The Days After (Big River) Read online

  “Sure, I can do that. You know how good Allie is, she'll sit and draw on her pad. Are you hungry, can I get you some breakfast?” she said.

  He rubbed his hand through his dark hair, all matted down from his cap, “Thanks, but I just want to sleep. I'll eat something later.” He moved past the supply shelves to the bunk and fell across it, kicked off his canvas shoes. Angel went behind the bar and dug her pistol out of her purse. It was in a small canvas case and she hooked it on her jean's waist. She settled Allie, moved out to the walkway and made the first of many circles around the cabin. The day was partly cloudy and warm, as the sun peeked in and out of clouds and a slight breeze rippled the water, the boat rolled slightly but stayed secure in the center of the big river, a little spot of land right rose and fell in front of it.

  The peek-a-boo sun was high now, nearly noon. Angel made lap after lap around the cabin and up the stairs, each trip she walked around all sides of the top deck. She scanned the shoreline and watched the water that stretched out behind them in a wide ribbon. The red paddles sat idle below and she saw a long snake slither over one, an occasional water bird rested for a while there and then winged away. Allie joined her a time or two and walked the circuit with her. The smart little lady asked her mother numerous questions that had no answers.

  A few times, she spotted people on the shore. Their eyes shaded, they looked out at the big boat and then wandered on. These were not the truly desperate days that would lie ahead for most, just the beginning of not understanding what had occurred. She heard a loud noise and into view, maneuvering around the island came a huge freighter, it roared down the river. A distant figure on the deck waved and she raised her hand. The ship created a deep wake, the waves fanned out and the paddle wheeler tossed and rolled. The little girl came to the door of the cabin and yelled, “Mommy?”

  Angel yelled down to her, “It's okay baby, just hold on for a minute.” As the ship moved on by them, she heard a loud Damn! from down below. That sure wasn't Allie, the rough ride must have woke up Clay. As she looked back to the ship that moved on away down river, she saw a dot of a boat, it rode the large wake. As the boat came closer, she first spotted a bright splash of color, the scarf on Penny's head and then, “It's Louis! Louis made it...” she dashed down the narrow stairway and into the cabin. In the slim opening beside the bar, she ran right smack into Clay and sat down hard on the floor. He rubbed his head, where it had been slammed twice, once in the cabin and now against the doorway. He reached out and helped her to her feet. “Louis, it's Louis” she said breathlessly.

  His eyes widened, “Son of a gun. I knew he would make it.”

  “They're coming...I just saw them” she said and trailed along behind him as he dashed out to the aft side ladder. Allie stood in the middle of the floor, pushed her glasses up on her nose and watched all of this excitement with curiosity. She smoothed down her polka dot top and followed to see what was happening. The dinghy putt-putted along side the Annie Belle and Louis looked up at Clay with a tired grin.

  They helped Penny up the ladder and onto the deck, and Jacob. When the dinghy was tied off and the bag and quilt had been handed up, Louis stepped up the ladder and grasp the hand of his friend. Clay said, “I knew you would make it. Are you all okay? Any trouble?” he hugged Penny to him.

  Louis said, “Too tired to tell all at the moment. Have we got anything to eat? I think we are going to have to drag out some of those cots, I am bone tired, friend.”

  “Sure, we're going to need to set up some sleeping arrangements anyway,” said Clay.

  “I'll see about some lunch,” said Angel.

  Penny said, “I'll help.”

  “No, no,” She reached out for the weary woman's hand, “I am Angel.”

  “I'm Penny.” They stood for a moment and held each other's hand tightly, a tear slipped down Angel's cheek.

  “I am glad you are here, Penny,” she said and smiled.

  The four moved over and sat on the bar stools, Angel got food from the refrigerator and assembled some sandwiches. Allie and Jacob stood and looked each other up and down. These were not two shy children. The girl removed her glasses and slid them into her pocket, that's why she liked pockets. She checked out the wiry boy who stood about a foot above her. His skin was a mixture of his parents, not cocoa color, not paler like his mother's, just in between. His dark hair was close cut and curly, his eyes nearly black and though he wasn't smiling as he unflinchingly looked back at her, she had already caught his wide smile.

