Grid Down Perceptions of Reality

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  Joe was getting restless. It was 10:15 and completely dark, but still nobody had come. He snuck to the front of the house and peeked out the drapes. His heart leapt as by the light of the moon he saw one man on a horse, holding the reins to four other horses. He heard the front door creak open. “Damn it!” He thought, “I should have stayed put.”

  He quickly stepped behind the drapes, hiding from view. He could hear the men whispering back and forth. Joe and Jacob had spread out cans, buckets, and steel dust pans, along with assorted other noisemakers. He heard one of the cans get kicked and roll across the floor. Hopefully that was enough of a signal to put Philip and Jacob into action.

  Flashlights turned on and the mercs swept the house. Within a few minutes, one of them spoke in a normal voice, loud enough for all to hear. “You two go stock up on all the food you can carry.”

  Joe prayed that Philip and Jacob would follow the plan, and let them open up the armory door, and then kill them.

  “Gary, you’re with me.” He heard one of them say. And then he heard them walk off.

  He snuck out from behind the drapes and carefully avoided the noisemakers, walking quietly over to the other wall. He would have to wait for Philip and Jacob to start shooting, and then he could take out these three. He doubted that they were willing to fight, they just wanted supplies and would most likely just run off, especially the one holding the other’s horses.

  Philip and Jacob had heard the can get knocked over. One hid underneath the desk and the other behind a couch, as the men made their sweep through the room.

  The library had double sliding doors. The mercs that checked this room had left them partially open, so they each snuck up, one on each side of the doors, waiting for them to return. As they waited, their anxiety mounted and then they heard the two men approach.

  They had previously worked out a plan on how to shoot the men. Jacob would stay high, and Philip would kneel down, making sure neither of them would be in the direct line of fire.

  The mercs walked straight up to the safe, and one shined his flashlight on the upper wall. They heard one of the men say, “I kept seeing Brad look up here for the combination. I just never could figure it out.” He looked at the stamped numerals in the molding. He knew it was a three number combination, and had to be entered correctly.

  Joe watched the other men carry out some food. They were filling up their saddlebags and backpacks. There was nothing he could do but wait. Once the shooting started, his job was to keep these three out of the fight.

  Before long, they had finished loading the food. He heard the two walking back in and one said, “Let’s see if the two geniuses figured out how to open up the safe.” They walked to the library and as they approached the safe one asked, “Any luck?”

  One of the men said, “I can’t figure it out. Do you know what Roman numerals stand for?”

  One of the men said, “I recognize up to about number five, but that’s not going to help us with this.” He looked up and read the letters; MCMX, MCMLIV, MMXII. Is that supposed to be three different numbers?”

  Another one said, “I vaguely remember this from school.”

  The other said, “I have no idea what it’s supposed to be. I thought it was simple, like the last two numbers. I think MX stands for 110, IV, stands for 15, and II stands for 22. The only problem is the safe only goes up to 90.”

  One of them suggested, “What if it’s the first two? M stands for one, and C stands for one, so the first number would be eleven. M stands for one, D stands for 50, so the second number, I don’t know, maybe 51? And if MM stands for 22, then try 11-51-22.”

  The man at the combination tried it and grabbed the handle, hoping it would swing open, but it stayed rigidly locked in place.

  The man that appeared to be their leader, said, “All right, I think we’ve wasted enough time. Let’s just get out a here.”

  “You’re right. This is a waste of time. We should just get out.” said another one, adding, “Where do you think we should go?”

  The man that seemed to be in charge, said, “Were going to Kentucky. I have an old friend there. He has a really nice set up. He’s been storing supplies for years. He should be a great guy to work for.”

  Another said, “Are we going to pay these peasants back?”

  “No, we’ve lost enough good men over this place. It’s time to move on.”

  Philip had second thoughts about killing these men. He thought they should just let these men go. There’s been enough killing. But Jacob had other ideas. He was still in the revenge mode.

