Original Work The Unwelcome Sign

I identified a spot on the uphill side of the chicane where I wanted to locate a foxhole/bunker sort of thing. I found a spot that had a large boulder, about four foot long by two feet high that would form part of the bulwark for the front of the bunker.

We took turns digging a hole behind the rock, on 'our' side of it, big enough for two persons to stand in it. The process consisteted of one person loosing the dirt with a pick, then another shoveling out what had been loosened up. The spill was thrown as close to the cars as possible. We rotated people through the picking and shoveling every ten minutes to give them a chance to recover.

Some of those that weren't working on the bunker took the spill from the hole and put it in the trunk and passenger compartment of the cars. Cars make poor ballistic protection. I didn't just want to stop vehicular traffic, I wanted a strong point that could be defended, and the defenders should have protection from incoming rounds.

The next step with this strongpoint, one we wouldn't get to today, would be to clear fields of fire in front of it and remove or minimze places for people to use as cover while attacking it. Eventually I hoped to have one of these further up the hill to have some defense in depth. But that would depend on a number of factors.

I caught Stan's eye, made sure he saw me deliberately look at the whole crew, mimed taking a drink from a bottle, and motioned to him with my chin.

“OK everyone, lets take five and get a drink of water” Stan lead the way, taking a big slug from his water bottle and then pouring some on his head. He moved among the crew talking with them, sharing a joke or two.

“Hey Daniels, Will, can I talk to you two for a moment?” They looked at each other and then shot me a worried look. “Nah, it's cool, I've got a project for you two.” The relief was evident in their body language. They hadn't known me for much more than twenty four hours and a big part of what they knew was me shooting a man in eye.

The Soviets found that fear is the strongest motivator, but I didn't want to be feared, I wanted to be respected. That would come soon enough I guess.

“Ok, here's my idea. I would like you to pull the horns and headlamps from those cars. You're going to need a bunch of the wiring harness and some switches. Get it now, because I want the engine compartments filled with dirt too.
Seperate and splice together the wire until you have four strands as long as you can make them. A hundred feet would be great.”
I checked to make sure they were tracking. Both were paying attention, but hadn't figured out where I was headed yet.
“Here's what I'm looking for. I want whoever's in the bunker to be able to sound an alarm. The car horn will be loud enough to be heard through out the neighborhood.”
Daniel interupted. “Why so much wire? We'll only need a few feet to put the horn outside of the bunker so it doesn't make them deaf”
“So the horn doesn't give away their position, right Zed?” Willford had worked it out.
“You got it in one. I'll let you work out the placement, but up hill and in front of the position probably makes the most sense”
“You want the headlights the same? Away from the bunker?” Daniels showing that he could keep up.
“Yes, but I want them mounted low, on the ground, either in a hole or behind something, and aimed up.”
This had them both scratching their heads.
“It protects the lights. We'll mount reflectors above them to direct the light where we want.”
“Smart! That way the lights can't be shot out. But won't the mirrors get shot instead?”
“They would, if we used mirrors. I said reflectors. I have a couple of rolls of steel flashing. We'll make frames to attach it to. The metal can take a bunch of bullet holes and still keep reflecting.”
The boys were getting sparked up at the idea of this project. It's coolness factor was several levels above shifting dirt.
“If we make the frame curved, like a parabola, it would act like a lens and focus the light it's reflecting!” Will enthused.
“I figured you two would get behind this.” I smiled at them both. “We'll want to do something similar at Jacob's house also. And if you can think of anything else, please, run it by me.”
“What about power?”
“I'm hoping there's something left in one or both of the batteries in the cars. If not, we'll have to scavenge. I have a 12volt trickle charger that we can set up at Jacob's. If we had two reasonably good batteries we can rotate them.
You two have enough to go on, ready to proceed?”
They both nodded and I turned to leave. Daniels stopped me.
“Umm..Zed?”
I turned back to face them. “What's up?”
“Umm... yesterday you were talking about trading thing for stuff we need or want, right?”
“That's right”
“Does that go for other stuff, other things besides our labor?”
“Well, sure. Trading is just a matter of two parties having things the other want. Well, it can get more complicated than that, but anyway, what did you have in mind?”
“Well, uh..I have something to show you. Something I think will be useful. I'd rather bring it by and show it to you. Would that be OK?”
“Absolutly. Whenever you want. You know where to find me.”
“Great. Probably tonight then.”
“Cool. I gotta go check on the other folks, so I'll talk to you later.”
We bumped fist to fist and fist to chest and I turned to head back to Jacob's house.

 

The chicane well in hand, I left Stan to keep the crew working. I walked back down to Jacob's house and went inside. I found Doc and the nurses had made serious progress on the treatment room. There were neat piles in the living room of the things that had been in the office, mainly books, but also a desk and a drawing table.
I poked my head into the treatment room but no one was there. The room was spotless, scrubbed thoroughly. An examination table dominated the center of the room. The shelves had only a few items on them. I guess I caught them in the moving phase of the process.
Heading over to Doc's place I found the three of them loading up his truck with supplies. They were almost done, but I pitched in to speed the process. Unloading at Jacob's went smoothly and soon everything was in it's place.

