Prepper's Collapse: Prepper Post-Apocalyptic Survival Fiction

by AJ Newman

  Tom spoke to Kate and Granny B. “That Alan is either very good at public relations or pulling a great con job on us. I asked Bill and Greta to keep a sharp eye on him and his family.”

  Kate laughed. “I did the same.”

  Tom replied, “I guess one can’t be too cautious considering what we’ve been through.”

  Kate had a rough trip because riding the horse made her chest move from side to side and front to back. “Damn, are we there yet? My chest is hurting something fierce.”

  Tom kept a straight face. “I’ll rub it for you when we get to the cave.”

  “In your dreams. You ain’t touching me until this pain goes away.”

  ***

  Rick greeted them before they arrived at the entrance to the cave. “Aren’t you running a bit late?”

  “A wee bit. We ran into three lost souls and invited them to join the new community. I shot one of the men in the arm after he shot Kate in the chest. You know, just a normal day in the Clark family.”

  “Is Kate okay?”

  “Yes, but my chest feels like it was hit by a Mack truck.”

  Rick shook his head. “I can’t wait to hear this story.”

  Granny B and Jackie ushered Kate into the cave and onto a couch to rest while Tom filled Rick in on their trip. After the update, Tom said. “I promised we’d have Granny able to broadcast by the end of the day. We need to get this gear unpacked and set up. I wanted to be back at the ranch by late in the day. Now we won’t head home until tomorrow morning.”

  Rick said, “That’s actually good for what I have planned. The other day, Kate helped me get a couple of the drones working. I’ve been flying them around the area.”

  Tom was eager to fly the drones, so he rushed unloading the equipment and helped set the radio in place while Rick and James readied the balloon to go up after dark. They’d decided only to broadcast after the sun went down, so no one would spot the balloon. Granny B had noticed how antsy Tom was, so she shooed him out to see Rick.

  Tom walked out of the cave’s entrance and saw Rick and Jackie getting the drone ready to fly. The carrying case had DJI 1100 Pro Hexacopter printed on the side. Tom was sure this thing had been the love child of a ceiling fan and a video camera. It stood about four feet tall, had six propellers that covered a circle with a six-foot diameter, and had many widgets attached to the body in the center under the propellers. The landing gear was two vertical carbon fiber tubes that formed a T with two horizontal tubes. It had two lithium batteries, three cameras, and two spotlights. This was the smallest of the drones they’d found.

  Tom watched Rick test the controls while Jackie held the drone down to the table. “Will that refugee from a cheap Sci-Fi movie fly?”

  Jackie chastised him. “Hell yes! This 1100 model had the new Logan Lithium batteries. It will fly for approximately two hours per battery and carries two batteries in its standard camera package mode. It can lift an additional twenty pounds, although the load will cut the flight time by half. It has slots for two more batteries which weigh …”

  “TMI. That’s all I need for now. How about a demonstration? Has Rick crashed it yet?”

  Rick chuffed, “Even you couldn’t crash this thing unless you tried to intentionally crash. It has GPS, radar, self-homing, and self-landing. It knows where it is at all times, and when the battery gets low, it will automatically return to the launch point and land safely. It can also be pre-programmed to fly a predetermined flight path automatically and take video. It saves the video on a tiny memory card but will also send the video through the air back to the remote control.”

  “How far can this thing travel one way?”

  Jackie said, “Kate said it can only travel 18,000 yards from the remote control before it stops and makes sure it stays in range. It can travel inside an 18,000-yard radius of the remote control. At forty miles per hour for two miles, it could cover eighty miles with just two batteries and maybe another sixty with the additional two batteries.”

  “Okay, I didn’t do well at math …,” Rick said before Jackie interrupted.

  Jackie snapped. “The range is ten miles.”

  Tom thought for a few seconds. “Darn, that means all of Ashland to the west and the ranch to the east. Have you flown it yet?”

  Rick said, “Has a cat got an ass?”

  They heard someone approaching from the cave. Kate chimed in. “Can a fat dog fart?”

