“Go on. If we stay here, we won’t be killing ourselves before winter. Let’s go in the store first and see if there’s anything we can use. If there is, then we’ll be able to do without you for a while,” I offered. As a group, we went inside through the broken glass of the front doors. The concussion from the blast had reached here.
We saw something we hadn’t expected. Dead bodies.
Amber and Lucas turned around with Diane in between them. A two-year-old didn’t need to see this. Charles and Aeryn looked as they passed, but didn’t fixate on them. Their eyes were focused elsewhere. We continued into the store. What I thought was a ransacking was the damage from the initial blast. A couple registers looked like they’d been broken into, but not all of them. Charles reached for a Snickers bar in a checkout lane.
“Stop!” I yelled, pulling out the Geiger counter. The food within would be safe as long as any contamination from the package didn’t get on it. The instrument said that the candy bar wasn’t radioactive. “Let me check to make sure,” I said as I carefully unwrapped the candy bar and made a show of waving the Geiger counter past it, before shoving half the bar into my mouth.
“Dad!” they yelled together as they dove for the rack, grabbing a replacement bar before I could stop them.
“We’re away from this stuff for a week and this is the first thing you want?” I asked. I thought we had weaned them from candy and bad foods.
“Wrong!” Charles stated definitively. “The first thing we wanted was moose, and we had that last night.” Aeryn pursed her lips and nodded once in agreement.
“Spread out! Let’s take stock of what’s here. We need to feed twenty-two people and one hundred dogs for six months.” The couples each went their own way down different aisles. Little sunlight reached the interior so we used the wind-up flashlights we’d brought. There was no sense using battery-powered lights as we had no batteries.
Then again, maybe we had more than we thought. The store had flashlights in the exit lanes along with batteries. I took a handful of MagLites and opened them one at a time, putting new batteries in. I was rewarded with the bright light that these flashlights were known for. I yelled for everyone and passed them out. It made our job searching much easier. If we spent any time in here, we’d need to clean out the refrigerators. It looked like Jurassic Park, overgrown with mold and other less savory things. I was surprised that anything was growing after four years. Maybe a scientist would find something less repulsive in this oversized Petri dish, but not me.
We worked our way into the back warehouse where pallets of goods were stacked high, too high to get without a working forklift. If the windows blew out, then the EMP had ripped through here, too. Anything electronic was fried, which meant the forklift was dead.
We could always tip them over. It didn’t have to be pretty, only effective.
There was enough food here for all of us for all winter. It was nice to have the “shopping” done so we could get to some real work. There were a thousand things we needed to do, but finding canned goods to survive the first winter was one of the most important.
I shook hands with Chris and wished him well. Madison and Colleen hugged. They left that night for the short trip back to the hangar in Delta Junction. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, they’d head cross-country in an attempt to follow our trail. Whether they found the horses or not, it’d be a while before they returned. I hoped they’d find the horses, for Colleen’s sake.
If we went anywhere, we agreed to leave a note on the bulletin board inside Fred’s.
With that chapter of our journey closed, the rest of us settled in for the evening.
NOW WHAT?
The inside of Safeway was less than welcoming with the dead bodies, the long-rotted fresh food section, produce, the unworking refrigerators, and a lack of airflow. The destruction here wasn’t like anything we’d had to deal with before. The Fred Meyer in Fairbanks had been systematically evacuated, so there weren’t any dead and some of the spoilage was hidden under a partially collapsed roof.
There was no way anyone would sleep inside the tomb of Safeway. Once in the fresh air, even though the midnight sun shone brightly, we put up our tents and climbed into our sleeping bags. We slept well. All of us, even Shane and little Bill.
When we crawled out of bed in the morning, the first thing I did was set up an impromptu bathroom facility in the ditch between the store and the highway. It didn’t take much and gave everyone a little privacy. The bad news was that it attracted bugs. The good news was that behind us we had an unlimited supply of bug dope, the Alaskan term for bug repellant. The next person to use the facility lit a mosquito coil and put it inside. That made it better for those who followed.
And that led to the second order of business: Where were we going to stay? I called for a group meeting at breakfast. Everyone went into the store to look for favorites. I had to wrestle packages of Twinkies away from the twins. In the end, they settled for protein bars, which probably had enough chemicals in them to last for decades.
Madison and I preferred the moose jerky that Ben had made out of the choicer parts of our left-over feast from two days earlier. We also had a stock of moose meat that was smoked to preserve it for the dogs.
While people were eating, I stood up in the middle of the group. All eyes were on me.
“Now that we’re here, we need to find places to stay that have wood-burning stoves, a source for split wood, and access to the river. We also need an idea of what kinds of supplies we have available. Ben, could you head to the river and see if there are any fish? Someone needs to inventory the canned goods, see how many meals we can get.” I waited as Clarisse and Jo both waved to volunteer for that duty.
