Chapter Twenty-Five
“Hinky?” I asked.
Sighing and rolling her eyes Lucia said, “Yeah. I know that is ‘your’ word but it’s the one that fits. DOT was under quarantine – or so we found out – but there were no road signs or blockades or anything keeping people out. Lots of military moving around and we got stopped a couple of times but no one really asked much after we told them we were going to my sister’s place.”
Smiling I said, “Your sister?”
She stuck her tongue out at me in the first sign of her old personality. “You might as well be. Besides you ‘married’ Tony which I wanna ask you about but not until after I get through this.”
The smile faded from her face as she returned to her narrative. “The main drag was deserted. Not just that, it looked like a battle had been fought. We pulled up to this little store to get out and ask for water as we only had a gallon left and that’s where we met Thomas … at the end of a rifle. But Bennie did good with him, got him calmed down enough so that I could patch him up. He’d been worked over. Seems like even small towns have their share of creeps. Someone let it out his parents never came home and they ransacked his business and didn’t leave him much. Some of the military types had tossed him some of their own MREs but that is all they could do per some heavy regulations they’ve been handed.”
“Regulations?”
“Yeah. No dealings with civilians. Period. I think they’re afraid that … what do they call it … fraternization … will make it harder for them to do their jobs. Anyway Thomas said he didn’t mind if we stayed in the store with him that night and it was a good thing we were there too because a group tried another pile on. Bennie took out several of them and Thomas even got one but you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. Those were people he’d known his whole life and it ate at him that they’d turned into what they were. Thomas decided to trust us and stick to a group he knew would fight with him rather than try and make friends with people he knew had shot at him, even if he’d known them longer. We loaded what Thomas wanted to take from the store and agreed to head out to his grandfather’s place before first light.”
“Wasn’t the old man there?”
“Oh yeah and he was so glad to see Thomas that he asked us to stay as well. We all helped around the place, taking care of the animals – don’t look like that, I really did – getting the stuff from the garden in, helping with other chores. We had some trouble with some locals that had thought the old man was there by himself. They claimed to be representatives of the townspeople and that all of the animals and food needed to go to a redistribution center that was being set up at one of the restaurants so that everyone could get fed and no one could make themselves out to be king … or at least all the talking the guy did sifted out to that. The old man was almost ready to do it too if that night these same people hadn’t come back and tried to take everything by force. After that Thomas will tell you he ‘muled up.’ It was one thing to give it willingly and another for anyone to try and take it.”
“Then Mr. Crenshaw got caught out in the open coming back from milking one of the cows. They shot that sweet old man for a bucket of milk Joey. Thomas was really torn up but kept his head. And we’d been planning just in case the farm had been overrun. Mr. Crenshaw was slick, he had us take most of the food and household goods out at night and hide them in these two played out mines that were on the property. He also had us set up a couple of camps like the old moonshiners did and after we buried the old man that’s where we moved the animals to. Thomas and Bennie had us strip the farm of anything useful … including from the garden and trees … and then – I still can’t believe he did it – he burnt everything to the ground rather than let anyone else get anything from it.”
I was thinking what a waste; that they could have moved back in once winter settled in, but I wasn’t there and it belonged to Thomas through his grandfather so I kept my mouth shut.
“There were hunters all over the place in the woods, every day we were hiding from one or two of them. Trying to cover out tracks and make sure no one found anything to draw attention to. It was hard on the animals being moved around so much and the cows started to give less and less milk, the chickens stopped giving eggs, and we thought we were going to have to eat them.”
“Finally Bennie convinced Thomas that it was in everyone’s best interest to finally finish coming here. Thomas wasn’t sure he would be accepted …”
At her look I said, “Tony wouldn’t have brought him here if he wasn’t.”
She nodded, “That’s what we told him would probably be the way things went down. Moving everything has not been fun. We’ve had to do it mostly at night and a few times it’s been really hard going. We didn’t even realize how close we had finally managed to get until Tony and Bennie practically ran into each other. We couldn’t take the chance of really moving until the sun went down as there were too many people on the road. Tony said they were Feds and military types dealing with some airplane crash.”
I still had a lot of questions but Lucia was dead dog tired. For that matter so was I.