  Tom looked at his wife and broke out laughing. “Well, I guess I need to keep you away from my dear grandmother. You’re starting to talk like her. Hey! How’s your chest?”

  Kate chuckled. “Don’t make me laugh. I’ll take that as a compliment. My chest still hurts, but I couldn’t miss watching the drones fly. We’ve flown it over the area and once over to the Community. I had to cover Rick’s eyes when he flew it over a couple of our new women while they were bathing. He’s bribing me to not tell Jackie.”

  Tom snickered. “Can I see the film later, just for technical reasons?”

  Kate pinched him on his chest and twisted. “This is the only necked body you’ll get to see while you’re alive.”

  “Ouch! I give! Just kidding!”

  Rick ran a few steps from Jackie. Jackie said, “I’m the only necked woman you need to see and live to tell about it!”

  *

  Chapter 24

  Granny B’s cave.

  A few minutes later, Tom said, “Enough with future possibilities. Let’s see what it can do.”

  Rick flipped a couple of switches, and the propellers began turning. He increased the propeller speed, and the craft floated about ten feet above them. Rick said, “When I stop making changes, it stops and hovers in place. If I fail to do anything, it will return and land on the rock it took off from originally. Watch the screen.”

  Tom could clearly see all three of them and the ground around them. Rick took the drone up to five hundred feet, and Tom could still see three people but wouldn’t have recognized them. Rick pushed the zoom lever for the camera, and it homed in on the three below. He could see his face as though it was only ten feet away.

  “This is amazing. I’d heard about drones for years but didn’t have a clue how versatile they were.”

  The drone lifted smoothly out of sight and took off heading west. The drone hovered over the old quarry, and Tom saw no movement on the monitor. “Now head down Dead Indian Road. Let’s see if there’s any traffic.”

  There wasn’t any traffic on the road. They did see a couple of smoke columns coming from homes along the road and several more hidden in the woods on either side. A thought jumped into Tom’s head. “Does this thing have night vision? Can it fly at night?”

  Kate replied, “It has night vision cameras, IR cameras, and remember, it has radar. We can fly it by night vision, IR, or radar.”

  “So it can spot a fire or warm column of smoke rising at night?”

  Kate nodded. “Yes! Rick and I have already discussed using it to seek out anyone camping or hiding within a ten-mile radius. Then we planned to take the control on the road to expand our search.”

  Tom rubbed his jaw. “How do the other drones compare to this one?”

  Rick spoke first and said, “This is the easiest to fly, but is a basic commercial drone. The most complicated but best drone we have is the RMUS Police LEO 2200. It has six batteries, a ten-mile flight radius, and four hours of flight. It can lift forty pounds.”

  Tom had a wild idea. “Could either of these drones be armed with a gun or other weapon? I guess rockets are out of the question.”

  Rick thought for a minute. “There are several servos that aren’t in use on the base model of the Police drone that could be made to pull a trigger or maybe drop a small bomb. I think we could adapt all of them to become fighter bombers.”

  Tom’s imagination went wild. “How about one of the extra cameras mounted on a cut down Ruger 10/22 with a twenty-five-round magazine. We could do some damage. Or … maybe we make some pipe bombs and d
rop them from the sky on some of these gang asshats.”

  Rick scratched his neck and ran his hands over his face. “I could make a contact bomb, but a bomb with a fuse would be better. You never know when the bomb might hit a soft spot on the ground and not detonate. Maybe Kate and I should concentrate on learning how to use the drone while Granny B, Bill, and you work on armament.”

  Tom frowned. “Why Granny B?”

  Rick smiled. “Because she knows where every survival manual, Army Field Manual, and booby trap book is located in the library back at the ranch. You’ll need to be able to shape metal, drill holes, and fasten a gun or bomb rack to the drone. Jerry can handle that part.”

  The three watched the video screen as Rick followed the road down to Ashland. Rick flew the drone at a thousand feet to avoid being noticed. They saw the first moving vehicle just northeast of the airport. A large flatbed truck loaded with men traveled south down to Highway 66.

