Working With Cedar: The Early Years, page 11
Nash saluted and said, “I’m on it.”
“Okay, see you in an hour or so. Hey, I’ve got a shotgun, but I’d feel comfortable if Glenda had one to carry.”
“I’ll see she does.”
When Nash turned onto the driveway, Betty and Glenda were out by the trailer. Glenda placed the box in her hands back onto the trailer, and the two stood side-by-side as he parked near them. Stepping from the jeep, he returned the smile Betty tossed to him.
“What was all that shooting about?” Glenda asked.
“Sam wanted to see if I could hit what I aimed at.”
“I figured that was it, but dang it, he should have known it would worry us.”
“That’s one of the reasons he sent me back. Another thing is he wants me to tell you he’s moving all the cattle to closer pasture. Oh, he wants you to have one of the shotguns on the trailer.”
“Already taken care of,” Betty said. “She also has an AR and a pistol. She pointed to a rail post at the porch steps. “I have a shotgun of my own. You’ll probably want one.”
Nash leaned over the side to peer into the nearly empty trailer, prompting Glenda to say, “The weapons were the first items in. Did you satisfy Sam with your shooting?”
“I hit what I aimed at. What can I do to help?”
“With your bad hand you won’t be much help here.” Glenda pointed to Alice watching them through the front window. “She’s antsy by now. Tell her to come help us carry. You can take over from her and keep watch.”
“Oh no,” Betty loudly exclaimed. “You and Sam came just when we were about to have breakfast. She must be starving by now.”
When Sam returned to the house, the trailer was unloaded and the women were together in the kitchen preparing a late brunch. Nash and Alice sat in chairs at the guard post by the front window.
Nodding to Nash and Alice, he announced to the house, “Cows are pastured and I smell sausage cooking.”
Glenda called from the kitchen, “Food’ll be ready in ten minutes. Go wash up… No; wait… We had to use bottled water to cook. There’s no water pressure and the lights don’t work. Why don’t we have power? I thought it was automatic.”
Sam stopped just inside the door, “It should have switched over when the grid went down. I’ll go to the barn and see what’s wrong.” Turning to Nash, he said, “You wanna give me a hand. Alice can watch the drive.”
In the barn, Sam retrieved a flashlight from a shelf by the entrance/and led Nash to a small room near the far end. Inside the room was a worktable with several electronic gadgets on it. Dominating the room was a large black box made of composite plastic mounted to a wall. To Nash, the box resembled a coffin.”
Sam pointed to the box. “Tesla Powerwall. See the green LED. It’s lit. That means it’s charged and ready. We should have power at the house.” Handing the powerful flashlight to Nash, he went to the wall opposite the entrance Nash kept the light centered on Sam’s hands as he opened one of many normal looking electrical boxes mounted to the side of the Powerwall. He spent a few minutes checking breakers and connections, and then, slapping his forehead, said, “The breaker’s off in the house panel. I shut it when I killed power to change the well pump last month. Come on, we’re done here.”
Nash followed him from the room, asking him, “What charges the Powerwall?”
Over his shoulder, Sam answered, “You can’t see them from the yard because they face south, but there are solar panels on the barn roof and the house.”
Glenda’s shout of “Hallelujah” when the lights in the kitchen came on, proved Sam correct about it being a simple fix.
Their late breakfast was a sausage hash, made with potatoes, onions and sliced peppers. Glenda served room temperature tea to wash it down.
Sam used a piece of bread to swab the last bits of food from his plate, wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin, and said to Glenda, “Honey, I’m going to take a ride over to Sparta and check on my brothers. We need feedstock. I’ll hook up the big trailer and bring back a load.”
“We’ll need cat and dog food.” Glenda stood and began collecting plates.
Betty said, “Glenda, I’ll clear the table. Sam, if you have time, I’d like for us all to talk about some things before you leave.”
Glenda put down the dishes she’d picked up and sat back at the table. “What’s on your mind?”
“Actually, there are quite a few things to discuss. I don’t want to come across as presumptuous, but if I may, I want to comment on the problems Nash and I encountered, and we need to talk about how we are to react to the general public.”
