The Days of Noah, Book Two: Persecution

by Mark Goodwin

  Everett was less squeamish than Courtney. “I guess I’ll try to cut the head off first.”

  Courtney looked away. “Do it.”

  Everett continued and created a mess. “Now what?”

  Courtney looked back at the squirrel. “Trial and error. Just keep going.”

  “Maybe I should gut it next.” He continued trying to figure out how to dress the carcass.

  “Call me if you need me. I’m going to see if I can pull the feathers off the quail. I can’t really watch this.” Courtney picked up the quail and headed to the other side of the yard.

  Everett finally got the squirrel skinned. He took what was left of it and showed it to Courtney. “Retrospectively, I think I should have skinned it first, then gutted it, then took off the head. But, it was a learning experience.”

  Courtney handed him the plucked quail. “Wanna try your luck with this one?”

  Everett exchanged the squirrel for the quail. “If you don’t want to watch, you can go get a bowl of water from inside to wash them off.”

  “I’ll take you up on that, partner.”

  Everett proceeded to mangle the quail almost as badly as he’d disfigured the squirrel.

  Courtney came back with the water; Ken trailed close behind.

  “Wow. You guys got something!” Ken looked closely at the poorly butchered game. “What was it?”

  “A squirrel and a quail,” Everett replied.

  “Oh, yeah. I can still tell that was bird.”

  “Do you know how to skin an animal?” Everett rinsed the carcasses.

  “No. I can skin a fish though,” Ken said.

  “Good to know,” Courtney said. “Do we have fishing poles?”

  Everett replied, “No, but the local news said things have calmed down in Harrisonburg. I was thinking of going down there to look for an outdoor store. They might still have fishing poles. It would also be nice if we could find some shotgun ammo. We fired off three rounds yesterday and four today. I’m sure we’ll learn to be better shots, but best-case scenario, each squirrel, rabbit, or quail is going to cost us a shell.”

  Ken looked at Everett. “There’s a moratorium on ammo sales. How you planning on buying shotgun shells?”

  “There’s no moratorium for law enforcement.” Everett drained the water out of the bowl and stood up.

  “Think they’ll sell to you since we have Company ID?”

  “I hope so.” Everett led the way back toward the cabin.

  “Want me to go with you? Then we’d have two sets of CIA credentials.”

  Everett stopped and looked closely at the bruise on Ken’s eye. “You’re still looking pretty rough. Maybe next time.”

  Ken nodded. “You guys hungry? Lisa is still asleep, but I can try to put something together.”

  Courtney followed Everett with the rifle and the shotgun. “I don’t have much of an appetite after watching the Saw reenactment back there with the squirrel, but I might be by the time you get it ready. What were you thinking of making?”

  Ken held the cabin door open for Courtney and Everett. “Chicken salad and Spaghetti Os.”

  Courtney sat the weapons in the corner by the door. “I’ll pass on the Spaghetti Os, but chicken salad sounds good. Maybe a can of soup with it. We’ve got lots of soup.”

  Everett put the bowl in the sink. “What about these?”

  Courtney smiled. “Stick them in the fridge. Lisa will know what to do with them. She can probably make a nice dinner.”

  Everett put the meat in the fridge and Ken started lunch. Everett and Courtney washed up and reconvened at the kitchen table. Lunch was soon ready, and they began eating.

  Everett winked at Courtney. “Looks like your appetite is back.”

  “Yeah, I guess it is.”

  Lisa came out of the bedroom still looking sleepy. “Hi.”

  Courtney said, “Good morning sleepy head. Did we wake you up?”

  “No.”

  Ken asked, “Do you want to eat with us?”

  “I think I’ll just have some coffee for now.” Lisa started a pot of coffee.

  Everett said, “One of us can take night watch tonight if you want. You’ve done it two nights in a row.”

  “Actually, I like the time to myself. It’s peaceful.”

  Courtney furrowed her brow. “Don’t you get bored?”

  “No. I like just listening to the wind. I listen to the radio a little bit on the porch. Not too loud. I′m still be able to hear anything going on outside.”

