One Eye Open Read online

her wrists, and then liberally salved the wounds. “Thank you so much.” She had tears in her eyes, as she looked up at him.

  “No problem.”

  She had black curly hair turning to gray. The closer he looked at her though he thought she might be no more than thirty five years old.

  “I heard what you said to Jade. You don’t need to take us, we can go it alone.”

  “I thought you were asleep.”

  “I’ve learned to rest without actually sleeping.”

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

  “Ok, whatever you decide will be all right.”

  “Why don’t you wake Jade, and take care of her wounds, I have some jerky, and a couple cans of peaches in my pack we can eat.”

  “I’m awake.” Jade said, and sat up.

  “Come sit down by the water, and I’ll take care of you. Jasper shared some salve with us.” Sondra said.

  While Sondra took care of Jades wounds, he opened the two cans of peaches, and laid two pieces of jerky apiece on the cleanest cloth he had. When Sondra was through dressing Jades wounds, the girls walked over and sat down.

  Jade gave thanks for the food, and they ate quietly there by the little stream, and a sort of bond was made. The bond slipped into Hanks heart before he knew it, and it was settled, he would take them with him.

  “Take the empty cans, we may need them.”

  “You’re going to take us with you?”

  “Don’t make a big deal of it. If either of you put my life in jeopardy by being stupid, I’ll kill you and leave you for the buzzards, let’s move out. Jade, can you take my extra rifle, and bring up the rear?”

  Without saying a word she took the lever action nine millimeter rifle, chambered a round, and fell back about fifteen feet. He walked an hour through the brush before they came to a narrow paved road. Both of the women came up another notch in his estimation of them as they made their way behind him without saying a word, and with minimal noise.

  When he came to the edge of the road, he stopped and they stopped. He listened for five minutes, and scanned the road for any sign of life. He could hear the gentle wind blowing through the trees, but he heard no other sound. The forest had thinned out, and on the far side of the road was a farmhouse. It was coming on sundown, and time to stake out a safe place for the night.

  “We’ll head for that stand of trees over by the farm house.”

  “Why not the farm house?” Sondra asked.

  “We could get boxed in.”

  Jasper cut the barbed wire fence to let them through, and they walked across the field to a good stand of trees. They unrolled their sleeping bags in the trees after clearing out a section.

  “There’s a cellar over there; I’ll go search it for food, and also the house; in the meantime, jerky will have to do. We have to find food soon though.”

  Jasper knew that the women were beginning to starve, and he wasn’t doing much better himself as it had been days since he had found game. He picked up his bow to carry with him to search the cellar, and the house. Rats were out of the picture, but an Opossum, Rabbit or Raccoon were prime targets.

  “Jade, take the rifle, and the binoculars, and stand guard, but if you see someone, don’t yell out; come get me.”

  “Got it.”

  He walked to the house which was about a hundred yards from the trees. He slowly skirted the perimeter of the house until he came to the cellar. He opened the door of the cellar. It was dark and dank inside. It smelled of mold, and mildew. He found nothing on the shelves, and he returned to the house, and pushed the door open with his bow. He found nothing inside the house that they could use either, so he returned to the camp.

  “Place has been picked clean.”

  “I’m not surprised.” Sondra said.

  “No, not much left any more. We’ll hunt tomorrow.”

  “I’ll take the first watch.” Jade said.

  “No. You girls have been having a rough time of it, I’ll take the first watch.”

  “Its not right you shoulder the load for us.” Sondra said.

  “I’m just using common sense, no chivalry; it’s imperative you get your strength built up. If we’re going to partner up, we have to do the necessary thing. I can’t have you staggering along if we have to run.”

  Jade looked at him, smiled and lay down on her sleeping bag. Sondra followed suit, and Jasper moved off to the edge of the trees with the rifle. He stood there scanning the dusky fields with his binoculars. After some time he sat with his back against the trunk of a tree.

