Shatto's Way by Chandler Roy F

Author:Chandler, Roy F. [Chandler, Roy F.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Katherine R. Chandler
Published: 2013-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

For this special night the meeting fire had been started early and allowed to build a thick bed of hot coals.

The close-in hardwoods had long been stripped of easily gathered wood, and chopping and splitting enough to have a real rip roarer of a blaze wasn't so simple.

The ax men cussed a lot as they hacked away, everyone reminding the others of how easy it had been when they had gas and they just fired up a chain saw and laid by cords at a time.

Still, this promised to be a special occasion and weak and worn though they were, at least they could offer a comforting fire.

They all needed comforting. The terrible storm that had come out of the south had just about done them in.

The last such hurricane had been back in 1972. This one they believed was considerably worse and this time there had been no early warnings. Heartbeat Radio had announced it just about the time it arrived. If Toby hadn't given them a radio they wouldn't have had any warning, not that they could make many preparations, but at least no one got caught living on low ground.

How it had gone over on the rivers no one chose to investigate, but Cocolamus Creek went so far over its banks that it looked like the Juniata in spring. Worst was the washing out of their fields. Already half rotted and soured by the soggiest spring any could remember, the monumental deluge flooded out most of what was left and killed off any lingering hopes that they'd raise enough from their planting to see everybody through the next winter.

Tonight they had a new hope because Toby Shatto was coming over to discuss what he and Chop had been working out before the storm knocked everything to hell.

Whenever he came, Toby always brought along something neighborly. The glowing coal bed was in anticipation of his arrival. Men and women alike fairly licked their chops and their slack bellies rumbled in at least equal excitement.

If they had been so inclined they could have wondered at the changes nine months had made. That time ago they had been safe in solid homes with full cellars and useful cars in the yards. Stores bulged, bank statements balanced, and their televisions told them how secure they were.

Now they had been torn from their land and forced to band together to avoid being robbed of what little they still possessed. Vandals plundered the countryside like raiding Shawnee and they did not even have a fort to crawl into.

Where had the Army, National Guard, and the State Police all gone to? They had learned the answers over the months. Without fuel, and offered only valueless currency, the men had begun filtering away. Officers as well as enlistees went home to tend their families. Armories were plundered and mobs became truly dangerous even to the remaining military. The martial law declarations broke down when trucks and tanks could not roll. Fire departments sat idle

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