The Troop Read online

  Despite the lateness of the day it was still pretty hot. Johnny, Carl, Jack, Matt, and I were burning up while casting bricks. I’m sure the rest of the guys were just as hot cutting cedar staves. At least my group could dunk our hair in the creek every now and again to cool off.

  By the time we called it quits for the day we had laid out another 64 bricks making our day’s total 97.

  “Not bad,” Johnny said looking at all the newly formed bricks sitting out on the banks. “We’re on our way.”

  I dunked my head in the water again then looked at the creek banks we’d been working. Where there was once a nice mud bank dotted with plants, brush, and animal tracks was now a torn up jagged and rocky mess. It was amazing how just a few days’ work had completely transformed that section of the creek.

  The same held true of the cedar breaks where the others had spent the afternoon. Where there was once a thick, almost impenetrable mass of cedar trees, was now partially covered with stumps and piles of smaller branches and brush.

  We all headed back to the dinning fly and settled into our favorite car seats. Johnny went straight for his radio and was immediately trying to get a hold of one of his friends.

  “So,” Dad exclaimed from what used to be the seat he sat in while driving his Jeep. “We having birds and jerky tonight or just jerky?”

  “I want to try the quail,” Liam almost shouted. “I’m really getting sick of eating just jerky.”

  “Dude,” I scoffed. “We told you it’s too early to start complaining about eating jerky. We’ve only been doing it a few days.”

  “I’m just saying I really want to try some of the quail. To see what that snake missed out on by throwing one up,” Liam laughed.

  “Does everybody else want to try the quail?” Dad asked.

  Pretty much everyone nodded, and Dad looked to Liam. “OK then. Quail it is. Liam’s going to dress the birds…”

  “What?!” Liam barked.

  “Jack,” Dad began again. “Why don’t you and Carl get a small fire going.”

  Jack and Carl all got up and made their way to the fire pit

  “Liam, grab the cage of birds and head on down to the creek,” Dad decreed. “The rest of us will follow you.”

  Liam moaned then did what he was told. We followed him to the creek where Dad began what he called, “Quail Cleaning 101.” Under his watchful eyes, and with plenty of instruction and some praise, Dad had Liam clean each of the birds. Liam ringed their necks, plucked their feathers, gutted them, and then dressed them for the fire. Dad also had Liam open their stomachs to see what other than the corn they had been eating. The three had apparently been eating seeds and mesquite seedpods.

  “We need to check every bird, to keep tabs on what they’re eating so we can offer them that in the traps when we run out of corn,” Dad explained.

  We took the birds and the cage back to camp. Liam sprinkled the birds lightly with salt and pepper then handed them off to Jack and Carl who cooked them with skewers over the dying flames. As there were only three birds and quail aren’t that big to begin with, no one really had their fill of the birds but everyone at least got a taste. We all agreed that they were a welcome change to the jerky and that we should do all we could to trap and keep more birds. After dinner we sat out in our folding chairs away from the dinning fly and watched the sunset and then the stars rise. It turned out to be a pretty good day.

  45

  Dad woke Liam and me up before daybreak the next day. He told us to get dressed and that it was Liam’s turn to shoot a deer. Liam was excited for his chance but that chance never came, as we didn’t see any deer that morning at all. We returned to camp to find everyone sitting under the dinning fly gnawing on jerky for breakfast. Liam and I grabbed a piece of dried meat each and took a seat. Dad nodded to Johnny and he came over and stood before us.

  “I spent most of last night on the radio talking to friends,” Johnny said in an even almost monotone voice. “I spoke with my friend Bill in Austin the most but also my friend Dave in D.C. and a guy named Jared over in San Antonio. Here’s what they told me...”

  Johnny explained that things were bad. Food was running out in most of the big cities and because of this people were starting to fight. Gangs and posses were forming, and theft and looting was rampant. People were fighting, even killing people over food, stealing food, and using food to extort or lure people into doing horrible things.

  A lot more people - people in hospitals and nursing homes mainly - had died and lots more were getting sick from not eating enough or eating poorly prepared food or drinking unclean water. This was really bad because there wasn’t much doctors or hospitals could do to help these people as medicines, like food, was running out.

