As Bryce got himself ready for bed, he told himself, Hopefully, this goes well tomorrow, we could use some friends right now.
Chapter Forty-Four
Mogollon Rim, Arizona
The next morning, Bryce and the others rallied at the trucks again. They packed a crate with a dozen M4A3 rifles, extra magazines, and a can of 5.56mm ammunition. Bryce got in the lead vehicle with Logan at the wheel, Mitch, Gloria, and Jessica in the rear, and poor Robby in the back once again. Once they were loaded up, they headed down the road toward the highway. Logan brought the truck to a stop at the highway, and looked both ways before he crossed; some old habits died hard.
They made their way across the highway, and as they arrived, Roger and his band of survivors came out of the resort lobby building. Roger waved to Bryce and his group.
Bryce stepped out of the truck and shook hands with Roger, but he wasted no time at all, and asked if they had made a decision. Roger informed Bryce that fifteen members of his group would like to volunteer for the supply runs.
“Sounds good to me, Roger. I only brought twelve rifles, so we will need to grab a few more,” Bryce said and pulled out an M4 from the back of the truck.
“My guys all use the same rifle when we run operations for ease of use and ammo-swapping capabilities,” Bryce explained.
“Can you guys all step down here real quick and show me your skills with one of these rifles. We just want to make sure everyone knows how to use one,” Bryce asked the group.
Logan grabbed a box of earplugs that they had brought from the armory and let everyone put them in their ears. While everyone put on their “ears” Logan ran over to a tree about twenty yards out and used his knife to mark it with a big X.
Quinton Grymes stepped forward and held out his hand for the M4. Bryce asked him to fire only three or four rounds, just to show proficiency with the weapon. Quinton slapped in a magazine, charged the rifle, aimed carefully, and fired four rounds remarkably quickly. All four rounds struck the tree within inches of the center of the X.
Bryce and Logan both gave him a strange look, to which the man answered, “Air Force training.”
Bryce nodded his approval and let the other fourteen people take turns with the rifle. Some of them were not too bad, and some of them were pretty excellent shots. It would seem that the old saying, “Only the strong survive,” was mostly true.
Sometimes, having enough of the strong people in your group would save you too, Bryce figured.
After both Logan and Bryce had decided that the resort crew had proved themselves, Bryce told the group that they would be back within the hour, and they were going to have their first dry run.
Bryce wanted to go into town again for fuel, food, and medical supplies. He asked if they had any running vehicles and learned that they had two running pickup trucks, and three small cars, but all of them were either low or out of fuel.
Bryce told them that they would bring some fuel down to at least get them into town and then they could fuel up all of their vehicles. He also said he would bring them three extra rifles and one handgun each, so that they could leave their personal weapons behind. The resort group was more than agreeable to the idea of using new firearms.
They shook hands and said their goodbyes, and the resort group went back inside to get ready, while Bryce and his team got back in their vehicles to head back to the compound.
After they arrived back at the Hatchery, only a matter of minutes later, Bryce told their families what they planned on doing, and they got mixed reviews, but ultimately everyone knew what had to be done, so nobody complained a whole lot.
Bryce had Logan get the vehicles together. They were going to take the flatbed truck, the two pickups, and based on a new idea Bryce had, he wanted to break out the fish hatchery’s fish transport truck. The truck had a 1,200-gallon tank on the back of it, and it was powered by a burly diesel engine. Bryce wanted to fill the truck up with at least a few hundred gallons of fuel and let it be their fuel reservoir. The only problem was that after he had inspected the truck, he found that it only had a quarter of a tank of fuel, and they did not have any diesel, because their vehicles and generator all ran on gasoline. Bryce hoped that the gas station he and Benjamin went to originally had some diesel fuel left in the underground storage tanks, or they might not make it back with the fuel they needed for their generator.
Bryce made the decision to drain twenty gallons of fuel from the large storage tank attached to their generator to fuel up their neighbors’ trucks.
After they grabbed the fuel, Bryce had the guys load up three more rifles and a handgun for each member of resort group’s combat force. Then, Bryce and the others piled into their respective vehicles. Everyone waved goodbye to each other, husbands gave their wives a kiss, and they started the trucks to head down the hill once again.
When they got back to the resort, the group of fighters stood around and waited for Bryce’s team. Bryce and his team distributed the rifles, handguns, and a few boxes of ammunition for the weapons. The resort members were all highly thankful for the gifts, and more than one of them asked where they had gotten such nice rifles. Nobody gave them an answer.
After the resort group refueled their vehicles, they were ready to go. The new convoy, which consisted of nine vehicles, rumbled down the highway.
They entered Payson within thirty minutes and Bryce first led them to the old gas station on the opposite side of town, where he and his father went the first time they needed fuel.
All nine vehicles piled into the small gas station parking lot. Both groups got out of their vehicles and stood by to wait for Bryce.
Bryce got out and signaled for Logan to follow him. They went around back, and Bryce showed Logan the generator. They cranked over the generator, and it spurred into action. The fuel gauge on the generator’s gas tank hovered just above E.
