CHAPTER 4

Within a minute of settling down for a brief respite, Burt Gummer got yet another surprise. A pleasant one for a change. JD's mother's eyes were upon him, a bit unfocused but still a definite improvement over her previous condition. Pivoting toward her without actually standing up, Burt tried to give her a reassuring smile. He must have failed, because she didn't respond. Then again, he was a pretty sorry sight himself, and a stranger to boot. Finally, she turned toward him again.

"You telling me you're the cavalry?" She asked Burt with a whimsical lilting tone that was pleasant on the ears.

Looking askance at her, a pinched expression on etched on his face, Gummer couldn't erase the bitterness from his voice. "Not today."

"My family? Are—are they—I mean, did they-?"

Burt reached out a restraining hand and said in the gentlest voice he could muster. "JD's fine. Your husband is still in the plane. He's doing better too but we don't want to move him just yet, okay?"

The woman forced a flicker of a smile. She tried to shift her torso a bit to look at him better, but the move brought a grimace to her pleasant features. "There were two others."

"Ginny is back there too. She was awake and alert, last time I checked."

When he said no more, which was intentional on his part, Peggy Barron frowned and looked away. His silence about Marty said it all.

"Oh God, no!" she cried, choking with sorrow.

At the sound of her raised voice, JD crawled out of the plane's cockpit, and sat beside her. "Dad's doing better," he told her. "Ginny too. Don't worry, Mom, somehow, we'll get us out of this,"

Gummer patted the boy's shoulder with a mixture of pride and compassion. Despite JD's initial shock, the youth was proving to be more resilient than Burt had given the kid credit for. That was encouraging. When help arrived (and Burt refused to consider the alternative), the boy might be useful after all.

A few seconds later, JD flopped down unceremoniously beside the survivalist. They remained that way, side by side, gazing, for a minute or two, at yet another pass made by El Blanco.

"So, what happened to you?' The boy asked. "You look as bad as they do."

"Run in with him," Burt replied dryly, nodding his chin toward the creature. "I was on a reconnaissance mission, on my way here in fact, when he decided to try making love to my Chevy's drive shaft."

JD smiled at the imagery. "Ouch!"

"Tell me about it!" Burt muttered through lips pressed into a straight line.

After another close pass by El Blanco, JD turned toward the survivalist.

"You know, I was just thinking this don't look so good, no matter what you told Mom," JD whispered.

Deciding that honesty was the best policy in this case, Burt answered in an equally soft tone of voice. "It's not good. El Blanco is not just a killing machine, he's relentless. We could die of starvation or thirst long before he tires of waiting."

"You think someone will figure out we're missing and come after us?"

"Sure. The people in town know I went out on patrol when I-," he paused, realizing he hadn't told Jodi specifically what he was investigating, "They will figure out soon enough that they can't reach me by radio. Once that happens, someone there will start searching for me."

Pointing at the dust trail moving nearby, JD queried, "And once they do, how we gonna get past that?

"Don't worry about those things, that's my job."

The kid sighed loudly and cast a knowing look at the survivalist. "You have no idea what you're gonna do, right?"

"Fine, you want the truth. I am not sure yet. A lot depends on who shows up, and how long it takes to get rescue crews in here provided we can get them past El Blanco."

When Burt turned to study the boy's expression, the kid gave him an odd look. "Hey, you're the "doing the best I can with what I've got" guy, aren't you? I remember seeing you on a talk show once."

Burt looked distinctly uncomfortable. "On my better days, I'd admit to it. Today's another story."

"Still, you gotta have some ideas on how to deal with that thing out there."

"Son, sometimes situations arise when one has to admit that he needs assistance, and, much as it pains me to say so, this is one of those times."

There was movement behind them. "What are you to talking about? What 'thing' out there?"

"The graboid, Mom. Remember seeing those shows on TV about it."

The woman's eyes widened in terror. "You mean that's why we haven't moved far from the plane? And that—that—

"Graboid," the boy supplied.

"Yes, that graboid. It's out there? How close?"

Before Burt could stop JD, the boy answered, "Too close. Way too close."

Peggy closed her eyes, clearly fighting for self-control. "Don't you have means of controlling or getting rid of it?"

Burt forced a breath through pursed lips. "Ma'am, we dealing with a creature that answers to no one but himself. Graboids are fairly smart, and their actions not easy to predict."

"But scientists have been studying them for years, at least that's how it seemed. Surely they must have a means of controlling it by now."

"A graboid acknowledges no man or beast as master, he comes and goes as he pleases. With the assistance of careful planning and advanced technology aiding us, we are able to keep tabs on El Blanco. And in some cases, we can anticipate his actions. But that is all."

