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When our departure day came, we were all sad to say goodbye to the community which had become friends over the fall and winter months. We drove away after breakfast and it felt like a chapter in our lives was closing.
The first sign of life we found was 40 miles west of Roswell at Hondo, New Mexico. At a highway junction there was a gas station and café, occupied by an expanded family. They were short on food. They had an old truck that ran. We used our electric pump to fill their truck and four containers from the underground fuel tank. Danny marked up a map for them, showing where the Roswell community was located. He suggested they should move there. After a quick meal, we loaded back up and drove on.
A few minutes later, we passed through the historic town of Lincoln, New Mexico. It was deserted, and most of the buildings were down, about half of them burned. There was a shot-up older car in front of one burned buildings.
We rolled into Capitan, New Mexico, around 3:00 PM, and found it too, had been mostly destroyed, by the earthquakes, wind, and fire. We did encounter an old man walking down Smokey Bear Blvd. He looked like he wanted to run. But, he was too tired.
We stopped, and I asked if he wanted some food. After eating his fill he told us what had happened.
Ralph Hempstead said, “A few weeks after the rains stopped the Barrio Aztec gang rolled into Capitan. They were in half a dozen older vehicles, and most of them had automatic weapons. They started by shooting all the men and burning any home that resisted. I hid in a culvert. They took all the young women and girls and anything else they could find. I’m the only one to survive the winter. They stayed for a week and then drove off with their captives on the road to Carrizozo.”
We gave him some MRE’s, a seed packet, and offered to give him a ride toward Carrizozo. He refused the ride, saying that he had lived in Capitan all his life and would stay there.
We left Capitan around 4 PM and drove to within 10 miles of Carrizozo. None of us wanted another encounter with the Barrio Aztec gang. Danny suggested we wait until after 2:00 AM and then drive through with lights out and guns ready. The map showed that Highway 380 skirted the northeast side of town, and we hoped the gang would be sleeping when we passed.
After eating MRE’s for supper, we pulled the bed out and tried to sleep. Even after a little love making, I couldn’t sleep. This was real, not some fantasy. If the gang discovered us, it would be a gunfight where one or all of us could be hurt or killed. I was more worried about my beneficial friends than myself.
Danny was snoring with Tracy in his arms, and I was wrapped around his backside, like a second skin. I didn’t want to move and wake either of them. It had been a long day, and I was sure we would keep moving, long past Carrizozo.
I lay there watching the old wind-up clock. The hands moved ever so slowly. The damn thing went off at 1:30 AM. I had just closed my eyes. All three of us jumped, suddenly alert and awake.
Tracy warmed up a pot of coffee while Danny got out our three sets of night vision goggles. We drank our coffee with them on since neither of us girls had ever tried them. It was disorienting at first, but soon I was comfortable. He also dug out three headset radios that were voice activated.
When we set out Tracy was driving with all lights out, and I was at the van top hatch. Danny was in the trailer at its top hatch.
We entered the Carrizozo city limits at 40 miles per hour. There was no sign of life until we approached the Highway 64/380 junction in the center of town. A flickering light beside the road indicated a campfire. We held our breath as we approached it.
Suddenly from both sides of our vehicle, came the noise of several big metal cans being dragged along with us. The gang had stretched a bumper height fishing line across the road, which was tied to several gallon sized metal containers. It made a perfect low-tech perimeter alarm that woke everyone nearby.
Tracy hit the gas, and I saw movement on both sides of the road. A few shots rang out as we made a hasty departure.
At the edge of town Tracy asked if she should slow down since she knew both of us at the top hatches were freezing in the wind blast.
Danny replied, “No, keep running as fast as you can, I saw headlights.”
The van could only make about 60 pulling the trailer, and we were on a slight upgrade.
Two miles out of town, the highway started across the Valley of Fires. A huge prehistoric lava flow had filled a three mile wide valley. The road crossed it following the contour in a series of rolling hills. As we topped the second, Danny shouted to stop at the bottom.
Tracy locked up the tires, and we came to a screeching stop at the bottom. When Danny stood, he could see over the hill.
He said, “Two trucks are after us. Take cover by the wheels and shoot the driver as they come over the hill. We can’t outrun them, so we have to kill them.
When the first pickup came over the hill, into the concentrated fire of three AR15’s, the windshield disintegrated. Then the vehicle turned abruptly, and rolled into the lava field, spilling out several gunmen in the bed as it rolled.
