He finally asked in sadness, “Well, the worst is starting, isn’t it?
We had talked in the past, and he knew what our expression of “Red Dawn” meant. We’d also talked about prophecy off and on but nothing serious, just in general conversation.
“You know we’re going to have to start worrying about security soon.” He agreed. I continued, “I think we need to have a meeting with everyone on this stretch of road ASAP. You know sooner than later, we’re going to have to block off both ends of the road?” He agreed with that also. “There are seven others at our house that you need to meet.”
“Where’s everyone going to sleep?”
“Well, you can see the bus and the camper, which Blake let me borrow. We’ll give Carmen and Mia the spare bedroom and have Mike move in the outside room. You know the one we converted into a bedroom years ago? We’ll have to move our storage out of there, but that won’t take long.”
He thought for a minute, “You know, I have that 55’ mobile home out back that I keep my storage in. I’ll be glad to let you use it if we can get it moved up there.”
“What about your storage?”
He gave a scoffing sound, “I have plenty of places to put that. Give me a couple of days, and we’ll have it cleaned out.”
“Man, that would mean the world. I’ll owe you big time.”
“You won’t owe me anything. My tractor is running even though nothing else is. I assume your John Deere is, isn’t it?” I nodded my head yes.
“Well give me some time, and we’ll get it up there.”
Suddenly, we could hear a vehicle driving on what sounded like M Highway, just about ½ mile from us. “Sounds like someone else has an older vehicle that runs,” I said.
“Yeah, I thought I heard one early this morning also, to the east of here.”
We all listened to it as it seemed to be getting further away.
Then, I went back to the previous conversations, “Man Jake, thank you. Can I ask one more favor though?”
“Name it.”
“We need to come up with some type of anchors to use as tie downs for Mia’s plane. I’m going to taxi it up by my friend’s bus, but we need to tie it down in case we have any strong winds.”
He thought for a minute and then stated, “Give me a couple of hours, and I’ll weld something up for you. Luckily my generator is also a welder.”
I stuck out my hand and said with a little laugh, “Thanks, Jake. No need to say, we’ll take care of security. As I’ve always told you in the past if Red Dawn happened, you’d be treated like a protected asset,” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my two-way radio. “Here, take this. If you need anything in a hurry, give us a call. It’s on the channel and if you need batteries, let us know.” He gladly took the radio.
He stuck out his hand and shook Red and Carmen’s hand, “Very nice to meet you. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of each other.”
“Oh, I almost forgot, Kim, sent this down for Bethany. Tell her we said Happy Birthday.”
When we jumped back in the jeep, Carmen said, “He’s really a nice guy.”
“Yeah, we were lucky to get him as a neighbor. We’ve always watched out for each other’s place if the other one was ever gone on a trip or something.”
Red commented, “He sure has a lot of stuff up by his shed that can come in handy.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until you see what’s in the shed and his barn. Head for the plane, will you?”
Red took off across the field, and Carmen asked, “What are we doing?”
“I’m going to taxi Mia’s plane up to the house.”
“Mia always takes her keys.”
I pulled the keys out of my pocket and said with a laugh, “Yeah she did, but I stole them from her.”
When we got to the plane, I jumped out of the jeep and asked Red to lead the way and watch for ruts.
“If you go to the east side of the pond, I think it’ll be pretty smooth. Or at least as smooth as we’re going to find.” He nodded his head ok.
As I was walking to the plane, Carmen jumped out and climbed into the passenger seat.
I checked the struts and the landing gears and then climbed into the plane and started it.
“How long has it been since you’ve flown?”
“Too many years to count.”
“Do you think you could still fly it?”
“Yeah, I’m sure I could, with a quick review of the critical speeds for the plane. But don’t worry I know I can still taxi it without a problem.”
“I’m not worried Vince. Mia may be, but I’m not.”
As I increased the throttle of the engine, so many memories came back to me. I loved flying. I went to flight school to become a professional pilot. I originally went to obtain my helicopter license, but there were so many chopper pilots that had just recently come back from flying in the Vietnam War, and these guys were the best. No matter how good of pilot I became, I’d never be able to compete with the skills that these heroes had.
I decided to get my fixed wing. I did obtain my Commercial Pilot’s License with an instrument rating, but that’s about the time I had to start wearing glasses. That really limited my options. So instead, I joined the Army.
Flying was like an addictive drug to me. I wanted to fly every day but especially when I was shipped overseas, my flying days were basically over.
While on leave, I’d rent an airplane to fly recreationally and even got into a little aerobatic flying, but it was just so frustrating not to be able to do on a daily basis.
Technically, I’m still a commercial pilot, but to fly legally, I’d have to take my flight review.
As I was taxiing Mia’s plane, it would rock forward and back with every larger bump it would hit. Red was doing a good job finding the smoothest route, but it was hard to see the ruts and bumps with the soybeans growing. This made me realize even more what a terrific job Mia did landing the aircraft.
About 200 yards from where I planned on parking it, Red missed a nice rut, but I didn’t. In reality, the nose gear only dropped about 3 or 4 inches, but it felt farther than that.
