Percy's Mission

by Jerry D. Young

  “Not too bad, but I’m not up to a long trip. FEMA says the winter is going to be tough. I aim to put together some supplies and go south. FEMA is handing out a little food for work.”

  “Yeah. I heard that on the radio.” Angela shifted the gun slightly, raising the end of the barrel enough for it to point over Charlie’s head. But ready to drop it again and fire if needed.

  “You have a car or something? And fuel?”

  Charlie shook his head. “No. Bicycle and trailer. Fuel is hard to get. There’s people scavenging, though they aren’t supposed to. You can buy it if you have whiskey, food, guns and ammo, or silver and gold. If you don’t get caught.”

  “So there is trading going on,” Angela said. She brought the shotgun barrel down and tucked the stock under her arm. “You can put your hands down. But don’t try anything.”

  “I won’t,” Charlie replied. “Yeah. You can trade. A lot of people are. There is a lot of scavenging, despite the National Guard patrols. They aren’t pushing it too hard as long as it doesn’t get too flagrant. Or violent. They’re really cracking down on violence.”

  “What are they doing to gun owners?”

  Charlie shook his head again. “Nothing if you don’t use it first. A lot of people go armed. Me, I just have my closet rod handy.”

  Angela started visibly when Emily called down from the top of the stairs. “Angela, are you okay down there?”

  Looking up the stairs, Angela saw Emily standing in the doorway, John on one side, and Catherine on the other.

  “Jeez, Emily!” Angela called up. “You scared me half to death! And I could have shot you. What are you doing out of the shelter?”

  “Well, the kids wanted out and you’ve been gone a while and I wanted to see what was going on and… I know you told us to stay, but it’s been such a long time and you were out… and I was afraid you might just take off… and… I don’t know. I’m sorry!” Emily was starting to cry.

  “Okay, Emily. It’s okay.”

  “Someone has been here, haven’t they?” Emily asked.

  “Yeah. A man named Charlie. He’s here now. He’s been living in your basement for three weeks.”

  Again Charlie was surprised at her knowing that detail. She must have been watching from the start. That was creepy.

  “Is he dangerous?”

  “I’m not. Really,” Charlie said quietly.

  Angela frowned. “I don’t think so, but we can’t take any chances,” she told Emily. To Charlie she said, “I’m going to let you go, with your stuff. But don’t try anything.”

  “Thank you,” Charlie replied, relieved. “I won’t try anything. It’ll take me a little while to move everything.”

  “I understand. Make sure it’s far away.”

  Charlie’s face fell. “I was just going to move to the next house,” he said, the disappointment obvious in his voice. “I can’t afford to get too far from the FEMA camp.”

  “Oh,” Angela said. “But how do I know I can trust you not to try something?”

  With a shake of his head, Charlie sadly replied. “I guess you can’t, can you? Can I have a couple of days to move everything? I’ll do it whenever you say.”

  Angela groaned when Emily called down, “Why can’t he stay here, Angela? We’re staying in the shelter. He can’t do anything to us there.”

  “Emily!” Angela barked. Under her breath she muttered, “Tell all our secrets, why don’t you.”

  It hit Charlie then. The big disks on the ground in the back yard must be part of an underground shelter. “You must be alone, then,” Charlie said. Before he could continue, Angela spoke.

  “What of it? I’ve got the gun. And I will use it.”

  “I understand. What I meant was that it’s hard being on your own. I don’t want to stay in the camp, but I’m afraid all the time that someone will catch me off guard and hurt me and take my stuff. Like you could have done, if you wanted to. Maybe I could be of some help to you. I don’t want anything, but you’re going to want to go to the camp and register. You can get food and water there. And information. I can keep an eye on things.”

  “Yeah. Like that’s going to happen.” Angela snorted.

  Emily had come down the stairs several steps. She bent down and looked at Charlie. “Isn’t that a good idea, Angela? We need to do that. Get registered. I’m sure the government will know what to do. But I don’t like the idea of leaving the place empty.”

  Angela just shook her head. After a moment she said, “But we don’t even know him. He could do anything.”

  “We have to trust someone,” Emily said quietly. “Has he really done anything to indicate he’s a danger? It doesn’t look like he hurt the house.”

  “Well, no, not really. And he’s got radiation sickness.”

  With that, Emily backed up the stairs and gathered her children to her. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea, then.”

  “Emily, you can’t catch radiation sickness from someone. Not if they’ve been decontaminated.”

  Charlie quickly interjected, “I have been. Clothes and all.”

  “Oh,” Emily said. “That’s different, then.” Firming up her voice, Emily added, “I’ve let you make the decisions so far, Angela. But I’ve always been one to lend a hand. At least when Edward would let me. Which wasn’t often. He’s obviously a sick, homeless man. And he said he wants to help. We should help him if we can.”

