On her third set of buckets, and after one set of hot water from their tea kettle and Dutch oven, Rachael heard Aurora making noise and babbling like she did every morning. She dumped the two buckets she was carrying into the tub and went to get her baby.
“Well good morning!” Rachael said, and was greeted with a giant, open-mouth gummy grin.
“Let’s get you fed so Mommy can get back to work,” Rachael said.
Rachael treasured the time she spent nursing her daughter, but hoped this wouldn’t be one of her marathon sessions. The last thing she needed was for the Dutch oven to boil over into the fire, or for the tea kettle to scorch. It wasn’t like she could go down to the super-center and get a new one.
…
As soon as Aurora was finished, Rachael carried her into the living room and laid her on a large square of blankets. Living in a house with carpet and not being able to vacuum, well, Rachael never thought the day would come that she would wish for a working vacuum cleaner.
She retrieved the buckets from the bedroom and then carefully carried the hot water from the outdoor fireplace under the carport where it had been heating, and dumped it in the tub. She set one more Dutch oven of water to heat and carried two more buckets full buckets of cold water from the rain gutter cistern at the corner of the house into the bathroom.
“You know, for as much as these weigh,” she thought, “these buckets really don’t hold a lot of water.”
The tub was as full as it was going to get without cooling off too much, so she gathered their laundry and the remaining clean towel-half. Nobody used full towels anymore; it was too much work to clean a whole towel when you could use half a towel and you got just as dry.
Once everything was ready, she stripped down, added her clothes to the laundry pile, and went to get Aurora. She undressed her baby girl and then stepped carefully into the lukewarm bathwater.
…
The best part of the bath, aside from getting clean, was the soap. One of the women in town made the most heavenly herbal goat’s-milk soap. She’d been making it almost the exact same way since before the power went out and it was amazing. All by itself it made the bath worthwhile.
Rachael tried not to think about the fact that she would never have taken a bath with her older two when they were this age. Instead, she focused on the obvious joy Aurora took in splashing and the fact that she was able to take a warm bath in the tub.
Once they were both clean and before the water was too cold, she climbed out and toweled them both off, starting with Aurora. She put her baby in her last clean towel-diaper and a long gown made out of a cut-down military blouse and took her back into the living room.
Rachael wrapped a blanket around herself, combed out her wet hair, and then set to work on the laundry in the tepid water. As she finished each piece, she wrung it out and took it to the carport where she had a clothesline set up. She couldn’t hang it up in the yard because it was raining, so this was going to have to do.
Once the laundry was done, she went into the living room to nurse Aurora again on the couch.
…
Just as Aurora finished nursing, there was a knock at the door.
“Of course,” Rachael said, “and here I am looking like I’m dressed for a toga party.”
After Rachael got herself put back together, with Aurora firmly on her hip, she went to open the door, knowing it could only be one of a handful of people who were in isolation with her during the quarantine.
“Look, it’s Aunt Sheri,” Rachael said to Aurora, who giggled.
“C’mon in,” Rachael said and opened the door all the way to let Sheri in. She hadn’t taken a good look at her guest yet.
Sheri didn’t say anything right away, just stood stock-still in the doorway.
Rachael had been looking at Aurora while she held the door, expecting Sheri to come right in, and when she didn’t, Rachael realized something was wrong. Sheri hugged her arms tightly around herself and Rachael saw, finally, that her eyes were red from crying.
A lump rose in Rachael’s throat and she had to swallow two or three times before she could speak.
“Joel,” she thought. “The kids?”
“What is it Sheri,” she finally asked as she reached out with her free hand and pulled Sheri inside and then closed the door.
“Sit down,” Rachael said, and then sat next to her on the couch. “What is it?”
A tear crept down Sheri’s right cheek just before she spoke. “It’s Karen,” she said. “Karen’s gone, Rachael.”
…
June 10, 2013 - Promised Land Army Base, Natchez Trace State Park, Tennessee
“Eric, I,” Kyle paused after knocking on the tent frame around the door.
