“Great,” said Harold. “Freddie Costner will watch his end of the road. As long as we provide him with fresh water he’ll help us out. James and his family will do the same over there. We’ll just need to watch the backside, which you guys will do, and the woods.”
“I can pitch a tent out there,” said Beetle. “I like camping and I like the idea of having my own little space in the world.”
“We should be able to hook you up with something more than a tent,” Harold said. “Kay and I are going to move out to the bus. That’ll free up our bedroom for Jake and Allie.”
“We can’t run ya’ll out of your own bedroom,” Ally said. “That’d be wrong on so many levels.”
“You aren’t running us out of anywhere,” Kay said, looking directly at Allie. “I want to go to the bus. I can’t stay in the house. It’s too hot in there.”
“What bus?” asked Beetle. “I see barns, sheds, and campers, but there ain’t a bus on the property. Unless you’re hiding it somewhere.”
“Yep,” Kay said. “We’ve got a hidden bus. And it’s going to be our new home.”
“We’re going to need some people to gather supplies,” Harold said. “We have food, but we’ll need more. We have gas, but that will run out soon. We’ll need to find anything we can use, like propane, bicycles and other ways to get around, ammo, weapons and things like that. We can’t run to Wal Mart for anything we need anymore, so we need to figure out other ways to gather things.”
“I can hunt and get meat,” John said. “That’s one thing I do well. It’s the best way I can contribute.”
“And I can take care of my babies and ya’lls,” Ashlyn said to Allie. “That way you won’t have to worry about them while ya’ll are helping in other ways.”
“Thank you, Ashlyn,” said Allie. “If you do that, Jake and I can go out and gather things we need.”
“I can go with ya’ll,” Beetle added. “I can watch the south during the night and gather during the day.”
“Now we’re talking,” Harold said. “This is the right way to accomplish things. We all work together for the betterment of our group. Lindsey Landing can be a safe place for us to survive, grow and prosper. We all have to watch out for each other and trust each other.
“I really don’t want to sound like a jerk or make anyone mad, but there are a couple of things I’m going to have to insist on. I may not have a right to make any rules, but I hope we can all agree that there must be some guidelines that we abide by.
“Like what, Uncle Harold?” Jake asked.
“Like we all have to be able to trust each other completely,” Harold started. “Simple, Christian values are what we have to comply with. No stealing from each other or from the group. If you take more than your fair share of food, you have to leave. If you don’t do your fair share of work for the betterment of the group, you have to leave. If you can’t get along with everyone in the group and make life miserable, you have to leave. Things like that. Simple things like no cursing. I want this to be a community that we all like living in; that our children can thrive in.
“Look, guys, we’re in a situation that none of us has ever been in before. Life is different today than it was just three days ago. We can’t go back to that life, no matter how bad we want to. None of us can survive alone. We need each other. We can make it through this if we work together and for each other. I firmly believe that God brought us all together for a reason. As long as we appreciate what He does for us and praise Him for the many blessings we receive, we will continue to be blessed.”
“And what if others want to join us?” Tommy asked. “Are we going to turn our backs on them?”
“Of course not,” Jake interjected. “I don’t think that’s what he was saying at all. As long as they contribute to the group and don’t take away from it they are welcome. Right?”
“Right,” Harold said. “Our resources are limited right now. We have enough for us right now, but once we start bringing in more supplies and more assets, I don’t see why we should turn our backs on anyone.”
“Ya’ll have sure been there for me when I needed it the most,” offered Pam. “I don’t know what I would have done if my husband’s plane went down anywhere else. I am so grateful to ya’ll for being there for me.” A tear ran down her cheek as she spoke.
“God guided that plane right where it needed to be,” Kay said as she took Pam’s hand in hers and squeezed it.
“You are welcome to stay here with us,” Harold said. “We can bury your husband under that oak tree with my mom.”
