Laughing, I said, “I could see it in your eyes.” I looked at Carmen, who was laughing a bit, “What are you laughing at Carmen. You had a “deer in the headlight” look whenever I would talk about it.”
“Half the time I didn’t have a clue what you were talking about.”
Mia added, “Well, we’re sure glad you saw all this coming and invited us.”
“We invited all of our family to head here if shit hit the fan. We’ve considered you two part of our family for a long time.”
“Brandy, you being here is a true blessing. Having a registered nurse in our group is a Godsend. Hopefully, you’ll just have to treat some sore muscles in the future. And I have to admit, if anything ever did happen to me, I would much rather look up and see your face than Wits. Plus, if it’s one of us guys being treated, Wit is more likely to stick his finger in our wound and then swirl it around and say, “Does that hurt?” I heard comments from the guys saying, “Ain’t that the truth.” while laughing.
“Now, for you clowns…” looking at Mo, Tag, Red, and Wit. “Seriously, I can’t think of anybody else I’d rather have here, than all of you. I consider you guys arriving a literal blessing as well. We may be a bunch of old men compared to how we were when we first met, but as a team, I know that we can handle almost anything.”
“Yeah, if our body parts don’t start falling off.” Tag replied with a laugh
“Ain’t that the truth. Don’t worry; I have a lot of muscle relaxers stored up for our aches and pains.”
All of us commented on our ages and body shapes.
I continued, “Now, I’m assuming that you all want to stay here and that no one is planning on leaving anytime soon. I know all of us are concerned with our family members that are spread all over the place, but I know wherever they are, they’re worried about you and want you to be safe.”
Most everyone agreed or nodded their head.
Mia jumped in, “You’re right. I know that’s exactly what my folks are worried about. Me being safe.”
“So, does everyone want to stay?”
Angela spoke up, “Well it’s not like we have a choice. I mean, even if we wanted to go, how would we?”
This is what I was hoping I’d hear from someone. I wanted to see where everyone stood.
“Angela, we can eventually find some older cars that we can get running. I think leaving would be suicide, but we can make it happen and provide fuel and food for wherever you feel you need to go.” I said and waited to hear what came next.
Mo jumped into the conversation, “Oh, hell no! We aren’t going anywhere. Like you said Vince, if anyone can survive, it’s all of us together.”
I looked around and asked, “Is that how everyone feels?”
Everyone agreed that they wanted to stay.
“Ok then, hear me out. As we’ve talked about, things are probably going to get a lot worse before they get better. We all need to be prepared to see things that are unimaginable. Unless a miracle happens, and the power comes back on, people are going to be starving; there are going to be looters and maybe even mobs.
Being as far out in the country as we are may cushion us for a while, but I guarantee that in the towns and cities, chaos is going on. We already know that there are mass riots in the bigger cities. The girls described what L.A. was like. Now that the EMP has gone off, I’m scared to say that some people are going to turn into savage animals.
We can’t expect any help from the federal government. Not for a long time anyway. There may be some help from the state and the military, but I wouldn’t count on it for quite a while.
Now Kim and I and at least Jake, have prepared for a disaster. We have cases of canned goods, stored flour, rice, powdered eggs, powdered milk, tortilla flour, and pancake mix. We also have lots of deer meat in the freezer that we need to can just like you can vegetables. With meat, we just have to be more careful.
We also have an abundance of deer, turkey, and other wildlife for the meantime but we’re going to have to guard them just like we do the food. We also have a field full of soybeans, and hopefully, we can figure out what to do with them. At the very least, we can add them to meat and food dishes.
We have lanterns, a couple of camp stoves, and a camp oven. We also have several oil lamps.
We have a limited amount of medical supplies, medications, antibiotics, and even some medical equipment. Wit, Brandy; I also have a separate EMT bag that should have most of what you need for minor injuries.
