Jeff ran to her in concern and helped her up. She smiled at him foolishly and mumbled something about her clumsy feet. Jeff brushed a strand of hair back from her face and was surprised at how hot her skin felt. He cupped his hand on her cheek and forehead.
“You’re burning up!” he exclaimed.
“No, no,” she quickly assured him. “I’m just too hot in this coat. I think I’ll go ahead and take it off and carry it.” She slid the shoulder straps off and dropped the duffel bags to the ground and removed her coat. Jeff looked at her shoulders and saw how they poked against her shirt. She was getting too thin, all angles and bones. A wave of sorrow passed through him.
“Let’s stop and cook a meal. We’re almost there, so let’s have a big meal. We need the energy,” Jeff said in a rush.
“But we’re almost to the turn-off! Shouldn’t we wait until then? It would be good to be out of sight of the road,” she protested.
He pulled out the map and looked at the roads they’d marked off, and how long it had taken them to walk between the last two. He frowned, then agreed with her. He stayed closer to her as they walked, glancing at her often.
“This is it,” Jeff said. They stood at the bottom of a valley between two hills. A narrow creek in a deep ravine sliced through, leaving exposed rocks tinted pink and red. Trails criss-crossed the hillsides, and Marty had told them they were cattle and deer trails. He said the first valley they came to that had those, and the creek with the steep rock walls, was where they were to turn off.
They slipped between the wires of a fence and followed a path that wound along the top of the ravine. Piles of old, dry animal dung were scattered on the grass. Soon they’d left the dirt road behind and were among the trees, following the creek up toward it’s source. They reached the ridge top and looked at the country beyond. In the distance were tall hills, so tall that they knew it was the mountains, and they stood there in awe. The rain had stopped and a break in the clouds let streams of sunlight through.
“Let’s camp here, where we can wake up and see the mountains!” Jeannie said enthusiastically. Jeff agreed, and they set about putting up the tent. They got out the camp stove and cooked as many lentils as the pan would hold, and added some of the spices they had left. It took longer to cook the lentils than it had the other things they’d cooked. They kept tasting to see when the lentils were soft enough to eat. It was dark by the time it was ready, and they ate by the light of the stars and a sliver of moon.
During the night Jeannie’s stomach was cramping and she went outside and was sick a few times. In the morning she was feverish and soaked in sweat. Jeff was scared. He didn’t know what to do to make her better, and there was no way to take her any where. He tried to get her to drink water, and she promptly ducked out of the tent and threw up. Then she fell to the ground. Jeff helped her back into the tent and tucked her into the sleeping bag. He stroked her hair and sat looking at her.
He wondered if he should run ahead and try to find the people Marty was sending them to, and maybe they could come back with him and help Jeannie. Then he knew he couldn’t do that. Jeannie would be so frightened here, sick and alone. He got out the camp stove and the pan and he re-boiled all the water, in case that was what made Jeannie sick, although he was feeling fine. Fine other than feeling so starved his bones felt hollow, and so tired his bones ached. But he knew he wasn’t sick.
Jeannie finally confessed to drinking the water out of the creek. Jeff was mad at first and he went out and walked a ways from the tent and sat on a rock glaring toward the tent. The view of the mountains filled him with wonder, and soon his heart softened toward Jeannie. He went back to her and hugged her.
“What do we do to make you better?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said miserably. “Maybe it just gets better, like when you get the flu or a cold.” Neither of them were the kind that medicated themselves with all the cold remedies and pain killers everyone else seemed to live on.
“My Mom used to feed me soup and tea when I was sick. Do you still have those rose hips? I can make you some tea. Do we have anything to make soup out of?” he asked.
“There’s these little soup cubes wrapped in foil in the small duffel back, in one of the outer pockets. They were on the savvy shopper list, so I bought them. I took them out of the jar when I packed them, but the directions said to boil them in water and they dissolve and make broth,” she said, then laid back and closed her eyes as a wave of light-headedness came over her.
Jeff left the tent and set about making broth and tea for Jeannie. When it was done he sat near her and spoon-fed the broth to her, and held a cup to her mouth so she could sip the tea. It went very slowly, since she couldn’t swallow much at a time. The tea was cool by the time she got to it, but she assured him it was good that way.
The day passed in a blur. During the times she slept, Jeff went and sat on his rock and looked at the mountains. He’d flown over them many times but had never actually been in them. Not this kind, anyway.
His family had gone to the Grand Canyon when he was a kid, and to the red rock canyons of Southern Utah, but the mountains they’d seen weren’t the same. His parents weren’t big on scenery. They preferred going to cities, to museums and amusement parks. He didn’t even know why they’d taken the Grand Canyon trip.
