by Sally Six
They stopped two miles down the road for a snack and a bit of a rest for the younger children. Crackers, cheese whiz, dried fruit and fruit rollups with water was a good treat. Kurt had jerky and so did Brian, Beulah and Barb along with the dried fruit. Lysbeth tried a piece of the jerky. It was the beefsteak not as hard as the regular jerky. She didn’t think it was half bad. Rested and refreshed, they got back on the highway and another mile found them going through Spalding. Well you didn’t want to blink as all you could see was about five homes.
They were still on State Highway 95 and going across the Clearwater River Bridge. The homes on the banks of the river to the left looked fine from the bridge. They could see a figure outside at one of the homes feeding a horse or two in the back corrals. Brian hoped that going this way would work out as it was the easiest on the children. The back way would have meant a lot of uphill riding. He hoped they made the right choice. After all, they would get plenty of uphill riding when they came to Anatone Grade. It was a 2,000 foot or better winding road up the hillsides with a slight incline after that to the mountains where his grandparents lived. It’s around twelve miles into Lewiston now and he felt like holding his breath. It was so close now to getting to their destination yet so far. By car they would be only about an hour and twenty minutes away. If all goes well (cross your fingers), they should be home tonight.
After they crossed the bridge and were down the highway a bit, they met others on bikes, horses and once in a while an old car or truck. The area had a snoot full of people that refurbished the old cars from model T’s all the way to the 1960’s. A few were headed into town and a few were coming out. The folks riding had sacks and bags hung on their bikes or horses. That was a good sign. Someone was doing a business of some kind and you couldn’t do that if the place had gone to Hades in a hand basket.
They finally got to a couple of miles out of Lewiston and on the right was the campground and the casino. Passed that was a gas station. Well there was a gas station is right. It no longer existed and neither did the casino. There wasn’t anything left but the foundations and scattered debris. The campground had people in it and guards could be seen stationed at different places. In fact it was pretty darn full with the cars scattered here and there. Brian wondered if some of them were the people who found themselves stranded far from home, had to be. There were seven campers and one RV type that you drive. It was huge in fact. One of those home away from home type. It must have been there when this all hit. Another was a fifth wheel and the rest were pickup campers. They weren’t in the normal spaces so the pickup campers had to have been pushed into the campground. There were tents and blue tarps being used as tents and cover. Water wasn’t a problem for the campers as right across the highway was the Clearwater River.
On they all pedaled until they saw the Potlatch Wood Mill. The wood mill and processing plant came into view as they came around the right hand turn. It was strange to not see steam coming out of the great chimneys. There was hardly any odor at all that would just be coming from the huge waste lagoons beside the plant. All wasn’t dandy here. Oh yes bike traffic and horses all right, but here and there on the great hillsides was smoke from burned and burning businesses and homes. Looked like things had gotten out of control not long ago. All Brian and everyone else could do is pray they could get to the other side of town and the river. All of a sudden Kurt called a halt.
“Beulah and Brian come up here. We need to talk.”
They pulled over to the side of the road and Barb and Lysbeth help hand out drinks of water from the canteens and have the kids relax for a while. Then they joined the other three to see what was going on. Brian had gotten Karen out of her seat and she had gone to sit on the road bank with the other children. Beulah was talking and Brian cut in once in a while. It sounded like they were trying to figure out the best way to get where they wanted to go.
“Ok,” Kurt was saying. “So you think it would be best to go around to the right and then take the Red Wolf Bridge across the Snake River and into Clarkston Washington rather than to go into Lewiston at all?”
Beulah was giving her opinion and thought it would be best to go that route. Brian was also doing some thinking as he talked.
“Let’s think this out a bit more. We have several routes we can take. Some are better than others and that is the good part. The only other safest route that I can think of is to continue on State Route 95 and take the bridge up ahead over onto the Lewiston bypass, down Snake River Avenue and across the new bridge and then south into Asotin. That way we skirt Lewiston the whole time and don’t really have to go through a big part of any town.”
Brian stopped talking and looked at Kurt, his mom, Barb and Lysbeth waiting to hear what they thought.
Barb looked down the highway. She really didn’t know this area. “I don’t know these towns or anything else about this area. I’ve never been up here before so I will go along with what you three come to think is the best way to go.”
“Same here,” said Lysbeth. “I have never set foot in northern Idaho before. Whatever way you three think best, I’ll go along with.”
Kurt had lived up here before. He had worked up here for a construction company for many years before moving further south.
“Man either way could be good or bad. Let’s see. Far less people going around and then over Red Wolf, but then we have to ride through a lot of Clarkston. But then we have about the opposite going by way of the bypass then riding down Snake River Ave. What do you say we ride to where we can go either way and look and see how things are? We can see the bypass from there.”
Beulah turned toward the children. “Ok kids time to go again.”
