Scavenger Page 5

  Jimmy took the shovel from her when she returned and went into the forest himself. Lucy was in the passenger seat of the Suburban when he got back and put away the shovel. When he got into the Suburban he told Lucy, “There is a good spot to overnight about twenty minutes from here.”

  Lucy nodded, but said nothing. It was twilight when Jimmy stopped the Suburban in the forest off the road again. Following his quiet instructions, Lucy helped set up the Mountain Hardwear Trango 3.1 tent. He set a Brunton Glorb AA tent light inside and turned it on. While he got his Kifaru EMR pack from the back of the Suburban, Lucy got her duffel bag.

  Jimmy let Lucy lay out her thin mattress pad and sleeping bag first in the tent and then laid out his own Therm-a-rest pad and Slumberjack sleeping bag, on the other side of the tent. Without thinking about it, Jimmy began to take off his boots as Lucy re-entered the tent. She too began to remove her light hiking boots.

  Suddenly stopping the process of removing his boots, Jimmy cleared his throat and asked, “Uh… How do you sleep? I know a person should sleep in the raw so the clothes don’t hold moisture, but… well… how do you sleep?”

  “If that is the preferred method,” Lucy said, looking over at Jimmy in the soft light, “I’ll just sleep in my panties.” She had her boots off and reached for the buttons of her shirt.

  Quickly Jimmy made his way out of the tent to giver Lucy some privacy. Her voice was soft as it followed him out of the tent. “You don’t have to, you know. My offer still goes.”

  Jimmy didn’t reply. He simply stood with his back to the tent until Lucy called to him that she was in the sleeping bag. He crawled back into the tent, turned off the lamp and undressed. When he was in the sleeping bag he said, “There’s a pair of moccasins and a flashlight by my pack. You can use them in the night if you need to get up.”

  “Thank you,” Lucy replied.

  It was full dark now, and Jimmy’s eyes weren’t totally adjusted to the blackness. He didn’t see or hear Lucy’s silent crying as she fell asleep. Jimmy fell asleep wondering how he’d got himself in such a mess.

  It was summertime, but the nights were still cold. When Jimmy woke up the next morning he brought his clothes into the sleeping bag to warm them and then quietly dressed, leaving the lamp off. The sky was showing just a little light when Jimmy crawled out of the tent with his PTR-91.

  Jimmy quickly turned around when Lucy left the tent a few moments later, wearing her shirt, but with bare legs. He saw enough to know she was wearing his moccasins and carrying the flashlight as she went to the very edge of the woods. He was pretty sure she was carrying her pistol, too. “At least she is keeping security in mind,” Jimmy thought.

  “I’ll be ready in a few minutes,” she called softly to him as she returned to the tent. Indeed she was, Jimmy realized, when Lucy came out of the tent dragging her duffle bag, AUG, and musette bag in just a matter of a few minutes.

  “I’ll start the Suburban to let it warm up while we take down the tent,” Jimmy said. He leaned his rifle against the bumper of the trailer and went to roll up his sleeping bag and pad and put them in the pack. With the duffle bag and pack stowed in the back of the Suburban, the two quickly had the tent down and stowed as well.

  Jimmy pulled out of the forest onto the road just as the sun fully cleared the horizon. It was an easy routine that day and the next, with a breakfast stop on the road somewhere with a good view, a quick bathroom stop and lunch of jerky or pemmican with a handful of gorp near noon, and an early stop for supper, with a dry camp for the night.

  CHAPTER THREE

  They began to see a few people the fourth day, as they entered the suburbs of the city. All appeared armed and very cautious, but most would stop and speak to Jimmy and Lucy if Jimmy stopped the Suburban. They found out the city center was still hot, but the radiation was down around the edges.

  Jimmy verified the radiation reading with his own meter as he approached the first storage facility where he had a storage room cache. Suddenly he braked hard, and pulled over on the shoulder of the road automatically as he stopped.

  He looked over at Lucy, a chagrinned look on his face. “The radiation… It’s not high, but it is above background… Your baby…”

  A stony look met Jimmy’s chagrinned look. “I’m not going to have any more babies. A little more radiation isn’t going to make any difference. Except possibly when I die. A year or two difference doesn’t matter to me now.”

