HARD ROAD: Heaven Bound

by Terry McDonald

  He took a moment to appraise them. “You know, I’ve been so busy thinking about what to do next, I never took time to look at you. Aside from being a bit too thin, you are a handsome bunch of kids.”

  “Yeah right,” Beth replied, but she sounded pleased. “Did you find a good place?”

  “I tried booking rooms at a hotel, but they were full, I did find a place at the Oak Motel, though.”

  They followed him to the fallen tree, and worked quickly to gather a mound of pine straw to spread in the bare area among the branches. They fell asleep within minutes of pulling the opened sleeping bag over themselves. Jake slept on the edge next to Al. Beth took the other edge.

  It turned cold, and even huddled together, the spread out sleeping bag was too small. A tug of war took place as they slept. Jake and Beth had a miserable night.

  *

  The sun was up and Jake was sweating under the cover. He worked his stiff muscles to stand and climbed over the tree trunk. The kids were in a nearby flat area, seated around a small circle cleared of brush and leaves for the stove. The large pot, precariously balanced on the surface of his small stove, was steaming.

  “What’s cooking?” He asked, joining them.

  “Turtle stew,” Al said, moving closer to Janie to make room.

  “Smells good,” he said, sitting in the vacated space.

  “It was a big mud turtle he caught with a trot line he set before we left the river last night.” Beth said. “I used some of the dried greens and stuff from your pack, but I think I used too much. They really swelled.”

  Jake said, “Dehydrated food does that. Did you use any spices?”

  “Just some pepper, I wasn’t sure about the other ones.”

  Jake went to his pack and removed two plastic containers.

  “Dried onion and garlic,” he said, passing them to her. “Add a half spoonful of each.”

  They sat in silence, watching the pot steam. Beth would stir it occasionally. Al fed thin sticks into the bottom of the stove as they burned. Janie was not much of a talker. She simply observed those around her. Jake could tell she didn’t miss a thing. He realized he was comfortable with them. They certainly weren’t complainers and even little Janie was a tough one. His shoulders ached from carrying her, but she had walked as many of those miles as she could.

  Beth broke the silence.

  “Stews as ready as it needs to get. Dig out some plates and let’s eat.”

  This was Jake’s first experience with eating turtle. He was surprised at the tenderness and the delicate flavor of the meat. For some reason he expected it to be tough and chewy.

  He thanked Al and Beth for introducing him to a new taste. After the meal, while the others tidied up, Jake reorganized the gear in his pack. He saw how meager his supplies seemed now that four were eating from them. He knew it would slow progress constantly foraging for food.

  “Beth, Al, Janie,” he called, motioning for them to rejoin him in the area they had cleared.

  “The place we’re headed to is beside the Alapaha River just south of Lakeland Georgia, about a hundred thirty miles from here. I figure at the rate we can travel, considering the need to be careful about walking in the open on the road, and the fact Janie will set her own pace, we’ll be about a month getting there.”

  “I did at least a hundred in seven days,” Beth said.

  “You were by yourself and desperate to get back to Al and Janie.”

  “Just seems like a month is a long time to go that far.”

  “Wouldn’t it be safer in the woods?” Al asked.

  “Yes, but it would take too long. We’ll use the road for the most part, but what will slow us down is moving in stages as we scout ahead. Another thing is that we won’t be leaving this area right away. We need to stock a few supplies before we head out, food mostly.”

  "Aren't you afraid about those men leaving that house in the truck?" Beth asked.

  "I am, but they seem to have a penchant... er... fondness for riding. Their engines will give us plenty of warning to get out of sight."

  “Can we get more jam?” Janie asked.

  “We’ll certainly try,” Jake replied with a chuckle. “I’ve been curious about something,” he continued, turning to address Beth. “The majority of homes still have plenty of food and clothing. I’m wondering why you three are so run down and skinny.”

