by Sage du Toit
If she pushed two of the 4×8 pieces together it would more than cover the broken sliding glass door. But first she needed to remove the track for the window’s sliding blinds. She tried pulling it down but decided it must be screwed into the wood frame and not just the Sheetrock. She considered nailing the plywood to the outside of the house but decided that would probably be easier for someone to get off than if it was inside. She remembered seeing screwdrivers in the laundry room so she went and grabbed one and a step ladder she had seen in the kitchen. Then Sam removed the screws from each end of the track and then threw it behind the couch. She didn’t know why she was going to such work for what was supposed to be a temporary place, but then she thought of the helpless kittens and how precious those lives were now, even if they were just cats.
The nail gun was a big orange heavy thing, but she knew how to use it thanks to her Dad, so that wasn’t the problem, the problem was reaching the top of the eight-foot board while holding the heavy ass thing over her head. First, she shot some nails down the side to keep the board up on its own. Luckily the gun wasn’t too loud, other than the thump of the nail being driven through the board. She then climbed on the step ladder that she had found in the kitchen and shot nails across the top as close to the ceiling as she could get. She put up the other board and decided to lap it over in the middle and shoot nails all the way down the overlap...might not look pretty from the outside, but maybe the nails would prevent someone from hitting the board from that side. Once she finished nailing the plywood up she stood back and looked at her handy work. The nail placement was somewhat random, especially across the top, but maybe more than a few had hit solid wood and not just drywall. She pulled on the sides and thought, ‘Not bad for government work’. Which had been one of Tom’s favorite sayings.
With the wood covering the opening the room was now a lot darker. She considered sweeping up the glass on the floor but then thought, why? Sam then took one of the large plywood boards that was left and held it up against the large window in the living room. She placed a few nails around the edges, but not as many as the back door, lucky this window had an inset curtain so she didn’t have to take down the curtain rod. She looked around to see if here was anything else that needed done out here and then looked at the nail gun in her hand and decided to put a few nails through the front door. That was the only other access to the house other than the windows, and since she could just climb out the window, she would rather have the door more secure. Once that was done, she decided to push the couch up against the plywood to add more security there and then she pushed one of the recliners against the front door.
She took one last look around before covering up the kitchen windows. The light right now was bright and warm and she knew she was just putting off shutting it out. She slightly opened the blinds to take a look outside. She stood still and watched the sun glint off the leaves of the trees in the front yard. There wasn’t a house across the street, this was a dead-end road and it was the last house. There was a house next door but there was a large space between the houses and the eight-foot privacy fence. The cops that had lived here obviously liked their privacy. That was similar to her parent's preference as well...except their house was three miles down a dirt road on twenty acres of land in Texas. She continued looking outside, she wanted to also make sure that using the nail gun wasn’t drawing any unwanted attention. She didn’t see any movement.
Looking around the kitchen again, Sam methodically checked each cabinet to see what was in them and to see if anything else was missed. She then took a deep breath and bravely opened the refrigerator door. Fortunately, it looked pretty empty. There was a swollen gallon of milk she wasn’t about to touch and a few random plastic bowls with lids that looked like science experiments that were out of control. In the door was the normal condiments of most households; ketchup, mustard, jelly, and other sauces. As well as two jars of pickles. Those should still be good...not sure why the previous looters didn’t take them. She grabbed the jar of jerkins and opened the lid, smelling the sweet pickles inside she took one out and tasted it. It was seemed fine, so Sam snacked on the pickles as she finished looking around.
She pulled out a drawer and took out a few utensils she thought she might need and put them on the counter with a couple bowls and some hand towels. She continued looking thru the draws and found the bottom drawer full of condiments from fast food places; ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, honey, jelly, salt, pepper, sugar and creamer. She found a large plastic bag and filled it up with the condiments. She was thinking the honey and jelly would go good with the peanut butter, shame she didn’t have bread, but at least she did have crackers. She bundled the last of the stuff up and put them on the bed. Then she closed the blinds and taped up a garbage bag over the window, blocking out the light and casting the room into almost complete darkness.
Chapter 4
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Now that the house was secure, or rather as secure as she could get it, she went to work on organizing the bedroom. Sam had always been well organized and liked things “just so”. Her friends in school had always joked that she was OCD because she kept her locker clean and organized, but almost her whole family was like that, only her little sister was messy, but she had hopes she would grow out of that! Hopefully she was still alive to do so!
Sam went to work setting up the folding table and organizing the food, dishes and propane stove on top while she continued thinking about her family. Were they safe at home? Or had they made it to one of the shelters? Her Dad was a Captain for the local Sheriff’s department and her mom was a Trooper for the Texas Highway patrol. Both departments had emergency bunkers for employee’s and family. Of course, it would have been best if it happened while they were all still at home though. Her Dad had been a Special Forces Army Ranger and he had a safe bunker set up in their basement. Her friends would come over to her house and she would show them the bunker and they would all be astonished because most houses in their area didn’t even have basements, much less bunkers set up for emergency situations. Her Mom said Dad was turning into an ultimate prepper and sometimes she would hear them arguing about the money he spent, he even bought solar panels for the house. She bet mom wasn’t complaining about those now!
