It's short but opens up the next few chapters. Trying to get my groove back but the muse is fickle and comes and goes, whispering naughty tidbits in my ear.

Chapter 29 The Plague

Perfect. He couldn't miss at this distance.

The snowmobile slowed down and his finger tightened on the trigger. He wanted a clear head shot at the driver and didn't want to risk any collateral damage to the snowmobile so he waited another second and then another.

It stopped right in front of him. The driver shut off the engine and stood up, still on the vehicle, and seemed to be looking for something or someone specific.

Perfect.

He could hear his Papaw's words in his 5-year old ear as clearly as he did that day 26 years earlier.

'Shelly, hold your sight picture and take a deep breath and hold it, son. See how the picture seems to rise and fall? That's your heartbeat, Shelly, and you'll miss at a distance if you don't fire between them. Slowly let out your breath and squeeze the trigger. Let the rifle fire itself.'

He remembered how surprised he was when the rifle slammed back into his shoulder but not as surprised as the jackrabbit that he'd shot with his Papaw's .22 rifle.

His elation had been short-lived because the rabbit was flopping around and even from 25 yards away, he could hear the squeals of pain.

'Shelly, you've learned something today, haven't you, son? You learned that you could shoot and hit something, right? But you learned a lesson about consequences, too. Now, go put that poor critter out of its misery. Next time, aim for the head, son. A hunter takes a life but should do it in a merciful manner. And don't kill for sport just to prove you can hit something you aim at. That's what tin cans are for.'

It took him a while to figure it out but he did and that was the last time he went hunting. From that point on, he hunted tin cans on a fence rail. They didn't squeal as they died.

Sheldon stood up, stepped around the trash barrels, and shouted for the figure on the snowmobile to raise his hands and get off and then kneel in the snow. His sight picture never wavered as he advanced on his enemy.

The group needed intelligence and they couldn't get it from a dead raider.

As much as she wanted to find her boyfriend and chew his ear off for ignoring his own proven rule for safety ('Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone'), she also knew that running off in search of him alone was just as bad.

Penny slowed the Polaris and then stopped and turned off the loud engine. She stood up, still straddling the leather seat, and looked down the street that wandered through the cluster of homes in hopes of seeing him in the early light of dawn.

"You - on the snowmobile! Get your hands where I can see them and then kneel down in the snow. Reach for that weapon and you're a dead man!"

She whirled around at the sound of Sheldon's voice and lost her balance somehow and ended up on her back in the snow behind the snowmobile. Penny struggled to get up but had had the wind knocked out of her. Her arms and legs flailed in the snow trying to gain a purchase.

'Well, I found him. When did he get so macho? That voice…'

Sheldon was startled but the rider's scream of surprise and sudden fall. For just a second he wondered if he'd somehow fired his weapon in between his heartbeats. He advanced slowly and could see the rider struggling to rise.

He flashed on the jackrabbit squealing in pain and fright so many years ago and he remembered his Papaw's words about putting the poor critter out of its misery.

Sheldon raised his sights from the rider's chest to its visor-covered face and added pressure to the finger that was curled around the grooved trigger.

'A headshot and its suffering will be ended. Fire between the heartbeats…'

Penny looked up into the face of the man who was her future and smiled through the visor of her helmet. She reached out a hand for him to help her up but was shocked when his pistol rose and centered itself on her visored face.

"Sh – Sheldon, help! I can't - " she wheezed out, still trying to draw a full breath into her lungs.

The snow turned bright red around the rider's head and spread until it touched his boots and continued on until the entire snow covered street was blood red. The blood began to flow over his boots and up his legs and he threw down the pistol and dropped to his knees and pulled the lifeless body into his arms and broke down as a lifetime of suppressed emotions burst forth.

Penny fumbled with the chinstrap of the helmet she wore. She had to see him, to see what was wrong and she couldn't do that like this.

"Sheldon, are you hurt? Sheldon, what's wrong? Whatever's wrong we can fix it, baby." She wrapped her other arm around his neck and just held on. She didn't know what was wrong but it must be bad. He just hugged her and rocked her like a little baby and his body was periodically wracked by bouts of quiet sobbing.

It was getting light enough that she could see where he'd walked into a house and then back out. She could see his tracks and where he'd knelt in the snow behind some trashcans.

'Oh. He heard my snowmobile and came out, hid behind the cans and when I stopped…he thought I was one of them…that explained his challenge but not…not this.'

Her CB radio crackled with an inquiry about her location. "Penny, this is Leslie, where are you? Have you found Sheldon yet? Are you there?"

She fumbled around and finally pulled the small CB radio from her borrowed coat and answered.

"Les, yeah, I found him. Look give us an hour or so and we'll be back, okay?"

"What's wrong? Do you need help?"

"Remember the parking lot in Barstow? It's like that but a lot worse. I don't know why right now. Let me talk with him. We'll be in the last house just before you leave town. Everything's okey-dokey."

The last phrase was a 'safe phrase' Bomber told them to use to tell them that she was okay and not under duress. If she'd said "I gotta go," then they would come running because there was a problem.

She put the CB radio back in her pea coat pocket and peeled Sheldon's arms from around her and then took his face in her palms and kissed him gently, not deepening it but just touching his lips to hers, hoping that somehow he'd snap out of his fugue.

"Sheldon, it's cold, baby. Let's go back into that house there and out of this cold. Maybe we can build a fire if they have a fireplace or maybe the heat's still working. C'mon, Moon Pie, stand up for me. I can't drag your carcass that far."

He stood up, still clutching at her, staring at her as if surprised to see her. He reached out and cupped her face with one cold hand and she leaned into it and let her eyes close.

"Penny, I thought I'd killed you. There was so much blood and it was – "

"Shh, you didn't or I wouldn't be talking to you, would I? Now, hush, and let's get into that house over there and out of this wind, okay?"

Leslie watched as Bernadette and Howard hung on to each other, overjoyed that neither had been killed and even more thrilled at being rescued and reunited with their friends from Pasadena.

Howard was wearing normal clothes, for him, and Bernadette had found one of her suitcases and pulled on clothes, glad to be warm again but really glad to be out of the freezing storage unit.

"So where are Penny and Sheldon? I'll bet he's freaking out over all this, right, Leslie? So many changes. A total lack of control over anything. He must be totally bat crap crazy by now."

Leslie frowned at Howard but then realized that Penny had been gone far too long alone. She pulled a CB radio from her parka pocket and called out to her friend.

"Penny, this is Leslie, where are you? Have you found Sheldon yet? Are you there?"

"Les, yeah, I found him. Look give us an hour or so and we'll be back, okay?"

"What's wrong? Do you need help?" she asked, suddenly afraid of things falling further apart.

Penny's response was quick and Leslie breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the code phrase. They weren't in any trouble.

"Remember the parking lot in Barstow? It's like that but a lot worse. I don't know why right now. Let me talk with him. We'll be in the last house just before you leave town. Everything's okey-dokey."

She had her unit on speaker because pulling the hood of the parka up and down was a pain in the ass so Howard and Bernadette had heard the entire conversation.

"Barstow? Why the hell were you doing in Barstow, for Christ's sake? Did Sheldon run away when the shooting started?"

"Watch the tone, Howard. Who do you think planned and executed this little rescue operation, huh? As for Barstow, that was a long time ago when we first bugged outta Pasadena."

Leslie got a faraway look on her face and Bernadette glared at Howard to 'be quiet'.

"Sheldon blew up a truck full of rapists and murderers with a rocket launcher but then got to feeling guilty. Something must have happened when he and Penny's dad went to take care of the last of your 'friends'. He doesn't feel guilty at all anymore."