by A J Newman
I saw a tear running down her cheek, and then she lay down on my chest. We lay there for an hour, both knowing that I would go home, and she would go on serving our broken country. I felt lousy laying there with her because I knew that I didn’t care for her as much as I did for Karen. Then it occurred to me that I lusted for Karen but didn’t care for her any more than Ann.
Damn, I really didn’t know what I wanted. I’d been a soldier most of my adult life and took pleasure where I found it. Karen was different. She stirred a longing in me to settle down and make a steady life. I just wished we’d talked about how we’d felt for each other.
As if she’d read my mind, Ann rolled off me to the floor and dressed. I said, “Ann, I’m sorry, but I have to go home.”
She bent down and kissed me. “Jason, I always knew we would never be seriously involved. You need a woman to have kids with and settle down with a family. I’m going to have a squad of MP’s escort you most of the way back home. We have some old farm trucks that are in excellent shape. One of them will be ready to go by 0900. You can leave with the escort any time after that.”
I started to kiss her goodbye, but she said, “No, a clean break is best. Good luck and I’m very sorry about MMax.”
***
The commotion at the fort caused MMax to growl to alert Kat, who was asleep. He tugged at his leash, so Kat put her boots on and took him out to see what was going on. They snuck up to the fence line, only about twenty-five yards from where Jason’s smell was the strongest. She hid in a low spot when she spotted two soldiers walking toward them. She told MMax to be quiet and listened. The soldier closest to her said, “I can’t believe we’re free from the General and FEMA. Will you stay or go home?”
The second soldier replied, “I’m going home. I’ll go with the group that escorts Sergeant Walker south to the Nashville city limits. The Colonel gave him a truck and some supplies plus the escort. It’s the least he could do since Walker fought and killed ‘The Mountain.’”
“Did you see how bloody that fight was?”
“Yep, but Walker only got beat up. ‘The Mountain’ got stabbed a dozen times before he died.”
Kat homed in on the statements about the truck and Jason driving home. She watched a soldier drive an old pickup and park it close to Jason’s tent. She ran back to her hideout with MMax to find the wire cutters and her backpack. Kat knew it was risky, but she was going to cut the fence and try to find Jason.
Kat led MMax by the leash back to the fence and tied the leash to it while she cut a hole large enough for MMax and her to enter the fort. The hole was finally large enough, so she crawled through, and MMax followed. There was a glow in the eastern horizon that told Kat she only had a few minutes to stow away in Jason’s truck. She walked to the truck with MMax and looked in the truck’s bed. “Great,” she thought. The supplies had a canvas tarp over them. She helped MMax into the vehicle by lowering the tailgate. MMax jumped in, and she climbed under the tarp with him. Kat reached back and lifted the tailgate. It made a loud clank when it closed.
As she feared, she heard a flurry of voices, and then the tarp was ripped open and bright light blinded her. She heard, “What are you doing? Why are you hiding in this truck?”
She heard Jason shout. “What’s going on out there?”
Jason rounded the corner of the tent at the same time MMax heard his master’s voice and leaped from the truck. MMax barked and ran into Jason, knocking him down. One of the guards thought Jason was being attacked, so he drew his pistol and aimed it at the dog. He pulled the trigger just as Kat knocked his arm away. The shot rang through the camp, waking everyone close by them.
It only took me a second to realize MMax had tackled me. MMax wasn’t dead! MMax licked me all over as I tried to hug him. I called out, “It’s okay. This is MMax, my dog and that’s Kat. I know her.”
By this time, Kat was also in my lap with MMax. She hugged me and babbled on about what had happened since I had lost track of MMax. I saw Ann rush up and her eyes widened when she saw the cute blonde in my lap. She said, “MMax is still alive! Jason, I’m so happy for you! Who is your other friend?”
I said, “Oh, this is just Kat. I saved her from some thugs a while back. She saved MMax and cared for him until he recovered from the wounds. I owe her for saving my best friend.”
