Second Wave -- 21
Chapter 21
The weather had been gradually warming up as spring progressed into summer. It seemed like it had been an eternity since Dec left. Michael and I were lonely and missed him terribly, but we were managing. The homestead was a comforting place. Dec and I had put a lot of ourselves into it, and I knew every inch of the cabin, yard, and outbuildings. They gave me a reassuring feeling of familiarity every morning when I got up and began the day’s routine.
I started by making breakfast for the two of us. That usually involved getting Michael to help make pancakes, something he loved doing. They became very artistic when he made them. He’d show me an indiscriminate blob and tell me it was a dinosaur, whale, or whatever. His imagination always worked overtime, and I was proud of my little boy.
Once breakfast was over, we gathered the eggs from the chicken flock and tended to our milk cows and horses. The large animals were usually penned in the barn at night and released to graze in the area during the day. Plenty of grass was in small clearings along the creek, and they didn’t have to wander far to get enough to eat. Both cows and the three horses knew enough to return when it grew dark.
There was always a possibility of bears or cougars and smaller predators. I didn’t worry much about the smaller ones. They were unlikely to pose a threat to the livestock. There had been a rumor of some wolves moving into the area. So far, that’s all it was, a rumor. I kept my .243 near the front door and carried it along if I had to travel any distance from the cabin. It wasn’t too heavy a rifle, weighing around seven pounds, but it still got in the way at times. Nevertheless, I felt better when I had it nearby.
I also carried a smaller 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol that I strapped to my calf. This was the first thing I put on when I got out of bed. Before the alien attack and the EMP, I was always armed when on the job, but I would never have thought of carrying at all times. Our lives were different back then. The aliens had made us realize that we were far more vulnerable to violence than we’d thought. Security was now uppermost in everyone’s mind.
I spent part of each night renewing the mental wards around the homestead. Dec had taught me to visualize a protective zone that would gradually increase anxiety in any predator that dared to try and come in. It seemed to work, but I wasn’t as good as he was, and I needed more effort to keep the barriers up. Even so, I looked forward to going to bed, not that I was worn out with work, but because I could sense Dec’s presence best when I was just on the verge of sleep. I’d be in that warm, safe state just before dropping off, and I could feel him occupying his side of the bed, even though I knew he was off across the mountains. As long as I could sense his presence, I knew that he was safe and would eventually come back to us after he stopped the aliens again.
Occasionally, we would speak when I was dreaming. It made me wonder if it was a dream, but I finally realized that we were communicating on some level. This realization was greatly strengthened when I wondered where the leather punch was. My horse had hooked his halter on a pine stub and had broken the cheek strap. We had plenty of cured leather in the barn, and it only took me a short time to cut a replacement. The only problem was that the leather punch needed to be added to the toolbox. I needed to poke some holes in the strap to attach it to the remainder of the halter, and pushing an old nail through the leather didn’t seem to make a hole as smooth as I would have liked.
It was nearly dark by then, so I decided to wait until morning when there was better light to aid my search for the missing punch. We had supper, and I got Michael to bed, did my own nighttime routine, and crawled under the covers. I was asleep and had been for a while when I became aware that I was standing outside and Dec was beside me. He placed his arm around my shoulders and kissed me. I turned to him and held on as tightly as I could. He felt so good; I’d really missed that.
At one level, I knew I was dreaming, but on another, the experience seemed very real. He put his hands on my shoulders and said softly, “I’ve got to go now. I’m busy with battle preparations, but everything is fine. The leather punch is on the cross beam to the left of the barn door. It’s slipped down in a crack where it’s difficult to see.”
Things faded out and became fuzzy at that point. I tried to cling to him, but he faded out, and I drifted into a restless sleep. It didn’t seem like it had been over ten minutes when the rooster started his morning bragging. He made a good alarm clock, but this morning, I was tired and resented his telling the world that he could beat up any other rooster that came around. I kicked a little under the covers, trying to get back to sleep, but then I remembered Dec telling me about the punch. That did it! I couldn’t go back to sleep until I checked to see if it was where he’d said it was, so I got up and dressed. Michael was still sleeping when I slipped out the door and crossed the damp grass to the barn.
