"Yes. A wife and two boys," Jack said.
"I figured as much. So you were trying to walk back to Baltimore?"
"Yes."
"I thought so. So, let me ask you this Jack. You told me when yesterday that you walked from Clinton to Kansas City, and then all the way here, but you didn't say much else. Why come this way? I-70 is a straight shot. Was it already bad in Kansas City?" Wyatt asked.
Jack nodded. "Yes, I was turned away from Kansas City. It looked like things were going to go bad quickly in the big cities. I left the interstate and started walking the back roads. I wanted to cross the Missouri river at Cape Girardeau, and steer clear of the big cities up north along I-70."
Wyatt smacked his hand on his knee. "I knew it. Good thinking Jack. I agree, things are probably even worse now in the cities than right after the EMP hit. So you've really been walking this whole way?"
"Yeah," Jack said.
Wyatt snickered. "I'm sorry to laugh at you Jack, but didn't you think to get a bicycle? Barter something for it? You'd make better time."
Jack's cheeks burned hot as coals. Idiot. A bicycle.
"Well, I didn't really have anything to barter with. No cash in my wallet," Jack said.
"You could have traded a few days of labor for a bike. With tractors broken, I'm sure farmers are just itching for help. They've still got farms to run."
"That... didn't occur to me. I haven't seen anyone on a bike, or I probably would have thought of it myself. I've mostly been walking in the dark when the moon was bright enough. It's a lot cooler than walking during the day," Jack said.
"Can you ride a bike Jack?"
Jack furrowed his brow. Who was this man? Had he nursed him to health just to poke fun of him and make him feel stupid? What did he want?
"Get to the point."
"Well, the point revolves around whether you can ride a bike or not. Can you ride a bike, Jack," Wyatt asked.
"Yes. Of course I can ride a bike. What kind of idiot can't ride a bike?"
Wyatt leaned back on his milk crate, eyebrows arched. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and set it between his lips.
"An idiot without a bike," Wyatt said, giggling.
That stung.
"Oh, I'm just having some fun now, don't get angry. Just like you, I've got some place I need to go. Morgantown, West Virginia. Now if a fellar is taking the back roads then West Virginia is on the way to Baltimore, Maryland, if I'm not mistaken."
Curiosity was killing him. What was he getting at?
Wyatt stretched his leg out and stuck his booted foot up on a rock. He unlaced the boot, and rolled his blue jeans up, exposing an artificial leg. He placed his hand just above the knee, gesturing with a sawing motion.
"This is where they took 'er off. See, I can't walk back to West Virginia. I can't even ride a bicycle. I guess I could hobble there, but it would take me a year or two. The way I figure it Jack, we're both going the same direction."
"What are you getting at Wyatt?" Jack's stomach rumbled loudly. Now that he was awake again, he was famished.
Wyatt ladled a bowl of stew out of the pot and handed it to Jack.
"I've got a bicycle and a bike trailer stowed away in my rig. The trailer is sturdy enough to haul a few hundred pounds,"
Jack spooned the stew in. It tasted incredible after a steady diet of nothing for the past week. This bowl wasn't watered down like the first.
The pieces of the puzzle were easy enough to put together once Wyatt mentioned the trailer.
"Are you telling me you want me to haul you around in a bike trailer, from here to West Virginia?"
"Bingo. He's got it in one, ladies and gentlemen. Now, you might be thinking you could just take the bike from me and ride off without me. I can't run all that fast, I'm missing a leg after all, right?"
Jack shook his head vigorously. "I wouldn't do something like that. That is not who I am. Besides, you saved my life, I couldn't just turn around and steal from you."
"Well, he is a decent person after all." Wyatt winked.
"I'm just fooling with you Jack. While you were unconscious I went through your wallet. I saw you were from back east. I also saw pictures of your family. You're a family man, a good person. I don't know why, but I just had a feeling you were somebody worth saving."
Jack reached for his back pocket, his wallet still in place.
"Sorry for going through your things Jack, but I don't trust people. I didn't know you from Adam. Sure, I would have helped you out either way, but I need to know if you were decent folks or not.
Back to the proposal we were talking about. While I can't pedal a bike, I can do a lot of other stuff to pull my own weight.
I noticed you've got some snare wires and fishing line in your backpack. Had any luck? You don't look like a fellar that knows how to set a snare, if you don't mind me saying so. Food is getting scarce, and people are going to stop sharing what they have. They have to look out for their own families. It's human nature.
Where I come into all of this is that I can hunt, fish, trap, and forage. I'm not talking about using some silly emergency kit snares, or fooling around with a line and hook. I'm telling you that if worst comes to worst, I can keep our bellies full living off the land."
Wyatt paused and lit another cigarette.
Jack shook his head in amazement. He'd never seen someone smoke so much in his life.
