Kiamichi Refuge Read online

  ***

  The next morning, when they turned onto the street in front of Ernie’s house, Tanner spotted a small figure darting out the side gate. The figure ran across the street and down the sidewalk. Tanner jumped out of the truck and chased after the fugitive. His long legs caught up with the urchin halfway down the block.

  “Micah? What were you doing at Ernie’s?” Tanner demanded.

  “I was just looking for food and medicine for Gus. He’s hurt, and I’m taking care of him.”

  “Where are your foster parents?”

  “Dead,” the youngster hung his head and blinked back tears. “They got sick, bad sick. They ate some fish and I think it was spoiled. I didn’t eat any, ‘cause I don’t like fish and there was still peanut butter. They died, so I went to stay with Gus.”

  “What’s wrong with Gus? And where is he?” Tanner insisted.

  “He’s at his shop. He fell and I think his arm is broke. I’m not sure, but it’s hurting and I wanted to find some medicine for him.” Micah wrapped his arms across his stomach. “I didn’t think it would be stealin’ since Mr. Ernie is dead.”

  “Okay. We’ll find something for the pain. You take it to Gus, and stay with him. We’ll come to the shop and check on you in a while.”

  Tanner led Micah back to Ernie’s, and explained to Erin that Gus needed medicine for pain. Erin ran into the house and got a bottle of pain pills from Ernie’s stash. She instructed Micah to give Gus one tablet every four hours if he needed it, then sent him off to take care of his friend.

  “I kept him out here so he wouldn’t see the entry to the basement,” Tanner explained.

  “I figured as much. Let’s go help get this truck loaded up, then we’ll drop some supplies off at the Abbotts’ and head over to check on Gus.”

  ***

  Ken Abbott saw the truck pull up in front of their house, and came out to meet them. He looked gaunt, having obviously lost several pounds. Erin had set aside food and other supplies to give them, but Ken was most excited to get the LifeStraws.

  “Now, what are your plans, Ken? You know that you’re welcome out at the lodge.”

  “Thanks, but we are going to stay in town for now. We’re helping people who need assistance; in fact, the fellowship hall is almost full of elderly folks and single women who are afraid to stay in their homes. We have a few families here, too. Being together will make it easier for all of us. Safer, too. There are only a few men still around, and they’re here, too. Most of the single men and men with families left town already. I hope they’re okay. We appreciate the help and the offer, but we’ll be fine.”

  “I’ve been doing some hunting lately. I guess deer season is now open year round, since there’s no law enforcement in sight. I’ll try to get a deer or a wild hog for you so you can feed all those people.”

  “Thanks, Tanner. It would be a huge help. Thankfully, there are a couple of gardeners staying here, and we are still getting some veggies out of their gardens. Pray for enough rain to keep things growing, and we’ll have fruit to eat later, too. There are peach and apple trees in town. Maybe plums, too, I hope. Come by and check on us any time.”

  “We will,” Erin promised. “And I brought you a radio, so when the cell phones quit working, we can maybe stay in touch. We’ll probably have to climb to the top of my mountain to get good reception, but it’s better than nothing.”

  ***

  When they got to the mechanic shop, Ian parked the truck, and waved at Micah, who was watching for them out the front window and ran over to unlock the door.

  “Gus took a pill, and he’s asleep now. Can you look at his arm? He’s been hurtin’ bad,” Micah pleaded. The boy led them into the back room and up the stairs to a storage loft. Gus lay on a pallet of old blankets, sound asleep.

  Tanner examined the arm that Micah indicated, and feeling the shoulder, gave a sigh of relief.

  “It’s not broken. The shoulder is dislocated. Ian, hold him on the other side, and I’ll pop it back into place. It’s a good thing he’s out, because this is going to hurt. He’ll be sore for a few days, but he’ll be fine.”

  Gus stirred, then woke from the sharp pain of Tanner’s efforts, but smiled a bit and said, “Ah, that’s better,” before drifting off again.

