Hell Happened (Book 1)

by Terry Stenzelbarton

  He stepped out the front door to get a feel for the weather. One of the things he missed most was the Weather Channel and the local weather meteorologist. Even though he’d been a farmer all his life, he didn’t have the knack for determining the forecast by watching animals, feeling the wind and noting the temperature variations.

  It had become his habit that after church on Sunday, after chores and when Randy had gone off to hang with his friends, Jerry would turn on the Weather Channel and plan out what chores he would get done in the coming week.

  Those days were gone and since the fall, he’d been winging it day by day and getting a feel for weather changes. He could easily judge the changing of seasons, but the day-to-day barometric changes, high pressure systems and cold fronts were something for that weather lady and her computer models on Channel 13 to figure out and tell him what they meant. She was gone now and Jerry was left to predict the weather as best he could.

  Every morning he’d walk outside and try to guess what the upcoming weather would be like. He’d feel the wind on his face, look at the stars or clouds, judge the temperature and do his own modeling in his head. Usually this took a few minutes, after which he’d go pour himself a mug of coffee and go to the barn, milk the cows and feed them before returning to the shelter for breakfast with Randy and the others.

  What he saw this morning as he stepped out were the last of the stars being drowned out by the sun, which was still below the horizon, and the clouds themselves. The skies reminded him of the days before hurricanes Katrina, Dennis and Ivan, most recently, came to roar through Alabama and the four that ripped through in the late 90s. They’d all done damage to his farm, but the weather forecasters had warned everyone and Jerry had prepared.

  This morning, as he looked at the sky, the long strips of high-level clouds coming in from the Gulf of Mexico could be seen on the southern horizon. There was a light breeze and it was a warm morning for early September.

  He knew what they meant without having to be a meteorologist.

  He heard someone come out behind him but didn’t turn. He couldn’t take his eyes off the clouds. His coffee mug was offered to him as he felt a soft hand and arm lay across his shoulder. Kellie’s head leaned on his shoulder as she, too, looked up at the clouds.

  “Thanks,” he said, still looking skyward and not at his beat up mug, the one given to him by a Chambers Seed representative a few years back. He took a sip as the two stood in silence watching the sky.

  “It sure is beautiful this morning,” Kellie said in a low voice, in awe of reflection of the yet-to-rise sun off the underside of the wisps of clouds that reached out from the horizon. She felt Jerry nod. A light breeze met them in the face, warm and moist and gentle. It was a consistent breeze, not the up and down from a passing weather system, but the constant southwest to northeast breeze.

  Jerry, who’d lived in Alabama all his life, had seen mornings like this before.

  “There’s a hurricane over the Gulf,” Jerry said, breaking the silence. “Probably coming this way if the wind is any tell.”

  “Dear lord. Can you tell how long before it gets here?”

  “I’d guess at least a day or maybe two, but Mike knows how to read that barometer thing, so we’ll ask him when he gets up. But it does look like we’re going to get wet real soon.” He took another sip of coffee.

  “I’ll get some breakfast started for everyone. I’m sure you’ve got a lot to get done and you’ll need some help from your team.” He looked and saw she said it with a smile, a beautiful smile. Impulsively he kissed her on the forehead.

  “Let’s ‘git ‘r’ done,’” Jerry said, mimicing comedian Larry the Cable Guy. They turned to walk back inside, Kellie holding on gently to his left arm with both hands. “I never liked that guy.”

  “Me either,” she said.

  Entering the foyer, Monica and Randy were both awake and in the kitchen. Tony was being helped from the bathroom by Mike. Eddie was probably still sleeping. He seemed to always sleep in. “How you feeling this morning, Tony?” Kellie asked.

  “Better than yesterday morning,” the young man said. “Foot hurts like a muth-….My foot hurts quite a bit, but Monica says that’s good. Head still hurts some and my ribs hurt. But I ain’t gonna be complainin’.”

  “It’s good to see you up.”

  “Thanks, ma’am,” he said as Mike helped him back onto the couch.

