Chapter 7

[Tennessee]

It was mid July when Abe came to see me late one afternoon.

We sat down on the front porch with a cool drink. Abe said, “Mister George, I haven’t told anyone this yet because I didn’t want to alarm anyone. I haven’t even talked to Angela and Claire.

“We have some trouble coming from the west and we need to prepare for it. We’re going to have to fight to live up to our name. It’s our duty to protect those in our care.”

I said, “Abe, do you know what kind of trouble?”

“No, but it’s people and it will be hard. It came to me last night in a vision. I didn’t know what to do but to tell you.”

“I find it interesting that we have had a few people come to us from all points of the compass except from the west. I think I will ride over to Robert and Pamela Thomas’ place and ask if they would be willing to make a careful trip west to explore a bit. I know he was a Special Forces guy in the service and she’s as good as Jane in the woods. They should be pretty formidable as scouts.”

“Mister George, you will do what’s best. I just had to warn you. Give my love to your wives.”

“Abe, you could wait a bit and they will be here.” He shook his head. “Well, good day and my best to your wives. Thanks for coming.”

He nodded and left walking off in his long-legged gait that was deceptively fast. I contemplated the bottom of my lemonade glass and, while I knew I had received a warning, I wondered what it was. Finally, I shook my shoulders and rose up. Jane and Judith were in town picking up some baby items. I went into the kitchen and left a note for them, got in my small pickup, and left for the Thomas’ farm.

Robert had joined us in Nashville and met and later married Pam from Cookeville. They were just getting to know one another when we arrived in Henderson. Margie Allen was with Robert in Nashville but had only been a casual friend before. Marshall Bridges was the same to Pam. Marshall and Margie had become serious along with one of the women staying with Abe. The three of them married and moved to the farm that Lucinda had already claimed. Robert and Pam had stayed on at the original farm and later married.

As I pulled up at their farmhouse, I saw Pam coming from the barn. I didn’t know where Robert might be. She saw me and came up saying, “Doc George, come in and sit a spell. Are you looking for me or Robert?”

“Both of you, actually.”

“Okay, Robbie should be in a few minutes from now. He is finishing up the plowing for a new field to our west.”

“That’s great, Pam. How are you two getting along?”

“Pretty well. The farm’s coming along though I’m not sure either of us are really cut out to be farmers.”

At that moment, the screen door opened and Robert came in. “Hi, Lovie. Hello, George. What brings you here?”

Pam lifted her face for a kiss which she received. She said, “He wants to see us both. Wash off. There’s fresh lemonade in the fridge.” We waited a moment while he went in and washed off the sweat and poured some lemonade. He came back in and sat down next to Pam. She said, “You have us both here. What’s the story/?”

“It starts with Abe.” They chuckled. Many things started with Abe. “He came to me after having a vision that warned him of trouble from the west. I thought about it and noticed that we have had people come from most directions but west. I thought of you two for two reasons. First, Robert is former service guy in Special Forces or something like that. Second, your farm is one of the most western in Protection. If there are issues, you will be one of the first to know anyway.”

“George, that’s a lot in one mouthful.” Robert said. “I’m guessing that you have something you want me or us to do, also.”

“You’re right, of course. If there’s trouble, you are one of the best equipped in the community to handle it. However, what I have in mind initially is scouting. It would be nice to know what’s coming before it gets here. I hope you can go out, find out what it might be, and come back with recommendations.”

Pam looked troubled, “You can’t mean for him to go by himself.”

Robert said, “No. He wants us to go together. Lovie, you are probably the best-equipped woman in the entire community other than Jane to make the trip with me. And, Jane is busy with George, Jr. I bet she doesn’t know or she and George would be making the trip.”

I nodded slowly and he grinned. “I’m at a stopping point after tomorrow. If someone will watch over the livestock and the house, when could you be ready, Lovie?”

“Tomorrow or the day after. She continued, “George, you think this is serious?”

“Pam, you’ve heard Abe’s pronouncements. I know that’s where he says they will come from. He hasn’t missed yet. It’s hard to argue with his record.” They both nodded.

Robert wanted a couple of radios and vests, which he would pick up tomorrow morning. He also wanted to look at our arms, which were stored in a corner of the barn.

Robert said, “Most of our training was to avoid trouble if we could. The other part was to be more trouble than anyone’s worst nightmare if we couldn’t avoid it.”

I chuckled, “I remember saying something similar to that to Jane early in our travels.”

I shook Robert’s hand and got a hug from Pam. I left for home and my wives. When I arrived, I found an irritated Jane who wanted the three of us to go. I asked her who was going to watch George, Jr., or were we going to take him with us? She started to say something and then stopped.

Judith looked at her angrily and said, “You had better not say that or you will be in big trouble.” That stopped the discussion because Jane now knew that her initial thought of leaving Judith at the house with our son wouldn’t work.

The next morning, Robert and Pam stopped by to gather some arms. Robert said, “A pistol and hunting rifle are great but this will be anti-personnel work, if any. Those aren’t my choice. He found some military arms with ammo that I had liberated a few months ago from an armory. He was really happy to find the grenade launcher and grenades. He had also liberated a small SUV. It was quiet and nimble.

When Jane asked Pam about it, she replied, “It’s usually better to be a rabbit than an elephant.” They seemed to be prepared and left shortly after packing the arms. They promised to go not more than two days west before returning to report. I suddenly thought of my ham equipment that had been lying around for most of a year. I needed to do something about that. Having a method of communicating over a distance would be good though we hadn’t needed it before. We might not again but it would be nice now. Looking back as I write this, I realize I had forgotten my contact with Preservation in Georgia.

Robert and Pam left that morning heading generally in a westerly direction. Their report is next just as he wrote it and handed it to me.

[Robby writes]

We set out on the road in our little SUV trying to go easy with an initial destination of Whitesville. Our rough plan was to follow US 64 into Bartlett and then look around north and south before going into Memphis.

We arrived in Whitesville and found nothing. We checked some houses and found corpses but it appeared no one survived the virus. We saw no signs of scavenging. We checked a couple of the stores including a hardware store but all were undisturbed. It was very different from all other towns and cities that we had seen. I wondered, “Where did everyone go?”

Pam and I talked about it over lunch and decided to continue in to Bartlett cautiously. Seeing no people at all or any sign of scavenging was unnerving

We went in US 64 heading toward Bartlett, a suburb of Memphis, as we viewed it on our map. All along the road, we saw no signs of people. I slowed our progress even more to allow us to see any sign of people or anything.