“What got you up so early?
“When the generator went off. The sound of it put me to sleep last night. When it went off, it was like an alarm clock.”
I laughed, “I understand. I’m the same way with a fan. The noise just covers up everything else. Don’t get used to it though. Neither one of us is going to have our sleeping aids from now on.”
I handed Mo a cup of coffee, and when he took it and took a sip, he moaned like he was in ecstasy. “You don’t know how good this taste to me.”
Just then Tag came stumbling into the kitchen, obviously half asleep.
“Tag, how much sleep did you get?” I asked laughing.
“What time is it?”
“6:00 AM,” Kim replied.
“I, I, I don’t know, an hour, maybe. Did Mike tell you the news?” he asked with his eyes half shut.
“Yes, he did. But we’re not going to talk about it until after breakfast. Why don’t you go back to sleep for a while?” I asked while laughing
“Yeah, go out to the bus and hit the sack for a while,” Mo stated, trying his best not to laugh as Tag looked like he was sleeping standing up.
“Ok. I’ll take a nap.”
He stumbled his way out the door and slowly walked to the bus.
We all laughed, “You know if he’s like he used to be, he may be asleep. When he drove the commander’s Bradley, he had to wake up on the hour and start the track for 10 minutes, so the battery wouldn’t drain too much, due to all radios being on all night. He used to be able to do it in his sleep, and the next day, he seemed fully rested. I don’t know how he did it.”
Mo and I drank a couple of cups of coffee, reminiscing about old times when Red and Wit came walking in.
“Good morning!” Wit said loudly. You could tell he was still used to early mornings.
Red wasn’t as energetic, “Can you believe this guy? He’s like this every morning.”
“Coffee?” I asked.
Red held up both hands like he was begging for it. Just about that time, we heard giggling and laughing outside the back door. It was Lulu chasing and being chased by Cash. Duke was laying on top of the doghouse, watching the scene.
“It looks like she has a new friend,” I remarked.
“She loves animals. She almost has a gift with them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a bird or an elephant, she just seems to bond with them instantly,” Mo replied with a proud smile.
Angela came walking in and looked at Mo, “Well she’s in heaven.”
“Yeah, she’s going to love staying here.”
I was sitting there watching Lulu with apparently a big smile on my face, when I caught Kim watching me, with a sentimental smile on her face.
“What?”
She continued her grin and said, “Nothing” and then laughed a bit.
Kim knew that I always regretted not having a daughter. I always envied the bond between fathers and daughters. Of course, if I would’ve had one, I’m not sure how happy the daughter would’ve been with me once she turned dating age. I would’ve been a very protective father. Any dates she would have had, would’ve had to go through my gauntlet.
Kim asked, “Everyone ready for breakfast?”
All us guys responded about the same time with a very positive response.
Angela laughed, “Let me help you, Kim. This is going to be like feeding a bunch of horses.”
Lulu came running through the door, “Horses?” She ran over to me. “Vince, can we go see the horses?” she asked with a huge smile that I couldn’t resist.
“I don’t know, can we?” while looking at Mo.
She picked up on it and asked, “Can we daddy? Please?”
He looked at me and winked and then looked at Lulu, “Well, I don’t know. Vince may not want you spoiling them.”
Kim busted out with a laugh, “I don’t think you could spoil them any more than they are.”
Lucky and Ornery are the horse’s nicknames. They’re both registered Quarter Horses. We had them gelded to make better riders, so in a way, it was a waste of time to have them registered. We raised both of them from colts. Lucky is mine. Heavier than Ornery but just a tiny bit shorter. Ornery is probably Ornery because Kim spoils him so much and then when Carmen came along, they were spoiled even worse. I’d never admit it to Kim, but I think since he’s about five years younger than Lucky, he’s a little faster. Lucky still beats him on stamina though.
We don’t ride them near as much as we used to, but that was made up for by Mia and Carmen. They love to ride during their visits. I thought seriously about buying two more horses for them but never did.
I don’t think that Lucky and Ornery think they’re horses. Sometimes, I think that they believe they’re dogs. When Lucky was a colt, I used to be able to leave him in the yard without being tied up. If a car pulled into the driveway, he’d run up to the car just like a dog would.
Ornery’s name came from him being Ornery. He’s always getting into things. He loves water and being sprayed with a hose. Many times, he sticks one of his feet into the water trough and starts kicking away at it, splashing water on himself. There were a couple of times; I thought he was going to jump in completely.
“Yes, you can go see them if you promise to be helpful whenever we ask,” Mo said to Lulu.
“I will daddy, I promise.” She then looked at me with a big smile, grabbing my hand and started nodding her head up and down like she was saying, “Well! Are we going?”
I laughed, “Ok. Let’s go.”
I grabbed four carrots out of the refrigerator, and we walked out to the gate, next to the water troughs.
The sun had just come up, and the horses were on the back side of the 10-acre field. They were both watching three deer that were grazing out in the soybean field.
“Look! Look daddy! Deer!”
I yelled, “Lucky! Ornery!”
