Get Busy Living - Quinn's Story (Book 4)

[hardtrailz]

Well Done

[mnn2300]

Chapter 8

After dinner, beds were assigned. Betty’s home was a 4 bedroom, even though she was much better than she had been that morning Becca was still suffering the effects of her concussion, she was given a bedroom of her own, the 2 girls were given a room with 2 twin beds, and Ben would get to camp out on the floor of the room that Jeff and Quinn were to share. Quinn said he would feel better on the couch downstairs that way he could keep guard. Ben, upon hearing this wanted to keep guard too, but Quinn told him it would be better for him to keep guard from upstairs. Betty of course had her own room.


The clouds had been gathering since around dinner time and about 2 hours after sunset they let loose with a pretty good thunderstorm. Quinn liked rainstorms, and thunderstorms in particular, he couldn’t really explain it but he seemed to be at heightened awareness because of them, his thoughts came through clearer – it didn’t make any sense, but it worked for him and now he was thinking about his future, his possibly lonely future, he had avoided romantic entanglements while he was in the Army, he had seen too many of his buddies marriages in trouble due to the Army way of life, but one thing he had looked forward to when he got out of the Army was a girlfriend and eventually a wife. E2 had just made that a lot more difficult, or at least cut down on the number of possible partners. Becca was an attractive woman, in fact very attractive and he knew under these circumstances he would be a very good catch, so what was stopping him from making his move? Was it the fact that she was traveling with Jeff? Jeff wasn’t a bad guy, but he was not the survivor type like Quinn was, and what was that religious thing he did to Rebecca? That was kind of weird. Quinn was pretty sure he could make Becca understand her future with him was much better than her future with someone like Jeff, survival of the fittest and that sort of thing. In fact, might as well let her know he was available now. He got off the couch and quietly walked up the stairs, before knocking he put his ear up to Rebecca’s door. He heard Rebecca and Jeff talking, he could barely make out a word here and there, but what he heard was enough to know that for some reason he didn’t understand that Rebecca had already chosen Jeff. “Shit, how could she pick him?” he thought to himself. He crept back down the stairs.


‘That’s Ridiculous’ he said to himself ‘What does she see in him? I could snap him in two.’
‘Ok, so she picked him, so what? Are you afraid of being alone?’ He asked himself continuing the conversation in his head he answered ‘No, I’ve been a loner for years, besides I’m sure she’s not the only woman available, even after all this.’
‘But I’d sure like to……’. He lay there for a while thinking and decided that there was no reason for him to stick around, he had gotten them safely to Bens grandmothers, then gotten them food and power, he decided he would leave in the morning. With that he turned over and eventually fell asleep to the sound of rain.


At breakfast the next morning he announced that he was leaving. “I understand you’re going to stay here for a while until Rebecca is ok to travel, but I really need to get going, so after breakfast…….” He trailed off.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for a while longer, get some home cooking?” Betty asked.
“As much as home cooking sounds good, I really need to check on my grandparents and the farm. Even if they didn’t make it they have crops in and animals to tend. If I leave right after Breakfast, I should make it before sunset assuming the roads are clear.”


“Sure we can’t talk you into coming out to California with us?” Rebecca asked Quinn.
“No, its time for me to get going home, you be safe though, if you see anything strange you drive out of your way to avoid it, you hear?” Quinn told Jeff and Rebecca.
“Yeah, we learned our lesson on that one.” Becca said holding her head.
“If you don’t find what you’re looking for we’ll be here for a week or so until Becca is ready to travel, you can always come on back and go with us.” Jeff said.
“Look if California doesn’t work for you, I’ll be in Jackson, Minnesota, just come to town and I’ll find you within a few days.” He told them.
“Yeah, even if the worst happened, my parents place is still a pretty good setup, we’ll be in Corlis Valley, California if you need us.” Jeff said holding out his hand.


Quinn shook it, then hugged both Rebecca and Betty, followed by the two little girls, he bent over and shook hand with Ben whose eyes were starting to show signs of crying.
“Buck up little soldier, we all have our assignments, you need to take care of these guys.” Quinn said pointing at the rest of them.
“Yes Sir” Ben said saluting, then threw his arms around Quinn. Quinn's eyes started getting cloudy too, after a minute he broke the hug, tossed his duffle bag into the back seat, got into the squad car and started it and gave a quick wave as he drove away. They stood watching his car move into the distance until it was out of sight.



While in the middle of Iowa he saw something that made him slam on his brakes; there was a large pond about 30 yards off the interstate and there were 3 elephants there, two were eating grass from near it and one was drinking.
“Where in the heck did they come from?” he said to himself. He sat there watching them for 5 minutes before moving on. A few minutes later he saw a billboard advertisement for a circus coming to a town nearby. “Hmm, the circus must have gotten stuck here when the quarantine went into effect and the animals got loose. Not sure they’ll be able to survive an Iowa winter though.” He said to himself.

About 4PM he crossed the Minnesota State line, he had stopped on the Iowa side of the border and filled up with gas again and ate one of the sandwiches Betty had made and packed into a cooler for him.
Once back on the road he was trying to decide if he wanted to go through the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul or take a longer route and avoid the two biggest cities in the state. If he drove through them, assuming no problems, he could be home by 6:30 or 7 PM, however if he avoided them, he’d add probably 2 hours to his drive, meaning he’d need to stop somewhere as he didn’t want to arrive at his Grandparents place after dark. “To heck with it” he said out loud “I need to check out the Twins Cities at some point anyway”, an hour later he was at the dividing point for Interstates 35E and 35W, 35W would take him west into Minneapolis, which would take him the opposite direction of where he needed to go, 35E would skirt the south side of St Paul before turning north to head through Downtown St Paul, he could bypass the city by taking Interstate 494 and then re-catch 35E on the north side of St Paul, taking it to his exit about 45 minutes north of there.


Even though he was on the outskirts of St Paul, he halfway expected to see someone, some sign that there were still people, even though they had said E2 was 99% effective, that meant 1% of the population should still be alive, since the Twin Cities metropolitan area had 3 million people, that meant 30,000 people should still be alive. He saw no signs of anyone; of course he was on the interstate mostly going 70 miles per hour, he could have passed hundreds of people just off the interstate and never even known it. He came up on his exit and took it.


He got about two miles down the road from the exit from the Interstate onto the county road that would take him home and spotted something, Quinn hit his brakes and slowed to a stop. Either a storm had come through and dropped a large tree across the road or there was an ambush. It was close to dusk, and he was having a hard time seeing if the tree had been cut from here. Rather than drive into a possible ambush, be turned around and drove away, anyone watching would think he left, however he pulled into a driveway and parked behind a building, he grabbed his guns, and stuck a knife in his boot and slowly made his way through the woods , he stopped before he got to the tree and watched.

[kaijafon]

good chapter! thanks!!

[kalvingalt]

The story was very interesting. I am having two books in this series with me gift from one of my cousins. I tried to have the continuation series in these but not found in my area. I would like to thank the members for providing the details and the story here which made my task of getting the book very easy. I immediately want to hve this with me. Please share if there are any other new series released this month. Thanks in advance.





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[idahobob]

So close to home and a possible ambush.

MOAR, soon, please!

Bob
III

[mnn2300]

Well, I worked in freebirde's circus so far - which was not in my original draft.

[mnn2300]

Sorry for the delay, another case of real life geting busy and having to put writing on hold. Should be able to get back in the swing of things.

Chapter 9

After 20 minutes he saw no movement, creeping closer it was obvious that the tree had not been cut, it appeared that a storm had knocked it down as the root ball was showing, he was still cautious and moved around the tree, still moving through the woods, looking for any signs of humans. He saw no one. He would be able to take a couple of side roads to get past it rather than having to cut it and move it. He was still cautious as he made his way back to his car. It was almost dark now and he did not want to arrive at his grandparent’s house after dark, he was expecting to find them dead and did not want to have to deal with that in the dark. There was a hotel back at the Interstate in Milltown, he could stay there like they had done a few nights back in Wichita, gee was it only 3 nights ago he wondered to himself.

There was a gas station and convenience store across the road from the hotel and he pulled in and checked it out, it had been looted at one point, no food to be found that had not spoiled, he left and went over to the hotel, one of the mid-priced travel hotels, he checked out the first floor via flashlight making sure he would have no surprises in the night, he took a sofa from the lobby and moved it in front of the doors, wouldn’t stop anyone determined, but might give him some warning, He found the maintenance room and forced the lock with a pry bar. He was looking for a bucket or two he could fill from the pool to be able to flush the toilets with, which he found, but he also found a key card attached to a chain with ‘Maintenance’ written on it in black magic marker. Could he be that lucky? he asked himself, setting the buckets outside the door, he tried the key card on a room door and got a green flash from the lock and the door opened, he shined his flashlight in, it was a clean room, no sign of anyone using it since it had been cleaned last, he debated taking that room which was on the first floor but decided he would be more secure on an upper floor, just in case. He filled the buckets with water and set them in the stairway, he carried his duffle bag and the maintenance key up to the third floor. Walking to the first room he opened it, it appeared someone had used it and it had not been cleaned. A few steps down the hall the next room was clean so he propped open the door with the duffle bag he had brought in, and then he went down, got the buckets of water and brought them up and set them inside the room in the tub for use in flushing the toilet, he then grabbed an MRE from his duffle bag and a bottle of water and ate dinner, then putting his weapons within easy reach, went to bed.

He was on the highway side of the building with the windows open as it was warm in the room, sometime during the night he woke up, not sure if he heard a truck on the highway or if he had dreamed it, looking out the window he saw the sun was just starting to come up, but he saw no sign of the truck or whatever it was and he decided he must have been dreaming. He sat down on the bed and rubbed his eyes.

“Well, let’s get up and get this over with.” He said to himself, while he hoped his grandparents had been spared he was afraid he would find them dead in the house and was not really looking forward to seeing that sight. He got his gear out to the car and took off for the final 30 miles to his home. Seeing dead people were one thing, seeing his own family dead, perhaps for a month or more, was another, he decided he didn’t want to have any food in his stomach; he opened a bottle of water and sipped on it as he drove.

Pulling into Jackson, he saw that they had blocked off the town, there was a roadblock using a couple of trucks, it looked like a good idea, but too late, the people manning it were dead, he drove around it, going down into the shallow ditch, driving slowly down main street he saw nothing to indicate anyone was alive. At the other end of town was another road block, again only dead men were manning it. Bypassing it he arrived at his grandparent’s farm a few minutes later. He saw the cows in the pasture, chickens scratching for food. He got out of his car and walked slowly towards the house.

“Grandpa? Grandma? Are you here?” he hollered from the porch. Opened the door he hollered again, “Grandpa? Grandma? Are you here?” getting no answer was his answer, he slowly walked into the house, once more he said “Grandpa? Grandma? Are you here?” he was pretty sure he knew that he was not going to get a response. He saw no one in the living room or kitchen, walking down the hall he first heard the buzz of flies, then smelled the smell of death. Looking into the master bedroom, he saw them, they had been dead probably since near the beginning, his stomach, even though empty, wanted to force up what little was there, he turned aside into the hallway bathroom and made it to the toilet before dry heaving. Finished, he flushed the toilet, it didn’t refill, there was no power for the pump. Well he could hook up a generator, but first he needed to bury his grandparents.

Walking outside he decided to bury them near the old Oak tree in the front yard half way between the house and the road, he didn’t have a back hoe, but he hooked the auger up to the power take off on the tractor and used it to loosen and pull up some of the dirt. He then spent the next hour or so with a shovel finishing the grave.

