“I’ve been thinking about that, I don’t understand why anyone would have shot them, they were shot right?” asked Lexi.
“Lexi, don’t.”
“Rachael…”
“No, is it so wrong to want my daughter to not see that stuff?”
Jack sighed, “No. No, it’s not.”
Lexi wrapped her mom in a hug and whispered, “I’m sorry mom.” She could probably get Jack to tell her later, there was no point in upsetting her mom with it.
They reached the summit at 5,033 feet. Jack knew Adin was at 4,200 feet, so all things considered the route had been pretty flat so far, it just didn’t feel like it. The next long hard climb would probably be north of Burns. After that, they could look forward to the long downhill into John Day. He tried to recall the terrain, but hills don’t stick in the memory when you’re on a motorcycle or in a truck, not like they do on foot or bicycle.
The high desert was a lonely, barren country. Life here was little more than dry grass, sagebrush, and the occasional juniper or pine tree. Tumbleweed piled against the barbed wire fences in places. The recent rains had filtered the dust from the air and brought the clean damp smell of juniper and sage.
They passed a few houses, none with signs of life. Jack wasn’t sure if the houses were abandoned or the people were in hiding. Individuals who’d had little food stored would be weak with hunger by this point. If they were on short rations, it would compromise immune systems, so disease was more likely.
As they approached the intersection of US-395 and US-20 they spotted two buildings. They looked commercial, but from the direction they were approaching it was hard to be sure. They stopped to discuss their approach.
“Rachael, keep a sharp lookout through the scope, Lexi on the radio, I’ll take Dusty and go check it out.”
Jack completed his circuit and returned to the bikes.
“It’s a gas station and of all things, an archery store. The door was open, but someone broke the windows anyway. It’s been looted. We might find something, but I’m not sure there’s anything in there that I want. It’s been years since I used a bow, although I suppose if we find one and some arrows…”
“It wouldn’t add much weight, but what would we use if for?”
“Barter I guess… Or we learn how to use it later. It feels… wrong, that stuff belongs to someone.”
“Yeah, but think about the stuff we left behind, would you begrudge someone taking what they needed?”
“No, that’s true, and it’s been three weeks… I guess we can take a look. Anyway, that small building looks to be storage.”
“Agreed,” said Rachael.
“Right, we’ll check the shop out, maybe I’ll get lucky and find a good map. We’re going to hit Burns soon, and I’d like to go around if we can. I wish I had one of those detailed county map books. With all the Forest Service roads around here, I’m sure some of them would take us around the town.”
The archery shop was cleaned out. There were strings, targets, and arrow parts, but no bows and no finished arrows. The floor was littered with empty snack food boxes and soda cans. The cash register was broken open and empty, and there was glass from the broken display case everywhere.
21
HIGH DESERT
They continued east on US-20 toward Burns. Jack wracked his brain, trying to remember some side road they could use to avoid the town. They’d been riding steadily for almost an hour when Jack saw someone on the road up ahead. He slowed to a stop.
“Jack?”
“Don’t know…” Jack got off the bike and pulled out his binoculars. “Young guy, late teens maybe? He’s waving.”
Jack lowered the binoculars and turned, blocking Rachael’s view.
“Rachael, hand me the .308. Lexi, pop the pin on your mom’s trailer and let the dogs out. I suspect he’s friendly, but I don’t know. I figure you ride up, less likely to shoot at a woman. I’ll cover with the .308 from here. Stay on the left side of the road and let him walk across if he wants to get closer. If trouble starts, go for the ditch.”
“You can hit him from here?” She sounded surprised.
“Sure two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty yards? Easy.”
Rachael nodded, surprised at her confidence in Jack’s ability to do whatever he said he could. Jack stepped aside and walked back behind his trailer. He didn’t want to start pointing a rifle at the guy, but he wanted to be ready.
Rachael pulled up on the side of the road. “Hi.”
