by Emily Garnet
“We’re in a band,” said Matt, making it sound like they practiced out of a garage and sang at grunge bars on the weekend.
Lonnie nodded. “I didn’t realize.”
Ivy shrugged. “I don’t think it matters much anymore.”
“It clearly matters to Amanda.” He ruffled his daughter’s hair as she stepped back. “Let me introduce my family. This is my wife, Moira, and my kids, Danny, Amanda, April, and Jacob.”
After they’d completed introductions, Lonnie said, “You think you could rustle up a meal, Moira? These folks are hungry, and I could do with a bite as well.”
“Of course. Come on in. If you want, you folks are welcome to use the shower.” Moira issued that invitation as they followed her into the house.
Ivy imagined she must be a wreck, since a stranger was offering the use of her shower. She wasn’t too proud to accept it. “I’d love that, and could I impose to use your washing machine?”
“I’ll do your laundry,” said Amanda eagerly. “And April has some stuff that’ll probably fit you in the meantime.”
“I imagine Lonnie has some clothes you could borrow, Mr. Cromwell,” said Moira.
“Matt will do, thank you, Moira.”
Ivy realized then that she had no idea what their last name was, and she didn’t ask. Perhaps Lonnie had done that by design, or maybe he had just never thought to add his surname when he introduced himself earlier. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like they were going to be exchanging Christmas cards with the mail service gone.
Amanda led her to a bathroom on the second floor, and she saw Jacob taking Matt farther down the hall and assumed he was using a different one. “Don’t forget to change your bandage, Matt, or let me know if you need help,” she called to him.
Jacob said something to Matt before he turned to Ivy. “Jacob says there are bandages in the bathroom. I think I can handle it.”
She nodded her acknowledgement before following Amanda into the bathroom. “This house is really nice.”
“It is. My mom designed it. She used to be an architect before she decided she wanted to raise us kids.”
“I think she made a good decision.”
Amanda beamed. “She does too. April think she’s silly to have given up her career and moved out to the middle of nowhere, but I think it’s amazing. I want to be just like her when I grow up and get married.”
Ivy smiled and nodded, glad to hear that. April was probably destined for disappointment, since she sounded like she wanted to get out of Ely and go to college and do something bigger with her life. Those opportunities had withered and disappeared, at least for now. Maybe she could find an apprenticeship somewhere. Ivy hoped the girl would find a way to be happy and not just survive.
The shower felt decadent, complete with hot water and fragrant homemade soap and homemade shampoo that left her skin soft and her hair shiny. It seemed obvious to her that Lonnie’s family would be able to survive the collapse of society.
After drying off, she took the clothes Amanda had laid for her on the sink and slipped them on. The pants were a couple of inches too short, but they were fine, and everything else fit well. It was nice to have clean clothes, and there was even an unopened comb sitting on top of the clothing that she used to comb her hair and then put in her bag. She was certain they wouldn’t want it back.
Feeling human again, she left the bathroom and made her way downstairs, drawn by the delicious smells emanating from the kitchen. When she entered, she saw Moira standing at the stove. “Can I help with anything?”
“I’m just finishing the gravy, but you can carry the chicken to the dining room, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” said Ivy as she moved closer to pick up the tray. It was heavy and laden with pieces of fried chicken. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought they were homegrown chickens. The pieces were smaller than she’d become accustomed to, reminding her of the ones her father used to bring her to cook after he’d slaughtered one of their chickens. Her mouth watered at the smell, and her stomach grumbled.
Moira laughed. “That’s a high compliment.”
Ivy carried the tray into the dining room, finding the large table. It could easily hold twelve, though there were only eight chairs out around it. She set the chicken in an empty spot and took a seat beside Matt. Moira joined them a moment later with a bowl of gravy, and they dug into fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans with slivers of almond and bacon.
It was simple fare, but it tasted like the most upscale dining experience she’d ever had after her experiences of the last day or so. Ivy ate until she couldn’t eat more, feeling way too stuffed. She figured she should’ve gone a little lighter since they were planning to get back on the road soon, but when would they a have a chance to eat like this again?
“You know, Moira and I talked about it,” said Lonnie as April stood up from the table and disappeared into the kitchen. “We could use some extra help around here, if you folks would like to stay? There’s a little shed that can be turned into a room for you.”
Ivy opened her mouth to reject the offer gently, but Matt beat her to it.
“We appreciate the offer, but we have family waiting for us in Salt Lake City and beyond.”
As he finished speaking, April returned with a big pan of blackberry cobbler. “But that makes me seriously want to reconsider,” said Matt with a grin.
“Help yourself, folks. Amanda, can you grab the ice cream?”
“Ice cream?” asked Matt, practically salivating.
