Chapter 10

Day 9 Saturday 21 April Impact plus 5 days

I am one tired puppy. I can't believe how much work it is loading a truck by hand. I was lucky when I was a truck driver, I only had to do it once, so it must have slipped my mind how hard the job really is. In my opinion, hand loading plastic shipping containers and then carrying them to the trucks one at a time is for the birds. But it had to be done.

The sight of the women loading makeup into containers got me thinking about all the little things that we take for granted on a daily basis. Like pencils, what would we do five or six years from now, if one day no-one had a pencil and the pens had all run out of ink. We couldn't just go down to the store and pick some up, we would have to either just have to make do, or find some other way to write.

It was all those little things that you normally don't think about that were beginning to drive me nuts. I know we can't think of everything, and we're going to miss a lot of items that we're going to find a need for. I just hope that we don't miss too many. Just to be on the safe side, we packed up all the pens and pencils.

In six hours we managed to strip four stores of their drugs and most of their other supplies. The only reason we were able to do that many came down to having the college students with us. They worked circles around me, but that is not saying much, a ten year old could probably do that. But I hung with them as best I could, along with keeping an eye out for trouble, when I was trying to catch my breath.

We met up with the other teams around 3 am and they were still working on getting the bulk goods trailers loaded with feed. Apparently it took a while to figure out how to work the machines and then to hook up a generator to power the bloody thing. So by the look of things, we got off with the better end of the deal; next time we probably wouldn't be so lucky.

We had all the trailers hooked up and ready to roll by 6 am, and we were all feeling the effects, with most of us being up for the last 24 hours straight, but we had to get the work done while we could.

We started back to the house, going through Franklin for the return trip. As I said before, it might be a little bit out of the way, but it is an easier drive with only one mountain to go over, and we wanted to take a different route home.

We got rolling and made it into Franklin by 8 am. We really had people watching us this time, with the sun starting to come up and all. Of course the only way you knew the sun was coming up is because the gloom lifted a little bit. The cloud cover had definitely gotten thicker in the past couple of days, I just hope the rain will hold off as long as possible.

The problem we were running into now was the dust. It was starting to cover everything. It was like in the summertime and the worst case of pollen you had ever seen. It wasn't too bad when the trucks were moving, but after sitting for a while the windshield would get covered with a thick layer of dust that had to be cleaned off before you could see to drive. It was time to get everyone a mask to wear, just so we don't have to breathe that crap into our lungs.

We were not bothered at all passing through Franklin and we made pretty good time getting to Monterey. We were headed over the last rise before making it into town when I noticed the intersection of 220 and 250 was blocked by people standing in the middle of the road.

I immediately let off the gas, the jake brake started to rumble, and hit the brakes to stop. Luckily, with the loads we were hauling, we weren't going fast. I kept the rig under control and was able to come to a stop about 100 feet from them. I then looked to see if I recognized anyone in the crowd.

"Well shit! Twice in one day. I knew this would happen eventually, but damn! Why does it have to happen this morning," I griped.

"I know, I'm tired too, but you have been warning us that this was going to happen sooner or later," Betsy replied.

"The one out front is the sheriff in Monterey ... Oh well, better go ask him what he wants," I said.

"Be careful," Betsy said with concern, which the girls in the sleeper echoed.

"I will, just cover me from the other door," I said smiling, trying to ease her concerns.

I did just like I did this yesterday morning; I grabbed the AA12 shotgun, opened my door and eased the gun between the door and the frame. Then I eased myself out of the seat and stood half in and out of the truck. Betsy did the same on her side of the truck but she eased out her M16.

"What can I do for you today sheriff?" I asked as I tried to keep my eyes open for movement.

"We've had no communication with the outside world since the EMP and we were wondering what was going on?" the sheriff asked.

"That I can help you with, at least a little," I said then started filling them in about what we had found out so far.

"That is a pretty bleak picture you're painting," the sheriff said.

"You just have to look up in the sky to see how 'bleak' things are going to get. Hell it's 9 am, the sun is supposed to be up by now, but we're standing here looking at each other and it's still dark, and it's just going to get worse," I stated.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" someone from the back shouted.

"This late in the game ... Find a vehicle that will run and get as far south as you can."

"Why aren't you doing that?" the sheriff asked.

"Because we have been busting our butts for the past nine days setting up shop here. If we did move south, we would have to start all over again and that would put us all at greater risk of not surviving," answering him.

"What if we can't go south?" a guy in front asked.

"Then things will be very unpleasant for you," I said.

"What does that mean?" the man shot back.

I took a deep breath and bluntly said, "It means that you will probably either freeze or starve to death, more than likely a combination of the two."

"How can you say stuff like that to us?" someone asked.

"Because I've realized it is a whole new world out there and if I am going to survive in it I will have to make some hard choices. You haven't come to that conclusion yet, but you need to, and you need to do it quick," I said sincerely.

"Why can't we just come with you?" they asked.

"Because we don't have the room or the resources to take care of everyone, and it would not be fair to put the people that are with me to that kind of risk," I stated.

"So you are just going to leave us here to die," someone accused.

"I ain't doing shit! If you die, it's your own damn fault. You are not my responsibility. But I will tell you one thing right now, don't fuck with us. If you do, I will bring down a world of hurt on you that makes the situation you're in now look like a cake walk," I shot back.

