“Right at dawn in the morning, David and I are going to move towards the camp. We are going to take one mule and some of the whiskey and that old box of cigars to barter with. Ashley and Shawna, you stay here with the animals and the wagon. This is a good place to hunker down until we get a handle on the survivors group. We have the walkie talkies. I don't know how far the camp is really going to be and how long we can stay in range. We will try to communicate,” said Cody.
Cody had the plan firm in his head now. He was remembering how he had talked with the loner Mac, back at Unity. Before the War on the Border years before, the man had infiltrated the den of the enemy. He had spied, gathered info and rescued the woman who eventually became his wife. He had recounted the story to Cody. He continued, “You girls might dig around this place some, see if there is anything left in the ruins that we could make use of. Don't get impatient, if we have trouble it might take us a while to get back. We could have to stay a night to be convincing. You hang here as long as you can. You be alert, wait for us.”
The girls looked nervous, at this warning. They all agreed.
***
The towering signs were coming into view, getting clearer with each clop of the mule's feet. The campfire smoke blurred across the breezy Spring morning. They stopped for a moment and talked into the radio, “We have the camp in sight.” The girls gave a broken scratchy response, “Okay...be ca...ful.” Cody had the reins and David rode behind. It wasn't a comfortable arrangement but they did not want to risk losing any more of their rides than necessary. The two riders drew nearer the encampment and they could see that the exit ramps from the Interstate were all blocked with old cars. Just like Unity, they had barricaded off their perimeters. The mule climbed up the ramp towards a couple of men sitting on the dead cars. They had AR rifles slung across their shoulders.
One of the men spit on the ground and said, “Hey, lookey here...it's Roy Rogers and Dale Evans!” The other one guffawed, “That shore ain't Trigger, though.” Both men laughed at their joke. Cody had pulled the mule to a stop. He really didn't know who Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were. David was remembering an old book on Jack and Beth's shelves and a photo of a beautiful palomino horse with a rhinestone suited cowboy in the saddle. Well, at least they are laughing, not shooting, he thought.
The man spit again, “Where you think you're goin' cowboy?”
Cody said, “Just on down the road. We've got a bit of bartering stuff. Thought we might trade a little.”
The man looked them over some more. “What weapons you got?”
“Just our sidearms.” The two held up their hands.
He slid down off the car, went over to a tall metal gate and pulled it open. He had his rifle in his hands and aimed at them. Into the pit rode the two travelers. One of the men said, “Give me them pistols and foller me.” He walked them towards a decaying motel on the opposite side of the crossroad. “Tie your steed here.” He pointed to a post. He looked at the mule again and beat on his thigh, laughing. This jerk loved his own jokes. Cody and David followed him into a dank smelling motel lobby. Cody carried a small bag. A very large man sat on a dilapidated sofa. The man said, “Joe, these two cowboys say they got something to trade.”
“Do tell...whatcha' got, boys? And whatcha' want?” The man was so heavy that he spoke with a halting gasp.
“Oh, anything to eat. Maybe some bullets,” said David.
The expansive man said, “I've got some women. Need a little female company, do ya?”
The two men said, probably too quickly and at the same time, “No thanks...we're good...no, that's okay.”
Looking them up and down, he shrugged, “Um-m, I get it. To each his own. Can't help ya, don't allow any of them kind around here.” He gave them a harder look this time.
Cody stammered, “Oh no, we aren't...I mean, we don't...” he was looking at David, who was shaking his head in the negative.
“Show me whatcha' got,” rasped the man.
Cody opened the small bag and pulled out another cloth bag with a pint bottle that he had filled with whiskey. And then, the box of cigars. The fat man was interested, “That real whiskey, son?”
“Yes,” said Cody, “Real good and aged bourbon. That box of cigars has never had the seal broke.” The man took out a large knife, split the seal on the cigar box. He picked up a cigar and ran it under his nose.
“Go with the man. He will take you to get some bullets. You spend the night and move on tomorrow. We don't need any extra mouths to feed around here. You get your pistols back when you leave.”
“That's fine, we were planning on moving on down the road.” said Cody.
The man led them back across the street and into an old convenience store. He unlocked a chain on the door. In the back of the store there were stacks of guns. There were rifles and pistols of all kinds. The man looked at the two pistols he had taken from Cody and David. He went to what used to be refrigerated cabinets. He pulled down four boxes of bullets that would fit the guns and handed them to the men. David said, “How about one box of that rifle ammo?” The guys eyes narrowed. David said, “You never know, I sure would like to find me a rifle.” The guy plopped one more box into David's hand.
“You'll just have to find you a place to flop. Folks around here ain't real good at sharing. You might beg a bite or two off'n somebody.” Cody and David moved out and back to the mule. They were going to have to spend the night. On the north side of the motel was a grassy field. They took the mule and tied it to a fence post. They would come back later and sleep here. First, they needed to check out the camp. Behind the motel lobby was a two storied “L” shaped stretch of rooms. Nearly all of the doors were open or torn off, a few closed. In the parking lots, fires burned in scattered spots. Some in old barrels and some on the pavement, which had large areas of paving scorched away. Men, women and a few children moved around.
