by A. American
Daniel kept looking at Bob until he admonished him and told him that if he wrecked the van they’d all be in trouble. Christy, likewise was very concerned and came up between the seats to try and help. But Bob wasn’t in the mood for help.
“Christy, I’m fine for now. There’s nothing we can do in here. When we get up to Whitesburg shortly, we’ll stop and check it out. I’m fine right now though,” Bob said, finishing with the thought, I hope.
Daniel was pushing the van as they screamed across the Chattahoochee River. As Whitesburg came into view, Daniel’s heart sank. “Oh, shit.”
Bob looked up as they approached the town. “It’s alright.” He looked back at Christy and Gene. “See if you can find something white we can hang out the window.”
“How do you know these people are alright?” Daniel asked, his eyes darting back and forth between Bob and the approaching roadblock on the outskirts of the small hamlet.
Christy handed Bob a white t-shirt and he looked at Daniel. “Easy. They’re not wearing masks. And some of them are in uniform.”
Then Daniel noticed it too, and it struck him. When he saw the men on the ATVs, what had scared him the most was the fact they were all wearing the mask. It added an immediate air of uncertainty to them. The people just ahead of them now wore no masks. Bob pushed the shirt out the gun port and held onto it.
“Just slow down and ease up to them,” he said, as the men manning the barricade moved to take cover behind the dump truck blocking the road.
Daniel did as he said and let the van roll very slowly forward as Bob tried to wag the shirt hanging out the side. When they were within shouting range, one of the men in uniform yelled for them to stop. Daniel did as ordered.
Grabbing the door handle, Bob said, “Here’s goes nothing.”
Before he could open the door, Daniel shouted at him. “What the hell are you doing?”
Bob opened the door. “Well, I can’t lean out and talk to them.” And he swung the door open and stepped out, t-shirt in hand. Holding the shirt up, he called out. “Is there a doctor? I need help!”
The man in uniform shouted back. “Tell everyone to get out!”
“Oh shit.” Daniel muttered.
Bob looked back and jerked his head. “Come on, everyone out. Leave the guns in the truck.”
“This is bullshit, Bob!” Teague called back.
“Just get out!”
The group did as ordered, and stepped out, Daniel and Christy both holding their hands up. Gene walked up beside Bob and folded his arms over his chest. Teague, not wanting to get far from his rifle, stayed at the back of the van. Once everyone was out, three men came out from behind the truck, weapons shouldered and began to advance towards them.
As they came close enough, one of them called out. “What happened to you?”
Bob looked down at his blood-covered pants and called back. “We had some trouble on the other side of the river.”
“Where you coming from?”
“Atlanta.”
The man questioning them exchanged words with his companions, then looked back over his shoulder. “Jason! Bring your bag and come out here!”
A young man came trotting out of the Dollar Store parking lot on the side of the road. A fire truck sat there with a couple of police cars. After conferring with the man giving orders, the group began to approach the van.
“Everyone just stay where we can see you!”
The young man with the bag came up to Bob and asked, “What happened?”
Bob shrugged. “Bunch of guys on ATVs came after us. I guess it’s a bullet.”
Jason looked back at the uniformed man, who nodded. Taking Bob by the arm, he said, “Sit down. Let’s have a look.”
Christy stepped forward. “I’m a nurse. Let me help.”
Jason nodded, and she came up to help Bob get to the ground. The tension seemed to ease a bit and the uniformed man came closer, lowering his weapon to a low ready. He looked at Daniel. “You say it was guys on ATVs?”
With his hands still up, Daniel nodded and replied. “Yeah. There was a bunch of them.”
“We’ve been having trouble with them too.”
Teague came up to the front of the van. “Well, there’s fewer of them now.”
The uniformed man looked up, surprised. “You take some of them out?”
Teague nodded. “A few.”
The uniformed man now slung his rifle. “Good. We saw the smoke and could hear the shooting. They’ve been ambushing people on the road.”
The body of the woman flashed back into Daniel’s mind. “We saw. There was a naked woman lying in the road. She was dead.” At least, he really hoped she was before he ran her over. She was surely dead now though.
“Who are they?” Teague asked.
The man shrugged. “Hell if I know. Could be the damn high school football team for all we know.”
Jutting his chin towards the man, Teague asked, “Who are you?”
“Chief of Police, Amos Southerland.”
Daniel relaxed and lowered his hands. “Thanks for the help.” He looked at Bob. “We were really worried about him.”
Christy looked up and smiled. “It’s not bad. A bullet grazed the top of his thigh.”
A bullet had come in through the door of the truck and cut a diagonal path from Bob’s hip to three inches above his knee. It was a nasty looking wound, but certainly not fatal if managed to prevent infection.
“Looks bad,” Daniel said.
Bob looked up at him. “Thanks, buddy.”
Jason, a paramedic with the volunteer fire department didn’t look up from his work bandaging the wound. “It’s not bad. Might be a little uncomfortable for a while, but you’ll live. You’re lucky. If that round had hit your pelvis, you’d probably already be dead. Or at least wish you were.”
