Grid Down Perceptions of Reality Read online

  Preston smiled as he took another bowl, saying, “Amy, you are one heck of a cook, even out in the middle of nowhere. The magic you do, not only being able to catch food when we desperately needed it, but to turn it into a delicious meal, is something I truly love about you.”

  Amy smiled, “Well, I guess all that training and practice is paying off now. What do you think our chances of actually making it up to Wisconsin are?”

  Preston smiled, “I think we have a pretty fair chance of making it. The only thing I’m really worried about is running into that band of guys that are grabbing women. There’s no way the three of us could hold off 20 highly trained men that have been snatching women for the last year. Our best defense now, against those kinds of numbers, is to sneak through this area as quietly and quickly as possible.”

  Michael smiled “Is there any more food I am starving?”

  “Why are you always thinking about food?” She replied.

  They headed out into the darkness. It was a cloudy night, the kind where it was hard to make out the road in front of them. The darkness was truly their friend in these perilous times. If there were an enemy waiting to ambush them, they would be able to sneak by. That’s exactly what Preston wanted to do.

  The dread he was feeling, that they must clear this area quickly, and as quietly as possible, was brewing in the back of his mind. He just couldn’t shake it. Just before light they stopped and set up camp.

  No chances for a fire now, no hot meal, but they just needed to get a really good eight hours of sleep. Amy said she would take the first watch. They were running low on food. Food was their gasoline, for it powered their bodies, which powered the bikes. At two in the afternoon, Amy woke Preston up.

  She smiled and handed him a cup coffee.

  “I told you no fires, but I’m glad you didn’t listen to me. Nothing in the world is better than waking up to you and a hot cup of coffee.”

  Michael was still sleeping, and she sighed saying, “We did push him pretty hard.”

  Amy said, “Alright Mr. Tough guy, there’s a pond back behind us, why don’t you take the fishing equipment go see if you can catch us dinner, while I get some sleep?”

  Preston complained, “But whose going to stand guard and watch over you?”

  “Oh don’t worry, it’s been as quiet as church mouse out there. Nothing’s going on.”

  “You’re right. We haven’t seen anyone, and we haven’t had any trouble. I’ll sneak over there, rig me up a little fishing pole, and see what we can catch for dinner.”

  “Sounds good to me. I’m going to get some much-needed sleep. Wake me up around 7:30.”

  Preston walked over to the pond, which was about half a mile away. It felt good to walk for a change, instead of pumping the pedals on the bike.

  After cutting about a 10 foot long sapling with his knife, he went searching for bait, turning over old logs and leaves until he was able to find a couple of worms. Using his knife again, he was able to make a little bobber out of a stick. Cutting a groove around the center, he tied it to his line. From this, he attached a sinker at the bottom of the hook. The 10-foot pole was able to get out to the edge of the weed bed.

  He was looking around for a place to sit down, when the bobber disappeared with a ‘plop’, he was so excited that he jerked so hard that the little bluegill came right out of the water, flying straight at him. The fish smacked him in the chest and then fell to the ground. He reached down and grabbed it. Placing it on the ground, he quickly put his knife through the brain to kill it. Luckily, he still had half of his worm left, and within 10 minutes he had caught four more. None of them were huge, but now he had to stop fishing and go on another search for more worms.

  Within two more hours, he caught a half dozen more. It was when he was searching for more worms when he heard screaming. Dropping his pole, he took off at a fast run back to camp. By the time he had covered the half a mile, it was all over. He raced to the road just in time to see the caravan moving away, with Amy in the back of a wagon with metal bars on the door. She was screaming, “Preston kill me please. You promised.”

  After what had happened to Vickie’s friends, she had made Preston promise that if she was ever taken he would kill her so she didn’t suffer being abused, raped and tortured. She had become adamant and insisted that if he loved her, he would kill her and not let her suffer that fate.

