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Post by notchman on Sept 11, 2013 15:30:18 GMT -6
It's getting mighty interesting, keep up the great work.
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Post by patience on Sept 11, 2013 16:56:25 GMT -6
Thanks notchman. Here are some more shades of things to come.
Chapter 39 cont'd.
Driving an over the road truck had been Mel's choice after Vietnam to keep himself sane. Back then he could not stand the idea of sleeping the same place two nights in a row. The sleeper in a semi suited him just fine. He kept John Browning's finest achievement, a .45 ACP under his pillow and a short shotgun hanging in the back of the sleeper for over 20 years. It began to get very tiresome, the endless roads, the truck stop food, and nobody to talk to except other truckers when he stopped.
He had never married. Once he had tried to stay with a fine woman in Kansas, had even spent several weeks living in her house off and on between runs. One morning early she came in to wake him up as he'd asked her, but she forgot to call to him first and touched his arm. He had her up against the wall with his arm under her throat, ready to break her neck before he became fully conscious. Then he sat down on the bed and cried for a long time. He tried to apologize and explain, but she could not understand the devil who lived deep inside him. The next morning he'd left a couple thousand dollars of his mad money on the table under the salt shaker and was gone. He decided that he wasn't cut out for living with a woman, or anyone, for that matter.
When he had finally started to think about settling down somewhere, he came back to his roots in the southern Indiana hills. Mel had simple tastes and had never spent much money, so there was an appreciable amount saved in his bank account when he bought his place. It had once been a farm and still had an old barn on the back and the well and septic remained after the old house had burned. He had moved a nearly new mobile home out here and set it up properly, then built a separate garage.
Mel had worked driving a UPS truck for a while until he could retire at age 62. That job had kept his bank account full and he had added a permanent roof over the trailer with a full length porch on the front and steps out the back door where a path led down into the steep hollow behind it. There was an outdoor wood furnace now, with a solar powered fan to move the heat into the house. He had electricity from the utility company, but didn't really need it he figured, since he canned all his meat and garden produce, and he could live just fine without the conveniences.
The dead end ridge road had given him a certain amount of security, knowing it was impossible to get a vehicle on the road except by the one way in from the highway, and very few people came back here. The steep hills and hollows made coming in here on foot a difficult thing, even for the young and adventurous. His trapping hobby gave him an excuse to be out wandering the hills looking for tracks to assure himself that nobody had ventured up to his hideaway. It made him feel the most relaxed he had been since the war. Now there was the threat of people on the move to steal something to eat. He had seen starving people before, and knew what they were capable of. They were not coming back HIS road, if he had anything to say about it.
Mel went to the barn and dug out the rifle he'd paid a Gunnery Sargeant big money for back then, an Army issue M14 with a box of magazines, still in the original wrapping. There was a false bottom in the old horse feed bin that opened up to show many boxes of .30 caliber Match ammunition in stripper clips. He'd seen no sense in paying an outrageous tax to own the thing legally, and it wasn't legal anyway, but now with no noticeable law around, that didn't matter much.
There was an M1951 Butt pack on a web belt and 4 ammo pouches that fit the big 20 round box magazines for the M14, 2 in each so he could carry 8 magazines on the belt and one in the gun for a total of 180 rounds. It didn't take many 7.62 NATO rounds to do the job, so that was plenty for him. Mel spent the rest of the evening cleaning the Cosmoline off the old rifle and oiling it until it suited him. It felt heavier now than the one he had carried 50 years ago, but tolerable. He would shoot a little and adjust the peep sights tomorrow. He put the issued cleaning kit back in the butt of the rifle stock and snapped the cover shut.
___________________
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Post by idahobob on Sept 12, 2013 12:52:34 GMT -6
I remember the M14. Had lots of experience and training with it back in '67. Know the web gear also. It is still my choice over vests.
Need MOAR!
Bob III
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Post by patience on Sept 12, 2013 19:24:54 GMT -6
My choice too for web gear, with an ALICE pack over it, set high to clear the butt pack. Holds a huge amount of gear is pretty tough. More for this evening here.
CHAPTER 40
It would soon be time to plant farm crops, so that was on everyone's mind as they got more worried about the grief in the towns spreading out. Ed and Todd decided they would make a run to see Wes Blake about some seed corn, in case things got even worse later. Ronnie and Harlan had given them some silver to buy seed for them, too. Blocking the roadway would be delayed until they got back.
Mel Sawyer showed up in full battle-rattle carrying his M14 and .45 on his belt. Paratroop boots, OD fatigues, and a boonie hat completed what was visible. The .38 snubbie was in an ankle holster covered by the loose fatigues.
Mel had added a couple canteens of water and tied his old Kabar fighting knife on the web gear suspenders. He had some homemade rations in the butt pack, a spare pair of socks, and his trauma kit. He had no need of a compass and some of the other GI stuff. He was within half a mile of his own place, and he knew half a dozen places to get clean water in between. It didn't look like rain, so he left his poncho at home, too. The less he had to carry, the better. He told Ed and Todd he would stay in position at least until they returned.
Lots of practice had made Alicia more confident with her guns. With Todd being gone today, she had her pistol in its' holster behind her back and the shotgun within easy reach as she worked in the kitchen. She wouldn't let Christopher carry his rifle around, but had it on the rack in his room with magazines loaded nearby. They'd had many long discussions about how to handle it safely and when he was allowed to load it.
The drive to Wes Blake's farm through hilly county roads was peaceful and quiet. Telephones had all quit working now, so there was no way to contact him but to take the chance he was at home. Most people were these days, if they still had a home. They did see what looked like smoke from cookin g fires in a couple places, but no people visible. Knowing that bad news travels fastest, Ed and Todd both had the uneasy feeling the people were there, but hidden and most likely were looking at them over gun sights.
At Ed's direction, Todd slowed and turned into the farm lane then drove slowly up toward the house. Three big dogs barked and surrounded the truck. Ed wisely stayed in the truck and rolled his window down, stuck his head out and yelled, "Hello! Wes, are you home? It's Ed Wilson."
His caution was rewarded when Larry Barnes stepped partway out of the machine shed with a shotgun at the ready and asked what he wanted.
"I'm Ed Wilson and this is my neighbor Todd Reynolds. We want to talk to Wes about buying some corn for seed. We brought some barrels to put it in. Is he around somewhere?"
"Yeah, I'm here," Wes answered as he came out onto the porch. "Easy Larry, I know this guy. How much do you want, Ed?"
"About 25 bushels would do it, and we'll take more for feed, depending on what we can afford."