Brian loaded Karen back on the bike, strapped her in and they all got back on the road. In four more miles they found themselves at the turn off. They stopped at the turn off and looked off across the bridge which was only about one eighth of a mile away. Then on to the bypass or what they could see before the levees made it so you couldn’t see any more of the road. Everything seemed pretty quiet, but it felt like something just wasn’t right, at least to Brian. It was a shame to because that really would have been the best way. Kurt stood there a few more moments and the kids were starting to get antsy when up from under the bridge popped a man with a rifle. He quickly brought it to his shoulder and fired. Brian heard the bullet whiz past his face and Barb who was standing right behind him gave a grunt and fell with her bike to the ground.
“BARBS HIT!” He yelled. But the others had heard what happened and who the bullet had hit. Kurt yelled, “Everyone down. That wasn’t easy for Brian as little Karen was still strapped in on the back of the bike. Beulah and Lysbeth had gone to Barb and crouched over her. They heard another shot and the bullet whiz over their heads. The guy whoever he was, was yelling and screaming and they couldn’t understand a thing he was saying. Other people that had been on the road had scattered as fast as they could.
Kurt was grumbling. “That’s enough of that. He pulled his 45 out of its holster and took aim and put a bullet in the guy’s chest. Then Kurt’s pistol sounded again and this time they saw a red mark appear in the guy’s forehead. The shooter fell backwards into the road.
Kurt scrambled over to where the others were to see how Barb was. Beulah and Lysbeth had pulled her away from half under her bike and were turning her over to see where she had been hit. The bullet had grazed her right cheek and then taken a chunk out of her right ear. It was bleeding like crazy, but it wasn’t a killing wound, but infection could do that with this one. Kurt was pulling his first aid kit from his backpack and then pulling things out of it to treat Barb with. She sure would have a nice long scar to tell her grandchildren about some day. Beulah had a handkerchief to Barb’s face that she Beulah had tied around her neck.
Barb was coming to. “OH man that hurts. What happened anyway?”
Beulah was still trying to get the bleeding to stop. “You’ve been shot Barb. Just lay here while we get you bandaged up,
alright.”
“Well I’m certainly not going anywhere at the moment.” Barb let out a yelp as Beulah dabbed the handkerchief to her face again.
Kurt had some sterile strips to try and pull the edges of Barbs graze together so the scar wouldn’t be so wide. There wasn’t much they could do about her ear but try to bandage it as best they could.
After Barb was all bandaged, Kurt gave her some pain reliever. They waited about 30 minutes until it started to kick in to be on their way again. They made the turn west onto Down River Road for one and three-quarter’s miles until it became Wawawai River Road for a touch over two miles and then a left onto Red Wolf Bridge. After Red Wolf Bridge, they crossed State Highway 12, then down 15th street through kind of the backside of Clarkston, Washington. It ran slightly up hill and the going got a little slower. They went through a housing area. A few people were out of their houses tending gardens in their front and backyards, but it sure seemed more deserted than usual. Like only half the people still lived here. Soon they were to their turn off to the left onto State Highway 128 which would take them down to the river and then a turn south to Asotin on Riverside Drive.
Even Beulah felt some excitement as they made the turn towards Asotin. Another five miles and they could make the turn up to Anatone on State Highway 129 and onto Anatone Grade. As they were going down Riverside Road, they were now about three quarters of the way towards Asotin. Brian looked over to one of the pull offs for the hiking/ bike path and saw Uncle Andrews and Uncle Aaron’s vehicles.
“Look Mom, Uncle Andrew’s and Aaron’s cars. I just know those are theirs.”
“Are you sure Brian?”
“I sure am Mom. I helped them work on them last summer when I stayed at Grandpas. I would know those anywhere.”
Fifteen minutes later they were at the turn off in Asotin. The little town of Asotin also was quiet, but these days with no cars and trucks running on the road everywhere seemed quiet and unreal. For now quiet meant no gunfire.
Brian didn’t think the full brunt of the problem had hit people yet. They were still waiting for the electric to come back on and food to be trucked in. He knew that most people must be about out of food or already were by this time. They would start to get desperate very soon and begin to turn on their neighbors. Their timing for travel had been pretty much just right. They had hit some rough spots, but mostly they had been able to get where they were going. Another two weeks from now may have found a whole different story.
Barb would groan once in a while. This couldn’t be easy on her. She felt like her face and ear were on fire and that’s with the pain reliever helping. Three hours later they were on the last curve at the top of the Grade. They had decided to stop along the way and have lunch. Brian discovered that the vehicle they ate lunch beside was in fact belonging to his Uncle Titus. When he told his mom who the truck belonged too, she could hardly believe that her brother Titus hadn’t made it to their parents before things went to heck and gone. Brian looked the truck over and found there wasn’t anything left behind in it. If he knew Uncle Titus, there must be stuff buried around here somewhere. There was no way he could carry what he wanted to bring on his back and leaving it sitting in his truck would have been daring someone to break into it.
Beulah was still waiting to hear why Kurt was behind them. He had been a Godsend and so she told him so.
“Kurt we’re still waiting to hear how you came to be behind us. You became our knight in shining armor to rescue us being mayor and all of your community.”
Kurt turned red in the face and was looking at the ground as he began to speak.