  He had prayed that this day would never come. He knew he could never fulfill his promise and shoot her. The men riding horses near the wagon looked around and thought she was bluffing. Before he could blink, they were out of sight.

  Then he remembered, my God where’s Michael? He raced over and found Michael in bloody heap. He was still breathing but it was shallow. He must tend to Michael’s wounds. He would have to rescue Amy at night.

  All their supplies and guns were gone. The only thing that remained was Michael sleeping bag. It appeared that they just walked up and butt stroked him with their rifle. At least the stranger had been wrong about them slicing his throat. Preston still had his daypack on. He quickly removed it, grabbed the first aid kit and cleaned Michael’s wounds. Michael woke up in a daze, mumbled, “What happened? What’s going on? Why did you hit me?”

  Preston said, “I didn’t hit you. The Raiders came and they took Amy.” Michael immediately sat up and said, “We have to go save her right now.” Putting his hand to his head he said, “Oh my God, does that hurt.”

  Preston told him to relax and lay down. “I’m going set you up in a safe, hidden camp, away from the road. Once I know you’re safe and okay, then I’m going after Amy, alone, do you understand me?”

  In a panic, Michael said, “No, no I am not staying here. She means just as much to me as she does to you.”

  “I’m sorry Michael, but you’re just not big enough, strong enough, or fast enough right now. You must stay and regain your strength. I’m going to set you up with the fishing equipment and the frog spear. When I come back with Amy, I expect you to be well fed, have dried fish, and ready to go.”

  “You can’t take on that many guys alone.” Michael protested.

  “I don’t have to, I just have to rescue her at night.”

  Reluctantly, Michael said, “Okay then get me set up by the camp and go save Amy.”

  Preston took them back to the area and set-up camp. “Now listen to me closely Michael. I don’t have time to worry about you too. Therefore you are going to listen to me and do exactly as I say. You are going to stay right here. Do not go anywhere near the road, until I return for you. If I’m not back with Amy in four days, you are going to be on your own. Here’s my 9 mm pistol, two extra magazines, and two boxes of shells. You also have the fishing equipment and frog spear. Here’s an extra flint and steel for you to start a fire. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to be back, with Amy, in four days.

  Chapter 6

  Northbound

  No matter where you are, you're always a bit on your own, always an outsider.”

  ― Banana Yoshimoto,

  Joe was already to go. They had everything they could carry. He made a cache inside the camp and stored the extra coffee. You never know if we might come back through here some time. This stuff will be worth its weight in gold.

  The July heat was hitting them now, so it would be best to travel at night and try to find a cool spot during the day to rest.

  “Where we going?” Jane asked. “We are nomads, now that we’ve lost everything, well not everything,” she smiled, “we are still armed.”

  Joe answered, “North. I told you, to the hunting camp in Wisconsin.”

  “Let’s go.” They headed out past the burned-out spot in the ground, where her dream home had been. A single tear fell down her cheek as they headed past, maybe for the last time. She was numb. We have a one-in-a-million chance of ever seeing Preston, Amy, and Michael again, let alone making it up to this hunting camp, she thought.

  After 7 days on the road, they were out of food
. Riding the bikes, they made about 30 miles per day, which was about 210 miles, and they still had over 120 miles to go. Four days with no food, they would never make it. They had crossed into Wisconsin early, thinking they would miss the main population centers around Minneapolis-St. Paul.

  “We must find a way to resupply.” Joe said. “I want to rest for a couple of days. But we must find a way to get supplies.”

  “I know that I need to rest for a couple of days, at least.” Jane replied. “Food and rest; got it Mister?”

  Joe said, “Where am I going to find that?”

  Jane shrugged her shoulders, “that’s up to you Mr. Know-it-all, but we better do something quick.”

