Chapter 10

Coming Home

Summary: Settling in.

We woke up shortly after dawn to find ourselves wrapped around each other. Again. Quickly, we extricated ourselves and pretended to be concerned with other things. As usual.

Oddly, this had become a pattern. I, or Jade, would be crying in the night, or thrashing through a bad dream, the other would come over to that couch and hold the one in distress through the night.

Anyway, that first morning, after a quick breakfast and the cleanup in the dining hall from that and the night before, Jade drove the SUV back up the road to the entrance. Soon, she was back and again parked the SUV next to the camp's wagon and the Land Rover.

I had been inventorying the supplies and looked up when she walked in. For the first time that morning, she looked directly at me. She merely said, "It's done."

I nodded, somehow understanding what she did. With the camp sign down, and added to the wood pile, there wouldn't be much to differentiate our side road from any other along the highway. It was far from secure but, unless someone was looking for the place, it was unlikely any survivors along the road would find us. Especially with all the turn-offs and fire roads into the mountains.

"You know, Jade, we forgot something. Something very important."

A worried look appeared on Jade's face. "What?"

"Toilet paper! We have six twelve-roll packages. And with two women, that won't last long at all. Even when we take into account how many rolls are in the different units' outhouses, the ranger station, the old rectory, the shower building..."

"Vega, I was worried it was something really important. Wait! There's a shower building?"

"Yes, I pointed it out to you yesterday!"

"Oh…yeah… I was worried about becoming too funky…"

"But toilet paper…?"

"Don't worry about it."

"What? Toilet paper isn't important?"

"Well, yeah, but not like antibiotics or... Hey, have you been inoculated against Tetanus?"

It took a moment for me to realize she had changed the subject but I replied, "Yes. I got one before I started at HA. You?"

Jade nodded. "You know what else we need to get? Isopropyl alcohol, pain killers, antibiotics and the like. Allergy and cold formulas. I checked out the doc's office and found a lot of what we should need but it never hurts to have more. As much as we can find."

"Agreed."

"Do you want to head out today to forage?" It was still only late morning so there was plenty of time to head downslope towards the Central Valley.

"Yeah. But first, lets take care of the ranger house." Jade nodded and left for the storage shed on the parking lot while I got what we needed to handle the miasma inside from the medical building – masks, aprons and rubber gloves from the medical office. We met with the necessary tools - Jade had a large, heavy bag of quick lime in a wheelbarrow with a gallon plastic can of gasoline and shovels.

We had discussed it the night before and were in agreement. I doused the gauze masks with bleach until they were sodden, Jade left the shovels and quicklime behind the house. She took one of the masks and shook her head. "Trying to kill me?"

"What?"

"This much ammonia could be fatal…"

As a result, we waited until the masks were less…lethal. Jade and I took turns trying to dig a grave for the couple we were about to remove. Still, Jade and I quickly dug a hole for them but it wasn't too deep due to the shallow topsoil over the bedrock in the area, much like the problems I had in Palos Verde. 'How had anyone in California been buried in the old days?' I remember thinking.

The masks helped but the powerful odor was more than evident even through the smell of the bleach. We wrapped the bodies in their own sheets and blankets - the bedding they died on would never be usable again anyway. Then we pulled the mattress off the bed and drug it out of the house with the wrapped bodies on it.

Once they were in the shallow hole, we poured some of the quick lime over them and filled in the hole then piled some rocks over the plot. I said a short prayer - for them and us - while Jade stood with her head bowed.

The box spring, which we also dragged from the house, was laid on the mattress. These we soaked with some gasoline and burned on the side of the roadway. Then, while Jade returned the quick lime and the shovels to the shed, I opened up the ranger house - every door and window - to try to air out the odor of death. Fortunately, the stench was strongest in the master bedroom. The rest of the house should be okay in a few days, the bedroom sometime later.

