by N. C. Reed
“Damn,” Ralph murmured to himself, seeing the carnage still everywhere.
“Yeah,” George agreed, though he wasn’t as shocked. He’s seen worse in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this was America. This didn’t happen here.
Don’t be a fool, George,the former soldier shook himself mentally. It can happen anywhere. Anytime.
“Let’s see what’s on this list at the Co-Op, first,” Billy said, taking them that way. “Watch out for the rats.”
The two men had already been warned about the rats, but seeing was believing as the saying went. Both were astounded.
“Man, this is bad,” Ralph said softly.
“Happenin’ like this in plenty o’ other places, too,” Billy told them soberly. “Won’t be long ‘fore anything worth usin’ is gone. Ate up or chewed up. Rurnt.”
“Maybe. . .well, that can wait,” George waved it off. “We got other problems right now.”
“What’s in that head o’ yours?” Ralph asked his friend.
“It’ll keep,” George smiled. “Let’s get today behind us. Then we’ll talk.” Satisfied, Ralph nodded.
“Here we be,” Billy said brightly. “Let’s start lookin’ for the gas station.”
*****
“All we need now is some wire, sealant, a few electrical connectors, and some water heaters,” George announced, looking at his list.
“What?” Billy asked. “Water heaters?”
“Yeah, that’s what we’ll use for tanks,” Ralph nodded. “Easiest thing to use, according to what we’ve managed to read, so far.”
“Well, there’s the hardware store, and there’s Mister Burke’s furniture’n appliance store. Don’t know that he’d have water heaters, though,” Billy rubbed his neck. “Ain’t really an appliance, I guess.”
“We can check, if there’s nothing at the hardware store,” George shrugged.
“If there ain’t, there’s plenty o’ houses,” Billy shrugged. Both me looked at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Why in the hell didn’t we think of that?” Ralph asked George, accusingly.
“Hey, you’re the brains in this outfit,” George protested.
“Is that why you insisted on making the list, then? On account of I’m the brains?”
“Reckon we can do this later?” Billy asked quietly, but firmly. “I really don’t like it here.” Both men looked chagrined. They had been joking, actually, but realized how hard it must be for Billy to see his home town in the shape it was in these days.
“Sure, Billy,” Ralph nodded. “We was just funnin’ anyway,” he added.
“Figured that,” Billy nodded. “Ain’t against it. Just want to get done. I don’t like it here,” he repeated.
“We’re on it,” George said firmly, getting into the truck.
The hardware store held three water heaters, two of them thirty-five gallons, and one larger one at fifty-five gallons.
“Man, these will work great!” Ralph enthused, as they carted them out of the store. A hurried search found the other items they needed, including the wire. Willing hands seized them, and soon everything was loaded.
“Not a bad haul,” George smiled. “We can probably get something going in a few days,” he added, clearly thinking.
“Where you aim to set it up?” Billy asked.
“Probably need a barn, somewhere,” Ralph offered, looking to George for confirmation.
“Yeah, that’d be good,” the other nodded. “Somewhere we can get some power from a solar set-up, or even better, a generator. Something that will give us a good power source.”
“Problem with solar is just in the batteries,” Billy said. “Better the batteries, better the power source. All’s the panels do is recharge the batteries.”
“True, but we’ll need a good, solid source for six hours or so at a time. That would take a lot of batteries.”
“True,” Billy nodded. “Well, I got a heavy generator I took from the hardware store when I left town,” he told them. “Eight thousand watt. Runs on diesel, too,” he grinned. “Guess the more you make, the more you can run the generator, huh?”
“Sounds like a plan,” George nodded. Yes, sir, he liked Billy Todd. Liked him just fine.
Wouldn’t o’ minded havin’ him in the Outfit, back in the day, he thought to himself. But he wouldn’t wish that on anyone he really liked.
“Let’s go home,” he settled for saying.
