by Steven Kagey
They went over fire team rushes and providing cover fire for each other while one moved into position. They also went over house clearing in more detail to ensure the techniques stayed fresh until they were proficient in the actions. They finished training with target practice and weapon drills. After the training session had ended and everyone cleaned their weapons, the guys sat down for lunch with the rest of the group.
Lunch was interrupted when the LP/OP reported four people on foot were coming down the road. As they got closer, the LP/OP saw it was two men and two women. They were unarmed except for a few knives visible on their belts. When they got to the gate, they ran over and started to climb it. Brian stepped out and stopped them at gunpoint.
The foursome was filthy. One of the men asked for some food and water. Brian was getting ready to send them on their way when Christina and Lillian appeared behind him and motioned for Brian. They had a small bundle of food and a few containers of water for Brian to give to the people.
Christina was feeling guilty from the violence and bloodshed the day before. Now that the group’s supply of food had been comfortably extended, they felt that this small gesture of goodwill would help make amends for the previous day.
Brian was hesitant at showing these people that they had anything to spare. The last thing they needed was for them to come back every day expecting a handout or telling anyone else that the homestead was giving out food. Yet it seemed like this would help the women’s conscience, so Brian gave in.
When he handed the group the bundles of food, not a single one of them thanked him. Brian thought the look on their faces actually said, That’s it? That’s all you are going to give us?
One of the men noticed Brian's steely look and quickly gave a forced "Thank you." The man then asked, “Do you have any weapons to spare?”
“No,” Brian stated gruffly. “Please move on and have a safe journey.”
The group didn’t move.
“Please,” the man pleaded, “just one spare gun. The road isn’t safe. How can I keep my wife and friends safe?”
“We have none to spare. You need to leave now.”
The man continued to plead, his tone becoming irate. He didn’t relent until he noticed Brian tighten his grip on the rifle and begin to move it up to his shoulder.
The group walked away without so much as a goodbye. Once Brian could no longer see them from the gate, he radioed the LP/OP. “Keep an eye out on those people. I don’t trust them.”
The group finished lunch, and the guys decided to work on their chores around the homestead before they went out to recon for their next raid location. Sean was working in the greenhouse while Craig and David took care of vehicle maintenance in the workshop. Brian and Avery were working in the backyard.
Brian had removed his plate carrier and slung his rifle diagonally across his back. Brian and Avery were focused on the task at hand, moving some logs around. Brian heard heavy footsteps racing towards them; he turned to see who was running and Avery let out a scream as a figure crashed into Brian. While slamming into Brian, the person sideswiped Avery, sending her tumbling backward and leaving her dazed.
Brian had just about spun all the way around when he got hit. As he was slammed into the ground, the rifle protruded up into his back with excruciating pain. The pain was so intense that he almost missed the person raising a knife above his head, ready to bring it down. Brian's fight or flight instinct kicked in, and he managed to bring his arms up and stop the person from plunging the knife down into his face.
The lack of oxygen from getting the wind knocked out of him and the man on top of him pressing down, combined with the searing pain of the rifle digging into his spine, was causing Brian’s vision to blur. Through the commotion, Brian recognized the man from those that were at the gate earlier. He was fighting to keep the blade clear and dislodge the man from him when all of a sudden the man was no longer on top of him. Taking a welcome breath, clarity rushed back.
Brian could hear fierce snarling and the man screaming. Beast was locked onto the man’s shoulder, shaking him viciously. Avery was on all fours clearing her own head. Brian tried to sit up, but his weight on the rifle stock was pinning the rifle to the ground, which in turn was holding Brian down by the sling across his shoulders. He managed to fight through the pain and roll onto his side.
Beast was dragging the man in circles. The man was flailing his arms around trying to slash at the dog with the knife.
Gaining his bearings and standing to his feet, he called out to Avery to make sure she was alright.
“I’m fine, Dad. Go help Beast!”
Brian was a few steps from away when the dog let out a yelp. The snarling stopped, and to Brian’s horror Beast fell onto his side with the knife handle protruding skyward.
Upon hearing the yelp, Avery started screaming.
Pure rage filling Brian, he lunged forward and violently shoved the barrel of the rifle into the man’s face. All of Brian’s weight was behind his action, and the barrel entered the man’s eye socket and did not stop moving until the barrel came to rest on the back of the man’s skull.
Everyone came running around the house and saw Brian hunched over the man’s body with the weapon buried six inches into the man’s face.
Brian immediately started screaming for Doc as he changed his attention to Beast. The dog was on his side with his tongue sprawled out on the ground. He was whimpering, breathing fast and shallow. Brian dropped down at Beast’s head and started stroking it.
His voice trembling, he repeated over and over, “Thank you. You’re such a good boy. I love you, buddy.”
Avery was now beside him, crying, and they softly stroked Beast’s head. Beast briefly lifted his head and licked them.
“Doc!” Brian screamed.