*****
I so did not want to get out of bed the next morning but what choice did I have? I had five more people to cook for and despite Lucia’s story I still wasn’t sure what conditions they’d been living under once they were forced out of that farmhouse. But they were with me and Tony now and no way was I going to shirk my duty to the family; even if my bones did tell me I was six kinds of fool for not pulling the covers over my head for another hour or two of rest.
It was still dark, I could tell by the lack of light around the shutters. The roosters hadn’t even started to crow yet. I tried to roll over carefully so I wouldn’t wake Tony but then felt around in the dark to find he wasn’t in bed. That was the last straw for me. I got my feet on the floor, a floor a little cooler than it had been the day before, and made myself get going.
I came out of the bathroom and looked over the railing to see Tony, Bennie, and Thomas conferring downstairs. Going down the stairs I was quiet as I didn’t see Lucia or the girls. Tony had a dim lamp on so I didn’t trip over my own feet and I could see he wanted my input on something as we all walked into the kitchen. I wanted a cup of coffee desperately but it had become a luxury and not an every morning ritual.
Entering I saw right away the door had already been opened. Before I could ask Thomas said, “They’re the same as the one on the back door of the store. The cow needed milking.” He shook his head and added, “I still can’t believe your frig still works. That must be some generator.”
Obviously Tony hadn’t gotten around to explaining things. I looked inside the refrigerator to find several containers holding roughly two gallons of milk. I looked over at Tony and he said, “Not a generator per se. We’ve got a bank of solar panels and a room full of batteries for power storage. Power’s not unlimited though so try and not use it if you don’t have to. Water heater is gas and so is the stove but they’re both electric ignition. Water pump is electric but there are two hand pumps as well, one outside and one down in the basement in what was in the middle of being converted to a bathroom. Try and not flip switches or use the lamps during the day, Joey needs most of the daily allotment of power for preserving food. Crazy how much juice those kitchen appliances can use. Laundry uses a lot of juice too and gonna be worse with more people.”
Nodding his understanding Thomas said, “That’s cool.” As he asked Tony and Bennie more questions I got breakfast started.
I was only listening with half an ear to what they were talking about. I was trying to wrap my brain around the arithmetic of stretching all of our stored food even further.
“Hinky?” I asked.
Sighing and rolling her eyes Lucia said, “Yeah. I know that is ‘your’ word but it’s the one that fits. DOT was under quarantine – or so we found out – but there were no road signs or blockades or anything keeping people out. Lots of military moving around and we got stopped a couple of times but no one really asked much after we told them we were going to my sister’s place.”
Smiling I said, “Your sister?”
She stuck her tongue out at me in the first sign of her old personality. “You might as well be. Besides you ‘married’ Tony which I wanna ask you about but not until after I get through this.”
The smile faded from her face as she returned to her narrative. “The main drag was deserted. Not just that, it looked like a battle had been fought. We pulled up to this little store to get out and ask for water as we only had a gallon left and that’s where we met Thomas … at the end of a rifle. But Bennie did good with him, got him calmed down enough so that I could patch him up. He’d been worked over. Seems like even small towns have their share of creeps. Someone let it out his parents never came home and they ransacked his business and didn’t leave him much. Some of the military types had tossed him some of their own MREs but that is all they could do per some heavy regulations they’ve been handed.”
“Regulations?”
“Yeah. No dealings with civilians. Period. I think they’re afraid that … what do they call it … fraternization … will make it harder for them to do their jobs. Anyway Thomas said he didn’t mind if we stayed in the store with him that night and it was a good thing we were there too because a group tried another pile on. Bennie took out several of them and Thomas even got one but you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. Those were people he’d known his whole life and it ate at him that they’d turned into what they were. Thomas decided to trust us and stick to a group he knew would fight with him rather than try and make friends with people he knew had shot at him, even if he’d known them longer. We loaded what Thomas wanted to take from the store and agreed to head out to his grandfather’s place before first light.”
“Wasn’t the old man there?”
“Oh yeah and he was so glad to see Thomas that he asked us to stay as well. We all helped around the place, taking care of the animals – don’t look like that, I really did – getting the stuff from the garden in, helping with other chores. We had some trouble with some locals that had thought the old man was there by himself. They claimed to be representatives of the townspeople and that all of the animals and food needed to go to a redistribution center that was being set up at one of the restaurants so that everyone could get fed and no one could make themselves out to be king … or at least all the talking the guy did sifted out to that. The old man was almost ready to do it too if that night these same people hadn’t come back and tried to take everything by force. After that Thomas will tell you he ‘muled up.’ It was one thing to give it willingly and another for anyone to try and take it.”
