Dystopia: The Beginning of the End (11 page)

When they arrived at the family’s home, the girl’s mother stood on the porch with a shotgun, she looked tired and dirty.  Her hair was knotted, her clothes looked like she had been in them at least a week. 

Not wanting to alarm the family, Dez sent the girl in to speak with them.  Afterwards the mother came out in tears.  She apologized to them saying how upset she was with them for doing such a thing. 

Sam told her, “No worries ma’am, I think they know now this is not a good idea.  We told them how they could have all ended up dead, honestly, I think we scared them pretty good.” 

Rebecca stepped forward with the bag of medical supplies and asked if she could see her husband.  The woman led the ladies to the bedroom as the men unpacked the food and supplies they brought. 

The woman still crying said, “I don’t know how I can repay you for this kindness.”

Sam told her, “You can send those three up to our place in a few days they can come help with the garden and.”

He paused and laughed a small laugh, and continued, “Be taught how to hunt.” 

He then asked her if they had water and heat, the woman said that her husband was trying to figure those things out. Explaining that after he fell and became ill, they just started getting water from the creek and boiling it in the fire pit out back. 

They talked and thought it was only right that they help this family and said they would take a look around at the house for some things to help them with that.  

Dez and Rebecca noticed the smell of his infection immediately upon entering the room.  Rebecca looked at the wound and immediately began to work on cleaning it.  It was deep and had needed stitches, but she did not want to close it due to the infection.

She packed it with a mixture of honey and sugar and bandaged it up.  They gave the man, ibuprofen and a large dose of Cipro, which was the strongest antibiotic they had in hopes it would be strong enough. 

After looking at his ankle she felt it was not broken, but more likely he had a bad sprain.  She put some cold packs on it, even though it had already been a week she wanted to reduce the swelling. 

Without an x-ray they could not be sure until the swelling went down.  Rebecca then instructed the woman to give him the ibuprofen and Cipro every 6 hours and not to miss a dose, that in order for them to work he had to have them consistently. 

She also told her a few days more and he would not have made it.  She was instructed to change his dressings every time she gave him the meds and that he was to eat and get plenty of fluids. 

Rebecca was worried, she knew her experience was limited and what he really needed was a doctor, but none had been around since the power went out. 

They told the woman they would come for the helpers in two days.  Saying, that she would return then to check on his condition and that they would try to find a doctor for him in the meantime.

As they were preparing to leave, Dez pulled the large container of stew and two fresh loaves of bread out of the truck and gave it to her saying, “Our Janice is a fabulous cook, and I hope your family enjoys dinner.  Hopefully you can get your husband to take in some of the broth.” 

Sam told her to keep everyone home saying, “There are some very, very not nice folks out and about.  If your husband gets worse, send the kids up and we will return sooner.” 

Chapter 14

“Day by Day “

“There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.”

-Winston Churchill

              Early that morning Matt recruited Joe and Cameron to help him with the plastic for the porch. Cameron was full of questions about the girl he saw yesterday, he thought she was cute and asked if he could go help them when they went to their place tomorrow. 

Matt and Joe exchanged a glance and laughed, saying he could go, but only if they got this porch done today.  He was busily stapling up plastic and strapping working harder than either of them remember him working before. 

Joe turned to Matt and whispered, “Would you look at the boy go?  Put a pretty girl in his sights and he turns into the energizer bunny.” 

Matt and Joe laughed hard; Dez was watching them and told Rebecca it was good to see Matt laugh.  He was usually the comedian; he and Jeremy would often make her angry with their antics and she often wished they would take things more seriously. 

Lately they have both been so serious, she thought it was silly that she actually missed the antics.  Rebecca commented that it was funny how little things that would just set a person off could also be exactly what they loved the most. 

              Toni, having been a teacher before the
‘reset’
as they had all come to call it, had talked to the parents in their group about educational issues with regards to the kids. The parents loved the idea of some time to keep up with studies, although the kids hated it.

Ariel was the youngest of the kids at just four years, but even she was to attend.  Toni set up the mess hall into a classroom and had them attend classes for math, spelling and various other subjects. 

