Escaping Home (4 page)

T
he next morning Jess and Mary were going through the breakfast line when Jess whispered in Mary's ear, “I've got something to tell you.”

Mary turned her head and mouthed a silent
Shhh,
but she had a look in her eye like she knew that Jess was up to something. They had to be careful with everything they said. The security staff were extremely paranoid. Anyone heard talking about anything that could be construed as a violation of the security of the camp would be immediately placed in the detention side of the camp. Once they had their plates, the two moved off to one of the tables that sat end to end running the length of the mess tent. As soon as they sat down Jess jumped right into it.

Looking from side to side, Jess leaned forward and whispered, “Mary, you won't believe this. Remember those guys I told you about, Morgan and Thad?”

Shoving a spoonful of grits into her mouth, Mary nodded her head eagerly.

“I heard someone here talking about them yesterday. They're around here somewhere.” Jess was getting more excited.

Mary looked from side to side, then leaned in. “Really? I thought Thad lived in Tampa.”

“That's where he was going, but I heard them talking about Morgan and some big black guy; it has to be him.”

Mary smiled. “Is he cute?”

The question caught Jess off guard. “Who, Morgan? He's married.”

“No, silly, Thad. You said he's a big guy; is he cute?”

The question had nothing to do with the current conversation as far as Jess was concerned. “What? No, I don't know. That's not the point.”

Mary started to giggle. “Come on, girl, don't act like you wouldn't like a man.”

Jess was still trying to bring Mary back to the point at hand when a voice asked, “Are these seats taken?”

Mary and Jess looked up to see two women standing there with a small child. They were the women from last night—the ones from Morgan's neighborhood. Before Jess could say anything, Mary replied, “No, please have a seat.”

Jess looked at Mary wide-eyed, shaking her head slightly. Mary was clueless to her objection and simply wrinkled her eyebrows in response.

The two ladies smiled and took a seat. The little girl was cute; she had long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, just like her mother. The child grabbed a corn muffin before her hind end landed on the bench.

“She looks hungry,” Mary said with a smile.

The woman smiled back. “Chloe is always hungry.”

Mary nodded sympathetically. “Aren't we all.”

The group ate in silence. Jess looked at the little girl, who was eating grits with a spoon that was too big for her small mouth. She marveled at the little girl eating the pasty, tasteless grits without complaint, then she considered that hunger was a powerful motivator. With that thought in mind, she ate her own grits and muffin.

She almost couldn't stand it, though, sitting beside these women. She wanted so badly to talk to them about Morgan, but she didn't want to act too interested. Fidgeting with her muffin, she asked, “Where are you from?”

The two ladies immediately began to talk at once. They laughed, then one of them continued, “We live just down the road out here, a few miles to the south. Where are you from?” She had black oily-looking hair and a sunken face.

“I'm from just south of Gainesville. Mary here lived in Gainesville. I'm Jess, by the way.”

The blonde-haired woman replied, “I'm Donna. This is Maggie, and you already know who Chloe is,” she said with a smile.

Jess nodded her head and smiled. “What made you come here?”

“It just got too hard to stay at home. There was no food, no water and raiders were coming through. It was really horrible. What made you come?” Maggie said.

“For me it was simple: Gainesville was not the place to be.” Mary paused and looked at her plate. “You can't imagine,” she added in a quiet voice.

“You poor thing, I'm so sorry. People can be horrible. No one wants to help anyone; they're just out for themselves,” Donna said, shaking her head.

Mary looked up. “They weren't just out for themselves, they were out to take advantage of the situation. Someone not helping me was the least of my worries. You couldn't trust anyone. It's like everyone turned into a predator.”

Jess sat there for a moment trying to decide just how far to take this. “I met some good people; they helped me get home. I guess some people were prepared for this kind of thing.”

“Yeah, we know some that were prepared,” Donna said, looking at Maggie with an eye roll.

“Yeah, they were prepared but wouldn't help anybody. They were just selfish,” Maggie said.

“That's a shame. Did they stick it out at home, then?” Jess asked. She was hungry for information.

Before the conversation could go any further, one of the camp staff stepped into the tent. “Breakfast is over. Assemble in your work groups. Your team leader has your assignments for the day.”

They got up and moved along. Jess had a crazy feeling in her gut—she just knew it was Morgan and the guys that Donna and Maggie were talking about so dismissively. As they went through the line turning in their trays, Jess whispered in Mary's ear, “I want to find out if they know where Morgan is. If he and Thad are nearby, we can go there.”

Mary cocked her head to the side. “
If
we can get out of here.”

“Oh, I'll find a way,” Jess said, with a devious look on her face.