A second vehicle was an SUV that stopped, and burst into flames, when hit by over 100 rounds of concentrated fire.
In less than two minutes, it was finished.
Danny walked around both vehicles, shooting anyone still moving.
When he finished, we moved to the top of the next hill and looked for more headlights. There were none, and we moved on.
Later, we came upon an abandoned big rig, and were able to top off the fuel tanks in both the trailer and the van.
We stopped for the night just over the Arizona line on Highway 60, outside of the town of Edgar.
The next morning we met a farmer who lived nearby. He reported that Edgar was a Mormon community, and they were not welcoming any outsiders. We took the bypass and continued northwest on Highway 60. Outside of Sho Low, Arizona, we turned north on State Road 77, and continued through Taylor and Snowflake.
When we reached the junction with Highway 377, we saw a figure walking toward Holbrook.
Danny pulled alongside and said, “Would you like a ride?”
Trever turned, looking dazed, and answered, “I sure would. I don’t believe I could go another mile.”
We made it to the south side of Holbrook by sundown. We camped south of the river, It was a dry wash, before the Event.
We spent the evening getting acquainted with Trever and Danny was glad to have another shooter after he heard about Payson. Since we didn’t know what our reception would be from the community of Holbrook, Danny said we should keep a watch. He said he would take the 0400 to 0800 shift and went to bed. Tracy said she wasn’t sleepy, and would take the duty till midnight. Trever insisted on taking the graveyard shift. I was pooped and didn’t argue with either of them. Tracy and Trever were still sitting together by the fire when I climbed into bed.
I woke at 8:00 AM, got dressed, and started the coffee. Tracy and Trever were not in sight. Danny had a funny grin, and said, “They are sleeping in the trailer, guess Tracy didn’t want Trever to be cold and lonely.”
Surprised, and a little hurt, but, I remembered we were just friends, with benefits. I was not attracted to Trever, but I guessed Tracy likes older men. They appeared a few minutes later, Tracy chattering like a magpie, and Trever looking a little sheepish.
Later that day, Tracy and I talked. She didn’t consider our relationship to have changed, just expanded. I wasn’t sure about Trever, or how our relationship was changing. Danny’s reaction was to wait and see. He said that our relationships were open, and that we had no strings on Tracy.
We were in the middle of a simple breakfast when a delegation from Holbrook walked across the bridge. The delegation consisted of six men. They were armed, but not threatening. We talked most of the morning, and learned that Holbrook had a population that was only 60% Mormon, so they were more tolerant of non-Mormons.
Holbrook, like many of the predominately Mormon communities, suffered a lot of damage from the quake, winds, and floods, but because of the strength of those communities, and their stored provisions, most of the populations survived. They were having a hard time, but they would survive.
We talked with them about conditions in our post-Event world. They reported that the ash had covered everything north of the Grand Canyon, including Las Vegas.
They had heard of the Barrio Aztec gang and were very interested in our encounters with them. The gang had burned most of Winslow in a bloody battle that left scores of dead on both sides. Highway 40 west was now an unknown, since if the gang were still in Winslow, it would be impassable.
They also reported that Flagstaff was controlled by a polygamist splinter sect that was not tolerant of outsiders. They were forcing travelers to take the 40 bypass and not even enter the community.
The Holbrook community was very fearful of the whereabouts and intent of the Barrio Aztec gang. Danny suggested that we join forces and make a scouting trip to the Winslow area. There had been no information for several weeks when a single carload of refugees had arrived.
A week later, Danny and Trever joined a group of eight Holbrook citizens in a scouting expedition to Winslow. They made the 28-mile run in a pair of old pickup trucks. Most of the gang had gone back south toward Phoenix, but half a dozen holdouts were in a downtown hotel with several female captives. In a bloody gun battle, all the gang members were killed, and several captives were rescued.
In the middle of the fight, Danny’s AR 15 jammed. He was pinned down in a crossfire, and hit by several bullet fragments. Trever rushed down the hallway, firing to suppress the gang members shots at Danny. When Danny cleared the jamb, both he and Trever were able to clear the floor. When they returned to Holbrook, they were more than friends, they had become brothers.
Most of the rescued women had lost their families, and the Holbrook Community took them in. There were twice as many women and polygamy was even developing among the non-Mormons.
We spent another two weeks in Holbrook, talking and trading information and a few seeds. Tracy continued to sleep with Trever most of the time. I was not comfortable with her suggestion that I try him on for size, and Danny looked relieved when I changed the subject. At least she didn’t suggest a four-way.
