Stryker: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale (14 page)

“Night.” Stryker
set the M-4 across his lap and settled into a more comfortable position. He
listened to the merry chirps of cicadas. The air was still and the moon full.
He didn’t bother to wake Erin, as he enjoyed the time alone and the chance to
think things over. As the sun started to bathe the landscape in faint light, he
got up and made another pot of coffee, then moved back to the porch.

He heard water
rushing through the pipes as he passed the bedroom wall, and presumed the women
were up and taking showers. He promised himself one of his own when they
finished.

“Morning,” Haley
said as she passed through the screen door. Stryker nodded his head. Ten
minutes later, everyone was seated on the porch drinking coffee and eating
crackers. Stryker went inside, took a shower, then put on a change of clothes.
He emerged wearing a work shirt and jeans.

“Let’s get the
meeting started,” Sarge said in a brisk tone. “You mind if I start?”

“Go ahead,” Stryker
replied. He glanced at the young women and noted there was curiosity in their
expressions, but no looks of concern.

“Well, Stryker and
I were talking yesterday, and we decided we needed to bring everyone in on the
conversation and decision making. What I’m about to say may seem harsh or
overly pessimistic. But we do think it’s the truth of the matter.” He took a
breath, clearly trying to choose his next words with caution. “The fact of the
matter is things are going to get more difficult as time passes. The canned and
dried food we mostly eat has a shelf life. It will eventually go bad and we
need to start making our own food.”

“That’s a good
thing,” Elle said. “It’s much better for us to eat fresh, and we already got a
garden going.”

“That’s true,”
Sarge allowed. “But we need to be able to feed five of us, and the garden is
too small for that. We also need to get equipment to start canning the food we
harvest. And, we need to get an irrigation system in there to grow year-round.
We also have to round up some farm animals and start a breeding operation for
hogs, cattle, and chickens. That means we will have to build corrals, chicken
coops, and pig sties.” He paused, then looked at Stryker, who took his turn to
speak.

“This brings us
back to what we talked about at the table last night. The question is, should
we look for somewhere that already has what we need and move there, or should we
build everything here? Before we can answer that, we also have to realize that
before too long, gasoline will degrade and we won’t be able to drive any
longer.”

“How does gas
degrade?” Erin asked. “It’s not like it’s going to rot like food.”

“Gasoline is a
highly refined product brewed to a chemical composition with very specific
characteristics. One of the most important characteristics of gas is
volatility. That’s the term used to describe how easily and under what
conditions the gas vaporizes so it can be burned in a car's engine. The most
highly volatile components in gasoline evaporate over time. As they do, the
ability to combust degrades. The less volatile the fuel, the less effectively
it burns in your engine. We’ll know when that happens because we’ll be able to
start vehicles, but they will run roughly. Within six months of that, it’ll
probably not even start the engine.”

“What about
stabilizer? I’ve read that you can extend the life of gasoline with that,” Erin
said.

“We have stabilizer
in the tank in the yard. That’ll buy us a few years. After that, we can squeeze
a few more out by putting gas in a barrel, letting it sit for a few days, and
then just using the gas from the top half of the barrel. The volatile
components in gas are lighter and you can increase the concentration of them in
bad gas by doing that. That’ll buy another few years. But the outcome in the
end will be the same.”

“So we need to be
close to the things we need because we won’t be able to travel long distances,”
Haley said.

“That’s right,”
Sarge answered. “Or we need to stockpile all the things we’ll need before the
gas goes bad. For example, we don’t want to be hauling fertilizer or animal
feed in single bags over miles of terrain.”

“And we need to
find someplace that’s defensible, or make this house easier to defend,” Stryker
added. “The only organized group of bad guys I’ve run into were the ones who
kidnapped you, and they were easy pickings as they had no training or
discipline. The outcome could have been very different if they were any good. I
don’t know if any groups like that exist now, but we have to be prepared for
the worst.”

“So what do you
guys think?” Sarge asked. “Should we look for somewhere else to live? If so,
where?” Everybody looked thoughtful for a moment and then Erin spoke.

“I think we should
look for a lake or a river, and live there.” She paused a moment to think. “We
can fish, we got water for the garden, and we travel by canoe or sailboat.”

“How about on the
ocean?” Elle added.

“I guess there are
pros and cons to both. The ocean is salt water so not good for crops, but
there’s a wider variety of fish,” Stryker said. “I don’t know anything about
gardening, but would the salt air affect being able to grow vegetables?”

“Not that I know
of,” Elle replied. “I’ve seen gardens close to the sea on the east coast, and
they did fine.”

“I can also make an
argument for staying here,” Stryker said. “We have reliable power and the
wells, in thirty years, have never run dry. We can get farm animals from Hank and
we already have half a garden.”

“How hard would it
be to disassemble the pumps and panels and move them to another location?”
Sarge asked.

“Probably two to
three long days,” Stryker answered.

“Well, this falls
short of a real plan, but how about we start looking for a new location now and
stockpiling what we’re going to need at the same time? If we do that, the
options remain open. If we don’t find something, we just stay here.” Sarge
looked around at the others to see if they agreed. Everyone nodded their heads.

“Okay, we can start
checking rivers and lakes close to here tomorrow and then make a trip to the
ocean north of Corpus Christi. That’s the closest place we’re going to find
ocean front.”

“Works for me,”
Erin said.

