The Broken and the Dead

I awoke feeling better than I had in a long, long time, I got out of bed, went down the hallway to the bathroom and ran into Karen Morena, well, more like I got all tangled up with her and we both started laughing. It was a great day. She waited for me while I got my teeth brushed and used the toilet. Together we went downstairs for breakfast, I could smell ham and could hear someone talking about pancakes. Karen and I froze on the stairs then turned and stared at each other with huge grins on our faces then simultaneously we sprinted down the stairs and skidded into the kitchen. The two new ladies, Mrs. Boudreaux and Ms. King were both wearing aprons and were laying huge platters of pancakes, Ms. King was saying something about the ham actually being spam but we didn’t care. It was wonderful. Elaine and Rico were eating standing up, side by side against one of the huge kitchen pantries. They certainly seemed to be having fun because they were whispering and giggling.

Lucy and her new all girl gang were sitting on the floor and had turned breakfast into a tea party with Ronald Bear being the guest of honor. Lt. Klein finished her breakfast and went over to the sink where I saw Mrs. Driscol silently washing the dishes, Lt. Klein placed her plate on the little pile and put her fork in a plastic cup someone had found for the purpose.

“Well, I have overlook and I am sure Deputy Weir is going to want to have his turn.” Klein said with genuine good humor.

Mrs. Hardy was smiling as she watched her girls and Lucy, she was nursing a cup of coffee and was holding it in both hands like it was of immeasurable value. The young college girl, Kelsey got up too and after depositing her dishes she said in a sing-song-y voice,

“I am going to start up the washing machine this morning, so if anyone has anything they want washed and hung out to dry bring it to me in the laundry room by 10!!” As she left she snatched one last pancake.

“Where is Vernon?” Ms. West asked.

“He is talking to Mr. Tucker out back yard, he say he be in right shortly.” Mrs. Boudreaux said in an even more exaggerated Cajun dialect than usual. Kyle joined Karen and me and we laughed and made jokes as he ate to our hearts desire. That was when Mr. Lowe came in from the back, his old bent frame looking small in front of the troll that followed him in. Ms. King waved them in and told them to sit down, there would be some more spam shortly but there was plenty of pancakes to start on. Mr. Lowe said something about how it all looked fantastic and then folded his hands in prayer before starting in on the pancakes. Mr. Lowe asked if there was any coffee and before anyone could say anything Mrs. Driscol spun in place, picked up the pot and poured some into the cup that Mrs. Boudreaux had just sat before him. Then she turned around again and attacked the pile of dishes in front of her.

In between bites Mr. Lowe was looking at a piece of paper that looked like it had a plan or diagram drawn out on it. I smirked as I saw that Tucker wasn’t even eating or making eye contact with anyone much less having a conversation. I felt smug seeing the ‘big man’, the ‘killer’ so humbled. No one said anything to him, I don’t know if Mrs. Driscol told them what happened or if they just guessed something was going on. The tension was pretty thick and I was squirming, Karen looked at me strangely. Amy kept her back to the room so I got up and walked over next to her and leaned against the counter, I crossed my arms and stared at OMT who kept his eyes downward. This was great. The silence was broken by a gurgling sound from the counter behind me as the coffee maker made it known a new pot was ready. Tucker picked up an empty mug from the table and slowly walked around the table towards us.

“Amy?” Tucker said, “May I have a cup of coffee?”

His voice was quiet, almost gentle. Amy stood there silently her hands in the soapy water for a moment before she answered in a soft voice

“Of course John.”

She turned towards me and her eyes were sparkling and she was wearing a smile that she wiped from her face as she picked up the coffee pot and turned back to Tucker. ’Oh my God, this can’t be happening’, I thought. What could I do? So I did the only thing I could think of, I bumped Amy’s elbow and the scalding coffee cascaded over Tucker’s hand and arm. He groaned in pain and when his fingers started to spasm he drop the mug, it shattered and the shards scattered across the floor like tiny islands in a dark brown sea.

Tucker was in pain and that was good but my plan back-fired. Amy set the pot down and grabbing his arm she shoved it under the faucet, all the while she kept telling him how sorry she was and it must have slipped and she was so clumsy and blah, blah, blah. All OMT said was that it was okay, and that accidents happened. Oh my God they were holding hands and it was my fault. Luckily Mrs. Boudreaux reappeared with a small med kit from the hall closet and I thought things would settle down but once again the Evil Gods smiled on Tucker as Amy took the kit and treated and bandaged the burns herself. What was wrong with Mrs. Driscol? How could she be so stupid? I rolled my eyes and stormed from the room. Karen Morena hot on my heels.

