Surviving (17 page)

John’s were the only lights on the highway and every time they passed a stalled car, the people tried to get them to stop. They got to the Smyrna exit on Highway 840 when they saw a policeman waving for them to stop and help at a wreck at the top of the ramp. They went off the road to go around him while he frantically waved and shot his service pistol in the air. Gus had his .45 aimed at the cop and was glad that he did not have to kill him. There would be many choices to make in the future and most would be between good and evil, but many were like this one, family over strangers.

              John said, “Gus, in all of the books that I have read on situations like this, the cops or bad guys always try to commandeer any vehicle that will run.”

              Gus replied, “TRY!” He then waved his .45 Colt 1911 and said, “From my cold dead hands.” He added, “That applies to my damn truck also!”

              John asked, “Hey, what about the DC3, will it fly?” Gus thought for a minute and said, “Damn good question. It will fly, but all of the modern avionics are fried. No radio and no GPS. I can use one of the portable short wave radios to communicate with you.”

• • •

              The Mexican broke into John’s house and placed JoAnne’s head on the mantel. He then went to Gus’ house and left a hand on the kitchen table. He laughed and thought that this would scare the shit out of John and his friends. He would come back in a couple of days and start the campaign of terror ending with all of the SOBs dead. The dumbass had missed them by hours and did not realize that they would never come back to their houses.

• • •

              John and Gus’ Bug Out Bunker was about 20 miles northwest of Mobile. John had bought an old farm with 200 acres that had an old, but nice house and a 5-acre lake that was fully stocked. He buried twenty overseas shipping containers in which to live in case of an emergency. There was food and water for 20 people for 18 months as long as they liked rice, beans, fish and what vegetables that could be raised. There was an old house with a well and plenty of garden space. He had planted over a hundred fruit and nut trees to get it ready to survive at least a year without outside help. John paid a local farmer to grow a large vegetable garden and let him sell most of the crop at the farmers market. John and Scott took lessons from the farmer on how to raise a garden and were getting quite proficient.

              There was a dirt landing strip and hanger for John’s old four seat Cessna and the old crop duster just north of the house and John had flown in and out several times. Gus and John used the Cessna for vacations and trips around the southeast, but it would only carry four people and a lot of gear. The plane was from the early 60’s and had all of the original EMP proof equipment plus modern avionics. John made sure that it would be useable after a nuke or solar flare.

              Ann was flitting around the place as if she owned it and that really pissed Robin off a bunch. Robin didn’t hate Ann, but she knew that John was a great guy and Ann should have stayed with him. Hell, Ann had even brought her boy toy to the bunker. Robin had been slow to convert to the Prepper life style, but was now as much into it as Gus and John.

              Scott had called Robin and Steve and had told them to round up family and close friends and get to the Bug Out Bunker before midnight. Robin brought her family and chased down Jim’s girlfriend. Steve called Ann and Scott’s girlfriend, Joan, and told them to get their families to the Bug Out Bunker. The immediate families all arrived, but most of the extended families thought it was crazy. They were told to bring a week’s worth of clothes and all the food, water and weapons that they could load into their cars.

              Gus also told them to bring all of the antique cars that they could find. Steve loaded up his three old hotrods on a car carrier and brought them to the bunker. Several brought their hotrods and old pickups. Only fifteen total people showed up against the thirty that John had expected.

              Ann had tried to find JoAnne, but there was no answer when she called. She even ran by JoAnne’s house, but no one was there. Ann was very worried about her friend and knew that John would not have them bug out to the bunker if things weren’t going to get very bad very quick. While John bored her, she did respect his judgment on prepping for disaster. He had trained her how to shoot, hunt and fish. While she was a city girl, she could handle herself.

              Steve gathered everyone and filled them in on what he knew and what was probably going to happen over the next few days. He started giving work assignments when Ann’s boyfriend, Dan, balked and said that he did not come here to work and was only here to please Ann.

              Steve told him, “You are right you don’t have to work, but if you don’t work you don’t stay. So, decide now if you want to contribute or get the hell back to Mobile.”

              Dan replied, “I will stay as Ann’s guest and no 'Nigger' is going to make me leave.”

              Steve walked over to Ann and said, “Get his sorry ass out of here before I shoot him.”

              Dan charged Steve and grabbed his left arm. Steve turned and kicked Dan in the nuts and hit him on the chin with his pistol. Dan started to charge Steve again when Robin fired a shot in to the ground at Dan’s feet.

              She yelled, “I will shoot you if you don’t get the fuck out of here now. Get in your car and go.”

              Dan begged Ann to go with him, but she told him that he was a lazy coward and that he was lucky that Steve hadn’t killed him on the spot. Dan left and was never seen again.

              Ann apologized for Dan’s behavior and went in the house ashamed about the whole situation.

              Robin came in and said, “Ann, no one is mad at you. Yes, Dan is a racist jerk, but you set him straight and sent him packing. That’s what counts.”

              Ann said, “Robin, I never heard you cuss before.”

