by Pete Thorsen
Giving food to a beggar seemed the right thing to do. But what if a thousand showed up here begging for food? And with a city of around two hundred fifty thousand within a one or two day walk from our house the number of beggars showing up here could easily exceed a thousand. Obviously we could not give food to that many people even if we gave away every crumb we had.
If we were to pick and choose who we gave food to that could easily lead to many other problems. And this was all assuming that everyone was totally peaceable and that would certainly not be the case. Our situation was both complex and dangerous.
Chapter 10
Between us we decided that one of us would always remain here at the house until things sorted themselves out. Winter would take care of that I thought. Either the nation’s situation would get better before and during the winter or the nation’s population would be dramatically lower by the time spring rolled around.
One thing I did was load several of the long guns and placed them near the front and back doors of the house.
Over the next several days we had a few beggars. Not everyday but enough so it was not surprising when one (or more) came up to ask for help. We gave a little food to those with children. We were having cooler weather now and after another few days with no violent encounters at the house I thought I would risk doing a little hunting.
On my first outing I shot two pheasants and the fresh meat was mighty good. When one of our neighbors stopped over one day I was not surprised. I guessed at what was the reason he had come over.
“Hi Chip. How’s everything going over here?”
“Mostly good. Had a little trouble but nothing in the last week or so.”
“I saw the tombstone you made. Is there really two graves out there?”
“Yes. One drew a gun on me and the other made a dire threat against us that I could not just let pass. You have any trouble?”
“That’s kinda why I stopped over. What are you doing with the people that stop and ask for food? We have been giving out a little but they seem like they are never satisfied and there are just too many showing up now to give them all food.”
“We quit giving out any more food. We always offer them clean water but that is all. Many come here and do not even have a pot to cook anything in. They left their homes but brought no supplies of any kind with them. I’m not sure what they were thinking or even if they were thinking.”
“We noticed the same thing. Many have gotten pretty mad when we told them we had no food to give away. I see both of you are carrying pistols. I guess we will have to do the same. I don’t know how any of those people are going to get through the winter.”
“I was thinking the same unless things straighten out real quick around here or the federal government comes in with a lot of aid and supplies. I just don’t think that will happen.”
“In the past FEMA has been very slow to react and those were only localized events. I have to assume that this is nation wide. I don’t think anyone can expect any salvation from our government.”
“This is a massive bad deal for everyone. You know you can count on me if you need any help.”
“Bad deal is an understatement. And yes I know we can count on you. I better get back to the place. I don’t want to leave the family alone for very long anymore with the way things are now. I just wanted to check in with you guys and see if you were OK. Stop in if you are out my way.”
“Will do and thanks for coming over.”
“Nice to see you again Beth.”
I figured everyone around here on the farms and ranches were having beggars show up. It sounded like Sam had not had any violent encounters yet and for his sake I hope he never did. Our place was one of the farms that many would come to first if they traveled this road out from the city so we would have to deal with most of these refugees first.
Beth was obviously thinking as we walked back towards the house and then she spoke.
“Why do you think the TV and radio stations shut down?”
Gradually all TV and radio stations had dropped off the air. We had received no news for quite some time now and it was sorely missed. Cell phone service had also stopped but land lines still worked. At least our house phone was still working the last I checked but I feared it could stop working at any time.
“I don’t know but I would guess a number of things. As things got worse and worse many of those working at the broadcasting stations maybe left town to live with family that were in rural areas. Or maybe with all the violence the workers just stayed home in the hopes that it would be safer there for them. Also everyone working at the stations would get their paychecks from the advertising that the station sold and I’m sure companies just dropped all their advertising when things got bad. So with no advertising that meant the stations had no money for payrolls. And who would risk their life going to work when they were not getting paid.”
“I sure miss the news. Anything could be happening and we would know nothing about it.”
“Loss of communications is awful, I agree. I’m just happy the electric power is still working.”
“Don’t even say that. You don’t want to jinx it.”
The next day we had bad trouble.
I was outside doing clean up in our garden plot when I heard a motor and I ran around the house to see the road leading past our house. There was a motorcycle going way fast up our driveway. I started to draw my pistol but then I recognized the rider as Gavin, a more distant neighbor and I ran up to meet him.
Gavin got the cycle stopped and that was when I noticed the blood on his right side.
“Mob coming your way. I wanted to warn you. I got to get home right away but I needed to warn you. They have guns and they are quick to use them.”
Beth had run up by now to hear this.
“Gavin you have been shot let us patch you up before you try to make it home. You’re losing blood.”
“I was very lucky and it is just a crease. I can make it home.”
“You have to be patched up either here or there and there is no sense in losing any more blood than necessary. Sounds like you will likely need all your strength.”
