Shadows Of Sanity And Survival (Old Preppers Die Hard Book 3)

by Ron Foster

  “We shoot! We die! They no come here!” Miss Feng said vehemently surprising Farley that her face could redden that much with anger and vengeance before her husband Charlie hugged her closer to say her outburst was nothing more than an emotion he shared.

  “Let’s take to the boats Farley!” Fong said excitedly thinking it was a fun adventure without knowing the hardships they would face outside of his mentor’s romanticized version of the trip to see miraculous things he had never heard of like a lobster march.

  “That’s if we made it there all in one piece boy. That’s hundreds and hundreds of miles of traveling and I’m sure there are pirates and unwelcome shores to greet us. Back to what I was talking about. Like I said these folks are evil and from what I hear they are kind of like some primitive religions or some danged African tribes out there you hear about like Idi Amin that says you eat the heart of your enemy. Many people said they were cannibalistic .I got to wonder if they actually are as well fed and armed as they are said to be that they might just be capable of doing such disgusting acts. Now more than likely that’s all hype and racial innuendo but I don’t plan on finding out personally. Miss Feng! Where in the hell is your rifle?” Farley asked in a strong tone.

  “It over there next to dish wash thing. You no yell at me Farley, get back to story. I get rifle.” Miss Feng said rarely taking any admonishment from Farley but instead giving it, and went to retrieve her weapon.

  Farley’s biggest thing amongst everybody was to have their weapon always at hand. If it was put down, he would steal it. If you dropped it or abused it in any way he depended on the military basic training way of enforcing respect for it by telling them you owed him some pushups. Getting Miss Feng to do pushups for messing with her gun was not something that either one of them took lightly. It didn’t help matters that Farley rejoiced in catching her with any kind of infraction of this taboo and that Miss Feng would proceed to screech his ears off about everything that Farley had done to date before complying to the delight of everyone watching her play along.

  It was a very uneasy way of aggravating the hell out of each other that they both seemed to rejoice in which seemed to be Miss Feng winning because Farley would overlook many discrepancies and let her out of her pushups because he did not want to hear her berating him later about something at the top of her lungs. Fong and Jeremy lived for the day they could catch one of the adults not having a weapon handy or dropping their rifle in order to give the same command ‘Give me twenty” but soon found out the adults had more ways of getting even with such than the momentary satisfaction of enforcing the rule.

  Charlie would swear on the very rare occasions that Farley called inspection on the few weapons that they had managed to accumulate from trade or foraging that he had dirt on his hands when touching a rifle patch that would send you back to go clean it some more. He even told them one time that he didn’t have anything else for them to do the rest of the day and he just wanted to relax and have his beer with the group and relax so he found faults in some of the damndest places to clean that you hadn’t even heard of yet. To which everybody kind of caught on to the waiting game and wouldn’t be the first to hand their weapon to Farley for inspection if they didn’t think he had enough beer and was grinning enough yet. They knew they would have to return to the job and be scrutinized even more closely later if they tried to say they were done to early.

  Better for them to talk and gossip and look like they were doing something. That all weapons were in perfect working condition, lightly oiled and smoothly functioning was a given. That everybody could shoot or clean every kind of weapon on this place was a given. That Farley would tell you the weapon was done and fully cleaned was always questionable and you could not predict this unless you just studiously get working on it until it was time for dinner or something signaled quitting time.

  “Farley just how in the hell do you think your going to be able to get the other tribes or camps to side with us if you can’t even get around them without fear of being shot?’ Charlie Wu said wondering what Farley might have had up his sleeve this time.

  “Well I been thinking on that, I sort of know their ranges and territories and hunting grounds and I figured on posting a sign or two on the edges of them asking for a parlay next week at the horseshoe bar. I am going to make a personal foray to them zombie gamer prepper boys area once I figure out how to make sure one of them doesn’t try to ventilate my gizzard while I am approaching. After I am announced well enough and they are put on notice to expect a visitor. I guess I just walk in. But I would prefer driving. Maybe I will tie a deer haunch partially in a sheet and write parlay on both sides of it and hang it off the back of a stick hobo style and march into their area. That way it kinda looks like I am carrying a truce flag or something. I mostly stay away from them gun happy boys, security they got, common sense and woodland skills they sort of lack. I never talked to one except from behind cover and that was mostly me hollering I wasn’t looking for trouble and them telling me to move on. They are out hunting everyday but I don’t think they have much luck, they fish over by Waterman’s Beach Bar and I just avoid the area as a no mans land. I think there are about 14 of them or there was, Barnet down at the bait store said they got in a skirmish with somebody and came in hunting a doctor for one of their band that had a gunshot wound. I told Barnett if he saw them again to tell them I wasn’t no aggressor if they run up on me but he said they were kinda of cocky about that and were in what he called “Rambo mode” but were looking the worse for wear.” Farley said now wondering how much of an asset they might be versus a detriment to be around.

  “Does Dump Truck know anything about them?” Charlie asked.