Opening up the trunk of the squad car he had driven up from Texas, he found a gas mask, deciding how he would get his grandparents out of the house he grabbed 50 feet of rope from the shed, and put the gas mask on.

“I’m sorry you two.” he said, sliding the rope under the bottom of the mattress. When he had the rope about 18 inches from the bottom of the mattress and sticking out on both sides, he folded the mattress together, tying it closed, he did the same at the top and middle. He felt terrible about doing it this way, but as long as they had been dead, it would have been impossible for one person to pick them up. He was able to get the mattress out of the house and into the grave. After replacing the dirt, he stood there.

“I love you two, I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you at the end. Thanks for raising me after my parents died, you did a good job, I’ll miss you.” He said. Filling the grave went a lot quicker than digging it.

Walking back into the house, he opened all the windows to let it air out and grabbed the keys off the hooks in the kitchen for the pickup. Grandpa had put in a garage door opener when he turned 70 and being without power Quinn had to go in the side door and pull the door release string and open the door manually, the truck was sluggish to start but finally did, he let it warm up for a minute before pulling out, he headed into town and turned into the lumber yard to get a generator, going past a seed display he picked up a couple packs of what the package said was a wildflower mix to put over the grave site, Grandma would have liked that he thought to himself. The clock in the truck said it was going on 2PM and his stomach was wondering if it was ever going to get any food. Back at the house he pulled another MRE out of the squad car and a bottle of water and had lunch on the rocker on the porch. Digging and then refilling the grave had been tiring; he closed his eyes for just a minute. When he awoke, the sun was noticeably lower in the sky.

There was a battery operated clock on the kitchen wall, it showed 7 PM. He decided he would hook up the generator and get the well pump working at least, maybe a couple of lights. He’d have to figure out a solution for the whole house and barn in the near future. His grandfather had a farm gas tank, so he filled the generator from that after running an extension cord to the well pump in the basement. He also ran a cord to his old bedroom and plugged in the lamp and a fan. He checked the water heater, since it was gas it was still working and now that the pump was running he had water pressure and after the day he had had, decided to take a shower.

When he finished he still had an hour or so of daylight left, he went out to check on the animals, he noted that one of the cows had recently had a calf, so he could have fresh milk, cream, butter, homemade ice cream and whatever else he wanted, it was a decent tradeoff for having to milk it twice a day, he’d have to pick up what he needed for the calf from the feed store and then separate them. After making sure the animals all had food and water he went into the barn to see how it was stocked and what he would need to fill up before winter, while in there he spotted his old motorcycle, a 1976 Honda Goldwing, he had purchased it while on leave two summers ago and rebuilt it adding some custom features, including a Fensworth muffler that made it almost silent, finally getting it exactly how he wanted it only a couple days before his leave was over. It had been sitting in Grandpas barn ever since, covered with an old tarp.

He decided in the morning he would change the oil, and get it ready for use, while he had the pickup and the squad car, the bike would be perfect for exploring, trying to find others, unlike most bikes which were loud, his bike was rigged for very little noise, he had called it his stealth bike.

The next day after doing the morning chores, checking on the animals, making sure they all had food and water, he moved the bike up to the porch after laying down a tarp first. Grandma would have killed him for doing it on her porch, but he had plenty of light but was in the shade and in case it rained all the parts would be covered. He grabbed the toolbox and started taking the bike apart; making sure all the parts were in good working order and that it would run correctly when put back together. He stopped for lunch when he was hungry and once again later in the afternoon for a run to the Honda dealership on the outskirts of Milltown for a couple of parts. The sun was going down as he finished, he started it up and it sounded great, he rode it down to the main road and back and parked it in the barn, ready for the next day.

The next morning while working outside he heard what sounded like a car or truck. Without the constant noise of civilization you picked up on something out of the ordinary and this was it. He had a pistol in a holster on his waist, but he grabbed his carbine and some field glasses and got on his Honda riding towards the sound, which was coming from town.

[idahobob]

Thanks for the update.

Now, all we need is MOAR!!

Heh.

Bob
III

[nancy1340]

Nice chapter. Thanks

A GW would not be my first choice for a bike that would probably need to go off road now and then but a nice bike none the less. Seems like a duo-sport would be better suited. If he gets chased by some bad guys a duo would take him through the woods to grandma's house again. ;-)

[mnn2300]

Chapter 10

As he got closer he narrowed it down to the lumber yard. Parking his bike at the far end he cautiously moved behind a skid of lumber at the far end and got his field glasses out. There was a young couple apparently trying to figure out how to run a fork lift. Both were wearing side arms but did not appear too concerned with keeping a lookout. They looked ok, but he wanted to learn more about them before showing himself. How many others were there, what were they doing, were they friendly, etc. he settled in and watched them load building bricks onto a truck. He overheard some of their conversation and found out they would be heading north towards Avery from their conversation, he decided he would follow them home and see who else was there if there were others and if they were friendly.


Maybe he was making more of this than he had to, especially since it was a younger couple, but both had been armed and you never knew, good intel was important, especially when someone was scavenging his area. He drove well past halfway to Avery and spotted a farm with a barn overlooking the road, if he got up into the hay loft, he'd have a good view of the highway for a few miles.
15 minutes later Quinn, still in the barn saw the truck go by and a minute later he saw which road they turned onto, he settled in for a wait in the barn having heard they would be going back for the other truck and the forklift. About 40 minutes later the couple drove by on their way back to Jackson, this time in a pickup. Quinn noted the time when they drove by, waited til they were out of sight, then got on his bike and headed towards the road they had turned on, he figured he had at least a full hour before they got back, and probably more like two. Driving up the county road they had turned onto the highway from he spotted the truck filled with brick and pulled up on the far side of it away from the clearing, he didn't see a house on this side of the road but there was one on the other side of the road about 50 feet down, closer to the main highway, with a clear view of this area. He hid his bike and walked through the woods back to it. He paused for 5 minutes watching, trying to see if someone was there, he tossed a rock so it hit the house near the front door and then waited, he still saw no movement, he walked up and peered in the windows then tried the door, it was unlocked, with the experience necessary to do quiet recon he entered the house, his carbine at the ready. The place was dusty, why would it be dusty, he wondered to himself. On the 2nd floor he found 2 bodies, obvious E2 victims. "This is not where they are living" he said to himself. He walked back to where the truck was, leaving his bike hidden near the house with the dead people. He walked down the driveway past the clearing where the truck was and then he understood, the house was an earth sheltered house hidden from view unless you were in front of it, "very good" he thought, he looked inside, the door was unlocked, 'ok that’s kind of dumb, but then with practically everyone dead, the average person wouldn’t expect anyone to walk into their house.' he said as he went in and reconnoitered. "Very nice" he said seeing not only the high end furniture but the bedroom storage, and the gun safe in the Master bedroom closet. His opinion of the couple went up, but it also raised their possible danger level too.


He decided on his course of action and headed back to the house with the dead people and got a vantage point from the 2nd floor front bedroom where he could watch the clearing and settled in. About 30 minutes later the trucks pulled in, he looked at his watch, 1:52PM. After parking the trucks in the clearing the couple walked down the driveway and disappeared down a path away from the earth sheltered house. "What the hell?" he waited and about 40 minutes later they were back, presumably they ate lunch and were now back to work. Did they have another house down further? now he was going to have to reconnoiter a third house.


He watched the guy unloaded the forklift and then he started unloading the trucks
Quinn had about seen enough and was just about to sneak out and check out the probable 3rd house when he heard a sound he'd heard before, the heavy booming of bass music that teens and other undesirables liked to have coming from their cars music system, the music was headed this way.


Music was getting louder, headed this way, friends of the young couple? Quinn wondered.

"Good Lord" he said out loud, a heavily chromed SUV pulled in, someone had taken a perfectly good SUV and turned it into a low rider. "What kind of idiot does that in Minnesota, haven't they heard of snow and potholes?" he mumbled to himself. The vehicle also had the type of spinning wheel covers you found usually on vehicles owned by gang members, drug dealers and teens with too much money and not enough sense in Quinn's opinion.


Putting his binoculars up to his eyes, he saw 3 people in the SUV, 2 in the front; a guy and a girl, girl was sitting up close to the driver, one guy in the back. Dirt-bags from the looks of it, he doubted they were friends of the young couple, comparing the new-comers to the couple they seemed complete opposites but he'd been wrong before. The 2 dirt bags and the chick got out: driver had a leather jacket on even though the temp was already in the low 80's, probably thinks he looks cool, Quinn thought. The guy in back was wearing torn jeans, a muscle shirt, tats.



From Quinn's viewpoint he could see a pistol tucked into dirtbag number two's back waistband and from experience knew where there was one gun in a group there were more. The chick was wearing big boots, tight jeans and a jean jacket with the arms cut off and lots of what Quinn called 'look at me' type jewelry, she looked like a typical biker chick type to Quinn. At least the guy on the forklift had his gun on, the girl who was carrying earlier at the lumber yard didn’t have hers anymore. Quinn had his rifle aimed out the window already just in case. It would be interesting to see how this played out.


Yup, there was the 2nd gun; Dirt-bag number one was pretending to be stretching and rubbing his back was actually reaching up under his jacket to get at his pistol. Quinn wished he was close enough to hear what was going on, there was a lot of arm waving on the chick’s part. The two dirt-bags weren’t talking much, but were sure watching the young couple.


Dirt bag number two who had been alone in the back seat when they pulled in appeared to be sizing up the girl, he looked like he wanted a piece of that, Quinn thought. Dirt bag 1 still pretending to rub his back, but from his vantage Quinn could see he was maneuvering closer to the young couple and had his gun ready to shoot.


This did not look good, Quinn thought to himself, he was not afraid to take a life, some people were better off meeting their Maker and as an Army Ranger in some of the worlds hot spots Quinn had arranged that meeting for a few people in the past, but he also didn’t want to start firing until he was sure the young couple was in life threatening trouble, or at least the young guy, it appeared dirt-bag number 2 might have other plans for the girl. The chick was screaming at the young couple, Dirt bag number 1 then said something which the guy answered, Dirt-Bag number 1 apparently didn’t like the answer and pulled his gun, Dirt-bag 2 followed the others lead.


Quinn fired 2 shots and the two dirt-bags went down, Biker chick pulled a gun out of her boot but before she could raise it Quinn dropped her too. The guy finally got around to pulling out his gun, the woman started screaming. The guy pulled her into a crouch at the side of the truck, looking around with his gun in his hand. Now Quinn had a dilemma, did he go out and introduce himself or sneak away. If he snuck away he'd probably leave the young couple paranoid not knowing what had happened, and who knows what they would do. But if he went out he'd have to diffuse the situation very quickly.


He walked slowly out the front door with his hands in front of him, leaving his rifle leaning against the wall, he was still armed 3 different ways and could no doubt kill both of them bare handed if necessary.


"Don't shoot, I'm a friend." He hollered slowly walking towards the couple, arms extended in front of him, palms towards the couple.


"Who are you?" the guy yelled covering him with his handgun as he got closer.


"Sgt Robert Quinn, Army Rangers, retired and the guy that just saved your ass." Quinn said offering his hand to shake. Without even thinking the younger man holstered his gun and shook Quinn’s hand, which is what Quinn wanted, diffusing a situation is what his old instructor called it. Everything has just gone to shit, the bad guys are dead but you’ve got some scared bystanders so you do something totally normal to diffuse the situation, worked 99 times out of 100 and did this time too.


“Mark, Mark Larson.” Mark said shaking Quinn’s hand “and this is Dr Jessica Martin” she was under control just enough to hold her hand out but barely.


