When the dust began to settle, what remained of the government leadership crawled out of their holes, grasping at what little power was left. John’s unit was tasked with retrieving national assets, specifically people who were vital to rebuilding the country’s decimated infrastructure. After a botched mission in a San Jose suburb, John’s helicopter crashed near where Jared and his friends had holed up in the hills near Mount Hamilton.
After experiencing how the so-called government was only interested in securing its own future while doing nothing for citizens who were dying by the tens of thousands, John decided to join forces with Jared and the rest of his group.
Finally, there was Calvin, who at the time was at the little group’s observation post (OP), watching all the avenues of ingress into the property. The group took turns manning the OP in order to avoid any unwanted visitors walking up to the house and surprising them. Jared and his friends had food and a working vehicle, which made their circumstances even more vulnerable since both items were extremely challenging to obtain. Calvin lived alone on a small ranch with a couple of horses and a dozen head of cattle. He was comfortable with a shotgun, but hadn’t spent his life using firearms as anything other than a way to rid his property of rattlesnakes and coyotes.
Calvin proved his worth the first day Jared met him when an old VW Beetle loaded with gang members ransacked Calvin’s ranch house. He and Bart made their way to Calvin’s home and shot every last one of the gang members, with a little help from Jared. Calvin never spoke about the incident after it happened, so Jared never knew how the violent encounter impacted the man. One thing Jared did know on a very personal level was every time he unwillingly participated in a violent conflict, the following barbarous event seemed a little easier.
Everyone eating breakfast was mostly silent and remained that way as Jared joined them. Everyone knew how close Jared and the old man had been, and were affected by Bart’s death in their own way. No one knew quite what to say to Jared; therefore they all ate in mute silence. After finishing his oatmeal, Jared got to his feet.
“Thanks for the oatmeal,” he obliged, looking at Shannon before turning to John. “You mind helping me get him out of the house?”
“I’ll do more than that. I’ll help you dig a proper grave,” John returned, his face painted in empathy for Jared’s loss.
Jared shook his head. “No, I need to do that myself. I owe him that much and a lot more.”
John dipped his chin in acknowledgment and went back to eating. Jared stood for a moment longer, then grabbed his rifle and stepped out onto the front porch. The cool morning air washed over his still-warm face, doing more for him than a cup of coffee ever could. Jared took a deep breath and headed to the back of the house, where he found a wheelbarrow, a pick and an old shovel inside a shed. Next, Jared wheeled all the equipment to the front of the ranch house and left it. He moved off into the countryside, in search of a proper burial spot for a man he had only known for a couple of months, but whose death left a gigantic void in Jared’s life.
Jared knew he wanted to leave the ranch house, but was also aware deep down that it was a safe haven with plenty of food for the winter. Wanting to leave was most likely a visceral and emotional reaction to the loss of his old friend. As he scoured the surrounding area for a burial site, he did this with the thought that, if they stayed, he did not want to see the grave from the house or OP. He did want to be able to visit his old friend’s grave without too much effort, so he hiked a couple of hundred yards out before seriously starting his site search.
Three hundred yards from the ranch house and over a small rise, Jared found what he was looking for: a large oak tree in a flat grassy area, to serve as Bart’s final resting place. Jared kicked at the ground’s surface where he thought he would start digging, and found the ground nearly as hard as stone. Nothing was easy anymore, and he hadn’t expected this to be any different, but the presence of soft earth would have been a welcome find.
When Jared returned to the ranch house, John was standing beside a wheelbarrow in which Bart’s frail body lay covered with a sheet, and the tools were laid on the ground next to the wheelbarrow. When Jared had left to scout a burial site, John went out front, saw the wheelbarrow, and decided to spare Jared the pain of dragging his friend through the house. John had easily lifted the dead man onto a shoulder, walked to the rear of the house so Essie didn’t have to witness the corpse, and gently positioned Bart in the wheelbarrow. He’d covered Bart and waited for Jared to return.
Jared nodded by way of thanking John and grabbed both wheelbarrow handles, hefting the load up off the ground as he pushed forward towards the oak tree.
“You mind bringing those tools?” Jared asked without looking back.
John collected the pick and shovel and followed Jared away from the ranch house. The trip out to the burial site went aggravatingly slowly as Jared struggled over the
