Apocalypse Journeys (Book 2): Finding AJ

by Melrose, Russ

  Out in the driveway the deputy leaned leisurely against the Jeep Cherokee, arms folded.

  "We'll load up," the sheriff told them, "and then you can follow us to camp."

  The deputy had already opened the rear door, and he handed Jules the keys.

  They followed the sheriff's cruiser and headed in the direction of the mountains. A couple minutes later they were out of town, and a few minutes after that they found themselves at the edge of a tree-lined river at the base of the mountain. Jules noticed a last sliver of sunlight capping the top of the mountain with a golden glow.

  They parked the jeep next to the sheriff's cruiser in a parking lot filled with cars, SUVs, and trucks.

  "Please leave your keys in the jeep," the sheriff called out.

  Jules gave him a quizzical look.

  "We leave the keys in all the cars. Makes things simple. The cars are more or less communal for now. And if we ever have to leave quickly, we don't have to look around for the keys. Don't worry, Jules. If you decide to leave, you'll get your jeep back."

  Jules put the keys back in the ignition.

  A minivan was parked on the riverbank parallel to the river. They carried Jules' things and headed for the minivan. The deputy opened the sliding door and stepped in and opened the door on the other side.

  When Jules stepped out on the other side of the minivan, she had a clearer view of the river as it rushed past them. A solid timber wood bridge spanned the river.

  The minivan served as a blockade to keep the infected out—a simple but inspired idea. The living could pass through the van and walk across the bridge, but not the infected. And Jules doubted the infected would be able to cross the river either. It was a good eighty feet wide and its current ran swiftly.

  On the other side of the bridge, a dozen or so picnic tables were spread out evenly amongst a canopy of trees. Several barbecue pits were interspersed amongst the picnic tables.

  What was left of the community of Gideon was camped out in a recreational area.

  Once across the bridge, they headed north along the river. An army of tents were pitched amongst the trees all the way back to where the ground began to swell up into the mountainside.

  They followed the sheriff and his deputy to a small grove of trees where a medium-sized tent was pitched.

  "This is it," Sheriff Conway announced. "It's a four-person tent. You should have plenty of room for your things. There's two new sleeping bags inside and a Coleman lantern. We don't allow fires after dark, but you can use a lantern or a flashlight inside the tent. Best to stay inside at night. We have guards spread along the river. They can get a little trigger-happy if they hear someone or something moving around, and they don't know who or what it is. "Breakfast is at seven. That's the first breakfast. Dallin will show you around tomorrow and introduce you to everyone. You can spend tomorrow getting acclimated. Day after tomorrow, that's Wednesday if you haven't kept track, Jules, you'll be going out with Caleb's crew on a supply run. Caleb's off hunting, but he'll be back tomorrow afternoon or evening.

  "Young lady," he said to Addy. "You'll be assisting Professor Nichols with schooling the young children."

  Deputy Petersen stood behind Conway listening on attentively.

  "Okay. Any questions?" the sheriff asked. "No," Jules said. "I think we'll be fine." Addy's head was tilted at a bored angle.

  "Actually, there is one thing," Jules said. "Is there a bathroom around or will we be roughing it?"

  "Dallin," the sheriff said, the smile returning. "Why don't you escort Jules and Addy to the restroom facilities."

  "Pl-Please follow me," the deputy said.

  They set the boxes and the travel bag in the tent, and Jules grabbed a roll of toilet paper. They followed the deputy to the back edge of the camp where four construction porta-potties stood lined up next to each other.

  "Do, uh, d-do you want me to wait and take you back to the tent," the deputy asked, looking a little embarrassed.

  "I think we'll be fine," Jules told him.

  "I don't think you'll be needing that," he said, pointing at the roll of toilet paper Jules held in her hand. "There's p-plenty inside."

  "That's all right," Jules told him.

  "Okay. Guess I'll be s-seeing you tomorrow … in the morning," he said.

  *****

  Jules heard faint scuffling footsteps outside their tent well before seven. The ground outside was hard and dry with patches of grass and lots of twigs. The steps were light, but Jules' senses were on hyper alert from being in a new place. She assumed the footsteps belonged to Deputy Petersen.