“No,” Pam said as she gently shook her head. “I’m sincerely grateful for all ya’ll have done, but I need to take C. C. home. He should be buried where he lived. Our place was our world. He should rest where he spent so many years working on. He needs to be at home. I’ll take him there and bury him.”
“We’ll get him out of that plane and rig up a trailer to carry him,” Tommy offered. “I’ll get started when we’re done here.”
Arlene and Jerry walked out the back door as the others talked. They heard what Pam had said and were also appreciative for the help they had received from the group in the back yard.
“Can I say something?” Arlene asked. All eyes turned toward her. “I’m not sure what this meeting is about, but I would like to express my appreciation to you all. It’s been crazy … real crazy, the past couple of days. All our lives have been turned upside down. It’s been very hard on me, as I am sure it’s been hard on everyone.
“The one thing I can say for sure is that you are one lucky group of people. You have each other. I see such love here. I see a bunch of people that I believe would lay their life on the line for each other if they had to. Ya’ll are so inspiring. I don’t think any of you realize how fortunate you are to have each other. You are all blessed, and I have been blessed to have met each and every one of you.
“However, like this fine lady, I feel that I have to go home. I have a daughter that is waiting for me. She needs me, just like you all need each other. It’s going to break my heart to leave you fine people, but I’d appreciate it if someone could give me a ride home when you can. And if you can’t, that’s ok. Sincerely, it is ok. I can certainly walk.”
There was silence.
“Can you take her home?” Harold asked as he turned to Ray Lynn.
“I’d be honored to escort this purty lil’ lady to her castle,” Ray Lynn said.
“I’ll ride with him,” Jerry said.
“No,” Arlene said. “You need to stay here and watch after your Dad. I showed you how to change his dressings and which pills to give him. He needs you here.”
“I understand,” Jerry replied. “Would it be alright if my Dad and I stay around for a few days until he’s able to travel?”
“Of course,” Harold answered. “Ya’ll can stay in that room as long as you need to.”
“Then I’ll ride shotgun with him,” Beetle offered. Ray Lynn nodded his head in agreement. They both looked at Harold, who also nodded.
“Sounds like we all have things to do,” Harold said. “We should all meet every evening at dinnertime to discuss the day and make plans for the next. Does anyone else have anything to add before we go our separate ways?”
“Yea,” John said. “You said you had a radio? Can we listen to it to see if we can find out any more news?”
“Sure,” Harold answered. “I’ll get it and let you use it. There are some fresh batteries inside. There’s another radio if anyone else would like to listen to it for a while.”
“I’d like to,” Allie said. “Maybe we can get different channels and gather more information that way.”
“Alrighty then,” Harold said. “I’ll get you one after I take Kay to the bus.”
“You really have a bus hidden somewhere?” Beetle asked.
“I have a lot of things up my sleeve,” Harold said. “The bus is one of the bigger ones, but don’t be surprised to find out there is more here than you, or a
nybody, knows about. We can’t reveal all our secrets.”
Harold smiled as he reached down and unlocked the brakes on Kay’s chair. He began pushing her toward the tater shed. Jake helped.
Tommy, Ellen and John walked out toward the pipeline to see what they could do about removing the pilot’s body from the wreckage. Roxie insisted that Pam stay with her and help her with dinner. Arlene and Jerry returned to the room where Bobby laid and talked about his care. Allie and Ashlyn gathered the kids together and took them to the swings to play while Ray Lynn and Beetle prepared the truck for the upcoming trip.
Although everyone went their separate ways, they all had similar thoughts dancing around in their heads. Life certainly had changed in every way possible and everyone knew that it would never be the same.
Chapter 9
Abednego and the bear
Sierra sat on the landing fanning the small plastic cutting board, creating a small, but noticeable breeze to caress her face and neck. It was a typical hot summer day in Lumberton, Texas. That alone sucked. Having no electricity sucked even more. That meant no ac – not even a fan. The suck king of all suckiness, though, was being seven-months pregnant in this weather.
Oh. Emm. Gee.
