Torn Apart (Book 2): Dead Texas Roads

by Hoaks, C. A.

  “Now, this chipped beef is poor folk’s best friend.” She stirred a pan of gravy. “That garden out back looks to have been cared for last fall. Got volunteer vines up on the side of the shed. Might be something we could use,” Millie commented.

  “Penny and I can check it out,” Darlene volunteered.

  “I figure to take the young man with me and show him how to set a few snares. I don’t know if we’ll catch much, but I know we don’t have food for more than a week at most.”

  Zack chuckled. “Me? Trapping? Just call me Daniel Boone.”

  Despite nausea, Steve slid out of bed and onto the wheelchair. He rolled toward the back door. “Zack, can I get this to the outhouse and shed?”

  “I’ll go with you. You’ll need a little help,” Zack answered.

  “Let’s see what’s in the shed while we’re out there.”

  “Y’all got time for that after breakfast,” Della protested.

  “I can’t eat right now,” Steve answered as he rolled toward the door.

  A few minutes later, Zack pushed the wheelchair from the outhouse to the door of the shed. The owner of the property had another shed with a padlocked door. Zack pulled the crowbar from his belt once again and performed the same procedure as before to pop open the lock. When he was done, he slid the door open.

  “Man, look at that!”

  Inside the shed was an ATV parked against the wall. Zack flicked on the LED light for a closer look. He saw garden tools propped in the corner, fishing gear, and a variety of hunting equipment. In the back corner was a large mound covered by a heavy canvas.

  “We need to see what’s under there.” Steve slumped back in the wheelchair.

  Zack stepped behind the wheelchair and pushed it toward the cabin. “You don’t look so good, man.”

  “If we had enough supplies, it would be a good place to rest up, but we don’t. We can’t sit around and wait for my legs to heal.”

  “I’ll check out the shed in a while,” Zack answered.

  Chapter 31

  New Home

  Wilma instantly liked Elaina. She brought her mother into the lodge the first morning after their arrival, ready to work. The three women sat at a small table at the side of the large commercial kitchen with cups of coffee.

  Elaina smiled approvingly at the kitchen. “I am surprised. I did not expect the kitchen to be in this condition. Those two hombres are not the cleanest. Señor Will is a big lío. Mess,” she clarified.

  “You’re telling me.” Wilma laughed. “You can’t even imagine how bad it was a week ago.”

  Cassie walked into the room and retrieved a cup of coffee. “Hi, ladies.” She yawned. “Coffee sure smells good.”

  “Didn’t you sleep last night?” Wilma asked.

  “I was checking out the library and trying to get a handle on what’s available in print. There’s a pretty good selection of books including lots of history, how-to books, and geography books. Will has an eclectic taste in fiction. It has a little bit of everything. I spent hours downloading textbooks while I could still access the internet. I feel we have limited time to get all the information we can. More and more websites are failing. The virus is appearing all over the country. It took less than a week for the roadblocks around the affected states to collapse. Cases have already appeared in Chicago, Miami, Minneapolis, and even Vegas. Europe is in chaos.” Cassie announced. “They’re saying the virus is airborne.

  Wilma nodded. “I was afraid of that.”

  “We’re all infected?” Elaina asked quietly.

  “Yes. Anyone that dies will turn now. The virus has mutated according to the CDC. There’s no stopping it.” Cassie sat down. “According to some of the news reports, they traced it back to Iran. The US and her allies bombed Tehran and half a dozen Iranian cities. Two of our aircraft carriers were involved. I found a site that says we’ve lost the G.W. Bush. There was an attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, and dozens of crew members were killed and well…you can imagine the rest. It’s floating around in the Persian Gulf, and there has been no contact from the crew in three days. The Ronald Reagan had an outbreak that left a third of the crew dead. They are supposedly in the process of securing the ship. The sad part is, we needn’t have bothered. Whatever they let loose, they destroyed themselves along with the rest of the world.” She clutched at the cup, frowning. “

  “No niña.” Maria reached out to take Cassie’s hand. “God will protect us. Others will come, and we will live on.”

