Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale

by Michaels, Brian

  “Now push at the same time as I do,” Logan replied. “We need to get the truck rocking back and forth.”

  I didn’t understand why, but I started pushing and we soon had the truck rocking front to back.

  “OK, that should be enough,” Logan said.

  I watched curiously as Logan slid into the driver’s seat and turned the key.

  The engine clicked again two more times, grunted once and then to my amazement sprang to life.

  I could hear Emma and Katie cheering.

  “Why did that work?” I asked. “It doesn’t make any sense that would work.”

  “I’m not sure,” Logan grinned. “Kenny said something about when the battery doesn’t have enough power to turn the engine, that sometimes if you rock the car against the transmission it turns something in the engine just enough that when you try to start it again, the engine will finish turning enough to get it started. It doesn’t work all the time, just some of the time.”

  “I’ll be damned, my son the mechanic,” I laughed.

  “Thanks, Dad,” Logan grinned. “I hate to disappoint you, but that’s about the extent of my mechanical abilities.”

  “Then I glad our problem was something that you could handle,” I replied.

  “I have shotgun,” Katie shouted as she ran up to the truck.

  “No, Logan has shotgun,” I replied. “I want him next to the door.”

  “You can sit on his lap,” Emma said.

  “No way,” Katie protested. “He’ll pinch me in the butt.”

  “Brian,” Emma said looking at me.

  “Logan, shotgun,” I said. “Emma you’re in the middle, Katie sit on your mother’s lap.”

  Everyone piled into the truck with out another word after tossing their wet blankets into the bed of the truck.

  I held my breath as I put my foot on the break and shifted the transmission into drive.

  I slowly drove out through the gate and followed the dirt road around the fence until we started going up into the hills behind the pond.

  “Any idea where this road goes?” Emma asked.

  “Why didn’t we take the good road?” Katie asked.

  “If we took the paved road to the left, it would take us back to the safe zone,” I replied. “If we turned right, I think that will take us to Ellsworth Air Force Base, I think we need to avoid both of those places. I am hoping that by going north this road will connect us up with a road that will take us up into the mountains.”

  “Like the crazy squirrel said?” Emma asked.

  “Yeah, that’s the only thing I can think of trying,” I replied.

  “It sounds good to me,” Katie said.

  “Just watch the bumps,” Emma smiled. “I don’t know how, but I think Katie has gained weight.”

  “Mom!” Katie protested.

  Chapter 5

  We followed the dirt road for miles. It was a relief to not see any of the dead roaming around out in the hills.

  Maybe Squirrel was right, the dead couldn’t handle going up hill very well. I know they couldn’t handle the curbs or the fallen bodies in the streets back home. They shuffled along, lifting their feet to step up over something didn’t seem to be something they could do, or at least most of them didn’t have this ability.

  The idea of us going up into the hills gave me hope and it was the first thing I had to strive for since the dead appeared that could lead to a way for me to get my family to safety.

  It felt ironic that we had to endure so much before getting to this point when I had known about Squirrels suggestion that we go to the mountains during the first few days after the crisis started. We could have avoided a lot of suffering if we would have just made a run for the mountain weeks ago.

  It also felt ironic, that if we did make it up into the mountains, my life would have come full circle, I’d be back to where I grew up. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the things my dad had told me over the years, but then again if I had, the three people sitting beside me wouldn’t be here today.

  It was a catch 22 situation as I thought more about it, it also seemed to be the kind of question that didn’t have an answer that I could live with.

  I loved my family, I would have done almost anything if it would have meant that they wouldn’t have had to live through the last two months.

  But would I have preferred that they had never existed in order to keep them from living through all that we had seen and endured, that was a tough question to even think about.

  I guess that depended on what happened over the next few days, either way though, it wasn’t a question I didn’t want to think about anymore.

  I had always been a person that believed that things would find a way to work out like they were intended, however after the last few months, I don’t how I felt about knowing that all those people had died such horrible deaths because that was the way things were supposed to work out. If that was true, the system was seriously screwed up.

  Well, things were seriously screwed up, but again if we made it up into the mountains, I would hopefully have time decide what I believed in at that time, now I needed to focus if we were to survive.

  I continued to follow the dirt road, I thought it was an access road to the retention pond, but why was it going up into the hills?

  Access to the retention pond, which was part of the Ellsworth drainage system, was much easier from the paved road that ran between the Air Force Base and the safe zone. The idea that it was an access road for the pond really didn’t make much sense anymore.

  I continued driving until I spotted a small white post along the road ahead of me. I had passed a few of these posts earlier but hadn’t given them much thought. I decided I needed to stop and see if I could determine what I was following.

  I slowed the truck and stopped next to the post and put the truck in park.

  “Wait here for a minute,” I said.

  “What’s wrong?” Emma asked.

  “I just want to see if there is any kind of identification tags on this post,” I replied. “I don’t think this road is an access road to the pond. We might be following a road to someone’s hunting cabin.”

  “I hunting cabin sounds nice,” Emma replied.