"So…you have no—no—"

"Contingency plans?"

"Yes, contingency plans for this sort of thing?"

"Planning is one thing. Execution is another. The reason everyone survives here is because we adapt to the situation, whatever it may be. No plan is written in stone. If I can't come up with something, someone else will. Everyone in the vicinity of Perfection is quick on their feet, so to speak. Fast thinkers, each one, men and women alike, and I trust them implicitly." Burt paused, deep in contemplation. "I don't say it to them, but the fact is that I admire each and every one of them."

"Maybe you should tell them. I'm sure they'd appreciate hearing it."

Burt shrugged aching shoulders. "I know it sounds like an empty promise, but I can assure you that somehow, some way, we will get you out of here safely. I'm just not prepared to say how that will happen."

"Surely you didn't walk in here, what about getting out in whatever vehicle you came in on?"

"With all due respect Madam, you don't understand the gravity of this situation. El Blanco won't let us get far. Certainly not back to my truck. No one here is in a position to run back there. And even if they could, my trusty steed has gone belly up and won't be running any time soon. It's only by the grace of God that I arrived here in piece. And that was only because El Blanco wasn't as close as he is now."

The woman's eyes teared up but she smothered a rising sob by covering her mouth with trembling fingers.

"Would you like some water?" he asked a moment later in hopes of distracting the woman. Seeing her nod, he asked JD to retrieve the canteen. Wisely, the woman took only a small sip, recapped it and handed it back to her son. "If you'll excuse me, I am going to check on the condition of your husband and your friend."

"I see it! I see it!" Tyler whooped into the radio.

"What, the plane?" Came Jodi's soft voice.

"Whooo, yeah! And I'm not sure, but I think I see people on the rocks."

Jodi waited for more info. She knew what was coming next.

"Uh-oh! They've got company."

"Figured that," she said to Nancy and Rosalita without pressing the talk button. She doubted those people would be on higher solid stone unless El Blanco was around. "See Burt?" she asked.

"Can't tell from here. I think so, but I'll know soon enough. With EB around, I'm going to have haul ass in there and hope he doesn't grab an axle along the way. So you be ready for me to let you know what I need done."

"10-4."

True to his word, and to his profession, Tyler Reed, ex-NASCAR driver, put his trusty jeep through her paces. As expected, El Blanco heard his approach and veered off in his direction. "Keep calm," he whispered to himself several times as the graboid was closing. He was approaching the rocky perch at an angle, and needed a diversion provided Burt, ever prepared as he was, could provide one. Blasting his horn, he plunged onward.

The clarion call of the Reed's jeep spurred Burt to instant action. Quickly assessing the situation, he yanked a grenade from his vest. With as mighty a heave as he could give it, he hurled it toward the moving line of dirt. It exploded, loudly, sending dirt and stones flying in all directions.

El Blanco's sensitive vibration sensors sent waves of pain down his side, and with a wailing shriek, he turned left and promptly left the immediate vicinity of the rock island. He didn't keep on going, however.

Bouncing wildly across the uneven terrain, the faithful jeep came within 100 feet of the oasis when El Blanco came rushing back. Another grenade drove him off.

Hands cupped to his mouth, Burt yelled, "Tyler, only 2 left. Listen, I've got three injured people here."

"You including yourself in that number? You don't look so hot, Burt," Reed called back, stating the obvious.

"Forget about me. My state of well-being will keep for the moment. We need backboards, splints, proper transport. Alert Bixby Memorial Hospital we have an emergency."

To their right, the graboid's dust trail was flaring up again.

"I'm staying Burt, I can radio for help from here."

"Negative! Situation under control. Need rescue crews. You'll have to convince them to come in."

Tyler scratched his jaw. Arguing with Burt was like arguing with ornery donkey that refused to be budged. "Will they do it? They've been a bit skittish lately. Too worried the ambulance will get crippled."

"Then try bringing in a couple of fire department pumpers. Ask for Brandenberg. Those rigs are big, too heavy for El Blanco to drag under. We get these folks on backboards and onto the trucks, then use the hose beds to carry them out in one trip. Once we're back on asphalt, they can be transferred to the ambulances later. Of course, all of this is contingent upon you finding a fairly level path through this terrain."

"That's going to require a major diversion. How we going to manage that?"

"I trust you. You'll come up with something."

The dust trail was picking up speed, once again attracted by the jeeps running motor.