“We make our own. We’ve got plenty of electricity stored in our battery system, and we make more power every day with the solar panels. We’ll have ice cream for quite a while.” Moira grinned at him as she said that.
“Are you trying to convince me to stay? Because that might work.” Matt laughed.
Amanda returned with a glass tub of ice cream, and though Ivy had been convinced she was full just a few minutes before, she found herself accepting a plate of cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream a few seconds later.
It tasted amazing, and she was briefly tempted to stay just for the small luxuries this family would have in the coming days. It wasn’t a serious compulsion, and she didn’t really give it any thought, but she was going to miss opportunities like this.
When the meal was finished, Lonnie asked, “Are you folks sure you still want to head out?”
“Yeah, we’d better. I’d like to make more miles today.” Ivy glanced out the window, estimating they had at least three or four hours of daylight left. She groaned at the thought of walking, but the idea of Lacey alone and afraid in Pocatello was enough to get her past her physical reluctance.
“I think I can help you guys out some before you head out though. Come out with me to the garage?”
Matt and Ivy nodded, following Lonnie from the house to the garage. It was a freestanding building, and it looked more like a barn than a garage to her. When he pulled open the double doors, she saw it did double duty. One side of the barn held hay, and the other was outfitted like a garage, with two newer vehicles parked in it and a multitude of tools along the wall.
There were other miscellaneous items, and Lonnie seemed to know what he was going for. He went straight to a pile of camping equipment. “I can give you guys better and bigger backpacks. I think you should get some of the food out of the truck too. Anything that’s packaged to be shelf-stable. Moira is putting together a packet of food for you guys too.”
“That’s not necessary.” Ivy offered a token protest, though she was grateful.
Lonnie grinned. “When I told her you saved my butt, she was ready to adopt y’all. Just be glad she’s content with feeding you and letting you go on your way without making a fuss.”
Ivy nodded, humbled by the generosity of the family. She took the backpack he held out, and Matt accepted one as well.
“I also have a tent that one of you can tie to your pack. Looks like you’ve got pretty good back
packs, but I’ve got a couple of canteens here for you as well. There’s some purifier tablets too,” he said as he passed those to Matt.
“Last of all, we have a couple of older bikes here. The older kids upgraded to mountain bikes, so you’re welcome to have them. They’re just basic cruiser bikes, but they’d be more comfortable for riding for miles anyway. Got some old helmets too, since you left behind your others with that weird bike you were riding.”
As he spoke, Lonnie led them to a row of bicycles, selecting two. One was an aqua woman’s bike, and the other was a gray man’s bike. Both had big metal baskets, and there were places to secure their packs on the back with bungee cord if they wanted to leave the baskets free. They’d make much better time than they would on foot, though the trade-off was they would have to protect the bikes.
As though Lonnie had read Ivy’s thoughts, he looked at her. “I know you don’t have a gun, and I think you should out there on the road.”
She nodded. “Do you know someone in town who might sell or trade me one for something?”
“We do have a gun shop, but that won’t be necessary. What kind of weapon do you prefer?”
“I’d say a shotgun for long-term use, but I think a rifle might be more useful for defending ourselves on the road.”
Lonnie nodded. “Why don’t you folks head on into the house so I can access my gun safe? You can start transferring your belongings, and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Ivy and Matt nodded, leaving the garage and pushing their bikes between them.
“These people are amazing,” said Matt.
Ivy nodded. “I think we’ve forgotten how real people can be. I am sure there were people just as nice and friendly in Salt Lake City.”
Matt shrugged. “I don’t know. I never paid much attention to the neighbors or anything. I’m just humbled by how wonderful these people are.”
Ivy nodded. “Me too.” She didn’t admit to Matt she’d initially had reservations that they might be too good to be true, and they were setting them up for something. She was convinced now that thought held no merit, and the family were just good people.
They returned to the house, using the living room to transfer their possessions from the smaller backpacks to the larger ones. Moira entered the living room with two bags of food, handing one to each of them. “There’s some freeze-dried stuff in there that’ll last you for a while, and there’s the leftover chicken. You’ll want to eat that along with the potato salad I put in there within the next few hours.” She grinned at Matt. “I wasn’t able to pack you any ice cream, but there’re a couple servings of the cobbler too.”
Ivy blinked back tears that burned her eyes. “Thank you for your kindness, Moira.”
The older woman came closer, hugging Ivy. Ivy didn’t push her away, though she wasn’t much for being touched, especially by strangers. She didn’t mind it this time, perhaps because Moira no longer felt like a stranger.
“I should be saying thank you. Those people might’ve left Lonnie for dead, and he certainly wouldn’t have made it home with his rig and a full trailer of groceries without your help. We’re the ones who owe you everything.” The older woman sniffled.