  Elaina agreed. “Life goes on. We work, teach our children and protect ourselves.”

  “I guess we still have kids to educate. With a little luck, we’ll have a lot more,” Cassie agreed.

  “Oh, my. I guess none of us have thought that far ahead,” Wilma said.

  “Do you know if any of your family can use a computer, Elaina?” Cassie asked.

  “Sí, Daniel is always on the computer at home,” Elaina answered.

  “Will has a computer center behind his office, and I set my stuff up in there. We need to download as much information as we can get our hands on.”

  “I’ll talk to Daniel about helping you if Mr. Will says its okay.”

  Cassie smiled. “I’ll mention it to Will. We need this.”

  “Education is very importante,” Elaina’s mother answered softly.

  “I wish I had a lot more myself,” Cassie added. “We’re going to need a doctor, and I have only six months practical experience as a physician’s assistant. It doesn’t make me much of a physician.”

  “We’re lucky to have you,” Wilma answered. “If you had been at the hospital.…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes filled with tears.

  “I would have been, if not for the immunization clinic at the community center.” Cassie sighed. “I lucked out when the van broke down, and I had to catch a city bus home.” Her voice trailed off. “I was clueless until Randy turned up.”

  “I’m grateful,” Wilma answered softly.

  Elaina added. “We are all lucky to be here.”

  It only took a couple days for the fifteen adults and five children to settle in and to establish a semblance of routine. The three older women decided three meals a day would be cooked and served in the main lodge to control supplies and avoid duplicating efforts.

  Will’s communication office was appropriated by Cassie and Daniel. While Daniel accessed the Internet, Cassie inventoried the few medical supplies in the closet-sized first aid station next to a small conference room. She began to make a list of supplies she thought were critical, then spent hours adding to it.

  The next morning Will, Wilma, Randy, Cassie, Miguel, and Elaina sat together making plans. They spent a couple hours listing content to be accessed on the Internet while still available. No one wanted to admit it, but they all knew the resource would disappear soon enough.

  Daniel turned out to be methodical and patient as a researcher. He set up spreadsheets, filing systems, and priority list. He and Cassie worked almost non-stop. They spent hours downloading files on natural medicines, gardening, animal husbandry and dozens of other subjects they thought might be of value. Will had a business center that included three printers and a pallet of paper and office supplies that allowed them to print content for immediate consumption while other times information was saved to a hard drive with a nightly backup.

  As Cassie added another item to her list of medical supplies, Daniel remarked, “You know we could get most of those supplies at a veterinary office or animal hospital with maybe less danger from the infected.”

  Cassie looked up. “That makes sense. When people got sick, they went to the hospitals and clinics. Those places were overrun quickly from what I’ve seen on the Internet. That’s actually a pretty good idea. They use the same equipment, more or less.”

  “I’ll get a listing of veterinaries within a hundred miles while we have the Internet.”

  “We need to put maps on our list. We need, Texas, New Mexico, maybe even Arizon
a,” Cassie announced. “As time goes by, we’ll be expanding our range of travel, searching for supplies and people.”

  “We’ll need ways to communicate with our people and others,” Daniel commented.

  “What about short range radios, CBs or shortwave radios?” Cassie asked.

  “I’ll start looking around for options.”

  Cassie smiled as she counted them all lucky to have Daniel. Adding to his computer skills was his curiosity. She imagined by morning he’d have explored several different forms of communications and shortwave radios. He’d download information on options and directions for the CB and shortwave radios and all the list of jargon and codes.

  Daniel turned to Cassie. “When the Internet fails, and it will, we’ll need a way to communicate with the outside world.”

  Cassie shrugged. “You think there will be anyone left to talk to?”

  “Of course. There’ll be people like us all over the country. This will pass…if you believe in God, you know this will pass. The world will rebuild,” Wilma answered as she opened the door. “Now, come to dinner.” She led Cassie and Daniel to the dining room.

