Catastrophe in America

by Pete Thorsen

We went through the tool section and I grabbed an odd looking tool that actually looked rather wicked. It said it was a thirty inch Stanley FuBar. It was made of steel but was not too heavy. I handed it to Amy.

  “This thing is wicked. I’m taking this with. It might not be as good as your spear but it is something I can handle because it is not as heavy as it looks.”

  “I was hoping you would take it because it would be good for prying open doors and such too besides just bashing people. But I have to say only an animal would have a wicked weapon like that.”

  “I’m sorry I called you that. I have been doing a lot of thinking and you were right about many things. This is a whole new world that we find ourselves in now and a much more dangerous one. We all either have to adapt or die I think and I have chosen to adapt.”

  We found flashlights and we each took two and put fresh batteries in them. We both left our old flashlights there. I did put a couple extra sets of batteries in my new cart too. In the house wares section we took some candles and put in the wagon. Along with some of those heavy weight re-usable shopping bags so our stuff would not fall out so easy from the wagon. I found some more cigarette lighters and took a few packs of them with. I grabbed some stretchy things with hooks on each end to tie down the stuff in the wagon if we loaded it very full.

  The cash registers had the drawers pried open but under the counter we found some partial boxes of candy bars and such that they must have used to refill the displays near the checkout that were now all bare of food.

  We left that store pretty happy with what we had found inside. Amy whacked a few things with her new weapon to try it out and seemed happy with it. For just yesterday calling me an animal she sure looked ready for battle now with that FuBar.

  From the hardware store we went back to the motel and I left the wagon there locked in a first floor room. We just had our weapons and one flashlight each when we left again.

  We went to the nearby Walmart store and there were plenty of other people going in and out. This was to be expected because this was a highly populated area and people got to eat and drink. We went in with low expectations and decided to stay together. We took a fast walk through the grocery section but the shelves were for the most part bare. There were condiments like relish and tarter sauce and such but no real food though I did take a container of instant coffee.

  The store was an absolute mess with broken open boxes and broken bottles and such all over the floors. You had to watch where you stepped with each movement. If we would not have had flashlights it would have been totally hopeless. Without light you would have been tripping over all the mess with every step. I thought maybe it would be messy in the food section but it was like that over the whole store. Even the clothing section had clothes scattered about.

  From there we went to the health section and we each got a couple tooth brushes and a tube of toothpaste each. We got deodorant, disposable razors; Amy got a hair brush and some hair tie backs (she has long light brown hair). Then we made up our own first aid kit with stuff that was still on the shelves (Amy seemed to know some about first aid!). We went to the sporting goods section but most everything was gone from that area and there was what appeared to be dried blood all over the floor there but we saw no body on the floor. I was ready to leave when Amy said we should go into the house wares section. There she picked out a simple cooking pot with a lid made out of stainless steel. She said that we could not depend on finding clean water much longer and this would allow us to boil what ever water we did find. A very great idea and I told her so to!

  We left the store carrying our treasures and no one there had bothered us at all. Back at the motel I opened several more rooms so we could get the four water bottles that each one contained along with more of the soaps and shampoo bottles.

  We could carry more now using the wagon. We carefully packed the wagon with the heavy water on the bottom and used a blanket off one of the beds to cover everything and act as a cushion on the wagon bed and I used some of those stretchy cords with the hooks to secure everything. We each still wore our packs and at my urging we each had some water and a little food in our packs. That way if we had to make a run for it and leave the wagon behind we would still have a little food and water.

  We were definitely much more formidable together with our wicked looking weapons. I gave Amy the knife that I had got from the man who wanted to harm her so she had two weapons. I had a hunting knife in a sheath that I had got from the first guy I killed. It was not an early start but we were now much better prepared because of our looting this morning and we got back on the Interstate highway and continued west to our as yet unknown destination.

  Chapter Eleven

  We settled into an easy gait on the big highway and we took turns pulling the wagon. Amy was in good shape and obviously worked out in a gym quite often. We stopped when we were tired or thirsty but we went way to the side of the highway each time we stopped. We had many candy bars now and at a couple of our stops we each ate one to keep us going. There were very few vehicles on the road at this point though we did see some. There were many people walking and riding bikes. Some people had shopping carts with stuff in and some had the luggage with those little wheels on one end that they were using. Some had backpacks and some had plastic shopping bags while others had nothing at all. Many also carried something that could be used as a weapon. We did see a few dead bodies here and there also.

  The fact that we had a kid’s wagon raised not any surprised looks though some looked rather enviously at us. Many people had something that could be used as a weapon with baseball bats and golf clubs being popular choices. I had the only spear that we saw and no one had that same odd wicked looking tool that Amy carried. By the afternoon we had seen a few more dead bodies lying in the road. There were also many more stalled vehicles that had likely just run out of gas and been abandoned.