Burt snagged the boy by his right elbow. "Reed, I'm going to throw another grenade. Then I'm sending JD out to you." He turned to the youth, and stated commandingly, "You go with him, he'll get you back safely."

JD's back stiffened, and he drew himself up to his full height, which only brought the top of his head to Burt's shirt pocket. "No way, man! I am not leaving them. You can push me off of here, but I'll just get back on. So don't even try it!"

Taken aback by JD's sudden eruption of temper, Burt backed down. Looking back toward the jeep, he called, "Okay, forget it. Get moving. We'll wait."

With that, he hurled his next to last grenade. As expected, the graboid reversed course. However, long denied a meal for all his effort, the giant worm's hunger was overriding his sensitivity to the home-made 'bombs'. He moved out only half the previous distance and began to close in again as Tyler got his jeep in motion. Both worm and man raced back toward the wash.

With a pass worthy of a quarterback, Burt muscled the last baseball sized grenade as far as he could throw it toward the departing vehicle. Once more El Blanco vanished into the distance, while Tyler made a successful getaway.

Tyler blasted back through the culvert, up the far wall, and over onto rugged terrain. Sandstone dust flew everywhere, but he was only concerned about one thing. Putting as much distance as he could between him and the white graboid. Fear had nothing to do with it. Time did.

Keying the button for the CB, he hailed his new friends in Perfection. "Yeehaa! Good news, y'all!"

"You found them? Rosalita asked somewhat rhetorically. No one could exude that much joy over a radio and not have the news they all eagerly awaited to hear.

"You bet! The plane, the people on board. Woman, kid. Mid teens. Looks okay. Burt says two more…alive…but I didn't see them so I don't know how bad."

"Well, I guess that answers my next two questions."

Jodi cut in on another radio. "How does the situation look about getting them out. Since you don't mention passengers, I assume that means no one was able to ride with you. And that means one other thing. They've got company."

Jodi heard Tyler sigh loudly. "What else is new. Personally, I'd be surprised if the noise didn't attract him. The plane looked pretty beat up. Came down hard, split apart. I tried to get the kid to come with me but he refused. As for Burt, he'd never leave them alone under those conditions. So he wanted me to pass along some instructions. I should be back at the store in about fifteen minutes, but you guys gotta make some calls right away."

"I'm ready, go ahead."

"First he said to get "Brandenberg" and pumpers in here. We figured Bixby won't send ambulances."

Ruefully, Jodi muttered, "You're right about that. But what is he thinking? That the pumpers will be too heavy for El Blanco? That's probably true, but they're not going to do well moving quickly over the terrain, and you know it."

"Yeah, we both hoped there would be some fairly even ground somewhere, and there was, but no all the way through. So, I guess we gotta clear a path, you know, like Moses through the Red Sea." Tyler explained in moment of pure inspiration. "Make an opening between them and the highway, we can use my truck to ferry them over there. The old girl can handle that ground quicker and easier. In any case, you think we'll have problems getting BFD to do it?"

Jodi ran one petite finger across her shapely lips. "Brandenberg will do it, if I beg a bit. The lieutenant's the only one who's been willing to come in here for the occasional large brush fires and the like. But most of the time, unless lives are at stake, they stay away."

"So do it. Call them first. Call Twitchell too. There's not much he can do on short notice, but it's better to keep him in the loop."

"Think he'll send a chopper?" Nancy asked from one corner of the counter, her hands tightly around her middle. Just another crisis in Perfection, she told herself, business as usual. Answers came quickly when it mattered most.

Jodi, elbow on the countertop, cupped her chin in one hand. "With all that red tape he'd have to go through? I doubt it. The med-evac choppers used to run through here but not lately. For one thing their prop wash attracts El Blanco so they can't land. And they aren't equipped to carry that many people at once even if they were willing to lower a basket to haul them in."

"Maybe the old "diversion" standby will work," Rosalita said to the two other women in the building.

"You're right of course," Jodi told her. "But our biggest problem is going to be luring El Blanco away for the time it takes to go in there and get those people out. I mean, even if we got enough able bodies to do the carrying, El Blanco won't stay away long. At times like this, given what we've just heard, he'll be like a shark preparing for a feeding frenzy."

"So," Nancy piped in. "We feed him."

The other two women simply turned to stare at her. After a long pause, Rosalita signed resignedly, "And what, chica, do you think we'll use for bait, as if I don't already know. I mean, my poor herd is dwindling down to nothing as it is."