"Okay, well, I want to charge more for this because it can be used for seed, and that seems to be rare this year. If you want some corn to feed, you'd do better to talk to my neighbor down the road. He's got hybrid corn to sell for feed."
"That sounds right. I knew you'd treat me right. What do you need for your corn?"
"Last year, a gallon of diesel was about $4 and a bushel of corn was about $8. This year they are both in short supply, but they ought to be about the same by comparison. Diesel is over $40 a gallon at the stations, but you can get it for a silver quarter, too. So, I want 2 gallons of diesel a bushel, or 2 silver quarters. Or, if you got something else to trade, we can figure that out. Does that sound okay?"
Ed said, "That sounds fine to me. We have pre-1964 silver coins to pay you, and we want the 4 barrels full, I guess. The 55 gallons figures out to 6 and 7/8 bushels, so 4 of them comes to 27 and 1/2 bushels. That sound right?"
"Yeah, that's right. I had to look that up for another guy who wanted some seed. Pull your truck on around to the bin back there and we'll load you up. Everything okay at your place?"
"So far we're doin' okay. Heard about a lot of trouble in towns all around, but we've stayed pretty close to home and been all right. How about you?"
Todd drove the truck to the grain bin as Ed and Wes talked. He backed it up to the bin door and stopped, a little unsure how this would work, never having been on a real farm in his life. Ed motioned him a little closer and indicated he could shut the truck off.
Wes said, "We're doing fine, but we haven't been to town in the past couple weeks. Larry is my sister Gloria's husband. They lived about 5 miles closer in toward town and had heard about so much grief there that we decided to join forces for protection. We keep somebody on watch most all the time now."
Ed nodded and said, "We're doing the same."
They filled the barrels with corn using a scoop shovel and put the lids on. Kate and Ashley came out to say hello to Ed and to meet Todd. Both were carrying pistols in holsters. Ed inquired about seeing the neighbor about feed corn and Wes said, "We better drive my truck down there. He knows it and we don't want to get anybody shot. We're all pretty jumpy around here."
They got into Wes' truck and drove to see the neighbor, Neal Davis. When Wes stopped and got out, a big German Shepherd dog met him and sniffed him over as he walked toward the house. Wes yelled, "Neal, you around somewhere?"
"Yep. Be down in a minute, " came from an upstairs window.
"This is Ed Wilson I've done some work for, and his neighbor Todd Reynolds," Wes said, indicating the truck. "They want to talk about buying some corn for feed. You still selling?"
"Yep, for silver or gas or diesel fuel. How much they want?"
"I'll let you work it out with them. They bought some seed corn off of me, and have some hogs to feed yet."
They made a deal to buy a wagon load of corn and would come back later that day for it. The business finished for now, they made their way back to Wes' farm and headed home. Ed said, "I didn't want to say so, but I have one wagon full and some in the other one of his corn. We can split the cost of what we bought today, or however you want to do it. Now we know what its' worth as seed, and we can get feed corn for half that. It was the only way I knew to learn what corn price should be now."
Todd said, "Yes, that makes sense. We'll split the cost of what we got from Wes like we planned. How are we going to get your wagon empty to use today?"
"There's not that much in it. Have you got any more barrels?"
"There are 8 or 10 in my building, but I'll have to empty them. I can do that pretty quick and we can put your corn in them."
"Okay. I'll get 'em back to you soon."
Just before they crossed the highway, Todd saw something and stopped. "Somebody just ran over the bank there!"
Ed said, "I saw it too. Looked like a kid. Let's take a look. I don't want to get into an ambush here."
They shut off the truck and each grabbed their guns out of the back seat of the crew cab, then went to the tall grass along the roadside. Down the slope were two half grown kids trying to hide in the grass. Ed said loud enough for them to hear, "You can come out. We don't hurt kids. Are you all right?"
His older voice must have inspired some confidence. One of them stood and said, "Don't shoot us mister!"
Todd asked them, "What are you doing out here? Do you live close by?"
They didn't answer right away, so Ed asked, "What's the matter? Can we help you some way?"
"We're awful hungry. Have you got anything to eat?" __________________
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Post by nancy1340 on Sept 13, 2013 0:57:54 GMT -6
Very good story. Thank you.
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Post by idahobob on Sept 13, 2013 9:31:45 GMT -6
A Kabar? I prefer my Gerber MKII on the left suspender, hanging upside down.
Bob III
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Post by patience on Sept 13, 2013 11:24:17 GMT -6
Chapter 40 cont'd.
"We'll get you something. Come on up to the truck," Ed told them. Then to Todd he said, "Get my sack lunch and some water."
When the two kids stood up, their long hair and clothes showed they were girls. They climbed up the road embankment slowly, like they were very tired. Todd came back with their 2 sack lunches. He said, "First things first. Here's bottles of water, and some food. Sit down and eat. We'll talk later."
The girls' hair was tangled and their jeans were dirty, but good quality. They were both skinny, making it hard to determine their age, but looked to be about 10. They ate like they were starved.
Ed told them, "You can have all you want, but you shouldn't eat too much too fast. It can make you sick. Slow down and get a drink and let's talk a while before you finish eating."
They obeyed him and looked at him with fearful eyes. He and Todd sat down cross-legged by the roadside with them, to look less threatening. Todd asked if they were lost?
The bigger one shook her head no, they were going to their Grandma Duncan's. It was back that road, and she pointed to the ridge road. "We haven't been there for a long time, but we know where she lives on a farm back there. It's all the way back at the end of the road."
Todd and Ed looked at each other. The Duncan farm was deserted since the woman lost it on her youngest boy's bail forfeiture. These kids must be in real trouble.
"Where do you live? We can take you home," Todd offered.
The older one screamed, "NO! NO! We can't go home! They killed Mom and Dad and they might come back and ... " She broke off into tears and sobs. The smaller one teared up and wouldn't talk.
The men both said soothing things and told them they didn't have to go there. Ed said, "We'll see to it that you are taken care of. You don't have to worry about such things anymore. How about we take you to our house and get you some more to eat?" The girls had polished off the plastic containers of bean soup and corn cakes. They calmed down some and allowed themselves to be seated in the back of the truck's crew cab.
"We need to go to Grandma's," the older one said. "Can you take us there?" Ed said, "We'll go there. You tell us the way, okay?" "You turn on that little road right there and go all the way to the end of it." "Okay. We'll have to stop at my house," Todd told them, "so I can tell my wife where we're going, all right?" The girl nodded as Todd pulled into his driveway. Alicia came out to meet Todd and the girls seemed to calm down a little more. As his wife got close to the truck, Todd said, "We have some visitors. These girls are on their way to their grandmothers and we're giving them a ride."