“Looks like you are ready for business Doc”
“It's good to have a dedicated place set up, and one with electricity. I'm going to miss diagnostic machines, and this place is small, I hope we don't have to treat more than one person at a time.”
“Me too Doc, me too. If you are, things are bad.”
Denise added, “We don't have much in the way of meds either.”
I told them about the Johnsons and my plan to ask them to move to the neighborhood. “Having access to their stock of medication would be a blessing.”
“Still, it'll run out at sometime.” Denise again. “It would be good if we could supliment with herbal remedies.”
“Wayne might be able to help.” I had to explain who he was, none of the three new him. “And I'd love if my friend Frank would show up. His wife's studied oriental healing arts like shiatsu and accupressure. She's helped me when a traditional doctor hasn't been able to. And I could sure use Frank's help”

The day was running away. I heard lots of voices outside. Looking, I saw it was the roadblock crew returning. My watch said five o'clock, they'd put in a full day. And they'd be looking to get paid.

I found Sadie in the kitchen. In her ususal efficient manner, she had packets of food for everyone.
“The workers are here. You ready?”
“Yes, Sweetie. I took a head count this morning and put together these packages.” She indicated the plastic shopping bags lined up on the counter.
“I gave them each three cups of rice, a cup of beans, a can of Spam and a cup of pasta.”
“Doesn't seem like a lot, for a day's hard work, does it?”
“Yeah, a couple of weeks ago that would have cost around five dollars. And while it doesn't seem like much, we can't keep this up for long before we go broke.”
“Understood. This is just a bridge. A stopgap until we can do something else. Anyway, those people are out there waiting. Ready?”

We picked up the bags, stringing our arms through the handles, and carried them outside. The crew quieted when we came out.
“I want to thank you for coming and helping us today.” we started handing out the bags. “I know it doesn't look like much, and it's nothing terribly exciting, but it's enough to feed one person for several days. Plus you got lunch. You're doing better than many people right now.
Realize the value of food has gone up tremendously. What you have there, you could have paid for in less than a hour. Now it cost eight. Also realize there are people, desperated people that will do bad things to take it from you, so be careful. If you tell people they will want some. Or all of it.”
“We understand, Mr. Zed. We know what happened yesterday. We'll watch.” others nodded agreement with his words. I'll have to make a point of learning his, and their names, something I terrible at.
He continued. “Will there be more work tomorrow?”
“Yes. You all did great today and I'd love to have more help tomorrow. Show up the same time and we'll do it all again.”
“Should we be building more road blocks? Further up? I'm on the wrong side of this one.” this, from another person I was unfamiliar with.
“Yes, absolutely. I need to look and identify a couple of good locations. And now that you've seen how it's done, it will go faster and you won't need my guidance.”
“Can you use more help?”
I thought before I answered. “Yes, a few more, as long as they are people you can recommend as good workers. Let's keep it to around another five or so, Ok?”
I got nodds and could tell they were thinking about who they would invite. They knew they had to be selective.
“Alright guys, once again, thanks! I'll see you all in the morning.”
The group dispersed and a few minutes later Mr. Charles arrived. We sat down to a nice dinner that included the things we'd harvested that morning. Sadie had diced the potatoes, sprinkled them with the herbs, and oven roasted them. They smelled heavenly and tasted even better. DAK ham slices compliment the potatoes perfectly.

 

More great chapters! Thanks. I enjoyed two of your website videos also..... With all the SHTF fiction out there, you were brilliant to choose an island locale. In all other fiction there are other places to go, more resources available etc, but with an island it is both a requirement to survive and build for the future as everything is severely limited, except human greed and viciousness. Great story!
GB

 

More reading to savor, I liked the idea of aluminum reflective lighting so they could not be shot out!

 

I got the idea from Rhodesia, where farmers came up with the idea. Not only does it save on bulbs, but the metal reflector still works even if it has bullet holes in it.

 

I went to your You-tube vid's and was very impressed with your Glock inspection video, obviously you must have gone to the Glock armors school . Your knowledge far exceeds mine, and I though mine was pretty good. I've put in a 3 1/2 Lb. connector in mine and a new slide release. I have a 9mm Bbl. for my Mod.22 for reloads and am a GSSF member.

 

Thanks!
Yeah, I've taken Glock's armorer class twice. Last time was last year at Glock in Smyrna. I took their instructor workshop while I was there also.
One of the things I really love about the Glock is it's simplicity. Only 28 parts and you can detail strip it in less than a minute with only a 5/32 punch.

 

How would like some free train travel, I just saw this and though of you -
Federally Subsidized Amtrak Offers 24 Writers Free Trips on '#AmtrakResidency Program'
8:01 AM, Mar 10, 2014 • By DANIEL HALPER

 

Back in the 1960's when we were 'prepping' and such it was discovered that box games were worth our attention because there are times when relief is needed, a distraction from reality, and if it aids the cause, like say; chess, then all the better…and they can be found cheaply in thrift stores. (I have also observed that prisoners make use of this same device to keep their minds working.)

 

Pushing back from the table, I stretched my legs out straight and laid back in my chair.
“You have that report for me, Mr. Charles?”
“Well, I've got the beginnings of one. I did some rough figuring, there were six, one hundred feet long rows of potatoes. There should be between one and two thousand pounds of spuds in the ground there. Based on what I saw, they are ready for harvesting. Or we could keep mounding and let them continue to grow.”
“What's your suggestion?”
“Both Zed. We need food now. But we should keep some going for later down the road”
“Makes sense. And it's only a matter of time before someone else figures out they are there. What else you have for me?”
“ There's two acres of useable land, more or less, mostly in weeds. I have enough seed to plant most if not all of it. We need to be careful to save seeds from our food from now on.”
“What'll it take to get them in the ground?”
“How many people can I have?” He answered my question with one of his own.
“Half a dozen? Maybe more.”
He considered a moment. “We could get the ground ready for planting in two or three days if you can get me that much help.”
“Which brings up the security issue. With that many people working on it, word's going to get out. It's just a matter of time before the garden gets raided. Anyone have any ideas?”
Stan kicked in, “We have to guard it, I guess.”
“Not too hard while someone is working it, but what about after hours?”
“We'll have to post a guard.”
“that's two, eight hour shifts. Each and every day.”
“If there was a house there, I'd just move in, then you'd have your guard and gardener all rolled into one.”
“That's an idea. Let me think on it. Now, once it's all planted, how long to harvest, and how many people will it feed?”
“A couple, three months, and a couple, three dozen”
I slumped down at his answer.
“Don't look at it as being able to feed people totally, look at it as a suplement to other sources. The potatoes are a Godsend. We'll plant most of the rest in corn.