"That's just for starters. Now, I also know about people Jack, especially country people. If we need to barter for something, I'm the guy you want to have with you. Heck, that was true even before the EMP happened.
Frankly Jack, I'm surprised you made it this far. You started out with next to nothing and hiked this far. You've done pretty good considering you had to stop and find food along the way. The two of us as a team? We could be on our way home after you're back on your feet. In fact, with what I've got in the back of my trailer, we won't have to waste time scrounging around for food.
So what do you say Jack? An honest job, you haul me around, and I'll make sure you have a full belly every day? A fair deal?"
"Why, what’s in the back of your truck?" Jack asked.
Wyatt sat back on his milk crate, grinning. "Well, there's a lot of junk back there in the way that we'll need to clear out before we can get to the good stuff. Eight pallets of premium canned dog food. Shrink wrapped and sitting just as pretty as can be in the trailer.
Jack took another bite of his stew, shaking his head in confusion. "How does dog food help us? What, are we going to trade it or something?"
Wyatt reached down and picked up a can next to the campfire. He tossed it over to Jack.
Jack caught the can and turned it over. The label pictured a golden retriever, sitting at attention, his paw extended as if he was begging for something.
"Hungry Hound Beef and Vegetable Stew. Because your pet deserves the best. Tender real cuts of carrots, potatoes, and beef."
The can was opened, the circular metal lid hanging from the can. Jack brought the can up to his face and sniffed at the contents.
He dropped the bowl of stew to the ground, his eyes watering as he tried to keep his food down.
Wyatt laughed loudly and clapped his hands together.
"Oh come on now Jack, that stuff probably comes off the same factory line as the stuff they sell in the grocery store, they just slap another label on it. Hell, you didn't know any better until I said something," Wyatt said.
"You let me eat dog fo--," Jack said, doubling over, unable to control his stomach any longer. Emptying his stomach to the sound of Wyatt's laughter.
Chapter 16
Amy set the deadbolt and leaned against the front door for support. Her legs felt like rubber, exhausted from the run home. Seeing the home in one piece was a huge relief, she was afraid she would find nothing more than a pile of ashes.
"Do some stretching so you don't end up with leg cramps, and then get upstairs and take a shower. Make it quick, there isn't going to be mu
ch water left," she said. "After you get cleaned up get something to eat. You burned a lot of calories today."
The boys, too tired to harass each other, ascended the staircase in silence.
She was proud of them. Kenny had pushed himself hard, running a great deal farther than he'd ever run before, and he did it without complaining. Danny made the run with little difficulty, but had been troubled at the sight of looting and rampant fires. He was emotionally exhausted, worried about his father and what he'd seen on the run home.
She had tried to steer them clear of trouble, but the fires encompassed entire neighborhoods, several square miles of homes ablaze with smaller untouched sections. There weren't many people on the streets, though she didn't think anything of it until halfway through the run home.
Running down a street that the fires had already burned through, Danny caught sight of a body lying in a front yard, charred beyond recognition. Danny was terrified. He finished the run, but the sight of the body had silenced him. It would haunt her dreams tonight too.
She sat at the kitchen table, and picked up Jack's journal she'd read the night before. She read the first sentence of the page several times, eyes following along his notes, neatly hand written in blue ink. She couldn't get her mind off of Jack. Tears fell from her cheeks onto the pages, smudging the words. Where was he? Was he alive? Was he trying to get home? Would they see him again? Would they ever find out what happened to him?
Kenny tromped down the steps, and she wiped her eyes and put on a brave face.
Jack wasn't here, but she had his notebooks. She flipped through the pages and reread the notes. Most of it described what would happen during an EMP. She needed more practical information, like what to do after an EMP.
She went downstairs to his bookshelf and perused the notebooks. Three of them looked promising, all labeled 'General preparedness notes', and brought them upstairs with her.
"Mom, Danny, I'm making a sandwich, anybody want one?" Kenny asked.
"I'll take one," Danny said.
She kept the shock from her face. Did Kenny just offer to make sandwiches? Who was this thoughtful boy?
"Uh, sure Kenny. Thanks," she said.
"The fridge isn't very cold," Kenny said, removing cheese and mayo from the fridge.
Amy frowned, she should have thought of that earlier. The power was off, and they would need to eat the refrigerated food before it spoiled. The deep freezer would need to be dealt with as well. How long would it last before it thawed?
"Don't open the freezer, we need to keep the food cold for as long as possible," she said.
After they finished eating, she prepared to set the boys to work. Time was not on their side. What supplies they had on hand were all they were going to have for a long time. There wouldn't be any more weekly visits to the grocery store. She needed to move fast to find out what they were dealing with. First on her mind was ensuring that their own house didn't join all the others that had gone up in flames. If the power happened to come back on, it could cause shorts and start a fire. The power coming on at all was a long shot, but not a risk worth taking.
