by N. C. Reed
“Rats?” Shelly looked wide eyed.
“They won’t bother you, if you don’t bother them,” Rhonda told her, half glaring at Billy for bringing it up.
“Better she knew up front,” he shrugged, reading her glare perfectly. The five of them loaded into the crew cab truck, and were soon headed for town.
The Silvers hadn’t been to town since the trouble had started, so seeing all the cars along the road, most with bodies in them, was a shock to the system. No one spoke as they eased into the ghost town that had once been their home town.
“My Lord,” Jerry finally broke the silence. “I. . .I mean I knew, of course. You told me, Billy. But. . .this is way beyond what I’d imagined.”
“It’s rough, I know,” Rhonda nodded, as Billy drove. “And it’s spooky, too. So quiet at night. I mean there’s almost nothing to hear. So everything is louder. No air conditioners and cars to drown out the sounds.”
“I don’t. . .I want to go home,” Shelly said suddenly, her eyes filling with tears.
“We ain’t going home till we get what we came for,” Jerry said roughly, but kindly. “I told you this wasn’t a sightseeing trip, girl. You can sit in the truck, if you want, but we need to get what we came after.”
“The rats are eating the people!” Toby exclaimed suddenly, looking out the window.
“Stop!” Shelly almost screamed. “Stop the truck, I’m going to be sick!” Billy hit the brakes, and ordered Toby to let her out. No sooner had Shelly’s feet hit the pavement than they could hear her retching. Toby turned a little green, but managed to keep his lunch down. Billy and Rhonda had seen far worse, and just ignored it. Jerry looked on with concern, and seemed a little pale, himself, but managed.
Finally Shelly’s stomach was empty. Rhonda had gotten out of the truck, and handed Shelly a baby wipe. The other girl used it to clean her face, then gladly accepted the small bottle of soda Rhonda offered her.
“Oh, I haven’t had a Coke in ages!” she exclaimed, draining the small bottle in seconds.
“Ain’t many left,” Rhonda agreed. Shelly blushed at that.
“I’m sorry, Rhonda,” she said quietly. “I. . .I shouldn’t have. . . .”
“That’s what it was for, honey,” Rhonda told her, grinning. “Now, if you’re able, climb back aboard, and let’s get this done. I don’t like being here any more than you do, I promise you that.”
The rest of the trip was, thankfully, uneventful. Fencing and posts were stacked at the Co-Op, and willing hands grabbed the rolls and bundles and placed them in the trailer. Billy grabbed three new post drivers, and another pair of post hole diggers, laying them in the back of the truck. They were about to leave when Billy spotted something.
“Wait,” he told the others, walking to where a carport was standing near the building, with a sign that said ‘Installed $590'. He looked over at Jerry, who had walked up with him.
“Reckon that would make a fine little hog barn,” he said softly. Jerry just chuckled.
“Boy, you’re a caution, you surely are. I should o’ thought o’ that. Toby!”
The three of them wasted little time, locating the stash of small buildings, and taking four of them. All they could manage to get into the truck with the parts and frames.
“These will do just fine,” Jerry nodded. “Maybe we can come back and find more, later on, if we need them. Meantime, we got work to do, and we’ve already got what we need. Let’s go.” They piled back into the truck and headed home.
It was very late in the afternoon when they finally got back. It was decided that work would start on the pen and barns first thing in the morning. Jerry and Toby would be over to help move everything to where they would build the pen, and hopefully they could be ready in the next two to three days.
As the Silvers rode away, Rhonda put her arm around Billy’s waist.
“Hungry?” she asked.
“Starving,” he agreed, smiling down at her. The events of the previous night were still on his mind, as he looked at her. He swore he’d never seen a prettier girl in his whole life than Rhonda Higgins.
“You finish putting your tools and such away, and I’ll start us some supper, then,” she smiled, kissing him lightly, then bounding off to the house. Billy watcher her go, then went back to work. Smiling.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Building the hog pen went pretty well, Billy decided. It took two full days, but they managed to get the fence up in it’s entirety and two of the pre-fab carports were in place. The third was framed, and ready to be skinned.
