Calamity in America

by Pete Thorsen

  I peered over the edge of the roof with my bow already drawn back. I saw the black shape of a man and I let the arrow fly. The arrow had little ways to travel and the grunt and the falling body told me that my aim was true.

  It was just a short time later that I heard the .22 rifle go off. Just one shot. Then silence. Then about two minutes or so later one more shot followed quickly by another and another. Then silence again. When I heard another slight noise near me I had an arrow already nocked on the bow string. This time it was off to the side and all I had to do was raise up and take the slightly longer shot. The man screamed when the arrow entered his body. He fell and I could vaguely see him thrashing around some and moaning below and to one side of me. After a bit he was quiet and did not move again.

  Another shot from the .22. Just one this time. I realized I was smiling, knowing that Beth was still alive. More cussing well off to one side. Far enough away so I could barely hear it. Then it was quiet again. I waited and listened intently. I had my mouth wide open so I could hear better. I made no sound because I did not move at all. Slowly, very slowly the sky was getting brighter.

  Now the sun was just about ready to pop up and it was bright enough to see very well. I had slowly been turning and looking in every direction. I had seen no movement so far. Then I heard the .22 again. I spun to look in that direction. There were two shots that sounded normal, then a small pop, followed by silence. The last noise was obviously a dud. Likely the bullet had lodged in the barrel of the gun. I doubted there would be any more shots from that gun. I knew Beth was in trouble. She had obviously shot that shot for a reason and that dud round would have only given away her position without hurting whoever she had aimed the shot at.

  Without thinking I was scrambling off the roof I was on and heading in her direction. I was trying my best to look in every direction at the same time. I had an arrow nocked in my bow and I could draw and shoot at just a moment’s notice. I could see no targets but kept looking everywhere as I made my way closer to where Beth had hidden.

  There was no further noise from her direction. I took that as a good sign. If someone had tried to climb up to where she was they would have seen the open barrel of the small revolver that I had given her. No sounds of shots meant that she was laying low and biding her time. At least I hoped that was the case.

  I came to the first body and just a glance at it showed me the small hole in the head with little blood coming out. She did still know how to shoot. The body was very close to where she had hidden. They had never expected us to be on the roofs. It was an edge for us and gave us good visibility in all directions. And as long as the bad guys kept looking at or near ground-level, the rooftops would be a safe location.

  I stopped at the house she had been on and listened carefully but I heard nothing. I moved around a corner and found another body. Then, a little ways away, another body. And still no sounds at all. I knew she had used a light aluminum ladder that she had pulled up on the roof with her. This was to help keep her location a secret and to prevent a bad guy from having easy access to the roof.

  I peaked around another corner of the house and saw movement. I ducked back and pulled the bow to full draw as I stepped around the corner. The guy saw me almost as soon as I made it around the corner, but it was way too late for him as my arrow was already streaking in his direction. By the time the arrow had fully buried itself into his chest I had another arrow in my hand and was trying to nock it without taking my eyes off the one I had just shot.

  His eyes had gotten really big when the arrow had impacted his chest. I watched those eyes glaze over as he was falling to the ground with hardly a sound. I then risked a glance down and got the arrow on the bow string ready for another shot.

  “Drop the bow or the pretty girl dies.”

  I looked up and a mountain of man even bigger than me was holding Beth with one arm around her neck and his other hand easily holding her good arm. He had his big arm around her throat and it was obvious that she was just about to pass out from the lack of air, and just then she did go limp. Before I could even think about dropping the bow several things happened. When she went limp the monster holding her released her arm and with what must have been her last bit of strength she drew a knife and plunged it into his groin area. She must have been playacting the fainting spell. He dropped her when her knife went into his body, and in that second I drew back and released the arrow that sank deep into his belly with just the feathers visible. The arrow entered his body at a steep angle because I was almost directly below him.

  I scrambled for another arrow as he dropped off the roof and landed next to me, clubbing me with one massive fist on the way down. The hammer blow hit my left shoulder and knocked me down. Mortal wound or not he then grabbed me by the leg and threw me over. I had dropped the bow and was trying to draw my pistol as he crawled over to me and at the same time was pulling me closer to him with his death grip on my leg. I had fallen on my side with the revolver under me and I was having quite a time trying to get moved enough to draw the gun with him steadily pulling me under him.

  Several things then seemed to happen all at the same time. I got my hand on the butt of my revolver and he managed to get first one, then the other, of his big hands around my neck and he started to really squeeze. I was pulling the pistol up and cocking the hammer when, looking at him, I saw the handle of a knife materialize in his neck and blood come pouring out. I was still moving the pistol up and now the hammer was back and the gun was pointed in his general direction as I pulled the trigger and I blacked out at the same time the gun finally went off.

  Chapter 16

  I was so happy to see Tony’s eyes flutter open.

  “About time you wake up sleepy head.”

  “What happened?”

