Into the High Country

by T J Reeder

  Harv was waiting for us and asked how we slept. I said fine but I have a candidate for dinner, the women were laughing hearing the girls’ version of me plotting the demise of the rooster. They all were laughing because that one bird always went into the barn to roost and started the day for everybody and was threatened with the stew pot daily. Harv said he had threatened to kill the damn thing so many times nobody even listened anymore.

  We rode down to the head of the road where they had their look out bunker set off the road but with a very good field of fire. The boys were bored and said nothing was moving but a herd of elk that had spent the night bedded down not fifty yards from the bunker. Which allowed them to get some sleep since nothing was gonna sneak up on the elk. We drove out on the highway and other than a few abandoned vehicles, it was empty of all signs of life.

  After we returned to the compound we sat and talked about the future. I told them how I was wanting to get people moving again, use the knowledge we have and the resources to get America back on her feet and open for business. Harvey agreed and said they were all getting bored with life in this deep canyon where it was sunless more often than not. It had served its purpose but it was about time to get back into the world. I told him about the idea of Lake Powell and the dam and all the other stuff I had been thinking. He was surprisingly very interested in the Lake idea. That and sunshine! He said the womenfolk were talking rebellion if they weren’t taken out of here soon.

  He really love hearing about our sand stone homes in the canyon. One thing these ol boys are really good at is digging through rock or coal. I hadn’t set out to do so but I think I had lit a slow fuse that was gonna lead to something.

  He was very interested in what we did to get the Dodge diesels running and all I could do was parrot what the gear heads said. Harv said his people could make anything run with good parts, I was still surprised to hear him talking like this, but I could also see they were tired of just being holed up here in this safe but dark canyon.

  At the end of a week we said we needed to be moving on and I was surprised when Harv asked us to come to a meeting with the adults. The meeting was held after breakfast clean up, and all the kids were shooed off to do chores. Harvey stood up in front of his big extended family and laid out everything I had told him about our life outside in the world, and the plans for a settlement on Lake Powell. He didn’t miss a thing from the weather to the beauty of the country as described by me and the girls. He asked the three of us to talk about it and the girls really had it down pat, about our friends the Navajo people, the beauty of the red rock canyons, to the peace and quiet of a desert night. Sleeping outside, the gazillion stars, the satellites blinking across the night sky. There was nothing I could add except that for me it was time to stop wondering all over the countryside and to start building a country.

  Harv stood up and looked at every person in the room and said, “Folks I want us to think about moving, I’m like a lot of the family, I’m tired of the gloom of this canyon. Yes, it’s been a safe place for us and it’s been our home, but it’s served its purpose and it’s time to get out there and help rebuild America. We all came here as family and we all came because we saw what was coming and what we had to do to protect the family. Now we need to decide if we stay here and do nothing more than just live, or do we get out there and build?”

  He asked every couple to talk about it and to speak with their kids, and at supper tonight there would be a meeting to decide what their future would be.

  Well I was stunned but the girls said, hell John it’s a done deal! I asked why they believed that? May said John we been with the women for a week now and they are so tired of this lifestyle. They all want to have a home again, fix meals for their own family. Yes they are one big family but a woman wants her own place, and these women are happy to be safe and alive but they are ready for a new life.

  I had to ask if they had kind of pushed it a bit but both said no not at all. They simply spoke of the life in the canyon, and the hot summers and the beautiful nights, about being on the lake on a quiet night in the pontoon boat sleeping under the stars. I had to admit that right then they had me sold on it.

  That night at supper the talk was lively and happy and everybody was caught up in it. After the place was cleaned up and all the evening chores done everybody was back in the big room. I found out later that even the guards from the highway were here, every soul was here.

  Harvey stood and said ok, we had the whole day to talk and think and now it’s time to bring it to a vote. The question is this. Who wants to move to the desert on Lake Powell and build a community and get back to living life as we should be. Raise your hands, and that includes the kids who can understand what we are talking about. A sea of hands were waving, he said ok, who wants to stay here? Not one hand was raised. He looked around and said folks we are moving on! And a hugh cheer went up!!

  Just like that, a lot of good folks were heading to a new life. Harv turned to me and said I know John here has a bit more traveling to do and he’s agreed to return to this place soon and we will roll out together. We have a lot of work to do, we have to get out and into the surrounding area and locate vehicles we can get working, trucks and trailers because when we go we are taking everything we have here, everything that we brought. So you ladies need to get to figuring out what you need to get things packed up and I need the mechanics to figure what vehicles you think will work best. John and his people use diesels because the fuel is still good where you find it so plan on that.

  With a loud cheer the meeting was over and people were coming over to thank us for giving them the will to reenter the world.

