FULL MOON COUNTRY (FULL MOON SERIES (vol. 2))

by Terry Yates

  The first thing he saw was a small lake in front of them. Miles behind the small lake were the mountains that Kyler had seen earlier.

  “What is that?” Sam asked, as the others were joining the group.

  “The Black Mesa’s,” Mary Sue answered, her hand over her eyes, trying to block the sun out.

  Yes, Kyler thought to himself, having guessed right earlier.

  “I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about, Sheriff. Look at the lake.”

  Everyone turned their gaze to the small lake.

  “What about it?” Kyler asked.

  “Look at those whitecaps,” Potts told him.

  Kyler looked at the water. Sure enough it had large whitecap waves beating against the shore. As a matter of fact, the entire lake was covered in whitecaps.

  “I don’t get it,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

  “There’s no breeze,” Peter replied.

  “None,” Potts added.

  Kyler looked around, stuck his index finger in his mouth and pointed toward the sky. Sure enough…no breeze. Shit. First, the sandstorm, then the cold wind, and now a white-capped lake with no breeze…son-of-a-bitch. What was going on with the weather? It had to be something to do with the full moons somehow, but he had no idea how the weather worked. He was always too busy staring at Melissa Cole’s bra strap in Eighth Grade Science, to be worrying about how the weather was formed.

  “Did you say those were the Black Mesa’s there?” Potts asked Mary Sue, now looking past the lake.

  “Yessir.”

  “Then we’re a long way from Tennessee, aren’t we…especially going this direction?”

  “Yessir. We’re almost in Colorado. We’ve wasted a few hours.”

  “Hmm…”

  They all looked at the colonel who was rubbing his chin. Oh shit, Kyler thought to himself.

  CHAPTER 76

  Kyler was sitting cross-legged on the floor hanging onto anything that he could find. The others seemed to be enjoying the ride around the lake, and across the terrain that lead to Black Mesa’s. Once they got off of the road, Kyler looked back at the highway, which was jam-packed as far as the eye could see. He also saw dozens of cars and SUVs following them. He picked up the radio, which he had placed between his legs so that he wouldn’t lose it again, and tried to raise it to his lips, but the truck was bouncing up and down making it nearly impossible to push the talk button, much less raise it to his mouth without chipping enamel.

  “Colonel?” he asked, finally managing to press the radio to his lips.

  “I see ‘em…” Potts came back. Potts’ truck was leading this time.

  “What’re you going to do?”

  “What can I do? I don’t have time to deal with them right now, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “You’re just going to let them follow us?”

  “Not much else I can do. Over and out.”

  Well that was that, he supposed. He admired Potts for being able to focus on one thing and one thing only.

  They drove for approximately an hour. To Kyler, it didn’t seem like the mountains were any closer than they had been before. As a matter of fact, there were a few times that he thought they were actually moving away from them.

  “Colonel?” he heard FranAnne say over the radio.

  “What is it, Fulton?” Potts replied.

  “I think we ought to give the trucks a rest, Sir. They’re older’n Methuselah.”

  “Another fifteen minutes,” Potts told her. “Out.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Peter stopped the lead truck and FranAnne did likewise. Everyone piled out and began to stretch.

  “We’ll bivouac here for the night,” Potts told the group. “God damned, how much farther do we have to go?”

  “They’re quite a ways out there,” Mary Sue came back.

  “All right everyone, let’s unload the gear,” barked Potts. “Let’s get those tents up, starting with mine. The way the weather’s been hitting us, we don’t know when we’ll need shelter. Move it!”

  FranAnne, Jefferson, Jordan, and Williams, along with the children, sprang into action and began to unload the gear truck, while Kyler, Sam, Mary Sue, and Peter, stayed where they were. The civilians, who did not particularly care to be ordered around stood united until Potts turned to them, his one blue eye glaring at seemingly each one of them individually.

  “You people too good to help out?” he asked, sarcasm dripping off his barbed tongue.

  He continued his game of Staredown until the quartet grumbled and began to disperse toward the truck. Kyler looked up to find himself walking next to Mary Sue.

