Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

“There,” Kayla said, pointing away from the Tahoe.

“What?”

“Over there Dad,” and she pointed out the window.

“Ok, I guess I’m blind, I’m not seeing it.”

“It’s Blake Dad, from school.”

“What school?”

“High school Dad, he played football.”

“Ok, it’s Blake. Let’s get home.”

“Wait Dad. Hey Blake, come here.” The kid came walking up slowly then a little quicker when he recognized her. Kayla jumped out causing Haliday to jump out too and draw his pistol in case of trouble. Kayla gave the kid a big hug.

“Dad, you know Blake.”

He looked at the kid and said, “Ya, thanks for the pizza.”

“No problem Mr. Haliday.”

“Why didn’t you say something the other day? I didn’t recognize you. Of course, whenever I saw you it was during the football games and you had a helmet on.” Kayla had been a cheerleader since 7 thgrade and into her first year of college, After that she decided to work to help pay tuition. “It’s been a couple years since then too,” he added.

Kayla asked Blake how he was doing.

“Well, I went back to the pizza shop and took the flour and all of the canned pizza sauce and took it home. I used my mom’s garden cart for that. I only started at the pizzeria a couple weeks ago, so I didn’t have a lot of money but bought some stuff from the grocery store before it closed for good. I saw it get looted this morning, there was nothing left after only a couple hours.”

“How’s your mom?” Kayla asked.

Blake looked down at the ground. He lived with his mom who was widowed. He and Kayla were like brother and sister with Kayla having lived at home with Haliday, who was single as well. They had a connection based on that, but that was it. She had helped him get through Spanish in high school and he helped her with her math. Then there was student council and football and all that other stuff they both belonged to.

Blake just looked up at her but didn’t say anything. Haliday sensed something wrong. “Blake, is she sick or hurt? Does she need help? Take me there and I’ll see what I can do.”

“She’s not home,” he said.

“Does she work near here? Was she at work?”

“No,” he said. “She went on a cruise with my grandma. They would have been at sea when the power went out.” Oh shit, Haliday thought. Another thing to consider.

If the ship got hit they would just be floating around out there. He wondered what would happen. No bilge control pumps, no water desalination, no way to cook really and thousands of people on a small floating hell just drifting wherever the current would take them. He shuddered at the thought. Mike and Linda had gotten out of the truck at this point.

“Kayla, grab the Tahoe, back it into Blake’s driveway and wait for us there. Mike, you and Linda go with her. We’ll meet you there.” The driveway was only about 150 yards down. “I need the walk. I need to talk to Blake here as well.” They went to Blake’s and waited for them to get there.

“Blake, you have any family close by?”

“No sir.”

“Where’s the closest family you have?”

“My aunt is in Kentucky and my grandpa, who didn’t go on the cruise, is in Florida.”

“Any close family friends around here?”

“No sir.”

“What have you been doing the last few days?”

“Well sir, I boarded up the windows of the house and hid everything inside. That’s about it. I looked around in the garage for stuff I could use. I found some firewood for the fireplace, but not much. I was going out to look for some more for tonight because I ran out.”

Haliday and Blake reached Blake’s house at that point. “Kayla, take Linda to the house, get Randy and Kevin and bring them back here and I mean quickly. Bring the Cherokee. Bring flashlights too. It’s getting dark. Make sure they have firearms. Make sure the house is secured and everyone is on high alert. We got a lot of people watching us right now.”

“What are you going to do Dad?”

“We’re going to get Blake here packed up and bring him along.” Kayla started to cry a little bit.

Blake looked at him and said, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, for starters, you say thank you, secondly, that you will abide by the rules, and third that you will pull your weight around the homestead. Final item, she’s off limits,” he pointed to Kayla. “Now, just so you know, we aren’t staying around this area. We’ll be leaving in the morning. Is that a problem?”

“No Sir, not at all, and thank you.”

The group arrived and Haliday had them back up close to the door. Next they went inside and he had Blake show them where all the food was. They piled it into the living room. He helped Blake pack clothing and some personal things. Next he told Blake to grab anything of value like jewelry or coins or anything he could use to trade. He told Blake these would be his bartering items and no one else’s.

He walked the house with Blake and then the garage to see if there was anything else. In the garage was an older Yamaha 250. “Does it run Blake?”

“Ya, but I don’t have any gas in it.” Haliday told Randy to grab some. There were a couple jerry cans on the back of the Cherokee. He grabbed one and dumped a little in the bike. They’d be taking that too.

“What about firearms Blake?”

“I don’t have any.”

“You know how to use them?” He shook his head no. “Well, there’ll be a crash course tonight or tomorrow morning. You’ll be expected to use them if we need to, any problems with that?”

“No sir.”

“Ok, we’re heading over to my house now, anything else you need here?”

“Just one second please.” He ran into his bedroom and grabbed a handful of pictures out of his nightstand drawer and a small picture frame with a picture of his mom in it.

He grabbed a black marker and wrote on the wall, he didn’t want any notes blowing away or getting lost. Went with Kayla and her dad, be back , he looked at Mr. Haliday. “Spring, Blake, in spring.” Be back in spring , he wrote, I love you Mom . Blake’s eyes were glossy. Randy, Kevin and Mike had thrown everything into the Cherokee and Randy wheeled the Yamaha out front for Blake. Blake closed everything up in the house, and then made sure the bike started. They all went back to Haliday’s.

When they pulled in, they put the Yamaha and Tahoe in the garage. They pulled the Cherokee around back and locked it up tight and put a steering wheel lock on it. A good old fashioned “the club” came in handy now that alarms were useless. They double-checked everything and went inside.

There were lots of hugs, kisses and tears. It had been a hell of a trip. There were a lot of questions, but not a lot of answers right now. There’ll be plenty of time to talk soon enough. He had introduced Blake to everyone as well. “He’ll be treated like family,” he added. “Anyone have problems with that it’s too bad.

“Now, first off, we get security set for the night, and then we eat and sleep.” Haliday called Dawn and told her they were back. “Make sure you’re ready to move out in the morning.”

She said, “Glad you’re back safe. Talk to you in the morning.”

“See you guys soon,” he said. He hoped they would all make it.

Haliday went into his bedroom and into his bathroom. He took his shirts off and looked at his abdomen. The bruise was about the size of a basketball. Damn that had hurt. He left it unwrapped and powdered his skin then put a shirt on. After that he went back into the living room. He saw the kerosene heater there running and stood by it for a minute. Fall was here and winter was well on its way.

He just looked around. He went and checked the closets and cupboards. He shook his head from side to side. “Is it all gone?” Bev asked.