*****
George and Ralph picked a barn about two miles away to work in. It was on the Williamson farmstead, and was in good repair. They went to work right away, promising to get things going, and then get back with Billy on what else they would need.
Billy spent the next two days working on his own farm, checking over the community herd, and making sure that his and Rhonda’s storage was in good shape for the winter. He still had a feeling that the winter would be a hard one. With so many people gone, factories and cars idled all over the world, the temperature was bound to drop some.
It wouldn’t be unlivable, but it would be harsher than anyone now living had experienced, other than the occasional winter over the years. The house was set. He’d already checked the insulation, the window and door trim, and the flues to the chimneys.
They had plenty of wood, there was still nearly ten thousand pounds of propane under ground, and the above ground five hundred pound tank was three quarters full. Billy didn’t want to use much more of that than he absolutely had to, since there was nowhere to get more.
He straightened up at that idea. Nowhere to get more? Sure there was!
“Tanks are full of it!” he said aloud.
“What?” He started at Rhonda’s voice from behind him. He hadn’t known she was around.
“I was thinkin’ out loud,” he admitted. “About propane.”
“You sound like Hank Hill,” Rhonda giggled.
“Who?”
“Hank Hill? King of the Hill? It’s a. . .never mind,” she sighed. “What about propane?”
“Well, I been worryin’ about not havin’ more, once what we’ve got is gone,” he told her. “Thing is, there’s propane everywhere! It’s in tanks in no tellin’ how many yards, and it’s in the big tanks at the gas places! We just gotta go and get it!”
“You know how to do that?” Rhonda asked.
“Well, I know how the transfer works on our tanks,” Billy said thoughtfully. “Maybe one o’ the other guys knows.”
“It’s a thought,” she nodded. “Still won’t last forever, but it’s better than not havin’ it at all.” She took his hand.
“But that’s enough on that, for now,” she smiled. “C’mon. It’s supper time, and I’m hungry.”
“Works for me.”
*****
Billy spent the next day making a plan. He hadn’t made a new plan since everything had happened. He didn’t like being without a plan. Not having a plan was an invitation to disaster in his view.
They needed to take a look at the propane situation. Each farm had a tank of it’s own, though he doubted that the others had the reserves he did. And he wasn’t telling them. That was his business, he figured. Well, his and Rhonda’s.
Gotta get in the habit o’ thinkin’ like that, he chastised himself again. He and Rhonda were together now, and he had to stop thinking like he was still alone.
They needed the chemicals for the bio-diesel. Sure, they had what they needed for now, but that was just to get started. If they wanted to keep making the diesel, they needed more. Probably a lot more.
They needed to get prepared for winter. Billy was prepared at home, but it was coming time that everything on the Farms would need to be set for the winter. Did they have enough feed and hay for the cattle? Horses? Hogs? Where all the structures sound enough to hold a foot, or even two, of snow? Were their vehicles capable of winter travel if needed? Someone might need the doctor in Franklin. Long trip on snow and ice.
Billy spent a good deal of the morning
studying the problems they faced, and trying to figure the best course of action to deal with them. Rhonda, seeing him so deep in thought, left him be, baking bread most of the day, and a pecan pie for after supper that night. She also took time to clean the house, and do their laundry, something that had been neglected over the last week's hectic work schedule.
By the time she was finished, Billy was up and moving.
“Get everything worked out?” she asked with a smile, as Billy walked into the kitchen.
“Some, maybe,” Billy nodded. “Somethin’ smells good!”
“Fresh bread,” she told him, and handed him a slice of hot buttered bread. He bit into it hungrily, realizing that he was famished.
“Man, that’s good!” he exclaimed, gobbling the bread down quickly.
“Easy, tiger,” Rhonda teased, handing him another. “There’s more where that came from.” He ate the second piece more slowly.
“I made a list o’ things we still need to get done,” he told her while eating. “Not you and me us, but all of us,” he clarified. “Reckon we need to have a meetin’ o’ some kind. Gonna take all hands, maybe, to lay all this in. And it’s almost Thanksgivin’.”
