by Emily Garnet
“Feel free to get out and stretch your legs for a bit,” said Lonnie.
The last thing Ivy wanted to do a stretch her sore legs after that biking and a night of walking and running, but her stomach was growling, and she’d needed to use the facilities for a while. Since she’d been trying to resist having to squat on the side of the road, it was an urgent matter.
Matt slid down first, and then Ivy exited behind him, appreciating his steadying hands on her hips before she settled on the ground. Together, they walked into the truck stop. She was on edge, and she could fell Matt’s tension as well, but it was surprisingly calm when they entered. So far, none of these people were freaking out. Maybe none of them had realized the severity, or perhaps they were used to dealing with situations as they arose, but she appreciated the sense of calm about the area.
“I have to go to the ladies’ room.”
“Me too,” said Matt. Then he laughed awkwardly. “You know what I mean.”
They found the restrooms, and she entered. It was almost pitch-black inside, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. This would be a perfect place to ambush a woman, and she couldn’t help running the scenarios through her mind as she cautiously approached the stall. She kicked it open forcefully, just in case someone was standing behind it, but it just slammed into the wall and back against the frame. She winced at the sound of the collision, and then she slipped into the stall. She closed the door and locked it, feeling semi-secure.
She held her hands out in front of her and groped around in the darkness for a moment to ensure no one else was in there, and then she made her way to the toilet. When she was finished, she left the stall with more confidence than she’d entered. She fumbled her way to the sink, surprised but happy to find water still ran. There was no hot water, but any water was welcome.
Doing the best she could in the dark, she cleaned up, finally getting a chance to wipe off the rest of the stage makeup that she’d been wearing most of the night. That had been garish enough in the evening, but she could well imagine how much like a clown she looked in the daylight.
When she left the bathroom, she found Matt waiting for her. “We should try to change your bandage.”
He shook his head. “The bathroom is completely dark, and you can’t do it here in the middle of the store. Do you even have the right supplies?”
She nodded, patting her backpack without thought. “I shoved the leftover gauze and tape in here earlier, along with the suture kits.”
“But there’s nothing to clean it with, and no antibiotic ointment. Let’s just wait until we get somewhere that’s better suited.”
She nibbled on her lip before finally agreeing. She was nervous about the wound and the strain he’d put on it overnight, but she really couldn’t do anything besides change the bandage right now anyway.
“The restaurant is still serving. They’re only taking cash, but I have six dollars. We might be able to get something. I saw Lonnie head that way a while ago.”
“Okay…wait! You told the Vegas kiosk guy you only had six dollars when you bought the water,” she said in a slightly accusing fashion.
He grinned. “I couldn’t give away my whole stash in one go.”
Ivy was on the verge of laughing until she realized what he’d said about Lonnie, and all amusement fled. “He’s leaving the truck unattended?” Ivy glanced out reflexively, immediately catching sight of Lonnie’s rig. He could see it easily from the window seat he taken in the restaurant, but she still wasn’t convinced it was a good idea to leave it.
“We could grab something to go and sit in the truck until he’s ready to come out.”
“If he’ll trust us to do that.” Ivy sighed, understanding she was going to have to defer to Lonnie, since he owned the truck. If it had been hers, she wouldn’t have left it alone under the circumstances, but since it wasn’t, what choice did she have?
She followed Matt over to the booth Lonnie had selected, sliding in. Matt followed her, and a waitress appeared a couple of moments later.
“Cash only, folks.”
“What can we get for six dollars?” asked Matt.
“You can get the daily special, which is a cold roast beef sandwich and a bag of chips. The grills and ovens aren’t working.”
“We’ll take it. And some water,” added Ivy.
The waitress nodded and headed on.
“I’m glad you folks got through Vegas. I managed to skirt around it, since I didn’t want any part of that with the truck.”
“Where were you when the HEMP hit?” asked Ivy.
He shrugged. “I think I was near Barstow. It’s on the stretch of road between Los Angeles and Nevada, kinda out in the Mohave. I got quite a view. I almost wrecked my truck though, since all the cars trucks ahead of me just stopped. I wasn’t near a city, but I’ve been able to make a pretty good go of it on the shoulders of the road. Since all the vehicles just stopped where they were, there aren’t many that have blocked the shoulders yet. I’ve had to move a couple with the rig, but it’s been working so far. I’m hopeful we’ll make good time to Ely, since we don’t have a lot of traffic to fuss with. At least not so far.”
“It’ll be nice to be far away from Vegas. If I never have to visit it again—” The sound of Matt’s phone ringing interrupted Ivy’s words. She jerked at the unfamiliar sound. How had something that had been commonplace just hours ago already started to become a foreign sound?
“Hello?”
Ivy pressed closer, trying to hear who was talking on the other end of the phone. When Matt held out the phone to her, she took it quickly. “Hello?”
“Ivy, it’s Lacey. Dad gave me this number. Are you coming?”
“I’ll be there soon as I can. Are you safe?”
“I’m scared. There are people—”
“Lacey?” Ivy called her name a couple of times frantically before pulling the phone away. As she suspected, the battery had given up. She clenched it tightly in her hands as her body trembled. Tears burned at the back of her eyes, and her throat was scratchy from suppressing them.
