Chapter 21 Plague
Penny unwrapped a Hershey's Kiss and popped it into her mouth, feeling guilty for just a moment but then the taste filled her mouth and her guilt fled, replaced by 'happy endorphins'.
Her guilt stemmed from a conversation around the supper table the previous night when Leslie recapped her 'morning ritual' conversation with Sheldon.
The spent an hour talking about the things they'd never have again – like chocolate. It had been lively but depressing and by the time they'd cleaned up the supper dishes and gone through the radio ritual, they were all feeling a little down.
Penny opened Sheldon's computer and pulled down the atlas program he'd been canny enough to download before they left Pasadena.
'Where would we all be without Sheldon? Probably rotting away in the ruins of Pasadena. God, Leonard would have freaked out and – '
She stopped thinking about Leonard and concentrated on Sheldon Cooper, the man she shared her bed and future with. He was still her OCD whackadoodle but he'd matured, forced to confront constant changes in the environment and life and she was so proud of him she could just burst!
And he'd done it all for her – to insure her survival. If that weren't a declaration of love, nothing he said or did would top that.
She found their location easily and switched the view to 'satellite' and was surprised to see a small town less than 2 miles from where they were snow-bound. She tapped the location and a window popped up providing information about the town such as population, industry, motels and restaurants.
'I wonder…'Sheldon fretted over his friends and their 'expedition'. He checked the time every few minutes and wondered what they were doing and if they were all safe. The coach was suddenly a lonely cavern and so he launched the daytime balloon antenna and monitored the radios to keep his mind off – drat! Where the hell are they?
Almost the entire population of New Salem was in the tiny church - all 80 or so people, the survivors of the first pass of the Choker.
Leslie thought that they might have been cult members and Bomber agreed. They were all dead, huddled together in pews in family groups, the Dixie cups of some poison still clutched in some hands, the rest littering the floor.
Penny just stared in horror at the body of a mother holding her infant child…dead by suicide. It was too much for her and she stumbled out of the church into the gray morning and tried not to scream out; she was in such horrible emotional pain.
'I'm so glad Shel isn't here. He would be so upset about the kids and that baby would have broken his heart just like it has mine. I know he tries to hide his feelings under all those layers but deep down, he's more caring and loving than anyone I've known except maybe my grandma. He just doesn't want to be vulnerable to any more emotional pain.'
Penny climbed on her 4-wheeler and pushed the electric start and drove slowly through the snow down the empty street, checking out the storefronts. She knew better than to break Sheldon's 'Rule #2 – do not enter buildings without someone watching your back' and yet here she was, breaking his 'Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone'.
She stopped in front of the only store that might meet their needs and waited for the others. Penny allowed her mind to wander back to earlier that morning when they were preparing to leave.
"Penny, please don't go. Let Bomber and Leslie Winkle explore the town you found. I don't see why – "
She'd kissed him to shut him up. They'd been over it again and again. Someone had to stay with the coach and besides, he still wasn't totally healed and a ride through questionable terrain on a 4-wheeler would only aggravate his injury.
He walked out with her and followed her to the 4-wheeler and then he kissed her in full view of the others…and her toes curled and her one leg kicked back and up and she melted into his arms. Suddenly all she wanted was to drag him back to their room and make love to him but a) she was still on her period and b) they needed stuff and they had to go.
Sheldon had crossed his arms across his chest and fixed her with a glare that dissolved into a look she'd never seen before – puppy dog eyes looking at her so sadly. "Should anything happen to you, Penny, I would be sore vexed to recover. Therefore, you must return, unharmed. To do any less would…please, be careful."
"Penny for your thoughts, Penny," Winkle said, standing slightly behind her. Penny jumped off her 4-wheeler and shrieked in surprise, fumbling for the pistol grip of her MP-5.
"Jesus, Leslie, don't do that! You scared the hell out of me!"
"Good. You shouldn't wander off by yourself. You know his rule."
