He turned and stared at her open mouthed, realizing she was defusing the moment with humor. “As well it should.” He cleared his throat then turned to Dr. Punch. “Let’s get you caught up, shall we?”
Carol waved her toward the counter and Andre laid out the files he felt were most pertinent. “Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”
Lana drove through the night and slowed the RV as they entered the Santa Fe National Forest. She yawned and stretched her neck as the headlights pierced the gloom cast from the trees overhanging the road, blocking the early morning sunlight. “We are officially in the woods,” she stated blandly.
Simon nodded as his eyes scanned the carved wooden signs. “Look for a campground. One made for RVs.”
“There’s a difference?”
Simon nodded. “Believe it or not, I went camping a time or two when I was a kid.” He shot her a sad smile. “I had a cousin that was about my age. His parents seemed almost rich compared to my family.”
“They used to take you along?”
He nodded slowly, his mind replaying scenes from his youth. “They had this rundown old Winnebago, but to me? It was a mansion on wheels.” He turned and gave her an excited smile. “I mean, come on. How many cars have a bathroom inside?” He chuckled as he sat back and watched the trees creep by.
“So? What happened?”
He gave her a soft smile. “We used to go every summer. At least, until I turned thirteen.” He sighed heavily and continued to stare out the window. “I fell in with a bad group of guys. One of them gave me a switchblade.” He shrugged slightly. “I thought it was the coolest thing.”
“Let me guess, they caught you with it and decided you were a bad influence.”
He shook his head. “No.” He inhaled deeply and blew it out slowly. “We went up to the mountains. Not unlike this….”
“And?”
“And we ran into another group of kids. They were a bit older.” His voice softened and he had a far away look in his eyes. “They started up, bullying my cousin.”
“And you pulled the knife to defend him.”
Simon nodded. “They beat the dogshit out of me, took the knife.” He seemed to cringe as the memories surfaced. “And…they cut Geoff. Bad.”
“Then what?”
Simon shrugged. “My aunt and uncle blamed me. Said if I hadn’t brought it, Geoff wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” He fell back in his seat and sighed. “I never hung out with them again.” He scoffed and shook his head. “Hell, I never saw them again.”
“Well, now you have guns,” Lana stated flatly. “Let somebody try to bully us now and you can—”
Her words were cut off as her eyes spotted the road block. She slammed on the brakes and slid the heavy RV to a stop. “What the…” Simon’s voice trailed off.
Lana turned the wheel slightly to light up the hand written sign by the side of the road block. “‘Honk twice and we’ll come to you’?” She glanced to Simon, who gave her a dumbfounded look. “What do we do?”
Simon squinted as he read the sign. He leaned across the cabin and pressed the horn button twice. “We see who comes to the gate.”
“And if nobody comes?”
He shrugged again. “We clear the road block and travel on.”
Lana swallowed hard. “And what if somebody comes that we’d rather not meet?”
Simon gave her a sinister smile. “Like you said, now we have guns.”
She nodded slowly. “So could they.”
Simon shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out either way.”
6
Roger held the door for Hatcher and the pair slipped into the main lobby of the retirement home. Hatcher pushed open the door to his office and fell into his chair.
“How much sleep did you get?” Vicky asked in a condescending tone.
“Not enough,” Hatcher groaned as he reached for the thermos again. “But I caught an hour or so this morning.”
“Mm-hmm.” Vicky sat gently in the chair opposite him. “I take it Simon didn’t return?”
Hatcher slowly shook his head as he poured another cup. “I still want people on guard while we are working that housing addition.” He took a long pull from the coffee and sat back, his eyes focusing on her. “I don’t trust snakes.”
“Nobody trusts him, Danny. But I also don’t think that we should settle on the very first place we locate that meets most of your criteria, either.”
Hatcher sighed as he stared at her. “That place is damned near perfect.” He rocked slowly as he spoke. “It has a solid wall that we can extend to form a perimeter. The houses are well built and fairly new. Will said that converting them over shouldn’t be a problem, and we can have water in a matter of days.”
She lowered her eyes and slowly shook her head. “And what about this place?”
“What of it?” he set the coffee down and sat forward, his face stern. “We’re not cutting the folks off who want to stay.”
“I meant—”
“I know what you meant, Vic.” He stood up and tried to mask his frustration. “Look, the place is large enough that every family here could have their own space and there’d still be room for expansion.” He turned and raised a brow at her. “People can have more privacy, room to grow.”
She nodded and came to her feet. “I’m just saying that we don’t need to move so fast. We’ve barely gotten used to this place and now—”
“This place nearly burned to the ground in a single attack.” He kept his voice low and even. “At least there, if we’re attacked, they have nearly a hundred houses to burn before we’re all homeless. Here, it’s one building.” He leaned across his desk and tried to give her an understanding look. “We nearly lost everything.”
“But we didn’t.” Her face
