“It’s not mine.” Caitlin motioned Brittany into the truck. “You’re welcome to whatever’s in the house.”
Ray eased his rifle from the tailgate and closed it. The boy reached under the tarp. Ray stepped around the truck and yanked him back.
“Hey,” a man shouted. He held a handgun and started across the street. Ray shoved the boy one handed. He stumbled and fell. Ray sighted the rifle on the man, now in the middle of the street with his gun raised.
“Count of two to drop it,” Ray screamed. “One, two.” Ray fired. The bullet struck the pavement at the man’s foot. He jumped and dropped the gun. “Back away! All of you! Now!”
Ray prodded the boy with the rifle and he ran. The woman left more slowly. Caitlin followed, her hand on the .25 in her pocket. She stopped to grab the dropped handgun. A half dozen people appeared, drawn by the commotion. Ray pulled the truck into the street and Caitlin jumped in.
“They’ve got a truckload of stolen food,” the man yelled at the newcomers. Ray considered shooting him, then hit the accelerator and roared away.
Part 2
Chapter 53
They saw seven cars before reaching Coralville. Westbound on I-80, a few cars mixed with big rigs.
“It’s been months since I saw this many vehicles,” Caitlin said. “Everyone I knew lost their job. Money ran out quick and food’s more important than gas. Cars just disappeared from the neighborhood. Only people who drove were politicians, farmers, rich people. And you. Though motorcycles aren’t the same as cars.”
“How ’bout those trucks that hauled you?”
“They got paid, or split the takings. Sometimes other arrangements.”
“How long were you out of food?”
“Since the unemployment stopped. Two months. Cable went first. Then the phones and electricity. We shared for a while, hot showers or a movie with someone who still had power.”
“Not food?”
“Some had more than others. We knew that. You can’t begrudge a saver. But when the money ran out, things equalized pretty quick.” Caitlin paused. “How has it been for you?”
“I left New York on day one with the motorcycle.”
“Alone?”
“I gave a woman a lift. She stuck with me for a while.”
“What happened?”
“She died.”
“I’m sorry. That’s why you’re worried about us.”
“It plays into it.”
Ray left the interstate and looped south of Des Moines. He bought gas and sandwiches before they connected with I-35. He explained about keeping the tank full and his preference for avoiding cities. They dodged Kansas City the same way, picking up I-70 to the west. They bought gas and food in Junction City, Kansas, then made camp before dark between an abandoned sand pit and an oxbow of the Smoky Hill River.
He laid out the sleeping gear fifty feet from the truck on a flat spot backing to dense brush. He placed his AR-15 and the Remington with the night scope beside the bed. He gave Caitlin a 9mm Ruger and showed her how to work the safety.
“We’re over here because anyone meaning trouble will go to the truck first, expecting the owner in it or nearby. We maybe have a chance to check them out before the shooting starts.”
“You think we’ll have visitors?”
“No. We’re well off any road. No campfire. Nothing to draw anyone in. But we don’t know the terrain. Could be a favorite drinking spot of the locals, though I scouted for litter.”
“You take every little thing seriously. I like that.”
“We won’t be allowed many mistakes.”
Ray lay down. Caitlin snuggled in his arm, resting her head on his chest. He rubbed her back as Brittany curled up three feet away.
* * *
They headed west in the morning, then left the interstate at Hays, turning south. They picked up US 50, passed through Dodge City and Garden City. They stopped in the smaller towns. Caitlin and Brittany bought food when they could and gathered information. Ray watched the truck, rifle ready.
In Lakin, Caitlin and Brittany walked into a small store and came right out. “They’ve got cans on the shelves. I could use more money,” Caitlin said.
Ray shrugged and handed her another fifty. She returned with three bags of canned vegetables, fruit, beans, and tuna. Caitlin also had a paperback book for Brittany and a ponytail holder.
Ray eyed the items and bit his lip. They weren’t expensive. If they made Caitlin happy, fine. He wasn’t leaving the truck to do grocery shopping.
In Holly, Colorado, Caitlin bought peanut butter, flour, and four chocolate bars. The candy was not a big thing, Ray thought, and it was edible. But it was also wasteful. The dollars could be put to better use, later. Perhaps he handed over money too freely. Caitlin needed to better understand his resources and the situation. He’d wait until they were alone, though, to have a talk. If it turned into an argument, he preferred Brittany not to hear it.
They camped that night on another river near Los Animes, Colorado. Ray carefully selected a spot and set them up. Caitlin watched, picking up on what he looked for—a place where it was hard to come at them from more than one direction.
A cool morning followed a peaceful night. They moved on to La Junta for breakfast and gas.
“We’re going off the map today,” Ray said. “Last chance to put away food for awhile. Let’s keep to basics.”
Caitlin returned with bags of rice and dried beans, along with a few spices. “Most food I’ve seen in a while,” she said. “But they have limits.”
Spices were expensive and didn’t add nutrition. They did add flavor, Ray had to admit. If he told Caitlin to bring them back, he could be in for a winter of bland food and cold stares.
“Good choices,” Ray said.
