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

by P. A. Glaspy

  “I know what you mean. They’ve been taken care of by the government for so long, they don’t know how to take care of themselves, but more importantly, they don’t want to. But, those boys aren’t the only ones we’ve seen. There’s been a few bunches come through. Our place isn’t right on the road, but we don’t have as much tree line as you do, and the gate is easy to see. We’ve had people come up, open the gate, and walk right up to the house. Mostly younger men, but a few women and kids. At first, Charlotte was giving everybody something. She loves canning veggies from the garden, and meat from my hunting trips, so we have a lot put back. But again, we were getting ‘repeat customers’, and when I said no more, they started gettin’ hostile. I put a stop to all of it. I put a chain and a lock on the gate and a sign that says ‘ALL TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT’. That slowed the flow real quick. We still get a brave, or stupid, one every now and then, but I got the girls sitting watch with a rifle day and night. A shot over their head usually sends them runnin’, sometimes with piss runnin’ down their legs.”

  Monroe chuckled at the image. “Well, it sounds like you got a pretty good handle on things, Jim, but we were gonna come over and see if you and yours wanted to move over here with us. We have lots of room for campers, and we have over two dozen folks here now. Some younger kids, but plenty of adults to share security watch. As you said, our place is a lot more secure. We really only have to keep an eye on the front gate area and as you can see, if you don’t know where it is, you don’t know where it is. I know it would be tough to leave your home, but things are going to get a lot worse, and you and your girls can’t protect yourselves and your place alone. Not only that, but there’s people out there grabbing women and kidnapping them. I don’t think I have to tell you what for. I think you would all be safer with us.”

  Monroe told him what happened to Casey, and that they had actually confronted the men as they were leaving to bring the Callens to the farm. He could see when Jim realized what he was talking about when he mentioned kidnapping women. Jim’s eyes looked almost red as his anger seethed at the thought of what could happen to one of his daughters or his granddaughter. He shook his head as he spoke quietly, dangerously.

  “No one is touching my girls. Ever. I will die protecting them if I have to.”

  Mike stepped forward. “That’s what we don’t want to happen, Mr. Dotson. That’s why we’d like you all to join us. There is safety in numbers. Where a group of five or six guys might try to storm your place, they wouldn’t have a chance at ours. Monroe said you had an RV at one time. If you still have it, we can load up all the things you need to bring, and get you and your family moved in with us in a day or so. I’m sure you’ll want to talk to them first. We just want you to know that if you decide to take us up on our offer, we’ll have a crew over there to get you loaded up and over here in a matter of hours.”

  “I don’t think the RV will run. How will we get it over here?”

  Monroe waved him off. “My tractor will get it here. Don’t worry about that. You just go talk to your family. If they’re in agreement, come back here. Go to the gate, and shoot one shotgun blast in the air. You’ll get a shot back in return. Fire two shots after that. We’ll meet you at the gate.”

  Jim reached for Monroe’s hand. “Thank you for the offer, Monroe. Thank you for considering bringing my family into yours. I’m going home to talk to my girls right now. You’ll hear back from me in the next day or so.”

  Monroe shook his hand and smiled at his friend. “No thanks needed. There’s plenty for everyone to do. You’ll earn your keep.”

  “You bet your ass we will. Talk to you soon.” With that, Jim headed back across the field.

  Our folks watched him as he walked away for a moment, then turned back to the gate. They went through and closed and locked it. They didn’t put the center post back because they were expecting to bring Jim and his family over the next day, two at the most. They were talking among themselves, discussing the things Jim had shared with them, so they didn’t see Alan and his boys down the road, peering at them from the ditch where they had taken cover when they rounded the corner and saw them talking to Jim. They weren’t aware they were being watched. They had no idea that they had inadvertently led the wolves to our door.

  ****

  “I told you if we watched and waited long enough they’d show themselves. We’ve got those assholes now!” Alan was full of himself right about then. They could hear it in his voice as he spoke. “Give it about ten minutes, enough time for them to get on up the drive, then we’re going to see where that gate is.”

