High Lonesome

by T J Reeder

  I stood up and said “lets go guys, we don’t need this crap from a bunch of dip shits who never had to kill the meat they eat thinking it comes in a package.” I was turning away when the other man at the table said “Well old man don’t run away yet, I’m just getting started” and jumped to his feet and found himself looking down a really big hole. He never saw Sandy move she just grew the gun in her hand

  As he was back peddling he fell over his chair which brought loud laughter from the other folks in the place. From the floor he was yelling he was gonna sue us causing even more laughter. The other people at the table were frozen in place. I stepped over and offered him a hand up and got him seated in his chair, then I told him that was the only time I ever saw Sandy pull that gun and not kill the reason for pulling it and it would be smart to not say anything more.

  May said “Y’all ain’t from around here are you?” Margo said “nope they dragged ass in here a week ago from California or some such place and have been a pain in the ass ever since, this is just their latest thing to bitch about.” I asked how they managed to get this far alive. Harry said they were part of a convoy of people who came thru and plainly left them behind, I could see why. I asked where they thought they were going and the man in the chair said they had friends in Chicago who would help them. I was tempted to tell them about Chicago but decided Rock Springs would be better off if they kept going. At that moment Harry told them that as soon as the storm was over they were leaving. They had not a clue that the world had changed. I wondered how they could not know.

  I was proud of Sandy for not shooting the loud mouth because it would have ruined breakfast. I can respect the fact somebody may not want to kill animals for food or whatever but to sit in a café bitching about those who do while filling your face with meat others killed, dressed out and cooked is plain stupid, but nobody ever accused such people of being rational. I was just surprised to see it still lingering around. And I saw it as a sign that as things settled down and became safer these kinds of fools would crawl out of the woodwork. I could see a very rough road ahead of them. It’s a new world out here and their old ways just won’t cut it.

  We headed to the stable to check on Buck and the gang. They were warm and dry and fed, life was good from their point of view. We spent a couple of hours brushing them down, checking hooves, looking for rub spots from the pack saddles or cuts from rocks, all were in good shape but all needed new shoes bad. The stable guy said he would get the local Farrier to take care of it. I told him to let us know as I wanted to be there, anybody can say they can shoe a mule or horse but I want to see it not hear it.

  After we returned to Harry and Margo’s home we told them we really appreciated the bed but we were going to move into the local hotel where we could get a king sized bed, but also we felt that the scene this morning might put them in a bad spot with some folks so it would be best to just be folks moving thru. They understood the need for more sleeping room but said they weren’t worried about what the few fools might think.

  Harry drove us and our personal packs to the hotel and introduced us to the owners who were happy to have us and they had a nice room with a king sized bed and never blinked that there was three of us.

  The storm blew itself out in two days and took three more to melt the snow as early storms do. The stock was in good shape and all had new shoes so it was time to go. We made our manners to Harry and Margo and the few folks we had gotten to know and on a chilly morning we rode out heading south.

  We left Rock Springs and made a beeline for Moab Utah, about 330 miles or around 6 hours driving, cross country on horseback it’s shorter but a lot longer. We have had 10 mile days and 20 mile days depending on the lay of the land. We stayed low where it was flatter and made good time, not loitering along and twenty days later we hit highway 70 and felt the weather changing, still cold but not like the high country although it’s still high here.

  Several days later we hit the great little town where had stayed a week or so. We rode right to the stable behind the motel and sure ‘nuff there was Jack and Jill cleaning stalls. Those two kids were workers and were thrilled to see us again. After unloading the critters and storing the stuff in the locked tack room the girls left to get us a room while I rubbed down the stock. The kids offered to do it but I needed some relaxing time, before I was done they were back so I took Jacks offer to finish the job while we headed to Ma’s café.

  Again we were greeted like long lost old friends. Ma bulled out of the kitchen and got swarmed by the troublesome two, when he got free he shook my hand and said how good it was to see us. He winked and said he had a new price on his menu, it went by the pound, food pounds that is. I laughed right out while the girls started pushing him around all the while calling him cheap and a slim ball. Ma was laughing and gave up and said “fine, no food by the pound!” Having won a great victory they plopped down while Ma headed for the stove. The young lady who worked for him brought us coffee smiling all the way. She said the girls made Ma smile for the first time since his wife died of the flu that hit while we were far to the north. We were shocked to say the least, we had never met her but still we really liked Ma.

  He returned with a big serving tray that sagged as he walked to the table. He had learned the last time and put a huge stack of hot cakes between “them” with a smaller one for me. I swear the ham slice was an inch thick and as big as a cars steering wheel. I waited while they whipped out their switch blades and had their way with the ham. I took the bite around the bone and just shook my head, Ma headed right back to the kitchen and returned with a whole slice of ham for me and put a dozen eggs on the table. Hot biscuits and honey rounded it out. Ma sat down and watched while “they” wreaked havoc on the table full of food. I filled my plate and put my arm around it leaving them the rest. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t cut my arm to get to my plate but then again…

  After it was gone down to I think they licked the plates, they sat back and May asked what was for lunch! Ma just leaned forward and banged his head on the table. The other folks in the place were looking at the girls like they might attack any minute for their food; I assured them they were safe but to not make sudden moves. That got a good laugh.

