“There are people in here,” he shouted. “And I have a gun pointed right at you!”
He heard gravel fly as whoever was outside dove off of the driveway. “Hey, it’s me!” Tyler said from outside. “Don’t shoot!”
“Ty?” he asked in confusion. The man’s sleeping bag still lay a few feet from him, although it was obvious that he was no longer inside it. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Put that shit away, man!”
Aeric obliged and set his pistol down. “Okay, it’s safe.”
“Geez, man! What the hell?” Tyler asked as he moved the boxes and stumbled inside the carport.
“What are you doing outside?”
“I went back to Walmart.”
“What?” Aeric asked in alarm. “You shouldn’t be going places by yourself, man. If you’d gotten yourself killed, I would have no clue where the hell you were.”
It was difficult to see, but Aeric thought that Tyler looked remorseful. “You’re right. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, just don’t do it again, man. We stick together from here on out.” His friend had been properly rebuked, so he asked, “What’d you get?”
His friend looked up at him and smiled. “I got two bikes, both big mountain bikes with twenty-one inch wheels. We should be okay to ride with that size.”
“Alright, I forgive you, big guy. This is freakin’ awesome, man!”
“I’m glad that you approve. There weren’t very many people out when I woke up, so I snuck down there. Got a frying pan and some multivitamins too,” he said as he held up his haul. “I wanted to get some more food, but the grocery section still had people in it. I could hear them whispering to each other. They’re guarding the food.”
“Corsicana is fucked. The sooner we get out of here, the better.”
“It ain’t gonna be any better anywhere else, man.”
“I know. It makes me feel better to say it. Okay, let’s eat and get out of here on those bikes.”
They didn’t make a fire in the shed to try out their new cooking pan because the homeowner kept moving aside the curtains in the house to see if they were still in the carport. They ate a hasty meal of canned food and then began packing everything up. Thankfully, Aeric had packed away the ammunition in the various pockets of his three-backpack amalgamation the night before, so all they really needed to do was secure their sleeping bags and the few things that they’d pulled out. The unopened tent took some work and scavenged rope from the carport to get secured to the back of Tyler’s seat, but with a little bit of effort, they were able to get it balanced fairly well.
“We really are going to need more food and water soon,” Tyler said forlornly. “We’ve got about three or four more days’ worth of food, maybe less for water, just depends on how much we eat and drink.”
“Aw, man, I could go for a beer,” Aeric replied mistaking Tyler’s comment. The stress of the last few days had built up inside of him, it didn’t matter that it was early morning, a drink really did sound good to him right then.
“Yeah, right? Maybe we can find something after we get started and have a couple of beers when we set up camp tonight.”
They finished packing in silence and Aeric waved to the shadow of the homeowner as they pushed their bikes past the window. The curtains dropped quickly as if he’d thought that they wouldn’t see him spying on them.
“Alright, so we’re headed east on Highway Thirty-One to Tyler, is that right?” Aeric asked.
“Yeah, in Tyler, we’ll go northeast,” Tyler responded with a chuckle because the town shared his name. “It’s about sixty miles from here. I think that we can make it there by nightfall now that we have the bikes.”
They’d planned on taking three or four days to reach Tyler, Texas on foot, but the addition of the bikes was a huge help that would eat up the miles to Missouri rapidly. “Wow, you think so?” Aeric asked. “That’s gonna speed this trip up dramatically!”
The morning flew by with little difficulty besides the thick layer of ash on the ground. Aeric estimated that it was a little over half an inch thick and continuing to fall. That small amount wouldn’t have been an issue for them if the damn stuff wasn’t so slick. Twice during turns the bike’s tires had lost traction and slipped out from underneath him. He was able to look at it in a positive light though, since his bright yellow jacket was now a dirty, muted mustard color from the ash that ground into the fibers when he fell.
The temperature was a little cooler than they’d experienced further south as well. Tyler guessed that it was because the warmth from the sun wasn’t able to penetrate the thick clouds of ash that still swirled overhead. He mentioned another show that he’d seen that had stated a nuclear winter would occur after a global nuclear weapons exchange; although the program had also been quick to point out that it was only speculation since there had obviously never been a global nuclear war. Well, it was time to test the hypothesis.
If the weather did turn, then the remaining population would take a major hit as people froze in their homes. Aeric had no way of knowing how many people survived the nuclear exchange part of the war and how many would die in the coming weeks from radiation. He did assume that given the spread of America’s population, there were probably tens of millions of survivors living in rural areas. If that were the case, the food supply would dwindle quickly—the convenience store back in Richland hadn’t even been able to survive ten or fifteen soldiers for less than a week without a resupply. For most of the survivors, other people were going to become a problem soon because they weren’t able to produce their own food and fought each other for it, like had already happened with devastating effects in the town they’d just left.
As they rode down the highway, they passed a few of those very same survivors traveling on foot in both directions. Neither Aeric nor Tyler bothered to ask the people where they were coming from or where they were headed, instead they held their weapons across the handlebars and pedaled as fast as they could to get away from them.
