“Why?”
“Because I had you under surveillance the other day. No men around, women and children doing all the work. Just a couple of small cabins and a few camp trailers. No room to have large stocks of food. How’d you survive the radiation?”
“None of your business. But we did. And our men are just out hunting. They should be back any day now.”
“No, they’re not hunting. And they won’t be coming back,” Glenn said softly, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. He wanted to reach for his pistol, but didn’t.
“How do you know?” asked the boy, sounding angry.
The woman looked at Glenn for long moments. “He knows,” she finally said. “They didn’t go hunting, did they? You’re from the old ranch. Got it all fixed up now.”
Glenn nodded.
“They tried something.” It wasn’t a question. “What?”
“Tried to rustle some cattle.”
“My Dad wouldn’t rustle no cattle,” the boy cried, taking a step forward and sighting in on Glenn’s face with the Ruger.
“Easy boy,” the woman said. She put her hand up and pressed the Ruger down to point at the ground. As the boy started to cry, the woman looked up at Glenn again. “What do you have for us?” She let the shotgun she was carrying hang down at her side.
“Enough to get you through for a while.”
“We don’t take charity,” the boy said through his tears.
“Yes we do,” said the woman. “You go back to the house and tell Angela and Sophie to come out and help me.”
The boy walked slowly toward the first cabin, his rifle nearly dragging the ground. Glenn got out of the truck and walked around to the back of it, the woman following. He looked over at the woods and said, “A couple of you come out and help us with the food.”
The woman started when Jeremy and Helen stepped out of the forest, slinging their rifles. She looked over at Glenn again. “We would have been gunned down if we’d tried anything. Right?”
Glenn nodded. “Yes. With regret. Just like we regret having to kill the rustlers. It’s a shame we survivors can’t get along together. It would make it a lot easier on all parties.”
Jeremy opened the door of the box bed of the Unimog. “Oh, my!” said the woman. Angela and Sophie had come around the side of the truck and had similar reactions.
It took three trips to get everything to one of the cabins. Several other women came out to help when they saw the largesse. When Glenn started to get back into the cab of the Unimog, the woman that had come out first walked over and said, “Thank you. I’m sorry about what our men did. They thought they were helping us. Some of us… we tried to talk them into trying to trade for some food…”
“We’ll take just about anything useable in trade,” Glenn said. “Keep it in mind.” He started the truck.
“The horses… guns…”
“Spoils of war,” Glenn said coldly. He put the Unimog in gear and turned it around.
When he was around the bend in the road he stopped and let the others get into the truck, Thomas joining him in the cab again.
“Let them know everything is all right,” Glenn told Thomas.
Thomas picked up the microphone of the radio mounted in the Unimog and called for Brittany. She answered immediately.
“Everything is fine,” Thomas said. “They accepted the food with no problem.”
Brittany acknowledged the fact and said, “I’ll let the others know. Some of them are sitting on the edges of their chairs.”
When they got back to the Farm and Glenn had parked the truck, Brittany walked over to him and said, “I told Timothy he could come off watch.”
She was a bit taken aback when Glenn almost barked, “No. We need to keep a watch for some time to come. They know what happened to their men folk. They might still try something.”
“Oh. I’m sorry… I thought… I’m sorry.” Brittany was near tears.
Glenn shook his head. “I’m the one that should be sorry. You had no way of knowing what I was thinking. Don’t worry about it.”
After Glenn found Timothy and put him back on guard duty, he gathered up Alison, Thomas, and Harry. With Brittany, they went to Fredrick’s room in the clinic. Glenn and Thomas reported what had happened.
“How did they seem?” Fredrick asked.
“I think the adults suspected what the men were going to do. I think the women were just told that the men were going hunting.”
Alison asked, “Did they ask for the rustlers’ things back?”
“Yes. I told them we were keeping everything. She seemed to accept it.”
“Perhaps we should reconsider that,” Brittany said, rather tentatively.
Glenn and Fredrick were both shaking their heads.
“If they had something we really wanted, I’d consider trading them back the horses. But no weapons. They were still armed. I’m not going to give them a better means of attacking us. I’m still worried that they might try, especially if they get others to help.”
Glenn’s next words caught everyone by surprise. He hesitated a moment and then added, “Actually, I’d like to get them to move here.”
“After the group attacked us?” Fredrick was incredulous.
“I believe the woman. I don’t think those left condoned the actions. Having them as allies would be better than if they stayed an opposing force. Also, I’m worried about them. It is going to be doubly tough on them now. They just don’t seem to have many resources. If brigands begin to show up, and I’m thinking they will, I doubt that small group would survive any kind of dedicated attack.”
Brittany perked up a bit. “You think they would go for it? I like the idea.”
