by Gerri Hill
They didn’t take much care with the saddles, simply hanging them across the board fence that lined the enclosed pen.
“There was hay left in the stalls,” Butch said. “I imagine they’ll find it if they’re hungry.”
“It’ll be daybreak in a few hours,” she said. “We can check on them then.”
They heard the rumbling of the generator and saw lights come on inside Jean’s house. It was a welcome sight, for sure.
“Come on. I’m ready to get inside,” she said, turning to go.
“Hey…I need to apologize,” he said.
She stopped. “Why?”
“For getting all crazy on you again.”
She tilted her head, trying to read his expression in the darkness. “Do you remember anything?”
He shrugged. “Not really. My face hurts, though. Did you punch me?”
She smiled quickly. “You took an elbow to the chin. I’m afraid the rest of the damage was done by you falling on rocks.” Her smile faded quickly. “I’m not sure why it affects you and not me. Or Dana and Jean either,” she said. “The closer we got to the ridge, the more obsessed you became with it. When we got close, we could all tell that you weren’t really with us, if you know what I mean.”
“I remember camping at the creek. I remember feeling this…this pull, this overwhelming feeling that I had to get to the ridge. Like something was pushing me, guiding me up there. I don’t really remember anything else until you rode up with Lucky in your lap and I was tied to my saddle.”
“By that time, we’d already been to the ridge and back.”
“What was up there?”
“What we feared,” she said evenly. “I found twelve bodies.”
“Twelve?”
“Most military, four civilians. Probably the men who were with Hal,” she said. “They’re…they’re using them for food, it seems.”
Butch gasped. “What the hell? But I thought they…I don’t know…took over their bodies or something. Hal was—”
“They obviously use some of them…hell, Butch, I don’t know,” she said as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I’m just shooting in the dark here, but it’s like they use their bodies as some sort of vessel or something.”
“They kill them, then…then what? Get inside them? But they’re dead. How can they—”
“I don’t know. This is so far out of my realm, I can’t even take an educated guess,” she said honestly.
Butch stared at her. “We keep saying ‘they’ but what the hell are they?”
Corey reached down and stroked Lucky’s head as he leaned heavily against her leg. “I don’t know what they are and I sure as hell don’t want to find out.”
When they got back in the house, the kitchen was empty. Corey had a moment of panic, her eyes darting around. Then she heard movement down a hallway and followed the sound. Jean was staring into her chest freezer. She glanced up at them and gave a weary smile.
“For the first time that I can ever remember, I don’t know what to cook.”
Corey went closer and closed the freezer. “You’re exhausted, Miss Jean. Go get some sleep. I’ll take kitchen duty.”
“I’m too tired to argue with you, Captain.”
Corey smiled gently at her. “I assume Dana’s already in bed. You go too. I’ll try not to mess up your kitchen.” As Jean shuffled off, she turned to Butch. “You should get some rest too. I’ll need to be relieved soon.”
“You sure? I can stay up with you,” he offered.
“Sleep on the couch. At least you’ll be close by if I need you.”
He didn’t protest. “If you find yourself falling asleep, you come wake me.”
“I will.”
She and Lucky went back into the kitchen, and she sat down heavily in a chair. Lucky laid down on the floor beside her. She imagined he was as hungry as the rest of them, probably more so.
“Wonder where she keeps your dog food?” she asked. “Bet you’d probably rather eat people food anyway,” she murmured as her hand again found his fur. It was comforting, somehow, to run her fingers through his thick coat.
She rubbed her eyes with her other hand, trying to convince herself she wasn’t as tired as she felt. It wasn’t so much the hours she’d been awake. She’d pulled forty-eight hours before. No, it wasn’t the hours. It was the situation, the stress—fear of the unknown—and the responsibility she felt for these three people who had banded with her. How many days now? Had it been a week? More? She was too tired to try to count back, too tired to care. It didn’t really matter anyway. They had become her team and she felt responsible for them. They had formed a bond in a very short time, and she felt the need to protect them all. She only wished she knew what enemy they were up against. Because of that, she wasn’t so sure going back to Paradox was the best option. They didn’t know what they’d find there. No, she needed to get to the checkpoint. She needed to let Brinkley—Sutter—know what they were up against. Then whoever he sent in wouldn’t be coming in blind. That is, if he hadn’t already sent in another squad into the zone.