They walked around to the front of the motel. Across the street to the north was the store where the guns were stored. Not far beyond the store, the road heading north was barricaded with cars. They turned and walked the other direction. The road went over the Interstate. All the ramps leading up to the road were barricaded and then only a few feet past the overpass, more barricades. It looked like the group had formed a relatively small perimeter. All the barricades were guarded. There were a few more people scattered between the borders, in some of the old businesses that lined the street. It appeared that most of the residents lived in the old motel. Cody and David guessed about a hundred, possibly a few more.
Just as the guy had said, even if food was cooking, no-one offered them a share. Cody didn't think he recognized what was cooking on some fires. Looking at this bunch, he really didn't want to eat anything they touched. Of course, he had not reached the point of starving hungry either. They barely got a nod. A few slurs were thrown around, loud enough to be heard. Apparently, news traveled fast in this snake pit. The two travelers were labeled as not liking women. They moved along, not saying anything for a while.
They had reached the mule again and sat down on the grass. Cody said, nearly to himself, “Poor Dane.”
David said, “Yeah, he put up with a world of crap...and that was when the world was supposedly civil.”
Both men missed the family. David dug out some smoked venison and they opened a can of beans. You never knew these days, the canned goods had been around for a long time. The label was just about faded away that read Pork and Beans but they seemed fine. They gave a little water to the mule and decided to rest for a while. No one was probably going to give them trouble about leaving in the morning. They would have to pretend to move on up the Interstate and then find a way to double back to the girls. One thing for sure, their caravan could not come through this encampment. They had to come across country and around and maybe at night.
They did some more poking around during the rest of the day. They did not like at all, some of the things that they saw and heard. This was a bad place and they
would be glad to get away. The evening came and it was near dark. They had rolled out their sleeping bags. Cody was just about to doze when David shook him. “Look, somethings going on over there.”
Cody said, “We probably don't want to know.”
“Maybe...but I think I need to see what's the excitement,” said David.
Cody stretched and said, “Okay, let's see if we can get in a little closer.” They moved along the edge of the grassy field, came up at the end of the stretch of motel rooms. David peered around the corner. In the parking lot, two women were being pulled along towards one of the rooms. The men stopped in front of a fire and were pawing at the women, laughing with some others around the fire. The faces of the women had been blackened and they were wearing tennis shoes. No question, though, it was Ashley and Shawna. David turned to Cody, “Damn it!...Damn it to hell...Cody, it's the girls.”
Cody roughly pushed him aside and looked around the corner. “S—t,” he cursed.
David said, “These scums must have found the camp.”
“No,” said Cody. “They are too damn lazy to venture out like that. The girls came this way, they must have. Look at how they are dressed. They probably rode a horse in close and then walked.” He gave an exasperated exhale, “I told them to friggin' wait.”
“What are we going to do, we have to get them,” said David.
The men took the women across to a room. David had his gun out and was moving, Cody pulled him back, “Wait a minute...” The men came back out and locked the door. Thank god, they were not going to jump on them immediately. A horrible thought occurred to Cody, maybe the fat boss gets first dibs. There were not any women among these poor abused, malnourished and worn out women, that came close to being as healthy and as pretty as the two they had just locked up. The reprieve would not be for long.
The two flattened against the side of the building. Cody said, “We are going to have to make a diversion. Remember, in the War on the Border, how the women made all of those molotov cocktails?”
“Yeah, I remember,” said David. “Lots of glass bottles laying around but we don't have any fuel.”
Cody said, “If some of these old cars still have a gas tank that isn't rusted out, we could poke a hole and fill some bottles. There's got to be some gas left. If we could set the arms storage building on fire that would make a pretty big distraction.”
“Okay, let's move...now...they won't leave them alone for long,” said David. The two men moved back out through the field. They had to cross the street and look around a gas station and behind another building. They found one pile of trash with some glass bottles. Some were broken, about three were intact. Laying around on the ground, they found three more. They only saw one man at the northern barricade. He was nearly asleep, laid out on top of a car hood. David crept up, his hunting knife in hand. He rose up and cut the man's throat. The man shuddered, grabbed his throat and laid out. That was Shawna in that room, there was no time for hesitation. Just as she had protected her brother and her neighbors, he would protect her.
It was full dark now. Cody crawled up under one of the northern barricade cars, while David kept a look-out. He poked a hole in the gas tank with his hunting knife. It was the same attempt, on the third car, when the gas started running out in a stream. It wasn't easy to fill the small neck bottles but a couple of them were wider mouthed. He was covered in gasoline by the time he had six bottles full. He removed his shirt and started cutting some strips and rolling them up for wicks.
David said, “You better stand back, you are like a big molotov yourself.” Cody stepped back, he picked up a big rock and hurled it at the window of the arms storage building. David lit the biggest of the molotov cocktail bottles and flung it right behind, through the broken glass. It exploded into a ball of fire. Everything in the store long ago dried out and was brittle, the fire spread instantly. Five more bombs hit the building and the ammo started shooting off.
