by Pete Thorsen
“Anybody can get ambushed. Even you. I’ll just go with you and you’ll see how valuable I am in no time.”
Cal had just kept walking this whole time and the woman had been walking to keep up with him. He said no more and thankfully neither did the woman. Cal continued to open each vehicle they came to and the woman found a shirt in one and a jacket in another. She put the shirt on and carried the jacket even though both were way too big for her slim frame.
Coming to a small pond very close to the road the woman ran over and washed up some as when Cal had shot the man some of his blood had got all over the woman. When Cal pried the trunk open on one car the trunk was full of bags from a grocery store as the people were obviously on their way home from getting groceries. Cal unloaded the wagon completely and they put all the canned goods and drinks in the bottom of the wagon and when the woman saw the other backpack she quickly emptied it and then refilled it to make it more practical to carry.
This opened up a lot more room in the wagon which they totally filled. Now they both had packs on and the wagon was filled and tarped down. The canned stuff and the drinks (no water but juice and some Gatorade) made the wagon a lot heavier and harder to pull but the land here was very flat and with the fairly large pneumatic tires it still was no problem pulling it.
When the woman saw the extra pistols in the wagon she looked at Cal then took one with the holster and put it on her hip. Cal noticed she ejected the magazine then racked the slide to see if it had a round in the chamber (it did not) before reinserting the mag and putting a round in the pipe so it was ready to use. She did seem competent with the gun. She looked at the shotguns and suggested that one be loaded and stuck through the bungees outside of the tarp for easy access if they needed it. Without answering Cal put the barrel on, loaded it, and set it aside until they had the load tarped down then stuck it where it could be easily pulled out and used.
Even though the wagon was pretty full they continued to go through vehicles on the road and found a few things in just about every one. Cal always took anything that could be used as a fire starter as he knew those would be valuable in times ahead and added little weight or bulk. In the afternoon Cal again took to a road that paralleled the highway so they could look for a place to stay the night. It wasn’t long when they found a place with a couple out buildings that were not burnt.
The woman realized Cal’s plan right away and seemed to approve, helping to clear a space in one shed making enough room for them and the wagon. She then walked around and rummaged in the buildings and strung some rope and twine from tree to tree to posts and the shed they planned to sleep in. Then she hung a few tin cans and pop cans into which she placed a few rocks so the rope would make an early alarm system. Cal just nodded at the woman to show his approval.
That night she asked if they should take turns being on guard but Cal said he thought they both needed all the sleep they could get and he thought it would be counter productive. Cal gave her the sleeping bag and he used the sleeping pad and the blanket. The next morning they were up early and on the road. They went back on the highway again and the woman asked where he was headed. He told her he had no real destination just was heading south before winter. She dropped the subject so apparently she also had no place to go.
With most all buildings burnt even if you had family somewhere it really wouldn’t help you because all their houses would likely be burnt down too. At their lunch break that day the woman mentioned that it would be a good idea to look for another cart of some kind for her so they could increase what they could haul. Cal told her they would likely be able to find something soon with so many houses in the area and shortly they left the highway for the road that ran along nearby so they could check out homes along the route. They looked in most of the places they came to but though they found a few wheeled carts nothing they found would meet their needs.
Late in the afternoon they came across a bicycle trailer made to haul two young children inside. It was fully covered with a zip open ‘door’. It had only two wheels but did have a fairly long tongue to attach to a bike. The woman asked Cal if he could fashion some kind of handle on it to make it possible for her to pull. He looked around in the two buildings that were still standing at the place and found a small d-handled shovel then using a saw he found there also he cut the handle off the shovel and fastened the clamp on the end of the trailer tongue to the handle.
Now the little two-wheeled trailer had a pull handle very similar to the pull handle on his cart. If they were careful how and what they put in the trailer it should pull quite easy with the two large bike wheels it had on it. By this time the sun was low in the sky and Cal decided they may as well stay where they were for the night. In the morning they returned to the highway and started going through all the vehicles they came to again on their trek to the south. This smaller highway did not have as many semi trucks but they did often find cube trucks or vans. Most of the items were of little value anymore but by the end of the day they had about half filled the new trailer.
That night they stayed in a small barn that had never been wired so was still standing. They both had very comfortable hay beds and both slept soundly. That night the woman only rigged up a makeshift alarm on the doors of the barn. Cal thought it was a pretty good idea but never said anything. So far having the woman with had not hurt anything as she was very quiet when they were walking, only speaking when something needed to be said. Cal had never found that trait in a woman before as most liked to hear themselves speak.
The two were finding enough food and drinks to not deplete their supply that they were carrying but Cal knew that soon that would change and both food and clean water would be harder and harder to find. The water they could get from the ponds they often saw along the roadway. He had the water filter and they could boil the water also. He wondered again about following a train track in the hopes of a big find but they might walk for days without even finding a train let alone one that was hauling things they could use so he put that on the back burner for now.
