Kiamichi Refuge (12 page)

Just minutes before the sun appeared, Tanner heard the faint sounds of a deer coming toward him.  Only his eyes moved, as he tried to catch sight of the animal. It was a buck, a nice big one. The antlers were just nubs, due to the time of year, but the buck had a thick body. Tanner slowly raised his bow and started to draw, but heard another sound coming from behind him. He paused, and soon another, smaller buck entered the clearing.

The two deer grazed a bit, lifting their heads occasionally to look around. One gradually moved over closer to the other. Tanner patiently waited for a clean shot. The smaller deer finally turned, quartering away.
Tanner drew back the string, found the kill zone through the peep sight, and released the arrow. It hit the young buck just behind the shoulder, passing through. Both of the deer jumped at the sound of the string, and bolted away. 

Tanner waited, listening, for almost 30 minutes. He lowered his bow and quiver to the ground, then climbed down and followed the blood trail. About fifty yards from the stand, he found the buck. He drew his knife and field-dressed the animal.
Thank you, Lord, for this bounty Oh, how my priorities have changed. Last fall, I would have shot the bigger buck, but now, I look for the best meat, not the biggest rack. This boy will be tender.
He hiked back to the house as quickly as he could, and borrowed his grandfather’s Kill Shot game cart to retrieve his deer.  Talako offered to walk back with him and help.

“This will be some fine eating for the family, and for Erin’s group,” Talako commented.

“Yes. It’s a great blessing that I was able to get one today. We’ll take him back to the house, skin him and cut him up, then I’ll take some of the meat back to the lodge. Grandmother will want the skin. Can you help me hang him?”

“I’m old, not helpless,” Talako replied.

***

For some reason that she couldn’t explain, even to herself, Erin had not told anyone about the cave entrance in the pantry. The friends who were there were all trustworthy, she was sure, but she just hadn’t mentioned it yet, even to Tanner.

Uncle Ernie had often cautioned her about loose talk, and all of his books contained similar warnings of the dangers that came from telling too much. But Erin had been thinking a lot, and decided that there was also a danger to the others if for any reason she was unable to tell them about the cache of supplies, so she decided to tell Tanner and get his opinion when he returned.

He arrived later that afternoon, carrying a bag filled with venison, which Erin put in the refrigerator. They could cook some of it the next day, and make jerky out of the rest. When the others were all busy elsewhere, Erin asked Tanner to go to the upper deck with her, They sat on two overturned buckets and talked a bit about the prison break, his grandparents, and a few other things, then Erin was quiet for several minutes. Tanner could tell that she had something on her mind, so he simply waited.

“I need to tell you a secret, and then I need your advice. Uncle Ernie was big on prepping, you know.”

Tanner nodded and grinned. “That’s putting it mildly. He once told me that he wrote novels about prepping and instruction books about prepping, so he could pay for prepping. It was a way of life for him.”

“Yes, it was. Did you know that he had plans to buy milk goats? He just didn’t get it done before he got sick. I was going to fulfil his wish, but didn’t find any before things went down.”

Anyway, he did more prepping than I knew, and had quite a large cache of supplies hidden. I’m the only one who knows where those supplies are, but what if something happens to me?”

Tanner looked thoughtful. “You’re wondering who to trust, aren’t you? I think you should consider it like this: if you trust people to live in your house and stand guard while you sleep, doesn’t it follow that you can trust them to know where the food and bandages are?”

Erin sighed. “You’re right. I just thought that if someone was captured by bad guys, they might give up the location to avoid being beaten or tortured. But the location of the cache is more than a supply room. It’s also a place to hide out if we need to.”

“Do you trust your friends? Ian? Charlie? Me? You have to be the one to decide, but I think you should tell someone, just in case. And if the group has to hide there, everyone will know then, anyway.”

“Okay. For now, I’ll just show you and Jen, and I will think about telling the others. Let’s stay up after they go to bed tonight. You and Jen have guard duty, but we can slip away for a few minutes.”

***

By 9:30, everyone was yawning. The combination of working all day plus not having television or videos in the evening made them ready for sleep earlier. The Martins went to bed first, followed by Charlie. The others were not far behind. As soon as it got quiet upstairs, Erin got Jen and Tanner and led them to the pantry.

Jen looked puzzled. “What’s going on? We are supposed to be standing watch, not hanging out in the pantry.”

