by Ron Foster
The POSP series is world famous for its quality and is current military issue for the Red Army. It is built battlefield-tough from magnesium alloy and has fully multi-coated optics. I paid about two hundred bucks for it and an illuminated 4x24 Rifle Scope w/ 400 Meter Rangefinder for the price couldn’t be beat. The illuminated reticule scopes allow you to determine kill distance as well as to track and observe game in the field. The iron sights Jack was using were good enough to aim with, but hell we were both doing the aging failing eyesight thing now and at dusk that lighted sight would make all the difference in the world to a hit or a miss when it counted.
“Jack I got something to show you but you can not use it until we are confident about its capability to put steel on target” I got up and went to where I had the sight stashed at and knowing he thought I had a bazooka or something I had not told him about, and not wanting to disappoint him, hollered back it was only a gun scope for the AK.
He was momentarily deflated but when I handed him the camo nylon cased scope his excitement rose to the occasion with all the appropriate “ooos and Ahhs “ I had come to expect from him when I present some significant deadly acquisition I had managed to save up for and procure from less than common resources.
“How many batteries does this dang thing take and how long do they last” were the first words out of his mouth he asked upon opening the Velcro sealed pouch and seeing 30 Maxwell brand watch looking batteries encapsulated in plastic on a card.
“Just two batteries, they last on the high setting about 50 hours. I have forgotten. I researched the hell out of the run time awhile back but I just don’t remember anymore. That really does not matter though unless you are leaving the scope powered up and on for some odd reason, because you got regular black crosshairs for daylight, unless you just feel the need for additional lighting because of shadows in the woods. Just remember to be sure to check that the switch is in the off position and leave that front lens cap on until you want to look at something so you do not inadvertently scratch the lens going through brush. The way it’s mounted you can still use the iron sights so no worry about not being able to aim it normally or in a hurry.” I told him and went to get my AR for comparison.
“This thing feels heavy for such a low power scope, will it screw up my aim? “ Jack said eying the scope which appeared to be built built like a Russian tank.
“No, actually, it will help you to bull’s eye, it’s got a bullet drop compensator built in to it so you don’t have to adjust or remember complex math tables or anything. the scope does it automatically for you. Ha! To be so old but so perfect, sounds like me. Hee Hee” I told him grinning and presenting my same era scope but of American design and ¼ of the size.
2
THE BORROWERS
I gathered my foraging parties together and explained to them how I thought we ought to go about our tasks.
Sherry and I were a team, Sandra and Betsy were a team and Donnie had borrowed Jack to scavenge on his side of the lake.
“First thing we do is find out if anyone is at home, we will travel the shoreline contour and you can be as noisy as you want. Call out to houses before setting foot on their yards. We will check a row of houses for occupants first and if we don’t find anybody at home we will circle back and I will gain entry into the first two houses and we divide and explore. Look for any signs that someone was recently there, if it looks like someone recently had a meal or something back out then and come get me or I will you. People might just be out fishing or doing the same thing we are and were not smart enough to put out the THIS HOUSE IS OCCUPIED signs like we did. Avoid any confrontations and if we run into anyone be friendly but secretive.” I told my group and asked if their were any questions all though we had been talking off and on about doing an all day trip versus the few short excursions we had undertaken.
Every one had empty backpacks and we could get pillow cases out of the cottages if need be to haul any extra goods. My group was anxious to be off and I reminded them to be respectful of the places we were invading and not trash it looking for things. Today’s trip was only about finding any food and gathering sundries like toilet paper, soap, shampoo etc.
I handed Betsy the extra pair of binoculars and reminded her to look around at any other cabins etc. that might be occupied and watching us and to sing out if she saw anyone.
We set off from in back of my cabin and followed the shoreline up past many empty lots until we arrived at the first house. I yelled up to the house, went around the front of the house and watched Betsy and Sandra does the same to the next building. Knocks on the door went unanswered and peering in the windows offered no results.
We leap frogged down the next few houses and had the same results. But when I got to looking around the front of the last house I noticed a fifth cottage back around the point from it. There was a car there!
I motioned for everyone to come to me and I pointed at the car and we looked at each other uneasily. A hurried discussion was undertaken by the group and it was decided that Sherry and I should approach it and Sandra and Betsy could hang back.
Sherry and I did not see anyone in the front or back and our calls didn’t receive any answers, but as I approached the front door I saw a sign on it that read GONE TO TALLASEE, FRED AND MARY and a date that I calculated to be almost the same time as when the EMP hit.
I knocked on the door anyway but only got silence as a response. A nervous Sandra and Betsy who had been watching us came over and asked if it was all clear and I told them it was and pointed to the sign.
“What do you think it means David?” said Sherry thinking about all the possibilities.
“I say they either walked out the 40 or so miles to get home or they left this to tell someone up here they had gone there and got stuck when that solar storm hit” I replied making my best guess.
“I think they left it for lake friends up here or they would have written more, they were probably going after groceries or something. A lot of these lake houses don’t have phones so that would make sense.” Sandra said thinking about the mystery.