              Robin hugged Ann and said, “The SOB pissed me off. Steve is a good friend and the color of his skin makes no difference.”

              Ann thanked her and rejoined the team.

              Steve got the entire team together and told them that they only had a few days before outsiders would try to take their food and water. He went on to say that, he was starting around the clock guards and training for every one on how to shoot and when to shoot.

              Jim replied, “Steve I can help with training on hand to hand fighting and shooting.”

• • •

              They arrived at Tom’s house and immediately had to explain to the neighbors how they had a vehicle that would run. Tom handled that and had to get a little rough with a couple of guys that wanted to take it and flee.

              John went to the Jeep, got one of the short wave radios out of their metal box and called for Steve at the Bunker. He gave the designated call sign repeatedly for about 30 minutes when he heard Steve’s voice.

              “Hey, Buddy how are you and the folks doing up north? We are all fine down here. I rounded them all up and we circled the wagons at the fort. We could not find JoAnne, but everyone else made it.”

              John replied, “There is a lot of chaos, but we are all fine and may be visiting you in a week or so.”

              Steve replied, “Good, watch your ass on the road. There may be bad guys. We are hearing gun fire towards town and can see several large fires on that horizon.”

              John signed off and felt relieved.

• • •

              By 7:00 a.m., all of the friends and relatives of the group from the immediate area had arrived. Most had to walk, but a few had older trucks or cars and drove to Tom’s house. There were 18 adults and 21 children counting John, Gus and Scott. These were all good people who should get along and help each other survive.

              After everyone had a great breakfast Gus gathered all of the adults and said, “We have several decisions to make and have to set a plan to survive the next 90 days and then a longer term plan for the next year.”

              They all listened.

              Gus said, “Don’t every one speak at once.” He then laughed.

              Tom replied, “Gus, John, you and I have the experience to lead this group. Most of our family does not know what has just happened, much less how to survive it.”

              Gus backed up and spent about 15 minutes explaining what happened and what was likely to happen. He told them how sane people would try to kill them for a loaf of bread. They all listened and started to ask a thousand questions.

              John stood up and said, “There are several questions that have to be answered now! They are:

              Where are we going to get food and water?

              How are we going to protect ourselves?

              What will we do for medical care?

              Where can we protect ourselves with the least

     losses?

              How will we heat our houses?

              How do we handle sewage?

              How do we handle looters, general bad guys and

    the people who will try to take our food?"

              Again, they all listened and suddenly broke out in numerous discussions.

              Alice said, “Won’t the government come to help us? We can just stay in our houses and wait on them, can’t we?”

              Gus replied, “The government has its hands full with the big cities and probably guarding against foreign invaders. They won’t be much help to small cities and the open country. I hate to scare people, but the government may cause more harm to us than help.”

              Beth caught John off to the side and said, “John, these guys are great people, but you and Tom need to take charge and tell us what to do. They will either go with your plans and live or take their chances.”

              John agreed. John got Tom off to the side and told him about his discussion with Beth. They both agreed to take charge and let the chips fall where they may.

              Tom banged a spoon on a pot to get their attention and said, “John, Gus and I are going to take over the leadership of this group. We have all been through very bad situations and know what has to be done. If you agree, stay here; if not, you are free to leave."

              One of Tom’s neighbors, Will, spoke up and said that this was a democracy and everyone had a say in what they were going to do.

              John told the group, “Yes, you all can do whatever you want, but the people who stay in this house when I am done speaking will follow orders or be removed from the group."

              Will said, “That’s not fair, we should all have a say in how the group is lead and how we do things.”

              John heard several tell him to go. John said, “Those that agree stay, those that do not agree please leave now.”

              Will started to argue again, but Tom grabbed him by the arm and shoved him out the door. Gus and Tom watched him and his family walk down the street telling all that would listen about how, “Those assholes had plenty of food, but wanted everything for themselves.”

              Tom got the group back together and said, “We will be asking for your input on all plans, but we will make the final decisions. I need everyone except John, Gus, and I to go out into the town and get more supplies and we need a couple of trucks in case we have to haul ass. Older diesel powered trucks may still run. Scott and Sam will coordinate the efforts. Bill, I need you to see if you can get some kind of tanker or tank in a trailer so we can stockpile some gas.”

• • •

              The government was concentrating its efforts on helping the areas that were supportive of the president and the liberals. Tennessee would never see any help and was to be targeted for help of another kind.

              Over the next several weeks, the Department of Home Land Security quickly took control of Baltimore, Boston, Harrisburg, Columbus, Charleston, Jacksonville and Mobile to try to begin taking control of the nation’s resources.

              DHS tried to take control of Fort Bragg, Fort Knox and Pope Airbase, but the Military leaders did not allow them access to the bases. The Marines had to return fire on the DHS thugs when they tried to ram through a checkpoint. The 50 DHS members were killed or wounded and taken as prisoners. This caused major infighting between DHS, the President and the Joint Chiefs. The Joint Chiefs stood firm, no civilians would take direct control of the military and the military would not take up arms against the US Citizens.