Original Work The Unwelcome Sign

Sounds more like, us chickens, plotting...

 

You ok Zen? Been awhile... would a 'moar' help?

 

Didn't seem like anyone was interested. I haven't posted anything in like a week and no one said anything.

 

The gunshot made me freeze in my tracks. I had just as I rounded the corner where my house comes into view. It sounded like it came from the house itself. Mentally shaking myself out of my inaction, I brought the M4 up to a low ready position and ran for the house.
I used my left hand to open the gate and let myself in to the yard. Where were the dogs? I worked the corners as best I could in my hurry to get to Sadie. I approached the front door which was wide open. Nothing unusual there, unless it's raining, we keep all the doors open. I was starting to wonder if we would have to change that policy.
I cut the corner of the doorway, clearing what I could see of the living room from outside and then entered. Still no dogs. I wanted to call out, but didn't want to give away my position. The smell of burned gunpowder was strong in the living room.
Moving to the hallway, I switched the carbine to my left shoulder to clear the corner leading to the only other room on this level, the kitchen.

It was also empty.

As I got further into the kitchen I could see out the door to the deck overlooking our lower yard. There was Sadie, pistol in hand, looking down into the yard below her.
“Sweetie” I whispered just loud enough for her to hear.
She turned towards me with an angry expression on her face. “Bastard!”
Seeing that she didn't seem afraid or concerned, I joined her outside.
“What happened?”
“Mongoose got one of the chicks. I ran out as soon as I heard them make a fuss. I got him, but he'd already killed one of the chicks.”
I looked over the rail, down at the chicken enclosure. Loco and Rudi were outside it, looking in, sniffing furiously, their bellows-like nostrils visible from here.
“Nice shooting!” Sadie had hit the mongoose with one shot, from a pistol, at about fifteen yards. Did I mention that I love Hillbilly girls?
“Well, I was mad!”
“Let's go down and check them out. You OK otherwise?”
“Yeah, I'm fine. Just pissed.”
We walked down to the enclosure and let ourselves in. Mama and her remaining chicks were huddled in the coop. I picked the mongoose up by the tail and flipped it over the fence. Rudi, being younger, darted in to grab it and ran off, Loco in hot pursuit. That would keep them busy for a while.
“What do we do with the chick?” I picked it up and held it in my palm.
“I hate to waste it, but I don't want to give it to the babies. I don't want to give them the idea that it's OK to eat the chickens.”
“I agree. Any use in the garden?”
“I'm afraid Rudi will dig it up. You know he's a digger.”
“OK, I'll just take it away from the house and chuck it in the bush, downwind.”
“What about using it as bait?”
“For what?”
“There's probably more mongooses around. They are a danger to the chickens, especially the chicks. We should thin their numbers.”
“Smart. Let me see what I can come up with.”
I went to the shop and came up with several feet of 1/8” steel cable, left over from a picture hanging project, and a thin piece of steel. I cut off a 1” section of the steel, drilled two holes that the cable could run through and then bent it in an 'L' shape. Passing the cable through it to make a noose, the steel would allow the loop to tighten, but would lock up and prevent it from loosening.

I made up a second snare and took them, and the mangled little chick out beyond our fence. Kneeling I looked around for natural paths that little creature would use. Finding a likely avenue that the mongoose probably took to get into our yard, I put the chick in the middle of the path and set up a snare on either side of it.

 

