Rich shook his head. “Let's get out of here.”
Rich and Dennis went back to their horses. The mood had shifted to a more somber one. Rich and Dennis started out in front, together. They headed down the road, intending to skirt the stench as best they could. The horses grew skittish as they approached the car. Their ears moved forward and their nostrils flared at the smell of death. Traveler balked at moving forward, snorted and jerked from side to side. It took all Rich had to make him pass. Jose was very stern with Pokey and avoided problems. Kelly worried that Buckskin would balk with the cart, but he seemed less affected than the others. She made it around without incident.
“I think we should put Traveler in the lead the rest of the way,” Rich said. “Let’s keep moving.”
****
“We need to avoid the Verde River Bridge,” Kelly said. “There might be a lot of people from the highway and from town at the bridge, trying to get water. We'll turn north onto the dirt track paralleling the Verde River on the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation.”
A large Target store sat just north of the highway on Shea Road. As tempting as the discount store was, it was certain to have been looted by now. The group crossed the low-flowing Verde below the sand quarry, pausing to water the horses. They went through the deserted We Ko Pa Golf Course and dismounted at the base of a ridge. Rich was left to hold the horses. Kelly, Jose and Dennis ascended the ridge that overlooked a manmade lake to their west; Fountain Lake. A large, white monolith sat in the middle of its green water.
“Hard to believe that that big fountain once shot water over 500 feet in the air. It was quite some engineering. Doesn't seem to matter much now,” said Jose.
Kelly lay prone, peering through the scope of her mother's .308 rifle.
“What do you see?” asked Jose.
“Townspeople standing at the lakeshore filling buckets, bottles and five-gallon plastic containers with lake water. A bunch have rifles slung across their backs,” Kelly replied.
“What are those columns of smoke?” asked Jose.
I can't tell if they're cooking fires or the remains of larger fires.”
The others took turns looking through the scope.
“Everyone must be desperate for water. The lake water is stagnant and nasty from all those ducks. There are a lot of backyard swimming pools here. I wonder if the homeowners are safe, or if people are fighting over that water too?” Dennis said.
“Yeah, the next big source of water is the river behind us and that is a pretty long haul,” Jose said. “I bet the river near town will be contaminated soon. There are going to be a bunch of sick people, if there aren't already. Let's get going; we're burning daylight.”
Moving a little more cautiously, the foragers rode north and entered the city limits on Grande Boulevard from the reservation side. The riders trotted through a mile of houses and condominiums. Front doors and garages of several of the condominiums stood wide open. “I guess the owners of these condos are retired—snowbirds who haven't come back for the winter yet,” Kelly said. “I'm guessing those houses have been looted.”
Occupants of other houses stared at them from behind half-open blinds and drapes. From time to time, a person scurried from one house to another.
Kelly said, “I feel like a character in some science fiction movie just before the aliens attack.”
The little troop turned south onto Saguaro Boulevard, toward Fountain Lake and the main business area. The businesses were looted too. Broken glass lined mostly-empty streets. A few folks were hauling water in a kid's little red wagon, while others used their bikes. Those they passed wore looks of fear and scurried quickly away from the approaching group.
Their first stop was the hardware store on Palisades Boulevard. The glass from the front doors lay shattered on the floor. Jose stayed outside, away from the building, with the horses. Rich also stayed outside to cover the large store window with his AR-15. Kelly, armed with her rifle, and Dennis, with Jared's AR-15, went into the store with weapons at the ready. They carefully cleared the building, making sure no one was inside. The battered cash registers lay open. All of the snack and candy shelves stood bare. The soda machine was empty and the ice cream freezer was full of melted, stinking ice cream. Most of the kitchen and camping supplies in front were gone, but further to the back, plumbing and hardware items were still there.
Kelly signaled to Rich and Jose that they could come in and start “shopping.” Dennis positioned himself at the front doors to guard the horses and warn the others of interlopers.
