by Cooper, DJ
-Louis D. Brandeis
Before leaving the camp, Rich installed a large tank in the rear of the truck to hold extra fuel for our journey. He said it would hold about another tank and a half, and that it should get us almost there. Travel on the main roads was nearly impossible, between the stalled cars and gangs; the highways were treacherous. Without GPS or a map, we used a compass and took roads that would point us east and south. For the whole first day, this proved to be a dangerous mistake. We ran into dead ends and rough neighborhoods that we had to race to escape. Rich, of course, had his sidearm a Glock 26. He’d also relieved one of the officers we’d left locked in the storage container of his, a second Glock. The doctor carried a 12 gauge with about 250 shells. We had about 300 rounds for the Glocks, but other than that; it was sure to be all knife fights and baseball bats, reminiscent of gang fights of 1970’s New York. Of this, I was not feeling very confident about our chances. Rich is the only one with any self-defense skills, I felt like the rest of us could use some quick study lessons.
We ventured onto highway 76 for a stretch of, particularly wooded road where there was very little on the lines of human civilization. Rich said he was hopeful, we will be able to make up some time. The sun was beginning to set as we stumbled upon a rest area. Glancing at Rich in a pleading manner, I said, “I really gotta go, and sometimes there are maps in these rest areas.”
Agreeing, he pulled off the highway. Ever the cautious protector, before he would let us get out, he insisted he had to check it out. I climbed into the driver’s seat and kept it running and ready to speed off if he signaled to do so. The time he took to check it out felt like an eternity, and my bladder was about to explode. The Doctor and his wife kept a keen eye on the woods to the back side, and the kids watched the entrances front and rear. After those first shots aimed at us that we narrowly escaped, everyone was a lot more cautious, and we would take no chances. Rich came out holding up a map and waved us inside to use the facilities. He admonished us it smelled pretty bad as there was no running water. The men would use the shrubbery on the side of the building so that they could keep watch.
We used them anyway and broke out some hand sanitizer right after. Exiting the restrooms Doc’s wife and I giggled at the look on her daughter’s face as she said, “Someone forgot to flush the toilet.”
The Doctor’s wife asked, “Do you think your group will let us stay when we get to Kentucky?"
It never occurred to me that they wouldn’t, but something did occur to me. I didn’t even know her name, none of them. Not even the doctor, just Doctor Hostin. I stopped midstride, turned to her and said, “I feel like an ass, I don’t even know your name.”
She laughed and said, “Well It all has been kind of a whirlwind. My name is Rebecca, my daughter here is Jennifer. The oldest is Joshua, and the little one is Jakob.”
“And the Doctor?”
“We all just call him Doc, but its Joshua also.”
“Well…It is a pleasure to meet you and to answer your question; I am quite certain that they will welcome you.”
When we returned to the truck, we found Rich on the other side of the fence that separated the rest area from the woods behind it. Walking back, with a big smile on his face, he said, “I have found us a place to camp for the night.” The area where he’d gone through was at a corner in the chain link. They simply snipped the three holders and slid the fence to the side making it wide enough for the truck to fit through. Rich drove the truck through and then closed up the fence with some wire. We drove back into a grove that led to a gully; there was a fair amount of low brush to conceal us. Parking the truck at the top, we covered it with shrub cuttings to make sure it was hidden. This also offered a bit of a shield so that we could make a small fire.
Rich dug two holes and then made a tunnel between them. They were not that deep, but one was fairly wide, while the other was little more than the circumference of a large branch. Walking into the woods, he told me he was in search of ‘fat’ wood. I asked him, “What on earth is fatwood?”
He laughed, and said, “It is highly concentrated resin areas in wood. They will catch fire and burn with just a match." He went on to explain, “It is contained in a section of the tree where a branch has died off. In the time of its dying, the tree would have sent lots of resin to the area to help save it. This resin is usually found nearest to the tree of the dead branch. Pine is best for this. It will help us get a good fire going.”
