A Step Of Faith Part 46

The Twinkie actually looked good. As I tore back the cellophane wrapper, he stooped down into a cupboard and brought out a large jug filled with a clear liquid.

"You drink?" he asked.

"On occasion," I said.

"I've got a still out back, makes some of the best rotgut in these parts. Pour you a swig?"

"Sure," I said. I had always wondered what moons.h.i.+ne tasted like.

He poured the two cups halfway. He took a short drink, then looked at me, waiting for me to follow. Ignoring the smell, I took a drink. It was like swallowing rubbing alcohol and burned my throat. I gagged, then coughed loudly, which made Dustin laugh.

"Got a little kick to it," he said.

"Shotguns have less kick," I said. "Are you sure that's not turpentine?"

My question pleased him. "Oh it's moons.h.i.+ne all right," he said. "Made from corn mash. Distilled it myself. Not for the faint of heart."

"I guess I'm fainter of heart than I realized." I tried a little more, but it wasn't for me. With a condescending look he reached across the table and took my cup and downed it. He didn't cough, but his face turned red.

"It's an acquired taste," I said.

"Not for the faint of heart," he said again. A minute later he asked, "Why are you walkin'? You're not runnin' from the law, are you?"

"With all the guns you have around here, do you think I'd tell you if I was?"

He laughed. "Not if you're smart."

"No, I didn't do anything criminal. I started walking because my wife died."

His countenance immediately changed. "I'm sorry. How'd you lose her?"

"She was in a horse-riding accident. She broke her back."

He shook his head empathetically, then breathed out slowly. "I lost my wife too," he said.

"Is that her over there?" I said, pointing to the pictures on the console.

He nodded. "That's Janean." He looked down at his drink, then lifted it and took another swig. "You know what Janean means? It means 'G.o.d is gracious.' " His eyes moistened and I could tell that the moons.h.i.+ne was taking effect. "He was gracious with her, at least. She was everythin' a man could want."

"How did you lose her?"

"Wasn't a horse," he said. "A horse's a.s.s, maybe." He sighed. "I dunno."

"You're divorced?"

"Not that I know of. I mean, who's going to serve me papers out here? They'd never be found again. Not that it matters. She's been gone for two and a half years."

"What happened?"

He took another drink before answering. "She didn't want the life out here. It's ironic, you know. I built this place to protect her from the world and keep her safe, and I lost her because of it. She said she was sick of living holed up like a badger. She said she was sick of livin' paranoid and if the world was goin' to end then she wanted to end with it, not go out fightin' it. She poisoned the kids against me." His demeanor turned angry. "I built this place for their good. When the world goes to h.e.l.l, they'll be back." He nodded as if a.s.suring himself. "They'll be back. They'll see I was right."

"What if it doesn't go to h.e.l.l?" I asked.

"It will. It's just a matter of time before the whole house of cards comes fallin' down. This country's been movin' in the wrong direction a long time. It's just a matter of time."

"And if you're right, then what?"

"I'll be ready. It will take an entire army to get me out of here. I can blow the bridges on the way in. I've got an a.r.s.enal Bin Laden would've envied. I've got AK-47s, M-16s, shotguns, knives, machetes, dynamite, even a thousand gallons of gasoline under the house. You know what I've got? This will blow your mind. I've got a flame-thrower."

"Where'd you get a flame-thrower?"

"I made it myself from a book I found on the Web. Shoots a fifty-foot flame. I've also got MREs, and a five-thousand-gallon water tank filled by my own well."

"How do you think it will go down?" I asked. "... In the end."

"I don't know. I've thought through a couple dozen scenarios. You've got your world government, you've got terrorist groups with nuclear and chemical weapons, or, worse yet, EMPs. Do you know what EMPs are?"

"Electromagnetic pulse," I said.

"Do you realize how easily someone could take us out with an EMP? One EMP blast could fry all of the computers and wires within a thousand miles. Shut down entire cities, all commerce, all refrigeration, all transportation, all communication, all hospital machinery. Hundreds of thousands of people would die the first week.

"Then you've got your pandemics. Do you know how many people were killed by the Black Death? Half of Europe. And that was back when the world was isolated. Today a pandemic would kill more than three billion people. I know it sounds like movie stuff, but a couple years ago there was a super virus discovered in Israel. If it had gotten out of quarantine, they estimate it would have been worse than the Black Death. We're that kid with his finger in the dike, you know. It's just a matter of time before it goes."

I poured myself a little of the moons.h.i.+ne and this time forced it down without gagging.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"You probably don't want to know," I said.

"Try me," he said in a low voice.

I wiped my mouth, then looked up at Dustin. "I think if terrorists blow up our largest cities with nuclear weapons, we lose all power and a pandemic ravages what's left of the world while roving gangs prey off the weak, I'd just as soon not stick around for it. What's the worst thing that could happen to us? We die? We're all going to die."

"It's not just about you," Dustin said. "You could lose your loved ones."

I looked at him for a moment, then said, "Like you already did?"

He just stared at me for a moment, then, grabbing the jug, got up and went into the other room.

Stupid thing to say, I thought.

When I decided he wasn't coming back, I got up and went out to the Winnebago. I felt bad that I'd offended my host. He'd been kind to take me in. Still I locked the door and got my gun out. I didn't know what kind of a drinker Dustin was, and with the a.r.s.enal he had at his disposal, I feared him more than anything else in the swamp.

CHAPTER Thirty-six

Why did the man cross America? To see what was on the other side of himself.