Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road

by Christine Conaway

  Cal shook his head no. “I ain’t left anything in town and I ain’t got all day to stand around jabbering.”

  “Well okay then. Take care of yourself Cal.” She hugged him but it was apparent to all of them how he felt when he didn’t return her gesture. He turned and stomped off in the direction of the barn. They heard him grumbling under his breath as he left.

  Rob returned and threw a gym bag onto the back of the wagon. It landed with a thud. He hoisted a black garbage bag up beside the gym bag. He turned and watched Cal walk away.

  Margaret looked at Rob and frowned. She must have been questioning something they had previously talked about when Rob nodded in confirmation.

  Rob started to follow after Cal, but Margaret stopped him with a hand on his arm, “Leave him be. Maybe after he has a chance to think he’ll come to town.”

  Jake, had already turned the wagon around ready to head back to town. He sat waiting on them.

  Frank helped Ellen and Margaret up onto the wagon bed, and climbed up onto the seat beside Jake. Rob hopped on the back as the wagon began to move.

  Instead of sitting on the bale of hay, Ellen and Margaret chose to sit on the wagon bed and lean on the bale. “You okay?” Ellen asked.

  “I will be. I’m sorry he has to be this way, but you have to know Cal to understand him. He’ll forget all about us as soon as we’re gone. He’s had his eye on this ranch since before my husband died. I was always flattered when he paid attention to me, but it was always the ranch he wanted. Courting me was his way to get it.”

  “Well I think you’re wrong about that, but if you don’t have feelings for him, then it’s better you go with us.” She reached over and took Margaret’s hand. “Besides we need your gardening skills.”

  They laughed together, “Well it’s good to be needed for something…I sure wouldn’t stay when I know Robbie and Dana are set on going.”

  They were all silent on the way back to town. They saw children working alongside of adults in gardens and in most instances there was always someone standing guard.

  When they reached Margaret’s house they were surprised to see the yard and the yard on either side of her house had been planted. The produce had already been picked but the dead stalks remained.

  The house was a stucco ranch style of the seventies but well maintained. Metal grates covered all of the windows as well as a gate on the front porch enclosure. The garage door stood open and garden tools were lined up, hanging off the inside of the door.

  “It doesn’t look like anyone has been in the house, or at least it appears locked up tight. Let’s go find out.” Margaret said as she climbed down. She walked around to the horses and gave them each a scratch on the side of their muzzle. She whispered something to each of them and looked up at Jake. “We’ll be ready to go back to the boat first thing in the morning. Jake…I’m going to leave you, Jet and Mike. You’ve taken good care of them so far and I’m sure you will continue to do so. I’ll leave the house unlocked and whatever we leave behind feel free to distribute as you see fit or take it to the gymnasium for others to make use of. I don’t think we’ll be back.”

  “You know I like these old boys and I will do my best. I’m going to come back in a couple of hours and pick you up for the pot luck. Give you a chance to say goodbye to everyone.”

  “I’m surprised any of my friends are still here.”

  He nodded, “Some are some aren’t, but the one’s still here will want to see you. Three hours.” he said and flapped the reins at the horses.

  Rob pulled a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the outer metal door. The other key on the ring opened the inner door. The air inside was stale and musty as if it had not been opened up and aired out in a long while. To Ellen’s eyes it looked like no one had disturbed anything inside. There was a film of dust, but no breakage of any kind. While the furnishings were an older style it was clear they were well cared for. Pictures of two young boys covered the wall in the dining area with pictures of Dana woven between the boy’s pictures.

  “Can I say something before we start?” Ellen was standing in the area between the dining and living room.

  Once she had the attention of the three, she began to talk, “To start with, we have about this much room,” she held her hand up with her thumb and index finger about a half inch apart. “to add some of your things to the boat. I know that’s not leaving much room, but it is what it is. There are too many of us to add things. I want to stress that anything that can aid us as a group, we’ll take. Any guns, ammunition, vegetable seeds, food, especially long term food would be considered an asset. Winter clothing or boots.”

  Frank stepped in, “Hand tools of any kind. Rob, you’re about the same size as Alan, so if you have anything you could share with him clothing wise would be great.”

  Ellen and Margaret had the same expression on their faces, eyebrows raised as they looked at Rob.

  “I meant size wise. We can cut pants and sleeves off. Alan has a pair of kakis and a shirt. As much as I hate to say it, I can use some clothes too. I’m getting pretty tired of BDU’s and Ellen’s sweats.” He looked at Ellen, “Not that I haven’t been grateful for the loan, but they are wearing out.”

  “Come on,” Rob said, “I’ll show you what I have.”

  They went off down the hallway. Ellen looked at Margaret. “Well I guess it’s you and me. Show me what you have.”

  Margaret led Ellen through the kitchen to a side door, she opened it and in an automatic gesture, flipped the light switch. “Oh Lord, I don’t think I will ever get used to this. Wait here.”

  Ellen could hear Margaret shuffling along on the floor, then something small fell and broke. Margaret exclaimed, “Well shoot. Ah, here you are.” A second later Ellen heard the snick of a lighter and a soft glow of light filled the space. “That’s better,” she said as she came back to the doorway.

