“Will it make it another few miles? There's a lake nearby we could stay at for a few days if you need that much time.”
“Lead the way. If we have to, we can tow the van that far. I have the parts, I just need the time.”
Mason nodded and we proceeded to the lake. It was large and surrounded by the Little Belt and Snowy Mountains. Nearby, the small town of Utica once boasted the residence of the local western artist, Charlie Russel or so says our resident historian, Lacy. Randy, Clint and Riley wanted to visit it so we sent them on their way, while the rest of us got out our fishing chairs and put lines in the water. Duke stayed with the Dukemobile so he could monitor the security although you could see for miles in every direction, while the two older boys planted themselves on the roof with binoculars.
Ken and I were led to a chair, handed a bottle of water and a fishing pole and left to fend for ourselves. I admired the scenery for a few minutes then promptly fell asleep, waking a while later to whistling. I opened one eye and watched Ken as he whittled a small branch into an even smaller one all the while whistling a senseless tune. I couldn't see the reason for it but I couldn't begrudge him since I was inspecting the inside of my eyelids. Dust in the distance did get my attention and was relieved to see the boys were back from their expedition.
Randy had a large painting in his hand which turned out to be a painting Russel did called “A Quiet Day in Utica” while Clint and Riley had several hunting rifles and ammunition in hand. I was about to comment on the finds when a flash of light from over the mountains caught my attention. When I looked everyone stopped talking and turned to look.
It was a silver disk, shaped like a saucer hovering over the mountaintops. Occasionally, it would dip and sway but mostly stayed in one position while us mere humans stared open mouthed in its direction. Language skills took a leave of absence while we tried to decipher this new, weird experience in our otherwise crazy lives. I was relaxed in my chair while Mason had walked over to stand near me. After a few minutes the disk rose into the sky then was gone in a streak of light into the flatland's east of us.
I sat quietly while I thought about it. Everyone else was doing the same thing except for the kids which hadn't noticed the show. Mason turned to me and stared. I stared back. Seemed like the thing to do at the time and I was without a thought in my head as to what I'd just seen, so I went with it.
“Shit!” someone said, I thought it was Duke. Then like everyone had been primed like an old pump they started to talking at the same time. Mason still stared at me. I don't know what he expected me to say but I was pretty content to stare back. My brain wasn't functioning. I heard the words, “flying saucer and UFO's” bandied about until I was brought alert by a scream. Jumping up, I saw Nevada fighting with a very large fish on her line and discovered at the same instant that I had to visit the restroom. I hated that that part of my brain was connected to my bladder but I couldn't do anything about it.
Mason was standing at the bathroom door when I emerged nearly scaring me into going right back inside.
“You saw that right?”
“Yeah, babe, I did.”
“What do you make of it?”
“Well, I hate to state the obvious but I think it was an unidentified flying object.” I started around him but he grabbed me and held me close. His heart was beating like a drum and I held him back because I realized that he was more scared than I was. I think on my part it was ignorance while he was ex military and this meant a lot of the stuff he had been taught had just flown off into the distance like a streak of light.
“I'd seen some things while in the military. Things I couldn't explain. Didn't want to explain and couldn't talk about. I put them to the back of my mind, hoping I'd never had to face them up close, like today. But I wasn't the only one that saw that thing. Everyone, but the kids who were playing, saw it. I don't know to protect us from it, JD. Hell, I don't know if I need to protect us from it cause I don't know what the fuck it was!” He was getting worked up. I shushed him and patted his back and held him until his breathing quieted.
“We'll be okay, Mason.” I whispered. “We'll do just fine and if or when the time comes to worry about it we will. Until then we have to go on with our lives because we just can't do a damned thing about it right now.” He bent back far enough to look down at me. Those blue eyes fringed with those impossibly long eyelashes gazed at me like it was the first time he actually saw me. Combine that with the that lock of hair that curled just so in the middle of his forehead and I was done for. When he kissed me my toes curled, as they usually do but this time there was more to the kiss. He'd been worried about keeping me safe and most of the time I fought him on it. Today he sensed danger but could do nothing about it cause he was scared too. When the kiss ended he leaned his forehead on mine and sighed. I smiled up at him patted his cheek and we went back out to talk to the others. What we'd all seen demanded a conference, although I don't know where we expected it to go. Maybe just an acknowledgment that we'd all seen the same thing would be enough, but I wasn't betting on it.
