by A J Newman
“Davi, I count 45 men and 6 women. Let’s roll.”
Davi raised her SAW and I followed suit as she began strafing the crowd. Even the sound of these terrible weapons couldn’t drown out the screams of the dying bastards. Five more came out of the hotel shooting and were dead before they hit the ground. We stayed behind our logs until nothing moved. Then we heard shots from behind the hotel and from the direction of the warehouse.
“Damn those things are loud; get ready for the rats jumping ship,” yelled Sally as they heard the SAWs firing from the front of the hotel.
“Look there is one coming from the left and another in the middle. I’ll take the one in the middle.”
Geena placed the crosshairs on the man and slowly squeezed the trigger as she’d been taught by Aaron. The rifle bucked and the thug fell dead. Another shot and the one in the middle fell dead. Several more broke out windows and tried to escape, but the ladies picked them off one at a time as they ran across the lawn. Then suddenly the game changed. A woman who was dressed like a biker bitch was holding a shotgun to another woman’s head as they came out the back door. Sally watched in horror as the biker bitch used the hostage to get away. They got within 50 feet of the garage when suddenly Geena’s rifle barked and the hostages head exploded and both fell to the ground.
“Sally, don’t shoot. The one dressed as a biker is the hostage.”
“How the fuck do you know that? You killed the hostage.”
The living woman was screaming on the ground with her hands behind her head. It was several minutes before they decided the coast was clear and safe to go to the woman.
“Lady, you can get up now. You are safe,” Geena exclaimed.
Sally kept her rifle aimed at the woman and said, “Geena, how do you know this woman is the hostage?”
“Look at her wrists. See the bruises. Look at the biker bitch. Nice clothes, but tattoos all over her arms and neck. Easy decision.”
The lady stopped crying long enough to say, “Are they all dead? My kids are in the hotel. I need to make sure they are okay.”
“Sorry, but no one goes in until our leader says so. Hold on until they sweep the hotel for gang members.”
Every thug was dead or dying so Davi ordered us to carefully search the hotel room by room. We laid our SAWs down and shouldered our M4s and began searching the hotel. Thank God, the SOBs were all dead, but we did find over thirty women and female children that had suffered the worst kind of abuse at the hands of this scum. I brought several children out the front door as Geena and Sally brought the captive woman around the corner. When she saw her two girls ran towards them and collided in the grass hugging and kissing each other.
“Well Geena, I guess you were right about who was the hostage.”
“I was scared shitless that I’d made the wrong decision. Thank God I shot the right person.”
We shuttled the hostages back to the Armory and let the team feed them and treat their wounds from the constant abuse at the hands of the biker scum. The Mayor and Sheriff thanked us again and asked us to stay and make a home with them. Aaron and I both told them that we’d be moving on in a day or so.
The Mayor said, “Please let us throw a dinner in your honor and help resupply you for your journey home. Your training our people and clearing out that gang ensured our survival. We owe you guys our lives.”
“Thanks, but it was the right thing to do and besides we are now resupplied and have greatly increased our firepower thanks to your Armory.”
“Aaron, we have a couple of men who want to get back to their hometowns south of here in Kentucky. Could they travel with you?”
“As long as you vouch for them, they are welcome.”
“They are both good young men; one taught at the community college and the other is a deputy for our Sheriff.”
“Great, they can ride along and drop off when they get close to their hometowns. Where are they from?”
“One is from Anderson and the other is from Buckville, both in Kentucky.”
“I saw Anderson on the map, but I have no clue where Buckville is located. I’ll check with Zack. He is from Kentucky.”
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Chapter 16
The Flock Grows
Owensville, Kentucky
The days had been uneventful, but Mike knew trouble was always just around the bend as people left the large cities scavenging for food. A couple of rough looking groups had wandered by begging for food and he turned them away. They were dirty and mean looking. He told them they were barely getting by and had no food to spare. He did give them a couple packets of seeds to plant when they got where they were heading. Mike was holding an M&P15 and stayed several paces from them. They cursed him as they passed on down the road. Keeping a guard on duty 24/7 was paying off even though they were a mile off the main road, these people will eventually kill to find food. Mike knew that they needed several more people who could shoot, fight if needed and help with the backbreaking farm work. They needed to be selective, but needed to expand their little community.
Mike called a meeting to fill the others on the need to add some members to their group.
Paul quickly spoke up and said, “Does this mean that we can stay?”
“Of course you can, if your mom wants to.”
For the first time since they had picked this family up off the side of the road, Ally spoke up, “I want to thank all of you for taking care of me and my kids, but we don’t want to be a bother to you folks.”
Mike replied, “Ally, ya’ll aren’t any trouble and in fact Paul has been a big help around the farm. You and your daughter have helped in the kitchen and once you are trained, I expect you to help with other chores and guard duty. We need you, if you want to stay.”
