by David Wilson
A quick look around revealed an empty loading bay, I stepped over and retrieved my ruck, “lets go inside, everyone in.” I said into my radio mic. Everyone piled into the loading bay, followed last by Ben and Jeff. I lowered the door and reengaged the locking device and tripped the lock out device so no one could reach in the way I had to unlock the rolling door. Gathering everyone together I briefed them on what we were going to do, “once we move into the main store, Mat, I want you and Beth to wait by the door leading into the main store. Stay there to cover us in case we run into trouble. Once we have cleared the store I will call you in. Don and I will take the lead. Ben, you have our left flank, Jeff, you have the right. If we run into trouble we will leap frog back here to Mat’s position. Watch where your firing and only fire if you have a clear target. It is not worth dying over a bicycle. Any question? Ok lets do this.”
I led our little group into the main store, it only took a minute to make it over to the bike section. I called Mat and Beth over and told Mat to drop his gear and take Beth over to get outfitted with some gear of her own. Regardless of what she would do or go she needed better than some flip-flops and shorts. While Ben and Jeff worked on setting up our bikes, I had Don watch the front of the store. I roamed around to the camping section and picked up a female 3200 cubic inch pack and a good sleeping bag and pad. I threw in a small footprint tarp, a stainless steel cup, a Camel Bak bladder with a Sawyer water filter, a Lifestraw, and a 40 oz Klean canteen. Next I moved over to the backpacking food area and grabbed eight meals and stuffed them into the backpack. Heading back to the bike area I also stopped and grabbed her a Gerber fixed bladed knife, and a multi-tool, a fire steel and a couple packs of fire starters, a package of five Bic lighters, and some waterproof matches. Getting back over to the bike area, Mat and Beth were sitting on the floor putting laces in a new pair of hiking boots. Beth had changed into hiking pants and had on a new t-shirt and a long sleeve shirt unbuttoned and with the sleeves rolled up. I dumped the gear on the floor and walked over to my ruck. Removing all of the protein powder bags, I dug around until I came up with the Ruger .22/.45 and its three magazines. Digging some more I found two boxes of 100 each CCI Stingers. Walking back over to Beth, I squatted down in front of her. “Beth, have you ever handled one of these? Holding out the holstered Ruger. She reached over and took the holstered pistol carefully, looking at it closely. While doing this I observed she was careful not to point the holstered pistol at either Mat or myself. After a moment or two, she unsnapped the holster strap and pulled the pistol out of the holster. Keeping the pistol pointed in safe direction she released the magazine catch and removed the empty magazine. Lying the magazine down, she pulled back the bolt and carefully inspected the chamber. Releasing the bolt, she looked up, “My Dad has one of these, I’ve used it to shoot rabbits in Mom’s garden.” “Good enough for me,” I said, “This is the only spare gun we have for now. This place doesn’t carry any firearms.”
“So have you had a chance to think about what you are going to do?” I ask her. Beth looked from me to Mat and said, “I guess for right now I’m going with you guys. If what Mat has told me is true than it is going to get bad out here and I want to get out of the city and head for home. I appreciate you guys invitation.” I looked at her, “If you are coming with us than you need to understand that when we say to do something than you need to do it. No questions at the time, later when we have time you may ask why, that is not a suggestion. If you can’t do that you need to go your own way. I will not have one of our group hurt or killed because you want to question a decision. Can you agree to that?” She looked at me, “Who are you guys anyway?” I put out my hand, “ I am Talon, I’m a retired Marine and have spent my fair share in one hell hole or another. Don is a retired Navy Master at Arms, the rest of these young men are in college and we are all heading up to Don’s cabin in the Blue Ridge. That is probably as far as any of us are going to get before the winter sets in, that is if we are lucky and get out of built up area around here. After that, when I can I’m headed down to my family in Texas, Ben and Jeff are headed back to their folks out west. But more than likely we will all spend the winter at the cabin,” I said, although I had no plans on hanging around for the winter to pass before heading out to get back to my family, I didn’t want any of the group to worry or panic thinking I was going to leave them. “Ok,” Beth said, “I can do that as long as you guys are the good guys.” I smiled at her and said, “Ok than, get packed up we have a long way to go before it gets dark.”
