The Second Intelligent Species: The Cyclical Earth (9 page)

We made it back to the fire after stumbling on broken cement blocks and other debris.

There was a large slab of Phony Bologna on a makeshift grate. It looked burned, as if it had been there for a while.

Mick saw me looking at it and handed us both a plate and fork and knife. “Enjoy this. It’ll probably be the last meat you’ll eat for a long time. We’re using up the last of it. Most of it is rancid, but when it’s cooked well done, it’s edible. Until somebody gets sick we’re going to eat it all, then we’ll hit the canned goods. We found some seasonings. Those take away the spoiled taste… kind of.”

“You still didn’t tell me how many people are left alive in the city. Aren’t there any shelters?”
These people already made it clear that we would only be welcome one night. Tomorrow we would still need water and food. The water that we could carry in the canteens would only last us a day if we rationed it. We’d need to drink twice that much every day.

Carl spoke up. “Ain’t one shelter in the city that was prepared for this. All of them burned to the ground. They were designed for the cold, ya know? Three hots and a cot, out of the cold, off the street. We’ve all been there once… well maybe not all of us.” He looked at Beth and me, and then at Beth’s diamond ring. The fire reflected off it still, though it was covered in soot and dirt.

Again I felt threatened here. I noticed Tex looking at her hand. I knew Beth did too. I knew money wasn’t worth anything anymore, but gems never lose their value, in one way or the other. These might get us a couple cans of soup, who knows, they might be worth even more in the future.

Chapter 12

On the Road Again

Beth and I slept away from the others. I awoke to see a figure looming over her while she rested.

I leapt to my feet. “What to fuck! Get to fuck away from her!” I lunged at the man as he dodged my grasp. He ran off away from the area and into the dark. “Get back here you son of a bitch!” Chasing after him and leaving Beth alone was something I wouldn’t do.

“What’s going on?” Mick asked as he rose.

Beth was awake too. First thing she did was look for her ring. “What was he doing?”

“It was that guy with the cowboy hat. He was hanging over my wife. That motherfucker better not show his ass back here again. I’ll kill him!” My heart felt like it would come out of my chest. I sank to the ground, even though a cement block was within my reach. I didn’t think I could balance myself on one.

“Tex. I knew he was trouble. I hope he doesn’t come back. We’ll do our own scavenging,” Mick said.

Bonita, Marcos, and Carl came over and stood near Beth. The more vocal of the three reminded, “It’s time for you to leave now anyways. We fed you, and now it’s time to go. You said you would leave in the morning. That’s what you said, Mick.”

“I’m sorry, Nick. She’s right, but I did say one meal. We will, however, give you a few cans of food so you can have breakfast. But then we will be forced to ask you to leave. May God be with you.”

“Great,” Beth muttered.

Carl looked at his watch and said, “They can have them for supper.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “What time is it? I just assumed we all went to sleep because it was night.”

Carl pushed the button to light up the face again. “It’s 5:30 p.m.”

Beth and I looked at each other. Then she asked Carl, “What day is this?”

“I don’t know how to bring that up, I just use it to tell time, but today is Thursday.”

“You wouldn’t want to part with your watch would you, Carl?”

“What do you have to trade for it?” He pointed to her ring.

“Oh, no way! I don’t need to know what time it is that bad. What difference does it make now anyway?” She hid her hand under her folded arms.

Mick motioned to Marcos. “Go get four cans out of the pile without labels, and try not to get any that are dented.”

Again the little guy took off running.

Beth helped me with the backpack. She unstuck the tape for me as I put it on. “We need to get something for the torches,” she whispered.

“Mick, is there any clothing we can use for the torches?” I asked.

“Not much at all. You’ve seen what there is.”

Bonita started in again. “No, you didn’t say anything about giving away anything but one meal. You already told Marcos to give them the good stuff. Give them the dented cans. What have they done for us?”

“Come on, Nick. We better get going.” Beth took my arm and we both turned to walk away.

Marcos yelled, “Wait, wait. Don’t go yet. You forgot your food!”

Beth thanked him and put the cans in my pack. We walked off into the darkness, in the opposite direction Tex had, back to the water tower.

Except for our brand new canteens, the empty cans I’d made into containers, and six cans of mystery food, we were traveling light. The weight
carried by each of us would increase once we loaded up with water.

I was worried about somebody guarding the tower. “Maybe you better take off your ring before we get up there.”

“They’ll have to break my fucking finger off, but they’ll be doing it without any nuts,” she snapped.

I said nothing more about the subject.

When we reached the top of the hill there was no one to greet us. “Now what do we do?” she asked.

It’s clean water. Drink as much as you can. No telling when we’ll get our next fresh clean drink. Be careful not to step on a nail. We can’t afford any injuries now.”

“No, I was talking about after we get the water.”

I didn’t have an answer. We had about two days of water and four cans of food.

“What do you want to do? You’re driving.” I looked at her and realized that I shouldn’t have said it.

Once in a while, Beth and I would hop into one of our vehicles and let the wind take us where ever it blew. It usually depended on who was driving at the time as to where we went, or what we did. Of course if I was driving I would go into the mountains and look for wildlife, and silence.

Of course if she was driving we would head down to the casino. She loved to gamble and so did her son. Those were some of our best times.

I have stuck my foot in my mouth before, just like everyone else has, but this was devastating. I realized it at the same time she did.

We just held each other and wept. We wept hard and long, making almost no sounds. Neither one of us wanted to break the silence that I was starting to hate.

