Original Work The Unwelcome Sign

I am also reading. Great story so far. Different perspective shtf on an island...

 

I am. I need to like the posts.

 

Reading and really enjoying the story.

 

Been reading since the beginning. Keep it up! great story.

 

Definitely reading!

 

I've been reading since the beginning.

 

Definitely reading; I check several times a day to see if you've added more!! Please keep it coming!!

 

Here, reading and reporting for chat duty, sir....
MOAR!
(I think I've said before... how good this is... )
views are over 5696 on this thread, but chatting ain't real popular in the library...

 

Maybe it'd be neat if after a while someone with a nice sized sail boat would show up from the main land and tell them what happened?

 

I didn't have time to saying another word. Charles' eyes grew wide and he leapt forward, knocking me backwards just as a gunshot erupted behind me. My ears rang as multiple shots were fired from at least two different guns.
I rolled over onto my stomach so I could see what was going on, struggling to get my AR into my shoulder.
By the time I did, it was over. I got to one knee so I could see better, and I wish I hadn't.
There were two bodies on the ground, one of them Charles'. “You Ok Jacob?”
I yelled barely hearing myself, hearing muffled by the muzzle blasts.
“Yes”
“Stay there, cover me, keep your eyes moving!”
I rose to a crouch and moved forward, butt in shoulder, rifle at the ready. The bad guy was no longer a threat. He had been shot mutiple times, but what made it obvious was the machete.
Charles' overhand swing hit the gunman where his neck met his clavical. It traveled at downward and at an angle well into his rib cage.
I gave an involuntarily shudder at the sight and then turned my attention to Mr. Charles. He was laying face down, unmoving.
Supporting his head as best I could, I log rolled him over on to his back. There was a frightening amount of blood. I put my ear next to his mouth. I waited and waited, about to give up, I was finally rewarded with a puff of breath.
In overdrive mode now, I pulled my pack off my back and set it next to me on the ground, openingthe trauma care kit. While I pulled on nitrile gloves, I called out to Jacob, “Come on up here. I need you to cover me.”
Jacob did as I requested and moved up where he could watch the street for any threats. I didn't know if there was anyone else out there. But Charles couldn't wait.

Gloves in place I gave him a quick once over. There was bright red blood coming from his left leg, mid thigh. There was also a wound in his left chest, with frothy pink bubbles coming from it.

A peek at Jacob showed him watching Mr. Charles, totally locked in. “Hey!” I snapped to break the spell, “We're not the threat. Keep your eyes out.”
I didn't wait for an answer, but went back to Charles.

I unsnapped the catch on the SofT-W tourniquet to make it easier to pass it around the leg. I positioned it as high as I could and started cranking the windlass. When it was tight, I gave it another half twist and secured the end in the lock. I looked at my watch.
“Remember 10:45” I didn't have time to write down when I applied the tourniquet. Another memory bank would have to do for now.

Inserting the point of my knife into a loose part of his shirt, with the edge up, I sliced it open from belt to shoulder in one motion. This allowed me to pull the cloth away from the small puckered wound an inch above and inboard of his left nipple.

I grabbed an Israeli Battle Dressing and opened the first, outer plastic bag. Setting the IBD aside for a moment, I use my knife to cut the seams so I had a piece of plastic bag about three inches by five. Placing it over the puncture, I taped it to his chest on three sides, making an improvised chest seal.
I slipped my hand under his back and immediately felt blood. Rolling him over and cutting away more of his shirt revealed that the chest wound had perforated him, traveling all the way through.
Charles must have been hit with an FMJ bullet. While the exit was a bit bigger than the entrance, at around one inch in diameter, it was substantially smaller that I was worried it might be.
I repeated the process of sealing the hole with the other piece of plastic.
Back to the leg.
“Everything Ok Jake?”
“Yes sir. Nothing's moving. Will Mr. Charles live?”
“No idea. We'll have to wait for Doc to look at him.” If he makes it that long I thought to myself.
The knife's next victim was Charles' pant leg. I cut away as much as I could until I could see the extent of the wound. It entered just inboard of the femur. Once again, a small entrance, but this time the exit was much worse. A bunch of muscle and tissue was missing from the back of his thigh. An area about the size of my palm. Maybe the bullet glanced off the bone and started tumbling.
I pulled a pack of QuikClot Combat Guaze out of my pack. I wondered what we would do when it was all gone. Less than two weeks had passed and I've already used two of my precious stock.
Thank God Charles was unconcious, otherwise having his leg stuffed with guaze would have been unbearable. I stuck it as far into the wound as I could, and kept stuffing until I'd used it all up.
Holding it in place with my left hand, I reached over and picked up the IBD from where I laid it down, using my teeth to rip open the inner bag.
Pulling it out of it's package I put the pad on the exit wound. It didn't quite reach around to the entrance, so I got a regular 2x2 guaze pad to put over it. The IBD's elastic bandage held in in place
Clipping the closure bar in place, I rolled Charles onto his left side, resting his head on his arm. That was all I could do for him for the moment.

