No Normal Day III (West)

by Richardson, J.

  No Normal Day III

  Fifteen Years After

  By J. Richardson

  COPYWRIGHT

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2013 by J. Richardson

  The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  No Normal Day III

  Fifteen Years After

  By J. Richardson

  COPYWRIGHT

  Chapter One

  GOODBYE

  Chapter Two

  THE BUG OUT

  Chapter Three

  THE RANCH

  Chapter Four

  ROAD RAGE

  Chapter Five

  SOLDIERING ON

  Chapter Six

  FAR OUT, MAN

  Chapter Seven

  DUE WEST

  Chapter Eight

  LIKE UNITY

  Chapter Nine

  AMARILLO BY MORNING

  Chapter Ten

  NORTH

  Chapter Eleven

  THE CABIN

  Chapter Twelve

  SPRING

  ENDNOTE

  Chapter One

  GOODBYE

  Cody opened the gate in the white picket fence. The cold wind blew his hair across his face, taking his hand out of his jean's pocket, he pushed it behind his ear. He walked slowly past the twenty or so grave sites in the Unity Cemetery, there were no rules in the less than an acre grave yard. The markers ranged from the rifle with the barrel buried in the ground, the name Smitty carved on the wooden stock, to the small concrete teddy bear that marked the grave of a lost child. In the corner was the grave of the old hermit who was legend in Unity. The marker at this site read, Herm, the beloved first hero of Unity, TX. October 2015. He knew that the hermit was the only casualty from the small town, in the War on the Border fifteen years ago.

  He thought of the scar on his arm, above the elbow. He was only twenty-two when the battle was fought on the Unity border and the fighting had just begun when he was shot in the arm. Unity had won that battle to protect it's borders from the bad guys. It happened about two years after the catastrophic event that changed America and most of the world. The new born town's population was 85 and they had a fighting force of less than fifty, their unity and their preparedness had been responsible for their victory. Those same factors had kept the small township intact for the next fifteen years. There had been small skirmishes and attacks, there had been attempts to take the security and stores that the citizens of Unity had worked hard to preserve. Nothing as big, as the War on the Border.

  Out in the wide world and the United States, the restoring of society had been excruciatingly slow. The large majority of citizens had not recognized that the government was on the edge of collapse long before the disastrous event. The resources and preparedness that were available had helped relatively small numbers of the populace. There were pockets of re-building, some rare areas where even basic utilities and services were functioning, these were sparse. Vast areas of America had become wastelands of deserted and decaying cities, huge power plants and factories stood vacant and rotting away. The scattered camps that had been set-up for the survivors had grown into small cities. Most were slums, far from becoming any kind of developing or recovering town. If the surviving governing entities had funding...which they didn't...what would it get them. The rest of the world was in the same circumstances as the U.S. What would they buy and with what? There only existed an environment for trade, true bartering style trade, in this After world.

  Even with losses from the usual causes over the years, Unity now had a population of about one hundred and twenty. If you were not a working, contributing and law abiding citizen, you were not part of the town for long. Communities and small towns such as this were the best hope for restoration. Over the last fifteen years they had grown all across the country, they were isolated and very particular about their interaction. There was good reason for the protectiveness. In those wastelands that existed in between the self sufficient new Americans, the predators and evil doers survived like maggots on rot. The small self sustaining enclaves defended their boundaries with ferociousness. Cody knew all of these things, he knew because the people that had become his family and the people of Unity had taught him. They taught him vigilance, loyalty and strength.

  He reached the site that he had come to visit. Even the heavy jacket did not keep him from shivering as he squatted down. The tears that were trying to spill from the corner of his eyes, felt frozen. A wide granite stone spanned two grave sites. It had taken all the strength that he and his family had, to find this stone in the abandoned monument business and move it to the site. It was, of course, not engraved. At the base on one side a wooden plaque read BETH 1947-2028 and on the other side a matching plaque read JACK 1947-2029. He was not surprised that Jack had died so soon after his beloved Beth. Although they were two very strong personalities and often clashed, they seemed to somehow draw their strength from each other. He never doubted their deep love for each other and for the family. As he had matured, he knew that Jack might have saved his life the day of the event, he knew for certain that he saved him many times after that.

  Many of the residents of Unity believed that Jack and Beth were the founders. Jack had often told Cody that all of them created the town. He had taken Cody and his uncle Lee into his own family. His uncle had became the husband of one of Jack's daughters, Lynn. Jack treated the two just as equally as his sons and grand-sons. To Cody, Jack was the closest thing to a father he had ever had. As he stood by the graves, the pain was a physical stab in his heart, all of the memories of these past youthful years flashed through his mind.