“Doctor? Pleased to meet you.” Quinn said, shaking her hand.


Tears were still flowing but Quinn could see a bit of control coming back.
“I’m a veterinarian not a medical doctor.” She said “how…. Why…”
Quinn could see the control fading.”Doc, you want to sit on the tailgate?” he said, pointing to their pickup, she nodded her head and Mark guided her over to it, he grabbed a bottle of water from a cooler on the bed of the pickup and handed it to her.


Quinn started talking. “I heard you at the lumber yard in Jackson earlier and frankly you're the first people I’ve seen alive since I got home, however being a former Army Ranger, I’m a bit suspicious of people, so I followed you, trying to see what kind of people you were, if there were others, stuff like that. I holed up in the house across the road to watch when the dirt-bags showed up; I couldn’t hear what was going on but when they pulled their guns on you I decided I’d rather have you two as neighbors than the three of them. How did they find you and what did they want?


“Supposedly the woman was the daughter of the people that owned this place.” Mark said. “I’d never met her and the few times the owners talked about their daughter it was not with their approval.”
“With the type of guys she was traveling with I can imagine.” Quinn said.
Jessica was staring at the bodies and Quinn recognized the look, seen it from youngsters after their first battle. Staring at the bodies wasn’t helping her.


"Let's move away from here, perhaps go inside" Quinn told the two.
"Certainly" Mark said, putting his arm around Jessica. The two led Quinn down the path away from the earth sheltered home, a couple minutes Quinn saw a cabin in the clearing.


When they got to the house, Quinn let Suzie, the dog, sniff him first and she approved.
"Would you like some coffee Sergeant?" Mark asked.
"I'd love some and you can call me Quinn." Quinn told him.
"Thanks for saving our hides out there Quinn, we're grateful." Mark said handing him a cup of coffee. Away from the bodies, Jessica was starting to relax. Suzie, had her head in Jessica's lap and Jessie was rubbing her. It was a calming move for Jessica.


- - -

"So what's your story Quinn, how'd you survive?" Mark asked.

“I was in the Army for 20 years, the last 12 as a Ranger. I decided to muster out and was at a base in TX for my last two months after getting back from the Middle East. When the quarantine hit we were called out to the Dallas area to help keep things in order. That didn’t work too well, hard to control a few million scared people, things went south fast there, dead piling up, people looting, the flu hitting the base hard, finally most everyone was dead, we tried burying people but it just got to be too much near the end.” Quinn had a far off stare in his eyes at that point and paused for a minute.


“Anyway I decided my enlistment was over and headed out to come back here. Ran into a few people; a couple from Dallas heading back home to northern California, we traveled together for a while, found some kids near Kansas City, they ended up going with the couple from Texas when we split up. I got back here a couple weeks ago, buried Grandma and Grandpa, both had died from E2 at some point, been staying at the farm outside Jackson taking care of things since. I was at the lumber yard when you were getting brick. Decided to see who you were, what kind of folks you were so I followed you and was watching from the house across from your new garden when the dirtbags showed up." Quinn finished.


“We’re sure glad you did, you were in for "20 years? you don't look that old." Jessica said.
"I joined the day I turned 18, I'm 38 now Doctor" Quinn said.
"Please call me Jessica or Jessie." Jessica said.
"Yes ma'am, err Jessie." Quinn said.



"Anyone alive in Jackson?" Mark asked.
"Not that I've seen, how about around here?" Quinn asked.
"Just the two of us, do you drive a black pick-up?" Mark asked.
"No, why?" Quinn asked
"Saw one a few days back heading south out of Avery, by the time I got in my truck they were gone, but they were headed towards Jackson, of course, there are lots of turnoffs between here and there too." Mark replied.
Quinn asked about their survival and Mark and Jessica both filled him in, Jessica was loosening up.


They talked for about an hour, Quinn said he should be going, had his afternoon chores to do “Mark, I’ll dispose of the bodies, and head home, I assume you don't want that fancy vehicle they were driving?." Quinn said.
"No, do you?" Mark asked.
"God, no, what they did to that SUV is downright disrespectful to motor vehicles, I was going to get rid of it when I got rid of the bodies." Quinn said.
"I'll help you load the bodies." Mark said.
"No need, I really can handle it on my own." Quinn replied.


"Quinn, would you at least let us thank you with dinner?" Jessie asked.
"I'd like that but not tonight, I really do have chores I have to get back to." Quinn replied.
"How about Sunday then? 5:00?" Jessica asked.
"OK, only one problem, I have no idea what day of the week it is to be able to tell when Sunday is." Quinn replied.
"Its Thursday today." Mark said.
"OK, Sunday, 5PM, I'll be here." Quinn answered and then walked out, Mark followed.


Mark followed him outside and shook his hand and thanked him again. "You sure you don't need help with the bodies?" he asked.

"No, just go in and take care of your woman, she looked close to being in shock when it happened and then was relaxing but when I mentioned disposing of the bodies, she tensed up again, just spend the afternoon with her. See you Sunday." Quinn said turning and walking down the path.

[idahobob]

Thanks for the new chapter!

Bob
III

[mnn2300]

Chapter 11

Quinn loaded the bodies into the back of the SUV and drove to the cemetery about 2 miles away, he backed the SUV up to the mass grave and tossed them in, he then got in the bulldozer and started it up, covering most of the hole that was dug as a mass grave at some point. Finished, he parked the dozer and moved the bastardized SUV over near the fence, leaving the keys inside just in case. He had thought of dumping it into the mass grave before he covered it over but had too much respect for the dead and too little respect for what the former owners had done to a perfectly good SUV. He jogged back to his bike and drove home.


The next few days he kept busy around the farm, Sunday he knocked off early and got cleaned up for his dinner with Mark and Jessica, he had stopped off at the liquor store on one of his trips into town, the door and windows had been boarded up and when he pulled them off and pried the door open, he found it to not have been looted at all. He grabbed a couple bottles of wine to bring with him to the dinner and also picked up a case of beer for his own use later. Luckily he was not really that much of a drinker as there was enough booze here to drink himself to death.
At dinner than night they talked about a lot of things, Quinn asked them why they were not using the earth sheltered home down by their gardens.


“I’ve got 3 freezers and the fridge plugged in over there and am just about maxing out the power we get off the solar and wind setup, if we add everyday living to it I’m afraid we won’t have enough power.” Mark said.
“Did you ever think of adding a few more panels to the solar grid and more batteries?” Quinn asked him.
“Yeah, but I have no idea where to get any or how to do it.” Mark said.
“I think there’s a place in St Paul that sold solar units. I am planning on doing some exploring the next couple of weeks, I could use a solar setup before winter myself. I’ll keep an eye open. Quinn told him.


“Did you need any help?” Mark asked.
“Not for exploring, but if I find something yeah, I may, I’ll let you know.”
There was not much left to talk about with no employment, no sports teams, no neighbors, after about an hour of small talk after dinner Quinn took his leave, offering a hand for any big projects and Mark and Jessie doing the same.


The next week, between morning and evening chores Quinn explored the area, he started with Milltown. Milltown was exactly what it sounded like, originally it was a town where farmers would bring their grain to be milled. Eventually, as transportation got easier and quicker, it turned into a bedroom community for St Paul, with the advent of the Interstate, it turned into a large city in its own right with any convenience the now near suburbanites could want; shopping centers, movie theaters, restaurants, groceries, home improvement stores, a medium sized hospital, office buildings, etc.
Quinn was riding his motorcycle, which was nearly silent, this was just a look around and see what he could find, he would come back later with a truck to haul what he wanted and probably invite Mark and Jessica. He was more concerned with who might be around that would object to his shopping spree and while he was armed with three weapons, none were visible, with his bike being nearly silent and of course unable to carry anything large he felt he made an unimposing target, not like a looter at all.


In Milltown, it appeared that someone had cut the lock on the gate of the Home Depot that led into the garden area and the gate was wide open which then gave access to the entire store. Quinn couldn’t tell what someone might have taken or when as he did not know what they had in stock when E2 started, the store looked well stocked though. He made a mental note of things he would want to take and got on his bike, there was a grocery store just down the street.


The Groceries front door was broken and the place pretty well looted, but that was not what he was looking for, on the side near the bakery was a door marked Office, it had mirrored glass in it. He broke the window and opened the door. Rummaging around the desk he found what he was looking for; a grocery invoice, it was about 30 pages, with 20 or 25 items on each page, but what he was interested in was the name and address of the supplier, he was hoping that even though the grocery stores had mostly been looted that the supplier, probably in a warehouse district would still be intact.
The address was in a suburb of St Paul that he was familiar with, he’d need to look at a map to find the exact address though, he folded up the invoice and put it in his back pocket, back out at his bike he had a map book of the cities. He checked his map book and the grocery invoices and found where the warehouse was. It looked to be about 25 miles from here.


He got on his bike and headed towards the Interstate highway. Thirty minutes later he pulled into the driveway to the warehouse, it was fenced with tall chain link fencing and the gate was chained shut which was a good sign to Quinn. Quinn jumped the fence and walked up to the building, there were 30 large loading dock doors for semi’s to pull up to, on the front of the building there appeared to be offices, he had brought a pry bar with him and he went to the office door and pried it open. It was a typical office, a number of desks with computers and printers, walking further back he found a door he presumed went into the warehouse and opened it.

He pulled a flashlight out of his jacket pocket and shined it in. “Yes!” he yelled and it echoed a few times, the warehouse was about the size of a football field; shelves 3 levels high and running from side to side were filled with items, he walked the length of the building, some shelves were empty but not very many. Most pallets were shrink wrapped, especially the ones on 2nd and 3rd level of shelving, at the far end was what appeared to be a break area for the warehouse workers, couple of soda and candy machines, 5 tables with chairs, a couple of microwaves and a fridge. Toward one side was a glassed in office area that was set up about 6 feet above the main floor area with stairs leading up to the door. Towards the loading dock area there were a number of fork lifts – all electric, probably with batteries dead. He would need to bring a gas powered fork lift from the lumber yard like what Mark and Jessica used the first day he met them. Speaking of Mark and Jessica, there was plenty of food here for them too. The stuff in cans and bottles would not do well over the winter, as soon as the temperature dropped below freezing cans and bottles would start bursting, they still had at the very least 3 months and probably more like 4-5 months before that would be a concern, they’d have to get what they wanted to save into a heated building. Paper products would last until the mice and rats found the place. He would let Mark and Jessica know and see if they were interested. He looked over the loading bay doors, they were electric, that would be a problem. He shined his flashlight on the door’s motor, it was hard wired into an electrical conduit, he could probably disconnect that and put a plug on the wires and hook it into a generator. He’d have to pick up a small generator for that before they came back.


He checked the office in the warehouse part of the building and found a key box. He picked out a few likely keys for the lock on the gate and took them with him when he left. The third key he tried unlocked the gate, he locked it again after he went through it then added that key to his key ring. He had one more place he needed to check and that was a place that sold solar and wind generators. The place was not too far from here in fact, another 4 or 5 miles.


As he was driving down the highway he saw an SUV enter the highway in front of him, its brake lights came on and it slowed to a stop in the middle of the road.

Quinn slowed to a stop and loosened the holster strap on his Desert Eagle Mark 19, the 44 Magnum model with a clip that held 8 rounds, he had a second one behind his back if necessary along with 6 extra clips full in various pockets, he also had a long knife stuck into his boot.

Hopefully he would not have to use any of them, but his motto, like the Boy Scouts, was always ‘Be Prepared’. He stopped about 40 feet behind the pickup and a man about his age and size wearing overalls and a flannel shirt stepped out. There was someone else still in the truck on the passenger side.

