EMP

by Jonathan Hollerman

  “Alright,” Danny shrugged and grabbed his rifle and walked away.

  Once everyone was situated in the hay wagon, Nathan fired up the tractor once more and they were quickly headed down the two-lane road in the direction of town. After seeing the condition of the gas station, Sean was really concerned about finding the grocery store looted. Giant Eagle was the first business as they entered town, but there were a lot of houses nearby, which made Sean nervous. As planned, Nathan pulled in the parking lot and drove past the front entrance. They sighed in relief to find the glass doors intact. Nathan kept the tractor moving and they were soon backed up to the loading dock behind the store. With a plan already in place, Nathan and Bug stayed with the wagon as Sean, Maria, and Jackson made their way to the drive-thru pharmacy window. When they got there, they found the window had already been busted out and some cardboard had been laid across the broken glass. Sean stood by the open window for a few moments listening for any movement inside.

  “Ok, here we go,” Sean whispered. He handed his rifle to Maria and drew his Glock 19. Jackson took a knee under the window and Sean used his other knee to step up and crawl through the window. The pharmacy had been ransacked but the security gate was still down on the grocery walk-up window and the door was still dead bolted from the inside. “Freakin’ tweakers,” he thought to himself. After a couple more moments of listening for movement, Sean made his way back to the drive-up window. “Alright, babe. Make sure the safeties are on and hand me the rifles,” he whispered. Jackson helped Maria up through the window and Sean returned the favor by pulling his cousin through. “Safeties off, Jackson. You are tight on my left shoulder and cover 9 o’clock to noon. I’ll take noon to 3 o’clock and Maria you watch our rear. Let’s keep it tight.” With flashlights in hand and weapons at their shoulders, they made their way out of the pharmacy and skirted the outside aisle of the store to the backroom. It took a minute to orient themselves in the pitch black of the store room but eventually found the loading dock door. Sean lay prone with his SU-16 as his cousin pulled the chain, opening the large overhead doors. If Nathan and Bug had been jumped, he wanted to be ready. As the door opened, Sean immediately saw Bug with his back to the door and Nathan was nowhere to be seen. As planned he must have taken cover somewhere else as over watch. “Where’s Nathan?” Sean asked Bug.

  “He’s over there behind the dumpster.” Sean made the motion for “rally up” with his hand and Nathan was quickly hurrying across the open ground. Once they were all together, Sean laid out the game plan. “Ok, we made enough noise driving in here that I wouldn’t be surprised to see some people show up. So, Maria, you are to take the over watch location behind the dumpster. Use the same method as I mentioned earlier and throw stones at the wagon if someone is approaching, but stay out of site. Bug you are going to start out as load man. If you get tired, swap out with Jackson who will start out as cart runner. I plan to go through the store room first. Let’s stack boxes four feet high around the perimeter of the wagon so we can stack the loose items from the store inside to keep them from rolling off the sides. Nathan and I will load up the carts. Before we start, we need to clear the store, just to be safe. Maria, take position. Bug, you guard the back door here and the three of us will clear the store and grab the carts.”

  Sean hugged his wife and kissed her on the lips as she turned and headed for the dumpsters. “Ok Jackson, same as before, you take nine o’clock to noon, I’ll take noon to three o’clock and Nathan you watch behind us. Let’s roll.” It didn’t take long to clear the store and they were quickly digging through boxes in the store room looking for canned goods and other items they would need. The system worked well, and after about an hour they had the store room picked clean and the hay wagon half loaded. They started going aisle by aisle in the store with Jackson barely able to keep up with the speed Nathan and Sean were loading the grocery carts. They came across some signs of looting, but nowhere near what Sean had expected.

  After only the second aisle, Jackson came around the corner without a cart waving frantically. Sean and Nathan set off at a near run while trying to be quiet at the same time. When they reached the end of the aisle where Jackson was waiting, he whispered, “Bug said Maria just threw some stones at the wagon!”

