Against the Grain (12 page)

“Michelle? Paul?”

“If you think it’s a good idea…” but Michelle was quickly cut off by her husband.

“I guess I’m the odd man out then,” he barked defiantly.
 

“Let’s talk, what are your concerns?” I asked, sounding much more congenial than I really felt towards him.

“I get the gas going bad thing but you’re basically saying that we should use what we have to maybe find someone out there to trade with. But then we don’t have any gas left to get to them again to do any trading, if there’s even anyone out there,” He summed up.

“Well, in a manner of speaking, yes that’s what I’m saying. I don’t know what we’ll find, but we won’t know unless we look. We won’t be using all our gas by a long shot and there are other ways to do it if we do find a reason to go back out again. They can always come to us, or we can start looking to the Fossel’s horses as an option too,” I concluded.
 

The Fossel family was the other neighboring family remaining down the road. Along with their hay fields and farming equipment, plus the experience to run it, they had a small stable of horses. We helped each other out when we could by bucking hay bales and cutting firewood with them, but they were usually well fed and well stocked and with us taking the brunt of any looters coming this way first, they had it comparatively easy.
 

I decided to conclude my side of the debate with one last thought.

“We need to start looking long term here and that may mean expanding our bubble to farther than the people in this room.”  

From the looks on their faces I had pushed the reality of the long term situation to the forefront of everyone’s minds, right where they didn’t want it to be. I paused for another moment then looked to Megan.

“Megan?” I asked looking for her input and completing the loop of people in the room.  

“I’ve only been here a little while; don’t think I’ve qu
ite earned a voting spot yet,” she responded.

I somewhat agreed with her sentiment, but I didn’t want to directly leave her out of the discussion either.

Hearing that, Sue looked over to Megan sitting on the stool by me and spoke up in her motherly tone. “Honey, you’re a part of this family now, you have as much a say as anyone.”

Paul didn’t try to hide his distaste at that thought I noticed.

“I appreciate it Sue, but I think I’ll sit this one out,” Megan said resolutely.

Looking at Karen and Derek, then back to Megan, I slowly stood. “Let’s give these
guys some time to talk it over,” I ushered the others out to the kitchen.  

The four of us stood looking at each other in the small kitchen, not really sure if we were waiting for something or if we just had nowhere else to go and nothing better to do. Finally Derek broke the silence.
 

“You know we appreciate what you’ve done, and what you’re trying to do and everything, but really you don’t have to do this. If it’s going to cause problems here or something, we made it this far on our own and we're in the home stretch now," he pointed out.

"I know man but it’s not just for you. I used to know some families and places out near your folks that I wouldn’t mind seeing again.”  

"Okay but really..."

"I know,” I cut him off. “I’m going with you either way, if they decide to come too, it’ll be a good thing, but we can get there without them."

"So what’s the deal with this house you were talking about?" Karen asked me.

“Two houses actually, down the road about a half mile or so. Nick and I checked in on them just a couple weeks ago. They’ve been empty for a while and they’re sealed up tight. Just need people to live in them again. Speaking of which, I didn’t say it, but if it’s needed, there should be room for your parents too.”

“Thank you,” Derek said quietly. “I don’t know what we'll find out at their place. They were always prepared for a long winter or whatever but this... they were pretty isolated way out by the lake and well you know…” he trailed off.
 

"Let's just see what we see when we get there,” I said, trying not to let him dwell on not knowing if they were even still alive.

"That’s the other thing, I don’t know, but I’m hoping my sisters will be out there too. Is that going to be a problem?" Derek added.

"No," I laughed, "not on my end.”

A long standing and un-talked about elephant in the room between Derek and I was my previous, what we’ll call “relationship,” with his sister Tiffany. It had been a few years now since I’d last seen her, but we were a couple during the hormone fueled days of our youth, and then later on we had an on again off again, ongoing fling.

Besides Derek and Tiffany, and their mother to an extent, the rest of their family had never really embraced me, their father Stan especially. If Dierks Bently thought a Farmers Daughter was bad, what would he think of me fooling around with the daughter of a Federal Air Marshall?

