Real life intruded. Sorry for delay and quality of this tripe.
Re[arata
Chapter 24 Plague
Last time: "Is Leonard with you? You're the roommate, right?"
"Leonard is dead. Yes, I'm the roommate." Something in me whispers that my engagement might be the shortest on record when Wyatt asks, "When are you leaving? You can't stay here."
I take a step back and then turn around walk back towards the fuel truck, stunned at Penny's father's bluntness and not wanting him to see the look on my face. No 'thanks for saving my daughter's life' or anything else, just 'You can't stay here'.
Somehow my brain engages and I realize the implications of his statement and I key the walkie-talkie and tell Winkle to "pack up Penny's stuff, including her weapons and her share of the ammo and take it up to the house. She's staying. We're not."
This situation had never occurred to me, not in my wildest dreams or darkest 'what if' scenarios. My face felt like it was made of molten fire and somewhere deep inside me where the real 'me' lives, I heard a scream of rage at the injustice of the Universe but I have a moral and social obligation to the other members of our party to press on without Penny.
Penny's father had followed me and when I felt his hand on my shoulder I stopped, let the wolf rise up, and I turned and snarled at him, the MP-5 automatically pointing at him.
Now it's his turn to step back but the look on his face is fear and then blossoming comprehension.
"Oh, no, no. You don't understand. Penny goes with you. It's not safe for her here. You saw those – those animals. First they came for our food and left us barely enough to survive and then they came to take whatever else they wanted. She can't stay. It's not safe for her here. Others will come and – please, you have to take her with you."
"How long will it be before they're missed?" I ask, gesturing toward the bodies on the porch.
I have something I rarely have – a hunch – an assumption made without any evidence to support it. It was something so unlike me to do that for a moment I felt myself slip into a wait-state as if awaiting the input of additional data.
"Tomorrow or the next day. What difference does it make – they'll come and they'll take her and I won't be able to stop them! A bunch of low-lifes have taken over the air base, Offut, yeah, Offut…the other one got nuked. Most of the people there died off and they're using it as a base while they 'tax' us for provisions and women."
Sheldon reached a tentative hypothesis, set about his experimental parameters and then reached a conclusion. He keyed the walkie-talkie and broke squelch, wincing at how loud and out of place it seemed.
"Leslie, never mind. She's staying with us. However, we're adding two additional guests to the Tour, married adults, so please plan accordingly. We'll spend the night here, strip the place of anything useful and leave in the morning."
Sheldon turned to Wyatt with a half-smile and asked, "I made an assumption on your behalf. Would you rather remain here and take your chances? We're heading for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan because we believe the Choker will mutate again in the spring. It's your choice, of course. We'll squeeze you in somehow. I'm sure Penny would want you to accompany her if only because life is so uncertain these days."
Wyatt's mind was churning over the events of the past few minutes.
"Let me talk to Jennifer. If we do decide to join up with this 'Tour' of yours, we'll bring our own transportation. We have a motor home that's seen a lot of the country. It will do Jennifer a world of good to spend some time with Slu – Penny."
He immediately saw the change in the tall man's face and almost smiled. Almost, until he remembered Leonard's stories about how crazy he was and they'd all laughed and Penny had laughed the longest. Some of her stories about the 'whackadoodle' roommate were hard to believe.
Yet here he was, obviously an in-charge survivor type and he couldn't help but wonder if they'd be standing here in 4 inches of Nebraska snow if Leonard and Penny had stayed together.
Wyatt watched as the tall man turned and spoke rapidly into a radio and then walked past him and onto the house porch. Another man stepped out of the bus and waved to Wyatt and then followed this Sheldon character up on to the porch and helped him drag the bodies out into a field.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Leslie Winkle and that short guy is Bomber, an ex-Air Force pilot. Fill me in on the local situation, will ya? Sheldon's got enough on his plate and it's been a long road to get your daughter home safely."
There was a certain irony to the young woman's tone and Wyatt was shaken from his reverie, surprised at her sudden appearance.
"Sorry. This is all just a little bizarre. You're all from Pasadena? How long have you been on the road? And what the hell is that RV you're driving? Is that armor of some kind?"
"Come on in an meet the others and we'll talk over coffee. It's running low but I think this is a special occasion. So how long have those assholes been around here?"
"I forgot the shovel, Doc. Be right back," said Bomber.
"Whatever for? This is better than they deserve and I didn't want Penny's mother to have to see the bodies considering all she's been through."