  “During the long winter Mamma and Daddy took all the food from the houses for miles around. After they were killed, Willie got us spooked about going far from the farm. He kept telling how the white folks would do us if they caught us. I was afraid to go by myself, and I damn sure wasn’t going to take Allen and leave Janie with Willie. I didn’t trust the way looked at her.”

  “Willie was probably right about it not being safe, but we need more weapons and you need backpacks and better clothing, toothbrushes and paste. It wouldn’t hurt to have some two-way radios.”

  “The batteries you find nowadays are dead,” Beth said.

  “We’ll need to find rechargeable ones and a solar panel. What’s the nearest town with Walmart’s and such?” Jake asked.

  “When I was little, Daddy took us to Colquitt to buy food and feed for the animals,” Beth said, “but there wasn’t much in the way of a town there, and since everybody died, there’s not much of anything left of it. Somebody started burning the buildings.”

  “I saw that. I passed through Colquitt the day before I came to your place. Fires happened a lot back then, sometimes accidentally, but mostly from people expressing their desperation by doing stupid things.”

  Al asked in a low voice, “What happened to the world, Jake? Beth said it used to be a lot different and safer, but I’m too young to remember.”

  “That’s a big question and I’ve got some ideas of my own, but the short answer is, in a little less than three years over ninety nine percent of the world’s population died from the plague. There was a nuclear exchange, mostly confined to the eastern hemisphere, which just about depopulated some countries. What the plague didn’t get the nukes did. A lot more died during the three-year winter caused by the debris thrown into the air. Six years of hell happened to the world. We here in the US fared a little better because the plague took a long time to reach us and because no nukes hit the western hemisphere, but I doubt there are more than three hundred thousand survivors in the United States. With the killing that’s still going on, and no births, I figure in a few more years, half of those will be dead.”

  “We know almost everybody’s dead, but what caused it?” Beth asked. “It’s strange more people didn’t live. Our neighbors got sick and were gone in a few days, but none of us got sick.”

  “A whole bunch of weird happened and is still happening.” Jake answered. “Like I said, I have my own ideas about what caused it. Maybe this evening I can tell you more, but right now, we need to get moving. According to my map, the nearest town of any size is Bainbridge, a good twenty miles from here. I say we pack and head out.”

  “I know the way,” Al said. We just need to go back a little ways to the big road we crossed coming here. That’s Johnny Freeman Road and it goes straight to Bainbridge. I was there before.”

  “How long ago?” Jake asked.

  “Two summers ago. Me and Uncle Willie went down there to see what we could find.”

  “How was the place?”

  “It was okay except there were a few people left alive, don’t know how many and we didn’t stay to count them. They started yelling and shooting as soon as they saw us. Called us niggers and coons and said they’d kill us if we came back. I never seen Willie run so fast. That’s why we was afraid to leave home.”

  “I’ll bet,” Jake said. “No wonder Willie got spooked. We’ll have to be careful to avoid that bunch. Let’s get everything packed. We can eat jerky on the way and save the left over stew for supper tonight.”

  They did not make many miles that day. Jake’s ultra-caution, while keeping them safe, seriously im
peded any rapid progress. They moved in a progression of short sorties. Jake and Beth took turns scouting every bend in the road while the others waited in concealment until signaled to come ahead. They were in a rural farming area and homes were rare. Occasionally, they passed vehicles abandoned on the roadway. Some had the skeletons of the plague victims still inside them. Most of the afflicted had left their vehicles in an attempt to walk off the sleepiness that was the main symptom of the plague. Their bones were usually found a short distance away, scattered among the plants and small trees growing through the cracked asphalt.

  Another thing that slowed them down was Jake’s insistence they search any home that had a boat or ATV parked on the property. His reasoning was that those homes would be the most likely to have camping gear.

  He warned them there was a good chance they would find the remains of the owners in or around them. In this, he proved correct. The bones were in every home they entered. In three of them, the bones were in the dining room with an open bible on the table. The first time Janie saw them she was almost too afraid to stay inside. In the subsequent houses, she had them check each room before she would enter.

