Going Home (13 page)

4

As we walked along, we passed one of the campsites. Two men and two women were huddled around a smoky fire. They looked miserable, disheveled, and cold. They looked up at us; I concentrated on not making eye contact with them but watched through my peripheral vision. They never moved. I never saw them attempt to speak to one another. We simply kept going on down the road. After about a mile, we came to a little store. It’s the last thing on the way out of Perry for quite a ways. There were a couple of burn barrels, and several people were milling about out front.

“You want to stop by there?” Jess asked, looking over at the store.

“Hell, no; look at that rabble. I’m not going anywhere near them. Stay close and let’s try and not get involved in any deep philosophical debates with them.” Fortunately, the store was on the other side of the road. I slowly drifted us back to the right shoulder, putting as much distance between us and them as I could. Keeping an eye on the store, I clearly saw a couple of weapons. I know I saw two long guns and what I thought was a holster and pistol barrel sticking out from under a coat on one of the guys.

As we drew near, they took notice. I just kept my head down and kept right on walking. I could tell they were talking among themselves and gesturing in our direction. That was when it sunk in that they were all men. As we drew abreast of the store, one of them called out, “Hey, come on over by the fire and warm up!” We simply kept walking. “Hey, man, bring that pretty girl over here, and let her warm up!” They started to snicker.

“Morgan, I’m scared. What do we do if they come over here?” She had moved, so I was between her and the store.

“You have your pistol, right?”

“Yeah, but there’s more of them than us.”

“Most predators do not expect any resistance from those they prey upon. If this goes south, just follow me. Drop your pack, and engage the closest one to you. We will move toward them, quickly firing as we go. We have to shock them with violence of action. Understand?” I was dreading this; I prayed these idiots stayed where they were.

“Are you out of your freaking mind? Move toward them? You’re fuckin’ nuts!” She was incredulous at the thought.

“Look, it’s the only chance we’ll have. We have to shock them, put them off balance. Believe me, it’s our only chance against superior numbers.”

“You’re crazy and are gonna get us killed. I picked a madman to walk with.” She was shaking her head.

During this little exchange, we managed to pass the store without too much more from the crew milling about. I glanced over my shoulder, and my stomach sank. Three of them had started walking down the road, not behind us; they kept to their side of the road. They were certainly trailing us and not trying to hide the fact. On our side of the road was another camp. This one had two men, young guys. They looked like skater kids and were as miserable as the last one we passed; we kept moving. After a bit, I looked over my shoulder; our new groupies were now on our side of the road.

As we approached another roadside camp, I saw it was occupied by a single black man sitting beside a small fire. He was wearing a camo M65 field coat and gray watch cap. He was looking at us with a little too much interest. As we came closer, he stood up.
Oh
shit,
just
what
I
need.
More
fuckin’
trouble.
Holy
shit!
I thought. After he stood up, I saw just how big a guy he was; he was fuckin’ huge. He was unarmed, though, and was walking toward us casually. I’d have to shoot this big bastard; if he got a hold of me, he would pull my head right off my shoulders, and yank out my arms like the wings of a fly.

“How y’all doin’?” he asked as he approached.

Stopping a little short of him, I replied, “As good as can be.” Jess stepped behind me.

“Where ya headed?” he asked.

“Tryin’ to get home down south,” I said. I was suddenly aware that I was totally at ease talking to this guy. That little voice in my head was quiet, and I was comfortable.

He nodded his head down the road over my shoulder. “Looks like you got some company.”

I looked back and noticed that the three following us had stopped and were milling around on the road. “Yeah. They called out to us as we passed the store. I think we offended them by not coming over to their fire.”

“They’re creepy,” Jess said. The big man let out a laugh.

“You call them creepy, but stand here talkin’ to me? Now that’s funny!” He laughed again.

Sticking out a hand the size of a country ham, he said, “My name’s Thadius. Call me Thad.”

I took the big hand best as I could and shook. “I’m Morgan. This is Jess,” I said, nodding my head toward her.