“It sure is,” Rhonda realized. “Wow, I hadn’t even thought that far ahead. I need to get together with everyone else and see about a Thanksgiving Dinner.”
“Good idea,” Billy nodded. “We can play host, I guess. Our house has got the most room.” Rhonda smiled, not telling him how warm and comforting hearing him refer to the house as ‘ours’ made her feel.
She sometimes had to stop for a moment, and take stock of the flurry of things that had happened in the last few weeks. It seemed like things had always been the way they were right now, sometimes. Like the two of them had always been together.
Time has a funny way of making that happen.
“Anyway,” Billy was saying when she broke free of her reverie, “there’s a lot to do. We need to make a plan for all that, and then get on it. I think we’ll see snow ‘fore Christmas this year.”
“Maybe a white Christmas?” Rhonda brightened, smiling hopefully at him.
“I dunno,” Billy shrugged. “Be nice, though, wouldn’t it,” he added.
“Yeah, it would.”
*****
There was a meeting the next afternoon at the Todd place. Everyone was there, and Rhonda had made finger foods like cookies and muffins. There was no milk, but there was coffee and hot chocolate, and still some soft drinks. The adults all gathered around the big table, and listened attentively as Billy ran down his list.
“Wow,” Ralph was the first to speak.
“Yeah,” Jerry sighed heavily. “Reckon we got a load o’ work to do, yet, ‘fore winter. Normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but we ain’t normal no more.”
“Well, I reckon this here is the new ‘normal’,” Billy pointed out.
“True enough,” Jerry nodded. “Well, what’s first on the agenda, then?” he asked. Jerry had no problem letting Billy take the lead. Even when Billy didn’t want to.
Jerry Silvers knew his limitations. And he knew how old he was. Children had come to him and Emma late in life, and they were not, as Emma had put it, spring chickens. Most mornings, in fact, Jerry felt more like a rooster from two years before.
He knew, even if Billy didn’t, that Billy was the future. Billy shortchanged himself too much, the older man figured, and he understood Billy’s reluctance. But the facts were there for all to see. Billy was the one who always found a way to get things done. Sometimes when everyone else had thrown up their hands.
There would, sooner or later, be trouble with others, and Jerry knew that. He would back any play that Billy made, but he knew that Billy would handle things better than he would.
He also knew that one day there’d be a community here again. Not in Cedar Bend itself, but here, on the farms around their neighborhood. And that community would need a strong leader, with a load of plain old fashioned horse sense.
Jerry had decided that leader would have to be Billy Todd.
He had not shared that decision with his young neighbor, however. Or with anyone else, for that matter, including his wife.
He’d just have to see how things played out.
“Well, first off, we talked about some other folks being brought in, if they was willing and able,” Billy replied. “We need to talk that out, and decide what we aim to do. Then do it. Once that’s done, we’ll have to tackle this list head on. If we get the others, then we’ll have more hands for everything.”
“Where would they live?” Jerry asked.
“Well, there’s the Smith place, you showed us,” Ralph offered. “We’d likely need to do some work in there, but I think we can make it habitable in a couple days. And it’s a nice place,” he added.
“True,” Jerry mused. “How many people we talkin’ about, anyway?”
“Well. . . .” Billy started.
When he mentioned Ben Kelvey, the room erupted.
“Absolutely not!” Jerry thundered, coming to his feet. Billy looked up at him calmly.
“Sit down, Jerry, and hear them out,” he said softly. “I did, and I was the one he was pointin’ a shotgun at.”
“Well, that’s true,” Jerry replied, the wind leaving his sails. “I reckon if you can hear it, then I ought to.”
Ralph and George repeated what they’d said earlier about the Kelvey family, or what remained of it. When they finished, Jerry pursed his lips, then turned to Billy.
“If everything is like they say,” he spoke slowly, “and I mean everything, then I reckon it’s up to you, Billy. Like you said, you’re the one he pointed the gun at. If you can allow that to pass, then I reckon I have to, too.”
