Seeking Home, page 23
For this trip, they’d decided to use a simple method described in one book. It worked when both radio operators had the same edition of any book. Using page numbers, line numbers and word numbers, a sentence could be encoded, and then decoded by the operator receiving the transmission. The method was slow and cumbersome, but effective and the only way it could be broken without access to a powerful computer, would be if someone else had the same book in the same edition.
27
Truck Repairs - Asher
Night 38
Asher used his flashlight to inspect the suspension.
“Look, we’ve got some rubber chunks off the tire stuck in the brakes. I’m gonna have to disassemble the brakes to get it out. Bring me the small blue tool bag.” He moaned as he attempted to pull the chunks of rubber from the brake assembly.
“Gotcha!” Justin slid the small bag across the floor to Asher, who by that point was already arm deep in the suspension.
“Go ahead and inspect the rear underneath and see if we’ve got any more damage.”
“Everything looks good under here. There’s a mess of blood and stuff but the skid plates did their job. Awe... this is gross!” Justin announced.
“I can see from here that we broke one of the plow mounts. Help me hang the spare and put the busted tire on the spare tire mount,” Asher said.
“Why would you keep that? Isn’t it just dead weight?” Justin asked.
“Who knows when or if we might need it? And it is still holding air. With those chunks out of the way that I cut off, it could probably get us a few miles if we go slow,” Asher said.
“Yeah, I guess you got a point,” Justin conceded.
With the tire changed, they brought over two steel park-style benches to use as jack stands. They placed them underneath The Beast, just behind the front tires and then retracted the rail-riders completely. With the rail-riders out of the way, they both slid underneath the front end of The Beast—lying on their backs.
“Checkout all these modifications Daniel made!” Justin pointed in admiration. “Not bad for as hard as you hit that Ford, man. I thought for sure we were all dead,” he laughed.
“Yeah, me too. Look at that brace, it collapsed, and over there,” Asher pointed to a mangle of metal and rubber. “Those welds broke, and pinched that hydraulic line. We’re lucky it didn’t burst.” He paused while he worked out a solution. “We’re gonna’ need to add some steel there and there,” Asher pointed back to the two damaged areas he’d identified so far, “to reinforce what we broke, you know.”
“Where do you plan on getting steel from?” Justin asked.
Asher reached back and tapped the side of one of the park-style benches with a tool. “We passed plenty of these all the way through the mall. And they’re pretty strong, not to mention there’s like hundreds of them throughout the mall.”
“Good thinking. I’ll get the torch,” Justin laughed.
“You know, I was thinking,” Asher rubbed his hands through his beard. “When we got boxed in, we sure could have used a plow on the rear. If we had one, I could’ve driven right through that dumpster at the onset of the trap they’d set, saved us a whole lot of trouble.”
“Let’s take the time and build one now. We’ve got enough steel and a welder to get it done,” Justin said. “And with as much trouble as we’ve run into already, and not knowing where Marlow’s family are, we might as well make the most of the safety of this redoubt.”
Marlow came rolling up on a two-wheeled scooter. “Hey ya’ll, look what I found in one of the few stores that still had some inventory in it.”
“Beats walking!” Bethany laughed.
“Aaron wanted me to give ya’ll a heads up,” Marlow said. “We patched up the hole where we came in. As soon as the snow covers our tracks—at a glance—someone driving by wouldn’t notice a thing. We even cut some limbs off of some bushes in front of the mall and smoothed out the tracks from the edge of the woods all the way across the parking lot to help them blend in quicker. But just in case, Big Country and Erica are guarding. Oh, and Chris found a spot on the roof of one of the big department stores that he said is perfect for his lookout position. Spencer is on the roof of another store.”
“And you?” Asher asked.
“I’m the sweeper and runner,” he laughed.
Bethany watched Asher waiting for his reaction, though Asher was glad to see his friend with his old energy level back.
She decided to change the subject. “We really need to send word to the Command Desk, Asher, and relay our status and position.” She looked at him with genuine concern on her face. “I’d bet the roof of one of those stores would be a great place to get more signal range.”
