by Pete Thorsen
“Even in the little town where your house was?”
“Even there, and everywhere else that there are some people in fairly close proximity. Food supplies would have likely run out long ago and people would have gotten desperate for food. Police departments would have shut down and violence would have reared its ugly head everywhere very quickly. Humans have always been a very violent species and with no police those violent tendencies would have quickly come to the surface and ruled the land.”
“You don’t think much of your fellow man?”
“I’m just being realistic.”
“You just don’t sound much like a romance novelist I don’t think.”
“Those were fiction books I might remind you. Also, you might consider the fact that I was romantic enough to have captured you.”
“I guess both of those statements are true enough. So what is our plan for the future? Stay home and grow chickens and babies?”
“Is there a part of that you don’t want to do?”
“No. No not at all. I like both of those things.”
“I thought so.”
Chapter 12
So we did just stay home and tend to our little homestead. We really missed having any kind of news and were curious about the current situation. But even though we still had plenty of fuel we knew it was much safer to just stay at home where we were.
We needed nothing from any town and anyone still in any town would likely be in dire straits by now. Or not, we just didn’t know, and each of us could only speculate on what the nation’s situation was really like by this time. We could assume it was horrendous by the fact that there were still no radio or television stations broadcasting. We knew this because we checked every once in awhile, just to see. All the time that the TV and radio had worked, things had just gotten worse and worse. It was reasonable to assume that trend continued after the television and radio stations all died.
I was happy enough just living here with only Donna for company. It was more company than I used to have when I lived here alone. I could think of no valid reason to drive into town and I sure did not want to go. But that unexpectedly changed one day.
I could tell that Donna was not feeling well but I said nothing. She is a grown woman and she knew she could always talk to me. On the third day she did.
“I have a UTI.”
“Um, what’s that?”
“It is a urinary tract infection.”
“Do you need to see a doctor?”
It sounded serious and I could see plain as day that she was in pain. Trouble was I just didn’t know if there were any doctors anymore.
“No, I don’t need a doctor. But I do need an antibiotic. If this isn’t treated it can get into my kidneys and shut them down. I had this happen once before and I went to the doctor and he gave me antibiotics and it cleared up in a couple days. I meant to get some antibiotics to have on hand in case one of us got hurt but I never did.”
“You would have needed a prescription to get any so you couldn’t just ‘pick them up’ on a whim.”
“You can buy animal antibiotics which are the exact same thing as humans use. Many people get some made for fish.”
“Fish drugs are the same as human drugs?”
“In the case of antibiotics the answer is, yes.”
“Do you know the name of any of the drugs so I can go look for some?”
“Yes. And I think we better not wait to go.”
“Good. Just write down the names of what will work and I’ll go find you some.”
“No. We will go find some.”
So we talked at length about exactly who would be going on this little trip. In all likelihood the relatively short excursion would be no big deal at all. Or it could be just about as dangerous as walking through a minefield. The problem was we just had no idea.
I brought up the fact that I was trained and had seen combat in a warzone. These two facts carried very little weight it seemed. Donna finally wore me down and insisted we would both be going. And there was no time like the present because Donna was indeed in constant pain and needed the medicine. So we loaded a few things and got in my truck for the first trip away from our home in many months.
We drove to the little town that was closest to start our search. The grocery store with the pharmacy inside was the logical first step. We saw no other moving vehicles on the drive in and none in the town by the time we stopped in the grocery store parking lot. We saw not a single person or dog or anything.
We discovered the likely reason for seeing no one when we entered the broken doors of the looted grocery store. There appeared to be no electricity. No electric meant no water in the town, and basically no water in the rural homes either unless they had a windmill or solar setup similar to ours. No one could live here or anywhere else without a constant supply of fresh water. When the power went down everyone here would have stayed until it was obvious that the power was not coming back on again. Then they would have had to leave. They would have had no choice in the matter at all.
But it was obvious that before they all left they had totally destroyed this store. It was plain that this destruction had happened quite sometime back. The things broken open and smashed on the floor were all long since dried out. There was some rank odor in the store that did not surprise either of us after seeing the mess inside. I could maybe understand looting the store for supplies, but there was no excuse for the huge mess. Why ruin all this stuff by smashing it on the floor? ‘Stupid’ was the only term that came to mind.
And that was just what we saw when we stepped through the doors into the building. We guessed that it was likely worse (if that was even possible) farther back into the store proper. But we came for a purpose and we advanced into the store towards the pharmacy section to hopefully get what we came for.