  Sheriff Ben came in and joined us, said he heard there was some wild critters trying to eat Ma’s place out of business and had he known who or maybe what it was he woulda brought his wife coz she didn’t believe him when he told her about them.

  They laughed at him then Sandy reminded Ma he hadn’t answered May’s question about lunch. He just shook his head and said he was gonna kill a cow and cook the whole thing! May said “good but you don’t have to cook it.” Now everybody was laughing.

  Ma left for a minute and returned with Ben’s breakfast which got their attention but Ben was not to be messed with, he wrapped an arm around his plate and said he would bite the first one to reach. Both said “Oh!!” “Promise?” Ben turned red, and gave each a biscuit. They asked him to dip them in his egg yolk, he just pushed them the platter. Ma went back to the kitchen.

  I told Ben I’d pay for his breakfast if he would wait till I got them out of there before he got it…again. I should be embarrassed at their antics but I’m not, they are cute, fun, and if they didn’t get enough to eat they may start looking at the small kids or dogs or cats. That got a nasty sound and threats for later.

  When I got up the next morning I was alone, no shower buddy, no hair brushing, nada I felt abandoned, not a nice feeling, so after a quick shower I headed out to the barn first and was only half way there when I heard “THWOK.”THWOK.”THWOK.” I could only shake my head but there they were with Jack and Jill showing them their new toys. I was hoping they didn’t tell the kids about the first use they put to the gear. Well they were busy so I figured I’d head over to Ma’s for coffee and made it two whole steps when I heard Sandy say “Freeze Bud!” May followed with “Unless you wanna explain an arrow in the butt to the local Doc!” Well the twins were laughing while th
ey put away the gear with promises to teach them to shoot when we got back.

  Ma’s was fairly empty so we got our favorite table and the young girl brought our coffee and pointed to the menu on the wall, it read “ Breakfast” that was it. I said “Well I’ll try the breakfast,” she smiled and said “good choice” the walking food pits ordered the same but I asked her to tell Ma it was for them. I figured he would have to run a wheelbarrow out which I thought was funny but others didn’t it seems. I was both hugged and kissed and elbowed. It was worth it. I was feeling left out with the whole bow thing, I should have gotten one for myself. Oh well, months late and four mountain ranges short, maybe someday. Sandy said “See.” May said “When will you ever listen to us?” I ignored them.

  Ma came thru the door with a big tray, and I swear he was staggering with it. His young helper followed with another tray. I said “this is getting to be ridiculous!” Then Ben walked in with a smirk and sat down and said “I figured if I got here right at serving time I might get to keep my food. They smiled at him and May said “Careful buddy boy, you might catch a fork in the wrist.”

  Well it worked, Ben got to eat a full plate, I got most of mine, and several locals just watched in awe. Ma joined us for a cup since he was caught up, Sandy asked the young lady if there was any pie left from yesterday and she ran to the kitchen and brought back a whole apple pie! Ma said he was learning and had made extra. Sad I say, so very sad, these tiny women should weigh 200 pounds each but I swear they never gain an ounce. I will say this for them, they settled for cutting the pie into four pieces and giving Ben and me one. I ate mine fast. I got a look but I got to keep the pie too. Taking the hint Ben did the same, Sandy said “Yawls sorry.” May offered “Yep, just plain sorry.” We smiled. Ben was catching on alright and after another cup of coffee he looked at me and said “I need to walk this off.” I got the hint and headed out with him, the girls decided to help clean up with the young lady. I looked at them with a thought of “Run Jack!!” Both turned and smiled at me. Poor Jack.

  We walked up toward the stable and after a bit Ben said there was some short wave traffic about a reward for me and the girls, dead. I told him about the events that caused that and that it had been rescinded because the old man was dead. Ben thought about that a bit and said “Well I’ll put that out from here and maybe that will help but yawl keep an eye on yer back trail.”

  I told him we had been doing that ever since the crap started. He asked if the girls really took out three would be killers with arrows? I could only say “yep.” We talked a while longer and I could see he was not done so I asked him what was going on, he said there was rumors of a pretty large, for lack of a better word “Army” of scum bags rolling across the country raiding and in general just killing people. He said all he had heard was they looked like former military mixed with biker trash and it was all “White” but that didn’t matter since they were raiding everybody regardless of race.

  I asked him where they were as of the latest reports, he said headed this way but were in the Vegas area where pickings seemed to have been pretty good. But they were rolling right down the main highways and picking off the small towns along the way. I looked off toward the mountains we had been in and wondered where we could go to escape this shit. The answer was no place, we couldn’t turn our back on this anymore then we did the other times we helped people out.

