by Lynn Lamb
“This evening we will be making camp on the side of the road before it gets dark. While you are making camp and preparing for supper, security will be patrolling the area. Again, do NOT go near the forested area. Let my team do their jobs.
“Everyone is expected to stay close to the trucks and tents. We will have a group making a fire near the tents. The fire is the best way to figure out if you are in the safety parameters. You should never be far from that fire.
“When we stop, if you are sleeping in one of the tents, please pick it up at truck number seven. That is a black Dodge Ram driven by Karen Heely. She will help you get them out of the truck, but each group sleeping in a tent is responsible for putting them up. If you are just learning, Sampson will be by with a group to teach you how it is done.
“If you have even the slightest question about security, IMMEDIATELY speak with the closest security team member. It is EVERYONE’S responsibility to be alert and diligent about safety. Children will be given a whistle to wear on a string around their neck. Kids, if you have any problems at all, just blow into it or scream as loudly as you can and security and other grownups will be there as fast as possible.
“For now, that is all. If there is anything that we need to let you know, we will break in on the radio and walkie stations. Here’s hopin’ we all enjoy a safe ride. Thank you.”
∞
Around midmorning, the snow began to fall and the driving slowed more, if that was even possible.
It was Charlotte’s turn to teach next. Her voice was calm and smooth compared to the urgency of Jackson’s.
“Since today is the first class for some of you, we will have an overview on the importance of growing our own food.
“My guess is that you are all missing fresh fruits and vegetables, even you kids. I know that I am. The good news is, despite the freezing temperatures, we can grow almost anything you can think of. As long as we have the seeds, we can grow it. Thanks to several donations from Villagers, including Laura’s family, we are bringing what is called a “seed vault” with us. Thanks to other donations, we have seeds for hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables. We have thousands of seeds, but we must always be vigilant about saving seeds from what we harvest. That is just one of the things you will be learning how to do.
“I have also been able to bring most of my own greenhouse plants with us. We have not been eating from this supply because we need them to propagate our stores so that they will last for years to come. If we are careful, we can feed generations from what we have now.”
I looked around at my fellow travelers in the RV and could see smiles of surprise and relief. Most of us had not been able to even dream about having more generations beyond what we had now. Deep in our hearts, I think we all doubted that we would make it through the year.
Today, Charlotte Copeland gave everyone real hope for a future. What a gift.
∞
During down time from our classes, I worked on my editing and my paperwork for the meetings that we would have after our camp was set up for the evening.
I couldn’t believe that I had time to take a half-hour nap at my table. Having barely slept last night, and with all of the nerves I have been holding on to, I was exhausted.
I woke when I heard the first ham radio transmission come through, loud and clear.
“Do we say something?” Samantha asked, looking directly at me.
I had no clue. “What did they do with radio communication before we started on the road?” I asked.
Carrie, Samantha, Emma, Jamie and Reverend John just looked at each other.
“None of us worked the radio before. Joseph did,” said Emma.
“We will talk about this at the Council meeting tonight,” I told Carrie. She diligently wrote it down on the paper on her clipboard. “For now, let’s just listen and take good notes.”
I don’t have all the answers. Why do people keep thinking that I do?
The truth is, I had never listened to the radio transmissions before today. Joseph had been in charge of reporting on important information before he died.
Much of what I heard on the ham today was people chatting, like friends before the war. It was nice to hear people reaching out to one another, making connections again.
Some of what we heard came from desperate people trying to find help. I hated that they were so far away.
Someday, I want to invite these folks to come to the California coast to join our community. I hope that we all live long enough for that day to come.
∞
From the window, I saw two gray, slow moving lumps in the distance. I knew what they were right away from what I saw on my trip to Carmel. They were people. I have agonized over leaving those poor souls on the side of the road every day since then. I was not about to let it happen again.
“Adam, stop the caravan and pick them up,” I ordered over the private channel.
“No way,” said Jackson. “I can’t control security if we pick up every drifter.”
“They aren’t ‘drifters,’ ” I pronounced. “No more than we are, at least. They are people, and we will treat them as such.
“Adam, when you get closer, give the signal to the stop the caravan. Roll down the passenger’s window and calmly ask if they are alright. Ask them where they came from and where they are going. Keep your thumb on the talk button of your walkie so that we can hear the conversation.”
Adam did exactly what he was told. Before he rolled down his window, he spoke.
“It’s two women. Ones looks older, the other might be younger,” he said.
“Okay, go ahead,” I told him. “If they are not aggressive, say ‘all is good’ and take your finger off of the ‘talk’ button. Got it?”
“Yep,” he answered. “Hello, ladies. Where are you from?”
Female voice number one said, “Santa Cruz, you?”
“Monterey, just started out,” said Adam. “Where are you going?”
“Don’t know,” said female voice number two. “Just want to find a safe place. Heard that the destroyed buildings were giving off toxins. We are trying to get away from them.”
