Seeking Sanctuary (Walkers) (9 page)

             
The morning found us looking for a place again on the maps.  Ken suggested the old prison at Deer Lodge but it was made from stone and I knew how hard it was going to be staying warm in there.  Besides it wouldn't give us any room to grow anything and I was looking for a place in the open for livestock and I wanted to be able to see the mountaintops, not just stone walls.  There was a nice place in the Snowy Mountains, south of Lewistown that was a dude ranch so we thought we would check it out.  We could get there by afternoon if we left soon so we started packing things up for the three hour drive.

             
The three hour drive turned into a six hour drive.  Lewistown was full of walkers and there was only two ways to get on the road to the Snowy's, both led through the middle of town.  We back tracked so many times that I lost count and finally settled for waiting in the Shop-co parking lot while Randy, Clint and Riley went around setting off car alarms and stereos on the other end of town to draw the walkers away from first street.  When they satisfied it was safe we hurried through an obstacle course in the Yogo Inn parking lot and onto the road leading south of town. 

             
We thought of stopping at the reservoir on the way but it had only one way in and out so we kept going.  A roadblock of walkers stopped us a mile south of the reservoir but we managed to take them out.  I don't know why there was so many of them out there but didn't really care, we cleaned them out just the same.  We missed the turnoff to the ranch and had to go back.  I was pooped and out of sorts by the time we pulled up to the ranch house.  The view was breathtaking but the security was non existent.  It seemed like I wasn't the only one not happy with things. Mason stood there with his hands on his hips and thought,
I don't like this.  No security, and putting up trailers for fences would take the rest of my life.  I just don't feel comfortable here.

             
I knew we needed to get out and clear all the buildings but I was just out of the mood to kill anything.  I sat and watched with the other ladies as the men chopped, hacked and blew the brains out of anything on two legs not living.  All in all they put down 16 walkers and a very angry dog. I couldn't set idly by anymore after that so I got out and helped drag the bodies to a ravine, poured gas on them and set them afire.  Experience had already taught me that I didn't want to smell that odor, so I wandered around inside the large ranch house and checked out every nook, cranny and closet.  Especially broom closets near the back door.  When my ankle started to warn me about an imminent failure, I collapsed into a leather chair and winched at the creaking and crackling it made in protest.

             
It would do.  For the time being anyway.

             
So we moved inside, took stock of what was needed, made up some beds for the kids and settled down.  Tomorrow we'd decide what to do but for now, we would just rest, regroup, and prepare for the future.  Again.

                                                                      Chapter 8

              I was awakened in the softness of the dawn by Mason whispering in my ear.  “Look out the window, JD.  Come on and wake up or you'll miss it.”

             
I started to say something but he put his hand over my mouth.  So I looked cause I thought it would be the last thing I'd do before I killed him.  I changed my mind when not ten feet from our window, I saw a Whitetail deer giving birth to her fawn, who it seemed, was a twin.  The other newborn was lying nearby, panting heavily from the birth.  It looked like mama had managed to clean the baby up before stopping to give birth to the other fawn.  I smothered an 'aw' with my pillow as I lay on my stomach, chin propped up on my pillow, snuggled next to Mason and watched the scene unfold before me. 

             
When I was just starting to notice Mason's nudity, something caught my eye and around the corner of the barn a walker staggered.  I rolled out of bed and started looking for my clothes, chanting 'pants,pants, pants,' bra, bra, bra'  while Mason grabbed his pants and shoes, and was out the door.  I gave up finally and looked out the window as the walker zeroed in on the deer.  “Hurry, hurry, hurry,”  I whispered to Mason as the walker reached out to grab the newborn that had just been dumped on the ground by its mother.  Just as the deer managed to get her wits about her, the gun went off and the walker fell.  Mama managed to nudge her kids up and they all three staggered off into the trees.  Mason went over to the walker and nudged it with his foot, then gave me a thumbs up before being joined by Randy who was dressed in jeans and shoes also.

             
This walker had on chaps and one cowboy boot.  It's shirt was ragged  and half its right arm was gone, the bone sticking out with rotted meat surrounding it.  I shuddered, found my bra and finished dressing before joining the others in the dining room.  Sarah was digging around in the pantry so I helped myself to the coffee then sat watching watched her until she finished.

