Original Work The Unwelcome Sign

Discussion in 'Survival Reading Room' started by Zengunfighter, Dec 6, 2013.


  1. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    Sadie got ready behind a cart, the banging from the front continued. I still don't think they knew we were there.I pulled my pistol and cracked the door open. Nothing. A bit more. Still clear. All the way. No one.


    Sadie pushed the first car out while I held the door and tried to watch both directions. She went for the second and brought it out.
    “Hey! There's someone in here!” Came from the front, accompanied by running feet. “Boom” I put a round into the floor and the foot steps stopped.
    I tossed Sadie my keys. “Quick start the car and back it against the door”
    She jumped in, started it and put a corner of the rear bumper against the door.
    “You load the Jeep, I'll cover!” Sadie got out and started chucking things in the back.

    “boomboomboom” the door was shaking but it was in no danger of opening. I watched the rear corners in case the came around from the outside.
    “One cart done”
    “Got it”


    I still had the pistol in my hand, leaving the 870 behind me. I wanted the continuity of fire it's big magazines gave me.
    I saw a head peek around a corner and duck back. His toes were still sticking around the corner. I took aim close to his toes. It was a 30 yard shot. I just wanted to scare him, but if I missed and hit his toes, I could live with that.


    “loud noise” I warned as I put the last two pounds on the trigger. The bullet kicked up dirt close to the no longer visible foot.

    “Done!” from Sadie.
    “ You drive!” I told her. She got behind the wheel and belted in. I opened her door and reached in and hit the dogs for the roof panels. I popped the two pieces that cover the front seats and tossed them in the back on top of the pile of stuff. I pulled the shotgun around front and brought it muzzle up, muzzle above my head. Getting in the passenger seat, (how appropirate that it was called the shotgun seat) I stepped up on the seat, crouched so the top of my torso and more importantly, the shotgun was sticking out. I braced myself and shouted “GO!”


    I aimed in at the upcoming corner, at the ground so the gun wouldn't block my view of someone low down and pushed the safety to 'off'. As we came up to the corner, two men ran at us. I brought the muzzle up on them and they stopped dead in their tracks.

    “There! In front!” I heard Sadie accelerate and felt the “Badump, badump” of the Jeep running over something big. Facing rear to keep an eye on the two I had a gunpoint, I saw the body emerge from the back of the Jeep.

    “Where the hell did he come from?!”
    “He was hiding on the right. He got in front of me and stood there to make me stop. He picked the wrong bitch.”
    “Have I ever told you that I'm glad I married you?”
    “You might have” she glanced over at me as I snaked the shotgun muzzle down between my seat and the door, sat down and buckled up. Next stop, the garden store.
     
  2. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    Pulling up to the garden store, everything looked OK. The door was intact and the 'Open' sign was displayed. Sadie pulled the Jeep into a parking spot.
    “Keep it running, I want to go check it out. If it is, I'll switch with you and you can shop while I stay to keep an eye on the car.”
    “Be careful”
    “I will” I stretched over the console to give Sadie a quick kiss. You never know when it will be the last time you see a loved one, so I really try to make sure I don't have any regrets. You know, like “I wish I had said goodbye, or 'I love you'.

    I left the shotgun in the car but my pistols were openly displayed on my belt. I normally carry conceal, and think under normal circumstances that it gives you enough tactical advantage to outweigh the slightly slower more cumbersome draw.

    But if you notice, after a disaster, or other civil disruptions, open displays of firearms are commonplace. I've seen it personally after a major hurricane, whether pistols in holsters or long guns carried at port arms. I've seen the same when studying other events like Homestead after hurricane Andrew, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Katrina, or LA after Rodney King.

    The open display of firearms can be a great deterent to general looting and mayhem. Yes, you are loosing the advantage of surprise, but in this case the benefit out weighs the downside.

    So neither the owner nor myself thought twice about the fact that both of us were strapped. “Good afternoon” I started.
    “Good afternoon.”
    “Open for business?”
    “Apparently. Cash only” the man was an crotchety old local of few words.
    “We can do that. I'm going to send my wife in.”
    “Suit yourself.”

    Back at the Jeep, I handed Sadie the cash I had on me. “Use as much as you need to. I don't think it's going to be worth much soon.”
    “Anything you want?”
    “Plants are your thing. You do what you think is best”

    She handed me the keys as she got out and walked past me. I reached in the driver's door, grabbed the AR, and locked the door. I could have sat in the Jeep and waited, but it was a natural object of attention, I'd have limited mobility and visibility.

    I found a place 20 yards away where I could sit with my back to the wall and keep an eye on the Jeep and the entrance to the store.
     
  3. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    Pulling my phone out and going to 'contacts' I scrolled down to 'Johnsen' and hit 'send'. The call went right to voice mail.
    “We did what we could. Call me when you get a chance” I was putting the phone back in my pocket when it buzzed with and incoming call.
    “Hello” I answered
    “Hey Zed, I saw you just called.”
    “Hi Mr. Johnsen, did you get my message?”
    “No, I saw your call and finished the call I was on to call you right back. I didn't bother to check messages”
    “Ok, ok, we did what we could for you, but it got pretty dicey. It's getting real bad out there.”
    “Were you able to save anything?”
    “I got as many of the valuable prescription meds as I could. Sadie went through your store and got as much as she could that she thought would be useful and valuable. When we got there the store had already been broken into. We got there just in time. They hadn't had a chance to take much when we showed up.”

    “Thank you, Zed. If you hadn't gotten there my store would have been a total loss.

    “No worries Mr. Johnsen. We're at Westside Plants, as soon as we're done here, we'll head your way. I figure we'll be there in about 45 minutes or so.
    “Thanks again, I'll see you in a little bit.”


    I ended the call and continued to watch the Jeep. After a while Sadie came out followed by the owner, both carrying flats of plant starts. I unlocked the car with the remote, but stayed where I was. They made 2 more trips carrying flats and boxes, then Sadie came out a final time by herself.

    “How'd it go?” I asked
    “Fine. I got somethings we didn't have and stocked up on things I'm already growing and picked up a bunch of seed packets. Filled a couple of holes in our preps. So, Mr. Johnsen's next?”
    “Yeah, I called him to tell him we are on the way.”
    “I hope he appreciates what we did for him. That could have gone bad.”
    “You know he will”
    Starting up the Jeep, we headed further up the mountain and pulled into Mr. Johnsen's drive a few minutes later.
    “Inside!” I called, “We're here”
    The door opened and out came Mr. Johnsen. He wheeled himself down the ramp towards us. I noticed the large revolver on the blanket folded across his lap.
    “You having any trouble up here yet?”
    “Nope, but I'm ready for it.” his hand dropped onto his pistol.
    “Where do you want this stuff? We were in kind of a hurry so it's all jumbled in the back of the Jeep.”
    “I've got room made for it in the pantry. I also set up one of my small chest freezers on a timer so it acts like a fridge for the med that need to be kept cool. The dining table is cleared off, so we can use that to sort through things. Marilyn is cooking, so I hope you will stay for diner and visit a bit.”
    “You know we're not going to turn down an offer like that!” Marilyn's cooking was to die for, and I hadn't been eating too well the past 2 days. I could use a good meal. I could also stand for a chance to relax.

    Sadie and I carried all the items that we had saved from the pharmacy and placed them on the table. Mr. Johnsen started sorting them and putting them on the shelf in the panty and the fridge.

    “If you hadn't got to the shop when you did, who knows where all this would have ended up. The pain medicine used to get high, the other things wasted by people who didn't know what they grabbed.”
    I swallowed the piece of melt in your mouth ribeye that Mrs. Johnsen had cooked for us. “We did the best we could. We needed to get in and out as quickly as possible. I'm sure the shop is trashed by now.”
    Sadie picked up, “I went through picking thing that would not only be useful by themselves, but that you could use for trade.”
    “Good thinking Sadie. I was most concerned about saving the medicine and would have been satisfied with that. The rest is a bonus. But you're right. If this is going the way I think it will, we'll be a barter economy before much longer. Speaking of which, what can I pay you for you services?”
    “You know we didn't do this expecting to get paid!” said Sadie a bit heatedly.
    “Whoa!, I didn't mean to offend you, but fair is fair and right is right. You helped me, and I'd like to return the favor.”
    “This isn't about being 'even', or 'balanced'. I'm not running a tab and writing down everything we do for each other to see if one of us owes the other”
    “Dear, I know that. If you..”
    “Honey,” Marilyn cut in. “Just consider it a gift and graciously accept it.” She knew the right thing to say and I could see Sadie visibly relax.
    “I'd love to have a little more depth in our stock of meds. If you could spare some of the antibiotics and pain medicine, that would be cool.”
    “Done.” Marilyn finished.