  As the men started walking down the hallway, he stepped out and started firing. Philip had no choice but to join in.

  They dropped two of them, but the other two ran for the door. Joe was waiting and cut both of them down. He ran for the front door to get the man on the horse and had his rifle to his shoulder. He looked out until he could see the man. The man was ready for him and opened up as he dove for cover.

  He heard the horses gallop off. Stepping out on the porch, he emptied his magazine at the man, but in the darkness, and with the muzzle flash, he was unable see if he had got him. He saw the man racing out the front gate down the road. The other horses scattered in the yard.

  Going back into the house, Joe called down the hall, “Jacob, Philip, are you all right?”

  They replied, “Yes, we’re fine.”

  He walked down the hall and made sure all four men were dead.

  He anxiously asked, “Did they get it open?”

  Philip said, “No, but we did learn something.” Grabbing one of the dead mercs flashlights, he shined the light up on the symbols. “They have something to do with the combination.”

  Joe studied the inscription and asked, “Roman numbers? But what do they mean?”

  Phillip said, “We over heard one of the mercs say that Brad kept looking up at those numerals when he opened the safe.”

  Joe said, “It would sure make our life easier if we could just open it up. Otherwise we are going to have to go through one of the walls from the back, top, sides, or the bottom, but we’ll worry about it tomorrow, when we have full daylight.” Pointing to the Roman numerals, he said, “Somebody’s got to know what these stand for.”

  They dragged the bodies out into the woods and gathered the horses they could find, taking them to Philip’s place.

  The next day, Jane and Joe came back to the mansion and together they searched the library, trying to find an encyclopedia or something that would explain the Roman numerals. They finally found one.

  They read that I equals one, V equals five, X equals 10, L equals 50, C equals 100, D equals 500, and M equals a thousand.

  The numbers inscribed above the safe, MCMX is 1910, MCMLIV stand for 1954, and MMXII is 2012.

  They looked at each other, both perplexed as to how those dates would represent the safes combination.

  Jane said, “This could take us days to figure out. Maybe it’s just the middle number of each date, 1-5-1?”

  They tried it no luck. Philip walked in and asked, “How is the mystery coming?”

  “Not so well.” Jane sighed, “We figured out what the Roman numerals mean, but none of them work. We have tried 1-9-10, 1-9-54 and 2-0-12, all with no luck.”

  Philip shook his head in disgust. “Well, I have more bad news. Back before the world ended, one of our guys was part of the original construction crew here. He said this part of the house is built on a solid slab of 2-feet thick, reinforced concrete, and there is no basement. They had to hire a special crane to put this monster safe in place. It’s 10’ x 15’ and has 2-inch thick armor plated steel. It takes a special torch to cut in to it. I think we might have to give up on this if you can’t figure it out.”

  Joe said, “It must be pretty darn important for him to spend that kind of money. Something that’s worth our time to figure out. We are just going to have to figure it out, even if it takes us days or even weeks.”

  Philip told them, “
Okay. I’m going to supervise the distribution of all the supplies that we have already taken. You two stay here as long as it takes, or until you give up, it’s up to you and I hope you figure it out. I’ll be back in the morning to check on things.”

  Jane found a piece of paper and a pen. “All right honey, from now on, we’ll write down every number you try. That way we’re not wasting time retrying the same numbers.”

  Joe agreed and said, “Okay let’s try it backwards this time. You write and I’ll try the numbers. Zero – nine – 91.” Joe cussed, “Damn it. All of this is so frustrating. The dial only goes to 90, so that can’t be it.”

  Jane told him to calm down. “It’s all right. That’s a good idea, but try the next one; four –five – 19. If 91 won’t work, maybe 19 will.”

  Joe tried it, no luck.

  “Okay, try zero – one – 10.”

  Again Joe tried it without any luck.

  Jane shook her head, “Do you think it’s got some kind of failsafe built-in, like after three failed attempts, it won’t open, even with the right combination?”

  Joe looked at her with a frown, “You just had to throw that in there, didn’t you, but how would it work if there’s no electricity.”

