I sat by the small river with my fishing pole propped up next to my ankle. It was propped up on yet another stump and I was thoroughly enjoying the sun and slight breeze that danced through my hair. The temps were pleasant, probably around 70 which was wonderful after the stifling heat of New Mexico. Low humidity made my skin dry but I didn't care, I was almost home.
I heard humming next to me and looked to see several women lined up on the beach in various states of undress, sunbathing. Kids were playing on the beach downriver a bit and Bubba and the Monster were playing fetch. I don't know when Mikey taught him to throw a stick but it kept both dog and monkey entertained for hours. My ankle had quit throbbing so I figured if I was a good girl, I could walk on it in a few days. By then, Ken should be easier to live with and we could continue our trip. I can't remember the last time I went on a trip and didn't have any problems. It seemed like our way of life now but I sure missed the old days.
Ken awakened in the evening of the next day, hungry and grouchy. Joe couldn't take it anymore so he gave him leave to sit outside with me, which I thought was cruel. It was so he 'could keep and eye on the both of us', and after I helped him out and all. I thought I was a lousy patient but Ken had me beat. He wanted this and that and something else. Then the sun was too hot, the seat too hard, and the coffee too sweet. He whined and bitched until I couldn't take it anymore. I got up, grabbed my fishing chair and hobbled it and me about 25 yards down the beach. Then I hobbled back and snatched my pole, shot him a dirty look, then limped back to get my umbrella and by the third trip he finally asked me what I was doing.
“Getting the hell away from you. The bitching and whining is driving me crazy. You can't just sit and relax and enjoy the weather, and heal, oh no, that would be too easy. You have to bitch and complain about every little thing like you're the only one with problems. Well, I've had it. Sit here and enjoy your misery, I'm going fishing. Way. Over. There.” Motioning with my bottle of water towards my new spot, I followed said bottle and reacquainted my butt with my chair. The peace and quiet was so intense I fell asleep.
The smell of food dragged me out of a dream about lamps, (shrug) and I was wiping the drool off my chin when Mason brought me a plate of fried fish. I looked towards my fishing pole and saw it laying half in an out of the river. Well, hell. Mason laughed at me and we ate while he told me that Ken was apologetic about his behavior, Flynn and Randy had raided a neighbors farm for the canned tomatoes and macaroni which accompanied the fish. We also had a nice, apple tart for dessert. He recovered my pole and helped me to get into the medical trailer so Joe could look at my ankle and Ken could glare at me. I just kept smiling at him which had him all confused but I didn't hear him complain about one thing the whole time I was there.
It was when I was getting ready to leave that he decided to apologize for his lousy behavior and promised to be better. I nodded, blew him a kiss and retired for the night next to my favorite navy seal. I was impressed with his inventiveness to make love to me and not hurt my ankle and rewarded him accordingly. Then I slept like a baby.
We were eating breakfast the next morning when Duke jumped up to answer the sat phone. He handed it to Ken, then turned toward the creek and put his hands on his hips. I wondered about asking him about his weird behavior when Ken exploded.
“What the hell are you talking about?” He yelled into the phone. I didn't have to listen in, his mind was broadcasting like a sports announcer.
“The hell I will,” he yelled, “We're only a day away.”
I turned from him and limped over to Duke. We both stood there staring at the river, neither one of us wanting to say anything.
“You took a vote? Well, ain't that just great. You all took a vote leaving us with no where to live and that's it? Just like that. Well, we'll just see about that. Now, you just wait a damned minute...Hello? Hello!” I turned in time to catch the phone after Ken threw it. He just looked at me with the most grief stricken look I've seen in a long time. Well, maybe not that long ago, but it was horrible to behold.
He looked around at the faces of the group. Taking a deep breath he said the words I'd already knew. “They took a vote and decided the compound was just big enough to house them and no more. We will have to fight them to live there and believe me when I say, we wouldn't win. After what happened at the Lodge, I had it fortified to the rafters. No one is getting in there and that includes us. We're homeless, again, and I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am. I thought I knew those people but I guess I was wrong. I put our lives on the line, my son and Jilly's, because of my bad choices and I don't know if I can live with myself because of it.” He turned to go back to the medical trailer but Jill stopped him.
“We both trusted them and now we have to face the consequences.” She turned to me, tears in her eyes, then unable to bear the look on our faces looked down at the sleeping babe in her arms. When a tear fell onto his little face, I stepped forward.
“We can all stand here and cry or we can band together and try to figure this out. I say we think on it a bit, cry or whatever we're doing at the moment, then think about what we have to do next. We'll talk about it after lunch. Until, then we don't blame anyone for anything because we can't. It's survival of the fittest or meanest or the most desperate. They evidently need this to feel safe and our being there was going to upset that balance. I don't know but I can't think about it right now. I'm going for a short walk then I plan to help the ladies with lunch.” No one said anything, so I started down the beach, looking for a quiet place to grieve the loss of another home, and the friends that took it from me.