A couple hours later Alicia had learned the story and knew their grandmother's place was deserted. She didn't tell them that, but got their faces and hands washed and gave them more to eat. After some pancakes with syrup and glasses of milk, the smaller girl began to talk a little and the story came out, bit by bit. Two nights ago, a gang of men had broken in their home through the locked door. Their father had fought them with a kitchen knife while their mother had shooed the girls back into their bedrooms and told them to hide. The gang had killed both parents and ransacked the house, then left. The girls stayed hidden for a long time, then came out and found the wreckage and their parents dead. They ran out the back door and had been running since yesterday.
Christopher had come downstairs and sat listening without saying a word, his eyes wide as he heard the tale. Alicia learned that their names were Emily and Sophia Taylor. Emily was 12 going on 13 and her sister was 10. She wondered how to tell them that their grandmother was gone. Todd said, "I told them we would give them a ride to their grandma's so we'd better get going." He winked at his wife and said, "You and Chris should come along."
Alicia understood and they all went out to the truck. Ed said he would stay there until they got back. The road came to an end at the overgrown lane into the old Duncan farm. Sophia said, yes, this was the place. Todd said, "I hate to tell you this, but this woman moved away last year. We don't know where she went."
Sophia had a desperate look in her eyes, and Emily began to cry. Christopher was in the back seat with them and told them, "You can stay with us until we find your Grandma. Don't cry. We have plenty of room. You can have my room and I'll sleep in the spare room downstairs. Isn't that right Mom?"
Alicia told them, "Yes. You can stay with us and we'll try to find out where your Grandma went. Don't you worry about it. We'll take care of you." _____________
It was later than they planned, but Todd and Ed got the corn unloaded and went back with a wagon for the the load from Neal Davis. The next day, Todd, Ed, and Mel Sawyer drove into town to the Sheriff's office, but there was nobody there, and likewise at the City Police station. Having gotten their address from Emily, the men drove to the quiet residential street on the north side of town and tried to knock on a neighbor's door, but got no answer. The whole street seemed deserted. They decided to chance going in the Taylor house, evidenced by the name on the mailbox. Inside, they found it like the girls described.
With nobody to object, they found a shovel in the garage and did their best to bury the parents in the back yard, taking turns digging while the other searched for the girls' belongings. All 3 men kept their pistols loose in their holsters and their heads on a swivel as they proceeded, but there was no sign of life in sight. They loaded clothing, toys, bikes from the garage, and whatever they could salvage from the house into the back of the truck and left town. ______________
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Post by nancy1340 on Sept 13, 2013 19:51:11 GMT -6
Very good chapter. Thank you.
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Post by crf78112 on Sept 14, 2013 17:16:54 GMT -6
A Kabar? I prefer my Gerber MKII on the left suspender, hanging upside down.
Bob III Great choice, mine also since 1970.
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Post by crf78112 on Sept 14, 2013 17:21:12 GMT -6
Great Story!!! Enjoying every line.
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Post by patience on Sept 14, 2013 19:13:40 GMT -6
A shorter one tonight. It's been a long day for me.
CHAPTER 41 Mid-May, 2012
It was hot in the thicket, despite the shade. Matthew Robertson was on watch duty and glad of it. Everybody else in the community it seemed like were all planting something today. Ronnie was getting their 5 acres of corn put in and his Mom was planting more in their garden. Matthew kept his eyes on the road, but he could hear Todd's tractor running as he disked the field below where Matthew was stationed. When Todd was at the other end of the field, he could hear Ed's tractor working in the distance. Ed had gone early this morning to the Duncan farm with his Bush Hog.
Matthew had heard Todd was going to make hay there this year, if nobody showed up to object to it. The bank owned the little farm, or maybe the county government. Nobody knew and there was nobody to ask about it. Harlan had said it was a favor to whoever owned it to keep it mowed so it didn't grow up in brush.
Todd had plowed a couple acres for Melvin Sawyer to put out a corn patch besides his huge garden. Mel said he wanted some chickens and first he had to grow some feed. It had been hard to find enough potatoes for seed for everyone, so they cut the pieces small with only one "eye" per piece, hoping they all would grow. Some had been slow to come up, but all the potato patches looked good now, just a few inches high. He'd be glad when they were big enough to dig a few to eat. Nobody had potatoes now.
Todd had been able to talk to Dan Billings who owned the farm between the ridge road and the highway. Dan had agreed to rent his ground to Todd, since Dan couldn't afford fuel to farm it now. Dan did have a good combine and with Todd providing fuel and putting out the crop, he would get a third of the crop and Dan 2/3 for doing his part. Dan had 20 acres of winter wheat that he would combine this summer, and Todd was to get 1/4 of that for providing fuel.
When Matthew wasn't busy otherwise, he had been helping Todd put up his new pole barn. He liked that a lot better than guard duty, or hoeing potatoes. Matthew had decided he didn't care too much for farming. He had lived near the Salem most of his life and didn't know that much about farm life. He was learning more than he ever wanted to know about the work on a farm, though. Most of it wasn't too bad, just not very interesting. He understood as well as anybody how important it was to grow food when you couldn't buy it, so he worked willingly enough taking care of the garden and livestock. But if he could make some money doing carpentry work, that was much better. He felt like he was learning something useful at it and there was always something new to learn.
Something was coming down the highway. Todd's tractor was shut off, probably for lunch, so Matthew could hear an engine in the distance coming north from town. He grabbed the small binoculars that Mel had loaned him for watch duty. They were small, but had a lot of magnification, so you had to hold them very still. He could see a stretch of highway about a quarter mile long south of the turnoff to the ridge road. There it came. It was a pickup truck and there were people in the back of it. It slowed down at each house and had a look, then speeded up again. When it got toward the end of where he could see the road, he could see men in the back with long guns, may 4 or 5 men. The truck stopped and sounded like it had turned into a driveway, then shut off. It was probably at that house across from the turnoff.
He didn't like the looks of this. Matthew pulled out his walkie talkie and called Todd's house to report it. Just as Alicia answered, he heard shots across the road where the truck was. He told her that and told her to get Mel, and Todd and anybody else they could reach to check this out. She said she would and cut him off. Matthew got a cold feeling about what he heard. It was over a quarter mile away, but that was too close for him. He hoped the men would hurry.
They did. ______________________
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Post by patience on Sept 14, 2013 20:34:43 GMT -6
Just did some more for tonight.
Chapter 41 cont'd.
Mel's walkie talkie was on the same channel so when Alicia called him, he had already heard Matthew'sreport and was on the way to Gerald's to get him. It was a shame they didn't have more radios, but that was what they had to deal with. He was out of breath by the time he had run the 300 yards, but told Gerald to saddle up, guard heard shots on the road.
