Scavenger

by Jerry D. Young

  The Farm planned to almost double the number of acres under cultivation. They were beginning to get more requests for trades from some of the surrounding areas. That on top of the shortages they’d had that winter, those on the Farm were not going to take any chances of running short.

  They didn’t have to worry about meat. The herds and flocks were doing well and were expanding, despite the meat heavy diet the Farm had. There were still animals available for trade, which with produce and biodiesel their main trading goods, the Farm was able to acquire the other things they needed. For the most part, anyway.

  Jimmy and Lucy had provided the council a list of things they’d found that the Farm might want, after the Farm team had left them the previous summer. Another scavenging expedition was scheduled for as soon as the planting was completed, again to be led by Jimmy and Lucy.

  Lucy went to Jimmy’s motorhome two days before they were scheduled to leave. “Jimmy, I need to talk to you about something.”

  He invited her in and made her a pot of coffee, while he had tea. “What is it, Lucy? You sound serious.”

  “Well,” she said, “What you did last summer, and what you suggested got me to thinking about my own old age. I really do need to come up with a way to support myself when I get older. I like being here on the farm, though it is a bit crowded. But I’m not really part of the family anymore, with Robert gone, and no offspring.

  “They’ve not said anything, of course, but their families are growing and they will soon need the space I am taking up.”

  “One of those problems is easy to remedy,” Jimmy said.

  Lucy suddenly drew up slightly, waiting for what Jimmy might say. But it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, even though she really wasn’t expecting it.

  “We can get you a motorhome like mine. I’m sure the family won’t mind you setting up out here where I am. It won’t be a problem to extend the water line, and my septic system is way over engineered. You could hook up to it with no problem.”

  Lucy nodded. Again, it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but it was what she expected. “I thought about that, but I wanted to get your opinion. I know you like your privacy, but this is the best spot on the Farm, in my opinion and I didn’t want to intrude.”

  “It’s not a problem. Mickey is going on this trip, to try to get some semi tankers for the Farm, for biodiesel storage. He should be able to get something going for you. Probably need to pay him some side money, though.”

  “Of course. Now the other part… Preparing for my old age. I’ve been thinking about that a lot during the winter. Do you think travel is going to become fairly commonplace again?”

  “I don’t think commonplace will be the word for it, but I’m banking on there being some, for my bar business.”

  “I’m thinking about gathering up the things needed for a small hotel. Just a few bedrooms, large lobby, and a dining room and kitchen. What do you think?”

  “Your idea would be of much more benefit than my bar. I would only need one employee. You’d need three or four, at least. And having one available would probably draw people, though there are hundreds of abandoned rooms available for use, having the amenities will draw the high rollers. And it would probably be a cash business. Not too many people are going to traveling with a couple of chickens to trade for a good night’s sleep.”

  Lucy laughed. “No. I suppose not. But don’t be too sure. I guess only time will tell about where it should be, but I think I should start gathering good bedding and things like that, now.”

  “I think you should. As time passes, people are going to get used to abusing existing places, not bothering to maintain anything, since there ‘will always be another’. And I doubt if we are the only ones scavenging. Things will eventually disappear. Or Mother Nature and wildlife will destroy them where they sit. Yep. Good idea.”

  “Your stuff wasn’t all that bulky. What I’m going to be looking for will be. Mattresses and foundations and things like that. Plumbing fixtures. I want to have the amenities, like you said.”

  “We just hire one of the guys; maybe even two, to drive semis for our stuff, in addition to the Farms. Need someone to get a motor home back here for you, anyway.”

  “Oh. I guess I should warn you. You get the good stuff, but I’m going to use one of your ideas. I’m going to stock up on alcohol, too. The average stuff you don’t want.”

  “Well,” Jimmy laughed. “So much for my idea that we might be partners in the two endeavors. You’ll be in partial competition with me.”