“Then Mr. Crenshaw got caught out in the open coming back from milking one of the cows. They shot that sweet old man for a bucket of milk Joey. Thomas was really torn up but kept his head. And we’d been planning just in case the farm had been overrun. Mr. Crenshaw was slick, he had us take most of the food and household goods out at night and hide them in these two played out mines that were on the property. He also had us set up a couple of camps like the old moonshiners did and after we buried the old man that’s where we moved the animals to. Thomas and Bennie had us strip the farm of anything useful … including from the garden and trees … and then – I still can’t believe he did it – he burnt everything to the ground rather than let anyone else get anything from it.”
I was thinking what a waste; that they could have moved back in once winter settled in, but I wasn’t there and it belonged to Thomas through his grandfather so I kept my mouth shut.
“There were hunters all over the place in the woods, every day we were hiding from one or two of them. Trying to cover out tracks and make sure no one found anything to draw attention to. It was hard on the animals being moved around so much and the cows started to give less and less milk, the chickens stopped giving eggs, and we thought we were going to have to eat them.”
“Finally Bennie convinced Thomas that it was in everyone’s best interest to finally finish coming here. Thomas wasn’t sure he would be accepted …”
At her look I said, “Tony wouldn’t have brought him here if he wasn’t.”
She nodded, “That’s what we told him would probably be the way things went down. Moving everything has not been fun. We’ve had to do it mostly at night and a few times it’s been really hard going. We didn’t even realize how close we had finally managed to get until Tony and Bennie practically ran into each other. We couldn’t take the chance of really moving until the sun went down as there were too many people on the road. Tony said they were Feds and military types dealing with some airplane crash.”
I still had a lot of questions but Lucia was dead dog tired. For that matter so was I.
*****
I so did not want to get out of bed the next morning but what choice did I have? I had five more people to cook for and despite Lucia’s story I still wasn’t sure what conditions they’d been living under once they were forced out of that farmhouse. But they were with me and Tony now and no way was I going to shirk my duty to the family; even if my bones did tell me I was six kinds of fool for not pulling the covers over my head for another hour or two of rest.
It was still dark, I could tell by the lack of light around the shutters. The roosters hadn’t even started to crow yet. I tried to roll over carefully so I wouldn’t wake Tony but then felt around in the dark to find he wasn’t in bed. That was the last straw for me. I got my feet on the floor, a floor a little cooler than it had been the day before, and made myself get going.
I came out of the bathroom and looked over the railing to see Tony, Bennie, and Thomas conferring downstairs. Going down the stairs I was quiet as I didn’t see Lucia or the girls. Tony had a dim lamp on so I didn’t trip over my own feet and I could see he wanted my input on something as we all walked into the kitchen. I wanted a cup of coffee desperately but it had become a luxury and not an every morning ritual.
Entering I saw right away the door had already been opened. Before I could ask Thomas said, “They’re the same as the one on the back door of the store. The cow needed milking.” He shook his head and added, “I still can’t believe your frig still works. That must be some generator.”
Obviously Tony hadn’t gotten around to explaining things. I looked inside the refrigerator to find several containers holding roughly two gallons of milk. I looked over at Tony and he said, “Not a generator per se. We’ve got a bank of solar panels and a room full of batteries for power storage. Power’s not unlimited though so try and not use it if you don’t have to. Water heater is gas and so is the stove but they’re both electric ignition. Water pump is electric but there are two hand pumps as well, one outside and one down in the basement in what was in the middle of being converted to a bathroom. Try and not flip switches or use the lamps during the day, Joey needs most of the daily allotment of power for preserving food. Crazy how much juice those kitchen appliances can use. Laundry uses a lot of juice too and gonna be worse with more people.”
Nodding his understanding Thomas said, “That’s cool.” As he asked Tony and Bennie more questions I got breakfast started.
I was only listening with half an ear to what they were talking about. I was trying to wrap my brain around the arithmetic of stretching all of our stored food even further.
grinning all over, thank you. In between getting a turkey I baked ready to can.
