Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road

by Christine Conaway

  Rob went back to where the others were talking to the other girl. Maggie dug through their clothing bag obviously looking for something.

  Rosa was in another black garbage, “There you are!” she exclaimed and pulled a large container of baby wipes out.

  Alan came in from outside with a rusted bucket piled high with snow. The wind howled and snowflakes circled around him. “It’s a blizzard out there.” he said. “I’ve never been in one before but you can hardly see your way around outside.”

  He carried the bucket and set it on top of the wood. “It shouldn’t take long to warm up.”

  Maggie looked around, “Now what can we use for a wash tub?”

  The boys all went to the fire leaving the women to figure it out leaving Alan and Rob standing there.

  “What’s going on Mom? You’re not heating water to cook with are you? We have the kettle in the cart. That bucket Alan brought in is rusty. We can’t heat water in it to cook with. Wash water only.”

  Maggie took Rob aside and explained they were going to try to give the girls a bath. “If you can find a tub or something for them to bathe in.”

  They looked around and Alan found a black rubber feed tub but it wasn’t big enough. He brought it to them anyhow. It wasn’t clean and they didn’t have enough water to wash it.

  “But you can bring in more snow with it. We’re going to need a lot. See if you can find another metal bucket or anything we can heat water in.”

  “Okay but if I’m not back in ten minutes can you come looking for me?”

  “I’ll go with you just in case you get lost.” Ellen followed him out the door and he pulled it closed behind them. The frigid air took her breath away and she covered her nose and mouth with her hand. “What about in the house? There might be something in the basement we can use.” She had to holler for Alan to hear.

  He nodded and they ran to the house. The top floor was gone; nothing left but a few upright two by fours. The basement was made from gray blocks cemented together. The basement door was wedged closed and it took both of them pushing to get it opened. Debris from the fire had fallen through the ceiling blocking it the door. They were able to squeeze through. Other than hanging insulation and twisted pipes the basement was pretty much untouched. The windows were too small to let in light and they were blackened by smoke.

  “There…on the wall.” She was pointing at an old fashioned wash tub hanging from the wall.

  Alan had to climb on the counter to reach it. He handed it down to Ellen. “Should we fill it with snow first?”

  “We can use snow to wash it out first. She tried to shake the cobwebs off her fingers. She finally wiped them on the counter.

  “Let’s get out of here. Tomorrow we’ll come back. This place could be a treasure trove of usable items.”

  “Do I need to remind you we have more than enough to carry right now?”

  “I was thinking more about if we needed to come back. It’s good to know where things are than have to hunt for them. Besides, aren’t you the least bit curious?”

  He stopped and looked at her. “Curious about what? Whatever these people stored in their basement?” He laughed and pulled the door open. “Not even a little bit.”

  He looked around for the biggest drift and sank the tub in it. Ellen pulled her gloves off and began washing the inside of the tub with snow. By the time it was as clean as they could make it they moved and packed it full of clean snow. One on each side they carried it to the barn. Alan kicked the door and Rob opened it.

  Someone had set two of the foundation blocks by the fire, one on each side. They had to move them farther apart to accommodate the size of the wash tub.

  “Why are we doing all of this?” Brad asked.

  Rosa gave him the look. It was a look that over the years he had learned to never question. Especially not in front of the kids.

  “Are we going to eat today?” Joe asked. “I’m hungry.”

  “We have something to do first but then we’ll eat.” Hannah told him. She was heating water in the kettle to make the girls something to eat. According to Angie, they hadn’t eaten anything for three days. They had been eating dried dandelions and pigweed, for over a week, but the freezing temperatures had finished off the last of the weeds.

  Maggie had given both girls a cold boiled potato to put something in their stomachs. Both had tried to inhale them until Maggie slowed them down.

  Rosa and Ellen carried the girls blankets out into the snow. They dumped them beside the door.

  “I don’t know how they could sleep in these.” Ellen said as she threw them down.

  “Those poor babies probably couldn’t even smell them. Wait until we get them cleaned up and they’ll notice. Robbie said you knew them?”

  “Not really I used to pick berries for their Dad but that was years ago. I think Angie was about three or so. I only knew it was her by the scar on her chin. There was a baby born the last year that I picked berries and I suppose the other girl was it. There used to be six or seven kids, but we didn’t associate with them. We were,” She made quotes with her finger’s, “the pickers.”

  “Six or seven kids? That’s a big family by today’s standards. How did they ever support them all?”

  Ellen thought for a minute, “Lots of hard work…do we want to ask where the rest of the family went to?”

  “I just don’t know. But right now let’s get those girls cleaned up so the kids can quit wrinkling their noses every time they get close to them.”

  “I forgot how bad the storms can get here. It’s been a while since I came home in the winter.”

  “This is as bad as we’ve seen it in years. I guess it was time. We always thought that every seven years we could count on something like this.”

  They were standing directly in front of the barn. This house had completely disappeared in the blinding snow.

  “Rosa check this out.” Beside the door hung an old Cocoa Cola sign. Up the center was a thermometer. The red line sat at the ten-degree mark. “Can this be right?” She tapped on the glass but the line never wavered. “No wonder I feel like I’m freezing.”