  Steve glanced at Rich. Rich was shaking his head. “Al, did you see how many people were out there? There had to be eight or ten of them, and I’m betting that wasn’t everybody. And they all had guns. And some pretty big dogs. There’s only three of us. Do you want us to get killed? What’s the plan, man, cuz this sounds bad to me.”

  Steve added, “Me, too. Dude, we can’t take that place. We should just keep on like we have been. It’s working good for us. We got food, booze, drugs, and chicks. What else do we need?”

  Alan looked back at his two so-called friends disgustedly. “So, you’re okay with those dicks threatening us the other day, huh? You’re fine with them pointing guns at us, right? You’ve got no problem with being a little bitch and tucking your tail and running to hide, is that it? Well, I ain’t nobody’s bitch. That old man was disrespectful to me and I ain’t forgot it. They got us outnumbered? Then let’s go find some more bodies. There’s got to be other guys around here that we could get to join up with us. We’re getting in there somehow. They’re gonna pay for how they treated us – with everything they have.”

  Whether it was the meth making him delusional, or some kind of character flaw that had him believing he was more powerful than he truly was, Alan thought they could breach our defenses and take the place. Steve and Rich knew it was insane, and not possible, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying. That path would have consequences on both sides.

  ****

  News of the Dotsons possibly joining us very soon was the discussion over supper. With the addition of another nurse, Kate was confident we could handle most any minor to medium medical treatment needed.

  “As long as no one needs anything along the lines of open heart surgery, we should be good. If you’ve ever been in a hospital, you know the nurses know damn near as much as the doctors. I can remove an appendix, do a C-section, set a broken bone, stitch up a cut, and am a pretty good diagnostician. It will be great to have another set of eyes, ears, and hands though. I’m worried we haven’t seen the worst of the bad yet.”

  “I’m sure we haven’t.” Mike replied. “I expect the Glass brothers back any day, and those guys from Luke’s place will probably find us sooner or later. I hate to sound like a stuck record but we need to stay on our toes, gang. It’s definitely gonna get worse before it gets better – if it ever does get better.”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about it and I feel like it’s best if my family trades space with Pete and Sara. They can take the upstairs room, and we’ll take the basement. That way I can be right there if we have someone who needs to stay in our clinic. The double bed is fine and we’ll put the girls on a pallet on the floor.”

  “No you won’t. You’ll let me build them a set of bunk beds.” Lee was looking at Kate when he said it. She smiled at him.

  “Even better. Less floor space. We can make the move as soon as you have those ready then, or if we end up with anyone needing to stay down there, whichever comes first. Thank you, Lee.”

  Lee returned her smile and gave her a nod. “Anything else anyone needs built that will make things easier, just let me know. I’ll build until we run out of supplies, then we’ll go find some more.”

  “Since you mentioned it, Lee,” Millie replied, “I think we should move the dining room chairs to the attic or the shed and put some benches at the dining table instead, long ones for the sides and short
ones on the ends. We could seat a lot more people at the table that way. With all the leaves in place, that table is huge; we could possibly seat close to two dozen people in there. I’m sure we’ll be getting into the summer storm season soon, and we need to think about some alternative eating arrangements. We should probably go ahead and do that for the kitchen table as well. No rush, dear. Whenever you don’t have anything else you’re working on.”

  “I’ll start on them right after I finish the new bunk beds, Miss Millie.”

  Millie smiled at Lee, and Kate continued. “Oh, Anne, I forgot to tell you earlier. The ereader battery needs to be charged. How do we do that with no electricity? I didn’t know - ”

  Bob interrupted her. “Is that a dig at us for not having the solar panels set up yet?? I was shot in the leg you know. Mike was shot in the arm. Can we get a little sympathy around here??”

  While those who didn’t know Bob as well as we did sat there in stunned silence, Janet punched her husband in the arm. “OW! And now I have a bruised arm!”

