Chapter 7

It was a bright sunny morning in early June when I left Richmond heading north. I was in the RV pulling my boat that I had tried out twice in the last week. I worked well though I had added a couple of fiberglass poles to help me aim it when backing. Other than that the entire system worked well. My first stop was Washington, D.C. I had been there before but wanted to see it one last time before the power was lost and a lack of maintenance made the sights suffer.

I had decided to skip the White House and the Capitol on this trip. I wanted to see the memorials and the Smithsonian. I stopped near the museum after looking at and walking around the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. I figured a day or two for the Smithsonian and, even then, I might not see everything. I found a parking lot that could hold my RV setup and pulled in parking out of the way.

I got out with my shotgun and pistol locking the door behind me. I went into the museum and found the doors closed but not locked. I went inside. I grabbed a brochure and began to tour the different exhibits. I had lunch before I went inside and it was now suppertime. I left by the front door though looked out for trouble before exiting. I went by the parking lot where I had parked the RV to make sure nothing was going on there. It hadn't been disturbed. I went inside and closed the curtains to block my interior lights. I cooked and ate supper and then watched satellite TV for a while. I heard nothing much on the radio other than my broadcast. I went to bed figuring to get an early start tomorrow and see the rest of the museum's exhibits.

The next morning, I rose early and ate breakfast. After cleaning up and preparing the RV to leave, I went back inside the museum and finished my sightseeing. I was getting ready to leave when I heard voices. Cautiously, I moved toward the sound and saw a family of five; a mother, a father, and three children. "Hello!" I called out.

The "father" immediately shushed them and told them to get down. I came out in the open with my shotgun under my arm. It was a slight risk but worth it if they would let me talk with them a while.

The father had a rifle aimed at me but allowed me to get to about fifty feet. "Close enough. Who are you and what are you doing?"

"My name is Jim Sinclair and I'm sightseeing one last time before all this wastes away."

He relaxed some. "I'm Richard and this is my wife, Jeanette. The kids are, Ann, and Betty. Come on over but keep that shotgun down."

"No problem. I don't want trouble but would like to talk and share stories." I started to walk slowly toward them. As I came closer, I guessed he was about forty as was Jeanette. The kids all looked to be younger teens. Ann didn't look like her parents but that wasn't indicative of anything in particular to my mind.

I came up close and slowly shifted the gun to my left and extended my right hand. "Richard, it's good to meet you and your family. It's been lonely."

Jeanette came up after Richard and I shook hands and shook mine. "Are you by yourself, Jim?"

"Yes. I wasn't married before the Day. I was in L.A. on business and was trapped there for a while. My home's in Richmond and no one in my family is left. I decided to tour the northern half of the continent and sight see."

Richard said, "I understand. Jeanette and I were married with Dick and Betty. Ann's a good friend of theirs but her mother didn't survive. Her dad was killed in a plane crash a few days after the Day. I think the pilot had the virus and made a fatal error at take-off. We will never know. We lived in West Virginia and made a similar decision as yours. The kids should see what we had and some of the why it existed before, as you say, it wastes away. We've also seen more violence than we should. I guess that's why you're carrying a shotgun?"

"Yes. On my way back, two sisters joined me after their parents died in a car wreck. When we reached Carlsbad, I wanted to see the Caverns. They were remaining in the RV that I had then. They let someone in while I was down below. He killed them.

"Later, I met a young man. He and his sister were left at home when their parents went for groceries. When they didn't come back and he saw me, they asked if I would go with them to find out what happened. We found their dad dead and their mother in the back room of the grocery store shot and sexually abused. The abuser got them when they came into the back after I told them to wait outside. The gunman made the mistake of shooting them rather than me because I was sneaking up on him. I shot and killed the gunman. The mother died a few minutes after her kids.

"My sister lived in Concord, North Carolina, and she committed suicide with pills after her son, my nephew, and her husband both died of the virus. It left me alone.

"I didn't have anyone so I decided that I would have a look at the world starting with the northern part of the North American continent. When I left Richmond, this was my first stop. New York is next."

Richard said, "That's been tough on you. Are you sure you're okay? That seems like a strange thing to do."

"It's probably not really logical but I just put together a bucket list of places that I wanted to go but had never been or hadn't had the time to enjoy. This is my second day at the Smithsonian."

Jeanette asked, "Have you tried to contact anyone?"

"I've done a few things. I have a Facebook page with information on it. I sent emails to my entire address book, both business and personal. I have put contact information on my personal web page for amateur radio and have an automated station calling and recording any response. I'm a ham radio operator."

Richard said, "That's more than we've done. What's this ham radio? Is it like CB?"

"Yes and no. Hams are licensed by the FCC after taking a test. You are issued a call sign that you use on the air. Mine is KG4AZQ. We have certain areas of frequencies called bands that are for our use. If you come to my RV, I can show you my radio mounted in it and we can probably hear my call on twenty meters."

Jeanette said, "It's about lunchtime. Let's get some lunch and we can go out there after that."

"What would you have for lunch? Would tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches be good?"

Dick made his first statement, "Yeah, that's great!" The two girls nodded.

Richard looked at Jeanette who nodded and said, "Sounds good. Where's your RV?"

"Outside and around the corner."

"Let's go then."

We left and I noticed that Richard was careful in leaving buildings, also. That was good. We went to my RV and I unlocked and opened the door. We all piled in.

Jeanette said, "This is really nice. You have everything!" She went to the kitchen area and looked around. I came over and pulled out a large pot for soup and my biggest frying pan for grilled cheese. I went to my pantry and pulled soup out along with bread. I went to the fridge and got cheese and butter. The kids looked around and peeked into the bedroom. They turned the TV on and I went over and found a satellite so they could tune to different channels.

Richard said, "Where is your radio?"

I motioned him forward into the cab area. He followed and we went through the curtain. I switched the radio on and tuned to forty meters. "This is it. It's designed for mobile use so is small. There are a few this size available. My set at home is much larger. Let me tune to a different band. You can at least hear me broadcasting. There's just not much on the air since the Day." I tuned to twenty meters and then to 14.300 MHz. My broadcast came through clearly. "It would be better but we are close for this particular band." I shifted frequencies twenty Hertz and called "CQ." I released the mike switch and waited a bit. I tried again. Again, there was no response. I went to two meters and tuned to a local repeater frequency. I keyed the mike and brought the repeater up. I called CQ on there. When I released the key, we listened. The repeater identified, but no one responded. "Oh, well. I really didn't expect anyone. Let's go back and help Jeanette." He nodded.

We did. I left the radio on the repeater frequency and we went back to the kitchen area.

There were Jeanette and the two girls making sandwiches and I could see the soup on the stove. I said, "It looks like we timed our return well." I chuckled as did Richard. Jeanette smiled.