by N. C. Reed
“No, I suppose not,” Rhonda agreed. “You’re filthy,” she added, her nose wrinkling.
“Yeah, ain’t much in the way o’ bathin’ facilities where we done been.”
“Was it bad, Billy?” she asked, concern in her eyes, and her voice.
“Well, it’s okay to visit, but I wouldn’t wanna live there,” he grinned, then grew serious. “Yeah, it was. But we put a hefty dent in’em, for sure. And freed all them people they was holdin’, too. Hope they get away okay.”
“Who are the two that you brought back besides the doctor?” she asked. “You can tell me about them while I help you get to the shower,” she grinned, helping him up.
“Hey, that sounds like a plan.”
*****
Two days later, everyone met at Billy’s for the ‘debrief’. Everyone listened raptly as the two told their tale, leaving out the more gruesome parts. Doctor Collins relayed his story, as well, much longer and more terrifying. The Branches did the same.
“Well, that’s quite a story,” Terry nodded, when everyone was finished. “I’d say you managed to put our friends back to square one, for now,” he added, looking at Pete and Billy. “Doesn’t sound like they’ll have the manpower or resources to bother looking for us for a while.”
“Don’t forget that train, though,” Billy cautioned. “Could be they’ll decide to come lookin’ themselves. I don’t think they will, but let’s don’t go forgettin’ it.”
“We won’t,” Terry promised. “We’ve got a lot more work to do, and harvest time will be on us before you know it. We’ve got plenty to keep us busy. But we’ll keep a steady eye out for the train, or anyone else.”
“And don’t forget what we heard about Weber, either,” Pete added. “We need to be really cautious about new people, until we’re sure they aren’t spotting for some outfit. Present company excepted, of course,” he grinned at the Branch siblings, and Collins.
“That makes good sense anyway,” George nodded. “Meanwhile, like Terry said, we’ve got plenty to do. We need to make another mobile home run, I’m thinking. And now that Doc is with us, we can think about getting him some equipment, like an x-ray machine and what not. We need to find a trailer big enough to put a real clinic in.”
“I’d love that,” Collins admitted. “It would be wonderful to treat people again.” He and Dillon Branch had come to a truce the day before, after Terry and George had explained to Branch what Collins had admitted to them that first night. Branch couldn’t hold a grudge against a man that had helped his sister anyway. Learning what the man had braved to help those he could had erased his own anger. In hindsight, Dillon could admit to seeing the Doctor do everything he could for the sick and dying men in the cells.
“Well, I think we can plan all that tomorrow,” Terry rose. “For now, I think we can call this a day. Billy needs rest, and Pete does too. And I’m sure Dillon and Barbara and Jake are still trying to adjust, and they all need rest as well as good food to get them back on their feet.”
“We’ll meet tomorrow at my place, and work out a plan. Until then, I’d suggest you all get some rest.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
The next two weeks went by in a combination of hard work and idle time. Rain forced a two day delay in their actions, but the rain was welcome, none-the-less. It came at just the right time to help the crops along.
Billy was sidelined during that time, his arm healing. He was allowed to ‘putter’, as he put it, around his own place, but nothing more, and nothing heavy at all. Amy or the Doc checked him over everyday, making sure the wound stayed clean. Rhonda made sure Billy didn’t over do it.
For the most part, Billy didn’t argue. He spent time with Danny around the farm, approving of the care the teen had shown while he was away. He took Mary riding around the valley. He spent time just sitting on the front porch with Rhonda, as the two of them discussed the present, and the future.
The others took up the slack. Two more of the double wide homes were brought in. One would be a clinic, outfitted with material and equipment taken from various doctor’s offices, hospitals, and clinics. After a lot of discussion, the clinic was placed with it’s back to the creek that ran along the Clifton property, so that some of Howie’s water bug creations could be used to provide power for the equipment.
Although the train had cleaned most of the bigger stores out, the smaller mom-and-pop operations had largely been ignored. As a result, there was plenty of supplies to outfit the clinic with, and to provide excellent first-aid kits to every home, and piece of regularly used equipment.
