AFTER THE DUST SETTLED (Countdown to Armageddon Book 2) (17 page)

     “How are you going to get there?”

     “On Bonnie, of course.”

     “Is it safe to tie her to the back of the truck? Won’t she spook?”

     “Don’t plan to, Scott. Shoot, Bonnie’s been out of her corral more times than I can count. And she’s wandered a lot farther than that truck, and always found her way back. I purposely fed her a little less than normal this morning, so she’ll be getting hungry soon. She always comes home when she’s hungry. My guess is, she’ll be less than an hour behind me.”

     “Okay. Did you put fresh batteries in the walkie talkie?”

     “Yep. They’re plenty strong.”

     “And you’ll call at the first sign of trouble.”

     Tom looked at his friend and smiled.

     “Stop it. You’re as bad as a nervous old wife. You keep this up and people are gonna start getting the impression you’re sweet on me or somethin’.”

     Linda and Joyce couldn’t help but laugh.

     “I’m just concerned for your safety, is all.”

     “Well
I appreciate that, little buddy. But I’ll be fine. You’re going to be out there and vulnerable too. You worry about your own safety, and I’ll take care of my own. Fair enough?”

     “Yeah, okay.”

     “Now, then, let’s make sure we’ve got this down. Give me one hour after I ride off. I should be about at the truck by then. Everything is all hooked up and ready to go.

     “When I’ve been gone for an hour, take that Bobcat of yours down to the end of the dirt road and move that berm out of the way for me. That truck is only eight feet wide, but it don’t turn on a dime. So give me a break in the berm of at least ten feet. Twelve would be better.

     “Then go back to my place and park your Bobcat in the shrubs, where you’re out of sight. I’ll call you on the walkie when I’m getting close so you can watch out for me. As soon as you see me roll by, you put that berm back into place as quick as you can and get your happy ass back here pronto.”

     Tom turned to Joyce and said, “I’ll let you know when I’m five minutes out. Have one of the boys standing by the gate. He’ll hear me when I roll into the yard. Tell them not to open the gate until they hear the truck, okay?”

     “Got it.”

     Tom smiled his big country boy grin and asked “Okay, everybody know what they need to do?”

     Everyone nodded or said yes.

     “Well, then. In that case, let’s get ‘er done.”

-33
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     Tom was more than an hour overdue. They tried him several times on the walkie talkie, but he didn’t answer.

     It was entirely possible, of course, that his walkie talkie was merely out of range.

     Or that he saw something he didn’t like and had to take a circuitous route to get where he was going.

     Or that he had a little bit of trouble getting the truck started.

     Or a thousand and one other things.

     But they just didn’t know, and they started to panic.

     Scott had been sitting anxiously in the Bobcat for a full twenty minutes now. The berm was cleared, and he just knew that something had gone terribly wrong. He called Joyce and Linda.

     “Would one of you check and see if Tom left his keys in the Ford? It’ll move twice as fast as the Gator. I’m heading back to the compound to get it. It’s been way too long and I’m going after him.”

     Even Joyce, the most level headed of the three, was getting nervous.

     “I’ll go check.”

     Linda, who’d developed feelings for Tom over the previous months, was beside herself, nervously pacing back and forth. She was certain that Tom was dead, and was close to tears.

     Then Tom came on the radio.

     “Okay, Scott. I hope that door is open in that berm. I’m about five minutes out. Joyce and Linda, do you copy?”

     Linda fell to her knees, overcome with emotion. Joyce, running through the compound toward Tom’s old Ford, stopped dead in her tracks, looked to the sky, and said, “Thank you Lord.”

     Then she got on the walkie and said, “We copy, Tom. We’ll be ready.”

    
Jordan was pulling security duty. His mom told him, “Watch those cameras extra close, son. That driveway will be unblocked for at least another half hour, until your dad finishes putting that berm back together and gets back here.”

     “Yes, ma’am.”

     “Zach, go stand by the gate. But don’t open it until you hear Tom’s truck.”

     “Got it.”

     Six minutes later, Tom came bumping along down the dirt drive in a big blue Kenworth Tractor, towing a long white trailer with the Walmart logo emblazoned across each side. Zachary, right on cue, opened the gate, and Tom eased the rig into the compound.

     Once he was fifty feet inside the gate, he applied the brakes, turned off the engine, and stepped down from his cab.

     And into the waiting and anxious arms of Linda.

     “You old coot! Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”

     The group walked en masse down the drive and waited for Scott to replace the berm at the end of the road. Five minutes later, they could hear the Bobcat headed their way.

     But beating the Bobcat by at least thirty seconds was Tom’s chestnut bay Bonnie.

     Bonnie went right to Tom and huffed loudly as she scratched the ground with her hoof. She obviously wasn’t very happy about being left behind, and she wanted him to know it.

