by A J Newman
“Callie, put your gear on and come with me. I’m going down to the barn to see if I can find something to make a snow plow for Roger’s Bronco. This snow will be too deep to plow by tomorrow night.”
“Okay, just give me a minute. Hey, while we’re there let’s look for some games to help our stay. We need some beanbag toss games or anything that can be played indoors. Every camp I’ve ever been to had that stuff.”
The wind was blowing so hard it made them unsteady as they walked towards the barn. Each step had to be deliberate and vertical because one couldn’t swing a foot forward in the deep snow. Paul turned his flashlight on, opened the sliding barn door and entered with his pistol ready.
The pole barn was 60x40 feet and contained two older tractors and one new one, several mowing machines along with the expected weed eaters and other lawn mowing gear.
Callie saw some lawn furniture on the left side while Paul turned right towards the tractors. One had a bucket on the front and a box blade on the back. These would work, but he really wanted a grader blade for the tractor.
Paul checked the tractor out and then tried to start it, but the battery was dead. Callie yelled for him to join her as he climbed off the tractor.
“Paul, I found some games and a big hunk of metal that would make a great grader blade.”
Paul walked over to Callie, saw the hunk of metal and gave her a big hug.
“Darling, that is a grader blade. Let’s go get Roger and get his Bronco down here to jumpstart the tractor and install the grader blade.”
Paul started to walk away when it dawned on him that the wall was covered in animal traps. There were small ones for squirrels and martins all the way up to large ones for bear and lions.
“I need to tell Zack about these. We could catch some game.”
Callie added, “Or some two legged varmints.”
Roger, Mike and I came down to work on the tractors. We quickly checked them all and decided to put the blade on the other old tractor and use both to clear the driveway because the new one had electronics.
Both old ones were diesel and hard to start in this cold weather. I found a 5 gallon can with the anti-gel additive and added the correct amount to the fuel while Roger got the first tractor ready to jump. It took several attempts before we got the first one running, but the second fired right up.
Before we finished Paul showed me the animal traps, my first thought was game and the second was humans. I guess the Callie apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
I got off the tractor and said, “Paul, you found the tractors and blade, so you get to plow first.”
“Actually Callie found the blade, but I’ll do the honors.”
He drove out of the barn, lowered the blade and started to plow. It took about a half hour before we got the angle on the blade set right to give the best results and even then, it took three runs to clear part of the driveway. We took turns the rest of the day and had the driveway cleared all the way down to the lake. We stopped when Lynn called us in for supper.
We came in from plowing snow to the hallway and removed our cold weather gear and boots before entering the crowded dining room.
I was pleased to see that Bert was sitting at the table with his wife and daughter. I was also pleased that the six new girls were mixing in with our people. I hadn’t even tried to remember their names because I believed they would be gone when the snow cleared.
I saw Ally walking towards Callie and with three open seats; I started to sit down in the middle seat when Ally nudged me over to the one next to Callie. I wondered why she was so assertive when I saw the cute red head sit down in the last open seat. Mama Bear was protecting Papa Bear from predators.
“Jackie how are you doing today,” Ally asked.
“Why thank you for asking; I am wonderful. I love the snow. I like cuddling up in front of the fire with a good book on a snow day.”
I noticed that she was wearing a tight blouse with no bra and skin tight jeans. She was husband shopping.
Ally replied, “Honey, you’d better put some clothes on. You must be freezing in that skimpy blouse.”
Thank God, Ally didn’t see me looking at Jackie.
I felt a poke in the ribs and Callie placed her head close to mine and said, “Dad, put your eyes back in your head. Ally will cut something off if she sees you looking at that her like that.”
Oh shit, as usual, I didn’t notice that we had six new good looking women that ranged from 16 to 25 in our group and every male was spoken for. A formula for disaster.
I bent over to Ally and whispered, “Hon, you women need to take these girls off to the side and give them some rules on surviving if they want to live with us a while. The first thing is how to wear proper clothes.”
Ally gave me a peck on the cheek and squeezed my hand. I had actually gotten some brownie points. I caught Callie later and told her that I appreciated the heads up.
“Well dad, you were staring at her breasts. No woman wants her man checking out another woman.”
“Darling it was hard not to notice as cold as it was in the room. I asked your mom to have the women have a talk with the girls and set some rules. We don’t need us fighting among ourselves and we sure don’t need any cat fights.”
“I already had to run that little blonde away from Paul twice and the next time I’m going to punch her ticket.”
“Whoa girl. You don’t have to worry about Paul; he only has eyes for his sweet wife. Back off until tomorrow. Give Ally and your mom a chance to explain things to these girls. Remember the world ended and a person alone in this world can quickly become a victim.”
“I know, and you can bet that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep those bitches away from my Paul.”
My sweet daughter could be a bit wicked when necessary and I didn’t know if I should be happy or sad. I look back at my story and it saddens me to see a 16 year old girl acting like a worldly 35 year old with combat experience. I guess it would be worse if she were a girly-girl in a post-apocalyptic world. At least she could take care of her family when the time comes and she is put to the test.
