by P. A. Glaspy
“Anne, run back to the house and get my binoculars. Take Janet with you. Grab the tactical shotgun and the .308. Hurry.”
Mike added, “Grab at least two more rifles, Anne. Whatever you’ve got that has a magazine. If it’s got a scope, all the better. Do you guys have AR’s? Mine’s in the house with the rest of my gear, waiting for the bunkhouse. Behind the couch in the living room. Grab it.”
Pete started our way. “I’ll go with them, to help gather and carry the guns.”
I turned around and ran back to the house, Pete and Janet on my heels. I was up the stairs faster than I knew I could run, pulling Russ’s BOB out of the corner. They were never far away. I fished out his binoculars while Janet went across the hall and grabbed the long guns from their room. She came back with a 30.06 rifle and Bob’s AR-15. I was draping the binoculars over my head when we met back up in the hallway, having slung both the .308 and the shotgun over my shoulders. We headed down the stairs to get back out to the guys. Pete was in the living room with Mike’s bag slung across his back.
“This thing is full of guns and ammo. I didn’t know what to grab, so I figured I’d just take the whole thing. I really need to learn more about guns, I guess. You ladies need any help?”
We shook our heads and headed for the door. Marietta met us in the doorway, hand resting on the pistol at her side. I’m sure we weren’t quiet coming in and galloping up the stairs. She looked as scared as I felt.
“Do you know what’s happening, Anne? Who was shooting?”
I paused long enough to lay a hand on her arm. “No, we don’t know what’s going on yet. Stay here and help keep the kids safe. Please.”
There was a plea in my voice she must have heard, because she took on a determined stance at the door to the porch.
“You’ve got it. Be careful. Let us know when you can.”
I gave her a quick hug around the shoulders and ran out with Janet and Pete. I was pulling the binoculars off as I was running up to Russ. He grabbed them and the rifle while Bob was getting his rifle from Janet. Pete handed Mike his bag. Mike immediately dug out the AR.
“Okay girls, head back –“ I didn’t let him finish. I was shaking my head, feet firmly planted where I stood.
“No way. Millie, Marietta, and Kate are all armed in the house and the kids are down in the basement. The older boys are watching all four sides of the house from upstairs just like we did at home when there were invaders. There are plenty of people in the house. We’re here to help. Don’t make me remind you that both of us out shoot you guys every time we go to the range.”
Monroe snorted a laugh, but got serious again almost immediately.
“This ain’t a target, sweetheart. This is a person with a gun who can and will shoot back. Hell, they’ve already shot and we don’t even know who they are, how many there are of them, what they’re after, or where they are right now. I just hope they’re still outside the fence. Russ, you see anybody yet in them things?”
Russ had apparently decided not to argue with me right then. He was looking through his binoculars toward the gate. “I can’t see anything from here. Mike, is that thing ready to use?”
Mike had stopped work on it when the shots rang out. “It’s not completely attached, but we can hold it steady enough for you to climb it to get a look. Better yet, you guys hold it and let me go up. I’ve got my minis on me.”
He pulled out a small set of binoculars from the pack he had been carrying since we met him. We hadn’t asked, but my guess was either a small BOB or an EDC (every day carry) pack he kept with him at all times. Gotta love vets. They know what’s out there, and a lot of them are borderline preppers – at least from a semi-tactical standpoint.
Mike took his rifle, slung it across his back, and grabbed the ladder. Bob, Bill, and Ryan steadied the ladder on both sides and the back. The platform was already resting on the landing of the treehouse. Mike climbed the ladder and hopped out onto the landing. He pulled up his minis and looked toward the gate, as well as both sides of it.
“I see a couple of guys. They look pretty young, maybe 18 or 19. No more than 20. They are on the road close to the gate, looking this way. I don’t think they’ve found the gate yet. I see long guns on both of them, but no scopes. Might be a shotgun on one, rifle on the other one. They seem to be waiting for something. No vehicles I can see, but they could have parked them and walked out here. We would have heard vehicles which is probably why they didn’t drive in. Not sure what their agenda is. Maybe we should go find out.”