I'd have been rich if I had bet on it and everyone had money etc, etc. We'd thought the kids had been too busy to see it but we were wrong. However, we were surprised to find they had no fear of the phenomenon just curiosity. That worked for me because I had plenty to go around. I found we were spending more time looking up than around and that bothered me. I felt like we needed to stay grounded. We could run into a walker while looking for an alien and that would be worse. The real danger was on the ground so, anytime I saw someone looking up, I cleared my throat and they'd go back to doing whatever. I had to resist the temptation a few times myself but with everyone trying to keep their eyes off the sky, we were pretty keyed up by the time we settled down for our nightly star gazing. As much as we wanted to see something all we got were a few falling stars and that was enough to cause everyone to jump up and point. I finally decided I would be too worked up to sleep if we kept this up so decided to turn in for the night.
Mason was hot on my heels as I finally managed to climb into the bunk. His hands seemed to be everywhere and my breath was caught on several occasions before he collapsed next to me, one arm slung across my sweaty stomach.
“I don't think I could survive another UFO sighting.” I managed between breaths.
“You and me both.” He panted.
He got us a bottle of water and we cooled down as we gazed out the window above us. Stars twinkled in the night sky as the coyotes yipped in the distance and you could almost believe things were right with the world, no walkers or aliens or elephants roaming the mountains of Montana. Almost.
Chapter 9
We spent two days at that beautiful lake. I was walking with just a slight limp while Ken was looking better. If you can say the purple, reddish, blackish bruises on the edge of greenish, yellow is better. We all fished and caught the biggest, prettiest rainbow trout you've ever seen and enjoyed fish prepared in every way imaginable. It was after lunch the day before we left that Mandy yelled, “What's that?” We hadn't heard her say it in a while but it still made us jump up and look wildly around, weapons ready. Flynn had been sitting in one of the fishing chairs, leaning back on two legs when she yelled. He fell back, the legs going out from under him causing him to hit his head. Melody ran over to him to help him up as I stepped over him to see what the 'it' was. I could see a dark blog in the distance but couldn't make out a form.
I found Kevin and Bobby on the top of the Dukemobile with binoculars looking that direction and waited for them to tell us.
“It looks like a buffalo, to me.” Kevin said, as he continued to look.
“I think you might be right, Kevin. I see several of them in that ravine,” Bobby said as he leaned that direction.
“Buffalo?” Duke said.
“Yeah, Bison or American Bison divided into two subspecies, plains and wood bison,” Lacy began, “but mostly known as the American Buffalo.”
“Oh God, someone
stop her.” Duke mumbled, as Lacy continued extolling the buffalo and it sub species. I smiled as Randy walked her around the back of the medical van while she kept talking. Her voice gradually subsided as we all watched the buffalo until we got tired of it then continued to clear the camp for the exit tomorrow.
Howard wandered in a little before sunset, looking all clean and spiffy. “I was wondering if I might have you'alls attention for a minute?” Samantha walked up beside him all clean and spiffy too and as Howard turned to her, she grasped his hand and smiled up at him.
“Samantha here has honored me by saying she'd be my wife, so we thought we'd do it tonight if it's all the same to you all. You're like family to me,” he turned to Sam, “to us and we wanted you to witness this, if you don't mind.”
I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry.
When we just stood there and smiled like idiots, he turned to her, grasped her hands in his larger ones, pulled them to his chest and gazed into her eyes.
