CHAPTER 11

 

 

 

Jesse looked behind him, down the road, in the direction of the observation post. “This must be Wallace.” Jesse turned to Peter. “Peter, can you take the cart please?”

 

“Sure,” Peter answered, and took the game cart and wheeled it in the direction of the grave.

 

Jesse walked towards Wallace, and reached out his hand to shake Wallace’s hand. “Hi, I’m Jesse.”

 

“I hear you’re the platoon leader here,” Wallace shook Jesse’s hand. “Wallace Sturges. Nice to meet you.”

 

“Well, my wife and I own the property here. I’m just a benevolent dictator.”

 

“OK.”

 

“Nice to meet you too. Hey, I remember you from church.” Jesse introduced everyone. “Here’s Andrew, Jim, DJ, Don, Chuck, and Kathy.” Everyone shook hands. “Hi,” Kathy said.

 

Jim said, “Hey, I remember you from church. You sat in the back row.”

 

“Yep, that was me. Lots of good legroom back there.”

 

Jesse looked at the fish Wallace was carrying. “Oh, I hear you caught these at the lake, then hiked 15 miles to get here. How did you get through the roadblock?”

 

“I never came across it. I stay off all roads. Strictly an off-road kind of guy,” Wallace smiled.

 

“Incredible,” Chuck marveled.

 

“Well, make yourself at home, Wallace. We’re going to have a funeral pretty soon. A friend of ours got killed.”

 

“I heard. Tracy told me. And they guys who did it got away.” Wallace handed the fish to Jesse. “Were those the guys in the chopper?”

 

“Thanks. Oh, we don’t know. Probably.” Jesse looked at the fish. “I’ll give these fish to whoever is cooking the dinner tonight. Lately we have had a couple of Dutch ovens going with rice and beans for dinner. We can mix the fish in. That will be different.”

 

“Beautiful,” Wallace said.

 

The men and Kathy started walking back up the road towards the center of the camp.

 

Jesse continued. “I can show you where the shower is. It gets warm but it doesn’t keep a lot of water in the container there. So what you might need to do is wash your clothes first with the soap we have there, hang it all up to dry, and then refill the water tank and wait for it to heat up again. Then you can take your shower. We keep some shampoo, soap and cream rinse there. And a couple of towels.”

 

“Very impressive. Thanks.”

 

“And when you are done with everything, make sure to put it all back up like it was when you got there. You know, hang up the towels to dry and clean up.”

 

“Sure. No problem.”

 

Chuck added, “We also have a toilet nearby the shower.”

 

“Oh, OK, good.”

 

“Except we ran out of toilet paper the first week we were up here,” Jesse added.

 

“Well, next time.”

 

“Yes,” Jesse smiled. “Yes, next time there is an End Times, we’ll make sure to stock up on a lot more toilet paper.”

 

“Good idea,” Wallace smiled.

 

Chuck added, “We have been using travel bidets at the toilet.”

 

“Travel bidets?”

 

“Yes, one of those water-squirter things,” Jesse explained. “It was Chuck’s idea, and it was a good one. Instead of using toilet paper, which we ran out of, we use travel bidets. Like they have in Europe. They last forever, and you get used to them.”

 

“I’ve heard of those. And hey, if the frogs use them, they can’t be all that bad, right?”

 

“Yep,” Jesse agreed. “And after you clean your clothes and take a shower, maybe we can get some info from you. Like what is going on out there. What you know. I’m sure you have come across a lot of information.”

 

“Sure,” Wallace answered. “I can tell you what little I know.”

 

Jim spoke up. “Another thing, Wallace. We get a small fire going during the night, and only feed the coals at daytime. That way, there is no smoke going up that can be seen far way.”

 

“Smart.”

 

Don asked, “What is this, an AR-15?”

 

“Yep, I got a new camo stock. I also have a new Eotech scope, and in my backpack here I also have a PVS-14 nighttime scope. And this gun is modified so that it can be fully automatic.”

 

“This is a fully automatic machine gun?” Don asked.

 

“With the flip of a switch.”

 

“Cool,” Don said.

 

Andrew asked, “Do you have all your supplies in your backpack here?”

 

“Well, I have a lot here, but I have supply cache tubes buried all around this area. I probably have half a garage-full of stuff buried in different places.”

 

“Cache tubes?” Andrew asked.

 

“We have some of those here, Andrew,” Jesse interjected. “I thought you knew. They keep things pretty cold.”

 

“Yes, those ABS or PVC pipes that has an endcap at one end and a screw-off top on the other,” Wallace said. “You can bury them and they stay safe. I even have some food in them, and it stays good. Doesn’t go bad or anything.”

 

“I suppose you can even store some actual cash in one of those cache tubes,” Chuck joked. “That is, assuming the cash is still worth anything.”

 

“You guys are beautiful, man,” Wallace smiled.

 

 

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