“Howdy” the driver says. He is standing next to the door but was holding a shotgun in the down but ready position. Quinn has his hand on his gun, ready to draw if he needed to.
“Hello" Quinn said.
"Looks like neither of us are too trusting of one another." The man said.
"Yeah, sad though it is, but you never know. My name is Quinn." He said loosening his stance a bit.
Sorry, I didn't catch your name." the man said.
"I said my….." Quinn said just as the man pulled up his shotgun and fired.

[idahobob]

Oh my!

It is getting interesting, again!

Bob
III

[kaijafon]

oh crap! poor Quinn, duck man duck! thanks!

[mnn2300]

Chapter 12
**Just a bit of warning, there is some swearing in this chapter, if you're sensitive to that kind of thing I apologize but felt it was in keeping with the events happening.


Quinn, seeing the man tense up just as he was lifting the shotgun, jumped to one side and rolled, his Desert Eagle in his hand as he rolled to his knee.

As it usually did when Quinn had been in a fire fight in the Army, things slowed down, it seemed to him that everything was moving in slow motion, he landed on his knees from his roll and took aim, he lined up the sights on the man’s center mass he fired his first shot, then followed up quickly with two more, the man went down. Quinn felt some of the pellets from the shotgun blast hit his arm, luckily he was wearing a leather jacket and just felt them hit the sleeve of his jacket. Quinn made note of it, felt the stings from the pellets, but he still had the passenger to worry about.


"Put your hands where I can see them." He hollered. The passenger did not move. Quinn moved up to about 10 feet behind the SUV and yelled again. "Put your hands where I can see them!" The passengers head moved from side to side but no hands and no sound.

"What the Hell?" Quinn mumbled slowly moving around to the driver's side of the truck, not wanting to duck down and check for a pulse on the driver since he still had a passenger to worry about he fired one more shot into the skull of the man who had pulled the shotgun on him just to be sure, then he moved up to the open door of the vehicle, gun first and said "What the ….?"

Inside was a woman, hands behind her back and a ball gag in her mouth. She also had what appeared to be a shock collar locked on her neck, no wonder she didn't say anything. All she had on was a pair of very short shorts and a bikini top, neither covered her very well. She was a very shapely red head and she just glared at him, she leaned forward enough that he could see she had handcuffs on. He gathered his composure and walked around to the passenger side and opened the door.
“You’re going to have to get out before I can do anything about that gag, collar and handcuffs.” He told her, undoing the seat belt holding her in place, he helped her out of the SUV. It took him a couple seconds to figure out the catch on the ball gag but the minute he un-did it the woman said “I hope you blew that Son of a Bitch to Hell”

“Yeah, he’s dead.” Quinn told her. “Do you know where he kept the keys for the handcuffs and collar?
“On the car keys key ring” She replied. Quinn reached in and turned the SUV off, taking the keys out of the ignition he unlocked the cuffs first, and as the woman rubbed her wrists he moved behind her to where the lock on the collar was and undid that.
“My name is Quinn” he told her.
“Sharon” she replied.
“So what the heck happened Sharon?” he said as he took off his jacket and handed it to her.

“Thanks” she said, putting the jacket on, it really didn’t cover her from the waist down, Quinn tried not to make it too obvious that he liked what he saw.
“Asshole here and another guy caught 2 of us a couple weeks back, they’ve been using us as a work detail and as……. as their personal play things, we have to rescue Stacy.” She told him.
“Where are they?” he asked her.
“I don’t know the exact address but it’s up highway 61 about a mile west on 114th Street, it’s a small farm, a hobby farm place. I can get you to it” Sharon told him
“Tell me about its setup.”
It’s a three bedroom house with a basement. They keep us locked up in the basement unless they were having us do chores or they were………” she trailed off frowning, tears coming to her eye’s.
“I’m so sorry.” Quinn said.
She nodded her head, tears still flowing.
Understanding that the jerk he had just killed and this other guy were keeping the two girls as sex slaves made Quinn see red, “Tell me about the other guy.”

“He’s about your height, but bigger, heavier by at least 50 pounds, bad teeth, somewhere around 40 years old. Very obsessive about time: gets up at 6:30 every morning, in bed by 10. Meals at 7:30, noon and 5:30 every day and it better not be late. Always has a pistol in a holster unless…..unless he had one of us in his room, then it would be in the nightstand by his bed. They always held onto the control for the shock collars they have on both of us, they….they would handcuff us to the bed post so we couldn’t grab for the gun or do anything but……” again she trailed off, tears coming to her eyes but anger too. "If we didn't do what they said they would shock us until we did.

“This obsessiveness about time, we can use that against him.” Quinn said. He himself still wore a watch, habit he guessed, “It’s about 4 PM now, when were you due back?” he asked Sharron.
“No specific time, we were out looting a couple grocery stores. Usually we would be back about supper time.” She said. Quinn had noted the back of the SUV was filled with groceries.

“So if I got a pair of overalls and a flannel shirt like this guy was wearing and we fake that you’re still handcuffed, gagged and collared, we could probably get into the house while he’s eating supper and blow him away.” Quinn said.
“You’re not going to put those cuffs and gag back on me.” She said angrily.
“No we’re not, I said we would fake it, you can hold your hands behind your back and hold the gag in your mouth. I’ll disable the collar and we’ll tape it into place.” Quinn said. “Look you are safe now, I’m not going to force you to do anything, but we need to help the other woman, OK?”
“Yeah, sorry I jumped on you, but…….. anyway, you’re right, he probably wouldn’t suspect anything if he sees the SUV pull up and someone that looks like his partner bringing me in, then we can rescue Stacy and kill that SOB too.” Sharon said.

“Alright, there’s a Fleet Farm store about a mile from here, let’s get me some overalls and a shirt like he was wearing and you can get some clothes for you and the other woman. Can you drive the SUV? And I’ll park my bike at the Fleet Farm rather than here on the road.” Quinn said.
The Fleet Farm Store had been broken into, but there was still plenty of items left, including the clothes they needed. They talked as they were picking out clothes.
“After we rescue Stacy you ladies are welcome to go where you want or you can come with me. I’m staying in my Grandparents 4 bedroom farmhouse, and trying to keep up with the farm chores. No strings attached, I’m not like those two you ran into.” Quinn told her.
“Yeah, I can already tell you’re nothing like those two assholes. You sound like you’re military.” She asked smiling for the first time.

“I am or was that is, I was Army for 20 years, an Army Ranger for the last 12 years. I was getting out when E2 came along.” Quinn told her.
“20 years, how old are you?” she asked.
“I joined on my 18th birthday, I’m 38 now.” He told her. “How about you? What did you do before this?” he asked her.
“I was a dental hygienist.” She told him.
“Yeah, I noticed you have a great smile.” He said, then a bit embarrassed realizing what she had just been through and here he was making a comment like that he turned kind of red.
“Yeah you’re nothing like those two, you’re turning red at saying that.” She said, making Quinn turn even redder. He turned slightly to make it appear he was looking at the shelf.
“Anyway, to answer your question we’ll see what Stacy says.” Sharon told him.

Sharon had grabbed a couple of changes of clothes for herself and the other girl, Stacy, from the limited selection the store had – they wouldn't win any fashion contests but they wouldn't be running nearly naked any more. Quinn put them in the back seat for easy access, he then removed the electrical component from the collar and taped the now deactivated collar in place around Sharon’s neck using electrical tape he had taken from the store.

“We can get by without the gag, they didn’t make us wear that all the time.” Sharon told Quinn.
“For the handcuffs you can just hold your hands behind your back, do you know how to shoot a pistol?” Quinn asked her.
She shook her head no.
“Not enough time to teach you correctly but we’ll fix that in the very near future. Since its just one person and we have the element of surprise I don’t think it’ll be a problem.” He said.
“Thanks Quinn, you could have told me it was my problem and left.” Sharon said.
“That’s not the kind of guy I am.” He told her.
“I can see that, well we’d better get going.” She replied.
“Here” he said handing her a small package with a set of foam ear plugs in them. “Before we get out of the car twist them a bit and then put them in your ears, these .44 magnums are loud. Sorry, but you’ll need to go back to just the shorts and bikini top. Also when we get there I’ll have you lead so you're blocking the fact that I'll have a pistol in my hands, take me to where he’ll be and then quickly drop flat to the floor so you’re out of the way. Ok?”

“OK”, she said, taking off the shirt, shoes and pants she had put on in the store. Quinn pulled out onto Highway 61 and drove north to 114th St. then turned west. About a mile in Sharon said “There it is” pointing to a house on the right. Looking at the clock on the dash Sharon said “He should be at the table in the dining room starting to eat. He’ll be at the far end of the table but looking straight at the doorway when we come in.”
“How far from where we’ll first see him will he be sitting? Quinn asked.
“Probably about 15-16 feet at most.” She told him.
“Piece of cake, let’s go.” He said opening the car door.
“You’d better come around and open the door and help me out, if I really had cuffs on he would have had to help me out.” Sharon told him. Quinn did so and let her walk in front of him with her hands clasped behind her, he had his pistol in his hands at the ready.
“Terry, about time you two get back, dinners on the table.” The guy sitting at the table said as Quinn opened the door and the two of them moved into the house. Quinn could see the man had his hand on his pistol.
Quinn gave a muffled grunt in answer as Sharon led him to the entry to the Dining room.
“Who the hell are you!” the man shouted as he raised the pistol and pulled the trigger.

[idahobob]

No fair leaving us hanging like that!

Need MOAR!

Bob
III

[mnn2300]

Chapter 13


Sharon dropped to the floor throwing herself a bit sideways into the hallway. Quinn who had already had his Desert Eagle in both hands in front of him saw the man starting to shoot. Quinn stepped to the side and pointed it toward the man who was trying to stand as he shot at Quinn. Quinn pulled the trigger three times in rapid succession, his first shot hit the man in his right side, pushing him back into the chair, the next two shots hit the man dead center. The man’s eyes opened wide in shock and then he slumped over falling out of the chair, the other woman dressed similarly to how Sharon was dressed sitting at the table got splattered with the man’s blood and started screaming.


“Everyone OK?” Quinn asked, not knowing where the bullet the man got off before dying went to. Sharon jumping up off the floor said she was fine, Quinn looked around, the window in the door behind him was shattered, had he not stepped to the side as he saw the man raising the pistol he would have been directly in line of the shot and this whole thing would have turned out differently.


Sharon ran to the other women who looked like she was going into shock.
“It’s ok, it’s ok, Quinn’s a good guy, he killed the other bastard too and freed me. We’re safe now.” Sharon told her. The other woman was dressed in the same kind of skimpy outfit Sharon was, both women were crying and shaking.
“Quinn, go out and get the clothes please and toss me the keys so I can get the collar off of Stacy.” Sharon said while ripping the tape holding her collar together off. Quinn did so.
“It’s ok, we’re safe now, they’re both dead, we’re safe.” Sharon kept repeating as she unlocked the shock collar from Stacy’s neck. A minute later Quinn set the bags of clothes down on the floor by the 2 women. Stacy, a blond who looked to be in her mid-20’s dressed herself while Sharon put on her clothes also, “Stacy this is Quinn, Quinn – Stacy”
“Pleased to meet you Ma’am” Quinn said.
Stacy, tears still running down her face managed to get out “Thank you so much Quinn.”
“You’re safe now, nobody will make her do anything like that again.” Quinn said. “No one should have to put up with what they did, I hope there’s a special corner of hell for those two.” He added.