“Hi, Jess.” He nodded his head toward her. “I’m headed to Tampa. Y’all said you was going south, so maybe we walk together. Seems safer in a group to me.”

“We are headed south, but I don’t want to seem like an asshole. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me,” I said matter-of-factly.

“You got a point, Morgan. Sometimes you just gotta take a chance, and trust your gut. Do I look like the kind of guy that people are drawn to?”

“Ah, to put it lightly, nope,” I replied. He chuckled again.

“Everyone who sees me is gonna be afraid, or want to try me, just because I’m big. And black. See, either one of those is enough reason for folks to look to fight or flight, but add ’em together and it jus’ gets worse. What’cha think?” He crossed his arms and waited for an answer.

“Thad, I got to say you just expressed exactly what I was thinking. And the fact you got the stones and the brains to acknowledge it says a lot about you. I’ll take a chance.”

Thad walked back over to his camp under some trees on the edge of the road to collect his gear. Jess was fidgeting, and I asked her what was wrong.

“You said not to trust anyone, and here you are taking on the black Incredible Hulk. What the hell?” She had her hands on her hips and her head cocked to one side. I imagined this was the stance she used when chewing out some boyfriend.

“You’re right, I did, but like he said, sometimes you gotta go with your gut. He said everything I was thinking; laid it out for us all to see. He came out unarmed and was smart enough to see what was going on behind us. I think he will be a help.” I was doing my best to convince her; I really had a feeling that Thad would be a benefit to us.

“We don’t have enough food to feed him. I imagine he would eat everything we have in one sitting.” She was looking at him. He was kicking out the small fire he had burning. There was a large Alice pack hanging from one shoulder, and he held a double-barrel shotgun in the other hand. “He still scares me.”

“Well, give it a little while. If he still creeps you out, we’ll part ways.” That seemed to make her a little more comfortable.

Thad came up with his gear; he had a sleeping bag strapped to the bottom of the pack, and the bag was stuffed full. In the outside pockets were a couple of Nalgene bottles. He slipped his other arm into the pack straps, which were not the original Alice straps but more along the lines of the “modified or advanced” packs you saw online. He took the weight of the pack with ease.

“That’s an interesting choice.” I pointed to the shotty.

“Yeah, it was my granddaddy’s. I had it cut down by a gunsmith. I drive a truck on a route between Tampa and Tallahassee, hauling mail. I keep this stuff in the truck just in case. Looks like I was right about it.” He held the weapon out with one hand, looking at it.

The three that had been following us decided to go back toward the store. I guess the appearance of “The Hulk,” as Jess called him, was enough to make it not worth the effort. I looked back and saw them walking away. Looking back at Thad, he had a big smile on his face. “See what I mean?”

Without saying anything, we all started to walk down the road. As we walked, we talked about how we each got to where we were now. Thad told of his wife and son in Tampa. He was sure they were all right; his mother lived with them, and they were out in the country a bit—didn’t have any of the “hood trash” near his place, as he put it. His mother grew up on a tobacco farm in Virginia and knew what hard times were. As a result, she kept a full larder just in case. After Jess gave her story, Thad looked at us. “Y’all ain’t a couple?”

“Oh, no, no, no!” Jess answered quickly. I looked at her with a WTF look on my face.

“Gee, thanks,” I said. Thad started to laugh.

Through his laughter, he managed to say, “Oh, man, you should have seen your face. That was priceless.”

Jess was embarrassed; her cheeks flushed a little. “I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, ya know, we’re …” She wasn’t sure how to finish that statement.

“Don’t worry, Jess; it takes a hell of a lot more than that to hurt my feelings.” I had to let her off the hook; she felt bad, and it showed. “You’re not my type anyway.” I kind of raised my eyebrows and looked down my nose at her.

“What?” She looked up with surprise, and Thad erupted into laughter again, bending over and holding his stomach. This made me start to laugh, and then, finally, Jess caught on and laughed.

“You two is somethin’ else,” Thad choked out.

