A Long Lonely Road

by Tj Reeder

  Once in the night Molly kinda rumbled but it wasn’t her “ Warning!! Alien Intruders” growl, more her “ Get outta here before you piss me off warning” I noted it and went back to sleep.

  Next thing I knew I was listening to a squirrel bitching to the world about Alien Intruders in his world.. Noisy little bastard ! Ever wonder what a load of buckshot would do to a small furry critter? I was tempted .

  But we got up got dressed and headed back to the truck, Molly in the lead to give warning which didn’t happen.

  So we took time to fix a good breakfast ,well I fixed it, Molly just watched the skillet in case it tried to make a break.

  We or “I” was getting to the last of the eggs I had on hand, Molly was already out!! Lol! She just didn’t know it.

  After eating and cleaning up the mess I poured the old Stanley full of hot coffee and we were ready to roll. After checking the road for traffic from the night and seeing no tracks but mine we headed out .

  Another day passed as before and another night except no creek but water we have so no loss .

  It seems so still, like we might be the last folks on earth but I was sure out there in the population centers it was a horror show.

  I could only hope and pray my people were dug in and safe from the hell going on out there around them. Thank God the Piney Woods were so thick that walking thru them was damn near impossible .

  In truth I must admit that by now I wasn’t sure if it was day 6 , 9 or 99 since things came apart and in truth it don’t matter coz it is what it is and that’s a fact Jack!

  After the usual morning chores of getting going we got going. I do know this is day three on the road and so far knock on Molly’s wooden head things are going better then I have any right to expect.

  The fuel gauge shows I have about half a tank left but according to my map I think I’m coming up on what looks like some small town or at least a group of building.

  Midday found us sitting on a hill above a small valley and what looked to be a cluster of old building, like maybe an old ranch. But I see no signs of life around the place.

  At this point I was at a loss as to how to approach this place since I didn’t wanna lose the truck the same way I got it, nope not in my play book.

  In the end I said to hell with it and kinda eased down the hill, about half way I stopped and let Molly out. Kinda figuring if there was trouble and I lost at least she had a chance. I’m not a hero folks, but I’d have let her drive and I woulda walked if she had her drivers license .

  Well of course Molly just trotted right into the place like she owned it and showed no signs of being alerted to anything so I drove on in. And Molly was right, there wasn’t anything stirring in this place and hadn’t for a long time.

  After looking around and finding nothing and having no desire to stick around we loaded up and got on out of there.

  The place had the look of a bunk house and was probably used during fall roundup which reminded me I was seeing no cattle and that place hadn’t been used in years.

  This day ended in a nice little valley with another nice creek and the remains of old camp fires. Hunters most likely since there was no other reason I could think of.

  We followed what had become our routine and settled in for the night. Around what I took to be midnight I heard the sound of gunfire way off in the distance.

  It had the muffled sound it gets when it’s not close. Close up it would have had more of a crack then a boom or so I think.

  Since there wasn’t a thing I could do otherwise I went back to sleep and surprisingly morning came. We got up and took care of business and fixed some breakfast.

  I was still working off the stuff I had in the trailer but that was gonna end sooner or later and we would be scrounging for dinner. But this morning I fixed some of the dried sausage I had rehydrated over night along with some canned pinto beans and crackers.

  I am a pretty good cook and tonight I was planning to make a big pot of “Skeddy” as my Son used to call it. Which made me wonder if him and his had stayed put in Arkansas or had tried to head to our place. I’m pretty sure his old truck would make the run and if not he will make it run. For all his trials and problems he’s a damn hard worker and has no quit in him and I’m proud of him.

  Nothing I can do for any of them so outside of a silent thought sent to the Big Boss I let the thoughts go. I have a different relationship with the ol boy upstairs, some folks have the need to go to church all the time. Some several times a week. I don’t see the need in that. Since He knows all , He already knows I’ve been pretty much a sinner all my life.

  And I just can’t see calling on him all the time asking forgiveness for things I’m just gonna turn right around and do again. I figger if He knows everything he knows that while I’ve been a “Rounder” all my life I’ve also tried to live an honorable life ( and failing often) as best I can.

  Anyway that’s how it works for me and when I feel the need to talk to Him I try to find a nice place away from people. A nice quiet meadow and a friendly boulder in the sun works better for me.

  And seeing as I felt the need to have such a talk I walked out into a sunny spot and there was a boulder! Just when I needed one. See how it works?

  When I need to talk a boulder will appear.

  I sat down on the boulder and just sat a while, it was warm in the sun, the morning chill was starting to lose the battle with Mother Sun. I could hear the stirring of small things.

  Bees doing their busy Bee things, I watched a butterfly making it’s haphazard way from wherever to wherever, they never look like they have a plan. Just kind of going along.

