The Hunters

by T J Reeder

  The Long Lonely Road

  The Hunters

  Book Five

  By TJ Reeder

  2-1-2013

  All rights reserved

  Well yea I felt silly after the “Forrrwarrdd Hooo” thing, mostly because the sorry ungrateful jerks strung out behind my lead HV were laughing and honking their horns. Screw em, I hate em!

  Of course the traitor “whatsername” sitting beside me thought it was great fun and joined in by honking the horn right along with the great unwashed rabble. I hate her too for the moment and told her so, she said good with a sigh I still have your attention ! Where do women come up with this shit?

  But !! I’m smiling because this is about the first trip that ain’t started out with me getting shot or Wyatt killing some dirt bag that needed it but it sure makes the trip start on a downer, specially if yer the one getting shot!

  So all in all I’m in a good mood not withstanding the company I keep. Sandy finely looked at me and said “Oh stop brooding ya old fart it could be worse” “What could be I asked“? “Whatever it is your frowning about she said”

  “I’m not frowning” said I. “Bullshit” said she.

  Long day coming I’m here to tell ya.

  Well we’ve been on the road two weeks now and so far we’ve checked out several small towns that looked like a tornado with guns hit them. The coyotes and buzzards didn’t leave much so I guess it was town folks and raiders.

  Mostly they hadn’t burned out the places so we were able to scavenge our way thru them. Mostly of course the stuff like guns, booze, food were gone, but we weren’t interested in that stuff as we had all we needed.

  What we were really interested in was anything that would have value when life settled down and folks started building and creating and wanting, not to be confused with “Needing”.

  We all knew from our talks at night around the fires that tools, weapons, books, and of course the root of all evil, Gold and Silver and any other metals of value. Maybe not so much now as later but it was out here in safes that were still closed.

  It amazes me that to some people a nice rifle is more to be desired then a good book or a good quality wrench. I mean all have value and all will be a long time being replaced with new. But still since I ride along with more fire power then about anybody within a thousand miles so to me a good book is hard to beat.

  When you stop and think about it when will somebody start producing clothes again? Or good foot wear? Hell think of the every day uses of the simple plastic bags from Wal-Mart, they won’t be replaced for god knows how long, empty plastic gallon jugs.. Things we have always taken for granted are now things of value.

  So we are simply grabbing any and everything we can that will be a long way down the road for replacement.

  And it’s amazing even tho we all know how the raider/looter mind set works, that the average raider will fight thru the gates of hell for a jug of booze while walking over a new pair of good boots to be had for bending over and picking them up.

  Anyway while I digress I’m also starting to see that after only two weeks of this we are getting over loaded with stuff, all kinds of stuff, all useful and much needed stuff but still…too much stuff!

  After talking it over with the command group ( I snort in laughter) We decided we needed to find a place to warehouse our “stuff”.

  I think I heard something once about “stuff”, it may come back to me.

  So we looked at the maps of the area and since we were in the middle of nowhere there wasn’t a lot of looking to do.

  Finally Charley mentioned something we had overlooked as hard as that is to believe, not that Charley mentioned it, but that we missed it. Damn I hate it when I’m being sarcastic and it don’t come out right.

  Charley pointed at something out in the middle of the middle of nowhere. I asked what it was and he said “ Prison”, “Prison I said?” “Prison he said“. “So what do we want with a prison “ I asked already regretting it because I was sure I was gonna look stupid…….again

  Charley looked at me and with great patients said , “John what do they do with prisons? “ I knew I should have kept quiet, “They fill them with garbage!” I said with a smile coz I had him this time.

  Sandy just shook her head sadly and sighed. I would have glared at her but I was too busy glaring at Charley who was for the third time this century smiling.

  He said well they store garbage so we can store treasures there behind big walls and when it’s full we can find another to fill. I looked at him and finally said Charley if you had tits and wasn’t so damn ugly I’d kiss you right on the mouth!

  Well everybody laughed their ass off and you know who laughed the loudest. Charley just shook his head and said “sorry toots I don’t swing that way , I have sheep!”

  Now people were falling on the ground, some were bent over drooling, hell I even laughed and slapped him on the back. Stoic Indian my old wrinkled white ass!!!

  After we settled down and people got thru snotting and eye wiping I asked anybody if they had a clue what happened in the prisons when the lights went out. I know some just opened the doors, I had a run in or two with some of them.

  In the end we decided to just drive there and see for our selves. Which we did, but we did move in with caution since maybe the inmates were in charge.

  This place was a Federal Max type place designed to keep the real bad asses and was pretty new and with no towns anywhere close it was isolated and fully self contained or so the big sign on the road said. Along with turn back you are being watched.

