by AJ Newman
It hadn’t set into me yet that the rest of the world had gone to hell in a handbasket. I knew my world sucked at that time, but I was probably in denial that the world as we knew it had ended. I should have done more early on to set myself up for success. I tend to blame the painkillers for many of my early bad decisions.
Tina barked over by the barn’s door. “Ish der sumthin in de burn, gerrrl?”
Now I was almost able to make words that sounded like the real thing. Since I was the only one present, you have to take my word for it. The only thing you can do well with your jaws clenched is hum.
Tina barked, and I opened the door to find two horses, a goat, and a bunch of cats. Tina ran in and played with two of the cats while I let the horses and goat out the back door and into the fenced-in pasture. The horses stood at the full water trough for several minutes, drinking their fill. It dawned on me that Tina had saved these animal’s lives.
I hoped to find some type of transportation, so I could find a city or home, and I could get in contact with my dad to come to get me. I didn’t have a cell phone or radio. Hence, I didn’t know most forms of communications had ended a few days back. I looked at the horses and tried to imagine myself trying to get on one’s back. Just the thought sent pain from my foot to my crotch.
I felt I could ride a bike, as long as I didn’t have to step off with my left foot. There were two broken-down bicycles behind the barn, but both had the front wheel missing. I scrounged around and looked for a horse-drawn wagon, but only found an old one in front of the home, and that had been destroyed by the plane wreck. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway, since the bed had been used as a flower planter.
I was very disappointed about not finding any useable transportation until I saw a bicycle wheel under a pile of hay. I moved some hay and saw a homemade cart. It was made out of plywood, and had the front wheels from the junk bicycles. This wasn’t a typical wheelbarrow, but rather a three-foot-wide by five-foot-long box, which made a lightweight pushcart. It had an axle to mount the wheels and one-inch water pipe formed into a square handle. I stared at it while Tina continued to play with the cats. Then, suddenly, an idea popped into my head.
I could turn the cart around, add two long poles, and make a horse-drawn cart to hold MMax and me. I sat on a hay bale with my arms folded on my chest, marveling at how smart I was. I only needed to place a saddle on one of the horses, and find a way to attach the poles to the horse and my new horse cart. Damn, I was cooking with gas, as my granddad used to say. Now, I only had to find the poles and a way to attach them to the horse and cart.
The poles turned out to be easy to find since the homeowner had a veritable stockpile of junk and equipment at the back of the barn in a stall. There was an overhead rack with salvaged wood and lengths of pipe. I found two sections of one inch galvanized water pipe about eight feet long and another two about four feet long. Three of the pipes had threaded couplers, which made it easy to join the tubes together to make twelve-foot-long sections.
I placed the pipes next to the cart and stared at the cart’s handles and the pipes for a short while as I thought about how to attach them. I thought about taking the handles apart and just screwing my pipes on to the ends of the tubes bolted to the cart, but couldn’t find a pipe wrench or anything to take the pipes apart. I also thought the pipe that joined the two tubes together gave the handle quite a bit of strength side to side. I went to the back of the barn and saw an older hay baler. The baler had a big spool of baling wire and a pair of wire cutters.
My redneck engineering degree I earned working at my grandfather’s farm came in handy. I wrapped a ton of wire around the two pipes, and the cart handles to make a very secure set of wagon shafts to hitch to one of my new horses. From there, it was easy to saddle one of the horses and wire the shafts to the horse. I sat on my hay bale exhausted as I admired my invention.
The smile left my face. I thought, “Crap, the shafts will work loose and slide out of the wire. I would have been sitting on the side of the road in a wagon with my horse running down the road.”
A trip back to the stockpile of pipes and pipe fittings solved my problem. I unscrewed the four-foot pipe attached to the saddle and screwed a T-fitting between the pipes on both sides. Then I placed a T-fitting on the end of the pipes. Finally, success. The T-fittings gave the wire something to hold on to so they wouldn’t slip right off.
