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Post by iamnobody on Jan 18, 2021 14:50:56 GMT -6
Over the next few weeks John made several more trips to the feed mill and grocery store. Always trying to go early in the morning so the possibility of the thugs being out that early were smaller. Thugs / low life / bad boys seemed to want to stay up late and then sleep in til noon. The thugs were wasting ½ of the workday by doing so, but they never seemed inclined to do work anyway.
There wasn't much food in the grocery stores but John managed to get a few items each time. Food prices were continuing to rise. Eggs were $8 a dozen and a can of Spam, you know all the prepper sites talking about storing Spam, well it was now $12.50 a can. He saw hygiene items like soap, laundry detergent, etc were still available in quantities and little price increase, so he bought packs of them each trip.
Over at the feed store, livestock feed was rising in price some but not like food so each time he got several bags. Ammo was getting harder to get but he bought a box of 30-30's every time he was there. Also a 1lb can of powder and a 100 pack of bullets. John had read on the prepper sites about getting water from his well if the electric was off. He was going to try a way besides a hand pitcher pump. He lived on top of a mountain but his well water depth was only down 20ft from the top of the casing so the idea should work. He got four 10ft sections of ¾ inch pipe, pipe glue, screws, end caps, fittings and a well foot valve.
Back at home he started assembling while the dog looked on. He glued 3 sections together and then as insurance against them coming apart, he put 2 screws in each joint. The 4th section he cut 2 pieces off, each 12 inches long. He used a T fitting on the end of the 3 section piece and glued it on. Then the short 12 inch pieces into that fitting. One end of that got an end cap, the other end got a 90 degree fitting. All got glued and the insurance screws. On the other end of the 3 section piece he installed the water foot valve. John allowed the assembly to dry overnight.
The next day he removed the well cap from the well and lowered the assembly down inside. The ¾ inch size allowed it to go down along side the existing water pipe. Holding onto the top of the T handle, he pushed the assembly down which allows the foot valve to open and water comes into the pipe. He pulls the assembly up 3ft which closes the valve and holds the water in. Each up and down stroke fills the pipe until water is coming out of the 90 degree fitting. John guesstimates that each stroke is giving him ½ a gallon of water. Success. Not the fastest but he will have water if the electric goes off.
John has still been attending church every Sunday. The 1 person still gives him a slight nod and the rest ignore him. The preacher is still pushing FEMA for the people to get food. John overhears several people talking about how the preacher and the FEMA man are always having time together, coffee, a meal at the preachers house.
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Post by bluefox2 on Jan 18, 2021 17:33:22 GMT -6
I don't trust that deacon either. Next thing you know, the "preacher" will be telling folks to "tithe" 10% of the food at their house - and possibly making lists for each person. Don't trust the deacon, preacher, FEMA, or a bunch of those folks in that "church"
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 19, 2021 13:42:36 GMT -6
Over the passing weeks John has been learning and doing the skills he read about on the prepper sites. He has garden beds made and producing vegetables, he has canned the harvest and made a solar food dryer. His skills of hunting have improved, from trapping and hunting he is getting some meat. He makes jerky from it. In the beginning some jerky was a failure but the dog enjoyed it. John and the dog were spending time in the woods, their woodcraft skills were vastly improved. They had become quiet in the woods, in fact scary quiet in their movements. One day they were even able to sneak up on a red fox. John was able to touch it and the fox about came out of its fur in surprise.
He had planted some herbs and was learning to make herbal remedies. And even some peppermint plants so he could have mint tea he loved so much.
All the how-to articles and videos were downloaded to his computer and then every 3 days he also backed it up on an external hard drive as insurance.
He re-enforced the cabin floor under the living room and then built a small rocket mass heater for heating his home. Outside he built a rocket stove and even a small cooking stove with a piece of flat iron on top. They worked great, used little fuel and he was able to gather dead branches to feed the fire.
While reading the prepper sites, John finds a posting about FEMA training preachers for times when bad things had happened. How FEMA was training them how to tell the congregations to obey the government's orders, the preachers were to help any government officials in relocating people, how preachers were told to tell people not to rely on God to help them. John was thinking they wouldn't do that, preachers serve God. Though the new young preacher was behaving in ways that the old preacher who died would of not approved of. And the preacher he had heard was being very friendly with the local FEMA man.