  “Micah, we need you to stay here with Gus for now. We have a full load in the truck, and no room to take you with us this trip, but we’ll come back and get you. You can both come stay out at my place. Stick close to Gus and don’t be wandering off anywhere. We can’t spend time or gas hunting you down, okay?” Erin urged.

  “Okay, but do you have any food or water? We get awful thirsty.”

  Erin nodded to Ian, who ran out to the truck to get the requested items.

  Tanner took Micah by the shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Now listen to me, Micah. Stay inside, away from the windows. Don’t turn on any flashlights or light any candles after dark. Some bad men escaped from the prison, and they might come this way. We’ll be back tomorrow and get you two to a better place, where there’s food and water, and people to keep you safe. Just be really careful.”

  Micah nodded solemnly and promised to stay with Gus. He looked scared, but determined to take care of his friend. At only twelve years of age, Micah was already starting to learn how to be a man.

  ***

  Early the next morning, Tanner, Ian, and Erin piled into the delivery truck and headed back to town. They planned to make one final stop by Ernie’s house to get the last of the cache and grab anything useful from the main floor of the house.

  “Okay, look for sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, shoes, jackets. Keep a lookout for flashlights, batteries, and guns, too. Grab anything that looks useful,” Erin reminded them.

  Just as he had done at the lodge, Ernie had hidden numerous weapons in devious places around the house. Since Erin was familiar with the hidey-holes around the lodge, she looked for similar secret places, and found several. After about thirty minutes, they had gathered all the things that they could use, including the mattresses. Erin laid one mattress down for Gus and Micah to use on the way to the lodge, so they wouldn’t get bruised up like she and Sarah had. Ian used ratchet straps to secure the load so it wouldn’t fall, and had just started to close the back of the truck so they could go pick up their passengers at Gus’s shop.

  Erin had one foot raised to step into the truck when she suddenly froze. “Listen,” she warned. “Do you hear it?”

  “That’s a motor, sounds like it’s over on the next street. And it’s coming this way,” Ian exclaimed, holding the door and motioning for the girls to climb up. “Get in!”

  Tanner got the truck started and drove toward the parking lot behind Lydia’s shop. They locked the back of the truck, then Erin opened the back door of the shop with the key Lydia had given her. They slipped inside and began filling bags with essential oils, shampoo, lotions, candles, and disposable razors.

  Ian jogged across the street and tapped on the door of Gus’s shop. Gus was awake and had climbed down from the loft with Micah. He looked much better than he had the day before, but still favored his sore shoulder. Ian led them to the back room.

  “There’s somebody in town with the gas to drive around in a vehicle. It could be local folks, but it could be escapees, so we need to lie low until they’re gone,” Ian warned. “I’m going to stay out of sight, but take a peek out the front window and see if I can see anything. Stay here.”

  Ian slipped into the front section of the shop, staying low against the wall. He could hear loud voices as he got closer to the big overhead door, then he heard glass shattering. Taking a quick peek out the window, he saw several men across the street, breaking the windows of the liquor store.

  Tanner and Erin also heard the commotion outside, and hastily ducked into the back room of Lydia’s shop. They were trapped by the looters out front, and also by the fact that there were no windows in the back, so they couldn’t see if it was safe to go out that way. Fro
m the voices they heard, they were also greatly outnumbered by whoever was outside.

  Suddenly, Micah materialized beside them, grinning.

  “Where’d you come from?” Erin squeaked, dropping the bags she was carrying.

  “If you want out of here, follow me,” he whispered, then led them to a narrow door in the corner of Lydia’s back room, behind stacks of boxes.

  “Come on, but watch your step,” Micah murmured as he descended the stairs. He turned on a flashlight and guided them across a damp, musty basement to another door. “I found this when I was out looking for food. There’s a tunnel that goes under the street to the empty building next to Gus’s. He told me that these buildings are real old, and the man who built them put this tunnel in because he was a bootlegger, whatever that is.”