He had a lot of time to think as they rode and marveled at the absurdity of it all. Before the collapse and the war, people had lamented that the increased connectivity of the world had created a more isolated society which communicated more over the internet than in person. Now, that people were forced to communicate in person, they were scared to death of interaction with strangers.
Aeric hoped that his father, who was known to be both headstrong and over-protective, kept his head down and didn’t do anything dumb trying to keep his mother safe. If they stayed in their home until he made it there, then they would be fine. He could get food for them and assist in whatever way that they needed.
After hours upon hours of riding, they reached the outskirts of the city of Tyler. Cars had been pushed across the road and large hand-painted signs announced that outsiders weren’t welcome. A group of heavily armed men leaning on the vehicles seemed to emphasize the point that anyone not from the city would be turned away.
Aeric eased his aching rear end off of the bicycle seat and used the kickstand to keep it upright before walking towards the men with his hands in the air. He winced at the cramps that had formed in his ass cheeks and legs from the constant pedaling on the mountain bike. “Hello,” he started tentatively.
“That’s close enough,” one of the men said. “We have guys with deer rifles a few houses away, so you and your friend have scopes on you right now.”
Involuntarily, he glanced beyond the speaker at the buildings on either side of the road about two hundred yards further down the highway. “We don’t mean any harm and don’t want to take anything from here. Hell, we don’t even want to sleep here.”
“Then turn around and go back the way you came from, stranger.”
“We’re trying to get to Missouri where my family lives.”
The man threw up his hands in an exaggerated shrug before saying, “I really don’t care, mister. Go around Tyler then. You ain’t welcome here.”
“T
here’s not any easy way around,” Tyler stated. “We have a map and there are no back roads that wouldn’t add twenty or thirty miles to our trip. Come on, man. Just let us use the ring road around the city, we won’t even go anywhere near the downtown.”
The guard seemed to consider it for a moment and then said, “Hold on. Don’t make any sudden movements or you’ll end up like those fellers.” He pointed to the ditch beside the road and began to walk back towards the barricade.
Aeric followed along the line that he’d indicated. When they’d walked up to the checkpoint, they had been focused on the obstacles and the men guarding them, they hadn’t seen what rested in the ditch. Several bodies lay on top of each other with bullet holes drilled neatly in their heads. After seeing them, he snapped his attention back towards the buildings where the snipers were probably located.
“Holy shit, you see that?” he asked Tyler.
“Yeah, man. Just do like he says and don’t make any sudden movements.”
“There’s not a chance in hell. You think that they’re gonna let us through?”
“Well, they didn’t outright shoot us, so we have that going for us,” Tyler replied. “Maybe those people threatened them or something. They probably know this area as well as anyone, they know that besides the ring road around the city, there’s no easy way to continue northeast from here.”
“Maybe we should have gone north and then into Oklahoma.”
“There’s only Little Rock to deal with as a potential nuclear target in Arkansas,” Tyler stated. “Going due north would put us in the fallout zone for Dallas. Maybe Oklahoma City and Tulsa, too. It’s easier to go northeast and then due north through western Arkansas.”
“What about all the mountains there?” Aeric asked.
Tyler looked over at him with questioning eyes. “What do you mean by mountains? I didn’t think Arkansas had mountains.”
“Yeah, they do. Not huge like the Rockies or anything, but they’re pretty big. We used to drive through them every year to a baseball tournament that was held in Harrison.”
“Wait, do you mean hills like we have in Austin or actual mountains?”
“They’re pretty big. Riding a bike will be tricky.”
“When the hell were you going to share that with me, fearless leader?”
“It slipped my mind, okay? I wasn’t thinking, I was just happy to get moving, even happier that we had bikes and could cut the length of the trip in third.”
“Shit. Shit, man!” Tyler said and dropped his hands. He slapped them against his pant leg in frustration.
A chunk of pavement flew up beside them, followed by the report of a single shot from somewhere behind the barricade. Tyler stopped and immediately raised his hands once more.
“Hey! What did I tell you about not making any sudden movements?” the man who’d spoken to them earlier called out from where he was huddled with three other men.
“I’m sorry!” Tyler yelled. “We were having a discussion about our route.”
“Well, stay patient and quiet or it ain’t gonna matter!” Tyler nodded his head and stared off towards the side of the road away from his roommate.
Aeric felt bad. “I’m sorry, man. I totally forgot about the mountains. Look, I told you about how McAlester was a flaming wreck when I drove through back in June, right? There’s no telling what it’s like now, so it’s better that we didn’t go that way. It might have been the target of a nuke, probably most military sites were.”
He looked back at his friend. “Yeah. We need to spend a long, hard time looking at a map.”
Aeric couldn’t resist himself and said, “You said, ‘long and hard’ what a pervert!”
“God knows I could go for some of that too,” Tyler answered with a sad smile.
He’d expected Tyler to reply with something sarcastic, not the dejected answer that his big friend had given. “Hey, what’s wrong? Besides the fact that our heads are in the crosshairs of a sniper right now.”
