Chapter 19

I walked to the edge of the canyon and waited for him to get to me. He looked like death warmed over. He had lost at least twenty pounds and had dark circles under his eyes that almost made it look like both of them were black from a fight or something.

"Hey Mike, what are you doing out here in the middle of the desert?"

"Thom, man it's good to see you. I wondered how you made out and if you got sick. Why are you flying around in a Border Patrol chopper?"

I spent the next fifteen minutes explaining it all to him and then I told him why I was there. When I did, I just felt bad because he seemed to completely deflate as if he had lost all hope.

"Thom, where the hell can we all go to be safe from this? I lost all of my family except the baby and I am out of options. I figured we could go to Portal or maybe some small town close to it where we could be safe. Hell, Lordsburg is completely overrun with those things because of all the truck drivers that got stranded there when they shut down the interstates. I started out with fifteen RVs and most were close friends that were trying to get out too. Then when we got sent back to Steins, we were joined by all these other people who came from all over the place with the same idea. We have kids and we are low on fuel and food. It took us two days to get water out of the well back there at that old ranch we found. The well at Steins went dry the second day we got there. I knew we weren't supposed to be moving around but what else could I do? These people put me in charge and I have been racking my brain, trying to find someplace safe where we could try to take care of ourselves and resupply. The adults have been giving most of our share of food to the kids so they can eat, and we have several small babies that are hungry because we have no milk or formula for them. The mothers can't breast feed because they are also drying up from lack of food and water. We all need to shower and rest someplace where we can be safe for awhile until we can regroup and come up with some idea of what to do."

I knew Mike always cared about the people in Lordsburg, but I never realized he was so compassionate. It made me sad that he had lost his own family. I had eaten several meals at his house and just the memories made me feel bad too. Now he was trying to protect strangers and he was worrying himself into an early grave trying to do it. He had been a Captain with the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department and had retired after twenty years this past year to spend more time with his family. Now he had lost all of them because of this sickness and once again he was protecting people he didn't even know before this had happened. I was going to help him all I could, even if I lost some of my so called pull with the Army doing it.

"Mike, how are you set on weapons and ammo? Do you have enough to put up a fight if it's needed?"

"Yeah, I raided the armory at the Police Station and the Sheriff's Department before we pulled out. I have armed most of the remaining men with me and we are in good shape there. What we need is food for the kids and formula for the babies. We have been lucky and have had no sickness except some cases of colic among the babies because of what we been trying to feed them. Thom, is there any way at all you can help us?"

I looked at all the people who had come up to listen to us and I could see they were about at the end of their ropes. They all looked worn out and half starved. I counted twenty men from I would guess fifteen to forty, and most of them were in the older bracket. My count of the women doubled that and I counted twelve holding small babies.

"Mike, I think I have the solution to your problems if you all will listen to me. You can't go any further and there are two attack helicopters sitting over the ridge that will stop you if necessary. This is by order of Colonel Kittrick of the U. S. Army and not me, my friend. I do have another option though that will help all of you. Do you know the old ghost town over by Granite Peak?"

"I knew there was one there but I never saw it. Why?"