by Sweet, Dell
“Might have been before,” Mike started. “Just didn’t think to check. But they’re sure working now. The hard part is finding vehicles that aren’t all smashed to hell. All of these have their war wounds. But it’s just scrapes and dents, nothing serious.”
Bob nodded and then went back to cutting up the venison and piling it onto two huge platters. One contained much smaller pieces.
The smaller pieces were long and thin. Janet and Sandy were stringing them over a second smoky fire that had been built just past the stone grill that Bob had built. A makeshift steel roof kept the smoke and heat close to the ground and the meat that hung on the racks. Tom walked up to admire the work.
“It’s all from the Barbecue place,” Bob admitted. “I’m just using it a little differently, to smoke the meat instead of cook it.”
“You know how to do that?” Candace asked. She seemed impressed.
“Oh yeah,” Janet told her. “Bob taught me. He always makes his own jerky, cures his own hams. Knows his roots and herbs as well.” Bob seemed even more embarrassed than he had been a few moments before.
“It’s stuff The Nation taught when I was a child… to preserve our heritage. We pass it on to the next generation. The legends say the people will come back to the Earth Mother. There will come a time when the people will need the old knowledge again.” He grew serious. “Guess that’s now,” he finished. He began to place the thick roasts of Venison onto the grill rack beside the roasting ears of corn.
The group spent the afternoon into the early evening enjoying each other's company, eating and filling each other in on the details of their day. The sun sailed smoothly across the sky, sinking into the Northwest after about fifteen hours of sunlight.
For the first time in several nights the stars came out, glowing brightly in the cloudless sky. The moon seemed to be in the wrong area of the sky and almost totally eclipsed by the Earth's shadow.
“Think that was too long?” Patty asked Tom.
“We’ll have to wait and see when the sun comes up,” Tom told her. “But I’d be willing to bet it’s back closer to what it used to be. And we don’t know what normal will be now. Maybe longer days… maybe shorter days,” he finished.
“Yeah,” Ronnie agreed. “It would seem a little too good to be true if it could stop, reverse, and come right back to something close to a twenty-four hour day.”
“Yeah. That probably isn’t going to happen,” Bob agreed.
“We’ll just have to see where it levels out,” Patty threw in.
Candace nodded, looked over at Mike, took his hand and smiled. “This was a pretty good day,” she said. “We have our own little community here. It’s nice.”
“I was thinking that also,” Mike said. He squeezed her hand lightly and pulled her close. The day had cooled off, and the night had cooled off even more after the sun had dropped from the sky. It reminded everyone that, despite the weird weather, it was still late winter; spring was a month or more away. Janet and Sandy kept the smoky fires burning under the drying meat, joining in the conversation when they had the time or opportunity. Lilly and Tom were involved in some sort of heavy conversation, while Bob, Ronnie and Patty were talking about hunting, herbs, folk remedies and what kinds of structures they would like to build for a home. Candace laid her head against Mike's shoulder and looked up at him. “I’m tired, man of mine.” Mike smiled at her.
“I think I have to put my woman to bed,” Mike said to Patty who sat closest to him. Ronnie laughed and Patty smiled at him. Tim sat on the other side of Ronnie, his eyes heavy lidded. Everyone said their good-nights.
As Candace and Mike got to their feet, Tim trailed along behind them, following them into the cave, leaving the rest of the group to their quiet conversations. The stars shone above. The sky was clear and inky black.
Janet ~ March 18th
Today has certainly been a better day for all of us. Mike, Candace, Tom and some others went looking for vehicles today hoping they would find that the ones with electronic brains would be working. Electronic something. Brains, I guess. I have no real idea. Give me a database and I could tell you something, but I don’t understand anything at all about engines, except they’re working again.
The rest of us stayed back and worked here for the day. We made a few trips around the area. Nell and Lilly went to the Market on State Street and came back with ears of corn that were still good. Bobby and I and Sandy went a little ways down this road to where an old outside restaurant Bob knew about was. They cooked or grilled food outside in the summer. In the winter I guess they cooked inside.
We took all the outside grill pieces to build a grill outside the cave. A big one too. It took a lot of work, several trips back and forth. We found some wheeled carts, probably used to move stuff around inside the restaurant, and wheeled all the stuff we found back down to the cave with them. We got everything back and Bobby set it up.
Sandy and I collected loose rock from the cliffs and river banks to build the back and the sides to hold the racks. The smoking racks were easy to build. The large roof we used had hung over the whole outside grill back at the restaurant. There were long, thin metal rods to hold it up. Sandy and I worked on that as Bob worked on the sides and back of the grill.
We found extra long metal rods and used those to hang the meat on. Here we were dragging all that stuff around, and Bob talking about going hunting so we could have something to cook on the grill besides corn, when down the road we hear some light tap-click tap-click, and the deer showed up just as if the Gods had sent them to us. They saw us about the same time we saw them, and Bobby and Sandy opened up.
I don’t think people hunted Deer much in the old days with hand guns, but it was what they had, well to hand. They each got one.
About then the others came back with six new trucks as our old ones dropped into the river during the storms. We spent several hours talking and eating, just enjoying each other's company, and then almost everyone turned in.