When it happened, Carmen looked at me like she was saying, “Oh, you’re in trouble.”
Knowing that it didn’t hurt the nose gear, I said, “Now we won’t mention that one, will we?” and I gave her a fun stern look.
“I own you now. I’ll keep that one saved for the right time when I really want something from you.”
As I taxied up, Mia heard the sound of her plane and came running out. She had a bit of a worried look on her face as her plane was one of her pride and joys.
As I shut the plane down and we climbed out, I looked at her, “Quit looking so worried. Remember, I got my pilot’s license before you were even born,” The second I said it, I thought to myself, “Damn that makes me feel old.”
She smiled, “You’re right.” and slowly walked out to the plane.
As she was looking it over, I told her that I had talked to Jake about building us some anchors to tie the plane down. I then asked Red, “Do you mind checking out the landing gears and struts and make sure there isn’t any visible damage?”
“Well, I’m not an airframe mechanic, but I’ll be glad to check it out the best I can,” and then he looked at Mia and winked.
Mia said, “Thank you Red and thank you, Vince.”
Carmen added, “He wanted to take off and start flying, but I told him NO!”
I then chased Carmen for about 10 feet, acting as though I was going to grab her. I said to Mia, “Well, to be honest, I would’ve loved to, but she didn’t know it.”
Carmen while laughing replied, “I could tell by the smile on your face you were reliving memories.”
“You know me pretty well, don’t you?”
Mia got a little bit of a depressed look on her face, “It will be a long time before I get to fly her again, if ever. Even if things do get a little better, how am I ever going to get it out of
here? I don’t think the nose gear would take it again and with the rough ground, I don’t think there is a long enough area to take off.”
Trying to pick up her spirits, I said, “Now don’t think that way. I can build a smoother area that can be used as a runway with the blade on my tractor. The aviation fuel will be the hard part. But you have just about ¾ of a tank. You may be surprised what we need you and your plane for in the future.”
She looked at me with a puzzled look, so I explained, “Just don’t be surprised if you aren’t flying sooner than you think. You may become our reconnaissance pilot.”
She smiled, “I can handle that.”
Just about that time, Lulu came running out of her trailer with Mo and Angela following behind. “Can I look at your plane?” she asked Mia all excited. Mia glanced at Mo, who had a big smile on his face as he nodded his head, yes.
Mia replied with a huge smile, “Absolutely” She took Lulu to the plane, opened the door, and said, “Get in.”
Lulu’s mouth dropped wide open and she asked “Really?”
Mia lifted her up and then got in the other side. Lulu couldn’t even see over the cockpit, but she didn’t care. You could tell it was a thrill of a lifetime to her.
Angela asked, “Are you ok with her Mia?”
Mia said with a smile, “I’ll teach her how to fly.”
Angela and Mo both smiled, and Mo said, “Ok Lulu, we’re going in the house. You be good and do what Mia says.”
“I will daddy.”
After about 10 minutes and a full explanation of how everything worked, I said, “Why don’t we go get something to eat?” Lulu groaned, “Oh!” with disappointment, but then with excitement declared, “I can’t wait to tell mommy and daddy that I learned how to fly a plane.”
With my help, she got out of the plane and ran over and grabbed Mia’s hand and we all walked into the house together.
Chapter Eighteen
When Paul woke up an hour later, he panicked. It took several minutes for him to remember where he was. For the last few years, he had awakened inside a prison.
He ran water over his face and washed up for several minutes; then he realized he needed to get out of the area.
Thoughts came roaring into his mind, “Does anyone even know what happened at the prison? Are they looking for me? Will they ever look for me? If I make it to dad’s house, how will everyone there react? Will everyone be ok by the time I get there?”
He finally made up his mind that he needed to work his way out of town and start heading to Missouri. Vinita isn’t that big, but when you have to walk and try to avoid close contact with people, it seemed large.
With no power and at night, people were looting the stores; gunshots were going off. This previous, probably happy community had been turned into a major crime zone.
Some people may have been panicking due to the water not running, or they could’ve already been running out of food due to the shortages and collapse of the dollar. Some of it though was just happening because of greed and what some scum sees as an opportunity.
He managed to make good time across town. He was eyeballed by a few people, but he didn’t make eye contact and kept walking.
He walked within 5 feet of a small goodwill store, and the door was standing wide open. He started to walk by, but then it came to him that he needed to get out of the uniform he was wearing. He could see where it might come in handy in certain situations, but he didn’t want to have anything that associated him with the prison, even if it was a guard’s uniform.
He shined his light throughout the small store. It appeared that someone had busted open the door, but maybe once they got in, there wasn’t anything they wanted. Who knows?
Paul walked the aisles, and it was 90% clothing, just what he needed. Finally, he found a pair of men’s blue jeans that would fit him. He then found a short sleeve shirt that would fit and a belt that reasonably fit. He changed clothes leaving the shirt untucked so that he could carry the Glock and the shirt would conceal it. He then hid the guard’s leather belt and holster and of course the uniform.
