The Switch (9 page)

“The sores are really ugly,
but they do not hurt the squirrel. The squirrel can still be eaten safely.” He
rolled the squirrels over a couple of times, “No worbles on either of these.

John used his pocket knife
and cut a stick the size of a pencil from a nearby bush and sharpened the point
on one end.  He pushed the pointed end of the stick through the tendons of the
squirrel’s hind legs. He handed the squirrel’s, now balanced on the stick, to
Cameron.

“You carry them. Let’s go
find one or two more.”

They walked along the old
road taking a couple of steps, stopping to listen and to watch the trees. It
was not long before they spotted the branches of another hickory shaking with
the movement of a squirrel. John moved to a small dogwood tree, rested the
rifle against the trunk, and pointed the rifle in the direction of the
movement. When the squirrel became visible in the leaves, he shot it in the
head again.

He handed his pocket knife to
Cameron and whispered, “Fetch.”

Cameron took the knife and returned
with the squirrel now hanging on the stick with the other two.

“Why is this one grey?”

“The first two are fox
squirrels. This one is a grey squirrel. You can see the fox squirrels are a
little bigger than the greys.”

They searched the woods for
another hour but found no more squirrels. On the walk back towards camp they
crossed a small gently flowing creek. John stopped and asked Cameron for the
pocket knife.

“Take the squirrels off the
stick and hold one by the front legs for me.”

Cameron held a squirrel with
one leg in each hand. John held both of the rear legs in his left hand and cut
the animals belly from between the rear legs almost to the neck. He took the
animal from Cameron and pulled out all of the squirrel’s organs.   

Cameron looked at the blood
on his grandpa’s hands and grimaced.

John smiled, “It is only
blood, it will wash off.”

He then cut off the feet and
head and tossed them into the brush with the organs. He turned the squirrel
over and made a cut in their hide across the back near the shoulder. He handed
Cameron the knife and used both hands to pull the hide from the squirrel. He
bent over and washed the skinned squirrel in the creek.

He handed it to Cameron and
told him to put it back on the stick.

They cleaned the second
animal the same as the first.

John knew the answer before
he asked, but he wanted to see his grandson’s reaction to the question. “Do you
want to clean the last one?”

Cameron smiled but emphatically
shook his head no.

When John finished washing
the third squirrel in the creek he washed his hands and picked up the rifle.

Cameron ran the last fifty
yards back to camp swinging the squirrels in the air and calling out, “We got
dinner! Grandpa shot some squirrels!”

He ran to his mother, “Can
you cook them momma?”

Lynn knelt on one knee and
looked at the squirrels still on the stick. “Uncle David has a fire going, give
them to him, he is tonight’s cook.”

David took the squirrels and
cleaned the meat with some of his drinking water. John cut two limbs from a
nearby sapling and trimmed the limbs so they ended up in the shape of the
letter Y. He shoved the bottom end of the Y into the ground on one side of the
fire and did the same with the other limb on the opposite side of the fire. He
cut a longer heavier limb from the sapling and sharpened one end with his
knife. He pushed the pointed end into the back end of one of the squirrels and
out the neck hole. He place the ends of that stick into the V portion of Y
stick. This placed the squirrel directly over the flames.

“I will make two more of
these so we don’t have to cook them one at a time.”

The meat cooked slowly and
would provide needed protein and energy. There were a few negative comments
about the meat being tough and not everyone enjoyed the fresh meat as much as
John.  He had grown up eating wild meat, but the younger generation did not
appreciate the wild flavor.

But there was no hesitation
by the Husky pup. He ate the few small pieces given to him in gulps. The poor
dog must have been locked in the car for days with no food. Had they not found
him when they did, he would have died within hours. The kids gave the pup more
than his share of the three squirrels.

That evening was cool and the
warm fire felt good.  In spite of the cool temperature, John walked the short
distance to the nearby pond and removed his clothes. The water was warm
compared to the cool air.

He carried his clothes into
the pond with him and washed them as best he could. Before he finished, he was
joined by David and Cameron.

As Cameron took off his
pants, he said, “Grandpa, if you see the girls coming, tell them to stay away,
ok?”

John looked back towards the
camp. “They are sitting around the fire. They can’t see you. It is too dark.

They waded around the pond
feeling the thick mud between their toes as they rubbed their bodies trying to
clean the days sweat from their skin. When they finished, they sat together on
the bank of the pond with their towels over their shoulders and talked about
hunting and fishing as they waited for their pants to get dry enough to put on
to go back to camp.

On the walk back to camp,
David said, “It feels good to be clean doesn’t it Cammy?”

“Yea, it sorta gives me
energy too.”

David said, “Let’s put on
some dry clothes and sit by the fire for a while.”