“I don’t know,” admitted Glenn. “I was thinking that you, with Alison, perhaps, could go talk to them. With an armed escort, of course.”
“Do you think that will be necessary? We are going on a peace mission, sort of.”
“We’ll stay out of sight, but I’m not going to let them hold you hostage. At the first sign of foul play, we’ll react immediately. It should take them by surprise.
“I don’t think they’ll agree right away, but from the feel of it, there is another bad storm coming. That might change their mind. They were cutting wood today when we got there. I doubt they have that much of a supply. You can tell them the advantages of staying here. All they have to do to reap the benefits of being here is to do their share of work, or provide some skill, or help in other ways.”
“I’ll go,” Brittany said. “She looked at Alison. “Alison?”
Alison nodded. “Sure. It was a small compound. Can’t be that many of them. And there are children involved. I think it will be the best way to handle the situation.”
Glenn looked at Fredrick. “Okay. I’ll go along with it,” Fredric said. Thomas and Harry agreed, as well.
“Okay. It’s settled. Tomorrow okay?” Glenn asked Brittany and Alison.
Both nodded and the small group broke up, going their separate ways. All but Fredrick met up the next morning, along with four others.
“Harry,” Glenn said while the Unimog was warming up, “I want you to give Brittany and Alison some tips on how to spot contagious illnesses that might be in the group.”
“Geez, Glenn! There is no way to tell at a glance, unless someone is weak and showing flu-like symptoms. Coughing their head off, things like that. I just can’t be more specific.”
Glenn smiled. “You did just fine.” He looked at Brittany and Alison. “Hear that? Keep your eyes and ears open for illness, as well as trouble.” He handed both of the women FRS handheld radios. “Any problems, and you yell for help. Or if you need to, just key the mike three times, pause, and three times again.”
Brittany and Alison took the radios and nodded.
“You two ride in back with the others. I want Thomas up front as shotgun, again.”
Glenn saw Tabitha standing in the background, a frown on her face, but he ignored her as th
e team climbed into the back of the Unimog. He and Thomas climbed into the cab and Glenn put the truck in gear. Harry and a couple of the others waved. Thomas waved back.
The road was still fairly clear and Glenn only used the snow blower a couple of times to clear the way through drifts. Again he stopped well before he got to the compound and let everyone out.
Glenn walked with Alison and Brittany along the track, as Thomas, Jeremy, Helen, and two other firearm friendly students faded into the woods and flanked them. Glenn joined those in the forest just before the last turn and let Brittany and Alison go on alone. Alison was carrying a holstered pistol. Brittany was unarmed.
“Hello the house!” Alison called, cupping her hands around her mouth.
The door of one of the cabin opened slightly. “What do you want?”
“To talk to you! We’re from the Murphy Ranch!”
A woman stepped onto the porch of the cabin. “Okay. Come ahead. Don’t try anything. We have a dozen guns on you.”
Glenn heard and tensed, wondering if they were doing the right thing. But nothing happened as Brittany and Alison walked up to the cabin and then went inside.
After an hour of silence, Glenn began to get worried. He had not suggested a check in time, and was wishing he had. Fortunately, a few minutes later the door of the cabin opened and Brittany and Alison stepped out. Another minute and they were around the bend and Glenn was there to see how the meeting went.
“How’d it go?” he immediately asked.
“So-so,” Alison replied. Some definitely want to come, some definitely don’t want to come, and some aren’t sure.”
“All we could do was lay out the possibilities for them. They’ll let us know,” Brittany added.
“Well, are the ones that want to come, going to?” Glenn asked.
Alison shook her head. “No. It would disadvantage the others too much. They are barely making it right now. They took a quick vote and agreed to stay together. They’d either decide to all come to the Farm, or stay where they are.”
“I think we’ll eventually get some of them,” Brittany said slowly, as the others in the woods joined them at the rear of the truck. “They won’t be able to manage much longer on their own. They just have to work too hard to make it. Everyone, even the older teens, look exhausted. I’m not sure what might have happened if we hadn’t delivered the food. No one is sick, yet, that I could tell. But it is only a matter of time, I’m sure.”
“Did they say how many people are here?” Thomas asked.
“Nine women, three teens, four youths, and three babies. I think,” Alison immediately said.
“That’s the way I figured it, too,” Brittany said.
“That would really add to the Farm’s population!” Jeremy said.
“We’re operating at reduced output now, because we can’t use all we can make. I was expecting to have more trading going on by this time.” Glenn shook his head. “I also figured we would have increased our population quite a bit by now, too.”
“Isn’t the fewer the better?” asked Helen. “More for everyone that way.”
