Chapter 11
It had been a cool easy ride for all of them as they reached the next destination that Susan had chosen from the map. They hid their bikes and trailer contents in some bush away from the road and after a few minutes of hiking into the bush along a creek, when they were invisible to others that may pass by, they stopped and caught crayfish and Susan cooked rice they had packed.
They sat down to eat and noticed smoke rising from another fire about a half kilometer away. Emma was very curious to see who was there and managed to convince the others to be curious with her questions as she watched them through Dave's binoculars. Dave wanted to be sure it wasn't the two Red Shirts he was watching for but didn't want to alarm anyone by investigating right away, the smoke from their own fire wouldn't likely be seen so there was no reason to say anything to the girls.
They knew he was keeping certain details of this adventure they had been on since the power went out to himself and he wanted them to have a good nights sleep so they could be vigilant rather than paranoid from a poor nights sleep. But Emma wouldn't stop.
He kept an eye on the other fire and Susan periodically looked around. After they had sat down for a few minutes, Dave said they should see if they could get the people at the other fire to come to them.
He asked Susan and Emma to walk within a few hundred feet of their fire then wave them back and lead them over to their camp. Dave would remain hidden and watch to see if it was the two Red Shirts before showing his face. He told the others that if he didn't come out of the bushes right away after they sat down, to be cautious and that he would be sneaking up on them and they should be ready to grab weapons. He said that Susan should get up to gather wood in an area behind their backs after they sat down while Lisa kept them talking and set them at ease until he managed to sneak over to the fire.
The two beautiful girls managed to wave the two young men over to their camp and Dave saw that they weren't the two Red Shirts as they walked toward the fire. He climbed out of hiding to avoid suspicion before the girls and the two men sat down with Lisa by the fire. He went over and introduced himself and the two introduced themselves as Travis and Mark.
They were brothers and their parents had stayed at the house while they went for this trip. Both men looked to be in their early twenties and said they were both in school but home for the summer to help their parents with their new hobby farm.
Lisa told them about some of what they had seen after introducing herself and offered the strangers fish and rice. The two men said they had been on the road for a few days and were headed down the road toward the city to find trading areas along the way as they accepted the food. Emma thought she recognized them from somewhere and asked where they had come from. Mark said that they were from Bellingham and Emma said that she was from there as well and wondered if the guys ever heard of her family, the Fitzpatrick's or her dad Dan Fitzpatrick, or her brothers Darius and James.
Mark had said he had heard that the Fitzpatrick's were some land owners in Bellingham that had been in some kind of trouble with the government. He said he had heard them on the radio being interviewed before the power went out. Travis said they thought they may have been on their property at a trading bazaar but he wasn't sure if it was their property or not so he began to describe it, saying he didn't recall the address.
They had been on their way out of town when they had stopped briefly at the bazaar. He described a big old farm house sitting on a hill with a winding driveway and surrounded by trees. He said the people there had crops and were growing their own food. Two cars sat in the driveway, an older dark blue four door Ford and a brand new two door gray Buick. Emma got excited and said that that was her house after hearing the description, "That's my dad and my brothers car! That's our house! What color was it?" Mark said the house was painted a light blue and had dark blue trim around the windows. "That's our house!" Emma said, again. She got up and started walking around to control her excitement.
She started asking questions about what and who he had seen, and Mark explained more about what he saw. He was new to the area and had only been there for a month before the power went out so he didn't know the street names well or many people. He gave a description of the people that were running the bazaar and Emma said that would have been her parents.
He saw a few men outside the perimeter with guns, he described them, and she said that would have been two of her cousins. Travis went on to describe the others that had tables set up and said that everyone he saw appeared to be OK, no injuries. He added "I think they had a portrait up and I think it may have been of you. I didn't ask about it or look at it for long, I didn't talk to any of them, I was just looking around the tables. I didn't trade anything.". "Was I wearing a blue dress?" Mark said she was, she said she hated that blue dress but her father made her wear it that day when they had their pictures taken to match the ties he and her brothers were wearing and that the dress her mother was wearing that day was the same.
Lisa looked over at Emma, when Mark and Travis weren't looking, giving her a slightly extended stare. Emma got the message and went quiet.
