Dark Road

by David C. Waldron

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dan woke up to the smell of oatmeal. It was the first time in at least a month that he’d smelled oatmeal, and it made his stomach rumble. He’d give Marissa the benefit of the doubt and assume she’d been ok for the rest of the night as it was already full light outside.

  Bekah was still asleep but Jessie was up, and, Dan guessed, helping Marissa make breakfast. He relished what was likely to be the last really comfortable bed he’d be sleeping in for a while for another couple of minutes, and then woke Bekah up. He didn’t want her waking up alone, and, either way, he wasn’t going to leave either of his daughters by themselves.

  “Morning, sleepyheads,” Marissa said as they came downstairs. Marissa had started the fire on the driveway behind the fire station, but the oatmeal had been quick oats, so they didn’t need to boil over the fire.

  Dan looked over at the ambulance with everything unloaded out of the back and stopped in his tracks. “You’ve been busy,” was all he could say.

  “Yes I have, and I didn’t use up all of the flashlight batteries either.” She said with a smile. “In fact,” she tossed him another flashlight.

  “Where did you get this?” Dan asked.

  “From the firemen’s locker room,” Marissa said. “A lot of their gear was gone through and missing, like axes, facemasks, air tanks, and the flashlights that they clip onto the outside of their kits, but anything that was in the big pockets, or that wasn’t obvious was missed. Obviously whoever went through here was looting rather than scavenging,” Marissa paused, “like we are.”

  “Well, there is that.” Dan said. “Good catch, amazing find. How many were there?”

  “I found five flashlights, two mini pry-bars, and three multi-tools.” Marissa said.

  Dan just shook his head. “I wouldn’t have even thought to look in there. What made you head there in the first place?” Dan was sitting down to eat breakfast now.

  “I wanted to look through the ambulance to see if there was anything that could have a secondary use…you know, other than its original, intended purpose, but I didn’t want to waste the flashlight. I tried the headlights, but they were dead, so I had to go looking for some other form of lights.”

  Dan was nodding. “I see you found the bag of chocolate chips, too.”

  “Oh yeah,” Marissa said with a grin.

  “So, is there anything else we can use in the ambulance?”

  “Not much.” Marissa admitted. “I found a collapsible shovel, and a couple pairs of gloves, and three more flashlights with extra batteries.”

  Dan nodded. “Those would be because all of the ambulances were ALS, or Advanced Life Support, rated. Technically, the flashlights, shovels, and gloves aren’t required, but there’s a checklist of things that need to be there at all times, and we took even the suggestions in the appendix pretty seriously.” Dan was trying to use the past tense for his former life as an EMT.

  Dan shook his head. “About the only thing we didn’t have on all the rigs was a HAM radio with emergency frequencies programmed in. That could have come in handy right about now. Not that I would really know how to use it, but I’m guessing I could figure it out.”

  “Well, it wasn’t your call, and we’ve gotten plenty of useful stuff here so far so don’t get too down on yourself.” Marissa said.

  Dan nodded and finished his oatmeal. Marissa had been right; he’d been missing chocolate too.

  …

  “I don’t really see much more in here to take except for some additional sanitation supplies.” Marissa said, pointing to a case of hand sanitizer packets and alcohol and Betadine wipes.

  “I think we can kill two birds with one stone by just taking the hand sanitizer and some additional Betadine.” Dan said.

  Marissa agreed, and they made their way downstairs to do some final packing. They both knew they weren’t going to fit cases of anything on the bikes, or in the pull-behind, but fitting some of what they’d found was surely possible.

  “Ok, Jessie, I’m going to need you to be in the trailer so I can figure out how much more room we have to pack stuff.” Dan said.

  The look on Jessie’s face said that she was not looking forward to the trailer, but she climbed in and they proceeded to pack, and empty, and repack until they had gotten everything they were going to get into the trailer.