"Burt can afford to replace it." Jodi said with a slight smirk. Rosalita let out a sputtering laugh. The survivalist, despite his new school, was still struggling to make ends meet. Like any junkie, he was parking all of his available cash into his anti-graboid projects, or into improving his bunker, restoring his depleted firearms stockpile, and most recently, putting a new 'roof' over that same bunker after what the shriekers had done to it a month ago. The rebar alone had cost a fortune, particularly if one considered the extra hazard pay he literally had to fork over to the truck driver bringing the stuff in.

While Jodi and Rosalita sat practically head to head, Nancy picked up the phone and started dialing. In the midst of her conversation with the fire department, she heard Tyler's warm drawl melt through the shadowed interior of the store.

"Jodi, why so quiet? What's going on?"

"Planning session."

"Anything promising?"

"The tried and true game plan. Except there are some details that need working out."

Tyler Reed's voice held just a twinge of suspicion. "Someone provides the bait, I provide the delivery system. Right?"

The answer wasn't long in coming. "Pretty much it."

"So what's the problem. You know I'll gladly do it. Um, okay, hold on, I'm almost there. Just make your calls. We'll talk about the rest once we're sure Bixby will show up."

True to his word, Tyler came to a sliding halt in front of the store about five minutes later. Virtually flying out of the jeep he burst through the doorway, tossing his cowboy hat onto an empty table before joining the others.

"Bixby?" He asked succinctly.

Nancy smiled, her white teeth flashing at the ex-racecar driver. "On their way. Knew we could count on Lieutenant Brandenberg," she added, a relieved sigh escaping her lips. Given they'll be coming straight on the highway, they should get here in less than 25 minutes."

"So what details remain to be worked on?" Reed inquired.

"Well, knowing El Blanco's habits," explained Jodi, "If we position our bait too close to the others, he'll go for it alright, but I don't know when he fed last. A good size meal usually keeps him content for a day, but not always. That's one of the problems, we can anticipate his actions but never really be sure. So he may come after us anyway, just for sport. "

Tyler hiked one broad muscular shoulder in a quick shrug. "So we move the bait farther away."

"That leaves two other problems. One, how do we attract him to the cow—"

Tyler fixed his gaze Rosalita. "Oh man, loosing another one, huh?"

"Don't remind me," the Hispanic woman said through tense lips.

"I'll make it up to you, I promise."

The comment made Rosalita's brown eyes glitter with merriment. "Well, maybe we can work something out. I was going to hit up Burt for a return favor, but I'll gladly reconsider if you have something more pleasant in mind."

"Come on guys," Nancy muttered, rubbing her forehead as if she had a headache. "Let's focus."

Tyler got up and massaged the mid-aged woman's shoulders. "Relax. We'll get the job done. You know we will."

In answer, Nancy sighed and nodded slowly. Those fingers were working their magic.

Jodi, however, noticed the far away look on Tyler's face. She knew that expression. He was already back on the problem at hand.

Still standing behind Nancy, he said, "Now, we know we need to, somehow, lure EB to the bait, but also get him far enough away so that the rescue crews can do their work without attracting his attention again."

"Precisely!"

"Getting the fire department guys ready by the highway is no big deal. Getting the beef to a location is also no problem. Rosalita has that old cattle carrier. On the other hand, the missing piece is how do we let El Blanco know dinner's waiting miles away? What have we got on hand that could possibly make enough vibrations to get his attention away from the prey already sitting there?"

Jodi's eyes were closed as if she were taking a nap. No one there believed it. Suddenly those brown eyes popped open. "What about a sort of relay. Lead him along from place to place."

"I'm not even going to bother guessing who's job that will be," Nancy stated. She turned to Tyler. "But that old Jeep of yours just won't be up to handling the rough terrain at the speeds you'll need. You'll have to head him back to the mountains, because you sure as hell don't want him running parallel to the highway, even if it's in the northeast section. He'll just as liable to start chasing a passing car." Suddenly, she stopped and laughed. "Good Lord, I sound like I'm talking about big dog."

"Yeah, but this puppy is even more tenacious than a pit bull. You're right. We've got to somehow get his mind off the person leading him in and onto dinner, which should be tied up as far from the crash site as possible. Have I got all that straight? "

"Sounds good to me," the Asian store own stated crisply. "I've been thinking about a spare generator I have in the stockroom. Tied near the cow. That will get his interest off of you and onto her. Then we cut the power to the generator, and once old 'bossy' gets wind of what's coming, she'll do all the moving we need." She took a breath, took a long drink from tall glass, and continued, "But we still have one part of the plan not worked out. You can't use the jeep…at least not safely…so what else can we use to goad him on?"

With a broad, charming grin, Tyler responded, "You ladies just leave that part to me."