by Bruno Miller
They also grabbed what feed she had left in the barn. One of the bags had been gnawed through, as she suspected. It must have been the goats or pigs or maybe a combination of both.
“Hey, look at all these eggs!” Reese was loading a bucket with eggs from the now-empty nesting boxes. “There must be close to twenty here.”
Mary smiled. “I bet there’s just as many under the front porch.”
The thought of fresh eggs for breakfast made her hungry. At breakfast this morning, they had filled themselves with oatmeal, bread, and canned fruit, but they couldn’t survive on those types of food for long. They needed more than carbohydrates; they needed protein.
“How long will these be good for?” Reese asked.
“They taste best if you eat them within a couple weeks, but they’ll last a month or more,” Mary answered.
Reese laughed. “I don’t think we’ll have any trouble eating these before they expire.”
“No, I imagine not.” Mary smiled. Even though two of the chickens were unaccounted for, they still had ten chickens and four ducks left. The chickens were pretty regular at egg production, and most of the hens laid one a day. The ducks weren’t as consistent, but they usually produced an egg every few days or so.
The duck eggs were more than twice the size of the chicken eggs, though, and they were rich in protein. If Mary and the others rationed them properly, they could each have at least one egg a day, maybe more if they were careful and let their reserves build up.
Reese continued to gather eggs as Bill entered the yard and backed his Dodge up to the trailer. The animals scattered as the loud modified exhaust of his truck echoed off the sides of the barn. Fred closed the gate behind the truck and hurried over to help hook up the trailer to the hitch. Within a few minutes, they were ready to start loading animals. It was time for Nugget to swing into action.
Nugget didn’t need any cues from Mary, and she had already started chasing the goats when they scattered from the exhaust.
“Come on, Nuggs. Get ’em!” Mary called out as the little dog worked the livestock around the yard and slowly back to the trailer. Herding was always more fun when Nugget was involved with the livestock to some degree. It also helped Mary catch the occasional stray back when one of the goats managed to escape the fenced-in yard. But this was different, and Mary was proud of her girl for doing what she had been trained to do.
Reluctantly, the animals funneled into the trailer at Nugget’s insistence and the occasional nip to their flanks. The chickens resisted the most, and their ability to launch themselves into the air and over Nugget’s advances made them all the more difficult to round up. Eventually, the last of the chickens in the yard was corralled into the trailer. Now they just had to catch the ones under the front porch.
After they closed the trailer up, Fred and Bill lingered around the back of the truck for a moment. Mary noticed that they were acting a little odd and wondered what was going on.
“What’s wrong?” Mary asked.
“Well, we were just thinking that we should take the dead pig with us, too.” Fred cleared his throat and broke eye contact with her momentarily.
Mary sighed and looked back at the dead pig for a second. “Is the meat any good, Reese?”
“She’s only been dead for a few hours, as far as I can tell. It’s probably still good,” Reese answered. Part of Mary had hoped Reese’s answer would be no. But it wasn’t, and as sad as Mary was to lose one of her animals, she didn’t want to let her emotions get in the way of her common sense. She couldn’t deny the others meat because of her feelings. She also knew the reality of the situation: the pig would go to waste if they left it out here to rot in the sun. Even if they took the time to bury it, something—maybe whatever had killed it in the first place—would come along and dig up the carcass after they were gone.
“Fine, go ahead and load it up. I’m going to head on up to the house. I’ll see you there when you’re done.” Mary turned and started to walk away. “Don’t forget to grab the pile of tools by the barn.” She turned and nodded at the items her and Reese had gathered, then went into the house.
“Thanks, Mary. We’ll take care of it.” Bill tipped his hat as she passed.
“I’ll come with you and give you a hand, if that’s okay,” Reese called out, chasing after Mary and Nugget.
By the time Mary reached the house, she had let her emotions get the best of her and was steadily wiping away tears and fighting off the desire to have a good cry. It wasn’t the pig. Well, not entirely. It was everything, and it seemed to all come crashing down at once. Reese finally caught up to her and put her hand on Mary’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry…about the pig.”
Mary shook her head. “Silly, isn’t it? I mean, it’s just a pig, right? There are more important things to worry about right now.”
“No, it wasn’t just a pig. It was an animal that you took care of and cared about. What happened isn’t your fault. It’s okay to feel bad. You’re allowed that much. What’s going on around us doesn’t make us any less human.” Reese followed up her pep talk with a quick hug.
Mary smiled at Reese. She felt silly letting her emotions get the best of her, but Reese made her feel a little better. In some ways, she reminded Mary of her daughter, and it was good to have Reese with them. In fact, Mary was thankful she could draw strength from all of them. And as bad as it was right now, she was still more fortunate than most.
Chapter Twenty-Three
In a little less than an hour, they had the fourth Suburban loaded onto the trailer and chained into place. Vince was impressed with what they had accomplished, but it had come at a cost: not one of them was dry. The sun was almost unbearable, and even with frequent breaks to hydrate and hide in the shade of the loader, it looked as though they had all gone swimming in their clothes. Whatever water they had consumed wasn’t enough to stay hydrated.
