“Well, it’s back on today, buddy,” I told him, smiling through the growing pain in my leg and my still-sore jaw.
The first thing the dentist tells you is not to put anything sharp in your mouth. And what’s the first thing they do when they have you in the chair?
I smiled, not recalling which comedian I heard this one from, but understanding it better now.
Beatrice was in charge of the cooler lunches today. “Lunch and dinner today are brought to you by the Colonel,” she announced. “For lunch, we have your choice of ravioli in meat sauce, roast beef sandwiches, or loaded baked potatoes. Dinner is pork chops (bone-in), potatoes au gratin, garden salad with all the vegetables…and banana pudding, I think. Yep, that’s it,” she said, dipping her finger into the dessert and tasting it. “Oh, and it’s good!” she teased.
“Now, everyone out of my kitchen except for Veronica and Suzie, my little helpers.”
Nancy checked my leg before lunch, as well as my mouth. “It’s healing, the leg that is, but you have to stay off of it as much as possible, and traveling across the state doesn’t help. Your mouth is fine and should be healed up in a few days.”
Nancy was impressed with Vlad’s healing, thinking they did a good job. “I did everything I could at the time. I hope you know that, Vlad,” Nancy said.
“Of course, Nancy. Don’t give it another thought. The doctors in Trinidad told me if it were not for the splint you fit my leg with, and the initial antibiotics, I would never have made it to them alive, so thank you for saving my life,” replied Vlad.
Nancy smiled and was relieved to hear this news, as she had questioned her own actions in his initial treatment.
* * * *
Jim called a few of us up to get a radio update.
“Our friends from across the river were lively on the ham this morning. The flyover last night caught them off guard, and they nearly fired on it.”
“That would have been interesting,” I said. “There were 20 combat-ready soldiers on that chopper, ready for a fight.”
“There is also a power struggle still escalating between the Baker guy and Ronna,” continued Jim. “With the military gone, Baker is trying to establish dominance again. He has three times the men, but as long as Ronna’s group has a radio they can get backup if they need it, as we already heard a few days ago.”
“Mike and I had a conversation with the Colonel,” I interjected, and Ronna is definitely not some crazy nut wanting to build a following. He’s military and always has been. The Colonel is his boss.”
“Really?” asked Steve, pausing before adding, “but it does make more sense now.”
“What about the other guy?” asked Steve.
“He has some connections high up, but I still think he’s some crazy fanatic trying to build an army of loyal followers, however he can get them,” I said.
“Either way, they are all still passing close to this property, and that can’t be good,” added Jake.
“Let’s keep close radio surveillance of them,” I told Jim. “We need to know their every move.”
* * * *
I asked a few to help me call a quick meeting with at least most of the adults in both of our groups. I had not had a chance to tell Mike about the information I learned from Pauly regarding the two-week discrepancy between getting the job and the day of the EMP.
As I thought about how I would approach it, I knew it would set Tom and a few others down a deeper path of what-ifs about our government and who would be running the country in the coming months. I was also prepared for more than a few adults to think I was crazy, or simply misinformed.
With everyone gathered, minus a few to watch over the children, I retold the story just as Pauly had relayed it to me. This time, when I got to the part about him cashing the large government check two full weeks before the day, I got the reaction from most I was expecting.
“Why would they do that?” asked Tina.
“Do you mean Pauly and Joey?” I asked.
“No. I mean our government. Why would they let this happen if they already knew?”
“To be honest,” I replied, “we should have known something was up when the President declared FEMA camps open in every state, only days after the power went out. Now that I think about it, just the setting up of each camp would likely take weeks, or even months. I’m sure some local news people did small stories on it here and there, but nothing made it mainstream or at least some of us would have heard about it.
“To answer your question, Tina, it was likely something they learned of and could not do anything about in time…or it runs much deeper,” I continued.
“You mean like the new world order, where the entire world is said to be run by only a few wealthy and powerful families calling all the shots?” asked Mel.
“Where did you learn about that?” asked Tammy.
“I was the guy right up until the end that you would call if you need the highest quality bunker installation,” Mel continued. “I consulted on a few for A-list celebrities and high-ranking government officials. I even did one for Rodman, who was well known for calling Kim Jong-un a personal friend.”
“How do you get more interesting every time you open your mouth?” whispered Tammy into his ear.
“Yes, Mel. That’s what I mean,” I told him. “The only person we know that has the answers is possibly Ronna, and surely Vlad’s friend, the Colonel.”
