Ashes of the World: A Post-Apocalyptic Story (The World Burns Book 2)

by Boyd Craven III

  “No, because it bugs you.”

  “I don’t understand that.”

  “If you were okay with the killing, well… You wouldn’t be you. The fact that it bugs you means that inside here,” she poked him in the chest over his heart, “means that you are a kind and decent man.”

  “But The Ten Commandments…”

  “You worried about ‘Thou Shall Not Kill’?” She asked him solemnly.

  “Yeah, that one.”

  “In old Hebrew, it literally translates to ‘Thou Shall Not Commit Murder’.”

  Blake was silent for long moments. He looked up at her thoughtfully and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “Where does self defense fit in there?”

  “You should ask my dad,” her eyes sparkled as she leaned in close.

  “We’re not married yet,” Blake whispered as their lips came close to each other.

  “We’ll have to fix that,” she told Blake and left him speechless and longing as their kiss deepened.

  Chapter 3 –

  As they started sorting and stacking all the food, they all felt the effects of the strain, the stress and the drain on their bodies. Duncan had suggested they wait at least a day or two before heading back out to load up again. He reasoned that if anyone had seen them unloading the trucks that they might come and do the same. If they headed back out there immediately; there was a better than likely chance that they would run into someone and then a conflict would ensue.

  With a hard day’s work behind them and empty stomachs, they decided it was time to eat. A quick meal was put together with the venison that Weston had shot with some potatoes and carrots. Only having four places at the dining room table, the Cayhill boys stood at the kitchen counter eating as they all talked.

  “Pastor Duncan…” Blake started to say.

  “Here it comes, he’s getting all official sounding.”

  “I’m what?”

  “You suddenly remember I’m a minister when you’re about to ask me something either really important, really personal or something you really don’t want the answer to,” he said with half of mouthful.

  “Yeah, I want to hear this,” Bobby said grinning. “This is going to be good.”

  “You two hush,” Lisa told the boys.

  “Okay then, Duncan, I wanted to talk to you about… Well you see…”

  “Daddy, we want you to marry us.”

  “Well, I’d planned on it.”

  Duncan’s face broke out into a large smile.

  “You see… If we’re going to wait a couple days before we head back out to the trailer, we were just wondering…”

  “You’re stammering awful fierce there Blake, just spit it out!”

  “Daddy, we would like you to marry us before we all head back out to get the rest of food from the truck.”

  Sandra finished the thought saving Blake some embarrassment. Putting his thoughts into words to Sandra had never been hard, once he get used to her. Asking her Dad had him tongue tied. He was very thankful for Sandra stepping in and helping him out.

  “Well, in this day and age I imagine there is a little bit of a rush to get things done, isn’t there?”

  “Every day is a gift at this point. I’d like to make the most of it.”

  “Amen to that,” Duncan smiled at them.

  After dinner Duncan headed back to the trailer, the Cayhill boys out to the barn to poke through some things and get out of everyone’s hair and Lisa headed down to the basement to the makeshift bed. It was Blake’s turn to stay up tonight for a little while to get a couple more cycles of canning done. Lisa had filled the canners and left directions scrawled on a scrap of paper laid out under her Bluebook.

  Raw Packed Beef Stew: 5 pounds of raw beef with all the fat trimmed off. Two pounds of sliced potatoes, two pounds of sliced carrots, a pound of celery if they had any (they didn’t) and a pound of onion. Since they had been substituting venison for beef, they also substituted the celery with green beans and used what they had. Garlic, salt and pepper were also on a per taste basis with her directions on what she planned to use.

  It was similar to a recipe he’d used in the past, so it was easy to do. Sandra stayed up with him, watching and learning.

  “So we’re going to put this in layers.”

  “How come? Won’t it mix while it’s cooking?” She asked him.

  “Some,” he admitted, “but it’s more visual so we can make sure everything goes in that’s supposed to. I think,” he was watching her.