“I’d say we’re ready to haul some pigs,” Jerry declared as the work wound down on the second day. “This will do nicely I think.”
“Looks good to me,” Billy nodded. “Think them carports will be just fine for what we want’em for, too.”
“I agree,” Jerry nodded. “Time to go and get them piggies, yeah?”
“First thing in the morning?”
“Sounds good. We still need some kind of livestock trailer.”
“I got a four horse trailer,” Billy mentioned. “Ain’t used it in a while, but it oughta do the job well enough, I’d guess.”
“Hey! That would do it!” Jerry grinned. “We’ve got a two horse trailer. Between them, we can make a pretty good haul.”
“Well, we got a plan then,” Billy decided. “See you early on?”
“Be here by eight,” Jerry nodded. “We’ll get what we can, and bring them back here.” The two men shook hands, and Billy bumped fists with Toby, who grinned at being treated like a man. At seventeen he was a man, at least physically, but the last three or four days he had begun to act like one as well. Billy figured he was deserving of being treated that way.
The two Silvers walked toward their own home, as Billy turned toward his. He walked slowly, pondering events of recent weeks. He remembered how it had felt that he was basically all alone, despite his neighbors having survived. He remembered the urgency of finding and stocking supplies, knowing that some things would become harder to get in the months, perhaps years, ahead. He remembered finding Rommel, and grinned down at the dog, who had walked with him to the pen site.
“Been a pretty busy time, huh boy?” he asked. He reached down to ruff Rommel’s head, and the big dog leaned into it, directing Billy’s hand where he wanted it to go. Billy stopped, kneeling, and spent several minutes lavishing the great dog with attention. Rommel enjoyed every minute of it.
“You’re a good pal, Rommel, you know that?” he said finally. With one more vigorous rub, Billy stood, and resumed his walk.
“We’re doing pretty good, boy,” he spoke to the dog as he walked. “Things are lookin’ better, now. Much better.”
Billy contemplated on his relationship with Rhonda. He’d always figured he’d be alone in the world, and the thought had held no real fear for him. The fact that he wasn’t alone, now, gave Billy a whole new set of things to think on, and worry over.
He felt responsible for Rhonda now. He had to think about what might happen to her if some misfortune befell him. He also realized that he would need to be more careful now. If he were hurt, laid up, even temporarily, then Rhonda’s life would be much harder. She would have to take care of him, along with everything else.
He didn’t like the thought of that.
Rhonda Higgins wasn’t a fragile, timid being by any stretch of the imagination, and would probably ‘huff and puff’ if she knew he was thinking in those terms. He could almost hear her;
I can take care of my own self just fine, Billy Todd, thank you very much, her voice rang in his ear. I ain’t no wall flower, or debutante.
Billy didn’t know what a debutante was, exactly, but he did know that Rhonda wasn’t one, so he figured a debutante must be a bad thing. She worked hard, and didn’t shirk from anything that needed doing. As for the rest. . . .
Billy blushed at the thought of their physical intimacy, even though he was alone. Rhonda had been right again. They had ‘figured it out’.
As he pondered on all these things, Billy stopped short suddenly, realizing something for the first time.
He and Rhonda were, for all intents and purposes, married.
“Huh,” he grunted, as the full import of his circle of thinking hit him.
Billy had never counted on that. Ever. He knew he wasn’t the kind of man that most women would find desirable. He wasn’t smart, he wasn’t rich. He wasn’t good looking, at least not to his eyes.
Of course, in this new world, Billy was far more wealthy than he realized. He had land, livestock, even electricity. He took those things at face value, because he’d always known he had them. His parents had been prepared for almost any eventuality, and thus, so had he. He knew how to live in these times. He knew how to survive. More than that, he would thrive.
Billy hadn’t taken those things for granted, and had learned from his parents. Rhonda had added a whole new level of thinking to what he knew, or what he found in his father’s notes. Between the two of them, they had managed to think of a good many things, and they had amassed a great deal of property. Things that would last for a long while, and be worthy trade goods in the days ahead.