  His voice was hoarse from his very sore throat. I had a good idea how his throat felt. Mine was not as bad as his and mine sure still hurt.

  “The bad guys either died or ran away. We are safe. At least for now. And I seriously doubt any of those runaways will be back anytime soon.”

  “The big guy?”

  “The arrow, two knives, and the big bullet hole finally killed him. I kind of think he was the leader of that miserable group. Between the two of us, and all the traps, we killed at least eight of them and there were several blood trails leaving here. I don’t think any of them left here whole. Thank you for coming to save me.”

  “Almost too late.”

  “Here, try a little water. It’s mean to swallow but it seems to help a little bit.”

  I held his head up a little and used my bad arm to hold the small water bottle to his lips as he took a tiny bit of the water.

  “Good team.”

  “Yes, a good team. Lay still and I’ll be back. I want to do a quick recon again.”

  I took his heavy pistol and laid it on his chest. He immediately put his hand on it and I left him to do a quick sweep of the area. I had done a quick look earlier—after I saw that he was breathing okay and would make it without any help from me. This time I was more thorough and I found one more guy that had made it to the edge of the community before dying.

  This trip I gathered up all the weapons I found and brought them back with me. There were no guns but many knives and several bows. One guy even had two spears which I left lay next to his body. There was no way I could move Tony. I was strong, but not that strong. He was big guy. When I got back I found him sitting up against the side of the house. I just sat next to him and neither of us said anything for some time.

  We sat for some time then he tried getting to his feet. I helped as much as I could and then just let him stand there leaning against the house. After a bit, he pointed at his house and I helped him get there and all the way to his bed. When he was lying down I set the water bottle next to him and left him so he could get some sleep.

  I went through all the bodies one more time to make sure I had everything of value from them. They were too much for me to drag with
one bad arm so I just left them where they lay for the most part. The ones that had been killed by the traps I did drag a short distance away and reset the traps.

  Tony had made several different types of deadly traps and some deterrents also. He had told me that he had gathered everything useful from every place nearby that he had went to and some of those things had been pitch forks. Three tine, four tine, five tine, and even one six tine fork he had used to set traps. He had attached weights to the forks to make them heavy, then set them out in spots where he could rig up ropes so now, when the tripwire was touched, the now-heavy, weighted fork would swing down in an arc and skewer whoever had touched the tripwire.

  Two of the forks had killed bad guys and three more had been released and had blood on the tines of the forks. Though the blood could have been from anywhere on their bodies it still would have been a nasty shock to them. Another bad guy had tripped a wire that released a bunch of very heavy, mostly round rocks that somehow Tony had got up on a roof. The rocks had fallen and pummeled the guy to death.

  Tony had made many smaller sheets of plywood with nails sticking up to help slow and deter bad guys. In two spots he had hung a bunch of treble fish hooks where someone was likely to pass. I shuddered to think how it was for someone that got tangled up in all those fish hooks. Once they got one hook in them they would have thrashed around and got tangled in all of them. In the dark, anyone touching one of the fishing lines would have assumed it was spider web and just swatted the web away which would have imbedded the first hook.

  In three different spots he had suspended railroad ties that would fall on anyone who tripped the wires. The bad guys had missed all of those by luck or just by chance. Many of the nail boards had done their jobs. One of the fish hook traps had all the hooks gone when I went to check on it. Three of the fork traps had never been tripped and one had been tripped but there was no blood on the tines.

  I reset all the traps that I could. I could do nothing with the rock trap. They were just too heavy for me—especially with only one arm working. I did what I could and hoped that no one would come back. By the time I was done I was beat. I had no sleep the night before while waiting for the bad guys to show up. I ate some jerky and drank a glass of water then hung some empty tin cans on the door of the motor home to wake me if someone entered and went to bed and fell instantly asleep.

  What a difference a good sleep makes! I woke up feeling great. I could tell it was very early morning by the light starting to show in the east. I washed up and put on fresh clean clothes. I was very hungry after having almost nothing to eat the previous day. I put water on to boil and got out some oatmeal. I had asked Tony how he could still have oatmeal left after this long. He told me that he didn’t care for it and had always just kept it in reserve in case of dire need. I did not feel bad eating his saved oatmeal and I added some of his refined mesquite syrup to sweeten it up along with some chopped up dried fruit. It was a great breakfast. I splurged and even made a cup of weak coffee.

  I was surprised and a little worried when Tony had not shown up by the time I finished. He was always an early riser. I walked to his house and knocked on his door. When there was no answer I went inside and checked his bedroom. It was vacant. I found him dragging away one of the dead guys. There was a small ravine just about a hundred yards from one edge of the community and he dragged the body there and let it drop in with the others he had already rolled down into the crevice. He then walked along the edge of the crevice and caved in enough dirt to cover the dead bodies already lying in the bottom. I noticed that most of the bodies were missing articles of clothing and most had their shoes removed.

  “Getting the disagreeable work done right away?”

  “Better to do it as soon as possible.”

