by N. C. Reed
“I’d say this is settled,” Ralph nodded. “I know you wanted her to stay here, but she wants to be there. And she’s old enough to know what she wants, Debbie.”
“I’m through talking about this,” Amy said, standing. “I got better things to do.” With that she departed, intending to start supper.
“Reckon we all do,” George agreed. “Deb?”
“Fine,” she snapped, seeing that even her husband wouldn’t support her. She stood and stalked after Amy. Ralph watched her go, and turned to George.
“What was that all about?” he asked, puzzled. “Never seen her act so.”
“We can’t have no more children,” George said sadly. “Deb always wanted a daughter.”
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
The next morning was colder than previous days. It was still almost three weeks until Thanksgiving, but it was already feeling like December. Billy had checked some of his father’s books again concerning climate change after something like this. There was little in them about something like this, but most experts had agreed that a mass die off of people, which would be followed by a similar die off in domestic animals, would affect the temperature at least some.
As near as Billy could tell, they were just starting to see that now. Without so many cars, without so many people trying to heat their homes, the heat level was far lower than usual for these days. That meant cooler temperatures.
He thought, anyway. Some of the information frustrated him a little, since he couldn’t really grasp all of it. Some of the so-called ‘higher math’ was just beyond what he knew. But his father had, as usual, made margin notes to himself, and Billy could follow those. He was convinced that the colder temperatures were probably a sign of more of their ‘new normal’.
“Cold this mornin’,” George noted.
“Sure is,” Jerry agreed, rubbing his hands together. “Afraid we’ll see more o’ this.”
“Prob’ly,” Ralph nodded. “Ain’t so many people no more. Or cars. Or factories. Gonna be colder.”
“Everybody ready?” Billy asked, as he and Rhonda came outside. Rhonda handed out coffee to everyone, and placed a picnic basket inside the truck box, next to the one Emma had brought.
“Yep,” Jerry nodded. “Thanks, lil bit,” he gratefully accepted the coffee from Rhonda. Mary had gone to Emma’s for the day, where Shelly and Toby had agreed to keep watch over her, and Toby would be watching over all the places while the others were away.
“Guys, I want to apologize for last night,” George said, once they were in the truck and on their way. “I. . .I didn’t see this coming. We can’t have no more kids, and Debbie always wanted a girl. I should have been watching out for that, but I. . .there’s so much other stuff going on, I just didn’t think about it.”
“She’ll come around, I’m sure,” he ended on what he hoped was a high note. No one spoke for a minute, until Rhonda finally turned to look at him.
“It’s all right, George,” she said softly. “Truth is, I could have handled it better, I imagine. I’m prone to be. . .touchy, about stuff.”
“You?” Billy asked, in mock incredulity. “Touchy? Say it ain’t so, baby!”
“Smart ass,” Rhonda muttered, her face reddening. Everyone had a much need laugh over that.
“You don’t think it’s gonna be a problem while we’re gone, do you George?” Jerry asked, thinking that Mary would be at his place.
“No, I don’t, or I would have stayed home,” he shook his head. “She’s just. . .she just saw a chance to have a daughter, and grasped at it. She promised me last night, after we went to bed, that she wouldn’t say anything else.”
“And, if we happen to find more children, then I imagine she’ll have her hands full,” he chuckled.
After that, discussion fell to just normal business. They discussed how they would handle meeting the others, and then chores still needing to be done before true winter. As a result the trip passed fairly quickly.
The selected meeting place had been a country store, five miles east of Franklin. It wasn’t middle ground by any means, but it was a good place, and far enough from the Farms that no one could simply guess where they’d came from.
They arrived right on time, to find three vehicles waiting. George and Ralph had warned both parties that there would be others at the meeting, hoping to avoid any surprises. They were grateful to see the members of both parties talking to each other when they pulled in.
“George you old grave robber!” Terry Blaine bellowed, grabbing George into a bear hug. “Where you been hidin’?”