  At the end of the tunnel, they climbed a steep flight of rickety stairs, and emerged in the back room of the abandoned building. Sneaking a look across the street, Tanner patted Micah on the back.

  “Kid, you just saved us. They’re inside Lydia’s shop now. Thanks for the rescue.”

  “We can go out the back and get to Gus,” Micah decided. “He’s probably wondering if we made it out.”

  Gus and Ian were relieved to see them, but concerned about where the bad guys would go next.

  “There’s at least a dozen of them, and I recognized two. Ollie Simmons and that little guy Weasel who follows him around. It’s a good bet that all of those thugs are from the prison, since they’re with Ollie. I think we should wait until they get done with their looting, then sneak over there and get out of town. I hate to leave the townspeople at the mercy of those hoodlums, but we can’t fight them all right now.”

  “Let me see if I can get Ken on the radio and let him know so he can warn folks. I think most people are in the church building already.” Erin paused for a few seconds. “Are we safer here, or should we go to the empty building next door?”

  She left it to the guys to decide the answer to that, and stepped away to try to contact Ken.

  The radio signal was weak, probably because they were inside a rock building, but Ken answered. As Erin described the scene downtown, he stopped her and she could hear him directing others to warn everyone about the convicts in town.

  “Erin, I need to go. Thank you for warning us. Be safe, sister,” and he was gone.

  Erin stepped back over to the others and told them that she had gotten through. “So, are we staying here?”

  “We should go next door. I’ve never liked that Ollie, and he knows it. When he was on trial the first time, I testified against him, so he hates me, and he might bust in here to get his revenge. He might even try to burn the place down, so we better go,” Gus replied.

  They turned to leave, but Gus and Micah lagged behind, stopping to pick up a couple of bags of their belongings.

  Tanner, Ian, and Erin had just stepped out into the alley behind the shop, when suddenly, a man stepped out from behind a dumpster, pointing a large gun at them, and grinning.

  “Well, now. You gents plannin’ on keepin’ that little gal all to yerselves? That’s mighty narrow-minded. You boys just back up. Turn around and put your hands on that wall, high up. And spread them legs. Now!”

  Staring hard at the man, Tanner caught a glimpse of movement behind the other dumpster. Then, shoulders slumped, he moved to obey. As he passed Erin, he whispered, “Play it up.”

  Bewilderment flashed momentarily in Erin’s eyes, but she knew Tanner must have a plan of some kind. She smiled seductively at the gunman. “It’s about time a real man showed up around here,” she purred, running her hand down her side to emphasize her figure.

  A flying foot seemed to come out of nowhere to kick the assailant in the throat. He dropped like a stone.

  The owner of the foot grinned at Erin, then bent to retrieve the punk’s gun. He called to Tanner, “Hey pal, how come I always seem to be saving your butt?”

  Tanner strode over and grasped the man’s hand. “Shane, I seem to recall bailing you out of trouble a time or ten.”

  “Yeah, I guess you have, at that.”

  Erin gulped. “Is…is that guy dead?”

  “If he’s not, he will be soon. It’s kinda hard to breathe with a crushed windpipe.”

  Gus and Micah came out the door just then.

  “We were only a few steps behind you, but we couldn’t help. Sorry.”

  “No problem, Gus. Shane saved the day.”

  Shane nodded to Gus, then asked Tanner, “What have you all been up to in there?”

  Tanner glanced at Erin, one eyebrow cocked as if to ask a question. She gave a slight nod.

  “We were getting Gus and Micah out of town and to a safe place, but we got interrupted by some looters. You wanna to join us?”

  Shane grinned. “Is there food? If so, count me in. I’m hungry. Where are we headed?”

  “Out in the woods, to Erin’s lodge, and we’re taking the scenic route. Follow us.”

  They moved quietly over to the door of the empty building, and slipped inside, bolting the door behind them. They waited, listening to the yelling and cursing of the convicts as they moved down the street.

  “We left all those bags of supplies in Lydia’s back room. I hope they’re still there.” Erin muttered. “It’s getting quieter over there. What are they doing?”

