by P. A. Glaspy
Monroe grinned at him and replied, “Of course we have a spot for your camper, and that’s a damn fine idea, Luke. Maybe we should be keeping an eye out for more campers, Russ. Give those small families an option for alternative living quarters, with a little privacy.”
Russ looked thoughtful. “Yes, we’ve talked about it before and it definitely could help, although they won’t be as secure as the house. I’d like to keep them close to the house, just in case. Monroe, why don’t you and I go out and have a look at the camper while these guys catch up?”
Monroe gave him a quick nod and they headed for the door.
“It’s out behind the storage building. It’s still covered from the last time we stored it for winter. It’s been at least three years since we used it, so I’m not sure what kind of shape it’s in, but hey, it’s a roof, a toilet, and a bed. Here, let me give you the key for the door.” He handed Russ a key ring he pulled from a key holder by the door.
Russ took the key ring. “You’re exactly right. Right now anything you can call home will work. We’ll let you know what we find. We’ll be back in a few minutes.” He opened the back door and held it for Monroe. When they got outside, they saw Bill and motioned him over. They gave him the condensed version of what the Callens had already had to deal with as they walked across the yard toward the camper. He shook his head.
“The world has always been full of assholes. That hasn’t changed. With everything gone to hell, the assholes are living large with no repercussions for their assholeness. Any way to find out who they were? Where they came from?”
“Luke said he’d never seen them before, so chances are they aren’t from around here. Like everybody else will do sooner or later, when they realized there weren’t going to be any more grocery store deliveries, they started figuring out where food actually comes from, and they made their way to the farms. We haven’t seen the last refugees either. We just have to be ready to deal with them.”
Russ stopped talking as he rounded the corner of the shed and saw the tarp covered camper. The tarp was still intact, no obvious holes that they could see.
“Well, let’s pull this tarp off and see what’s underneath, fellas.”
Monroe grabbed one corner and released the bungee cord holding it down. Russ and Bill did the same, and the three of them worked their way around until they had all the tie downs released. They then grabbed the tarp by both corners and the center and started backing up. The tarp slid off, revealing a later model camper, probably 24 feet long. Outside of some mildew on the north facing side, it looked to be in pretty decent shape. There were no holes, no dents, nothing externally wrong, that they could see.
“So far so good. Let’s see what she looks like on the inside.” Russ stuck the key in the door and opened it.
Inside they found dust, but overall it looked pretty good. No signs of critters using it as a homestead. The bedclothes were still on the bed in back and there was a musty smell to everything, but it was nothing a good airing out wouldn’t fix. Russ grinned at Monroe and Bill.
“This is a sweet little camper. What a great idea, for them to bring this over and stay in it. You’re right, Monroe – I had all but decided we couldn’t grow our group anymore, because we were out of room. Campers could be the answer. The more people we have, the more we can put into the security rotation; the more crops we can plant, because we have more people to tend them. More mouths to feed, yes, but also more people resources. We could actually look for people with skills we need. What if we could find a doctor, or a butcher, or a blacksmith?”
Monroe laughed at him. “Slow down, son. We ain’t even moved this one over there, and you’re already looking to hire more folks to live in campers we ain’t got yet.”
Russ grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. I got excited at the thought of building a little community. We should definitely keep an eye out for more campers, just in case.”
“Agreed. Let’s go see how they’re doing in there. I’d like to get this show on the road, and get us back to the farm. I don’t like being gone from there any more than we have to be.”
Monroe headed back to the house, Russ and Bill following. When they walked in, Kate had Casey sitting up drinking water from one of the canteens they had brought with them.
“How’s she doing, Kate?” Russ’s voice was full of concern.
Kate looked at him. “She’s severely dehydrated. We have IV’s at the house. If I can get some fluids in her, maybe some Pepto or something, I think we can nip this thing the old fashioned way – with time. She needs rest, liquids, maybe some broth, and something to stop the bathroom trips. How was the camper?”
