by N. C. Reed
I’ve stayed away from the younger kids, mostly because of Maria. I don’t want me and her getting into an argument in front of the smaller children. They’ve got enough tension without that. I feel guilty about it for some reason, but I still think it’s the best idea. Despite her hateful and ugly personality Maria really does take wonderful care of them.
I guess that gets her a pass where social skills on an adult level are concerned.
A few more days and we’ll head out. I think I’ll talk to James tomorrow. He seems to know the area pretty well. I want his input before I make any final decision about direction.
Who knows? He might just know where there’s a school house we can use.
-
“Okay, James, how would you sign to me if there were five men out front, but also three more sneaking around the… south end of the building.”
Roland had been teaching James all he could think of, including the hand signals that the Army used in the field when noise discipline was in effect. James had taken to all of these things easily, most on the first try. Signaling not so much. But he was working on it.
His hands began flashing signals, pausing occasionally as he worked out what he needed in his head. When he had finished, Roland flashed a series of instructions back to him. James watched, and then nodded.
“Okay, what did I say?” Roland asked.
“Observe the three moving along the south side, leave the front side to you,” James replied at once.
“Good job,” Roland praised. “I think you’ve got it. Keep practicing. Come at me now and then with a report, one you’ve made up. I’ll repeat what you signal to me, and we’ll see how accurate you are. Got it?”
“Got it,” James smiled slightly.
“All right. Take a turn on the roof. Be sure and stay out of sight, and use the scope. Let me know if you see anything. After that, take a break, and get some chow.”
“Yes, sir,” James saluted slightly, and headed to the roof.
“You shouldn’t be teaching him these things,” Maria’s voice ended Roland’s good mood in an instant.
“And you should mind your own business,” he snapped back. “What I teach James, or anyone else, is a great big barrel full of none of your business.”
“And when he gets killed like Willie did?” Maria glowered back at him.
“Then he’s dead,” Roland said flatly. “And by the way, since you brought Willie up, if you ever, and I mean ever, make Ralph feel responsible for that again, I might just decide to see if I really can get by without you. Know what I mean?”
“That was pathetic, Maria,” he continued, feeling his anger rising. “Ralph is fifteen years old. You had no business laying into him, blaming him for something that wasn’t his fault.”
Maria opened her mouth to object, but then closed it sullenly without speaking.
“Go ahead, Maria,” Roland responded. “Try and justify what you did to him. See if you can come up with an adequate reason for making that kid feel like Willie’s death was his fault.” Maria remained silent.
“You really are pathetic,” Roland told her flatly. “You carry all that hate and venom around, just waiting to unleash it on anyone you can. If I didn’t despise you as much as I do, I’d probably feel sorry for you.”
“You know nothing,” Maria almost spat.
“I know plenty, Princess,” Roland shot back. “You need to accept the fact that you aren’t the only one who’s lost something. Look at all these kids,” he swept his arm around the room. “They don’t have anything left either. And some of us never had anything to begin with. We made our own way because there wasn’t anything else we could do.”
“So, spare me the attitude. You wanna go, go. But until you do, get off your high horse, and give Ralph a break. Give me one, too, while you’re at it. I tried every way in the world to keep Willie alive. If it makes you feel better, I admit it was my fault. I should have done it alone. I only let him go because he wanted to so bad. That was my screw-up.” Roland sighed, suddenly exhausted. This had been coming for a while, but he hadn’t meant for it to be now. Reluctantly he sat down, wincing as pain shot through his arm.
“You are not healed enough to be up and around so much,” Maria noted.
“Yeah, well, I don’t have much choice. We’re going to leave here soon. I need to be ready. I can’t do that sitting around. I’ve been shot before. I’ll deal.”
“Where?” Maria asked.
“Where what?” Roland asked, eyes closed for a moment.
“Where were you shot?” she asked.
“Which time?”
“Any. All.”
