EMP 1500 MILES FROM HOME (25 page)

"Will do, Wayne."

I stepped into the room and picked the girl up in my arms. She didn't weigh much. I carried her down the stairs and out of the barn. She just stared into my face as I walked. She didn't make a sound. We met Julie about 100 feet from the barn.

"What in the world? Who is that? Is she OK?" I set the girl down in the back of one of the wagons. She was staring at Julie but she still said nothing. Julie motioned me to follow her. Out of earshot of the girl, she said, "Wayne. She looks harmless, but I won't trust her until we know for sure. I want you to cover us with your rifle. Keep it pointed at her at all times. If she tries to harm me or anyone else, kill her."

"The rifle might scare her."

"If she is for real, she is already scared. Just do it, please."

"OK, Julie." I covered the girl with my rifle while Julie saw to her. Julie managed to get her to drink some water and eat just a bite of food before wrapping her in a blanket.

"I think she is doing as well as can be expected," Julie said. "Now that I have looked her over, I don't think she is a danger to us. I will keep an eye on her."

"OK, we need to check out the rest of this place. Be careful.""

Dan and I went back to the upper floor of the barn. We checked to see if there were any more survivors. There weren't. Then we started investigating the storage rooms. Some had file cabinets full of porn. Other rooms were piled floor to ceiling with clothes. We didn't think we could ever get the stink out of them so we moved on. One room was a neat little office, with a desk and three file cabinets. The desk was empty except for a few pens, pad, and the usual desk accessories. Two of the filing cabinets were full of money, one-dollar bills, five-dollar bills, and twenty-dollar bills. There was a lot of money there.

"Is this how the Boss paid his henchmen?" I asked.

"With the money and with the women, I suspect."

We left the money where it was. It was worthless now. The next room was full of stuffed animals, almost floor to ceiling. We just shook our heads and moved on. After a couple of empty rooms, we opened one full of S&M equipment. We didn't even go in. There seemed to be no pattern to the contents of the rooms. We were both starting to get creeped out.

The last room we explored was the most interesting. It was another office. We dug through the stuff in the desk and found a .38 revolver, which Dan pocketed. The file cabinets held papers, but none seemed of interest now. It was the diagram on the wall that drew my attention. It was a large plan of the barn showing the layout.

"This thing has a basement," I said.

Dan studied the plan. "No shit, it does. Let's go check it out. I saw some kerosene lanterns by the barn door."

We gathered Yeti and Larry and looked for the entrance to the basement. Yeti found it first. It was a hatch in the floor. Of course, it was locked. A hammer fixed that and Yeti raised the hatch while Dan and I covered the opening with our rifles. Larry lit the lanterns and, pistols in hand, we descended the stairs into the basement. There was a long central hall that ran the length of the basement.

"This thing must have cost millions to build," Dan said. "The floor above us must have cost a million dollars all by itself."

"I guess the Boss was rich. He must have inherited his money because he was too crazy to earn it," I said.

The rooms in the basement included a machine shop and a wood shop, from which I appropriated a couple of chisels, three hand saws, and a jack plane, all in pristine shape. There was also a sheet metal shop, a small foundry, and store room after store room filled with materials—lumber, nails, screws, bolts, and stuff I had no idea what it was used for.

Then we found the trophy room. There were dozens of mounted heads on the walls. All were human. We left that one quickly.

"Do you get the impression that we are in a monster's lair?" Dan asked.

"I don't know what else to call it," Larry said. The rest of the rooms, except one were filled with random junk. That one was filled with nothing but toys.

"This place is nuts," I said. "Let's get out of here."

Yeti

I could tell that the man who owned/ran this place was a psychopath, and a dangerous one. I assumed that was the man that Wayne killed with the pitchfork. I was not surprised to hear about the contents of the barn. The equipment was probably stolen just for the thrill of getting away with it.

The random pattern of stuff in the basement rooms suggested that whoever owned this place had difficulty staying focused and had plenty of money to pursue anything that obsessed him. The dead women were just another obsession, as were the mounted heads, for someone who did not value human life at all.

It was time to interrogate the prisoner again. I asked Dan to help me, and I asked Julie to stay away. She agreed and stayed with the girl.

Dan removed the duct tape from the prisoner's mouth, and we propped him up against a rock.

"Who were those people?" I asked.

"Fuck you!"

"Attitude won't do you any good," I said. "I am patient."

"So fuckin' what?"

"My, you have a sub-standard vocabulary and probably a below average IQ too."

"Fuck you."

Dan smiled and retrieved a hammer from the wagon. "This will do nicely." He held the claw hammer up. “I am going to shove this thing up his ass.”

I thought Dan was bluffing. Max and Wayne lifted the prisoner and placed him face down over the rock. Max cut his pants off of him and left him with his bare butt sticking up in the air.

