Candace exited the house and approached the men with a tray loaded with glasses of sweet tea. Everyone took a glass except for Jeff Jr. Kerry, Kelley, and the girls came out to join the men on the porch. “What kinda news have they been putting out?” Joey asked.
“Just local stuff, mostly. The interstates have been shut down, like you heard. Guess everyone in almost every big city tried to get out and get somewhere safe or to a relative’s or somewhere once everything went to hell. The interstates just broke down. Once that happened, folks just walked to the nearest place they could find and stayed there.” Bill said.
“I can imagine.” Barry said.
“That’s what happened up in Rockwood, right off the I-40. From what the truckers on the CB said, it sounded like the town’s population quadrupled overnight. Can you imagine what would happen in good times when, bam! You got twice as many folks to feed and house overnight? That’s why the county shut down the roads up north of here and down at Graysville. The way I figure it, we’s pretty lucky. The Rhea Highway is about the only major road close to us. They close that off, and they can keep most of the riffraff away from us.” Old Jeff said.
“Lucky for us, we were down here visiting Candace’s folks for the girl’s spring break. Otherwise we’d be caught up in Louisville. It’s hard to imagine, but I wonder if we even have a home to go back to. I’m hoping my sister and her kids are ok. They were still up there as far as we know. We’ve had no word from them since everything happened.” Bill said.
“You fellas mentioned something about helping each other out. What did you have in mind?” Old Jeff asked.
“We’re looking for some items to help us build up the cabin. We have some stuff, but the cabin is pretty small for all eight of us. We also need some stuff to grow a garden. How are you guys on food?”
“We got plenty of food, for now. Kelley’s been canning our own stuff for years. That what you after? Food?” Old Jeff said.
“No, sir. We’re after seeds, lumber, and fencing. We noticed you have a barn back there. Do you farm?” Joey stated.
“I used to. Gave it up a while back when I realized I was getting too old and there wasn’t enough money in it anymore. We got a few cows and goats. Pets as much as anything else. Got a few chickens too.”
“How many animals do you have?” Kerry asked.
“We got about ten female goats and two males. We got four cows. If this keeps up, I guess we’ll have to find a bull, somewhere. We got about thirty or so chickens.” Old Jeff said.
“That’s awesome. Is there any way you would be willing to trade with us for some of them?” Will asked.
“Depends on what you’re talking about trading and what you’re wanting.” Old Jeff said. “There’s not a whole lot that we need right now.”
“What would it take to get one of the male goats, two females, a rooster, and a couple of hens?” Barry asked.
“That’s a lot.” Jeff Jr. cut in.
“Well, I imagine you’re going to be starting a garden here pretty soon. Do you need any help with that? We can come help out around the farm. We also have some gas, some ammo, and some guns.” Barry said.
“Where did you say your cabin was?” Old Jeff asked Barry.
Barry told him again where the cabin was.
“That’s the old Hill place, ain’t it?” Old Jeff asked.
“It is.” Barry answered. “My father-in-law grew up out here. Gerald Hill. Did you know him?”
The old man’s face split into toothless grin. “Hell, son. We’s kin. My mother was a Hill.”
After Barry and Old Jeff discussed it at length, they discovered that Pam’s great grandfather and Jeff’s grandfather had been brothers. After realizing they were related, Old Jeff joked that everyone in Tennessee was related somehow, and cut them a pretty good deal. Will smiled to himself as the Ford pulled away from the house a little after one that afternoon. They had worked a deal for two female goats that they could breed with the males that Jeff would keep, one rooster, and three hens. In exchange, the men promised to help with the farm two days a week, the five gallons of gas they had on them, and twenty rounds of bird short for the shotgun. Just for good measure, Old Jeff had thrown in twenty yards of chicken wire that he had left over in the barn. He also agreed to let them have some heirloom seeds for squash, corn, and rye; as long as they gave him their other male rabbit and the next female that they caught. It had been a successful outing.