While I had been squatted down talking to Mat and Beth, I had noticed a picture on a display box across the aisle. Standing up and walking over to the display, I pickup up one of the flyers on the display. I took the flyer over to where Ben and Jeff were working on the bikes. Handing Jeff the flyer, I raised an eyebrow in question. Jeff shrugged and said, “Sure if we stay on roads or wide trails.” “Its worth a try, it sure would make carrying supplies a whole lot easier, go ahead and put one on four of the bikes, don’t put one on Don’s or Beth’s.” Walking back over to the camping area I grabbed four duffel style waterproof bags. My first stop was to grab all of the camping toilet paper and wet wipes the store had and divided them into the four bags. My next stop was at the camping food, grabbing all of the freeze dried food they had, than over to the camp stoves and grabbed a couple of the Jet Boils along with several gas refills for each. Leaving the bags where they lay, I headed to the back of the store to check and see if they had any more freeze dried food.
Walking up and down the shelves in the back storage area I finally spotted a pallet of Mountain House boxes. Stacking up four of the boxes I headed back out front and emptied the boxes into the duffel bags. Standing back I looked at the half full bags, grabbing two of the bags I half carried half dragged the bags towards the front of the store. Arriving near the checkout, I stopped and began loading the bags with all of the beef jerky the store had, which turned out to be quite a lot. I also grabbed several handfuls of gum and a couple of large bags of Twizzlers. Moving over to the candy bars I finished filling the two bags with all of the candy and protein bars the racks held. Barely getting the zippers closed I again half carried half dragged the bags back to the bike area. Returning to the storage area I grabbed two more cases of Mountain House and finished filling the other two bags. Next I headed back and grabbed another water proof duffel and walked over to the clothing area. I stuffed this bag with a dozen X-Large terminal tops and bottoms, all of the Darn Tough socks they had in Large and X-Large, along with several pairs of medium for Beth, and finally six pairs of cold weather gloves and six wool stocking hats.
Keying the mike on my radio, I ask for everyone to check in, after getting an answer from everyone I said, “I want everyone to make sure they have a good Gore-Tex rain jacket. If you do not, stop whatever you're doing and go get one now. Do not get any bright colors or anything that will stand out. Do it now please, Talon Out.” After dropping off the last bag I walked over and selected six medium size tarps, two coils of 120 climbing ropes along with six harnesses and a dozen carabineers and two climbing pulleys. Thinking to myself, as long as we have the room we might as well be prepared for anything. Never know when we would need a tarp or some rope. Grabbing another duffle I headed back to the bike area. Ben and Jeff had six bikes set up and were assembling the four bike carts. Dropping off the tarps and ropes by the carts I went over to my ruck and finished pulling out all of the protein powder and putting it into the duffel. Mat and Beth immediately did the same, placing all of the protein bars and powder from the vitamin store into the duffel. After they had finished, I told Mat to take the duffel around to everyone and have them empty their packs of the powder and bars.
Ben walked over to me, “You know these carts are going to be a gold plated bitch if we have to get off the road and going up those hills.” I smiled, “That is why we are only taking four carts, we can switch off if someone needs some rest, but honestly most of the work is going to fall on you,
Mat, and Ben as you guys are a lot younger and stronger than the rest of us.” Ben nodded and walked back over to the bikes, but they were almost finished with the bikes and carts. I walked to the front of the store and found Don sitting in a camp chair with his M4 across his knees. “How’s it going?” I ask. “Oh, about as well as you can expect. What with the world coming apart and resetting to the 1800’s. I always thought I wanted to live in the Wild West but now that it is here I’m not so sure.”
