Ozark Retreat by Jerry D. Young Page B

trucks. Moving goods.”
    “Oh. You know, I read somewhere that there is only a three-day supply of food in most grocery stores. They depend on regular deliveries just to stay open.”
    “True,” Brady said. “Sad state of affairs.” The snow was getting heavier. Brady turned on the wipers. “Way too many people are dependent on those deliveries for their next meal.”
    “I suppose so. Since I read that I’ve often wondered what I would do if the trucks stopped running for some reason. Like a strike or something. Since I travel so much I don’t keep much in the apartment. I eat out a lot and over at Daddy’s the rest of the time.”
    “I used to be that way. The eating out part.”
    “But you’re not now? Are you a survivalist?” Brady noted that she didn’t use the term as a derogative one.
    “Well… a prepper. To a degree,” Brady responded, not willing to say much more than that, on general principles.
    “I guess the term Survivalist has a lot of bad connotations now, doesn’t it? Prepper sounds better.”
    “You’ve got that right. How about you?” Brady asked, taking a quick look at her and then getting his eyes back on the road. “You said you wonder about a truck strike. Have you been stocking up on food since then?”
    Star sighed. “No. More of a do as I say, not as I do, person.”
    Brady didn’t respond. He was concentrating on driving in the blowing snow and heavy traffic. Most of the big rigs had slowed down and were stacked up in the right lane. Many drivers were taking advantage of that, passing long strings of them at high speed. Brady matched his pace with the trucks and eased over into the right lane.
    The wind was coming from the north and several of the semis were having trouble keeping their trucks in the right hand lane. A Ford Excursion blew past Brady on the left, but had to swerve to avoid being sideswiped.
    The driver lost it and the Excursion went into the median at high speed, flipping over twice, winding up on its roof. Like all the big rigs within sight of the accident, Brady pulled over and jumped out of the Suburban, telling Star to use the OnStar button to get help. He had to jerk back to avoid another car traveling at high speed. When the way was clear he ran over to join the group of truck drivers at the Excursion.
    A couple of them had fire extinguishers at the ready, with the others trying to get the doors open. Brady heard a siren in the distance. Since the others seemed to have the situation in hand and the authorities were on the way, Brady stepped back, still ready to lend a hand if needed.
    One of the drivers had a window punch and starred the wind shield more than it already was. Two more stepped in and cleaned the glass out with gloved hands. Brady ran back to the Suburban and got a couple of blankets out of the back and took them back to the wreck.
    The front seat passenger was being eased out of the vehicle when Brady got back. He spread out one of the blankets and the woman was placed on it. While the truck driver that had stabilized her head during the removal continued to keep her spine aligned, Brady wrapped her with the rest of the blanket. She had no obvious signs of injury, but she was out cold.
    He laid out the other blanket, but those trying to get the other passengers were having difficulty. A State Trooper showed up and after evaluating the scene had everyone back away from the Excursion, except for the two fire extinguisher wielders. He brought another extinguisher from his trunk and handed it to another trucker to monitor the situation
    “A rescue truck and two ambulances are on the way,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any serious bleeding or lack of breathing, so we will wait for them.”
    Brady hung around until the other emergency services arrived and then picked up the blanket that wasn’t being used and went back to the Suburban. He stowed the blanket and got into the driver’s seat.
    “How are they?” Star