  Addy was still sleeping and Jules had to wake her. After they got dressed, they stepped outside.

  As he was the day they'd met him, Petersen was dressed in his deputy shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He nodded pleasantly to them. "Morning," he said.

  "Good morning," Jules replied.

  Addy yawned into a closed fist, her eyes half closed.

  The deputy led them to the picnic area. Jules glanced past the murmuring river to the town of Gideon. There was no movement anywhere. Not a soul in sight. Gideon lay sleepily across the river, drenched in sunshine, while the campground remained shrouded in the cool morning shade of the mountain. A delicate morning breeze teased past them, rustling the leaves overhead.

  Across the river, an excavator sat quietly in a field. Jules could see a large area where the dirt had been dug up and replaced. She wondered if this was where the infected were buried. They had to be somewhere.

  Most of the picnic tables were filled. They headed toward a table where a man sat alone with a bowl and a mug in front of him. When he spotted them, he stood and smiled good-naturedly as if they were friends he hadn't seen for a while. He was a thickset man with a robust belly, ruddy cheeks, and a silvery Hemingway beard. His white hair was thick and stiff and cut quite short. Jules guessed him to be in his mid-sixties. He wore an oversized blue linen shirt and long khaki shorts.

  The picnic area grew quiet. Jules and Addy drew stares from all around. Some looks were friendly, some curious, a few distrustful.

  The man made his way around the table to greet them. "Welcome," he said, offering Jules his hand. Jules accepted it and they shook hands. "We're pleased you're here, Jules. My name is Lawrence Nichols. Most folks call me Larry, some call me professor. I'm the current mayor of Gideon."

  Jules liked Nichols right away. He had a warm, genuine smile and a pleasant way about him.

  "Jules Vandevelde," she said, introducing herself.

  Nichols turned and offered his hand to Addy. She reached her hand out tentatively.

  "And you must be Addy," he said cheerfully. Addy managed a weak smile.

  "Please sit. We'll have some breakfast brought over. I'm sorry we don't have much of a selection, but we're fortunate to have something to eat."

  "Barbara," he called out.

  A matronly woman well into her fifties, wearing a roomy skirt and blouse ambled over from a nearby table. She'd been sitting with several children and two other women. She smiled pleasantly at Jules and Addy as she approached.

  The chatter around the picnic tables returned and fell into a seamless rhythm with the soft stirring of the leaves above them and the sounds of the river.

  "This is my wife, Barbara," Nichols informed them. "Hello," the woman said cheerfully.

  "Barbara, this is Jules and Addy." He nodded in each of their directions as he introduced them to his wife. "I believe our guests are hungry and would like something to eat."

  "All right. I think we can help them out. We have plenty of cereal. Unfortunately, there's no milk. We have oatmeal if you'd like something warm. We have water, and if you want coffee, we have that too."

  Lawrence Nichols lifted his mug of coffee to show them. "We've got plenty of coffee," he said. "About half the people in Gideon are Mormons," he said, winking at his wife. "They don't drink coffee."

  Jules opted for oatmeal and coffee. Addy settled on Lucky Charms and water. D
eputy Petersen had coffee.

  Jules and Addy ate their breakfast while Nichols talked.

  "We eat meals in two shifts," he told them. "This is the first shift. Each shift is a half hour long. We'll let you chose which shift you'd like to eat in. You'll be in the same shift for all three meals. That keeps it simple. There are people assigned to do the cooking. You'll serve yourselves. You'll be given your own dishes and silverware, and it'll be your responsibility to take care of them and keep them clean. You can wash them in the river.

  "Everyone has responsibilities. Everyone contributes. You've both been assigned duties. Addy, you'll be helping me out with the younger children. The children have school in the morning and an activity in the afternoon. Jules, you'll be going on the supply runs with Caleb and his crew. That was Heath's idea. I want to make sure you're comfortable with that. Heath tells me you were with the FBI, and that's all well and good, but I want you to be clear on what you're getting yourself into. Supply runs are the most dangerous duty we have. Do you understand, Jules?"