“I don’t know, man. If we survive this—and that looks less likely every time we have any type of interaction with other people—then where does that leave me? Let’s say we join some type of community, we’ll say San Angelo for the fun of it. Those people are going to want someone who can help add to the gene pool, not a gay man who can’t even cook. I mean, besides being strong, I don’t really have any skills that would be useful to some type of post-apocalyptic society.”
“You’re pretty good at killing people,” Aeric reminded him. It was another example of how much their lives had already changed. They stood ten feet from a pile of dead bodies and talked openly about murdering people in cold blood.
Tyler chuckled and said, “By the time we make it back to Texas—if that’s even what we decide to do—everyone who’s left alive will be pretty good at killing people too. I’m just bummed, that’s all.”
“Oh great, now you’re talking about bums. First it was long and hard, now bums. When is it ever going to end with you?”
Tyler smiled, “Look who’s talking about ends now.”
Once again, Aeric was grateful for his friend’s lack of sensitivity about his sexual orientation. For now, it seemed like Tyler’s melancholy had passed. He was right though, he’d have to determine what he could give to a potential community in order to be useful to them. That made Aeric wonder what he had to offer that was useful. Like Tyler, he was strong and could swing a baseball bat well, but those were about the only skills that he had.
“Alright, you two. Come here,” their host ordered.
They walked stiffly forward. Was this where they got shot or stabbed to save bullets? “We talked about it. You’re right, there ain’t no easy way around and to turn you fellers back when you ain’t done nothing wrong wouldn’t be the Christian thing to do. Lord knows we’re trying to do some good deeds before the Rapture happens. We’ll guide you around the city on the Three Twenty-Three over to Highway Two Seventy-One, that will take you northeast towards Arkansas.”
Aeric breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Oh wow, thank you!”
“We talked about it,” the man said as he indicated the other three men. “If you’re just passing through, there’s no reason not to take you around. You hafta go beyond the barricade on that road before you camp for the night. Deal?”
“Deal,” both Tyler and Aeric replied in unison.
“Okay then, let’s get started. It’s about six miles from here to Two Seventy-One and then another half a mile or so until you reach the barricade.”
“You’re going with us?” Aeric asked.
“Yep. I’m Tim. Jacob and me will be riding our bikes behind you two and will shoot you both dead as doornails if you try to escape into Tyler. You hear me?”
“Of course,” Aeric replied. “We’d never try anything like that. I’m Aeric and this is Tyler.”
“Huh,” Tim grunted. “Tyler. Maybe we shoulda given you a warmer welcome. Alright, go grab your bikes and we’ll move the cars so you can get through.”
They returned to their bikes and walked them through the opening that the guards had made by putting one of the vehicles along the side of the road in neutral and pushing it a little ways into the ditch. As they passed through, Aeric thought about how this type of barricade would stand up to a determined group trying to overrun the city. Quite simply, it wouldn’t work at all. It was useful for stopping individuals and small groups, but anything larger than twenty or thirty men would be able to absorb the damage that the defenders could inflict on them and continue on.
They hopped on their bikes and rode slowly down the highway with Tim and his companion following behind on their own bicycles. As they rode, he thought about the ways to defend this place. For one, they were much too spread out. He didn’t know if there were certain key locations away from the downtown area that they needed to secure or if the city’s leaders had thought that the roads made a convenient place to defend from. If it were him, he would have pulled back well within the
ring road, which still gave them a twelve-mile square area to defend. He didn’t know how many people that the city of Tyler boasted, but even that reduced coverage area was too much space.
It was strange to think about the defense of an American town. What would they defend against? What threat had caused them to erect barricades across the road and place armed guards on them? The answer hit him hard in the stomach. He hadn’t wanted to think about it before.
As the food became more and more scarce, people would leave wherever they were and begin searching for additional supplies. Human nature was to join together in groups—for defense and offense. Every little town would become a target. The bigger cities that remained would probably destroy themselves from the inside first, and then the smaller towns would be hit by the survivors from the city.
It wasn’t a pretty line of thought. Smaller towns in the Midwest and American South likely had residents who farmed small gardens and had greater access to locally-canned goods, but the cities would quickly run out of food. All those people in apartment buildings in the downtown areas, probably with only about a week’s worth of supplies, would soon be searching for ways to provide for themselves and their families. It seemed like he was lumping everyone into a general category and knew that some would have much more food than what he’d thought, so as a general guide, he set ten days as the point when they would begin to see real problems with food.
That timeframe, about five days from now, put them on the road still. Would his parents be alright? He thought that they were probably a little better off than their neighbors. They had a lot of deer meat and frozen food in the chest freezer in the garage, but that wouldn’t have lasted long once the power went out. They would have had to eat a lot of it right away or it would have spoiled.
Aeric grinned at the thought of his mom and dad having the neighbors over, grilling all that meat and giving it away. His parents loved to host parties and his dad always had a pile of hickory wood for grilling and smoking meat, so even without power, they’d have been fine for cooking. He could imagine them trying to make the best of the situation and playing lawn games with everyone while the meat cooked.
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