  “Rick, follow that truck as long as you can. We need to watch to see if anyone notices the drone.”

  Rick replied, “No one can see us at a thousand feet. I can go up another five-hundred feet if it makes you feel good.”

  Tom said, “Do it.”

  The drone quickly attained a higher altitude. As expected, the view was less sharp until Rick zoomed the camera in tighter. The men and a couple of women could plainly be seen in the back of the truck. The truck crossed Highway 5 and turned left on Tolman Creek Road. A quick right took it to a huge you-store-it storage lot.

  Tom could see only a few of the men were armed, and they shoved the men into a storage locker and then moved the women into a separate locker. This piqued Tom’s interest. “I have a few questions for Colt. What we just saw doesn’t fit his story.”

  Kate jabbed Tom in the ribs. “Hey, couldn’t we go scavenge hunting or scouting and use the drone to perform an aerial overwatch like the big drones did during the wars.?”

  Tom kissed her on the cheek. “That and a hundred other things to keep us safe. I can also see us performing routine surveillance of our area to watch for other survivors and thugs.”

  Rick chuckled. “I still want to add bomb racks and a gun.”

  Tom laughed. “Just hold your horses. I’ll free Jerry up to make the mounts if you loan him the best drone for the job. Hey! How many drones do we have?”

  “We have six large commercial ones. I also found three smaller ones that are commercial but can’t carry much more than a camera, and can’t stay in the air longer than an hour,” Rick reported.

  Tom said, “It’ll be dark soon. Bring the drone back, and let’s get ready to raise the antenna.”

  Rick and Tom fetched the balloon, antenna reel, and helium tank. Jackie fed the antenna’s coaxial cable from the cave entrance to the anchor point for the antenna. Kate manned the drone’s controls. “Hey! Listen! Here it comes!”

  Tom looked up and didn’t hear anything at first, but then heard a faint buzzing noise. He didn’t see the drone until Kate hovered it about a hundred feet above him. Tom exclaimed, “That sucker is very silent! No one would ever hear it at normal surveillance height.”

  Kate flipped the switch to auto-land, and the large drone dropped slowly to the rock it had taken off from earlier. Tom watched in amazement. “How the hell does it do that?”

  Kate said, “That drone has a more sophisticated computer guidance system than any of the Apollo moon landing craft.”

  “So do most kid’s toys, these days.” Tom reflected. “Sorry, most kids' toys used to have more computing power. The EMP blast fried our age of computers.”

  Rick filled the balloon with helium, and then they slowly fed the line to allow the balloon the freedom to rise. There was only a hundred feet of cable, which was more than enough for the radio to reach west of the mountains behind them. The breeze was gentle, so the balloon stayed almost directly above them. At the last minute, Kate said, “I know how we can see if the balloon is visible to others.

  Tom said, “How can you tell what they can see?”

  “I’ll send the drone back up and turn the camera back toward it.”

  Tom gave his wife a gentle pat on the back. “That’s why you’re our drone guru.”

  Tom went in to help Granny B while the others stayed outside to find out about how visible the balloon was.

  Tom walked into the cave’s entrance and could barely hear a voice. He stepped closer to the spot where they’d placed the radio. He listened. “This is Granny B from Portland, and I’m going to be broadcasting a short class called TIPS on Survival during this apocalypse. I’ll give more information during the next broadcast. Who’s on the radio now? I’ll just listen.”

  “Pistol Pete here. Great idea!”

  “Frisco Joe here. I’ll listen in but don’t make the broadcast too long. They can trace you.”

  Another voice said, “Ignore him. He’s paranoid. We all could use the info. Talk as long as you need.”

  Granny B asked, “Was that the Ashland Asshole?”

  “Yes!”

  “You nailed his ass.”

  “Don’t listen to those paranoid conspiracy buffs. I’m just a poor soul trying to survive just like the rest of you.”

  “This is Joe from the American Survivors group. Don’t listen to Ashland Asshole. They can trace you. Love to hear your tips. Bye.”

  Granny B said, “I’ll broadcast one tip a day around 1900 when opsec allows. Keep your powder dry.”