“We need to find a place to stay where we either have a wood-burning stove or can set up to burn wood. Then we need to stock enough firewood for the winter. I think we should try to stick to one or two buildings, have a central place to eat. This first winter won’t be pretty, but that’s not our goal. We need to survive and then be ready to kick off next year as soon as we see the light, so to speak,” I finished, smiling, proud of my pun. No one else seemed to get it.
“We’ll take our broken quad and see if we can find a power source. Isn’t there a refinery near here?” Cullen asked.
“Right down the road behind us, but it closed about a year before the attack, and even if it hadn’t, the full force of the EMP went through here,” I answered.
“Doesn’t matter about the electronics. Refining is a mechanical and chemical process. The electronics make it markedly safer, but to run the process, you don’t need them. You only have to know which valves need to be open and closed. We want to take a look, then find a backup,” Cullen said.
“Okay, the rest of us will go house hunting. There’s an elementary school nearby, and then the middle school, and finally the high school. There are churches on almost every street corner along with people’s private homes. Please remember that unlike what we saw on the western side of Fairbanks, the people here were killed in an ugly way. Every house you go into could have bodies. Be aware. I’m keeping a bandanna over my nose and mouth, keep out the nastiness and hopefully some of the smell.”
The others nodded and prepared to go. Abigail and Phillip said they’d take care of all the dogs. I looked at Charles and Aeryn. They inclined their heads toward our temporary kennel off the parking lot. I nodded and waved them away. They raced off before I could change my mind. A few of the dogs had jumped onto the cars and were sitting on the hoods as they warmed under the morning sun.
I looked to each and every person sitting around the circle. Amber and Lucas, Darren and Becca, Jo and Emma, Cullen and Shane, Ben and Clarisse, and Madison. Diane and Tony were there, along with little Bill who was surprisingly quiet. I couldn’t help but smile at him. He was destined for great things.
Our children and the dog mushers were doing what they did
best, handle the dogs.
Chris and Colleen were off with their daughter in search of the horses that their child had never seen. Which reminded me, Colleen was our only nurse, doctor, and caregiver. “By the way, no one get hurt. Help is a week away, at least.”
And we each went our separate ways, everyone to their own affairs. We’d return no later than dinnertime and share our discoveries.
CHRIS AND COLLEEN
Without pulling the trailer and having mostly open road in front of them, the trip to Delta Junction only took an hour. They stopped at the hangar that we’d called home and stayed the night. They left in the morning while most civilized people were still in bed.
The route we’d taken was much different at this time of year. Most of it was overgrown; small streams and ditches had become insurmountable obstacles. They sidetracked and backtracked often, racing ahead through the open areas when they could, always looking for any sign of the two horses.
They figured it was only twenty-five to thirty miles from Delta Junction to where they’d turned the two mares loose. They decided the best way to look would be to find where they’d stashed the saddles and look from there.
The first day, they drove in so many circles that they lost the valley entrance. They drove to the top of a hill to look back toward Delta Junction to get their bearings. Chris reoriented himself and set out to a waypoint he decided would lead them into the valley where Winnifred had died. They held hands as they drove in the open areas. Colleen squeezed hard whenever she saw a dark spot in the grass, thinking that might be her old friend. They’d had no choice and understood that if we hadn’t put her out of her misery and abandoned the other two, the little girl held tightly in her lap may not have survived.
Leaving the others was the risk they took. Now was the time to put their lives back on track. Colleen wanted the memories that brought her peace. Her horses embodied much of what she loved about Alaska. Animals that powered through the challenges of weather and the vast open spaces, lived life without remorse.
She thought back to her husband and son. That seemed like a lifetime ago. She released Chris’ hand and hugged her baby tightly to her. It was more than time, it was in a different place. She didn’t even feel like the same person. But the one thing that was a constant in her life was the horses.
“We have to find them,” she said out loud, wearing a determined look on her tear-streaked face.
Chris thought he understood what she was thinking, but he didn’t want to ask. Although he hadn’t been married before the destruction, he also had lived a different life, one he’d run away from. Whether it was lack of responsibility, fear, or simply his dislike of college that drove him north, now he was taking time to learn more about himself, about what he wanted.
Then everything had changed and his life mattered again. He was important for who he was, and not who other people thought he could become. Colleen never asked what he wanted to do when they were in Canada. His answer would not have changed from when they lived at the resort. He wanted to be with her and their child, help the others, and live.
Was it too much to ask that they simply enjoy life?
Late in the day, they found the campsite where Chris spoke after Winnifred passed away. They dug through the heavy underbrush until they found the saddles. They were dry and cracked. The weather had not been kind, but they loaded them on top of the gas cans in the small bed of the quad. They decided to stay there for the night and resume their search when they awoke.
They hadn’t slept well last night and they weren’t sleeping well this night either. Too anxious. Too many things running through their minds. Concern that something had happened to the horses after they’d been abandoned.
It never got dark, so they judged the time by the sun’s position in the sky. If it was in the north, then it was nighttime. It had swung to the northeast by the time Chris and Colleen found themselves awake but exhausted.
