The Reanimates (Book 3): The Escape (13 page)

When they were out of sight, I retrieved the rifle that I put behind the seat and got out of the bus to start walking the wall. It felt good to have something to do so I could shake off the anxiety that was building up in my chest. I wanted this to go well. I wanted to know that there were more people out there that were like us, but even more, I wanted my husband and my friends to come back safe and in one piece.

There was nothing I could do about the guys being gone other than to sit and wait, and waiting was something I was not good at. The medical clinic was almost deserted so I sent Trisha home to her kids. I scrubbed the waiting room for a while to keep my brain focused on something else. As I was almost done with the waiting room, the occasional person came in for a bandage and I had one person come in for a bee sting. Between the visits, I scrubbed the exam rooms down until they were as clean as any operating room. I was afraid that the light patient workload was a sign of the calm before the storm, and I fought to bury the fear. When I couldn't stand being in the clinic for a minute longer, it occurred to me that it would be a good idea if there was a way for people to reach me. In the emergency kit that I found in the back office, there was a pair of walkie talkies. I attached one to my waistband and put the other on the check-in counter. I left a note that I could be reached on channel three in case of emergency. I closed the clinic door behind me and walked across town to peek in on everyone.

My first stop was to the auto shop. Jackson and Justin were inside with Derek and they were elbow deep in grease and grime, but they were grinning. They found a 1956 step side F100 in a yard. It was a pile of mismatched parts that barely cranked, and it wouldn't stay running. The truck was iconic for the town and had a lot of potential if they made it work. They even discovered cherry red paint that they were going to paint the truck with once it was functional. I listened to them snark at each other as they both tried to work in a very confined space while Derek pointed out some part that they had to unbolt. Derek rolled his eyes at me even though he wore a huge smile on his face.

My next stop was at the caf
é. After the crop went into the ground, Louise, Tanya, and Raine started to work on the kitchen. They had been working to make the café clean and usable so we could stop using the school cafeteria as a lunch room. Louise was scrubbing on the grill while Tanya and Raine worked in the dining room. They definitely had their work cut out for them, but declined my offers to help.

Across the street, the large greenhouse was getting some action. Kristen was planting her new seed packets there and seemed to be at total peace even though our husbands were gone. She found a stash of small terracotta pots that she was using as nursery pots, and she made sure she read every direction that she could find to give her plants the best chance. Both of her ear buds were in as she listened to her MP3 player, and I don't know if she ever saw me in the door, so I let her stay in her own world.

Lacey was down at the playground talking with Trisha as the kids played in the sand and climbed all over the equipment.  I joined them and stared out at the kids. Liam and Drew were sitting under a tree trading cards in a game that they invented and I didn't understand. My kid was playing something, finally, and I felt this surge of happiness. Seeing him play reaffirmed my every thought about the benefits of moving here.

While I watched the kids, Erin came strolling by with Sawyer, holding hands with their fingers interlocked. Sawyer was Shayla's younger brother, and if you didn't know that he was younger by two years, then the natural assumption was that he was the oldest. He was quite a bit taller than Shayla, more or less by a foot. I was somewhat surprised to see Erin walking with Sawyer. I thought that she was infatuated with Justin, although I understood that Justin was in no place right now to accept a girlfriend, despite how much they had in common. It would be those similar situations, both losses that were witnessed by the other, that made things that much more painful, and every time they looked in each other’s eyes, they would be confronted with a mirror of pain. That sort of thing makes a new, budding relationship just crumble to pieces.

I hung around for a while just listening to the others talk about the crops and the goats and how sometimes it was easy to forget what brought us together here. I stayed with them until the sun started to hang low in the sky. I used to believe that California had the most brilliant sunsets. I grew up hearing that the reason California had the best sunsets was because all the smog in the air bounced light different. I bet not a one of those people had ever seen a sunset in Montana. It was like God reached down and smudged the line between heaven and earth.

That night, Drew and I opened a can of stew for dinner and ate it with crackers, then we both slept in the living room next to the fire. Drew was like me, neither one of us wanted to sleep alone with Trent gone. If all went well, the next couple of days were going to be long, but good. People were settling in nicely. It was like we were supposed to be here. Now if we could have the guys back home, everything would be perfect.

Have a Cow, Man

After a couple of days, there was the rumble of a truck engine approaching the walls. I prayed that it was Trent and the rest of the guys and not something worse. Part of me had been worried that without the bulk of our fighters, the town would be vulnerable to attack. I scaled the ladder I discovered in one of the garages to get to the top of the wall and grabbed the binoculars that hung on a coat rack that I had mounted up there while I had some free time over the last couple of days. I figured that the coat rack would also be a good spot to hang a quiver with an extra set of arrows and a bow, as well as the binoculars, just in case. I knew that I would earn some weird looks from Trent when he saw it, but that was fine by me.