  “Stop whining. You’re gonna live. It was in the upper 80’s today. Fans will make for less cranky people, me being one of them. Ignore him, Kate. He’s just acting like a baby.”

  I was laughing as I got up. “In the meantime, I have something we can charge it with, Kate. Be right back.”

  I went into the house, ran up to our room, and got out one of the ammo can faraday cages that held a solar power pack. It was a 15000mAh power pack that would charge the ereader to a full battery at least three times from its full capacity. While solar charging on the unit was a slow process, the ereader would go for weeks on a single charge, so we had plenty of time to build it back to full capacity on the solar side, unless we got power before then. The power plan had kind of gotten pushed down the priority list, so maybe with no other projects going on we could get that started now. I for one would love a real shower, even lukewarm.

  While I was gone, Kate had retrieved the ereader from the basement. She handed it to me, so I took the opportunity to show everyone how the power pack worked. Not much to it, but it did have a power switch to keep it from draining its own battery when not in use. Ryan was watching intently.

  “Hey Anne, would that thing have charged my tablet, you know, if it wasn’t a door stop right now?”

  Everyone laughed and I nodded at him. “Yep, it would have, hun. I charged my cell, ereader, and tablet all off one full pack. It’s a beast.”

  “Well, if the world ever turns right side up again, I’m getting one of those. Right after I get a new tablet.” He grinned and went back to trying to get every drop of gravy off his plate with a biscuit.

  “Alright, what’s the plan for the Dotsons coming in? Are you guys going to go get them tomorrow?” I was anxious to meet them.

  “I told Jim to let us know what their decision was after he talked to his family. From all the problems they’ve had, I’m pretty sure they’re gonna come in. We’ll probably have to tow their RV in here. It’s too new to still be running.” Monroe looked over at Pete. “You think you can haul a motorhome with the big tractor, Pete?”

  Pete considered it, and nodded. “If we go slow, yeah it should handle it. Are there any big hills between here and there?”

  “Nah, this is farm land. It’s all pretty flat. It’s only about four miles of driving over to his place.”

  “Then we should be good to go. Just say when. Do you have a spot scoped out already that you want to park it in?”

  “Yeah, I think we’re gonna set it up on the other side of the car shed. It’ll give them a little privacy. Charlotte is a little shy about her leg.” Monroe pointed to the spot he was referring to. Pete leaned over to get a good look at it.

  “Hmm. Might be tough to get it in there with no engine to drive it. We may have to push it in, and it could damage the front end if we do.”

  “Son, at this point, a dented bumper is going to be the least of their worries.”

  “True. So, then yeah, no problem. Just let me know when we’re a go.”

  Mike stood up. “Well, I guess since we don’t have anything else going on, we should see what we can do about getting some electricity going. We’ve got a couple of hours of daylight left. Who’s in?”

  “I definitely am. I don’t want anyone accusing me of not doing my part, even if I was shot in the leg.” Bob sounded indignant, but then broke out in huge grin. Janet was shaking her head as she picked up their plates.

  “How long are you going to milk that leg wound, Bob?”

  “How much longer can I, Sugar?” Everyone laughed at that.

  “I’ve got security watch at eight, but I can certainly supervise the process.” Ryan stood up and set his plate on the growing pile on the table.

  Pete joined them. “Yeah, count me in, too.”

  At that, the rest of us got up and added our dishes. Ben and Tony had table clearing duty and started carrying everything in the house. Marietta had already gone in and started heating water for the dishwashing team, which was Rusty and Tara that night. We tried to pair one of the older kids with one of the younger ones each night.

  Mike and crew headed for the shed where they had left the inverters and controllers after testing them. The solar panels were set up to the side of the house facing south but were not connected to anything electrical. That turned out to be a huge blessing, since the pulse could have fried everything, including the panels, if they had been connected to anything. We had read that a solar panel itself should be inherently resistant to an EMP to some extent. But, if damage occurs, it is likely due to the wires between the solar panel and either the solar charge controller or the inverters. And that’s about the extent of my knowledge on that subject, which I overheard Mike telling Russ and Bob right after they had inspected the electrical components. I trusted the guys to get it working. I just wanted a working fan and a shower.

