Shadows Of Sanity And Survival (Old Preppers Die Hard Book 3) (2 page)

Being from a modern society used to its mundane luxuries and excesses made it all the worst to have to do without or miserly conserve, The body’s demands for sugar, fats, and oils as starvation or improper diet took it’s toll with unwanted thoughts of treats like fresh milk, cheeses, candy and a multitude of other things was quite bothersome to the psyche.

“There is that squirrelly goomer!” Farley announced to himself as he spotted a truck in the distance and rose up to go great his obtuse friend.

That Dump was driving his truck today versus his Harley motorcycle was a good thing Farley reckoned.

“That meant he had quantity and choices with him!” Farley said to himself gleefully while momentarily forgetting all about how mad he was at Dump for being late again and worrying him so much.

Farley waved at him good naturedly as he pulled off the road and was rewarded with a big grin and a meaty handshake as Dump exited the vehicle and announced Farley was basically going to get first pick of the bounty of arms he had found in the safe sans the Smith and Wesson MP14 he was now sporting.

“Ready? Set? Hold on to your shorts and behold the bounty!” Dump announced and motioned Farley towards his front passenger seat as well as its floorboard that was covered with a blanket.

“You want to do the honors or do you want me to fall for whatever prank you got hid under that blanket?’ Farley said looking at the blanket speculatively for any kind of movement or clue as to what it was hiding.

“Ah hell, this isn’t any time for you to start playing chicken buddy! I am not trying to prank you, I promise. That’s nothing but guns under there. Have you a look Farley! You are going to be amazed.” Dump said and Farley did.

“Holy hell! You won the big door prize didn’t you ol Dumpy?! Wow! This is Fantastic!” Farley said looking in amazement at a pile of weaponry that included various gun cases, scoped rifles, a couple shotguns and a few plastic manufacturer boxes of what he knew contained various pistols.

“Yea I did! Happy days are here my friend and welcome to the Dump’s duly delivered emporium of dastardly devices and weaponry. I got some kind of ammo for most of them firearms and I might add in not too bad quantity either. I got most of it stowed in the back of the truck.” Truck said as Farley continued to stare dumbfounded at so much of what now was allegedly top notch attainable firepower if he could come up with the cash or trade goods to make a purchase.

“Get your tongue back in your mouth and close your jaw Farley you’re drooling on the merchandise! It’s all there and it’s all for real. Never figured myself as a traveling arms dealer but I guess I am one now!” Dump guffawed and slapped Farley a bit too exuberantly on the back causing him to splutter and fuss at him about not knowing his own strength,

“Well dive in Farley and dig around! I hope you brought a strong box full of money and trade goods because the Dumps Guns-R-Us store is now officially open for business.” Truck said with a smile.

“Look here Dumpie; I don’t have all that much in the way of stuff you might want. That robbery over at Barnett’s hurt me too, by the way.” Farley said referring to Mr. Barnett’s way of pay for it now and get your goods later as well as what he had lost in consignment goods he had left there for others to purchase. How much are you asking for say this AK? “Farley said digging out what looked like a cold war era military communist issue plain Jane communist wooden stock one out of the bedazzling pile of hardware.

“I thought you would never ever get around to asking me for some prices for these fine pieces! Now if you will just step around back here to my office, I will show you my current price catalog.” Dump said, escorting Farley back to the pickup trucks’ bed and reaching down for a piece of 2x4 lumber he had affixed cardboard sheets to with crudely drawn with crayons silhouettes of weapons on kind of like a flip board and stuck it in one of the trucks staking slots to continue the banter.

“Damn Dump you are reminding me of that character Mr. Haney and his truck off that old show Green Acres!” Farley said laughing and playing along with Dump Truck’s show.

“Lets see now, one old style AK, two mags and 100 rounds of ammo is the deal of the day at $1000 firm retail cash, trade or militia script. I explain that script shit to you later, wholesale to you Farley is $600. Please note I am still using mostly pre collapse pricing and willing to barter.” Dump said sticking his thumbs under his suspenders looking more Mr. Haney-like than ever to Farley.

“Pre collapse of my wallet you mean you old miserly heathen. That ugly old thing is what’s called a Romanian WASR 30 model, wholesale back then since it wasn’t one of those damn California compliant 10 rounders would of been closer to $250 or so without the ammo back in the day but I ain`t bitching at all. Six hundred bucks plus ammo in these days and times is a spectacular bargain! But as you know I ain`t going to try to resell no weapon these days Dump. Too risky in my opinion and not profitable enough.” Farley said doing his mental figuring and trying to bargain the prices down.

“Well I figured you would say that. You know, I got a few folks I have to make some private offers to just like you, but I haven’t decided exactly what to do with the rest of the lot. The Mr. Haney signs were just my little fun joke for the day but I do want to talk about that militia script money I mentioned. You kind of inspired that idea on me with all that talk you do about three man militias and such.” Dump said
.

