Nate laughed. “Amen, brother. Better pack your Jesus shoes just in case.”
I changed the subject. “How’s things coming along here?”
Nate turned serious. “Trevor is still smarting over the two men lost at the grocery store, but he doesn’t blame you. He figures they made a dumb mistake by not clearing the room first. But the incident gave his crew some fire in their bellies and they have cleared the area with a vengeance. They want to push back the trench, but Tommy wouldn’t let them have the ‘dozer.
“John Reef and Dean Cotton have teamed up and they have been playing with water wheels and pumps, and think they might be able to get us running water by the end of the week.”
That was news I hadn’t expected, but it was welcome nonetheless.
Nate continued. “Mark Wells is looking over our electrical situation, but hasn’t figured out any solution yet. He’s looking at water wheels too, but no luck.
I ruminated for a second. “Maybe we could do solar, or set up some windmills.” I said, pointing to the highway overpass. “We could set up as many panels as we wanted up there and run the lines down to the houses.”
Nate looked up. “I’ll ask him about it. Good idea.” He looked back at me. “Who’s watching the kids? If you and Sarah are going and Charlie and Rebecca are going, who’s watching Jake and Julia?”
“They’re coming with” I said, anticipating Nate’s reaction.
Nate responded just as I thought. “Are you nuts?” he yelled. “You’re heading to a dangerous situation and you’re bringing your babies?”
“What can we do?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Nate shook his big head. “No way. Jake and Julia will stay with me and Patty.”
“Patty?” I asked. “Who’s that?”
Nate blushed. I never thought I would see the day. With reddened cheeks he said, “She’s a survivor we found about a week after you left last winter. She’s a pediatric nurse, so they’ll be as well taken care of as possible.”
I laughed. “I’ll think about it. Now get gone so I can get ready.”
Nate looked at me. “You don’t have to go, you know. You can send others.”
It was my turn to shake my head. “I used to be an administrator. That was what I did. After the Upheaval I became a survivor, trying to help others survive. This is what I do.”
Nate nodded and got back into his truck. He headed off to the school and I went into the house to get everything ready.
Sarah was packing backpacks and making sure we had everything we needed. I figured the whole trip should take no longer than five days, but we needed to be ready for at least seven. Stuff we weren’t going to carry was already on the boat and we just needed to get moving.
Jake was playing on the floor with a tool bench toy and was managing to get himself stuck every few minutes. He’d fuss and we’d free him, then he’d do it again. It was a welcome bit of normalcy. I had been getting increasingly concerned Jake was going to be adversely affected by all that has happened. But he managed to stay his happy self, and was getting bigger all the time. He was taking tentative steps more and more lately and I was sure as soon as he had his sea legs he was going to be moving all over the place.
I took out my SIG and laid it on the table. Sarah took out her Ruger and handed it over without a word. I quickly field stripped both weapons and gave them a once over with the cleaning kit. I regularly cleaned my weapons anyway, but it never hurt to run a patch through and check the actions for debris or residue. I reassembled the weapons, cursing the Ruger engineers yet again, then reloaded them and chambered a round in each before holstering my own and giving Sarah hers back. It was a testimony to the world we lived in that it never occurred to me that this was somewhat out of the norm once upon a time. I cleaned her. 22 rifle and my M1A. I figured I might need the heavier firepower. I was bringing an additional AR-15 as well, which was already on the boat, so Charlie and Tommy and I could share ammo.
Sarah finished packing and handed me mine. I helped her with hers and we grabbed up Jake. Sarah looked at me. “Are we taking Jake with us?”
I thought about it and finally decided. “No. As much as I would love to bring him with to keep him close, he’s safer here than anywhere. Nate will die for him if it comes to that and I can’t guarantee his safety out there. We don’t know what we’re going to run into and I have enough to worry about with you coming along.”
Sarah cocked her head at me and I continued. “I don’t want to lose you, either.”
Sarah’s expression softened and she stood on tiptoes to give me a quick kiss. Jake leaned over for a kiss as well and Sarah laughed as Jake tried to slobber one on her cheek.
We all went out the door and walked over to Nate’s house. Nate and Patty lived two homes down and Nate was waiting for us when we walked up. Jake waved his arms at Nate and received a “Hey, big guy!” in return. I put Jake down and he took three steps to Nate, who scooped him up in his big arms and held him tight.
Nate looked at me. “Good choice. Charlie just dropped off Julia, so we’ll get to play family for a few days.” Sarah handed over a bag of supplies for Jake, including food, diapers, clothes and toys. Nate brought Jake over to a blanket where Julia was playing. He crawled over and patted Julia on the head. Patty got up from her chair and came over to us.
“Hi, I’m Patty. Nice to meet you at last. Nate has told me a lot about you.” Patty was about forty years old, with brown hair and blue eyes. She seemed nice and a good match for Nate.
“About half of its true” I said and everyone laughed. Patty just smiled. “Thanks for watching the kids.” I said.
“Our pleasure” Patty replied, looking back at the babies. I got the feeling there was a sadness to her, but I wasn’t going to pry. We all had stories of tragedy these days and it was a rare thing for people to survive intact.
I walked over to Jake and picked him up for a second. I looked into his eyes and he smiled at me as I silently promised to come back to him. He seemed to understand and grabbed my nose in response. I kissed him and held him, then put him down and went back to the group.
“Thanks again, Nate. I owe you.” I shook his hand.
“Luck, brother. When will you be back?”
Sarah answered “We’ll be back within five days, seven at the most.”
I nodded. “We should have a pretty quick trip down, all things considered. Since we’re not taking the highway we don’t have to worry about cars and blockage and trapped Z’s.”
“Good luck, then.” Nate shook my hand one more time, then Sarah and I walked down the road to the slip where the boat was waiting.
Charlie, Tommy, and the others were waiting at the dock. We were actually going to be following the Illinois and Michigan canal until it intersected with the Des Plaines River. I figured we could be assured of having enough water to travel by, since barges used to use the waterway. I just hoped a barge wasn’t blocking the waterway.
Sarah and I boarded the boat, and I got a good look at Tommy and Charlie’s handiwork. They had enclosed the aft section of the boat to provide shelter from the weather and keep our gear relatively dry. The two of them had rigged up a propane grill for cooking and cases of bottled water occupied a corner. I guessed we would sleep where we could and there seemed to be enough room all around.
I put our gear next to everyone else’s and said, “Let’s go.”
Tommy nodded and fired up the motor. We were going to use the motor sparingly, to conserve fuel for the return trip, and would drift most of the way down. We knew where we were going, but we had to be careful getting there. Charlie, Martin, and myself all had long poles which we would use to steer around debris in the river. If we needed the motor we would fire it up, but for the most part we were returning to the days of Huck Finn.
We started downriver and moved along pretty well. The canal was slightly swollen as a result of melting snow upstream, but nothing dangerous. The good news was the extra water allowed for a swifter current, so we moved well. The trees along the waterway were tinged with green buds, which reminded us all that life goes on regardless of the circumstances. There was not enough vegetation yet to obstruct viewing the lands outside the canal and we could see wildlife scurrying about through the underbrush.
We drifted under the I-355 overpass and I couldn’t help but wonder when we might be able to build such things again. Certainly not in the near future.
As we moved along, I noticed a zombie ambling along the canal bank. He hadn’t noticed us yet, and was