He heard Jeannie call to him. She was climbing out of the tent when he got there. She had one of the blankets with her and said she wanted to sit over there with him and look at the mountains. She was feeling better but still weak. They would stay here another night, then try to travel on in the morning.
CHAPTER TEN
The next morning Jeannie was awake before Jeff. She laid quietly and watched him sleep. He was getting thin and his cheek bones showed more. She hoped they’d get where they were going soon and be able to rest and have more to eat. She was worried about whether the people would let them stay, even with Marty’s note. They were their last hope, and she didn’t know what they’d do if they were turned away. Winter was coming fast on the heels of fall.
Jeff opened his eyes carefully so as not to disturb Jeannie and was surprised to be looking into her eyes. He asked her how she felt, and she told him. The morning was cold again, but they got up anyway, slipping into their coats. They left the tent until the last minute, hoping the dew would dry while they made breakfast. They made a glop out of cooked flour, like a sickly porridge with spices.
“We should have put some of the broth cubes in it!” Jeannie exclaimed. Jeff set about boiling water and making broth, which he made her drink to keep up her strength. They made a pan full of rosehip tea and shared it, then put everything away. The tent was still damp but they rolled it up and packed it too.
“Ready for the last leg?” Jeff asked. From here they left the top of the ravine and used the compass on Jeff’s watch to keep going the right direction. They walked down the hill and along a lower ridge, looking between the trees and watching for buildings or anything to indicate they were nearing any sort of civilization. It was work walking where there was no trail. Lunch time passed and they still weren’t there. They stopped and shared a candy bar, then walked again.
In a few places they had to go around rocky walls and they tried to get back over to where they had been to keep a straight line and keep heading northeast. They worried that if they got too far to one side or the other they would miss the place entirely.
When they spotted the red windmill it was sudden and without warning. There it was, between the trees! A few steps closer and they saw the flagpole. Their knees buckled and they held onto each other as they stepped out of the woods and looked across a lawn at a house surrounded by smaller buildings, a wishing well with yellow and orange flowers planted in it. Small fields and gardens surrounded it.
Best of all, there were people scattered around the place, and when one of them spotted them and called out, many curious faces turned toward them. The people started walking toward them. Jeannie and Jeff stopp
ed and leaned against each other and waited. A man who looked to be in authority stood ahead of the others when they stopped a few feet away.
Jeff looked at the man and tried to speak. His voice croaked and he cleared his throat and stood straighter.
“Marty sent us,” he said. He pulled the map from his pocket and held it out, with the message from Marty showing on the outside.
The man reached out and took it. After looking at it his face came up and he said, “welcome.”
With that simple word they were surrounded by people who took their packs and helped them walk to the porch of the house.
EPILOGUE
Jeff pounded the last of the boards into place. Whew! That job was done. It was about the dozenth time he’d fixed the hog pen fence. He looked across the yard and saw Jeannie on the porch with several other women, chopping vegetables and shelling peas. They had been canning food for days as the crews harvested it from the gardens. Jeannie had been happy to learn not only where food came from, but how it looked right out of the ground. It hadn’t even bothered her to see where meat came from!
As he watched, she shifted to ease the burden of her rounded belly. Jeff was amazed to think that any day now he would be a father and they would be a family. It had been almost a year since the bombs fell and they’d made their escape from the city. They were grateful Marty’s friends had taken them in. He still held on to hope that Marty would join them one day, and he hoped Marty was okay.
He carried the tools to the shed and went to see what needed to be done next. A commotion started in the yard and Jeff glanced that way. A child pointed to the woods at the edge of the yard. Everyone’s heads turned.
A man and a woman with two small children stumbled onto the grass. They stopped at the sight of all the people staring at them. Their clothes were ragged and they seemed like they were in shock. Jeff joined the people walking toward them. The women on the porch let their hands go idle as they watched.
When they stopped a few feet away from the small group, the man looked up at them and with a shaky voice said, “I’m supposed to tell you…Marty sent us.”
Jeff whooped and hollered and ran to tell Jeannie while the others helped the family across the yard. Jeannie smiled and started to rise, then gasped. She thought she had a stitch in her side, but it spread around her whole belly and she realized it was a contraction. She laid both her hands on it and looked at Jeff.
He whooped again, then said, “Whether it’s a boy or a girl, we’re naming it Marty!”
Jeannie laughed through her tears and nodded.
THE END
Other books by Susan Gregersen:
The Long Ride Home
The Rally Point: Bugging Home
Over the River and Through the Woods
Back Across the Pond
Poverty Prepping: How to Store Food For Tomorrow When You Can't Afford to Eat Today
A Tale of Two Preppers Page 10
