Against the Grain

by Ian Daniels

  “Yeah that’s fine, thought I was done with SAPI a long time ago though,” Derek mused.

  “We can do this with less people and keep you inside a rig you know,” I made one last push.

  “You’re out voted Bud,” he turned away to rejoin the group.

  Yeah if I don’t get shot by somebody first for taking half the town with me.

  Chapter 13

  I was actually pretty happy with the crew we had put together. If there were any more of a mixture of people, I would have had a heck of a time trying to figure out where everyone fit the best. As it was, it was already a process to look at the people going and the skill sets that each one brought to the table. Personalities, along with abilities and experiences, all needed to be taken into account.

  If we had someone with a lot of off-roading experience, they may be a good choice for a driver. But if they were also a hot head, then they may be liable to not keep their cool and try to shoot instead of drive us out of a bad situation. And with shooters, do you select your best bulls eye shooter or do you put someone who can lay down semi aimed suppressive fire well enough to get you out of a kill zone? With who we had going, I could work with each person’s benefits and I was fairly happy with the arrangement. Only time would tell if I had made the right choices though.

  After lining out who would be where, I had everyone physically get in the different trucks we’d be taking. I wanted to get everyone in the seats they’d actually be sitting in for nothing else than the familiarization of it. We would come back later and do the same thing again with the long guns each person would be carrying. I didn’t want the actual rolling convoy to be the first time they had pointed a gun out of the window of a truck that they used to go to work, school, or church in.

  Before Sue could call us over to eat lunch, I had everyone gather again in the back yard area to go over the Cliff’s Notes version of convoy management. I wanted each person to know the basics, but I didn’t want to overload them with too much information to be thinking about either. I would go over everything much more in depth with Breanne later.

  “Shooters, lets talk for a minute,” I went back into instructor mode. “Shooting from a truck that is moving down a bumpy road is not exactly easy. Perfect aimed shots are going to be basically non-existent. We are looking at providing suppressive fire to get their heads down, so we can get through. That’s basically it. I’d like to get everybody in a truck with someone driving, set up some stationary targets and see what your hits versus rounds fired ratio looks like, but we don’t have the resources, so just think about that for a second,” I paused.

  “It seems easy enough though right? Now imagine it with the driver putting their foot to the floor full of adrenaline to get out of a bad situation. The targets are now running or behind cover already, oh and people are shooting back at you from their non bumpy, not loud and not dusty ambush spot.”

  “What the hell can we do against that?” Jake wondered aloud.

  Thankfully, I had an answer ready for him. “The trick is to not to waste rounds, but you will have to be on the trigger enough to make the hit. Don't fire as fast as you can pull the trigger, but don't take all day waiting for your perfect shot. Its part timing, part skill and part blind luck. Use what you know and while we are driving, practice picking out targets like signs and trees and track them with your sights. You’ll get a feel for it eventually.”

  “Drivers, remember what I said your job was?” I asked the group, partly to see if Julie and Cary had been paying attention before it had been decided that they would be joining us.

  “Driving,” Karen answered for all three.

  “Right. If we start taking incoming rounds, and you can keep moving, then keep moving. If the radiator is hit and blowing steam, keep going. If you lose a tire, drive out on rims. You are how we get out of a bad spot, got it?” I was harping on the point for a good reason. I, we all, needed them to get it into their heads.

  “Yeah we’ve got it,” Julie confirmed.

  Say that now, but what happens in the heat of the moment? Here’s hoping cooler heads prevail. This next bit was not going to be much fun.

  “Alright, there is one more thing I want us all to talk about, priorities. While traveling together, what is our priority?”

  “Getting to their place at Trapper Lake,” Andrew quickly fell into my philosophical trap.

  “At what cost?” I posed. “Is the priority to get Karen’s Suburban with the two kids out there even at the cost of some of us not making it there, or back home here? If we get hit on the road and one rig gets cut off, and we don’t see a way to help the people in that truck, do we keep going?”

  “Wait, you’d just leave us there?” Jake voiced his surprise after jumping to a conclusion.

  “I know what I’d do, but I want to hear all your thoughts first. This is not a policy I will dictate.” I really did know what I would do, but I wanted to get their heads in the game and for them to all see the bigger picture at the same time.

  I waited, but there was no answer so I tried a different tact. “A few minutes ago I was talking about dispersion and how we want to be within twenty five to fifty yards of each other. Why is that?” I prompted.

  “Close enough to cover each other, but far enough that we don’t have an accident or have two trucks go down from one problem. It leaves us a safe space, a buffer,” Breanne answered.

  “Exactly; close enough to help, but far enough that if one gets hit, at least its only one of us,” I summarized coldly. “So again, what do we do in that case?”

  “We go back to help,” Julie stated flatly with a hint of disgust at my question.

  “Even if that means more of us might not make it?” I prompted again.

