Sharecropping The Apocalypse: A Prepper is Cast Adrift (40 page)

“Julie do you want something to eat? You got a choice of MRE`s or some of that Wild Mushroom Risotto you like so much we got from survivalbased.com (10% off foodstuffs coupon code Prepper1). David asked looking around for a suitable spot to set up his Silverfire Scout stove. (Coupon code Prepper1 for a few bucks off and free shipping)

David had his big Silverfire Hunter model rocket stove with him for cooking the big meals but the small lightweight scout couldn’t be beat for a quick dish or heating water to reconstitute dehydrated or freeze dried food.

Just gather up a few thumb size sticks. Throw in a cotton ball dunked in a bit of Vaseline and that’s pretty much it to make a fuel efficient basically smokeless fire.

“I am not all that hungry at the moment but I could eat if you want to now or we can keep waiting for a bit longer. I hate just sitting here; I am up for going scouting for that river road we were talking about. There has to be some access to a boat launch or a landing around here somewhere close.” Julie said standing up and stretching after sitting in one place so long.

I agree, hey hang on a minute I think I hear something.” David said looking towards the long driveway into the plantation and listening intently.

“Sounds like a tractor or something heading our way.” Julie said looking off in the distance and then pointing off in the distance as a dust cloud appeared and pickup truck leading a tractor began to appear in the distance.

“Well lookie here, the cavalry has finally arrived! Glad we sat here and waited so long.” David said as he and Julie walked towards the driveway waving a hand in greeting.

“Somebody’s parked over there at my house Clem. That must be that feller David that Crick said was coming. “Bertha said pointing towards the two waving figures.

“I reckon it is; now we get to finally meet that feller.” Clem said honking his horn and waving his arm out the window at the couple.

“What in the hell kind of tractor is that?” David said as the odd paddle wheeled tractor came into view and began honking its own horn.

“I bet it’s some kind of Crick contraption he built specific for the rescue but I never seen one like it before. Do you think it is steam powered?” Julie said trying to get a better look at it by walking off to the side a little and thinking it resembled a old paddle wheel boat on the Mississippi river.

“No its gas or diesel powered. I think that’s what they used to call a swamp tractor or a rice field tractor. I have seen something similar to it working in a rice paddy in Louisiana one time. Some folks use them on farms and other people use something similar to go after Cyprus logs in the bayous.” David said as he got a better look at it as it got closer.

“Hot damn there is Loomis; I recognize that cowboy hat of his. Hey Loomis!” Julie called looking at the packed cab of the truck as it turned into the driveway. Loomis was squished up against the passenger side, Bertha was in the middle and poor skinny Clem looked like he would ooze out the driver side window with all that weight leaning against him.

The vehicles pulled in the driveway and parked and everybody bailed out all at once in happy meet and greet,

“Hot damn David you made it! Hey Julie girl, it is great to see you!” Crick said getting ahead of the pack to shake hands with David and hug Julie.

“Mr. Loomis I presume?’” David said with a laugh doing a Stanley Livingston in Africa interpretation as he greeted the familiar horseman.

“Look who we got with us Loomis said indicating ---Beauregard and Ben who beamed smiles and said their greetings ecstatically that the prepper clan was shaping up well for the rescue.

“This here is Clem, Bertha and Rossy Ross.´ Crick said introducing the plantations caretakers.

After a brief conversation about how was David and Julie’s trip down here and that Cricks house was still standing last time they saw it, Bertha finally invited everyone to move inside her home to get out of the noon day sun.

“Hey Crick does anyone else live here? Me and Julie saw someone running out of the chicken coop a few hours ago.” David said as he followed Bertha and Clem into the house.

A puzzled look came over Crick as he looked toward an equally puzzled Clem and Bertha frowned.

“You think your Maw snuck back here Rossy?” Bertha inquired.

“What did they look like?” Clem asked and shook his head in bewilderment who that might have been after the sparse description that Julie and David gave in response.

