Prepper Fiction Collection: Four Books in One

by Susan Gregersen

  “My Mom used to feed me soup and tea when I was sick. Do you still have those rose hips? I can make you some tea. Do we have anything to make soup out of?” he asked.

  “There’s these little soup cubes wrapped in foil in the small duffel back, in one of the outer pockets. They were on the savvy shopper list, so I bought them. I took them out of the jar when I packed them, but the directions said to boil them in water and they dissolve and make broth,” she said, then laid back and closed her eyes as a wave of light-headedness came over her.

  Jeff left the tent and set about making broth and tea for Jeannie. When it was done he sat near her and spoon-fed the broth to her, and held a cup to her mouth so she could sip the tea. It went very slowly, since she couldn’t swallow much at a time. The tea was cool by the time she got to it, but she assured him it was good that way.

  The day passed in a blur. During the times she slept, Jeff went and sat on his rock and looked at the mountains. He’d flown over them many times but had never actually been in them. Not this kind, anyway.

  His family had gone to the Grand Canyon when he was a kid, and to the red rock canyons of Southern Utah, but the mountains they’d seen weren’t the same. His parents weren’t big on scenery. They preferred going to cities, to museums and amusement parks. He didn’t even know why they’d taken the Grand Canyon trip.

  He heard Jeannie call to him. She was climbing out of the tent when he got there. She had one of the blankets with her and said she wanted to sit over there with him and look at the mountains. She was feeling better but still weak. They would stay here another night, then try to travel on in the morning.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The next morning Jeannie was awake before Jeff. She laid quietly and watched him sleep. He was getting thin and his cheek bones showed more. She hoped they’d get where they were going soon and be able to rest and have more to eat. She was worried about whether the people would let them stay, even with Marty’s note. They were their last hope, and she didn’t know what they’d do if they were turned away. Winter was coming fast on the heels of fall.

  Jeff opened his eyes carefully so as not to disturb Jeannie and was surprised to be looking into her eyes. He asked her how she felt, and she told him. The morning was cold again, but they got up anyway, slipping into their coats. They left the tent until the last minute, hoping the dew would dry while they made breakfast. They made a glop out of cooked flour, like a sickly porridge with spices.

  “We should have put some of the broth cubes in it!” Jeannie exclaimed. Jeff set about boiling water and making broth, which he made her drink to keep up her strength. They made a pan full of rosehip tea and shared it, then put everything away. The tent was still damp but they rolled it up and packed it too.

  “Ready for the last leg?” Jeff asked. From here they left the top of the ravine and used the compass on Jeff’s watch to keep going the right direction. They walked down the hill and along a lower ridge, looking between the trees and watching for buildings or anything to indicate they were nearing any sort of civilization. It was work walking where there was no trail. Lunch time passed and they still weren’t there. They stopped and shared a candy bar, then walked again.

  In a few places they had to go around rocky walls and they tried to get back over to where they had been to keep a straight line and keep heading northeast. They worried that if they got too far to one side or the other they would miss the place entirely.

  When they spotted the red windmill it was sudden and without warning. There it was, between the trees! A few steps closer and they saw the flagpole. Their knees buckled and they held onto each other as they stepped out of the woods and looked across a lawn at a house surrounded by smaller buildings, a wishing well with yellow and orange flowers planted in it. Small fields and gardens surrounded it.

  Best of all, there were people scattered around the place, and when one of them spotted them and called out, many curious faces turned toward them. The people started walking toward them. Jeannie and Jeff stopped and leaned against each other and waited. A man who looked to be in authority stood ahead of the others when they stopped a few feet away.

  Jeff looked at the man and tried to speak. His voice croaked and he cleared his throat and stood straighter.

  “Marty sent us,” he said. He pulled the map from his pocket and held it out, with the message from Marty showing on the outside.

  The man reached out and took it. After looking at it his face came up and he said, “welcome.”

  With that simple word they were surrounded by people who took their packs and helped them walk to the porch of the house.

  EPILOGUE

  Jeff pounded the last of the boards into place. Whew! That job was done. It was about the dozenth time he’d fixed the hog pen fence. He looked across the yard and saw Jeannie on the porch with several other women, chopping vegetables and shelling peas. They had been canning food for days as the crews harvested it from the gardens. Jeannie had been happy to learn not only where food came from, but how it looked right out of the ground. It hadn’t even bothered her to see where meat came from.

  As he watched, she shifted to ease the burden of her rounded belly. Jeff was amazed to think that any day now he would be a father and they would be a family. It had been almost a year since the bombs fell and they’d made their escape from the city. They were grateful Marty’s friends had taken them in. He still held on to hope that Marty would join them one day, and he hoped Marty was okay.

  He carried the tools to the shed and went to see what needed to be done next. A commotion started in the yard and Jeff glanced that way. A child pointed to the woods at the edge of the yard. Everyone’s heads turned.