I had just went through the front doors and was halfway down the steps when Karen grabbed my arm and pulled me up short, her fingernails digging into my arm,

“AAAH! What are you doing?” I snapped.

She spun me to face her,

“You are a jerk! I saw what you did and it was on purpose!”

My Dad often said that honesty is the best policy, so keeping that in mind I said

“What are you talking about?”

She made a fist and drew it back to punch me, fury in her eyes and in the set of her jaw. I got my hands up to protect myself and barked

“Alright! Alright. I admit it.”

She lowered her fist but kept it balled up.

“Why did you do it, Johnny? He was burned pretty badly.”

I bit my lip, “to protect Amy” I said.

“From Mr. Tucker?” she asked incredulously.

I just nodded.

“That does not make any sense.” she said shaking her head. I felt the flood gates starting to burst as I listed all the people he had killed, they poured out, the named and the anonymous, shot, strangled, stabbed, ran over with a semi. At last I blurted out

“He killed my Mom!”

I sank to the steps and held my face in my hands ashamed of my tears. She didn’t say anything at first she just sat next to me and put an arm across my shoulders. She pulled me to her and held me, she began to whisper things;

“It will be okay, it’s alright. It’s okay to cry, we all do it.”

Finally my tears stopped and she held me at arm’s length so she could see my face and look in my eyes,

“We can talk about this later okay?”

I wiped my runny nose with my sleeve,

“Are you going to tell?” I asked quietly.

She shook her head no and I thanked her.

“Come on” she said “let’s get a drink.”

She pulled me around to the back of the house where an old fashioned faucet stuck out of the ground, the kind where you have to lift a lever to get it to go.

Just as we finished we were assaulted by three screaming little girls who were promptly shushed by the Lieutenant on the roof. They were joined by Elaine, Mrs. Hardy, and the Livingstons who seemed to age every minute, well they did but you know what I mean. Mrs. Livingston carried a wicker basket filled with seed packets Mr. Livingston and Elaine each had a shovel.

“Come along you two.” Mrs. Hardy said as she walked by. Lucy circled us singing what was apparently her ’we’re making a garden that’s never on time’ song, Elaine said it was a late summer garden.

“That’s what I said” Lucy informed her and then promptly broke into a rousing chorus of

“Elaine and Rico sittin’ in a tree k.i.z.z.n.g.”

Mrs. Hardy laughed and said that was enough that she could sing later. Elaine turned bright red and I had to laugh at that.

We worked hard till lunch then after that we were joined by Deputy Weir and Rico. Lucy, Gina. And Jordan wandered a bit and were very interested in who could find the longest worm but by dark we had several rows done. Lettuce, radishes, squash, spinach, beets and turnips. As we washed up for dinner at the faucet Mrs. Livingston was clearly pleased.

“Tomorrow we will finish with cucumbers, green beans, and lima beans and with a little luck we should have a pretty good fall crop.”

Mrs. Hardy asked “Where did you get all these seeds?”

Mrs. Livingston was drying her hands as she said

“Mr. Tucker brought them to me this morning.” Crap on a stick.

It was nearly six by the time we went inside, we saw Kyle sitting in the living room, Karen took my hand and dragged me over to him and she plopped down on the overstuffed couch across from him then pulled me down next to her. I was blushing at her holding my hand in front of her brother but he didn’t seem to notice or think anything was wrong. “Hey guys.” Kyle said and I answered him but apparently Karen had a speech prepared and she proceeded to review what I had seen Tucker do since we started this God awful journey. She finished telling him how I had caused OMTs burns. Kyle’s eyebrows went up at that but he didn’t say anything.

“So Kyle what do you think?” she asked.

Kyle sat there for several minutes only asking a couple questions for clarity and I answered them as truthfully as I could:

“No, I didn’t see him strangle the girl but he admitted it and yes she was the Livingston’s daughter.” And “yes the guy he ran over was trying to stop us.”

I looked over at Karen and her eyes were fixed on Kyle and I was startled by the relationship these two had, they actually listened to and respected each other.

“So, was he ever punished for any of this?” Kyle asked.

I told him about how Darnell had beat him pretty thoroughly and had crippled his left arm. Kyle sat back and looked at the ceiling then added

“And the hot coffee.”

A moment later he asked

“Has he ever done anything...um...good?” he asked.

