by A. American
“I’ll figure something out,” he replied.
“Why don’t we just distribute it out between all the houses. It’ll take care of the issue of space as well as not keeping all our eggs in one basket,” Thad said.
“That’s a good idea,” Danny replied. “We’ll know where it is and can always bring it back.”
“I’ll make a list of what goes where. I already have an inventory going,” Kay said. She had a penchant for organization.
“I’ll still build us some shelves here,” Danny said.
“You want to go to the hardware store?” Thad asked. Danny nodded, and Thad said, “Let’s take the little red truck. It’s out front.”
The hardware store was actually the shop behind one of the houses. It was the home of an older man who was found having shot himself in his recliner in the living room. That very pistol was now tucked into Jess’s belt where she sat cutting zucchini. While the house wasn’t fit to go into, the shop was a veritable treasure chest of useful and hard-to-find materials. From fasteners to assorted lumber, the shop was a constant source of supply.
The wipers bumped back and forth in a pathetic attempt at keeping the windshield clear of water. The little truck splashed through the water flowing down the center of the road. Since traffic was now so limited, the frequent summer rains had washed it out considerably. Thad did his best with the tractor to maintain it, but it was still a rough ride.
The truck bounced in a particularly large rut. Thad said, “Soon as this rain stops, I got to get out here and do something about this road!”
Danny was clinging to the oh shit handle and agreed with him. “Good idea, I think. This is getting ridiculous.”
When they got to the paved portion, the ride smoothed out. But they had to make an immediate turn into the driveway of the hardware store. Thad pulled to a stop in front of the large roll-up door. “What are you thinking of for shelves?”
Pulling the hood of his raincoat over his head, Danny replied, “I don’t know. Let’s go see what’s in there.”
Inside the shop was a dry refuge from the unceasing rain outside. Shaking off the water, Danny took his coat off and laid it over the workbench. Thad hadn’t bothered to put one on and was just dealing with the wet. It was dark inside despite the large door being open, and both men put on headlamps.
“Let’s check out the lumber,” Danny said as he moved towards the back of the shop.
“Why don’t we just take these?” Thad asked, pointing at a couple of the black plastic shelving units that can be had from any hardware or big-box store.
Danny shook his head. “I hate those things. They’ll bow with any weight on them. And with the number of jars we’ll be piling on them, they would certainly sag.” Thad nodded in agreement. “But those,” Danny said as he pointed at another set of shelves that were more industrial looking. Like pallet racking from a warehouse, only smaller scale. “Those are perfect.”
Thad ran his hand over the plywood shelf. “Someone put some good wood on these. They’ll hold some weight.”
“Let’s clean these off and take them.”
They worked together to move the material from the shelves they wanted to other available space. Thad was simply moving things in as efficient a manner as possible and piling them on whatever surface was available. But that didn’t sit well with Danny’s OCD tendencies. He started rearranging the material. Sorting it according to type and size wherever possible.
Thad looked at him and laughed, asking, “What are you doing?”
“Just organizing it. That way, if we need to find it later, we can.”
“We know where to find it. In this here building. It ain’t going nowhere.”
Danny picked up a couple peanut butter jars full of screws and replied, “I’m a little more organized than that.”
Thad nodded. “Oh yeah. I think I remember Morgan saying something about you having OCD or something.”
Danny laughed. “It ain’t quite that bad. But you could say I’m the polar opposite of him. His idea of organization is throwing shit in a corner.”
Thad laughed, covering his mouth. “You right about that. He seems to do a lot by the seat of his pants.”
“You got that right.”
Thad picked up a box full of metal framing straps and asked, “Where do you want these?”
They got everything moved and disassembled the shelves they were going to use and carried them out to the truck. It was still raining, and they decided to hang out in the open door for a minute. Thad stretched and wandered back into the bowels of the building, which had not been thoroughly searched yet.
Danny could hear him shuffling around as he looked up into the desolate sky and asked, “What are you doing back there?”
“I found something. Come help me,” Thad replied.
Danny made his way back through the rows of shelves and found Thad stacking boxes of jars. “Look at all these,” he said as he added another flat to the pile that was already four-feet tall.
“Holy crap. See any lids?” Danny asked.
“There’s all kinds of stuff here,” Thad replied as he slid a large box full of lids out. Picking one up, he inspected it, “These are Tattler reusable lids. This is a gold mine.”
“I’ll start loading it,” Danny replied as he hefted the top three flats and headed for the truck.
They loaded all the canning supplies and got back in for the short ride home. As Thad pulled out onto the road, Danny said, “Be careful or we’ll have a bed full of broken glass.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Thad grunted, then said, “Hey, did I tell you I found a greenhouse?”
Danny shook his head. “No.”
“It’s a little rough. Ain’t been used in a long time. You care if I disassemble it and bring it to your place and set it up?”
“Not at all, I’ll help you. That would be great to keep the garden going.”