Sandy and I watched the drying racks. I took the first watch anyway, so Sandy’s catching a little sleep as I write this.
We are, several of us, planning to leave once the spring is here and go on our way. We haven’t yet gotten around to talking about how we’ll do that, or where we will go, only that we will go.
Bobby and I are very enthusiastic about Sandy. She is all for going back to the Earth, building the people up again. Where there are three of us, there has to be more. I guess that’s the same, nearly, as where there’s a will, there’s a way. Our people have always had the will. Now we have the way. I truly believe we’ll collect more people as we go.
The sky is starry bright. The world seems to be settling down. I’m sorry that all of this had to happen, but I’m happy about where my life is now.
Patty ~ March 18th
It's late. I took this notebook outside to write by starlight; it's that bright. Janet Dove has the watch, I have the next anyway so I figured why bother to try to sleep. It's something I've learned about myself; if I can't get to sleep in the first few minutes, I may as well get back up. Janet came over and talked for a few minutes, brought me some roasted meat. I've never had anything like that. It was so good. I should be happy. I should be contented. I'm not. I'm not, and I realized today that I can't be, and I don't know what I can even do about it. I can't even write it here. What if someone read it?
The stars are so bright. It's cold, but not like it should be. I am so messed up. I will only say... No, I can't say that. I was going to say I never suspected this, thought about this, but I did. I just never dealt with it. Now I have to, and I don't know how. I guess this is my sounding board, maybe even my conscience right now, and the part of me that is trying to be unselfish says leave it alone. I will, but for how long?
CHAPTER FIVE
City of Dead
~March 19th~
Sunrise once again found Mike seated on the small pile of bricks at the cave entrance watching the sky. Candace sat quietl
y beside him. They both sipped at their coffee as the new sun colored the sky a light pink on the far horizon behind them.
A low fog hung over the river. There was a distinct chill in the air, and both of them were wearing jackets.
“So, about twenty-nine hours sunrise to sunrise is pretty good, or at least better than we’ve seen in a while,” Mike said softly. He sipped at his coffee.
“Might be the new norm,” Candace elaborated.
Mike nodded. “Could be,” he agreed.
The rising sun finally touched the cliffs across the river and turned the fog into a glowing yellow-red mist which began to drift apart with the early sun's heat. They sat in silence, leaning against one another, and watched the colors paint the cliffs.
Off to their left, Janet and Sandy watched the fire and sipped at their own coffee, talking quietly with each other. Closer by the river Patty stood watching the road and bridges that serviced the North Side. She had given a half wave as Candace and Mike had come from the cave. Candace had waved back; Mike had nodded.
The smoke from the fires rose slowly into the air. The smell of the smoked meat was on the air and most likely drifting for miles. Several times during the night whines, growls, scuffling and the clicking of nails on asphalt had come from the darkness. As the sun rose further, it outlined a small, mixed breed dog lying about thirty feet from the fire, nose on paws, looking forlornly at the fire.
“So, there you are,” Sandy said.
The dog lifted its head and vigorously wagged its tail but remained where it was.
“Got an admirer I think,” Mike called over.
The dog focused on Mike and Candace and wagged its tail even harder.
Sandy reached for a piece of meat that was already tough and stringy and tossed it to the dog. The dog was up and after the meat before it hit the ground near where it had lain. Candace put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. The dog stopped just short of grabbing the meat, spun around and sat down staring from the piece of meat to Candace.
“Go on, Boy. You can have it,” Janet encouraged. The dog seemed to think about it, glancing from Janet to Candace, but he only hesitated for a few moments, hunger won out and he lunged for the chunk of meat, snatched it up, then retreated down the road where he sat holding the meat between his paws, gnawing hungrily at it.
Everyone fell silent watching the skinny, yellow dog gnawing at the piece of meat. The sun continued to creep into the sky behind them, burning off the fog and painting the cliffs on the other side of the river with brilliant yellow-red light.
The small dog finished the piece of meat and looked back over at Sandy hopefully. Sandy took another piece of meat off the drying rack. This time, the little dog’s eyes stayed on Sandy and the meat, paying attention. She threw it, and the dog caught it in mid-air, spun around a few times, causing everyone to laugh, then lay down once again, holding the chunk of meat between his paws and chewing with great delight.
“Probably been pretty tough for you, huh, Boy?” Jan asked. The dogs ears pricked up and its tail thumped against the asphalt, but it continued to worry at the meat it held between its paws.
“Well,” Candace said, “we’re going to use the vehicles to run for supplies today. Looks like we better pick up some dog food as well.”
“Already have some,” Mike said. He jumped to his feet and disappeared inside the cave. He reappeared a few minutes later with a can of chunky beef dog food and a small can opener. He opened up the can, dumped the contents onto a disposable plastic plate, poured some bottled water into a disposable Styrofoam bowl and carried them over towards the dog.
The dog stopped chewing, its ears flattened back, but it didn’t run. Mike stopped about five feet away, set the plate and the bowl down on the asphalt and then returned to the brick pile with Candace.
“Did you have a dog before we came,” Candace asked?
