Emp caravan, p.13
EMP CARAVAN, page 13
“It's okay, Wayne. Go with Dad. We can talk tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
“No problem. You boys have fun.”
“Where’s Ben?”
“I think he is hanging around with Julie and Trish. He has taken quite a liking to both of them. Frankly, I’m enjoying the down time right now. We can talk tonight, don't worry.” I went with Cap. It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Lucy for ten months and so far we hadn't even kissed. Lucy was perceptive, but not that perceptive. Maybe someone told her about Julie and me. I guessed I’d find out tonight.
Cap laid a map on a folding table by his armored car. “We’re here and the airport with the museum is there.”
I looked at the map, but I was having trouble concentrating. “It looks like we could just take the main road almost all the way. We could be there in less than thirty minutes.”
“I don't think so. I’ve mapped out an alternative route.”
“Okay, Cap, let's use your route.” I should’ve paid more attention, but I needed to think about Lucy, Julie, Ben, and Yeti. And of course, there was the baby. I couldn't forget Trish either. She was a part of the family now. And so, of course, was Cap. Life was far more complex for me post-EMP than it ever was before. And God help me when Cap found out, which he would since after I told Lucy, I was going to tell him. I owed him that, and more.
Most of the day was spent overseeing trading and getting ready for the expedition. It was past dark when I made it back to the campfire where Lucy, Cap, and Ben were eating. I sat on a folding chair and fixed a bowl of stew. The folding chairs were a luxury, but almost everyone in the caravan used them. They were light and functional. The ones I found for Cap's campfire had been painted a bright orange by someone. I don't know why, but they were sure easy to see, even in the firelight.
When we had all finished eating I said, “Lucy, let's take a walk.”
Lucy put her plate down and said, “Okay.”
We walked between two wagons, past a sentry, and away from the camp circle. “Be careful, Wayne,” the sentry said. I nodded and he grinned.
About a hundred yards from camp, I stopped by a tree. There was a small hollow nearby that would give us some cover if the Stinks attacked. Lucy backed slightly away from me. “What is it, Wayne?”
“I have something to tell you.”
“About Julie?”
“How’d you know?”
“Geez, Wayne, the way she looks at you, anyone would know. And you aren't much better when you look at her.”
“I said, “Uh...”
“You just couldn't keep it in your pants, could you?”
“Uh...”
“Of all of the men I know, I thought you would be the one to be faithful.”
“And I was...”
“Until Julie? Yes, I believe you, Wayne. I suspect I know you even better than she does, although there is something about you now that seems different. A sort of confidence.”
“Uh…”
“Which you aren’t displaying now.” Lucy laughed and put her hand on my cheek. “I understand, Wayne. You were away from home for a long time and the conditions were difficult. However, I don't condone your actions. But for Ben's sake, and my dad's sake, you need to make a choice—her, or me. Oh, and don't go thinking that you can have two wives at the same time. That will never happen.”
“I said, “Uh...”
“Not now Wayne. Don't try to decide now. I want you to make the right decision for everyone involved. I should hate Julie, but I don't. I rather like her, although if you ever tell her that I’ll deny it.”
“Okay,” I finally managed a word, “I’ll tell Cap...”
“Oh hell no you won't!”
“But I owe him that.”
“Yes, you do, but I will say if and when. Promise me you will not tell him until I tell you it’s okay.”
“Uh...”
“Promise me, Wayne. Just do it.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Think of your son, Wayne. This could hurt him. Do it my way.”
“Okay, I will, Lucy. I promise.”
“One more thing, until you make up your mind who you choose, you aren’t sleeping with either one of us, or I’ll tell Cap myself, and you know what he would do.”
Right about now the expedition to the airport sounded pretty darn good.
CHAPTER 15
Wayne
We left right after dawn, seven of us riding four motorcycles.
