Dear Readers,
As much as I would love to write sweet love stories the muse says things like, "You left your characters in danger, there is a Nazi army that might sweep up the highway toward them at any moment. Stop the love stuff and get cracking". Gotta let the muse have its way.
Patty-Cake, Patty-Cake
Carol woke up the next morning with an old nursery rhyme in her head. She had done Patty-Cake with Sophia and for a few moments she let herself replay how that felt. Then she hopped out of bed and started to prepare breakfast. It was only later after the morning chores were done that she remembered the rhyme. She picked up Judith and changed her diaper. Then she did Patty-Cake with the chortling baby.
Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Roll it and pat it and mark it with P
And put it in the oven for Patty and me
Judith loved it and Carol did it two more times until she realized that the last two lines were wrong. She had changed the third line from "Roll it and pat it and mark it with a B" and the last line went "And put it in the oven for Baby and me". It was strange how much that bothered her. She decided to take Judith and visit Ashton. Daryl was outside in the yard when she came out with Judith; he decided to walk down with her and check on the fence.
Daryl carried Judith and held Carol's hand as they walked. He had become more openly affectionate since his return from the mountain and more thoughtful to others. She enjoyed the walk and wished it could last longer. Daryl knowing about their baby had taken a weight off of her. She didn't want to tell him if it didn't work out but she had wanted to share it with him too.
Ashton was at home complaining of sore muscles and blistered hands. Jo grabbed Judith from Daryl while they talked with Ashton. Carol felt like an idiot asking Ashton about the rhyme, but it meant something she just couldn't figure out what. He listened to her version and his face lit up. "Don't you remember Grandma did that when Patrick brought his baby home to see her? . Grandma called him Patty. He was named after his father, but Grandma said that one Patrick in the house was enough and called him Patty. You remember we called the baby Patty Cake instead of Patty." Carol had a sudden memory of Grandma with a red haired baby playing Patty Cake. "Yes, now I do. He was named after Uncle Patrick. What happened to him?"
Ashton's tone was sad, "He was a career Army officer. He was married and had a couple of kids. I don't know where he was when everything hit. Uncle Patrick told me that Patty was going to be transferred to some base in California but we never heard anything from him".
Carol said, "I think he is coming home, I think that is why I keep hearing that rhyme".
"Grandma said that he would come home sometime and she bought the Stephenson's farm for him. She didn't have time to do anything more than buy it before she passed. I had passed that one off as her wishful thinking to see him again before she died. I hope you're right. He would be the last one of the McAllister strays to find their way home," Ashton's tone was hopeful. Carol coming back to them had renewed all his faith in his grandmother's vision of a clan reuniting on this mountain.
Daryl volunteered to help with the fencing and Ashton got up to go with them. They went out with Carol and walked her back up to her house. Carol thought she could handle carrying a baby home but she let them be. Walkers were still being killed in the area. The Nazi calling cards were capable of biting and starting another round of deaths.
Carol went in the house; she kept feeling Patrick and family was coming home and that they were close. Daryl had brought home a brace of rabbits this morning and she was going to make an enormous pot of rabbit stew with cornbread for dinner.
Patrick Allen McAllister Jr. rested his weary head on the top of the Highlander hybrid and looked at the map. He was close to McAllister Mountain and could be there before sunset. He wanted to be there before dark; he had no idea if any of his family there was still alive but he had dragged his wife and children for thousands of miles in the hope that someone would be there when he got home. Strange to call it home, he was born in a base hospital and had spent his life living on one base after the other. Home should be on an army base but for him and his dad home was still here in the North Carolina Mountains up on McAllister Mountain.
His wife Sarah stood beside him looking wearier than him. They had just gotten settled into small army facility in northern California when news reports of a strange contagion on the eastern coast of the United States put everyone on alert. Patrick had a close friend on that base that had a safe house up in the Sierra Mountains. He and his buddy moved their families up there at the first report. They had gone back to their army base to wait for orders that never came. The base was top secret and Patrick figured that in the ensuing madness it had been forgotten. Patrick and his friend waited for a week and then decided to join their families. By then, the world was lost anyway. The base had never fallen and some of the men were staying there but Patrick and his buddy loaded up on food and supplies and took off. They were able to get back to the hideaway and their group survived that summer and through the long winter there. Sarah had been pregnant with their third child and they had been glad to have a safe place to stay. By spring their supplies were exhausted and his buddy wanted to take his family to his brother's house in Wyoming. Patrick wanted to go back to North Carolina. They had gone back to the army base and found it deserted but there was enough fuel there to get them through the Sierras and on to the Rockies.
The two families survived through one catastrophe after another. There weren't all that many walkers in the mountains but there was enough to keep it interesting. They had run ins with war lords and sickness. The two families had separated when they were out of the Rockies but Sarah had agreed to keep on until they were back here. The two older children had been here on trips and were willing to risk the danger of travel to find a place to call home. The baby probably thought that everyone lived in a vehicle.
"We are close, Sarah, we just need to push through this set of mountains and we can be there in a couple of hours if the roads are open," Patrick said. She nodded, "Sounds good, we have enough fuel from that last siphon if we are careful. Let's go, Major McAllister." Patrick was thankful that he had a wife with a sense of adventure and humor. They had needed both.
The kids were excited about being close to their destination. They were good kids, the oldest boy was seventeen, tall as he was and a damn good fighter, the girl was all McAllister, skinny with big blue eyes, and the baby was just a happy go lucky boy. He was lucky to still have any of them still alive after what they had been through.
Patrick drove at a sedate pace trying to conserve as much fuel as he could. He had bought this car two weeks before everything went crazy and it had served them well. He was glad to see that the roads were in pretty good shape and there was no traffic.
He saw the roadblock ahead but had not alternative. He and Sarah went out ahead to talk to the armed men standing behind a concrete barricade. "Who are you and what is your business here?" Patrick answered, "I am Patrick McAllister and I have family here."
One of the men came around the barricade. "Your Uncle Ashton radioed this morning to be on the lookout for a McAllister stray. He said that your Aunt Carol thought that you were close. Do you need any fuel or anything?"
Patrick felt the tears in his eyes start to fall. He had been through hell during war and in this Apocalypse without falling apart, but he was close to it now. Ashton was alive, there was somebody waiting for them. His family might have found a sanctuary at last. He couldn't get over that they had known he was coming. Grandma Nancy had the sight but he had forgotten that there was another grandchild, a little girl name Carol that Grandma was always searching for. She must have found her way home too. "I could use some gasoline to make sure I have enough to get up the mountain." The men brought a gas can and gave him some gas.
Patrick didn't need any directions to find his way up the mountain. There was still plenty of daylight left to see Ashton and Emily open the gates to their house. Jo was standing on the steps with a skinny woman with big blue eyes that looked just like Grandma Nancy only younger.
Patrick got out of the car and there were plenty of McAllisters to welcome him and his family. He was home and some of the burden of the last two years fell away. He hugged Ashton, Emily, Jo, and Carol. The rest of his family was being welcomed to the mountain. He would say something but he couldn't stop crying.