  “Randy, go get Eddie out of bed. We have a lot to do today and we ought to get started. It looks like there might be some weather moving in.”

  “Gotchya, dad,” his son said, placing his bowl of cereal on the table and taking the spiral staircase two stairs at the time. He opened the door to their room and hollered. “Get up! Dad needs us.” Eddie said something which no one downstairs could hear, but everyone guessed it was not polite. “Good God, Eddie,” Randy responded. “Did you kiss your father with that mouth….oh wait…too soon?”

  A pillow flew out of the room and Randy caught it with one hand and tossed it back before closing the door. Coming back the steps, Randy told his dad Eddie would be down in a minute. The smile on his face told the story on how Eddie had reacted to his Randy’s comment.

  “Good. I’m going down to take care of the cows. I’ll be back in about an hour. Kellie will tell you what we saw this morning outside and why we need to get going. Make those lists of what we need and we’ll talk about it when I get back.” He walked over to the carafe and refilled his mug. Black coffee was the lifeblood of a farmer and Jerry hoped they found some more soon. He was down to his last two cans.

  “I’ll give you a hand in the barn,” Mike offered. “I never had the chance to work on a farm before and you and I can talk a little more about what you said last night.”

  “Sure, Mike. You want to grab some breakfast first?”

  “I’ll have a cup of your coffee and that’s all the breakfast I need,” he said patting his still ample stomach. Kellie handed the large black man a covered mug she got from the cupboard. Mike poured his own cup and snapped on the cover. “I’m ready.”

  The two men left the others to finish eating breakfast. Jerry knew by the time he and Mike were back, everyone will have made lists of what they thought they needed.

  Walking down the path, Mike told Jerry the real reason he had offered to help in the barn this morning. “Jerry, you don’t need a financial advisor and you surely don’t need any banking advice. I was a Marine almost 50 years ago and am probably out of practice playing war.

  “I don’t want you to think I’m a survivalist or some Rambo-type. I’m just an old man who didn’t die when the rest of the world did. I feel like I’m living on borrowed time.”

  Jerry thought about what the banking exec was saying. The personality of Mike was solemn and non-confrontational. He was genial, with stories that entertained the group on some evenings. He was well-read, well-traveled, highly-educated and Jerry had just assumed he’d accept the needs of the group and be Jerry’s biggest helper.

  “I’m sorry, Mike. I thought with your experience, you’d be good at it. I never thought that maybe you might not want to be in charge of things.”

  “No, no, no, Jerry. You misunderstand,” Mike corrected him. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I just want to make sure you understand I’m not a fighter, even though I was a Marine. I just wanted to make sure you are clear that I’ll back you up, but I’ll also give you my honest opinions and advice. I won’t bullshit you and if I think you’re wrong, I’ll tell you.”

  “Really, Mike, that’s all I can ask. To be honest, I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time either,” Jerry said, grabbing a handful of weeds that had grown up along the path. In most years he’d have mowed them down with the brush hog, but now he wanted the farm to look as abandoned as possible so let the grasses grow. He hadn’t mowed the lawns of the farm either since the fall came.

  “You’d be surprised, Jerry. I’ve known hundreds of executives and junior executive i
n dozens of banks who thought they were good leaders, and they weren’t fit to be in charge of a doll house. You’re a natural and you don’t even know it and that’s why these people trust you.”

  “Well, I don’t trust me and that’s why I need you to help. You’re smarter than me by a country mile. I remember my daddy saying the reason he did so well running the farm was because he listened to smart people 50 percent of the time while he worked hard 90 percent of the time.”

  “There you go again. Your self-deprecating attitude, making sure you let the person you’re talking to know you don’t think you know it all. For some people, it looks forced and artificial, but you are real and it shows.”

  They reached the barn and stepped through to the smell of the cows that were already moving into the holding pen. “This is the other reason I came to help you. I’ve worked in offices almost all my adult life and I don’t think I’ve gotten my hands dirty in the last 50. I’ve never been on a working farm before and since my former occupation is no longer in need, I think it’s about time I learned a new trade.