  “Yes,” Julie answered quickly again, but looking a little less sure this time.

  “And everyone agrees with that?” I looked at each member of the group assembled around the overgrown grassy back yard. Their nodding heads told me what I needed to know. “Good, I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.”

  Right about then Sue thankfully came out the door announcing that the fried egg on toast sandwiches for lunch were ready and gave us a welcome break. We needed to keep going, and I knew that there was a ton of information that I wouldn’t even get to, but I had a real fear of overloading everyone too.

  I had come to the conclusion that it was better to get them all thinking, and then practice a few dry runs, after we ate of course. Then they could all head to their duties around the houses and I could finish off the route planning. Of course at some point I also needed to get back to my place to refit for this little venture. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be getting much sleep in the next few days.

  “Thanks Sue,” I said to our hostess and then turned back to the group. “One last thing before we go, everyone is going to need to pack a bag for the trip. We are not going to be overloading ourselves with luggage though, so keep it simple. Let’s plan enough food for three or four days. Don’t get all weird about changing your clothes everyday, but you’ll want to pack some layers. The land changes from these woods and rocks to a virtual scrub desert about half way out there. It gets hot, it gets cold, it gets dry, and it could get wet. We don’t exactly have a weather report so I can’t tell you what to expect.”

  “The Meehan’s homestead sits off of Trapper Lake. We’ll load up on water, but we should be able to re-supply once we get there. I also want to take some of David’s fishing gear. Trout or bass would be a nice change of menu I think.”

  “Three or four days? It’s sixty miles away, that’s like two hours max,” Jake questioned.

  “It was two hours,” I corrected him. “And that was driving seventy on the open highway. We have no clue what the roads are like and we won’t be doing a straight shot out there anyway. Plus, add any time we stay while we’re there, we need to be able to feed ourselves, and then again on the return trip. So yes, three or four days.”

  “What about camo
? What should we wear?” Jake was full of questions, which I was actually glad of… for now.

  Half this stuff was second nature to me and he was helping me remember that they were all new to this type of thing. Of course that reminder was not doing much for my level of confidence in the decision to take an inexperienced crew out on something like this.

  “What are you trying to blend into?” I asked Jake in return, which bought me a puzzled look from him. “If we were going to take a small group out to walk quietly in the woods and stalk or hunt, that’s one thing. But a big group in trucks, traveling across changing terrain… just wear something comfortable that you can layer if gets cold or hot. We aren’t going to be getting in and out of the trucks and shouldn’t have to actually do a whole lot, but clothes that are tough is better than something that will snag and rip easily. At the very least, go with dull earth tone colors and no bright neon from the eighties.”

  With that said, I switched gears one last time. “Drew and Derek, you guys get with the drivers and work with David to get your trucks set up with radios, spare tires, jacks, tow chains, fuel…everything. Right now I want to leave in two days, at say… seven in the morning.”

  “Seven AM? Don’t you mean PM?” Jake asked... again.

  “Why? You have enough NVDs and thermals for everybody?” I smiled mischievously.

  “Say what?”

  “If we drive when it’s dark, without night vision we have to use our headlights. Headlights are target indicators to people out there that we can’t see... because it’s dark out. Headlights let other people know we’re coming, and gives them something to shoot at. If we go in the daytime, more people will be awake, but we will have as good a chance at seeing them as they have at seeing us,” I explained.

  “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Jake said, looking like he was still trying to figure out what it was I had just said.

  “Going at night does seem like a good idea at first, but you just have to look at these things from both sides.” I concluded, although I still didn’t want to dissuade him from speaking up in the future so I added, “You’re thinking, that’s a good thing, keep it up. For now, let’s get some food and get back to work.”

  After everyone filed into the house to dish up their food, Breanne and I were the last ones left standing in the yard so I took advantage of our relative privacy to have one last quick exchange on the matter.

  “Bre, about the whole leaving anybody behind thing, if my lead truck gets hit or cut off for any reason and you and Karen can get out of there, then do it. It’s your job to get the rest of them to safety first, and if you can continue on, then that’s what you do. If you cant keep going forward, then turn back, but do not put anyone at risk to come help us.”

  My frank direction made her visibly bristle, but she did shake her head in agreement and understanding.

  Chapter 14

  “Hey do you think I’ll need…”

  “Should I be…”

  “Do you think we’ll have a chance to…”

  The endless barrage of questions from everyone had made me abandon my “teach a man to fish” approach that I had been using, and I was now giving them straight and quick answers. Unfortunately, most didn’t see my exasperation and they all thought they’d try to ask even more questions since I was evidently in such a helpful mood.

  I swore that if anyone started reading road signs and billboards out loud as we drove by them, it would drive me over the edge. By the time everyone was ready to leave, I was ready to be done and home with this little adventure very far behind me.

