The Last Tribe (23 page)

“Jesus, John, you don’t have to go
crazy on me here.”  Todd was taken aback.

“No, don’t get squeamish on me. 
Know the decision you have made.  I think it’s the right decision, but
understand I have your back, and Emily’s back, and Matt’s, Jay’s, Craig’s,
Hank’s, Greg’s, and Paul’s backs.  I will take out any problem we have, and I
will do it without hesitation.  We don’t live in a world of hesitation any
longer.  We hesitate on where we should live?  We die.  We hesitate on when to
plant?  When to harvest?  What to plant?  We die.  I won’t hesitate on
eliminating threats.”

They sat in the truck, listening to
the rain coming down on the roof.  They stared at the lot of RV’s, deciding
which one they wanted to take, waiting for the rain to stop so they could see
which ones had fuel and would get back to the house.

“If we find any New Yorkers, they
better god damn not be Jets fans.  This is a New England tribe, and I’ll be
goddamned if I will hear stories about the Jets.  If someone stands up and has
a green football jersey on?  We keep rolling, doctor or not.”  John used the
same tone, but was obviously joking, at least Todd thought he was joking.

“John, it’s a good idea, stopping
for people.  I know you focus on the negative scenarios, but think of the
upside.  If we find a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, a person who
can get some of the power working?  A doctor who can save the kids, set a
broken leg, I think there is tremendous upside.”

John held up his hand to stop his
brother.  “Todd, I know, it’s the right call.  You’re making the right
decision.  I agree with you 100%.  I just want you to know, you don’t have to
worry about the negative aspects of this decision.  I will take care of it.  I
hope I don’t, but I will, and I won’t lose sleep and I won’t bat and eye.”

They sat for another half hour,
eating their sandwiches and talking about where to live.  Neither of them
brought up the conversation again.  When the rain did not stop, they decided to
find an RV regardless of how wet they got.  They tried four different ‘homes on
wheels’ before settling on a giant $400,000 diesel with every bell and whistle
available.  It boasted the most horsepower, and could tow a small SUV without a
problem or additional loss of miles per gallon.

They attached a car platform and
John drove the behemoth back to the house.  Todd followed in their SUV.

Emily was ecstatic about the new
RV.  It was beautiful, and provided all the comforts they needed for a
potentially long trip north.  She also agreed with the April 1
^st
departure. 
She began to move supplies into the RV immediately, taking stock of its storage
capacity. 

The RV was incredible.  There was a
bedroom in the back with a king bed, perfect for sleeping three to four at
once, as long as two of the people were Jay and Brian.  There was a sleeper
sofa and another full sofa in the living room area.  If they brought blow up
mattresses, they could sleep seven comfortably in the giant rolling house. 
There was a kitchen with burners for purifying water and cooking meals, and an
oven for baking.  There was a large television with a DVD player.  The RV had the
potential of being more comfortable and entertaining with more utilities than
their current house. 

“We should have moved into one of
these months ago.”  Emily said after inspecting the vehicle from top to
bottom.  “I’ve got a month’s worth of food in there already, and we still have
tons of storage.  Jay and Brian are filling the water tanks with bottled water,
and Matt is taking care of the non-potable tanks with the water from the rain
barrels.  We’ll be ready to go by March 15
^th
, and definitely ready
on April 1
^st
.”

“Aye, aye captain.”  Todd replied
in a sailor voice.

Emily gave him a look, “You might
find yourself sleeping out here sooner than April 1
^st
if you keep that
attitude.” 

“I’ll just keep the current home
humming along, you get the rolling house prepped.”  He gave her a wink and a
smile.

At the end of another long day
Craig, Jay, and Brian were in bed, Matt, Emily, Todd, and John sat in the
living room next to a fire.  The days were warmer, but the nights still had a
chill.  The fire was necessary and created a nice ambiance.

“I have a few requests, which might
alter our timetable a bit.”  Emily started, catching the three men off guard. 
“I’d like to make a few stops on the way up to New Hampshire, sight-seeing if
you will.  I think it’s important for the kids, Craig included, to see some of
our nation’s history.   This might be our last opportunity.”