I hope I made the above a bit clearer than mud. All you really need to know, is my sorry ass in my new cart won’t be left behind when my new horse gallops away. I hope.
I led the horse over to the back porch where I tied him to a bush. I gathered as much food from the kitchen that wasn’t burned as I could find and placed it in the cart. It wasn’t much, but I wouldn’t starve for a few more days. Thinking about starving reminded me to open the gates to the pasture to free the animals. I started to leave the kitchen when I remembered to look for anything with an address on it. I searched every drawer until I found a book of matches with ‘Ace Hardware – Cookeville, TN’ on the cover. Darn, I was closer to home than I’d thought. I only needed to head southeast until I ran into a road I knew. My luck had turned for the better.
I took the reins and immediately found them to be too short. I added a length of rope to both and smiled. I tried to figure out how to get in the wagon with the least pain. The wagon was about waist high, so I ended up flopping over the side and then wiggling into a sitting-up position with cans of beans and boxes of mac and cheese around me. I popped the reins and said, “Geii uuup.”
The horse took off at a gentle pace around the house and across the front yard to the path cleared by the fallen plane. It only took a few minutes to get a feel for the reins and now, steering the horse and cart became second nature. We were only traveling a few miles per hour when I looked back to see if Tina followed. I was surprised to see the other horse and goat following close behind us. I took a second look at the goat, and couldn’t help but think about BBQ goat.
***
MMax was upset his human hadn’t taken him along with the other dog named Tina. MMax was worried that the evil man would try to hurt his human. It was his job to protect Jason, not Tina’s. Jason belonged to MMax, not Tina. He thought that perhaps Tina didn’t know that he was a highly trained K9. That was one of his other names. His favorite name was Good Boy.
He hated the darkness but soon fell asleep.
☆
Chapter 6
About 5 miles west of Cookeville, TN - Back at the crash site
MMax was excited to see me, and barked when he saw the horses, Tina, and the goat. Tina came over and licked his muzzle before sitting next to the pod. I knew I had to get MMax ready to travel, even though I didn’t want to remove the IVs from him and take him from the pod. MMax licked my face while I tried to remove his now spent IVs. Don’t ask about the removal of the urine catheter. MMax and I agreed never to discuss that again. He’s apologized for biting me several times since then.
I rubbed some antibiotic cream on my hand and wrapped some gauze on it. Then I fed MMax some canned chicken by hand and unfastened the webbing that had held him secure in his pod. MMax immediately stood up, gained his balance, and walked to me. He stuck his head between my knees waiting on me to scratch his ears. MMax had always done this when I had been gone for a while. It was his way of telling me we had each other’s back and that I should scratch his ears. He looked up at me and then rubbed his muzzle on my leg before going over to Tina. They walked around the area and then laid down on my makeshift bed. MMax was exhausted, but looked up to me with a goofy expression as if he was trying to tell me – ‘Well, what did you expect to happen?”
I offered my hand, and MMax licked it with his coarse tongue as if to say I was forgiven. I rubbed his ears and scratched them in reply.
***
MMax was surprised at the pain from below his stomach and snapped at his human. He knew he was a bad dog, but the pain was sharp. He recoiled back away fro
m Jason and waited to be punished. He only heard, “Good dog.” When Jason patted his neck. He wagged his tail and was happy his human, Jason, wasn’t mad at him.
***
Heading home was all that was on my mind when I gathered the items to take with us. Both horses were tied to the wreckage, but only the carthorse had a saddle. I placed a folded-over blanket on the second horse’s back to keep the load from rubbing him raw. I folded several changes of clothes into another blanket, placed it on top of the horse’s back, and tied it securely. Then, I tied a duffel bag on each side.
I turned my attention to the wagon and added several blankets to the floor and a duffel bag of clothes at the back for me to sit on. I secured several bags full of the food I had salvaged and scavenged from the burned house on the sides of the wagon. It looked like some kind of gypsy cart by the time I had finished loading. MMax sensed what I was doing and begged to get in the wagon. I placed him in the front and added my Henry survival rifle, a few water bottles, and some snacks behind my duffel bag seat. Tina jumped into the wagon and looked at me as if I had forgotten her.