Normally the SUVs would be situated with a small amount of space between them for transport. But they weren’t worried about delivering pristine vehicles to the motel, so they winched them snuggly together on the trailer until their bumpers mashed into one another.
Doing this allowed them to squeeze a small sedan on the back end. They couldn’t fit the entire car on the last bit of ramp, and the rear wheels hung off the back by a few feet and touched the pavement. But the car was front-wheel drive, and Vince hoped it would tow behind without any trouble. To be honest, though, if they lost the car en route to the motel, it wouldn’t really matter. It was at least worth the effort to try and take one more car with them. Fortunately, they found plenty of tie-downs on the trailer, and they made sure the large SUVs wouldn’t go anywhere while being towed. Although Vince wasn’t overly concerned with securing them, it wasn’t like they were going to be moving very fast.
He dreaded the prospect of towing the cumbersome and overloaded trailer back to the motel, to say the least. He’d had a little taste of what it was going to be like when he tried maneuvering the trailer through the car lot. They added a few safety chains to the loader bucket and trailer connection to try and ensure a problem-free trip back, but Vince was skeptical. Though the chains wouldn’t keep the king pin from sliding off the bucket, they would at least stop the trailer tongue from hitting the ground and getting damaged. That was the theory, anyway.
He was relieved to see the loader lift the trailer with relative ease, considering it was loaded down with five vehicles now. He certainly had his doubts about whether the old John Deere would be able to handle the weight. Once he had the trailer raised high enough for towing, Vince had John and Cy lower the landing gear on the trailer as far as they could without touching the ground. This would provide another safety measure should the pin slip off the bucket.
With every precaution taken, it was time to start the slow journey back to the other side of town. Vince adjusted himself in the seat so he could have a decent view of both the road behind him, which was now the front of the loader, and the tr
ailer. Fortunately, he had a pretty straight shot out of the car lot and onto the road.
John and Cy followed behind in the Bronco and kept an eye on things from the rear. Once again, Vince wished they had an extra radio to keep in touch, but they didn’t, so he kept an ear out for John’s horn. If John or Cy spotted any problems, they had agreed that they would honk the horn to let Vince know. It wasn’t the best plan, but they had little choice in the matter. The horn on the old Bronco wasn’t very loud and hearing it over the sound of the diesel was tough enough, but now there was the added whining of the hydraulics, which were now under a load and supporting the weight of the trailer tongue.
Vince felt very isolated in the cab as he carefully transitioned from the parking lot to the street and over a curb he didn’t mean to drive over. The trailer leaned precariously to the left and then back to the right as Vince held his breath and watched the vehicles bounce around and test the strength of the tie-down chains. The way they had it loaded made the whole thing top-heavy, but he expected as much since the lower half of the trailer was empty. Watching the vehicles shift their weight from side to side, which in turn caused the trailer to sway dramatically, was still nerve-wracking.
He was glad to reach the somewhat flat surface of the road as he prepared to navigate around the first wreck. In hindsight, he should have cleared the road entirely rather than just push things out of the way. He hadn’t anticipated that towing the trailer back would be such a technical endeavor. The articulated steering compounded his every turn of the wheel. Throw in the added complication of doing it all in reverse and just keeping things going the direction he intended made for a formidable challenge.
Vince glanced at his watch and quickly looked back to the road, afraid he would lose control. He was disappointed to see it was almost four in the afternoon. He swore that when he checked the time a little while ago it was closer to three. There was a bit of a learning curve with this first load of cars, and hopefully the others would go much smoother and faster.
For the most part, he was satisfied with how the rig was performing, minus the steering, and the king pin seemed to be happy resting on the piece of steel between the forks. Vince was worried that it wouldn’t hold up, but now he was wondering if he would be the weak link in all this. The way he was sitting in the seat so he could see both in front and behind the loader was starting to take its toll on his back. He wasn’t sure how many trips he could make like this.
John, Cy, and maybe some of the others would have to take their turn behind the wheel. Vince hadn’t planned on doing all the towing, but he didn’t think he’d need someone else to take over for him so quickly. He’d hoped to make a few more trips today, but the reality that they might only make it out to the dealership once more began to settle in.
And they had to deal with more than just the cars and the animals. The looters were never far from his mind, and he was sure they were on everyone else’s, too. A part of him fully expected to hear the radio go off and warn them that they were under attack while they were at the dealership. John had checked in with the radio on a regular basis, but all was quiet back at the motel. The looters certainly knew by now that the boy was missing, along with several of their people. Whether they had found the bodies or not was anybody’s guess.
With five guys and the Lincoln missing, Vince hoped that hiding the bodies would have the looters suspecting their own gang members of foul play and buy them some time. The fact that they hadn’t been attacked suggested that this was exactly what was happening. It wouldn’t last forever, though, and eventually the looters would figure out what had happened, especially when no supplies were brought out to the overpass.
