Going Home (18 page)

“Ah, that’s the best part.” He walked over to a small door and opened it; he pulled the cord on a keyless fixture in the ceiling, and the fluorescent lamp in it started to warm up and fill the closet with the pale bluish light.

“This is a 5,000-watt pure sine wave inverter.” He was pointing to a big black box mounted to a shelf about eye level. “These are eight-volt, 820-amp hour batteries wired series parallel.” He was kicking at six huge red batteries on the floor. “This is the charge controller that charges them from the panels outside. I have more panels than I need, but I want plenty of capacity. This system runs parts of the house, basically everything except the AC,” Sarge answered in obvious delight.

“What about your hot water heater?” I asked out of reflex. I have hooked up many standby systems for generators and knew this was one of the real killers for those systems.

“Don’t have one. I use the tankless type. This system carries it just fine. I don’t shower every day, though, to conserve power,” he replied.

“You mean we can take a shower?” I couldn’t believe this.

“You mean you haven’t yet? Everyone else has.” He almost looked surprised, at least for him.

“No, some old grumpy fucker has kept me in bed for the last couple of days, making me piss in a damn jar.” I thought that would get his dander up.

“Who in the hell are you callin’ grumpy?” He had his fists balled up at his waist.

“If the shoe fits,” I started to laugh; Thad and Jess joined in. I really liked this guy; he was my type of person. One of those that if they weren’t insulting you, or you them, then they weren’t happy. It was definitely a military thing.

“You ungrateful little shit! Get you stinkin’ ass into the shower right now! And don’t make me do a hygiene inspection! And that’s an order.” He was pumping his fists up and down as he bellowed. I could only imagine what it would be like to be on the receiving end of an ass chewing from him.

“You better get going, Morgan. He already made us take one.” Thad was sitting in the office chair in front of the radios.

Just to really get him fired up, I responded, “Sir, yes, sir!” and snapped into a salute.

“Dammit, I work for a living. You don’t salute me! Get out of my sight!” I thought his eyes would pop out of his head. He reminded me for all the world of Gunny Ermey. I performed an about-face and started out the door.

In a much softer voice, he said, “Take your time, and wash the wounds on your head real good too. Towels are in the closet in the hall.”

I looked back over my shoulder, and he was smiling at me. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you enjoyed that,” he added.

“As much as you do,” I replied. He smiled at me, and I walked out to find a bathroom with hot water. Hot water!

I took my time, just soaking up the heat from the hot water. A week is a long time to go without a hot shower, or any shower, as far as that goes. I also shaved in the shower, using bar soap in lieu of shaving cream. It is amazing how much better a hot shower can make you feel. After drying off and redressing, I went back to the room where I had been staying and fished around my pack for my contacts. I had been wearing my glasses since the second day; but since I was here, I thought I would go ahead and wear the lenses again.
My
glasses,
where
are
they?
I thought. Looking in the mirror, I was horrified at what I saw. I hadn’t looked into one since taking a round to the grape. The hair on the right side of my head was seriously fucked up. My ear had what looked like a black stain on it that wouldn’t come off.
Powder
burn
, I thought. I was in serious need of a haircut.

After putting my eyeballs in, I went back out and found everyone in the kitchen. They were discussing dinner options when I walked in. Sarge was the first to speak up. “Feel better?”

“Yes, I do! That was almost as good as sex,” I replied. “Hey, Sarge, you got a pair of clippers? I need a haircut.”

“You betcha; I do my own.” He removed his hat to show me a neat set of whitewalls with a flat top.

I pointed at his head and said, “I’ll take that.”

“Grab one of those chairs and take it out on the back deck. I’ll get the clippers.” He pointed to the kitchen chairs and left the room.

“Oh, I gotta see this,” Thad said as I walked out of the kitchen.

“Me too!” Jess piped up.

Stepping out onto the deck, I was met with a beautiful view of the Suwannee River. Linus’s house sat on a bluff overlooking the river. A boardwalk that cut through it led down to the river proper. It was a stunning view; standing there in the afternoon sun, you could forget about everything for a minute. Sarge walked out with a set of clippers in one hand and an actual barber’s cape draped over the other.

