by A. American
“Good idea,” I said and called Little Bit over. She still had good shoes and we had a couple sizes up for her as well. Hand-me-downs from her sisters. But they were valuable now.
I sat her down on a sack of rice and took her shoes off. Fred handed me what she thought was her size and I tried them on her. She jumped up and pranced around, happy in her new shoes. I wanted to box them back up, but she ran off.
“I guess she’s keeping them,” I said. “I wanted a couple sizes up, so she’d have some later.”
Fred dug back into the box and pulled out another pair. “Here. These will fit her later.”
I took the shoes and said, “I feel kind of bad taking two pair for her when so many others need them.”
“Morgan,” Fred replied, “If it weren’t for you, no one would have new shoes. Keep them.”
“She’s right, Morgan,” Sarge said. “You thought of way more than any of us would have.”
“I’m amazed they had all this stuff,” I replied.
“Fawcett said they’re starting to get a lot of aid in now that the military had control of the ports. The biggest problem they’re having is distributing it. He was kind of relieved you came. That’s why they sent so much with us. He knew you’d get it out to folks.”
“Are things getting back to normal, then?” I asked.
“Normal?” Sarge asked. “Normal will be a long time in coming. But they are starting to stabilize a little bit. Just as soon as they round up those Russians and Cubans, they’ll be able to focus on getting the country restored. They have engineers working on some things now, but they just don’t have the manpower.”
“How are they deciding where to focus their efforts then?” Aric asked.
Sarge smiled. “They’re looking for the spark, that’s how he put it. Places that are trying to get back on their feet. So much of the country is a lawless land, wilderness as he put it.”
“Are we a spark?” Fred asked.
Sarge nodded. “Indeed, we are.” He swept his hand out over the mounds of supplies still to be sorted. “That’s why all this is here. And there will be more coming.”
A clapping of hands got everyone’s attention. We all looked up to see Kay standing with her hands on her hips. “Come on now. This isn’t going to sort itself. The sooner we get it sorted, the sooner we can take it to town.”
“Back to work!” Sarge barked.
I wandered around, inspecting things to get an idea of all that was sent. I found Dalton stuffing cans of sardines into a backpack. He looked at me and grinned, “I love these things.” Looking at a can in his hand, he lamented, “Just wish they had ‘em in hot sauce.”
I shivered. “Man, I had a bad experience with those once.”
He laughed. “Yeah, it’s always a good idea to eat ice cream afterwards so you have something to look forward to when you’re sitting on the shitter.”
With his bag full, he slung it over his shoulder and walked back over to where Ted was inventorying the trailer-load of ammo. I walked over to see what sort of goodies the old man had managed to get for us.
“Anything exciting over here?” I asked Ian.
“All this shit is exciting. You just don’t want to be on the exciting end of it is all.”
“The old man was thorough,” Ted announced. “He got everything from hand grenades to 105 rounds for the Stryker. We’ll never shoot all this shit up.”
I looked around at the crates of ammo and replied, “I sure as hell hope not. If we do, it’s a bad damn day.”
Dalton chuckled, “Ain’t that the truth.” He opened a can of grenades and took several out, then opened another can and removed detonators for them.
Ted wagged a finger at him. “Do not arm that shit standing here!”
“I’m not, I’m not. This is just for my personal collection.”
Ted waved him off. “Close that can and get those out of here.”
Dalton dropped it all into his pack and carried it off a distance where he set it down under an oak tree before returning to the inventory. Looking over the ammo cans, cases and crates, I saw one that caught my eye. While I didn’t speak military shorthand, it was obvious it was full of smoke grenades. I opened it and indeed, it was red smokes. I took a couple out and stuffed them into my dump pouch.
With this task well in hand, I told Sarge I was going to take care of some other things. He said they had it under control and that we would be taking the supplies to town tomorrow. I told him I’d see him later and went over to Thad, who had been doing most of the heavy lifting. I asked if he wanted to go for a ride with me.
He looked around and smiled, “I’d rather stay here and finish this,” he replied.
I patted his shoulder. “No problem, buddy. I’ll get someone else. But I’m going to borrow your little truck.”
“You’re more than welcome to it. It ain’t mine anyway.”
I laughed, “It’s as much yours, if not more than it is anyone else’s.”
“I’ll go with you,” Aric piped up.
“Cool. Let’s go.”
While I collected Little Bit, he went and gave Fred a kiss, telling her he’d be back. Little Bit protested, “I don’t want to go. I want to stay here and help.”
“I have to leave, kiddo. We gotta go.”
“You can leave her here,” Kay said. She patted Little Bit’s head, adding, “She’s my special helper.”
“You sure?” I asked.
“Of course, I am. You go on. Tell Mel that I’ll bring her home later.”
Little Bit smiled up at her, “Thanks, Miss Kay.”
“You be good for Miss Kay now.”
“I will!” She smiled back.
“Where are we going?” Aric asked.
