Walkers (Book 1): The Beginning (6 page)

     I sat at the table and pulled out the roadmap to figure the next leg of the trip.

     "Can't that wait?" asked Sarah as she fiddled at the stove. "You got two days to mess with that stuff, just relax, enjoy this wonderful view and worry about that sister of yours".

     I smiled at that and put the map away. Accepting a bottle of raspberry flavored tea, I sat on the couch stretched out my legs and let out a sigh. I was about to fall asleep when a horrifying scream broke the silence and the bottle hit the floor.

                                                                      CHAPTER  5

     I flew out the RV door missing the bottom step. Since I had grabbed my cross bow as I exited, I landed on my stomach and my bow went sliding across the gravel. Unfortunately, so did I.  Ignoring the pain, which wasn't easy, I grabbed the damned bow again, and took off in the direction everyone else was running, gravel flying from under my feet. The screaming continued, which if you thought about it long enough, was a good thing.

     We were all running in the direction of the restrooms. The screaming was coming from the women's restrooms and nearly all of us hit the door at the same time.

     "Oh, for heaven sake" I muttered, my heart about to beat out of my chest. Mason made it in first and immediately a loud shot rang out, reverberating off the concrete walls of the restroom and inside my head. We all filtered inside, glanced down at the walker, then up, up, up at Lacy who was standing on the top of the stalls, with her hands holding onto the pipes that ran across the ceiling into the men’s section. The walker lay inside the first stall where apparently Lacy had chosen to "go", what’s left of its head in the toilet.

     "Get me down, please" she said shakily, tears sliding down her cheeks. Randy pushed his way inside the second stall and stood on the toilet, reaching up to take her hands and eventually she was down and crying on Randy's shoulder. Howard and Mason disposed of the walker, got out one of Dukes padlocks and locked the door, placing the key on top of the drinking fountain near the door. Might seem odd to put it in plain sight like that but walkers don't use keys, if it don't open they go away.

     "Lacy has to start paying attention, JD. She just goes willy nilly into space and doesn't think. She has to start thinking", Duke said. I nodded at him because I thought the same thing. She's a teenager and doesn't think and it almost got her killed...again.

      "I'll talk to her, again, Duke because I just don't know what else to do. I can't force her to use good judgment when she isn't familiar with it.

      "Well, till then you better let Sarah tend to those scrapes. Man, looks like they should hurt." and shaking his head, he wandered off to clear the men’s room so he could padlock that door to.

      As soon as he said the words I hurt, yep, knees pulled like they would split wide open, and my back, geesh! I refused to hobble but standing upright hurt. The palms of my hands were scraped and bleeding and my elbows too. Great!

     I hobbled into the RV, as any self-respecting walker-fighter from Montana would do. I had no shame, and when Sarah poured peroxide on my many wounds, I cried because that's what you're supposed to do when someone pours acid; I mean peroxide, on open, deep wound type scrapes. Right?

     After I had relearned to breathe, and wiped the tears away, I got a nice new cool bottle of raspberry tea and a pillow for my head on the nice soft couch. This is where I waited for Lacy. The pain pill was making me nice and mellow, which is why she waited so long to come inside. I guess she thought I wouldn't yell and she was right.

     Just thinking was painful, I was too happy to think at the moment but it needed to be dealt with.  "Sis," she said quietly as she snuck inside, "I'm really, really, really, sorry." Heard that one before. "I know we are supposed to clear the rooms first but I really had to go bad and well, anyway, no one got hurt." I peeked out from under the cool cloth on my face.

     "Well, you did and I'm really sorry but it turned our almost ok. Please, don't be mad at me".

     I struggled to sit up, cause I thought what I had to say would sound better if I were upright, but the little moaning noises I was making ruined the effect so I just sighed instead. A noise from the doorway made me look and a sad looking Randy was poised to come inside so I forcefully, sort of, said "NO!" and he backed out and shut the door.