John opens a new window on his browser and searches for FEMA. He goes to the FEMA site and looks it over, seeing all the different things they were involved in. He clicked on some of them but wasn't seeing anything disturbing. Then at the bottom of page of the article was a link to a section called “helping preachers help their congregation in times of trouble.” John clicks on the link. Talks about how FEMA will train preachers at no cost on how to help their congregation during times of need. All it would take is a few different weeks a year of training and they listed the 3 weeks. John sees the dates and realizes they are the same 3 weeks that the young preacher had gone on vacation the last 2 years. He scrolls on down the page and sees some pictures of the meetings. On the 3rd picture he stops. Right there in the front row is the young preacher sitting. John saves the picture to his computer, then enlarges it some. He then prints several copies of the picture and then the article. He plans on making visits to several of the other men in the congregation to show them what he found.
John had passed out the copies he had made and tried talking to the different members of the congregation but it was like talking to a brick wall. He went to service that Sunday and sat in the back as his new normal was. During the whole service the preacher stared daggers at him. It seems someone had passed his info along to the preacher.
A few days later John and his dog were out in the woods checking his traps. The dog went on alert, gave a low growl and was looking at something. John went on alert too and started quietly moving in that direction with the dog at his side. He soon spots 3 armed men close together. He and dog circle behind the men and move in closer. John can now smell cigarette smoke and beer. And something else that was nauseating. If they were trying to sneak up on him, they shouldn't of been eating food that gives them gas. John heard one of them say to go get the job done, that the sooner they killed this John guy, the sooner they could get paid and go get some beer.
John had heard enough, raised his rifle and sighted on the one talking. He told them to drop their guns and freeze. Maybe they didn't understand English because they all 3 raised their guns. John shot the 1 he had been aiming at, took several steps to his right to put a tree between him and the other 2. He worked the bolt on his rifle and peeked around the tree to see both of them still standing in an opening in the forest. He snap shot the heavyset man aiming a shotgun and saw him go down. One man left who had moved when the 2nd man went down. John saw the tree the man went behind. The man must have been kneeling because his foot and ankle were sticking out. He aimed at the ankle and squeezed the trigger. The man rolls out into the open, screaming in pain. John works the rifle bolt again to chamber a new round, then puts in a full new magazine while pocketing the partial one. John looks around to see if there are any more before checking on the downed men. He sees no more.
John checks the first 2 men he shot. He clearly sees they are dead but still tosses their guns away from them.. His rifle may only be a 30-30 but it did the job as good as any of those high priced PAW story guns he read about. The 3rd guy is still screaming in pain as John approaches. John tosses the man's gun away and asks the man who sent them after him. The man swears at John. “Who sent you?” The wounded man swears again and screams “see you in Hades” as he pulls a hideaway pistol and tries shooting him. John was quicker and shot him.
John searched the bodies and found nothing on them besides 1 set of car keys. He looked at the dog and said they would backtrack them to see where they came from. John and the dog tracked them back to a car on the road ¼ mile away. He observes the car from the forest. An empty car but he hears a sound. He changes position until he can see – a woman with her hands tied around a tree. Her face was dirt smeared and her hair mussed up. Her clothes were torn and had some mud on them. John eased out of the forest towards the woman. When him and the dog were close to the woman, she turned her head to look at them. The dog gave a low growl.
John pulls out his penknife and cuts the rope binding her hands around the tree. She rubs her hands and asks him who he is and he says John. She says – oh. She asks about the 3 men. John tells her they are all dead, that he shot them all. She asks “all of them?” John says yes. Suddenly the woman is screaming “you killed my man” as she is pulling a small pistol from her pants pocket. John is taken by surprise but still manages to twist to the side enough that the bullet tears a gash across his upper arm instead of his chest. She is aiming at him again but as she pulls the trigger, the dog bites her leg which causes the bullet to miss. By now John has his rifle up, yelling for her to drop the gun. She screams again that he killed her man as she brings the gun up. John is forced to shoot her. She goes down and the dog backs up . John looks at the dog and says he should of listened to him as he bends down and pats his head and the dog wags its tail.