             
“Looks like enough supplies for about a week in there.  I wouldn't stay any longer than that unless you boys are planning on scouting out some food from the neighboring ranches.”  She said, then got Duke his coffee and headed for the Dukemobile.   I looked around and thought to Mason,
Tell everyone that that we will be here long enough to figure out our next move and heal.
  He smiled,  blew me a kiss which I ignored, then said to everyone, “Let's sit it out here for a week, let everyone heal and rest then we can figure out where to go next.  Of course, we need to set up some major security, but that shouldn't be too hard.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired.  Not knowing where we're going isn't helping any either so we need some time to figure that out.  What do you say?”   He looked around and then everyone started talking at once.  From what I could gather, everyone was okay with the arrangement and Ken could recover some of his strength while my ankle healed a bit more.  Good.  I wasn't in the best of moods either, and staying here would help.  Standing on the porch I looked out at the mountaintops surrounding  us.  There was still snow on the Snowy's.  I couldn't see the Judith or Moccasin Mountains because of the hills surrounding us but that was okay.  The trees had a blue cast to them and in the distance the color of blue went from light to dark making the them appear shrouded in fog.  Two eagles soared in the distance, wings spread wide to catch the wind currents while the sound of birds talking to each other and remember the lodge. 

             
The pain from the loss of the lodge had lessened to just sadness now.  I could remember the hand hewn logs of the lodge and weathered, river stone fireplace with a smile now.  We'd made it a home and it had kept us safe and warm.  Like a good friend it sheltered us and then it was destroyed.  I had felt privileged to live there and would never forget it.  Randy had drawn a picture of it and had copies for each of us for Christmas this last year.  When I found a new home I was going to ask him to paint a large picture to put over the new fireplace. 

             
I was jolted out of my reverie by Mason plopping down on the step next to me.  “We need to put some chairs out here.  Just doesn't seem right sitting on the step.”  I smiled as I remembered the lodge porch, with the rocking chairs set up with just a small table separating each one.  I remembered one time there were five of us sitting out there rocking and talking.

             
“Yep, we need some chairs for sure.”  I said back, just because something needed to be said to fill the silence.  We both sat and watched the eagles for a while before he helped me back into the dining room where a chair had been put with a small stool before it.   I couldn't tell who the culprit was because they all acted guilty but on the table in front of it was a pile of maps and atlases, with a bottle of raspberry tea nearby.  I didn't have to ask.  What the hell, might as well go for it.

             
We spent nearly a week there, my foot getting better and Ken learned not to bitch quite so loudly.  The scenery was breathtaking and we watched the deer who got brave enough to come back up to the building again.  We didn't see any more walkers and that was okay with us.  The kids could play with supervision and the guys nearly emptied the nearby lakes of bass.  Our plan was to take the road south through the mountains, to keep from going through Lewistown again, and come around to the highway then nearly to Great Falls but go south and west again on rock roads.  If Lewistown was bad then Great Falls would be a nightmare and we'd had enough of those.

             
The morning we left was a busy one.  The place had given us sanctuary so we made sure it was closed up, with a sign on the door telling whomever that if the place was still closed up then it was safe to enter.  I hoped that if someone did come in after us that they had the presence of mind to find out for themselves first.  I wouldn't trust a sign to tell me it was okay, but then I don't trust most things nowadays as a general rule.

             
We hadn't been on the road ten minutes when we had to stop at the top a hill.  There, with burned and blackened trees on both sides, we watched an elephant lumber across the road.

             
“Hey is that what I think it is?”  Asked Duke on the CB radio.

             
“Yep”,  I replied into the mike. It looked at us but didn't make any more threatening gesture than that, before it continued around a large boulder and disappeared.  Mason looked at me, then back at the boulder then me again.  I shrugged my shoulders and watched the boulder too.  Soon, Mason shook himself, and we continued down the mountain to the flatland below.  We soon found ourselves at Hobson, a town of about 215 souls.  I sincerely hoped they weren't all walkers.  We'd stopped because something was wrong with the medical van.  While our two resident mechanics worked on the problem, I got out the maps and started looking for the next place we could camp. 

             
“Looks like we're going to have to replace the oil pump on the van.”  Howard said, as he wiped the oil from his hands.  “It may take a couple of days and I don't like sitting here so close to possible danger.  Is there a rest area or camping spot nearby?”  I was looking at the map when I saw a lake nearby boasting camping facilities.  

             
“Will it make it another few miles?  There's a lake nearby we could stay at for a few days if you need that much time.”

             
“Lead the way.  If we have to, we can tow the van that far.  I have the parts, I just need the time.” 

             
Mason nodded and we proceeded to the lake.  It was large and surrounded by the Little Belt and Snowy Mountains.  Nearby, the small town of Utica once boasted the residence of the local western artist, Charlie Russel or so says our resident historian, Lacy.  Randy, Clint and Riley wanted to visit it so we sent them on their way, while the rest of us got out our fishing chairs and put lines in the water.  Duke stayed with the Dukemobile so he could monitor the security although you could see for miles in every direction, while the two older boys planted themselves on the roof with binoculars. 