“First time was in Afghanistan,” Roland spoke without thinking about it. “Took a round through the thigh trying to pull a friend of mine out of an ambush. Second time was in South America. A three-round burst stitched me right up the middle. Should have killed me.”
“Why didn’t it?” Maria asked.
“A tribal Medicine Man whose tribe I was trying to help nursed me back to health. I had been reported MIA, suspected to be KIA. I reported back two months later, healed and ready to go.”
“MIA?”
“Missing in action,” Roland explained. “Assumed KIA, or Killed In Action. My unit reported me as likely to have died in combat.”
“You have lived a violent life,” Maria observed, though for once with no hostility.
“That’s true,” Roland didn’t bother denying it. “You get good at something, people above you tend to send you on rough jobs. You get a reputation for getting things done, they want you to be the one with the hard-to-nearly impossible missions.”
“That sounds very dangerous.” Again, her voice was absent its usual hostility.
“Can be, I guess,” Roland shrugged, and regretted it instantly as a new spike of pain shot through his arm. “Lot of my friends and comrades didn’t survive. I probably shouldn’t have either. If I hadn’t, Willie might still be alive.” His voice was bitter, but he didn’t notice. Maria did, however.
“And he might not,” she said softly. “In fact, none of us would be, or if we were, we might be wishing for death. That is thanks to you.” Roland’s eyes shot open in surprise, looking at her.
“I am not so wrapped up in myself that I have not seen what you have done,” she admitted. “None of us are. Perhaps that is why I was so hard on Ralph. He did not know where you were, or if you were even alive. All of us were afraid. Without you here, we were helpless.” With that she walked away, before Roland could frame a reply.
He watched her go, confused. What was her deal, anyway?
-
“Roland, we got company,” James’ voice came through the radio very softly. “I…I think it’s Jesse, but I’m not sure yet. He’s alone, whoever it is.”
“Keep an eye out,” Roland ordered. “I’m headed for the door.”
Twelve days since he’d spoken to Gran. Wait two weeks, she had said. Now, twelve days later...
He shook off that thought and walked to the door.
“Ro’, it’s me,” Jesse called, his voice conversational. “Okay if I come in?”
“Sure,” Roland agreed at once. “Good to see you, man. What brings you out here?” He noticed that the pack he’d given Jesse was bulging, and a bedroll was strapped beneath it. He was pulling a small wagon, too.
“Lookin’ for a place to be,” Jesse shrugged as he walked inside. “Gran passed yesterday morning. She was sick for a couple days, and then yesterday mornin’ she didn’t wake up,” he relayed sadly.
“Jess, man, I’m so sorry,” Roland told him, meaning every word. “I… I really like her.”
“She did you too, Roland,” Jesse nodded. “Told me a couple days ago that she was feelin’ like it was her time. If it was, she said, I should come and help you. That she wanted me to help you if I could.”
“You’re always welcome at my fire, Jesse, you know that,” Roland replied softly. “And if you want to help, that’s fine
by me. No one I’d rather have, to be honest.”
“Thanks, bro,” Jesse smiled weakly, and they hugged briefly. “Where can I put my stuff?”
“Anywhere you want, brother.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gran was right almost to the day. That worries me. Because now I have to admit that everything else she said might be right, too. Now I have to be on the lookout for a woman with hair like the sun, and a heart of ir. . .no, poison. She’s poison, and will lead me astray if I don’t watch her.
It’s a man with a heart of iron that I won’t like at first, but he’ll be a good friend. Okay, she didn’t say he’d be a good friend. I don’t think she did. Shit, why didn’t I write all this down when I got back? He won’t be a friend, maybe, but he’ll be there when I need him. Yeah, that was it.
She was right about Jesse, too. But she kinda sand bagged that one, suggesting that he come help me if she passed. Still, he didn’t have to do it. Without her, though, I suspect he didn’t really have much else. No reason to stay, and nowhere to go.
Just like me.
