The Switch (8 page)

Chapter 12

They rode on until about noon
and stopped for lunch at an exit where there was another gas station to rummage
for whatever food they could find. As they sat on the sidewalk in front of the
store, resting their backs against the wall eating peanut butter and jelly on
stale bread, chips, jerky and warm soda, Lynn asked her dad, “What do you think
those guys would have done if you had not shot them?”

John shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know for sure, but they were not running at us as members of the
Nashville welcome wagon.”

David laughed, “I think they
were coming to invite us to the mall weenie roast.”

“Lynn added. “That will be
the last weenie roast for at least three of em.”

Renee was visibly upset by
the shootings and could not add to the jokes. “What is the world coming to?”

John chewed the chips in his
mouth and swallowed, “Now it is getting clearer why we need to get to the lake.
We need to get away from people we don’t know. We need to get where we can take
care of ourselves. We can do that at the lake. It is only going to get worse
until most of the people die.”

Renee nodded her head in
agreement. Megan sat down beside her mother and asked how much longer it would
be before we would get to the lake.

John answered for her, “It
should be only a couple of more days. Are you getting tired?”

“No, my legs get tired when
we have to ride up those long hills, but they rest when we get to coast back down.
I like coasting the most, and so does Sydney.” She suddenly stopped talking and
put her hand over her mouth.

John asked, as if he did not
already know her secret, “Sydney? Who is Sydney?

Megan looked at her mother as
if to ask what she should say.

Renee told her, “You might as
well go ahead and tell him now. You have let the cat out of the bag.”

Megan laughed, “Sydney is my
cat.”

“Your cat? Where is Sydney?”

“He is in my basket, I have
been hiding him.”

“Why have you been hiding
him?” It was all John could do to keep a straight face and not laugh.

“Because, because, because,”
she could not say the reason, she was about to burst out laughing.

“Go get Sydney. Let me see
him.”

She ran to the basket on the
back of her bike and very gently pulled out a little ball of gray and white
fur. She carried the kitten to her grandpa and handed it to him.

He smiled and held Sydney on
his lap as he scratched the cat’s back.

“This is a beautiful cat, is
it a boy or girl cat? “

“Papa, Sydney is a boy’s
name, Sydney is a boy cat.”

“Good, maybe when he gets
bigger he can catch us some rabbits to eat.”

Megan and Renee huddled
around their grandpa and laughed.

Renee said, “We don’t eat
rabbits, do we Megan?”

“No,” Megan responded.

John laughed, “You will be
eating rabbits and other critters before too long.”

Cameron joined in the
conversation by asking, “Are you going to teach me to fish and hunt?”

“Of course, you will be the
best hunter in Alabama in a few years. When I get old, you will get me all of
the meat and fish I can eat. You will be the provider.”

John handed Sydney back to
Megan and stood up. He noticed David going from bike to bike checking the tire
pressures and pumping up the ones needing more air.

“How are we doing, everything
ok?”

“Yes, Lynn’s back tire needed
air but all of the others are ok. How is your face?”

“It is fine. It would be
better if Samuel had kept his cool and not jumped on me.”

“John, do you think there are
any more trouble areas ahead. Shooting people is pretty serious stuff.”

“There are no more big cities
between here and the lake. Unless we run into rogues along the highway we
should be ok. But we need to stay ready and organized.”

“I know what ready means, but
what do you mean when you say organized?”

“Well, it appears people may
be starting to realize how serious the situation is going to be. They are
running out of food. They don’t like living with no running water or no
electricity. One of us, you or I need to ride in front, with a gun. The other should
stay at the back of the group just as we have been doing most of the time. But
we need to keep the others in more of a tight group, not spreading out. The
kids need to stay in the middle. We need to be especially careful near the
overpasses and wooded areas nearest the highway. We can see well enough in the
other areas. We have traveled a long way; we don’t want to screw it up now.”

“Right, when do you think we
will get there?”

“We have less than two
hundred miles to the lake. We should be able to make it in two days, maybe
three.”

David finished checking the tires
and then making sure the gear was properly secured.

“Everything looks ship shape.
Let’s hit the road.”

As Cameron got onto his bike
he announced, “Only three more days!”

They were off and riding
again. As they rode up the hills they groaned and sweated, as they coasted down
the hills they smiled and maneuvered between the many abandoned cars and
trucks.

They were making good
progress until they reached the bottom of a hill and the pace slowed as the
highway leveled before another long steep grade.

As Renee passed by an old
Ford Falcon she thought she heard a dog bark from inside the car. She stopped along
the passenger side and looked inside.  She saw a small Alaskan Husky pup lying
on the back seat. The dog was trying to bark, but its voice was very weak. She
tried to open the car door but it was locked. She walked around to the other
side of the car and tried the driver’s side door and saw a very old man slumped
on the front seat. The old man’s left arm was stretched out to as if pointing
at the ceiling. When she realized the old man was dead she let out a scream and
jumped back.