  A man and a woman with two small children stumbled onto the grass. They stopped at the sight of all the people staring at them. Their clothes were ragged and they seemed like they were in shock. Jeff joined the people walking toward them. The women on the porch let their hands go idle as they watched.

  When they stopped a few feet away from the small group, the man looked up at them and with a shaky voice said, “I’m supposed to tell you…Marty sent us.”

  Jeff whooped and hollered and ran to tell Jeannie while the others helped the family across the yard. Jeannie smiled and started to rise, then gasped. She thought she had a stitch in her side, but it spread around her whole belly and she realized it was a contraction. She laid both her hands on it and looked at Jeff.

  He whooped again, then said, “Whether it’s a boy or a girl, we’re naming it Marty!”

  Jeannie laughed through her tears and nodded.

  THE END

  Over The River And Through The Woods

  by Susan Gregersen

  Copyright 2011

  “Where’s my IPOD?” demanded Carrie as she picked up her school bag. “Hey! Why is there a paper bag in my book bag?”

  “It’s your lunch,” her Mom said. “We have to cut corners, so I packed a lunch for you, and one for Danny too.” She dried her hands on the dish towel and came to the door to see the kids off to school.

  “But Mom! Nobody brings lunch from home any more!” Danny whined as he picked up his bag and peered suspiciously at the lunch sack. At 8 years of age it was important to look cool. His 12-year old sister nodded her head in agreement.

  “Sorry. Now go, or you’ll be late!” She closed the door behind them. Two down, one to go. Ten-year old Zach had spent the night at a friend’s house to work on a science project and didn’t yet know he was doomed to home made lunches!

  “Honey, who’s IPOD is this? It was on the sink in the bathroom,” her husband, Pete, walked into the kitchen. Without waiting for an answer he set the IPOD on the counter and picked up a paper sack. “Oooh, is this my lunch? I haven’t ’brown bagged’ it in years! Mmm, looks good!” he said, peeking in the bag.

  “Well, I’m glad someone is happy about it!” Lonnie smiled. “Maybe when they taste the home made cookies it’ll cheer them up some. I guess it was rotten to sp
ring it on them like that.”

  “They would have just moaned about it for hours if they knew. The way things are going we may be worrying about more than lunch money.” He kissed her and let himself out the door into the garage.

  Lonnie leaned against the counter and sipped her coffee. She let the quietness of the house flow over her while she laid out her plan for the morning. She usually spent time on household chores after breakfast before starting her writing. She was a writer for a magazine and was always pushing to finish her column by deadline.

  Her eyes landed on the small stack of envelopes on the table. With a sigh, she walked over and sat down and rifled through the pile. Bills, bills, bills, and the bank statement, and oh! There was something different. The return address was from the Care Center where her Grandmother lived. Lonnie tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter.

  She’d been sitting at the table for several moments staring into space, the letter from the care center still in her hand, when the door opened and Pete stepped inside. He held the lunch bag in his hand and looked at her with a funny look on his face. He looked like he wanted to say something but couldn’t form the words. Finally he walked over and sat down at the table.

  “I’ve been laid off,” he said in a voice of wonder. “I didn’t even get to the highway. Fred called my cell.”

  Lonnie’s mind raced, but went blank when she tried to think of something to say. She lowered the paper in her hand. “Can you get unemployment money?”

  “Yes, but I think it won’t be enough. I’m going to have to try and find another job right away. I don’t know where to start, but I’ll figure something out,” Pete said. “What’s that you’re holding? It doesn’t look like a bill.”

  “It’s from the Care Center where my grandma lives,” Lonnie said slowly. She handed the paper to him. “It says they’re raising their rates again. This time it’s a 30% jump! Her money is almost gone, and they don’t take Medicare or Medicaid. I don’t know how we’ll be able to keep it paid now, and I hate the thought of moving her to the state home.”

  “We might not have a choice. I know it would be hard for you, but what else can we do? Especially with me being out of a job now,” he said grimly.

  “I promised my Mom that I’d watch out for Grandma,” Lonnie protested. “Maybe we could bring her here for a while, at least until you find another job.”

  “I don’t know. How is she doing? I mean, how is she physically and mentally? Will it confuse and upset her? What about the kids? Their school work might suffer and who knows what else, if they’re stressed over it,” said Pete.

  “I’ll visit her and see. We’ve only got until the end of the month to do something. But right now I better go finish up that article I’m working on. It’s almost ready to send, just needs a last look-over.” Lonnie got up and headed for her office at the back of the house. She sat down at her desk and booted up the computer. She brought up her account with the magazine and looked over her messages. There were a few messages from other writers with subject lines like “Now What!” and “This sucks”. At the bottom of the list was one from the Editor of the magazine with a title of “Urgent”. With a funny feeling in her stomach she clicked on that one first.