  Lucy managed a small smile, but her heart fell. He was probably serious about being partners. The two operations would go hand in hand. “Oh well,” Lucy said lightly, despite her disappointment.

  With most of the Farm’s objectives preplanned, the scavenging went well, and it went fast. The last trailer load for the Farm went back in mid-July. Mickey and a married couple capable of driving semis stayed behind to help Jimmy and Lucy get a motorhome going for Lucy, and a semi- and two 53’ reefer trailers for each of them.

  Mickey headed back to the Farm, driving Lucy’s new Class A motorhome, a gold eagle in his pocket for his services, which included not only getting it running and taking it to the Farm, but seeing to its hook up when he got it there. It would be ready for Lucy when she got back.

  Both semis were big Kenworth over-the-road rigs with fancy sleepers. Charlene and Dwayne Cooper lived in one of them, while Lucy lived in the other, and Jimmy used his tent. The four spent the rest of the summer scavenging.

  With no DOT rules to follow, the Coopers added another box trailer to the two on one of the Kenworths for their own scavenging efforts. Between them, Dwayne and Jimmy got a flatbed brick hauling trailer’s hydraulic boom going. They attached it as third trailer to the other rig. Jimmy used it to get new electric forklift batteries and golf cart batteries for use with the solar panels and controllers they’d already scavenged, plus more they found at another big electrical warehouse. The batteries were dry, so Jimmy loaded up case after case of battery acid. They wouldn’t add it to the batteries until they were eventually installed.

  The trailers were full, as was the Suburban and another U-Haul trailer, well before harvest time. The group headed back to the Farm. Jimmy and Lucy were going to pay off the Coopers, but the husband and wife team declined, saying they’d found enough stuff scavenging to make up for the trip.

  Since there was some summer left, Lucy and Jimmy decided to try the next city over. They would scavenge, but it would mostly be a scouting trip for the following year’s efforts.

  Taking another supply of PRI-D with them, they headed out in just the Suburban, with the intention of picking up another U-Haul trailer on the way. They got the last big tandem axle box trailer from the same U-Haul place, along with extra spare tires and headed for the second city.

  There was a lot of stalled traffic on the Interstate from the war. There were no signs that anyone had traveled the road in years. They began sharing Jimmy’s tent again, with no one else around, and a lack of other facilities.

  When they got to the city they got a yellow pages phone book and headed for the high value places, including coin shops, gun dealers, and alcohol distributors.

  Keeping the radiation survey meter handy at all times, and wearing dosimeters, they skirted the hot zone around the crater of the nuke that had taken out the east side of the city.

  There were signs of scattered scavenging in the commercial areas, mostly food and liquor. There weren’t many signs in the industrial areas they checked. They went back to a security routine due to the possibility of running into someone hostile to their efforts.

  As they headed north to clear the hot zone, they ran into a residential area with lots of commercial establishments. Someone there took exception of their presence and fired three rounds at them. Either the person was a lousy shot, or they were intended as across-the-bows warning shots, for none hit the Suburban or trailer. Jimmy gunned the Suburban and turned around, to leave
the area as quickly as possible.

  “Time to head for home,” Jimmy said. “Summer is about over, we’re about maxed out in cargo capacity, and people are starting to shoot at us.”

  “No argument from me,” Lucy replied. She had her AUG in her lap and the window down.

  The harvest turned out to be a very good one, as summer lingered a bit longer than the current norm, and fall was mild, though short. The last of the oil crops for biodiesel were harvested in light snowfall.

  Life at the farm settled into its winter routine. The only major change was Lucy moving into her motor home, and a few new babies on the scene. Lucy’s former room in one of the Farm ranch houses was immediately put back into use by another female relative and her husband.

  Lucy spent quite a bit of her time in Jimmy’s motorhome, listening to his Yaesu VR-5000 broadband shortwave receiver, and getting his help in planning her small hotel. There seemed to be progress in many places around the country, and the world. Lucy and Jimmy were both listening for clues to where the best place to set up shop in a few years might be.

