by Ron Foster
“I got some silver mercury dimes with me.” LowBuck said scrutinizing the note and wondering about its meager face value and their two alcoholic, maybe three or four appetites for alcoholic libations.
“Jack said prices are pretty low, 50 cents for a drink and I have no idea what silver exchanges for now. Hell that roll of mercury dimes you got in your pocket is maybe a years wages for all I know. Let’s just feel it out and you gimme a minute or two to acclimate with the bartender before you wander in. Say how about you meet me in about 10 minutes if you don’t mind? That way I can get acquainted with the bartender and the lay of the land.” David said anxious to be on his way.
“Will do. See David, city living might not be so bad after all.” LowBuck said hurrying off to talk to Dump while thinking 10 minutes might be to long to wait to join in on the festivities.
David walked a couple blocks down to the bar and peeked in the glass door before entering. An older woman wearing far skimpier clothes than her age should have allowed beckoned towards his face peering in the doorway.
“Come on in honey and have you a drink, we got most liquors and a little bit of wine in stock. Special today is 6 shots for $2.25 or 6 mixed for $2.50 of well brand liquors. We take script or barter.” The ancient old ex hooker looking woman declared as David walked in and looked around blinking in the dark interior trying to get his eyes adjusted from the bright sun outside.
This was your typical small downtown lunch and drink bar that might have been considered a little swanky in its day. How that harridan running it acquired it was something David thought was after the fall and had nothing to do with its former owners. A nice looking 40ish woman came out from the back and asked him what he was having to his eye candy approval and appreciation that the other women wasn’t going to be the one to wait on him.
“If you got anything to flavor some whiskey with I would be grateful.” David said sitting down on a barstool some distance from the ogling old battle ax behind the register that seemed to be checking him out.
“Mister it’s your lucky day if you want it mixed with genuine Coke. We got a fresh supply from the commissary today and I mean fresh because it fizzes just like it’s supposed too. We got ice courtesy of FEMA and a generator to run the cooler so you in for a treat if that is your desire. I am Flo and that’s Suzie the owner over there.” She said in a friendly southern country girl voice.
“Well I must have died and gone to heaven then. I got ice, my poison of choice and two pretty ladies to share it with! This is indeed my lucky day! Make it a Jack and Coke if you please.” David said brandishing the $5 note Jack had blessed him with.
“Ah shit, when are you ever going to learn not to call Rock Trolls pretty.” David said to himself as Suzie took his compliment as an invitation to come sit next to him.
“You must be new in town, you from around here or did you come to town on a FEMA train.” Suzie asked from behind shockingly clown like eye makeup making David feel creepy.
“Just wandering through, I live up by the lake. Hey you actually serve food in here?” David said as he grabbed his drink and went to look at the menu posted on a chalkboard at the end of the bar in an attempt to distance him from the old woman’s unwanted advances.
“It’s mostly M.R.E. squad meals, but we got some fresh meat, if you wanting that sweety.” “Suzie the bat” said as David referred to her mentally nicknaming her because of those clingy black clothes and bat wing hairdo. She followed him over to the chalkboard and nudged him in what she thought was a provocative manner.
“Well I will be damned, you ladies got it going on don’t you? How proud are you of a beef steak if you got one?” David expressed as he pretended to look into the kitchen to escape Suzie’s grasp.
“Steak is not on the menu today, but it will be tomorrow. I got some farm raised pork that isn’t soured yet or a leg of smoked deer I can carve off of for today’s plate specials.” Flo said rescuing him from Suzie’s unwanted attentions by handing him his drink.
“Well I got some friends coming in later and we might want to have us a nice feast if I could arrange it with you. Being a bit backwoods myself, you are going to have to help me out on the pricing schedules around here though. I got an American Eagle 1 ounce silver dollar. What might that buy these days?” David offered patting his shirt pocket
“That’s about $180 worth of script or about a half years wages. How come you so rich?” Suzie said pointedly.
“Shit I ain`t rich by any stretch of the imagination. I just had me a tiny bit of silver put back before the economy collapsed and nothing to trade for with it until now. You think maybe I could have me some choice portions of that pig like the ribs and a few drinks for my friends?” David said hoping he wasn’t in dreamland and relishing the thought of a real meal.
“I knew it the minute I saw you that we were going to get along,” she said giving him a leaned over view of an aged spotted cleavage he could of lived without but she was cute anyway in her attempts to court him.
“How many is in your party?” she asked slyly.
“Well how many ribs are on a hog? Thing is, I got practical matters to discuss and need to know how far that silver dollar will stretch if you would be so kind. You see we been suffering for years on nothing but a fish and deer diet on the lake and I might be willing to spend the whole silver ounce, that is if we can reach a suitable agreement. What I am pondering here in a round about way is how you value silver or gold in the pricing schemes of life.” David said trying not show he was salivating over the thought of tasting some real down home country rib BBQ again.
