Chapter 2
Lacy was pacing. I hated it when she did that. I was packing and trying to stay out of her way, but she wasn't paying a lick of attention to what she was doing, so I kept running into her. Finally, I grabbed her by both arms and steered her to the love seat where I sat her down. Sitting beside her, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, waiting for her to begin. It had started out to be a nice day, then a plane, a cousin and a briefcase later everything was out of kilter.
"I don't want to lose you," she said, "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you." I sighed, here comes the tears.
"I don't plan on anything happening to me but I can't sit here all safe and sound when our family needs help. It would've been nice if someone would've come to our aid but we managed ok. I'll will again. I just don't have a choice in the matter."
"You always have a choice, JD. What has Northern Uncle Bill done for us? He is the most untouchable, standoffish, heartless man I've ever met. All that genius made him hateful and mean. Not like Southern Uncle Bill, who is a big teddy bear. I love George though and I hate to see her hurt, but Northern Uncle Bill has no heart. He's gotten her into this mess now he wants someone else to do the dirty work to make sure she's safe."
"That's true and I understand your position, but he has the means to end this virus, we have to get him out. George is just the person to give me the incentive to do this. He knows it too, but I'm more concerned with George than him. Mason and Ken will be there so we'll be ok. I don't know what else to say, but I don't want to be fighting anymore about it. Please, just help me out here a little."
"OK, sis, I can't convince you not to do this, so as much as I hate to I'll support you but I won't like it and I will miss the hell out of you till you get back." We hugged and sniffled a bit then I finished packing a few things before heading back downstairs.
The menfolk were outside gathered around Ken's plane. Duke right in the middle them. I didn't care a thing about it so wandered into the kitchen where lunch preparations were under way. The ladies had been whispering when I entered the room but quieted suddenly.
"Should I wait in the dining room till you finish talking about me?"Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, I tapped some Koolaid into it and shook it up while I waited for an answer. They looked everywhere but at me, so I shrugged and turned to leave.
"We don't know why you have to go too. I mean, the guys can handle it just fine, why do you have to go?" asked Melody.
"You all want your men to leave not knowing when or even if they'll return?"
"Well, no, not when you put it that way."
"I thought not. Look, this is my family and they need help, so no one else needs to go. Granted he may have found an anti-virus for the walker problem and that would be great, but when it comes down to it, it's my responsibility. So, what's for lunch?"
They stood looking like they wanted to say something else, then everyone started talking at once. Things were back to normal or at the very least, they had nothing else to say on the matter. I wandered back into the dining room and found the letter Northern Uncle Bill and sent me. I took a breath and opened it.
JD,
I see Ken has found you and that you are well.
Ken has informed you of our whereabouts and situation. I don't know of the conditions outside our compound but if it's half as bad as inside I do not want you to come to my aid. I would appreciate, however,the rescue of Georgina. I can't conceive the thought of her death and if there were another way I would have discovered it by now.
I have failed. I don't like the feeling and now know how you feel.
I have included all pertinent information for our imminent rescue in the briefcase. Study it well. You will of course, follow the enclosed directions and I will see you in several days. The fate of the world is in your hands.
Failure is not an option.
Read George's letter and she will give you the final preparations.
Wm May
It's amazing how quickly he can piss me off. I don't know why, since I've been dealing with his indifference all my life. A mind such as his is so full of his work that he has no room for anything else. I had learned to live with it, I just hadn't learned to like it.
Lacy picked up the letter, read it and tossed it back on the table. She just looked at me, shook her head, walked to the window and watched the men at the plane, crossing her arms defiantly. I sat down and started to look through the array of paperwork in the briefcase. A map "suggested" a route to the facility as well as times to drive each day and places to rest. It included a departure time and arrival time. Oh yea, let me see, looks like around $50,000 in cash. I shook my head as I read the information, dividing it into two piles...relevant and not. The money went into the not relevant pile.
Mandy wandered in, picked up the envelope, shook it and out came a photo SD card. It sat on the table like a giant, black widow spider, ok a small one, but scary just the same. Lacy turned at the sound of it hitting the table, then put her hand on my shoulder as we stared at it. "Well, hell." I tried to put it in my camera the wrong way at first then with fumbling fingers I managed to snap it into place. I started looking at the photos of Uncle Bill with his glasses perched on his nose as he stood before a microscope, at his desk behind a stack of papers, with his arm around a colleague, eating dinner...wait. I went back to the picture of his arm around a colleague and studied it a moment.
"Lacy do you know how to put this picture on a computer and blow it up?" I asked handing her the camera.
"Sure, follow me."
After several moments of fiddling with the computer, the picture was enlarged on the 22" monitor. There he stood again. There was something about it I couldn't put my finger on. I've never seen his arm around anyone, including George, why is he doing it now?
"Why is he putting his arm around that person? He doesn't even look like he's enjoying it." She leaned forward and squinted her eyes, then stepped back and squinted her eyes. I wondered if that helped so I tried it and got dizzy. I shook myself like a dog, walked back a few more steps and bumped into the chair so I sat down.