“Didn’t anyone teach you it’s polite to wait to be told to come in?” Eric asked without looking up.
“Sorry,” Kyle said. “Are you moving into a different tent, or into the town?”
Eric did finally stop the packing he was doing and stood up, but didn’t look at Kyle. “Something like that, yeah.”
Kyle grabbed the closer of the two folding chairs in the tent, and took a seat. “Talk to me, Eric,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m not saying spill your guts and have a good cry, but you need to talk to somebody and you need to do it yesterday.”
“Not now,” Eric started.
“Yes, now,” Kyle interrupted. “Cut the crap and the macho bravado and talk to me.”
“What do you want from me?” Eric said as he turned around, eyes red and puffy.
“Honesty and some emotion, for starters,” Kyle said. “Don’t hit me, but it’s been a week since the funeral. You’ve been walking around like a robot. Nobody can get more than a half-a-dozen words out of you at a time. You’re ‘fine’ when they ask, which you obviously aren’t–nor should you be.”
Eric just stood there with an undershirt in one hand, a pair of socks in the other; shoulders slumped, looking at Kyle.
“Sit down,” Kyle said. “Put that down and talk to me.”
Eric collapsed onto the two cots he’d been sharing with Karen until a week ago–the first time he’d sat on them, much less slept on them, since she’d died.
“There’s nothing left for me here,” Eric said. “I don’t care anymore.”
It was all Kyle could do to keep his jaw off the floor, but he didn’t so much as twitch.
“About anything,” Kyle prompted.
“I know it doesn’t make sense, but yeah,” Eric said. “Everything is up and running and there isn’t really any reason for me to stick around. Mallory doesn’t need me, specifically. The base–the military side of things–has been running smoothly for months. Frankly, I don’t know that I did all that much to help get everyone out here.”
“Well,” Kyle said, “don’t sell yourself too short. You and I both know that a large part of that semi-truck group wouldn’t have come if not for you. You apparently made quite the impression on Mr. Grace that first day.”
“And I haven’t done much since,” Eric said. “I’m a techie, Kyle, a geek. Not quite as bad as Sparky but that’s really what I do. Mallory only promoted me because I had the seniority. That and she needed somebody with at least some command experience to back her up. Honestly though, I’ve been next to useless recently.
Eric sighed. “I’m done, though, Kyle,” he said. “They don’t need me and I really don’t need them.” Eric looked over at the old-school Alice pack he was filling. “I’m leaving.”
“Where to,” Kyle asked.
“To be honest, I’m not completely sure yet,” Eric said. “I don’t want to be so far away that if something happened I would be completely SOL, but I need to go, and I think it needs to be a clean, permanent break.”
Kyle nodded and chewed the inside of his cheek for a couple of seconds. “Do me a favor,” Kyle said. “Don’t leave just yet.”
Eric squinted his eyes and was about to say something, but Kyle interrupted him.
“N
o, I’m not going to say anything to the Major, or anything like that,” Kyle said. “I’m coming with you.”
“Wait a minute,” Eric started.
“I’m not asking for your permission, Eric,” Kyle said and held up his hand to keep Eric from talking. “I’m coming with you; I just need a little time to get ready. I’ll even tell you why.”
“Fair enough,” Eric said. “You know why I’m deserting; I should know why you’re doing it, too.”
“Ouch,” Kyle winced.
Kyle took a deep breath and then began. “Ben Franklin,” was all he said.
“Really,” Eric said. “You’ve got a beef with the guy who discovered electricity? I mean, sure, we all miss it and…”
“No, not that Ben Franklin, wise guy,” Kyle said, “the other one, the one from Fort Campbell; Mallory’s big, strong hero.”
Eric was stunned for a second and then it hit him, and, grieving or not, he was smart enough to bite his tongue.
“Nothing?” Kyle asked.
“Nope,” Eric said. “This is your baby, your turn to talk.”