They recited it together: 'Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone', and smiled.
"I suppose you're going to rat me out to him when we get back?"
"Wouldn't dream of it, Blondie. Just don't wander off by yourself." She stopped walking back toward Bomber and impulsively hugged Penny who stiffened in surprise and then leaned against her.
"I'm glad Sheldon isn't here. That scene in the church would have pushed him off the edge, y'know? He's so tightly wound right now…Penny, you have to get him to dial down the intensity. We're stuck here for God only knows how long and he's like a caged bear."
"I know. His mind goes a mile a minute and every time we run into an obstacle, he blames himself for not anticipating it."
"Do you ever wonder…what would have happened if Leonard hadn't passed away but Sheldon had? I think we'd be dead or wishing we were. I was wrong about him, Penny, and about you, too, and I'm sorry."
"Is this like a Cali-girl group hug thing?" Bomber was grinning at them, wondering what girly secrets the two were exchanging.
Penny started laughing and Leslie just rolled her eyes at Bomber. Moment of crisis passed.
Sheldon was intently concentrating on a faint voice he'd picked up. He was using headphones but finally heard the pounding at the coach door and cursed himself for his failure to maintain a proper watch. He grabbed his parka and his shotgun and slipped out the back door and around the coach.
"May I help you with something?" he asked. The woman and small child standing in the snow at the bus's main entrance looked frozen.
The little girl, about 5 or so, screamed in surprise and her mother pushed her behind her. They were both wrapped in blankets and the little girl clutched on to her mother, hiding her face in her mother's blanket.
"Mister, we don't want no trouble but our car broke down and we've been walking since sunrise. We just want to maybe get in that truck back there out of the cold? We won't steal nothing and…and maybe we can do something for ya around here. Y'know, cook or…or something?"
"You don't want any trouble, you mean. No, you can't crawl into the truck." The woman's face crumpled in on itself but she hardened her face and started to walk away towards the east.
"Why would you when the coach is warm and you're both welcome to sit with me and keep me company until my friends return? I'm Dr. Sheldon Cooper, and you are?"
"I'm Tasha Myers and this is my daughter, Penny." She saw how Sheldon's eyes widened and for a moment she was afraid she'd stumbled onto a pedophile.
"That's my girlfriend's name. They both have beautiful green eyes. Well, now that the introductions are complete, would you like a hot beverage?"
He opened the coach door and offered his hand to Tasha but she just grabbed onto the doorframe and pulled herself up but allowed her daughter to accept Sheldon's hand up.
He motioned them both into the galley and busied himself making soup and tea and hot cocoa.
"Mrs. Myers, you're welcome to get out of those wet clothes and try to find BDUs or sweat clothes that might fit you. We've scrounged quite a bit since leaving Pasadena. Penny's got some children's clothing somewhere but I don't remember seeing any children's boots." They were both wearing sneakers and jeans that looked soaked from the snow.
"Excuse me a moment." He went back to the small bathroom and returned with towels. "You might want to dry your hair. In this weather, you have to stay as dry as possible."
The soup disappeared as did the tea and cocoa. The little girl sacked out on the couch after changing into something Penny had scrounged. Sheldon covered her with a blanket and impulsively pressed a kiss into her hair.
"Do you…did you have children, Dr. Cooper?" She saw what he did and it was obvious to her that this man liked children.
"Good Lord, no. I'm a bachelor but…someday, maybe, Penny and I might have children."
They exchanged stories of their histories and adventures. She'd been a waitress in some tiny Nevada town and after her husband died and things got really bad, she loaded up her car and daughter and headed out to some relatives in Lincoln.
"We're headed to Omaha. You're more than welcome to ride along. Lincoln isn't that far from our destination and we'll be happy to take you home and – well, if they're not there, you can come along with us to Penny's parents' farm outside Omaha."
"Why? Why would you do this for total strangers?" She was suspicious of the man's motives. Other than some women's clothes that might have belonged to anyone, there were no signs of any 'friends'.