Since I was the largest, I rode a motorcycle by myself. It was a big dirt bike, a Honda. I wasn't paying much attention to the road. I let Dan and Sam, who was sitting behind Dan on a big blue Gold Wing, take the lead and thought about Lucy and Julie. Frankly I didn't know which one I loved more, although love might be the least important part of my decision since there were so many other people to consider in this.
I was lost in thought when the bike ahead of me carrying two soldiers careened to the side of the road and crashed. I think it was the noise of the crash rather than the sound of the shot that alerted me to danger. I braked and rode as close to the crashed bike as I could. Dan stopped too and I waved the others on. Sam slipped off of the seat behind Dan and motioned for him to go. Sam and I sought cover near the two soldiers. I checked both men over while Sam looked for the sniper.
The driver was dead. A single round hit him above the ear. The other soldier had a broken leg. It was a compound fracture of his thigh and he was in great pain. That was obvious. But he was stoic, a professional. He didn't make a sound, and he had his rifle pointed in the direction the shot came from. The motorcycle was toast. The front fork was bent and the tire blown.
“I need to set your leg, Soldier,” I said.
“Go ahead, Sir.”
“Do you have a med kit?”
“Yes, Sir. It’s in the pack on the bike.” I got the med kit and nearly got hit when the sniper fired another round. The bastard shot my hat, and good hats were hard to find now, especially in my size.
I found the painkillers and gave the soldier two of them. They were the good stuff, probably opiates, or some such. I cut his pants leg away, and with Sam's help set his leg. I splinted it using the stock and barrel from the dead soldier's rifle.
“We’re pinned down,” Sam said.
I nodded. “Cap will get the bastard. He’s darned good.”
“Yeah, I know. He’s a Medal of Honor recipient.”
Geez, why did everyone know that except me? “Who do you think the sniper is? One of the Stinks?”
“I doubt it. Whoever it is, the guy’s a professional. That was one hell of a shot.”
“Yeah, it was. But I think we’re fairly well-hidden because of the rise across the road, if we stay low enough anyway.”
Sam looked the terrain over with his binoculars. “If the sniper moves to the east, he’ll have a clear shot at us.”
“I hope Cap nails him before then.”
“Me too.”
Thirty minutes later we heard two shots. Ten minutes after that we heard two motorcycles coming our way. They were ours.
“I saved your ass again, Wayne,” Cap laughed.
“Yeah, thanks Cap.”
“Who was the sniper?” Sam asked.
“The sniper was a pro,” Cap said. “His spotter got away. I must be getting old. I missed the first shot. They both used fake position tells. They fooled me on my first shot.”
“Yeah, but you got the sniper with your second shot,” Dan said. “I didn't see either of them.”
I said, “I didn't hear an engine. Were they on horseback?”
“No, they had an electric quad bike.”
“I’ve never seen one. Why wasn’t it fried?”
Cap speculated, “Maybe it was in a faraday cage?”
Sam said, “There were some made, but I don't think they were very popular. One would have tremendous advantage for a sniper team though. They’ll go almost anywhere and they’re quiet.”
“What's their range?”
“I have no idea. I’d guess ten miles or so, but I don't know.”
“So these guys must either be local, or they have a support team waiting for them with better transportation?”
“But why shoot us?” I asked. “We haven't attacked or threatened anyone. We just defend ourselves.”
Sam said, “Maybe they were after my crew. Could someone know our mission and not want us to complete it?”
“Could they know we’re going to an airport to look for an airplane?” I asked. “Why would anyone care? Is there a mole in the caravan, and who would they be reporting to?”
Dan said, “It’s a mystery.”
“Well, I guess we’re being watched by someone,” I said. “Who and why, I have no idea. I wonder if it’s related to the Stinks?”
Sam asked, “Did the sniper smell bad?”
“No, no worse than any of us,” Cap said. “There must be something out there that can be seen from a plane that they don't want us to see.”