What was I thinkin
?

“To tell you the truth, I’m actually hoping we’ll find Tiff and her boyfriend out there too."

"Fiancée," Derek amended.

"Oh… cool, good for them," I mumbled slightly.
 

"Uh, why exactly are you hoping they’ll be there?" He asked, trying to be nonchalant with the question.

"Last I talked to Tiff, he was doing a tour overseas."

"Yeah,
Afghanistan, with Marine Recon," Derek informed me.

“Really? No shit… I knew he was In, but I didn’t know he was a damn recon marine. Well between you, him and your dad, that would be a lot of extra experience that could really help out with hunting, security and training, and it could give me a break from trying to do all of it and more around here,” I told them.

“Oh, so you weren’t kidding, it’s not just for us then,” Karen piped up.  

At that Megan rushed to my defense. “It’s for everybody. And he’s no good to anyone if he keeps getting exhausted and run ragged all day, every day.”

I smiled a thank you to her.  

“I’m sorry, I get it.
I’m just anxious to get to the end of all this,” Karen acknowledged.

“We all are.” I said knowingly.

“Which reminds me, when are you thinking of getting started?” Derek asked.

“Depends,” I stalled, doing some quick math in my head. “If it’s just us, I can be ready to go in a day. I just need to go pack a bag for it and the trip back. If it’s everybody, it’ll take me a few days to get them all squared away and ready to go.”

“Um, if it is just you, and we stay there, how are you planning to get back here?” Karen asked awkwardly.

This brought Megan’s head up. I wasn’t surprised that it was something no one else had really thought of.
 

“Just hike my way back. There is a lot to see and do between there and here,” I tried to sound reassuring.

Back before I was forced to walk in the woods and live outdoors nearly every day, I had done it for fun. I had spent many days, and longer weekends, backpacking the woods and mountains of every area of the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains and down into the drier areas of the Southern US for a lot of years. I was long past being intimidated by a long hike. Plus I’d probably just steal a truck when no one was looking.

Our conversation was abruptly interrupted with the sound of the front door closing a little too forcefully.

That would be Paul…

“Well I think you’ve got some company going west,” David joked as he walked in to join us in the kitchen. “Who did you have in mind to come with you?”

I thought about that for a second. “I’m not one hundred percent sure yet, but I thought I’d ask Andrew and Jake to go if the girls would be alright on their own for a few days. I’ll need at least two others but I really don’t know how I can ask that many to leave here. Karen, can you handle driving the suburban and the kids on your own?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” she replied.

“Alright, that’s the main rig. I’d like to run one in front and one behind it,” I began, grabbing a pad of paper and pencil from the counter and thinking aloud as I outlined the set up. “Two in the rear vehicle plus a driver…another person up front would be good but we can make do without…then a driver plus one in the lead…three would be better but...”

“Why so many?” Megan interrupted my one sided conversation.

“Redundancy and security,” I explained. “Shooters covering all sides of the group at minimum, but if we have the people, we should have shooters covering all sides of each vehicle. We are going really light on this. I would feel a lot better with another rig and twice the people but we’ll just have to make do.”

“Shooters…” Sue repeated ominously as she joined us in the kitchen.
 

“It’s just in case,” I said, but her look told me I wasn’t any better at disarming her than I was at disarming Breanne. “I don’t think we’ll have any problems, but we just don’t know. It’s also a little show of force,” I said turning back to Derek. “We aren’t looking for a fight, but if someone else thinks they want to try to take what we have, like with what happened to you guys on the way in, if we don’t deter them or can’t drive away from them outright, we’ll be able to protect ourselves this way.”

“What trucks were you thinking of using?” David asked.

“Drew’s 4runner would be a good one, and maybe your Dodge if you don’t mind.”

Andrew owned one of the early models of Toyota’s SUV, deemed the 4Runner, and I was very familiar with those rigs. One of my good friends had one that we used to travel in back in the day. We would get in all kinds of trouble in the woods, mud, snow and in town in that thing. I had helped him do everything from clean it and change the hubs and shocks, to replacing a worn out, but still running 300,000 mile engine. Andrew’s Toyota was in much better shape than my friend’s had been, so I knew it could handle the task.

