200 Miles to Liberty

by P. A. Glaspy

  “Thank goodness.” Liz closed her eyes again, wincing from time to time as Marco was working on her.

  “Holler if you need anything, Perez,” Hutch went on. “You stay in here with her for now. You can watch from the door for anything on this side.” With that, he stepped out of the camper, went into a crouch and headed back to the front of the Humvee.

  Darrell had worked his way to the overpass by then, confirming two dead, one on each side. After kicking their rifles away, he shouted, “Clear!” and shifted his focus to the road and exit ramp in front of them, looking for any additional threats.

  Hutch joined him, shaking his head as he was inspecting the two men lying in pools of their own blood. “Idiots. If they had stepped out where we could have seen them, we could have tried to talk this through. They might still be alive.”

  Darrell continued to scan the area. “Yeah, and I’m surprised no one else has shown up yet. There was no missing all that gunfire noise. You think they were acting on their own?”

  “I doubt it. Let’s advance and see if there’s any other threats ahead.” Hutch slowly started walking toward the exit ramp. He hadn’t taken a dozen steps before he saw a woman running toward him yelling.

  “Willis! Willis! Oh my god, Willis!” she screamed as she approached. Hutch and Darrell brought their rifles to bear on her.

  “Stop! Stay where you are, or we’ll be forced to fire on you!” Hutch called out.

  The woman came to a stop, hands trembling as she held them in front of her mouth. “Who are you? Why did you kill my husband? What’s wrong with you?”

  “Keep your hands where we can see them and approach slowly,” Hutch said in a calmer tone. The woman complied; eyes fixed on the body behind them.

  “Why? Why would you do that?” Her voice shook as tears streamed down her face.

  “Because he fired on us, ma’am,” Darrell replied. “We’re New Jersey National Guard. He shot one of our people. A medic is working on her now.”

  She turned her head slightly to look at him. “Her? He shot a woman? I’m sure he didn’t know it was a woman.”

  “It doesn’t matter whether it was a female or a male. He fired on us. We defended ourselves.” Hutch’s matter-of-fact tone brought her attention back to him.

  “No! You must have shot first. He wouldn’t just shoot people like that.”

  “Well, he did,” Hutch said. “If he had come out where we could see him and tried talking to us, this would have turned out a lot different. So, you tell me — why would he shoot first without even finding out who we are?”

  Sniffling, she replied, “He probably thought you were them.”

  Darrell and Hutch looked at each other, confusion apparent on their faces, then turned back to the woman. “Them? Who is them?”

  “Some men that have been through here. They had a vehicle like yours, were dressed like you … said they were contractors for the government and were sent out to get supplies for their men. They took half of our food and we didn’t have that much to begin with. Said they’d be back to check on us in a couple of days. Willis and Henry over there,” she indicated the other dead man with her head, “decided they were gonna set up out here and try to keep them from taking what little we have left. Now, he’s gone!” she stopped, her voice catching on the last word. “What’s going to happen to me? Who’s going to help me find food? Were you coming to help us?”

  Hutch shook his head. “No, we’re on our way to Washington D.C. If those tarps hadn’t been hanging there we wouldn’t have even slowed down. I’m sorry about your husband, but we really need to get moving. Are there any other surprises, besides this one, maybe further up the road?”

  Looking at her dead spouse, the tears started again. “No, not from us anyway. We have another couple of guys set up closer to the trailer park entrance. There’s only one way into it. But is help coming? It’s been days and we haven’t seen anyone from the government, the police, nobody. What are we supposed to do?”

  Darrell had grabbed the edge of the tarp and was pulling it down. Hutch went over to help. They let it fall over the dead man. Darrell proceeded to do the same with the other one as Hutch turned the woman and replied in a sad tone, “The best you can. That’s all you can do. That’s all any of us can do.”

  The woman went over to her husband’s body and knelt down beside it. She whispered, “Wait for me, Willis. It shouldn’t be too long now before I’m with you, because I don’t think I’ll make it in this crazy new world without you.”

