Conflicted Home (The Survivalist Book 9)

by A. American

  Her head eagerly bobbed up and down, “Yep!”

  “Should we bring our guns?” Taylor asked.

  “You’re leaving the house, aren’t you? What do you think?” I replied.

  “Told you,” Lee Ann said to Taylor, adjusting the sling of her H&K on her shoulder.

  I glanced at Mel and smiled. She had her holstered Glock on her hip. She wasn’t a fan of the Springfield. The grip was too large for her hand and the .45 caliber recoil was too punishing. But the 9mm, she really liked. The Glock 19 grip fit her hand and the recoil was far more manageable.

  Danny, Bobbie, Thad and Mary were in the yard when we arrived. “Y’all ready for this goat rope?” I asked.

  “Should be fun,” Thad relied.

  I shook his hand, then Danny’s, asking, “You going too?”

  He nodded, “Yeah. I’m going. Bobbie and the kids are coming too.”

  I smiled. “Cool. Little Bit will have a good time with them.”

  “I’m going to drive the truck. Y’all hop in the back,” Thad said.

  But the little truck was too small for all of us. We let the kids get in the back, and Danny, Mel and I walked up the road behind the truck. Lee Ann and Taylor kept the kids down inside the bed of the truck. As we made our way to where all the trucks were waiting, Mel asked, “You don’ think there’s going to be any trouble today, do you?”

  I shook my head. “No. There might be some pushing and shoving, but that’s about it.”

  “I’m a little nervous taking all the girls with us. We’ll all be in the same place, you know.”

  I wrapped my arm around her. “We’ll be fine, babe.”

  Sarge was busy getting everyone in order, sorting out who would drive what. Just like on our trip to get all of this, I would drive the fuel truck. There were three seats in it, so I told Mel to grab Little Bit and put her in the center seat. She thought that was the coolest thing ever, riding in the big Army truck, as she put it. Lee Ann and Taylor would ride in Sarge’s big War Wagon, with Aric, Fred and Jess.

  Perez was leaned against the side of the five-ton truck, smoking cigarettes of course. He was going to drive it with Ian and Jamie along for the ride. I walked over and kicked the toe of his boot. “You know you can’t smoke in that truck. Army regs and all,” I couldn’t help but smile.

  He laughed, showing his yellowed teeth. Pointing at me with a cigarette, he replied, “You’re funny.”

  Sarge called everyone together. “All right, everyone, gather ‘round!” We all grouped around him. “This shouldn’t be a big deal today. We’re going to stop in Altoona, then move to Umatilla, before ending up in Eustis. At each stop, we’re going to hand out supplies to the folks there. We have supplies dedicated to give to the Guard troops in Eustis. Kay knows who’s getting what.”

  “We also have special packages for certain people,” Kay added.

  Sarge nodded. “We put together packages for Cecil, the Eustis PD and Judge Mitch.” Sarge pointed to the civilians in our group, “You people will be doing the distribution.” He then circled his finger over his head and pointed to his guys, “We’ll be providing security. We will not tolerate any violence from these folks. I know they’re hungry, but we’re here to help them. If things get out of hand, we’ll fire warning shots in the air. You folks just hunker down. If, and I seriously doubt this will happen, there is any sort of an exchange of gun fire, you will be inner security. Let us handle it, unless someone gets through us and to the trucks. Then it’s up to you to stop them.” He looked around at the faces gathered around him and asked, “Any questions?”

  There probably were, but no one asked any and we quickly climbed into our trucks and got ready to go. I was sitting in the truck, the engine idling, when Wallner walked up. I opened the door so I could talk to him, “What’s up?”

  He paused for a minute before answering. “Uh, me and the guys have talked. We’re not going back to the armory. We’re staying here. We’re providing security while you guys are gone today and will from now on.”

  I was surprised. I knew they didn’t want to leave. But it seemed kind of like desertion to me. But then, these weren’t normal times and just because they were here didn’t mean they were shirking their duty.