"How many people do you think survived? We'll need everyone to help rebuild civilization. Every one has a skill or a talent that we might be able to use. Every life is precious now."
"Let's see what goes down in Lincoln, okay? I appreciate the ride. It's a long walk."
Sheldon studied the woman carefully. She was so guarded and secretive that he wondered if the story she told had been the truth. The little girl hadn't uttered a sound the entire time she'd been awake, not even when her mother took her to the bathroom to change clothes.
"Staring is impolite, Dr. Cooper. Didn't your mother teach you manners?" There was a damnable smirk on her face and Sheldon laughed at her.
"Didn't yours teach you not to lie? There aren't any relatives in Lincoln, Mrs. Myers, are there? And it's Miss or Ms, right?"
"Does it really matter?"
"Of course it does! If you're to join us on this trek we have to be able to trust you and not waste valuable time looking over our shoulders."
She debated telling him a sanitized version of the truth but somehow she felt compelled to 'lay it all out' for this strange man.
"I'm not married. She's my daughter but I have no idea where her father is. I – I was an 'exotic dancer' at a club and I – "
"Enough. It's your business. I presume you were involved in some tawdry business in addition to being a dancer. Let's let it go at that. I used to be a theoretical particle physicist but now I'm a part-time bus driver, truck driver, scout, scavenger and I've had to do things that I found to be morally reprehensible. We all get a fresh start thanks to the Choker, don't we?" He missed the double entendre of his words.
Tasha Myers was uncertain about the future but she was certain about this strange man who sat across from her and seemed to be able to see into her soul. She could trust him with her daughter and he would make a good father.
It was hard going for the two 4-wheelers. They were each carrying at least 100 pounds of food covered by a plastic tarp that was secured to the cargo rack with bungee cords. The ATVs seemed to sink deeper into the snow going back than they had on the way into the small town.
It was starting to get dark and even with headlamps, they were afraid they'd lose the trail since it had started snowing again and the wind was picking up, blowing snow filling in the older tracks that led back to the coach and safety.
They stopped in the shelter of a stand of scrub trees to decide what to do. They each had a sleeping bag bungeed across the handlebars, a plastic tarp similar to the one covering the food, and an emergency pack of rations and stuff courtesy of Sheldon Cooper.
"We need to stop here until daylight. I know Sheldon will be worried but he knows we have emergency gear and that we've lost the light and have to overnight here. We don't have any choice, Penny, so quit giving me the stink eye. He'd advise the same thing if he were here."
"But what if he thinks we ran into trouble? You know Cooper. He'll slog through the snow to try and find us or, in his worried mind, rescue us from whatever danger we're in. He won't just sit on his ass in that warm coach."
They both looked at Penny who was trying to see their original tracks in the dark. She wanted to jump on her ATV and push on but she also knew that Bomber was right…but so was Leslie.
"I – I think – I think he'd expect us to hole up until the weather clears. He'll be worried and pissed but it's what he'd recommend doing if he were here. Okay, let's push these 4-wheelers together and the drape the tarps over them to break this wind and bed down. I know I won't sleep a wink but…"
It took them just 15 minutes to construct a suitable shelter out of the tarps and then wedge themselves inside, wrapped in their sleeping bags. No one said anything and soon all three drifted off in an uneasy sleep.
"Okay, Tasha, here's where I have to trust you. I have to go find my friends. They're lost in this and I need to guide them back here."
He handed her a 9mm pistol and said, "I've already told you about Penny, Leslie and Bomber. If anyone else shows up, use the gun to protect you and your daughter. I shouldn't be long. I've set the thermostat and I just need to wind down the antenna and I'll be on my way."
Tasha watched him dress, surprised that they were so well equipped for the cold weather. She was really surprised when he slung a shotgun over one shoulder and clipped some sort of wicked military machine gun to his outerwear.
And then, with a wave and a strained smile, he was gone.