  The military and the police and a few other groups were trying to keep things together, but it was a hard thing to do. It sounded like the world was coming to an end. At least the world all of us knew.

  “Unfortunately, I didn’t hear from anyone back in Fredericksburg or near there,” Johnny continued. “Steve told me smaller towns were doing better as people are working together…”

  “So, everyone in Fredericksburg is OK?” Luke asked. “All of our parents and friends?”

  Liam rolled his eyes and started to say something, but Dad shot him down with a stern look.

  Dad then looked at all of us. He took a small breath and offered, “I’d like to think so Luke. I honestly feel like everybody we know and care about is doing the best they can and that they’re working together. Just like we are.”

  “I had a buddy back in the army,” Johnny began again. “He used to tell me that the only things worth worrying about where the things you could control or change.”

  Dad nodded and Johnny continued. “I can’t get to my wife or daughter right now just like y’all can’t get to your loved ones. So, I’ll pray for them, I’ll worry about them, and, yes, feel sad and probably cry over them but what I’m going to spend most of my time on is helping all of us to survive.”

  “Again,” Dad said. “That’s how we honor our loved ones. How we honor everyone. By doing our best. Our best at all times.”

  We all sat there quietly not saying a word. I stared at the ground and thought about mom then tried hard not to think about her. Images from my dream about being alone on a desert island flashed through my brain and I tried to think of something else to change the channel in my head.

  “I think we should pray,” Matt suddenly said.

  Dad nodded and Matt stood from the bucket seat that until yesterday had been in his dad’s truck. He cleared his throat then said, “Lord, we ask for your guidance in this terrible time… and that…and that you look over us…and all those we love and everyone we know and everyone dealing with the this difficult time…and dealing with this tragedy. Please help our families to know that we are safe…and not to worry about us and help us to see them soon. Amen.”

  We all said “amen.”

  Matt sat down in his seat and Dad moved before all of us once more. He cleared his throat and said, “Now, let’s get busy.”

  “Busy doing what?” Liam asked.

  “Busy surviving,” Dad replied.

  46

  For the next few weeks we all worked together at not only surviving but by improving our living conditions. Down came the dinning fly and in its place a roof of cedar staves built atop columns of brick and wooden posts. We raised the seats from the trucks to the same height as our furniture back in the real world and improved our cooking area. We built a coop in between several trees using chicken wire, cedar staves, and large rocks and kept in it a revolving staple of quail and dove we’d caught. Everyone but Luke took turns hunting with rifle or bow and we ate rabbits and deer and made pounds of jerky from the latter. We continued making bricks and gathered large rocks and more staves to help us construct a dam. We learned how to cut and cook prickly pear cactus pads and fruit and how to grind flour from mesquite pods. We more or less forgot about not having ou
r phones and quit talking about how much we missed them. We didn’t talk about the Internet or movies or TV shows.

  Luke and Liam suffered major headaches and feelings of lethargy and then sleeplessness from weaning themselves off their medications. Dad’s and Johnny’s beards grew thicker and heavier and we all lost a few pounds. Everyone but Johnny and Liam grew darker and everyone’s hair got lighter from our time in the sun.

  We all fell into a routine of day in and day out and gave no thought to the actual day of the week with the date until Dad reminded us of one important date after dinner.

  “Tomorrow’s the day,” Dad said.

  “The day for what?” I asked for everyone.

  Dad looked at Johnny and said, “Can you believe they don’t know?”

  Johnny shook his head and said, “How un-American.”

  “None of you know what tomorrow is?” Dad asked again in disbelief. “Seriously?”

  “Fair warning Luke,” Liam interrupted. “If you say Christmas or Thanksgiving, I swear I’m gonna hit you upside the head.”

  “Hey Liam,” I interrupted.

  “What?” Liam replied.

  “Shut up.”

  “Ha. Ha. Ha,” Liam fake laughed.

  “As I was saying,” Dad began again. “Tomorrow is the Fourth of July. American Independence Day.”