It was only a few steps before we saw the first dead body lying on the floor behind the counter. As we got farther into the store we came across a few more dead bodies. Now we knew where some of the smell was coming from. The bodies had been dead for a long while and the Arizona dryness had shrunken the bodies to much smaller than they had likely been when the people were still alive. I noticed that Donna now kept her gaze well off the floor so she did not have to see any more dead bodies. The problem with that was all the trash on the floor required constant vigil so you did not trip when walking.
“You want to wait out by the truck?”
“I can handle it. Let’s just get what we need and get out of here.”
We had planned ahead and we each had a flashlight which, as we advanced in the store, we needed due to the darkness inside. We got to the pharmacy and (if possible) it was in even worse shape than the rest of the store. We went back into the pharmacy itself where the customers were not allowed.
The shelves were completely bare. There was nothing at all on the shelving. There was another dead body on the floor but no prescription medications of any kind were left. Obviously someone or maybe several people just took it all in the hopes that maybe they could use it or trade it to someone else.
This was our only real chance to get what we needed in this small town. As we walked dejectedly back to the truck both of us knew we would have to go into the nearby larger city. If things were this bad here we knew it would be ten times worse in the bigger city.
We had no choice and we would have to drive to the bigger town.
“Want me to run you home and drop you off before I head into the city?”
“We stay together.”
It was the answer that I had expected but I did hold onto a little hope that she would not want to see what we were sure to find in the bigger town. There would almost certainly be countless bodies and destruction found there. Way worse than what this tiny little town had already shown us. I hoped she would not want to see that.
Chapter 13
On our way to the city we were both quiet and lost in our own thoughts. At least until Donna spoke.
“Let�
��s just go right to that pet store on this side of town. I can’t imagine that store has been looted so we should have no trouble getting the medicine there.”
“I would say the pet store would be very valuable for the people left in the city.”
“What! A pet store? And there is likely no power there so the city should be empty of people, just like our little town.”
“There were way over ten thousand people in that city. No doubt some of them thought of a way to get water so we will almost certainly run into people. And if our town was any indication then those people will not be friendly and will not want us taking what they believe are their supplies.”
“But we are just going to a pet store!”
“Food will be the most valuable commodity by now. What was once a pet store would now likely be a grocery store to those still left alive in the city.”
“That’s just gross.”
“No, that is just the truth. And the pet food is likely very nutritious and probably does not even taste bad. Not that it matters because anyone in the city is by now desperate for any kind of food they can find.”
“So you are saying we should bypass the pet store and go to a pharmacy instead?”
“No, I think the pet store is still our best chance to get what we need. But this time we will have to be very careful and carry our rifles and not just our pistols. We will both have to keep a sharp eye out for trouble. Plus, a pretty girl will certainly be a target.”
Donna turned rather white when my words sunk in. She was quiet then until we got to the pet store’s parking lot. Like in our little town, we had seen no movement of people or vehicles so far. I parked the truck up near the entrance to the pet store. I hoped it would be a quick in and out and we would quickly get what we needed and head for home again. Sometimes we don’t get what we hope for though.
As we had come into sight of the pet store I told Donna that we had to be careful of snipers. So as soon as I got the truck parked and stopped we should get out and take cover behind the truck. We should look around for any sign of movement. And also look for anything sticking out anywhere that could be a gun barrel.
We got out with our rifles and both of us looked hard all around us. Things could not be quieter. It was like we were in a ghost town. I had parked just to the left of the entrance where there were no windows. That way anyone inside could not shoot at us without coming out the door. I parked so Donna’s side of the truck was next to the building so she would be shielded by our truck from anyone outside the store. But we looked around and saw nothing of note anywhere around us. That was good but I was still uneasy.
I was still concerned about snipers and so I told Donna we should both enter the building quickly. We could see the door had been forced but was now just about shut. It was obviously not locked but it could be blocked from the inside I thought.
I pushed open the door to enter quickly, Donna just a few steps behind me. The door opened easily and I was halfway in when the door hit something and there was a small explosion. The door came flying back, hard enough to knock me down and half knock me out.
Donna guessed that I was not seriously hurt and pushed me inside the store where she stood over me with her rifle ready. She scanned the area for someone to shoot—whoever had triggered the explosion.
There was some light in the store from the many skylights scattered throughout. I realized that I was not really hurt; I had just been knocked down by the door. I got up and looked at the back of the door.
Someone had installed an airbag from a car so when the door opened it tripped the firing mechanism and the airbag deployed. The bag just pushed the door shut. Actually it slammed the door shut on anyone trying to come in, and that had been me. I thought the idea had been rather ingenious and (luckily for me) not deadly.
“This is my store. That airbag was just a friendly warning. Get out so I don’t have to kill you.”
