by Sweet, Dell
Bob was staring at the cave. “You know. Even lifted, these trucks could fit right in there,” he said.
“What?” Mike asked.
“What?” Bob asked. They both laughed.
“I asked how long it would take to do this to our vehicles,” Mike said.
“Oh, well, Tom’s a good mechanic too, so there are two of us, maybe a few other pairs of hands that have some skill attached to them. We could do one a day, easy,” He said.
“So would that set your mind at rest that they wouldn’t bog us down or get stuck on us?” Mike asked.
Bob nodded. “All we need is parts and tools. See?” he squatted, motioned Mike down, and pointed at the rear suspension. “The back lifts are mainly blocks… Re-arched springs… Swap out the shocks for larger, longer travel units… New U bolts…”
“Bob… you lost me, Man,” Mike said.
Bob grinned. “The answer is yes. It would set my mind at ease. It would allow us to go virtually anywhere. And, it wouldn’t be tough to do the work at all. We could get all the parts today. Want to do all of them?”
“Probably should, shouldn’t we?” Mike asked.
Bob nodded.
~
They spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon picking up the parts that Bob and Tom needed and working off Jan’s master list at the same time. The strip malls out Washington Street and the auto garages at the dealerships had everything they needed. They left the other pickup trucks behind and took three nearly identical G.M.C. pickups they had found on one of the lots. Bob felt it would be easier to have three identical trucks to work on. Once they worked out what to do on the first truck, the next two would be easy. On top of that, the three Suburban’s were Chevy products, General Motors. G.M.C. was also General Motors and Bob felt that would be the best way to proceed. The same motors, transmissions and nearly all the other parts too. The trucks could swap a lot of their parts, they would have interchangeable parts. It made good sense. They could carry spare parts that would fit any of the trucks.
They took three trucks wherever they went: One truck with three people in it waited outside while the people from the other two trucks went in to fill the lists. The ones in the first truck kept the clip rifles at the ready. They encountered no problems.
Just before evening they called it a day and headed back to the cave. There were three on guard duty there too with the remaining clip rifle. They spent some time clearing the entire area near the front entrance of the cave so that the following morning Bob and Tom could begin working on the trucks.
Tim was impressed with the size of the tires they were going to fit to the trucks. Bob promised to show him how they would fit the tires to the new rims without a tire machine.
“I grew up on a farm,” Bob had told him. “We did it all the time. In fact, I didn’t realize there was a machine to do that until I was out of my teens and living off the farm,” he’d said.
“No,” Tim had said. “You’re kidding?”
“Nope, I’m not,” Bob had told him.
Jan spent the evening checking off items from her master lists, and making new lists for the next day.
By evening, all but the snow in the corners and cracks that the sun couldn’t reach was gone, melted. The night was clear and the stars shone brightly, diamond chips in the inky blackness.
~
“It bothers me more than a little that they haven’t come back,” Mike said to Candace, Nell and Ronnie. The four of them had the watch up to midnight.
“I can see that. It bothers me also,” Ronnie said.
“Maybe they’re scared,” Nell added.
“I would’ve said no, that they don’t seem like the type that could be frightened off, but if they’re with the other two, then they’ve told them how Sin was shot down. The one that came here got a lesson I’m sure he won’t soon forget. They know we’re not bluffing. And, I’m sure they’re afraid of what Annie might say. She did too. She had a lot to say, if only to Patty and me. So I imagine they’re scared to death. But I don’t think that will hold them forever. Maybe for a while. Maybe long enough for us to be gone by the time they decide to come at us… retaliate,” Candace finished.
“I hope that’s true, Babe,” Mike said. “I really do.”
“Yeah. That would be good,” Ronnie agreed.
Nell was looking at Candace. She caught her eye. “Bad?” She asked.
“Yeah,” Candace said. “Bad.”
“Fuckers. They better not come back,” Nell said.
