A Powerless World (Book 2): When the Peace is Gone

by P. A. Glaspy

  I shrugged. “She’s the doctor, so to speak. Ask her when she gets back.”

  Kate came back with one of each in her hand, and both bottles in the crook of her arm. Millie was hesitant. “Shouldn’t I take one or the other? I’ve never heard of taking one of each.”

  Kate handed her the pills. “These two work together at fighting pain and inflammation. Each one has its own unique properties and abilities, so they complement each other. If it doesn’t feel better in an hour or so, we can give you two more ibuprofens. It’s the best we can do without something stronger, but this method works very well with pain management. I use it a lot for my back and legs when I’ve worked a double shift.”

  “Well, if it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for me.” With that, Millie took the meds, then looked at us. “Now, let’s get to working on the meals for tomorrow. If you’re not going to let me do the cooking, I can at least help with the planning.”

  We settled back around the table and were just starting to discuss ideas for the meals for tomorrow when we heard gunshots. Again?? Dammit!

  ****

  Lee and the Lawton brothers had been in the bunkhouse getting it ready for more inhabitants. They made up beds on all the bunks to make sure we had plenty of bedclothes. They condensed some of the totes and duffels under the bunks so that any newcomers had room for their things as well. They had added hooks for coats and hats, and some simple gun racks for rifles and shotguns. Bill was sweeping the floor while Lee and Ryan finished up the last bunk.

  “You’re going to make someone a fine wife someday, big brother.”

  Bill took a swipe at Ryan with the broom. Ryan dodged and laughed. Bill gave his little brother an evil look.

  “I doubt I’ll ever get married, because they probably won’t want to taint their bloodline with someone who has a moron for a brother.”

  “Man, you shouldn’t talk about yourself like that. You’re not a moron.”

  Ryan laughed at his own joke, then took off running out the door as Bill came after him with the broom. Lee was watching them with a grin on his face, until he heard the shots. He took off out the door to find his kids, while Bill dropped the broom in the yard, and he and Ryan headed toward the front, pistols drawn. Remembering Mike’s admonishments regarding rifles over handguns, they turned around and raced back to the bunkhouse for their rifles. They didn’t know who was shooting, but it sounded too far off to be our people. It wasn’t us. At least, not yet.

  ****

  Russ, Monroe, and Bob were scoping out an area for more campers. They had pretty much decided on the space between the car shed and the old outhouse. It would not be as close to the main house as the bunkhouse, but it would still be shouting distance if something happened.

  “I think we ought to hook the blade up to the tractor and do a little grading. There’s a slight incline that might make it harder to level a camper. I know it doesn’t have to be perfect, but the more level the better. Have you ever been in a camper that wasn’t level, or wasn’t set up properly with jacks? Every time someone breathes you can feel it move.”

  Bob seemed to be remembering the situation he was describing. Monroe looked at him. “I didn’t know you’d ever been in a camper. I thought y’all were tent campers.”

  “We are – well, were – but we went with some friends once who were on their maiden voyage with their camper. To say they were green would be an understatement. I got seasick just stepping up in the thing. I had to show them how to use the jacks to steady it, but the spot was gravel, so they still didn’t get a good solid base. I think they got rid of it right after that. The wife said that was the worst night’s sleep she had ever had, and she would not go again.”

  “Sounds like someone got a good deal on a slightly used camper right after that. I can see the ad: Camper for sale. Used once. Wife said either it goes or I do. Make me an offer.” Russ was grinning as he said it.

  “Dude, that was it almost word for word! He practically gave it away. I’m kind of wishing now I’d bought it, but Janet was pregnant with Benny then and we couldn’t swing it.”

  “It’d be at least 16 years old now. They’re making campers like mobile homes these days, using very sturdy materials. We’ll find some late models we can bring in. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure there are more people out there who never made it home. We’ll find some we can use, I know it.”

