Dystopia: The Beginning of the End (5 page)

As soon as his grip loosened, Charleigh wriggled free and bolted for the patio crouching down alongside Toni. 

Dez immediately shot his companion in the thigh and took aim on the second.  He stopped short and stood with his hands up pleading for her to not shoot. 

The mouthy leader began cursing and cradling his arm.  He was rising to get on his feet, and was headed for Dez in a rage.  Another shot from the.22 rang out and hit him in the back of his knee, bringing him down wailing in agony,

“You bitches are gonna die for this!  I’m gonna take my time cutting you.”

Matt and Jeremy rounded the corner of the house as he was screaming obscenities at the girls.  Matt walked up to him placed his shotgun barrel right against his forehead and calmly stated,

“I would rethink that strategy if I were you ass hole.” 

Jeremy, who was only a few years younger than Matt actually laughed out loud saying,

“They picked the wrong women to mess with.” 

Matt gave Jeremy a raised eyebrow and a nod, which he knew, meant to follow his lead.

He and Matt got along well and were constantly doing this bit where they would use that strong New England accent, sometimes making up whole stories.

Jeremy was better at it than Matt and he stepped up and said in what he called his Boston talk,

“Hey theah guy, looks like you ah kinda screwed there buddy…. What were ya thinkin there guy’ these aint no hookahs ya know”

To which Matt replied, “yeah guy, you find hookahs and beeahs in isle tree at walmaht.” 

Dez hated it when these two would make jokes at the worst possible moment and stood angrily saying,

“Why don’t you just shoot them or something.” 

This time though it was perfectly played for the effect it would have, the one guy who had not been shot began to cry saying,

“You are all crazy, Who the hell makes jokes when they are gonna kill a guy?”

Jeremy laughed out loud again,

“C’mon there guy, you know this is wicked funny!”

Matt ended the joking, he got real close to the leader and said in a voice that was almost terrifying,

“You have one of three choices.  One, I can kill you right now, I doubt anyone will miss you. Two, I can call the cops and have you hauled off. Or three, you and your buddies can get the hell off my lawn.”

Grabbing the leader by his wounded elbow dragging him to the driveway, putting his face up close to his said,

“But know this, if you ever come near my family again, you will not die quickly, but you WILL die!”

He paused for it to sink in and said, “Do I make myself clear?” 

While the thugs were scrambling to their feet, and struggling to help each other walk, Lynn walked up and having witnessed their antics spoke up and said,

“Damn, guys I didn't get to shoot anybody with my new gun.” 

She then waved it about for all to admire, she kept her.45 and simply purchased a brand new Ruger SR9C that was exactly like the one Jeremy carried.  She looked them over and said,

“Can I shoot this one that ain't been shot yet?” 

Sam was not so amused, and said to Matt,

“It’s not a good idea to let these guys go.  We need to call the police.” 

Matt pulled him aside and said, “I will talk to you in a minute about it.  I know moving forward they could pose a problem, but think it is the best choice right now.”

Sam looked at him quizzically, Matt nodded saying,

“I’ll explain why in a few minutes after we get rid of these guys.”

The attackers picked up the pace before the guys could change their mind and hurriedly scrambled off.  When they knew they were far enough away the leader began shouting back obscenities. 

Matt and Sam discussed the choice, Sam was adamant they should call the authorities but Matt explained,

“My problem with calling the police is that I don’t want any questions from authorities and take the chance of having the guns seized that were involved in the shooting.  You know as well as I do it is standard procedure to take the firearm as evidence in a shooting.” 

Sam reluctantly agreed and said, “I think it was a good choice not only for that, but we don’t need anyone poking around and knowing what we have going on here.  I didn’t think of that at first, but it is definitely good OpSec.”

Matt went on to explain that all the joking, he and Jeremy were doing had been done on purpose, they did not want them to see how shaken everyone really was. 

“I saw the look Jeremy had when he started the joke and I knew this would leave them wondering if we were all so bad ass as to make jokes in the middle of an attack. Joking while killing guys already down in a time when law still existed was totally crazy.” 

Matt absent mindedly began to dismantle Dez’s gun and started cleaning it while he continued,

“This will make them wonder, if we really are bat shit crazy now? How we would react if everything really was chaos?” 

Sam understood and agreed and shaking his head said,

“You two really amaze me sometimes, I don’t think I would have thought of such a thing.”

With a sideways squinted look he laughed, “Oh, and incidentally, should I worry about you two being actually crazy?”

Matt made a wide eyed crazy stare at Sam, and that got them all laughing.

Sill Laughing, they headed over to where the rest of the group had been checking on the girls. 

Charleigh was beginning to show the beginnings of a nice shiner she would have, but was, otherwise they were for the most part unharmed.  Ariel was still quite shaken and could not be pried off of her mother’s lap for anything.

Dez made a big deal about how brave Dylan was, explaining to everyone how he ran over and grabbed Ariel saving her.   He took her to safety after the guy dropped her.