Doc was running around the corner with his bag in hand. Surprised that his patient was actually an animal like he was trained for, he dropped down next to Beast and started to assess the situation. “Can you guys back up a little so I can check vital signs.”
Sean was now on the porch and seeing the dead man on the ground knew that he wasn’t alone. He scanned the wood line and then caught movement to his left. The other man was standing at the corner of the house with a knife in his hand. Sean aimed the weapon and fired two shots. As the man fell, the two women who were hiding a few yards in the woods stood and screamed, watching their men get killed.
Sean aimed the rifle at them, “Put your hands up!”
Sean was moving forward to secure the two women when he heard two three-round bursts fired from behind him. The women crumpled to the ground where they had been standing. Sean looked back to see Brian still aiming his rifle at the spots where the women had stood.
With disgust in his voice, Brian said, “I should have done that earlier.”
Lillian had come around the corner and saw Doc working on the dog. She rushed in to help without hesitation. She knew how much Beast meant to the Stewart family and gave her all in assisting Doctor Hughes. They lifted the dog and carried him into the house.
Brian was filled with so much rage with no one to take it out on. Those responsible had already paid with their lives. He walked over to the body of the man that had attacked him and stomped on his face until no facial features could be distinguished. He scooped Avery up, and they held each other tight.
Christina had gone to the LP/OP to relieve Evelyn so she could come back to the house and be with Brian and Avery. Evelyn ran back to the house, and when she saw her husband and daughter she hugged them and they cried together.
***
Doc and Lillian were working in the kitchen. No one would let any of the Stewarts come in. After three hours Doc walked out with a bleak expression on his face and Avery immediately started bawling.
Doc quickly said, “He’s still with us. He’s stable, but that could change at any moment. If he pulls through the next twenty-four hours, his chances increase substantially. We have him sedated, but you can c
ome in and see him.”
Beast had been moved to the couch in the living room and was asleep with an IV hooked up to his leg. The Stewart family sat with him while he slept. Beast was eventually moved to Avery’s room where she continued to watch over him as well as he had always watched over her in the past.
While Brian sat with Beast, his adrenaline had time to clear completely out of his system, and his back seized up. Doc examined him and gave him muscle relaxers with orders to go to bed and rest. Brian didn’t want to; they had things to do, but the muscle relaxers made all that go away and he passed out shortly after.
***
Sean, Craig, and David didn’t want to lose a day’s worth of time while Brian was out of commission, so they geared up and discussed the plan again for checking out the next house to raid. They checked on Beast and Brian and headed out.
They pulled over a mile down from the suspect house. There was a hill and field across the road from the house with a tree line running along the hilltop. David found a spot overlooking the front of the house. Sean and Craig set up on the right side of the house where they could see the front and the back.
The team watched the property for almost two hours without a sign a life in or near the house. Sean and Craig discussed the plan and informed David over the radio. There was no cover between their current location and the house, and they would have to travel the 150 yards in the open. Craig covered Sean as he ran to the house. Once there Sean backed up so he could see the windows on the side of the house and covered Craig.
Just as Craig was reaching Sean’s position, Sean noticed something in the window directly above him and transmitted over the radio. “I got movement!”
The house was dark on the inside, therefore David was unable to see inside from his vantage point. Sean and Craig stayed together and moved around to the rear porch.
“Two runners just came out the front door!” David reported.
Sean and Craig quickly moved around to the front corner and saw a man and woman running from the house. Neither was armed, and both were wearing tattered backpacks.
“Hold your fire!” Sean said. They appeared homeless and ready to flee at a moment’s notice. “David, keep an eye on them.”
Sean and Craig proceeded to clear the house. As they expected, this house had piles of supplies lying around. There was less than in the house the day before, but they could tell it had been skimmed off the top of the DHS-sanctioned raids.
Their suspicion about the two fleeing individuals was confirmed. There were evident signs they had been squatting. There were empty cans and wrappers of food lying on the floor, and what could only be described as a nest on the floor among the piles of clothes where they must have been sleeping.
After the house was searched, Sean and Craig went back through and made a mental inventory of everything, estimating a whole truckload of food and ammo. Even with all the cases of ammo in the house they didn’t find a single firearm, which may be why the two squatters had fled versus fighting. Or they moved all of them out into the woods somewhere. Sean stayed to secure the house while Craig retrieved the truck. David radioed that he had lost sight of the couple in the woods.
Not knowing if the couple would return, Sean stood overwatch at the house while Craig loaded the truck by himself. David remained in his position watching for signs of trouble as well. It was slow going with only one person loading the truck, but Craig was able to neatly stack everything in the bed and get all the food and ammo in one load. The clothes piled in the house appeared to be mainly women’s clothes, and most were brand new with the tags still on.
Not seeing anything else of value, Craig topped the truck bed off with armloads of clothing. Either the women at the homestead would make use of them, or they would be able to give some out to refugees when the time came.
