“Let me introduce you to some friends of mine that are staying with us. Bud, tell everyone to come out,” he yelled. The group emerged from the house, one by one, until everyone stood on the porch. Don performed the introductions and handshakes were done all around. They all sat at the picnic table waiting for Don to speak.
“Ben, I need to apologize to you for not telling you this earlier, but I think you'll understand why. We've been getting ready for this for close to four years. We have power from the solar panels and windmill. We also have running water because we had replacement pumps and motors. Our garden is huge and can easily feed all of us. We also stockpiled two years’ worth of food. As you know, we have cattle, rabbits, and chickens. The fact of the matter is, when all the dust settles, we have a better chance of surviving than almost anyone around us.
“I thought about this for a long time, and I want to ask you to join our group. Understand that we would have to vote on it. We try to do everything here by consensus, but I'm pretty sure these people recognize we could really use your ranching abilities. We would ask you to take over all the animal production, as well as helping us hunt. Either you could take a bedroom in the house, or if you prefer more privacy, we can partition off part of the bunkhouse. They both have running water and bathrooms, and we eat here as a family. That is to say, you won't have to eat much of your own cooking anymore, and I'm guessing that’s pretty attractive.” Don stopped and chuckled. Ben told him earlier how much he hated eating his own food.
"You mean I just move over here permanently?”
“Yeah, you could bring your cows and bulls, and we can put them with our herd. Of course any weapons, ammo and food can come over as well.”
“Well I don't know. I’ve been living by myself quite a while now and I am sort of a cranky old guy set in his ways. I'm used to doing what I want, when I want, and don't know that I'm gonna fit into a group. I never joined a damn thing my whole life. Not sure I want to start now.”
“I think you’ll fit in just fine,” Don said. “Nobody here is hard to get along with. And, to be honest, we could use more shooters.”
“Well, I can think on it some. Thing that bothers me most is leaving my place undefended. I can’t say I like that idea.”
“I understand,” Don replied. ”You want to stick around for dinner?”
“I best go check the livestock. But, I’ll take a raincheck.”
“Done.” Ben rose from the table, again shook hands with each of the group, and mounted his horse. Don opened the gate and Ben disappeared into the distance.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Don rose early the following morning and dressed in gym shorts, T-shirt, and tennis shoes. He was going to take his first run in a week, as there simply had been no time for anything aside from preparing the ranch. He sorely missed his morning runs. He usually ran three miles every day. Don walked into the main room and over to the operation center, where Kate was watching the monitors.
“Did you sleep well?” she asked.
“Like a rock,” he said. “I'm going to go ahead and take my run.”
“You think it's safe?”
He pointed to his fanny pack, and said, “I have my Glock and radio. So, if anything comes up, give me a call.” He walked over, gave her a kiss, and left the house. After descending the stairs, Don slowly began to jog to the west. His route usually took him to his property line, and the round-trip was approximate three miles.
It was a beautiful morning, with the sun just peeking over the horizon. Don heard the birds chirping merrily as he jogged, passing stands of juniper and mesquite. His breathing deepened as he continued, and he ran until he reached his property line. He stopped, bending over and panting, and then glanced off to the side of the fence that divided his land from public land. Don noticed footprints in the soft earth, and ducked between two barbwire strands to examine them more closely. There seemed to be four sets of footprints, based on the sole marks left by their boots and the size of the prints. He stepped next to one of the prints, removed his foot, and noted that the boot print was much deeper than that left by his shoe. He concluded this was either an exceptionally large man or somebody wearing a backpack or somehow carrying something that was quite heavy.
Don followed the footprints for about a hundred yards and saw they disappeared behind a very large juniper tree. As he reached the back of the tree, he saw four sets of hoof prints. Growing concerned, he turned and jogged back to the fence, again ducked between the barbwire strands, and started jogging home. As Don ran, he concluded that somebody had conducted a recon of the ranch. It occurred to him that the prints had left the fence line in the direction of the highway. That was also the direction of Ben's ranch.
When he reached the house, he went to the operation center where Kate still sat monitoring the security system.
“I think we may have some trouble,” Don said.
“Why is that?” Her expression was growing concerned.
“I just found four sets of footprints just outside the barbwire fence on the western perimeter of the ranch.”
“What do you think it means?”
“Well someone is surveilling us. I can't think of any other reason for someone to be there.”
“What are we gonna do about it?”
“This afternoon I think I'm going to have Bud send the drone up and fly it around the perimeter of the ranch, and then maybe over to Ben's place. The prints went in that direction. I'm not sure if they were headed for the highway, or Ben's place, or somewhere else.” As he spoke, he realized that they never had the meeting to discuss how to defend the ranch. The discussion with Ed about who was going to meet Cory had totally sidetracked the conversation. “As soon as everyone has breakfast, let’s meet on the front porch.”
After everyone was up and had eaten, they assembled on the porch and begin discussing how to defend the ranch in case of attack. Don started the meeting by giving them a briefing on the footprints he discovered by the fence. The level of concern went up, and not by a small amount.