  Charley had sent some of his scouts in close and they reported back the place was empty looking as if they just walked away. I had a horror thought of them just leaving the inmates locked up to die in a rather nasty way. Not that most didn’t deserve it but still.

  We moved in slow with the up armored HV’s leading the pack by a good distance with the gunners up. As we got close we saw the place looked empty but still bottled up.

  We stopped a ways back where we could see the guard towers clearly and several of the scouts went forward on foot to the main gate which was locked down.

  The scouts who drove around the place said it was all buttoned up and we were at a loss until a couple of the scouts walked to the wall and off to the side of the tower, one started swinging a rope with a grappling hook and tossed it up and over the railing and with a jerk pulled it back and hooked that top rail slick as snot on a glass door knob!

  The one who didn’t toss the rope and hook stripped off his heavy gear except for his pistol and went up that rope like a damn spider! It was awesome to see, that kid would have made one hell of a Marine! And I said so which caused Charley to smile and say that’s my grandson who was home on leave from the Marines when the lights went out. He got me again.

  He disappeared from sight and soon we heard the bolts being thrown on the big door which had to be dragged open since there was no power. We were in! In what? We had no idea, but we by god were there.

  As soon as the main gate was opened and the inner gate was open we drove the HV’s in and looked over the empty recreation area, nothing but some wind blown trash and empty windows looking back at us, at least we hoped they were empty.

  Everybody was on high alert and ready to just rain hell on anything that moved. There is nothing spookier then a empty prison or one you hope is empty. I was thinking about some of this movies where germs got loose and turned people into zombie like monsters “ Something Evil, can’t remember the name but damn it had a hot chick in it.

  Finally we got off the X and moved toward the admin area which was the main entry port for the rest of the prison. Charley took care of sending some of his scouts up into the towers to be look outs except this time they really wer
e looking out not in.

  The troops looked at the maps of the place on the walls and fanned out thru the place in fire teams, all had comm gear but hell it was not gonna do well in here. They all had weapons lights but it would be a spooky search for sure.

  After they took off we started going thru all the desks and file cabinets looking foe whatever we could find. It wasn’t until we found the wardens offing that we started finding some solid information. There was a big safe in the office so we called for the safe cracker crew who had learned how to peel most safes like an orange. We left them scratching their heads on this one while we kept looking.

  There were several papers that made mention of following the orders outlined in a previous letter which wasn’t here, all pretty cryptic if you asked me which nobody was going to.

  The scout teams started drifting back with word that the place looked like it hadn’t been deserted but more like mothballed. Empty cells with rolled up mattresses and blankets. No personal items in them.

  The crew who found the power plant said it had been shut down properly and left ready to resume powering the place.

  I made the comment that the EMP would have fried everything but the folks who knew said it looked like it was shut down before the EMP and in fact the whole place looked like it. There were calendars on desks and walls all still showing the month before the EMP.

  Well I got an itch right then that was saying this place was shut down because somebody knew what was coming and wanted these prisoners moved elsewhere for whatever reason. And I was beginning to think maybe they weren’t moved to save all us survivors from them. I’m so paranoid.

  With a loud shout the safe crew announced victory over the safe! We all rushed back to the safe room to find the door standing open !! And not busted open.

  I said how? The main safe cracker said well thru superior intellect and experience. I looked at his eyes smiling and said “ Oh bull shit, you found the combination didn’t you? He looked down for a moment and said yea we did and it was hidden so well too. He walked over to the desk and pulled out the center drawer and turned it over and there was a piece of paper tapped to the bottom with the numbers on it. I said” You gottas be shitting me! A super prison and the warden did that? We all laughed until we remembered the safe was open.

  We crowded around it but you know who weaseled in thru the crowd and took front row, the safe was big enough for her to stand up in or lay down, I smiled, She said “ John, I heard that”, how she does that I’ll never know but she gets me every time. I’ve about tired of thinking.

  She was handing out log books and we all took one and started scattering out to read.

  She kept rummaging around and soon said “ Holly shit!!” We all looked over at her and she tossed out a big bag of something that looked very much like white powder. Now one thing I learned as a cop was nobody with a half a brain sticks a knife into the bag and tastes the contents. Hollyweird not withstanding.

  But Joe left and came back with one of his dogs who headed right to the bag and started barking. That settled that. But why would the Warden of a fed pen have a couple pounds of coke or whatever in his safe ?

  We tossed around some thoughts such as the Warden was selling drugs to the inmates or maybe the Feds were somehow feeding it into the population as a means of keeping them doped down. Now there was a thought.

  But it seemed to me that adding a good measure of pot to their food would do a better job of calming them since I knew from experience that pot heads are very docile and I never had to fight one down. But you gotta listen to the crying when you pass the Pizza joint and refuse to get one to go.