     He patted her shoulder in delight, and said “Atta girl! You made real good time. I’ll make it up to you come feeding time, I promise. I’ve got a
handful of sugar cubes in the barn just to show you how much you mean to me.”

     He turned to the girls and explained,
“I saw in my rear view mirror how she took off at a full gallop behind me. I knew she wouldn’t be long.”

     Scott drove into the yard and stopped the Bobcat. He jumped out of the cab and he and Tom worked together to remove the bucket attachment from the front. In its place they quickly installed the tree cutting attachment. Scott jumped back on and used the new attachment to gently work the two dead mesquite trees onto the end of the driveway, once again sealing them off from the outside world.

     It was only then that the group felt comfortable enough for a round of high fives and hallelujahs.

     “Did y’all miss me?”

     Scott was finally relieved enough to laugh.

     “Miss you? Hell, we were already planning your funeral, and arguing about who had to be your pall bearers and lug your big butt to the grave.”

-34
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     Tom explained to the group that he’d reached the truck on schedule and was ready to pull out but couldn’t get enough air pressure to release the brakes.

     “I crawled under the trailer
and found a gash in the air line. It was totally shot, and the air was coming out as fast as the compressor could charge it. I was out of radio range and couldn’t let you know what was going on, and I had no tools to swap out the line with the other trailer.”

     “So what did you do to fix it?”

     “I didn’t. I dropped the busted trailer and used cargo straps to drag the dead tractor off the other trailer. And then I brought the other trailer instead.”

     “You brought the full trailer?”

     “Yep. And I have no more money in my checking account to pay for these goods. This one is on you.”

    
Jordan asked, “Like it matters?”

     Scott pondered the question before answering.

     “It probably doesn’t matter a hill of beans, other than the whole morality of the thing. After we drop the trailer in San Antonio and bring the trailer back, we’ll put it back on the highway and I’ll put a check under the visor. I don’t need the money anyway, and I doubt if Walmart will ever be able to cash the check. But at least my conscience will be clear.”

     “Well, then, can we open it up and see what’s in it?”

     The metal seal had been snapped off the trailer door, and the first couple of pallets had been rifled through. A few boxes were almost certainly missing, although there was no way of knowing for sure without a load manifest. And it didn’t matter anyway. The truck was still over ninety percent full with a little bit of everything, from food to clothing to electronics.

     “I’m surprised there’s not more missing. Probably those two who tried to steal my car. They left my place on foot. You can’t carry much when you’re on foot.”

     Zachary crawled onto the back of the trailer and said, “Wow! This is better than Christmas.”

     “Tom, have you looked at the wheat the last couple of days?”

     “Yep. I went out there this morning. The stalks are turning brown and they’re starting to sag. Another two days and we can start the harvest.”

     “Any idea how we’re going to harvest it without a thrasher?”

     Tom laughed.

     “I suspect what you’re really asking is, will it be easier to harvest than the corn was?”

     “Well, yes.”

     “Nope.”

     “Great.”

-35-

     The next morning, after breakfast, Sara pulled her shift on the security console. If it hadn’t been her turn anyway, someone else would have probably swapped shifts with her. What they planned to do on this bright sunny day involved a lot of climbing and lifting, and it just wouldn’t do for a pregnant woman to get all mixed up in that.

     Everyone else assembled at the back of the Walmart truck.

     The plan they had was to go through each of the twenty four pallets, one at a time. Each pallet had from forty to sixty boxes of mixed merchandise on it, although there appeared to be a little bit of method to Walmart’s madness. The food seemed to be on separate pallets from the non-edibles.

    
Jordan climbed aboard the trailer and placed the boxes on the end, one at a time, reading the nomenclature printed on each box.

     “Okay. Men’s shirts, assorted.”

     “I’ll start a men’s clothing pile over here. We’ll go through it all later and divide it up.”

     There were four men in the group, and they all wore different sizes. So dividing such goods was a no brainer.

     “Paper Towels.”

     “House pile, right here.”

     “Compact disk, music, assorted artists.”

     “Put that on the luxury pile.”

     The group had decided the night before, by mutual agreement, to place all the luxury items in one of the barns. Whenever one member of the group had a birthday, each of the other members would go into the barn and select a birthday gift. At Christmas, they would draw names, and choose one gift for their recipient. They thought this would be a good way to stretch the luxury items over the course of several years, and bring some surprise and joy to special events.

     When the group broke for lunch, there were piles everywhere. It looked as though the truck had exploded. But each pile had a specific purpose.

     Joyce was happy to see a whole pallet of dry dog food.

    
Jordan was especially happy to see half a pallet of disposable diapers in assorted sizes. His mom had already told him that she could cut up several old towels to make diapers, and one of his fatherly duties was going to be to wash out the dirty ones. Seeing the word “Huggies” on the side of several boxes made him whoop and holler.

     All of the food items were placed in the largest pile.