Walkers (Book 3): The Survivors

by Zelda Davis-Lindsey

  Mason managed to sit through supper, and the funny telling by Kevin of the shed-full (honest there were just three) of walkers. He refused to look at me but the other guys were glaring at their women. I touched his mind but it was thankfully blank. When he turned at the end of Kevin's performance to say something, I interrupted, "Before you guys get all excited and bent out of shape let me just say this. If you aren't going to take us with you and teach us about staying safe and defending ourselves then you can't say a damned thing about what we do while you're gone. We aren't going to sit home and knit you scarves or mind the chilli'. So yell at me if you feel so inclined, but Mason you will be yelling at my back." With that, I headed for the door but his next words stopped me.

  "I don't know about the other guys but I'm so proud of you I can't find the words. I just love you so damned much that I can't stand the idea of losing you or your getting hurt. You could've been hurt..." He put his hand over my mouth because I'd opened it again..."but you used your head and managed. That has a tendency to notch my pride a bit, since I wasn't here to save you, but it's something I can get over. We'll try to include you if you want to go, in the future, I promise."

  I looked at the other girls then back at Mason. "I didn't plan what happened today and I'm sorry you were worried but if in the future you could simply ask me if I'd like to go then I probably would try a bit harder to be more careful."

  "A bit harder?"

  "I can't promise any more than that." He got that dark look in his eyes again. The one that melts my insides and makes other things tighten up. I don't know what anyone else was thinking or doing at that moment because my world was filled with Mason.

  Someone cleared their throat and Mason and I jumped a foot. "If you two plan to have a 'private' discussion then I would suggest you leave our presence." Sarah said. "If not, then I have apple pie with whipped cream for dessert."

  We opted out of dessert that night. Mostly because Mason picked me up and threw me over his shoulder and carried me to the camper. I saw the startled looks on the children's faces so I smiled real big and winked at them. Everyone was laughing as Mason strolled quickly away.

  Later, as I waited for my heart to calm down with Masons leg thrown over mine and his hand cupping a breast, I marveled at this man in my life. When I thought about us meeting in that pet store in Texas and the way he danced around after coming face to face with a walker, I stifled a laugh.

  "What's so funny, brat?" he said, as he nuzzled my neck. That soft spot just below the ear lobe that sent quivers sliding down my back.

  "I was just thinking about Texas and the day we met." If I was a cat, I'd be purring about now. As it was I was squirming. "The way...oh yeah right there...the way you danced...hmm."

  Waking late the next morning I had to gently pry Masons hand from my breast so I could creep into the shower. It was nice feeling all the tender spots and knowing how they got there. When I came out rubbing my hair with the towel I saw Mason on his side with his head propped up on this hand watching me, naked. Very, very naked. He smiled and winked and I was done.

  An hour later, we walked back to the cabin, the smell of coffee and fresh cinnamon rolls dragging us from bed. I don't know what got into us and really didn't care. It was fun to be cared about and I didn't care who noticed.

  As we entered the front door, Lacy was running out the back door with her hand over her mouth. We all stared, then I ran out the back door just in time to catch her throwing up in the weeds. Crap! She held her hand up to silence me while she continued to wretch in the bushes giving me time to wet a rag and hand it to her when she finished.

  "I don't know yet. I haven't said anything to Randy because I don't know yet. I need one of those pregnancy tests to be sure."

  "That won't work, my dear. Those things have an expiration date on them so I wouldn't trust one anymore. We have to wait."

  "But I don't want to wait. I need to know now," she said, as she wiped her mouth. I handed her the bottle of water I'd grabbed when I got the wet rag.

  "Randy needs to know."

  "No please, JD. If he finds out now he'll act like an expectant father. OK, I know he would be, but that would drive me nuts."

  "How did this happen. I know. I know how it happened but weren't you using protection?"

  "Of course, we were. Geez, give me some credit here. Besides you can't talk."

  "What do you mean by that?" I asked. "This isn't about me."

  "After last night you have to ask. Good grief, JD, close the damned windows."

  "OK, ok. Look, we'll get though this, somehow, but for now Randy has to be in on this. He was there when it started he should be there for all of it. Including ralphing in the shrubs."

  She scowled at me then sat in one of the deck chairs and put her head in her hands. "I'll get him and you can start including him in all things baby."

  I found Randy leaning against the fridge near the back door. One look from me and he hurried outside. Grabbing a cup of coffee, I settled next to Mason and thought to him, Lacy might be pregnant. She's telling Randy now then they can go from there.

  What about a pregnancy test.

  Not reliable anymore. They have expiration dates.

  How did you find that out?

  Never mind.

  "What's on the agenda today?"

  Clint looked up from feeding Clarissa and said, "I think we are going to build a pen to hold all those turkeys we plan to bring back tomorrow."

  "Would you like to go, JD?" Mason said before filing his plate with pancakes.

  "Why thank you Mason, that is just so thoughtful of you to ask."

  "Don't push it, JD. I need to get some sleep tonight."

  I blushed to my toes and watched Lacy and Randy come in to take Joe to one side to speak to him. I was glad to not be included in that conversation.