    Mr. Johnsen wheeled himself out onto the back patio as we followed, after diner drinks in hand. We sat comfortably full and enjoyed the last of the sunset.
    “So this is it, isn't it?” Mr Johnsen started.
    “Looks like it. I don't know what's happened, but losing communication with the rest of the world is pretty serious. We are totally cut off.”
    “What would cause that?” Marilyn asked
    “An Electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion would do it” said Mr. Johnsen.
    “Or a Coronal Mass Ejection” I added. “They would have similar effects to the electrical grid and electronic equipment. There has been an increase in Solar activity for a while now.”
    “We may never know.” said Sadie. “And does it even matter?”
    “The only difference it might make is in the severity of the event and thus how long it lasts.”
    “Either way, if it last 6 months or 6 years, things are going to get very bad here. We are totally dependant on imports.”
    “Yup. No way this island will support 60,000 people even if we had an agricultural base, which we don't. The store shelves are going to be bare soon, if they aren’t' already. People are going to get hungry real soon.”
    “And hungry people are desperate people”
    “The looting we saw today? Those people weren't hungry. Not yet. They were just taking advantage of the situation. They probably haven't even realized how bad things are going to get.'
    “Give it a few days to sink in. Then the violence will really start.” I said, “We plan on staying home and hunkering down and staying out of it. We can stay home for months if needed.”
    “That's our plan too. You saved us the trip to the shop, so we have no reason to go to town, so we're going to stay close to home too.”
    “Speaking of home” Sadie broke in, “Its getting dark and Loco and Rudi are probably getting hungry.”
    “Well safe home. Let's try to stay in touch once a day if possible.”
    “Will do. Be safe” We hugged them good bye and headed for home.
     
  4. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

  5. mysterymet

    mysterymet Monkey+++

    Yeah i was a little worried that they were looting for a minute there. Glad to see they had made prior arrangements with the shop owner.
     
    ghrit likes this.
  6. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    Pulling on to the main road from the Johnsen's driveway, I noticed a car pull off the side of the road and behind us. I grabbed my seatbelt above the buckle and tugged it tight, then reached over and did the same for Sadie's.
    “What's that for?”
    “A car just started following us. Probably nothing, but you know I don't like getting followed.” A look in the mirror showed the car back only 2 car lengths.


    I picked up speed on the winding road and they stayed the same distance away. I was going a bit faster than most people are comfortable with on this road. And a bit more. And they stayed with me.

    “I'm not liking this. Hang on, I'm going to push a bit.” Sadie didn't reply but I could see her brace her legs against the floor. I picked up even more speed on a straight leading into a tight right turn. We were both carrying too much speed for the turn as we approached the braking point. Waiting until the last moment, I grabbed the emergency brake, holding the locking button in and pulled up hard, doing the inline braking I needed to make the turn.
    Using the e-brake, my brake lights didn't come on, so the following car was surprised by my rapidly slowing car.
    Rather than hit me, he jammed on his brakes and pulled onto the left shoulder, scrubbing all his speed and putting him out of postion for the turn.


    Having dumped all the speed I needed to, I put the brake handle back down, aimed for the apex with just a little bit of trail braking to keep the front contact patches working, and nailed the gas as we hit the apex and unwound the steering wheel exiting into the next straight away.

    A quick peek in the mirror showed the car wallowing back onto the road, now 200 yards away, carrying no momentum. I worked the Jeep and road to keep the lead I'd gained.


    I threaded a line through the left/right Ess turn that came up next, hammered into the straight, waited a tad too long to scrub the speed for the tight right that came up fast, all four tires complaining as we slid through the apex, corrected and lined up for the next straight.


    The less frequently used back way into our neighborhood came up, a hard right, leading down hill. I hadn't seen the car for the last quarter mile, so I jabbed the brakes and made the turn. A short way in I stopped and backed into the drive of a vacant house. Grabbing the AR I opened the door and propped it between the windshield pillar that the door frame, waiting to see if they followed us.

    We waited for 5 minutes. And then another 5. “You lost them”
    “Yeah, I think so. I guess it's safe to go home.”
    “I'm ready. It's been a long day.”
    “Tell me about it. I'm ready to flop down and pass out”

    I backed into our driveway, shut the Jeep off, tired from the stress of the day. “go on in, I'll be right there.”
    Sadie grabbed the shotgun and headed for the house and the two dogs dancing with joy to see us. “I'll get them fed, then I'm heading for bed”
    “I'm right behind you.”
    AR slung, I went to the end of the drive and crouched with my back to a tree and just sat. Still. And listened. And waited.

    When I realized that I was going to nod off, and not hearing or seeing anything out of place, I went in to join my wife.



    The shower revived me both physically and mentally. Time to try to make contact. I grabbed my phone and ham radio and climbed in bed. It was early yet, just past sundown, but Sadie was already out. I readjusted her pillow and covers and brushing a wisp of hair away, kissed her on the temple. She murmured pleasantly, snuggled in a little deeper and dropped further into sleep.

    I crawled in on my side of the bed with my phone and radio on my lap. Phone first. Going to texts I checked messages. There was one from Juice: Call me ASAP. Sigh...I climbed back out of bed and went downstairs so I wouldn't disturb Sadie.
    “This is Juice”
    “Hey, it's Zed, what's up? You and Leslie OK?”
    “Yeah, yeah, we're OK, but I'm worried about the shop.” Juice owned a small gun store over on the east end of the island.
    “Yeah I can see that you would be. Mr. Johnsen's store got hit today”
    “Oh. That sucks”
    “Sadie and I got in there just in time. We managed to grab a bunch of stuff and take it to them, but I'm sure it's trashed by now. We chased a few looters away when we got there.”
    “I'm worried about my shop. There's no way I'm going to open for business during this, and I'm afraid it'll get broken into while I'm not there. I live too far away to keep an eye on it.”
    “So what do you want to do?”
    “I want to go and clean it out and bring the stuff home. I was hoping you'd give me a hand.”
    “When do you want to go?”
    “ first thing in the morning.”
    “Let's do it early. Like first light, so there less people around”
    “Works for me. So you'll do it?”
    “Is that even a question? Meet me here and let's leave together. 5:30?
    “I'll be there. Thanks for doing this.”
    “As I said, it's not even a question. See you in the morning”

    Climbing back in bed once more I finished with the cell phone by sending a text to Lyle, a local police officer, and one of my best friends. “Hey brother, hope all is well. Worried about you. Contact me. And BE SAFE.”

    Next, Mr. Johnsen. “Car parked near your house tried to follow us home. Lost them. White, newish Corolla. BOLO.”

    Putting the phone down, I moved to the radio. Sadie and I took our amateur radio license test a couple of years ago. It's gotten a lot easier with the elimination of the Morse Code requirement. Radios had gone digital and quite small. We had a brace of Yaesu VX-6s that were just a bit bigger than 2 packs of cigarettes back to back. With a good antenna and the right conditions, they'll transmit out past 50 miles, line of sight. Using repeaters will lengthen that considerably.

    I plugged in the head phones to not disturb Sadie and started going through the bands, just listening. The static was awful. I'd catch a snatch or two here and there, mostly in other languages, mostly Spanish, one French, but it was so bad I couldn't make out anything useful. After the third time I caught myself nodding and waking, I gave up, turned it off, and went to sleep. 4:30am would come quickly and I hadn't even told Sadie about our plans for the morning. I'm sure she'll be thrilled. She'll have no objection to helping Juice, none at all, but it's sure to be dangerous, and no one is going to be happy about that.
     
  7. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    The phone buzzing at 4:30 woke me up. I sat up groggy, achy, and not particularly rested. I don't remember any dreams, but I bet they were dozeys. I looked over to see Sadie open her eyes in the dimness of the moonlight coming through the window.

    “Why are you up so early?”
    “I talked to Juice last night after you went to bed. He needs help cleaning out his shop. I told him I'd help him”
    “Of course we'll help him” I noticed the 'we'.
    “He's meeting us here at 5:30, so we have an hour to get ready.”


    I jumped in the shower first. I'm not a morning person and getting sprayed with running water does wonders for waking my sleepy ass up. Throwing on some clothes I went downstairs to be greeted by the pups. Even they were sleepy at this hour. I snagged a can of Coke out of the fridge and drank it while waiting for the water for Sadie's coffee.