Ann said, “I see. If she can climb off of you, we need to discuss your departure.”
I moved Kat off my lap and stood up, still holding on to my dog. I said, “Come,” and MMax followed me to Ann’s quarters. Ann gave me a hug and said, “I’m going to miss you.”
“Ann, you mean a lot to me. You helped me survive the camp and kept me from doing some stupid stuff.”
Ann replied, “But I don’t mean enough for you to stay with me?”
“Or you could say that you don’t care enough about me to go home with me.”
Ann asked, “Are you and the girl romantically involved?”
“Hell, no! She hates my guts. She tried to kill me when I saved her life.”
Ann laughed. “She didn’t look like she wanted to kill you a few minutes ago.”
“I don’t know where that came from. When I met her, I thought Kat was just a skinny and dirty little boy. She’s had a rough go of it. Several of the FEMA people raped and abused her, right after the lights went off.”
“Are you taking her home with you?”
“I really don’t know. I offered to take Kat to our village, but she left on her own.”
Ann replied, “Do you mind if we get her some clean clothes and a shower? She stinks.”
I said, “I wouldn’t tell her she stinks. She has a short fuse.”
“How old is she? Should she have a pistol?”
I laughed, “I think she’s about twenty-two. She’s got a chip on her shoulder …”
Ann snickered, “And a short fuse.”
***
Kat hadn’t had a real bath in over a month. Living in abandoned buildings and alleys for months was bad enough, but the bad men were the worst. The stink and dirt had kept several men from pursuing her. She hated the smell of the mixture of cat poop and her own pee.
She enjoyed the hot water and scented soap. It reminded her of better days. Her mom would go nuts if she saw Kat’s butchered hair, chipped nails, and clothes. Especially the clothes. Her mom had given her two credit cards when she’d turned sixteen with a $20,000 limit just for clothes and gas for her Corvette and Jeep. There was nothing but the best for the daughter of the CEO of Women’s World Magazine.
She didn’t recognize the person who stared back at her in the mirror. Her previously perfect locks were now scalloped and ragged. She’d lost five pounds from an already slim five-foot-nothing body. All of her bones stuck out. She combed her hair and thought she looked too much like a skinny tomboy.
This was a far cry from her days in college and spending time at her father’s country club. She’d led a life of privilege and hadn’t wanted for anything. Even when she tried to break away and have a singing career, her mom and dad bought her clothes and made her take money. Kat put the money in the bank and then waited tables and sang at honkytonks in Nashville to make a meager living. She’d had to learn fast and adapt to this cruel apocalyptic world. Some of the lessons had left deep scars.
There were two sets of clothes and underwear lying on the counter, along with a small bag of makeup. Kat quickly dressed in a blouse and matching shorts and found a pair of sneakers and socks under the counter.
The person in the mirror stared at her, and she thought that she now looked okay. Too darn skinny, but regular meals would take care of that. Then she shuddered because she had tried to look dirty and like a boy to keep the perverts and thugs from noticing her. She smiled because MMax and Jason would protect her. She would finally be safe.
Kat removed her fancy wallet and a few other personal possessions from her pants. She opened the wallet and pulled out the driver’s license. The picture looked like her but
had a smile. Katherine T Gold the license said. It also said she was five feet tall and weighed a hundred and two pounds. Kat threw her old clothes away but kept her boots. She stuck her knife and pistol into the waistband of her shorts and was ready to meet the world.
☆
Chapter 10
North Central Tennessee on Highway 41 South
The old Ford F250 bounced along on the debris covered road. Limbs and gravel covered the road in many places. A storm had recently devastated the area, and I could still smell the ozone and smoke from the lightning strikes. I saw entire neighborhoods flattened by what must have been a string of tornadoes. We had to backtrack a couple of times to get around massive fallen trees. I had never given much thought to encountering a disaster in the middle of an apocalypse.
MMax sat between Kat and me in the front seat of the old 1973 pickup. She almost looked normal now with her hair combed and clean clothes. Not to mention, she smelled like a woman should smell now. She caught me looking at her. “What ya looking at?”