The men were silent before John
spoke.  “What did you have in mind?”  John looked over at Todd with a,
‘really?  You couldn’t have brought this up sooner?’ look.

“Don’t blame Todd, he had nothing
to do with this.  You two are concerned about routes and snow, I think about
the kids.  I want to tour the White House.  I want to see the Lincoln Memorial
and a few other highlights.  We can even sleep in the White House.  That would
be pretty neat, don’t you think?”

“You realize we are bringing the
chickens and goats, right?  You want to spend a few days in D.C. with livestock
in tow?”  John told her.

“Yes, to both questions.”  Emily
did not back down.  She seldom did.  “This is it, our last time in Washington
D.C.  You want to take the Declaration of Independence?  The Constitution? 
Keep them as souvenirs?  We can.  We can grab any art you want when we get to
New York, drop by the Metropolitan and take Monets and Van Goghs, line our
walls with them, but after this trip, we’re done.  We have no way to show our
kids the Washington Memorial except through pictures.  No way to show them New
York City except in movies.  This is not a joke from the crazy lady who likes
to tour homes, this is a request from a mother who isn’t going to have another
opportunity to give her kids memories.”  Emily’s tone was serious.

“I’d like to see that stuff again. 
I haven’t been since I was like 7.”  Matt chimed in.

“I haven’t been since I was 21. 
I’m in too.”  Todd said in support.  “Hey, John, we can stop at the
Meadowlands, pick up some Jet’s paraphernalia, whatever you want.”

“You’re hilarious, Todd, just hilarious.” 
John waited a second before responding.  “I have to admit, you make a great
point.  I doubt we can get up to Hanover this early anyway.  Making some stops,
grabbing some memorabilia is an interesting idea.  We want to find survivors,
and driving into the heart of D.C. and New York is part of the plan anyway.  We
might as well take the kids to the sailboat pond in Central Park.”

“Now you’re getting into the
spirit.  I mean, let’s not go crazy, make this a three week tour of the east
coast, but let’s not pass up the opportunities we have during the trip.”  Emily
was excited by the acceptance of her plan.  She thought about it months before,
but was afraid to bring it up.  Now that they had a house on wheels, stopping a
few times on the way to New Hampshire was not a problem.

“Are we going through Philly?”  She
asked.  Their route was fluid at the moment, changing with each conversation.

“Let me guess, you want to see the
Liberty Bell?”  Matt joked.

They all laughed.  John put it back
to the group.  “If we want to hit cities, our current route takes us through
Richmond, D.C., Baltimore, Philly, New York City, and going a little out of our
way to hit Boston and specifically Hightower to see if Greg is there.  That is
just about every major city on the east coast north of Charleston.”

Todd nodded, “I don’t feel like we
need to go out of our way to engage any more metro areas.  My question is no
longer how we are getting to Hanover, but rather how long are we staying in
each city?  Are we buzzing through Baltimore?  Are we slowing down and blasting
music or something?  What efforts are we making to find other people?”

They thought about the question. 
Matt answered, “I say we leave a week earlier than planned and we make
strategic camps in each city.  I don’t know how big Richmond is, maybe we spend
one night there, but we get up there, we light a fire, a big fire, we blast
some air horns, maybe every hour, then we pack up and leave the next day. 
Maybe D.C. is three days instead of one, and we move the camper each night to a
different part of the city.  Obviously we could spend weeks doing this up and
down the coast, but we don’t want to delay getting to Greg, Uncle Paul, and
Uncle Hank.  We make sure we can get to Hanover by mid to late April, and we
make a strong effort to find people.”

“You’re a lot smarter than most 17
year olds, you know that Matt?”  Emily smiled at him.

“I might be the only 17 year old in
the world, but thanks.”  He smiled back.  “I feel like I have ownership of the
plan to round up people, and I’ve been thinking about it for a while.  You gave
me the courage to bring up stopping in each city.  As long as we are
sight-seeing, let’s find people too.”

“Is there anything keeping us
here?”  Todd asked.  When no one had a good response, he suggested a new
departure date.  “Let’s plan on leaving in a week.”

