TSHTF

[dstraito]

Doug worked long days including the planning sessions after the daily chores were done. He hadn’t had much time to spend with Susan but surprisingly was okay with that. He was filled with a sense of accomplishment each day like what he was doing really mattered. He never had that sense being a manager of a sporting goods store. Granted, he did his work well, his effort contributed to the stores profitable bottom line but he never felt like he was accomplishing anything worthwhile. The people at the Compound that accepted the provisions Ralph laid out were all getting along very well. Everyone was performing their assigned chores and if anyone had any spare cycles they were volunteering to help in other areas. There was a sense that they were in a precarious situation and the group was their main line of defense. The reports that were coming in horrified the people and everyone was worried that despite their best efforts, what they were doing was not enough to protect them from the ravages of the current conflict.

As if to underscore their precarious situation, Gunny came in, out of breath as if he’d been running.

“Doug, come quick, to the infirmary. Sean Buckler was standing watch in the tower and he was shot.”

Doug stopped what he was doing and ran with Gunny to the make-shift infirmary.
Houston Ashcroft, co-owner of the canoe and Kayak store helped bring Sean down from the tower. He was laid out on a table with Jeb Rodd applying a compress to Sean right shoulder.

“What happened?” Doug asked.

“Sean was standing watch and fell down before the sound of the shot reached him. We know the general direction and think the shot must have been from about two hundred yards out, back in the tree line. They must have used a rifle for that type of accuracy.”

“Is he going to be okay?”

“The bullet passed through his right shoulder and exited. He should be okay, but we really should be at a hospital, but I know there isn’t one and a doctor should really be treating him, not me.” Jeb Rodd said.

Jeb was the veterinarian that worked with Susan at the no-kill animal shelter
Doug said “Jeb, you are doing fine. Gunny, is there anyone in the tower now?”

“No, we didn’t think it safe.”

“We have to get someone up there that is our only vantage point. Make sure they don’t provide a silhouette or target but we have to have eyes in a 360. If we are under attack, we have to know about it.”

Tim McCall was there. “I’ll go.”

Doug said “Be careful. Let us know as soon as possible if you see a threat.”

Tim left to go to the tower.

Doug said “Gunny, round four or five guys up and get some arms, double the patrols.”

“Done.” Gunny said.

“How is Sean?” Doug asked.

Jeb said “He has stabilized; we are going to need to give him some antibiotics.”

“Do it. I think that is a good justification for using them.”

The Compound went on alert and besides Tim in the tower; the patrols were checking the perimeter at various points along the wall. Even though they were fairly secure behind the fourteen foot wall, a coordinated attack could undermine them.

Doug climbed up the inner ladder to the first chamber of the fifty foot tower. He peered through one of the window crosses and scanned the tree line. He pulled away from the window and went back to it several times taking a full minute to view the horizon just in case he was dialed in. He climbed up to the top level.

“See anything Tim?” Doug asked.

“No. I’ve been looking through the spotting scope and the only thing that has moved has been a couple of birds. Of course if they are still and wearing camo, it would be easy to miss them.”

“What do you suppose their deal is? I mean pick us off one at a time. Obviously, they aren’t trying to rush the Compound.”

Tim said “They might be trying to provoke us and setup an ambush on the people we send outside the wall. It could be strangers or it could be people around town that know what we have here in the Compound.”

“I can’t believe anyone from Paradise would shoot someone here.”

“How about your buddies, the three stooges? Or the Chief at the bidding of the Mayor? Or it could just be random gangs trying to drive us out. Luckily for us they can’t get the high ground on us as the land is the high point and with the fourteen foot walls there is no where they can see in.”

“Yes, but there are times that we are going to have to go outside the walls. We are supposed to plant the spring crops in about three weeks. We have some inside the walls but to feed all of us, we are going to have to use land outside.”

“That could be a problem.” Tim said.

Doug stayed with Tim for another hour. “I’m going to go check on Sean.”

“If he’s conscious, tell him I’m praying for him.”

“Will do and I’ll send someone to relieve you in a couple of hours. I think we are going to have to do 24x7 for at least the foreseeable future.”