“All is good,” said Adam into his walkie.
“Ask them if they want to come with us. They will have to submit to a pat down, and we need to check their packs,” I told him.
That’s right, Jackson. I am not a clueless idiot, I thought.
Adam put his thumb on “talk” again so that we could continue to hear the conversation. “Ladies, we are doing the same. We can take you as far as Carmel Valley if you are peaceful and agree to abide by our rules.”
I could see the ladies walk away from Adam’s truck and appear to argue.
After a few minutes, Adam said, “We need to get going, so I need an answer.”
I saw one of the women approach the window and heard her say, “Um, yeah, we could use a ride.”
“Wake up Bri and Marla to go out and take care of this,” said Jackson on the other private channel. “Have Marla take the younger one into RV one and Bri take the older one into RV two. Make sure they are both wearing masks.”
Bri and Marla were sleeping to ready themselves for the night shift, and I felt badly having to wake them, but this was about human lives.
When they came out wearing masks, I saw Marla pat down the younger woman, take her pack, and escort her into RV one. Bri did the same with the older woman, but this time they entered our RV.
I stood and walked over to the woman who looked to be in her sixties or seventies, but I guessed that she was younger than that. The war has not been kind to any of us, and it showed on our faces, our bodies and even in the way we moved. The woman in our RV was now wearing a mask that Bri must have given her.
We all put on the masks from one of the RV emergency packs, too.
“Hello,” I said, warmly. “My name is Laura. Please come in and warm up.” There was a built in seat next to Carrie, and I waved her to it.
I hadn’t ea
ten my oatmeal, so I put it in our microwave and heated it. I handed it to her but she shook her head.
“Please, it will warm you up and fill your stomach some,” I said.
“How do I know that it’s not poisoned?” she asked me.
“Well, what would be the point in poisoning you?” I replied. “If we didn’t want to help you, we would have just passed you by.”
I heard her stomach growl, and I could tell she was salivating at the smell of the oatmeal. I knew that feeling all too well. I couldn’t let her suffer, so I took a bite myself just like I made Jackson do with the soup at his lair weeks ago. After that, she took the bowl, pulled back her mask and gulped it down quickly.
As Bri went through her bag, Samantha got up and put her uneaten portion of food into the microwave and gave it to the starving woman.
Bri pulled out a bottle of alcohol, brandy, and pointed it in my direction so that I could see the label. The woman looked up at our silent interaction and said, “It’s to keep us from freezing to death.”
It made sense to me. I wouldn’t have cared if it was really used to help them forget.
Next, she pulled out a sheathed knife. Bri tucked it into her waist band while she finished searching the bag.
I nodded at Bri, and she replaced the bottle. “Everything else is okay,” said Bri.
I breathed out in relief. I assumed that Jackson put her in my RV so that I could question her, so I did.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“I am Violet Earhart and my daughter is Tracy,” she said, watching my face. Her name sounded familiar.
“I am, was, the Mayor of Santa Cruz,” she told me. I looked at her carefully and remembered seeing her on the news. Of course, she was much altered, but I recognized her nonetheless.
“I remember,” I said.
“That’s the past, now. Thanks for the food. I have to tell you, I don’t like being separated from my daughter. We don’t know you people,” said Violet.
“And we don’t know you,” I said with understanding. “We are a community trying to get to Carmel Valley, like Adam told you. We were told that there are intact buildings out there, and they are free of the bio-chemicals.”
I looked at Bri and noticed that she had her thumb on the “talk” button of her walkie. I am sure that was Jackson’s orders, and since it wasn’t being done in secrecy, I let it go, sort of. I wish that man would leave my niece out of his operations, but she is part of his team. There was not much I could do.
It dawned on me that the woman before me could only have been in her late forties or early fifties. She was filthy, and she smelled awful.
“We are trying to conserve water, but would you like to take a shower?” I asked. “We have one right here in the RV.”
Her eyes grew as large as saucers. “You are kidding me. Yes, yes.”
I pointed to the bathroom, and she got up without skipping a beat and went into the very small room.
It’s funny how cautious she had been up to that point. Without a moment’s hesitation, she said yes to undressing and taking a shower with only a flimsy door between herself and a bunch of strangers. Human nature can take over in the blink of an eye.
I took the walkie from Bri and said, “She is who she says she is. I recognize her.”
“Okay, I’d still appreciate hearing her story, if you don’t mind?” Jackson replied.
Shocked that he was asking to listen in for once instead of just doing it, I said, “Couldn’t hurt anything.”
I noticed that Bri’s walkie was going out and placed it on the window ledge, since it was solar. It wasn’t a bright day, but our walkies are pretty great and charge in minimal light. I turned mine to Jackson’s channel and waited for the unfortunate mayor to take her shower.
When she heard the water stop, Carrie gently knocked on the door and told her that she had a change of clothes for her. Violet’s hand poked out from behind the door and took the proffered clothing.