“What……what now?” Stacy asked wiping the tears from her face.
“Well Sharon and I talked, I’m staying in my Grandparents farm house up in Jackson and you’re welcome there or you’re welcome to go anywhere you want.” Quinn replied.
“Do you have hot water at this farmhouse?” Stacy asked wiping the tears from her face.
“Yes Ma’am, I mean Stacy.” Quinn said.
“Then let’s get out of this pigsty, I need to take about a two hour shower with a scrub brush to get the feel of those two pigs off of me.” Stacy said.
“Yeah me too.” Sharon said.
“Anything you need to grab?” Quinn asked.
“I don’t want anything to remind me of this place.” Stacy said. Sharon shook her head no.


Both women, now dressed in jeans and sweat shirts that Sharon had gotten them from the Fleet farm store, walked with Quinn out to the SUV. Quinn’s bike was still at the Fleet Farm where they had left it but decided driving the women and then coming back later for his bike would be the better choice. They got to talking on the trip back to Quinn’s place and Quinn found out about Stacy, she had graduated with a degree in elementary education 2 years ago and had been substituting while trying to find a full time job, she was 25 years old and had not been married. Sharon was 28 and a Dental Hygienist, she had lived with her boyfriend who had died in the early days of E2, no kids yet, but they had been talking about it. Quinn told them about himself and also about Mark and Jessica the couple that lived on Half Moon Lake near Avery.


Half an hour later Quinn pulled into the driveway at the farm and after showing the women the upstairs bedrooms and bath, started the generator he had brought in to power the place. Quinn told them that he was going to take the SUV and go drop it off and get his bike while they got cleaned up, he also showed them the bedrooms they could use. He also told them to help themselves to any food in the kitchen, pantry or garden. They still had the pickup and the squad car Quinn had driven up from Texas and if they needed something else they could pick out any vehicle they wanted from the car dealerships in the area. It took Quinn about an hour to pick up his bike and drive it back to the farm by that time both ladies were out of the shower and dressed. Stacy had raided the pantry and the garden and started making some vegetable soup since their dinner had been interrupted. She had found ingredients to make some cornbread and that was baking in the oven. She told him he had about 30 minutes until dinner was ready, he said that was just enough time to milk the cow and feed the chickens.

At dinner they were talking “In the next day or two you’ll need to run us into town to pick up some stuff, your house is really not set up for women” Stacy told him.
“You’re right, Grandma was in her 70’s and she’s the only woman who lived here. Probably didn’t use much of the stuff you ladies will need.” Quinn said.


“We were also talking while you were gone, about earning our keep.” Sharon started. “We can help with chores here and free up some of your time.”
“That sounds good, I am going to have to get us and the animals ready for winter, and get a solar and wind setup as a source of power to the house “ Quinn said.
“Stacy volunteered to take over the house keeping end of things with some help from me – we can all keep our own rooms clean, but she does the major stuff with help as needed and takes care of meals. I can take care of the gardens and help both you and her with whatever is needed. All this is assuming you’re going to let us stick around?” Sharon asked.


“Yes, definitely.” Quinn replied.
“Just making sure.” Sharon replied.
“It will be nice to have the company, and the help, I wasn’t looking forward to riding out the winter alone.” Quinn said.
Sharon smiled at him, “So maybe tomorrow you can teach me how to milk the cow, and feed the chickens and whatever else you do, that way I can help when you’re busy with other things.”


“That sounds great, also tomorrow late morning Mark and Jessica were coming over as I was supposed to have already checked out a place in St Paul that sold solar panels, which is where I was heading when I came across you. I was thinking that at least Mark and I would drive down and check it out but I was also thinking in addition to that, you had mentioned you didn't know how to shoot a pistol, have you shot anything: rifle, shotgun?"
"Never touched a gun, never saw the need, until recently." Sharon answered.
"That’s changed now, right?" Quinn asked.

"Definitely." She replied.
"There's a hunt club down the road about 7 or 8 miles that has a shooting range - actually a couple ranges, but the pistol range is indoors. Grandpa's been a member since before I was born. I went there a lot as a teen after my parents died and I moved in with Grandpa and Grandma. I know they have a generator cause I was there once when the power went out so maybe tomorrow Mark and I could check that out and get it running and then the following day we all go over and I teach you how to shoot. How would that sound?" Quinn asked.


“That sounds great; I certainly want to be able to protect myself.” Sharon said. Stacy nodded her head in agreement.
The next morning they all got up about the same time. Stacy started breakfast while Sharon and Quinn went out to feed the chickens and gather eggs and then to milk the cow. After the chickens were done, he introduced Sharon to the cow and said “Hold out your fingers like this.” Holding his middle fingers out and downwards rather, she did so. He then grabbed them gently and demonstrated the milking action, then had her try it on his fingers, after a bit of coaching he showed her how to clean the stainless steel bucket and then how clean the teats and where to sit. He then demonstrated milking and then had her try it, it took her a bit of effort but Quinn was happy to hear her squeal with glee when the milk started coming out of the cow under her ministrations.


“Good Job” he told her, “now find a rhythm that is comfortable for you and for ol bossie here.”
After giving her a few more pointers, he leaned back against the wall and watched until she was finished, he explained what needed to be done then to finish up which included pouring a little into a bowl for the 3 barn cats that had come to expect it from Quinn. This was a one cow operation and there was still more milk than Quinn had been able to use, perhaps that would change now that there were two more people in the household, mainly he had been dumping the excess up until now since his grandfather had not been raising any pigs. His grandmother had a spare fridge in the pantry that she had used to cool the fresh milk which is where they put it and Quinn said he would teach both of them a quick method to make fresh butter after the cream rose to the top.


After breakfast Quinn and Sharon went out to weed the garden, they were about ¾ finished when an SUV Quinn recognized pulled into the driveway.
"Here's Mark and Jessica" he told Sharon. When the passenger door opened Suzie, Marks dog, jumped out and ran up to Quinn wagging her tail.
Quinn introduced Sharon to Mark and Jessica and their dog Suzie, Sharon petted her all the while Suzie was wagging her tail, and then explained to Mark and Jessica that he had rescued Sharon and Stacy from a bad situation.
“Being a Vet my patients never talked to me, but I am a good listener if anyone needs that kind of help." Jessica said.

"Stacy and I are dealing, we have each other to talk to, but thanks for the offer." Sharon told her. "Besides Quinn is going to teach us how to shoot, so we'll be able to take out our anger on some targets."


"Where were you when I was teaching myself?" Mark asked Quinn.
"I was going to suggest you two come along and get some practice in too." Quinn told them.
"That sounds like an idea, where are you going?" Mark asked him.
"To the Jackson Hunt Club, on the south side of town." Quinn said. "They’ve got an indoor pistol range and I know they've got a big diesel generator that we can try to get up and running. I wasn't able to get to the solar place as rescuing the ladies came first, but I was thinking you and I could stop there first today and check it out; break in, fill the generator, get everything ready to and then head into the cities to check out the solar place" Quinn said.
"Yeah that sounds like a good plan." Make told him.


"I have an idea, Quinn said that trip would take most of the day with both the gun club and the solar place, why don't you two plan on staying for dinner and while you two men go do the grunt work us girls will stay here and talk, if that’s ok with everyone?" Sharon asked them.
Jessie looked over at Mark who shrugged his shoulders, "I'm fine with that if you are." He said to Jessie.
"Sure why not." Jessica said.
"Good, let's go in and you can meet Stacy." Sharon said.


A few minutes later introductions were made and Sharon told Stacy about the dinner plans.
"Ok, I saw hamburger patties and hot dogs in the freezer, is that stuff still good?" Stacy asked Quinn.
"Yeah, there's a grocery up near Mark and Jessie’s, that still has power due to the dam on the river, that I raided for a few things. That reminds me” he said turning towards Mark and Jessica “before I met the ladies I found a warehouse full of food, it was a grocery suppliers place, we’ll get a couple trucks sometime in the next week or so and load up.” Quinn told Mark and Jessica.
“That’s great.” Mark told him “Just let us know a day or two ahead of time and we’ll be ready.”


"Well, while you two are gone I’ll try to make some buns from scratch for the burgers and hot dogs, probably turn out like dinner rolls but I'll try, and we have beans and I can do some home fries." Stacy said. "Then you men folk can get the grill out and prove you'll make good cave men."


"Sounds good to me. With the hunt club stop, and the solar panel place we should be back around 5 or 6…..depending on traffic." Quinn added chuckling.
"That ok with you Mark?" Quinn asked.
"Sure, you driving?" Mark asked.
"Yeah, we can take my truck, I need to get some tools out of the shed, the Hunt Club is not Fort Knox but it's not a 7/11 either." Quinn told Mark.


20 minutes later the two men arrived at the hunt club, there was a shotgun range along both sides of the long driveway. Mark counted 12 shooting positions on each side, with different configurations. On some, the clays came from the front, on others they came from the sides. The building was straight ahead and had a large parking lot. Quinn drove slowly around the building, looking at the doors and windows. He spotted the generator in the back, it was in a fenced in area and the gate padlocked shut, there also was a door into the building from the fenced in area. Quinn had a bolt cutter and made quick work of the padlock, he had a five gallon can of diesel he had taken from the farm tank and after pouring it into the generators fuel tank and checking the oil level he hit the green manual start button, it caught right away.


"That looks like a 150 - 200 gallon fuel tank, so I don't know how long that five gallons will last." Quinn said going to his truck and grabbing the pry bar. With some pounding from his sledge hammer he was able to wedge it between the door and the door jam between the door handle and the dead bolt, he pulled on it but the pry bar didn't move. Mark came over and pushed on the pry bar on one side while Quinn pulled from the other.


"I thought you said this wouldn't be Fort Knox." Mark said.
"Maybe we'll try the front door instead." Quinn said extracting his pry bar. They drove around to the front door. The door itself was a typical glass shop door, however in front of it, on the outside were bars, again padlocked into place, both ends went into a very solid looking piece of steel hiding the hinges. The weak point was the padlock and the owners knew it, it had not one, but two high security closed shackle padlocks, evenly spaced on the side of the door. The bolt cutter wouldn't help in this case, Quinn had thought of this and had brought an angle grinder with him and had a small gas generator and extension cord in the back of the pickup. Even with the grinder it took him about 5 minutes to get through each lock. They were able to open the gate and then the pry bar made quick work of the door. Unfortunately for Quinn and Mark, 30 seconds after opening the door a very loud siren went off from outside the door, near the roof in the front of the building and a strobe light started flashing in one of the windows. A computerized voice repeated over and over “The-police-have-been-notified."


Quinn hollered over the sound of the siren "If I back the truck up to the building do you think you can reach that speaker and cut the wires, or smash it?"
"Yeah, let's try." Mark said jumping into the bed of the pickup. It was too far of a reach however. Mark hollered to Quinn "Pull up to it sideways and I'll get on top of the cab." Which Quinn did. A few seconds later the siren stopped. Back inside the building Quinn smashed the strobe light with the end of the pry bar. Still the computerized voice kept repeating "The-police-have-been-notified." over and over, Quinn spotted the control panel where the voice was coming from and said "Let me know how that works for you." and then smashed the panel with the pry bar.

Mark was laughing "I can just picture a little robot inside the security system saying ‘I-wonder-why-the-police-never-answered.’” He said talking in a mechanical tone.


There were a bank of light switches on the wall near the front door, Quinn turned them on and the showroom lit up. There were a number display cases with heavy glass, all locked, all with alarm wires going to them that held a variety of different handguns, Mark estimated at least 70 pistols and revolvers, maybe more. On the walls were a like number of various rifles and shotguns locked into place.


