***
“Where do we start?” Eric asked, rubbing his palms together, anxious to get started.
Allexa noted to herself that the colonel had done much the same thing, and she wondered again where he was. Shaking off the odd feeling, she opened the inside door to the three-bay garage. “We need to get the Humvee out of sight. Another precaution.”
The overhead door rumbled loudly and Eric drove the big vehicle inside. He then found a spray canister of lubricant and oiled the now noisy track. Allexa smiled at his thoroughness.
“It’s been a year since I was here, Eric. I’d like to check the basement for what we left behind,” Allexa said.
“All you brought back wasn’t everything?”
“We intentionally left some things, hidden of course, in the event we ever came back. Some wine, liquor, and canned goods.” She opened the basement door and flipped on the lights, flooding the stairwell with artificial brilliance.
They descended into the coolness. Allexa pressed the mirrored panel beside the bar and it popped open. Eric was astonished at the finished basement and delighted with the hidden room.
“I’m surprised the two of you didn’t stay longer. Look at all this stuff!”
“I think I’d like to take a case or two of wine home. Maybe all of…” She stopped. “Eric, I just realized I don’t have a home anymore.” A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and she wiped it away.
“Mom, you have often told us that things always happen for a reason and that eventually things work out.” He gave her a hug. “So don’t worry, things will work out.”
He couldn’t tell her what they were doing; she would find out soon enough.
“Mom, I’ll take these cases of wine upstairs and be right back.”
Allexa put a couple cans of salad shrimp in a box and looked through what remained while she waited for Eric to return. She set a few things aside, knowing that if Jim made his way here, he would need some supplies. If he found a bottle of Gray Goose and a couple cans of diced chicken back in the wine cellar, he would know she had been there. It was their private signal. A bottle of red wine and a can of shrimp would have been his signal to her.
Eric returned to the basement and selected various bottles of liquor that had been hidden in the wine cellar.
“These people either entertained a lot or drank a lot,” he observed.
“Likely both,” Allexa remarked. “Let’s take this upstairs and decide what we want to do.”
***
With the wine and liquor waiting by the back of the Humvee, they sat at the long food island, snacking on the sandwiches from the mess hall.
“Personally, I’m rather curious about where the other road goes,” Allexa said.
“Why didn’t you and the colonel check it out before?”
“We had been on the road a long time, Eric, and I was anxious to go home. Besides, with what we found on this street alone, that trailer was full.”
“I’m glad I packed the chainsaw,” Eric grinned.
“I think we should leave the tree as is and go on foot. Much quieter. We have no idea what may be up that way,” she reminded him.
“Good point.” He stood and put their dishes in the dishwasher. “It’s still early in the day. No time like the present, Mom.”
“I know your weapon is locked and loaded. How many extra magazines do you have?” Allexa asked.
“Two spares. You?”
“I have two also. I don’t expect trouble, but we need to stay alert, and two extras should be more than enough.”
They locked the door as they left and set out on foot. At the fallen spruce tree, they cut into the woods for a few yards, and then moved back to the cracked asphalt.
“I know it’s easier walking on the pavement for your knee, Mom, but as soon as we see any houses, we should be cautious and approach from the woods,” Eric said.
Allexa nodded, knowing her son was right.
They walked quietly for twenty minutes and finally came to the cul-de-sac that ended the street. After seeing several real estate signs, the lone building they saw was a house only partially built and that construction had come to a halt long ago.
“It was worth checking out,” Allexa said, “and with the nice weather, the walk was delightful, although my knee will be happy to be going downhill now.”
“I guess this part was phase two of the subdivision,” Eric muttered. “I’d really like to see the other houses. Would you mind more walking?”
“Let me rest the knee with some ice when we get back, and see how it feels,” she replied.
***
Allexa sat in the lazy boy chair with an ice pack balanced on her knee, reading over her notes that she had left under the tray of the silverware drawer.
“There’s not much left in these houses, Eric. Jim and I took all the weapons and ammo we could find, plus alcohol and food. Some of that is still downstairs.” She looked at him while he wiped down his gun. “Unless you’re looking for something else.”
“There isn’t much in the way of baby clothes at the Nuns Shoppe. Alan is growing so fast, and so is Emilee. She’ll be fourteen in a few months, a young woman. Most of the clothes that fit her are getting really worn.”
“Clothing isn’t something I had thought about.” Allexa felt like slapping her forehead. “My knee is good enough for this flat walking, if you’re willing to pull the wagon. Between my wrist and knee I feel off balance.” She stood and put the ice pack in the refrigerator freezer for later. “Let’s see what we can find upstairs first.”
They looked through the children’s closets and dressers. Most of the boys’ clothes were too big for Alan and the girls’ were too small for Emi.
“Mom, would it be okay if I took some things for Rayn?” he asked hesitantly.