      "You could’ve been killed or worse, bitten". I put up my hand to shush her before she could whine "We've been in this situation several times now and you still haven't learned. I realize you're only 16 and I should probably give you some leeway, but these are hard times..." Damn, lost my train of thought. Think, think, and think. Good drugs, what? Oh yea. "You have seen these things in action, nearly been eaten alive by them on more occasions that I want to think about and still you just do what you want. If you can't think of yourself then it's about time you thought of others. One of these days we won't get there in time, and Lacy, I'm not going to be too keen on having to put a bullet in your brain and bury you. Shape up. That's all there is to say. Do you understand? The whole group is affected by what you do or don't do. You have to understand what your actions do to others."

     By the time I had finished she was in tears and the drugs affects   were wearing off. I just lay there waiting to see if anything I managed to say got past the hormones. I had done everything I could for her. She had to wake up and take responsibility even at her age. She just had to.

      I let her cry herself out. "I know what you say is true. I know you can't be there every time I screw up and I know that if anything happened to you because of me I would die. I promise I'll think about my actions more and try to learn by them. I'm going out now to apologize to everyone and promise them the same thing. I love you, sis, and I know you love me to. I'm sorry you got hurt. Rest and I'll be back later to check on you." She kissed me on my chin, a spot I had somehow neglected to drag through the gravel, and left the RV, quietly shutting the door behind her. I don't remember much after that until the smell of cooking roused me from the couch. It took me several attempts to try to sit up. Muscles had tightened up and parts of my body had been switched with some old lady's while I slept. By the time I was upright I was almost in tears again and panting like a dog in August. If I hadn't been so hungry I would've just lay there an died, but nature was demanding an audience so up was the way to go.

     I could hear voices outside the door, so I peeked out the window over the sink and could see the guys milling around the table which had been set. I turned and headed for the bathroom just as my bladder demanded. I took tiny steps across the floor, which suddenly seemed as wide and empty as the desert we just spent two days driving through. I covered it inch by painful inch. I had a lot of time to watch my feet as I made my way the ten feet to the bathroom.

     When I completed my journey, I turned and shuffled back out to the kitchen, stepped down, ow,ow, then stood on the gravel and thanked the gods. Everyone was watching me. Mason couldn't decide whether he should help me or not and was worried about it till I shook my head at him. He still wavered between sitting and standing as I made painful, slow progress to the picnic bench. Everyone sighed along with me when I finally settled at the table. I smiled real big at everyone while they tried not to look at my wounds.

      "Hi" I said and smiled, "What's for dinner?"

     Everyone started talking at once. The area had been secured and the body disposed of. Some of the group wanted to go hiking on some of the trails after dinner.  Lacy wanted to take some pictures of the rock formations and Randy just wanted to stare at her, I guess. I would not be going as someone needed to stay with the camp. I elected to do that and no one even looked like they were going to smile. Howard said he needed to check the vehicles out and Bubba needed a nap so he'd stay behind also.

     Sarah and Lacy finished dinner and we sat down to eat. I drank a lot of water and later found out that the pain meds had made me thirsty. I waited till they left for their hike before slowly making my way back to the RV and the couch. Sarah followed me inside and got me a couple of aspirin, then sat at the table and fiddled with some papers.

     "What's up Sarah?" She looked miserable.

     "I was wondering what Montana was like". I knew that wasn't what was bothering her, and I knew she would get around to it eventually so I described snowcapped mountains that caressed the endless sky, air so crisp and cool you could just take a bite out of it and the sky at night so filled with stars it brought tears to your eyes.

     When I finished she still looked miserable.

     "Spit it out, Sarah"

     "I think I'm pregnant. I haven't said anything to Duke yet, cause I'm really not 100 percent, but I have a pretty good idea. I don't know what to do. I do know I don't want to raise a child in a world as crazy as this one is.

     "Let's just wait and get a pregnancy test and when we know for sure we'll go from there. Whatever happens, we will figure it out. Just let me pick up one of those tests the next time I can and we will find out for sure. Ok?  I'll be there for you no matter what you decide to do."

