by Ricky Sides
“I need to buy .22 long rifle ammo. I’m low and have been having trouble finding any.”
“Yeah, it’s crazy, I know. It so happens I’m running a special this week. I give a box of fifty rounds for every box of 9mm I sell. I’m overstocked on the 9mm,” he admitted with a sheepish grin.
“Hey, that’s a good deal if the price is right on the 9mm ammo.”
“It is,” the old timer attested. “At $13.99, per box of 50, it’s a bargain.”
“Yes, it is,” Herb agreed. “What’s the limit?” he asked.
“It’s like I said, I’m overstocked. Hell, I’ll sell you all you want, or all I’ve got, whichever comes first.”
“In that case, I’d like to see a box.”
“Sure thing, but it’s top quality ammo,” the old man said as he set a box of PMC 9mm ammunition on the countertop.
Herb opened the box and looked at one of the full metal jacketed bullets. “This will do just fine. I’ll take 20 boxes.” Then he asked, “Are you willing to sell me more of the .22 ammo by itself?”
The old man frowned in consternation, but then he shrugged and said, “Since you’re buying so much of my overstock, sure. I’ll sell you another brick of 500 rounds, but that’s it, and don’t even ask me to sell your friend any.”
“Not even if I want 20 boxes of your 9mm ammo too?” asked Randy.
“Hey, now, that’s a horse of a different color. Sure, sure. I’ll cut you the same deal that your partner is getting.”
The two men had discussed whether or not they should use their credit cards the night before. They were aware that it would leave a trail that could be followed by the federal government, if they chose to pursue it. Herb had argued that the government had too much on its plate to worry about a couple of National Guard deserters. Therefore, they decided to risk it, should they make expensive purchases.
“Is there anything else I can sell you boys today?” the old man asked as he bagged their purchases.
“Nothing I can think of,” replied Herb. “How about you?” he asked Randy.
“I’m good now,” Randy said with a grin as he hefted the heavy bag of ammunition.
As the men stowed their purchases inside their vehicles, an Arkansas State Trooper pulled into the parking lot and exited his squad car. The officer went inside the shop and the two friends left with their hearts beating faster than normal.
Herb answered his phone when Randy called a couple of minutes later. “That was uncomfortable,” Randy said. “I’m not accustomed to having to dodge the law.”
“Neither am I, buddy, but it’s like I said last night, the government has bigger fish to fry at the moment,” responded Herb.
“I’m referring to some of the gifts Shannon set up for us,” Randy replied.
Herb mentally kicked himself. Randy was right, of course. The M4s alone were a problem and the grenades would be a huge bust for any cop. “We’ll soon be at the cabin so we can offload everything,” Herb said. He was thankful that his friend was exercising discretion in what he said over the telephone. He had long heard that certain keywords would flag conversations for Homeland Defense, and that was a situation he’d like to avoid.
“Let’s listen to the radios and see what we can learn for the rest of the trip,” Herb suggested. “We should listen to two different channels. We can compare what we hear when we reach the cabin.”
As they drove past the outskirts of the small town where they had stopped to purchase ammunition, neither man saw the shadowy figures lurking in the trees that bordered the road. The feral dogs had long been a problem in that area, but today, they hunted with a hunger augmented by microscopic parasites that had infested them when they drank from a stream where a hawk had dropped the remains of its kill.
A trio of bicyclers, riding through the countryside approached the spot where the dogs waited in concealment. One of the animals, a Rottweiler mix, burst from the foliage and attacked one of the bikers, snapping its teeth at the man’s ankle. The rider had been pedaling at a rapid pace to begin with, but that pace became a whirlwind of motion when he saw the dog darting out at him. Due to the speed of the cyclist’s motion, the animal’s attack only grazed the skin, leaving a thin trail of blood.
All three of the riders accelerated away from the animals as they started a long downhill run that opened up a gap between them and the pack of six dogs. Three of the larger animals continued the pursuit, but even they soon fell behind.
The cyclists stopped two miles down the road and the man examined his wound.
“Do you want to head back to town?” the man beside him asked.
“What? And face those mutts again? No, let’s keep going. We’ll take our planned circuit and go back to town by the long route. I don’t relish the idea of facing those dogs again. It’d be just my luck for them to jump us as we start up the damned hill.”
An hour and a half later, the man was coughing. He had a raging headache, and he felt chilled by the time he arrived at his house.
“Are you okay, honey?” the man’s wife asked when he came inside and sat down on the sofa beside her.
The man smiled at the baby she was holding in her lap. His little girl was looking at him with those adorable big brown eyes. “I’m fine. I just had a run in with a dog. It’s just a scratch and nothing to worry about,” he reassured her, and then he reached for his daughter, picked her up, and kissed her in greeting as he always did.
The woman giggled as he wiped the slobber off his mouth. “She’s cutting teeth and slobbering a lot today.
