James Hoch - Heckel Casey

Heckel looked down at the young boy and just nodded slightly as though he knew what he was going to say.

Walking back to camp, they chatted about fun things like baseball, school, drawing and reading. It was all cool stuff Bobby hadn't thought about in a long time. He cracked some fun jokes too. Bobby had never heard 'Knock, Knock jokes,' or 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' Heckel reported that they were classics. Bobby felt really good to laugh, and laugh hard, even though some of the jokes made him groan. After Heckel left him at Vonnie's campsite, Bobby sat down on a log. His thoughts were going ninety miles an hour. One thought braked in front of his mind- I…can…not…hurt my new friend. I don't care if I'm not a hero and Madeline can keep all her crummy gifts.

The day we left Flagstaff, summer decided to come out by midmorning, and preview what it had to offer for its upcoming season. Temperatures climbed their way to around eighty. Sela said she thought it was about mid-May. Someone else we talked with thought it was closer to the beginning of June. At any rate, it got hot and that meant we'd soon have a shortage of water. Everyone did begin rationing and mostly made sure the horses had enough water.

Fortunately, we made good time that first day out and managed to make it to Williams, Arizona. There we found water at Gonzalez Lake, not too far off Interstate 40. It had a lot of water from the winter snowmelt. We decided to stay an extra day to enjoy the lake.

Before we left, everyone worked hard to fill every conceivable container with water. People were really good about rationing and we made it to Kingman, Arizona, just in time to find an old watering spot called Camp Beale Springs. As soon as we made camp, we were met by a small group of about fifty people who had managed to survive. Initially, we were suspicious and guarded. We just didn't trust anyone and our first reaction was to suspect Madeline. After we talked and decided they were not tainted by any evil, we invited them to join us. They were eager to become a member of our merry band of would-be warriors. I sat down that evening with the new people and gave them the Cliff's Notes version of what had transpired. They were filled with questions, most of which Sela was happy to answer. She always knew when I was getting a little overwhelmed or even just whelmed.

We hadn't seen much of Jack and Vonnie over the past few days. Of course, we heard that Vonnie and Missy were taking really good care of Bobby. I hadn't seen Jackson since that morning when we talked.

We stayed three days in Kingman. Our next stop would be the Colorado River crossing into California. Now for some odd reason, I kept getting nervous every time I thought about entering California. What's waiting for us in California? What's Madeline got up her sleeve now? More snakes? Another bad storm? Demonic roadrunners?

"Just keep your guard up," I mumbled to myself. I looked down and Jerky was curling her body around my legs. "Yeah, I know. You feel it, too. Don't cha?" The cat looked up at me and meowed. I picked the big bundle of fur up and petted her. "Whew, you're getting heavy. With all those mice you've been eating, I bet your cholesterol numbers are high."

"Well, are you two having a little bonding session?" Sela asked.

"Yup, Jerky's my second-best girl and you're my first," I said, putting my free arm around Sela. Jerky leaned over and licked Sela's cheek.

"You guys ready for dinner?" Sela asked, petting the top of Jerky's head.

"Absolutely," I replied, setting Jerky down. The cat ran off most likely to find her own dinner. "Try a salad for a change," I yelled, prompting Sela to give me a quirky frown.

I stuck my head out of the tent early the next morning and Jerky slithered under my chin to get outside. "Okay, let's not be a pushy broad," I mumbled. Sela rolled over and grunted something unintelligible.

"Hmm, looks like a cloudy start to the day," I muttered.

Sela stretched and with a groggy voice asked I how slept.

"I had a couple of bad dreams," I answered. "But I was able to get back to sleep."

"Yeah, me too. I kept waking up and reliving some of them. Do you think its Madeline messing with us?"

"Maybe. Hadn't thought of that," I said patting her behind. "We better get going. We should make the crossing into California hopefully tomorrow or the next day."

Right after I said California, Sela sat up, grabbed me around the neck and squeezed hard. "Can we go another way?"

"What's wrong?" I asked, lifting her head to kiss her on the cheek.

"I just have a bad feeling. One of my dreams was…um…I should say a nightmare and something bad happened at the bridge."

Okay, now I was freaked out. Sela must have had the same dream I had. "We'll be fine. If there's trouble waiting there for us, we just have to keep our guard up and meet it without fear." She hugged me tighter. I made a mental note to have a small impromptu meeting with Jack and the rest of the leaders so that we were prepared. I also had an idea to implement as a precaution. "I'll go out and get the fire going. It seems a tad nippy out there."

Sela slid lower into the sleeping bag. "Give me ten more minutes."

"Absolutely," I said kissing her tenderly. "I'll let you know when the fire's going good."

Later that morning, as we were heading toward the Colorado River, I discovered that almost everyone's dreams were nightmares. People were on edge and, frankly, scared. As a precaution, we sent a few riders up ahead as scouts. They returned shortly after lunch and said the way was clear.

Sela put her rifle on her back. Looking around, I noticed most folks had a weapon of some kind poised and ready.

We stopped for the evening around five o'clock. People were still very cautious and on guard. You could cut the tension with a knife. After Sela and I set up our camp, I went looking for Jack.

"Hey, Heckel, what's up?" Jack asked with a big smile as he finished making a fire.

"You picked a good place to camp. Plenty of firewood around."

"Yeah, I thought it looked good too."

"Have you noticed how everyone is-?"

"Spooked?" he queried, throwing another bundle of wood on the fire.

As I watched him make his campfire, a brilliant thought formed in my mind and I got very excited.

"Jack, I have a great idea to help ease the tension and calm everyone."

"What?"

"You'll have to wait and see. Just be ready around seven after everyone's had a chance to eat dinner. Oh, this is going to be great," I said as I turned to run back to my campsite.

"Okay, I'll be ready," Jack yelled.

All through dinner, I had a big grin on my face. Sela kept asking me what I was thinking and planning, but I said she'd just have to wait for the big surprise. At one point, she jumped on top of me and pinned my arms to the ground, threatening to tickle me until I told her. We rolled around in the dirt, laughing and tickling each other.

Finally, I conceded and gave her one clue. "Do you remember MASH ?" I asked brushing the dirt off Sela's back.

"Of course, everyone remembers MASH . It was practically an institution unto itself. And most likely the best television program in history. The reruns were still going before the collapse. Why?"

"That's all I'm going to say."

After we cleaned up from dinner, we went over to check on the horses grazing nearby. I looked out over the field of campers and saw THE perfect spot. Looking around on the ground, I found some dead wood. I picked up a large bundle and started walking to the spot I picked out.

"Where are you going?" Sela asked.

"Follow me…and pick up some wood." Sela shrugged her shoulders and did as I asked.

On the way to the spot, I swung by Jack's camp and told him to pick up some wood and follow me.