  Everett put some chicken salad on a cracker. “Let us know when you get tired of the late nights. We’ll be happy to switch it around.”

  After lunch, Everett and Courtney changed to go to Harrisonburg. Courtney wore jeans, a plaid shirt, hiking boots, and a tan ball cap.

  Everett noticed how well she would fit in. “Do you have another baseball hat?”

  “A pink one. Would you like to borrow it?”

  “Somehow I feel like that would take me in the opposite direction of where I’m trying to go by wearing a ball cap. Any chance of you wearing the pink one?”

  Courtney put her tan hat on Everett’s head in a playfully rough manner. “First stop is the hat department. You’re not stealing my hat!”

  Everett stuck his Sig in the back of his waist. “Are you taking a gun?”

  “At least one. I’m going to give Lisa the Glock and carry my Tomcat. Do you think we should put a rifle in the trunk in case we get in trouble?”

  Everett thought for a second. “Yeah, maybe. Which one were you thinking to bring?”

  “The Ruger, I guess. With only four long guns, none of them are really dispensable, but if one were going to be stolen out of the trunk, it’s the one I’d have to pick. The shotgun is worth a lot less, but it’s the only thing we can hunt small game and birds with. Utility makes it more valuable.”

  “That makes sense. Do you want to bring a couple extra loaded magazines for the Ruger?”

  “Sure.” Courtney headed up to the loft to load the extra magazines and retrieve the Ruger.

  Everett followed her up the ladder. He took his cash out of an envelope and counted it out. “We’ve got $4,200 with Ken’s money.”

  Courtney dug through her backpack. “I took most of my savings out of the bank when we first started planning to come up here. Here’s eight grand.”

  “Oh wow! Why didn’t you put this in the safe?”

  “I don’t know. I was worried it wouldn’t have any value. I intended to buy more ammo and some gold and silver, but figured I missed the boat. I felt silly and didn’t want to admit that I had procrastinated too long.”

  Everett was surprised to hear Courtney talk this way. He wondered if some part of her might have been holding back to see if things were going to work out with him at the cabin. No point in confronting here about it. She was all in now. “Altogether, we have about $12,000. Let’s take half. We might get another opportunity later.”

  “Or we might not, and the dollar could completely implode, like Jones said. Then we’ll have six grand invested in kindling. Even if we just take it to an office supply store and trade it in for the exact same amount of paper, at least we’d be able to write on that paper. This stuff is literally worthless if it loses its value as currency.”

  Everett took a hundred dollar bill and folded it into a quick paper airplane, and tossed it. It spiraled straight to the ground.

  Courtney picked it up, waded it in her hand, and tossed it back at him. “See, the Feds have completely ruined it. It’s not even good for paper anymore.”

  “You’re right. I just don’t want a pocket full of cash, making us bigger targets to be mugged. Let’s take eight and leave four here.”

  “Let’s take ten. You take five, and I’ll take five. We can split that up into two piles of $2,500 each. Stick half in your pocket and half in your sock. That will still leave you $2,000 for making paper airplanes that won’t fly.”

  Everett tried not to smile. “De
al. Should we take some silver in case no one will take cash?”

  “I don’t think we’ve hit that point yet. That’s why I’m trying to get you to spend it all.”

  Everett nodded and counted out $10,000 in four individual stacks of $2,500 each. He handed two stacks to Courtney and stuck one stack in his pocket and the other inside his sock.

  Courtney climbed down the ladder to exchange pistols with Lisa. Everett locked up the safe. Minutes later, they were in Ken’s Camaro and on the road. When they got to Woodstock, Everett pulled over near a hotel that advertised free Internet. He retrieved his tablet from the back seat. He quickly searched for outdoor stores in Harrisonburg. “Wow, they don’t have any big-box camping stores.”

  “Check that little town we came through on the way.”

  “Winchester? I doubt they’ll have anything if Harrisonburg doesn’t.” Everett reluctantly ran a new search. “Look at that. They have a Gander Mountain.”

  “But I wonder what the conditions are like in Winchester?”

