Mountain Home

[03Shadowbob]

Wow. That is a much different outcome for her Sylvia than I could have imagined.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 33

The tactical nuke exploded at an altitude of fifteen hundred feet. It was detonated high to extend destruction on the ground to its maximum distance, and was high enough that the fireball didn’t touch the ground, virtually eliminating fallout. The ground shockwave, traveling faster than the speed of sound, reached the complex about two minutes later, causing the floor to jump slightly and startling some of the people there. Almost immediately the lights went off, due to the electro-magnetic pulse from the bomb, and a second later the generator started up. A couple of minutes after that the complex jumped again, though not as severely as the first time.

In the control room, Pam was confused and asked Jack, “how many bombs did they send, and why did the power go off?”

“Doug said a couple, I sure hope it was only two. We won’t know how bad the damage is until we can get out and inspect it, but I’m not allowing anyone to go up to the surface for at least two weeks, even if we don’t detect any radiation. That way, if our instruments are faulty, we still should be safe enough. As for the power, likely the EMP from the bomb blew out the circuitry in the power plant. It also may have fried the transformers, but we won’t know for sure until we can get out and inspect them also.”

“I thought the radiation would last for years, how could we ever go out there now and inspect anything?” She asked.

“No, that’s a myth. There’s a great deal of misinformation about the effects of nuclear weapons, but the experts at the US Atomic testing facility at Oak Ridge Tennessee have spent years researching the subject, and their findings were available to the general public on the internet before the plague. I studied the information in detail since nuclear war was a very likely scenario that would require us to use this shelter.

“When a nuclear bomb explodes it releases X-ray radiation that doesn’t travel very far through the air, but changes the air so it doesn’t transmit heat very well. Then the heat from the blast along with the great pressure of the explosion compresses the air, heating it to white hot temperatures. This heat burns up the radioactive material not used in the explosion, rendering it almost harmless. If this was a ground burst, the dirt and ash from the blast will be sucked up into the fireball as it collapses and get irradiated. It doesn’t stay irradiated very long, usually not more than a few days, but during that time it can give off lethal amounts of radiation wherever it settles downwind. The good news is, the concrete this shelter is made of is sufficient shielding against that fallout. Not only that, but the dirt alone is enough to block it. With a minimum of six feet of dirt most of the radiation is blocked, and there’s at least twenty-two feet between us and the surface.

“Of course, the maximum amount of damage comes from an airburst. Groundbursts are only used to destroy underground targets like command centers. If this was an airburst then no dirt will be sucked up into the fireball and all we’ll have to worry about is a slight increase in certain radioactive materials that’ll condense after they cool. Most of that will be in the upper atmosphere, and will stay up there for a long time, possibly years, settling out slowly all around the world. That’s ok though, because it’s the accumulation of material that’s deadly, the trace amounts that settle from this blast won’t even be noticeable.”

“But what about the blast? Shouldn’t it destroy everything for miles around?” the girl asked, although she was already feeling better since he’d explained things.

“I’m sure it did in town. It really depends on the size of the warhead, but Doug said they were tactical weapons, so I doubt it was bigger than a hundred kilotons or so. A hundred kiloton bomb will destroy everything for a mile or so in all directions, and do some damage to structures several miles away. More important though is the thermal wave. The heat from the wave can start fires several miles away from the blast, and those fires can get fierce. They can actually suck the air out of shelters, unless their ventilation pipes are equipped with special valves to prevent it. We have just that type of valve in place here, but anyone in a shelter in or near the town won’t, and may survive the blast only to suffocate or burn to death in the fires.”

At the thought of this, Pam started to feel sick. She now realized they were safe enough, but she felt bad for the people in town, no matter how bad they’d treated Jack, nobody deserved to die like that. Turning to the radiation detection equipment, Jack noticed the reading was elevated slightly, but not enough to worry about. The probe for the device was mounted on the surface near the entrance elevator. There were several others at various heights above the ground around the property, and he slowly scanned them all, looking for a sign that fallout had started to arrive. After several hours without an increase he finally decided they weren’t likely to get any, and called the other residents to the dining room for a meeting.

After everyone gathered he told them what he’d already explained to Pam, emphasizing that they were completely safe and could go back to the surface within a few weeks. He also informed them they were far enough away and, if the weapon exploded over the town and not between it and them, their trailers and surface buildings should be ok as well. Those who lived on the surface were relieved to hear this, and were in better spirits after the meeting as they prepared for the lengthy stay in the now crowded shelter.

All told there were close to a hundred and fifty people in the complex, and only enough beds for a hundred. They solved that problem by assembling cots that had been in one of the storage silos, setting them up in the recreation room and chapel. Also, people who had apartments took in others, including Jack and Pam. With everyone having a place to sleep, Jack set a schedule that allowed everyone to eat in shifts, ensuring everyone room in the dining room for their meals. Air and water weren’t a problem, as the complex had been designed with multiple redundancies, and Jack had expanded on these when he’d had the restoration done. Also food wasn’t a problem, they’d restocked the place during the summer and there was more than enough for everyone present for more than a year. All in all, he was satisfied that all their needs were covered.




Over the next two weeks he went to the control room several times a day to check the radiation monitors. They never changed, but he still checked. The outside cameras and electrical equipment, including the fence sensors, were out due to the EMP effect so he was unable to see the surface, but he figured the five foot thick doors should prevent anyone who might be out there from bothering them. The interior electronics were still ok, as the ground effectively shielded them from the pulse, and as soon as they were able to go out they could replace what they needed to from storage. Jack just hoped that the C-130, as it was a military plane, had been shielded from EMP or else it’d just be so much scrap metal sitting there. The same went for the Black Hawks, as there hadn’t been room for them in the underground hangar. Unfortunately the Global Express, which had been parked above instead of being returned to the airport in Mountain Home definitely wasn’t shielded and likely was worthless now. That was too bad, he’d really loved that plane.

After fourteen days, he decided it was time to take a look around outside. After letting the core members of his group know what he planned to do, he made the decision to take every precaution as if they knew there was deadly radiation out there. His precautions included donning a ‘Tyvek’ suit, a white lab suit that had a hood and elastic at wrists and ankles. Along with these went a pair of gloves and booties, and an N-100 respirator. He was aware that this outfit wouldn’t stop radiation from penetrating his body, but then again neither would the ‘MOPP’ suits the military used. Radioactive particles would go right through the charcoal liners they had, as there wasn’t enough mass there to stop them. All the outfit was for was to keep the dust particles off his skin and out of his hair. After he returned from the outside he could wash most of the fallout off himself in the emergency shower, and then discard the clothes which would remove the remaining fallout from his body. When Mel asked about the danger of exposure, he told her that the main danger was due to length of exposure. A small amount of radiation was safe unless you were exposed to it continuously over a period of time. The effects of radiation were cumulative, and therefore short exposures to low levels weren’t dangerous.

“It takes about a hundred rads of total exposure for the first symptoms to appear, and around 300 rads before it becomes incapacitating.” He told her. “According to the instruments the level outside is around 1 millirad an hour, which isn’t that much above normal ambient levels. If the instruments are off and it’s a lot higher, a few minutes of exposure won’t hurt me as even a thousand rads an hour isn’t too much with an exposure of only a minute or two.”

Even though she still wasn’t convinced, she saw he was determined to go. Backing off, she helped him get into the outfit, reminding him to take his pistol just in case, then walked with him to the elevator. Jack knew that Pam would have put up even more of a fuss, and had asked her to stay in the control room to prevent it. He was glad Mel had backed off also, as he was nervous enough doing this without having to answer so many questions. It was one thing to believe what you’d read in books, he thought, but actually going out into what could be high levels of radioactive fallout was something else entirely. Leaving her outside the door to the elevator room, he pushed the button to open the overhead doors. Stepping on the elevator pad he began to rise to the surface, delighted to see the sun and sky again after so long underground.