John walks up and can see she is dead. He tosses her gun away. He checks for anything in her pockets – nothing, just like the 3 men. He walks over to the car and looks inside. Empty beer cans and cigarette butts all over. He sees 2 business cards laying on the floor. One is the card for the preacher and the other is a card from the local FEMA man. He pockets the cards and goes to call the sheriff.
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Post by NCWEBNUT on Jan 19, 2021 17:13:33 GMT -6
I think id be done with that church and their apostate ways
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Post by papaof2 on Jan 19, 2021 18:01:02 GMT -6
Federal Evil Management Agency
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Post by texican on Jan 19, 2021 19:20:10 GMT -6
John and dog need to stay 360 alert, especially the dog which is doing so.
Thanks IAN for the chapter.
Texican....
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 21, 2021 9:22:51 GMT -6
Just a short one folks. For some reason yesterday had me all jittery.......
Once home John tends to his wound. Its not a deep wound, more of a gash across his left upper arm. But he knows that even small cuts can become infected so he he cleans the gash. He makes a poultice of garlic and comfrey leaf, the garlic for antibiotic and the comfrey for healing the gash. He puts a gauze patch over it and wraps a bandage around it. He puts on a long sleeve shirt to hide the fact he is wounded. He decides to go to the sheriff to explain.
In town, he stops at the sheriff office where he explains what happened, but leaving out finding the 2 business cards of the preacher and FEMA guy. He lets the sheriff come up with his own conclusions of why the people came to kill him.
When done with the sheriff, John headed to the bank and took most of his remaining money out. It was only noon so John spent the rest of the day making 3 trips to the feed mill for food and supplies. His truck was sagging under each load. After his last load he got his chainsaw. John was the last place on the road, the nearest neighbor lived 1½ miles before him. He went a ¾ mile and picked out several trees near the road. Firing up the chainsaw, he proceeded to drop them across the road. To drive up to his place would require someone to spend an hour sawing the tree tangle or walk in. That night John decided he would sleep outside in case someone else came around.
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Post by texican on Jan 21, 2021 15:55:11 GMT -6
John is wising up quickly.
Thanks IAN for the chapter and those to follow.
Texican....
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Post by arkansascob on Jan 22, 2021 10:25:58 GMT -6
Really enjoying this story. Thanks IAN for your time. Sure looking forward to MOAR.
COB
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 22, 2021 11:13:51 GMT -6
He had an uneventful night and woke up at first light. He and the dog scouted around but saw nothing. John tended the livestock. The 2 pigs were gaining weight, he would be planning the butchering when it cooled down later in the year. He would have to get a smokehouse built and he wanted to render the fat into lard. Baking and frying with lard is the best cooking. He had noticed since he had been grinding the grains and cooking beans with some meat, that he was feeling even more healthy. He didn't have much extra fat before but now with all the constant doing of things, he had really toned up.
He went inside for his own breakfast of a fried egg and some cooked rolled oats. When he came back out onto the porch, he saw the dog sitting in the yard and looking up into the sky, tilting his head back and forth. John leaned his head out so he could look up past the edge of the porch roof. Looking up he could see something up there about 200ft up, going away from him. A drone. He hurriedly pulled his head back in. A drone he whispers to himself, those posters on the prepper sites weren't wearing tin foil hats after all. He would have to give them an apology. He sees the drone turn and start another pass over his place from a different angle. So he quickly moves back into his cabin so he is out of sight. John is watching the dog who is watching the drone. After a minute, the dog quits looking up into the sky, scratches itself and then gets up and walks across the yard. A drone, what was it doing up here over his place.
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Post by kaijafon on Jan 22, 2021 11:52:59 GMT -6
ah now it is getting REAL.... as in they be REAL interested in him Whoever "they" may be thanks!
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Post by baldengr230 on Jan 22, 2021 14:18:07 GMT -6
Looking forward to this continuing!
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Post by bluefox2 on Jan 22, 2021 19:44:04 GMT -6
Drones? Somebody (s) seem to think that John is a danger to their plans. seems like being an independent thinker and doer is not what they want.
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Post by papaof2 on Jan 22, 2021 21:18:33 GMT -6
Being in any manner independent of the .gov means you are less subject to their control. Add independent water, food, heating, cooking and possession of weapons and you might have a force they'll have difficulty dealing with.