"What are you two doing?" asked Mason as he blocked the door from several people who were frowning at us. Lacy and I jumped like we'd been shot.
"Good heavens, do you have to sneak up on a person like that. You'd think you weren't taught good manners."
"My manners are just fine and I wasn't sneaking. You just don't pay attention to what's around you most of the time."
"You were sneaking and I pay plenty of attention...when it's deserved that is."
"Are you sure they're not married?" Ken asked Flynn, who was grinning.
"Oh, for heavens sake, Ken, we are not married."
"Then you need to quit acting like it." he said going to the sink to wash his hands.
Mason and I looked at each other with our mouths gaping open.
We don't act that way, do we? he asked.
Absolutely not, I don't know where he got that idea. I said, "Lacy and I have discovered something we don't understand. Ken, did you ever see Northern Uncle Bill put his arm around anyone let alone have his picture taken that way?"
"Never, he said it was a sign of weakness." When everyone turned to him he hurriedly said, "that's what HE said. He always said he didn't have time for the niceties of life and his work was the most important thing to him. Family was just a nuisance, something to interrupt him."
"He said to read Georges letter, do you have it?"
"Damn I nearly forgot." He said digging in his pockets. Finally he came up with a small disc. "You can't be serious. She put it on a disc?" I said, taking the disc and putting it in the computer. Lacy did her thing and George appeared. A short, pixie look alike, her blond hair was cut boxy square all round her heart shaped face. A turned up nose and small pout y lips made her adorable, and most men noticed, she however, didn't. Her most repeated phrase was 'I don't know what all the fuss is about'. She was wearing a white lab coat, and her
reading glasses hung by a string round her neck. Her eyes kept darting somewhere behind the camera, so she was afraid of being caught.
"Hey JD, It's been awhile hasn't it? We're in trouble here, kinda like when you fell down the well and we had to call 911 three times to get you out. Remember how we hounded dad to secure that thing?
Anyway, I never had that kind of problem unless you count the time I wrecked that 1973, 2-door Ford. It was a pain in the ass every time you got in and out the back.
You're probably wondering why we just don't leave on our own. To tell you the truth, we're just too scared. I'm scared in here and scared to leave. Please JD, help us. Please.
We need you, JD. I know you don't live at 2216 SW 14 St. anymore but Ken said he could get this to you anyway. Be careful.
Hurry
06-25-12
"Play it again, Lacy, and I'll write down all the numbers she mentions."
While I got pen and paper Lacy prepared to re-play the video.
"What's going on?" Mason asked.
"Well, Northern Uncle Bill, used to play mystery games with us. We hated it because most of them didn't make sense, but we did it or cleaned the basement. George always won. She's talking about things I have trouble remembering so it has to be the numbers. Give me a minute to write this stuff down." While the video replayed, I wrote the numbers down, Mason came in with the chalk board from the check-in desk in the great room. He leaned it up against the wall under the monitor. When I was done he wrote the numbers on the chalkboard and stood staring at it.
"Does this letter have anything to do with the pictures on the camera?" Flynn asked. Seems like we were all getting in on it but that was good because we needed as many perspectives as possible to figure out what was going on.
"Knowing him, I would have to say yes. It is out of character for him to be smiling and friendly so it means something. I just haven't figured out what yet." Ken started mumbling as he went from one picture to the next. Every monitor in the dining room had a picture on it. Eight in all. Lacy and him continued to move from one to the other, almost like a dance, stepping forward and back to avoid bumping into each other but never taking their eyes from the monitors. I read the letter over and over, putting the numbers down in rows up and down, backwards and forwards, till I was cross eyed.
"Excuse me, please", said Sarah. "I have a question."
I turned to her and waited. She walked over and tapped Ken on the shoulder, making him jump.
"I was just wondering how you got away and where you got the briefcase."
My eyebrows climbed up my forehead as I looked at Ken. His mind was still on the photos so it took a moment for the question to sink in. When it did, he grinned and sat at the table.
"I was to get sanctuary at the facility because I was related and could fly a plane. But I got to there a bit late..my plane had engine troubles. Anyway, when I arrived, they wouldn't let me in. The blast doors on the entrance were already closed and you needed a code to get in. I didn't want to be too far away and the walkers were everywhere so I settled in a fire rangers observation tower about a mile away in case Northern Uncle Bill and George got away.
It was a miserable place, hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Walkers were milling around the bottom of it but I had taken out a section of the stairs at the bottom and used a rope ladder that I could raise to keep them from reaching me. I had to make raids into town for food and batteries but I watched the entrance the whole time. Soon the guards disappeared, I have no idea where they went. I started to see people come out and dump bodies every so often. There were only four or five bodies at a time so I would go down and check them out, to see if I knew them. I did some, so I got to checking them for addresses of loved ones...I don't know maybe I thought I could let them know about their loved ones.
Anyway, one day when the bodies were dumped a black briefcase was placed right in the middle of the parking area. They knew I'd been checking things out I guess, so I got the briefcase, found your address and ran to town for my plane. Here I am."
"Did you happen to see a key pad of some kind near the entrance?"