Searching through the woods, he found what he thought was the perfect branch. He sawed it off right up close to the tree, and we gathered other wood for the fire. The Hostins had already set up the tents and camp when we arrived. They’d obviously done this before. I told myself, “You need to chat with Rebecca about some of this later.”
In one of the holes Rich lit the fire and surrounded the hole with rocks, the other he said was for air. One could not see the flames from the fire, but we were able to cook and feel the heat. He called it a ‘Dakota Pit.’
Rebecca cooked up some of the food that we brought with us and made a batch of the tea. We all ate and after sending the children to bed, sipped the tea for a bit.
Doc and Rich sat looking at the map to see what they thought would be the best route, while Rebecca and I cleaned up the dinnerware and packed it all neatly in the truck. The days were growing shorter and night fell before long. We set up a watch and went to sleep. I didn’t realize how exhausted I’d been. It seemed like only moments before the sun rose and was warming the tent. No one woke me for a watch or anything. Emerging from the tent, I could see that everyone was already up and doing things. Rich waved me over. I hunkered down next to him on a log that he’d placed by the fire and snuggled into him. Putting his arm around my shoulder he leaned in and kissed my forehead saying, “Good morning beautiful.” It felt strange to have such displays of affection in front of others, yet no one seemed to even notice.
We would spend the day here and another night. Rich said it was to catch our bearings. We’d done so much back tracking the day before it seemed pointless to just go off without further study of the map they’d been arguing over. Rebecca and Jennifer came over asking if I might like to join them in the acorn hunt. I looked up asking, “Acorn hunt?”
Jennifer giggled and said, “Yea, mom makes muffins out of them.”
Looking intrigued I asked, “So, you are the one that made the muffins?”
She smiled and said, “Yes, my grandmother showed me when I was a little girl how to process the acorns so we could eat them.”
I asked her, “Don’t we just crack them and eat them?”
Rebecca shook her head saying, “Oh no, they are far too bitter.”
Quizzically I said, “The muffins didn’t taste bitter.”
“That’s because I boiled all the tannin out of them.”
“Tannin?” I asked.”
She smiled and said, “I’ll show you.”
I was happy to go off, acorn hunting, with the girls. It felt so nice to fit in and be part of something. There were many big oak trees she said, and we found the giant kind of acorns. The ground was littered with them. Before long we each had a plastic grocery bag full of them. We headed back to camp, unaware we were being watched.
Once back to the camp, Rebecca filled a pot with water and dumped in the acorns. She boiled them until the water turned a rusty color. Telling me tannin was bitter and could even be used to tan the hides of animals.
She poured off the rusty looking water she used a piece of old screen, binding them inside it and rinsed them in the small stream nearby. Leaving them in the stream for a while with the water rushing over them. In the mean time she set up some flat rocks with a second palm sized rock for each of us. Retrieving the now cooled and rinsed nuts we began to crack the shells off. This was a little difficult because they were soft, but we got them all done in a couple hours. All of the meats placed back in the pot she boiled them again, repeating the process in the stream.
After this time she closed all the nut meats into packets of aluminum foil and tossed them into the fire pit, placing a large rock over it to cover about three-fourths of the opening.
I asked her what she was doing and she replied in song, “Acorns roasting on an open fire.”
We laughed and started on the next task. We’d decided to made snack bags for breakfast, these we could just take and eat on the go. In the morning, we would only need pack up the tents and leave at first light.
We sat leisurely sipping the tea chatting about the next step for our acorns. She said, “The next thing is to grind them into flour and voila, you have nut flour.” As the sun was setting. The darkness was really starting to set in and we’d put the kids to bed already, when Doc sat straight eyes wide and hushed us. He’d heard something. Everyone on edge listening for the slightest sound. Each of us, heads turning side to side straining to listen. ‘Snap,’ all heads turned and looked in the direction of the sound. We’d all heard it this time. Quietly moving, Rich handed Rebecca and I each one of the side arms. We took up a position either side of the tent where the children slept. Rich was already in the woods with the ax. I looked for him after getting into position, and he was gone, never making even the slightest sound he simply disappeared into the darkness. Doc was in the bed of the truck, overlooking us, crouched, shotgun aimed in the direction of the sound.