  We sat in the shade of the barn and worked thru it until I had all he had but he promised to start probing for more information right away. I was faced with should we head for the canyon to get ready or stay and have the troops come to us, that made way more sense plus we could find some wheels and do some scouting although they were a long ways from us. I needed to talk to the girls so Ben headed off to start getting info and I gathered the girls up.

  We held a war council in the room where I explained it to them. Now most women would say something like “Why is this our responsibility?” My women asked when we were leaving to scout them out. First we needed wheels, reliable wheels. Plus something was bothering me and I couldn’t put a finger on it. May leaned over and said “I think the people in that last town, the ones from California, were advanced scouts for this outfit.” Sandy jumped right in with, “Yeah, that would explain why somebody looking for refuge would be so obnoxious as to be sent packing after a week! Just think how much could be learned in a week! And if the group they belonged to left some people at every place they wanted to raid, it would make sense! Leave them then go on dropping spies off at every town then head back picking them up along the way.”

  My ladies were spooky sharp and I was glad they were on my side. They smiled and hugged me. Ok we had it figured out. Maybe. But I was sure they had nailed it. Now the way to find out would be to head out on the highway and stop in every place and ask if they had some people who just didn’t fit in and were sent packing. Next stop was Bens to see about some good wheels that would get us there and back.

  Ben took us to see a man who owned a pickup that ran and was very reliable being as usual a diesel. He agreed to loan it to use after hearing the story. Back at the motel we put together out bug out bags and our assault gear, we were hauling a lot of ammo and body armor plus our freeze dried food and one tent, by the next morning we rolled out after breakfast, Ben was there and pissed that he wasn’t going but he understood. Ma had fixed us some road food that might get us a good ways down the road, or not. We were just rolling and stopping to talk to people. The truck had a 100 gallon tank in the back plus two 55 gallon drums filled and with a hand pump so we had about 250 gallons counting the stock fuel tank. We told Ben we’d shoot for a four day trip, but he would see us when he saw us. I also gave him the radio freq.‘s for the Fort and Canyon and asked him to tell them to stand by for action.

  We rolled out about two hours after sun up and headed back to I 70 then due west at a good pace. But I slowed down and finally pulled over and asked a question we all should have asked. “If” the people at Rock Springs were scouts, why were they so far north of our location? There was no way they were going to try anything in or around Salt Lake City, or even close to it. So the only thing I could think was “If” the ones we met were really scouts and not a figment of our imagination, and if they weren’t going near SLC, then they had to be coming North to I-70 then East then North again to I-80 and that brings the question of “Why? Why not just take 70 East if that was their plan?”

  We were basing a lot on the “thought” that the Rock Springs people were in fact actually scouts, now I was confused and the girls were burning brain cells working it thru. We needed some solid intel so we decided to just follow thru with our plan and if we were right we would know pretty soon or so I hoped. We stopped at several small towns and talked to the local people in charge and found out nothing so we kept on moving. May brought up the fact that the places we stopped were so small as to not have enough ability to stop a large force but also they had nothing much to attract a raid. But maybe anything beat nothing.

  We spent the first two days stopping and talking to anybody who would talk to us, a lot of the smaller places had road blocks and let nobody in but we were able to find that nobody had stopped off and stayed. But a couple of them had seen a small convoy of vehicles with a lot of people passing thru and asking to buy supplies and in one case wanting to leave a young couple for a few days while the wife got over some female issues. They were turned away. This sounded like our bunch.

  We made it to St. George Utah before hitting the jackpot, they were set up to allow some commerce but restricted visitors to one area where they could stay over at a motel and shop in the few stores there, We headed for the cafes where we talked to the wait staff and bingo, found what we were looking for, A couple who stayed a week asking to be allowed to move into the city, when that didn’t work they spent every day just walking around looking at everything.

  The guy we got the most out of was the deputy Sheriff for this small area, he was an older gent named William P
otter who after a while asked me if I had spent time in “The Land of Bad Things?” I said “Yeah.” He asked if I ever heard of the locals who worked on a fire base or outpost being spotted walking funny, I say “Yep” to that also, he nodded and said, “Step counters, measuring the area by paces. “I knew exactly what he meant, Victor Charles used to use threats to kill a whole village to get several people who worked on a base to map out the area, they would pace off the areas they were allowed into and later it would be fitted together like a puzzle. It then allowed the commander of the coming attack to lay out a damn near perfect map of where each bunker was, where the ammo dumps were from a certain point, usually the observation tower. They could then rain down mortar fire damn precise!

  The deputy said what he observed was the couple doing the same kind of walking and looking. And one day they just loaded up and left. He said they turned toward Vegas.

  I could not believe that there was a force out there with the ability to attack and overrun St. George; it wasn’t some small settlement just making it. The LDS folks being prepared for damn near anything had clamped a lid on the whole damn state from the minute the lights went out. To them prepared meant “Prepared” it was a way of life not a hobby. Now for sure the area that allowed visitors in could be overrun but the main city had to be damn well covered and protected. But if they could bust thru in one place and had the fire power to hammer the defenses they could cause a great deal of damage and harm a lot of good people. St George was only a couple of hours away from Vegas.