Dark Road Read online

  “Exactly. Hopefully water won’t be quite the issue it has been the last couple of days, either.” she said as she looked out at the drying pavement.

  …

  Two days and eighteen miles later it was time for both lunch and their mid-day break.

  “I want to try to conserve matches, Rissa; I’m going to make a fire-bow.” Dan said.

  Marissa just looked at Dan for a second before she replied. “I love you,” was all she said at first.

  “Um, I love you too.” Dan said.

  “But you really don’t need to do that, Dan.” Marissa continued. “Really, you don’t. We have two more full boxes of wooden kitchen matches, three lighters, and the two cautery tools you took from the ambulance.”

  “I know, but if we don’t need to use those I’d rather hold on to them, you know, until we need them.” Dan said.

  Marissa shook her head. “Dan,” she took a breath because she was pretty sure she knew both where this came from and where it was headed, and it all stemmed from hormones. “I’ll try to be gentle but do you even know how to make a fire bow, I mean really know how?”

  At this point Dan bristled and started to get visibly defensive and into what women the world over would recognize as “of course” mode. “Yes, I know how to build a fire bow.” He proceeded to describe the parts needed, almost verbatim, from the book he got from the library.

  Marissa sighed. “Did you know how to build one before you got the book from the library?”

  Dan deflated a little bit, but was not overly deterred. “Yes, mostly, yes.”

  “I’m not going to convince you not to do this, am I? It doesn’t matter that the book also says that it’s the most energy consuming and difficult way to build a fire next to a fire drill, and should only be attempted if you have no other way.” Marissa said.

  “We have a limited number of resources and I don’t want to waste them.” Dan said

  “You have a limited amount of energy, Dan; you’ve eaten something like three hundred calories today. You don’t think trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together isn’t a waste? They try it every season on Survivor and it never works…ever. Not one, single, time.” Marissa replied

  “Well, maybe they were using the wrong wood. They are usually in tropical locations and those are known for hardwoods. If you use the wrong…” Dan was cut off by Marissa.

  “Fine, build your fire bow.” She said.

  “All I’m saying is…” Dan tried to go on convincing his wife but she was having none of it at this point.

  “I said build your fire bow, I’m done talking about it. I’m getting hungry so make it quick.” She said and walked away.

  …

  Forty-five minutes later, Dan was done gathering everything he needed and had been drilling for fifteen minutes. He was sweating like a horse and had succeeded in making half a dozen small piles of dark-brown sawdust that smelled like smoke, but no embers.

  When asked by the girls what he was doing, he told them “Daddy’s making a fire without matches.” Marissa corrected him by answering that, “Daddy’s trying to make a fire without matches” which simply made him redouble his efforts, usually causing the spindle to fly out of the bow. To her credit, Marissa never once laughed.

  Marissa, on the other hand, was done waiting and struck the match and lit her fire. Dan ignored the smell of wood smoke, although it did make him drill faster and press harder on the spindle.

  Five minutes later, the water was boiling and Marissa was making soup for the girls—they always fed the girls first. A few minutes later, more water was boiling.

  “Hungry for lunch?” Marissa asked Dan.

  He didn’t reply and just kept drilling.

  Marissa realized that she was going to have to make him his soup, take it to him, give it to him, and possibly force him to drink it. She’d be damned if she was going to apologize, though.

  She walked over to where he was drilling and squatted down next to him.

  “Dan, stop. Please.” She said. “Bring it with you and pick it up later if you want or need to, but stop for now. We need you to have some energy left for later today. Eat your lunch.”

  Dan stopped but she could see his grip on the bow tighten. Dan hated being wrong. He wasn’t prone to violence, but she could tell he wanted to break the bow and the spindle into splinters right now.

  “Dan, please?” She said.

  “I’m sorry.” He said. “I’m exhausted and I wasted all that time and energy, and I was wrong. Happy?” The bitterness in Dan’s voice wasn’t directed at her, but it still stung.