“You spend an ounce of silver around here and the skies the limit.” Flo said giving David wrongful thoughts.
Seeing she was getting nowhere with old hippy David, Suzie said matter of factly he had rights to the whole hog and then some, that is if he had a mind to commit himself to a party at her establishment and was going to spend hat silver dollar.
David had more to consider than what would be considered just a fine feed and a forgotten or remembered day for the preppers on this trip. He asked would it be considered ok to have some live entertainment like a dance for an extra few silver dimes he knew LowBuck had.
“Damn darling, you throw that kind of silver jingle in around here we might even make you mayor.” Flo said laughing.
“You thinking about bringing them kids to town and throwing a party if everything checks out David?” Lowbuck said swirling the ice in his drink.
“You read my mind LowBuck. Hell I am thinking city living is looking awful good at the moment. Jack should be here soon and tell me the low down on this recovery the governments doing.” David said sipping his drink and letting the memories flood back from the last time he had a real drink in a bar.
“Damn that tastes good. I can’t remember the last time I even had a coke.” LowBuck said relaxing and looking around.
There were no other patrons in the place and Suzie and Flo struck up a friendly conversation with them.
“I heard you mention that Jack would be coming in here soon. Is that the Jack that works for FEMA?” Suzie asked batting what looked like fake spider looking eyelashes.
“Yea, that’s him. He was my boss year’s back.” David offered.
“That so? Well small world.” Flo said interested to learn more.
“He is one of our best regular customers. He sees to it we get a gas allocation for that generator we got. We buy a little from the supply truck too but business is slow as you can see and the gas truck only takes military script which is hard to come by. Mostly we only get government workers in here, but since they hooked up a water system for downtown we got folks moving in from the rural areas and it will get better as we become a real town once again.” Suzie stated.
“I sort of hate to ask this, but how many folks you reckon are still around to populate this town?” David said curiously.
“More folks made it to live another day than you would think but they are mostly smal
l local farmer families scattered out through the county. Of course everyone is a farmer of some sort nowadays. Towns need people and people need towns so it won’t be very long until we manage to get this place civilized again. Most of the big cities burned up because of uncontrolled fires but little towns like ours that were built next to a waterway are being strategically rebuilt everywhere. Back in the 1800s they shipped cotton all up and down this river. I doubt you will ever see a cotton barge in your lifetime but river commerce is picking up.” Suzie concluded.
“Damn LowBuck we been riding up and down the wrong river for years. I am starting to feel like Rip Van Winkle here waking up from a very long sleep.” David said and ordered another drink for the both of them.
“You hear anything about them FEMA camps? Good or bad. I mean what kind of conditions are they?” LowBuck asked the ladies.
“I ain`t ever been to one but I do know a few people that have and they said it was pretty much hell. You are supervised and scrutinized from the time you get up to time you go to bed. Some camps are worse than others and there are lots of rumors going around about abuses of power etc. by guards or administrators, but for those that are desperate they are godsends I guess.” Flo replied.
“I heard they are busing people to them if you are a refugee or wanted to go.” David said raising his eyebrows a bit.
“Sure, the government bus leaves once a week and it’s always full coming through town. They basically run them buses between towns and folks that have given up on life or got no other means to survive line up for them in droves. A lot of those folks look like scarecrows and probably wouldn’t have made it living another day, while others think there is some kind of utopia in the reconstruction cities. Me, I stay right here and see what happens next and keep my freedoms.” Suzie said fixing herself a drink.
“Hey Jack!” Flo called out as the FEMA administrator walked in the bars open front door.
“Hey there Jack my old first responder buddy. I like your choice of after hour offices.” David said as Jack sat down next to him.
“Well you come on a good week. This place wasn’t even open 2 months ago. It sort of just sprung up after we been here a few weeks. Hard to keep it stocked with liquor though and it’s pretty much whatever comes down river with a trader.” Jack explained.
“There it was again. They had been cruising their trade boat up and down the wrong river for years and life had just been passing them by.” David mused as he looked at LowBuck for confirmation.
“Wrong River...” LowBuck drawled out in a confirmative whisper.
“What? What’s wrong with the river?” Jack said taking a sip from his drink and looking confused.
“We been living on the lake last ten years and we only explored a small part of the rivers that feed into it. We never tried to travel up river to here.” David said gloomily.
“Damn! How long did it take you to hike up here from the lake?’ Jack asked dumfounded David had done such a thing at his age.