Sandy ~ March 22nd
The days are moving. I’ve decided to contribute to this diary-journal idea as well. It does make sense. It’s something to show the children. There is no world without them.
We have Brian and Janelle, and Ann is still a child. Really Tim is as well. But Brian and Janelle are our hope right now, and the ones that come when we build a new world for them, a new Nation.
We know we have so much opposition to overcome, but we will gather as we go and build ourselves back up. At one time the tribes of the Nation were spread across this country. They will be again. I believe that.
It hurts me that some people can be so cruel towards us. I mean Candace. Petty. Cruel. Mean. You would think that this world had mocked her, used her, every bit as much as the rest of us. You would think that would make her see this clearly. But, she doesn’t. She doesn’t see it at all that I can see. How can that be? How can anyone who is not white not be affected by this white world? She should be on our side. She should be an asset. She should be with us. I’m confused about why she isn’t, and hurt as well. I can’t do anything about it except stay away from her. I can’t say anything to her. She jumps all over me when I do. Maybe she hates me? Maybe she sees me as the enemy somehow? I don’t know. I just don’t know.
Bob says that somewhere on the other side of the Smokey Mountains we’ll find the land we need, want. There is so much forever wild land there that we should be able to reestablish ourselves easily. The land should not be poisoned. It should be waiting for us.
He says the climate will be warmer there. But not too warm. Easier than life here. He says things have changed. The climate will be different. I believe him.
We’re hoping for more people as we go. Bob says we’ll have thousands eventually. Thousands. It’s hard to picture. He doesn’t know how many we’ll pick up on the way there, but he believes the others, Mike, Ronnie, Tom, Patty and yes, Candace too, will join us. He believes they will come around. I hope so. I’m discouraged by Candace’s attitude though, yet at the same time I’m encouraged by the opportunities that lie ahead.
Nell ~ March 22nd
Another first for me. My first world ending. My first crack at life without a man telling me what to do. And my first journal. I said Journal, Sandy said diary and looked at me like I was crazy. Why should it be diary? Why do we get hung up on things like that? I guess I know that reason.
The other girls say these are for the children. I have no man. I see Candace with Mike or Patty with Ronnie, and I think that is rare. I’ve never known love like that, not for any man anyway. I got married because I was expected to get married.
I remember my mother saying, “You think I don’t know, but I know. You think I don’t see, but I see.” Of course, I denied it. But my mother knew. She told me it was hard enough to be Puerto Rican, everything was against us, but Puerto Rican and a lesbian? No. She wouldn’t stand for it. She knew.
So I married and I hated it. And that was about all that there was to it. Hate. Despair. Depression… All parts of hate. Hate from others. Hate for self. Hate. But now the world has ended and everything is possible. Would I have a child? I would sleep with a man like Mike or Ronnie to have a child. But I won’t ever again take a man to be my lover.
It’s funny, but I feel so free. It’s also funny, but I wonder about Sandy. She looks at me sometimes. I’ve seen her. I haven’t caught her, you know, as in let her know that I know she’s looking. But I may… probably
will. The only thing is, she has this dream. She wants to live in the middle of nowhere. I don’t want to live in the middle of nowhere. But, I told myself not long ago that I would wait here for my husband. I told myself that and I intended to do it. Well, that changed. I’m leaving, so, maybe I’ll live where my feet take me. Maybe I’ll just live and let life take care of itself. I wonder who said that? I wonder if it matters? I don’t think so, as long as I believe it. I could have love. Where I live and what I do would become secondary to that.
I guess this must be a shock, or will be a shock, or will it? Isn't it only my own sensibilities of what is taboo, what life is that my mother instilled in me, that makes me think that someone who read this would be shocked? I think so. I think other people do as they please. I think they live their lives, and I haven’t been living my life at all.
I would just like to be held the way I’ve seen others held, or hold. I would just like to be made love to with the passion I’ve heard between Mike and Candace, or Janet and Rob, Patty and Ronnie. So I think about it. And I see Sandy looking at me, and I think I’ll have to take the chance and catch her. Maybe it will make us both happy.