Lacey had been on the other end of the line, and she’d been seconds from ascertaining if she was safe or not. Why couldn’t the phone have lasted just a bit longer? She resisted the urge to throw it across the room, though she didn’t think it would ever be worth anything again as she passed it back to Matt. “That was Lacey. My sister,” she said for Lonnie’s benefit. “I didn’t get much out of her before the phone died.”
“I’m sorry.” Matt put his arm around her shoulders. “Did she sound okay?”
“She was scared.” Ivy’s voice trembled as she said the words, and she pressed her face against Matt’s shoulder, hiding her tears. As strong and as confident as she felt at times, right now she was completely powerless. People could be hurting her sister, and she was hundreds of miles away. With the current state of the world, she might as well be a million.
“We’re going to get to her, and she’s going to be okay. She had the same upbringing you did, Ivy. Surely some of it stuck with her too.”
She managed to quell the tears at Matt’s words and pulled her head back. She looked up at him and nodded, knowing he was right. Henry’s indoctrination must’ve surely started to come back to Lacey by now as well. Lacey was younger, and she hadn’t dealt with some of the things Ivy had, but she was strong and resilient. They were only a few days apart, and she was certain Lacey could survive that long. She had to.
Lonnie leaned across the table, holding out a phone. “You’re welcome to try mine to get hold of your sister, if you’d like?”
She took it with an eager nod and dialed Lacey’s number, but wasn’t at all surprised to get the “all circuits are busy” message. Feeling deflated, she handed it back to him. “Thank you.”
“You can keep trying as we’re driving, as long as you don’t completely wear down the battery. I’m still hoping my wife can get through to me too, or vice versa. I haven’t spoken to her since I
was in San Diego picking up the load.”
Ivy could imagine how nerve-racking it was for him as well. “Do you have children?”
“Four of them. Took us too long to figure out what caused it.” Lonnie winked and laughed, suggesting it was a comment he’d made many times.
She managed a ghost of a smile. “I’m sure you’re anxious to get back to them.”
“I sure am, so let’s finish up the chow and head out.”
A short time later, they were back at Lonnie’s truck, and it appeared undisturbed. They’d had a good view of it the entire time they ate, and they hadn’t seen anyone approach, but it was still a relief to get back in and close the doors. Lonnie locked them a moment later, and they headed out. For the first few miles, they just talked about their lives or made small talk. Ivy kept shifting restlessly, and Lonnie finally asked, “Are you all right?”
“Every muscle in my body hurts, especially my back.” She didn’t explain how she’d injured her back escaping the chair. “I haven’t biked in ages, and never with an extra two hundred pounds.”
“Hey, just one-eighty.” Then Matt groaned. “Same here though. My leg is killing me.”
“Shoot, you should’ve said something sooner.” Lonnie nodded toward the console between him and Ivy. “If you want to dig in there, you’ll find some ibuprofen. There’s a small mini fridge in the sleeper cabin that has some water.”
Ivy stretched to open the refrigerator, which was positioned so Lonnie could reach it without having to pull over. She handed a bottle to Matt, and then she retrieved a huge bottle of ibuprofen. “You should keep hold of this. It might be like gold in the next few months.”
“I sure will. My wife has a Costco membership, and she’s always ordering bulk items. When she gave me a bottle with five hundred of them, I told her I couldn’t possibly ever use them all, but I’m glad she shops that way now.”
“Is there a Costco in Ely?” asked Matt as he took the pills Ivy passed him and swallowed them before handing her the bottle of water so she could do the same.
He laughed. “There’s not much in Ely. It’s just a small town with a few stores. She mostly shops online from Costco, though we occasionally go to Vegas to stock up. I’m not home much, so it’s usually up to her and the kids to do that, and I don’t like her taking all of them and traveling that far alone. I imagine that makes me sound overprotective, but they mean the world to me.” His voice broke on the last few words, and he had to clear his throat.
“I think it’s wonderful,” said Ivy. She envied the clear love Lonnie had for his family. She wondered what it would’ve been like if Henry had spent more time being a father and less time being a drill instructor. It didn’t matter now, because nothing could change the past, but she couldn’t completely banish the what-ifs.
Soon, her body stopped hurting so much, and she relaxed against Matt. He was noticeably less tense as well, and other than the occasional pothole that they definitely felt as the truck jarred with each one, it was smooth riding. She fought to keep her eyes open, knowing Lonnie needed someone to help keep an eye on the road, since they were traveling on the shoulder, but despite her best efforts, her eyelids closed, and she relaxed into sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
Ivy woke abruptly sometime later in the afternoon. She quickly realized the reason was because there was a difference in their speed and the texture of the road. They were going much slower now, and she opened her eyes to see they were on the outskirts of a small town.
Lonnie was having to go carefully, because the shoulder wasn’t as wide here. She winced and held her breath as he moved past a fancy dual-cabbed truck that looked like it’d just come out of the showroom. It yielded to the pressure exerted by the semi, and they were able to squeeze through with a grinding sound of metal on metal. “Where are we?”