“Ma’am” he removed his hat. “I’m David. I live here with my grandpa. He saw you folks coming down the road, thought you might want to stop for a bit, swap some news?”
“I’m Rachael. Where’s your Grandfather now?”
“Making coffee. We don’t get many visitors anymore. And we don’t go into Burns much, so it’s nice to have someone new to talk with.”
He was young, about Lexi’s age, she guessed. And polite, which was in her experience, unusual. She was about to ask him about Burns when an old man came out of the house and headed their way. The boy turned.
“Hey Grandpa, you were right, they’re careful.”
He looked to be in his eighties, but he moved with a purpose. He had an over and under shotgun under one arm, broken open.
“Ma’am, I’m Ben Chesney, this young rascal is my granddaughter’s boy. You introduce yourself boy?”
“Yes sir, this is Rachael.”
Rachael smiled, “Rachael Madison.”
He nodded, “Good, you being cautious and all. Had some trouble here a just a week back. David? Where the hell is your gun?”
“Left it in the truck, didn’t want to seem too uninviting.”
“Go get it. Told you already, you move, it moves with you.”
“Yes, sir.” David left to retrieve his gun.
The old man shook his head. “Hard getting used to not trusting folks. The young man down there with the rifle, he your husband?”
“Ah, no. That’s Jack and my daughter Lexi. Jack saved our lives shortly after…”
“Ain’t been bother’n you none?”
“What… Oh! No, no Jack has been… well, he’s been wonderful. Jack’s kept us fed, taught us how to shoot and gave us guns so we could protect ourselves. He helped organize the folks in Adin, and—“
Ben nodded. “So, a good one then, not a lot of those.”
“Sorry?”
“Folks been getting hungry for a while now. They don’t ask they just try to take. Bad business, that. Them that’s got barely enough ain’t inclined to be robbed. Seems like there’s a better way to get things done than to shove a gun into a man’s ribs and tell him to give over what he worked for.” He paused and looked around.
“Rachael, it’s cold out here. You and yours are welcome to come in, have some coffee, and we’ll talk some. Or, we’ll get out of your way, and you can ride through. Don’t recommend going into town. They’re friendly enough with folks they know but they’ve taken an unkind bent toward strangers.”
Rachael nodded, a concerned frown creasing her brow. “I’ll go get them.”
THEY PULLED the bikes into the driveway between the house and the big garage. Jack noticed a couple of large farm tractors, engines taken apart. A disassembled plow occupied another bay of the garage. It was the kind you might drag behind a tractor. Behind that was a newish looking frame and two of the blades from the plow. They had a few horses in a corral next to a barn which Jack guessed were destined to be plow horses.
Jack was still cautious. He told the girls to fuss with the trailers for a minute while he made sure no surprises were waiting. Jack noticed a fair amount of damage around the door and window. Someone had nailed a three-quarter inch plywood panel over the window and painted it to match the house. Jack walked through the kitchen door. The old man’s shotgun was on a rack near the door just above a new bolt-action rifle. The smell of coffee, fragrant, rich, and dark pulled at him.
“Cups on the board. Fresh
cream on the counter. Got sugar but none of that other stuff.”
“Thanks.” Jack put his lever-action on the rack just above the old man’s twelve gauge over and under Perazzi. Jack stopped and took a second look at the shotgun.
“Wow, that’s beautiful.” He turned to look at the man. “May I?”
“Sure.”
Jack took the gun down and broke it open to be sure it was clear. The engraving was outstanding. Between the delicate gold accent of the ducks and the detailed scrollwork, it was a true work of art. The clean and precise checkering of the wood stock and foregrip was also stunning.
“French Walnut?”
“Yep.”
“That’s the most beautiful MX-8 I’ve ever seen. Do you have the full tube set for it?”
He nodded. “Take it you know something about guns.”
“A little. I’m a gunsmith.”
“Well, ain’t that fortuitous.”
“Fortuitous?”
“My 30-06 there on the rack, it’s got a stuck case, any chance you’d take a look at it?”