The two of them circled back around to the front of the station and Bryce told the group to get the vehicles fueled up in a hurry. Bryce went inside and turned on the switches for all the pumps.
They had both sides of the pump going for the fuel truck, and the other pumps were in use by the other vehicles. The resort fighters were absolutely ecstatic about getting full tanks of gas. The fact that they didn’t think of this idea on their own worried Bryce more than slightly. He hoped it was only because they were being overcautious, to which he couldn’t fault them for that, given the circumstances.
Thirty minutes went by, and the vehicles were all full of fuel, except for the fuel truck. The gauge on the rear storage tank of their new fuel truck showed about a quarter full. The fuel tank on the actual truck itself read about an eighth of a tank left. They needed to get this thing some diesel before leaving, but the diesel pump was on the other side of the lot all by itself. Bryce decided to get some diesel from the pump and feed both the gas station generator and their fuel truck. He grabbed a few five-gallon containers and walked over to the pump. Bryce walked to the front of the pump and grabbed the handle. He selected diesel fuel and tried the pump handle. Nothing happened.
“Great,” Bryce said out loud.
He tried it a couple more times, and tried to figure out why it wasn’t working. The damn pump was broken.
“Logan, we may have a problem,” Bryce yelled.
Logan sprinted over to see what the issue was, and Bryce showed him.
“This is the only diesel pump they have?” Logan asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Bryce just nodded, as he tried to figure out a solution to their problem. The generator needed diesel to run, and the fuel truck needed diesel to run, and the way Bryce saw it, they had two options; either they could use the fuel from the truck to run the generator and leave the station pumping gas into the fuel tank, or they can try to limp the truck back to the hatchery and leave it there until they found more diesel fuel. There were no assurances that the truck would actually make it back to the hatchery, however, so that was a crapshoot.
“I don’t think there is anybody around to mess with the truck if we leave a couple guys behind to babysit as it fuels up. I say we use the trucks’ gas to fill up the generator and let it keep on pumping gas into the back of it,” Logan said. “Besides, we have plenty of other shit we can do besides sitting here.”
Bryce pondered this for a few minutes and figured that this was a decent enough plan that suited his needs, so he decided to do just that. They siphoned the rest of the diesel out of the fuel truck and took it behind the gas station to fill up the generator. Bryce ran some basic calculations in his head based on his short prior run-ins with the generator and decided that it should have enough fuel to run for another few hours now.
Bryce decided to leave two of the resort group members behind because he wanted his own guys with him in case things went south. The truck was vitally important to his mission, but he knew that the resort guys had no incentive to run off with his truck. After all, where were they going to go with it? They couldn’t exactly take it home and hide it without Bryce knowing.
They got all of the vehicles rounded up with everyone except the designated truck babysitters loaded in them, and decided to look for the list of items that were needed by both the resort group and Bryce’s group. They needed medical supplies first and foremost. They also needed to find an electronics store for more radios, batteries, flashlights, and a few other items. He also wanted to hit the gun shop one more time, clean out the rest of the vault, and anything else they could find. Even though their armory was pretty well stocked, he wanted to make sure that they didn’t leave anything behind. The guns were easy pickings for Bryce’s crew and he didn’t want them to fall into the wrong hands, plus he also wanted to use some of the leftovers as a token of gratitude for the resort group.
Bryce explained the plan to the resort group and to his own men, and the two groups headed in a convoy formation to a small Walgreens pharmacy on the corner of the highway and a nearby cross street. Everyone parked their vehicles and got out. Bryce asked two more of the resort crew to watch the vehicles and cover their asses. Bryce knew he was exploiting them to some extent, but ultimately he didn’t care. They served their purpose and if any of the members actually stuck out, then those were the ones he would try and steal away. With the operational security details in place, the remaining people filed into the pharmacy.
Bryce and the others immediately headed back to the pharmacy section of the store and went behind the counter. The place had been long since ransacked, and pill bottles laid all over the floor and counters. The drugs were the first things people went for when the end of the world was on the horizon, or so it would seem. They scavenged around and eventually found what they needed, some antibiotics with names most people couldn’t pronounce, powerful painkillers, and a few other items Christine asked them to collect. They filled up a few of their bags with all sorts of other medications from steroids to inhalers.
When Bryce was confident that he had enough of a supply of prescription drugs, he led the group to the over-the-counter aisles. Bryce and the others scooped up every bottle of aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen they could get their hands on. These little pills would be invaluable to fight off headaches, muscle aches, and who knew what else. Logan made a comment about how in the Navy they called them “Vitamin M” as he loaded a bottle of Motrin into a bag, which caused all of the military members of the group to chuckle.
After they had gotten all the Vitamin M, they could carry, they moved on to other drugs like cough medicine, allergy pills, and the whole gamut. They collected all of the simple drugs that helped the American society take a pill to relieve some problem. Bryce grabbed bottles of allergy medicine for himself, because the constant dirt and pine tree surroundings were playing hell on his allergies. If a little pill could be taken every day that would alleviate that, he would be damned if he would pass that up.