  “So we chop all this up and then what?”

  “Get the next batch ready. The one pressure canner is almost done with a load and we’ll let it cool enough to take the lid off, and then fill that one up too.”

  They chopped everything, adding the venison, potatoes, carrots onions green beans, garlic salt and pepper to each jar in that order using a wide mouthed red funnel and topped it with boiling water.

  “Now you have to wipe down the edges with a damp cloth, to make sure nothing is on there. You won’t get a good seal if you do.”

  “Okay, sounds easy. Why are those lids plastic?”

  “Oh, those are reusable. See? You put a gasket down first, and then the lid.”

  “Tattler, Ohhh, I remember you writing about these in your blog,” she had picked one up to read the label.

  “Yeah, pretty cool things. They contacted me a year or two back and offered to let me try them out as long as I’d write about them.”

  “Wow, they really do that?”

  “What? Send out samples for testing? Sure. My blog got five hundred new visitors a day and half a million visits a month. They were looking for advertising and I got a lifetime supply of the lids. I didn’t make a ton of money off the affiliate links, but… never mind.”

  His voice had gone sullen and he worked in silence for minutes.

  “What’s wrong?” She hugged him, wrapping her arms around his back, forcing him to stop.

  “None of it matters. It’s all gone. Nothing is going to be the same.”

  “No, it isn’t. But your blog, I remember the early entries. You said you were learning new skills as well as sharing ones that had been passed down to you. You remember that?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, you probably taught more people how to use a little common sense and things around them. There’s probably people alive today because they read something you wrote about.”

  “I doubt it,” he mumbled, but he didn’t sound convinced.

  “Besides, if you hadn’t written that… We wouldn’t have survived. I never would have met you and…”

  “Not married yet…” He said suddenly and she pushed him backwards, laughing.

  “Spoil sport.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “So what do we do now that we have the jars loaded?”

  “Put the bands on and use this jar lifter to put them in the canner. The book says eleven plounds of pressure for ninety minutes and you have to use the table in here to figure out adjustments because we’re in the hills.”

  She looked over the book.

  “Ninety minutes huh? So what do we do in the meantime?” She cocked an eyebrow.

  “Well, we uh... I mean…” He stammered under her crooked smile.

  “I’m messing with you again. We have another batch to get ready, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  They worked together and set the timer for the pressure canner, unloading the other one when it had cooled and the pressure dropped. They put the contents onto the wooden countertop and Blake covered them with a towel.

  “In case a jar explodes,” he explained. It was getting late, and they sat at the table talking, waiting for the last of the batches to be done for the night.

  “So your Dad and Lisa?”

  “Yeah? What about them?”

  “She keeps looking at him.”

  “You think she likes him?”

  “I don’t know. I figured you two t
alk, I mean, you’re both girls and…”

  “You’re close to doing it again.”

  “Yeah. Well?”

  “Well what?”

  “What do you think?”

  “You know, I never knew my Mom. She was always a picture to me, someone my Dad always missed. Is that horrible?”

  “No, not really,” he told her.

  “Well, I mean… There have been ladies in the church that have tried to… Date? Date my Dad? He’s never done it, not that I know of.”

  “Is he lonely?”

  “Wouldn’t you be? I mean, you lived here alone for a long time.”

  “I was lonely. I could fix just about anything but that.”

  “Well, you aren’t lonely now, are you?”

  “No. I’ve got more people around me now than I have had in years,” he smiled.

  “You don’t mind it do you? I mean, us here. Dad, Lisa, Bobby and Weston?”

  “No, actually I don’t. I think if it was just me here, I’d go stir crazy, but there comes a point in life where you need someone else. Relying on yourself for everything that grows is tiresome. Now? There’s no way I could do this on my own. I’m just thankful I found you,” he kissed the top of her head and went and checked on the timer.

  “When do you think my dad is going to do the ceremony?”

  “Sometime tomorrow. He mentioned something about the boys helping him setup the surprise.”