I was concerned Joy may be mad that I didn’t tell her first, but she never much cared for politics, to begin with.
“That’s all I know, and we can discuss any theories as a group over the coming days,” I added.
“Joy,” called out Mark. “You have someone on the ham asking for you.”
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “Must be another Joy.”
“Do you know Kris and Kat?” he asked.
“Oh no, Lance,” she said, scrunching her face. “We forgot them,” she stated. “What should I say?”
I felt odd, thinking about our friends from back home. We had spent many weekends together, with our kids feeling more like cousins than city neighbors. We had discussed the idea of EMPs and other life-altering ideas over the past year but never had a concrete plan if it all went to hell—only an idea of where my family was headed, including the stop in Raton.
Adan, Shane and I were on the same page with our families, but when it all happened I guess I just forgot to add everyone to the new group. I was hoping they would come by before we left, and maybe they thought the same.
It was enough for me to think about everyone else I knew outside of our immediate neighborhood back home. In a true crisis scenario, where each mile seems like a hundred, how many friends can you get together in a short amount of time, with no cell phones or any other means of communication?
The answer is, you forget some, and likely it’s the very ones you started with.
“Let’s talk to them,” I told Joy. “We have to tell them what happened.”
Joy got on the radio, and I stayed quiet in the background.
It seemed that our old friends and neighbors grouped up, following our likely path, as we had discussed more than once the year before.
“Why did you leave without us?” asked Kris, putting Joy in an uncomfortable position.
“It was me,” I interjected. “We had a limited amount of time to get things ready, and we all just missed each other.”
There was a pause, and I wondered if I was in for a deserved lecture.
“Hey, man. Shane here. We got behind and missed you guys leaving.”
“Sorry, buddy,” I continued. “We were around for about a week, but we had to leave eventually. We figured you had all found another way to leave.”
“We just got behind, getting things squared away,” Shane replied. “By the time we got to your house, the whole neighborhood was up in flames. We hope you got out of there OK.”
“Yeah, the house was standing when we left, but I knew it was coming,�
�� I said. “Where are you and who’s with you?”
“We’ve got Kris and her sister, Anna, and me with Adan, Kat, Doug, Anissa, and the kids of course. We’re following the path you told us about a while back.”
“Where are you now?” I asked again.
“We’re in Des Moines, New Mexico,” Shane answered.
“Hold on,” I told him. “You’re only nine miles from Capulin, and that’s the one place you don’t want to be right now! How did you get this far?”
“My old company truck,” he told me. “It’s old and ugly, but it’s the only vehicle that started after the electricity went down. I’ve got that old airstream travel trailer hooked up and it’s the only way we could fit everybody.
“It has been a hell of an adventure, with a few scary parts trying to keep the trailer, but we’re all here with the exception of two friends who saved our very lives recently. We have been trying to track you down on the radio for a week now,” he added.
“OK, Shane, just stay put for a bit. There is a large group of bad guys just ahead of you in Capulin, but they should be moving this way soon. Let them get a day or two out before you move again. I’ll talk to my group and see what we can come up with.”
“I miss the weekends at Wildwood Ranch,” Adan said.
“Yeah. Me too, buddy,” I replied.
The three of us couples used to pile the kids into the trucks and drive to Whitesboro, Texas, only about an hour north of McKinney. We rented an Airbnb—the sprawling 160-acre Wildwood Ranch with a large main house, swimming pool, firepit, stocked fishing ponds, and miles of groomed hiking and mountain-bike trails.
“It’s kind of like that up here, except it’s not near as peaceful and the ladies can’t get to a Starbucks in ten minutes,” I joked.
Joy and I asked Jim and Mark to wait before talking with anyone about what they just heard.
“Sure,” they both replied.
“What’s the problem?” Joy asked me, once we were alone.
“The problem is that we have 12 new people headed our way, and I need to convince both our group here and those on Saddle Ranch that they will be assets. Everybody has to agree; those are the rules we set early on.”
“But what if they don’t agree? These are our good friends, Lance, and we can’t just leave them following behind us, like some outcast lot headed somewhere they may not be able to stay.”
“I know, honey. We won’t likely know anything right away, but I’ll start with Vlad and Lonnie.”
* * * *
Beatrice called David up to her home. “Sit down, my sweet boy,” she said. David used to hate when she did that, but now he understood it made her happy.
“There are three more vacant houses left on our new property lines, is that correct, David?”
“Yes, ma’am. That is right.”
“I want you to take your wife-to-be and daughters to each one after lunch and let them choose.