  “Your throat sounds better this morning.”

  “I wish it felt better, but I was able to drink easier this morning anyway. After handling those bodies I really want to wash up.”

  “Be easiest to use my place. Do you want my help with the rest of this job?”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  I wandered back to my place after climbing up on top of a house to look around and see if anyone was approaching. I expected to see no one but I felt better after I had a good look around. To keep busy I added more water to the RV’s clean water tank—a task that was slow going because I only had one good arm. It was some time later when Tony showed up and knocked on my door.

  “Is it okay if I wash up some here?”

  “Of course it is! This place is really yours anyway.”

  “You earned it yesterday. I don’t think it would have worked out very well if I had been alone.”

  “I’m sure you would have handled it fine by yourself. I was just trying to save myself anyway.”

  “Well, thank you for your help.”

  He carried his stuff back then and went into the bathroom and closed the door. I heard the shower running and after awhile Tony came out in clean clothes and freshly washed. Looking at him I wondered what he looked like under all that hair. On his way out he stopped just for a minute.

  “I am going to trail the ones that got away. See if I can find out if they are actually leaving the area or regrouping for another attack.”

  “I’ll get my pack.”

  “This time I want to go alone. I know you can keep and travel well, but this time I want to go alone. One always makes less noise than two. Plus it might be a good idea for one of us to stay here and keep an eye out in case they come back. If they do come back just wait your chance and fade away into the desert and go to the closest other camp. We can meet there and decide what to do at that point.”

  “I understand. I’ll stay here then, but please, don’t take any chances on your own.”

  “I have no intention of getting hurt. I will just be looking from a distance. It might be quite late before I get back.”

  With that, he left and headed first to his house, then I saw him leave his place shortly after and head into the desert with his daypack and bow.

  I cleaned and sharpened my knives then found a rod that would work and tapped the stuck bullet out of the barrel of the .22 rifle. There were still a couple live rounds in the magazine so it was still a viable weapon. I washed what dirty clothes I had and hung them up to dry. All the while, I kept a sharp eye out for anyone approaching. I did feel a little safer knowing the traps were all setup in place again. They would not be as effective in the daylight but some would still work.

  I went through the stuff we had removed from the dead guys. There was really nothing I was too interested in. I realized that they must have left all their main supplies out somewhere before they attacked. I did exchange the pair of binoculars I had for a better pair that one of the bad guys had. One of the knives was very nice and well made. Even though I had no immediate use for it I did take that knife also. Next I worked some on the deer hide from the last deer Tony had shot. I could always use more leather and the hide did need a little more work.

  I kept busy but I was also always vigilant for anyone that might be approaching. By late afternoon I realized I was also keeping an eye out for Tony’s return. I waited for full dark before I ate some jerky for my supper. I still waited around but finally went to bed when Tony had not yet shown up.

  Chapter 17

  The next morning I never realized there was a smile on my face when I heard a knock on my door shortly after I got up for the day.

  “Come in. Give me a minute and I will make you some breakfast.”

  “You go ahead. I already ate. I take it you did not see anyone yesterday?”

  I started making something to eat while I answered him.

  “No. I kept a good watch but I saw no one.”

  “When you’re ready would you like to go with me and help me get the supplies the bad guys left behind?”

  “Sure. I’ll be ready shortly. So you found their abandoned camp?”

  “It was mostly abandoned. They have quite
a bunch of stuff we could maybe use. I thought we could get it all in one load if we took two carts with us. Their camp was only three miles away or so.”

  “You attacked them alone? I thought you said you were just going to look?”

  “I watched them for awhile and the ones left looked like they all had tangled with one or more of our traps. My bow is very quiet and I just took them out one at a time without alerting the rest of them.”

  I knew there was more to the story but I would have to be content that Tony returned safe and sound. I ate quickly and we left shortly thereafter. Each of us took a cart so we could carry more. When I took my pack Tony said to just leave it and take a water bottle because there is plenty of stuff in their camp and it is pretty close.

  So we left and just followed the road and later turned off to where their camp had been. There were a couple of old tents and plenty of supplies. All of them must have carried a backpack. I saw no bodies anywhere and made no comment about it. We gathered everything we found and got it all packed in and on the carts we had brought with for that purpose. Both carts were way overloaded but it was easy going as soon as we got back on the old road again. Both Tony and I also now had heavy loaded backpacks on our backs.

  When we got back home we unloaded and spread all the stuff out so we could see everything we had. Next we sorted and piled similar stuff together. Tony carefully went through all the clothes and made a separate pile of what would work for him (after it was washed). I did see one heavy work shirt that was too small for Tony to wear but would work fine for me so I grabbed that one for my own use.

  There was very little I was interested in other than the food they had. Tony then showed me where he had stuff stored here in this community. Different houses contained different things. Now I understood why we sorted it out first. We carried each pile to a different house for storage. A few things we had left set aside that we would take out to the other camps the next time we went out.