Doing The Apocalypse Shuffle: Southern Prepper Adventure Fiction of Survival Grid Down (Old Preppers Die Hard Book 2) (6 page)

“Damn that sounds good, I think I am going to be too full to even think about hunting a deer!” Farley declared to which Becky beamed a smile at the praise.

“We may not never eat like this again for some time to come but a celebratory feast for today sounds great and if we don’t make pigs of ourselves, we will even have leftovers for the next day.” Charlie declared.

“That’s the thing; we have to be careful and strictly limit ourselves to a small taste of everything based on us each eating only a moderate plate. I don’t want anybody getting sick around here. Your bodies are no longer used to consuming either rich or large quantities of food anymore. We aren’t that bad off yet but dumping a bunch of food on a starving body has been known to even kill folks. Back in World War II the Nazi’s were starving people to death in concentration camps and when the allies came in to rescue them they gave them poor souls lots of food that the ravenous survivors went crazy over and gorged themselves with. Many died after the first day of being rescued, unfortunately, until the horrible mistake of allowing them that much food was recognized.” Farley said giving a historical reference that food could cause lots of harm just like giving someone too much water after they had become dehydrated in the desert.

“Now as for us dying off from eating too much food, I say that don’t sound like such a bad death to me right now, Farley, but I got your point. Feng you and Becky keep an eye on those boys, they got them an appetite that could beat mine in the best of times.” Charlie stated and Feng and Becky both agreed that growing boys and especially teenagers had voracious appetites regardless of if they were on a starvation diet or not.

“Charlie, my friend, I have been thinking that I need to leave most of this food and supplies here in case we run into a problem or robbers on the road. I need you to open up that utility shed of yours so I can drop off some of my excess gear on our way out.” Farley said surprising him that he would put this much trust in him so soon in their arrangement.

“I will open it up for you, Farley, and nobody will touch it until you get back.” Charlie assured.

“I also unloaded some canned goods in my cabin so try to keep an eye on things down this way if you could.” Farley began before Miss Feng objected that all they had was some target shooting bows and arrows for that task and couldn’t assure him anything.

“I thought about that but it can’t be helped and I am not expecting trouble anyway. I left mostly camping gear and such in my cabin and we won’t be gone long, but I would feel better having the majority of my long term storage food in that utility shed that’s harder for folks to find. We got to find us some more guns for defense of this place somewhere and soon. No, Miss Feng, we are not starting that argument again, I was thinking about something else. How much money or trade goods do you have available, Charlie?” Farley asked him directly.

After an uncomfortable moment of exchanging glances with Miss Feng, he told Farley they had maybe $1200 in cash and some small bits of gold jewelry unless Farley could trade off some gas or something else around here.

“I got a hundred dollars mad money left and some jewelry I can offer to throw into the pot. Whenever I go off on a trip I always try to gather up my valuables and take them with me in case the car breaks down or something else happens.” Becky declared offering what she had for the community benefit.

“The only place I know of to even ask around here about any possible guns and ammo for trade is that bait store and they aren’t the friendliest folks in the world as I have already told you.” Farley said eying Becky for a second who only raised one eyebrow at him.

“You be careful over there, Farley. I thought you had decided that you weren’t going around there for awhile?” Charlie said.

“Well I wasn’t and I still don’t want to really but like I said I don’t have much choice at the moment. Gas beats cash at the moment but I hate giving any up let alone telling folks I have any extra for trade I would let loose of. Let me ponder on that for a bit. Guns and ammo might be difficult to trade for in these hard times, but offering food or gas should be able to find some weapons if the cash don’t work. Lots of folks sometimes have an extra gun they might be willing to let go of in order to fulfill another need.” Farley said starting to think the matter over.

“I don’t mind giving you some cash and gas but I am not willing to trade any our food stores we got left just yet unless you think it’s absolutely necessary.” Charlie said looking towards Feng who looked like she was dying to get into this conversation but was being quiet for now.

“Well I don’t mind trading some of my own food for some security although I am of the same mind as you are regarding its value. Hell, what is the value of anything these days? It is hard for me to even consider or estimate the prices of anything or for that matter what even might be able to be found to trade for.” Farley said trying to envision about how to even go about soliciting a gun sale or making offers towards one.

“Here comes the boys back.” Miss Feng said pointing towards the road.

“I tell you what, Charlie, you give me $500 in cash and I will see what
I can do about finding you some kind of better weapon or weapons. I doubt anybody will be trying to trade off anything fancy but you never can tell. I am thinking that old .22 rifles, maybe a .38 pistol or an old shotgun or something will be what’s available or possibly being offered for barter if food has become more important than protection in desperate times. Any type of firearm that is serviceable will beat that bow of yours so we aren’t going to be too picky. Normally you’re talking a hundred, two hundred dollars for such items but now? There is no telling. We got to weight the trade in our favor some kind of way with the value of your items. Do you have any other gas cans besides those boat gas cans?” Farley asked.

“I got some 5 gallon ones for the generators, I guess I could spare maybe 2 of those. Why don’t you want to just utilize the boat cans?” Charlie asked as Feng and Becky were having some kind of conversation with the boys that seemed to want to include them but was being held off for the moment.

