The next week passed smoothly and without any trouble, either natural or supernatural. As I rode Hope, I kept thinking of the attack from the wolves and what had happened afterwards. My mind reeled from all the unexplained occurrences and question after question put up billboards in my brain.
As we progressed south, warmer weather thankfully tagged along. A few of the days were unseasonably hot and the nights offered cool, pleasant sleeping temps. There was an occasional shower, but no severe storms.
Along the way, we cautiously stopped at small towns to scavenge for anything useful, but we mostly looked for food. The pickings were slim. Jerky found us a rabbit again and we triumphed in her hunting skills. And of course, I started looking at my traveling companion in a new light. Was she indeed more than just a cat?
Sela and I avoided talking about the wolf attack. The last time she brought it up, I got a bit testy. Why? I don't exactly have an answer for that. I think the flood of emotions associated with the real answer or answers most likely caused my snippy retort.
Sela always rode ahead of me and kept the pace fairly steady and fast. Jerky traded off riding with both of us. Today, she was on Sela's shoulder. Sela slowed down and pointed to a creek off in the distance.
"Looks good to me. I could use a break too," I shouted. As we got closer to the water, Jerky jumped off Tempest and ran ahead. "Guess she needs a break as well."
After we dismounted and led the horses to the water, I said softly in my most apologetic tone, "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Sela asked looking down at me.
"For…um…snapping at you. That was rude of me."
"No need. I understand how you must feel," she said caressing my cheek.
"It's just that…well, I've never been a very religious person or thought much about the whole supernatural stuff." I could tell Sela chose her words carefully so as not to rile me up. I resisted the urge to get defensive.
"You have to be open to the possibility that for some reason…you've been…"
"What…the 'Chosen One'? That sounds like a cliche from a movie." I sniggered. "Something Kung Fu or Buddha."
Sela looked hurt. Damn, I did it again. Quickly, I said, "Oops…there I go again. Just punch me," I said offering my arm.
"Just put down your defenses and sarcasm, so we can talk calmly as well as intelligently."
"Okay," I replied, taking her hand and walking toward the stream. Jerky and the horses drank from the clean, fresh water. We stood under a tree that sported the fall look with colorful orange leaves with an occasional one cascading to the ground.
The slightly salty scent of Sela smelled wonderful. I wanted to pull her down into the tall grass and make love to her so I could avoid talking about the whole topic of my being some superhero destined to save humanity and the world from the forces of evil. Softly under my breath using my best Darth Vader voice, I muttered, "Luke, it is your destiny."
"I heard that," Sela said, laughing as she spun around and hugged me. "Yes, maybe it is your destiny."
Suddenly, a cold breeze slammed into me and made me shiver. Either it was destiny validating what Sela just said, or there was a cold front coming.
"Fine. Let's, for a moment, just say that I am some sort of superhero or religious icon poised to confront Madeline and her army of evil. What's the game plan? I mean look around…there's you, me, our two horses and my incredible knows-when-evil-approaches super sidekick, Jerky! It's not exactly an awesome menacing militia."
Sela nodded her head slowly to confirm my sarcasm-tinged statement. "Yes, but we have to put our trust in-"
"God?"
She looked me straight in the eyes, nodded her head a few times and I knew she was dead serious.
"That brings up an interesting question. Why did God let things get so out of hand in the first place? I mean, for Chrissake, so many people died and died horribly. For what?"
"Don't know, but I do know there has always been a battle between good and evil. Guess evil got an upper hand over the last decade or two."
"Do ya think?" I said with my best Steve Martin voice. The minute I said it, I realized my sarcasm went a little over the edge.
Sela socked me in the arm. Both horses looked up for a second and then went back to drinking.
"Ouch," I said. "Okay, I deserved that one."
The horses walked away from the stream and started to munch on the nearby grass.
"We can continue to discuss this more tonight at dinner. We should get in a few more miles before calling it quits for the night."
"You da boss," I said jokingly.
"And you just remember that," she said poking me in the arm and snickering.
Jerky decided this time she wanted to ride with me. The warm cat perched on my shoulder acted like a soft fleece scarf. The wind occasionally contained hints of something colder in the forecast. Our luck with warm weather was most likely going to change.
"I don't suppose you have a tent in that magic bag of yours?" I asked as we slowed the pace for a while.
"No, I've been looking for something like that every time we find a town."
"I think we are going to need one pretty soon. There's a change in the weather coming around the bend."
"Yeah, it's inevitable. There are a couple of towns that we are going to go through tomorrow. Hopefully, we can find a small backpacking tent or at least a tarp."
That night around the campfire, we talked about the events that had happened leading to what we called the collapse.
