TSHTF

[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.”

[sssarawolf]

thank you very much

[Vtshooter]

Woo Hoo! Liking this one very much! Thank you.

[nancy98]

Starting to get a little excitment now. Thanks

[ejagno]

Thank you for keeping the chapters coming quickly. The story is amazing.

[dstraito]

Tim, Garrison, and Steve exemplified the expression, ‘thick as thieves’ as they took what they wanted or needed. They’d also managed to round up five more people.

They picked up Jim Pruitt ransacking a Wal-Mart. There wasn’t much in the store as looters had pretty much cleaned it out. They came across Joe Williams beating up an older couple so they helped hold them, agreed to split the limited spoils which amounted to a Timex, a wallet with worthless money and credit cards and their wedding rings. They found Candy Barlow in a dumpster looking for food. They were going to leave her there but Steve thought she looked hot with her tramp stamp showing, her ripped jeans and dyed blond hair.

“Might be good for some laughs.” Steve said. Candy said she didn’t mind whatever they wanted as long as they fed and took care of her.

They found Willis Jones who stupidly tried to rob Garrison while he was going through the ruins of a Seven-Eleven. When confronted by Garrison, Tim, and Steve all pulled out weapons they’d stolen or taken Willis quickly gave up. He was a six foot six black man and they figured they could use his muscle against other groups.

The last member they recruited was John Stanley. He was trying to steal a car and he’d hot-wired it correctly only to find out that it was out of gas. Of the group, he was the scariest one. He wasn’t the biggest, his physical presence wasn’t what was threatening rather it was his eyes. “I’m Crazy” just emanated from his eyes so that even Willis didn’t mess with him.

They’d managed to ditch their stolen cars and steal a van carrying ten church members who were trying to figure out how to siphon gas from another vehicle but they weren’t being successful at it. Tim directed the ones still in the bus to get out and then displayed his civic duty by showing them how to siphon. He explained the procedure as Garrison performed it. They managed to get about two gallons out which they put into the van. They waved good bye to the Church members who were now on their own.

“I guess we are the 1st Calgary Church of Christ now.” Steve said.
Tim nodded in agreement. “Okay people, whenever we approach anyone try to act church like.”

Candy interrupted her servicing Steve in the far back seat with a snort.
The van held eight people, all narcissistic self-involved types who banded together because it gave them better odds should they run into any other individuals or groups that were like themselves.

Tim Halloway was the obvious leader though. He’d squelched more than one argument between his followers and Garrison had related the story of the cold blooded killing of the Sherriff.

Tim shouted out “Everyone listen up. For us to be successful I have a few rules you are going to follow.”

Willis muttered “Rules, we don’t need no stinkin’ rules.”

Tim continued. “And anyone that doesn’t want to follow my rules, we can let them out at the side of the road, right now.”

Given that it just started pouring down rain and the fact they weren’t sure if being let out meant while alive, everyone shut up.

“I am your leader. I have advanced military training. We have a few light weapons, we will procure more. We will take what we can by force and we don’t let our victims survive because that could cause problems for us in the future. The grid has been down for over almost a month now. We are going to have a long grinding existence but the key word here is exists. Life will be simple but demanding. We have to be focused and alert at all times. This is our first and most important layer of defense. You will listen to orders I give as it will most likely save your lives. If you doubt that, think about how we came upon you and you are now with us. When we go into areas we are going to look for houses that still have people in them.

Most likely they will have prepped and what they have, we will need. I know the best tactics to employ to seize property and other people’s goods. One of the keys is gathering intelligence and target selection. Targets include those who have large quantities of fuel, food and other valuable supplies. Anyone we talk to we will question them about other people. Who seems well-fed? Who still has transportation? Who has lights? Who has prepared? People will talk either in person or on the radio. One of the main things we are looking for is two-way radios so we can not only improve our communication but listen to other peoples. If you hear a generator running, machinery, cars, tractors, or gunfire, that is a clue. We are constantly looking for victims, anytime of the day or night. At night we look for any sort of light. Even a small flash indicates somebody with electricity and that means a rich target. There is a concept called Operational Security (OPSEC). It is an important concept for you to understand and maintain. No one outside our circle needs to know about our plans, preparations or procedures. Our cover story is we are church members on a mission to help other people. Stick to this story guys.

If we decide to mount an attack we have to blend in with the surrounding environment. If we decide to test fire weapons we do it in one sequence to avoid a prolonged noise signature. Once we find a target we not only plan the attack but the retreat. Only a fool would try to rush in and overwhelm a group of ‘survivalists’. We might take a day or two trying to size up a large opportunity and the best way to take it down. We will observe activity from nearby-concealed positions. We will get an idea of their numbers, weapons, routines and more by careful surreptitious observation. If the group we are watching seems alert, we will try and trigger a false alarm with a dog or child to watch how they react to a threat. Knowing how they respond, how strong they are will let us plan our attack.

Regular patrols at irregular intervals focused on likely observation points and avenues of approach could keep us at bay. One method of detecting their recent travels would be to put down sand or other soft soil in key choke points.”

At that point Steve was finishing up with Candy. He gave a loud groan and her head left his lap and she spit.

“Steve, you’d better be listening to this.”

Several of the others gave a quiet laugh but otherwise kept quite so as not to anger Tim.

Tim continued the lecture on tactics and safety.

“We need to know if they have any dogs because their advanced sense of hearing and smell are able to detect and alert them to us. A 24 hour manned observation point with high quality optical tools is a must. Also on our shopping list are binoculars and scopes. If they have seismic intrusion devices, night vision or thermal imaging they greatly decrease our chances of success unless we too have those, so add those items to our shopping list.

This area has a bunch of hunters. We are looking for some hunting rifles like 30-06 or even better if we could find a .50 caliber. Recognize that a ‘defender’ is always at a disadvantage. By definition a defender will be reacting to our attack. Modern warfare has emphasized the ability of the attacker to operate faster than opponents can react. There is a concept called the OODA loop. These are the steps a defender goes through when under attack.

Number one is observing or noticing the attack.

Number two is Orient to the direction, method and type of attack.

Number three is deciding what the appropriate response will be.

Number four is acting on that decision.

As attackers we will try and operate at a pace faster than they can adjust to. We will change direction, pace, timing and methods to force them to continue to process through the OODA loop. This creates confusion and wastes their precious reaction time. We will disrupt or reset your defenders timing with a counter-attack.
Here are a few tactics we might use.

There is the Snipe and Siege tactic. We begin the attack when we can engage at least half of their personnel in one coordinated effort. We will infiltrate into concealed positions between 50 to 75 yards. We will try to identify their leadership with the first volley. We will each fire two magazines in the initial exchange and then move to new concealed positions and wait. We will stay concealed and wit until they come out to attend their wounded and dead. We repeat the attack as necessary until any resistance is crushed.

We could kidnap one of their members and use them to negotiate our way in.
We could use the fire and maneuver technique. This is not the best option but sometimes it is tempting. We typically infiltrate quietly at night to prearranged start points and begin our attack just before dawn when their senses are dulled by a long night watch or from sleep.

Lastly we develop a plan to evacuate and evade capture. When faced with a significantly superior force it may be the only viable option.

Most of the members of this nefarious crew paid attention. Willis made Steve get up and they changed places. Willis wanted some of the same treatment Candy had given Steve.

Tim said “You guys think about what I’ve said. I’m going to go over it again later and I want you all familiar with our strategies.” He looked in the rear-view mirror to see Willis’ eyes rolled back in his head and Candy’s head bobbing up and down. “That includes you Willis.”

Willis didn’t open his eyes but replied “Yes bossman.”