T
he next morning I was up early. Mel got up with me and prepared a breakfast of egg-and-sausage burritos. I was sitting at the table eating, sipping on some coffee when I thought about the tortilla press that had made this breakfast possible. We'd bought it at a thrift store. It was a novelty at the time, but those five dollars were really paying off now. It's funny how we'd come to appreciate these little luxuries. Finishing my burritos, I filled my coffee once more and went to wake the girls. They were going to help today as well.

While they had their breakfast I went out and started the old Suburban, giving it some time to warm up. I was going to take it to Danny's house and connect his trailer. He had a lot of material we were going to take; the logistics of this were more than I could keep track of. Thankfully Danny has a head for this kind of thing. By the time I went back in the girls were done eating and were getting some coffee. I told them to hurry up—today was going to be a busy day.

Danny already had the gate open and the trailer ready by the time we pulled up. He was on his knees fussing about the location of the light plug on the truck, griping that the pigtail from the trailer wouldn't be long enough.

I laughed at him. “Don't worry, dude, I don't think the troopers are gonna be out in force.”

He smiled. “Guess you're right.”

This first trip was going to be basic material: pipe, lumber, hardware, plastic sheeting and tools. We would be moving some food supplies as well because two guys were going to be staying there after today—we couldn't leave everything unguarded. Ted came by to help, but even with him and the girls helping, it took a couple of hours to load everything that was selected for this trip.

Danny was surveying the vehicles, running through the checklist. “Everything's here, but we still have room,” he said. “Might as well load the kayaks. There's no sense in leaving them here—they're going to have to go at some point,” he said.

“Let's take all those fishing rods too,” Ted said, pointing into one of the sheds.

“Yeah, we'll get mine later too,” I said.

Little Bit came out of one of the sheds carrying some inner tubes and pool floats. “Daddy, can we take these too?”

I looked at her and smiled. “Sure thing, girly. Load 'em up.”

The more we loaded, the more we found to load. Lanterns, camp stoves, camp toilets, Coleman fuel, camp chairs and tents kept getting uncovered in Danny's buildings. Ted's eye was constantly wandering over the contents of the sheds, and every time I looked up one of the girls was carrying something else over. Even Lee Ann was helping out, carrying what she could. Doc had cleared her to be off the crutches but had warned her not to overdo it.

Danny was taking a tackle box out of his bass boat when Ted walked up and slapped the side of the boat. “Does this thing run?”

“Don't know, haven't tried it since the shit hit the fan,” Danny said.

“Where's the key?” Ted asked as he felt around the console.

“In the house. I'll go get it.” He headed for the back door.

“You think it'll run?” I asked Ted.

“It's worth a shot to check. It could be a big help.”

I looked at the boat. “Yeah, it'd open up the entire St. John's to us.”

Danny came back a few minutes later with the key and asked me to prime the fuel tank. I pumped it up and he opened the choke and turned the key. The engine spun, coughed and started. Danny immediately shut it down.

Ted smiled. “Well, isn't that nice!”

With everything we needed and more loaded up, we all headed for the various rides. Mel and the girls would ride with me, Danny and Bobbie would take their Polaris and Ted was in the smaller of Sarge's two buggies. As I went around to get in the driver's seat, Taylor asked if she could drive. In the old days I often let her drive down the dirt road, even though she didn't have a license yet. Sadly, now she never would.

“Sorry, kiddo, not this time. Pulling this trailer is gonna be tricky.”

She put on her best teenage pout and got in the back, then said, “Well, I don't want to be dropped off at home. I'm going with you guys to the cabins. I want to see them.”

I looked at Mel and she raised her eyebrows at me. I agreed to Taylor's request, which naturally meant that Little Bit demanded to go too. Lee Ann wasn't interested, so long as there was an iPad at the house.

I parked the truck and trailer on the grass in front of Reggie's. Sarge and a couple of the guys walked up as I got out.

“For Pete's sake, did you leave anything behind?” Sarge asked, shaking his head.

“Yeah, actually, but we'll get the rest of it on the next trip,” Ted answered.

I looked back at the trailer, which was mounded full of stuff.

“Well, this might have taken longer than I thought, but those kayaks will be nice to have,” Sarge said, rubbing his chin.

“Wait till we get the bass boat down there,” Ted said.

The old man raised his eyebrows and looked at Danny. “You got a runnin' boat?”

“Yeah, we checked it. Started right up,” Danny said.

“Hot damn! We're in business now! Let's get this show on the road,” Sarge said animatedly.

“How about you? Your trailer ready to go?” I asked.

“Yeah, but there's still some room. Let's go by yer place and load up some more stuff.”

