Alpha Farm: The Beginning (Prepper Chick Series Book 1)

by Annie Berdel

  Scenario after scenario was played out on paper along with every conceivable outcome. Was there room for error? Of course. They had to learn to improvise, to adapt to the situations, but the ultimate goal was always to overcome. This was not a game for losers as lives could be lost. It was all in or nothing.

  Betsy set about tidying up the extra bedrooms that she had. She had some citrus cleaner she had made from orange peels and vinegar that would leave the rooms smelling fresh. Looking at the bottle, she would need to make more after this visit. Perfect plan she thought. She can make some lemonade for her guests and make some lemon cleaner instead of the orange this time.

  Walking out to her greenhouse, she pulled a couple lemons from her small trees and took them back to the kitchen. Back in the kitchen, she sliced the lemons and used the juice for the beverage. Taking the peel, she put it all in a jar and filled the jar with white vinegar. Putting the lid on the jar, she sat it in the back of her cleaning supplies to marinate for at least ten days. That would give the oils in the lemon peels enough time to make the cleaner smell good while making it potent.

  Picking up the seeds, she held them in the palm of her hand surveying their fleshing appearance. Popping them into her mouth, she sucked all the pulp from them. Keeping them in her mouth to stay moist, Betsy walked back out to her greenhouse. Finding an empty pot was not easy, as growing food was of utmost importance. Moving two plants together, Betsy freed up a pot for her newest prized possession. Three to six years from now, these tiny seeds would be producing their own fruit. They were more valuable than gold.

  Betsy stuck her finger into the moist dirt and dropped the seeds into the hole formed. About a half an inch deep, she tenderly covered the seeds with dirt and sprayed the dirt until damp. Taking a clear piece of leftover plastic, she covered the top of the pot and wrapped a rubber band around it to keep the plastic in place. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled, “Please grow.”

  The country she lived in was spotted with pockets of power. Big cities in the east to Midwest were hit the hardest from whatever caused this catastrophe. Reports were coming in that an earthquake had cause the destruction, one that had hit the New Madrid area. Seemed unlikely considering the extent of the damage, but that was what it seemed was being echoed across the airwaves. Luckily for Betsy, her Sister Chicks had prepared ahead of time. While none of the city services were currently functioning, Betsy had backups to her backups. Water from her well, solar power with a couple small wind turbines with plenty of battery storage had Betsy not missing a step. The only thing she truly missed was the internet. She loved research and keeping in touch with people, especially her girlies, and this unusual silence was unnerving.

  Next, she pulled some canned chicken from the cellar with some rice from the pantry. Her food storage was staged around the house for a reason. If someone stopped by purposefully to remove what food she had, she could show how little she had in her pantry without compromising her entire stockpile.

  Adding the rice, chicken and enough water to cover into a ceramic pot, she took it outside and put it into her sun oven. It would take a couple hours to cook, but that was one thing she had now, time. She had to stay ahead of the meals and plan out hours or even days in advance what to cook as popping things in the microwave and expecting it to be ready in minutes, heck, those days were long gone. Mixing up a garden salad with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, she set it into her small refrigerator that she bought in an RV shop. While it was the perfect size for a motor home, it looked extremely out of place in her kitchen. It was about half the size of her regular refrigerator. What made it priceless, though, was it ran off of her solar batteries and not regular electrical current. Mixing up her lemonade, she set it also in her small fridge to chill down before her guests arrived. All she had left to do was make a quick dessert and track down her husband who was in the barn tending to their animals. He would need to get the refueling station ready.

  Walking back into the kitchen from the barn, she heard the crackle from her ham radio.

  “Betsy Four Over,” came the man’s voice over the radio.

  Betsy dropped her dish towel and headed into the living room where she kept the radio.

  “Betsy Four Over,” came the man’s voice again.

  “Betsy Four Over!” she shouted into the handset.

  “Betsy Four Thirty Out”

  “Betsy Four Thirty Confirmed Out,” Betsy yelled back. Her guests would be there in thirty minutes. Not a lot of time left!

  True to his word, half an hour later a motorcycle came barreling up the driveway with a motor home not far behind. It had been a while since Betsy had seen an actual working vehicle as most of the newer ones were impacted by the supposed earthquake that the media kept dumping onto the emergency radio waves. Betsy went out to meet her guests from the porch, her pistol tucked ladylike under her apron… you know… just in case things didn’t pan out the way intended.

  “Michael!” Betsy exclaimed.

  “Hey, Little Momma!” Michael cooed back.

  Chloe was just stepping off the steps of the motor home as she witnessed the exchange of welcomes between what were obviously old friends.

  “So you’re Betsy Four?” Chloe asked, now even more intrigued. Here was this woman standing before her who Chloe would never in a million years was part of this…this… country wide spy ring of mothers going on. “Someone needs to explain to me what the hell is going on around here.”

