No Normal Day IV (Travelers)

by Richardson, J.

  Kevin said, “But, we are alive, Dad. We have the donkeys and the wagon and we have always had something to eat. Why didn't the people just do what the people at Unity or in Bandera or those people down on the river did, they are fine, aren't they?”

  Jeff put his hand on his son's shoulder, “Son, many people just didn't know how to take care of themselves, they forgot or didn't know how to use the land and what they had to survive. They really thought that the world would be back like it was, in a while. When that did not happen, it was too late for some to change.”

  Cissy said, “Yeah, Kev. Think about the way it was where I lived. I remember when they stopped handing out food, everyone got desperate and they got mean. If anyone, like my father, tried to have a garden or had anything to eat, someone would take it. We should have left but my mother was very sick by then. If those people could have gotten Girl, they would have eaten her. Maybe...maybe that's why orphaned children disappeared.”

  Kevin got very angry, “Oh, bull! That's not true, they wouldn't have eaten kids. That's just crazy, isn't it Dad?”

  Cissy exchanged a very pained look with Jeff. She looked away and said, “Probably not.”

  Jeff said, “Look, there are a lot of bad people out there,” he pulled both of the children to him, “But we have each other, we are a team and we are going to take care of each other, right?”

  Cissy held on tight, “Right.”

  Kevin still gave her a doubting look but he grabbed her hand, “Let's go see what's for supper.”

  ***

  Jeff didn't have a precise record of what day it was, he had always kept calenders and tried to mark off days. At the end of the year, even if he had to correct an old one, he tried to continue to keep track of the days. As near as he could figure, it was the twenty first day of December, 2031. The community or town that had been near the river was very small, it had possibly been an oil town. There was very little left standing, a few brick buildings. One of those was an old school. It had been their experience that old schools had libraries and when the father saw the school, he said to Kevin, “Hey, think there are some books in there?”

  Cissy smiled at the thought of new books and Kevin said, “Sure, let's go see.”

  He and Emily led the way, just in case of animals or human inhabitants. Jeff couldn't help but wonder, how long had the people here survived, the school did not seemed looted or destroyed, as usual time had taken it's toll, weather and varmints creeping through broken windows and into neglected spaces. It wasn't a big school and they walked the halls until they spotted the Library sign. The typical rows of wooden shelves, tables with small chairs, posters and maps that drooped from the walls filled the room. Cissy let out a little exclamation of glee and she and Kevin walked along the shelves. Jeff said, “Don't forget, those poor old donkeys are pulling quite a load already. Pick out four books each.”

  It was cold in the building, in the corner sat an old pot bellied wood burning stove. Emily poked around and found what looked like a supply room. Pencils and Paper, glue and other school supplies, all thick with dust lined up neatly on the shelves. In the corner, a small old artificial Christmas tree leaned, beside it a small box of ornaments and lights. She had an idea and called Jeff into the little room. He left the library for a while and returned with an ax and a couple of lanterns. There was the noise of wood splintering, and soon there was a fire burning in the old wood burning stove. Not much worry about ventilation as a couple of the windows had broken panes. The evening approached early, Jeff lit the lanterns and put them on one of the long library tables. On another table, Emily spread an old cloth tablecloth that she found and sat the small Christmas tree.

  Jeff had toted their sleeping bags and blankets into the library and some food supplies so they could put together a supper. He unharnessed the donkeys and left the wagon at the entrance to the school, tied them on a long leads and gave them water and food. All afternoon, as the children were engrossed in the book shelves, Girl had followed them around. When the blankets were thrown temporarily in the corner, she curled right up and went to sleep. Emily sat the small tree on the table with the cloth and told the children to take out the decorations and put them on the tree. Neither child had really ever had a Christmas celebration. With a pot of a stew simmering on the old stove, Emily read from a copy of the Night Before Christmas, that she found. She gave the children the school supplies including unopened boxes of crayons and the four of them played some card games.

  Kevin and Cissy thought that it was the most wonderful day, they sat at the table by the lantern and talked about the books they had chosen. Emily decided that she would keep some of the empty school notebooks and perhaps start a journal about her new life and family. She remembered how Dianne, back at Unity had kept a diary of the family's life there, for years. Jeff took his flashlight and walked around in the room, the walls were in shadows but he used the light to study some of the aging maps. One of the maps was titled The Butterfield Overland Mail Route. He studied the map closer, a red line left San Francisco, moved down through California, across Arizona and New Mexico into Texas very near where they were celebrating their first family Christmas. It then went northward through the Indian Territory and up into Missouri to St. Louis. This fascinated the man who had become a mail man of sorts. He went to the old card catalogs and searched for a book about the history of the area and the mail route.

  He found three or four books and took them to the table by the lantern. The books told the story of how the Butterfield was a stagecoach route, the first trans continental route that delivered mail and also took passengers. The nearby town of Fort Stockton was established around Comanche Springs, once the third largest spring water source in Texas. It had been a rest stop for the old stagecoach route. It was garrisoned to protect the stagecoach and to protect the residents from Indians. He read some of the history out loud to the family. They all thought it was very interesting to be right near one of first and original American mail routes.