“We just want some fish medicine which is likely worthless to you. We will trade real food for it and then leave you and not come back.”
“You just want fish medicine?”
“Yes if you have the kind we need. And yes we do have real food to trade.”
“What is it that you want, exactly?”
“A common brand name is ‘Fish Mox.’ Sometimes it is just called amoxicillin.”
“I think I have some of that. Both of you go back outside. Give me several minutes to get some for you. Then you come back in with the food. No tricks. Just because I haven’t killed you yet does not mean I won’t. Now get outside.”
We could hear his voice but neither I nor Donna could see the person who was talking. I believed him just because he had not tried to kill us yet. We went out to the truck, got the food we had brought with in case we had to trade for the meds, then waited for what we guessed was about fifteen minutes or so. Then we went back into the store.
There was now a bag near the door that was not there previously. I kept watch and Donna looked in the bag. When I saw her nod I set down the food I had brought in. Donna held tight onto the bag with her medicine.
“You got what you wanted, now get out.”
“Could we talk a minute about what has been happening in town?”
“No! We had a deal and I upheld my end. I’m not lookin’ for friends, so take the bag of meds and get out. This is your last warning.”
We left the store. We had the meds we needed and we were both still healthy. I would say that we came off pretty lucky. Donna said there were enough of the pills in the bag for many treatments. We headed directly home to our sanctuary.
Chapter 14
Donna started on the antibiotics as soon as we got home. After a day she said she was feeling better. After two more, she said she was fine. She continued the medicine for a total of five days just to be very sure.
Well we had learned some from our trip in to get the medication. The most useful thing was that the tiny town nearest us appeared to be completely empty of people. We could take advantage of that.
Though the grocery store had been ransacked there were bound to be useful items still left inside. Plus there were a few other businesses that, while they had also likely been looted, would almost surely contain countless items that would be very useful for our continued survival.
The big question is whether we would go back in and loot those businesses or not. We debated back and forth about what to do for two additional days after Donna had fully recovered. Just the fact that we had to make that emergency run all the way into the city showed us that we did not have everything we needed to survive, no matter how much food we had on hand.
What additional items we would need in the future was anyone’s guess, but the more stuff we had on hand the more likely we would have whatever we needed. And with the stores busted open to the elements some of the things inside those stores would deteriorate until they were no longer viable.
The fact that there was obviously no kind of law and order in the city we had visited made it plain that the situation would not be improving and getting back to the way things used to be anytime soon, and that fact was blatantly obvious to both of us. So it was back to the question of whether we should loot what was still available or not.
I guess it was no surprise that we decided we would loot what was available in town. For one thing, it would be crazy to let useful things go to waste. And there was our own survival to think about. We had already seen that we were not as prepared as we had both thought. If we missed one thing then it was only reasonable to assume we missed other necessary items also.
Everything just about deteriorates if left for an extended time. Every house and other buildings are deteriorating all the time and that is why homeowners have to do normal maintenance on a continual basis. To a lesser extent the same is true for many things stored inside those buildings. Especially if any doors or windows are broken or missing or the roof starts leaking or just from the high desert heat or the freeze-thaw cycles between winter an
d summer. It all wears away at the buildings and their contents.
So rather than just let items that could possibly turn out to be vital to our survival sit and deteriorate we would search them out and bring them back here. But like always there is a problem with that too. We do have plenty of fuel stored here at home so that is not really a problem, but space is an issue. We just do not have much storage space left for additional storage of any items we do bring back here.
When we decided to go to town and at least check what might be available there I came up with an answer to the space problem as I was hooking up my small covered trailer to haul back any items we did find. We would just look for additional covered trailers that we could load in town and haul the items out here to our homestead and just store everything inside those trailers. It was a simple and practical answer to our storage problem.
With that problem now figured out we also decided that we would be very methodical about our searching and scavenging so we did not miss something that might be invaluable or even lifesaving at some point to us. I would also do my best to secure or try to better seal up buildings that had been broken into, so any contents we left behind would not deteriorate from critters and the elements getting inside those buildings through the broken doors and windows.
So we brought both flashlights and a couple of lanterns so we could see well enough inside the dark buildings. I also brought some tools with to get inside buildings that were locked or to use to close up buildings that had broken doors and windows. The building materials I thought I would need I could scavenge in the town to seal the damaged buildings.
We drove in with my pickup, towing our covered trailer. Just like the last time we were here, the small town appeared completely vacant. We did not even see a cat slinking around near any of the houses we passed. There were several small businesses in the little town. By far, the largest business was the grocery store. That was our first stop. I backed the trailer as close as I could to the front doors.