"Where were you the day that the president and his whole cabinet were murdered?" Sela asked as she threw another log on the fire.
"I nearly forgot about that tragedy. By then it was beginning to get hard to hear any reliable news broadcasting. Most of the television and radio stations weren't even broadcasting."
"That made things so difficult. The just not knowing what was happening. So, where were you?"
I poked a stick in the fire, trying to remember where I was. After a few minutes of stammering and umming, I said, "I think I was in Virginia, still trying to teach. As time went by during the fall after the horrible events in that spring and summer, fewer and fewer kids were showing up at school. Word of the president's death and all his cabinet got to the school. Several parents came and got their kids. People felt it was the final straw. That was the last day I went to teach."
"Seems to me that was when Madeline seized power."
"Yeah, she had been head of Homeland Security and declared martial law with her calling all the shots. No one objected and if they did, well, that was the last we heard of them."
Sela put several large logs on the fire, which cast a warm orange glow. Jerky was curled up in a tight ball on my backpack. "Speaking of shots, isn't that when the National Guard flipped out?"
Nodding my head vigorously, I recounted how the army was given orders to shoot during any rioting or looting. More of the American population dwindled. "That's when I hit the road and got out of the city and walked way around any towns that I passed."
We continued to describe how anarchy prevailed, and from that late fall when the collapse began, day-to-day living became a matter of survival.
Sela put her head on my lap and we changed the subject. We talked about loved ones…some that we lost and others that we wondered where they were.
As the night wore on, the fire began to burn down to coals. Sela was drifting in and out of sleep. "Are you ready to call it a night?" I asked softly.
"Yeah, I'm bushed. Put a couple of big logs on the fire and it will keep us warm for a while," she managed to say between yawns.
As I got up to reach for a log, I noticed a blue swirling light off in the distance in the middle of the road we had been following. The light was on the horizon and I could tell it was creeping slowly toward us.
"Sela, quick…get the horses packed."
"Why?" she asked, sitting up.
"We have a problem. Quickly, we've got to get going…now," I said nervously, pointing in the direction of the blue light. "That doesn't look like the northern lights."
She stood up, stared at the approaching preternatural light show and gasped. "Oh, shit."
We both scrambled to pack up our meager belongings. Sela readied the horses. I kicked dirt on the fire. Now the ominous lights picked up speed and were nearly upon us.
"Are you ready?" Sela yelled.
"Just about."
But it was too late. The encroaching blue lights began to circle us and I could see that the swirling luminescence was, in fact, flames. They reminded me of the flame one would see on a gas burner. We began to feel the heat. The horses skittered nervously. I held onto Hope's reins. Sela was already mounted on Tempest.
"Come on. We can make a run for it," she cried.
"No. Madeline and I are going to have it out right here and now," I yelled. The searing circle tightened. A thought suddenly edged its way into my thinking. What if this is all an illusion? She's just trying to scare me. She's using fear to try to break me. I bet Madeline isn't even here. As I stared into the bright-blue dancing flames, my courage strengthened. I could feel my insides seething, turning, and twisting.
Sela shouted again that we should make a run through the flames. As she spun around, trying to keep Tempest from bolting, both she and the horse stared at me.
Softly, she said, "Heckel, what's wrong?"
I went up to Tempest, took hold of his bridal, and whispered to Sela, "Don't worry." She looked down at me with eyes laden with concern, but with a confident loving smile. With my head held high and a huge assertive grin, I marched us straight toward the Madeline-infused inferno.
The flames heightened and swirled faster as if someone were turning up the knob on a gas oven. The heat we felt originally wasn't there. We didn't feel anything. The hairs on my neck bristled. I could feel that power inside me build to an even greater fevered pitch. At one point, I looked around me and could see what appeared to be a dome. A force field? Was that coming from me? I stifled a small grin and kept up my defiant appearance.
As we passed through the light and made it out into a clearing, I turned to see the menacing circle of fire morph into a ring of the childlike Madeline avatars. A hundred identical little girls in dirty white nightgowns stood staring at us with a mocking grin.
"Now that's pretty creepy," Sela said tentatively.
"She's not really here. It's all a ploy or…or…chimera. She's trying to scare us."
"Well, she's doing a pretty good job for me. What the hell is a chimera?" she queried.
"Basically, it's something that is just an illusion," I replied staring at the disturbing, evil-looking tableau.
Still holding onto Tempest's reins, I took a few steps forward to confront the illusion.
"Madeline, if you want to talk to me or…whatever, you do it face to face with me. I'm not afraid of you. Stop sending your annoying storms, demon dogs, and silly blue light shows. And, for the love of God, we are really getting tired of these eerie, freaky little girls, who look like they belong in a John Carpenter film or something. They're a nuisance," I yelled and waved my hand at the circle of demon images.