  “Do you know who you remind me of?” he asked her, smiling.

  “The whore in Risky Business?” she replied, trying to smile, but she was so still so tired, her facial muscles just wouldn’t comply.

  “Actually, I was going to say, my cousin, Jill.”

  CHAPTER 77

  The camp was set up with plenty of daylight left. Kyler had quickly snatched one of the newer tents that you just threw down on the ground, and it unfolded by itself. He wasn’t about to spend the night in one of those old ones again. Someone with camping experience could have it.

  They placed the trucks corner to corner around the camp, giving them a ninety-degree angle, almost forming an ‘L’. Potts had ordered them to secure the perimeter, while he went out and checked the terrain, making sure, like he always did, that there was nothing out there to surprise them. The scene was very surrealistic to Kyler. He saw Potts out in the distance in what looked like no man’s land, looking like the lone survivor of a nuclear holocaust. Then, he moved his head thirty-degrees to the right, and there was a highway full of vehicles, and in the background, on the horizon, he could see smoke from smokestacks coming from either a big city, or a lot of little ones. Left-Mad Max. Right-Metropolis.

  Sam appointed himself cook, and no one really minded, because of his expertise at it, and their own complete lack of energy to do it themselves. He took different foods out of cans and dry food packets and mixed them into a large pot, added salt, pepper, and water, then stirred vigorously. As usual, it was delicious. It wouldn’t have mattered, though. They were all so hungry that a Gorilla Ball sandwich would’ve sounded appetizing.

  After dinner, Potts sent the soldiers out to secure the outer perimeter before the sun went down. None of the vehicles that had followed them ever caught up. They had either decided to stop and camp behind them, or their cars just hadn’t been able to take the rough terrain. FranAnne walked west, Williams, East, and Jefferson and Jordan, South. They had a nice pit fire going that should keep it bright out even after the sun went down. They were all watching the moon, which was at half. They’d all breathed a silent sigh of relief, seeing that it wasn’t going to be full. It would be big, though. It was already twice as large as the soon-to-be setting sun. It hung up in the sky, still a light silver in color. At some point, they all wondered how something so beautiful was causing so much destruction.

  When the sun finally set, Kyler joined the others. He had checked on the children. He’d replaced Lauren’s bandage with a new one, looked at Jordan’s ribs, and went to Potts tent, where, as usual, Potts was sitting at his portable desk, his face down in a map, perusing every inch of it with his one eye. One of the radios was standing up next to him. Nothing but static was coming through, but that was Potts, leaving nothing to chance. He knew better than to try to check on the man himself. He’d taken two nasty tumbles off of the truck, and of course his bandage needed changing, so he left all of the materials in a paper sack next to him on his desk.

  “What do you want?” Potts asked, not looking up.

  “We’re really going over the mountain instead of through it like the rest of the world?”

  “Yep.”

  The two men remained silent for a moment.

  “Anything else?” Potts asked, still not looking up.

  “I guess not.”

  Kyler walke
d back out into the night. It was nice and cool tonight. He was fed, rested, and as clean as he could be using what was in Hebman’s toiletry bag. Potts didn’t want them using the water frivolously, and shaving was frivolous to everyone but him. He let them take field baths, which basically meant you got to wash yourself with a large paper cup full of water, that was it…face, armpits and teeth.

  As he walked across the camp, he stopped and watched the children, sans Denny, playing with Joe, who would run away from them all, stop, stick his butt in the air, growl, then start chasing them in return.

  When he reached the campfire, Sam, Denny, Jefferson, Jordan, Peter, and Williams, were lounging around the fire, all fat and sassy. FranAnne and Mary Sue went out from the camp to field bathe and to relieve themselves.

  They all seemed to be talking about comic books, sans Peter, who just looked at them quizzically. All but Peter had one in their hands. Peter was cleaning an AK-47. An Uzi was lying next to him. Kyler recognized that weapon too well. He had tried to use one on the island, and had shot up everything on the island but what he had been aiming at. The big German seemed to know what he was doing. Kyler had heard him tell Potts that he had been a captain in the German Army. The big son-of-a-bitch looked made for mayhem. His chest and arms were simply massive. Looking at the size of the man and the weapons that he seemed very adept at using, Kyler was beginning to feel safer than he did with Potts around.