“You’re right. I’ll go with you,” Asher said. “Marlow, would you be so kind as to show us where to access the roof of one of the big stores. Since you swept them all.”
Marlow didn’t take the bait about sweeping them all. “Gotcha! You two follow me, but you’ll have to run ‘cause I’m pretty quick on my scooter!” He laughed and took off and then stopped again to show it’s speed.
Marlow showed them a ladder that led to the roof. They would need to get as high as possible to establish radio contact with Command Desk to provide an after action report—which would include the location of hostiles who’d attempted to ambush them and their current location and status. Before she encoded it, the code read something like; zone 42, change status to red... note, hot 40 plus contact... currently, zone 17 note, change status to green, Beast light damage, will make repairs, no injuries.
Bethany set up the long-range antenna and got on the airwaves. When Command Desk received Bethany’s initial contact, she immediately recognized Ashtyn’s voice on the other end. They were at the limits of their radio range, so Ashtyn’s voice broke up with static several times. It took all the strength that Bethany had inside her to hold her composure and maintain radio etiquette when she realized it was Ashtyn.
Asher noticed how emotional she became, so he leaned over and hugged her from the side, rubbing her arm as he squeezed her tightly against him.
Bethany began transmitting the sequence of numbers.
When Bethany finished her transmission, Ashtyn repeated the sequence back to her, confirming that Ashtyn had received the correct code—although due to static, they had to go over the code three times before they got it right. After which, Bethany sent the code that meant she was signing off to wait for a reply.
It would take a few minutes for the Ashtyn to decode Bethany’s message and encode a reply, so she waited patiently.
While they waited, Asher and Bethany sat holding one another closely cuddling and staring up at the stars.
“The sky is so beautiful!” Bethany commented.
“Yeah, you couldn’t see it that clearly before the lights went out. Maybe this is God telling us to look up to Him,” Asher offered.
“I like that thought!” She smiled and kissed him on his cheek.
“The sun will be up soon,” he said, noticing the glow in the distance.
“Wanna’ watch the sunrise with me before we head back down?” She looked up at him and smiled.
“I would love nothing more,” he leaned down and kissed her.
Their bond—formed through both strange and unforeseen circumstances—was deeper than words. The rest of their time on the roof, they sat in silence feeling no need to talk. Although unspoken, they both felt they could sit together and unwind from the stress of their new world in silence for hours—if need be.
The sun broke the horizon on time—and from their position atop the mall roof—they had an amazing view of the scenic sunrise.
Some time later, the quiet was interrupted by the chirp of the radio as Ashtyn’s voice crackled across the air waves.
Bethany responded and then took down Ashtyn’s code as she heard it, and then she repeated it back accurately. They were already getting better at the cumbersome process—now that they were putting it to use.
Bethany worked feverishly to decode Ashtyn’s message. All it said was that Command Desk received her report and would await further news. But, at the end of the message, Ashtyn added their code for ‘I love you’. That did it for Bethany and she could no longer hold back the tears. Before signing off, Bethany repeated back the same ‘I love you’ code.
Asher still had his arm around her and felt her shudder as she wept in relative silence. Asher slid his hand behind her neck and gently rubbed the back of her neck. She leaned into his shoulder, holding him tightly. They only sat there a few more minutes when Bethany reminded Asher that they should get back because The Beast was gonna require a lot of repairs to get it back on the road.
28
Waiting - Ashtyn
Day 39
Mandy was sitting at the long row of tables that had been set up to watch the T.V monitors in the second floor of BudCamp’s. She was glad to be able to contribute in some meaningful way, and since her kids had become busy at the school, and with Justin out on a mission with Asher, she was thankful to have some way to pass the time. Sure, the work could be described as boring, but she made the time move by logging animal movement for Papa Smurf. Ashtyn, Trisha and Peyton had just worked hard decoding a message from Asher’s team, who had made it almost to their destination.