  After they searched several such homes, even Janie had a backpack. The kids gained warm jackets, rugged clothing and boots that fit. They also claimed an assortment of compact cooking and eating utensils, toiletries and lightweight sleeping bags. With each find, they discarded the ragged possessions they replaced. By the time the sun was lowering, the four of them were well-equipped hikers.

  They also found weapons. Jake was able to reclaim his ankle pistol from Beth. She gained a pistol and holster of her own, and an AK 47. Al claimed an AR 15. They found more ammo than they could carry.

  They found other weapons. These they covered with a coating of cooking oil and hid in places within the homes so no one doing a casual search would find them. Jake told them you never knew when you might be in the same area and need them.

  Beth wondered why the homes were not looted, prompting Jake to explain.

  “Here in the US we had a lot of time to prepare. Many people thought they could build shelters to hide from the plague, most simply stockpiled food and other supplies. The President took proactive steps to maintain order. After the Nuclear exchange overseas, the Federal Government declared martial law. To help forestall panic, FEMA began distributing food products, including survival rations. There were a lot of people who were preppers well before the plague existed. As a consequence, many homes had food in bulk, and most had firearms.

  “Do you remember when the plague started here in the US? How fast people began dying. Even though it took nearly three weeks for the plague to run its course, the majority of the deaths happened in the first week. America was and is a land of plenty. Our country was depopulated so fast there wasn’t time to consume or use a small fraction to the bounty available.”

  Beth wanted to gather canned foods, but Jake warned her not to. He detailed in vivid terms the two times he’d suffered food poisoning during the past year eating from old cans, even though they seemed okay and didn’t smell bad.

  The discovery of a large stash of irradiated dehydrated survival rations resolved Jake’s food supply concerns. This was in the basement of the last home they searched. The owner had obviously been one of the preppers Jake spoke of. The food was packaged in boxes from one of the many companies that had catered to the growing number of people stocking for catastrophe. The family members had retreated to the basement in hopes of avoiding the plague. They weren’t a neat bunch. Empty food pouches and water bottles littered the floor of the area. The prepping had not spared them from the plague. Their bones lay among the litter on the floor.

  Jake let them know that any irradiated foods would be good as long as the seal was intact. There were several large unopened boxes containing assorted food pouches. It was more than they could carry, so they took time to sort through, and divide the lightweight portions among their packs.

  He determined they had traveled enough for the day. There was a windowless outbuilding at this home. It was set back from the road, and a windbreak of pines and scrub concealed it from view. He decided a night inside the former woodworking shop would be good for them.

  Janie found candles in a drawer. Jake lit several, and began arranging workbenches and mismatched chairs into an eating and cooking area. The kids went to gather firewood. Jake was glad they had refilled their flasks and water containers at the last creek they crossed. Reconstituting dehydrated meals for four people would use a lot of water.

  Outside, they had finished collecting firewood and Beth was speaking earnestly.

  “Like I said, pay attention to everything he does and says. So far he’s saved our lives at least twice.”

  “I had a hand in the second one,” Al said.

  “I know you did, but whose idea was it to check out the road?” she replied sternly. “Those people would have killed us, or worse, if he hadn’t come along. The point is, he knew to get us away from there, he knows how to stay alive, he knows how to stay healthy and he knows how to kill. We have to be as tough and mean as he is.”

  “He’s not mean,” Janie said. “He’s scary sometimes, but he’s nice and he feeds us and now we got good stuff.”

  “You’re right,” Beth said. “I don’t mean ‘mean’ like a bad person, but he don’t think twice about killing bad people when he needs to. We need to be like him.”

  “I don’t want to kill people,” Janie said.

  “I know you don’t, honey. I’m mostly saying it for me and Al, but I still want you to pay attention and learn from him.”