“Let's take a walk around and see what kind of ideas we can come up with,” Don said. “We were gonna do this a couple of days ago, but I totally forgot after we had that discussion about who was going to meet Cory. I think we better do it now.” After they moved from building to building, each studying the area carefully, they returned to the porch and sat down.
Don went first, saying, “before we start the discussion, you guys notice how the barn and the bunk house both only have one corner where shooters can get concealment, and still shoot at the house?”
“Yeah,” Ed remarked. “I did notice that. It's a good layout.”
“Well, the problem I see is that we have a lot of our stores in the barn, including a lot of food. If we don't defend that, we could lose more than we can afford to lose.
“I agree,” Mary said. “But we don't have much room in the house. Where would we put all the stuff?”
“There is some room in the basement. It’s not a lot of space, but we could get some stuff in there,” Kate said.
Ann spoke next. “The area around the chicken coop and corrals don't have any concealment or cover anywhere. So, we can cover those from the house.”
“The .308s have to be someplace where they can shoot at the corner of the barn and the bunkhouse. The .223 slugs would have a hard time passing through two walls. If they do, there would probably be a lot of deflection,” Don added.
“What if we put the .308s in Don and Ed’s bedrooms? We could cover the bunkhouse and the chicken coop from Ed's bedroom, and the barn and the corrals from Don's bedroom. The ARs could be used to defend the front and back,” Mary said.
“We could have two people manning the front and two at the back,” Ann added.
“That would leave us one short in the operation center,” Don replied. “We can't afford to lose our eyes and ears during the battle. We need a central command-and-control area, and somebody who knows what's going on all around the ranch
and buildings. That’s the only way we will know how to deploy our firepower,” Don said. “The chances of being attacked from all sides are very remote. So, we start a battle deployed as we just discussed. I have our bedroom, and Ed their bedroom. How do the rest of you deploy?”
“I can take the ops center,” Kate said.
“Mary and I have the front,” Bud offered.
“That leaves Ann to cover the back,” Bud said. “You okay with that?”
“Sure, I’ll have Ed and Don on either side of me. That’s fine.”
“So, once we know how the bad guys are deployed, Kate will shift us around as needed. Does that work?” Don asked. Everyone nodded his or her agreement.
“Just a few more items,” Don said. “If we get surprised, and I don’t see how that could happen, but it’s possible if we lose power or something. Anyway, if you can’t get to your firing positions, find cover and wait until you hear from the ops center that covering fire is about to commence, then try to get to the house. If you’re out in the open, get to the nearest concealment and then come in when you can.”
Bud looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, “we need spare magazines and ammo for both rifles, and the Glocks, at each position. I think we should all go ahead and do that.”
“It’s a good idea,” Don replied. “Each of us is responsible for making sure the ammo is at our position. You might want to have some bottled water as well.”
The group spent the remainder of the day going through different scenarios. They reviewed probable firepower deployment for attacks on each side of the house and discussed what to do in the event the house was overrun. They decided to take half the MREs and spare weapons and ammo to a cave Don had found two miles into the forest. They also would take a few cases of bottled water and some medical supplies.
The cave, well concealed, stood little chance of discovery. To find the entrance required someone climb up the side of a steep hill, move around a stand of trees, and even then finding the entrance would be difficult as it was partially covered by bushes. The cavern was approximately forty by sixty feet, and the floor was relatively flat. It was an ideal bug-out location for the group.
Later in the day, Bud launched the drone. Don was in the operation center watching the fixed monitor for the camera feed. Bud was watching a portable monitor that came with the unit. The drone traveled to preset waypoints and quickly covered the entire perimeter of Don's property. As it completed the circle, with no intruders detected, Don radioed Bud to fly it over Ben's house and take a quick look around the perimeter of Ben’s land. Once again, no one was present, and the drone returned. Don went to the barn where Bud was packing it in its box and said. “did you have any problems flying it?”
“No it's easier than I thought. But I have been practicing a bit. I think I'm to the point now where I can fly without using the waypoints. I practiced different elevations, landings and takeoffs, and the camera zoom and angles. So I'm pretty cool with it.”
“Well, I suppose we better get ready for supper.” Don left the barn, heading back to the house, when the crackle of dense gunfire sounded in the distance. Don looked back at Bud and said, “get the drone over Ben’s place. It sounds like the gunfire is coming from there.” He removed the radio from its belt holder, and calmly said, “ops center?”
“Copy.” It was Kate’s voice.
“Tell Ed to gear up. Tell him to bring my tactical vest and his AR, and meet me in front of the house ASAP. Gunfire is coming from Ben’s house. Drone is launching now to give us eyes on the place before we get there. We will be jogging over to avoid alerting them.”
“Copy.”
“Get everyone into their firing positions.”
“Copy.”
“Out.” Don ran to the house, meeting Ed in front of the porch. He donned his vest, checking to confirm he had four spare magazines for the AR, and they started jogging toward Ben’s house. As they ran, Don removed the ear bud from his vest, plugged it into the radio, and again keyed the mic, “Bud, you copy?”
“Copy,” Bud replied.
“Call me when you’re over Ben’s place and give me an update as to the number and location of the shooters.”
“Copy.”