When they were getting ready to leave the house, Sean decided to try something. He stood up on the bumper and looked into the woods where the people had run.
“We mean you no harm!” he yelled. “This house was owned by a criminal. He will not be coming back. I suggest you secure it and make it your own.”
He dug under the pile of clothes and pulled out two large boxes of food and took them back up to the front door, setting them inside. The men drove away from the house, instructing David to keep watch for a while to see if the squatters returned. David watched for fifteen more minutes, and eventually the man came sneaking back up to the house. After the man had searched the house, he returned to the front porch and waved the woman over. They didn’t have any weapons that David could see.
David radioed what he saw, and Craig told him to come to the truck. David stood and walked down to the road in front of the house. He was wearing his homemade ghillie suit, so they didn’t spot him until he stepped onto the road. The couple froze when they saw him. David assumed they were trying to figure out if they should run or hide. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and threw up a hand in a wave. “We left you some food!” he yelled. “Y’all be careful and take care.”
As David was about out of sight from the house, the man shouted, “Thank you!”
***
For the second time in two days, the group was busy unloading a truck full of supplies. The women were happy to see the clothes. Crystal was able to put together a complete wardrobe since she came to the homestead with nothing. The rest only grabbed a few articles of clothing, keeping most of the undergarments. The rest was carried downstairs to the totes full of clothing, which they intended to hand out in the future.
This load would put them comfortably through until spring.
“I don’t think we should go back out to raid the remaining houses.” Sean said. “The risk isn’t worth the potential loss of life or injury to one of us since we already have enough food to feed everyone through the winter.”
Craig agreed.
Brian woke a little after sunset and struggled to get out of bed. Evelyn grabbed Doc, who wanted to check on Brian, and they came to help. Brian was more concerned for Beast than he was for himself.
“Beast is doing well,” Doc said. “He woke for a little while and then went back to sleep. Avery is taking care of him.”
After Doc had checked Brian out, he was able to diagnose his injuries as severe bruising. “You’ll be fine in a few days.”
“The guys found another stash of food at one of the dead deputy’s houses,” Evelyn told him. “They found enough that we’ll be able to make it until spring without any issues. They don’t think we should go on any more raids since our food stocks are replenished enough.”
Brian didn’t necessarily agree with that. The group lost over a year’s worth of food when they were raided, and had recovered less than six months of it. They couldn’t have too much food at this point in the game, but he understood their concerns. They had already lost one person and it may be better to hunker down and count their blessings until things settled down.
Chapter 29
Sunday, September 29th
9 Days Since the Power Went Out
Brian woke up the next morning feeling rested and only a little sore. Having been able to replenish their food supplies had brought back the feeling of safety he had before the pulse. He stopped by Avery’s room to check on Beast, surprised to find Crystal sitting with him. She’d come to give Avery a break. Beast was awake. He didn’t try to move, though he did give a tail thump when Brian rubbed his head. The wound that Doc had sewed up looked good.
The kitchen was abuzz with activity. Most of the women were sorting through the food supplies and making a menu based on those items. He gave Evelyn and Avery each a hug.
“Where are Sean and Craig?”
“Sean’s at the LP/OP,” Evelyn replied. “Craig is working out in the shop.”
Brian checked on Brenda and the radios. She told him about the radio traffic she was monitoring. Nationwide it was the same thing. Society was collapsing, and the government wasn’t doing anything productive to help. She�
�d heard reports that Los Angeles was hit by a nuclear blast as well as Washington D.C. Locally there were reports of more and more DHS troops coming into town and the traffic on their radios had increased, which supported those reports.
“Also, I think they’re starting to speak in code on the government frequencies,” Brenda told him. “At first I dismissed it as gibberish, then Crystal told me to write it down, that it may be important.” She handed Brian a piece of paper.
SEASICK PERIOD POLYGRAPH PERIOD LOWLY
LARGEST. CHAMBER. CROONER
HECKLE. EMPLOYS. TRICYCLE
CROUCHES. TRICK. RACOON
HAIRPINS. FLOWS. FISTS
“They pass the messages like that with a pause between every third word, and then they repeat the entire group again. They say ‘period’ between every word, which I thought was part of the code at first.”
Crystal came back in as David was walking by and he stopped to listen, or perhaps flirt with Brenda or Crystal. David leaned over and inspected the paper Brian was holding. “Oh, I think I know what that is.”
When Brian and the girls looked at him with raised eyebrows, David beamed. “It looks like a geolocation system called What3words. The developers divided the Earth into a three-meter by three-meter grid and then assigned each grid three simple words. It makes it easier to remember and provide location information versus using latitude and longitude, which is an eighteen-digit number.”
Brian asked, “How do you decode it?”
“I don’t think you can just by the words. I have an app on my phone that you put the words in and it shows you the location.”
Brian’s enthusiasm dropped. “Well, since no one’s phone works that doesn't really help us, does it?”