    “Here you go Sweetie” I put the coffee on the small table in the bathroom, next to the shower that she now occupied. She reached out with a wet arm and took a sip.
    “Thank you Sweetie. How much time do I have?”
    “we have another 45 minutes until Juice gets here. I'm going to do somethings to get ready. Dress like you did for the run to the drug store.”
    “What can I do to help?”
    “I'm going to take the plant stuff out of the Jeep and put it in the yard. You might want to rearrange it to suit you, while I get the Jeep ready.”

    Out at the Jeep, I pulled out the plant stuff and cleaned out anything unnecessary. Going down to the shop I grabbed two the steel targets I use in training. I have a few different sizes but I picked the 18”x30” IDPA silhouettes. They have holes in the shoulders for the chain that is used to hold them up.


    Back at the Jeep, I used the chain around the head rests of the front seats to support them. They dangled too much so I used some nylon webbing to secure them to the seat backs.

    These targets are made of AR500 steel, which means they'll stop all pistol and most rifle rounds. Running away just became a little bit safer.

    I checked the on board trauma kit and it was in order. I ran inside and picked out some spare items from our first aid supplies. I put them in ziplocks and handed one to Sadie when she came downstairs.

    “Keep this on you. It's a tourniquet, Izzy, and QuikClot” She didn't say anything and just stuffed it in a cargo pocket. I noticed it was the left one.


    “Should I grab anything for us to eat or drink?” In response, I retrieved our bags from the hooks by the front door and brought them to her in the kitchen. While I filled the water bottles and camelbak bladders, Sadie fixed some food.

    The dogs ran out into the yard and a moment later I heard the sound of an engine in our drive. “Ready” I looked at Sadie.
    “Ready” she replied. I looked around the house for a moment, trying to thing of what I'd forgotten. Not coming up with anything I followed Sadie out and to the yard.

    “Morning!”
    “Hi Juice, how ya doing?” Sadie greeted him back. “Where's Leslie?”
    “He's in the cab. He hasn't really woken up yet. Teenagers...”
    I walked up “Hey Juice, so what plan?”
    “Well I want to clean out the shop. I want to get everything I can. Do you have room in your safe?
    “I can cram in a few more things if I rearrage the stacking.”
    “I might need you to hold on to some of the stuff. I trust you, and I don't have room for everything”
    “that's fine with me. How do you want to handle it when we get there?”
    “I'm open. Do you have any ideas?”
    “We need someone watching. You and I are best off doing the lifting. If things are OK, let's have Sadie do overwatch, while you, Leslie, and I move stuff. If it looks less than safe we'll add Leslie to the watch. Pull one vehicle up close, fill it, and switch.”
    I handed him my radio. “Keep this with you, it will give us faster comms than the phones”
    “Does this cover Marine band?”
    “Yup”
    “I have a couple at the shop. We'll pick them up and I can give this back.”
    “Works. You go first, and I'll follow. Don't stop for anything if you can help it.”
    “See you there” Juice climbed into his Toyota, backed out of the drive and I followed him, letting out a sigh to ease the tension that was starting to build.
    “I hope you don't have to do any of your crazy driving, my neck is still sore from last night.” Sadie groused.
    “Hey, you're the one that sent me to Bondurant” I gave her a crooked smile.
    “And my neck has regretted it ever since.”
     
  8. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    A nicely written story...keep it up. :)
     
  9. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    The sun was just peeking over the horizon when we pulled in the shop's lot. The drive had been uneventful, mostly because of the 6:00am curfew. Yeah, we pushed it ourselves, but we only saw one cop car and they passed going the other direction and didn't even slow down. And if they had, I still had my curfew pass from the bank.

    Juice backed his truck up as close to the door as he could. I parked near by and Sadie got out with the AR. She picked a good spot and sat, AR across her knees.
    I scanned around and didn't see anybody up and about yet.

    Leslie was standing with his back to the door, facing out, as his dad unlocked the door, entered and turned off the alarm. We followed him in.

    “What's first?” I asked, looking around the small shop.
    “Guns, then ammo, other stuff last” as Juice turned the dial on the safe. Opening it, he reached in and started handing Leslie and me pistol cases. We started ferrying them out to the truck. Four or five trips and we were done.
    “That went easy, now the sucky part.” I picked up 2 cases of 9mm.
    “Lazy man's load, eh?” Juice smiled at me.
    “Trying to get done as soon as possible. You weren't there at the drug store yesterday. I had to chase off some people at gun point and Sadie had to run over some one as we were leaving”
    “WHAT!”
    “Yeah, it was bad. Going to get worse. That's why I'd like to get done here, even if it means my back paying for it the next couple of days.”

    The three of us humped case after case of ammo, filling the truck and then the Jeep so the springs were noticeably sagging. Not a great condition for them to be in for performance driving, that's for sure.


    That done, we concentrated on the remaining stock; magazines, holsters, pouches, knives, flashlights, tossing them in boxes willy-nilly, moving as fast as we could.

    “Did you grab the radios?
    “Not yet, thanks for the reminder.” Juice went for them while I did a last look around. “I think that's about it.”
    “Ready to hit it?”
    “Absolutely.” I saw a couple of cases of water in the corner and picked them up on my way out.


    Leaving the store for the last time, there were a few people gathered around, watching us.
    “Whatcha doing?”
    Juice answered, “I'm closing out my store”
    “We might want some of that stuff,” said the loudmouth, taking a couple steps forward. The others with him took tentative steps towards us too.
    The three of us had our hands full, carrying the last boxes to the vehicles. The group thought they saw an advantages. They knew the value of what was in the cars. So they moved closer.
    “BOOMBOOMBOOM!” Everyone froze as our ears echoed with the three shots that Sadie fired over their heads. 5.56x45mm is loud! Especially when you are downrange from the muzzle blast.


    Juice was the first to move, putting his load in the bed of his truck, drawing his pistol as he moved to the engine compartment for cover. “DOWNDOWNDOWN!”

    he commanded. On the third down it finally made it through their thought process and they started to comply. Sadie's shots totally screwed with their OODA loop. Juice wasn't giving them a chance to recover.

    Leslie and I put our boxes in the truck. “Drive!” Juice tossed his keys to Leslie, and he and I got the vehicles started. I motioned to Sadie and she came over and got in the Jeep, leaving Juice to cover the proned out group.
    “First one moves, gets a bullet” were his parting words to them.

    Leslie headed out first with me behind. Less than optimal. Leslie's a good kid. He's been training with us every Saturday for almost 2 years and he's got solid gun running skills. But he's only 15. Juice has been letting him drive on the mile long road to the range, but I don't think he's ever driven on the road.

    Well, we can sort it out later.

    It didn't help that the overloaded vehicles were wallowing with all the weight. Leslie started off slowly, unsure of himself. Not making me happy.

    “Has Leslie ever driven before” Sadie asked “He's poking along like an old lady”
    “Just on the range road, far as I know. I don't think he's, Oh Shit!”
    “What?!”
    “Car coming up on us fast. Shit!” The blue Isuzu Trooper was now on my bumper, less than a car's length away. Considering we were doing well less than 30mph, that wasn't surprising.
    Sadie looked back. “I recognize some of them from the shop. The Loudmouth is in the front passenger seat.”
    “Looks like four or five of them in there. See any guns?”
    “No, not yet”

    I flashed my lights, but Leslie wasn't paying attention to his mirrors. I tapped the horn twice. Juice looked around. I moved sideways in my lane so he could see the car behind me. He nodded and talked to Leslie. The truck sped up, but not much. Juice kept looking back nervously.

    The Trooper pulled out to pass. I barely noticed in time and I swung out to block them. I did NOT want them next to or in front of us.

    They swerved back and tried to take my place. I barely prevented them from doing so. I was having to react to them, which put me behind the curve. Eventually, I'd be too slow, or out of position.

    “BamBam...BamBam” Loudmouth was leaning out of his window and shooting at us. I saw two bullet holes appear suddenly on the Toyota.

    Juice twisted around in his seat to face backwards and opened the split rear window. I knew what was coming next.

    I swerved into the other lane as the muzzle of Juice's Glock cleared the window. He let off a few rounds at the Isuzu. Great, we're in a crossfire. There was an oncoming car so I laid on the horn and swerved back.

    Juice stopped firing but Loudmouth didn't. “Ting..TingTing” as rounds impacted the Jeep. “You OK?!” I looked quickly at Sadie. “We had to take MY Jeep!”
    Yeah, she was OK.

    Juice was no longer visible in the split window. Leslie had picked up speed with the motivation provided by Loudmouth, the Tacoma wallowing through the turns.

    This was going to end badly. I got tired of being on the wrong side of the OODA loop. “Hunker down and hold on. I'm going to let him pass us.” Sadie did as I asked and didn't bother with a reply.