“Well unless they had two cars, or the owner of that one is who the message was for, it’s hard to guess why it was left here” said Betsy trying to piece the car and note together.
“Well either way the possibility of them coming back here is high. A hike back from there would only take a determined person in reasonable health 4 days to do it in” I said puzzling it through.
“I say we leave this one alone but the others are fair game” Sherry said anxious to replenish or add to the supplies of toilet paper at the girls’ house.
“I agree, let’s start with the last two and work our way back to the first” I said setting off towards them.
Sandra advised me she had seen an open window on the one she and Betsy had approached and thought she could get into the house through it.
“Ok just be very careful” I said and went to case my assigned cabin for an entry point. This backdoor does not even have a deadbolt should I just kick it? No I can be a little less destructive just forcing it with my little crowbar I had brought along I thought.
I got the door jimmied open and stepped cautiously inside in case somebody was just hiding and not answering the door out of fright at the appearance of our armed group. A quick check of the house showed it unoccupied and Sherry and I started in on the kitchen cabinets.
Typical lake house, hardly anything in it, a few cans of food, some coffee, a half canister of flour and some cornmeal all welcome stuff but hardly enhanced our supplies at all. Sherry hit the toilet paper bonanza and drug out of a closet one of those huge Sams club Multi roll packs.
Out of curiosity I checked the fridge, it was totally bare. One of these days I bet if I checked the mystery signs houses refrigerator I might get some better clues on how its tenets departed.
Sherry bundled up in glad bags some half used shampoo and some soap. There was some junk fishing tackle on the screened in porch but nothing
we needed. Rendezvous with Sandra and Betsy and it was on to the next house.
“You get much?” Sherry asked the pair as we met them at the open front door?
“No pretty slim Pickens. Did find a six pack of beer in the fridge though” she replied.
“What’s Betsy doing? I said watching Betsy wedging a piece of cardboard in the door frame.
Sandra laughed and said “She is leaving her own mystery sign. It says “The Borrowers visited today” and has a date on it”
I smiled and responded by saying that ought to account for all the broken locks I was going to be leaving in this section today. Sherry decided the next house we pilfered needed one too and so a new tradition was born. I guess you could say we were marking our turf in one way.
The next house Sherry and I broke into had a bit more in the pantry than most and my pack got filled with a descent assortment of canned goods.
I wish we could find us a wagon or wheelbarrow or something as we had to cut our trip short to haul our grabbed goods back to what we had started to refer to as our compound.
“I wonder how Jack is making out today. Donnie’s side of the Lake has some expensive recently built big houses on it. By not selling a rifle or shotgun to Donnie we pretty much assured ourselves the job of playing armed escort on that side of the lake and increasing our stash of goods.
Jack had taken the riding lawnmower and its trailer today and I was hoping that it was pretty likely he and Donnie would be divvying up somebody’s wine cabinet or bar full of hooch.
Just as I was imagining what a wonderful sight a trailer full of liquor would look like I heard a loud shot come from over on Donnie’s side of the lake. We listened intently for a bit and hearing nothing more, we resumed our trip home a bit more hurriedly all wondering what that shot meant.
We called on the radio back to camp and advised the compound we were on our way in and would be there in about 10 minutes and went back to lugging our assortment of goods along.
We divided everything up and I broke out a bottle of vodka and mixed everyone a drink with some lemon aide to celebrate our first formalized “Borrowing” expedition and waited for Jack to return.
“Are we doing the communal kitchen thing tonight or is each house on its own.” Sherry asked the group looking around.
“The wood is mostly all wet for campfire and Dutch oven cooking but I have plenty of dry put up for the rocket stoves. Those Stovetec things were definitely one of my better purchases.” I said looking across the lake slough at Donnie’s house.
“Why don’t we wait until Jack comes back to decide, he might have something interesting” Lois said scanning the shore to see if she saw some sign of him.
“That sounds good; I tell you in this heat it’s hard to get an appetite for anything” Mom said fanning herself with an old Life magazine she had found somewhere in Bernie’s house.
“I need to build us a proper outdoor kitchen if I can scrounge up some lumber one of these days but that job needs to wait until we knock out putting in a garden. I dread the thought of trying to get it to produce anything at the peak of summer with this drought and heat wave we are in.” I said surveying the backyards that needed to be turned from lawns to something more productive.
“What are you going to do about those Geese that come over every morning and don’t say eat them” Sherry asked.
I had been trying to figure out what to do about the dozen or so of them ever sense we got here. They swam all over the lake but had a routine down that was pretty predictable and they came up on our shore every morning about 8 and munched on any fruit that fell out of the crabapple tree, grazed on some weeds and then laid around for a bit. Sherry and I had feed them bread on our previous trips to the lake and they had no fear of humans. Sandra had asked me if we could pen them up or something and get eggs and I had told her there was no way I was fighting with a big mad goose over an egg and besides I didn’t really have the grain to spare to feed them. I had considered shooting one so they would avoid the place but everyone enjoyed watching them so much I just put off what was probably inevitable.