“Next topic is a
bit trickier, and Sarge and I decided to bring it up in the interest of
honesty, not because we can do anything about it.” Stryker paused, noting their
expressions had changed to looks of concern. “Your lives are going to change in
ways that may be difficult. The fact is that we are not going to recover from
this in your lifetimes. There just aren’t enough people to rebuild the
infrastructure we had, or even a small part of it. You will not lead lives that
are like the ones you had. There is no guarantee you’ll ever work at a job,
have a husband and kids, take vacations, or make new friends. It may seem a
small thing, but once we are settled wherever we end up, you’re going to be
facing a great deal of boredom. The reason I started scavenging was not just to
have things to trade, but also just to get out of the house and do something.”

“What did you do
before that?” Haley asked.

“I’ll show you.” He
disappeared into the house and reappeared carrying what looked like an armload
of magazines. “Crosswords,” he said, laying the magazines on the table. “Lots
of crossword puzzles.”

“There must be a
hundred of those,” Erin said.

“There are 126, but
nobody is counting. Do you guys get my point?”

“All the stuff
about us never recovering or leading normal lives is hard to believe,” Elle
said

“I would say it’s
hard to accept, but not hard to believe. I don’t like saying this any more than
you like hearing it. I just want you to be prepared for it and to not let it
get you down.”

“Grandpa, do
believe all this, too?” Erin asked.

“I do. I don’t like
having to talk about it, but we needed to make sure you understand what it’s
going to be like. Both Stryker and I traveled to here from California, and we
both saw the same things. No people to speak of, nobody running a store or
shop, nothing moving except the occasional person or people trying to get
somewhere. And things are beginning to shut down. Power systems are going down
and water systems are running dry.”

He paused and then
added, “I always thought the end of the world would happen quickly. One day
everything worked, then a disaster, then nothing. It’s not going that way at
all. Things are just falling apart at their own rate. Next it will be cars, and
then we are effectively living in the world we had more than two hundred years
ago.”

“What about the
power and water here?” Haley asked.

“Same thing,”
Stryker replied. “The solar panels will last twenty years or more; but someday
there won’t be working panels to replace them. Same is true of the water pumps.
Someday they’ll break down and we may not be able to find parts. That could
happen at any time.” The group fell silent, everyone lost in their own
thoughts. The mood was grimly thoughtful. A long silence ensued.

“I’m going to get
the power hooked up to the house and start charging the batteries. After that,
I’m going on a run. Anybody want to join me?” Stryker said, anxious to let the
conversation die and move on to something more positive.

“I’ll go,” Haley
said.

“Me too,” Erin
replied.

“I’ll get Elle
trained up. We’ll be behind the house,” Sarge said.

Stryker finished
wiring the circuit breaker box as he listened to shots being fired in the back
yard. They were erratic with long lapses between. He imagined Sarge patiently
explaining what Elle did wrong between the shots, and grinned. He knew Sarge
must be gritting his teeth and cursing under his breath.

He tested the
batteries with his multimeter and turned the main breaker on. Everything looked
good. He went inside and put on his running shorts and shoes, left his shirt in
the bedroom, and went to the front room. He strapped his XD back on and walked
to the front porch. The ladies weren’t there, so he walked around the house and
found them working in the garden.

“I’m heading out
for a run. You guys still want to go?”

“Just give us a second
to get changed and we’ll meet you on the porch,” Erin replied.

“Okay.” He walked
back to the porch and they shortly joined him. Both were dressed in cargo
shorts and t-shirts. “You don’t have any running gear?”

“We were naked when
you found us,” Haley said with an exasperated tone.

“True. We’ll go
into town tomorrow and get some gear for you.” He set off at a trot with both
women slightly behind him. They soon were running abreast at a leisurely gait.

“I saw you had
several zipper scars on your back when you were washing up back at the house we
stayed at,” Erin said.

“Yeah, I had two
surgeries. They were trying to sneak up on the problem, but gave up.”

“What happened?”

“I had shrapnel in
my back from a bomb blast and then a wall fell on me.” The women noticed that
he picked up the pace after the exchange and fell behind him. Haley looked at
Erin with a question mark in her eyes, but Erin refused to make eye contact.
They both stopped for a moment and watched him plod along for a bit while they
caught their breath. Stryker continued to run.

“Did you see that
pucker scar on his chest before we started running?” Erin asked.

“Yes.”

“That looked like a
gunshot wound.”

“Don’t know about
that; but it didn’t look like it was fun getting, whatever it was.”

“Grandpa has one
like it. I saw it when he was changing shirts, years ago.”

“I didn’t know
that.” They both sprinted to catch up, but Haley maintained the faster pace and
ran well ahead.

“She was on the
track team at LSU,” Erin said as she pulled even with Stryker and watched Haley
pull away.

“She runs like a
freaking gazelle,” Stryker replied. They ran on for another few minutes when
the Stryker waved a hand and pointed to a boulder to their right. “Break?”

“Sure.” They sat
down on the boulder and struggled to regain their breath.

“You want to talk
about why you’re curious about me?” Stryker said after breathing normally. Erin
was shocked at the bluntness of his statement and remained mute for a few
seconds. She looked away at the horizon, then looked back at his face.

“I’m not sure I
want to talk about it.”

“Then just listen.”
Stryker laid his hand over her thigh with the palm open. She thought about it
for a moment and placed her hand in his. He hadn’t really touched anyone since
the last time he saw his wife, and it was oddly reassuring, like stepping into
a home with the smell of food cooking. There was an odd quality to it; her hand
felt both strong and soft. He looked squarely in her eyes and she held his
stare with her own. “I think we are curious about each other, and that’s fine.
But I don’t want to put words on it before I know exactly how I feel. I’m happy
to discuss it with you if you like.”