America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere

AMERICA THE DEAD

Book Two: The Road to
Somewhere

By Lindsey Rivers

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SMASHWORDS EDITION

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Original Material Copyright © 2010 -
2014 by Lindsey Rivers

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PUBLISHED BY:

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

This is a work of fiction. Any names,
characters, places or incidents depicted are products of the
authors imagination. Any resemblance to actual living persons
places, situations or events is purely coincidental.

This novel is Copyright © 2010 – 2014
Lindsey Rivers & independAntwriters Publishing. No part of this
book may be reproduced by any means, electronic, print, scanner or
any other means and, or distributed without the authors
permission.

Permission is granted to use short
sections of text in reviews or critiques in standard or electronic
print...

AMERICA THE
DEAD

Book Two: The Road to
Somewhere

On the road

~ March
26
^th
~

The camp was up before dawn, tents
packed away and breakfast and coffee taken quietly together around
the low embers of the camp fires. The breakfast didn't consist of
much more than the coffee and a few energy bars, but it suited
their purpose well enough.
The
Dog
, who still had no name, was going
person to person and begging little tidbits even after his own
breakfast of canned meat.

As the sun was touching the horizon, the small
caravan of six vehicles were once again winding their way
southward, leaving the roads where they were impassable and taking
to the fields.

The two Suburbans that had been fitted with
lifts and bigger tires had no problem with the on and off road
transitions. It was tougher for the other four vehicles.

They monitored the radios as they drove along.
Bits and pieces of conversation and skip came through the static.
Sometimes clear, sometimes garbled and barely intelligible, but
there were no conversations they could follow. Mike had never been
a C.B. Radio fan, but Bob had been and he explained skip to
everyone.

Skip could be two thousand miles away, or only
a hundred. It was a signal that hit the atmosphere just right, or
cloud cover, or a mountain range, and carried farther than it
normally would have. You might talk to someone a thousand miles
away as clearly as though they were no more than a mile down the
road. And you might have that conversation for ten minutes or two
hours and then suddenly they were gone because those atmospheric
conditions that had allowed the conversation had
changed.

Early on, Mike had thought about Ham radio. You
could reach around the world with Ham radio. But Bob had explained
that Ham radio accomplished that with relays. All the people that
did the relays were most likely gone, at least for now. Maybe they
would be back eventually, but they had heard nothing but a soft
electric hiss cutting across the miles the two times they had tried
the bands, and no one had answered their calls.

The F.M. Band had also remained dead. It seemed
all the traffic was on the C.B. Channels. The V.H.F. Bands,
normally used for Marine conversations, were empty too. But that
offered a secure option for them to talk without being overheard.
As they drove through the morning now, they talked back and forth
on the V.H.F. Band, monitoring the C.B. and the F.M.
Bands.

~

They filled their tanks two hours after dawn at
a collapsed gas station next to the interstate. A length of rubber
hose connected to a hand operated Kerosene pump made the job quick.
The only hard part had been locating the underground tank. The
cover had been found though, the cap spun off, and the odor of
gasoline drifted up into the air telling them that the underground
tank had not been ruptured.

The little area that serviced the interstate
contained a large garage, two small Mom and Pop stores, the gas
station and a chain auto parts store right next to the garage,
probably built with the garage in mind.

On the other side of the asphalt parking lot
sat a motel unit that had seen better days. Most of the units were
flattened. The swimming pool was cracked and empty; wire mesh and
what looked to be a bottomless void graced the middle of the rust
stained pool. A second row of motel units running parallel to the
pool looked to be untouched. Across the road were two name brand
outlet stores, obviously placed to take advantage of the
interstate. They had pulled the trucks onto the cracked pavement of
the gas station, and after they had finished gassing up the trucks,
Mike had gathered everyone together.

Bob and Tom came back from checking out the
garage and the auto parts store just after the trucks were gassed
up. Bob nodded his head at Mike.

“
You noticed Bob and Tom looking
over the garage,” Mike said. “We're thinking of stopping here. We'd
probably end up here for a few days while Bob and Tom work on the
other four trucks. And we need a few other things: tail gate swing
outs that can hold a spare tire, gas can too, roof racks to carry
gear, lifts, better, bigger tires... In short, the things we had
intended to do back in Watertown.” He looked around, trying to
catch the eyes of each person individually.

“
You can see how much easier it is
for the two Suburbans to get around wrecks, buckled roads, down in
to and out of ditches. It just makes sense to give the other four
trucks that ability, otherwise they'll just be slowing us down. You
saw a little of that this morning.”

“
Makes sense,”Janet Dove
agreed.