  “No Dan, I’m not happy.” She said. “I’m not happy about any of it. I’m not happy that I was right, I’m not happy that you are exhausted, I’m not happy that you were wrong. I love you, you idiot, now drink your soup before it gets cold.”

  Dan managed a wan smile. “Yes, ma’am.”

  …

  They only made it a couple more miles before Marissa noticed that Dan was lagging—which didn’t surprise her—but when she looked at Dan, she noticed Jessie, and what she saw was cause for concern.

  “Dan,” she said with some urgency. “Jessie doesn’t look good.”

  She had her arms wrapped around her like she was cold, and looked like she was trying to cuddle into the side of the trailer. They all pulled over and got her out of the trailer and Dan checked her for a fever.

  “Honey,” Dan said. “You’re burning up. Why didn’t you say something when we stopped for lunch?”

  Jessie just hunched her shoulders and then started to cough a little. Marissa looked alarmed but Dan knew it wasn’t anything like what they had experienced back at home and immediately grabbed Jessie around the waist and ran into the grass. Usually, Marissa was the one who could tell the kid’s different coughs apart, but Dan had been around all the sickness in the neighborhood recently and he had the difference between the cough the kids had made when they were on death’s door and the pre-barf cough down pat.

  He got Jessie away from all their stuff and into the grass just in time to keep her from throwing up on anything but maybe their shoes, and he was going to keep that to a minimum if he could.

  “Rissa,” He hollered back over his shoulder. “We need some water and a washcloth.”

  When Jessie was done she corrected her father and yelled, “Please.”

  “Please,” He yelled as well, and chuckled. “Even sick you’re getting back to your old self, I see.”

  “Yeah,” and then she shuddered and spat. “I guess so.”

  Then she started to cry just as Marissa showed up with the water and the washcloth. Cleanup didn’t take long but they didn’t go much further until they made camp for the night. Dan and Jessie both needed rest and they needed to be in one place if Jessie needed to be sick, not on the move.

  …

  “Is Jessie going to be ok?” Bekah asked Marissa while Dan was checking on her on the second day of their stay in the same place.

  “Of course she is honey,” Marissa said. “Why are you worried?”

  “Because you can’t say ‘of course she is’!” Bekah said with a frustrated look on her face.

  Marissa realized that too much had happened in Bekah’ s life recently that she hadn’t been able to shield her from, including losing her brother, and that she was a smart little girl. “Well, in this case she really is going to be ok.” Marissa said, and pulled her daughter into a hug. “She got too wet and too cold the night that it rained, but we didn’t let it go on too long. She got a summer cold because her immune system is weak, and because we all just aren’t getting enough to eat to stay as healthy as we should.”

  Marissa pulled Bekah out to arms-length and looked her in the eyes to make sure she had her attention. “This isn’t the same as what happened back at the house or in the neighborhood though, you understand?”

  Bekah nodded.

  “She’s already doing better.” Marissa said. “Her breathing is fine, she’
s talking, her fever is gone and she’s eating. This was just a cold that took a couple of days to hit after she got chilled, ok.”

  Bekah let out a deep breath and gave her Mom a big hug. “Ok.” She said. “Can I practice with the 10/22?”

  Marissa gave it a few seconds thought and then decided it was better than sitting idle and doing nothing. “Yes, on one condition. You have to stay under the tarp and point parallel to the road. Pick a direction and stay pointed in that direction. No shooting at the road.”

  “Yes ma’am.” She said and set off to get the Ruger and some ammunition.

  Marissa came over to where Dan was sitting next to a napping Jessie.

  “Good work with Bekah,” he said.

  “Thanks, please tell me I didn’t just lie to her,” she said.

  “You didn’t.” Dan said. “She’ll be fine and we can take off in the morning. Another four days and we should be at the park.”

  “Looking forward to it,” Marissa said with a twinkle in her eye. “Maybe one of the cabins will be free.”

  “One step at a time,” Dan chuckled.

  “Hey, a girl can dream can’t she?” Marissa asked.