  When they got back to the rest of their group, Hutch filled them in on what had happened and their interactions with the woman. They checked on Liz and once she was situated as comfortably as they could get her in one of the bunks, they loaded up to continue their trek. David Tanner offered to go talk to the woman, to reassure her that someone would be coming to help as soon as possible. Damon nixed the idea.

  “I’d prefer the least amount of people know who you are, as well as where and why we’re headed to D.C. I’m sorry, Sir, but I can’t let you do that.”

  Setting his lips into a grim line, Tanner shook his head slowly. “You’re right, Major. It’s very frustrating though — seeing people who have no idea how to live life without the comforts they’ve come to know and having to stay silent when they ask for help.”

  “I understand, Sir, but honestly you can’t give them a time frame anyway. You have no idea how long it’s going to take to get aid into the country nor how or when it will be dispersed. I think it’s best if we keep you under wraps until we get to the White House.” Damon had climbed into the driver seat, with Hutch riding shotgun. He turned to look over his shoulder at the president-elect. “And I’d like to get there as soon as possible.”

  Chapter 20

  “What are you guys doing up so early?” Lauri asked in a sleepy tone as she walked into the kitchen and found the four men seated around the table drinking coffee. The morning sunrise was just starting to light the large room from the window over the sink. She took a cup out of the cabinet and went to the percolator on the stove. Lifting it, she added, “And this is a fresh pot. How long have you all been up?”

  “A few hours. We had some excitement in the night,” Elliott replied as he got up and joined her at the stove. “I’ll take another cup if you’re pouring.”

  Lauri poured his cup full and looked into his eyes, her own filling with worry. “What kind of excitement? Is everyone alright?”

  Elliott smiled and said, “Everybody’s fine. Go ahead and get your coffee and sit down. We’ll fill you in.”

  She apologized profusely to Joel when he admitted her snoring had made him leave the bed they were sharing. He shook his head with a smile, got up to get more coffee, and kissed her cheek as he went by. “We knew it would be like this. Don’t fret, darlin’.”

  They told her about finding Taylor nosing around in the barn. Her look of alarm changed to concern as they discussed how or even if they could help the young family.

  “I just don’t know if I could sleep at night knowing those three children were freezing or starving. There has to be something we can do.” Her voice broke, letting them know she was on the verge of tears.

  “I want us to sit down and make a full list of all the food we have,” Elliott said. “If I’m figuring right, I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot left to share, if any, before we can get a garden producing. We should be able to keep meat in the freezer for a while, but that depends on how many other people are out there hunting, too. We’ve got deer, squirrels, rabbits, wild boars, even some wild turkeys. There’s a lot of meat out here. That is, until everybody in the area starts needing it for food. And if people start finding their way out here from Millington, who knows? Let’s just do a big pot of oatmeal for breakfast this morning then we can get to work.”

  They were eating their cereal when Amanda came in. With a grin, she hurried to the stove. “Yum, I love oatmeal. Morning, gang!”

  Will shook his he
ad and said to no one in particular, “She’s a morning person.”

  “We could tell,” Ethan replied with a snicker. “I’m guessing with your line of work you aren’t. Well, weren’t.”

  “Yeah, not a lot of call for a bass player now. Looks like I’m going to need to learn some new skills.”

  Amanda was walking over to the table with a bowl and a cup of coffee. “I think I’ll make a shooter out of you. Then you can do security, hunting, critter control, all kinds of things.”

  Will noticed she was carrying the TIG inside the waistband of her jeans. “Looks like you’re already comfortable keeping a gun on you. I guess the rest of us need to follow your lead. It’s going to feel weird for a while, I’ll tell you that.”

  She sat down across from Will and shrugged as she stirred her breakfast. “Elliott is right. You know what we saw on the way to your parents’ house, then on the way here. The world is full of assholes, and it’s going to hell fast. Anyone who can’t defend themselves or protect their family and their supplies isn’t going to make it. Survival of the fittest isn’t what we have to deal with, though. It will be survival of the meanest, the sneakiest, the most desperate, the biggest groups, or the best prepared. That’s our new world. Welcome to the real-life Hunger Games.” She took a bite of her oatmeal and eyed him as she chewed.