I startled at the sound of Stan's dogs barking in the front yard, but quickly realized it was their friendly bark. I went to the door and found Daniels climbing the stairs to the porch. The sun was just setting, and I took a moment to enjoy the mother of pearl clouds.
“Where's your partner?”
“He'll be along in a while. Can I come in and show you something?”
“Sure, watcha got?”
“Check it.” He handed me a tablet. Like an iPad but one of the Android versions. Daniels reached past me and tapped the screen and there appeared a view of some bushes.
“What's this? Some video you recorded? What am I looking for?”
“Wait a second..”
The words were barely out of his mouth when the picture changed. The view point of the camera moved vertically. And kept moving up. Soon I was looking at the neighborhood. I recognized Jacob's house, and then the view moved up the road and I could see the road block that we worked on today.
“Wait..is this live? How are you doing this?

Daniels face was split with a proud grin. “Is this something you'd be interested in trading for?”

I turned my attention back to the screen in my hands. As I watched, the view changed, pivoting counter clockwise until I was looking at Jacob's house. The house grew in my view until I was looking at just the door. Daniels went to open it and I watched two views of the door opening, the real thing, and the one in my hand. As the door opened I could hear a high pitched whine.
The camera entered the house, and now I could see the device as it flew right up to me, Wilford, control in hand, right behind it.
The hexacopter flew up to me like it was looking me in the eye and then slowy flew all the way around my head.

“Cool!” was all I could manage, totally aware of the stupid grin on my face.
“Boys and their toys.” came from Sandy.
I looked at her and then everyone else. “This is very cool! One of the most critical things to be successful in anything is information. This will provide usefull information quickly and easily, and most importantly, safely.”
I turned to Daniels and Will, “What kind of range does it have? How long can it fly? How much can it carry? How hard is it to fly?”
They both laughed at my rapid fire questions. Daniel started answering them. “Well, let see...in order that you asked...quite a bit as long as there is line of sight, about half a mile, about ten minutes , up to three pounds, and pretty easy.”
“With the camera, does that mean you can fly it even if you can't see it?”
Wilford this time, “yes and no. It's radio controlled, so it pretty much has to be line of sight so the radio waves will reach it.”
He saw I was a bit disappointed by that. He hurried on, “But check it, it has GPS dude! It has return to launch point, so it will come home if it loses contact with the controler.”
I stopped him. “GPS? Is that still working?”
“Yeah man! We tried it out a couple of days ago and seemed to be able to interact with the satelites.”
I filed that piece of information away for an unrelated mater. Daniels picke up the thread. “So yeah, that's what's so cool about this, it's meant for aerial photography, so it has hover and stabilization ability. And you can enter GPS way points via a USB connector. You can tell it where to go and how long to stay in each location before it moves on.”
“So wait. We can program this to fly itself, go to various locations, and fly home, all by itself?”
They both nodded their heads pleased that I was pleased.
“And you want to trade this to me?” The mood shifted a bit and I could tell they weren't quite as happy as they were a moment ago. Daniel answered, “We know it's valuable, and we don't have much else to trade for what we want.”
“Just what is it that you are looking for?”
“Guns” came from Daniels. I looked at Wilford. “And for you to show us how to use them.”
“And this is” I gestured to the hexacopter, “is what you want to trade?”
“It's the only thing we have that is valuable enough that we thought you would take in trade. We figured guns would be really valuable now, things being the way they are.”
“So you're concerned about your safety, and want to be able to protect yourself, that about the size of it?”
“Yes, I love my hexacopter, but I can't fly it if I'm dead” Wilford told me.
“You think bad guys are going to be coming here?”
They both nodded.
“How many do you think there will be?”
Wilford shrugged his shoulders. Daniel said “Don't know. Thinking about it, probably a group.”
I felt like saying 'like yesterday', but manage to restrain myself. They were embarrassed enough, I didn't need to rub it in. They'd already made the connection their own selves.
“You two going to be able to hold of a gang of looters?”
“What choice do we have? At least a couple of guns would give us a chance. Are you saying you don't want to trade?” Daniel was getting a little angry.
“Take it easy. I am willing to trade. I'm just trying to walk you through the new reality. Cool?”
I looked them both square in the eyes, a look they both met and they both nodded and replied “Cool”.

 

Entertainment often gets overlooked as 'non-essential', which is not the case. Just like sleep, and for the same reasons, recreation is critical to physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Board and card games are very good, as are books. In many places you can find used paperbacks for free or almost so.
I just recieved a DVD with many thousands of kindle books on it.

I highly recommend some 'mindless' entertainment also. I can tell you, after all the preps are in place and the house is boarded up, the electric is off and your are waiting for the hurricane, or waiting for the hurricane to pass, it's really hard to concentrate. I love reading, and read a couple/three books a week, but I just can't concentrate under those circumstances.
One of those little DVD players and a couple of movies is just the ticket.
rechargable batteries and a solar charger will keep it running a long time.

