Tempest of Tennessee (Episode 3): Tempest of Tennessee

by McDonald, Terry

  I listened longer, heard her speak a few more times, but heard no other adult voices. I figured, if they were putting away toys, they would soon be ready for bed. I took that for granted that she was alone with the children and that I had a bit of time before she felt at ease to leave them.

  Moving fast to beat the loss of what pale light there was, in the clothing section, through much trial and error, I found jeans, a pullover sweatshirt and a light jacket to fit. Shed my wet clothing and felt instantly warmer in the dry ones. My waterlogged boots would have to wait until after I dealt with the woman.

  Lord, I felt so good, good enough to make me want to sing a song about dry clothes if there were one. With my newfound warmth, a load of depression and despondency lifted from my shoulders.

  When I first left from Doctor Robbins place, I wanted revenge and was pissed to the point of stupidity, not bothering to prepare for the elements. Note to self; ‘Don’t ever be so dumb again’. Contain your anger and control it. Self; you could have been much more comfortable.

  Went back to the office door, plastered my ear to it and settled in to wait. From the words exchanged between the woman and the children it was obvious she was getting them to bed. Another obvious thing was she gave constant orders to two others directing their help. One was Gloria and the other, Lois. I figured them as teenagers.

  I retreated down the nearest aisle leading to the rear of the store, going deeper into darkness as I went. I figured she’d soon leave to either join or check those on the back dock.

  Ten minutes rewarded my figuring. The office door opened with a blast of electric light. A woman stood outlined in the frame. I saw neither a weapon in her hands nor one holstered at her side.

  The door closed. Hiding at the end of the aisle, my eyes followed the spot on the floor from an LED flashlight she used to light her way.

  Standing aside in a cross aisle, I let her pass and then said, “Stop where you are. Do not turn around. I have a gun pointed at your back.”

  Of course, I startled her. In reflex, she turned and her light found my eyes.

  “Lower the light lady or I will shoot you.”

  She played the light up and down my body. “Put that pistol away little girl before you get yourself in trouble. There are a lot of people here.”

  I fired a round over her head. “There’s nobody here but me, you and a bunch of kids. Lower the damn light or I will shoot you.”

  She lowered the light to shine on the floor between us. “You’re wrong. They probably heard you shoot. Run for the front door while you can. Stay close to the front wall and get away from here. Don’t use the parking lot, there’s a shooter on the roof.”

  “I’m not leaving… you know about the shooter on the roof. How do you feel about them shooting people without warning them away?”

  “That’s to do with Harvey Bullard and the rest. I’m the school teacher.”

  “Where’d you all come from, how’d you get together?”

  “Girl, don’t stand there asking questions. Run while you can. Harvey and the men will use you.”

  I fired another round over her head. “Harvey and the men won’t do shit, lady. Answer my question.”

  I think she had begun to realize that something was up because her tone changed. “We all worked here. Harvey came up with the idea of taking over the store. He talked a few into agreeing with him. They went and got their families and returned with their weapons as well.”

  “What did you do here?”

  “Nothing, I wasn’t employed here, my brother was.” She paused and then said, “Something’s wrong. Either you’re addled, or—.”

  “The word ‘or’ suits the situation for now. Your brother worked here. What did that Harvey guy do?”

  “Harvey was the assistant manager. Yes, my brother worked here, but he’s dead.”

  “Did he get shot while killing innocent people?”

  “No, on one of his guard nights on the roof he was drunk and tried to rape Arleen, the other guard. She pushed him off.”

  “She pushed him off the roof?”

  “Yes, off the roof.”

  “Are there any other adults in the room with the children? How old are Gloria and Lois?”

  “No, there aren’t any adults. The girls are fifteen and sixteen.”

  “Are there any teenage boys?”

  “Jimmie’s fourteen, but he’s autistic.” Stopping my questions, she asked, “What’s your name?”

