Last chapter for a while. Enjoy it. It would be nice to see your reactions, all 243 or you…

Chapter 4

Sheldon glances down at his watch and smiles. He's well within the limits of his deadline although he doubts Penny would leave him behind should midnight come and go without his return. She was sentimental and would want to hug him and say goodbye. Still, he had been adamant in the note he'd left her and considering all that had happened in the last 36 hours, prudent.

He fished his cell phone out of the pocket of his appropriated field jacket, turned it on and punched in the speed dial for the apartment's landline. He needed her to zip down and raise the parking garage grille but first he wanted her to measure the height of the opening. He didn't want an embarrassing or dangerous accident to occur.

"Where the hell have you been, Sheldon? I've been worried sick and even Winkle is concerned. You should hear the tale she tells about what happened in her parking lot and – "

'She must have had her hand on the receiver because the phone never rang but must have displayed caller ID.'

"I need you to go down to the garage and measure the height of the opening, Penny. There's a tape measure in the 'junk drawer' in the kitchen. Call me back when you get the measurement. I'm sorry you were worried needlessly."

He disconnected and navigated through the few cars on the interstate that were still in motion. Most of the abandoned vehicles had been pushed to the sides but there was always the one or two that were in motion when their drivers died. They created a maze of carnage.

Apartment 4A

"That was Sheldon. He's on his way home. He wants me to measure the height of the parking garage grille."

Winkle picked up the softball bat and said, "I'll go with you. There's no telling what might be going on. Did he say where he was?"

"It sounded like he was in a car but Sheldon doesn't drive. Maybe he hitched a ride with someone? I can't believe he just left like that without a single word."

"Well, Penny, he isn't the most stable person even in normal times."

She almost agreed. His note had simply stated that he had 'errands' to run and that were he not back by midnight on Thursday, they were to leave without him because it meant he wasn't ever coming back. That had been on Tuesday morning and now it was nearly midnight on Thursday.

Penny called him back with the measurement. "Sheldon, exactly where are you?"

"I'm about to exit the interstate and then pick up a few last-minute things for your journey before coming in. I want you and Leslie packed and ready to leave first thing in the morning. I'll go over things when I get back in twenty minutes or so. Start moving everything out of the apartment except for my emergency backpack and a couple of bottles of water. Take the rest for your journey."

Her answer is firm and immediate. "No. Either you come with us or Winkle can either join us here in the apartment of go out on her own. I will not leave you, Sheldon."

"We will discuss this further but please have the first aid kit in hand when I arrive." He hung up and she almost screamed in frustration at his pig-headedness.

"Les, please go up to the apartment and bring down the big first aid kit that's under the bathroom vanity. I think the big ape hurt himself."

"Figures. Probably cut his finger on something and now we'll have the drama queen demanding a sterile field before we can put a bandaid on it."

"Just go and get it. He's not that big a drama queen. You should have seen Le - just go get the kit, Leslie."

Sheldon drove the big rig up to the fenced sales lot, turned off the engine and carefully maneuvered himself out of the driver's seat and then down onto the lot. He used the bolt cutters he'd 'borrowed' from a hardware store to cut through the padlock and pulled open the twin gates. He got back into his rig and drove carefully into the lot, looking left and right until he saw what he needed.

A few minutes of maneuvering and he hooked up the enclosed horse trailer to the hitch and drove out onto the street. Now he had to find one last place on his list and he could relax and let Penny and Winkle do the 'heavy lifting'. He adjusted the field dressing and then Googled for a location nearest to him.

He was reviewing customer comments on a website to help him make his selections. He also had to consider the size of the two travelers. It wouldn't do if they were too small to handle his surprise.

It took him nearly half an hour to load his 'purchases' onto the trailer and by then he was tired and aching. He hadn't eaten or slept in 30 hours and he was exhausted and hungry and hurting.

Penny looked at her watch and called him again on his cell phone. The last three calls had gone to voicemail and he was way overdue given his 'guesstimate' of his arrival time. It was nearly 3am and she was past being worried.

"Blondie, you're going to pace a rut in the concrete. He's just a little late. Maybe he ran into trouble and had to find another route? Maybe he got lost. Maybe he got hur – caught up in something. You know how he is when he's focused on something."

"Don't call me 'Blondie' and he never gets lost. Damn it, Moon Pie, pick up the phone!" It went to voice mail again.

