Seeking Sanctuary (Walkers) (20 page)

             
Mason came inside at the same time as I entered the room. 
I heard
, he thought.

             
So you were that itch behind my ear.

             
No baby, that itch wasn't me.  I was that low, heavy feeling below your belt. I don't know why your ears were itching.
To prove his point, I felt a very warm, heavy feeling in my happy place.

             
Behave.
I said,
and pay attention,
  I put my hand up to stop his next obvious statement.
to what's going on.
  Frustrated,  I shook my head and narrowed my eyes at him.  He finally laughed and put his hand around my shoulder.  We turned as one when Randy rushed in.  “He passed out, just crumpled up in a ball in that rocker out there.  We can't wake him up.”  He turned and rushed back out again.

             
“I hope not,”  Hazel said as she gently brushed one of the new kids hair.  I think her name was Sky.  “I put enough Valium in his coffee to knock out  a jackass.  I didn't know if the caffeine in the coffee would keep him awake so I added a little more than I would've if he'd been drinking milk.  Still it may have been too much.  Or not enough, what with the expiration date ending two years ago.  I just don't know.”  she started humming while she brushed Sky's hair. 

             
My God, that woman is just a cauldron of conflicting thoughts.

             
Yeah, and she confusing too.

             
Mason turned and looked at me. 
I know what you're talking about.  I guess we don't have to keep someone here tonight after all.

             
I agree but I'd feel better if someone was here.  We don't know these people. 

             
We could stay.  I wouldn't mind staying just to help out some.  Just until some of the people here were able to help.

             
We'd walked outside by the time we'd finished 'talking'.  Randy, Flynn and Ken stood over Walker trying to figure out what to do.

             
“Where's Joe?  He'd better take a look at him.”  Flynn said.

             
I put my finger at his throat and detected a slow beat there.  “I wouldn't worry too much about it.  Seems like Hazel was a step ahead of us and spiked Walkers coffee.  He should stay asleep long enough for her friends in the sky to pick him up sometime tonight.”

             
“That old woman scares me.”  Flynn said.  “and I don't scare easy.”  He looked at us and shrugged his shoulders.

             
“Lacy and I have decided to spend the night.  It's just until some of the new people get on their feet.”

             
“We thought about that too.  Do you think we should all stay?”

             
“No.  I don't think that will be necessary.  I want to get back to the fort and see how they're doing. I hate to stay away too long.”  I said.  I was missing the place already.  “It's gonna be dark soon, so we need to make up our minds.   I think most of those poor souls inside are too tired to do much tonight.  Maybe tomorrow they'll feel stronger.”                “Especially after eating more of Hazels good cooking.”  Clint said, still frowning down at Walker.  “Are you sure he's still breathing?”

             
I felt of his neck again and felt a bit of a heartbeat.  “Don't worry about him, Clint.  He's still breathing.  He needs to have a glass of water next to him in case he should wake up later.  I heard Valium makes your mouth dry.  Maybe lace it with some of Hazels Valium to make sure he goes back to sleep.”

             
Clint laughed.  “You scare me sometimes, JD.  I swear you do.”

             
About that time Hazel appeared with a glass of water.  “I fixed him up some more Valium.  That stuff makes your mouth dry.”  She carefully set it on the table beside Walker and put a blanket across his lap.  “Temperature falls with the sun around these parts.”  She winked at us and smiled.  “Wouldn't want him to catch a chill now would we.”  Then she patted Flynn's shoulder and went back inside.  We all followed her with our eyes.

             
“I take that back JD.  She's the one that scares me.”  Clint went to the truck we'd parked there this morning and got behind the wheel.  Evidently he planned to wait on us there.  Okay, I guess we say goodnight and head home.  I knew from the thoughts flitting around in Masons head that a nice roaring fire, raspberry tea and me on the bed  was in our near future.  I just love the way that man thinks.

                                                     Chapter 18

              It took another 10 minutes for us all to get loaded into the trucks.  Duke lagged behind doing something for Hazel but we finally managed to get on the road.

             
“Finally.”  I said, “That ghost in the corner was making me nervous.”

             
“You see him again?”  Mason said, taking my hand.  “I thought it was a bit chilly all of a sudden but I couldn't see anything.”

             
“Yeah, well, I don't think he's dangerous or anything, I  just hate seeing things through him.  That and the way he just stares at me.” 

             
“Well, we'll be home soon and a nice long shower is just what we all need.”

             
“I'll say...What the hell!”

             
We'd just taken a sharp turn in the road and there was a big, silver UFO blocking the road.  When I say big, I'm talking like a big house, big and it was sitting right in the middle of the damned road.  Wasn't going around this thing either because almost half of it hung over the road, and on that side of the road was a big, deep ravine.  Another reason we couldn't go anywhere was because the truck just plain quit.  Everything had stopped working, even our watches.  I was sitting sideways in the seat after throwing my hand on the dash to keep from going through the windshield.  I could only stare, mouth hanging open at another strange event in our strange eventful lives.

             
The fort was about a mile from Hazels, but because of the creeks, ravines and hill sides we had to travel about five miles to get there.  There's a lot of bends and turns, and around one of the many bends in the road, there sat the huge UFO.