“I want to go up to Save-A-Lot and take some parts out of their light fixtures.”
With a look of confusion, he asked, “For what?”
“I’m going to build something that might help keep the houses a little cooler. Create a little airflow.”
He rolled his eyes. “Anything would be an improvement.”
We walked towards Danny’s house where the little truck was parked. On the way, I stopped by the house to tell Mel we were running to Umatilla real quick and that Little Bit was with Kay. She said she was about to walk down to see if she could help anyway.
“Ok, babe,” I said. “We’ll be back in a while.”
When I came out of the house, I could hear the little truck running, and I walked over. At the back of Danny’s shed, I grabbed a ten-foot step ladder and slid it up on top of the lightbar of the truck and tied it with a piece of rope from the bed. Aric was sitting in the driver’s seat as I climbed in. “To the market, James.”
“Right oh!” he quipped as he pulled out.
“How are you going to make something out of light fixtures to cool the house?”
“You take two-liter bottles and cut them in half. Then, you insert the small neck through something, in this case, the lens from the fluorescent light fixtures. And then you secure them. When a breeze pushes air into them, it compresses it, cooling it.”
He thought about it as he drove. Then he looked at me and asked, “Really?”
“Yeah. It’s simple thermodynamics.”
He shrugged. “If you say so, professor.”
“Hey, let’s stop by the Market in Altoona. I want to let them know to spread the word that we’ll be giving out food.”
“Good idea,” he replied.
He wheeled into the market and pulled up beside Mario’s booth and I waved him over to the window. “What’s up?” He asked as he walked up.
“Do me a favor,” I said, “start spreading the word that there will be a food distribution here in the morning. We’re going to
do one here, as well as in Umatilla and Eustis.
“I’m going up to Eustis later. I’ll deliver the news,” Mario replied.
“Food? What kind of food?” Shelly asked.
“All kinds of stuff,” Aric replied.
“Everything from flour and rice to canned meat. Plus, baby formula, diapers and some other stuff,” I said.
“No shit? Where the hell did all that come from?” Mario asked.
“We went up to Eglin Air Force Base and got it all there. I was surprised they gave us so much.”
“So, are things getting back to normal?” Shelly asked.
“Not yet. But we’re starting to get aid from other countries now.”
Mario shook his head. “Imagine that. The US needing international aid.”
“Does seem like we’re in an alternate universe now, doesn’t it?” I asked.
“To say the least,” Shelly replied.
“We got work to do. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” I said.
Aric gave the peace sign, saying, “Later, tater.”
We rolled up into the parking lot of Save-A-Lot and parked the truck right in front of the doors. I told Aric to grab the keys. I didn’t want to come out and find our ride home gone. He agreed, “That would suck.”
We carried the ladder in and set it down to have a look around. The place was totally devoid of anything that resembled food. As a matter of fact, it was missing anything that wasn’t nailed down. I had to laugh when I looked at the busted cash registers. The thought of someone trying to break into them for something as useless as cash.
“What in the world were they going to do with it if they found any?” Aric asked.
“When was the last time you saw any?” I asked with a chuckle.
“Last night. I actually have a couple of bills in my wallet.”
I stopped and turned to look at him and asked with a laugh, “What the hell are you doing with a wallet?”
“Sentimental,” he shrugged.
I looked under the counters of the register stands.
“What are you looking for?” Aric asked.
“Bags, I’m looking for plastic bags. Check the others and see if there are any,” I said as I pulled a full box of plastic shopping bags out and laid it on the belt that used to carry items to the cashier. It made me laugh, everything had to be made as easy as possible.
We found four and a half cases of bags and carried them out to the truck. “What are you going to do with these? More thermodynamics?”
“No,” I laughed. “We can use these to distribute the food and stuff. It’ll make it easier.”
“Good idea,” he nodded.
After going through the store, partly to make sure no one was there, I set the ladder up and asked Aric to keep a lookout. “You’re here for security,” I said.
“I got your back,” he replied as he turned to face the front of the store.
The bracket holding the lens in is held in place with two small clips. I used my Leatherman tool to open them because they can be a little stubborn and I wasn’t going to close them, so I didn’t care if I tore them up. Once open, the lens was easily pushed out. I let them fall to the floor. Moving from fixture to fixture, I removed about a dozen of them.
After carrying them out to the truck, I returned and picked up a few two-liter bottles I saw lying on the floor. Then I returned for the ladder and carried it out to the truck and secured it to the lightbar.
“You ready, boss?” Aric asked.
“I’m not your boss. But I am ready,” I corrected him. “Let’s ride over to the Umatilla market so I can let those folks know about the food tomorrow.”
We rode up to the market. It was busy after so many days of rain. People were out looking for food. We parked, and I got out and walked over to the old fuel island where the majority of tables were set up. Getting to the middle of the island, I called, “Hey, everyone, listen up! Tomorrow before noon, there will be a distribution of food and other supplies here! Let as many know as you can to be here!”