As his head rose above the edge of the open door he was surprised to see a tent set up a few yards away and several people standing there, apparently they’d seen the doors open and were waiting for him. Resting his hand on the butt of his .45, but not drawing it, he addressed the nearest one “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

The person he spoke to appeared to be in his mid twenties. Seeing this guy appear decked out in what looked kinda like a space suit made the young man nervous, especially when he noticed the gun, but he spoke in a clear voice “I’m Reggie, we’re looking for a man named Jack Mitchell.”

“I’m Jack, where did you come from and how did you get here?”

“We’ve been staying down in the Air Force base, at least up until a couple of days ago. We all bugged out of town when things started getting weird.”

“Well, why don’t you all come on inside, we’ll get you warm and fed, then you can tell us your story.”

As they were getting their things together, Jack replaced the probe on the entrance radiation sensor with a new one from inside. Now they’d know for sure that it was working. He also did a quick sweep with his handheld radiation meter and found nothing registering.

When the group was settled in the dining room after stowing their stuff and eating a late lunch, Jack asked them to tell him what things were like outside and how they’d come to be camping out at his front door.

Reggie wiped his mouth after taking the last bite of his sandwich, then began to speak. “Me and Cindy over there left town about two months ago. Things were getting too flaky for us and we made a break for it one night, barely even slowing down at that stupid fence they put up around the town.”

Jack didn’t know about the fence, and decided to ask about it later, not wanting to interrupt the story.

“We headed south and followed the road until we came to Mountain Home. There wasn’t too much there, but we did meet the others here, including Eddie, who had left months before us. He wanted to come here and find you at that time, but none of the rest of us knew you and after what happened at town, didn’t feel very trustful if you know what I mean. Eddie said he’d seen you around when he was training to be a pilot, but had never actually met you. He said you were a real stand up guy, and everyone who knew you always had good things to say about you. Still, most of us didn’t want to trust anyone then, and finally we decided to move down to the base and see if there was anything we could use there. We kinda had the idea of attacking the town and freeing the others, but couldn’t figure out how to get most of that stuff to work. It was while we were messing around with some of those bombs and missiles that we saw the flash, and then heard the sound of the nukes going off.”

“So there was more than one,” Jack said, “where did they land?”

“As far as we could see, there was two of them. One appeared to be over the town, and the other one was off to the northwest. Eddie figured it was in Boise, at the airport. We sorta figured whoever nuked the place was trying to prevent a counter-attack, and that’s why they bombed the airport.”

“Actually, that was the counter-attack.” Jack informed them. “The town sent their A-10’s to bomb a village in New Mexico because they refused to join the town, and the survivors launched the nukes in self defense.”

Surprised, Reggie said “you mean that crazy b*tch actually attacked some folks because they wouldn’t join her?!? That’s nuts! Tell ya what, I’m glad they launched the nukes, that town was just full of every sort of pervert and sadistic kind of person you’d ever wanna meet. In fact, so many were leaving that I doubt if there were too many there who didn’t want to be there…I think those folks in New Mexico did us a favor!”

Jack could see the passion with which the young man spoke, and wondered again how things had gone so badly so fast. Again he vowed never again to do anything that he wasn’t SURE God was behind one hundred percent…it just wasn’t worth it.

“Anyway,” Reggie continued, “after the nukes went off we hung around there for a while. Ronald found some equipment in one of the buildings and we were able to tell there wasn’t any radiation around us. I thought the stuff must be broken because the movies always show fallout after a nuke, but there were a whole bunch of the things there wrapped up in plastic, and none of them showed any radiation.”

Jack quickly briefed them on why there was no fallout, as well as giving them other useful information on the subject. Afterwards Reggie and the others felt better, they’d all been worried they were going to die.

“Finally, after Eddie kept on telling us that you’d help us and since there wasn’t anything else we could use at the base, we decided to take a chance and come here. We tried to get a car or truck to run, but none of them worked, I guess they’d sat there too long. So instead we started walking and got here the day before yesterday. We tried to call you from the gate, but no one ever answered, so we set up camp at the entrance, figuring someone would come out eventually.”

After the meeting they got the newcomers settled for the night. The next day they began cleaning up the surface, getting ready to move the excess people back into the trailers. Since there had been no radiation in their area, all the animals had survived as well. They’d left enough feed out just in case, and it was a good thing as they didn’t have to work to replace them. As it was now early March (close to the four year anniversary of the plague), they considered letting the stock out to graze. But Jack advised them not to, at least not until after the first good rain, as he wanted to make sure any fallout dust was washed away. Besides, he knew they had enough feed still in the bins to feed them for months, and it wasn’t worth the risk in his opinion.

As soon as the mobile homes were again occupied and the shelter returned to its less crowded state, they organized everyone into crews and assigned jobs. Neither the C-130 nor the Global Express would run, their computers fried by the EMP. Therefore, one of the first jobs was to salvage as much as they could from the craft then move them off to one side of the property where they wouldn’t be in the way. Jack intended to eventually chop them into small enough pieces that the Black Hawks could sling them out of the area, but the thought of chopping up the GE bothered him to the point that he put the project off. When room for operational craft got scarce then they’d go ahead and do that, he thought.

A few days later, wanting to know for sure what the situation was in town, as well as at Gowen field, Jack and Mike brought the Huey out of the hangar and got it ready for flight. Taking off, the two men flew north toward Mayfield. A few miles from town they started seeing damage caused by the blast wave, and it got worse the farther they went. Jack was surprised to see little sign of a firestorm, and figured they’d gotten off lucky. Over the downtown area nothing was recognizable, everything had been turned to rubble. They circled the area several times, looking for signs of life, but found none. Finally they decided to land near the outskirts and look around.

Among the equipment they’d brought was a radiation survey meter. As Jack stepped out he brought the devices’ probe near the ground and wasn’t surprised to detect radioactivity. As the box began to click, Mike asked “how bad is it Jack?”

“Near the ground there’s about three rads, but the level quickly drops as I raise it up. I’d say it’s likely some leftover Beta radiation, as it can only penetrate about a foot of air. It’s safe enough for a few minutes exposure, but I don’t think we need to stay around here very long. The chopper’s downdraft scattered what little dust there was here, but I don’t want to track any back. Let’s go over towards Boise and see what’s there, then go home and wash ourselves down good.”

“Suits me.” Mike responded.

Climbing back aboard, they rose into the air and turned towards the city. Both men were depressed at the loss of life represented by the destroyed town, but they were aware that most of the people had gotten what they deserved. In a few minutes they were over the downtown area of Boise. The damage here wasn’t as extensive, but increased south of town, as they neared the airport. One thing they both noticed was that the food warehouses where the town had gotten their food were gone, flattened by the blast wave. Little that was recognizable remained at the airport, and the armories were in the same shape. Seeing nothing worth investigating, they soon turned towards home.

After parking the helicopter the men went in the main entrance. They removed their ‘Tyvek’ suits and booties, then one at a time got in the emergency shower and washed down thoroughly. After getting dressed again they used a sensitive radiation meter to see if they’d missed any of the fallout. Jack was clean but Mike still seemed to be hot. Stripping, he again showered thoroughly, then stepped out as Jack ran the meter over him again. Coming up clean this time he got dressed and both men headed to the dining room to let the others know what they’d found.


