I tell her to get home and tell Tim and Billy what she told me, I will get her mother and take care of the men. I start running and in just a couple hundred yards I hear a woman’s voice begging for them not to hurt her. They laugh and slap her across the face, I can see them now and I am hurrying, but trying to get close before they know I am here. The biggest one who happens to be the dirtiest one, grabs her blouse and rips it off laughing. He slaps her across the face again knocking her to the ground. I can’t wait any longer, I yell for them to leave her alone. They step back, but just a step. I’m sure they think because there are two of them they may have the upper hand. The smaller one has the nerve to ask if I want my turn first. I am close enough now to punch him and I do. His problem is that he jerks his head back when he sees my fist coming, and instead of hitting him in the mouth or on the nose I hit him in the throat, causing him to drop to the ground choking. Not that I care because I am not going to let these animals live now anyway. I tell Jessica to go back to the house and assure her that Jenny is okay as well. She gathers her clothes up and wrapping them around her starts walking back to the house. My eyes haven’t left those of the big dirty one. He took out a large sheath knife when I hit his partner. He is starting to catch his breath a little so I have to watch him as well now.
The big one tells me if I turn and walk away, they won’t kill me. I tell him that if he feels real lucky he is more than welcome to try, because if he can’t kill me he is going to die right here. He looks toward the one on the ground and leaps at me swinging the knife with an upward motion at my face. He has some experience with that knife. Most people will swing from side to side. People tend to lean forward when avoiding a knife so an upward motion will often catch someone in the throat. That can take the fight out of you real quick. Lucky for me I have fought several very good fighters with knives, so I know a few tricks as well. I parry his arm away from me and just miss grabbing it. He is stronger than he looks. The one on the ground jumps at my legs and I kick him under the chin snapping his head back. From the way he goes down I either broke his neck or knocked him out. At least I don’t have to worry about him for the moment. I have my 9mm with me, but I don’t want to kill this guy quickly unless I have to. In case you haven’t noticed I am not real big on forgiveness. I’m working on it, but then I meet someone like this and I take two steps back.
Fat man lunges again, I can see the worry on his face now, I should be afraid and instead I am really amused with his efforts. He makes a couple quick striking motions with the knife, but isn’t even close to me yet. He is getting desperate now, I see that his buddy had a knife and dropped it. I work my way to it and pick it up, now he will pay for hurting Jessica. Every time he lunges I cut his arm or flick the blade at his face just drawing blood. He is out of breath from the effort and I know he is going to do something really stupid, but he has no choice. He rushes me swinging the blade wildly and yelling as he does. I step to the side knocking his arm away and stick my knife into his ribs low. It is not a killing blow. He steps back and starts begging for mercy. I tell him I will give him the same mercy he was going to give Jessica and Jenny.
He tells me in a whining voice that he was only going to give them what they all want anyway. Guys like this make me sick. He must think I have lost my focus because he charges again with a smirk on his face like he is winning this fight. I knock the hand away again and swing my blade across his throat cutting almost halfway through. The look on his face says he can’t believe that he is dying, but I assure him he is when I throw him to the ground. Tim, Billy, and at least five other men come into the clearing as I am wiping the blood off my knife. They check both men and declare them both dead. I guess I did break his neck when I kicked him. Tim asks me if I’m okay, I tell him I am fine, why? He points to my side and I see a large stain of blood spreading on my shirt.
I raise the shirt and see where his knife must have cut me sometime during the fight, it’s not serious and the blood is already slowing down. Dayna pulls up in the clearing driving one of the pickup trucks. She is scared and angry when she sees that I have been injured. I assure her I’m fine and that everything will be okay now. We load the two bodies into the back of the truck. Tim and I decide to take them back to our new neighbors and have a talk with them. Dayna tells me not to go over there angry and make enemies out of our new neighbors. I invite her along so she can make sure I don’t start any trouble. When we pull into their yard they come out to see why we are here. I drop the tailgate and show them their former friends and ask them if these two had ever tried to rape any of their women. Dayna smacks me and tells me to be a little more sensitive. When three of the women spit on the bodies I don’t have to wonder anymore.
I ask them why they let people like this stay with the group. It is easy to see that Ryan is embarrassed, but he answers honestly.
“Those two came to us just before we left Michigan. They said they would kill us if we didn’t bring them along.”
He can see that I am having trouble believing that two men, not even that tough of men, could scare fifteen other men so badly.
“I know it’s hard to believe that we were afraid of them, but you have to understand that we are used to running and hiding from aggression. It’s obvious that your family is not. Believe me I have hated myself everyday that they have been with us for being such a coward.”
I tell him that he should have told us about them before it came to this, but we probably would have had to kill them anyway to keep them from teaming up with a larger force and coming back against us. We explain that many of our men were the same as they are until we taught them to fight and how to use guns. We tell them that we will go into town tomorrow and find them some guns to protect themselves. I hate to ask it, but I ask if there are any others like those two left in the group. I am addressing the women, because I’m not sure I can trust Ryan to tell me the truth. They assure me that there are not. I make sure they understand that if there are and anything happens to any of the women in our group or I hear about anything happening here, I will be back and the person who did it will meet the same fate as these two.