“It looks really good. Very livable. Luke, if you guys want to grab some clothes and stuff, we’ll hook up to the camper and you can come with us now, if that works.” Russ looked at Luke and waited for his answer.
“Really? Leave right now? But what about our place here?”
Russ shook his head. “Luke, you already know you can’t defend this place – not by yourself, and honestly, I don’t think you could with reinforcements. It’s too open. You can see the house from the road. It’s just a matter of time before those guys come back, maybe with reinforcements, or someone else finds this place. It’s better not to be here when that happens. We can help you gather your clothes, food, guns, and ammo. We can probably be out of here in no more than two hours. Take everything you might need, and anything you can’t do without, in case you don’t get to come back.”
Casey spoke for the first time. It was more of a croak, since she hadn’t been doing much of that for a few days. “Pishures.”
Luke rushed to her side. “What, Honey? What did you say?”
She cleared her throat and said more clearly, “Pictures. Get the photo albums. They’re going with us.”
He smiled at her and moved her unwashed hair from her eyes. “You’ve got it, Babe. Anything else?”
She shook her head and laid it back down on the sofa arm. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. He stood up, straightened his shoulders, turned to the guys and said, “What should we grab first? Looks like we’re coming with you.”
****
They crammed everything into any bag they could find, and ended up using quite a few trash bags for clothes. Casey was a serious home canner, so they had a lot of home canned items and canning supplies. Those jars would be priceless in the future. The guys grabbed all they could, along with the jars and lids. She had a few dozen of each size lid in a reusable form, which were now worth more than their weight in gold. They gathered all her canning equipment and loaded that in the truck. We had the same at the farm, but can you ever have too many canning supplies? Especially when you couldn’t go to the store to buy more. Since they were bringing the camper, it was easy to just throw everything inside it, and still leave room for the people in the truck.
Kate had them leave the area around the sofa in the camper clear, so they could put Casey there for the short ride to the farm. Kate wanted to ride with her, so the guys piled in the pickup. Within two hours, they had loaded up what Luke and Casey needed to relocate to where we were. As Luke was locking the door, he turned to Russ.
“Any idea if there’s a chance we get to come back here some day? If we do, will it even be here?”
Russ laid his hand on Luke’s shoulder. “I wish I knew. I have a feeling life as we knew it will never be the same, buddy. All we can do is move forward and deal with whatever life throws at us.”
“Any chance life will stop hurtling turds at us any time soon?”
Russ snorted at the unexpected humor from a new friend. “That sure would be a welcome event, Luke. Let’s hope so.”
They were still laughing as they climbed in the truck to leave. Russ turned the key, and she fired up. Just as he was putting it in gear, another pickup pulled into the driveway, blocking their path. Why hadn’t they heard it coming?
Luke saw the truck and yelled, “It’s them! That’s the guys who tried to take
my wife!”
CHAPTER 15
Russ slammed on the brakes, turned the truck off, and grabbed his pistol. Sean and Bill in the truck bed, and Monroe in the cab, followed suit. Luke stood up in the bed with his rifle laid across the roof, aimed their way. Russ leaned out the window so the guys in the back could hear him, along with the ones in the cab.
“Don’t do anything yet. Let them make the first move. There’s still just the three of them, so we definitely have them outnumbered. They don’t know what we have for weapons, or what our level of expertise is with them, so, if they’re smart, they’ll find that out first. Monroe, do you know them?”
Monroe was squinting in their direction. “I don’t recognize the truck. I can’t really make them out, but I don’t think I know them, no.”
“Then they’re not locals. Hold tight for now, guys. Let’s see what they do.”
The strangers were talking among themselves. The one by the passenger side door finally got out. He was armed, but not holding his weapon. He addressed Russ’s truck.
“Hey fellas! We was just wonderin’ if y’all had any more food you could spare. We was real grateful for what you gave us the other day, but we ain’t been able to find anymore anywhere, so we was hopin’ y’all could help us out again.”
