by T J Reeder
She showed up in about an hour and said this was gonna work! Cool, let’s go home! Too many people and too much noise!
We made our goodbyes with the promise of having those who wanted to come here on their way asap.
I think we must have made the first 25 miles in three seconds flat. Sandy finally said, “Slow down babe we made it.” I did, setting the cruise at 55 and we all took a breath and agreed we were never gonna be in a place like that again. May just laughed at us.
Now I really wonder how Harvey and his family had stood working under ground all those years.
Our hobbit houses were under ground to a degree but it wasn’t the same. Can’t explain it but I’m not going back to re-check the feeling.
Charley had been quiet and finally spoke up and said he wished he could bring his People out of there and get them home.
I could feel his emotions over it but had no words to help. Beth asked if he and Old Woman were to return would they listen to her. He sat a while and was quiet then turned in the seat and said, “Beth, you are a very smart and amazing woman!” He agreed that if Old Woman said, “Come home,” most if not all would.
We dropped Charley off and headed home and headed up the ridge, long day and shower and sleep were the order of the night.
I got up and headed to the bathroom then made coffee and stood over the pot until it was done then poured a nice big cup and went outside to watch the day unfold, We had moved the stump up here and placed it on the east side of the house looking across the lake. The fishing folks were already at it, their sails bright white against the water. Shortly Beth came out and sat with me, she said the girls were still sleeping. It had been a long day yesterday for sure.
Sandy came out followed by May dragging their “blankie” as I called it; they call it their morning wrap up blanket.
They joined us on the stump and covered us all with the blanket, I was just fine without it but I would never ruin their morning ritual. Some things just need to stay the same.
We fixed breakfast for ourselves and after cleaning the mess we headed down to the communal cooking area.
More coffee and May gathered her people and told them all about the trip to Page.
I could tell several of them weren’t as open to the whole thing as they had been, a few still were. After talking about it May asked for comments, only about eight said they wanted to go, the rest said they were very happy here and had no desire to crawl back into the entire “civilization” thing. I was smiling because that whole attitude seemed to be cropping up everywhere.
We made plans to transport the movers when they were packed up and ready to go. I made a point to tell them if it wasn’t like they hoped they were welcome back as long as it was before the plague showed up, after that nobody was getting anywhere close to the canyon settlements period.
Surprising me not at all one couple decided right there to stay.
I got word from Charley that he and Old Woman were going to Page the next day, so I told the movers to get ready because we were leaving today. We rolled out three hours later and headed to Shiprock. The next morning we headed out for Page, we had a small convoy with the Dodge and a pair of HV’s with guns up and some pickups for the movers.
We got to Page and stopped at the road block and were passed thru.
At the town office we met with the Mayor who took the movers to the dam area where they would be housed. Charley and Old Woman rode in a HV when we headed for the part of town where the Navajo lived; it wasn’t much to look at.
We stopped a ways back and let Charley and Old Woman go into the area, Charley asked some kids to get their people out and soon there was a good sized crowd gathered and more coming.
When everybody was there Charley spoke for a bit, then Old Woman spoke for a good while then some of the people asked a few questions.
Sandy was trying to follow it but had to give up, maybe in another 20 years she might have it down good enough.
I could see a few of the younger people weren’t receptive to the idea of going back to the Rez so Charley said something and he and Old Woman walked to our truck where we waited while they talked among themselves.
In the end about half of them agreed to come back. They loaded the stuff that was going into the pickups we brought and rolled home. I could tell Charley was disappointed at the results but some beat none.
Back in Shiprock he and I talked alone. He said the ones who stayed just couldn’t leave the booze and dope alone and it was their choice. But once the sickness came they were not going to be allowed back except in a quarantined area for several weeks and allowed nowhere near any of the people; tough love.
We arrived home late the next afternoon after spending the night in Shiprock. The big news was word of a shooting across the water in one of the more remote settlements. We decided to make a lake patrol the next morning to get the word first hand, not that we are the world police but if there is trouble close by I want to know what it is and who’s involved. I think that’s reasonable and anybody who don’t can suck egg as my ol granny used to say.
We had a quiet evening, dinner was good as usual, the company was great as always, Brad said the solar equipment we had brought from the Fort was all great but he needed some other things and wanted to make a trip to the Fort to look over what they had. Wilson and Mable said they needed to go also so they made their plans, Lyla wanted to go too so they were set, I told them to take the Dodge and trailer if they thought they might need to haul anything back and feel free to take what they needed.
We headed home and settled in for the night. As much as I love staying over in Shiprock there is no place like home and one’s own bed, Showers were in order and we spent the evening sitting out on the cliff edge looking across the lake. We could see the cook fires in the far off villages making it a nice sight; peaceful even, until we heard gun shots rolling across the lake in the quiet.