I bought a 3 terabyte external hard drive and had a friend load it with programing. Everything from TV series to movies to documentaries. Thousands of hours of viewing. Once again, with a solar charger, you can watch a couple hours a day on your laptop.

This shouldn't take the place of box/board/card games, which not only entertain, but provoke camaraderie and human interaction, but suplement them.

 

“This drone is really amazing. It will be incredibly helpful. But it's not the only thing you have to trade.”
“We'll never be able to afford guns doing manual labor.”
“No, but labor isn't the only thing you have.”
“What else do we have that you want?”
“Trust and support.”
I gave them the eye contact thing again, to make sure we were tracking. “We're in the same boat. Big groups of looters are coming. Little pockets of two or three people aren't going to be enough. While defenders have a tactical advantage, we need more people. So what I'm saying is that I'm recruiting you. I'm willing to arm and train you if you give me your solomn promise to support us. To fight with us. And we will fight with you. Cool?”

“Hells yes!” Daniel looked at Wilford, and they both stood and extended their hands. We did the reverse grip handshake/chest bump/hug.

“First thing tomorrow we'll get you squared away. I have to go through my stuff to see what I have to kit you out. And we have to go straight into a basic training session. I've got lots of other things that need to be done, but having two more armed folks is high on the list of priorities so the others will have to carry on without us. So show up normal time tomorrow and we'll go from there.”

“So you don't want the hexacopter?” Wilford said as he bent to pick it up.
“I want the use of it. It needs an operator, that might as well be you. Probably a good idea to train a few other people in its use too.”

“Oh, by the way,” Daniels cut in, “We had to make some modifications to the horn and lights project for the bunker. Hope you don't mind, but some of what you wanted wasn't feasible the way you described, but we worked around it.”
“That's fine. That's why I asked you two to do it. I have limited knowledge of that sort of thing. I was fortunate to have your expertise. I didn't have the time to dick around with it myself. It would have been frustrating if it wasn't working because I was doing something wrong. I'm really glad to have the both of you. We can take a look at it tomorrow and you can show me what you rigged up.”
They were both beaming as we said our good byes and they headed home.

 

“Jacob.” I tried once more to get his attention. “Jacob.” He was staring across the room to where Denise, Fiona, and Doc were talking. He was staring so intently at Fiona that he didn't notice me walk up to him until I tapped him on the shoulder.
“Can we talk for a moment?”
Fiona turned from her conversation, looked at me, then Jacob. She smiled and gave him a smile and a wink, the effect of which was immediately apparent by the deep blush on his pale checks. He stammered a bit before he managed a reply.
“Sure Zed, what's up?”
Fiona chuckled to herself and then turned back to the conversation. The incident gave me a weird vibe. I noticed that Sadie had caught the interaction also. I'd get her take on it later. She's better at reading these things than I am.
I got my thoughts back on track. “Couple of things. We've kind of taken over your house. I appologize, I should have asked first. I ran roughshod here in my panic to get things done quickly.”
“It's cool Zed, really. I know things are messed up. I mean, look what I've gone through. It's not like I'm going to have a normal life, so it's cool.” He looked over at Fiona as he said the last.
“Well, it doesn't make it right. I'll do my best to include you next time. Speaking of which, I'd like to turn this house into a headquarters. It's in a good location, we're working on making it defensible, we've got a treatment room set up. I'd like to set up a command post in part of the main living area. Is that OK with you?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, why not? I want to help, I like having the people around.” Another peek at Fiona “and what else would the house get used for?”
“Thanks brother” I stuck my hand out for a fist bump which was returned with a grin. “I'd like to seperate out an area and set up an office where we can run the neighborhood.”
“Run the neighborhood?”
“Well, the part that wants to be included anyway. People need a cental place to come to. Whether its for defense, work, food, or anything else.”
“Like a government?”
Sharp kid. He saw where this was going.
“God I hope not.” I grinned at him. “I distrust govenment in general and would hate to think I had a part in starting one, but we do need some form of organization. If everyone is just doing his own thing without some sort of organization, it will become a mess. Somethings won't get done. Somethings will get done more than they need to be. There will be unecessary duplication of effort. We don't have the luxery of that kind of waste.”
“What do you mean 'dupication of effort'?
“Let's say everyone stayed to themselves. They would have to provide all their own needs. Food, water, security, education, all the things we need to get by. It's hard to provide for your security while you are working on getting food, or educating your kids. There's only so much you can do in a day.”
“So some people provide security so others are safe to get food and teach the kids?”
“Exactly. I admire Heinlein, but I hate his “specialization is for insects” quote. Specialization is what got us to the moon. Like anything, moderation is the key, and no one should be so specialized in one thing that they can't do other things. You familiar with special forces? Like Green Berets and the SEALs?
Jacob nodded his head.
Each team member specializes in something. It might be weapons, it might be medical care.”
“Or communications, demolitions, that sort of thing” Jacob finished for me.
Exactly. But despite the specialization, each person is cross trained in other areas. They may be really good at one thing, and the team depends on that, but they need to be able to pick up the slack in other areas as needed.”
“So you're going to turn us all into operators?” he grinned
“You've been watching too much History Channel” I grinned back. “No, but I do want to find out what people are good at and put that to the best use. But also make sure that they can do other necesary tasks.”
“What if they don't want to?
“We're not going to force anyone to do anything. But if they don't contribute, they won't get any of the things we offer, in return. I'm counting on people wanting what we have to offer and being willing to pay for it.”
“By working for us?”
“Unless they have something else we want to trade.”
“We've already seen people wanting what we have but not willing to trade. We're going to see more of that, aren't we?”
“Yup.”
“No wonder you look so worried” another grin. Kid's turning into a real wiseass. Which was fine. I could tell he meant it in a kind hearted way.
“Yup. I'm starting to feel a little bit better, the last couple of days. Things are starting to fall into place. But I need, we need more time. I wish I had a month where I knew we were safe. A month to get ready.”
“How much time do we have?”
“I have no idea. And that's what worries me most.”