  Joe found a secluded spot off the main road. They were both too tired and worn out from lack of food to make a proper camp. They just crawled under their sleeping bags and slept overcame them quickly. Waking up about noon, Joe looked around. Something had woke him up. What was it? He searched the recesses of his mind. Was it a noise? Slowly he moved around, looking to identify what it was. Everything around them looked normal. He strained his ears trying to pick up some noise. He could barely hear something clicking. What is that?

  He slowly sat up, finding Jane sleeping beside him, and everything looked normal. The noise was gone now. He quickly got up, grabbed his rifle and snuck out to the road. Way off in the distance, he could see a person on horseback.

  He woke up Jane and told her what he saw and said he was going to follow the person, and maybe they could get lucky and find some food. They most certainly had enough coffee and that would make for easy trading or bartering. Jane told him to be careful and be back soon.

  Joe told her, “No more than a few hours, I promise.”

  With that, he was off like a flash. He must catch up to this person before he loses him. Riding the bike, he quickly caught up with the person on the horse. The person was unarmed and quite startled to see him.

  “Who are you, and what you want?” It was a guy in his 30s, his clothes look halfway clean, but well worn, his beard was dark and a medium length. They both stopped and looked at each other from about 20 feet away. Joe said "I mean you no harm, we're running low on food and we'd like to trade or barter, if you have any spare.”

  The man said, “You must not be from around this area, if you still have guns.”

  Joe responded, “Still have guns? What do you mean, are you out of ammo?”

  “No, but the local warlord doesn't allow anybody to have guns except for his troops. If they catch you they will kill you and take your guns for sure.”

  Joe smiled, “Not without a fight they won't. But that doesn't really matter right now, we just need some food, and then we'll be traveling on.”

  The man asked, “What do you have to trade?”

  Joe smiled and said, “Green coffee beans!”

  In surprise, the man said, “Real honest to goodness coffee? Well if that's true, what do you want to trade for?”

  “We need food. Preferably rice, oatmeal, and some meat, fish or poultry. What do you have?”

  The horseman said, “Follow me. I'll take you to the farm.”

  They turned off down the road and the man seemed quite at ease. Maybe this warlord is halfway fair. A few miles down the road, they turned on a dirt road, heading off to the north. Soon they came up to a small homestead. There was a main house and what appeared to be like two small guest cabins. There was probably 40 acres planted with a variety of different foods; corn, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, etc. and there was also an apple orchard.

  There were children outside, running and playing. There were four people working out in the fields, pulling weeds. Joe scanned the area and, for the life of him he couldn't see anybody with guns or any type of weapons anywhere.

  An older man came out and said, “Jacob, who did you bring back with you?”

  The horseman replied, “I'm sorry, I didn't catch his name. He is traveling through and wants to trade coffee, yes real coffee, for some foodstuff.”

  The older man looked at Joe and said, “Hello, my name's Philip, and we need to get you out of sight, before the warlords troops see that you're here with a gun.”

  “Hi, my name's Joe. I mean you no harm and don’t wish to cause any problems for you by being here.”

  Philip said, "We need to hide your bike out back. If you insist on keeping your gun, then we have to get you inside and out of sight.”

  With that, Jacob said, “Follow me and I’ll take you behind the house, where you can put your bike.” They placed Joe’s bike out of sight behind a woodpile. Walking inside, the smell of fresh bread reminded Joe how hungry he truly was. But then the thought of Jane being just as hungry and waiting for him back a camp came bursting into his mind. He must make the trade and move on as fast as he could. Whoever this warlord and their troops are, he didn't want to find out. He wanted nothing more than to get out of this area.

  An older lady was busy in the kitchen. She was preparing bread. Philip sat down at the table and pointed toward the empty seat. “Sorry, all we have is tea to offer you.”

  Joe replied, “Tea would be fine, thank you for your kindness.”

  “So you have coffee? How much do you have, and what would you like for it?”

  “I have 2 pounds of green coffee beans. I would like to get 5 pounds of rice, 2 pounds of jerky, a pound of oatmeal, some fresh butter and bread. I think that would be an awesome deal.”