“We will be fine. We have a good team and have superior firepower to most of the people we are going to run into or up against I should say. We just need to stay alert and we should be fine. I do want to get out of here within the hour. You know this area better than I do, what route should we take to get us west of here and will take us though the least amount of built up area?” I ask. “I was just thinking on that very subject,” Don said as he reached down and picked up a large laminated Rand McNally road atlas, “The way I see it we can cut down Snowden Parkway to Highway 32, go west a couple miles to pick up 29 South. Take 29 to 200 West. We can take 200 over towards Gaithersburg but drop off it south just before we get to the built up area. We can pick up 28 West and at that point I don’t know. If we stay on 28 it takes us Northwest until it meets 15 South to cross the Potomac or we can go on up to Harpers Ferry to cross. Either way is going to take us Northwest but I just don’t see that we have any choice because those are the only way to get across the river if we don’t us 495.” Studying the map I did not see anyway around the problem either. I was hoping that we had at least another month before the weather became nasty. The bikes would vastly help us cover a lot more ground, that is if they did not get us all killed. Moving faster meant less security. We would have to be careful about getting strung out. At the end of the day it was a trade off of speed versus security. I believe right now we can risk the bikes. Once people begin panicking we might have to ditch them and take to the woods but for the next few days we needed to make as many miles as we could. I handed the atlas back to Don, “You ready to do some biking?” I ask, “When was the last time you were on a bike?” He surprised me, “Last week, Mat and I go mountain biking a couple of weekends a month,” he replied and smiled, “Don’t tell me a old Jarhead like you don’t know how to ride a bike,” he laughed. “Screw you old man,” I shot back, “it might have been a couple of years since I rode a bike, but I’ll manage. It is not today I’m worried about, its tomorrow.” We both laughed, but than I headed over to the counter area and grabbed two large bottles of pain reliever. I’m going to need these I thought, and grabbed a couple of tubes of Ben Gay too.
Returning to the bike area I gathered everyone to up. “Don will go over the general route of march in a minute. I just want to go over a few things. While the bikes will allow us to travel faster, they will also allow us to get into trouble faster. We will keep two people out front about a quarter mile ahead of the other four. If for any reason the two out front lose communications with the main body they are to stop immediately. If you still don’t have comms after five minutes than you are to backtrack until you do get comms back or get back within visual range of the main group. If the forward two come under fire they are to take cover and wait until the rest of us have time to flank the attackers. If the forward two hear the main body come under attack, they are to double back and attempt to flank the attackers. Everyone understand? Good, we will keep the four bike trailers in the main group and switch out with the two others in the forward element. The forward element will report back if they see anyone. If you come up to an overpass and see people, stop, do not approach them alone. Even if it is just a kid or a woman or they appear injured, do not approach them, people will use those types of ploys like kids to lure us in. Stop, report it and wait for the main body to catch up,” I paused and made sure everyone was nodding, “Mat, did you and Beth get everything she needs?” Mat and Beth both nodded. “Did you pack all those double AA’s?” Again nods, “Good, I hope you all realize that we are facing a completely different world out there right now than what you are used too. I know I have lived in this sort of environment for a long time. We cannot stop and feed every family we run into. The survival of our group is our first priority, if you reveal that we have food and water to strangers than you are basically saying that those people are more important than our group is. Because at that point we will not be able to extract ourselves without a fight. And if we end up in a fight it will be them or us. So think first before you offer anyone food or water. When we run into people, and we will, do not offer or let them know we have food and water. The way to cut off questions is the first thing you ask of anyone is do they know where we could get any food or water.” I looked hard into each persons eyes, “Its easy to sit here and agree to a concept, but you will find out it is much harder when faced with some hungry children. But we can’t feed the kids without feeding the adults. The first time one of you give food to a kid, mark my words, we will end up having to kill someone. Just remember I told you so. When we stop for the night we will have two people awake at all times. Everyone has night vision add on scopes for their M4’s. Only turn them on if you hear something approaching the camp, otherwise use the night vision monoculars, we do not have an endless supply of batteries for them. Also, do not point an M4 at me or anybody within our group. You point an M4 at me, I’m pointing mine at you and pulling the trigger. Keep that in mind. Back to the batteries, we will lay out the Goal Zero solar panels on the carts if the sun is out to recharge batteries during the day. I don’t know if or how well that will work but we will give it a try. When you are on guard duty that is just what it is. Stay separate from the group and pay attention to any approaches to the camp, NOT what is going on in the camp. Stay off the radios, unless you spot something or someone approaching the camp. From here on out, most of the time we will be eating twice a day, breakfast and dinner when we stop. Most days we will try and stop for a brief rest around noon and eat a protein shake or power bar for lunch. Please try and not take extra power bars during the day. Within a few days your body will adjust and always remember we have what we have and it might have to last us for a long time. We will stop and scavenge when it is to our advantage. Anytime we stop, everyone goes into a 360-degree perimeter, please try and find some cover when we do this. Do I need to explain the difference between cover and concealment, good, if you have to use a car for cover try and stay behind the engine block and the wheels. Almost all rifle rounds from .223 and 7.62 and many pistol rounds will go right though a car or a bouncer will catch you if you're not behind the tire. If our enemy takes cover behind a car watch for his legs underneath the car and skip the rounds off the pavement into him.”