Now what? I needed to keep moving or I'd stiffen up. Both mentally and physically. (WooHoo! If you're still with me at this point, intrepid readers, we've just crossed the One Hundred Thousand Word mark. Congratulations!)

 

We did a quick check of the two dead bodies and came up with two more pistols and two spare magazines for Jacob's new AK. I showed him how to rock in a new one to replace the partial that was currently on board.
Jacob looked up from his rifle “There's people coming”.
I spun in the direction he was looking, down the road from where we'd come, dropping to a knee and starting to bring the muzzle of my rifle up when I recognized them. Sadie was in front, M4 in her hands. Denise and Doc right behind her.
Their arrival saved from making the tough decision facing me, of whether to get Charles back down to the Doc or to see if there were any more bad guys around and to check on the
I gave them a quick run down on what had happened so far. Doc tossed Jacob his truck keys and told him to run down to his house and bring it so they could transport Charles back down to the treatment room in Jacob's house.

“We're need to go check on the first house.” I told Sadie. I think there's at least one person hurt in there.” She nodded. “Homeowner?”
“Don't know, but he was shooting back at these guys.”

Sadie went to the back corner of house we'd been using for cover and knelt down, taking a look around the corner.
She turned her head and nodded at me.
I ran past her to a large tree tree in the back yard. A quick scan didn't reveal anything, so I gave her the nod.
She ran past me to a small shed. The thought went through my head. “Small unit tactics.” Just one more thing on my to do list.
The next hop brought me to the back door. I stood to the side and put my ear to it, listening.

Nothing.
I looked at the door. Wooden, hinges on the inside on my right. Good. Hinges on the inside protect them from tampering, but mean the door opens in. It's easier to punch a door in than it is to pull one open.
I checked the knob. It turned but the door wouldn't open. The deadbolt must be locked. I motioned to Sadie to move to the corner of a stone wall where she had a direct shot in the door when it opened.
I knocked.
Still nothing.
“Hello? Inside?”
I was worried that whoever was inside was injured and needed help. They might not have much time left.
Taking a couple steps back and to one side of the door, I brought the AR's stock into my shoulder, took a quick peep to make sure Sadie was dialed in, and fired off three quick shots putting the rounds where the tongue of the deadbolt entered the frame. I waited to see if my shooting would kick off any return fire through the door.
It didn't.
I hit the door with a front kick.
I kicked too hard.
The door flew open all the way to the end of its travel and bounced back closed. Smooth move. Just like in the movies.
As soon as I kicked, I moved to the hinge side of the door, against the wall, I pushed the door back open, arm extended, trying to stay behind cover as much as I could.
I could see into the house a little with this first slice. I looked at Sadie. She shook her head.
Transfering the M4 to my left shoulder, I stepped half a step away from the house. This let me see a bit further into the house without having to step into the door way.
I wasn't going to enter that fatal funnel until I had more information. Another step, another slice of view into the house. I continued until I had seen all of the first room that I could, from this side of the door.
At this point I was several yards from the door and had cleared half of the room. Keeping the rifle in the left shoulder at the low ready, the muzzle moved with my eyes as I stepped sideways to look further into the room. To my right of the door, there was a wall with a door.
I'd cleared the first room without entering the building.
Now for the fun part, going in.
Have I ever mentioned that I hate room clearing?

I waved Sadie over and we went through the rest of the house in the same fashion. I was dripping with sweat and my muscles ached from the tension. I kept working the long, slow, deep breaths. That would help.
For about half a minute.

Three rooms in we found him.

He was in a child's bedroom. The round took him in the throat. Straight through, front to back. The bullet clipped the esophagus and it was pretty obvious that it met the spine as it exited. It was also obvious that he had lost control of his bodily functions.
His breath whistled in and out of the hole in his throat. His eyes tracked me as I moved towards him.
“Can you hear me?”
He just stared at me.
“blink twice for yes, once for no. Understand?”
Two blinks.
“Can you move?”
One blink. Shit.
“Do you know how many attackers there were?”
Two blinks
“Three?”
One blink. Shit.
“Four?”
Two blinks. Damn, there was still one out there.
How did they get here? Cars?
Two blinks.
“More than one car?”
Two blinks. This was getting tedious. I was in a hurry.
“Are you alone in the house?”
One blink.
“Children?”
Two.
“Anyone else?”
One. He moved his eyes from mine to the bed in the corner. I moved over to it, lifted the blanket that was draped to the floor and was met by two pairs of eyes. Shit.
“Somebody's moving out there!” Sadie alerted me.
I moved to the window's edge and looked out. A young male was sprinting across the lawn of the house on the other side of the house. I snappedoff a couple of shots at him, he jerked at the second shot and dropped his rifle, but kept running. His left arm flopping crazily at his side.
He made it to a pair of cars parked just up the street. He jumped in the furthest from me and fired it up. I pumped round after round into it as he backed away from me, to no discernable effect. He was soon beyond my ability to engage him from the window.
“ZED!” Doc voice came to me from somewhere outside.
“Doc! Come around the back of this house. Sadie'll meet you.”
She nodded when I looked at her and left the room. Moments later Doc came in and looked over the man on the floor. While he was doing that, I picked up the rifle.
It was a Marlin 336 lever action in .30-30. It was well worn with little of the bluing left, but it had been taken care of. I noted that the chamber was loaded and the hammer cocked. He'd been hit before he could get off his shot. I carefully lowered the hammer to halfcock and laid it on the bed.