  Regardless it was going to go away whatever it was. Sandy was still digging around in the safe when she squealed in that way that tells me she scored something cool. I looked over at her but she was just smiling and digging thru the safe.

  She tossed out a bunch of money, a lot of money, too much to be in a safe in a prison and all were used bills and rubber banded. Looks like the Warden was in business.

  At last one of the people sounded off with “ Here it is!!” holding up the letter we were looking for. She handed it to me and I read it out loud, Leaving out all the federal bullshit it said that the movement of all the inmates must be finished by a date that was thirty days before the EMP hit.

  Where they were going wasn’t mentioned nor why they were being moved. The letter said the place would be shut down and left ready to reopen at a moments notice and guarded by a small guard force from the outside. Who would be housed at a nearby place owned by the Government. Interesting, where was this nearby place?

  Charley had scouts out before I could look up from the letter, I just smiled at him. Now the mystery was solved and we owned the place what were we gonna do with it?

  And in answer there was a humming sound with some crackling sounds and the lights came on! The power crew had got it done!! A cheer was heard from all directions.

  After the lights were on the place seemed like a nice safe place to be, since we weren’t locked up in it. One of the troops came in looking for one of the wrecking crew to open a door, when asked what it was he said “Armory”. Guns is the magic word for clearing the room, We have enough crap to take down these walls but they were acting like kids at their first strip poker game with the cheer leaders.

  I just dropped into the Wardens very nice office chair and put my feet up and smiled at Sandy who was giving me the canary and cat smile. I pulled her into my lap and said ok shorty, spit it out. She giggled that same “AH HA!!” still giggling and reached into her shirt and under her body armor and pulled out the second sweetest thing you could wanna see a cute girl pull out of her shirt!!

  It was a Colt Combat Commander! The all steel one with real nice old stag horn grips and some after market improvements like an extended grip safety even tho with the commander hammer it wasn’t needed it was sweet.

  It was a 38 super which was real popular in the 30’s with the gangsters and later with the USPSA shooters before the 40 S&W came along, it kind of was considered the auto equivalent of the 357 magnum but I never knew enough about it to know one way or the other.

  I admired it a bit and handed it to her but she pushed it back and said it’s yours! I said honey I carry a 45.

  She just smiled and said well call it your Sunday going to meeting gun or as those crazy bastards in Texas call their fancy shiny toys

  “ Their BBQ guns“.

  She did have a point and I always wanted one so now I had one. I said now if there is a magazine or two causing her to smile and out of her cargo pockets she pulled 4 mags and 2 boxes of hollow point ammo. I asked her about a holster but she just smiled and said find your own!

  This was a job for the leather worker who makes her fancy leather gear. I mentioned him and she said let her handle it coz he would give her a better deal. Well hell so would I.

  I hugged her close and said “ Honey if we keep adding to the arsenal we pack we will be too tired to fight. She just laughed and said I’ll help you old man! I was to tired to spank her and she would like it so why bother.

  Now ya gotta realize I’m packing my old Gold Cup, and that Officers model she hauled out of that safe a while back and now she wants me to carry another 1911? Crap, I’ll really be tired if I did that. So I decided I’d have the leather dude make a shoulder holster set up like Reds, kinda like the Miami Vice rig that one dip shit carried. And I’d wear it when we had a BBQ or was rolling thru Death Valley. I also liked the Officers model in the ankle rig, takes a while to get used to but then you forget it.

  ( TJ…I once walked thru the doors of the Federal Building and spotted the check point, said “SHIT” out loud and spun around and went to my car and took my 45 Colt Defender from an ankle rig and my Boot knife from the right boot, and headed back in, the guards were laughing and one said forgot something huh? It’s was funny.

  By dark we were locked inside “Fort Navajo” and snuggled down for a good nights sleep in the
rooms built for the guard force. Sandy snagged the Wardens private quarters and with the power on there was hot water so a long shower was in order and it felt wonderful! And slippery which is all you need to know.

  With morning came another hot shower and soon the smell of food cooking which led us to find the guards cafeteria and hot coffee. The head cook came over and said “John, we opened the pantry and it’s loaded to the max with long term storage foods, canned meats as well” he was thrilled.

  Breakfast was bacon and reconstituted eggs which were good since we hadn’t had eggs for weeks, they made biscuits and had tins of real butter, well they had everything and it was hard to believe this place had sat empty for close to two years with nobody trying to break in, but hell who knew it was here and the guard force was here for a while at least so who knows.

  We now had all the comforts of home and a place to store the treasures we were saving. We had a place to return to and plenty of people to leave here to maintain it, in fact it was a good deal because we could break up into smaller teams and cover more ground and when out transports were full come home to relax for a while.