“Of course. She didn’t bring much with her and probably could use at least a new jacket, and maybe jeans…whatever you think, son.” Allexa wondered what the wealthy lady of this house had in the way of coats. She could use a warmer one too. “In my medical bag are face masks. We might need them to venture into that bedroom.”
Once Eric retrieved the masks, they cautiously stepped into the death room. The five corpses on the bed had mummified under the sheets and the odor of decay was now minimal.
“I think we should leave the masks on, as a contamination precaution,” Allexa said. Eric nodded and they went straight to the walk in closet.
Allexa opened a long, narrow box that sat in front of a mirror. “Oh, my…” Eric looked over her shoulder at the jewelry and whistled. Diamond necklaces, ruby studded bracelets, and rings were all lined up neatly.
“Should we take these?” Eric asked.
“No, we don’t need gold and precious gems. I’m going to slide this under the bed, in case the house gets broken into later. It will be harder to find under the bodies.”
“Wow, look at the furs.” Eric went back to his search and checked the sizes after removing one from a hermetically sealed bag. “I like this one, it looks warm. Can I take it for Rayn?”
“Sure. I’ll take another for Amanda. In fact, I think we should take everything in this closet downstairs, rather than spend a lot of time in here.”
They laid the clothes out on the large beds in the guest rooms on the main floor, making piles of what they wanted to take. Allexa added a dark brown calf length down coat to her selections.
“Don’t you want a fur, Mom?”
“No, I don’t. The down coat will suit me better. I’ve got an idea,” Allexa said. “I think we should hit every house here and do a rough inventory of what clothes and sizes are where. If we find baby clothes, we take them. Otherwise, this might warrant another trip back here.”
“I’m sure you noticed that we took a couple of your towels when we moved out. We could replace everything with what�
�s in these houses. Not only towels, sheets too. And the town can always use blankets.” His level of enthusiasm grew. “This is like a shopping spree on someone else’s credit card!”
Allexa worried he was having too good of a time.
***
They wandered from house to house, avoiding the two with known bodies. In the third house, Eric found what he was looking for. A nursery.
“I wish we could take this youth bed with us now. Alan is trying to climb out of the crib I made. I forgot how fast they grow.” Realizing what he said, he looked at his mother and said, “Have I told you recently how much I love you? You have always been the best mother we could ever have wanted.” He gave her a gentle hug.
“If there aren’t any tools here to take apart the bed, there are some in the Hummer,” Allexa said, swallowing her tears. Eric grinned and went looking. In the master bedroom closet, Allexa found two suitcases and filled them both with all the baby and toddler clothes that would fit.
When they found something they could use, needed, or wanted, they left the items in the living room and made note of the address. After they were done, Allexa sat on a porch swing resting her knee while Eric brought the Hummer back to load up.
“The youth bed first, then the baby clothes. There’s a house next door that has the teen clothes. We have to save room for the coats and the boxes of wine.”
Eric had proved to be very efficient at packing the big vehicle, managing to fit everything.
“Even though we’re only an hour from Moose Creek, I’m not comfortable with driving that road in the dark,” Eric said. “I vote we spend the night and leave early tomorrow.”
“I guess I better get some dinner started then.”
***
“I still can’t believe it took me years to make sergeant and you made colonel in a year, and you’re not even in the Army!” Eric laughed.
“Believe me I’m having trouble adjusting to it myself. It certainly isn’t something I had planned.”
***
Over the simple meal of a can of soup on pasta, Eric approached an area of concern.
“Even though we’re in town now, and I feel my family is much safer, I still worry that something may go south,” he said. “I’d like to figure out some kind of code that any of us could use to alert Emilee. Something that was so normal and usual it wouldn’t be seen as a warning by an outsider.”
“Hmm,” Allexa contemplated the idea. “Something that would cause her to seek safety?”
“Yes.”
“Other than town, the safest place for her would be at the Collins compound,” she said. “What does she call Art?”
“Mr. Collins. Beth insisted on proper names for Emi’s elders,” Eric grinned. “Even though Art has told her she could use his first name, she still calls him mister.”
“So, if you told her to visit Uncle Art that would be out of the normal to her, though wouldn’t be suspicious to anyone else, right?”
“That’d be perfect! We never refer to him as uncle. In fact, we could couple that with other more specific instructions.” Eric was enthused with the solution to the problem he’d been concerned with.
“If Emi was in any danger, so would Jacob and Alan be. Let me know what you come up with.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“There’s still some room in the back, Mom. Let’s take a quick walk back to the house with the nursery. I forgot about toys!” Eric said after their breakfast of canned fruit. He had finished packing all the boxes and clothes in the back of the Humvee and they were almost ready to leave.
He was so excited about all they had found, Allexa kept quiet about wanting to get back on the road.