    There, the shoulder dropped off steeply up ahead. The Trooper pulled out and tried to pass again, this time I let him. As he pulled around my right side (we drive on left with left hand steering wheels. Yeah. I know.) Loudmouth was out of position to shoot at us. He aimed past the driver. That's probably not a good idea. . .


    Before he could touch off a round, I tapped the brakes with my left foot, putting my right front fender even with his left rear quarter panel. Balancing the brake with the left foot and gas with the right I adjusted the position until it was right.
    Loudmouth was climbing out the window, trying to sit on the ledge to fire over the roof at us.

    Hitting the gas I turned hard right. And kept on the gas. Our fender nosed into his rear end causing a lose of traction. A good driver, ready for it, can fight this oversteer skid, but that wasn't our guy. The Isuzu spun around counter clockwise, passing in front of me. I hit the brakes to give him room. Now facing 180 degrees backwards, they hit the shoulder and rolled.

    Sitting on the window sill was probably a bad choice.

    “Still OK?”
    “I'll feel better when I can have a drink.”
    “I'll make it a double. Soon as we get home.”

    I noticed Leslie slowing more and more and then he pulled over in a wide spot and stopped. “What the hell?” I asked my self.
    “Why's he stopping?”
    “I don't know Sweetie.” I pulled along side and rolled down my window. Coming up on the passenger window I saw Juice slumped over and Leslie shaking.

    Pulling around front, we got out and ran over and opened Juice's door. That's when I saw the blood.
     
  10. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    “Help me get him out of there” Sadie came over and helped me drag Juice out of the truck. He was semi conscious. Leslie sat in the truck, shaking. We laid Juice down on the ground. “Keep watch, I'll take care of him” I told Sadie. Looking him over quickly, I noticed his left arm and shirt sleeve were soaked with blood. It was dark red and I didn't see any spurting, which was a relief. I pulled the ziplock out of my cargo pocket, ripped it open, not wasting time trying to part the opening. I blew into the gloves to expand them and put them on.

    Next out of the bag was the SofT-W tourniquet. I unbuckled it, got it around his arm, high as I could go, almost into the armpit. I wasn't sure where the wound was, so I wasn't taking chances that I was too low.
    Re-buckling it, I pulled out the slack and tightened the windlass. Securing it in the lock, I leaned back, rolled my shoulders and neck I took a deep breath and paused. Blood loss stopped, I could take a moment to assess the situation.
    Scene first. “You see anything, everything OK?”
    “Just the two cars that passed. They didn't pay us any attention, didn't slow and no brake lights. No one else around.”
    “Cool”
    “How's Juice?”
    “Not sure yet. Tourniquet's on. Bleeding's stopped. Is Leslie still shaking?”
    “Mostly just staring at this point”
    “K”

    Turning my attention back to Juice I saw he was breathing easily. Color wasn't bad but he was starting to pale. I grabbed his good arm around the biceps, with my fingers on his brachial artery. Strong pulse at 70 beats per minute.

    I was feeling better by the minute.

    Using my folding knife I carefully cut away the sleeve so I could see what was going on. Too much blood.

    I ran over to the Jeep and grabbed my pack, a bottle of water, and a blanket. Setting the pack down next to his injured side, I got the blanket wrapped around him best I could. Pulling the med pouch of the pack I used the pack to raise his feet. I think I'd acted before shock took hold but no reason to push our luck.
    Opening the water bottle I poured it liberally over the arm. The blood that didn't wash away, I used a 4x4 guaze pad to wipe away. As I got near the wound, Juice moaned.

    I found what looked like an entrance wound on the back of the arm, in the middle of the triceps. No exit wound. Bullet probably slowed down punching through the truck. Good news, low velocity at impact, bad news, probably dragged a bunch of shit with it.

    To QuikClot or not to QuikClot, that is the question. The tourniquet stopped the bleeding, but would it start again if I took it off? With the bullet still in there, somebody's going to have to go after it. It would probably be easier if there wasn't a bunch of crap in the way.

    Ok, no hemostatic agent for the moment. I squeezed a bunch of Neosporin in the opening, eliciting another moan and a fluttering of Juice's eyes. Opening the package with my knife I pulled the Israeli Battle Dressing out. I opened it enough to get a hold of the dressing part and put it over the wound, placing the pressure bar just to the side of the opening. Wrapped once, through the pressure bar, reverse direction and keep wrapping pulling the elastic tight. Clip the closure bar and done.
    I decided to leave the tourniquet in place and wrote the time on it, 7:15am. I haven't even had breakfast yet and it's already been a productive day.

    I took a long drink out of what was left in the water bottle, carefully took off the nitrile gloves and stood, stretching out my lower back. Yeah, it would remind me of my 54 years as soon as it had a chance to stiffen up. I walked over to where Sadie was keeping watch.

    “How's he doing?”
    “bullet in the arm. I think he'll be fine. But he needs a doctor”
    “I don't think the hospital is a good idea”
    “I agree. I'd rather not go anywhere near there. I'm thinking of seeing if Dr Shoemaker is in his office.”
    “Isn't he one of your students?”
    “Yeah, that's why I want to try to find him. He's sharp and probably the best able to take care of himself of any of the doctors on island.”
    “What would you like me to do?”
    “I'll drive the truck, you take the Jeep. Take Leslie with you. Help me get Juice back in his seat.”
    “Am I leading or following?”
    “Leading. The Doc's office is in Upper Heavenview”

    Not wanting to freak out Leslie more than necessary I went to him first. “Come on dude, we're switching you to Sadie's Jeep. We're taking your dad to the doctor. He'll be OK.”
    Leslie looked at me but didn't say anything. He moved stiffly and climbed in the Jeep. Sadie and I wrangled Juice back into his seat. I reclined it as much as possible and fastened the seatbelt.
    I packed up my bag and put it in the cab of the truck, pulling out one item before heading over to the Jeep. I opened the passenger door and retreived my 870 and did a chamber check then propped it against the open door. Then I twisted open the single serve bottle of vodka and handed it to Leslie. “Drink that. Right down.”
    Mindlessly he complied, coughing a little, but visibly relaxing.
    Sadie collapsed the stock on the AR put it muzzle down between her seat and the transmission hump, adjusted the seat and looked at me.

    “ Let's hit it” I said and ran to the truck, pulling in behind my wife as she passed.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2013
  11. Grimjaw

    Grimjaw Monkey+

    This is a very good read so far. I really like your main characters.
     
    sramav19 likes this.
  12. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    Thanks Grimjaw! The feedback is helpful. I do appreciate it!
    Moar soon.
     
  13. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    “Damn that hurts!” I looked over to see Juice holding his bad arm with his good.

    “Glad to see you back with us.” I grinned at him “I was getting tired of carrying your fat self in and out of the truck”
    “Mind filling me in? I'm a little hazy.”
    So I spent the next couple of minutes going over the end of the Road Warrior scene and the first aid on the side of the road.
    “Leslie's with Sadie?”
    “Yeah, he's not dealing with this too well. He's worried about you and he's probably blaming himself because he was driving.”
    “That wasn't fair for me to put that on him. I should have taken the wheel.”
    “He'll be OK. It's just a shock to him. Once he sees you're OK, that'll make it easier for him to deal with.”
    “There goes his childhood”
    “Hey, that went out the window when you started bringing him to training sessions and he was hanging around with all us reprobates. Poor kid didn't stand a chance” I smiled over at Juice.
    “Where to now?”
    “Dr Shoemacher. We need to do something about that bullet”
    “Not looking forward to that”
    “Me neither. I hate the sight of blood”

    Sadie tried to pull into the Heavenview parking lot with me following close behind, but a security guard stopped her.
    Shit. Not now.
    He looked familiar. Hopefully a former student. I've taught several thousand people locally, so a lot of folks know me. Some even have a favorable opinion.

    I opened the door and stepped out of the truck so the guard could see me.
    “Hey Zed!” Phew, one who new me.
    “Hey brother! Everything safe?” There's only one of me, and thousands of students over the course of 2 decades, and I'm terrible at names. So I use the generic 'brother' a lot.
    “Naw man, things are rough. I've been working double shifts for the last 2 days. People acting the fool, I've had to draw down on a few idiots to make them believe me.”
    “Keep your head on a swivel, brother, it's going to get worse. Do what you need to do and don't hesitate”
    He nodded. “I will Zed, I will”
    “Hey, partner here took a bullet and I want to get him in to Dr. Shoemacher.”
    “Yeah, yeah, come on in, come on in” he raised the bar and waved us through. I stopped on the other side, and got out. “What caliber you shooting?” I asked.
    I got the .38 for work, but I got my personal Glock with me. Screw the regulations.