Once the harder work was done, the group settled down to preparing for the harvest. All hands were used to get up hay barns, silos, and storage cribs for the coming harvest. Added to this, wood had to be cut, so harvest would have to be done as quickly as possible. After the ferocious winter they had endured, no one wanted to be caught unprepared.
Billy spent his second week, however, sitting in his den, looking at maps. Carroll had said that a lot of Nashville was untouched. And Billy wanted to go.
It was a risk, he knew, and there were multiple problems. First, he wasn’t sure he could believe Carroll. Billy couldn’t see any way that the train hadn’t made a stop there. None. They had the armament and the people to take just about what they wanted.
Second, even if some items they needed where still available, would there be enough to risk the trip? Were there alcoves of people along the way? Had someone set up shop in Nashville since then? How many ambushes would they encounter along the way, and after they were in town?
Finally, there was the problem of protecting the Farms. There was no way that a trip to Nashville wouldn’t take at least three to five days. Columbia had taken a week to prepare, and three days of non-stop work to move. And they had been chased out early by the train, even then. Nashville would take much longer.
Despite his desire to try and scavenge in Nashville, especially for books that would help Howie, Billy determined after three days of thinking and planning that it just couldn’t be done. Not now. Maybe not ever. Reluctantly he put away all the notes he’d made, and went to sit on the porch.
*****
It was early August, and the heat was on full blast. Even those homes with power from PV cells couldn’t stay cool. Windows were open to catch whatever air was moving, which wasn’t much.
A small water park outfit was created for the children at the Clifton Home, and all the children used it almost daily. An inflatable pool was the center of attraction, along with a ground water slide, sprinklers, and water guns provided from stores in town.
The adults performed whatever chores needed doing during the morning and evening, taking it easy in the middle of the day whenever possible. I wasn’t unusual to see the mercury hover near 100.
On one of those hot afternoons, several men and women gathered at the Todd farm. Under the cooling breeze of a shop fan, they discussed the current situation.
“We do have this,” Pete lifted the map taken the past year from the raiders he and Billy had found about the attack their settlement. “According to this map, there’s quite a bit left in these smaller towns. Most of them are within fifty miles, or less.”
“Been a long time since that bunch passed through, though,” George noted idly. “Might not be anything left.”
“That’s possible, but I think it bears checking on,” Jon Kelvey put in. “There’s a lot of things we could sure use. Jerry had the idea to create our own saw mill. I want to follow up on that. A lot of smaller operations used gasoline or diesel powered engines to drive their mills. If we could find an operation like that, and move it, we could saw our own lumber. Plenty of trees around.”
“That’s one concern,” Terry agreed. “What are the others?”
“Medicines, for one,” Doc offered. “Whatever is out there, is all we’re going to have. We need to get as much of it as we can, and get it into storage. It will lose strength over time, but we can use more of it,
to make up for that.”
“Can we use antibiotics we find in vet’s offices?” Billy asked. “When Rommel got hurt, we didn’t know if people meds’d work on him, or was it safe,” he shrugged, when others looked at him.
“We can,” Doc nodded. “I’d prefer not to, since we might also need them to doctor the animals.”
“We’re going to divide the big herd this fall, anyway,” Jerry mentioned. “There’s enough pasture land for that, so long as we can make sure there’s water. By having several small herds instead of one big one, we lessen the chance that one sick cow wipes us out. We’ll do the same thing with the pigs, too,” he added. “Our little swine herd has grown, somewhat.”
“Okay, another point,” Terry nodded, scribbling again into a small notebook. “What else?”
“Well, canning equipment comes to mind,” Rhonda offered, and Emma nodded in support. “If we start using the new building for that, we can accomplish a lot more, if we have more equipment. And there’s always a need for jars, rings, and lids.”
“Good one,” Terry nodded, writing again.
“Books for the ninios,” Maria noted. She rarely spoke, in fact rarely attended these meetings.