  What the light showed to Ellen forced her bottom jaw to drop. “Oh my goodness. When you said you were stocked up I never realized…”

  Someone had built shelves from floor to ceiling on three walls. Cans and jars lined most of the shelves. Buckets of laundry soap sat on the floor along one wall. It appeared as if Margaret bought everything in bulk and had for some time.

  Ellen wheeled to face Margaret, “Do you know how much it pains me to have to leave all of this behind?”

  “You don’t feel any worse than I do, but it can all be replaced.” She stood in the middle of the room and turned in a circle, “We can make all of this stuff from scratch. My Grandmother left me a journal she started when she was very young. She came across the prairies as a young girl and was married by the time she was fifteen, to the husband of the couple her parents gave her to. I don’t know the whole story, but the wife died giving birth and their children needed a mother. So my Grandmother filled both roles. She wrote that it took seven years to get here from Missouri. In the journal she wrote down her recipes and techniques for doing all sorts of things. How to tan hides, make soap, build an outdoor oven…too many things to think about right now. But, the important part is, I still have the journal.” She stood and tapped her cheek, thinking. “You know if we were smart one of us would keep a journal and document this whole thing. It could be invaluable to our future generations.”

  Ellen laughed, “I guess someone should get started on that. The first and most important thing we need to have is your medications.”

  “How about something to put things in.” Margaret went to a big Rubbermaid garden chest and opened it. She began to pull out camping gear and set it aside. From the bottom of the chest she pulled two framed back packs and two smaller child sized packs.

  “These will come in handy I think.”

  Ellen crouched down beside her and began to sort through the stuff. Whatever she deemed necessary for their survival she put in one pile and what she would like to have if they had room for she put in another. She didn’t know when Margaret had left her side but she knew when she
came back. She had one of the smaller packs in her hands and the sides were bulged out.

  I’ve got my meds and some other things we might find a use for. Your Frank and Robbie are going through the tools out in the garden shed.”

  “He’s not mine, but okay. What about the seeds? Didn’t I hear you say you have vegetable seeds?”

  I do. Every year I would allow a couple of plants to go to seed and save them.” She shuffled totes around until she found the one she was looking for.

  “Here we go. I have flower seeds here too. Can’t have one without the other. The flowers bring in the bees and some of them even keep out the bugs.”

  “Great, with yours and what I have we’ll be good for a long time and maybe even be able to trade some.”

  “Are you two almost done out here?” Frank was standing in the doorway, with Rob looking over his shoulder. He walked down the two steps and stood reading labels.

  “Wow, leaving all this behind almost makes me want to stay. The stuff in here could last a family for years.”

  “Mom’s been storing stuff as long as I can remember. I should know. Every time she went to Sacramento I would have to pull everything off the shelves and move the oldest stuff forward and the new stuff behind, depending on the expiration date.”

  “Guys, I have an idea. We don’t have to leave all of this behind. Well we do have to leave it, but we can bury it in case we ever find ourselves in a place where we need it. It would be easy to do and if we ever need it, it’s not all that far by road.”

  “Well, I did tell Jake he could have it for the town. But, I didn’t tell him or show him what I have or how much.”

  “Rob and I were looking around outside and this is what I think. Where you have those rain barrels sitting under the eaves for the shop…I’m assuming you caught water in them. We move the barrels, dig a trench and place some of the containers in the trench and fill it back in. We tamp the ground down good and put the barrels back. No one would be the wiser and we’d have supplies if we were ever forced back this way.” He waited for comments, but they all remained quiet. “Well?”

  Finally, Rob said, “We can tape the tops on to seal the edges and use some of the better totes we got from Wise Foods. If we dig the trench about three feet deep, we could put them in two high.”

  “You buy survival food?” Ellen asked and looked at Margaret. “Why?”

  “I only buy the dried vegetables and vegetable soup mixes, powder milk, and some of the dried fruit. I use that stuff for baking and when I make my soups and stews. It takes up less storage room and doesn’t go bad. Somewhere I do have a couple totes of the entrée meals only.”

  “We used to take those camping too because of the weight and Mom could make up some pretty decent meals over the campfire with it.” Rob added, as he was talking he had dragged a stack of totes out from under a shelf by the door way. “These ones say entrées only on top.”

  Frank had moved to stand by Ellen, “This is going to be hard to leave here and leave most of this behind, but we need to get whatever you guys decide on and get out of here. I want to get to the guy with the ham radio. If there’s a chance that we can get a message to the Sergeant and his group, I’d like to try.” He looked at Ellen and asked, “What are the chances of your friends in Washington having a ham radio?”

  “I don’t know. Uncle Jerry had one but I don’t know of anyone else who did. I guess there’s always the chance that someone might.”

  Margaret was busy filling one of the bigger packs with sealed one-pound foil packages of Folgers coffee. Frank walked over, “Oh man! Lady you just made my day. How much of that do you have?”

  Margaret continued to stack the packages in. “This tote and that one there.” She pointed to another tote beside the one she was unloading.”

