Cities on Fire Read online

  “Sonny, you’d better listen to your wife. She’s going to need you to back her up like her partner did the other day. They saved my life and each other’s lives when those scumbags tried to kill us all.”

  Shorty brought two holsters with the Glocks and two 17 round magazines already in the holster. Jo made Bill strap his on and then put hers around her waist. Ben had installed shoulder straps on both rifles and the guns were ready to go.

  Jo said, “Bill I know you don’t like guns, but trust me you will be shot at and shoot back at someone trying to rob or kill us this week so listen.”

  She then showed him how to load, handle, and fire the Glock and the Sub 2000. He was like a man handling a rattlesnake for the first time.

  “Look I know you don’t like this, but you could be saving one of our kid's life with one of those guns so get over the bullshit and be prepared to shoot.”

  Ben brought the backpacks to the back of the store along with the tactical vests and other gear.

  Shorty came back from the front and said, “Ben you and Ralph stay here while George and I take them to their house and then to the south side of the city so they can start their trip south. After we drop them off, we’ll drop the first load off at the ranch and get back here ASAP. I figure we have until dark to be out of here. Then the shit really hits the fan.”

  Shorty took them by their home and waited for them to gather what they needed for their trip, which wasn’t much since Shorty had equipped them so well. Jo hid the family pictures, her jewelry, and other precious keepsakes in their safe under the garage floor, which was masked by a set of shelves. She took a bag of silver coins and twenty gold coins with them to trade or purchase with later. She placed the silver coins in two money belts with the coins spaced out around their waists to keep them hidden.

  Bill went to the back of the garage and retrieved a baby carriage built for a runner to push as he ran. He used to push the kids along as he ran when they were babies.

  He placed a case of pint water bottles, cans of meat and a small hiker’s tent in the carriage and pushed it to the truck.

  “Jo, I pushed the kids in this, and we can use it to help takes some of the load off.”

  “Great idea honey. Let’s go.”

  Shorty looked at them and said, “I wish I had an old car to give you. You two look like you’re going to run a marathon.”

  “We run 50 milers five times a year and train three times a week. This will be three of them in three to five days if we don’t find transportation.”

  “No shit. You are going to run down to Tennessee.”

  “Yes.”

  “Won’t you attract attention with a carbine and an AR strapped to your backs.”

  “They’ll go in the baby buggy until we need them.”

  The truck pulled out, and Jo looked back at their two story home and wondered if she would ever see it again. Bill looked toward the hospital and wondered if he’d ever see Dawn again and if she was as good in bed as she claimed. He went into the closet yesterday, but couldn’t make love to Dawn with his wife in the hospital.

  Shorty dropped them off at the intersection of Highway 265 and Highway 61 and bid them goodbye.

  Walt walked back to the hospital to see if he could find Jo and talk her into heading up to Kentucky. One end of the Hospital was engulfed in fire and had collapsed. He entered the Emergency entrance and made his way through a tangled mess of Doctors and Nurses trying to care for hundreds of wounded people.

  He arrived at the room Jo had been in and found the room empty. He started to leave when he heard a noise.

  “Jo left with her husband,” the Nurse Dawn blubbered between long crying spells.

  “How long ago did they leave?”

  “Sniff. About half an hour ago. I can’t believe Bill left with his bitch wife.”

  Walt looked at the beautiful young thing and thought what the heck. I can’t have Jo today so Dawn will do. He helped her up off the floor and to a patient’s room. He calmed her down and started unbuttoning her dress when she realized what was happening she said, “Stop. I’m going home.”

  Walt drew his pistol, stuck it against her temple, and said,” If you want to ever go home again you’ll get your clothes off and do what I say when I say.”

  “Screw you. I’m going home.”

  Walt hit her on the neck with the butt of the gun, and she said, “Don’t hurt me. I’ll do it.”

  She and Walt undressed. He got what he wanted and left her crying on the bed.