  He heard footstep behind him, and turned to see Jade, “Mind if I sit here? I can’t sleep yet.”

  She sat down beside him, “Can we talk?”

  “I guess. Just talk low.”

  “Haven’t you tried to find a group?”

  “I have been with a few groups, they always end up doing something I don’t like, or they were to risky too stay with. Some of them acted like we were back on the block.”

  “What about a town?”

  “Towns are much worse; they are completely lawless, and dangerous.”

  “What started the wars, do you know?”

  “Oh, the government began to ignore the constitution, thinking they could do just as they pleased and no one would do anything. Enough people just got fed up, and when the first shots were fired the wars spread like wild fire. It cut the food and fuel chains. The militias shot up DC, and the soldiers just walked off. The trouble with everyone shooting at his neighbor is that there was no stopping a war like that. The war ended up being over the effort to survive. Now we have no constitution, and not many people left.”

  “The constitution still exists doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it does, but you can’t eat it, and crazies are carrying copies of it around in their pockets with their own ideas about how it ought to read. They red line the parts out they don’t like, and add to it. That’s what the government was doing in the first place.”

  “Do you think we will ever recover?”

  “I hear there are enclaves of people going strictly by the constitution, but it may be only rumors. Rumors we got plenty of. The rumors are always that’s it better somewhere else. You better try to get some sleep, you need it.”

  “Goodnight Jasper.” She whispered, and he was left with his own thoughts as darkness descended on the land. He thought of the coming winter, and wondered if they would survive. He wondered if the mountains of Colorado would be a big mistake, and a bad mistake could kill them. If they were to survive in those mountains, they had to reach them soon, and build some sort of shelter.

  He awoke at dawn just when it was coming light, he looked, but didn’t see Sondra, and he got up, relieved himself against a tree, and shivered in the early morning air. He found Sondra on the edge of the trees standing there with his rifle.

  “How was it?”

  “Very quiet, I could barely keep awake even standing.”

  “Ok, go wake Jade, and lets get moving, I’ll take a quick glance around the perimeter.”

  When he returned the girls had packed his sleeping bag, and they were ready to go. They started off across the fields in the early morning light, their guts complaining for food. He handed each of them a piece of jerky. The jerky would provide a little bit of protein, and still their hunger for a while. The woods began again, and the going would be harder, but the trees were getting thinner, and he thought they would reach the plains before the day was out. They had gone about two miles when he stopped, and held up his hand. He could just make out a deer grazing about a hundred yards away in a small clearing. He raised the nine millimeter rifle, and took careful aim. He prayed he wouldn’t get buck fever, and his hands start shaking. Deer were scarce, and it meant they would eat, if he could kill it. The deer raised its head and looked toward them, and he fired. The deer dropped in its tracks when the bullet struck its brain.

  He rushed to the animal with his knife, and slit its throat with one swipe, and the blood g
ushed onto the ground. He began skinning the animal by cutting around the neck, and then down the soft skin of its belly.

  “Help me pull the skin back.”

  The women grabbed the skin from each side and began pulling the skin back as he cut with the blade of the knife in an up position. They soon had the skin off the animal, and he began gathering wood for a fire. Jade began cutting the meat into slices, as he and Sondra gathered dead wood.

  His hand shook a little as he struck a fire with flint, and steel. He held the wool cloth tender between his palms, and gently puffed on the small tendril of smoke, until a little flame began to take shape in the tinder. He laid it on the ground, and began to add tiny bits of dry dead limbs to the little blaze.

  “Sondra, get the rifle, and check our back trail while I get this going.”

  “Sorry.” She said as she grabbed up the rifle, and began walking back the way they had come.

  Soon the fire was going good, and Jade had already unfolded his steel spit and had meat threaded on it over the fire. The meat began popping and spitting fat into the fire, and it began to smell like a bit of heaven to starving people.

  Sondra walked back into the camp just as Jade was taking the first of the meat