When she sat up for the first time and put her feet on the floor she felt light-headed. When she walked across the room for the first time she lost her balance and nearly stumbled.
Twice.
After a few minutes, though, she was able to make her way to the closet to find some clothes to put on her naked body.
The closet was barren, save a handful of men’s shirts and two pairs of men’s jeans that were big enough for her to swim in.
Oh, Martel could live with the woman he called Becky running around the compound.
But she’d do so naked.
Because that was the way he preferred his women.
“Nathan… honey… where are my clothes?”
In a moment of feigned concern, Martel rushed across the room and took her in his arms.
He tenderly lifted her chin and looked into her pretty face and said, “Oh, my… you really have forgotten everything, haven’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Becky, you are a nudist. You have been for years. Don’t you remember?”
“I… no, I don’t. I don’t remember anything. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, honey. I will nurse you back to health, and when you get better you’ll remember everything. I promise.”
“Nudist…”
She slowly repeated the word, as though it were something bitter in her mouth. And while she said it, she pondered all the implications that came with it.
“So I don’t have any clothes at all?”
“Nope. You haven’t worn clothes since we met. You said you hated the feel of them against your skin. You couldn’t stand to wear them. I’ll admit, I thought it was weird at first, but I fell so much in love with you it didn’t matter.”
“Where did we meet?”
“At the nudist colony where you lived. I was an air conditioner repairman who came to work on one of your units. You talked to me while I worked, and we hit it off instantly. You invited me back to visit and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Martel felt his mojo returning. He could always create lies faster than most men could tell the truth. He was a pro, and he was on his game. She seemed to buy every bit of crap that flowed from his mouth.
In reality, everything he’d told her thus far was a lie except one thing.
He was truthful when he told her she didn’t have a single stitch of clothing to her name.
But it wasn’t because she was a nudist.
It was because while she slept the night before he released her from her cuffs he was up, quietly rummaging through the house.
And gathering every bit of clothing that Sally Huckabee left behind, and taking it to the burn pit a hundred yards from the house.
He went one step further and burned nearly all of Jason Huckabee’s clothing as well, save for some oversized jeans and a few loose-fitting t-shirts that Martel thought might fit him.
Prison had broken Martel of many things. One was the need to be fashionable, or to have a large collection of clothing.
In prison he had only the jumpsuit he wore, and a second to change into.
But “Becky” wasn’t finished with her questions.
“So… people saw me naked?”
“Yes, honey, of course. All of our friends who came over to visit would compliment you on your body. You know how beautiful you are. We used to joke that the reason I had so many male friends was because I had the hottest wife in seven counties. And because they enjoyed watching you move as much as I did.”
“And you were okay with that?”
“Sure. Why not? It was the lifestyle you chose. And I have to say, most of the nudists I’ve seen in my life aren’t people you’d want to see naked. But you sure are, honey, and I liked showing you off.”
“But what about when I went out… in public?”
“Well, you always told me you loved your privacy more than you loved people. You’ve always been a home body. And since we live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere, this was the perfect place for you. You could hang the laundry and tend to the garden and such without having to worry about anyone driving by and seeing you naked, and of course you could run around the house the same way.”
“But how did I go shopping? Or to run errands?”
“Oh, I did all of that. You very seldom went into town. Well, once in a blue moon, if you wanted to get off the farm for a bit. You’d wear one of my t-shirts and just sit in the truck while I did all the errands. But mostly you just stayed home and tended to your cleaning while I did all the running around.”
He studied her face for any indication that she was starting to doubt the bullshit he was feeding her.
But she seemed to accept his lies. She appeared to be buying every word he said.
So he went one step further.
“It’s just a damn shame they’re all gone now.”
“Who?”
“All of our friends. When the meteorite hit the earth almost ten years ago. Please tell me you remember that much, at least.”
He saw a glint of something in her eye.
The word “meteorite” had registered.
She could vaguely remember… something, about something from space crashing to the earth.
But she couldn’t remember what, specifically.
The glimmer left her eyes as quickly as it had arrived.
She turned to him and asked, “What happened? Was it bad?”
“Oh, hell yeah, it was bad. The world froze over for seven long years, that’s how bad it was. Most of the people on earth died. Nearly all of them, in fact. The only ones who survived were the ones like us, who planned ahead.”
“So our friends… the ones who came to visit and saw me naked… they’re dead?”
“Yes, honey. They all froze to death or starved to death or the plague got ‘em. A couple of them were shot because they tried to steal. But they’re all gone now.”
“But how do we survive if it’s just the two of us?”
“Oh, we planned well. We stored a lot of food before the meteorite hit. We still have some of the dry stock left. And a lot of corn. We have a boatload of corn. We survive by eating what we put aside, and I take the pickup to the highway a couple of times a month to gather provisions. And I go hunting and fishing for our meat.”