The next morning they again headed south on the highway. They were getting closer to Denver they could tell as the houses were definitely getting closer together and they were seeing more and more people on the highway traveling north away from Denver. Of course many wanted to talk especially when they saw one of them was a woman but the two just waved them off and kept walking.
Cal had his map and knew they would be taking the highway 470 bypass around Denver and when he saw a sign that said highway 470 was only four miles ahead he suggested they stop early for the night and get started before dawn if possible the next day. They could see some buildings in the distance and made their way ahead to them looking for a likely place to stop. The buildings turned out to be mostly burnt up shells and they kept looking, at least at this point nothing was still burning but you could smell that burnt smell in the air.
They were having no luck finding some place suitable to stay and just kept heading south. Finally the woman suggested they just have their supper and get back on the highway and try traveling that night. Cal thought they had nothing to lose with that plan and they had a quick supper and got back on the highway near the intersection with highway 470 which they took. It turned east more then south and bypassing most of the city of Denver.
They saw no one else on the road and the half moon provided plenty of light for their needs. They made no stops at any vehicle now as their only thought was to get away from Denver. They walked most of the night and both were tired but they thought they were through Denver when they came to interstate 25 and took that south. Shortly they got on a side road and found a place that looked OK in the dim light and got inside to get some needed sleep. The woman placed a couple empty glass bottles she found and a couple of tin cans with a few rocks inside at the door of the shed they were in and both went right to sleep.
The bottles tipping over woke them and they both had pistols in their hands as the door swung open revealing a ra
ther portly later middle-aged man standing in the bright sun shine. Not seeing a gun on the man Cal pulled him in and slapped his hand over the man’s mouth as he shoved his pistol into the man’s neck saying “Make a sound and you are dead.”
The woman went to the door and while staying inside looked both ways to see as much as she could without exposing her head then she looked at Cal and shook her head. Cal slowly removed his hand from the man’s mouth and said “Very quietly tell me how many more are outside.”
“There is no one. Only me. I lived in the house just down the road and thought I would check in here for any supplies.”
Cal then noticed the large wet spot in the man’s pants and thought he was not likely a threat. He glanced outside and saw that it must be around midday then released the man. “I’ll let you go but don’t hang around here. I suggest you go back home for an hour or so then your welcome to come back here to look for supplies. But if I see you again before that I’m likely to shoot you on sight. Now get lost.”
The man left on a waddling run until he was out of sight. As long as they were up Cal and the woman had breakfast and then headed back to the interstate to continue their trek after looking around for anything useful in the shed. On the interstate they did look in most vehicles they came to and Cal pried open several trunks. One was full of luggage which they looked in but it only had women’s clothes in them. The woman looked through the clothes very thoroughly and took several pieces which she put in her pack.
There was a partial case of bottled water in the trunk also which they took. On this interstate highway there were a large number of semis. Sometimes these had the trailer doors locked and sometimes they were open. They looked inside all of these but some of them had pallets of shrink wrapped goods piled full to near the roof and they could only see the end pallets very easy and then only what was on top. But they kept looking at each truck. They went through a UPS delivery van and Cal opened every box that was heavy. He found one that had several boxes of ammo inside. None for his guns but some 9 m/m’s for the woman’s pistol which she put in her pack and a 25 round box of double ought buck shot for their shotgun. Cal switched out the bird shot that was in the shotgun for the buckshot. The rest of the ammo Cal put in the wagon for trade goods or to use if they got different guns.
The afternoon went quickly and soon they were again searching for a place for staying the night. Spotting some buildings they left the highway and approached them carefully. They soon found several sheds that looked promising and opened each for a look inside. They checked out five different sheds and looked through the stuff inside each. They picked one to stay in but at Cal’s suggestion they left it and went a ways away to have a leisurely supper waiting for full dark before returning to the shed and bedding down for the night. This shed door opened out so Cal managed to lightly wire it shut by candle light and they leaned several items against the door to make sure they woke up if it was opened. Then it was lights out until morning.
Chapter Six
The next morning it was the same ritual and soon they were opening vehicles on the highway again. Often there were other people walking by and some times they voiced their opinions on them breaking into the vehicles. Cal thought those people wouldn’t last long in this new world. First was the fact that they would have no way to likely keep themselves fed and second was the fact that unless you were well armed it would be best to keep your opinions to yourself or you might find yourself dead. When they stopped for lunch Cal surprised the woman by saying “My name is Cal Johansson.”
The woman was quiet for a minute and then replied “I’m Ann Greenburg. Thank you for saving me when we met.”
“You’re welcome.”