What else was it? James would take my place, eventually. I’m seeing to him, every day. A girl with hair like coal, who watches me. She’s my future, if I have one.
Well, that sounds pretty good, anyway. Hard to believe I might have a future of any kind, let alone one that’s. . .well, maybe not happy. She didn’t really say I’d be happy. Hell, I wouldn’t know happy if I had it anyway.
Still, wonder when I’ll meet her? I hope she’s pretty.
-
“I think it’s time to go over what we’re gonna do,” Roland said to the group he had assembled. Jesse, Maria, James, Ralph, Deena, and Terri.
“We need to find a better place than this,” he said flatly. “We need a place with water, preferably a well, and some room to move around. We need to get some clothes for these kids, and some shoes. We need to get as much food as we possibly can.”
“And we need to find a truck. A really big truck,” Roland added, thinking about what Gran Fuller had said.
“We can try the warehouse foods place again,” Deena spoke up. “It might still be good.”
“That was what I was thinking,” Roland admitted. “Best chance for us, I think.”
“I got no idea where we can go,” James shook head slowly. “Be cool if we could find an old school somewhere, though. Plenty of room, maybe some books and stuff. And most schools have a fence around them, too,” he added. Roland looked at him for a moment, his face blank.
“What?” James asked. “Not a good idea?”
“No, it’s a great idea,” Roland told him. “One I’d thought about, too. Great minds, huh?” he grinned, and James grinned back at him.
“Which direction you planning on going?” Jesse asked.
“South,” Roland replied. “Even a hundred miles, I think, would give us a little better weather that we’ll get here, come winter.”
“Plenty of places south of here,” Jesse nodded. “Depending on how bad things got in rural areas, might find some civilization left, too. Course they might not be too happy to see us when we get there.”
“If we find a place not in use, I don’t care if the folks around are happy. We’re not going to be a burden on anyone. We’ll take care of ourselves, as best we can.”
“Works for me,” Jesse nodded.
“We have much work still to do in making preparations,” Maria warned. “Finding clothing and shoes for everyone will probably be the hardest things. And the ninios are growing, even with the starving time we had.”
“If we can get enough clothes, the smaller kids can use the hand-me-downs as they grow. We can try to get material and thread and what not to make better clothes for when they’re grown,” Terri offered one of her rare speaking engagements.
“Hey, that’s a good idea,” Deena nodded. “I know how to sew.”
“So do I,” Maria nodded. “We can do that, if we can find the things we need.”
“All right, we’re starting to have a plan,” Roland nodded. “Let’s keep at it. Deena, why don’t you go get that phone book, and a pad and pencil. James get that map of the city streets if you will. We need to list all the places we want to try and visit, and then locate them on the map. We’ll plan our route in a circle, and try to get everything at once.”
-
The hardest thing was going to be locating a truck. The second hardest was fuel for the truck. No one doubted that. Working vehicles were difficult to locate anymore. The school bus, and the now wrecked U-Haul had been lucky finds. Luck only struck so often.
If the warehouse foods place hadn’t been bothered, they could gain more than enough food, especially if they could find what they were looking for; a tractor trailer. A trailer loaded with basic food stuffs could keep them in fine shape for a long time. Roland didn’t know exactly how long, but he figured several months. Maybe even a year.
Second hand clothing shops were numerous. The popular stores, often called ‘dig stores’ by many, could contain clothing of almost any size or style, so they would have to make do with what they could find.
Shoes were another problem all together, but there were two shoe stores within driving distance. If no one was there, then they’d just take what they needed. If someone was still trying to maintain a business, then Roland would use what silver he had to buy shoes for the children. Hopefully they would last long enough that the children could pass them on down as they outgrew them. At least for the time being there would be shoes for them, anyway.
Roland rubbed his temples as he felt a headache threatening. There was so much to do. Having Jesse here was a fantastic stroke, of luck, though the cost was too high in Roland’s opinion. But there was still so much uncertainty. So much unknown.