  Then Bekah began her target practice.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Specialist Snow,” Mallory said as she stepped into the communications tent.

  “Ma’am,” Snow said as he tried to come to attention without upsetting the table or spilling the papers he’d been working on.

  “As you were,” Mallory said to calm the newly-minted Specialist’s nerves. “Actually, how much time do you have left on your shift?” Mallory asked as though she didn’t know.

  “Two hours, ma’am,” Snow replied.

  “Find your Sergeant and let him know I’m relieving you so you don’t get in trouble, and get some down time. Let him know that I told you to get some down time.” Mallory smiled.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Snow said. He filled her in on the frequencies he’d been listening to and the chatter he’d been monitoring. The gear the Army was using was capable of actively monitoring CB, GMRS, FRS, their own SAT-COM frequencies, as well as the HAM bands simultaneously. They had quite the antenna farm going on outside the tent right now.

  “Very well,” Mallory said as they finished up. “Dismissed.”

  After a quick but sharp salute, Snow was on his way and Mallory was alone in the tent.

  “Who do I want to try first?” She asked the room. She had a list of regional bases and Armories on a clipboard and decided to try reaching out to the closest ones first.

  After setting everything up to transmit she keyed the mic. “Major Mallory Jensen of the U.S. Army National Guard, Nashville, TN, calling Fort Campbell, over.”

  To her surprise, and frankly delight, the response came back in just a few seconds. “Fort Campbell, Specialist Higgins.” If Higgins was surprised to be getting a call from someone outside of his local area of operations, he hid it well. “Authenticate…” and they proceeded with the authentication process for the next thirty seconds.

  “How can I help you, Major? Over.” Higgins asked.

  “I need to speak to the CO. And if it’s not too much trouble—as a Colonel recently told me we’ve got enough bandwidth to have a full-scale argument here—can we do away with the ‘overs’? Over.” Mallory said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Higgins replied. “Frankly, we only use them for external communications and with folks we don’t know. Major Franklin dropped them about two weeks ago for the same reason, after having a conversation that I wasn’t allowed to listen in on.” Higgins chuckled. “I’ll get Major Franklin, hold one.”

  Ben Franklin? Mallory wondered. Oh he caught hell for that in boot if it’s who I think it is, even if it was his middle name. It’ll be nice to hear a familiar voice.

  Mallory didn’t have long to wait; the Major was on the radio in under two minutes.

  “Mal? Mallory Jensen?” The voice said.

  Yup, it was Ben. “The one, the only.”

  “Getting a little full of yourself there aren’t you, Major?” He asked, mocking her new rank.

  He’s never going to let this go. Mallory thought. “Believe me, it wasn’t my idea.” She said. “But I didn’t turn it down when the Colonel offered it. Come to think of it, you were a Captain the last time I looked.”

  Ben sputtered a bit, “Well, you know how it is.”

  “Uh huh, sounds like they wanted everyone in charge to be a Major. Congratulations on the promotion.”

  “You too,” Ben said. “So, to what do we owe the pleasure? I understand you aren’t in Nashville anymore. I hear things weren’t going so well down there and it was time to bug out.”

  “Yes, we egressed with all possible haste. We’re in Natchez Trace and setting up a long term encampment. I think we’ll end up taking over the entire camp and may even move what we have into some of the existing facilities.” Mallory said. “Our initial thought was to avoid anyone who might already be here, or come here at a later date, but we’re growing like mad and it’s foolish to not take advantage of the existing infrastructure.”

  “I can see both sides of that.” Ben said. “Just make sure you keep an eye on I-40. It runs right through that park, basically splits it not quite down the middle and you don’t want to get caught cut in half.”

  Mallory nodded and then realized Ben couldn’t see her. “Agreed. Which is one of the reasons we haven’t moved yet. Another reason is I don’t want to piss off Kyle.”

  “Ah, Ramirez. You two a thing yet?” Ben asked.

  Mallory blushed from her hairline to her collar, and probably lower but couldn’t be sure, but simply said, “Excuse me?”