  The timer went off, breaking their train of thought and they headed into the kitchen and pulled the canner off the stove to cool.

  “What kind of surprise?” Sandra asked him.

  “I don’t know, he’s your father.”

  “Your father in law after tomorrow,” she stuck her tongue out at him.

  “I can’t wait to make you mine,” he grinned and pulled her close.

  “We’re not married yet,” she chided.

  “Soon.”

  Chapter 4 -

  Duncan let everyone but the Cayhill boys sleep in late, leaving the traps to guard the entrance to the homestead. They had everything all staged, and when the old Dodge D fired up and set across the grass up the hill towards the grain silo, the sound of the old diesel woke everybody up. Lisa came padding up the stairs in heavy socks from her basement bedroom and Blake ran to the window, grabbing his long gun to see the truck disappear over the rise behind the barn.

  “Sandra, hurry, somebody’s got the truck and the trailer,” he yelled over his shoulder, waking her up from the recliner in the living room.

  “I’m coming,” she rolled to her feet, almost falling from being half asleep.

  “Hold on,” Bobby said, putting his hand out to stop their progress.

  “What’s going on?” Lisa asked, moving between them, looking nervously between the guns that Blake and Sandra were now holding and her son’s smiling face.

  “Somebody’s got the truck!“

  “No, no. It’s part of your surprise. How about you go back to bed?” Bobby said with a grin.

  “What surprise? Who’s driving it, and why is the trailer hitched to it?”

  “Well, you two need someplace to honeymoon, don’t you? Duncan and Weston went ahead to set things up. They left me behind to stop you from ruining the surprise, but I knew the sound of the motor would have woke you up.”

  “Surprise?” Blake asked again.

  “The three of us stripped the trailer and put all clean linens in it and stocked it up for a few days.”

  “A few days?” Sandra asked, “but we’re going into town tomorrow or the day after.”

  “Well, remember how we stashed the one truck way downhill as a just in case?” Bobby looked sheepish.

  “Yeah?” Blake asked, a funny feeling began to develop in his stomach.

  “Well, I uh… I’m actually staying behind because I took one truck and the enclosed trailer. Weston and I that is. Your Dad was pissed, but I guess I’d rather have a minister mad at me than my Mom.”

  “Where is everything?” Blake asked, incredulous.

  “Still in the two trucks and trailer. I’ve got it hid deep in the brush.”

  “You’ve been up all night? Why would you risk all of that?” Lisa interjected, sounding half awed and half pissed.

  “Killing them with kindness,” Bobby shot back, but he looked nervous.

  “Why?”

  “Mom, if they hadn’t took us in and stopped those guys… We owe them a lot. Once we convinced Pastor Duncan not to shoot us for going off alone, we just wanted to let Ms. Sandra and Blake here have a real honeymoon type of thing. We just didn’t have any place fancy to send them, so Duncan mentioned the camper trailer and that’s how we…”

  “Of all the hair brained, foolhardy, dangerous…”

  She was going off on them, and Blake stepped back inside with Sandra on his arm. They headed into the basement and Sandra’s mouth growled when he pulled a side cut of bacon out and some onions and cheese he had in the converted fridge.

  “Omelets?”

  “No eggs. We have to find some chickens if we want some eggs.”

  “Ahhh, so the bacon, hash brown dish thing.”

  “Are you getting sick of it?”

  “No, but I’m with you, I want some eggs. Besides, the bacon is some of the best ever…”

  “We can go out back and shoot a hog just about every day if you really love it that much.”

  “Then why are we killing ourselves growing this huge garden?”

  “Because, you need variety in your diet to help support-“

  “I’m kidding,” she poked him in the ribs and took off at a dead run up the stairs where a red faced Blake finally caught up with her.

  Sandra headed upstairs and caught the tail end of Lisa’s tirade.

  “… And you do something stupid like this? I thought I raised you two better.”