Both horses turned and looked up at us and then both started racing up, bucking their back end into the air when they took off. They ran up to the fence so hard; I think Mo thought they were going to run right through it, as he grabbed Lulu’s hand and backed her off.
Lucky reached his head over the fence looking down at Lulu. The sight of Lucky towering over her would have made a great picture. I could hear laughing behind us, and Kim and Angela were standing at the door watching.
I pulled out the carrots and showed Lulu how to hold her hand flat and lay the carrot on top to give them to the horses. Lucky took it gently but of course Ornery was sticking his neck over, trying to push Lucky out of the way and he just grabbed the other carrot from her hand.
Lulu wasn’t intimidated, “Now you be polite Ornery,” she ordered while giggling.
I opened the gate and called Lulu over. I could see Mo was a little apprehensive, but I gave him a sign saying it was safe. I picked her up and put her on Lucky’s back. I kept my hand on her back, just in case Lucky bolted a bit, as it had been a while since he had anyone on his back, but he just stood there.
“I’ve never been on a big horse before,” she said with a huge smile. She laid forward, hugging Lucky’s neck.
“Now Lulu, you make sure you don’t go through the gate by yourself,” Mo instructed.
“Yeah! They won’t hurt you, but they might get a little excited and knock you over by mistake.”
“Ok, I won’t. I promise.”
“I’ll tell you what. Later, we’ll hook the trailer to the tractor and take you out to the wildlife field.”
In my mind and I knew Mo and Angela would agree, that even though all hell was breaking loose, we needed to keep Lulu in a kid’s world as long as possible. She was obviously going to be exposed to things that no child should, but hopefully, we could delay that as long as possible.
Angela yelled from the back door, “Breakfast is ready.”
As we were walking back to the house, Tag stuck his head out the door of the bus and asked, “Breakfast?”
“How can you possibly b
e awake?” I asked laughing.
Back in the Army, Tag would seldom miss a meal, whether he was tired or not.
“Somebody said breakfast is ready. That’s how.”
He jumped out of the bus like he had slept a full night’s sleep.
Kim and Angela went all out. Eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, coffee, milk, and even some melon.
We all sat down to eat, and I said, “I think we ought to say a prayer, giving thanks.”
Everyone automatically bowed their heads, and I said a short prayer just to thank God for our friends arriving safely, for the food and his protection.
I then asked with a wink, “Lulu doesn’t get any melon, does she?”
She looked at me with a shocked look but then saw me wink, so she smiled and dug in.
When we finished our breakfast, Kim started taking the dishes to the sink and said jokingly, “Great! I didn’t think about not having running water for the dishwasher. It looks like we’re going to go back to good ole washing by hand.”
“Welcome to the new world,” I said while raising my eyebrows.
“That’s right. The water won’t even be running. How are we going to handle that?” Mo asked worriedly.
“We have three wells on the property. It’ll be a hassle hauling water until we can get the generator hooked up to the backup system I’ve set up. For the meantime, if you have to use the bathroom, for us guys, if we only need to take a leak, we need to use the great outdoors as much as possible.
For you ladies and for sit down business, we’ll keep a five-gallon bucket of water next to the toilet. When you get done, you pour part of the water straight into the toilet, kind of fast, and that will flush it. Pour just enough water for it to flush. We could just pour it into the tank ahead of time, which will make it more convenient but that will take more water, which means more trips to the well. So, I’ll leave it up to you guys how you want to do it.
After breakfast though, we need to have sort of a meeting,” I said more as instructions than a request.
I asked Mo whether he wanted Lulu to hear everything, and he replied, “Well, she’s going to have to learn what is going on sooner than later, …. but maybe it would be better if we explained things to her afterward.”
So, I asked, “Lulu, will you do me a favor? Can you go play with Cash and Duke? I know they like playing with you and they’re probably lonely out there by themselves.”
She got a big smile on her face and said excitedly, “OK!”
Mo told her, “You stay in the fenced-in area. OK?”
“Yes daddy,” as she ran out the back door.
Since everyone was done and most on their second cup of coffee, I proposed, “Why don’t we go to the living room? Mike knows most of this already, so we can let him sleep this time.”
The latest news isn’t good. Washington has been nuked and there is no word on who survived. It hit the central D.C. area, which includes the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the Pentagon. We have to assume that we don’t have a federal government any longer.
According to satellite images, it doesn’t look like any other part of the country was nuked, except for the effect of the EMP. It seems the entire country is dark, plus part of Mexico and Canada.
Tag, am I missing anything?”
Tag shook his head, “No.”
Angela started crying and asked, “What does this mean?”
“It means that things are going to go to hell.”
Wit spoke up, “We still have the state governments and it sounds like most of our military is probably intact.”
Mo jumped in, “But there is no electricity, and how many of the newer military vehicles are going to run?”
“That’s not the worst of it. People have already been suffering, especially in the inner cities. Stores were already running out of food, and now with the EMP, there is no way to restock the food, and now mobs are going to form. People are going to start panicking. We’re about to see the savagery in man.
I guarantee most people don’t have emergency supplies. People are going to become desperate and start starving to death. Those with illnesses are going to start dying, due to a lack of medication. Diseases are going to start spreading.