Lisa had previously told them all to let her manage any conversations they had with strangers before they left Mill Creek. First they would tell them bits of their story and she would make them feel comfortable and offer them cider then they would listen to the strangers explain their experiences. If any travelers they met were hiding anything, the cider would loosen their tongues, maybe enough to let any secret slip, if they felt non threatened and comfortable enough.
Lisa offered the men some cider after they finished eating, asked them some more questions about themselves and listened to them talk more about their experiences in Bellingham and going down the road they were on. They explained that there wasn't much to see along the road, there were no towns along the way except for the one near Bellingham. They would see mostly families still living in their houses along the road and they would encounter lots of empty houses to sleep in if it rained. Travis said they hadn't met anyone traveling along the road. Most were staying near water supplies and setting up trading bazaars and fish traps as well as planting seed. "Everyone wants seed" Mark said.
Emma watched and listened to Lisa. Lisa would keep asking questions and staying quiet while listening to the answers, she would answer questions with questions and often repeat what she heard to get more elaboration. She had a gift for getting people to talk and making men, particularly young single men, feel comfortable talking about themselves.
None of these lessons were being lost on Emma. She remembered what Lisa had once told her, "God gave us two ears and only one mouth for a reason.". Emma didn't know much about boys and the effect of the hot pants that Susan was wearing was probably lost on her and she didn't notice the frequency of which the two boys glanced over at Susan while they listened to Lisa.
They didn't discuss the numbers of the dead, or the dead they found in houses for long, only that there appeared to be plenty of resources for the people that had survived. Dave told them that they had never gone into the highly populated areas of the city or near the apartment buildings so they didn't know what had happened at the town center where they lived.
After seeing that Lisa had exhausted them of information, Emma started pestering them with more questions about what was happening in Bellingham and they answered as best as they could. Dave began to tell them more about the lake area he had spied on, their experiences at Mill Creek and back in the city. Dave warned them about the two Red Shirts and described them. Mark asked, but Dave didn't know what kind of bikes they were riding. Dave described the lake area he had recently spied on so that Mark and Travis would know it when they saw it.
They spoke briefly about the power and no one had seen any evidence of power working, no one had seen a light on at night or had heard the sound of machinery. After a few hours of darkness lit by campfire Mark and Travis went back to their camping area with torches to light their path. They crawled
into their tents, a jubilant Emma still talking, talked Susan to sleep while they laid in their tent by the smoldering fire.
The next stop was another forty miles and the weather would keep them cool as they rode. They decided to take turns riding the bikes with the trailers attached and to ride as a group without Dave riding ahead to watch for danger while they were on level roads. Susan and Dave continued to look around carefully as they rode. Emma set the pace and kept them pedaling hard.
They rode almost fifty miles through that day before stopping at an empty farmhouse that had a filled cistern late in the afternoon. They had seventy more miles to ride and stopped to stay and sleep in the house, replenish their water and leave late in the morning. This would stretch the journey into two more days. They were glad to sleep in comfortable beds of the empty abandoned home and sit around the shaded porch in the late afternoon and early evening before bed. Dave told them he wanted them mentally and physically well rested to be aware and able to deal with any unusual and dangerous situations they could encounter as they got closer to the town where Emma lived.
In the morning they ate some vegetables that had been growing in the garden, Lisa replaced them with seed she planted in the garden in relative quietness while Emma remained sleeping. Their next plan stop would be a small group of houses forty miles away and then they would continue on to their final destination.
Emma walked out onto the porch as they talked about their next stop and ate the rest of the carrots Lisa had put on a plate. She wanted to ride the full distance that day but Dave and Susan had told her that they would be tired and risking injury if they rode that far in one day, especially with the trailers, which she wasn't pulling.
"How about you pull one of the trailers for a while Emma?" Lisa said. Emma couldn't really reject the challenge, even though the trailers didn't have anything of hers on them, and she knew it, so she agreed. Susan said "You're lucky Emma, the next part of the ride will be mostly level or down hill.". Emma said she wanted to get going, they agreed. Lisa picked some more vegetables from the garden for the ride while the rest packed their backpacks and loaded the trailers.