They were so distant that I almost missed hearing them, Walkers head popped up and the girls all looked to the sound. It was several shots and different guns and from the sound, one was an AK for sure, no doubt!
We listened but heard nothing more but Beth said she thought she caught the sound of a boat motor running fast. I heard nothing nor did the other two. Walker wasn’t commenting either way.
Well it would have to wait for morning because I sure wasn’t making a night speed run across the lake into what sounded like a small fire fight.
We heard nothing more and went to bed but were up early, had breakfast and headed for the boat dock we had built. I insisted we take the pontoon, slower true but a very stable shooting platform compared to the power boats.
I also insisted we all bring 308 Simi auto rifles for the max power and the longer range. But of course “they” brought their squirt guns too. I told Joe and Willy what was going on and they quickly got their battle rattle together and we headed out with full tanks and ten gallons of extra fuel. I don’t like having exposed fuel but we set it on the swimmer recovery deck at the back so it was protected somewhat.
Joe took the wheel and laughed at Sandy who thinks us old farts are too slow. We headed for the settlement where we assumed the fight had occurred; I also noted the fishing boats weren’t out yet which is not the norm. I went to the flag staff and broke out the colors as we always do when approaching others.
We arrived at the village to find several people standing on their dock waiting for us. Their head man was older then me and had a long white beard, he looked like an old time bible prophet and in fact was named Eli!
Actually he was an old retired Gunners Mate with 30 years in the navy and talked like it.
We eased into their dock and Sandy and I stepped ashore and shook hands with Eli.
I asked what was going on. He said there was a team of raiders hitting the settlements as well as having attacked a boat from the next village up lake and had shot one of their people. He said it had started several days back and they had decided they would ask
for our help today and here we come.
None of us could understand why they were raiding the fishing settlements, folks here were peaceful and grew their food and took it from the lake just like we do, but they had nothing worth stealing nor did they want such.
My first thought was women but he said they had women with them and all of them were younger folks, almost kids.
He said they seemed to be coming from up lake meaning where the rivers feed in.
We decided to head up that way and see what might happen. We covered several miles before we saw any signs of life; then we saw what turned out to be a bunch of power boats tied up to the shore and fires smoldering. We slowed and headed in to the shore out of sight and tied up.
It took us about thirty minutes to hike the edge of the lake but we were able to come up on their camp and found them all sleeping off a big party, booze bottles were scattered around as well as bags of pot. With our people spread out in a semicircle we walked in among them and took all the weapons we could see. While the rest were covering them I grabbed one of the males and tossed him into the lake causing him to scream then land with a big splash. This brought everyone awake, kind of.
I was rather surprised because I doubted any of them was much over sixteen, the girls looked even younger. After they stopped freaking out I told them to get on their knees with their hands on their heads. One of the older boys was moving a hand slowly under the blanket he was sleeping under when May walked over and kicked him in the head, she found a pistol under the blanket so she checked all of them and found several more weapons, including an AK 47 which she handed to me and sure nuff it was the full auto model I had heard last night.
Willy dragged the swimmer out and tossed him into the pile. There was ten of them, five couples it looked like. Now I was stumped, what to do with a bunch of renegade kids.
So we split them up like always and started asking questions.
After sifting out the lies it seemed the boys had decided that the world was ended and they were free to do as they wished in the short time before the sickness wiped out all of mankind.
They were all from the Page area and were mostly the kids of the summer people. I asked them as a group what gave them the right to rob others of their food and to shoot people.
The girls and most of the boys all looked at the oldest and biggest guy there who was scared absolutely shitless.
Sandy walked over to him and pulled her 45 out and dropping the safety placed the muzzle on his forehead and said, “Well John do I shoot him now or when we shoot all of them?
They all started crying and blubbering at once which went on for a while. So I winked at her and Joe and said, “Not here it’s too early to make a mess. Take him around the bend and do it.” With that Joe just jerked him to his feet and almost had to drag him he was so limp and crying while begging They were out of sight for several minutes when we heard a shot and shortly Sandy and Joe walked back alone, God I was hoping Sandy saw my wink!
All the kids were now shocked silent and were white faced, one of the girls threw up and then fainted. I said, “Well which of you is gonna tell me why you think you can do this shit?”
The outcome was that Pete, the “dead” ones father was some kind of self-appointed messenger from God and had convinced his son that most of mankind was going to die for our sins and nothing could save us now.
