Only about two miles away, he pulled off into a large parking lot of a small fabrication shop. He signaled for everyone to get out. They all stood around and he walked up to Randy. He grabbed his shotgun from him.
“I had to shoot him Uncle Roger I had…”
Haliday put a finger to his mouth to shut him up. Haliday pumped the shotgun emptying the shells onto the ground. “Pick them up,” he said.
Randy picked them up and held them out. Haliday grabbed one and looked at it. “Number nine shot, you used number nine shot? You didn’t kill that guy; I doubt you even pissed him off with this crap at that distance. Go find your double aught and load it Dick Cheney. Smaller the number, the better for people,” Haliday said. Randy loaded his shotgun. “David, Kevin, Randy and Blake come here. Basic gun course now.” Thirty minutes later they were back on the road.
Chapter 15
Dawn, Diana and Karen were all set to go. They stopped by the main house to drop off a few things and the food for Mandy. They noticed a smoker going. She had taken care of that deer pretty quickly. If she wasn’t raped, beaten or killed, she might do pretty ok for herself.
In all reality this was not a bad place to be though. It was a good distance from a city of any size and since there weren’t a lot people around, there wouldn’t be much scavenging in this area. Just have to hide from roving bands of scum. They’d give her Haliday’s security speech.
“Thanks again,” Mandy said.
“Thank you,” they replied. They were horse people and glad the horses would have a fighting chance. “We’ll be back in spring or maybe sooner depending on how things progress after we find out what’s going on and when everything settles down. It’ll get worse before it gets better. People will be very hungry and desperate in the next few weeks.” They gave her the speech. Take care they told her.
Karen was driving the ranger and they had saddled up the horses to ride. They checked out their map. They were taking as many small roads as they could. This way the horses could use the shoulders of the road and stay off the pavement and they could avoid people. They had two legs of the trip to make. The first leg would take them to a preset cache with a few items and some gas if they needed it and a spot to rest. The next would take them to meet up with Haliday.
They were on their way and enjoying the slow pace. They were checking out the various farms as they passed them. You would almost think nothing had happened out here. They listened to the ham and couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Some of the rural areas were just like this, but then most urban areas, especially the largest cities, had basically crumbled overnight.
They were hearing stories of widespread looting. People had cleaned out all of the grocery stores within the first three days everywhere. They had heard of people rioting in places like Sam’s Club, Costco and other big box warehouse stores. People were taking everything though. Electronics, clothing, whatever they could get their hands on they took. Most of the stuff was useless, but they guessed people figured it would be an easy fix.
Police everywhere started giving up. The only thing they could even attempt to do was try to keep people from killing each other. Most had left heir jobs and were worrying about there own families and themselves. There were very few places where people banded together and took actions to secure their communities. Most of all, it was the small towns in rural areas that would be safer, where travel by foot was impossible due to the distances.
One guy up in Oregon was telling everyone to start hunting and gathering meat. He explained that hunting would be widespread. He went on to say that the animal population would be overhunted within a month. The animal population would be severely reduced and those left would be hard to find as they hid from hunters. Winter would make hunting very difficult. There were just no amenities to keep warm, move around easily, stay the night in camps, and bait the prey or anything.
It was still puzzling that they did not hear anything about any government movements or assistance to anyone anywhere. No one could figure that out. People said that a lot of the military bases seemed locked down, but they also said they did not see the amount of troops that they normally saw. Some commented that there had been a lot of desertion from all rank and files. Little to no equipment was moving and surely none of it was moving off the bases.
They couldn’t concern themselves with any of that. They would figure that out later. What they had to concern themselves with was getting where they needed to be and when they needed to be there. They had a great disadvantage right now, since there were only three of them and the pace they kept was that of which the horses moved. They almost wondered if maybe they should have left them.
They were coming close to their first stop. They hadn’t noticed anyone following them and they headed down a small dirt road. Haliday had scouted this area many times before with them. They knew it was not used more than maybe eight times a year. They couldn’t even figure out why. Maybe kids getting busy after a hot date. They came across an opening in the woods and they headed down that way.
Karen was having a hard time navigating the path. They had cut a few branches off some of the trees to make it more accessible, but had to leave enough so it did not look too obvious. They would be about a quarter mile away from the dirt road and well enough hidden to stay the night. They managed to reach the spot without too much more trouble.
They tied the horses up and got them some water and grain. They planned to leave the saddles on in case they had to bug out quickly, but that would not be the case. They commenced to get the camp set up for the night. They opened the trailer so they could pull out the gear they needed.
After pulling everything out they started to set up. The first thing they did was to string a few booby trap simulators up around the perimeter. This would alert them to anybody sneaking in. Haliday had Dawn buy these at one of the gun shows they had frequented. They just had to hope animals wouldn’t set them off, but they placed them two feet off the ground, so unless it was deer they were good to go.
They set up a nice little four season tent. It wasn’t big, but big enough for two to sleep comfortably with some gear close by. They tossed in a couple sleeping bags that were zero degree rated, so it would be warm enough. The temperature was only going to dip down to about 35, but they wanted to stay warm in order to stay nimble and quick.
They placed a light blanket over each horse. They pulled out a small camo net and covered the trailer. After some squabbling about who would pull guard duty first, they settled in for some food. They heated up some water on the small camp stove and made soup. They opened up a can of pears and split it.
Dawn looked around. She had to use the bathroom. She grabbed a bucket with a potty lid on top and biodegradable trash bag in it and hauled it over behind a tree. Haliday taught them to use the blue RV chemical in it to keep the odor down and help degrade the mess. She finished her squat as Haliday called it and headed back to camp. She hated his crudeness at times.
They made sure the camp stove was out, no food was left out, and hunkered down for the night. They figured on three hour shifts, which would give everyone six hours of sleep. Based on Haliday’s progress, they could nap a little longer if they needed to. They wouldn’t know until the morning though. They looked up at the stars. Without any lights, the stars were so bright now. There had been few places on earth you could experience total darkness.
The night was uneventful. They all laughed about camping. Years ago, camping was a motor home in the parking lot of a hotel. That was as rough as it got. Now they’d learn to appreciate nature. They fed and watered the horses and then they whipped up some nine grain cereal using instant soy milk and made some Tang. They took some vitamins and started to break down the camp.