I made a mental note and continued, “we need to make sure we have a few empty duffel bags for when we stop to scavenge. When we stop to scavenge, everyone will set up in a defensive position and Don and I will enter any building to scavenge. If you have any questions now is the time to ask.” No one had any questions, so Don went over the planned route for the day. After he was finished Ben went over the basic operations of the bikes. Ben had selected one of the bikes that the store had more than the six we needed. Ben and Jeff had cherry picked several more of the same bikes for parts that we might need along the way. In addition, Ben and Jeff had found four Aosom Wanderer bike trailers. They appeared well made and study and would be packed with a couple of layers of supplies and still have room for each of our packs. Everyone had been instructed to always keep their bug out bags on their person along with one of the small camel baks back packs with water, batteries, snacks, and extra ammo. The trailers would make the ride much easier that is if we can stay on the bike trails. If not we would have to re-think the whole trailer idea.
As we packed up with Ben and Jeff supervising it was clear we all were overloaded. “We will have to keep the speed down with this much gear,” Ben said. I nodded, “Especially going down some of these long hills, please make sure everyone has a good pair of sunglasses and one pa
ir of clear riding goggles for night riding. I don’t want anyone losing control because they got a bug in the eye.” Ben nodded and moved off in the direction of the riding accessories. After a couple minutes, Ben came back and began handing out the riding goggles to everyone.
I looked around and it appeared that everyone was ready to get on the road. I keyed my radio mic, “Everyone give me a radio check.” Mat had been able to find another radio and headset for Beth and she called in, “Beth here and ready to go.” Earlier I had been pleasantly surprised when I had seen her picking out a compound bow. She already had it strapped to her trailer along with what looked like about 35 or 40 arrows in two quivers. I nodded at her when she saw me looking over the bow, “You’ll do,” I said, “That is if you really know how to use that,” indicating the bow. She looked balefully at me and scoffed, “I got my first buck with a bow when I was 15, when did you get your first city boy?” I just laughed to myself and started pushing my bike towards the back of the store. Let her think what she wants, I was about as far away from being a city boy as you can get.
My earliest memories are of my family moving to the farm my Dad had brought in the summer of 1965. I was four going on five and was excited about moving to our own farm. I believe we had been living with my Mom’s parents while they saved up to buy the farm. The farm was about eight miles from the nearest town. It wasn’t much of a town but it was the county seat, population of 256 people and included the County Court House, Jail, School and one store with gas pumps out front. The farm we brought had been abandoned for more than 30 years and the only remaining buildings were an old one room school house (with no running water or electric ran to it) that had at one time been unprofessionally turned into a three room house and an old barn that was in fairly decent shape other than missing some tin sheets from the roof. They built the barns to last back than. The old school house was small, especially for a family of five. No running water, no indoor bathroom, no kitchen, and heated by a large pot belly stove made out of a 55 gal drum. It took my Father about a year, as he had a full time construction job, before we had an indoor bathroom and a working kitchen.