We'd depended on them to find us a home after we left for New Mexico and they had. Ken and Jill had been along to help and from what he described to us, they did a great job. But they had decided that after a little over a week that they would do better on their own and I have to respect that. Okay, so we have to find another place. At least, this time we had several months to do it in. That would help, but the work involved would be exhausting on all of us. That couldn't be helped and I was quickly tired out just thinking about it so I sat on a stump near the river wanting nothing as much as a long nap.
Mason sat beside me and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me snug under his armpit. I put my head on his shoulder and watched a leaf swirl in the water, catching momentarily on a rock before floating downstream to disappear around a bend. I sighed deeply. Then Mason sighed too. I smiled at that. He was so tuned into my feelings that what I felt he felt. It was weird to be so connected but I'd miss it if it was gone and right now I needed that more than anything.
We sat and talked for quite some time. Admiring the beauty of the land around us and basking in the sun and slight breeze we talked out our disappointments and fear clearing our heads for what was to come. After a while we went back to camp and I watched the ladies, each absorbed in their own thoughts, slap together a meal of sorts. The kids were quiet too, sensing the adults had something of importance on their minds, so they read, or colored or fished in the river. I was so proud of them. The conversation started to pick up during the meal and the discussion was the type of home we wanted, or had in the past zombie-free life. It was a way to heal after the setback we just had, so no one let the moment pass without contributing something.
Ken had drew maps and descriptions of the places he had thought would be good places before finding the one we lost. We poured over the maps, discussed the possibilities to death long into the afternoon before finally deciding to discuss it more in the morning. I wanted a natural spring. It would provide needed water plus could be used to power mills to grind the wheat and electricity to run the green house and water the livestock. I wanted a damned spring and that was that. They didn't argue the fact just the location. I was argued out by the time dinner rolled around and the discussion continued till almost dark. The kids needed to be taken care of, and security set up for the night so we just stopped talking and took care of business. I was looking forward to loving
Mason all night cause I was wiped out from all the stress. Sex is a great stress reducer and I was as tight as as guitar string.
The morning found us looking for a place again on the maps. Ken suggested the old prison at Deer Lodge but it was made from stone and I knew how hard it was going to be staying warm in there. Besides it wouldn't give us any room to grow anything and I was looking for a place in the open for livestock and I wanted to be able to see the mountaintops, not just stone walls. There was a nice place in the Snowy Mountains, south of Lewistown that was a dude ranch so we thought we would check it out. We could get there by afternoon if we left soon so we started packing things up for the three hour drive.
The three hour drive turned into a six hour drive. Lewistown was full of walkers and there was only two ways to get on the road to the Snowy's, both led through the middle of town. We back tracked so many times that I lost count and finally settled for waiting in the Shop-co parking lot while Randy, Clint and Riley went around setting off car alarms and stereos on the other end of town to draw the walkers away from first street. When they satisfied it was safe we hurried through an obstacle course in the Yogo Inn parking lot and onto the road leading south of town.
We thought of stopping at the reservoir on the way but it had only one way in and out so we kept going. A roadblock of walkers stopped us a mile south of the reservoir but we managed to take them out. I don't know why there was so many of them out there but didn't really care, we cleaned them out just the same. We missed the turnoff to the ranch and had to go back. I was pooped and out of sorts by the time we pulled up to the ranch house. The view was breathtaking but the security was non existent. It seemed like I wasn't the only one not happy with things. Mason stood there with his hands on his hips and thought, I don't like this. No security, and putting up trailers for fences would take the rest of my life. I just don't feel comfortable here.
I knew we needed to get out and clear all the buildings but I was just out of the mood to kill anything. I sat and watched with the other ladies as the men chopped, hacked and blew the brains out of anything on two legs not living. All in all they put down 16 walkers and a very angry dog. I couldn't set idly by anymore after that so I got out and helped drag the bodies to a ravine, poured gas on them and set them afire. Experience had already taught me that I didn't want to smell that odor, so I wandered around inside the large ranch house and checked out every nook, cranny and closet. Especially broom closets near the back door. When my ankle started to warn me about an imminent failure, I collapsed into a leather chair and winched at the creaking and crackling it made in protest.
It would do. For the time being anyway.
So we moved inside, took stock of what was needed, made up some beds for the kids and settled down. Tomorrow we'd decide what to do but for now, we would just rest, regroup, and prepare for the future. Again.
Chapter 8
I was awakened in the softness of the dawn by Mason whispering in my ear. “Look out the window, JD. Come on and wake up or you'll miss it.”
I started to say something but he put his hand over my mouth. So I looked cause I thought it would be the last thing I'd do before I killed him. I changed my mind when not ten feet from our window, I saw a Whitetail deer giving birth to her fawn, who it seemed, was a twin. The other newborn was lying nearby, panting heavily from the birth. It looked like mama had managed to clean the baby up before stopping to give birth to the other fawn. I smothered an 'aw' with my pillow as I lay on my stomach, chin propped up on my pillow, snuggled next to Mason and watched the scene unfold before me.