“Take a seat,” he ordered and then plugged the clippers into a receptacle beside the door into the house. I set the chair close enough for him to work and plopped my ass into it. He swung the cape around my shoulders and secured it behind my neck, taking care not to hit the wounds.

“Just take a little off the top, clean up the sides, and then a nice shampoo and blow-dry, please.” I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Thad and Jess both laughed. I thought at me, but I would find out later they were laughing at him and the expression on his face.

“Oh, no problem. Would you like a massage and a facial too?” Sarge had bent over at the waist with his face right in mine; he had this huge, freakin’ scary-ass smile on his face. That smile just wasn’t right.

“Uh, I’ll pass on the facial. I don’t think I want you doing anything to my face.” Anything to make that smile go away.

“Smart choice, cupcake!” He flipped the clippers on as he shouted that. I felt the clippers bump into the top of my head. “Oops!” he called out. Thad and Jess started cracking up again. I just sat there, wondering why in the hell I asked this madman to cut my hair.

The clippers finally clicked off, and he stepped back and looked at me. “There you go. I did the best I could, but I ain’t never sheared a basketball before. Your head is fuckin’ huge.”

“Thanks so much. Let me go see the damage.” I walked into the house and to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I was surprised to see a perfectly executed military regulation haircut. I walked back out to the deck. Jess was sweeping the hair off. “Looks like someone sheared a Sasquatch out here,” she said.

“Go ahead, yuk it up. How ’bout you, Thad, what do you got to say?” I looked over at him, expecting him to have some sort of wisecrack.

“I ain’t got no room to talk.” He pulled the ever-present watch cap off his head to reveal a polished dome. “See?”

“Well, you got me there,” I replied.

“Holly shit, can I touch it?” Jess cried out. Thad leaned over, and Jess rubbed her hands over his big head.

Looking at Sarge, I said, “You said I had a big head. Look at the size of that freakin’ punkin’!” Everyone except Thad broke out into laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, ain’t nuthin’ I haven’t heard before.” We were interrupted by a sound from the river. Rounding a bend was a small skiff with an outboard on it, heading upriver. On board were two men and what appeared to be a woman. We were all looking down at the little boat. Sarge raised a hand to wave to the crew. They didn’t respond.

“Friendly folks around here, huh?” I said.

“I don’t know. I’ve seen a couple of boats the last couple of days. I figured folks would start to get around soon. We’ll see.” Sarge watched the boat disappear down the river.

We went back into the house and started making preparations for dinner. Linus had some serious preps. He had a large pantry full of canned and freeze-dried foods as well as a rather large chest freezer I was shocked to learn was 24vdc, much more efficient than trying to run on 110vac on the setup he had. I’d seen a little bit of the place so far, but I was already impressed. Sarge decided to treat everyone to steaks that he had pulled from the freezer earlier in the day, accompanied by stewed okra and tomatoes, along with a pot of rice. Thad and Jess took over the side dishes, as Thad said he had a thing for okra in any form. Sarge and I went out on the deck and fired up the gas grill for the steaks.

Sarge dropped the steaks on the grill with a hiss and dusted them with salt and pepper and looked over at me.

“You know anything about ham?”

“Not really; it was always something I wanted to get into, but with everything else I was doing, I never had the money.” I was watching the fat bubble on the rib eyes.

“I don’t understand how anyone that considers themselves a prepper doesn’t have one. It is truly the only form of uncontrolled communication left to us.” He jabbed a big fork into a steak and turned it, then the others.

“True, but you know, when you’re worried about food, water, sanitation, power, hygiene, and all the other stuff, it can be seen as less important than those things. I wish now I had one. I wish my wife had one. There is an old guy in the neighborhood that is into it pretty big,” I replied.

“That’s true, but relying on the mass media is a huge mistake. Now there is no other way to get any news. With those rigs, you can talk around the world depending on the antenna, atmosphere, and a couple of things. Where’s home?” Sarge asked.

“Altoona, down near Eustis in Lake County,” I answered.