“How'd it go?”
“The snares, or the shooting lesson?”
“Both”
“Well, I did the best I could with the snares. We'll know before too long if I'm successful.”
“What do you think about setting up snares on a regular basis for food? Not so much for us, but for the dogs.”
“Hadn't really considered it, but it's an interesting idea. Takes work, not so much to set up the snares, but to check them on a regular basis.”
“Maybe when things settle down a bit.”
“Yeah. Hey, speaking of traps, we need to check ours later tonight.”
“Wait til dark?”
“I think so. Don't want the neighbors to see us walking home with a sack of chickens.”
“I wonder how things went at the food distribution site.”
“Yeah, I've been curious all day. You're on the committee, you should go see how their doing.”
“Is that a good idea? Carol's probably not too happy with us.”
“That was me that gave her a hard time, not you. But I'm just kidding. You should probably stay away from there.”
“I'm curious too. It would be good to know what's going on outside our neighborhood.”
“We could go talk to Macie, or the Quinns.”
“Yeah, let's do that. Have you heard anything from anyone else?”
“No. Cell system seems to finally be down. I should get the antenna hooked up for our hams and listen in at six to see if we hear anything.”
“We've got a bit more than an hour til then. Shall we go talk to our neighbors?”
“Sure.”
We walked to Macie's house. Her car was missing and her dog was tied on the porch. I hate to see a tied dog.
“Funny, she's not home yet.”
“Maybe the lines for the food are long. Or she stopped somewhere else after.”
“Could be. Does her dog have water?” Sadie hated to see animals suffer too.
We walked up to the porch and her little lapdog started yapping at us incessantly. It still had some kibble and water available so we left and walked towards the Quinn's.
Kevin and his two teenage sons were in the yard, him grilling, while they tossed a ball back and forth.
“Grilling again?” I called out.
“Yeah. This is the last of what we had in the freezer. Hey Sadie!” he gave his now familiar barbeque fork wave.
“Kevin. How's Ellie doing?” A worried look came over Kevin's face and the boys stopped throwing the ball.
“Ellie left this morning to go back down to Government House. I expected her back hours ago.”
Sadie looked at me. I lifted my eyebrows. “Well, she's probably just delayed. Maybe she stopped at one of the food places.”
“Yeah, probably. It's just hard to know what's going on. I've tried to call her but there hasn't been a signal on the phone since last night. I keep hoping they get the cell towers running again. I've had to charge my phone in my car. Anyway, if she's not back by the time supper's done, I'm going to go looking for her.”
“It'll be dark before too long.” I reminded him.
“I know. But I have to go. What would you do?”
I thought that I wouldn't let my wife go out by herself under these conditions, but didn't say it. “I guess you don't have any choice.”
“No, I got to go look for her. What if her car broke down or she got a flat?”
“Well good luck, be careful”
“Umm...you..you wouldn't have a gun I could borrow, do you?”
“Well no, I don't have any that I can spare Kevin. Besides, have you ever shot a gun?”
“No, no, never saw the need. But how hard can it be?”
“It's actually pretty complicated. Maybe you can find someone that has one they would trade for. When you get it, I'll help you learn how to use it.”
That seemed to satisfy him. I think he might actually have been relieved that I didn't give him a gun. He was obviously scared of them.
“Well, as I said, good luck. I hope it goes well and you find Ellie OK.” Sadie said, as way of ending the conversation. We waved and turned to walk back home.
“What do you think the chances are that she's OK?”
“Not good”
“And he's going to go looking for her? How's that going to work?”
“Not well”
“It always amazes me, that people can't take care of themselves.”
“They could. They were. But that was in a different set of circumstances. They could navigate civilization just fine. They had good jobs, a good home, two fine boys, two late model cars. They were surviving quite well.”
“How could they not see that this was a possibility?”
“I know, right? Especially living here. Hurricanes are a real wake up call that civilization is easily disrupted.”
“Even with the hurricanes, government got things back together within a week, or at least started to.”
I sighed. “We're going to see a lot more of this. It will be especially hard with friends.”
“I know. Speaking of friends, should we work on the radio?”
“Yup. Wanna help?”
“Absolutely.”

 

Down in the shop I found a 3/4” nut, the heaviest one I could find, a spool of four pound test fishing line, and my old slingshot. Back upstairs I gathered up my radio and the J pole antenna.
“Ready?” I asked Sadie.
“Yes. Where we going?”
“Just on top of the knoll in front of our house. Let's see how we get along there.”