  She tossed her rusty colored pony tail and said, “Hey, I'm Allie.”

  He thought, just a silly old girl, but gave her a smile and said, “I'm Jacob and I'm starving.” He walked with an arrogant step over to the bar and climbed up on a stool.

  After lunch, they pulled out the roll away beds that lined up with some fold up cots in the storage area. Jacob was the only one who had slept, so he ambled around the boat with Allie traipsing behind, asking a steady stream of questions. Louis and Penny absolutely had to sleep for a while. Once Angel gave a report of what she observed during the morning hours, Clay felt they would probably be safe to anchor here for a day or so. They definitely needed to talk and make some plans. He would let them rest, though very impatient to hear what Louis observed and thought. He felt much better himself, after he had some sleep and ate. He and Angel walked up to the control hut, they told the kids to stay out of the cabin for a while and let Jacob's parents sleep.

  Clay pushed his cap back and rubbed his head again, his hand came back with a small stain of blood. Angel noticed and said, “Let me look at that, you really banged your head, huh?”

  “It's nothing,” he said, “but, I do have a headache and we can't take any chances with infections. If you wouldn't mind, slip into the supply room, there is a first aid kit on the shelves. It's at the far end and there's some basic medications there, an aspirin would maybe help this headache.”

  Both of the weary travelers slept soundly on the roll aways, she slipped into the room behind the bar, found the supplies and returned to the helm. The split on Clay's head was not deep, scalp wounds tend to bleed freely and take a while to stop. She pushed apart the thick dark hair, cleaned the cut and put some antibiotic cream on it, gave him the headache pills with a bottle of water.

  “Doesn't look bad,” she smiled at him.

  He said thanks and held her eyes for just a moment. She suddenly realized how in disarray she was, hair half up and half down, blouse wrinkled from sleeping in it. She hadn't washed her face, brushed her teeth or smeared a bit of lipstick on in over a day. She took the circle of combs out of her hair, ran her fingers through and used the comb to push it back from her face.

  Along the shoreline, a few figures moved around. The looked out at the big boat and Clay looked back. “Did anyone try to move towards the boat, from the shore?” he asked Angel.

  “No, I saw some folks looking out our way, but then I didn't see them again,” she answered.

  From their higher viewpoint, he really scoped out the shore, the water and particularly the island that lay directly in front of them. “My guess is, that for now there is lots of accessible food and supplies on the land. Plenty of things to loot. If this situation is anything like my brother feared, it will progressively get worse and people will get more desperate.”

  “You think this is something that will not be over quickly?” Her amber eyes looked directly into his sunglasses. He removed them and returned her direct gaze.

  “Something extreme has occurred, I can't see that it is going to be an easy fix. We will see what Louis has to say, when he is rested. Let's try to give them the afternoon to sleep. Later, the four of us will sit down and we will all decide what our best plan of action is. Are you okay with that?” he waited for an answer.

  “I think so...um-m, yes..yes, I am okay with that.” She smoothed down her blouse, “If you don't need me to do anything, will you excuse me for a bit?”

  He put his sunglasses back on
and said, “Sure, I'm going to check out some things and make certain we are stable. That was quite a ride, earlier.”

  She located the kids, checked that they were safe and reminded them to stay quiet. They sat on the edge of the deck, their thin legs poked through the railing and hung down, the turtles and the birds on the water was the topic of their conversation. “You are being very good,” said Angel.

  “Mommy, are there any cookies left?” Allie looked up at her.

  “I'll see, you two stay put and I'll get them.” When she went to supply room for the cookies, she thought, I will really have to look at what supplies are here. We will need a meal later. Maybe Penny will have some ideas. She delivered the cookies and then washed up a bit, changed into her spare jeans and blouse. She would wash out her clothes and clean up Allie later. Her hair was back under control and she put some chap stick on her wind burned lips.

