Buddy knew the winter, no matter how bad it got in the city, would be worse, but he and Charlene both preferred to be where they were, rather than in the camp. He wasn’t sure how well they would make out if the winter got as bad as the forecasts said it would.
And the Captain had been correct, the die-off continued, though more people were coming out of the hills, to the camp, as their supplies ran out. Despite the fact that the total population of the region was falling, the camp population was growing.
Those facts made some things more difficult. Others less so. One of the farmers that was ill and going to stay in camp made Buddy a good deal on two roosters, a dozen layers, and three brood hens. It took Buddy and Charlene several days to haul enough dirt into the shelter to make a spot for the chickens for the winter. The farmer had thrown in the old pen and coop. It was set up near the garden spot they prepared for the next spring.
Knowing what was needed, Buddy took the opportunities during the decent weather to make arrangements with several other farmers to help out on their farms in exchange for meat, vegetables, and other staples. None would give him anything in advance, and he couldn’t really blame them for that.
But as the severity of the coming weather became obvious, Buddy, since he’d already made the contacts, was first in line to stock up on butchered meat as farmers culled the animals they had left to herds they could take care of during the winter.
Things like freezers were cheap. Buddy picked up two twenty-one foot chest type freezers for next to nothing and installed them in the shelter. He filled both of them completely full with meat. Hunting laws had been relaxed, or more truthfully abandoned. Game had already begun to disappear during the immediate aftermath of the war, due to the radiation, but also to hunters taking anything and everything they could to survive.
But there was still a little left, and hunters were out in force. Buddy bought as much fish, fowl, and game as he could to finish filling the freezers. He hunted some himself, on his property and added to the take.
That was when he ran into the only trouble they had in the aftermath. Buddy had Charlene with him, teaching her to hunt. They were looking for anything they could get so Buddy had the Savage 99, and Charlene was carrying the Stoeger Coach Gun. They were at the edge of the property nearest the road when they saw three men, who also appeared to be hunting.
Buddy had grown a bit careless since things had been going so well. He hailed the others, intending to see how their hunt was going. Their response was to fire at Buddy and Charlene. Fortunately all three missed, and Buddy and Charlene dropped below the slight rise they’d been coming up. It flashed across Buddy’s mind that this needed to be taken care of right now. They couldn’t allow any rogue hunters that were willing to shoot on sight to have access to the property.
“Charlene,” Buddy whispered, guiding her to a rock outcropping. “Hide here, with the shotgun out. Give it a couple of hours. If I don’t come back, make your way to the shelter, being really careful. Anyone comes up and it’s not me, shoot first and ask questions later. I’ll make sure you know it is me. If I call you anything but Char, you know they caught me and they think they are making me show them where you are. Come out shooting. I’ll go down to give you a clear field of fire.”
“Buddy, I’m scared!” Charlene whispered back.
“I know. So am I. But we have to take care of this now. We can’t have them at our backs. They’ll eventually find the shelter and kill us. You know that time I won’t talk about much?”
Charlene nodded.
“What I learned then applies to this situation. Just stay quiet and keep a good watch. I’ll see you in a little while. I love you.” Buddy leaned forward and kiss her deeply, and then faded away into the forest.
Charlene set out several 12-gauge shells, and loosened the Glock 21 in its holster. She was as ready as she could be. She jumped once several minutes later when she thought she heard a shot. But she couldn’t be sure.
She was gathering up the shells, in preparation to head back to the shelter, as Buddy’s time limit of two hours was almost up, when she heard Buddy’s strong voice. “Char,” he said, “It’s me. Everything is okay.”
She lunged into his arms in the fading light. He held her for a few moments, and then said, “We need to get back to the shelter. One of them tagged me before I got him.”
With a gasp, Charlene stepped back and looked at Buddy in alarm. Then she saw the blood on his pants. “It’s not serious,” he said quickly. “But it hurts like the dickens and it’s starting to get dark.”
Despite not needing it, Buddy finally accepted Charlene’s shoulder as support as they walked back to the shelter in the fading light. She cleaned and dressed the wound at the shelter, without another word, and then just held Buddy silently, until he fell asleep.
The next morning there was a foot of snow on the ground, and it was coming down heavily. Buddy got dressed, grunting and groaning a bit, over Charlene’s objections. “I have to, Honey. It won’t take too long, but those three had some things we can use.”
“Well, I’m coming with you!” she insisted.
“Are you sure you want to? It’s not a pretty sight.”
Charlene gulped slightly, but she nodded. “I insist.”
Buddy suggested they forego breakfast, and Charlene was glad he had. Stripping the equipment and then the clothing from the first man made her stomach churn. The second and third time weren’t as bad. Buddy had made clean headshots, so there wasn’t much gore. Just the fact they were handling dead bodies.
Buddy had insisted they wear their Tyvek suits, with rubber boots, gloves, and respirators. There was some type of bug going around and he didn’t want to chance that the men might have it.
It was an amazed looked on Charlene’s face when Buddy led her to the county road and she saw the truck there. They threw the gear in the back of the pickup truck, on top of three deer carcasses and half a dozen turkeys.
The truck was a small Toyota four-wheel-drive pickup that had seen better days, appearance wise. But someone had loved the truck at one time, Buddy pointed out, opening the hood. The engine was immaculate and it started right up.
Buddy was hurting by the time he finished dressing out the game. There wasn’t room in the freezer for it so he hung it in the storage shed. It would be plenty cool enough now for it to keep until they used up some of it and made room in the freezer for the rest.
They didn’t get off the property until the following spring. When they got to the city they found a virtual ghost town. Whatever had been going around the previous fall had been deadly. FEMA and the Guard had pulled out when only a few survived. What supplies were left were adequate for the few people that chose to stay behind.
They only knew that because the one person they found in the camp had kept a journal. It was still in his frozen hand when Buddy and Charlene found him. They loaded up the remaining supplies over the next three days and took them to the shelter. They used it to trade with those few on the surrounding farms that had survived.
Buddy fulfilled his promise to help on the farms that had people that made it through the winter and received enough supplies, in addition to their own garden, to make it for at least two years.
By that time the area began to recover. FEMA moved back in and began to help those that were left. Buddy and Charlene needed little actual help, but welcomed the fact that fuel and supplies were again available on a limited basis. Life would be hard for a while, but they would make it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Angela asked Emily.