 

“You said you have a couple of things to talk to me about?”
“Sorry, I was getting a little off track there, wasn't I? Occupational hazard of being a know-it-all.” He chuckled along good naturedly.
“I see you have two kayaks behind the house. They OK?”
“Sure. We haven't used them in a while, but they are fairly new and we never used them that much.”
“Are you good enough that you can can paddle over to the Brass Islands?”
“oh sure! Dad and I use to go over there all the time. You have to watch the current, but it's not too bad. What do you want over there?”
“Goats. I was thinking you and I could paddle over there and kill one or two and bring them back. You want to go?”
“Hell yes I do!”
I was a little surprised at his eagerness.
“You haven't hunted before, have you?” Knowing his mother, I thought I knew the answer. I was in for a surprise.
“Yeah. My granddad lived in Colorado. He was big into bow hunting. He took me with him a couple of times when I was younger. I did'nt do any of the killing, but I helped him dress out the deer. He even showed me how to butcher it.” the pride was evident, as was the joy the memories brought him.
“Well, I wasn't expecting that.”
“I know, because of the way my mom was. But my dad used to go hunting and fishing when he was growing up. He loved the outdoors. But all that stopped when he married my mom. Now they're gone, and I don't know if I'll ever see my granddad again. He doesn't even know his son's dead.”
Jacob was holding up Ok so far, but I didn't want him to dwell on his loss too much. Time to redirect.
“How good are you with your bow?”
“You mean, can I kill a goat with it?” I nodded. “How close can we get? I can keep my arrows in the bullseye everytime at twenty yards.”
“How big is the bullseye?”
He held up his fist in reply.
“That should do it. I don't suppose you have any broad head arrows”
“No, I never needed them. All I've ever done is target shooting.”
“Think you can kill a goat?”
He thought for a moment, which encouraged me. I would have worried about an answer given too quickly.
“I think so. I won't know for sure until the time comes.”
“Fair enough. How's tomorrow afternoon sound?”
“Well, let me check my calender...let's see...morning...work my ass off for Zed, lunch around noon, afternoon, work my ass off for Zed...yeah, I guess I can fit you in. I'll pencil you in for three o'clock?”
“I really appreciate you making time in you busy schedule for me. Thank you!”
“Next, I want to have a planning meeting in a few minutes. Would you get the drawing table set up with a piece of blank paper, and locate some markers or pens?”
“Sure, that'll take just a minute. Anything else?” I debated bringing up Fiona, but decided to leave it alone for the moment. I very distinctly remember what it was like to be a teenaged male.