David’s Dodge truck was a gas hog, but it had 4 doors, a canopy, and could haul a load or tow anything that broke down. The question was, which one should be in front and which to have in the back? I’d have to work that out later. The evening was getting late and I was sure everyone wanted to get to their homes and in their own beds, even if I didn’t really have that option myself. Besides finding someplace to crash, I’d probably be up half the night making notes of things to do and things we’d need.

I rejoined the group in the living room who were all still standing around, chatting with each other. When I walked in, the conversations dropped. They probably wanted a speech or something stupid like that, heck it was maybe even appropriate, but I wasn’t going to be making any promises.

“Thank you all for doing this. I’d like to meet everyone in the morning to go over a few things…”

“We’re here now,” Jake interrupted me. His excitement was obvious.

“Okay,” I continued, “I’ve got a lot of logistics to get in order, but Drew, Jake, I’d like to ask you two if you’d come along. Don’t answer now,” I hurried to say, “take the night to talk it over with the ladies and with each other. Let me know in the morning. Drew either way, I’d like to borrow your 4Runner for this.”

“I go where it goes,” Andrew laughed seriously.

Sighing and laughing myself, I went on. “Just talk it over and let me know tomorrow. I’d like to leave in a couple days. We need to get the trucks and the people checked out, packed up, and ready to go. I’ll have more for you in the morning.”
 

Chapter 12

The next morning was a late start. Jake and Julie, along with Andrew and Cary, all showed up mid morning to get things started. Derek and his family had been up for a while and were milling around their suburban, half trying to look busy, but obviously not sure of what to do. I was happy to see David out there talking with Derek, coffee cups in hand.

As I was just coming down from my little camp spot up on the hill, everyone began to gather out back around the picnic table, all eyes on me. All I needed to do now was trip and roll down the hill.  

“Good morning,” Megan greeted me, “coffee?”
 

“Sure, thanks,” I took the offered steaming cup from her.

I don’t know how, but without it actually happening, she had the ability to look like she had just slept for twelve hours, showered, done her hair, and was dressed in a change of clean, comfortable and alluring clothes. I had slept for maybe four hours, under a bush with a rock as a pillow, in the same clothes I had been wearing for the better part of a week.

“Our fearless leader,” Jake gestured in my direction.
 

“Don’t even start with that. I’m not the… I don’t…just don’t start.” As much as I resisted it, for all intents and purposes, I was the leader of the group going out. I might not have liked it, but that was the reality of the situation.

“Are we going traveling again?” a small voice interrupted my brooding thoughts. Derek and Karen’s kids had come over to play in the yard with Nick and Breanne’s children, and it was Derek’s daughter Leslie that was now tugging on my leg with her curious question.  

“We’re going to give it one more try, how’s that sound?” I looked down at her.
 

Her face wrinkled a little with what she said next. “Tucker and I are tired of riding in the truck, can’t we stay here? It’s nice here.”

Karen began to take a step to intercept us but I smiled and gently held up my hand to stop her. The other kids were now listening too, so I waved them over as well.

“Come on over guys, come sit down here. I want to tell you all a story.” Then sitting down cross legged myself, I turned back to Leslie. “Do you know who lived here before us?” I asked her.

“The Indians!” she exclaimed after some thought, excited that she knew the answer.

“That’s right, the Indians did. And they were here for a very long time before we all came here.”

“Once, there was a group of Indians kind of like all of us, and their chief was named Takanin. All their houses were closer to the river than ours here, but they traveled all the way from their homes, right to this very spot to find food, and because it was such a nice place. But then, some other people came to their homes by the river and they wanted what the Indians had. Takanin and his people did everything they could, but eventually they had to leave their homes. Every time they found a place to stay, the bad people would come and they would have to leave again. After a long time, Takanin was all by himself and he went to live out by a lake, close to where your Grandparents live.”

“Now I’ve gone out there many times to look for Takanin’s house, I even took your Aunt Tiffany out there once or twice to help me look,” I added with a hint of a smile up at Derek, “but I still haven’t found it. So now I’m going to go out there one more time to see if I can find his old house.”

