Calamity in America (18 page)

He had quite a lot of the black powder stockpiled.  I think because it was difficult to obtain back then.  He also had detailed instructions on how to make your own black powder but I have never done that and I rather hope that I don’t ever have to do so (it sounds dangerous). 

So the only caliber that I now really shoot is this old revolver in .45 Colt.  It is a fat cartridge but not all that powerful.  I guess it was made to shoot people and it does work for that well enough. I know for a fact.  I am good enough with the gun that I have shot rabbits with it and twice I got very close to deer and each time I shot a deer in the head it dropped the deer in their tracks.  But mostly I use the bow and arrows now, though I always carry that revolver with me everywhere.  I had a holster for this gun and there were three more holsters that fit it where I found all the reloading supplies, along with a couple of belts that had loops to hold extra ammunition.

Oh, I found out why the newer gun powders are called smokeless after the first time I shot this gun using the black powder.  I was used to shooting different guns and there would be no smoke but this stuff is really quite a bit different.  The powder is black, but when you shoot it, it produces a big cloud of stinky, white smoke.  Plus after using the bow and arrows for awhile I just don’t care for the noise that any gun makes anymore.  I like the quietness I now have in my life. 

I lost one of my camps a couple years back to a wildfire.  There have been several wildfires around here.  It is just natural and there have always been fires I think.  In the summer months we often get dry lightning.  Storms roll in and produce a lot of lightning but no rain.  Obviously, any fire that does start just has to burn itself out on its own.  There is no one but me to fight the fires and I am too smart to try that on my own.  So fires start and fires die out and that is just the way it is.

Besides the camps I made in the beginning of all this by dragging or driving RV’s here and there in every direction and parking them, I have also added a few more camps. 

There are many old, long-abandoned mines in this general area and I have made spots in a few of them where I can camp out of the weather.  These are certainly not as comfortable as my scattered RV camps but I like to have options.  Like my other camps, at each of these I also keep a few supplies and camping gear.  I use these mine camps very seldom but I check on them whenever I am in that area.  I do have to be careful at these mine camps because many local critters like to use these old mines as their homes also.  Rattlesnakes and skunks are common occupants at these and other mines.

I travel more now than I did the first couple of years or so.  I have walked most of the way to the city.  I just stayed in empty, vacant houses along the way.  I never went into the city though.  I am not sure why I stopped and turned around.  I was maybe afraid I would find the whole city empty or maybe I was afraid I would find many people there.  For whatever reason, I did stop and just turned back again towards home.  I did check many of the houses for supplies and I did find things that I could use.  I found a wagon at one place and used that to haul many things back home.  I made a few trips to bring back everything that I wanted.  Some things like books are heavy and rather bulky.  The wagon helped a lot in moving stuff.  There is not much in the way of water sources in that direction and I have to carry more water when I go there than I usually carry with me.

I have gone back and searched those houses again because every year I think of different uses for different items.  Some things I can never get enough of.  I always bring back clothes and shoes that fit me because they wear out.  Everything that I use all the time wears out it seems.  I have hauled back all the candles that I have ever found.  I had found a few old-fashioned oil lamps but very little lamp oil.  Then I found that diesel fuel worked fine in the lamps but did produce a smell.  I put up with the smell and used the lamps anyway.  I also built my own cart using items I found so I have an easier way to haul bigger and heavier loads back to my main camp.

So many simple things are very useful.  Clothes pins I use for the intended purpose but I often find other uses for them.  Safety pins I use all the time for so many things.  I gathered all of them I ever found and have some stashed at every one of my camps.  Pencil sharpeners make great shavings for starting fires.  I realized that one day when I was making myself a list and I stopped to sharpen the pencil I was using and then I just looked at the shavings for a moment and realized that they would make a great fire starter.

In the old days of technology, many times I heard people say “Think outside the box.”  Well that is way more important now than it ever was back then.

My life is certainly different from what it was back in the day when I lived amongst all the hustle and bustle of that modern life.  Who could have ever thought how things would turn out?  Now I have been living alone and seeing almost no one for many years.  Living in an area that—while never containing a whole lot of people—it did have its fair share of residents and tourists.  Now it is just me and local animals that share the land.  I guess I am living the life of a hermit. 

I suppose many people would say that I live a lonely life but I don’t feel that way at all.  I just live the life that I have been dealt and I sure don’t consider myself lonely even though I do live totally alone.  I talk to some of the animals and birds when I see them.  Mainly just to hear my own voice and so I remember how to talk.   I don’t know, does that mean that I am crazy?

Chapter 8

I was walking on my way to one of my RV outposts when I got the “feeling.”  I felt someone watching me.  I know that I am not psychic, but I have learned to go with my hunches.  I think most often a hunch is just your subconscious mind correlating information that you do not realize that you have.  Like this time maybe I heard the noises of footsteps in the distance behind me but just did not realize it.  Or I caught a glimpse of movement behind me out of the corner of my eye but again I did not realize that I had actually seen something.  But past experience taught me to trust these hunches.

So I did not turn around but just kept walking on my route.  I did reach down while I was walking and slipped the thong from the hammer of my old revolver that holds it in place in the holster.  Now it is free and I can very quickly draw and fire the hand gun in a fraction of a second.

Then I stopped and looked intently ahead of me.  I was staring at a fair sized (for the area) juniper just ahead of me on the trail.  I took the bow and quickly strung the string and nocked an arrow.  Doing this I never took my eyes from the small tree ahead of me.  With the bow ready to shoot I crouched slightly and slowly approached the green tree.

