by Harp, Wilson
The next morning, we slept late, ate a big breakfast and then wandered around the base. A large crowd had gathered not far from where we were quartered at one of the old sports fields. We saw a large gathering of maybe a thousand people. They were excited and the shouts drew us closer. We made our way through the crowd and saw there was an old soccer field with two teams of men warming up.
“What is this?” Kenny asked one of the spectators.
“It’s kind of like rugby,” someone said. “I’m not sure of all the rules, though.”
The game started and I found myself enthralled by the action and caught up in the excitement. It turned out to be the championship game of the season between the two best teams. A league of eight teams had been formed after the fall harvest, and there had been a regular schedule set up. I hadn’t realized how much I missed being entertained by something. Sure Luke read stories back home, and occasionally Ted did the same on the road, but a group event with hundreds of other people was different. It made me feel alive. The game ended at some point and one team seemed to be victorious. I still had no idea of the rules or what the action meant, but the crowd seemed happy and satisfied. We walked to the big marketplace as the crowd broke up.
“That was exciting,” Anne said. “I feel pumped up.”
“Dangerous,” said Kenny. “Too dangerous for me.”
“It didn’t look that bad,” I said.
“No medical help if you get hurt out there,” Kenny said. “Just too big of a risk.”
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” said Ted. “Keeps people occupied in the winter, keeps them distracted from their troubles, and you said they have a pretty good medical center here.”
“It’s not bad,” said Kenny. “They have a lot of stores, that’s for sure.”
“One of the women I talked to said the general made raiding the nearby hospitals his top priority. He grabbed up any doctors and nurses at the same time,” Anne said.
“Makes sense,” said Ted.
“Yeah, but you get busted up out there, and you are going to have a long wait to be seen,” said Kenny.
“Why?” I asked. “It didn’t take you long.”
“I was prioritized. They have a very detailed triage system set up. I watched how it worked when I went in. If you get hurt through no fault of your own, you don’t have people cutting in front of you, but there was a guy with a gashing wound who had been there for over an hour. They gave him a towel to tie around his arm. He had gotten into a fight and had been cut bad. They said the injury was due to his own actions, and he was put near the end of the list. I can’t imagine getting your arm broke playing a game will get you seen faster than getting into a fight and getting cut bad.”
“Then why do they allow it?” Anne said.
“Probably a testosterone outlet,” I said. “A bunch of young men with nothing to do and no way to keep busy could make a lot of trouble. Have them take their energy and aggression out on each other. Plus, like Ted said, distracts the crowds. They’re gladiators in the arena.”
We wandered the base and tried to remember things which would help Kenton when we got back. The layout of the marketplace, the way the bells seemed to control the movement of people and keep them aware of time passing, and the random sight of armed men interacting with people in a friendly manner.
We went back to our quarters before the sun had completely set and were asleep by the time the first stars popped out.
I woke while the night blanketed the base. I don’t know why I woke, I just did. The accusation of General Andrews still stabbed at me. Why was I making this trip north? Was it so I could give in to despair completely? Part of my spirit gave up when my dad died. He was a constant in my life, and his passing struck me hard. Mom was different. I had already started losing her before the event, and she was well out of my reach by the time her body shut down. But had I given up?
I didn’t think so, but it still bothered me. What would I do if I got to Chicago and couldn’t find Lexi and Emma? What would I do if I didn’t find any news of them at all?
I had said, and still believed, I must know where they are and bring them back at all cost. But did I really believe it? Wasn’t there a cost too high to keep looking for information which may not exist? If there was, then why couldn’t I see it?
The worst part was this feeling hadn’t started with the event. I had felt this way in the months leading up to my trip to Kenton. I didn’t know why Lexi had pulled away like she had, but I knew there was something wrong. She said it was I who had pulled away, but that wasn’t true. There was a problem and I couldn’t see it.
And then I decided to go check on my parents. Maybe I did pull away. Maybe going to see my folks was my way of being away from her for a few days. I wasn’t surprised when she said she didn’t want to go. How many times had I wished I had told Emma to come with me? But I knew she wouldn’t have appreciated being dragged down to a small town away from her friends and life for a weekend.
If I had brought Emma with me, would I be heading back to Chicago for Lexi? Yes. I knew I would. We had troubles, but I loved her with all my heart. I would have left Emma in Kenton where I knew she was safe and returned to get my wife.
The sky lightened and I realized I had spent a couple of hours considering my motives. I closed my eyes to sleep, when I heard Anne make a soft noise in her sleep. This was another problem, and one I wasn’t sure how to deal with. I felt guilty over bringing Anne. I know Anne hoped I would find my family because she loved me and wanted the best for me. But I also knew a part of Anne wanted me to not find them, because she would be happy if I started a new life with her.
I felt guilty for allowing her to come for what it would mean in either case. Finding Lexi and Emma would mean a lonely walk back to Kenton for Anne. It would be awkward to explain to Lexi, as well. Why did my high school sweetheart travel three hundred miles with me? I’m not sure Lexi would believe I stayed faithful to my wedding vows.