“We’re almost home,” said Lonnie.
Matt stirred beside her, lifting his head slowly. “What’s going on?”
“We’re in Ely,” said Ivy. She patted his leg. “It’s a little bit rougher going, it seems.”
“Sure is. I wish me and the wife had bought on this side of Ely now.”
“What do you mean?” asked Matt.
“We’re going to have to go through the town, or at least the main road, to reach my property.”
“I’m sure you’ll get us there,” said Ivy.
Lonnie spent the next hour doing just that. It couldn’t have been that big of a town, no more than a few miles long, and yet it took that long navigate through the stalled cars. There were more people here as well, coming out of their houses to look at the truck as it went by, or an occasional person getting out of their car. There were plates from out-of-state, and Ivy could imagine some of these people were trapped here. Ely likely hadn’t been their final destination.
As they passed a grocery store, she said, “Are you going to deliver the food to the store?”
“I will after I see what we have, and I take some for my family.” He sounded slightly defensive. “I want to help everyone, but I need to make sure they’re provided for first.”
Ivy nodded. “Some people might just keep the refrigerated truck for themselves.”
He shrugged. “Some people might, but I don’t have the power to keep it refrigerated. I’m hoping the grocery store has an adequate generator. A lot of the people around here know how to can, so maybe we can get a community canning event organized to save what we can before it rots.”
“It sounds like you’ve given this some thought.” Matt sounded impressed.
Lonnie grinned. “You get a lot of time to think when you’re on the road. I’ve been doing nothing but that on the way to Ely, trying to figure out the best way to survive with what we have and preserve it for as long as we can.”
“You’re well ahead of a lot of people then.” Ivy couldn’t keep the despair from her tone. She knew how many deaths were coming in the near future, and she didn’t want to contemplate it.
Fortunately, before the idea could take hold, Lonnie turned off the main road and onto a dirt one. “We’ve got a nice little spread, along with forty acres. I keep meaning to get the road paved, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Maybe that’ll dissuade some people.”
Ivy shook her head at Matt’s words. “Most people will be coming on foot now, so it won’t bother them as much as it would’ve in a vehicle. Do you have good security, Lonnie?”
“We’ve got a good fence, and I’ve got a passel of family around that can help us defend what’s ours, should the need arise.”
She was reassured by that, mostly for the sake of Lonnie and his family. She and Matt wouldn’t be around long enough to have to worry about townspeople realizing Lonnie’s family had more than they did and storming the place. That kind of action would surely be at least a few weeks away. Maybe.
They reached his farm a few minutes later, and it was a nice spread. She immediately recognized solar panels similar to the ones her father had. “Are you off-grid?”
“We’re on city water, but we have an old well that we’ve kept in good repair, just in case the city water ever went down. If that happened, I figured it’d be caused by negligence like in Flint, not this scenario.”
“That’s the truth. No one expected this.” Except maybe Henry, who was probably pleased to be proven right. “It’s a good thing you thought about it, since the municipal supply will probably stop working,” said Ivy.
“I guess it doesn’t matter why it goes down. I like to have a backup plan. Everything else is off-grid, including the power and the septic. We have some farm animals, and a nice arrangement. It sounds like I’ll be spending a lot more time at home, so I can finish some of those projects I’ve been putting off. We can survive well here for a long time.”
She nodded. “Thank you for the ride.”
Lonnie nodded. “You don’t have to rush off. You folks are welcome to stay the night and rest up.”
“I think we should hit
the road while we can,” said Ivy. She looked up. “There’re still a few hours of daylight, and we can make some progress.”
“At least stay for a meal.”
Matt’s stomach rumbled then, making the decision for Ivy as well. She grinned. “How can we say no?”
Lonnie pulled the truck up in front of the sprawling white farmhouse. Judging from the size, she would bet every child had their own room. It was the kind of place that most people would love to live in—and she was afraid they might kill to do so in the next few weeks or months.
They clambered out of the truck as a plump woman around Lonnie’s age exited the house, along with four kids. The youngest looked to be about seven or eight, and the oldest was probably close to being an adult.
“Lonnie, what are you doing home?” She patted her hair. “You know I like to look nice for you when you get home.”
Lonnie swept her into his arms and gave her a big kiss. “You always look nice to me, but you look downright amazing right now. I was a little afraid I wouldn’t make it home.”
“What’s going on, Dad?” asked the oldest one, who was a boy.
“I’m not sure, Jacob, but I suspect it’s not going to get better for a while.” He clapped his son on the shoulder before turning to Ivy and Matt. “I picked up a couple of strays, but they saved my rump. This is Ivy and Matt.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re Ivy Gerard.” The middle girl in the lineup, who looked to be about fourteen, squealed in excitement and jumped up and down.
Ivy was too tired to find any joy in being recognized, but she managed a smile. “That’s me, and of course, you know Matt then?”
She nodded. “Matt Cromwell. Oh, this is so exciting, Daddy.” She threw herself against Lonnie and hugged him.
Lonnie looked mystified. “What the…?”