  I don’t know why, but out flowed, “I’m Tempest of Tennessee, and that’s what came down on Walmart today. The guard of the roof is dead. You don’t want to go to the back dock. I blew up all the rest of this rotten bunch. Sent them to hell where they belong.”

  I could read the disbelief in her voice, “That can’t be true.”

  I fired two rounds at the ceiling above us. “Do you think I’d make this much noise if I was worried about them?”

  She said, “Oh God.” She said it again and then said, “I need to sit down.”

  She sat down and played the light into my face. My face must have shown her I was about to shoot her, because the light jerked away and she said, “Please, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shine the light on you.”

  “Don’t let it happen again. Shine it on your face so I can see what you look like.”

  Middle-aged, she had the face of a schoolteacher. “What are you going to do now?” She asked.

  “Lady—.”

  “My name is Zoe, Zoe Mellon.”

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Her name tickled my funny bone.

  That didn’t sit well with her. “I can see you wouldn’t be a prize student.”

  “You’ve got that right. I was a mess in school. Miss Mellon, are any of the children yours?”

  “I have two girls, nine and eleven. All told, there are seventeen children. One’s an infant, three months. Another three of them are toddlers. If what you say is true, you’ve killed their mothers and fathers.”

  “They’re dead for sure. I don’t figure there’s any reason to kill you other than the fact that you were in cahoots with cold-blooded murderers. I’d kill you if it weren’t for the children.”

  “I didn’t condone what they were doing.”

  “Yes you did. If you didn’t, you’d have figured out a way to kill them like I did. Tell the truth; you could’ve killed Harvey, maybe a few others and probably changed what was going on here.”

  “It didn’t cross my mind to do such a thing. Even if it did, I doubt I would have acted on it.”

  I gave her some slack with a dose of truth, “Most people won’t buck the flow if they’re comfortable. It seems you and the rest of your bunch was right comfortable here.”

  Her answer was simple. “Yes we were.”

  “Well, Harvey and the rest found out its open season on murderers. Now the question is, what are you going to do?”

  She spoke the truth back at me. “Take care of the children and live in terror.”

  “Life’s a bitch, ain’t it? When my friends and I drove up yesterday, all you all had to do was say you’d staked a claim and we’d of left. There are too many other places for supplies to fight over what’s here. They messed up when they shot my friend. Signed their own death warrants is what they did.”

  “I’m sorry they killed your friend.”

  That pissed me. “She’s not dead. I’ve decided not to kill you, but the proper way you should have said that was, “I’m sorry ‘we’ killed your friend”.

  She spoke like a teacher. “I stand corrected.”

  So there we were; her sitting on the floor of the Walmart and me holding a pistol on her and I was lost for a next move.

  “Miss Mellon, killing was easy, but I don’t know what to do from here.”

  “You could simply leave.”

  “I believe I will. I need to check on how my friend is. Now that the murderers are out of the way, I will tell you that some of us will be back pretty soon to pick up supplies that
we need.”

  “You don’t rate yourself a murderer?”

  “No mam. Without warning, you and your bunch shot my friend, tried to kill us. I was judge and executioner. Look on the back dock if you want to verify the fact. If you have a weak stomach, I’d recommend not. People who die violent deaths tend to lose control of their bowels.

  “Keep in mind that the only reason your brains are still in your head is that I don’t want to deal with the children. Go to them. Maybe whoever comes will have a different take on your situation than I.”

  “Child, there’s something wrong with you.”

  I fired a shot into the floor beside her… scared the crap out of her. “I’m not a child, bitch. There’s nothing wrong with me, but there is something in you that is missing… you need to find your morals. Roll your flashlight over to me. I need to get some toilet paper and dog food. You can find your way in the dark.”

  ************

  Midnight found me knocking on Doctor Robbins door. Jeffry let me in.

  “I was worried. Are you hungry?”

  My stomach was full of junk I’d snagged from shelves at the Walmart. “Naw, I’m good. Is there any coffee? Tell me…, how is Annette?”