Also, fortunately, the house had hardwood floors. There were throw rugs, like the admin building, but we drug those outside to air them out. The drapes in the bedroom and the clothes in the closed closet, dresser and linen closet weren't too bad but needed several days to air out in the fresh mountain air before we even laundered them. The clothes, in the closed walk-in closet, weren't too bad but we tossed most on the fire. Jade found some rock concert t-shirts and also grabbed a couple of the fatigue shirts (complete with the Forest Service patches). She left these all out to air, saying, "What? I like black goth rock shirts!"

It was still almost a year before Jade wore them. They were washed at least six times beforehand.

Over an hour later, we headed back out of the camp. It was just after 1 PM as we got on the main road. I noted Jade's work to get the sign down leaving little evidence it had been there. With the weeds and brush undisturbed in front of the short stump and some loose brush piled on top of the stump, anyone driving by shouldn't even notice the absence, unless they were local.

We headed downslope towards Strawberry. The town was basically a few tourist shops but not much more of a town than Indian Wells. Even so, between the Strawberry Lodge and the Strawberry Store, we found plenty worth salvaging. The lodge did have certain rooms we avoided due to the smell of decomposition. The few rolls of toilet paper, soap and other items in those rooms weren't worth dealing with that reek. At least, not yet.

Naturally, any coffee was fair game. I jokingly asked if Jade had an addiction…

With the maids' closets emptied, we headed for the mini-mart.

We cleaned the gas mart's store and the small grocer - toilet paper as well as any other supplies, including some few medicines. Jade also grabbed all the alcohol she could find.

"Jade, why? Planning to party?" I asked snidely.

In a condescending tone she replied, "No. Eventually, we'll run into other survivors. We might need barter material." Seeing my puzzled look, she went on, "I had a cousin going to college in Florida. She was in an apartment building temporarily cut off after a hurricane. Before the storm struck, she and her roommates loaded up on booze while others in their building bought food. After the storm passed, they were able to trade a six-pack for ham and a bottle of scotch for four lobsters and some potatoes. We can do the same. But for higher stakes, of course."

That made sense and I couldn't help but agree – money was worthless after all. Nodding, I helped her load our booty into the SUV.

We passed on breaking into houses - that was just not an option. Not at this point. Not yet. It wasn't scruples as much as wanting to hit the places with the greatest gains – stores, hotels, etc.

We drove on a few miles to the Pinecrest Elementary School. We both hesitated entering. A building full of kids…

There was an official closed notice on the front doors so, fortunately, it looked like nothing more than a rural school out for the summer once we were inside. And we scored a lot more toilet paper as well as a couple of dozen cases of that coarser paper used for towels in public school restrooms. In addition, we found more bottled water, juice and soda as well as dried goods in the cafeteria. There was other food but most had turned and the rest was too close to going bad.

Due to the lateness of the day, we had to leave enough behind to warrant a return trip the next day. Still we continued downslope to scout future treasure troves.

There were a couple of more schools further downslope and west towards the Central Valley but we decided to investigate the area around Pinecrest Lake. There were a couple of resorts which we checked out as well as a well-stocked food store, the Pinecrest Market, and what had been a nice restaurant, the Steam Donkey. We ended up going back to salvage the dried goods, paper goods and booze from the market and the liquor from the restaurant bar and storeroom.

There was also a sporting goods store. The store had freeze-dried food packs as well as more water and a lot more ammunition. Definitely worth a return visit.

That first day, we did take a few cases of bullets, even for guns we didn't have. Jade said, at worse, we could cannibalize them for the gunpowder.

What we were doing was considered looting. Especially in the cities - when there had still been a suggestion of civil order - but here, and now, it was survival.

We returned to Sutter and added all this to our stash. On the way back, we had already planned for the next day.

As the electricity was still on, we decided to check out the survival rations we procured. Jade used some of the freeze-dried fish from Dad's stash and added it to one of the rice-with-spices kits and some soy sauce. It really wasn't anything recognizable but it was relatively tasty and filling.

I told her so, "Jade, this is really good!"

"Thank you, Vega."

Then I said, "Well, better than I expected…"

Jade stuck her tongue out at me this time. I couldn't help but laugh. She actually grinned back.