  “He knows about as much as I do about them. We don’t even know where they are from. I was the one that warned him awhile back they don’t take kindly to strangers. He said he would tag along with me to talk to them if I was going to pursue the idea of organizing a force around here to protect the territories as one big force but he is not too keen on that idea and neither am I. He is sort of in the mindset that we should be retreating deeper in the woods until the danger is past, but he is not adverse to us assisting the church militias in harassing our mutual enemies and trying to get them to move on out of the area quicker. Problem with that shit is, that gang of thugs is known for retaliation. That means anyone taking pot shots at them or doing any kind of little skirmishes or ambushes upon them needs to warn everyone within 10 miles that you’re thinking about kicking that big anthill camp. We are too disorganized and far too few to do much more than play willow the wisp and carry out a few guerilla raids to keep them from expanding their territory too much. A direct confrontation would be suicide from what I hear, they got plenty of combat vets that brought back some war skills from the big sand box for that and even if the whole of them look like a rabble they have some dedicated platoons that don’t mind getting down to some conventional warfare.” Farley declared.

  “Well there are plenty of places to hide I guess, but finding a place that can accommodate and support a small force like you’re talking about isn’t going to be easy to find. I see why you’re talking about bringing in folks down here to join our band. I just don’t like the sounds of it and we ain`t exactly hard to find by anyone looking anyway if you know what I mean.’ Charlie said uncomfortably.

  “I ain`t none too happy to extend an invite to anybody either, but if it becomes a matter of life and death, then its best that we choose to have this camp manned and ready before a fight comes or have already high tailed it away by ourselves somewhere else. We can’t play hide and seek or bullshit people about our strength and numbers much longer.” Farley said letting the full weight of having to make a decision soon fall on everyone.

  “Wasn’t it you Farley that said that for us to leave established resources was to die? The deep cold of winter will be here soon enough, can’t we try to keep them in their fort per se and we ambush their wood cutting and hunting parties etc.?” Charl
ie asked thinking of old style Indian tactics used on the settlers.

  “That’s just it, we don’t know if they are leaving or staying, but in the mean time they are ranging further out stealing and killing and when they meet concentrated resistance they take on a scorched earth policy of atrocities that no one around here can have any hopes of withstanding for very long. Basically from what I know about them is that they move into an area, everyone formally trying to just get by in their homes tries to move out and gets raped and plundered in the process of trying to escape at the crossroads. They got check points and ambushes setup and armed bands ranging around all over this place already. We are lucky they are distracted around town and pillaging the richer sections of the lake and haven’t scouted in this direction yet. Which reminds me that we need to revamp our repel marauders and bug out scenarios. We need to hide gear; food etc. outside the cabins and maintenance shed and keep packs close by just like the guns to be available at a moments notice. We can’t live on edge like this very long or we are going to be shooting at our own shadows and squabbling amongst ourselves over stupid fearful induced shit.” Farley declared spitting on the ground in disgust.

  “So what is it that you suggest Farley? I mean you been thinking on it evidently, what do you consider as our best course of action?” Becky asked worriedly.

  “Hell I don’t know, that’s why I am talking to you all and looking for some suggestions. I tell you one thing, food’s going to get a lot thinner around here because I can’t run trap line and keep an eye on this place at the same time and I can’t have the boys out foraging or fishing very far because we all need to stick together. We will be continuously getting weaker as apparently our enemies are getting stronger now and now’s the time we must decide what’s best for us to do, be it fight or flight!” Farley said looking over his audience of survivors with great worry about their continued welfare now.

  “What Dump Truck do? What he say? You may be tell him and rednecks to move in with us for a little bit?” Miss Feng asked now thinking it wasn’t such a terrible idea after all to bring in the backwoods brethren.

  “Oh them boys got their own ideas of playing swamp fox raider and country boy hide and seek and surviving. They would normally probably be best left to their own devices and as you know, they don’t have a clue about this resort place or us living down here all by ourselves yet. As far as they are concerned and a few other folks around here, they all think that this place might be manned by the military in some form or fashion or that it’s an abandoned facility but guarded by regular military. That’s another problem, if folks feel they are in great danger they are going to be expecting or eventually going to be coming around asking for a response from this place if they have the gas to seek assistance or refuge from the military. It won’t be too long till somebody comes a knocking at our door and I don’t think they’ll be put off by just Charlie driving up in his truck in uniform and hollering bullshit at them anymore.” Farley said narrowing his eyes and looking towards the road leading to the gate.

  “I see what you mean, Farley. We cannot get all spread out doing chores or camped out at the front gate getting ready for Lord knows what that may or may not come to visit. How about if we all just move into the maintenance shed together for a little while and make plans to evacuate should trouble come our way? If we make the front of the resort look like it’s already been ransacked and there’s nothing left to steal, maybe they won’t bother to come in to camp to far this way.” Charlie said speculating.

  “I sort of thought about that, but evacuate to where? We only got the one gate that we can escape from if nobody thinks to man or block it. We can’t get to the lake or boats from there and if we were overtaken we would just have to set out on foot with what we could carry through the woods and we wouldn’t have a hope in hell of lasting very long if we did that. No, the way I see it is that we either man this camp with extra people or create our own armed reactionary force to protect the place, or we just gather up everything we can and get the hell out of here. I for one am not enlisting in any one of these so called militias around here for any long term extended fight or guerilla warfare. Me and Charlie are too old, the boys are too young and you women lack the experience for that kind of do or die existence.” Farley said beginning to lay out just what kind of bad position they were in.