“Here and there,” George grunted. He was a big man, but Terry Blaine was a monster, easily four inches and sixty pounds larger. Sixty pounds of muscle, George reminded himself as he mentally checked his skeleton for breaks.
“Good to see you, man,” Peter Two Bears nodded, opting to shake hands rather than hug.
“You too, Pete,” George grinned. “Guys, this is Jerry and Emma Silvers, and Billy and Rhonda Todd.” he pointed to each in turn.
“Folks, this here is Terry Blaine, and his wife Maria,” he pointed to a petite Hispanic women. “And this is Pete Two Bears.”
“Please to meet you folks,” Terry said, shaking both Billy and Jerry’s hands. Maria nodded her agreement.
“Heard a lot about you,” Jerry said, smiling.
“All lies,” Terry snorted at once.
“Gentlemen, ladies,” Pete said from where he was. He wasn’t unfriendly, but didn’t offer to make contact.
“And I think we all know Ben, here,” Ralph pointed to a red faced Ben Kelvey. He nodded jerkily.
“I. . .let me just apologize for my jackassedness from earlier before I do anything else. I am so truly sorry for how I acted, and I hope there ain’t no hard feelin’s.”
“Not on my part,” Billy shrugged, and extended his hand. Kelvey took it, grateful.
“I really appreciate that,” he said earnestly. “This here is my brother, Jon,” he pointed to the man next to him. Jon gingerly extended his hand, obviously in pain.
“Nice to meet you,” he said, smiling in pain. “Thanks for not shooting the jackass,” he nodded to his brother. “He’s been a life saver since I got shot.”
“Welcome,” Billy smiled.
“This is my nephew Howie, and his fiance Elizabeth,” Ben introduced the young couple.
“I understand I owe you for more than just not shooting the jackass,” Howie grinned, shaking hands.
“Toby did all that,” Billy murmured. “I just helped. Glad to see you’re okay,” he added.
“Well, reckon I’m not okay, as yet,” Howie shrugged. “But I’m well on my way.”
“Ma’am,” Billy nodded to Elizabeth. She nodded in return, but looked at Emma.
“I remember you,” she said softly, smiling for the first time. “I. . .thank you so much,” she added.
“You’re welcome, dear,” Emma smiled.
“Well, reckon now we met, we can talk!” Ralph said, grinning.
*****
“I think we can say we’re interested,” Ben said for his family, after discussion had died down. “It’ll be a job movin’, that’s for sure, but it sounds like it’s more than worth it. Truth to tell, we was figuring we were gonna have to do something soon, anyways.”
“Why’s that?” Jerry asked. He had to admit, when Kelvey wasn’t being an ass, he was a pretty good guy.
“Since what happened in Franklin, folks is startin’ to get desperate,” he admitted. “That bunch took every scrap o’ food, and anything else they could lay hands to, and then headed off. People are hungry, and hungry people sometimes ain’t nice people.”
“That’s a nice way of putting it,” Emma said. Ben shrugged.
“Can’t blame’em so much. They’re in a tight spot. I don’t like what they’re doing, but I do understand it.”
“Pretty charitable,” Jerry added, surprised. Kelvey just shrugged.
“We’ve seen the same thi
ng,” Terry nodded. “Ain’t nobody tried to take from us, yet, but they ain’t sure just where we’re at.” He studied the others.
“I’m not against what you’re doing, but I don’t know that I want to just up an re-settle somewhere else. We’ve got a lot of stuff to move, and it would be a job of the first order, to be sure. And our place. . .well, let’s just say it was built with something like this in mind,” he settled for saying.
“I don’t have a lot of stuff,” Peter interjected. “But I’ve decided I’ll stay with Terry and his family. Whatever they decide to do, that’s how I’ll go.”
“Well, as to moving,” George shrugged. “Billy brought a semi to move us.”
“I’d need one, just for my own stuff,” Terry nodded seriously. “And still would need my truck and trailer,” he admitted.
“Well, we’d need something similar, I’d guess,” George scratched his head. “I mean, we’ve got a lot o' tool’s we’d have to move. Can’t leave’em behind, cause we couldn’t maybe replace’em.”
