| They wroked quickly and quietly, save for short questions and directions. From the food stocks, Eric selected a two month supply of freeze dried and dehydrated foods. he also picked out several jars of preserved food they had brought back from the Nishi home. Jason's eyes lit up when he saw the jars. With the food packed, they concentrated on clothing, medicine, seeds, fertilizer and the video tape of Tammy's murderers. Extra ammunition for all the firearms, a bow and arrow; as well as, a variety of small personal itams topped off their acquisitions. after locking and carefully concealing the door to the shelter, Eric stepped back to consider his camouflage job. Jason, who was poking around in the ruins of the Payne home, called to him. "I've found her," he said as Eric turned from the hillside. "What?" "I found Tammy. Should we take her? Ther's not much left." "Yes. Her parents will want to bury her. I'll get a plastic bag." Undoing his camouflage, Eric re-entered the shelter and found two extra large, heavy duty trash bags. Tammy's remains easily fit into the makeshift body bag. With a minor amount of rearranging she was gently slipped into the back of the blazer. "Tammy's death effected all of us, but Maile took it the hardest," Eric explained as they paused a moment. "I know. She told me last night. She certainly hates the men who did it. Hope somebody can identify them from the tape." "You and me both. Slow torture would be too kind for the bastards. Well, I guess that about does it," Eric said after a pause and a look around. "we still have over an hour, but perhaps we should head down." A quarter of a mile down the hill they came to a fork in the road. Normally Eric would have taken the right fork, but now it was blocked by a grimy white foreign pickup moving slowly uphill. "Know them?" "No," Jason answered tersely, bringing the twelve gauge uo to rest on the open window. Eric swung the Blazer to the left and accelerated, casting a glance in the side mirror. "Can we get down this way?" Jason asked as the Blazer bounced through a curve. "Yuh. Little longer though." "They're following." "I see 'em. Look, if they shoot, keep your head down. There's enough stuff in the back to stop most anything." "The two vehicles continued through the alternating mosaic of upland pastures and groves maintinaing a constant separation. Only on a horseshoe curve did they come within eyeball distance of each other. "Can you get a license number?" Eric asked. "Too dirty. It's a Mazda." Then as Eric turned downhill again, the truck failed to reappear. "Where is he?" "I dunno. Gave up I guess, unless ther's another way down." "Not that I know of," Eric replied in between bounces. No further incident beset them on their trip back to Paauilo. There they found that the return convoy had swelled to over three dozen vehicles, all crammed full of people and supplies. Weapons were plainly evident. Sargeant Costa directed them to a place in line. "Sargeant, we were tailed by a pickup with three men in it. Couldn't get a number," Eric reported. "Oh that sounds like Bob Deluz. He's checking the mauka roads with his two sons. He'll be joining us for the trip back." "Good thing we weren't trigger happy," noted Eric. "It was a little spooky." "I bet it was. i don't know....just too many weapons around. One of these days..." the sargeant's voice trailed off. "No one is about to give them up." "Can't blame them, but sooner or later we may have a problem, especially if the situation worsens." "Maybe, but until I'm sure that there's an authority that will protect my family, I'm keeping mine handy and I imagine everyone else feels the same way." "Can't argue with that," the sargeant shook his head as he prepared to move on. "By the way, how much longer before we pull out?" "Still set for two. Oh yuh, i almost forget. We're driving back double file to cut the distance between the lead car and the rear. You'll be in the left hand lane." With that it became a matter of waiting. They settled back in their seats to watch paauilo preparing to become a ghost town. Some wags had referred to to the little town as "make" long before the present exodus, but at one time Paauilo had served as the northern terminus for the Hilo Consolidated Railroad. However, the terrible tidal wave of nineteen forty-six had effectively wiped out the railroad. The town's decline had been slow, but inexorable, hastened further some years later by the closing of the sugar mill through consolidation. Those who favored a quiet life or lived in cheap planataion housing stayed. Now the little town was being depleted again, perhaps for good. The seven miles between the two towns would be just too great to defend. A secure community that would allow for rebuilding was a top priority. Honokaa fit that need better. If they could grow strong enough, perhaps they could once again bring life back to Paauilo. Eric secretly hoped to rebuild their home one day and once again enjoy their little patch of country. He didn't expect that that would happen any time soon. He was reflecting on this when Bob Deluz drove dsown the line with his sons, nodding in acknowledgement as they passed the Blazer's place in line. The Mazda's arrival seemed to signal their departure and at last the double cloumn headed back towards Honokaa. Eric and jason discussed priorities as they drove. "Well, we have shelter. I've pretty much given up hope that my parent survived and I am really glad to have you folks sharing the place." "Do you think Maile's happy to be there?" Eric ribbed, "She pretty special," Jason responded, wondering what Eric would say or do if he knew about the previous night. "Well seeing you has sure brightened her up. So we have shelter. If we can get a crop in, we can build up the food supply. Maybe we can sneak back for one more trip and get the wind generator, the storage batteries, lumber, piping and tools. We can build a tower for the generator and some solar units. That should make life more pleasant." "Have you got plans for solar units?" "Several. been collecting them for several years." "You were ready for this. Did you know it was coming?" "Not really. Just thought that if someoen sooner or later was stupid enough to start a nuclear war, we'd be as ready as we could. I started reading survivalist literature and gradually collected things we would need. Food came first, then the generator and some of the firearms. Some people used to say they preferred to be at ground zero. Not me." "I guess Honokaa was lucky it got spared." "It wasn't totally spared. It's had its casualties too." |
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