Russ looked up at him. “Are you sure there are only two of them? I don’t want anyone walking into a trap.”
“I can’t be 100% positive, but I don’t see anyone else. You think they heard the tractor?”
Russ looked at Monroe. Monroe was slowly nodding. “That makes sense. They hear the tractor, can’t tell exactly where it’s coming from since they can’t see in here, so they fire some shots to see who comes running. Then they know where we are. Question now is: do we let them know?”
Russ replied, “I think we should wait for now, to see what they do. Mike, keep an eye on them.”
Mike gave a short nod in the affirmative and continued his surveillance.
Russ looked at the rest of us. “Just hang tight, guys. I’d rather not announce our location until we have no other choice, but we’re not going to be able to stay hidden forever. At some point we will be located, and I doubt it will be by people who want to join forces with us. Let’s wait a few minutes and see what their next move is.”
We didn’t have to wait long. The shots seemed to go off right over our heads. I jumped a foot and Janet stifled a scream. Monroe was hot and loud. He didn’t care whether they knew where we were or not now.
“Damn fools! Bullets have to come down sometime! We got to get out there, Russ, before they hurt somebody!”
Russ nodded grimly. “Yep, we do. Monroe, if it’s anyone from around here, they should know you, so you need to be with us. You, me, Bob, and Mike should be a good show of force. Take the biggest, baddest dogs, too. Lots of folks are afraid of big, scary dogs. Everyone else stay here. We need someone in the Bird’s Nest, watching for any surprises. Sean, can you go up?”
“Sure thing, Russ. Hand me your binoculars.”
Russ passed them to Sean who climbed up to the hide. He immediately scanned the area again then looked down at us.
“Still only the two guys that I can see. They are looking this direction. It’s possible they heard us talking – or Monroe’s, um, raised voice.”
Monroe looked up at him. “You can say they heard me holler. I know I did and I’d do it again. Idiots!”
Russ started toward the gate. “Alright, let’s do this guns holstered but keep your hands on them. If anything happens, we won’t have time to decide whether or not to draw. The rest of you stay here. Sean, let them know if anything changes out there.”
“I ran up to him and hugged him fiercely. “Be safe. I love you.” We had always made a point of telling each other that whenever we would be apart for any amount of time. I felt it was more important than ever now.
He hugged me back and said, “Ditto to you. I love you, too.” He then looked to the guys.
“Alright, let’s go find out what these dumbasses are up to.”
****
Jay and Clay Glass lived a few miles from the farm. They were not known for their hard working lifestyle. In fact, more often than not they could be found hanging around outside the old general store at the crossroads, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer that no one could figure out how they got since they were still under age, and telling tall tales about their “adventures”. How many adventures could two high school drop-outs who lived in their momma’s basement have had? They had never held a steady job, instead relying on their mother’s disability check to keep them in their vices. No one knew what about their mother, Rhonda, was disabled as she seemed perfectly capable of walking around, driving, or going to bingo or lunch w
ith her friends. The Glass family lived off the government – a government that could very well be non-existent now. These were the kind of people we would have to watch out for and probably defend our home from. They didn’t know how to find food that didn’t come out of a grocery store. They would be looking for someone to “help” them get by, just until things got back to normal – which probably wasn’t going to happen any time soon, if ever.
They were standing in the road looking toward the gate that they still didn’t know was there. Monroe unlocked it and Russ and Bob grabbed the gate and swung it open. Monroe and Mike were walking toward the Glass brothers, who looked like they had just seen the door to a magical portal open before their eyes. Russ and Bob fell in behind them and Monroe was ranting as he walked into the road to confront them.
“What the hell are you doing out here? Just shooting for the fun of it? You do know them bullets got to come down, right? Do you think they just stay up in the air once you shoot ‘em? You gonna answer me, boy??”
The Glass brothers were backing away from Monroe’s verbal assault, as well as the German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix dogs at his side with their hackles up and a low growl in their throats. Clay spoke up.