“Sure.” Jack carefully replaced the shotgun. “Looks like you’re running an open choke, skeet shooter?”
“I am, or was. Traveled around to matches for a lot of years.”
Jack nodded and pulled three mugs from the pegboard. He filled each just past half. He’d just finished the third and returned the pot when the girls came in.
“I put water out for the dogs, they seemed more interested in the horses,” said Lexi.
The man bolted out of his chair, looking concerned.
Jack nodded. “Yeah, they probably miss the horses.” He turned to face the old man. “They grew up around people, horses, goats, and sheep. Nothing to worry about, they’re well behaved.”
“Just the same.” He went to where he could look out the window and see the corral.
Dusty was drinking from the trough set up for the horses. Hoover was lying in the dirt. One horse was just standing there ignoring them. The other was wandering over to the trough, curious about the company.
“Those are some big dogs.”
Jack laughed. “They are that. For people who are friendly, the biggest threat is having your arm fall off from petting them.”
Ben shook his head and returned to the table.
“Well, I expect they can take care of themselves, but keep an eye out. There are folks around here that would shoot ‘em for dinner.”
“Yeah, I wondered if that might be a problem about now.”
“Come have a sit. David will be in with wood for the stove, about time to warm the place up some. I’d offer you folks some food, but… Well, we’re gonna be mighty tight until late spring. Unless…”
“Unless?”
“Was sighting in the rifle when I got that case stuck. Must’a been a case out of the old Savage. Thought I’d done a full length resize on all that brass… But, I guess not.”
“I take it the old Savage was loose in the chamber?”
“Seems so. I swapped it and a stack of bills for that Ruger American 30-06 a year back.”
David came in with an armload of firewood and stoked up the wood stove. He took a big cast iron Dutch oven and set it on the stove then put the coffee pot, a big old blue enameled percolator, next to it.
“Where are my manners?” He held out his hand. “Ben Chesney.”
They made introductions all around. Jack sent Lexi out to the trailer to retrieve a couple boxes of donuts.
“Not homemade, but still, tasty enough,” said Jack.
“Oh my,” said Ben, “It sure has been a while.” He picked up a white powdered sugar one. David took one of the apple cinnamon and got a cup from the rack. The girls chose chocolate, and Jack took the last apple cinnamon.
David pulled out a stack of saucers for the donuts and pulled up a chair next to his grandfather.
“Guess, I should fill you in about the goings on here,” said Ben. “Been a rough month… A group of folk in town figured we all needed to share, course they didn’t have nothing to share, just wanted ours. Seems everyone else told ‘em no. Apparently they weren’t hungry enough to work for it, and most of them left.” He stopped and looked at the ground.
“One fella came out this way, asked for a job. Figured we could use the help, so I let him stay. Nice fella, good worker. That lot came back again the next night, and they weren’t asking. Hank, that new fella, tried to talk them out of it and got killed for his efforts.
“Idiots busted two of my windows and wasted a fair bit of ammunition. Then one of ‘em threatened to burn us out. That’s when I started shooting, careful like. I dropped three of them before they retreated to the barn. They kept shooting up my windows and wasting ammo until the Chief showed up with a dozen armed men. It was a fight to be sure. Reminded me a bit of Korea. Suspect we killed eight or nine right there in the yard. The Chief of Police and his boys got a few more before the mob gave up. We chased ‘em out toward the west.
“I wondered if any of them had tried asking for work in exchange for food. Chief said no. They just demanded that everyone share whatever they had. Chief said no to that too. I reckon when they left town he figured there’d be trouble. He wasn’t more than about five minutes behind ‘em when the shooting started. Might’a saved me some work if they’d started their shooting in town with the Chief, instead of out here.”
“I wish I could say I’m surprised,” said Jack. “I noticed the damage around the door and windows looks like shotgun and .22 mostly.”
