Arne pointed to the dollar store. “Let’s start here, men. The place looks trashed, but maybe we will find stuff like soap and some of the other things on the list.”
The men made their way carefully into the store to find there was very little left on the shelves that would be useful. After about fifteen minutes of searching, they found a few candles, several bottles of dish detergent, two boxes of laundry soap, several packages of clothesline and a couple of bottles of aspirin.
“We’re wasting our time here,” Sean observed. Let’s go next door to the fabric shop.” The others agreed, and very carefully, they proceeded into the dark store.
Arne went first, and using his military training made sure there was nobody else in the store. Once he felt it was safe, he hurried back to the two guys standing watch at the front. “We’re looking for sewing supplies, thread, and sturdy fabrics. Forget the fancy stuff – we need stuff the ladies can use to make clothes and stuff.” The three men took turns standing watch at the front and hurrying through the aisles grabbing items on their lists and stuffing them into their backpacks. When it was Billy’s turn to gather items, he grabbed a shopping cart and started loading it up with bolts of denim, canvas, and flannel. As they moved to the back of the store, Sean called out he found a treasure trove of soap-making supplies in the craft area. Soon, all three men were pushing loaded shopping carts. Once they had about all they thought they could carry, the men grouped up near the front doors. It was still fairly early in the day, but with the heavy smoke, it looked like late afternoon. All three men tied rags around their faces to help filter out some of the smoke.
Sean looked out the front door. “Even though the smoke gives us some cover, I think we need to stay off the streets as much as possible getting back to the car. Let’s try to move through the alley ways behind the stores until we can get to the woods, and then move through the woods until we are close to the car. I know that’s going to be hard pushing the carts, but I think we’ll be safer that way.” Arne and Billy agreed with him, and the men left the store. Walking through the woods trying to be silent and pushing shopping carts was both challenging and tiring. Several hours later, the three finally reached the car. They quickly emptied the carts into the back deck. Sean suggested tying the carts onto the roof of the car, as they would probably be useful back at the ranch. It took some struggling, but they finally had the carts secure.
As the men neared the ranch, they saw a man and three women limping slowly along the side of the road. The people did not appear to be armed, so Sean cautiously continued to drive slowly, all three men with weapons ready. As they got closer, they could see that all four people looked to have been in an accident of some sort, as their clothes were torn and they were all bloody and bruised. Suddenly, Billy yelled out, “Stop! I know that man. That’s Father Gus Harper from Saint Theresa’s Episcopal Church in town!”
Sean stopped the car and Billy hopped out. “Father Gus, it’s me, Billy Slidell. Are you okay?”
The group with Father Gus stopped and turned towards Billy.
“Billy, I am so happy to see you. Can you take us up to the Blake ranch? We’re hoping Steve and Lilly will take us in.”
Arne and Sean stepped out of the car. “What happened to you? You look like you were hit by a truck,” Sean said.
“We were attacked. Let’s get back to the ranch quickly, I need to talk to all of you and these ladies need some help.” Sean looked at the ladies and could see all three looked to be in shock. The men helped the priest and his three companions into the car, and then drove quickly to the ranch. When they arrived, they were happy to see Sven’s security group had been working hard. A large steel gate now sat blocking access to the driveway that led to the ranch. Several men were standing guard at the gate.
“Open up, guys, it’s us, and we have some injured passengers” Arne yelled out the front window. The gate opened quickly, and one of the men waved them through.
Sean pulled right up to the ranch house, honking his horn. A group quickly formed to see what was going on. Steve pushed his way to the front of the group and saw Father Gus getting out of the car. “Father Gus, what are you doing here, and what happened to you? Where’s Mrs. Harper?”
Gus shook his head as tears slowly dripped down his face. “She’s gone. They killed my beautiful wife.” Everyone started talking at once, until Steve realized Gus was about to collapse. He instructed some of the men to help him get the four wounded visitors into the house.
Dora and Lilly immediately took the three women into the kitchen where they could help them get cleaned up and where Lilly could look at their injuries.
Meanwhile, Steve, Hank and several other men sat down in the living room with Gus. “Tell us what happened to you,” Steve said gently. “Start at the beginning and take your time. Hank, can you get something for our friend to drink?” Hank hurried out and quickly returned with a glass of water. He sipped slowly and cleared his throat.
“I was in the church when the lights went out. My wife Alexandria and I were tidying up the church like we do every Saturday. There were a few of the ladies from the altar guild working in the back room, and the choir had just finished rehearsal. When the lights went out, my first thought was that the weather must have changed quickly or something like that. Once we opened the front doors, though we could see the weather was fine. It wasn’t until someone said their cell phone wouldn’t work and several of the choir members returned to the church because their cars wouldn’t start that I realized this was more than a power outage. My wife used to laugh at me because I loved apocalyptic fiction, but now it wasn’t fiction anymore. I was sure it was an EMP. I explained to the folks who were still in the church what I thought was going on, and a couple of them laughed at me and left. The rest were worried and didn’t know what to do. Knowing it was going to get cold and that most people in town have electric heat, I suggested the ones who lived close might want to go home, get what food, water, clothing, and bedding they could and come back to the church. We have a big old wood stove in the parish hall, and I thought that would be a good safe place for people to stay until we knew what was happening and if anyone was coming to help.