  “Farmer Mike it is,” Jerry said in an effort to keep the conversation moving to something besides the discussion of his personality. “First thing we need to do is disinfect the lines,” he began as he kicked off his shoes and put on his barn boots. He pointed to Randy’s barn boots and Mike slipped them on. Surprisingly, they fit well enough for Mike to work.

  For the next hour Jerry showed Mike how to set up milking machines for the 22 cows, which ones needed to have their milk thrown away because of bacteria, which ones needed an injection of anti-biotics and other special instructions. Mike learned how to operate the machinery, how to feed the cows and the two calves and why everything needed to be done in the order Jerry did it.

  As Jerry wrapped up feeding the two calves, Mike found a blank sheet of paper and a pen that looked like it had been around for a while, but still worked. He began writing down the supplies he could see the shelter was going to need in the next day or so, then added another column for supplies they’d need long term.

  Mike stepped out of the barn to look again at the clouds and to feel the wind on his face.

  Remembering what his grandfather had told him, Mike felt he could smell the change and taste the salt in the air. “Moisture is being picked up from the warm gulf waters and brought inland,” Mike thought to himself.

  Jerry joined him a few minutes later and the two walked back to the shelter. Mike asked a few questions about the soybeans in the fields and what they could be used for now that Jerry wouldn’t be harvesting the beans to sell. Jerry shook his head. “I’ll harvest them and store ‘em and cover them. Since we can’t sell them, we’ll find some way to use them. The corn we’ll use for the cattle and maybe ourselves if we can, and there are some apple trees that will give us some fruit we can store for the winter. I think there’s a pear tree or two as well.

  “Between those and what we have in the garden, I think we’ll have enough to get us through the winter in good shape.” They also went over Jerry’s plan for the day and Mike made a suggestion that had not occurred to Jerry because he was so use to using his own resources for so long.

  The two men entered the shelter and everyone was sitting around the dining room table, except Tony, who was reading on the couch. He looked uncomfortable there with his leg in the sling still, but he had been propped up so he could read with the book on his lap. Jerry could still see the bruises on his shoulder and ribs, his left eye was turning from blue to greenish yellow so he knew it would heal, even if the eye was still bloodshot.

  Kellie gathered up the lists, including the one Mike had worked on. Like an executive assistant, she put all the lists together and removed the repeats and gave Jerry just one list after he finished his shower.

  Mike looked at the barometer/thermometer and wrote down its settings. Jerry scanned through the single list and then told everyone what he thought they should do.

  “I think I should take Mike, Randy, Eddie and Monica up to Trussville where I used to get lumber for the farm. We’re going to take the Ford with the trailer and while Mike and I are loading it with everything we can that we might need, you three are going to take Mike’s Escalade and the small trailer and see if you can find a pharmacy first and anything else on this list. I know there’s a lot on the list, so you guys have to choose a good place. We’re going to give you an hour on your own while we load up the truck and gooseneck.

  “I want to go to Trussville because I know they have a big fuel tank there and we should be able to fuel up the reserve tank in the truck.” Jerry had put a galvanized reserve tank in the truck with a hand pump that would hold 100 gallons of diesel fuel that he used to fuel his tractors in the field.

  “You follow us to the lumberyard. We’ll talk about what else is on the list on our way because I want to get going soon. I think we’ll grab the five gas cans in the barn and strap them to the gooseneck and if we can find some gas, we’ll get as much of that as we can, too.

  “We don’t know how much damage this weather is going to bring, but I think we should ready.”

  Mike pointed to the barometer. “The pressure has dropped since I looked at it this morning. It’s getting pretty low. I’m guessing we’ll start getting rain in 12 to 24 hours and a lot of it. We can expect pretty high winds, as we all know, and maybe tornadoes, for the next two or three days.”

  “Anyone got anything to add?’ Jerry asked.

