M. Driscol: “Bob and I were getting a divorce.” she said quietly. “Billy didn’t know, we were going to tell him when…”
OMT stopped but he didn’t look back at her, so she continued
M. Driscol: “We haven’t been close for a long time, almost eight years.”
OMT said something but I couldn’t hear what it was, but I do know that he made Mrs. Driscol cry. She said that
“If that is what you want then so be it” or something along those lines.
She turned and stormed upstairs. Now I knew it for sure, grown-ups were crazy.
That night I lay in bed and I could hear Old Man Tucker on the roof, he would remain still for a bit then slowly he would walk to the other corner of the lodge, his footsteps growing quieter until they disappeared altogether. A few minutes later the faint sound of those heavy, slow footsteps would grow until it felt like he was standing right above me. Who knows maybe he was.
I tried to make my head stop spinning; Billy’s mom had been going to get a divorce. That would have devastated Billy. Maybe that is why she didn’t seem so upset when he never showed up again? If Darnell got together with Mrs. Driscol and I call her Mom, do I have to call Darnell dad? Didn’t seem to make much sense Mrs. Driscol was at least a dozen years older than Darnell. Then again, Mr. and Mrs. Livingston would be my grandparents. This made me laugh a bit, I had never known my real grandparents but I never imagined being the only white kid in the family either. Well, that wasn’t true exactly; Lucy and Elaine would be as well.
Suddenly I heard other footsteps, these were in the hall, and I saw Darnell’s lanky, athletic frame walk past my door wearing only boxers and a T-shirt with no sleeves. I heard him tap lightly on the door that Mrs. Driscol had taken that night after Lucy had gone to sleep and she thought I had. I waited and I heard Darnell knock again; I was beginning to wonder if she were going to answer it at all but at that very moment I heard the lock turn and the door made a soft swoosh as she opened it. I heard the lock click back in place as she shut the door a moment later.
Mrs. Driscol liked Old Man Tucker even though he was old and fat and grumpy. He wouldn’t even tell her his full name and wouldn’t call her Amy like she repeatedly asked him to. I thought about him, why he always wanted to do dangerous stuff. Why did he keep putting himself at risk for us? I thought about the Franks’ dog and Lucy, of the day we tried to leave, and the swarm at the camp ground. I remembered when we rescued Janey and things went to hell and Billy died and when he killed my mother. With that memory any good thoughts I had disappeared and suddenly I hoped that tomorrow Mrs. Driscol made Old Man Tucker hurt as much as I was hurting right then.
Day 18, Franks Family Lodge
I crawled out of bed and started to get dressed and I saw Lucy sitting on her bed holding Ronald Bear.
“What’s up Luce?” I asked.
She had what mom used to call her ‘
angry eyes’
but she grudgingly answered my question,
“Mr. Tucker is going away again and he won’t be here to protect Ronald.”
I said “but Lucy, you said you hated him and didn’t want him to stay around anymore.”
She rolled her eyes like she was so frustrated that she had to explain everything to me because I was so stupid.
“I hated him THEN, I didn’t want him to stay THEN, but NOW I don’t want him to go.”
I sat on the bed next to her and tried to get her to see the truth.
“Lucy you were right about OMT, he is mean and a liar and it isn’t good for him to stay with us anymore.”
She looked at me like I had just told her that we were having Easter Bunny for dinner tonight. She stood up and backed towards the door, reaching behind her without taking her eyes off of me she opened it and finally spoke in a quiet little voice
“We need him.”
I finished getting dressed and followed her downstairs, people were all around getting ready for the day, Darnell and some of the others were going to clear some trees right next to the house so if we had to we could climb out a 2
nd
story window and get right into the MRAPS. They were going to park one at either end of the lodge with the stairwell being the divider for who goes to which MRAP in an emergency. I noticed that Mrs. Driscol was standing next to him and that he was holding her hand while they discussed the new plan. I thought she looked young and shy; I shook my head in disgust. I heard Elaine in the kitchen talking to Mrs. Franks, she and Mr. and Mrs. Livingston was trying to find a piece of sanity in our big bucket-o-crazy.
Good luck with that
.
I grabbed a box of granola from the shelf and poured myself a bowl of dry cereal, Mrs. Livingston looked up at me and said there was some fresh powdered milk in the ice box. It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about but I got it. I adjusted the rifle slung over my shoulder and took my breakfast out onto the porch. I sat in the big wooden swing and watched the goings on. OMT, the Staff Sergeant and Rico were going over some stuff in the back of the Humvee. I had just taken a big bite of
‘crunchy sticks and rocks’
as my dad used to call granola when I nearly choked. From the far side of the Humvee Janey appeared and she was carrying her rifle and a back pack. She stepped by the men who didn’t even seem to think anything was wrong and she placed her backpack into the rear of the Humvee.
“No, she can’t go with them.” I whispered.
I sat my bowl down I got up and in a single leap skipped the 5 stairs that led to the front porch and I whirled around to the back of the Humvee, cleverly avoiding the men and I grabbed Janey by the arm.
“What are you doing?”
She looked at me like she couldn’t understand me, then I realized what I had actually said was “
waf nar oo ning
?” so I forced down the cereal and repeated myself.
She laughed and said simply that she was going with the Sergeant and OMT, that they could use a third set of eyes and a third rifle if necessary. I pulled her further behind the Humvee,
“Don’t go with them.” I begged.
“Why not?” she said with her hands on her hips “don’t think I can do it?”
I shook my head
“No, no, no, that’s not it at all!”
I lowered my voice and looked around to make sure no one else was listening.
