by Jeremy Lock
It felt like he sat there for hours, replaying the shoot out over and over in his mind. After the 5 minutes had passed he was able to pick up his Glock, change the magazine and get himself to his feet. His ribs on his right side hurt, but his breathing was ok so long as he didn’t breathe really deep. He knew he had most likely just bruised his ribs, worst case possibly fractured one. He removed his shirt and saw a small bruise already starting to form. He reached into his bug out bag and grabbed the first aid kit. Inside he found an ace bandage which he tightly wrapped around the injury, securing it with medical tape. He also grabbed a couple ibuprofens and took them with a few sips of water. He put his undershirt back on and then his jacket. He packed everything else into his bag and walked his bike up to the two bodies. Death hadn’t bothered him much he just analyzed the scene like he was at work. The first man had 2 bullet holes in his lungs; the other man had most likely died from the shot to the abdomen which appeared to have severed his aorta. He quickly searched them both for weapons and was rewarded with a snub nose .38 revolver on one man and a nickel plated Kimber 1911. Clearly the big boss got all the nice toys. There were also 8 extra rounds for the .38 and 2 full clips for the .45. In addition he found several small baggies of a tannish substance which he knew was heroin. He threw the heroin in his medical bag, not for personal use, but for its medicinal value. Heroin was very similar to morphine or oxycodone and if dosed properly would be excellent for pain management. Jeff left the bodies where they lie and got back onto the bike.
Within 5 minutes he was turning onto Bloomfield Avenue and heading uphill. He had to slow down to barely a crawl as his breathing was really starting to hurt. He knew it was uphill from here all the way into Montclair and didn’t turn downward until the Town of Verona. It was going to take forever. Within a few minutes he had to walk the bike uphill. He was leaning towards the fractured ribs at this point. After an hour and a half he finally made it the 5 miles to Verona where he could coast downhill for almost another 5 miles. He had been riding for about 5 minutes, when in the distance he heard a very familiar, yet recently absent noise. There was a car running, but it was sitting in the middle of the road with a crowd of people around it. Jeff picked up his speed to see what was going on.
Chapter 4
The car was an old 1968 Ford Mustang and its engine was purring and its horn beeping. Clearly the car wanted to be driving but the people were preventing it. The small crowd of people was growing by the minute and the people seemed angry, some were yelling for the driver to get out of the car but others were only asking for a ride. As Jeff approached someone had pulled a tire iron out of his broken down car and started smashing it into the classic car’s hood. Jeff yelled into the crowd for them to stop but everyone ignored him, they were in a frenzy. The man with the tire iron smashed in the driver’s side window and Jeff decided enough was enough. He drew his Glock and fired 2 rounds into the air. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in Jeff’s direction. The gun barrel came down and pointed directly at the man with the tire iron. Several people had decided enough was enough and they were clearing out.
Jeff yelled as loud as he could muster “The next person to touch that car is getting a bullet!”
“He won’t give us a ride!” someone yelled.
“I wouldn’t give you a ride either; you’re all acting like animals! Now get out of here before you really piss me off!” Jeff yelled his gun still clearly visible.
The crowd took the hint. A few straggled around but once they realized that everyone else was gone they too turned and left. Jeff rode up to the driver’s door and saw a man in his early 50’s holding his head and a teenage girl crying in the passenger seat.
“Sir, are you all right?” Jeff asked.
The man looked up at Jason with fear in his eyes. He had a 3 inch laceration over his right eye that was bleeding pretty heavily.
“Let me take a look at that” Jason said putting his medical bag down.
“Who are you?” the man asked tentatively.
“My name is Jeff, I’m a paramedic.” Jeff said as he pulled some gauze out of his bag and applied pressure to the cut.
“Are you the one who got all the people to leave?” the man asked.
“Yeah, it was no trouble, people are going to be acting pretty crazy for a while I’m afraid.” Jeff replied.
“What happened?” the man asked.
“Well that’s a long story, let’s check on your girl there and I’ll try to explain it to you. What’s your name by the way?” Jeff said.
“I’m Richard Southard, but call me Rich, this is my daughter Julie.” Rich said.
“Pleased to meet both of you” Jeff said.
“Your head should be ok, it could use stitching but it will heal either way. I don’t have anything to stitch you with and going to a hospital would be crazy.” Jeff said.
“What the hell happened anyways?” Rich asked.
“Well first we should get your car off the road before people come back.” Jeff said.
“Yeah, you’re right. Where are you heading?” Rich asked.
“North, up by the state border” Jeff answered. He didn’t want to give an exact location since he really didn’t know these people.
“Well were heading to upstate NY, my parents have a farm up there and we were going up to visit for the weekend anyways, we’ll give you a ride.” Rich said.
“That would be great! Can you fit my bike?” Jeff asked.
