“Yes, I do. Sure, the shelter got us through the fallout and stuff, but we can’t live in it forever. I know you think I’m making a mistake, but I’m afraid we won’t make it far enough south before winter sets in. FEMA and the National Guard won’t let anything bad happen to us. Everyone that wanted to go south left two weeks ago.”
“I know,” Angela said, “But Charlie just wasn’t ready. We still have time. The authorities have said there are places to stay once we get there. And we can work. With the rest of the food from the shelter, and those bug-out bags that were there, we’ll have what we need to get south. Are you sure you want to give all that stuff to us?”
Emily nodded. “If it hadn’t been for you, I and the children would never have survived this. And Charlie has been a big help since we found him. It’s the least that I can do.”
“Well, I’m not going to turn it down,” Angela replied. She hugged Emily and both children, and Charlie did the same. Charlie and Angela watched as the three turned and walked into the FEMA camp, to take up residence.
“Come on, Charlie. Times a’wastin’. “
“You sure like to push an old man around,” Charlie groused. He wasn’t one-hundred percent, by any means, but he’d recovered remarkably during the summer months. The fact that he had a safe place to stay, and someone to watch his back, had allowed him to get more rest in a shorter period of time than he had for years. The food he got from FEMA wasn’t in great quantity, but it was enough for him to recover.
In the weeks, then months, after they’d made connections, Angela had come to look upon Charlie as an uncle she’d never had, and to trust him completely. Charlie’s feelings were reciprocal. He came to appreciate Angela’s resourcefulness, knowledge, and skill. She had been the one that guided the small group through the last months. It was she that insisted they go south. Charlie had been ready to go into the camp at one point, but Angela had talked him out of it.
When they got back to the Baumgartner’s, the trip going faster than it used to, now that Angela had a bicycle, they began to make their preparations for leaving. They had traded a few things from the house to a couple that were going into the camp for it. Like Charlie’s, it was a good mountain bike.
They had also acquired an old pickup that still ran, and a trailer. Angela had traded her car for it. It had taken a while to get it out of the traffic jam. They’d been collecting gasoline for a long while. It wouldn’t be enough to get them as far south as they wanted to go, but it would get them a long ways on the journey.
It took them three days to pack up everything they were going to take, including the remainder of the LTS food, the weapons, and removable equipment from the shelter. Once Angela had decided they were moving, and Emily had approved the action, they used what they weren’t going to take for barter, to get the rest of the things they needed to take with them to ensure the success of the trip.
Charlie had rigged larger and better trailers for the bikes, and modified four of the packs that were part of the ten BOB’s that had been in the shelter to fasten to the bikes that they would push, rather than ride, when they ran out of fuel for the truck.
A farm family heard about their plan to go south a day in to the preparations and asked if they could travel with them in return for some fuel. They had a two-ton farm truck with a trailer of gasoline. They were still trying to find more food when the group left.
Angela readily agreed. That would let them take all the food from the shelter with them. Enough to share, with plenty left over for their first days in the south.
Angela had to admit, whether he had planned to or not, Edward Baumgartner had prepared well. They were a well equipped, though small, expedition that set off for greener pastures and better climate that day.
It was no easy trip, but with the goods they had, and the arms they had to use twice, they made their journey. They were even able to cache everything that wouldn’t fit on the bikes and trailers when they ran out of fuel after parting ways with the Stanford’s, who were headed for relatives about three quarters of the way to where Angela and Charlie were going.
Once they established themselves, Angela and Charlie returned and retrieved the caches. It was enough to see them through the winter at the farm they found that needed willing hands.
Emily and the children didn’t fare well that winter. The two children froze to death one bitterly cold night, and Emily died a few days later, from malnutrition, cold, and grief.
It was experienced farmers and survivalists that owned and ran the farm where Angela and Charlie took up residence. Unlike Emily, John, and Catherine, Angela and Charlie would make it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Some of the first were the plans of those that wanted to go south to avoid another winter like the one they’d just endured. Sara’s census indicated there were three-hundred-twenty-one people in the area that included the town and the estate. One third were children. Almost half the adults wanted to move if it were possible.
Reports had come from the area of the new Memphis Bay of the Gulf of Mexico that they had fared well. Memphis had snow most of the winter, but it was one or two feet at a time. Not four or five or six or more. And not nearly as often. They’d had two periods when the snow was gone for a few days. It was a much different kind of weather than before the war, but reasonable to the minds of the town folk. More like what they were used to.
The area around the Gulf had suffered even more than the town had, because no one in that area was even remotely prepared for that type of hard winter. The death toll had been high, according to the reports Sara was getting. There were places available for people that wanted to go there. They would be welcome.
Everyone at the estate attended the town meeting set to discuss moving. Percy hadn’t wanted to bring up any of the projects he had in mind until the issue of moving was settled. It didn’t take that long.
Sara had reported that there would probably be a big change in the population soon when she turned in her preliminary report in March. Both the state and federal governments were represented at the town meeting. When it was clear that so many people wanted to move, the government representatives asked to be allowed to speak.
Sara’s boss spoke first. “We don’t like to lose citizens, in ordinary times,” he said. “These are extraordinary times. The way the future looks, winters like this past winter will be the norm for many years. The state lost many of her citizens, between the war and the weather. Our services, such as they are, are strained to the limit. I doubt if you have noticed, since things have gone so well here.”
There were some murmurs and restlessness from the crowd at that. Howard Broadfield lifted his hands for a moment. “I know. I know. Everyone here suffered. But believe me, compared to most you really did have it easy. I lost three toes myself to frostbite and that was in the state’s shelter at the capitol.
“Be that as it may, we have been helping people in other locations to the best of our ability. Many of them also want to leave and go south. It would ease the strain on the state’s resources and speed our recovery. The state will help with this project, to a limited degree. We can discuss the details after you’ve conducted your meeting.”
The federal official took the podium next. She was a representative of FEMA. “Howard is right,” she said. “As long as some move south, and not all, everyone will benefit. The south was hit even harder than you here.” Again came the murmurs.
“Believe me when I tell you, twenty below in Memphis is ten times worse than forty below here. People were not prepared for anything except a dusting of snow, perhaps once each winter, and temperatures below freezing only a few times a winter. Estimates are that in this area we lost fifty percent of our population directly to the war, and sixty percent of what was left to the winter weather, combined with the results of volcanic and seismic activity. Twenty percent survived.