Denise, Fiona, and Jacob had accompanied Doc, and the room was getting crowded. I told them about the children under the bed and then asked Sadie and Jacob to follow me outside.
“We should clear the house across the way. Jacob, would you stay out here and keep an eye out? One of them got away. I don't think he'll be back, but I'd feel better if you were out here watching.”
“Sure Zed.” and he was moving, looking for a good location for a temporary OP.
Sadie and I moved to where I'd seen the rifle drop.
I found it easily enough. It was an honest to God M16A2. Detachable carry handle and three round burst. What variant was that...E1? I wondered why I hadn't heard any burst in the gunfight.
A cursory look revealed that the hammer pin had walked out. That'd do it. I slung it behind me and Sadie and I worked on clearing the house. The door was wide open so getting in was no problem. Smoke wafted through the house. It hit us both at the same time and we both ran back out of the house, retching.
The smell of buring flesh will do that to you.
The thought of someone injured, needing help forced me back in. It took some arguing, but I finally got Sadie to agree to stay outside.
I wrapped a cloth around my face and tried to breath through my mouth. It helped a little, but not much.
Concrete houses don't burn. What these bastards had done was drag whatever flamable material they could into one of the bedrooms and lit that on fire. Whether to hide their crime, or just for fun, I didn't know. Parts of several bodies could be seen mixed in with the mostly burned pile of furniture. A woman's face was visible. At least I think it was a woman. The hoop earrings were still intact. Her hair was missing, singed off down to the scalp, the skin of her face pulled tight from the heat.
She opened her eyes and looked right at me. I jumped in fright. She stared at me, pleading. She watched while I pulled my pistol, and used it to end her horror.
I barely got the scarf out of the way before I heaved my guts up.
Sadie ran back in at the sound of the gunshot. She quickly put together what had happened. She petted the back of my head while the dry heaves had their way with me.
She gently guided me back out of the house, sat me down on the porch and gave me her water bottle.
When I was ready to walk again, if a bit unsteadily, I went to look at the car the sole surviving gangbanger left. Looking in the windows, it was a jumbled mess of various things that they had looted. I'm sure there was useful things in there but I didn't have the heart to look just yet.
Going back to the first house, I found that Fiona and Denise had two children in the backyard, sitting on patio furniture. They were twins, ten or twelve years old, boy, girl, one each.
“They're not saying much” Fiona looked from them to me.
“don't suppose they would. Don't feel much like it myself”
I went inside to find Doc. He was getting up from the man on the floor. He walked towards me, dragging me by the arm to another room.
“He's in bad shape. I can probably keep him alive for a few days. If he's strong, he might even pull through. But he'll be a quadropelegic.”
“No hope?”
Doc just shook his head.
Sighing, I stood and went back into the room with the man whose name I didn't know.
I knelt beside him and picked up and held one of his hands. I guess he probably couldn't feel it.
We looked at each other.
Two blinks.
“We have your children. They're OK. We'll take care of them. We'll secure everything in the house for them. Ok?
Two blinks.

I carressed his face, then ran my palm over his eyes, closing them.
I thought about it, because I sure as hell didn't want to muff it, deciding the ear would work, keeping the muzzle a couple of inches away so cold metal against his head wasn't his last sensation.

Picking up the levergun from the bed, I shambled out the rear door and collapsed in a chair, tears flowing unabated.

Jacob showed up with Doc's truck and he, Doc, and the Denise got Mr. Charles into the bed of the truck. Fiona herded the two children to the truck also. I was glad to see that she put them in the cab and didn't have them ride in the back with a severly injured person.
Sadie sat next to me, not saying anything, just holding my hand.
“You riding down with us?” Denise asked.
“You know how to run one of these?” I held up the lever action rifle.
“Sure. I took my first deer with one similar to that one.”
I handed it to her. “Round in the chamber, on half cock, don't know how many rounds in the mag. I'll see if I can find some ammo for you. Now scoot. Take care of Charles. We need him. And he saved my life. I'm going to stay here for a bit. Would you send Daniels and Wilford up?”
She nodded, turned and left, rifle at trail arms.
“You don't want to go back home?”
“I want to crawl in a hole right now, but I don't have that luxury. We've got work to do.”
“Start going through the houses?
“Yes. We need to keep what's in this house seperate. It belongs to those kids. But we can't leave it here.”