  Will shook his head and looked down into his coffee cup. “Well, that sucks. And I’m out of coffee. I guess we better start rationing that if we want it to last a little while. I’m pretty sure we can’t grow it in Tennessee.” He went to the sink and rinsed his cup from the water jug spigot. “I’ll get the others up so they can eat. Sounds like we have a busy day ahead of us.” He went down the hall to wake Carly and the boys.

  The kitchen was quiet, as everyone was mulling over what Amanda had said. Finally, Lauri spoke in a soft, frightened voice.

  “Is it really going to be like that? People fighting over scraps of food, killing each other for supplies?” Her bottom lip quivered as a tear ran down her cheek. “How can this be? We’re one of the richest countries in the world. Surely the government is working on a way to fix this. They can’t just leave us like this!”

  Joel got up and went to squat down beside his wife. Taking her hand in his, he said, “I’m sure they’re working on trying to get something done, honey. But this is a big country. Only Canada and Russia are bigger than us. That’s a lot of people who need help, a lot of transformers to replace, hundreds of thousands of miles of power lines — this won’t be a quick fix. I’d guess they’ll work on the biggest cities first, like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago … that’s like fifteen million people right there. That’s also one side of the country to the other. The logistics are mind-boggling. So, we’re going to have to do our best to get by for now. You’re really good at making a little go a long way when it comes to food, so why don’t you get started on that list for Elliott? Let us worry about the other stuff.” He pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed it softly, then laid another kiss on top of her head. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue she had in her pocket, gave him a forced smile, and took her things to the sink.

  Amanda watched her walk away and said quietly, “I’m sorry. I’m mouthy and direct. I don’t always think before I spout off with whatever is in my head. I didn’t mean —”

  “Don’t fret over it,” Joel interrupted. “Most people aren’t mentally or emotionally ready to deal with something like this. Plus, we were talking about Taylor and his family right before you came in, and she’s upset at the thought of them going without food. I’m sure she didn’t sleep well without her machine, which doesn’t help any either.”

  “I can help with the hunting. I’ve been hunting since I was ten. My dad took me every year. Bagged my first buck when I was twelve.” She put her hands on her hips and stuck her chest out to emphasize her pride at her accomplishment. Ethan and Elliott laughed, and she grinned at them.

  “That’s pretty impressive, Amanda,” Ethan replied. “I didn’t get my first buck until I was fourteen. Dad said it was because it took me that long to learn how to be quiet in the stand.”

  Laughing, she said, “Yep, that’s the hardest part for a kid. Sitting still.”

  They were sharing hunting stories when Will came back with the rest of the family. Cameron was rubbing sleep from his eyes as he walked to the stove. Looking into the pot with a grimace, he whined, “Oatmeal? What about the biscuits, Pap?”

  Elliott frowned at his youngest grandson. “I think you should be happy we have any food to eat, young man. There are going to be a lot of people going hungry real soon. We’re going to have to do whatever we can to stretch what we have. There will be biscuits again, just not today. Now, be grateful, not hateful.”

  Cameron’s shoulders slumped as he took the bowl offered to him by his grandmother, who had met them at the stove to dish out their breakfast. “Yes, sir.” He shuffled over to the table and plopped down. He reached for the bottle of honey in the middle and added, “Maybe we can find some bees around here so we can still get honey, especially if we’re going to run out of sugar.”

  Elliott raised an eyebrow and said, “Actually, there’s a guy who lives about a mile up Highway 14 that raises honeybees. Maybe we can work out some kind of trade with him. My guess is there’s going to be a lot of that kind of business being conducted now.”

  “Yes, barter immediately becomes the method of acquiring supplies in a collapse,” Joel commented. “While this wasn’t technically a financial collapse, no one can access their funds in the bank, and it wouldn’t do them any good anyway because there’s no supplies to buy. The new currency is anything you can use to survive.”

