ER/Stand Crossover




Lucy watched from the loft on the second floor as the inhabitants of the house gathered in the vast living room below. It was just wrong, she decided. They shouldn't be searching for Kerry, that she was positive of. They should be. preparing.

She shook her head at the thought. She had been thinking that all day, with no real understanding why. It had to do with Flagg, that she knew. The whole business with Flagg wasn't over. Lucy had always thought it lucky that she, like Carter and Randi, didn't generally have dreams about Flagg. Even at the height of the dream episode, in late July, her dreams had usually revolved around the old woman. In retrospect, she supposed, it was suddenly clear that a lot of her companions foul and often bizarre behavior was based on their being tortured in their sleep. Doug had admitted to her that he had been drinking so heavily in an attempt to disrupt the dream cycle. It was obvious despite the lack of an admission, that Kerry had been disturbed by it. Less noticeable but still evident was how Luka had always seemed so tired and despondent. He had the capacity to be happy, she had seen it, but early in the summer, she would have doubted it.

Carter had never been terribly troubled, and neither had Randi. Jeanie was a tougher call as she had always been a bit standoffish. Dave seemed much like Carter, in respect to the dreams anyway. He'd had his share of nightmares but he had shrugged them off. That is interesting, she realized as she watched her companions debate whether another search would be effective, everyone who really suffered was over thirty. She didn't have a lot of religion but she understood the idea that people come into the world innocent and pure and she wondered just what the age range was in Boulder. She suspected that there was a statistically significant proportion of younger people there.

That was really not important, she told herself. The important thing is that something is going to happen. She wasn't sure what, but it couldn't be good .She watched in amusement as Dave and Doug sent everyone off on another far flung search. It was silly. Kerry couldn't have gotten far. More importantly she wouldn't have gone very far. Not if there was something bad about to go down. Kerry was strangely conscientious in those sorts of situations.

Besides, Lucy thought suddenly, Kerry wasn't in any danger, this time around. Neither was Randi. The black power that had resided in the west had been defeated. That meant the rules of decency were in full force. The rules of decency dictated that pregnant women were off limits. Taboo even. It wasn 't in the Bible, but then, a lot of rules weren't. Taris was off limits too. That certainly wasn't in the Bible but she knew somehow that she was right.

Lucy frowned, thinking back to her time in Sunday school and what little she had learned. God seemed to demand sacrifices quite a bit. Even children. However, they always seemed to be willing sacrifices. She wondered about that. It seemed as though all of the deaths in early summer opened the gate for Flagg to gain power. Was it possible, she thought as she walked down the stairs and into the now empty living room, that it would take a death to send Flagg on his way? A willing sacrifice to close the gate that the plague had opened. It was an interesting thought, and she wondered if that was what had Kerry running off into the winter snow. Yet somehow Lucy didn't see Kerry sacrificing herself. Not with her being pregnant. It meant too much to her. At the same time, Lucy couldn't see Kerry relinquishing the role to any of them either.

So what could that mean? Lucy wondered. Kerry was motivated by rules. The rules said that someone had to die and probably unpleasantly in order for Flagg to leave. The rules were not precise about exactly who had to die. Kerry was devious enough to think that Flagg could be tricked into being his own victim. The problem, as Lucy saw it, was that no one liked to be tricked. The sacrifice had to be real. It had to matter. Most importantly it had to be voluntary. So a trick wouldn't work.

She didn't know what to do. It was obvious that she had been left behind. She wondered if they had even remembered that she was there. While she wasn' t quite cast aside the way Kerry had been, she was often left alone under the theory that she was too upset to handle anything. Doug didn't usually go along with that but he was understandably worried and probably forgot her. He wasn't really a man filled with consideration most of the time any way and she knew he worried about even touching her, let alone making love. Yet, that was exactly what she wanted. She knew it was partly a reaction to the close quarters, that everyone else was off in their rooms attempting to procreate and she was alone. Part of it was the simple instinctive urge to have a baby, a child of her own. She wondered, really wondered, what the pregnancy rate was in Boulder. Lots of people in a landscape that was sadly empty. with no television over a long winter. It seemed likely that Randi and Kerry's kids would be joining a very large kindergarten class six years in the future.

Most importantly though, she wanted to matter to someone. She knew she mattered to Doug, she even knew that he was more than a little interested in her, but something held him back. The problem was that the thing holding him back was a dead woman he had never really made peace with or ever put to rest. Carol, what Lucy knew of her, had been warm and caring and most importantly forgiving to a fault. Lucy doubted that Carol would have enjoyed watching Doug's spiral downward as he punished himself for her death.

Maybe I'm just not being fair, she thought as she started putting on her winter jacket and gloves. It hasn't been that long since Carol died. Not really. It was less than six months since the plague. Maybe I'm expecting too much. He's still grieving for her and maybe I should let nature take its course. It was safe to say that he didn't sleep with Kerry Weaver out of some grand love that he felt for the woman. Lucy hadn't asked, but it was safe to assume that particular event had been attended by Doug, Kerry, Doug' s friend Jack Daniels, and Kerry's pal Glen Fiddich.

On the other hand, if she waited, they would be in Boulder in four or so months and Doug was a dog about women. All right, she thought, I have to be more forward. Obviously the age old plan of asking someone out wasn't going to work.