We started going through the first house, Sadie started in the bathrooms, taking pretty much everything and stacking it outside where we could load it for transport later.
Taking a sheet off the bed, I wrapped up who I assumed was the kids' father, making a burial shroud out of it. I guess we'd bury him in the back yard later. I supposed we should have some sort of service for the children so they could have closure.

It was a monumental task. If normal supplies were cut off, everything in the house had value. Bed sheets may not seem that important now, but when yours wear out, you can't run to the department store to get a replacement.

The process went smoother when Daniels and Wilford showed up. I explained what we were doing and they pitched in.
“Cool! These will come in handy.” Wilford was pointing at the little solar rechargable yard lights lining the path to the door.
“I'm tired of sitting in the dark at night. Can I have a couple?”
“They belong to the kids, but we'll see what we can work out. But you're right, they will be handy. Take them out in the day to charge and bring them in at night. But that's not all, check it out.”
I pulled my Leatherman out and opened up a philips screw driver. Turning out a couple of screws, let me take the lid containing the solar panel off, revealing some circuitry and a battery box containing two rechargable AA batteries.”
Daniels twigged to it immediately. “So we can charge AA batteries with these?”
“Yes. One of the reasons that I've switched as much of my gear to AA as possible. All my flashlight run AA batteries so I basically have light forever.”
“These were just a few dollars each at Home Depot.”
“And what do you think they are worth now?” I asked.
Wilford shook his head. “I really don't know. We were so used to set prices and using money to buy things. That's all changed now. What do you think they are worth?” Both of them looked at me.
“They're worth what someone is willing to pay for them. What would you pay? More accurately, what would you trade? A day's work? A chicken? A different piece of gear? People will figure it out as they go along.”

 

I left them to continue work on the house. I dragged the bodies of the three gangbangers all together onto the lawn of the second house, the one that had the fire. Going through their pockets I found more weed, cash, several pistol magazines, and some loose 9mm rounds. They all had lots of gold jewelry, most of it crappy 12 caret stuff, but some of the chains had the heft of 18 caret. There was also a set of keys. I pushed the button on the alarm fob and their car beeped in answer to its invisible call.
Looking down at the bodies there was a common thread. Blue was prominant. All three had blue tee shirts, blue sneakers, blue bandanas.
That meant they were probalby out of Kerwin Terrace. That west end housing community was a Crips camp. We were fairly far away from Kerwin, so I was surprised to see them here so soon.
But it was only four of them, so it might just have been a scouting mission. I wondered what the leadership would make of only one of them coming back?

The car, a Ford Explorer was a jumbled mess. I pulled everything out to go through it. There were a couple of flat panel Tvs and one giant 60” monster. I was about the discount them as useless, but re-thought the 60.
Entertainment is vital to mental health. “Movie night” once or twice a week at Jacob's might be a good thing.

There were lots of bottles of booze, a carry on sized suitcase full of jewelry, and lots of food. Mostly cans, but some dry stuff like pasta and rice also. A duffle bag held a police officer's duty belt with all the gear, including a Taser. And X-26 if I wasn't mistaken. The bag also had two .40 Glocks, an HK P2000, a Taurus Millenium in 9mm, and quite a few boxes of assorted ammo, including rifle and shotgun shells.

The second row of seats had been folded forward, lifting it, revealed the long guns. It was a mish-mash assortment. Remington 870 pump shotgun, a Winchester 94, and a couple that were close to my age, a well worn H&R single barrel shotgun and a bolt action Winchester model 70 in 30-06. It was wearing a respectable Leupold 3-9x scope. Well, I did say we needed a bigger gun.

Getting down to the end, I looked in the compartment that held the jack and found a plastic bag full of prescription meds. A quick look at the labels showed mainly pain meds, but also Ritalin and Valium. All useful additions to Doc's treatment room. I chuckled when I saw a couple of bottles of Viagra, but I was soon scowling when I thought of how it would be put to use.
I didn't see any antibiotics. I guess entertainment was their only thought.