"Um, what? Penny's mom…oh, shit." It sickened him that people had sunk so low so quickly.
Sheldon stripped everything of value from the bodies, including a short-range radio and then walked back to the bus, leaving Bomber wondering again about what was going on in his head.
"Bomber, the air force base at Offut, the one we thought would offer us sanctuary? Well, guess where these pieces of excrement call home?"
Sheldon stopped and laughed and turned to Bomber and said, "Have you ever read Sun Tzu, Bomber? I think we should launch the balloon antenna and plant some seeds in our enemies' minds. I'm tired of running and looking over my shoulder. After all, 'the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting'."
They launched a 'nighttime' balloon antenna and Bomber transmitted an hysterical message to whomever was monitoring the Guard frequency at Offut.
"We contacted you while we were holed up in Wyoming, remember? Well, we're stuck in drifts on the interstate about 60 miles west of Lincoln. Listen, there's a buncha religious fanatics called the Armageddon Brigade and they're headed your way. They kill everyone because survivors are 'minions of Satan'. They cut my friends' heads off! You gotta send help…please…"
He told them that 'mechanized units' from the "Armageddon Brigade" were closing in on Omaha from the west and north, clearly threatening Offut.
Leslie had been standing behind him, listening as he read from the script she'd hastily put together after listening to Sheldon's logical outline of action.
When it seemed like Bomber really had their attention and was begging for a 'relief force' she leaned down and stuck her tongue in his ear.
The resulting screech of surprise added a horrifying realism to his pleas.
She turned off the transceiver and stepped back, satisfied that the 'seeds' had been planted and would buy them a day or two of rest and refitting.
"What the hell was that for, Les?"
"Just needed you to sound startled when I cut off the power. Imagine what they must be thinking now?"
Sheldon Cooper wasn't the only one with a warped and twisted sense of the macabre – but the morning would bring a new sense of appreciation for just how far Sheldon Cooper would go to protect the people in his life.
It was well after 3am when Penny finally left her childhood home and trudged through the snow to the bus and her warm bed and hopefully a little cuddling with Sheldon while she tried to forget what had gone on during the past months here.
She and her mom had had a long talk, probably the kind of talk a mother and daughter never normally have, but these were far from normal times. Penny's mom had been straight forward with her explanation of the repeated assaults, her father's desperate attempts to stop them, all of it.
Penny was numb. She needed his comforting silence as he listened to her. He was really a good listener, especially when he didn't have to see her face for what he called 'visual cues' to figure out the underlying meaning of her words.
Penny kicked the snow off her boots and jerked open the coach door just as Sheldon was stepping out.
He wrapped her up in his arms and just held her while she cried as quietly as she could. Sheldon was almost always at a loss during these times but he knew she needed a physical anchor and he gave her one, almost carrying her up into the coach and easing her into the kitchenette booth.
"Penny, there is something I have to do and I have to do it now or it won't get done. By the time you've finished your coffee I'll be back and then I think you need a 'cuddle' session and as much sleep as you can. We're leaving tomorrow or the next day and your folks are joining our little convoy. You can ride with them and keep your mom company if you like."
He was back before she was even aware he'd left.
"Sheldon, there's blood on your sleeves! Did you hurt yourself?"
"No, Penny. It's not mine. Can you drive a snowmobile?"
The shift in the conversation startled her. "Yeah, sure. It's like a motorcycle only with treads. Why?"
"Oh, I found three back behind the barn and I thought they might come in handy, that's all."
The convoy left the farm and headed north a day later. No one said anything about the gruesome displays that decorated the gate posts that fronted the road.
Penny and her mother sat in her folks' RV and talked until her dad pulled out onto the highway. Her mother gasped in shocked surprise but turned and looked at her daughter with a soft smile.
"That whackadoodle of yours sure knows how to make a statement."
Each of the gate posts sported a human head with a crudely crayoned word on cardboard nailed to the post.
One word was 'Rapist'.
Another was 'Thief'.
The last was 'Animal'. It was tacked to the gate post below Kurt's head.
They hit the interstate and headed north, stopping at each rest stop and small town, searching for diesel fuel, food and anything else that anyone felt might be of value.
Wyatt's RV towed a cattle trailer full of bags of seeds, farm implements and keepsakes from their home. And three Polaris snowmobiles courtesy of Kurt and his decapitated friends.
Next: Crossing the bridge to nowhere