I was bombarded with questions from the few dozen people gathered. But I waved them off, “I’m not going to answer questions now! Just be here tomorrow!”
As I walked back to the truck, I was followed by the crowd as they continued to shout questions at me. I didn’t respond to any of them. Instead, I climbed back in the truck and we left, headed back towards the house. We stopped where everyone was still at work on the supplies. I grabbed a couple of boxes of the bags and carried them over to where Kay was still working on her inventory.
Setting them down on a stack of boxes, I said, “Kay, I thought we could use these to break the food down. People probably won’t have bags or anything to put the rice and flour in, so I thought this would be a way we could hand out smaller portions.”
Kay picked up one of the bundles of bags. The tops of them had a tab that was heat-sealed together. She pulled one loose and shook it open. “This is a great idea! We can actually prepare individual bags. This will make it a lot easier to pass out prepackaged bundles.”
“That would take a lot of work,” Sarge said.
“Maybe,” I replied. “But I stopped by Altoona and Umatilla to tell people we’d be handing out food tomorrow. I was bombarded with questions and chased out of the parking lot.”
“What in the hell would you do that for? We’re taking all this to Eustis,” Sarge replied.
“And just what good does that do the people out here? How the hell are people supposed to get to Eustis? Then back with the food? Sure, they can walk. But why not just stop on the way and hand it out?”
“He’s right, Linus,” Kay said, supporting me.
He shook his head. “You know how long it will take to put that together?”
“Are we on someone’s schedule?” Kay asked. Her question caught him off guard and he didn’t respond immediately. “We have all the time we need.”
Sarge thought about it for a minute, before nodding his head. “You’re right. We can take some time to organize that. But we need to go through this stuff and separate a portion out for Sheffield’s people before we start portioning it out.”
“That’s a good idea. We can separate theirs out first. Then the rest we break up,” Kay replied. Then she looked at me and asked, “Can you find more of these bags? We’ll need a lot of them.”
“Maybe. We can go look for sure,” I replied.
She smiled, “Good. The sooner, the better.” She made me smile. As though it was just a matter of fact that I was going to be able to go out and get them. She clapped her hands, “Alright, everyone. We’re going to start preparing bags of supplies. We need to put flour in one, rice in another. Those can go into a separate bag into which we put other things, like the canned meats, beans and bottles of cooking oil.”
“I think we should make a separate one for the hygiene stuff,” Jess said. “Put in a bar of soap, tube of toothpaste, shampoo, that sort of thing.”
“And another bag with diapers and formula,” Fred added. The reasoning obvious, coming from her.
Sarge ambled up beside me. His arms were folded over his chest. “You realize how long this shit is going to take, don’t you? What a can of worms you just opened?”
“You think Sheffield would’ve done a better job?”
Sarge scratched his beard. “At least it would have been his problem.”
I laughed. “Lazy ass. I’m going to go see if we can find some more bags for Kay.”
The work shifted. The group started setting up stations to divide the foodstuffs and other items up. I found Aric and asked him if he wanted to go for another ride. He was more than eager. As we walked back towards the little truck, I stopped to talk to Mel.
“Hey, we’re going back up to town to look for more b
ags.”
She was working with Mary. They were opening boxes of hygiene products and setting them out in a row to make preparing the bags expedient. She looked up and smiled, “Okay.”
Aric was in the driver’s seat when I got to the truck. As I climbed in, he asked, “Why don’t you drive your Suburban anymore?”
As he started the truck, I replied, “The batteries are dead.”
“Aw, that sucks. No way you’re going to find a replacement.”
“No, probably not. But I’m going to try and restore them. It’ll last awhile anyway.”
As we pulled out of the neighborhood, he asked, “How in the hell are you doing that?”
“You can do it with Epsom salt.”
“Didn’t know that.”
We rode up to the Publix on the outskirts of Eustis and parked on the curb. The automatic doors stood open and we went into the dark store. Using flashlights, we went through the register stands just as we did in Save-A-Lot. We found several bundles of bags, many scattered on the floor. Putting them in a pile by the door, I suggested we check the back of the store. I had worked for Publix when I was in high school. Of course, in those days we used paper bags. But the extra bags were always stored in the stockroom.
Naturally, the stockroom was even darker than the store. “This is like something out of a horror movie,” Aric said as he held his rifle at low-ready.
I chuckled, “You afraid of Jason?”
“That shit ain’t funny. Never did like horror movies.”
In the stockroom, we found a grocery cart and I pulled it along with us. It banged and squeaked as we moved through the darkened corridor. There was light at the far end, and as we got closer, it was obvious it was natural light. Rounding the corner, we saw the rear roll-up door where the trucks were unloaded was standing open. This part of the stockroom was littered with debris, both natural and trash. Animal tracks were everywhere in the dust which made me immediately think it would be a good place to set up traps if one were really hungry.