Later that night, when the baby wouldn’t stop crying and began running a fever, the woman thought it was just the teething. Then she found her husband unconscious on the bathroom floor and called 911. She thought he wasn’t breathing, so while waiting for the ambulance to arrive she gave him CPR, which included mouth to mouth resuscitation.
***
Herb listened to the radio as he drove. Additional outbreaks were being reported in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. There was very little news regarding the nuclear missile attacks, causing him to believe that the news concerning that topic was being censored.
He was right on that score. Federal agencies had cited national security concerns and instructed the media to report only government approved updates, and there would be very few that day. The administration was maneuvering to come up with a positive spin on the use of the nuclear weapons, despite their obvious failure to contain the spread of the parasites.
The biggest news story that he heard during the remainder of the trip was that the President was declaring a state of emergency across the mainland. All citizens were required to turn in their firearms to local police and sheriff stations. Failure to do so would be considered a federal class C felony. The offender would be subject to arrest and imprisonment for a term of up to 25, but not less than 10 years.
This made no sense to Herb, who viewed it as a way to a means for the administration to enact, through executive orders, weapons bans that it had failed pass through legislation.
Second Amendment rights advocates were urging the people to defy the government. Stating the case for the American people, one prominent NRA official was quoted as saying, “There are millions of firearms legally owned in this country. This executive order is illegal. It is unconstitutional and it will result in making criminals of millions of Americans. I urge law enforcement officials and the military to remember your oaths. You do not have to obey illegal orders. Any order to violate the Constitutional rights of your fellow Americans is just that. It’s illegal, so refuse if the government orders you to start kicking in doors for the purpose of seizing legally owned firearms.”
In other news, Herb heard that lines were beginning to form at service stations and supermarkets throughout the southeast, due to the detonation of the nuclear missiles.
In international news, China and Russia accused the American government of crimes against humanity, and they were demanding UN sanctions. C
anada and Mexico had both closed their borders to visitors from the United States.
Only a couple of the allies of the United States had thus far volunteered to send in humanitarian aid.
Herb shook his head in frustration as he listened to the news. It was all bad, and wasn’t likely to get better any time soon, if ever.
Then he heard a brief report about the CDC having people at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock at the Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences. Dr. Erma Langley was there, investigating a possible solution to the parasite problem. The news commentator said that the scientist from the CDC was cautiously optimistic that the key to the eradication of the microbes lay in nanotechnology that the university had developed in their effort to cure cancer.
The story went on to explain that Doctor Langley was conducting experiments on animal test subjects, and that so far, the results were promising.
Herb hoped that the woman was right. It made sense to send in microscopic machines to attack and destroy the parasites.
Chapter 13
Home
Herb pulled into the mile long rutted dirt drive that led to his grandfather’s cabin, which wasn’t visible from the road. His family had owned it for almost forty years. It belonged to him now. It had been his property for three years, even though he still referred to it as his grandfather’s cabin. He inherited it when his father passed away. He kept the property taxes paid, but had only visited it a couple of times since it had become his.
The 14 acre property was adjacent to Dagmar State Wildlife Management Area, which is comprised of 800 acres with many lakes and ponds.
Faced with the prospect of the cabin becoming a long-term home, when he pulled up in front of the structure, Herb looked at the place, as he never had before.
The cabin was of wood construction, and was an old one. The ground floor was not large, containing three small bedrooms and a combination living room and kitchen. There was no indoor plumbing, other than an old-fashioned hand pump for the small kitchen sink that drew water from a well, and a drainage system for it. The bathroom was a primitive outhouse, situated a good two hundred feet behind the cabin.
All in all, it was a typical mountain retreat cabin. It was bigger than some, but even more primitive than most that were still in use from its period of construction. There was one thing that set the cabin apart from the rest. It contained a bell tower that was accessible from inside the cabin. His grandfather once told Herb that a sea captain had the house built and added the bell tower, where he hung a ship’s bell that he rang occasionally in remembrance of the sailors he had lost at sea. Herb had marveled at the story at the time, but when he grew to adulthood, he had begun to believe that the old sailor probably just wanted a higher, more unobstructed, view at night that might remind him of being aboard ship.
Along the left side of the house was a large stack of firewood for the small wood burning stove situated in the living room that was used to heat the cabin and to cook simple meals such as stews. When meals that are more elaborate were desired, there was an antique wood burning cook stove in the kitchen.
Herb opened the door and stepped away from the truck. Ox jumped down beside him and began to search the grounds around the cabin. The dog’s body language suggested that he was relaxed and curious about his surroundings. It occurred to Herb that he was growing dependent on the animal’s senses and utilizing them as an asset, and that was a good thing.
Randy exited his car and stretched. Ox walked over and butted the man’s leg with his head, demanding attention. Randy laughed and said, “You’re such a glutton for attention, Ox.” He rubbed the dog’s head and then turned his attention to his friend. “So this is it, huh?”
“Yep, I know it’s not much to look at, but it’s secluded. The nearest neighbor is a couple of miles down the road.”
