Down the Hole

by Sally Six

  Otis and Peter went into the tree line when they got closer to the mini park and the motorcycle gang. They didn’t see anything wrong at the leading edge so they worked themselves further around the corner and up a forested incline.

  Otis could hardly believe how quiet things were for a motorcycle gang.

  “So far so good. Huh Peter?”

  Peter just shook his head yes. He still didn’t know what to think of all of this.

  Then there in the middle of a bunch of bikers was Ed. Some of the bikers seemed to be milling around as close as they could so they could over hear what was being said. All of a sudden a large gang member slapped Ed on the back and Ed moved forward with a grimace on his face and smiled when he straightened back up.

  Peter turned to Otis with an amazed look on his face.

  “Well, I will be dipped in crap. How in the world did he manage this? Nothing like falling in crap and coming up smelling like a rose.”

  Otis just smiled and thought, “That’s my boy.” But he didn’t see the pickup and trailer anywhere. “I am going to get back to Betty and tell her everything looks okay.” He took off down through the woods. Then Peter did likewise. Betty saw Otis coming back and decided to stay put and walked out off from behind a tree just as he was about to pass and scared the crap out of him. She grinned as Otis grabbed his chest. After he got his heart back to a normal pace, he told her not to do that.

  “Ed’s okay but we don’t see his truck, Ellen or the kids. So far Ed is talking to the gang and everything seems fine. I think we should just stay put for the time being and wait this out. I don’t want to head back to the cave unless we have too. I don’t think we should leave Ed and family behind.”

  “You’ve got that right father. You know I wouldn’t think of having us go back to the cave and leave them here without any help.”

  Otis thought this is some woman I’ve got. He got what she called a crap-eating grin on his face. She thought of asking what the grin was all about, but decided maybe she was better off not knowing.

  Then they both heard a faint whip-or-will whistle from where Ed was. Then a louder one, that last one coming from Peter which was the all-clear signal for the whole family.

  Ellen could hardly believe her ears when not only was there no shooting, but also after what felt like an eternity of being worried to death she heard Ed give his whip-or-will whistle. Ellen leaned against the nearest tree and thanked the Lord for their safety. She was dying to know what was going on. She stood back up and began her walk down to the road. First thing she did is head back to the kids at the truck and trailer. She had to tell them everything seemed to be okay so they would stop worrying and not be afraid. They would not have to take off on their own.

  When Ellen got back to the truck, the kids weren’t in it. She looked around quickly and saw their son Frank step out of the trees in front of the truck. She breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I had the kids get out of the truck Mom in case someone came snooping around us.”

  “Good thinking son.” She said with a smile at her oldest boy.

  “Everything’s okay Frank. Dad gave the all clear so everything must be fine. Those bikers are really what they have on their jackets. So why don’t you and the other children have a snack while I go see what your dad’s up to. I hate to have to have you wait again but it can’t be helped.”

  “That’s okay Mom. At least now I won’t worry and I know you and Dad will be back soon. Go on ahead, we’ll be fine.”

  He turned and yelled at the kids to come out and that Mom said they could have something to eat. Ellen heard, “Yea food,” from the trees then turned to go see just what her husband was up to with these new people.

  Ed was so happy to find that these weren’t the murderers that he had feared, but police and fire department personal that had been on a motorcycle camping trip when things went to heck and gone last fall. They did that every year at this time when the weather cooled down. They met up with a few others from the surrounding towns and had a fine ol’ time. All were older in this group. They were forty years old and up.

  A few minutes ago Ed had said, “Just a minute John. Sorry to interrupt you, but I need to do something else.”

  “Okay Ed go on ahead. I can wait.”

  Ed looked around the forest and then shocked some of the bikers by yelling. “All right come on in.”

  In a few minutes as the bikers watched, a man in his 30’s stepped out from the trees across the road. Not only that, but just at that time an older man came around the corner from the right walking down the road and Ellen from the left. It couldn’t have been timed better if they had tried.

  The beginning was explained by Ed again and then John Cassidy who was their leader went on with their story.

  John explained that the couples with children had headed for home as soon as they heard that war was on its way. The rest decided that they would hope for the best and stay out of the cities and towns. They had hoped it wasn’t a bad idea. They knew they wouldn’t be much help anyway when things unraveled and they would just end up dead. They hoped the others that went back didn’t think bad of them, but a few of them had an idea that it wouldn’t be long before the world went to heck and gone. They had even buried a few caches of food and other goods at a couple of campgrounds up here in the mountains through the past couple of years. They thought it would work for camping in the fall so they wouldn’t have to haul so much with them all the time. Who knew it would be their lifesaver now. Some of the wives whined for a while until they had gone down to Orofino, Idaho and found most of the town burned and ransacked with the town’s folk dead or missing. Hopefully they just ran away to hide in the mountains themselves. John said they could see smoke coming up from the valley down river so they just turned around and came up here and held up in a gold mine that one of their members dabbled in until they thought it was okay to come out. They had picked up the buried cashes on the way up. They had their camp gear in the small trailers and it held out for a while. For about three months now they had stayed at deserted homes scavenging what they could to hold body and soul together along with hunting to get them by.

