By the Author of Dear Diary: It’s Me, Jessica
Dear Diary,
It’s me, Jessica.
City HAM Guy ushered us into the utility section of the apartment building, closing the big, metal loading door behind us and securing it with a metal crossbar and a length of re-bar rod into a hole in the floor.
We took off our wet weather gear and shook off as much of the water as we could. The dogs shook themselves and seemed happy to be out of the rain.
We climbed up several flights of stairs to the top floor.
As we entered the corner apartment, he explained he had taken it after most people had left. It was bigger than his place. It was not easy hauling all his radio equipment and batteries up the stairs, but it was only two flights. He led us through what was the living room, down the hall to where the bedrooms were.
He knocked on the door and said, “It’s me. They’re here.” He then turned and said to us, “To keep the heat in, we put a blanket at the door floor and have three hanging around the door.”
The door opened, and a short woman stood there with a small nervous smile. She was wearing a big sweatshirt, sweat pants, pink fuzzy bunny slippers. It was hard to tell her age. She could have been in her late twenties or her late thirties. I could barely tell she had a ‘bump’ in the sweatshirt. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a short ponytail.
“Hi. I’m Colleen.”
“Hello,” Savannah said with a big smile and confident voice, holding out her hand. “My name is Savannah, and I will be taking care of you and your baby.”
Savannah told me later Daniel instructed her to be confident in front of patients at all times, even if she did not feel it herself. Made the patients feel they were in good hands.
“May I come in?” Savannah asked.
Colleen stepped aside to let us in, but Savannah asked if we would remain outside while she examined Colleen.
Both Jack and City HAM Guy suddenly got nervous and readily agreed. Us ladies gave the men a look and exchanged smiles at their discomfort. Rae and I followed the men, who were quickly retreating to the living room as Colleen closed the door behind her and Savannah.
We removed our packs and took a seat on the couch. City HAM Guy sat down on a reclining chair across from us. Jack told the dogs to sit.
“How was the trip?”
“Nothing significant to report. It was pretty easy. Did not see a single person or signs of life.” (Editors note, “Nothing significant to report,” or NSTR, is a common US military term. Our NATO allies in Afghanistan even asked, “What does ‘Niss-terr’ mean?”)
City HAM Guy nodded gravely and stared out the window across the room.
“At first, no one gave the power outage a second thought. We all just assumed it would come back on sometime later that day. Then the next day. Then the next.
By then, food in refrigerators and freezers was going bad. People were even running out of food. There were fights. But what made it really bad was no running water. The toilets began to back up. People from the lower floors came up and threatened those of us on the upper floors. Told us not to use the toilet. Some began using buckets but then would throw the contents out their windows.
There is a park four blocks from here with a large pond. People would go there to get water. Not just for flushing but to drink. Most people did not have a way to filter the water. They began to get sick. The very young and the very old began to die.”
He then looked back at us with a look I could only call sorrow.
“That is when the die-off truly began.”
Savannah came into the living room, all smiles. Despite her smile, City HAM Guy stood up anxiously.
“Colleen and the baby appear well,” Savannah spoke directly to him. “I would of liked to see Colleen gained a bit more weight. She is on the thin side, but who isn’t these days? Still, she’s in good health.”
“I have been able to trade for more food for information to keep her fed as well as I could,” City HAM Guy explained quickly.
“You did good . . . Dad,” Savannah gave him a warm smile. City HAM Guy actually blushed and looked away in embarrassment.
“Baby,” Savannah continued, “Is very active, stepping on mom’s bladder and performing what Colleen calls Olympic gold medal level gymnastics.”
“Oh! Yes! The baby is very active, especially at night,” City HAM Guy said with a degree of pride.
“Yes, and Colleen is not getting a lot of sleep. But that is normal at this stage of pregnancy. She is experiencing back pain and the baby has dropped. Birth could come in the next day or two. Maybe three. We’ll have to watch for her for contractions or losing her mucus plug.”