The group decided to press their luck that afternoon and ride into Spring City to see if they could find anything else on their list. The figured they would go into to town, head back to make the trades with Old Jeff, and be home before dark.
They stopped at four more farms on the way into town and introduced themselves. It seemed like people here were going to be all right. Everything seemed normal until they got to the edge of town. “Everyone put your guns away.” Joey directed as they rolled into view of the roadblock. Two uniformed Spring City Police officers and two plains clothed men with shotguns guarded the way into town. One of the policemen walked up to the truck as it pulled to a stop I front of the roadblock.
“What you folks doing here?” The cop asked.
“We’re just trying to get into town and see if we can pick up some supplies.” Joey said.
“Well, son. There ain’t any food left, especially for outsiders. Where you folks from?”
Joey saw the cop check out the plates on the truck and figured it was best not to lie. “We’re from up a little north of Knoxville.”
“What bring you folks down here?”
“We got out of Knoxville when everything began to fall apart. We’re staying at Mr. Johnston’s cabin.” Joey said.
“And who is Mr. Johnston?”
“That’d be me.” Barry said as he waved to the cop. “These are my guest. My wife inherited a piece of land a little ways west of here. We built a cabin on it years ago.”
The cop glanced into the passenger’s side and looked over Kerry. He saw the shotgun. The cop tensed. Will prepared for the worst. The cop looked up at Will and Barry. “You boys packin too?” Will just nodded. “Hold’em up where I can see them.” The cop said. Will noticed the other guards now held their guns at the ready position. At a wrong word from the cop, this could get shitty. “That’s some nice hardware. Normally, drivin around with loaded weapons on a public road is against the law. But thangs ain’t exactly normal. I guess if you’d been gonna use them on us, you’d done so by now. Go ahead and put’em down.” Will said a silent prayer of thanks as the tension dissipated from the situation. “Hell, I wouldn’t go out unarmed these days neither. Guess you folks heard about all the bandits going around?”
“Actually, no. We’ve been cut off up at the cabin for over a week. You’ve had some problems?” Will asked.
“You could say that. We ain’t had a whole lot around here, but we’ve gotten several reports from the east and south of here that they have. A lotta folks high tailed it out of Atlanta and Chattanooga when things got bad. We got some radio calls that said they had problems with small groups robbing folks on the road, taking everything of any value in hopes of findin some food or being able to trade for some at the next place they get to. That’s why we closed off the town. We’re hoping to deter anyone who thinks they can find something in here.”
“That mean you’re not going to let us in?” Will asked.
“Normally, I wouldn’t; but I buy your story. If you’re living up at the cabin like you said, then you’re a part of this town now, like it or not. We got about fifteen hundred or so new residents since thangs went down. I gotta warn you though, thangs is pretty tough inside. We’re all eating out of a communal pot now. It’s been over two weeks since we’ve had any food delivered to town. Most folks gave out everythin they had in their freezers to try and feed folk that didn’t have nothing rather than let it spoil with the power going in and out. Had some fights over that. We been sending hunters out to kill deer and other wild game
. Hell there ain’t a stray dog left in the place. They’ve just about killed everything for a ways around. Folks’d be leaving here too, if they could, but there ain’t no more gas left. We had a couple of fillin stations, but we used a lot of that for the police and emergency vehicles. The talk of bandits has some scared into stayin. The mayor and police chief confiscated about a thirty head of cattle from the local farmers about a week ago. We killed the last one last night.
“Guess what I’m tellin ya is to be careful. You look like you haven’t missed a meal and you got gas. People might envy that.” The cop signaled for one of the other men to move the center car of the barricade and let them in.