"You want an anal probing with this hammer? Is that correct?" Dan asked.

"Fuck you."

"I will take that as a yes."

Dan put the head of the hammer against the man's anus and began pushing. The prisoner gasped and shouted, "Wait a minute motherfuckers, wait a minute."

"No need to delay your pleasure," Max said. "Keep pushing Dan."

Dan said, "I need some help with this. Max, give me a hand and let's get this thing shoved where this sick SOB wants it."

"No," the prisoner screamed. "I will tell you what you want to know."

"You may as well," I said. "You are the only survivor from your crew. Turn him over please, Max."

Once the prisoner was once more sitting, I asked, "who are you and what are you doing out here?"

“I am a member of the Los Chochas."

"The Los Chochas are a gang?"

"Yes, from El Paso."

"Why are you here?"

"These two guys hired a bunch of us to be their body guards. They paid very well."

"Two guys?" Max asked.

"Yeah, two guys."

Max leaned down, "do you remember me?"

"Yeah, who could forget you, you fucking giant?”

"The Boss was one of the two men?"

"Yeah, him and his twin brother. The Boss was the main dude."

"Do you know how they got their money and why they chose this spot?" I asked.

"This was their papa's ranch and they inherited it from him. I think they may have killed him for the money. They were some really cold dudes. Totally fucking crazy."

"Yeah, we looked in the barn. They were crazy for sure." I motioned Wayne, Dan, and Max a few feet away. "Do you think you have enough information?"

"I think we at least understand the basics. Just two psychopaths with a shitload of money and a hideout where they could do what they wanted."

"What should we do with the prisoner?"

"Allow me," Max said. Before I could react he shot the prisoner between the eyes. I was shocked speechless.

"Don't you think that was excessive, Max?" Wayne asked him.

"No," Max said. "I saw that bastard kill two women who were in the first load of the Boss's captives after the EMP. The world is better off without him.”

Wayne

There were only a few gallons of fuel in the Humvees; not even enough to get a single Humvee back to the ranch. Apparently planning was not the Boss's, or his followers', strong suit.

One of the newcomers put the Humvees out of commission so no one could use them against us. There were only 23 rounds of ammunition for the 30-caliber machine guns so we just buried the machine guns.

We headed home with a boatload of small tools, a girl, and the food we found loaded in a wagon pulled by two of our horses. We were all ready to leave the place.

Julie

I took care of the girl as best I could on the trip home. This time we traveled by daylight. So far the girl had not said a word, even when I asked her name. We made the trip more quickly in the daylight. Before dark the second day, we rode into the ranch yard. Everyone gathered around to see what we found. Wayne told the story with an occasional interjection from Yeti. I think everyone was disappointed we did not bring more stuff back, but all were happy that everyone returned with no injuries. I was ready for a bath and a real bed but first I got a couple of the ladies to help me clean up the girl.

We dressed her in a dress that fit her quite well. She really was quite pretty. She still had not said a word, but maybe, given enough time, she would.

Yeti

I was hoping I would be able to make a trip to Mountainair soon. I thought the Mayor should know about what we found in the barn. There was much there that the town might find useful.

I would have liked to bring a bulldozer and a track hoe back to the ranch, assuming they would start, but it was too far for us to move them, and we certainly didn't need them on caravan.

Wayne

There was snow on the ground as I hitched up a wagon. Yeti and Max hitched up the other wagon. The wagons were old freight wagons, real Conestogas that belonged to the ranch. They were both over 140 years old, but had been exceptionally well cared for. Most of the wood was original. I thought it would be dry rotted by now, but the wood had been painted with an oil-based paint every few years. I had to replace a few boards, but the wagons were strong. We hitched four half-Percherons to each wagon. Most of them were grays.

In an hour Max, Dave, Yeti, and myself were going to look for abandoned 18-wheelers. We would have to go back to Interstate 25 to find them. Julie and I remembered seeing several on the highway. Most food would likely be gone or spoiled, but there could be things we could use for trade goods. We had no idea what we would find, but it was a good test of the wagons.

We were just about to roll out when Julie threw her bedroll on my wagon and climbed into the seat. Yeti smiled, jumped down, and climbed onto the other wagon.

"You can't go," I said.

"I am going."

"No you aren't"

"Yes I am. Listen Wayne, I can't lose you."

"This might be dangerous."

"My mind is made up. I would rather die with you than live without you. I truly love you, you know."

"I know. I love you too."

"You have never told me that before."

"It isn't an easy thing for me to say. I am a married man."

Julie punched me in the arm. "Yeah, with two wives no less. Ain't life grand."

George was waiting at the gate. He handed me the Sharps in its case and a small bag full of cartridges. "You may need this, Wayne."

"Thanks George. I hope not."