  “I would imagine that it’s about the same as Harrisonburg. It’s a smaller town. Folks looked pretty civilized when we drove through. We’ll try to pick up a Winchester radio station on the way. If it sounds sketchy, we’ll turn around.”

  Everett stowed the tablet and started the engine. “How do you like Ken’s car? It’s got plenty of power if we need to move out fast.”

  “It’s fine. It does blend in better. But I like yours more.”

  Everett smiled. “There’s a Walmart up here. I think we should see if it’s open.”

  “Alright. Lisa wanted me to turn her phone on when we get to out of town to check her email and text messages, if you think it would be alright.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t. If we start popping our heads up, we’ll end up on the radar.”

  “But we haven’t done anything wrong. We don’t belong to any of the rightwing extremist groups in the witch hunt. Why does it matter?”

  Everett grimaced. “If everything Jones said comes true, I don’t think I want to be a part of the new global society. I’d like to have the option to drop out if I choose. I believe what Lisa said she heard on that AM radio station last night. Rounding up anyone who believes in God, US sovereignty, or the right to own guns fits like a glove with all the stuff Jones told me.”

  Courtney lowered her eyebrows. “I assumed we would go back to work when the new system is back up and running. I don’t really think it’s fair, what’s being done to the patriot people and the Christians, but at the same time, it’s not my fight.”

  “It’s not our fight until we become the bad guys. And who knows how long it could be before we’re viewed as the enemy. If we decide to reintegrate, you can always claim you didn’t have a phone charger or whatever, but once we burn our location, even by pinging a cell tower in the region, it’s burnt.”

  Courtney faked a look of disgust. “Okay, but you’re asking a lot of us girls to give up all possibilities of using our phones.”

  Everett glanced over at her to see if she was serious. “If you need to look up anything on the Internet that isn’t connected to a personal account, you can use the tablet. I’ve kept it clean.”

  Courtney looked out the window at the passing scenery. “Yeah, maybe I’ll look up the local news for my parents in California. One part of me doesn’t even want to know. Since the state crackdown on legal gun ownership, the criminals know they have the upper hand. I can’t imagine how bad it is there.”

  Everett felt bad for her. “Maybe we can find a prepaid phone, and you can use it to call them one time. Like you said, the money isn’t going to be good for anything anyway.”

  “Yeah, maybe. Thanks.” Courtney’s tone was somber as she continued to stare out the window.

  The parking lot at Walmart was nearly empty when they arrived. “Looks like a few people are here. Let’s go check it out.”

  Everett placed his backpack in the trunk with the rifle. He walked toward the front doors with Courtney at his side. He read the sign taped to the entrance out loud. “No credit cards. They’re open. That’s good enough for me. Let’s grab two carts.”

  Courtney grabbed a cart but was silent. Everett didn’t know what to say to make her feel better. “We’ll check out the phones first.”

  Courtney nodded and forced a smile. When they arrived in the phone department, the display was well stocked.

  Everett grabbed a couple of each of the lower priced phones and dropped them in the cart. “We’ll buy ten and a card for each. We can use them once and throw them away. You can use one to call your parents when we get to Winchester.”

  Courtney’s eyes brightened a little. “Thank you.”

  “Let’s see if they have any food or ammo.”

  When they arrived in the sporting goods section, it was sparse. Everett said, “Not much here. The ammo shelf is cleaned out. No bikes left either. I guess that’s the thing to have when the gas pumps are offline.”

  “Over to the food aisle then?”

  “Yeah, it’s on the other side of the store.” Everett led the way. More shoppers were in the store than the vacant lot suggested. Many of the other customers were teens who seemed to be killing time.

  They passed by the toy section. Everett picked up a board game. “It’s going to be a long winter cooped up in the cabin. Think we should get Monopoly or something?”

  “If you want.” Courtney didn’t seem excited about it.

  Everett was sure it was because she was worried about her parents. “Look—here’s Risk. Did you ever play?”

  She nodded but didn’t speak.

  Everett stuck the game in the cart and looked for Monopoly. “Here’s Pictionary, and I’ll get a couple decks of cards. No Monopoly. Oh well.”