  It was a special day for the family, they all slept well that night and woke to flurries of snow that blew through one of the broken windows. Jeff fed the cast iron stove and the travelers spent two more nights in the shelter of the old school. By the third morning, very likely Christmas Day 2031, the sun was shining and the family bundled up and loaded up. They kept the meandering river in sight and trusted that as long as they let the waters guide them, they would move towards their destination. The giant hammers continued to dot the landscape and the view stayed dry, bare and deserted.

  On the North American continent, the months of January and February meant winter time, it was just a matter of where you were, as to how wintry. The travelers had followed the river all the way out of Texas, across the border with New Mexico where the Red Bluff Reservoir had dammed up the river, forming a lake. The cold wind and occasional snows followed right along with them. Some days they trudged along a few more miles and some they had to stay put in a campsite and let the harsh weather blow over. It was late January when they made it to the old New Mexico town of Carlsbad. All of these past two hundred miles, they had not seen a single living human being in the desolate countryside. The four set up camp, near the river that ran frigid and calm through the old town and glided under a concrete bridge.

  The afternoon quiet was shattered by the shrill barking of Girl. She ran as fast as her short legs could take her, across the rocky dry terrain around them. She wove around scrubby bushes and sailed over small stones. Kevin looked up and squatted down, she ran right up into his arms, panted and licked, “It's okay, Girl,” he took her towards the back of the wagon.

  “Wait, Kev, look...” said Cissy. Three figures that looked like the “barely alive” people back at the military camp stumbled along after the dog.

  Jeff and Emily came around to the back of the wagon. Jeff said to the children, “Get up in the wagon.” They both jumped over into the wagon and in a second their rifles rested on the back barrier. “Don't do anyth
ing unless I say,” said the father.

  Emily had her hand on her pistol, she stood near the wagon. Jeff moved forward a little and stopped the three desperate survivors. He tried to keep his voice casual, “Hey where are you folks going?”

  A man and woman looked around frantically for their prey. The third man said, “Have you got any food? We are starving.” He looked at Jeff with glazed eyes, “We had food...we walked and walked and then...I lost my gun in the river and... and we had food but now it's gone.”

  Jeff looked beyond the three, he wanted to know if anyone else was around, “Is it only the three of you, have you seen anyone else around here?”

  Again, the man mumbled, “We walked and walked...no one else.”

  Jeff gave Emily a look, she brought out a bag with about ten biscuits. He reached in the wagon and got a blanket and threw it down on the ground. “Here, sit down. C'mon, all of you sit down.” They dropped to the ground and he gave them the bag with the biscuits. They wolfed them down.

  The man that had talked pushed the biscuit into his mouth. Jeff touched his arm and said, “Listen. Hey, are you listening to me?” The man looked up but still chewed. “I have a little food that I can share. You three are going to have to find some shelter here and figure out how you are going to eat, at least until the weather warms up a bit. There's fish in that river. I will give you some matches and if you boil your water, you will have plenty.”

  The man, with something in his stomach looked a little more lucid. “Mister, until I lost my gun, I was getting a rabbit or something every once in a while. We left a small group of survivors because it was getting so bad there. We thought we would find other survivors but we didn't and it kept getting worse and worse.”

  Jeff said, “I will give you the small amount of food that I can spare and matches. I have a pellet pistol and some pellets that I will give you. You are near dead, and if you don't start acting smart, you will be soon.” He scanned the area surrounding them. “We will give you a bit more food for tonight, and you go away from this area. You take the blanket and find shelter. Don't come around here or we will shoot you, understand?” The man looked at Kevin and Cissy's rifles on the back of wagon, Jeff's weapon on his shoulder and he nodded yes. “You see that cross sticking up, way over there? It is most likely a church. After the sun is up tomorrow, you go there, I will leave what I can for you. It will be in a bag and you will have to look for it.” Emily came from the side of the wagon and handed the man some rabbit meat wrapped up in paper. “Go,” said Jeff, “Now!” The three got up, the woman wadded up the blanket and they walked away towards some decayed buildings in the town.

  The family stood watch the rest of the night. It was not quite daylight but they could see the faint outline of the cross up ahead. It was an old church, most of it had fallen in, the cross still defiantly stretched up on a remaining piece of roof. Jeff climbed in a broken side window, the front door was caved in. He stowed the bag under what had been a choir bench. They had put matches, some rice and dried beans and a small knife in the bag, also some aspirin and antibiotic cream, with some string and fish hooks. The donkeys pulled them away from the town by the time the sun was above the horizon.

  Emily rode next to Jeff and said, “You know that will probably not make a difference, they are not going to make it long.”

  Jeff picked up her hand and kissed the back of it, “I know, but we are.” The wagon hugged the river bank, moved north, the big rising sun to their side.