  Jules sipped her coffee. "Yes, I understand," she told him. "I'm fine with it."

  "Good," he replied.

  "All right," he said, lowering his voice to little more than a whisper. "Heath tells me you'd like to search George Albrecht's home. Heath thinks it's okay, and I defer to him in these matters. I think you're wasting your time, then again, it'll be your time to waste. Just one thing," he said, lowering his voice. "This needs to be kept quiet as I think you can understand. People around here won't appreciate your invading George's privacy since he's no longer with us. Not that George was all that popular. But it's the principle. So, let's keep it between us."

  "Not a problem," Jules assured him. "Actually, I'd prefer to keep it that way. I won't be more than an hour or two in his home."

  "Fine. Going into town is forbidden. For now, only those who have duties across the river are allowed into Gideon. And Heath is the one who determines who comes and goes. When the time comes, Heath or Dallin will accompany you to George's house."

  "Sounds fine," Jules said.

  Lawrence Nichols leaned forward and gave them a conspiratorial smile. His eyes narrowed and his cheeks puffed up like balls below his eyes. "Next spring, we're actually going to become a farming community," he said. "It's all about food. Once we realized how important access to food would be in the coming years, we knew we'd have to do something. There's not ever going to be enough game or fish to feed everyone. Now, with the river, we'll have all the water we would ever need, but we're going to need food. Second time out, we had Caleb and his crew scavenge seeds from a seed store up north."

  "Sounds like quite the plan."

  "Well, we have quite the community here," the mayor said.

  Sheriff Heath Conway drifted over to their table, wearing his easy smile. "Everyone getting acquainted all right?" he asked.

  "Just fine, Heath," Mayor Nichols said.

  "Mayor Nichols, he-he's been filling them in," Dallin added.

  "Great. Guess my job's done here then," the sheriff joked.

  Jules grinned.

  Nichols laughed and looked to Jules.

  "We have a few people who go into Gideon every day to pick up supplies from the stores. Your tent and sleeping bags came from our local sporting goods store. If you need something, tell Heath what you need, and he'll do his best to see that you get it. First thing we did once we were organized is to clear the stores of any infected. We started with Harmon's. We keep the food stored there and run into town each day to retrieve what we need. The stores still have electricity, so there's that, and it's easier than keeping stores of food here. If we can't find what you need in the stores, Heath or Dallin here will scavenge what you need from the homes they clear. We only take things from the homes of people we know have passed.

  "Now, having said that, we try to limit what we bring over to the necessities. We allow three sets of clothing per person. So, is there anything the two of you need?"

  "I could use a couple t-shirts," Jules said. "Other than that, I'm fine. Addy could use some clothes."

  "Okay, young lady. Tell me what you need. I'm afraid you won't be able to pick the clothes out for yourself, but if you describe what you'd like, we'll see what we can do."

  Addy smiled brightly at the mention of new clothes. It was the happiest Jules had seen her since they'd met.

  Chapter 7

  Caleb

  That afternoon, Deputy Petersen took them on a hike along the river a half mile north of camp. Jules and Addy wore baseball caps Dallin had given them for their hike. When they weren't in the shade of the trees, the sun was brilliant and warm but nothing like Vegas or Arizona.

  A mischievous breeze flitted in and out from the banks of the river. The air she breathed was remarkably fresh and earthy. Jules felt more relaxed than she'd been since the viral attack began a month ago. The stress she'd been under had all but melted away as she took in the beauty of the Tushar Mountains and the Gideon river. It wasn't the endless green of Northern Wisconsin where Jules had grown up, but the Tushar Mountains offered a beauty all their own. Bushes and mossy-colored brush plants covered the foothills, and up higher, long strips of fir and pine trees rolled across the landscape.

  The three of them settled in a grove of aspen trees near the riverbank. They sat and rested on the cool, firm earth. Jules sat with her back against the soft white trunk of an aspen and listened to the whispering murmur of the Gideon river. The river serenaded her with its soothing song, comforting her in a way she rarely allowed herself to be comforted.

