Ray retaped Dee’s hand and feet and left him leaning on the truck. Cheryl kept an eye on Dee while Ray made sure no one else remained inside. He cleared the house in five minutes, found a towel, and did a quick clean on the blood. He put the towel in a plastic bag and brought it outside.
“That window is the only way in,” Ray said. “Unless Jessie knows where the keys are.”
“It wasn’t like this,” Jessie said. “We never had bars.”
“It takes more than that to keep some people out.” He nodded at Dee. “They messed the place up a bit. Think you could help Auntie Cheryl put things back where they belong?”
“Yeahhh.”
Cheryl looked to Dee at the truck. “What are you going to do?”
“Convince him he never wants to see this place again.”
Cheryl pulled Ray away. “I’m not stupid. You killed two of his friends. He knows where to find us. He’ll come back. You know he will.”
“Probably.”
“Even if he was an honest man and went to the police, confessed his crime and told them what happened. We’d be in a world of trouble.”
“I would.”
“We both would.”
“You take care of Jessie. I’ll take care of him.”
He stepped back to Dee. “Get in the truck.”
* * *
Ray returned an hour later. Their truck now sat behind the house. He parked next to it, found a hose in the garage and washed the truck bed and the tarp he’d used to cover the men. He didn’t in any way feel good about putting Dee down. It was simply necessary. But he dropped a step in his own estimation. Executing a bound man was nothing to be proud of.
He parked the men’s truck behind a locked barn and returned to the house. Cheryl and Jessie had mostly put it back in order. They were in the kitchen shelving the food that had been stacked in the garage.
“I asked Jessie, she thinks we should stay here until her mother comes back.”
Ray smiled at the wrangled invitation.
“We have enough food for a couple weeks, easy,” Cheryl said. “And we still have the corn meal.”
Ray had mixed feeling about staying. The house provided a safe respite, despite the intruders. But he and Cheryl needed to move west, find a place to hunker down, and put in supplies while they were still available and the warm weather held. He pictured Colorado or northern New Mexico. It would take time to find the right spot—with water and game nearby and the possibility to grow vegetables. He also wanted few neighbors and to avoid the bitter cold of the northern tier.
“Did you find anything with her mother’s cell number on it?” Ray asked.
“No. Unlike some, she probably handles bills online.”
Ray turned to Jessie. “Do you have relatives nearby?” Even if he didn’t turn over Jessie, relations might be able to contact Jessie’s mother, and get her home quicker.
“We went through the relatives she knows,” Cheryl answered. “Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins. They are all her father’s people.”
“That’s no good.”
“I checked the caller ID. There was a call five days ago from a Tennessee area code. That’s Jessie. There are a couple calls since, including ours. I think she left four days ago. She didn’t clean out the refrigerator. She didn’t plan to be gone a long time.”
Jessie said. “I want mommy to come home.”
“I’m sure she’ll be back in a few days. Travelling is not as easy as it used to be.”
Cheryl pulled out a box of angel hair and a jar of sauce, then vegetables from the freezer. “Like I said, we’re not going to starve while we wait.”
“What’s in the cellar?” Ray asked.
“That’s where my mom does laundry.”
Ray stared at the solid steel door and frame and the deadbolts. “Nothing else?”
“The furnace. And the extras.”
“Extra what?” Cheryl asked.
“Everything. When mom goes to Sam’s, she puts everything there that won’t fit up here.”
“She’s got cabinets?”
“Shelves all down the stairs.”
“Your mom thinks ahead,” Cheryl said.
* * *
Ray and Cheryl said goodnight to Jessie at her bedroom door. They had both walked the house and knew the layout: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an office upstairs; kitchen, family room, den and another bath downstairs.
“I don’t feel right sleeping in her mother’s bed,” Cheryl said.
“No. I don’t think she’d be real happy about that. I figure downstairs is better anyway. I feel trapped up here.”
They cleared a space on an area rug in the family room. Ray fetched their sleeping gear and laid it out. He returned to the truck and brought the guns and corn meal in, too. No point in leaving them unprotected in the truck. The garage wasn’t safe either, but he left the corn meal there and carried the guns into the house.
Cheryl came down the stairs with blankets and pillows and fashioned a bed from the collected materials. “You’ll have to give me a T-shirt. I’m travelling pretty light since the sudden departure. I sure wish the laundry wasn’t locked.”
Ray fished a navy tee from his pack. “Best I got.”
Cheryl changed and lay down. “Think there are any stores open here?”
“Some probably. I’ll take you shopping in the morning.” He kicked out of his clothes, shut off the lights and joined her on the floor.
Cheryl lay on her back, hands behind her head. “Jason said you two worked a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“For me.”
Ray was stunned. “You think I’d do that?”
“Not anymore. But I did.”
It hurt that she hadn’t trusted him. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? It was Jason, not you.”
“He played us both. I never should have taken you there.”
“It wasn’t all bad. We’re better prepared than three months ago. We almost froze to death in West Virginia.”
“That’s the thing, now. We don’t get ourselves going pretty soon, the same thing will happen next winter.”