With a flash of bright light, the Madeline apparitions dissipated as if someone extinguished a fire with a bucket of water.
Sela gasped and then clapped her hands in appreciation. "You did it…again!"
With a grin that was part humility and part pride, I muttered, "Hmm…I guess I did."
"Now do you believe what I've been saying?" Sela said, dismounting Tempest.
Apprehensively, like a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, I nodded my head slowly and replied, "Yes."
She kissed me and hugged me.
Softly in her ear, I asked, "Now what?"
Sela remained silent for a long time, holding me tighter and tighter. "I don't know, but for now, we just keep going."
We decided that we would stay in the campsite that we were already in. I had a gut feeling that Madeline's threats were over for the night. As Sela got out our blankets, I started the fire again. It didn't take us long to fall asleep. The last image I had before drifting off was of one little girl, Madeline, in a dirty white nightgown. The evil demon child winked at me.
The next morning was chilly when we woke up. A few patches of frost dotted the field in low-lying areas.
"Brrr. I'm freezing," I said snuggling closer to Sela.
"Me too. We've got to find better sleeping bags, a tent, or lodging in deserted places," Sela said, pressing her body closer to mine. The closeness made my insides do flip-flops, and I felt like I was going to start hyperventilating.
After my breath returned to normal, I whispered, "Sela, you make me feel so…I…um…my feelings for you are…well…"
She smiled at me with the warmest expression I'd even seen and said, "Me, too." She leaned forward and kissed me for the longest time.
Our lovemaking kept us warm until the sun finally lifted over the tree line. As we rested, enjoying the afterglow and snuggling, Sela asked, "Since old man winter is rapidly approaching, do you think we should spend the season down in Texas? Perhaps near the coast?"
Standing up and reaching for Sela's hand, I answered, "That sounds good to me. I don't think we could make it to Arizona before we are knee-deep in snow somewhere in…um…New Mexico. Texas will be good. How long do you think it will take?"
"We are almost to the Oklahoma border. We should get there today. After that, maybe a week or so."
Breakfast was a hodgepodge of food we had found over the last several days. The biggest score was a box of unopened strawberry Pop-Tarts. We each had one along with a few Slim Jims that we found in a burned-out convenience store.
"Our food supply is getting too low. Hopefully, we'll find something today along the way," Sela said, staring into the fire.
"I gotta good feeling we will."
"Or maybe Jerky, the world's best hunter, will find us another rabbit," Sela said, petting the cat.
After washing up in the cold stream and watering the horses, we loaded everything up and rode off. The morning was slightly overcast but still unseasonably warm. I wondered if Madeline was affecting the weather in any way. No, she'd probably make it really cold and miserable. Maybe we were catching a break in the weather from the good side of the battle. Maybe it was my guardian angel? Hmm, if Madeline has demons backing her, do we good guys have…angels? Interesting.
We were following I-35 for most of the morning. Around noon, we stopped and looked south at a sign that at one time thanked people for visiting Kansas.
"See that roadblock up ahead?" Sela asked as she handed me her binoculars.
Focusing the expensive Brunton binos, I could see a large cinder-block building next to the interstate road. A heavy gate was partially blocking the lanes.
"What's that?" I asked squinting into the lens.
"Don't you remember? Madeline tried to close all the borders to each state. It was a disaster and didn't last long. Just another ploy purposely set up to cause more anarchy and deaths. People were furious and killed most of the poor guards stationed at the roadblocks."
"Oh yeah," I answered. "That was soon after she declared martial law and took over."
"Do you see anyone?" Sela asked.
"Nah. No one."
We rode in slowly and passed the guard station. A welcome sign on the Oklahoma side was shot to pieces. All that remained was homa…elco. "I could never understand why people had to shoot at road signs."
Sela shrugged and laughed as she picked up the pace and rode down I-35. A roadside mileage sign listing the upcoming towns had all the miles shot out. Braman was the first town, followed by Blackwell. When I saw that town's name, I shivered. "We are not stopping in Blackwell," I yelled over at Sela.
"Agreed. We'll stop in Braman and see if we can find anything. However, it's probably pretty small."
We rode into town and small was an understatement. Off to the right was the official sign that was not shot up; it indicated the town's population was a whopping 476 residents.
"It's looking a bit bleak here. I doubt we'll find anything," I said.
"Not necessarily. I've had good luck finding stuff in these little burgs. People usually passed them up, thinking the same thing you did. Come on. There's a gas station and a couple of shops over here," Sela said as she crossed the street. We tied the horses up. I remained as lookout. Jerky followed Sela into the convenience store. About fifteen minutes later, Sela came out with an armful of food.
