The family and farm manager were pleased with getting not only many replacement bulbs, but the means to use the ones they’d received in mistake. The usage of the solar panels and controllers was put off until the summer, when they could be installed without dealing with the weather. That was excepting the ones that Jimmy claimed.
Jimmy also turned over the remaining jewelry and coins to the council of the farm that ran things on the Farm, except the actual farming, with the recommendation they do some long range scavenging with some long range plans in mind. One of the elders laughed and said, “We don’t have to worry about it, with you making these trips and bringing back what you do.”
Jimmy’s little smile appeared on his face and he said, “You have no idea what I’m keeping for myself on these jaunts.” The elders exchanged looks, but made no response to Jimmy’s words. They did, however, start planning some scavenging trips for the following summer, after the crops were in, after seeing the things Jimmy and Lucy brought back for the Farm to use.
Lucy took her time sorting through her goods at Jimmy’s motorhome, doing some sorting and arranging and taking a few things at a time back to her room. Sometimes Jimmy was there, sometimes not. He’d told her to make herself at home at one point, and she did. More than once she would cook a meal from the fresh foods the Farm produced and leave it for him, seldom staying until he arrived when he did happen to be gone.
He was spending much of his time learning more about the farm and its operation, as well as going out on the hunting parties that were harvesting wild game to add variety to their diet, despite good production from their domesticated animals.
Thanksgiving was another good one. Things had gone well since the last one. Christmas brought a couple of weddings, and a few very surprised individuals who received some of Jimmy’s and Lucy’s largesse as Christmas presents. The people receiving the factory made items were those that meant much to them during their time at the Farm.
Jimmy privately gave Lucy one of the finer things he’d kept back from the robbers at the mall. It, like an item she’d picked herself at the time, contained rubies. Several of them, large ones, at that.
“I don’t know what to say,” Lucy said, putting on the necklace, and then the earrings, the bracelet, and finally the ring.
“You said rubies were your stone. And I simply don’t have anything to wear that goes with them.”
Lucy’s delighted laugh sent shivers down Jimmy’s back. He was more than a little pleased, and touched, by the beautiful silk men’s shirts she’d found at the mall in one of the women’s specialty shops that she was sure that Jimmy hadn’t bothered with.
“Thank you,” he said, holding the shirts in his hands. “These are great!”
Lucy nodded in response, as pleased as Jimmy at her selection.
CHAPTER FIVE
The long winter finally ended, and the, large, very well trained team of farmers quickly got the crops for that year in, without much help from Jimmy. The Farm elders had him planning a summer long scavenging expedition. The first thing they had said to him about it, other than proposing it, was a question.
“Who do you want to be second in command?”
Immediately he said, “Lucy MacAtee. She’s experienced and we’ve worked together before. She knows my security routines and how I like to operate. She works with all the women here and knows their needs and wants.”
The small group exchanged looks. “We’ll take that into consideration.”
Jimmy smiled slightly. It was a done deal or he was out on his own. The council may very well have picked up on that, for two days later they confirmed her as second in command for the trip, and asked for volunteers to go.
They got many more than they needed, including several additional women. It was left to Jimmy and Lucy to sort down the list to useable size. They interviewed most of them and finally narrowed things down to six others, besides themselves, plus six semi truck driver teams that would be bringing things back as they were found, and a tank truck driver that would drive one of the ten-wheel tanker trucks with biodiesel to keep the vehicles fueled.
One of the criteria for selection was age balanced by physical stamina. They would be going into some higher radiation areas for short times and wanted the oldest people they could get, that could adequately do the work. In theory, they were less likely to have problems from the radiation until very late in life than the younger people. Jimmy and Lucy had already made up their minds about their exposures and would be going in, even in the hotter zones.
Everyone would be wearing dosimeters and anyone receiving more than 25R per week would be barred from continuing for a while. That did include Jimmy and Lucy. The convoy set out when they were relatively certain they’d seen the last of the snow for the season. They missed it by a couple of days, for they ran through some snow as they neared the city on the third day.
Jimmy was using the Suburban to move some obstacles that hadn’t been a problem in the past for the Suburban and trailer. But it was easier for Lucy to maneuver the Suburban, since they had cargo capacity and fuel provided by the other vehicles, and therefore weren’t pulling the trailer.
Their plan was to essentially avoid what had been open to the public retail places. Not only were they the most likely to have been scavenged by locals, none would have a large stock of any particular item on hand. With Lucy navigating from a marked up telephone book, Jimmy took the convoy to the first of several warehouses he wanted to check.
It took them six weeks of looking to find the things those on the Farm wanted. Most they found in warehouses, but they did start to hit the big malls for some of the other things. Pickings were much better in the higher radiation zones closer to the point where the nuclear device had impacted. Any place that had readings that would put a person over their 25R per week limit in one day was bypassed. They had sent a total of eight semi-truck loads back to the Farm when those on the trip let Jimmy and Lucy know they were ready to go back, since everything on the lists had been found, or it had been decided to be a lost cause.