  Russ’s confidence was infectious. Bob and Monroe were discussing how much grading they needed to do when they heard the shots. They immediately took off at a run toward the front gate, where it sounded like they had come from. The two younger men were unslinging their rifles as they ran but noticed Monroe was no longer with them. They turned to look and saw he had changed course and was headed for the house.

  “Go on ahead! I’m gonna make sure everyone is secure inside, and the kids are all accounted for. I’ll be up there as soon as I can! Call on the radio if you need anything from the house!”

  They nodded and continued to the front at a dead run. Who was shooting? What were they shooting at? How did someone get close enough to shoot without the sentries seeing them? Too many questions that needed answers and fast.

  ****

  Mike was on security detail and had been walking back toward the house from one of the foxholes that Brian was in when the shots rang out. Matt Thompson was in the treehouse and immediately brought his .308 up so he could use the scope to try to determine where the shots came from. Luke was in the other hole. Mike hit the dirt and worked his way to the tree line in front of the treehouse.

  “Matt! What do you see? Who’s shooting??”

  Matt was scanning the area through his scope. “I don’t see anybody, Mike. I don’t think whoever is shooting was aiming our way. Maybe someone out hunting?”

  “Could be. Let me know if you see anything. Use the binoculars hanging inside if you need them.”

  Monroe was calling them on the radio. “Who is it? Who’s shootin’ at us? If it’s them Glass boys again, I’m gonna tear them a new ass when I get out there!”

  Mike answered him. “We don’t know yet. Matt doesn’t see anybody out there. Maybe somebody hunting close by. The shots don’t seem to have been aimed toward us.”

  “Alright, give me a minute or two and I’ll be up. Out.”

  Mike decided to climb up to Matt and have a look himself. When he got up Matt tried to hand him the binoculars, but Mike waved him off.

  “Thanks. I’ve got my own.” He pulled his minis out and scanned the area. He couldn’t find the source of the shots at first either. Just as he was about to give up, he saw a muzzle flash and heard another shot. Definitely not toward the farm, it looked like the shooter was in the field across the road, possibly rabbit or turkey hunting. As there didn’t appear to be an immediate threat, Mike climbed down and headed off everybody coming down the road.

  “Looks like it’s just somebody out hunting. I don’t think they’re looking for trouble. We should probably just hang tight.”

  By now Monroe had gotten to them and was looking toward the gate. “Did you get a good look at him? Could you tell anything about him?”

  “Medium build, maybe late 50’s, early 60’s. Had a braid of gray hair about halfway down his back. Do you know him?”

  “Yes, and he’s one of the ones I wanted to talk to about joining up with us. I believe it’s Jim Dotson. He lives about two miles as the crow flies, straight in front of us. He’s got a wife, Charlotte, and two girls, Ashley and Carrie, I believe are their names. I think Ashley just got divorced and moved back in with them with her teenage daughter. I can’t remember her name. Carrie has been there all along. Charlotte is disabled, so Carrie helps take care of her.”

  “What happened to Charlotte, Monroe?”

  “She got hit by a drunk driver about 10 years ago. Messed her leg up bad. The driver was a judge. They sued and got enough to take care of her medical bills, ongoing therapy, and they both got to retire. She can get around, but she
needs help in the bathroom sometimes and getting dressed, that sort of thing. I’m not positive but I think they still have an older model RV at their place. Jim got a deal on it right after they got the settlement money. They go camping from time to time. They’re good people, and I think they’d be a good addition. Jim’s a hell of a hunter. He’s like a quarter Cherokee. He can track like you wouldn’t believe and never comes back from hunting empty handed. Carrie is a nurse. She got her degree right before Charlotte got messed up. I think we should go out and talk to him. He knows where we live, so we won’t be revealing our location to anyone who didn’t already know we were here.”

  With that settled, most of the group went to the gate. There hadn’t been much going on outside of the day-to-day grind, so meeting new people was a little bit of an adventure. It took three of them to wrestle the middle post out of its hole. Mike wiped sweat from his brow.

  “I think we need to figure out a better way to move that thing when we need to. It’s a great defense mechanism, but damn it’s heavy!”