Pete having grown up in a very strict household and never having had a taste of freedom was a perfect candidate to decide fk it if he was gonna die for sins he never committed then he was gonna go sin some before the end. Sandy said, “Shit I thought maybe shooting that bastard in Texas might have been the last of this kind of crap we would have to deal with.”
One of the girls spoke up and said that Pete hadn’t been a bad kid but his father was a son of a bitch and had made Pete the way he was. She said that if we were gonna kill them to get it done coz she had to pee and didn’t want to pee herself while she is still alive.
I almost busted out laughing but instead May walked over and said, “Come on hon I’ll take you to pee.” She stood up and said “If you’re gonna shoot me let me finish peeing first ok?” And I lost it, then Joe and Willy lost it, Beth was just looking sad then looked at me and said, “I think it’s time don’t you?”
That got them crying again so I said, “Ok knock it off!” And they did. May took the girl to pee then brought her back after a bit and said anybody else?
Two said, “Yes please,” and one started crying and said it was too late for her. May said, “Come on sweetie, walk out into the water and wash it off.”
I asked who the AK belonged to and one of the boys said his dad had brought it back from Iraq which surprised me since it’s pretty hard to do that, he said his dad had been in the Air Force and flew on cargo planes which explained things better. Some folks are in a better position to get shit done then others.
After the girls were all back Joe and Willy took the boys to pee, when they were all back together I said, “Well, what are we gonna do with you?”
The girl who had shown the most guts said, “Well I guess, if you don’t shoot the rest of us, we are gonna have to pay for what we did. It was wrong and we all know it.” All of them nodded in agreement.
Beth looked at me and moved her head and walked away, I followed her until we were well away from the kids, she said, “John these kids must not have much going for them back in Page, let’s take them home with us and let them see how we as a group are handling “the end of the world” and we can evaluate them, maybe some would fit in with us.” She went on to say that the future was going to depend young people learning to be good, honest, strong leaders and if we could get them back on the right path it would be good for all in the longrun.
I love Beth, she reminds the rest of us of our humanity and I know Sandy really has gained from being near Beth, hell I’ve gained in spirit a great deal.
So I said, “Ok baby, let’s give it a go, we went back to the kids and said, Ok, load up your gear and pile it in your boats.”
After that was done we removed the keys from the boats and tied them off to be towed behind us. I had the girls sit on the pontoon boat and the boys scattered out in the other boats. Joe left and returned with Pete the dead guy which shocked all the kids. Pete was a very subdued young man.
We headed back to the fishing villages where we met up with the folks on their dock. I explained what was going on to them and then made the kids one at a time walk over to the people and ask for their forgiveness. The girls broke down crying and soon the ladies from the village were hugging them and whispering to them. The boys were still scared shitless and just said, “I’m so sorry” over and over.
Pete was the last and fell to his knees and begged forgiveness and none of us had any doubts about his honesty in it.
The last thing I did was give all their gear to the people of the village (all except the AK). I think it’s already hanging on the wall at home. I would need to think about that one. I planned to meet these kids’ parents and depending how I felt about the AK dad, he might get it back.
We checked on the man who was shot and it turned out to be a long ways from his heart. He even said he knew it was an accident when the shooter slipped and pulled the trigger but he needed his ass kicked for not having the safety on. I agreed and said I’d bring him over as soon as the mans wound healed so he could do it. He never answered that idea.
Well now we have ten maybe orphans and how do we handle them? I guess we need another trip to Page without the kids for starters.
After getting back to the canyon and getting the kids introduced to the clan and a special word to watch them like hawks we dug up Ralph and told him to warm up the chopper, I asked the commo lady to ring the bell at Page and tell them we were coming. I sent the girls to snag their door guns, why? No idea. Just habit I guess
We took off and as usual I barely got the damn seat belt on and we were circling Page. We landed at the airport and were met
by the Chief and a few of his officers. I asked Sandy and May to remain in the bird and lean on the door with a hand on the guns, I again don’t know why except it is what it is.
The chief, Beth and I got into his truck and headed to the city office where the usual people were waiting, I handed the list of names to the Mayor who read it and handed it to the chief who looked at it and shrugged and said, “Yep we know em, sorry buncha little shits.”
I asked where they were, he said he had no idea and nobody cared as long as it wasn’t here. I wasn’t getting anything out of the chief so I asked the Mayor who said he had no idea where they were and since their parents hadn’t said they were missing he figured it was just that much less to be bothered about.
I asked where we could find the parents of …and I named two of the girl’s parents, The Chief asked why I wanted to see them which was pissing me off a lot. Before I could let him know how much he was pissing me off Beth said in her calm manner, “Chief if your daughter was missing wouldn’t you want to know where she was?”