    “9 or .40?”
    “.40”
    I rummaged around in the back of the truck, found what I was looking for and tossed him a box of .40S&W.
    “Hey thanks Zed!”
    “No problem man. I'm afraid you'll need those before this is over.”

    We drove around to the back of the complex to where the doctor's office was. I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding when I saw the doc's SUV in the parking lot.

    We backed into spaces near the door. “Wait here” I told Juice.
    Sadie unrolled her window and looked at me. “Keep it running, I'll be right back”
    Pulling on the door revealed that it was locked, so I knocked. Nothing. So I knocked harder. Still nothing. Pounded on the door and yelled “Hey Doc, it's Zed!”

    Looking down the hall I saw a pistol barrel with an eye stacked right on top of it, peering at me from around a door frame.

    So the building clearing training had obviously stuck. I held my hands out where he could see them and smiled. Doc Shoemacher lowered his pistol and came to the door, letting me in and then rapidly closing and locking it.

    “Zed! Good to see you brother!”
    “You too Doc, you too.” I noticed he wasn't in scrubs, but rocking a Rush 2112 shirt.
    “Man, things are nuts out there.”
    “You ain't kidding, I've got Juice out in the truck with a gunshot wound.”
    “What!? What happened? Is he OK?”
    “pistol bullet in the left upper arm. I've got him stabilized. I was hoping you could do something more for him. We can pay.”
    “Naw man, it's cool! Bring him in, put him in Exam room 1.”

    I let myself out. “Ok, shut it down” I told Sadie
    “So the doctor is in?” She's got a wicked sense of humor, that woman does.
    “Yup. I think Juice can walk in on his own. You want to go in and help the doc, or stay out here and keep an eye on our stuff?”
    “You know the answer to that” Sadie hates the sight of blood and injuries. I looked over to see Leslie asleep, leaning against the window. “He been out the whole time?”
    “Yes. He's twitched and murmured a bit, but that's all”
    “No reason he can't just stay there, I guess. I'll come out to check on you as soon as I can.”
    “Come on dude, I'll give you a hand, but I ain't carrying your ass” I opened Juice's door and helped him into the office and got him into the exam room.
    “Up on the table” Doc indicated. Juice struggled up and on, grunting with the pain from jostling his arm. The Doc started looking him over. “Is this the only injury?”
    “Other than the long term brain damage, yeah, I think so.”
    “Fuck you, Zed,”
    “Not in your dreams lover boy.”
    “You're not my type anyway. I prefer a chick with some meat on her bones.”
    “Oh, I'm stung! I'm wounded!” Good to see he was able to take and give some ribbing was a good sign.
    Doctor Shoemacher started to check his patient. “Hey, is that coffee I smell?”
    “Yeah, I just put on a fresh pot.”
    “Mind if I make a cup for Sadie?”
    “naw man, help yourself. It's in the break room, two doors down on the right.
    “You want a cup?”
    “Cream, no sugar”
    “Coming up”
    Walking to the break room I noticed a lot of boxes in the rooms that I passed in various states of being filled. I made the coffee, dropped the Doc's cup off and went out to give Sadie her's.
    “You read my mind.”
    “24 years. Not hard to do. Doc's still examining Juice. I'll be back out soon.”
    “I might need to come in after this coffee's had a chance to work.”
    “knock on the door and I'll switch with you.”

    “So how's he doing?” I saw that the bandage was off but the tourniquet was still in place.
    “Good. You got the bleeding controlled before there was much blood loss. I loosened the tourniquet and the wound just seeped a little. I tightened it back up before I go digging around in there.”
    “I love the way you put that. I don't suppose you have any anesthetics?” Juice looked just a little green around the grills.
    “Just a local. And I'll shoot you a bit of Demerol to take the edge off”
    “What can I do?”
    “Scrub your hands and get some gloves on in case I need an extra set of hands.”
    While I did that, the doctor gave Juice the juice. The pain melted away from his face and he very visibly relaxed. Like someone had just let 10 psi out of an over inflated tire.”
    Next up was the injecting the site with a local anesthetic. “Ready?” the Doc looked at me.
    “Do it”
    “How's that?” as the doctor started probing.
    “Tolerable, I can handle it.”
    I noticed the blood start to flow a bit so I grabbed a 4x4 gauze and mopped up around the probe, trying to stay out the way.
    “You make a good nurse. Too bad you don't have a better rack”
    “How much Demerol did you give him? He's hallucinating”
    “He's right about the rack, ya got give him that”

    Changing the subject, “I noticed a bunch of boxes. Moving?”
    “Security has kept the mall safe so far, but in a day or two, I don't know.”
    “Saving what you can?”
    “Yeah, I'm taking home all I can.”
    “Smart.”


    “Plonk!” the deformed bullet landed in the tray. “.40 full metal jacket by the look of it”
    “.40's popular”
    “I'm going to poke around for anything else I can find and then debride the wound channel. It's not deep, but it did nick cephalic vein. I'll put a dissolving suture in it, close up the wound with a couple of stitches but leave it open enough to drain. I'll give you the stuff you need to care for it as it heals.”

    “Thanks Doc” was the muffled reply from Juice who's eyes where closed and jaw clenched.

    A knocking on the door caught our attention. “Probably Sadie. I'll go check”
    The coffee had done its work, so I let Sadie use the rest room while I covered the vehicles outside. I knocked on Leslie's window, the one his head was leaning against, startling him awake.
    “Wakey-wakey sunshine!”
    He rolled down the window. “How's my father?”
    “Good. In a bit of pain, but Doc Shoemacher is almost done and he's in good shape. He'll need your help for a while until the arm heals”
    “He'll keep the arm?”
    “Oh yeah, the wound wasn't that bad and we treated it quickly.”
    “I'm sorry I screwed up. If I'd drove better it wouldn't have happened, Dad wouldn't have got shot”
    “Well that's bullshit.” I looked at him and waited for him to make eye contact, when he did, I continued. “Look dude, you were put in a bad situation and you did the best you could. You stepped up, without hesitation. Juice asked you to do something, and you did it. His decision, not yours. Understand?”
    “Yeah, but”
    “No buts. He asked you to do something you weren't ready for, because it needed to be done. Right then. Far as I'm concerned you did real good. I know your dad is proud of you”
    “Really”
    “Yup. No doubt. Now get your ass out of there and go in and see him.”

    Leslie entered as Sadie came back out. “Did you see Juice?”
    “Yeah, I stuck my head in and said hi. The doctor was pretty much finished up with him.”
    “About that. He's packing up and moving the important stuff to his home. I'm thinking we help him and then follow him home. It's mostly on our way”
    “Fine with me Sweetie. It's smart for him to get out of here, I was sort of surprised to see the mall still intact.”
    “Me too, me too. I'll go in and tell the Doc. You and Leslie help him pack? I guard out here?
    Sadie nodded and I pecked her on the lips and went back inside.

    Juice was sitting up, arm in a sling, Leslie helping him to stand. “We're going to help you pack and move Doc. We'll follow you home and get you unloaded there too.”
    “That won't hurt my feelings. I was feeling kinda lonely doing this by myself.”
    The doctor turned to Leslie. “You remember what to do?”
    “Yeah. Change the dressing twice a day. Check for discharge. Check for swelling, discoloration or bad smell. Give him these antibiotics every 8 hours.”
    “You got it Sport. Help your dad to my office and put him on the couch. He can rest while we pack”
     
  14. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    We helped the doctor pack and load up. He didn't have much medication on hand, mainly samples, but did have a lot of equipment from the examination rooms.

    “Hey Juice, you have those marine radios handy?”
    “in the back of the cab, they should be on top, they were some of the last things we loaded” I found them pretty quickly, a Midland and a Cobra. I turned them on and set them to channel 18. I set our Yaesus to match and did a radio check.


    “all right, listen up.” we gathered around where Juice sat in the passenger seat of the truck. “We're going to convoy out of here. Doc first, Sadie next with Jessie, and Juice and me following. Doc, it's important that when you are making decisions in traffic, whether to stop or go through a light, or to pull into traffic, that you take into consideration that there are 2 more cars behind you. We need to stick together. Watch your mirrors. We'll have the radios so we can communicate”
    “Why don't we just use our phones?” Leslie asked
    “Because we can't waste time waiting for a call to go through and we don't want to leave a call open. Radio is better for this sort of thing”
    He nodded and I continued. “Stay close. Real close. Less than a car length. Yes that's tight. Front cars keep that in mind when you need to stop, following cars be ready to brake quick. We might bump each other. No big deal. A car getting between us IS a big deal.”
    I looked around at everyone and they all nodded their understanding.