Gerald took his small car and went back to Mel's to pick up his gear at the end of his driveway where he'd left it so he could run faster. They were on the road quickly, and Ed wasn't far behind with Mike in his truck. Ed must have got the report fast, too. The four of them hustled to Todd's place as quietly as possible. Todd was outside with his gear on and the 5 of them double-timed it to the hill top where Matthew was. He hadn't heard any more shots, nor seen anything else. He thought the truck was still at the house across the road, Dan Billings place. Mel told Matthew to stay in place and report what he saw and heard to Alicia. She had her radio and was on the way to get their "reserves"--all the wives and the rest of the neighbors.
The 5 men moved out down the county road that offered concealment from the highway until they got right to the intersection. They had a good look, then crossed the 2 big trees Ed had felled across the road. Around the last turn on the gravel road they were almost in sight of the highway and took to the ditches on either side of the road. That led to the highway embankment opposite Dan's house where they spread out in a skirmish line. Peeking over the highway edge, they saw a man down in the front yard and a dead dog. Four other men with guns were visible, three behind the truck and one behind a big tree in the yard. Two windows were broken out of the house. It looked like a standoff.
Mel signalled "Halt" with a fist in the air and everybody watched for a few minutes until the guy behind the tree moved one leg and a shot from the house put a hole in that leg. Mel signalled that the tree guy was his, and for the others to take out the rest. Mel aimed for the man's right shoulder, and fired. The others fired a second later and two of those behind the truck fell. The other one dived for the truck cab, and took a round in his leg, but scrambled in. Mel swung and put three rounds of .30 caliber hardball in the back of the cab. The exposed leg quit moving.
Nothing was moving except the man Mel had shot, and he was writhing on the ground with a bloody shoulder and leg. Mel signalled Halt again, and it got quiet. He yelled at the house, "DAN! THIS IS MEL. YOU ALL RIGHT?"
"YEAH! WE'RE OKAY. ARE ALL FOUR DEAD?"
"CLOSE ENOUGH. ONE BY THE TREE MIGHT BE BREATHIN', BUT I WANNA TALK TO HIM! I"M COMIN' OUT. IF HE MOVES, SHOOT HIM, OKAY?"
"GOT A BEAD ON HIM!"
Mel told his guys to watch the man, too, and crossed the road at an angle to the downed man. The guy was not moving at all and there was a lot of blood by him. Mel kicked his leg and got a moan. Holding the M14 on him, he rolled the guy over with his foot and stuck the rifle in his chest. The man had apparently passed out. His right arm was broken and useless, and his leg was leaking from several places, buckshot maybe, Mel thought.
Mike, Ed, Todd, and Gerald came across the road spread out and crouched, guns at low ready. They took up positions around the truck, watching the downed attackers. Mike stuck his shotgun into the cab with one hand and used the other to drag out the man laying on the seat. He hit the ground like a sack of rocks, and lay there.
Mel got a tourniquet on his man's arm and tightened it to stop the bleeding. Then he used his belt to do the same on the wounded leg, using the man's short shotgun to twist it tight. The man was pale, but breathing. Mel grabbed his crotch and squeezed. The man gave a loud moan and Mel slapped his face several times. The man's eyes opened and looked at Mel's knife at his throat.
"Answer some questions and it'll go a lot easier. How many of you?"
The man didn't answer and the knif began to bite a little. "HOW MANY OF YOU???"
"F_Four."
"Any more vehicles? Trucks? Cars?"
"No."
His voice was ragged and weak. Mel wasn't sure if it was all weakness, or not. He asked him where they came from?
"Salem."
He grabbed the man's crotch again and said, "I don't believe you. The truck has Kentucky plates and you ain't from around here or I'd have seen you before. Try again. WHERE ARE YOU FROM?"
Mel squeezed some and the man decided to answer, "Brandenburg. AAGH!"
"That's better. Where you been?"
"Corydon, Salem."
"One more time. Any more of you?"
"No. I need help. Help me."
"Sure thing buddy," Mel said. He stood and put a .30 caliber round between his eyes.
Mel sat down on the ground and said to nobody in particular, "I'm too old for this crap." ______________
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Post by patience on Sept 15, 2013 8:18:09 GMT -6
CHAPTER 42
The reserve force had been told by radio that it was over and all was well. Mel told them to go on home. They didn't need to see what happened. The men hung around to clean up the mess.
They decided the truck wasn't any good. One of Mel's rounds had gone through the heater core that was leaking coolant. Another had taken out some electrical stuff under the dash and under the hood, and the third had gotten the distributor. All three had gone through the occupant first. Somebody had shot out a rear tire. Dan's wife had missed one of the assailants, but her shotgun slug had taken out the truck's radiator and cracked the water pump.
They drained the gas tank into cans, removed the battery, and drained the oil and antifreeze to save. Nobody had tires the size on the truck so they let them go. Dan got his tractor and a chain and dragged the truck down the road a couple hundred yards where there was a steep enbankment and shoved it over with the front end loader.
There had been some canned food in the truck, some ammunition, and a couple gas cans that were full. They gave Dan all the gas and food, and the one thug's cheap 9MM pistol with what ammunition they found for it. The ridge group took the other guns, all shotguns, and an assortment of ammunition. There were a couple knives that got passed out. Behind the seat they found a plastic bag of jewelry and some paper money that they gave to Dan over his protests.
The truck's registration did not match any of the identification they found on the dead men, so they concluded the truck was stolen. The dead men got thrown unceremoniously into the loader bucket and hauled to a deep washout gully on the back of Dan's home farm. Todd fetched his tractor and plow to dig some dirt loose, then Dan backfilled over the gully with it. He got some help digging a separate grave for his dog. Mike Wilson offered him one of their dogs. Dan said he'd come over to Mike's to see about it tomorrow. Todd drove his tractor and plow back home through Dan's fields on the other side of the highway since the road was blocked.
Dan thanked the men with tears in his eyes. The other 5 told him that was fine, they knew he'd help them if they needed it, then headed for home.
Dan spent some time cleaning broken glass from his front porch and living room while his wife tried to settle her nerves enough to put a meal together. _________________
Mel was feeling battle fatigue like he never had before. Before he left the Billings' farm, he'd policed up his spent brass, an old habit of his so he could reload them. He walked home pretty much by himself. At least it felt like he was alone. The 4 men walked in a loose group back to Todd's house where they split up to go their separate ways. Mel's rifle felt like it weighed a ton on the short walk to his place. He shucked out of his web gear, made sure his rifle was on safe, and laid down on the couch, utterly spent.