“And we’re going to go look too?” Leslie asked wide eyed.

“Well I’m going to go ask your Grandparents if they know where Takanin’s house is. If they do, then you can take your Daddy and me to go see it.”

It was a simple story that left out the death of an entire Indian tribe at the hands of the White Man, but it seemed to appease the kids and renew their sense of adventure. And after hearing it, they went back to playing in the corner of the yard. “Everyone here that’s going to be here?” I stood up and changed gears, wording it carefully to not specifically call out the absence of Paul.  

“Yeah I think so,” Nick knowingly responded.
 

“Okay, what we’re going to do this morning is get the planning set for a combined escort and convoy out to the Trapper Lake area and back,” I began in an easy tone, and setting up a serious outline. “We are looking at three trucks and eight people total. That’s the four Meehan’s, me, and three others from here. Drew, Jake did you guys get a chance to talk it over?”

“Yep, we’re in,” Andrew nodded his head.

“Cary, Julie, you two good with this?” I didn’t want to second guess the guys or anything, but I thought it better that everyone was very clear.

“I guess so,” Julie said after exchanging a look between herself and Cary. “We don’t really like it, but we understand it.”

“Alright,” I breathed, that was good enough for me. I wasn’t going to try to downplay the danger of what we would be doing, but at this point, it was up to those four to work it out amongst themselves because I had more to worry about than their relationships.

“You know we are willing to go too if you need the help,” Cary offered.

“I know, and I appreciate it, but we just can’t deplete this place that much.”
 

“Well that’s only seven by my count, who else did you have in mind then?”
 Julie asked me.  

“I could really use Bre as a Second.”
 

“Second what?” Breanne asked cautiously from the picnic table.

Besides being a competent shooter, Breanne had a good head and could manage situations. That leadership alone was worth it. She also had a longer established relationship with Jake and Andrew. And since we had women and children along on this little venture, I figured they might feel more comfortable talking to another woman, who in turn could then talk to me if there was a problem. Also it might just help to insulate me from all the little stuff that I was sure was going to drive me crazy.

Nick and I had talked about it before going off to bed the night before and he had reluctantly agreed that she was the right one for the job. One of them at least needed to stay back with the kids, even with the grandparents help. As Nick had a good handle on the defense of the area, and he was learning the vital parts in keeping things running around the Ranch, he was needed here more.

Also, Nick had confided in me a while back about the chilly patch their marriage had been on before everything had collapsed and they were still dealing with that to some degree. Neither he nor I really knew if having a few days apart was a good thing or not for them, but he didn’t think it could hurt, and I needed the help.

“I’m not big on hierarchy and all that crap, but if I have to lead this thing, then I need someone else to back me up and run the other half of things. I’ll be directing things in the lead rig, you’ll be doing the same in the rear. If we get separated or have to split up, you’re in charge.”
 

I was phrasing it purposefully in a more telling, than asking, type of way. My intent was not to be controlling, but if it was time to put the leader hat on, I was game.

“What do you need me to do?” She asked, looking to Nick for confirmation.

“You and I will get to that in a little while, right now I want to talk to everyone about the overall responsibilities.”
 

“Drivers, that’s Karen, Derek and Andrew, your job is to drive, period,” I paused to let that point sink in.

“That’s it?” Andrew asked.

“That’s it,” I repeated.

“If you’re not driving, then we’re not going anywhere,” This brought a round of laughs and I continued on.

“Let me put it this way, what is the one best weapon we will have?”

“You,” Jake tried to answer.

“Dude if it’s me versus a speeding eight thousand pound truck, bet on the truck. If we get into trouble, you drivers are what gets us out of it. We gun only if we can’t run. It might not sound as cool as shootin’ stuff, but you guys have the most important job and are responsible for all of us. Any shooting is to protect you, so you can get us out of trouble.”
 

“Bre, Jake and I will be the primary shooters. Jake, do you get car sick or anything?”

“Nope,” he replied.

“Good, ‘cause we’re going to test you on that.”

“Huh?” came his dumbfounded response.

