1700 hours /1680 miles to go

Seats in the back of the bus had been ripped out. There were storage cabinets and boxes of dry food and canned goods stacked by the cabinets, without obscuring access to the Emergency Exit door. Shelves above the two rows of seats housed weapons, an assortment of bats and long handled axes, machetes and rifles. There were boxes of ammunition, as well. Seats toward the middle were removed, and had been replaced with bunk beds, one set on each side.

“Gene, I am not going to lie. This bus is simply outstanding,” I said. I stood with one foot on a step toward the door and leaned against a pole.

“It’s the shit, right? I told you, didn’t I?”

“You told me. I didn’t completely believe you. I mean, I figured you had a bus. Why lie about that. But this, no. I couldn’t have dreamed it up if I’d tried,” I said.

Gene laughed and slapped a hand onto the steering wheel. “She rides real smooth, too. We keep her at forty, fifty miles an hour, and that engine is going to hum the whole way. You have my word.”

“Okay, you get tired, need a break, you let me know. We’ve got more than enough people to take turns at the wheel,” I said, as we pulled out of the school lot and made a left onto New Castle Road.

“You might as well try to get some sleep. As long as I’m not ramming vehicles blocking our path, I’ll do my best to keep all of you from feeling like human milkshakes.” Gene laughed, again. He clearly enjoyed himself.

I didn’t think I’d be able sleep, but I wanted to lie down. I think I needed to.

“Are you okay,” Charlene said.

I nodded. I walked from the front of the bus toward the beds. “Guys, mind if I crash for a bit?”

No one minded.

The bus bounced up and down the highway. I didn’t feel at all like a milkshake. Lying down with that steady motion felt kind of amazing. And while I didn’t think I’d be able to fall asleep, I closed my eyes and did just that.

#  #  #

Wednesday, November 24th, 0108 hours / 1265 miles to go

“Dad. Dad?”

I opened my eyes. Darkness was all around me. “Charlene?”

“You’ve been asleep a long time, like eight hours,” she said.

I got up onto an elbow, and held back a wince. I didn’t want Charlene to even suspect how much my side hurt. While I needed to clean this stitched area better, what I really had to find was prescription pills. The cut had been too deep; too long to not have something inside me battling against an inevitable infection. I rubbed my eyes, which were not easily adjusting to the darkness. “Eight hours?” That didn’t seem possible. “Where are we?”

The bus wasn’t moving, I didn’t think.

“Kentucky. Just crossed the border not that long ago,” she said. “We kept looking for a gas station with electricity, stopped at this one so we could fill the tank, and use the restrooms. Everyone is kind of busting at the bladder.”

“Help me up.” I held out my hand. She hoisted me up into a sitting position. I rubbed my eyes. I retrieved my weapons and strapped them on. “You go yet?”

“No,” she said.

I stood up. “I’ll follow you.”

Andy was at the wheel, the bus running. “We’re filling the tank, too. Had to go in and activate the pumps from behind the counter. Running a credit card didn’t work. We’ve gone about, I guess, over four hundred miles.”

“No trouble?”

“Mostly getting around cars and stuff. Highway’s bad, but navigable, really.”

“You tired? I’m gonna pee. I just got a solid eight hours,” I said.

“I know. Good man, that’s good.”

“Well, I’ll take the next leg of the trip.”

“I’d appreciate that. I’ve only been behind the wheel for a few hours, but it’s not natural being up and driving at this time of night. I have no idea how those long distance truck drivers stay awake on the road,” Andy said.

I clapped him on the back as he levered the doors open for Charlene and me.

We stepped off the bus and looked around. The area appeared vacant and silent. I didn’t like it. The bathroom seemed to be inside the mini-mart. I saw Kia, Gene and Michelle inside. Dave, by the pumps filling the tank, leaned his back against the bus with one hand stuffed into his pocket.

“I see you’re awake,” he said.

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “I can’t believe I slept that long.”

“You must have needed it. I slept some too, we all did. Those beds aren’t bad.”

“You all took turns while I hogged a mattress all to myself,” I said, and laughed.

“I’ll fight you for it when we get back on the road,” he said.

“You can have it. I’m going to take a turn at the wheel,” I said.

“Sounds good,” he said. He pushed his back off the bus, and stood with his weight on one foot. “I’m actually feeling just a bit sleepy.”

Charlene and I walked to the entrance, and went into the store. We stood in line for a turn in the restrooms.

“Bed ain’t bad, is it?” Gene said. “Not top of the line or nothing, but I think for a mattress inside a bus, they work.”

“They work, alright. I’d have believed it was a Sealy,” I said. “I didn’t mean to sleep so much. There was no trouble on the road?”

“Nothing, really. We knocked four-hundred plus miles out in eight hours. Not too shabby.”

“Not too shabby at all.”

“We limit stops like this, who knows, we could be at the border in twenty-two hours,” Gene said. “I have some empty jugs on board. Offered them to people. Figured we could have avoided this whole stop, if you know what I mean? Yeah, no one was real comfortable with using them.”

“I think an occasional bathroom stop isn’t asking too much,” I said. No way was I peeing in a jug on a bus full of people. Be one thing if there was a bathroom inside the bus, like on the tour buses, but there was nothing like that on this one.

Melissa came out of the men’s room, and Megan went in. When Michelle came out of the women’s room, Kia went in. I didn’t realize how badly I needed to urinate until I knew I wasn’t even next. Gene and Charlene were ahead of me. I bounced my weight from foot to foot, and was a movement away from covering my crotch and crossing my legs at the ankles.

To distract myself, I looked around. I knew Dave and Andy were outside watching the place. The idea of just being inside a store like this made me a little apprehensive. We were all well-armed.

“Still a few supplies we could scrounge up from here before we get rolling,” I said. The shelves were mostly picked bare. “Anything edible that isn’t open we should take. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“I agree with that,” Gene said.

Once pee breaks ended, we walked back to the bus as a group. We each carried a hand basket filled with whatever else was left on the store shelves. There were a few tins of sardines, motor oil, baby wipes, plastic ware, and toothpaste, a jar of green olives, magazines, and boxes and boxes of Wheat Thins.

“Let me go quick,” Andy said. He seemed nearly as impatient as I had been, like he felt his eyeballs about to float inside his skull if he didn’t drain his bladder.

“I better, too,” Dave said.

I climbed onto the bus, and got behind the wheel. “Everyone on,” I said. I watched Dave and Andy cut across the parking lot to the mini-mart. The others took seats behind me.

“I’m gonna get some rest,” Gene said. Melissa agreed, suggesting they’d share a bed.

I missed Allison.

Looking around, yet again, I let out a sigh. I’d been waiting for the worst. Expecting the worst, but nothing had happened. The entire ten minute stop was uneventful, and that, for the first time in a long time, felt encouraging.

“Notice the difference in temperature,” Charlene said. She sat in the closest seat across from me.

“It sure is considerably warmer, isn’t it?”

“Ah, yeah, like twenty degrees, almost.”

“It’s about fifty-five out,” Kia said. She was in the seat behind Charlene. “I’m from Atlanta, originally. Winters were great. The fall and spring, too, but summer was brutal. The humidity alone was relentless. I’m probably the only black woman to move north for a chance at escaping the heat.” She tossed her head back a little and laughed.