If we discovered the worst, I would feel guilty because I would probably not mourn long before I sought Anne for comfort. That thought felt like a betrayal of Lexi. So many scenarios, and none of them would be easy to deal with. I gave up on sleep and just thought about the days ahead.
Chapter 13
The next morning felt like spring as we headed away from the base. We traveled north on route 4 as a balmy southern breeze pushed us along. We crossed an Interstate as we traveled, and we could see the abandoned cars which littered the wide road. The EMP had hit around 3am, which meant there wasn’t a ton of traffic in the United States at the time, but I looked in both directions and could see the shells of hundreds of vehicles which lined the road.
I imagined the panic which must have struck these people. Miles away from help, stranded with strangers, maybe just traveling through, but in completely unfamiliar surroundings. Their phones wouldn’t work and no one’s vehicle would work. I’m sure many stayed the night in their cars as they waited for help to come. Some must have stayed for a few days before they realized they were all alone.
The doors stood open on most of the cars, and all the tires were gone. Cars would have been prime scavenger targets. Everyday items were often stored in vehicles, and when you can’t just run down to the store and get what you need, those items could add a good bit of quality to your life. The cars had sat for months with their doors and trunks open. Anything of immediate value had been stripped out, but I imagined the teams of mechanics and engineers at the air base would have viewed these lines of vehicles as their own private junkyard full of parts and pieces they could use for years to come.
“Makes you wonder,” Kenny said. “How many of those cars have been stripped clean and how many have little treasures hidden away.”
“Trunks that haven’t been popped open, engines that haven’t been scavenged,” I said.
“Bottles of water,” said Anne. “Packs of hard candy in glove boxes or center consoles.”
“Eventu
ally all those little things will be used up,” Ted said. “And when it happens, people will look to the future instead of reaching for the past.”
I nodded as I considered what Ted meant. I had often thought where I could find something which would make my life easier rather than considering if someone could get me something just as good or better. Like Bill’s wagon. The men of Kenton could have turned out dozens of those wagons if we had just thought of it, but we hadn’t. It was men like Bill the world needed. New ideas would lead us forward, and suppress our yearning for what we had lost.
Lebanon was only ten miles north of the airbase along route 4, and was the limit of General Andrew’s control in that direction. Ruffin had filled us in on some of the particulars about the town. It was here Andrew’s men first ran into Miller’s. A brief firefight erupted as both groups demanded the other lay down their arms. With more radios and equipment, the military was able to call in reinforcements and had forced Miller’s troops back. But there were regular reports of scouts from the north, and although Miller’s territory didn’t begin on the maps for another twenty five miles, Lebanon was fortified and garrisoned as the hold point for Miller’s expansion south. We would travel for at least a day in the no man’s land before we reached the edge of Miller’s territory.
After a few day’s rest, it felt good to stretch my legs again. The long days and rough miles which had brought us this far didn’t seem to be something I would yearn for, but at the end of the day being able to look at a map and realize we had made progress toward Chicago was the reward I craved most. When I had my family safe, I would never travel this way again. But for now, these days meant I was doing something useful.
There were a few tents in the town, but they were mostly for short term storage it seemed. With the town abandoned by the population, there was plenty of room for hundreds of soldiers to be barracked and supplied. A large truck started and lurched into gear. We glanced over at it like we had never seen one before. The base had vehicles, even airplanes, on the move constantly, and yet a half day’s journey had pulled us right back into our present reality where the sound of an engine was the exception and not the rule.
Someone must have passed word we were in town. A lieutenant, flanked by two soldiers who looked grim and wary, walked out of a building along the main street and stood in our way.
“Do you have any business here?” he asked. His eyes took in our clothes, gear, and weapons.
“We have a pass from General Andrews which allows us to go north,” Ted said.
“Let me see it.”
Ted fished in his pocket and pulled out the envelope which contained our pass. It was dangerous to wander along the north border of the military zone without authorization, at best you would be arrested and dragged back to the base for processing.
“Everything seems to be in order,” the Lieutenant said. “Don’t loiter about. We have more important things to do than to keep our eyes on civilians. The pass says you’re to go north. That’s what I suggest you do as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” I said. “We’ll get moving.”
He sneered at me and shoved the pass back at Ted. He and his men returned to the building without another word.
“Not overly friendly,” said Kenny as we continued through town.
The troops in Lebanon were serious and focused. They made the soldiers near Cape Girardeau look undisciplined and sloppy. The thought of facing another military group, one which was organized and equipped, had them on edge. It wasn’t a nervousness, it was more a sense of keen alertness. Casualness had been replaced with purposefulness, even in something as simple as moving supplies or standing guard.
It took us a little over half an hour to walk through the town, and every minute I could feel their eyes on me. Soldiers who viewed me, personally, as a threat to them and their town. I had thought the patrol we met in Ava was paranoid, but they were friendly and open compared to the men who sat watch on the northern border.
When we passed the last of the hardened positions, we moved off the road to the east and walked through the fields and trees at a slow pace. We still saw plenty of patrols so we didn’t hide too terribly hard, but Ted wanted to make sure we weren’t seen from the road.