I brought up our plan for the next day again. "I think we did a pretty good job today. But I think we should go further down the hills and grab more. Maybe Sonora? Before long, other survivors will start banding together and creating their own little fiefdoms to claim what they have. Of course, it'll be worse near the larger population centers - what were population centers."

"I know Vega. No duh!"

I shook my head, "That's why I said 'Of course', Jade."

"Whatever, Vega. Okay. Tomorrow, let's get an early start and head towards Sonora. And the resorts around..." Jade checked the map she had brought from our stash, "Around Phoenix Lake-Cedar Ridge and Mono Vista. Not tomorrow but later, we can try back-tracking to Bishop. We really need to check that Marine Corps station for supplies."

Naturally, I added, "And weapons."

Nodding, Jade simply added, "Don't forget coffee..."

"And toilet paper…" My reply drew one of Jade's patented eye rolls.

We decided the downslope places were more likely to be stripped before we got there than the Corps station and opted to hit those first. After all, there would undoubtedly be more survivors from the more heavily populated areas on the coast and in the Valley than from the desert side of the mountains.

The pattern we set up the first day was repeated every day for the next two weeks. After the first day, we both took a vehicle – I drove Mariska and Jade got the Land Rover. We grabbed some walkie-talkies from the sporting goods store in Sonora. I still remember giving Robbie grief about him finding a pair at the Wanko's store on a very weird night before a big sale.

Sonora was marvelous. There was a SaveMore grocery store that had tons of everything. A couple of sporting goods stores had more gear than we could use – not that we didn't grab it. And there were more than a couple of liquor stores and bars to clean out. We actually got to the point we could load and head back to Sutter then back downslope to the town or village or whatever for another load in a single day.

"You know, I think I remember that store Vega," Jade said over the radio, as we drove past the SaveMore we had looted a few days before.

"Huh? You said you were never up here."

"No. There's an old '70s movie, Crazy Larry, Dirty Mary. Remember we saw that in our Indy Films class? That was the store they robbed. Roddy McDowell was the manager or owner or something."

I laughed even as I remembered that movie, "Well, that's some useless chiz! But I think you're right."

Looking in the rearview mirror, I could see Jade looked angry for a moment then started to laugh with me. Leave it to former students of a performing arts school to tie anything into old movies or TV or music or theater.

On the way downslope and back, naturally we went through Strawberry. One day, Jade wanted to stop and check another shop for something or other. While she was in there, I noticed signs that someone else had been there. There had been a rain shower the night before, leaving puddles scattered around the small downtown area – if it can be called that. I saw a small, child-sized foot print in some mud. Looked like an athletic shoe but there was no sign of the person wearing that shoe.

I called out, "Hey! Come on out! We're friendly!"

But the only response I got was Jade. "WHAT?! Jeez, Vega! I'm just in here! I'll be back in a second."

I pointed out the small footprint.

We looked around and called out but there was no response. Whoever left the print was probably long gone.

Since our flat tire near Manzanar, we always kept watch for tailing cars – any cars - as we drove but, from that moment of seeing the footprint, we pointedly kept watch for anyone who might be tailing us from our expeditions as well as alongside the road. And we were, belatedly, starting to keep our eyes and ears more open as we were on scavenge runs. This was a perfect example of why.

We had also begun raking the gravel road into camp for at least a quarter mile from the highway to cover the SUV tracks – a royal pain - as well as sweeping any possible tracks or dirt we tracked onto the main road's asphalt as best we could. Occasional rain showers helped wash the dirt away thankfully.

So far, so good. Still, that day, we drove up another half mile past the camp entrance and pulled into a fire road. After waiting for over a half hour, Jade was fingering her shotgun as she said, "I think it's okay. We can go home."

Home.

I realized she was right, it was our home now. And we would fight for it if necessary.

As I stated, virtually every night, I woke to hear Jade quietly crying and crawled onto her sofa to hold her. Or Jade did the same for me. After a few nights of that, I started to lay with her as soon as we went to bed. I guess it helped as we both stopped crying as much at night. The nightmares eased as well. But we never lost them. Even to this day...

But, back to 2014. By this time, the electric grid had failed but we did find a hand-crank pump to use for draining stalled cars and would be handy when we started getting more fuel for the camp.