Sam nodded and said, “Glenda, I’ve been thinking too. Let’s see what they have to say. Maybe they’ll cover some of my worries.”
Glenda said to Betty, “Yes, please.”
Betty smiled, and then turned serious, firing off a series of questions. “The narrow road your drive turns off, it continues. Where does it lead to?”
Sam answered, “The road was put in by the Southern Pacific Company over fifty years ago for them to access pulp timber. They abandoned the mill up there and now a hunting club leases the land.”
“So it dead ends in the forest? There are no homes or farms beyond this one?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s good,” Betty responded to Sam. “That means there should be no strangers passing by. One of the things that plagued Nash and I was not having enough eyes on guard duty and not having enough people to man weapons if trouble came knocking. The semi-isolation of your farm is a plus, but in my opinion, even with Nash and me, you still don’t have a large enough force to defend the farm.”
Sam said, “Things will sort themselves out. Heck, How bad can it get? The plaque will run its course and die out. Wasn’t there a flu way back that killed a bunch of people, but the nation bounced right along?”
Betty replied, “The influenza epidemic of 1918. The pandemic of 1918 killed six percent of the global population. Six percent is a large kill rate, but please understand, these are different times, and Ebola is not the flu. What the world is facing and by extension, us, is a total collapse of society and civilization as we know it.”
Glenda said, “Sam, I think Betty is on the right track. Think about how hard a time we had getting home from South Carolina. I’ve got a bullet hole all the way through my leg.” She waved to Nash, “Look at him. I don’t think things are going to sort out anytime soon.”
Sam replied, “I am listening.” Then to Betty, “How bad do you think it will get?”
“Back in 1918, even though people had nowhere near the mobility we have now, the flu spread all around the globe. That particular strain, unlike other flus, affected strong young adults. Now-a-days, people interact more than any other period in human history and this Ebola can infect and kill just about everyone who contracts it.
“This mutated strain of Ebola virus is more virulent and more deadly than the H1N1 flu that ravaged back then. Glenda, Sam, you speak casually of going to town to get feed, but every time you interact with people, even people you know, you’re taking a definite risk for exposure to a virus that will kill you.”
Sam shook his head, “I understand the danger, but we need the feed.”
“Sam, you work there. Your family owns the company Do you have keys for the business?” Nash asked.
Sam nodded affirmative. Nash then said, “Go after business hours and load what you need.”
“Getting the feed after hours won’t be a problem, but I really want to check on my brothers and their families.”
Betty said, Sam, I understand your concern. Do they live in Sparta?”
“Yes, actually next door to each other. They bought property in a development this side of Sparta.”
Nash joined the conversation. “Do you think they would care to join forces with you here?”
“They may, but where would we put them.”
Glenda spoke, “They have that huge travel trailer they went in together to buy.” Turning to Nash and Betty, “Andrew and Saul are inseparable twins five years younger than Sam.”
Betty said, “How about this. We all go with you. Help load the trailer and then ride with you to check on your brothers. I would advise speaking to them from a distance of no less than twenty feet. We won’t know if they’ve suffered exposure to the virus. If they do decide to move here, I’d recommend they remain in isolation for eight days.”
Sam snorted and said, “You want me to tell my brothers they’re welcome here but they’ll have to be in isolation. Yeah … Right. That’s not—.”
Glenda interrupted him. “We need to protect ourselves. If they come, they go into isolation. Their trailer is big enough for four adults and their three kids. Betty is right. We don’t know with whom they’ve interacted. If the virus is active in Sparta, there’s a very good chance they were exposed.”
Sam threw his hands up in concession. “Andrew and Saul will probably tell us to go to hell, but I have to give it a shot.”
Betty asked, “It’s agreed then, we all go together?”
“We’ll go now. I’d rather catch them at the store than drive into Sparta.” Sam stood from the table. “We’ll use Glenda’s Tahoe. I’ll get the trailer hitched to it.”
Forty-five minutes later, they were in the SUV with Sam in the driver’s seat and Glenda literally riding shotgun beside him. Nash and Betty were in comfortable second row bucket seats. They too had shotguns at hand. Alice was in the cramped, third row of seats.