“What's going on here?” I must be getting tired, my situational awareness was shot. Carol had managed to walk up on me before I noticed her. Not good.
Not good at all.
I straightened up from where I was bent over going through the vehicle and walked up to her.
“What is it you want to know?” I was deliberatly in her space, staring her down. She took an involuntary step back. I let her keep the space.
“What are you doing? You can't take these things! They don't belong to you!”
I motioned to the house where Sadie, Daniels and Wil were continuing to stack the items neatly in the yard.
“You're right. They don't belong to us.” I waved my arm at the piles, “That's the only thing left remaining to those two young children that were just orphaned a short while ago. We are securing it for them, against any further looting.”
“How do I know you aren't keeping it for yourself?”
I snapped. I'd had it. The pressures of the last days, the worrying, the presure of an unknown deadline, and Carol's continuing crap, all of this had been festering inside. Add to that the awful burden of not one, but two mercy killings and I'd just had enough.
I grabbed her by both elbows and shook her vigorously. Her head snapped back and forth. I'm surprised it didn't kill her.
“I don't give a shit what you think I'm going to do with them! I don't answer to you!” I dragged her over to the bodies on the lawn. I shoved her forward hard enough that she couldn't keep on her feet.
She stumbled and fell on top of the bodies, her face inches away from the gruesome gaping hole in the head of the gangbanger I but the finishing shot into.
Grabbing an elbow, I yanked her to her feet and dragged her to the house. The smell broke through my awareness and I looked, seeing that she had wet herself, the crotch and right leg of her jeans darkened by the liquid.
She could barely keep her feet under her as I pulled her through the house to the charnel room.
“This is YOUR fault!” I screamed at her. “I don't even know how many people were in here when those bastards that you met on the lawn set them on fire. I don't know what they did to them before they burned them. I do know that one of them was still alive.”
I pointed to the woman with the hoop earrings, unfocused eyes staring, looking crosseyed because to the third eye in her forehead.
“And I don't know how long she suffered before I ended her misery.”
Carol looked at me, wide eyed. “you..you killed her?”
Ignoring her, I went on. “But I do know that this is your fault. You did nothing to protect this neighborhood. You were more interested in currying favor with your neighbors by feeding them, even at the expense of others. You ignored my warnings. You put an incompetent in charge of security because...because..because, Aw, hell, I don't even know what was going through your mind when you picked Johns, not even giving me a chance to address the community in the meeting. And these people paid the price! This was preventable!
And you have the nerve to criticize me for taking steps to prevent this from happening in my part of the neighborhood!
“My only regret is that it isn't you in that pile. Now stay out of my way.” I turned and walked out of the room, leaving Carol behind.

I went outside to get a breath of fresh air. I took a drink from my waterbottle more to sooth a throat raw from yelling, than from a need to slake my thirst.
A handful of people had gathered, some eyeing the pile of things on the lawn.

“What are you doing with all of that stuff?” One woman asked. I would have ignored her, but we needed help.
“We are securing it for the children who lived here. Do you know their names?
“The twins? Grace and Gary.”
“What about their father?”
“Paul. Paul Stafford. Is he Ok?”
“Mr. Stafford is dead. Did he have a wife?”
“Yes, but she moved to the states after the divorce. She abandoned the family”
Who lived across the street?”
“The Williams'”
“How many in their family?”
“Four. Adam and Mary and their two daughters. They were eight and twelve. Are they OK?”
“No. No they're not OK. They're dead.”
“All of them?”
“I don't know.”
“Why not?”
I took a step closer to her and looked her in the eyes. “Because they were all piled in one room and set on fire. I can't tell how many bodies there were.”
She gasped and I noticed a few other people turn away.
“So what's going to happen to the stuff inside their house?”She got over her horror pretty quickly, I'll give her that.
“We're going to pack it up and take it.”
“It's not yours! Why should you have it?”
“Because they don't need it anymore, I don't want it to get wasted, and we earned it.”
She started to keep arguring, but I cut her off. I looked at all the people assembled on the lawn. I noticed that Sadie, Daniels and Wilford had stopped working and were watching from the flank.
“Did you people hear the screams?” They wouldn't look at me. “You must have heard the gunshots, yes?” Still no reply.
These people, your neighbors were getting attacked and you did nothing. And now you want their things?”
“What could we do? We couldn't fight them. We didn't have any guns.”
“Do you know who I am?” A few of them nodded their heads. “Do you know what I do? Do you know what I'm working on in the neighborhood?” More nodding.
“At the least, you could have come and got me. Or Detective Johns. You could have let someone know. But you stayed hunkered down in your homes, grateful that it wasn't happening to you. What was it like? Listening to the screams as that family was tortured?”
“Well, it won't be long before it happens to you.”
“But you killed them!”
“One got away. And there'll be more. If not the same group, then another.”
“What can we do?”
“Get ready.”
“Will you help us?”
I looked around at them again, waiting until I had their attention. “Are you willing to work? Are you willing to help yourselves? I can't take care of you. I can help you to take care of yourselves. If we work together we might stand a chance. But first, we have to take care of the dead. Who's going to help?”
No one responded.
“If it was you in those homes, would you want your neighbors to bury you properly?
“I'll go get a shovel” One man who had been in the back of the group turned and left. His leaving got the ball rolling and everyone else followed.