"There's a box on the right side so that might be it."
"I have it," shouted Duke.
We looked at each other and waited for Duke to tell us what he had.
"That 'get in and out of the backdoor' thing got me thinking so I checked the satellite feed and found the back door of the facility. It is camouflaged in the rock of the mountain near the base, but it's there. See?" We looked and I didn't see it at all.
If we park at the back door, ride up to the entrance in a four wheeler we could come out the back door, get in the truck and drive away. Sounded like a plan to me. Now if we could figure out the codes.
I was brain dead by supper, so I wandered outside to clear my mind. There were arguments and discussions going on between everyone it seemed, so I was content to sit on the bottom step and watch Mandy and Bubba fight over a rag. It was a tug of war, between a little girl and a small dog and she was letting him win. Then he would take off, wait for Mandy to catch him and the tug of war was on again. The nonsense of it helped me ground myself again.
Supper was all talk not much eating. We were getting things figured out with very little input from me, so I wandered outside to get some fresh air. As I stood there a star streaked across the sky and flamed out. I was in the rocking chair watching the stars, when Mason came out and sat on the stool next to me.
"You ok?"
"Yea, just watching the stars."
"We could do that upstairs." What a hopeful heart.
"Yea, we could." I continued to rock slowly.
He sighed, and stood, then bent and put a hand on each arm of the chair. Leaning down he kissed me gently, then with more meaning. I put my arms behind his head and he stood with me in his arms. Using the outside stairs, I nibbled his neck as we went in the upstairs door, and then into our bedroom. I managed to kick the door shut just as things got interesting.
Chapter 3
My butt hurt. Kens butt probably did too but I didn't care, I was so not riding in the bunk. So we suffered in the passenger seat of the Volvo, riding on the edge of the seat for hours. I had to brace myself on the dash and the gear shift rested between my legs which made it even more fun. Not in the 'yippee this is a good time' kind of fun either.
We'd argued about the seating arrangements for nearly 15 minutes before Mason, exasperated beyond sane, just started the truck and drove out of the small parking lot in front of the lodge. Ken and I continued to haggle until we both just settled into the position we were in now. Me staring at Mason, who ignored me completely unless he had to shift gears, Ken staring out the window. Occasionally Ken tried to push me from the seat, so I was bracing my feet against the base of Masons seat. It was gonna be a long, exhausting trip. I tried not to sigh so much but my rear end was smarting.
We were on the interstate headed south, somewhere in northern Idaho, I think. We were what the truckers called 'bob tailing' or without a trailer which made the ride bumpier. Mason was driving around 60 mph to hurry things along because of the tension in the cab. Every once in a while, he would glance at me but mostly just watched the road. We were looking for a fuel tanker. We had found two on the way from Florida to Montana last year so the idea did have some merit. The problem was when the virus hit, there was mass panic. People tried to escape to where ever and the result was clogged roads and gas stations. The off ramps were a traffic jam from hell. Even with the giant snow plow welded to the front of the truck, we couldn't push them clear enough to get to the pumps. Most of the time the pumps wouldn't work anyway or there wasn't any fuel so we just looked for fuel tankers.
One concession to the miserable ride was the beauty of the countryside. Winding through the passes you could see for miles. Cloudless blue skies sat on the snow capped mountain tops while green, pine trees that looked blue from a distance crowded the side of the mountains for sunshine and willows and cottonwoods line
d the creek running full at the bottom. The snow was melting causing the creeks to fill to overflowing. A good rain and we would have floods for sure. We followed the creeks around the curves which seemed more like a roller coaster ride than a highway. Sometimes the walls of the canyons were so tall you had to stick your head out the window and look up to see the tops. Winding around up and down would be dizzying and then we would find ourselves dumped into a town or city. The quickness of the transition was a shock because the traffic jams was suddenly just there. We'd take the opposite lane or even drive down the median if we had to, too get around the mess.
We finally found the needed fuel tanker late in the afternoon. We had to drive into the ditch and over two driveways to get to it. I was glad I'd made Mason wait till I was safely in the bunk before he began the transition or I'd have been thrown through the windshield. The guys hooked the tanker up, then we used the shade of some trees to eat lunch. Sarah had packed fried chicken, peach pie and homemade bread. We did it justice then enjoyed the quiet of the afternoon for a few minutes till we finally got back into the truck.
I'd planned to drive but Ken jumped into the drivers seat before I could and sat grinning like crazy while I climbed into the bunk. Mason was surprised I wasn't sitting with him so I waggled my eyebrows at him and pointed to the bunk trying to make him laugh. He did, and while shaking his head, grabbed the curtain and closed it on me. We drove the frontage road for quite awhile before we were able to get back on the interstate. I lay down and soon the motion of the truck and my full belly soothed me into a restless sleep.
I hadn't slept well the night before although Mason had done some serious 'work' to ensure I did. I can remember waking and looking at the stars through the window several times. I just didn't want to leave the lodge. I was being stupid about it but I didn't know of another way to handle it.
Walkers (Book 2): The Rescue Page 2