  “Did you ever read comic books, Dr. Kyler?” Denny asked, lying back against his backpack. The boy was actually smiling. Seeing…or hearing Rhonda Weaver’s death couldn’t have been easy for him, or for Mary Sue, for that matter, but the kid seemed to be doing all right at the moment. Worrying about his family couldn’t be easy for him either.

  “Oh yeah! I didn’t at first, but one of my cousins who was older gave me his old comics from the sixties, and I fell in love with The X-Men, The Teen Titans, Prince Valiant, The Rawhide Kid, The Two Gun Kid, Kid Colt…” He looked up at the group and noticed that they were all looking at each other and smiling. “What?” he asked, forming his own smile, albeit a confused one.

  “He’s gay, you know,” Denny answered.

  “What?”

  “He’s gay,” Denny repeated.

  “Who’s gay?”

  “The Rawhide Kid came out of the closet some time ago,” Jefferson informed the doctor, also grinning.

  “He is…he did…well, I still like him,” Kyler informed them rather indignantly. “I like to think I’m an open-minded man of the world. I refuse to let someone’s…eh…gaiety, affect how I feel about a man…or…guy.”

  Denny reached back into his backpack and retrieved another comic book.

  “We still like him, too.” he retorted, smiling up at the doctor, and flipping the magazine at him.

  Kyler looked at the cover. There he was, The Rawhide Kid, suddenly in a different light. First of all, the word RAWHIDE suddenly stuck out a lot more, plus The Kid was looking into a saloon and rubbing his chin. The thought balloon said, “Hmm…there’s Belle Starr. There’s a thing or two I could teach that woman”. This also took on a new light, but what the hell. Secretly though, he liked The Two Gun Kid with his Spanish hat, mask, and two guns. Actually, that seemed gayer than The Rawhide Kid.

  “God, I’m full,” Jefferson moaned, lying back on the ground, and folding his arms behind him. He always looked so strange without his MP helmet or cap on…more youthful.

  “Me too,” Kyler came back, flopping down onto the ground, while still looking at the comic.

  “That was good eating, if I say so myself,” Sam chimed in, “and I do.”

  “Mmm…” was all that escaped Jordan’s lips. His head was on his backpack, his cap was over his eyes, once again, a toothpick hung from his mouth, and again he patted his stomach.

  “I’m still hungry,” Williams told them, his hand on his stomach.

  “I’m stuffed and just dreading the inevitable,” Jefferson informed the group, his head also now on his gear, but looking up at the sky.

  Everyone but Williams laughed at the joke.

  “I don’t get it,” he said.

  “He’s sayin’ that he ain’t use to shittin’ outside,” Jordan explained, the cap still over his eyes.

  “You’re still hungry?” Denny asked the fat corporal, whose stomach had begun to growl again.

  “A little,” he replied.

  “Well I…” Denny started, sitting up, and twisting his body. He reached behind his backpack and took out a wadded up beach towel and began to unroll it. “I’ve got some…”

  Everyone sat up as he unrolled the beach towel, curious as to what lay inside. When it was completely unrolled, the boy pulled out what looked to be like a large freezer bag stuffed with something dark that looked like a huge, black sponge.”

  “Ah…man…” he groaned, squeezing the bag.

  “What is it?” Sam asked.

  “It WAS sixteen fudge brownies that my mom baked that I was supposed to drop by her Sunday school class, but I chickened out. I get stares…you know…looking like I do, so I never took ‘em. I’ve been trying to keep ‘em out of the sun as best I could, and did a pretty good job, but they did melt a little, then I guess hardened in this cool, so it’s just…”

  “One big brownie,” Williams finished, almost salivating.