  If it was lunchtime or dinnertime, and Lucy was at Jimmy’s, she usually fixed them a meal. Jimmy took her hunting occasionally, splitting the take three ways. One share for her, one for him, and one for the Farm. A couple of times they strapped on snowshoes, took full backpacks, and Jimmy’s pulk, planning to stay out until they were able to get a couple of deer. They also saw coyote, wolf, wild dog, and puma tracks.

  They were eminently successful, taking two deer in two days each time. One for the Farm and one for them to split. They saved a couple of good roasts from each of their deer, and made jerky strips from the rest of it. It took several days of working side-by-side, using an outside, wood fired smoke house/drying shed, to get it all done, but when they were finished, each had almost a full deer’s worth of jerky.

  Lucy showed Jimmy how to pressure can, using the equipment and supplies he’d scavenged on one of the trips, with the Ball Blue Book as his reference. He and Lucy always got a share of the community canned and preserved foods the Farm put by, for their help around the Farm, but preparing additional food was strongly encouraged.

  The next summer was a near repeat of the previous one. Except Jimmy insisted they take a security team with them, as they would be going to the second city. It was well that Jimmy did. They were harassed the entire time they were in the northwest section of the city. Nobody was killed, but there were several bullet wounds, one serious. They picked up the things Jimmy and Lucy had located and got out of the area.

  With things going well at the Farm, it was decided to cut the trip short, against Jimmy and Lucy’s advice. Those with families declared it too dangerous to continue.

  They were able to talk one un-attached younger man into staying with them and drive one of the three semis that had been put into service for the trip. Jimmy would drive the other one, and Lucy would drive the Suburban and the trailer they’d picked up in the new city. The group took the other one back to the Farm with what they had picked up so far.

  Mark couldn’t handle the truck with more than one trailer, so Jimmy sent him to the Farm with a trailer as soon as it was full, while he and Lucy continued the scavenging process, filling the next trailer while Mark was on his run.

  Much to their surprise, they found a fuel distributor with plenty of fuel left. There were several tank trailers at the distributor and Jimmy filled all of them, and had Mark shuttle them back to the Farm, one at a time, despite the Farm having plenty of biodiesel. He had the PRI-D to rejuvenate it, and it was his and Lucy’s, not the Farm’s. They found another stock of both PRI-D and PRI-G at the distributors.

  The city was larger than the first, and despite the fact that there were others scavenging, Jimmy and Lucy were able to safely acquire huge amounts of material for future use. Jimmy had become expert in getting into locked buildings, and Lucy was a whiz on a forklift. They found a diesel powered one that started right up and kept it with them when they moved.

  Many things were loaded directly into the trailers with the forklift when a loading dock was available. Sometimes they had to move things from the pallet on the forklift at the rear of the trailer, to the front of the trailer and restack it on empty pallets; the loading still went much more quickly than previous expeditions.

  For things too heavy to manhandle, Jimmy began using flat bed semi trailers, so Lucy could fully load them from the side. It was no problem getting tarps off other abandoned trucks to cover the loads. There was a greenhouse manufacturer in the city and Jimmy had Lucy load two flatbeds with the material to build several large greenhouses.

  Mark brought back a friend that could drive and wanted to do some scavenging on his own. Moving the trailers caught up with Jimmy and Lucy’s loading them.

  Besides the stores and warehouses they were checking, Jimmy had started them checking semi loads abandoned on the road on the first scavenging trip. They’d recovered many things, but now, with the forklift and a pallet puller, they were able to get deep into those they couldn’t before. They picked up an equipment trailer to carry the forklift with them.

  One of the prized finds that would have been the Farm’s, but became Jimmy’s and Lucy’s when the Farm opted out of the scavenging, was a double semi trailer load of Scott paper products, mostly toilet paper, but with plenty of paper towels and a couple of pallets of paper napkins. As long as they kept the trailers rodent free, they were set for life with toilet paper, even for their businesses, if they ever started up.