Billy had cut out three solid mares from the horses the group had collected, and brought them home, along with the stallion he judged to be the strongest of the three. Soon, they would be raising horses. They had his own small herd of cattle, and now part interest in what Billy thought of as the ‘community herd’.
Tomorrow, they would be in the hog business as well.
Thanks to Rhonda’s father, their own good thinking, and his parent’s efforts, they had more firearms and ammunition than they should ever need, which meant that some of them could be used in trade. They would be very careful about that, Billy decided. He didn’t want to wind up looking down the barrel of one of those guns later on.
Which led him to another concern. They had to make sure that the farm remained undetected. His place and Mister Silvers’ were well off the road, almost three quarters of a mile. They were on a small back road as well, an old county road that most would simply look past when driving by. But if anyone found them. . . .
Billy resolved right then that any ‘trading’ they did would done somewhere else, far from the farm. Like that place in Franklin. He didn’t want anyone within five miles of the farm, if he could prevent it. The further they could keep people, the safer they would be. Even potential friends could give them away, either not meaning to, or being forced into it. It would be hard to trust anyone at this rate, he feared.
Billy rubbed his temples. He was getting a headache. The first one he’d had in almost a month. Having time to think about the problems they still faced, the potential dangers that lurked just outside their insulated world, was going to make him have a migraine.
He couldn’t have that. He didn’t have time. And, he admitted, he didn’t want Rhonda to see him as weak, either.
But this time, he didn’t have much of a choice. His head was pounding, and his eyesight was starting to blur, just a bit.
“Boy, we need to get home,” Billy told Rommel. The dog wagged his tail stump, recognizing ‘home’, and started that way. He stopped after a few steps when he realized that Billy wasn’t behind or beside him. Looking back, he saw Billy stagger just a bit, and loped back to his side.
“Just take it easy, boy,” Billy almost whispered. “Take it easy.” Holding Rommel’s collar, Billy began making his painful way home once more.
*****
Rhonda was on the porch, reading about canning, when she saw Billy and Rommel come out of the woods. She waved at them, then frowned as she saw Billy staggering along, holding to Rommel. Fearing he was injured, she was off the porch in a flash, running toward them.
Rommel was accustomed to Rhonda being part of their family, now, and didn’t object as she ran to them. In fact, he whined slightly as she ran up, his worry over his person plain.
“Billy! Are you okay? What’s wrong?” she asked, placing herself under his arm, and wrapping an arm around his waist.
“M. . .Migraine,” he gasped. “Need pi. . .pill,” was about the best he could do.
“Okay, baby,” Rhonda soothed. “No problem, let’s just get you up to the house. Can you make it?” Billy nodded, then gasped as the movement made stars flash before his eyes, and the pounding behind his eyes intensified.
“Easy, baby,” Rhonda almost cooed. “Just a little bit, then I’ll get you fixed right up. C’mon, honey, it ain’t far.” Led on by Rhonda, with Rommel just inches from his side, Billy staggered on toward the house.
Getting up the steps was a chore, but Billy was able to grasp the rail on one side, and pull himself, as Rhonda helped from the other side. Once inside, she didn’t even bother with trying to get him up the stairs. Instead, she gently laid him out on the couch, and ran to get his meds. He had shown her what he needed not long after she’d moved in, ‘just in case’.
She grabbed one of the pills, and a glass of water, hurrying back. She pushed the pill into his mouth, then held the water up to his lips. Billy drank gratefully, swallowing the tablet.
“Pill, knocks me out,” he warned. “Sleep for a while,” he added in a gasp. “Sorry ‘bout this, Rhonda. Didn’t want you to see me like this. Weak. Helpless.”
“You ain’t weak, Billy Todd,” she scorned lightly. “Or helpless by any means. Just sick. And this will fix you right up, won’t it?”