“What do you mean, ‘go to the highway to gather provisions?’”
“Well, all the supermarkets were picked clean years ago. The survivors who live in cities, and there aren’t many of them left, grow their crops now. They never leave the cities anymore.
“That leaves all the big rigs all over the highway miles from any city, which are fair game for the rest of us. I know where there are half a dozen Wal-Mart trucks within twenty miles of here. Some of them have been picked through a bit, but most of the food is still there. And of course all the canned goods and cold foods are worthless now.
“But there’s still a lot of good stuff to be had. A couple of days ago I brought back four cases of macaroni and cheese, and four cases of beef jerky. It’s stale but still edible. And there’s plenty of dry stock in those trucks. Ramen noodles and pinto beans and rice and instant potatoes. It ain’t gourmet, but it gets us by.”
“It sounds like you do an awful lot. What do I do?”
“Well, honey, we’ve had an agreement ever since the meteorite hit. I’m the hunter and the gatherer, and you keep everything clean, and cook all the meals, and lay on that bed every time I have my urges. That’s the deal we’ve had for years now. And it’s worked very well up to this point.”
Once again, he searched her eyes for any sign of disbelief. But there was nothing. And she nodded her head.
She’d bought it.
Chapter 29
Bryan was fit to be tied.
For days he and Bryan Too had been scouring central Texas for his sweet Sarah.
They’d visited every hospital, clinic and doctor’s office within two hundred miles in every direction of Salt Mountain.
They’d slept
in abandoned motel rooms when they could find one toward the end of every day.
On the nights they couldn’t find one, they slept in Army issue sleeping bags beneath the stars.
Except for one cruel night when a passing line of thunderstorms opened up on them at two in the morning, forcing them to spend the rest of the night soaked and sleeping upright in the Humvee.
Through their ordeal they’d talked to over a hundred people. Each one promised they’d continue to search for Sarah and would notify Bryan immediately if she were found.
Finally, although he didn’t want to, Bryan had to face reality.
Sarah was out there somewhere.
But it wasn’t at any of the area medical facilities.
And finally, against everything inside him that told him to stay out there looking, he admitted defeat.
Bryan Too had come to like Bryan. They’d bonded, as men do when carrying out an important mission together. Through their mission they’d shared childhood experiences and discussed anything and everything, from the meaning of life to why women do the things they do.
But Bryan Too saw no need to continue. He also saw the futility of it all.
So he didn’t argue when Bryan said, “Let’s head back home in the morning. If she were out here we’d have found her by now.
Bryan Too said nothing. He merely nodded his head in agreement. And he let it drop.
But the next morning, after he’d started up the hulking Humvee and plotted his course back to the compound next to Salt Mountain, he turned to Bryan.
“So, where do you go from here?”
“I don’t know. There are already sixty volunteers going door to door in Kerr County, asking everyone they can find whether they’ve seen Sarah.
“I suppose I could join them.
“Or, I could go back to where the dog lost the scent and try to pick up her trail again.
“Do you think they were wrong? That she wasn’t picked up at the roadway after all?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know. I mean, the easy thing to do would be to just accept the dog handler’s word and look elsewhere.
“But what if the dog handler was wrong? What if the dog just happened to lose her scent again, and by some strange happenstance it just happened to be at the roadway? I mean, the dog had been out there for three days, and the first two days his nose got tired and he lost her scent, although the scent was still there. After he rested and slept he was able to pick it up again.
“What if the same thing happened the third day, and he just happened to be at the roadway when it happened?
“What if her trail went beyond the roadway? That if the handler hadn’t given up, the dog could have rested and slept and maybe picked the scent back up the following morning?”
Bryan Too though about the possibility.
“Pardon me for saying so. You’ve become a good friend, and I want to find Sarah too, to ease your pain as well as hers. But I think you might be grasping at straws. I mean, we searched the area past the roadway and couldn’t find any signs of anyone passing through there. We couldn’t find any more drops of blood. If she had continued past the roadway there would have been signs.”
“My brain keeps telling me that. But my heart… my heart keeps arguing. My heart says what if the dog handler was wrong? What if she didn’t get on a horse or in a vehicle? What if the dog’s nose just picked that particular moment to give out again? What if her bleeding, by some strange stroke of fate, picked that same exact moment to stop? I mean, for three days we were all hoping and praying she’d stop bleeding. We knew those blood drops were adding up and she was losing an awful lot of blood. What if her body finally said enough is enough?”
“Anything is possible. But even the Army has given up and gone home. And I can tell you from personal experience that the Army never likes to admit defeat. I think you have to go with the odds. And the odds are that someone picked her up. I don’t know why they didn’t take her to a medical facility. Maybe the person who picked her up was a doctor or a nurse, or maybe knew one. I think the most probable scenario is that they took her to their home to treat. And that once she’s recovered enough to show them where she lives that they’ll bring her back home again.