  “Oh yeah,” Carl said. “That makes sense.”

  “And it’s also our one-month anniversary of survival,” Johnny added. “Almost. We technically still have a few more days until the actual anniversary.”

  “Man, this is turned out to be one long, long camp out,” Andrew joked.

  We all laughed then Dad said, “Seriously guys, we have a lot to be thankful for and tomorrow is a good day to celebrate it.”

  “Then I say we take the day off,” Carl suggested.

  “Yeah,” Jack agreed. “Spending the whole day up at the swimming hole sounds like a good idea.”

  “But with no javelina for sure,” Liam interrupted. “Because that meat tasted nasty!”

  “I agree,” Jack said. “No javelina. And it tasted nasty.”

  “What’s with the assault on my cooking,” Johnny joked. “I’m not feeling a lot of love here guys.”

  “We love you Dad,” Jack promised. “Just not your javelina.”

  “What do you think, Matt?” Dad asked. “The swimming hole sound good to you?”

  “Yeah, I like the swimming hole part,” Matt answered. “But not the javelina part.”

  “Really, Matt?” Johnny said. “You too? Man, that really hurts.”

  “Then how about this,” Dad proposed. “We get up tomorrow, put on our full uniforms, have a flag ceremony...”

  “A flag ceremony?” I interrupted. “How? We don’t have a flagpole.”

  Dad laughed and looked at Johnny. “Can you believe Taylor fell for it?”

  “Fell for what?” I said utterly confused.

  “You just volunteered to make a flagpole,” Dad explained.

  “No, I didn’t,” I scoffed.

  “It’ll be easy,” Dad said. “Carl and Liam can help you.”

  “Why me?” Liam barked.

  “Oh just because,” Dad said before switching gears. “So, after we raise the flag on our brand-new flagpole tomorrow morning, we’ll change clothes and head up to the swimming hole for a day of it.”

  “I tell you what,” Johnny said. “I feel so bad about the whole javelina thing that I’m going to grab my bow and go on up to the spring above the water hole tonight. With any luck I’ll take a deer tonight or tomorrow morning and we can try our luau luck again.”

  “Deer? Yes. Javelina. No,” Jack said

  “I’m glad you feel that way Jack as I’ll need you to go up there with me.”

  “Why?” Jack said.

  “Buddy system man,” Johnny said. ‘We always gotta use the buddy system.”

  47

  Making a flagpole wasn’t hard at all. It only took Liam, Carl, and I a little while to lash four cedar staves together to make a pole about 12 feet long. We tied a small loop at the top of the pole then ran a long rope twice the length of the pole through it. We lashed the pole to one of the brick columns of the new shade area - that we were all now calling the living room by the way - so we didn’t have to dig a hole of any kind. The flagpole wasn’t beautiful, but it was functional.

  The next day we all put on our uniforms and met at the flagpole. It was the first time we’d worn our uniforms since we arrived, and we all commented on how we had to cinch our belts tighter to keep our shorts up. I guess we really were losing a lot of weight.

  We raised the flag then said the pledge. After, Dad said how us working together the way we had been for the past almost a month was a tribute to American ingenuity, its work ethic, and blah, blah, blah.

  Just like everybody else, I was zoning out at Dad’s speech. I was ready to have a day of relaxation. I was ready to go swimming and spend the day doing whatever I wanted instead of working.

  When Dad finally finished, Matt led us in prayer then we all ran to our tents to change. When we all met back up at the living room, Dad instructed everyone to bring a few pieces of jerky with them in addition to lots of water.

  “I thought Johnny was going to shoot us a deer?” Andrew reminded us.

  “He said he was going to try to shoot a deer,” Dad explained. “Hunting is never an absolute.”

  “I bet he got one,” Liam theorized.

  “He might have,” Dad offered. “But I wouldn’t bet a day without nothing to eat on it.”

  We all saw Dad’s point and loaded up our packs with jerky in addition to Camelbacks full of water. Dad gave Liam a bottle of sunscreen then warned him, “This is it. There’s no more after this.”