  He remembered how he and Jack had met and walked the long way home on the day the S—t-hit-the-fan, how Jack liked “two fingers” of whiskey. He remembered all the times that the gruff old man taught him and protected him and loved him. Laughing to himself, he thought of Beth, already a grandmother, laying on her stomach and shooting underneath the barricade of dead cars. She was shooting repeatedly at the legs and feet of approaching attackers. Beth, who would defend her family with her life and made him feel like one of her treasured grand children.

  Now, Jack and Beth and nearly all of the original friends of theirs, lay in this cemetery. The friends who came from another time and believed in the America of their youth. The friends who made a stand with Jack and Beth and created a safe haven for their families. He needed this private time without any of the family or citizens of the town around. This place was his home but something was calling to him and drawing him away. He came to say Goodbye.

  Chapter Two

  THE BUG OUT

  The daughters were glad that their parents had not just withered away. Beth had been vibrant until she became ill, it was probably pneumonia. She was eighty and the years since the event had been hard ones, she did not last long after the onset of her respiratory trouble. Jack, who had heart problems very young in his life, just did not wake one morning. They were together now and that seemed right to the girls, though it was difficult to adjust to them not being there in the compound. But Lynn, Dianne, Trish and their spouses had made their home in the family enclosure for all these years, they talked and agreed that they wanted to continue to live at the original home of their parents.

  Actually, all of the grand children had spread out into the small town, they were grown and making their own lives. Matt had married one of the girls from Gilley's group. Nicky had also married and Brook was engaged to a young man from the church grou
p. Mindy and Michelle, the twins, lived in one side of a duplex apartment and BJ, the great grandson now 17, lived with friends close to his age in the other duplex. Dane and a partner, along with some friends lived in a nice home in the original neighborhood of his grandparents. The three sisters, the daughters of Jack and Beth and their spouses Lee, Jason and Eric were the only ones who still lived at the compound. Cody, like all them, had moved out. The family remained close and were often at the compound, they still gathered, shared meals and told the stories. It would be very hard to distance himself from these ties, the bonds had been made strong through shared struggle. His plans were forming though and his desire to leave Unity was growing.

  David, the youngest son of Dianne and Jason, had fell for the young girl Shawna all those years before. They had been together from that day until now. They were in their early thirties. Cody was just a few years older, in his late thirties. He had never met anyone that he really committed to, though there was a woman in what was called the church group that he had been friends with for many years now. The woman, Ashley, was rescued by some of the Unity militia. She had been the captive of a ruthless group of kidnappers. The church group had taken her and two other rescued girls into their compound. Ashley had only been in her teens at the time. The four of them had grown to be good friends and they had been discussing plans for “bugging out”. In the early days after the event, the term bugging out was the description of when it was necessary to leave where you were for a safer haven. Even though Unity was now a reasonably safe haven, the four used the term when talking of their plans.

  Cody had first confided his idea to Ashley, “I have been thinking a lot about leaving Unity. There's a place that Jack always talked about, it belonged to he and Beth. I would like to try and find it.”

  Ashley looked at him with wide eyes, “Where is this place? Do you really think that it would still exist?” Since she had no real family in Unity, she was very interested. She also, secretly cared a little deeper for Cody than he seemed to for her. All these past years, Jack had told stories of the cabin near the mountains that he and Beth had built. How it was cool in the summer and the views were beautiful. He told about the antelope and deer that roamed the meadows at the base of the mountains, tales of the coyotes and the occasional bear. He often talked of how much the two of them loved the small house. Cody, the adopted grandson had listened with fascination to Jack's stories.

  He said, “Jack was so happy to hear that some old friends in the high country were still surviving. The contact was sporadic but as of a few months ago, the friend was still surviving. There has never been mention by that friend of someone taking over the cabin. Jack said the area was always pretty isolated and sparsely inhabited, I think there's a chance that the place is there.” He had become obsessed with finding it. He and Ashley told Shawna and David about the possibility. They were in. The four of them had not told anyone else about their plan to bug out.

  ***

  There were still a few vehicles in Unity that ran. Some of them had been modified by the Unity Motor Company mechanics to run on alternative fuels, fuels that they could produce themselves. The water tanker truck was particularly important to their survival and it had been modified along with a couple of more vehicles. The vehicles were used only for necessary travels and that was infrequently. There just was not gasoline available in the outside world, what was out there had not been usable for many years. They had to depend on the fuel they could produce. So functioning automobiles had not increased but instead became part of the rusting decay of the landscape. Especially among the younger citizens of the town, horses had become the popular mode of transportation. The four friends were all very good riders and had learned to handle and care for the horses. Horses, like so many of the domesticated livestock had become free ranging, dozens had been adopted by the survivors and they were common on the streets. It gave the small town an atmosphere of the Old West.