They walked around the campsite, looking for any sign of the horses, but didn’t find anything. They drove slowly in the quad as the valley grasses and weeds were high. They didn’t want to get into an accident this far from the Community.
It was slow going much of the time. Colleen wanted to race from one point to the next since they could see a long way, look over that hill, then move on. She was anxious and nervous and depressed.
Chris stayed focused throughout the first day, disappointed that they couldn’t find any sign of the animals. The valleys and hills were covered with growth and moose roamed throughout. They often thought they saw their mares, only to be disappointed when a moose cow and her calf ambled away.
They circled wide, stopping every couple hours to give Hermione a break outside the vehicle. Exhausted from the search and the lack of sleep, they finally camped on a hillside miles from where they’d released the horses.
The second day, they continued. Then the third. They’d made it nearly all the way back to Delta Junction when Chris suggested they run back to the hangar to get more avgas, refill their containers. Colleen agreed reluctantly, her sour mood bringing them all down.
Hermione cried a lot. Chris second-guessed himself for agreeing to come along. With enough internal reflection, he realized that he had no choice. When your partner is in pain, you do what you have to do, even if that course of action leads to more pain.
He was there for her.
They refueled and searched for a fourth day, ending back at the original camp. They decided to take the trail toward Canada. The horses may have followed them for some way. They agreed that this was their last shot. If they couldn’t find the horses in two more days of searching, they’d head back to North Pole and rejoin the Community.
Colleen remained quiet after that. She felt as if she’d given up on her husband and son when she’d waited at home for them. There was nothing she could have done except go into town, expose herself to radiation, and join them in their graves. She looked at Chris, who smiled back at her. She pushed him away and stormed off. Chris hung his head, trying to hold back the tears. He knew that it wasn’t him. Colleen wrestled with her demons, and she wasn’t winning.
They left early in the morning without a word to each other. They crisscrossed the valley as they drove east for one full day. Without seeing any sign of the horses halfway through the second day, their sixth day of searching, Colleen put her hand on Chris’ arm and told him to head back.
Chris took his time turning around, hoping for a glimpse of horse manure, a dark shadow at the edge of the woods. He didn’t want to appear that he was ready to return to the others, although he’d hit that point four days ago.
The return was quicker than intended, but they still needed to camp one last time before the final run to Delta Junction and the quick trip to North Pole. They camped where they had released the horses. It was light through the night, but they still made a fire, much bigger than they needed, but the sound and smell of burning wood was soothing. Colleen finally accepted the loss of the last remnants of her former life. With one great sigh, she curled up in Chris’ arms and went to sleep.
The sound woke them both. A whinny, the kind that only a horse makes. Carefully getting up so she didn’t wake the baby, Colleen bolted into the early morning fog, stopping, listening, and walking.
Then she began to call for them. “Penelope! Sophie!” She walked carefully, the fog clinging to the lower areas of the valley. She walked uphill to get a clearer view.
At the edge of the woods, she saw the two mares, shaggy, but looking healthy. They pranced, not sure of the human as she approached. She stopped and dropped to her knees, breaking down, sobbing uncontrollably. The horses circled away from her briefly and then approached. Their soft muzzles pressed against her head.
She embraced them both as she stood, apologizing over and over. They didn’t seem to care. When Chris walked up with Hermione cradled gently in his arms, C
olleen looked at him through red and puffy eyes, smiling broadly. He arched his knee beside Penelope so Colleen could use him as a step. She slowly climbed up and sat astride the horse’s back, holding tightly to her mane.
“Now, if you were only naked while you were up there, that’d be a sight!” Chris said playfully, and he could not have been happier as joy, in the form of two raggedy-looking mares, returned to their lives.
FINDING A HOME
After our first day, we came together over a magnificent dinner to share what we’d found.
Ben spoke first. “I think the river here will be okay, but I would prefer Nenana because of the confluence of two rivers. We only need fish to supplement a diet heavy in moose. The dogs will eat well this winter, have no doubt, and we will not go hungry. I will build a smoker to preserve the moose meat and racks to dry the fish we’ll catch.”
Cullen raised his hand to speak next. Many chuckled as the Community usually gave the floor to whomever was ready to talk because they were reluctant to stand. Most of us didn’t like getting up in front of the group, even though we considered ourselves family. To me, Cullen just showed that he didn’t consider himself part of the family.
“What do you have?” I said as I nodded toward the young engineer.
“We think we can restart the refinery. We can use leftover crude oil in one of tanks, refine it into diesel. Do you know of any diesel trucks or maybe a diesel generator?”
“A diesel generator that hasn’t been fried by the EMP?” I asked myself out loud, thinking before answering. “We can try Eielson to the south. I bet they have something there. If we come up with one, what can you do with it?”
Cullen gave me an odd look. “Is that a trick question? We can burn the diesel and generate power.”
I smiled and dropped my head. I didn’t have the luxury of being snarky. “Sorry, that wasn’t a good question. How much electricity and for how long?”
Return (End Times Alaska Book 3) Page 7
