The diminutive Della, or “Little Dell” as Lon called her, also needed to be armed. After Rose was given T.K.’s CAR-15, there were no more spare .223 rifles or carbines available. A special meeting was held on the subject. After much arguing, the group finally voted to give Della the Ruger Mini-14 and accessories that was captured from the looters. For a handgun she was given Mary’s spare blue steel Gold Cup. At roughly the same time, Lon “traded” his Ortgies .380 for Dan’s long barreled Model 686 .357 magnum revolver.
Although it was hardly an equal trade, Dan went ahead with it, knowing that the gun would be more useful in the hands of Lon than sitting in the back of Dan’s wall locker. Margie traded most of the Porters’ small cache of U.S. and Canadian silver coins for Dan’s Beretta nine-millimeter pistol. This too was a lopsided trade, but the same logic applied, so Dan consented.
Because she had never done much shooting before, Della was given extensive target and combat shooting training over the course of the next few weeks. Doing this much shooting was judged an acceptable risk by Mike Nelson. As he explained his logic, the advantage of having another trained shooter outweighed the risks associated with making a lot of noise. Della had several instructors, starting with Rose, who spent several days teaching her the basics of marksmanship and shooting positions, using a Ruger 10/22. Next, she learned the functioning of her Mini-14 and how to field strip it, by Dan Fong.
Then she was taught how to shoot the weapon accurately by T.K., using the techniques he had learned at the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute, and drawing on his many years of high-power competition experience.
Tom Kennedy, as “the marksmanship guru,” insisted that she memorize the tables for bullet drop at different distances, and for bullet drift with varying crosswinds, and uphill/downhill compensation. After a few weeks practicing with different shooting stances and firing deliberately, Della developed into an accurate shooter. Eventually, she was hitting man-sized targets with regularity at ranges out to four hundred yards. Considering that she was shooting a .223 Remington, which was never known as a good long-range cartridge, her performance was commendable.
Her next phase of instruction, which she shared with Rose, Lon, and Margie, involved pistol shooting. They had two instructors: Mike and Todd.
This training took eight days. On the first four days, the four students used bull barreled Ruger Mark II .22 target pistols that belonged to the Grays and Nelsons. Together, they fired nearly two thousand rounds of .22 ammunition.
During the last four days of their training, they graduated to their full-power “carry” pistols. Through these, they fired almost eight hundred rounds of .45 ACP, .38 Special, .357 magnum, and nine-millimeter Parabellum.
In addition to deliberate target practice, they also practiced speed draws, combat stances, barricade shooting, tactical and emergency reloading, and low light shooting. Their “final exam” was a combat course on the run over a distance of five hundred yards, shooting at targets as close as five feet, and as far as one hundred yards. It was a demanding course, but all four did fairly well.
Following their pistol training, the four inductees were given instruction in tactics, patrolling, and combat rifle shooting. Mike Nelson, Jeff Trasel, and Doug Carlton served as the instructors.
Lon’s mechanical ingenuity soon made itself evident. After his first shift of C.Q. duty, Lon suggested to Todd that he modify the hand crank generator to increase its efficiency. Mary had already expressed her worries of “repetitive stress” injuries. After Todd heard Porter’s idea, he agreed enthusiastically. Lon started out by fabricating a metal stand to support Mary’s old bicycle. Because it had large “outriggers” that extended outward for three feet, the stand firmly held the bicycle in position without fear of it tipping over.
With the rear wheel removed, and the bike mounted firmly in the stand, Lon made a mounting bracket for the hand crank generator. After taking some dimensions and doing rough calculations on gear ratios and crank speeds, Lon cut a piece of square bar stock to fit one of the two slots for the hand cranks.
He then centered and welded a gear onto the end of the bar stock. Next, Porter bolted the generator onto the stand and connected the bicycle’s chain and adjusted the tension. The new bicycle generator worked perfectly. With the increased efficiency of the generator, group members assigned C.Q. duty only had to operate it for forty-five minutes of each shift to generate the same amount of power that had previously taken three hours. This made everyone at the retreat happy. Cranking the generator was still not a fun job, but at least it was no longer an onerous task.
The Porters quickly integrated themselves into the day-to-day working of the retreat. All three pulled C.Q. and LP/OP duty. This provided the man-hours necessary for many of the more labor-intensive tasks, including gardening. Margie soon corrected one glaring defect that she had noticed. All of the men at the retreat had shabby looking haircuts. As there had been no one trained in how to give a proper haircut, the standard practice had been to wait until hair began to interfere with proper vision, and then proceed to hack it off unevenly. Some of the results were less than flattering. Margie, who had been giving haircuts as a hobby for two decades, soon set up shop. After giving all of the men fresh haircuts, she started working on the coiffures of the ladies.
Three weeks after the Porters arrived, Todd noticed that Della Porter was deeply engaged in conversation with Doug as he sat at the C.Q. desk. They were looking directly into each other’s eyes. Della was smiling—a lot. Todd brought up his suspicions with Mary. She asked with disbelief, “What, didn’t you notice before? Those two gravitated together more than a week ago.”
A look of amazement spread across Todd’s face. “But Della is only seventeen, isn’t she?”
“Yes, hon, she won’t turn eighteen until a few weeks from now. However, under the current state of affairs, I don’t think that Doug is liable to be prosecuted. Besides, I don’t think that anything has happened. Doug and Della are good Christians. They’ll wait until they’re married.”
Todd scratched his chin. “Well, I don’t want any fornicating or even ‘bundling’ going on under my roof. I guess that T.K. ought to have a talk with Doug, and determine his intentions. Then, I suppose it’ll probably be time for Doug to ask Lon for permission to marry his daughter.”
Mary smiled. “Yes, that’s the thing a young man traditionally does, isn’t it? Don’t you remember your conversation with grouchy old Mr. Krause?”
“Are you kidding? That conversation with your dad is permanently etched in my memory.” In a gravely voice, Todd quoted Mary’s father:“‘What exactly are your prospects, Todd?’”
One morning early in August, as they were dressing, Mary told Todd, “Honey, I’ve got something to tell you. I missed my last period, and I’ve been feeling really nauseated the last few days.”
“You mean… you mean….” Todd stammered.
“Yes, you big oversexed stud, you got me pregnant.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Todd asked, “You didn’t intentionally…?”
Mary scowled. “No, of course not. But, like I briefed everyone in the group years ago, condoms are not the most efficient form of birth control. I should have insisted that all the ladies got fitted for cervical caps, since they’re the best.”
Todd put on a crooked grin and joked, “Personally, I think that you covertly put some pinholes in our supply of rubbers.”
Mary slugged Todd in the shoulder and shouted, “Todd Gray! How could you say a thing like that? I swear, you have the biggest ego on the planet. I’ll bet that you think that I just couldn’t wait to become the mother of your first child,‘oh great tribal chieftain.’”