They hit a roadblock, crossing the interstate in Walsenburg. Six men with vehicles across the road—only the third blockade since Iowa. Ray eased to a stop, ready with a story.
Two men in camouflage looked the truck over, lifting the tarp. A third, older than the others, approached Ray’s window.
“Where you headed?”
“Colorado City.”
The man raised his eyebrows. It was a tightly knit fundamentalist Mormon community in Arizona. “You got kin there?”
Caitlin nodded. “Never thought I’d want to return.”
“You have an invite?”
Caitlin sighed. “My father arranged it.”
“How ’bout you?” he asked Ray.
“I’m not in the church. Some think my military skills could be useful, times what they are.” Ray nodded at Caitlin and Brittany. “I’ll do what I need to. At least they’ll eat.”
A man came around from the back. “Personal stuff, clothes, tools, motorcycle, food for a couple weeks.”
“There’s been killings west of here. Wide open spaces, no one to help you.”
“I did a tour in Afghanistan. It won’t be the first time someone shot at me.”
The man looked over to Caitlin. “Some folks give donations for keeping the road safe.”
Ray stared at the man, waiting.
“We get by on what’s picked up here. No pay for this job.”
“Mind if I step out? Ray asked,
The man nodded and stepped back. Ray climbed out and the man followed him to the rear of the truck.
“We’ve been through six checkpoints. Not much more than enough left to make Colorado City.”
“Yeah, I can see your problem. People come through here in bad shape sometimes. But they still give something, appreciative of our efforts.”
Ray opened his wallet exposing two bills. He handed one to the man.
“Twenty’s not much.” The man eyed the Beretta in Ray’s belt. “We could take something in trade.”
“I’ve given you half what I got. I give more, we could run out of fuel in the desert. That happens, and I don’t have food and a gun, my family
will die. What choice would you make in my place?”
The man glanced again at Ray’s gun and his hand hooked in his belt inches away. He seemed aware his friends had moved off after the inspection, and that Ray was positioned to watch them. “I see your point. A man has to take care of his family.”
Ray smiled. “You can’t explain it to someone who hasn’t been there. When you really love your wife, your child, you’d die for them in a heartbeat.”
The man nodded.
“Hey, I’ve got something for your wife, hold on.” Ray looked to the cab. “Caitlin, would you bring me the chocolate bar?”
She slid out and walked around the truck.
“Would you please give it to the man? It’s for his wife.”
Caitlin hesitated for the briefest second then handed over the chocolate.
“Good luck to you,” the man said. “Remember, it’s best not to travel at night.”
* * *
“You deserve an Oscar,” Ray said. “That was great with your father.”
“How about I’d die for my family in a heartbeat?”
“It’s a guy thing. A line in the sand. Letting him understand what kind of man I am.”
“The kind that would rather shoot him than pay?”
“No. The kind he can push only so far.”
“You’d take on six of them?”
Ray shrugged. “He had to think maybe I would. The chocolate was to soothe his pride. And get you out of the line of fire.”
“What about . . .?”
“She would have had to fetch your purse. Sometimes you improvise.”
Caitlin put her hand on his. “I’m not sure I understand you, but you are the most serious man I’ve ever met.”
“Lately, I don’t find a lot of time for levity.”
They stopped in Alamosa, Monte Vista, and Del Norte, then drove into the Rio Grande National Forest. Ray followed a graveled road deep into scrub timber and brush. They passed small lakes with scattered fishing. He stopped beside a fire road blocked by post and chain. They climbed out and stretched. Ray fished the hack saw from the back and cut the lock. He drove through and replaced it with one he’d had pulled from Caitlin’s cellar.
The fire road led through a scattered high country pine forest. They crossed ridges and an occasional creek bed. Four miles in, the road stopped altogether at an actual creek. Ray left the road and paralleled the water in four wheel drive, heading generally west.
They climbed slowly and the forest changed to mixed spruce and aspen. They came to a stop where the creek cut back into their path. Ray backed a quarter mile and worked on a route around, trying two before finally clearing the ridge and moving north on the down slope.
At the bottom of this ridge sat a narrow valley with a small pond to the north. The pond was a hundred feet across and surrounded on three sides by a heavy conifer forest—a rocky rise making the north side. A creek, now almost dry, flowed from the south. Ray parked the truck two hundred yards from the water amid a tight cluster of spruce.
“This is home?” Caitlin said. “It’s pretty.”
“We’ve got a few hours of daylight. We need to walk the valley, see if we have any neighbors.”
“If we do?”
“Depends. The right kind can be helpful. If we’re not welcome, we move on.”
She gave him a hug. “Be careful.”
“Here’s the rub. A lone man with a rifle represents a high order of threat to most he encounters. A man with his family, much less so.”
“I figured you’d want someone to protect the truck.”
“I normally would. But if there are hostiles nearby, it probably won’t do any good.”
“So . . . .”
“We put on day packs and go for a walk.”
They stayed in the trees and circled the pond from the south. Ray carried the AR-15, Caitlin a Remington .308, Brittany her school backpack. They stopped at a stone fire circle on the opposite side and looked it over.