  Tom patiently listened in and, when Granny B signed off, he said, “I think that went well. Did you notice the number of clicks where people got on and off the broadcast?”

  Granny B frowned. “I’m not sure that was people signing in or out. I did hear the clicks. Maybe I’ll just ask next time.”

  Tom stayed a while talking with his grandmother when he heard someone calling his name from the mouth of the cave. He ran to the opening, and Rick greeted him. “Tom, we found out the balloon isn’t visible, but several groups are camping overnight not that far from here on our south and southeast sides. Come and take a look see.”

  Kate sat on a stool working the controls as she peered into the screen. She said, “Jackie, look at this. I turned the IR filter on.”

  Jackie saw the bright glow of the fire. Still, when Kate zoomed out, the screen had several objects showing a faint glow around the fire, and one moving away from the fire with a small bright glow dancing along with the object. “Those are people.”

  Tom looked over her shoulder and agreed. “Those are people, and the one moving has a lit cigar or cigarette. Jackie, get a map. I want to know how close these asshats are and what they’re doing?”

  Jackie fetched a map and rejoined them. Kate read off the information on the display. “The drone is almost due south and four and a quarter miles away. That’s target A. Target B is south southeast and five and about an eighth-mile away.”

  “Why didn’t we see them earlier today?”

  “Tom, we weren’t looking for them or in these directions. We have three sets of batteries and can search the entire area and the areas around the ranch and the community during the next couple of hours. The intruders appear to be camped for the night.”

  Tom thought, What if we aren’t the only ones with drones. “Hey! I just had a thought. Quickly fly over the ranch and then the Community if your batteries will last long enough. I want to check our opsec. What if we aren’t the only ones with drones?”

  Kate answered. “Not a problem. We just sent it back out with fresh batteries, and Jackie and Rick are getting this bird’s twin drone ready to take over surveillance. We could keep birds in the air around the clock, but we’d just wear the batteries out much sooner.”

  “There’s the lake. The ranch is about two miles due east of the middle of the lake. I’ll fly about one and three-quarter miles to where the ranch should be located, and then I’ll circle around until I see the barn.”

  Kate kept the camera switched to IR while the drone flew to the ranch. Wh
en she didn’t see anything she recognized, she flipped the camera switch to night vision. Kate flew the drone around the area and suddenly said, “Bingo! There’s the barn and burnt remains of the house.”

  Tom watched. “The good news is we can’t see our guards.”

  Kate said, “Yes, we can,” and switched back to IR. “There’s the guard. He or she’s hidden in the brush at the front of the barn.”

  “Move the drone to the old cabin and then to the community. I hope their opsec is as good as the ranch’s was tonight.”

  Before flying the drone away, Kate pushed a few buttons and inputted the ranch location so she could just hit a button designated for the ranch. The drone would automatically fly to the ranch, hover at one thousand feet, and await instructions.

  Kate turned her head. “I just designated a quick go-to button, so the drone will automatically fly to the ranch from anywhere close enough to make it before the batteries die.”

  Tom was amazed at the feature. “What other tricks can this pony perform?”

  “Did you know it has a speaker and a microphone? Can’t hear much over the rotors turning, but you could land and use it as a two-way radio. I wouldn’t do that until we familiarize the others with our drones. They might take potshots at the poor aircraft.”

  The old cabin north of the ranch was in great shape, and they only saw the guard performing the scheduled patrol. Kate moved on to the community, and Tom was upset when he saw the light from one of the cabins. “I’ll blast someone’s ass tomorrow.”

  Kate said, “Hold your fire. Look!”

  A person walked up to the cabin, and a few seconds later, the light went out. Tom said, “I’ll bet Alan or Bill kicked someone’s butt.”

  They went to bed around midnight after checking the entire area for six to seven miles around the ranch and a few miles around the community. They didn’t find any new threats. Tom felt safe to go on to bed and start early in the morning. He helped Kate onto the bed and then down to her pillow. He gave her some space to get comfortable but then heard her say, “Come over and hold me. Just not around my side or chest.”