“There were fifteen of us staying in the parish hall, three men and twelve women and girls, and we were doing fine for the first couple of days. This morning, though, a huge group of men (and a few women, too) barged into the church. One of the guys who was staying at the church with his wife was a police officer. He told the group to leave, and they shot him. I mean, in cold blood, in front of everyone, they shot him. He never even got a chance to pull his handgun. Of course, that made everyone start screaming, and when his wife went running towards him, they shot her too. It was…. terrible. They grabbed all of the women in our group and tied them up. I was locked in a closet with the other man staying with us. I didn’t know why they kept us alive, until they came to us and demanded to know where we kept the booze. I told them all we had was communion wine, but they demanded booze. They said they knew Episcopalians always had alcohol at their dinners and parties and they wanted it now. They said they had heard when two or three Episcopalians were gathered together, it was usually around a “fifth”. After they beat me up some, I showed them where the communion wine was kept and thankfully, there were several cases of wine which satisfied them for the moment. The other man who was locked in the closet with me took the chance while the closet was unlocked to run away, but he didn’t make it far before he was caught. They beat him almost to death, and then locked him in the closet again with me. Meanwhile, we could hear a lot of yelling and screaming. The men sounded like they were having a party, and the women sounded terrified. I tried to help the guy in the closet with me, but with my hands tied and no lights, there wasn’t much I could do. It was not long before I heard him take his last breath.
“At that moment, I decided I needed to do something. The closet I was in was a janitor’s closet. I knew they kept razors in the closet for scraping candle wa
x off the windowsills, so I started looking for them. It literally took hours of searching, but I finally found the box and was eventually able to free myself of the ropes around my hands and ankles. Thank God they tied my hands in front of me rather than behind my back, or I would have never been able to find the razor blades. The locked door was a challenge because I had no idea what would be on the other side, but then I began to smell smoke. I was able to break the door down and escape, only to find the church was on fire. I ran towards the sanctuary and found most of the women, including my Alex, had been raped and murdered, their bodies piled up in front of the altar, which was covered in blood. There were broken wine bottles everywhere, and the sanctuary was destroyed. The murderous men were gone and there were flames everywhere, but I could hear someone calling for help. I found three ladies tied to the altar rail. The three had been beaten and I’m afraid they were also raped, but at least they were alive. We escaped though the back door of the sanctuary and headed here. I hope you can help the ladies – they are all still in shock, and they have been hurt pretty bad. As for me, I plan to go after those heathens who would dare murder and rape in a church, and then burn my church down. With God as my witness, I will not let those men live.” As he finished talking, he began to sob, collapsing onto the floor.
After helping the clergyman up and back into his chair, Steve gathered his hands around him.
“Gentlemen, we need to beef up our security in case they try to come here.”
Chapter 16
As the small group of travelers pushed on towards the ranch, the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. This helped the group make great progress, covering more miles than they thought they could. After almost a week of great weather, though, the temperature began to drop, the sky clouded over, and occasional flakes of snow began to fall. Cassie and Andy could tell they were in for a snowstorm and pulled out the maps to try to find a place to wait it out. With no hiking shelters noted on their chosen path, they decided they would have to watch for some other kind of shelter. Late in the afternoon, they were beginning to worry. The temperature had dropped considerably, the wind had picked up, and they still hadn’t found a safe place to spend the night. To make matters worse, the snow flurries they had been experiencing throughout the afternoon had turned into a full-fledged snowstorm with the ground quickly being covered with a layer of white.
Suddenly, Lizzie called out. “Look, what is that building over there?” All eyes went to the dark shadow where Lizzie was pointing.
“It looks like an old barn,” Andy said. “Let me go check it out.”
“I’m coming too,” called Benjy. The two stepped off the trail and headed into the woods. A few minutes later, they came back, grinning.
“Good news. It is an old barn, and it is completely empty….and it looks like it even still has a roof!” Everyone cheered, and Andy began pushing the cart towards their shelter for the night.
Inside the barn, they found a big wood stove. Andy used his flashlight to check the chimney.
Timmy was watching Andy and asked him what he was looking for in the fireplace. Andy explained he was checking to be sure the chimney was clear and not blocked with birds’ nests or other kinds of debris. Timmy nodded, and said, “That’s so that we don’t get a lot of smoke in here, right?”
Andy smiled, not only pleased with Timmy’s answer, but happy Timmy was initiating conversations with him. “That’s right! We can’t start a fire in here to warm up unless we’re sure the chimney is safe. Now I can go outside and gather some wood while you guys help Cassie set up our campsite in here.”
Andy stepped outside to begin gathering wood and was quickly joined by Benjy. “I want to help. With two of us, we can find more wood faster, and get the others warm sooner.”
“Good thinking, Benjy! While we’re out here, we’re also going to cut some branches to put down like a mattress so we’re not sleeping on the hard ground.”
