by C A Bird
After Mark had told the story of the shelter and the ‘Battle of Platte Rock’ they all sat with empty paper plates in front of them and cups of hot coffee on the table. Most of the others had left to walk back to their homes.
“Izzy and I are pretty anxious to go out to our house and see what kind of condition it’s in. If you’ve all finished lunch, you want to come out with us?”
“We’re going to need to send a guard with you,” Guillermo said. “We’re not ready to trust you yet, and as long as your friends are in town, we’ll just send a couple guys along to keep an eye on you. We can’t take a chance on any of our supplies going missing.” They had insisted that Mark’s group come into town unarmed and they had complied. Now they found themselves under armed guard as they left the building and headed for Terry’s house.
“We live out west by the golf course,” Terry said. “It’s only a couple of miles. You guys with the guns, I guess you’ll have to walk.” He looked over at Mark and grinned and Mark knew exactly what he was thinking as Terry gunned the Jeep. The horses took off behind him with Sheri standing on her pedals, having no trouble keeping up with the horses. The armed guards were left in the dust.
Izzy was nervous. She hadn’t seen her home in almost a year and she wasn’t sure how she would feel about it. But when they rounded the corner and the house came into view she knew everything was going to be just fine.
“Wow,” Cody yelled, “it looks just the same. Well, except for all the weeds.” Terry coasted the Jeep to the curb in front of the house and they all got out and went up the walk. They’d left in a hurry but had locked the front door out of habit. Terry moved a small brick out of place on the front of the house, and retrieving a key, opened the front door.
“Terry,” Mark said, “I think we’ll all wait out while you guys go in. You can call us when you’re ready.”
“Thanks Mark. I think we’d like a few minutes alone.” Terry and his family entered the house, walking through the entryway into the living room. Izzy had thought the house might be trashed but other than a layer of dust was just as they had left it. Without speaking, Cody went to his own room and Missy and Kris to the room they shared.
“Hey,” Missy said, “I guess I can have Marci’s room.” She hurried down the hallway to the room her older sister had occupied.
As soon as Izzy walked into the master bedroom she burst into tears. Terry enfolded her in his arms and held her for several minutes. “It seems as if we never left and the last year has been a dream. But once we walk outside this house we know what reality is,” he whispered to her. “But everything’s gonna be okay now.”
“I know. It’ll take some getting used to since the world is definitely different than it was before, but I feel like we can start our life over here and have a sense of normalcy. I’m okay now.” She backed away and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “I’m going out back to check my garden area and see what it will take to get it going again.” The sadness over, they were now excited about getting back to their life.
“I’m gonna check my garage. I have a lot of tools and supplies out there that we couldn’t take with us and I hope nobody has had a chance to steal them. The remaining population of Raton is pretty small so they probably haven’t had a chance to raid every house and take anything they could find. And I have a few surprises. Hopefully nobody found out about my underground gas tank.” They walked back out into the living room and found Cody standing in the center of the room holding his Xbox.
“I don’t suppose this thing is ever going to work again,” he said, the corner of his mouth quirked up in a wry grin.
“No son, I don’t think it ever will. But we still have the family games in the basement and decks of cards. We’re gonna be fine.”
Terry went out and brought the others into the house. It seemed strange to them to be in a normal pre-war home. In Willsburg they had all lived in log cabins they’d built to get ready for the last winter. Mark, Skillet, and the Yancey boys went with Terry out to the garage. It didn’t look like anyone had been there or stolen anything.
“Wait until you see this,” Terry said, and he led them to a metal storage garage in the back. “This is where I kept my Jeep. It’s a metal building and it’s grounded so it conducted the EMP energy away from it.” He led them to the rear of the building where he showed them a false wall that partitioned off a space six feet by the width of the garage. A door behind a shelf unit led into the space. It was crammed full of supplies: dehydrated food, nonelectric tools and other survival supplies.
“And over here I have a pump that I can use to get the gas out of my underground tank. The gas is stabilized so it should last five years or so. If we don’t do too much driving the gas should last us until it goes bad. I realize my good Raton neighbors are going to be jealous, but they’re jealous of the farmers and ranchers and haven’t tried to kill them or steal from them. Funny how those who didn’t prepare think that those who did should share their possessions with them.”
“Yeah,” Mark said, “human nature, I guess.”
“Well, let’s head up to the pass and see what kind of radiation reading we get.” Terry led them back to the house where they found the women sitting around the dining room table as if the calamity of the war had never happened. Mark could hear the voices of the Holcomb kids coming from the basement.
“Were heading up to the pass, anybody want to go with us?” Terry asked.
Izzy looked at the faces of the other women and shook her head. “No, we’re good. It feels so good to be home in a normal house.”
“Izzy showed us your little cache in the back of the hall closet. Nice little hidden space you have there.” Lori held up an AR-15 with a thirty round magazine.
“Me, Jimbo and Willy will stay here with the girls. You got any more of those weapons?”
“Yeah, Sam,” Terry told him. “There are several more rifles, a few handguns, and boxes of ammo. You guys should be fine while we’re gone. Me, Mark and Skillet will head on up and get the radiation readings and be back in a couple of hours.”