Everyone piled back into the various vehicles and we headed down the road to the house.

“You sure this is a good idea, moving all this stuff?” Danny asked me, once I got out.

Mel gave me a sideways glance. I looked at both of them. “Can't hurt. Having everything in one place is a bad idea. There'll be guys down there to watch it, so it should be safe. And if we have to bug out, we'll have a place to go.”

“I guess. I don't really like it, though,” Danny said.

“It'll be all right; we're just taking precautions.”

“I
hope
that's all they are,” Mel said. Bobbie nodded with her.

“Let's go out back and see what the hell they are doing,” I said as I started to walk away.

By the time we got back to my shop, Sarge and company were hard at work.

“You taking my radio? An' here I thought it was a gift.”

“Oh, dry up, Nancy, we need it down at the creek so we have comms back here.” He looked over his shoulder at the buckets of beans and rice. “Load some of them up too.”

It didn't take long to load up Sarge's buggy and trailer. We talked for a bit about security for both locations. While the new supply cache would need security, we would still need enough here to protect our place as well. In the end it was agreed that Mike and Jeff would move out to the new place. For the trip out, we were taking both of Sarge's buggies and the truck. The smaller of the two would stay there with the guys, giving them a way to move around. Mike and Jeff would have a radio as well.

“Sarge, you're forgetting one thing: we need to get a couple of batteries and at least one panel up there as well so they can
run
the radio,” I said.

“Damn right! I almost forgot. You have some you can spare?”

“Yeah, follow me.”

Mike went with me into the shop where I pulled out two spare lead acid batteries, my dire-straits emergency batteries. They were stored dry with the electrolyte kept separate. On the way out, Sarge grabbed one of the kerosene heaters and a couple five-gallon cans of fuel. It'd be the only way to heat the cabin.

We decided that Sarge would drive his buggy, Mike and Jeff would take the other and I would drive the truck with Taylor and Doc riding along. Everyone else was going to stay behind to get some more work done. With everyone settled in, we headed out.

J
ess and Mary were standing outside waiting for everyone to get in order for roll call. The team leader would call out their names and they had to respond with their ID number from their badge. As the roll call was being taken Jess noticed the two women from breakfast were in their line as well. When Donna's name was called, Jess saw her lift up her ID badge to get the number, reading from it in a halting manner.

“Ma'am, the child must go to the day-care tent. She cannot accompany you on the work detail,” said Singer sternly, in a voice with more authority than the situation required.

Donna pulled the little girl close to her. “Do I really have to do this? Be separated from her?”

The team leader looked at the two-man security detail to her left. “Can you deal with this? I don't have time for this kind of shit today.”

The two men walked down the line to where Donna was standing and attended to their task with no more emotion than taking out the trash. The lead man took the child by the hand and gently pulled her toward him. Donna pulled Chloe back and cried out.

“Don't take her from me; she's all I've got. You've already taken my husband away!”

“Ma'am, the child
must
go to the day-care tent. She'll be fine there,” the security man said.

The second man quietly added, “Don't make this harder than it has to be.”

Through all this, the little girl was silent, simply staring down at the ground. Donna began to cry.

“Please don't take her away! Where is she going? What are you going to do?”

Jess had the teeniest feeling of satisfaction watching the lady plead, knowing she had been judgmental of Morgan and Thad. Suddenly Mary jumped out of line and walked up to Donna and the two men.

“Donna, it's okay! They have class and playtime. She'll get snacks and a nap if she needs it. It really is fine.”

Donna looked up at her. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I worked in there a few weeks back. There're lots of kids in there; she'll probably end up making friends.” Mary smiled at little Chloe.

“Back in line,” one of the security men said and pushed Mary away.

Mary glared at the man but didn't say anything. She knew if she said anything his reaction could get much worse. As Mary returned to her place in the line, Singer passed her, giving her a disapproving look.

“One of you escort the lady to the day-care tent, then bring her out to our work area.” She paused and looked at Donna. “There will be no more of this in the future, you understand?”

Donna nodded.

“Do not take my kindness as weakness or I assure you, you will be very sorry. Got it?”

One of the men led Donna and the child away as Singer and the other security man headed for the front of the line. Once at the front she spun to face the line of women and looked at her watch.

“All right ladies, we've already wasted fifteen minutes here. It's coming out of your lunch break. We've got wood to cut if you want to stay warm tonight.”

While she was speaking, Jess tugged on Mary's sleeve and hissed, “What were you thinking? You're gonna get yourself in trouble.”

Before she could answer, Singer called out, “I'm sorry, ladies, am I interrupting you?”