Jimmy didn’t object. He and Lucy were free agents, with no real major responsibility. They certainly did help around the Farm, but at their leisure, where they could. All the others were family people, with specific responsibilities at the Farm.
Summer was on its short downward spiral. It wouldn’t be all that long before the short fall would be there and gone. Jimmy looked over at Lucy as the others were climbing into the two Dodge crew cab diesel pickups they had been using on the trip. It took only a quick nod for Jimmy to walk over to the pickups and to tell Frank that he and Lucy wouldn’t be back to the farm for a while. They were going to continue to scavenge.
Frank had expected as much. He shook hands with Jimmy. “Okay. Thanks for your help with this. We really picked up many needed items. Don’t worry about giving the Farm a share of what you and Lucy find on your own. You’ve already done enough.”
“Okay. But we’ll make note of anything that the Farm might find useful so it can be picked up later. We should be back in time for the harvest.”
Lucy waved and the two Dodges followed the last semi-trailer and the fuel truck. Jimmy had filled the fuel tanks in the Suburban, as well as the Jerry cans on the rear rack. They didn’t have as much fuel as they would with the trailer, but Jimmy decided they would have enough for the trip he wanted to make.
“You ready,” Jimmy asked Lucy as they both approached the Suburban.
“Ready. What’s the plan?”
“I’m going retirement fund hunting. I want to find a rental place and get a trailer, and then hit a couple of places we bypassed on Farm business, and then the section of the city we haven’t been through yet. We can work our way through, and then pick up my last two caches. That sound okay?”
Lucy nodded. Anything would have been fine with her. She just wasn’t ready to go back to the Farm yet. Jimmy might not have any romantic interest in her, but he was the most fascinating man she knew and s
he liked spending time with him. As long as he let her, she was going to continue to do so at every opportunity.
It didn’t take long to find a U-Haul rental place and hook up to a tandem wheel enclosed trailer. Jimmy took the time to take a couple of extra spare tires from identical trailers, for the tires on the trailer they were taking were badly weather checked from the years of sitting.
One of the things the Farm had not been interested in finding was a liquor distributor. Jimmy headed directly for one near one of the warehouses the members of the Farm had found many useable items.
The doors of the liquor distribution warehouse were all locked. Jimmy used his tools to open one and he and Lucy went inside with flashlights after Jimmy disabled the Suburban and set its alarm.
“I never realized you were a drinker,” Lucy said as they shined the lights around the moderate size warehouse. The shelves were full of colorful cases.
“I’m not, really,” Jimmy said. “But many people are. Wine and beer are pretty easy to make. I have the basics to make both, as well as what I need to build a still for simple drinking alcohol. But think of the times twenty years from now. Sure, there will be alcohol for the drinkers, but nothing you will be able to call the good stuff, unless the rest of the world is in a lot better shape than I think it is, and trade picks up.
“I’m limiting myself to three types of things. Even though pure grain alcohol isn’t that difficult to make, and will be what I eventually will make, it has many uses, including medical ones. So I plan to take all the 190 proof Everclear I can get my hands on. This won’t be the only distributor we hit.
“Next is what I said before. The good stuff. Premium alcohols. The best of the best of each type. I’m not going for the average. I want something a man… or woman… will pay a real price for when the time comes. Even in hard times. Something to keep me fed for a while.
“Last are the specialty drinks, like the really good liqueurs and aperitifs. Frangelica, Galliano, and other ‘medicinal’, root and herb things the good monks of Europe came up with the last few centuries. And basically anything over a hundred dollars a bottle, wholesale.”
They went down the shelves together and Jimmy pointed out what he wanted. He took down a case or two here and there, putting them on the floor for retrieval after they’d gone through the whole warehouse.
Some things were under lock and key in one section of the warehouse and Jimmy broke into it. Definitely high dollar stuff, and only a bottle or two of each. Lucy went looking for some empty boxes and boxed up the individual bottles and carried them out to the trailer. Jimmy stacked everything in just so.
After they were done at the first warehouse it was getting late and they went ahead and ate right there, enjoying a fine wine with the Mountain House meal.
The whole group had not run into anyone during the time that they were there, but Jimmy wasn’t going to take any chances. People planning mischief might leave a large group alone, but be more than willing to attack only two people, especially if one of them was a woman. A really attractive woman.
They found a place Jimmy figured was secure enough and they stopped for the night. Jimmy was pulling his tent from the back of the Suburban when Lucy touched his arm. “Jimmy? Can I talk to you a minute?”
“Sure. Any time. What is it?”
“I don’t want to set up a separate tent every night like we’ve been doing. I’m not making a pass or anything, but I’d rather share your tent like we did last summer and fall than be in mine alone. I’ve gone to wearing a tee-shirt and men’s boxers to sleep in. That should be okay, shouldn’t it?”
“I won’t make anything of it,” Jimmy said with a shrug. “I can’t say you don’t affect me, but I can handle it.”
Lucy let the last comment slide into a special compartment in her mind for evaluation later. Now was not the time. They set up the camp the way they had when it had been just the two of them before, and were soon in their individual sleeping bags.