    “If we need to do a lane change, I'll do it first, in back, I'll block the lane so you can get in front of me. Doc if you need to do a lane change I'm not expecting, call on the radio so I can move first.”


    “If we get get split and it's innocent, just some idiot nosing in between us, or a missed traffic light, lead cars pull over to wait. As soon as you see the following cars coming up, pull out in front again. Following cars will let you in”


    “What if it isn't innocent?” This, from Doctor Shoemacher.
    “Dave, try to drive out of trouble. Put it in four wheel and go. Best you can. Over curbs, on sidewalks, push cars out of the way if you have to. Shooting is the second option. Remember Rule 4. One of us maybe behind the bad guy you are shooting at. One gunshot wound is enough for the day”


    “What way are we going to go?” asked the doctor.
    “mmmm...no good answer there. Either way we go, we have to past shopping areas and housing communities. Both are going to be problems.”
    “What about down Warfside drive?” suggested Juice.
    “Well, we have to go past PMP Gardens that way. And that place has a bad reputation. There's buildings in there that the police won't go.”
    “But once past that we can cut up past the Federal building and then up the hill and avoid the rest of town” he argued.
    “Yeah, but we'll have to drive through Hospital Square that way.” from Sadie. “I use to work overlooking that area and even in normal times there was gunfire in there every day.”
    Doc broke in. “If we go up Centerline, we pass Orlando Horace Court and between two malls, but then we're clear. It's a bit of a round about way, but safer, I think.”


    I thought about it, picturing the route in my head. “I think you're right. Let's try that. If we get separated, we'll meet at the First Congregational church.”
    “Doc” he looked at me. “If we have to reverse direction, you go first. You'll block the traffic for the rest of us. As soon as it's possible, pass me and resume your positions.” If I was working with experienced people I'd just assume lead, but I wasn't, so I wanted to stay in back where I could keep a better eye on things.

    “Questions?” There weren't any. “Ok, lets go.”
     
  15. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    The guard opened the gate and waved us through. We left the mall and headed along our chosen route. I picked up the radio. “Ok we're going to switch to the right lane for the upcoming turn. Wait for me.”
    I saw and opening and moved into it. Sadie and the Doc followed suit. “Cool. Ok Doc, we're coming up on a light. Stop if you don't thing all three of us can make it through”
    Doc misjudged a little. The light turned yellow as he went under. Sadie followed and it was red by the time I made the intersection. Someone blew their horn at me. After what I've been through, I barely noticed.
    “Sorry Zed!” Hey, at least he noticed he screwed up. Better than being oblivious.
    “No worries, Doc. We're cool”
    “Ok, look sharp, this is the fun part” I transmitted.
    We were now heading up Centerline road. Strip malls on both sides of us. The one on the right contained a supermarked owned by Palastinians. There were several of them on the roof with some type of AK. Needless to say, there was no looting going on. Same with the gas station on the corner which was also Palestinian owned.

    The mall on the left wasn't so lucky. A solid stream of people were entering and leaving the broken in doors and windows, some pushing shopping carts, others just carrying as much as they could. Whole families were involved with even small children carrying looted merchandise.
    Some of them looked at us as we passed, but when they saw we weren't interested in them, they turned back to what they were doing.
    “Coming up on Orlando Horrace. Stick tight” We moved closer together, a bare four or five feet between our bumpers. As we drove past, a group of young men with that hungry predator look followed our progress with their eyes. We were acting differently than the rest of the traffic, so caught their attention.
    While being different will attract attention, there's attention then there's attention.
    They watched us and compared us in the victim selection app in the carnivore part of their brains.
    We were de-selected and they made no move towards us.
    Phew.
    Coming up on our next turn. “Ok, lane shift to the right” we pulled that off smoothly but then as we came up to the next mall on the left, a woman with a shopping cart full bumped off the sidewalk and looked like she was going to walk right in front of the doctor's vehicle.


    His brake lights came on. “GO! GO! GO!” I yelled. Brake lights came off and he sped up. The woman did the smart thing and stopped before getting hit, cursing us as we passed.

    “I think the Doc is a little bit rattled” Juice grinned at me. “Ah yeah” I grinned back. Doc kept his speed up to the next light and went under it when it was yellow. Sadie squeaked through. I tried to follow but an aggressive driver jumped on his gas as soon as he got the green light.

    Shitshitshit. I watched Doc and Sadie getting further away, with half a dozen cars between us.

    “You OK Sweetie?”
    “Yeah. Stick with Doc. I'll catch up. Yo Doc, you cool?”
    “Sorry Zed, I forgot about the light.”
    “It's cool. No worries. Keep moving until I make the light.”
    “OK, OK, I will”
    Better for them to keep moving, for now. The light changed and I turned and followed. “Ok, I'm behind you again. Pull over at the next wide spot until I catch up.”
    A quarter mile up the road I saw them. The last of the cars between us passed them and I slowed so they could pull out in front of me. As I did, a car came up behind me fast and passed me, almost hitting Sadie and Doc as they pulled back on the road.
    “No patience! People these days are always in a rush”
    “Well you're in a good mood” I looked at Juice.
    “Whatever Shoemacher gave me for the pain is wearing off. So I might be a little short tempered.”
    “Everybody cool up there”
    “Yes Sweetie”
    “I'm good Zed.”
    “Doc, Juice is starting to hurt. Can I give him something?”
    “What do you have?”
    “I have some 5 mg Percocets in my aid bag.”
    “He can have 2 of them if the pain's real bad. One if just moderate”
    “Will do. Should be smooth sailing from here. We can spread out a little, but not too much, and tighten back up before turns to other roads.”
    “Got it”
    “Keep an eye for brake lights.” I told Juice as I reached between the seats for my bag. Fishing around I grabbed the first aid pouch and handed it to Juice.
    “Can you handle that one handed?”
    “You got something to handle this pain in there and I'll figure it out”
    I told him where to look and went back to concentrating on driving.
     
  16. bagpiper

    bagpiper Heretic

    Zen,
    Love it...
    Excellent story so far... good characters, without over doing it, not too many of those glaring errors that detract from good writing. Story is different, from a tropical isle perspective... great.
    I hope you continue. I hope we find out what the hell happened to the mainland!
     
  17. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    Thanks Bagpiper!


    “Thanks a million Zed! I really appreciate the help. I wasn't looking forward to doing that myself”
    “What? Are you kidding? After what you did for Juice? Naw man, we're in your debt. What else can we do for you?
    “Nothing man, I'm good.”
    “I'll be right back” I went out to the truck. “Hey Juice, how you feeling?”
    “the meds are kicking in. I'm doing OK.”
    “Listen, I want to pay Doc Shoemacher for his help with some stuff from the shop, is that cool?”
    “Yeah man, do what you think is right”
    “I'm going to give him one of the radios, and some ammo”
    “Sounds good to me. I don't have a problem with that. Tell him I appreciate what he did for me.”

    I found what I was looking forward to and went back into the doctor's house, where Sadie, Leslie and he were moving and sorting through the things we brought from the office.

    “I've got some ammo for you. Couple of boxes of .40 and 9mm and I got one box of .380 for that Kahr of yours.”
    “Hey man, you don't need to do that”
    “Its from Juice's shop. He's thankful for the work you did on him. Unfortunately, I think you will be glad to have it before too long.”
    “Yeah, this is crazy! What's going on? How long do you think it'll last?”
    “No idea on either count. But I think we're on our own at least long enough for things to get real bad. You see how things are already. No container ships came in this week. The island is going to run out of supplies soon. WAPA is still up and running, but when the fuel is gone, no more electricity or water for those in town”
    “People are going to go nuts when they realize how bad it's going to get.” the doctor said thoughtfully.
    “Yup. This will go in waves, and each one will be more dangerous, until thing settle down into the New Normal.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “Sadie and I are going to hunker down and stay home for as long as possible. Let things shake out and settle down a bit.”
    “Makes sense. I still have my hurricane preps, so I can stay home for a little while. What happens after that?”
    “Do you own this place, Doc?”
    “No, just rent”
    “Well, let's stay in contact and plan as things evolve. I'm leaving this radio with you. Keep it on Channel 18. Let's check in at 6pm every day. I'll try to listen in for 5 minutes at the top of every hour, as much as I can, in case you run into problems in the middle.”
    “Channel 18, 6pm, top of every hour”
    “You got it. Stay low and keep a piece on you at all times.”
    “You know it. Will do. Talk to you later dude..”
    “Later Doc.”