**author's note**

i originally intended to write this chapter as an epilogue and end the story right here. my readers, however, pushed me to continue which led to me eventually running out of ideas. i will continue to post chapters until i get to where i got stuck, but originally this would have been it.

[03Shadowbob]

great stuff. Maybe you can add a little bit more to the story line by talking about life in the bunker during those 2 weeks.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 34

Rodney had been a sophomore in high school at the time of the sickness. Since then his life had changed dramatically, swinging back and forth between horrible and wonderful. During the past four years he’d gone from starving and alone to living with another group of survivors, decent people who had taught him a great deal about surviving in this new world. Not long after joining the group he’d met a young girl named Jill. They soon became friends, and eventually more than that, finally even sharing a room. Then the group he was with had been contacted by some folks in Idaho who said they were trying to rebuild civilization. They decided together to join the folks out west, and at first things there seemed ok. No one cared that he and Jill were still teenagers, at least not at first. They had gone to work on one of their farms, and even made some new friends. But after a while things started turning bad in town, and soon a new law was passed making him a kid again in the eyes of the older people in town. No longer allowed to live together, he and Jill talked about the situation often, and soon decided they’d be better off somewhere else.

They waited for a good opportunity to leave, hoping to be able to put some supplies together for their journey, and ended up waiting too long. Before they knew it there were guards all around and a fence was put up around the town. Several of their friends had been beaten or raped by the patrols just for being out after curfew, and a couple had died trying to get through the fence. Realizing that they were nothing more than slaves being forced to work for the adults, they did only as much as they had to in order to get by, still hoping for an opportunity to get away.

One thing Rod really felt they would need outside the town was some sort of weapon, but by this time only the security patrols had guns. Then one day the entire security force left town to carry out an attack on somebody, he didn’t know who and didn’t care, but almost none of them came back. This looked like the opportunity they’d been waiting for and the young couple made the decision to take their chances. Getting to the fence was easy as almost no one was on patrol, and the fence which had looked so intimidating from far off turned out to be simple to get through. Once through they made their way away from town easily enough, and for the first time in a while truly felt free.

Hoping they wouldn’t be discovered gone until morning, Rod doubted there would be a search, as several people he knew had disappeared, and the people in charge of the farm hadn’t reported that fact for fear of being blamed. This was fortunate for them, and once they were well clear of the town they made their way to the highway and began traveled along it, as the walking was easier. They’d been able to put back enough food and water to last a few days, and were ok for the time being, but he knew they’d have to find more supplies quickly or they’d be in trouble.

The first night out they’d slept in the brush, each of them staying awake part of the night to watch for trouble. Near the evening of their first full day of freedom they spotted a house off the road and decided to check it out, as they were now many miles away from town.

The building appeared to be an old farmhouse, but it obviously hadn’t been lived in since the sickness. Going around to the back they broke a pane out of the back door window and reached in to unlock the door. Once inside they quickly checked out the house and found the shriveled up bodies of two people in one of the bedrooms upstairs.

“I guess these were the owners,” he said to Jill, “and it doesn’t look like anyone else has ever been here. I think we’ll be safe enough for the night, you want to stay?”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, and I don’t want to sleep outside again unless we have to, it’s still too cold out there.” The girl responded.

Looking around the rest of the house they found another bedroom with a bed big enough for the both of them. When they’d first gotten to the town they’d shared a room at the farm, but then came the law that had forced them to separate. Still, they felt fortunate, as they hadn’t had any children at the time. Friends who’d had kids had them taken away and given to older residents, and the separation had been traumatic. If that had happened to them Jill didn’t believe she could have just left like they did, even though she knew it would have been nearly impossible to get children back. Some of those who’d left had had kids and were unable to get to them, but she didn’t think she would have been strong enough to do that.

Looking through the closets, Rod suddenly called to her. Walking through the cold and quiet house, dust being kicked up from the floor with each step, she found Rod standing before a closet in what must have been an office, as there was a computer sitting on a desk on one side of the room. In his hands was a dusty pump action shotgun, and in the closet she could see several rifles as well.

“There’s some handguns in the drawer also Jill, and plenty of ammo. At least now we don’t have to be completely defenseless.”

Brightening up immediately at the sight of the guns, she vaguely remembered back to the time before the plague. She’d hated guns then, having no experience with them besides what she’d seen on TV. But four years of having to learn to survive without civilization had changed her, and now she saw guns not as dangerous killing machines but as tools that would ensure her ability to take care of herself. Reaching out for the shotgun she saw that it was a Remington 870 12 gauge, a lot like one she’d had before the town had taken guns away from everyone. Working the action she saw that, although it was dusty and had some rust, it was definitely serviceable.

“Is there any ammo for it?” she asked her husband. They’d never actually stood before a preacher and said vows, but in her heart she considered them to be married, no matter what anyone in town thought or said. Rodney also considered them married, and had never even looked at other girls, even when there had been many around and even though he’d been forcibly separated from her. As far as the couple was concerned, they were married for life, and nothing that happened to them would ever change that.

“Yep, a whole bunch. You want buckshot or slugs?”

“Slugs. I’m accurate enough and I want to make sure anyone I shoot won’t get up again. There’s no way I’ll let them take me back to town, not alive anyway.” Her husband felt the same way she did and said as much, handing her a box of ammo for the weapon.

As she stood there loading the gun, the girl thought back to the times people in town had forced her into their beds. Several of the older men who’d been given the job of running the farm had forced her to sleep with them, and a couple hadn’t been too gentle about it. At first she’d resisted, but after one of them nearly killed with a piece of two by four, she’d made a conscious decision to let them have their way. It was better than dying, at least that’s what she told herself afterwards.

But now that she was away from them and free she decided she’d been wrong. Now no one would ever force themselves on her again, not while she was alive anyway, and if it was at all possible she’d take several of them with her. Working the action of the shotgun she jacked a shell into the chamber then topped off the magazine and engaged the safety. That done she slung it over her shoulder and looked at the selection of handguns.

While she’d been inspecting and loading the 870, Rod had been looking over the remaining selection of weapons. Unlike his wife, he knew all about guns as his dad had been a gun dealer. There wasn’t too much selection, mostly hunting rifles, but on one side of the closet he found a cheap cloth rifle case and, opening it he pulled out a Chinese made SKS. This was one of the older versions and had a spike bayonet. The previous owner or someone had also replaced the original ten round fixed magazine with a twenty round version. In the pockets of the case he found stripper clips with two hundred rounds of ammo for the rifle, along with a rolled up ammo belt. His find delighted him because he’d shot his father’s SKS several times and knew the rifle to be durable and accurate. After he loaded the magazine and charged the rifle, he put the rest of the ammunition in the belt, then put it on. Next he reached into the drawer and pulled out a Colt .357 magnum revolver along with its holster. It wasn’t his first choice for a handgun, but it would surely do the job! Threading his belt through the holster he loaded and secured the pistol. Jill had also picked up and loaded a handgun, hers a Russian Makarov in 9X18mm. apparently, Rod thought, the owner of the house had been into military surplus guns, that or he hadn’t had a lot of money to invest. Fortunately, the ammo for the different weapons had also been cheap and he’d bought a goodly supply.

Taking their new treasures down to the main floor, the two started searching for something to eat. There wasn’t too much left that was still good, even most of the canned food having rusted through by this time. Finally they had to settle for a bag of rice they found in one of the kitchen cabinets, cooking it in a pot over a fire they built in the back yard. They both knew it was risky to have a fire, if anyone was looking for them they’d be able to see or smell the smoke, but they didn’t have much choice in the matter. They had to eat after all, and besides, life was full of chances one just had to take. While the food was cooking, Rod watched for signs anyone had spotted them. After nearly an hour the rice was done and they’d been able to put out the fire, greatly reducing the chance of someone realizing they were there. Still they kept a sharp lookout all the rest of the day, and that night one of them was awake and alert every minute.

