by Ira Tabankin
“I saw the three return the way they came, they looked like they were checking us out. They looked experienced at it. I think they’ll be back with a lot more people than three of them. These guys knew where to look, they are experienced scouts, my bet is they are ex-military.”
“Any idea how long we have?”
“I’m going to guess between one and three hours.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I think they were a scout group, they were checking us out. I don’t like the way they were taking pictures of our gates and barb wire. I think they will return and report to their leader who will return in force.”
“Shit.”
John says, “I’m going to call an all hands alert.”
“I agree, send the kids to the shelter now, it may save us time and their lives by getting them there before we come under attack. I’d suggest two of the women accompany the kids.”
“Good idea, it’ll help control the kids. Who do you suggest?”
Thinking about who to send with the kids so it doesn’t look like I’m playing favorites or giving my daughter’s any special treatment, I pause before responding, “Nancy and Jill.”
“OK, I’ll send the message so everyone knows. I’ll sound the silent alarm so if there is a mob getting ready to attack us around the corner, they won’t hear us.”
“John, I hope you’re wrong. My gut says you’re right. My gut is screaming at me.”
“Mine started as soon as I saw the scouts and I think we’re in for a major battle. I’m going to ask the kids to move the boxes of canned crops into the shelter with them. I don’t think we should leave much behind when we seal the doors.”
“John, you think this one is going to be the attack?”
“Jay, I do. With your permission, I’m going to leave Todd behind to watch the monitors, I think my experience can best be used on the lines with the rest of us pulling a trigger.”
“John, I disagree. I think your best spot is behind the monitors telling us what’s happening. We need your experience watching the entire battle. If it’s as bad as you think, we’re going to need eyes on the entire front.”
“OK, I’ll send Todd up to the front line.”
“John, before you send him topside make sure he’s wearing his body armor and helmet, I can almost feel it in the air. I swear I smell the order of their unwashed bodies, they must be close.”
“I know what you mean, I feel it in the air too.”
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The scouts returned to the campsite of the combined two groups. They reported to the leaders they had stumbled on a complex with barbed wire fences and welded shut gates. One of the scouts sips water while telling the leaders, “From a distance it looks like a large farm. I can’t think of any other reason someone would go to such trouble as stringing barbed wire around their property.”
“Jack, how large did this farm look like?”
“Robert, I’m only going to guess.”
“Your guesses have been good, you’ve been the scout leader who’s found us food and water so we’ve been able to make it this far. Tell me, what’s your guess?”
“Maybe a thousand acres. The barbed wire went further than any of us could see. Near the road, it’s double layered. If there’s no food there, why the welded gate, why the double row of barbed wire? There has to be something very valuable at the end of the driveway.”
“Robert, do you want me to go back to the location to keep an eye on them?”
“No, I’m worried they may have eyes on the road. I’m betting they already saw you and your scouts. I’m betting they’re getting ready for us. If it comes to a battle, we don’t know anything about them or the weapons we’ll be facing. I’m worried about this farm. I think it might be better to pass on this one.”
“Why? This farm could be the one that takes us through the winter. We can’t pass it up. Robert, I feel this is the one we need. There are so many of us now, we have to find a large supply to carry us through the winter. I don’t think we should take a pass on this farm. I’m not sure when we’re going to find another.”
“I understand your feelings, I am going to accompany you back so I can take a look at his farm myself.”
“When do you want to leave?”
“As soon as you’re rested.”
“Robert, I’m ready to go now.”
“Then let’s go.”
Robert and Jack nod to each other, they slip a handgun into their fanny packs, they each grab a bottle of water before they leave the rest area to review the farm Jack and his team discovered. The two men walk with their eyes and ears wide open. They pause every few hundred steps to listen and look for anything out of order. They make sure no one’s following them, nor is there anyone in the woods that line the road. They reach the intersection of our road and the main road. Robert whispers, “Jack slow down, pretend you’re taking a drink from your water bottle. I need a few minutes to look around so I can see if anything is unusual. Jack lifts the closed bottle to his lips, pretending to take a drink while Robert sits at the intersection. He looks around checking the area. He’s about to leave when the sun reflects off the lens of a hidden camera on a telephone pole, catching his attention. He looks down smiling to himself thinking, Gotcha, think you’re so smart don’t you? Robert nods towards Jack, who walks over to him, Robert whispers, “We’re being watched. There’s a camera on the telephone pole to our right, I saw the sunlight on the lens. I bet whoever is on the farm is watching us right now. Let’s slowly walk towards the farm. You said the road continued past the farm, keep walking on it, we walk past the farm to see if we can see anything on the other end of the road.”
