by Jay Morris
“Ahh..Chili, my favorite vegetable.” ‘
This made Lucy laugh but Mom just rolled her eyes. He then walked over to the fridge and took what must have been a five pound bag of ‘Shredded Mexican Blend Cheese Product’ and poured some on his dinner then passed it around. It was good, of course I thought Mrs. Driscol was probably the 2nd best cook in the world behind my Mom. We ate until there was no more left, but several times Mom had to get Elaine to eat, she kept staring off into space.
After dinner, me, Billy, Lucy and Elaine went into the living room, Old Man Tucker put on a DVD of what he called his second favorite movie, ‘Galaxy Quest’ with Tim Allen. The adults gathered around the table in the kitchen and while they were trying to be quiet, we could hear quite a bit of disagreement. Mr. Franks kept calling for votes. Old Man Tucker cursed using some very bad words that there was no way he would let votes determine his future. Mr. Franks wanted the keys to the guns, he wanted to know how much food Old Man Tucker had, and Old Man Tucker said that Mr. Franks wanted to be elected Queen. Even Elaine choked back a laugh when she heard that. She had been listening in just like me and Billy. They argued a long time and when Old Man Tucker pointed to the door one too many times, Mom took charge and said that like it or not we needed each other and we were going to have to get along.
As it got late Mr. Franks volunteered to sleep in the living room with his wife. It was decided that we would share the big bedroom with Mrs. Driscol and Billy. Mr. Caulfield and Old Man Tucker would trade using the bed in the guest room. Old Man Tucker said he would keep a watch until 2 AM, and then he would wake Mr. Caulfield to take over until breakfast. Mom and Mrs. Driscol slept on the outside of Old Man Tucker’s king size bed. Elaine slept with her head at the other end, me, Billy and Lucy just found a warm spot in between. It had been a traumatic few days, my dad and Billy’s were unaccounted for. I finally figured out that poor Mr. Caulfield’s wife had died in the car accident and there were the crazies, the shootings and the fear. The constant, never ending fear that assailed us all, made us feel weak and unable to move, unable to respond to anything. But still we lived and we all slept like those who just didn’t have much left to keep them awake. It was Elaine who must have gotten up for the bathroom or something. I remember her shaking Mom awake saying
“Mom, come quick, something is wrong with Mr. Caulfield.”
Mom hurried out of bed and was immediately followed by Mrs. Driscol and the rest of us. In the kitchen, leaning against the refrigerator was Mr. Caulfield and he had a huge knot on the side of head. Old Man Tucker had gotten up and joined us. The Franks were gone.
Day 4, Old Man Tucker’s Kitchen
Mr. Caulfield said that around four AM Mrs. Franks came into the kitchen, she said she couldn’t sleep. She and her husband were both concerned about things, about Mr. Tucker and all those guns. She thought that maybe if Mr. Caulfield would back them up then things could get organized. Mr. Caulfield said that he wouldn’t do that. He felt that Mr. Tucker had done nothing that warranted this level of suspicion. He was about to say that he was willing to talk about it some more in the morning when there was a blinding pain and he woke up on the floor. Old Man Tucker listened then checked the back door. It was unlocked. He stepped outside with Mrs. Driscol, luckily the crazies were gone. Unfortunately so was the Driscol’s SUV. He came back in and went to the living room and on to the den, he wasn’t gone long. He came back in, one of those big Russian rifles in his hands, the one with the scope on it.
“They stole just about everything that we had set out; pistols, rifles, ammunition. Everything.”
He was putting bullets into the rifle one at a time. They looked long and deadly compared to the .22s that Billy and I had.
“We still have ours Mr. Tucker.” Billy said holding up the STG.
Mr. Tucker looked at him and said “Good job son, keep them close.”
Mom looked at Old Man Tucker and said “what are you going to do?”
Old Man Tucker slammed the bolt home and said “I’m going to hunt him down and kill him.”
Mom said that he couldn’t do that, Mrs. Driscol said that he wasn’t judge, jury, or executioner. Elaine sat at the table and held her head in her hands. Lucy was helping Mr. Caulfield and Billy pulled on my sleeve and we went into the living room.