The last thing I did before leaving was to search the wreckage for anything else that could be useful. Nothing of any consequence was found, so I tied the second horse to the back of the cart and took up my horse’s reins. I lifted my butt over the side and rolled on top of my seat. Tina moved to the front, which gave me room. “Giddy up, horth.”
That sounded much better, and I thought with practice, I could carry on a conversation with humans. MMax and the horses didn’t complain, not that it would do them any good. Darn, I had to get to my mom, so she could take care of my jaw. These bands had to come off. In the back of my mind, I knew that bones took six to eight weeks to heal, and I had about five to seven weeks to go. The Doc had told me modern medical science had significantly reduced those times, but he had been interrupted before he’d given me any detail. I had to get better at making mushy foods without a blender.
I felt pangs of guilt as I pulled away, knowing I hadn’t buried the remaining bodies. My mind knew that my body was injured and I just didn’t have the strength to perform the job. My heart ached, and the wreckage was soon out of sight. I also felt like I deserted Maria and my friends. No man left behind was more than an expression. I just didn’t know where to search for them and the draw to find my mom and dad was very strong. I headed home.
The sun was low in the sky when I set out for home. I stopped on the road in front of the house and turned right, which was very close to a southerly direction. I made another right turn on a paved road and soon saw a sign that said I-40 was only a few miles ahead. The trees overhung the road, which made it much darker. I had to keep vigilant to avoid crashing into anything. After a few minutes, I passed an old home that was on fire. The fire lit up the night, and as I passed by the front of the dwelling, a man was sitting in a lawn chair watching his home burn to the ground. There was a body on the ground next to him. I didn’t want to get mixed up in this man’s problems, so I snapped the reins to make the horse pick up the pace.
Only a few minutes passed before I saw the overpass going above I-40. The only problem was there were no exits to the main highway. I searched for the best place to cut the fence, and found a flat area where I would only have to cross a farmer’s field to get to the highway. After tying the reins to the fence, I pulled my Leatherman from my pocket and began clipping wire. The middle wires were easy to cut, but the top and bottom wires were mothers. They were twice as thick, and my hands were sore by the time I’d cut the first fence. By the time I cut through the second fence by the highway, my right hand had blisters and was bleeding.
The horse followed behind me as I led it up the steep embankment, but we were finally on I-40 heading east. My foot hurt, but not as much as before. MMax needed some water, so I gave him and Tina some from my bottle. The horses and goat drank from puddles by the roadside. Climbing back into the cart was hard on my leg and foot, but I made it and took the time to scratch MMax’s ears a bit before heading down the road. Tina moved her head under my hand, so I had to rub her ears also. I think she had adopted me by that time. “Goood Curl.” I quickly tried again. “Good Gerrll.” Crap, this was harder than I thought. The words sounded okay to me, but they would get strange looks from other people. The dogs didn’t care.
It had been cloudy, but the moon peeked out from behind the clouds, which made traveling a bit faster possible. There weren’t any trees overhanging the road, and that increased visibility. Now that I could see a good couple of hundred yards, I saw two stalled cars and a truck with a U-Haul behind it on the side of the road. I was lucky, and no one came out to meet me. I thought they were either gone or afraid of strangers. In either case, I sped on down the road toward Nashville.
I saw a highway sign come into view and it told me that Lebanon was forty miles away and Nashville was sixty-seven miles ahead of my location.
“Damn, we’ll have to spend at least one more night sleeping outside,” I said aloud to myself.
MMax’s ears perked up, and he laid his head on my lap and went back to sleep. I looked down at him and said, “MMax, you’re my best friend, and you should take your turn at the reins so I can sleep.”
MMax looked at me as if I was crazy and went back to sleep again.