Jay, Brian, and Craig were the most
excited about the proposed adventure.  They envisioned two days of boring drive
time to New Hampshire.  Now they had high hopes of meeting other people and
seeing interesting things. 

Matt created a lesson plan for the
kids.  They made a trip to the library to check out books about New York and
Washington D.C.  He talked to them about Camden Yard and Yankee stadium.  He
showed them pictures of the monuments they were going to see.  He had so many
books about New York City, he began to get excited about the trip too.

“There is one big rule the three of
you have to follow.  It’s the number one rule.”  Matt and the parents had a lot
of rules for the kids.  “Seriously, I have to follow this one too, okay?”

Craig, Jay, and Brian nodded. 

“We are going to meet new people on
this trip.”  Matt paused.  “Well, we hope we are going to meet new people.”

“Yeah, we know that.”  Craig
responded.  He was less in awe of Matt than the two younger kids.

“Yeah, okay.  Well, the one rule
you need to follow, no matter what, you should never be alone with any of the
new people.  Ever.  Don’t let them get you alone.  I’m not allowed to be alone
with them either.  We are always in pairs and one of the pairs is always an
adult.  No exceptions.  Do you understand?”

“What if the new person is a kid,
like us, are we allowed to play with kids by ourselves?”  Brian asked.  Surely
a kid was not off limits.

“No, you always have one of us
there.  If you are ever caught alone, you’re in big trouble.  This is a
dangerous trip, you need to stay with us, never get alone with anyone other
than your family.  Never.”

The kids nodded again. 

“We’re going to have a great time,
don’t sweat the rule too much, we just want to make sure we all have fun, and
we all stay together.  These cities are big places.  We don’t want to get
lost.  Stay with one of us, and you won’t.”

It was the first conversation of
many Matt and the parents had with the three younger Dixons.  Taking on new
people meant preparing for potential issues. 

John continued to have fantasies
about encountering evil hoards of survivors.  “If we come across hostile gangs,
people who are starving and want our vehicles and food, I am just going to
drive.  We hop in the RV and the truck and we just drive, fast.”   

Todd acted sincere when he
listened, but he did not share his brother’s bleak world view.  If his family,
with a six and a seven year old, could survive comfortably, it meant other
families or people probably did the same.  He wondered if entire families
survived like his and John’s, or if people were one off survivors like Paul and
Hank. 

After one more week of preparation
and planning, Todd was about to find out if there were any survivors.  He,
Emily, and the three young kids piled into the RV with Hubba.  They pulled out
of the cul de sac early in the morning.  The kids watched a movie.  Emily sat
shotgun. 

Todd and Emily said goodbye to
their house and neighborhood the night before.  She turned to him as they
pulled away.  “This was a great place to raise our family.  I’m sad that we
won’t ever see it again.”  She doubted Raleigh would be their final location
choice.  It was too far from the Ocean.

“I liked it here.  We had great
friends, and a great community, but it died last year.  We’ll build our life in
a different spot.”

John and Matt drove the SUV,
pulling a livestock trailer filled with chickens and goats. 

It was only a three hour drive to
Richmond.  Emily made the commute several times a year for business.  She
recommended the Museum District off the highway as their first campsite. 

The highway was empty.  Todd feared
bridges and overpasses would be destroyed, but they made an uneventful drive north
on US 1, merging onto US 85 North, and again merging onto US 95 North, the road
that would take them all the way into Boston.

Emily pointed to their exit, and
Todd pulled the behemoth house on wheels off the highway.  He drove a few
blocks into the suburb, and came to a full stop in a town square.  He laid on
the car horn for a full minute.  Hubba barked loudly.  The kids held their ears
and screamed.

John and Matt were out of their car
pulling a metal trash barrel to the center of the street and filling it with
debris.  There were dead leaves covering the ground.  The town was unkept and
abandoned. 

“I don’t hold out much hope.  There
are only 300,000 people in this metro area.  The idea that we could attract the
one or two survivors, well, it’s a speck on a needle in a haystack.”  John
continued his role as group pessimist.  Statistically he was correct, there
should not be a survivor in Richmond.  “Besides, if I lived here, I’d bolt for
the Chesapeake as soon as I could.  That is a much better resource for food
than anything around here.”