“Shhh. I need to show you something, but I am not ready to announce it to everyone. Uncle Ernie bought this lodge for a reason, and built this pantry onto the back of the kitchen to hide that reason. Here, take these flashlights, and I’ll show you.”

When Erin rolled the shelf out and exposed the opening, Jen gasped. “What in the world? A cave?”

“More than a cave. See where the floor has been smoothed, and notice those tool marks up high? Uncle Ernie had it enlarged so a grown man could walk through. Come on. There’s more.”

Erin led them down the slope to the cavern. Boxes, buckets, and tubs by the dozens came into view.

“This is Uncle Ernie’s supply cache. I haven’t had time to go through it all, but every container is labeled, and if he forgot anything, I can’t figure out what it could be. There are guns, too, and enough ammo to supply a small army. And the cave continues through the mountain, with at least one other entrance.”

These caves are not only our supply depot. They’re a place to hide, too, and they provide a secret passage to the outside. Tanner, I think the other entrance is near your grandparents’ house. This could be a safer way for you to go when you visit them. I wonder if your grandfather knows about it.”

There is another branch of the cave that goes toward the west, and it may have an entrance, too. I don’t know, but we need to explore it and see what’s there. The time may come when we need an escape route, or a way to get back to the lodge safely from that direction.”

***

Mac used his handheld to contact Tanner that evening. He had spent most of the day listening on his ham radio, but not saying much, just gathering news from different parts of the country. Tanner invited Mac and his family to come over for a visit.

Most of the group gathered around in the living room to hear what Mac had to say. He had heard stories from several places, including Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago, and Houston. Most of the big cities were extremely dangerous places to be, due to roving gangs who grew more violent every day.

“Folks in Houston are dealing with their usual hot, humid conditions, but now, of course, with no air conditioning. The heat is adding a new layer of meanness to the trouble there. The guy I talked to said that there are bodies lying in the streets. People just shoot you if you look at them funny. There’s no food, the water has been off for a while, and there’s sickness, too. He didn’t know what it was, but from what he said, it sounds like cholera. All those dead bodies need to be buried for the sake of the living. Dead bodies are a breeding ground for disease, but nobody wants to take on the task of disposing of them.”

Chicago is a war zone. In spite of all their gun restrictions, it seems that there are an awful lot of guns there. Rival gangs have shootouts on almost a daily basis. There were two ham operators that I heard discussing the problems there, and it’s about as bad as it can be. The government at least tried to send in troops to keep the peace, but they were outnumbered and didn’t even make a dent in the violence. They reportedly fled when the gangs joined forces against them. As soon as the troops left, the gangs turned on each other again.”

“What about Atlanta? I have cousins there,” Lydia interjected.

“Atlanta is not as bad as Chicago, but large areas of the city are no-go zones. People are leaving on foot by the tens of thousands, headed to the country to find food, but there isn’t enough food anywhere. Corporate farms are shut down by the lack of fuel for their big equipment. Small farms are able to grow crops the old-fashioned way, but not in the quantities that are needed. My contact there said that he heard of women and even young girls trying to trade sex for food or water. It’s sad how few people were prepared for even a small crisis.”

The drought in California has killed off most of the fruit trees there. There’s no way to get the fruit to people anyway. Many of the migrants who worked on the farms have gone back to wherever they came from. The countries south of us must have been hurt by this because of losing us as customers for their goods, but at least they still can buy gas down there, if they have any money. They’re doing better than we are.”

“I wonder how things are in Europe and Asia. Without American markets, the Chinese must have a surplus of all sorts of products. They have a huge population, and if they’ve cut production because nobody is buying their stuff, a lot of people will be unemployed,” Tanner commented. “We bought a lot from Vietnam, Japan, and Taiwan, too. Any news from that part of the world?”

“Not yet, but if atmospherics are right, I might be able to get news from other parts of the world soon. It may be second or third hand, but I’ll see what I can find out,” Mac promised. “I also heard from some guys in Florida. Tampa is better off than some places. They are worried about hurricane season, because without the National Weather Service, they will have a lot less warning about storms. And if one hits anywhere, the help that usually shows up won’t be coming this time. They’re on their own, not just in Florida, but anywhere prone to weather disasters or earthquakes.”

Mac and Claire agreed to stay and share a meal with their friends, but made sure that they left in time to get home before dark. Little Kyra yawned, then waved goodbye to the friends who stood on the porch.

