Apocalypsis 01 - Kahayatle

  “I’ll go open da back.”
    “Grenades, Bodo,” corrected Peter, absently, still focused on the SUV’s cargo area.
    A couple seconds later the back of the SUV opened and Bodo’s eager face appeared.   He pulled the blanket the rest of the way off of the black, heavy plastic case and slid the whole thing over to the edge of the tailgate, his eyes scanning the contents left and right, up and down.   “Dis iss amazing.   Dare’s, like, sixteen grenades in here.”
    “I think there’s more underneath.   It’s like two layers of them in foam.”
    “I wonder why the person didn’t take them when they left the car,” I said.
    “Who knows?” said Peter.   “Maybe they got killed.   Maybe they’re coming back soon.   We have no idea when this car was left here - it could have been earlier today.”
    I backed away from the car and went over to our food.   “I vote we eat and get the hell out of here.”   I pulled a lighter from the side pocket of my backpack and lit the camp stove, adjusting the dial on the fuel tank to make the flame high enough to boil the small amount of water we were using for the noodles.   I put the noodles in the water while it was still cold, allowing them to get softer more quickly.   They ended up being a little starchier this way but I didn’t care.   Maybe it’ll help the sauce stick to the pasta better.   I was purposely focusing on the meal instead of freaking out about the real, live grenades that were just five feet away from me.
    Bodo came back over to the trailer, carrying the heavy-looking case.  
    “What are you doing with that thing?” I asked.
    “Putting it on da trailer, of course.”
    “Do you really think we should take it?” I asked, looking from Bodo to Peter.
    “If we leave them, they could be used against us some day.   I agree with Bodo here.   We need to bring them with us, even if we’re just going to bury them somewhere.”
    “Bury dem?   No way, don’t be crazy like dat.   We can use dese in case anyone comes to our new place.   You said it yourself.   Da canners can go get da military stuff.   Now we have some military stuff.   It’s perfect.   Don’t worry, it’s not a problem, I’ll make room.   I’m very good with organizing thingks.”
    I shook my head.   Boys and their war toys.   It reminded me about reading George’s journal.   I made a mental note to get it out the next time the sun came up and we were stopped, so I could start getting a grasp on what type of situation we might find ourselves in.   Maybe some old war veteran would have something to say about using grenades and defending ourselves against a crazed enemy.
    ***
    We ate our pasta dinner and got back on the road, traveling for a full six hours before finally stopping to sleep.   We were nearly to our destination, the changing landscape around us becoming more lush and wet.   Off in the distance we could see what looked like small bodies of water, and fewer instances of towns, at least on the west side of the highway.
    I pulled George’s journal out of my backpack while Bodo walked around putting the tarps down and over our things.   Peter was busy playing with Buster and laughing at his antics.   Bodo and I had an unspoken agreement between us that we did the heavy lifting and manual labor - Peter was still way too skinny for my liking and tired easier than we did.   He’d been really cool, trying to keep up, not wanting to slow us down.   We did what we could to make our breaks more comfortable for him.
    I turned the pages of the journal randomly, noticing George’s careful script that never seemed to falter or become sloppy like mine always did when I wrote for longer than five minutes at a time.   My fingers had always been much more comfortable on a keyboard.  
    He hadn’t organized the book in any particular order.   It seemed as if he’d done the work over a period of time, writing things down as they came to mind.   In one section he talked about his friends - who he was serving with in the army; in another he discussed the process they used to dig latrines - bathrooms, I guess.
    I read aloud so Bodo and Peter would be able to comment when I was done.  
    “It is important to remember that attack can come from any side.   A smart enemy will approach from the place you are least likely to expect; this means, it could even come from your own friendly territory.   For this reason, it is important to shore up defenses