Looking over the table she was satisfied with what she saw, she had taken the two milk crates and stacked them on their sides on top of each other to form a sort of shelf and she put the dishes on top of the top one and the canned food and some of the other food inside with the big boxed food lined up neatly next to them. She had the large utensils all stuffed into a large cup and a smaller cup next to it with her cutlery. She decided to do a quick inventory of her food items so she could plan out her meals to last longer.
There were various cans of vegetables; 2 green beans, 2 peas, 2 carrots, 1 Tomato soup, 1 Broccoli Cheese soup, 5 baked beans and 3 different types of diced tomatoes. Other items included; dry pinto beans, dry Navy beans, white rice, 6 cans of tuna, 5 packages of flavored tuna, 4 boxes of Mac n’ Cheese, 2 boxes of Hamburger helper, box of Saltine crackers, box of Club crackers, 3 boxes of cereal; Honey nut cheerios, Captain Crunch, both of which were open and partially eaten, unopened box of Frosted Flakes, 8 breakfast bars, 10 packets of instant oatmeal, 3 packets of Blueberry Pop Tarts, jar of creamy peanut butter and a container of Ovaltine and 4 boxes of MRE’s but she wanted to save those for traveling.
Sam took the coffee pot to the bathroom and filled it up with water and set it on the camp stove to boil. She then grabbed a small pot and opened a can of Bushes baked beans and dumped them in. It had been a long while since she had any hot food and she was really looking forward to it.
While the food and water heated up she looked through the rest of her supplies, including dumping out her mostly empty rucksack so she could organize it and repack so her kit would be ready to go at a moment’s notice. There were several canteens she had found in the camping gear and she set those on
the table to fill up with the water once it was cool. She checked on her beans and stirred them a bit, licking the spoon before setting it back down on the table. They were getting warm, but the low heat setting she had them on would take a bit longer. She unhooked all of the clips and opened the compartments on her bag and shook it out over the bed so everything would fall out. She picked out all of the dirty clothes and threw them away. They were very dirty and she had plenty of replacements here in the house.
She checked the rucksack over and tightened the straps on the frame and checked each of the pouches to make sure they were still snapped and securely attached. There were two large utility pouches on the outside and a small medical pouch on the bottom right. She pulled off the medical pouch and set it aside. There was a sleep system carrier on the bottom that only had a poncho liner in it. Taking the rucksack to the bathroom she wiped it down with a wet cloth. It was holding up very well, just a little dry mud on the outside that came right off.
Ready to repack the bag, she put her water test strips, magnesium fire starter tool, maps and compass in one of the outside pouches attached to the MOLLE webbing. She then went through the drawers and closet and found replacement clothes and rolled those up tight and put them in a large plastic zip bag she had found and pushed the bag down until all the air was out and sealed it tight, she then stuffed them down into the bottom of the center compartment. On top of that she put tightly rolled 50’ parachute cord and a ground tarp she had found in the camping supplies. She was glad of that, it could also be used as a shelter.
She could smell the beans and hear the water boiling so she turned the burners off and shut the window, covering it back up. The sun would be going down soon so she lit her candles and sat on the edge of the bed to eat the beans straight out of the pot. Lucky had come out of the closet and was investigating her rucksack, she crawled inside the large compartment and peeked her head back out. Her head disappeared and Sam looked into the bag that was laying on the bed, Lucky was curled up in a ball with her nose tucked under her tail. Guess she was done packing for a bit! But Lucky gave her an idea, she could teach her kitten to sleep in the rucksack and it would make traveling a lot easier. The bag could be cinched at the top and the flap left loose. But that meant she wouldn’t be able to pack it all the way to the top. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to find a second bag to replace her assault pack that was gone.
Looking at all of the items she had now she felt very fortunate to have them and thankful to the family that left it all behind. She hoped they were somewhere safe, but she also hoped they didn’t make a trip home and find her camped out in their master bedroom! She headed to the bathroom to search the cabinets, she needed to refill her feminine products in her bag and she desperately wanted to brush her teeth. Looking under the sink she found a box of tampons and pads, thankfully they were the slim ones and not super- sized! She set those out and opened the cabinet that had the towels in it. On the bottom shelf there were plastic bins with travel size bottles of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and lotion. She grabbed one of each and a set of toothbrushes that were still in the package and full tube of toothpaste. She saw some razors but dismissed the idea of shaving. It would waste water and it was almost no shave November anyway. She smiled at her internal joke, that was what her mom always said in November.
There was also a bin with body sprays and scented lotions but she by-passed those, no point in standing out with a flowery scent if there wasn’t anyone around to be attracted by it. She thought about Tom and realized he wouldn't have been impressed if she had worn one of these anyway. Might have just given up their position if they were hiding. There was a new double pack of antiperspirant and she took out one and left the other for use now. This was almost like shopping. It was nice to find a house that was well stocked. It probably just meant that fewer people in this area survived. This gloomy thought was not what Sam needed right now so she finished looking through the bins and found one full of band aids and ointments and she grabbed the whole bin and threw the other stuff in it so she could restock her bag.