Everyone stopped their bikes
and looked in her direction. She waved her arms in David’s direction.

John got off his bike and
held his rifle ready as David approached the car. He slowly looked into the car
and then motioned for John to come over.

John looked through one of the
side windows and saw the dead man and the husky pup.

“Everyone step back away from
the car.” He waited until they were far enough away and he fired one shot
through the side rear window shattering the glass. He reached in and unlocked
the door. Renee lifted the dog off the seat and sat it on the trunk lid. David
removed his water bottle from his bike and held the pup’s mouth open while he poured
a little water into the dog’s mouth. The dog tried to stand up but its legs
were too weak.

It was getting late in the
afternoon and Lynn looked at the long hill ahead of them.

“Why don’t we make camp here
for the night? Everyone is tired and we can take time to nurse the pup.”

When no one objected, David
pointed to a large tree in a grassy area along the side of the highway, “Set up
camp over there.” 

Megan picked up the pup and
carried it down the slope to the shade of the tree. As adults set up the tents
and gathered wood for a fire, the kids took turns holding the dog and helping
him with the water.

Ashley was fascinated with
the dog’s eyes. One eye was blue and one was gray. He had large feet and a
beautiful hide. It was not long before each of the kids was asking to keep the
dog.

David answered, “Yes, you can
keep him, he will be our watch dog at the lake. But, keeping the dog is not
what is on my mind. We have nothing much for dinner except a few sticks of
jerky, a big bag of pretzels, and a half jar of peanut butter. We need to find
some food.”

They had been having more
trouble each day finding food in the gas stations. Two of the last three had
been almost totally empty. There was no doubt about the fact that people were
realizing the failure of the electricity might be permanent and that food was
going to be scarce.

As the tents were being set
up John called for Cameron, “Let’s go see if we can find some dinner.”

John picked up his rifle and
put his hand on his grandson’s shoulder as they crossed a wheat field and into
a group of hardwoods.

John whispered, “If we move
slow and stay quiet, maybe we can get some fresh meat for dinner and some for
the new dog too.”

Cameron pulled his ragged
ball hat down tighter over his forehead, “Ok grandpa.”

The two walked slowly in the
soft dirt of an old dirt road deeper into the woods. They had not gone far when
John stopped and pointed to the ground at their feet.

He leaned to Cameron’s ear
and asked, “Do you know what those things are?” He pointed to shells and
cuttings of hickory nuts.

Cameron looked down and
whispered, “Nuts?”

“Hickory nuts, they are one
of squirrels favorite foods. It looks like they have been feeding in this big
hickory. Let’s go over there and sit down by that oak tree.”

They walked to the oak, but
before he sat down, John used his foot to slowly and quietly scrape away the
leaves and sticks from the base of the oak tree. Cameron asked him why he did
not want to sit on the leaves.

John whispered, “When you are
hunting, you want to make as little noise as possible. If you sit on leaves,
you make a lot of noise. If you sit on the soft dirt, you can move around a
little and make no noise.”

They sat with their backs
against the trunk of the tree and watched for movement in the hickory. After
only a few minutes, a branch in the hickory shook. John looked up and saw a rusty
colored fox squirrel climbing out towards the end of one of the branches.

Cameron saw the squirrel and
grabbed his grandpa’s elbow.

“I see it, be patient.”

The squirrel plucked a nut
from the branch and carried it in his mouth back to the trunk of the tree. It
sat on the limb where it connects to the trunk and began gnawing open the nut.
Pieces of the outer shell fell like rain through the lower branches and leaves.

John raised his rifle and
rested his elbows on his knees. He had a perfect broadside shot and placed the
scopes’ cross hairs on the left side of the squirrel’s head. With the crack of
the rifle the squirrel tumbled backwards off the limb. It hit the ground with a
light thud.

Cameron jumped up and started
to say something but John reached out and pulled him back to the ground while he
held his finger to his lips giving the shush sign.                  

Just then, another squirrel
began barking at them from another smaller hickory tree to their right. They both
turned towards the barking. Another big fox squirrel was on the side of the
trunk of the tree looking in their direction. His tail was jerking wildly as he
barked. John slowly twisted at the waist without making any noise. He rested
the rifle against the side of the oak tree. Before he aimed at the squirrel he
looked at Cameron and smiled. Cameron was grinning from ear to ear. John placed
the cross hairs on the squirrels’ head and fired. The squirrel dropped to the
ground at the base of the tree.

This time Cameron did not
move or say anything. They both sat motionless waiting for signs of more
squirrels. After three or four minutes of seeing no movement in the trees, John
quietly stood up and reached out his hand to Cameron. They walked as quietly as
possible and picked up the two dead squirrels. Both animals had blood coming
from the small hole in the side of their heads.  John examined the squirrels
and quietly explained that sometimes insects bite a squirrel’s skin and lay
eggs under the skin. This makes an ugly looking sore called a worble on the
squirrel’s hide.