  Over dinner, Betsy and Michael explained the network of women around the country that could be used to get people and supplies where they needed to go. They also explained the complex set of commands spoken on the radio along with the changes in frequencies. Chloe would need to learn them over time, but for now her mind was on overload.

  “Next stop should be Dawna in Indiana for a quick refuel and then Ohio,” Betsy said.

  “Wow, that’s going to go faster than I thought,” Chloe chimed.

  “Don’t be so quick. Sounds like you have had a reasonably smooth drive here but that’s about to change. You have a pretty significant river to cross and that’s not going to be easy considering,” Betsy said.

  “Considering what?” Michael asked.

  “They are all blocked. We’ve been out to look for ourselves. Part of the redistribution of wealth going on. Pay the price to cross safely on one end. Pay to get off the other end. By the time you are done, you won’t have anything left… not even your life sometimes. It got pretty stupid around here pretty fast.” Betsy added.

  “What are we going to do now? Megan asked. “We’ve come this far to not make it?”

  Michael was being unusually quiet. Chloe looked over at him deep in thought. “I think we need to stay for a couple days if that’s OK Betsy… I want to check out these bridges,” he finally said.

  “Of course.” Betsy said, knowing all the options going through his head. Hell, she had probably thought of some of them herself!

  142

  “I’m going, too, “ Chloe said.

  “Really? You think?” Michael said.

  “Yes,” She responded.

  “Well, I think not. I work alone. Less mistakes that way.”

  “Tough titty,” she quipped.

  “What?” he half-laughed.

  “I’m going. Get over it. If anything, use it to teach me some stuff I don’t know.”

  She had him there. She was tough, he gave her that. Maybe he should teach her a thing or two.

  “OK, fine. Be ready to go at 2300…” he said and walked away.

  “But wait,” she yelled after him with a wicked grin on her face. “What do I wear?”

  143

  Betsy and Chloe both walked into the room together dressed in Army fatigues, their faces painted in camouflage paint.

  “What the hell?” Michael said laughing.

  “WE are both going with you,” Betsy said.

  “Are you both out of your fucking minds?” he asked.

  Exchanging glance
s and a hint of a smile, both women responded at the same exact time, “Yes.”

  “Ah come on Mike, let them live a little,“ Betsy’s husband said.

  “Oh! I love a man with your kind of thinking…” Betsy said as she winked at her husband.

  “Ya well, don’t get to excited. You get hurt and I’m kicking your ass,” he said as he took his wife in his arms and kissed her forehead.

  “Yes dear,” she responded, squeezing him tight.

  Releasing his breath from between his lips in a highly agitated manner, Mike finally walked to the kitchen table and laid out some topographical maps.

  “OK, ladies. Here’s the plan.”

  They spend the next thirty minutes reviewing their travel route and course of action. “If all goes well, we should be back before the break of dawn,” Michael said to everyone. “Let’s load up and head out.”

  “Wait, I have to pee,” Chloe said as the room broke into laughter.

  “Of course you do,” Michael, said shaking his head. “Of course.”

  144

  It became quite clear after a small amount of time that crossing any bridge within a day’s travel was going to require a rather large distraction of some kind to get the motor home across. The motorcycle would be easy enough but a big lumbering RV full of passengers was going to need a pretty intensive amount of planning.

  Two things came to mind for Michael: Compromise or deceit. Beg, borrow or steal your way across or create a distraction big enough that it takes out all operatives. Looking around at the two women with him, it could come down to both compromise and deceit.

  “Alright ladies, I’ve seen enough. Let’s head home,” Michael said breaking the silence.

  Gathering the supplies that they had unpacked, the trio headed quietly back out of their hiding spot the way they had come in. “Who does the boat service belong to that we passed on the way?”

  “That’s River Rat…or Jack but most people around here call him River Rat as he knows this river like the back of his hand. Why?” Betsy asked.

  “How well do you know him?” Mike asked Betsy.

  “Well enough but I really don’t think he has the capability to get a big ass motor home across this river. I don’t like the feel of this at all,” Betsy said. “No one there is a local… why wouldn’t any of our guys be over there? That would make it a hell of a lot easier!”

  “No idea,” Michael said quietly, obviously distracted by the question.

  “OK, what gives Mikey? What’s ticking away in that hard head of yours?” Chloe asked.

  “I don’t think we can do this,” he finally said.

  “Wait! What?! Can’t do what? Get across that bridge?” Chloe asked.

  “I don’t know who ‘we’ is but us chickies can do whatever we need to do to get the job done and no pile of camo-dressed men guarding a bridge are going to stop us!” Betsy chimed in.

  Michael smiled to himself in the dark. Just the response he was looking for. Any hesitation on their part could get some of them, if not all of them, killed. It was going to be all or nothing and he preferred they had total buy in of the plan. He just now needed to convince them that it was their plan they were creating.