When she was finally done dressing, she came out and she looked like an entirely different person. She had long, blonde hair, and blue eyes. She couldn’t have been older than her late forties or early fifties. She was wearing her mask, but I could tell that she had been a beautiful woman. Her press conferences on the news came back more clearly in my mind.
She sat down again and declared, “Oh my God, thank you. I have never had a better shower. And the hot water, oh My God.”
“I know,” I said with a smile. “One of the members of our group is an engineer. He rigged up tubs to heat up and boil the snow on the roofs of the RVs.”
“You guys seem legit,” Violet said. “But if you really are, you will let me talk to my daughter.”
“Bri, will you call over and see if Tracy is done with her shower?” I asked. “We told them to let her have a shower after you went into the bathroom.”
“Okay, here she is,” said Bri.
Violet took the walkie and looked at it.
“Oh, you hold this button to talk and let it go to listen,” explained Bri.
“Baby, it’s okay, I think,” she told her daughter. “For now, they seem harmless, but keep a close eye out. You never know.”
She looked at me and said, “I’m sorry, but in this world you have to be more than careful. It’s the only way that we have been able to stay alive this long.”
“I completely understand,” I told her. I would have probably fought harder not to be parted if it was me and any of my girls.
Violet looked so tired. She was fighting to stay awake. “Would you like to take a nap? There is a bunk right above you.”
“I don’t think I should yet,” she said. “If that’s okay with you?”
“Of course, just let us know,” I said.
“You have quite a set-up here,” she said, pointing at our Communications Center.
We spent the rest of the afternoon explaining how we had come together to stay alive and about our decision to move to the Valley. I had really wanted to listen to Thomas’ engineering class over the radio, but I felt that talking to Violet was more of a priority at the moment.
Like everyone who had joined us, Violet was impressed by how far we had come.
“As a mayor, I must say that you have done something that I failed at,” she said. “I had tried to get my constituents to come together, but the panic had taken too much of a hold during those last days. Things were crazy. Unbelievably, a group of over 110 surfers went down to the beach and surfed their way into death when the bombs hit. I could actually see them on the beach from the front steps of my house. We had to go inside when it finally started, but I saw them headed into the giant waves.
“People were convinced that it was over, and it was over for almost everyone. I lost my husband and my oldest son, who were together at my son’s house. Jack, my husband, thought that he could help my son’s family get their house together and make it back to our house in time. We found the bodies of my husband, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter where their house once stood. We buried them, got some things together and started off in hopes of finding a community like yours. We expected that there would be one in Santa Cruz.”
I nodded. We didn’t say things like, “I am sorry for your loss” anymore. No one did.
∞
Violet either finally trusted us, or she was completely exhausted. She agreed to use the bunk to take a nap, and I returned to my work.
I knew that I was going to have to justify picking up the two ladies at our nightly meeting, so I got ready for it. It had gone very well this time, but there might be more rescues that won’t go as easily. I am glad we did it, though.
The next bathroom break was in the early afternoon.
I went to RV one and checked in on Tracy. She was also asleep. I knew that my mother was treating her well.
“Annie, is there anything I can take Violet to eat? I am sure she is still hungry.”
“Sure thing,” she said. She hugged me close. “But
for the grace of God, go I.”
“I know, Mom.”
She handed me a small baguette of bread and an apple sauce cup.
“How is she?” I pointed at the sleeping figure in the bunk.
“About as good as can be expected; traumatized. I called for the doctor to check them out. He is very unhappy that they are not in quarantine,” said Annie.
“How could we have done that? We don’t exactly have a hotel to send them to. They are wearing masks,” I said.
As soon as I got the words out of my mouth, Doc Malcolm came into the RV. There was no way to make a break for it; I was caught.
“Let me check them both out first,” he said. “If they have been walking all the way from Santa Cruz and they haven’t gotten sick yet, we should be alright. But Laura, we need to have a plan if we are going to do this in the future.”
Both ladies checked out well, at least as well as could be expected. They had some frost bite and malnutrition. It was a wonder that they had survived the elements to this point.
But the Doc was right. We needed a plan.
∞
When the caravan stopped for the day, just before dark, we hadn’t gotten very far. It was disappointing.
I went over to Mark, who stood there with open arms.
“I think I fucked up,” I told him. “Those ladies didn’t have proper quarantine. I risked everyone’s health and security.”
Mark was one of the people on our private channel, and I know that he was listening to everything.
“It’s okay. Doc, could you join us?” he asked Malcolm who was passing us.
The doctor came over and Mark continued. “I have an idea on how to fix the Wanderer problem in the future. We need to have a quarantine car. We could use the van and have someone who has already had the Sneaker Wave driving it, wearing gloves and a mask. Of course, we would still take precautions. Maybe even Doc Riley, because she never came down with it and was inoculated with Jackson’s drugs.”