“Old Man Tucker is right” Billy said in a hushed whisper. “Mr. Franks shouldn’t have done what he did.”
I looked at him and shook my head
“I don’t know Billy, maybe there was some other reason?”
“Like what?” Billy snapped back.
At that moment Old Man Tucker came through the living room and went into the den, Mom and Mrs. Driscol following behind him trying to talk him out of doing what he said he was going to do. When they came out he was wearing a shoulder holster with a revolver in it and another holster on his belt. They were two of those old colts he seemed to love, the DA-41s.
We all gathered back in the kitchen and Old Man Tucker finally stopped and said his piece.
“The Franks attacked Mr. Caulfield, they could have killed him, they left the door unlocked and all of us could have been killed. They stole the best firearms I had, the rest of them in there are guns, sure, but they are antiques for the most part. I don’t have enough ammunition for them. We need those guns back; the Franks didn’t give a damn about any of us, and I don’t give a damn about them so I guess that’s fair, but he put us all at risk. Me, you, the kids, all of us could have died, we still might if we don’t get the guns back. I am going to find him. I’m going to find him and I’m going to kill him.”
He paused for a moment then spoke again
“Mrs. Williams please understand, I have to do this, now where are the keys to your van?”
Mom looked very upset but Mrs. Driscol nodded to her so she dug in her pocket and handed them to Old Man Tucker. About then Lucy and Mr. Caulfield came in from the living room. Mr. Caulfield had a double barrel shotgun over his shoulder and a pistol in his hand.
“Mr. Tucker, I want to help, but what is this?” He held the gun up for Old Man Tucker to see.
“It’s a Russian Nagant revolver and it’s a 7 shooter.”
Mr. Caulfield held it up and looked at it and said quietly
“Well, I’ll be.”
Mrs. Driscol and Mom were talking quietly and finally Mrs. Driscol said
“Well, if you two are going we all are going.”
She seemed rather certain of that but Old Man Tucker seemed a little ticked off by the suggestion.
“I can move quicker alone, it would be better if you stayed here, the boys can watch things can’t you fellas?”
He looked over at Billy and me, the armory guards with rifles and revolvers. We both chimed up that we could and that he could count on us. But mom was adamant.
“No, no, no. Your house, your rules; my van, my rules.”
That was something that Old Man Tucker couldn’t argue with so he just threw up his hands and said
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I wouldn’t think of it” Mom said, “now I think you should find some of your antiques for the rest of us don’t you?”
Old Man Tucker gave a gun to Mom and one to Mrs. Driscol and one to Elaine. All three were French carbines from the First World War, he said they all fired the same 8mm Lebel ammunition but he only had about 120 of them.
“Are these any good?” Elaine asked.
“Pretty sure about a half million Germans at Verdun thought they were pretty damn deadly.” Tucker said with a strange smile.
Only Lucy stood to the back watching quietly. He quickly went through a lot of the same stuff he went over with Billy and me but their rifles were bolt action and not semi-automatic like Billy’s or mine. He was just handing them boxes of bullets for their rifles when Mr. Caulfield came in.
“We got another problem” and he paused a moment then finished “Franks slashed all the tires on the van and the other cars too.�
�
Old Man Tucker made a fist and swore under his breath.
“Now what?” he asked, “They have a huge head start, we don’t have a vehicle and we don’t know where they are going.”
We were all quiet when Lucy spoke up, “Yes we do Mr. Tucker, we know where they are going.”
Old Man Tucker looked at Lucy quizzically and waited for her to continue.
“They are going to the lodge and the directions are on the dining table in our house.”
With that she took Ronald Bear and left the den. Old Man Tucker looked at Mom and said
“That’s one special little girl you got there Mrs. Williams.”
Mom folded her arms over her chest and said “Yes, she is, Mr. Tucker, yes she is.”
We spent the morning getting ready; Mr. Caulfield said that he thought we could get a car off the Toyota lot about three miles from our subdivision. The adults debated and finally it was decided that Old Man Tucker and Mrs. Driscol would walk to the dealer and get us two cars that would be big enough to carry all of us and as much food and water as we could get in there. The rest of us were going to get everything out of the van and the other cars and sort through them. Mr. Caulfield was out on the screened-in porch on guard duty, even with his sore head bandaged he was looking for a fight it seems. Old Man Tucker went to Elaine and looked at her seriously.