    I walked back outside and Sadie and Leslie joined me. “Ok, we drop you off next, same line up. I drive the truck with Juice. Leslie, you're with Sadie” We were on the road a minute later. The drive from Dr. Shoemacher's to Juice's place was uneventful, the route taking us along the residential northside of the island. We got Juice set up on the couch and unloaded the things we'd brought from the shop.


    "I don't have room for all of these in my safe. You cool with storing some of them for me?"
    "I'm cool with it if you are. Four of them are mine anyway." He had ordered several guns and was holding them with I waited for the registration process to go through.
    "Can I buy some ammo? I'd love to get another case of 9 and .223."
    "No. But you can store some of it for me. You got room?" Juice smiled at me.
    "I got room. But I'd rather pay for it."
    "Not gonna happen. Having some of my stuff at your place makes sure I don't have all my eggs in one basket."
    "Well, fine, be that way then"
    "Hey listen, what's your take on what's going on?"
    "You know as much as me. Something big has happened. We're cut off. I don't know for how long. But even if it is only for a couple of weeks, there are going to be a lot of hungry people. I don't see the government stepping up in any effective way. No, we're on our own. Think Hurricane Mabel, without the supplies and support from the mainland."
    "We could get off island. Alchemist is fueled and ready"
    "That's good to know. Where would we go? At this point we don't know what's happened and where it's happened, so it makes it hard to know where would be safe. Bugging out is a last resort in my mind"
    "Well, let's give it a few days and talk some more about it once we know more. I told the Doc to check channel 18 at 6 o'clock every evening and if there is an emergency to call on the hour. I'll try to listen as much as I can for 5 minutes at the top of the hour."
    "Ok, we'll try to monitor it also. I'm probably not going to be too active for the next couple of days, so I can stay by the radio."
    "You OK for food?"
    "Oh yeah, believe me, after a couple hurricanes, and hanging around with you, we're good for a few months. Might not be our favorites, but we won't starve."
    "Cool. We're going to shove off. You call if you need anything."
    "Safe home, brother."

    Sadie and I headed for home back tracking along the route we just took. "I can't believe it's not quite noon. I'm exhausted!"
    "Me too Sweetie, me too. I'm ready to get home, pet the dogs, and collapse."
    "We still have to unload the Jeep, and I have to take care of the starts that we got yesterday."
    I groaned. "I was hoping for a nap!"
    "And I'm ready for a glass of wine, but both of those are going to have to wait"
    "You're right, you're right." And I let out a long, not entirely exaggerated sigh.

    We pulled into our neighborhood and we both noticed the sign at the same time. The mostly ineffective home owners association puts up signs at the top of the road notifiying residents of important things like requests for donations for clean ups or meetings.
    "They've scheduled a meeting for 5pme for this afternoon." sign being on Sadie's side, she read it to me. "In light of the ongoing emergency situation the East Canon Bay Homeowners' Association is holding a meeting at the Thompson residence at 5 o'clock. All are welcome to attend"
    Sigh. "That'll be a waste of time"
    "So we won't go."
    "Ugh, no, we have to go. I don't want to, but we have to know what they are planning."
    "It'll be stupid."
    "Yup."
     
  18. Moatengator

    Moatengator Monkey

    Enjoying every bit of your writing.
     
  19. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    Remember, if you are enjoying this story, you'll probably like my videos :)
    www. youtube.com/vigunfighter


    Driving further into the neighborhood we saw Stan walking his three dogs. I pulled up and rolled down the window. "How's it going?" he asked. I filled him in on the events of the morning. "Damn! Will Juice be OK?"
    "Yeah, yeah, he should be fine. How 'bout you, how things going?"
    "Shitty. One of our restaurants got robbed yesterday."
    "No! Anyone hurt?"
    "The manager go pistol whipped, but she'll be OK"
    "Everything OK at the other two?"
    "So far. We aren't opening them. It's just too dangerous. Ritchie has doubled up security on them for now until we decide what to do."
    "You might want to pull as much of the food as you can handle and bring it back here."
    "I was starting to think along those lines."
    "I have a feeling that food is going to be the most valuable and vulnerable thing you have."
    "I agree. I've got to figure out how to pull that off."
    "I'd do it soon, or you won't have to worry about it. By the way, did you see the sign about the meeting?"
    "Yeah. You going?"
    "Don't want to, but yeah."
    "Alright, we'll meet you there."
    "Cool. Talk more later.

    At the house we unloaded the Jeep and put away the things we got from the shop. I kept out the M4 that Juice had just brought in for me, that I hadn’t had a chance to get registered yet, and put the 870 back in the safe. The shotty is authoritative, but an AR is easier to live with on a day to day basis.
    “Here you go Sweetie” I handed Sadie a screwdriver. “It’s a double. You earned it”
    “Ahhh!” as she took a long sip. “Are you going to take a nap before the meeting?”
    “Yeah. If I can wind down. I’ll probably read a little and see if I can doze off”
    Sadie headed up the circular stairs, I gave the dogs a little loving and followed her up.
    The dogs going nuts, barking and growling woke me suddenly, from a deep sleep that I hadn't realized that I had fallen into. I looked out of the window by the bed, overlooking the gate, drive and our cars.
    Nothing.
    I got out of bed, grabbed my pistol, and went to go to the bathroom so I could see the area of the yard where the dogs were causing the commotion. They were running back and forth along the wood slat fence that borders a small knoll that hides our house from the rest of the neighborhood. I couldn’t see what they were barking at, but they weren’t easing up. Rudi stood with his paws on the top rail and looked up at the small hill. I tried to see what had his attention.
    There! A small movement caught my eye. I crouched and brought the pistol up just under my line of sight, watching. Another movement, about 30 yards away, moving laterally. Rudi had stopped barking and was just watching. Loco was barely growling.
    Then I saw the telltale ear twitch. Deer. One of the small European Roe deer that roam the more rural parts of the island. Never seen one that close to the house before. She seemed unpreturbed by the dogs and slowly browsed her way along the hillside.
    I flopped back down in bed. “What was it?”
    “Just a deer”
    “That close to the house?”
    “Yeah, kinda cool, eh?”
    “I just hope the dogs don’t decide to get out and go chase it. What time is it?”
    “4:20. Guess I’ll get up and get ready for the meeting. I’ll go by myself if you don’t want to subject yourself to that torture” We don’t hold the HOA in high regard.
    “No, I’ll go too. This isn’t the normal ‘we need to fix the road’ or “Mr. Gumbs rooster’s making too much noise” sort of thing. I want to see what they are planning.”
    “How involved do you think we should get?” Sadie was the planner of the family and I liked to run social tactics past her so we were working off the same page and doing the smart thing.
    “Not very. I think we should sit back and keep our mouths shut. See what they come up with”
    “Ok, I’m with you on that.”
    “I think the neighborhood will be changing before too long. Let nature do the work.”
    “Makes sense. No reason to invest time in something that may be radically different in a few days or weeks.”
    “Exactly”
     