The next morning they mixed some sugar they found with the rice to make a halfway decent breakfast cereal. Sugar keeps forever as long as it stays dry, so they had no fear that it had gone over. After eating they filled their water containers from the well out back. Fortunately, the well was nearly two feet in diameter. If it had been one of the more modern six inch wells they’d have been out of luck. They also packed one of the cooking pots along with a few pounds of rice and sugar and set out, wanting to put more distance between themselves and the town.

Walking along the highway later that day, Rod suddenly stopped. Distracted by her own thoughts, Jill almost walked right into him. “What’s wrong, why’d you stop?” she asked.

“Shh…listen.” He whispered.

After a second she heard it too, the sound of an engine. Quickly the pair got off the road, moving several yards away and looking for somewhere to hide among the sage bushes. About sixty feet from the road they found a depression and hunkered down behind the bushes there. After a few minutes they saw a vehicle coming. Keeping quiet and not moving they waited, their guns at the ready in case it stopped. As it got closer they saw that it was a hummer, likely one from town. The vehicle didn’t even slow, but continued past them at around forty miles an hour. After it had passed out of sight the two got up from their hiding place, slinging their weapons after making them safe once again. Looking down the road in the direction it had gone, Jill said “do you think we should stay off the road?”

“I don’t know, there’s not much in the way of cover out here. Besides, we should be able to hear them if they come back, and hide again. If we get too far away from the road we could get lost, and most of the houses will be near it anyway.”

Nodding in agreement, but still nervous, the girl picked up her bundle and the two began making their way again, but this time they stayed closer to the brush so they could hide quicker. About two hours later they heard the vehicle coming back and hid again. This time when it passed they could see it was piled high with stuff. They decided the passengers must have been out scavenging, and weren’t likely to have left anyone behind anywhere. Getting up again once it was safe, they kept going, finding another house off the road as the sun started to set.

Rod had an old habit of counting his steps as he walked. He knew his length of stride was right around a yard, and was able to do the calculation and figure out that they’d come about twenty-two miles all together since leaving the town. The house they’d found this time had a propane tank that still had fuel in it, and tonight they’d be able to use the gas stove inside to prepare their dinner. After looking around and finding the well in the backyard had a windmill on it to provide water to a trough he supposed used to be used for livestock, Rod decided to see if he could set it up to provide water inside the house. He looked over the set-up carefully, and after a few minutes figured it shouldn’t be that difficult. There was even a plastic tank in the yard that held at least a hundred gallons, and he figured that if he could get it up on the roof and use the windmill to fill it, they might even have enough pressure to take showers.

Considering everything the place had to offer, he said to Jill “you know, this might not be too bad a place to stop for a while…at least until winters over.”

“I don’t know Rod, we’re still awfully close to town, do you think that’s such a good idea?”

“Well, as I see it, here we have propane for cooking and heating, and with that windmill I think I could fix it so that we could get the water in the house working again. We’d still have to scavenge around for food and keep our heads down, but I think it’d be ok. Besides, we’re back away from the road a good piece and I doubt if the town’ll ever get around to going into homes, not with empty cities all around us.”

“Well I guess it’d be ok, we can try it anyway.” She said.

“And if people from town do show up, we may be able to get the jump on them. There were only two people in that hummer today, and we’d have the element of surprise.”

With that settled, the couple prepared a meal of sugar and rice, then got ready for bed.

They’d arrived at this house near to sunset, and hadn’t had enough light to more than make sure it was empty. The next morning they corrected that and did a careful search. The house was a treasure trove, the original owners must have either been Mormons or at the least preparedness nuts. In the basement were cases of preserved foods in big cans and there were also several fifty gallon drums of water. There was all sorts of equipment including a siphon pump for the water barrels and even radiation detection stuff. Looking through the stuff Rod found several kerosene lamps and a container that held at least twenty gallons of fuel. After lighting one he began going through various books and found that they were mostly on how to get by without electricity and such.

In the shed out back he found all sorts of PVC pipe, more than enough to plumb the water tank once it was on the roof. Surprisingly, he didn’t find any guns, and that’s what led him to suspect that Mormons once lived there.

With Jill’s help he was able to secure the tank to the roof. After that it was only a matter of running pipe from the well to the tank, then into the house. They got done before the sun had completely set and went inside to prepare dinner, tired but satisfied with what they’d gotten accomplished. The windmill seemed to have a hard time filling the tank, and they figured it might be trying to push the water too high, but by the end of the next day the tank had about thirty gallons in it and they decided it was good enough. That night they enjoyed a hot shower for the first time in ages, being happy to discover the propane fired water heater hadn’t rusted out as they had feared. Lying in bed that night holding the love of his life, Rod felt at peace for the first time in a long time.




As the days passed, they continued fixing up the house to their satisfaction. The food stored in the basement was surprisingly good, especially after they found a book on how to prepare meals from storage food. One of the things they’d decided on was making the house more defensible, and to that end had stacked lumber they found behind the shed under the front windows inside the house. They figured the extra mass would likely stop any bullets that got through the brick wall, giving them something to hide behind while returning fire. They also cleared several bushes from the front yard so they’d have a clear field of fire and to take away hiding spots from anyone who might try and attack them.

One morning, several weeks later they were startled to hear a vehicle pass by on the road outside. It sounded like it kept going, but they didn’t take any chances. Getting to their fighting positions at the front windows, they saw a few minutes later that the hummer had returned, going much slower this time. As it turned into the front yard they got ready, watching as it slowly made its way up to the house. Finally the vehicle came to a stop just a few yards from the building and the driver’s door opened. As soon as the driver got out Jill recognized him as one of the men who’d forced himself on her. Seeing him in the clear she raised her shotgun to her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The gun bucked in her hands, and she saw her shot had been true, the man staggered and fell back, half his face now missing. Rod was startled at her shot but quickly recovered. He lifted his rifle and began shooting also, as the people in the yard ducked behind cover and returned fire.

[Caribou]

" Some of those who’d left had had kids and were unable to get to them, but she didn’t think she would have been strong enough to do that. "

No way I would have left town with my kids still in it, unless I was coming back that night to rescue them!

[Christian for Israel]

i know the feeling. so, how are you enjoying the story so far?

[Gunfixr]

Welcome to the forum, Caribou. CFI's quite the writer, isn't he?

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 35

As the three men drove slowly up to the house, Jimmy told them his plan.

“I’m going to pull up nice and official like, and get them to trust me. I’ll tell them we’re with the government or something, and we’ve finally getting into the area and starting to help folks recover. I want you two to hold back at first, then once I get inside move around to cover the back. When the shooting starts come in as quick as you can and finish off anyone who’s left. Remember, don’t shoot any of the women or children unless you have to, we’ll have uses for them later.”

At this, the other men laughed. Oh, they’d have uses for them all right, ever since they’d left the town there hadn’t been anyone else around to ‘play’ with, and all three were craving a little raping session. They had been on their own since the fiasco at Jack’s place. On the way back to town they’d decided that crazy Frenchman would get them all killed, and they would be much better off striking out on their own. They’d be kings, Jimmy said, but things hadn’t worked out that way. The first problem was the lack of any other people around they could rule, and the second was the lack of food that was still fit to eat.

But it looked like they had hit the jackpot today. They had passed this house several times over the past weeks, but today they saw that the shrubs had been cleared out of the front yard. That told them someone was there, and now whoever it was would give them their first bit of action in a long time.

