I spoke up, "Ed, I want to go with you, too. Since the base had heavy equipment, we may find diesel and gasoline tanks that haven't been emptied." He nodded. "When do you plan to leave?"
"In the morning at seven," he replied.
After breakfast, I kissed Kira and hugged the kids. "We may be gone two or three days. This Army base is spread out over several square miles, and it might take the whole first day plus part of the second to locate what we're looking for. At least the weather is decent for January."
She smiled. "Take an extra jacket with you in case the weather deteriorates. The temperature might turn colder before you guys get back."
At the trucks, I joined Ed, Dean, and Martin Radcliff Jr. We were taking two pickups and pulling two sixteen-foot enclosed trailers. We never knew ahead of time what we'd find in locations that were new to us. None of us had been to that base before.
The rising sun shone in my passenger side window as I rode with Ed. "What do you know about the base?" I asked.
"Not a whole lot. It was a training base for the Army Engineers and Military Police units. If combat engineers are involved, there must have been explosives training and heavy equipment on site."
After thirty minutes, we were silent as both became absorbed in our own thoughts. We'd driven north on Highway 63, then turned west on to Route K. After a lot of twists and turns on county roads, we finally saw buildings spread across a lot of acreage.
Ed drove on until we were at the weathered welcoming sign for the base. We were greeted by the sun-bleached bones of bodies that could have been human or zombies when they died.
The main entrance was open. The door on the guard house stood ajar and several of the large plate glass windows were shattered. We drove through, and in the distance, we saw many hundreds of remains scattered in every direction. Decaying remnants of army uniforms shrouded some of the corpses. People had been there before us; many of the skeletal remains had been crushed by other vehicles. We avoided running over as many as we could out of respect for our fallen soldier brothers.
We avoided acres of three-story base housing units and wandered down streets until we saw warehouses in the distance. As we pulled in and parked at the first metal buildings, several overhead doors stood open, giving glimpses into the huge dark spaces awaiting us.
Junior raised the overhead door on his trailer and pushed two 125cc Yamaha scooters out to me. Ed took one, and Dean rode behind him holding a flashlight in each hand as they raced up the concrete ramp into the warehouse. I climbed on behind Junior, and we charged up the ramp, made a hard right, and drove to the end of the building. He slowed to a crawl down the first aisle as I shined light beams on boxes on wood pallets stacked three high on gray heavy duty racks.
We cleared the first and second buildings without finding anything on our shopping list. They seemed to be mainly parts storage. The third warehouse looked more rewarding until we stopped and looked closer. Empty pallets sat on the floor and the shelf above them. Evidence of leakage showed on the stained and buckled cardboard cartons on the next shelf up. Canned goods packed in liquid had frozen and burst. At least we were in the food section.
Two long, dark aisles over, we discovered dry foods: beans, rice, flour, sugar, salt, pepper and other seasonings. We'd have to forgo fruits and vegetables every day and make it through the winter on fresh meat, beans and rice and the commercial canned goods we still had. Upon closer inspection, we saw evidence that mice and rats had attacked several of the cardboard, paper and plastic wrapped goods.
Scattered down the same aisle, we saw boxes of canned salmon, tuna, sardines, canned hams, peanut butter, oats, cold cereals and nuts. All were in larger than normal commercial-sized containers, of course.
The trucks and trailers were maneuvered inside, and we spent the remainder of the day loading boxes of food. The easy to reach goods had been pillaged earlier. A long, wood bench sitting outside the building provided a ten inch wide board twelve feet long that served as a ramp to slide boxes from the upper shelves to waiting hands on the floor. Ed's trailer was loaded with beans, rice, etc. while we left my truck engine run to power the headlights to work by. At the next cache, we loaded my trailer while his truck provided light. When we finished, exhaust fumes were strong enough to make breathing uncomfortable. We left that warehouse and entered the next one where we would begin searching the following morning. Our supper was the same as lunch; we'd each brought meat sandwiches and water.
After a night of sporadic sleep in the truck cabs, we resumed our search. This building contained a wide assortment of dry goods. We located uniforms and stocked up on camouflage fatigues, boots, socks, underwear, jackets and winter coats. I dreaded to think about how our heirs would survive after the existing manufactured clothing and boots were depleted.
The addition of the clothing made my trailer three-quarters full. Ed's trailer was over half full of food. He was anxious to find the armory to learn what, if anything, was available in weapons and ammunition. But he insisted on finding the heavy ordnance storage first. The supply of PETN explosive had been reduced