  “Things have changed,” Angela protested.

  Angela was rather impressed when Emily stood up to her. “I must insist.”

  “Well, it is your house and shelter. And I’m not going to give up what you’ve shared with me, unless I have to, so what you say goes.” Angela looked over at Charlie again. “I guess you get to stay.” It was Angela’s turn to harden her voice. “But you try the least little thing and I’ll put you down like a rabid dog.” She was surprised when Emily didn’t protest.

  “You aren’t making a mistake,” Charlie said. “Okay. What’s next?”

  “I want to see this FEMA camp of yours. Come on upstairs.” Angela stayed cautious, but Charlie followed her up the stairs without any problems. They all took seats around the dining room table. Angela had the Benelli slung over her shoulder, but kept her hand near the Colt 1911.

  “I’m reluctant for all of us to go at once,” Angela said, when no one else spoke up. The two children headed up to their rooms to get some toys they’d been deprived of for the last two months.

  “Maybe you and Charlie should go so you can check it out while I and the children stay in the shelter.”

  Angela was surprised again. It was what she was going to suggest. “Okay. That sounds workable. But you must promise me you will stay in the shelter with the hatch dogged until we get back.”

  Emily nodded. “When?”

  “I was going in tomorrow for more rations and water,” Charlie offered. Emily and Charlie both looked at Angela.

  “Okay, I guess. Charlie and I’ll go in tomorrow.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Firewood became another major commodity as the weather turned wintry before the end of October. Percy had been coppicing his woodlands for years and had massive amounts of firewood stacked in several huge storage piles around the estate.

  One of the deals he’d made when he’d gone into the city so many months before when he’d first become uneasy with the world situation and the weather patterns was the purchase of firewood from several establishments that sold it in the city. He’d bought a total of a hundred full cords and it had all been delivered, except the last two cords, by the time the war started.

  He’d made quite a few deals since then, to obtain wood from others. A few people cut it and sold it to him. Percy wouldn’t clear cut, so many people allowed him to send a wood cutting crew in to harvest selected trees for firewood. He took the entire tree, including branches. The good stove wood he began stockpiling at the hardware store. He’d found someone to manage it for him. They began selling the
firewood, along with the remaining stock of items that Percy hadn’t taken out to the estate.

  After Percy had moved what he wanted there was plenty of room to stack firewood inside the store. There had been three house fires in the time since the war. There simply wasn’t water available to fight them, nor equipment with which to do it. The town had a small pumper truck, but with only the two-hundred-fifty gallons of water it would hold, and no working hydrants to pump from, each of the three fires had been lost causes. Percy bought the houses, demolished them and stored the good lumber for later use. Wood not useable as lumber was added to the firewood piles, including furniture that wasn’t exceedingly useful.

  Many people were grateful for the source of wood. No one said much when the winter worsened and people began to tear down abandoned houses for the wood they contained. Tom and the city council finally just condemned several of the houses, demolished them and used the wood and furniture from them in stoves that Randy built to heat the rooms in the school for people to use as shelter when they couldn’t heat their own homes adequately.

  An opening was made in the outside wall of a room adjacent to the school’s kitchen. A large water tank was moved in and a pump with a pressure tank connected to it. A generator was run twice a day to pressure up the water system and provide electricity for several purposes. Part of the diesel they bought from Percy was used to run the genset. A horse drawn wagon with a water tank in it kept the tank in the school supplied. A limited amount of hot water was obtained by circulating water through the radiator of the engine of the generator.

  Percy wasn’t able to make quite enough biodiesel to prevent using the stocks of the commercial fuel, but the use was vastly minimized. One of the things he paid a premium for were the chemicals needed to produce the biodiesel. The alcohol production was going well. Several vehicles had their engines converted to run straight alcohol, based on information obtained from books that Percy had in his library.

  Gasoline was scarce. Percy had set up a buying program for gasoline the day he’d made so many other deals in town. He was buying gasoline from people that had cars that wouldn’t run, but still had fuel in them. He got over a thousand gallons that way. Most of it he accumulated in a tank in town and sold in cans out of the hardware store. He also sold some biodiesel there, as well.

  Plans were made to convert a couple of trucks with gasoline engines to run on wood gas. It was a project for the next year, when better plans for providing firewood would be made.

  Percy kept the generators going at the estate on a limited basis. They ran only when needed, then were shut down to conserve fuel. The heaviest use was for supplemental grow lights in the greenhouses. Some of the plants began to show signs of distress when the weather stayed cloudy for days on end. The regular rains kept the panels clear, and there was increased UV, but the lights were needed in three of the greenhouses that had plants needing more light than nature was providing.

  With what people were doing on their own, in town and on other area farms, people were able to have enough to eat, though many lost considerable weight. Many had it to lose. A few didn’t.