“True, and educational supplies as well,” Debby supported. “Maybe take textbooks from a school somewhere?”
“Good idea,” Terry nodded, scratching in his pad again. Rhonda reached over and gently took the pen and notebook from Terry.
“You may want to be able to read that, someday,” she grinned. Terry laughed, and surrendered both. Rhonda quickly caught the list up.
“Books period,” Billy said. “Me and Howie was talkin’ the other day. . .well, little longer’n that. Anyway, we need to find technical books. We ain’t got no one to count on but ourselves, ya know. We gonna have to learn to do all kinds o’ stuff. And we gonna have to teach all the young’uns, too. They’ll have to know how to take care o’ themselves, and build on whatever we can leave’em.” Everyone looked at Billy at that.
“Hadn’t. . .that’s a good note,” George agreed. Rhonda added it to the list.
“We need clothing, boots, shoes, material, all kinds of things in that regard,” Emma said. “We’ll have to make our clothes someday. We need to be laying in the supplies and equipment for that.”
“Very true,” Amy agreed. “There’s no such thing as enough of anything, in this case,” she added. Rhonda added that to the list.
“There’s always the chance we can find seed, and the like, too,” Jerry noted. “If we can get some heirloom type stuff, I’d feel better. Using that hybrid stuff is fine, so long as we got it, but it’ll run out eventually. We need to have seed that’ll make on itself, and leave us with seed for the next year.”
“We need tools and equipment of all kinds,” Ben Kelvey spoke for the first time. “I’m talking about tools to build with, repair with, and do plain ole fashioned manual labor with. Tools break. Ain’t gon’ be no more runnin’ to Lowe’s or Ace or wherever, no more.”
“Excellent point,” Terry agreed. “And the same goes for other supplies. We need ammo, reloading supplies, things like that. More than that, we need to start exploring alternate means. Bows for hunting, things like that.”
The discussion went on for over an hour. Billy at one point left, returning a few minutes later with a phone book, and a map.
“We can get addresses from here,” he told them. “Post them on the map. Places we want to check on. If we send a scouting trip, they can check on all these places, cross off the ones that are useless to us, and report back. Then whoever makes a scavenger run, already knows where they goin’, and what’s there.”
“Great idea,” George smiled, taking the book. Billy’s arm was still in a sling, though he was using it more and more. He and Debby started looking up stores and addresses, the teacher noting them down.
“How much of this could we get done before harvest?” Terry wanted to know, looking to Jerry and Jon for an answer. The two considered that for a moment.
“I don’t see any way we’ll be ready to start harvesting before mid-September. After that, it’ll be all hands on deck until we’re done. If the weather co-operates, we’re looking at two weeks or so of continuous work. And you can just assume the weather won’t co-operate,” Jerry added, grimacing.
“So we’ve got six weeks,” Terry mused. He looked at George. “Wanna lead the scouting trip? See what’s what?” Debby tensed, but said nothing. She had grown accustomed to having George with her almost all the time. But he had to do his part. The others had been very understanding. With Billy down, however, everyone had to do a bit more.
“I can do that,” he nodded. “Say, three men?” Terry nodded.
“Yeah. You can rule out March and Williams,” he said, a note of disgust in his voice. “They’ve got their uses, but anything that might approach needing courage is out.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
“I can take Dillon, if he’s recovered enough,” George offered, looking to where Branch sat, having been quiet during the discussion. He nodded.
“I’m good to go,” was all he said. George looked next at Toby.
“What about you, sport?” he asked. “Wanna take another trip?” Toby nodded.
“I’m good,” he replied firmly. “When?”
“Well, how ‘bout day after tomorrow?” George said after a few seconds. “We all need time to gather gear, and we’ll need to plan some. We’ll leave at four hundred day after tomorrow.”
“I’ll be ready,” Toby nodded. Jerry smiled in pride, but said nothing. Toby hadn’t had any more nightmares lately. Jerry hoped his talk had helped.