Cody and David heard shouting and saw men running towards the fire. They stayed low, moved back across the street next to the barricade, towards the mule. They drug the mule down the field and came back up where they had been observing the parking lot. Everyone was running to the front of the motel, shouting and screaming above the fireworks. The two moved to the locked room and Cody shot the locked doorknob. Ashley and Shawna were tied together and in the center of the filthy covered bed. None of the four said a word. The guys untied them and they all moved back towards the mule. They pulled the mule along and ran behind the stretch of rooms and into the trees that were in the distance.
When they felt they were far enough away and out of sight, they stopped to get their breaths. The flames were blazing high into the sky and the ammo stores were still shooting off with booms and pops. Cody looked at Ashley and said, “Where is the horse?”
Ashley started trying to explain, “Cody...we just...we thought that...”
Cody pushed his hair behind his ear. The gasoline felt like it was stinging and burning his skin. He spoke very softly, “Listen, nobody is the boss of this outfit. We all agreed. But, when we make a plan, it has to be followed exactly by everyone. I don't have to tell you why that is true and how close we came to disaster.”
Shawna reached for David's hand and whispered, “I'm sorry.”
“Are we all on the same page now?” said Cody. Everyone nodded Yes. He then leaned over, put his hand behind Ashley's neck and pulled her forward and gave her a long kiss. Silence.
Ashley looked a bit stunned and said, “The horse is back to the east, about a mile before the barricades. God, why do you smell like gasoline?”
David said, “That's a story for later. Let's move, while the bad guys are still trying to deal with the fire. We will have to get stay outside of their barricades and move over the countryside. We will get back to the horse and then ride back to the camp where the wagon is.
On foot and pulling the mule along, the four friends moved in the dark across the fields and through woods until they were close to where the girls had left one of the horses. It took a bit of searching to locate the horse, they finally came up on it. Cody pulled Ashley up behind him on the mule and David and Shawna mounted the horse. They felt like they were far enough away from the camp to move down the Interstate. They could still see a glow of fire behind them. They reached the site of the barn and put the animals in the corral with the others.
Once inside the barn, they found something to eat from the wagon and then rolled out their sleeping bags. They decided it would be safer to not start a fire. Cody did not think that those slugs would come looking for them, the fire would keep them busy for a while. Shawna said she would take the first watch. Ashley told Cody that there was an old well out behind the fallen down house. They had pulled the bucket up and watered the animals earlier in the day. She went to show him so that he could wash off the gasoline. Cody held the flashlight and she pulled the bucket up. The fuel had long ago burned his skin, but the cool water felt good. Ashley rubbed some antiseptic lotion on. As she rubbed the soothing lotion on, he grabbed her hand. “Are you okay, Ashley? Did they hurt you?”
She placed the hand on his cheek. “No, I am fine. Thank god, you and David were there. It was very stupid of us to not stick to the plan. I promise you Cody, it will never happen again.”
“I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. To ah-h...lose you,” he said.
Ashley's heart wanted to hear that but she was afraid to dream that he might care for her like she did for him. He pulled a shirt over his blistered body. She swept the light along in front of them and they returned to the barn for a night's sleep. Cody took the second watch. Ashley heard Shawna climb in beside David, on the far side of the barn. She could hear their soft murmuring and probably lovemaking. She was more than a little envious. She turned over, pulled the cover up over her head and went back to sleep.
In the morning, the plan was to rely on Cody's compass and move north across the countryside for about three hours. They would
then turn west for a while and hope to pick up the rural road. This should put them clear of the Interstate group. It would be a test to see how the wagon would move across the land and if their navigation skills could be trusted. The girl's tennis shoes were back in the wagon and the boots on their feet. Riding cross country would definitely require protection.
David drove the wagon and the horses pulled. Shawna looked small sitting on the tall mule. Ashley rode the spare horse, the other mule tied behind the wagon. Cody rode his own and favorite horse, a large chestnut colored mare. He pointed the way north and the caravan moved across the meadows behind the barn and old house. They had to stop occasionally and cut away a barb wire fence. It was rough riding in the wagon. What looked like a sea of tall grass, was filled with highs and lows, gopher holes and sometimes rocks. Very slow going, but the wagon was rolling over the terrain. They had come through a stand of trees, skinny and willowy but dense. It took some chopping and weaving to get the wagon through. The riders and wagon moved up a rounded hill and on the other side was a pond. This was a welcome site, they had been out about two hours. They stopped at the watering hole and looked across the horizon. There was only a faint wisp of smoke in their rear view. Hopefully, they were moving away in the direction they needed to.
Cody said, “Let's move north for about another hour, just in case we are angling and then we will turn west and look for the rural road. He looked at his compass and led them off again. An hour found them at the edge of a large field that had once been plowed and was still furrowed.
David stood in the wagon. He said, “If I straddle these ruts, I think I can move along without too much trouble. He looked across the field. “You know, I think I see a road sign way over there across the field. It may be the road.” Another hour and they were on the rural road that would take them north. They were well aware that more obstacles and surprises would be up ahead. They somehow felt very relieved to just be on Jack's road north. They had been away from Unity for about a week and they were only about sixty miles from home. They didn't see any smoke behind them now.
No Normal Day III (West) Page 4