They filled up their water jugs while Dave went out to the road with the binoculars to see if anyone was coming. He would want to wait and greet anyone coming while on foot with them having the disadvantage of being on bicycles, just in case they were not friendly. He came back after saying there was no one and they began the ride with Emma towing the smaller of the two trailers.
They made good time with wind at their backs during the mostly gentle downhill ride, Emma and Lisa had managed to pull the trailers about fifteen miles before they stopped to eat and have some water. It was a cloudy day and the absence of sun prevented them from getting overheated and dehydrated during the ride. They stopped for only long enough to eat and were soon on their way again, expecting to cover another twenty five or thirty miles before stopping for the night. They decided to ride past the next planned stop because the weather was so good for the ride and they had lots of water and could therefore stop anywhere.
They rode twenty additional miles before coming to an area with a series of hills. Lisa and Susan had been pulling the trailers and Susan suggested they stop. Emma said she would pull a trailer again if they could keep going so they agreed to switch and let Emma pull the heavier of the two trailers this time, until she wanted to stop. Dave rode ahead to each hilltop before waving the others to continue as they rode up and down hills for a few more miles.
It started to get dark and Emma hadn't stopped so after they reached the top of a hill, Dave and Susan started picking out areas where they could stop. They talked about stopping with no objection from a nearly out of breath Emma. They had covered almost another ten miles and would soon be out of the hilly area and on straight road again, but in the morning. It would soon get too dark to cover the additional few miles out of the hilly area. They would be at Emma's house early the next afternoon or late morning, rain or shine.
They found an area concealed by trees and set up camp. Emma started talking about all the people they would meet and the things they could do there. She would show them the head of a moose she had shot with her three-o-three when she was out alone one morning. She talked about her moms cooking and how they would be having something delicious that wouldn't be squirrel when they arrived. Her mom would have time to make them a great big dinner if they got there early enough.
She would show them the philosophers stone and they could sit up there and meet her family. "Its got a roof and we have a big barbecue under it.". We have debates there sometimes on Sundays. "There is lots of yelling and screaming, its fun!" she said. She laughed as she said "One time my cousin threw a little bible at my brother and hit him in the eye. He had to go to the doctor and wear an eye patch. We made fun of him for a week about that.".
She said, still smiling, "My brother challenged my cousin about Plato and my cousin lost so my brother got to pour a pail of deer poop on his head." "A crock of shit" Dave added "That's where that expression comes from, the ancient Greeks did that.".
Lisa said that they sounded crazy and Emma said "We allow free speech. You should hear some of the things that we say!" she paused and added, laughing "No one has had any sensitivity training!" and then she said "That wasn't Bambi's poop either" she said, still laughing, "That was from an eight point buck and my brother mixed it with water first.".
Dave said "I'm looking forward to this." Lisa said "Yeah, it should be fun" Susan added "I forgot to pack a helmet or a rain coat.". They let Emma go on about it before finally falling asleep.
The following morning they woke up to light rain, the clouds looked dark and they would be riding in the rain until they reached Emma's house. They ate the left over fish and rice after after they had spent some time getting the fire going again before hiking back toward their bicycles.
They were tired of moving all the time and wondering if they could go back to their shelter, if the people at the river could sort themselves out, but they all stayed optimistic toward one another and never talked about it much.
The walk back to their bicycles was not easy, the path was muddy and Susan and Lisa both tripped in the mud. Lisa had tripped and her head had landed right beside a rock that would have given her a severe concussion or killed her instantly. Dave told Emma to slow down and be careful several times along the path before they reached their bikes.
He reminded them again of highwaymen and rogues before he left them to ride up to the top of next hill and look down over the other side. He waved to them and they started on their way over as he continued to carefully look along the roadsides in the direction ahead of them with binoculars. They arrived at the top of the first hill and he pointed to the fact that the sides of the road were quite bushy and that they could be ambushed at any time. He said the best thing to do would be to keep rifles hidden as much as possible and handguns ready. Rifles wouldn't be easily accessed or used while they were on bikes and would always be valuable items. He left for the top of the next hill, saying he would wave them over if it looked safe. If it didn't, he reminded them that he would put his bike down in the bush and for them to hide in the bush with their bikes and wait for him, as long as an hour or even the rest of the day.