I grinned. “A clean girl who doesn’t stink. You clean up real good. Still a bit short and skinny but at least no dirt caked on your face.”
“Well, you didn’t smell so good yourself when I first met you,” she said.
I looked at her and then said, “How old did you say you were?”
“I’m twenty-one and will be twenty-two this August. I know I look much younger. You should have seen the bartender’s face when I showed him my ID for my first legal drink.”
I said, “I’m surprised he didn’t say it was a fake ID and throw you out.”
She laughed, “My dad and his buddy, the police commissioner, were with me.”
I started to speak when a utility pole fell across the road a few feet in front of us. My reflexes took over, and I downshifted and pushed the pedal down hard. The front tires hit the pole, and we were thrown upward with only our seat belts keeping our necks from being broken. Then there was an immediate repeat from the back tires. Half of our cargo flew out of the truck’s bed onto the road behind us.
There were two loud impacts as bullets hit the tailgate and then the front of the bed. I also heard multiple gunshots coming from behind us. We hurled around a bend, and I stopped behind an abandoned truck. “Kat stay in the truck and take off if I don’t …”
Darn her hide, MMax, and she ran to me ignoring my order. I gave up and ran through the woods to see if I could help my friends fight off the attackers. We were too late. I poked my head around a tree and saw one of the attackers kill the last of the squad. My heart raced when one man pointed up the road to where we had gone, and several men got in the Humvee. I grabbed Kat and ran for our lives.
We jumped in the truck and thank God, it fired right up. I squealed tires taking off and drove as fast as the truck would go until I saw a narrow dirt road up ahead on the right. I made the turn on two wheels and immediately looked for a place to hide the truck. I saw an opening in the tall brush and shot into the tangled mess where I slid to a stop, jumped out of the vehicle, and cut a couple of brushy limbs. “Kat, help me erase our tracks.”
We used the limbs to rake our tracks, and there was no longer any evidence we had turned off. I just hoped they weren’t smart enough to look for tire tracks in the dirt and decayed leaves. We hid behind the truck and heard the Humvee roar down the road. We waited with guns ready; however, we didn’t see the Humvee again.
“Kat, stay hidden in the bushes with MMax while I go back and check for any survivors.”
She pulled at my arm. “No, there could be more of them. Use your head. We saw them shooting the last man in the head while he laid helpless on the ground. They’re all dead.”
“Kat, our motto is ‘No man left behind.’ I have to go back and make sure. I know I can’t bury them, but I have to make sure there are no survivors.”
Kat dropped my arm and climbed into the truck with MMax. “Let’s go.”
I started to tell her to stay behind but realized she wouldn’t listen. I also liked the idea of her covering me while I checked for survivors. “Okay, let’s go but do what I say.”
A massacre is the only way I could describe the scene. The men and women from the first Humvee were spread out on the ground. All but one had been executed after being wounded. The big surprise was there was a third Humvee with a massive tree on top of it. The tree crushed the top down almost to the floorboard. Everyone was dead. The passenger side door had buckled away from the vehicle exposing a twisted body.
I screamed, “Oh, no!” and fell to my knees.
I hugged her limp body until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Kat said, “Jason, we need to get out of here. They will be coming back to salvage supplies, ammo, and Humvee parts. Bring her body, and we’ll bury it later.”
I had to pry her body from the vehicle. I couldn’t leave her to rot in the wrecked Humvee. Kat gave me a blanket, and I placed her in the back of the truck. I guess I was in shock for several hours because I couldn’t remember finding Ann’s body.
Kat took the wheel and drove south on 41A until she took Highway 249 over to Highway 24 East. I was in a daze but tried to keep watch for danger. I saw a sign ahead and told her to get off Highway 24 and to work over to Highway 109. I knew we had to avoid Nashville and populated areas as much as possible.