“Thanks, I don’t know if we would have survived back at our place. We might want to run over there and bring back my husband’s bee hives and some of his equipment. He also has everything needed to brew beer.”
“Do you know how to brew beer?”
“Yes, after years of helping him, I got quite good at it. We can bring back our beer supply also.”
Mike looked at the ceiling and said, “Thank you God for small things like beer.”
Joan kicked him under the table and got the meeting back on track.
“Ally can you and Paul take me to your place tomorrow so we can gather your supplies and the bee hives and bring them back here? Hell, how do you transport bee hives?”
“We’d be glad to and we have done this many times. My husband rented out hives to help farmers pollenate their fruit trees.”
“How many do you have?”
“Several hundred. We also sell honey and honeycomb. I know we can’t bring them all, but a dozen would really help with stretching our food supply and give the kids something sweet.”
“I’m in. Now back to why we are meeting. Does anybody know anyone close by that would be a good fit for our group? We need more bodies for guard duty and farming. Several farmers in the area are gearing up to help feed the local population, but we need workers and guards to stop the scum from killing us and taking away our food.”
Ally spoke up, “There is a family just down the road from us that are good Christian hard working people. John and Greta have two sons about Paul’s age who are great kids.”
“Great, let’s look them up when we go tomorrow.”
Joan said, “I know several families on the outskirts of Anderson, but they are probably trying to get their farms geared up also.”
“Okay, thanks for the input. I’ll check with some of the neighboring farms to see if they know some good people that could join us here. Callie, would you like to go with me? I’m going to check out any stalled trucks on the road and drop by several farms to see if they know anyone that might want to join us. Joan, stay on high alert while Paul continues to plow. Keep your guns handy. We’ll be back before dark.”
Callie cleaned the broken glass from the interior o
f the pickup while Mike removed the rest of the window that had been shot out on their trip over from Anderson. Mike found two motorcycle helmets with face shields in the barn, gave one to Callie and put one on himself.
“These will be our windshield until something better comes along.
“We’ll look like dorks driving along in a truck with helmets on.”
“But we won’t lose an eye when a big fat bee hits us in the face.”
Callie slipped the helmet over her head and they checked their weapons.
“Make sure your rifle and pistol are loaded and in the safe position. I have my BOB and you have yours, so we are ready. Let’s make like a turd and hit the dusty trail.”
“Uncle Mike, where do you get those corny sayings?”
“I’m a corny guy.”
They turned east on Highway 54 heading towards Dale at a decent pace only having to dodge the occasional stalled car or truck. They had travelled a couple of miles when up ahead they saw several men gathered around the back of a stalled trailer. The men were loading boxes onto a pickup.
“Callie, I know one of those men. He is a friend. Let’s see what’s going on.”
He drove on towards them waving as he pulled closer. One of the men raised a shotgun and held it waist high until Mike remembered to remove his helmet.
“Damn Mike, can’t you get anyone to fix that windshield? I didn’t recognize you at first. We’ve had a couple of hard cases try to rob us over this trailer full of groceries. The last two are rotting in that ditch over there.”
“Glad we found you. I was heading to your place and a couple of other farms, to see if you knew anyone who could come live with us and help out around the farm. Someone we could trust.”
“We’re all in the same boat. This farming done like in the 1800’s is backbreaking. We need to get more tractors running and get more help. We will need a lot of help when it comes time to bring in the crops. Plowing is one thing an old tractor can do, but none of the older harvesters survived the scrap yards.”
“Have you seen many strangers around?”
“Yes, several groups have wandered through the past few days and we sent them on their way. Both groups were hard looking people.”
“The same ones came by our place. I’m afraid this will get worse before it gets better. Hey do you know any Stones over past Dale?”
“There are several families named Stone over that way.”
“What about Ally and Marty Stone?”
“Great people. They belong to our church. How do you know them?”
“Marty got killed outside of Anderson. I picked Ally and the kids up and brought them back to the farm with me.”
“Damn the bad luck. Hey, Marty raised bees. Do you think Ally would trade a few hives or honey?
“I know she will. In fact, we’re heading over there to bring some hives back to Zack’s place in the morning. Why don’t you follow us over and bring some hives back? We can work out a trade later.”
“Sounds great, of course we’ll share this food with you, but could you deliver a couple of loads to my farm and one to Sam’s in trade?”
“I’ll be glad to help. Come on Callie let’s help load the truck up. Hey are you guarding the trailer? There are 20 to 30 more pickup loads in there.”
“We haven’t been, but I see your point. Anyone could drive or walk by and lay claim to our stuff.”
“I’ll deliver the three loads and bring Zack’s horse trailer over and help unload as much today as possible.”
They delivered the first two loads and went on to deliver the last load to Sam. He was an older man whose son and his family lived with him. Mike knew of Sam and his son Ben, but didn’t personally know them. We drove up and were met with shotguns peering out from the barn and house.