They were to go from the breakfast meal until the lunch meal.  After lunch, they learned life skills from different adults.  The kids especially liked that part of the day.  It actually served a dual purpose, allowing parents to have some time to do things they needed to do, as well as educational for the children. 

All in all there was a varied class and she had the older kids helping younger kids. 

Ariel being four and Loel’s son, Josh, who was also four would be together.

He would always say, “But almost five.”  Whenever someone would mention his age. They were to be all in the same grade along with Dylan who was six and always willing to tell everyone that he was the, “Oldest and bravest.” They were all placed at the kindergarten table. 

Loel and Sarah’s twins Nina and Axel who were twelve and Frank’s two kids Frank Jr who was fourteen and Suzette who was eleven at the next table for middle school. 

No one really knew Frank and Sarah’s kids or Sarah for that matter, while they worked around the place like everyone else, she always kept them separate and would school them during the day herself.  Frank had told his wife it was a good idea for the kids to get involved with the other kids to help them fit in better. 

Sarah was heavy set and shy with red hair and freckles all over.  Frank told Matt, it would take time for her to come around that she was not an outgoing person.  He said that he thought if it were not for him and the kids she would probably have been agoraphobic or something.  Janice liked her a lot and told the others, she would come around and that she was just painfully shy and insecure. 

She laughed and said “With a beauty like Charleigh around any woman would feel insecure.” 

She went on to ask Dez how she kept all the boys at bay.

Connor promptly replied, “With a shotgun.” 

They all laughed, except Connor, who said, “Seriously, I was afraid to ask her out for the longest time, between that and Jeremy no one dared.” 

Dez said, “Aw C’mon, I wasn’t that bad.”

Conner huffed, “Really?  We all heard about the guy you said you would shoot if he put his hands on her.” 

Dez laughed and replied, “Well then, aren’t you glad I did?”

Connor smiled and nodded.

              After lunch the sheriff and Ryan came over with a couple of the other guys to check out their place and pick up Frank.  They spent some time walking around checking out the security.  It was recommended they get some kind of barriers up.  Ryan told them that they were wide open.  They could probably park the vehicles in the yard in such a way that they could use them for defensive positions if need be.  He said they should string cans up in the woods to send an alarm if anyone ran into them and that would at least give them some warning if someone was coming in from the woods. 

They had a large front and side yard that they could see anyone coming a good way off and commended them on the use of the tree stands for lookouts and the blind they had erected.  But also said the ones in the blind if not out early in a fight could be in danger of getting cut off from the rest.  Jeremy said he built it so that you couldn’t tell from either side and thought it would be good to be able to catch any intruders in a cross fire.  Ryan agreed with that and said they should at least fortify it with sand bags or if something inside it would hold it.  Jeremy thought that was a good idea and said he would do it today. 

              Matt introduced them to Gary and Kimber and told him they had been involved with George’s group as well, but left early on for the same reasons as the rest of them.  Ryan told them they were welcome in his group and could sure use the help.  They both volunteered on the spot. 

While having some coffee and chatting, Matt asked Ryan about his group. 

Ryan said, “You know, I had been quietly lurking as part of a number of online groups. They were actively trying to get together to defend not only their own areas in times like this, but also the constitution itself against even our own government to defend our rights.” 

Matt said, “You all seem like you are pretty organized and together, all I managed to find in many of these groups was some people making random rules that if not followed a person was kicked out.  Many did not agree with them so they would leave and start a new group.  I just kept watching them splinter and bicker over things that were not really relevant.” 

Ryan told him that when he had joined at first they had that same problem, he said it was the, “Alpha Male Syndrome.”

He said, “Each one vying for position, people being granted positions of influence or perceived power where none was deserved, earned or voted upon.”

He explained that not long after he joined them, which at the time it was just an online group that met on occasion, there was an argument between a number of these perceived leaders and a huge split took place. 

He said their group took some time to decide what made someone a leader and found that many of those whom had been somehow, “Appointed” as leaders were simply ones who had more time to stay online or went to some of the meetings.  That in fact, they had zero leadership skills and most of the men would not even follow them.