  “Well, that’s not up to me, buddy. We like having you guys here. But I’m sure Sheffield will be a little pissed about it.”

  He shrugged. “He’s still got over forty people there. Besides, we’ve already talked to Top. He said we can stay.”

  “I guess the old man will take it up with Sheffield,” I replied.

  He patted the door of the truck, “Good luck today.”

  I smiled back at him, “This’ll be a milk-run, buddy. We’ll see you in a couple of hours”

  Sarge pulled out and all the vehicles fell in behind him. When I finally made it to the county road, I found the line of trucks stopped. Sarge came over the radio, “Y’all wait here. I’m going to take a package to Gena real quick.”

  “That’s really nice,” Mel said. “I’d like to go visit her.”

  “We can do that,” I replied. “Once we get back, we’ll take a ride over there.”

  “I like Miss Gena,” Little Bit shouted.

  We waited on the road, trucks idling for Sarge to get back. The radio broke again, it was Ted.

  “Pull up the Guard’s net. They’ve got something going on.” He announced.

  I pulled the radio from my vest and switched to the frequency.

  …..know where they went.

  Sandbag Four, Big Town Six. What was their last known location?

  Moving west on citrus from our current position.

  Big Town Seven, Big Town Six. You copying this?

  Affirmative, Big Town Seven. I’m putting together a patrol now to go find them.

  Suddenly, Sarge’s voice came over the radio. “Big Town Six, Stumpknocker. SITREP?”

  There was a long pause. “Stumpknocker, we’re looking for an OPFOR recon unit spotted on citrus, moving west.”

  “Big Town, we’ll be at your location shortly.”

  “Unnecessary, Stumpknocker. We’ll handle this.”

  “Teddy, switch back to our freq,” Sarge said.

  “What’s going on?” Mel asked.

  I shrugged. “Sounds like the guys in Eustis saw something. I know they have an observation post out on the trail, on the other side of Mount Dora. Maybe they saw something over there.”

  “Is it still safe to go to town?”

  “Oh yeah. There wasn’t any shooting or anything. He said it was a recon unit; who knows what that was exactly. But a recon unit isn’t designed to fight head to head.” I didn’t tell her they could be the lead of a larger force. But there hadn’t been any word of anything larger headed our way. I switched my radio as well to hear what Sarge had to say.

  “Teddy, you keep an ear on that net. Let me know if they come up with anything else.”

  “Roger that, boss.”

  Then Sarge made another comment, “Big Town. What a jackass.” I had to laugh. He cracked me up.

  “What’s he talking about?” Mel asked as we started moving again.

  Smiling, I replied, “He’s mocking Sheffield’s call sign.” I glanced over at her, “Just being Sarge.”

  When the market in Altoona came into view, I said, “Alright, babe. I’m going to hang out near this truck. But I’ll be keeping an eye on you guys.”

  She was craning her neck to see where the vehicles were going. “Okay. Look at all those people. I didn’t know there were so many around. You never see them.”

  She was talking about the crowd gathered at the market. There had to be close to a hundred. It was the most people I’d ever seen out here. The trucks and trailers with the food pulled into the parking l
ot as the crowd parted like a wave. They immediately started trying to climb into the truck and trailer. But Dalton had been riding in the back of the truck, lying on the bags of food. He started pushing, kicking and throwing people off the truck.

  The radio quickly came to life, “Teddy, get some rounds out of that deuce! Put their heads down!”

  The Stryker pulled out into the entrance of the parking lot and the big machinegun started to thunder. It sent the people scattering. Dalton climbed up onto the cab of the truck and started shouting.

  “That’s enough of that shit! You’re not animals! Line up like damn adults! There’s enough here for all! But the next person that tries to climb onto this truck, I’ll shoot in the face! Now, line up!”