He still had his.
*****
“I’m glad you aren’t going,” Rhonda said softly, as the group broke apart and headed home. Billy looked at her, puzzled.
“I’m hurt,” he said, as if that should explain everything. “Course I ain’t goin’.”
“I’m still glad you aren’t going,” she shrugged. “I. . .it’s time some of the others did some of this kind of work. That’s all.”
“They have been,” Billy reminded her gently. “We’ve all been doing as we can. You included!” he added with a smile.
“I know, it’s just nice to have you home, that’s all.”
“It’s good to be home, too,” Billy assured her, and his voice, and his eyes, told her he meant it. “I don’t like bein’ away, ya know,” his gently words soothed her. “Don’t like bein’ off the farm, bein’ away from these young’uns, and I ‘specially don’t like bein’ away from you,” he added emphasis to ‘you’. “All I could think about when I was in Franklin was how glad I’d be to get here. Be with you.” He looked at her very seriously.
“I love you Rhonda,” he told her gently but firmly. “I mean, love you like crazy, girl. I. . .I don’t know that I could cope, you wasn’t here. Pretty sure I’d go back to bein’ a hermit crab. Be a might hard, I reckon, all these new neighbors. I don’t wanna be ‘thout you, Rhonda. Times I have to go, and take care o’ things, all I think about whilst I’m gone is bein’ back here with you. Home.” Rhonda smiled broadly at that.
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” she carefully hugged him. “I know that sometimes you have to go and do things away from here. We’ve all had to learn that. But this last trip was especially hard. No way to know when you were coming back, or even if. Maybe one day you’d just stop answerin’ radio times, and we might never know what happened to ya.” A few tears lined her cheeks then.
“That’s the most afraid I been since you came to the shop that night.”
“Didn’t mean to scare ya then, ya know,” Billy apologized. “If I had known. . . .” He stopped as Rhonda placed two small fingers against his lips.
“I don’t mean like that. I mean I was scared to death all the time until you came and asked me to come here with you. After that, I stopped bein’ scared. Cause I knew if there was somethin’ I couldn’t handle, you’d be here to take care o’ me. I w
ouldn’t be alone. And, I knew you would take care of me. I knew because you did it all through high school.” She grinned suddenly.
“You know I had a crush on you the last two years you were in school. Well, longer than that, really, since I still liked on ya even after you graduated.”
“Uh, no. No, I didn’t,” Billy hardly knew what to say.
“My daddy liked you an awful lot, ya know,” Rhonda told him teasingly. “Said you was a throwback to a long time ago, when people had to make tough decisions about livin’ and dyin’. A time when men kept their word when they give, it, and if they made a promise, you could like to borrow money on it.”
“Way my Pa rasied me,” Billy shrugged. “Ain’t no big deal, I reckon.”
“Then you reckon wrong,” Rhonda told him sharply. “World wasn’t like that back then, and it sure ain’t now. Ever girl wants the man that will stand between her and the monster in the dark, Billy,” Rhonda told him softly, love in her eyes making her seem to glow. “A man suitable to make a home, a family with. Don’t never think all a girl looks at is the seat of a boy’s britches, of the size of the tires on his truck.”
“Or how fast she’ll go, either,” Rhonda added, even as Billy was about to point out that his truck wasn’t no mudder.
“Girls are always looking for a man that will take care of them, protect them, just like their daddy did their momma. Or should have, if they didn’t. True, some get sidetracked. But not this one. I knew for a long time I wanted you, Billy Todd. You just seemed so. . .out of reach. Hard to figure. But I meant to try, at some point. When the plague hit, I didn’t know what to do. I can’t tell you how happy I was to find you ransackin’ my daddy’s store.”
“I think ransackin’ is a might strong,” Billy protested. “I didn’t tear up nothin’.”’
“You know what I mean, and quit tryin’ to change the subject, Billy Todd,” Rhonda huffed. “You know what I’m sayin’.” Billy looked at her for a few more seconds, then dropped his gaze.