***
He watched the two soldiers walk up the long driveway of the big house pulling a wagon loaded with children’s toys. From his hiding spot across the street he couldn’t see them enter, but in the silence that now surrounded everything, he heard a door open and close.
This is my place! I found these houses first! Everything here is mine! his drug deranged mind screamed at him. And they can’t have any of it!
He moved quickly up the same drive then veered off to the left to get behind the house, the gun he found in the house with the bodies in his pocket.
He crouched behind the garage and inched his way to the sliding door. He was in luck—it wasn’t locked. From behind the heavy curtains he could see one of them go down into the basement and the other disappeared from his view. He silently slid the glass panel aside and entered.
***
“There’s something upstairs I want to get. If you would get a bowl of ice cubes from the ice maker behind the bar, I’d really appreciate it. I want to take an extra ice pack with us for my knee,” Allexa said, climbing the long, graceful staircase again. She opened a door she recalled being the walk-in linen closet and turned on the overhead light. Neatly labeled shelves were stacked with colorful sheets and blankets. Standing in front of the wide shelf marked ‘master bedroom’, she pulled down a set of bright blue king sized sheets and stuffed them into the matching pillowcase. Taking a second set of deep green, Allexa picked up both bundles and a two-toned comforter, knowing they would be well received by Eric and Rayn for their makeshift king bed.
Halfway down the staircase, Allexa heard a gunshot echo from below. She dropped the linens and pulled her gun. Running silently down the thickly carpeted stairs, she looked around the corner to see Eric lying on the floor and someone standing over him aiming a gun.
“NO!” she screamed, and when the guy turned, she pulled the trigger.
Allexa knelt down beside her bleeding son. “Oh, Eric!” She sobbed, stroking his face gently with her fingertips. He opened his eyes and winced.
“He surprised me. Man that hurts!” he said, breathing hard and struggling to sit up. Allexa kept him on the floor, helping him to lean against the nearest cupboard. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his upper arm where blood was oozing out.
Confident he was temporarily stable Allexa retrieved her gun from the floor and stood over the assailant. He didn’t move. She kicked his gun further aside, and then picked it up. A .22 could do some damage, but her 9mm hollow point did more. He was dead, and Eric needed medical attention or he might be too.
She inched around the ornate doorway to the front door, where the bundles of sheets spilled out into the slate foyer. She dashed to the side, quietly throwing the lock so they wouldn’t be taken by surprise if this assailant wasn’t alone. “I’m getting my medical bag from the Hummer. I’ll be right back.” She pulled the Glock from his holster and handed it to him. “If anyone comes through that door that isn’t me, shoot them!”
***
Allexa cut the sleeve off from Eric’s shirt to better see the wound. After washing it with bottled water, she wrapped and bandaged it.
“We’re only an hour away from Moose Creek. You need Doctor James to remove the bullet,” she said.
“Mom, I know this is going to sound weird, but it doesn’t hurt as much now. And the first thing we need to do is drag this piece of human garbage outside into the backyard. Then we put the rest of what we collected in the Hummer. Are you okay with that?”
Allexa looked at her son, admiring his strength and resolve, and she started shaking.
“Hold it together, Mom!” Eric yelled. “Grab one foot and I’ll take the other. Now move!” She did as he asked, stopping only to open the sliding door wider.
***
With everything else already in the back of the Hummer, plus the pillowcases filled with sheets, the toys, the youth bed, and clothing, the big vehicle was full. Eric rested in the passenger seat while Allexa lowered the garage door, put the keys back where she had found them, and shut off the propane and the generator.
“There still could be more of them, Mom. I’ll keep watch while you get us out of
here,” Eric said through gritted teeth, his Glock resting in his lap. The pain that had initially abated had returned in full force.
Once the subdivision was behind them, Allexa sped to the hidden loop that took them to the 150. Going back to Sawyer might have been quicker, though not by much, and they both wanted to go home now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Allexa bounced over a large rock and skidded when she took the Hairpin a little too fast. Eric moaned. The towel she had wrapped around his arm was already soaked bright red with his blood. Once past the tight bend in the road, she sped up slightly only to hit a couple more deep potholes. Minutes later they were back on pavement and she floored the gas pedal.
Allexa churned up gravel and dust as she pulled into the parking lot of the small field hospital, and jumped out.
“James! I need help!” she shouted into the stillness.
The young doctor, a third year medical student thrust into practice over a year earlier when Dr. Mark died from the flu, emerged from his office.
“Eric has been shot. He’s in the Hummer, unconscious,” Allexa said, running back outside. Dr. James grabbed the wheelchair that sat in the waiting room and followed her. After some difficult tugging and lifting, they managed to get the inert Eric into the chair and into the hospital.
***
“You might have been better off going back to the medic at Sawyer,” Dr. James said, removing the blood soaked towel and bandages. “I’m sure he has more experience removing bullets than I do.”
The Journal: Martial Law Page 15
