Walkers (Book 1): The Beginning (16 page)

     "He'll want to go to sleep but I'd rather he didn't for a while. That was a nice knock on the head he got. If he hadn't been fighting me I wouldn't have had to sedate him. Mandy can keep him awake, I'm sure."

     "We'll take care of everything, Sarah, you stay with Duke." Samantha, the new mechanic, said. Sarah smiled her thanks and sat beside the table, gazing lovingly at him.

      Duke's gonna be ok.
I thought to Mason.
Have you found that bastard yet?

     
The copter is totaled, and let me see...Shit!

      What?

     Damned smurfs scared the crap out of me.
I forced my mind to be still, I would laugh later.

     Aw, lookie here, he's still breathing.

     Quiet.

    Mason?

    Opps, I was wrong. Too bad, so sad. And cold. I'm coming back now.

     We had another body to dispose of now but not with military honors. I think, if he had been able, he would have blown us up, killing everyone, so I had no pity for him.

     I checked on Duke again, and then walked into the kitchen to see what the kids were up to. Samantha, or Sam as Howard like to call her and a very pregnant Melody was busy working on lunch. I wasn't surprised to see Howard sitting at the table. I think he was developing an interest in Sam. She was closer to his age and I think the feelings were mutual. I thought it was cute.  I scooted into the booth, forcing Howard to move some. I still have to have my back to the wall. Go figure. Melody brought me a glass of tea.

      "How ya feeling kiddo?" I asked sipping the cool tea. It's funny how we had a life and death situation minutes ago and the next thing you know, we are chit chatting and drinking iced tea. That tells you have far from civilization we had actually come.

     "Good. Is it true about Sweets? Is he really dead?"

     "Yea, sorry about that, but he brought it on himself. He just didn't want to or was unable to accept his demotion to human being."

     "Please, don't apologize; I'm glad he's gone. He was going to get us all killed eventually with his recklessness. He came close a few times but always blamed it on someone else. It's a relief we don't have to put up with his crap anymore."

     Sam came over and sat at Howard's end of the table, making his eyes shine. They spoke low for a few minutes, then Bubba walked over to her and begged to be held. I was a bit surprised about that but he was an equal opportunity dog and took advantage shamelessly.

     Melody said "Sam and I were talking and we were wondering about the old greenhouse. I'm a fair gardener but Sam is better and we thought if we could find some seeds, we'd like to plant some vegetables. That is if it's ok with everyone else."

     "If you two are interested in the green house then consider it yours. It'll need some fixing up and Duke would have to see how much electricity it would use, but I think in the long run it'd be a great asset to our food supply. We'd love some tomatoes in winter and potatoes and lettuce salad." I closed my eyes, “Man I would just love to graze." I opened my eyes and saw them looking at me. Ok, so much for this. "Go for it," I said and left the room.

     I stuck my head in the clinic and when I saw all was well, I started to back out when Duke gestured for me to come in.

     "You should be resting."

     "Bull...” He looked over at the sleeping Mandy..."crap. That so and so took down our security system, so as soon as these crazy people..."

     "Duke" Sarah admonished.

     "Well, I need to get the system back up and see if he broke anything and fix it. I told Mason and Flynne what to do but unless I..."

     "...do it yourself you aren't gonna trust anyone else to do it right."

     "Something like that yea," he whined.

     Just then Mason came in, sat down and looked at Duke. "It's all up and running like before. Looks like he just disconnected the system. One of the cameras is all snowy but otherwise, it looks good."

      "How can it look good when one of the cameras is down?"

      "You can check it out yourself as soon as Joe releases you and not one second before. Do you hear me? You, little jackass. You scared the hell out of me and I'm will fight you tooth and nail to do what the doctor says. Now shut up and rest."

     We took the hint and left, just short of running out of the room. Hell, she scared me when she got like that and I know she's mad when she in any way refers to his size. He knew it too, that's why he shut up like he was told.

     Mason walked beside me to the dining room, coming so close to holding my hand that I felt the heat from his arm. If he knew how close to jumping his bones I was he would've run. But, I could control myself...couldn't I?