  “Can I buy a kite, daddy?” Eddie asked. Jerry gave him a sharp look, ready to put down his levity because of the seriousness of the situation, but decided after what the young man had been through yesterday, if the kid in him still wanted to come out once in a while, that couldn’t be all bad. Jerry was aware Eddie knew this was serious business and would be serious when he needed to be.

  “Eddie, you get the guns ready with Mike and Monica while Randy and I go hook up the trailers and get the tie-down straps and gas cans loaded.

  “Kellie, you think you can keep Tony out of trouble while were gone?” She smiled. “I’m sure I can find some things to keep him occupied and that garden still needs weeding if he gets out of hand. Maybe I’ll give him the CB mike so you guys can call in to tell me you’re all okay.”

  “Good idea, but the signal might not reach. I guess we’ll find out.”

  With everyone given a job, Jerry and Randy went to the garage where the truck and SUV were kept. The garage was originally built to house his truck and Andrea’s Durango, but she took that when she left years ago, leaving nothing but an oil stain on the garage floor. Mike’s SUV was now parked over the oil stain.

  Since they were only going to Trussville, Jerry drained the spare tank on the truck and Randy put the fuel in the storage tank over the hill by filling two yellow fuel cans and strapping them on the quad, pouring them in the big tank and coming back for more. If they found diesel, they’d wanted to get as much as they could. The front tank he drained by half. Even with a full load on the trailer on the Ford, it was still plenty of fuel for as far as they were going.

  Randy hooked the Escalade up to the 12-foot long trailer they used for the quads. The SUV had a hitch, but the electrical hook up was different. He stood looking at it for a few minutes, wondering how he was going to make the lights on the trailer work.

  It was Jerry who had the answer. “Who’s going to pull you over? You don’t need to worry about lights on the trailer.”

  Randy tapped his forehead. “Duh!”

  Jerry hitched the 22-foot gooseneck trailer to the truck while Randy threw the two-inch straps into the bed of the truck and more into the back of the SUV. One of the tires was low, so Jerry inflated it and the two parked the trucks in the driveway and called on the CB for the other three to tell them they were ready to hit the road.

  Tony answered that the three had already left and should be there in a few minutes and then wished them all luck. Jerry could tell the guy still had trouble talking with the missing teeth, but at l
east he was trying.

  That was when the three came around the side of the building with the weapons they’d be taking with them. Mike climbed in the truck with Jerry, and the three younger people climbed in the SUV. Randy drove with Eddie riding shotgun.

  Jerry started the truck and pulled out of the drive when Mike pointed at the clouds from the south. Jerry nodded. “Yup, it’s coming.”

  Half an hour later they pulled into the lumber yard. They’d encountered no one on the back roads they’d taken, but saw houses and businesses that had been burned, farm animals that had broken free and were now wandering the fields and streets. There had been a lot of destruction by human hands. Both Eddie and Mike kept sweeping the area through binoculars and Monica watched behind the two vehicles just to make sure no one snuck up on them.

  The lumber yard, not a large one, had taken some damage, but it looked more like just a lack of people to maintain the building. The two vehicles parked where there were pallets of lumber. The building itself had two of its oversized garage doors still open.

  Everyone got out and had a gun ready.

  Jerry and Eddie went around one side of the building while Mike and Jerry took the other side. They met in back and the four worked their way through the building. Jerry and Mike had agreed that without food in the building, the chance of vigilantes or not-deads was minimal and their supposition turned out to be true. Mike found two bodies that had obviously been dead for several weeks, but nothing to endanger the foraging party.

  All four met back at the trucks.

  “Randy,” Jerry said to his son. “Mike and I will be safe here I think. You, Eddie and Monica go find as much on the list as you can.”

  “We’re on it, dad,” he said enthusiastically and he and the other two headed to the Escalade. Jerry thought he was a little too enthusiastic and wanted to remind him about the danger. “Don’t take any chances, son. Remember, zombies like the dark and vigilantes like the food stores. Try to stay away from those. In fact, do stay away from those. Try to find a small pharmacy with big front windows or something like that.”