“Ed, use your ear bud. We don’t want to make noise once we get close. If anyone tries to talk to us, it could give us away.” Ed immediately grabbed his ear bud from his vest and connected it. He was getting a little winded, but was determined to keep pace with Don. After several minutes of running, their ear buds came to life.
“Don?”
“Copy.”
“Three shooters. Around a hundred yards west of the house. They are firing from behind a bush.”
“Copy. We are moving to flank them from the north. Give me updates every minute. Don’t worry if we don’t talk back. Once we get close, we’ll maintain silence until this is over. Just keep the reports coming.”
Copy.”
“Out.” After a minute, it occurred to Don that he saw four sets of footprints outside the ranch. He again keyed his mic.
“Bud?”
“Copy.”
“There should be another shooter somewhere. Look for him. We can’t open fire until we know where he is.”
“Copy.”
“Going silent. Out.”
They reached the crest of a small hill, and immediately dropped to the ground next to each other. The shooters were in plain sight. Don and Ed were above and slightly behind them, around eighty yards away. “You take the nearest one and I’ll take the one furthest away. When they are down we both go for the prone shooter under the bush,” Don whispered in Ed’s ear. “I’m going to get some distance between us before we fire. As soon as Bud finds the fourth guy, we open fire.”
Ed gave him a thumbs up and Don crawled to a large rock around twenty feet away. He laid his AR on the rock, put the red dot center mass on his shooter, and waited. Ed moved behind a small tree and was on one knee with his rifle at the ready. The gunfire below them again intensified, the main volume coming from the .223 rounds the bad guys used. Occasionally, the boom of a larger caliber sounded. It was Ben, returning fire at a much slower rate.
“Last shooter is down. You can’t see him because he is right up against the barn. Looks like he is down hard,” Bud said.
Don glanced at Ed, who nodded back. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and fired two rounds. Without waiting to confirm the first kill, he smoothly moved to the prone shooter and fired two more rounds. As he began to move to the third, he saw that shooter was already down.
“Keep an eye on them while I talk to Ben,” Don said. Turning toward the house he yelled, “Ben, you okay?”
“Not a scratch,” he yelled back. “My house is shot to hell though.”
“How many were there?”
“Four.”
“You sure?”
“Pretty sure. That’s how many I saw.”
“Okay,” Don yelled. “Stay where you are until we give you the all clear. We’re going to check them out, and then we’ll come to the house.”
“Okay.”
“Radio it in,” Don said to Ed. Ed stared at the downed men with a strange expression on his face. “Ed, radio it in.” He repeated. Ed snapped out of his trance, shook his head sadly, and keyed the mic.
“Ops center?”
“Copy.”
“Four shooters down. No injuries for us. We are going to secure Ben and the site, and will advise of ETA shortly.”
“Copy.”
“Out.”
“Ed, circle around them to the left and cover me. I’m going to check them and strip the weapons. Don’t assume they’re dead, and make sure I’m not in your line of fire. Move if you need to, but do not stay still if I am heading into your line of fire. You got that?”
“Yes,” he replied mechanically.
“Ed, I need you to hold it together for another five minutes.”
His face hardened and his eyes narrowed. “I got it,”
he spoke softly.
“Good, let’s move.” Ed slowly moved to the left of the fallen shooters, AR up and swinging slowly from one to the other. Don approached them cautiously, weapon up and in firing position. He drew his Glock 21 and lowered the AR as he sank to his knees. He moved to each man, stripping their rifles from them and placing them out of reach next to his AR. He turned the first one on his back and checked his neck for a pulse. He was dead. He moved to the second man, who moaned as Don turned him face up. He had taken two hits to the back and was bleeding out fast. He would be dead in a matter of minutes. The third man was also dead. None carried a sidearm, and Don noted that they all looked alike. Dark skin and long greasy hair, similar physiques, and they all wore unkempt beards.
“The one in the middle is still alive,” Ed commented.
“He’ll be dead in a few minutes,” Don replied. “He’s bleeding out fast.”
“Shouldn’t we take him to the hospital?”
“He’ll be dead before we could make it back here with an ATV. I know it’s not easy, Ed. There really isn’t anything we can do for him. Even a surgeon in an operating room could not fix this. Let’s grab the weapons, check the last shooter, and then see Ben.”
The last shooter was also dead. He had taken two shotgun blasts, apparently from close range given the tightness of the pattern. His entire chest was a bloody mess. Don grabbed his weapon and handed it to Ed, who placed it on the ground next to the other captured rifles.
“Ben,” Don yelled, “we’re coming in.”
“Okay,” he replied. Scooping up the weapons, they walked to his porch and laid them on a patio table. Don opened the door and stepped into the house, where Ben stood by a window with his rifle at the low ready positon.
“They’re all dead,” Don said.
“Good riddance; they were all pond scum.”
“You know them?”
“Yeah, they’re the Irwin boys. I knew their daddy some. He’s been in jail on a life sentence for murder for years. Those model citizens outside controlled the meth trade around here and two of them are wanted for rape.”
Prepper's Crucible (Omnibus, Volumes 1-3): A Post Apocalyptic Tale (Preppers Crucible) Page 14