The days of mall shopping, texting all day and playing computer games are gone and survival is a full time job. An apple now means food and not a telephone. I’ll never miss all of the electronic toys, people ignoring each other at the supper table and watching zombies walking on the streets looking down at a damn smart phone.
I waited until supper was nearly over when I called Ally and Joan over to meet with me.
“Ladies, we have a problem. We are over staffed with women, and understaffed with men. I can see some hair pulling and general mayhem if we don’t nip this in the bud.”
Joan replied, “Are you referring to that red head that was poking her tits in your face until Ally stepped in between you two.”
“To put it bluntly, yes. Get our women together, have a peaceful discussion with these girls and lay down the law. I don’t want any half dressed women running around the camp. We rescued these girls and can’t throw them out in the cold, but we can’t have that kind of fighting in our little tribe.”
Joan replied, “We’ll get the women together and get a plan laid out before meeting with them. It could get dicey.”
Ally added, “I feel sorry for them, but no other woman is going to flirt with you.”
As always, Joan was right up front, and added, “Zack, could you work harder at rescuing some good looking men. Remember, I am the only woman from our team here without a man. It’s only been a couple of months since Chuck was killed, but my survival instincts tell me to pair up before the women in our group see me as a threat.”
I snickered and said, “I understand. The problem is that the men are being killed off in much higher numbers than women are. Our society has always cherished and protected our women. The new world will equalize out, as more women become fighters, as our women have.
Good or bad, that’s how it is in this screwed up post-apocalyptic world. Joa
n, we will scour the planet to find you a man just as soon as the snow clears. Hell, perhaps our friend, the sheriff of Rolling Hills, might have a lonely son.”
“Thanks, now I’m the desperate old hag.”
Oh, man, was I ever glad that I didn’t reply to that…whoa.
The talk with the six girls didn’t go as planned. Four of them immediately complied with our request and became part of the group. The red head and little blonde told Joan that they would dress as they wanted and would flirt with anyone they wanted. Joan and Ally came to me and filled me in on the results.
“I already knew the red head didn’t agree with the new rules because she dropped by and invited me to visit her later. I told her to get her happy ass to her room before I locked her in.”
Ally got red in the face and said, “I’ll kill the bitch if she comes after you again.”
Callie walked up in the middle of the conversation and yelled, “That little blonde haired whore left the meeting and tried to corner Paul in the supply room. I walked by when he threw her out the door. I’m with Ally; I’ll kill that whore if she touches Paul again.”
“Ladies, calm down. We’ll lock them in their rooms until we figure out what to do with them. I’ll lay down the law to them and let them know they can’t stay here.”
“And I’ll be by your side,” Ally exclaimed.
“Yes, Dear, and I’ll ask Mike to go with us.”
Mike and I entered the room where the two wayward women were held. Ally stood in the doorway.
“What part of our rules didn’t you understand? You were told to stop trying to steal another woman’s man and yet you went ahead and made another play for Zack. You’re lucky you weren’t shot.
This won’t be tolerated and as soon as possible we will take the two of you to Rolling Hills and you can stay there or go where you want, but you can’t stay here.”
The red head got up off the bed, walked up to me and stared at Ally as she said, “Can’t me and your bitch share you. Two women in bed is every man’s dream.”
Before I could react, Ally tackled the girl and was beating her senseless before Mike and I could pull her off. Ally was a raving mad woman, screaming, hitting and kicking the girl. Hell, she hit me twice before she realized she was hitting me.
“Ally, calm down.”
“You calm down, I’m going to kill that slut.”
“Whoa. You can’t kill an unarmed woman.”
“Watch me. I’d kill her just like the cockroach that she is,” Ally replied through clenched teeth.
“Mike, lock these women in their room and don’t let them out. Only let them out to use the bathroom.”
“Ally, come with me. We need to talk.”
Ally was still seething, and mumbling under her breath as we went to our room. I closed the door behind us, took her in my arms and kissed her passionately. Then I took her to bed and lay with her in my arms as she calmed down.
I was looking in her eyes when she spoke for the first time since we entered our room, “Zack, I love you and won’t live without you. No woman is going to take you away from me.”
I kissed her and said, “I love you and you are right; no woman can take me away from you. You can run me off, but no one will ever take me from you. Joan ran me off. I would have never left her otherwise.”
“Darling I believe you, but seeing that……that…..hussy trying to seduce you drove me crazy. Keep them locked up.”
“They will stay locked up until we dump them on Rolling Hills.”
Ally started kissing me and one thing led to another. We were getting dressed when I heard, “I wonder if Callie and Paul are using protection?”
“Damn, Ally, that was a buzz kill, but, yeah, I hope so. Please have a talk with them.”
“No, you talk with Paul and I’ll talk with Callie.”