  She followed Rosa in and slid the door closed. Rob and Brad had lifted the wash tub off the fire and were carrying it to the blanket enclosed room. Hannah had the younger girl leading her by the hand.

  An hour later both girls sat in front of the fire with clean shining faces. Maggie had done what she could with their wet hair. They were clean and smelled much better.

  Hannah had concocted a beef soup with some of the vegetables and canned beef they’d brought from the farm and drop puffs of Bisquick dough cooked in the soup.

  Rosa spread out the sleeping bags making two pallets; one for the boys and one for the girls and put all of the younger children to sleep. It hadn’t taken long for Joe to sneak in with Olivia, Dana and Barbie. Liza kept looking at them all cuddled up.

  Hannah told her, “If you’d like to join them it’s okay. There’s enough room for you too.”

  She looked to Angie for advice. Angie nodded and Liza went and climbed in beside Dana. Dana turned over to face Liza, put her arm around her and Liza snuggled in close.

  Angie watched for a few minutes. She held her hands out to the fire. “She has been so sad since Dad died.”

  Her comment drew every one’s attention to her. She looked up self-consciously.

  “Do you want to tell us what happened?” Ellen voiced what everyone else was thinking. She did want to know. She felt an attachment to both girls because of their shared history.

  When Maggie had helped the girls wash up she said she had never seen anyone as skinny as they were. “Nothing more than skin, bones and eyes. I don’t think they could have lasted much longer alone.”

  Angie looked up and met Ellen’s eyes. She nodded yes. It was only Mom, Dad, Liza, Kristen and me here. When Mom got sick Dad went to find a doctor. He was gone for two days. We thought the bad guys had killed him. Then he came home. He was all beat u
p and someone had shot him too. Mom and Kristen had already died.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I tried to do everything I could but it didn’t help. Nothing helped. Then Liza got sick and Dad showed up. He told me to stay here because the other kids might come home. He told me I had to bury Mom and Kristen and that I should dig a grave for him too. I didn’t want to. I wanted him to get better. He died that night. I didn’t know what else to do, so I buried all of them together. I thought Liza would die like they did, but she got better. Dad said no one ever got better but she did.” Angie’s words were spoken low and slowly. They had to lean close to hear her. Her story was punctuated with tears and sniffles. Each person listening felt her pain. No one had dry eyes by the time she was finished talking.

  Jesse and Jaimie had moved away from the fire and stood together far to the side as if hearing Angie talk was a reminder to them how well they had it. Either of them could have been in Angie’s place.

  “Well,” Brad said when it was apparent she was done with her story. “I’m wondering if we need to stand watch.”

  He walked over and slid the door open a crack. Alan joined him and they looked out. Blowing snow made it impossible to see anything. There was a two-foot drift right outside the door.

  “I don’t think anyone would be out in this. You could walk twenty feet out and never find your way back here.”

  “I don’t know what we’re going to do for bedding. We only have the survival blankets and three sleeping bags.”

  “We’ll make do.” Rob said. “I think I’ll sit here by the fire for a while. I think it’s a good idea to not let it go out so we can do fire watch rather than bad guy watch. We should keep with our teams of two so no one falls asleep.” He looked at Jesse. “Want to sit with me? I’ll show you how to clean that shotgun. Heck, we can clean all of them.”

  Maggie spread out another bag and Ellen, Hannah, Angie and Rosa lay down and covered themselves with another bag. Maggie lay down with the younger kids. They were so intertwined there was plenty of room for her.

  Alan spread out the last bag wrapped up in a survival blanket and lay on the edge. Brad and Jamie joined him. Personal space was a luxury of the past. Now they did everything together including sleep.

  Chapter Forty-one - A real nor’easter.

  The wind howled for two more days. They had been reduced to using the metal bucket for their toilet and cutting up the stall walls for fuel. When they needed water they scooped snow from right outside the door. No matter how often they opened it the drift would be higher than the time before.

  While Hannah and Rosa were fixing Bisquick pan bread and their last jar of beef for dinner Ellen and Alan decided they should repack their back packs and the carts. No one thought that Liza would be able to walk very far and they had their doubts about Angie.

  The second night she had finally told them what had happened to the house. Liza had gone to lay down when Angie began to talk.

  “We were cold and we thought if we hung blankets and blocked the kitchen from the rest of the house we could use Mom’s candles to heat the room. It worked okay for a while. We still weren’t very warm. We collected all the blankets from the beds and piled them under the table. We hung them off the sides. That worked better. When I was asleep Liza brought the candle in so she could read. I guess she fell asleep too and the candle caught the blanket on fire. That’s when we woke up. We only had a couple of bottles of water and they weren’t enough to put it out. We grabbed all of the blankets that weren’t burning and threw them out the door but by then the fire was everywhere. We didn’t have time to grab much else. We’ve been living in the barn ever since.”

  “How long ago was that?” It seemed like Jesse wanted all the details.

  “I don’t know for sure but maybe a month or two ago. We lost track of time. Some men came on motor cycles but we hid in the field. They didn’t stop for long.”