“And for starting seed. That’s where it’ll be really good.”
Thad backed the little truck up to the back porch to make unloading easier. Aric and Fred were sitting in rockers, staying out of the rain, and they came over to help. They made a chain of sorts, passing items to the two of them.
“Look at all these jars!” Fred shouted.
“Yeah, you just made Miss Kay’s day,” Aric added.
“Now, we ain’t got to use all them peanut butter jars and other weird ones we found,” Thad replied.
Taking the last case from Thad, Fred replied, “Yeah, she didn’t know how she was going to get them to seal.”
Aric had a stack of jars in his arms and said, “Come on, babe. Let’s take these in and surprise her.”
He pushed the door open with his foot and stepped in, shouting, “Miss Kay, we brought you something!”
Kay was at the sink and turned around, wiping her hands on an apron Jess had found in another house during the wedding dress search. “What is it?” She instinctively asked before seeing the cases of jars Aric and Fred were carrying. “Wherever did you find those?” She shouted as she started towards them.
“I don’t know,” Aric replied as he deposited his load onto the island. “Thad and Danny found them somewhere.”
As he said that, Thad stood in the open door, wiping his wet feet on the rug. Hearing Kay, he looked up and smiled, saying, “I thought you would like these.”
Kay picked up one of the jars and inspected it. “Where did you find them? We searched all the houses.”
Thad shrugged and replied, “At the hardware store,” as though it were as normal to say today as it once had been.
Kay looked up, “The what?”
Bobbie came in from the back porch with a large pot swinging from one hand. “We need more water for the canner,” she said. The
n she saw Danny coming through the door with another stack of jars in his arms. “What in the world?” She asked.
“Wait till you see what Danny has,” Thad replied.
Danny slid the two cases of jars and the box sitting on top of them onto the counter. Thad took the box and opened it. Reaching in, he took out one of the Tattler lids and handed it to Kay. Her eyes immediately lit up.
“Reusable lids!” She shouted.
Thad pulled back one of the flaps and looked down into the box. “A whole bunch of ‘em too.”
Kay pulled the box over and looked down into it. Her excitement grew even more, and she hugged Thad. “I don’t care where you found them! This is amazing! We’ve been trying to reuse lids and so many of them have failed to seal. This will really save us!”
Bobbie set her pot down and patted Danny on the ass. “Good job, babe. Where did you guys find them?”
“At the hardware store,” he replied. Which naturally made Thad laugh as he shouted, “That’s what I said!”
Picking up a case of jars, Kay said, “Well, I don’t care where you found them. I’m just glad you did.”
Bobbie gave Danny a sideways look, “What do you mean, hardware store?”
He leaned in and kissed her quickly before replying, “Just that. The hardware store.”
Bobbie wasn’t buying it though. “Hardware store my ass.”
“Don’t look gift jars in the mouth!” Kay shouted from the sink.
Jess and Mary walked in from the back porch. Though it was very overcast and relatively cool, Jess’s forehead was beaded with sweat and her hair clung to it. Brushing it away with the back of her hand, she said, “Kay. These jars aren’t sealing.” She shook her head and looked at the ceiling in exasperation. “We’re going to lose so much.”
“Where did all these come from?” Mary asked, a smile beaming across her face.
Kay smiled and nodded her head at Thad. “Your man there found them.”
Mary looked at him and gave him a timid smile. “You found all this? We looked in all the houses and didn’t find them.”
Thad jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “Me and Danny found them. They weren’t in a house though.”
Mary stepped over to him and raised herself up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. Thad’s face flushed as he was still getting used to the public affection, not that it was much of a secret to everyone. And to Thad’s relief, the small act went unnoticed. Or at least, there were no comments.
Jess lifted a case of quart jars up, saying, “I’m getting these into some boiling water now,” and she disappeared out the back door.
“I’ll help,” Mary called after her, grabbing another case as she followed.
I was startled awake by banging on the door of the truck. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes and cracked the door open. “What?”
Mike was standing on the step up to the cab. He had a pile of something in his hands and asked, “What size pants do you wear?”
Still trying to come to my senses, I blinked and asked, “What?”
“What size pants?”
Fumbling for the answer, I mumbled, “Thirty-eight, maybe. Hell, I don’t know.”
Mike picked through the pile of pants draped over his arm and pulled two pair out and handed them to me. “Here, these’ll fit you.”
I took the MultiCam pants and said, “Thanks. Where the hell did you find these?”
Mike bounced his eyebrows and replied, “While you were sleeping, me and Ted were out getting our scrounge on. The old man said we’re getting ready to pull out. But we’re going to have to take another route home. All this rain has caused the Santa Fe river to overflow onto I-75. We’re going to have to go around it.”
Sitting up and stretching as best I could in the cab, I replied, “Great. Let’s just drag this shit out for days.”