Billy watched as these exchanges took place. Everyone weighed in, including Rhonda and Emma, but Billy stayed silent. He listened to the arguments for and against, listened to potential problems, and proposed solutions. In all that time, he said nothing.
Finally, he did.
“Look,” he stood. “All this is great, but it ain’t gettin’ the cat skint. Bottom line is, do you guys want to go or not? Any kinda problems with gettin’ you moved, we can deal with. If not one way, then another. That ain’t an issue. We have to get another semi, we will. We need two, we’ll get’em. All that hinges on what you guys want to do.”
“I got a semi,” Jon said, chuckling. “It’s not an OTR rig, I just hauled logs with it. What I don’t have is a trailer.”
“Then let’s go get one,” Billy shrugged.
“Just like that?” Terry asked, appraising the up to now silent Billy again.
“Yep,” Billy nodded. “Ya’ll live around here, so where could we find a couple trailers?”
“Today?”
“Why not?” Billy shrugged. “We’re here, you’re here. Got light left. We can get trailers, move’em in where you can start loadin’. We’ll help, or we can do it when we come back to help you guys move. Meantime, you can load what you can yourselves. I know ya’ll ain’t able,” Billy waved in the Kelvey’s general direction. “But we can lend a hand on that. Once it’s done, we bring a truck, you can use yours,” he nodded to Jon, “and we convoy you all back to the Farms.”
“Simple, huh?” Pete Two Bears snorted.
“Most things are simple, when you get to the root,” Billy nodded, looking right at the former soldier.
“And what if we don’t want to live on your ‘Farms’,” Two Bears asked, not quite making it a challenge.
“Then you stay where ya are,” Billy shrugged. “Simple,” he added pointedly.
Two Bears stared at Billy for a long minute, and several onlookers began to look concerned. Billy simply returned the look with a calm air, waiting.
Suddenly Two Bears nodded, as if deciding something.
“I like you,” he said. “I like a man looks me in the eye when he’s talking.”
Billy shrugged, nodding by way of a reply. Collective breaths were released around the group, held for very different reasons.
“Well, we’re in, I think,” Ben repeated. “And I’m ready to get started. Sooner we do this, sooner we’re finished. I’d like to be settled in before winter hits full on.”
“Well, let’s us go find you a trailer, then,” Billy smiled.
Terry Blaine looked at his wife, who had so far had nothing to say. She returned his look for a moment, then nodded abruptly. He raised an eyebrow in question, and she nodded again, more firmly.
“Well, looks like we’re in,” he announced. “Better go get two trailers, I guess.”
*****
Jon had gone with Billy and George to get his truck, and then to get a trailer.
“I know where some box trailers are,” he told them. “Should still be there, anyway. And they’re probably empty. I’ll have to watch the fuel gauge though. Truck ain’t got much fuel left.”
“I got some in that tank,” Billy pointed to the bed. “We’ll be fine.”
“Great!”
Billy followed Jon for almost ten miles, until the trucker pulled off the road into a gravel lot. There were five box trailers sitting in the lot, none of them hooked to trucks. There were, however, two trucks in the lot.
“We oughta look at one o’ them,” George said.
“Might do,” Billy nodded.
The men all emerged from their vehicles, Jon having backed in to one of the trailers.
“Didn’t think about them trucks bein’ here,” Jon told them. “Might have more fuel than mine.”
“You game to leave yours here, though?” George asked.
“Well, there ain’t no real sentimental value to it,” Jon said dryly.
“We can see about gettin’em started, I guess.”
“I’ll take that Pete, if we can get it started,” Jon offered. “Nice rig.”
The men worked on the trucks for a few minutes, and used Billy’s truck to jump start them. Both ran ragged for a few minutes, until the Pri-D that Billy had added to the tank started to help.
“Handy to have around,” Jon grinned at him.
“Sometimes,” Billy shrugged. “Well, I guess we can see about these trailers.”