Kat pulled off the road where Highways 178 and 258 crosses. She carefully drove into a stand of trees on the southwest corner, so we could bury Ann. Kat said, “I think you can find this place again if you ever want to visit her grave.”
We didn’t have a shovel but found a tire tool and a hubcap to dig the shallow grave. I placed Ann’s body in the grave and said the Lord’s Prayer before covering her. We spent the next two hours scrounging for rocks to cover the shallow grave. I couldn’t bear thinking that animals would dig her up.
We camped there for the night with Kat huddled up to my side and MMax’s head on my stomach. I couldn’t sleep at all that night as my mind replayed my memories of Ann. Our little growing community at Walter Hill could sure use an experienced leader like her. She died trying to make sure I got home safely.
I laid awake and heard every cricket chirp, every mosquito buzz my face, and every dog that barked that night. Sleep evaded me until the sun glowed below the horizon. I tried counting to a million and got to 187,994 before I got bored and gave up. You don’t believe me. It’s true. Try it sometime when you can’t sleep. It almost always works. Almost.
I don’t know when I fell asleep, but I woke up to the smell of fried Spam and BBQ beans. One eye peeked through my lashes and saw Kat cooking. The smell of the wood smoke mixed with the Spam and beans made my mouth water. “What’s for breakfast?”
Kat chuckled, “Do you mean lunch, sleepyhead?”
“What time is it?”
Kat moved to me and lifted my left wrist. “Your old watch says it’s 12:21.”
“I can’t believe I slept that long,” I said.
Kat scooped some beans and Spam into an empty can and said, “Eat.”
I slowly stood up. “I have to take care of business first. Where’s the TP?”
She pointed, and I was on my way to the bushes. I went to the other side of the truck and down the hill a bit to some bushes.
On my way back to breakfast, I wondered how long mankind would last if we didn’t find a better way to wash our hands after a trip to the throne. I had a pocket full of wet naps, but they wouldn’t last long. Good old lye soap and water were probably the answer to the personal hygiene issue. That made me think about sanitation in general. I didn’t want to think about running out of TP. Leaves and corncobs would only make the sanitation issues much worse.
As I passed the truck, I smelled gasoline. Crap. We were in the woods, and the smell could only be coming from the truck. I walked around the truck and found the leak in the back. There was a small hole in the gas tank. I initially thought a bullet had made the hole, but it was too small. The ground was soaked with gas, so I took the truck out o
f gear and pushed it away from the spill. I found a small sapling and cut a small limb from it. I whittled a two-inch long plug for the hole that was tapered from about an eighth-of-an-inch up to half-inch. The plug slid in with ease. In fact, it slid too easily. The leak was where a rust spot had made a hole in the tank. The plug finally stopped sliding in, and I firmly seated it to seal the leak.
I got out from under the truck and saw Kat scratching MMax’s ears. I watched her from a distance. She was good with MMax, and he liked her. That wasn’t supposed to happen until I handed him to her and let him know I trusted her. I guess they’d bonded while I was with the FEMA group. I walked into camp and ate my lunch.
Kat saw me walk up. “What’s that smell?”
“The truck was leaking gas. I fixed it,” I said.
She asked, “Will we have enough gas to get to your home?”
“Don’t know.”
“You’re awful quiet this morning. Do you want to talk about Ann? I know sometimes it helps to talk about what’s bothering you,” Kat said.
I swallowed and looked down at my food. “No, I don’t need any help or a warm puppy to help me get in touch with my feelings. Ann died trying to make sure we got home safely. It’s not our fault, and we will kill the jerks that killed her. It’s time to move on and get to my parent’s place. Let’s pack up and go.”
Kat stood up and saluted. “Yes, sir.”
“You don’t salute sergeants.”
She saluted again. “Yes, sir,” and then gave me the finger before she ran away to pack up her things.
I saw Kat dig into her bag. She brought out a red object that I instantly recognized, and MMax started wagging his tail and begging Kat for it. She said, “Stay,” and started spooning something into the red Kong. It was peanut butter.