  Amanda stood up and headed for the sink with her dishes. “Which includes ammo. I vote we go spend some ammo money and get some training in.”

  Cameron started shoveling his oatmeal into his mouth. “Me, too. Wait for me!” he cried around the mushy cereal.

  “Cameron! Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Carly barked. “That’s disgusting!”

  “Yeah, bro. Nobody wants to see your food.” Aaron shielded his eyes and turned his back to his brother as he worked on his own breakfast.

  “Sowwy,” Cameron replied, still trying to talk around his food. Carly shook her head and started into the living room with her coffee.

  “Aren’t you going to eat, honey?” Lauri called after her.

  “I’m not a breakfast person, Mom; you know that. Not until like lunchtime.”

  “Yeah, unless things have changed, it’s pretty much don’t talk to her until at least one cup of coffee has been installed. I used to tell her she needed a sticker on her forehead that said, for full functionality, apply caffeine.” Ethan had a slight smirk on his face. The room erupted in laughter.

  “Nope, still the same,” Aaron replied straight-faced, looking up to see if his mother was going to come back for a rebuttal. She did.

  Glaring at Ethan, hands on her hips, she scrunched up her face and growled, “I’ll have you know I can function without caffeine. I just prefer not to. I miss Starbucks already.”

  “Well, you don’t need to be missing breakfast, Carly girl,” Elliott said. “You’re going to need the calories to get your day started. We’ll run out of coffee soon and —”

  “What? No coffee? But I need it!”

  Ethan cocked his head to the side. “You just said you can function without it.”

  Carly blurted out, “Stay out of this, mister!”

  No one was even trying to hide their laughter at the exchange. Finally, Elliott got control of himself. “Just a small bowl then. For today. For me. We’ll work you up to it. Seriously, our days are going to be busy and probably pretty physical, so it is important to get some food in your belly. Okay?”

  Looking skyward, Carly relented. “Fine. A small bowl. Like three bites, four tops. Maybe six. Max.”

  Lauri handed her the bowl with the small spoonful of oatmeal in it. Carly looked into the bowl with a slight
grimace and shuffled to the table. Cameron held the honey out to her.

  “It helps.”

  She looked at him sullenly then took the bear-shaped bottle and squirted some onto the cereal. She spooned a small bite into her mouth and chewed it slowly.

  Cameron slid the spoon around his bowl and jumped up. “Okay, I’m done. Let’s go shoot!”

  “Don’t you have chores first thing in the morning?” Amanda said, looking at him with a sideways glance.

  “Yes, he does. We all do. We need water brought in, wood split and piled on the porch, the animals need to be tended — work before play,” Elliott admonished his youngest grandson.

  Cameron hung his head and mumbled, “Yes, sir. I’ll get ready.” He headed out of the kitchen toward the bedrooms.

  Everyone else who was still sitting at the table got up and took their dishes to the sink. Lauri shooed them off when they tried to wash them. Everyone went to their respective rooms to get dressed for the outdoors.

  Lexi had been lying on the floor by the wood stove, seemingly asleep. She raised her head when the boys came through, receiving a pat from each of them on their way past her. She looked at Ethan when he walked in, then suddenly snapped her head around to the front door. She popped up and ran to the entryway, hackles raised and that low growl starting in her throat.

  Ethan called into the kitchen. “Dad, I think there’s someone out front. Lexi’s hearing something.”

  Elliott and those left in the kitchen hurried into the living room. Elliott peered through the peephole.

  “Who is it, Dad?” Ethan asked.

  “I have no idea but there’s at least four of them I can see, kind of rough-looking.”

  “What are they doing?” Joel’s voice sounded a bit nervous.

  “Pointing at the well and the roof, likely the smoke from the stove, and talking to each other.”

  Ethan’s voice was strong. “What do you want to do, Dad?”

  Elliott grabbed his shotgun in one hand and the door handle in the other. “Grab Lexi’s collar and bring her out with us. I don’t know who they are or what they’re thinking, but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing good as far as we’re concerned.”