“I know you saved my life over in London, but that doesn’t get you out of all the work forever.”
MMax didn’t move or act as if he was interested in what I had to say. I think the beast even yawned and clacked his teeth at me. Then MMax rose and gave me his low warning growl. I looked up from Max to see there was a dark pickup parked under an overpass, and the glow of two cigarettes dancing out to the middle of the eastbound lane. MMax had probably smelled the cigarettes. I pulled back on the reins and then steered the horse across the median to avoid the people. In my mind, they could be good or bad people. So, I would avoid all people. Apparently, they wanted to talk to me because they ran across the median and blocked my path. I was tired of killing.
I pulled back on the reins and stopped short of them. One yelled, “Come on up and talk with us. That’s a very interesting buggy you have there.”
“Why don’t you go on back across the road before we both regret meeting each other,” I said, and slid my hand over the butt of my SIG Sauer pistol.
I could hear the low rumble of a growl coming from MMax. He was letting me know that he was alert and ready for action. I patted him on the back and said, “Watch him,” in a loud voice.
“Watch who? Who are you talking to? You’re not fooling us. You’re alone.”
At that time, Tina barked, and MMax rose up to a standing position. I replied, “Just let us through, and I won’t have to set my dogs after you. I don’t want any trouble.”
The men had walked closer, and I could now see one had a club and the other a knife in his hand. I said, “You have a club in your hand, and the other jerk has a knife. I have a 9-mm in my hand, and I will shoot both of you creeps if you don’t go back across the highway. Come on, now. Who do you think will win this fight? Oh, shit!”
Suddenly, both men charged my position. Tina lunged at the man with a club and had him on the ground in seconds. MMax leaped from the cart, hit the ground, and grabbed the man with the knife by his knife hand before I could pull the trigger. The knife went flying into the weeds. The men screamed in pain and begged me to call the dogs off. I fired a shot into the air, and Tina backed away. I then yelled, “Out!” and MMax released his grip.
“Watch him,” I ordered MMax, and then said, “You two can run back across the road, or I can have MMax and Tina rip you to pieces so I can save my ammo. Crap, why should they have all the fun? I might cut your throats myself. No problem for me either way.”
The men were frightened by this crazy man. “We’ll go back across the road,” one of the men weakly replied.
“Back away from the dogs and get your asses across the highway. If I see you, again, I’ll let the dogs play with you
and then kill you with a bullet to the head. Scram!”
The men ran as if their asses were on fire to the other side of the highway. MMax placed his paws on the side of the cart and begged me to lift him up with me. I couldn’t, so I climbed out and put MMax in the cart. I made a little more room and patted the side of the cart, so Tina would join us. She leaped into the front and settled down between my feet with her head on my right leg alongside MMax.
We dodged two more groups that tried to stop me about halfway to Lebanon. I crossed over the median and thankfully, they didn’t come after us. I passed a dozen stalled cars and three over the road semis along the way. I scratched MMax’s ears and mumbled something like, “Boy, I thing weee’ve been nuked with an EMP bomb.” Then as an afterthought, I added, “Or maybeee a solar flarer knocked everyting out. No, it had to be an EMP.”
MMax and Tina lifted their heads and listened to me as though they understood every word. I stopped talking, and they lay their heads back down and closed their eyes. I stared at Tina and wondered if my mom would like a dog. I didn’t need two and didn’t want to care for another dog, even a good one like this Springer Spaniel.
I was deep in thought when MMax growled and barked for me to stop. It was too late. Something spooked the horse pulling the cart. The horse stopped abruptly, reared up, and then took off. The rope to the trailing horse pulled free from the cart, setting the second horse and goat free. I pulled back on the reins to no avail at first, and then the horse slowed when he ran toward an underpass. Suddenly, he came to a complete stop just as the cart was flung sideways, spilling the three of us. I hit something soft and then rolled up the side of the earth embankment.
A woman’s voice yelled, “Mark, are you okay? What was that?”