“So, what’s my problem?” Kyle asked. “What’s so wrong that I’d desert? I’ve wasted a decade on her, Eric. Ten years I’ve been in the unit. I was the one who was there for her when that POS husband of hers left. I’m the one who…convinced him that it would be a bad idea to go after her for alimony.”
Kyle looked over at Eric with death in his eyes, “That does not leave this tent, ever. You don’t tell anyone, you don’t ever tell Mallory, you don’t even bring it up with me again. Clear?”
“As glass,” Eric said.
Kyle nodded. “I know I haven’t been her right hand, but when something needed to get done I took care of it. She knows who she can count on, and over the last ten years I’ve passed up more than one promotion to stay where I am, or where I was.”
“Eric, I’d even have left the Army if I had to, because of the BS regulations about relationships between Officers and Enlisted and chain-of-command. But now there’s Mr. Wonderful, Mr. Super Hero, Major Ben Franklin. He had his own base, and his own command, and everything. He even saved her life.”
“So,” Eric said, “is this just your observation, or has something happened?”
Eric saw Kyle’s hand tighten into a fist and was glad there wasn’t something in it.
“It started on the day we lost access to the satellites,” Kyle said. “I rounded the corner and caught the Majors in an embrace. I did an about-face before either of them saw me, but from what I did see, it was a real doozey.”
“They’re old friends from boot, Kyle.” Eric said. “They hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Plus, he’d just pulled our fat out of the fire in a big way.”
“Not done,” Kyle said and held up his hand. “About three weeks ago I was on my way to discuss something with the Major and I overheard a conversation,” Kyle said.
“Stop, Kyle, I don’t want to know.” Eric said.
“I can’t stop now, Eric,” Kyle said.
Eric sighed. “Ok, but don’t go too far.”
“Fair enough,” Kyle said. “She was talking to,” Kyle paused and glanced at Eric, “somebody, about relationships, and at the time they were discussing Major Franklin and, well, my name came up as well. The Major, our Major, is developing a thing for Ben. And while there may or may not have been some sort of feelings under the surface for me at some point in the past, it’s water under the bridge. We were both in the same chain-of-command, etc.”
Kyle paused for a second and then continued, “Now she’s an officer and that relationship is strictly forbidden, and frankly, apparently, I’m not showing the ‘signs of growth’ that she would like to see.” Kyle gritted his teeth.
“I’m not showing signs of growth?” Kyle growled. “I’m not seeing signs that I need to grow. I’m not seeing signs of anything coming my way, why should I be trying to grow?”
“How long did you listen?” Eric asked.
“About three minutes.” Kyle said. “It’s amazing how nobody pays you any attention when you stand there looking like a guard.”
“Man, that is so wrong on so many levels,” Eric said.
“And I wish I had never heard the first word.” Kyle said.
“Two days,” Eric said after it was obvious that Kyle was done.
“I can work with that,” Kyle said, “and in the meantime we need to work on your rig.”
“How so,” Eric asked.
“That old Alice frame you scrounged up is for the birds,” Kyle said. “Sure they hold a ton-and-a-half, but if you drop the frame wrong and bust a rivet, it’s all over. Before things went south, I found a modification called a ‘Hellcat’…”
Chapter Eight
“Got a minute,” Joel asked Eric when he saw him in camp a couple of days later.
“Sure,” Eric said. “What’s up?”
“Actually,” Joel said, “that’s my line.”
Eric made a confused face and Joel shook his head. “Walk with me,” Joel said, and then turned away from the more populated portion of the camp they were in without checking that Eric was following him. After a few steps Eric caught up.
“What’s going on Eric?” Joel asked.
“Meaning,” Eric asked cautiously.
Joel didn’t even sigh. He’d been playing a similar game with his two teenage kids for a number of years, so he just laid out the evidence. “You have been in mourning, understandably, since Karen passed away,” Joel said. “Now, literally out of nowhere, you are engaged in daily life again. You’re talking to people, not as though nothing happened, but you appear to have either skipped four or five stages of grief and gone straight to acceptance, or you went through them at a record-setting pace.”