“I guess your right,” he said as he gingerly got off the cycle having shut it off.
As I helped him up to the house I introduced Beth to him and he told us the rest of the story.
“We couldn’t stand not having any news anymore so I decided to take the cycle into the city to see if I could get any information and to see just how bad it was there. I never made it to town because I met a large mob of people, maybe forty of them, about four miles from your house. They covered the whole road of course and I stopped some distance before I got to them. As soon as I stopped at least two of them started shooting at me. They were all just walking with no vehicles that I could see.
I spun the cycle around to head back home and that’s when I was creased by one bullet. I raced back here to warn you and the rest on this road on the way back to my home.
There are too many of them to fight, Chip. You and Beth will have to take what you can and run.”
“I am not being run off my own property by a bunch of hoodlums. I don’t care how many there are of them.”
“But you don’t stand a chance against so many of them. You and Beth will just end up dead. They started shooting at me for no reason. They must be berserk because they could see I have no supplies on me. You should run and try save yourselves.”
“I won’t run. I can at least slow them down so the rest of you can organize a force to counter them. I’ll let Beth tend your wound while I start getting ready. Beth will take our truck and follow you when you leave.”
Without waiting for any answer I spun around and headed back out the door so I could start to gather gear and get ready for what Gavin said was coming. No one was running me off my own land.
Chapter 11
I was still getting ready when I heard Gavin leave on his cycle. Then Beth found me.
“We can
work together to load some food and supplies into the pickup then you can drive over to Jack’s place.”
“I am not going anywhere without you.”
“Yes it makes more sense for you to go. I’ll meet you there later. I will just stall them here and then fade into the woods and walk over to Jack’s place to be with you. It would be easier to do that by myself.”
“I will not leave without you and there will be no discussion about it. Just tell me what needs to be done and we will face this together.”
We had been together long enough for me to understand that look on Beth’s face. So I did not argue even though I did not like the decision she had made, I just told her what needed to be done. We separated to do the tasks I had laid out and then she met up again in one of the sheds.
“Where on earth did you get that? Does it work? Do you know how to use it?”
“I’ve had it for awhile. I hoped to sell it and never once expected to actually use it. Yes I do know how to use it and I have tried it out just for fun. Less talk and more work though. Our time is very limited if what Gavin said is true.”
Beth asked no more questions and we kept working without any breaks even though some of the work was very hard. I had figured we had at least an hour before the horde got here and we used every minute of it. I sure wished we would have had more time but we didn’t and when we saw the mob coming well down the road we got into our positions.
When the mob turned into our driveway I stood up behind the makeshift breastworks we had assembled and I yelled out to them.
“Turn around. We have nothing for you here.”
Their answer was a couple shots my way with one of them coming very close to me before I dropped behind the barricade. I heard Beth start shooting from her position and saw one armed man fall before I had my rifle aimed and I shot my first man too and watched him go down.
The area around our driveway was completely bare and the mob had no cover of any kind. I had moved the car that I did have blocking the driveway so they had nothing to hide behind. They had to be berserk to try and rush us when we were behind the barricade and they were right out in the open like that. But that is just what they did. Beth and I between us shot several of them but they kept coming.
I laid down my rifle and lit the cigarette lighter I had to light the fuse. When the very short fuse burned down and the cannon went off the effect was devastating. I only looked for a brief second as I was busy trying to reload the thing.
In my down time I had built a small carriage for the cannon barrel I had brought home just to use for scrap. I fixed it up only because I figured I could sell the thing for a lawn decoration or something. Then one of the people I had bought a cheap gun from had a miniature cannon and I had asked him a thousand questions about them. Seems he had shot several different cannons in civil war re-enactments and was quite knowledgeable. He even had quite a lot of the black powder and a little of the cannon fuse he would sell me.
I had shot my cannon a few times to try it out and knew what to do now. I had never expected it to work as well as it did now. I thought just the very loud boom would scare off many of our attackers but many never had the chance to be scared.
I had placed the large charge of black powder in the cannon after I inserted the short fuse. Then I packed in a rag tightly against the powder charge. Next were all the large steel ball bearings, large rusty nuts, and chunks of lead cut from wheel weights that I dared cram into the cannon. Another rag packed down the barrel to finish the load that I had just shot into the horde attacking us. When the cannon went off it rolled back farther than I expected but this load was much heavier than any previous load I had shot from it.
As soon as I had the cannon loaded again I looked out to aim the thing at those intent on attacking us. What I saw was rather sickening. Many were now on the ground screaming in pain. There were still many standing though it looked like they had mostly stopped because of the surprise and devastation all around them. But this had to be finished and I lined the big barrel up towards the biggest group still standing and fired the second shot.