We climbed to the top of the little hill that sheilded our house from the rest of the neighborhood, and stopped at the base of the biggest tree on the crest. Threading the fishing line through the nut, I tied a knot to secure it. I found a small stick that fit loosely through the center of the spool and handed it to Sadie. Putting the nut in the pocket of the slingshot I aimed at the top branches of the tree.
“I'm going to shoot this over one of these branches. I need you to let the line play out. Then we'll give it enough slack for the nut to come down to the ground. We can tie the antenna to it and pull it to the top of the tree. That'll give us a bit more range.”
“I understand. Should there be some line pulled out to give it a head start?”
“Yeah, I think so. I've read about this, but never done it.”
“That inspires confidence.”
“Hey, it's a learning process!” I smiled at her.
We spooled out about ten or fifteen feet. I let fly with the nut, which, flew great until it got to the end of it's slack, instead of pulling more line from the spool, came flying back at us, clocking me pretty good in the shoulder. Yes, the one the scorpion stung.
“That worked well”
“I told you its a learning process.”
“Shoulder OK?”
“Yeah, it'll be a nice bruise, I'm sure.
“So we should probably pull out enough slack to get us to the top branches.”
“I think so, and a little extra. And I need to shoot it JUST hard enough to clear the top so it doesn't come back at us.”
“maybe I should go stand over there?” Sadie pointed at a big rock twenty feet away.
“Probably prudent”
I set up for the next shot and adjusted how far back I pulled the bands before releasing the nut on it's next flight. This had the desired effect with the result of the nut dangling a few feet from the one of the top branches. Picking up the spool, I gave the nut more slack and it slid down to us. The rest of the process went easily after that, resulting in the antenna being thirty feet above us.

Taking off the rubber whip antenna, I screwed in the jack for the J pole. Turning on the radio, I switched it to the frequency for channel 18 on the Marine band. Keying the mic I said, “This is Zed, anyone out there?” I repeated this twice more and waited. No reply. Looking at my watch showed a few minutes before 6:00pm.
“Anything?”
“No, but we're still a bit early.”
“Come on over here and look at this.”
I went over to the rock that Sadie had sheltered behind. It was a large boulder about eight feet high and twelve or fifteen feet long. Next to it was a similarly sized boulder. There was a one foot gap between them, which Sadie was looking through.
“There's a pretty good view of the neighborhood from here. You can see the road leading to our driveway, Macie and the Quinn's”
“Yeah, and going on up the hill, you can see the road through the neighborhood in a few different places, especially the switchbacks.”
“Isn't that Carol's house?”
I looked where she was pointing. “Yeah, and you can see part of the Johns' house just beyond it.”
“This would make a good look out spot”
“Yeah” I said looking around. “These two rocks are a great start. They make great cover.”
“we should work to improve it. A cover in case it rains would be good”
“Move some of these rocks for more protection, and carefully cut some brush”
“Instead of cutting it, we might be able to tie it out of the way.”
“Good point. That will look more natural”
“Is there anyone there? Zed? Juice?” Doc Shoemacher's voice came over the radio. I scrambled over to it and keyed the mic.
“Hey Doc, Zed here, how do you read, over?”
“You've been watching too many war movies, over.” Sadie chided with a grin.
“I hear you just fine. I'm glad you are on the radio. Phone's not working.”
“Everything OK on your end, Doc?”
“Things are getting tense. Not getting much sleep. There's been a lot of shooting in the area. My neighbors two doors down had a home invasion. Both of them killed, husband and wife. House ransacked.”
“That's bad. We're doing OK at this end, but we are a bit further away from town than you are. A little stress with some of our neighbors getting bossy though.”
“I've seen some cars slowly cruising past. Full of young guys, looking real hard at all the houses.”
“That's not good. Nobody's doing anything about it?
“No, nothing. I'm getting kinda scared here. I'm armed, but it's only me, that's why I can't sleep.”
“You interested in moving?”
“Moving? Where would I go?”
Sadie looked at me pointedly. I nodded at her and put my hand out, palm towards her to forestall any argument.
“We might be able to put you up in my neighborhood. Can you hold off another day or two?”
“I think so, but it's hard to say.”
“Ok, tell you what. Start packing. We're coming for you tomorrow morning. Early. Be ready for us.”
“You sure? I don't want to be any trouble.”
“I'm sure.”
“Break, break,”
“Go”
“This is Juice. How's everyone doing?”
“Hey Juice! Good to hear you brother! How much of the conversation did you catch?”
“I think most of it. You going to get the Doc in the morning? You want a hand and another truck?”
“You up for that?”
“Leslie and I are going stir crazy here. We'd love to get out and see what's going on.”
“I could check on your arm when I see you.”
“Cool. It's doing Ok, stiff and sore, but Leslie's been doing like you told him.”
“Same as before, Juice? Meet at our house and go from there?”
“Sure. You're on the way. Same time?”
“That's good with me. Be ready for us between 5:30 and 6:00 Doc.”
“I will be. And thanks guys, I really appreciate it.”
“No worries. I'm signing off now. See y'all in the morning.”
After everyone was off the radio, I started to pull the antenna down.
“Should we try to listen to some other stations for news, as long as you have the radio set up?”
“Makes sense. We can check the shortwave bands.”
“So what are we going to do with the doctor? Our house is too small for a guest.”
“I'm not sure, but I have some ideas. He's important enough that I'm willing to have him on the couch if necessary. Him being a doctor is enough, but he's also one of my students, so he has some gun handling skills. We can use more people like that.”
“I don't disagree, I'm just concerned about where we are going to put him.”
“There are going to be some vacancies real soon, unless I miss my guess.”