             
Ken and I were led to a chair, handed a bottle of water and a fishing pole and left to fend for ourselves.  I admired the scenery for a few minutes then promptly fell asleep, waking a while later to whistling.  I opened one eye and watched Ken as he whittled a small branch into an even smaller one all the while whistling a senseless tune.  I couldn't see the reason for it but I couldn't begrudge him since I was inspecting the inside of my eyelids.  Dust in the distance did get my attention and was relieved to see the boys were back from their expedition.

             
Randy had a large painting in his hand which turned out to be a painting Russel did  called “A Quiet Day in Utica” while Clint and Riley had several hunting rifles and ammunition in hand.  I was about to comment on the finds when a flash of light from over the mountains caught my attention.  When I looked everyone stopped talking and turned to look.

             
It was a silver disk, shaped like a saucer hovering over the mountaintops.  Occasionally, it would dip and sway but mostly stayed in one position while us mere humans stared open mouthed in its direction.  Language skills took a leave of absence while we tried to decipher this new, weird experience in our otherwise crazy lives.  I was relaxed in my chair while Mason had walked over to stand near me.  After a few minutes the disk rose into the sky then was gone in a streak of light into the flatland's east of us. 

             
I sat quietly while I thought about it.  Everyone else was doing the same thing except for the kids which hadn't noticed the show.  Mason turned to me and stared.  I stared back.  Seemed like the thing to do at the time and I was without a thought in my head as to what I'd just seen, so I went with it.

             
“Shit!”  someone said, I thought it was Duke.  Then like everyone had been primed like an old pump they started to talking at the same time.  Mason still stared at me.  I don't know what he expected me to say but I was pretty content to stare back.  My brain wasn't functioning.  I heard the words, “flying saucer and UFO's” bandied about until I was brought alert by a scream.  Jumping up, I saw Nevada fighting with a very large fish on her line and discovered at the same instant that I had to visit the restroom.  I hated that that part of my brain was connected to my bladder but I couldn't do anything about it.

             
Mason was standing at the bathroom door when I emerged nearly scaring me into going right back inside. 

             
“You saw that right?”

             
“Yeah, babe, I did.”

             
“What do you make of it?”

             
“Well, I hate to state the obvious but I think it was an unidentified flying object.”  I started around him but he grabbed me and held me close.  His heart was beating like a drum and I held him back because I realized that he was more scared than I was. I think on my part it was ignorance while he was ex military and this meant a lot of the stuff he had been taught had just flown off into the distance like a streak of light.

             
“I'd seen some things while in the military.  Things I couldn't explain.  Didn't want to explain and couldn't talk about.  I put them to the back of my mind, hoping I'd never had to face them up close, like today.  But I wasn't the only one that saw that thing.  Everyone, but the kids who were playing, saw it.  I don't know to protect us from it, JD.  Hell, I don't know if I need to protect us from it cause I don't know what the fuck it was!”  He was getting worked up.  I shushed him and patted his back and held him until his breathing quieted.

             
“We'll be okay, Mason.”  I whispered.  “We'll do just fine and if or when the time comes to worry about it we will.  Until then we have to go on with our lives because we just can't do a damned thing about it right now.”  He bent back far enough to look down at me.  Those blue eyes fringed with those impossibly long eyelashes gazed at me like it was the first time he actually saw me.  Combine that with the that lock of hair that curled just so in the middle of his forehead and I was done for.  When he kissed me my toes curled, as they usually do but this time there was more to the kiss.  He'd been worried about keeping me safe and most of the time I fought him on it.  Today he sensed danger but could do nothing about it cause he was scared too.  When the kiss ended he leaned his forehead on mine and sighed.  I smiled up at him patted his cheek and we went back out to talk to the others.  What we'd all seen demanded a conference, although I don't know where we expected it to go.  Maybe just an acknowledgment that we'd all seen the same thing would be enough, but I wasn't betting on it.

             
I'd have been rich if I had bet on it and everyone had money etc, etc.  We'd thought the kids had been too busy to see it but we were wrong.   However, we were surprised to find they had no fear of the phenomenon just curiosity.  That worked for me because I had plenty to go around.   I found we were spending more time looking up than around and that bothered me.  I felt like we needed to stay grounded.  We could run into a walker while looking for an alien and that would be worse.  The real danger was on the ground so, anytime I saw someone looking up, I cleared my throat and they'd go back to doing whatever.  I had to resist the temptation a few times myself but with everyone trying to keep their eyes off the sky, we were pretty keyed up by the time we settled down for our nightly star gazing.  As much as we wanted to see something all we got were a few falling stars and that was enough to cause everyone to jump up and point.  I finally decided I would be too worked up to sleep if we kept this up so decided to turn in for the night.