I stood there staring out over the road, waiting for the sound of the vehicle to be paired with the sight. In a world with absolute silence, any noise carried farther than before. I could hear it getting closer. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait much longer as the truck turned the corner and I saw Trent behind the wheel, with Matt sitting shotgun. Mike, DaWayne, and Tyreese were sitting in the back seat. The horse trailer was still attached but I noticed that there was less bounce in the trailer than there was when they left. There was something heavy inside. Jack, Lucas, and one other guy from Clyde's were following behind in an old Jeep. Trent saw me from the driver's seat and waved out the window. I returned the gesture with a wide smile. I watched as they came closer before I climbed down to the bus gate and let them in. As soon as the truck and the Jeep were through and the gate was closed, I jogged over to Trent's side of the truck.

"Hi sweetie!" I chirped cheerfully. I was very aware of the four other sets of eyes on me, so I looked at each one of the others and added, "Oh, hi, Matt, Mike, Ty, and DaWayne!" I smiled before I continued, "So, I'm hoping that since you brought Jack, that it means things went really well for us?"

"Well, that depends on your definition of well..." Trent had an expression that I wasn't sure how to read. I held my breath for a moment before he broke into a wide smile. "If your definition of well means we lost all our fruit, medical supplies and books, but gained a dairy cow and her calf, then yes, we did well."

I felt my eyes go wider than they ever had as I started to jump up and down. "Really?" I squealed. My face twisted into a look of skepticism, because something that cool seemed almost unreal, and asked, "Really, or are you messing with me?"

"That's why Jack came with us. Well, that and we had to get Lucas home. We should have places to keep them since this was a rodeo town, but we decided that it would be a good idea to have him take a peek at our fenced areas."

I squealed with joy. "I gotta tell everyone! Drew and your mom are going to flip. This is awesome!" I leaned into the truck window to kiss Trent before I skipped off towards the school area to tell the group while the guys drove up to find a place to home the newest members of our group.

As I figured, everyone was as happy as I was over this development. When the guys found a good plot of land to keep the cows, DaWayne came over to the school to let us know they were ready so we could watch them unload our new friends.

I fell in love with our new cow instantly. She had stunning brown eyes and her hide was a beautiful blend of browns and white, like cream being added to a hot chocolate. She looked terrified after her journey, and I wondered if she had ever been trucked anywhere, not to mention I'm sure there were a lot of weird smells that she encountered. Her calf was a sweet little guy who wasn't fond of leaving his mother's side. He found a patch of grass and started to gnaw on it.

"The guy we traded with, William, said that the calf was starting to eat solids more and more so we were going to have to be on it to keep her milk coming in or she'll dry up. If that happens, she'll have to get pregnant again." Trent explained.

"Uncle Trent? What's the cow's name?" Nathan stared transfixed at the size of this animal in front of him.

"I don't know, kiddo," Trent replied. "What do you think it should be?"

Nathan looked at the cow with a very serious look, before he asked, "Is it a boy cow or a girl cow?"

"It's a girl cow. The baby is a boy."

"So maybe the boys should make a boy name, and the girls should make a girl name." Nathan suggested.

I couldn't help but to smile a huge smile right then. "I love that idea, Nath. How about you take your daddy and all the boys over there to that tree and come up with a good name for the boy, and I'll borrow your momma and all the girls and we'll come up with one for the girl. Would that work?" Nathan nodded. His face was intense, and it showed that he was thinking about this very seriously. The girls were also thinking very earnestly about the job in front of them.

Abigail was the first to offer a suggestion. "I like Harry Potter, but since it's a girl we can't name her that. I liked Luna. She was funny. Maybe that's her name?" The rest of the girls fell in love with Luna, and so from then on, her name was Luna Cow. Trisha scooped up Dalynn and started saying the nursery rhyme about the cow jumping over the moon, which made the name more perfect. When the boys came back, the name they chose was Longbottom, which was funny to me that they chose a name from Harry Potter as well. When Lacey was told the names, she started to laugh. I must have given her an odd look because she quickly explained that they were reading Harry Potter in school. I laughed too.