As I came abreast of the tree I took a step towards it and brought the bow to full draw.  Next I stepped quickly around the tree.  On the now hidden side of the tree I eased the bow back to a relaxed state and turned to look at my back trail.  I could partially see through the branches of the small tree and I looked very carefully at the trail I had just walked.  I also watched on both sides well away from the trail. 

At first I saw nothing. Then I detected movement well back from my location.  I saw two people, but they were far enough back that I could tell nothing else about them.  I saw what I needed and did not want to arouse their suspicion so I walked back out from behind the tree and, shaking my head, I unstrung the bow again.  Anyone close enough would just think I saw a rabbit but that it had eluded me.  I then continued my trek.

This trail led to one of my RV camps but I saw no reason to lead these people to that camp so I turned at an opportune spot and walked up and between two hills to the right of the current trail.  As soon as I topped the ridge between these two hills and dropped down again far enough so I could no be seen from behind I doubled back and crept up behind some brush that was thick enough to break up my silhouette. 

I looked back towards the trail I had been walking to see just what the people I had seen behind me would do.  If they had no interest in me they would continue walking down the trail and we would very likely never meet.  If, instead, they turned and started up towards my current position, then they likely had evil intentions and we would be meeting soon.

I was surprised by seeing these two men and that they obviously were about to try and kill me.  Just a couple weeks ago or so I had gone through this same scenario with another lone man.  That time when I had confronted the lone man he had made an attempt to shoot me with what turned out to be an empty, scoped rifle.  That man had very little of value with him.  I took his backpack and other items which did not amount to much.  The rifle was worthless but I did take it and leave it at my closest campsite.  I couldn’t bring myself to just leave it lying out in the desert.  The scope I did take off to use as a telescope, something that might be useful.

That time though the man was roughly my size. His clothes and shoes were rags.  I did take the pants because, though the front part was about shot, the backs of the pant legs had pretty good material and I could use that material to patch my own pants (something I had grown adept at doing). 

I did not have long to wait for my answer.  The two people walked down the trail and then turned up towards me.  They were now close enough that I could see they were two men and each had a bow they were carrying along with, each having a pack on their back.  I had seen enough and eased back and down out of their sight and picked up my pace heading down this side of the ridge while working on a plan.  I soon came up with a simple plan that would tilt the odds further in my direction.

Not too far away was one of my mine camps.  This one was somewhat special and would play a big role in the plan I had come up with.  This side of the ridge was fairly open and when I reached the flats I stopped to get a drink from my canteen.  While drinking, I looked around and glanced back up behind me.  As I suspected, the two men, upon seeing how open this side of the ridge was, had stopped near the top and I could not see them.  They would fall back some as I had suspected so they would not be easily seen.

After my drink I continued my trek to my new destination.  I had an impulse to hurry but I did not give in to that inclination.  I kept the same easy pace I had earlier, so as not to arouse any suspicion that I may have seen the two men.  It was pretty open along this route and I doubted they would take the chance to advance any closer.  If they did have evil intentions they would hang back and wait for me to stop and set up a camp.  If they wanted just to talk, they would close the distance some and announce themselves as soon as they got within earshot.

I walked for the next hour or so and was soon approaching the mine camp entrance.  There was a small, semi-permanent crick that right now had a small amount of flow in it just below the mine entrance.  I walked down and washed up at the crick a little and then went up and into the old mine.  After I walked well back into the darkness I turned and looked out at the small section of outside area I could see from here.

It was enough to see the two men walk closer and then stop and talk some.  One stayed put and only walked behind a mesquite tree where he had some partial concealment while the other walked down towards the crick.  A few minutes later the man from the crick rejoined the other and both then stayed hunkered down behind the mesquite.  While there was still plenty of light outside (it was close to sundown) I carefully looked over the land, using my binoculars all around, and especially behind where the two men were located.

Having seen what I needed to see I put away my binoculars and, going farther back in the mine, I reached down and grabbed one of the several brush twists that I had previously left there.  I lit the very dry twist of brush on fire and used that light to go farther back into the mine.  Thankfully I encountered no other residents in the mine.  I walked quickly as these small pieces of brush lit easily but burned down fairly quickly.  I got near the end and dropped my bow, my pack, and the still burning twist of brush.  I reached my homemade ladder and ascended.

There was a vertical air shaft at this end of the mine and, previously, I had made a makeshift hanging ladder, using short pieces of heavy-enough branches and barbwire from a nearby fence.  A very heavy piece of pipe was across the top of the shaft and the barbwire ladder hung securely from that down to the bottom of the mine.  Making the ladder had been a simple and relatively quick project and gave me a way out if, for some reason, there was ever a cave-in while I was inside.  Today it gave me a way out that could not be seen from where the two men were hiding.

Once out of the mine I used the diminishing light while it was available to walk well away and make a big enough loop so I could sneak up behind the two men, hopefully before they advanced on the mine entrance.

It was getting harder to see as I slowly approached the two hiding men.  I had my heavy revolver in my hand as I came upon them.  Their talking hid the small amount of noise I made as I approached.

“We should wait another hour at least to make sure he is asleep when we go inside.”

“I got a stout branch from down by the crick.  He will never even know what hit him.”

I had heard enough and I wanted enough light so I could see what I was shooting at.  I held the trigger back as I pulled the hammer back on the revolver so it would not make the easily heard clicks.  Once the hammer was back all the way I lined up the just-visible barrel on the farthest man and squeezed the trigger to release the hammer.

The slow, heavy bullet struck the man and he toppled over as I swung the heavy handgun on the other man, pulling the hammer back again as the gun was moving.  He was frozen in shock at the bellowing noise of the shot and I gave him no time to recover as I pulled the trigger again.