I negotiated around apartment buildings and what was now boarded-up businesses. It took me about an hour to get out of town. I had reached the outskirts of the city limits and was entering wooded territory. Once the chances of running into anybody had dropped, I pulled out my AR15, charged a round, and slung the strap over my shoulder. The rain had not let up and was still coming down pretty good. I decided to stay with the highways and move along the wood lines that ran perpendicular to the roadways, staying hidden among the trees and using them as cover. This would keep me out of town as much as possible.
Shortly, the sun started to come up, but with the rain, it stayed gray out. Once I could really start to see, I would be able to move a little easier and, subsequently, faster.
There were cars everywhere, stalled out all along the roadway. I needed to be careful. Cars stalled in the roadway, could also be used as ambush spots for people looking to attack travelers. The abandoned cars sat at all different angles, left to rust where they sat. It was the beginning of the third week into this thing, so the drivers had already left, looking for some shelter or a way to get home.
After a couple of hours, the rain stopped, and the sun finally started to shine. I had been on the road now for about three hours, so I decided that it was a good time to take a break. I looked around the wood line for a decent-sized tree. Although it had been raining, the ground under a big tree would be fairly dry.
I was able to find a large pine tree, with an abundance of soft, brown pine needles under it. I dropped my pack, dug out my army canteen, and took a couple of long pulls. The sun was out strong now, so I decided to also dig out my sunglasses, which I had in a pouch strapped to the outside of my pack. I would get hot and sweaty as it was, but the rain suit would have made things worse, so I took it off and repacked it in my ruck. I was starting to feel hungry, but I really needed to watch my food consumption, so eating now was out. I also decided to change my clothes. I took off the civilian clothes I had on and changed into 5.11 real tree camo pants and shirt. I folded my civilian clothes and placed them into a waterproof bag and put them into my ruck. The real tree camos would be my primary clothing for the rest of this trip.
The birds were out now, singing to anyone or anything that would listen, oblivious to the new world. I sat and listened to them sing, relaxing for a few minutes under the tree.
After about a twenty-minute break, I repacked my canteen and shrugged my pack back on. The humidity had started to get thick after the sun started to dry up the rain. As I walked, my mind started to wonder, and I started to think about things. I thought about my parents, and how now, after the fact, I was happy that they weren’t around anymore. They would have never been able to survive something like this. My mom, June, was a great woman with a heart of gold, but she was never able to understand the evil that the human species was able to inflict on each other. She would not have understood the need to defend herself, and what people would have done to take what she had. Dad, his name was Bob, just never believed something like this could happen. When he passed away, he still had the farm I grew up on. I had talked to him several times about using the space and the land he had to store and grow food that he would need to survive something like this. But he just never took the initiative to do it. For their sake, I was glad they were gone.
My sister, Cari, had died in a car accident about a year after my parents had passed. She bought herself a scooter and was on her way to work when somebody in a Dodge truck, who wasn’t paying attention, ran into her. The driver of the truck had been doing about seventy miles an hour when he hit her. The doctors said she had died instantly, so she didn’t suffer.
I never really felt alone. Even though my immediate family was gone, I still had family left. The only family I really had now were my best friends Josh, Mike, and their families. I met both of them when I worked with the sheriff’s department.
Indiana, Pennsylvania, is roughly located in the center of Indiana County and can be found just east of Pittsburgh. In 2013, Indiana became part of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area and established itself as the “Christmas Tree Capital of the World.” The National Christmas Tree Growers Association was founded there, and a large number of Christmas tree farms can still be found in the area. Until this event took place, Indian University of PA was located there and was the largest employer in the area.
For years, the biggest industry in the area was coal mining, but mines began to close, creating an ongoing economic difficulty.
Indiana was also the hometown of veteran and actor, Jimmy Stewart. Although he left the town right after high school, the town had continued to support his career. A museum was built in his memory shortly before his death, and a bronze statue of Stewart could be found at the county courthouse.
Josh, Mike, and I were all deputies and had worked together on the SWAT team. We had all spent a lot of time together. We worked together all day and then hung out at night and on weekends. We watched out for each other at work and also had each other’s backs out of work. I had gotten so close to these guys over the years that I looked at them like brothers.
In 2006, I decided I wanted more out of my career and wanted to try working in a place that saw constant action. I heard that a department in Maryland was hiring experienced police officers, so I applied and got the job. The rest, as they say, is history.
As I walked, I continued to think about Josh and Mike and soon lost all track of time. When I finally came back to the present, I realized that the sun was starting its downward arc. I wasn’t sure how far I had traveled, but it would be night soon. I figured I was somewhere along Route 95, maybe five or six miles from Laurel. I walked off into the woods and looked for a place to set up a camp. I did a recon of the area and found a small cluster of pines several yards from the roadway that would be a good site for a camp. It was about fifty yards from a small stream that I could use as a water source and provided some cover for light discipline.
I dropped my pack and got out my canteen. I took a long drag on the water and finished off the two-quart canteen. I opened my pack and took out my cloth tarp that I used for my shelter. It was a ten-by-ten camouflage nylon tarp that worked great. I used five fifty cord to set it up in a quick and easy lean-to style shelter that would protect me from the rain if it started to come down again, but I expected it to be nice out, as I saw no clouds in the sky.
I then used a small gardening trowel to dig a Dakota firepit. A Dakota firepit consisted of two holes connected by a tunnel. You built a fire in one of the holes and fed the fire with wood pushed through the other hole. It allegedly kept the light and smoke created by the fire to a minimum, which would limit the possibility of being seen.
I gathered some wood and kindling and fed it into the pit. I had a ferrocerium rod, also called a fire steel, but I decided to just use a lighter. I didn’t need a large fire for heat; I just needed something to boil some water and heat up dinner. As soon as those tasks were done, I would be putting the fire out. It was now the end of March and was averaging sixty-five to seventy degrees out at night, so I wouldn’t need a fire, but I would use my sleeping bag.
I walked down to the stream and got some water in a waterproof bag I used as a water bucket. It held about five quarts of water, which I carried back to my camp. I got out my Klean Kanteen and emptied the water from it, into the two-quart plastic army canteen. I then filled the Klean Kanteen with water from the stream and brought it to a boil. Once it cooled, I put the lid back on it and repacked it into my pack. Any water I was drinking tonight would be boiled and drank with some single-cup coffee packs I had in my food container.
Finally, I took a stainless-steel pot that I carried and put some water into it, also bringing it to a boil. Once it started to boil, I emptied half of a Mountain House spaghetti meal into it, letting it set for a couple of minutes. Once it was ready, I leaned back against my pack and ate dinner. Once I was done, I cleaned my pot and fork, put them away, and leaned back with my cup of coffee. The air was cooling down, and the temperature was getting nice. The birds were still singing, and I could hear small critters