They say they will bury those two since they were part of their group, sort of. When we get home Dayna insists on cleaning the knife wound and thinks it needs a couple of stitches because it keeps opening up and bleeding a little. I talk her through the process because I can’t talk her out of it. I tell her I think she is just using this as an excuse to hurt me. Jessica and Jenny come over to the house and apologize for causing so much trouble. I assure them it was not their fault, but I think from now on the women and girls should not go off into the woods or anywhere outside the house area unless a man is with them. Billy, Tim, Rod, and several others of the more mature members of the family are here so we take this time to discuss how we want to set up rules and how we want to handle situations where discipline may be necessary. Hopefully it will never be serious discipline, but we should have some sort of written pact or agreement.
Some of the family, especially the women, say that I should be the leader and make those decisions. I thank them for their confidence, but I think we should have a group of leaders with both men and women of different ages to represent us all. We should change that leadership periodically to make sure that everyone feels equal, also just because someone is a leader, doesn’t mean they don’t have to work and do their part. Everyone here thinks that’s a good idea. We all agree to tell the others in our homes who are not here and we will meet just as soon as the building is completed, which should be within a couple of days now.
In the morning we take the big trucks and head into town again. We go to the farm store first to look for light bulbs. We kind of overlooked that item as something we will need a bunch of. We were reminded of the need when the bulb in the bathroom blew and it took us almost an hour to find a replacement bulb for it. We find several cases and load the enclosed truck with as many as we dare take at a time. Our neighbors are going to need some as well so we
will share what we are taking. We go to the grocery store next and find several cases there as well and we also find that someone else has been here recently. The canned goods on the shelves are thrown around like someone didn’t know how to open them. We load several cases of canned goods from the store room then head through town to look for something special.
I am explaining to Ryan that we could probably go into any one of these homes and find hundreds of jars of canned goods. We find another bank in town and show Ryan and the others about taking the silver and the paper money if they would like to. We have several hundred thousand dollars mostly in silver just in case money ever means anything again. We split what we find in this bank with our neighbors and continue looking for that certain house or building. Finally when we are almost all the way through town I spot the sign I am looking for. It says that there is a gun shop inside the house, we park and go inside to see if there are any guns left. It doesn’t look like anyone has touched this place since the owner died. We load all the guns and ammunition we find in the room the owner used for that purpose.
When that room is empty our neighbors start to get into the truck to head back when I tell them to follow me, now we will get the good stuff. I was looking at the owners records behind the counter and it said that he bought guns and ammunition that were not in the room. We head down to the basement where we find a goldmine of canned vegetables, meats and fruits. I also find a revolving door that pivots and opens when force is applied in just the right location on the door. Inside is a treasury of weapons. The owner has just about every military weapon I have ever heard of and plenty of ammunition to fight a small war for quite a while. It takes us close to an hour to empty this cache, but it is worth it. Dayna came to town with us today and she wants us to get some of the canned goods from the basement.
We have enough room in the trucks for several cases so we don’t mind and we may as well get this stuff when we can. While we are loading the truck Dayna is supervising the loading, when I come up with my third load, she whispers that we are being watched from across the street. I acknowledge what she says and tell her I will check it out, this worries her because of the minor wound I got yesterday. I head back into the house, but go out the back door and behind a couple of houses until I can work my way around to the one she said she saw someone at. It takes a few minutes, but I am coming up behind the house when I see two young women looking intently at the loading of the trucks across the street.
The young ladies are whispering to each other wondering if they should see if we are friendly or not. I can sympathize with their concern. It’s very difficult to trust anyone you don’t know. I wait a few moments, when another young lady and a teenage boy come out of the house and show the others that they found some jars of canned fruits in the house. I am only standing about twenty feet away. The two that came out of the house happen to look my way and are so surprised they drop one of the jars. The young man puts his foot under it to keep it from breaking, they look like they are trying to decide if they should try to outrun me or talk to me.
While they are deciding Dayna comes across the street along with Ryan’s wife Carol and asks them if they are hungry and lonely. They are not that much older than the two girls who were watching first and it is obvious that they are scared, but they are also desperate. Within a few minutes they are coming with us and Dayna has them telling us their life story. Apparently they were living with their parents in a town a little south of here, but their parents were older and recently passed away. The mother died first and then the father a month or so later. They didn’t have much food left in the store where they were living so they decided to see if they could find somewhere that may have more food and maybe even meet some nice people. They say now it looks like they have done both.