  Since it was easy to keep warm, one of the cottages was declared the new clinic. The equipment was moved from the clinic that had been built. Henry made regular runs into town and back to deliver small quantities of food, and shuttle people back and forth that needed a doctor or were paying off their labor barters to Percy.

  Percy made it a point to feed everyone well when anyone worked for him. Many of them considered the hours of labor they’d already received some good, product, or service for, as a gift from heaven. They often got the equivalent again of what they originally purchased, as Percy provided everything, including their transportation.

  Percy even insisted they see the doctor while they were at the estate and had an arrangement with the Doctors Bluhm to cover the cost so anyone working more than four hours for Percy had at least one comprehensive doctor’s visit. They didn’t have a real dentist, but Jock studied up, again in Percy’s library, and began to do the work.

  There’d been a dentist in town at one time. He’d left in a hurry with the IRS after him two years previously. He’d left all his equipment behind. It was one of the properties that the city council had declared town property. Percy bought the equipment and moved it to the cottage for Jock to use.

  It was an austere Christmas for everyone, but most that were Christian were able to celebrate to some degree. Percy hosted a Christmas Eve party in the school auditorium and almost everyone in the area attended.

  One of the reasons for the party, besides the Christmas aspect of it was to have half a dozen marriage ceremonies performed. It was easier for the one surviving minister to perform them. It was also easier on the couples. The reception was taken care of, and all the guests were pretty much guaranteed to be there.

  Four of the couples were townspeople. One couple was Andy and Susie. The sixth was Percy and Sara. He’d asked her after their Thanksgiving dinner at the estate and she’d agreed. Mattie had helped her move her things from the gold bedroom to Percy’s that weekend. Percy had the idea for the Christmas party and wedding when he’d asked her.

  Percy provided all the food and drink for the party. It strained the production of the greenhouses, and put a noticeable hole in Percy’s reserves, but he felt it worth it. Things were going well. The townspeople provided the decorations, except the tree. Percy provided it and contributed it to the firewood pile after New Years. Everyone brought an ornament. The tree decorating was the start of the party as everyone hung an ornament.

  It was the best meal many of the people had all winter, except those that worked at the estate from time to time. Percy hadn’t skimped. It was only partly due to the fact that not all the animals would survive the winter, though that was a factor. Two steers, four hogs, and thirty-six chickens fed the nearly three hundred and fifty people that attended. It was nearly the entire remaining population of the town and surrounding farms.

  Even Sara’s boss made it down to attend. He was down to consult with Sara on her progress evaluating the area’s population and progress. He stayed for the party and left Christmas day to go back to the capital. There were many places, he said, that weren’t celebrating. Of all the counties he dealt with, this one was doing the best, by far, of any of them.

  There was no celebration for the New Year. The weather had been cold and snowy for Christmas. It was downright bitter the week after and got worse after New Year’s Day. New Year’s Eve night the low at the estate was forty-one below zero. There was four and a half feet of snow on the ground. The snow was dirty, mixed with the ash that continued to fall from time to time.

  Those at the estate did fine. It took very little to heat the earth-sheltered structures to a comfortable temperature. The animal barn didn’t need any heat. The animals kept it more than warm enough.

  Percy always remembered the death toll in the town and surrounding area. There were forty-one deaths from the cold. The same number as the negative thermometer reading.

  At least the bees had quit dying off. When Percy had checked the hives in the bee barn that night there were only the normal number of bee carcasses outside the hives. The fanners at the entrance of one of the hives looked like very young bees. Percy breathed a sigh of relieve. Bees were very important to a farm.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  “Okay, honey,” Sara said, “I’m up. What is so important today?” Sara was standing and stretching beside their bed.

  From the bathroom Percy said, “We’ve got to get a load into town today. It’s your first trip driving one of the Unimogs with the snow blower on the highway. I want you to practice on the driveways before we get out on the highway.”

  “Oh, Percy! I’ll do fine. You know you can have one of the others drive it if you don’t trust me.” The last was added chidingly.

  Percy looked around the doorframe. He still had shaving cream on his face and the straight razor in his hand. Unlike
most of the men, he still shaved every day. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just… I worry about you. I finally have you in my life and I don’t want anything to happen to you. Since the road became so bad, using the snow blower is tricky and dangerous. Especially at the stream crossing. It’s really narrow there across the culvert we put in after the bridge went down.”

  “Oh, Percy,” Sara said with a smile. She stepped up to him, put her arms around him and kissed him on the lips, shaving cream and all. “I love you when you worry. I love you a tiny bit more when you don’t, but it’s not that much different.”

  Percy wiped his wife’s face clear of shaving cream with the towel from the vanity. “I love you too, all the time. No matter what. Now get your shower and get dressed. We are going to clean the driveways on the estate before we leave, whether its practice or just getting the job done.”