But as Jimmy stepped out of the vehicle, the unexpected happened again. Suddenly they heard a booming roar and saw Jimmy’s head almost explode, his body falling backwards against the truck. Realizing they had been ambushed, the two men quickly got behind the vehicle. Ricky was fumbling with his rifle, trying to figure out why it wouldn’t shoot. When they’d joined the town’s security team they’d been given the guns, but no one bothered to show them how to use them. Ricky had never liked guns much, but the new power they gave him in town had changed his mind. With only the security people armed, the rest of the town had been at their mercy, not that they had much. But now, with someone shooting at them for real, he realized that learning at least a little about how the gun worked would have been smart. Giving up on the gun as he still couldn’t get it to fire, he dropped it and stood, preparing to run away. Just as his head appeared above the rear of the Hummer Rod, who’d been watching that area, fired a shot, the bullet penetrating the bridge of Ricky’s nose and continuing on through his brain to explode out the back of his skull. He never knew what hit him, the lights simply went out as his body fell backwards to lay unmoving on the ground.

Seeing the other two go down was too much for Vince. He’d managed to empty his magazine at the house, but was having trouble getting a new one in the gun. As Ricky fell he made his decision, throwing down his weapon and calling out towards the house. “DON’T SHOOT! I SURRENDER!”

Inside, Rod cautiously called back, being sure to watch for any tricks. “Ok, drop your weapons and come out slowly, with your hands on your head.”

After a minute Vince appeared, hands on his head and no weapon apparent.

Calling again, Rod asked “are there any more of you?”

Vince trembled but spoke up “no, I’m the only one left.”

“Ok, slowly walk away from the truck. Come up on the porch and then face the road.” Vince did as he was told. When he was on the porch Rod said “now, get down on your knees, then lay down, keeping your hands behind your head.”

When the man had lain down, Rod carefully went out to him, being sure Jill had him covered. He quickly patted the man down to make sure he had no other weapons, then told Jill to watch him and shoot him if he moved. She acknowledged him, walking up and pointing the shotgun at the man’s head. When she was in position Rod moved slowly towards the vehicle, watching for any sign of movement. After moving to the back and seeing the other two were definitely dead, he returned to the porch and told Vince to stand up.

“Ok, who are you and what do you want?” he demanded.

Sure that they’d kill him if they knew he was alone, Vince said “we’re with Mayfield security. You two are in a lot of trouble! You attacked the legal law enforcement for this area and our back-up will be here soon to see what happened to us! If you know what’s good for you you’ll turn yourselves in to me right now, before things get even worse for you!”

Rod didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but decided it would be smart not to take chances. With Jill watching the guy he went into the house and got some cord. He then tied the man’s hands behind his back and told him, “I’m not going to just kill you in cold blood, so I suggest you start walking. If you’re telling the truth someone will find you soon enough and cut you free. If you’re lying…well that’s your problem. Not get!”

With that he pushed the man forcefully off the porch. Tripping on the top step, Vince fell headlong down the steps, landing on his face. After a moment he managed to get to his feet and start off, unsure what he was going to do now. As he reached the road he turned and began cursing at Rod, until a shot from the house ricocheted off the roadway near his feet, prompting him to run for all he was worth.

At the house Rod spoke quickly, “grab everything you can, we may not have much time. We’ll load the Hummer with the food and weapons and get going. Maybe we’ll even find some fuel along the way. I don’t know if he was telling the truth but I’m not going to take a chance. We need to get far away from here as soon as we can.

Nodding her head in understanding, the girl hurried inside the house to start packing. She hated the idea of leaving, especially after all the work they’d done fixing up the place. Still, not everything they had done had worked out like they expected, the water tank on the roof had frozen and split, reducing them to carrying in buckets of water from the well by hand. But despite the problems, she was really starting to like it there. Grabbing a case of food, she made her way up from the basement and out to the truck. She had no remorse inside her for her actions, that b*stard deserved to die for what he’d done to her, she thought. In fact, she didn’t feel anything at all, not since being raped repeatedly by the people in town. She hoped that one day she’d be able to feel again, but that day hadn’t come yet.

After he fit the last box of food into the back of the vehicle, Rod turned to look at the guns they had captured. All three were M-16’s, but none of them had been taken care of. Of the three he figured only one was worth keeping, and he decided to give it to Jill. The M-16 was a poodle shooter as far as he was concerned, not really much good against people. He would stick to the heavier bullet used in the SKS for now, and hopefully soon he would be able to exchange that for something in .308. Looking around he gathered up magazines for the rifle. Each man had apparently carried one in the gun and two more on them. That wasn’t enough for a combat mission, and he wondered why they didn’t have more. Still, eight mags were enough for one rifle, at least as long as they didn’t get into an extended fight. Taking the gun apart he cleaned it as best he could, then reassembled it and loaded it. Calling to Jill that it was time to go, he handed the gun to her when she appeared, showing her how to work the controls.

They two took one last look at the house, then got into the truck and pulled out onto the road. As he started down the road he saw they only had about an eighth of a tank of fuel, and he was aware that it wouldn’t last them long.

“Well, it doesn’t look like they left us with much fuel, we’re almost out.” He said.

“Can we get some out of a car? There are plenty of them at the houses around here.”

“I doubt it, most cars use gasoline, but this is a diesel, it takes a different kind of fuel. But come to think of it, maybe we can after all. A lot of tractors use diesel, and if we found one we might get lucky.”

Suddenly Jill pointed to a building off the road. “There’s a barn, why don’t we try there?”

“I want to put a few miles between us and the house first babe, just in case that guy was telling the truth. We’ll start looking in a little bit.”

Ten minutes later he said “that’s probably far enough, let’s see what we can find now.”

A minute later they came to another driveway. Slowing, they both looked the property over carefully. There was a barn near the house, and they decided to check it out. Pulling in to the drive, they stayed well back from the house, remembering not to make the same mistake the security patrol had. Stopping, Rod stepped out, leaving his rifle on the seat next to him. Holding his hands above his head in a non threatening manner, he called out “HELLO, IS ANYONE HOME?” There was no answer.

Waiting a few minutes he called out again. After not receiving a response to his second hail he got back in and drove slowly up to the house. This time when he got out he brought his rifle with him, figuring any friendly person would have answered him. Going up to the door with Jill covering him from the truck, he turned the handle and swung it open. The house was as quiet as a tomb, and soon he determined that no one lived there anymore. The pair quickly looked through the house for anything they thought they could use, then proceeded to the barn. The tractor within had been old and worn out when the plague struck. The past four years hadn’t helped it any, and Rod doubted it could ever be made to run again. That was ok, all he wanted was the fuel. Opening the tank he sniffed, then turned away, disappointed.

“Not the right kind?” the girl asked.

“Nope, it’s old gas. Let’s look around and see what else we can find, maybe there’s a container of kerosene around here or something.”

“Hey Rod, what about that?”

Turning towards her, he saw the girl pointing to the fuel oil tank behind the house. Quickly walking over to it he climbed on top and opened the cap. Sniffing the liquid, he suddenly turned to her and smiled, “Perfect! What would I do without you?” then he jumped down and gave his love a hug.

“Ok, we need a hose. Why don’t you look for one while I drive the Hummer over?”

When he returned with the vehicle he saw Jill had found a length of garden hose. Opening the truck’s filler cap he stuck one end of the hose into the fuel oil tank and began to suck on the other. A second later he yanked the hose out of his mouth, spitting out the fuel that had squirted in. “Yuck! That tastes nasty!”