"Be nice if we could find some keys." Mark said.
"I've got an idea about that." Quinn replied, turning to go through a door into the back. There was a heavy door, not locked this time. On it was a sign that said: 'Range - Please make sure one door is closed before opening the next. Hearing and Eye Protection Required beyond this point'. Inside the first door was a hallway with two other doors, one leading into the range and the other to what the door proclaimed as the 'Range Office'. The office had thick windows and it appeared to be a place where they could both watch the range and also work on guns. Quinn still carrying the pry bar and a sledge hammer, had the Range Office door open fairly quickly, looking around Quinn spotted what he had hoped to find, a key box on the wall, Quinn easily pried it open. Inside were 6 identical key rings, presumably for the sales staff, at least Quinn hoped so. He grabbed one ring and tossed it to Mark, there were also a number of other keys that were unfortunately not labeled, he spotted a heavy door in the back of the Range office, it was double locked with two dead bolts. Quinn pulled out likely looking keys and went to it. It took him a few tries but he finally found the keys that would open it. Inside were cases and cases of ammo, different sizes, different grain levels, different types for different guns. On the right near the front was a desk and a safe, the rest of the approximately 30 foot long room was literally filled with ammo on shelves on both sides of the room.


"Wow!" Mark said from the doorway.
"Yeah, wow is right." Quinn said. "Nowhere near as much as the last Army base I was at, but it'll should be plenty for us."
Mark went to the door into the range, Quinn followed him. It was a basic range: two pistol area's each with 6 lanes and one rifle area also with 6 lanes, it was a bit warm and stuffy but with the generator now running the air conditioner was quickly cooling it off.


Back out in the showroom Mark tried the keys and they were indeed for the cases, under the main counter was more ammo, stacked by size and also a large number of paper targets.


"You don't happen to have a padlock with you that we could lock the gate with?" Mark asked Quinn.
"Actually I can take the one from the toolbox in the pickup, we're also going to have to bring out a couple hundred gallons of Diesel and I think I know where I can get that." The two men walked out to the truck, Quinn grabbed the pad lock off of the toolbox and locked the bars in place over the front door. Pulling out of the hunt clubs driveway Quinn turned the opposite direction of what they came. The two men talked as they drove.


"So, two women? how's that working out for you? Mark questioned.
"Not like that smile on your face thinks, they went through a traumatic time." Quinn replied then explained exactly what happened and followed up with. "I'm strictly hands off for now, they’ve had enough of macho assholes."


"Yeah, of course, I understand, they were being held as sex slaves….wow!" Mark said.
"How are you and Jessie doing?" Quinn asked.
"Great, she thinks she may be pregnant in fact, we picked up a home pregnancy tester on the way over here today and she said she'll check tonight." Mark replied.
"Congratulations!" Quinn said.
"Yeah, I'm glad there are a couple more women available to help with the birthing, I wasn't looking forward to just the two of us." Mark told him.


"Billions of people were born before doctors and hospitals came along, everything will be fine." Quinn replied.
"I hope so. What the heck is that?" Mark asked as they were going by a large wrought iron fence about 8 feet tall, a long driveway with massive gates led back though a massive grassy area now over grown, you could see a large home through a stand of tree's about 2000 feet back from the road.


"Some real estate developer from Chicago wanted a summer home. From what Grandpa said it’s over 2500 acres with its own private lake and an airfield, all fenced in with that wrought iron fence. The fence alone was rumored to cost over a half million dollars, not sure if that’s true or not but that was the rumor when the guy was building the place. The area was all abuzz about 4 or 5 years ago when it was being built. The local paper did a story that Grandma sent me a clipping of. Eight bedrooms and twelve bathrooms or something like that. Supposedly the house itself cost over $10 million to build, that’s not including the cost of the land or other buildings." Quinn replied.


"I'd sure like to see that, I know Jessie would too, probably your women too, we should check it out tomorrow."
"Let's see what time we're done filling the generator at the hunt club and then if there's time come back and check it out. I'd kind of like to make sure there are no dead bodies in the house before we start giving tours." Quinn said.
"Good idea" Mark agreed.

It only took them about 40 minutes to locate the needed diesel fuel, get it over to the hunt club and fill the tank.
"That was quicker than I thought it would be.” Quinn said looking at his watch, we could spare about an hour or so of exploring time at the mansion and still have plenty of time to head to the solar place in St Paul before the ladies start wondering where we are, you still want to check out the mansion?" Quinn asked Mark.
"Yeah I would." Mark replied.


They drove up to the massive gate of the mansion. It was designed to be opened by a keypad sitting on a pole at the edge of the drive via an electrical motor, Quinn was able to reach through the fence and disconnect the chain – definitely a security flaw to Quinn's way of thinking. After disconnecting the chain Quinn was able to push open the gate. There was a large grassy area about a half mile long which then gave way to a copse of tree's hiding and shading the house. There was a porte-cochere over the driveway leading to the front door, a large double door. Mark and Quinn got out, Quinn went to the back of the truck to get the pry bar, Mark walked up to the double doors and knocked, Quinn gave him a funny look. "Just in case." Mark said.


Quinn laughed and said “You might as well ring the doorbell.” He said jokingly pushing the button on the side of the door, from inside they heard the chimes of the doorbell going off. The two men looked at each other in disbelief.

[idahobob]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm........

Anybody home?

Bob
III

[mnn2300]

Chapter 14


“Its probably a battery system or something.” Quinn said.
“Maybe we should give it a minute before breaking in.” Mark said, he hit the doorbell one more time and again they heard the chimes going off inside again.
They waited 2-3 minutes before Quinn put the pry bar between the two double doors and pried the right side open. Walking into the entry, the floor looked to be marble, there was a huge chandelier centered in the entry, two large curving stairways led to the second floor while a hallway between the two led back into the lower floor. Quinn shook his head, it was like it was right out of a movie.


“Hello, Hello!” Mark said.
“There’s no one here. That was just a battery backup or something.” Quinn said. Mark reached out and turned on the light switches next to the door, the large chandelier lit up. “Must be one heck of a battery backup.”


“Damn, this place has electricity.” Quinn said, heading back through the hallway between the stairs, they spent 20 minutes doing a quick exploration of the house and grounds. It did have 8 very large bedrooms, suites actually, each with their own en-suite bathrooms. Besides the 8 bathrooms for the bedrooms, there were also 5 half baths including two in the dressing area near the indoor pool, an office, a gourmet kitchen with restaurant quality appliances, a large pantry storeroom that was quite empty for its size, but it did have a restaurant sized reach-in refrigerator and freezer, a formal dining area with seating for 12 and china cabinets full of what the two men figured was high quality crystal and silver. There was a formal living room and also a more comfortable family room. At the rear was a very large atrium running the length of the building with an indoor pool and spa with; exercise equipment, high end patio furniture, a number of potted plants that needed water very badly, the pool pump was running although the water level was about 6 or 8 inches low. There were changing rooms at one end, opening the drawers near the sinks there were a number of brand new swimming suits still in their packages as well as a few that had been used hanging on hooks in the dressing area. The atrium also held a Pool table, Ping pong and foosball table, and a fully stocked bar. Mark and Quinn were astonished at the entire place. Looking out the atrium, they saw two large buildings and the runway for the owners plane, they also spotted the reason for the place having electricity, at the far end of the property at least a mile or perhaps a bit further back, parallel to the runway but on the other side of a small lake were three full sized windmills.


“Holy sh…! This is quite the set up.” Mark said. “You said the guy that owned this place was a Real Estate big shot in Chicago?”
“That’s what the article I read said, from the looks of this place he must have owned half of downtown Chicago.” Quinn replied.
“You know what I’m wondering?” Mark asked Quinn.
“What?” Quinn asked.
“If this is what his summer home looks like, what is his regular home in Chicago like?” Mark replied.
Quinn just shook his head.


The two men walked out the back to check out the two buildings. Near the runway was a large metal building that Quinn assumed was a hanger. Near the small lake on the far side of the runway was a wooden building, both had large doors, but the metal building had exceptionally wide doors. On the far side of the lake the two men saw 3 horses grazing, looking back at the house they saw solar panels covering the large roof, this was the south side of the house. Opening the door to the metal building the inside was virtually empty with a polished concrete floor, a large number of florescent lights, and room enough for a plane or maybe two. There was also a small workshop area with a number of tool chests, a desk with a computer and phone on it and a small room that turned out to be a small lounge area with two more restrooms. There were also 2 ATV’s. “I guess when you're this rich you didn’t have to walk from the hanger to the house.” Mark said


The other building was a wooden structure, opening the door they immediately knew something had died inside. It appeared this had been a horse barn, at one end was a small apartment, on opening the door Mark heard the now familiar sound of a large number of flies indicating the presence of a body or body, the room also had the odor of death that was very common these days. They found the body of a man in an advance state of decay – it being more than 2 months now since E2 had spread like wildfire across the continent, probably the caretaker, luckily he had apparently turned the horses loose before dying or they no doubt would have had a bigger mess.


“Let’s find a tarp or blanket or something and we can put him in the back of the pickup and drop him off at the cemetery outside of Milltown on our way down to the cities. Like the cemetery up by your place they had opened a large trench for burying the dead during the height of the plague. Part of the trench was still open, I’ve dropped off a few bodies there myself in the past couple weeks.” Quinn replied.


With the advanced state of his decomposition it was a bit disgusting but they got him wrapped in a blanket, Quinn pulled the pick-up around and they placed the body in the back. The two men saw that there were also solar panels on the south side of both buildings on the roofs. Walking back to the house they saw a commercial sized LP Gas tank, inside a bricked in area with a berm on the house side.

“We should get going but when we bring the ladies back tomorrow I really want to check this place out.” Quinn said.
“You thinking about moving in?” Mark asked.
“I could sure think of worse places to be living, it’s all fenced, has its own power source, its own lake, we could put gardens and animals on the land. As much as I like my grandparents’ house if I spent 50 years working on it, it still wouldn’t have the advantages this place already has. And as nice as that earth sheltered house you have is, this still tops it. There’s plenty of room for everybody.” Quinn told him.
“Yeah, it’s an idea, let’s see what the ladies say tomorrow. But even if we do all move to the mansion I would like to keep our earth sheltered home as a backup location and it still needs more solar panels” Mark said, looking at his watch he said “We’d better get going.”


Quinn and Mark pulled out and headed towards the interstate, a couple miles before they got to it there was a Cemetery just off the highway, Quinn pulled in and they disposed of the body. Back on the highway they headed south when they got to the interstate.

"I think this is it, Griggs Energy Inc." Quinn said.
"I thought it was a store?" Mark questioned
"They did internet sales and shipped into electronics stores." Quinn replied.
"How'd you hear about this place?" Mark asked.
"Three years ago Grandpa was thinking about adding solar as a backup for when the power went out, to run the well pump and fridge mainly until the power would come back on. I was helping him research it and I saw the address, I remember Grandpa commenting that it was in this industrial park that was near where one of his buddies from his old Army days lived, we had visited him a number of times when I was growing up and we had passed by the industrial park, to get there. So that’s the boring story of how I knew about this place." Quinn replied.


"Well it looks like they used their own product." Mark said pointing at the roof which was covered in solar panels all pointing towards the afternoon sun.
"Yeah, that’s the kind of system that tracks the sun, that’s what I was thinking about for your place if they have what we need to make it, by tracking the sun it’s much more efficient."
"So are we picking up for both your grandparents home and our place or are you serious about the mansion?" Mark asked.
"I'm pretty serious about the mansion, for all of us, not just the two ladies and myself but you and Jessie too." Quinn said.


"Yeah it sounds like a good idea, but I'll have to talk it over with Jessie first. In the short time I was married I learned very quickly not to make major decisions without talking it over first." Mark told him.