“Hello, I’m Mike and your neighbor Bob said you could use some supplies.”
Sam looked in the back of the truck and laid the shotgun down.
“Sorry, but can’t be too careful these days. Hey aren’t you Mike Norman? You ran around with Zack and your sister Joan.”
“Mister Hager, now I remember you. You ran us out of your watermelon patch.”
“Several times, why didn’t you just ask for a melon?”
“We were kids and there was watermelon.”
“We really thank you for the food.”
Mike helped them unload the food into the house and couldn’t help but notice that they only had a small garden.
“Sam, do ya’ll need help with planting a larger garden?”
“No son, I guess we’ll have to move on and find a place to farm. I only have a couple of acres and they are very sandy.”
“Would you consider moving over to Zack’s farm? We need help with farming and pulling guard duty. We will need to work on housing, but we figure that the scum in the cities will be heading our way sooner than later and a few more farmers with guns couldn’t hurt. Zack is on his way back from Oregon and should be here any day. That will take us to nine people, but only three men. We would love to have you and your family join us.”
Sam looked over at his son and they talked for a minute and Sam replied, “We’d like that very much. We could use your truck to pull my travel trailer over to live in while we sort out living arrangements.”
“Great, just let me know when to come back.”
“We’ll be ready in three days. How about 8:00 a.m.?”
“We’ll be here at eight sharp in three days.”
They had a busy day making five more trips with the full horse trailer delivering supplies to several neighbors and one huge load back to the farm. Joan held supper for them as they all pitched in and unloaded the trailer. There were many different types of canned vegetables, soups, juices and meat. There were over 20 cases of Spam alone. Mike and Callie loved Spam.
They cleaned up for supper and the group ate while Mike and Callie told them about their busy day.
Mike had finished telling about meeting their neighbors and delivering the food when Callie burst out with, “We have another family moving in with us.”
Before anyone could react the walkie talkie squawked.
“Damn, someone is approaching the farm. Man your posts while I go to the crow’s nest to see what Lynn is worried about.”
Mike stayed in the shadows as he skulked over to the barn and climbed up to the crow’s nest. He saw Lynn and signaled her to make sure that she didn’t get spooked and shoot him.
Lynn pointed out to the horizon and said, “It looks like three people. Maybe two adults and a kid. They are walking in the open and don’t appear to have any long guns. Here take the night vision goggles and take a look for yourself.”
Mike placed the goggles on and came to the same conclusion as Lynn. He knew that he didn’t want intruders close to the house so he left Lynn and went back into the house to get Callie and Joan to back him up while he ran these people away. They grabbed their weapons from the rack by the front door and slid out the back door. Mike’s plan was to circle around the fruit trees on the left of the house and come up behind them. The tree intruders were halfway down the driveway when Mike called out.
“Who are you and what’s your business here?”
Mike could see that there were two women and a young boy in the driveway. The larger woman had a pistol in her hand.
One of the women replied, “I’m Callie’s friend. We’re here to see her and Zack.”
Callie replied, “Carrie, is that you?”
“Yes, we need help.”
“Tell your mom to drop that pistol and we’ll come on up to you.”
The woman laid the pistol on the ground and held her hands into the air. Mike turned his flashlight on and aimed it at the intruders. There was a woman, a teen girl and a young boy. They looked like they had run through a briar patch and were filthy.
Callie and Carrie hugged for a few minutes and then Callie introduced her friend and family to everyone.
Mike said, “Come on up to th
e house. Ya’ll look like you could use a hot bath, some food and a change of clothes.”
Carrie’s mom spoke up and said, “Mike, we’ve had a hard time getting here. There are bad people in Anderson and on the way here. They will be coming this way.”
“Ma'am, we know and we are getting prepared for them. Now let’s get you up to the house.”
Joan and Callie tended to the family while the others settled back into their regular routine. Mike joined Lynn in the crow’s nest and filled her in on their visitors.
“Callie and Joan know the family and they want us to ask them to join our community.”
“But you’re not sold on adding them?”
“Oh I know they need us, but do we need them?
“I was thinking the same thing. It’s three more mouths to feed without much muscle to help with the farming. Besides, have you noticed you now have six women and one man in this community? I personally don’t like the odds of finding a husband and fights will start in months if not weeks.”
“I have the same train of thought, but more on the lines of creeps trying to take our women. I say we take these in, but need to start being more selective.”
“You need to have a meeting and lay down the rules to everyone. Everyone works and pulls their weight or we don’t need them. Yes, women have to plow and work in the fields.”
“I agree. We’ll let then settle in tomorrow and then have the meeting the day after tomorrow. I’m going on to bed. Goodnight.”
“Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
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Chapter 17
So Close Yet So far
Southern Indiana