Both men suddenly looked around the room nervously at anywhere but us ladies.
Savannah rolled her eyes and gave Rae and me a look.
“Men,” she sighed.
Entry two
City HAM Guy said they had their own market, although from what he heard from our HAM Guy on the radio net, it was not nearly as big or varied as Four Corners. The gang that Jack traded for antibiotics for Joanna had been forced out of their territory by another gang. They came here, gathered others in the area, and formed their own militia to protect the area from the other gang. He said there were still the occasional firefights, but nothing too bad. They also kept the peace in their market. City HAM Guy had formed a pretty good relationship with the militia as he used his radios as a hub to pass information from the much smaller, less powerful hand-held radios their militia used, which could not transmit the distance or reduced coverage from the city buildings. They were like hills or the woodlands for us back home or at Four Corners.
Rae asked how much food he and Colleen had. After City HAM Guy answered, Rae looked at Jack and he nodded. He stood up, went to his pack where he pulled out loaves of lard bread, jerky, and the smoked ham and gave them to City HAM Guy. With wide eyes he simply said, “Thank you.”
“We are going to need to go to your market for additional provisions. I brought something to trade with. We will need you to come with us to make things easier as you are known. Savannah, Rae, and the dogs will stay here. Jessica and I will come with you.”
“Okay,” City HAM Guy nodded.
Entry three
The rain had stopped, but the sky was still overcast.
City HAM Guy led the way to the city’s ‘business district.’ Jack and I flanked him to each side, our rifles at an easy carry, but we could still bring them to bear, eyes scanning. As we entered the market, a few people said “Hi” to City HAM Guy but looked at us with leery eyes. I smiled at them. Jack didn’t. There were no stalls like in Four Corners. People set up on the hoods of abandoned cars. Some had fires going in big barrels. Others just set up a fire on the road. It was strange being surrounded by all the buildings, gray as the sky. As in Four Corners, news traveled fast by word of mouth and half a dozen men suddenly confronted us with rifles.
“Hey! It’s okay! They are friends of mine!” City HAM Guy said.
Jack held both his hands up, letting his rifle hang down by the sling, and told me to do the same.
“We are here just to trade,” Jack said.
One of them gave Jack a puzzled look.
“You look familiar,” he said in a very deep, grave voice.
“Me and my team were here over a year ago to trade with you fuel for antibiotics.”
“Right,” he nodded. “You are from the country.” He turned to the other men, “All’s good. He is one of the good ones.”
They relaxed.
He gave me an up-and-down,
“Be willing to bet she is a good guy too. But . . . she should not be messed with,” he said with a grin.
“You got that right. Trained her myself,” Jack responded with a likewise grin.
I gave him a smile and took up my rifle back into an easy carry.
“Easy there, killer,” he said, holding up his hands in mock surrender and a smile. “The name is Jamal. Leader of our militia.” He held out his hand to Jack and then me. After we shook hands, he set three other armed men to patrol but kept the other two with us.
“What are you doing here?”
Jack nodded to City HAM Guy and explained the situation.
“He told me. Things have not been good,” Jamal shook his head. “Most who do get pregnant have miscarriages. Some carry to term, and it ends in stillbirths. We have had a few make it. Others died within a month or two.” He sighed. “It is a horrible situation. The mothers need proper nutrition. Calories for their babies to even make it to birth. And then they need more after birth to nurse their own babies. We just don’t have the supplies to keep them healthy. Barely even us.” Jamal kicked some loose rocks aside in frustration.
Jack nodded, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was already thinking of something.
“What are you looking to trade for,” Jamal asked, changing the subject.
“We need some things to make the trip back. Mostly dried food, bread if you have it.”
“What do you have to trade?”
Jack smiled, handed me his rifle, and took his pack off. He pulled out a large bottle, pulled out the cork and handed the bottle to Jamal. Jamal took the bottle questioningly. He took a sniff, looked even more questioningly, and then took a sip.