  “Oh please, Mal. You two have been, how do I put this delicately, you could carve the tension between the two of you with a butter knife and serve it for dessert.” Ben said. “It’s so thick it clouds everyone else’s vision when you two are in the same room.”

  This is so embarrassing. Mallory thought, and put a hand over her eyes. “Well, regardless, I’m commissioned and he’s enlisted and nothing could happen even if there were something there.” She said in a rush.

  “Uh huh, so maverick him.” Ben said.

  “Would you just drop it?” Mallory snapped.

  “Sure, done, finished. Seriously, why the call though?” Ben went on as though nothing had happened.

  Mallory took a breath to calm down and then went on. “I wanted to see how everyone else around here was doing. I hated thinking we were the only ones nearby that had pulled through.”

  “Nah, we’re weathering this storm pretty well for now.” Ben said. “You know, Airborne! and all that happy crap. We started with the whole lockdown for a couple of weeks to let things settle down. We did have a pretty serious assault on the base about three days after the power went out and I really am sad to say that things didn’t go well for the,” Ben paused, “for the citizens that tried to get in without an invitation.”

  Mallory could tell by Ben’s tone of voice that he really wasn’t happy about how things had shaken out. The two of them had been friends for a number of years and were cut from the same cloth. Not every officer she knew would have seen it the way he did and, well, the way she did. She was an officer now, though she hadn’t been when the Armory had been attacked—poorly executed as the attack had been.

  “We had an issue like that at the Armory,” Mallory said, “and one of my men asked me what he should call fellow US citizens. He said he couldn’t bring himself to call them the enemy. Ultimately, I told him that if he had to label them, simply call them the opposing force.”

  “As good a name as any and better than most,” Ben said, approval in his voice. “Mal, they made a good call with the promotion. I can’t promise I won’t rib you about it from time to time but I think it was about time someone forced you to sit through OCS and then either handed you a commission or made your life a living hell until you decided you didn’t like the Army anymore.”

  That wa
s high praise coming from Ben. He didn’t mince words, and if he felt you deserved something, he told you. On the other hand, if you didn’t deserve it, you got the rough side of his tongue regardless of how long he’d known you or how good a friend you were.

  “Thanks,” Mallory said. “That really means a lot coming from you. I got something similar from the Colonel but it sounded boilerplate and flat coming from him.”

  “Good, because it was boilerplate and flat when it came from him!” Ben laughed. “Speaking of our friend the Colonel, and ARCLiTE, have you read it all the way through yet?”

  “Um, yeah, I have. I guess that’s the other reason for the call.” Mallory said.

  “Ah. So what do you make of the request to be on the horn in four days?” Ben asked.

  “You really want to have this conversation on an open frequency?” Mallory asked, a bit shocked.

  “You have any better ideas?” Ben asked, not answering her initial question.

  “Aside from not having this conversation, not really.” Mallory said. “But to answer your question, I guess we’ll just wait and see.”

  Ben was quiet for a few seconds before responding. “Well, you guys are a comms unit at heart, put Sparky on it. He’s got a genius level IQ and I swear he can talk to the electronics.”

  Put Sparky on what? Mallory wondered. What’s he getting at? Does he know something I don’t know?

  “Well, it was good to talk to you and I’m glad you’re doing well. Talk to you in four days, most likely.” Mallory said.

  “We’ll be there.” Ben said.

  “Oh, before I go there’s one more thing.” Mallory said. “We’re called ‘Promised Land’ now, its Kyle’s fault.”

  “You must love that man if you haven’t changed it by now.” Ben said.

  Mallory sighed loud enough for Ben to hear and then they said their good-byes.

  She really didn’t want to think about a couple of things that Ben had brought up, not the least of which was Sgt. Ramirez. No, that wasn’t quite right, what she’d said to Ben was correct. She couldn’t think about Kyle. As complicated as things had been when she’d been First Sergeant, they were orders of magnitude more so now that she was a Major and he was still a Sergeant.