It was dim inside, and the space smelled of warm animals. All three horses nickered at me and stomped their feet as I let them and the cows out for the day. The barn faced the east and the sun was just starting to provide enough light coming over the mountains for me to see in the interior. I walked over to the door, and there it was, exactly where Dec had told me. I pulled the punch out of the crack and looked at it as if it were some kind of ghost. It was a little spooky. He’d known right where it was, and I was holding confirmation that my ‘dream’ hadn’t really been a dream.
I was finishing punching the necessary holes in the strap when Michael came out onto the cabin porch and called to me to come and make breakfast. I carefully put the punch back in the toolbox before returning to the cabin.
We were running a little low on some necessary items, so about noon, we rode into town to the store. Michael and I had gathered the few things we wanted and were waiting to pay. A couple of girls were in front of me, buying some beans and flour. While Molly weighed the items, they conversed, and I couldn’t help but overhear them talking about William Smith. Both of them seemed infatuated with him, but one had convinced herself that he was interested in her in return.
I knew William slightly. He’d always seemed very nice to me. Some of the men didn’t hold much stock in him, and Dec had always been non-committal about him. On the other hand, I had a positive view of the man. He always smiled and greeted me politely, tipping his hat, which was something a lot of men didn’t do. We’d only had a few chances to converse, but he was amusing and seemed interested in what I had to say.
The two girls finished their business and left. Molly gathered and tallied my items, and I settled with her using some junk silver coins. We’d started out using paper money, but a lot of it had worn out. The problem was partially solved when one of the townsfolk had grudgingly pulled out a couple of bags of silver coins he’d been hoarding.
“I never thought I’d be trading these in under this kind of circumstance,” he said. “Always thought that the government would just fold by printing too much paper money, and I was convinced that these silver coins would retain their value.” They had, and by now, they’d spread all over the area and had become one of our easier means of exchange. Of course, we also bartered like crazy.
We had just returned to the cabin when I heard a horse neigh across the creek. It was about as good a warning as someone honking a car horn. I turned and saw that it was William Smith and one of the other shepherds, a man I didn’t know very well. They rode into the barnyard, and when I greeted them a little cautiously, William responded by asking me if I’d seen a couple of stray sheep.
“Hi, Elizabeth. Randy and I are looking for a couple of lambs that got away from our herd last night. We’re grazing them about a mile over the ridge to the west, and our count turned up short this morning. We trailed them in this direction, but the tracks faded out, and there is no sign of them. I just thought that maybe you’d have seen the strays.”
“No. I’ve been in town, and we didn’t see anything on the way in or back. Nothing this morning before we left either.”
Randy spoke up. “We’ve lost a few head to some kind of critter, maybe a lion or a wolf, and we were hoping to find these two before they came to a bad end.”
“No. I can’t help you with the search. Sorry!” I was about to dismiss them, but William changed the subject.
“How are you doing since Dec’s been gone? Everything alright?”
I didn’t want to dwell on the fact that Michael and I were alone, but now that he’d asked, I had to answer, “We’re doing OK. There have been no problems that I can’t handle, and we’ve been able to keep the predators off of our chicken flock, so things are going well. Thanks for asking.”
His eyes grew serious, and he stopped smiling. He looked earnestly at me and said, “Elizabeth, if you ever need anything, anything at all, you ask me. I’d be honored to help you with any problem. It bothers me to see a woman and child alone out here. The world just isn’t as safe as it used to be.”
“Don’t worry, William. I’m a good shot and can handle myself.” I wanted him, especially Randy (who didn’t look as reputable), to know that I could protect myself.
“Well, what with your husband missing for weeks now, I still worry about you. Just call on me if there’s ever any need.” He tipped his hat, and the two rode off into the trees on the other side of our yard.
“Mommy, what did those men want?” Michael came walking down from the porch with a curious glint in his eye.
“Oh, Honey, they were just looking for some lost sheep.”
“Well, there are no lost sheep around here, and they need to go far away to find them,” he said with a frown and the total assurance of a four-year-old that he was correct.