     Joe had been eating lunch with Sissy and things were looking cozy with them to, but I sensed his side was just offering friendship. What was up? Everyone seemed to be pairing off like we were on the ark or something. Oh, wait we were, sort of. At the very least we were insolated, it was winter, cold nights and all that. I'm gonna ignore it, that's what I'm gonna do.

     Just to make sure I could do that, the powers that be sent Flynn into the dining room to sit next to me. That put me in-between them. Oh, for heaven’s sake.

     "Duke just told me he was the one that sabotaged the chopper."

     "You’re kidding? Is there nothing that guy knows?"

     “He did something to the stabilizer prop. That's the small prop at the end of the tail which keeps the helicopter from spinning like a top. That's why Sweets couldn't control it. He also disconnected the weapons control module. Remember when he hovered in front of the porch? He was trying to shoot a missile at us. When it didn't work he shot us the bird instead. Duke said when he was released from solitary, he'd help scavenge the parts from the copter, just don't ask him to help remove the body. His choices of words were rather inventive to describe what he'd do to Sweets if he had survived the crash."

     "I bet. Sweets were probably lucky from the way it sounds. I don't think anyone is gonna miss him."

     The ladies brought out lunch and we ate in silence. Flynn leaned toward me and whispered loud enough for Mason to hear, "I found a crib in the attic, and I thought it would make a great gift for Melody and Dave, for the baby."

     I looked at him like he'd grown horns. "Well, aren't you just full of surprises?"

     He shrugged and wandered back to the basement. He had some kind of project he was working on, but I had no idea what. It was getting close to Christmas so I wished him luck. Randy was manning the monitors and after mind searching for Lacy, I found her in her room, reading a magazine. How many of those things does she have?

     I went back to hanging garland again. It seemed like days since I started, so much had happened. It was hard to imagine this was even the same day. I thought of the crib in the attic and decided there was something I could do about personalizing it, so my mind was centered on baby things till I finished the great room.

     I had worked on it non-stop for days and it was really looking festive. All we needed was the tree. The guys were going out tomorrow to get the one Lacy and I had picked out months ago. We'd found some popcorn and tiny lights and ribbons which were actually hiding in the crib, and we planned to show Mandy how to make paper chains for the tree. It was such a normal thing to do we were all looking forward to it.

     I grabbed the box of leftover decorations and took it back to the attic. Looking closely at the crib, I decided how to decorate it so it would fit a boy or girl. As I turned to leaved Mason grabbed me from behind and nuzzled my neck. I let him. I know, I know, but winter and cold nights, bone jumping, and all that, remember? His arms were folded beneath my breasts which were now tingling. I was in trouble but I couldn't decide if it was such a bad thing.

     My experience with men was short and not so sweet. I had no idea what I had in store. This mind reading thing wasn't always so controllable. Imagine hearing a man thinking the whole time if he could catch that chick down the hall when he got home. Or gee, I thought her breasts were bigger, or this makes the fourth one this week, I'm the man.

     I shouldn't have that problem with Mason, because we could talk and kiss at the same time and man could he kiss. The soft, deep, toe curling, hungry for more kind. His nuzzling my neck was doing things down low and I decided to do something about it. He started to tug at my shirt where it was tucked into my jeans.

     "Oh, well...maybe..." I couldn't seem to form a coherent thought and nearly lost my mind when his warm hands snuggled under my bra except for this thumbs which had found my nipples through the thin material.

     "I've missed you." he said as his teeth tugged gently at my earlobe. The one on the right..yep, that's the one. It's the most sensitive.

     "Where have I been?" I whispered. Moving my bottom against him, I found out just how happy he was to be there.

     "Nowhere you should have been. Like with me. Have you missed me?"

     "Huh?" I heard a ripping sound as my bra gave way and the cool air of the attic caressed my stomach.

     "Shhh," he whispered into my ear, and then he turned me toward him. I unbuttoned his shirt briskly and eased it out of his pants and off his shoulders. I unbuckled his belt and began to work on the snap of his jeans. For some reason my fingers didn't want to work right and I was becoming desperate.