  Jules only half-listened to the deputy as he explained that this was the spot in the river where people from the camp bathed. A thick finger of land, twenty-five feet long, jutted out from the riverbank, forming a natural cove, perfect for bathing. She heard him say something about how the days of the week were divided into bathing days for men and women. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the men; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for the women. They bathed in the mornings or late afternoons, depending on their schedule or preference.

  Deputy Petersen kept insisting they call him Dallin. He was more at ease than when they'd first met him. He was clean-shaven and his friendly soft brown eyes were the color of nutmeg shells. The veil of hardened seriousness was gone, and he seemed to enjoy playing guide for them. During the hike, Dallin Petersen would point out local landmarks and tell them stories.

  One of the landmarks was a cement dam that spanned the river, a half-mile up from where they'd settled in. Next to it, on this side of the river, sat a hydroelectric generating plant. On the Gideon side, another van was parked up against the dam to prevent any infected from crossing the dam.

  The deputy removed two bottles of water from his fanny pack and handed them to Jules and Addy.

  "Do you like s-soda pop?" he asked them.

  Jules and Addy remained silent for a moment, then Addy spoke up. "Sure," she said.

  "How 'bout you, M-Miss Vandevelde? I can get you some pop once in a while if you like. Thing is … you-you can't tell nobody. We're not supposed to pass out pop 'cause we'd run out in no time."

  "That sounds good, Dallin." Jules said.

  "What'll it be?" he asked.

  "Pepsi," Addy answered.

  "Dr. Pepper for me," Jules said. "And by the way, you can call me Jules, Dallin."

  "Okay," he said, sounding excited.

  "Hey, Dallin," a man's voice called out from nearby.

  Lingering on the trail above them stood two men and a woman. They navigated their way through the trees and drifted down to where Jules and Addy and Dallin were sitting.

  "Hey G-Garrett. What's up?"

  "Headed for a late lunch," the man said.

  Garrett looked to be in his mid-thirties and had wavy ginger hair and a lean face. He looked fit and flashed a disarming smile. Jules guessed the other man and the woman were in their mid-twenties.

  "This here's Garrett Nicholson," Dallin said. "Garrett runs the plant down
at the d-dam. He-He's an engineer. These here are his trainees, Kathy and Luke."

  Kathy was tall, close to six feet, with long sapling arms and legs. She stood close to Luke with her arms folded tightly against her chest.

  "Gideon was the first town in Utah with electricity," Dallin told them, a note of pride in his voice.

  "That's interesting," Jules said. "I was wondering where the electricity came from."

  Garrett Nicholson smiled at Jules.

  "The dam is responsible for half the electricity in Gideon. Southern Utah Electric was responsible for the other half in the newer areas of town. Of course, that's all gone now," Garrett Nicholson told them. "With the dam, we can keep the electricity going in the older part of town indefinitely."

  Neither Kathy nor Luke had spoken a word.

  "Well, we should get going. I'm famished," Nicholson said.

  Nicholson turned and placed his hand lightly on Kathy's shoulder, a subtle but intimate gesture. Kathy walked away, and his hand fell away from her shoulder.

  Dallin waited till they were gone. "When we get the town all cleared of the infected," he said. "We-We get to move back into Gideon. In the-the part that's got electricity."

  "When will that be?" Addy asked, sounding excited.

  "Uh, probably not for a couple more months. First, we have to clear out all the homes and buildings. There's s-s-still seventeen people not accounted for. Some might still be alive," he said earnestly. "More than likely, they've t-turned."

  "So, Dallin. Who keeps track?" Jules asked.

  "Mayor Nichols and Heath, th-they keep track. We made sure to identify every body we put in the ground back when …"

  Dallin stopped and looked out past the river, a troubled look on his face.

  "We-We better get b-b-back now," he said, stumbling over his words. "When Caleb comes back from the hunters' cabin, he-he'll want to talk to you about tomorrow."

  "Sure, Dallin," Jules told him. "We can head back now." They walked back along the river in an awkward silence.

  Halfway back, four men stood evenly spread apart on the riverbank casting lines into the river. The fishermen silently acknowledged them with nods as Jules and Addy and Dallin walked past.