  The addition of a case of Ensure, and the equivalent of a box of medical supplies, and Dan’s EMT kit had added quite a bit of bulk to the trailer and they were down to tying things in to keep them from falling out. Jessie was running out of room and ended up sitting on top of the case of drinks and a folded up blanket. They shuffled things around and put even more things in the bike-mounted kid seats to make a little more room for her in the trailer.

  After almost an hour, Dan announced that they were ready to go.

  “Everyone go to the bathroom before we leave.” Marissa said. “It might be the last toilet you see for a while.”

  …

  The downtown streets were less clogged than the Parkway but there was no direct route to get onto I-40. They paralleled the freeway once they got out of the densest part of downtown and the business loop of 440, and the adults took turns in front to watch both for broken glass and other people. It was draining being on high alert all the time and neither of them could do it for very long.

  At each underpass they approached they could see signs of life and hear people. The first time, Dan and Marissa hadn’t thought anything of it, and everyone simply rode past. The second underpass was when things got a little hinky, as Marissa would have said.

  “Hey,” came a yell from under the freeway. “You got any food?”

  “Great,” Marissa and Dan said almost in unison.

  “Just keep going. Don’t respond, and don’t look over. Ignore it and pedal a little faster.” Dan said as he was on the side closest to the freeway.

  “I said, you got any food!” The yeller was walking towards them now and was carrying what looked like a golf club. He was still most of a block away but it was a short block, and the streets were wide here.

  “You ignoring me?” He yelled. “Don’t ignore me! I’m a human being! I have RIGHTS! Give me some of your food!” And he started to run towards the bikes.

  “Ok, go.” Marissa said, and Dan and Bekah sped up, assuming Marissa would follow suit. She didn’t.

  Marissa stopped her bike and pulled the shotgun out from behind her backpack, leveled it at the approaching ‘bad guy’ and chambered a round with the pump, which stopped him in his tracks.

  “Friend, you want to just head on back to wherever you came from and rethink whatever it was you were going to do just now.” Marissa said, loud enough to be heard, but not yelling.

  “I got…people!”

  “Fine, I’ve got plenty of rounds, how many do you think I can take out and which ones do you think will be first after you?” Marissa asked. “I’m not playing around. Go, now!”

  After a few seconds, he turned around and started walking slowly back towards the underpass, but he kept looking back over his shoulder at Marissa and the others, who had stopped a half a block away.

  Once he was far enough away to no longer be a threat, Marissa rode up to Dan and Bekah and they all continued to ride on. Marissa rode one-handed, with the shotgun out, for the next hour.

  “That was pretty cool, Mom.” Bekah said.

  Marissa sighed and glanced at her daughter. “No, honey, it wasn’t. It was scary and a little stupid. I think I may have even peed my pants.” Marissa shook her head. “It was not cool, and I don’t want you to even think about doing something like that, ever. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Bekah said, but with a touch of awe in her voice. It was hard for her not to be in awe; twice she’d seen her mom go toe-to-toe with the bad guys with that shotgun. Whatever her mom said, that was pretty cool.

  From that point on, as they approached each underpass, they put as much distance between it
and themselves as they could, and went as fast as possible without getting winded. The goal was to get out of town as quickly as possible with all of their belongings, and actually get on the road to Natchez Trace.

  …

  It ended up being a little over a six-mile ride to get to the nearest accessible on-ramp, and less clogged hadn’t meant no obstructions. Three months of storms had done a number on tree limbs and leaves, and there was plenty of accumulated litter that held heaven-only-knows what that they were being careful to avoid. Dan prayed fervently that I-40 would be less of a mess to travel on as they approached the on-ramp.

  This underpass had been vacant, but the approach had been nerve-wracking since they were coming into the shadow almost blind from being out in the sun. Marissa had the shotgun out, and Dan chose to pull out his pistol, for intimidation value if nothing else—just in case. Neither were needed, which was all for the better, but they got through to the other side as quickly as they could, nonetheless.

  “The freeway is pretty open here,” Dan said, “we’ve been pushing pretty hard since we left the fire station. Let’s stop and take a little bit of a rest.”