  ****

  Millie and Janet had gone out to the gardens and came back with their arms full of baskets with onions, carrots, radishes (yay!), and greens. They called out to the kids in the yard to come help them. Everyone gathered around the table to admire the haul.

  “We should probably start putting some of this back. The onions we can just tie up and hang in the root cellar, and the radishes will keep down there for a bit. We’ll can some of the carrots, but the greens I’m thinking we may dry some of for soups this winter.” Millie seemed to be counting off a list in her head. “Not everyone likes greens, so we can add small amounts to our soups and stews. They won’t even know they’re in there. You can successfully can greens, but I think they are just so bland done that way – and it takes over an hour to process them. It’s not worth burning up that much gas or wood.”

  I was inspecting the greens. “How will we dry them, Millie? We have no power for the dehydrators. Yet.” Ever hopeful, that’s me.

  “The old-fashioned way. We lay them out on screens and let the sun do the work. Monroe made some up not too long ago, so I could try them out. They take longer than the dehydrator, especially this time of year when it’s not so hot, but they work. Once they’re dried we can put them in jars or plastic bags and use them whenever we want. In fact, I know a little trick I’ve been meaning to show you all. Follow me.”

  We followed her into the kitchen. She took out a zippered plastic bag and a bowl. She put water in the bowl and set it aside. Then she took a couple of leftover biscuits (yes, there were actually a couple of leftovers!) and put them in the bag. She zipped the bag almost closed, leaving about an inch open. Then she pushed the bag down into the water until the biscuits were below the surface. The bag closed around the bread just like we had used the vacuum sealer on it. She zipped the rest of it closed, pulled it out and dried off the outside. Holding the bag up for us to see, Millie had a huge grin on her face.

  “A little trick I learned from my preserving group at church. It doesn’t get all the air out, but it definitely gets a bunch of it. Whatever we can do to make food last lon
ger, right?”

  This woman never ceased to impress me with her knowledge of alternative methods of doing things. She was better than an ereader with a hundred books. We oohed and aahed over her results, then walked back outside. I hollered for the kids who were out there.

  “Alright gang, take that haul over to the pump and get it cleaned off. Leave it all out there when you’re done, so it can dry a bit before we take it inside. Looks like we’re canning tomorrow!”

  The kids grabbed the veggies and took them to the pump. We were about to head back to the kitchen to check the dishwashing progress when Rusty came bursting out the back door with the radio in his hand.

  “Mom! Dad! They’re calling from the front! There’s somebody at the gate asking for Uncle Monroe – well, they asked for the owner of the property. He said he was with the sheriff’s office!”

  Do what? Now what is this all about?

  CHAPTER 21

  The sheriff is an elected official. He has to be reelected every term. His staff, on the other hand, are not. They are hired by the sheriff. If a new sheriff is elected, it is his choice whether or not to keep the deputies and office staff in place at the time of his service. Unless they present a huge problem, the sheriff will many times retain the services of the previous sheriff’s staff, if for no other reason than they already know their jobs, and he doesn’t have to take the time to find replacements and train them. Tim Miller was on his second sheriff.

  When everything went down, Tim was in the office. When he tried to start his patrol car, he knew this was something big. No one else showed up for work, including the sheriff, who lived about 20 miles away. As the day wore on, people came into the sheriff’s office, on foot for the most part, trying to find out what was going on. Tim had no idea, and told them as much. When the sun started going down, with no word from anyone, since the radios weren’t working either, he knew this was going to last for a while. His place was 10 miles away, and he wasn’t in any hurry to get home, especially on foot, so he decided to spend the night there. The sheriff had a nice couch in his office. He locked the front door and headed to the back.