We weren't sure when the lights died – we hadn't bothered after dark much since we usually were on the rockers on the porch to sit silently, talk or even plan the next day's run. Fortunately, outside of the freezers, which would keep things frozen for a few more days if they weren't opened too frequently, we were fine. The pilot lights on the cafeteria's kitchen were gas-fired.

The first time we hit Bishop, back on the east side of the crest, Jade saw a propane delivery facility with several trucks. She pulled over, got out and shouted to me, "Vega, you know how to drive a stick?"

"Huh?" I was already standing next to Mariska.

"A stick shift. Can you drive a car with a manual transmission?"

"No. I just learned how to drive a few weeks ago!" At least to the state's satisfaction, I didn't add.

"That's alright. I can."

Since we both drove, we had to wait 'til the next day. Jade rode in Mariska with me and we returned to Bishop and the propane facility.

By the time we left Bishop, I was driving the SVU back with supplies while Jade followed in one of the propane tankers. Fortunately, unlike the tractor tailer left at the camp, it was one of those smaller, one-piece rigs. Even Jade admitted a semi would be too much for her. Naturally, it had a full tank of propane - we made sure it was topped off.

We ended up going back several more times and ended up with all ten tankers - all with full loads. Each trip, we loaded Mariska with canned goods, toilet paper, booze and whatever else we figured we needed. By this point, the public areas of the stores were nearly bare but the stock rooms still had plenty to bring to Sutter.

The propane trucks nicely supplemented the nearly full tanks at the mess hall and the ranger house which, I presume, had been topped off soon after the first thaw in the months before and the tanker in the parking lot. I didn't know how long it would last but it saved us from trying to figure out how to cook over an open fire. Well, beyond steaks, chops and the like.

At least for a while.

We finally drove onto the Marine installation. This wasn't so much that we forgot as much as we presumed - gambled - that the downslope places would be looted before any roving bands found the Marine installation.

Driving through the gates, I was expecting to be stopped by some unseen sentry.

It was eerie. The dead towns were too but this place… I would've thought the government, or at least the Marine Corps, would have secured the place with troops. But, instead, it was oddly empty of corpses, which couldn't be said of the other population centers we raided.

As we explored the base... It was incredible! We were speechless!

The medical center had a huge array of drugs, bandages, utensils and electronic exam equipment. And, of course, field medical kits. Also, tons of dry goods in the camp mess, cases of MREs, dried foods, cases and cases and cases of water and, of course, cases of large tins of coffee. Winter gear from fleece jackets and blankets to down-filled coats, vests and pants with gloves, mittens, scarves and woolen hats to thermal underwear – enough to stock several large Army Surplus stores if there were any still around to take the stock.

Jade found a map designed for civilians, presumably Corps family members. Noting the cafeteria – it wasn't listed as a mess hall on the map which surprised me – we focused on the armaments initially.

Naturally, all the munitions were locked up. Needlessly, Jade said, "We need keys..."

"I'll go to the commander's office to look for keys."

As I turned away, I heard a loud bang and fell to the ground, "Jade! We're under fire..."

"Relax Vega. I shot the lock." I glared at her and she smiled sweetly and said, "I changed my mind. This was easier."

For the second time, we were both speechless. What a wide variety of weapons, from pistols to automatic rifles to machine guns to grenade launchers to bazookas and LAWS rockets!

We loaded up a lot of the automatic weapons and ammunition but there was so much that wouldn't fit in Mariska. But we knew going in, knowing that this would require multiple raids.

I noted that there was also a small collection of foreign weapons, from old German grease-guns of World War Two vintage to the Czech Kalishnikovs - AK-47s like the rifle I carried. Jade explained these were used at US military training camps to help recruits differentiate between 'enemy' fire and their own weapons. I retorted, "I saw 'Pork Chop Hill' too."

Ignoring my reply, Jade hefted one of the AK-47s, with the shoulder stock cut off, and declared, "This one's mine!"