“Babe,” she shouted through the open door, “the kid wants some spaghetti so bad.” The cravings were bad before, but now that the baby in her belly knew that there was no way to fix anything to eat, let alone go down to Napoli’s to get some of their delicious spaghetti and meat sauce, they seemed to do nothing but intensify.
Abednego (or Abe, as everyone called him) was looking through the pantry for something to have for dinner that didn’t have to be cooked. They had eaten pretty well for the past couple of days, since everyone around them in the apartment complex had fired up their grills and cooked the meat they had in their freezers before it thawed out and spoiled. For most of the day, though, there were no coals heating up any of the grills around. Everyone had apparently run out of meat, or coal, or both.
The only thing left in the pantry was a case and a half of Ramen noodles, a couple cans of Spam, some canned corn and a half-empty box of pancake mix. Abe was hungry, but nothing looked good. He couldn’t nuke anything anyway.
“Babe,” he heard Sierra call him again. He wondered if he should change his name.
“Wait,” he thought to himself, “my name is Abe, not Babe.” Wouldn’t do any good to change it. Oh Well.
“Try to start the car again,” Sierra suggested. “The ac would feel so good right now.”
Abe poked his head through the doorway. “I’ve tried to start the car a hundred times today,” he said. “It’s not going to start. And we don’t have any spaghetti. We have noodles, but no way to cook ‘em. We can have raw Spam,”
“Ewwwww,” was the response. Sierra hated Spam.
Abe knew he was running out of options. He wanted to take care of his pregnant girlfriend, but the pantry was getting empty, fast, and there was no way to replenish their supplies. The grocery story was closed, and people had raided it anyway. There was only one place he knew there would be food. It was a good distance away and he was sure Sierra wouldn’t be willing to walk.
He walked outside and joined her on the landing. “Listen,” he said as he took her hand in his, “we’re going to have to go do my dad’s place. That’s about the only option we have left.”
Sierra looked into Abe’s eyes. She could tell that he was worried. She didn’t feel like walking all the way to Silsbee, but she didn’t want to sit here and starve to death, either. She took a deep breath and bowed her head as she thought about it.
“O.K. Babe,” she finally said. “I don’t know if I can walk that far, but I’m willing to try. You may have to carry me part of the way.”
Abe smiled. He was pleasantly surprised that she wasn’t going to put up an argument about this.
“I’ll pack up what I can get in the backpack and we’ll head out,” he said. “If we leave soon, we could be there before nighttime.”
It didn’t take but about five minutes for Abe to stuff the backpack full of necessities. He packed a couple of changes of clothes for each of them, the prenatal vitamins, what food that was left in the pantry and the last carton of cigarettes they had. He carried Sierra’s sneakers out to her and bent down to put them on her.
“I’m not so sure about this, Babe,” she said. “That’s a long way to walk.”
“I know,” Abe answered. “We really don’t have any other choice, though. It sucks, but we have to do it.”
He helped her up off the chair and planted a kiss on her forehead. “We’ll take this so you can have a comfortable place to sit when we take a break,” he said as he folded up the chair. He unwound a bungee cord from the porch railing and wrapped it around the chair. He held the chair in one hand and helped Sierra down the stairs with his other.
The two started walking.
It didn’t take but about an hour for the young couple to cross over the Village Creek bridge. They had only stopped two times for a break, and those were pretty short stops. Sierra was very uncomfortable, but she was being a real trooper. She definitely did not like walking, but she kept reminding herself that this was the only way she was going to get anything good to eat.
It was eerie, Abe thought, that there were so many people walking along the highway. It was almost like the images you see on tv of refugees who were running away from wars. People were walking south, and others were walking north, like them.
After crossing the creek, a mile or so up the road, they came to an area alongside the road where several little groups were gathered beneath a shade tree. Abe recognized it as a place where people used to park to try and sell crawfish, steaks, buffalo jerky or some other kind of product. Now it appeared to be a rest area for foot travelers. He decided this would be a good place to stop for a minute.