  I finely felt a calmness come over me and I knew I wasn’t alone. I told God about the three outlaws I had killed, I explained how they tried to murder whomever may have been in the trailer. I told him I felt bad that I didn’t feel bad.

  I felt Him smile at my usual way of mixing things up. I told him about the man in the ditch and how they had treated him even after taking his life for a few gallons of gas when he had no use for it at all.

  I told him I later felt bad about not putting his name on the board but in truth it really didn’t matter since I figgered he was just one of millions who were gonna be laying where they fell and none with a marker.

  I told him about my plan to make it home and how I knew he was busy but I’d really like it if he would check in with us once in a while. Just to see how we was doing.

  I thought a while about my people down in East Texas and how I hoped they were doing ok. And my Mom who at 93 was moving pretty good! But how long would she last without her meds?

  I asked God to look in on them when he could and to help them if he could but that things were pretty well set up there and there was other folks in worse shape who needed help more.

  After a while I come to realize time had past and my butt was tired of the boulder and I expect the boulder was tired of my butt.

  I headed back to camp where Molly being every practical was sleeping in the shade. I bet her butt wasn’t sore from sitting on a boulder. Molly’s a good buddy, she don’t ask questions and is always grateful for whatever she gets.

  I took time to look at the MT Atlas some more and I saw something that caught my eye. It was a symbol that I had to look at the index to understand and surprise!

  It’s was the symbol for hot springs that this area was loaded with and it wasn’t more then a mile off the road I was on and right then the thought of soaking in warm water was overpowering !

  We broke a record getting loaded and on our way and sure nuff after a couple of miles I saw the USFS sign with an arrow pointing off up a real goat path.

  I will admit I was worried about the old truck making the climb but I sure as hell wasn’t leaving it. So with a goodly bit of slipping and sliding off we went.

  It was easy to see folks had been coming here in times past so I was a bit concerned about finding folks there now.

  But nobody was there, and we foun
d the nicest place. folks had rocked off the spring and made a hole which had steam coming off it. And right then and there I just stripped off and carrying my rifle I headed over to the pool.

  I stuck my toes in the water and it was hot, not cooking hot but ease in slow hot and that’s just what I did! And lordy it was both hot and heaven. I slowly sat down and let out a big sigh.

  I knew right then and there if I didn’t have people I needed to be helping I’d settle down here for a goodly while to let things settle out. But that just ain’t gonna happen so I just laid back and let the soreness ease out.

  After a bit I called Molly over and while scratching her ears I just pulled her in. She was not a happy camper and it was a bit of a struggle keeping her in there. But she settled down and I think she too felt the aches and pains washing away.

  I must have sat there over an hour but Molly did make her escape as soon as I let her go. Ungrateful ol bitch ! But she had a good shake and promptly rolled in the grass and went to sleep.

  After I was about done I took my soap and wash cloth and I scrubbed my hide raw. Then soaked a bit more while the soap cleared out of the pool. I was in love with this spot!

  After thinking about it I decided we would stay here for the day and night and just rest and soak. So I set about making a decent camp and gathered some dry wood.

  About what I figured was mid afternoon I took out the camp stove and set it up on the tail gate. I filled the pot with water from the hot pool since my soap had washed away and set it on the stove to boil.

  I got out a large jar of Skeddy sauce and put it in a pan, while it was heating I crumbled up a bunch of the deer sausage I had dried which turned out pretty good but I was keeping an eye on it because if it started turning I’d have to deal with that.

  In about 30 minutes the feast was done, I was gonna miss the garlic bread but it is the end of the world so to speak and roughing it is a way of life now. I dished some up for Molly who promptly burned her tongue the pig.

  Of course she looked at me like I had done it on purpose. I told her I damn sure wasn’t gonna blow on it for her. It was damn good! Woulda been perfect with some garlic bread.

  After eating and cleaning up the mess I tool the AR and Molly for a walk. This place was in a bowl that may or may not once have been a small volcano.

  Which could account for the hot spring but the water had no smell to it that I would associate with lava. Like I would know Lava smell. I figured it was akin to what you think Brimstone would smell like but since I hadn’t made it to hell yet I still had no idea and frankly who cares.

  After patrolling out about a ¼ mile in a circle and seeing nothing we made it back to camp. I took another soak and had some more skeddy dug out a book and read a bit.

  All designed to take my mind off my Mom and the family and friends who made up our community of mutual support. Now I know some folks use the term “MAG” meaning “Mutual Assistance Group” but that sound a little too combative.

  Our thoughts were more on doing what we could to help people as much as we could but at the same time not get killed or starve from being overly generous.