  “I can’t count how many times we were shot at from a distance. We know they thought we were some kind of degenerate biker gang. So we didn’t stop to explain and get shot for our trouble, but just went on our way. We were sure shocked when your truck and trailer came around the corner. We had begun to think there weren’t any decent people left. Then when you stepped on the gas and we heard tires squealing from back around the corner, we knew you thought you had just found yourselves in a snake’s den. We tried to get your attention with our jacket backs as you went through. Sorry to say we look a bit ragged these days.”

  Ed told them, “Oh man, you had me and mine scared crapless. I’ll give you that.”

  “Where are you folks headed? We noticed you had children in your truck Ed. That wasn’t easy as they ducked down pretty fast.”

  “To tell you the truth John, we are headed home. We were holed up for a while and came further out a couple of weeks ago to find some of the folks around here had been murdered. What looked like a shootout at a couple of other homes. But no sign that anyone else was around. We figured it was time to get home and start growing food for the winter. What do you say John? Would you and your people like to join us?”

  Ed looked at his dad, Ellen and Peter when he said this and they all gave a nod with their heads. After all they knew the more people they had the better off they would all be safety wise.

  It turned out the family was to be joined by ten couples and two single men. Seven of them were police officers and five firemen.

  Otis and Peter walked back to their trucks and drove back over to the bikers. The group were gathering their things and readying to pull out to follow Otis and Peter’s trucks and trailers while Ed and Ellen walked to theirs further up the road. The kids sure were glad to see them. In all the trucks the rest of the family was getting fi
lled in on what and who the motorcycle gang was and that they were joining the family.

  By the end of summer, everyone had their own cabin. Not huge things like a lot of modern families had gotten used to, but they were modest two room cabins easy to heat and care for. The cabins were spread out so everyone had plenty of room to themselves, shared gardens and fieldwork, hunted, dried and cured their meat in several smoke houses. Life went on with a few troubles here and there but they expected that. The two single gentlemen left for about a month and came back home with brides.

  Life was simple and hard. The extended families blended and began to range further afield in the world. As the years went by, they found out down in the Nez Perce Valley many were living with the Nez Perce Indians. They had gone back to the old ways and were happy.

  In five years you would again see roaming tinker wagons and the men on them that were jack-of-all-trades. They would also pass the news along from other areas for a meal or trade in food and other things. Money still wasn’t something people had, but a few brave souls had started to gold mine again. You had to have partners because there were still too many roving bands of bad guys ready to leap on someone and take what they had. But there were becoming less and less of them in this area. Most didn’t survive attacking the homesteaders in this day and age.

  Medicine was in short supply and those that got very ill or needed operations died. Yes when teeth went bad they were pulled, not the good part. But there wasn’t much they could do about that fact. Again in this new world doctors were few and far between and even they could only do so much.

  Chapter 27

  Reunited

  Pentagon shelter:

  Under the Pentagon in the shelter, Elizabeth and Bill had found they would have to spend a whole year down there. The area had taken a direct hit and when they did go out it would be through the long tunnel that ran off of the parking area two floors above them.

  The Army found a job for Bill working with computers which he was very glad for. So he didn’t go out of his mind with a lack of things to do. He loved watching his kids but he had needed something else. The general had also found out through Elizabeth that Bill and she were re-enactors for the Revolution and Civil War. Bill and the General had many a lively conversation in the months that followed. Bill would lead up a program on how to live in a wild environment even with the survivor training the soldiers had. They still had many things the troops and civilians needed to know in a done modern environment.

  The school and nursery school that had been set up for the children had them far ahead of the normal school year. The teachers had taken out the busy work and extras and made the school busier but more interesting. The radiation readings had slowly gone down. Eleven months after they had rushed into the shelter, they were on their way out.

  Elizabeth had been promoted and the General considered her his right hand women. She was helping to coordinate the moving of the people in the whole complex. Many a preliminary outings had been made by troops. They were setting up the new camp in the park where the tunnel ended.

  All things were ready. People, civilian and army personal alike, could hardly wait to get out in the daylight again. Everyone was very excited as they traveled down the long tunnel. Plus when they finally got to be outside the children were delighted with their tent when they arrived. They knew it was just temporary for a few weeks.

  A squad was to go out and head southwest to find the place for a more permanent headquarters. It was an abandoned camp the general hoped was still whole. They knew it would be a different but the general thought it would be a good place for his people. At least they had the trucks. He had them bring out more equipment and ammo than even he hoped they would ever need. He made sure all the equipment and medicine that they could pull out of the shelter hospital went with them. He darn sure wasn’t taking any chances.

  Elizabeth wondered if she would ever see any of her family in the west. She still had hoped that they were alive and safe. She made sure she showed pictures of the family to her children so they would not forget no matter what. Somewhere there was more family that loved them. Elizabeth told them stories of growing up in the mountains of Washington and Idaho. How her mom and dad had taught her to cook and butcher animals after raising them. Not being afraid to kill animals when you needed to survive but to also preserve life unless you really needed it. She told them of tanning hides and how she tried not to learn. Her mother made her do it and stick it out. Now she was so very grateful.