“Well that’s a story in itself but basically I got an old tractor with a gasifier on it and I hauled a wagon full of people up here on it to see the elephant.” David said and went on to tell the humorous story about how he got the tractor to begin with and his adventures as he had driven it all the way from Georgia to Alabama when he got stranded after the big disaster.
A couple of hours and many drinks and laughs later about his somewhat unbelievable but funny survival story, Jack just shook his head and commentated on how he had thought David was probably a dead man walking the last time he had seen him. He remembered he said the same thing to his boss Blake when they had watched him take off walking with Dump Truck down the interstate heading home in a car free grid down society after the solar storm zapped all the electronics in them.
By now Dump Truck had joined the reunion and had added his embellishments to the tale of how he and David had built their little community of survivors up and what had brought them to town.
“Well boys, I sure I don’t need to tell you to stay your butts out of the FEMA camps and as for the reconstruction cities, they are in my opinion not much better unless you like socialist living. Both places are best described as very bureaucratic and dysfunctional. This town share project I am working on seems to be the best solution to getting back to a constitutional America but folks are so scattered out it takes some doing to bring supplies in. I am what is called logistically or logically a reconstructionist, its my job and duty to try to help you citizens all rebuild this town here or get you transported to a more populated relocation center. The roads still got cars and trucks all over them but we are slowly making them passable by day. They are still far too dangerous to travel at night. That’s why river traffic and commerce is so important, it’s relatively easy for the government and the traders to just river barge down supplies using the waterways. Hell the other day I even seen some of those old log cabin looking rafts from the pioneer days floating a load of goods down river from some backwoods trader. We got a few trains up and running regular out west but mostly the rail systems are still in a big chaotic mess of junk and broke down railroad cars. I guess you noticed all those wrecker trucks we have David parked out in front of the offices. What those are for is to help clear the town’s roads as well as bring in vehicles and teach some local people how to fix and repair them. An automobile that’s been sitting up in a garage or out in the elements for 10yrs is a bitch to start even after you replace some crucial electronics. I think things are getting better in general though. And there are several reasons for that. There’s good technology available and if we can get people back on the roads traveling recovery will come so much sooner. In a week or so I will be talking to you on a cell phone that you couldn’t even imagine having access to ever again today. I tend to be positive about the future.” Jack said to his intent listener audience.
“Back when I was in my prepping mode I wasn’t worried so much about getting ready for the end times, I tended to be more worried about rebuilding afterwards. When did the government finally make a plan to help the general public? I know a bunch of assholes have probably been debating one plan or another in some bunker somewhere for many years as we sat here on the outside starving and dying.” David said sternly.
“That’s kind of true statement but not entirely so. You see the plan for continuity of government pretty much worked and you got to have that for any kind of recovery effort. But the thing is so many workers and politicians never made it to command centers that it left huge voids in chain of things. You are right; there was no plan to help the populace recover from a solar storm. There still ain`t one, the military just recently dusted off some plans for relief and restoring order in war torn lands and is sort of winging it right now with a little bit of guidance from FEMA.” Jack said explaining what was going on in the mysterious man behind the curtain background somewhere.
“Who is the President now?” LowBuck asked.
“Senator McCarthy, you see elections couldn’t be held so they did the ‘who held the presidency’ thing by chain of command. The secession is now down to head of the treasury acting as president.” Jack explained.
“Ah hell we are in for it again then if some damn banker is in charge.” David said disgustedly.
“I see your point about having the treasury in charge of anything but we are now back on the constitutional gold and silver standard now and this census they are doing is so we can hold elections again and get not just food and relief supplies out, but bring back a monetary system also.” Jack commented.
“Sounds like those bunker rats finally got around to feeding the surviving voters if you ask me.” Dump said suspiciously and everyone laughed.
“David there are lots of jobs you could be qualified for in emergency management, you want me to put a word in for you and you come back on staff?” Jack offered.
“That’s very kind of you but I think I will stay a civilian for awhile. I am kind of used to it if you know what I mean” David
responded not to willing at all to even think about getting back into doing anything at this stage of the game but very curious about what Jack thought his old ass might be useful or needed for.
“You know we got something called the land reclamation act going on and homesteading up to 160 acres is legal once again. You improve on a place for 5 years if the next of kin can’t be found and it’s yours.” Jack told everyone.
“Now that’s cool as hell. Is it any particular list of properties or can you sort of claim anything that’s officially abandoned?” LowBuck asked as all eyes and ears focused on Jack for further explanation.
“There will be a government claims office in each counties river town down this end of the river. The interior counties pf the states will come later but the government wants people to move closer to the easiest supply lines. A city board is being set up composed of state and local officials who will in a position to approve town applications locally and file the claims at the appropriate government offices.” Jack said describing the plan to attempt to handle the vast amounts of vacant real-estate around.