Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (35 page)

“Captain, do you have a map? How about a connected computer.”

“Have both.”

“Good, I’ll log on to the forums and show you posts. I’ll show you on the map where we met them.”

“Sarge, please bring the Marine Captain our map and our tablet.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Captain Black, I’ll sign on and show you their posts.”

“Pest removal tools for sale?”

“Yeah, keep reading.”

“Professional pest removal AK and the permanent pest removal tool, the easy to use AR. Each comes with everything needed to kill terminates and other pests.”

“Gotta give them credit for a good sense of humor. How much did they charge per rifle?”

“50 Silver Eagles.” 

“Very cheap at today’s conversion rate, in fact, dirt cheap since the President is trying to confiscate all firearms.”

“Which is why we contacted them. I had a feeling they didn’t know what to charge.”

“Why do you say that?”

“We asked for a quantity discount, they didn’t know what it meant, which is a sure indicator they’re not from around here. Plus I overheard them debating if they should raise the prices since they were selling so well. One of them said they should call their contact to get another shipment.”

“Very interesting. I think we’re going to have to pay these people a visit. Sarge, get a platoon ready to move out. I suggest you dress in civvies. No reason to let them get suspicious and take off without us figuring out who they really are.”

The Marine Captain nods in agreement and leads the army platoon to the selling point. They discover the sellers have already left. The platoon spreads out looking for any indication where the sellers went to. The find some boxes in a shallow hole, digging them up, they smile when they see all the markings are in Russian. The Sergeant discovers two sheets of notes, stuffed inside one of the Russian boxes. He studies the note, smiling, he says, “We can return to our base camp, we know where they’re going.”

“Where?”

“Small farming town, north of Nashville, just south of the border with Kentucky.”

“The Captain will be pleased, that’s on our regular route. He won’t even have to ask for permission.”

Captain Black smiles at the news, he asks the militias if they want to join them.”

“Thank you, yes we’d be happy to find them again.”

Captain Black studies the map, “Sarge, I’ll ask the militia leaders for one of their squads to go with you as a scout team. I don’t want anyone we locate to see our uniforms.”

“Yes, sir.”

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The mess hall was almost totally silent. No one wanted to talk about what they’d found at their houses. Everyone was depressed, many didn’t take any food, only coffee. They sat in silence staring into nothingness. Jay looked around knowing he had to do something very quickly to break them out of their depression if they had any chance of surviving. He was very worried about suicides or some people just walking away from the shelter and not coming back.

Chapter 25

Tony and his key staff unlock his steel reinforced garage, they connect a solar powered battery charger to his armored ex-Marine MRAP. Tony smiles saying, “You assholes laughed at me when I bought this monster at the government auction. I told you it would come in handy. Let’s get it started and see if our warehouses are still standing.”

His four men check the MRAP, they check their weapons, two are armed with fully automatic Uzis, one with a semi-automatic shotgun and Tony has his fully automatic Thompson submachine gun. They pull the MRAP out of the garage. Tony secures the door before they leave. They drive down a road which Tony paid extra to appear as an unused dirt road. In reality, the road was strengthened to support the weight of the MRAP. They traveled slowly on the winding road, one of his men used the MRAP’s thermal sensor to scan the woods that line his road. The thermal sights don’t show any people, a few deer, and stray dogs, but no people. They slowly drive twelve miles to a large industrial area surrounded by a twelve-foot high barbwire topped chain link fence. They slow to a stop in front of the gate. Tony and one of his bodyguards exit the MRAP. Tony says, “I surprised, in fact, I’m shocked, the place looks untouched.”

“Boss, it does. Want me and the boys to walk the fence?”

“No, let’s not waste the time, I’ll unlock the gate, after we pull in, relock the gate so we don’t have any surprise visitors.”

“Will do.”

Tony unlocks the gate while the MRAP is driven into the complex, Tony says, “Fourth warehouse to the left.”

“Got it, want to ride, or walk?”

“I’ll walk, I want to check out the facility.”

Tony walks next to the MRAP as they slowly make their way to the fourth warehouse, Tony unlocks it. They slide open the large sliding door. Tony scans the inside of the warehouse with his flashlight. He smiles. “It’s all here. This is going to be worth a large fortune.”

“Boss, want us to take any of this home?”

“Not yet, I’ll take a copy of the inventory, let’s lock the place down and go home.”

“Boss, what’s in the other warehouses?”

“Other stuff I’ll sell over time. The longer I wait, the more valuable it’s going to be worth.”

The group returns home. Tony parks the MRAP, he and his guards enters the shelter, he looks at everyone sitting in the mess hall. He frowns, thinking, They look defeated, one day checking their homes and their faces show they’ve already lost. They don’t know what they should do. This is dangerous. Everyone has to be on the top of their game if we’re going to survive. I may have to give away some of my supplies to give them hope. It’ll be interesting to see how Jay handles this.