  Between the warning shots and the image of an AK-wielding mad man standing on top of the truck, the crowd calmed down and started to form a civil line. It was then, once things were settled down, I told Mel to go over and help. But I decided the truck was fine. The Stryker was sitting close by, no one would mess with it. I wanted to be close to Mel and the girls.

  We moved into the crowd, making our way to the back of the trailer connected to Sarge’s Hummer. There were enough people at the truck. Danny and Bobbie were working from the Hummer, so we went to help them. The people were eager, very eager, and peppered us with questions about what was in the bags.

  I stood watch as bags were handed out as fast as they could be. Some people tried to take more than one, but were quickly pushed along and they didn’t resist. I don’t blame them; if you don’t try, you can’t succeed. But I think it was the presence of the kids that contributed the most to keeping things under control. We had the kids in the trailer handing the bags out to the people. As hungry and desperate as they were, they were still struck by the sight of little kids handing them food.

  Little Bit handed a bag to a woman. She looked at it and asked, “What’s in it?”

  “Pancakes and biscuits! We had biscuits this morning!” Little Bit shouted.

  The woman looked at me, the question painted on her face. “There’s a lot of stuff in there,” I said. “Flour, rice, canned meat. All kinds of stuff. Be sure to get a hygiene bag too. They have soap, toothbrush and paste. Stuff like that.”

  As she was being pushed by those behind her, she asked, “Where did all this come from? What took so long to get it?”

  I gently gripped her shoulder, ushering her along as I replied, “It’s coming from other countries. They’re starting to help.”

  She looked at the bag with tears in her eyes, “God bless ‘em!”

  It only took about thirty minutes to hand bags out to everyone there. In most cases, as soon as they had their precious loot, they quickly left for home to inspect their packages in private and relative safety. In a couple of cases, people simply moved to the edge of the crowd and immediately tore their bag open. Word quickly spread about what was in them. People were at the same time happy and befuddled by the contents.

  Things like canned meat, fruit and veggies were eagerly accepted. The flour though, caused some to complain. Asking, “What are we supposed to do with this? We don’t have ovens?”

  I was asked this question by a man and quickly replied, “Make pancakes. Cook them on a griddle. Make bannock, wrap it around a stick and cook it over a fire.”

  The man looked at the bag of flour, turning it over in his hand. Then replied, “I remember doing that as a kid in the Scouts.”

  I smiled, “Then you remember how good it was.”

  The man smiled back, “It was good. My boy’s never had it. He’s going to get a surprise tonight.” He then looked at me and asked, “Are there going to be more deliveries like this?”

  I shrugged with uncertainty, “I really can’t say. It wasn’t easy getting this. Don’t plan on it. If it happens, then all the better.”

  He thrust his hand into mine, “Thank you for getting this, Sheriff. If we ever get to vote again, you’ll have mine for life.”

  I shook his hand and laughed, “Thank you. But it ain’t a job I want for life.”

  As soon as it looked like we’d passed all the bags out, I went to the trailer and grabbed several bags and took them over to Mario and Shelly. They’d been watching the show from the seat of their UTV. “Well, that was interesting,” Mario said as I walked up.

  I placed the bags into the bed of the UTV and laughed. “Yeah. Once they settled down, it wasn’t too bad.”

  “The way they swarmed the trucks when you first got here, I thought it was going to go a lot different,” Shelly said.

  “Me too,” I quickly replied.

  Shelly picked up one of the bags. Holding it up, she said, “Thanks for this.”

  I nodded. “You guys do a lot for everyone. Only fair you should get some too.”

  “Yeah, but we’re doing better than most. We have something everyone wants. Unlimited supply of it,” Mario said.

  “I was thinking about that. How’s security out there?” I asked.

  Mario rolled his eyes. “It’s never ending. Like I said, everyone wants it. We give a lot away, trying to help people. But some people try to sneak in and take it.”

  “We’ve lost some hives,” Shelly added.

  I nodded. “I’m going to see if we can help you with that. Your hives are a huge benefit to the community. We need to support you guys.”