  20. Zengunfighter

    Zengunfighter Monkey+++

    We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed for the door. “Are we bringing our rifles to the meeting? That blows the whole ‘sit back’ thing, don’t you think?”
    “Oh, I agree. If we show up to the Norman’s house with our AR s, we will attract the wrong kind of attention. No, we’ll leave them locked in the Jeep and only carry concealed pistols with us.”
    We drove the short distance to the Norman's house. I turned around and parked the Jeep heading back home. We got out and walked the short distance to the Norman's front door. It was open and a couple of people were standing just outside, talking.
    “Afternoon”
    “Good Afternoon”
    “Anyone inside yet?”
    “The Normans and three or four others.”
    We went in, Sadie leading the way. We shared the ussual pleasantries and then found a couple of seats.
    “Thin turn out” Sadie leaned over and said quietly to me.
    “Some more will probably turn up”
    “Island time”
    I smiled in response to the last. I looked up to see Carol approaching. She was the current president of the homeowners association.
    “Oh! I'm SO glad to see you!” She said effusively. “We were hoping that you might talk to the group about security.”
    “Um..sure...” Sadie nudged me with her foot. “Be glad to.” I finished.
    “Oh good, good! Until things go back to normal we need to stick together and help one another, especially those that arent' as well off as some people are.
    Sadie was really digging her toe into instep at this point.
    Carol didn't notice the game of footsy and looked at the door. “Oh! There's Mr. Johns. Excuse me, I have to talk to him”
    “What did we say about sitting back?” Sadie looked at me.
    “Sorry, she cornered me. I'll play it cool.”
    “Getting involved with these people at this time is a mistake”
    “I know, but I think it's important that we stay involved enough so we know what they are planning. I don't want to get blindsided.”
    The banging of a gavel got everyone's attention and they settled down. Yes, Carol had a gavel. A few people that had been standing around outside came in and found seats.
    “I'd like to call this emergency meeting of the East Canon Bay homeowners association to order. Thank you all for coming. We need to discuss what our neighborhood is going to do about this crisis. We need to organize ourselves until the government is able to help us. We need to help each other, especially those that have less than others. He have to come together for the common good...”
    More pressure from Sadie's foot. As Carol droned on, I looked around at those in attendence.
    There were 16 people there, about double what I've seen at previous meetings. I recognized the usual homeowners that came to the meetings. There was CJ a wimpy whiney weak jawed fellow that was one of the few owners of the condos below our house, that actually lived there, rather than renting it out to vacationers.
    To my right was Mr. Johns, a VIPD forensics officer and detective. A solid, quiet, if unimaginative man. Next to him was Nibbs. We were slightly aquainted, he'd been in one or two of my security guard classes. A big fellow, he worked in auto parts and security and was one of the big wigs in the volunteer rescue squad.
    Wayne, a friend in past days. We drifted apart when he turned to conspiracy theories and rastafarianism. A decade ago he owned a small gun store, but over head put him out of business and he turned to farming. Sort of. A rocky mountain is a hard place to make a living growing crops.
    I finished my sweep and didn't see anyone else i recognized. “And now I'd like to turn the floor over to Mrs. Quinn, who has agreed to chair a committee to liase with the government.”
    “Does the government want to 'liase' with us?” I leaned into Sadie and whispered to her. Again with the toe. I'm a slow learner sometimes.
    “Thank you Carol. Homeowners, we need to contact the officials in charge of this mess and petition them to make things right. We need them to fix this situation right away! Have any of you seen what's going on in town?! The looting?! In broad daylight! This has to stop. I was trying to get gas yesterday and one man shot another one! How did he even have a gun? I left as soon as I could get out of there.”
    “Yeah” interupted a person I didn't know. “I tried to go food shopping yesterday. I tried 3 places and all of them said cash only. The government needs to make them take my debit card!”
    “Exactly! The government needs to restore order and take control of the food and gas to make sure it is fairly distributed”
    I took a breath, but before I could say anyting, there was that toe again.
    “So I'm asking for volunteers to form a committee to deal with the government. We'll draw up a list of things we expect them to do and present it to them. Who wants to help?”
    Mrs. Quinn looked around. The woman with the debit card raised her hand. “Good, good, thank you. Who else?”
    “I'll help” came from Wayne's wife.
    “Thank you. We'll get together after the meeting to start work on this. If anyone else is interested, meet with me after.
    Carol took over again. “thank you Mrs. Quinn, and those of you that volunteered to help. Now I'd like to talk about neighborhood security.” I started to shift in my seat.
    “Mr. Johns, would you please talk to us about what steps we can do to keep safe in these difficult times?”
    Mr. John stood slowly and deliberately, making no move to go to the front of the room. People in front of him had to crane their necks and twist in their chairs to see him.
    “The important thing is to stay calm. Keep your doors and windows locked. Limit your travel to town to only those trips that you must take. Keep your eyes out and if you see something suspicious, call it in.” I'm not sure who they were supposed to call in to, considering my recent experiences with 911 I thought to myself.
    “Don't get into confrontations. If somebody is trying to rob you, cooperate so you don't get hurt. Give them what they want.” My foot was getting pretty sore at this point.
    “Fighting back will only result in you getting injured. Don't try to take matters into your own hands.”
    That was pretty crappy advice when things were normal. Now it had no application at atll. I took a calming breath.
    “Any questions?”
    “What if I see someone breaking into my neighbor's house. Should I yell that I've called the police, or something else?”
    “No, no, just keep quiet. You might make them angry and they will come to your house and hurt you. If you can, get their description. But don't take any action.”
    “If I see someone prowling around my yard, trying to break into my car or tool shed, can I bus' he some licks with my cutlash? (local term for machete) this from an older gentleman. I admire his garden, including some nice looking sugar cane every day when I drive by his house. I made a mental note about his attitude.
    “NO! You can't take the law into your own hands. You will probably get hurt, and if you hurt him you could be facing charges.”
    The man looked down, shaking his head and muttering to himself. I know how he feels. Detective Johns was giving the typical police party line. Which had absolutely no application these days.
    “Should we form a neighborhood watch? You know, a few of us patroling the neighborhood looking for criminals. I have my .38 revolver and a flashlight.”
    “A neighborhood watch might be a good idea. We need to look into that. But no weapons. I hope you have a license for that weapon” the man nodded sheepishly. “you all aren't trained like the police. Patroling is one thing, but taking action is another. We police get months and months of training before we hit the streets. If you try to do the police's job, somebody's going to get hurt.”
    I think all the talk of weapons and violence shook up Carol who stood up. “Thank you for that Mr. Johns. We appreciate your advice and experience. We should talk about forming a committee to look into forming a neighborhood watch.”
    She turned her attention to me. “Zed, do you have anything to add to what Mr. Johns told us?”
    Remaining seated I replied “No, I think Detective Johns covered the important parts.” Sadie patted the back of my hand. It's all carot and stick with that girl.
    “Ok then, let's move on. I think we should take an inventory of what everyone has in their homes.” She started handing out note pads, pens and pencils. “Everyone write down what food and supplies you have at home.”
    “What do you mean by supplies?” Nibbs asked.
    “Oh, you know, like useful things, candles, fuel, flashlights and batteries, the sort of things that come in handy like after a hurricane.”
    We recieved a pad and I handed it to Sadie. She looked a question at me. I took that pad back and started writing. 3 cans – Sardines, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 4 or 5 tea candles, 2 rolls toilet paper. I leaned over and whispered “it looks better if we cooperate. But I don't like the way this is going”
    “You know how I feel about this” Sadie whispered back. “Nobody gets to know what we have.” I nodded my agreement. She took the pad from me and wrote “half bar of soap, 1 can of spinach.” and passed the pad back up front.
    “We will go over the inventory lists and compile them. I think we should put all of these items in a central location to be distributed as needed”
    This time it was me poking Sadie's foot with MY toe.
    “Where will that be?” asked Wayne's wife.
    “Well, I have room, so I was going to volunteer my house.” Carol answer “unless someone else has a suggestion?” She looked around but no one spoke up. “So you can start bringing your things over right away.”
    “What if we don't have anything and need some food for our children?
    “See people? There are people in need right now. The sooner I get the food, the sooner I can sort it and get it distributed”
    “Who's going to decide who gets what?” from Machete man.
    “Well, I hadn't really thought about it. I guess I was just going to handle it.”
    “She was going to handle it alright” Sadie whispered.
    “Did you have a suggestion Sadie?”
    “Well, you seem to be fond of committees, so why not one for food distribution?”
    “What a wonderful idea! And you should be chair it!” I caught Sadie's eye and nodded impercepably.
    “Ok, I accept.”
    “Great! Is there anyone that would like to help Sadie on the food committee? Good, I see some hands. Meet with her after we adjourn. Is there any other business? No? Can I get a motion to adjourn?”
    “I so move” from me.
    “Seconded” Sadie.
    “All in favor? This emergency meeting is now adjourned.”
    People stood and started shuffling to the door. Some people gathered to talk. “What were you thinking?” Sadie whispered. “what happend to staying quiet?”
    “This is the most dangerous development. We need to keep an eye on it. And you have access to Carol's house. I don't trust her, not one whit.”
    At that point a couple of people came up to talk to Sadie about the food committee. I wandered outside to wait. I saw machete man and went to introduce myself.
    “Good afternoon”
    “Afternoon”
    “I'm Zed, we've never had a chance to talk, even though I drive by your house every day. I alway enjoy seeing your garden as I pass.”
    “Thank you. I do enjoy my garden. Have always had one. My family always had one. I'm Charles” he stuck out a large, strong, work callused hand. I shook it and got a firm grasp and shake in return.
    “Good to know you.” I noticed that Sadie had escaped and was coming towards us. “Mr. Charles, let me introduce my wife, Sadie”
    “Pleased to met you ma'am”
    “Please, call me Sadie. I'd love to talk to you sometime about your plants. I've been wanting to grow some sugar cane, but haven't been successful the last time I tried.
    “Be happy to help. Stop by and I'll give you some slips and starts”
    “I'd really like that.”
    “Been a long day” I reached out to shake again. “We need to head home. We're down at the end of the left fork. If you need anything, come and see us.”
    He gave us a kindly smile and waved as we walked to the Jeep.
     
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