It was a quiet march, with none of the banter which had been part of our journey thus far. The situation was darker now, more dangerous. And I feared it would be worse before we arrived in Chicago.
We were still within the tenuous control of the base when we stopped for the night. There was a small building, probably a tractor shed, about two hundred yards off the road sheltered by some trees. It wasn’t too large, but it was roomy enough for us to spread out. We unloaded our packs and lay down to rest and eat some dinner when we heard a bang on the door.
“Who’s in there? Identify yourself,” A voice said. “We saw you go in and we have you covered, so don’t think you can get away.”
“Name is Ted Riggins and we’re travelers,” Ted said. “We are from the south and heading out of the military zone. We have a pass from General Andrews.”
The door opened and two soldiers stepped inside.
“We use this as a shelter for our patrols,” one of them said. “Sorry, but you’ll have to find another place to bunk down tonight.”
Kenny looked at Ted and I could see a silent conversation take place.
“All right,” said Kenny. “We’ll leave. We don’t want no trouble.”
We gathered our packs and headed out. There were eight soldiers in total. They weren’t rude, really. But there was no chance they would let us stay nearby.
“Those trees about a half mile east will work,” Anne said. “At least they’ll be between us and the highway.”
“At least it’s a mild night,” I said. “I fear I’ve become too soft to sleep outside.”
This drew a chuckle from my friends. I had been told I had a dry sense of humor, a low wit that edged on the sardonic before, but I always felt like I lacked a good sense of humor, so I never tried to joke. It felt good to be here with them. To know they would understand what I found funny inside myself.
We camped in a small stand of trees, sheltered from the wind and just beyond the site of the shed where the soldiers rested. As much as they didn’t trust us, we didn’t trust them.
The next morning was bright and brisk. Fast moving clouds high in the sunny sky indicated a small cold front had gone through, although it must not have been too strong of a system as the wind and temperature didn’t change much.
“Tomorrow’s February, you know,” Kenny said. “Just in case anyone is interested.”
“Already?” I asked.
“Yep,” said Anne. “18 days since we left Kenton.”
I frowned as I thought about it. Since we had to plot a longer path, we weren’t even past the one third point. If it took us another month to get to Chicago, and we got lucky and found Lexi and Emma right away, we could be back at the base by the beginning of April, and then back to Kenton or Sikeston or wherever I would take them just before May. And that was a best case scenario. Getting back in time for the first spring harvest was wishful thinking, but I don’t think anyone took the promise at face value anyway. Now I was faced with making the trip in the early summer heat instead of the winter cold.
Nine months ago, any one of the days we had traveled would have put me on my back for a week. Now, I can do twenty-five miles a day and not feel it too much. But I didn’t know what shape Lexi and Emma would be in when we did find them. What would our pace be then? Could they travel in bad weather or would we have to wait for good days to travel?
I shook my head. No sense in borrowing trouble from over a month from now, it was best I keep my mind on getting to Chicago first.
I bumped into Anne as she stopped in front of me. I looked to see Ted signal us to be quiet. I had been lost in thought and violated Ted’s primary rule to always be aware of our surroundings. Not for the first time, I was glad he had agreed to ge
t me to Chicago.
Ted led us to a shallow gully and we crawled for almost a quarter mile until we found ourselves under a small hill. Ted crawled to the top of the hill with his pair of binoculars. A minute later, he slid back down.
“Small outpost about even with us now. Five, maybe six men. Heavily armed. I think I saw a mortar set up.”
“They ain’t fooling around. No wonder Andrews is worried,” said Kenny.
“What do we do?” asked Anne.
“We keep crawling down this creek bed for another half mile if we can, then we cut northeast. Stay off any roads and we should avoid any of their patrols.”
I wanted to look around myself, but I just kept my head down as we crawled. It seemed we went on all fours for hours. My back hurt and more than a few times my knees found the sharp edges of rocks which lay just below the layer of leaves and vegetation.
Ted crawled up from his position and took a quick look around just as the sun reached the noon position.
“Looks clear,” he said. “If we head northeast, we should hit a stream which will take us out of Miller’s lands.”
We traveled over a mix of farm fields and open prairie until we saw the stream. Trees lined the banks and we slipped in amongst them. I felt more secure in the trees which hid us from unfriendly eyes. When we started this journey, Ted wanted us out in the open where no one would think we had something to hide. It was our best defense against the biggest danger: misunderstanding. But the biggest danger now was discovery, and we were forced to hide and slink our way through the land.
Anne was the first to hear the sounds. She held up her hand and we all dropped to a crouch. Soon I heard it as well. Voices shouted from across the stream. We found cover just as two men came into view. They ran toward the stream. Their clothes were well worn and too light for the cold weather. They ran at full speed, but so did the men who came over the crest just behind them. And those men carried rifles. One of the men stopped and raised his rifle. A sharp crack was followed by the collapse of one of the men he chased. No screams, no grunts. His body just slumped to the ground in midstride. His companion kept running, but the man with the raised rifle was a good shot. The second round caught his prey in the back. This time there was a yell of pain and the wounded man tried to rise. But the others had caught up to him in those few seconds. They used their rifles like clubs and soon it was over.