  Elizabeth then told them when they got to their permanent settlement that she would have their dad help her make an old style Indian loom. That when they were going by a town to see if they could find a spinning wheels as well. Both children were going to learn to shear sheep, clean wool, how to spin it for yarn and to milk cows and goats. They looked a lot more excited about that than she had been as a child. But to her it had been normal everyday stuff and had seemed like work.

  One day Elizabeth didn’t know that General Williamson had been standing outside their tent ready to ask to enter. He couldn’t believe he had someone in his command that knew these things. He thought he had hit the jackpot when he had learned of the other things Elizabeth and Bill could do. She never told him she could do these other things too. He didn’t know where life was going to take them all, but he knew he would have to help rebuild this country and maybe for the better. Only too soon he knew they would have to become more of a very large clan instead of an Army command if his people were going to survive and raise a future generation. He knew the America that they had all known was gone. It was time to start again. He straightened himself.

  “Elizabeth are you in? It’s me General Williamson. May I speak to you?”

  Elizabeth couldn’t believe the General had come himself instead of sending one of his aides. It was evening and they had already eaten. The mess was serving the next round of people and the camp was settling in for the night.

  “Yes General I’m in. I’ll be right there.”

  She settled the kids down on the floor with some cards to make castles with and went to the door flap and stepped out.

  “Yes sir. What can I do for you sir?” She said as she saluted.

  General Williamson looked down at the five-foot nothing soldier. She was like a small bundle of dynamite. He had seen her on the obstacle course too. She could do things you would never think a small women could do. They had nicknamed her Maniac. Besides that she was also an expert marksman. No one wanted to cross her or get on her wrong side. That brought a smile to his face in a flash as this all ran though his mind.

  As Elizabeth was asking him what she could do for him, she saw a fleeting smile play across his face and wondered what that was all about.

  “Elizabeth, our advance group just came back in. I need to you to get things squared away to pull out in three days’ time. They found that abandoned base in the hills of Tennessee that we once used for training exercises. There’s no radiation and a sparse population so we shouldn’t have too much trouble settling in. It may even be a help to those that live there and of course they to us.”

  General Williamson just calling her Elizabeth kind of brought her up short. He had told her his plans for the future for them all, but it still came as a surprise to hear her called by her first name by her general. This was going to be hard to get used too. She had always been a rank and then her last name Zellers for eight years now.

  Elizabeth saluted and said. “Yes sir, General Williamson. I will get right on the assignments sir.”

  General Williamson smiled and he didn’t salute back. But for her it was just too ingrained to stop saluting so suddenly to a higher ranking officer.

  “Tomorrow morning will be just fine Captain. Now go ahead and go back to your family. I will see you in the morning.”

  With that he turned and headed to the command tent. He had a lot of details to get smoothed out tonight himself. He wanted to hear all of the debriefings from his advance group b
efore he called it a night. He looked off to the west. The sun was setting. He had never seen such bold reds in the sky in his life.

  As General Williamson sat through all the debriefings, his mind wondered a bit. All of them had reported the same things. He knew he wouldn’t be here in normal times. This would all be taken care of by the lower ranks. Then they would report to the next higher officer and that officer to him. He got up suddenly and told the corporal thank you. He told the Lieutenant to continue taking down the men’s accounts. He did salute them and headed out of the tent. He knew the men needed the normal command yet in order to feel secure and to keep order in the ranks.

  He continued onto his tent. His aide hopped up from a chair by the inside front of the door and saluted. General Williamson said. He asked, “Brandy, do you know where my book of Scottish Clans and Family Encyclopedia happens to be? I can’t seem to remember which box I shoved it into.”

  “No sir, but I will be glad to look for you.”

  “Then why don’t the both of us look. That will cut the time down in finding it. Is that okay with you soldier?”

  “Uh, yes sir, fine with me sir.”

  Williamson chuckled. Brandy who was never at a loss for words. Sounded like he had a hard time getting that reply out.

  All were going to be surprised when they got to the new camp. He told them they were slowly going to become a clan instead of an Army command.

  After looking through four of his boxes, Brandy stood up. “Here it is sir.”

  “Thank you Brandy. You’re free to go for the night.”

  “Yes sir, thank you sir. See you in the morning sir.”

  With that Brandy saluted and turned to go to his tent which sat right next to the Generals.

  General James Williamson sat down to look up his mother’s maiden name. Her grandfather had emigrated from Scotland. Let’s see, Rose. Wonder how the men would feel becoming affiliate to the Clan Rose. Didn’t sound real manly, but Williamson liked the motto that went with the clan. “Constant and true.” Um, comes from a Norman family that settled in Scotland. Let’s see they had been in Normandy. Well they came across with William the Conqueror it said. They supported Scottish independence and captured Invernairn Castle for the Bruce in 1306. Married into the Chisholm family. As he sat there, he wondered how many in his command were from Scottish stock and if they would just be pledged to his.