  As we walked along at first there was little conversation between us but gradually we both would start conversations mainly just to break the monotony of our steady walking. After riding in cars and other vehicles for all my life I never really thought about how slow travel would actually be if you had to walk everywhere. I can tell you that it takes along time to get anywhere walking. So we talked.

  I told her about my trip before meeting up with her and she told me about leaving her apartment and walking. She had only started walking that morning that we met and had no problems to that point though she had seen fights and dead bodies. A few times she had pretended to be walking with other groups of people so it did not look like she was alone.

  I told her about what I heard about the power outage being caused by a cyber or terrorist attack but said I had no idea how anyone would have gotten that information when the internet and TV were both down right away. She said that the phone lines were up for awhile and people obviously called friends and family so they might have received information that way about what caused the power to go out.

  I felt rather silly for not thinking about that myself. She did say she had heard a different reason from a couple people but she thought no one really knew for sure what caused the outage and most were only guessing or making it up to make them sound important.

  We walked all day and got as far as a place called Raritan, New Jersey. We had turned off of the interstate onto highway 202 which went more west while the interstate had turned north. Not that it really made any difference because we had no destination anyway but west was the way I thought I wanted.

  We found a Super Eight motel there but could not find any keys to get into the rooms. I used Amy’s weapon on a couple rooms until I found a clean one with two beds. We had agreed that we could stay in a single room as once I opened the doors with that tool they would not relock again so we both thought it would be much safer for both of us to sleep in the same room.

  We did explore the motel pretty thoroughly looking for food. There was a soda vending machine that had been broken open for the money it containe
d but there was a lot of sodas and other cans of drinks still in there. It was same with a one of those candy/chips/jerky vending machines with the money gone but a bunch of the food remaining. The only other thing we found were some maps of the area.

  So we now had plenty to drink with quite a variety of choices and the same with our new food supply. It sure was not the healthiest of food choices but neither of us were doing any complaining about it. While Amy used the pool for a bath tub I found the water heaters and refilled our empty water bottles.

  I no longer carried those heavy glass wine bottles (though I saved the corks) because we had all the plastic water bottles we needed and now we had a lot of canned drinks too. When I got back to our room after filling the bottles she was back and said the tub was free for me to use.

  I had never taken a bath in a tub this big before but it worked just fine. I had found some pails in a janitor’s room and dipped them full at the pool and brought them to our room for flushing the toilet. When we were both in the room for the night I wedged the room’s only chair tightly under the door knob to ‘lock’ the door.

  Sleeping in the motels was certainly one of my better ideas. A real bed provided a much more restful sleep. I slept like a rock and woke up feeling good but hungry (I was getting used to always being hungry now). I slipped out of bed quietly when I saw that Amy was still sleeping. I grabbed my toiletries and quietly left the room so I could perform my morning duties in another room and let her sleep awhile longer. There was no hurry that I could see as we had no where to go and plenty of time to get there I thought.

  After getting my morning stuff done I wandered around the motel doing a little more searching for anything useful that we might have missed the evening before but found nothing of value. When I wandered back to our room Amy was up and it looked like she was about ready because I could see that she had cleaned up and brushed her hair (which looked rather nice I thought).

  Taking a good look at her I realized while the two of us together were more formidable than if we were separate, traveling with her also made us a target because beautiful women were always a target even in the old world and especially now in this new world. I don’t think she would last very long on her own even if she was willing to use that wicked weapon she now carried.

  “Good morning. I was just about to have breakfast. Have you eaten yet?”

  “No. If you are cooking I’ll have two eggs, scrambled, with bacon and three pancakes.”

  “I only wish I could provide that. I’m having my favorite, dry cold cereal washed down with an orange soda.”

  “That sounds good too. I think I’ll have the same.”

  We ate our meager breakfast together and then left our resting place and got back on the road. After looking at what maps we had we decided to continue heading southwest on highway 202. There seemed to be fewer people on this highway which we both noticed and commented on as we walked. We didn’t see any moving vehicles today, at least so far.

  Around noon we stopped and ate some of our snack food and each of us had a warm soda. The highway seemed to be going into a more rural area now and as the afternoon progressed it got very rural so we did not even see hardly any houses and there were fewer people walking here also.

  I was getting concerned about where we would sleep for the night. While getting off the highway and sleeping under the stars would likely be safe enough in this area that thought of sleeping on the ground had no appeal to me. I wanted a nice cozy bed to sleep in but it looked like that was unlikely for tonight.

  Chapter Twelve

  It was around two in the afternoon when we heard the noise of a vehicle coming toward us from ahead. We were on a fairly straight stretch of highway and way ahead it looked like maybe military vehicles or big trucks were stopped ahead of us. We continued walking and then Amy stopped and spoke.

  “Throw your spear in that tall grass, now.”

