Desperate Times (26 page)

“I think so,” said Jon with a grin. “Good
looking, too.”

They walked for an hour, making small talk as
they plunged ahead into the unknown. They carried their guns at the
ready, muzzles pointed into the ground as they walked. The roads
were entirely deserted. They watched a doe with a spotted fawn
barely weeks old in a ditch by the side of the road. The doe and
fawn ducked down for cover in the tall weeds. They passed without
talking; their footsteps, the only sound in the quiet afternoon
air. The sky had become partly cloudy and the sun warmed them for a
few minutes here and there before being blotted out again.

Jimmy barely heard Jon as he rambled on about
something or other. He was torn, his emotions conflicted. His
thoughts were spinning in circles inside his brain. Julie. Paula.
They were as unalike as two women could possibly be. They came from
entirely different backgrounds and the only thing they had in
common was him. Julie had come from a blue collar family. Her
father worked at the feed mill, her mother at the grocery store.
Julie spoke her mind and wasn’t afraid to mix it up if she felt she
had good reason. Hadn’t last night proven that? How would Paula
have reacted? Jimmy knew the answer to that. She would have been
huddled with the women and children in the basement. There was no
way she’d have picked up a gun and protected the compound the way
Julie had. Julie had taken a bullet for them. Paula never would
have done that.

Then again, their situation had changed them
all. How had Paula changed? The obvious answer to that was she had
suddenly become quite passionate about Jimmy. She had never acted
that way before. Her emotions had always been held tightly in
check. Passion with Paula had always been more candlelight, than
the exploding fireworks he’d experienced with Julie. Jimmy had
longed for her to feel that way about him. And there she had been
that very morning, brimming with that sort of passion, looking like
a vision in Jill Sandberg’s clothes. She’d even professed her love
for him, something she’d done very few times during their
relationship. Did she really mean it? Jimmy supposed she did. Who
else did she have to love?

Something cracked in the woods ahead and Jon
scrambled for cover in the ditch. Jimmy followed, training his gun
in the direction of the sound.

Jon pushed down his muzzle. “Hold it. We
don’t know if they’re friendly or not,” he whispered.

“Who goes there?” shouted a man’s voice from
the woods.

“We’re heading into town to find a doctor!”
replied Jon. “We mean you no harm.”

“Where are you coming from?” answered the
man.

“None of your goddamn business! We’ve got
some people back there who are hurt!”

“A lot of people are hurt! What makes you
think you can get a doctor to come out this way?”

Jon turned to Jimmy, his face screwed up in
confusion. “We’re going to try,” he replied. “The doctor in Ely
owes a friend a favor!”

There was no answer to that. They waited for
nearly a minute before the man emerged from the woods. He held his
empty hands in the air. His face was haggard and his clothes were
filthy. Jimmy and Jon stood cautiously, scanning the woods for any
sign of ambush.

“It’s just me,” said the man who looked to be
the same age as they were. He was tall and thin, his face a tangled
mass of beard. “Don’t shoot,” he said, walking toward the two of
them.

“Far enough,” said Jon. “Who are you and what
are you doing out here?”

“I’m Jerry Jenkins. I had a cabin over on
Black Island Lake. We got burned out last week. They took
everything we had. We’ve been on the road ever since.”

“We?” Jon asked.

“My wife and kids. They’re still in the
woods. I’ve got a really sick kid. We can’t wake him and he’s
burning up with fever. Can you help us? He’s only three.”

“Oh God,” said Jimmy under his breath. “What
can we do?”

“Where are you heading?” Jon asked.

“We were heading into town. I don’t know what
else to do. We were just stopping for a short rest.”

Jon dropped his gun and waved him over to
where they stood. “Don’t head into town. Take your family over to
Hay Lake. Have you ever heard of Birkland’s Resort?”

Jerry Jenkins nodded enthusiastically. “Sure,
I know where it is.”

