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Part 21
Spring was finally here. It had seemed like an unusually long winter. Firewood was still holding out good. Jim had spent a considerable amount of time before the collapse convincing the rest of the crew about the amount of firewood that needed to be stockpiled for House 2.
"We live like we are talking about now. We never use "regular" heat. You guys really need to heed our advice on this, we are already living the way we would after the **** hit's the fan. You guys think this pile is going to last you one winter? It won't even last a few weeks!"
Jim and Kathy made the decision to live at their retreat in late 1999. The 14 years of being "on the ground" at the retreat gave them a good insight on what would be needed for the long term survival of the Group.
They grew a garden every year. They had around 150 fruit trees. Jim hunted every year. They raised chickens, rabbits, goats and kept bees. Even still, they only produced about 60% of the food needed for three people.
"I'm sure it will be different if something ever happened." Kathy had said. "We will have plenty of time to tend the gardens, fish and care for the fruit trees."
Jim's goal was to eventually be able to produce enough food from their homesteading efforts. Jim called this their "pioneer supply." Since pioneer's didn't have freeze dried food, they had to put up enough food from their farming and gathering activities to last them through the winter and into the next season. Growing enough for this year was never enough. Their had to be enough to eat during the growing season as well as until next growing season.
The trade with Mr. Hansen was certainly helping with the Group's food supply. Not long after the Meat for Protection deal was struck, the Group had built a small smokehouse. This was for bulk preservation of the meat. Jim also had a small freezer with their refrigerator. Since the retreat still had power from solar and gensets, this wasn't a problem. Still, the Group ate a lot of beef that winter. Everyone looked forward to some fresh vegetables. Jim's greenhouse produced a small quantity of vegetables, but not nearly enough.
_________________________________________________
The Op was going well. Reports of hand fulls of refugees on the road next to the pasture was becoming a daily occurrence. After the Op team was forced to fire on a pair of refugees attempting to kill one of the cows, Mr. Hansen made up signs saying that deadly force would be used against anyone trying to kill or steal a cow.
On the 2nd day of April, the Op team rotation consisted of Murphy, Lyle, Chuck and Rick. Almost to the end of two eventful days, Lyle commented that
"Dude, I've never been this bored in my life. I almost wish something would happen, just to give us something to do."
Later in the afternoon he got his wish.
The sound of small engines could faintly be heard in the distance. Murphy was the first to hear it and alerted the others.
"Sounds like engines keep sharp!" Murphy spoke into the headset.
Chuck and Rick were at the laying up position, a short distance from the observation points. The SOP was that the Op was always on 50%, which meant that half of the personnel were always on watch while the other half rested. This was rotated every few hours. They put their LBV's back on and held their position at the laying up position.
A pack of 4 ATV's, riding two by two appeared from around the bend in the road 3/4 of a mile from the Observation point. It reminded Lyle of a scene out of Mad Max or something.
The ATV's weren't traveling fast, but they seemed to hold this formation tightly. As they got closer, Lyle could make out 5 riders, most wearing camouflage clothing. 3 ATV's had single riders and one ATV had two riders. All looked to be dark skinned. Not blacks, but slightly darker than Puerto Ricans.
Lyle flipped open the scope covers on the Savage after removing the Eagle scope cover.
As they neared the corner of the pasture, two of the ATV's slowed. One stopped about fifty yards back from the second one. The second ATV to stop contained the two riders. ATV three and four continued about 100 yards ahead and stopped at the intersection of the dirt road. The rider of the third ATV made some hand gestures to the rider of the 4th, who dismounted and withdrew a large pistol from across the handlebars.
The third ATV then circled back to number two. Again, he made some hand gestures to the two riders and they walked to the fence. The fence was cut in two places and the two riders went forward into the pasture.
Lyle noticed that while the riders of the first, second and fourth ATV's had shut down the engine's on their bikes, the rider of the third ATV, obviously some sort of leader, had not shut off his engine. He also remained on his bike.
"Look at this chicken$hit! He's ready to get the heck out of here if something happens!" Lyle said.
"Waiting for instructions." Chuck said on the radio.
"Hold. Let's see what happens. May need you to run flank." Lyle replied.
"Roger." Chuck said.
"Lyle come in, this is Murph over"
"Murph this is Lyle, go ahead."
"Don't you think we should line up like in a far ambush? Over."
"Ah, roger, I was fixing to say that, over. Chuck and Rick move into position for far ambush over."
"Roger, already in position." Chuck said.
"Left to right, everyone know where they are at?"
"Roger"
"Roger that"
"On my signal"
Pablo Picante and Enrico Gonzales moved into the pasture and towards a group of cows closest to the fence line. Pointing to one, they looked back at Ramero Gomez for confirmation.
Gomez nodded.
Pablo wondered why Romero kept his ATV running. They had been told to shut down their engines as soon as they could.
"This one esse?" Pablo asked Enrico.
"Si." Enrico answered.
Pablo moved forward towards the cow with an SKS in his hand.
