by Cooper, DJ
Jeremy was thrilled as he walked in the door holding his new and much coveted 1944 Mosin Nagant. He regaled the group with this treasure saying, “Check out this baby. It’s got the archangel stock with a Barska 10-40 x 50mm scope. It is waterproof and fog proof and look at how this is easily adjusted,” he said as he twisted a dial. “I am going outside to test this thing out. Any takers?”
Dez laughed, saying, “Jeremy, we don’t have any 762 x 54 ammo.”
Jeremy promptly stepped out the door, grabbing four full ammo boxes before coming back in and said, “Yes, we do.” They all laughed and enjoyed Jeremy’s excitement.
After setting everything aside for the evening, everyone took their place at the table. Dez and Matt had prepared a very well deserved good old-fashioned boiled dinner while they were gone.
Looking around the table, it seemed to everyone that they all knew something was coming. Each person was in their own thoughts, no-one really knowing what the future held.
Chapter 8
“Others Near and Far”
“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.”
- Jane Howard
September 20th
The aroma of fresh coffee filled the air while the news reported
rioting and looting in almost every major city. The rioting had begun almost immediately. Once people realized the banks would not be opening they instinctively began to panic. Realizing they would not be able to access their money was frightening. Those on public assistance couldn’t access their funds or food stamps. People quickly learned that if their funds were not in cash they were not going to get anything.
Some of the first places to start losing control were Detroit, Chicago, LA, and New York City. The National Guard was sent to some of the worst cites, and Martial Law had already been declared and was in force within most major cities.
All these things were to be expected. They’d already expected this and planned for it. It was when the local news reported looting in Lexington that the volume of the chatter in the room rose. The talk was about fears it might filter out of the cities and soon come to their small town as well.
Matt was really starting to worry about his family in the north. He tried to contact them several times but the phones were not able to get through. He just kept getting the same message, “All circuits are busy, please try your call again later.”
He tried a few times each day and asked the others to do so as well. He wrote down the numbers and put them on the counter so that anytime anyone thought of it they could call one of them.
It was on this morning, while going through the numbers, that it happened. The call he placed to his friend John started ringing.
John answered, “Hello.”
Matt, relieved he could communicate with someone, responded, “John… Hi, it’s Matt.”
“Matt? Oh my God, Matt, I’m so glad to hear from you. I’ve been trying to call you for days!”
Matt was worried about his parents and asked, “Have you seen my mom and dad?”
John chuckled a bit saying, “Of course man, I’ve been checking on them daily.”
Matt sighed, “Thank you, I’ve been so worried. How are things up there?”
John’s tone changed, “It’s not good here and things are going down fast.”
Matt told him what he’d heard about the major cities and martial law. John sighed as he spoke, “They instituted martial law here almost immediately. It’s getting harder to even go the 5 miles to your parents’ house. I thought that since we were somewhat out of the way here it would be ok, but they come and take things for the camps. They said we couldn’t keep more than we could use in a week.”
Matt became agitated, saying, “You gotta get out of there. Get my family and come here, do it now. Do you still have the map with our location that I sent you?”
John replied, “Yeah, I got it, and I buried some things for the road in case looters came here. I’ll tell ya, I didn’t think I’d be hiding it from those damn FEMA guys.”
Matt responded, “Can you leave right away?”
“Yeah man, I went over earlier today and had your family get ready and brought them here. I’d already planned to leave tomorrow.
Matt added, “John, stay off the highways and far away from any city…even the towns. Try and take the country roads around them if you can. Word to the wise, if a town shows up on a map as more than a dot or crossroad avoid it.”
John said he understood, “Roger that.” Sighing he continued, “We’ll try and communicate as long as we can get the call through.”
Matt had a somber tone, saying, “John, Little Matt.”
“No worries, my friend, no matter how I had to do it, Matty would be coming. He is at my house now.”
Matt knew that John would not leave without his son; he and John had discussed Matty on several occasions. He was grateful for his friend and hoped they would see them soon. It was only a fifteen-hour drive. If they could get out, they could potentially arrive tomorrow.
They’d already heard the news that Matt had gotten through to someone and eagerly waited for him to fill them in. He talked to everyone telling them that the others were coming from the north.
Toni excitedly said, “My mom is up there. Can he get her too?”
Matt said, “If we can get another call through I’ll get her information to him and ask that he try to find her.”
He asked Toni to write down her info and leave it with the contact stuff on the counter. He tried to look hopeful but said, “Since she lives right in the middle of the city it may be hard to get her out.”
He explained most of the people who were in the city were already in the FEMA camps. He told Toni to try and call her or anyone with her and see if she could travel to John’s place immediately.
Charleigh suggested that they make a communication board with all the numbers and addresses of those they were looking for. If anyone got a call, then they could go to the board and see who was where. Matt thought that this was a great idea and added all of the information about the group forming to get out of there with John.