“OMT isn’t right; he kills people, not just monsters.”
She looked at me like she was waiting for the punch line.
“Janey I am not kidding here, he is a killer.”
She looked at me through the corner of her eyes and said
“Johnny, I know he killed people but he doesn’t do it unless he has to.”
I shook my head how she could be so blind was beyond me.
“Janey, he threatened your friend remember? And he killed all those people who were here before us and ...”
I had trouble choking this out but it had to be said
“…and he killed my mother.”
Her eyes softened but she shook her head
“Johnny, I heard about your mother from Amy. She was in pain and was dying, she begged him to do it.”
“Liar!” I snapped, even though I knew it was true.
I stepped away
“Fine, you want to travel with a monster you go right ahead, see if I care.”
I growled through gritted teeth.
“Johnny?” she said as she started to reach out to me but I didn’t want any part of this or her, I turned and ran.
I watched them from our window, Lucy at my side, Ronald Bear at hers. Janey was a fool to trust the killer, I had tried to warn her but she wouldn’t listen. I looked at Lucy, she seemed oddly satisfied, but then again she was little and easily confused. The Humvee turned over and slowly pulled around the circle drive and then down the driveway towards the highway.
“Lucy, we are all better off with him gone.”
She didn’t look up but she did answer me;
“Mr. Tucker gave me a map and one of the radios. He said he will call me every day and let me know where they are.”
I shook my head, great, just great; he’s found a way to fool my sister again.
I left her standing there with her teddy bear and went back downstairs. I felt left out, everyone had something to do except me. Some of the people were going up the hill behind the lodge to make a garden, one of several I found out. They were not going to make them very large and they were going to scatter them about in case of animal, human, or Z depredations. I finally saw Mrs. Livingston, she and Karen were heading into the lodge so I asked them if they needed any help and Mrs. Livingston said that indeed they did.
Once in the kitchen I found that there were six large cardboard boxes that were filled with empty jars, empty jars and more empty jars.
“What is all this for?” I asked.
“We have to be ready for canning whatever we can before the winter sets in.”
I agreed with that but really didn’t know what we were going to do but that only lasted a moment because apparently Mrs. Livingston didn’t like anyone to be idle because of the Devil or a playground, I really don’t know which. We started in washing the jars, the lids, and the little rubber rings that fit inside them. I actually thought this was crazy, it was going to be 3 months before we got anything from the gardens and even that is not very likely. That was when Darnell and Deputy Weir entered the kitchen with bushel baskets of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and zucchini squash. It seemed that the Livingston’s had a garden back at their place and she had sent Darnell and Weir back to gather what they could.
So, I learned how to can things, Mrs. Livingston was patient and kind, she never raised her voice or lost her temper. If Karen or I did something wrong she just helped us do it again. For a little while I forgot it was the end of the world and worked and laughed with an ancient black lady and a pretty girl. When Karen started to sing softly some country songs that I recognized I joined her. It’s funny but that afternoon was the best day I could remember since the day of the outbreak. I noticed that Mrs. Livingston’s eyes were quick and sparkled and that she didn’t miss much. I noticed that Karen’s were big and brown and made me think of a doe in the forest. I noticed that mine kept traveling back to look at Karen’s.
Day 18, Continued, Scouting Mission
The Humvee bounced and jerked its way upon to the service road and proceeded to head to the overpass, Lt. Klein, the SSgt and Old Man Tucker had laid out a search pattern on a map, jumping in roughly concentric circles with the lodge at the center. Staff Sergeant Barnes was driving, Janey in the passenger seat and OMT in the second row. He was pressing up between them, showing Janey the map and the plan.
“There is something else Janey, something we talked about but didn’t share with the others.”
“Oh really” she said with a very teenage like voice of condescension.
“Hey, this is your deal Tucker.” joked the Staff Sergeant.
“Right, well, if we get the opportunity we are going to attack and try to take out at least one of their 4 Z search teams. Janey’s brow raised a bit, apparently this had not been the announcement she was expecting.
“Are you two telling me that you are actually LOOKING for the Zs? That you actually want to find them?” she was aghast at the prospect.
OMT said “The Lieutenant and Staff Sergeant Barnes brought a couple of surprises with them in their MRAPs.”
She looked suspiciously at them and Staff Sergeant Barnes chuckled,
“Yeah, we have some claymore mines, they can do a number on the Zs even the up-armored ones.”
OMT interjected “If we can get them in the kill zone that is.”
“And just what is the kill zone for this thing?” she asked.
OMT answered,
“Well, the mine has about 700 balls in it, each one is about 1/8” in diameter, they shoot out in a fan, about like this.” and he held his hands out at about 60 degrees. “They will go about 100 yards, more or less but we really want them about 50 yards out, that’s best.”
“And just how are you going to get them into this kill zone?” she asked.
“Ok, here is the plan...” OMT began.
“Kinda stupid plan”, Barnes slipped into the conversation.
“Shut up” OMT said then continued “We set the mine up somewhere on the edge of an open field. All pre-aimed you see, all set up, then I come out and give the Z’s the finger or something, they chase me, I run right across the front of the mine and when I’m clear and they aren’t: BANG. We take them out.”
“See? Stupid plan, I should be the one running.” Barnes said.
“Hey, my plan, I run, when it’s your plan you get to run.” OMT countered.
Janey rolled her eyes
“I agree with the Staff Sergeant.” she said.
“What?” OMT blurted as Sergeant Barnes voiced a solid
“YEAH.” Janey withstood OMTs ire for a moment before she continued
“With one minor modification, I do the running.”
“NO WAY” the sergeant said.