Daniels came over to me. I tossed him the keys to the Explorer. “Start packing it up and when its full, unload it at Jacob's house. I handed him the bag of medecin. “Make sure Doc gets this. By the way, did you find any ammuntion?
He ran over to one of the piles and came right back with five boxes. It was all .30-30.
“Keep it” I pulled the Winchester 94 from the gangbanger's pile and handed it to him. You need a rifle. Wilford can have the other one that belonged to Mr. Stafford. They both use the same ammo and work pretty much the same way. I'll go over it with you guys later. But you two are buddies, so it makes sense for you to have similar rifles.”
“Thanks Zed.”
“Don't thank me. I'm afraid you'll need to use it before too long.”
“That's exactly why I'm thanking you.”
“Oh, by the way, did you happen to see any rat traps?”
“The spring type, or the glue type?”
“Both”
“Yeah there were some in there, I'm pretty sure we packed them.”
“When you seen them, put them aside and bring them to me.”
“Sure Zed, no problem. Are rats a problem?”
“We can't afford to lose any food to them, and they can be used against the two legged type too.
Sadie walked over. “I heard that woman. You think any of them will come to help? “I hope so, we can't do it all ourselves. And I don't want you to have to deal with what's in there.”
“We heard you yelling at Carol. I thought you were going to kill her.”
“Why didn't you come out and stop me?”
“I checked to make sure you were OK, so we kept working. Whatever you did to Carol, she brought on herself.”
“I think I might have made an impression. I just want her to stay out of our way. How are things going here?”
“We're almost done. Where do you want it?”
I thought for a moment. “Take it over to Doc's place and see if you can find a place for it upstairs in the unfinished part. Anything important or valuable, take to Jacob's”
“You aren't coming with us?”
“I'm going to keep an eye on things while you three do the moving. Did you find any medicine?”
“Some, I don't know what some of it is, but there was most of a bottle of antibiotics.”
“Good. I think they are going to be one of the most valuable things we can have. The gangbangers had lots of meds but it was only recreational for them. No antibiotics. Mr. Charles will probably need some, if he makes it through the next day.”

Mr. Dupont and his two teenaged sons returned with shovels and picks. We picked a spot in the back yard and put the boys to work digging the grave, while Dupont and I dealt with the bodies.
I was glad to see he had work gloves. I pulled mine out of my pack and put them on and we started on the grisly work of seperating the burned bodies from the chared furnitured. We discovered the hard way that we had to be careful of how we moved the bodies, when Dupont pulled on a hand and it detached from the arm.
He looked at me in horror.
“You want a hand with that?” I deadpanned. The look of horror shifted into one of incredulity until he saw the corner of my mouth twitch up at the corner. Then we were both laughing hysterically, tears pouring from our eyes, until we were bent over, clutching our aching sides.
“Thank you for helping me.” I wiped the last tears from the corner of my eye with the back of my wrist. “Nobody should have to do this sort of thing. Having you help eases the load.”
“I'd say 'glad to help', but I'd be lying. I knew the Williams'. Good people. It's the least I can do, to seem them properly in the ground. As unpleasant as it maybe. So, will you be able to help us to prevent this from happeing again?”
“I'll do what I can. But it'll be a lot of work. We'll talk more about it later, maybe tomorrow?”
“Works.”
We got back to work. Eventually we had four neat bundles, the bodies wrapped in bed sheets, the grissely remains hidden behind 300 count cotton sheets. The boys could help carry them out without having to be exposed to something that would haunt their young dreams.

“Where's Carol?” Sadie asked when she and her crew came over to the second house to start packing.
“Don't know. Seems she snuck off.”
I introduced everbody to Mr. Dupont and his sons, then took them behind the Staford house to start digging a grave for the body inside. Three more people showed up and lent a hand with the excavating.
“Dig the hole, but don't put the body in yet. I think we should have a cerimony, probably first thing in the morning.”
“Ok, Zed. What about the three bodies on the lawn?”
“They don't deserve burying. I'll deal with them later on. Leave it to me.”

“How's he doing, Doc?” I switched places with Daniel on this moving run so I could check on Charles.
“I'm not going to lie to you Zed, he's in bad shape. It would be no big deal if we had all the resources of a hospital. But he's got two serious wounds. If you hadn't got that tourniquet on him so fast, he would have died, but he's lost a lot of blood.
I've got things patched up best I can. If he makes it through the next twenty four hours, he'll have a better chance. Then we only have to worry about blood clots and infection.”
“You got the meds we found?”
“Yes, it's a help. I had some antibiotics on hand, but it's good to have more. I hate to think what'll happen when we run out.”
“Would a transfusion help?”
“Absolutely. But we don't have any blood on hand.”
“What about direct transfusion?”
Doc paused and thought about it. “Well, I suppose that would work, I've never do it before. Let me look through some of my books and see if I can find any information on the process. We still have to type him and any other donors.”
“Sadie is O-, isn't that a universal donor?”
“Yes, she can donate to anyone. If we could find a few more O negatives, that would simplify things.”
“I'll ask around. On another note, can I borrow your truck, I need to haul some garbage and don't want it in my jeep. I'll put some plastic in the bed to keep it clean.”
“Sure, of course.” He handed me his keys.
“If he needs anything else, let me know. He saved my life, and he has knowledge that might save all of our lives.”
“I will Zed. We're doing the best we can for him. This time tomorrow we'll have a better idea of his chances.”
“Thanks Doc. I'll check in with you later.”