It took us two days to reach Interstate 25. We stopped at the little squatter community where Bill was killed. It was empty. I suspected they had taken the old truck and left for somewhere better. We did not see a single living soul between Mountainair and Interstate 25.

We drove the wagons onto the interstate and turned north. Julie and Yeti scanned the road ahead and the surrounding terrain with binoculars. They saw no one.

The first 18-wheeler was only a mile up the interstate. The trailer was still locked. Max cut the lock and we looked inside. Julie, Dave, and Yeti stood guard. The work would have gone more quickly with fewer guards, but I was paranoid after being captured by the Boss. Max and Dave agreed with me.

Max opened the boxes as I removed them from the pallets. It took us two hours to determine this load was electronic appliances, none of which was useful to us. We moved on.

The next truck was more interesting. Again Max opened the boxes as I removed them from the pallets.

"Take a look at this, Wayne. "I looked. Max was holding up an AR15. "There are six of them on this pallet as well as some other guns. They must have been headed to a gun store." We loaded the guns in the first wagon and kept looking. This truck was a good find. We found six AR15s, several .22 rifles, some pistols, some boxes of axes, shovels, and other yard tools, and a couple of cases of thread and several rolls of cloth.

We were picky. Other than the guns, all of which we took, we chose a dozen axes and a dozen shovels, all of the thread, and most of the cloth. We left behind some of the stranger patterns. I just wasn't sure how popular zebra stripes would be in the post EMP fashion world.

We went through six more 18-wheelers before nightfall. Only two of them had been broken into but, in each case, the thieves didn't bother to examine the entire load.

We found a small pallet of ammunition containing a number of different rifle and pistol calibers as well as cases of shotgun shells. We found a pallet of freeze-dried survival foods. We found several pallets of clothes, from which we took all of the jeans and workwear. We found pallets of shoes in one trailer. We only took tennis shoes and work boots as well as a few sturdy-looking shoes. The largest size we found in men's boots was a 14. Again I wished I were average-sized.

"Today was a pretty good haul, don't you think?" Dave said.

"Yeah, but what I really wanted to find was toilet paper," Yeti grinned.

Julie sat beside and against me by the fire. Max was on sentry duty. We were camped two miles from the interstate and more than a mile and a half from the nearest road. Our camp was well hidden. The fire was small and low. The night air was cold and the wind felt like it was off of snow. I guessed it was about 30 degrees.

"Where are all the people?" Yeti asked.

"Most of them are likely either hunkered down or dead," I said. "I am sure food and water are in short supply."

"But we haven't seen any bodies."

"We probably won't. It has been five months since the EMPs. That is plenty of time for the scavengers to get rid of the bodies. There never were many people out here anyway. I think the worst was, and still is, in the cities like Albuquerque."

"Are we going to go all the way to Albuquerque?"

"No, we will stop before then even if the wagons aren't full."

With five of us, keeping watch was not as much of a strain as it had been when Julie and I were traveling alone. I awoke at dawn feeling rested. Julie lay beside me still asleep, so I got up and covered her with the blanket we shared. Yeti was cooking breakfast over a small fire, while Max and Dave scanned the terrain with binoculars. I hoped we would find a few cases of binoculars in one of the trailers. I thought they would make good trade items at some point.

By nine o'clock we were moving north on the interstate. We saw several 18-wheelers in the distance. By evening we had gone through eight more trailers and found many items either for trade or that would be useful at the ranch. The wagons were each about 3/4 full.

In one of the trailers we found needles, sewing supplies, and many more bolts of cloth. Julie insisted we take it all. We also found camping tents, and cases of paper towels and toilet paper. I was hoping to find vegetable seeds, but it was the wrong time of the year when the EMPs hit. We did not find any seeds.

We camped out of sight of the interstate that evening. We had not seen a single living person all day. I was starting to get nervous. But then, the population density was low here, even before the EMPs.

Both wagons were filled to capacity by noon the next day. We turned around and drove south. That was when I saw them. There were people on the road. I made them to be almost two miles ahead of us. I couldn't get an accurate count, but I was guessing at maybe six or a couple more. As we came closer they just stood there. I could see there were women among them and at least one child. The men had long guns but none made any threatening moves as we approached. We stopped when we were about 200 yards away. One of the men waved a white flag and walked toward us.

"It could be a trap," Julie said.

"I know," I said.

Max was scanning the area near the people with his binoculars. Yeti was scanning the area behind and to the sides of us. Dave was on top of the lead wagon with a rifle.

"What do you see, guys?"

"Nothing," Max said.

"Nothing here either," Yeti called out.

I handed the reins to Julie, picked up my AR15, and grabbed a scrap of white cloth. Waving the white cloth, I walked toward the man approaching us. We met about 100 yards from the wagon. The man was rail-thin and his tattered clothes hung in folds on him.