“No, but I saw a few tracks, and I heard them too. I could hear them at night. I was hoping one would come by. I spent a lot of time alone. I didn’t like it at all, and truthfully, I thought, well, if a dog could eat it…” He trailed off.
“You were going to eat it?” Sandy asked.
“Lots of seniors ate it all the time,” Janet said. “It’s meat.”
“That was my reasoning. I couldn’t... hadn’t found a lot of meat at that point. I was thinking about protein,” he shrugged.
“Yuck,” Sandy said.
“Double yuck,” Candace agreed.
“Well, I didn’t. It was just a sort of emergency thing,” Mike said defensively.
“It’s okay,” Candace said. “I love you anyway.”
Mike looked at her and smiled.
“Yeah, I know. I said the L word.”
Mike continued to smile. He kissed her back as she kissed his lips.
“I love you too,” He said and kissed her once more.
“Get a room,” Sandy said. Everyone laughed, Mike and Candace included.
The dog, having finished the venison, had discovered the chunky beef and was now busily wolfing down the plate of food.
Candace leaned close and sniffed at Mike’s breath. ‘Nope. I guess you never did eat it,” She said seriously. Mike smiled and smacked her shoulder lightly.
“Anyway,” he said, “I only got one case of it, so I suppose I better get a few more.” Everyone agreed. The dog looked up guiltily, wagged his tail, slurped some water from the bowl and then went back to eating.
~
An hour after dawn the entire cave was up and getting ready for the day. Sandy and Janet would stay to continue curing the meat, but everyone else would be going to collect food and other items they might need. They were all armed, and no one would be going anywhere alone. One team of four would go over to State Street and the grocery store that Mike had been bringing food from, the same one Lilly had brought the ears of corn from. The other group of five would head out Arsenal Street searching for food items, as well as anything else that might be useful to them.
“More flashlights,” Nell reminded.
“The Ham radio you guys had talked about, and a few C.B. radios too. We can put those right in the trucks,” Ronnie contributed.
“Uh,” Lilly said. She bent and whispered to Patty. Patty nodded.
“We need to find a drug store too… for some personal things,” Patty said. Lilly turned red but smiled through her embarrassment.
“More dog food,” Janet reminded. The stray had moved over to the fire where it had curled up close to Sandy and had fallen asleep.
“Battery powered radios and a T.V., just in case,” Mike added.
“I thought you tried that,” Tom asked.
“Only the radio,” Mike agreed. “But the batteries are dead.”
“Do you really think there will be anything on the T.V.?” Nell asked.
“Honestly? No,” Mike said. “But we should make sure.”
“Do you think,” Tim asked, every bit as embarrassed looking as Lilly had been, “That a little battery powered C.D. player and some music would be okay?”
Candace and Patty both laughed. Tim instantly looked worried, as if he wished he hadn’t said anything.
“No, Tim,” Patty said, waving her hands at him. “It’s a good idea. There’s nothing wrong with it. It just surprised me that none of us had thought about it. It’s okay to need or want things for ourselves.”
“We need to get some good footwear… good socks. Like that,” Bob said. “Our feet are important.”
“We need sizes,” Mike said nodding.
“Got it,” Candace said. A pen and a small note pad appeared in her hand. She’d been writing down other suggestions as they were made. Now she copied down the shoe sizes as they told her. “Babe,” she looked at Mike.
“Eleven,” Mike said.
“More first aid stuff,” Janet said.
The suggestions went on for a few minutes and then began to taper off. Candace folded the cover on her small notebook and slipped it int
o her shirt pocket. “We’ll think of more stuff I’m sure. Just write it down when you do, or if you’re somewhere where you can get what you thought of, get it.”
The two groups split up, climbed into their vehicles and headed out; splitting off where the broken and twisted River Road ended, one road heading towards outer Coffeen Street, where they could cut over to Arsenal Street, the other turning abruptly up a small rise and back towards the public square where they could access State Street. Two of the trucks headed in that direction, Mike, Candace, Patty and Ronnie in those vehicles. The other three headed for Arsenal Street, carrying Tom, Lilly, Bob and Tim as well.
~ State Street ~
“This was all me,” Mike said as they stood just inside the shattered front windows of the supermarket. The large piles of debris he had pulled out of his way as he searched through the rubble seemed to frame the dark opening that led into the interior of the store, piled high on either side of the twisted steel frames. They formed a dark, forbidding tunnel.
“Maybe it’s a little worse for wear and tear from the rain and the last earthquake.” He looked around and shook his head. “Maybe not though. It doesn’t look any worse at all. Doesn’t look like the rain got in.”
The smell was strong though. It made Mike wish he had removed the bodies the last time he had been there. Patty, Candace and Ronnie all had faces on, wrinkled noses, squinting eyes, partially turned away from the darkened tunnel and the aisles that were barely visible in the gloom.
“It’s pretty bad,” Ronnie said.
Mike simply nodded.
“I shopped here a few times,” Candace said. “I know the basic layout.” She looked to the left then to the right. “Mostly canned vegetables, canned soups, stews, that sort of thing?” She pointed to an area Mike had cleared out.