“Doesn’t appear recent,” Caitlin said.
Ray walked into the trees behind it. “No litter.”
They reached the rocky north end and Ray paused. “Open ground always makes me nervous.”
“You want to go back the way we came?”
“No. If someone wanted to shoot us, they probably would have.”
“The war hit you hard, didn’t it?”
“Not just the war.” He glanced at Brittany and smiled. “Last one back to camp is a rotten egg.”
They jogged across the rocks, quickly becoming winded at the altitude, and reached the truck in a few minutes.
“We can cover more ground tomorrow,” Ray said. “Let’s set up and get dinner.”
Caitlin picked a spot with a steep wall behind and a row of trees to the right. Ray looked up the slope and nodded. Caitlin laid out the bedrolls, putting a little space between hers and Brittany’s.
Ray set stones and built a small fire. In the dark, they cooked canned stew and roasted marshmallows Caitlin had found in La Junta.
“How do you like camping, kiddo?” Caitlin asked.
“It’s okay, I guess.”
“Does it scare you, a little?”
Brittany nodded.
“It bothered me, too, the first time,” Ray said. “Strange noises and things moving in the dark.”
“You were scared of the dark?”
“Well, it worried me when I couldn’t just put the light on and see what was going on.”
“What did you do?”
Ray walked to the truck and returned with a flashlight. “I turned this on when something really bothered me.” He flicked the light and scanned the perimeter. He shut it off and handed it to Brittany.
The fire burned low and the air took on a chill. They retreated to their blankets. Brittany flicked on the flashlight every few minutes.
“She’ll get over it,” Ray whispered.
Caitlin rolled onto Ray. “I don’t know if I can wait.”
Chapter 54
Ray sat on the ridge an hour after dawn and watched through binoculars a thin trail of smoke far to the south: someone cooking breakfast. He scanned for a full hour but saw no others. He felt disadvantaged in not knowing the area and its residents. He needed to make up that deficit in a hurry.
He returned to camp and passed the news to Caitlin.
“How far, do you think?”
“Four, five miles. I need to do some serious scouting to get a feel for what’s where.”
“You want us along?”
He shook his head. “This kind is better done alone.”
“Why is this different?”
“Yesterday we drove in. Anyone in this valley would have heard us and been interested. A family camping trip isn’t scary. Since we haven’t had any visitors, I’m assuming we’re alone at the moment. Since no one’s here, I can do a stealthy reconnoiter.”
“Please be careful.”
Ray left after breakfast, taking the scoped hunting rifle, and leaving Caitlin the AR-15. He followed the valley south a couple miles, then climbed a ridge and scanned with the field glasses. The smoke was gone, but he had a feeling now for where it had been. He moved on another two miles, careful to stay in cover and in silence.
Over one more ridge sat a lake maybe a quarter mile across. He moved around it, following below the ridgeline. The sun was well overhead when he spotted the camp. Three men moved in the trees and one fished from a log, five feet into the water. His pole appeared to be little more than a stick with some line and a hook.
Their fire ring was in the open, twenty feet from the water. Security didn’t seem a top concern. He watched from different locations and was sure there were no more than four men in the camp. They were not sportsmen, nor traditional campers. He made his way around the lake, intending to get behind them. He stumbled across a road and their vehicle—a Toyota SUV with California plates.
Ref
ugees. Harmless most likely. He retraced his steps and watched a while longer. Two of the men took afternoon naps in the shade. The other was busy modeling something with a knife. Two rifles leaned against a tree. Ray eased away, and once clear, began the hike to his own camp.
He smelled cornbread from a hundred yards and called out his approval. Caitlin and Brittany faced him from the fire pit. They’d laid out stones over hot coals to cook on.
“Sorry to be gone so long.”
“I was beginning to worry,” Caitlin said.
“Found four men camped five miles south. I didn’t see sign of anyone else.”
“Did you speak with them?”
“No. Just watched for a while. They’re set up a hundred yards off what I’d guess is another fire road, or used to be. There’s a decent lake and level ground. They’re from California, and they didn’t make any effort to hide their presence.”
“Do they have guns?”
“They do. You’d have to think anyone who came out here would.”
“Are they a threat?”
“Yes and no. They haven’t moved a hundred yards from their car. I doubt they’ll hike over here. Not just yet. If they had supplies and wanted to protect them, they wouldn’t be so open. So I’d guess they’re not well equipped. It may be they go into town and buy what they need. When that food dries up, they’ll either move on or try to become hunters.”
“That’s when they’d find us.”
“Ray smiled.
“And you’re worried that four men alone in the woods for months might want more than food if they happened along.”
“It crossed my mind.”
“What else are you thinking?”
“I could keep an eye on them, or scare ’em off. Fire a few shots in their general direction. They won’t stick around long.”
“Is that necessary?”
“Not yet. I’ll need to visit again in a couple days. See if they’re going in and out.”
Caitlin took the pan off the stone. “Not an oven, but it works.”
“Can I go to the pond?” Brittany asked. “Mom said I couldn’t unless you were here.”
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