Alicia and Joann were doing their best to calm down the three kids. Christopher was anxious to hear all the details of what happened, but nobody wanted to talk about it. Frustrated, he asked Matthew what had happened.
Matthew said, "Mr. Billings got attacked by a gang. He and his wife were holding them off, but needed help, so when our guys got there they shot 'em all. I think somebody said they had buried them already."
Chris asked, "I wonder if my Dad shot some of them? He won't talk about it."
"They don't know who shot who. Except for Mel. He got two of 'em. He was in 'nam I heard. He's a tough old man."
"He looked kinda sick when he left here."
"You'd prob'ly be sick too, if you killed somebody."
"Yeah. I guess so."
Emily and Sophia were hysterical. The women assured them repeatedly that the bad men were dead now, and the men here would make sure the girls were safe. It took all afternoon to get them calmed down enough to eat a few bites and then take a nap together.
The next day Christopher spent with the girls getting them interested in things outside and pumped up the tires on their bikes for them. He had them park their bikes next to his in the storage building. Alicia gave them all small jobs to do while the garden planting proceeded and some kitchen chores when mealtime came. It seemed to help, but the girls were still wide-eyed sometimes.
Todd got back to field work on the tractor, but he rigged a scabbard to hang his AR 15 on the fender and carried his pistol wherever he went. __________________
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Post by idahobob on Sept 15, 2013 9:47:18 GMT -6
Thanks for the updates.
My gosh, I just hates low life raiders!
Bob III
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Post by patience on Sept 15, 2013 11:50:39 GMT -6
Chapter 42, cont'd.
"I don't believe that crap! It's all BULL!" Ed was fuming about what he's just heard on the radio. The President was on telling about how reconstruction of the nation was going well, food aid was increasing, and law and order had been restored in the cities. Factories were coming back on line and goods would soon be flowing to stores again, but everyone could help by planting gardens and reducing their driving to save fuel. It went on and on.
Joann said, "Maybe he's just trying to give people some hope. We all need some hope."
"I'd rather hear it like it IS! Hope is no good if it ain't happening. We know how it REALLY is! I haven't seen a store open for months, and there wasn't hide nor hair of a policeman anywhere in town last week. The place looks like it's a war zone. There is nobody there. It's deserted. I don't know who he expects to believe that crap, but is sure ain't us." ________________
Alicia had heard the same broadcast and told Todd about it. Analytical by nature, he considered it for a time before he said, "There are several things that occur to me. One, he is trotting out the usual BS to reassure the public, even if there is no truth in it. Two, there could be some truth in what he said, but if so, it is a spotty recovery effort. My guess is, the government is spread far too thin to do anything of consequence except in selected cities."
Alicia said, "There's no law and order around here, that's for sure. Unless WE make it happen. He's full of it."
Todd shook his head, saying, "I'm betting they are trying to do something. They have to in order to have any credibility in the future. They probably have DC secured, and maybe some of the Eastern Corridor cities, at least to some degree. If so, that means they had to come up with food from somewhere. My bet is that they are stripping the eastern countryside of farm commodities to do that. They can't ship things cross country with the shortage of fuel."
"They have forgotten that the Midwest exists, from what I can tell."
"I don't think they have totally forgotten the Midwest. They will get here looking for commodities as soon as they get transport figured out. Like the grain for fuel deal last year, they will be shipping farm commodities to the cities, because that's where the bulk of the voters are. Us country residents will have to get by however we can. In fact, they will probably try to beg, borrow, or steal what we have to feed their precious city voters. We need to be thinking about that."
Alicia's face was livid with rage as she said, "The people here have been living on cornbread and beans and they think we will just GIVE them what they want? THAT won't go over very well. These country people might have something to say about that. One kind of thief is no different from another."
Todd said, "They will know where to look. All they have to do is review the satellite photos and see where there are crops being grown this year." _________________
Ed had told Harlan Ames what he'd heard on the radio. Ed had come to the same conclusion as Todd and was warning Harlan that they had better expect the government to show up to collect "taxes"on their farm produce to feed the cities.
Harlan said, "You 'member what they taught us in school about carpetbaggers after the Civil War? They kept the South starved for years. Lincoln was a Republican, so after Reconstruction there wasn't a soul in Dixie that would vote anything but Democrat for the next hunnerd years! Called 'em 'Dixiecrats'. My grandad tole me 'bout that. Said his family had to hide ever'thing they owned to keep the gubmint from takin' it. Some of them carpetbaggers never made it back north, either. Then the pore hill folks got to makin' 'shine to beat 'em outa taxes on likker, too. It was a southern thing back then. If they try that crap AGIN, they gonna have the whole country doin' it."
Ed nodded soberly as he said, "Yes. Politicians never change. Looks like we better learn a thing or two from those old southerners."
Harlan laughed and told Ed, "Grandad raised hogs, an' his Dad did after the Civil War. The dam' carpetbaggers told him they were taxin' 'em half of what hogs he had for "War Reparations", so Great-Grandad, he turned his hogs loose in the woods and said, there ya go! You ketch 'em, an' you c'n have 'em! They let 'em run loose in the woods and eat the oak mast. (Author's note: Mast = acorns) Got fat on it, too. Them hogs got wild and mean, an' so when they wanted a hog to butcher, they caught him with a rifle, and dressed him out where he fell. Wadn't many carpetbaggers would go in them woods!" _______________
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Post by crf78112 on Sept 15, 2013 20:07:25 GMT -6
Too true, politicians NEVER change. When the SHTF, they'll be back for what ain't theirs.
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Post by patience on Sept 17, 2013 9:53:05 GMT -6
Sorry for delays here, but real life interferes with my writing. Got an acre of ground to clear off trees so we can park an old RV trailer there for a weekend camp site. Need to get this finished before cold weather, and I'm not as young as I used to be. I'll get back to the story when I take a down day to rest and heal up.
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Post by kaijafon on Sept 17, 2013 11:37:18 GMT -6
we understand about "real life" interfering with story time we'll be here when you get time. Thank you!
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Post by idahobob on Sept 17, 2013 15:25:46 GMT -6
It seems that the older we get, the more life seems to interfere with our plans.
How well I know!
We will be here when you can come back.
Bob III
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Post by patience on Sept 18, 2013 20:02:02 GMT -6
CHAPTER 43 June, 2012
Summer crop work had tapered off to the regular hoeing of gardens and corn patches, where the cultivators couldn't get all the weeds. Wheat harvest wasn't due for a while yet, and it wasn't peak canning season yet, so repair work and building got top priority. Ed wanted to get his trailer enclosed better before another winter came, so he hired Tara Robertson again to help him and Joann. He had the materials, but the time had never been available yet.