  “NO WAY!” Lonnie yelled a minute later. Pete appeared in the doorway, and she spun her chair to look at him. “This is like a bad dream. It just can’t be. The timing is just too weird!”

  “What? Are you going to tell me?” he asked.

  “The magazine is folding. Done. Finished. Everyone is being turned out the door. Just like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. She sat there in a state of shock. “We screwed. We are SO screwed. I don’t think I can even get unemployment, since writers are considered contractors and not employees.”

  Lonnie managed to pull herself together enough to go see her grandma at the Care Center after lunch. She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but the employees seemed distant and jumpy. She wondered if other residents’ families were jumping all over the employees over the hike in room rates. She found her grandma in the sun room, crocheting and talking to other ladies.

  “Alana! How lovely to see you!” her grandma cried. Lonnie smiled at the use of her full name, and she bent and kissed her grandma on the forehead.

  She sat down and all the ladies fussed over her and asked about her family. They seemed especially eager for news about the kids. Lonnie was glad to have something to talk about that wasn’t clouded over with worry and gloom. After a while she stretched and said “Grandma, do you want to go to the lunchroom with me and see if we can get some tea?”

  She saw her Grandma exchange a glance with the other ladies, then she agreed. She rolled up her yarn and stuffed it in a canvas bag. Holding onto the table she pulled herself up and let Lonnie hold her arm as they walked down the hallway. When they were out of sight, her grandma pulled her over to a bench in the lounge area.

  “Okay, Alana! Spill it! Something’s the matter. Are you and Pete getting along okay? Are the kids okay?”

  “You always did know when something was wrong, didn’t you?” Lonnie said with a wry smile. “Pete and I are fine, and the kids are fine. Pete got laid off from his job, and the magazine went broke and closed down, so my writing is pretty much over for now. I haven’t been able to sell anything to any of the other magazines for quite a while. Magazines seem to be folding right and left.”

  Lonnie sighed and ran her hands through her hair. Might as well just spill it out.

  “They’re raising the rates again for your room. Your money is almost gone, and your Social Security won’t cover it. We’re behind on our house payment already. We have the house on the market but I don’t think we can get enough to even pay off the mortgage, even if we were lucky enough to find someone who could buy it.”

  “Well,” her grandma said. “Well. I don’t want to be a bother to anyone. Is there some place cheaper I can move to?”

  “Grandma, the only thing cheaper is the State Home and I don’t want you to go there! I promised Mom that I’d help you and look after you!” she said.

  “Sweetie, we promise a lot of things to someone when they’re dying, and it’s just to comfort them so they die happy. She never would have wanted you to worry about me like that! She had no way of knowing we were on the brink of a depression, despite the government STILL refusing to call it that!” Her grandma put her arm around Lonnie’s shoulder and pulled her closer.

  “Grandma, do you think you’d be able to come stay with us for a while? If Pete or I get a job, we’d be able to help you out and you could move back here if you wanted to.”

  “Oh, I don’t want to be an imposition. The State Home will be good enough for me,” she said, but Lonnie could tell she didn’t really want to go there.

  “You’d never be an imposition. We’d love to have you. I’m going to talk to your doctor and see what he thinks. Pete already said he thinks it’s a great idea,” she exaggerated. He hadn’t been against it, only skeptical.

  Lonnie got home just ahead of the kids. They burst in the door and dropped book bags on the table in the hallway and ran to the kitchen. “Hi, Mom!” came a chorus of voices, followed by Carrie’s squeal of delight. “My IPOD!”

  Pete walked into the room and the kids’ looked at him in surprise.

  “Dad, why are you home? Are you sick?” Zack asked.

  “Nah, Dad probably pranked someone and got suspended!” Danny smirked.

  “Dad got laid off from his job,” Lonnie informed them. Their faces sobered and they looked almost frightened, so Lonnie didn’t add that she lost her job that day too. “But I have some good news. What do you think about Grandma coming to stay with us for a while!”

  “Neat-o!” yelled Danny. The other kids looked back and forth to everyone and then asked “why?”

  “Well, it’s like this. We’re broke, Grandma is out of money, and she needs someplace to go,” Pete said, jumping in to be supportive to his wife.

  “Wha
t are you going to do for a job now, Dad?” asked Carrie. Her brow furrowed with worry.

  “Hey, you could get a job at McDonald’s!” Zach said. “Jeremy’s big brother said they’re always hiring!”

  “He can’t work at McDonald’s, you moron! He’s too OLD! Dad’s got to be at least 30!” said Danny.

  “Thirty-seven. And why is that too old to work at McDonald’s?” Pete demanded.

  “Well, um…I dunno. Just that, um, I thought you had to be young and cool to work at McDonald’s,” said Danny in a voice that got quieter and dwindled to an embarrassed halt.

  “I’ll have you know that I’m VERY cool, and I think McDonalds is the first place I’ll apply!” Pete said.