Chapter 17

I came to the first bridge a couple of hours before daylight. Using the night vision, I couldn’t see any sign of life on or around the bridge. The river was cold and I didn’t really want to wade into that water even for a little bit. I crossed the bridge slowly, taking each step only after I was sure of where to put it down. My rifle was fitted with a silencer, but the scope wasn’t night vision. So I couldn’t sight it on target unless I had sufficient light. The water passing underneath was gurgling and helped to cover the noise of my footsteps. I was on the other side when I saw the sleeping form of a man next to a wooden box.

The box was roughly the size of four full sheets of plywood. Tempted as I was to look inside and see what the box held, but I managed to keep to my route and left the man sleeping. I did note that he too looked unshaven and had scraggly hair. I couldn’t tell much from his clothing, but it seemed he was dressed casual. His shoes were low cut and not at all like boots or hiking shoes. I had the impression he hadn’t come very far to man this post. That meant to me, that I should pass up the nearest housing, and continue further along the road before taking shelter from the daylight hours.

The sky was showing a glow in the east, and I knew that it would soon be too light for safe traveling. There was four houses at a small road crossing, that looked like good shelter. The grass between the drive way and front door was not trodden down. I couldn’t tell about the back door as the rear of the house had gravel between it and the garage. The door was open and looked to be broken loose from the latch. I was using my night vision with the infrared light on to see into the building. It was unoccupied. The smell was musty with an odor of wet newspapers. I could tell that it had been a long time since there was heat in the building. Each room held furniture, comfortable looking chairs, with cushions that were probably full of mice. I could see their droppings on the floors. Up stairs the beds were still made, but again it all was covered in mice droppings. For sleeping I found a sturdy looking desk and cleared off the top. Wrapping my blanket around me, relaxed and tried to get some sleep.

The desk was okay, the wood even began to warm from my body heat and I was comfortable. During the day, I woke several times and got up to look around. I could see that when the place was broke into it had been quite a while ago. I went through some of the closets, looking for nothing in particular, just whatever I could find. In one room, the shoes had been scattered across the floor. That figured, as foot wear was more important now then it had been for decades. I didn’t find anything I could use, but I learned a lot from what I saw. The kitchen and pantry’s contents were scattered around, where someone had been scavenging for food. The can goods were all missing, but there was plenty of boxed items that littered the floor. There was a freezer and refrigerator, but I knew better than to open either of them. Rotting food would stink the place up, and I wouldn’t be able to use this house again.

Unable to really sleep, I decided to check out the surrounding houses. There were four all together and after watching them with my rifle scope, I was fairly sure they were empty. Taking everything of mine with me, I set out for the next house. Unlike the last one, all the door were closed. Inside was sign of mice, but nowhere near as bad. Still the cushions probably held a few generations of them and I didn’t want to sit in the chairs. Only the hard back chairs like the ones around the table would I use. Here the smell wasn’t so bad either, or maybe I was just getting use to it. The pantry and kitchen had been gone through, taking all the can goods. I did find a rifle in corner of a closet, but I didn’t need another one to carry. Family pictures were sitting on dressers and other furniture. It reminded me of what the world had lost.

I went to the next house and found the doors locked. I was packing a good sized knife and used it to by pass the back door lock. The moment I was inside, I knew this house was different. There was absolutely no mice or rat turds on the floor. I saw a saucer on the floor next to the stove. It looked to have been placed there. I moved slowly into the greater part of the house and noted the place was clean and didn’t have the smell like the other two. Someone was here.

From the fact that I hadn’t heard or seen anyone, told me that they were hiding. I figured if it was a man, I would have been confronted by now. I was alone and wouldn’t be that much of a threat to an armed occupant. So who ever was here was most likely a woman. “ woman hiding somewhere in the house. Now what should I do? Would it be better if I just backed out the door and left, or should I try to make contact. By leaving I would never know what the situation was. No I felt the need to find out. Speaking aloud to where I thought I could be heard throughout the house, I said A Whoever you are, I’m not here to harm you or take anything. If you come out, we can talk. If not, I will leave and not bother you again.” I waited and didn’t hear anything. After several minutes, I spoke again, saying that I was leaving now, and going over to the next house. If they wanted to talk, now was the time, as I wouldn’t be coming back.

Still nothing happened, so I moved back through the kitchen and out the door. I looked over at the next house and wondered what I would find there. It was further apart from the others and had more open ground. If anyone was in it, they would see me coming for a long ways. Back behind the houses was a stand of trees and a road leading into them. I didn’t care about the road, I just wanted to get in those trees and obscure my profile from any would be sniper. I covered the ground at a trot, getting to cover quickly. Once inside the tree line, I headed to my left to come up behind that last house. If anyone had been watching, they would certainly know what I was doing. That was okay, I just didn’t want to be out in the open long enough for someone to make up their minds whether to shoot me or not.