  On a beautiful sunny morning a week after we arrived we rode out following the same road that had brought me to this place a life time ago. I was alone then and filled with the need to make it back to Texas. Now two years or so later, I was back with two beautiful wives, a bigger pack train and heading back to where it all started. It sure seemed like a lot of trouble just to look at a Dodge truck and shot to hell trailer that would never move again.

  As we rode along we talked about the good folks we had just left and how in a short few days they were willing to uproot their lives to follow a dream. The girls told me that the women were the driving force behind it. May told a story that I thought sounded like funny BS. She said the ancient Chinese symbol for trouble was an inverted V representing a roof and two stick figures with dresses on representing women. The meaning was supposed to be “Two women under one roof was trouble.” I had to laugh but the girls didn’t, so I asked if it was true why didn’t we have problems. Sandy said “how do you know we don’t?” That was a show stopper, and I guess I looked like I choked on a toad from the laughter that started. They both leaned over and hugged me and said “Joke John!”

  We don’t have those problems, they explained, because us girls talk everything out and never let anything fester. Most people don’t do that, plus we have no jealousy in our relationship. And we all love each other equally. I swallowed the toad and thought “Thank God”! because I wanted nothing to intrude in our happy home/life/whatever we have.

  They said the biggest issue in the canyon we just left was there was so little real privacy and women more than men need privacy. Plus as good as the canyon was to hold out in bad times it was always cold and sunless a good part of the day. Humans need sun, we need to be out in it and breathing fresh air. So in a sense they all had cabin fever, or canyon fever if you will.

  I could see all that and it helped clear up in my mind why we three didn’t have these issues. I vowed when we did settle down we would have privacy and room to move around. The girls both leaned over and hugged me telling me I was a good husband. It sounded funny to hear it from both sides but I’d never change it.

  Our life is good in the midst of so much that isn’t.

  We reached the hills above the Bremmer ranch, former home to Buck and his bunch. I sat looking it over with glasses and it looked the same, the g
arden was bigger and I could see the crow’s nest on the barn roof and almost made out a head moving around. But having learned to never take things at first look I got down and dug into one of the packs and found my spotting scope mounted on a rifle stock. I flashed on the memory of using this same set up when I first observed this place. With the higher power I could see everything better, and I recognized the boy on the roof of the barn but was blocked from seeing much else.

  Finely we rode out of the timber and headed for the ranch and hadn’t made it a hundred yards when I heard the clanging of the kid banging the iron pipe. I then saw other people moving around and one joining the boy on the barn roof. I saw the sun flashing off the glasses and heard a loud shout followed by a man waving his hat, and I returned the gesture.

  By the time we were close to the ranch yard I saw the entire bunch standing out waiting for us. I stepped down and accepted a hand shake and a hug from the brothers. I turned to the girls and said please meet my wives, May and Sandy. The women came forward and all of them started talking as they led the girls into the house. I shook hands with the boys, all of whom were really growing up, which is what kids do. The older boys were men by now.

  We led the stock to the corral while all the boys gathered to pet Buck and his four that had lived here. They were astounded at the three new mules that looked just like the ones I got from them. We adjourned to the porch where the ladies brought out coffee, I wondered where they got it and Bill reading my look said that one day a peddler drove through in an old truck loaded with goods and they bought stuff using silver coins. He said the man returned once a month. Interesting, of course my first thought was that it was a good cover for spying for a raid. Bob said the man would never enter into a place simply because he wanted to know nothing he could be forced to give up. Good man and a good way to develop trust. The brothers figure he must have scored a few tractor-trailers off the interstate since he had a good cross section of goods.

  We spent the rest of the day just telling them about what had happened after I left until I found Sandy, then she joined in until May came into it then all three of us were involved. It’s a long story and took a lot of telling. Then we told the return trip story. When we finished they all sat there with mouths hanging open.

  They were like Harvey and his clan, they had just lived and let live, no more raids after the first one but they never slacked off on their security. They were very interested in why Harvey and his extended family were so willing to just pack up and move, until one of the wives spoke up and said “I know exactly why they want to” and went on the explain the facts of life to the men.

  She started with the fact they had two boys at the age where they should be looking for wives, and other boys coming up, and daughters ditto. She also pointed out that while they had a life here where was it going? They were just getting up, working from can see to can’t see and while they had plenty to eat and were warm it wasn’t much of a life for any of them. Kids need to have other kids around to learn how to interact with others. She said it all calmly and her sister was nodding right along.

  The brothers looked kind of lost but their wives told them that they were two of the most decent, honest, hard working men a woman could have but their kids couldn’t develop stuck out here in the middle of nowhere where they never see another person besides family. They said it well I’ll admit that. And the brothers took it well and the older boys spoke up and said their moms were right that it was lonely here and what were they accomplishing besides just existing in a bubble? I liked that, two mature young men who could see the problems coming at them as a family unit.