“Ok guys, I know it's been a long day”
“long month more like” cut in Stan.
“Yeah, long month, although by my count we're only into this about ten days. Anyway, I know you're all tired, but I need to run something by you for your input. We've made some gains in the last few days, but I feel like things are running away from us and we are getting behind. I hate organizational crap, but we need to do it.”
“We just got here, you really want us involved?” said Fiona.
“I need all the help I can get. You all of you have various areas of expertise that will come in handy. So yes, I want you all involved as long as you are interested in helping.”
“So where do we start” I noticed Doc was sitting pretty close to Denise.
“Well Doc, I like to go over what we have, what we need, what we need to do, and delegate those projects to those of you who are best suited to the tasks. Make sense?”
Everyone nodded assent, so I continued.
“So where do we start? Are you all familiar with the 'Rule of Three'?” I got a lot of blank looks and head shakes in reply.
“The Rule of Three is a survival checklist. It helps to prioritize things so you are acting appropriately in an emergency. It goes like this: If there is an immediately life threatening situation, whether standing on top of an avalanch, having an oncoming car come into your lane, or being assualted by an attacker, you have no more than three seconds to do something before you get hurt or killed.” I saw I had everyone's attention so I went on.
“If for some reason you can't breath, contaminated air, being trapped underwater, or something stuck in your throat, you have three minutes to get air before you suffer brain damage or death.
“You have about three hours to get shelter if you are exposed to extremes in the enviroment before you become hyper or hypothermic which can lead to death.
“You have about three days to live without water, three weeks without food. You'll see in survival situations where a person will waste time looking for food and they freeze to death. Look at it as a checklist. Am I in immediate danger? Yes? React, No, move to the next thing, can I breath? You all get it.”
“I like it” Sandy said, “It helps identify what you need to worry about, and prioritize your actions.”
“Exactly! And that's the point of this meeting. I want to prioritize our efforts. We need to be concerned about attacks. We need to be able to react in three seconds to any attack. I'm not too worried about our ability to breath. And shelter isn't too much of a concern in this environment. And neither is water. All of these houses have cisterns, and worse comes to worse we could set up stills to desalinate sea water. What's next on the list?”
“Food” they all answered.
“Food's a biggie. Not just getting it, but keeping it safe. So I'd like to set up some groups dedicated to each of these subjects. We should have a group on Security, and one on Food.”
“What about health?” Denise asked.
“Absolutely”
“Where does health fit in on the Rule of Threes?” Fiona asked
“Mostly in the first catagory. If you have a serious injury you have just a few moments to address it.”
“Currently, I've been trying to deal with all of these things myself. You guys have all been extremely helpful, and have done everything I've asked. But I need to start delegating some of these things. I can't keep track of them all, and sooner, rather than later, I'm going to miss something or let something slip through the cracks, and the results are going to be bad. Are you people willing to step up?”
The replies ranged from yesses to of courses, to absolutelies.
“Let's start with food. Sadie, would you chair the food committee?”
“Yes, of course Sweetie.”
“Figure out what you need as far as people, equipment, and supplies and be prepared to give a report tomorrow evening.”
“I should also do an inventory of what's on hand so we know what we have in the bank, so we know what we can spend.”
“And how soon before we go broke” came from Stan who had a sarcastic wise ass grin on his face. Time to give him somthing to think about.
“Stan, you, and or Sandy, should help Sadie on the food prep side of things. Rather than everyone cooking for themselves, I'm thinking it would be more efficient if at least one, or two meals each day are done comunity style. Look at the feasiblity and report on that at the next meeting.”
I wasn't done with him. “I going to put the beginning part of firearms training in your hands. I'll talk to you about how I think it should go, and what resources we have, but I need to take over administering it. By the way, you start tomorrow morning. Wilford and Daniels will be issued firearms and will need to start on the fundamentals.”
“Any chance I can get a firearm? I was in the service” I looked at Denise, seeing her in a slightly more favorable light, my interest piqued, hoping this would go in the direction I wanted.
“The Service? What did you do?”
“I did a fifteen month tour in Iraq with an Infantry Brigade as a 68W.”
“68W?”
“Healthcare Specialist. But I earned my CMB, Combat Medic Badge.”
“So you have some experience with firearms?”
“Well, sure, I qualified expert with the rifle. But then I grew up shooting on the farm.”
“Works for me. We need all the trigger pullers we can get. I'll get you into a firearm of some sort. But remember, this is a barter economy now.” I said with a mischeiveous grin.
“Oh, what is it that I have, that you want?”
“I want you to put together a tactical first aid class for us. We're not ready yet, but say in a week?”
“Yeah, I can do that. Tell me what you want me to cover, and how long the class should be. Do you want me to put together IFAKs too?”
“Yes ma'am. We have some gear, but you may need to improvise some items. We'll talk more later.”
“Doc, I want you to head up healthcare in general. Cool?”
“You got it brother. No worries. You want my report now, or tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, along with everyone else's.”
“What am I forgetting?”
“A lot of construction of one sort or another is going to need to be done. Who's going to handle that?” Sadie had my back as ussual and brought up a big hole that needed to be fixed.
“You're right. And I don't know. You're thinking of Harry, aren't you?” Harry was a cracker jack general contractor that Sadie used for a lot of her property management projects. He also did a stint in the Marines as a low ranking officer. I'd had him out on the range a time or two and he knew his way around an AR. Only problem is he lived down in town and we had no way of contacting him. We didn't even know if he was OK. I mentioned this to Sadie.
“I told him he is welcome here if anything ever happened, but he may be too thickheaded to realize when it's time to leave. I keep hoping he'll show up.”
“If he does, he's got a job. And a place to stay.”
“What else?” I looked out and was met by a bunch of tired faces. “Nothing? Let's call it a night. Start again in the morning and another meeting in the evening. Thanks guys.”

 

We were half way home when Sadie said, “I don't think I like that Fiona.”
“Oh?” Giving her the chance to go on.
“Just a general feeling. And then there was that flirting with Jacob. He's only what? Sixteen? She's almost twice his age.”
“Yeah I saw that too. Jacob is young, but sixteen now is the same as it was a couple of weeks ago. He's already killed a man, and disposed of his parents' bodies in funeral pyres.”
“True, but he's still immature in other ways. I'm worried he'll be taken advantage of or hurt by her.”
“Getting hurt is part of the process, even though it sucks at the time. I almost said something to him tonight, but didn't. He and I are going goat hunting over on the Brasses tomorrow, I can talk to him then, but I wanted to get your take on it first. I don't think its a good idea to talk to Fiona about it.
“Oh hell no! It wouldn't do a bit of good and if we're reading this right and she is a conniver, it will tip our hand. Warning Jacob won't hurt, but probably won't do much good either.”
“ I agree, the hormones won't be denied. I'll chat with him about it and let's keep an eye on the situation so it doesn't get out of hand.” I let out a big sigh. “As if we didn't have enough to worry about.”
Sadie took my hand as we walked, something that always made me feel like a teenager again. “Don't worry Sweetie, I'm right here, and together we can deal with anything.” She squeezed my hand, which I returned.

DAY 11I woke with the dawn and performed my morning ablutions. The pups were happy to see me and we had our usual morning love fest until their attention was distracted by kibble in their bowls. I brought Sadie's french press up to her so she could get her motor running then went down stairs to the gun safe.

Opening it I paused, looking, trying to decide what guns to give Daniels, Wilford and Denise. The Beretta 92 that I took off the large man was the obvious choice for Denise, given her time in the military, but the double column magazine and double action trigger made the trigger reach made it unsuitable to someone with small to medium sized hands. I selected a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm instead, placing it in a duffle bag at my feet.

I was sort of surprised that Fiona hadn't asked for a gun also, but I hadn't pushed the issue. If she didn't want one, I wasn't going to force her.

I looked at the Beretta again, thinking in terms of Daniels and Will, but quickly decided against it, picking instead two Glocks, a 19 and a 23. The 23 had a 9mm conversion barrel, so they both would use the same ammo and magazines. Considering that they were friends and spend a lot of time together, I figured commonality was a good thing.