She shook off her thoughts. As fun as it was to plot ways to attract Doug, it was hardly the most pressing issue she was facing. OK, she told herself, what am I going to do? Jeanie or Luka had evidently taken Taris. It had to be; otherwise the little girl would be off chattering somewhere. That meant she didn't need to stick around. So, she decided, lets get our winter jacket and start looking for Kerry.

Once dressed for the occasion, she walked out onto the porch and considered her next move. The others had taken the big vehicles although there were several snowmobiles that they had scavenged out in the garage. She wondered if they realized that while Kerry had real problems with motorcycles, a snowmobile was configured much differently. The older woman could have dumped the truck and used one. For that matter, Lucy thought suddenly, instead of being bound by inertia to the Carter family hunting lodge we could have used the snowmobiles to head to Boulder. Once they had made the initial decision to stay, no one had ever seemed to give the idea of travel in winter another thought. She put that idea out of her head and strapped on a pair of snowshoes.

Her thought was that while Kerry had gone off in the truck, it was extremely unlikely that Kerry had done much more than head into town. If she had gone into town, it was for supplies and likely just a diversionary tactic. Lucy wondered if the truck was parked in some townie's garage. It certainly wasn't parked on the street or along any of the passable roads. There had been faint tracks that led into town, but they had disappeared as more and more snow fell. Besides, she wasn't going to follow the others into town. She was going to check out the many outbuildings that littered the Carter compound. It seemed like a good idea and she knew they hadn't checked all of the buildings. It was safe to assume that no one had been out to all the buildings since the plague.

That was her plan, to check the grounds. It was snowing but not so hard that she felt it was dangerous. Besides, she had thought ahead. The night before she had stashed a packed rucksack out on the porch. It was filled mostly with food, but she had also thought to bring a gun, a Colt .45 that she'd stolen from Carter. She didn't feel bad about it. He hadn't missed it and she really didn't think he'd need it. She only wanted it because it made her feel safer. Which was silly really, since there were no people around and Flagg wasn't likely to find a gun much of a problem.

Still, when she strapped the gun belt on, she felt emboldened. She unfurled the small geological map she had found that showed every structure in the valley along with elevations and streams. By using the mansion as an orientation point she was certain that she could cover the whole area. At the very least she would be making sure that Kerry wasn't on the grounds.

The caretaker's house and garage were empty. So were the powerhouse and the horse barn. That wasn't a shock. Those buildings were close to the house and she didn't think Kerry would have used them for whatever she had planned. That something was planned seemed clear and the more Lucy trekked in the snow, the more she knew she was right. Not only was Kerry off plotting, so was Flagg. Something was going to happen.

Despite that feeling though, she was enjoying the walk. It was cold, yes, but not bitterly so and the snow was falling in a gentle blanket across the thick pine forest. The rock quarry was iced over and the oddly regular blocks cut into the side gave the nature scene a strange sort of symmetry. It's like humanity, she thought as she stood for a moment watching the landscape. Humanity verses nature. We can put our mark on the land a lot better than any other species but we're just like everyone else when it comes to disease. In the end, our great works end up covered in the same snow as the trees.

Come on Lucy, she told herself as she stepped away from the idyllic scene, this isn't just an opportunity to hike around the compound. She glanced at her map. There had been several small houses and farm buildings within the boundary of the Carters land before it was fenced in with the stone wall. Some of the residences were torn down but there were several that hadn't. There were even two small working farms, or at least there had been, on the property. The food raised was what the Carter family consumed during their summer long visits, according to Carter. Lucy wondered sometimes if he even knew how rich he was.

One of the farm sites was toward the edge of the valley, next to one of the rising peaks. The farmer, Carter had said, had built a fairly large mining camp complete with shafts into the mountain for the purpose of obtaining gold. Once his grandfather had discovered the plan, he said with a laugh, the fellow was quickly moved out and real miners sent in who pointed out that while the fellow had dug himself some pretty good shafts, there was absolutely no gold to be found. Lucy found the whole story rather sad, but it wasn't her place to judge. The important point was that there were buildings in the area, buildings that could conceal.

The small farmhouse was completely boarded up, so she decided to skip it until last. It looked dusty and untouched and she didn't think Kerry had the patience to break into a place and then neatly and efficiently make it look like no one had been there. She did have the devious nature though, which was why Lucy intended to look. It wasn't her highest priority. That was looking for the place that Kerry had hidden the truck, and Lucy bet that the small barn was its hiding place. The snow in front of the doors had faint indentations, as if something had tracked through it, but then covered by falling snow.

She opened the door and looked. It was no surprise to see the red truck parked amidst the farm tools and hay. Now, she thought, what do I do? And why are there so many gas cans in the truck bed?

A twig snapped behind her, and Lucy spun around, pulling her gun out as she did. Out of utter terror, she fired wildly, dropping the gun as the force of the explosion shook her hand. The bullet slammed high into the barn ceiling and a small litter of hay and dust poured down. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at Kerry Weaver, who was frowning at her and pointing the exact same sort of gun at her. Kerry looked her over, not seeming to be surprised to see her, but looking rather annoyed just the same. " If you're going to carry a gun, you should pick something you can handle."



Part 58
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