I will not have my granddaughters sleeping one more night in a tent.”
“I can do that, Mom, but I’ll need to talk to Tina about it first.”
“I already have,” she replied, smiling. “Vlad can take your room here and stay with Mark and me until we figure out what to do with the other homes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he agreed, realizing there was no point in discussing it any further.
“And son,” she called out as David was exiting the front door. “Tina is waiting for you to come up with a wedding date. Let me know soon, so I don’t have to pick one for you!”
David laughed. “I love you too, Mom—still just as feisty after all these years.”
With David closing the front door, Beatrice looked up to the ceiling. “Did you hear that, my love? Our son thinks I’m still feisty!”
* * * *
Mike resumed swim lessons today, with the children excited, having missed a day of instruction.
Beatrice swam again, but this time without assistance.
Taking Tina by the hand, David’s new family toured their home choices.
“Do you remember that show ‘House Hunters?’” asked Tina. “Where they are shown three houses but have already agreed to make an offer on one of them?”
“Yeah,” replied David. “I loved the international ones.”
“There were a few off-the-grid episodes,” she continued, “and this is exactly what we’re doing today… I’ve never lived in a home before, only apartments,” she added. “Us too,” chimed in Veronica.
“Well, then, since all three homes are sound and well within our perimeter, I’m not even going to give an opinion. Since this will be the first home for all of you, you all decide which one you like and we will take it,” said David.
“Yay!” came the screams of two delighted girls.
Tina let the girls make their final decision and weren’t surprised they picked the closest one to “Grammy’s” house, as they were now calling Beatrice. It had been a summer home, with David knowing the owners lived in South Carolina during the winter months.
He relayed that information to a concerned Tina, wondering if they would be back soon to occupy the house. “If they make it back, which unfortunately I doubt, we will just move into another,” said David.
“Nobody really owns property anymore, but any former house owners who return to this area will be given their home back on the spot,” he assured her. “The former owners of this property had a boy and a girl,” he added. “With three bedrooms, the girls can decide if they want to share a room or not.”
Suzie immediately demanded to room with her big sister, upon hearing the choices.
David laughed, adding, “Then I guess we will have an extra playroom!”
His mother’s words about the wedding date ran through his head like a television jingle: Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun, was the one he remembered word for word but hadn’t heard since he was a child.
Lord, if you could find me just one Big Mac™, I would be forever grateful, he thought, smiling at the impossibility.
Pulling Tina aside, he said to her, “It may be some time before things around here are this peaceful again. I would like to marry you while the other group is here, so I can have two best men in Lance and Mel, and I’m guessing you would like Nancy as your maid of honor?”
“If I could have two, yes, Nancy would be my first choice, but I would ask Joy as well, since we have grown close over the past few weeks.”
“Of course, you can have two; it’s a new-world with new rules.”
“Yes, it is,” she replied, “but I have to demand that one old rule remain. You boys stay completely out of the preparations and let us qualified women handle all the details.”
“Just tell me when to show up and what to wear,” he said, kissing her softly.
“Let’s go, girls!” she called. “We have a wedding to plan! Out of my way, my handsome logger,” she quipped, pretending to shove him aside.
* * * *
It took about an hour for the entire camp to hear about the wedding.
“Did you give him a nudge, Beatrice?” asked Tina.
“Why, I am not sure what you mean!” she replied, with a wink.
“Would you honor me, Tina, and wear my wedding dress? I had it professionally packed over 40 years ago, and I’m sure we can alter it as needed. I hope it’s still OK.”
“It would be an honor,” replied Tina, with tears in her eyes.
It was decided the ceremony would be the next Saturday at noon. David informed me of my co-best man position.
“Thank you, my friend,” I told him, adding, “I booked you two into the FEMA camp for your honeymoon!”
“Ha-ha, not a chance!” David replied.
“They have decent food, hot showers, and boxing,” I added.
“Maybe my mom would keep our girls for the night. We’ll figure it out, one way or another,” said David.
* * * * * * *
Chapter Ei
ghteen
Saddle Ranch ~ Loveland, Colorado
“What’s going on?” asked Cory.
“I don’t know,” replied Mac. “It’s Sarah. She said I need to come down right away, and now she won’t respond to my radio. I’m not sure if it’s something personal or not, but I figured I would grab you, just in case it’s something I need help with.”
“It’s probably that Ralph guy, back for more drama,” said Cory.
Next World Series (Vol. 3): Families First [Second Wind] Page 20