  It was the morning we had picked to leave and by now I was sitting removed a few feet back from the rest of the assembled group. I was not so patiently waiting for everyone to get their good-byes over with, after all their gear was finally stowed. Everyone had kind of quieted down when my driver Cary looked over at me expectantly.

  “Do you want to say anything before we go?”

  Oh for the love of…

  I got up and slowly looked around at the group, making eye contact with everyone except the few who were studying the dirt at their feet. The nerves and apprehension on some people were plain to see. There wasn’t much fear, but not much confidence either.

  “So how should I play this one?” I thought to myself.

  I could read a crowd of strangers well enough, and these people were not exactly strangers to me. I could see they wanted reassurance. The problem was that we were leaving in the next few minutes with only what we would be taking with us. They weren’t going to get any more training or dry runs, so mindset was everything at this point. I could have tried to set their mood and inspire self confidence, but they weren’t going to get any more ready than they would be once we got a few miles down the road. I knew everyone would start to feel better once we got moving and we all just settled into our tasks. So in the end, the dark side of my humor won over and I simply replied, “yeah… don’t fuck up.”

  Breanne rolled her eyes and sighed loudly as she pulled herself into her seat in the Dodge, and Nick was still smiling broadly and laughing to himself as the three trucks pulled out through the front gate.

  Our route would take us down the back roads to avoid all major highways and housing areas for as long as we could help it. I was banking on finding no other barricaded roads like we had done to our own, and while it was a bit of a gamble, it would be worth it to not drive into and through even our own familiar small town where we would attract attention. Although these days no matter where you were seen, one truck, let alone three traveling together, was not a common sight.

  A few miles past the barricade and two turns later, I finally settled down and got back into the teaching phase. In my constant effort to keep the others involved, I started going over things with the crew in my lead car.

  “Call the range on that grain silo,” I asked of Cary.

  “I don’t know…” she replied from the driver’s seat after a moment.

  “Think of it in terms of football fields,” I persuaded.

  “I played soccer.”

  “…Never mind.”

  I swore I could hear Derek laughing from his main gunner perch up above us.

  It was late summer and the air was warm. Although they were now cracked and rough, we were still on paved roads for another thirty more miles. After that, our planned route would take us onto dirt roads for the middle portion of the trip. I could already imagine what the dust cloud we would be kicking up would look like.

  “Hey Cary,” I said looking to my left, “can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  “This really isn’t a criticism because I’d be doing the exact same thing, but I like psychological stuff like this,” I started in a long explanation before getting to the point. “When do you think was the last time that there was traffic going both ways on this road?”

  “It had to have been way over a year ago,” she said after thinking about it for a second.

  “And probably even longer since a sheriff or a cop has been out here writing tickets, wouldn’t you think?”

  “Yeah I guess so,” she maybe started to guess at where I was going with this.

  “So why do we still drive in the lane on the right side of the road? Why not on the left, or in the center?”

  “Habit I guess,” she shrugged.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  And maybe it was just habit. But a part of me started to wonder if it was some deep seated conditioning to still follow the rules of a world that no longer existed. Or maybe it was even an attempt to pretend there were still rules. It was all a funny notion as we drove with my AK sticking out the passenger window and Derek manning the 308 Saiga behind us.

  Derek and I had easily come to the same conclusion about what gun to have where. He was plenty familiar with each weapon, or at least familiar enough with general weapon handling, for me to give him the big gun after I removed the scope. Having a scope on the Saiga would not d
o him any good in a main gunner role. It just made more sense for him to have the larger gun while I ran my ’74 from the passenger seat.

  The miles began to tick by and I started getting more comfortable, thinking we may just luck out and not run into any real problems, but deep down, I knew that was just plain stupid and dangerous thinking. I had told everyone else as much before we left.

  “Do not get comfortable.”

  It didn’t take but another five minutes before my fears were realized.

  “Look at that!” Cary exclaimed and pointed at the charred remains of a farm house and barn that were just coming into view.

  “Oh man,” I knew exactly what it was I was looking at. I knew all about this house, and not just because of the map in my lap.

  “You know whose place that is don’t you?” I asked her.

  “No, whose was it?”

  “Kate and Reid Marshall. This was their parent’s farm. Kate would have been a year older than you I think, and I graduated with Reid. They played about every sport there was in school. I think I heard that she joined the Air Force and had some kids. They were half the reason I wanted to come out this way, to see how the family was doing.”

  I cut myself off, realizing I was close to rambling, which would undoubtedly be unnerving for her to hear.

  “Is that… Oh my god…” she trailed off quietly.

  As we drove past the short driveway that let to the old farm house, the charred and otherwise decaying bodies were all too easy to see. In the front yard, four corpses, two of them much too small, littered the ground. Maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me but I thought I could just make out a withered arm stretched out, reaching toward the smaller of the long dead bodies. In the fenced cow pasture off to the side of the house, a coyote pup was vying with two crows over the remains of another body that had most likely been shot down while trying to escape.