  At dinner, Will and Randy agreed they would need a way to communicate with the outside world and other survivors when the Internet was no longer viable. Until then, Daniel would work on the shortwave radio when the computer was tied up downloading files.

  Over the next few days, while Cassie and Daniel watched the world dissolve into chaos, Will directed one of the men to enlarge the garden using a small tractor while three others worked at expanding a corral for livestock they anticipated finding.

  Wilma led a discussion on options and in the end, the women decided what to plant and how much to plant. While Elaina and Wilma concentrated on meals, Maria supervised the work in the garden and took great pleasure in breathing new life into the plants already growing. They planted the Heirloom seeds Will had carefully accumulated before the attacks.

  Maria turned out to be an avid gardener and made suggestions on how to utilize the garden space as much as possible and avoid unwanted cross-pollination. They planted corn, squash, beans, tomatoes, cabbage, greens, lettuce and half a dozen other plants to can and or dry.

  All of the adults worried that no matter how much they planted, they would not have enough food if they achieved the number of people expected. In addition to saving food, they would also need to save seeds for the next year’s planting. Despite all the fruit trees Will had planted when he bought the property, the trees would not be producing large quantities of fruit for a few more years. They would struggle to have enough food without livestock.

  Will, Randy, Miguel, and Pablo decided they needed to scout the area and collect any domesticated animals they found. Miguel shared information about towns, farms, and ranches to the south. Will pulled out a state map and began making notes. He was hoping to eventually make contact and establish trade with the other survivors, but for now, searching for supplies was a priority and knowing what they faced would be paramount.

  “There’s a good chance we can gather a few horses and tack at some of the closest ranches. Add cattle, and well, it would improve our chances long term,” Randy commented.

  Will glanced over his morning coffee. “I’ve been thinking if we find livestock, we can’t drive them across the cattle guard. I’m gonna put wood bridge on a welded hinge to lay over the cattle guard to use with animals. We can leave the guard down during the day for coming and going, as long as we have a guard on duty. We need to build a guard hut, too. It’s gonna get hot as hell come summer, and at least shade will make it slightly more bearable.”

  “Wilma and Cassie gave me a list of supplies to scavenge,” Randy complained. “I don’t know how we can get everything they think we need, even taking two trucks.”

  “You probably won’t find all of it. We’ll have to make do,” Will answered. “People and livestock are critical with medical supplies another priority. Everything else we’ll look for after that.” Both Wilma and Cassie opened their mouths to protest but fell silent when Will raised his hand and continued, “We get what we can, but there’ll be a point when it gets too dangerous to be out there. If we find strangers, we need to get to know them before we make an offer of a place to stay. Our families will be coming, but we still need to pick up enough folks to build a community.”

  Randy stood. “Miguel, Pablo, Hugo, and I are going out today. We’re taking my truck and Pablo’s because both have trailer hitches. If we find a trailer, we can fill ‘em up.”

  “When are you leaving?” Cassie asked.

  “This morning,” Randy answered, then got up from the table and gathered his plate and cutlery to stack in a plastic pan on a cart at the side of the dining room. Three Hispanic men followed suit.

  “Be safe,” Wilma called out.

  “Vaya con Dios mi amor,” Elaina whispered.

  Miguel slammed a hat on his head. “No te preocupes, mujer.”

  Randy threw a careless wave at the room and stepped out into the morning sunshine. Ten minutes later motors roared to life, and two vehicles headed toward the cattle guard half a mile away.

  Cassie turned to Elaina. “Did the new folks get settled in alright?”

  “Yes. But the grandmother is in a lot of pain. They had run out of her pain medication before they crossed the border.”

  “Do you want me to walk out and take a look?”

  “We can go after breakfast,” Elaina answered.

  Chapter 32

  Anchors Away

  Brian glanced at Billy “You ready for this?”

  Billy shrugged. “Do we have a choice?” He checked the load in his weapon for the third time.