  As he left he said, “If you see that wimp Bill, tell him I’m going to take Jo and kill his sorry ass.”

  He left the poor girl crying and never realized that he had become the criminal that he had fought half of his adult life. He hated everybody and was in a rage that blinded him from reason.

  Will thought the ride was much more difficult due to the stalled and crashed cars littering the highway. He wished people had pulled over to the side instead of stopping in the middle of the highway. Most people were still milling around their cars without a clue what had happened. At first, no one paid attention to them but as the day wore on several tried to get them to stop. A few offered to buy the bicycles. One man screamed at them and threw rocks as they whizzed by him.

  The people appeared to be waiting for the police to come and sort things out and then call them a tow truck. Will was very thankful that his Papaw and Mom had warned him about the possibility of this happening. They had given him instructions on how to handle himself and what he should do when TEOTWAWKI occurred. He doubted that most of these people had a clue what to do when the end of the world as we know it occurred.

  Will saw the man blocking their path ahead first and yelled back, “Trouble ahead. Wait and follow me when I cut across to the other side of the road.”

  The man started waving as they got within 100 feet and yelled for them to stop. Will cut to his right quickly with the others following and they soon left the man behind them.

  Earlier they had made the mistake of stopping for a woman a few miles out of Clermont, and two men jumped out of the bushes to take their bikes. Will drew his pistol and fired a shot into the ground, and they backed off allowing the family to escape. They wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  Jane watched the next hill up ahead get closer as they zoomed down a long winding hill that took them to a valley and a stream at the bottom. They built up as much speed as safely possible to give them momentum up the next hill. Jane had driven this road dozens of time and never thought about having to push a bicycle up a hill a mile long.

  They shifted down several gears and strained to keep the bikes moving. Jane’s legs grew exhausted first, and then Will’s and finally Missy’s legs were exhausted. Will would normally make it to the top of a hill such as lay in front of him, but Jake was 80 pounds of dead weight added to the fifty pounds of water, food, and supplies. They were all now walking to the top of the hill in slow motion. Jake at least helped push the bike between complaints and the constant, “When are we going to get there,” comments.

  “Grandma, I’m tired,” whined Jake.

  “Okay, we’ve been riding for over four hours, and it’s time to take a break and have some lunch. Let’s pull off the road into those bushes and hide.”

  They pushed their bikes through the weeds into a stand of trees and bushes, which hid them from the road.

  Will, where are we? I think that is Elizabethtown up ahead.”

  Will was already examining the map and replied, “Yes Elizabethtown is a mile ahead. We’re only averaging five miles per hour thanks to stopping to rest and walking up the hills. That means it will take 32 hours to get to Papaws if we rode straight through. My guess is that we can only ride for 10 hours a day, so that puts us at Papaws on Tuesday morning if nothing bad happens.”

  “That matches my guess. A simple four-hour drive now takes eight times as long. Everybody drink plenty of water and eat those energy bars. We’ll rest for an hour and then swing w
ide around Elizabethtown. The stalled cars and wrecks will be worse as we go around E-town.”

  “We need to flex our legs as we rest to help avoid cramps or them getting stiff. In three days we will have muscles in our legs that will make these hills look like bumps.”

  Missy threw a pinecone at him and said, “I’m a girl. I don’t want to look like the Hulk.”

  “Grandma, look at the map. I think we cut off Highway 65 when we get to the Hodgenville Road overpass, take it down to Hodgenville, and then take Highway 31E down to Glasgow. That’s the way Papaw said to go.”

  “Good job Will. That’s the way Grampa and I traveled to Tennessee many times long ago.”

  “Shake a leg kids. Time to get moving.”

  “Grandma, what does shake a leg even mean?”

  “It means to get you butt in gear, or I’ll tan your tail. At least that’s what my Grandfather always told me.”