“Good thing too.” Ben pointed to a spot on the wall that had a nice neat hole in it. “That’s from one of their hunting rifles, come through the wall just right of that window. He was the first one I put down.”
Jack sighed, “I knew we’d run into it sooner or later, there was no other possible outcome. Come together or fracture, not a lot of middle ground. It’s much easier to get together when everyone has something to contribute.”
“They could have contributed labor, but they figured they were entitled to handouts. Didn’t offer nothing, just demanded.”
“Adin pooled resources, but then they had quite a bit to pool. Down in Lakeview, someone took over and started confiscating guns, food, booze. They tried to burn out my friends… I guess they succeeded after a fashion, but only after they’d already headed north. We’ve been fortunate so far, only had one run-in with people that came to shooting.
“We’ve passed a lot of abandoned cars, a few tractor-trailer rigs. I thought about popping the locks on the trailers to see if there was anything worth scavenging but… Honestly, if we keep moving at our current rate, we’ll be home before we run out of supplies. I figured the folk who lived nearby would think of it sooner or later.”
Ben nodded. “Yep, the Chief already sent salvage crews out to pick over anything within a day’s travel.”
“You know that gas station and store down where 395 hits your road? That got looted. All the windows were broken, and the store was a mess. Someone took everything worth taking.”
“Could have been that group we chased off.”
Jack nodded. “Possibly. So how are things in Burns?”
“Looks like you folks are heading that way. I’d maybe plan to go around. Things have calmed down, but strangers showing up is likely to put them on edge. Some folk will only be pushed so far before they fight back.”
Jack nodded. He wasn’t surprised.
“Town had a meeting a few days back, we’re fixing to share what we can. Mostly it’ll be sharing work getting things planted in the greenhouses. They’ve frequently doubled up in town to save wood. It’s causing some friction. Folks are used to having more space. Keeps ‘em on edge, but the labor needed to heat one of those old houses is just too much for one family.
“I got four big greenhouses that ain’t been put up yet, and there’s some folk that’ll come down and help to get those put up. Job is too big for the boy and me. Supposed to have another family move out here with us. Lord k
nows we could use the help. I’m getting too old for this.”
“You might want to expedite that,” said Jack. He explained about the radio contacts and the rumors of nuclear attacks.
“I think maybe we should get Emmett down here, he’s the Chief of Police, he’s going to want to hear about this. David, take your bike and ride into town and get the chief, please. Tell him we got some news from down south and some from around the country. He’ll want to hear firsthand.”
“Okay Gran,” David grabbed his coat, hat, and gun and closed the door behind him.
“Ben, do you have a ladder we could borrow? I’d like to set up an antenna. I think we can hang the twenty-meter antenna from your barn, but we need a spot to set up the other one.”
“Antenna? What kind of antenna?”
“Ham radio. I thought if the Chief were here, he’d like to talk directly with some folks down in Adin and up in Northeast Washington. If we can get enough signal, Lexi has an extensive list of contacts we can try for. We need to check in with home about now anyway.”
“You got a working radio? Thought all that stuff died.”
“A bit of luck and some planning.”
“Planning? How do you plan for what happened to us?”
Jack spent the remaining time until Emmett arrived explaining what he knew and what he suspected. Rachael and Lexi took the opportunity to go outside to set up the antennas.
“Grandad, the Chief is here, he’s just tying up his horse,” said David, hanging up his coat and hat. He put his shotgun on the rack below the rifle.
“While you’re up, pour him a cup of coffee.”
David nodded, “Yes sir, is there enough for me to have another? It was pretty cold out there.”
“Sure, make another pot. It’s gonna be a long night I think.”
LEXI WORKED the radio while Jack, Ben, Emmett, and Rachael discussed the situation. The biggest surprise for Emmett was the news of a possible nuclear attack.
“Still, I’ve seen no changes in readings since we left Adin. Until I do, I’m still considering it a rumor. By the time we know for sure, it’s going to be too late to do much about it.”
Solar Storm: Homeward Bound Page 24