Silently we waited, no one dared make a sound or movement. We heard a scuffle in the woods. I was terrified for Rich and found myself shaking with anxiety. Tears welled up in my eyes; I envisioned horrible ends to this scenario. I stood there, horrified that something terrible would happen. Then to my relief Rich’s voice could be heard a short distance into the woods. “Don’t shoot anything, it’s just me.” He came walking out of the woods with a young girl. She looked to be about fifteen years old. She was dirty and visibly scared. Rich said, “Could you ladies help her; I think she is more shaken up by the tackling I gave her than anything else but make sure she is ok?”
Rebecca and I both hopped up and grabbed some things. Rebecca grabbed the first aid kit, while I poured her some tea. Rebecca scolded Rich, “What the hell did you do? The poor thing is shaking all over.”
Rich looked at me for sympathy, but I had none. Giving him a scowl, I fetched a bag of the morning snacks for her. She ate it like she had not eaten in days, all the while looking around at us.
Rich looked at Doc saying, “Women! who can figure? You know? If it had been some big asshole type, I’d have been a hero.”
Doc laughed saying, “Get used to it, I’ve never been able to figure it out.”
After she’d eaten and calmed down a little, Rich came over and asked if she was alone. She looked scared, but I assured her he would not hurt her. Noting her uneasiness, I whispered to Rebecca, who nodded and ran over to the children’s tent. Returning with Joshua, they sat down and put a pot of water on to boil.
Joshua looked over at her and asked, “What’s your name?” When she didn’t answer, he shrugged and went back to fussing over the pan of water. Without even looking at her he started talking, saying, “Yea, I don’t blame ya, sometimes adults can be so demanding. Like when I’m sick of school, and they’re always on me about grades and sports and how am I gonna get into college?” Without even looking up he grabbed two cups and the hot chocolate mix. Pouring a packet into each cup, followed by water and stirring. The rest of us had already moved away and were talking amongst ourselves on the other side of the fire. He continued as he moved to sit near her. “Want some hot cocoa?” She cowered as he drew near. He pretended not to notice as he handed her the cup. Sipping on his own cup, he continued, “Are you from around here? I haven’t seen anyone my age in months.” Reaching down like nothing was out of the ordinary, he slipped off a shoe and dumped some sand from it. Without even noticing if she was listening or not he kept chatting, “You know, Always having to take care of the little ones.” Looking over at her and sipping his cocoa again before continuing, “Don’t get me wrong, I love the little rug rats, but it would sure be nice to have someone to talk to.”
She looked at him with a furrowed brow, and a bit of confusion mixed with sarcasm in her tone said, “Who are you, people?”
Everyone grew silent and looked at her as if they’d seen a ghost. She continued, “Where did you come from?”
Joshua said, “We were being held in a camp on the eastern side of the state, where did you come from?”
The girl spoke again, “No one has been nice to me since… well you know, since things went bad.”
Rebecca spoke to her, “Where are your parents dear?”
The girl looked down saying, “I don’t know. They made me go to the hideout when some men came and took them away."
“What is the hideout?” I asked.
“Just a little tree house dad built in the woods for hunting. He put some food and water in there before the bad men came. He said they would meet me there and to stay, but they never came.” She began to cry as she recounted, “I saw some people at the rest area a few weeks back and went to talk to them, but before I could get there Archer showed up with his guys.”
“Who is Archer?” Rebecca asked.
“He is a bad man; they have trucks like yours only bigger. They hurt people. They take their stuff and hurt anyone that stops at the rest area. I wanted to warn the people, but I was too late. He shot some of them.” Crying she continued, “I wanted to warn you too, but you are smarter. You got into the woods.”
Rebecca asked her, “What’s your name honey?”