“Then don’t drink it hun, duh!” she replied giggling.

“Uh huh, whatever.” He said, sticking the now flowing hose into the vehicle’s tank and filling it all the way up. He knew the fuel oil wasn’t the best thing to burn in a diesel, after a while it would probably clog the fuel lines. But it was a lot better than nothing, and both of them were tired of walking. After it was full he pulled the hose out of the oil tank and replaced the cap, figuring they might want to return someday and get more. Then the couple returned to their searching, making sure they didn’t leave behind anything they might be able to use.

With a full tank they were able to get far away from Mayfield. By the end of the day they’d traveled to Twin Falls, the next decent sized city on the highway. As it was starting to get dark Rod began looking for some place to spend the night, settling on a house on the outskirts of town. Quickly checking it out and finding it deserted, they got the Hummer hidden around back and went inside to fix something to eat.




They spent the next few days going through the town, scavenging for the things they needed. Fuel was the first priority, and Rod knew it would have to be treated before they could use it. Finding a phone book and map, they started out their search with an auto parts store. He was looking for a product called ‘Pri-D’. It was a fuel stabilizer for diesel and could even make old fuel usable again. They found a couple of cases at the first parts store they came to, along with several gas cans and assorted other supplies he figured they could use. Now that they had a working vehicle he intended to keep it running as long as they were able. Next they drove around until they found a gas station that sold diesel fuel. The problem they ran into immediately was how to get the stuff out of the underground tank. The station’s pumps were electric, having been run off outside power, but that didn’t help them all that much now.

“I guess we could look around for a portable pump.” He said after a bit. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“What about finding a generator to power the station pumps?” Jill suggested, hoping the idea didn’t sound dumb. People usually made fun of her suggestions, although Rod never had. Still, she hesitated to offer them, not wanting him to think she was dumb.

“Actually, that’s a great idea! The problem is we need a diesel powered engine as gasoline this old can’t be made usable again, and diesel powered generators will be more common than the small engines that run pumps.” He said as he gave her a hug. She was thrilled with his response as he was the only person who’d ever taken her seriously about anything.

Rod grabbed the phone book out of the truck and flipped through it until he came across hardware stores. He saw there was a Sam’s club in town and remembered they usually had all sorts of things, including automotive stuff. The store wasn’t too far away, and the couple loaded up to go check it out.

They arrived in front of the warehouse sized store quickly. The parking lot was deserted as were those of most businesses in town, undoubtedly due to the fact that most people had died in their homes. Walking up to the front doors they saw that one of them had been broken out, and there were signs that someone had been going in and out. Realizing there might be a danger they returned to the truck for their weapons, then proceeded cautiously into the dark interior of the store.

They cautiously made their way into the store, past the registers, taking pains to be as quiet as possible. As they advanced they could hear the sounds of scuffling feet from the far side of the building. Stopping, Rod called out “is there anyone here?”

The noises immediately stopped and all was silent for a moment, then there was a sound as if a box had been knocked off a shelf somewhere off to the left.

Speaking again, he said “we don’t want to hurt anyone or cause trouble, please answer us.”

From the shadowy isles in the same area the sound had come from, a timid voice spoke. “Yes, I’m in here, please don’t hurt us.”

“We’re not going to hurt anyone, if we lower our guns will you come out where we can see you?”

“Ok.”

Nodding to Jill, they lowered their guns so they pointed at the base of the shelves, ready to bring them up quickly again if necessary. A moment later a figure stepped out from between the isles about a hundred feet away, looking nervous. Seeing her, Rod lowered his rifle even more, and stepped forward. Jill stayed a few steps behind him to cover him in case this person turned out not to be friendly. As they got closer they could see it was a woman, apparently in her mid thirties. Finally moving to within a few feet, Rod slung his rifle and stuck out his hand.

“I’m Rodney, and this is my wife Jill.”

The woman relaxed and took the offered hand. “I’m Vicki, but the folks here call me Miss Vic.” She said with a small smile.

“How many others are there Miss Vic?” he asked.

“Eight. We all used to live in a town west of here, but left because things were getting bad there.”

“You don’t mean Mayfield do you?”

At her nod he said “we’re from there also, I think a lot of people are leaving. How long have you been here?”

“I’ve been here almost two months, the others have come along since then.” Suddenly she spoke louder, “its ok guys, they’re not going to cause trouble, come on out and meet them.”

At her call the couple could see and hear several people coming towards them. They also realized they were all armed, and could have cut them down in an instant if they’d been hostile. Glad they hadn’t done anything to make these people nervous; they moved forward to greet them. Everyone besides Miss Vic seemed to be close to Rod’s age, if not younger. That had always seemed strange to him, but he had also come to expect it now. Finally, after he and Jill had met everyone Miss Vic invited them to the back where they had some food prepared. As they walked in the direction the group had come from they could see that the shelves had been moved out to create a larger area. The ends of the shelves had been left in place however to give the illusion that no one was there. Rod noted that fighting positions had been erected to give cover to the residents in case they had to fight, and he approved.

In the far corner the group had a couple of propane barbecues going, cooking some sort of meat. Thinking that the set-up wasn’t as safe as could be, due to carbon monoxide poisoning from the barbecues, he asked “how do you keep the air fresh in here, those propane grills put out deadly gases that could kill everyone here.”

“We cut holes in the roof. They let the gases out and give us fresh air.” Miss Vic replied. She seemed to be the spokesperson and leader of the group. “We used to run the diesel generator until the fuel ran out, so we had to find another way to cook.”

“But there’s plenty of diesel around, all the gas stations have some.”

“I know, but we couldn’t get it out. Besides, we don’t have a way to move stuff about; we really need a car or truck.”

“Well, we have a truck,” he said, “and I know a way to get all the fuel we need. Tell me; are there any portable generators here? Preferably new ones?”

“Yes, there are several, but we don’t have fuel for them either.”

“Show me,” he commanded.

As the woman walked towards the other side of the store, Rod followed. Rounding an isle they entered the automotive section. There in front of them were several construction style generators, and looking them over he was happy to see several ran on diesel. Grabbing the handle of a five kilowatt unit, he began rolling it towards the entrance. Back at the truck he asked Miss Vic to get one of the other men to go with them to get some fuel. A moment later they were joined by a man in his late teens, who said his name was Mike. Together they wrestled the generator into the back of the Hummer, then got in along with Jill to return to the gas station.

At the station it didn’t take long to get things hooked up. Using a little fuel from the vehicle they got the generator running, and soon had the station’s diesel pump working. They filled all the fuel cans they’d brought, then found a twenty gallon drum in the garage that used to hold motor oil. They washed it out and filled it as well, treating all with the Pri-D.

Returning to the Sam’s club they went around to the back of the store to where the generator was kept. Filling its tank, they left the rest of the fuel next to the unit and cranked it. After a minute it ran smoothly, and they could see lights on inside the building and hear cheering from within. When they got back inside the others treated them like Heros, making the couple feel at home.

They made the decision to remain at the store for the night, first moving the Hummer into the service center garage attached to the store to keep it safe. The group showed them to an area where they could have some privacy, and Rod and Jill settled down for the night, happy to be among other people again.

[Caribou]

"i know the feeling. so, how are you enjoying the story so far?"

I like it! I left comments a few pages ago (my first post!), but I'll add that I think your story would be fine if you ended at the epilogue, as you mentioned earlier. Then, maybe these other tales could be a sequel!

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 36

“Ok, try it now.” Rod called out.

In the cab of the old semi tractor Billy hit the starter again. This time after turning over a few times, the engine cranked, running rough after years of sitting abandoned.