Dave explained that he was sorry for ordering them around so much, but he said he considered these lands to be a war zone and he didn't have time to be nice and didn't want to be bothered with the obligation so he could keep his attention on their surroundings. He explained that if he told one of them to get down in the ditch, that meant now and to stay hidden, and that they better do it, or he could be tackling or kicking them down into the ditch if he had to. He said he wasn't afraid to bruise or hurt them to save their lives if they didn't move fast enough.
He said that he knew this would be out of their experience and they may not have the sense of urgency necessary sometimes. He said Emma's parents bazaar might be big enough to attract people from far away. Easy and valuable prey
on their way to or from a bazaar would attract predators.
They had four or five hills to go before encountering level road for much of the remainder of the journey. The rain had finally stopped but the pavement stayed wet under the cloudy sky and their bike tires kicked up enough water to keep them wet and cold as they rode.
Dave went down the second last hill and as he reached the bottom at full pedal speed, his front tire had got caught in a crack in the road and suddenly slipped out from under him on the wet pavement. The bike slammed into the road with him still on it. He had been busy looking for signs of trouble at the sides of the road and hadn't been looking at the road itself. The rest of them reached the hilltop and saw Dave laying on the road at the bottom, they immediately rode down to him.
As they came up to him, Dave started yelling "How did you know I hadn't been shot? How did you know there wasn't a few guys already making their way over to me?" He apologized said he needed to sit down and rest for a few minutes and that nothing was broken. He took off his back pack and sat down on the road. His pants and T-shirt were ripped from road rash, and he had scrapes that were bleeding on his arms and one leg. Susan got the tools out of the trailer and fixed his handle bars and checked his bike over while Lisa got the first aid kit out and some new pants for him from his travel bag. She began picking the bits of rocks out of the scrapes on his leg through the tears in his pants.
He wasn't seriously injured but would have lots of bruises and scrapes down his side. Emma got off her bike but held onto it as she watched them for a moment to see that Dave could continue then suddenly jumped on her bike and started riding to the top of the next hill. By the time they had noticed, Emma was gone, pulling a trailer up the next hill. Dave looked as she reached the top of the hill and stopped to look down the other side, without binoculars. She then waved them up. Dave shouted as loud as he could "Get back here now!" and again, but she didn't hear or pretended not to hear. She waited there for a few moments before continuing down the other side.
Dave saw her disappear over the hill top. He said to Susan "Get her back here now!". Susan immediately jumped on her bike and rode away as quickly as she could. Dave laid down on the pavement and said "Shit, that hurts!" as Lisa took off his pants and applied alcohol to the scrape on his leg. He turned to watch Susan ride up the hill as Lisa continued to clean his wound. "Hurry up!" he yelled angrily to Susan then he turned to Lisa and calmly said the same thing.
They heard a gunshot off in the distance and looked at Susan riding up the hill. She didn't appear to be alarmed and was putting the bike down to run a short distance to the top of the hill. The reason for the gunshot hadn't captured their curiosity in their temporary state of confusion. It would have been Emma shooting at something. Lisa continued her work and began to bandage Dave's wounds.
Dave looked around for the source of the shot as Lisa continued to bandage his wounds. They heard another louder shot. They immediately looked up at Susan, she was crawling over the top of the hill to stay low. She turned and shot another round in the air, looking down at them from the hilltop. Dave looked at Lisa and said "Hide in those bushes over there. Hide your bike too. Go now!". He looked at her "Move!" as he strapped his rifle behind his back, and got on his bike and quickly rode up the hill, wearing just boxers and his T-shirt. He watched Susan take another shot, then another at something or someone on the other side of the hill.
He arrived, got off the bike and crept up in the bushes beside the road, beside Susan. She turned to him "They got Emma.". He crawled up further and looked down and said "Cover me." She said "No, I'll go. You cover me." Dave went out to where Susan had been as she started running toward Emma and saw one man running through the bush in a field beside the road that Susan was shooting at. He was too out of breath for an accurate shot.