“We appreciate the warning, officer.” Joey said as he put the truck into gear and pulled through the gap. They drove around for a little while, passing houses crammed full of people. The good people of Spring City have big hearts to open their homes like this. Will thought. He hoped their big hearts wouldn’t be the death of them. As much as it shamed him, he couldn’t say that he would open up to complete strangers like that, like Barry had done. He looked over to his Uncle and thanked him again for letting Jenny and her folks stay at the cabin. Barry just nodded in silence as they passed the wanting, needy stares of the town’s residents. Folks looked out of windows and packed porches to see the newcomers, wondering how they had been fortunate enough to have gas to run around town. From their stares, Joey guessed it had been a while since they had seen anyone besides a city official in a running vehicle.
As they drove past the elementary school, the scene of three little girls skipping rope would have been a welcomed sight if you could look past the refugees now living in the school turned emergency housing. Spring City had been a gem of southern life, a real Norman Rockwell kind of place. Cute houses sat on trimmed lawns, set back in treed neighborhoods. It would have been a great place to live the small town dream before the collapse. Will doubted that people had even locked their doors at night before. Now, refugees crowded everywhere and a desperate tension hung in the air. Roaming bands of hungry children ran to and fro. They noticed the truck and swarmed around it, begging the strangers for food or candy or anything. It reminded Will of the hordes of Iraqi children he had seen on his last tour supporting Iraqi Freedom. Joey got away from the children as fast as they could. They didn’t have anything to give them. Tears stained Kerry’s face as they left the children behind.
After a few blocks, they found what they were looking for, the town’s only general hardware store. “Kerry, I think you and Joey should stay and guard the truck while Will and I head in to see what we can do.” Barry said. Will saw that the store still displayed an open sign. He hoped that it was.
The little bell on the top of the door rang as they opened the door. The place seemed dark and deserted. They called out as they made their way to the back of the store to the service desk. They had almost decided that the place was empty when they heard a noise from the little office behind the service desk. The florescent tube lights of the store sputtered to life and a wiry little man crept out from the office. “Thought I heard someone come in. How can I help you?” The man asked.
“You’re actually open?” Will asked.
“Sure am. What else is there to do? Gotta say, business had been slow lately. Sorry I didn’t meet you earlier. I was dozin a bit in the office. I keep hoping for someone to walk in with some food to trade. That’s about the only thing to hope for anymore. Are you them?” The man asked.
“Sorry, mister.” Barry said. “We don’t have any food to trade. We might have some other stuff that could interest you. Mind if we look around at what you got?”
“No problem.” The man said, running a hand through his unwashed, brown hair. “But if you ain’t got food, we probably don’t have a deal.”
An hour later the group finished loading the supplies onto the trailer. They hadn’t got everything on their list but had found a couple of other useful items to compensate. They took every bit of plywood the man had, a dozen 2x4 boards, a little under a hundred yards of chain-link fencing, two hundred yards of chicken wire, a couple of axes, a few saws, a five gallon bucket of nails and screws, a beat up CB radio out of the man’s truck, several bags of concrete, a draw knife, other odds and ends, and an old hand-operated water pump the man had out back. Will wasn’t entirely happy with the trade. They gave up one AR, two magazines, and forty rounds. In the end, what they had gained would get them that much closer to self-sufficiency than the rifle and the ammo would. The wiry man had been happy to make the trade.
On their way back home, they stopped by to let Old Jeff and his folks know what was going on in town. After a little discussion, they amended their previous agreement to include a mutual defense pack to protect against the bandits. Jeff Jr. taught them how to use the CB, and they designated channels to contact each other. They left Old Jeff’s just before sunset.
As they pulled up to ditch, Will and Barry broke out the ramp and put it into place. Barry looked up at the darkening skies off to the west. The last rays of sunlight highlighted the tops of the ominous blue clouds. “It’s been pretty warm the last couple of days. I reckon that might be a cold front coming in. Might mean bad weather tonight.” Barry said.
“Could be. I didn’t see anything about storms when I checked the weather this morning.” Will said.
“You kidding me, boy?” Barry said, raising an eyebrow and fixing Will with a skeptical stare.