“We can stuff it in the trunk, the lid won’t close but I can tie it down.” Rich said.
They loaded the bike and headed off following Jeff’s directions to keep them off the major roads. During the ride Jeff explained about the EMP and his events leading up to finding them. After Jeff finished his story Rich just sat there in silence for a minute.
“How does something like this happen?” Rich finally asked.
“That’s a question a lot of people will be asking in the next few weeks.” Jeff replied.
“I don’t think anyone has that answer yet.”
As they neared the NY/NJ border Jeff told Rich that he was close to his destination and he could ride from here. Rich offered to drive him right to where he was going but Jeff declined. Rich pulled the mustang into a closed gas station and helped Jeff remove his bike.
“Do you have any cash on you?” Jeff asked. Rich kind of looked at him funny and pulled out a small wad of cash.
“Like $200, why?” Rich replied.
Jeff reached into his pocket and pulled out a larger wad of cash. “Here’s $500, Just take it, I’m prepared and you and your daughter aren’t.” Jeff said handing Rich the money.
Jeff then grabbed his bag and pulled out the .38 revolver and the .380 pistol. Handing them to Rich he said “Don’t be afraid to use them, people are going to get really crazy soon. If you go west on 84 for a couple miles there are several large shopping centers, get water, food, any seeds you can get and ammunition for those guns also grab a hand pump or syphon so you can funnel gas from the cars on the side of the road.” Jeff said.
Rich just stood there looking at the cash and the guns.
“Have you ever shot a gun before?” Jeff asked.
“No, I’ve never believed in guns.” Rich said.
“Well sir, you aren’t in the same country you were in yesterday, people will take from those who can’t or won’t protect themselves.” Jeff said.
Jeff then gave Rich and Julie a quick overview on how the guns operate, how to clean them and basic shooting instruction. He then repeated his instructions about the shopping and they said their goodbyes and Jeff was back riding again, in 20 minutes he was riding up Jason’s driveway, it was almost 2 pm.
Chapter 5
The knock on the door made Jessica jump. She grabbed her pistol, a Smith and Wesson 6906 9mm, and carefully approached the door as Jason had taught her. She carefully peered through the side window and saw Jeff standing there. She instantly relaxed and opened the door.
&
nbsp; “You scared the shit out of me!” Jessica said.
“I see that” Jeff replied looking at the pistol in her hand.
“Sorry.” She replied.
“Is Jason home?” he asked.
“Yeah, he’s sleeping, he didn’t get home till after 9 this morning and he wanted to sleep until you got here this evening, did you get here ok? I didn’t hear the jeep.” Jessica said.
Jeff explained his trip from Newark from beginning to end.
“Well it sounds like you got lucky; let me check on your ribs.” Jessica said sitting Jeff at the dining room table.
After looking over the injury Jessica decided it was only badly bruised and rewrapped the injured ribs. She went down to the freezer and pulled out a bag of frozen vegetables and brought them to Jeff.
“Go up to your room and get some sleep, I’ll wake you up for dinner and we can discuss what to do next.” Jessica said.
Jeff spent so much time at the house that he had his own room. He would have just moved in but having the freedom of his apartment worked better for his single lifestyle plus he didn’t want to intrude on Jason and Jessica’s life, although he knew they would never complain. He fell asleep almost instantly.
At 600pm Jessica woke the boys up for dinner. She had cooked a large portion of steak and frozen vegetables which had been down in the freezer. Jason grabbed himself a coffee and Jeff grabbed a Pepsi as they sat to eat.
“How much meat is still in the freezer?” Jason asked.
“Enough for a week of chicken and beef, were going to need more fairly soon unless you want to be eating the freeze dried stuff.” Jessica replied.
“We will have to get some hunting in soon then, I don’t want to run the generator for too long but the solar system can’t handle the big freezer.” Jason said.
“I guess we need to start making a list of things to do” Jeff Interjected.
“I was thinking the same thing” Jason said.
“I think our first priority is making sure we are armed and ready to go, clean the guns, load up extra mags etc...” Jeff said.
“I agree, we can work on that tonight, I think we have a few days or so before the locals start getting restless and a week maybe before we start seeing the big city rush starting this way.” Jason said.
“Jessica, what do we need, if anything, in the way of food?” Jeff asked.
They had broken down their prepping into different groups after they had bought the house and were able to really start storing. Jessica was in charge of food and hygiene products, Jason was in charge of vehicles, electrical and farming equipment, Jeff was in charge of medical supplies. They had a 4 member at one point, Sean; he had been in charge of weapons. Sean was the best shot with a rifle out of the entire group and had been a passionate prepper. But just over 4 years ago he had gotten married to the “love of his life” and two weeks after found her in bed with another man. Sean had lost it; he nearly beat the man to death with his bare hands. Sean had been arrested and was looking at serious time, but Jason thankfully knew the prosecutor and had worked out a deal. In exchange for no jail time Sean would go to an inpatient anger management program and then would join the Marine Corp. Sean wasn’t the same person anymore; he was cold and pretty distant. Jason and Jeff both wrote Sean regularly and tried to talk on the phone. Occasionally Sean would write or call back.