“The tower up top looks like a good place to pull guard duty,” Randy pointed out. “That is, it will be if it’s accessible from inside. I’d hate to be trapped up there with no way down that didn’t include wading through zombies.”
“It is,” Herb assured him. Then he said, “Let’s unload the truck and most of the gear. Those explosives have had me worried all day long.”
“Yeah, that’s what made me start to sweat when that state trooper pulled up beside us. We haven’t even inventoried those satchels yet, so we don’t know for certain what the sergeant had prepared for us,” Randy observed.
Herb glanced at his watch. “There will be time for that when we get back from the shopping trip. By the time we unload and leave, we’ll be pressed to get back before dark as it is.”
As they transferred the supplies from the truck to the cabin, the two men compared the news stories that they had heard. Like Herb, Randy had heard the one about Doctor Langley. “Do you think they’ll find a cure with that nanotechnology?” Randy asked.
“No, I don’t,” Herb said.
“It’s possible, isn’t it?” Randy asked.
Herb shrugged, “Sure, buddy. Anything is possible. You asked me what I thought, and I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Randy asked.
“They’ve had years and years to try to cure cancer with them, but they haven’t managed that. Now we’re supposed to believe that they can find the key to destroying these parasites in a few days? No. I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Randy said.
He looked so dejected and disappointed that Herb felt like an ass for crushing his friend’s hope. “It would sure be great if they did manage to discover a solution.”
“Oh yeah! That would make my day.”
“That would make a lot of people’s day, my friend. Not the least of which are the recently infested. If it worked, they could probably reverse the damage the parasites have done, provided they caught it before the host died.”
“Wow, we’ve made a mess in here,” Randy observed as they looked at the various stacks of supplies scattered around in the kitchen area.
“We’ll transfer most of the stuff to the spare bedroom tomorrow. Right now, we need to get on that other shopping trip.”
The two men went outside and Herb looked about for Ox, but the dog was nowhere to be seen. He whistled and waited, but there was no answering bark. “I guess he wandered off exploring his new home. We can’t wait for him. I’ll put some food in his bowl and leave it for him, and then we’ll go.”
As they were driving their vehicles back down the dirt road that led to the asphalt, Herb thought of something he wanted to tell Randy and tried his phone. He discovered that there was no signal in the area, and made a mental note that they needed to purchase a good pair of radios for communications use when they were away from civilization.
During the trip, Herb listened to the radio and heard some of the same news stories being reported. The biggest news he heard during the trip to their small town destination was that there had been outbreaks in both New York City, and Atlanta. The news commentator said that it appeared news crews investigating the original outbreak in Decatur, Alabama, had brought the parasites back to their home cities on their clothing and gear. He was quick to reassure the population that the government had issued a statement declaring that they would not use additional nuclear weapons to combat the menace. That had been tried and it had failed to contain the organism. He added that critics of the administration stated the belief that the President had waited too long to use the missiles, and that had he done so at the outset, it might have been contained.
They soon reached the small town of Forrest City, Arkansas, which had been named after the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The general had used the location as a campsite for a railroad construction crew after the war.
Herb had been to the city a few times and was familiar with it to a degree. He turned North on Washington Street and soon the two friends were parking in front of Save-A-Lot.
Herb exited the truck and approached his friend. “It doesn’t look too bu
sy. Let’s go inside and see if we can’t get some supplies. I’ll concentrate on canned meats, soups and stews. You get vegetables and canned fruit. If it looks safe, then we’ll make a second run. If not, then we leave. We already have enough to get us by for a few months, so I’m not ready to take many risks to obtain more.”
Randy said he understood the plan, so the two men entered the store and began to make their purchases. It didn’t take them long to fill up their carts, and soon they were ringing up a hefty grocery bill that they paid for with their credit cards.
The two men loaded the supplies into Herb’s truck and returned to the store for another round of shopping. As they were filling their shopping carts, the power went off in the store. Employees came through the store informing the customers that they would have to leave. The cashiers checked them out with a calculator, but they were informed that they couldn’t use their credit cards to pay for their purchases because the electronics that handled the transactions were down due to the power outage. No one seemed to know why the power was out. It wasn’t stormy, so the power lines should have been working properly.
The two friends offloaded their supplies in the truck and then they left the parking lot. Turning south, they made their way to Food Giant, but it was dark inside the store. “Let’s call it a day and get back to the cabin,” Herb told Randy on the phone, which had a signal in the town.
Heavy clouds began to move in as the two men drove back to the cabin. As a result, it was growing dark by the time they finished unloading the supplies. “Damn, we should have gotten some kerosene for the lamps,” Herb said in disgust. “We’d better find the battery powered lantern before it gets dark.”
“Okay. Tomorrow, we can go for another supply run and get some.”
A bark outside the door let the men know that Ox had returned. “There you are, boy,” Herb said when he opened the door. The dog wagged its tail and then turned to its food bowl, which was empty. “You still hungry?” Herb asked. He fed the dog more of his dog food, and refilled his water bowl.