After the over-the-counter drugs, they collected every bandage, wrap, tape, and other first-aid supply they could find. By the time they were done, they had a couple shopping carts full with medicine and first-aid supplies. After that, they headed over to the real creature comforts section of the store and grabbed toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, soaps, and all the little things people would miss in the middle of nowhere. They also grabbed all of the feminine products they could for the women, to make their lives just a little bit easier. Bryce thought to grab a ton of condoms as well, because he knew that nobody needed to get pregnant right now, but it might promote a little normalcy in their lives.
After quite some time had passed, they were done getting the items from their list at this store and they packed everything up in one of the vehicles. The two groups split up and got into their respective vehicles and they took off toward the next stop. They took a quick drive, less than a quarter mile north, and they found the RadioShack.
Bryce told most everyone to sit with the vehicles, because they wouldn’t need ten people for this stop, instead Logan, Bryce, and Robby entered the store by themselves. They knew what was on the list and they went about getting the items. Bryce grabbed a small handcart and filled it to the brim with every type of battery he could find. They had raided all the batteries at the Walgreens too, but there could not enough batteries these days. Next, he filled another handcart with flashlights of every size, shape and color. He found some small lanterns, as well, and threw those in his basket. The more light sources they could get their hands on, the better, he knew this was especially true for the resort crew since they had no power at their home. He found a few of the hand-crank flashlights and he kept those for himself and the Hatchery members.
Meanwhile, Logan got his hands on all of the store’s shortwave radios, headsets, and accessories. Logan knew that they needed an efficient way to communicate, and the radios would go a long way toward that goal.
Robby was tasked with the collection of as many GPS devices as he could get his hands on. Bryce wanted to have a GPS installed on each vehicle so they could strategically start to mark off routes, places they had scavenged, and other notable landmarks. Then, Bryce had planned to sync all the devices together each night using the computers at the compound. Of course they couldn’t depend on this system, because there was no telling how long the satellite system would last with nobody to maintain the critical systems, but it would definitely help in the short term.
Lastly, Bryce grabbed a few tablets, laptops, and printers. He wanted to digitally enhance the way they plotted out their missions. Maps and charts were great when technology didn’t exist, but right now, technology still existed, the satellites still spun in the sky, and they might as well use them. Besides, the tablets would be an excellent way to get his people on the same page, and they could even be a source of entertainment. It was a no-brainer.
The three men left the store and loaded up their new gear in the back of one of their pickups. Except for the lights and batteries, Bryce would keep the tablets and other goodies to himself.
Bryce, Logan, and Robby got back in their vehicle and led the convoy to a small grocery store across the street. When they arrived, Bryce told the same two resort men to stay with the vehicles. Everyone else piled inside the building and found the place a mess, but there were still good things left.
Bryce showed them the ropes and formed up a shopping cart convoy that could go down each aisle and sweep everything they could find into the carts. The others got the hang of the process within a few minutes and soon it was an assembly line of cart fillers, truck loaders, and cart returners.
While the assembly line was in full swing, Bryce took Logan and disappeared into the back of the store. One of the military crew had recommended that they check the back of the store, from his time as a stock boy.
When Logan and Bryce walked to the back of the store they found pallets full of random assortments of goods. It looked like most of them were un
touched.
Bryce stepped out of the back room and whistled to the groups up front. When they saw him, he waved them back.
“Come take a look at all this food back here guys,” Bryce told them as they approached.
When they all saw the palletized goods their eyes went wide with excitement. They grabbed more shopping carts in a hurry, and the frenzy continued.
The assembly line went on for about an hour, and at the end of it, the resort group had a pickup full of groceries, and the compound group had the back of the Ford loaded, and most of the Chevy.
Satisfied with their spoils, they decided to make the last stop at the gun shop. Before they headed out, Logan spotted a big rig parked in the parking lot of the grocery store. He decided to see if he could get some diesel fuel out of it so they could get their fuel truck loaded up. He grabbed his siphoning gear out of the back of the Ford and headed over to the eighteen-wheeler. Robby accompanied him and watched his father’s back as Logan opened the gas tanks on the sides of the vehicle. They looked to be quite full, so he sent Robby back to the trucks to get more fuel cans. Fifteen minutes later, Logan had twenty-five gallons of diesel fuel ready to go. Bryce was more than sure that this would be enough to get their impromptu fuel truck back to the hatchery, and they could worry about return trips down the line. Both groups got back in their vehicles and headed over to the gun shop for the last time.
Bryce pulled out the key to the vault as he exited his vehicle. He told Quinton and the resort crew to wait outside, which they did not like one bit, and Quinton voiced his opinion by telling Bryce to go fuck himself.
As far as Bryce was concerned, the vault was their property and he made that clear through a long series of expletives that shut Quinton’s argument down immediately.
The Extinction Pandemic: A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The Hatchery Compound Book 1) Page 24