“Fair enough,” Billy said after a minute. “What about them two soldier friends o’ yours, George? If they want to come in, we’ll need another place.”
“What about the Williamson place?” Ralph asked. “It ain’t far away, about two miles is all. And since we got the bio-diesel set-up down there, it wouldn’t hurt to have someone down there. Heck, I bet Howie could build a lot better rig than we can,” he added to George, who nodded.
“That’s a good house, too,” he put in.
“Little small,” Jerry mused. “I think it’s got three bedrooms.
“Could be four, though, Daddy,” Shelly said suddenly. “Remember how they added a family room on back, about three years ago?”
“Hey, that’s right,” Toby chimed in. “We used to hang out in there and play video games when I’d spend the night with Chuckie. . . .” His voice trailed off as he realized he was talking about one of his best friends. Before the plague, anyway.
“Sorry,” he muttered, looking down.
“For what?” George asked. “For remembering your friend? Hell, son, don’t never apologize for something like that. Ever.”
“Absolutely,” all the others added their encouragement.
“It ain’t nothin’, Toby,” Billy whispered softly, and the boy looked up. “Let it go, little brother. All over and done with. Just remember the good times, and let them be what you keep with you.”
No one spoke for a moment, as all of them drank in Billy’s words. Everyone at that table had lost someone. Friends, family, neighbors, someone. There were empty holes in every life sitting at the table. Billy’s words help fill some of them. Just a little.
“Anyway, it’s a little bigger,” Shelly opined after a minute, drawing attention away from her brother. “So really, you could call it four bedroom. And there’s two baths, too.”
“That would do pretty good,” Amy said. “Sounds nice.”
“Ya’ll want it instead?” Jerry asked.
“Not a chance,” George and Ralph said at the same time, which caused general laughter. “We ain’t movin’ that stuff again,” George finished for them, with Ralph nodding in agreement.
“Well, sounds like we got a plan, then. Put who where, you think, assuming they all want to join
up?” Billy got back to business. Had to stick to the plan, after all.
“I think the Kelvey’s at the Smith place,” Ralph said. “They’re gonna need to be close by, since Howie ain’t really recovered yet. Being that close will let Amy keep a close eye on him,” he added, looking at her. Amy nodded.
“Yeah. If he’s battling infection, I’ll need to be where I can bathe his wound several times a day.”
“That put’s Terry and Pete at the Williamson’s then,” George nodded. “They’ll be good security for the place. Though I don’t like their kids being anywhere away from the rest of us.”
“Straight as the crow’ll fly, it ain’t but less’n a mile,” Billy shrugged. “We can get over there pretty quick, anything bad happens.”
“That’s true,” George agreed after thinking it over. “And that place will give them plenty of room if Pete decides to stay with them.”
“If he don’t, I don’t know where else we can put him,” Jerry pointed out.
“Pete’s an odd duck, sometimes,” George shrugged. “He’s as liable to build a lean-to in the woods as he is to live in a house.”
“Sounds like an interesting guy,” Shelly remarked, earning her a look from her father. She just shrugged.
“Okay, then. Ya’ll contact’em if you can,” Billy decided. “Me and Jerry, and I guess Rhonda and Em,” he added, seeing a frown from Rhonda, “will go with you to talk to’em. Remind’em not to be sayin’ nothin’. Don’t want folks to be all eager.” Everyone nodded at that, remembering the last two trips in that direction.
“Now, there’s some other things. . . .”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The radio calls were positive all around. All parties were interested in at least talking to the ‘Farms’. Jerry and Billy wanted to go as soon as possible, and a meet was scheduled for three days later.
In the meantime there was much to do. Jerry and Billy had bailed as much hay as they could before the second trip to Franklin. The first day after the meeting was spent by all able hands moving that hay to storage. Some went to Billy’s, some to Jerry’s, but mostly it was placed in the large pole barn at the Franklin place.
