The finished splint lay on both sides of Margie’s arm. It bent 90 degrees at the elbow, and had looped cross braces at both ends. To pad the splint, Mary used some heavy wadding from an enormous civil defense surplus bandage.
After the padding was held in place on the framework of the splint by white bandage tape, Mary gingerly lowered Margie’s arm into the confines of the splint. Next, she used almost an entire roll of three-inch wide gauze, securing the arm within the confines of the splint.
When she had completed the job, she asked Margie if the bandaging felt too tight in any spot. She replied, “I can’t tell, yet. My arm is still pretty numb.”
“Okay, Margie. Just let me know right away if you feel any discomfort.
Now here’s the fun part. You are going to have to keep that arm elevated for most of the day for the next two weeks. Also, you are going to have to constantly remind yourself not to flex your wrist or fingers. I know that will be tough, but if those tendons are going to heal properly, you have got to avoid putting any stress on them, okay?”
“Okay,” Margie answered. After looking down at her heavily padded arm, she said, “Oh fiddlesticks! Why did this have to happen at a time like this? We were planning on putting up sixty jars of applesauce today.”
Later in the day, Mary tested her supply of tetracycline. She used the standard WHO-approved “titers” test of dissolving a capsule into clear water. She knew a cloudy solution or precipitates would indicate that the capsules weren’t safe and should be discarded. She was happy to see that the test resulted in a clear solution. Due to the age of the tetracycline, she gave Margie a considerably higher than normal dosage. In another year or two, Mary realized, she would have to begin titrating all of the retreat’s supplies of medicines and vitamins.
CHAPTER 14
The Northwest Militia
“…arms… discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property…. Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived the use of them.”
In June of the second year, a regular long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) from the retreat met a farmer who seemed nervous and distressed. He said, “I’m sure glad to see you. I haven’t been sleeping well for four days now. I don’t have a CB, and I was afraid to leave my wife and babies to go ask for help. There’s a bunch of bikers that took over Princeton. That’s less than a mile north of here. I’m afraid that once they strip those houses clean, they might come down here. What they’ve been doin’ is just terrible. They killed most of the men, and they’ve been raping the women that are still left alive. I also heard that they’ve been torturing the little kids. A couple houses got torched. They’re a wicked bunch.”
The man looked imploringly at Carlton and asked, “You’ve got those military lookin’ guns and the organization, can’t you do something about it?”
Doug Carlton, who was leading the patrol asked, “Do you know how many of them there are, and how they’re armed?”
“I heard that there’s at least twenty, maybe thirty, of that trash. Rumor has it that they got a machinegun.”
“What kind of machinegun?”
“A big one, you know, with one of them ammo belts, on tripod legs.”A few more minutes of questioning revealed little else, as all of the man’s information was secondhand.
Heeding the training that he had received in his ROTC courses, Carlton took the initiative to deal decisively with the situation. After moving the patrol four hundred yards away from the farm into a dense grove of trees, Carlton consulted with the other patrol members. “Okay, here’s the deal. We obviously don’t have the necessary combat power in a seven-member patrol to handle this problem. What I’m going to do is split the patrol in half. Three members of the patrol will go on an extended recon of Princeton, while the other four will return to the retreat. The recon patrol will consist of Jeff, Lisa, and Kevin. The rest of us will get back to the retreat A.S. A.P and report on what we’ve heard.”
Looking directly at Trasel, Doug ordered, “Jeff, I’m putting you in charge of the recon patrol because you have a lot more experience at reconnaissance than I do. Plan to be back to the retreat no later than dawn on the day after tomorrow. Your job is to observe and report. Period. Do your absolute best to avoid being detected, but try to get close enough to observe the details of what is going on. In particular, we need to know their total numbers, how well they are armed, what building or buildings they are occupying, and if they have any security out. If you spot anyone on security, it’s critical to know where their posts are, or if they’re using roving guards, and the routes they take. Also, we need to know if they change guards at regular times. Take complete notes. Get some accurate sketches of the layout. That’s all. Have any questions?”
Jeff thought for a moment. “No questions, but I’d like to take both sets of binoculars and one of the five-watt walkie-talkies on the recon. I’d also like all the food out of your packs since you are heading right back and we will be out for an extra twenty-four hours.”
Doug gave him a thumbs-up and replied, “Okay. Good luck.”
After redistributing the loads in their rucksacks, Carlton, along with Rose, Lon, and Dan Fong headed back to the retreat. Still in a whisper, Jeff began to brief Lisa and Kevin on how he wanted to conduct the recon.
As soon as they had returned to the Grays’ farmhouse, Mike and Todd debriefed the first increment of the patrol. Referring to the map board, Todd then gave a description of the area around Princeton. “It is a small town about sixteen miles west and slightly north of Bovill. As I recall, there are only about twenty houses in the town, strung out along this road, which runs east-west.
There’s a sawmill on the edge of town, and a gas station in the middle of town. Other than that, Princeton has all residential buildings. Most of the area around town is fairly well timbered. If there are indeed twenty-plus bad guys there, we could have a heckuva time taking them out.” After a pause, Margie raised her still bandaged arm and asked, “Well… aren’t they likely to move on soon? Couldn’t we just scare them off or just wait until they leave, and then go in to treat the injured and help to resupply the residents and rebuild whatever has been destroyed?”
Gesturing with his hand, Todd said, “Look, I realize that an operation like this is extremely dangerous. But as long as we let vermin continue to operate freely, they are going to be a thorn in our side. I’ll never forget one thing that Jeff Cooper once wrote:‘Scaring hostiles away is never very satisfactory, be they mosquitoes, crocodiles, or people, because they will be back later, with friends.’ In my opinion there is only one way to deal with this sort of situation. We have to go in and wipe the brigands out. If we let them slip away, they’ll just keep right on going with their mayhem somewhere else, maybe even here. We also have to remember that we’ve been making promises to provide security to the area, and we are honor-bound to follow through on those promises.”
“I agree,” Mike declared.
Todd continued, “Because there are so many of them, we’ll no doubt need the help of the Templars on this operation. Assuming that we are going to go through with this, I plan to call Roger Dunlap right after this meeting. Could I have a show of hands of all of those in favor of my plan?” Margie was the only dissenter.