“Yeah,” he gasped. “It’ll fix it. . . .” Exhausted, Billy lay back on the couch. Rhonda stuffed a pillow under his head, then removed his boots and his pistol. She covered him with a bed sheet, and elevated his feet with a folded blanket, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. Finally, she stood back.
“Well,” she looked at Rommel, “looks like it’s a good thing I’m here. And you too, boy,” she knelt and rubbed the great dog’s head. “Thank you so much, Rommel, for bringing him home to me.” Rommel licked her face lightly, then went and laid down near Billy’s feet. Rhonda had to smile at that.
“I’m glad you were here with him, when he didn’t have anyone else, Rommel,” she spoke softly. She went and wet a bath rag, laying it gently on Billy’s forehead. She then took a seat in the easy chair next to the couch, and sat vigil as Billy’s medicine did it’s work.
Soon, Dottie was curled up at her feet, and the four of them spent the rest of the day in silence.
*****
Billy awoke suddenly, disoriented. He sat up abruptly, startling Rommel, who had still been lying at his feet. This in turn startled Dottie, who had stretched out beside the chair Rhonda was sleeping in, and she woofed, looking around for whatever had startled her canine companion. That in turn jarred Rhonda awake.
“What?” she muttered, still half asleep.
“Rhonda?” Billy said softly, finally realizing where he was. “How did I get here?” The last thing Billy could remember was walking toward home with Rommel.
“Well, Rommel brought you home,” Rhonda yawned, getting up to come sit next to him. “I saw the two of you coming out of the woods, and ran to help. Got you in here, and gave you your pill. You were out in less than a minute,” she explained, then kissed him, wrapping her arms around him.
“I was so worried,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Billy told her, hugging her to him tightly. “I didn’t want you to see me like that.” Rhonda slapped his shoulder.
“I wasn’t worried once I found out it was a migraine, you dolt!” she told him sternly. “I was worried because I thought you’d been hurt!”
“Oh,” Billy said, not knowing what else to say.
“I don’t want you going anywhere without him from now on,” she pointed to Rommel. “He brought you home. I don’t think you would have made it without him. What caused your headache, anyway?” she asked, snuggling into his embrace.
“Thanks, Rommel,” he ruffed the big dogs head, and received a lick in return. “I was just thinkin’ too much,” he told Rhon
da. “That happens sometimes,” he admitted, shamefaced.
“Yeah, right,” Rhonda slapped him playfully again. “Seriously, Billy, what caused it?” Billy looked at her.
“Thinking too much,” he repeated, leaning back. “I was serious. Sometimes I get caught in a loop, sorta, thinking about one thing, makes me think about another thing, which makes me think about something else, which. . .well, you get the picture. Sometimes it just overwhelms me, hits me all at once like, and it leads to a migraine. I’m usually more careful about it, but there were so many things the last three weeks or so that it kind of snuck up on me.”
“What things?” Rhonda wanted to know. “You should share that stuff with me, Billy, not try and go it all alone.”
“It isn’t like that,” Billy shook his head. “Not at all. It started out fine, me thinking about what all we’ve got done, and how you came to be here, and how. . .well, you know,” he looked at her, and Rhonda blushed slightly.
“Yeah,” she smiled shyly. “I know.”
“Well,” Billy continued, “that led me to thinking about how we got the cattle now, and the horses, and now tomorrow the pigs, and what we could do, and how to do it. Which lead me to thinking’ about how we need to keep people away from here no matter what, so that the farms are safe.”
“That led me to thinking that something could happen to me, leaving you all alone, maybe even having to take care of me, if I was laid up. Plus havin’ to do all the work around here. I didn’t like that. Made me think that I need to be more careful, so nothing happens to me, which made me think about the way I do things, going over the stuff I do, trying to make sure it was as safe as possible, which made me think about keeping you safe, which made me. . . .” He stopped suddenly, looking at her.
“I’m doing it again,” he said sadly. “That’s always been my worst weakness, I guess. I can’t control that kind of thinking once it starts.”
“Oh, baby,” Rhonda stroked his head, then kissed him softly. She snuggled closer to him, hugging him tightly.