“All the more reason to find a plane then,” I said. “We need to get your injured man back to the caravan, Sam.”
“Yeah. We only have three good bikes left, and six people.”
Cpl. James said, “I’ll take Kyle back to the caravan, Sir.”
“Wayne, can you ride double?”
“Looks like I have to.”
And so, after we buried the dead soldier, one bike returned to the caravan with our wounded man, and the four of us set off to the air museum on the remaining two motorcycles. “Hang on, Boy,” Cap said. “Here we go.”
The airport was quiet. The museum was an old white hanger at the edge of the field. The door was locked. As far as we could tell, no one had been there since the EMP.
“That means there may be avgas in the storage tank,” Sam said, pointing to the refueling station on the tarmac.
“You guys find us a plane,” I said. “Dan and I will keep watch.”
I set up on top of the airport office building and Dan found another vantage point. I thought about using the control tower, but it had no gun ports. Three hours later I saw Sam and Cap pushing a small plane out of the hanger. It was mostly white with some blue striping. It looked old, but not antique.
Cap and Sam used a manual pump with an eight-foot section of pipe fitted to it to fill some cans from the underground gas tank. Then they poured some gas into the plane. Sam got in the plane and I was amused to see Cap stand in front of the plane and start it with what looked like a lawnmower pull rope. I nearly laughed out loud, but the old plane fired right up.
Sam taxied it to the pump and they finished filling the tank. Cap waved us in.
“What kind of plane is this?”
“It’s a Cessna 120, probably from the 1940’s.”
“From the museum?”
“No, we found it in a hanger.”
“I figured none of the planes would start because all the batteries would be dead.”
“This one starts with a pull cable. It doesn't even have a battery.”
“Not even for running lights?”
Sam grinned, “Who cares about running lights now? Cap and I will see you guys back at camp.”
“Let's ride, Wayne,” Dan said. “I don't like it here. We're too exposed.”
Cap and Sam were eating supper when we arrived. The plane was parked on the blacktop road close to the caravan. I hugged Ben and filled a bowl with the ubiquitous caravan stew. Lucy gave me a look that I couldn't interpret. She didn't smile, but neither did she frown. Cap was too busy regaling visitors at the fire with tales of the day to notice. One thing about Cap, he talked a lot, but he always minimized his role in the stories he told. In spite of his garrulousness, he was a private man.
When everyone was asleep, I left and found Julie. I tossed a stick against the canvas of our wagon, feeling for all the world like a teenager again, albeit a very conflicted teenager. Julie stuck her head out of the back of the wagon.
“Wayne?”
“Yeah.”
“I'll be right out.” She climbed out of the wagon wearing her favorite red nightgown. She looked demure, but I found her incredibly sexy, especially the way the material clung to her breasts. I bit my tongue to get my mind off of the way she looked.
Soon Julie and I were standing where we could talk privately. “I would have invited you into our wagon, but Trish is there.”
“I know. It's okay.”
“So, did you talk to her?”
“Yeah,” I told Julie what Lucy said.
“She’s practical, that wife of yours. I think she wants you back.”
“I'm not sure.”
“Why else would she tell you to choose?”
“I don't know.”
Julie reached up and laid her hands on my cheeks. “Whatever you decide, know that I love you with all my heart and I always will. I’ll be okay with whatever you decide.”
“Julie, I don't know what to decide. I’m torn between the two of you, and then there’s Ben and the baby, and Yeti and Trish. I have to do what’s best for all involved and I don't know what that is.”
“Wayne, just follow your heart.” I could see the tears glistening on her cheeks in the faint firelight. “You’ll make the right decision.” Julie folded herself into my arms and cried quietly against my chest for a minute. I felt helpless. “If you want, we can find a place. Maybe one more time for old time's sake?”
“I want to. I want to more than I can say, but I promised Lucy.”
“I know,” Julie said, “and you keep your promises, at least you did until I came along.”
“Well, yeah.”