I said sure but that wasn’t the issue was it?

Kyle didn’t let up and he asked me for examples, I hesitated but Karen urged me to spill it so I started with Lucy and the dog, through the battles on the hill and the gun store and even included the basket of seeds.

“And you said he was the one who showed the non-soldiers how to shoot?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I said.

I realized how it sounded when you listed all the little good things in a row and I felt a piece of lead sink into my stomach but Kyle surprised me.

“Well, he has done some bad stuff for sure.” Kyle said. “I have one question for you Johnny and I don’t want to upset you but...” he hesitated then asked “...your Mom? Was she going to live or was she dying?”

Not upset me? Was he kidding? I could feel myself starting to lose it but then I felt Karen’s hand on my arm.

“Johnny this is important, please?” she said.

So for her I sat back and closed my eyes and for the first time I tried to remember. I remembered the monsters and the garage, the gunfire and screaming. The soldiers from the road block dying, one by one. The crash and Mom fighting, I felt tears burn hot trails down my cheeks. And there it was, my mother, my amazing, kind and beautiful mom, laying like a broken doll, her insides all over the place. Tucker listening to her begging him to protect her children and begging him to end it, to stop her suffering.

There was a voice far away, it was quiet but it was calling my name and then I felt a soft hand on my cheek,

“Johnny?” Karen said.

I looked at her but couldn’t speak so I looked at Kyle but I couldn’t say the words so Kyle said them for me,

“She was dying wasn’t she?” and I nodded and lowered my eyes to the floor.

I felt Karen wrap an arm across my shoulder and to my surprise Kyle moved next to me and did the same thing from the other side. No one said anything and for the first time I felt like maybe things were going to get better.

Not long after our touchy-feely moment we were called into dinner, the main dish was apparently six cans of some big-box brand beef stew that Mrs. Boudreaux and Mrs. King had performed magic on but most amazing was the bread. Oh my gosh was it good, it was flat, fluffy and hot. There was honey for it too, Mrs. King said it was Nan’s but she laughed when I asked who that was.

“What did I say?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you later kiddo.”

Kelsey winked at me but when I blushed Karen pinched me hard and when I yelped everyone laughed again. People are nuts. It was a great meal and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Only Tucker, West, Lowe and Lt. Kline were absent. Then there was dessert; each of us got six blackberries sprinkled with sugar, Lucy and Jordan took turns pretending to be servants presenting the treat to the other one. Jordan’s version of a snobbish English accent had everyone laughing including me. Finally dinner was over and Elaine and I had dish duty but Karen helped and we were just finishing when Deputy Weir stopped in for a cup of coffee on his way up to over watch. He stood and watched us for a bit but when he caught my eye he raised his cup in salute then winked. Grownups are weird.

He disappeared up the stairs and we headed to the great room, when we got there everyone except Weir was present, even the girls club albeit they were embroiled in a rousing game of ’Go Fish’. Tucker and the Lieutenant were finishing up a drawing on a piece of poster board when we sat down to hear what was up. Everyone was talking and excited but I didn’t know why. Finally the LT, cleared her throat and asked for our attention.

“Everyone attention, attention please” she said and we quieted.

“I am not going to bore everyone with the details and let me assure you they are boring but the gist of it is that we believe that we think we know where a humming circle is going to be in 74 hours and 18 minutes plus or minus a minute or two.”

“Are they headed here?”

“To the Post Office?”

“Can we avoid them?”

The questions came rapid fire. The Lt. waved us down,

“No, no, they are not headed here. What we are proposing is that we set a trap for them and with luck we can wipe out an entire circle. We don’t know what effect this will have, maybe nothing or maybe it will screw with them big time.”

The Lt. showed us a map with a series of multicolored circles travelling in a gentle arcs across the page showing each group’s path, she pointed out the target group as being in red, the other groups were traveling in similar arcs that sometimes touched our target’s path but they didn’t overlap each other by much if at all. Mrs. West spoke up then,

“We chose group red because it is far enough away we don’t think they will pose a threat to our bases but it is within easy driving distance.”

The Lt. added “you will notice that no other color is currently between us and red and none will be for the immediate future.”

Tucker took his time in the lime light,

“Right here, just a little off of our route is a quarry, we are hoping to find a supply of dynamite there.”

Lt. Klein said “While we have one claymore remaining in the back of the MRAP and about 1000 rounds for our SAW, we would really like to apply a little shock and awe of our own. Thus the stop off for the dynamite.”