They did only bare minimum talking through lunch but very slowly throughout the afternoon there was a gradual increase in talking between them. There were no life stories or anything but they did talk a little bit more. That evening they again continued past when they found the spot they would stay the night and after supper and the fall of darkness they went back to bed down for the night. Doing it that way increased their safety for the night and was very little bother for them.
In the afternoon of the following day they found an unmarked grocery truck (they found out after getting it open). It was not a semi but just a regular cube truck. It was not a refrigerated truck and still locked. Cal no longer had the steel post he had been using to open vehicles instead he had found a three foot wrecking bar in one of the sheds. It did not have the leverage of the six and a half foot post but was easier to carry and had a hook on one end. It worked fine and soon they had the door open.
The truck was not plumb full but it had a lot and was definitely on its way to a store for delivery. After looking at what was in the truck they thought it was likely on it way to a small mom-and-pop type store. But it really did not matter where it was headed only that it had a lot of food and it was all theirs (at least for the moment). Now what to do with it.
Cal told Ann about the idea he had of finding a bunch of food and then just laying up for maybe a month to let things sort themselves out some. Maybe this would be the time to do that. Other wise their other option was to sort through and pick out maybe a hundred pounds of this food and just leave the rest. Ann was not sold on the plan to stay in one place. She thought movement was the best way to stay alive. Resources like this truck were very limited and would disappear quickly.
If he did want to get farther south before winter then they should keep moving while they might still find food along the way. She said she could see his point about staying but she thought the risks out weighed the any benefits. If they were going to be able to live through the winter it would likely take quite awhile to find a suitable location and then stock it up for winter. Realizing that part about finding and stocking up was very true, Cal agreed with her. So they unloaded both the wagon and the trailer and after going through all the items in the truck they repacked both for what they thought was optimized food value versus weight/bulk and left the rest in the truck closing the door behind them.
Though it was a little early for supper they ate a big meal at the truck before leaving it. It was a free meal so-to-speak as they still left with a full load in the trailers and their stomachs. As long as they had already ate supper they traveled a little later that day before stopping for the night. The next several days was mere repetition of the previous days, they were able to still find plenty of food here and there so they did not have to dip into what they had packed.
Water or other drinks were becoming harder to find. They had saved several empty two liter pop bottles and when they came to a body of water they stopped, built a fire, and boiled water that they filled the bottles with. When done filling bottles one day Ann said she was going to take a bath and strongly urged Cal to do the same (some distance away from her though) as people could smell him quite distance away. Cal had to admit it felt good to be clean again (though he was sure he never smelled bad).
They were both pleased with their progress and both surprised that no one had tried to steal their stuff when of course someone did try. It was not uncommon to see other people also walking on the highway and when they saw three guys up ahead they did not really think too much of it. As they came abreast of the three who were stopped (and almost seemed to be waiting for them) all three started to raise their guns. It wasn’t even a split second and Cal had drawn and shot all three men before Ann had even started to draw her pistol. She just stared at him for a moment and then said “You’re a regular Wyatt Earp with that pistol. I can’t believe how fast you drew that heavy revolver and fired all those shots accurately.”
“I used to shoot a lot in the Cowboy Action Shooting events. I was fairly good at it.”
“I would say fairly good was quite an understatement. I still can’t believe it and I saw it with my own eyes.”
Cal just shrugged his shoulders and went to check the bad guys. Two were dead and the last was closely approaching death so Cal jus
t took all their guns and went through their pockets to take anything of value. Ann asked if he was going to kill the last guy but Cal said he would let nature take its course and give the man a chance to talk to God.
Seeing Cal throw away the empty shells from his pistol Ann told him in the future empty brass cartridges would likely be pretty valuable for reloading. After a minute Cal agreed with her but at this point they did not have the room to keep everything. Then at Ann’s suggestion they looked around and found three full backpacks that must have been the bad guys’. There were two tents and Ann took one of those and they left the other one. They went through all three packs and threw out some of the stuff until they had it down to two packs which they each tied one on their respective rigs and continued on their way.
Cal’s wagon was quite a sight. He had found some eighth inch hardboard which he had cut down so he now had fairly sturdy sides that were about three feet high that he had bolted to the original short metal sides. It was packed all the way to over the top and had a tarp tied down over everything. It still rolled pretty easy but was rather top heavy and had tipped over a few times but was fine on the flat roadway if he did not try to turn it real sharp. Not to good off the pavement in a rough area though.
Ann’s trailer was working out really well. It was well past its load limit but careful loading (and the piece of hardboard they had put on the bottom to add floor strength) helped. She was used to pulling it now and she had found a nice well fitting pair of leather driving gloves that she always wore to protect her hands. She was keeping her eyes out for another pair though she had found a heavy leather pair of gloves that she kept for rougher work. One day she told Cal that she could tie her handle to the back of his wagon if he didn’t really mind. He said he would sure hate to have to shoot her if she tried that as ammo in his caliber was hard to find.