“I think that would be wise but the watch group will have to be careful. We might never know they are out there until they pull the trigger.”

Doug climbed down and went to the make-shift infirmary. Sean was almost as white as the sheet covering him but he was awake.

“How’s it going bud?” Doug said.

“I’ll be okay. As soon as I’m better I’m going after that bastard that shot me.”

“I don’t blame you but we can’t do anything without planning. That may be exactly what they want us to do is lose our temper and leave the Compound where they can pick us off.”

“So we are going to let them get away with this?” Sean said with disgust.

“Not hardly. But we are going to be smart about it. I don’t know how they are equipped but we have some night vision goggles. Several people have already volunteered to go outside the walls tonight with the NV goggles. It might be dicey if the shooter or shooters have them too but we need to know if it was a random stranger passing by or if there is someone stalking us and waiting us out.”

“Count me in.”

“I don’t think you are quite ready but I appreciate your willingness.”

“Tell me if you catch them alive, you’ll let me have a crack at them.”

“You got it, though the men have instructions to err on the side of caution. Shoot first, take names later. It would be nice if we could get at least one of them alive so we can get information from them. I’m going to go brief Ralph, take it easy Sean.”

“Okay, thanks.” Sean closed his eyes like the conversation had worn him out.

Doug found Ralph in the study. He knocked and walked in.

“Sean’s going to be okay.” Doug said.

Ralph gave a big sigh. “I’m relieved. What are we doing about it?”

“Houston and Tim are going out tonight, I’m checking the NV goggles out for them to use tonight.”

“Is two guys enough? Does that put them at risk?”

Doug said “We thought about that, we think it will be easier for just two guys to conceal their movement. Also, from a logistics point of view, we only have four Night Vision goggles so we really can’t afford to lose all of them in one foray.”
“Makes sense. Did you distribute the weapons?”

“Yes, eight men are going to rotate shifts in the tower, they are going to share two 30-06 rifles. We handed out four .223 Bushmasters to the guys walking the perimeter. Right now it doesn’t look like there is an effort to storm the Compound but they could be out there waiting us out.”

“Keep me informed. This could be a problem with anyone leaving the Compound. Eventually we will have to go out and if someone is out there we won’t last long.”
“I was talking about that with Tim, that’s why we are going out tonight. Hopefully they would catch the shooter unawares and either take him out or even better catch him so we can question him to see if there are others.”

“You know, one of the fatal flaws in this whole Compound plan is that we can’t outlast a prolonged siege.” Ralph sagged visibly.

“Ralph, are you okay?”

“I’m just tired, I’ll be alright.”

Doug worried the stress might be getting to Ralph, he’d never seen him this desolate looking.

He looked at his watch. It’s about time for Tim and Houston to go out; I’m going to go brief them.”

“Okay, Godspeed.” Ralph said.

Doug found Tim and Houston at the base of the tower. It was almost dark and they were adjusting the NV goggles.

“I can see you five by five.” Houston said.

“Isn’t that a CB term?” Tim asked.

“Well, yeah, but it seemed an appropriate use.”

“Goggles are working fine Doug, we are ready to go.”

“I’ve been thinking, instead of going out the gate we should drop a rope ladder on the opposite side and sneak out. If they are watching anything, it will be the gate.”
“Good idea, but if we run into a large group, I hope you open the gate if you see us running full speed toward you.”

“Definitely, we have two guys with rifles standing by and two others to open the gates if necessary while the other two cover them. I’m hoping it was a random walk-by and they are long gone but the next best hope will be to catch a small group. Don’t take any chances.”

Doug walked with the two to the back fence. They’d staged a wooden ladder on the wall allowing them to climb to the top of the wall. They attached the rope ladder to the wooden ladder and the two climbed to the bottom. Doug couldn’t see them very well since it was so dark. He couldn’t remember a time when the countryside achieved such darkness and the stars were so brilliant and plentiful. He heard a whistle and then Tim called out, “You make a great silhouette, go down the ladder.”
Doug scurried down the ladder and but thought he was only a silhouette if someone had NV goggles. He walked to the gate to stand with the other four, anxiously awaiting their return.

[sssarawolf]

Thank you very much, I am a avid reader and this helps to have so many chapters .

