by A J Newman
“You’re right,” said Jacob. We need to get these new channels started this morning before we run out of time. We can’t move our vehicles or gear and would lose most of it if the paths flood.
We will set up a schedule to work around the clock and pray the tractor doesn’t break down.”
Roger drew a rough map of the subdivision, and we penciled in some suggested routes for the channels.
I told the team, “Roger, I want you to take Paul and Jacob to the southeast end of the development and choose the routes for the channels. The rest of us will start figuring out where to place the dams.”
***
The heavy snow had kept the wolf pack penned up in their den, which was a small cave that ran into a much larger cavern system. Southern Kentucky had many caves and was famous for being the home of Mammoth Cave. The cave ran back under a large hill and opened up to yield a large chamber that comfortably held the 30 members of the pack. The temperature was a cool 55 degrees in the large chamber that was 40 feet from the opening.
A small stream ran all year long at the rear of the cave, so water was plentiful though it did have a coppery taste.
Shelter and water were not the problems for the pack. The problem was the blizzard, dumping seven feet of snow over the past four days, which made hunting impossible.
Deer, rabbit, and opossum are numerous now that the human population had been greatly reduced.
The pack had eaten well since moving south until the snowstorm literally locked them inside the cave. The inside of their huge den was completely dark as the snow had covered the entrance, yet something in their makeup told them that the snow had stopped. They began to dig.
Now that the sun had come out, the pack found that it was difficult to walk on the snow and that there was no game to stalk. They found a few mice, but little else. It had been six days since they had killed a deer and a small beaver. The pack was very hungry.
Becoming desperate, the Alpha male knew they had to have a successful hunt soon. He could smell the human scent from the north mixed in with the smell of dogs and a faint smell of cat.
Before TSHTF, wolves would not normally attack or eat humans, but dogs and cats would fill their belly nicely until they could find their normal game. Hunger would drive them to make a raid on the human town tonight.
***
Roger returned with his crew from the scouting trip and pointed out the best route for our drainage path. Sam and Jacob got on top of the garage at our house with the scope off a rifle and showed Paul where to start digging and piling snow.
Jacob handed the scope to Sam and said, “See that large oak tree to the left of the red barn.”
“Yes, it’s by its self, so it makes a good target.”
“Just keep the tractor operator aimed at that tree, and we’ll be on target. When we get closer to the tree, we have another tree beside the creek that we will guide us to finish the project. We figure it’s about half a mile to the creek. We couldn’t pace it off due to having to make our way through the snow and drifts.”
Roger added, “Yes and we wouldn’t have made it if Callie hadn’t come up with the idea to make snow shoes. Joan and Lynn did a great job making them for us.
The plan was to have someone check the path against the preferred route every half hour to keep it on track. Paul took the first two-hour shift and only dug out a path eight feet wide by 50 feet long. The path was wider than needed because the tractor had to turn to the side to dump the snow.
I got Mike and Jacob to watch the effort to see if we could come up with a better method.
“Guys, Paul has only dug up 50 feet of the path, and at that rate, it will take about 50 hours straight to finish our drainage ditch. We need ideas to speed up the work!”
“Let’s watch for a minute.”
After observing for a few minutes Jacob spoke up, “Paul is spending too much time pushing the snow from the ground, causing most of the snow to fall behind the blade. Let’s have him move the top five to six feet and use the snow blower to clean up the ground as he goes.”
“Sounds good, Mike, please get the blower, and we’ll give it a try.”
I got on the tractor and changed to the new procedure while Mike came in behind me to move the remaining foot of snow. This reduced the time for the next 50 feet by a third.
“Well, that was successful. Let’s pass the process on to everyone before they take their turn.”
“Using the brain power of the group is always better.”
“Mike, please check on the dam building. If this works, the dams won’t have to be more than a foot, or so high.”
“Hey big boy, we might have to re-think the dams to keep the water away from the houses.”
“Why?”
“Dams keep water in for the most part. Snow will melt on both sides of the dams.
“Another oh crap situation,” moaned Callie.
“No, I say we build the dams, but keep an eye on the water flow. If our project works, we won’t need the dams. If there is a backup, the dams could be handy.”
I suppose dams might not be the best term, channels would be more accurate. While they will perform as dams to keep water out of our homes, their main purpose is to channel the water away.
I thought to myself, semantics, good grief!
“Okay, let’s educate everyone.”
Paul added, “We remind everyone that at night the channels will leave a sheet of ice on our paths. We don’t need any busted asses or broken legs.”
Smugly, Mike added, “Another great observation.”
I smiled and said, “Dude, no one likes a smartass. I know because the only friends I have are smartasses.”
***
The Alpha male and nine of the pack struggled through the deep, but hardening snow, to the human’s houses that night to bring home a kill for the pack. There was a strong smell of human, dog, cat, and raccoon, but only three humans were outside digging in the snow.
