“Starved,” Conner said.
“Yeah,” Katie agreed.
“How would you like your eggs?” she asked.
“Oh, sunny side up,” Conner said.
“Uh, eggs?” Katie asked. “Where did you get eggs, Jan?”
“I must be slipping,” Conner said, “I didn't even realize what you said.”
Janna smiled. “Dustin and Allison. They were running around yesterday, testing something on one of the new trucks, and found a barn up the road. Most of it is standing. I know, I went myself to look. There's a well, and deep I would guess, because it's still got water. A little wind mill pumps the well. The water runs down the troughs to the cows. No cows, but the chickens love it. They moved in. Eggs everywhere.” She took the lid off a cardboard storage box full of packed straw and eggs.
“Wow,” Katie said. “Sunny side up too. I'll dip one of those biscuits into the yolk. I love egg yolk,” she confessed to both of them.
“Best part of the egg,” Conner agreed. “Man, this is a good life right here.”
“It is,” Janna Adams said. She left them to their coffee as she left to prepare their eggs.
~
The morning passed quickly for Conner. He, Katie, Amy and Aaron spent the morning searching the store room of the small mom-and-pop store Janna had spoken of, and another that was diagonally across the road from it. Between the two, they found all sorts of useful things, besides just the flour and Bisquick she had told them about.
Batteries, disposable lighters, key-chain can openers. Aaron spent a few minutes with a small battery powered video game, and then set it aside.
“No need to start that shit again,” he said with a grin as he tossed it onto a stack of old newspapers.
There were bundles of the local newspaper near the front door, everyone looked at them twice, but in the end no one felt tempted to cut the string that held them together to read one of them. And back against one wall, the mother lode of seeds, apparently ordered for Spring and not yet put out. There were several large boxes, and a couple of boxes of books on gardening apparently meant to be put out of the same time.
They carried everything out onto the pavement where one of the Suburbans was parked. A small, black metal ladder lead from the heavy duty rear step bumper to the large metal rack that had been mounted to the roof. The rack had sides that stood about one foot from the deck of the rack. Designed to form a long metal box to pack things into.
Conner and Aaron filled the rack as Katie and Amy filled the rear cargo area, and the two five gallon gas cans mounted on the rear tire carrier that also held a spare tire. The ladder to the top rack was incorporated into the swing out tire carrier. The whole unit worked well and was problem free, swinging easily out of the way to allow access to the rear double doors and the interior of the Suburban.
They were both surprised how much the rooftop rack could hold. They had lined the bottom of the rack with a blue waterproof tarp and then wrapped the whole load with more of the same when they had finished. Bungee cords pulled tight kept everything in place.
“I wouldn't have believed you guys could put that much stuff up there,” Amy said.
Conner grinned at her, “Believe me,” he said, “neither did we.”
“You know, you're right about the vehicles,” Aaron said.
“How so?” Conner asked.
“Gives us more stuff to drag around. But I have to admit, stuff we will need,” Aaron said and laughed.
“Wait until James and Janna hear about the seeds,” Amy said.
“Hell, there's everything we could need to grow right there,” Conner said.
“We should still look for hybrids,” Katie said.
“What kind?” Conner asked.
“Any kind. They have genetically developed corn, tomatoes, peppers, you name it. Grows faster, resistant to this and that, grows bigger, higher, more protein,” Katie elaborated.
“Where could we find it?” Conner asked.
“I don't know,” Aaron said.
“I bet Janna or James would know,” Amy said.
Katie nodded. “Probably one of them, what do you call it, feed stores? I've seen them in farming communities, you know, on A&E,” she finished.
“Yeah, I've seen those shows too,” Amy said.
“Like small towns,” Katie agreed. She hesitated, “So... what did you two think about what James had a say?” She asked at last.
“We wanna do it,” Aaron said, “but...”
“We were wondering what you were going to do,” Amy said. She looked at Katie and then Conner.