  It was late afternoon, Clay hated to wake up Louis and Penny, but he thought it was important for them to all talk before the night came. Penny was a big help with dinner ideas, she and Angel put together a meal and they now all sat at a round table with coffee. Allie and Jacob sat on the floor, sketched pictures of the wildlife they watched all day.

  Louis sipped his coffee, looked at all of them and said, “Well, guess the crew is gathered, boss.” There was a bit of nervous laughter. He continued, “Your brother was evidently not nuts, old friend. Something very serious is going on.” He told them about the miles of the same scene repeated, the darkness, the fires, the body in the water, people confused and definitely falling into panic.

  “That's what we have seen,” said Clay. “I have tried to get some news on the short wave. It's the same story, no answers, panic. I think that it doesn't matter at this time, we just have to agree on what we all want to do.”

  Louis got up, went behind the bar and rummaged around underneath the counter top. He returned to the table with a bottle of creamy colored liqueur. He put a dollop in everyone's coffee, sat down and smiled at them, “The floor is now open for discussion.”

  “Well, one of the reasons that I wanted this meeting to happen before dark, is that I think we definitely need to set up some watches. I don't trust that being off the shore will keep us completely secure. It'll take all of us and some trading off, especially when we are moving again.” said Clay. “And speaking of moving, Angel and Penny need to get some basic instructions about steering the boat.” Both women looked a bit startled.

  “I agree,” said Louis, “If we get into trouble, we all need to be able to do as many jobs as possible. This is a big boat. I think even the kids will need to have some chores and duties. If we're all going to live on this vessel, even temporarily, it'll take a lot of work to keep us going. Besides, they will quickly become bored, a little work won't hurt them.”

  Angeline looked at her tiny daughter, with some doubt. Did she want to put her baby girl to work? Then a second thought, Well, these are not normal days, perhaps Louis is right.

  Penny took a drink of her creamy laced coffee, “I assume we will be headed for Dan's.”

  “Dan's?” said Angel.

  Clay answered, “Dan is my brother, he lives in South Dakota.”

  Old doomsday Dan, muttered Louis.

  Angel stood up, “South Dakota!” this felt like a runaway train to her, “How can we get to South Dakota? How far is that? I thought you said we were safer on the water.” Once again, she tried not to let her daughter see her utter freak out.

  “It is actually over 800 miles to Dan's farm. We would be on the water, the whole way. At St. Louis, Missouri, the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi and the Missouri goes all the way up and way north of the small town where my brother has a farm in South Dakota. He purposefully chose his location so that if the apocalypse he believed would happen actually occurred, I could take the Annie Belle up river to reach him. There are no dams or locks on the rivers in that 800 miles.” Clay paused and then said to her, in a low voice, “What else are you possibly going to do, Angel?”

  Three sets of eyes watched her. She dropped to the chair, took a big gulp of her coffee, with both hands on the cup, she dropped her eyes to the brown liquid. Oh, my god, her racing mind thought. She inhaled deep, raised her wet amber eyes to meet theirs and spoke, “I am going to do whatever you need me to do. I guess I am going to see South Dakota.” She did not smile.

  Louis clapped his hands together, “Okay, good girl. We better set those watches.”

  Penny's hand reached out under the table for Angel's, she squeezed it. The frightened woman squeezed back and gave her a weak smile. “Tell you what, Angeline and I will take this first four hour watch. Penny, you and Clay can get some more sleep and take the next. It's dark now, I'll go on out and start the rounds. You will need to pull some more cots and bedding out and get the little ones ready for bed. You can join me in a while, Angel.” He gave his old friend a wink, “Yep, we're going to make a good crew.”

  ***

  It was the fourth day since some yet unexplained event turned the world upside down. The Annie Belle remained anchored down, near a small island in the middle of the Mississippi River. There was plenty of work for the crew to complete to insure the big boat was in good condition for the long trip ahead. They all worked together, studied the many maps that Clay had of the river, tried to get an idea of what supplies were on hand, what supplies they needed to acquire. A lot of discussion between Louis and Clay about fuel. Fueling stations on the river were marked on one of the maps, but of course, they had no idea if they would be able to safely approach them.