  Sean nodded and said, “Jackson, head out through the pharmacy window and try and circle around the back staying in cover, don’t let them see you. Hurry, but keep your eyes open! If I wave my hat, show yourself to them briefly and then take cover again.” Jackson took off at a run as Sean and Nathan made their way through the store room as quickly and quietly as they could without their flashlights. Bug was just inside the door with his shotgun at the ready.

  “What’s up?” Sean asked in a whisper.

  “We’ve got three people walking this way. They are probably almost here by now.”

  “Ok, Bug, come with me. Nathan, post up here and unless you see a threat that we don’t see, wait for me to shoot first.”

  Sean quietly hopped down from the loading dock and quickly peeked around the corner and pulled back. Sure enough there were two men and a woman almost there. He turned to Bug and whispered, “Twenty feet and closing. One guy has a rifle. If things go down, I’ll take him first, you take the other guy or girl if they pull a weapon.” Bug nodded in response.

  Sean ensured his safety was off then leaned out with his weapon at ready and yelled, “Freeze! Don’t panic and don’t shoot!” They all froze in place and the man with the rifle had it on his shoulder half raised and Sean could see the wheels turning in his head. The other guy had his hand in his waistband and Sean could see the glimmer of steel in the moonlight. “Buddy, you raise that rifle one more inch and I’m going to blow your head off,” Sean said in his most forceful voice. Sean sensed Bug step out beside him with the shotgun leveled at the couple.

  “Mister, we don’t want any trouble,” the man with the rifle said with a quavering voice.

  “Well, you’re not going to have any if you lower that weapon and tell your friend to take his hand off that revolver!” The man hesitated for a moment then lowered the rifle and nodded at his friend who removed his hand from his waistband.

  “We live across the street and heard you drive in. We had been thinking about coming over here for food all day and figured we’d better get over here now before everything is gone.”

  “Alright, we are all in the same boat. We are just trying to get food for our own family as well. So I will make a deal with you. If you help us finish loading this wagon here, you can take whatever you want. But I can’t let you depart until we leave. I can’t have you pushing a grocery cart with food down the street while we are still here. We’ll end up with a bunch more of your neighbors rushing over here. Does that offer work for you?”

  “That will be fine with us,” the man replied.

  “Don’t answer too quickly, because part two of this deal is that you surrender your weapons to us till we leave, at which time we will return them to you. You have my word on that. I don’t know the first thing about you and while you seem decent enough, I can’t take the risk that you guys decide to shoot us in the back and take our tractor and supplies.”

  “We would never...,” the man stammered.

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Sean cut the man with the rifle off. “But it still doesn’t change the fact that I’m not comfortable letting you keep your weapons till we leave.”

  The other man spoke up then. “Well, I’m not comfortable handing over my gun to you either. You seem decent enough, but I don’t really trust you either. What happens if we don’t agree to give up our guns?”

  Sean gave the man his most icy stare. “Then things are going to get a lot more complicated than they are now. I can’t just let you walk away with that rifle of yours and start taking pot shots at us from a distance. And I don’t have the man power to have someone watch you because we are on a time schedule.” Sean had no intention of hurting them, but figured it wouldn’t hurt if their imag
inations ran a little wild. “Besides, you don’t have anything we want.”

  The woman beside him tugged on his coat sleeve and whispered something in his ear. There was a long awkward pause, and then he said, “Ok, we’ll agree to that.” He slowly pulled out a long stainless revolver and placed it on the ground as his friend set his rifle gently on the ground next to it. Sean raised his hand over his head and gave the ‘rally up’ signal again. Jackson came around the corner of the building about fifty yards away and started jogging in their direction while Maria walked out from behind the dumpster.

  “Nathan,” Sean called and Nathan appeared around the corner. “Please search Mr. Rifle there thoroughly and make sure he doesn’t have any more weapons on him. Bug, search the other guy and Maria, please search the young lady here. Let’s make sure these are some thorough TSA pat downs, guys.” The guy with the revolver didn’t seem too happy about being searched but he acquiesced anyway. After the search of the three individuals turned up no other weapons, Sean had Bug take the rifle and the revolver and place them in the front of the wagon where he was stacking boxes.