Leaving the trees and moving up behind the house, I followed a well worn path. It had recent activity and I could see faint shoe prints in the hard ground. The smart thing now would have been to turn around and continue on my way. Putting a good deal of distance between myself and these houses. I didn’t. No I went up on the back steps and rapped hard on the door. I had my rifle slung from my shoulder and my magnum was in its holster. I was doing my best to look non threatening without leaving my weapons behind.

Inside the house I heard the sound of someone running. The thumping of feet moving fast and the sound of something being scooted across a floor. Then it was quiet. I pounded again, and said with a loud voice, that I wasn’t going to come in. I just wanted to talk to someone. Again nothing moved and I didn’t hear anything, it remained quiet.

With a heavy feeling of disappointment I went down the steps and headed away from the house. This time I went around to the front and walked down the drive way to the road. I was about fifty feet from the house when I heard the front door opening. Looking back there was a woman standing there. She was thin, looked like she’d missed a couple of meals, but other than that she was clean looking and so were her clothes.

“Okay, what do you want to talk about?” she said, standing half way behind her screen door.

Glad to see someone, I asked if she was okay staying here. Her answer was what business was it of mine. I thought about that and said I understood, but I was coming from a place where we needed all the help we could get. If she and who ever might be staying with her wanted, I could send someone to bring her over to Waller Ville.

“Now why would you do that?” I could hear the disbelief in her voice.

“Like I said, they need help. There’s several farms were trying to work. We are just getting things started, but there is hot running water. Showers with plenty of soap.” I added the last when I saw her face reflect on my mentioning hot running water. That seemed to be a winning point and she said for me to come sit on the steps.

“I’ve got plenty to do here, not a whole lot of food, but I’ve been getting by.” she told me. I could see that she was in her thirties and if fed enough would look a lot better. She was taking care of her hair and I could see that she was keeping herself clean. She may not have been getting enough to eat, but she wasn’t surviving. “You won’t tell anyone that I’m here will you?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I’m not here looking for people. I’m off to get a piece of equipment for our survival. We do have a problem with some others, but were taking care of our own, and some people have joined us. Everyone is there because they want to be.”

“Your not just looking for a woman to service your needs. I don’t need that sort of thing.” She looked me hard in the eyes.

“No, matter of fact, We need more men. Women can do a lot of things, but we need men. There’s a lot of heavy work coming up and even though we have some equipment, there’s a lot of hand work. We need people with other talents too. There’s some young girls having babies, and a lot that needs being done there.”

“I don’t know if I would fit in.” she looked around her place then gazed off towards the road “We moved out here to get away from everyone, the noise, the hassle of city life. It’s a little rough now, but I’m making it.”

“I’ll be coming back this way, if things work out the way I hope. I’ll check with you then, and see how you feel.” I told her and then picked up my gear and headed off. As I was leaving, she asked one more question.

“How many people do you want?” she called after me. I told her, “There was no number. We just needed people that were willing to work for their keep. If they didn’t like it, they wouldn’t have to stay.” After that I was too far away to continue talking.

Despite the fact that the sun was still high in the sky, I pressed on and continued to head for the National Guard motor pool. I came to the bridge that was half way demolished, and looked it over. It looked like it could support some traffic, provided it all stayed far to one side. It just wasn’t good enough to bring a tank across. So after a bit of searching long the stream, I found one spot that might be forded. It might be okay if there was no other way across the river. Almost at the same time, just around the next bend, there it was. A bridge half way across it looked like a dam, then it turned into a bridge with water passing over a concrete rise. I figured it to be some sort of irrigation project or something to do with some towns water supply. No matter what it was, it all looked strong enough to support the weight of a fifty ton tank.

Once on the other side, I found a secluded maple tree and sacked out under its wide limbs. I was still tired and needed some rest before making my final run to the Motor Pool. It was as I looked up through the leaves that I saw the plane. It was high up and slowly moving across the sky. I didn’t see any contrails, but that just meant that there were no ice crystals in the air. At least there was some higher usage of materials. Some where there were people that could still put a plane in the air. Maybe it was just time, time before someone came and put everything back the way it was. Time until things got better. Maybe the slaughter was over, or would be soon. Thinking of everyone that died and those I knew I had killed. I didn’t feel very good. Somehow I didn’t feel clean. I didn’t think there was enough water and soap to ever make me feel the clean I was hoping for. That was what I was thinking when I finally slipped into sleep.