The animals were hope, a constant reminder that life finds a way, that the circle of life continues even when you were so sure that the ride stopped. Feeding them, milking them, petting them when they came to you, all of it was a thread of promise of more days to come. Some days I felt like I was always meant to be here in this farm town. I felt like I finally came home to doing what I always should have done. I worked still as a nurse, and in this context, with all the other parts of our town, I finally felt like I was making a real difference. In the before world, it was always about getting everything done as efficiently as possible, balancing taking care of the person and making sure your butt was covered in the event of a lawsuit. Some days it was easy to forget what I was trying to do, that 'new grad' glow where you feel as if you're healing the world and making a difference invariably burns out. I felt alive even among the ruins of the world.

It seemed like a lot of people were feeling that hope. DaWayne and Shayla were for sure. They were inseparable. One day they took a walk over to Clyde's to have dinner and when they came back, Shayla was wearing a diamond ring. Shayla's folks were gone, only her brother, Sawyer remained. DaWayne arranged a meeting with Sawyer and Jack, to ask if he could marry Shayla, and they agreed instantly. DaWayne was a good man and even though Jack and Sawyer didn't know him for long, they could see that easily.

DaWayne told us the story about how he asked her, and we all melted a little. He took her to the creek to have a picnic lunch, and spread the blanket that he stuffed into his backpack close to the water’s edge underneath a weeping willow. He pulled out the sandwiches he put together and homemade potato chips he made before he went to retrieve the colas he had planted in the cold water. After they were settled in, just enjoying the sounds of the creek and the breeze in the trees, he pulled out a ring and went on one knee. Shayla had tears falling down her face even before the first word came out of his mouth, and when he finally asked her to marry him, she fell into his arms with a thousand kisses, saying yes with each one. He slid this perfect square princess cut solitaire diamond ring on her slender finger, where it sat proudly, shooting rainbow sprays in the sunlight against her pale skin. With the birds singing in the cloudless sky, they kissed their first kiss as fiancés.

I wasn't surprised that his mom and his sister were crying tears of joy, but what did surprise me was that I was crying happy tears too. This kid, who's life plans were totally derailed by zombies, who was shot and survived, who never gave in to the easier path of negativity, was going to have a real shot at happily ever after, and for that, tears continued to flow down my cheeks and off of my chin.

They didn't want to wait a single moment to be married, but finally conceded to a couple of weeks for preparation. It was the event to end all events, and brought both neighboring towns together in Wilsall. The ceremony was in front of DaWayne's house. Trent built an arbor for them to stand under, decorated with white netting from long ago wedding dresses and tea lights in mason jars strung from the many trees in his yard. Guests brought blankets and sat picnic style under those floating lights as the sun began to go down on the beautiful day. All the guests mixed together, there was no bride side or groom side, just the alive side of everyone together to witness this union, this reaffirmation of life. The weather was warm and crickets sang while some of the guests from Clyde's Park strummed softly on their guitars.

DaWayne stood under the arbor with Sawyer as his best man and soon to be brother. Shayla chose Trisha to be her maid of honor and the pride that Trisha wore on her face for her brother was absolutely unmistakable. Tomisha and Dalynn walked together as the flower girls and walked right behind their mother, carefully spreading little white flowers on the green grass behind them.

When Shayla took her position with Jack at the end of the path, everyone got on their feet.

Shayla was breathtaking. I always saw her as a fairy princess and she looked even more the part in her white sun dress that ended mid-calf. White ribbons laced up
her calf muscles in a crisscross pattern, tying just behind her knees, securing her sandals to her feet. Her bouquet was a mixture of lavender and daisies, and a delicate veil covered her face. She held on to Jack's arm as she slowly walked to where her husband-to-be waited for her. Terri officiated the wedding and after the exchanging of vows, DaWayne lifted her veil and kissed Shayla for the first time as her husband.

We had prepared the empty houses for guests since we knew it would be a late night, and it indeed was. We danced and sang, and ate together. We felt the earth under our feet move as we celebrated what it meant to be alive, with no regard to what our volume was. Tomorrow we would have to fight the dead who would be drawn to our sounds, but tonight, none of that mattered. Life continued on and it was good.

When the bride and her husband were spent, they went to his house, now
their
house, and we moved the after party to the café where we drank coffee. Those of us who were married already recalled the night that we said our own vows, and those who hadn't been married dreamed of the day that they too would find their true love. Group by group, people turned in for the night, until Trent and I were the only ones left in the café. Drew had plans to sleep at Liam's house so it was just the two of us. We picked up the café for a bit before we decided that the rest would wait and went home ourselves. We crawled into bed together and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Days like today, when new love had the chance to take root, reminded me of how much I loved Trent. After all this time, this was my version of heaven. I snuggled next to him and fell asleep. I dreamed of the day I became an Anglin, one of the best days of my life. In those dreams, I danced with my husband and felt every moment of joy with him all over again.