“What are you really planning? We can’t camp in the woods forever.”
“We might have to do something like that. Those skirmishes in Tennessee are just the beginning. There is not enough food in the east. Unless the Army stops them, a starving horde is going to migrate west and gobble up the countryside like locusts. If that happens, farming on a big scale will be gone. There will be no way to recover.”
Ray let that soak in. “The only way we’ll survive will be in a remote place at a subsistence level. And I really think we’ll need help.”
“What’s the use, if everyone’s dead?” Cheryl rolled to her side, away from Ray.
“We all don’t have to be. I’m just saying it’s going to get tougher, and we have to be prepared.”
* * *
Ray woke with Cheryl tucked beside him and Jessie on the stairs watching.
“Why do you sleep on the floor?” Jessie asked.
“It’s not polite to simply take over someone’s house,” Ray said.
Jessie walked over and sat next to Cheryl. Cheryl reached out and pulled her close. Her hair was damp.
“You smell so good.”
“It’s Mommy’s. She lets me use her shampoo sometimes.”
“Ready for breakfast?”
Jessie nodded.
After they finished, Ray left a note for Jessie’s mother, then he, Cheryl, and Jessie drove into Cedar Rapids. A few cars were on the roads, including several police vehicles. The Lindale Mall was closed. A few gas station convenience stores were open along with a hardware store and a bank. A gun shop had a sign: “By Appointment Only” then a phone number.
Then they saw Target and went in. Cheryl bought a change of clothes and a package of underwear. The food aisles were mostly empty, but they
found oatmeal, canned salmon, and linguine—all groceries, limit two. Jessie asked for milk. There wasn’t any.
Cheryl paid. Ray flashed one of the Iowa food cards he had taken from the dead men. Along with nine dollars, all they had carried.
“Much left?” Ray asked.
She nodded. “I hid it from Jason. I found him going through my purse. I checked the phone book. No Bank of America here.”
“Does anyone have milk?” Ray asked the cashier.
“We can’t get it. You might try the farmer’s market in Center Point. I saw some there a couple days ago.”
She told him where it was and when it was open. Ray thanked her. In the truck, he looked over his Iowa map.
“Not too far,” he said. “But we’ll need gas.”
The Farmer’s Market was in the city hall parking lot. Besides milk at ten dollars a half gallon, Cheryl bought sweet corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers. At Jonesy’s restaurant next door, they bought tenderloin sandwiches.
“It looks almost normal here,” Cheryl said. “Except the prices. If we could get some land . . .”
“It does and maybe it’ll be okay. Do better than most places, I’d guess.”
“We can ask around,” she said.
“Yeah, we can do that.” He felt bad he was only humoring her.
When they returned to the house, Ray repaired the attic vent and reinforced it using tools and materials from the garage. The door frame was more difficult and required spending money, something he was loath to do if it didn’t go toward survival.
Jessie asked to visit friends. Ray and Cheryl didn’t want to let her out of their sight. It would also be very awkward if Jessie was gone when her mother returned. It was equally problematic to invite friends over and then explain Ray’s and Cheryl’s presence and Jessie’s mother’s absence. Jessie frowned at the explanations but dropped the subject. Later, Cheryl and Jessie prepared a feast for dinner with their first truly fresh vegetables in what seemed ages.
Chapter 37
The gate to her drive was open. Karla shut off the truck’s lights and coasted through, letting the truck come to a stop on the lawn. She stepped out with the 9mm in one hand and a flashlight in the other, then gently closed the door.
A pickup sat on the grass next to the garage. The hood was cold. It had been there a while. Behind it, the grill was missing from a garage window. Karla circled the back of the house. No lights showed there either, and no other breaches were evident. Whoever had arrived in the truck had either walked away or was asleep inside the house. That thought left her angry. The house had been well secured. This shouldn’t be happening.
She returned to the garage window, debating her next move. She could wait a few hours for daylight and for someone to come out. But whoever was inside appeared to be living there. They’d have no need to leave. There was enough food inside to last a year, if they got to it. Karla looked to her truck, in plain view from the house. If she wanted to surprise the new occupants she’d have to move it and risk waking them.
The sheriff might come if she called, but from her earlier experiences, she doubted it. It would be up to her to reclaim her home. She didn’t like the idea. She had no idea how many people were inside or how well they were armed.
Karla shined her light inside their truck. It had an extended cab, but the jump seats in back were folded up. Three could fit in front. Men could have traveled in the bed, but it was tarped, and looking underneath, she saw a motorcycle. Someone may have ridden it there and stowed it in the truck for the night. Four people, max.
That was not good odds. If they were asleep, she held the advantage of surprise. And they didn’t know how many she was, either. It would still be tough to get them out. Even if she managed to scare them, they had no means of escape through the barred windows. They would be cornered, and she would have to go room to room. It was suicide to take this on alone, but she saw no one who would be anxious to help.
Karla raised the window and stepped into the garage. She was not going to give up her house without a fight. She was not going to walk away from the one place Jessie knew to call and to find her.