“Sorry. Bad joke.”
Barry wanted to be mad. The whole situation was nothing to joke about, but he couldn’t keep the small grin from his lips. The entire family met them beside the cabin as the truck came to a stop. “Holy shit!” George said. “Looks like you guys really cleaned up. That’ll have us set up in no time.”
A sudden gust of wind blew the old Tennessee Titans baseball cap from Chuck’s head. He scrambled to catch it. He looked up and said. “We need to get everything put away no before the weather gets bad. We can stack all the wood and perishables under the back porch. Betty and Pam have dinner ready and I’m hungry. So let’s get moving.” Everyone hustled to unload and store the newly acquired supplies while Bear ran around barking his supervision.
The first sheet of cold rain descended on the cabin minutes after they unloaded the last of the supplies. “Let’s get inside before we get an extra bath this week. You can fill us in about what’s going on in town over dinner.” Chuck joked.
Everyone sat down to eat a dinner of fried chicken breasts and canned corn. The freezers still held a good amount of food and their canned goods brought from home held up well. With proper rationing, they had another couple of months’ worth. “So, how was everything in town? Folks holding up ok down there?” Jim asked.
“It’s not good, dad. Not good at all. We got stopped by the town police when we entered the town. They have roadblocks set up to keep people out. He filled us in on a lot of what was going on. There have been bandits robbing people on the roads. He said a lot of folks had left the big cities and were wandering into the smaller towns. Some folks are trying to take any food or valuables from them.” A sudden flash of light cut Will off. The following thunder shook the cabin.
After the noise faded, Barry took the lead. “From what he was saying, there hasn’t been any food delivered to the town in a couple of weeks. They got, what he said, was fifteen hundred or so refugees that were able to make it out of the more populated areas. The town opened up and let them in. Now they have too many mouths and are almost out of food. The gas shortages and the bandits are keeping people in place.” More thunder rolled over the cabin. “I don’t think we need to go back to town for a while. The people we met inside were getting desperate. The cop said the mayor and the chief of police had confiscated some cattle from some of the town’s residents. That scared me. What scared me more was that he said they had already eaten through most of it.”
“Good God.” Pam said. “How much beef can people eat?”
“A lot, apparently.”
Kerry said.
“If you think about it, you only get about six hundred pounds of meat off an average cow. Divide that out by forty-five hundred folks or so, and that’s what, four or five ounces a piece? And that’s just for one meal. I don’t imagine thirty cows would go that far.” Chuck said.
“I don’t think we should go back there for a while. I don’t think it’s safe.” Will said.
The wind and thunder continued to batter the cabin, the rain playing discordant tunes on the tin roof. “I think we may have more to worry about. Those people were already looking pretty desperate, and they’re not even out of food yet. Who knows what will happen when everything runs out? They saw us. They saw we loaded up supplies in a running vehicle and left. We practically told that cop how to get here, and we bartered away one of our best weapons.” Joey said.
“So, what are you worried about?” Jenny asked.
“What if they get desperate and come up here after us? We’ve got a pretty good thing going here compared with those folks. I know I’d be thinking about it if I was in their situation.”
“I was thinking about that too.” Will said. “I think we need to set up a watch tower on the roof of the cabin.”
“A tower?” Pam said.
“I think what he means is more of a platform. We discussed it the other day while digging the ditch. We need to set someone to keep watch.” George said.
“I’d say we need someone up there 24-7.” Will said. “And now we have the materials to make one. Joey and I could come up with a schedule to keep someone up there all the time. Now that we know how bad things are, we have to protect ourselves.”
Barry leaned forward to be heard over the pounding rain. “What do we do if they attack in mass? Ones and twos will be easy enough to defend against, but a group of ten or so could overwhelm us.”
Betty supplied a good answer. “There’s no one living up in the woods behind us. Maybe we should store some stuff back up there in the woods so that we have a place to run to.”
Fifty Falling Stars Page 19