“I think it's good,” Conner said. “But I won't go anywhere Katie wont. So I can't commit until she does.”
“She does,” Katie said. “I wanted my man and my best friend too. I got what I wanted.” She smiled.
“We're going,” Amy squealed, launching herself at Katie.
“I can't believe it. We'll get to raise our kids together,” Katie said, every bit as excited as Amy.
Conner and Aaron stood back, arms folded across their chests and watched as the two hugged, squealed, and congratulated each other.
“Dude,” Conner said.
“Dude,” Aaron repeated grinning.
“Don't you two pick on us,” Amy said. Her eyes were bright.
“Wouldn't think of it,” Conner said.
“Me either,” Aaron said.
“Sure you would,” Katie said. They let go of each other and turned to the men.
“You're sure?”Katie asked Conner.
“Yep,” he said.
“You?” Amy asked Aaron.
“Yes, ma'am,” Aaron said.
“Yes!” Katie said and grabbed Amy again.
“Yahoo,” Amy said as they jumped up and down.
“Yahoo?” Conner asked.
“Old cowboy thing,” Aaron said.
“You,” Amy said slapping Aaron's shoulder softly, then pulling him to her and kissing him.
“And you too,” she said giving Conner a sisterly kiss on the cheek.
“Come here,” Katie said. She kissed Conner and then gave Aaron a kiss on the forehead. “I guess we're pretty happy,” she said.
“I guess you are, babe,” Conner said and kissed her back.
~
At midday, Conner and Aaron left Katie and Amy, who we're still going through the two smaller mom-and-pop stores, finding all kinds of surprises, and headed over to the garage area. Molly and Jake were finishing up bumpers on the last of the trucks, while James was helping to remount the last two tires on the last of Jeff's Hummers.
“Aaron and I want to take one of the pickups down the road a bit, James,” Conner said.
“Sure,” James said. “Anyone but that one,” he pointed at the one Molly and Jake were working on. “But that one will be done in an hour or so if you want to wait.”
“Nope,” Conner said. “One of the ones outside will do just fine. Can we take you with us, or are you really busy?” Conner asked.
“Can if you want me. Sent Dustin and Allison off to spend some time alone. We're almost done. There's really nothing left but that bumper and a test drive, and Molly and Jake can take care of that.”
“Good, we need your opinion,” Conner said.
James put some muscle into the last lug nut he was tightening and then handed off the lug wrench to Jeff.
“Jeff, you want to come along?” Conner asked.
“Let me finish these lug nuts, and I'll be right along,” Jeff said.
A few minutes later the pickup truck pulled out, followed by the hummer, and headed down the road following Jan's general directions.
About a mile down the road, Conner spotted the old partially collapsed barn and pulled down off the broken pavement and headed towards it. He stopped the truck and backed around, facing the road.
“Stiff, but it walked right down off the pavement like it was nothing, and in two wheel drive no less,” Conner said.
James and Jeff walked
up. “What have we got here?” James asked?. He looked over the barn, picking up on the faint clucking sounds coming from the interior.
“Guess you found Jan's chickens,” James said.
“Yep, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about... chickens. I don't know anything about them,” he said, “Or cows, or horses, or... What else is there I should know about, James?” Conner asked.
“Um, well, what for?” James asked.
“For everything. All of it, because me and Katie, Aaron and Amy are going in with you on this wilderness idea. We talked it over; we're going to do it,” he told him.
James's face lit up, “Really?” he said.
“Really,” Conner said. He looked over at Aaron. “Watch him in case he starts jumping up and down,” he said.
“Did you tell Janna?” James asked.
“Nope. Thought you would, should,” Conner said. “But I was wondering if chickens can travel. If, since we will need chickens, we should take these,” he said.
“We could,” James said, “but we'd probably lose an awful lot of them, we got quite a way to go. Plus, they'd stop laying almost immediately.”
“Why?” Aaron asked.