  We have good gardens, green houses, and 2 creeks running thru the place. My friend and neighbor Rick and his wife have a nice pond full of fish and between the phantom White Tail that flit thru the shadows of the woods and the wild Hogs not to mention everything else in those woods it makes surviving much easier.

  All I can do is hope and pray they can just hold off the folks fleeing the cities and the hell in them. I know none of them could turn away a hungry child but I also hope they use some common sense about it.

  Meanwhile I was back here in the mountains with dark coming on so I found a place with some protection and settled in for the night. It was one of those nights that you can see every star in the heavens and with that I went to sleep.

  Sometime in the night I woke up to hear the sound of several vehicles moving along the main road about a mile away. But they kept moving so I went back to sleep.

  Morning came as usual with all the usual sounds. The birds telling the world about it. Sure beats the hell out of the Roosters back home. Time to move on. but first another soak. Molly won’t come near the pool now lol She’s a fast learner.

  Out and dried off and dressed in clean cloths, I didn’t bother telling about washing my filthy cloths so everything is clean and packed away.

  I fired up the truck and saw from the fuel gage the tank wasn’t getting any fuller. I was disappointed but after all it is the end of the world as we know it so I guess some small blips will show up on the radar of life. Damn I’m thinking funny.

  I decided to let Molly patrol the trail down to the road and I just eased along watching her. She would let me know if there was anything I needed to know.

  We made the main road and I could see the tracks made by the trucks I heard passing in the night which made me stop and think. I had been damn lucky so far but I needed to start using my head.

  Those folks could have come along in day light and would have seen my tracks cutting off the road, I needed to work on that, it only takes a bit of time to brush out your trail.

  About mid day I saw a ranch house off in the distance with smoke coming from the chimney. So right there I pulled over thru some trees and got out my spotting scope, It was mounted on an old rifle stock with a bipod.

  I watched the place for the rest of the day. I saw several people moving around working, some women in a big garden area which means they were doing that before the end came.

  Takes longer then a couple of weeks to grow a big garden. This means that these folks been here a while. I could see a pile of logs across the road leading up to the gate. Nobody was gonna crash that gate.

  Somebody was thinking. I also saw up on the roof of the big ol barn what looked like a deck and a wall around it. After turning the scope up to the max and adjusting the focus I could make out the heads of a couple of young boys maybe 10 years old or so.

  And both were scouring the area with glass. No fooling around for them lads. Somebody was running a tight ship here. And watching the ladies working in the garden who seemed to be chating away and I could see them clear enough to see them smiling and laughing.

  So they weren’t being held against their will and everybody seemed busy. I had seen some movement in and around the barn and assumed it was the men folk.

  I watched a lady walk out on the porch and start clanging an old triangle the old time call to dinner or whatever. With that two adult men and a couple of taller thinner teenage boys walked out of the barn.

  Chow time and my belly was rumbling. Jerky was on my menu. No fine wine to go with it, not even a warm beer. Molly was always happy to see the jerky bag come out.

  I watched the place all the rest of the day before easing back and making camp in the woods. no fire tonight so it was cold pork n’ beans and crackers. I was gonna be needing to deal with my food issues in another week or so but for now I was good to go.

  Another quiet night and an early morning out of the bag. I took some jerky, crackers and water and by shooting light I was back in my lookout. And no I wasn’t gonna shoot anybody. It’s just an expression. A hunter knows what I mean.

  Off in the distance the Rancher and family were getting their day going. I watched one of the older teens in the lookout spot and shortly he was relieved by the other teen. Everybody seemed to have a job and knew what it was, even the kids were busy.

  After a while the older lady came out and whacked the dinner gong and headed back inside. The men folk and kids all finished their chores and headed in to breakfast, wish I was!

  I didn’t see any sign of a vehicle but there was out buildings aplenty so it meant nothing. Those folks don’t let grass grow I’ll tell ya for free. They was done chowing down faster then a Platoon of Boot Marines. And that’s damn fast!

  I spent the day watching the place and deciding if this was where I put my plans into action. I really didn’t see any other
way to go. I could try to barter for fuel but that wasn’t my plan and driving along all fat and happy was likely to get me dead.

  So best just do it and stop thinking. I got my stuff ready, mapped out my plan in my head once more. And at midnight I set it into motion. I slowly and quietly drove the truck down into the valley , no head lights and no fuse for the break lights.

  At the driveway into the ranch I backed into it and quietly got out keeping Molly inside. I set to work thanking the lord there was no moon since I was within ¼ mile of the house. And I had no doubts that kid in the crows nest could shoot.

  When I could see the first pink in the East I shielded my match and set fire to the camp stove, I set the big coffee pot on it and let it start doing it’s thing. I put my cast iron skillet on the other burner and laid some reconstituted sausage in it.