“Let’s everybody head over to the trucks and I’ll show you,” I told the group.
 

David, Nick, Sue and Megan all stayed back at the house to watch and entertain all the kids while the rest walked over to where the trucks were parked. Breanne hung back a few steps to talk with me as we went to join them.

“Am I really the best one for this?”  

“You know everyone here as well or better than I do. You know the areas we’re going, and you can process multiple targets as well as anybody… and I can trust you. You are exactly who I need on this.”

She flashed a quick, bright smile and replied, “I’ll do what I can.”

That smile took me back and for an instant, I saw the attractive young woman I used to know before all the stress and hardships… back before this world. Before kids and marriage, back when she was just an innocent in the human race. It was the smile of an active and fun loving woman, without all the strife of our current times.

Her looks were definitely not a factor in me wanting her to go along, but it’s not like I was blind either. We had been family friends way before the family part ever came along. Later on, once I met him, Nick and I had become good buddies as well. In the days of partying in our early twenties, there had been the natural jokes and innuendos, but all in harmless fun. I remember feeling strangely grown up the first time I identified feeling proud of the wife and mother that she had become, instead of seeing her as, well, not as that.  

“I know you will. Honestly I don’t know what to expect on this thing. This might just be a walk in the park, and it might be
Fallujah
or Mad Max. We’re just going to have to adjust to whatever we find out there.”
 

“You think it could really be that bad?”

“You’ve seen for yourself the violence that is out there these days, and now so have they,” I accentuating my point by sticking my finger in one of the bullet holes in Derek’s suburban as we walked past it.

We had caught up to the rest of the group, so I moved on with the improvised briefing.
 “Drivers, if we are stopped, then you are checking the map, listening on the radios, or watching for danger areas to tell us about. Got it?”

“What type of danger areas?”
 Karen asked.

“Bottle necks, barricades, tunnels, bridges, steep sides of the road - up or down; buildings, people, other cars on the road… that type of thing.”
 

“And we’re supposed to relay that to you?”

“Relay it to your vehicle, yes. Jake will be sitting backwards so he needs to know what is coming at him, or behind him, or whatever. Karen, you get a little slack on this one since it’s just you and the kids, but anything I tell the drivers, you still need to be aware of. I know I’m throwing a lot at everybody right now but we’ll be keeping it simple so everyone can keep up and stay on the same page.”

“This seems like a lot of hard core stuff. I mean Derek and I drove across three states without a problem…” But Karen stopped short when she saw me again absentmindedly sticking my fingers in the bullet holes of their suburban.

“Jake, you’re our tail gunner in the back of the Dodge with the S12. I really wanted Drew in there too backing you up on an AK, but we just don’t have the people for it. Your job is to protect the convoy. No one overtakes us. You report any news up to the front, but you have to be proactive in protecting the rest of us. Got it?”

“I think so, it’s too bad we don’t have hummvees huh?” He attempted to sound like he knew what he was talking about.
 

“You ever been in a hummvee? They are loud, cramped, pieces of crap that you can’t see a thing out of. This is the luxury way to roll,” I answered him, attempting to tone down his excitement to a realistic level.
 

Jake sounded confident, but I think he and I both knew just how much he didn’t know. I picked him because he was a good guy and had some good trigger time on the S12. I guess it wasn’t his fault that his job at Staples never gave him the opportunity to provide armed rear security on a traveling convoy.

“Bre, you’re in the passenger seat of the Dodge with Derek driving. You three need to get familiar and comfortable in these spots. Jake, you’re going to want to find the best way to sit back there. If we need to bolt down a chair or tie a strap in to help you out, you tell us what you need and we’ll make it happen. We are going to have some bags and stuff back there too and we’ll be taking the door to the canopy off, plus you’re going to need to figure something out for the dust. Bre, Derek and I haven’t talked about the route yet, but you can bet on dirt roads.”

“Drew, it’s you and me in the Yota… Oh and we need to pull the top off too,” I added.

The first few years the Toyota 4Runner came out, they had a removable top that left the rear passenger seats and bed open to the air, while the front driver and passenger seats were still covered by a metal roof.