  The day grew silent, then they heard an engine start. Tanner moved to the boarded up front windows and found a narrow slit where he could see the street.

  “They’re all piling into an old van.” He hesitated. “And they’re leaving. Looks like they’re headed out of town, but we couldn’t be that lucky.”

  “Let’s get out of here before they come back,” Ian urged, starting for the door.

  “Hey, Ian, how about we show you a trick?” Tanner joked. “Micah, lead the way.”

  Micah took them downstairs to the tunnel. Ian was shocked to learn of the secret passage. As they made their way under the street to Lydia’s, he listened to Gus and Micah explain how it came to be built, and how Micah discovered it.

  ”I can’t believe that I grew up in this town, playing and exploring in every nook and cranny for years, and never had a clue that this was here.” Ian shook his head in amazement.

  “I’m just glad that Micah knew about it. If not for him, those punks would have found us. I’m not afraid of a fight, but the odds were not in our favor,” Tanner added.

  Erin found the bags that they had left behind, right where they dropped them. “Hey, everybody grab a couple of these, please, and let’s go home.”

  Chapter 21

  Late July

  That evening Jen and Tanner had guard duty, so after dinner, Erin put five flashlights on the dining table, then called a meeting for everyone else. They gathered in the living room, with the younger folks sitting on the floor or dragging chairs in from the dining room.

  The story of the day’s adventures in town had already been related over dinner. Micah had beamed when he received praise as the hero of the hour for saving Tanner and Erin from the bad guys.

  Erin looked at each one of her new group members. The way that Micah had saved them by using the tunnel had made an impression on her. She realized that keeping the caves secret from the group was a dangerous decision that could cost them in an emergency, and she had changed her mind about revealing it to the others.

  “I have a few things to tell you tonight. First, I was going to call Ken and Terri earlier. I tried my phone, and then Jen’s, then Sarah’s. The phones are dead. It was inevitable and expected, but that makes it even more important to let people know if you go outside of the lodge. From now on, nobody goes out without taking a handheld radio, especially if you are going to be out of sight of the lodge.”

  Second, I hope that each of you will look on the rest of the group as family from now on. We have to stick together, and we have to take care of each other. What we saw in town today proves that one person alone does not have a chance against a gang
of thugs. I’m afraid that what we saw today was only the beginning.”

  Things are going to get worse, and we all need each other, so if you have a gripe or a problem with someone, work it out. If you do not want to completely commit to being a part of this group, say so now.” She waited, making eye contact with each one, but nobody said a word. “Good.”

  Now, there’s something that you should know. My uncle was more than someone who wrote survival manuals and post-apocalyptic novels. He was a man who spent years preparing for a collapse.”

  This lodge was part of that, as was his house in town. He bought this place because it’s hard to find, but also because of one very special feature. Some of you grab one of these flashlights, and I’ll show you.”

  ***

  Erin opened the entrance to the cave, and led the group through to the cavern. She pointed out the various types of containers and told them what was in each type.

  “The food here won’t last long with so many of us. That’s why we have veggies growing in pots on the deck, and why we have to limit portion size. We will be canning as much as we are able this summer. There’s clothing, too. Not every size, but Uncle Ernie bought yards of denim, fleece, cotton, and flannel, plus patterns for simple clothing in all sizes, even for baby clothes. There’s a sewing machine in my room, an old Singer treadle, so I hope someone knows how to sew.”

  “I can do that,” Frances Martin offered. “My mom had my grandmother’s treadle, and she taught me how to use it. I sew pretty well, and I’ve been wondering what I could do to contribute,”

  “That’s great. I can sew some, too, but right now, I’m busy growing food. Now, everyone, follow me.” Erin took them across the cavern to the exit cave.

  “This cave continues for a long way, all the way through the mountain. There is another exit, at least one. I have a map of the cave system, and everyone needs to get familiar with the way out. And someone needs to explore the caves to the west, through the exit on the other side of the cavern. We need to know if there is another entrance.”