“Give it a few minutes to warm up.” Rod said, walking over to talk with Vicki. “Now all we need to do is fill the tank and stabilize the fuel, then we’ll be all set.”

“How long will it last?” she asked, looking mystified at the idling truck. She knew she was in over her head; she’d never paid any attention to things like this in the past and didn’t know the first thing about how to do things like get the power up again. What’s worse, none of the others knew much either. The oldest of them was Mike who was nineteen and had only been fifteen when the plague struck. The only experience these kids had was with video games…hardly what was needed in this new world. The arrival of Rod and his wife was a blessing from God, and she was thankful for their knowledge.

“Hard to say. I have no idea how much that generator burns a day, but it should last a few weeks at least, likely not more than a couple of months. But the important thing is, we’ll be able to finish out the winter with light and heat. After things start to thaw we can look for a better place to live.”

Vicki saw no reason to leave the Sam’s club, everything they needed was there, wasn’t it? But she trusted this young man. He’d only been with them a week and had already started making great changes. If he said they needed to move, there certainly must be a good reason for it, she thought.

After a minute more the truck smoothed out, and Rod walked back over; taking Billy’s place behind the wheel as the boy had never driven anything before, much less a rig such as this. As he settled into the seat he reviewed the shifting pattern. His dad taught him to drive a stick when he was fourteen, and he figured out how to drive a truck similar to this one before his group had joined itself to the town.

Depressing the clutch he slipped the stick into what he hoped was first gear. Slowly easing up on the pedal the truck began jerking forward, then smoothed out. Shifting into second was easier, and soon he was moving, driving like he’d been doing it all his life. He figured it was like riding a bike, once you learned you never forgot. After a minute he checked his mirrors and saw the others trailing along behind, staying back and looking watchful. They didn’t know if there was anyone else in town, but the incident at the farm had taught him to always err on the side of caution. They had two pick-ups they’d found at a dealership in town. Both ran on diesel of course, and getting them going had been easy. In the backs were a couple of machine guns they’d found at the local armory, held in place by bungee cords. The trucks took up positions on either side of the rig, offering cover in case of attack.

They arrived at the gas station within a few minutes and, as he stopped next to the tanks, Jill pulled up in the Hummer with the generator and cases of stabilizer. It took several hours to get everything done, but in the end they were successful, returning to the store with eight thousand gallons of fuel ready to be hooked up to the generator.

The morning after their arrival Vicki had approached him. “Rodney, none of us knows much about ‘survival’, and we’re kinda lost here. Could you help us? It’s obvious from the way you got fuel for the generator and from the story you told that you know what you’re doing; we really could use some guidance.”

Seeing the desperate look in her eyes, he said “yeah, it’s kinda obvious. You folks did ok once we got inside the store yesterday, but in truth we never should have even gotten close. You need better security first thing, along with ways to slow down an attacker.”

“Will you help us?” she repeated.

“Of course. We wouldn’t have been very well off just the two of us, the larger a group is the better the chances for them to make it. Let’s see if we can work together to make this place safer, ok?” He was aware that this woman really didn’t know him or Jill and he wanted to reassure her he wasn’t going to just take over.

Relieved, the woman smiled and began to relax for the first time in weeks. The burden of being responsible for all the people here, especially when she had no idea what she was doing in the first place, had been weighing heavily on her. “Sounds good to me. Now, where do we start?”

Looking around for a moment, he said “first we need a way to see what’s going on outside. Now that the power’s on, let’s check out the security office. These cameras must have monitors attached to them somewhere, let’s see if we can find them.”

Vicki called the rest of the group together and explained what they were doing and why. Having someone taking charge reassured the others and they eagerly began searching for the security office. They found it a few minutes later. When he entered the office, Rod saw immediately that at least half the monitors were dead. Looking over the controls, he soon found out how to switch between them, and determined that it was the cameras that weren’t working, not the monitors themselves. Those that were working showed the store below, along with the parking lot out front. Rod knew it was a start, and told the group they would need to remove some of the interior cameras and use them to replace the dead ones outside.

It took the better part of the morning to accomplish. First they used motorized man lifts to retrieve the interior cameras, than they took them to the roof and replaced the ones that were out. Finally they wrapped plastic sheeting around them, as they weren’t water proofed and it would help them last longer. When the final one was installed they returned to the security office to find that everything worked like they expected. At this point Rod told them that one person needed to stay there at all times, to alert them in case anyone approached. Vicki spoke up and asked one of the younger kids to do it for the moment, and she said she’d have a schedule made up by the end of the day so everyone would take a shift.

“Actually, I’ll need some here for other jobs,” Rod said, “and I’d like them excused from the schedule if it’s ok.”

Agreeing, the woman pointed to Mike and two other boys, asking Rod if that were enough. He said it was and everyone left the room except for the kid assigned to stay there.

Indicating that the selected people should follow him, Rod stepped away from the group with Vicki and Jill. “Next we need better weapons. I want to see if there’s a National Guard armory in town. If there is we may be able to find some heavy firepower.”

Going to the manager’s office they found a phone book. Looking through it they found the location of the armory, along with several gun stores. Rod then asked Vicki to stay and get the others organized, and he and the rest of his work group would see about finding what all they needed.

For the most part the armory had been a disappointment. Besides a dozen .50 caliber machine guns and some M-16’s, there wasn’t much there. The group loaded what they could into the Hummer and headed back. One of the Brownings had been mounted on a tripod, and he figured it would be perfect on the roof as a sort of exterior support weapon. On the way back to the store they passed a Dodge dealer, and Rod quickly swerved to enter the lot. He explained that they needed more vehicles and the group got to work, following his instructions. After they got two pick-ups running the real fun began, as none of the others had ever driven a car before. Fortunately the trucks were automatics, but the next few hours were harrowing as he gave them crash courses, so to speak. When they had the hang of it he led the way back to the store. From then on he told them, they’d have at least two vehicles together when they went anywhere, and each of them would have a machine gun mounted in the back.

The next step in securing the building was to limit access to the interior. They did this by dragging abandoned cars in front of the doors. To prevent anyone from just pushing them out of the way they jacked them up and removed the wheels. Rod explained that, with them sitting on the frame, they would be next to impossible to move quickly. Two of the cars they didn’t remove the wheels on, one for the front door and another one at the back door they planned to use as an emergency exit. At the front they placed the cars in a ‘sallyport’ forming a zig zag path between them wide enough for two people to walk side by side, but not big enough for a vehicle to get through. He told them it wasn’t a straight path to prevent the door from being rushed. An attacker would have to negotiate the turns, which would slow them down a bit. That would give the folks inside time to shoot them. The car with the wheels still on was placed so it could be moved, giving access to the doors to a truck. That way the group could get one of their trucks into the building if they needed to. Everyone saw the wisdom of these measures, and several commented on how much safer they were now. Rod disagreed, he felt they would not be safe until they found a more defensible place all together, but he didn’t say anything. He also knew morale was important, and he didn’t want to say anything to hurt that.

Finally he formed his team into a quick response force. While everyone might be called upon to fight if they were faced with an all out assault, this force would respond quickly anytime there was a threat to the group. To that end he made a trip to a local gun store to get something better than the M-16 pop guns they’d found at the armory. Inside they found that apparently no one else had ever been there, and everything they’d ever need was on the walls. They each selected rifles they liked, the only stipulation Rod made was that they use the same caliber. They settled on .308, getting two FN Fal’s, a CETME and an M1A. Jill was the only one in the group to continue carrying the M-16, as the recoil wasn’t severe and she could handle it. They also loaded up on cases of ammunition, supplementing what they’d gotten from the armory.

