Reboot

We had no specific rules concerning admission and Rourke had made such a grand entrance that there was no discussion, he was allowed to participate immediately. We did test his car to see if it was within allowed technical specs though, and it was. We made room for him and his team and now we had seven cars. What can I say, the man had panache and he was well liked.

We had a pre-race dinner together. All four of us. William turned out to be quite the chef. He’d put together a three course dinner for us that was very impressive.

- Cabbage steaks with apple, goat’s cheese and nuts

- Butter nut chili

- And wild mushroom and chestnut cottage pie.

He’d even made bread.

“Wow. William. Who knew… Maybe we’ll keep you around after all,” said Dutch

We all just ooooe’d and aaaaaae’d for a bit.. It was pretty funny to see William all proud of his table. This gigantic soldier melting cheese and stirring the sauce, worried about clumps.

The table was set up nicely too. We were at his house, or anyway, the one he’d chosen to borrow while we were here. Most houses were in terrible condition. Their owners had left with everything they owned and later on they’d been ransacked. Rodents and bugs then took over. So in order to actually sleep in such a place, you had to empty it, and clean it thoroughly, and then refurnish it as best you could. William had wandered around and looked for things to decorate it with. He’d put in a lemon tree next to the dining table, We all used methanol as fuel to cook our food. So he’d fixed all that in his kitchen. And he’d replaced the bed with a mattress he’d made himself with leftover clothes and anything soft he could get his hands on. Mattresses were a luxury now. If you had time and access to a lot of sheep, you could make a serious mattress out of wool, but no. Most people made “nests” with various things found on hand. Old clothes, washed and torn into small pieces for example, put into layers with sheets between each layer. People got very creative with their mattresses.

“Where on earth did you get the lemon tree?” Asked Rourke.

“It was growing out of the living room floor in another house,” answered William with a smile, quite proud to show us around. I’d never seen him like this. He was like a little kid showing us his toys.

We finally sat down at the table and William brought out the cabbage steaks. We had apple juice for drinks. No booze before a race.

Dutch lifted his glass.

“To our drivers, may the best man stay alive.”

“Heeyy, it won’t be like that. It’s just for fun, right Rourke?”

“Whatever you say. Just don’t get in my way.” He smiled at me.

“Ohoo, so that’s how it is. Well fine. We’ll just see.” We clinked.

“How about a bet William?

“Absolutely Dutch. What would you like to wager?”

“I’ll bet a tank of metho that our boy here……. Won’t finish the race.”

“WHAT?” I couldn’t believe it. “Dutch, you traitor.”

He laughed. “Ah don’t take it like that Robert. You’ll overstretch yourself. Try too hard. I know you. You’re stubborn.”

“Am not,” I said quietly.

“I’ll take that bet,” said William.

“Big mistake,” added Rourke smiling.

“Heeeyy..” I exclaimed. “And thank you William. You won’t regret it.” I hoped.

While we worked on destroying the chili, which was incredible, we talked about our eventual trip out East.

“What’s out there Rourke. You know more about it then the rest of us I think. We’ve never even been there. You must have had a look.”

“Yep. I did. Just a quickie. It’s not pretty, as you can imagine. Around here the main problems were disease, famine, so we don’t see any structural damage. But there, out there.. You’ll be going through a desert. Everything is gone. Bombs dropped everywhere. Some people live like animals, without rules, others hide or protect themselves as best they can. We sent out parties for hundreds of miles out there and we didn’t see anything worth salvaging. We met some people, and they told us what we know now. No animals, birds, nothing. We think that there were attempts made to stay civilized, but it didn’t last long. Now what you’ll see is the result of all that. I’m not sure what it’s going to be like but I’d expect ruthless leaders and angry people.”

“How do they survive?”

“The toughest and the meanest survived the war. The craftiest among them went on to rebuild. So now some of them, they’ve evolved into an organization of sorts. I suppose a bit like serfs and kings in the middle ages. The serfs are kept in line if they work. Some groups are rougher than others, but since you had to be tough to be boss, it makes sense that the hierarchy be based on the king of the hill type o thing. You’ll come across other groups too of course.. Some more civilized groups must have survived, but I didn’t see any.”

“Have you dealt with them directly?”

“No. I just took a look from afar. We also got secondhand reports so nothing definitive. The stories range from the reasonable to the disgusting.”

“Any examples?”

“Entire towns have been taken over. High disregard for life. Horrible living conditions, people fighting for scraps... However we also hear about places that are doing well, so.. You’ll see I suppose. I’ll be interested to hear about it. Can we have regular radio exchanges? Say once a week or so? I’ll want to plot your course, and possible be on hand if you need us.”

“Of course. Good. Thanks. Do they have cars?”

“I don’t see why not. Metho isn’t very complicated. Even gas isn’t that difficult really. Just need to find oil. But I’d think the cars are kept for the chosen few. The fuel would be made by the poor bastards at the bottom of the trough.”

“How do we communicate with these people?”

“Well we didn’t.”

“Why not?”

“They scared the hell out of us for one thing. Didn’t need the extra hassle frankly. They’re nuts. And distance.. It’s not easy to talk to them. Like I said, we just talked to a few wanderers. To make contact with an actual group would take a lot of effort.

“Do the different groups talk to each other?”

“I think so. They have a way of doing it but I don’t know what it is. A sort of truce for trading. From what we heard, they meet regularly somewhere under a flag of truce to barter and meet.”

“So there’s hope.”

“Not so sure. They only decided to do that after reaching a stalemate. They can’t steal from each other anymore, so when they really need or want something, they have a channel they go through. Like the old red phone.”

“How do we find them?”

Well, like us, they’ll hole up in various towns or even cities. They’ll have advanced warning systems, so they’ll see you before you see them. Keep that in mind.”

“I think we should have something to barter with and just go see what we can do.”

“Agreed.”

“And what to barter with?” asked Dutch.

“Maybe some don’t have cars yet. We have information. We can offer that.”

“Maybe. I think some will have cars and some won’t. In middle America, some of those people could drive before they learned to use the toilet. They certainly have guns too. More important than food for them. You’ll find them. Don’t worry about that. Just go. And be careful.

The starting gun would blast tomorrow, so we all went to bed early.