 

I set the radio up to scan through the shortwave frequencies and we sat, back against some rocks, enjoying the cool as the sun started to set. The static wasn't as bad, whether a result of a better antenna, or better weather conditions, I didn't know. The radio would find a station, stay on it for five seconds and move back to scanning. So far just more of the foreign language stations.
“Do you have binoculars with you?”
“Sure” I pulled them out of the pocket on the top of my pack and handed them to Sadie.
“There's some activity at Carol's”
“Oh?”
Sadie braced her elbows on her knees and focused the compact binos.
“Two cars just pulled in, lots of people around. Ok, they are opening the back of the vehicles and unloading boxes. People are taking them into Carol's house.”
“Sounds like the food run was successful. Anything else?”
“Not really, half a dozen people standing around watching the others unloading.”
“They're not helping to carry?”
“Nope”
At that moment the radio stopped on an English speaking broadcast.
“...inside the last four days. My area is quiet so far, but I've heard what I assume are gun shots in...” And the radio returned to scanning.
“Damn!” I grabbed the radio and hit the down button so it would scan back to the station we just heard.
“..town four days ago. Almost didn't make it back. I shouldn't have bothered, the stores were all looted by then. Several times people stood in the road in front of me to make me stop. I did, the first time. Two other people ran out and tried to open my car doors. I hit the gas and the guy in front of me managed to jump out of the way. I didn't slow down for the ones after that. The last man shot at me, hitting my truck. Everyone wants it. I've only seen three other vehicles moving since this started.”
“This is QTVB-3347 broadcasting out of Ogunquit, Maine. Power has been out for five days now. All my electronic gear is non functional except for a few things that were in the basement. Luckily that's where my radio gear is.”
“With all the violence, I'm staying indoors as much as possible. I go out to the back porch to get wood. Thank God for my wood stove. Temperatures have been in the 20s-30s this past week. Lots of folks are going to be in trouble as we go further into winter.”
“I'm going off the air to save batteries. I'll be back on the sixes as long as I can. This is QTVB-3347 out.”
I keyed the mic on my little radio. “QTVB-3347 this is CNDD-9788, do you read?”
Nothing.
“QTVB-3347 this is CNDD-9788, do you read?”
Still nothing.
“Can you hit Maine from here with that?”
“Probably not, unless the conditions are perfect, but thought it was worth the try.”
“That didn't tell us much”
“No, other than things are bad in Maine.”
“His car was working, but electronics weren't.”
“Except what was under ground. I'll bet his truck was an old one.”
“It would have been nice if he could have told us what caused this.”
“If he even knows. If whatever caused this disruption was bad enough, quick enough, it might have made it difficult for the government to get the word out. Especially if they wasted time trying to figure out what it was and how to respond.”

 

Have missed your writing here as well. Please keep it up.