Chapter 13

John took his time in his
tent putting on another set of dry clothing. His thoughts wandered to the
events leading up to now. He thought about all of the people on the airplanes
that had fallen from the sky. He thought about the relatives of all those
people, had they ever found out the bad news? How could they know, there had
been no communications. They would never know where their loved ones died.

He thought about Steve, and
of Kale and Linda. What had happened to them? How serious was Steve’s wound?

He thought about the thousands
of abandoned cars he had passed since he left Chicago. What had happened to all
of those people?

He cringed when he thought
about the man he shot dead under the bridge and the young men he and David had
shot near the mall. Why were those guys charging at his family? They must have
wanted to get to the women. There was more to steal in the mall than from a
family traveling the highway on bicycles. People were going crazy.

His thoughts were depressing.
He looked out the front of his tent at the fire. Seeing the family sitting together
around the fire gave him a sense of satisfaction and the depression faded. He
knew he had to remain tough, the situation demanded it. If he had not shot
those people, some of his family probably would have died. The young men by the
mall might have even killed the grandchildren. He was confident they got what
they deserved. He left the tent to join the others around the fire.

The atmosphere around the
crackling flames was relaxed and the conversation was of their future at the
lake. Ashley was asleep beside her mother and the pup was cuddled against her
stomach.

They discussed the fishing,
the hunting, a garden, clean water, locations of any nearby homes that might be
empty, neighbors, security and more. They talked until the fire was fading and
only a soft glow before David suggested it was time to get some sleep.

They awoke the next morning
to a steady cold rain. As usual, John was the first up. He was standing outside
looking up at the sky when David stuck his head from his tent.

He asked, “How’s it look?”

“It looks like we are going to get wet if we travel today. Does everyone have a
raincoat?”

“Yes, except the dog. Do you
think we should ride today, or wait it out?

“Well, we might make it there
by tomorrow night if we push on. Otherwise it means another night in the tents.
If it rains two or three days the delay will be even more.”

“Let’s take a vote to see
what everyone wants to do. If we are going to get soaked, everyone should have
input.”

The decision was made to wait
out the rain. The deciding factor was that Renee and Lynn were concerned that
the kids might get sick.

John removed a large plastic
tarp folded and connected to the rear rack on his bike and asked David to help with
the ropes to string it up between nearby saplings like a lean-to.

“You folks can stay dry under
the tarp, I am going to ride up the road and try to find more food.”  He picked
up the rifle and headed up the road on his bike.

David put on a bright red
plastic poncho. “I will see if I can catch us some bass from the pond.”

The rain was light but steady
and ran down the back of John’s neck and was soaking his back and butt as he
rode slowly between the cars and trucks looking inside each as he passed.

He noticed a semi-truck parked
along the north bound side of the highway so he crossed the median and got off
the bike at the rear of the truck. He was surprised to find the rear double
doors were not locked. He lifted the long metal latching arm and swung open one
of the doors.

He put his rifle on the floor
of the truck and climbed inside. There were boxes of various sizes stacked
about halfway to the ceiling. He cut open one box after another and found
crackers, peanut butter, jelly, canned soup, beans, peas, and other vegetables.
He dumped out the contents of one of the boxes and began re-filling the box
with a variety of the cans and other foods. He found a large stack of bread
crates but the bread was stale and moldy. He found boxes of chips pretzels and,
candy. When he found a box of packaged candy apples, with nuts on top, he could
not resist opening one of the packages and eating one.

He finished the candy apple
and was half way through eating a second one when he heard purring and clucking
which he instantly recognized as a flock of turkeys. He leaned out the back of
the truck and saw a flock of about a dozen hens and gobblers feeding along the
edge of the tree line only fifty yards away.

He slowly picked up his rifle
and put the cross hairs on the chest of the lead gobbler which was walking with
its head down eating something in the grass.

When the bullet hit the bird
it flipped over backwards and flopped in circles scaring the others away.

When he got back to camp, he
held the turkey and sack of potatoes high for all to see and declared,” I hit
the jackpot on this one. Someone get a fire going. Cameron and I are going to
skin dinner.”

Even though it was still
drizzling that night they had the best meal they had had since the power
failure. The potatoes were a little burned from being in the fire too long, but
the turkey was delicious. Everyone was happier about eating the wild turkey
than they had been about eating squirrel.

Between his bites of the
turkey, John repeated the story of how he got dinner. “As I was riding towards
and exit ramp and gas station I found a large food delivery truck stopped along
the road. I looked inside and found it full of food. As I was loading the food
onto my bike I saw a wild turkey walking along the edge of the road. One shot
dropped him in his tracks. This was a lucky day.”