  It was a little overcast, so the sun wasn’t beating down too hard, although it was still fairly humid; it was August after all. They all drank a fair amount and rested for about ten minutes, but not long enough to cramp up.

  Marissa was looking at the map in the atlas. “There’s an oxbow in the river, about a mile and a half or so ahead.” She said. “We’re going to need to stop and refill. It looks like we’re going to have to plan our days around where we can get water.”

  Dan nodded his head. “And stop whenever the opportunity presents itself, no matter how frustrating it is. Sounds like that should be lunchtime then.” He looked at the girls, “You be ok to wait a little longer for lunch?”

  Bekah nodded and Jessie just said “Uh huh.”

  Dan looked at Marissa with a furrowed brow and got an “I don’t know!” look in return.

  …

  The oxbow in the river didn’t come that close to the freeway and they actually had to pull the bikes off the road to keep an eye on them once they got close enough to hear the water. The entire process of stopping, building a fire, filtering and boiling and cooling the water enough to not melt the bottles…twice, making lunch, and then putting out the fire, took almost an hour.

  “This is going to drive me nuts every time we have to do this.” Marissa said.

  “We could all get giardia.” Dan offered with mock sincerity

  Marissa stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Hey, I’m just sayin’.” He said.

  “What are the chances, really?” She asked.

  “Actually, really quite high, especially around a population center,” Dan said. “You saw what started happening back in the neighborhood. We have no idea what’s getting put into the river now, and I don’t just mean industrially.”

  Marissa shivered. “Ok, we boil the water.”

  “Back on the bikes, everybody, but take it slow at first.” Dan said. “We’ve cooled off and this is our first day. I know you’ve been riding around the neighborhood, honey,” Dan said to Bekah, “but are you sore anywhere?”

  “Nope.” She said.

  “Nowhere at all?” He asked again.

  “Nope.” She said again.

  “Well, if you change your mind, let Daddy or me know, ok?” Marissa said.

  “Ok.” Bekah said.

  “Oh to have the resilience and stamina of youth,” Marissa said.

  “Amen to that!” Dan agreed.

  …

  “Ok, Dad’s done.” Dan panted as he waved everyone to a stop just before the exit they were approaching.

  “I am so glad to hear you say that.” Marissa said between breaths.

  Three of the last four miles had been uphill at a 3% grade, which didn’t feel like much…for the first fifteen minutes.

  “I think I’m actually dead,” Dan said.

  “Nope, my legs hurt too much to be dead, and you’re right here with me Mr.” Marissa said. “How can you not be exhausted, Bekah?”

  She shrugged. “I dunno. Just my mad biking skills, I guess.”

  That got laughs from Dan and Marissa and a “Whatever!” from Jessie in the pull-behind.

  “So we’re going to sleep under the underpass tonight unless it’s already taken.” Dan said. “We’ll take the exit and see what comes next. There’s a town here, but I don’t know if we dare try to, you know, go in and barter or anything.”

  “Dan, unless it’s pouring, I think the underpass is a bad idea.” Marissa glanced at the girls and then changed her tone. “Can we make it a little farther and do the side of the road tonight? We can discuss future sleeping arrangements tonight.”

  Dan didn’t want to make an issue of it right now, so he nodded, but stood firm on the town.

  “I don’t know why, but I just don’t have a good feeling about the whole trading thing this close to downtown.” Dan said.

  Marissa nodded. “Ok, I’ll give you that.”

  They finally called it quits not quite a half a mile past the exit to town. They were far enough that everyone was both comfortable with the distance and that they couldn’t be seen from the exit, due to the curve in the road.

  Dinner was some rice, a bunch of dandelions that they had found along the way, and a handful of blackberries for everyone that they had picked when they stopped to refill their water. The survival book had a number of wild foods they could look out for, but only so many that Dan and Marissa thought would be in season right now. Anything that could help them stretch what they had would help though.