Luke jumped out before anyone could stop him. “HELP YOU??? You tried to take my wife, you dick!! I ought to shoot you where you stand – all of you!!!”
Luke started to raise his rifle, and a shot rang out from the cab of the other truck. It missed him, thankfully, but it didn’t stop our men from all jumping out and training their firearms on the three men. The shooter, who was the driver, put his gun on the dash and held up his hands. The other two men did the same.
Monroe took the lead. “You boys step on out of that truck, nice and easy now. No sudden moves, and no one will get hurt. Hands where we can see them.”
The other two men got out, hands to their sides. The spokesman calmly replied, “None of us want to get hurt. We’re just looking for some food. And we didn’t try to take his wife. I was just tryin’ to take her hand, to thank her for the help, and she misunderstood; started screamin’ and shit.”
Monroe looked him in the eye. “Well, I’m afraid you’re out of luck, boys. No food left here. Y’all best get on down the road, see what else you can find.”
“Well, what about where you’re stayin’, old man? Got something there you could give a neighbor, just to get us by?”
Monroe was getting mad. “First off, you should respect your elders, boy. Calling me ‘old man’ ain’t curryin’ no favor with me. Second, you ain’t my neighbor. I’ve never seen you before, and I’ve lived in these parts most of my life. I don’t know where you’re from, but it ain’t here. Last, I got nothing for you or your kind. I see you again, I’ll be the last thing you ever see. Now get in your truck and get the hell off this property!”
With the last word, Monroe cocked his revolver and aimed it at the man’s head. The scavenger smirked at him, but backed up to the truck door he had left open. They climbed into their truck and started it. The man leaned out as they were pulling away and said, “I’m sure we’ll see each other again, sir. I’m lookin’ forward to it.”
Monroe yelled after them, “Not nearly as much as I am, asshole!” He turned back to the truck and looked at the group. “Listen for that truck to go away before we head out. Make sure they don’t follow us to the farm. Damn, I need a snort.”
“Sounds good to me. As soon as we get back, let’s make that happen.” Russ climbed in and started the truck again. He sent Sean back to check on the girls. When he returned with a thumbs up they pulled out onto the road. They stopped to listen for the truck but didn’t hear anything except the one they were in. They took the chance the scavengers weren’t around and headed back to the farm. It was a chance that would cost them later.
****
When they came through the gate pulling the camper, we all knew we had some new folks joining. We waited in the yard for them to come to a stop. Luke jumped out and rushed to the camper door without acknowledging anyone. He opened the door and stepped inside, then knelt down beside the sofa. He touched Casey’s forehead and looked at Kate.
“She seems to have cooled off a bit, doesn’t she? Is she going to be alright?”
Kate smiled at him reassuringly. “I think she’ll be fine. We have a mini clinic set up in the basement, and I’d like to get her down there as soon as possible, so I can get an IV in her. Just a saline drip, to get her rehydrated. I’ll get one of the guys to carry her down.”
“NO! I’ll do it! I can do it!” Luke was still having a problem with any other men close to her. He leaned down. “Honey, are you okay? Was the ride very hard on you? I’m going to pick you up now, and carry you inside. Kate’s going to take care of you.”
He struggled, even though she had dropped a lot of weight from her illness, since he hadn’t been taking care of himself either. But, he still refused help when Sean tried to step in, and he carried her up the front steps. Millie was waiting at the door.
“Luke, I’m so glad you’re both here. Bless her heart, has she been sick long? Follow me, I’ll show you where the clinic is.”
He followed Millie inside with Kate right behind them. The rest of us went out to the truck and got the rest of the story. No wonder Luke was so protective.
“I’d be acting exactly like him if that had happened to Janet. Or Anne. Hell, any of our women. There’s a bunch of low-life scumbags out there, ya know?” Bob was getting himself worked up. I didn’t blame him. I was furious at the thought of those men trying to grab Casey and I barely knew her. If it had happened to one of our people? No effing way they walked away from that.