The rain stopped sometime in
the middle of the night and the air was fresh and the sky was cloudless the
next morning.

The ride south on I65, the
morning sun seemed special. The sky was blue and there was no wind. It was a
fabulous day. They passed into Alabama before noon.

As they neared the roadside
rest area a few miles into Alabama a Saturn rocket sat on display and there was
a small group of people standing in the road. The people seemed to be standing
guard at the rest area. There was an even larger group gathered around the base
of the rocket under the shade of the nearby trees.

John and David stopped about
a hundred yards from the group. The rest of the family stopped about thirty
yards behind them. As David and John stood beside their bikes watching the
people, two of the men in the group began walking towards them with their hands
raised.

John handed his rifle to
David and told him to stay there and walked out to meet the approaching man.

John held out his hand to
greet the man when they met. They were being cautious but seemed friendly.  One
of the men, a tall thin man of about fifty introduced himself as Bobby Wright and
the other man as Bill Rockford

Wright asked, “Where are
y’all heading?”

“I live on Smith Lake just
outside Arley. This is my family. We have been on the road from St Louis. We
are going to my home.”

“Are you folks carrying guns?”

John hesitated a couple of
seconds and said in a firm voice, “Yes we are, and we are not going to give
them up.”

“I don’t want your guns, I’m
just asking. There has been a lot of trouble, people being robbed and killed
along the road. We are just here to help the honest folks.  Can we meet your
family?”

“Sure.” John turned towards
his family and waved for them to come join him.

He introduced each member and
explained the situation of some trouble ahead.

John asked Wright what kind
of help they were offering. 

Wright rubbed his chin before
explaining that they had a few horses and wagons ahead and were offering
transportation help in some situations.

“We are looking to help
people who can help us, help us now or in the future.”

“What kind of help do you
need?”

“We are not looking for too
much right now. We’ve all agreed that if the right group unites and gets
organized, everyone will be safer and better able to provide for all in the
group.”

He shifted his weight from
foot to foot.

“We are looking for people to
become part of our group. We want people who have something to offer in return
for our help. We call ourselves The New Law. Tell me John, what might you and
your family be able to offer us if we can give security and a wagon ride to
Arley?”

“Are you asking for money?”

“Maybe, but we are more
interested in what you might be able to provide our members in the future.”       

Now it was John’s turn to
shift his weight from foot to foot as he thought about the question.

“Well, I live on the lake. I
am and excellent fisherman and hunter and we have boats on the lake. I am sure
I can provide fish and game to some degree. Providing for my family will be
first, but I am confident I can provide more under some circumstances. I was a
police officer in the past. I know the law. I have spent a fair amount of time
in various courts.

“Are there any special talents
in the rest of the family?”

“Renee is an emergency
medical technician. Lynn has a degree in biology. David is an experienced electrician
and carpenter. We have a little bit of cash, but not much.”

Wright smiled, “Come on,
let’s see what we can do for ya.”

They followed him into the
roadside rest where they were introduced to about twenty other members of the
group.

After the introductions, Wright
explained to John that his people wanted to have a private discussion, and that
he and his family should help themselves to the restrooms and food in the rest
area office.

They were please to find
plenty of food and clean water in the office. The tomatoes, apples and hot
vegetable soup were excellent.

The group took only a few
minutes to make their decision. They offered two options to the family. Option
one was a cash deal. They wanted a thousand dollars to carry them to Arley.
Option two was a trade. They would provide transportation to Arley if John
would agree to provide their members food and shelter on an as need basis in
the future. They could not say how often the food and shelter might be needed
but explained that they were setting up a transportation network that might
allow members safe movement across the state. If he agreed to this second option,
he and his family will be offered full membership in the organization.

John made up his mind
instantly but he went through the motions of talking with David, Renee and Lynn
to discuss the options. They expressed some doubts about what they were getting
themselves into but agreed that they may need help of others in the future and
they may be better informed of news from around the country if they joined.

They informed Wright of their
decision and there was an agreement to leave first thing in the morning. That
meant they might reach home before tomorrow night.

The combination of knowing
they were not going to have to pedal their bicycles the next day along with finding
a clean building with the running water in the sinks and toilets gave everyone
a sense of excitement. They had also rigged the building with two functioning showers,
one for the men and one for the women. The water was cool but no one
complained. Having clean water running over their heads was something John
promised himself he would have when they got to the lake.

There was a party atmosphere
in the roadside rest that night. There was a roaring fire, plenty to eat, and
other people to talk to. They listened to stories from members of the group
about the civil disturbances in Birmingham, Montgomery and other cities. One
man said he was in Montgomery a few weeks ago, and it was nearly burned to the
ground. Another young man said Birmingham was in a similar condition.