  The rest of the day was spent watching the guys build a poultry pen. Bobby had mentioned that several of the people living in the area had raised chickens and he knew one couple that raised rabbits. So all kind of building projects were begun and several was even finished by suppertime.

  The poultry pen had just gotten the roof put on it and several rabbit hutches built when an earthquake hit. This one must of been close cause trees fell, things fell off the walls in the cabin, campers rocked and solar panels quit working. Duke said he thought it was just a glitch and planned to work on it the following day so we all went to bed early.

  Mason was true to his word about getting some sleep that night but I didn't mind a bit. My head hit that pillow and I was out. I didn't feel the many aftershocks that the others felt but I did close the windows. Mornings were our favorite time of the day.

  CHAPTER 15

  It seemed like the great turkey rodeo was going to be some kind of major secret. Howard and Bobby left the cabin before breakfast and returned an hour later with something in the bed of the truck covered with a tarp. Another truck with a topper on its bed to haul all the birds captured on this clandestine hunting trip, according to Randy. I was the only female that even wanted to go so my little speech the day before, about them 'not teaching us to defend ourselves so they can't say a thing about what what we do while they're gone', was a wasted speech. I hate a wasted speech cause it was a good one.

  While we waited for Howard and Bobby to eat, I geared up for a major hunt. I didn't trust the guys and you can't blame me with the buildup for this turkey fiasco, so I was biting at the bit to go. When the guys finished their preparations, which looked like a major, all out, frontal attack against a small country, we set off for the mountains. The pot marked, paved road disappeared, then we bounced over pot marked, gravel roads until they turned into a game trail of sorts. When that came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the treeline, the guys grabbed several gunny sacks, uncovered the object in the bed of the truck and proceeded to drag it out. I was gifted with a small bucket of cracked corn.

  Their mystery object was an old, bed spring. Just coils of springs set
in a rectangle and wired to a larger wire frame top and bottom. I so wanted to ask a bunch of questions but I just barely managed to keep my mouth closed. I followed the procession through the woods till we came to a clearing. It was gorgeous. The sunlight seemed to reflect off the leaves of the trees circling the clearing. It almost seemed man made but I don't think man could've managed something this perfect.

  The guys set the springs on the ground near the other side of the clearing almost under the trees then Mason motioned me over. I watched as he sprinkled some corn around the outside of the springs then distributed the remaining corn in the springs themselves. When that was done, they all patted each other on the back and turned to leave.

  "Ah." I muttered.

  Mason shushed me, grabbed my hand and tickled my mind. We'll be back in a few hours and see if anything has been caught if not then we'll come back tomorrow afternoon. There's a method to Howard's madness so lets just enjoy the view.

  So I did. We returned to the trucks, got some guns and my cross bow. Mason winked at me as we trekked off into the woods to do some big game hunting. By late afternoon, Flynn had downed a cow elk and we had her field dressed and the remains hauled back to the trucks. I'd been so busy Id' forgotten the turkeys.

  It was decided, after a lot of discussion, which left me wondering why they even had to discuss anything, that we would just go home and come back the next night. I was tired but the thought of those bed springs haunted me all night.

  The next day was the longest but housekeeping chores needed to be done so the day just flew by. I was waiting by the truck with the topper after supper, ready to go. The guys trooped out laughing and teasing each other, jumped into the two trucks and we went back up the meadow. I jumped out of the cab as soon we stopped, grabbed my two gunny sacks still wondering what I was supposed to do with them.

  We could hear the turkeys before we could see them and when we came around the side of a large boulder I stopped short, letting Bobby run into me from behind. There on top of those bed springs were a dozen or so of turkeys, wings flapping, gobbling and carrying on like crazy. They climbed onto the bed springs to get at the corn and got their feet caught in the springs. I think if there had been a couple more of them they could have flown off with those springs. A couple of them had their heads caught so they must of been the most hungry.

  Feathers snowed down from the sky, and the angry, scared birds tried everything they could to get free. I watched as Howard, wearing heavy, leather gloves, would grab a bird and stick him head first in the sack, hand him off to someone and repeat the process until we had all the birds. A couple of them were badly injured so they'd have to be killed. Thanksgiving wasn't very far away and we did want to have turkey.

  We trooped back to the truck and loaded the sacks into the back closing the door securely. This was actually pretty smart cause by the time we got back to the cabin, two turkeys had escaped their sacks. We pulled up to the turkey pen, opened the tail gate and watched the turkeys fly into the pen. Clint took the injured ones out of sight of the children to prepare them for dinner. There were a lot people including children standing around the pen, looking at the birds. We had ten turkeys, two toms and the rest were hens but Howard thought one or two were jakes. I guess jakes are toms that don't have tail feathers and a really tiny beard. I couldn't tell the difference and gave up caring when Lacy came out to announce supper.

  I put my arm around her waist and walked her back inside as the men continued to congratulate Howard on his inventiveness.

  "How are you feeling today?"