She blew out her breath, then stood. She needed something to occupy herself or she’d fall asleep sitting in the damn chair.
“So let’s cook something.”
She went back to the freezer and opened it, finding it well stocked. She thought some sort of a casserole would be safe to make. She took out a package of ground beef, then found a smaller package and took that as well. It was on top and starting to thaw already. Back in the kitchen, she unwrapped the packages and put the meat in a cast-iron skillet, then put that in the oven, hoping to speed up the thawing process.
She was thankful when the gas oven turned on. She’d feared that Jean had blown out the pilot light when they’d left the other day. She then turned her attention to the pantry. She found a bag of rice and a box of macaroni pasta. Either would serve the purpose, she supposed. She looked through the cans, picking up a cream of mushroom soup. Two shelves of the pantry held homemade canned goods, and she turned them around, finding what she thought were stewed tomatoes.
She rolled her eyes. The concoction she was contemplating didn’t even sound good, despite how hungry she was.
“There are onions in the bin,” Jean said from behind her.
Corey turned and smiled at her. “Can’t stand someone in your kitchen, huh?”
Jean gave her a tired smile. “What are you planning on whipping up there?”
“Some sort of casserole, I guess,” she said. “I thought it’d be easier to feed the four of us that way.” She pointed to the oven. “Got ground beef in there thawing.”
Jean nodded. “Let me help you.”
“You should be resting.”
“I think I’m too tired to sleep,” Jean said as she picked up the coffeepot from the top of the stove and went about filling it with water. “My old bones have been rattled around more these last few days then they have in the last twenty years.”
“I was just thinking that I feel so exhausted, not because of the number of hours that I’ve been up, but rather the stress of the situation we find ourselves in,” she said. “But for you, I guess that stress is doubly so. None of us have lost a loved one.”
“To be honest with you, Captain, it hasn’t really set in yet that my Hal is gone. I’m seventy-five years old. I met him when I was but fourteen. It’s hard for me to even remember a time when Hal wasn’t in my life,” Jean said. She shuffled to the table and sat down. “I reckon I’ll grieve properly once this is over with. Then I’ll have to face my boys. How can I possibly tell them that I shot their daddy?”
Corey said down opposite her at the table. “I mean no disrespect here, Miss Jean, but the thing you shot might have looked like Hal, but it wasn’t him. It wasn’t human. Not any longer.”
Jean met her gaze. “Do you know what’s happening here, Captain?”
“Not really, no.”
“What did you find up there on the ridge? I know you must have to
ld Dana. She doesn’t hide her emotions very well.”
“She’s scared like the rest of us, I guess.”
“I’ve seen enough dead animals in my life to recognize the smell that was up on the ridge,” Jean said. “But I’m guessing whatever you found wasn’t an animal. You said something about seeing five of that squad you said they sent in.”
Corey hadn’t had any intention of telling Jean what she’d seen up there, but perhaps she should. It might do her good to know that at least Hal hadn’t been dinner for whatever the hell was in that spaceship.
“What was it?”
Corey got up, retrieving the coffeepot that had been percolating on the stove. She took down two cups and filled them both.
“There were twelve bodies up there. Three were from the helicopter crew. And the five from the team, yes.” She set the cup down in front of her. “The other four were civilians. Males, best I could tell.”
Jean sipped from her coffee. “The men that went with Hal.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Most likely,” she said. She held the coffee cup between her hands, enjoying the warmth. “They met with a worse ending than Hal, I think.”
“What do you mean?”
“They were eaten,” she said. “At least, that’s what it looked like to me.”