With near normal rainfall, we'd have adequate water each month if County Water were not operating. We have limited alternate power but dropping back to a small (4 cu ft) fridge and not having any electronic communications is an option. No natural gas for heat would mean running a line to the LP connection on the gas logs and "finding" enough LP (tanks for gas grills?) to provide limited heating or pull out the gas logs and go back to wood in the fireplace. For a few weeks, we'd have kerosene for the 20-year-old kero heater. Maybe siphon some diesel from the tanks at the gas station up the road and use it to stretch the kero or maybe build a "waste oil" style heater but burn fresh diesel in it? I do have a proper fuel pump to retrieve the diesel (hand-me-down from a friend who was downsizing - as was a 150 gallon water tank).
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 23, 2021 10:10:11 GMT -6
Over the next few days John was being very vigilant, not only watching around him but watching the skies too. He saw nothing. He also spent a good amount of time on the internet reading about drones. What they are used for, what their capabilities were, how to avoid them. He found out that they carried high resolution cameras, sometimes thermal imaging, and some of them were even armed with small rockets. John's thinking all of this is an invasion of his privacy and why would they need to have drones with weapons.
On the internet he read about people talking about the many drones they are seeing. On the multi band radio he had, he was hearing people talking on the ham frequencies about some people being killed when a drone shot a rocket into their homes. John is thinking that surely the government wouldn't be doing such evil things.
On the local FM radio station he was hearing the FEMA man talking about people being able to get food from them, but the people would have to turn in their guns to get the food. That there was too much violence taking place, lots of children had been hurt or killed since the food storage started and the guns would have to be turned in so the children could be protected. Then the local preacher came on and also urged the people to turn in those evil guns. That Christians were called to be peaceful and had no need of guns. That a Christian was to obey the government. When John heard that, he is thinking to himself about the apostle Paul writing several books of the bible from a prison cell due to him not obeying the government. The FEMA man came back on and promised a pound of hamburger for every gun turned in and another pound of hamburger if they told them of people that weren't turning in guns they had. Their names would be kept confidential.
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Post by papaof2 on Jan 23, 2021 14:40:58 GMT -6
Nazi Germany, all the Communist states and "1984" all rolled into one. Welcome to the future under President Joe Burden and VP Commie Lala.
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Post by arkansascob on Jan 25, 2021 9:19:26 GMT -6
Just another good example and reason NOT to tell people what you have and how much wether its guns and ammo or supplies. This goes for friends and family also. When things get desperate and people get hungry they will do whatever they can and have to in order to survive. Selling someone out for some food will be pretty common.
COB
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 25, 2021 14:02:22 GMT -6
After hearing that broadcast, John decides he needs to move things out of his cabin and get them hid. What did they call that on the prepper sites, oh yeah, caching. He knew of several good sites and started right away in storing his supplies away from his place, a little here and a little there. It took almost a week to get most of the things hid. He kept just 3 days worth of food in his cabin. He kept his 30-30 rifle and 3 boxes of ammo and hid the shotgun and 22LR. All the remaining ammo and reloading supplies were stashed away. Clothing got moved except for what he was wearing and a spare change. Books, a spare laptop and the backup hard drive got stashed in a dry area. Looking around the cabin, he could see very few things left.
John was also continuing to watch during the day and sleeping outside at night. A few days after he had completed the caching he was awakened by the dog's low growl. Grabbing his rifle he and the dog started towards a sound he could hear. Suddenly he hears a yelp of pain followed by cussing. Moving in John is able to make out a man with his leg tangled in the barb wire. While the man is trying to untangle, John moves in from behind and quietly tells the man to stop and stand still. The man freezes and is disarmed. John asks why he is up here. He says they will kill him if he tells. John tells him he has a choice to make. John can shoot him now or tell him who sent him and he will be released to run away to someplace else. The man responds that there is no place to hide from the preacher. The man realizes his mistake and attempts to pull a hideout gun from his ankle. John shoots him before he is able to complete the move. John's thinking – the preacher......