Toni was a bit shaken now that the adrenaline had passed and was telling Jeremy about how nervous she really was.  As she was speaking Conner came in with a horrified look, shouting,

“Where did all the blood come from outside.”

Frantically, he started looking around the room for Charleigh and Ariel.  Charleigh got up, shiner in full bloom now, approaching Conner and said,

“We are both fine dear, some problems, but… the blood is not ours.”

Connor adored his family and doted on them all the time. Dez always said they were the prettiest couple anyone ever saw.  Connor was not very tall, and it did at times make Charleigh fret over not being able to wear her four inch heels. Afterwards, she would laugh, saying her feet never felt so good.  He was a handsome man that was stocky and muscular, and seemed to have a perpetual five o’clock shadow.  Busy fussing over her eye and Ariel’s skinned knee Dez smiled a thoughtful smile at how happy she was for her daughter and Charleigh adored him.

Charleigh had first seen him when she was still in middle school and one time told her mom how she tried to impress him with her skateboarding prowess.  Which in fact, she could barely stand on the thing without a mishap of some kind.  She then had proceeded to fall flat on her face while trying to show off on the half pipe.  Connor was one of Jeremy’s friends and told Jeremy shortly after her skateboarding mishap that he liked her. 

He and Jeremy back then had some words about his sister, the content of that conversation had never been revealed, however, the two of them laugh about it sometimes.

Connor had been too shy to ask her out, everyone thought.  Later, though, it was revealed he feared Jeremy would punch his lights out for some reason that Jeremy refused to reveal, but everyone was pretty sure of how that came about. 

It was not for quite a few years later that they had gotten together and it was all now all a funny family story they all loved to tell. 

Chapter 6

“Ready for anything?”

“Security is mostly superstition.  It does not exist in nature, Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

– Helen Keller

That evening Matt called a meeting of those in the small prepper group to explain what had happened that afternoon.  He asked them to set up a system where others could come to aid families if things like this started happening more. After a discussion on ways to covertly signal to others in the group the status of a situation, it was the consensus that simple was best. 

A system of red and yellow bandanas was ironed out the color yellow meant all was safe and red meant alert.  After talking about any mishaps or issues over at the cul-de-sac the discussion was concluded and the group left.  Matt figured he would call George to tell him about what had happened. 

Matt waited for George to answer a little nervous because he was not exactly sure how he would talk with him about it. One thing was for sure he knew George would over react if he heard about it later and was not given all the details. 

George answered, “George here, militia headquarters.”

Matt immediately knew how to approach it, saying, “Hey George, Matt here.” 

George with a less than interested tone replied, “Matt…” 

Matt continued, “George, I wanted to inform you of an incident today at my place and maybe get together to talk about organizing everyone to work together for the safety of all in our community?”

As he was describing the incident to George he chose to omit the bandanas and gunfire, from the story. Leaving out the community meeting and using garden tools and the machete for weapons. 

He explained to George that he felt the militia presence might be a good idea.  Telling him each man offered to take a patrol with some of his guys to increase the numbers, George agreed that it might be a good idea. 

After Matt hung up the phone, Tawny asked, “Why did you change the weaponry of the incident and how come you didn’t tell him about the bandanas?” 

Sam explained, saying, “I know you’re all wondering about it, but Matt and I felt that, while George’s group is needed.  George cannot be trusted, he would have likely felt like someone was stepping on his toes by taking out the bad guys ourselves.   If he ever becomes a problem we did not want him to know about the warning system.” 

Matt continued, “George is on a power trip and his volatile nature will surely get men killed in the heat of things.” 

Pausing for a moment he continued, “For the time being, we have to work with him for the good of the community and hopefully he will not go all crazy in this, but somehow I feel like that is exactly what he will do.” 

Matt went on to explain that they felt George may have gone and told the police of the incident just to make sure he was boss man of the community militia and would probably like seeing them have problems. 

As an afterthought, he added, “George is vindictive and does not forget a perceived injustice, by looking to him for protection, it boosts his ego and he believes himself as having more power.”  

Everyone nodded in understanding, most knew George and he was not very well liked.

Matt continued, “This will make him feel like our poor defenseless women needed his protection and hopefully taking Dez off his hit list. 

Dez, Toni and Charleigh began to object and complain about not being defenseless. 

Matt was waving his hands for them to calm down, saying, “Purely a strategic move on our parts, since our poor defenseless women took out these thugs without the help of anyone.” 

Sam spoke up saying, “You all know that at some point George
is
going to become a larger problem, right?” 

Matt said, “Yea, we know, one thing at a time I guess.” 

Tawney got up saying, “What do you say I make some coffee and we check out what everyone managed to buy?”

With a look of relief the nodding in agreement said that was a great idea.  Once the coffee was made and the vehicles were unloaded they spent the rest of their evening going over the bounty each had acquired and putting everything in its place. 

All vehicles had been topped off and were full of fuel as well, which was one of the top priorities.