Sheldon carefully maneuvered down Euclid Avenue. The damned street was perpetually 'under construction' and he'd had to push a couple of cars out of the way before continuing. He speed dialed Penny's cell.

"Sheldon, that's a long damned 20 minutes! Where – "

"I'm turning onto Mariposa. Please raise the grille."

Winkle was the first to find her vocal cords but she couldn't find the words to say…she just gaped in wonder.

Penny was standing off to the side, ready to lower the grille but she just stared at the beast that rolled down into the garage. And then she saw the horse trailer and started to laugh. Leave it to Sheldon to come up with an elegant solution to their transportation issues. And it was elegant.

It had started life out as a diesel-powered high-end motor coach but somewhere along the way it had grown an exoskeleton of chain link fencing that covered the sides, front and rear. There were two 55-gallon oil drums lying on their sides on the roof with hoses that snaked down the side and into what she figured was the fuel tank. There were steel plates welded over the wheels to protect them from gunfire and the side windows were similarly shielded as was the huge glass windshield.

"Holy crap, Cooper! You might as well have brought home a tank!" There was no malice in Leslie's voice, just a sense of delighted awe. He'd done all this in just three days.

"Leave it to Sheldon to bring home an armored mobile apartment. The man does like his comforts. Where is he?" Between the steel sheeting and the limousine-tinted glass, she couldn't see inside. The door was covered in chain link fencing that was held away from it with brackets and she couldn't get her hand in to open it.

Sheldon opened the door from his side and stepped out and down and then leaned against the side of his beast. He was clearly exhausted and filthy but he'd never looked better to Penny. Somewhere along his travels he'd picked up some Army surplus BDUs and boots and a field jacket and he looked good in them. Filthy, but good.

"Don't say a word, Moon Pie, just go with it." She reached her arms around his neck and pulled him down and kissed him. She didn't care that Winkle was snickering behind her. All she cared about was Sheldon holding her, although awkwardly, and kissing her back, just as awkwardly.

"Ahem! If you two want to head upstairs and get naked and sweaty, go right ahead but I want to check out this monstrosity. Man, Cooper, I need to have you run 'errands' for me. A Maserati convertible, a few hundred thousand bucks, and – "

"There's a bag of money in the coach. Also a bunch of stuff I got from a pawn shop. Mostly rings and some silver bars and a few gold coins. Use it for barter later. Right now I want a shower so bad. I stink Penny. Did you bring the first aid kit? There's a list of everything I scrounged up and there are two last-minute surprises in the horse trailer for you and Leslie. I hope you like 'Urban Camouflage gray'."

His eyes, red rimmed from lack of sleep twinkled and his East Texas twang had never sounded sexier to her.

Winkle slithered past the two, still hugging each other, and climbed up into the coach.

"Holy Shit, Sheldon Cooper, this is so crazy! Blondie, bring him back up here and bring the first aid kit and let's put a bandaid on his boo-boo and then take inventory."

Leslie was sitting in one of a pair of relining chairs along one side of the 'living room' and when Penny helped Sheldon up into the coach, she pointed to the couch.

"He can nap while we fix him up. We'll take inventory and see just what's in those wooden cases he's piled up in the kitchen. And maybe find the lights."

"Generator's propane powered when the engine is off. It comes on automatically but the master switch is off. Turn it on from the dashboard console. The lighting master switch is right beside it. Sorry, wasn't thinking…"

Penny helped Sheldon off with his jacket and then unbuttoned the BDU blouse. She eased him down onto the leather couch and then gasped and shouted for Winkle to forget the lights and help her.

"He's bleeding and has a bandage tied around his waist somehow. What the hell happened to you, Moon Pie?"

Winkle had the propane generator started and the lights came flickering on throughout the coach automatically. She grabbed the white plastic first aid kit and knelt down to see how badly the idiot had hurt himself. The sight of blood made her dizzy even in a movie. The smell –

She barged past Penny and climbed down out of the coach and threw up what little she'd eaten in the past day or so. Her stomach was roiling and she was suddenly terrified that this was some kind of mutation of the Choker.

"Penny, go check on her. If she starts acting angry, get back in the coach and secure the door. She was right. The Choker has mutated again and it's worse than you can imagine. People become raving lunatics at the drop of a hat and…"

"Hush, sweetie. I'll go check on her. I'm sure it's just the stress, no sleep and then this…" she waved a hand at the bloody dressing. "I'll be right back." She put her palms on his cheeks and looked him in the eye. "And then you will tell me how all this came about."