Lone Star Odyssey- First Steps

by David Wilson

  Holstering my Glock, I walked over to Don and ask, “You ok?” He nodded, “They came up on me while I was fixing one of the Mountain House bags. I never heard them.” It was than I saw he was bleeding from a cut on the back of his head, I pulled a bandana from my cargo pocket and hand it to Don, “Its clean, looks like you took a pretty good hit, hold this against that cut until we can take a closer look.” I motioned for Mat to come over and told him to get a first aid kit from one of the trailers. I moved over and checked both of the bodies making sure both were dead. Turning back to the group they were all still standing there staring at me. “Beth, go help Mat clean up that cut on Don’s head. I’ll be over there in a minute to take a look at it. Ben, Jeff, you guys get out your night vision scopes and get them on your rifles and than take up guard positions. These guys might not have been alone. One to the east and one to our south. Go out about 75 feet, no further. I’ll be out in a few with your food. Let me know if you hear or see anything. Get moving.”

  That seemed to snap everyone out of their frozen state. Beth moved to help Mat with Don, while everyone kept stealing glances at the two dead guys. I ignored their looks and ejected the magazine from my Glock; stuffing the used magazine into my left hip pocket I pulled a full one from its pouch and inserted it into the gun. Walking back over to the two would be bad guys I turned out their pockets to see what they had. Mat glanced over at me, “What are you doing?” “Checking their pockets for loose change,” I said. Mat’s eyes widen and he stammered, “What?” “Sorry, bad joke, I’m checking to see if they have anything indicating where they are from or where they were headed. I don’t think we want to run into any of their friends,” I said. The smaller guy that had been holding Don’s M4 had a surprising amount of money in the first pocket I checked, I didn’t take the time to count it but there had to be at least a couple grand, his other pockets had even more surprises. At first I thought they just rolls of coins, but when I pulled them out they were the plastic protective cases that coin collectors use for pure silver and gold coins. From the markings on the protective cases these guys must have hit a gold dealer or pawnshop recently. I didn’t take the time to count the coins, but I did pat the guy down a little more carefully than I would have. Taking everything I had found on the first guy I moved over to the bigger second guy. Again another big wad of cash and several more protective cases of gold coins. I sat back on my heels and begin to think, surely these guys had more gear than just what they were wearing. I stood and began casting around looking for any backpacks or bags. Sure enough I found two mid size day packs stashed behind a large oak about 20 feet away. Judging from the weight of the two packs there was a lot more coins in the packs. Giving them the once over I pulled out a couple of baggies of weed and one of pills. Having no idea what I was looking at with the pills, I took the weed and the pills and carried them over to the slit trench. Dropping them into the pit I kicked dirt over them. I damn sure didn’t want to explain how we came into possession of drugs. Taking the loose coins I took out of their pockets I dropped them into one of the bags and carried both bags over to the bikes. Catching Mat’s eye as I walked past, I motioned him to follow me. Once he came over I said, “Take this bag and hide it under your equipment in your trailer. Just trust me, don’t open it, just hide it, it might come in useful later on down the road.” I could see that he wanted to ask what it was, but did as he was told without bitching about it. I took the second bag and did the same with it in my trailer.

  Walking back over to the two dead men, I bent over picking up Don’s M4 from the ground, I cleared the weapon and made it safe, checking to make sure the barrel was clear, just in case the idiot I shot had jammed the muzzle of the rifle into the ground when he fell. I next moved over to the knife guy and rolled him over. I spotted Don’s Sig Sauer in the guy’s waistband and pulled the pistol out. Dropping out the magazine, I racked the slide and caught the round as it was ejected. Again, checking the barrel to make sure it was clear, I thumbed the loose round back into the mag and reloaded the pistol. Walking back over to Don, I handed him his pistol, “That’s loaded with one in the chamber,” I said, than handed him his rifle, “The rifle does not have one in the chamber.”

