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Part 8
The next morning Todd and Jim went out to recover the bodies from the van. The bodies were dumped a long way away from the retreat, each in separate locations. With the world falling apart and murder and mayhem second nature, the chances of ever getting prosecuted for their deaths was remote, but Jim was still not willing to take that chance.
"I'll be damned if any of our guys are going to end up in some mickey mouse war crimes tribunal 30 years from now for protecting ourselves!" Jim told Todd as they finished their grizzly work.
"No doubt dude, they'd name you as like the new Slovodon Milosevich or something." Todd said.
"I have to admit, I never thought you had the heart for stuff like this." Jim said. Todd always seemed to have a queezy'ness for blood and gore, almost cried when he had to get bloody butchering a deer one time.
"Dude, I'm a life taker and a heartbreaker." Todd replied laughingly.
"Todd's so hardcore, he eats the boggers out of a deadman's nose, then asks for seconds." Jim said, both men laughed, which seemed to help ease the tension.
Later, back at the retreat, Jim had a sit down with the senior members of the Group, including Barney and Rick.
"Alright guys, I think this van incident should be a wake up call to all of us. We need to finish implementing our advanced defensive plan. Till now, we really haven't had the time, between getting everyone settled, getting logistics squared away and getting routines down. We have ample manpower. Here's some of the things we need to get done- Sandbagging, luckily we bought a few thousand sandbags years ago, so we have plenty for all the tasks we need. We need to reinforce all the fighting positions, as well as the houses as much as possible. A sandbagged corridor between House 2 and the fighting positions near it would be beneficial. A 2 or 3 foot trench can be dug and the dirt used for the sandbags. The sandbags shouldn't be more than 2 or 3 feet high. It will make good cover, but will also be good concealment for change of guards, or even just movement between places if we ever end up in any kind of siege situation. I'd also like to reinforce all the items listed on page 2 of this plan."
Jim went on- "We still have 10 cases of Razor wire in storage as well as several rolls of barbed wire. Their should also be about 4 rolls of farm/field fence as well as about 50 fence posts. I'd like to increase the wire at the front fence forward another 20 yards. Plan on using most of the fence posts there since it's field. On the west side of the perimeter we can nail the fence to trees and use them for posts. I'd also like to use some razor wire for area denial as listed in page 3 of this plan."
"We also have a few people that could be trained for additional camp security they are: Rick's son Rob, Cliff's son Brad and my brother Clide and my father. I'll get started training and outfitting them this week. We can always use more trained people around here." Jim paused and looked to both Rick and Cliff for nods of agreement.
"Good, we will get started day after tomorrow. I need to square away so other things before that." Jim said.
Pausing for a second to shuffle his notes, Jim started again. "Next is food. Seems like for the time being and next six months or so, we should be good to go. Between the communal Group backup supply we put together the last few years, and everyone's personal stocks, we are in good shape. But, like everything else, we are planning for the future. We just don't currently have the growing area to support 53 people. We made most of our food production preps based on a number of 35, which was high as it was. We have more area that we can put in cultivation, but it may takes years to get the soil in decent shape. The areas we have open now have been in development for 2-5 years now and should produce fine for us. We also have 600 nut trees close by, but they only produce once a year. Hunting on a large scale could present problems to us as well. I may have a solution that will fit our needs very nicely though."
"Yeah, and it will taste better than rice and lentils!" Todd said.
"Yes it will. We are putting a deal together with a local rancher to provide protection for his cows in trade for 2 cows a month." Jim said.
"This is the rancher that had the cows stolen we heard about?" Barney asked.
"Yes, he's an older fellow and can't watch over that many cows. Losing a bunch of them was a wake up call for him. We are supposed to finalize the deal tomorrow. I figure if nothing else we can eat a cow a month and put one out to pasture. Within a year we should be on a good start to having our own herd here. We have plenty of pasture." Jim said.
Todd interruped- "So you only want to do this protection deal until we can get our own herd going?"
"Not necessarily. All I'm saying is why not have the added protection of having our own herd? We may have to go into a seige mentality at some time, if we have our own livestock here that we can bring within the perimeter, we will be a better situation over the long term." Jim said.
"What all will be entailed with this cow protection?" Rusty asked.
"Essentially here was what I was thinking- as usual I'm open to ideas- we use 4 men, rotate them every 2 days. Between Barney and Rick's guys and us, we have over a dozen people previously trained. So, figure 3 groups of 4 men, rotated out every 2 days. It will be treated like a 2 day observation or recon type op. Teams will enter and exit at night. We have extra night vision and seismic detector sets, so those could be used on the ops. Only other thing I'd say is that each team of 4 should have a distance shooter with them. Some of the best observation spots are 300-500 yards out." Jim said.