The other man was near Emma and was crawling toward the ditch in an expanding puddle of his own blood and the water of the road from the rainfall. Emma wasn't moving and was lying on the road, legs still splayed across her bicycle. Her neck was twisted and her face was on the road.
Dave calmed down quickly and took a shot at the running man, missing again. He grabbed his bike and rode past a running Susan toward Emma "Stop. Cover me." he said. Susan stopped and took a shot and missed. She kept loading the breech and taking shots but she was out of breath and unable to hold the rifle steady enough and the man kept running.
Dave stopped his bike and let it fall on the ground where Emma laid still on the pavement, he took the injured mans gun that was laying on the pavement and threw it in the bush. The injured man continued to slowly crawl away from them. He went to Emma and carefully turned her face over. He looked down at her, he put his hand on her forehead to close her eyes and looked over at Susan. Emma was dead. The shot had killed her instantly.
Dave ran toward the other man, now running into some trees at the edge of the field, leaving the mortally wounded, unarmed and badly bleeding partner to continue crawling toward the ditch. Susan ran over to Emma, tears started to form. She picked up Emma and carried her back up the hill toward where Lisa was. Lisa ran up the hill as soon as she saw Susan reach the top, crying and carrying Emma's limp body. Susan said "She's dead" as Lisa reached the hill top.
Susan put Emma down carefully and looked down the hill. The wounded man had turned around and was crawling toward Emma's backpack with her twenty-two that was sticking out of the top. She ran down toward him and stopped as he reached Emma's bag. She pulled her forty-five out of her holster and started taking shots while walking toward him until one hit the pavement and ricocheted into his side ribs and he stopped moving. She had emptied the clip. She turned around and ran back to Lisa and Emma. Tears were running down her cheeks and she was mad. Lisa was crying while wiping the blood off Emma and cleaning her up.
Susan put Emma's head in her lap and wouldn't look up and wouldn't stop crying. Lisa sat down beside her and put her arm around Susan. Lisa got up and gathered Emma's bike and backpack, leaving Susan alone. She piled everything on the opposite side of the road, sat down beside Susan and started crying again herself.
Susan said "What do we do now?" Lisa looked around and said "I don't know what to do. Lets just not do anything OK?" They stayed there and waited for Dave. After a couple of minutes, Susan got a shirt from her ready bag and covered Emma's face and laid her down in some shade under a tree. The sun was coming out. Lisa went over to them and they both stayed silent. Lisa got up, picked up Susan's gun and went to look for Dave.
Lisa saw Dave walking with a man ahead of him as she got back to the roadside. They were walking through the field and out toward the road. Susan went over to Lisa and looked down at Dave and the man walking in front of him. "Why doesn't he just kill him?" Susan asked. Lisa responded "I don't know. He really isn't a killer you know." Susan said "I know. I'm sorry." Both women were confused and devastated.
Dave and the man began to walk up the road to the girls. Susan had her gun in her hand with her finger on the trigger and started walking toward them. Dave put his hand up and said "No Susan, let her family handle this. You are not a killer." She looked at the killer and spat on him and then went to pistol whip him before Dave ran up to her and grabbed her arm. She started crying again and hugged Dave while looking at their prisoner.
The man had stopped and kept his head down and Dave said "Keep moving." pointing up the hill where Lisa sat with Emma's body, Dave walked behind him with his rifle strapped behind his shoulder and his forty-five pointed at the prisoner. "Stand over there.". Dave pointed to a spot across the road by a clearing when they reached the top of the hill. The prisoner remained silent and obedient.
Susan and Dave followed the man as he walked up the hill. When they reached the top Susan sat down without looking at Dave's prisoner again. Lisa looked at Dave and then looked over at the prisoner. He wouldn't look at any of them and was always looking down at the ground. "Why doesn't he say anything?" Lisa asked. Dave responded "Who cares?".
Dave wa
lked over to the bike trailer to get some rope. He directed the man over to a tree with his gun, tied his hands behind his back then to the tree. He let him sit down with his hands behind his back and tied his legs together. He went over and picked up Emma and carried her back into the bush and asked Lisa to follow him with her backpack and bike and for Susan to stay and guard the prisoner.