 

We retrieved the antenna and climbed back down from the summit of the hill. Back at home we fed the pups and our selves.
“Should we check our trap?” Sadie asked
“I think so. I'd also like to check in with Stan, see how he's doing.”
“Leave in 15?”
“Sure”

We headed out the door fifteen minutes later. We both had M4s and small packs. Like American Express, we'd decided to “Never leave home without it”. Walking past Macie's we saw that her car was still missing. Sadie went up to check on her dog, who yapped excitedly as she approached.
“His food and water bowls are empty.”
“We'll fill them when we get back.”
“Ok. Check the trap first or Stan's?”
“Stan's. They are further away and I want it to get later in the evening before we check the trap.”

We climbed up the road through our neighborhood. It was a full mile from our house to the main road, all up hill. Stan lived about half way up. What was a 2 minute drive was a 15 minute walk. Our calves we're definitly burning when we got to the gate.
“Inside!” I called, which set the dogs to barking as they ran up to the gate to investigate.
“Hey pups, yes you're good dogs!” Sadie praised them. When they recognized us there was much wagging of tails and playful posturing. They ran back and forth between the gate and Stan as he left the house and walked towards us.

“Hey Zed, hey Sadie, how y'all doing?”
“Good Stan. Thought we'd stop by and see how things are going”
“Well come on in and visit.” He shoo'd the dogs away and opened the gate to let us in. The pups circled around behind us, jockeying to get into the best position to sniff our shoes and legs. Sadie and I spent a moment scratching behind ears and ruffling fur before continuing on to the house.

“Hi guys!” Sandy greeted us. “Can I get you something to drink? Stan just opened a nice Cab.”
“Sure”
“Yes please” we answered.
Stan ushered us into the living room and bade us sit. I noticed his shotgun was leaning in a nearby corner so I added our rifles and packs to it. As Sadie, Stan and I sat, Sandy came in with the wine.
“That's quite drinkable” I remarked after a swirl, a sniff and a sip.
“Very nice!” Sadie added.
“So, how are you two doing here? Any issues with the the neighbors?”
Stan and Sandy looked at each other and scowls took the place of the relaxed expressions on their faces.
“The food committee came by here yesterday.” started Stan
“Carol and that police guy and some other person.” continued Sandy.
“Yeah, we had to deal with them too. How'd that go?”
“Carol started out nice and friendly, asking for donations. She figured with the restaurants that we own that we would have plenty to share.”
Sandy took over, “I put together a box with some canned and dry food and brought it out to her. She took one look at it and said “That's it?””
“She wasn't satisfied with that?”
“No, she got angry,” Stan picked back up “She said that we must have more food and the community needed it. Then the policeman, Johns isn't it, said they should come in and look for themselves.”
“Did they?”
“Hell no! He took a step close to the door and dogs started growling at him.”
“Good pups!” Sadie interjected, petting the one laying nearest to her.
“He froze and then took a slow step back. I told them that was all we had to donate and they should be thankful for it.”
“Were they?”
“Hell no. They just glared at me and left. As they walked away, Johns said they'd be back.”
I sighed. “We got a bad situation here. Carol has taken charge. I think she hopes to control things through food. She's got a group of people on her side, people that have been getting food from her. Johns' her muscle. He's got a couple of other people working security at Carol's house. I'm worried that when they run out of food that they will come back to you and me, but with more than three people asking nicely.”
“What are you planning on doing about it?”
“Not sure yet. You know Mr. Charles?”
Stan and Sandy both shook their heads.
“He lives kinda between us. He's growing a bunch of crops.”
“Oh, is he the one with the really neatly tended garden?”
“Yeah, that's him. I gave him a pistol and some training earlier today. Carol and company were hitting him up for food too. I wanted him to be able to protect himself and his garden.”
“Smart. He's probably on your side now.”
“Not sure I have a 'side', but yeah, he's favorably inclined towards me now. We can use everyone we can, not just to deal with Carol, but what's coming later.”
“What's coming later?” asked Sandy, worried.
“We're remote enough that we haven't had any problems yet, but it's coming. As people run out of food and supplies, they will go further and further out to find it. Only a matter of time before they come here.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Why do you think I've been training you for the past year?” I smiled at him.
“You didn't know this was going to happen.”
“Not this, but something. Doesn't matter where you live, the chance of a disruption of normal life at some time is very likely. You weren't here for hurricane Marilyn, where you?”
Again Stan and Sandy shook their heads.
“Well, this is going to be worse than that was. It already is. We need to get organized and plan if we want to get through this.”
“Count us in.”
“I have. Oh, and Doc Shoemacher is joining us tomorrow. Juice and we are going to go get him and bring him here in the morning. Things are getting bad where he lives.”
“Cool. You need a hand going to get him?”
“Hmmm” I thought about it. “No, I think we're OK, but I tell you what, I'm worried about leaving our house alone while we're gone.”
“I can stay here while Stan watches your house.”
“You Ok with that Stan?”
“Yeah. I'll leave the AR with her, and she's got the dogs.”
“Well, that would take a load off my mind, I appreciate it.”
“We can leave our radios with them so they can stay in contact with each other. Juice and the doctor both have radios which should be enough for the drive back here.”
“Yeah, makes sense, we can make that work. Hey listen guys, we need to run, we have something else to check on. Thanks for the wine. We'll talk more tomorrow.
“Absolutely. It was good to visit with someone else. Sandy and I were going a bit stir crazy just sitting at home.”