  Rather reluctantly Jimmy pulled back onto the road and continued on his way toward the storage facility. He was very disappointed when they entered through the open gate and saw that almost all of the storage unit doors were open. Jimmy drove around to his unit. It too had the door open.

  They both got out of the Suburban, as usual, with their long arms in their hands. Lucy saw Jimmy begin to smile when he stepped in front of the door. “Man, they sure trashed it,” Lucy said.

  “No, actually, they didn’t. That’s just a whole bunch of junk I use to camouflage the cache. I bet they saw it and decided there wasn’t anything of worth here.” He began to set things out of the way, making a straight path down the center of the junk while Lucy kept a watch with her AUG at the ready.

  When Jimmy was nearly at the back of the room, down the narrow path he had cleared, he said, “Yep. It’s intact.” He began carrying box after box of #10 canned LTS food from the cache to the trailer. He moved a year’s supply of food for one from the cache. Then he pulled out a long wooden trunk with wheels. “Weapons and accessories,” he said. Lucy helped him put it into the trailer.

  Jimmy recovered ten ammunition cans and added them to the trailer, two at a time. He was breathing heavily by the time he put the last two ammo cans on the tailgate of the trailer.

  “Why don’t you let me get a few things while you rest,” Lucy said.

  “Just one more item,” he said, going back into the storage room. He returned with a leather teardrop good-posture shoulder bag. The way he was carrying it, Lucy decided, it was very heavy. She confirmed it when he handed it to her and asked her to put it in the front of the Suburban.

  He put everything back into the storage room, just the way they’d found it and then they left, leaving the door open.

  The second stop went about like the first, except the storage room was still secure. There were people around, but they caused no problems and Jimmy quickly moved the junk, loaded the cached items, and put the rest back, closing and locking the door.

  With Lucy along, Jimmy changed his plans slightly. Instead of hitting all four of the remaining storage rooms on the one trip, he decided to only do two of them, and get back out of the higher radiation zone. He’d not told her exactly what his plans were, and she hadn’t asked, so she didn’t know about the change.

  Instead of the rest of the storage rooms, Jimmy headed for the second of the quadraplexes. The second quadraplex, that had been empty during his first trip, was now fully occupied. He didn’t actually count, but there seemed to be at least thirty people there, of all ages. It was the first time he was asked for proof of ownership when he said the building was his. The elders of the clan, as Jimmy thought of them, got together for a while, then sat down to talk with him at one of the kitchen tables, amidst half a dozen small children on the immaculate floor.

  Jimmy shook hands all around, complemented them on how well they had taken care of the place, and knocked a month off the rent. Then he showed them the basement entrance. Not a single one them had even considered that the quadraplex had a basement. The young men of the group eagerly helped move the cache items to the trailer, paying as much attention to Lucy as they did to what they were moving. They headed for the third quadraplex.

  Again he was run off from his own property at gunpoint. “Vacate or else,” he said, and then went back to the Suburban, where Lucy was waiting with her AUG ready.

  Lucy saw the glint in his eye and knew Jimmy was not just going to drive away and leave it. She thought about the situation while Jimmy
drove off a ways, and found a place to park the Suburban.

  Lucy was prepared to argue with Jimmy about helping him get possession of the quadraplex, but he surprised her. “I need you,” he said, turning to look at her, “to guard the Suburban. I’m going to go make a statement. Normally I’d park further away and take a couple of days to sneak up on them, but with you here, I don’t have to do that. If I don’t show up in six hours, I’ll be dead, so get in the Suburban and go back to the farm.”

  He started to get out of the Suburban, but stopped and turned around to the rear seats. He grabbed the leather shoulder bag and dragged it up front. “Here. I want you to take this and keep on your person at all times. Gold and silver are making a comeback and if you run into trouble you may be able to buy your way out if you can’t shoot your way out.”