  Don looked at me sheepishly, dropping the pistol into his drop leg holster, “Thanks,” he said. “No big deal,” I said, “I should be apologizing to you, from now on no one does anything alone, that was my mistake and it won’t happen again.” “Sorry I put you in the position of having to kill two men,” Don said before I raised my hand to stop him. “No big deal, just probable saved someone down the road a lot of grief. A lot of these types of guys are going to be taking advantage of the situation now to act anyway they want and to take what they want. The only thing holding them in check was the fear of what would happen to them from the law if they were caught. With that fear gone now they thought they could do whatever they wanted. They wanted to see us cower in fear and beg but don’t think for a minute that they would not have killed all of us, that is all of us except Beth.”

  Beth inhaled sharply at this. “Yes Beth, realize that the world has charged and it is worse for the females. Guys like this are scum and would torture and rape you before killing you after they got tried of playing with you.” I was watching Beth’s face and could see her looking between me and the bodies of the dead bikers. “Look, regardless of how it might look, it is never an easy thing taking another person’s life. But in situations like this it was them or us. No amount of talking would have changed the outcome, other than to maybe get one of us hurt or killed. It really comes down to the difference between good and evil and I for one will never put myself in a position willing to surrender to the likes of these scum. And its not because they were bikers. I know a lot of guys that are hardcore bikers, but they would never prey upon the weak or helpless or jump someone like these guys did. Like I said they wanted to talk and intimidate us, to see fear of them, to some that is a huge high. I wasn’t in a talking mood. Scum like these only understands force. If I had just disarmed them, than they would have done the same exact thing the first time they got the chance. No the world is better off without guys like this. Mat, let Beth handle Don’s cut. Lets begin moving all the bikes about 50 yards north away from these guys.” Mat got up and came over to me. “Mat, grab your rifle, don’t ever go anywhere without your rifle, pistol and ammo vest. I know all of this has everyone a little off balance but all of you need to snap out of it,” keying my handset I called Ben and Jeff, “Check In,” I said. Ben came on, followed by Jeff, both reporting they had not heard or seen anything. Keying the radio again, “Come on back to camp, we are going to move a short distance away from here.” After receiving an affirmative from them, Mat and I waited until the pair joined us.

  “You guys go ahead and eat right quick, being Don already has the food prepared, after that we will move camp a short way so we won’t be bother by the night time scavengers.” “Should we bury them or something,” ask Jeff. I looked at him and said, “No, why waste the time and effort. If it was one of our own, sure we would, trash like that, no. The animals will make short work of them. Speaking of chow, let's eat and get moved so we can get a good night’s sleep. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow,” as I moved over to the area where Don had been preparing the dehydrated meals. Picking up two of the Mountain House bags I turned and ask, “Ok, who wants lasagna?” Beth ask, “Who are you? In one day you rob a Bass Pro Store blind, a Vitamin Shop, a Dick’s sporting goods store, teach us to build a fire, set fishing lines and snares, save Don and us by killing two homicidal bikers and are now serving us dinner like nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Who the hell are you?”

  I paused for a couple of seconds looking at each of the group, “I’m just a guy that grew up in a different world than you know, along the way I picked up a few skills, a guy that I like to think is one of the good guys, well at least a slightly bad guy that does good things, a guy whose only mission in life right now is getting to Texas to
be with and protect my wife and kids from the same type of scum I took care of tonight. By helping this group get out of the DC area, I’m helping myself. So that is who I am and that is all you need to know. Now let's eat before this gets cold. Ben, Jeff you guys take the Lasagna. Beth, Mat here is the beef stew, Don and I will share the Chili Mac. Everyone dig in and eat, but make sure everyone has their night vision on their M4s in case these idiots had friends within ear shot of the gunfire. Now snap out of whatever funk you are in and get your shit together.” With my speech done, I handed out the bags of food and moved over next to Don. Fishing my CRKT spork out of my pouch on my chest rig I handed the bag to Don and said, “Eat up, how’s your head feeling?” “Have a hell of a headache, but I think I’ll live,” he said. I got back up and moved over to my ruck and fished around in the top pouch to retrieve my headlamp. Flipping on the red lens light I dug around until I found my med bag. Finding it I carried it back over to Don and moved behind him. Seeing that Mat and Beth had done a fair job of cleaning up the cut on Don’s head I pulled out a tube of Neosporin and applied a small dab to the cut. “I could put a couple of stitches in that if you want me to,” I said. Don shook his head gingerly, “No I’ll be ok.” “Ok, let me wrap it up so you don’t get anything in it tonight, we definitely don’t want it to become infected.” Handing him a couple of ranger tabs. Don looked at the large pills and raised his eyebrows. “Take them, its only 800 milligram Tylenol, be sure and drink plenty of water with those and eat some food or they might make your stomach upset. Now hold still while I finish bandaging this cut.” Pulling out a gauze pad I folded it in half and taped it down over the cut. “If you put your hat back on it will hold that bandage in place, at least until you go to bed. No guard duty for you tonight, just eat and get some rest.”

