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Once I got Kayla back in the boat and secure, I grabbed the tiller and pointed us toward the riverbank. The water moved swiftly and based on the amount of debris in the water, I suspected that there must be a powerful storm going on somewhere to the north. It wasn’t long before we passed the riverboat casino, and what used to be the bridges running from Mississippi to Louisiana. Another hundred yards down the river, I eyed a spot where the erosion had cut a small inlet, and I pointed the boat in that direction and a few moments later, the boat ran aground.
Before us was a steep pile of shale that ascended for thirty yards before it turned to the steep tree-lined bank.
“Do you think you can make it up that little hill?” I asked.
Kayla looked where I pointed. Based on the difficulty she was having catching her breath, I probably shouldn’t have asked.
“Do we have another option?” she asked.
“Sure. We can get back on the river and find a better place to land. The downside is, I don’t know how far that would be, and if we can’t find transportation, we’d have to walk that much farther to get back this way. I’m not gonna lie. Neither option is a good one.”
Kayla’s eyes followed the slope, and she looked downriver. “I guess I’ll choose the climb. There’s no way I want to go for another swim.”
I nodded. “Okay, let’s get on with it.”
Kayla jumped out of the boat and grabbed our backpacks while I shut down the motor and pulled it from the water. We wouldn’t require the boat anymore, but I guessed someone in need would come along and be grateful for the find.
I put on my backpack, picked up my rifle, and pondered the climb. I didn’t know how I would do it one-handed, so I removed the backpack and shoved the rifle as far into it as I could. When I put the backpack on again, the rifle extended a good two feet above my head, so I made a mental note to try to stay as low as I could once I got to the trees.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
Kayla responded by taking a last look at the hill and began the climb without saying a word. I hung back for a few seconds and watched her as she carefully plotted each step as she climbed, instinctively picking out the best route as she ascended the hill. She stopped, turned around, and spotted me watching her.
“You coming?” she asked.
I grinned like an idiot, then started my climb, trying to mimic the route she took. Above me, Kayla scampered up the shale like a mountain goat. I had a more arduous climb, slipping every third step I took and envisioning myself rolling down to the river and breaking my neck when I hit the bottom. I paid so much attention to where I placed my feet that I got startled when Kayla’s hand popped into my visual field. When I looked up, I saw she’d made it to the tree line, and she held onto a branch while offering her other hand to me. I took it, and she gave me the boost I needed to make it the last couple of feet.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. That was tougher than I assumed it would be.”
She looked at the route ahead. “It will be easier going from here. We can use the tree branches to help pull us up. I think another two hundred yards or so, and we’ll be back on level ground.”
“This seems to be easy for you,” I said.
Kayla shrugged. “It’s actually not too bad. I love hiking and spent some time out in the Rockies. Granted, a lot of those trails the park groomed, but the experience helped.”
“Okay, then, you’re in charge. Get us out of here,” I said.
Kayla took a moment to plot her course, gave me an encouraging word, then took off. I waited until she was a few feet ahead of me and then followed her, paying close attention to every step she took and every tree she used for support.
By the time I’d reached the third tree, I realized the rifle in the backpack idea wouldn’t work since it kept getting caught on branches. I stopped for a moment, removed the gun, and tucked it under my arm. It would impede my progress, but I didn’t want to leave it behind.
As I continued the climb, my legs began to cramp, and my back ached. When I thought I couldn’t go any more, I looked up and saw Kayla a good twenty yards ahead, waiting for me.
“You’re almost there, Baker. One more push and you’re at the top.”
I felt like crying, and I still wanted to stop, but I pushed on, and a few minutes later, I hit the apex. Trees still surrounded us, but the terrain was nice and flat. Twenty feet away, I spotted a tree stump and made a beeline for it. When I got there, I sat and shrugged off the backpack and set it on the ground with the rifle. I took off my hat and dropped that as well. Sweat poured down my face, so I pulled my shirt loose and wiped my face with it. Kayla held out a water bottle, and I took it and drank a bit, careful not to overindulge.
“That was a worse idea than I originally thought,” I said, handing the bottle back to Kayla.
“Well, we could go back down and take the boat to a better landing spot,” Kayla said.
I wanted to argue with her, but she threw me a sweet smile and I let it drop. Self-reflection is important, and I realized that my current state of exhaustion made me edgy.
“Where to next?” I asked.
Kayla shrugged, then pointed. “That way? If we keep going away from the river, we’re bound to hit a road. Eventually.”