"Boys, I've been reading your dad's notes. I never thought something like this could actually happen. I think we all realize now that this is a serious situation, and nothing to make light of. I'm going to be more cautious from now on. We need to make sure we protect what we have, starting with our home.
If the electric company gets the grid online again, some of the appliances could shorts and start a fire. I want you two to go around the house, room by room, and unplug anything plugged in to an electrical outlet. I'll go downstairs and shut the main breaker off. Be thorough, and check each other's work. After that I'm going to read your dad's notebooks and see what we should do next."
"So you don't think dad's a nutter now?" Kenny asked, a smirk on his face.
"I never said your father was a nutter. I think my exact quote was that the neighbors might think he's a nutter if they saw him scribbling away in his notebooks," she said.
"Uh huh, sure mom."
"All right, I'll admit that I was wrong wise guy. Now, let's get to it. Go check those outlets," she said.
Amy shut off the main breaker and went to check on the deep freezer. It was cold, five degrees above zero according to the thermometer. She went shopping three days ago, and the deep freezer was stuffed to capacity. It would keep longer than if it were half empty, they probably had a couple of days before the food would need to be dealt with.
Comforted that the deep freezer could be put off for now, she worked down a checklist from Jacks notebooks. Water. If the city water system stopped, they were out of luck. There was no telling how long until that happened, but she wasn't going to sit idly by. She recalled quite clearly that there were four blue fifty-five gallon plastic water drums in the garage. One more set of nuisances that took up a lot of space in the garage. And another one of his preparations that had irritated her, that she was now thankful to have.
When the boys were done unplugging appliances, she would have them fill the drums. That would give them two hundred and twenty gallons of drinking water, in addition to an entire shelf full of bottled water.
"Mom, we unplugged everything. Gamestations, televisions, refrigerator, lamps, the washer and dryer, and everything else" said Kenny.
"Excellent work guys. Do you remember those blue barrels in the garage? Get some liquid dish soap and a soft brush and wash them out thoroughly. Once they are clean bring them to the basement and fill them up with water."
"Why are we doing all this mom? Is the water going to stop working?" asked Danny.
"It might or it might not Danny. We are not going to take any chances though," she said.
Amy took a fresh notebook and pen and went into the basement. Too much had happened in the last day. She was exhausted, physically and mentally. If she sat down even for a moment, she would end up a crying mess. That was the last thing the boys needed right now. They needed to see their mother in control and confidant. She could cry later when they went to bed. Right now, she could take stock of what they had on hand.
Walking through the rows of shelving, it surprised her how much Jack had managed to stock away. In fact, he had become interested in doing all of the grocery shopping a few years ago. She should have been more suspicious, but given the quantity of food here, she couldn't complain.
Each staple food was represented; cans of soup, boxes of noodles, potted meats, cans of tuna, and jars of jellies and peanut butter. There were large tubs of flour, sugar, sacks of rice, and containers of beans. How would she cook without the electric stovetop? It was something to figure out, but at least they had food. They were better off than many people would be right now. Many of her friends shopped on a whim and didn't stockpile foods. They had little more than what was in their pantry.
A large object boomed loudly as it tumbled down the steps just behind her.
Amy nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound. She spun around to see one of the blue fifty-five gallon drums at the foot of the steps.
"Kenny, you about scared me to death."
Kenny stood at the top of the steps, as surprised as she was. "Sorry Mom, I didn't see you down there" said Kenny, smirking.
Amy squinted her eyes and leveled a look at him, before she smiled thinly and let him off the hook.
Now that she had a good idea of how much food and water they had, she was even more relieved. Jack had stockpiled a massive amount of food. What else did Jack have stashed away in the basement? She often heard him going into the weight room in the basement, but knew that he wasn't lifting weights.
Amy opened the door, eyeing the two large metal cabinets across the room from her. She didn't come down into the basement much, and had never asked him what was inside of them. Trying the handle, the doors remained firmly locked.
Curious, she continued to catalog other supplies, making a mental note to come back to the shelves when she found a key to fit the cabinet and see wh
at was inside.
Chapter 17
Wyatt tossed a set of keys in Jack's direction, sending them through the air in a high arc.
"The trailer keys," he said.
Jack snatched his hand out, deftly grabbing the keychain from the air. Four days ago he could barely sit up on his own, now he could hardly sit still. Wyatt insisted that he rest until he was fully recovered from the fever before they attempted to unload the pallets of dog food from the tractor-trailer.
He was itching to get it done. The road tugged at his mind. Every passing day spent in recovery was one more day that should have been used to put miles behind him. There wasn't any question what he would do, his mind was set. If pulling Wyatt's trailer along got him home, he'd do it. He would swallow his pride, and eat the dog food. Whatever it took to get home.
EMP Aftermath Series (Book 1): The Journey Home Page 10