Toni was quite upset, so Charleigh asked her to help get the information on the board. She was hoping it might make her feel better that they were doing something to help.
She said, “We will keep trying to call anyone on your list while we do this.”
Toni felt better having a purpose and working toward not only finding her family but also in helping others to get to their location.
Since their last meeting with the group, each day two people from the house would go over to the cul-de-sac where the others who were part of their preparedness group lived. The task was to check on everyone and share information from each location.
Things were getting rough already and a few issues had already arisen. When Sam and Jeremy went over today, they noticed that a couple of cars were parked across the road. They were blocking the entrance to the cul-de-sac.
Approaching the roadblock Jeremy raised his hand in greeting. “Hey, Frank, what is with the cars?”
“We’ve been having trouble from a group of teens out joyriding. They’re riding around smashing windows and mailboxes.”
The rest of the news from their friends wasn’t any better. A couple of houses were broken into. One of the ladies was pushed down and her purse stolen. Punks started a fight but retreated once Aaron stepped in.
As soon as Sam and Jeremy arrived back at the house, they sat down with Dez and Matt to fill them in. They were not only concerned for their friends but the continuing safety of those who were scheduled to go check in each day,
“Listen Ma, we have to get our people out of there,” Jeremy said.
Tawny came in just then and noticed that Jeremy and Sam looked concerned about something. She didn’t hear what they were saying but the tone Jeremy had used seemed urgent. She asked, “Hey guys, what’s up?”
Jeremy
nodded to acknowledge her and continued explaining what was going on, saying, “They have the entrance blocked off because of vandalism mostly. Personally, I think they’re not safe there.”
“Well, we could use the tents out in the backyard,” Tawny said.
Sam nodded as he spoke. “That would be ok for now, but once it starts getting colder, we’ll definitely have to think of something else.”
Everyone agreed it would be better to have the whole group all in one place. They suggested ideas for the longer term while Matt called Frank on the CB. “Hey Frank, Matt here, you listening? Over.”
Frank replied “Hey Matt, what’s up? Over.”
“Frank, we want all the families to come here ASAP, we just aren’t sure we could get to you quick enough. If you are having more issues than just some broken windows, it could get dicey. Over.”
“You don’t have enough space for all of us. What would we do? Over.”
Matt explained the tents, but Frank was reluctant, saying, “It’s going to get cold soon. I really don’t know if I can sell this to these guys. Over.”
Matt replied, “How about you gather your people for 6 pm and Dez and I will come by and talk it over with everyone. Over.”
Frank responded, “See you then. Over and out.”
Dez said she had an idea, and she wasn’t sure how it would go over, but she asked Matt to come and look at something. Matt had no idea what she could be thinking but followed her out the back door. She explained while they walked across the backyard. “This house behind us was a foreclosure and has been empty for the past year or so.”
Matt knew the house and immediately caught on to what she was thinking. The house had been broken into and the doors were unlocked. Dez would occasionally go close the doors on the house and had been inside it.
As they walked over to it, she said, “I know it’s not right to squat and at this point I don’t think it’s a good idea to do so, but what if things get worse? I’m sure the bank isn’t going to come looking.” She continued, “If stuff gets back to normal, it will be in better shape because of its use. Right now it is vandalized and dirty but we could clean it up.”
Matt thought about it and said, “We will mention it at the meeting and get their thoughts on it. At least it is an option. It’s also better than having some people come squat and move into it that we don’t know… ones that might make trouble for us.”
Dez agreed and said, “There is also a pretty big barn, and while it is not ideal, it does have a cement floor that would work to house the group from the north when they get here if we need to.”
As Dez and Matt were walking back to the house they heard Toni shouting for Jeremy. They entered the back door just as Jeremy came in from the garage. They were all on edge and feared that an intruder had entered the house or worse.
Toni had the phone in her hand excitedly handing it to Jeremy. She was practically crying as she said, “Here, it’s Danny. He wants to talk to you.”
Jeremy took the phone and almost shouting said, “Danny? Danny is that you?”
Danny said, “Yeah man, I’m sure glad to hear your voice.”
“Same here guy. How’s it been going for you?”
“Not good, not good at all.”
Jeremy frowned at everyone in the room signaling it was not good. Danny continued, “A few days ago after the banks didn’t reopen, riots began right away. People were smashing out the grocery store windows. Down in town they set fire to the warehouses; they’re burning out of control now. The National Guard came in and shot a lot of people and started putting people at the old Fort Devons. Remember, we’d talked about that?”
Jeremy nodding his head said, “Yeah, I knew Devons would end up a FEMA camp or something.”
Danny continued, “Well, we got out of the house. I took Mom, Melinda, Brian, Ashley and Nancy up to the old cabin. You know the one at that pond? Where we used to go fishing.”
Jeremy was just saying, “Uh Hua.”