Abe found a place near the woods to take a break. He took the bungee cord off the chair and unfolded it for his lady. She was happy to get off her swollen feet for a few minutes.
As they sat there, Sierra resting in the chair and Abe smoking a cigarette, a man walked over to them and asked if Abe had another smoke. “I’ll trade you a cigarette for a couple of bottles of water,” he answered. The man looked at him for a minute, shook his head and turned to walk away.
“I’ll take you up on that offer,” said another man on the other side of Sierra. Abe turned toward him to see that he was holding two bottles of water in his outstretched hands. Abe walked over to him and made the exchange. He even lit the man’s cigarette. He opened one of the bottles of water and handed it to Sierra. He put the other one in his backpack.
As he looked around, Abe recognized a man sitting on a three-wheeled bicycle near the shoulder of the road. He also recognized the bike. He walked over to the man.
“Hey, Calvin,” he said as he extended his hand. Calvin turned to see who had spoken and immediately recognized the young man who used to live across the road from him. “What are you doing out here?”
“Well,” Calvin said, “Barbara never made it home from work after tha pulse, so I figured I’d best go look fer her. You headin’ over to yer dad’s place?”
“Yea,” Abe answered, “my lady needs a better place to be than at our apartment.” He pointed toward Sierra, who was still sitting in the shade.
“She looks mighty pregnant,” Calvin said. “Ya reckon’ she should be walkin’ that far?”
“Not a whole lot of choice,” Abe said. “We’ve got to get there and Pat ‘n Ben are the only ones that’ll take us.”
Calvin looked at the pregnant young lady. She was sweating, and he could tell that her ankles were swollen pretty badly. He felt terrible knowing that the young couple still had a way to go before they would reach their destination. He reached into a bag in the back of the bike and pulled out a smaller bag.
“Here,” he said. “Take yer lady this sandwich an’ have the other fer yerself. Ya’ll both look like ya could use a bi
te ta eat.”
“That’s mighty kind of you, Calvin,” Abe said as he reached out and took the offering. He walked over and gave Sierra both of the sandwiches.
Calvin yelled over to Abe, “Hey boy. C’mere.” Abe walked back over to the kind man.
“This here is yor daddy’s bike,” he said. Abe nodded in acknowledgement. “He blessed me by lettin’ me use it to get this far. I reckon I’m close enough to bein’ where I need to be, so why don’t ya take it back ta him an tell him I really appreciate his lettin’ me borrow it.”
Abe didn’t know what to say.
“Just let me get my things outta the back an you can take it,” Calvin said as he opened the lid to the back of the bike and removed the two bags he had inside the small compartment. He also took out a sawed-off shotgun and laid it atop the bags.
“I can’t do that, Calvin,” Abe finally said. “My dad let you use that bike for a reason and it would be rude of me to do that to you.”
“Nonsense,” Calvin said. “You’d be doin’ me a favor by returnin’ it for me. There ain’t no way Barbara could fit on the back of this thang anyway.”
“Bless you,” Abe said. “I really appreciate it. Sierra appreciates it, too.”
Calvin picked up his bags and hung them over his shoulder, leaving his right hand free to carry his gun. He looked over toward the young pregnant girl and nodded to her. He then turned and started walking south, leaving the bike and two appreciative young people behind him.
“Did that man just give you this bike?” Sierra said as she walked over to Abe.
“It belongs to my dad,” Abe answered. “Calvin was just borrowing it and asked me to return it.”
“That was nice of him,” Sierra said as she stood there watching the lean man with the bags on his shoulder walking away. Abe lifted the lid and put the backpack inside. He then walked over to the man who had asked for a cigarette before. He reached in his pocket and took out the half-empty pack and handed it to him. He smiled at him and then went back to his girlfriend and pushed the bike onto the road. He helped Sierra climb onto the box on the back, handed her the folded chair, and then took his place on the seat. He groaned as he paddled the bike, setting it in motion.
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