She started to reply, but then clammed up. “We’ll discuss it later.”
Should he say something? Cole didn’t want to get into the middle of a couple’s argument, so he changed the subject. “Okay, so…the next thing on the agenda—how do you all feel about Mike and Steve accompanying us? Mike’s hand is almost healed, he has a bit of tape on it, but he should be good as new, right?” He raised an eyebrow at Jenna, who confirmed his statement with a nod—“and so they’ll either be on their way, or stay with us to head out as soon as the weather turns.”
Everyone turned to look at Sean, who spread his arms. “What?”
“I guess you’ve become the devil’s advocate in the group,” Elly answered Sean’s question. “And that’s not a bad thing at all, Sean. It’s important to look at all sides.”
“They seem okay to me. Mike’s a machinist. If he’d been here when I was getting the windmill together, I’m sure it would have gone a lot faster. Guys like that are good to have around.”
Cole reached beneath the table and found Elly’s knee, giving it a squeeze in thanks for her diplomatic response that elicited a well-reasoned reply from his brother. “Good point, Sean. Does anyone else have an opinion?”
Hunter said, “I like Mike. I trust him and I think he should go. I don’t know Steve very well.”
After draining the last bit of tea from his cup, Cole pushed it away. “Well, no pressure, but Steve told me yesterday that their group got tired of waiting and were leaving this morning. They told Steve that he and Mike could catch up when they were done here. Obviously, they aren’t thrilled about being left behind to make their way on their own. They worry about missing the group and never catching up.”
“I just want to say that I had nowhere to go until I met up with Elly and if it hadn’t been for all of you, I’d probably be dead right now.” Jake sent a glance around the room, but his gaze held on Cole’s. “I don’t really get a say in this I know, being a tag along, but I just wanted all of you to know that I’m so glad you let me stay.”
Before Cole could even reply, everyone started speaking at once, letting Jake know that he was very much part of the group and that he had a say in the decision. Cole raised his hand for quiet, holding it up until the comments dwindled. “Clearly, we have consensus here.” He grinned then leaned forward, his voice serious as he said, “Make no mistake about it, Jake, you are just as much a part of this group as I am, or Jenna, or Hunter, Piper—in short, all of us.” He turned to Sophie. “And you, too. And I’d say that even if you and Hunter weren’t about to have my grandchild.” His last comment lightened the mood and everyone chuckled.
Jake laughed. “She has an advantage over me.” He batted his eyelashes at Hunter in mock adoration.
Hunter shook his head, grinning as he tossed a dishtowel at Jake.
“Okay, so, back to the question. Steve and Mike have some skills we could use, not to mention they are fairly young and healthy. We need people like them to help rebuild. My vote is for them to come along. All in favor, raise your hands.” Everyone but Sean raised their hand.
Sean looked around, then slowly put his hand up as a smile spread across his face. “I just like making you all sweat.”
Everyone laughed, but then Sean added, “I’m still going to keep my eye on them.”
12
Cole looked over the supplies stacked beside the truck and jotted down the contents of the boxes, baskets, and bags on the clipboard. Every day, he wondered if this would be the day that Holland returned. It had been a week and every second they remained where they were, was another second Holland could be getting closer.
Each vehicle would have an inventory so they would know exactly where everything was. Items they would use while traveling needed to be packed last so they would be within easy reach. Everyone had their own pack—a go-pack— with survival gear in it. If they had to leave sight of the vehicles for any reason, they were to take their packs with them.
Each bag had a supply of food, matches, a lighter, a small fishing kit, a hatchet and a knife, as well as a small tarp and sleeping bag as well as a change of dry clothes, with extra socks. The tarp could be used to make a lean-to shelter. Each bag also had a handgun and ammunition. All of it was packed already, and he’d double checked to make sure each car had the right packs for who was assigned to that vehicle. It wouldn’t do Jake much good if he mixed his pack up with Sophie’s and had her size clothes in it. He chuckled at the image of the strapping young man trying to squeeze into a women’s small sweatshirt.
As he calculated the logistics of packing the growing stack, Hunter set yet another box on the ground, starting a new stack. Cole scratched his cheek. Damn. They had acquired a lot stuff over the last week in addition to what they’d already had. He hoped there was enough room for everything. In addition to making space for what they were taking, they had to leave space for items they might find on the journey. While vehicles were easy to find, many didn’t have keys in them or had decomposed bodies inside. They were lucky they had a good sized moving truck from when they first fled to the island. He still felt a nagging guilt that he had never returned it, but knew it was ridiculous to feel guilty. The feeling was a remnant from when they had the luxury of not having to make life and death decisions. Besides, even if he had tried to return the truck to the rental franchise the chance of anyone even being there to receive the truck was infinitesimally small.
It had been luck that the truck had been available, but also foresight to attempt to obtain a truck in the first place. It had enabled them to bring enough supplies, and later, gather enough to keep them alive for almost a year.