The two raccoons had raided a garbage can and were moving back to the woods when the pack attacked. The raccoons put up a fight but were vastly outnumbered.
The Alpha male ate first, and there was a fight for the rest. Wolves don’t normally attack humans, but this pack was starving.
The humans were stuck below the level of the top of the snow. They would be alarmed at the number of wolf and coyote paw prints in the snow above them. The Alfa male knew the pack could jump down and kill a dog, but then could not get back up the sheer wall of snow and ice.
***
We worked on digging the drainage path for the next two days and could see that we were only yards from the tree line at the creek. By working in two-hour shifts, we dug the drainage path without wearing anyone out, and thankfully, our equipment kept running without breaking down.
We broke through the last few feet and found the creek to be flowing free. The water level was high, and the normally small creek was 20 feet across and opened to the sky. I thanked God that the creek level was five feet below ground level, or we would have just flooded the neighborhood. The ground level on the other side of the creek was three feet lower than our side, so I wasn’t worried about the creek flooding the neighborhood.
Ben ran the snow blower to the end of the path and finished the job.
“Let’s celebrate. Mike, cut up some deer steaks and let’s have a BBQ.”
“Great idea, let’s see, it’s 3:00 and the sun will be down shortly. Let’s go get the pit fired up.”
Later after we had finished eating, we sat around my family room swapping stories and singing our favorite songs.
“This is as close to before the lights went out normal as it gets these days. People enjoying their friend’s company and having a great time.” Ally said.
Joan replied, “And no one is staring down at their smartphones and ignoring their friends. This might be a better world if we weren’t running out of medicine and hygiene supplies.”
That brought a cautious laugh from
everyone.
Callie said, “I need to take Duke out to do his business. I’ll be back in a minute. Let’s stay up late playing cards.”
“Darn, I need to let our dogs out.”
“Me, too.”
“Let’s take a break and then start a gin rummy marathon.”
The ones with dogs went home to let them out and came back after their dogs had finished. Callie and I had Labs from the same litter that we found in a warehouse. Sally and Lynn had German Shepherds, and the others had a variety of dogs. Sadly, most small dogs seem to have disappeared over the last year. Then again, large dogs were a distinctly coveted addition to the family.
We had a ball playing cards and the time passed quickly when Ally said,” The poor dogs must be ready to go out again. Susie would you and Kate, please go let the dogs out.”
Susie was playing checkers with Ben’s daughter Kate when she heard the request.
“What do I get for going out in the cold to take care of the dogs?”
I replied, “My dad would have said something like, you won’t get your ass busted, but I’m sure your mom has a better answer.”
Ally went over to Susie and whispered in Susie and Kate’s ears. They jumped up, put their coats and gloves on and went to tend to the dogs.
“What did you tell them,” asked Lynn?
“I told them the mean old man would make snow cream for them tomorrow.”
“When you find a mean old man, you’d better order him to make snow cream.”
***
The wolves came up our new drainage channel from the creek. The icy footing was very slick, but their claws made the trek passable.
We had unknowingly solved their transportation problem. The wolves were searching the areas around the houses when two humans and a large dog came out of one of the houses.
Several of the wolves followed the dog while the two humans opened the door to another house and let another large dog out. The two humans traveled house to house letting more dogs and a few cats out.
The pack would kill and eat tonight because the humans had cleared a path to the creek and the wolves could drag their prey back to a safe place to eat.
Several of the dogs sniffed the air and caught the scent of dangerous animals, the fur along their back stood on end, and they began to bark aggressively.
There were 10 wolves watching the dogs and humans from above the snow walls down to the paths. Another 15 waited down by the houses.
Suddenly, several wolves jumped down from the top of the snow walls and attacked the dogs. The fight was fierce but shortened by the number of wolves. The struggle was quickly over. The smaller dogs didn’t stand a chance. They were killed in short order, and the wolves dragged them back to their den.
Susie saw the wolves, screamed and then yelled for Duke and Gus to come to her. She wanted to protect the two Labs.
Susie and Kate were backed into a corner in Callie’s back yard just 10 feet from the kitchen door. Several of the wolves were between them and the door. Duke and Gus were between them and the wolves, they snarled, and gnashed their teeth at the wolves. The wolves were moving in for the kill when the two German Shepherds attacked them from behind.
Susie and Kate were crying and screaming as loud as they could, but the snow walls muffled the sound.
***
We were playing cards when Ally said, “Susie and Kate should have been back by now. Zack, come with me to make sure everything is okay.”
“Yes dear.”
Ally opened the door, and there was Jacob’s smaller dog trying to fight off a wolf. Ally reached for her pistol and sadly found that she had failed to strap on her gun belt before leaving the house. I drew mine and shot the wolf. The others ran to the door as I yelled for them to get their guns.
“Come on we must get to the girls. Ally, go back in and get your gun.”