“Well it was about four hours after you left that I came to the decision. I started to get things together that I needed to take, buried some things and donated the rest to the people there. I didn’t have a whole lot anyway just mainly the six months’ worth of supplies that I had accumulated to get me through the winter without having to worry about doing much shopping. Well anyway, I let the Vice Mayor know that he was now the Mayor. Made sure I had everything that I would need on the road besides a few other things in my saddle bags. I slept through the night and got up at dawn and hit the road.”
Beulah smiled and told him. “Well that tells us the facts, but doesn’t tell us the why Kurt. Why would you leave your home to follow us?”
“Guess I’m caught. I just couldn’t get you off my mind Beulah. There I said it. After all of you left, something kept nagging at me. The voice in my head kept telling me to not let you get away. I could get more stuff even with the new conditions in the world, but I couldn’t replace a woman like you.”
Beulah acted a bit shocked, but then she told him.
“Kurt I really thank you for coming after us and rescuing us, but you know I’m married. I know it wasn’t a good marriage, but before I get involved with you or anyone else I think I should wait at least six months to see if my husband, Lee, shows up. I need to give him at least that.”
Kurt thought a minute about what she had just said.
“Okay I will give you that six months, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go on courting you because I’m going to.”
At that statement, Kurt called lunch break over and that it was time to saddle up and get going.
They looked over at the farm on the right as they rounded that last curve. Chickens were running around and the long horned cattle were still in there section of the field and so were the huge pigs. As they neared the front of the fencing that bordered the road, a man stepped out from behind the hog house. Brian couldn’t tell what kind of rifle the man had, but at least the farmer wasn’t being stupid. Maybe he had already had some problems. One thing for sure was that he best get those animals to a backfield. Being out front like this was a whole lot of temptation for someone. Brian knew that school kids were bused up here to see the farm animals, but if it were he, he would move them elsewhere.
Kurt gave a wave and then so did everyone else. The farmer lowered the rifle barrel, but watched them ride further down the road before stepping back behind the hog house.
Brian’s heart was light as they made their way southwest on State Highway 129. The trip had seemed so long. They passed stalled cars here and there, but there were never very many on this road.
“There’s Grandpa’s car,” Brian yelled out. “It doesn’t look like to many of them made it up here without walking or Grandpa making it home. I wonder if we will see Uncle Tom’s truck somewhere along the road too.”
By four o’clock they were riding through Anatone. That took a whole minute. Now they weren’t far from the turn off and the last few miles after that to the farm. In at least a half an hour they should be there.
Brian couldn’t believe how long this last amount of travel time seemed to be. Then as they rounded the corner and went through the canopy of pines, he could see the farm.
The long driveway with the gate at the beginning, then the garage, sheds and barn. The house was down further to the left past the garden area in a grove of mountain maple trees. He was tempted to speed ahead and get there as fast as he could, but he took a few deep breaths to calm down and stay where he was.
They all rode up to the gate and found it was closed but not locked. It always just looked like it was. Grandpa said why lock it for real when if someone really wanted to get in they could just climb the field fencing and barbwire. Beulah rode up and got off her bike and opened the gate for the rest of them to go through. Then she closed it after she brought her bike through. As she looked up after she got back on her bike, she could see members of her family in the side yard. It looked like a few people she didn’t know.
Tears started to roll down her face as she had begun to wonder on this trip if they would really make it here. The others were off their bikes and Brian was unfastening little Karen from the back of the bike. The children were just standing by their bikes staring at all the people that were gathering in the yard and coming to meet them as they made their way down to the house. Finally
Brian was giving his grandmother a hug with Karen in between them. They hadn’t even taken off their backpacks yet.
Mike decided that he couldn’t take it anymore and so did everyone else. Everyone had started to talk at once and Beulah was headed his way.
“All right everyone we will do introductions and hear from our returned lost sheep in good order. Since it’s a nice day, let’s gather up some chairs and blankets to sit on while we talk.”
A few minutes later the group sat in somewhat of a circle and Mike had everyone introduce themselves. Brian helped the children tell who they were. Kurt was introduced and then they told the story of their trip home and how they had met up with Barb, Lysbeth, the children and Kurt. Dinner was going to be a bit late tonight. No one wanted to leave from hearing the story of their trip and welcoming them home. Things had just gotten a little more crowded on the farm.
Chapter 20
New Blood
In the Sierra’s at Grandpas:
The morning had dawned cooler than normal for this time of year. Two weeks had now passed since their world had changed. Each new day seemed to get harder with doing all the washing, dishes, cleaning, repair of clothes and leather work by hand. Then learning to work on the ranch. David didn’t know when things would get easier. He hoped it wouldn’t take too long for him to get the hang of things. What was funny was as much as Olive hated doing things the old way, she sure seemed to do okay. Must have been the way she was raised after all. Even Kate knew how to do things he didn’t. They even knew how to handle the guns and rifles better than he did. He guessed he should have spent more time out here with Gramps growing up than he did. Everything in town seemed to be more interesting especially as a teenager. He sure didn’t remember much of his time out here as a child. Now he regretted that immensely.