  “What the hell’s wrong with that?” Jordan asked, reaching up and into the bag. He broke off a large chunk. Several small pieces broke off on the way to his mouth. He shoveled the fudge into his mouth and began to chew. First, he closed his eyes, and afterward broke into a big smile, and let out an even bigger moan. “Thith thit’s gweat,” he informed them, trying to swallow the fudge.

  This was all that the others needed to hear. Denny peeled back some of the freezer bag to where the fudge was sticking out through the top. He held it out to each of them, and everyone. Peter had waved them off, and instead, stood up with both rifles, and walked away from the campfire.

  “Mmm…” they all hummed one after another.

  “Dwordon’s thwight,” Jefferson tried to say, grinning, his normally pearly white teeth blackened out by the fudge. “Dith thith’s gwood!”

  “Thave thum thor the thadies,” Kyler choked. “Tthhey’ll wanth thum, thoo.”

  The men continued to eat their brownies with the spirit of a pledge in a cannibal fraternity, each groaning every time they swallowed.

  “Wish we had some milk,” Kyler said aloud, licking his fingers.

  “We have some powdered milk in the truck somewhere,” Sam informed them. Here in a minute, I’ll try to sneak over there, and make us a few glasses. Ol’ Iron Ass can’t begrudge us that.”

  “The hell he can’t!” Jordan retorted, also licking his fingers. “That man would begrudge a midget a lift.”

  The rest of them sat there for a moment, each trying to take in Jordan’s meaning, until all at once, the whole group broke into laughter.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Jefferson asked the private.

  “How the hell should I know?” Jordan came back. “I ain’t no midget.”

  Again, the group broke into laughter.

  “Ah man,” Kyler groaned as he lay back down on his back, and putting both arms behind his head. He was full for the first time in weeks. “Sam, you can make anything edible.”

  All was quiet for a moment, until Sam started chuckling.

  “What’s so funny?” Jefferson asked, now smiling.

  “I don’t know…” Sam giggled, “I was just thinking that my life is like one of those old Western TV shows.”

  “How so?” Kyler asked, looking up at the grinning man.

  “I’m Asian…and the cook!”

  With this, the group broke into laughter, Jordan and Williams, having trouble stopping, Williams’ high-pitched laugh making them laugh harder. They continued to laugh for several seconds until it quieted down some.

  “Denny?” asked Jefferson, still grinning. “Did your mom really ma
ke these brownies?

  “She sure did,” Denny came back. “I might’ve helped a little.”

  The group started giggling again.

  “I don’t get it,” Kyler asked.

  “How are ya’ feelin’, Doc?”

  Kyler stared up at the sky and thought for a moment. His head was light, but he didn’t feel bad. As a matter of fact, he felt pretty good.

  “Oh…” he tried to start, “I’m okay…I guess.”

  This time, the guys, if possible, laughed even harder.

  “Denny, what did you do?” Kyler asked him, trying to lift his head, but suddenly it weighed a ton.

  “I think Denny’s momma made some Shake-n-Bake brownies,” Jordan chimed in, his red hair appearing almost fire like against the fire.

  “AND I HELPED!” screamed Kyler, Williams, and Jefferson, remembering the fried chicken commercials.

  This caused them to laugh for several minutes, all pointing at one another.

  “You mean, you were going to get your mom’s Sunday school class stoned?” Kyler asked the sixteen-year old after they quieted down again.

  “She grounded me,” the lad answered, now lying back, looking up at the bright orange moon.

  “What for?” Williams asked.

  “For spiking some brownies she made for my homeroom.”

  This time, the giggling and laughing continued, until…

  “What’s going on here?”

  The grinning idiots looked up to see Mary Sue and FranAnne looking down at them, smiling, but confused. It had been FranAnne who had spoken.

  “Oh, we were discussing the laws of…something,” Denny laughed, sitting up again.

  “Do you expect me to believe that you were discussing the laws of anything, Denny Lusk? As smart as you are, I somehow doubt it,” Mary Sue told the boy, smiling down at him and placing her hand on his head. She looked as clean and refreshed as a person could under their circumstances.

  “Normally, Sheriff Carter, I’d be insulted by your…um…” Denny tried to say.