Violence is going to be widespread,” I said more as a warning.
I continued. “To be honest, we’ve known for a long time that something like this was going to happen. We didn’t know what, but we knew sooner than later all hell was going to break out. In our opinion, it’s just biblical prophecy coming true. If we’re right, this is just the beginning, and things are going to turn worse than any time in our history.”
Angela turned almost hostile and yelled, “I don’t believe that. This is just something that will last a week or so. I think the government will find a way to help us. President Prescott will make sure we’re all taken care of.”
When Tag heard this comment, he scoffed, which fired up Angela even more.
The longer she talked, the more hysterical she became and the louder she got.
“I don’t want to hear anything about the Bible. I don’t want to be preached to.”
Mo grabbed her by the arm and with a raised voice said, “You need to settle down Angela! He’s not preaching. All he said, was this was prophecy coming true. You need to chill the hell out!”
Kim looked at me, and I immediately knew what she was thinking. Angela was going to be a problem.
Kim said defensively, “Angela, what Vince is saying is true. He’s just telling you what the news said and is saying that in our opinion, this is end time type stuff going on. No one is trying to preach. He’s just trying to get everyone to understand the seriousness of what is going on.
To be honest, I didn’t know anything about biblical prophecy before I met Vince. But now I’ve read it for myself. It’s in the Bible.”
Mo was trying to calm Angela down. Red and Wit were talking about if Australia was safe, as he was worried about his wife.
I could see it was going to take a while for all of us to adjust to what was going on.
I whistled loudly, “Hey, I know this is scary.
Angela, I’m not trying to convince you that this is prophecy coming true. You have to decide that for yourself. But whatever it is, this is our reality.
Now, fortunately, we’ve been storing food for such an event. As I said, we have wells on the farm that we can get water from. We also have plenty of game to hunt.
We’re going to have to make some adjustments to a new lifestyle, but we’ll survive if everyone chips in and does their part.
I know what we need to do and I can’t think of better people to be with, than you guys. I think you guys arriving was a real blessing.
Again, we have food, water, supplies, ammo, and we have plans on what needs to be done. We need to start building a small community with people that have the talents that we need to survive.
I want you guys to let this all sink in. It may be days or even weeks, but eventually, things may turn ugly, and we’re going to have to be ready to defend ourselves.
Red, how are you doing? I know you must be worried about your wife. The news said nothing about any other countries being hit. I’m sure your wife is safe and try to remember she’s with her family. I may have an idea how we might be able to get a message to her if you feel like doing some homework.”
He looked at me excitedly, “I’ll do whatever it takes. What do you have in mind?”
“I’ll talk to you in a little bit, but I think with some luck, we can use the ham radios to get her a message.”
He nodded his head ok and said, “Besides that, I’m alright. I’m sure she’s fine. If we can get a message to her, it would take away a lot of my worries.
Wit spoke up with a shit-eating grin saying, “As far as security goes, I have a little surprise that I brought that may come in handy.”
“Oh, you’ll like this,” Red added.
I looked at them curiously and looked for
ward to seeing what they were talking about.
After everyone talked a bit, I resumed, “Let’s all take a little time to ourselves and then we’ll have a talk after Mike wakes up. Later, I want to introduce you guys to a couple of neighbors.”
Mo had seemed to get Angela to calm down a bit and then she spoke up, “I want to apologize to everyone. I just can’t believe all of this is going on. Please forgive me.”
Kim jumped in, “Angela, it’s completely understandable. This is scary, and it’s a lot to take in. The only reason I’m not freaking out is we’ve been talking about the possibility of stuff like this long before it started. Vince has a lot of survival skills, so I’ve heard a lot of scenarios that could possibly happen.
As we said, the good thing is we’ve been preparing for something like this. Why don’t you come with me and I’ll show you our food supply?”
She nodded in agreement, and they both got up and left the room.
Mo lowered his voice, “Hey, I’m sorry. She gets that way when she’s scared. She didn’t mean any offense to anyone.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mo. The main thing is we all need to work together, and we’re all going to have jobs to do.”
We all agreed to take a break and let our minds absorb everything.
Chapter Fifteen
We all took a while to absorb everything that was happening. Worrying about our families that weren’t in the area, grieving for our country and trying to keep one another calm.
I also had a long talk with Red about his wife and reassured him that she was ok. I also reminded him that if we could get the ham radios set up right, we may be able to get a message to her. I showed him the book I had on ham radios, and he immediately started reading it.
Later, we were all sitting down to eat lunch when suddenly we all went silent as we could hear what sounded like a plane engine at a distance. It’s amazing how well you hear something when there is no longer the normal noise of today’s society.
Wit was the first to say it out loud, “That’s a plane!”
Kim looked at me, “It’s got to be them.”
“Who?” Mo asked.
“Mia and Carmen, friends of ours that were flying in from California.” I started running out the door and everyone followed. As I hit the back door, the plane flew right over the house at only about 100 feet above the trees heading west to east. I recognized the plane immediately as Mia had shown us several pictures.
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