“Miss, I have a favor to ask, would you pack me some things too? Some warm clothes, jeans, flannel shirts? And some...” he paused, looked terribly uncomfortable then added “socks and such? There is an old green back pack in my closet.”
Elaine burst out laughing; it was the most emotion she had shown since this all started two days before. Then she spoke in an exaggerated southern drawl,
“why Mister Tucker, are you asking lil’ ol me to pack yall unmentionables?”
Old Man Tucker turned beet red, he was so flummoxed that he couldn’t respond but Elaine took pity on him and patted him on the arm
“Don’t worry Mr. T. I’ll get you sorted out while you are gone.”
Old Man Tucker nodded his thanks and got the heck out of there, Mrs. Driscol right behind him. Elaine turned to Mom and said “What century is that old guy from anyway?” Mom smiled and said “I have no idea, but he isn’t at all like I thought he would be.”
Billy and I were in the den, going through all the boxes of ammunition; we were loading every round we could find that was on our new list; 22lr, 7.62x38R, 41lc, 7.62x54R, and 12 gauge shells. He also said he had one box of 12 gauge flechettes and that we should find it if we could. We were to get all the 8mm Lebel we could find but if we found any 8mm Mauser or 8mm Hungarian we should leave them behind. He said he didn’t have many but they were not the same as the Lebel and we shouldn’t mix them. To be honest it seemed like alphabet soup to me but Old Man Tucker said it was important, while a far cry from what the Franks had stolen but all of them would get the job done. We were packing them all into these old metal ammo cans. He had a bunch of them stored away under the work table. He also told us to pack up his cleaning kit in a fancy wooden box so all we had to do was add cleaning oil and little white cloth patches. We took the cans into the kitchen; I could see Mr. Caulfield out on the back porch, that big double barrel shotgun in his hands and the Nagant revolver on his belt in a fancy brown holster that was made for it. Mom was packing can goods into a couple of old copy paper boxes when I heard Elaine call her from Old Man Tucker’s room. Mom started off down the hall to see what she wanted and Billy and I followed having finished our assignment.
Elaine was in the room staring at a wall that was covered in photos, big, small and everything in between. There was a very beautiful woman in most of them and at least three kids too.
“I didn’t see these last night,” Elaine said, “do you think this is his family?”
Mom stepped forward and looked at the photos, her hands on her hips
“I suppose so” she said, “Mr. Franks said that one of his son’s owns this house so he must have a family.”
They looked at photos for a moment then Elaine said
“Mom, what happened to his wife?”
Mom thought about it for a minute and then said
“I really don’t know but Mrs. Caulfield said that she heard she had enough of Tucker, divorced him and married someone else and was living in Boston.”
Then Mom changed the subject “is this what you wanted to show me?”
Elaine turned and shook herself out of whatever thoughts she was having
“Ah, no, look at this Mom.”
Elaine opened the top drawer of a small chest; in it were neat rows of black underwear and rows of tightly rolled socks behind them.
“Okay, he likes black underwear so what?” Mom said.
Elaine rolled her eyes, “not that, this!” she said and pulled a large photo from under the clothing.
There was Old Man Tucker, wearing a blue uniform with a white hat and looking very young and very mean.
“Ah, I see.”
Mom said that Old Man Tucker had been in the Marine Corps and that was the dress uniform that they wore.
“Why would he put this one in the drawer and hang all the others?” Elaine asked.
“I don’t know honey” Mom said handing it back to Elaine, “but I am sure he has his reasons.”
“Should I pack any of the pictures Mom? I mean look he has a shrine to this lady” Elaine said as waved at all of the photos of the beautiful woman.
“No, I don’t think so, honey. If Mr. Tucker wants to bring any I am sure he will.”
Mom smiled softly and then turned towards me and Billy standing in the door.
“And you two, did you finish your job?”
We both nodded and said yes and she then put a hand on each of our shoulders and turned us towards the hallway.
