by A. American
Mark and Rick went off to get with PD to see what was up while Vance and I talked. The Suburban was left sitting right where we had exited it. I asked about his kids and wife, and all were well. Then I asked about his livestock. He had quite the little farm going. He just laughed and said, “Follow me.” We went around behind the armory to find a pen where his goats and pigs were, and even a chicken coop. He had managed to talk the guard into using one of their trucks to go out to his place and get everything. He had walked in by himself the first day, going to the PD to talk to them about some help. This was before the declaration of martial law. Now they had the protection of heavy firepower and a pretty good law enforcement presence.
Mark and Rick came down the sidewalk and said we needed to get moving. Vance and I said our good-byes with promises to try to get together later. Back in the Suburban, we were allowed to pass and continued on through town. It didn’t take long to get to the SO. There was a significant security presence there too, but this time we didn’t have any trouble.
Mark told me to stay with the truck and that they would be back as soon as possible. I asked him what they were going to do in there. He said he wanted to know what was going on, what the sheriff wanted him to do and if the SO could help out in any way. As the two of them headed into the offices, I went to the back of the truck and dropped the gate. Sitting down, I pulled out a canteen and took a drink and waited. There was a lot of activity. I saw some guys working on a couple of the newer Rhino ATVs and walked over to see what they were doing.
They told me they were trying to find a way to get it to run. The older versions ran fine, but they couldn’t get the newer ones to, and they had a bunch of them. They were trying to find ways to remove or bypass all the electronics, but so far they weren’t having any luck. Another one was being eviscerated, its engine and all the internal parts scattered all around it as they tried to install a different engine. I walked back to the truck as Rick came up.
“Let’s go,” he said as he climbed in.
“Where to?” I asked.
He guided me around to the back of the sheriff’s department, where Mark was waiting. There was a stack of stuff beside him. We started loading it all up: MREs, bottled water, lifeboat-style ration bars and what I assumed to be some ammo from the weight of the boxes. There were also cases marked HUMANITARIAN AID in big letters. After we loaded all the stuff, it filled the entire rear of the Suburban as well as the rest of the back seat beside Rick.
Mark climbed into the passenger seat with a box in his lap. I asked what was in it, and he just looked over at me and wiggled his eyebrows and smiled. “Goodies,” he said.
We didn’t talk much on the way. Mark said he wanted to get some people together and have a meeting when we got back. It didn’t take long to get there. I was genuinely surprised at the overall calm of the area; there wasn’t the kind of trouble I had run across on my way home. I actually started to relax a little, and then we got back to our road. As we pulled off onto our little dirt road, the two guys at the barricade started to wave frantically at us.
Chapter 5
After dinner was done and all the guests had left, Thad settled down in his chair with Tony in his lap. Anita was on the couch and a fire burned in the fireplace. The only sound in the room was the old manual wind up clock on the wall with its rhythmic click, clock, click, clock. Thad sat there with his son in his lap, his mind elsewhere. Anita looked over at him in time to see a tear run down his cheek. She got up and picked up the sleeping Tony and took him to bed. Once Tony was tucked in, Anita stopped in the hallway to the living room. Leaning against the corner, she looked out at her husband before she turned and went to their bedroom. Thad sat there, just staring into the fire.
In the morning, Anita found him on the couch, the quilt that was usually draped over the back of it pulled up around him. She went back to the bedroom and came out with the comforter off the bed and put it over him. Going into the kitchen, she started breakfast. She stoked a fire in the old stove, went outside to the back porch and took the slab of bacon kept in a cooler out there. While the weather was still cool, this worked fine, but when the seasons changed, it would be a useless way to keep their meat. While she was out there, she also grabbed a large piece of salt pork and brought it in.
With the stove heating, she set a skillet out, then a large old pot. After laying the sliced bacon in the pan, she went outside and used the old pitcher pump to fill a bucket and carried it into the kitchen. Anita poured the beans into a pot and covered them with water, then dropped the piece of salt pork in, set the lid on and put it on the stove. Thad woke up as the bacon aroma started to fill the house.