The screen wire came down and was saved for other uses, or for trade. Next was framing for some windows Ed had bought from a materials salvage company. They put up the plywood siding Ed had stacked away in one of the storage sheds, covered the whole building, then sawed out the window openings with his portable circular saw powered by his small Honda generator that would run all day on a gallon of gasoline. The windows were shimmed and nailed in place, then trim was cut to fit, nailed on, painted, and caulked.
Insulation was next, using thick plastic foam sheets, and another layer of thin wood paneling on the inside. The enclosed trailer looked like a house now. They put up foam insulation sheets for a ceiling and left a square opening for a metal chimney fitting. The double wall chimney pipe went in next, and a wood stove that Mike had built for him last year. It had a removable small firebox to allow using as a cook stove in summer. When winter came, that was taken out and it functioned as a normal box style wood heating stove.
Ed had been worried about his LP gas supply running out and this would eliminate the need for it. They could do all the cooking out here now and keep the trailer a lot cooler in hot weather. In winter, they could heat the building and simply open the trailer doors to heat it. His plan might not have been perfect, but it was decent housing for very little money at the time, and the roof over the trailer made it durable.
He had enough solar panels that he could run his smal refrigerator and some lights easily. His neighbors except for Harlan Ames all depended on the grid electric to stay running, which it did, mostly. There were some outages for unexplained reasons that scared everyone, wondering if it would come back on this time. It was basically a government freebie, because there were no electric bills. There had been no mail service to deliver electric bills or anything else since last Fall.
The gasoline supply was getting iffy, since most of what people had stored was close to a year old and only some of it treated for longer storage. The nearest government run gas station that was open now was in Brownstown, and only when they got a delivery. Gas was rationed, too, and few could afford it, but they always seemed to sell out the day they got a delivery. It was chancy driving up there with no guarantee of getting any gas. There was some black market gas available sometimes at the Saturday trading day in Brownstown, but it was probably old and the dregs from the tanks of some defunct station. Some said it had water in it and could stall your engine. The radio told of gas being available in Louisville and Clarksville, but nobody wanted to take the chance of going to the cities.
Ed worried about that more than the LP, because they all needed a little gasoline to cut firewood. Nobody wanted to think about cutting firewood with axes. Mike had an antique circular "buzz saw" in his pile of salvage metal. He spent some time getting it altered to mount on Ed's tractor and driven by the PTO, using a PTO driveshaft salvaged from some farm machinery. That meant the tracor could be used to cut up small poles into firewood lengths. Ed had plenty of diesel fuel, and it stored longer than gasoline. He would still be trying to get more diesel fuel if it was available. That government station rarely had any.
If the refinery and fuel delivery systems did not improve soon, there would be a lot of hungry people this next winter, and if they did any farming in years to come and they still could not get fuel, farming would have to be with horses. ____________________
"I think I can fix it with parts from that old chain saw in the shop," Gerald told his wife.
Anne said, "What happens when we don't have parts to fix things?"
Gerald frowned and said, "We do without, that's what. I wonder every day if something is going to break and have me stuck somehow. We have to cut wood for heat and for cooking, so if I can't keep a chain saw running, we got big trouble."
Gerald tore apart his old saw and replaced the carburetor on the one he'd been using to get it running again. When he took the old carburetor he found the rubber diaphragm was degraded and had a hole in it. That was not something he could make from odds and ends. Good thing I had an extra, he thought. _____________________
Radio was the only outside news source for the past few months since TV stations had gone off the air. There was usually some recorded music on the radio so some people listened to it as one last shred of the old world they knew, along with electric lights, if they were working. A government newscast came on each hour, mostly the same one repeated all day, but today Joann heard a different news broadcast.
"More fuel will be distributed to the smaller cities in the country now that pipeline and rail distribution is being made operative again. These shipments will reach south Indiana stations by the end of next week. National Guard forces will accompany shipments to assure security. Once fuel distribution is normalized, truck shipments of food and needed goods will resume regular shipments.... blah, blah, blah."
Ed said, "I'll believe it when I see it. We've heard this before."
"They never gave us a date before. Maybe they are serious this time."
"Don't hold your breath until it happens."
The broadcast continued. "National Guard troops will again provide security in the smaller cities to enable local businesses to resume operations as shipments reach them...."
Joann said, "Well all we have to do is wait and see. _______________
The first fuel shipment in several months did arrive in Salem on Friday the next week, much to everyone's surprise. One attempted hijacking was met with deadly force and no more were attempted. By the end of June, one grocery, one gas station, one pharmacy, and one bank had reopened. All of them had gun toting guards and there was little trouble.
The bank would buy silver and gold coins for New Dollars at something like a reasonable exchange rate, but few people wanted to give up their hard earned coins for the paper money, unless they could spend it all before they left town. Still, it was a beginning and something resembling commerce was going on. There was still no market for locally produced farm products except the farmers' market. There were rumors that the government was taking over the old grain elevator and would buy local grain, but it had not happened yet. ________________
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Post by crf78112 on Sept 18, 2013 21:11:57 GMT -6
Thank you for the update, truly appreciate the story.
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Post by idahobob on Sept 19, 2013 9:51:02 GMT -6
Thank you, thank you!!
Bob III
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Post by patience on Sept 19, 2013 10:10:27 GMT -6
Chapter 43 cont'd.
People had begun to come out from hiding in their homes in town and from the homes of relatives in rural areas to buy some desperately needed things. Some of the more recent residents in the area had moved back to the cities whence they came, confusing their familiarity there with security only to face even worse conditions. Violence from several causes had claimed a number of lives, and disease, augmented by inadequate diet, claimed even more. Less than half the original population remained to emerge by the end of the month.
As people realized that security had actually improved with the return of troops in mid-June, a new farmer's market at the fairgrounds got some business. Some sold garden plants, cabbage, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and others. Late gardens began to be seen in town. A few people already had hidden spots planted behind garages and homes.
The Sheriff's body was found outside his home, one of many scattered around the town with bullet holes in the clothing, the houses ransacked. The very old and the very young were devastated by the winter of near starvation, leaving mostly school age children and young adults to populate the town, with a few of the older and wiser heads that had maintained their habits of preserving and storing food.
Wes Blake and Larry Barnes had learned by word of mouth that security had improved, so they ventured into town on Saturday to have a look and try to buy some gasoline. They took along a barrel of seed corn and some silver coins to trade. At the government regulated gas station, they learned that Indiana had set an exchange rate of 240 New Dollars for one dollar face value of old silver coins they would accept for tax payments. Indiana set the price of gold at 25 to one with silver, or 6,000 New Dollars per ounce, the same as the Federal ratio.