In deference to Jade's decision - "This the best hand-held automatic machine gun ever made!" - we loaded several dozen crates of cartridges for the AKs. I claimed another one too. I didn't want to have something go wrong if we were in a firefight and I was stuck with just a pistol. Actually, I just like the look of the gun – the profile, the wooden grips and all. And how easy it was to break down and reassemble compared to the American guns.

Back at Sutter, we started to brush away the tire tracks as Jade needlessly said, "You said we'd need more time there. You were right. We need to go back."

"I was right?!"

"Don't let it swell your already ginormous head, Vega. But we need more…"

"More weapons? I suppose so."

Jade chuckled, "Ten Nugent did say overkill is good for you.

"Not just arms. We need their survival gear for winter. They have to have emergency food packs, boots, snowshoes, winter clothing, walking staffs with points for the winter... You know."

"Yeah, I remember."

"And they have those hyper snow jet skis. The Norwegian models? They would be a great help. Also the big snow cats like they use in the Arctic."

"Not to mention the gasoline. There were tankers and we can also drain the underground tanks."

Jade nodded, "Tori, I was up at Big Bear with Beck last winter and the snow was deep. And it was cold. I'm pretty sure it'll be worse up here. We're probably a thousand feet higher in elevation from sea level."

"True."

Within a few weeks, we were storing our salvage in the main dining room, the chapel and even in Central. The old stables came in handy too.

The next day, Jade noted the rectory seemed to be leaning away from us even more. So we started to go through the house. It wasn't – actually smaller than the ranger's house. There was a front room, a dining room, a bedroom, bath and a kitchen towards the back – again similar to the ranger station. The front room apparently doubled as the priest's library since there were floor to ceiling bookcases but with most of the books on the floor. Those were easily moved. Well, relative to the furniture we decided to try and save. The books were initially stacked on the macadam in front of the rectory but, eventually, were moved in with us.

The antique desk, end tables, the sofa and an easy chair (on casters fortunately even though we had to push it uphill) in the front room, the kitchen set and the bedroom set - we tried to save it all. There was a China cabinet in the dining room but it had fallen onto the table, breaking two of the six chairs. The glass doors were broken and the wood frame was cracked. The glassware and the fine China were all shattered. Careful of the glass and China shards, we heaved it off to pull the table and chairs out.

That was the scariest time...moving that heavy hulk off to the side of the room and feeling the house shift some more.

The tilt of the house was unnerving and every time a board creaked, we froze. As we moved furniture, slowly, we felt a little better as the weight was eased off the remaining foundation. But the structure continued to groan as we carefully moved around the place.

The kitchen was an absolute mess. A bag of flour fell out of an upper cabinet and burst – fine, white powder everywhere. Pots and pans fell towards the back of the kitchen and most of the China was shattered on the floor and the far wall. We did salvage some more dry goods but any veggies, fruit or the like were either mummified or growing mold colonies. I actually tossed most of that out the back window into the valley beneath the house.

The bedroom was relatively intact and we pulled out the mattress and box spring. As we took those out to the pavement between the rectory and the admin hall, we heard the bed frame shift into the wall. Jade said, "Do we chance it?"

"Um… I'll go in and…check it out first." Jade started to protest but I mentioned I was slimmer and lighter.

"You saying I'm fat?"

"No! You're full-fig…" I know I was blushing and Jade had a knowing smile on her face so I shut up.

The interior was pretty much the same. I slowly walked all the way to the back of the kitchen and heard Jade call out, "Vega! Hey!"

"I'm okay. It's stable…"

"I think we got enough," she yelled. I agreed but did grab a large, unopened can of coffee we had missed and the toilet paper from the bathroom.

Jade was pleased and we left the rectory behind. After cutting off the gas feed, which we meant to do when we arrived but, we forgot.

We moved the mattress and box spring to the ranger's house - both the ranger's house and the rectory had king-sized beds fortunately. We left them in the front room of the ranger house for now. The odor still lingered, especially in the master bedroom, but it was noticeably better than before. Another couple of weeks – early July at the latest – and the place should be habitable.

Jade and I decided that would be our home. Once it was livable.