     She looked up from the tiny pieces of paper she had shredded on the table and a tear slowly slid down her pretty face. She nodded, and then got up to go outside, stopping at the door. "Thanks,  JD, I won't tell Duke till we know for sure. Get some rest." Then she closed the door and I stared at the ceiling for a long time.

     The next morning brought with it a lot of boredom. You could tell that everyone had had their fill of the rugged scenery and was borderline antsy. I was still sore as hell, but I was one of the antsy ones so I offhandedly mentioned leaving like a day early and everyone just started taking down awnings and putting up folding chairs. Lacy helped me with the pull outs, and awning as I was moving snail slow and SHE said I was making little pain noises.

     Mason pulled the fuel truck out into the middle of the lot and we took turns fueling up. While I waited for the others to fuel, I got out the map and lined up our route. I looked up to see Mason at my window.

      "The fuel truck is nearly empty so I'm gonna leave it and drive the pickup truck until we find another one. Randy is gonna ride with me. We're all ready to go anytime you are".

     "Let’s go then". I said and put the RV in gear.

     We drove from rugged, barren, jagged cliffs to multi-colored rock formations and high mountain passes covered with Douglas fir, lodge pole and yellow pine. Willow and cottonwoods lined the river that crisscrossed under the highway a dozen times. Douglas Pass sits at an elevation of over 8000 feet and at the top was a road garage and weather station. The road snaked around the mountains and the going was slow and nerve racking.

      When we came into a town at the base of the mountain I could almost hear the sighs of relief from the vehicles behind me. Howard had the wrecker in the lead in order to clear the road of walkers so we managed to get out of town without much of a gory debris field behind us.

     A few miles down the road we come upon a small town and on Main Street there was a small pharmacy. I radioed that I really needed to stop at the pharmacy and the caravan stopped in front of the store. Me and Mason approached the store, while Duke took the top of the bus and Lacy and Randy stood guard on the sidewalk.

     "What are you lookin for, maybe I can help" Mason whispered.

    "I think I could probably find it faster myself, it's in the feminine hygiene section." He blushed a bit and walked to the back of the store. I grabbed a sack, located several pregnancy tests, after morning pills, condoms and pre natal vitamins. As an afterthought I also grabbed tampons and anything else to throw in the sack to cover the other items. That was what I had in hand, when Mason returned.               "We need to leave." I started to the front of the store when shots were fired outside. Shit that’s all we needed. Mason grabbed the door and as Duke slid off the bus, I slipped into the RV and just by the skin of our teeth we made it out of town. Lacy was driving while I watched that everyone else got away ok.

      We started seeing wildlife which was a real treat for us after the barrenness we had been seeing. Antelope and deer seemed to be in abundance but the land soon became barren again with mountains in the distance that reached for the sky. I sincerely hoped we didn't have to drive over anymore passes.

      The setting sun reflected off the rock walls and scrub brushes dotted the landscape. The road I had chosen was miserable with switchbacks, tough inclines, steep downhills and scary drop-offs. High cliff walls threw us into almost darkness only to drop us again into the sun. It was similar to a roller coaster ride only you were the one steering but no less scary. I found a rock road just outside of Rock Springs Wyoming and we stopped for the night. We could barely walk, me doubly so with the scraped knees, and the looks I got were downright menacing.

     "Anyone else wants to figure the route that’s fine with me but I can guarantee, I will never drive though a mess like that again. The maps were deceiving and didn't show the roads right." When they just stood there and stared as me, I just waved a hand at em and went back into the RV, got out the bottle of gin and made me a drink. I deserved it, I had earned it, and I dared anyone to stop me.

     Lacy came inside and plopped down on the couch. "Well, at least it's cooler." she sighed. "I'm too nervous to eat, maybe just a pop tart." She watched me for a minute, got up and got the pastry and after looking my direction again, went back outside. I made another drink.

     Another 10 minutes brought everyone inside, and then they just stared at me. I waved my hand in the direction of the cabinets and said "pop tarts". There was a snicker and then another and then the whole group started to laugh. I pointed at the gin bottle, saluted them with my glass and started laughing also. That’s what frayed nerves with do for you...mass hysteria.