“You’re a cheerful bunch.” Bob replied, grimacing as Jason worked.
“What’s your plan?” The Chief asked.
“We’re headed to Texas. They still have power and have told the Feds to pound sand,” Teague said.
Daniel didn’t like him saying so much. Not that what they were doing was a secret, but to the wrong people it could create a problem. Fortunately, from the Chief’s response, it wasn’t an issue.
Chief Southerland snorted and spat at the ground. “Screw the Feds. This is all their mess anyhow. And then they go and shut off the power too.”
“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Bob said.
The Chief looked at him. “I think you’re right. I think it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it even starts to get better. What’s your plan now?”
Bob looked around, then at the van. His seat and the floor around it was covered in blood. “I’d like to clean that thing up before we leave.”
“You should stay here for the night,” Jason said. “You need to give this wound dressing and medication some time to set up, otherwise you’ll be bleeding all the time.”
“He’s right,” Christy said.
Bob ran a hand through his hair. “I’d like to get back on the road. We have a long way to go and only just got started.”
“Another day won’t hurt, Bob,” Daniel said. Then he looked at the Chief. “We’d like to stay the night if that’s alright with you.”
Southerland nodded. “I don’t mind a bit. Not sure where you’ll stay though.”
“We can stay in the van,” Daniel said. “It’s a camper and I also have a tent.”
Jason finished bandaging Bob and stood up. “Drive down to the fire department. There’s a grassy spot around back you guys could use.”
Southerland nodded. “That’s a good idea. You’ll be close so Jason can keep an eye on that leg, and check it again b
efore you head out.”
The group got back in the van and followed Jason’s directions to the fire station just down the road. Whitesburg was a small town, so the fire department and police utilized the same property. Daniel drove the van around behind the station and parked it under the shade of a pecan tree. Since it was a Sportsmobile, and set up to camp, it had an awning. Gene helped Daniel pull it out. A couple of camp chairs were pulled out, and they set up home for the night.
As Daniel was setting up, Christy went to find Jason. She caught up with him inside the fire station restocking the bag he’d used to treat Bob. He looked up as she came through the open bay door and smiled. “Hi.”
She smiled back. “Hey.” She pointed at his bag. “Restocking?”
He nodded as he dropped some bandages into the bag. “Yeah.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You saw what I used for a bandage.”
Jason smiled. “Good idea, really. Never thought of it.”
“It’s all I had. I was hoping I could get some stuff from you so I could take care of his wounds.”
The corners of his mouth pulled down and he turned to face her. “I’d like to, but we don’t keep that much here.”
Christy’s shoulders slumped. “Oh. Well, I’ll figure something out.”
Jason looked off and wagged a finger. “I have an idea. The Dollar Store sells stuff like that.”
“I don’t have much cash.”
He shook his head. “Oh, you couldn’t buy it anyway. Southerland closed the store. But if you talk to him, he’ll probably let you get some stuff. But do it before I talk to him, because I’m going to clean the place out now that I’ve thought of it.”
“He’s back up at the roadblock, right?”
“Yeah. Hey, I’m going back if you want a ride. You can get what you need, help me get the rest, and then I’ll bring you back.”
Christy smiled. “That would be great. Let me go tell Daniel where I’m going.”
Jason nodded and said, “Just meet me at the truck.”
Christy left to go tell Daniel. When he heard, he leaned in and kissed her. “That’s why I love you. You’re so smart. I would have never thought of that.”
She smiled back. “Will you still love me if I tell you it wasn’t my idea? It was that paramedic’s. He’s going to give me a ride back after we clean all the medical stuff out.”
Daniel smiled and pulled her in. “I’d still love you, no matter what.” And he kissed her.
She left to go find Jason and Daniel pulled a chair up and sat down. “What’s going on?” Bob asked.
Daniel threw his feet up on a cooler they had packed to bring as much of Bob’s remaining food as they could. “She’s going to get some bandages and stuff to take care of your leg.”
Bob nodded. “She’s a smart girl.”
Daniel smiled in agreement. “Yes she is.”
Gene sat slumped in a chair. “What’s for dinner? I’m hungry.”
Bob looked at him and chuckled. “Gene, my old friend. You’re going to have to get used to being hungry.”
“Not tonight.” Gene replied.
And they wouldn’t tonight. Daniel went out and collected a bunch of fallen limbs from the many pecan trees scattered around Whitesburg. Using those, he built a fire and opened his fold-out grill he kept in the van for those trips to the mountains he loved so much. While he worked on getting a good bed of coals to cook over, Gene rubbed potatoes with oil and wrapped them in foil. The shit may have hit the fan, but for now, they could still eat well.
***
Christy held her hand out the window of Jason’s truck as they rode through town. Just as she did when she was a kid, she let her hand surf on the air current rushing past the window. At least for the moment, she was removed from her situation, taken back to a simpler time.
“You guys really going to try and get to Texas?” Jason asked.