This time I could see the effect of the shot. Chucks of the earth around those I aimed at was torn up but many of the projectiles also hit those standing in random places on their bodies from their heads to their toes. I watched as many of them shook from the effects of being hit from more than one of the odd shaped pieces of flying metal.
Then it was relatively quiet. I heard only the screams and wails from the wounded and the retching sounds coming from where Beth was positioned behind our breastworks. I did see a few people running away and some of them looked to be in bad shape.
I stood and looked over the field of slaughter. I was about to reach down and pick up my rifle to do what needed to be done to put those in front of me out of their misery when Beth walked over to me as she was wiping her mouth.
Tears were running down her face. I held her only briefly and sent her up to the house. She knew I think what I had to do next and knew she did not want to see it. Beth walked back to the house willingly and I was left to my grisly task.
I’m sure even in the house Beth could easily hear each shot from either my rifle or my pistol as I walked among those lying on or near our driveway and on each side of it. I closed my mind and my ears to what I was doing and what I knew I had no choice but to do.
The cannon I had used had saved the lives of both Beth and I along with maybe some our neighbors but I could not help but see the awful effects it had wrought on those that chose to attack us. The wounds were often horrific from the odd shaped and heavy chucks of steel and lead that had struck randomly on the bodies of our attackers. I walked woodenly amidst the carnage I had wrought and dished out the shots of mercy where those shots were necessary. The cannon had killed very few but wounded many and I had to reload both my rifle and my pistol more than once before I was done.
When I was done I walked over to some clean grass that was not spattered with blood and just sat down with my head in my hands.
I was still sitting there unmoving and that was where my heavily armed neighbors found me when they pulled up with a pickup and all of them got out of the back. I think I heard several of them retch after looking at what I had done. Now we all knew what the after effects of war really looked like and none of us wanted to ever see it again.
I admit that I did very little of the work that followed. The pickup left and returned very quickly. I did see Patty and another woman go in my house likely to help comfort Beth, an act that I was very grateful for.
Soon a tractor with a bucket loader arrived and the bodies were scooped up and deposited in a ditch and then the tractor was used to scrape and dump dirt over all the dead bodies. It was a mass grave but it was all they deserved and was the most expedient.
Soon a couple of my closest friends came and sat next to me. No words were spoken and none were needed. Just the silent companionship was maybe what I needed I guess. My friends had seen what I had done and they sat with me to show me that they were still my friends and would still be there for me and support me.
Later I was led to the front porch and that is where I found Beth. She ran into my willing arms. Though we were surrounded by our friends, while we held each other it was just us. We held on tight to each other for quite some time. Only after we separated did we look around and acknowledge all the friends and neighbors surrounding us.
Words were spoken and thanks were given and received. Then only when they were all sure that we would be OK did they climb back into the pickup and the tractor to leave and go back to their own families and homes. Then it was just Beth and I again. We sat on the back porch swing holding each other until late evening when the cooler weather forced us inside. The back porch was picked mainly because we would not be looking at the killing ground in front. It seemed only fitting when the cold rain started during the night to help wash away all the evidence of this awful bloody day and leave the earth and front yard clean again. If only t
he rain could also wash away what we had seen and done on this day.
Chapter 12
Somehow Beth and I emotionally survived the event that had taken place at our home. The rain had washed away much of the evidence so we did not have that to look at everyday. We dismantled and removed the quick make-shift barricade we had built for us to use for protection. I had built it so we would not be fighting from our house. I did not want bullets passing through the house and destroying who knew what inside and I thought it much better to keep the fighting well away from our home. Things destroyed now might be irreplaceable with the shut down of society.
I did make another ‘tombstone’ that I placed over the mass grave. It said “All those buried here lost their lives pointlessly. Please do not make us add your bodies to this mass grave. We have enough on our conscious.”
The very short war we fought seemed to be some kind of a turning point and now we had way fewer beggars showing up at our place. We saw almost none. Maybe it was just the colder weather keeping them away or maybe there were just fewer that were strong enough to walk all the way to our place from the city. Or maybe more likely anyone walking away from the city was now heading due south seeking warmer weather before the upcoming winter months. If I had no good place to go for winter I would certainly head south. Whatever the reason we were grateful that fewer were showing up here.
I shot a deer and we turned almost all the meat into jerky. When we were done I shot another deer and we did the same thing again. Now when the very few beggars did show up we gave them a small amount of the jerky. It was rich in protein and did not require them to do any cooking. And it cost us almost nothing to produce the jerky which also did not require any refrigeration.
I hunted often and we ate some kind of wild game meat almost everyday. I walked some distance from our home before I started hunting so I did not kill all the nearby game, instead keeping that game living nearby in reserve just in case.