Rich and Jose went straight to the plumbing area and then the hardware section to pick out parts for the well and water heater. Kelly thought that nails and screws would be needed, and picked up several boxes. She also pulled an assortment of hardware, rolls of wire, duct tape and leather gloves. The lamp oil was all gone, but scattered on the floor were a few wicks. She got black spray paint, a couple of small oven thermometers, and strip insulation for the solar hot water project. She emptied the store of seeds, along with rolls of plastic sheeting for the garden, thinking long-term.
“Look at this!” she said, “peanut oil for deep fat-frying turkeys. It's worth its weight in gold.”
Jose picked out a selection of tools. Everyone went along the shelves and pulled items that they thought would be needed.
The group searched the store for about thirty minutes. As Kelly emerged from the store, she saw Dennis crouched behind an abandoned car. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His eyes darted up and down the street as though he was sure someone was going to jump out from around the corner of the building.
“I thought you were never coming out of there,” he said. “My imagination ran wild. All I could think of were those scenes from the Middle East where the masked men throw Molotov cocktails.”
Finally, loose supplies were bundled into tarps procured in the store. The bundles, rolls of irrigation hose, and PVC pipes were strapped to the cart.
“Well, that's it for the hardware store,” Jose said. “Good haul.”
Next, they focused on finding the cache of weapons that Jared and the other deputies had stashed in the old town offices the night of the blackout. They quickly discovered it would have been impossible to find without the detailed instructions Jared had given Kelly that morning. The buildings stood empty, not used for years. Inside a back office closet, the scavengers found the tarp covering a green garden wagon. Under the tarp were four Remington 870 shotguns, three AR-15 patrol rifles, an M14 battle rifle and cases of ammunition.
Jose hefted one of the ammunition cases. “Thank goodness the Sheriff's office had this cart. These boxes weigh a ton. I feel sorry for the horses.”
The cavalcade proceeded north on Fountain Hills Boulevard to the northern edge of town, to Dusty's Tack and Feed. After they cleared the large store, Kelly took the horses around back and tore open a bale of hay to let them feast while the party gathered supplies. Looking around the store, Kelly remembered wandering down the aisles of feed stores when she was young, hanging onto her daddy's hand. She had loved looking at all of the odd things on the shelves.
“Wow, this place is almost untouched,” Jose said. “I wish we had a semi or two.”
“Maybe we could stash some things outside of town,” Rich said. “It would be safer than coming back here later.”
“Let's start making piles of things to take, sorted by priority,” Dennis suggested.
The group stacked bags full of oats, chicken feed and diatomaceous earth near the front door. They also gathered all sorts of equine medical supplies including antibiotics, vaccines, skin remedies, and syringes. The feed store even had a few non-digital thermometers. Boots, socks, gloves, clothes, coats, and chaps got thrown on the pile too.
“Hey, look at these,” Kelly said as she threw three pairs of Ditsy-Dots rain boots on the pile. The boots had polka dots and horses on them.
“Lynn, Mom, and I will have dry feet in high style.”
“Let's get all of
these seeds and this hand pump too,” Dennis said. “What about this woodburning stove?”
“It's too heavy,” Kelly said.
“I know,” Dennis said, “but if we had room, I'd take it.”
“If we had room we would take the whole stinking store,” Kelly shot back. “Grab all the horse tack you can. It looks like we will be horse-powered for a while.”
The group added to their piles: galvanized buckets, axes, hurricane lamps, lamp oil, candles, horse shampoos, cleaners, come-alongs, ratchet straps, bolt cutters, fireplace matches, tarps, rolls of plastic, duct tape, and rope.
Dennis brought several cast iron pans and some Dutch ovens to the front of the store. “We've already got some of those at the ranch, Dennis,” Kelly said.
“I know, but it isn't my plan to stay with you forever. There's a lot of people in those small houses and lots of mouths to feed. I don't think Jose is thinking about staying forever either. This stuff will be hard to come by and a necessity if we strike out on our own,” Dennis said as he added hand grinders to the pile.
Kelly cocked her head to one side. “What, you guys don't like being in Sunflower with us?”