“They don't like change, noise, different, and anything else that upsets their normal routine,” James told him. He paused. “We're going to have to change our direction of travel,” James continued. “If we're going to the place I picked. Who all is going?” he asked.
“All of my people want to,” Jeff said. “I was going to get with you about it myself. But, well, this seems to be a good time for it.”
“I can't speak for anyone except the four of us, but, Sandy and Susan made it clear they want to go as well,” Conner said.
“Jake and Lilly also want to go,” James said.
“That leaves Nell and Molly and Dustin and Allison,” Conner said.
“No, Dustin and Allison said they want to go to,” Aaron said. “And last I knew Nell wanted too as well. So really that's all of us, except the little ones. That's twenty-four people. Wow,” Aaron said.
“We should discuss it further tonight,” Conner said.
“So animals, how are we going to do it, James?”
“Well, to be honest, I hadn't thought quite that far. But I've been thinking cattle trucks,” James said.
“What's that?” Jeff asked.
“They're just big trucks with a stake rack. You can run twenty cows up in one, I wouldn't try it with horses. But we need that kind of space. I think we'll have to drive them, cows and horses together. They graze with each other, they should herd with each other,” he seemed to be thinking out loud.
“You lost me, James. Drive them in trucks?” Conner asked.
“No. Drive them on the ground, as in cowboy style. I don't think we'll be able to get those trucks as far back as we want to go. It's pretty wild country. But even if we did, we have no fences. We have no homes. We have crops to plant. It would be better to go with what we need, seed, food, tools, get ourselves established this year, get a crop in the ground. Next year we could come out and get horses, cows, other animals. Or, drive them in with us and, well, turn them loose. Most of them will stay near us, some would go wild pretty quick though.” He shook his head slightly “We're going to have to sit down and talk this out... all of us... and also make sure everyone wants to go,” James said.
“If we kick it open, we'll probably get some more good feedback,” Aaron said.
“That's the best way to do it,” Jeff agreed.
“I like both ideas. Maybe we could take some animals with us then come out for more in the Spring? Most likely by then there will be a million and one things we need anyway,” Conner said. “But yeah, we can't discuss it like this. Everybody needs to be in on it.”
“Well, we can't take these chickens with us, but it's early, I bet we could get a bunch of them ready to eat,” James said.
“Never did that before,” Jeff said. “How's it go?”
“Me either,” Aaron said, looking a little nervous.
“Ditto,” Conner said.
“Well, gotta learn some time,” James said. “Ain't hard.”
~
By the time the four men had gutted and plucked the feathers from twenty chickens, it was well after noon and everybody was covered with blood and feathers.
“Let's get these back to Jan,” James said. “Then we'll get down to the stream.”
“I second that,” Conner said. He was trying to blow a small downy feather off his nose, reluctant to touch his nose with his hands which were blood sticky, and looked themselves to be feathered. “Hey, didn't Janna say there was a well here somewhere?” he asked hopefully.
A few minutes of searching found the water where it bubbled up fresh and cold and ran down into the trough. They all got cleaned up before they left.
~
Janna gratefully accepted the chickens when they handed them over to her.
“I had thought of that as well, but I couldn't find two men willing to take me down there,” she said.
James kissed her on the cheek. “We saved you the drive,” he said.
“Why, James,” she said, embarrassed.
“Everybody's going,” James said, “With us. They're all coming with us.”
Janna grabbed James's face between her palms and kissed him hard, pumped one fist in the air and said, “Yes!”
“Jan,” James said, surprised. Then they both laughed and hugged. “We are going to talk it over tonight. We're not sure of Molly and Nell. Other than that, everybody else is in... including Jeff's people.”
“I'm so happy,” Janna Adams said. Her face glowed. She couldn't have smiled wider if she tried.
“Thought you would be,” James said.
“Go get some clean clothes and get cleaned up,” Janna said. “I'll take these from here,” she said indicating the chickens.
When they reached the stream after stopping off to pick up clothes, Jake was just getting there himself.
