today. The way they had stayed together laughing and joking. They say spring is the time for love. Evidently, it had bloomed for Dave and Jenny.
I told Dave he could ride anywhere he liked and he slapped me on the back and took off for the truck where Jenny stood. As he approached, I saw her start smiling and they both climbed in. I shook my head and headed for my truck. I was torn by this new piece of information. On one hand, I was happy for both Dave and Jenny. They deserved to be happy but, on the other hand, I was worried that this might be a distraction for Dave and I needed him to be focused. The first part of making The Dell livable is to get the security up and running and I depended on him to get that done.
The vehicles turned around and headed back to Lebanon. I got a last look at The Dell through the tiny side window of my truck. I couldn't help thinking there’s a lot of potential here if we could make it work. I wasn't as euphoric as everyone else but I felt better about the place. The trip back to Lebanon went quicker than I expected and it wasn't long before we were back. Once inside the fence, we s
tarted to unload and I noticed everyone was still smiling and laughing. I thought with the way they were all acting they would be enthusiastic about getting started. Now, if we could convince the rest of our group.
I told Jim and Dave to have everybody in the planning room at 7 p.m. They nodded and headed off and I went up to my room. I was surprised to find Kat there. She’d normally be down helping Doc Groves around this time. As I entered I asked if anything was wrong and she said no, there wasn't much going on today. She had come up early to do some more work on the law draft she’d been preparing.
She immediately started asking questions about what we had found and what the place was like. I sat down on the side of the bed and filled her in on everything we had seen and finished with my discovery that Dave and Jenny were in love. She gave me a blank look and said she thought I already knew that.
It had apparently been going on for a couple of months. I told her I had no idea and asked why she hadn't said something before now. She told me that she didn't think anybody had to say anything, it was fairly obvious. I said it wasn't obvious to me and she walked over and patted me on the head. "That's because you’re dense, dear." Having said that, she went back over to the desk, sat down, and went back to work. I sat staring at the back of her head contemplating all manner of tortures for the head-patting thing.
Could I really be that dense that I hadn't noticed the guy I spent more time with than my wife was in love? I needed to start paying more attention to what went on around me or, more to the point, what went on with the other people around me.
I lie back on our bed and soon fell asleep. Kat woke me just before 7 p.m. so I could get ready for the meeting. We had communal bathrooms and I washed my face in the rain water we caught on the roof. It wasn't cold, but refreshed me enough I felt ready to handle the council meeting. By the time I got to the planning room it was already full and I noticed even more new faces as I took my normal place.
We Go On (THE DELL) Page 11