Brushing her teeth before leaving the bathroom, Sam ran her tongue over her clean teeth and appreciated the clean feeling. When she returned to the bedroom Lucky was gone, probably back nursing her babies. She finished packing her rucksack, putting tampons, pads and wipes in a plastic zip bag and another zip bag with the travel sized bottles and put them in one of the outside pouches. She replenished her first aid kit and added a small sewing kit that was in the bin she had brought from the bathroom. One large outside pouch held her replacement filters for her gas mask and batteries for her flashlight and the lantern that she found in the metal cabinet in the shed. She hooked the lantern to one side of the bag with a Carabiner, she had several Carabiner’s on the outside in case she needed to hook items. She would put an extra canteen on the other side to replace her hydration pack that was gone. She stuffed as many MRE’s as she could fit on top of everything in the center compartment. She fit almost two cases. She knew she could fit more if she stripped them down, but that would take awhile. If she could find enough plastic zip bags she might do it later.
She had left a small space on top to accommodate her idea of a cat sleeping there and took one of the men's t-shirts out of the drawer and placed it on top for the cat to lay on. Last thing was the sleeping bag. She took out her poncho and smelled it. It really needed to be washed so she set it aside again. She picked the lighter two of the sleeping bags from the shed and shook it out she then laid it on the floor and starting on the end without strings she very carefully started rolling it up as tight as she could get it. When she got to the other end she placed her knee on top and carefully tied the strings with a slipknot. The bag as a lot smaller now that she had compress rolled it. She put the bag in the bottom compartment and there was still a lot of room. So, she added two more MRE’s and left room for her poncho after it was cleaned. She picked the bag up and checked it for balance and to make sure it wasn’t too heavy. She considered what else she would need and remembered seeing an axe in the shed and she would add that later. It was a LOT heavier than it was before, but previously she had almost nothing. She guessed it was about forty or forty-five pounds and that was probably the max she could carry right now until she gained some muscle back. She thought maybe she could start exercising again soon.
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10 July 2020 N-Day (Continued)
Fort Jackson, SC
The room was pitch black and she could hear some screams coming from just outside of the door. She assumed it was the kitchen workers. Sam heard the Green beret say, “Don’t move”, then a light came on, he held a flashlight up and walked to the door where he opened it and shined it out on the kitchen workers. They were all women and they looked really scared. Addressing Sam, Rebecca, and the group of women he told them that if they had cell phones on them to get them our right now and check them to see if they had power. He pulled his out and pushed several buttons and pushed the side button and nothing happened, it was dead. Sam’s phone was in the black bag with her clothes. Rebecca held her black bag up and said hers was in the bag too. He told the woman to hang tight and then went back into the locker room with Sam and Rebecca. He told Sam to have Rebecca wash down the same as she did and to put her bag in the corner with Sam’s. He told her to look around as best she could and see if she could find some more towels and to keep instructing people what to do if they came in. She said, “Yes Sir” because she didn’t know what his rank was. He paused like he was going to say something more but then he handed her the flashlight and left.
Sam gave Rebecca washing instructions and then started looking around for more towels. She found a few more in unlocked lockers but some of them had locks so she couldn’t check those. Finally, she found a locker that had a stack of military issue brown towels. She took all of them out and stacked them on the bench. She had used a full-sized white towel and she had found a few more, but even with these crappy military towels there wouldn’t be
enough for everyone. She hung her used towel up to dry. Someone else would have to use it too. Rebecca said she was done just as Pvt Hernandez from her squad came in the door and he had three more flashlights he said they told him to bring back. She gave Rebecca one of the good towels and took Hernandez’s bag and the flashlights and told him how to shower. They started coming in faster now and she had Rebecca help her explain to each one as they came in. It wasn’t long until all of her squad had come in and most were washed and sitting on the benches talking quietly. They were pretty use to her telling them what to do, so she hadn’t had any problems with them. Some of them did ask her questions that she had no answer for and others wanted to know if they could get their clothes back and she told them they would have to wait for the Green Beret.
The last of her squad members was in the shower and the second squad leader, SPC Meyers came in the door, along with the Green-eyed Beret. She smiled to herself when she thought of that name and decided she would tell Rebecca later, that was going to be her secret nickname for him. The Green Beret gave Meyers the instructions to shower and what to do afterward. He looked around the room and saw that she had everyone hang up their towels after use and the stack of towels in the bench. He asked her if that was all of the towels she had found and she told him about the locked lockers.
He nodded and then asked her, “Is this was all of your squad?” She guessed they must have told them to get the soldiers off a squad at a time. She saw that Rebecca had given their last squad member a towel and she replied, “Yes Sir, and they all showered per your instructions, but they want to know when they will get their clothes back.” He had a glint in his eye and she thought oh no, here it comes. He said, “Well first off, stop calling me Sir, I work for a living.” Which meant he was an NCO, not an Officer. Then he spoke to all of the squad and told them that they would get their clothes back after they had all been decontaminated and that might take a few days. Until then they could hang out in their underwear, but to just keep it from hanging out. They all laughed, especially the guys. He then told Sam to take her squad and go out to the tables out front and sit down as far away from the front door as possible.