Joel turned to Eric. “Or, you’ve found something else to occupy your time and energy, at least for the short term. What is it,” Joel asked. “Not which is it, because I know which one it is. What is it, and how is Kyle involved?”
Eric didn’t respond right away because he didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t just tell Joel they were leaving; it wasn’t entirely up to him. Just then, Eric’s radio came to life.
“Eric,” Kyle’s voice came through loud and clear and Eric closed his eyes. “I need to talk to you.”
Eric grabbed his radio and responded. “Actually, why don’t you meet me…?”
…
“So, I see he found you, too,” Kyle said when he saw Joel was with Eric outside of the entrance to the parking lot.
Joel folded his arms and looked from Eric to Kyle and back. “What is going on with you two?”
Eric glanced at Kyle, who nodded slightly, and then took a small breath. “I’m leaving,” Eric said. “And Kyle’s coming with me.”
Whatever Joel was expecting, this hadn’t been it, and his mouth dropped open until it closed with an audible click. It was obvious he was taking a moment to think his words over before speaking. Eric started to say something, but Joel cut him off with a curt head shake. “I don’t want to know. Plausible deniability,” he said. “I’ve been married long enough to know that what I don’t know can’t kill me. Hurt me yes, kill me, no.”
Joel took a deep breath and looked at both of them again. “Where to,” he asked, “when?”
“We’re not entirely sure, but,” Eric paused at Joel’s raised eyebrows. “I need to go, Kyle does too. We’re leaving tonight.”
“Tonight,” Joel yelled, then looked around to see if anyone had noticed his micro-outburst. “Why so…never mind. I said I didn’t want to know. Are you sure you’re ready?”
“No,” Kyle snorted, “but we’re as ready as we’re ever going to be.”
“Probably about right,” Eric said.
Joel’s mind was racing; trying to process what he felt would be the impact of losing both Eric and Kyle. Wondering if there was anything he could do or say to keep them from leaving, or if there was anything that he could do or provide that would help his friend
s on their journey.
Joel let out a breath and decided on the latter. “Do you need anything from me before you go?”
Eric and Kyle looked at each other with a bit of surprise at Joel’s reaction.
“I’m serious,” Joel said. “I’m not going to go running to Mallory, or anyone else for that matter. If they haven’t figured out that something is up then it’s their loss, and frankly,” Joel looked at Kyle when he said the next bit, “their lack of situational awareness is no skin off my nose.”
Kyle grinned, but didn’t say anything.
“Back to my question,” Joel said. “Do you need anything before you go?”
“Before we go, maybe some extra MREs but that really isn’t something you can get us,” Eric said. “I’m going to see what I can do. Long-term, though, there might be something you can do.”
“Name it,” Joel said.
“Sandbags,” Eric said, “empty sandbags.”
Joel made a questioning face, but said okay.
“Long-term,” Kyle said, “we aren’t going to live in a tent. We may build a cabin, ultimately, but we may not. One of the things we were thinking of trying was building a house that is half underground, half above-ground. The above-ground portion is made of dirtbags, or sandbags, filled with the dirt from the excavated below-ground portion.”
“The bags are a great insulator,” Eric continued, “and with enough people, you can literally build one in a day, depending on the type of soil. It’s a bit like an igloo shape for the upper walls and ceiling. You have to scout the area and make sure you aren’t in a flood plain, of course, and check the water table–things like that–but they can last for years depending on the type of bag you use. Our sandbags are UV-resistant, so if this works out we shouldn’t even need to stucco the outside of the first couple.”
Joel had been all ears once he’d gotten the gist of the design. “Deal,” Joel said. “On one condition, you have to stay close enough that in case of a dire emergency, yours or ours, we can contact each other. I’d also like to know how well the ‘dirtbag house’ works out.”
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