  “Did you know there was canned food on shelves in the basement?” Maggie asked.

  “Yes but we couldn’t get in there. The door was stuck shut. We tried the windows but they were too small to fit through.”

  “How did you survive for so long without food?” Jesse again. He had sat beside her excited by what she was saying.

  She looked embarrassed but continued, “We ate the calf feed and milk replacer. I cooked some of the oats Dad had left for the horses. And we knew about pigweed and dandelions from school. It wasn’t so bad until the first freeze came. I thought my brothers would show up but we couldn’t have waited much longer. We slept a lot of the time.”

  “Wow!” Jesse slid closer. Angie moved over thinking he wanted more room to sit. He moved closer again. “You are a survivor. You could have been on that T.V. show that used to be on.”

  “Jesus Jesse! Sometimes you say the dumbest things.” Jaimie told him. “All you ever think about is what used to be on the T.V.”

  “Boy’s stop.” Rosa said. “We don’t talk like that to each other.”

  Alan and Rob had the door open watching as the wind blew in circles around the yard. “I don’t think any more is falling. It looks like it’s just blowing what’s already here.” Rob stepped out and looked up. Stars shone down from above and the last of the clouds were disappearing off to the west. “The wind is not as strong either.”

  Alan followed him outside. They could see the road out front and it looked like the wind had done a good job of keeping it clear. “I don’t know about you, but I think tomorrow we can get out of here. It would sure be nice to have this trip over.”

  “We’ll talk after the kids are asleep, but I agree. Alan, have you wondered what we’re going to do if Ellen’s farm isn’t there or someone else has moved in?”

  “Actually I think about it quite a bit. I’ve been trying to keep places in mind just in case. Hers is so far from town I would be surprised if anyone would go out there. She said there weren’t many neighbors and whoever is there will already have their own homes.”

  “Are you worried?” Rob asked. They were walking toward the road.

  “Worried? No. When I told Ellen I was going with her I meant it. She saved my life that day and I will always be grateful for that.”

  They had reached the end of the driveway and stood looking off toward the hills. The air practically crackled and popped it was so cold.

  “I sure hope it warms up some by morning and I wasn’t talking about being here or you and Ellen. I was talking about Hannah and the baby. Aren’t you afraid of having it without doctors or any medical help?”

  “Nope. Your Mom has assured me there is nothing to worry about. There’s nothing anyone can do to change the way things are and Hannah says we take it one day at a time. You may not know her very well yet, but she is one courageous woman. The only one I hold in higher regard is Ellen. As far as the farm goes, we play it by ear. If there’s one thing I have learned on this journey, it’s how strong each of us is in our own way. Each of us has some quality that is necessary for our survival. Even the kids. Ellen says they’re our future, I say we are theirs. Every one of those kids in there will be a compilation of each of us. They’re like sponges. They want to learn everything and while we can’t give them a college degree or even a diploma, we can teach them about the world that we left behind. We can point them in what we think is the right direction and let them make up their minds. They’re smart kids.”

  “Dang I didn’t realize I was going to get a dissertation or I would have saved it until we got back inside.” They turned to go back in when Rob stopped. “You smell that?”

  Alan drew in air through his nose. “Creosote? Tar…I do but I don’t think it’s us. All our wood is dry barn wood. That could be fence posts or…hell I don’t know.”

  They walked out on to the road. They each looked a different direction. It was a surprise when they both saw smoke trails in the crisp air. There were several smoke trails in both directions. They rose straight up, telltale signs of habitation. They looked up over the barn and sure en
ough while it wasn’t the straight-up-funnel of smoke because they had no chimney, it was easy to see their fire.

  “I wonder how many others are out here looking at the same thing?”

  “No telling. We can hope they’re all good guys. What’s a good guy anymore? We’re all just lucky survivors. We survived the beginning and now we’ve survived the middle. You have to ask yourself if we can survive the ending.”

  Rob slapped Alan on the back, “Jesus…we’re going to write the ending. Of course we’ll survive it.

  “I’m not sure how you can say that. There’s so few of us and so many of them.”

  “Them? What them?

  “Soldiers…they’re coming. Maybe not today or even a week from now, but they’re coming. That’s what Frank said, his friend Chuck told him that soldiers were coming.”

  “I’d forgotten or maybe I put it out of my mind because I didn’t want to think of it, but he may right. Did I tell you about my bike ride to the navy base in San Diego?”

  “Frank did. Not all the details but he said you saw the soldiers.”

  “Damn, in all of this I had forgotten all about them. He’s right. Someday we’ll open our door and they’ll be standing there.”

  “Well it’s not today or tomorrow. So until it happens or looks like it’s going to happen then we’ll worry. Now, we get our butts up to that farm and get ready for when they do come.”

  Rob clapped his arm across Alan’s shoulder, “You ever see Red Dawn?”

  Alan shrugged it off and shoved Rob away, “Dang! I’m starting to think you like me.”

  “That ugly mug not a chance…good thing you’ve already got Hannah or you would be a lonesome man.”

  “Ha! Looks like you’d know about that.”