The three men went out and climbed in the Jeep and Terry swung around heading back toward town. A couple blocks away they passed their guards still heading toward Terry’s house. The men waved their arms trying to flag down the Jeep, and as it sped beyond them Terry laughed as one of the men kicked a pile of rocks, sending them flying. “He seems a tad upset.”
“What are they doing, Terry?”
Terry looked in the rearview mirror. “They’re turning around and heading back toward town. I don’t think we have to worry about them bothering the girls or the guys.”
It took them twenty minutes to get up to Raton Pass, once they hit the freeway. There was another chain link fence across the highway on the south side of the pass. Guards were posted, just like on the other side of town. An old, battered pickup truck was parked alongside the highway approximately fifty yards back from the barrier. Apparently they used this truck to transport the guards back and forth to town. The men had been briefed that Terry and the others would be coming.
One of the men walked toward them, a smaller, younger version of Guillermo, with shoulder-length, dark hair and a black, drooping mustache. But he had a large, welcoming grin on his face as he shook hands with the three men.
“I’m real happy to see you gentlemen. I’m Cullen. I think you met my old man in town. William? We’ve been kinda worried about pulling guard duty in this pass, not knowing if there’s radiation coming down from Colorado Springs.”
Mark looked beyond the barrier where he saw several groups of people sitting in front of tents. “It’s been our experience that the radiation stays put. After the first few months when radioactive particles were carried by wind and rain it all seems to have settled down. The ground in areas where the H-bombs hit is probably radioactive but we haven’t been in any of those areas to find out.” He looked back at the people beyond the barrier. “Who are all those people?”
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�They come from Trinidad, at the northern end of the pass. They tell us horror stories of what’s going on down there. I guess a lot of people survived the initial radiation but the food’s running out and there are rival gangs that kill anyone who won’t join them. Most of these folks have families. I don’t really agree with my dad about not letting them in town. But he has most of the townspeople on his side.”
“You mean you just leave them out there?”
“After a while some of them go back down the mountain to Trinidad. But it seems like more of them just keep coming and their numbers are growing. None of them have any weapons so we don’t think they’re going to try and get in to Raton. I think the gangs have all the guns in town. They know the townspeople will kill them if they try to get by the barrier but they keep sending people to talk to us every day. They never give up.”
“Would you? They have families and they’re hungry. Can I go talk to them?”
“Sure, I don’t see no harm.”
“Terry, I’m gonna go talk to those people. Let me know when you have an accurate reading.” Mark walked to the chain link fence and one of the guards opened the gate. He raised his hands in the air and took a few steps through the gate.
“Hey, you out there,” he yelled. “Do you have a leader? I just want to talk to you guys.”
The tent people had been sitting around on the ground or reclining in their tents. They all stood and a small group of four men approached Mark. Two were Hispanic, one black and one white man. Like most of the postwar males they had long hair and beards. The black man’s hair had grown so long it poofed out in a huge Afro. He had attempted to style it into dreadlocks and the result was truly frightening.
“What’s going on, man? You gonna let us in?” The black man asked him.
“No, I’m sorry. Me and my friends came from the South and are just visiting Raton. They let us in because one of my friends lived here but we’ll be leaving tomorrow. I just wanted to tell you that there’s a community about sixty-five miles south of here in Eagle Nest and the surrounding areas. They would welcome you. They’re family-friendly and have schools and a Doctor.”
“That’s pretty far away. How do you expect us to get there?” one of the Hispanic men asked him.
“It looks like you guys have a few supplies, tents. You have any backpacks? You made it here from Trinidad.”
“We got a few things. But we’ve got women and kids. That’s a long way for them to walk. And they won’t let us through on the highway. It makes it even longer if we have to go around through the mountains to get back down to the highway on the other side of Raton.”
“How many of you are there?”
“We got six families with 11 kids. The youngest is only two.”
“My friend has a Jeep. Maybe I can talk the townspeople into letting you pass through Raton. If my friend can give the youngest kids a ride to Eagle Nest the rest of you should be able to make it in less than two weeks.”
“Man, there’s no way my wife would let you take our kids.”
“I understand, but you’re going to die if you stay here. I don’t even know if I can talk them into it but I’ll try. I’ll be back.” He backed away for several steps and then turned and strode quickly back to the barrier where Cullen opened the gate to allow him through.
“What’s it look like, Terry?”
“The Geiger counter indicates a very low level of radiation. Nothing to worry about. I didn’t even turn on the scintillation counter because I don’t want to waste the batteries. They’re good to go. So what’s the deal with the people over there?”
Mark took Terry’s arm, led him to the side and spoke softly. “Do you think there’s any way you could take a Jeep load of kids down to Eagle Nest? The rest of them could make the trip on foot. We just need your fellow townspeople to give them safe passage. You think they would do it?”
“They’re probably pretty pissed off that we left their guards behind,” he chuckled, “but I can’t see why not. We’ve only been gone seven days but Izzy would love it if I can talk Tucker and Marcy into coming back with me. It would be worth the gas.”