  Horses and some type of a wagon or trailer became the heart of the four friend's bug out plan. They had seen the horses of the community pull some heavy loads. They would need to talk to some of the older residents who had been around horses for all their lives. They were not sure how day after day of pulling a wagon loaded with supplies would affect the horses. Of course, a sturdier horse would be preferred for pulling, there were a few around Unity, even a couple of mules. It was an old mule that had panicked and accidentally crushed the chest of it's owner, Herm, the hermit. It takes a donkey and a horse to produce a mule, those were both still surviving in the After world.

  Not long after Cody's goodbye visit to the cemetery, the four friends sat down with the family and told them of their plans to try to reach the cabin of Jack and Beth, on the Colorado Rockies front range. It was not just that David was the youngest son of Jason, it was the fact that Jason and Dianne and all of the family really felt that Shawna and Cody were family. Ashley was certainly a part of the church group family. So, the announcement was not cheerfully accepted at first. It was acknowledged, however, that the four had every right to venture out and follow their dreams. The daughters of Jack and Beth and their spouses were now in their fifties. They had settled in, made a life here in Unity, had assumed jobs and responsibilities and made tight bonds with the other residents of the town. Just like Jack and Beth, their occupation in life became the protection and survival of the people they loved. Most of the grand children had found mates and were content in the community. Though they might feel a slight touch of envy, no one else in the family or in the town wished to join the four in the adventure. In these times the separation could be permanent. It was with sad hearts that the family promised to give them all of the help that they could, to prepare for the journey.

  Cody thought that they should begin their travels by no later than the middle of April. Jack had been a huge fan of maps and geography. He had often drug out his maps of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado and shown Cody the route that he and Beth always liked to take to the cabin. Sometimes, they would experiment with other ways. He told the interested listener that they invariably went back to their favorite and most traveled roads. That route very carefully let them avoid the big metroplex of Dallas and Fort Worth as they hated driving in that kind of traffic. This still made lots of sense to Cody. The large cities, even the ones that had seen some type of recovery were full of trouble. The distance between what was now Unity and the Colorado cabin was approximately 800 miles.

  The old seasoned advisers from the town had said that you could count on averaging about 20 miles a day on horseback. This was accounting for staying with the pace of the horses pulling a supply wagon. This was also, considering resting and feeding. Some days you might do better and some you would do worse. This would mean that they could reach the high country in about one month to six weeks. However, Jack had taught Cody to be prepared for the worse. He and his friends were truly moving into unknown territory. Beyond fifty miles surrounding Unity, they had no idea what they would encounter. Weather would be a big factor. The Springs often brought storms and heavy rains, then scorching heat would cover Texas by no later than June. Yet, snows and cold would move into the Rockies as early as October. This was why he thought that they should be on the road by April.

  The other bit of valuable advice was that the wagon or cart should be a four wheel type. Not necessarily an old fashioned Conestoga wagon but a farm type cart that the front wheels would turn. A four wheel wagon distributes the weight and does not leave all the load on the tongue. Cody and David, along with Tate and Matt looked high and low. They searched the deteriorated big stores like Lowe's and the Farm and Ranch stores, they looked in the countryside, on the deserted rural farms. Finally, at a ranch supply business where the weeds had pretty much overgrown anything left, they found what they needed. A frame and wheels had been pulled up into an inside area. The tires were shot, replacement tires still wrapped in plastic were on the shelf. The four wheel wagon would accommodate a four foot by eight foot bed and
sides. The tag was practically faded beyond reading but the specs were there. The load capacity was beyond what they would need and their horses could pull.

  The frame and wheels along with two extra tires and wheels got pulled into the large shop at the family's compound. They all missed the carpentry skills of Jack. Just like the skills of many of the original Unity men had been passed along, so had Jack's carpentry know how. Eric was an excellent carpenter, with his help the bug out trailer in a short time had a deck and sides. The four had thought they would pull the cart with a horse and rider. More advice convinced them to add a bench seat and footrest on the front of the wagon, so it could have driver. They would need to find the right kind of harness for draw horses and reins.

  One windy day in March, the daughters of Jack sat down with Cody and talked to him about supplies. They planned supplies for the four travelers and for the horses. Dianne said, “You know, Daddy had an old friend. He was a few years younger than him, it is possible that he's still surviving. The friend was a true cowboy. He rode and trained horses all of his life. You remember, Trish?”

  Trish said, “Sure, you're talking about Gus. He had a big ranch. It was very close to the Interstate highway that is north of the city. We could tell you how to find it. When you start on your journey, you could go there first. I promise you, Gus knows everything about horses, he could really help you out.”

  The oldest sister Lynn said, “In the summer, Gus and his wife would go to the Colorado cabin and visit Momma and Daddy. They usually participated in some cattle round-ups. They had a daughter, who I believe married right before all the bad stuff happened. Even if only she is still alive, she was very experienced with horses. I know she would have stayed at the home place. Gus and Daddy knew each other for many years. You need to try and find the ranch.”