All of them turned out to be empty, just as Jon had suggested. He chose the best two, and he and Billy hooked up. Billy’s truck was a Mack. He hated, hated the thought of driving one of these things again, but George had no experience in one, and for his sins, Billy had a little, now.
“Guess we’ll follow you,” Billy said over the radio.
“Works,” Jon replied. They had already agreed to a radio protocol. Jon pulled out of the lot, with Billy following. George rode the drag. Billy wished now they had brought another vehicle, with a local to drive ahead. But it was too late for that now.
Prob’ly be all right, he told himself. Billy didn’t like probably. Not one bit, he didn’t.
The trip wasn’t as nerve wracking as his first had been, but there were a few moments. In one close turn, the trailers rear wheels went off the culvert slightly, even though Billy had followed Jon’s turn as closely as possible. With George coaching, however, Billy managed to get the trailer back on the road, no worse for wear.
That turn was the last one, he discovered, as they followed Jon to the Kelvey home. Everyone had gathered there, waiting for the trucks. Surprise was evident when they saw the two new trucks.
“I see you’re driving again,” Rhonda smirked, as Billy climbed down.
“And I still don’t like it,” he grumped, as Rhonda hugged him tightly.
“Did okay, though,” George encouraged, coming up from behind.
“Had a little practice this time,” Billy grinned sheepishly. “Anyway, we got two pretty good trucks, and trailers.”
“Like my new rig?” Jon asked his brother, grinning.
“Always did want a Pete, didn’t you,” Ben chuckled. “Only took the end of the world to get one.” Everyone had a good laugh at that one.
“We’ll follow you to your place, now, I guess,” Billy told Terry Blaine. “Drop this truck and trailer off. We need to decide when we want to do the move. We’ll come back and help.”
“Well, we been kinda talking that through,” Terry told him. “I figure we can come help Ben, and he can come help us, and the three of us can get everything loaded in about a week. That’s allowing for the unforeseen, mind you. Likely we can get it faster than that. Once we’re ready, we’ll give you a call. Ya’ll come down, and lead us there, and maybe ride shotgun. Ralph told me what happened when they moved.”
“Yeah, that was tight,” Jerry nodded. “Good thing we went when we did, though, or. . .well,” he shrugged.
“We’d have been corn-cobbed,”
George finished for him. “Plain and simple.”
“All right, so a week, or so. That can work,” Jerry mused. “We got work we need to do, anyway, so it ain’t like the time will be wasted. Be nice to know what the weather would be like, week from now,” he sighed.
“Yeah, I miss the Weather Service,” Terry chuckled. “‘Bout the only thing I miss, though. I swear, I hate to say it, and don’t want no one thinking bad of me for it, but my life has been a lot better these last few months, in some ways.”
“I think we’ve all had that thought a time or two,” Jerry agreed. “Still, there’s some comfort to be found in knowin’ things.”
“And in numbers,” Ben put in. “I ain’t gonna lie, I been on edge ever since what happened in Franklin. That town was doing pretty good until the raid.”
“Ever figure out who they were, or where they came from?” Billy asked.
“Folks said they was usin’ a train,” Ben shrugged. “Unloaded like a swarm o’ grasshoppers, and just started strippin’ the town of anything useful.” Billy and Rhonda exchanged glances.
“I think we need to look at a map,” Billy said finally, and Rhonda went to get one from the truck. “We seen that train before, I’m thinking. Further we stay from the tracks, better off we’re likely to be.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Did you have a good trip?” Mary asked, as the three of them left the Silvers’ farm for home.
“Well, nobody shot at us,” Billy told her, and Mary blushed.
“That ain’t what I meant,” Billy told her, seeing her reaction. “Seems ever time we leave here, someone wants to shoot at us, or take somethin’ from us.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Rhonda murmured.
“So this time was different?” Mary asked.
“Smooth trip, little’un,” Billy smiled. “We’ll have some more neighbors in a week or so.”
“Who?” Mary asked, a little concern in her voice.
“Folks from up around Franklin,” Rhonda told her. “Two families, in fact. Five men, two women, and two kids.”