She waited in the dark, listened, then moved on. The frame on the kitchen door was damaged, but the lock still held. Karla worked the deadbolt and eased the door open with a slight squeak. A soft noise filtered from the family room. She froze. The noise again, a rustling of fabric from the darkened room. Someone tossing in their sleep?
Karla stepped quickly across the kitchen, then leaned into the family room and blipped the flashlight. Across the room, a man on the floor rolled from a blanket and reached for a gun. Karla spun from the doorway and fired four shots into the room.
“Hey,” the man screamed. “Don’t shoot. We have Jessie!”
Karla froze, not sure his meaning.
“We have Jessie,” the man repeated. “Just take it easy and let’s work this out.”
“You can leave. Everyone. I’ll step aside and let you go. Okay?”
“That will work. But first we’ve got to get things straight. I don’t fancy getting shot in the back.”
“What do you want?”
“Not a thing. We brought Jessie home from Tennessee. We’ve been looking after her until you got home.”
“Is Roger with you?”
“Look, Jessie’s upstairs, in bed. I’ll get her. She’ll explain why we’re here.”
Karla still couldn’t process what was happening. “Okay. Send her out to me and maybe I’ll start to believe you.”
“Jessie,” the man called out. “Your mother’s home.”
“Mommy?” Jessie was at the top of the stairs and coming down.
“Who are these people?” Karla shouted.
“They brought me home.”
“Have they hurt you?”
“No, mommy. They drove me home.”
“How many people, Jessie?”
“Cheryl and Ray. That’s all.”
Karla thought a minute. “Okay. I’m going to put on the light. Jessie’s going to walk out to me, then when I say, you’ll step out of the room with your hands where I can see them and no guns. We okay on that?”
“Yeah. Cool,” Ray said. “We’re not here to hurt anyone.”
Karla reached around the corner and felt for the light switch. She flipped it on and quickly drew her hand back.
“Oh shit,” Ray said.
Then Jessie screamed.
Chapter 38
Karla stepped into the family room prepared to shoot whoever had hurt Jessie. But she was standing in front of the man who was leaning over someone else.
“Jessie, run!”
Jessie didn’t move. Karla stepped closer and saw a young woman with striking red hair lying on the floor. Blood flowed through her blue T-shirt. The man made a compress of another shirt and pushed on the wound. Karla grabbed Jessie and pulled her back.
The woman mumbled something. The man bent to listen.
“I won’t lie to you. It’s bad,” the man said. “But I’ve seen worse wounds on men still walking.”
“Don’t leave me.” The woman spoke with renewed strength.
“I won’t.” The man looked to Karla. “She needs an emergency room. Give me directions.”
Karla’s anger turned to fear. She had shot the woman while she slept. She hadn’t meant to; hadn’t known a woman lay there. She didn’t want to have killed her. “St. Lukes. 380 to 7th. You’ll see the signs.”
Ray scooped up Cheryl. “Jessie’s coming with me. I need her to hold the compress.” He took a step. “Open the damn door. I’m not putting her out the window.”
Karla unlocked the garage door and the security bars and swung them open. “Jessie’s not going.”
“Then you are. That’s better anyway. You can direct me.”
Ray stepped through the door. Jessie broke away from Karla’s grip and followed.
* * *
Cheryl reclined i
n the front passenger seat. Karla, in back with Jessie, maintained pressure on the chest and back compresses. Cheryl spoke a few weak words and Ray tried to reassure her. Then she went quiet.
The ER looked like a war zone. Soldiers with rifles guarded the entrance and patrolled hallways lined with the injured. Ray carried Cheryl to a triage station and gently placed her on a gurney. A nurse took only a few seconds to send her inside. Ray, Jessie, and Karla found a space in the hallway and leaned against the wall.
“We need to get home,” Karla said. She could do nothing more to help Cheryl. At the farm she could be alone with Jessie, protect her property, and begin repairs.
Ray handed her the keys to the truck. “I won’t be using it for a while.”
“I don’t have a way to get it back here.”
“Don’t put yourself out worrying about us. I’ll be by for our gear when Cheryl stabilizes.”
“The door was kicked in and you were in my house with a gun. You expect me to invite you to tea?” Karla snatched the keys and Jessie and walked away.
Ray watched them go, had a sudden thought and ran after them. He reached the truck just as they did.
“That was quick,” Karla clutched Jessie and held out the keys.
“There’s a motorcycle in back. It can stay with me.”
Ray took the keys and unlocked the chain. He rolled the Honda off the truck. As he shoved the ramp into the bed, Jessie broke loose and hugged his legs. He rubbed her head. “Hey kiddo, take care now.”
“Are you and Auntie Cheryl coming back?”
“Just to pick up our things.”
“I’m sorry she hurts.”
“Me, too. I’ll tell her you asked after her.”
Ray started away.
“What if those bad men come back?” Jessie asked.
“Your mother can shoot them, too.”
“I was aiming at you, not her,” Karla snapped back.
“Yeah. I’ll remember that.” Ray turned to Jessie. “You be good.” He started the motorcycle, rode it across the lot, and chained it to a metal railing twenty feet from the guard. Then he went back inside.
Times What They Are Page 15