As you know, I have a 500-gallon tank full of gasoline plus about ten five-gallon army gas cans full of gas. We have Tag’s jeep that runs, Wit and Red’s motorcycles and the tractor. We also have Mia’s plane, that at best has maybe 40 gallons of fuel in it but to use it we’ll have to try and smooth out the field to use as a runway. We can’t just put regular gasoline in the plane. It takes high octane aviation fuel. Even if we get a dirt runway built, we’re going to have to limit the flights to reconnaissance flights.”
Angela started to say something, “Please Angela, everyone will have a chance to talk or ask questions afterward but let me get this all out.
We have a small solar system and several 12-volt batteries that we can use for some lighting, the perimeter alarms, which still work for some reason and I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with a lot more batteries from abandoned vehicles and maybe even trade with some of our neighbors. We also have a few inverters that were also in the safe, that allows us to use the batteries on 110-volt items, such as lights, etc.
Of course, we have a couple of generators that we can use on a limited basis, mainly to keep the freezers and refrigerator cold as long as possible.
You know we have the shortwave radio to receive news, and I have some ham and two-way radios that I had in my gun safe, which seemed to protect them from the EMP. The ham radios, we can hopefully use for long-range communications and under the right conditions, even reach overseas. The problem is, I’m not sure how to use them to do that, but I do have a book. Red has already started reading it.
Now, I think most of us will agree that security is going to be critical. Mike will be in charge of security, but we’ll all be pulling shifts. We’re going to have to set up guard posts and possibly even block off both ends of the road. As I said, if you go anywhere, even out in the field, you make sure you’re armed. One of the first priorities is for everyone to learn how to load and operate every weapon we have access to. That includes each other’s individual personal weapons, which I’ll explain why later.
We have several rifles, shotguns, and handguns and I’ve stored up a considerable amount of ammunition for all of them over the years.”
“Don’t forget Vince, that Wit has a major surprise for you concerning a weapon that I know you’ll like,” Red said. I could tell by the grin on Wit and Red’s face, that I was going to like it, but I just nodded my head, “I can’t wait,” as I didn’t want to get sidetracked.
“We’re also going to have to patrol the area and become scavengers. Now before someone says that scavenging is stealing, I’m not talking about going to where people are living and taking their stuff. I’m talking about scavenging from anything that’s been abandoned. I guarantee we can find a lot of gasoline from the abandoned vehicles we’re going to see. The problem is, other people are going to have the same idea. There’s going to be people with working older vehicles. We already heard one earlier.
Now, we’re going to have to be extremely careful when we do this. We’ll be checking out abandoned vehicles, buildings and sometimes abandoned homes. We don’t know who we’re going to run into. As I stated, there will be other people doing the same thing, and some of those people may not live by the same code we try to live by. You may run into people with mental problems, criminals, and those that you’d have to describe as evil. If we aren’t on the top of our game, well, you know what could happen. Guys, we’re going to have to remember to use tactics. The last thing I want is to see someone shot or taken hostage.”
Then I remembered something, something that Kim and I had planned.
“I want to show you guys something, and I want everyone to remember this. It’s code. We saw it on the television series, “Blue Bloods.” If anyone is ever taken hostage…, well let me just show you. Kim, can you stand up.” Kim smiled and got up as she knew exactly what I was demonstrating.
“Now Tag, grab her like you’re holding her hostage and act like you have a gun or knife.” Tag laughed and while grabbing her, said, “Ok.”
I said, “Please don’t hurt my wife.”
Kim immediately let all her muscles go limp, and she slid down out of the complete control of Tag’s hold. I then acted like I was pulling a weapon and shooting him three times.
“That’s genius.” Tag said. Several made comments what a good idea it was.
“Now, you’re going to have to find the right time to do that, hopefully, when you notice the assailant has relaxed his grip just a bit, but it works. Out of the blue, I’ll say that to Kim to see if she remembers.”
Angela made the comment, “We better not have a situation like that.”