"I didn't even know you were married, was it E2?" Quinn asked.
"No, she died in a car accident about a year and a half before E2 hit. Jessie's husband was killed in the gulf war. We met shortly before E2 hit and then afterwards I had just gotten over E2 when I found her still in the middle of having E2. I brought her out to my place and we've been together ever since." Mark told him.


"I'm sorry you both lost your spouses. To answer your original question, let's just worry about adding the extra capacity you need for your place for now, we can always make more trips if necessary." Quinn replied.


Quinn was able to break a small window next to the door and reach in and unlock the deadbolt rather than prying the door open. The front area had a display area and offices, Quinn and Mark looked through the brochures and found out what the latest and greatest in solar energy was, there were also instructional booklets and videos. They moved into the back of the building into a warehouse and manufacturing area. It took them a while to find the complete setup they wanted from what they had read in the brochures. The brochures led them to the Griggs model 420 - 8 foot solar panels which if you could believe the sales information were the latest and greatest in solar technology. Also they wanted the matching solar tracking racks. Looking through the warehouse they found the components Mark looked at the various boxes and said "Some assembly required."

"Not to worry, I'll help you get them set up, now how's your battery capacity?" Quinn said.
"I was hoping to pick up some more." Mark replied.
"I saw those over in the front corner when we came into the warehouse area." Quinn told him.
After looking over the batteries and making their selection Quinn said "Just one problem."
What's that?" Mark asked.
"There's no way that’s all going to fit in the back of the pickup." Quinn said.
"Well if we load the batteries first then put the tracking assemblies on top of them, then we'd just have to come back for the panels themselves. It's going to take us a week or longer to get the tracking assemblies installed properly on a concrete base anyway, so we could come back when we have those ready to go and pick up the solar panels." Mark replied.


Driving back out of the industrial park as they were passing a small strip mall type shopping center with a grocery store Mark yelled “Over there!”
Quinn saw it at about the same time, someone was on the roof of a car surrounded by pack of 7 or 8 large barking dogs. Quinn quickly pulled into the lot, the person looked like it might be a small woman or maybe a teen, they were wearing long pants and a hoodie so it was kind of hard to tell. He or she was kicking at the dogs who were jumping up trying to get to him or her. One of the dogs made it to the hood of the car and was trying to get at the person on the roof of the vehicle.

[kaijafon]

oh crap! dogs gone wrong!!!

thanks for the update, I really enjoy this story.

[philipinoregon]

I have to say, I was hesitant, to even open up page One, because I did not know what where why who, of the first Three books!

Thank you so much, for those links!!!!

As I often lose internet connect, here in my rural area of Oregon, in the Great PacificNorthWET, I will down load those, for my Fall & Winter reading... Power goes off here, as well... So I run my house on 12VDC, for lights and charging this iPad!!!!

Sincerely,

Philip,
Ask me about the Sixteen names for Rain in Oregon... today was a moderately heavy downfall, just shy of Five Gallon Bucket sized rain Drops...

[mnn2300]

Chapter 15

Posted twice for some reason - see below

[mnn2300]

Chapter 15


Quinn and Mark both grabbed their pistols and started firing. One of them took out the dog on the hood of the car and then aimed at the barking pack. After killing 2 more of the dogs the rest of the pack took off. Both men were getting out of the truck when the person took off running away from them.
“Hey wait!” Quinn yelled “We won’t hurt you!”
“Are you ok?” Mark yelled, the person made it around the side of the building and was out of sight.
“You’re welcome!” Quinn yelled, shaking his head.
“Should we try to follow them?” Mark asked.
“Pretty apparent they want nothing to do with us. Was that a boy or a girl?” Quinn asked.
“I’m not 100% sure but I think it was a girl, maybe mid-teens.” Mark answered.
Mark picked up a sack that was on the ground near the car the person had jumped up on to get away from the dogs. Inside were two packages of disposable diapers and 4 containers of Baby formula. “Whoever it was, is taking care of a baby.”
“Shit, lets drive around see if we can find them. Bring the bag.” Quinn said.
The two men drove around for about 20 minutes but saw no sign of her….or him.
Quinn drove back to the grocery parking lot, grabbed a cart and put it near the car the person had been on top of and put the bag in it so if the person was looking for it they would find it easily. He opened the glove compartment on the truck and grabbed out a small notebook and a pencil and wrote a note which he placed inside the bag, it read: “We’re not out to hurt you but can help, we have 3 women and 2 men surviving on a farm north east of here. We’ll be back at noon the third day after we saw you if you would like help.”


“Well, let’s head home, we’ve done our good deed for the day.” Quinn said.
“You know what they say about good deeds?” Mark asked
Yeah, no good deed goes unpunished.” Quinn replied.
Driving out to Marks home, unloading the truck and getting back to Quinn's place took another two hours, it was after 6 before they pulled into Quinn’s driveway.


Back at the house, they told everyone what had happened in the parking lot. “We have to do something.” Sharon said.
“That’s why I left the note and we’ll go back then, we’ll see if the person is there or the sack is gone.” Quinn said.
“But why 3 days?” Jessica asked.
“I want to give them time to come back and find the bag and the note and we have plans for tomorrow and if the person is not there I plan on finding and leaving a couple cases of diapers and formula.”


They got the grill out and grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs. The buns Stacy had baked for the burgers and hot dogs turned out really well, even if a few of them were somewhat misshapen, she had fried up a big batch of potatoes and heated a couple cans of baked beans. Sharon and Jessica had made a fresh salad from the garden.

Suzie was lying next to the picnic table where they were eating, and getting fed pieces of hamburger and hot dogs every so often.
Stacy had taken a twelve pack of beer from the root cellar and placed it in the fridge at some point, Jessica and Sharon stuck with some lemonade they had made earlier. Stacy and the two men enjoyed the cold beer. The men had decided not to say anything about the mansion until they were finished at the Hunt Club the next day.

The sun was going down when the conversation finally slowed down. Quinn invited Mark and Jessica to sleep over rather than make the drive home and then back again in the morning and they did so.


The next morning after a nice breakfast Quinn and Sharon got into his pickup truck and everyone else including Suzie got into Mark and Jessie's SUV and drove over to the Hunt Club. He drove around the back and started the generator and then pulled up near the door in front and unlocked the padlock he had put on the door the previous day and they all went in. The hunt club had a class room set up for Concealed Carry and other classes and Quinn took everyone in there and gave them an introduction to handguns. He taught them how to make sure they were not loaded, how to hold them properly, especially how to hold a semi-automatic to avoid getting their skin pinched/broken. He taught them what Semi-Automatic meant as he found that most people had mistaken idea’s about it.
He gave them the usual safety advice: don’t point at something you don’t want to kill or destroy, never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot, and if you do nothing then nothing will happen. He showed them the differences between revolvers and pistols and discussed and showed them the difference in the usual sizes of both guns and bullets. He also told them the difference between full metal jacket and hollow point and what each was used for and why. He then led them out to the display cases and picked out 3 different handguns of each of the common sizes: .22, .38/.357, .9mm, .44. After making a big deal out of insuring they were not loaded he placed them into carrying cases that the club had for that purpose. He handed them to people to carry while he grabbed 3 boxes of each type of ammo and a bunch of paper targets. He then told them to grab ear and eye protection from a box on the counter and then led them back to the range, Suzie was left in the classroom where she found a corner and curled up awaiting their return. He then took them back to the first pistol range and put targets on all 6 of the lanes and moved the targets out to 5 yards.

He looked through the guns and chose the .22’s first. He then demonstrated each one to each individual in turn. He showed them how to load the magazine/revolver, pointed out the safety if the gun had one and then fired a 2 shots to show them and let them hear it and then cleared the handgun, making that person check the gun and then load the magazine and put it in place in the gun, he stayed with each one while they fired making sure of their stance, how they held the gun, and how they hit the target. They did this for all 3 of the .22’s and then he had them rate which one they liked best. He then did this for the rest of the handguns. With 4 people each trying 12 guns this process took about 90 minutes for everyone to have test fired all the guns.


Once they narrowed down their choices, Quinn handed them all the ammo that fit their choice and gave them all fresh targets and gave them 20 minutes to practice while he stood back and watched, ready to give suggestions. They all carried their preferred guns back to the classroom while he put the rest of the guns in the range office – rather than back in the cases, as he could use those to teach about cleaning guns another day. He handed each of them a fresh box of bullets and a holster and told them they should be carrying at the very least any time they were away from home. He also told them that they would come back the next day for some more practice and lessons in how to clean their gun.

It was just after noon, that morning he had asked the ladies to pack a picnic lunch and they now went out to an area at the club that had picnic tables and ate lunch. When they were finished with their meal and then cleaned up after it, Quinn told them that he and Mark had a surprise for them. They all loaded into the vehicles and drove over to the mansion, Quinn got out and opened the gate again and they drove up to the house. The ladies were in awe of the front of the mansion as they pulled up and went nuts over the inside and the fact that it had power. There was a basement that was much smaller than the mansion itself, in checking Quinn found that it held all the utilities including the solar converter and batteries. Quinn had once been given a tour of a submarine he was on, these batteries looked like those had. Quinn said he wanted to walk the fence line or rather use the ATV’s they had found the previous day and that he and Mark would be back in 20 minutes or so.


Mark and Quinn headed out to the hanger where they had spotted the ATV’s the day before. The keys were in them and after checking the gas, they started them up and pulled out. They headed down the runway to the east side of the property first then headed south towards the back of the property. They spotted the three horses they had seen the previous day grazing near the back fence line, they trotted off when the ATV’s got too close to them. Both men had stopped to watch the horses when Quinn turned towards the fence and said “Look at that.”

On the far side of the fence was a road with another fenced in field and in the field were Buffalo, or to be precise American Bison.
“I didn’t know anyone raised Buffalo near here.” Quinn said.
“Actually there was an article in the paper this spring about that. Someone was trying to get a herd going, wanted to become a meat supplier.” Mark said.
“Yeah, I hear it’s supposed to be better for you than beef, less fat or something.” Quinn said.
“Maybe we’ll have to have a buffalo hunt sometime.” Mark said.
“Not much of a hunt if they’re just grazing in a field.” Quinn said.


The men finished their inspection of the property, other than the grassy areas being overgrown, the property was in good shape, it would not take too much to put in an orchard and gardens and with the high fence surrounding the property that would keep out deer and other animals looking for a quick and easy snack.
As they walked back into the house they found that the ladies had found the swimsuits in the changing rooms and all were in either the hot tub or the pool. Even the dog, Suzie was in the pool with Stacy and Jessica, Sharon was in the hot tub. Quinn again noticed how good the women looked as he had seen when he rescued them; he quickly looked away so they wouldn’t think he was like the guys that had captured them.

“Looks like everyone is enjoying themselves, let’s see if the rich guy stocked suits in our size.” Quinn said.
Forty five minutes later they were all sitting in the lounge chairs in the pool area and Quinn asked.
“So what would you all think about changing residences?”
“I assume you mean to move here?” Stacy asked. Quinn nodded in agreement.
“Sure would make things easier.” Stacy said.
“Well yes and no, we would have the advantages that electricity brings and a huge fenced in area, but we’d still have to raise our own food with everything that entails so it wouldn’t all be lounging by the pool all day drinking mojitos.” Quinn said.