Mary and Jess quickly stood to attention. Singer stopped in front of them, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I'm sorry, you were saying?” Neither Mary nor Jess responded.

The woman made a show of lifting their badges to look at them, saying their names out loud.

“Are you two going to give me any trouble today, Mary? How 'bout you, Jess?” She practically spat the words out.

Almost in unison they replied, “No, ma'am.”

“That's what I thought.” She looked toward the front of the line. “Move out!”

The work area for the day was on the western side of the camp on a small hill. Jess and Mary were working together to cut logs into stove lengths. Since fuel was in short supply and manpower wasn't, they were working a crosscut saw back and forth. The logs were cut with chainsaws, then carried by several women to the crude set of bucks made from logs lashed together.

While some would think the chainsaw would be easier to use, felling trees was hard work. It was made even more difficult by the fact that the saw was connected to an anchor screwed into the ground with a length of steel cable. The screw was turned into the ground by sticking a log bar through the eye and simply walking in a circle. Once the anchor was in, a twenty-foot cable would be connected, allowing the operator to move around the work area.

Mary and Jess's saw was connected to the sawbucks by a cable, adding to the difficulty of getting into a rhythm when cutting. The secret to using one of these was that one person pulls their way, then the other pulls back to them; you could not push. Though it seemed like a simple concept, it took time to work out. Jess was pulling and Mary was pushing, but it wasn't moving. While it was still cool out, both of them were sweating from the effort.

Mary's teeth were clenched. “We should have gotten on the chainsaw.”

“It shouldn't be this hard! Look at them; they're doing it,” Jess said, jutting her chin toward the other two women cutting lengths.

Mary looked over, still pushing on the saw. “What are they doing differently?”

As they watched the other two women, Singer walked up. “Is this all you've done so far?” she snarled, pointing to the two pieces lying in front of the sawbucks.

“We're trying, but the saw is stuck,” Jess said.

“Well, if your friend would stop pushing, the saw would move, geniuses. It's simple.”

Mary let up and Jess jerked the saw through the log. At the end of the stroke, the saw stopped. The team leader pointed at Mary. As if talking to a toddler, she said, “Now
you
pull it.”

Mary pulled the saw back through the log. Jess held on to her end of the saw and let it slide through the log.

“Got it now?”

Neither of them answered; they simply kept working the saw.

“Good, now speed up,” the team leader said as she walked away.

“I'd like to shove that clipboard up her ass.” Jess muttered.

At lunchtime, a side-by-side ATV pulled up to the work area with two kitchen workers. In the bed was a stack of trays. This was how most meals were served, on heavy molded detention-grade food trays. As each woman approached the ATV she was handed a tray and a cup. Her ID badge was scanned with a small PDA-type device before she was allowed to find a place in the sand to sit and eat. The lunch was a serving of beans, some sort of cooked greens and a handful of dried apples. To wash it down was some sort of purple drink.

Jess took a drink from the cup and made a sour face. Mary saw her and started to laugh.

“What, you don't like grape drank?” Mary asked.

“Drank?”

“Yeah, in the hood they call it grape drank. There's also orange drank and red drank,” Mary said with a smile.

Jess shook her head. “Who are you trying to kid? You're not from the hood.” She laughed as she choked down the rest of the beverage
.

“Hey, you lived on campus! There's some rough dorms there.”

Jess laughed at that one too. “Maybe at University of Florida, but at FSU we didn't have any hood dorms, or
drank
, for that matter.”

Mary laughed as she tried to swallow a bite of the greens.

Jess stretched her legs out and leaned back on her hands, staring out into the distance. From the small hill they were on they could see over most of the camp. Mary finished her lunch and asked, “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing, everything.” She sat there gazing off. “Did you ever imagine anything like this, that your life would end up like this?”

“What? With the world coming to an end?”

Jess rocked her feet back and forth. “It didn't come to an end, not in the way that I was taught in Sunday School anyway, but I guess it
is
an end, sort of.”

Mary laughed. “Yeah, there ain't no fire and brimstone, but it's the end.”

“It doesn't have to be; we could see it as a new beginning.” The corners of her mouth dropped and her expression changed. “If we weren't here, being treated like slaves.”

“Slaves? We ain't pickin' cotton!”

Jess looked over. “Are you free to leave? Can you go to the bathroom without having to ask for permission? We can't do anything for ourselves; we're forced to work with no say in what happens. If we aren't slaves, then what are we?” Their conversation was cut short by the team leader.

“All right, ladies, lunch is over. I told you it'd be short; you can thank your friend for that,” the team leader shouted, looking over at Donna.

Mary groaned. “Ready for that saw?”