Matt and Jeremy managed to get a lot of the things on their list at Home Depot, they bought five large tarps, painters plastic and twelve rolls of duct tape. They also got lucky and found 100 packs of various seeds on sale and work gloves for everyone, along with some five-gallon buckets.

Although the varied items were of odd types and quantities, when at the checkout they made sure to go to the lady they frequently saw there and they knew she would ask.

When she had asked about the daily dealings, as she always did to make conversation, they used Jeremy’s property preservation company as a reason for the odd purchases.

Matt and Jeremy were always buying odd things to correct issues with these properties, and since they did many of them, it was not strange for them to do so.  It worked perfectly except she asked if they were planting this late in the season. 

Matt said, “I just smiled at her and told her, Dez will think I am the king of the world with this score. You know she’s some kind of plant freak; I’m sure to get lucky tonight.”

The comment made the slightly elderly lady blush Jeremy told them and they all scolded Matt for teasing an old lady but still laughed.

Toni and Dez went to Walmart and found 150 packs of seeds, most were hybrid, but at least 50 packs were heirloom.  They picked up 6 super squirt guns and 3 of the swim noodles along with a case of pool shock.  All of these were on sale, which made them look like off-season bargain shoppers.  The pool shock and swim noodles were something of a mystery to everyone, but without explaining it they continued to reveal their goods.

They also bought twenty-five pounds of flour, thirty pounds of dried beans, thirty pounds of sugar and another twenty pounds of coffee beans; this would make Matt happy, he needed his coffee. 

They found a good deal on vitamins, Advil and first aid supplies as well.  They split the purchases between them with each buying like items.

On a second trip into Walmart and they got double ought buck and regular bird shot for the twelve gauge, two hundred rounds of nine millimeter and sixty rounds of thirty ought six, which they figured was not bad since most of the ammo shelves were empty as usual. 

They also found seventy five practice arrows for the compound bow and water purification tablets.  Finishing up they picked up six gallons of bleach and two heavy comforters as well. 

Lynn and Sam had gone to all three of the sporting goods stores in their area, they were pleased when they were able to get five hundred rounds of nine millimeter, two hundred fifty rounds of ammo for the forty-five and varied amounts of twenty two caliber, some more thirty ought six and twelve gauge shells too. 

They also did find for Dylan some snare wire, MREs, water purification tablets, twelve camo rain ponchos and by some stroke of luck had found three wrist rockets.  Lynn immediately called Tawny to tell them that they should look for marbles. 

Tawny had gone to the various dollar stores.  She found ten gallons of ammonia and five thousand marbles. Although, she had no idea why Lynn wanted them, she bought all she could.  She also got some first aid items like Band-Aids and bandages, antibiotic ointment, ace bandages, iodine and alcohol.  She grabbed some coloring books and every pack of crayons she could find for the kids as well. 

Connor went to the feed store and picked up five hundred pounds of chicken feed for their chickens, but also some salt licks. He found some antibiotics and two, fifty-five gallon water barrels.  He did get a whole box of seeds they were planning to get rid of and purchased the entire box for five bucks.  He then stopped and thought to buy some fertilizer.  He told them while walking down the isles how he saw the solar water pump, not sure about the large amount of money it cost figured it could be returned if unused and grabbed it. 

They all thought they did pretty well, even though they had not included anything further to protect themselves in the event of an Ebola outbreak. 

Discussing this they planned to assess the list again tomorrow and try and get anything else they felt they needed and possibly check the army surplus store.  After which the left over money would be spent on more food.  The events that already happened, they talked about if they had the option to focus on barter items and not hang on to any spare cash.

They sat that night around the fire pit laughing and joking around enjoying a nice barbeque dinner they each had helped prepare.  Tawny, still not sure why Lynn had wanted marbles, laughingly said to her,

“Oh Lynn, I heard you lost your marbles so I got you some new ones.” 

Everyone loudly burst into laughter as she continued, “What the heck do we need marbles for?” 

Lynn smiled and said, “Ammo.” 

Tawny still looked confused and shrugged as Lynn continued,

“I got the three wrist rockets, a.k.a. sling shots, right? Well, we shoot marbles with them. The Best part, or worst part depending on which end of the marble you are on is.  Upon impact they can shatter creating shrapnel.” 

Tawny smiled ear to ear while nodding understandingly. 

None of them yet completely realized that today’s assault was only just the beginning.  That they would in the coming days face far worse foes than this. 

Connor, who was usually quiet, spoke these very thoughts to them.  Lifting his eyes towards Charleigh he said,

“This could get really bad and we need to be prepared to do whatever it takes to protect this family, and I mean anything.” 

It was ominous the way he said it, and although they were all thinking it, only Connor dared voice it.  They all nodded a sober, thoughtful nod.  Looking around the circle of friends Lynn said,

“We will handle whatever happens as it happens, for tonight, let’s enjoy ourselves and relax while we can.”