  They rode until Will stopped them at the Hodgenville Road overpass and pushed their bikes down the hill to the road below. This road took them through an industrial area on the east side of the city, and they only saw a few people.

  One man gave them thumbs up and yelled, “Get the Hell out of Dodge and to your Bugout location.”

  Will and Jane gave him thumbs up and kept pedaling away from the city. An hour later, they were out of the suburbs and back in the country. Papaw had told Will many times that the first day was the best to travel because most people wouldn’t have a clue what happened. Then every day afterward got more dangerous and that after three days one should hold up for a month and let everyone kill each other or starve to death while you stay hidden.

  They cut over to Highway 61 a few miles north of Hodgenville, went around the city to Highway 31E, and headed south. They were a mile out of the city when they stopped to rest after pulling off the road and hiding in a clump of bushes.

  They were taking a ten-minute break when they heard a vehicle approaching from the north. The vehicle stopped on the road not far from them, and two young men got out of the ATV.

  “Shit, they had to go this way. How did we lose ‘em? Henry wanted them there bicycles.”

  “Maybe they cut off on one of those side roads back a piece.”

  “Let’s go!”

  The ATV took off and was out of sight quickly.

  “Children we were lucky those men didn’t find us. A few people must have figured out their cars are worthless. Let’s move on quickly and keep an eye on your mirrors for vehicles coming up from behind. If we see anyone that looks like a threat we will get off the road and hide.”

  “Grandma, I’ll give Jake my binoculars to scan ahead of us, and I’ll stop and look before we go over the top of any hills.”

  “Great. Everyone keep your eyes peeled and yell if you see anything. Remember to look in your mirrors.”

  They had been riding for over eight hours when they stopped for their next rest, and as usual, they hid off the side on the road. The road was somewhat flatter, and they covered over sixty miles since leaving Jane’s home that morning. They were now about a mile north of Glasgow and hid their bike behind an old barn while they rested and ate supper.

  “Kids, I plan for us to rest for a half hour and then try to ride another three to four hours, so we will be safely south of Glasgow before nightfall. Are you up to it?”

  Will replied, “Missy, I know that you are beat, but we have to get as close to Papaws as possible today. There will be more danger every day after today. You can do it.”

  “Grandma, I’ll do my best, but I will need more breaks to rest.”

  “That’s my girl. Now you kids take a short nap while Granny keeps a lookout.”

  Will motioned for her to move away from the other two and then said, “Grandma, please take a nap and let me keep look out. You need the rest more than me.”

  “Son you have been packing Jake for over eight hours.”

  “I’m a long distance runner in high school. Dad got that one thing right. Jake, Missy, and I run with Mom and Dad almost every day. I’m tired, but I have a lot of gas still left in me. Take a nap. Please.”

  “Thanks, I’m exhausted.”

  Will looked at his watch, saw it was only 4:15, and knew they had only another three hours or so of daylight. He watched the highway and noticed that most people had abandoned their cars and had walked to the nearest town to seek help. He checked the map and chose a place to spend the night. He picked a place close to where the Cumberland Parkway crossed Highway 31E. There was a bridge over a stream a few hundred feet from the Highway 31E overpass that would make a great place to spend the night and keep hidden from people passing by.

  They rested for the half hour, and then Will woke them up and told them to massage each other’s legs before getting on their bikes.

  Jake said, “My legs are fine. Could you massage my butt? The bars hurt even with the padding you wrapped around them.”

  Will swatted him on his behind and said, “That’s the only massage you’re going to get today. Let’s hit the road.”

  The trip around Glasgow was exhausting and sapped their remaining energy even though they stopped a couple of times for short rest breaks. After three more hours, they were only a mile from the intersection where Will planned to hide and spend the night.

  Missy pointed to some people milling around in a parking lot by a hotel and said, “They’re having a party. Look they have a grill and people are dancing.”

  Will yelled back to her, “Just hope they don’t see us.”

  “Too late one of the men waved at us.”