  “I have no idea. I’m not a professional safecracker.” Jane said. “Let’s give it a break and then try three combinations every hour.”

  They found a grandfather clock in the hallway. The type with a bell that rang on the hour, so they set the time for one hour from then. They figured out three more combinations to try for the next hour.

  Nine – 54 – 90, 10 – 54 – 19, and the last one 10 – 19 – 90, all with the same results, they did not unlock the safe. The day clicked by and every hour they tried a new set of three combinations.

  They started wandering around the mansion, both too worked up and frustrated. It was time to walk away. Too many numbers, too many combinations.

  They explored the master bedroom and found a king size bed with a canopy, and fancy silk hanging on the corners. It looked like something you would expect to find in some castle for Kings and Queens.

  Jane looked at Joe, saying, “It’s almost dark out, and I’ve always wanted to feel like a queen. Why don’t you go find a tux to wear? Get cleaned up and look like a King. I’ll look around see if I can find a beautiful dress for me to wear. Let’s pretend were rich and everything’s fine for this evening.”

  Joe smiled, nodded his head and went towards what must be a dressing room. Jane found a beautiful flowing long dress that Brad must have had for one of his mistresses. She sat down and fixed her makeup, put on some expensive French perfume, and then admired herself in the mirror.

  Joe found a nice tux and discovered that there was pressurized water in the bathroom. It probably came from gravity flow from a storage tank somewhere. He took a shower, shaved, and got dressed in a nice tux, putting on some cologne he found in the bathroom.

  He met Jane for dinner in the master dining room. Jane had found some MRE’s, put them on the fancy plates and serve them dinner with the fine crystal and real silver table ware. She had found the wine cabinet and opened a bottle of wine to have with dinner.

  “She said, “I’m sorry sir but it’s the maids night off.” She giggled like a little girl playing dress-up.

  Joe said, “That’s quite okay my dear, I wouldn’t want anybody to distract me from your beauty.”

  They drank the wine, and Joe laughed saying that it was probably some $2,000.00 a bottle wine. They drank and laughed and spent the evening enjoying each other’s company. They retired to the master bedroom to fulfill Jane’s dream of being a queen.

  About 6:30 that morning, shaking him, Jane woke Joe up, “I figured it out. I know what we did wrong.”

  Joe, still half-asleep, said, “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t think we did anything wrong last night. Didn’t you have a good time? I know I did.”

  “Not that silly, I know what we’re doing wrong with the safe combination. It’s not Roman numerals; it’s our alphabet using numbers.”

  She jumped out of bed, naked and shivering, she started quickly throwing on or clothes. “Come on come on, get up. I’ve got it figured out. This is going to work, I just know it will. This is the answer, trust me.”

  “God lady, would you at least make me some coffee first, before you start on this.”

  “Go make it yourself, I have to go figure this out. That’s why you brought me here isn’t it?”

  “Okay, okay, lady. I’m moving.” Joe stumbled downstairs and met her in front of the safe. “All right, what’s this big master plan?”

  Jane smiled as she jotted down something on the paper. “It’s so simple. I should have figured it out sooner. You take our alphabet and assign it a number in order. The letter A equals one, B equals two, and so on, all the way to Z.”

  “So, using MCMX, MCMLIV, and MMXII, I would use the last number from all three, so we just have to figure out what X, V, and I equals in our alphabet, and I’ll bet you that’s it.” She started writing the numbers down next to the letters, mumbling as she did it.

  A – 1, B – 2, C-3, D-4, E-5, F-6, G-7, H-8, I-9, J-10, K-11, L-12, M-13, N-14, O-15, P-16, Q-17, R-18, S-19, T-20, U-21, V-22, W-23, X-24, Y-25 and Z-26.

  “V equals 22, X equals 24, and I equals 9.”

  Joe dialed the numbers and then yanked on the handle. Nothing. “See I told you, coffee first.”