They talked of the future over breakfast. Their food stores were running low and Anita wanted to know what they were going to do; as a mother and wife, she was afraid. Thad told her he just didn’t know, and that he was going to go and see Mr. Jackson later that day and see what the two of them could come up with. Thad walked over to the sink and looked out the window into the backyard. There was frost on the ground and on the mound of earth that covered his mother.
Mr. Jackson had an old place in what was now the Big Cypress Swamp. His place there had been allowed to remain even though it was in what was now a state park. He kept a pigpen with around forty hogs in it, plus a real nice flock of chickens. In addition to the hogs and birds, he kept a couple of cows and had one bull. With the bull he was able to get one or two calves a year, plus he was able to milk the cows and keep some milk and farmer’s cheese around.
Thad helped Mr. Jackson muck out the pigpen. It was cold, nasty work, but it needed to be done. Afterward, Thad cleaned out the coop while Mr. Jackson tossed some hay to the cows, leading one into the barn to milk her. He used a funnel to pour an old soda bottle full of milk.
“Here, Thad, take this home to your boy. Growin’ boys need milk,” Mr. Jackson said as he handed Thad the bottle.
“Thank ya, sir. I jus’ don’t know what we are going to do. Food’s gonna run out soon,” Thad said.
“Don’t worry. You come around and help me from time to time and I’ll keep y’all in groceries.” As he said it, Mr. Jackson moved to a door in the kitchen, opening it. It was a pantry about eight feet long and four feet wide with shelves from top to bottom. The shelves were stacked with jars of home-canned food. Mr. Jackson pointed into the pantry and said, “Mary used to put up everything we didn’t eat right away. I growed it and she canned it. I can still grow it; maybe you and Anita can help can it.”
Thad stood there looking into the pantry. His eyes were wide. The old man went in and started putting cans into a cardboard box. Going over to the sink, he took down a piece of cheesecloth that was hanging from a cabinet knob and dropped it into the box. Thad took the box and the milk out to the truck and sat them on the seat. Mr. Jackson came out and set a bag into the bed of the truck.
“Thanks for the food, Mr. Jackson. I’ll be back in a couple of days to help out. If you need something in the meantime, just come by,” Thad said.
“Thanks for all the help, Thad, an I’ll do it if’n I need anything. Next time you come by, bring your axe; we need to split some wood. We’ll work together and you can take some home with you,” the old man said, slapping the cab of the truck.
Thad went home with the load of food and Anita was thrilled beyond words. The sack the old man had put in the truck was full of cornmeal. Anita would be able to keep them in corn bread for a while. Tony got excited when he saw a jar of strawberry preserves. Since things had fallen apart, sweets had been hard come by, probably what it had been like two hundred years before. Dinner that night was rice with stewed tomatoes, the pinto beans started that morning and, of course, corn bread. It wasn’t exactly gourmet dining, but a full meal these days was a kind of celebration no matter what ended up on the table.
Thad spent the next day at home with Tony, playing Battleship. They lay on the living room floor in f
ront of the fireplace while Anita sat on the couch crocheting a sweater. It was one of the happiest days Thad could remember, even though Tony beat him more often than not. Anita came out with a special treat for the boys at lunchtime. Since she had the milk and rice, she made them some rice pudding. She served it hot to them with some cinnamon on top, and Tony licked the pot clean.
The next morning, Thad got up early to go help Mr. Jackson. He lit a candle and found his way into the kitchen, where he cut a piece of corn bread from the cake pan covered with a dishtowel. Jamming a piece of ham into it, he ate it as he was heading for the door. Little Tony came out of the hall rubbing his eyes and said, “Daddy, kin I come an’ help?”
Thad said, “Not this time, little man. I’ll be bringing a load of firewood home today and you need to stack that mess in the barn to make room. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes, sir,” he answered, then yawned.