“Sounds like a logical plan to me. Let’s go,” I said. With a grunt, I stood, tucked my shirt back in, and picked up my backpack and rifle.
Kayla went ahead, picking our way through the trees, and it surprised and delighted me when we walked only sixty feet, then left the trees and entered someone’s backyard. Not wanting trouble, we followed the trees along the perimeter of the property, and then followed the driveway until we came to a paved road.
“Should we go left, or right?” Kayla asked when our feet hit the concrete.
From the pocket of my backpack, I found and consulted my compass. I knew Vicksburg stood to the north of us, and the red needle pointed left, so we started in that direction. We walked for only a half mile when we spotted a hotel, a burned-down restaurant, and a sign pointing to the on-ramp of the interstate.
We walked up the ramp and strolled on the interstate until we got to the first off-ramp we came to. Looking down the intersecting road, we spotted a handful of restaurants, a big box store, an auto body shop, and a car dealership. Preferring to drive rather than walk, we headed to the dealership first. Although there were plenty of cars on the lot, we struck out when we couldn’t find a single key to any of them. Next, we headed to the auto body shop. There, we found plenty of keys to vehicles, but not a single car on the property was in working order.
“I don’t really relish walking all the way back to Virginia,” I said as we put the dealership behind us and headed back to the interstate.
“Let’s try over there,” Kayla said.
She led me across the street, then down the road to where a large, big box store sat. Like most stores I’d encountered, the doors hung askew, and we walked right in. Kayla, ever the optimist, grabbed a cart.
“Let’s go shopping,” she said as we walked deeper into the store.
I considered pulling my flashlight out of the backpack, but as we wandered deeper into the store, I noticed the skylights overhead and figured we’d be fine with those.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Women’s clothing,” Kayla said.
I followed her as we walked to the women’s clothing section. Although it looked a mess and plenty picked over, Kayla sauntered and up and down the aisles finding items she thought she might salvage and tossing them into the cart. She stopped in front of one of the changing rooms and kicked off her sneakers.
“Can you see if you can find me a pair of shoes? Sneakers, or maybe hiking boots? I don’t care as long as they don’t smell like the river.”
“Sure. What size?” I asked.
“Eight or nine,” she said as she reached into the cart, selected a few items, and disappeared behind the door.
I did as she requested and found the shoe section. That, too, looters had picked over pretty good, but I scored a pair of lime green tennis shoes, and a pair of hikers from the men’s department I thought might fit her. When I returned to the changing room, I saw the pile of clothes Kayla wore during her dunk in the river next to her shoes, and next to those were a few cotton shirts that she used to dry off. I waited patiently, and a few minutes later, the door opened, and she stepped out.
“Well? How do I look?” she asked.
“Much better,” I said. And she did. Her clothes looked clean and fresh, from the bright white socks on her feet to the jeans to the navy blue T-shirt. “Except for the...”
Instead of trying to explain, I reached forward and removed a twig from her hair. I handed it to her. She shrugged and threw it on top of the discarded clothes.
“I get it. I need a proper bath. With shampoo, conditioner, and a nice soap. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?”
“I found these for you,” I said as I held up the footwear options.
She considered the choice for a micro-second, then grabbed the men’s hiking boots. She slipped back into the changing room and left the door open as she ripped the tags from the boots and put them on.
“I figure we should see if there’s any food or water, then I want to check out the sporting goods section,” she said when she got ready to go and stepped back in front of the cart.
Kayla walked through the store without a care in the world, like in the old days. I, on the other hand, stayed alert and peered down every row, expecting to encounter rovers at any moment. We snaked our way through the grocery aisles, but all we found was a small can of black olives.
Kayla opened the can the moment she found them. “Want one?” she asked, holding the can in my direction.
“No, thanks.” I was hungry, but not hungry enough that I’d willingly eat a black olive.
As Kayla ate the olives, I pushed the cart to the sporting goods section. There, in the camping section, Kayla found a sleeping bag. Before I could question why she wanted it, she removed the bag from the nylon sack that held it and shoved the clothing from the cart into the sack, leaving the sleeping bag on the floor. Those before us had cleared out the rest of the camping section, along with the fishing and hunting sections. We could, however, have all the tennis rackets and home gym equipment we wanted.
“Find what you’re looking for?” I asked.
“Come on,” Kayla said.
I followed her along the back wall of the store and there she stopped in front of the bicycle section.