  Bob laughed at him. “It was your idea. Figure it out, Sargent.”

  “So, you’re saying I have to do all the heavy lifting AND thinking, Pinky?”

  Bob started to say something, closed his mouth, shook his head, and turned to walk away. Everyone else was laughing hysterically, since by now we were all in on the Pinky nickname.

  Monroe was trying to compose himself as he unhitched the gate. “You’re killing me with that Pinky business, Jarhead. Now let’s go talk to Jim.”

  No one from our group was aware that Jim wasn’t the only one out there. There were others who didn’t know where we were but had been trying to figure it out. Those people were about to get their question answered. We were about to be in a big mess of trouble.

  CHAPTER 20

  Alan had followed Russ’s truck from as far back as he could and still try to keep it in sight. He didn’t want them to know he was following. The thing about older vehicles is they tend to be pretty loud. There weren’t inspection stations that tested your emissions back when this truck was built. When they started hitting houses for supplies, Alan had stuffed the muffler with steel wool to quiet it down so people wouldn’t hear them coming too soon. It helped a lot. They were able to be in the driveway before anyone knew they were there. Still, he didn’t want to take a chance, so he had stayed well back from the camper. When he thought he heard the truck’s engine sound change, he guessed it had been placed in park. He wanted to get a look at where they were, but he didn’t want to take a chance they were outside of the truck and could hear his, so they parked and took off on foot.

  They were approaching a bend in the road when they heard the truck’s engine sound change again. They took off at a trot to get past the corner, but by the time they had a good view of the road again, the truck and camper were nowhere in sight.

  Rich hissed at Alan. “What the hell? Where’d they go? They got a bat cave or something?”

  Alan smirked at his buddy. “Not likely. Their place is here somewhere, in this stretch of road. Let’s find it. Stay to the edge, close to the trees. If we can’t see them, then by God they ain’t seein’ us.”

  To their left was open fields that looked like hay or wheat, so they knew it couldn’t be that side. That left only the right side of the road. It was solid trees and brush, or so it seemed. They walked the road slowly, peering into the foliage trying to see past it. It was just too thick.

  Steve looked at the tree line, then at Alan. “You think we should try to go in there, see if we can find ‘em?”

  “Do you see any place that looks like someone has been drivin’ through here, dumbass? You think they drove that truck through that thick shit right there? If we can’t get through it, they can’t either. Keep walking and keep looking. There has to be a driveway or a gate or something.”

  They walked the road for over a mile and could find no sign of the entrance to the farm. Alan stopped and looked back the way they had come. In the dusky dark, there was no indication of an entrance to anything. He picked up a rock and hurled it across the road.

  “It has to be here somewhere! They didn’t just disappear! If they’re hid that well, you know they’re sittin’ on a pile of goodies stashed in there and I want ‘em! We’ve got to find this place, but it’s gettin’ dark, and with no moon out, we won’t be able to see shit, so let’s get back to the truck. Be quiet, in case they’re close and we just can’t see ‘em.”

  They headed back the way they had come, still peering into the tree line trying to see anything out of the ordinary. They saw no more on the way back than they had on the way out; even less, since the sun was dropping rapidly in the sky. When they got back to the truck, Alan turned to his buddies.

  “We’re coming back here every day until someone shows their face. Then we’ll know where they are. That’s when we’ll make our plan to take everything they have, including their place.”

  Steve looked confused. “How are just the three of us going to take them out and take their place, Al? They had us outnumbered already. They could have a bunch more folks back in there, wherever they are.”

  “Don’t you worry about that, Stevie. When the time is right, we’ll have what we need to take them down.”

  Even in their meth fog, Steve and Rich looked at each other in confusion. What the hell was he getting them into now?

  ****

  “Did you hear something?” Nick spoke softly to his brother Matt, who was in one of the holes, while Nick had been on patrol. Nick had stopped to check on him before he made his way back toward the house.

  Matt stopped all movement and listened. He replied in a hushed voice, “I don’t hear anything. What did it sound like?”

