Taking It Back by Joseph Talluto Page A

blame you. He figures they made a dumb mistake by not clearing the room first. But the incident gave his crew some fire in their bellies and they have cleared the area with a vengeance. They want to push back the trench, but Tommy wouldn’t let them have the ‘dozer.
    “John Reef and Dean Cotton have teamed up and they have been playing with water wheels and pumps, and think they might be able to get us running water by the end of the week.”
    That was news I hadn’t expected, but it was welcome nonetheless.
    Nate continued. “Mark Wells is looking over our electrical situation, but hasn’t figured out any solution yet. He’s looking at water wheels too, but no luck.
    I ruminated for a second. “Maybe we could do solar, or set up some windmills.” I said, pointing to the highway overpass. “We could set up as many panels as we wanted up there and run the lines down to the houses.”
    Nate looked up. “I’ll ask him about it. Good idea.” He looked back at me. “Who’s watching the kids? If you and Sarah are going and Charlie and Rebecca are going, who’s watching Jake and Julia?”
    “They’re coming with” I said, anticipating Nate’s reaction.
    Nate responded just as I thought. “Are you nuts?” he yelled. “You’re heading to a dangerous situation and you’re bringing your babies?”
    “What can we do?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
    Nate shook his big head. “No way. Jake and Julia will stay with me and Patty.”
    “Patty?” I asked. “Who’s that?”
    Nate blushed. I never thought I would see the day. With reddened cheeks he said, “She’s a survivor we found about a week after you left last winter. She’s a pediatric nurse, so they’ll be as well taken care of as possible.”
    I laughed. “I’ll think about it. Now get gone so I can get ready.”
    Nate looked at me. “You don’t have to go, you know. You can send others.”
    It was my turn to shake my head. “I used to be an administrator. That was what I did. After the Upheaval I became a survivor, trying to help others survive. This is what I do.”
    Nate nodded and got back into his truck. He headed off to the school and I went into the house to get everything ready.
    Sarah was packing backpacks and making sure we had everything we needed. I figured the whole trip should take no longer than five days, but we needed to be ready for at least seven. Stuff we weren’t going to carry was already on the boat and we just needed to get moving.
    Jake was playing on the floor with a tool bench toy and was managing to get himself stuck every few minutes. He’d fuss and we’d free him, then he’d do it again. It was a welcome bit of normalcy. I had been getting increasingly concerned Jake was going to be adversely affected by all that has happened. But he managed to stay his happy self, and was getting bigger all the time. He was taking tentative steps more and more lately and I was sure as soon as he had his sea legs he was going to be moving all over the place.
    I took out my SIG and laid it on the table. Sarah took out her Ruger and handed it over without a word. I quickly field stripped both weapons and gave them a once over with the cleaning kit. I regularly cleaned my weapons anyway, but it never hurt to run a patch through and check the actions for debris or residue. I reassembled the weapons, cursing the Ruger engineers yet again, then reloaded them and chambered a round in each before holstering my own and giving Sarah hers back. It was a testimony to the world we lived in that it never occurred to me that this was somewhat out of the norm once upon a time. I cleaned her .22 rifle and my M1A. I figured I might need the heavier firepower. I was bringing an additional AR-15 as well, which was already on the boat, so Charlie and Tommy and I could share ammo.
    Sarah finished packing and handed me mine. I helped her with hers and we grabbed up Jake. Sarah looked at me. “Are we taking Jake with us?”
    I thought about it