When I was just starting to notice Mason's nudity, something caught my eye and around the corner of the barn a walker staggered. I rolled out of bed and started looking for my clothes, chanting 'pants,pants, pants,' bra, bra, bra' while Mason grabbed his pants and shoes, and was out the door. I gave up finally and looked out the window as the walker zeroed in on the deer. “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I whispered to Mason as the walker reached out to grab the newborn that had just been dumped on the ground by its mother. Just as the deer managed to get her wits about her, the gun went off and the walker fell. Mama managed to nudge her kids up and they all three staggered off into the trees. Mason went over to the walker and nudged it with his foot, then gave me a thumbs up before being joined by Randy who was dressed in jeans and shoes also.
This walker had on chaps and one cowboy boot. It's shirt was ragged and half its right arm was gone, the bone sticking out with rotted meat surrounding it. I shuddered, found my bra and finished dressing before joining the others in the dining room. Sarah was digging around in the pantry so I helped myself to the coffee then sat watching watched her until she finished.
“Looks like enough supplies for about a week in there. I wouldn't stay any longer than that unless you boys are planning on scouting out some food from the neighboring ranches.” She said, then got Duke his coffee and headed for the Dukemobile. I looked around and thought to Mason, Tell everyone that that we will be here long enough to figure out our next move and heal. He smiled, blew me a kiss which I ignored, then said to everyone, “Let's sit it out here for a week, let everyone heal and rest then we can figure out where to go next. Of course, we need to set up some major security, but that shouldn't be too hard. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired. Not knowing where we're going isn't helping any either so we need some time to figure that out. What do you say?” He looked around and then everyone started talking at once. From what I could gather, everyone was okay with the arrangement and Ken could recover some of his strength while my ankle healed a bit more. Good. I wasn't in the best of moods either, and staying here would help. Standing on the porch I looked out at the mountaintops surrounding us. There was still snow on the Snowy's. I couldn't see the Judith or Moccasin Mountains because of the hills surrounding us but that was okay. The trees had a blue cast to them and in the distance the color of blue went from light to dark making the them appear shrouded in fog. Two eagles soared in the distance, wings spread wide to catch the wind currents while the sound of birds talking to each other and remember the lodge.
The pain from the loss of the lodge had lessened to just sadness now. I could remember the hand hewn logs of the lodge and weathered, river stone fireplace with a smile now. We'd made it a home and it had kept us safe and warm. Like a good friend it sheltered us and then it was destroyed. I had felt privileged to live there and would never forget it. Randy had drawn a picture of it and had copies for each of us for Christmas this last year. When I found a new home I was going to ask him to paint a large picture to put over the new fireplace.
I was jolted out of my reverie by Mason plopping down on the step next to me. “We need to put some chairs out here. Just doesn't seem right sitting on the step.” I smiled as I remembered the lodge porch, with the rocking chairs set up with just a small table separating each one. I remembered one time there were five of us sitting out there rocking and talking.
“Yep, we need some chairs for sure.” I said back, just because something needed to be said to fill the silence. We both sat and watched the eagles for a while before he helped me back into the dining room where a chair had been put with a small stool before it. I couldn't tell who the culprit was because they all acted guilty but on the table in front of it was a pile of maps and atlases, with a bottle of raspberry tea nearby. I didn't have to ask. What the hell, might as well go for it.
We spent nearly a week there, my foot getting better and Ken learned not to bitch quite so loudly. The scenery was breathtaking and we watched the deer who got brave enough to come back up to the building again. We didn't see any more walkers and that was okay with us. The kids could play with supervision and the guys nearly emptied the nearby lakes of bass. Our plan was to take the road south through the mountains, to keep from going through Lewistown again, and come around to the highway then nearly to Great Falls but go south and west again on rock roads. If Lewistown was bad then Great Falls would be a nightmare and we'd had
enough of those.
The morning we left was a busy one. The place had given us sanctuary so we made sure it was closed up, with a sign on the door telling whomever that if the place was still closed up then it was safe to enter. I hoped that if someone did come in after us that they had the presence of mind to find out for themselves first. I wouldn't trust a sign to tell me it was okay, but then I don't trust most things nowadays as a general rule.
We hadn't been on the road ten minutes when we had to stop at the top a hill. There, with burned and blackened trees on both sides, we watched an elephant lumber across the road.
“Hey is that what I think it is?” Asked Duke on the CB radio.
“Yep”, I replied into the mike. It looked at us but didn't make any more threatening gesture than that, before it continued around a large boulder and disappeared. Mason looked at me, then back at the boulder then me again. I shrugged my shoulders and watched the boulder too. Soon, Mason shook himself, and we continued down the mountain to the flatland below. We soon found ourselves at Hobson, a town of about 215 souls. I sincerely hoped they weren't all walkers. We'd stopped because something was wrong with the medical van. While our two resident mechanics worked on the problem, I got out the maps and started looking for the next place we could camp.
“Looks like we're going to have to replace the oil pump on the van.” Howard said, as he wiped the oil from his hands. “It may take a couple of days and I don't like sitting here so close to possible danger. Is there a rest area or camping spot nearby?” I was looking at the map when I saw a lake nearby boasting camping facilities.
Seeking Sanctuary (Walkers) Page 7