~The North side~
She slipped from the shadows and ran along from house to house until she reached the end of the block. She had expected to hear the gunshots behind her, expected to find herself falling to the cold ground, a bullet in her back, but the bullet never came. Randy must have stayed asleep. She had put a handful of sleeping pills in his food, mixed them right in with the canned spaghetti, and he had wolfed them right down. Never had a clue.
She stopped at the end of the street, caught her breath leaning against the side of an old pickup truck and then took off once more at a fast walk.
She was halfway through the block when she realized someone was following her, and her heart sank like a stone. Randy. Had to be. She stopped and peered back through the shadows and dark. The moonlight was bright, but it was still not easy to see. She thought she saw movement at the corner of a house two houses back. She screwed up her courage.
“Randy... Randy don't be sore... Don't...” She stopped and squinted into the gloom. Two people had come from around the edge of that house. Two, and neither of them looked anything like Randy. She swore under her breath and turned to run.
He caught her under the arms. He must have been standing right behind her all along, she realized.
“Hey... Hey, there's no...” She stopped mid word and began to scream at the rotted face that angled down at her own face. His hands clawed at her throat, closing off her screams and then his teeth found her and he began to tear and bite.
CHAPTER SEVEN
War
~March 23rd~
The cave was up early the next morning. It seemed as though everybody had some task to complete, some job to fill the day.
The open space of the large limestone cave accommodated all the people and all the supplies and possessions they had accumulated over the short period they had been together. Now it also held the first truck that Bob and Tom were going to convert. Everybody found a reason to stop and look at what they were doing as they went about their chores.
Bob and Tom would be left behind for the next several days as the others continued to search out items on Jan’s lists as well as a few parts Bob and Tom had been unable to find.
Mike was working on getting some coffee into him when Tim and Annie came back into the cave in a hurry, looking around. When Tim’s eyes fell on Mike he headed straight for him. Mike glanced from Tim and Annie to the covered entrance way but no one else came through it. “Ronnie wants you,” Was all Tim said. His frightened eyes said more than his words. Everyone had seen Tim and Annie rush into the cave and they looked at Mike now, wondering what had caused them to hurry in. Mike shrugged his shoulders and headed for the entrance way, Candace and Patty behind him. Everyone else paused in what they were doing; waiting to learn what was going on.
Mike stepped outside into the early morning quiet. Ronnie,
Nell and Sandy were staring down the river road toward the old restaurant that graced the end of the street. Mike walked up, but before he reached them, a volley of gunshots reached his ears. It sounded to him as though they had come from lower State Street, just off the square, very close by.
The sound of a revving engine reached his ears at nearly the same time, and a speeding truck raced by the end of the road about a quarter mile away. The shots came heavy and hard. It sounded like a war zone.
“How long’s this been going on?”
“About fifteen minutes or so. That’s the third truck that’s gone by the end of the street,” Nell said.
The gunfire sounded even louder if that were possible. Squealing tires on pavement, straining engines.
“The gunfire is new. The trucks have been going by though. Somebody’s at somebody,” Ronnie said. “Maybe with those people we had the run in with.”
The sound of a crash came to their ears followed by what sounded almost exactly like machine gun fire, a steady, heavy crack, and that was followed by what sounded like another heavy crash; and then another heavy explosion shook the earth. A fire ball lit up the sky towards lower State Street., possibly closer even than Mike had thought, just off the square. The sound of the explosion was deafening. The ground continued to shake.
“Okay!” Mike yelled to get his voice above the gunfire and screaming engines. Everyone had come outside in the last few minutes. He had no doubt they had both heard and felt the explosions inside the cave. “Get back inside. Everybody except Bob, Tom, Candace and Patty. You get the clip rifles, shotguns and the deer rifles too... and ammo.” He paused and looked around. No one had moved yet. “Nell, Sandy, start moving the trucks. They can’t get in here from the other end. Run these down and block the road.”