When I woke, my blanket was wrapped around the upper part of my body. My lower torso and legs were cold. Night had fallen, and only a glow remained where the sun had set. At last it was time to move. Soon after I was on the road, I walked up on some old abandon positions. Each one was fixed with plywood framing for the piled sand bags. It had gun ports and shelving possible for gun rests or some other device. I looked them over good, and could tell it had been sometime since someone occupied them. Maybe things were starting to settle. With the warmer weather, maybe everyone was busy planting gardens and didn’t have time to play war games. Everyone but me.

Off on a hill side, I spotted a light. It was at least a mile away, and was not something I wanted to check out. They either were strong enough not to care who saw their light, or had a death wish. Just because I didn’t want to check it out, didn’t mean others wouldn’t. It was right after that when my shoe started bothering me. Something felt wrong on the bottom of my foot, so I stopped to take off my shoe and sock. There was nothing in my shoe, but my sock was old and I hadn’t changed them for two days. Wiping the bottom of my foot off, I didn’t find anything sticking to it. So I dug into my small pack and came up with a clean pair of socks. My old ones went back in the bag and I pulled the new pair on. Back on the road I was once again walking with ease. Those dirty socks had creased and had been a lump on the bottom of my shoe. That was a lesson I had learned for the second time. Take care of your feet.

The first stream that I came to, I washed my socks. With no soap it was just a rinse job that I beat against rocks. It was the best I could do at the moment, and after tying them to my pack, I started off again. The fresh air would help them dry, and the morning sun would quickly finish the job. When the sun did show its face, I was still a ways away from the Motor Pool. I thought maybe I should keep going and get there. But I was tired and making a bad decision. With that in mind, I started looking for a place to bed down. The days had been getting warmer but it was still cold at night. My idea was to find a spot where the morning sun would help my blanket keep me warm. Finally I just picked an open field with some tall grass and kicked the dew loose from the blades. Wrapping the blanket around me, I laid down and waited for the sun rise.

Several times I fought the feeling to just get up and finish my journey to the Motor Pool. I was tired of being on the road and not having enough to eat. I should have packed more, but I forgot how many days it would take on foot. So I was stretching my food. Today I would not eat, To night after sun down, I would eat half my meal. Around mid night, I would finish the meal and be done with it until arriving at the motor pool. I remembered being told that putting a button or a marble in your mouth would stave off hunger. I thought about doing that, but then seemed to recall that they did it to fight thirst. I had plenty of water, so I drank some.

It was hot, so warm, I was uncomfortable. All sorts of flies and insects were buzzing around and touching my face. Waking up in the middle of a field bathed in sun shine, was confusing. My feet and legs were feeling good, I rolled over and stretched getting the most out of a morning yawn. Before standing up I tried to make sense of where I was and why I was awake. I knew better than to stand up, especially in the middle of a field. Judging by the position of the sun, it was early after noon. I was only awake, because the sun was uncomfortably warm. It was odd, I liked being warm, after walking in the cold night air, and now was complaining about being too warm. The flies kept landing on my nose and cheeks, which was pissing me off.

Looking around, without raising up very high, I could see that I was in a large field of tall grass. I could see my tracks into the field from last night and the fence that I crawled through to get here. I knew I wasn’t very far from the Motor Pool, and was trying to come up with reasons why I shouldn’t just get up and start on my final leg to get the Tank. Self discipline was becoming a burr under my saddle. I knew all the reasons for not standing up in an open field in the middle of the day, but I was tired of the road. Maybe it wasn’t the road, but the company I was keeping. I was good at looking out for other people, but admittingly very poor at taking care of myself.

It being too hot in the field, I started crawling for the fence line. There some bushes would provide some shade. I was still plenty tired, and having trouble keeping my eyes open. At the Fence line, I looked for and found a spot without black berry vines. Again, with my blanket wrapped around me, I found a comfortable position and continued my nap. The flies weren’t as bad here.

The next time I woke up my legs were cold. The blanket was again wrapped around my upper torso. The sun wasn’t setting but was hidden by some tall trees just off the field. It was still a long ways from dark, but now I was uncomfortable. Gathering up my things and stuffing them back into my bag, I then started a low crawl over to the trees. When I reached the fence, the tall grass stopped and I had a small clearing before reaching the cover of the trees. Again I was tempted to just stand up and walk over to the trees, but didn’t. I did get up and moved all hunched over, but I was on my feet and not crawling. Inside the trees it was darker, but not enough. For lack of something better to do, I cleaned my rifle. I was back to carrying my 7mm magnum, again. I liked that rifle for being on the high side of powerful. It shot flat and hardly had any drop at two hundred yards.