“Uh, we was…uh…hunting. Yeah, hunting for some rabbits, or sumthin’ like that to eat. We been out of food for a couple of days now. The store’s closed, said they ain’t gettin’ no more food, looks like, so Momma sent us out to try to find sumthin’ we could eat. But we ain’t seen no rabbits, squirrels, nothin’. Y’all got any spare food for a neighbor? We’d be much obliged, and we could replace it when the power comes back on and the store opens back up.”
Monroe glared at him. “If you were huntin’ rabbits, why were you shooting in the air, over my place? You seen some flying rabbits out here?”
Jay snorted to cover a laugh, saw the look on Monroe’s face, then somberly replied, “Well, uh, to be honest we knew you lived out here somewheres, Mr. Monroe, and we was hopin’ if we shot you’d come see who it was, then we’d know where you was, so you could help us out.”
“And why would you think I’d help you out? You should go on and try to find them rabbits and squirrels. There’s plenty out there. I got my own people to look after and tend to.”
Jay went on. “Tell ya true, even if we got a rabbit or a squirrel we wouldn’t know what to do with it. We ain’t never hunted before. Our daddy ran off when we was little so it was just Momma and us. We didn’t have nobody to teach us stuff like that. What do we do with it if we get one?”
Monroe seemed to soften at the thought of these young men trying to provide for themselves and their mother. Just as he was about to offer to show them how to do those things, Clay opened his mouth and changed the mood of the gathering.
“Who cares? If y’all got food, you can share it with us. That’s the right thing to do. As long as somebody’s got food, everybody can eat, right?”
Bob stepped forward. “Wrong. WE have food for OUR families, not yours. YOU need to go find something to eat somewhere that isn’t here.”
Jay seemed to sense the situation had taken a bad turn and tried to salvage it.
“We’d work for it, whatever ya need. We can do all kinds of things. And it wouldn’t be for long – just until everything comes back on.”
Bob was shaking his head. “We don’t need any help. We’ve got everything covered. By the way, just how long do you think this is going to last?”
Clay shrugged. “Dunno, maybe a month or so at the most. I mean, we’re kinda off the main road a-ways, so it makes sense it’ll take ‘em longer to get our power back.”
Bob looked at him incredulously. “Do you think this is just a power outage? Did you not notice that none of the new cars work, or cell phones? This is going to last a hell of a lot longer than a month. It could be years, which is why you fellas need to learn how to feed yourselves. I’d suggest you get going and get busy doing that.”
Clay was getting agitated. “Didn’t we just get done tellin’ ya we don’t know how to do any of that? We need help. You could give us enough to get by for a couple of days. That ain’t askin’ too much.”
Russ stepped up to the assembled group. “Then what happens in a couple of days when that food is gone? Will you know how to feed yourselves then? No, you’ll be right back here wanting more. We can’t help you. We have our own families to take care of. You need to leave, and don’t come back.”
Jay looked desperate. “But what do we do? What do we eat?”
Monroe reached down to the side of the road and pulled up a dandelion, root and all. He held it out to them.
“You see this right here? This weed? You can eat every bit of it. There’s all kinds of nuts, berries, and wild onions out in the fields you can eat. Go sit in the woods and wait for a squirrel. There’s food all around you. You just have to do a little work to get it.”
Jay was looking at the dandelion with renewed interest, but Clay was still trying to get something for nothing.
“Well, we ain’t leavin’ ‘til you help us. We’re gonna stay right here, maybe keep shootin’ out over your trees there. Best hope we don’t get a lucky shot in, where someone gets hurt.”
Mike finally stepped in. He walked over and got right up in Clay’s face. He spoke low and steady, with no emotion. “If there is one more shot fired toward this place, or even in this vicinity, it will be the last thing you ever do. You won’t even know it’s coming, because I saw you long before you saw us. You need to leave now, while you still can. This is the only warning you will get.”