Jean’s hand was shaking, and she spilled coffee on her table. She didn’t seem to notice. “Maybe wild animals…maybe coyotes or something found them.”
Corey shook her head. “They were very near the…the aircraft that we found. They were neatly laid out in a row.”
Jean took a steadying breath. “Aircraft?”
Corey shrugged. “I thought that sounded a little saner than saying spaceship.”
“So it was? A real life UFO? Like in the movies?”
Corey nodded slowly. “Yeah. Like in the movies.”
Jean closed her eyes for a moment. “Lordy, what have we gotten ourselves into?”
Corey reached across the small table and took her hand, feeling how frail it felt in her own. “I’m going to do my very best to get us out of this mess, Miss Jean. It’s mostly my fault we’re in it in the first place.”
Jean squeezed her hand tightly. “It’s not your fault, Captain. Don’t blame yourself.”
Corey pulled her hand away. “I shouldn’t have ever insisted that Butch and Dana bring me here. They wanted to head in the opposite direction, toward some saline plant out there,” she said with a wave of her hand. “They’d be safe then. They wouldn’t be mixed up in this. You wouldn’t be mixed up in this.”
“You were only doing your job, weren’t you? Following orders? And I’d have been left here all alone if you hadn’t shown up. Who knows if I’d even still be here? Maybe Rebecca or Carl would have come…” Jean’s voice faded and she shook her head. “You had no way of knowing all this would happen,” she said reasonably. When she picked up her cup, her hand was no longer shaking. “You said you’d been in the military your whole life, that you wanted to be like your father. Yet I sense it’s more than that.” She put her cup down again. “You want to be better than your father?”
Corey was shocked at Jean’s astuteness. It was something she’d barely even admitted to herself, let alone another person. Jean’s eyes held hers, the wisdom of her years showing in that simple glance.
“My father was a highly decorated soldier,” she said. “And yes, I wanted to be like him.” She pushed her coffee cup away from her, staring past Jean as she recalled all the times he’d missed her birthday, missed Christmas or missed a soccer game. She brought her eyes back to Jean. “I worshipped him, yet I was…invisible to him.” It was something she’d thought often enough but saying it out loud brought tears to her eyes. “He wanted a son to follow in his footsteps. I tried my best to be that son for him.” Jean’s glance moved to her hair, and Corey self-consciously ran a hand over it. “Yeah…my hair too.”
“It’s grown on me,” Jean said with a smile.
Corey wiped at tear that had escaped her eye. “I never knew if he was proud of me or not,” she said. “I hoped he was but he never said. But he was killed…over in Iraq. My career was just starting, really. After he died…well, yeah, I wanted to be better than him. A better soldier, a better person.”
“Are you married? Do you have a family?”
Corey smiled quickly and stood up, going for more coffee. “No, no. Not married. My mother remarried. Actually, she married pretty quickly after he died. It was a bit of a challenging time for us,” she admitted. She refilled Jean’s cup. “I realize now that as bad of a father as he was, he was probably much worse as a husband.”
“Our perception of things when we’re young does tend to change with age,” Jean said. She stared at her intently, her eyes not showing the weariness of earlier. “So you’re not married and don’t have a family of your own. You’ve made the military your life then?”
“It’s what a lot of us do. To be a good soldier—the best soldier—it’s what you must do. My father knew that too. Only he could never cut the ties with my mother and me.”
“That sounds like a sad, lonely life to me,” Jean said.
Corey shrugged. “I’m used to it.”
“We all need love, Captain. We all need…someone.”
“I don’t know. Do we? I’ve made it this far without it.”
Jean stared at her for a long, uncomfortable moment, and Corey wondered what she was thinking. Jean finally pushed herself up, leaning heavily on the table for support.
“I guess that meat is thawed out enough,” she said. “I best see what I can whip up.”
Corey nodded but said nothing. Then Jean turned, meeting her gaze again.