“Don’t sound nothing like my Maw but I will go see if I can spot them here about.” Rossy Ross said

“I will go check on my chickens. You all excuse me. You can entertain the guests for a might Clem, I can’t imagine who that might have been if they just run off like that.” Bertha said skeptically and headed towards the backdoor with Rossy following

“You be careful now Rossy Ross, you don’t take no unnecessary risks now you here me?” Clem called after them.

“I won’t, I got my 20 gauge handy if the varmint wants to object about me following them and asking what it was they were doing here abouts.” Rossy called back and then followed Bertha out the rusty screen door.

“That girl could probably track a possum up a tree but she sometimes doesn’t have too much walking around sense when it comes to dealing with strangers in the modern world.” Clem said and then asked if anyone wanted some cool tea from the stoneware crock Martha had sitting on the kitchen counter wrapped in a damp cloth.

After everyone settled into their seats, talk soon turned to what survival gear David had brought with him and how the people on the island were faring with their various kits and gear they had been using.

David explained about his fish nets and trot lines he had brought with him and his thoughts on how they needed to basically set up a commercial fishing venture to try and sustain the prepper survivors. Everyone thought the plan would work because we were not dealing with your normal group of refugees. As a whole the preppers had the number one skill they needed to survive and that was the willingness to face adversity and persevere. They were alive because they had the will to live and had the spirit and skills to see themselves through this disaster as a capable and pretty cohesive community.

The conversation paused abruptly as the voice of Rossy was heard calling from behind the house and for everyone to come a running.

.

6

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

“Hey Bertha I need some help here! Hey Clem you all come outside right now and see! I got myself a prisoner out here!” Rossy Ross yelled out.

“What the hell? Who you think she has out their Bertha?” Clem said rising and hurrying towards the backdoor shotgun in hand. It only took but a moment of confusion for everyone to start tripping over each other all hurrying after him and trying to get out the backdoor all at the same time to see what in the world was going on.

The spectacle they beheld was very strange one indeed. Rossy had some poor disheveled and dirty skinny middle aged man that looked the worst for wear backed up against the barn and looking at them fearfully as Rossy Ross kept her .shotgun trained on him.

“Who you got over there as a prisoner Rossy Ross? Who in the world are you stranger?” Clem said eying the grimy bearded fellow in threadbare clothes.

“He says his name is Will Perkins but you ought to just call him plain old thief. Do you know that son of a bitch broke into my house and tore up my door? I tracked his sorry ass from your chicken coop and when I noticed he was heading towards my house I took the shortcut and cut him off trying to leave my driveway. Evidently he had already broken into my place before he found his way over here. Ain`t that right Piss Willie?” Rossy snarled at him.

Evidently the new nickname Ross had pot on him was pretty apt as the poor soul evidently had peed his pants by the wet spot that appeared on the front of his jeans.

“Don’t eat me!” the pitiful soul squeaked.

“I done told you ain`t nobody eating anybody a hundred times you crazy old coot!” Rossy scolded in his direction.

“That don’t mean we won’t hang you for being a dirty lowdown burglar though”. Rossy snarled.

“Now child quit scaring that man. He looks like he is scared of his own shadow and probably just wanted something to eat. Lower your gun a bit Rossy Ross and let’s hear his story before we decides what to do with him,” Bertha advised.

“I kind of like the hanging suggestion.” Clem said wanting to bedevil the man further for his alleged crimes and misdemeanors.

“Now you hush yourself too Clem. It seems to me that you have been caught with your hand in the cookie jar before after thinking foolishly that you just couldn’t live without something.” Bertha chided.

“Now Mr. Will you need to explain yourself better and I don’t want to be hearing no lies. You tell me the truth now, what were you doing sneaking around my chickens and breaking in Rossy Ross’s house?” Bertha said scrutinizing the man further.

“I am sorry, please folks believe me I am very very sorry. I told Rossy how sorry I was, I didn’t know anyone was living in that old house I broke in to and I  didn’t even steal anything but a few cans of food. I wouldn’t even have done that if I hadn’t been starving to death. I ain`t ate nothing in three days and the last thing I had before that was a can of carrots.” Will said like he was about to cry.