Mike was nodding slowly. “Yes there are, and sooner or later we’ll run into some more of them, or possibly these guys again. Luke and Casey’s place was only about five miles from here. They could easily find their way here. We have to finish the security measures. We need to fortify the gate. We are about to hunker down for the long haul. I can’t think of any reason we need to leave again any time soon, so it’s time to go into lockdown mode. We need to stay hidden while the outside world tears itself apart – at least as long as we can.”
CHAPTER 16
Alan Byers had never really held a steady job. The last one he’d had was as a day laborer on a demolition crew. He had been on that job site when the power went off. If not for all the equipment suddenly stopping, they might not have known right away that anything had happened. A job site is a pretty noisy place until all the power tools and forklifts shut down. The foreman had instructed them to continue working, as they could still be manually moving materials and cleaning the site up. It didn’t dawn on him that a normal power outage would not have taken out the equipment but as soon as one of the gofers tried to start his car to go on a coffee run, that brought things to a screeching halt. Everyone ran to their own vehicles to see if theirs would run. Most of them didn’t. Alan’s 1960 GMC pickup did. He laughed, flipped off the rest of the crew, and peeled out of the lot in a plume of dust, with his former co-workers running behind trying to get him to stop. He didn’t know what was going on, but it sure looked like it might be his lucky day. He headed home to see what Rich and Steve thought about the situation.
Alan had been friends with Rich Hawkins and Steve Carpenter most of his life. They met in middle school, stayed friends through high school (from which none of them graduated), and now lived together at Rich’s house. They had gotten into trouble with the law on occasion, but never anything major. The sheriff’s deputy, Tim Miller, was another buddy from high school; only difference was he managed to graduate and landed a job at the department. He mostly left them alone if he found them on the wrong side of the law, unless someone else was around, like the sheriff, then he’d come down a bit harder on them. They never stood before a judge though – even if he locked them up, he’d let them go the next day, the charges mysteriously dropped.
> Alan had to go around quite a few dead cars on the way there. Folks were waving and hollering for him to stop, but he just kept going, laughing and throwing empty beer cans from his floorboard at them. Stupid snooty assholes. Your high-dollar rides ain’t worth shit now, are they? He was feeling pretty smug when he finally pulled up to Rich’s place about an hour later. Rich lived in his dad’s old house, which was pretty much the only thing he got when his old man died. It was out in the boonies, so they could drink, shoot, and raise hell all they wanted without anyone calling the cops – not that it was really an issue if they did. Steve was already there, since his pizza delivery job was on the night shift. They were sitting on the front porch drinking beer and laughing when he pulled up. He jumped out of his truck and started up the walk.
“Man, toss me one of those. There’s some crazy shit going on today.”
Rich tossed him a beer. “Don’t I know it. Nobody’s got power, nobody’s cars run, ‘cept yours it looks like; no cells or regular phones – this ain’t your usual ‘somebody hit a pole and took out a transformer’ power outage.”
“No, it ain’t. The radio in my truck was nothing but static. What the hell could cause something like this?”
“I don’t know, but since you’re here and your truck works, how ‘bout we head to town, see if we can find out what’s going on?”
“Hell yeah. If I’ve got one of the few trucks running, I might start me a taxi service. Fifty bucks a mile.” Alan laughed long and hard at his own joke – but maybe it wasn’t a joke. Maybe he could figure out a way to make some serious money off this mess, especially if it lasted a while. Maybe they could have some fun, too.
****
Now, over a month later, the three men had been to most of the homes in the vicinity. One of the first ones they “visited” in the beginning had a stash of crystal meth. The chick was high on something when they got there, probably heroin since she was pretty much out of it, so they grabbed her meth and took off. She was a skank, as Steve referred to her, named Chris. He knew her, knew she was a cooker of the stuff, and figured they’d be able to score some from her. He had no idea she’d have as much as she did. Apparently she had gotten her hands on a big pile of the pseudoephedrine used to make it from somewhere; probably robbed a drug store when the lights went out. They started smoking it immediately, and things escalated soon after.