“Aw come on, Morg. It won’t be that bad. Little sightseeing.”
He stepped down and I pushed the door open. “I’ve seen those sights before and don’t really care to see them again. I’m going to go get a cup of coffee before we leave.”
“Better hurry. His Royal Pain in the Ass is already starting to bitch.”
“Let him,” I replied. Mike headed for the Stryker to hide his loot and I had a second thought about the coffee. Reaching into my pack, I took out my stainless water bottle. There was still water in it and I poured it into one of the Platypus water bags and took the bottle inside with me.
The coffee pot was a large affair, as would be expected in such a place. I put the bottle under it and opened the tap. As the brown liquid flowed in, I held a can of sugar and a can of powdered creamer in either hand, shaking their contents into the bottle as well. When the bottle was full, I wrapped my bandanna around it and shook it to mix well.
Removing a Styrofoam cup from its plastic sleeve, I made a cup for the road and headed back to the truck. Everyone was milling about around the trucks as rain gently but steadily fell from the sky. I found the old man and asked, “So which route are we going to take home?”
He was shining a red flashlight at a map inside a plastic case. “I figured we’d take nineteen. Be the easiest route.”
“That’s going to take us through a lot of populated areas.”
He tossed the map into the front seat of the Hummer and replied, “They’re not as populated as they once were.”
I grunted. “I guess not.” I looked up into the spitting sky and said, “Maybe the rain will keep the Indians at bay. I’ll be in the truck,” as rain drops pelted me.
Sarge cupped a hand to his mouth and shouted, “Let’s saddle up!”
As we were moving towards our vehicles, a Hummer came racing up and skidded to a stop. Several men climbed out and looked us over. When they didn’t say anything, Sarge asked, “Can I help you boys?”
“We heard you might be the folks that stirred a little shit up over in Crystal River.”
Sarge nodded. “Maybe just a little.”
The man looked back at those with him and replied, “We’re with the 14th Brigade Engineers. We were there when the Russians showed up.”
Sarge nodded, “Gong Mu Ro.”
The man nodded and with a smile and replied, “Rugged. It’s not often someone knows our motto.”
Sarge pointed at Mike and Ted and said, “Me and these boys did some work with your people in Afghanistan back in ’11.”
“They were the guys doing all the route clearance,” Mike offered.
The engineer held his hand out, “We just wanted to thank you guys. Name’s Arnold”
Sarge shook the man’s hand and replied, “I don’t know why. We could see you guys there. But there wasn’t anything we could do for you with the number of Ruskies. We just had to leave you fellers.”
Another one of the engineers stepped up and asked, “What the hell did you guys do to that boat?”
Sarge jabbed a thumb at Mike, “Well. This one here,” then he pointed at Dalton, “and Gulliver there swam out to the boat and planted a pile of C4 on the shafts.”
The engineers laughed. “Yeah,” one of them replied, “that really pissed the Russians off. They were caught completely off guard.”
“They expected an attack from the air,” another said. “Had all kinds of MANPADs ready to shoot down aircraft.” He laughed, “But when that boat erupted and sank. They shit themselves.”
“What the hell did they want with that spent fuel anyway?” Ted asked.
“We don’t know,” Arnold replied. “They were really tight-lipped about it around us. I have to say though, they were decent guys. We had some wounded in their raid and they treated them like their own. Their medics were top notch.”
“We watched you boys from the top of that coal elevator,” Dalton said. He
pointed to one of the men and said, “I remember you. Watched you while one of their medics bandaged you up.”
The man worked his arm. “It’s still a little sore, but I still have it.”
“Once they realized what had happened, they figured you guys were up there,” Arnold said. “They sent a team up there and found your hide. Followed your tracks to the water and out. Even back to where you exfilled to your truck.”
The man with the injured shoulder said, “Yeah. The boat really torqued their ass. But whoever was on the trigger of that rifle up there, that really pissed them off.”
Dalton nodded. “I’m sure it did. I went for the most important looking ones.”
“You got him. You took out some scientist of theirs. He was the guy everyone looked to on the movement of the fuel rods. Apparently, their number one job was to protect his ass. They had no idea there would be an attack like that.”
“Yeah,” Arnold added. “They really wanted your ass.”
“Better than they have tried and failed,” Dalton said.
“How did you guys get out?” Ted asked.
Arnold took a deep breath. “Well, once the boat was gone, there was nothing else for them to do. Then they got word there was a force moving our direction and they decided to unass the AO.”
“They just left you there?” Mike asked.
Arnold nodded. “Yeah. They didn’t have the time or resources to deal with us.”
“Not to mention they didn’t want a fight,” another of the engineers added.
“How did they get out?” Sarge asked.
“Boat,” Arnold answered. “They had other boats.”
“Just not the one they really wanted,” Mike said with a smile.
Arnold smiled and shook his head. “No, they damn sure didn’t have that one.”