The rest of the day went by slowly, and the sky gradually clouded over. By nightfall, a light drizzle was falling, so we went to bed early. I was awakened in the middle of the night by a commotion near the barn. The horses were whinnying, and the two cows were making some noise. In between our animals’ sounds, I could hear something running, then the bleat of a sheep in distress, along with some snarling.
I jumped out of bed and grabbed my rifle and one of the flashlights. We’d been very careful about preserving the batteries, but the light would barely shine across to the barn after all this time. I quietly cracked the door and looked outside. It was still raining, and everything was misty. As I watched, I saw a sheep bolt into the center of the barnyard, closely pursued by a dark shadow. It let out a loud baa as it was pulled down. The shadow seemed to hover around the sheep’s throat as it kicked and struggled. I aimed carefully and turned the flashlight on after I’d gotten the rifle lined up.
It was a wolf. It jumped and then glared at me, its eyes shining a bright green in the light. The rifle cracked, shooting out a large ball of brilliant flame that blinded my right eye from the flash. I’d kept my left eye closed and immediately switched, closing my right and opening my left. I’d hit the wolf, and it was kicking in the mud beside the sheep. There was nothing I could do for either of them, and I didn’t want to go out there anyway. I was spooked and thought that there most likely would be more wolves nearby. I didn’t want to try shooting them in the rain with a bolt-action rifle that only held four cartridges and with only a dim flashlight, so I closed and barred the door.
Michael was standing right behind me with the butcher knife in his hand when I turned around.
“Baby, what are you doing out of bed?” I was shocked.
“I didn’t want anything to get you, Mommy. I got the knife just in case.”
“That’s my brave little boy! Now let me have the knife, and you will get back to bed. It was a wolf, and I killed it, so there’s nothing to worry about now.” He dutifully climbed back into his little bed, and I pulled up the covers under his chin.
“Mommy, can I have a rifle when I get big? I want to be able to kill wolves that scare me, too,” he said, his eyes large in the darkness.
“Don’t worry, Michael. You’ll be able to take care of yourself, and until you can, I’m here to protect you.”
“I love you, Mommy!” he said softly, already falling back to sleep.
I just wished I could relax so quickly. It took me a long time to go back to sleep. I spent a while reinforcing the wards around the homestead and hoping the other wolves would stay away.
It turned out to be a vain hope. I don’t know if the wolves were bold or my ward-making just wasn’t very good, but when I looked out in the morning, the sheep had been mostly eaten. The wolf’s carcass was still there, lips drawn back in a death mask, but the sheep was just a puddle of blood, some bone fragments, and a scattering of muddy wool. The other wolves must have sneaked in and devoured it while I slept. They had certainly been quiet about it, too. That made me feel very insecure.
Along about noon, William came riding back through the yard. He was dripping wet with the drizzle, and water ran off his hat and oilskin duster as he hunched over the pommel of his saddle. He came up to the porch as I stepped out.
“Good day, Elisabeth. I see you found one of my lost lambs. The other one is up in the trees over there about three hundred yards or so.” He seemed dispirited.
“It was wolves. I shot one, but that was the only one I saw.”
“Where’s the body now?” he asked, looking around.
“I’ve already skinned the thing. The skin is nailed up in the barn, and the remains are in the trash pile out to the left of the barn. It was a big, black male wolf, but it didn’t look like it was very old.” I was proud of how much I’d accomplished.
“There’s a fair-sized pack of them that’s been hanging around. I think I’m going to have to move the flock to the south pastures on the other side of town to get away from their range. That will mean I won’t be able to check on you very often,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it, William. I’m capable of taking care of myself,” I replied, feeling as if we’d just had the same conversation the day before.
“Well, that’s true. You taught that wolf not to come around, but I still worry...” he trailed off, shaking his head.
“That’s kind of you, but we’re OK. Now, you probably ought to get your flock moving if you’re going to be on the other side of town any time soon. It’s already noon.”
He rode off and paused to wave at me just before he entered the trees. I had a sinking feeling that he’d left me all alone for a moment. Then I realized that I was really thinking about Dec. I wished with all my heart that he’d come back soon.