  Sean stuck his hand out to the man with the revolver, “My name is Sean.”

  The man took his firm handshake and responded, “Bob, and this is Ray and Wendy.”

  “Hello Ray, Wendy. Here’s what we’re going to do: Maria, take your place back behind the dumpsters. Ray and Bob are going to run grocery carts while Nathan, Jackson, and I load them and Bug and Wendy unload. Ok?”

  Everyone nodded and after a few minutes they were operating like a well-oiled machine. It took another two full hours before they had the hay wagon loaded about five feet high with every supply imaginable. They had also loaded three grocery carts overflowing with supplies for Wendy, Ray and Bob. When the cart was nearly loaded, Sean pulled Jackson and Bug aside. “Hey guys, we’re going to be cutting out here soon. I would like you two posted at the rear of the wagon with me as we head out. After I return their weapons, I want you to keep a steady eye on Bob and I’ll watch Ray. Don’t point your weapons at them, just have the safeties off and be ready.... just in case. Okay?”

  “Do you really think they’re that stupid to try something?” Bug asked, surprised.

  “No, I really don’t. But you always need to plan for the unexpected from here on out. In normal times they are just Ray, Bob and Wendy. In desperate times, they are a potential threat. Everyone is a possible enemy from here on. I don’t care if they are elderly, teenagers or wearing a monk’s robe. Everyone is a potential threat, okay?” They both nodded and went back to finalizing their preparations to leave.

  Before they left, Sean went back into the pharmacy with Nathan and Jackson. Items were strewn all over the floor in the addict’s rush to find narcotics. It took them a full twenty minutes to dig through the medications. Eventually they had found each item on the list that was needed. Unfortunately, the door to the fridge had been left open and there were only a handful of insulin bottles left. Sean hoped it wasn’t too cold out and that the bottles were ok. At least they didn’t appear frozen.

  The three of them made their way back to the loading dock where everyone was waiting for them. Jackson gently loaded the boxes of medicines near the center of the wagon to protect them. Sean nodded to Bug who handed the three helpers their weapons back. Sean stuck out his hand from his seated position on the hay wagon and shook Bob’s hand. “Good luck guys and God bless. Again, I would recommend you leave town as soon as possible and head to your uncle’s farm like we discussed earlier.”

  Bob nodded and said, “Good luck to you and your family, as well.”

  Sean hollered to Nathan, “Let’s roll, Nathan!” The tractor roared to life and they were quickly moving away from the loading docks. Sean, Bug, and Jackson watched the three closely but they made no threatening movements, just waved. They waved back and were quickly around the side of the building.

  “Threat left!” Sean heard Nathan holler out as they came around the corner. Sean scrambled over their supplies to take his normal position up front in the wagon. He noticed another group of two adults and what looked like two teenagers walking towards them about fifty yards away. Sean didn’t notice any weapons, but wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Nathan, keep moving!” he hollered. Sean shouldered his weapon just shy of pointing it at the four of them and hollered out. “We don’t want any trouble! Keep your hands where we can see them as we pass and don’t make any quick or threatening movements or we WILL shoot you!” Sean wasn’t sure if they would be able to hear him over the noise of the tractor but they quickly raised their hands to the sky and watched as the tractor rolled past them. As they passed out of his sector into Jackson’s, Sean hollered out, “Jackson, they’re yours!” Sean went back to scanning his sector, confident that Jackson had them covered. After another hundred yards, the potential threat was behind them and Nathan had the old Massey pegged as they travelled past the last houses on the edge of town.