  I jumped out of the truck, closed the door and walked over to examine the post. It somehow looked familiar, but I didn’t know why. It was a simple wooden post that had been painted white. As I walked around the post, on the last side near the top I saw the letters ‘DWS’ carved into the wood.

  “DWS,” I smiled as it hit me, “Dakota Water System, I had been following a maintenance road for the water line. The shed next to the pond must have been a chlorine station where they injected chlorine into the water line to purify the water.”

  The Dakota Water System was the company that supplied most of the water to Eastern South Dakota.

  I went back to the truck.

  “Did you see anything on the post?” Emma asked.

  “We’ve been following a maintenance road for the water line,” I replied. “It’s part of the Dakota Water System.”

  “Didn’t you have an interview with them after we decided to leave New York?” Emma asked.

  “That was one of the places where I had interviewed, but I rejected their offer because they only paid half of what the power company offered me,” I replied.

  “So, us following the water line, is that good or bad?” Emma asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” I replied. “It could dead end at a dam in the hills or it could lead us to a paved road somewhere. We’ll have to keep following the road and see where it takes us.”

  “By any chance will it lead us to a Burger King?” Katie smiled. “I’m starving.”

  “Yeah, me too,” I replied, we hadn’t eaten in days, “But I’m afraid we will have to find something else to eat.”

  “If we find a road, how long will it take us to get up into the mountains?” Emma asked.

  “If we found an interstate in t
he next five minutes, we could make the drive in less than an hour, but if we don’t find an interstate soon, we should start looking for a place to spend the night,” I replied. “It will be getting dark in the next couple of hours and I don’t want to be out on the road in the dark.”

  “Maybe we could find an abandoned Hilton,” Logan said. “Hiltons are supposed be nice.”

  “Yeah, a Hilton right next to a Burger King,” Katie grinned. “Dream on.”

  “We’ve been lucky today, who knows?” I laughed as I put the truck in gear and started driving slowly, following the road again.

  We hadn’t been driving for more than a few minutes when I saw a rabbit sitting in the middle of the dirt road, munching on a clump of grass. It apparently wasn’t used to seeing many vehicles on this old road and didn’t seem too concerned about us approaching in the truck.

  “Look at the cute little bunny,” Katie said just as I hit the gas, making the truck lunge forward.

  Katie screamed as the rabbit jumped at the last second, hitting the bumper of the truck making a loud thud, “Dad, you hit the bunny!”

  I stopped and ran up to the front of the truck and found the rabbit lying on its side, its legs kicking in the air.

  I picked up the rabbit and quickly smacked its head against the bumper, putting it out of its misery.

  I then took out my knife, gutted the rabbit and started to walk to the back of the truck.

  Katie was hanging out of the driver’s window.

  “Is the rabbit OK?” she asked, then she saw me carrying the limp dead body of the rabbit in my hand, blood dripping to the ground, and her eyes grew wide.

  “Have you ever eaten rabbit before?” I asked.

  She just shook her head.

  “I hear they taste very good,” I continued as I walked by her and set the rabbit down in the back of the truck.

  When I got back in the truck and started driving, I told Logan to look in the glove compartment to see if he could find a box of matches. Logan rifled through the compartment and finally found an old Bic lighter.

  “Are you OK?” I asked Katie. “You seem upset.”

  “I’m OK,” Katie sighed. “I was just so excited to see that cute little bunny, I didn’t know you were going to hit it with the truck.”

  “I had to move fast if we were going to eat tonight,” I replied. “I’m sorry it upset you.”

  “I’m not upset with you, I’ve seen rabbits, cats and dogs get hit by cars and it never affected me like this before,” Katie replied. “I don’t know what got into me, I’m sorry.”

  “You’re human,” I said. “We have all seen so much death and cruelty the past few weeks, that I’m sure it made you feel good to see something beautiful and alive again. I felt bad too, but right now it’s us or the rabbit. It’s like back at the safe zone, the rules have changed. Harmless innocent things done back at the base led to trouble. Normally I would have tried to have avoided hitting that rabbit, but now I will have to do things that I wouldn’t normally do so that we can survive.”

  Katie smiled, “Dad, you always know the right things to say to make me understand. It’s like you can read my mind.”

  “Maybe I can,” I smiled. I figured it didn’t hurt to put that thought into Katie’s head, it could come in handy someday.

  But honestly, reading Katie’s mind had never been all that difficult. She and I were a lot alike, except her mind was more of a blank slate waiting for input so she could begin to connect the dots of life. Like my father had done, I tried to take every opportunity to fill in some of the missing pieces to guide her. As I thought about the last couple of months, I hoped that she had listened to me better than I had with my dad.

  If I would have listened a little more, maybe this entire experience would have gone a little better than it had.

  I guess I had only half listened. As I reflected back, I now had a better idea of what my dad was trying to tell me. At least I was partially prepared for what had happened, even though I could never have been fully prepared for the impossible, but there was a lot more I could have done.

