Chapter 5

The first few days of our trip north of Hannibal were uneventful, but the situation started to change for the better about the time we approached Iowa. We began to see evidence of recovery of plant life from the devastating fires that had plagued both sides of the river. We started to find a few towns with only moderate damage; however, we did not see any people near the river. We wondered if that was in anticipation of the floods to come in the spring. Any levee that failed to hold was going to dump millions of gallons of water onto the nearby shore, and the only sure way to escape was to leave now while the ground was reasonably dry and passable.

People were used to the government taking care of them before the earthquake hit, but now they were on their own. There would be no relief for flood victims this time, and probably not for many years in the future. It took time to build up the economic surplus to allow that sort of activity. Thus, at least the smart people would back off from the river to higher ground. Sure, the ground would not be as fruitful back from the river, but the crops would survive the rainy season.

As we were moving up the river, we finally saw some people walking along the top of a levee. Possibly we could exchange some information, so I suggested that we pull within shouting distance. I had now acquired a bullhorn, so I hailed them when we got within range. All of our people were waving a greeting and trying to look friendly. All of a sudden and much to our surprise, the people on shore started shooting at us.

Dammit, that was just too unfriendly to ignore. I used the bullhorn to ask Jess to spray a few bullets in their direction while we tried to pull out of range. Jess was the most accurate shooter we had with his assault rifle set for automatic fire. He sprayed a burst at the people on shore, and they dove to the ground and slipped to the far side of the levee. We had nothing to shoot through the levee dirt, so there was not much else that we could do. We ran for the far side of the river to make it too far to us for accurate shooting. Jess had stopped shooting when the people had dropped behind the levee, so there was no shooting from our side. The other guys quit shooting pretty soon thereafter.

That encounter woke us up. We had drifted into a complacent shell as we had moved into a better looking countryside, but those shots at us were a convincing indicator that this land was a long way from peaceful. Either those guys on the bank were bandits or they had been bothered by river pirates. It made no difference to us because we quickly moved out of their range, but it did point out that we were not yet safe from attack either from water or from land.

Hopefully, the next time we saw people we could make friendly contact with them, but we could not assume that to be the norm. We were still going to have to spend some time in marinas, if not in the towns themselves, so we were going to have to be extra vigilant. That evening, Jess mentioned trying to find a machine gun. Any sort of automatic weapon would be helpful, but a regular Army machine gun in .30 or .50 caliber would make life a whole lot safer for all of us.

Unfortunately, none of us knew of a military base in Missouri that was convenient to the Mississippi River. We might start searching every town we came to to look for a National Guard armory or a large police station. The former should have originally had some automatic weapons stored there, but they might well have already been looted. On the other hand, a large police station might have an associated armory that would have some automatic weapons. All we could do was to look as we came to one. One of the duties of the lookout was now to look for such a place.

The first town we searched was a bust! There was nothing there for us to find. Even the marina was empty of fuel. Oh, Man, this was going to be a long search if we stuck to it.

The third town did have a police station with a small armory. We found some 9mm ammunition that was solid and not hollow-point, but it might be useful later on. Hell, we might even be able to use it for trading stock. We also picked up two 12-gauge sawed off pump shotguns there and some shells with #00 buckshot and some with bird shot. The shells with bird shot might make very good trading material.

The fourth and fifth towns were also barren, but the sixth town was a veritable bonanza. We found six M-4 carbines, but the firing pins were missing. That was probably why they were still there. However, all was not lost: Jess knew how to install the firing pins. A thorough search produced what he needed, and we soon had six more automatic weapons at our disposal. There was ammunition there also, so we came out well ahead of where we had been.

There was a kind of division of labor with the guns: the women stuck with the shotguns, but all of the men went for the assault weapons. Every one of us had hunted with rifles at some time during our youth, so we were comfortable with rifles. Such was not true for the women, so they stuck with the shotguns. We decided that what we had now was good enough, and we only went looking for more ammunition. Automatic fire did use up a lot of cartridges.

Bill and Jess switched to the M-4s from the AK-47s simply because of the availability of ammunition. The six M-4s gave every man an assault rifle with one left over. The AK-47s were set aside, but we had some doubt if they would ever be used again.

We were now more comfortable with our weapons and our ability to defend ourselves, but we managed not to become complacent again. The next time we saw people on the river bank, we did not approach them, but we did wave at them in our friendliest manner. I also held off on the bullhorn, just in case that generated some hostility.

This time, we had come upon a fishing party that included two small children and two women. The men in the party did pick up rifles, but nobody threatened us as we drew closer. We kept our rifles and shotguns out of sight, and I am sure that was also a help. Anyway, we got close enough for Sue, who was in the bow of our houseboat, to open a conversation.

She was wearing her pistol, but that was only prudent for any woman at this time, especially one who was as young and pretty as Sue. Sue waved, and the kids and women waved back. The men nodded, so things looked good so far. Sue said, "Hello, we are traveling upriver, and we wondered if you were interested in trading information."

That got a favorable response, especially from the women, and everybody relaxed. Sue gave them a synopsis of what we had seen north of Cairo, and she asked what were the conditions on the river around here. As expected, we did not learn much about the river beyond a couple of miles upriver, but we were warned about two groups of pirates that did operate in this area. We were also told of three bands of bandits who were rumored to be found in this area, but none of them had been seen lately.

We were told of a town with a marina about three miles upriver, and there were some people living in the town. Not much was known about the people, so we could not tell if they would be dangerous or not. We stayed for about 45 minutes with the fishing party, but we did not learn much more useful information. We bade them goodby and left. So what if we didn't learn much, it was still fun to talk to some new people.

We decided that we would visit the marina and try to find some of the townsfolk to talk to. We didn't expect to learn a whole lot more about the river, but we might find something useful to trade for. We did have that birdshot that somebody could use.

We saw the marina entrance easily because it was well marked. Uh-oh, that may be a trap. We entered the marina cove well spaced out so that we would not be too tempting a target; that was Jess' advice, and I thought it was a good idea. We tied up at the dock, and put a guard with a shotgun or rifle on all four houseboat roofs. The rest of us walked up to the fuel pump with our shotguns in our hands.