In the time since making the decision to head west—and in the days since the ice finally melted—they had ventured into almost every home and business within five miles of the shore. Instead of hauling recovered goods back to the island, they stored it in a few garages nearest the truck. Steve and Mike already on the mainland taking care of the horses, had ranged even farther away. They had stripped the library of books that had to do with science, medical, farming, survival skills, Nevada, maps, as well as a good selection of fiction for all ages. Sean and Steve hadn’t seen the point of bringing boxes of novels, but Cole and Elly had insisted. If he’d had more room, he’d have brought even more books. Jenna had a few of her own nursing books, and Cole had packed a couple of periodicals about epidemiology—mostly in hopes of coming across something about Sympatico Syndrome—but there had been no information on it. It wasn’t a total waste though as there had been several other good articles.
Steve and Mike had collected tools of every kind, spare tires and parts for the truck, along with boxes of nails, screws, washers, bolts and assorted fasteners. Who knew people had kept so much crap in their garages, basements, and closets? An apparent prepper had left a basement stuffed to the gills with canned goods, powdered milk, and several cases of MREs. Best of all, were buckets of wheat, rice, and rolled oats. There was enough to get them through the summer and, hopefully, to a successful harvest.
They had spread the food out over three vehicles and packed it in first. Cole didn’t want to have to use any of it on the trip. It was their food supply when they got to their destination.
Sean had grudgingly conceded that maybe Mike and Steve weren’t so bad—after all, the men could have taken their find and been long gone before the ice melted. Instead, they were sharing with Cole’s group—now their group, too.
Standing flat against the side of the truck were sheets of plywood. Cole didn’t know what they’d use it for and had almost left it, thinking if they needed wood, they could always get some from buildings along the way, but Joe had convinced him having a few sheets on hand might be a good idea. These sheets had been stored indoors and weren’t warped or damaged.
A second moving truck was on the agenda and they were on the lookout for a rental like the one they already had. Not to rent, of course, but for simplicity. They were big trucks but didn’t require knowledge
of how to drive a big semi-truck.
Cole had raided a car dealership and taken a couple of high-end SUVs from the showrooms. If he put out of his mind the circumstances, he could admit that it had been kind of fun having his pick of vehicles. Was this how he was going to be from now on? Gleefully taking whatever he could find? He knew it wasn’t stealing exactly but it helped tamp down any traces of guilt when he focused on improving the survival odds of his family.
The practicality of choosing the SUVs also played a factor in taking them. Despite their size, they got relatively good gas mileage, according to the stickers in the window. Cole hoped it hadn’t been false advertising. They’d had to jumpstart both vehicles since they had been sitting for so long, but once running for a while, the batteries charged right up.
The car lot had been a great place to find gasoline as well. And, as a bonus, it had been cleaner than most that they’d found in the wild, so to speak, since the vehicles had been brand new and barely driven.
“Cole, what about these?” Jake pulled a child’s wagon laden with three car batteries.
“Ah, great idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.” He added the batteries on his clipboard. “Just leave them in the wagon. We’ll load it up just like it is.”
Jake dropped the handle and stretched. “I topped up all of the gas cans earlier. In all, we have about 40 gallons in addition to what we have in the tanks.”
Cole’s jaw tensed. That wasn’t going to come close to getting them to Nevada. “Thanks, Jake.” His main worry was fuel, but Steve thought that further out, they might come across a gas station that still had gasoline that they could pump using a generator. He said plenty of stations had generators as back–up when power went out—you just had to know about them. But, for now, they had to make do with what they found and extra they could carry with them.
“Where are we going to store them?”
“Good question.” The idea of transporting flammable liquid in the vehicles made him nervous. “Hey, have you seen any of those carts landscapers tow behind their trucks?” If they could find one, it would be perfect. Light enough not to cause much of a change in their gas mileage, but large enough for extra gas and other items like rakes, shovels and other implements that didn’t need protection from the elements.
Jake bit his lip as he gazed down the street. “You know, I think there might be one a few blocks over.”
“If you need help getting it, let Hunter know. He should be back soon with another load from the island.”
“Will do. I’ll go see if I can find the house where I saw it.” He trotted down the street, his gait easy and relaxed even though he’d been working all morning.
Jake had grown probably another two inches since he’d arrived at the island with Elly, but it was more than his physical appearance that had changed—he still had a fun-loving streak—but now it was tempered by a serious side. In short, Jake had grown up. Cole wondered how well they would have fared without the young man.
Hunter, Piper, and Sophie had all grown up more quickly than they would have in the absence of the global catastrophe. They’d had to. Cole knew he had also grown, in a way. While no stranger to taking command of a situation—his career had trained him in that regard—there had always been a chain of command. There was always someone higher up the chain than he’d been. Now, he had somehow become the de facto leader. He hadn’t asked for the position or even wanted it, but he felt everyone’s eyes on him when decisions had to be made. Like this one about leaving the island. He drew a deep breath. He hoped like hell he wasn’t leading them from the frying pan into the fire.
What if things weren’t as bad as they anticipated? What if there were more survivors than he and Elly had predicted? He’d never be more thrilled to be wrong. What if the virus had been stopped, somehow? Holland could have been lying, or he might have just flat out been wrong. After all, he couldn’t cover the whole country—not even with aircraft at his disposal.