  We drove on for a few more miles until we reached the top of another hill where the road seemed to end in the middle of a clearing. In the clearing where the road ended, stood a small shack which I assumed was another chlorine station.

  I stopped the truck and looked around.

  “Now what?” Emma asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I replied. “I think I’ll get out and look around.”

  “Do you think we will have to turn around and go back the way we came?” Katie asked.

  “I hope not,” I answered. “But let’s get out and look around, maybe we will see something that will give us some ideas.”

  “Like what?” Katie asked.

  “We won’t know until we see it,” I replied.

  I put the truck in park, but didn’t turn off the engine, I didn’t want to take the chance that the truck wouldn’t start again and compound our problems.

  Everyone was happy for the opportunity to get out of the truck and stretch their legs, especially Emma who had to bear the brunt of Katie’s weight on her legs as the truck bounced over ruts and stones all day.

  I studied the end of the road and observed what looked like an overgrown path that went down over the other side of the hill. It was possible that the road had continued on at one time, but maybe because it hadn’t been used much over the last few years, the grass and weeds had reclaimed the land.

  As I tried to see where the path led, Logan walked up to me.

  “Dad, is that a highway?” Logan asked and pointed through the trees at the top of the hill on the other side of the tree tops.

  I moved over next to Logan and stared through the tree branches, then I saw it too.

  I could see a small section of pavement as the road curved, from what I could see it looked like a deserted a four-lane highway. I listened, but I couldn’t hear the usual sounds one would expect to hear of cars speeding down the interstate.

  I racked my brain, trying to recall a map of this part of the state, “I think you’re right, Logan, and if I’m right I would say that should be Interstate 90,” I replied.

  “Isn’t that the interstate that bypasses Rapid City?” Logan asked. “Didn’t we used to take Route 90 when we went up to Grandpa’s place in Montana?”

  “That’s right,” I replied. “If it is Route 90.”

  “What are you guys looking at?” Emma asked as she walked over to us.

  “Logan spotted a highway on the other side of those trees,” I answered. “Look at the top of the hill through those trees.”

  “Dad thinks it might be Interstate 90,” Logan added.

  “How do we get there from here?” Emma asked.

  “I think the road continues down over this hill, but probably hasn’t been used in years and is now overgrown with weeds,” I replied. “It’s my guess that it will lead us up to the interstate.”

  “We can’t drive on this old path, we’ll get stuck,” Emma said. “We might be able to get down this hill, but we would never be able to get up to the interstate, it would be like climbing a mountain.”

  I looked at the truck. “The truck is four-wheel drive, we might make it,” I replied. “I think it would give us a better chance than going back by the Air Force Base. If I’m right, and the road at one time went that way, it should be passable with a four-wheel drive. If we can get up on the interstate, it shouldn’t take us too long to get to Montana.”

  “When do we leave?” Emma smiled.

  “Tomorrow,” I replied as I looked up at the sky. “It will be dark soon and I don’t want to travel at night, besides if we run into any problems making it over to the interstate, I would rather it be when we had a full day’s worth of light to figure out what to do.”

  “OK,” Emma agreed. “I guess I can handle another night of sleeping on the ground.”

  “Maybe we won’t have to sleep on the ground,” I replied. “I would f
eel more comfortable if we sleep somewhere that gave us some protection from whatever might come staggering around during the night.”

  “Katie is not sleeping on top of me in that truck,” Emma protested. “I feel like I have two broken legs.”

  “I was thinking we could sleep in that shed,” I laughed. “It looks wide enough for at least three of us to be able to lay down flat.”

  “Very funny,” Emma smiled.

  “Speaking of Katie, where did she go?” I asked.

  “The last time I saw her she was behind the shed,” Emma replied.

  I quickly ran over to the corner of the shed, the area seemed safe, but this wasn’t the time to take anything for granted.

  As I walked around the shed, I saw Katie holding a stick in her hand as she looked up into a tree.

  I glanced up and saw she had found an apple tree and there were four bright red apples hanging just out of her reach.

  She wound up and threw the stick, which left her hand and dug into the ground at her feet.

  I laughed, “You throw like a girl.”

  “That’s sexist, Dad,” Katie replied sounding frustrated.

  “But it’s true, I laughed. “How can something that’s true be considered sexist?”

  “Because not all girls throw like that,” Katie replied. “You are insulting all girls by lumping us all together.”

  “I am not insulting all girls,” I said. “I’m just making fun of how you throw.”

  “Ghee, thanks Dad,” Katie replied, then a big smile spread across her face. “Will you help me, please, please, please?”

  “Now that, is sexist,” I replied as I walked over, reached up and picked the four apples.

  “What?” Katie asked innocently.

  “Playing the helpless girl card,” I replied. “Using it on your own dad makes it even worse.”

  Katie looked serious. “I’m sorry.”

  “Hey, it’s OK,” I laughed. “I’m just joking.”

  I smiled at her, walked over and gave her an apple and a hug.

  “Thanks Dad,” Katie said and took a big bite out of the apple, then rolled her eyes at the juicy taste of the apple. “This is soooooooo good!”