But not that day. We were too tired after moving the heavier wooden pieces out of the rectory up the slope into the chapel - we didn't want to get this damaged by any rains. Wise move, as it turned out.

That night, for the first time since we got there, a major thunderstorm hit us. It was a big one and lasted through the next day. There were times the lightning and the thunder were almost simultaneous, like in the movies, meaning the heart of the storm was over us. Several times.

And it was loud!

Stuck inside for the duration of the storm, we tried to keep ourselves occupied. We could only do some much planning for future forays and it was too depressing to talk about our old lives. Card games only kept us interested for so long, same with the old board games. We had sorted the books we saved from the rectory already and there wasn't much more to do with our supplies.

We ended up with time to start to go through the Foxfire books and the others to see what information they contained that we could use. The lantern light, combined with the lightning flashes, let us read with a bit of effort. I figured if it worked for Lincoln, it'd work for us.

The books had a lot of information on things like soap-making, candle-making, how to make a lantern fuel and even how to dress fresh game and prepare the skins for use.

The last was nothing I'd ever think I'd need to know. At least I hoped this wouldn't be a factor but I finally realized we'd need fresh meat at some time and that we couldn't afford to waste much, if any, of the carcass. Thank God I never joined PETA when I had been tempted to. I'd end up feeling like I betrayed what they stood for. Or starve.

Before the storm, or storms, drug on, fortunately, Jade and I had become close enough to keep from being at each other's throats. Not that there weren't some rough patches – then one of the other of us would end up on the porch watching the rain fall until the other would come out to watch too. We usually sat there quietly for a half hour or so before one of us would apologize and we'd be back to our new normal.

It was late afternoon the day after the storms started - the rain had been falling since before we went to sleep the night before. Jade was out on the porch at one point. I felt bad because I had made some stupid joke I've since forgotten. But, even in these times, it should've done little more than raise her ire. This time, she got angry and stormed out of the lodge. I found her on the porch swing, slowly moving back and forth. Rather than wait for a while, I spoke up, "Jade? I'm sorry, it was just a stupid…"

She shook her head and I silently walked over. She moved to one side and I took the silent invite and sat next to her. We rocked, watched the rain fall, dripping off the eaves and the trees around us. The lightning flared from time to time and the thunder followed by several seconds, indicating the center of this particular storm cell was moving away from us. It could almost be romantic.

"I'm sorry Jade. I didn't mean anything. I just…"

Wordlessly, Jade took my hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. I immediately shut up and gave her a gentle squeeze in return. We sat there, hand in hand, for an hour or more before my stomach growled and Jade laughed, "Someone sounds hungry."

The second day was spent with most of it on the front porch, our hands often intertwined without realizing it. We watched the water flow down the roadway towards the lakes. By this time, it was practically a small river. Some of the smaller pieces we saved from the priest's house, that we neglected to stash indoors, moved along with the water. Lightning flashed in the distance and, eventually, the thunder rolled over us. From the space between the flash and the roar, the center of that storm cell, which was east of us, was still slowly heading away.

Then came the weirdest thing I'd seen since this all began. Jade yelled, "Tori! Look at the rectory!"

From across the swamped roadway, we watched as, almost noiselessly, the skewed house fell away from us as it slowly slid down the slope. There was some cracking and the sounds of glass breaking but, overall, the house made an almost majestic, silent sojourn down the slope, out of sight and into the trees. It was incredible. I'd seen things like that on YouTube and the Slap but to see it in real life was...unbelievable. And, in this case, so unreal.

"Wow!" I muttered.

"I know, right?"

We stared at the gap in the trees left by the fall, wordlessly.

The storm finally started to let up late in the second day and, by evening, it was over.

That night, we cooked hot dogs on the fire in the lodge fireplace followed by marshmallows over the coals. Then we called it a day.

By the time I crawled onto the sofa with Jade, I realized that I not only needed the physical contact with another human being but I loved the feeling of Jade in my arms.

So, when the time came, would I be able to sleep alone?

I guessed I'd have to...

Notes: Thanks to Loganx5 again.

Also, the chapter title is from the Skylar song of the same name.