Suddenly he could hear a couple of vehicles that seemed to be driving around, one with an extremely loud muffler. With what knowledge he had about EMP’s, he knew that they had to be older vehicles.
Paul finally decided to get out of the business area, as so much looting was going on within yards of him. It was mob mentality. It was like the looters didn’t care who saw them. “Of course, in this darkness, who would see?” he thought
Even though he needed supplies for the trip, he wasn’t going to be a part of it. “With my luck, I’ll be the only one arrested.” Eventually, he knew he might have to take more supplies from a store but not now.
At one point, he walked over to more of a residential area to avoid the images in the dark. That turned out to almost be a fatal mistake. He had made it several blocks through the residential area, and as he was crossing an intersection and approaching the sidewalk that was in front of a house on the corner, he could see movement in the house, due to what appeared to be a lantern of some type. He kept walking but suddenly the door slammed open, and an elderly gentleman came out on his porch with what appeared to be a shotgun. Paul heard the man cock it and knew for sure it was a pump shotgun then. Pump shotguns have a very distinctive sound when cocked.
Paul raised and showed his hands but kept walking. Before he could say anything, the older man started screaming at him, “Get the hell out of here or I’ll blow your damn head off!”
Paul wanted to run, but sometimes that inspires people to fire their weapons, so Paul kept walking with his hands up, “Sir, I’m just crossing town, trying to make it to Missouri.”
The old man paused and then yelled, “Well, get then, and I better not see you here again.”
“You won’t sir,” Paul picked up the pace to almost a trot.
Even though he didn’t want to, he made his way back to the main road through town.
“Dumb ass! Stay away from people’s homes.”
Finally, he made it to the edge of town. He was officially out of the city limits anyway, as he had just past the city limits sign that shows the population.
It was odd because there seemed to be more businesses that seemed to be using generators outside the city than within.
As he was walking, a nice 1957 Chevrolet drove past. He could tell by the design of the taillights as it passed as Paul always wanted a 1957. He watched the car drive down the highway and saw it turn left off the highway and stop in front of a building about ¾ of a mile away. Obviously, he was on a very flat part of the highway, and there weren’t any buildings that he noticed between him and where the car stopped. None that he could see with the car's headlights anyway.
After he had walked about another ¼ mile, the lights came on inside and on the front of the building. “Someone else with a generator.”
After walking another ¼ mile, he could hear the vehicle with the very loud muffler coming up behind him from the town. He looked back, and it was swerving back and forth from lane to lane, honking the horn and driving like a bat out of hell. After watching the vehicle continue to approach him, he decided to jump into the ditch which had high grass in it. An older pickup truck flew by him, and he could hear a couple of guys yelling as though they were partying.
He climbed back to the road and watched the truck drive by the lit building and then suddenly hit his brakes and stopped a couple of hundred yards past the building. The truck just sat there for a good couple of minutes. By this time, Paul had made it within a hundred yards of the building. He could read the outside sign that read, “Barney’s Sporting Supplies.”
About the time that he was about to walk in front of the building but on the opposite side of the highway, the old pickup made a U-turn. As the truck's lights were about to silhouette him, he ran to the side of the road and jumped back into the grassy ditch. The truck approached very slowly, and when it got within a hundred feet of the busi
ness, it accelerated and turned into the business and threw rocks as it was stopping in the gravel parking lot.
At first, the driver of the truck kept revving the engine as though he was trying to draw attention from whoever was in the store. Then Paul noticed something. He could see only one person in the truck. He knows there were at least two, as he could hear them when they initially drove by him. Either someone was hiding in the truck, or they got out of the truck when they stopped up the road.
Paul saw a man looking out the glass windows of the store and then a younger teen boy standing next to him. He could see the man using gestures, telling the boy to get back out of the way and the boy complied immediately.
The driver of the truck finally shut off his engine and stepped out. He looked and sounded like someone in his mid-twenties. He stood by the truck’s driver door and kept asking the man if they were open. The man inside the store, which Paul assumed was the owner, kept pointing at the closed sign. After a few moments of this, the driver of the truck reached down and started throwing rocks at the glass. Not big enough to break the glass but they could crack it.
Paul then noticed a second man sneaking up from the side of the store, staying out of sight from the store owner.
After several rocks were thrown, the man in the store apparently had enough. He reached down out of sight and pulled out what appeared to be an AR-15. He opened the door and pointed it at the man by the truck and yelled, “Get the hell out of here you piece of shit. I told you we were closed and if you want your head blown off, throw one more rock. The punk driving the truck raised his hands but stepped one step away from the truck. The man with the AR turned to keep his sight on him. Suddenly from the right side of the store, the 2nd man came running up and put a handgun up to the store owner’s head. Apparently, the whole ordeal was planned to get the store owner to open the door.
The man holding the handgun against the owner’s head looked about the same age as the driver of the truck.
Paul could hear him say, “Now Barney, you just hand me that AR.” Barney complied.
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