             
It didn't spin like a top and had no markings that I could see.  It hovered about 10 feet above the road and there were no windows or doors or legs, it was just a huge, fat disc.  I'd always thought it was silver but up close it looked like it was more of a gun metal gray.  A humming was just barely audible but it was vibrating all around and through me.  I think my teeth was vibrating with it but then I was scared shitless, so I could have been wrong. It was just there staring at us. Mason turned and looked at me.  I slowly turned my head and looked back at him and shrugged my shoulders.  I had no idea  what was up.  We'd been seeing the thing at a distance for over a month and it looked well, not dangerous.  Now it sat there in the middle of the road making a humming noise and still not dangerous.  That was okay by me cause I was still spooky from the ghost back at Hazels.  I didn't think I could handle little green men right now.

             
JD, if a little green man gets out of that thing, I'm leaving you all behind and high tailing it back to Hazels.

             
Duke wants to know what we do now. Ken said softly in my mind.

             
Tell him I have no idea.

             
With that thought a kangaroo jumped out of the trees to our left, hopped across the road between us and the UFO, over the steep embankment and disappeared from view. I think I blinked my eyes about a million times at that.  When I was just about tired of the whole thing, the UFO gently lifted in the air and in a blink of an eye disappeared from view.

             
Just then the truck started up on it's own and Mason came unglued.  He jumped a foot, making me squeak like a girl and jump too.

             
“Damn, Mason.  You nearly gave me a coronary.  Crap on a cracker.”

             
“I nearly gave you...?  What the hell was that all about?”  He asked, as he wiped the sweat from his brow.  “And where the hell did that kangaroo come from?  Christ!  I need a drink.”

             
And I lost it.  I laughed so hard I nearly wet myself.  I do that when I'm really nervous and the whole day has been a mixed bag of nervousness. I had no choice or control, so I broke up while Mason just sat there and glared at me which didn't help a bit.  I finally got myself together when Flynn blew the horn behind us scaring the hell out of me again.  A drink was definitely in order.  After one more glance at the sky, we slowly moved towards the fort, Mason hanging over the steering wheel and me staring out my window trying very hard not to laugh.

             
When we pulled up to the gate, I got a good look at the area in front of it.  It was a nice sized parking area, wooded all around with picnic tables placed here and there.  A little creek ran along the side of the fort to the front and along the road to disappear God knows where.  A concrete outhouse sat secluded to the far side of the parking lot.  I'd already checked it when we returned from our hunting trip a few days earlier so I know it had a concrete floor.  When you sat on the toilet there was a breeze from hell coming up through it, almost making you forget why you sat down in the first place, especially in winter. The outside  was speckled with tiny rocks so it almost blended in, almost.  The grass was taking over  so we needed to do something soon.  Mostly to prevent snakes and skunks from taking up residence in the tall grass.  We needed a goat, or two.

             
“We need to get some goats to take care of the grass.  It gets much taller and we could hide a mountain goat in here.”

             
Mason looked around.  “Yeah, I see what you mean.  Snakes would just love this stuff and it would look better if it was mowed down.”  Then he stopped talking so he could help pull the gates open.  I wondered briefly when they planned to fix them, then pulled the truck through  and parked it in its spot near the garage where Howard and Samantha lived.  Howard was there to greet us along with a whole bunch of kids. 

             
The rest of the evening was filled up with telling the story of the rescue interspersed with tales of UFO's and kangaroo's. Afterward, we sat on the bench in the park like area and watched the moon rise. 

             
“I can't imagine a better place to be right now.”  Mason said, as he stared at the stars. 

             
“Me either.  I can't believe I never knew about this place, or I'd have brought us here instead of to the lodge.”

             
“I'm glad we got to live at the lodge, JD.  Nothing will ever take that memory from me.  Everything and I mean everything that happened there will be a memory I will enjoy till the day I die.  Mostly because you were a part of it but also because I've made some wonderful friends and learned a lot about life and what I was missing before the walkers arrived.  Peace and quiet beats the nightly news and rush hour traffic any day.”

             
When it started getting too cool to be out, we headed for our room.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a fire lit in the fireplace sending out shadows to dance all over the place.  No telling who thought of it but I was grateful anyway.  I opened the window curtains and got us a bottle of water from the small fridge finding several of Sarah's apple tarts waiting for me.  We drank our water and ate a tart on the floor in front of the fire then proceeded to make love like two teenagers until we fell into an exhausted sleep. Sometime during the night we moved to the bed.  I was getting too old to sleep on the floor and still be able to walk upright the next day.  Comfort is starting to be my middle name.

             
We had a quiet few days with the biggest excitement being the phone system Duke set up between us and Hazel.  It rang into the main mess hall but was diverted to Lacy and Randy's apartment during the night.  Mikey had his own room and wouldn't be bothered with the phone ringing if it did ring during the night.  Joe and Sandy spent two days at the ranch seeing to the worst of the people from the train.  They would be okay.  As promised by Hazel, Walker disappeared that night.  The only thing that told her what happened was all of his clothes were left behind.  Even his watch was laying on the floor near the chair he had slept in.  No one seemed unduly upset by his disappearance and after a brief moment of wonder his name wasn't mentioned again.

             
It was nearly the Fourth of July and we had a big picnic planned in the fort.  It would be for all the people at Hazel's as well.  A get to know ya dinner so to speak.  We went  hunting the day before as we had nearly everyday since we arrived.  The freezers were full and the pantry was fatter than when we arrived.  We'd been working on Hazels kitchen getting it set up for a large number of people.  Her pantry was looking a lot better and the big walk in freezer was looking great.  All of the men that were on the train could hunt and loved to fish.  They went out every day hunting  and we combined our efforts on occasion.  One man was a tech wizard like Duke and they had their heads together nearly all the time.  The security at the ranch was starting to improve drastically.