  “According to the doctor, she’s stable, weak, but recovering. As far as coffee, besides being after midnight, no, the Robbins’s are down to their last dregs of everything. No coffee, no tea, a few cans of food is the limit of their supplies. I’m sure you’ll approve. I’ve offered to help them move themselves and their equipment to the ranch as soon as Annette can make the move.”

  “That would be great.”

  I left the foyer, entered the living room that glowed with light from a kerosene lamp and went to sit on the couch. Jeffry followed me and waited for me to continue speaking. Relishing the comfort of the soft cushions, I didn’t speak, so he went fishing with a blunt hook. “Is it safe to return to the Walmart?”

  “Yes. The front seat of the dump truck is full of toilet paper and dog food, but we’ll need to take a convoy as soon as possible. The place is full of food. Yeah, there’s food and everything else.”

  “The two guards are dead?”

  “There was only one guard up there because of the rain. She’s dead and about two-dozen others along with her. Let me tell you what was going on—.”

  His faced registered shock, “Are you saying you killed two dozen people?”

  “Not quite that many, but yeah, I blew em to hell. Do you want me to tell you—?”

  “You killed them and then remembered to go shopping for toilet paper?”

  “Jeffry, I’m tired. If you interrupt me again, I’m going to lie on the carpet and go to sleep.”

  He sat in a chair across the coffee table. “Please continue.”

  I told him everything. When I finished, he was quiet for a period and then said, “Good work.”

  I agreed and voiced it. “Like I told the woman, if they’d simply told us they had a claim, we’d have left. They made a fatal mistake when they shot at us. Now they are hell-bound and gone.”

  “How many children did you say are there?”

  “There are seventeen children from a baby on up. I orphaned all but two of them. Those two belong to the teacher.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I told her if it wasn’t for the fact I’d have to deal with the children, I would kill her too.”

  “You didn’t tell her we’d come get them?”

  “No, why would I? The Walmart has tons of food and other supplies. There is no possible way that we can empty that place. There’ll be plenty left for them.”

  Jeffry asked, “It didn’t cross your mind that the rest of us wouldn’t think of leaving a woman alone to protect and raise seventeen children?”

  “No, it didn’t. What you all do with them is your business and I told her that. If you bring em over and they move into the bunkhouse, I’m finding a place in one of the barns. The way people are moving to the ranch, you might need to think about moving some mobile homes onto the property. Keep it up and after a while there won’t be room for livestock.”

  He frowned and said, “I place human value above that of livestock. Another thing… did you forget that you’re mainly responsible for our population growth?”

  He had me there. I opened my mouth, started to reply, changed my mind and then changed my mind back. “I was going to say, if all we have is people and no livestock, Preeja will need to invent recipes to make human meat tasty. Look Jeffry, I’m tired and I don’t know if that is what I would say if I weren’t, but I am tired. I’m not talking anymore.

  I left the couch, found a free section of carpet in a corner of the room and lay down. “I’m going to sleep. Turn off the lamp please.”

  ******

  Morning came in the form of a booted foot roughly nudging my hip.

  A loud mad voice said, “Wake up. Get up and leave my house.”

  I rolled over onto my back and sat. Doctor Robbins loomed over me. To his angry old face I spoke. “I don’t know and I don’t care what’s got you riled, but if your boot touches me again I’m going to break the leg it’s attached to.”

  “I will not shelter a cold-blooded murderer in my house. Take whatever you brought with you and get out.”

  Pumped with anger, I got up and was in his face except it was inches above mine. I had to tilt my head. “Ordering me to leave, that’s your business. You did and I’ll go. My business is to tell you to shut up and leave me alone.”

  The ruckus brought first Vicky, his wife with Jeffry following. She shouted, “Oliver, what are you doing? Leave her alone.”

  “You heard what Jeffry told us. She used a homemade bomb to kill indiscriminately over a dozen people, many of whom were likely not guilty of any crime.”

  I pushed past the old bastard. “They were all guilty.”