“Oh, those are ok, they are just a pain in the ass to pour into a gas tank and although I don’t think folks would mind much how they were getting their gas, it still brings to mind where we might have acquired them from. Gimme one of the 5 gallons and two of the boat cans to take along with me and I will see what I can do. That bait shop might be closed or they could say that they got nothing at all to trade for so it might not even matter what we got to offer. That place isn’t exactly a trading post and they have already told me in no uncertain terms that they weren’t offering any food for any price. Still and all that’s how trade gets started, somebody needs something and someone else brings something around for trade and word gets out. Then for some reason things magically begin appearing and trade starts for the same reason.” Farley declared before asking the women and the boys did they need them for something because they were looking awfully insistent about getting a pause in the conversation in which to speak.

“The boys say they saw strange men in a boat!” Miss Feng said with her hand on Fong’s shoulder pushing him forward slightly to tell the men what he had seen when they went to fetch water.

“They wasn’t doing much, just fishing along the shoreline.” Fong began.

“They had them a bass boat and were fishing with the trolling motor. We watched them for a bit and asked them if they were they catching anything when they got close enough.” Jeremy chimed in.

“They told us they were not  having much luck catching anything and asked how we were doing.” Fong said excitedly recalling the event.

“What did you tell them?” Farley asked concerned his mind whirling with possibilities of if this casual conversation indicated any kind of dangers they all needed to anticipate.

“Oh, we told them that we were just fine but had to hurry back to our parents with the water we had collected.” Fong said smiling.

“Tell him what you said to them, Jeremy.” Becky interjected.

“I asked them if they were in the military and when they said no I asked them if they hadn’t seen all the signs that said no trespassing.” Jeremy said with a grin.

“I told them they better find themselves a different place to fish then because the military police would give them a ticket if they were spotted!” Fong said proud of that bit of subterfuge he had undertaken.

“What did they say to that?” Charlie asked as Farley looked at everybody also highly interested in the outcome.

“They just said they thought the place was closed and that it would be all right for them to fish around here. I told them no, it was for military personnel and their dependants only and we had to get back because our folks were waiting on us.” Fong said.

“They asked if there was somebody in charge they could talk to about getting some food and I told them I didn’t know anything about that and they could talk to the guard at the gate if he didn’t try to arrest them. I might have messed up by saying that, Farley, but I couldn’t think of nothing else at the time.” Jeremy said looking at everyone for acceptance or rejection as to what he had told the fishermen to try to scare them off.

Farley and Charlie looked at each other for a moment with some concern until both praised the boys and said that they had done well but it was likely that those two men might just try coming to the gate, regardless, in hopes of getting a handout or some information and that worried them immensely.

Becky comforted Jeremy that what he had said couldn’t be helped now and in the heat of the moment it was a very smart thing to have come up with to say, but that didn’t console him much or keep Fong from messing with him some about it.

“Damn, Charlie, now we got us some new problems to take care of before I leave possibly. You got any old uniforms around?” Farley asked.

“No, not really anything serviceable, I got just the dress blues I had planned on being buried in. What exactly do you have in mind, Farley?” Charley asked quizzically.

“You probably already guessed what I am thinking of but you’re going to be playing a gate guard for a little while we are gone.” Farley began to explain before Feng started chattering away in protest in that sing song hard to sometimes understand Asiatic voice of hers.

“You get that man killed you no good, Farley. He no military police, he don’t even have gun.” Feng screeched at him and began tugging on Charlie’s sleeve like it was a pump handle.

“Now just calm yourself down for a minute, Miss Feng! He has got something better than a gun going in his favor if you will just settle down and listen to me for a minute. He will be safe. What he has going in his favor is a commanding military presence and demeanor as well as his years of acting with authority according to that armful of stripes he has got. I bet we can continue to bullshit the hell out of anyone that might be coming by today until we can figure out something better if we just take us a few minutes to concentrate and to come up with a plan.” Farley said as Charlie looked at him skeptically with an “are you out of your mind yet?” look.

“I am listening to you, Farley, but I do not like any of it so far. Suppose I am standing in that gate house and somebody comes by and wants to nose about. I don’t look like an M.P. and anybody with any military experience or common sense will know no one of my rank would be standing duty and besides I don’t have a weapon.” Charlie objected.

“Well, give me a minute or two I am working on the details of it. The main thing to do in my mind is to keep anyone approaching that gate from getting close enough to see anything is amiss. Now the way we will do that is that you can be exiting the gate as someone is approaching and you confront them before they get there in your official truck and be in full uniform.” Farley advised starting to put a plan together.

“That might just work buddy, might not be such a bad idea after all. I could get out of my truck with a scowl and approach them with a clipboard or something in my hand but I would have to know exactly when they were approaching the gate to pull it off.” Charlie said contemplating.

“Now that is a problem, humm how do we go about doing that? Hey, you don’t have any of those wooden barricades they use to say that a road is closed or that men are working or something do you? You know the kind with the flashing yellow lights on them?” Farley asked as Charlie tried to think about where some might be.

“Yea, we got some of those I think, but they would be in that maintenance shed I don’t have a key to.” Charlie advised before Jeremy chimed in that Farley could probably get into it with his axe of his like he had done with the front gate.