  The icy wind on his face and his quickly numbing fingers reminded him of how cold it was outside. He had stayed pretty warm loading carts in the store but he was worried about Maria. Being of Hispanic decent, she had never handled the cold very well. He glanced over at her as she was scanning her sector on the other side of the wagon. Even though it was dark, he was pretty sure he could make out her body shivering and felt really bad that he hadn’t swapped her out for Jackson or Bug as a cart runner for a while when they were at the store. He was so concerned about her over-exerting herself that he never thought about her getting cold while on watch. “I’m such an ass,” he thought to himself. At the same time he was absolutely impressed that she never brought it up once or complained about being cold.

  It was a short trip back to the gas station and Nathan pulled up to find the sprayer full and no sign of Uncle Lawrence and Danny. When Nathan cut the engine, Sean watched as they immerged from the gas station and strolled across the lot.

  “We were starting to get worried about you guys,” Danny said.

  “It took longer than our plan of action, but it was well worth it,” Nathan replied, nodding at the full wagon of goods. “What do you think Sean? Do we have time to go to Duke’s?”

  Sean looked down at his watch and it was just after three-thirty a.m. Sean remembered from the previous morning that it was just after seven a.m. when the sun came up. That meant it would start getting light out around six thirty. He was absolutely certain that he didn’t want to be hauling all this crap back after the sun was up. It only took one set of eyes to get rumors going around the neighbors. Then they would definitely be in trouble once food got scarce. Sean was weighing the odds in his head, but to him it was a no brainer. “We really need to hurry and be back before sun up, but I believe that we have to make the time. I think weapons and ammo are just as important as this food here. Let’s put it up for vote. Does anyone have anything to add before we vote?” Everyone looked around at each other but no one spoke up, so Sean continued. “Ok then, all those in favor of going to Duke’s, vote by putting a hand in the air.” Every person to the last raised their hand.

  Chapter 11

  Once everyone was loaded into the wagon, they headed back down the road in the direction of town. Duke’s was only a half mile down the road set back about two hundred yards. There was a long narrow driveway and small parking lot that turned out to be a bit of a chore for Uncle Nathan to get the wagon turned around and backed up against the rear door. As Nathan cut the engine, he hopped down and came around back of the wagon where everyone was unloading. “That took a lot longer to get situated than I thought it would. I’d be willing to bet that Kenneth knows we are here.”

  Sean looked at his uncle curiously. “What are you talking about?”

  “Kenneth, the owner,” Nathan said, pointing to the only house visible to them. It sat about a hundred yards away and Sean noticed the long gravel driveway that wound up the hill from the rear of his business.

  “Dang it, Nathan. I wish you w
ould have told me this before! We should have put some kind of plan together.”

  Nathan shrugged his shoulders, “I thought you knew. Everybody knows.”

  “Well, I didn’t! If this Kenneth guy isn’t a complete idiot, I’m guessing he is watching us right now. Alright, everyone take cover from the north behind the wagon and tractor, and keep your eyes peeled. Nathan, do you know if he lives alone?”

  Nathan shrugged his shoulders again, “I’m not sure. His wife passed a few years back from cancer. He has two sons that are in their late twenties or early thirties that work here at the shop with him, but I don’t know if they live with him or not.”

  “This sucks!” Sean exclaimed. “We have to assume that they do and that they’re probably well armed. We also need to assume that they are proficient and know how to use their weapons. At this point we either need to make an approach to his house and talk to him, which puts us out in the open, or we need to get inside quickly and wait for them to come to us. Then again, if they don’t come to us, that gives them enough time to take positions around us and pick us off as we exit. This is major suckage no matter how you look at it. Just give me a moment to think this through.”

  Sean looked over at his wife who was squatted down behind the axle of the hay wagon. She was watching him intently and Sean could tell she was nervous. How could they pull this off with the least amount of risk? He closed his eyes and prayed like he never had before. He opened his eyes and could see everyone just watching him and waiting. “What do you think Nathan? How well do you know Kenneth? Would he recognize you?”

  “If it wasn’t dark, I imagine he would. I’m in here every hunting season and a couple other times throughout the year. I’m usually buying ammo or shopping for one reason or another. I bought that shotgun from them last year. I really couldn’t tell you for sure though, Sean.” Nathan looked back at him, unsure.