  “Okay. I vote we need to take all of it. This is the one thing we can’t grow. We can grow food and make our own clothing if we have to, but coffee, I dread the day it is no longer available. But today it looks like we’re going to cater to our caffeine needs.” He grinned at Ellen and waggled a foil pack at her.

  “Frank we need to get serious here. There are things we need more than coffee. We don’t need coffee for survival…”

  “Some of us do, and the rest of you need us to have it for your own survival.”

  They laughed and Ellen sighed. She loved her coffee too, and for years it had been a mainstay in her diet, but she felt she had just gotten through the hardest days of diluting the drug from her system. “Whatever! Just remember we will need salt and bandages or stuff to make our own. Beans, rice, flour and things we can stretch out over a period of time until we can get our own growing.”

  Frank’s face fell. He knew she was right and he dropped the package back into the tote. “Well crap! You’re right, but I sure will miss it when it’s gone.”

  “I hate to say this but Jake will be here to take us to the pot luck pretty soon so we need to be ready.”

  “Okay, Rob lead me to the shovels. If you two want to get the totes of whatever you deem necessary ready to bury, we’ll get the trench ready.”

  They left but Ellen caught the look Frank gave the tote of coffee. She could understand his feelings about leaving it, hell she wanted to take it too, but there just wasn’t room. There were already too many people on the boat for safety reasons and the space they did have was going to have to be dedicated to things they would need for real survival and not personal gratification.

  She hoped that by the time they actually reached the marina in Blaine that people would already be starting to put their lives back together. They didn’t really know what the circumstances were up there. Had they even been effected by a flu or was the power even off up there. Canada was a mere five miles away and maybe their power structure hadn’t gone down. Or maybe their government was better equipped for an emergency than the U.S. They just didn’t know and wouldn’t until they got there.

  She and Margaret got busy filling the backpacks. By the time Frank and Rob came back inside to say the trench was ready Margaret and Ellen had a line of eight totes taped up and in large black lawn and leaf bags. They had chosen to put only the foods that would last for years into them. If they never made the trip back to the house and someone in the future was to dig them up they would be surprised by what they had chosen to put in them. Coffee, spices, beans and rice were among the chosen items. They had packed the totes with the idea in mind of what would they want to find if they were already in a position of having nothing at all should they ever come back.

  The four stood looking at the stack of eight baskets.

  “It doesn’t seem like much considering how much we’re leaving behind.” Frank said. He sighed and added, “Let’s get this done.”

  “No it doesn’t and I hope we never have the need to be here but if we do, it will help.”

  “We wrote a short note for whoever finds this and told how we left this here and why. It wasn’t much, just some words about what we think happened.”

  Frank looked at Margaret and Ellen a look of distress on his face. “You said where we were going? You need to get it out of there. What if it falls into the wrong hands? What if someone finds it that we don’t want coming to us?”

  “Whoa! Frank relax. We didn’t say where we were going, just that we left.”

  His whole body posture changed from tense and ready to fight to relieved at her words. “Oh, sorry. I just…oh never mind. Let’s get this out there and covered before Jake gets back.”

  Rob walked over to where square buckets were stacked and moved them aside. Behind them was a door to the outside that neither Frank nor Ellen had noticed. He removed a wood bar from brackets on the door jamb, slid a barrel latch aside and opened the door. “We can take them out this way.” He turned to his Mom, we have an idea for Dad’s hunting rifles too. Will you get them and the extra boxes of shells?”

  “You don’t want to take them?” She asked.

  “Nope, Frank says we have
enough firearms, so we’ll bury them with this stuff. We don’t have any grease so get the W-D40 too.”

  Margaret went off to get the guns. Ellen grabbed a tote and followed them outside. The blue plastic barrels sat off to the side with a trench four feet deep and about two-foot across had been dug along the side of the building. Along the eaves of the roof were five separate pieces of white PVC pipe hanging down from the gutter. They were obviously meant to channel any rainwater into the barrels. She was going to remember the technique because with the rain they got up north, they could use a good rain-catch system.

  Before they went back for more totes Rob went into an old shed and came out with a piece of 8 inch PVC and what looked like two end caps. He tried one cap on and while it was tight it did go on. He grinned at Frank. “This will work.”

  “But, do you have the glue?” Frank asked him.

  “Yup, it’s in my pocket. Didn’t find the sand paper but this should be enough.”

  Rob carried the pipe back into the garage room. Margaret was just coming through the kitchen door with a brown paper bag and two rifles. “I didn’t find the WD-40 though.”

  Rob laid the pipe down. “I know where it is. Be right back.”

  Frank sat on the floor, “I’ll get this set up.” Before Rob returned, Frank had already glued the first end cap on. The color purple showed around the edges and he set it on end, giving it time to dry.

  Robbie returned with the can of spray and a newspaper. He spread several sheets out and began to disassemble the two rifles. He sprayed every of metal he could. He looked at Frank, “Should we reassemble them?”

  “Probably a good idea, if it’s not one of us finding them, I’d hate to think of someone not knowing how.”

  “Good thinking.” He sprayed and the whole rifle from butt to bore and Frank slid each of them into the pipe. There was still some room and they dropped the boxes of shells in with them. “I wish we had more shells but that’s all there is.”