  “How?” Mario asked.

  “We could put some Guardsmen out at your place. You’ve got forty acres out there to secure. You could use some help.”

  Shelly looked at Mario, “John would appreciate the help.”

  Mario shrugged, “It would make things easier.”

  “Yeah,” Shelly laughed, “we could actually get some sleep.”

  “That would be nice,” Mario agreed. “Most of the trouble comes at night.”

  “Come on, Morgan!” Sarge shouted. “We got shit to do!”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll catch you guys later,” I said as I headed for the truck where Mel and Little Bit were waiting.

  Once I was up in the truck, Mel said, “That was kind of scary.”

  “Maybe in the beginning. But things calmed down quickly,” I replied.

  “I thought it was fun!” Little Bit added.

  “I hope the next time is less fun,” Mel replied.

  We did things differently in Umatilla. There were more people here. Sarge had the Stryker pulled right into the parking lot. I told Mel to wait in the truck and got out and walked over to the parking lot where Dalton, Ian and Perez were making a visible show of force. It worked and the people backed away, to wait under the old gas canopy. There was no trading going on today, everyone was waiting for the promised food delivery.

  Once we had the people out of the way, I addressed them. “Alright, we will do this in an orderly fashion. You will form a line and act like adults. There’s enough here for everyone, so there’s no need to push and shove. We will not tolerate or allow this to get out of hand. Are we in agreement?” Many of the faces nodded back as they whispered amongst themselves.

  I turned around and waved the trucks in. They moved into the parking lot and parked. As things were getting set up, I walked back over to the truck and told Mel that she and Little Bit could go over and help. This time, things did go differently. The initial show of force had the desired effect as everyone lined up in an orderly manner and patiently waited for their turn.

  There was a lot of excitement among the people when they received their package. Some tore them open immediately, just as in Altoona. Others quickly spirited theirs away. Here too, we were peppered with questions about what was in them. Was more coming? Where did it come from? We answered the questions as best we could, telling them we didn’t know if there would be more.

  I stepped over and looked into the back
of the truck, surprised to see the amount of supplies that still remained. Despite the amount we’d already handed out, which was considerable, there was still a mountain remaining. But that was a good thing, because we had not yet been to Eustis where there were the most people.

  This stop at Umatilla went much faster, despite the fact there were more people. Altoona provided a couple of lessons that we quickly learned from. Umatilla provided more, which was good, as the main show was about to start when we moved down highway nineteen towards Eustis. As we drove, Sarge called Ted on the radio, “Keep an ear on their net. Let me know if anything else comes up.”

  “Roger, boss. I’ve been monitoring it. They say a couple of thin-skinned trucks came through. Doesn’t sound like much to worry about.”

  “Just keep me updated.”

  We rolled into Eustis and parked on the road in front of the armory. We never came to town to deliver the message that food was coming, but we did tell Scott and Terry to pass the word. It must have made it because there was a large crowd gathered at the park down the road from the armory. Before we were even stopped, Sheffield and Livingston were stomping their way out of the armory and towards the trucks.

  “Keep her in the truck,” I said, referring to Little Bit. “I have a feeling this is going to get ugly.”

  “We’ll wait here,” Mel replied.

  I got out and made my way up towards the old man’s Hummer. Livingston pointed at the Hummer, saying something. I saw Sheffield nod his head as he stepped into the street.

  He immediately stepped in front of Sarge, jabbing his finger in his face, and started shouting. “You fucking lied to me! You said you needed my people for something up your way, some bullshit you made up! Just so you could sneak off!”

  Sarge held his hands up, trying to calm him. “Now calm down, Captain. Just relax and let me explain where we went.”

  But Sheffield wasn’t about to give him the time. “I don’t give a shit! You lied through your ass! Did you forget who’s in charge around here?” He gripped his collar, holding his insignia out, “In case you forgot, I am, asshole!”