We walked along for some time without talking much more. There were others on the road; most of them passed us by without a word. It was not like it was crowded or anything, but we did encounter them in ones and twos. Once, on the opposite of the road, there was a group of five or six adults along with a couple of kids. They shuffled along, never acknowledging our presence. It was when we paused for a little break in early afternoon that a couple approached us.

We were sitting under an oak where a small dirt road took off into a stand of planted pine. Jess had to pee, so Thad and I sat down in the sun for a minute. Jess came out and sat with us; we were just enjoying the feeling of the sun on our face, relaxing, when a couple walking north came over to us. They looked pretty rough. The woman, who on any normal day would have been pretty, looked like hell. Her long blonde hair was tangled and matted-looking. The guy hadn’t shaved in what looked like four or five days. He was carrying a plastic shopping bag with a couple of things in it. Both were wearing light coats, nothing near warm enough for the nights we’ve been having.

The guy raised his hand in a weak wave. “Hi.”

Thad and I, almost in unison, responded, “Howdy.” I looked at Thad, and he had a big smile spread across his face. “Jinx.”

Looking back to the couple, I asked, “Where you guys headed?”

“We’re trying to get to Panama City,” the man replied.

Thad let out a low whistle. “That’s a long ways.”

“Yeah, it’s tough too. I mean, there’s nothing—no help, no cars. I don’t know how we’re going to do it.” The woman was just standing there; she had what could be called the “thousand-yard stare.” It looked like she had checked out.

“You guys couldn’t spare any food or water, could you?” You could tell this was a guy that wasn’t used to asking for anything; if he wanted something, he got it. You could tell from the expensive shoes he was wearing, plus the little alligator on his coat, that he had money. And money didn’t mean shit now. I looked at him; he just raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders.

“Do you have anything to carry water in?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Opening the plastic bag, he took out two Fiji water bottles. “We have these. It’s all we could find in the Jag when it quit. He held out the empty bottles. I took his bottles and filled them from the two-quart canteen from my pack and handed them back.

“Thank you. We haven’t had anything to eat in almost three days. Could you spare something, anything? I’m worried about Gloria, my wife.” He reached over and put an arm around her; she didn’t indicate she noticed.

I looked at Jess. Our eyes met, and she gave me a little nod. She opened her pack and took out three of the granola bars and handed them to me. I passed them to the man; he immediately tore one open, giving one of the two bars inside to his wife. She took it indifferently. He raised her hand to her mouth, and it finally seemed to register with her. She took a bite and then seemed to come around a bit. The man was eating the other bar between sips of water.

“Thank you,” the woman said. “No one seems to want to help us.”

“I’m sorry we can’t do more for you. But we don’t have much either.” I felt bad for them, but it was obvious they were never going to see Panama City.

“Thank you for this. I really appreciate it. God bless you and good luck.” With that he took his wife’s hand and started down the road again.

We sat there for a minute in silence, and then Thad spoke. “They don’t stand a chance in hell of ever seeing Panama City.”

“Nope,” I replied.

“It’s sad. We should have given them more,” Jess lamented.

“Anything we give them would be a waste. Sounds harsh but that’s just the way it is,” I said.

“Sad but true,” Thad said as he stood up. “Let’s get moving. There’s a little town up ahead, not really a town but a wide spot in the road.”

We all stood, shouldering our respective packs, and then started out again.

We arrived in Salem in late afternoon. Just as Thad had said, it was nothing more than a wide spot in the road. There was nothing left here anymore, not that there had been to begin with. Just the remains of an old motel in the process of falling in on itself and a small store; both had obviously been long defunct. The motel seemed to be the center of activity for stranded travelers. It had been turned into a camp of sorts with an odd collection of people inhabiting the windowless mold-filled rooms. The little store had been broken into and looted, not that it looked like there was really anything in there to begin with.

A number of people were in this little hamlet. The old motel seemed to be the center of activity for the stranded travelers. I wondered how all these new residents sat with the locals. Our little group drew a few looks as we passed through, but there were enough people around; many of them were passing through, and we didn’t get as many looks as one would think. That or the sight of Thad and his old coach gun kept ’em from staring long.