  Everett continued toward the food aisles. Once they arrived, they found more bare shelves. Everett sighed. “This is pretty much what I expected.”

  “Let’s check health and beauty. We don’t have a stockpile of hygiene items. With four people in that cramped cabin all winter, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, and deodorant might be as vital as food.”

  Everett was glad to see Courtney’s sense of humor coming back around as she laughed and said, “Good call.”

  The shelves hadn’t been restocked since the attacks two days earlier, so they were sparse but still held a few remaining products. “I don’t see my brands, but anything is better than nothing.” Everett put several tubes of toothpaste in the cart, along with a few bottles of mouthwash and dental floss.

  Courtney found the deodorants. “Looks like you and Ken are going to have to use ladies’ deodorant. The men’s are all sold out.”

  “I’ll just go au natural.”

  Courtney found two remaining sticks of men’s deodorant tucked away in the back and threw them into Everett’s cart. “Then you better go back to sporting goods and see if they have any tents left.”

  Everett laughed as he dodged the flying deodorant to avoid being hit. “Wow, lots of liquid body wash. Should we get some of this?”

  “If we can’t find bar soap, we have to, but body wash is mostly water. It takes up a lot more room than bar soap.”

  Courtney scanned the aisle. “Here’s plenty of bar soap.” She loaded her cart.

  “I’m going to look for pain relievers and first aid stuff. All we have is what’s in Jones’s medical bag. I’m heading over to the next aisle.”

  Courtney continued to look over the shelf. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Everett perused the pitiful selection on the thinly stocked shelving. All the low-priced and value-sized items were sold out. He cleared out the remaining small bottles of Advil Liqui-Gels, Neosporin, gauze, and bandages. He also grabbed a few bottles of rubbing alcohol and some medical tape.

  Courtney came around the corner. “Did you find everything?”

  “We’ll make do with what we can find.”

  “Let’s go through the home stuff,” Courtney suggested. “We need some more
blankets and comforters. We could even use some sheets to partition off and insulate the sleeping area in the loft.”

  “Yeah, it’s not too cold now, but this winter is going to be brutal, and we’re already using most of the covers.” Everett followed Courtney.

  “Wait, what about toilet paper? I bet we have less than a month’s worth!”

  Everett bit his lip. “That’s a priority. I’m glad you thought of it.”

  They turned to find the paper products aisle.

  Everett looked high and low. “No dice. That’s not good.”

  Courtney started grabbing the few rolls of paper towels left. “We can use these. It’s better than tree bark. Check around for baby wipes.”

  “Here’s a few. Looks like they were the most expensive ones.”

  “Get them all.” Courtney’s cart was stuffed with paper towels, so she put the remaining rolls in Everett’s cart.

  The two continued to buy comforters and sheets.

  Courtney indiscriminately tossed what she could find into Everett’s cart. “Of course, the only thing left is the tackiest colors and prints.”

  They proceeded to the checkout and began unloading the contents of the carts onto the cashier’s conveyor belt.

  The young girl working the register spoke with a thick mountain accent. “Y’all found a lot of things.”

  Everett pulled the envelope of cash out of his pocket. “Yeah. We were looking for shotgun ammo, but it looks like you’re sold out. Do you know if they have any in the back?”

  The girl continued to scan the items and bag them. “We sold out of ammo Monday mornin’. When they issued the moratorium, we’d done been out. The manager was glad he didn’t have to move it all to the back.”

  Courtney loaded more items on the counter as room became available. “So you’re still coming to work. Do you live close by?”

  “Yeah. I live right up the street, so I can walk. Most of em can’t come to work because there ain’t no gas. The rest of us said we wasn’t comin’ in unless they paid us cash. If the banks is closed, how’re we goin’ to cash a check? Well, I don’t know if corporate okayed it or not, but the manager is payin’ us every night out of the cash drop and keepin’ a ledger. He’s goin’ to work it like a loan. Then when we cash our checks, we’ll pay em back. Course, if the trucks don’t start runnin’, we ain’t goin’ to have nothin’ to sell.”