  I continued to the couch where I’d taken off my boots when I first came in. To the other two I said, “You two need to constrain the old bastard. He’s already put his boot on me, another touch and I won’t hold back.”

  “What do you mean he put his boot on you?” Jeffry asked.

  Doctor Robbins answered for himself. “I used my toe to wake her.”

  Jeffry asked, “Will it kill Annette if she’s moved?”

  Puzzled, the doctor asked, “Why?”

  Perhaps because he was controlling his anger, Jeffry’s reply was barely above a whisper. “If we can move her, we’re all leaving your fucking house. You asked me what happened on Tempest’s run back to the Walmart, but you left the table before you heard anything except for the bombing. How dare you think you have the right to touch her?”

  His wife, Vicky, said, to Jeffry, “You’ll not be moving Annette.” She turned to her husband, “Oliver, over the years I’ve watched you take what you call the high ground, but most of the time it was nothing more than you attempting to prove yourself morally superior. I’ve kept my mouth shut because it was a harmless fault. Tempest wiped away a rat’s nest of murderous ambushers. You’ve gone too far this time. I would suggest you apologize.”

  The doctor said, “What she has done goes against my Christian—.”

  Vicky cut him off. “You’re a Christian when it suits your agenda. I’d advise you not to take that path a step further.”

  Red faced, the doctor was going to reply in denial, but something in his wife’s face made him change tactics. “I may have overreacted; I need to go to my office and calm down.”

  Vicky said, “That’s a good idea. Apologize to Tempest before you go.”

  He turned redder, but he managed to grit out, “I apologize.”

  I still wanted to smack him, but I gritted out, “Your apology is not accepted, but I’ll let it go this time. If something like this happens again, I won’t hold back.”

  He started to reply, but Jeffry said, “Take what you got because I doubt it’ll get better for you.”

  I’ve read in books where a character spun on his heel
and left. Damn if that wasn’t the doctor’s exact move.

  In a distant recess of the house, we heard a door close with a thud.

  Vicky said to me, “Tempest, I’m sorry. Oliver is always lurking for a chance to ride a high horse, but bless the man; he often picks the wrong horse and embarrasses himself. I’ll give him time to cool off and explain to him his error.

  Jeffry said, “Tempest, maybe this set-to awoke Annette. Will you check on her? I’m going to the truck for our remaining MRE’s. Vicky and I are going to pick out bits to transform into a soup. Annette’s throat is raw from the tube down her throat during surgery.”

  Vicky said, “I’ll show you to her room.” She reached out to take my arm, but I flinched from her.

  “I’ll follow you.”

  She led me down a hall past the door of the examination room, past two more doors, opened the next one and held it for me. I brushed past her and entered a bedroom. Annette was awake and saw me come in.

  Her voice raspy, dry-throat, “You’re alive, and from appearances, uninjured. Jeffry told me you went back to the Walmart. How many bodies did you leave there?” She reached for a glass on the nightstand beside her.

  Vicky had entered behind me. “She left plenty… in my opinion well deserved.” To me she said, “Tempest, please keep in mind that Oliver is severely undernourished and has had little sleep. There’s another factor; one that is embarrassing to reveal. He is an opioid addict. He ran out a week ago and withdrawal affects his judgment and makes him irritable.”

  Annette said, “What’s going on, Tempest?”

  “The freaking asshole used his foot to kick me awake. He called me a murderer, and then told me to pack up and get out.”

  Annette gasped for air and said, “Find my clothing, we’ll leave today.”

  “Naw, I’ll give him credit for saving your life and let it go based on that, along with the piss poor excuses his wife came up with.”

  ‘His wife’, said, “”Please, Oliver’s a good man going through a bad time. Wait and see. He’ll give a real apologize before this morning is over.” Then to Annette, “As far as you leaving, there is a pressure valve in your chest. You have a collapsed lung. The doctor will attempt to inflate it…, probably tomorrow or the day after. Until then, we don’t want you to move much at all. As I told you, he had the devil’s own time getting the bleeding to stop.”