  After finishing up taking care of Don’s cut, I took the remainder of the Mountain House Chili Mac from Don and sat down to eat. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I began eating. It always surprises me how good some the freeze-dried foods are. Chili Mac has always been my favorite. Finishing the bag quickly, I stood and moved over to the trailer and grabbed the shovel. As quickly as I could I dug a hole about one foot deep next to the area we had the Solo stove set up. “Everyone finish up and put all of your trash in this hole. Last one to finish covers the hole over so no one will step into it and break an ankle.” Dropping my empty bag into the hole, I gingerly touched the Solo stove to see if it was still hot. Finding it had already cooled, I picked it up and shook out the ashes and repacked the stove into its bag. Carrying the bag over to my ruck I repacked the bag into its proper place inside my ruck. Cinching down the straps on my ruck, I made sure it was still securely in the trailer and moved over to my bike. Pushing the bike I began moving though the trees to the east. After about 75 yards I ran into a wall of black berry bushes. While normally I don’t like to set up close to briar patches, tonight we would make an exception for one night. Snakes like briar patches because rabbits and other small animals like the briar patches. But it would have to do for tonight as it was almost completely dark and with no moon this time of the month it was going to get pitch dark very quickly. As everyone strayed in I told them to get bedded down and that I would take the first watch, I would wake Beth and Mat for the next watch and in turn they would wake Ben and Jeff. Ben would wake me at 0400 for the last watch.

  Slinging on my M4 I checked to make sure the night vision scope was securely mounted and working. I made a quick check of the area and saw that everyone but Don was already in their sleeping bags. Moving over to Don, I squatted down next to him. “How’s the head feeling?” I ask. “Its ok, throbbing a little but I’ll be ok by morning. Bye the way, I didn’t get a chance earlier to say thanks for taking care of those two morons. They were telling me the whole time just what they were going to do with us and how happy they were to finally get their hands on some weapons. They said they had been down in Richmond and were heading back when the EMP hit. They were heading back to their home in Laurel when their motorcycles just quit running. They saw us turn off the highway and followed us. They knew we had at least one girl with us and the things they were saying they were going to do to her were horrible. What’s really bothering me is they were able to sneak up on me. What if they had killed a couple of these kids? I just feel stupid letting them get the drop on me like that.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up, I should never have left only one person alone. From now on we stick to the two-person rule for everything. Now try and get some sleep. Do you want me to set up your hammock real quick?” “No, I’ll be ok just with my sleeping bag tonight. But thanks again.” Don said as he began spreading out his bag. I stood and moved a few feet away and waited until he had crawled inside the bag. All of them were going to be sore and cranky tomorrow. I made a mental note to stop sooner tomorrow night so everyone would have time to set up their hammocks.