“Oh yeah, I know it, just outside the Ocala Forest,” Sarge replied, kind of looking off into space.

“Yep, that’s it,” I quipped.

“So what’s the plan? Thad’s headed to Tampa. Jess lives outside of Gainesville. You’re south of her. What are you guys going to do?” Sarge moved the steaks off the flame to a cooler part of the grill.

“There really wasn’t a plan. Jess asked for help to get home. We came across Thad on the road, and we all agreed to walk together for mutual support. I guess I need to help Jess get home. Thad is going to have to finish his trip without me, though. I’m not detouring to Tampa, no way in hell,” I said.

“I agree with you. I damn sure wouldn’t want to go anywhere near there. He’s got a hell of a trip ahead of him. I cleaned your pistol up for you. You don’t have a long gun?” Sarge said. I think Sarge was leading up to something.

“No. I mean I do, just not with me. Carrying a weapon in my car to the places I work is touchy enough; a rifle is out of the question,” I replied.

“How do you like your steak?” He was poking at the steaks with the fork. The smell was almost too much.

“Medium.”

“Good man,” he replied with a smile. Sarge took the steaks off, piled them on a plate, and we went back inside. Jess and Thad were setting the other groceries on the table when we came in—perfect timing. We sat and ate dinner with light conversation, nothing too deep. It was another nice meal with good friends. I knew I for one was thinking about the incredible circumstances that brought us all together. I wondered how much longer this sort of thing was going to be possible, to sit around like things were normal.

The conversation died down as dinner was finished. Thad stood up. “Jess an’ me’ll clean up. I’m sure Morgan would like to see more of the radios. Hey, Sarge, what do I do with the scraps?”

“Throw the bones into the river. Put the other stuff in the compost pile out there.” He pointed out to the rear of the house. “Come on, Morgan. I’ll show you a couple of things.”

Back in the cave, I was looking at all the documents on the wall. “What are these?” I asked, pointing to one of them.

“Those are QSL cards. Hams exchange these after we make contact with one another.” He walked over to one of the more colorful ones pinned to the wall. “See, this here is his call sign, the date, time, and frequency we communicated on. The time is always in Zulu.”

“Looks like you have a bunch of them.” I was looking all around the room. On the opposite side of the room from the radio bench he showed me earlier sat was another, much larger radio. Sarge sat down in front of it, tuning some dials and going through the frequencies. I walked up and looked over his shoulder; he was slowly moving through them like he was looking for something.

“So what’s happened since this all went down?” I asked.

“The balloon went up all over the world. The rag heads in the Middle East took the chance to go at the Israelis. They naturally unleashed nukes on ’em all; then Iran tossed one back, but, of course, they don’t have any. Then China went after Taiwan. It sounds like the Russians are trying to consolidate their base again and bring some lost sheep back into the fold. They was backing Iran when they got nuked. Russia turned some birds loose too.” He sat back in the chair and put his hands behind his head. “But you know what the funniest thing to all this is?”

“No, what?”

“We haven’t been hit with anything. That means we didn’t use our arsenal on anyone either. Remember I said I had a theory about this?” He was rocking back and forth in the chair.

“Yeah, so you think we gave someone the green light?” I gathered.

“We obviously gave someone some assurances that the US would not interfere, and then this happened to us here. So that’s why I said I don’t think this was an accident. Add to that the fact that there has been zero info out of our own government since this all started, and it stinks like three-day-old fish.” He swiveled back around in his chair and turned up the volume on the big radio.

“Why do you have all these on in here?” I motioned to the all the radios scattered around.

“Oh, this is my baby. This is a FT DX 5000. It’s the latest and greatest thing out there. I’ve only had it about two weeks. It’s a damn work of art.” He laid his hand on top of the huge radio.

“I didn’t think those were what you used; I mean, you aren’t going to get far on a hundred amps and that five-watt; you might as well be talking through two cans and a piece of string.” I motioned to the two radios he already showed me.

“Don’t underestimate those radios. With the right antenna, you can really reach out there. Don’t worry; they’ll do everything you need,” he replied with a smile.

“I’ll need—what the hell does that mean?” That statement confused me.