  “Pick up the pace we need to get away from here quick. Pump those pedals.”

  It was almost dark when they arrived at the Highway 31E intersection. Will kept looking back, didn’t see anyone following, and then decided to go ahead and stop under the overpass by the creek. They walked their bikes down the slope from the highway to the bridge over the creek and placed them up under the bridge so no one could see them from the bridge. They talked for a few minutes and then Missy and Jake lay down and were asleep in a few minutes.

  “Will, I’ll take the first watch since I got to nap earlier today. I’ll wake you up in two hours, and we’ll rotate every two hours.”

  “That will work. Here’s my watch. Goodnight.”

  Will was fast asleep the minute his head rested on his Bugout Bag. Jane stayed on her feet for about 15 minutes then sat down on the concrete retaining wall as she fought off sleep. She leaned back against the bridge abutment and was fast asleep. The family was worn out, and a bomb would not have made them stir. Certainly, the three men stealing their bikes and Will’s shotgun weren’t noticed either.

  They didn’t hear the men walking through the brush coming to steal their bikes. The young men were half-drunk and just wanted the bikes to help them go home to Nashville. They made a lot of noise crashing down the hill to get to the bikes under the bridge. Each one took one of the bikes and was about to leave when one saw the shotgun leaning against the bridge abutment next to Jane. He giggled while he took it away from the guard while she slept.

  Jane didn’t hear the girl yelling at the men to stop or hear her throw rocks at them to run them off either. One was about to steal Will’s rifle and Jake’s Bugout Bag when she chucked a rock and hit him on the back of his head. The one with the shotgun ran over to the girl and hit her on the head with the butt end. The blow knocked her unconscious, and she fell down between Jake and Will.

  Missy opened her eyes, thought she was dreaming and went back to sleep. Jake moaned and never woke up until morning. Will was dreaming about whatever young boys his age dreamed about and slept through the night.

  The men took their bikes and left as quickly as possible into the night. One of them left a trail of blood from a large gash on his head.

  ✼

  Chapter 3

  Day One – Aftermath

  “Pop, come here. Sumthin’ bad is happening.”

  “Hold your damn horses.
I’ll be there when I get there.”

  Jim Dickerson was a mountain of a man. He stood six foot four in his stocking feet and weighed a tad over 280 pounds, yet he moved with the grace of a dancer. He had the largest farm in Wilson County Tennessee and was a man to be reckoned within County and State politics. He had been up since the crack of dawn reading his Bible then watching the Ag News Channel in order to stay caught up on any new developments in farming.

  Jim was pissed that his TV went off when the power went off a few minutes ago, and he was headed to the laundry room to see if a circuit breaker had tripped. He traveled half way to the fuse panel when he heard his son, Hoss, yelling for him to go outside.

  He walked out the back door onto the large deck and said, “What’s going on that you have to be yellin’ at the top of your fool lungs?”

  “Pop, look north Nashville. An airplane crashed over there north of Nashville.”

  Just as he finished there was an explosion a few miles due west over by Lebanon and Hoss said, “Terrorist are bombing us.”

  There was a roar overhead, and they saw a large jet a few hundred feet above them heading to the ground.

  “Hoss, that plane is trying to land, and it’s engines are dead. Go get my truck and some fire extinguishers from the pole barn. We have to help them. I’ll get the fire extinguishers from the house.”

  Hoss ran back from the barn with two fire extinguishers but no truck, so Jim said, “Did you forget the truck?”

  “No Pop. Your truck wouldn’t start and mine’s dead also.”

  “Do what? I’ll have to see this myself,” Jim said as he walked past his son on the way to the barn.

  Just as Hoss said, neither of the trucks would start. Jim saw his Gator parked in front of the barn and tried to start it without success.

  “Hoss call the Sheriff and report the crash.”

  Hoss fished his phone out of his pocket and saw a black screen. He tried to turn the phone on, and nothing happened.