The young man is still holding the two jars of fruit he found. He asks us where we live, so we tell them how we came to be here. When they see the farm, actually both of them, they are very much impressed and say that if we don’t mind they would love to stay with us. They like our group slightly better because we have several teenagers and young people about their same ages. After the trucks are unloaded at the two farms we have lunch. The young man we just met wants to know what he can do to earn his keep. I like his enthusiasm, I introduce him to Dan and Don who are only a year or so older than he is. I tell him these are our main hunters for the family and I would like them to show him how to hunt as successfully as they do. They decide to go hunting this afternoon so I tell them to see if they can find some sign for more pigs and another nice steer wouldn’t hurt either. They have gotten into the habit of saluting me when I tell them something. They always laugh when I tell them I’m not a sir, I work for a living.
That’s a military joke, everybody knows a sir is an officer, and officers don’t do anything, at least that’s the myth. The steel building is coming along fine and it looks like we will finish it tomorrow. That will be a relief, finally we will have a place that is big enough for all of us to sit down and talk or enjoy a group meal. We can also hold church services here and even invite our neighbors over for a dance or something. Our three hunters return after about an hour with a report that they found several very large pigs and even more cattle than pigs. They really want to get more venison, and they know where a very large herd of deer are, if I say they can get a couple. They have the bows we got for them, so I tell them to first give Andrew some instruction, and then they can go get some venison.
I don’t know how much instruction he got, but they are gone when I quit working on the building to go with Dayna, Robin, and the children to pick some apples, or more precisely to pick up some apples, because by this time they have all fallen off the trees. We decide to take the truck so we can get several bushels instead of just a few small bags or baskets. The children love picking up the apples, and we even find some pear trees at the far end of the orchard. Everyone, except Tim and I, are amazed at how much we can get from the land. At first when we came here most of them were afraid, but now they can’t see how they ever lived the way we did. I know exactly how they feel, after being with Dayna for this relatively short time, I don’t know how I ever lived without her.
We fill several bushels to overflowing with the apples and pears. We decide to do some exploring while we are out here anyway and find several other trees that appear to be peach and cherry trees, if the rotten fruit under them is any indication. When we get back our three great hunters are waiting for us on the steps to our house. They run to meet us and help unload the apples so we can go pick up the three very large deer they shot with their bow and arrows. They say they had to follow one of them for a ways before it died, but it was a clean hit. I tell them it isn’t always easy to kill an animal, they hold on to life very hard and actually, it is uncommon not to have to trail a deer after it is hit.
They are right and have every reason to be proud. These are by far the largest deer I have ever seen. They already have them field dressed and ready to be loaded on the truck. When we get them home everyone is happy for them and glad to have more fresh meat hanging in the freezer. Dan asks if we can take his deer over to the neighbors, so they can have some fresh meat as well. We do that and spend the next hour or so showing them how to cut up a deer. They have a similar freezer in their barn as we do so we tell them we will show them how to get it working tomorrow morning. This is the first time any of them have had venison, but I’m sure they will like it. We return home for a very good supper and an evening of getting to know the new family members.
13
Our new meeting house is done, at least for now. For heating it we got two very nice wood stoves and installed one of them at each end of the building. Outside we built a shelter to keep firewood in that will hold approximately two face cords of wood each. Two of the teenage boys volunteered to keep them full for us. Frank and Tom decided to trim the apple trees in the orchard when they saw the apples we brought back the other day. Frank knows all about farming and he is teac
hing dad as much as he wants to learn. They are going to do the other trees as soon as they finish with the apple orchard. It’s surprising how much dad has perked up since moving here. In the city he was almost listless and didn’t seem to care about living. Now he gets up every day and looks forward to a full days work. Dayna says her step mom has noticed a big difference when they are alone as well. Getting to where we are hasn’t been easy, but it is definitely worth it. Besides it could have been a lot worse, so we count our blessings every day.
The one direction we have not explored very much is the other side of the main road that we came in on. Today I decide it would be good to know what is on that side of the property. Dayna and I along with Robin and the children head out in that direction to explore our surroundings. We only have to go about a quarter of a mile when we come to a river or large stream running east and west. It is full of water, but doesn’t appear to be very deep and the water is not moving fast. Now I wish I had a fishing pole with us so we could try our luck. As soon as I say that, ten year old Teddy takes a stick out of his pocket with some fishing line on it along with a hook and bobber. He says he has used it to fish in the pond that is over by the orchard. I really have to find out everything we have on the land and around it. You never know when that information may be important.
Teddy is proud to show me how he finds worms by lifting rocks and looking under them. We find a couple and since it’s his line I let him try first. He says he hasn’t had any luck at the pond, but this is a bigger place so there may be fish in it. He tosses the line out about six feet from shore and we sit down to wait for a bite. We no sooner get seated when his bobber disappears under the surface of the water. He is so excited I’m not sure he even knows what to do. Robin tells me he got the idea of fishing from one of the books he likes to read, but other than that he doesn’t know what you are supposed to do beyond throwing the line in the water. We tied the end of the fishing line around his arm to keep him from losing it, but the fish that is on the other end almost pulls him in the water.
2nd Earth: Shortfall Page 12