The dogs, sensing the change in the emotion level, started slowly toward the brothers, still growling, very aggressive. Jay grabbed his brother’s arm and started dragging him back down the road.
“C’mon, Clay, they ain’t gonna help us. Let’s go.”
Clay struggled against his brother’s grasp and started to raise his rifle. It looked like a .22 but even that small caliber could kill if it hit you in the right spot. He barely got the barrel moving upward when all four men drew their side arms and pointed them at the Glass boys. Mike was slowly shaking his head.
“You don’t want to go there, fellas. You’ll be dead before you can even get that gun raised up. Go home to your momma. Don’t come back.”
Clay stopped the movement of the gun, but couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
“This ain’t over. Y’all can’t just let people starve while you got food. Y’all need to learn to share. Y’all need to learn to help your neighbors. It ain’t right to let folks starve while you eat high on the hog. This for sure ain’t over.”
The brothers turned to walk away while our guys stood there and watched to make sure they didn’t change their minds. Never taking his eyes off them, Mike replied, “You know that’s the truth, right? This ain’t over. They’ll be back when they get desperate enough.”
Russ nodded. “Unfortunately yes. Security just became our number one priority. Let’s get those foxholes dug.”
CHAPTER 9
With the Bird’s Nest done and the Gopher Holes dug (Brian’s naming contribution, apparently trying to outshine Bob), Russ consulted with Mike on any more security measures we should employ. Mike again suggested adding another post to each side of the gate to strengthen the hinge area and added, “Maybe a good stout post in the middle of the gate, dropped in the ground. We wouldn’t fill in the hole so we could move it if we need to get out. With the camouflage on the gate, I think we could set it where no one could see it. They’d get a big surprise if they hit it trying to break it down.”
Everyone agreed those were really good ideas. Pete offered to take the tractor up and get the auger hooked up to it for the post drilling. Janet and I asked him for a ride back to the house so we could bring the kids and the rest of our people back out.
When we got back by the house, we jumped off, waved at Pete, and hustled inside. Marietta was still by the front door watching for anybody who didn’t belong. We let her know the danger was passed, f
or now, and headed in to let the rest of our folks know. Janet went up after the boys, and I headed to the back of the house to get the rest of the crew.
Marietta was curious, wanting to know what had happened, so I let her know we’d tell everyone when we got them all out again. We sent the kids out to the screen porch and we women and the bigger boys went to the living room.
“First off, everyone is fine. The shots you heard were not aimed at anyone. We had some visitors who were, quite frankly, looking for us. Millie, you might know them. Jay and Clay Glass?”
Millie nodded grimly. “Yes, unfortunately. They are not what I consider ‘good people’. They abuse the system to get a free ride. Well, I guess that would be used to abuse now, wouldn’t it?”
“Correct, and those are the kind of people who will cause us the most problems. They’ve been living off the government teat for years and either don’t want to take care of themselves, or don’t know how to do it. I think the Glass brothers fall into both categories. One of them, Jay, seems to want to know how to make it without assistance, but the other one, Clay, is looking for someone to take care of them. We don’t think we’ve seen the last of them. The guys are finishing up the reinforcements out front by the gate. After dinner tonight, we’ll be having a sit-down to set up some protocols for what to do when something like this happens. All other projects are on hold for the rest of the day, until the new security measures are in place. We want this place to be as safe as we can make it. All that said, everyone did very well today for not having a plan in place yet. We don’t have to walk around on egg shells; we just need to be ready to act and react when we need to, and quickly. Is there anything else we need to discuss?”
Kate spoke up. “You’ll be happy to know we put our time down there to good use today. We have a mini clinic set up, including a couple of cots. We grabbed an empty rolling tool chest Monroe had down there and added the supplies for easy access. We even set up an old floor lamp to use for an IV stand. We finished it off with a shower curtain for privacy if we need it. It turned out pretty well. You ladies did a phenomenal job of collecting supplies, by the way. There isn’t much we’re lacking, outside of a doctor and a sterile environment.”