The Federal Government had struck a bargain with the states to stave off an imminent rebellion by allowing both currencies to circulate, but demanded New Dollars for Federal tax payments. That meant that silver, or New Dollars were accepted for buying fuels, allowing the gas station owner to pay his state gas tax in silver (greatly to his advantage) and his Federal fuel taxes in New Dollars. The Federal government was intent on maintaining their monopoly on the issuance of currency to maintain their hold over the states. Thus, they set the official exchange rates for silver at 160 to one, and gold at 4,000 New Dollars, which they ordered the banks to follow.
This worked in favor of the states who were content to collect taxes in metals at the higher exchange rate and bet that it would insure them against future Federal devaluations. The silver in private hands was flowing into state coffers, while the Feds were stuck with the paper dollars that were still falling in value.
Wes almost filled the tank on his truck with the rationed amount of 10 gallons and paid 10 old silver quarters for it, instead of the posted price of 40 New Dollars per gallon. The men noted that diesel was priced at 28 cents in silver, or 44.80 New Dollars. The gas station owner was making money on the exchange rate with every sale paid in silver, but sales were slow. Few people had any money of any kind.
With the exchange rates in mind, Wes drove to the fairgrounds to see if the farmers' market was going yet. It was, but was very small. Larry did find one man who was interested in the seed corn, but most were wanting to trade for the cheapest food they could find. They sold 50 pounds of the seed corn for 2 silver quarters and gave it up for the day. Larry learned that ground cornmeal was in demand, despite there still being unpicked fields of it. The corn in the fields had mostly fallen over and was beginning to rot, and almost nobody had any way to grind it into meal, except to pound it with hammers or stones.
The banker had his problems, despite infusions of New Dollars from the government. Almost all commerce being done was local, and done either in silver and gold, or by bartering. He was out of that loop entirely. He existed personally by paying himself from the bank's funds, but they were dwindling without paying investments of any kind. The stock and bond markets were open, but values were falling and nobody would buy a short contract on anything. The bank owned numerous foreclosed properties, but there were no buyers at any price. ________________
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Post by patience on Sept 19, 2013 19:39:11 GMT -6
CHAPTER 44 July, 2012 The heat of July took its' toll on the ridge community, first when Lennie Hoskins fell dead of a stroke in his garden one morning. During Vickie's long career as an LPN she had seen enough to know immediately that it was over. She walked across the road to Mel Sawyer's place and found him outside.
"Lennie's gone. He either had his last heart attack, or a stroke. No way to know, but he just fell over in the garden. I'm going to want some help with him, if you could."
"Sorry to hear that. I always liked Lennie. Lemme get the cleaned up a bit and I'll be right over. Just set down on the porch in the shade and we'll go together in a minute."
"I sure appreciate it Mel."
Mel went after Gerald Tomes and Mike Wilson, the nearest neighbors, to help with moving Lennie's body inside where it was cooler. Gerald's wife Anne came with him and helped Vickie get the body cleaned and dressed in his best clothes. Mike knew his Dad had some lumber left from his work and asked him to make a coffin for Lennie. Todd Reynolds, Gerald Tomes, Mel Sawyer and Ronnie Nichols dug the grave where Vickie said Lennie had wanted it.
Alicia Reynolds, Tara Robertson, Joann Ames, and Denise Allen stayed that evening with Vickie, sitting up most of the night for an old fashioned wake. They awoke in their chairs the next morning in time to have a light breakfast before others began to show up for the burial.
A simple graveside service the next morning was attended by the entire ridge community, followed by a pitch in dinner in the shade of the big trees behind the Hoskin's home. Vickie noticed that Harlan looked very tired that day, and told Ronnie, "You keep an eye on your Grampa. He looks like the heat is being pretty hard on him."
Ronnie said, "That's why we drove the old truck down here today, 'cause I thought he was acting pretty tired. I'll tell him to take it easy, but it won't do much good. He's got a mind of his own." _________________
Two days later the weather was still hot when Ronnie found Harlan down by the spring leaning back against a tree. Ronnie carried him to the house and put him down on his bed. Harlan's breathing was shallow. Tara left to fetch Ronnie's mother, Joann, and then Vickie Hoskins, the only medical person nearby. Harlan hadn't regained consciousness when Tara returned with his mother Joann. Joann spoke to her father and asked him if she could get him anything?
Harlan's eyes opened and he looked at Joann. Just above a whisper, he said, "You got you a good man now. You'll be fine." His eyes went to Ronnie, hovering over the bed. Harlan said, "You get those jars under the cellar steps. That's yours, an' the farm is yours. Been in your name for years now. You're a good boy. Best I could do fer ya."
Ronnie and Joann each squeezed one of his hands. Harlan closed his eyes and was gone. By the time Vickie got there, it was finished and there was another funeral to plan. Ronnie said, "I thought he was going to live forever, I guess. Never really thought about him dyin'. He was the best friend I ever had. I'm sure gonna miss him."
Matthew missed it all, having been working on Todd's new barn that day. By the time he got home the funeral plans were well under way. He volunteered to make a coffin for Harlan, who had treated him like his own grandson. He did his best and it was a very nice coffin when he finished. _______________
A week had gone by before Ronnie remembered that his grandfather had told him the jars under the cellar steps were his. He wondered what that meant, and went to look in the root cellar. They stored canned food in the cellar, so that's what he though the old man meant at the time, but he finally realized they didn't put jars under the steps. Harlan was always careful to say exactly what he meant, believing that a man's word was important.
Ronnie found the loose stair tread board near the bottom, the only possible access under the steps without tearing them apart. Underneath were 4 half gallon glass jars, the antique kind with rubber seals, glass lids, and a rusted wire bail to hold the lid on. All four were nearly full of coins. Ronnie found that the one on the far right had been opened recently, probably to add some coins that Harlan had been paid for something. The others were pretty full and obviously hadn't been opened in a very long time. The rubber seals were stuck to the lids and the old jars were hazy with age. Harlan must have been saving those coins all his life.
He took the jar with the loose lid out and found it was really heavy. He put the step back in place and carried the jar outside. He went to the house with it and showed Tara. Her eyes got big as she said, "My God, you're rich man! That's worth a lot now! That's what Harlan left to you?"
"Yeah, and there's 3 more jars. I don't know how much it is, but it was real heavy," Ronnie said. "I think we should count it."