  “How many people you talk about Farley? How many you invite here?” Miss Feng said dejectedly.

  “Good question. Dump and the boys would make about ten and the zombie preppers we say, figure make another ten and that’s a reasonable amount of skirmishers but what you have to keep in mind is all these folks need to be fed too and I just can’t see us taking on another thirty or forty people with the dwindling resources and game around here to make this camp anything other than kind of like a starving Valley Forge like affair this winter. Ya’ll got to realize that every gun in this county has already been out hunting for weeks now and the game is depleted and spooked and hiding just as deep in the thickets as they can get. That doesn’t take into account all these roving bands of marauders that have passed through here already or may have stayed around the perimeter in vacant houses either. Logistics says we can’t support having a roving army next to us trying to live off the land themselves and us too with no means of outside support except what we can glean off of Mother Nature. Now I’m going to bitch at you for a minute and I’ve told ya’ll many times regardless of what you thought that I’ve been out digging around houses that are empty or that folks died in. I have been out often making our mark around here so there’s very little left of interest or support for anyone coming through the area. However, that doesn’t matter because there is plenty of vacant shelter and if folks have supplies elsewhere they can move in if they want for short periods of time while they try ranging further. We got to think about where that army up the road might be going next or if they plan on over wintering. They are not fools. They know they are going to have to hunker down somewhere before it gets too cold to travel or their gas supplies run out. They got all those chicken sheds that they are eating off of right now and most likely will try if they can to keep it running fulltime to feed their troops. Technically speaking they may never leave if they can find the grain to keep them running and I am sure there is big full tanks of propane on that farm. That and they got access to any cattle or hogs that may still be around or that they may have managed to accumulate and force the farmers or families that were raising them to keep on working. I have no idea what the National Guard or Army is up to at the moment, but I say they have enough other things to take care of and bigger bands of militias, armies and bands of scavengers to worry about and will just allow this bunch to wreak havoc around here.” Farley said knowing that the hope of the cavalry arriving just in time needed to be quickly forgotten.

  “So I’ll ask you again, Farley, what is it that you yourself want to do? What are your thoughts?” Becky asked.

  “I’m still considering all of the options, but what I want to do is pack up the boats and get ready to leave at a moment’s notice. But on the other hand, I’m sort of scared that if we do load up the boats someone might come around wanting to steal all our stuff. We can attempt to hide them and camouflage them in the creek slue and guard them, but we don’t have enough people. If we got some of the other lake dwellers to do the same with us that would require us showing our hand of what we got and that is something I have dang sure have a big problem with. If I had the answer, I would tell you all, but I just don’t know at the moment.” Farley declared.

  That last statement of Farley’s worried everybody because Farley always seemed to have had some kind of answers or ideas to discuss and for him to say he didn’t have an answer made the group go silent.

  “The only suggestion I have is that we have a parlay with everybody and get their input and see just what kind of manpower and cooperation we can expect before we make any kind of decision. Now we are far from the only ones faced with these types of
decisions and for lack of a better plan, I’m going to introduce folks to the concept of the “Three Man Militia”. That methodology would give everyone something to consider and organize around from big to small groups and then it will be much easier to band them into some kind of fighting force once they have accepted this concept.

  “What’s a three man militia?” Charlie asked.

  “Well it’s a concept that Mike Mah introduced to the prepper community a while back that was his take on overcoming societal collapse which I’ll explain later to you. I on the other hand, want to bring in some of my military background of the seven man Special Forces units back that are constructed to drop behind enemy lines and get the civilian populace in back of them to overcome dictators and state aggression. The problem with that concept is that we were heavily dependent on being able to supply arms, ammunition and medical aid to our hopefully would be civilian or village supporters. Winning hearts and minds is all about supply lines, doing the same without resources requires a bit of rethink for me. But a recognized force of professional soldiers that can bring aid and hope to an embattled populace will do the job if it can inspire the confidence needed for such a situation. Li This task is something that only normally can be achieved off of reputation and successes for previously overcoming the enemy in the field. We all know from our history books about partisan bands that were successful in overcoming the Germans in WWII and in other wars of attrition. If I do decide to undertake such an adventure, I need to find our trusted few that have the skills and resolve to see it to its end and organize them in such a way as to gain the respect of other such groups. This idea has a major fatal flaw though, as the partisans always depended on the aid and donated food of civilian factions supportive of their cause. With retributions and lack of any kind of common infrastructure these commando like tactics are doomed to failure because you cannot be trying to engage the enemy and foraging for food at the same time, so I’m in a quandary here. If our actions cause havoc and mayhem on those attempting to seek a more servile and sheeple way of living, then they too become our enemies and will trade their freedoms and morals for what appears to them to be a margin of security.” Farley said his mind whirling in confusion that under the dire circumstances they found themselves in, that the whole world now seemed their enemy or possible Judas or betrayer.