A couple of days into the journey, Jimmy found a yard truck that was still attached to a single axle semi-trailer normally used for city deliveries. He managed to get it to start after he found a bottle of PRI-D in the truck yard workshop. Actually, he found quite a bit of the PRI-D, and even some PRI-G. Apparently the trucking company used the PRI products with all their fuel.
Jimmy doped only the diesel he filled up the yard truck and the Suburban with, plus four empty 55-gallon drums with good tops that he loaded into the semi-trailer and tied off, and then filled with repeated trips with one of the 5-gallon jerry cans. The rest of the PRI products went into the trailer for future use.
He began following Lucy, who was driving the Suburban, with the yard truck and trailer. They’d scavenge during the day, based on what they found in the well worn yellow pages phone book during the evening hours after they’d set up camp.
Jimmy insisted that Lucy consider half of what they found as hers, rather than the scant third he had to talk her into earlier, for helping him. She was doing even more, with driving the Suburban.
More delicate things, like the booze, and very high value things, went into the U-Haul trailer. Everything else went into the semi trailer.
They were zigging into the city to check places, and then zagging back out of the high radiation zones to scavenge smaller shops, to keep their radiation levels lower. But they went over the entire unchecked section of the city that wasn’t entirely too hot for them.
They ran into a situation similar to the one Jimmy had found in that first mall they’d scavenged. There were skeletal remains of at least five different bodies outside a gun wholesaler’s warehouse in one of the hottest spots they went to. The walls of the warehouse were pockmarked with bullet impacts holes. The heavy steel double door was a sieve of bullet holes.
Jimmy broke out his tools and broke into the warehouse, using extreme caution going in when the door was open. He checked for booby traps, and disengaged four tripwires. Lucy turned away from the sight when they ran across the half eaten remains of three men, two women, and three children. From the looks of it, rats had savaged the bodies after they died.
He couldn’t be sure, but only the three men and one of the women showed obvious bullet wounds. He hoped the others had been dead when the rats got to them. Jimmy was more or less inured to such violence, but Lucy was having a hard time keeping her lunch down.
From the looks of it, the owners had successfully defended the warehouse, even though they died in the attempt. Everything was intact. It took them two days to get everything loaded, from the cheapest .25 ACP Raven pistol, to fancy shotguns worth thousands of dollars each in the old days. All the ammunition and reloading supplies were also taken.
They hurried the best they could, not wanting to be in the higher radiation area any longer than necessary. As it was, they took the choice items the first day, left the area, and came back the second day for the rest.
With that much exposure in such a short time, they decided to scavenge the outskirts for a few days before they went into another higher radiation area. Jimmy caught Lucy by surprise when that night they were going over the yellow pages and he asked her if she’d found a Macy’s or other upscale department store in the area. She nodded, curious, but didn’t ask why and he didn’t say.
It was out of the high radiation area, and the mall complex had been fairly heavily scavenged, but when Jimmy found the house wares section virtually intact, he let out a whoop and did a little silly dance.
“What? You planning a new home?”
“Actually, yes,” Jimmy said. “Sort of. You know why I got some of the alcohol. Well, to go along with it, I decided to see if I could find some fine china and glassware. We just did.”
Lucy didn’t laugh. Jimmy was serious. “Oh. Okay then. What are you looking for? Anything specific?”
The two began discussing things as if they were planning a home together. Lucy really got into it. Jimmy didn’t take just eight place settings or twelve, or even s
ixteen. He took every piece he could find of five different patterns, including the displays. The same with crystal glasses and stainless, silver, and gold plated flatware and serving wear. Linens, too. They spent a total of six days at that mall and another high end one, gathering things for Jimmy’s planned future business endeavor.
Lucy had some doubts about the idea, but she was enjoying the looking and acquiring. “You know, Lucy,” Jimmy said one day in the second mall, “You really should do something like I’m doing. You’re going to need a way to provide for yourself when you can’t do the physical stuff anymore.”
“What,” Lucy joked, “You don’t think I can get by on my good looks alone?”
Jimmy was very serious when he said, “You could. But you won’t. You’ll want to make it on your own.”
“Oh,” Lucy said, a bit taken aback at his seriousness. Wanting to keep things light, she responded, “Well, I’ll just be your barmaid until they lay me to rest.”
“Sure,” Jimmy said. “You have a job with me whenever you want.”
Lucy didn’t show it, but Jimmy’s words had cut her deeply. And she couldn’t figure out why. She quit thinking about it as they continued carrying things to the U-Haul trailer.
They began seeing the ducks and geese flying south and decided they needed to wrap things up and head for the farm. It had been four weeks rather than the three Jimmy had initially planned for. They’d been able to extend their time by doping the diesel they found here and there in the industrial sections of the city.
They made two last stops, to pick up the Jimmy’s last two caches in the city. With both trailers nearly full they headed for the Farm, leaving as an early fall rain began.
It was not a great harvest, and had it not been for Jimmy sharing some of his stores, Christmas that year would have been anything but a joyous holiday. They made it through the winter; another long, cold one; with no major problems. Everyone looked forward to spring, and the time to begin planting again.
Scavenger Page 9