It was mostly quarters and dimes, with a few half dollars and silver dollars. They both counted it and got the same answer, $268.70. Ronnie sat there for a while without saying anything. He tried to figure out what this was worth now, but he couldn't do the math in his head. He dug around and found a pencil and a scrap of an old newspaper to write on. The bank would give you 160 to one, New Dollars for a dollar's face value of silver. He got $42,992. That was a big number, but he had no idea what it would buy now. New Dollars weren't worth much, with gas costing $40 a gallon. Still, you could get gas for a silver quarter a gallon, so that was well over 1,000 gallons of gas he could buy with that jar of coins.
He had to think about this. The old dollars got devalued by half, then replaced with New Dollars at about 1/10th of the old ones. But now, with fuel so expensive, he didn't know what to think the jar might be worth. He said that to Tara, who told him, "It's worth what you can get for it. You have 4 jars of it, so if they have this much, that's over $1,000 in silver. I bet you could buy a house with that. Maybe a farm."
Ronnie didn't know what to think. He did realize that they wouldn't have to scrape by like they had been. He briefly wondered how that much money would affect Tara, but he had seen nothing but good out of her to this point, and he disliked the idea of mistrusting her. She had been really good to him when she thought he was as poor as anybody.
His next thoughts were that someone could steal the money if they found out he had it. He thought Matthew was probably as trustworthy as his mother, so he decided to tell him about it when he got home from work, and swear them both to secrecy. He put the jar back where it had been all those years and poked a rusty nail in one hole with his fingers to keep the step in place. ______________
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Post by patience on Sept 20, 2013 8:10:07 GMT -6
Chapter 44 cont'd.
Ed and Joann had been talking about how to make a living in this new, screwed up world.
"There's just nothing to compare it to. Nothing is the same any more. You can't tell what things will cost, like how much to pay for hay, because you can't tell what you'll be able to get for a beef cow. Maybe I've been overcharging folks, or maybe I've traded off those 2 steers too cheap. Used to be, I could get an idea pretty quick about what I needed to sell something for, but that was when a dollar was still a dollar, even if we did have inflation. Now, we don't know what anything will be worth next month, let alone next year when we have some new calves."
Joann, ever the practical one, told him, "You know fo rsure that people have to eat. If you can afford to raise any kind of food, you will be able to sell it or trade it off somehow. What you have to watch is the cost of fuel, seeds, and such."
"We'll have the seed corn thing taken care of this year, if we have any kind of a decent crop, because we can save our own seed from it. We have to do that with everything we grow, too. I made sure we only bought good garden seeds that aren't hybrids so they will reproduce true. There should be a market for those, too. Not everybody can figure out how to save their own garden seeds. That's why I wanted to put 2 acres in garden crops this year, you know. Most of it I'll let go to seed and save them to sell next year."
"That might be the best business we could get into now. It doesn't take much room to store a lot of garden seeds. There's those 2 sheds that are getting emptied out now that we used the lumber and stuff that was in there. There's enough boards left to make some shelves, but we're going to need alot of containers to store that much seeds of so many kinds."
Ed said, "I wonder where we could find a lot of jars, or cans or something to store seeds?" _______________
Larry Barnes was looking at the fields grown up in weeds as he and Gloria drove into town. He said, "Looks to me like there isn't going to be near enough farm crops grown this year. It's going to be another hard winter for a lot of folks."
Gloria said, "There's not as many people now, but I think you're right. All these fields used to have corn, soybeans, or hay growing, or cattle in them."
Larry said, "I want to move back home, but I'm afraid that if we do, we'll have another winter of starving people and we wouldn't stand a very good chance if somebody tried to attack us with just the 2 of us there."
"I don't think it's time for that yet, like Wes and Ashley said. Kate wants us to stay, too. She said pretty much the same thing you did."
"We have to make a living somehow, and on their place, we are just working for wages, pretty much."
Gloria said, "Hey, that beats the heck out of what most people are doing."
Larry had to agree. "Maybe it's the best thing for now, but we need to get ahead somehow if we can." _______________
Two little girls and a boy could find a lot of mischief to get into, Alicia learned. They were good kids, just curious as they explored their world, but they were a constant worry. Todd tried to keep an eye on them and that helped. She cleaned up after breakfast with all 3 kids helping and it did go pretty fast. That was a good thing because her breakfast didn't sit so well today. She'd had some kind of digestive upset for several days that she blamed on the heat. The hot weather was getting worse and so was her digestion. Alicia sat down at the kitchen table near the back door to take advantage of an early morning breeze. She was hot and sweaty after washing dishes in hot water, the nausea was worse, and....
It finally hit her like a ton of bricks. Her period was very late. She was pregnant. Duh! There had been so much going on that she had ignored everything except the crisis of the moment all year. Once she had thought of it, there was no doubt in her mind. She didn't need a pregnancy test to tell her what she had experienced before. They had run out of birth control measures a couple months ago, the one thing that Todd had not been able to stock up on in time.
Then the worries and doubts began. What would she do for medical care in this insane world they lived in now? Oh, crap. There was no such thing as disposable diapers now. The hospital had run out of medical supplies and she had no idea where to find a doctor. She had heard that there was a pharmacy open in town, but who knew what they had or did not have? There was no baby formula to buy that she knew about. I'll have to feed him the old fashioned way, I guess. Well, there was Vickie Hoskins. She had probably helped deliver hundreds of babies.
The door banged and Christopher came in, saying his Dad told him that the stray cat they adopted was going to have kittens! Feeling kind of miserable, without thinking Alicia blurted out, "Me too."
"You're going to have kittens?"
"No. I mean I'm going to have a baby. At least I think so."
"Wait'll I tell DAD!"
"DON'T YOU DARE, YOUNG MAN! I'm supposed to tell him first. You keep quiet about it. I'm not even sure yet, okay?"
Somewhat deflated, Chris said, "Yes Ma'am."
"Tell your Dad I need to talk to him, okay?"
"Sure!" Chris raced out the back door. His Mom hadn't said anything about not telling Emily and Sophia. ________________
About 5 miles west of Alicia, and a week before, Ashley had come to the same conclusion. She hadn't told anyone yet, because she wasn't real sure, but her period was almost a month late. She had never felt better in her life, so she didn't have the confirmation of morning sickness, but somehow she was pretty sure of it. She just felt a little, different. It wasn't like it should be a surprise or anything. There weren't any birth control pills now, or anything else to prevent it. She had looked forward to having babies sometime. Things were kind of crazy now, but she hadn't changed her mind about that.
As much as she loved Wes, she would wait a while to be absolutely sure before she told him. For now, it was her secret. She wasn't scared of the idea. Ashley was a farm girl. She knew exactly how these things worked. __________________
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