We drank as much water as our guts would hold, and then we filled the canteens and soup cans. We bathed ourselves with some of the city’s remaining drinking water, even though Mick had asked us not to. Beth would not give on that.

We decided to look in individual houses instead of hanging around shopping centers. It seemed to be the safer course to take, even though we were searching in the dark. After going without light for so long, our eyes grew accustomed. We had to be careful what we salvaged because we could only carry so much. Water was the most important thing, but at about eight pounds a gallon, we had to think of a way to find it, instead of carrying it. The heat was too intense to go without it long. All the rivers, streams, and brooks were filled with either sooty sludge or something dead. There was no electricity to run water pumps, and most, if not all, of the pipes under the streets were
twisted and broken because of the earthquake. There was no water except for the tower that we felt safe drinking, but I didn’t feel safe there, and neither did Beth. I think mostly because of what Mick said about somebody taking the tower for ransom. I was sure it would happen sooner or later.

“I wonder if any cars made it inside parking garages.” I was really getting sick of walking. I’d always said we should walk or get more exercise. Now I would take a ride on anything. I was really getting tired. The constant diarrhea had weakened me.

“There’s one at the hospital and one at the dome.” She came down to the city a lot more than I did. “I know there’re a couple more on the east side of town.”

“Which is closer, the hospital or the dome?”

“I’m not sure. Everything is confusing me. Half of the buildings are gone. Nothing looks the same. We have to find a street sign. I think the hospital is closer if we go this way and cut across lots. We might find a shelter there.”

I almost said the old, “You’re driving,” thing, but I caught myself this time. “Good idea. How much further do you think it is as the crow flies?”

As she was doing the calculations in her head, I realized that even the English language was going to change if we continued to exist. Would anyone ever see a crow fly again?

“It can’t be more than a mile, but we’ll have to climb up an overpass or two. I’m not sure; it’s so hard to tell.” She pointed towards where she thought the hospital was. Every time she would think about an overpass she would raise her hand up, and then down, like her hand had to go up and over an imagined overpass.

“How much water do you have left?” We’d had a canteen, and a two-quart soup can of water each when we started. We were drinking out of the canteens first. It was just more convenient. The soup cans had a hole in the top plugged with some cloth bunched up tight like a cork in a wine bottle.

“My can’s still full but I don’t have much left in my canteen,” she said as she opened it and downed the rest. “Correction, my canteen’s empty.”

I had to take off my half-assed backpack to get my can out. The tape kept sticking to my shirt, but with enough struggling, I got the pack off. I was careful not to tip it over, but when I found the can, the cloth plug had come out. I hadn’t noticed the water running down my back because I was already soaked with sweat, and the water was as warm as we were. “Argh…” I growled. “We need to find a way to get some water now. My can’s almost empty. The plug came out. I didn’t think this would work. C’mon, babe, think. We need to put our heads together and work as a team. We’re
all alone in this world.” I never, ever, ever, ever thought that I would use that cliché, and have it be so true.

“If it starts to rain we can catch it. We can boil water to sterilize it. I even heard a guy tell another guy at work, you can drink your own urine as long as you strain it through your sock. I’m not straining it through your sock though. What about water heaters down in people’s cellars?” That was the end of the fooling around. She was back to business. I was glad, too. She was the brains of our team. As long as she was with me we could lick any problem.

“A lot of them were crushed when the bulk of the buildings fell. Plus you can’t get at the drains at the bottom. There’s too much debris. Then if you can, it’s melted shut. I checked seven or eight different places before we hit the throughway when I was scouting.”

“What about radiators in cars?”

The poor girl, she could tell you what Einstein meant when he formulated the equation E=mc
2
. She could tell you about the cosmos, evolution, paleontology, medicine, anything science, but I’ll be dammed, she knew nothing about vehicles, balancing a budget, or doing the grocery shopping. When the bills needed paying, even though we had the money, if I didn’t pay them, they didn’t get paid. When we first got married,
she had an SUV. She kept driving that rig until one day it just quit. She had actually blown the engine in a vehicle, only because she never checked the oil. I think it’s important to know the arts and music, math and science, history, sports. It’s all important. There’s a thing called good old-fashioned common sense. I was never taught that in school. That was taught to me by my dad and uncles and grandfather. They’re the ones that taught me engines don’t run without oil, your dog will not live without water, righty tighty, lefty loosey, and some things that my grandpa told me not to repeat.

“Hello, what about radiators in cars?” she yelled at me. She gets irate when I don’t answer her right away.

“They all have antifreeze in them, babe. Keep thinking.” That’s when I started thinking. Would there be any oil left in the block of a car, after it has burned like these have? If so, we could use it for the torches. It would be hard to check a car, since they were too low to the ground because the tires burned off. Trucks had bigger clearances, and held more oil, but we’d need bigger tools to pull the plug. I needed to find a big adjustable wrench.

“I need a big piece of flashing and two big pots that can take a good fire. We won’t die of thirst on my shift.” She was still thinking of how to get water.

I wasn’t all that up on starting a fire unless we had to. Attention is something I like, but only when I’m ready and prepared for it. That was another problem we had to think about. Nearly all the fires were out now. We had to find another way of lighting torches. We couldn’t paw around for hot coals anymore. Butane lighters couldn’t stand the heat very well. We might find a “Zippo,” but there would be no fluid to put in it. We had to think of something, or find something. The cellars were cool enough to look around in, but we’d still have to be careful of nails and such.

“My stomach feels all tore up. We need to take a break, and I’m beat.” The constant diarrhea was still being followed by nausea and intolerable cramps.