Vince questioned whether they should even attempt another run tonight. With the load of cars they had, they would be able to lay out a formidable roadblock and movable entrance on the main road into town. It would take them at least an hour or more to unload the Suburbans and put them into place across the road. The looters hadn’t specified when they expected the supplies to be dropped off, just that they wanted them tonight.
Vince was almost sure they would have a scout watching the overpass and reporting any activity—or lack thereof—back to the rest of the gang. At a certain point, it would be obvious that Vince and the other survivors didn’t intend on giving in and handing over any supplies. There was no telling what would happen, really. The looters had lost their bargaining chip, and if they still thought that some of their own gang members had the boy, they wouldn’t want Vince and the others to know that, either.
No matter the outcome, Vince wanted everyone to be ready for battle tonight. That meant putting cars and animals on hold until tomorrow morning. He hated to stop working on these things, but it wasn’t smart to have people spread out all over town when an attack was likely. The looters’ mobility would be limited thanks to the damage he and John had done to their vehicles, but that was no reason to let their guard down. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Vince liked to live by that motto, but now it carried a whole new meaning: the worst was death and the best would be surviving another day.
Chapter Twenty-Four
John hadn’t mentioned if he’d heard over the radio how Mary and her team were making out with the animals. Vince had meant to ask, but they had been working nonstop at loading cars, and it slipped his mind. Hopefully Mary had managed to rescue all the animals from her place and set them up at the motel.
He’d find out soon enough; the motel was less than a mile away. They were almost back, and aside from a few hairy moments when he had ridden up on the curb during a couple of wide turns, the trip had been uneventful. The loader was operating flawlessly, and for its age and appearance, Vince was impressed with its performance. Of course, this also made him suspect that something was bound to go wrong at any minute. Things had gone too easily today, and in his mind, that meant trouble was likely around the corner. He hated that he thought that way, but he did, and given their circumstances, he was getting more cynical by the day.
Vince didn’t want to admit it, but he was becoming more and more callus to the plight of other possible survivors outside their group. He had initially hoped they would find more people, but now he wasn’t so sure about that. Unless he personally knew someone, he wasn’t sure he could trust them to join him and the others at the motel. Not without a healthy amount of scrutiny at the very least. After all, he’d gone against his gut feeling with Dave and Kelly, and where had that gotten him?
He felt a small sense of relief as he passed the motel and waved to Tom, who was sitting in the car on watch. Vince was glad to see him up, and although he wanted him to rest up, taking a watch shift wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, it would free up an able-bodied person to help elsewhere, and right now, Vince hoped that someone was making dinner.
He also noticed the black Ford was back, and Bill’s Dodge, with Mary’s horse trailer attached, was parked along the far side of the motel parking lot. That was a good sign, and it gave him a small boost of energy as he continued toward the old roadblock. He was tempted to stop and see how they had set up the courtyard—and more importantly how many animals had actually survived—but he knew they were losing daylight and he desperately wanted to place these SUVs before tonight.
Vince eyed the overpass suspiciously as he pulled the trailer into place near the roadblock. He scanned the area near the interstate access ramps and the road beyond as best as he could, but the heat rising from the asphalt distorted his view. Past a certain point, he couldn’t tell if he was seeing the reflection of an ATV or if it was just the sun glinting off a wreck on the road.
Vince was tired, and after further inspection, he decided it must have been a mirage. He wiped the perspiration from his face and tried to focus one more time before giving up. The sweat stung his eyes, and the yellow glare from the sun was unrelenting, even at this hour. He had wished for clearer skies and less smoke, but now he was rethinking his wish. It was nice to breathe more easily, but he wasn’t sure i
t was a fair trade. At least the solar panels on the garage were getting a solid day of charging.
John and Cy weren’t far behind him and pulled up next to the loader. They all went right to work unloading the SUVs without saying much to one another. Vince could tell that they were either tired or worried about what the night might bring as far as the looters were concerned.
At least unloading was easier than loading, and they let gravity do most of the work. They were done in a fraction of the time it had taken them to winch the Suburbans and the sedan onto the transport trailer. Unfortunately, they had to unhook the loader from the trailer so Vince could use the bucket to clear the old roadblock out of the way. The wrecks he moved wouldn’t go to waste, though, and he strategically placed them on the shoulder and used them to fill the ditch that ran parallel to the northbound lane.
Using the heavy bucket, he did his best to flatten the cars and push them into the bottom of the ditch until they were about level with the surface of the road. His plan was to use those cars as a base to fill the ditch and then stack more on top of them. He’d do the same on the other side when they had more time and more cars.
While he was setting the wrecks in place, he noticed just how tall the grass and weeds were growing. They were mostly weeds, but it made him think about how there were no more services like road crews or the big orange tractors that he’d seen cutting grass along the local roadways. Vince wondered how long it would take for nature to reclaim what had been paved over. An image of Cloverdale in ruins and overgrown with vegetation popped into his thoughts.