  She gave me a look as she unlashed the wagon and put her Fubar on the bottom and covered it with our supplies. I did not know what she was thinking but I now trusted her and tossed the spear well off the road into the tall grass.

  “Take the knife off your belt and I’ll hide it in here. Quick!”

  Without a question I handed her the knife and sheath, which she also put on the bottom of the wagon. Then she pulled out a soda for each of us before re-lashing down our wagon cover. Then we started walking again and both of us could see that those were indeed Army vehicles and they were getting closer.

  They could also easily see us as we walked along drinking our cans of warm soda. The Army guys stopped at each group of pedestrians and the walkers seemed to be getting into the backs of the trucks. Soon we were close to the Army rigs and Amy spoke to me plenty loud enough for the Army guys to hear. It was in a rather annoying nasal voice that I had never heard her use and made me wonder what she was up to.

  “See I told you the Army would show up to help us. There was no need to walk all this way to my folk’s house. I told you and I told you but no, you thought we had to walk all this way to my folks. Well I’m tired of walking and you are going to pay for every blister that I have on my feet. And you will pay dearly. Why we couldn’t just stay home and wait like I said we should I’ll never know. Why I let you drag me all this way I’ll regret for a long time. Why couldn’t you just listen to me, I’ll never kn….”

  “Excuse me ma’am. I’m sorry to interrupt but we are here to provide transport to a relief center up ahead. You will have to leave your wagon behind but everything you need will be provided to you by the government at that location. You can just get in the back of this truck.”

  “I told Henry that you would be coming to help us but he made me walk all this way. At this point we are only a very short way from my parent’s farm now. Is it alright if we just go there instead of with you?”

  “Is it close?”

  “I think it is only a mile or less now. He made me get up real early this morning and start this infernal walk all the way to my folk’s farm house and though it will be nice to see them again and sleep in my old room. I think Henry can sleep on the couch because it will serve him right for making me walk all th……”

  “Excuse me ma’am but if your destination is that close then it is fine if you want to go there instead of with us. Please go there directly and stay there once you arrive. We will be coming back through here at some point and stopping at all the farms and houses to provide transport to the camps for those that need it at that time. Please just continue on your way and I wish you all the best ma’am.”

  He directed the driver to go and the Army trucks rolled past us and we walked on very slowly until they were completely out of sight before we stopped.

  “So what was that all about?”

  “When I saw that it was Army trucks and that they were picking people up I got scared. I did not want to be brought to any detainment camp like a common criminal. You could have spoken up if that is where you would rather be.”

  “I’m still in shock from just listening to your performance. I must say I am impressed and you even had me almost believing that I was your brow-beaten husband. Even now I’m still half scared to be standing next to you before you lay into me again with that new voice of yours.”

  “Can you imagine how awful those camps must be? And they are hauling people back toward the City of 19 million people. One of those camps is the last place I want to be.”

  “I guess I have to agree. It was real bad there in the City and that is why I left in the first place. How could the Army possibly provide food, water, and sanitary living conditions for all those people when there is no power? Think of just how much water it would take for all the people just for drinking. It would be impossible. Thank you for saving us from that scene.”

  “You’re welcome but I was mostly saving myself. I’ll wait here while you go back and get your spear.”

  So I walked back to retrieve my spear from its hiding spot while she dug out my knife and
her weapon from the wagon and when I got back we continued walking on the now deserted highway pulling our wagon.

  Awhile later when a small road connected to the highway we turned onto the smaller road and continued our trek. When we saw a house we turned into the driveway and approached. After we got close enough to the house I called out.

  “Hello in the house. We are peaceful travelers passing through. We would like to talk. We have news about what is going on.”

  Amy and I heard nothing for a bit then a voice called out.

  “I have a shotgun and I’m not afraid to use it. What do you want here?”

  “If possible we would like to stay the night. We have cash and will gladly pay for a night’s lodging.”

  “What news do you have?”

  “We have a lot of news that we will give freely but I am all done yelling.”

  We waited and then heard movement in the house and the door opened to reveal an older man who did indeed have a large gun.

  “I’m not inclined to rent out a room for the night but I would like any news you can provide.”

  “We have walked all this way from Long Island and will tell you of our travels. I can understand if you do not want to take in any boarders but may we sit on your porch and talk? We have some unfortunately warm sodas that we would share with you.”

  “I recon it would be OK if we sat on the porch. Thank you for the offer of a soda but I am not into drinking the sweet drinks.”

  Amy and I walked up on his porch and we laid our make-shift weapons down on the floor next to our chairs that we sat in.

  “Is it bad in the City?”

  “Yes, it is worse than you can even imagine. No power, no water, no food, no sewer, and all the cops have apparently disappeared. Many people like us are walking away and hoping to find a safe place. And people are turning into animals.”

  “That is about what I figured it would be like but I thought the police would be still working and at least trying to maintain order. I’m Ed Winters.”