Coming back to the moment, she looked at him. “Looks that way. It was a snap decision. Gene talked to some guy out there and we decided to go.”
Jason jerked his head. “That’s a hell of a decision to make.”
Christy shrugged. “It’s a chance. It looks like the rest of the country is in trouble. You should have seen Atlanta. It was crazy. We saw the military come in and just shoot people.” She shivered. “It was horrible.” Looking as Jason, she asked, “What are you guys going to do?”
Jason had one hand on the wheel and thought about the question for a minute. “I don’t know. We live here. This is home. We’re going to do our best to help our neighbors.”
“I just hope we don’t come across anymore of those guys like earlier.” Christy got quiet and picked at her hand. “I killed one of them.”
Jason was surprised and looked over. “What?”
She nodded. “This guy on a motorcycle came up beside the van with some kind of a machinegun. He was looking right at me with that scary mask. I just pointed the pistol and shot it. I know I hit him.”
“Hmm. They were wearing masks?”
She nodded. “Yeah, with that skull thing on it.” She looked at him. “It was really scary.”
Jason drummed him thumb on the wheel. “I know. We’ve seen them. We’ve been trying to keep them away from town. So far, we’ve been lucky.”
They reached the Dollar Store and Jason parked in a handicap spot close to the entrance. There was a man in camo clothes sitting on a milk crate by the front door. He stood up as they got out of the truck.
“Hey, Jason. What’s up?” The man asked, cradling a shotgun in the crook of his arm.
“Hey, Jim. I’m going to take all the medical stuff out of there and move it to the fire station.”
Jim nodded. “That’s probably a good idea.” He pushed the door open as they approached to let them in.
Christy and Jason both grabbed carts as they went in and headed to the isle of first aid items. They cleaned the shelves of bandages and tape, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, Band-Aids and antibiotic ointments. Anything that could be used to treat a wound was taken. They also took all the over-the-counter medications and piled them into a cart.
As they were collecting things, Christy tossed a couple of tubes of toothpaste and some sticks of deodorant into her cart. She was with all these guys and knew at some point some of them would start to stink. With that in mind, she added a few bars of soap. She also took the opportunity to grab a few other things like wash cloths and a couple of bath towels, things they hadn’t thought about before. She also found the aisle with charcoal and like items and grabbed another can of lighter fluid. She remembered Gene’s fire bombs and wanted to make sure he had what he needed. When she returned and dropped it in the cart, Jason raised an eyebrow.
Christy smiled. “In case I need to start a fire to boil anything.”
He half laughed, “Yeah. Ok,” but he said nothing more.
The last item she added to her cart was a couple of boxes of tampons and maxi-pads. They’d already proven their usefulness, aside from the obvious. And she certainly didn’t want to need them and not have them. With the carts loaded, they pushed them out to the truck. Jason grabbed a stack of the plastic bags from the register on their way out.
At the truck, they bagged the items up with Jim’s help, keeping them sorted. Christy made sure to bag her stuff up separately. When they finished, the bed of the truck was full of the yellow bags, their tops tied off. When they were finished, Jason told Jim to let Southerland know what he’d done. Jim nodded and waved as they got back in the truck.
Christy helped Jason unload everything into the fire station before picking up her bags. “Thank you for the help, Jason. I really appreciate it.”
He pointed at the bags. “With that stuff, you should be able to take care of him.”
She looked at the bags. “I think I’ve got everything I need.”
“Thanks for the help, too. Now that I have all this stuff here, it won’t disappear.”
Christy smiled and headed for the door. “No problem. If I can help with anything else, just let me know.”
She went back out behind the station. The smell of cooking meat greeted her as she rounded the corner and a smile spread across her face. She was hungry. At the van, she set the bags down and pulled up a chair. “Those steaks look so good! I’m starving.”
“You ain’t the only one, sister,” Gene replied.
Daniel looked up from the small grill, a steak suspended from a fork. “They’ll be ready in a sec.” He flipped the steak and it landed with a satisfying hiss as fat dripped from the cuts, causing little flares in the coals below. As he watched the meat cook, Daniel smiled.
“You know how much food there is at my place?” He shook his head. “When all this first started, I made a run to the store and took a van-load home. What a waste.”
Teague kicked his feet out towards the fire. “It won’t go to waste. Someone will break in there and make a nice score.”
Christy unfolded one of the camp chairs and sat down. “I guess this is what it’s come to.”
“It hasn’t even gotten bad yet. It’s still pretty early. If today is any indication, it’s going to be a long ride to Texas,” Bob said.
“But we’ve made it through it this far. We’re all alive,” Teague.
Bob took a deep breath. “We were really lucky.” He lifted his leg. “Real lucky.”
“Are those steaks done yet?” Gene asked, causing Bob to laugh.
Daniel poked one with a fork and inspected it. “Yeah, I think they are.”
Plates were produced, each getting a slab of meat. Gene raked the taters out of the coals and put one on each plate as well. From the cooler came butter, and salt and pepper shakers were set out as well. As everyone ate, Gene lamented the short future for butter.