  “No, no, no. This has to be it. We just have to play with this idea.” Jane was sure this was the answer and that they just had to play with the combinations of numbers.

  Joe stumbled off to the kitchen. “I’m making coffee. Don’t bother me until I’ve had at least one cup.”

  Most of the food and supplies had been removed, but there was a pantry that hadn’t been cleaned out yet, and Joe found coffee and a stove-top coffee pot. The stove still worked, as it was a gas stove and there was a large propane storage tank outside.

  Jane thought, “Fine. I’ll do it myself.” It would have to be something simple that would be easy to remember by just glancing at the inscription. It had to be just one of the three. She picked up her pad and wrote down 24-22-9, it failed. Using the third letters this time she tried 13-13-24. It also failed. Using the second letters this time, she tried 3-3-13. She grabbed the handle and pulled . . . to her amazement, it dropped down and opened. She thought, “Oh my God. I was right.” She did a little dance and hopped around in delight.

  She had to contain her joy and didn’t want to scream out to

  Joe, just yet.

  She glanced inside, seeing racks of pistols, shotguns, rifles, cases of ammo, and much more. She smiled and smugly thought, “Ha, ha Joe. I’m the smart one.”

  She closed the door without latching it, leaving the handle down. She walked into the kitchen as Joe was making a Mountain House breakfast skillet. A really good combo of hash browns and scrambled eggs, mixed with pork sausage, peppers and onions.

  She walked up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist from the back and said, “Smells great. When is it going to be ready?”

  “Oh my God.” Joe said as he turned around. Mr. Rich guy has real coffee. Colombian supreme, a hand crank coffee mill, and tons of Mountain House food. We are going to live like Kings and Queens, if we stay here this winter.”

  “Great.” said Jane, “That food and coffee sure does smell good.”

  She smiled and said, “I wonder what he has locked up in that safe? I bet it’s something really good and important.” She was busting to tell him, but waited.

  Joe pulled the skillet off the propane stove. Dished up a serving for each of them, and filled up their coffee cups.

  “Let’s eat, and then go play with numbers and combinations.”

  They finished breakfast, walked back to the library and over to the safe. Jane still had not said a word. The handle was still down. Joe didn’t noticed, and asked her what combination he should try next.

  She started giggling
. Jane busted out laughing. “I don’t know honey, what number would you like to try.” Laughing even harder.

  He looked at her and frowned, “What has gotten in to you woman? Did you put laughing sugar in your coffee?”

  Jane was still giggling. Trying to sound like a rough tough guy, she said, “What is it that you always tell your trainees? You must always be aware of your surroundings, and if something changes, you should to be the first to notice.”

  Joe was starting to get angry. He looked all around the room. He looked at all the numbers, and then he finally looked at the safe, noticing the handle was down. “Oh my God. You figured it out, and didn’t say a word to me.”

  Jane was still laughing. “I told you that I was right. It was the second letters.”

  After she let him absorb that, she said, “Wait until you see what is inside.” She pulled open the heavy metal door, and automatic LED lights lit the inside of the room up.

  As Joe looked around the room, he exclaimed, “It’s a dream come true. Thank God for paranoid millionaires.”

  There had to be at least 25 AR-15’s, and hundreds of magazines. A table in the center of the room was loaded with ammo stripper clips and assorted other goodies. And there were 10 Kel-Tec KSG 15-round shotguns. They were bullpup design, pump-action, 12-gauge, combat shotguns used for urban tactical operations. Talk about space age looking weapons.

  Joe couldn’t believe what he was looking at. Wow, they had hit the mother load. He also discovered, in a special case, a McMillan Tac-50 Tactical Rifle. It is a .50 caliber sniper’s dream rifle. It’s capable of engages targets beyond 2000 meters. This bolt action rifle has superior accuracy, compared to the other semi-automatic rifles.

  Joe said, “If we only had this when facing the Rainbow Warriors, we could have sniped their whole artillery crew. This is a dream come true I can’t wait to show off everything.”