“I haven’t come up with a solution to them yet, at the moment I just keep count of them to see if anybody around this inlet starts hunting them. I wonder if their numbers increase when the migrations fly over in the fall. These lake resident Canadian Geese stay all summer and winter for some reason, I guess because they got used to people feeding them. Be interesting to have some live decoys to attract others” I told Sherry while turning to look at the lake to see if I could spot them making their rounds.
“How could you tell the tame ones from the wild ones?” Sandra asked.
“The tame ones will pretty much stay in their own group. I would have to watch where they go for awhile to figure out how to setup a blind to ambush the wild ones. That short barrel riot gun of mine doesn’t have the reach or the choke I need to get them when they’re flying over. Come to think of it I have never seen these lake geese fly, they just swim around the shoreline of this inlet and occasionally swim directly across it. There are a couple semi tame wood ducks around here too.” I offered and while rising to get me another drink pointing across the lake.
“Looks like Jack is back” I noted and waved across to him.
Jack waved back and Lois looked like she was about to wave her hand off her arm with excitement to see that he was safe. We watched him help Donnie unload some boxes from the trailer and reload the trailer with some other goods and then proceed to head back our way.
In about fifteen minutes Jack pulled around to the deck we were all sitting around on and we went down to see what kind of loot he had gathered on his foray today.
“ We got three trailer loads today, Donnie still owes us some stuff but check this out, he said pulling a bed spread off the back of the trailer which was half filled with food and a goodly assortment of wine and liquor. And there’s a case of beer under all of that David. You can have a six pack of it for those crackers you told me I owed you for.” he said grinning.
“Oh I like the odds of that trade, I got some more crackers” I began to say before Betsy cut me off.
“Just because Jack and Lois don’t drink don’t mean we don’t.” Betsy said pointedly in my beer hound direction.
“Got any crackers?” I said to her smirking before Sherry piped up and spoiled my fun I was about to have teasing Betsy.
“Share and share alike David, you and Jack can have your little side deals as long as it doesn’t hurt the group as a whole” Sherry said in her friendly mediator voice seeing that my playful comment had been taken seriously by Betsy.
“I was just kidding, but if you do have any crackers you should let me negotiate with Jack for you” I said grinning at Betsy in my best let bygones be bygones look.
Betsy smiled and said “And of course you will want your 10%, how much is 10% of a can of beer? Causing me to laugh.
“Lets see, 10% off the top and you and I each put in a pack of crackers, so that would be two six packs Jack owes us. 12 beers x 10% would mean you owe me 1.2 beers for doing the transaction. Me and Jack have a Non- Circumvent agreement so he won’t deal with you direct, ain’t that right Jack?” I said watching Jack play along with my bargaining.
“Yup, that’s right, we have had that agreement for years, no messing with each others customers or going around each other” he said watching Betsy try to think about my calculations and suppressing a smile.
“He is teasing you again Betsy, he is pulling some kind of weird vendor math on you” Sherry said giving me a nudge for not behaving myself.
“What the hell is vendor math?” Betsy asked looking at me like I was trying to steal her life savings by hustling a beer out of her.
“Vendor math is something I learned when I was in the bar business Betsy. Say you owned a bar and had pool tables with another vendor who split with you the revenue 50/50. I want your business so I would be willing to offer you a better deal. I would come in your bar one day and
tell you if you put my pool tables in instead of the other vendors I would give you ten percent off the top and then we would split 50/50. How much is your percentage? I asked Betsy as Jack and Sherry watched her intently.
“I would probably do it, that’s a 60/40 split with me getting 60% right?” Betsy said wondering why she was being scrutinized.
“Well it sounds that way at first and most people think that, if I talked quick enough to get them to sign off for it. But actually its 55/45. Take a dollar and take 10% off it and your left with 90 cents, we split that which is 45 cents a piece, so with the dime extra you get you have 55 cents.” I explained to Betsy jovially so she could see it was an honest way of doing business but a good salesman’s way of gaining business without losing too much money discounting a product.
“Oh I get it! Hey but I would only owe you 1 beer then right?” She said, to which Jack started to laugh but stifled himself when I frowned at him.
“Yes that’s right only one beer” I replied and gave Sherry a little hug so she would not say anything different and ruin my chances of getting a whole beer for the trade.
I quickly changed the subject and asked Jack about what that shot I heard was about on the side of the lake he was on today.
“That was Donnie. We went in a house that somebody had all ready mostly looted out on the fringe of the inlet. There is another little slough over there by the way that stretches back about 10 houses counting both sides. Anyway, it looked like somebody had had a teenage party in there and there was empty beer cans and the place looked trashed for no reason like juveniles sometimes are apt to do and Donnie was walking out the backdoor to check out the tool shed to see if there were any weed eaters or other things of interest in it when he startled a big dog eating a discarded bag of Oreos. The dog looked up and growled at him and Donnie freaked and pulled his pistol and shot at it. Donnie claims he was only trying to scare it but I think he missed it from 50ft and just wont let on how bad a shot he is or how scared that big mutt made him.” Jack said semi giggling