“That's just it, Kelly,” Dennis said without stopping his work. “It's your place. I don't see us leaving anytime soon, though.”
“Over here,” Jose called. He held up a chainsaw. “This thing might still work if it had gas and oil, and we've got plenty of that in the stalled cars. I bet some of the other small engines work too. Anything without electronics should run, like this water pump; it's got a starter rope. These generators have starter ropes, but I bet their voltage regulation circuits are shot,” said Jose. “Let's take a few of these engines. I'll find something for them to do.”
Rich and Kelly helped each other carry two water pumps, two chainsaws and a generator to the front, each time checking on Dennis.
Kelly heard glass breaking in the middle of the store. “What's up!”
“It's okay,” Jose yelled. “I just smashed a glass case to get knives and multi-tools.”
“Get a few, but let's wrap this up,” Kelly called back.
It took a few minutes, but everyone brought the last of their treasures up to the front.
“Jose, you got a new knife?” Dennis asked. “A bit large for gutting chickens, don't you think?” He didn't give Jose a chance to answer. “If you ask me, like father, like son.”
Jose just smirked.
“I think we should be out of here,” Kelly said. We aren't going to get all of this back to Sunflower on our cart. Maybe we could hide some of the bigger things and come back for them.”
“But what should we leave?” asked Dennis.
“Leave a few of those huge bags of oats and some of that chicken feed, but take the dried corn, that may be our only grain crop. We can get by without this pile too,” Kelly said, motioning to a stack of things that had been put in the “contingent upon room” pile.
“I saw an electrical substation a little north of here,” Rich said. “Bet people won't be looking in there for food. We can put a couple of these padlocks on it after we stash the stuff.”
Rich picked up some padlocks and a cargo net. “We'll use this to secure the load,” he said, holding up the net.
“Let's pack this stuff up and get it to the electrical station. We'll come back for the essentials, Kelly said. “Who wants to stay and guard this stuff and who wants to go?”
“I'll stay,” said Dennis. “It's gotta be safer here than out there on the streets.”
“Okay, Dennis, if you're sure,” said Jose.
Rich got Traveler and hooked him up to the cart while Jose, Dennis and Kelly loaded it.
Dennis took up a concealed position inside the store as the others left. The stash team disappeared around a small hill.
Rounding a corner, a substation came into sight. The fenced collection of formerly battleship-grey metal boxes and cylinders sat blackened and torn open by explosions of the huge power transformers that lay inside the fence. Overhead, broken power lines and metal scaffolding dangled in twisted shapes. The high barbed-wire-topped fence surrounding the substation seemed to be partially intact. No one was in sight as they came to the gate. A quick snip with the newly acquired bolt cutters dropped the padlock to the ground. Within the compound, a set of large storage units was located. Second and third snips of the cutters laid the lockers open.
“This will do nicely,” Rich said. “Move the equipment out to make room for our stuff.” Rich and Traveler brought the cart up to the locker doors, and the group went to work moving supplies.
“I can't believe the damage to this place,” Kelly said, looking around.
“There was a massive power surge,” Jose said. “Look, the transmission wires are melted together. The transformers' circuit breakers couldn't trip fast enough or were overwhelmed by the flow. It must be like this all over town. Hell, who knows, it could be like this all over the country.”
“From what I could tell, most of the transformers in Mesa exploded,” Kelly said.” It's been days and no one has come to help. I still haven't seen a single airplane.”
After a few minutes, all of the items were stowed in the electrical compound. The group had bundled them in tarps. Rich secured the outer fencing with his three shiny, new padlocks. “I wouldn't count on any of this stuff being here when we come back. All we can do now is hope that no one saw us stash it.”
“Let's get back to Dennis and get the rest of our stuff,” Jose said. “I'd like to get out of town. Do you think we will make it home tonight?” Jose directed his question to Kelly.
“It's going to be a long haul for the horses with that cart,” Kelly said. “We have quite a bit of elevation on the way home. If we switch them out often, it's a possibility.”
