“No problem.” Matt sighed, staring at the street ahead. It was quiet and empty, for now. “I wish I had more cans of bear spray for you guys, just in case. We’ll have to make do with what we have.”
Trev ended up walking about a block ahead of the group to scout for danger. That worked out pretty well because even as slow and careful as he was being he still managed to stay ahead of the others. The Lynn family had their sons to deal with and weren’t used to walking, both of which slowed them down in subtle but noticeable ways.
In spite of his caution he didn’t so much as hear anything to suggest people were around. Either they were lucky or everyone nearby had already evacuated to Antelope Island. Or maybe the looters preferred to do their mischief in the dark with such a strong FETF presence not far away.
In any case the hike went smoothly as the somewhat chilly morning gave way to noon. At about that time Paul and Aaron began complaining about hunger. April explained that since they’d only had two meals in the camp this wasn’t unusual, but Trev was still worried about the noise they were making. Especially when Paul began crying and looked on the verge of a meltdown.
“We need to search for food,” Terry told him when he dropped back to see what the commotion was.
Trev frowned. “Where exactly are we going to find it? Even if we went house to house I guarantee anything in the pantries was eaten weeks ago, probably even before looters came through here looking for scraps.”
“I’m not thinking of pantries,” April said, pointing up at a nearby hill where more upscale houses formed their own little neighborhood. They were set back in large yards. “There’s a good chance we’ll find gardens, fruit trees, or other things there.”
“Decorative plants, maybe,” Trev said doubtfully.
“It’s worth a look.” Terry led the way to the next intersection and started making for the wealthier neighborhood, and Trev once again hurried ahead to resume his scouting: richer houses meant looters were more likely to be sniffing around.
When they reached the neighborhood he searched carefully, but although all the houses had broken windows and a few had furniture and broken dishes strewn across the yards none looked occupied. He dropped back to rejoin the others and see which house they wanted to check out first.
It turned out no searching was required at all. April took one look at the nearest front yard, which was carefully cultivated with rosebushes around the porch and lining the sidewalk leading up to the front door, and grinned. “Jackpot!”
Trev frowned. “How? I’m not seeing any garden or fruit trees.”
Matt’s sister grinned at him. “There’s food right in front of you, Mr. Know-It-All. Sure, people might’ve grabbed every can, box, and tin in the pantry, but they only went for the food they were familiar with.” To demonstrate April walked over to the nearest rosebush and plucked off one of the fat seed pods. “Haven’t you ever heard of rose hips?”
“That’s what those are?” Trev asked, surprised.
“Oh hey, yeah,” Matt said, slapping his forehead. “Man, I’m such an idiot. Now’s just the time when they’re in season, too. Not to mention we’ve been walking past tons of dandelions and other edible weeds.”
Trev stared between the two siblings in blank confusion. “Edible… weeds?”
His friend had already plucked off a rose hip of his own and pulled out his small pocketknife/fingernail clippers, the only thing resembling a weapon the police at the roadblock hadn’t confiscated, so he could cut off the ends and slice it in half. As Trev watched Matt used the knife’s tip to scoop out the seeds, then began carefully scraping the inner wall to remove the small white hairs. After carefully inspecting the inside to make sure it was clean Matt popped it into his mouth, groaning with satisfaction.
Following his friend’s example Trev plucked a rose hip off the bush and used his fingernail to dig out the end, then popped it whole into his mouth. He was used to eating fruit with seeds and planned to just spit them out.
“Uh oh,” April said. “Bad idea. Spit it out, Trevor.”
“Huh?” he asked around a full mouth. The rose hip was slightly tart, but otherwise tasted delicious.
“Spit it out. Didn’t you see Matt scrape out those white hairs? Those things are like fiberglass and have been used to make itching powder, so imagine what they’ll feel like going through your insides. Also the seeds are slightly toxic.”
Trev hurriedly spat it out. Served him right for ignoring his friend’s demonstration of how to properly eat it. “This is a great idea,” he said as he grabbed another rose hip and used his fingernails to do what Matt was doing with his knife. Terry had a multi-tool he was using while April also used her fingernails. “I should’ve thought about edible plants on the way up. Lewis would have.”
“And I should have, too,” Matt added, passing cleaned rose hip halves to his nephews, who immediately popped them into their mouths and chewed contentedly. “Mom makes weed salads every now and again. They don’t taste great but they’re healthy and don’t cost anything.”
“It doesn’t look like anyone else has figured it out, either,” Terry said, looking around the yard with a relieved smile on his face. “If you know what plants to eat we shouldn’t go too hungry on our way south, dear.”
As Trev chewed on his first seed pod, which was surprisingly a lot like fruit, he felt a surge of relief. Although he’d kept it to himself he’d been really worried about trying to make the trip south to Aspen Hill with kids in tow and no food. It had seemed daunting to the point of impossibility. But if there was stuff they could eat planted right in people’s yards, food homeowners had cultivated for ornamental purposes and left behind, then that would solve a lot of problems.
In fact, they’d be able to harvest enough rose hips from just the bushes in this yard to fill their packs and wagon. They might not even need to forage for anything else. This house’s owners and their love of roses were a godsend.
After filling up on a bunch of the fruits they began plucking as many as they could and stuffing them into backpacks and atop the wagon. They picked through nearly half the rosebushes before they decided they had enough, and Trev was just suggesting that they continue on when he caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye.
He turned to see a young man, maybe seventeen or eighteen and dressed in grimy clothes, creeping up on them with a revolver in his hand. He was only fifteen or so feet away, partially hidden by a rosebush.
When the kid realized that Trev had seen him he burst out of hiding. “Everybody hands in the air!” he shouted, waving the gun wildly so it pointed at all of them and none of them. “I’m going to take all your stuf—”
Trev dove to the side, yanking his bear spray out of his pocket.
The move caught everyone else by surprise, probably because none of them believed anyone could be that crazy. Trev could hardly believe he was doing it himself but he knew he had to act, mostly out of anger at himself for getting so distracted with food that he let his guard down and failed to protect the group.
The mugger gaped for almost a full second before yanking his gun around to focus on Trev as he fell. From the looks of it Matt had been frozen in surprise, but when he saw the threat to Trev he hastily pulled out his own can and aimed for the teenager’s face.
Trev squeezed the trigger and the two streams of pepper spray flew at nearly the same time. Unfortunately he landed just as he shot and it threw his aim off to one side of the mugger’s head. Luckily Matt’s shot was better and he hit the kid on the chin, walking it up into his mouth, nose, and eyes.