Mrs. West who sounded just like the other two in her tone of voice and looked just like them in the way she stood, all military official like then spoke,

“We need to point out that the places we have marked on this map is the location where the groups will be forming their ’humming circles’ and that their actual path will vary.”

Tucker again spoke up,

“we believe that each group covers about twice the distance each movement interval than what is shown, imagine a 10 inch piece of spaghetti whose ends are fixed 5 inches apart, that is how much each one varies. It is the end points that we have a fix on, not the wiggly bit in the middle.”

Lieutenant Klein then said “Any questions or ideas?”

It was Mrs. Boudreaux who spoke first,

“Um, what’s a SAW?” It was Rico who answered “That’s a squad automatic weapon mam.” Then young Ms. Longacre asked

“And just who is going to be going on this wonder Humanity Strikes Back mission?”

It was the Lieutenant who answered after looking either way at her co-conspirators,

“Well, we three, plus Rico and we are hoping Deputy Weir and maybe two other volunteers?”

It was Elaine who spoke up next “I’m in.” she said with a determination that left no misunderstanding.

“Elaine! No!”

Rico exclaimed, panic in his voice.

She did not respond to him in particular she just made her case,

“I am a good shot but more importantly I don’t hesitate and you know that’s true. I have killed them before and I willing and able to do it again.”

The Lt. looked at Tucker who sighed and nodded that she spoke the truth.

“Then I’m going too!” I said.

Mrs. Driscol looked horrified but before she could protest the Lt. spoke up,

“Alright everyone, this will get us nowhere, with everyone’s permission I will treat this as a military strike and will make the choices from a list of anyone who wants to be considered.”

There was a murmur among us then finally agreement. She passed a piece of paper around and a bunch of us signed it. She said she would put together the team and have an answer for everyone in an hour because she wanted to meet with the chosen team afterwards. With that she took the list and headed to her room.

That was the longest hour I think I had ever sat through but finally Lieutenant Klein reappeared, she looked deadly serious and I saw a fierce determination in her eyes. She cleared her throat then began,

“Everyone, I just want to say that I appreciate how much everyone wants to strike at the monsters but I also had to consider the success of the mission and the protection of those left here at the lodge.”

I saw a flicker of something in her eyes that I could not quite place. Hesitation? Regret? It faded away and she said that the list is final and there will be no changes considered for any reason.

“So, here is the strike team:

Cpl. Hernandez will be on the SAW.

Diane West and I will be the forward rifle team to support Rico

Deputy Weir will be on the sniper rifle

Elaine and Kyle, flanking suppression fire

Mrs. Driscol you will be in the MRAP in case we have to bug out quick and Janey you will be riding shotgun.

Then she hesitated and concentrated on the list.

“Last member will be in charge of the detonators Kelsey Longacre.”

“What?!” Tucker screamed.

He hammered his huge fist down on the table at which he sat. I knew I had been left behind, probably because they needed a shooter here for security. But Tucker? That was a surprise and he began to scream at the Lt. He towered over her but she did not back down. ?

”Tucker!” she answered him decibel for decibel. “You can barely lift your left arm, your back is so bad it takes you five minutes to get out of bed. Your knees are shot and your distance vision is so bad I worry about you driving much less count on you for accurate rifle fire. You are one of the smartest men I’ve ever met but you are a wreck and I need people who can move and move fast.”

He stood there staring at her in disbelief but he said nothing, a moment later he turned and headed towards the stairs. Amy put a hand on him as he went by but he did not react to it. We watched him go up the stairs and I realized the old man, the one who figured out all this crap had been humiliated. Much to my surprise I actually felt sorry for him.

The Lt. turned to me then,

“Johnny, I hope you understand that we need shooters here too. I am hoping you, the Livingston’s, Karen and Mrs. Hardy will fill that role.”

I nodded and she turned away and asked that everyone leave but the strike team. I wanted to say something but how could I describe what I had seen? What Tucker could do in spite of everything she listed being true. Tucker was a warrior, unfortunately most of the others who could vouch for that were dead.

I headed upstairs for my over watch duty, as I passed Tuckers room I saw he was in there with Lucy on one lap and Jordan on the other and was reading a book to them. He suddenly looked more like Santa than the cold eyed killer I had seen him be in battle. He even did the voices for the girls and it made me shake my head in disbelief. By the time Janey relieved me on over watch the lodge was quiet but I was surprised to see Elaine come out of the bathroom wearing an oversized Tee and proceed to go into Rico’s room. Oh brother.