[dstraito]

I'll post some more tomorrow, I have been evaluating a franchise today since no one seems interested in hiring this old guy.

[nancy98]

Finally caught up with this great story. Thanks

[nancy98]

Hey Deena,

It took 4-5 tries to post my thank you above.
I kept getting;

"Your submission could not be processed because the token has expired.

Please push the back button and reload the previous window."

I've never seen that before. Any idea what it means?

[wab54]

This is begining to be a "good'un"!!!! Great job.



WAB

[dstraito]

Tim and Houston moved as quietly as they could around the wall. They proceeded to the trees and went about ten feet into the tree line. They worked out a few hand signals, a raised fist to signify hold or stop, fingers extended straight up to mean proceed with caution, and pointing a finger to mean look that way. They may not be official Green Beret signals but it got the job done. They each swung their heads back in forth constantly, each responsible for checking a 180 degrees with both of them together covering 360 degrees. They walked ten to fifteen feet and repeated the process. They’d moved around in front of the Compound but still in the tree line even more careful now not to make noise. Tim figured they were close to the angle where the shot had come from. Tim and Houston split up to cover more area. They were always within sight of each other but about fifty feet apart. Now they had to swivel their heads 360 degrees since they weren’t together so their progress slowed a little.

Tim looked through his goggles at the grainy green figure Houston made through the goggles. Houston had his arm up, his hand in a fist. When he saw that Tim saw him, he pointed his finger out front of him. Tim followed the direction the finger was pointing and he saw the figure of a guy sitting on a log. They guy was smoking a cigarette which gave off a big glow in the goggles. The smoking guy did not have any kind of night vision so Tim suspected he was just there in case the Compound sent anyone out and was going to renew his surveillance when dawn broke.

Houston swung wide and signaled Tim to go the other way. They were trying to flank the smoker.

Everything went well and they were about twenty-five feet away with the AR-15’s held at the ready. They had to constantly shift their gaze from the shooter to the ground so they could see where they were stepping and to each other to gauge their progress. They were going to try and capture him.

Houston managed to find a dry twig to step on and it snapped. They both froze but the smoker grabbed his rifle and held it pointing in the general direction of the snapping twig noise. It was very hard to hold still and fight off the urge to run when looking through the night vision you saw a man holding a rifle pointed right at you. You had to reason that he couldn’t see you but you knew if he pulled the trigger at that point, even if accidently, you would be shot. The smoker swung the gun back and forth in the general direction of the front gate. Ironically some animal directly behind Houston picked that time to scurry off. The smoker panicked and started shooting blindly into the forest. Tim saw Houston go down fast so while he had the smoker in his sights, he unloaded three shots into him. He saw the smoker go down. Tim rushed over to Houston to see him getting up.

Keeping watch on the prone figure of the shooter, Tim asked “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, just scared, I dropped to the ground when I felt a bullet whiz past my ear.”

Together they approached the still figure on the ground. The rifle was still strapped to the body but it was not pointed at them. They walked right up to him, ready to pull the trigger on their rifles at the slightest inclination of movement. Tim held his rifle pointing at the guys’ head and Houston prodded the guy with his rifle. The guy didn’t move. Houston reached down and felt the guys’ neck. Twenty seconds went by and Houston said “He’s dead.”

They looked all around and not seeing anything; Tim took his goggles off and searched the body. There was no ID or anything on him and he didn’t recognize him. Tim saw he hit with all three shots, the first above his navel, the second just above his sternum and the third directly over his heart. Tim’s heart was racing and he felt elated and nauseous at the same time. There was nothing else at the lookout site save for a lighter and a package of Winston Lights. Houston took the guys gun and they left him where he dropped and returned cautiously to the Compound the same way they came, through the woods. Tim climbed up the rope ladder and down the wooden ladder. Houston then climbed up and pulled the rope ladder up after him before descending down the wooden one. They went and found Doug and gave him a full report.

[dstraito]

The next day Doug went with a group of eight people to the spot where Tim killed the smoker. Tim led the group both because he was there the night before and because he wanted to see for himself. They found where the body must have laid and bled out but the body was not there. That could only mean one thing, the guy wasn’t along. They figured he was a spotter for the group and they would be under surveillance right now. Tim led the group back in a hasty retreat with no incident.
Doug found Ralph in the kitchen drinking a cup of black coffee.