Mike, Ben, Paul, Callie and I charged out the door and only got 30 feet from the house when wolves jumped down on us from above.
They were actually after three of the dogs who had run to us for safety. We were in the middle of dogs and wolves fighting and couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting one another.
“Shoot when you have a clear shot.”
I drew my bayonet with my left hand and stabbed the nearest wolf. His head came around, and he bit my forearm as he died. Mike stabbed another, got him against the snow wall and shot him. Ben shot another that was on top of Callie and Paul was wrestling with one on the ground until he stabbed it in the side.
I shot the nasty beast, turned and stabbed another that had jumped down from the top of the wall.
Callie shot two more; suddenly dead wolves were piled around us. The others headed to Callie’s house.
I waved towards Callie’s house and yelled, “The girls, let’s go!”
Several more of our clan had joined us to save the girls from the wolves. We ran towards Callie’s house when we heard snarling and screaming up ahead. Mike and I were in the lead when we rounded a corner and came face to face with a large group of wolves that had the girls, and our dogs surrounded.
One German Shepherd was down, but still trying to fight even with his terrible wounds. A wolf was on top of Kate. She was bravely hitting the wolf with her small fists. The other German Shepherd had a wolf by the throat, but two more wolves were ripping him apart from behind. Duke and Gus were blocking the wolves from getting to Susie.
The wolves saw us. They turned to attack as we approached. I started shooting when I had a clear shot and killed two. We had to kill more of these vicious beasts to get out into the open.
The wolves charged, and we were fighting them hand to muzzle. I was ripping and stabbing while the wolves were biting all of us.
Mike emptied his magazine, and a wolf grabbed his free hand before he could reload. Paul stabbed the bastard and started shooting his 9mm into the beasts.
I looked up, saw a wolf ripping Kate’s throat open and shot him. I kept shooting until the three remaining wolves ran on out towards Mike’s house.
I checked Kate and found her to be dead, and then picked Suzie up and headed back towards my house. Ben held his dead daughter and wept.
I yelled at Mike, “Kill every wolf you find.”
I headed back while the rest went wolf hunting. The trail was easy to follow.
I ran into Ally on the way and handed Suzie to her as I said, “Kate didn’t make it. I have to tell Ben’s wife.”
I walked into the kitchen, and Ben’s wife saw the sorrow in my eyes and fell to her knees.
“Oh God, no, my baby is dead.”
“I’m sorry Cathy, but we couldn’t save her.”
Ally walked in carrying Suzie, set her down at the table and tended to her wounds.
I thought Susie is alive. Why did Kate die and God spare Susie?
Susie yelled to me, “Go save Gus and Duke. They saved me.”
I went back and found Duke guarding Gus who had died from his wounds. I picked Duke up and carried him back to the house. He had suffered numerous bites, but nothing life threatening.
I tried to help Ally with Susie, but Susie just clung to her mom, and all I could do is to fetch water and keep Ally company. Joan helped me patch Duke up, and then I went back out to gather the bodies of our dead dogs. I placed them in my garage so the wolves couldn’t come back and carry them off. We held a burial service for them the same day we buried Kate.
***
“Mike, slow down. The wolves are trapped by the slick ice walls. They know they are trapped and will fight to the death. They have to go through us to get out of this maze to the creek.”
“Damn. Paul, you’re right. Let’s slow down and pick them off as we herd them toward Sam’s place.”
The wolves tried several times to break through and escape, but they had people shooting every time. They kept thinning them down until they were finally cornered at Sam’s place. There were only four left, and they had drug several dead dogs with them in hopes of getting
back to their pack.
Mike and Paul shot the last four wolves before they could attack. The nightmare was over for everyone except Susie. She would take months to get back to normal and was afraid of the dark for years.
***
We were very thankful that we still had antibiotic creams and capsules, our wounds slowly healed without anyone developing a serious infection.
The weather got better, and the temperatures slowly rose until we were in the mid-forties in the daytime and barely above freezing at night.
The snow began to melt, and we had a steady stream of water all day long running from Sam’s on down past my house. We had to keep an eye out for wall collapses as the snow melted. One night a wall between Callie and Mike’s house fell and dammed up the drainage. We ended up with a foot of water before our guard was able to fire up the tractor and bust the dam open.
It got up into the fifties the following week and began raining. The water was six inches deep flowing down the path all week long. By the end of that week, winter was over. We killed several more wolves, but none ever tried to attack us again.
Chapter 13 - State of the Union
Rolling Hills
Everyone was trying to put the wolf attack behind them as winter turned into spring. The weather was wonderful, and we were able to stay outdoors again hunting and fishing. I was very lucky to have my dog Duke to help us hunt. Only a few dogs and no cats survived the attack.
We licked our wounds and were pleasantly surprised that no one got rabies from the bites. Life got back to some semblance of normal. Well, as normal as it could be in this post-apocalyptic world.
