“Where are you going?” asked Robert.
“I was going to Helena to pick up my husband from the airport. He was on an early morning flight.” The woman looked down at her child. “This is our first child. He hasn’t even seen her yet. He’s been deployed overseas.” She leaned her head back against the trunk of the tree and closed her eyes. “My car died and my cell phone doesn’t work, either. There’s no way to call a tow truck and no one has driven by to help. I tried to walk to get help, but saw all the other stalled vehicles on both sides of the road.” Beth opened her eyes and shook her head. “I need to get my husband and get back to Great Falls.”
“Beth, when your car stalled, did you see the massive display of northern lights?” asked Robert.
“How did you know that is when my car stalled?”
“We think there was a large solar storm responsible for causing that display of northern lights. It was so massive everything with a computer chip is dead and the power grid has been taken down, too. We’re lucky to have these rafts to take us home.”
The woman appeared stunned and tearfully said, “My husband… he was on a jet… what about my husband?”
“I’m sorry,” Robert said, in a hushed tone.
The woman broke down and sobbed uncontrollably. Kyle and Richard walked a short distance away from the woman, but Robert stayed with her. He kept thinking of his family. He thought how easy it would be to collapse emotionally right now, but that would not help him get home. He knew they should help this woman and he wanted to make sure they did all they could. He gently touched her shoulder and spoke.
“Beth, we’re going through Great Falls to get home. You can go with us. We can get you home. Grab your stuff. Don’t you have a stroller?” asked Robert.
“They took it. Those men took the stroller and my purse,” she replied, as she pointed to the road.
Robert immediately stood up and quickly looked around. Kyle and Richard, noticing Robert’s sudden alertness, became concerned and hurried back over.
“She said she got mugged on the road.”
“I don’t want any trouble. Let’s get out of here,” Richard said, as he inched backwards toward the raft, while continuing to scan the highway with his nervous eyes.
“Get in my raft,” Robert told Beth. “I have some boxed cereal there. You can crush it and feed some to the baby.”
The woman obeyed, and they pushed away from the shallow riverbank and began to float downstream again. The woman swallowed more water, ravished the dry cereal, and fed the baby what she could. After she and her baby ate and drank, they fell fast asleep in Robert’s raft.
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, they travelled several more miles downstream. Richard motioned to the riverbank where there was some trees for shade. That is where they all stopped and pulled the rafts from the water. Richard headed to the bushes to relieve himself and smoke one of his precious cigarettes. Kyle had been studying the map and concluded that they could make it to the next town by sundown. Robert suggested they go just to the other side of the town and stop for the night. They needed to get food. Everyone ate a bagel and drank some newly filtered water. The shadow of the shade trees barely moved before they continued downstream again.
Just outside of the small town, the woman and baby awoke. Robert could feel his body becoming fatigued from constantly paddling and steering the raft. It would be a good time to stop. As they gently floated past the quiet town, Kyle noticed a small park and that there was no one around. Robert only agreed to stop at this location because it offered trees and shrubbery to conceal the rafts and supplies. He was extremely hesitant about staying this close to the town.
“Do you know anybody in this town, or have any relatives here, maybe?” asked Richard.
“No, my husband is—,” she choked up, but maintained her composure, “was in the military. We moved around a lot. We were each other’s best friend.”
“Richard, here’s the axe and machete,” said Kyle. “Get some wood together. I’ll use some grubs as bait and throw some lines in the water. We are going to try to find some food around here.”
Richard nodded, and the woman sat down at a picnic table with her baby. Richard lit a cigarette and began to gather wood for a fire. The woman held the baby close and wished her husband could have gotten the chance to see his beautiful daughter. Beth pulled a small picture of her husband out of her pocket. She turned the photo over and read the back. He had written, “I love you” in red ink. Her eyes welled and a tear hit the picture near the red ink. The three words began to smear and then disappeared in an incoherent trail of red on the back of the photo.
Chapter Five
The highway paralleling the river went through the small town. Robert and Kyle walked to the road from the river and followed it to the town’s outskirts. At the edge of town, the name of the highway changed to Main Street, and looking several blocks down Main Street, they could see what looked like a convenience store with its front door propped open. They thought it would be hot in the store, with the sun shining through the large glass windows, and no air conditioning or even an electric fan. As they got closer, the men could see a sign in the window that warned, CASH ONLY, and wondered to themselves how much longer that would last. From the sidewalk, they peered inside the store through the open door. The men saw a clerk leaning against the counter by the dead cash register, with his back to the door, fanning himself with a flat piece of cardboard. The clerk heard the men enter the store and turned, wiping the sweat from his brow with a rag, and staring at Robert and Kyle as they came in. The clerk had an awkward movement and tilt to his head as his gaze tracked the men walking through the store.
Their plan was to use cash to buy supplies. Robert surmised, and Kyle agreed, that merchants would first stop using credit cards and then only accept cash. They wanted to use their cash before people realized it was also worthless. Food was their main priority. After the cash ran out, or people stopped using it, they would have to scavenge and barter, but they had nothing to barter with.
“Cash only,” said the clerk.
“We have cash,” Kyle replied.
They found a short aisle with dried foods. Using a dusty blue plastic basket, they took all the bags of rice, beans, noodles, and spaghetti that were on the shelf. Robert found some dishtowels for sale. He grabbed two for Beth to use as diapers for the baby. They sat the small basket of dried goods on the counter and noticed that the man had a glass eye, explaining his strange stare. The clerk grabbed the basket and pulled it toward him.
“One hundred dollars, please,” he stated flatly, without adding up the individual items.
Robert replied angrily, “What kind of shit—”
The clerk immediately pulled the basket off the counter, halting Robert’s response.
“We get it, here’s your cash. Bag it up,” Robert said, trying to conceal his anger.
The clerk stared directly at the men as he slid the cash off the counter and onto the palm of his hand. Fanning the twenty-dollar bills, he tilted his head toward the outside light from the window and panned over the paper bills with his one good eye. Satisfied, the clerk placed the money into his pocket, bagged the items, and then slid them halfway across the counter to Robert and Kyle.
“Thank you and come again,” the clerk said sarcastically.
“What a deal,” Robert said, as he grabbed the bags close to his body, holding tightly with both arms.
“Yeah, what a deal. I would have given my right eye for this stuff,” Kyle said, as he looked directly at the clerk’s glass eye.