  “Gotcha,” Liam said.

  “Watch yourself today Liam,” Dad instructed. “I like eating lobster not taking care of them or listening to them complain about getting burned because they didn’t have the sense to stay out of the sun.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Liam scoffed. “I got ya’.”

  We all followed Carl and Matt as they led us up toward the swimming hole. The hike was pretty easy and, because it was still pretty early in the morning and we were more or less in the shade the whole way up, it wasn’t too hot. We were almost to the swimming hole and our day of fun when Carl stopped short.

  “What’cha doing?!” Matt almost yelled as he tried not to run into the back of Carl.

  “Sorry,” Carl barked. He lifted his nose and asked, “Do y’all smell that?”

  “What? Ya’ fart or something?” Liam asked.

  “No,” Carl retorted. “Seriously. Smell that. I mean, do y’all smell that or am I freaking out?”

  Most of us were sure Carl was trying to pull a fast one on us but still, we all paused and raised our noses and smelled the air carefully. At first all I could smell was my sweaty, stinky self and the cedar trees on either side of the trail. Then I got a whiff of something pretty delicious. We all did. We caught the faint smell of pork chops.

  Carl pushed up the trail almost running, and we all followed at a brisk pace. The trail opened up and there, just off the gravel beach of the swimming hole, was the source of the smell.

  “Took y’all long enough,” Johnny joked. “Jack n’ I put the pig on about an hour ago.”

  Johnny did have a pig and it was roasting on a spit over a bed of coals. None of us could believe it.

  “That’s not a javelina, is it?” Liam said in disbelief.

  “No sir,” Johnny promised. “It’s a little piggy fresh from the market. Jack got ‘em this morning.”

  “Way to go Jack!” Dad congratulated.

  “Yeah, a group of eight came into the spring this morning. Dad said to take the smallest of the bunch because they tasted the best,” Jack explained.

  “For sure,” Johnny almost sang he was so excited. “This bad boy weighed about 35 to 40 pounds field dressed and Jack put a darn good shot on him. Nicked the
back of his heart.”

  “I got lucky,” Jack explained.

  “No you didn’t,” Johnny corrected. “You did real good. You’re getting real good with that bow.”

  “When is he or she…the pig going to be ready?” I asked.

  “Not soon enough,” Matt exclaimed. “That smell’s driving me crazy.”

  “I’m thinking about one or two o’clock this afternoon,” Johnny theorized. “But only if I can get the ingredients I need. The secret ingredients.”

  “What secret ingredients?” I asked staring at the roasting pig with hungry eyes.

  “Did he just fall for it again?” Dad asked.

  “What did I fall for?” I asked. “Man is this like the flagpole thing? Did I just volunteer for something without knowing it?”

  “Yes, yes you did,” Johnny laughed. “But it’s a lot easier than the lashing together a flagpole.”

  “What is it and how long will it take?” I asked somewhat mad. I was really wanting a day off and now I was about to do God knows what instead of swimming with my friends and munching on pig.

  “Your mission,” Johnny laughed. “Is to get 20…wait a minute. You’ll need a partner.”

  “What am I doing? I can’t pick a partner if I don’t know what I’m going to need a partner for,” I argued.

  “Chill bro,” Johnny chuckled. “I told you it’s an easy job. I need you and someone to go collect about 20 or 30 prickly pears. The pear part. Not the pads. I’m gonna rub it all over the pig as a sort of glaze.”

  “Oh, that’s easy enough,” I said.

  “Not me,” Liam yelled from behind me. “Don’t pick me because I ain’t going.”

  “Good, cuz I don’t think you should go,” Dad agreed. “We need to limit your sun activity today.”

  “I’ll go with him,” Andrew offered. “It shouldn’t take that long. You got any idea where we should start Johnny?”

  “Of course, I do,” Johnny admitted. “Above the swimming hole here, just past the springs, the valley widens out n’ there’s a ton of prickly pear. You should be able to gather 20 good-sized pears in no time. Thirty if they’re smaller. Get the ripe ones. Dark purple.”