  “Kind of like people talking, but it could have been the leaves rustling in the wind, I guess. It’s still kind of creepy with no background noise, like the hum of the yard light. When it starts getting dark, it’s like all the sounds are magnified.”

  “Awww, is da wittle baby afwaid of da dark? Does him need his bwankie?”

  Nick kicked dirt in his older brother’s face. “Jerk.”

  Matt shook his head, wiped his face, and spit a few times to clear the dirt from his mouth. “Buttwipe!”

  Pete hissed at them from the other hole. “Knock it off, boys! If there is someone out there, they’ll be hearing you instead of you hearing them!”

  The boys stopped talking, but Nick flipped his brother off. Matt snickered at him as he wiped his face with a bandana he had poured water on from his canteen. Pete radioed the nest. “Brian, you see anything up there? Nick thought he heard someone talking.”

  Brian scanned the area, trying to see past the tree line, but with the sun past the horizon, it was almost completely dark.

  “No, I don’t see anything. Stay sharp just in case.”

  Their watch was almost over and the next shift was starting to arrive. Pete had Nick tell them what he thought he had heard. As the next one up was Russ’s shift that night, he listened, asked a few questions, then sent them to the house for their late supper. The four-to-eight shift in the evening ate when they got done.

  “Make sure you tell Mike about it, so he can put it in the log.”

  Nick looked hesitant. “Are you sure, Russ? Maybe it was just the leaves.”

  “Yes, I’m sure, because maybe it wasn’t just the leaves.”

  It wasn’t.

  ****

  As Monroe was walking out the gate, he hollered across the field. “Jim! What ya huntin’ out there?”

  Jim Dotson turned to the sound of his name. He smiled at his old friend and waved. He started walking that way. “Hey Monroe! Just gettin’ a few rabbits for dinner. Charlotte likes the tame ones, but I kind of like that wild taste sometimes, ya know? How you doing, fella? I was gonna come see ya, see how you and Millie were farin’, but the way you had the gate hidden, wasn’t sure you were taking visitors, and these days it don’t pay to show up uninvited, if you get my dri
ft. Y’all makin’ it okay with all the craziness going on?”

  “Well, if you’re just talking about the power being gone, yeah, we’re doing alright. Got some kin, some old friends and some new ones staying at our place now. C’mon over, gang.”

  Monroe made introductions all around. Jim smiled and nodded and shook everyone’s hand, and patted the head of the dogs that had followed. “You do have quite a crew. Can’t say I blame ya. Them Glass boys been by your place?”

  Monroe snorted and spat on the ground. “Yeah, they came around begging a week or so ago. We sent ‘em packing. They’d be like a stray dog. Feed ‘em once, and they’d keep coming back for more. Everybody needs to learn to take care of themselves now. They come to you, too?”

  Jim nodded sheepishly. “Yes, and unfortunately we gave them some supplies. Peanut butter, crackers, tuna, and some cans of soup. And you’re exactly right. Three days later they were back for more. Said they ate all that and needed some more ‘help’. Charlotte wanted me to give them more, but I said no. I told those boys if they wanted any more help, the only thing I could do for them in that department was to teach them how to hunt and fish. One of ‘em seemed to want to do that, but the other one didn’t want any part of actually having to DO something to get to eat. They stormed off. That night, I heard glass breaking. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my shotgun, ran into the kitchen and caught the lazy one trying to climb in the window. I pointed my shotgun at him and said, ‘This is the only warning you’re gonna get. Get off my property and don’t come back. I see you here again, and you won’t be leaving.’ He hustled back out the window and I ain’t seen hide nor hair of ‘em since. Doesn’t mean he won’t be back. Just means he ain’t figured out how to do it without gettin’ shot.”

  Monroe was shaking his head. “Clay Glass. Ya know, if he spent half as much energy learning to gather food as he does trying to get someone to give it to him, or trying to steal it, he’d be able to feed himself and his family. I don’t get it.”