He continued saying, “So we decided to just begin doing FTX and see who could shine as leaders.  We found that someone that we rarely even heard from online showed up for these meetings.  A few were indeed uniquely suited for things, as the guys naturally followed them during the exercises.”              Matt was impressed, nodding his head and saying, “We felt the same way, but George kept saying it was his group and anyone who did not like it could leave, so we left.”

Ryan told him there were a lot of good patriots out there that were just too caught up in the politicking and fighting to be cohesive.

He said, “Can you imagine how well off we could have all been were it not for all the power grabbing and fighting before all this?  We are gaining members now from all of the groups that had splintered off.  They come in almost every day, it is getting there, but it just stinks, we wasted so much time fighting amongst ourselves.” 

Matt agreed and told Ryan he was glad they were getting it together for the good of everyone.  They shook hands and as Ryan started to leave.  Frank explained that he would need to be home after he looked at the crossroads so he would need his truck, he agreed to bring Gary and Kimber and meet up at the sheriff’s office in two hours. 

Dez asked Ryan if they could stop in on the family they had helped the previous day and also asked about a doctor.  Ryan told her that they had a medic and that he would go check it out.  He asked what they had done for him and Rebecca explained.  He agreed to tell his medic about it and see if anything, more could be done.  He told them he would contact Arthur tomorrow and leave a message with him, and Arthur could pass it on via the CB if they had any information.

              Matt was impressed with how they had gotten themselves organized and was babbling on to Dez about how they were so well set up.  Dez stood there shaking her head disapprovingly. 

He looked at her and said, “What?  They are…”

Dez said, “Have you looked around here lately? Our people are organized and working things through as well.  You, my dear, are doing just as well right here.  Give our friends a little credit as will ya.” 

Matt looked around and knew she was right. He just stood nodding sheepishly in affirmation.

Chapter 15

“Raiders”

“Surely the best way to meet the enemy is head on, in the field and not wait till they plunder our very homes.”

-Oliver Goldsmith

              The next morning Rebecca, Matt and Cameron went down to see how the father was doing, pick up the kids and see about their water and heat situation. They were thinking maybe they could do what Jeremy had done in the windows.

Cameron obviously had a crush on the girl and Rebecca had encouraged him to come along.  When she went in to see how their father was doing, she was surprised at how much better he was.  She checked his bandages and his wound and was also impressed at how clean it was. 

He was sitting up and thanked her for all of the help.  She told him her name was Rebecca and that Matt and Cameron had come to help see about water and heat for them.  He nearly cried thanking them for all their help telling them that they were the Wilsons. 

“This here is Mary and I’m Bert.” 

Matt told him he should thank the kids; they were the ones that found them and brought them to help. 

Saying, “Now they are also coming up to help in the garden and get some hunting in for your family.” 

They told them they would return the next day with some things to hopefully make things easier for them.  Bert and Mary both thanked them again and told the kids to behave.

As they were leaving Mary approached Matt and asked, “Before you go, can you help me with the fire out back.  I need to boil some bandages and water.” 

Matt said he would be happy to.  When they got out back, he noticed that most of the wood was pretty green and they would probably need an accelerant.  Going into the bathroom, he returned with an empty toilet paper tube some cotton balls, Vaseline and nail polish remover.

Everyone wanted to see what he had planned.  Explaining that the accelerant could not just be poured on the wood as it would simply burn off the accelerant and would not catch the wood.

He took the cotton balls and slathered them in Vaseline, then stuffed them into the tube.  Afterwards he put a little nail polish remover on the last cotton ball, set the tube under some dry tinder.  He took out his knife and sparked the flint on the back of his magnesium fire starter keychain.  Poof! It caught immediately, and as the tube slowly burned it caught the dry wood.

As he stood everyone clapped, he had not realized he had gained an audience.  Matt bowed for his fans and shooed them off.  Mary asked him how he had learned to do that.

Matt laughed, “Purely by accident.” 

Mary had a quizzical look so he explained, “Dez and I were out camping with some friends and I went into her pack for some Advil.  When I opened the bottle it was not Advil, but cotton balls soaked in nail polish remover.  Silly but she told me that she did not like to have ugly nail polish so she kept it just in case of a chip she could just take it off.”

He continued, “Since I had it out she decided to use it and tossed it in the fire after.  It lit up before it even hit the fire; I had not realized how flammable acetone was till then.  But it burned up fast.  I experimented with other things and found that Vaseline is flammable, but much slower burning and voila, instant fire starter.” 