  Angel and Penny took blankets from the storage area, with rope and some old curtain rods that once hung over the several cabin windows, managed to create a couple of sleeping areas with at least a minimum of privacy. There were enough roll away beds, with decent mattresses for the three adults and the children got fold out cots. Due to emergency provisions, plenty of bedding and blankets had been stored. Penny, of course, took her prized quilt that she had dried and aired out and spread it across the two roll aways for her and Louis.

  Following an inventory of food stores, the women agreed they could stretch the supplies for a little over two weeks. During some of their planning talks, Clay told the crew that the paddle wheeler would do about eight knots moving upstream, under ten miles an hour. Calculations indicated that for every ten hours they moved, they could cover approximately eighty to a hundred miles. At that rate of speed, it seemed they could reach Dan's farm in less than ten days. Clay warned that in order for that time frame to be reality, everything would have to go perfect. The Spring weather was unpredictable, fuel would have to be found, unknown trouble could befall them at any time; perfect was not likely to happen.

  In the two nights they had been stationary, the four became comfortable with the guard duty that kept a constant lookout for any intruders and allowed each of them to get some sleep. It was an adjustment to sleep for four hours and be alert for four, but it could be gotten used to. Clay had begun to give the two women pointers on guiding the boat, they would have to get some actual practice when they were once again on the move.

  Even Jacob and Allie had been given small chores and duties. They swept the cabin floors and the deck, hung out clothes that their mothers washed on a line stretched between poles and took them down when they were dry. The boy thought it was hilarious to see two tiny pairs of pink princess panties hanging. Allie only had a total of three, they had to be washed daily. As he giggled, she got right back at him, “At least I don't wear Spiderman on my hiney,” she said. The two did bicker quite a bit, but in general worked pretty good naturedly together and didn't complain about most of the small jobs they were asked to do.

  The two children shared a fascination with the wildlife that inhabited the river and shoreline. The evening before, a doe walked up to the edge of the shore and they excitedly called the others to see. The men let them all enjoy, but they both knew that soon a deer would have to be looked at a
s food, an opportunity to kill not passed up.

  Both of the men stood on the upper deck and looked out from the rail. Clay spoke, Louis as was his custom, listened until his friend had expressed his thoughts. “I think that we need to make a shore trip before we head away from here. I didn't see any point in worrying the girls, I think you know that saying this trip to Dan's could be done in ten days, was being very optimistic. I really would like to know what's happening on land and I want to see what the situation is around that fuel station, up ahead. We have to have fuel, also, if there is any food to be found, it would be smart to stock up.”

  “That sounds right to me,” said Louis. “I knew you made light of the difficulty of the trip. I totally agree, fuel and food, those are our priorities.”

  “You know, friend, when things went all crazy, your very first thought and action was to take care of Penny and Jacob. I haven't had anyone but myself to be concerned about, since my parents passed away. Angeline and that little girl, they are not my responsibility...” he paused and swore, “damnit, they are here though and they need some protection. I feel like we just have to be thinking ahead and preparing for the worst, don't you Louis?”

  “Yes, I do,” he placed his hand on the shoulder of his friend, “We are going to do this together Clay, you can trust me.”

  “I never doubted that for a minute,” said Clay. “Let's tell the girls and get a couple of those gas cans into the dinghy.”

  Shortly, the small boat cut through the water, away from the paddle wheeler. Louis had the .38 at his waist and his shotgun, Clay had a 9MM and an AR rifle. Underneath the blanket with the rifles, they had a bottle of bourbon, a couple of cigars and a flare gun. Neither man had smoked since college, but on a rare occasion had a cigar and Clay kept a box on the supply shelf. The anchor spot was a few miles south of the small town of Natchez, Mississippi. This was the location of the fuel station and the area that they intended to investigate. In less that fifteen minutes, they spotted the pier that extended out into the river and the fuel tanks. Two men stood on the dock with rifles at their sides. Clay adjusted his cap, put on a big smile and shouted out, “Hey, bud, you got any gas?” Louis eased the dinghy up near the wooden pier.