As he stashed boxes and rearranged gear, his mind wandered. Maybe help just hadn’t reached them yet. If there was even a semblance of government in D.C. it was possible they would eventually reach Wisconsin with help.
Cole thought back to the last ten months. Natural disasters often took weeks or even months for everyone to get help and those were in localized areas to some extent. Even hurricanes only affected relatively small portions of the globe at a time. With everyone getting hit by the virus, it would naturally take much longer for the government to respond.
With spring’s arrival, he expected whatever help was available to start making its way to cities. That was why they had to leave. He had to know what it was like out there. If they hadn’t left as a group, he was certain he would have made his own excursion eventually when he felt his absence wouldn’t be missed.
After all, they hadn’t had any news outside of their small area since a week or so after the virus hit. News reports back then had shown the disease tearing through cities. He had no doubt that death rates were the same all over. Isolated villages deep in the Amazon, or in Africa or Asia might have been spared, but even they had contact with outsiders fairly often. That was how Ebola had been transmitted, only it went from deep in the jungle to the outside world. This would be the reverse, from outside, in.
Cole expected there were many small bands like theirs, and possibly some lone survivors hiding out in the woods and mountains, but with all communication cut off, there was no way to know how many people there might be.
While Hunter had been in college prior to the pandemic, Cole hadn’t thought of him as an adult yet. Technically, he was, but their relationship had been very much one of parent and child, not one of two adults. Now, it was. Only the little kids, Lucas and Zoë, were treated as children, and they too, had chores every day. Nothing difficult, but Cole had been impressed with how helpful two little kids could be.
Elly had been concerned with their education, and so every day, the kids spent time learning math, reading, writing, science and history.
She had even broken into a school and taken books, workbooks, paper, library books and more. Those items were on the priority list of supplies that couldn’t be left behind.
He turned at the sound of a boat approaching.
“Dad! Tie me off.” Hunter eased the boat along the dock and Cole jogged over to the pier, taking the rope from his son and looping it over a cleat.
The boat rode low in the water and he saw why. Sean had cleaned out all of the tools he had and packed them up, along with parts from the windmill. Jammed in at the front of the boat were the extra stoves, now dismantled to make them fit in the boat. This was the last major load and it meant that they were leaving for good.
“Sean and Elly are coming over in the little boat to help us unload, while Jenna, Piper, and the kids go through the cabins to make sure we didn’t miss anything. I’ll go back and get them when we’re done unloading this.”
Sophie emerged from the cabin of the boat, a basket in her hands. “I have lunch for everyone.” She moved to step out of the boat, and Hunter put his hands at her waist to help her, while Cole extended a hand.
“Hey, I can do it.” She shook her head, grinning over her shoulder at Hunter. “I’m not that clumsy.”
“Hey, I read all about how pregnant women’s balance changes.”
Cole smiled as even amidst her protests, Sophie put her hand in his and allowed him to steady her as she stepped onto the dock. Her eyes twinkled as she scowled in mock anger at Cole. “Why did you have to give him that What to Expect book? He thinks he’s my doctor now.”
Shrugging, he decided his safest response was to pretend ignorance and change the subject. He took the basket from her. “What do we have in here?” It smelled delicious and he tried to think what it could possibly be.
Their scavenging had turned up more canned food and meals were often eclectic mixes. Yesterday they’d had refried beans, pineapple chunks, and peanut butter and jelly for dinner.
“Kool-Aid?” He wondered how that had fit in the basket without spilling.
“Well, there will be once it’s mixed. Jake found a canister in a pantry at a daycare. We just need to add water.”
When was the last time he’s had the sweet drink? Probably not since Hunter had been a little kid.
After lunch and a brief rest, everything was loaded, vehicles were filled with gasoline, and Joe opened his house to the group to spend the night before an early departure the next morning. The only thing left to pack were the animals.
Exhausted, Cole sank onto the pile of blankets Elly had made into a bed on the floor for them. Every room was staked out, with Joe taking one last night in his own room. Elly had claimed a small bedroom upstairs. Sean and Jenna had the third bedroom. Hunter and Sophie had the den because it had a sofa bed that had been too heavy to move, but was still in good shape. In deference to Sophie’s more advanced pregnancy, she got the bed. Although dusty, the whole house was surprisingly clean, but that was probably because all the food had long ago been transferred over to the island so rodents had left the home alone. The occasional visits had also been enough to keep it from being too overrun with spiders and the like as well. Furniture had been moved to the island over the course of last summer, so all that was left in Joe’s house were a few large dressers, a couple of chairs, and the sofa bed.
Elly snuggled next to him, her head nestled in the hollow of his neck, his arm beneath hers. “How’s the mother hen doing?”
“Okay, I guess.” He draped his other arm over his eyes and yawned.
“Think any of the eggs will hatch?”
“Probably a long shot, but who knows? We have nothing to lose by trying.”
After hearing a rooster crow early one morning while scavenging, Jake and Hunter had headed in the direction of the sound. They hadn’t found the rooster, but had caught a couple of feral chickens. It had been a few weeks now and one of the hens had been hiding eggs since caught and Joe said that was a sign she was brooding.
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