  I stood and apologized for bring problems into their home, but all of them talked me down damn fast. The women were grateful it had come out as it did, when a resolution to the problems was right there in front of them.

  That started a barrage of questions about the plan to build a village/town/city on the shores of a huge lake. I had to admit it was just talk so far that we were planning to settle down there when we returned from this trip. And then the growing would start. May’s people were there right now looking at what they needed to get the power grid reorganized to really get things growing. The kids all loved the idea of living on a big lake fishing and swimming.

  I was really feeling like I was turning into the Pied Piper. Uprooting people from their lives.

  Sandy said John how many people have the chance to help rebuild a nation and could handpick the first settlers to build the future with? But I argued this wasn’t why I made the trip north! May said “are you really sure of that”? Well that made me stop and think, I had been selling the City on the Lake idea everywhere we went. Without even knowing it. Or had I?

  By the third day of our visit the whole family had voted to head south for the Lake. I could only hope I had a clue what I was getting these people into. They all said it was for the best because they would be moving forward instead of sitting still. God I hoped so. I used the time and the brothers’ work shop to do something I had wanted to do for a long time. When time came to finish this phase of the trip we arranged to return here to assist them in preparing for their move.

  We headed out with only two pack mules and our riding stock to make better time. And we didn’t slow down a bit, no long camps, and no days off. We had a mission even though I had kept it from the girls only for some personal reason. And one day we rode out onto the junction of the USFS road and the highway and right down the road heading for the camp ground. When we came to the rusting car so shot full of holes and the sad mound of earth now grown over by grass, I stopped and looked down at it then stepped down and removed a bundle from a pack. Unrolling it, I revealed a cross of steel with a name spelled out with a welder.

  Jeremy Dane

  RIP

  It was all I could do for him but I took a moment to apologize for taking so long to mark his grave, and to tell him that the bastards that murdered him were lying in a pile of bones unburied and nobody cared. That I hoped he could rest in peace and that one day that peace would return to this nation.

  We mounted up and headed down the road to the camp ground, the girls each holding a hand. I was glad Buck could drive. Turning into the camp ground was a funny moment for me, I felt as if I had come full circle which made me laugh because I had. There in all its glory was my truck, dirty and a tree limb laying across the hood, still hooked to the trailer. After looking around a bit I could see that somebody had used the place after I was gone. The trailer was still closed up and dry because the bullet holes were in the side not the roof. But it smelled like mice had been holding parties in it. I’ve always hated that mouse smell but even more since the Hantavirus outbreak from years ago. We walked around the camp ground and I pointed out the places I had hid my weapons and the bunker I had built from which I shot the assholes. May moved leaves around a bit and came up with three empty 22 lr casings and said “The NCIS crew would have nailed you by now” and we all laughed at that one.

  Now that I had returned and marked the grave I had no desire to remain here, and no desire to spend a night here so we mounted up and headed back the way we came. I finally asked them if they thought the whole marking the grave thing was foolish? Sandy said “No John it was something you had to do.” May agreed and added that they had both known from the start of the trip that the main reason was to mark that grave. That surprised me, and I asked about it. They both said because through everything that had happened since the EMP the one regret I ever talked about was that I had not marked the grave. I never realized I had ever really mentioned it. But now that it was done I felt at peace for the first time in a long time, and I truly felt like there was a future and we were riding right into it.

  We made it back to the ranch in good order and talked things over with the brothers and decided to see what we could locate in the way of running vehicles of some sort. So we loaded up in the old Chevy truck and headed out, the brothers and me, it felt strange not having the girls with me but we jus
t didn’t have the room.

  We headed for the nearest town where the brothers had done their business before the event and found it still empty. It wasn’t much of a place but it had been the center of activity before. We looked in every building and found nothing. It was a long drive to the next place but it looked like we had it to do so we headed out. The two lane road left the valley and wound up the timber covered mountain and as we neared the top I remarked how there wasn’t a vehicle sitting where it stopped. They said it was a empty road at the best of times.

  And there at the top where the road broke over was the prize. Off the road through the trees was a metal building and as we looked at it Bill said “Shit.” Bob said “Indeed.” It was the building where the road repair and snow clearing equipment was stored.

  We approached it slowly so as not to spook anybody who might have taken up housekeeping there but it was empty and all the steel doors locked with the barred windows still in place. I hated to break in but it was the only way so we spent several minutes working on the walk in door before it gave up the ghost and opened. As usual a heavy hammer will get results most times. Inside we found two large highway trucks with dump boxes and a pickup sitting as they were left. The batteries were dead but we got the big doors open and let in light and the old Chevy with jumper cables. We got the pickup going first, then let the Chevy charge one of the dumps and the shop truck doing the same on the other. While this was going on, we looked the place over and found a lot of good stuff that we could use down the road.