"I'd like it if the fifty NOT go out on these ops, I hate to see it captured and used against use, but that's Rusty's call, it's his weapon." Jim said.
"Fine by me, damn thing is awful heavy to carry anyways!" Rusty replied.
"So, you can see where all of this kinda ties in. We need to get more people trained up so we can have extra security around here, beef up the perimeter area, etc. That way we won't be too bad off if we get hit with four of us out of the retreat. Speaking of that, the other benefit of this would be that the four men out on the ops could be used for a counter attack if we get hit here again." Jim said.
"Sounds like a good plan, improve our security, keep tabs on the area and feed ourselves as well." Bill said.
"That's kinda what I was thinking. Alright, any suggestions? Ideas? Problems? " Jim said.
"We need to get more of the women involved in helping with the clothes washing, cooking and cleaning. I realize not all of you all live in House 2, but it's used a lot for communal meals, recreational use and the bathroom gets used a lot, almost constantly some days. Seems like Michelle and my wife are the only ones I ever see cleaning over here. We need to get more of the women involved in this." Todd said.
"Keep in mind some of the women have children to look after also." Bill said defensively.
"Pretty much most of the women here do Bill, including Todd's wife and Michelle. I'd suggest the women all sit down and break it down to one day to clean per person, then write down and outline the necessary tasks, what's involved, etc. I'll meet with them, this isn't a big deal, but I agree, it needs to be a team effort, men as well." Jim said.
There is going to be more little stuff like this come up for a while, people are stressed, drug from their normal routines, some of them are in a strange place doing things they have never done before. Folks are thinking about their loved ones dying in the cities right now. And to top that off we had the van incident the other night. The ones that seem to be coping better are the regulars that took the time to get their own personal space squared away here ahead of time and got used to the routine activities during bug out weekends. I think we can ALL understand now why we did those for so long."
One thing that proved itself very useful to the Group was the time spent getting people "used" to living at the retreat. The families that had took the time to prepare their living quarters and spend some time there regularly were the ones that did the best during the initial phase of the disaster. Also, because they had spent a good amount of time at the retreat, they already had figured some of their "needs." While other families showed up with food and ammo but little toilet paper, tampons and diapers, the families that had spent the time at the retreat did not.
The next morning Todd and Jim went out to recover the bodies from the van. The bodies were dumped a long way away from the retreat, each in separate locations. With the world falling apart and murder and mayhem second nature, the chances of ever getting prosecuted for their deaths was remote, but Jim was still not willing to take that chance.
"I'll be damned if any of our guys are going to end up in some mickey mouse war crimes tribunal 30 years from now for protecting ourselves!" Jim told Todd as they finished their grizzly work.
"No doubt dude, they'd name you as like the new Slovodon Milosevich or something." Todd said.
"I have to admit, I never thought you had the heart for stuff like this." Jim said. Todd always seemed to have a queezy'ness for blood and gore, almost cried when he had to get bloody butchering a deer one time.
"Dude, I'm a life taker and a heartbreaker." Todd replied laughingly.
"Todd's so hardcore, he eats the boggers out of a deadman's nose, then asks for seconds." Jim said, both men laughed, which seemed to help ease the tension.
Later, back at the retreat, Jim had a sit down with the senior members of the Group, including Barney and Rick.
"Alright guys, I think this van incident should be a wake up call to all of us. We need to finish implementing our advanced defensive plan. Till now, we really haven't had the time, between getting everyone settled, getting logistics squared away and getting routines down. We have ample manpower. Here's some of the things we need to get done- Sandbagging, luckily we bought a few thousand sandbags years ago, so we have plenty for all the tasks we need. We need to reinforce all the fighting positions, as well as the houses as much as possible. A sandbagged corridor between House 2 and the fighting positions near it would be beneficial. A 2 or 3 foot trench can be dug and the dirt used for the sandbags. The sandbags shouldn't be more than 2 or 3 feet high. It will make good cover, but will also be good concealment for change of guards, or even just movement between places if we ever end up in any kind of siege situation. I'd also like to reinforce all the items listed on page 2 of this plan."
Jim went on- "We still have 10 cases of Razor wire in storage as well as several rolls of barbed wire. Their should also be about 4 rolls of farm/field fence as well as about 50 fence posts. I'd like to increase the wire at the front fence forward another 20 yards. Plan on using most of the fence posts there since it's field. On the west side of the perimeter we can nail the fence to trees and use them for posts. I'd also like to use some razor wire for area denial as listed in page 3 of this plan."