“OK, I’m ready, what do we do if they come after us?”
“I don’t think they will. I think the barbed wire and welded gate means they don’t want to come out. They’re worried someone is going to gain access to their farm, which means to me they must be sitting on a ton of food. They want to be left alone. With hundreds of thousands of people starving, people don’t feel charitable. They should be sharing with those who have nothing, however too many want to keep what they have for themselves. I think we may have to teach them how to share.”
“Shit, I sure hope so, I’m so tired of eating flowers and roots as a salad. Maybe they have cows, which means steaks!”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Let’s take it nice and slow, we’re just two guys looking for some food and water. We don’t want to get them to get worried when they see us.”
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John studies the images the cameras at the intersection where our road and the main county road meet. He calls Jay, “Jay, two men are at the intersection, one of them is one of them who was here a few of hours ago.”
“Are you sure it’s one of the same people?”
“Yes, ran face recognition, came back as the same person.”
“I guess we don’t have a file on those two so we know who they are, do we?”
“No only that we’ve seen him before. I don’t know who he is, but he seems to be taking instructions from the other person. I think the other person is a leader. If they’re back in only three and half hours, however, many there are in this group aren’t that far away, I think less than two miles.”
“Shit. Not what I wanted to hear. Isn’t there a chance there was a leader group closer than their main body?”
“Do you feel like risking everything on that assumption?”
“No, you’re right, we should be ready. What are they doing?”
“I’ll forward you the live video, you’ll see they’re trying to look like they’re out for a walk, except look at their body language and look at their eyes. They’re paying too much attention to our fence and gates. They’re trying to see what’s beyond our driveways. I bet you they are going to walk past us to the next hill to see if they can get a view of us from the hilltop.”
“How many of us will they be able to see?”
“They’ll see
our fields on that side and might get a glance of Tony’s housing settlement behind our fields.”
“Crap. We should have dug trenches around Tony’s homes.”
“We didn’t have time.”
“Pass along to Tony he should make sure anything of special value they have should be moved to their shelters. My gut says these two will scope us out, return to their main group and come back to demand we feed them.”
“I agree, if we assume they’re one to two miles away, we can expect the main body to arrive between three and five hours.”
“Sun will be setting, do you think they’ll attack at night or at dawn?”
“If they’re well armed, tonight, if most of them are average people, then I say dawn.”
“I agree, let’s send half of everyone to get something to eat and rest, we’ll rotate our alert groups so everyone gets some hot food and rest. John, what about the kids?”
“I’d keep them in the shelters until at least midday tomorrow.”
“Agree, please issue the instructions.”
Todd walks to me asking, “Dad, what’s going on?”
“Two guys are checking us out, one was one of them who was here before. John and I think they’re scoping us out before they bring their main body to demand food and water.”
“Dad, what if we left some food and water outside the fence? Do you think they’d take it and move on?”
“Todd, no, I think they’d take it as a sign we have a lot more here. They’ll see it as an invitation to hit us harder and quicker, we’d be giving them hope. Hope is dangerous, the more hope they have, the harder they’re going to fight us. If they’re not sure if we have a supply of food or not, they’ll most likely save some of their strength in case we don’t have supplies.”
“I understand.”
“Check on your kids, get something to eat and get some rest, we’re going to alternate people on alert. John and I don’t think we’re going to be attacked until tomorrow morning.”
“Dad, are you sure?”
“No, which is why we’re going to keep half of us on alert.”
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Robert and Jack walk past our main gate, following the road up a small hill to our left. From there they can see our fields. Robert says, “Jack, look at those fields, many still have crops in them, I bet they must have barns or silos filled with food.”
“Robert, look to the right. I see a person walking around, he looks like he’s carrying a rifle and is in body armor.”
Robert places his right hand over his eyes, blocking the sun. “Shit, you’re right. Black rifle, can’t make out what type from here, it does look like he’s wearing a bulletproof vest. These people may be heavily armed. We should go back and talk to the other vets, we need to think this over. If they’re heavily armed and have defenses, we might have to pass them by, most of our people aren’t armed. We could lose a lot of people if they’re able to bring the battle to us before we even get through their barbed wire fence. Let’s turn around and head back. We need to think this one over.”
As the two follow the road around another curve they see two small farms, both only have horse fences along their property lines. Robert smiles, “Well, look at this. We’ll take these first, we may be able to feed everyone from these farms. We may be able to leave the other farm alone for now. I don’t like the idea of charging a defended location with untrained people.”