  “Sorry Mom,” both boys chorused.

  Blake and Sandra cooked up a big skillet of food, the cast iron pan keeping things warm long after it was removed from heat. Neither one of them looked at each other much, Lisa headed outside with Bobby to finish ruining his morning about their unexpected trip. The two of them were quiet, not because they were nervous about today, but what it meant. Sandra was trying to swallow the enormity of the gift that Bobby and Weston had done, the risks they had taken. She’d been out on enough patrols to know that their timing was probably perfect in that it was immediately after they hit the truck yesterday and they went sometime after dark.

  If anyone had been scoping the truck out, looking to finish the job they did, they were probably scared off by the truck from earlier coming back. She had wondered how they were able to get the rest of the semi unloaded with just one truck and trailer, but remembered they said something about the second truck being full as well. She reckoned that they had to unload part into the 2nd one and make two trips. That was risky.

  “You know, I figure those boys had to have made two trips to get all that stuff,” Sandra made clear her thoughts.

  “Yeah, I was considering that as well.”

  “Why do you think they did it? I mean, that was a pretty big gesture.”

  “You know what those guys had in store for their Mom, don’t you?” He asked softly.

  “Well…”

  “Rape, enslavement, torture, murder.”

  “You can’t possibly know that.” Sandra’s horrified expression betrayed the fact that she had thought that as well.

  “They all but said that. The three raiders that come up here had that in mind when they saw you.”

  “Okay, you’re probably right. I just can’t figure out the why.”

  “I think Bobby was being literal. If we hadn’t taken them in, they would have to have lived off the land or become raiders themselves.”

  “That’s depressing.”

  “Yeah. It’s hard to argue with an empty stomach. People do all sorts of things when they are desperate and sick with fear,” Blake said, scooping some food onto two pl
ates.

  “I know, I’ve seen it when I was… over there,” she just nodded outside, but Blake knew what she meant.

  The front door opened and a red faced Lisa stormed in with a shame faced Bobby following her. He gave them a halfhearted smile and headed over to the food.

  “Your Mom chew your ears off?”

  “And half of my backside,” he said, but he was still grinning.

  “Don’t think I’m done with you two. When your brother gets back,” Lisa stopped ranting when she saw the three of them looking at her. “Well, what they did was foolish,” she tried to explain.

  “If I promise we won’t do something like that again, would that help?”

  “No, at least not yet. Your brother isn’t back yet and trust me, I plan on having words with him too.”

  Blake and Sandra took their plates and headed out the front door to sit on the porch. Bobby gave them a pleading look but Blake just gave him a shrug of the shoulders and closed the front door behind them to let the abuse continue.

  “I hope Lisa doesn’t remember the backpack with the grenades,” Sandra said, trying not to laugh.

  “I know. I think she plans on skinning her boys alive.”

  Sandra slid close to him, until she was snuggled into Blake’s side and they ate in peace, occasionally wincing at the sound of raised voices behind them. They both thought they understood Lisa’s reasoning, and had a basic grasp of what the boys did. It was still impressive. The Cayhill’s were a tight knit family, one that was willing to help and fight for each other. Blake finished his food first and enjoyed the warmth of Sandra’s closeness. She finished soon enough and he took both plates and sat them on his other side pulling her close, kissing the side of her temple.

  “You know, for the first time in my life, I don’t feel so lonely. I’m actually pretty happy considering everything that’s gone on.”

  “Me too. In just a little while we’re going to be married and…” She gave him an exaggerated wink.

  “Preacher’s daughter,” he chuckled until she gave him a playful push, almost knocking him off the top step they were sitting on.

  He let out a mock growl and she yelled and took off running. For a minute, the two of them ran through the tall grass that surrounded the barn until Blake finally caught up with her and they both tumbled playfully on the ground like they were teenagers. They wrestled around for a moment, their breathing becoming heavy and the air charged around them. Sandra broke off and Blake noticed her shift in attitude immediately.