He came back out of the bush alone, he told Susan that Lisa would be staying and guarding the trailers, their prisoner and Emma's body. Lisa began to set up a tent to keep the sun off Emma as she periodically glanced over the distant prisoner who sat tied to a tree fifty feet away. He looked more sad than guilty but Lisa didn't care and she had a gun if he tried to escape.
Dave and Susan would be riding up to Emma's house while she stayed hidden and guarded the prisoner. Susan reminded him of Emma's envelope in the trailer. He told Lisa he would be back in less than an hour or two at the most. He went to the trailer, put a pair of jeans on and put the envelope in his back pocket and they were quickly on their way. Susan wiped the tears from her face but they kept coming as they started their ride.
They had another fifteen miles to go. They rode together quickly and angrily along the long straight level road after going up and down two more smaller hills. Dave said that this part of the journey would be safer because they could see more and the road was flanked by mostly farmers field and not much dense bush. By late morning they reached their destination.
The two of them approached the long winding driveway that would lead them to Emma's house. It looked like the bazaar Travis and Mark had described but wasn't open for business. They put the bikes in some bush and slowly walked up the driveway. Their tears had dried up and they hadn't had any water or spoken for a while.
They were approached by a man carrying a rifle. "Its about Emma" Dave said in a dried and crackly voice. Dave took his rifle off his back and laid it down beside the driveway and removed his handgun and put it down. Susan copied and put her guns down. Dave went over to him and reached for his water without asking. The man gave it to him and he took a drink then handed it to Susan who took a drink and didn't return it. The man said he was Emma's cousin, looked them over and said "Follow me" and didn't say another word.
The three of them walked up the driveway, they heard wood being chopped and he said "That's her father up there, he's the one chopping wood.". Susan said "Stay here, both of you.". The man looked at Dave while Dave quietly looked at Susan. They sat down on a hill that flanked one side of the driveway as Susan made her way up toward Dan Fitzpatrick. Dave started to explain what had happened as Emma's cousin listened closely. He really already knew before Dave started talking, anyone could have seen it in Dave and Susan's eyes.
Susan approached Dan and he had his back to her. She cleared her throat and he turned around and looked at her for a moment. "...Susan....right?" She said "Yes. You remember me." He said "Of course I remember you, where is Joe?". She said "Joe didn't make it. He died when the power went out in a car accident." He responded, "I'm sorry to hear that Susan. What can we do for you?" and went over to give her a hug and she started crying again. She quickly stopped, let go of him and walked over and sat down on a log and urged him to sit down, patting her hand on a log beside her. She looked at him as he sat down. "Emma didn't make it either." He looked down toward the ground, tears had started and he said "Neither did her mother.".
After a few moments he asked "What happened?". Susan began to explain it and she saw Dave walk over toward them with Emma's cousin. Dave re-introduced the man as Emma's cousin Paul to Susan. After listening to Dave and Susan for a few more minutes, Dan quietly got up and slowly walked toward the house to share the grim news.
The three sat in the woodpile and talked about what had happened and shared the rest of the water. Dave said that they had to go back and get Lisa, the prisoner, and Emma's body and needed a trailer or something. Paul said he would go and Susan could stay. Paul went and got a bicycle and connected a long wooden two wheel bike trailer to the back of it and they walked it down the hill toward Dave's bike and the guns Dave and Susan had forgotten that laid on the grass at the entrance of the driveway. Susan sat at the wood pile alone.
Another man came out of the house and walked over to Susan and grabbed her hand. They started walking toward the house as Dave and Paul turned down the driveway out of sight toward the bottom. Dave said "Are you going to kill him?" Paul said "We aren't killers. I guess it will be up to Dan and the boys. I guess they will want to have a trial of some sort....then they will kill him." Dave stopped to pick up his guns and handed Susan's gun to Paul and asked him if he knew how to use it. Paul said he did and stuffed it into the back of his jeans. Dave suggested that he take Susan's rifle too. Paul put the bike down and picked it up and used the strap to put it over his shoulder.
They walked a little further and Dave got on his bike, he called Susan over from the front porch of the house and handed her Emma's letter. She said she would hang onto it until they got back, until the news had a chance to settle and spread. They both rode away without speaking.