Back at the store parking lot Rod began teaching everyone the basics of shooting, only being satisfied when they could consistently hit a man sized target at a hundred yards. He explained to his response force that they should continue to practice every day until they could hit a man at three hundred yards. The reason being, they were the back-up group and therefore needed to be better than the others.



The next issue in need of attention was drinking water. Of course the water mains had been dry since the plague and without an outside source the group had been consuming bottled water from the stores’ shelves. Their supply was nearly depleted, making a replacement supply a top priority. When first told of the problem Rod suggested they hit the supermarkets and get what was there. That seemed the logical step until they got to the first one and found many of the gallon bottles had ruptured. Vicki mentioned something about the plastic ‘milk’ style jugs being biodegradable and that over the past years they had apparently begun to break down. Lifting a jug off the shelf only to have the bottom come off, spilling the contents all over himself, Rod realized she probably was right. In the end they did find a few of the five gallon bottles used on water coolers still in good condition. They reasoned that the reusable bottles must use another kind of plastic. The group loaded up what they could find, but they all knew it would never be enough to get them through the rest of the winter.

Rod took the next day with Jill and Vicki to consider their options and try to come up with a solution. Vicki asked if they could drill a well nearby, but he didn’t think that was possible. First off he had no idea how to do such a thing, and second he didn’t know where to find the equipment. Jill suggested they find a water tank and fill it from somewhere. The others thought that a good idea and they searched the phonebook, but had no luck. Finally Jill asked about fire trucks.

Rod sat up straight and said “that’s an excellent idea! Let’s see where the nearest fire station is, most have pumper trucks that have a tank as well. And they have the pumps and siphons we’d need.”

They quickly found the nearest fire house and then called the team together to check it out. When they arrived they found two trucks. Both were dusty, but otherwise in excellent condition. Rod figured it was due to the tendency of firemen to always be cleaning and maintaining their equipment. Looking over the trucks they found the pumper had a twelve hundred-fifty gallon tank, along with pumps, hoses, and siphoning equipment. Figuring the system out proved to be a job, but after a while Rod felt he could run the thing. The team got the truck running and they drove to the town’s municipal swimming pool. The pool was green with algae and covered with a sheet of ice. Breaking through and dropping the hose into it, they turned on the pump and soon had the tank full.

Delighted with their success, the team returned to the store. Rod had an idea he could attach a hose from the truck to the buildings’ sprinkler system through a hydrant and use the truck’s pump to pressurize the system. They found such a connection around in back of the store, close to the generator. It took a standard four inch line, the same as the truck, and within a few minutes they had it connected. Rod engaged the pump and brought the pressure up to sixty pounds, but within minutes the tank was empty and they began to wonder where all the water had gone! Rod shut down the truck and the group went inside to see if they’d flooded the store from an open faucet or something, but nothing inside had changed. Finally it occurred to him that the water main to the rest of the town was still open, and they would have to close it if they wanted to maintain pressure in the store only.

Disappointed, the crew spent the rest of the day looking for the main water valve, finally finding it by tracing the sprinkler pipes to where they entered the store. With it finally shut they quickly returned to the pool for more water, not wanting to be out after dark. When they’d once again gotten back and reattached the hose they activated the system and this time it stayed pressurized. With the truck set to idle they went inside and tried a faucet in one of the bathrooms. It sputtered and spat and finally brown water came gushing out. After a minute it cleared, and everyone cheered. Rod cautioned everyone not to drink it until they could purify it, but said it was good enough for showers. There was an employee shower in the break room bathroom and, after giving the store’s water heater time to warm up, everyone took turns getting clean for the first time in months.

Vicki luxuriated in the showers’ hot water for her allotted five minutes. She felt wonderful to finally be able to wash the dirt and stink off her body. As she stood there she thought about having to get out all clean just to put on dirty clothes again and wondered if they could get one of the washing machines going as well. After she got out she asked Rod about it. He felt like an idiot for not thinking of it first, but said sure, it would be easy. They got one of the units from the sales floor and hooked it up, glad to have a large supply of detergent on hand as well. As the first load of clothes was being washed they got an electric dryer set up and going also.

Having a way to clean themselves and their clothes had an incredible effect on the group’s morale and that evening there were smiles and laughing late into the night.



After breakfast the next day the crew got together for their morning meeting. Vicki asked Rod how they were going to purify the water for drinking.

“I figured we could look around for some filters, maybe a sporting goods store would have some.” He said.

“What about distilling it?” Mike asked.

Rod was thoughtful, “do you know how?”

“My dad had a still at the house; he was into making his own alcohol.”

The others looked at him in amazement, and one of the younger boys started to giggle.

“No, it’s not like that, the government used to let people make that stuff as long as they didn’t sell it. My dad made wine and beer and gave it to his friends, and even built a still and played around with it for a while.”

“Do you think you could build one too?” Rod asked.

“Sure, my dad let me and my brother help him build it, he said it was a good science experiment. In fact, he helped me build one for school, but it was only for water. I still won the science fair with it though.” Mike said with obvious pride.

“Cool! So, what do we need?” Jill asked.

“Well, we need a container. It doesn’t have to be strong because it won’t be holding pressure, just a big pot with a tight lid. Then we’ll need some copper tubing and some fittings to attach it to the lid so the steam can go through it. We’ll need another tub or pot for a condenser and it should have water in it to cool the steam.” The boy felt important when he realized everyone was looking at him for the answers. For the first time he felt like a real team player instead of just a strong back.

The team covered the store and found the pot and tubing quickly, but there wasn’t much in the way of plumbing parts so they made a trip to a near by hardware store to get the fittings. They assembled the still in the back storage area, just in case something went wrong and it exploded. Mike assured them it was safe, but everyone else was skeptical. They brought out a large propane burner and hooked it to one of the grill propane bottles to provide the heat source, and filled the pot half full of water. After lighting the fire, Mike stayed with it and the others went to lunch as he’d said it would take a while.

After lunch they returned to find the fresh water container had about a gallon of clean water in the bottom. Rod dipped out a cupful and tasted it, pronouncing it good. After that everyone had to taste it and all said it was wonderful, praising Mike for his abilities. Mike just stood there blushing and embarrassed, loving the feeling.

By the end of the third day after solving the water problem, the fire truck tank ran dry. Vicki asked a couple of the guys to go back to the pool and get some more, and while they were gone Rod decided they needed a larger stock, not only of water, but fuel for the generator. He got with Vicki and the team and they decided to go on a scavenging run around town, looking for a tractor-trailer tanker for fuel, along with a larger water tank.

They found the tanker quickly enough, but it was partially filled with bad gasoline. Rod didn’t want to just dump it on the ground but he didn’t see any alternative. They stretched out the hose as far from the tractor as they could and opened the valve, letting the gas run down the parking lot and into a sewer. When it was empty they closed the valve and went to look at the tractor.



Once the tanker had been dropped off at the store they proceeded to look for a suitable water tank. The city’s municipal garage had a water truck that held several thousand gallons that they’d used to wash the streets. This time however, try as they might, they couldn’t get the old engine to run. Finally they attached a couple of tie-down straps from a flatbed trailer between the truck and the tractor, using them like tow straps. In this way they dragged the water truck back to the store and parked it next to the fire truck. They used the pumper to fill it, having to make several runs, and by the end of the day had nearly five thousand gallons to draw on.

With everything accomplished, Rod figured they’d be ok until spring. He hoped they’d be all right until then, but he knew Mayfield was still there and would likely be a problem in the future as they continued to expand. All he could do at the moment however was hope they wouldn’t be found, and in the spring they could look for a better place to live.