“Ta dah,” she said, holding her hands out in front of her like she’d just made a rabbit appear from a hat.
“This is your idea? Bikes?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“It’s a good idea. Doesn’t seem to be a lot of options here, though.”
We looked over the rack and before us sat ten bikes, nine of which were meant for toddlers. That left one ten-speed, and that had two flat tires.
“I’ll bet there’s more in the back,” Kayla said. “Why don’t you go check, and I’ll see if I can put air in these tires.”
I put my backpack in the cart, fished out my flashlight, and went looking for the door that led to the stockroom. The skylights didn’t extend to the back, so I switched on my light and wandered around the area. Like the front of the store, it was ransacked, but to my relief, I found a dozen unopened boxes of bicycles. I selected a man’s mountain bike from the group and dragged it through the storeroom and out to where Kayla was putting air into a tire using a hand pump.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“The back one pumped up fine, but I think this one has a hole in the tube. I’ll have to change it out.”
“You have the equipment for that?”
Kayla pointed to the shelves behind her. The bicycle accessories section looked pretty much untouched.
“I think so. Will you need help with that?” she asked.
“Good question,” I said. “Why don’t you fix your flat, then jump in if I need you?”
“Fair enough.”
While I ripped open the cardboard box, Kayla wandered over to the shelves and grabbed a new inner tube and several other items.
“Here, you’ll probably need this.”
I looked up, then accepted a small tool set Kayla handed me. It was the deluxe model and included a crescent wrench, two screwdrivers, pliers, and a socket set with six sockets.
“Thanks.”
I removed all the bike parts from the box, lined them up neatly on the cardboard, and ripped open the plastic bag containing the assembly instructions.
“Can we go through the health and beauty department before we leave?” Kayla asked.
“Sure,” I said without looking up from the manual. “What do you need?”
“While you were gone, I thought about the shampoo and soap. You know what I miss? Long hot showers. I’d love a hot shower. Or better yet, a spa day. A full day of pampering with a massage and a manicure and pedicure. Doesn’t that sound fantastic?”
“Sure.”
“What do you miss?”
I looked at the diagram of how to place the crank into the frame, but it seemed backward to me.
“Baker?”
I looked up at Kayla, and by the look on her face, she wasn’t happy with me.
“I’m not ignoring you. Honest,” I said. “Um, what do I miss? Ice cream.”
Kayla laughed. “You have the entirety of human civilization to choose from, and you pick ice cream.”
“Well, there are other things, I’m sure.”
“Okay, like what?”
I thought for a moment. “Lots of stuff. Air conditioning. Drive-through restaurants. Cable television. Broadway plays. Baseball games. See. Lots of stuff. What do you miss?”
Kayla finished putting the tire on the rim and attached the pump to the valve.
“Oh, I don’t know. Going to coffee shops. Art museums. Houseplants. Noise.”
“Noise? What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“You know. Noise. When I was married, or visiting my parents, there was always a radio or a television on. Cars were always passing by the house, planes flying overhead. Motorcycles. The neighbor kid out playing in the yard. All that’s gone, all that white noise we had all gotten used to. Now there’s just quiet.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Unless I’m with Pops or his dogs, there’s practically no noise unless I’m down by my stream, or there are birds in the area. Aw, shit.”
“What?”
“I just remembered. I had a really nice CD player in my truck. And my favorite road atlas. Now they’re both up in flames.”
Kayla reached over and patted my knee. “I’m sure we can find something around here. An atlas, at least. I’m not so sure about the CD player, but we’ll see what we can do.”
“Excellent.”
Kayla finished pumping up her tire, declared the bike ready to go, and helped me finish my project. After my bike was together, we attached racks to the back of each of our bikes, then she secured the bag of new clothes to hers, and to mine I attached a small satchel in which I dumped the air pump, the toolset, and a few random bike repair parts.
From there, we walked our bikes to the book section, and although I couldn’t find an atlas to replace the one I’d lost, I found road maps for each of the states we’d travel through. Not the best, but it was something.
In the health and beauty aisle, Kayla scavenged bottles of shampoo and body wash, along with toothpaste and toothbrushes, for both of us. I picked out a travel-sized can of shaving cream and a couple of razors for myself. Although it seemed most men ignored their facial hair in the new world, I preferred the look and feel of being as clean-shaven as possible. Once we squirreled away our items, we walked out into the sunshine, got on our bikes, and pedaled toward the interstate.