 

Sadie and I finished saying our good byes and headed off back downhill. Coming up on Mr. Charles' house, we could see him sitting on his porch. We waved and he got up and came over to us.
“Night Mr. Zed, Miss Sadie” he greeted us.
“Good night” we said in return
“I see you've got a friend with you” Sadie said, looking at the revolver in the holster on his belt.
“Your husband took good care of me. I've been doing dry fire practice since you left Mr. Zed. I can't thank you enough.” He patted the pistol at his side fondly. It's funny how quickly we can get attached to things.
“As I said earlier, glad to do it. We're going to need to stick together here real soon.”
“Anything you need, you just let me know.”
“Same here”
“You see any plants you fancy Miss Sadie? I can cut you some starts. And thank you for the plants you sent with Mr. Zed. That was very kind.”
“I'd like to stop in during the day sometime and check your garden out. Compare notes.”
“Anytime, anytime. You just stop in whenever you like. I'll be here.”

We took our leave of Mr. Charles. A couple of hundred yards further along we came to the bushy, undeveloped area where we set up the trap the night before. Pulling out our flashlights and covering the beams with our hands we made our way towards the trap.

“We got one. Sort of..” My flashlight beam illuminated a scene of blood and feathers.”
“Mongoose!” Sadie said
“Mongoose.”
“Bastard”
“Yup.” I let out a big sigh, something I seemed to do more and more lately and fished the chicken out of the trap. I took it several yards away and chucked it in the bush. We checked and saw that there was still some wheat berries left in the trap.
“Lets see if we can get a tighter fit of the fencing to the ground. And I think I should put some snares up to around the trap. I'll go home and get the materials and come back and set them up.”
“I can see that mongooses are going to be a real problem. You need to show me how to set those snares. We need to shoot any we see and trap the ones we don't.”
“Sure. It might take a while, but we can probably thin them out enough eventually. I just hope the chicken population lasts that long.”
“I imagine the adults are OK if they are free to run or fly away. The chicks are the most vulnerable.”
“We can make a better set up for the chicks to keep them safe until they are bigger. I'm hoping once things settle down we can just let them go free range again. But in the short term I think people are the biggest threat to their population.”
“I think you're right on that. But that will probably be half a year, or more likely a year or more from now.”
“Let's get home so I can deal with the snares. And we have another early morning.”
An hour or so later, I flopped in bed, exhausted.

 

There's a pretty big gun fight at the doc's the next day...

 

Please keep writing & posting. I am really enjoying your creation......
GB

 

We figured something came up and you got busy.

 

Awesome work, thank you for sharing!

 

I like the plot development...Carol and John are sure to get their come uppence. Keep it coming.

 

Figured life got busy. As long as you are writing, I'm reading.

Keep it up.

Whynot

 

That, has to be the shortest chapter ever in novel writing history...
But that was worth the wait Zen..

 

Hope all had a great holiday season. Glad to see more installments. Keep'em coming.

 

More please