“Then go on back to bed. After your breakfast, you get started on that woodpile,” Thad said and pulled on his coat.
Little Tony turned and padded back down the hall to his room. As was now Thad’s habit, he picked up the double barrel, the Glock already on his belt, and headed out the door. The old truck was still running, and he had gotten a little gas from old man Jackson. Thad climbed into the truck and headed down to the farm. It was only a short drive and the heater was only just warming the cab when he pulled up. Looking up the drive to the old house, Thad thought he saw someone in the yard, just a fleeting glimpse. But these days a glimpse was enough for him to shut the truck down and walk up the long drive to the house.
Walking as quietly as he could, he kept his eyes fixed on the house. When the front of the house came into view, he stepped behind an old pine tree. Sitting in front of the house was an old Scout International. Thad saw a man come out with an armload of boxes and put them in the back of the Scout. He could hear talking inside the house, but not the old man’s voice. After the man went back into the house, Thad made a quick dash to the back of the Scout. Looking in, he saw boxes full of the preserves from the pantry, as well as guns and other items he recognized as Mr. Jackson’s. The bed of the old man’s truck was likewise being filled with Mr. Jackson’s things.
As Thad stood there looking into bed of the truck, he heard a voice scream, “Daddy!” Thad looked up to see a girl of fourteen or fifteen standing in the doorway holding a box. He looked at the girl, both of them frozen. A man appeared behind the girl, raised a pistol and fired a shot at Thad that hit the bed of the truck, a piece of the bullet entering Thad’s left arm at his elbow. Thad dropped to the ground; he could hear the heavy sound of boots coming closer.
Thad rolled to his side and looked under the truck. The man and the girl were running toward the truck, and they were close. Thad stuck the old sawed-off under the truck and fired into their legs, both barrels. He heard screams and quickly reloaded the shotgun. He could see the man on the ground. He was holding his legs and screaming through gritted teeth. The girl likewise was holding what appeared to be a compound fracture of her lower left leg. A moment later he saw another set of legs appear in the doorway of the house, then heard a scream, and these legs ran toward the truck.
The woman fell to her knees between the man and the girl. Thad could see her hands and they were empty, so he stood up, shotgun raised. The woman looked up at him, tears in her eyes. Thad moved around the back of the truck and the woman began cursing him. The man reached for the pistol he had been carrying.
“Don’t do it!” Thad shouted, and the woman leapt for the weapon. Thad fired and she fell face-first in the dirt. The girl let out a scream and the man tried for the pistol again. Thad fired the second barrel into him and he never moved again. He quickly drew his Glock and approached the three, picking up the pistol from the ground. Seeing the girl was in no condition to do anything, he went past her into the house. Thad found the old man in the living room. Kneeling down beside him, he raised the old man’s head from the floor. He was still breathing, but blood was coming out of his mouth and nose.
“You hang on now, I’m gonna get you some help,” Thad said through clenched teeth.
The old man raised a weak hand and put in on Thad’s arm and shook his head. “No. I’m gonna die, Thad, an’ I don’t want to be alone. Stay here with me.”
Thad sat there holding the old man in his lap. Mr. Jackson told him how the girl had come to the door asking for help. She looked hungry and afraid, so he had brought her in. As soon as he closed the door and turned around, she shot him twice. Both bullets entered his chest and he knew right then he was a dead man. He lay there and played dead, praying to God that Thad would come, not to help him but to avenge him. Thad told him that the man and woman were already dead, and the girl had some serious wounds.
Between coughs and in a raspy voice the old man said, “I’ve always been a Christian man, an’ I’ve made peace with my maker, but do me a favor, Thad.”
With tears in his eyes, Thad replied, “Anything, Mr. Jackson.”
“Go outside and kill that bitch before I die. I want ’em all dead before I die,” the old man said through clenched teeth.