They rode with windows down to facilitate use of their weapons if need arose. During the fifteen-minute drive to the farmers supply store, they encountered several other vehicles on the road. One was a tractor-trailer that approached from the direction of Sparta. Led by a Georgia State Patrol cruiser with siren screaming and lights flashing, the truck roared past them. They saw another cruiser following close behind.
The other vehicles they encountered, mostly pickup trucks, paid them no attention and they were happy to return the favor. Sam pulled into the empty parking lot of the supply store. Nash saw the closed sliding doors at the warehouse loading-dock and felt a sinking feeling.
Sam, not bothering to pull into a parking slot, stopped in front of the doors leading into the store.“They didn’t open. Something’s wrong.”
Seeking to ease Sam’s fears, Glenda said, “They probably decided it was too risky to open. I’m sure they’re safe at home.”
Saying, “Let’s get this loaded in a hurry and go check on them.” Sam engaged the transmission and swung the Tahoe into position to back the trailer to the loading dock. He impressed Nash by backing the trailer to the dock in one go.
They all disembarked from the Tahoe. Walking in a group to the steps accessing the dock, Sam said, “Nash, you’ll be useless loading. You and Alice can guard us.”
Sam’s words stung. Nash felt like Sam had relegated him to the children’s table, but he couldn’t dispute the truth of his condition. To lighten the blow, he replied, “Somebody’s got to do it.”
Glenda noticed his hurt tone. “Sam, you could have said that better.”
Irritated by her mild reprimand, Sam replied, “Yeah, I could’ve, but I didn’t. Cut me some slack. I’m worried.”
It turned out that Betty was useless too. After moving only a few of the fifty-pound bags of feed Sam brought to the edge of the dock with a forklift, she grabbed her shotgun and climbed over the trailer rail to join Nash and Alice. Pointing to Glenda, she said, “I guess I’m useless too. Look at her move those bags.”
Nash shrugged, “Like you said, we’ll bulk up.”
“Glenda’s not bulked, just muscled.” Betty was unable to keep an envious tone from her words, “She’s as slim as me. Those bags represent almost half her weight and she tosses them like she’s handling pillows.”
Alice grabbed their attention from feelings of inadequacy. “I hear a car coming.”
The car turned out to be a pickup with a trailer in tow. It swung off the road into the parking lot and stopped well away from the dock. The driver stepped from the truck. Wearing a huge cowboy hat and dual pistols holstered at his side, he had long hair, a mustache, and tattoos covering both arms. He would have presented a formidable aspect but for the fact that, standing beside his big pickup truck, he seemed almost like a child playing dress up. Nash doubted the man stood more than five-feet tall.
The newcomer shouted, “What the hell are you people doing here?”
Sam came from the dim interior of the warehouse to stand with Nash and Betty. “Shorty, it’s me.”
“Hey, Sam … Sorry, didn’t recognize the van. Ya’ all open for business?”
“Come on over, Shorty, but keep your distance. We aren’t taking any chances.”
Shorty joined them on the dock, stopping twenty feet away.
“What do you need?” Sam asked.
“Scratch, layer pellets, horse feed. I drove by here earlier but it wasn’t open. I went to Paulson’s supply over on the ‘15’. Jesus … had to pass through Sparta. Man that’s place is screwed. There’re sick people on the sidewalks and streets and a lot of them ain’t walking, just lying there. Man, that Ebola thing messes people up. Drove past a corner where a man was collecting dead bodies and stacking them like cordwood. Man, the blood and the smell of em was enough to make me need to puke. I swung by the hospital. Sick, and dying, all around it, but I don’t think there are any doctors. At least I didn’t see any hospital staff outside helping anybody. I didn’t stop to look inside.”
Sam cut in, “Your trailer’s empty. Is Paulson’s closed?”
“The bastard’s open, but they aren’t taking cash or credit. Trading’s all they’re going for; Gold, silver, ammo, firearms. I ain’t got none of that ...well I do have ammo and firearms, but none to part with…, ‘sides, I didn’t like how close everyone was packed together. Say, did you all see a Walmart truck with some State Patrol Cars with it. It was parked in this lot when I drove by earlier.”