Wilford, Jacob, Sadie and I headed back up to the Williams' house to get another load. I backed Doc's truck up to the gangbangers bodies and we loaded them in the bed, lining it with some plastic sheeting first. We left the tail gate down and piled the bodies near the back.

Sadie sat shotgun and we left the boys there to keep loading the Ford. We drove up and out of the neighborhood, taking a right, the direction of Kerwin Terrace. At first I thought about displaying the bodies somewhere else, as misdirection, but with the one escapee, it was pointless, he'd tell his people where they ran into trouble.

 

My plans quickly changed when, having driven about half a mile, we saw a car that ran off the road. It was the same one the the gangbanger drove off in. I drove past it, seening a body slumped over in the driver's seat. Could we get this lucky? We were certainly due for a break.

I turned around and passed the car again, giving Sadie a look this time. I pulled in behind it.
“Cover me, while I check it out.”
Sadie opened her door but stayed in her seat, scooting around until she was sitting backwards. Her M4 in her left shoulder, using the car for cover. I exited the driver's side, M4 in my shoulder, at the low ready, approaching the passenger side of the car.
I stopped when I reached the end of the truck, pausing for a couple of slow breaths while checking the surrounding for signs of a trap.
Seeing none, I moved up.
Looking through the rear passenger window, I could see the driver's head. I watched for a couple of moments. Either he was dead or had an incredibly slow respiration.
Getting closer, I couldn't see anything dangerous in the rear seat, just more junk. Looking in the front window showed the same.
I opened the door, and went in, muzzle first. There was no reaction when I pushed it against the side of his head. I hit it again, harder. Reasonably assured, I risked a touch. My hand against his face showed that he was cooling to ambiant temperature.
“He's dead. It's clear.”
Sadie came forward. We met on the driver's side, in the safety of the shoulder.
“This is a break”
“Sure is Sweetie, sure is. I just wish I knew if his leaders knew where they were going, or if them coming to our neighborhood was random. We have to assume they knew.”
“So what do we do here? Hiding the car with the bodies, it would be a mystery what happened to their people.”
“True. Or we could leave them here. They wouldn't know who killed them. We don't have anything red with us, do we?”
“I don't think so. Maybe in their car?”
“Well, give me some overwatch while I go through the car. We can decide later.”

Going through the mess in the car yeilded similar results to the previous one. Jewelry, liquor, drugs. No guns.
I pulled the keys from the ignition, noting it was in the 'On' position. Must have run out of gas while it was sitting here. Yup, shifter was still in drive.

Opening the trunk made my day. There was an even half dozen Ars. Same exact model as the one I recovered from the lawn. A duffel bag had a few dozen aluminum thirty round magazines. Topping off the good news was another half dozen metal ammo cans. I popped one open and discovered it contained 5.56 rounds in stripper clips in cloth bandoliers.
My joy at our windfall was tempered somewhat by my wondering who was supplying the gang with military hardware? Was this something they had before the event? Seems unlikely, why would they be driving around with them? Or did they just get them? If so, from who?
Those questions would have to wait for later. I started moving everything valuable as quickly as possible.
That done, it was back to the original question, what do we do with the bodies?

It seemed obvious that they should all go in the car. So I set to dragging the bodies off the tail gate and shoving them in the car.
“Can I help you with that?”
“I appreciate the offer Sweetie, but I don't want you to have to deal with this, and you are doing a much more important job. It would be different if I cared about these bodies.”
I grabbed the ankles of the second body and pulled until the body cleared the tailgate, the head hitting the ground with a sickening sound.
By the time the last body was dragged and shoved into the car, I was pretty wrung out. Which lead to my decision to just leave the car where it was.
Then I remembered the can of red spray paint Doc kept in his truck for painting steel targets. I dug it out from behind the seat and went back to the car. Dredging my memory for signs, I tagged the gangbangers' car with as many Bloods symbols as I could remember. That would have to do. I didn't have the energy for anything else.

 

DAY 12 Monday
As we drove by the William's house there was no sign of the moving crew. Dupont came out from behind the Staford house and came over to the truck.
“Graves dug. You got rid of the other bodies?”
I told him what we had done.
“That ought to confuse them some.”
“I sure hope so. I'd rather they go attack the Bloods than come after us. This may buy us some time.”
“What time do you want to do the funeral service?”
“Early. Say eight am.”
“We'll be here to help”
“Thanks. We can talk afterwards. Can you spread the word about both items? It would be good for as many people as possible show up for the funeral. The meeting afterwards also.”
“Will do. You go get some rest, you look terrible.”
“Thanks Dupont, kind of you to say.” I gave him a weak smile.
“By the way, is my crew done with the moving?”
“Yeah, they took the last load just a few minutes ago.”
“Got it, See you in the morning.”