  Phillip said, “Wow, that’s kind of a steep price for only 2 pounds of coffee, don't you think? But you can skip the rice we don't have any. We do have dehydrated potatoes, would that work? We have the jerky and oatmeal, and I do believe the wife has made some extra bread, so we could throw that in with a pound of butter. Would that work for you?”

  Right then, the door burst wide open and Jacob came running in. He had a worried, stressed look on his face. He shouted, “You must hide right now.”

  Joe stood up, alarm showing on his face, “Why? What's going on?”

  “Troops are coming, and you can't be here with your guns, your Camouflage, and all of the gear you have. We have to hide you right now.” Taking Joe by the arm, he said, “Quickly, we have a storm cellar, you can hide in there and don't make a sound.” Philip and Jacob moved to opposite ends of the table. They lifted it and quickly moved the table out of the way. Philip grabbed the carpet and whipped it to the side. Underneath was a hatch. Philip opened the hatch and motioned for Joe to get quickly, and down the ladder.

  Joe could hear the horses, and the sound of the troop’s footsteps. He glanced outside as he was on the stairs, and could see them. There appeared to be at least 10-armed men. He walked down the narrow staircase and it was pitch black down there. He sat down on the stairs. The hatch was quickly closed and the carpet and table were set back up in place.

  The darkness was overwhelming and his only sense was his hearing. He heard the door open and footsteps walking inside. A muffled voice said, “Have you seen any new people in the area?” Joe believed it was Philip that answered. “No, we've seen no one, and we've had not heard of none in the area, why do you ask?”

  He heard the muffled deep voice again, "No reason. This time of year people are traveling and we like to keep tabs on whose traveling through our territory, that’s all. From the looks of your crops, you should have no problem paying your taxes this year.”

  Joe was thinking, taxes? If money was worthless, what are they using to pay their taxes? He then heard what sounded like a briefcase opening up, and papers being shuffled. The voice said, “According to our reports, you have a girl coming-of-age before this winter. There won’t be any problems like last year? Right?”

  “Philip replied, “As far as I know, there will be no problem.”

  The deep voice again replied, “That's good. We wouldn’t want to kill too many of your men, otherwise you wouldn't have enough to keep growing our crops for us. You do enjoy our protection, don't you? Have there been any raids on your farm since we took
control?”

  Jacob replied, “No. There have not been any raids. Thank you for your help. Is there anything else we can help you with today?”

  The deep voice replied, “No. We were just patrolling the area and stopped in to see how you're doing. That bread sure does smell good.”

  Philip replied this time, “The wife just finished a loaf. Would you like take it with you?”

  “Yes I would. Well, we'll get out of your hair so you can get back to farming. Motioning to Philip and Jacob, he said, “You two should not be sitting around the house, you should be out working in the fields.”

  Jacob replied, “I was out for a morning ride and saw you were coming. So I informed my father that you would soon be here.”

  Joe heard footsteps above him, and then, “Thank you for the loaf of bread. We'll be moving on now.”

  More sounds of footsteps walking away and then the sound of the front door opening. He could hear muffled voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying. And then, silence. Joe was wondering if are they were giving him up? Was this going to turn into a gun battle after all? There was nothing he could do but sit and wait. Suddenly the darkness felt overwhelming, even though the basement was cool, he broke out in a cold sweat. I should never have let them talk me into going into the basement. Just then he heard a teenage girl’s voice whisper softly in the dark, “Who are you?”

  Joe stood up quickly, smacking his head on ceiling. He whispered back, “Where are you?” His mind was racing a million miles a minute. What the heck is going on here?

  The girl whispered again, “My name's Mattie. I'm 15 and my dad's not going let them take me.”

  “Mattie, my name is Joe. What you mean take you?” Joe whispered back.

  The girl, still whispering, “You don't know that part of the taxes are that once a girl reaches the age of 15, she must spend one year working for the warlord?”