Sam answered, “We saw a tractor-trailer with a State Patrol escort headed east. Didn’t notice if it was one of Walmart’s. Why?”
“Just wondering if you saw it. I don’t think the patrol was escorting, I think they stole it. When I slowed down, they waved me on with their pistols. I didn’t see a civilian driver anywhere. They could’ve killed him to get the truck. It could be full of food.”
Glenda spoke. “How are you and your family fixed? Can you weather a few weeks?”
“Not fixed worth a damn. Ya know the Guard called my two oldest up and sent them to the Ukraine. Since my wife died me and Seth’s about turned sorry. Don’t get me wrong, we done plenty of work, just not in the right direction. We didn’t put much away. I figure grub’ll last us a few days, but we ain’t about ta brave going to stores or nothing. We vowed to stay away from people. Ya didn’t hear me argue none about keeping my distance.”
Glenda moved closer to Sam and they had a short, whispered conversation. When she stepped away, Sam turned to Shorty.
“Do you have any sort of travel trailer?”
“Got an old Winnebago that’s sat a few years. Why?”
“Can you get it cranked? If you can, how would you Seth like to stay at our place for a while?”
“Ain’t looking for charity, just feed.”
“I’m not offering charity. We have plenty of food put away and more that’s ripe. What I need is able farm hands, but most of all, more hands holding rifles and pulling guard duty.”
“What about my goats and chickens. My little boy’s got three calves he’s fattening to slaughter young and tender. If the ‘Bago starts, I can bring em along.” The goats is milkers and I have a taste for goat cheese.”
“”Bring em with you,” Sam replied. You may as well go ahead and load what feedstock you think you can fit in your trailer.”
“I’ll do that and keep my distance while I’m at it. Imagine we’ll be keeping distance for a while even after we get to your place.”
Betty said, joining the conversation, “At least for a full week.”
Shorty hitched his jeans and turned to Sam. “I’ll bring cash ta pay for—.”
“No need, we’ll be sharing until things sort out.”
“I’ll get busy then.”
Sam continued speaking. “I’ll ask one favor. As soon as we’re loaded, I’m dropping the trailer. Glenda and I are taking a fast run to check on my brothers. I’d appreciate it if you’d hang with these city-folk until we return.”
Shorty gave Nash and Betty a once over. “No problem. They have shotguns and pistols. I’ll fetch my rifle from the truck so’s ta keep trouble at a distance.”
It took a half-hour for Sam and Glenda to finish loading their trailer. With the last bag of feed in place, Sam unhitched the trailer. Calling out, “It’s only a ten mile drive from here. We should be back in an hour,” he and Glenda climbed into the Tahoe.”
Nash and Betty remained on guard while Shorty used a four-wheel cart to roll bags to the edge of the dock. Ten minutes after Sam drove away; two pickup trucks came speeding up the road and pulled into the parking lot.
Shorty, who’d just jumped from the dock to load the last few bags onto his trailer, called out, “This might be trouble,” and sprang back onto the dock to retrieve his rifle from where he’d leaned it against the wall beside the warehouse entrance.
The trucks, both with two men in the cabs, backed up to the dock. As they did, Shorty called to Nash and Betty, “Them’s Bill Johnson and his boys. Ain’t nothing but trouble. Watch the longhaired old man. He’s dangerous.”
The men disembarked from the trucks. One of them, a man with long gray hair mostly hidden by a floppy camo-green hat, gave those on the dock a visual inspection before calling out, “How’s it going, Shorty?”
“Well’s can be expected.”
“”We need some supplies. Who’s in charge?”
“Sam’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“I don’t reckon we’ll wait. I’ll catch them later with payment.”
While they were talking, Nash watched as the other men began moving toward the dock steps. They carried no rifles, but all three had pistols holstered at their belts. Not liking the furtive glances one of them was casting at Betty, he called out, “You fellows need to wait down there until Sam returns.”