"We also have a few people that could be trained for additional camp security they are: Rick's son Rob, Cliff's son Brad and my brother Clide and my father. I'll get started training and outfitting them this week. We can always use more trained people around here." Jim paused and looked to both Rick and Cliff for nods of agreement.
"Good, we will get started day after tomorrow. I need to square away so other things before that." Jim said.
Pausing for a second to shuffle his notes, Jim started again. "Next is food. Seems like for the time being and next six months or so, we should be good to go. Between the communal Group backup supply we put together the last few years, and everyone's personal stocks, we are in good shape. But, like everything else, we are planning for the future. We just don't currently have the growing area to support 53 people. We made most of our food production preps based on a number of 35, which was high as it was. We have more area that we can put in cultivation, but it may takes years to get the soil in decent shape. The areas we have open now have been in development for 2-5 years now and should produce fine for us. We also have 600 nut trees close by, but they only produce once a year. Hunting on a large scale could present problems to us as well. I may have a solution that will fit our needs very nicely though."
"Yeah, and it will taste better than rice and lentils!" Todd said.
"Yes it will. We are putting a deal together with a local rancher to provide protection for his cows in trade for 2 cows a month." Jim said.
"This is the rancher that had the cows stolen we heard about?" Barney asked.
"Yes, he's an older fellow and can't watch over that many cows. Losing a bunch of them was a wake up call for him. We are supposed to finalize the deal tomorrow. I figure if nothing else we can eat a cow a month and put one out to pasture. Within a year we should be on a good start to having our own herd here. We have plenty of pasture." Jim said.
Todd interruped- "So you only want to do this protection deal until we can get our own herd going?"
"Not necessarily. All I'm saying is why not have the added protection of having our own herd? We may have to go into a seige mentality at some time, if we have our own livestock here that we can bring within the perimeter, we will be a better situation over the long term." Jim said.
"What all will be entailed with this cow protection?" Rusty asked.
"Essentially here was what I was thinking- as usual I'm open to ideas- we use 4 men, rotate them every 2 days. Between Barney and Rick's guys and us, we have over a dozen people previously trained. So, figure 3 groups of 4 men, rotated out every 2 days. It will be treated like a 2 day observation or recon type op. Teams will enter and exit at night. We have extra night vision and seismic detector sets, so those could be used on the ops. Only other thing I'd say is that each team of 4 should have a distance shooter with them. Some of the best observation spots are 300-500 yards out." Jim said.
"I'd like it if the fifty NOT go out on these ops, I hate to see it captured and used against use, but that's Rusty's call, it's his weapon." Jim said.
"Fine by me, damn thing is awful heavy to carry anyways!" Rusty replied.
"So, you can see where all of this kinda ties in. We need to get more people trained up so we can have extra security around here, beef up the perimeter area, etc. That way we won't be too bad off if we get hit with four of us out of the retreat. Speaking of that, the other benefit of this would be that the four men out on the ops could be used for a counter attack if we get hit here again." Jim said.
"Sounds like a good plan, improve our security, keep tabs on the area and feed ourselves as well." Bill said.
"That's kinda what I was thinking. Alright, any suggestions? Ideas? Problems? " Jim said.
"We need to get more of the women involved in helping with the clothes washing, cooking and cleaning. I realize not all of you all live in House 2, but it's used a lot for communal meals, recreational use and the bathroom gets used a lot, almost constantly some days. Seems like Michelle and my wife are the only ones I ever see cleaning over here. We need to get more of the women involved in this." Todd said.
"Keep in mind some of the women have children to look after also." Bill said defensively.
"Pretty much most of the women here do Bill, including Todd's wife and Michelle. I'd suggest the women all sit down and break it down to one day to clean per person, then write down and outline the necessary tasks, what's involved, etc. I'll meet with them, this isn't a big deal, but I agree, it needs to be a team effort, men as well." Jim said.
There is going to be more little stuff like this come up for a while, people are stressed, drug from their normal routines, some of them are in a strange place doing things they have never done before. Folks are thinking about their loved ones dying in the cities right now. And to top that off we had the van incident the other night. The ones that seem to be coping better are the regulars that took the time to get their own personal space squared away here ahead of time and got used to the routine activities during bug out weekends. I think we can ALL understand now why we did those for so long."
One thing that proved itself very useful to the Group was the time spent getting people "used" to living at the retreat. The families that had took the time to prepare their living quarters and spend some time there regularly were the ones that did the best during the initial phase of the disaster. Also, because they had spent a good amount of time at the retreat, they already had figured some of their "needs." While other families showed up with food and ammo but little toilet paper, tampons and diapers, the families that had spent the time at the retreat did not.
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