  He took out several small leather pouches from the bigger bag and handed them to Lucy. He got out of the Suburban before she could react, opened the rear passenger door and put the shoulder bag back inside on the seat.

  Lucy got out of the Suburban, AUG in hand and watched silently as Jimmy opened the rear of the Suburban. He took out a long case and opened it. It contained the Barrett sniper rifle. He assembled it, added the scope and the suppressor, and hoisted it up on his shoulder. He motioned to the shoulder bag next to the case. Lucy picked it up and helped him get it on his other shoulder.

  “See you in a while,” he said and started walking away. Lucy was tempted to follow him, but wasn’t sure she would be able to do so. And not at all sure she wanted to see what he was going to do. She’d heard the others at the farm talk about how capable he was and the fact that he was a hard man. No, she decided, she’d stay at the Suburban and do as he’d asked.

  Lucy found a good place to sit and watch the area, unseen. She had slipped the leather pouches in her pants pockets and took them out to look inside. From the little Jimmy had said, she assumed it was gold and silver.

  It was. Two bags contained twenty one-ounce Gold Eagles each. Another bag had twenty 1/10th ounce Gold Eagles, two plastic rolls of silver dimes, and two plastic rolls of silver quarters. She checked the other two bags. One more bag of one-ounce Eagles and another of mixed gold and silver.

  With a quick look over her shoulder, Lucy stashed the bags in individual pockets of her clothing. And then she sat and waited. Lunchtime came and went. She didn’t bother to eat. She just waited, keeping her mind blank, but alert.

  It was nearing the six hour time limit and Lucy was trying to decide if she should try to follow Jimmy’s path through the woods, or just drive up to the quadraplex shooting. But the soft sound of her name coming from behind her startled her out of the reverie. “It’s me. Jimmy.”

  Lucy spun around, half raising the AUG, but it was Jimmy. She kept her voice calm, but said, “A little more notice, next time.” Jimmy grinned and nodded.

  He put the Barrett and the musette bag back in the rear of the Suburban, the rifle still assembled. Jimmy was more than a little surprised that Lucy didn’t immediately start asking him questions, but she held her peace, waiting for him to speak about what had happened if he wanted to open up to her.

  She decided he wasn’t going to do so as he drove away. They found another place to fix their supper, and yet another to spend the night. It was an easy routine now, Lucy handling the kitchen chores and Jimmy the camp chores.

  Only when they were in their sleeping bags, the tent lantern out, did Jimmy bring up what he had done that day. “I left them an unmistakable message. I’ll do the same tomorrow and the day after, until they are all gone or dead.”

  “I understand,” Lucy said, wondering a little what Jimmy would do if there had been children involved. There were at least three women she’d seen, but all three had guns in their hands, just as their male companions.

  The next morning Jimmy took them some distance away, on an angle, and then left again with the Barrett, the Suburban in a good hiding place, and Lucy in a better one. He was only gone four hours. They moved the Suburban, ate, and waited for near nightfall to move again and set up camp.

  “I think tomorrow will do it,” Jimmy said that night.

  It was much the same the third day. On the fourth day Jimmy was only gone three hours. He looked rather jaunty carrying the Barrett barrel forward over his shoulder as he stepped out of the trees, Lucy thought.

  “They are gone. Lock, stock and barrel.”

  Lucy smiled at his words. When they got to the quadraplex in the Suburban, Lucy decided Jimmy must have cleaned up some things, because there were no bodies about, though there were bloodstains here and there.

  Without really thinking about it, Jimmy showed Lucy how to get into the basement, and where the cache was. “We’ll load up tomorrow,” he said.

  Again Jimmy’s plans changed, for the following morning a small group of people came walking up to the quadraplex while he and Lucy were having breakfast. There were two women with five men. He and Lucy took up defensive positions, Jimmy pointing out specific spots along the walls that were reinforced to withstand small arms fire. Several of the group was armed, but it looked mainly like hunting rifles and shotguns.

  “Hello the house!” the apparent leader called out.

  “What do you want?” Jimmy yelled back.

  “We want to thank you for running off the vermin that were living here. They’ve been terrorizing the area for weeks. We saw them pull out yesterday evening.”