  "Still sick to my stomach but at least I don't have Randy hovering over me constantly. Joe convinced him it would be bad for me and the baby. We still won't know for a month or so but I don't care anymore."

  "Well, we're all here to take care of you." I gave her a hug and went to wash up.

  When I turned from the sink there stood Mikey. "Tell me the story about catching the turkeys, JD. Please?"

  So, as I helped him clean up for supper, I told him of the squawking and the fluttering of wings and the storm of feathers. When I dried his hands he wanted me to tell it again but I shooed him to the other table to sit with the rest of the kids. He really liked Bobby and sat on his right.

  While we ate we planned the next big trip to town. This was the big Christmas trip. From the way the group was growing the tree would have to be enormous. I had plans to put a tiny one in the camper and I think Lacy and Randy had the same idea. Christmas was really for the kids anyway. Right?

  Our night was interrupted several times by the noise the turkeys were making. I was about to the point of killing all of them by morning and found out over breakfast that I wasn't alone. The guys talked about checking out the surrounding valleys to see if they could find any more livestock, which was something we had done at the lodge.

  Duke announced he'd talked to Ken again the night before. They have the place ready for winter which was good since they'd already had several inches of snow. It was secured but Duke stressed it was only secure for their small party. Once they started to expand their area, they would have to put up several dozen more trailer fences and more wind turbines. Everyone was fine and healthy and missed us all.

  We were a quiet group after that announcement. I didn't know about the rest but my thoughts were of last Christmas, when we had our own miracle birth and tons of presents in a log home filled with love.

  Several days later found us in three semis headed to a big box warehouse looking for boxed meals, clothes, weapons and medicine. We pulled around to the back of the warehouse but didn't find any trailers at the loading docks. That should have been our first clue. That's never happened before. They had to look around for empty trailers, hook up to them then pull them around back and back up to the docks.

  When we tried to get in, the doors were all locked. Every single one of them. The second clue. We ignored it also. Flynn was getting ready to break it down when Howard motioned him over. We all stood and watched the little metal wheel on the electric meter spin around fairly fast. I looked around and spotted a camera and when I looked closer I found them all over the place.

  When I stepped over to one to get a better look, the other camera's moved with me. The guys were in suspended animation for about a minute, ok less than that, but it seemed longer, then they ran for the semis. Mason nearly jerked my shoulder out of joint when he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the truck. I don't remember how he got me inside but I was sitting in the bunk gasping for air as he slammed the door, locked it and plopped down on the bunk beside me.

  Now what?

  I looked at Mason and asked, "Now what?" as I rubbed my sore shoulder. I could see the rear of our trailer through the right mirror while Mason watched the left. I didn't see what we could do sitting in the bunk so I slowly made my way back to the passenger seat. I could see the others on both sides of us doing the same. About the time I decided it was going to be ok, the front mirror mounted, on the fender on the passenger side, my side, exploded. The sound of the gun shot followed. Well hell.

  We rolled our windows down and started planning our next move. I was beginning to get worried, ok, so, I was already worried when Clint pointed out front and to the right. I couldn't see anything until movement caught my eye and I could see a small person dressed in camouflage and carrying a rifle run from one parked car to another. He seemed to be working his way to in front of us. Great.

  The guys kept talking out plans of action but I had caught a feeling, or stray thought that held my attention. I turned my head back and forth trying to find the signal until I discovered it coming from in front of me. I held my hand up to signal my turn and all eyes turned to me. I found Mason and pointed to my head and shook it telling him not to talk to me telepathically. He nodded, then I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on that small signal.

  I had noticed a few days ago that when Mason and I would talk mentally to each other, a couple of the kids would get nervous. Mikey would actu
ally stand up and look around like he could hear something. I'd also noticed that since the virus, more people were psychic and could telegraph feelings, thoughts and have actual conversations. Case in point, was Ken who couldn't talk mind to mind before the virus but could now. He still had trouble narrowing down the signal to just one person though, so I was kinda glad he was in Montana.

  I was just picking up a word here and there so I reached out for Masons hand and between us I was able to find the signal and honed in on the conversation in front of us. I tried releasing Masons hand and held the signal so sat back and listened in.

  Bad Boy 1: What are you doing? You'll get killed. You don't know these people.

  Bad Boy 2:, I don't care. If I have to stay around that bastard one more day, he'll kill me. I can't watch him do that to Lisa anymore.

  BB1: Wait, lets think this through...

  BB2: I'm done waiting. I'm out of here.

  BB1 was in front of us, watching us while he 'talked' to the other one. He was looking right at me so I nodded at him. He got quiet but continued to stare at me so I decided to take a chance. I looked him right in the eye and thought, You'd be safe with us. I waited. He frowned so I thought it again, You will be safe with us. I knew he'd caught it when his eyes got big as two saucers. I smiled at him and he smiled back.

  BB2 thought, What are you smiling about. You're leaving a lot of us behind to catch hell and you know it.

  I thought at him, not if you help us get inside. We have the weapons and the know how to help you. We also have a refuge in the mountains with plenty of food and safety.

  BB2: How do we know we can trust you.

  BB1: Yea, you came here to rob us.