I looked at her, “You’re right Angela. I pray to God that none of us ever have to use that. But it’s just like carrying a gun. You hope you never ever have to use it, but when you need it, you have it.
Now the blessing of this group is, we all have specialties. Brandy and Wit are our medical team. Hopefully, you’ll be bored to pieces. Red, you have the mechanical skills along with our neighbor Jake. As I stated, Mike will oversee security and training of tactics and firearms. Mo, I’d like you to be involved with that also. Tag, you’re our construction guy. Kim, the garden is your priority, along with meal planning, canning, and any food prep that you think we need to do. Mia will be our pilot, once we get to the point that we fly the plane. Angela, Carmen, Mia, and even Lulu, I need you guys to help Kim, plus I have some special projects for you including reloading ammunition in the future. It’s easy, and we’ll need it. Mike and I will show you how.”
When I was talking about what I needed from the girls, I saw Carmen give me a negative look. I didn’t acknowledge it as she didn’t say anything, but I was sure I’d hear why later.
I continued, “I’ll be involved in all of the above, plus trying to build a grass runway, and I’ll be in contact with the neighbors and doing a lot of scavenging.
Now don’t misunderstand me. We’ll all be involved with all the above. When I talked about your specialty, I’m saying you oversee that area because you know what you’re doing and you’re going to have to teach the rest of us.”
I paused, cleared my throat and with a somber voice said, “I can also tell you that there will come a time we’ll all turn into soldiers, defending ourselves and what we have. Hopefully, it won’t be for quite a while, but I promise you, it’ll eventually happen. Now hopefully I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
After a few moments, just to let some of this sink in, I said, “Now soon, we’re going to have to allow more people into our group. Mike may have his best friend and family and a fellow police officer arrive. We aren’t for sure.
We just don’t have the manpower to do everything we need to do. We’ll need them for patrolling the property, the roadblocks, and to do some of the things we don’t know how to do. But this isn’t going to happen by just opening the door and letting anyone in. We’re going to have to be very selective, and that’s going to be harder than you think. I know it sounds cold-blooded, but we can’t make our decisions strictly out of our compassion. We’re eventually going to have to tell someone that may be starving, NO! We’ll be as Christian as we can and help them out but to let them live here, they’re going to have to be someone that we can trust and hopefully have the skills that we need. Sometimes it’s going to be heartbreaking. We’re going to have to be a little cold-blooded.”
I could see on some of the faces, especially the girls, that they didn’t like that.
“If we don’t, we’re going to run out of food and possibly let someone in here that’s up to no good. Hopefully, we can all decide together who to let in and those to say no to, but as the owner of this little playground, I do reserve the right to override the group's decision. I promise that will be rare, but I feel like I need to stipulate that.” I was worried how that would go over, but no one objected. I even paused, to give them a chance to object.
“Ok, we have a ton of projects to do. For example, we’re going to have to start cutting firewood. I have a couple of chainsaws and a wood splitter. This winter, we’re going to need it. We have a full propane tank, but if we have a long hard winter, it won’t last. We also have a couple of smaller tanks for the camper and probably your bus Mo, but they won’t last. We’re going to have to depend on the fireplace a lot, and hopefully, I can trade for a wood stove.
We can’t put this stuff off. I had made so many plans for our preparation and never did get around to it. Now we’re going to pay for it.
I planned on buying a propane range to replace our electric one. I never did do it. I wanted to change out our electric water heater to a propane heater. I never did do it. I wanted to buy more solar panels and never did. Mike used to keep telling me to buy night vision equipment, but I put it off. I failed in so many ways, and I’m sorry.” At that point, my voice started cracking and I teared up a bit.
Mia interrupted at this point, “I’m sorry Vince, but I have to interrupt. Are you kidding? How can you say you failed? I don’t know what kind of hell the three of us would be going through if you guys wouldn’t have invited us to come out here.”
Mo jumped in, “We would be stuck out on the road somewhere, not knowing what to do.”