  ***

  Five days later, the travelers camped not far from the river and not far from the New Mexico town of Roswell. They had come up on an old deserted ranch, with the original house fallen down, a few outbuildings and a barn in mostly the same condition with only a portion that still stood. Near the barn was an old stock tank and windmill, the tank was nearly full of water. They set up camp there and that evening around their fire, Jeff told them what he knew about the nearby town.

  Before the big event, when Jeff still lived in California, he remembered a story of the old missile silos that were near Roswell. He was only in his early twenties at the time and had just met the woman he would marry, Kevin's mother. A news story about a private investor who had purchased one of the old silos brought up the history of the Air Force base and the silos. It had intrigued the young man and he even told his new fiancee, “I am going to see that place, someday.”

  Jeff told the tale to his interested listeners, who sat in the glow of the flames. “Nearly a hundred years ago, way back in the 1940's, there was an Air Force base built in Roswell. It was actually about the biggest in the US. It was obviously a testing range and seemed a bit secretive. Then something crashed near the base, in the desert. There were various stories told by the government to explain what type of craft had crashed. They did not match the stories of some of the residents and even military who said it was something strange and they had never seen a plane or anything like it.”

  “What was it, Dad?” asked Kevin.

  “Well, son, there never was a good explanation. Some swore it was a UFO...an unidentified object from outer space and that the government had recovered an alien body. Of course, none of this was ever proven and the rumors continued. The base operated until the late 1960's, it was a part of the Strategic Air Command and during the cold war, missile silos were built for Atlas missiles. Three of them blew up during some of the trials and eventually the silos were shut down. The base was closed due to government cut backs.”

  Emily said, “Pretty interesting, huh? Think there was ever really anything to the rumors?”

  Jeff laughed, “Oh, I don't know. I was always fascinated with the stories and wanted to come here. I also heard, not long before things went haywire, that some folks had turned the old silos into survival bunkers. The government supposedly had cleaned up any toxic chemicals or such that had been released in the explosions. I was too young to do much thinking about end of the world things, but lots of people had began to prepare for a catastrophe. They were even nicknamed “Preppers”. A lot of folks believed something was going to happen in the world and they were trying to form a plan to survive.”

  Cissy's pretty little face rested on her hands, “Were you a prepper, Dad?” She had just recently picked up calling him “Dad”.

  “Wasn't smart enough to be thinking ahead, pretty girl,” he smiled, “But, I was smart enough to not just lay down and quit when things went all wrong.”

  Emily looked at her new family, “Thank goodness.”

  It was cool by the fire, not unpleasant at all that night. Jeff stood and clapped his hands together, “So! Who wants to go looking for space men tomorrow?” There was enthusiastic agreement.

  Chapter Seven

  Secrets in the Desert

  The plan was to be back at the campsite by evening, always cautious, the explorers each loaded a back pack with basics. Guns were checked and extra ammo packed. The wagon was pulled closer into the still standing part of the barn, fairly well hidden and they staked out the donkeys on long leads that let them graze and access the water tank. Jeff's old atlas did have a city close-up that gave him a pretty good idea of which direction to head. The military base had been located on the southwest side of the city, from their camp he believed they could get to the base without actually entering the old city.

  As the four moved across open range, a half dozen antelope bounded away. Girl gave a yip-yip from her sling around Kevin's neck. A tall old rusting water tower could be seen in the distance, faint bits of red and white paint visible. A brick entrance sign read Roswell Industrial Air Center, the name of the sprawling complex in the early part of the twenty first century. Old hangars, barracks and buildings dotted the terrain and the straight as an arrow tarmac was grown up with weeds, spidery cracks splitting the pavement. They eased around, peered in some structures and silently moved deeper onto the old base.

  Jeff paused in front of a small quonset hut building and said, “Let's rest here a minute.” Two heavy m
etal doors appeared to be permanently closed and an arch provided a bit of shade. He squatted, Emily and the kids sat down, leaned against the doors, they took out their water bottles. The dog had walked along with them around the base, she now climbed up in Cissy's lap. Around the aging buildings, they saw no sign of humans, a tumbleweed went rolling across their view.

  Kevin sat up to his knees, “Listen, do you hear that?” A very low hum echoed. He had barely finished his question, when the big doors ground apart. Emily and Cissy fell backwards in the doorway. Jeff jumped up and all four of them were on their feet, reaching for guns. Two uniformed men with their rifles leveled at the family, stood in a surprisingly bright hallway that stretched behind them for several feet.

  “Step forward...hands up,” ordered one of the men. Kevin reached down and lifted Girl into the sling and s-shushed her. They all took one step forward and the heavy doors banged loudly shut behind them. “Weapons please, and throw your packs here.” One of the men stepped up and patted each of them down, turned up a couple of small pistols and knives. The second soldier searched all of the packs, after some extra ammo was removed, he pushed them back towards them. He took the weapons and ammo. “You can put your hands down,” said the soldier. “This way,” he urged them ahead with his rifle. Emily gave Jeff a frightened look, he nudged the kids in front of them and nodded for them to move.