  The walk back to Betsy’s house was quiet and uneventful. It gave Michael enough time to think about their mission ahead and pull together any possible variable that could deter it from success. His biggest worry was the two women walking beside him. It was one thing to trust your six to a trained soldier. Another to some housewives he hardly knew. Not much of a choice, though, he had to work with what he had and he was quickly running out of time.

  Once back at the house, Chloe and Betsy made a bite to eat for them all and they gathered around the table to discuss what each of them witnessed at the bridge. Mike was impressed by the amount of detail they had gathered that slipped his notice. Piling all the info together gave them a clear cut idea of what they needed to do, and it was going to take all of them to get the job done. They finally broke for the night as the sun was starting to rise. They needed to get some sleep, and then get Megan and Betsy’s husband involved in the plan and then put it all into motion before dusk.

  Betsy climbed into bed beside her husband after making a final check on their security, four German shepherds that roamed the property at night. Betsy got them as pups and spent many rigorous hours with them training them for security. Each Alpha Farm in the network had some kind of canine security whether it was German shepherds or Great Pyrenees.

  “You OK with all of this?” Betsy asked him.

  “Do I have a choice? It should be me going though,” he said.

  “Just don’t.”

  Betsy’s husband had been injured in a car accident many years before. Wheelchair bound, he still managed to help around the farm with various chores but it still wasn’t enough. The doctors had given him a bit of hope right before the grid went down with a new experimental surgery that may have given him partial mobility back in his legs but all hope of that was lost when the power went out. It was bad enough to have to deal with his restrictions but to have a rambunctious wife who took on most of the responsibilities around the farm left him fighting some days to keep a smile on his face. At first, he thought it was a great idea for Betsy to get involved with being an Alpha Farm, tonight though it really hit home how much danger it brought to his family and he honestly wasn’t OK with that.

  They both lay quietly wrapped in each other’s arms, each contemplating what the next day would bring. Good or bad.

  145

  Nap time ended all too soon for the group about to set out. Showering after a quick bite of food, the group began to systematically repack only the necessary supplies they would need on the next phase of their journey. This left Betsy and her family with quite a stash of freeze-dried foods for her pantry. Michael kept all the medical supplies but wanted the RV as light as possible going over the small wooden bridge. The amount of firepower and manpower on the big concrete bridge made the smaller bridge the way to go.

  If all worked out, Mike would take the motorbike and create a diversion. Chloe would follow in the motorhome while Betsy took Megan and the kids across the river via River Rat and his boat. They would meet up in a designated location further down the road away from all the commotion. If it all went according to plan.

  The trio each bumped fists as a final goodbye, no words spoken, each knowing full well the others depended on them to get the job done.

  Betsy set off with Megan and Megan’s family to River Rat’s boat dock.

  Chloe climbed into the RV and buckled herself in. Her firearms were within reach and ready to go.

  Michael mounted the motorcycle and turned the key. Driving off, he didn’t look back. He was the point, the man out front to try and defuse the situation as much as possible before the rest came through. From the scouting expedition it looked like six guys were guarding the bridge at any given time. Three on each side. He needed to snipe off as many as he could before Chloe got there with the motor home.

  Chloe then needed to get across the bridge as fast as she could before reinforcements arrived and sure enough as soon as the shooting started, they would be coming.

  Michael got as close as he felt comfortable and turned off the motorcycle. Pushing it forward with his legs, he got it as close as he could and then parked it and walked the rest of the way to his vantage point. Laying on the ground, he pulled his night vision goggles out of his pack and laid them beside him. Next, he pulled his rifle out of the sling across his back. It was a Browning Short Trac .308win with an ATN X-Sight night vision scope. He bought it to go boar hunting but it would work just as well for what he was about to do.

  Sighting in, he followed several of the guys around for a few minutes. Which to shoot first now becomes the question. Who’s biggest? Ugliest? Location was what Michael was looking at. Who was in the way of Chloe getting the damn house on wheels across the bridge? Watching intently, he tried to calm his nerves as best he could. L
istening, he waited until he heard the motor home behind him coming down the road. It was his cue. Squeezing his finger back, the first man fell with no issues. The second man right behind him. Repositioning his rifle to the other side of the bridge he sighted in and squeezed but did not meet his target. By now all the men were scrambling around, shouting orders. “Dammit” Michael muttered under his breath. He was hoping to get at least two on each side. Now all he had was two on one side. Chloe would have to do the rest.

  Chloe rolled her window up. She had heard all she needed to. Michael was right on time. Pushing her foot down on the accelerator, she increased her speed to meet the barricade ahead. As the front of the bridge came into view, she saw the makeshift wooden barriers across the front. Her eyes drifted down to the body lying across the road under the barrier. “Oh God!” she screamed out to no one, her foot still increasing the speed of the RV.