Wit said, “Same with us.”
Angela even spoke up, “If it weren't for you guys, I would be scared to death that Lulu would be going without.”
Brandy said, “Vince, you guys are the Godsend, to all of us.”
At that point, tears started dripping down my face. Subconsciously I was realizing that once again I was responsible for everyone’s life. Plus, the pressure and shock of everything happening the last few days was catching up with me and needed to be released. For me though, in front of this group, it was embarrassing.
If life, before all of this happened, so many people think they want to be in charge. In a life and death situation though, they don’t realize that when they’re in charge, that makes them 100% responsible for the lives of everyone under them. Even if someone dies from an accident or being stupid, their death is still on you, because as leader, you have to find ways to prevent those kinds of things.
After you’ve shouldered that responsibility for a while, when someone dies, it kills a part of you as well.
I turned away to compose myself when both Kim and Carmen came up and gave me a hug. Both had tears in their eyes. I glanced at Mike, probably out of embarrassment and he had a shocked look on his face. The only time I had ever broken down in front of him was when I had to put down our dog Sparky, who we had for 14 years. He came over right after I did it and as I was telling him about it, I lost it.
Seeing Kim and Carmen tear up, increased my tear flow. Finally, I got my composure back, wiped my eyes, and said, “I’m sorry for that. I don’t know what came over me. I know I always try to be the logical macho one, but I guess everything just hit me at once.”
I then started laughing, again probably trying to cover up my embarrassment. Kim, trying to lighten the mood and give me an escape, said, “See Mia, I told you he has a soft heart. He just doesn’t like to show it.”
Mia walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water and came back, with tears in her eyes but also a sweet smile and handed me the water. “Here Mr. Macho. To be honest, it’s nice to see you like this once in a while.”
I smiled at her and drank the water. “Ok, enough of that.
The first thing we need to do is clean out the outside room. Mike, that’s going to be your new room. Mia, Carmen, and Br
andy, you guys will take the spare bedroom, and we do have two queen-size blow-up mattresses. One we can put in there and Mike, you can have the other one. Put all the storage in the car shed. Bring in anything that we’ll be using.”
Everyone kind of laughed a bit, as I went right back into my speech.
“Tag let’s fill up your jeep, and while we’re at it, we’ll fill your motorcycles.” Looking at Wit and Red.
“If Tag doesn’t mind being drafted by me again, we’re going to run to Blake’s house after we fill up. Please, after the bedroom move, everyone needs to get unpacked. Hell, you guys haven’t even had time to do that.”
Mike and the girls got up to make the move. Wit, Red, Tag, and I went out to fill up the vehicles.
Wit and Red started running to their trailer like a couple of teenagers.
I asked Tag, “Where are they going?”
“I have no idea.”
Red came out first with a huge smile on his face. “Here’s the surprise that Wit has.”
Wit came walking out. I looked at what he was carrying, and my mouth had to have dropped open. “Oh my gosh! Are you kidding me?” I then yelled, “Mike!”
He was just walking out the back door to clear out the outbuilding. He looked over, yelled, “Oh, yeah baby.” He cleared the gate of the yard fence and ran over to Wit. “May I?”
Mia, Carmen, and Brandy had just come out the back door to help Mike and immediately looked over at us hearing our excitement.
Brandy asked, “What is that?
Tag replied, “It’s a SAW. How the hell did you get your hands on that?”
“What’s a SAW?” Mia asked.
I answered, “It’s a machine gun.”
“Why are you calling it a SAW?”
“It stands for Squad Automatic Weapon,”
Mike spoke up, “Well technically, now it’s classified as an M249 Light Machine Gun.” He cycled the gun and inspected it. You could tell he was very familiar with the weapon. “I was the SAW gunner for about half the time I was in Iraq.”
Wit had a huge smile on his face and said almost bragging, “750 rounds per minute.”
Apocalypse Coming Page 25