"But that's illegal!" the sheriff shouted.

"When are you going to get it through your thick skulls that there are no laws anymore? It's the old west again and this is the only thing that proves right and wrong," I said while holding up the shotgun.

"But that's not right," the sheriff said.

"Yeah well, deal with it! That is the way things are now! So if you will excuse me I have to get back to work," I said

"You are a real asshole aren't you, you fat fucker!" a man yelled.

"I can be at times," I said smiling back at him.

The man got this strange look on his face and his right arm quickly went behind his back like he was going for a gun, and a sound somewhere between a growl and a yell started coming from him.

I immediately started bringing up the AA12 and centering it on the man.

"Don't do it!" I yelled.

The man started to bring his arm from behind his back and I got ready to pull the trigger on the AA12, when out of nowhere the sheriff tackles the man and slams him to the ground. The sheriff then shoved a knee into his lower back, grabbed the pistol from him and threw it away.

The sheriff leaned down and said something to him, but I am too far away to hear what he said. The sheriff then stood up and addressed the crowd.

"Y'all go on home. We'll have a meeting later to discuss what we are going to do. Now is not the time!"

The rest of the men grumbled but moved off without too much commotion. Soon the sheriff was the only one still there.

"Thanks for stopping him sheriff," I said.

"I didn't do it for you! He's too good a man to die over something stupid."

"I agree with you there. You have a good day sheriff."

I eased back into the truck, released the brakes and pulled out, while keeping an eye out for trouble. When I started pulling forward the sheriff moved out of the way and just stared at us as we moved through the intersection.

"They are going to be trouble," Betsy said after we got out of the town limits, the girls in the back agreeing.

"Yes, I think they will be. We'll have to be even more careful when we go through towns now. Maybe we should start having escort vehicles go with us? We should be able to find some Hummers to escort the big trucks with," I said.

'And the extra manpower on the trips would help also," Betsy added.

"That it would," I agreed.

We made it to the house by 10 am and there was already a lot of work going on in the yard.

Mike was working on the foundations; he already had two poured and was digging two more. Some of the other people were working on the first Quonset hut, pre-assembling panels and checking hardware.

It was actually starting to look like a small town now with the new buildings under construction. Before it kind of looked like a big truck stop.

I pulled most of the way up to the house and saw Tim coming down to meet us.

"We thought you got lost, and couldn't find your way home," Tim said.

"Nope just picked up some strays, had a run-in with the sheriff of Monterey, and almost killed a guy. Not to mention it took forever to get things loaded. It wasn't like in the SYSCO warehouse where they had everything on pallets and we could load things with a forklift. We had to fingerprint just about everything we got," I said.

"Where did you pick up strays?" Tim asked.

"They stopped us when we were driving through Bridgewater College," I said.

"How many did you get?" Tim asked with a frown.

"Twenty two, seventeen women and five guys," I said.

He gave me a look.

"I know we can't save everyone, but Betsy made a point to say that we did need more help doing things here, so I brought them to help out," I said.

"Ok I'll forgive you this time, but where are we going to let them sleep?" Tim asked.

"Hell if I know at the moment, but I figure we can turn one of those Quonset huts into a living facility without too much work. And then all we have to do is to pick up some beds and it will be all set," I said.

"That just might work," Tim said.

"And they came in real handy when we hit the drug stores, it would have taken us days if we didn't have the help that we did," I said.

"That's good to hear. So what happened with the sheriff and the man you almost killed?" Tim asked.

"He, and the group that he was with, wanted information about what was going on. I told them what we knew and also told them what they should do about it. Near the end I don't think they really liked what I had to say, one of the men really didn't like it," I said.

"You can say that again," Betsy chimed in.

"You think we will have trouble out of them?" Tim asked.

"From the ones that can't leave ... I can almost guarantee it," I stated.

"What? You told them to leave?" Tim asked.

"I told them that this late in the game, the best thing they could do is head south as fast as they could, because if they didn't, they were going to starve or freeze to death," I said.

"Well, no wonder they were a little upset at you," Tim replied laughing.

"Yeah, I did hit them kind of hard with the facts of life," I admitted with a chuckle.

"You can say that again," Betsy added smiling.

"Oh well, to change the subject. How did you make out with getting us a doctor?" I asked.

"Real good. We met up with a husband and wife, he is a general surgeon and she is a gynecologist. We talked to them, and they agreed to come and help us out," Tim said.

"That's great, do me a favor and take care of my truck while Betsy and I go see about Dr. Breuer. With the encounter with the sheriff and hauling all the trailers, I didn't want to go by his house in the Rig," I replied.

"No problem. When we get done with that, we are going back to Covington to get more stuff," Tim said.

"Sounds good, we're going to check on the doc, get some sleep, and then head out later tonight, so depending on when you get back, I will see you when I see you," I said and gave him a hug.

"Great, take care son," Tim said.

I grabbed my guns and ammo, Betsy grabbed hers, we loaded up in the Suburban and headed back to Monterey.

We pulled up to Dr. Breuer's house and went to the door to talk with him. He opened the door as we were walking up and he invited us into the house to talk.

"So doc, what have you and your wife decided to do?" I asked.

"We want to come with you," he said.

"That's great to hear, so, are you packed up and ready to go?" I asked.