“Well son I guess we can overlook a whole bunch of misguided judgments maybe if you are actually in such dire straits but what are you doing around here on Mc Cloud property anyway? You don’t look like you are from any parts around here” Bertha declared.

“Can I have some water? I am about to fall out.” Will pleaded.

“Sure. One of you all goes get the man a drink of water. Better yet, stranger you go sit up on the back porch stoop and finish telling your story. My mule doesn’t take to strangers and its best for all of us if we move away from the barn. Bertha said and waved the interloper along towards the house.

Will drank a glass of water down so fast he had to get rid of a coughing fit before he could carry on with the rest of his story. Julie handed him another glass of water and cautioned him to take it easy and sip this one or he would make himself sick.

“Ah yes, thank you for your kindness. Like I said I am terribly sorry to have caused so much trouble for you all. I am basically what I used to call an honest man but these troubling times have me doing things I thought I would never consider.” Will began before Rossy reminded him the worst thing he could have possibly considered was breaking into her house.

She just fumed a bit when Clem told her to hush up and let the man get on with his story about what he was doing around these parts.

“That’s a tale of woe and misery my friend that I hate to repeat seeing how you all think so badly of me already.” Will said.

“I can’t see myself thinking any worse of you than I already do!” Rossy said before a warning look from Bertha quelled any further out bursts from her until Will finished his story.

A greatly deflated and miserable Will carried on with his story and told them that he was living in an apartment outside of Birmingham when all the trouble started and after about three days had gone by he went out looking for water and food.

The military and police he said were riding around telling everyone they needed to stay in their homes and observe the curfew imposed by the governor and that he had heeded that advice as long as he could. He explained that was all well and good that they were telling him to stay at home but he didn’t have the means to stay in his place and not venture out because he was already out of water and the few liters of soda he had been drinking off of were about gone. He had to have him some supplies so he ventured out.

The pool in the apartment complex had been drained for the winter and now only contained some greenish slime laden dubious water so he was in a quandary as to what to do before he was blessed by a rainstorm and he and the other residents in the community spread out every pot, pan and container they had out to catch the bounty. That thunderstorm had helped out immensely and he had gathered several gallons of water and stored it as best he could.

Stores all had been emptied seemingly overnight when the power was still on in the beginning of the disaster and the promised water tankers from the National Guard never materialized at what was supposed to be the distribution point at an old strip mall in his area.

He like so many others had showed up early on their appointed day before the designated time and waited uncomfortably for hours waiting on a relief convoy that never came. A pair of police squad cars had arrived about an hour after the designated time and made a brief announcement that he said infuriated and incited the assembled crowd to take violent actions.

“Go back to your homes; all of you go back to your homes now peacefully. There will be no deliveries today. You are instructed to come back here two days time.” An officer said over his cars public address system.

He said more but whatever it was he was saying couldn’t be heard legibly as an overwhelming sigh of distress was put forward by all the hungry and thirsty folks of the assembled mob which soon turned to shouts of anger and a general move of the crowd in the police cars direction.

The cops immediately aggravated the situation further by turning up the mike and announcing that the crowd was ordered to disperse immediately or they were subject to arrest under the emergency powers act. It didn’t take long before the sea of desperate humanity began to surge forward shouting questions and indignation at the officers before they retreated back to their cars with guns drawn and left the parking lot in a hurry leaving the milling crowd to their own devices.

The more uncaring or radically minded people soon began to take out their anger and needs on the strip mall as garbage cans, paper stands and the like were used to bust out the store fronts and batter down doors as an orgy of looting began in earnest.

Will said his first instinct was to leave the area as fast as possible but any thoughts of returning home without anything to sustain himself in the coming days soon lead to him jostling his way into a broken window of a Dollar store with the thugs and common folk all just wanting something, anything they could grab and carry off.

People were shouting, threatening each other, crashing about and generally just mindless as they swarmed the stores aisles snatching whatever they could grab and hold on to. Will grabbed a cardboard case of sweet peas and managed to make it mostly out the door without too many hands trying to steal cans of his hard won goods from him.