“Okay, I think the first order of business has to be the truck,” Roland declared. “Unless and until we know we have a truck to haul things in, there’s not much point to gathering a whole lot, yeah?” Everyone agreed with a nod.
“Okay, the next thing is teams. We’ll have James here for security of the building. If there’s a problem he can’t handle, he calls us, we come back as fast as we can.” James nodded, his face expressionless. Roland knew the teen would rather be out with them, but he accepted that he was the best suited to defend the warehouse other than Roland or Jesse.
“So, Ralph and Deena will come with us. Maria and Terri, when, and as you have the time, keep studying the list. There’s always going to be something we haven’t thought of. The less we miss, the easier things will be on us when we get where we’re going.”
“Any questions?” he asked. “Or do we have a consensus?” No one spoke, although most nodded their heads.
“Okay, one last thing,” Roland said gently. “We’re in this together. I know that you’re all young, and probably used to being treated like, well, teenagers. In the situation we’re in now, you’re pretty much grown. You’ve all been doing an adult’s work for a while now. So, when you have an idea, let’s hear it. When you see a problem, point it out. No one else may think of what you do, or may notice what you see. We can’t afford to make any mistakes if they’re preventable. Understand?”
This time everyone nodded, almost eagerly. Well, except Maria, who Roland simply ignored.
“All right then, everyone has work to do, so let’s get to it.” The group broke apart, then. Roland called Deena and Ralph to wait.
“You two aren’t going today. This is just a scout mission. We might get lucky and find a truck we can bring back, and if we can, we will. For the most part, we’re going to make the circle and see what’s where. It’ll limit our exposure later. So today, I want you two to take a look at the bus. We’ll need to haul stuff on there as well as the kids.”
“Here’s what I want you to do. We need to carry some of everything on the bus. Food, water, medical supplies, you name it. So, you two start working out what we can store, and how. We can use storage tubs, boxes, whatever we have or can scrou
nge.”
“Why not just carry it all on the truck, Mister Roland?” Ralph asked, with Deena nodding her agreement.
“Because we might lose the truck,” Jesse spoke up. “Never put all your eggs in one basket. If we lose the truck, then we’ve still got basic supplies to last for a little while, so we have time to recover.” Both teens nodded, seeing the wisdom.
“But, what if we lose the bus?” Ralph asked, clearly not challenging, but curious. Willing to learn.
“Then we’re screwed,” Roland replied.
-
They had been moving for a while, Roland eyeing the fuel gauge almost as much as he was the road. The Hummer drank gas like a kid drank soda, but he couldn’t see any other way to get everything else done. When it came to fuel, he was willing to abandon the Hummer if necessary to get the bus and whatever truck they could find to a place of relative safety. That would be a last resort, since he firmly believed they needed the Humvee, but he would do it if he had to.
“You know,” Jesse broke into his thoughts, “we could just add some storage to the top of the bus.”
“I’ve thought about that,” Roland nodded, “but I’m not sure we can attach it properly without tools we don’t have, and power to run them. You got something in mind that might work?”
“No, hadn’t thought about that,” Jesse admitted. “I keep thinking like things are normal, even though I know they ain’t. Habit, I guess.”
“I know how that is,” Roland sighed. “It’s hard to adjust. Too used to having logistical support.”
“Have you thought about checking the armory?” Jesse asked.
“What armory?” Roland asked, puzzled.
“The National Guard Armory, here in Nashville,” Jesse replied. “They might just have some vehicles in storage still, you know. Might have fuel, too.”
“No, I hadn’t checked it, or even thought about it,” Roland admitted. “It never even crossed my mind,” he shook his head in wonder at his own shortsightedness.
“Well, it might be a bust,” Jesse shrugged. “Might be somebody already took it over, or what’s left of the Guard may have taken their families there for protection. There ain’t really no way to know except go look, I guess.”