“Gee we’ve worked so hard on Marks place: gotten the raised beds in, planted the fruit trees.” Jessica said.
“And that would make a great Bug Out place in case we ever needed one. We're still going to upgrade its solar and maybe put up some fences to keep the animals away from the garden areas, but I think we’d be better off here.” Quinn said.
“We’d need to add fruit trees and gardens here, and bring some animals in: cows, chickens, pigs, we would have our work cut out for us here too.” Mark said.
“I think for Mark and myself we need to talk it over but on the surface it sounds ok.” Jessica said.
“Sharon?” Quinn asked.
“Anywhere we can be safe, if that’s here then great.” Sharon replied, Stacy nodded her head in agreement.

“OK, next on the agenda: I promised to take the ladies shopping and was planning on going into Milltown, that really takes priority as all they have are a couple outfits each that Sharon grabbed at a Fleet Farm. I was in Milltown the other day and there are three garden centers; one independent plus a Home Depot and a Menards there that have garden centers, there were a lot of tree’s available, along with seeds, also between them a lot more bricks like you built your raised beds with. If Mark and Jessie aren’t in a hurry to get back to their place, I think we can all do some shopping. We’ll guard the ladies while they shop and then Mark and I can pick up a truck from the U-Haul dealer and fill it with fruit trees and bring them back to the mansion.” Quinn said.
“It’s ok with us if it’s ok with everyone else, I could use some new clothes.” Jessie replied.
“Sounds good to me.” Mark replied.
A short time later, now dressed and armed, they were back in the two vehicles and pulling into the Milltown Mall parking lot. Quinn asked Sharon if she has a preference in where to start.
“Pull up to Macy’s and we’ll go from there.” She told him.


For an hour that ladies picked out whatever they wanted from Macys and other stores with Mark and Quinn loading bags, every so often they would take the filled bags out to one of the vehicles then the ladies decided they needed to hit a few different stores. At one of the stores they were able to get shopping carts which each of them did. The men were starting to get very bored despite the fact that they each half filled a cart themselves; mainly with work clothes, shortly after that the women declared they were done.


Afterwards they drove to the U-Haul rental place and got a large truck and hit all three garden centers, loading every fruit and nut tree they found along with about a hundred and fifty various berry bushes and a large number of grapes. They also grabbed the seed display cases from all 3 stores along with seed starter soil and all of the small plastic seed starter greenhouses they found. They ended up having to get a second truck and would end up having quite the orchard when the tree’s started producing. They drove back to the mansion and unloaded the trees and bushes into the front area, which was mostly one huge overgrown lawn currently, found a hose and watered all of them. They left both U-Haul trucks at the mansion and got back into Quinn’s pickup and Mark and Jessica’s SUV and headed back to Quinn’s place where Mark and Jessie along with their dog Suzie took their leave after they made plans for three days later to raid the grocery warehouse and headed back to their home near Avery on Half Moon Lake.


“I’ll start dinner.” Stacy said.
“How much time do I have?” Quinn asked.
“I was planning on Baked Chicken and veggies tonight so a bit over an hour.”
“OK, I was going to take the tractor over to the mansion and mow the front to get ready to plant those trees and bushes. An hour is about enough time to get it there and ready to go.” Quinn said.
“Do you want some company?” Sharon asked him.
“Sure, it’s about 7 or 8 miles, I’ll drive the tractor and you can follow in the pick-up, ok?” Quinn said, Sharon nodded her head in agreement.


Quinn threw a few jerry cans of gas in the back of the pickup for the tractor and hooked up the mowing attachment and after handing Sharon the keys to the pickup took off down the road on the tractor. Quinn parked it by the two trucks while Sharon waited in the pick-up, she slid over as Quinn got into the driver’s seat.
Back at the house after dinner, Quinn asked them if they would be ready to move to the mansion in the morning.
“It’s not like we have a whole lot of stuff.” Stacy said. “You probably have a lot more to move than we do.”
“No, actually I just got here a couple weeks before you did. There will be a lot of equipment I will want to get over there eventually but that can be done a bit at a time on an as needed basis. But I can throw a few things into a duffle bag and be ready.” Quinn said.

“What about the cow and the chickens?” Stacy asked.
“Yeah, I’ll have to get a trailer for the cow and some cages to put the chickens in to move them. The horse barn will be fine for the cow and we can make a chicken coop just off of it. That may take a few days though; we’ll bring ol bossie tomorrow and get her settled in and then work on coop.

“I was thinking we should probably pick up an SUV so we can all ride together and have some room for extra’s, at least when we go back to drop off the diaper and stuff. So maybe tomorrow at some point one or both of you can run into Miltown again and we’ll pick out one of the larger SUV’s, and if either or both of you want to pick up a car or truck we can get that too.” Quinn told the two women. “Sound OK?”

“OK so tomorrow after chores, we pack up and move to the mansion, you’re going to mow the….hmm somehow ‘front yard’ doesn’t do that place justice. Then we’ll pick up a new SUV, what else? Sharon asked.
“Let’s see, we’ll need to figure out where the cow and chickens are going to and build whatever is necessary for them and then bring them over, maybe round up a few more, get the fruit tree’s planted, figure out where a garden is going-I really like Mark and Jessies idea of raised beds, so we’ll need to bring in a few thousand bricks and then a bunch of dirt. I think we can use the atrium on the south side as a greenhouse and grow veggies year round there. We still need to raid the food warehouse, lets see what else…….?” Quinn said.

“Ok, so that pretty much takes care of the morning….” Sharon said laughing.
“Well if we have any spare time we can always take a nap.” Quinn replied.
The following day after breakfast and morning chores, Quinn, Sharon and Stacy moved to the mansion. Quinn got the front acreage mowed and then laid out the grid for the fruit trees and used the auger on the tractors power take off to start drilling holes to plant the trees in, he would get the holes ready today and then plant the tree’s over the next few days. While Quinn was doing this Sharon and Stacy planted all of the berry bushes along the fence line.


They broke for lunch and then went back to work until about 3PM. The ladies had finished all the berry plants they had. Quinn had finished the holes for the tree’s and then went to figure out the livestock situation.
He decided the horse barn and coral would be fine for the one milk cow they had. Quinn also decided that a horse stall with the addition of chicken wire inside would work for the chicken’s, he would also build an adjacent caged in area outside the door to the horse stall so the chickens would have both an inside and outside area. They would also be able to close off each side from the other.


They got cleaned up and headed into Miltown to pick up a new vehicle, there was a GMC dealer on the frontage road to the highway and Quinn pulled in. The dealership and the vehicles were locked, Quinn grabbed his pry bar and opened the dealership door they started looking for keys. It took them about 20 minutes but in the manager’s office was a metal file cabinet type thing but the drawers were only about 10 inches high and it was hooked into a computer on top. The drawers were locked but Quinn pried one open and inside were keys hooked up to some kind of presumably electronic tag sitting in slots. Apparently the computer would read the electronic tags and you’d be able to pick out the correct key. Since the power wasn’t on, they had no way of telling what was what since there was nothing written on the electronic tags. Quinn grabbed all the keys and put them into a basket that was sitting on a bookcase and carried them out to the row that had the GMC Yukons, there were 6 of them in various colors sitting in a row.
“Any particular color?” Quinn asked the two ladies.
“Doesn’t matter, I kind of like the silver one.” Stacy said.
“Silver it is.” Quinn said and started trying the keys, he went through about 50 of them before finding the correct ones.
Sharon had wandered over to the pickups two rows over and hollered “How about a new truck?”
“Sure” Quinn said, bringing the leftover keys to her. About 30 keys later they found the correct keys for the pickup. They drove all 3 vehicles to the nearest gas station and Quinn pulled his siphon hose out and filled all three vehicles. Quinn told the ladies he was going back to the farm and do the chores and would meet them back at the mansion in about an hour.


The next day Sharon and Stacy were both very sore from having planted well over 100 berry plants the previous day, neither had had jobs that were terribly physical so the digging and bending caught up with them. Quinn told them both to take the day off and spend some time in the hot tub, he even made breakfast for all of them after he completed the chores back at his grandparents farm. He decided he would get the horse barn ready for its new occupants. He figured he would need to build a frame for one stall with a door to get into and also to cut a small hole in the outer wall and build a framework for the outside portion and then cover it all with chicken wire. He made a list of items he needed and headed into the lumber yard in Jackson to pick them up. Back at the mansion he started working on the coop, he decided to put a door in the outside area also so he could let the birds free range during the day if he wanted to. He had the inside finished and the frame up for the outside with he saw Sharon coming out. Apparently they had taken his suggestion and used the hot tub as she was dressed in a bikini top and shorts and the shorts were somewhat wet, like she had pulled them on over the bikini bottom. Damn she is a good looking woman he thought to himself, then remembering the situation she and Stacy were in when he found them he suppressed the thoughts he was having. No way was he going to remind them of the two guys that had held them captive.

“How are you doing?” Sharon asked.
“The inside is all done and all I have to do is put the chicken wire out here and we’ll be ready.” He told her being careful to look her in the eyes rather than take in her body as they were speaking as he would have preferred.
“Can I see?” she asked.
“Sure” he said heading for the door, he held it open for her. She ever so slightly brushed against him as he opened the door for her. Was it on purpose? he wondered or was he imagining it, the touch was so slight, still…..no he was not going to take advantage of these two, it hadn’t even been two weeks now since he rescued them, eventually he would see what developed, but not yet.
“That looks really good.” she said.
“Yeah, I’ll have to build some roosts for them, but I should have it ready tonight.” He told her.
“Great, oh the reason I came out, Stacy will have lunch ready in about 10 minutes.” She told him.
“OK, I’ll put my tools away and be in in a few minutes.” He told her.
“OK” she said, giving him a big smile before turning and walking out the door. He followed her out the door and watched her walk back to the house while he was picking up his tools. Damn! He thought to himself.


In the morning after chores he and the ladies drove the new pickup down into Milltown, this was the day they would be going down to where Mark and he had seen the teen at the shopping center. Quinn was going to pick up more diapers and baby formula and if the person did not show up he would leave them in the same place they had left the bag containing the diapers and formula. He had written on the note that they would be there about noon. They went into a Drug Store that had not been looted too much and while Quinn got the diapers and formula, the two ladies picked up more things they needed at the house. Quinn filled a cart with the items including a stuffed bear he spotted in the same aisle as the diapers. He rolled the whole cart out to the truck and lifted it into the back of the pickup, making sure the items would not blow out while they were driving. Sharon and Stacy carried out four large bags and placed them in the back seat of the crew cab pickup they left for their possible rendezvous.


They arrived at the shopping center parking lot about 10 minutes before noon, Quinn saw that the dropped bag had been taken and the dead dogs he and Mark had shot had been reduced to mainly fur and bones, probably by the local rat population. Quinn parked in the corner of the lot away from the remains. Ten minutes went by with no sign of the person, then twenty, then thirty, Quinn unloaded the cart of diapers and formula and put it on the ground, he looked around again and then took out a pen and paper and wrote “I hope this helps you, the offer is still open to join up with us. We’ll check back one more time 4 days from today at noon – one week after we first saw you. After that if you’re not here that day we’ll leave you alone.” He signed it “Quinn, Sharon and Stacy” and placed it where it wouldn’t blow away in the cart.
“Well, you tried, that counts for something.” Stacy said.
“Yeah, I really hate to think of a kid out here alone taking care of a baby, we’ll try again in four days, after that……..” Quinn trailed off.
“Home?” Stacy asked.
“No, I want to get some stuff from the Solar place that we didn’t have room for the other day if you don’t mind.”

An hour later, fully loaded with the solar panels for Marks place they drove by the same shopping center parking lot, the cart was gone.

[crf78112]

Glad to see the new posting. Really good story.

[notchman]

I'm really loving this story but you posted Chapter 15 twice.