We pulled up to Jacob's house. I reached into the bed and pulled out an AR, dug out a couple of magazines and a bandoleer of ammo. Sadie and I headed inside to find Fiona laying on a table next to Mr. Charles, with a tube running from her arm to his.
She looked up when we entered the room.
“Where is everyone?”
“Doc stepped out for just a moment, call of nature, Denise is watching the kids while I'm doing this,” She lifted her arm slightly. “I think the boys are unloading stuff at Doc's house.”
“So Doc figured out how to do a direct transfusion?”
“Yeah. This is the way the very first transfusions were done. He just had to read up on it.”
“So you're a match?”
“O negative.”
“Got it, universal donor. Thanks for doing that.”
She shrugged. “No problem. It's what I do.”
“How's he doing? Any change?”
“No, about the same. Stable but critical. If we can get some blood in him, he'll clear the first hurdle.”
“Then we have to worry about infection.”
“Yes, and blood clots from his legs reaching his heart.”

Denise must have heard us talking, and she came to join us. We filled her in on what we had been doing. She noticed the rifle in my hands.
“Trade you this for that lever gun I gave you earlier.”
“Deal!” She left the room and came back a moment later with the Marlin. We swapped and I gave her the mags and ammo.
“I checked, the tube has three rounds, and I put one back in the chamber, so it only has four rounds on board.”
“Got it. We have more. I'll find Wil and give him this. Then I'm going home and colapse. Ugh, almost forgot. How are the children doing?”
“As you'd expect. They're totally traumatized. Fiona did get them to eat a little and they answered some basic questions.”
“I thought it would be good to have a formal funeral for their father. First thing in the morning.”
Fiona sat back up. “Yes, that's good. They need the closure.”
“So, you'll explain it to them and have them ready?”
“We'll take care of it.” Denise replied.

 

Sadie and I walked out and towards our house, stopping at Doc's on the way to hand a grateful Wilford his rifle.
He admired it's sleek lines.
“Now I'm a real Buffalo Soldier!” he grinned at me.
“Uh, well, you can be if you want, brother, but I'm pretty sure they had single shot Springfields”
“Single shots? Not for for this brother, no thanks.”
I gave him and Daniels a quick run down on how to load their rifles and the importance of the half cock and how to safely lower the hammer on a chambered round.
And that used up the last bit of energy I had for the day.

“Would any of you like to say a few words over Mr. Staford?” I looked at the assemble group. With the exception of Doc who was setting Sadie up to give Charles a transfusion, the rest of my core crew was in attendance.
I was surprised to see Detective Johns standing respectfully off to one side. Mr. Dupont, with his two sons, and a woman I assumed was Mrs. Dupont were there and it seemed that he had been good to his word as there were quite a few of Staford's neighbors standing around.
Grace and Gary stood solemly near the head of the grave, Denise and Fiona on either side of them, each holding one of their hands.

I wasn't expecting anyone to step forward, so I did, walking to the head of the grave, the Bible that we had salvaged from the Staford's house in my hand. I opened it to a bookmarked page.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. I didn't know Mr. Staford, even though I drove past his house every day for five years. But I do know that in his final moments, Mr. Staford showed that love, that courage that distinguishes a man among men. He gave his life defending his children, and I suspect he was also trying to protect his neighbors across the street. Mr. Staford put the most valuable thing he owned, his life on the line, willing to use it to pay for his children's safety.
It may be the only thing I know about him, but it is a most admirable thing to know. I pray that he is at rest, knowing his children are safe. May his children find some peace in knowing just how much he loved them.”
I looked back down to the book in my hands and flipped to another page.
“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
“We are all here but for a short time, our bodies must return to the earth and our spirits to our creator. All we have in between is our love for each other.”
I reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt and tossed it on the shroud wrapped body below. As I stepped away, Fiona led Grace and Gary to the pile of dirt so they could do the same.

“That was very well done. Thank you” Dupont held out his hand which I shook.
“I guess having a minister as a dad has some uses.” I gave a sad smile. “I did it for the kids. It's all I had to give. I hope it gives some measure of comfort.”
“Sounded like there might have been a message for all of us in there.”
“Yeah, well, can't blame me for trying.”
“When can we have that meeting?”
“How about half an hour? Where are we meeting?”
“I told everyone my house.”
“Works. I'll see you there.”

 

Just in case you don't think anyone is reading... I say 'Hoo Uh' bro.
(The origination of Hoo Uh, began in WWII with the new Army Rangers. After a particularly grueling mission, climbing up mountain peaks, through an ice cold stream to capture a german general, they returned exhausted, upon the beach, resting from their heavy labors. When some REMF M...... F......, who was looking around for some lazy GI's to do a shit detail for him, spied them, and requested they come with him. As a unit, to a man, they responded;
WHO... US!?

and so has it been ever since... as a badge of honor.)
HooUH.

 

I've been reading and immensely enjoying this. I started it yesterday and have had trouble getting my chores done.

 

Its been an excellent read, please keep up the good work!