“Good” she said, “I have a few other things I think you can help with, now where is your sister?”
As we walked my Mom began reeling off a long list of things she wanted done.
Old Man Tucker and Mrs. Driscol moved cautiously down the street, they were talking no chances, not wanting to run into another group of wandering crazies. There were signs of battle everywhere, burned out cars and homes. Bodies both alone and in small groups littered the way.
“I don’t hear any gunfire” Mrs. Driscol said.
“I don’t either and I don’t like it one bit” Old Man Tucker responded.
They passed a number of vehicles but none of them seemed usable having either been shot up or having crashed. Many of them had blood smeared on the windows and seats; some had mangled corpses in them as well. After about an hour and a half they got into the business part of town, they could see the golden arches had been knocked over by a cement truck and were in the street. There was a constant and growing sense of dread for them. The air was putrid with smoke and it was growing stronger. All sorts of things had been burnt, rubber, plastics, wood and people. Mrs. Driscol pulled a large hanky from her pocket and wrapped it around her face, tying it so to act as a filter. Eventually they could see the Toyota dealership, the multicolored flags moving gently in a corrupt breeze. They knelt next to each other and Old Man Tucker raised his rifle and looked through the scope. After a moment or two he said,
“I see a couple of crazies but that’s all, one is in the lot, the other in the showroom.”
“How do you know they are crazies?” Mrs. Driscol asked.
“They have been eating someone” was his reply.
“Well, what do you want to do?” she responded.
Old Man Tucker did not answer instead a terrifically loud bang echoed through the area and the crazy in the lot flew backwards, his head nearly coming off. He worked the bolt and drove a second round home. Mrs. Driscol could see the other crazy now; it was banging on the glass trying to get out seeing what was going on. Indeed it was covered in blood and had trails of it running down his chin. A second explosion and the glass shattered inwards as the crazy’s b
ody disappeared from sight, then he worked the bolt for a second time. Old Man Tucker watched for another minute or so but not seeing anything he slowly rose and put the rifle on his shoulder. He took out one of the colts and said
“Come on, let’s go car shopping.”
They circled around the lot, the cars were covered with soot from a large apartment complex that had burned down across the divided highway from the dealership. Still there was no one moving, not survivor, not crazy. Old Man Tucker looked over at his shoulder at Mrs. Driscol. For the first time he realized how attractive the slim young mother was. She was holding the Berthier carbine like a pro and her eyes scanned the horizon. ‘Good for her’ he thought to himself. He just prayed that if push comes to shove she wouldn’t hesitate. They circled all the way around to the far side of the building where the customer service center entrance was located. He slowly opened the door and a soft bell rang and they slowly entered. There was a counter on one side with a thick plexi-glass separating the parts center from the customers. Opposite that were a half dozen service bays and a couple of vehicles were still in there. Old Man Tucker whispered to Mrs. Driscol,
“Keep both eyes and both ears open” and she nodded agreement.
There was a small waiting room for customers and then the main hall with salesperson offices on either side. Mrs. Driscol tapped Old Man Tucker on the shoulder and pointed to a name plate that read
“G. Gardner, Sales Manager.”
He smiled and they let themselves in the office. It was a typical thing, desk, cheap faux leather chair, computer and a long rack of clip boards each pre-loaded with contracts. Behind the desk set in one wall was what they were looking for. A large steel locker labeled “Keys.”
Old Man Tucker pointed to the door and then to both eyes indicating that Mrs. Driscol should watch the door she nodded assent. The lock box was secure and a quick search of the desk yielded no results. Old Man Tucker reached into his back pocket and took out a long flat head screw driver and began to pry at the seam. He was having difficulty getting it started and eventually leaned his Moisan against the wall and using a small marble ‘world’s best boss’ award as a hammer, he finally got the blade of the screwdriver where he wanted it. He put the award down and with both hands put all his considerable weight on the screwdriver. There was a creaking sound and then a loud metallic pop as the latch was pried free of the frame. Dozens of sets of car keys were arranged on pegs inside. Luckily there was a lookup chart on a piece of printed card stock taped to the inside of the door. After a few minutes Old Man Tucker picked two sets of keys, he turned to Mrs. Driscol and said