Ashtyn was serious and professional throughout the tedious process of receiving messages. She repeated them back for accuracies sake, and then decoded them. Then, she would prepare a reply, encode it and then transmit the code. Mandy had been impressed by the capabilities of the goofy, yet ditzy young woman.
As soon as the last message was sent, Ashtyn broke down. Mandy was so used to being the one who was hysterical with others trying to comfort her, that she was at first taken aback. Then, she waved to Harriet and asked her to watch the monitors as she herself went to Ashtyn. She hugged the younger woman, allowing her get her cry out. She knew from her own episodes, that letting her get it out would be the best thing for her.
A few moments later, Max and Pria entered the Command Room.
“What’s wrong?” Pria asked Sarge.
He shrugged. “We got a message from Asher’s group.”
Max felt his pulse quicken and he began to panic. “Has something happened to Mom?” He asked himself as he tried to maintain his composure in front of the beauty—who he was still surprised wanted to spend her every waking minute with him.
“Sarge, is his mom okay?” Pria asked, noticing Max’s face was turning red. “You know, Ms. Erica is his mom?”
“She’s fine,” Ashtyn answered, collecting herself. “They’re all fine. I don’t know why I’m like, crying. Sorry to give you a scare, Max.”
Max shrugged trying to appear tough. “Who’s scared? I’m good.”
“Well, you scared me!” Pria said.
“Why did you guys come up here, anyways?” Mandy asked.
“Oh, no reason, really. We were just coming to see if we, or well, if I could sign up for a patrol,” Max said.
“You can, but I’m not sure that she can,” Mandy said, pointing to Pria.
Ashtyn stepped to the whiteboard listing the duty schedule.
“I don’t know, like, it looks like we maybe need a patrol around the boat dealership, in like about two hours. It’s a four hour shift.” She ignored Mandy, raising her eyebrows at Max.
Max smiled.
“I’ll totally put you in the slot, Max. Oh...and like, you should totally stay close to the building, you know.”
Max held out his fist for Ashtyn to bump. She looked at it for a long moment before she bumped it.
“Thanks, Ash. Hey, by the way. Did the message they sent say anything specific?” He asked.
“Yeah.” She pointed out the changes that they’d made to the map designating the risk status of each area. “See, the railway goes like right through here,” Ashtyn pointed to the spot on the map where they had been ambushed. “And they like totally ran into some kinda’ trouble here. Like forty armed hostiles, but thankfully, they reported no injuries on our side. Now, they’re here,” she pointed to the area where the mall was located. “And they had some trouble with The Beast, but they’re making repairs.”
“Thanks! Seriously, I owe you,” Max smiled and fist bumped her again.
“It’s no problem. Like, seriously guys.” Ashtyn paused and chewed on her lip as an idea formed in her mind. “Hey, like... why don’t you two go to my trailer for me? Tell Mama Mai that Bethany sends her love, and all, and that they’re like all okay. Then, you two can just hang out there with like her and Lilly-Anna you know, like ‘till your shift.”
“Really!” Pria’s eyes widened. “Thanks, Ash.” She hugged Ashtyn and then dragged Max from the room.
Ashtyn turned to sit at the row of tables back at the radio console.
“You trying to get her killed by her parents?” Mandy asked.
“Teenagers are all the same, you know, just like parents are. They need to like be able to just be normal teens, especially like with all this going on, you know. To just like be able to like sneak around behind their parents backs and try to like spend some time together so they can make out or like hold hands or whatever.”
“It’s the whatever I’m worried about. If she gets pregnant...” Mandy added with concern.
Ashtyn nodded as if she agreed. “And...that’s like exactly why I sent them to Mama-Mai. She’s so not going for that. The most they’ll get away with around her is like maybe some hand holding or like taking a nap together on the couch. Maybe she’ll let them sneak in a quick kiss, but that’s it with Mama-Mai.”
Mandy nodded, understanding.
29
Resting - Asher
Day 39
Back in the inner portion of the mall, beside The Beast, Asher looked over to Bethany as he wiped sweat from his brow.