Two hours later, the pine branches were placed, covered by a tarp making a big cushy spot for sleeping. The fire was popping and hissing, and two buckets of water sat heating up on the stove. Cassie made a soup for dinner with soup mix and jerky, and they ate every drop. Outside, the wind was howling, and the snow was coming down with blizzard-like intensity. Inside the drafty old barn, it was still not warm, but it was much more comfortable than outside.
Seated on the ground in front of the fire, Cassie called the kids and Andy to come sit with her.
“I think we are going to be here for a day or two, judging by the storm outside. Since there’s not much we can do about the weather, let’s use this time to get to know each other better, and to start learning how we will work together as a family to survive. You guys have done amazing so far, and I am so impressed with how you’ve all jumped in to help. Why don’t we go around and make a list of all the things we need to learn or practice. Benjy, you go first. What things do you think we need to learn to do?”
Benjy took a moment to think. “I would say we all need to learn how to shoot. I’ve gone shooting twice with the scouts, but I need to learn how to fire your bigger rifles. We’ve been lucky so far, but I’m scared we are going to run into bad guys sooner or later, and I don’t want any of is to get hurt. I also worry about bears and mountain lions and other wild animals that could sneak up on us.”
Cassie was impressed with Benjy’s thinking and told him so. She tried to reassure all of the kids that Petra would let them know if there were dangerous animals, or for that matter, bad guys around. Andy promised to start teaching the kids about their weapons in the morning.
Lizzie raised her hand. Cassie laughed. “You don’t have to raise your hand, honey, just tell us what you’re thinking.”
“I think we need to learn how to go hunting. There’s not a lot of food left in the trunk, and I’m scared we’ll run out of food before we get to the ranch.” She looked so worried; Cassie reached over to hold her hand.
“That is a super idea. I know how to make some traps, and I’m glad to teach you how. We are not going to run out of food, because there’s a lot out there for us to eat. I promise you, we won’t run out, OK?” Lizzie nodded and relaxed. “How about your ideas, Timmy?”
Timmy was quiet for a few minutes, then answered thoughtfully. “There are a lot of things we need to learn. We need to learn how to start a fire, and how to put it out. We will need to learn how to make stuff like shoes and clothes. We’ll have to figure out how to send messages without electricity, like maybe radios or something. If cars don’t work, we’re gonna have to learn how to ride horses to get anywhere.”
Benjy jumped in. “Yeah, and we won’t be able to go to the grocery store, so we’ll need to learn how to grow stuff and make stuff we need.”
Lizzie jumped up with a panicked look on her face. “Cassie, do you or Andy know how to make things like pizza and candy? I don’t want to never be able to have pizza again.”
The two adults could not help but laugh. “Of course we know how to make pizza. I even know how to make pepperoni and sausage, and we can make cheese from the milk from the cows! Candy will depend on how much sugar we have… but there are a lot of sweets that grow on the ranch like strawberries and wild raspberries. You might like them more than candy!”
The group continued to talk until Cassie and Andy could see the kids were starting to droop. They promised to talk more the next day and sent the kids off to sleep.
With the kids sleeping, Andy and Cassie continued to talk softly about their plans for the next day.
“If the weather is better, I need to go out and see if I can get us some meat,” Cassie remarked.
“That would be great. I feel like we’ve been living off junk food forever. A nice steak would sure taste good right now!”
Cassie giggled at Andy and asked, “Have you ever eaten venison?”
“No, but right about now, an old combat boot would probably be better than another protein bar!”
“You do realize that we don�
�t have any seasoning other than the salt and pepper shakers you got from the restaurant, right? And that while any venison we catch will taste good, it won’t taste as good as a steak cooked on the grill with all the right seasonings?”
Andy made a pouting face. “Bummer, I was hoping you’d catch a cow and we could find some baked potatoes growing around here. I guess that is too much to ask, right?”
Trying hard not to laugh too loud and wake the kids, she poked at Andy and told him he was such a joker. “That is just one of the things about you that I love – you can always seem to find something funny in every situation.”
Smiling gently, Andy asked, “Know what I love about you?”
Cassie shook her head no. “Everything!” he answered, as he put his arms around her.
They spent a total of five days in the old barn waiting for the storm to end and for some of the snow to melt. On the sixth day, they woke up to bright sunny skies. Cassie decided to try to shoot a deer to supplement their food. While the kids and Andy worked on getting their supplies ready to load back onto the cart, Cassie moved quietly into the woods. She was pleased at how quietly she was moving in spite of her prosthesis. The several days they stayed in the barn gave her a chance to rest her legs, and she felt strong and energetic as she began her hunt. It only took an hour or so before she spotted a small doe standing in the brush. A single shot killed the doe, and Cassie, thrilled with her success, dressed out the deer on the spot. “I’m not sure the kids are quite ready yet to see a deer gutted,” she thought. Bringing the deer back to the barn was a challenge, but she slowly dragged the animal back to her family.
The kids were somewhat shocked to see Cassie pulling the carcass back. Lizzie especially was a bit tearful, but Cassie gently explained to Lizzie that the deer didn’t feel anything and was now going to feed them well for the next week or two. Lizzie reached over and patted the deer’s head. “Thank you, deer, for being our food.”
The Long Roll Home Page 13