Jacqueline Druga - Wasteland

Maybe north it remained,

But where they were there was nothing but broken tress, blackened and dead.

They saw a man camped out off the road just as they hit the edge of the former forest at New Mt. Vernon. He had a small tent and Falcon watched as he walked from his roadside camp to the road, waving his hands.

His eyesight was still good and Falcon immediately looked for others who might be hiding. His senses didn’t tell him it was an ambush. He couldn’t see any others and the man wasn’t armed.

Falcon was and he pulled his rifle to his lap as he slowed down the horse.

“Daddy?” Lilly asked in a tiny whisper. “Why’s he stopping us?”

“Don’t know. I’ll find out.”

“Do we have to stop?” Josh asked. “We should just wave and keep going.”

That wasn’t a bad idea, but Falcon couldn’t do it, especially when the man smiled as they stopped.

“Well, hey, where you folks headed?” he asked. His face wasn’t too dirty, not like some of the other transients Falcon had seen.

“North. How about you?”

“I’m headed south, trying to get to Tennessee. Heard there’s green down there. At least a good bit of green.”

Falcon shook his head with a shrug. “I haven’t been that south in years, so I wouldn’t know. We’re headed into Indiana. Know much?”

“Not been to Indiana,” the man replied. “Just Ohio. Will tell you this though, if you can, avoid, Ohio. Lot of dangerous transients there but haven’t heard much about Indiana. You can’t get through Lexington. Road’s gone. There’s a bathing and transient place just about a mile west and a road that will take you through Louisville.”

“That safe?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” the man replied. “Saw nothing or no one after the station.”

“Thank you,” Falcon said. “We appreciate it. If you take this road straight south, you’ll be safe as well. Did you need anything?”

“No, I’m good. Just was wondering what the passage was like. Well… safe journey to you.” The man tipped his head.

“Safe journey to you too,” Falcon replied and moved the horse.

Josh asked, “What’s a bathing station? I keep hearing that.”

“To be honest, I didn’t think they were real. Just tales, you know,” Falcon said. “But they’re places where the government brings in water so people can get clean, have a drink, and rest safely as they move from one place to another. “

Josh whistled. “Boy, a lot of people must move.”

“They’re called transients,” Falcon explained. “They have no homes and they just go about looking for a good place to settle.”

“Probably looking for green,” Lilly said. “And any of them ‘tran’ people we see probably don’t know where the green is or else they’d stay there, right Daddy?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, I hope we see green.” Lilly rubbed her hands together. “Please, God, let me see green.”

It didn’t make Falcon smile to hear her say that; it broke his heart. Though he could barely remember being Lilly’s age, he could vividly recall a lot of things he hoped for and waited for and not one of them was a patch of green, fertile land.

How sad that in her lifetime she had not seen a tree, felt the grass, smelled a flower.

Falcon wanted to tell her that perhaps God wasn’t going to be answering that type of prayer. He was pretty sure people had been praying for green for a long time and the prayer still hadn’t been answered. Then again, maybe the voice and prayer of a little girl was what God needed to hear.

It was a saying he had heard several times in his life, but didn’t really think it held true until they arrived at the bathing station for the evening.

Out of the mouths of babes .

How right Lilly was and Falcon knew it when he asked the first transient if he had seen green up north. The transient had replied, “If I did, would I be here? I’d be there.”

The bathing station wasn’t what Falcon had envisioned. Actually, he didn’t know what he envisioned. It was a large metal building set inside a fenced off area. The people at the station took your name and gave you a number.

Inside the building were shower stalls and each person got a four minute shower. Falcon wasn’t permitted in the woman’s area with Lilly, but there was a government woman who helped her.

Falcon was nervous about that and it was the longest four minutes he could recall waiting. But Lilly emerged clean and smelled really nice.

They set up their camp for the night away from everyone else. The bathing station didn’t provide food, but they did provide a quart of drinking water and a bucket of animal quality water for the horse.

Some people had their own food; some didn’t and were hungry. Falcon could see them going from person to person asking for food until the government officials asked them to leave. No solicitation or begging was permitted at bathing stations.

Not that Falcon would have turned anyone down. He wouldn’t. He promised himself he’d follow his wife’s rules when he could.

But beggars never made it as far as Falcon.

There were no fires permitted. Falcon didn’t bring a tent, so they stayed inside the Vike despite the fact it was hot.

Josh understood about the beggars. Lilly didn’t. She kept asking him questions, wanting him to explain why some people were leaving when it was night and why the group with children had to go.

Falcon explained that they were asking others for food and that was against the rules.

Lilly didn’t understand.

“If they’re hungry, why can’t we give them food?” Lilly asked. “Why is that wrong?”

“I suppose it’s because people have it hard and what they have has to last. Like the way we ration our water at home. And they come into this place wanting to rest and keep what they have.”

Lilly shook her head. "It doesn’t make sense. Can’t we give them food? I don’t need my jerky.” She held up a piece.

“Yeah, you do.” Falcon pushed it back to her.

A part of Falcon was grateful for his children’s generosity. Between Josh giving his water to the wayward dog and Lilly willing to give up her jerky, Falcon knew they were clueless as to the gravity of the situation. Their naivety showed how sheltered they really were. He wondered if their naivety would be gone after the trip north.

The roads were flat once they hit Indiana. The bathing stations seemed to be located off the major roads and the distance of a good day’s walk or trotting horse ride. It made it easier for Falcon to stop for the night.

Last night, though, there wasn’t a bathing station. He was told there wouldn’t be one the previous night when he stopped at a very crowded one.

Someone there told him that it was the end of the line for stations, mainly because the drought didn’t really reach the cities. They were just without power, sewage or means to survive and that was the main reason they were vacated.

They looped around Louisville, which had been hit years earlier by a nuclear weapon. Some buildings still stood but were burnt; others had crumbled during the destruction or just from the passing of years.

The blockades to the city’s exits had been moved aside and signs placed upon them stating ‘Viable Zone’.

Falcon recalled when Louisville was a hazard zone.

A radioactive wasteland.

That was what they called it only a few years ago. Some radiation had to remain, but he guessed not enough to be deadly.

The PML wasn’t exactly in Fort Wayne; it was actually like a mall, located about twelve miles south of the city. It was set off by itself and the signs on the road let them know they were close.