He began walking rapidly back towards the cave entrance as he spoke. Nell stayed with him, Sandy hesitated only briefly and then sprinted to catch up with the two of them. “Wait until we have firepower to cover you. Drive those trucks about…” Mike stopped and his eyes shot rapidly up and down the road, gauging the distance. “About 200 feet down from the end… where that little cliff juts out,” he motioned with one hand. Candace came back and tossed him a clip rifle.
“Turn them sideways, block the road. Let’s go.” He sprinted towards the trucks with them, split off and wound up with Nell. Candace climbed into the other truck with Sandy. A few seconds later, both trucks were moving fast. Mike watched the roads and the cliffs as they went. It seemed as though the people who were fighting were too caught up with killing each other to worry about them. Fine. Let it be that way. But when they did remember them, the road would be blocked, and there would be no easy way for them to get to them.
Nell cut the truck hard left. Sandy, who had been watching, cut her own truck in and the two trucks nearly collided as they came to a stop blocking the road completely side to side.
They jumped from the trucks and found that Tom and Ronnie were less than a hundred feet away covering them. Mike and Candace put Nell and Sandy between them, covering them as they ran back towards the cave.
At the mouth of the cave, Mike took a second to gather his thoughts as everyone gathered around him. The sound of the fight on the square and lower State Street was louder than it had been. More gunfire, more explosions. Mike leaned towards the three men.
“If they turn down this road, open up on them. Don’t wait. Light them up!” he turned to Ronnie. “We’re going up.”
“Up?”
Mike nodded. “Up to the parking lot above the cave. We can climb up quick enough from down here. There are some scrub trees, bushes… Should be good cover. We’ll watch from there. Stop them if they try to come at us that way. You got this. Nobody else, you.” He leveled his eyes on Ronnie’s own. Ronnie nodded. Mike looked around.
“Lilly… Tim,” They were both standing near the entrance to the cave. “You two check on Annie and the two little ones.”
Anot
her explosion rocked the ground. Rocks and loose gravel sprayed down from the cliffs and the parking lot above the cave. A pair of vehicles, chasing each other, went roaring past the end of the road heading for the damaged bridge and the north side of the city. They exchanged gunfire as they went. Just after they passed the mouth of the road, the sound of screaming tires came to them and the sound of one of the vehicles as it crashed.
Mike turned back to Tim and Lilly, “Then come back here. Candace and I are climbing to the top. You’re covering us as we go. Make sure no one gets in back of us, sneaks up on us.” He looked at them. “You can do that?”
“Yeah, I can,” Lilly told him. She seemed so calm it spooked
Mike. Tim echoed the same sentiment, and then both of them turned away and raced inside of the cave.
Mike leaned back against the cliff face and watched the end of the road. Their four remaining trucks were now parked down the road, closing it off. Bob, Nell, Patty and Sandy crouched behind the trucks, using them for cover. Another vehicle went flying past the end of the road heading into the square. A small car of some sort, Mike saw as it flew past. The sound of the car locking up its brakes came to his ears no more than a split second after it passed the end of the road. The transmission whined and the car's engine screamed. A second later the car flew back past the end of the road in reverse, locked up the tires again, and turned onto the river road, two young men hanging out of the back windows. What looked like wire stock machine pistols in their hands.
Before the car had rolled more than ten feet onto the River Road, Patty and Bob were up and firing. Tom came up next; Candace socketed a clip rifle into her shoulder and opened up. Mike raised his own rifle, but the car was disintegrating before his eyes before he ever pulled the trigger.
The windshield starred and then blew inward. The two young men who had been hanging out the side windows of the car preparing to shoot never got the chance. The car suddenly veered left, accelerated hard and smashed into the cliff face. Everybody ducked low below the trucks. Mike, Candace, Tim and Lilly threw themselves to the ground. Flames shot up the cliff face. A second after that the gas tank blew.