  Moving about 25 yards back towards the south; I found a tree to sit against that gave me a good view of the area. Bringing up my M-4 I slowly scanned the area. An owl began softly hooting nearby but it was the only sound from the woods. Sitting and listening to the night sounds I thought about how this event had changed the world so much for the young members of our little group. Well they will adapt and do it quickly or it could become a huge liability. If the group as a whole doesn’t adapt to this new world, I will have to leave them and go on my own. Wow, that is cynical I thought, they are a good bunch of kids but they are not my kids. My kids are 1400 miles away and need me there with them not shepherding a bunch of strays. But I had given my word to Don that I would give him a hand in exchange for the weapons and equipment. By now my wife would have opened the Emergence Folder. She had made fun of me when I told her about it, but after she got mad about a couple of my SHTF purchases I had kept any future purchases off the books. She did not know about the cases of number 10 cans of Mountain House stored under the stairs or the large cache of ammo stored in the master bedroom closet. As she always had me get the suitcases out of the false floor in our master closet for any family vacation, she did not know I had lined the back wall with ammo cans. Inside the Emergence Folder were spare keys to the safes, as I’m sure the electronic locks were fried from the EMP and detailed instruction on what to do. She had been so mad when I had ordered two bathtub BOBs. Waste of money she had said, I agreed with her it was a waste of money at the time, but not now. I would always wait until she was at work and the nanny had the kids at gymnastics before pulling everything out of the closet and storing the new purchases and than putting everything back. The ammo was a little more complicated. I would have to wait until the house was empty, break out the ammo, repack into MTM boxes and ammo cans, pull out all the suitcases, stack the ammo cans against the back wall and replace the suitcases. I just really, really hope we never have a fire; the local fire department is not going to be happy if that ever happens, not to mention the insurance company. Well I guess I don’t have to worry about the insurance company anymore. Have I mentioned that my wife if very hardheaded, brilliant, well educated, hardheaded, ok you get the picture. Anyway, I wasn’t going to win that argument but at least now they had plenty of beans and bullets, but I did need to get home as fast as I can.

  Glancing at my watch I see I still have another hour before I wake up Beth and Mat, I decide to make a short patrol of the area. Moving slowly, using my night vision scope ever few paces I move down to the shoreline near where we set the YoYo fishing reel. Reaching out I feel for the line feeding out of the reel. Sure enough the line is taunt and vibrating. Pulling my gloves from the pouch on my vest I pull them on. Taking the taunt line in my hands I slowing pull the line in as the reel takes in the slack. Getting the fish into the shallows I briefly turn on my headlamp to see what it was before pulling it out of the water. The red light of my headlamp revealed a very nice channel catfish in about the 4-5 pound range. I pulled it up onto the bank and stepped on it to hold it still while grabbed it by its lower jaw. Using my Gerber t
ool I reached in and removed the hook. Making a small slit in its lower jar I snap in a small carabineer with about ten feet of 550 cord. Tossing the catfish back into the water I tied the line to a small nearby tree. Hopefully a coon would not come along and steal my catfish. I would build a fire in the early morning to get some coals going in order to cook it for breakfast.

  Moving on with my walk around the camp I went by and pulled my snare off the game trail. No use trying to catch something when we had plenty and I didn’t want to take the time of having to skin and cook something when we already had one nice catfish for the morning lesson. Coiling up the snare I shoved it into my cargo pocket. The rest of my walk around the camp area was uneventful. The night remained quiet other than a occasional light wind rustling in the trees or the distance hooting of an owl on the hunt.

  Around midnight I woke Beth and Mat and got them situated on either end of the camp in good locations. Telling them to call me on the radio if they heard or saw anything and to wake Ben and Jeff and to show them where to sit. I than went over of my ruck and pulled out my Warbonnet hammock. It took me all of two minutes to string up the hammock, thanking god once again for Dutchware for making it so easy and quick to set up a hammock. Sitting in my hammock, I stripped off my vest and shoulder holsters, laying my vest on the ground under my hammock, I laid my M4 on top of the vest than covering the rifle with my jacket. Shrugging back into my shoulder holsters, I went back over to my ruck and fished around and pulled out my poncho liner and inflatable pillow. Sitting in the hammock again I pulled off my boots and laid down in the hammock. Zipping the mosquito net closed I than blew up my pillow and rolled my poncho liner around me.