John was done with disposing of the body. He had decided that he wasn't involving the sheriff this time. Why was the preacher wanting to have him killed. The only reason he could think of was the fact John had been a prominent person in the church, involved in teaching bible studies and ministries, some Sunday morning services when the old preacher had been sick, and holding to the bible being the word of God. That maybe he would have had some influence on the rest of the people in the congregation. So many questions but John had no answers.
He continued work on his place, tending livestock and work in the garden. Three nights after the failed attempt on his life, the dog alerted on someone quietly walking up the walkway from the road about 2AM. The person had avoided the barb wire and electric fence. From the wood line he could hear the person talking to himself, that there didn't appear to be anyone home and maybe there was some food inside. So it was a man and he had opened the cabin door and went inside. John was getting ready to leave the forest when he and dog both heard the low whine of an incoming drone. John saw a flash of light and suddenly the cabin explodes into a fireball as a rocket hits it. A second later the livestock pens explode. John and the dog are both hugging the ground with their ears ringing from the explosions. John sees the drone fly off.
Getting up from the ground, John can only see heaps of debris where his cabin and livestock pens had been. Ten minutes later he spots a man slowly approaching the ruins of the cabin. John is thinking to himself that his place has suddenly become too popular. The man looks around the ruins and then pulls a cellphone from his pants pocket. John can hear him telling someone that it is destroyed. Then the guy says that “yes preacher, its destroyed, he can see bits and pieces of John's body scattered around the ruins. Yes preacher, he's dead.”
The man leaves. John is thinking that he needs to make a trip to town. Time to make a visit to check up on a preacher.
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Post by papaof2 on Jan 25, 2021 14:18:17 GMT -6
John needs some tattered clothes covered in blood and gore, plus some glow-in-the-dark powder - and to visit the preacher after midnight ;-)
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Post by bluefox2 on Jan 25, 2021 16:57:20 GMT -6
John needs some tattered clothes covered in blood and gore, plus some glow-in-the-dark powder - and to visit the preacher after midnight ;-) Sometimes that is very effective of putting the fear of God (and John in this case) into people. Perhaps it is also time for John to start a little campaign of his own.
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Post by sniper69 on Jan 25, 2021 17:07:40 GMT -6
Maybe John should give the us some of that special moar feed from the feed store, so we can find out what he does to the preacher and the fema man.
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Post by methos on Jan 25, 2021 22:54:34 GMT -6
Hmm, death can be very liberating.
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 26, 2021 11:35:07 GMT -6
John takes several days to ready for his trip to town. He took nothing from the cabin ruins so that nothing would point to him still being alive. Since he will not be taking the truck but will be walking through the woods to avoid being seen, he will need to pack supplies but not so many he will be bogged down with weight. The 20 miles to town that only took 45 minutes in the truck turned into a 3 day trip with him walking in the woods for concealment.
During his walk to the town, John was doing a “woe is me”. He's feeling like Job from the bible who lost everything. He's going down the list: his wife committed adultery his wife is dead her baby is dead his preacher is against him his fellow Christians are against him Satan is tempting him through women like his wife's sister he has been attacked and almost killed several times his cabin has been destroyed all the hard work of raising livestock and making a garden has also been destroyed
As John is sitting on a log thinking about his life, it also came into his remembrance about how God had answered Job's pity party and how the ending of the book of Job, God gave 2X what he had before. John remembered the bible verse “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
John's wife committed adultery – the truth was revealed instead of him living a lifetime of believing lies his wife was dead – she wasn't his wife when she chose another man the baby was dead – he wouldn't be unknowingly raising another man's child as his own his preacher is against him – seen that he is only out for money, a hireling people of the congregation against him – shows him who his real friends are Sally's sister Brenda tempting him to sin by offering sex – he resisted her and had her leave he has been attacked – God has preserved his life his cabin, livestock and work has been destroyed – its all just material goods that can be replaced
With John sitting on the log, he looks at the dog and says his pity party is over. The dog wags his tail and they start the rest of the trip to town.
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Post by texican on Jan 26, 2021 20:34:02 GMT -6
Ian,
3 days for 20 miles, lots of thinking along the way.
What happens now?
Texican....
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Post by cutter on Jan 27, 2021 6:14:45 GMT -6
Ian, 3 days for 20 miles, lots of thinking along the way. What happens now? Texican.... Yes, lots of thinking, but lots of necessary caution too.
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