Terry turned to Cullen. “Here’s the deal. We want to take the small children, pass through Raton and transport them to Eagle Nest, and we want the residents of Raton to let the adults and older children pass safely through to the South. You have weapons, they don’t. You just need to let the guys at the South barrier know their coming and let us through. Nobody else in town will even know we’re zipping down the highway.”
“Oh man, my dad’s gonna be ticked, but I really don’t see it can hurt anything.” He chewed his lip for few seconds. “Let’s do it.” He went over to another of the guards who seemed reluctant to let them through, but clearly, Cullen was their leader and Mark heard the other man agree.
“Okay, let me go see if they’re game.” He returned to the group of men.
“I’m Mark. Who are you guys?”
“I’m DeShawn,” the black man told him. “This is Sanchez, he’s Leo and the white dude over there is Palmer.” Mark explained the situation and waited while they went to confer with the rest of the tent people. He could see a group of adults arguing and one of the women burst into tears, but he saw her nodding her head. Mark fidgeted, and looked around at the mountains and the pine forests, hoping these people would make the right decision. After ten minutes DeShawn returned.
“They’re not happy about it but they’ll do it. We’re desperate, man. That’s the only reason we would even consider this, but somehow I feel like you can be trusted.”
“You won’t be sorry. There are good people in Eagle Nest and Willsburg. You can contribute there and be happy. Bring the kids.”
Mark went back to the open gate and waited until DeShawn, the two Hispanic men and a woman came through the gate carrying two toddlers and leading four others by the hand.
“This here’s Carissa,” DeShawn told Mark.
“They can’t go unless I go with them,” said the small black woman. “Me and the other mothers can’t let them go with you alone. Please.”
Mark looked over at Terry and Terry shrugged. “I guess we can all jam in together.” Terry walked over to Cullen. “You don’t have anything to worry about. The radiation level is very low. I’m going to take these people to my house, then I’ll come back for you. You can go with me to the south gate and tell them to let us through. Then I’ll…”
“No need man. I have a radio. We try not to use it but I’ll just radio ahead.” He walked over to the old pickup and Mark saw him speaking into a handheld radio. Cullen nodded at them and they all piled into the Jeep. Terry drove and Mark rode shotgun with a four-year-old girl on his lap. Skillet sat behind Terry with a 2-year-old sitting on each knee and the woman Carissa, sat with her three-year-old on her lap. Another child sat on the seat between Carissa and Skillet and the oldest child, Beth, road behind the back seat.
Before they drove off Mark looked over and saw the tent people waving at them. He could only imagine the fear they felt with their children being carried off by total strangers. But he knew they felt it was their only hope and one of their own was a long to keep them safe.
DeShawn and the others would stay another night in the pass and pack up and start their journey in the morning. Cullen assured Mark and Terry that there would be no problem allowing safe passage for the tent people.
“I don’t always agree with my dad. Now that we know there’s a place for these people to go, maybe we can let others through.”
In another half hour they had arrived back at Terry’s house, Izzy and the others surprised to see a Jeep full of children pull up.
Lori shook her head. “I can’t leave you guys alone for a second.”
“There was nothing else we could do,” Mark explained, “we just couldn’t leave them camped out on the freeway with no food and nowhere to go.” Lori came over and gave him a hug.
“That’s why I love you,” she whispered.
They brought everyone into the house, broke out some dehydrated food and fed Carissa and the children.
“It’s only 3 o’clock,” Terry said. “Me and Carissa will drive the kids down to Eagle Nest. I’m going to drive up to Willsburg and see if Tucker and Marcy are ready to come back with me. Either way, I’ll spend the night and be back in the morning.” He walked over and put his hands on Izzy’s shoulders. “I know you’d like to go with me Izzy but there just isn’t enough room in the Jeep.”
“I know honey, we’ll be fine. We’re home.”
Terry took a rifle and stashed it between the front seats of the Jeep. Beth rode in front with Terry, and Carissa sat in back with the other children. They all waved as the Jeep pulled away from the curb. Izzy had tears in her eyes and Lori put her arm across her shoulders.
“Don’t worry Izzy, they’ll be down there in an hour and a half. It’s funny, sixty-five miles is nothing in a Jeep and it took us seven days to get here with our wagon train.”
8
Being more careful than ever, Jon checked every corner and peeked over every fence to ensure he wasn’t being followed. Once he entered the forest he picked up speed and rechecked all of his traps. “Uh oh. I’m going to be in trouble,” he murmured. He still had the carcasses of a squirrel and a rabbit and he prayed it would be enough as all of the traps were empty. Spending another hour collecting roots and plants, he didn’t get back to the Parker Hotel until almost dark.
As Jon entered the hotel, he could tell immediately that Ben was pissed off.
“Where the hell have you been?” He threw an empty beer can into the corner. “I sent some guys out looking for you and they couldn’t find you anywhere. We’ve decided to get out of this town and you’re the only one from around here. If we stay, we’ll all starve to death. What other towns are in this area?”