Julie kissed me and I kissed her back. And there was passion in that kiss, a passion that reached deep into my soul and filled all of the empty crevices there. I knew which woman I wanted. I guessed I had known many months before. But, as always, there were other people to consider. I still didn't know what I would decide.
The next four days were a blur. We got the plane ready for a reconnaissance mission and planned out the route. We also spent considerable time concealing the plane. I wasn't sure why, but since we thought someone was watching us, it seemed like the thing to do.
CHAPTER 16
Yeti
When we returned to the caravan with the Doctor, Julie hugged me and Wayne shook my hand. He didn't chide me for doing more than reconnaissance. When I asked why, he just said I wasn’t under Sam's orders, none of us were.
Trish hugged me too. She came out of nowhere like a small comet and wrapped her arms around my waist before I even knew she was there.
Pepper greeted her father but didn't even thank us for reuniting them. I felt foolish and I knew most of the caravaners thought I acted stupidly where Pepper was concerned. I’d heard the rumors. They were right. In the process of acting like a hormonal teenager, I managed to risk the lives of several of our people. I knew our people would forgive me, and probably already had, but I couldn’t forgive myself. I was supposed to be smarter than that. Heck, a rock was smarter than I’d been lately. Damn hormones.
I thought about it all for a while. Julie would have called it brooding, but it wasn't really. I went over what I did and what Pepper had done, and decided I’d missed some important clues early on. I vowed not to do that again. I also decided that, in addition to my medical studies, I needed to study people. I needed to be able to read people much better than I could now. I easily read emotions, but sometimes had difficulty determining intent. It was a failing I needed to work on.
I also decided I needed someone to teach me how to fight. I’d been brash and decidedly unintelligent in my first fight, even though I won. Losing a fight on the school ground meant nothing. Losing a fight now might mean losing your life. I was beginning to understand that book smart didn’t always translate well into real life. I still had much to learn.
I did some trading during my spare time. I traded for a few medical books, a nursing book, and a too-small sleeve holster for the derringer. Hey, the guy with the holster needed a good knife badly. For now I just carry the derringer in my pocket. No one knows I have it, not even Julie or Wayne. I think that might be best for now.
Small pistols are common carry for the women in the caravan. Most of the women carry one in plain sight on their belt. Most wear jeans as well. Dresses only come out at the parties and, even then, I see belts with holstered pistols on almost everyone. I am sure there are more than a few hideout guns as well.
Trish made me teach her to shoot. She got the hang of it quickly and now carries the .32 caliber revolver I gave her in a belt holster. She isn’t the only one of the children who does so. A couple of the boys carry pistols as well. We’ve had no accidents. Even though the caravan children play hard, they understand responsibility. When I was at the orphanage, the children fought among themselves all the time. These children don't. They look out for each other. I can tell most of them are far more mature than children their age before the EMP. Now, it’s grow up fast, or die.
Of course, I think Trish may be trying to rush things a bit. She can be so serious sometimes. The other day she told Julie that she wants to marry me when she grows up. I told Julie that Trish just had a crush on me because I helped free the children. Julie gave me a funny look. Even being an empath of sorts didn't help me with that one. Women can be so darn mysterious at times. Maybe it’ll be better when I’m older. I suspect my hormones are screwing up my abilities right now.
“Yeti, what’re you doing?” Trish asked.
“Just sitting here thinking.”
“About Pepper,”
“Well, maybe.”
“She isn’t mature enough for you. She hasn't grown up yet.”
“And this coming from an eight year old...”
“I may be only eight, but I’m more grown up than Pepper.”
I studied Trish's gaunt face for a few moments. She was serious as always. I had only seen her smile a few times. “It's okay to be a kid, Trish. You’re safe now.”
“No one’s ever safe now, Yeti. You know that.”
“Don't let your bad experiences shape your life, Trish. Things are getting better and we both have a large family all around us now.”