Moira seemed on the verge of tears, which just made Ivy’s need to cry more pronounced, and she blinked rapidly. “I think we helped each other. There’s going to be a lot more of that in the future, I’m sure.” She left unspoken the flipside of that—there would be a lot more people out taking advantage of others so they could survive without hard work.
Twenty minutes later, in possession of a new rifle, along with a handgun to put in her holster, and another handgun for Matt’s holster, she and Matt set out on the bikes. They’d been maintained, and Lonnie had included a few tools and extra inner tubes for them, so she was hopeful they could make it all the way to Salt Lake City with the bikes, if they could defend them from others who might try to take them.
At first, she was a little rusty on the bike, since it only had two wheels instead of the three that had been on the cargo bike, but the movement came back. Soon enough, she was able to ride confidently.
Her body was starting to ache again, and she was thankful Moira had sent along a bag full of ibuprofen for them too. She and Matt were likely to need it for the next few days until they built up their tolerance for this kind of exercise again. She doubted Matt had ever been subjected to the same kind of physical routine she’d had to endure as a child, but he’d get there if they had to keep living this way.
It was starting to get dark, so they needed to find a place to stop. She was scanning the area when she saw a barn in a field. It looked like it hadn’t been well-maintained, and there was no house nearby. She pointed to it and called Matt’s name. He looked over that way, seeming to grasp what she meant.
They stopped riding and went to the shoulder, lifting their bikes over the guard rail and scrabbling down the semi-steep hill. The ground was too uneven to ride over, so they had to walk the bikes to the barn. They looked around when they reached it, but there was no one nearby. Part of the roof still stood, so they chose to shelter inside, parking their bikes against one of the walls. It trembled a bit at the weight, but it held.
“Should I set up the tent?” asked Matt.
“I think we should probably just use our sleeping bags in case we have to hit the road in a hurry.”
Matt deferred to her, untying his sleeping bag from the backpack he’d rested against the wall. Ivy did the same, unzipping hers and slipping into it like a tube before scooting closer and resting gingerly against the wall of the barn. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to sleep, but she was tired enough that she was sure she could make it work for a few hours.
The wall seemed to hold her and Matt’s combined weight, and they leaned together for comfort and support as they shared the rest of the chicken. Even cold, it was still good, though cold was subjective. It was more like lukewarm from being in their backpacks, but it tasted fine and smelled okay. She and Matt split the last of the cobbler, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he took his last bite. “I’m going to miss stuff like that.”
“If we’re going all the way to my dad’s, you won’t necessarily have to miss it. He used to have lots of berries growing, along with a big garden. He even grows stevia and some sugarcane in his greenhouse. I’m not saying stevia is a substitute for sugar, at least not a good one, but you can adapt if you have to. It’s not bad in dandelion tea.”
“Like actual dandelions from the yard?” Matt sounded appalled.
Ivy chuckled. “The very same. They’re edible, and they have medicinal properties. You’ll have to learn about all those things if modern medicine is inaccessible to us.”
“I just can’t imagine going to grab a handful of dandelions and munching on them.”
Ivy shook her head. “You wash and cut them up. It’s not as if you’re going to be grazing on dandelions like a cow.”
“Sounds delicious,” he said with a dubious tone that made her chuckle again.
“You’ll adapt, and we’ll survive.” They would all survive, if she had any say in the matter. They faced the daunting task of getting to their families, and then persuading their families to come along, though she knew Lacey would be willing to return to the compound in Montana.
She wasn’t certain Matt’s family would agree, and she wasn’t even certain Henry would welcome them if they all showed up, but she intended to try to get them to come along. If they didn’t, she was afraid Matt would stay behind, and she didn’t want to risk him not being safe. He was her best friend, and she loved his family too.
Her thoughts turned to Lacey as she rested there, trying to sleep with the hard board of the wall against her back, and the solid ground under her butt. It definitely wasn’t the most comfortable she’d ever been, and she couldn’t help thinking about Lacey’s comfort. Was her sister safe in her dorm room, or had she gone to a friend’s? Had someone already taken advantage of her?
The thought ma
de her blood boil, and Ivy knew she’d destroy anybody who hurt Lacey, but it couldn’t undo the hurt that happened in the first place. She had to reach her sister before anything like that could occur. Lacey just needed to hold on for a few days, and Ivy was confident she could do that. She hoped.
Author’s Note
I used to live in Las Vegas, but it’s been a few years, so some things have probably changed. I also took a little liberty here and there, as needed, but I tried to make this as realistic as possible. I hope you enjoy the story, and I also hope this is as close as any of us ever get to experiencing a HEMP.
“Power Trip” and “Power Grab” are coming soon to finish the series.
About the Author
Emily Garnet is a longtime reader of postapocalyptic fiction, and a debut author. She isn’t a prepper, but she likes to be prepared.