“What is that,” he coughed, handing the bottle back.
“Corn distilled vodka. That is the mild stuff. I make some moonshine I call ‘industrial strength cleaner.’ You can drink it or clean a bicycle chain with it.”
Jamal chuckled and motioned for us to follow him through the market. He said he would take us to one of the better places to trade for. Meat in the market could be anything from rats to rabbits. Pigeon to chicken. Dog or cat. They were able to grow vegetables, mostly root vegetables, some greens, very little fruit. Scurvy was a problem.
As we made our way through the market, we were getting a lot of looks. If this was anything like Four Corners, everyone knew everyone else. Strangers were something new. I was glad Jamal and his two men were with us. Most of the looks were just curious, but a few looked hostile. People were wearing coats to ward off the chill, but many of their clothes looked very dirty. So did the people. Some I would even call shabby. Jamal explained clean water was used for drinking and cooking. Bathing was a distant second. He only took a sponge bath once a week. He knew of others who would go for a full month. They did what they could to keep children clean the best they could.
Diary, I must admit I suddenly felt a little guilty for taking a sponge bath every day. And a little grateful as I looked around.
We came up on a short man with a long white beard, orange blaze winter hat, heavy dirty white coat, equally dirty jeans, work boots, and some odd gloves without fingers. He was tending a small fire on the pavement next to a city bus with a sheet metal length next to it. On the metal were pieces of meat being smoked and dried. He straightened up as we approached.
He nodded to Jamal, his men and City HAM Guy. “Who are your friends, Jamal?”
“Jack and Jessica. This is Floyd. They’re here to help deliver a baby,” Jamal nodded in City HAM Guy’s direction. “Looking to trade for some of your dried rabbit. Something,” Jamal smiled, “You just might be interested in.”
Floyd looked questioningly as Jack handed me his rifle again. Jack took the bottle out of his pack and handed it to Floyd. Floyd pulled out the cork and took a smell. Suddenly, there was a twinkle in his eye, and he took a sip. Like Jamal he coughed but then was smiling and gave a laugh.
“I haven’t had a drink like that in over a year! I did trade for some watered-down homemade ale a few months ago, but nothing good like this! Okay! What do you want for the bottle?”
Jack’s bottle of corn vodka got us enough smoked and dried rabbit to get us home.
Jack gave another bottle of the corn vodka to Jamal as we made our way back through the market for city HAM guys place.
“What’s this for?”
“The escort and making sure we were not trading for rat.”
“It is not as bad as you would think. A well-seasoned rat burger is not bad,” he shrugged.
“I was just thinking,” Jack said as he appeared to be in deep thought, “You have access to things here we don’t have. Certain parts, metals, and other supplies. I might be able to arrange to meet you at the halfway point on the road to trade parts for food. Goat, lamb, venison, vegetables, maybe fruit. I would have to ask around, but someone might be willing to trade for a live milking goat or sheep.”
Jamal stopped and looked at Jack, “That…that would be great. We could really use it.”
“I am not making any promises, but I will do what I can. I will have our HAM Guy contact yours when I get back and have something solid. Then we can arrange a meet-up.”
Diary, it was like watching Jack play cards. I knew he knew some farmers that had herds of milking goats or sheep now. If they had something to trade for a milking cow, the Miller’s had a lot more than a few. With the breeding program they put into place, there would be more come this spring. Jack was holding his cards close. I wondered if Jamal knew. And if he did, what cards did Jamal hold?
One Response
Good source of vitamin C is cabbage.
Pretty easy to grow in most climates, stores in a cool root cellar, can be fermented or eaten raw for maximum vitamin retention.
PINE needle tea also delivers a lot of vitamin C, but don’t use boiling water as vitamin C can be decreased by cooking at high temperatures. Use only pine trees that are safe for human consumption.
Not sure if other coniferous trees can be used and also be careful to stay away from hemlock!