“We need to set up a rest schedule. We’re gonna need to wait here ‘till dark,” Asher said.
“I’ll write one up,” Bethany said—heading to the counter in the store where she’d prepared her after-action report.
When she finished, they radioed Marlow—asking him to meet her and Asher at The Beast.
“What’s up, now?” He asked.
Bethany handed him the handwritten copies of the schedule she’d prepared.
“Pass ‘em out so those who need to rest the first shift can get to it.”
He simply nodded and took off through the concourse on the scooter.
As soon as he and Bethany returned from the trip to radio Command Desk, Asher got back to work on the required repairs of The Beast and onto building a ram for the rear end of the truck.
Asher and Justin ended up cutting up six of the metal benches to use them for their steel. They laid out the steel plates they’d cut off of the benches and drilled each one through so that prior to welding them, they could first bolt them together to create one solid steel bundle. They cut each plate to different length to create a V-shape wedge. The center plate was the longest piece and it ran under the welded rear bumper and attached to each cross-member of the truck’s frame. The bundle they created ended up being a six-inch thick sandwich of steel plates, and it stuck out from the rear bumper several inches. They welded two additional plates from the center point of the wedge to the ends of the bumper and short tabs spaced every six inches—to reinforce the flat pieces. To top it all off, they welded flat plates to the top and bottom of the triangle, completely boxing in the V shaped wedge. The rear of the truck now had a thick steel triangle sticking out from where it’s rear bumper should have been. The work took a long time and was tedious, but they finished it in good time.
“Menacing and effective,” Asher said proudly, admiring the fruits of their labor.
“And heavy!” Justin added with a smile.
The day passed slowly but during their waking hours, the group cleaned, oiled and then reloaded their weapons. Throughout the day, there were a few sightings of vehicles in the area and some pedestrians but none came close to the shuttered mall. Each one of the group ate from the MRE’s they’d brought along. Just before sunset, Asher called them back to The Beast had them load the Gator back into the bed and topped off the fuel tanks from the jerry cans.
MELINDA STEPPED INTO the Command Room, carrying a full Thermos of fresh coffee.
“I heard you’re burning the midnight oil, pulling double and triple shifts up here so you can keep tabs on your big sis. Thought you might need some go-juice.”
“O.M.G, you’re a life saver,” Ashtyn jumped up and grabbed the Thermos.
“How are they making out on their way south?”
Ashtyn walked over toward the big table with the maps and began pointing out the recent updates. “Well, you can see from the changes on the map, that they like, ran into some trouble on the way down. But they have made it all the way to Antioch.”
“That’s good news!” Melinda smiled, poured Ashtyn’s mug full and closed the lid on the Thermos.
Ashtyn took a sip. “Heaven in a cup. Thanks!”
“No problem.”
“How are things on your end? Any baby-mama drama?”
“Not yet. I mean, I guess it’s inevitable down the road.”
Ashtyn walked over to the table where they kept the log books and began sorting the stack for the next round of shift changes at the LP/OP’s. “I don’t see how you’re doing it, girl. I mean, like, Preston’s a nice guy and all, but there are plenty of fish in the sea, you know.”
Melinda had struggled with the same thoughts. She decided to avoid the comment altogether. “You’d never guess how Preston and I met?”
Ashtyn looked up from her work and raised her eyebrows, actually interested in hearing the story.
“Preston and my brother Ricky played sports together in school, you know.”
Ashtyn shook no.
“We’d never met,” Melinda continued. “I mean, I’d seen him at their games, but we’d never like, spoken or anything. Then, one day, and it was so crazy how it happened. But, our mom was out of town on a girls’ trip and dad was at work. I had skipped school. I walked home, thinking I’d have the house to myself all day. And to this day, I couldn’t tell you why in the world in the middle of the day I had decided to, but I had taken a shower, and when I heard a car pull into the garage, I panicked. I thought it was my dad. Sometimes, if Dad forgot his lunch or something, he’d drop by the house during his break. I shut off the water so Dad wouldn’t hear me.”