While we had a pretty good store of ammo, it wasn't unlimited and we couldn't afford to throw it away. That's why two Airsoft copies of Glocks and the S&W M&P22 went into the duffle also. Stan could use those training aids to give his students trigger time while conserving our ammo.

Holsters, magazines, and a several boxes of ammo joined the rest of the items in the bag. As I was walking through the shop, I noticed the Dremel tool hanging up. It reminded me of what we were doing later in the day, so I grabbed it, some cut-off wheels and a hammer. The duffle bag was really starting to get heavy at this point.

Around 7:30, Sadie and I headed over to Jacob's. A few people were already there. I gave Stan the duffle bag and explained what I wanted him to do. Basically the same process I went through with Mr. Charles a few days ago.

Denise walked up while I was finishing with Stan. I pulled the M&P 9mm out and handed it to her. It was already in a kydex holster. She pulled the holster off the pistol and let it fall to the ground. I noticed her trigger finger was properly indexed up on the frame. Keeping the gun in close to her, with the muzzle pointing in a safe direction, she pulled the empty magazine. She looked to see it was empty and put it in her left rear pocket, then deftly pulled the slide back and locked it to the rear. I watched as she looked into the empty magazine well and chamber, then used her pinkie in both the same place to verify the pistol was empty. The pistol was then tucked into the front of the waistband of her jeans.

 

“Do I get some ammo?” She grinned.
In answer I took the last gulp out of my morning Coca-Cola can, and threw it away from us. It landed about thirty feet away. Diving back into the duffle bag, I pulled out one of the Airsoft Glocks and a loaded magazine, handing them both to her.
“Can you hit the can?”
“What is this?” She indicated the gear in her hands.
“It's called 'Airsoft'. They are replicas of actual firearms, but shoot plastic pellets. You get the feel of the real gun, with the benefit of inexpensive practice, being able to shoot almost anywhere, and you can use them in ways you can't with a live firearm like force on force training.”
Satisfied with my answer, she inserted the magazine and racked the slide and took aim at the can.
“Piifffttt..clank”
She looked at the pistol and then at me.
“This operates just like the real thing. I wasn't expecting the slide to cylce”
“Yeah, it really is a great training aid. It doesn't hurt that five thousand pellets are like twelve dollars”
“What's the propellant? Smells like...propane?”
“Good nose. Yeah these are 'gas blowback' guns and use propane.”
She raised the sights back up to her eye and fired another deliberate shot, hitting the can and moving it a few inches. She repeated the process, shooting faster and faster, tracking the can as it moved. Out of twenty five shots, she only missed two, and those towards the end when she was shooting very rapidly.
“How was that?” Denise handed the airsoft pistol back to me. In reply, I put it back in to the bag and came back out with a box of ammo and two more magazines.
“That good, huh?” she laughed.
“Your gun handling was perfect and your marksmanship was quite good. I'm glad to have another trigger puller on hand.”
“What about a rifle?”
“Long guns I'm short on. I have a few, but not as many as I'd like. Certainly not enough to go around. Which worries me. But while it would be good if everyone had a long gun, they are a pain to keep with you. Especially while you are working. So they get put down, or propped in a corner. It's much easier to live with a pistol.”
“I understand. Still, I miss my M4.” she said as she looked at mine, slung behind me.

Daniels and Wilford came up a few minutes early, obviously anxious at the prospect of getting guns. I explained to them what I had for them and why I picked what I did. Stan went over what they were going to do and then took them inside Jacob's house. As they were going in, Fiona came out, followed by Jacob. He saw me watching and he blushed. Being a tow head made it hard to hide some of your reactions.
Hmmm...was he embarrassed about what he had done, or what he was thinking he'd like to do? He walked a little funny, trying to hide what was going on. While my teenaged years were pretty good, there certainly aspects of it I didn't miss.

A few more people showed up today than yesterday, including Widmore. I greeted everyone and gave them the same speil as yesterday. They all knew the drill, either from being here yesterday, or talking to those that had.

I supervised them, continuing work on the road block. I would have liked to have them work on the defenses around Jacob's house, but I didn't want them to know what we were doing. I had no idea if I could trust these people and it was bad enough that they new the details of the road block. I'd have to come up with some surprises to add when we were done, things they wouldn't know about, and so wouldn't be able to tell to an enemy.

“Who's idea was this! Who's responsible!”
“Good Morning Carol.”
“I should have known it was you.”
I tired again. “Good Morning Carol” which served only to make her more exasperated. I'm pretty sure that wasn't my intention.
“What can I do for you?”
“I've been hearing things about you.”
“Things?”
“That you are engaging in slave labor, making people work for you.”
“I'm not making anyone do anything. They get paid for their work”
“With a little bit of food?”
“Well yes, mostly. And I understand it's not a lot of food, but the value of food has gone up now that it is so scare.”
“You can't do that! People deserve to eat!”
“Do they? Where is that written down? Who is responsible for providing the food?”
I was making too much sense, so she just harumphed and grabbed the nearest person by the elbow and tried to drag them away.
“Hey, let go, what are doing?”
“You don't have to work for this man!”
“I want to eat. Zed's doing the best he can to feed us. I'm doing my part to help”
She tried the to talk a couple of other people out of quiting work and got much the same answer. I noticed Widmore kept quiet, but snuck looks at Carol when he thought I wasn't looking.
Carol shifted gears. “You don't have any right to build this, this, this.”
“Road block?”
“Yes, this road block! Who gave you authorization to do this?”
“No one. It needed to be done. We're doing it. You should thing of putting another one further up the road. We'd be glad to help.”
We don't need your help! And why would we want to do something like this anyway!”
Almost on cue, gunfire broke out up the road. It was some distance away, but in our neighborhood.
I threw on my pack and grabbed my rifle, doing a quick systems check on both it and my pistol. I saw Jacob doing the same.
“Everyone stay here! Or go home, but don't follow me.” I spotted one person that had been here yesterday, that I noticed seemed to be solid. I ran up to him. “What's your name?”
“Ethan”
“Listen Ethan, I need a favor. Would you run down to Jacob's house and let them know what's going on? Tell them that there was gunfire up the road in our neighborhood, Jacob and I are checking it out. They should send some people to man this road block. Got it?”
“Got it. Stay safe man!” He turned and ran down hill toward the house.
“Ready?” Jacob nodded, lips pressed tight together.
We jogged uphill as best we could, Jacob doing better than my fifty four year old self. I tried to pace myself so I wouldn't be totally winded by the time I got there. Military history is full of fights lost by soldiers showing up to the fight exhausted.
Every minute or so, another shot would be fired. I counted at least three distinct sounds. The dull boom of a shotgun, the loud crack of a rifle, and the pop of a pistol. The pops were more common. Could have been multiple pistols, or they were feeling freer with the pistol ammo.