“I was hoping to get home. A night on the desert doesn't seem very appealing and I'm feelin' sorry for Lynn. You know her mom's dead and now she's worryin' about her dad. It would be nice to get him back to her tonight,” said Jose.
“Yeah, and I'm anxious about Jared too. My mom's a hell of a nurse. She saw plenty of wounded in Vietnam, but infections are tricky. We'll know something tomorrow.”
The three companions started back to the feed store. As they got closer, the roads seemed deathly quiet.
Gunfire erupted.
“What the hell?” Kelly shrieked.
“It's near the feed store,” Rich exclaimed, kicking Buckskin in the flank, urging him to run. “Dennis!”
Hokey lunged after Buckskin without any urging from Jose.
Kelly struggled to maintain control of Traveler. If she let the horse have his rein downhill at high speed, she chanced losing control of the wagon and killing them both. The stallion, determined to be with the herd, reared up, whinnying and snorting, fighting Kelly's restraint.
Hooves thundered on the pavement and sparks flew from their shoes. The two men rounded the corner in time to see six gunmen charging the store, firing their weapons. One of the attackers fell to the ground just outside the front door. Blood stained the sidewalk where he lay.
Jose and Rich grabbed their long guns from their scabbards while dismounting. Both ran crouched toward the store. Taking advantage of surprise, they knelt behind a door frame. Each chose a human target and fired. Double-ought buckshot exploded from Jose's gun, throwing his foe to the floor. Two 5.56 mm rounds slammed into Rich's target. The gunman began to turn slowly toward Rich, but was unable to complete the turn. His knees gave way and he dropped to the ground. One bandit dove for cover. The other two turned toward the front of the store, firing wildly. Jose and Rich had the advantage of time and position. They each sighted their second targets and fired. The rounds flew straight and true. “Five of six down,” Rich whispered. “One to go. Load your gun full. Did you see Dennis?”
“No,” Jose murmured, “but our last guy dove to the left.”
“I'm coming up,” Kelly whispered.
Jose scampered behind a long, cash-register counter
running along the front wall. He reached into his pocket and fumbled, loading shells into his Remington. Rich crouched behind a display of goat feed on the left and motioned Kelly toward Jose behind the counter.
“We think we've shot all but one,” Jose whispered.
Rich held up his finger before his lips, signaling everyone to be quiet. He scanned the store before tapping his ear, indicating he heard something, and then pointed into the aisle on his left.
Footfalls from the left receded toward the rear. Rich crawled quickly to the aisle's entrance. He saw the attacker pass rapidly behind a display of bottles, headed toward the bulk feed section in the back. Kelly rose quietly to peer over the counter, AR-15 at the ready. Quiet descended over the store. She could hear Jose's panting near her. She got his attention and motioned that she would go right while he covered the middle of the store. Together they moved silently down the aisles.
A barrage of gunshots erupted from the back of the store. Jose and Kelly dove for cover, peering around the corner. They listened as Rich's heavy footsteps thundered to the rear of the store. Suddenly the shooting stopped, as quickly as it had begun.
Kelly saw Rich peek around his corner. She motioned to him to hold his position and cover her. With her rifle ready to fire, Kelly “cut the pie” of the opening to the feed area, moving slowly with her weapon in a semicircle around the corner. The gunman lay sprawled in the middle of the floor in a still-forming pool of blood.
“Dennis, are you okay? Dennis, answer me!” She frantically scanned the large, barn-like space. Sacks of all kinds of feed were stacked on pallets, and high piles of baled hay surrounded her. No response. The silence was deafening and she grew more panicked. She glanced hopelessly at Jose and Rich.
“We'll find him,” Rich assured her.
“Dennis!” Kelly yelled again. Her eyes drifted to the man lying on the floor. Blood still flowed from his wound. His outstretched hand nearly touched the grip of his pistol. She scanned the area for threats, then ran to him, knelt down and picked up his gun. She moved closer and checked his pulse at the neck. Are the other gunmen still alive? Kelly wondered.
Post Grid: An Arizona EMP Adventure Page 11