“How did it go?” James asked.
“Come out good. That Molly can work. We left everything there. Didn't know what we'd do with most of those tools anyway,” Jake said.
“Yeah, the best place for them,” James said.
“The rest of us have decided to go,” Conner said.
“With James?” Jake asked.
“Yep,” Conner said.
Jake exhaled. “That's good news. Everybody?”
“We don't know about Nell and Molly,” Conner said.
Jake nodded, “They want to go. It is all Molly and I've been talking about as we worked. She's so enthusiastic. As for Lilly and I, Lilly got me to look at it harder, she's... Well, that will come later, I guess. But I was thinking about safety... For her,” Jake said.
“That's not fair, you can't almost spit it out and then not say it,” Aaron said.
“What,” Jake said.
“Like you were about to say something, but decided not to,” Jeff said.
“Yeah,” Conner added.
“That's it exactly,” Jake said. “That's me. It's not a secret; we just haven't told anyone is all. Lilly is... pregnant,” Jake said.
“Wow,” Aaron said. “Fast work, Bro,” he clapped Jake on the back.
“Congratulations,” Conner said.
“It's not mine,” Jake said. “I'm only saying it to say it. She was pregnant when this happened. She was afraid I wouldn't want her, but I do. And the baby... well, I'm pretty excited about it,” he smiled hugely.
“All right then. Congratulations, Jake,” James said slapping him on the back.
“Hey, the first one,” Conner said. “That's a big deal.”
“Awesome,” Jeff said.
“Hey, it's our future,” Aaron said.
“That's why I wanna go... for Lilly and the baby,” Jake said.
~
The Dog showed up just before dinner with a companion. She was every bit mutt as The Dog, and very nervous around people.
&nbs
p; Everyone ate with gusto, slipping bits of chicken to the two dogs, and fussing over Angel, which somebody immediately named her.
“It's not right,” Conner said. “Angel here shows up and gets a name immediately and The Dog is still The Dog.”
“Yeah, but he's The Dog,” Janna said laughing. Everybody joined in.
“The Dog probably wouldn't know what to make of a new name,” Jake said. “Probably thinks The Dog is his name.”
“Well, it is,” Lilly said. “It is his name. Angel and The Dog. Now The Dog has somebody too.”
~
Dinner passed by quickly, and Conner broached the subject that had been on their minds and that they had spoken of earlier.
“Some of us talked today about going with James and Janna. By some of us I mean, Aaron, Amy, Katie and myself, Jake and Jeff. We decided to go... Lilly,” he looked at Lilly, “had already told Jake she wanted to go. If I have it figured right, we have it figured right, the only ones who didn't say for sure yet are Nell and Molly. But,” he held his hands up, “this is for every one of us,” he looked to Jeff's group, “those of you who have been here, those of you who just got here.”
“We thought we'd ask everybody where they stand right now. But if you still haven't made up your mind, that's fine. It's a ways away yet. We have some traveling to do, which were going back to tomorrow, I'm told. So, I thought we'd all answer, and there's an awful lot to discuss. And since it will affect all of us, we should all talk about it. James will do that, but first, we've got some other news. Jake... Lilly?” Conner grinned hugely. It had been all he could do not to tell Katie. Jake spoke to Lilly, and she had agreed to tell everyone.
Lilly flushed. She seemed to think for a moment and then spoke. “Jake and I are going to have a baby,” she said. Cheers went up everywhere. Everybody hugged Lilly and shook Jake's hand. The Dog and Angel ran around between their legs, jumping up and down and barking, joining in the general mayhem.
Lilly explained again how it was not Jake who was the baby's father, but her boyfriend before everything had happened. But it didn't dampen anyone's enthusiasm.
Sandy made her promise to let her know if she felt any way out of the ordinary, and then began to prescribe vitamins and exercise, sounding exactly like a doctor. But, Conner thought, in this world, she was a doctor.
Earth's Survivors: box set Page 57