“So I just walk up to Paul and say. Paul, practice safe sex with my daughter?”
“Yeah, well, something like that. You’ll find the right words. I’d really like some grandchildren, but not until things get stable.”
I spoke before I thought, “Or, we have a baby in nine months.”
She smiled, looked up to me and said, “A baby is welcome any time but yes, we need to be more careful.
Well that killed any further romance. I got dressed and went out to check on the guards.
✪✪✪
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Chapter 8
Intruders
The snow was now 30 inches deep with snowdrifts as high as 10 feet. We plowed with the tractors three times a day to keep up with the falling and drifting snow.
We were now two weeks into this seemingly unending snowfall. There had been only a few scattered days without snow falling and even then, snow was blown around making ever-deepening drifts.
Most of the clan was balking at pulling guard duty during the heavy snowstorm. Mike and I held firm and reminded them that a surprise attack could wipe us out, besides, what else did they have to do?
Damn, it was boring to say the least. Callie and Joan organized a beanbag league, canasta tournaments and several ongoing board games. My favorite was Risk. I was the master of strategy, warfare and general cheating to win. The games helped pass the time between our chores and guard duty.
I even continued the Bug Out Drills, which were even more unpopular than guard duty. I really liked this place, but knew we were open to attack from all sides and was eager to find a more secure location when the snow subsided.
***
The blonde quietly loaded food and water bottles into two backpacks while the red head took Lynn’s pistol and stole cold weather gear. They dressed, slung the backpacks on their backs and left just after midnight.
The blonde asked, “Jackie, how will we find our way in the snow?”
Jackie answered, “Easy, see the tops of the fence posts on both sides of the road. We turn right at the end of the driveway and stay between the posts until we hit Highway 231 and make a right. That takes us into Rolling Hills. They will take us in and we will find some men to take care of us.”
“How do you know this?”
“I was raised in Idaho and we had snow drifts every year. We had snow mobiles and played in worse storms than we’ll ever have here. Let’s go.”
They made it to 231 in short order and started trudging towards Rolling Hills.
“Jackie, I hate those people and if we get a chance, I want to get even with those bitches.”
“Yes, I’ll kill that whore Ally. Zack liked me and I know it.”
They kept walking for the next several hours until the sun came up.
“Jackie, let’s take another break. My ass is dragging.”
“Yeah, I’m tired, too.”
They were talking when Jackie pointed to smoke rising from the woods on the left side of the road about half a mile away.
“Come on. Let’s find out who has a warm fire. This time we need to be careful trying to take a man away from his wife. Maybe she needs to have an unfortunate accident. A few weeks without female companionship and our problems go away.”
***
The Campground
“Zack, they’re gone.”
“Who’s gone?”
“The two girls that were locked up. They overpowered Lynn last night, tied and gagged her and then ran away. They stole food, guns and cold weather gear.”
“Is Lynn okay?”
“Yes, her pride’s hurt, but she wasn’t injured.”
I thought for a minute and said, “Good riddance. We probably couldn’t track them and unfortunately, they will die walking in circles in the woods. Call everyone together and let’s let them know about the escape.”
Everyone except the guards were assembled in the dining room when I walked in; I opened by saying, “Ladies, your men are safe now. The two captives escaped last night and are now wandering around in this foul weather. We are not going to put lives at risk searching for them.”
I looked over to the four frien
ds of the two wayward women, and said, “I’m sorry, but your friends will probably die out in this snow.”
One quickly replied, “Those two were a pain in the ass and none of us liked them. They were both scum before the lights went out and are still scum. Good riddance.”
“Well then, they won’t be missed.”
There were two days of calm with no snow and hardly any wind before another blizzard came roaring in. The snow fell, the temperature dropped, and the wind blew the snow sideways for three days.
We kept plowing through the storm, but now had to use the bucket on the tractor to move snow down the hill since there was no place to push it to the side. This was now a full time job; we had to rotate the work through our group along with guard duty. Everyone hated the task after the first day, but actually, it did break the boredom.
Just as suddenly as the fierce storm arrived, it left on the fourth day. The sun was out and the temperature hoovered just below freezing. The sun was welcome and several of the ladies sat by windows and let the sun stream in on them. I joined Ally in the sun light; the warmth and bright light made me feel great.
I was napping the second afternoon as the sun went down when I heard a shot, then several more. I put my cold weather gear on, grabbed my rifle and charged out the door with Mike, and Paul, behind me. We trudged up the hill towards the direction of the shots and saw Roger shooting at something. I looked in front of Roger and saw a dead deer and two wolves.
“Zack, keep an eye out. There is a wolf pack out there trying to get this deer. I saw the deer and shot it for the meat, when the pack ran out of the woods and charged us. Lynn and I shot several and they ran back into the woods.”
“I saw three dead wolves and another was trying to get up when Lynn shot it.
“Paul, would you go get the tractor with the bucket and take the deer down to the barn so we can dress it out?”