Molly nodded. “My only concern is,
are those...” she paused and her face reddened,
“
People,
” she
managed after a long pause, “coming after us?” Her eyes were dark
and questioning. Mike could read the fear in her
posture.

“
I doubt it,” Kate said. She spoke
quietly but forcefully.

“
We'll listen in on the radios,”
Nellie added.

“
They won't come. In the city they
knew how to get around... Out here,” Patty waved her arms around,
finally lifting them to the sky. “They wouldn't know what to do.
Couldn't sneak up on us.” She shook her head. “I just don't think
they're the kind that want to deal with even odds.”

Kate nodded in agreement. ”You
know, Molly.
Spineless
, right?”

Molly nodded and Mike watched the fear leave
her and something closer to determination replace it. She nodded
her agreement once more, looking directly at Kate as she
did.

Mike cleared his throat and continued. “The
reason we traveled on was to put some miles between us and them.
It's a long way for them to come. I don't see it,” Mike said. He
let the silent nods continue for a moment and then
continued.

“
There are other things we can do,
things we need. Canned goods, maybe one of those cows, or a deer.
They seem to be wandering everywhere. There really is enough to
keep all of us busy for the next few days while Bob and Tom get the
truck situation straightened out.” He paused but no one spoke.
“So... If there are no real objections?”

“
Let's do it,” Molly
said.

“
Yeah, I'm for it,” Patty
added.

~

As Mike turned away, Patty, Kate, Molly and
Nell began to set up a plan for monitoring the radios. Everyone
agreed that they would probably hear about anything coming their
way long before it reached them. Molly went over to the garage a
few minutes later and pitched in, helping Bob and Tom drag whatever
was in the way out of the way so that they could reach the racks
and garage bays. There were two tow trucks that they used to do
most of the work, but chains and muscle power accomplished the
rest.

In the end, they cleared out three stalls that
they could work in. Molly stayed, and not long after Nell found her
way over and began to work side by side with her.

The garage was a prefab steel building that,
either because of a whim of the Gods' or its design, had remained
standing. By the time some of the others were returning with a cow
and two large does in the back of one of the pickup trucks, the
garage was ready to go. Molly and Tom wheeled out a towering
chain-fall for the hunting party to use to dress out the animals
and then went back to work.

~

By late afternoon the third Suburban was well
under way. The lift was done, brush-guards installed and they were
working on the carrying racks. Mike and Ronnie stopped by to look
over the effort and were amazed. The Suburban looked like something
that had rolled out of some sort of Safari outfitters garage, or a
futuristic end of the world epic, Mike joked. But that sent them
all into silence for a few moments, and Mike didn't mention it
again.

Molly and Nell were working on bolting a huge
winch to the front bumper of one truck while Tom and Bob worked on
stripping out one of the pickups to get it ready for a lift
kit.

Tim and Annie had made their way to the garage
and then found themselves drafted and made part of the work crew.
Annie was in the third stall laying out the parts they would need
for the lift on the pickup truck while Tim worked at mounting the
oversize tires to new, larger rims, using a pair of heavy iron bars
and his body weight to accomplish the work. He and Annie joked back
and forth as they worked.

They were using a small twelve volt air
compressor to inflate the tires after they had them mounted. They
both seemed to be enjoying themselves, Mike thought, and they
seemed happy to be in each others company.

Outside, near the far end of the garage, the
chain-fall had been set up, and a group led by Janet Dove, which
included Sandy and Susan, were hoisting a large cow up into the
air.

“
Mike,” Janet said as he and
Ronnie passed by on their way out of the Garage.

Mike paused.

“
We would like to smoke most of
this meat... If we're going to be here a few days, I
thought...”

Mike nodded. “Yeah. Might as well, Jan. We have
the time,” He assured her, “And, it'll help to have the meat with
us. Who knows what's ahead.” He shrugged.

Janet Dove smiled, turned away, and Mike stood
watching as the huge cow began to lift into the air from the back
of the pickup truck before he and Ronnie turned and walked
away.

A few minutes later, the two of them fell in
with Kate and Patty who were sifting through what the chain stores
had to offer in the way of clothing, canned goods and whatever else
they came across that they could find a use for. They passed by
Lilly who had taken over the toy department, blocked off one aisle,
and was keeping Brian and Janelle busy. She smiled and waved as
they passed. Janelle waved back. Her dark eyes finally looking
rested and happy.

Brian had built himself the biggest Lincoln Log
village that Mike had ever seen and was now busy populating it with
dozens of green, plastic Army Men. Mike smiled and Brian took the
time out of his game to smile back at he and Ronnie. He held a
large plastic Tyrannosaurus Rex in one hand which seemed to Mike
about to wreak havoc on the village and its population of Army
Men.