“Hell, for all we know she might be there waiting for you when I drop you off.”
But Bryan was unconvinced.
“I know I should go with common sense and join the door to door search. But think about it for just a moment.
“If I’m right, then she’d still out there. Still wandering through the woods, still injured, and it’s been more than a week now. I know she’s smart enough to be careful what she eats and drinks when she’s on her game. But she’s injured and she may not be thinking clearly.”
“Logically, when she came to that roadway, she’d have followed it, in one direction or the other. If she had gone north, she’d have turned around when it dead-ended at the cell phone tower a mile away. She’d have turned around and gone back the other way. And she’d have come out on Highway 83 and been able to flag down a passing motorist.
“Bryan, she wouldn’t have just crossed that road and kept going. It wouldn’t have made any sense.”
“Exactly. It wouldn’t have made any sense for someone who was thinking with a clear head. But for someone who was injured… and who maybe was confused or dazed… sense is no longer at play.”
Then Bryan finally said the words he’d been thinking for so long but didn’t want to verbalize.
“There are plenty of volunteers going door to door. One more body isn’t going to help them much. But I don’t want some hunter to find Sarah’s remains a year from now, still in the forest, and have to live the rest of my life knowing I could have saved her and let her down. I’m just not willing to do that. You can drop me off where the dog lost her scent, and I’ll continue my search there.”
“I’m not dropping you off anywhere.”
Bryan turned to look at Bryan Too, not quite understanding.
“You’re my friend now. We’re in this together. The Army put me at your disposal and told me to help you as long as you needed me. Two sets of eyes are better than one. If you’re going back into the woods to search for her, then I’m going with you.”
Chapter 30
The Humvee approached the compound in mid-afternoon. Bryan’s two way radio had been off for several days. They were out of range, and there was no need to run down the batteries.
But now, half a mile away, it was time to announce his arrival.
“Whoever’s at the desk, this is Bryan.”
Karen reached for the microphone.
“Go ahead, Bryan. Where are you?”
“About five minutes out. Can you have someone open the gate for me?”
“Sure. Sami’s here with me. She said she’d meet you there.”
“Any word on Sarah?”
“No, honey, I’m sorry. The search teams are still out, combing the countryside. They’ll find her.”
Bryan had gotten used to bad news. He no longer wanted to cry or to lash out when he received such negative reports. He just went numb.
Four minutes later the Humvee appeared on Karen’s monitors. She watched as it parked on the east side of the compound and Bryan and his driver exited.
As the pair neared the gate, she called Sami on the radio.
“Okay, Sami. They’re outside the gate and it’s all clear. Go ahead and open it up.”
Bryan hugged Sami and asked her how she was holding up.
“I’m getting better every day. It helps to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t been here for you.”
“I understand. What you’re doing is much more important than consoling me.”
“Sami, this is Bryan Too. Bryan, this is Sami. Her father was one of the men killed in the helicopter crash.”
Bryan took her hand and said, “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you. You said your name was B
ryan Too?”
“Long story. Actually, it’s Bryan Mason.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you.”
Sami and Bryan Too rushed to catch up with Bryan, who was on his way at a fast clip to the control center.
At the security desk, he hugged Karen.
“Hello, sweetheart. How have you been?”
“Better than you, I suspect. Welcome home, Bryan.”
“Thank you. But I won’t be staying long.”
Karen looked at Sami, who looked at Bryan Too, who nodded toward Bryan.
Bryan explained.
“We’re just here to get a second radio in case mine craps out, and some spare batteries. And to pack some MREs and water. Then Bryan Too and I are going back to the roadway where the dog lost the scent. Just in case the handler was wrong.”
He looked Karen directly in the eyes, and she could see his pain.
“I just can’t bear the thought that she might be out there, dying and all alone.”
“Can I come with you?”
“Karen, no offense. But you’d slow us down. Besides, you’re doing a great job running the control center. You’re much more important here.”
Sami spoke up.
“Then I’m going in her place.”
Bryan looked at Sami. She’d been hurt so much already. And she really wanted to help. He chose his words carefully.
“I’m sorry, Sami. But I have to say no to you too. You’ve already lost your father, and you’re six months pregnant. If something were to happen to endanger the baby too… well, we just can’t risk that.
“Please. Stay here with Karen and help coordinate the search. It’s the two of you working together with the grid maps that’s keeping everybody from repeatedly searching the same areas over and over again. That’s way more valuable to the effort than just a third body following the same trail in the woods. Would you stay here, for me?
Sami was disappointed, but couldn’t argue with his logic.
“When are you headed out?”
“As soon as we get packed and get something to eat. Within the hour.”
But Karen objected.
“Bryan, it’ll be dark in four hours. Wouldn’t it make more sense to head out first thing in the morning? You might as well get a comfortable night’s sleep before you leave again.”
The Search Page 10