Everyone was standing there waiting to hear what was going on and talking amongst themselves. Jeremy frowned and put his hand up for everyone to be quiet while Danny continued. “I went back to the house to get some clothes and a few other things today. The FEMA people had already mostly cleaned it out. Man, I gotta tell ya, we left just in time. I saw them dragging the neighbors out of their house in cuffs, it’s insane!”
Danny paused a minute and continued, “We’ve had lots of fish to eat but not much else. Nancy left last night to go to the camp; she insisted that they just wanted to help us. I followed her and watched the camp a while. I gotta say guy, no one wants to end up there! They had the people working like slaves and they were under armed guard. Why would a relief camp have guards watching the people? They looked like prisoners, not refugees.”
Jeremy said, “Ok, Danny, this is what I need you to do. Matt’s friend, John, is coming down with some of Matt’s family. I need you to get to John’s place. He lives out in Auburn; his place is out on Sandy Lane out by the big field. You’ll know his place by the big barn. It’s the only one on that road.”
Jeremy motioned for someone to give him the address. Matt gave him the paper and as he did he told Jeremy, “Tell him he needs the code word. When they get there, he needs to say Hannity. John will reply with foxtrot. This needs to be followed with Matt. This will tell John that I sent them. If he hears anything but Foxtrot tell him don’t respond but get out and go to the abandoned corner store. John told me it’s wide open.”
Jeremy nodded and gave the information to Danny and said, “Danny, it is important you go there tonight!”
Danny said he understood and would get them ready to go now and thanked him. Jeremy gave the phone back to Toni to talk to her family. Toni said hi to everyone and assured her mom she was ok and that once they got there, they would be, too. She said her goodbyes and hung up.
Matt immediately tried texting John. He wasn’t sure if it would go through but he told him about Danny coming to his place.
Matt exclaimed, “We have a winner!” Right away John texted back that he understood and would look for them. Another text followed, saying that he’d gone for more of his family’s things and had gathered much that they’d need at his place already. Right behind that another text came in saying his mom insisted that he please go see if he could find Kimmie and Jenny while he was out.
Matt was pleased to hear that he found Kimmie and Jenny who were his cousins. They’d moved in together a year or so ago and it was very close to where Matty lived. While Jenny was about as stereotypical a blonde as anyone could get, and Kimmie was brutally lazy, they were both close to him.
It was almost 6 pm and time for Dez and Matt to go to the meeting at the cul-de-sac. Sam came walking up and asked if he could go too. “Sure, I think it would be good. You know some of these people better than I do.”
They arrived at Frank’s house to find a few fresh faces and immediately Frank introduced them. “Everyone, this is Destiny Walters and Matt Burns.”
He then noticed Sam coming in and smiled, “And this here is Sam Stevens.” He turned to Sam extended a hand to him. “Glad to see you here, too. I know a few of these people will feel better about things knowing you’re there.” Sam nodded to him in acknowledgment.
Frank continued with his introductions, “Guys, this is Janice and Herb Campbell,” pointing to an older couple. “They live next door. You already know Manny Martinez and his wife, Gina.” Matt nodded to them.
Pointing to another couple, he continued, “This is Jim and Rose Fredricks and over here is Amanda Rollings.”
Turning to the left and looking past them, he said, “Behind you, there is Joe Bittle, with his son, Cameron.”
They all nodded each time, acknowledging everyone as he introduced them.
Pointing to the sofa, “You know my wife Sarah, and Aaron over there.” Pausing to look at Sam he continued. “Sam, you met Randy Cramer at the cars blocking the entrance, he and his wife Sue should be
here shortly.”
The discussion started out as one would expect... talks of the banking holiday and Ebola fears.
Sam quieted everyone and said, “I know you all have concerns and that is why we are here. We have been sending a couple of people each day to check on things here and feel you are just not set up or equipped well enough to remain here if things get worse.”
Silence engulfed the room for a few moments. Awkward looks were passed about the room until Manny spoke saying, “Gina and I have been discussing this as well, and I think we have decided to go to my family’s ranch outside of Tulsa. It would be good for the kids to be with family if things do get bad. We’re already planning to leave in the morning.”
Matt asked if they needed anything and said, “Come by and see us before you leave. We can top off your fuel and give you some supplies if you need any.” Manny thanked him and said they would come by.
Janice spoke up saying, “What did you have in mind? Herb and I are not so young anymore and we can’t really travel far.”
Dez whispered to Sam, “We can’t have this couple sleeping in a tent.”
Sam also agreed with her and said, “I think we need to think this through a little better.”
Just then Matt started to speak but Dez quickly nudged him, halting his thoughts. Speaking quietly she said, “We need to set them up in the house. We can’t have that older couple sleeping on the ground. Besides, if it does get bad we may not be able to come later for things to set the house up.”
Matt nodded to her as he continued to speak to the group. “I know it is tough to think of leaving your home for a time, but we think it would be best… at least for the time being. We are outside town with very few neighbors and lots of woods around the back of our house. Now, we don’t have room to hold everyone but we do have some ideas about what to do.”