“I’m worried about them,” Tanner sighed. “The baby is due soon, and their house is really close to the road. I wish they were back in the woods out of sight, just in case any bad guys come around.”

“You’re right. The plan is for them to come here if it gets dangerous, but Mac is pretty independent. Let’s try to get them to come here before the baby comes. It will just be safer for them to be with friends who can help. It would be good for Angie to be close at hand when the time comes, too.”

“I’ll talk to Mac. He loves his family, and I think he’ll listen.”

“I hope so. I really hope so,” Erin murmured.

Third Week of July

Tanner spent the night, and the next morning at breakfast, he seemed quiet and preoccupied. At the first opportunity, Erin took him aside and asked him if there was something bothering him.

“Nothing’s wrong. A couple of things have been on my mind. First, I have a lot of supplies and dog food stored at my facility, and we need to go get it. I also lay awake most of the night wondering where Ernie’s other caches are. He was a firm believer in redundancy, so I think there must be at least one more somewhere. I suspect it’s at his house in town. It would probably be worth the gas to take Ian’s delivery truck to town and see what we can find. With so many people here already, and more probably coming, we’ll need all the supplies we can get.”

“Just two of us?”

“No. I think it would be safer and faster for three, or even four of us. How about Ian, and maybe Sarah or Jen? If we find it, we’ll load up all we can and store it under beds, or put it in the cavern or maybe another part of the cave system.”

“Let’s ask Sarah, so Jen can spend more time with her parents. When should we go?”

“How about now? The sooner, the better. I suppose we can leave the stuff at my place for a while. It’s pretty isolated out there, but we need to get it sometime soon, before someone discovers it and it disappears.”

“Uh-oh. I just remembered something. Ian’s truck is full of mattresses and all the other stuff he brought.” Erin sighed. “I guess we’ll have to unload them and store them in the cave somewhere, but then, everyone will know about the cache.”

“I have a better idea. There’s room for a few in each bedroom, if we lean them up against the walls. It’s not ideal, but it will work for now.”

“Good idea. Let’s do it.”

***

Ian drove, with Tanner riding shotgun. Erin and Sarah rode in the back, and every bump in the road made a new bruise, but there just wasn’t room for all four of them in the front. When they arrived at the house, Erin quickly unlocked the front door, then Tanner went into the garage and manually lifted the overhead door so Ian could back the truck right up to it.

Someone had already been inside the house. The back door had been kicked in, and the kitchen was ransacked. Whoever had done it seemed to have been after supplies. There was no vandalism; it was obvious that things had been taken, but nothing, other than the door, was broken or destroyed.

“Where would Ernie have hidden his preps?” Tanner mused. “It would be somewhere safe, where the temperature is fairly constant and there isn’t excess moisture. That leaves out the attic.”

“A basement?” Sarah asked.

“This house doesn’t have a basement.” Erin looked thoughtful, “Or does it?”

They began to search the house for supplies, or for any possible entrance to a hidden room or staircase. Once they had gone through the entire house, they met back in the kitchen.

“Is there a garden shed or something like that in the yard?” Ian asked.

They all moved to the back windows to look, but there was nothing at all in the backyard except a fence. When Erin turned from the window, she noticed a tall bookcase full of cookbooks. She stood staring at it for a moment, puzzled.

“That’s funny. Uncle Ernie could cook basic meals pretty well, but he wasn’t one to try out new recipes. I wonder why he had all those cookbooks.”

She stepped over to the shelf and started pulling books out, stacking them on the dining table. Tanner caught on quickly, and started helping. Then he found the latch.

“Bingo! Erin, you’re a genius!” The shelf rolled forward easily. “I think Ernie must have had a thing for hidden casters.”

The opening revealed a staircase going down to a basement as large as the house. It was filled with the same types of tubs, buckets, and steel boxes as the cavern.

“Let’s load up as much as possible, then close this up and replace the books. Hurry, before anyone comes,” Ian urged. “When we come back, we’ll only have to remove two or three books, now that we know where the latch is.”

Tanner and Erin stayed in the basement, bringing items to the top of the stairs and stacking them for Sarah and Ian to load in the truck, so they wouldn’t all be getting in each other’s way on the stairs. Ian was an expert at packing things into a truck, so he got a lot loaded, while still leaving a space for Erin and Sarah to ride back there.