“Well,” continued Jon. “The Dahlgren’s live
next door. The place is surrounded by a wall. You can’t miss it.
Tell them what you told me. Tell them that Jon and Jimmy sent you.
They’ll look after you and your family. We’re going to try to come
back with a doctor. We can’t promise anything, okay? We’re just
hoping that we can still find one.”

Jenkins began to cry. “We’ll pray for you,”
he said. “Thank you.”

“When was the last time you and your family
had something to eat?” Jimmy asked.

“A while back,” Jenkins said. “Yesterday, I
think.”

“Here,” said Jimmy. He dropped his backpack
and rummaged through the contents. He pulled out the large paper
sack Patty had packed for them and found a bottle of Tylenol at the
bottom. “Take this,” he said, handing it over. He then shoved the
entire sack at Jenkins. “This ought to be enough to feed your
family.”

“God bless you,” said Jenkins, his voice
quavering. “God bless you both!”

“Go now,” said Jon. “Get some of that in your
child. You’ve got to get him cooled off. Find a stream or a lake.
That will help. We’ll see you back at the Dahlgren’s.”

Jenkins nodded and scrambled away. He looked
back at them twice, as if they’d been some sort of illusion he had
conjured up in his mind. He was smiling now, his long legs crashing
through the ditch and up into the woods. He was soon out of
sight.

“I guess we’ve done our good deed for the
day,” said Jon.

“I suppose we have,” agreed Jimmy.

“Now, what are we going to eat?”

“We’ll find something,” said Jimmy. “I’m
thinking steak and lobster.”

“No,” said Jon, “sesame chicken and fried
rice. I’m dying for some Chinese food.”

“Sounds good,” agreed Jimmy.

They continued walking and the only sounds in
the woods were made by their natural inhabitants. They sounded as
if they didn’t have a care in the world and Jimmy envied them.

A mile from town they began to hear traffic
and the sound called to them like a long-lost relative. Though
their feet were sore from their long walk, they began to jog. The
highway rose before them, the last rolling hill before Ely. Jimmy
stopped after three hundred yards; he’d smoked too many Camels to
run any further.

“Sorry,” he said to Jon. “Damn
cigarettes.”

“It’s okay,” Jon replied, who didn’t seem
winded at all. “We’ll get there.”

Jimmy smiled, wishing he had never picked up
the habit. He bent over and tried to catch his breath. He could
hear something strange about the sounds coming from town. The
traffic sounded heavy, as if a convoy of eighteen wheelers was
slowly cruising Ely.

“What do you make of that?” Jon asked.

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know
what to make of it. One thing was certain—he didn’t like it. The
highway crested about a half mile ahead of them. The tall pines on
either side of the road were thick and would offer cover in case
they needed it. Ahead and on their left was a tall hill; the top
would offer a bird’s eye view of town. He pointed that out to
Jon.

“I’m with you,” replied Jon. “Let’s get up
there.”

The floor of the old forest was thickly
layered in pine needles. They prevented nearly anything else from
growing inside. The tall pine limbs created a canopy inside the
forest and it blotted out the sky. They walked silently across the
mossy earth. Huge slabs of rock jutted out of the ground at all
angles, where tenacious pine roots clamped over and around the rock
like talons. They walked a silent quarter mile into the woods
before turning and heading up the hill.

They walked ten feet apart, guns at the
ready. Deerflies buzzed their ears and they swatted at them. The
rumble from town grew louder with each step they took. They began
to climb and the ground became more rugged. They climbed rocks the
size of buildings; up, around and over, zigzagging their way toward
the peak. They continued to climb, Jimmy following Jon who moved
slowly in front of him, being careful not to step on a pile of
rubble and send the both of them crashing back to the bottom. They
were sweating when they reached the top. Carefully, they poked
their heads over the peak and looked down below.

“Hey,” said Jimmy. “It’s the National Guard.
Look at the trucks!”

“Quiet,” shushed Jon. “What the hell are they
doing?”