  Mark and his friend had both gained enough experience to pull doubles, so the last loads went quickly as fall approached. One of the four trailers the two young men took back on their last trip was theirs. Unlike the Coopers, they accepted the payment Jimmy and Lucy gave them.

  Jimmy didn’t know what all they had scavenged, as they went through stuff after Jimmy and Lucy made their acquisition, but they seemed happy and were prepared to come back the next year.

  Jimmy and Lucy stayed behind to fill two more semi-trailers, and the front of the equipment trailer, leaving just enough space to load the forklift. The Suburban and its trailer were, as usual, already filled with delicate and high value items.

  The farm had another good fall and winter, and there were speculations that perhaps the harshest of the weather was behind them. Jimmy didn’t think so. And said so. The weather always varied from norms, even severe ones.

  When spring rolled around again, and another scavenging operation was organized, the Farm council called Jimmy and Lucy in to see them. Jimmy’s little smile appeared, and Lucy looked glum when the council told them that there was concern about the amount of space their acquisitions were taking up, the time they were spending away from the farm, and that there was some jealousy about the possessions they were accumulating, even if it was not known exactly what they were.

  After hesitating for a moment after Frank had stopped speaking, his wife, also a member of the council, cleared her throat and said, “Your relationship has become quite a disruptive topic of discussion and rumors.”

  Both Jimmy and Lucy started to speak, but Elizabeth held up her hand and continued speaking. “I know you have both stated, probably numerous times, that there is nothing more than a cooperative relationship between you.

  “For this Farm to continue into the future it needs to expand and that means more people. Yes, you both do your share, but we need couples. Couples to bear children for the future.”

  Lucy turned pale and seemed to shrink into herself.

  “You are both popular here and would have no trouble getting mates so you could settle down and raise families, if you truly aren’t involved. If you are, you need to be married and not be living in sin. It gives the younger members of the Farm a bad impression.”

  Jimmy didn’t argue the matter. He simply said, “I’ll give you my decision when we get back from the scavenging trip.”

  Lucy’s mind was a blank. All she could think of to say was, “Me, too.”


  As soon as they left the study in the main house, Jimmy said to Lucy, “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

  Lucy lifted her head. “I’ve been making my own decisions. I got myself into this. I’m just not sure how to get out of it.”

  “You don’t have to make a decision right now. I wanted the time to think about it, and will, this summer.”

  “I’m too numb to think about it now, that’s for sure.”

  They were both rather somber as the expedition headed out a few days later. But scavenging was exciting, and they soon were their old selves. Jimmy and Lucy had orders to send the Farm team back if they ran into gun trouble the way they had the previous year.

  They were warned off a section of the city by another scavenging expedition. However it was by voice and not gunfire. Jimmy led them away, to another section of the city, telling the other group, “There’s plenty for everyone.”

  And there was. The Farm made a good dent in their wish list, and Jimmy and Lucy were reaping in everything they could think of to set each of them up in business. Only Mark had been allowed to accompany Jimmy and Lucy for their part of the scavenging. His friend had been shifted to work only on the Farm’s needs.

  The summer didn’t last long. The Farm people decided to go ahead and go back to the Farm, even though there were still items on the list. Jimmy and Lucy didn’t object. Mark opted to go with them. He did agree to take back a set of doubles on the last trip for Jimmy and Lucy. He’d already shuttled six double trailer loads during the summer.

  Jimmy and Lucy were relaxing in the tent after a hard day of manhandling goods they couldn’t load with the forklift, the day after the others left. Jimmy had the phone book open, just thumbing through it. They had the next day planned out, but not the following days.

  Something caught his eye, and he took a closer look at several ads. “Lucy, look at this,” he said. She rolled over from her position on her stomach, having been writing in her journal.

  “What is it?”

  “What style of hotel did you have in mind?”