Thad looked down at him, gently laid his head on the floor and stood up. Walking outside, he found the girl where he had left her. She was lying in a fetal position, crying. Thad walked up to her and shouted, “Why?”
The shout startled her and she looked up at him. Again he shouted at her: “Why?”
“We’re starving. We needed food, and he had so much,” she cried out.
“That old man would have given you anything you wanted. He didn’t need to die,” he said. “But you do.”
The look of horror on her face lasted only a moment. Thad pulled the trigger and she was gone. Thad went back in the house. The old man was still alive. Thad knelt down beside him and said, “It’s done.”
A hint of a smile cut across the old man’s lips. “You bring your family here; this place is yours now. You know how to take care of things. It’ll keep you going.” His eyes closed and he was gone.
Chapter 6
Andy and his boys left soon after lunch. They had handed over the party favors they told Sarge about and Ted was busy storing them away. Sarge was sitting at the table in the cabin looking at Don. He said, “What the fuck am I supposed to do with your ass?” Don was sitting across the table from him, sucking on the bones of a catfish, his hands covered in grease up to his wrists.
Don looked up at him and said, “I can’t go back after what y’all did; they’ll kill me for sure.”
Sarge sat there looking at the fat man as he licked the grease off his fingers. He hadn’t really known him much more than their conversations over the counter of the hardware store, and after Sarge and the guys had shot some DHS goons there, Don was a wanted man. Still, all he could think was that Don was a nasty bastard. His face was covered in grease and he had eaten more than anyone else. Don leaned back in his chair, wiping his face with a dish towel.
“Them was some fine vittles, Linus,” he looked around the little cabin and said, “Say, you got any more beer around here?”
“Mike!” Sarge yelled.
“Out here, boss.”
“Meet me out front, now,” Sarge bellowed as he headed out the door. Don just sat there sucking his teeth and picking at them with a bone.
Sarge almost ran into Mike when he came out the door. “What’s up, boss?” Mike asked, seeing the look on the old first sergeant’s face.
“I want that fatass out of here now,” Sarge said as he spit into the tea-colored water of the swamp.
“Where do you want me to take him to? He knows where we are. Hell, he led Andy and his team right to us.”
Sarge pondered the situation for a moment. “We can’t just tell him to leave. The first time he gets hungry he’ll lead whoever he finds right to us. We have to find a new place. This joint is hotter’n hell full o
f lawyers.”
“Where we gonna go? From what Andy said, they’re looking for us now,” Mike said.
“Well, I figure they’ve had enough time to trash my place, probably been all through it. You an’ me’ll take a ride up there, set up on the other side of the river and watch it for a few days, see if anyone comes around.”
“You gotta be fucking nuts. Go back to your house? That’ll be the first place they’ll be looking,” Mike said.
“No, that’s the last place they would expect us, and I don’t want to move back into my house, dumbass, there’s something there I want to get. They probably didn’t mess with because it looks like junk, but it ain’t,” Sarge said.
“What? We took everything worth taking.”
“My old truck. It was under that cover in front of the shed out back. If they looked at it, it looks like an old junker, but it runs like a scalded dog. I had the starter took off and no plugs in it, but they’re there. If we can get it, then we’ll have wheels as well as a boat.”
“Sounds like an awful big risk to me.”
“What the hell you want to do, sit around here till they shove a Hellfire up our ass? They will find us, so we gotta move.”
“What about Don?” Mike asked.
“We’ll leave his ass here. There’s enough food and stuff to keep him going. I ain’t real worried about him, I’m worried about us.”
• • •
The two guys manning the roadblock when we left were still there. They were two of the neighbors I’d see on the road, the kind I’d wave to all the time but never actually met. When we pulled up, one of the guys ran to the passenger side of the truck. Mark put down his window and said, “What’s up, Billy?”
Billy’s eyes were wide and he was half out of breath. “Mark, man, am I glad you’re back. You need to get home fast, like now, go!”