“Lia… Lia Monroe”
Rich stood up, “Monroe? Are your parents James and Tabitha?”
Lia looked at him in shock saying, “Yes, that is them. Do you know them?”
“I do.” He said. “They will be coming for you. They escaped the same camp that we did. Jim, I mean your dad, would talk about you all the time. I had no idea this was the area they were going to, we have been lost ourselves. We need to get you to them.”
Rich half ran, half walked to the truck and pulled out a radio. None of us even knew that there were radios. Looking at us he turned it on, put a silencing finger to his lips and keyed the mic three times. He waited a few minutes and did it again. Within a minute, the radio came to life, a voice on the other end said, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.”
Rich replied, “Hey there ole’ man, do me a solid and tell the Monroe group I’ve found a package safe and sound. Repeat, to the Monroe group, package is safe, over.”
The voice came back, “10-4, maintain silence until signaled and hold package, over.”
Rich replied, “10-4, over.”
He returned to the group and explained that anyone looking for another gave up their information before we all separated, which was passed on to Whiskey Tango; a local ham radio operator who had communication with other hams across the country. He looked at Lia saying, “He will find your parents and let them know you are ok. Our instructions are to keep you with us. We can try to stay in the area until we hear back but I think it best we get away from this rest area.”
Lia had tears streaming down her face, she leaped up and grabbed Rich around the neck, hugging him and sobbing. After patting her back, he sat her down with Joshua and said, “I think we should move now. We need to find a place to hold up a day or two.”
Lia spoke quietly, “I know where we can go. There are others there that are hiding too.”
Rich asked, “Where is that?”
“The old coal mine.” She said.
Rich nodded ok and then asked, “Why did you not go there?”
She replied, “I was waiting for my parents.”
Rich said, “Well, you are to remain with us until we get you and your parents reunited. Are you ok with that?”
Lia nodded and began to cry again, I asked her why she was crying, and she said that she was happy her parents would be home and that she missed them. I reached out to hug her, and at first, she flinched from me. I
knew then she’d seen more than a child her age should have. It brought tears to my own eyes thinking about Matty and what I already knew he’d seen and felt sad at how much more it might be.
The children were awakened and settled into the truck while the rest of us broke camp. Rich didn’t want to leave any trace just in case, so we filled in the pit, covering it with leaves. Once we left the woods for the road, we masked the tracks. The mine was a little over six miles away, and I worried this was a little too close for comfort. I couldn’t help thinking that if it was indeed safe, it would be nice to relax for a spell.
Driving in the dark, without headlights, proved to be somewhat difficult and Lia struggled to navigate the streets. Because she’d done all of her travels across yards and through wooded areas, she couldn’t remember the way using roads.
Through the silence, the walkie came to life. Another three keys on a mic somewhere came through. Rich keyed the mic three times in response. This time, a different voice was heard. Lia nearly jumped over the seat trying to hear. “Seeking package here, over.”
Rich replied, “Package listening, over.”
The voice said, “Will need to rendezvous south at the ranch, over.”
Rich shrugged his shoulders and looked at Lia for a clue. She looked blank, so Rich replied, “Clarify, over.”
The voice said, “The package is lucky, over.”
Lia turned around, grabbing her pack she looked through it pulling out a tin box with various photos and other items in it. After fumbling through some, she pulled out a photo of her and a horse. Rich asked her, “What is this?”
She said, “The ranch, this is my horse Lucky.”
Rich asked her if she knew where it was and she nodded in affirmation. Keying the mic, Rich again spoke saying, “10-4, will confirm, over.”
Turning to Lia, he asked, “Where is this place?” She told him it was her grandmother’s house that was near West Virginia. A shocked look came over his face as it sank in that this child was now with us for a distance that was nearly halfway to our own destination. He looked at the rest of us for approval. We all nodded. He keyed the mic again saying, “Distance possible, but few days will tell, listen in here at 1500 plus, plus tomorrow, over.”