Mary was both amazed and grateful.  She thanked him for all they had done, and hugged him as they left.

              When they returned to the house the kids went off with Cameron, Jeremy and Conner to do a bit of hunting.  They taught them to set a snare and managed to get a couple turkeys with the bow.  They discovered that the girl’s name was Astrid and she was sixteen.  Eric was seventeen and Jona was eighteen. 

Astrid and Cameron hit it off right away and were quickly finding they had many like interests.  Eric was quiet, mostly kept to himself, although Jeremy liked him and they chatted some.

Conner picked up right away on Jona’s anger issues.  He would get really angry every time something did not go the way he wanted it to.  Conner did not really like him much, but then again Jona did not seem to like anyone either.  He told Astrid that he felt like this crap was stupid and he didn’t think he should have to do it. 

The kids just walked back to their house that afternoon, two turkeys and a basket of veggies and herbs in hand.  Astrid was chattering away about a whole lot of nothing when Jona pushed her to the ground and told her to be quiet. 

Astrid began to whimper and he looked at her angry motioning for her to run back to the house.  He pointed down to the end of the road and made a gesture with his hand resembling a gun.  She ran up the hill crying and told Jeremy that the boys had sent her back. 

They asked why and she said she didn’t know, but showed them what Jona had motioned.  Jeremy told Matt and Sam, they grabbed their guns and headed for where the boys were.  Tawny and Lynn came with them. They ran down to the boys, so the vehicles did not make noise and possibly give them away. 

When they reached the boys they could see why they sent Astrid back. 

Matt whispered to Jona, “Do you know how many?”

Jona shook his head and said, “Not exactly, but I know there are at least ten or twelve of them.” Then he said, “I think these are some serious bad guys.  I saw them shoot a girl over in that field.”

He motioned to the left side of the road at the intersection.  There was a horse paddock beside a large barn where they could see a body lying in the field.

Matt motioned for Tawny to take up a sniper position on the left side of them on the hill, which is exactly what she was best at.  Lynn took up a position on the hill to the right, overlooking the kid’s house, which was just beyond the bend in the road.

It was hidden it from the sight of the kids and could not be seen from where they were standing.  Lynn gasped, waving for Matt to come up and for everyone else to get down.  When Matt crawled up to her position he could see why she had been so upset. 

The house was fully engulfed in flames; he knew it was Astrid’s parents. They could see a body in the yard but did not know if it was that of a friend or foe.  Matt and Lynn did not want the boys to have to see this. 

Matt crawled back down the hill and sent Eric back to the house to tell Dez to call Arthur on the CB and have him get the Militia guys out here.  He also told Eric he needed to stay and watch Dez and the kids so Loel and Connor could come have a look and help decide how to proceed. 

All he really wanted was for Eric not to see this, he knew Jona would have no part of leaving the fight and accepted that he was going to see it sooner or later. 

Loel came down with the walkie and handed it to Matt.  Matt told Loel to head up to Lynn’s position and help her set up a choke point where they were now. He figured the animals that did this would likely try and come up the road.

He’d hoped the militia guys could get here before then.  Dez radioed they were on their way, but it would be about thirty minutes.  Matt passed on the information to everyone, and they took positions on either side of the road.  Jona was becoming angry that he could not go check on his aunt and uncle. 

He got up to leave his position, saying, “I’m going down there.” 

Matt and Connor tackled him to the ground.  Matt sat on him and told him he needed to listen to him.  He hoisted him off the ground and had him crawl up the hill to Lynn’s position.  Before they got to the top he told him that if he called out or made a sound to give away their position he would tie and gag him. 

Matt looked at him and said with a deadly serious tone, “You could get people killed if you make even a sound, and I know you will not want to sit this particular fight out.  So you keep your emotions in check and keep your cool.  You got that?” 

Jona nodded and finished climbing to the top.  When he looked down and saw the house he gasped in disbelief.

Matt cupped his hand over Jona’s mouth and said, “Shhhhhh.”  Jona began to cry quietly, his head down. 