“When I met you I thought you was the prettiest little thing God ever put on this crazy planet. I still think that. You wrapped me up so tight I couldn't think for thinking of you and I knew almost from the git go that I wanted you next to me for the rest of my life.” Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she gazed lovingly into his eyes. “I got the feeling you felt the same way, and I thought I had to be the luckiest sum bitch that ever walked the face of the earth. When you said you'd marry me I thought we'd better get this done, cause I needed the other half of my heart next to me or I would surely die. That's the reason for getting married tonight, so I can have you next to me for the rest of my life cause I won't ever be able to live without you. You have my heart, Sammy, and all my love is wrapped up in it. It will always be yours and I promise to take damned good care of yours, forever and ever. Amen.” Then as he gently kissed her, I cried. Yeah, I know, I know.
We were all a little misty eyed as we congratulated the happy couple. Sarah said if she'd known she'd have baked them a cake but they said it could wait. Mason was eying me strangely and I knew what he was thinking. Flynn had to get two stitches in his head from the fall from his chair so he was nursing a headache as Melody fussed over him. I just shook my head. The big, old, Army Ranger hurt his widdle head. We sat around until late watching the sky for UFO's and listened to the coyotes.
The next day Mason grabbed me from behind and whispered in my ear, “I was gonna see if you'd marry me last night after Howard and Samantha but there was no way in hell I could've topped what he said. I figured I'd wait for another time, when what I had to say would sound better Still, it was a grand speech.”
“Yeah, it was. But you don't have to make a speech to me, Flathead. I know you love me like the American Buffalo loves the tall grass.” I said, as I waved my hand in the direction the tall grass was growing.
He laughed like I knew he would and nuzzled my neck. “Yes,” he said, “I surely do.” I leaned back against him and just enjoyed the moment before Riley, my cousin in law, yelled, “Wagons Ho!”
We laughed, climbed into the truck and began heading west towards Great Falls. Most of the way was blacktop but in order to avoid the city itself we took the gravel roads just east of there towards the Missouri River, hoping to cross it at Ulm. We wanted to get to Highway 200 so we could skirt Glacier National Park to Kalispell in Northwest Montana. It used to be a six hour trip but with the new world population of walkers and weirdos we figured it would probably take most of the day and part of tomorrow.
Ken had found an old real estate brochure listing a large piece of land near Kalispell for sale, boasting sweet, well water, several ranch houses and wind turbines. Self supporting it said and we were very interested. I hadn't thought of using real estate listings before so I'm glad someone did. The pictures looked great and if it was the same in real life, then we'd found our new home. I was anxious to see it.
We ended up on dirt roads again. This meant we were being dusted pretty good. We had to slow down because we kept falling back from each other. That put us so far behind each other that at times we were out of sight. We were down to a crawl by the time I saw the flashes in the distance. We stopped while we discussed what it could mean. Mason, Clint and Riley decided to check it out while we fixed lunch and monitored the kids.
Curiosity finally got the better of me after an hour so I climbed into the crows nest on the top of the Dukemobile to see what the fuss was about.
“It looks like a big party going on out there.” Kevin said, as he peered through the spotting scope. “Lots of people moving around in a one spot.” I grabbed a set of glasses myself, looked and he was right, it did look like a party was going on. As soon as I thought it, I could hear the music. I frowned as I watched the guys sneak up on them. Then I watched as they crept back to their truck. I met them at Lacy's RV to hear the results.
“We are not, in no way, shape or form going that direction. There is a traffic jam from hell on the bridge and a couple of hundred walkers. Some fool had a solar powered radio playing a music disk. It is sitting on top of a RV and the walkers can't get to it. A person could learn to hate Taylor Swift's, 'We're Never Getting Back Together' after listening to it for a straight year. We have to find another way across that river.” He took the map Lacy handed him and spread it out on the hood of the truck. It didn't look good.
The only place to cross the river other than Great Falls was Ulm and Cascade before you hit Helena and we so did not want to go to Helena. The horde of walkers waiting there would be impossible to get through. The only other place was east of Great Falls, and we really didn't want to go east. Ft. Benton had a nice place but you crossed the river into downtown there too. There was a ferry at a place called Carter between Great Falls and Ft. Benton but that meant more backtracking, again. So we would keep our fingers crossed for Cascade and send the tow truck with the big, old, nasty looking snow plow on the front, in first.