  Jimmy looked over at Lucy. “Believable?” She nodded. “Okay. Keep me covered. If I call you anything but Lucy, open fire. Take out the shotguns first.” Again Lucy nodded, just peeking through the open window. Jimmy went out to talk to the small group.

  Lucy couldn’t hear what was said, but Jimmy turned and waved. “It’s okay. We’re coming in, Lucy.”

  She relaxed a little, but kept the AUG ready, standing where she could get into one of the bedrooms if things weren’t as they seemed. She relaxed more and shook hands when Jimmy introduced her around.

  “These are other local residents.”

  “Yes,” said Jacob Brothers, the leader of the group. “We’ve been trying to persuade them to leave ever since they showed up and ran off the people that were living here.”

  “I see,” said Jimmy. “Those people still around? The squatters?”

  “Oh,” said Mrs. Brothers, rather reluctantly, “Three of the families were squatters, I suppose you could say. The fourth family was related to one of the others. The original families all disappeared during the war. We don’t know where or how.”

  “Are those squatter families still here?”

  There was a mixed reaction. A few of the group nodded, but two shook their heads.

  “Some are, some aren’t?” Jimmy asked.

  “Yes,” said Mrs. Brothers. “The Ames and Zwitecks are living in other houses here in town. The Kragers, both families, left the area looking for better pastures. South.”

  “Well,” replied Jimmy, “I’ll make the same deal here as I made at my other properties. I expect yearly rent in some useful form, or gold. A tenth ounce of gold, or what it would buy, per month.”

  “How much was the rent?” asked one of the others. Jimmy couldn’t remember his name.

  “Eight hundred a month,” Jimmy replied. “That would be the value of two hundred dollars a month now.”

  “Cash is worthless,” Lucy said.

  Jimmy smiled. “That’s why it is in goods or gold.

  Another of the men said, “There are houses for the taking. There is no need to pay anyone rent.”

  “I agree,” Jimmy said. “But anyone living on my property pays rent. And, just so you know, I enforce it with a gun. Just like I did with those that were here and refused to leave when I offered them the chance.”

  “You’re a tough guy, aren’t you?” asked the same man.

  “So it is said, by some.”

  The other woman spoke then. “My family would like two of the units. My sister and her family are stayi
ng with us. It is so crowded and the house is hard to heat. Mrs. Ames said these units have good wood heaters, kitchen stoves, and even wood water heaters.”

  “That is true,” Jimmy replied. “You’re free to take a look. Lucy will show you the rest of the house. There’s the main heating stove, there.” He pointed to the cheery stove, a fire burning in it to break the chill of the morning.

  Jimmy stayed near the open front door of the unit, keeping an eye on the surrounding countryside. Just in case. The group was talking excitedly about the quadraplex when they returned to the living room.

  “I’m sure all four units will rent,” Jacob said. “At your stated price. How do we get hold of you?”

  “I’ll contact you. If I happen not to show up for ten years running, whoever is renting can keep the accumulated items. I expect the correct amount to be here when I return.” Jimmy paused. “Except, I’ll accept if the accumulated money is used for community projects, that the community can pay me when I show up. But the community needs to be prepared for that eventuality.”

  Jimmy ignored the jabbering among the seven people, walking to the open door to take another look around. “Okay,” said Jacob, going over to Jimmy. “The town council will keep an eye on things for you. We’ll probably use one of the units for town functions.”

  “As long as I get my rent. Now if you will excuse us, we’ll do a more thorough cleaning, since it appears there will be new tenants soon.”

  The seven traipsed out, leaving Lucy and Jimmy alone in the unit. “You don’t have to help,” Jimmy said. “But I do want to clean things up a bit. As a cover for cleaning out the stash.”

  “That’s okay,” Lucy replied. “I’ll help. I like to see a clean house. The animals that were here were just that, animals.”

  It took them all day to clean the four units of the quadraplex and move the cache. They stayed the night again in the #2 unit, putting down their sleeping bags in front of the fire after Jimmy again disabled the Suburban and set its alarm, as he did every night.