  “Before bed,” Marissa said, “I want you and Bekah to start getting familiarized with the 10/22.”

  Dan made a face, but he didn’t protest.

  “What’s a ten twenty two?” Bekah asked.

  “It’s a rifle, honey.” Marissa said. “You and Daddy are going to learn how to shoot a rifle.”

  “Um,” Bekah made a face a bit like Dan’s, “ok, I guess.”

  Dan reached out and ruffled her hair. “It’ll be fine, honey. It’s important and it’s something we both need to learn how to do.” Dan said. “So far, Mommy’s been a great teacher, you’ll do great.”

  “If you say so,” Bekah said.

  “Ten minutes and then it’s off to bed for everyone.” Marissa said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marissa took the first watch so she could sleep in the next morning. It was a quiet night and she woke Dan up around 1:00 for his stretch.

  Once the sun was up, Dan made breakfast—which was half of the remaining oatmeal, stretched fairly thin, but not too much so. He made up for it a little with some chocolate chips and a few of the remaining blackberries on top.

  He had also found a depression that had collected some recent rainwater, and filtered and boiled that for breakfast, instead of their packed water—to conserve what they had.

  “I don’t know how far we can make it today, because I don’t want to push too hard again.” Dan said once everyone was up eating. “I hate to admit it, but I’m sore after yesterday.”

  “We’re out of shape and not getting the right kind of nutrition or exercise, Dan.” Marissa said. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. With minimal notice and no training, we made it fifteen miles in two days pulling all this stuff,” Marissa waved to their trailer and the baby seats.

  Marissa looked over at Bekah and smiled. “And you, you are doing great, honey!”

  Bekah blushed. “Actually, once we stopped I realized how tired my legs were.”

  “That’s fine,” Dan said, “and if you need us to slow down, or if you need to rest, just tell us. It’s fine, promise.”

  Bekah nodded.

  Dan looked at Jessie. “And not a single complaint from you, either!”

  “My bum hurts.” Jessie blurted. “Those cans are hard.” She’d been sitting on the case of Ensure with one of the folded blank
ets as a cushion all day.

  “Oh, honey,” Marissa said. “I’m sorry. We’ll rearrange them today and you won’t have to sit on them anymore,” and gave Jessie a hug. It was the most Jessie had said in three days.

  Breakfast over, and the trailer rearranged, it was time to get back on the road.

  “Truth be told, I’m really not looking forward to today.” Marissa said as she stretched and cracked her back and shoulders. “I don’t know if we’re going to get rain today or tomorrow, but something is on the way.”

  “I hope it holds off until we can find some shelter.” Dan said. “All we have are fall jackets, no ponchos or even a tent. I’d been hoping to use the underpasses once we hit the highway, but if we get caught out in the middle…between exits,” Dan paused.

  “Yeah,” Marissa said. “We could get soaked and spend a couple of days drying out at the very least. I’m sorry I shut down the underpass idea, but after what we ran into in the city, I just can’t feel comfortable under one unless it’s our only option.”

  …

  Day two on the highway was a repeat of the first; a few abandoned cars that they avoided, and that gave them the creeps and reminded them to be watchful; a couple of stops to drink their water and then refill their bottles; a lunch of ketchup soup, while they had it.

  They stopped early, at about nine miles, after another grueling, steep incline…for a bike—somewhere between Pegram and Kingston Springs.

  “I can’t place it, but something about Kingston Springs rings a bell.” Marissa said as they were getting things set up for the night.

  “We don’t know anybody out here,” Dan said.

  “I know,” Marissa said. “That’s why it’s so weird. None of the postcards on the bulletin board at the Taylors place were from here, either. I can’t think of why it’s ringing a bell.” Marissa shook her head.

  Dan shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll come to you if it’s important. It usually does.”

  Dinner was boiled wood sorrel tubers, which they had been keeping an eye out for, and had gotten lucky to find when they were getting water around noon. They also had some more blackberries, and everyone had a half a can of Ensure.