     He took my hands and led them up to his chest. "Slow, cookie, slow," he said, his voice gone all soft and shivery just before his lips claimed mine again. I could feel myself relaxing inch by stubborn inch, and began to stroke his chest as he'd stoked mine. His hand went behind my head and pressed gently, deepening the kiss until I was almost crazy with the desire to get that zipper down. This time it cooperated and I began to push down his pants. He helped me to lie down on the mattress I'd walked on minutes before. He gazed down at me, touched my cheek, and slowly bent down to kiss me again. That was the beginning of a very long, wonderful day in the attic.

      As attics go, that one was the best. Setting ourselves to right except for my poor bra, we walked down the stairs smiling at Lacy as she came from her room. She stopped, really looked at us and smiled, giving me the thumbs up. I know my face was fire engine red so I refused to look at Mason. He waltzed, softly through my mind, caressing me gently then was gone. I finally looked at him and his face held the look of the conquering hero. Men!

     No one questioned where we'd been. Duke was sitting up eating some soup. Bet that went over well. Plans were made to recover Sweets and get the Christmas tree the next day. After all the trouble that idiot had tried to cause, Randy said the compound was secure.

     The rich smell of venison stew made my mouth water as I washed up for supper. I must be hungry.

     Go figure.

                                                       
CHAPTER 16

     Mason, Flynne, Randy and Melodies husband, Dave, left after breakfast to retrieve Sweets body and get a Christmas tree.  Then Duke would dismantle the helicopter and see what he could salvage.  Sarah had prepared a hearty breakfast for the men and after a quick okay from me, pancakes.  I ignored them for the scrambled eggs and toast.  Mandy had her usual hot chocolate and poptarts.  I looked at the chocolate mix and after a moments hesitation, I added a packet to my coffee.  Not bad.

     Later, we were cleaning the kitchen, laughing and kidding around when Mandy said she heard gun shots.  We listened and heard nothing and at first nothing then we heard a volley of shots.

     Mason?  You guys okay?

     No, tell Joe to get ready, we're bringing in Dave.  He was mauled by a mountain lion.  It's bad, JD.
I walked quickly towards the clinic and found Howard visiting Duke.  "Joe, the guys are bringing Dave in, he's been mauled by a mountain lion."

     "If you feel ok, Duke, you can go on to your room, but rest."  Joe said as he grabbed some stuff off the counter, "I'll need some warm water, lots of bandages and Lacy."  Duke scurried off the exam table with Howard's help, then took Lacys place at the monitors.  She prepared the clinic while Joe headed outdoors to wait for the snowmobile which was fast approaching from the north.  As he watched them he said, "You might want to rally around Melody, we need to keep her as calm as possible."

     I wondered briefly as I went back to the kitchen, if the fun we were having in the kitchen minutes earlier had somehow brought on this series of events.  Would us having fun have killed a nice man? Naw.

     The girls stood at the window watching the approaching snowmobile but turned when they heard my footsteps.  "The guys were attacked by a mountain lion.  I don't know all the details but Dave," Melody gasped, "was badly injured,"  she started to the door but Sam blocked her, "Joe is meeting them on the front porch.

     "No," Melody cried, "Not Davey."  She pushed Sam out of the and hurried to the front porch with the rest of us in hot pursuit.

     We got to the front door about the same time the snowmobile stopped at the bottom of the steps.  All I could see as they lifted him and carried him gently inside, was a bloody mess of clothes.  Melody was crying as she followed him inside the clinic, supported by Flynne.

     "I need Lacy, Sarah and Randy, everyone else, out!  That includes you Mel."  She backed up against the wall by the door, crossed her arms over her child and glared at us.  Ok.  I pulled a chair over for her, then Flynne helped her sit down.    

   "You sit right here and I'll keep you company until Dave wakes up."  He stood next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.  Lacy and Sarah was busy cutting the bloody clothes away, while Joe was doing medic type things, so I left the room, quietly closing the door.  Everyone looked at me,  but I could only shrug my shoulders.