"Mister, do you have any food you can spare?"

"The name is Wayne," I said. "What is yours?"

"I am Charlie."

"How many of you are there?"

"There are seven of us."

I could see five people on the road behind him. Then I noticed the baby in one woman's arms. "Where are you from?"

"Well, we are really from all over. We were stranded on the highway when our cars quit. We banded together after a couple of weeks. Do you know what happened?"

"Yeah," I said. "I think so. I will tell you about it later."

"We have had a really hard time of it. There were twelve of us originally. Five died, including Marisa's youngest. We haven't eaten anything in two days. We have been getting water from the river over that way." He pointed toward the Rio Grande.

Cap warned me again and again that after an event like an EMP, people would beg for food and that I shouldn't feed them. I thought I knew how I would handle that back when everything was just theoretical, but now I didn't. I felt bad for these people. They couldn't be completely helpless, as they had managed to survive for five months on their own. I thought about the child. What if it were my Ben. I would want someone to help him.

"We can give you guys a meal," I said. I waved the wagons forward. We took the wagons to the people. Some of them didn't look strong enough to come to us.

Julie went straight to the woman with the baby. There were two men, three women, one little girl, and the baby. Several of them had packs and bundles of stuff. Max, Dave, and I huddled while Yeti kept watch. "What should we do?" I asked.

"Feed them somewhere safer than here," Dave said.

"That sounds good to me," Max said. "Let's just find a safe campsite and get this done. I am nervous on the road."

So that is what we did. We loaded those folks on the wagons. I asked the two men for their guns and they gave them to me. I set the guns at Max's feet and we were on our way. Julie had the woman with the baby on the seat beside her and they talked until we found a campsite.

Max and Dave took watch, Yeti, Julie, and the woman with the baby worked on setting up three Dakota fire pits and getting the cooking gear out of the wagon. Soon they were preparing three pots of freeze-dried meals.

The men of the party insisted that the women and children eat first. I was impressed. I thought these might be good people. We spent the afternoon and night there. Julie fed them small meals every two hours or so until they were full. I spent some time talking to the men while Julie was talking to the women. It seems that none of them were married to each other.

One man's wife had been with him, but she was one of the ones who died. He, Vern, was older, probably in his late sixties or early seventies, and I could tell that the loss of his wife hit him hard. They were on vacation when the EMP happened. He was a retired computer programmer.

The other guy, Charlie, was on a business trip just like I had been. He was in his thirties. He still had family in Missouri and wanted to get back to them. He was a mechanical engineer. The women were Ellen, Bernice, and Fiona. Ellen was the one with the baby and Bernice was her mother-in-law. Bernice had been a homemaker all of her adult life, and Ellen worked in a grocery store. They had been driving from Texas to California. Fiona was local and lived in Albuquerque. She was the youngest of the women, maybe 25 or so, and was single. She had been a dental hygienist. I noticed Yeti seemed interested in her, but she didn't seem interested in a 15-year-old at all. That evening, in our bedroll, Julie and I compared notes about what they told us. Everything checked. They seemed to be legitimate.

"Should we take them back to the ranch with us?" Julie asked.

"They will have to know that your dad may not agree to keep them on. We might take some of them with us when we leave in the spring. We need more people."

"Let's take them to the ranch and get to know them a bit. I think Dad will be OK with a few more. I helped him do the calculations on how many people the ranch can feed."

"Ok, let's tell them in the morning and see what they say."

We had a talk with them the next morning over breakfast. They all wanted to come with us. I am sure life on the ranch sounded better to them than what they had been through. If I had not met Julie, I might have been in the same shape as they were.

Vern was a Marine Corps veteran. He said he had been in Vietnam the last year of the war but had seen very little action. I was pleased. He might be a bit rusty, but that meant he could handle a rifle. I took his rifle off of the wagon and handed it back to him.

"Oh, this thing isn't much good," Vern said.

"Why not?"

"I only have one bullet for it," Vern smiled. I took the rifle again and looked it over. It was a lever action in 32-20. 32-20 cartridges would be very hard to find.

"Where did you get it?"

"We took it, and the shotgun, from some bandits about four days after the cars stopped."

"How did you do that?" I asked. Vern pulled his shirt back to show a compact 9mm holstered at his waist.

"With this."

I smiled. "Vern, I think you will fit in with us quite well."

"I think so too. It will be good to feel useful. My wife and I didn't have any children. She was all I had."

"Welcome." I shook his hand. I dug out an AR15, two 30-round magazines, and three 20-round boxes of .223 from a wagon. I handed them to Vern.

His eyes lit up. "Now this is a nice one."

Charlie, on the other hand, had never fired a gun. He was just carrying the shotgun because Vern told him he should. I thought his mechanical engineering skills might be handy though.