“Ralph, you okay? You look a little peaked.”

“I’ll be alright. I’m worried about what or who is out there.”

Houston popped into the kitchen. “Hey guys, I was looking for you. I just finished my shift in the tower. Pretty uneventful although I did see two flashes, could have been binoculars or rifle scopes or could have been nothing.”

“What is your feel?” Doug asked.

“I think there is somebody out there watching us. I saw some movement in the trees but it was dense and it could have been anything including deer or even the wind. Still, I have a gut feeling we haven’t seen the last of them.”

“Is there any outside help we can get? I know the Chief probably won’t help us.” Doug said.

Ralph nodded. “Not only will the Chief not help us, he might be behind it as far as we know. We have to get some intel on who is doing this and what their motivations are. We can outwait a random group of strangers passing by; it’s a prolonged siege that might do us in.”

“Sheila was going to call her dad and ask him if he knew anything about it but the phone lines are still down.” Doug said.

“If he is behind this, he probably won’t tell her anything.”

“How risky would it be to send a group into town?” Doug asked.

“Not sure but we can’t afford to lose anyone, either to bandits or corruption. The Chief could try to use the Patriot Act or Martial Law or just the fact there is no one to stand up to him to put our guys in jail. If they can take our numbers down, over time they can weaken us to the point where we could be easily overrun.”

Gunny came in to the kitchen as Houston left to take a shift in the tower.

“What’s up gunny?” Doug asked.

“I just turned down a group that came out from the town; they wanted to join up with us. They walked here and I hated to turn them away but we did the analysis and we can’t take on more people without adding to our resources. There were about fifteen of them including some women and children. It breaks your heart to turn them away. They told us the Chief came around and took all their supplies. Made it look nice and legal-like by giving them a receipt. Then Chief told them they could get their emergency rations from the central supply, only when they went to the central supply they were told the supplies had run out. There were more people needing supplies than they had so they were distributing them to the cronies of the Mayor and the Chief. They were starving. I gave them a case of water and a dozen MRE’s.” Gunny looked up at Ralph as if he would chastise him for giving away their supplies.

Gunny went on. “They said the jail was full mostly with people that tried to stand up to the Chief and his men. A lot of the people in the town left, taking whatever they could in their vehicles as they bugged out. The people left in the town were mostly loyal or scared of the Mayor. We watched until they were out of sight. A few minutes we heard a few shots. We are thinking it might be the group watching us and they might have attacked those folks that tried to join us.”

“I’m going to go up in the tower and watch for a bit.” Doug said.

“Be mindful you don’t make yourself a target.” Ralph said.

Doug climbed to the top of the tower. “See anything Houston?”

“I’ve seen movement in the trees.” Houston handed Doug the field glasses. Look at your twelve o’clock, about two hundred yards out, halfway up the tree.”

Doug looked toward the area. “I don’t see anything.”

“Keep looking, I thought it was a guy wearing camo.”

Doug continued watching for a few minutes. “Hold on, I just saw something move. Yes, it looks like there is a man in a tree; he is looking through a scope at us.”

A thud hit to one side of the cross window causing a chip to fly and hit Doug’s cheek. He heard the sound as he dove toward the platform floor. Houston ducked under the window when he saw Doug hit the floor.

“You okay?” Houston asked.

Doug reached up and wiped at the stinging sensation in his cheek. His hand came away with a little blood. “Yeah, I think I was just grazed by a rock chip. We are going to have to do something about this.”

Doug climbed down and found Ralph. “We need to get Gunny and Susan and have a meeting.

As if he knew he was needed, Gunny walked in on cue.

“Gunny, we need to do something about those guys outside the Compound.”

“They have the upper hand because we can’t really leave the Compound without being seen, unless we do it at night with the Night Vision Scopes.”

“We don’t know what we are up against or how many.”

“Yes we will have to go out in force. It will be a risk. If we fail we weaken the Compound. If we don’t go we will weaken through attrition. We have to go.”