“I’m with you.”
“We should be able to take them with our veterans and armed men, we’ll hit them when the sun sets and we’ll spend the night on the farms enjoying their food.”
Four hours later it’s over. The veterans in the crowd and the 500 who are armed easily surprised and took over the two small neighboring farms across the road from us. The two farms had only twelve people between them. Even though each person was armed and a good shot, they didn’t have a security system or cameras to alert them to the mobs that completely overwhelmed them. The mob was attacking the farms from all directions before the farmers could respond. There had been relative peace for a few months and the two small farms had become complacent. They didn’t worry about invaders, they had only a small number of people wander by asking for handouts which the farmers gave them. They didn’t expect to be overwhelmed by hundreds of armed people who wanted everything they had. The farmers’ families were struck down as they were heading to their homes from the fields for dinner. Most never made it. They didn’t carry their arms in the field, they felt they were safe on their land. The mob shot them while they were walking out of the field, then they rushed into the homes, killing the women who were preparing dinner. The battle was over quickly, none of the farmers were prepared enough to get a single shot off to defend themselves. They’d stopped carrying weapons two months ago. They felt safe and they realized just how wrong they were when they saw hundreds of people rushing them from all sides of their farm. They realized they were dead wrong too late to protect themselves.
The mob was overjoyed with their success. They took over both farm houses, the fields, crops and barns full of animals. The slaughtered cows and pigs, they dug pits where they roasted the animals while one hundred returned to escort the main body of the large group to the farms. Thousands of hungry and tired people pitched tents and lay their sleeping bags in the fields of the farms. For the first time in months, everyone had a hot meal of fresh meat and roasted corn and peppers. People lined up to shower with hot water and use a flushing toilet for the first time in a long time. People were happy for the first time in months. The leaders took turns staying in the homes they’d conquered. They sent scouts to look for stored food on the farms. The wells provided them with all of the fresh water they’d need. The leaders agreed to spend a couple of days investigating the two farms before they planned their next move. Some of the people wanted to stay on the farms for the winter.
We saw smoke from their campfires on the horizon and we wondered whether our two neighbor’s homes had caught fire or they’d been attacked. John tried to reach them on the radio we’d given them, no one answered. John called their phone which was answered by someone John didn’t recognize, “Hello, Dan are you OK?”
“We’re fine, who’s this?”
“Dan, this is Frank, don’t you remember me? Three farms over on 127th street?”
“Oh yes, Dan, how’s everything with you?”
“Fine, we saw some smoke on the horizon, just checking that you’re OK.”
“We’re fine, we’re burning some of our fields, nothing to worry about.”
“OK, great, thanks. See you soon at the monthly get-together.”
“Sure thing.”
John calls me, “Jay, the two farms were overrun, I told them I was Dan from the farm on 127th Street.”
Laughing, I respond, “John, that was a good one, they’ll go crazy looking for 127th street since we removed all of the street signs. Considering those farms were sold to a developer, all the attackers are going to find there is the start of a new housing subdivision.”
“We now know they’re violent. I think they’ll stay there for a few days, rest and eat everything they find. They’ll most likely slaughter and eat their animals before they try to locate the three farms you told them were on 127th street. Once they realize there're no farms there, they’ll realize they were suckered and think about us again. I’d say we have maybe five days before they hit us.”
“In the time we have left, let’s see what we can do to make it harder for them to reach our homes.”
“I agree. I’ll come to the security shelter.”
“I’ll be here trying to get as much information as possible about what happened at the two neighboring farms.”
Chapter 22
Robert and the other leaders relaxed in one of the captured farm houses. They drank beer they found in the basement of one of the farmhouses, they ate fresh steaks from the cows they recently butchered and grilled. They discussed their next actions.
Jason, one
of the oldest and most experienced said, “Guys, my people have been on the road for months, this is the nicest place we’ve found. I’d say we stay here except the crops we’ve found and the animals are only enough to feed us for four to six weeks.”
Robert looks around the comfortable living room responding, “Jason, I think we might be able to harvest some more of their crops which should let us make it through the winter.”
Len, the youngest shakes his head, he says, “Guys, we won’t make it through the winter, there’s not enough shelter for all of our people. Most of our people don’t have winter clothing, they’ll freeze to death the first night the temperatures drop below freezing. We need to move someplace further south, someplace we can be safe and find enough food to live on while we start again.”