“I think Dana was asleep even before her head hit the pillow,” Jean said. “Maybe at daybreak, you could go out to the barn and fetch us some eggs.” She took the skillet from the oven. “After we eat, you need to get your own rest, Captain.”
“As do you.” She watched as Jean put the soup can and tomatoes back into the pantry. “What are you going to make?”
“I thought I’d make a breakfast casserole,” Jean said. “I’ll doctor up this beef and use it instead of sausage. I’ll make a biscuit batter and mix that with eggs and this meat. That ought to bake up just fine. I think I’ll make up a little gravy to go with it too. Hal always loved my gravy.”
Before long, Jean was chopping up an onion and browning the meat on the stove. The smell made Corey’s stomach growl. Even Lucky was brought out of a deep sleep by the aroma wafting through the kitchen.
“Best feed Lucky something or he’ll be begging us later,” Jean warned. “I keep his food in the closet there by the back door,” she said, motioning with her head. “His bowl is still out back, I guess.”
Corey got up and went out the kitchen door to retrieve his bowl. While still dark, the sky was beginning to lighten toward the east. To the west, the sky was dark and clear and filled with stars, the moon having set not long after they’d gotten there. She stood outside, looking up into the sky, listening to the quiet…listening to nothing. Then off in the distance, down by the creek, an owl hooted in the trees. A moment later, another answered, his call fainter than the first and farther away. Back and forth they went and she closed her eyes, feeling a little peace settle around her, if only for a few minutes.
Chapter Forty-Two
Dana moaned quietly, hanging in that tiny space that separates sleep and wakefulness. It was a dream she’d had before, many times. But it felt different this time. Warm, soft. Comfortable and natural. Her hips moved, instinctively trying to find purchase against the body that was pressed close to her. Yes, a delicious dream. Only this time, her dream lover wasn’t faceless…wasn’t nameless. She knew exactly who she was.
The throbbing between her thighs chased the dream away, bringing her closer to wakefulness. She tried to hold on to it a little longer but her eyes fluttered open.
Jesus Christ.
Not a dream. She was
clutching a real live person to her. A person who was watching her with tired, but amused eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured quickly as she moved away from Corey.
“Dreaming about your wedding night?” Corey asked quietly. “What was her name again?”
Dana blushed as she moved even farther away from her. “Kendra. And no, I wasn’t dreaming about her.” Their eyes held and Dana felt herself blush even more. “Well, this is embarrassing,” she said as she moved to the edge of the bed. Then she stopped. “Wait a minute. Where are my clothes?”
Corey’s eyes closed. “I found you on top of the bed. I thought you’d be more comfortable without your jeans…and under the covers,” she said sleepily.
“That was sweet of you,” Dana said as she stood up, standing there in nothing but a dirty T-shirt and her underwear. Then she frowned. “Wait a minute,” she said again. “You’re clean.”
Corey’s eyes blinked open for a second and she smiled slightly. “Shower,” she mumbled.
“Oh, that is so not fair.”
Corey smiled, but her eyes remained closed. “Be quiet.”
Dana smiled too, taking a few seconds to stare at her. Corey’s face looked relaxed for once, and Dana noted again how attractive she was. With a quick sigh, she turned, but Corey’s hand reached out and grabbed her wrist.
“With luck, maybe I’ll dream about you too,” she whispered, her eyes still closed.
Oh, God. Dana bit her lip, watching as Corey’s hand slipped away. She could tell that Corey had already fallen asleep. Her eyes roamed over her again, then she made herself turn away.
“No, no…this is so not the time for this,” she whispered to herself as she picked up her dirty jeans and quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.
In the hallway, she pulled on her jeans, then walked barefoot into the kitchen. Butch was sitting at the table drinking coffee. His rifle was across his lap, and he turned when she came in.
“Good morning,” he said.
“You’ve showered too,” she said accusingly.
He smiled. “Yeah. And it was great. I’ll turn the generator back on if you want to go grab one.”