Taylor Swift sang us on our way as we drove another bunch of boring, dust chocking miles to Cascade. Mason and the boys once again went in to scout the area, returning to tell us the bridge looked clear. Howard and Sam in the tow truck was positioned in front of us then we fueled up everyone, unhooked the fuel tanker which was almost empty anyway and crossed the river that had once been a lifeline for all the people living nearby but which had suddenly become a major pain in our butts. We just wanted to get across the damned thing.
We got the kids and animals belted in pretty good, belted ourselves in, said a prayer and took off. Howard roared across the bridge and made a left at the first intersection. The sound of the engines must of awakened most of the walkers cause we started to see them after we turned onto the road after the bridge. Howard hit a couple, sending them flying like rag dolls to land with sickening thuds on cars and in yards. We continued on to the interstate where it was a wild ride to make a sharp, right hand turn. Then a few cars were kicked to the side as we plowed through them, onto the interstate then back the way we had come to make another turn onto rock road that would take us to Hwy 200. Finally we were back on safe ground and headed where we wanted to go.
The way we wanted to go evidently was on another dusty road. It was flat land, covered in green with Square Butte to our left. It looked like a mountain that God had cut the top off of. It was called that because it was flat as a pancake on top. It looked odd sitting out in the middle of all that flat land but further to the west were the Rocky Mountains still covered in snow. We found a place on the road with trees around it and decided to stop there for something to eat before continuing on. We never knew what the conditions ahead were so we took our rest where we felt the safest. The boys once again climbed on top of the observation deck of the Dukemobile to watch for trouble, Abby taking them their food. I think Abby and Andy had something going on and I worried about it. They needed to have the 'sex' talk since they were both 13 or 14 but I didn't want to be the one to do it. I'd better talk to Sarah or Mercy and see what they thought.
I was
chewing on that thought when Lacy asked if I knew where Sally was. Sally was six years old and precocious. We seemed to be constantly looking for her. She could disappear right in front of you she was so good. I sighed and got up to help look and when we didn't find her right away all hell broke loose. Andy yelled that he saw movement in an area near Castle Butte then we heard her scream. I took off at a dead run, grabbing my gun off the table. Heading in the direction of the scream, I heard feet running behind me. Andy ran past me, his fifteen year old long legs eating up the ground. He tossed me the walkie talkie as he flew past me, not missing a step. The ground was pretty flat but dotted with sage brush so you jumped over it or ran around it. That took a lot of air, or maybe I was just getting old. No wait...that wasn't it. I lost sight of Andy quickly and that scared me bad enough that it spurred me on faster.
I saw a rock wall ahead of me and started to slow when I caught sight of the opening to the left of it. So being me, I hit the wall, bounced to the left and around the corner. That was gonna hurt later. It did slow me down but another scream got me going again and when I rounded the next corner, open air met me. I managed to grab onto a scrub tree growing seemingly from the rock and held on as my momentum swung me around the tree to land on a ledge on the other side. While I was relearning to breathe, I held onto that tree for dear life, panting like a puppy. I held my hand to the stitch in my side, and my forehead plastered against the warm bark of the tree as I tried to calm down. I hated heights.
“JD.”
“My God!” I jumped so bad that I almost slipped. Looking to my left, I saw Andy lying flat on his stomach as he grasped Sally's tee shirt. She was hanging over the side of the cliff, and looked to be unconscious. I couldn't see her face as her head hung limp with the rest of her body. Beneath her was about 100 feet of air before the rocks below. Shit!
“JD, she's getting heavy. Do you think you could give me a hand?” Andy whispered. He had his other hand wrapped around a protruding rock a few inches above his head while his body lay flat on the ledge, his other arm hanging over the edge hanging onto Sally while she dangled in his grip. I couldn't see any way to reach her without laying on top of him and letting go of the tree at the moment wasn't going to be possible. I'd have to get around the tree to the ledge on the other side before I could help him.
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