“Have to consider the future population. We need a broad gene pool to make sure future generations can survive. We can’t do it all alone here, but the more diversified we are, the better.”
“Wow!” Jeremy said softly. “I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.”
“We have to,” Glenn said solemnly. “We have a responsibility to the human race.
“There’s nothing we can do about things right now,” he continued. “Let’s go home.”
Glenn was right about the storm affecting the decision of the rustlers’ families. Three days after the snow had stopped two women appeared on the perimeter of the Farm property. The student on guard sounded the alarm. Glenn, a hobbling Fredric, Alison, and Thomas approached them.
The two women were armed with rifles, but Glenn quickly decided not to disarm them. He needed them to begin trusting those at the farm. They would be more comfortable if they kept their arms, just as many at the farm did.
“We voted. If the invitation is still open, we’d like to move here.”
“Get Harry,” Glenn instructed Thomas. He put his arm under one shoulder of the woman that had spoken. She appeared about to fall down. Alison helped support the other woman as they made their way toward the clinic building, Fredrick hopping along, wanting to help, but unable to, due to his wound.
By the end of the following day everyone and everything useful was moved from the rustlers’ compound to the Farm. The women and children settled in quickly, amazed at the luxuriousness of the place, compared to their own. Only the eldest teen, whose name was George Timmons, aged fifteen, was causing any problems.
His mother, Carol, the leader of the group, tried to talk him into being less troublesome. It was Glenn that finally got George to become part of the Farm. Glenn added him to the watch keeping roster after only a couple of days of rowdy behavior. Having the responsibility of the entire Farm in his hands transformed him from a boy of fifteen, to a man of fifteen. Rather than the Ruger 10/22 he brought with him, he was issued one of the Farm’s Steyr AUG’s, with six spare magazines, to carry while on watch, along with the customary radio.
CHAPTER SIX
Carol and the group fell into the daily routine without much problem. The group brought some needed skills to the Farm.
Two of the women were experienced nurses and were able to lighten the load on Harry. Three were teachers and were keeping the children educated in home school courses. Fred, much to his dismay, was now included in the classes. The other four were basically home makers. They took on much of the food preparations for the community kitchen.
Glenn, Fredrick, and Alison kept a close eye on the situation. There did not seem to be any animosity towards those at the Farm, for the fate of their men. Glenn began to relax as spring rolled around.
It was an earlier spring than Glenn expected. Perhaps Nuclear Winter wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. After the field crops were in Glenn went on several exploration missions.
He was looking for anything the Farm could use, for one thing, but specifically for a couple of dump trailers and a front end loader that would run, with which they could begin hauling the coal from the Diversion Channel south of the city. The two semi tractors they’d used right after the war were in good shape. All they needed were the trailers and the loader. Glenn didn’t want to tie up the Unimogs with the hauling, though they would have worked.
Glenn and Jeremy finally found what they need. Since there were no longer any DOT rules, they put together two sets of three belly dump trailers each for the coal haul. A Caterpillar front end loader was finally located that would run. At the same construction equipment site, an old Kenworth truck set up as a maintenance vehicle was also started and, after filling the transfer fuel tank with biodiesel, it was moved to the barge site.
Jeremy, showing a great deal of skill for his age, built a dirt ramp to the height of the edge of the barges using the front-end loader. Once he had access to the tops of the barges, he ramped each of them so he could get into the barge hold to begin transferring the coal, one large front-end bucket at a time, to the trailers.
Once enough coal had been taken out of a given barge, Jeremy bucketed in earth to replace the coal ramp, so the last bit of coal could be removed from each barge. He and Helen worked on the coal haul any time they weren’t busy with something more critical.
Survivors of the war began to move around more than they had right after the war. More and more of the survivors found Amateur Radio equipment and began to get on the air, in their search for other survivors.
Those at the Farm began to keep a 24/7 radio watch, with a dozen different frequencies being monitored. They finally heard from Seth Gromacher. He and his group had made it to the Gulf of Mexico with only a slight brush with River Rat. They had driven the attack using small powerboats off with their superior firepower.
To a bit of Glenn’s dism
ay, Seth again profusely thanked those at the Farm for the generous supply of food they had provided those on the tugboat. The farm began to get requests for food by several of the relatively close survivor groups. Glenn made it very clear that only he or Fredrick could negotiate a trade. And there had to be a trade. Glenn insisted on it, though he was very flexible as to what constituted adequate trade goods, since they had most of what they needed already.
But trade they did, becoming the primary source of food in the area for those that did not have the means to produce it themselves. Or didn’t want to. Some of the exchanges between Glenn and the leaders of other groups became heated when Glenn refused to just give away the food ‘since they had so much’.
Simpler Times Page 9