Sean had already done 2 tours of duty in some rat infested Middle East 3 world country and had just written Jeff and Jason telling them he was reenlisting after his 4 year enlistment was up. They got that news last month and were both disappointed. Sean had been a good friend to both of them and now they could really use him. Since then Jason and Jeff both kept an eye on the weapons end of things.
“We are in pretty good shape food wise, but we could use more soap, laundry detergent, and hygiene stuff.” Jessica replied.
“Ok. Jeff, how are we looking on ammo?” Jason asked.
“We have 2000 rounds of 9mm, 5000 rounds of 5.56mm, 1000 rounds of 7.62 x 51mm and about 400 rounds of .45acp here, now if we can get back to my place I can add 1000 of 5.56mm, 500 of 9mm and another 1000 of 7.62x51mm, so I guess we mostly need .45acp.” Jeff replied.
This surprised Jason, the only .45acp caliber gun was his Glock 21 duty weapon which he only had because it was required for work. They had attempted to keep their arsenal to only the most common ammunition types and to keep the weapons as common as possible.
“Well I don’t plan on carrying the .45 very often.” Jason said dubiously.
Jeff reached into his bag and pulled out the Kimber 1911 he had gotten of the dead gang banger.
“I thought I might carry this around.” Jeff said with a stupid grin on his face.
Jeff explained how he got the gun while Jason looked it over.
“Well it looks nice, but we had a plan for this situation, we all have our tactical load outs.” Jason said.
Each member of the team had purchased nearly identical weapons for their “Tactical load outs” as they called them. They all carried a 9mm Glock 19 as their sidearm and each had an AR style carbine all of which could interchange magazines. Additionally each had a Remington 870 12 gauge shot gun and all had an optional weapon which would be chambered in either 5.56mm or 7.62x51mm. Jeff carried a Remington 700 sniper rifle chambered in 7.62x51mm which he had gotten as a gift from his uncle, a retired LAPD SWAT sniper. Jason carried an M1A semi auto chambered in 7.62x51mm. Jessica had a scoped mini 14 which she could accurately shoot out to over 500 yds. The only exception was the weapons Allie was supposed to carry. They had a Glock 26 for her along with a Hi-point 9mm carbine (which used the same magazine as the Glock 19) and she had a 20 gauge Remington 870 shotgun. Allie used to enjoy shooting all the time until a couple years ago when friends, boys and the internet became far more important. Currently she was in her room listening to old CD’s of music on the laptop that Jason had brought from the bunker.
“Well as far as my end of things goes, I think we’re in good shape.” Jason said concluding the gear check.
They discussed their priorities for the next 30 minutes and came up with an immediate plan. Tonight they would clean and load magazines and then make sure Jason’s 1995 Suburban was up and running, then Jason and Jeff would drive out to Jeff’s house and load up his equipment and come back with Jeff’s Jeep. In the morning they would begin setting security up at the farm. Jason had a number of wireless cameras that he could setup around the house and at the road which they could observe from the laptop. Then they would begin to set up motion detectors around the perimeter of the house about 500 yds. away from the buildings. This would get them early warning in case someone tried to sneak up on them and would allow everyone to rest instead of having to keep a security watch up 24/7.
Jason knew they were short on people. He wanted to try to recruit a few more people in the area but had yet to find people of the right mindset that could be trusted. Most normal people thought preppers were crazy antigovernment nut jobs, and most preppers, in his experience, were just that. He had yet to find someone with a good balance. When they had Sean the numbers were better. 8 hour watches were tolerable and one person could have the night off. But they didn’t have Sean he was probably in some sandbox thousands of miles away from this disaster. After cleaning and loading up weapons and magazines, Jeff and Jason went outside to check the truck. The 1995 Suburban was sitting in the garage where it always was. Jason kept the battery disconnected as it normally wasn’t used and didn’t want the battery to drain. After connecting the battery and check and replacing a few fuses the truck started right up. Jason and Jeff allowed the truck to run a few minutes and then shut it off.
“I think we should wait till morning” Jason said.
“What?” said Jeff.
He was anxious to get his stuff and didn’t have any interest to wait.
“We should wait until tomorrow, I don’t have night vision equipment and the headlights will be a big target, besides no stores will b
e open at night and we need to think about conserving fuel. I only have the gas in the truck plus about half a tank in Jessica’s car. If we need to bug out were going to be in trouble.” Jason explained.