He suddenly looked up at Matt, knowing then why he sent Eric up to get Loel.  Matt just nodded and they crawled back down the hill.  Jona was trying to wipe the tears from his face as he approached his position. 

Matt said to Loel, “This angry young man just got a whole lot angrier, he should not be here, but I also can’t tell him that.  He deserves the chance to fight for his family.”

Loel just nodded and said, “Hopefully our guys will get here before they try to come up the road.” 

There was a crackling on the radio, and the voice was anxious, it was Frank.  He was still with Ryan having just finished finding the right road to Georges place.  He asked their positions and any Intel they had. 

Matt explained everything ending saying, “Frank… they hit the kid’s house. Over.”  

Frank said, “Shit man that sucks, where are the kids? Over.”

Matt replied, “they’re ok Eric and Astrid are at our place, Jona is here with us on the line. Over.”

Frank responded, “We are 25 strong here, going in.  The sheriff is in the lead with lights on.  If they come your way sheriff says cut them down, this is the break they’ve been waiting for to get this gang.”

There was some brief static when they could hear Frank again, “They are part of the gang up in Lexington and have been killing and burning all over the county. Over.”

Matt acknowledged and passed on the info to the others.

Moments later they heard the siren followed by gunshots, as predicted the gang came up the road. Tawny took out two of them and Lynn got one before they even came into sight of the others. It was over in minutes, these guys never had a chance, they were caught in a crossfire with no place to go. 

Two of them were wounded pretty badly, the sheriff took them in his car with him, while the militia guys gathered up the rest of them into the back of the truck. 

Gary and Kimber were with them and came over to check on everyone.  They went up to the house to wait for Matt and Loel to get there.  They took Jona to check on the situation at his aunt and uncle’s place. 

Gary looked pained at Jeremy saying,  “We have been seeing this same thing all over the county since yesterday and it is not likely anyone is alive.

The next day they buried Astrid’s parents in their yard.  The group spent the whole day preparing the funeral for Astrid’s parents.  They wanted to make sure it was nice for the kids’ sake. 

Astrid was taking it hard, she was heartbroken, saying, “I should have been there” as though she could have changed the outcome somehow.

It was a truly sad day for her.  It was just that very morning of the fight, she had been so happy her father was sitting up and talking to them about how grateful he was for the help of the group.

Cameron was glued to her side all day and told her that he was sure her parents were grateful that she was not there or she too would have been dead. 

He consoled her saying, “They would want you to live and so do I.”

He insisted that she not sit crying, but to do something to make her father proud.  Cameron firmly believed her parents could see her and told her so. 

He said, “You should not be making them sad by crying so much.” 

He told her not to worry about anything that their friends would take care of her and her cousins for them. 

After the burial, Gary and Kimber were preparing to head back to the militia camp when Jona approached them.  He told them he wanted to go with them and join up.  Gary told him he would need to talk to Matt about it first. 

He went over and waved to Matt, jerking his head for him to come over, he wanted to talk to him.  Matt came over and they took a walk to chat privately. 

Gary told Matt what Jona had asked and Matt thought about it for a few minutes and asked Gary,

“Do you think he could be put in some kind of support position at first?” 

Is brow furrowed and he continued, “My only concern is that he is upset right now and could be making this decision out of anger.  He is so young and I think he does not want to join for the right reasons.  I also worry that he will be a problem for them, being so angry he might get others hurt.” 

Gary agreed him and told him that he and Kimber would stay another night and ask Ryan to come up tomorrow to discuss it with Matt and then talk to Jona. 

Matt thought it would be good for him, but he needed to work through his aunt and uncle’s death first.  He needed some direction from what Matt could see as well.  Eric heard that Jona was joining the militia and was not about to let him go without taking him, which now led to a whole new twist. 

Matt and Dez both felt somehow responsible for these kids, but at the same time, he knew they needed to navigate this new world for themselves; he was torn as to what to do.

He sat alone in the bedroom thinking about everything while he waited for dinner.

Dez came in, walking up to him, she asked, “What’s got you so perplexed?” 

Matt looked up at her standing in front of him, her lovely hair, as usual, was in her eyes.  They always had a kindness that made him feel safe. 

He reached out for her and she sat next to him on the bed.