Chapter 3

Except for a few dollars, none of these creeps had anything we wanted. Even their guns were not worth taking. We now had enough fuel to reach Cairo, so that problem was solved. Mostly, all we had to worry about now were pirates and snags from sunken vessels.

It was strange to me that we had not seen any sign of government help moving to clean up the river. The Mississippi River was too important to ignore. We began to wonder if the disaster had been more than just an earthquake near us and had affected more of the country than we had first believed. We had found a shortwave radio at a store and had tried unsuccessfully to find any commercial stations broadcasting in North America. There were a few stations on, but they were not broadcasting in any language that any of us could understand. Even the ham radio bands were strangely quiet as far as English speakers were concerned. Had the apocalypse struck while we were not looking?

We continued to stop at small towns along the river to spend the nights, and we never found a clue as to what was going on. You can bet that we were now a hell of a lot more careful when we were on land than we had been before the attack by the gang of seven back a few days ago.

There had been a few aftershocks over the past couple of weeks, but nothing like that big one on the first day. Nevertheless, we were conscious of a repeat of an earthquake that could get us into even more trouble. So far, so good, but we were about to find that we didn't know the half of the devastation that had hit North America.

We estimated that we were about two days north of Cairo when we saw signs of a major forest fire. The eastern side of the Mississippi River along here had been covered with trees, many of them over a century old. Now they were gone! The ground was wiped clean of live plants of any sort. All that we could see were burned stumps of trees and piles of wood still smoldering in places. We moved permanently to the west bank of the river because of the soot and heat still wafting from the burned area. Even small towns along here were reduced to ash, and we saw no signs of life of any sort.

We were close to Cairo when we ran into a spell of very good luck: we came to a marina that was well stocked and ignored by the apocalypse except for some smashed boats tied up to the dock. Somehow, the tsunami had swept by with only a very minimum of damage, possibly because there was a natural barricade of a little peninsula blocking easy access to the marina's pond.

We happened to see the advertising sign poking above the trees on this side of the river, and we went in to see what useful we might find. Well, in my opinion, we hit the jackpot! There was a pontoon houseboat docked there with a minimum of superficial damage that would be easy to fix. We had seen enough to want to live on the river and not venture onto land anymore than we had to.

The houseboat was large enough to have two bedrooms and a galley with electric appliances. There was a generator on board that was driven by a diesel engine, so fuel would not be too difficult to obtain. Bill knew enough about engines to know how to make the diesel run on any liquid fuel, even peanut oil. We wanted that houseboat the moment we saw it, and we started to work right away. It took nearly a week to get the houseboat completely restored, and we lived on it from the first day we found it. Sue and June chose the bedrooms each couple would use: yes, we had progressed that far. Sue and I had not had vaginal sex yet, but we were deeply into oral sex by now. On the other hand, June thought that she might be pregnant!

We found a way to haul Sue's larger boat onto the roof of the houseboat, and we used the smaller boat as our safety boat floating behind us. The houseboat had a wheel and gear shift lever as well as a throttle, so it was almost like driving a car. Now, all four of us could spell each other as drivers.

It was nice to have hot water for shaving, and Bill and I went back to shaving every day. You know how teen boys can be: we shaved every day whether we needed it or not.

Once we had the houseboat in tiptop shape, we set out for Cairo. The only reason for heading there was that Sue had wanted to go, so that was where we went. What we found was nothing to be happy about. The city was completely burned out, and we did not find anybody around. There was almost literally nothing left standing! Okay, now was decision time.

Actually, Sue looked relieved. I found out later that she had not wanted to leave me, but she was not sure how I felt on the subject. She had held off on vaginal sex because she did not want to look like she was trying to entrap me. That night, we made up for lost time! I don't know how many times we fucked or how many times Sue came, but I managed to come three times, and I was beat the next day.

In deference to Sue and me, we anchored out in mid river for safety, and we took a day of rest and discussion. The women did not care where we went, but Bill and I were worried about our parents and assumed that they were worried about us. Therefore, we decided to travel back upriver to our hometown to check on our parents and to introduce them to our new brides.

We planned to head north and to check at every intact town we came to for food and other necessities like toilet paper, soap, and tampons. We would also pick up any useful weapons and ammunition as we traveled. We now suspected that the entire country, if not the world, had gone to pot, and we were dependent entirely on ourselves. Now that we had electricity, we wanted a computer and every DVD that we could find that contained useful factual information. We wanted to build a library for our reference and for our children in case we did have to rebuild the world.

We left to travel upriver the next morning. One person drove while another person sat on the roof to be a lookout. We were looking for three things of the most importance: snags, pirates, and towns with intact buildings. Who knows, we might actually meet some people who were trying to rebuild.

It was my day to drive and Bill was on the roof as lookout. Meanwhile, the women were dangling fishing lines over the side in hopes of being lucky for fish. Our plan was to do this in two hour shifts so that nobody would get too bored and lackadaisical in his job. We were moving steadily against the current, but not fast enough to generate much of a bow wave or a wake. We did want to move along, but we also did not want to waste fuel.

We were just a few miles north of Cairo when Bill shouted that there was a likely town on the west bank that we had not previously visited. That was the high point of the day so far, and the town definitely required investigation. I steered us close enough to shore for Bill to survey the place with his binoculars. Suddenly, he shouted in excitement! He had spotted a clothesline with clothes hanging from it. Now we had no choice: we had to investigate!

As with all towns along the river, there was a marina, and we headed toward it. Among other things of interest were two small houseboats tied up to the dock. We certainly did not want trouble, but all four of us were now wearing our pistols and carrying our shotguns as we docked. Sue tied us up to the dock next to one of the houseboats.

It was my turn to lead, so I left June on our boat to guard it while the other three of us looked at the houseboat beside us. I shouted for permission to come aboard, but I got no answer. That did not mean that there was no one there, it just meant that I got no answer. Carefully holding my shotgun ready to fire, I stepped aboard the houseboat. I looked inside, and it was obvious that it was recently occupied, possibly this morning.

I pulled my head back out of the doorway to call the other two aboard when a pistol fired and my head was just missed by a bullet. Not being a complete fool, I dropped to the deck and yelled that we were friendly and did not want to fight. A woman's voice answered, "If y'all don't want to fight, why are you carrying guns?"

I answered, "That's a good question, and your shot at me should be the answer. Now, are you going to shoot me or are you going to talk to me?"