“Oh yea, Dump? What kind of angle is it that you might be thinking about?” Farley asked, looking up from the assembly of guns momentarily at such an odd notion.

“A pretty good one I hope, Farley. Oh, there is a gun set aside for your consideration in the back of the seat you might not have seen before. I thought you might have a particular interest in it seeing that we had that lively conversation the other day about pistol caliber carbines. It’s a 9mm carbine made to be carried on a bush plane as a survival rifle. Anyway check it out; I wanted to give you first dibs on it. On our other subject, what I was sorta thinking about was taking some of these extra weapons and you and me forming up kind of a mercenary cohort, paid armed guard service, private militia or whatever else you want to call it and cashing in while doing a community service that way.” Dump was saying before Farley excitedly pulled out the carbine from its case in back of the seat and began assembling it quickly.

“Ah hell, I know what this dandy little pretty is; it’s an Aero Survival rifle! TNW Firearms made it and they rock! ” Farley said with a grin as he tightened the barrel nut and then held it out to arm’s length to admire.

“You got the rest of this weapon or is this all you have for components?” Farley asked aiming its 4x scope down the road and glassing the area with the excitement of a schoolboy receiving his first BB rifle.

“What do you mean the rest of it? It’s not all there? Isn’t that a complete rifle? What’s missing?” Dump asked raising one eyebrow and stepping over to where Farley was and scrutinizing the weapon closely.

“Oh yea, this is darn sure a complete rifle, a very fine and good one at that! But you see this thing was also created to be the platform or integral part of a conceptualized multi-caliber system as a kind of survival force multiplier. It was designed to shoot pretty much any common pistol ammunition you might run across or have on hand in a SHTF situation. You used to could buy a singular rifle in a certain caliber of your choice or you could purchase the complete package with a backpack that has two other calibers like 40 cal and 45 capabilities. Did you happen to see any extra gun barrels or maybe something that looked like an extra lower for a rifle?” Farley asked hoping he had the whole shebang put up somewhere.

“Wouldn’t that be just about all out wonderful and great if he had the set?” He marveled thinking how lucky could he get if Dump actually had the complete setup somewhere.

“No, Farley, I didn’t see anything like that I can remember right off hand. Oh, in that case there is three 33 round Glock mags for it and a 15 rounder in the pocket that’s loaded. I haven’t gone through all the boxes and everything over at his house yet, you say for me to look for a backpack that might contain the rest of the system?” Dump asked.

“Yea should maybe have a silhouette of an airplane on it. He might not have bought the whole setup; lots of people just choose to get a singular rifle in a caliber that matches their pistol. It sure would be nice if he had though. That would make me immensely happy and maybe even do a little jig. That’s no problem if he didn’t buy the complete setup though because what I am most interested in is just this fine rifle you have right here in 9mm. I don’t carry a Glock pistol, never liked them boxy things and wouldn’t have one and if those Glock mags for that survival rifle haven’t been broken in yet I hope you got a speed loader for them. Ah, I see that you do. Always got to be thinking ahead, that’s cool. They are great mags and very well made but they are ridiculously hard to put the last rounds in at first until broken in as far as my aggravation goes and my experienced opinion says. Oh they break in just fine eventually, function beautifully and reliably, but they can be difficult as hell at first because they are new and the spring hasn’t taken a set.” Farley said now trying out the 4x scope and looking out past the parking lot at the highway to see if he could do it with the carbine one handed.

“Nothing overly fancy about the scope, it’s the one that came with the rifle from the factory, most likely. No complaints there, they function very well. The accuracy of that weapon can be summed up in one word and that’s
impressive
. I would like to find an illuminated scope someday for it but hey this thing is more than serviceable and probably more accurate than I am capable of.” Farley declared now hugging the weapon like Dump wasn’t ever getting it back.

“That rifle is sweet, how much you want for it?” Farley said now trying hard not to show how much he wanted that Aero Survival rifle. A light fast quick handling carbine like that was just what he wanted. That it could break down and fit easily in his backpack was fantastic and he had lots of scenarios in mind where he might just need something like that.

“I figured you would fall in love with it. I remember when my boss bought it but I forget what he paid for it. However like you say prices these days are based on want need and scarcity. You need you a good defensive rifle; you want that one, but try finding another like it! So there is the quandary…what should I charge your penny pinching old soul for it?” Dump said drawing out deliberations and trying to see just how much Farley loved that weapon by aggravating and needling him a little bit more.

“Now don’t be trying to get premium prices for it, it’s a pistol caliber carbine and you have lots of regular caliber battle rifles so without belaboring the points of what rounds or weapons work best let’s just say I consider it as a neat novelty at the moment.” Farley said feigning far less interest than he actually had.