Other people didn’t fair so lucky as fights, strong arm robberies of the weaker and accidents took their toll. Will said he didn’t wait around to find out what was next or try for any more goods and instead got in his car and hurried home before the mayhem of the crowd or police reinforcements to suppress it caught up with him.

The strip mall wasn’t far from his house so about two days later he decided to walk up there and see what was going on. The batteries in his weather radio had gone dead the day before and when he started his car to listen to its radio he noted he only had only a little under a half of a tank of gas. Travel restrictions were in force but the radio said FEMA was mobilizing and assembling relief supplies in the city of Montgomery about 80 miles away just like they did to respond to hurricanes along the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

Will had a good life long friend named Ned who lived in that town and figured that if he could make it down there that his chances of receiving some help were much better in the less populated city. He decided that he would leave out in morning after he ascertained just what was going on in and around his neighborhood and he figured he should have just enough gas to make it.

Will was no stranger to power outages and the aftermath of storms spawned by hurricanes that made their way far inland to his area and was not worried much about any dangers of walking around his neighborhood despite the lawlessness he had participated in the other day. That was a fluke he thought, a momentary misjudgment as he got caught up in the desperation of the moment.

People in his community normally all pulled together and grew closer as a community after a disaster and looting was a rare occurrence mostly brought on by greed and opportunistic criminals looking for whatever goods they could steal like electronics and not out of necessity to obtain food and water.

His conscience had plagued him for days after participating in the Dollar store fiasco and his curiosity and need overcame his fears of returning to what was supposed to be his relief distribution point. Maybe today there would be some emergency supplies he could get. The only neighbor he knew in his apartment complex was out of town and he desired news and human interaction after being held up in his apartment for these long weeks. Getting out in the light of day and fresh air and possibly running into somebody to talk to was exactly what he needed to clear his mind and help him to figure out what he needed to do he had decided.

There were very few cars traveling out on the street and except for a few furtive worried faces peering out from behind the curtains of their homes windows Will said that he saw no one else until he got near the shopping center where he spied a military vehicle with its two Guardsmen occupants.

Will wandered over to the vehicle and one of the soldiers asked him what it was he wanted. Will asked if this place was still a disaster relief distribution site and was informed that no, this place wasn’t designated as one anymore and that the new site for his zip code area was a local school building about 3 blocks away. The guardsman advised however that there were no real supplies available to give out to the public there and that the only service he could get at the location was when they fire department turned on one of the hydrants every few days to allow who ever brought a container to draw some water.

The soldier also further advised him that the highways leading out of Birmingham south were pretty much impassable at the moment because of stalled or disabled cars and was pretty much a mess because of the mass exodus that was going on in the city and that it would be best for him to try an alternate route if he was going to try reaching Montgomery.

On his way home to his apartment he started thinking about somehow making his way over to Tuscaloosa and then heading south but he really didn’t have the gas for that. He had a business associate that he was on friendly terms with that lived in that town and he had been invited over to his house for dinner a few times but that didn’t mean his friend would have any precious gas to spare or for that matter be inclined to give it to him if he made it that far and asked for it. However this still seemed his best option, it sure beat staying around here he considered.

Will told everyone that once he used to walk the streets in his neighborhood with money and friends but in a blink of an eye or the flick of a switch his world had ended and he soon ended up pretty much as destitute as if he had always been homeless.

He had finally decided to try for Tuscaloosa and deal with whatever fate or luck brought his way when he got there. He certainly couldn’t stay around where he was at much longer.

He had barely any food of any kind whatsoever left and there was the water shortage to contend with. He knew from past experience that the technologically prehistoric water system for the city wouldn’t last more than a day or two, hell the sewage system that the city had over spent on and mismanaged and had almost bankrupted the city and was far from complete was backed up already. He hadn’t had a flushing toilet in days if you had water to pour in it and that fact alone told him he had to leave. People in the complex of 150 or so apartments had resorted to whatever means necessary to dispose of their waste and the funk and the stench from the areas where the dumpsters were parked would have gagged a maggot.