We'd run up to the next sightline, look around it, seeing it's clear, we'd run up to the next one.

Then we were close. The shooting must be right around the next corner. Jacob and I ran up to the corner of a house, and I got down on my belly and started worming my way under a bush growing along the side of the house, trying to get a look without exposing myself.
I was so intent on working my way into a position where I could safely see, that I didn't hear the footsteps running up behind me until they were almost there. Before I could turn and look Jacob said, “It's Mr. Charles”
I stopped my slow forward progress and wiggled back out to where I could sit up.
“I heard the shots and saw you two run past. Thought you could use some help. I smiled when I looked at Charles. He had his machete in his right hand and his revolver in his left.
“Were you in the cavalry?” I asked with a grin. He didn't get it.
“I'll explain later. Let me get a peak at what's going on and then we'll talk.”
I resumed my interupted wriggling until I could see around the corner. The first guy was obvious. His back was turned towards me. He was about fifteen yards away, using a car for cover. While I watch he raised up a pointed his pistol at the house in front of him.
He cranked off a shot from his pistol. Before he could fire another, his shot was answered by the house. A rifle barrel stuck out over the sill and let loose a round at the man behind the car.
It looked like a lever action of some sort, probably a Winchester or Marlin. Judging by the large boom, either a 30-30 or a .35 Remington.
The round punched through the car and whined off into the distance, passing ten or fifteen feet in front of me.

 

The wind shifted a bit to the east, bringing the smell of smoke to my nose. I looked until I saw the first tendrils coming from the window of the house across the street. Damn! Was another house involved? A pistol barrel appeared in another window in that house. I waited to see who it would engage.
“Pop!” Ah, the first house was the recipient. At the shot, a man armed with an AK, ran from the second house and joined the one behind the car in front of me. They talked for a minute, then he made a motion with his hand that was easy to interpret as a flanking movement.
This was getting away from me quickly. I turned quickly, waving Charles to get down. I pantomimed drawing a bow to Jacob and the universal two fingered sign of a man walking, indicating we were about to have company.
Jacob nodded and nocked an arrow and knelt down behind a set of stairs leading to the side porch of the house we were sheltering behind.
I got back in position, rifle in front of me, just in time to see the first guy raise up to fire his pistol at the house, to cover the movement of the flanker. The guy in the house had lousy timing.
He choose that moment to stick his rifle out the window. “PopPopPop!” the man behind the car ripped off three quick shots. While I couldn't see the person in the house, I could tell he was probably hit. The rifle jerked up and back, unfired, and disappeared from view.
The rifleman was moving past me. Shrubs were providing some cover, but if he looked in my direction, he'd have seen me.
I heard a meaty thunk, then a metalic clatter. The guy behind the car heard it too, and he turned, crouching. He called out, “Cutter! Cutter!” He started in our direction, pistol leading the way. The instructor in me noticed his finger was curled around the trigger.
He'd only managed two steps before my red dot settled on his head, my finger sending the shot with that confirmation.
He crumpled right there.
“Crack!” Some concrete spalled a foot above my head. Dust got in my eyes. I really need to remember to wear eye pro came the errant thought unbidden. I let off a couple of un aimed shots in his general direction to cover my withdrawal.
Safely behind the corner of the house, I stood to see rifle man laying on his back, hands around the shaft protuding from his throat. His tongue hung out of his mouth and he was hissing and gurgling around the arrow.
I shot him in the head as I approached, not having time to mess about. The result of a 5.56mm round to a small, enclosed space like a cranium is impresive. I scooped up the AK and the pistol in his belt and joined Jacob and Charles.
“Here, this is yours.” I did a quick systems check. There was a round chambered and it had a bit more than half a magazine on board. I hoped the previous owner had more, but I didn't want to look right now.
I handed the AK to Jacob. Safety is this lever here on the right. Up is on safe, which is where it is now. Down is fire.” I'd checked and there were only the two positions.
“The sights are work pretty much the same as those on your pistol.” I took a deep breath. “There's at least one more out there. He was in the house across the street last I saw him. He can't stay there long because something's buring in there. He may already be gone. And I think whoever was in the first house has been hit.”
I took another deep breath. “Ok, this is what we're going to do.”

 

I'm not getting much 'chatter' on this site. (I post the story in a couple places)
How many people are actually reading this? I'm curious for a couple of reasons.

 

I have been reading since the beginning