  “I’m going to watch everything he does,” Al said. “An’ I agree with Janie, he’s not a bad man. I agree with you too, but killing ain’t easy. Let’s get this wood in. I’m starving.”

  “I didn’t say he was a bad—.”

  *

  Jake took the wood the kids brought and stacked it neatly near his small cook stove. “Left over turtle stew, tonight. There’s not much. We can have some beef stew or spaghetti after.”

  “Don’t let it get too hot, I’m hungry right now,” Al said.

  “Me too,” Janie echoed. “What’s spaghetti?”

  “That would be hard to describe,” Jake answered. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Janie dragged a chair close to the table and took over the job of feeding the thin sticks into the stove as they burned. Beth and Al pulled another table close by and began familiarizing themselves with their new rifles, asking Jake questions about them. After a few minutes Janie spoke.

  “I don’t think you’re a mean man. I think you’re nice.”

  Jake saw Beth cringe at Janie’s statement.

  “Thank you Janie… Since the die-off, I’ve done things I would’ve never considered doing before, but I’ve never harmed anyone who didn’t deserve it.”

  “Jake,” Beth said, “I wasn’t telling them you were a bad man. I said mean, like tough. I was telling them we needed to learn from you.”

  “That’s a very complimentary thing for you to say.” Jake turned to stir the stew. “We learn every day of our lives. I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot from the three of you. Now get your plates, this stew’s warm enough.”

  “Jake,” Al asked, “after we eat will you tell us more about what happened to the world like you said you would?”

  “I’ll tell you what I know, but it will take a while. I know more than most about what happened.”

  The turtle stew did not fill them, and by unanimous consent, Jake warmed two packets of spaghetti. Janie decided she liked spaghetti almost as much as jam.

  Jake had them make use of their new toothbrushes and paste while he cleaned the dishes. Janie had a hard time with her coordination and had them cracking up watching her efforts to get it right. She managed to look like a rabid dog frothing at the mouth. She laughed along with them, which only made her appear funnier.

  Jake went outside to check the area. He returne
d and had the kids pull seats close to where he sat.

  “Beth, you’re the oldest,” Jake began, “How about you tell us what you know about the death?”

  “I don’t know much. I remember Daddy saying there was an illness and we were at war with the rest of the world. Not too long after that, the sky started turning dark and funny looking. What I remember most, all the people living near us began dying and dying from the plague. None of us even got sick. Mamma said we must be immune or something.

  “We had bad weather for a long time. Snow and rain came one year, and stayed cold for two, except for a little while in the summers. It was so cold we had to eat out of cans ‘cause nothing would grow.”

  “What did your parents do for a living?”

  “Besides raising cows to sell, Daddy worked at a wood place making doors and windows. Mamma was a school teacher,” she said proudly.

  “That explains why I saw so many books in your home.”

  “Yeah,” Al said. “She made us read and taught us at home because there weren’t no…, wasn’t no….”

  “Weren’t any,” Jake supplied.

  “There weren’t any schools. Beth reads to us now almost every night. We been teaching Janie to read and do math. She’s quick at learning.”

  “I know she is, you all are,” Jake said. “I’ll give you a quick version of what happened. Nine years ago, in 2017, the dying started. It began in Australia. The onset was sudden and the spread was rapid. Over twenty two million people were dead within a month. It was estimated less than forty thousand people survived.

  The doctors were baffled. They found no pathogenic cause, nor any toxic agent. The only symptom reported was people got tired, and more tired, until they fell asleep and died. They didn’t suffer, it was painless, but once you got sick there was no recovery, you were dead within six hours.”

  “That’s the way people around here died,” Beth said. “Mamma said it seemed they just got tuckered out.”

  “As good a description as any.” Jake replied. “When the doctors and researchers who went there to help began getting sick, they tried to leave Australia, but no country would accept them. The United Nations imposed a quarantine of the continent, and allowed no one in or out. With no further outbreaks reported anywhere else in the world, the UN declared the plague contained.