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders and continued to
observe the activity. They were high above Ely, and their vantage
point offered an excellent view of town. Empty beer cans and
discarded cigarette butts told them that they weren’t the first to
discover this spot. Looking down, they could see the trucks moving
from house to house, soldiers kicking in doors and removing the
occupants. They loaded the people into the trucks like cattle,
or like criminals?
Jimmy thought with disgust. The longer he
watched this process, the angrier he became.

The trucks swept down the streets in pairs.
Ely was crawling with soldiers in camouflage uniforms, guns drawn.
They worked methodically and efficiently, seeking out and removing
anyone who hadn’t left their homes or businesses voluntarily. What
disturbed them most was the sound of casual gunshots. They popped
here and there, like children playing with firecrackers on the
fourth of July. They had seen enough and they scrambled halfway
back down the wall of rock, taking refuge in a deep crevice.

“What the hell is going on down there?” Jimmy
whispered.

“Refugee camps,” said Jon, shaking his head.
“They’re rounding everyone up and hauling them away. I knew this
would happen.”

“Refugee camps?” asked Jimmy. “What are you
talking about?”

“That’s our government’s plan for dealing
with disaster. Lock everyone up in a relocation camp and hold them
there until they decide that it’s safe for them to return home.
It’s complete bullshit. What they’re doing is hauling away all of
the law-abiding citizens and leaving behind the scum.”

“We’re not scum.”

“Right, we’re not scum, and we’re certainly
not getting into any of those trucks.”

“What do we do now, go back?” asked Jimmy,
blowing a stream of smoke away from Jon. “We can’t do that.”

“No. We’ll have to wait this out and see how
long they stay in town. My gut feeling is that when they feel that
they’ve rounded everyone up, they’ll drive them to wherever the
camps are and head to the next town. Babbitt or Tower, maybe even
Virginia if they haven’t been there already.”

“And then what will we do?”

“We’ll head for the hospital and see if
anyone’s still there. If not, we’ll grab as many medical supplies
as we can and return to Ken’s. I don’t know what else we can
do.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Jimmy.

Jon stretched out on a slab of rock, propped
his backpack up for a pillow and he closed his eyes. “I’m going to
catch a nap,” he said. “Wake me in an hour, but keep your ears open
and your head down. I’ll relieve you and then you can catch an
hour. This might be another long night.”

Jimmy nodded, feeling the past twenty-four
hours catching up to him. He climbed back out of the crevice and up
to where they’d been watching over the town. The trucks continued
to crawl along, the soldiers moving from door to door. Jimmy let
Jon sleep nearly two hours before he nudged him awake.

Here and there, a gunshot echoed across the
hills.

“Jimmy, wake up,” Jon said, tapping him
lightly on the shoulder.

Jimmy sat up and rubbed his eyes. Dusk was
approaching and crickets chattered in the woods. “What time is it?”
he asked, trying to see the face of his watch through his bloodshot
eyes.

“Almost nine,” said Jon. “We’ve got to move.
We’ll never make it down in the dark.”

“Nine?” Jimmy asked, that meant that Jon had
let him sleep for nearly three hours. “You should’ve got me up.
What about the Guard?”

“Do you hear any trucks?”

Jimmy listened. He didn’t hear any trucks,
only crickets. “When did they leave?”

“They left about an hour ago, most of them
anyhow. A few trucks waited at the edge of town and some soldiers
hid out. When those left behind thought it was safe to come out,
the Guard ambushed them. They were rounded up and hauled away. I’m
surprised you didn’t wake up, there was a lot of shooting.”

Jimmy spat in disgust. “Are you sure it’s
clear?”

Jon nodded. “Clear as it’s going to get.
We’ve got to get moving. I think I’ve found the path that leads
here from the other side. It doesn’t look too bad. Ready?”

Jimmy nodded and strapped on his pack. He
followed Jon up to the top and they paused and surveyed the
town.