Jay walks to the front of the mess hall, “May I please have your attention?” Everyone’s heads rise and turn to look towards Jay. “I see you returned a little depressed,” Rich yells out, “A little? Christ, Jay, we’d have been better off if the storm destroyed our homes like it did yours. We’re going to have to rebuild and replace almost everything except for the four external walls. Where are we going to get the building supplies? Where are we going to get the appliances and new windows, roofs? Hell, we’re going to need truckloads of building materials. Last time I checked, Lowes and Home Depot aren’t open, there aren’t many trucks running. Money is worthless, we were better off in here. Yesterday morning we were so excited to be going home, what we saw weren’t our homes. We don’t know what to do now.”

“Did you think that you’d open your front doors and be greeted by the smell of baking bread? I warned you to think the worst nightmare you could envision. Nothing you found should have surprised you. At least you have a frame to start with, we don’t even have that. We have fifteen-foot piles of debris which used to be everything we owned and valued. Are we crying? Are we depressed to the point we don’t know what to do? We knew we were going to have to rebuild, I warned you that you should plan on working in teams to rebuild each home. We CAN do this, we can work together to rebuild our community and farm.”

Someone yells out, “Where are we going to find building supplies?”

Before Jay can respond, Tony says, “I might know where Lowes kept their extra inventory. I may know where the regional manager of Lowes lives who may be able to help us. I think we can find the supplies, I also agree with Jay, teams are going to be required to rebuild our homes.”

Rich says, “Your home doesn’t look bad.”

“We were very lucky because we built on the far back side of the farms, we were stripped, but otherwise left OK.”

“Are you going to be helping us rebuild?”

“Of course I am. My people and I pledge to do everything we can to help the farm get back on its feet. After all, the farm may be the only source of food in the local area.”

Jay stands, “Tony, thank you. I knew we could count on you. I’d like to propose using some of
your people to form an away team to check the other local farms, they may be OK, or they may have been wiped out, if they were, then they may have equipment and supplies we can use. With all of the stores closed, I bet the building materials were left alone, people can’t eat sheetrock. I’m sure we can find what we need to rebuild.”

Someone yells out, “Isn’t that stealing?”

“No, I’ll leave a note where to find me, when the owner of the materials arrives, I’ll pay them for what we took. Make sure to keep an inventory of what we take.”

This perks everyone up, they begin smiling and nodding their agreement.

Paul asks, “We lost a year of supplies, what do we have left? I think we’re entitled to know what we have left. Are we at risk of starving?”

Jay smiles, “We’re fine. Due to security concerns, I don’t want to say our actual condition, I will say, we’re OK and will be OK for a long time. Don’t worry about food, we should worry about our security and rebuilding our homes, now let’s eat, we’re going to need our strength to rebuild.”

People’s faces begin to brighten, they begin talking about forming teams, they entered the mess hall thinking they would never live in their homes again, they’re leaving thinking they may have a chance. Their mood is much better than before dinner. Tony asks to see Jay privately when they’re both in the security room, which can seal its doors, Jay asks, “Tony, thanks for stepping up and helping at dinner. You really helped give everyone hope, what can I do for you?”

“Jay, I found the Lowes General Manager, he has building supplies, his warehouse in untouched, the issue is he wants to get paid for the materials.”

“Are they his?”

“I think they’re owned by the company. He’s a regional VP at the company.”

“Then the supplies aren’t his to sell.”

“He won’t tell us where the supplies are unless he’s paid.”

“I don’t believe he’s going to accept dollars, which are worthless.”

“I know, he wants Silver and Gold.”

“Great another greedy SOB.”

“Aren’t we all?”

“OK, you have a point. How much does he want?”

“What do we want?”

“Everything he has.”

“Are you sure you want his entire warehouse. It’s the equivalent of buying an entire Lowes store, it’s going to be very expensive.”

“If we don’t buy it now, his price will only go up as others try to rebuild. There’s only a limited amount of supplies in the local area.”

“Want me to see what kind of deal I can cut?”

“Thanks that will be very helpful.”

They shake hands and leave the security room. Tony smiles to himself thinking, that went better than I thought it would. He didn’t even flinch when I brought up the subject of gold and silver. I don’t think he realizes I own the supplies. This is going easier than I thought. Tony hums to himself as he walks to his room to see his wife, Nancy.

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Captain Sarnoff and his men are making good time on their way to Portland, Tennessee. The scouts he sent ahead report back, “Captain, we found the roads to be in remarkably good shape. Fuel is almost nonexistent. The people we met are hungry and very angry at the government, many are confused and wonder when the government is going to restart making support payments. There are many stories about mobs of people and outlaw gangs who stole everything the small towns along the highway had. They raped and kidnaped the town’s women and teens. They burned large portions of their shopping centers so that the people could not use the products left in their stores.”