"Found these in a metal cupboard in the back so the mice didn't get to them," Sela stuffed the food in her pack.
"Anything good? My stomach is growling something fierce," I asked.
"Macaroni and cheese. We'll have a feast tonight."
She finished packing the food up and said that she wanted to check a few of the houses close by.
"Don't be too long…and be careful," I shouted, shifting the rifle in my hand.
She raised her Glock, shook it lightly, and went into the first house.
I led both horses over to a small patch of grass. Jerky came running out from behind the gas station. No mouse this time. She curled around my leg and looked up at me.
"Hungry?" I asked, bending to pet the cat on the head. Looking up, I saw Sela walking toward me with two bundles in her arms.
"Wahoo! Big score. I found a small backpacking tent in that house over there and a down sleeping bag in that one over there. Hopefully, we can connect it to the one we already have."
"Great luck," I said, helping her to tie the sleeping bag to Hope's saddle.
We rode for a few more hours. High wispy clouds filled the sky and a light breeze was at our backs. Sela yelled that she was looking for a place to camp that had a water source. Another hour passed before we spotted a large stream going under the interstate. We rode the horses a short distance past the bridge, upstream. There was a small clearing perfect to camp at. After getting off the saddles and bags, Sela led both horses to the water. I went searching for wood.
As Sela went about preparing dinner, I struggled with setting up the tent. "Seems we're missing a few poles," I declared holding up one end of the tent.
"Improvise," Sela said, stirring the boiling macaroni.
I dropped the end of the tent and went looking for a branch to act as a pole. There were several scrawny bushes near the stream and a few old cottonwoods. As I approached the tree, I saw the remains of a skeleton propped up next to the trunk. Regardless of the many dead people I've seen, I have never gotten used to the sight. Giving the remains a wide berth, I walked around to the other side of the tree in search of something to use. I looked up and saw a branch that would work nicely. Taking out the big bowie knife I had, I sliced off the branch. As I turned to walk back to camp, I heard a voice mumble something. A cold shiver raced up my spine. Taking a few steps around the tree, I glanced down at the skeleton.
"Death awaits you," it mouthed, the slack jaw moving up and down slowly. Remnants of clothes hung loosely on its frame. A swirl of wind made the rags flutter.
Suddenly my feet felt as if the roots of the old cottonwood had grabbed them.
"Looks like it already got you," I shouted at the bones.
"Madeline will take you. She always does," the skeleton said with a grating voice.
Sela came running up. "What's wrong? Who are you talking to?"
I pointed at the rotting skeleton. Slowly, the head turned. Far back in the deep eye sockets a red light gradually radiated. It reminded me of those cheesy Halloween decorations one would find in the aisles of Walgreens.
"Madeline will feast on your entrails, Sela, and the child within you," the creature intoned.
Sela ran up to the skeleton and kicked the bones, scattering them around the tree. The head landed in front of me. Its jaw now moved up and down rapidly and a horrifying, high-pitched cackle came out. With all my strength, I raised my knee and smashed my boot into the head, silencing the demonic messenger.
Standing there with probably the dumbest look on my face, I stared at Sela. "Well?"
"Well, what?" she said nervously.
"Are you pregnant?" I asked, walking toward her.
"Not that I know of."
"Why would that…thing…say that?"
"Heckel, think about it. Would you believe anything a skeleton propped up next to a tree said to you?"
"Putting it that way, I guess you have a point," I said with a slight laugh.
We both stood there for a while staring at the bones strewn around the tree. "Creepy," I muttered.
Sela gasped. "The macaroni." She ran, grabbed a shirt and pulled the black pot off the fire. The last of the water was nearly boiled out. She quickly stirred the noodles.
"Whew, that was a close call," she said, opening the cheese packet to stir in.
As I sat down next to her, I couldn't help but reflect on what the skeleton had said. Was it lying or was Sela really pregnant? Maybe she's not telling me because she knows I wouldn't put her in the middle of some epic battle to save humanity if she was with child.
"Hungry?" Sela asked, handing me a big bowl of gooey mac and cheese.
Her smile had a way of bringing me back to reality. "Yes, thank you," I replied, taking the food. "Manna from heaven. It looks great." My stomach did flip-flops. Either it was from being hungry or wondering if I was going to be a father.
"Hmm, maybe it is a gift," she said, taking a big forkful of macaroni.
That night, I didn't sleep. Every sound put me on edge and my imagination reeled with fear. Madeline was getting to me. Was I going to be a father? Gulp.