  “Everyone hang on!” Brian called out.

  Leon tapped on the top of the truck cab. “We’re good. Let’s get on the road. I see some of those bastards coming this way.”

  Brian slammed the truck into gear and pulled away from the loading dock. The pickup pulled out onto the street and headed toward a city park along Leon Creek nearly three miles away. They had decided it would be the best place to put the Jon boats. Brian looked up at the darkening skies and accelerated.

  Inside the cab of the truck, Paula pointed to the ominous clouds rolling toward the city. “It looks like it’s gonna be a bad storm.”

  “Great,” Billy moaned. “Just one more fucked up thing we don’t need.”

  “No, maybe it’ll be a good thing,” Brian answered. “If we can get the boats in the water, and it starts raining, the shallow area of Leon Creek will flood, and we’ll float right past the base, and the infected.”

  The first drops splattered on the windshield as they backed down a narrow incline to the edge of the creek. They were south of the River Walk, but north of Concepcion Mission. It was a spot alongside the stream with a shallower decline to the ban leading down the creek. The water was a little over fifteen feet wide.

  “Billy, watch our six. The rest of you, let’s get this done. Ladies, carry supplies to the water’s edge. Men, grab a Jon boat. Get ‘em in the water,” Brian ordered. “We load up all three boats and use the tarps to hide under when we get moving.”

  “How do we do this?” Leon asked.

  “We have to distribute the weight so Billy and Juan can take Margo. Leon, you take Paula. I’ll take Dale. Leon and I can carry more supplies. We split up between the two-man boats. Everyone keeps your packs close, just in case.”

  Billy stood a the top of the bank to watch for the infected. Leon and Juan carried the first boat down the bank to the shore. They shoved the end down into the water and suddenly realized the bank was still too steep to extend the boat out and opted for resting the boats parallel with the edge of the water. Margo and Paula were pressed into holding the boats against the current.

  Once all the boats were sitting at water’s edge, Brian directed the loading of supplies.

  “Everyone put your packs on. Put a case of water, in each boat, then the square plastic buckets of food go
in the front and back boats.” Brian added, “Let’s get moving folks.”

  Billy suddenly called out, “Company’s coming.”

  “Come on, Billy. Load up,” Brian called out as he picked up the trolling motors and hurried down the bank. He passed a motor and battery to each, Leon and Juan, then Brian walked to the first boat and mounted the trolling motor to the back. “Get in the boat, Dale!”

  The once gentle volley of raindrops turned into a torrential downpour as the group hurried toward the Jon boats. Rain pelted the small group, making the grassy bank slick and treacherous to navigate. Dale pulled up his sagging pants and stepped out across the edge of the water into the boat Brian struggled to hold against the bank. The huge man caught his foot on the edge of the boat and stumbled into the craft headfirst with one foot still planted in the mud. The shallow aluminum craft tilted and began taking on water.

  Brian yelled as he jerked Dale to his feet, “Get up!”

  Billy fired twice, then slid down the embankment. “Time to go.”

  Leon helped Paula into the boat, then left her to hold the boat against the bank while helped Billy, Margo, and Juan into their craft. When they were settled in the seats, he gave them a push away from the bank. He rushed back to the boat where Paula clung to a little shrub to hold the metal craft against the current.

  From the Jon boat, Billy fired at the approaching infected while Juan mounted the trolling motor and connected the battery. He turned on the engine and guided the boat toward the middle of the stream.

  Billy continued to face the shore and fired twice more. He yelled, “Gotta move now!”

  Leon pushed the shallow craft away from the shore and picked up the trolling motor at his feet. He dipped the propeller end in the water and attached the motor to the flat back end of the boat. When he connected wires to the battery and pushed the button, nothing happened. The boat continued to drift back toward the shore.

  “Hurry! They’re coming!” Paula yelled as she picked up a paddle and began pushing away from the shore in the rising water. The Jon boat drifted and turned in a circle.