The Op team lined up on the riders in the order they were laid out. Rick was on the far left so he would shoot at the man on the far left, directly in front of him, and so forth. From training, each man knew he would drop his target then proceed to cover the other sectors as well. This won't not be a "mad minute." Nor would it be a race to see who could empty a magazine the fastest. This was to be precised aimed shots. The distance to targets averaged a little over 300 yards. This also happened to be about the maximum effective range of the AK's. The Op team did have one of the scoped Savage's plus an M1A.
"Don't shoot up the bikes unless you have to, we could use them." was Lyle's last command.
Pablo's shot rang out. Murphy, Chuck and Rick all assumed that Lyle had taken his shot and commenced to open fire.
Enrico was hit in the gut with a round Murphy fired from the M1A. He went down and curled up on the ground. Murphy put two more rounds into the clump on the ground, hitting Enrico in the spine with one shot and just missing with the other. Murphy got a square chest hit on the 1st rider, putting him out of the game.
Pablo was hit in the upper thigh by a round from Chuck's AK. He fell to the ground and lay still. Chuck placed two more shots into the clump on the ground, hitting Pablo in the shoulder with one round. Pablo lie still.
Rick's first shot at the 4th rider was off and sent the rider scrambling to the ground. The rider tried to reach his bike but as he neared it, Rick put half a magazine into the ATV, effectively disabling. The 4th rider went into a shallow ditch for cover. Their was essentially nowhere to go. Rick kept his rifle trained on the area and called out for assistance.
When Pablo shot the cow, Lyle turned for a brief moment to see if one of his crew took the shot. As he got the scope up, he saw Ramero already gun'ing the throttle on the ATV. One quick pull of the trigger produced a round grazing up past the ATV.
Lyle stood up with the rifle as Romero raced down the road. Lyle took a precision stance, acquired a good lead on Ramero and took another shot. It felt good, it sounded like a hit? Yet Ramero's ATV raced off around the corner.
Rick's voice boomed on the radio.
"I got one pinned down in the ditch."
"Where? Can you mark?" Lyle replied.
Rick reached into his LBV and pulled out a 20 round AK mag containing tracer rounds. Rick bracketed the area with tracers for marking of the target.
Lyle scanned the area with the Savage while Murphy kept watch on the pasture.
"Alright, we gotta get this guy right away. Chuck, I want you and Rick to flank this guy, I'll cover." Lyle said into the radio.
"Roger, will do. Stay alert and watch our butt." Chuck replied.
It was not shaping up to bed a good day for Dejesus. Earlier today old man Gomez kicked the **** out of him again for trying to get with one of the girls. Then the bas%ard sent him out to get some meat with the rest of these madecone's (sp) and they got shot up.
Now he crawled on his belly along the ditch trying to hide from these gringo farmers. Didn't they know who Gomez was? Surely he would cut their genitalia off and feed them to the dogs after this. He would come back with the ears and gonads of these *******s and old man Gomez would finally have to give him some respect. "This is for derassa" (sp) he thought as he crawled up the ditch. If he kept himself low he could probably move up alongside them and get a shot at them. He kept his Tec 9 in his right hand as he crawled. Enrico had converted it to fire full auto for him and so now Dejesus had "the power."
Chuck and Rick moved by bounds towards the dirt road. They had no choice but to try to cross the road. They would have to do that in order to move up on the 4th rider and still have some concealment. They picked a spot at a bend in the road from which to cross, a few hundred yards from where the 4th rider was, down in the ditch.
As Rick got mid way across the road, Dejesus opened up with his Tec 9, spraying a whole magazine towards Rick. Two bullets hit the mark, catching Rick in the gut and thigh.
Chuck still didn't have a shot but realized that the 4th rider was much closer than expected. He changed positions and shot off through the pasture in a semi-circle. Realizing the 4th rider was now further up, Chuck had now just cut him off from his bike.
Maybe now that he shot Rick, he would try to get the hell out of there?
The ditch was deep and easily 10' lower than the pasture side of the fence. It was overgrown. Someone could crawl through the bottom and never be seen. Chuck bided his time.
Dejesus didn't move from the position he shot Rick from. He sat there expecting others to run out from the same point to check on their friend. It was only after a few minutes that Dejesus realized his Tec 9 was empty. His other magazine was on the ATV. The only other weapon he had was a butcher knife he kept in a homemade sheath.
"These gringo's are cowards, they aren't coming" he told himself and decided to dash out and get the rifle off the guy he shot. "Looks like an AK, that's worth a run" Dejesus thought, figuring he could grab the rifle and continue to run, get in the treeline and then find his way back to Gomez.
He raised up from the ditch, looked around, then threw a rock out in the road. Chuck smiled at this. After a few seconds delay, Dejesus got up and ran towards Rick's body.
From a range of only 50 yards, Chuck put three rounds into Dejesus' back as he got within 10 yards of Rick's body. Dejesus turned as the bullets impacted and spun to hit the ground.
"Lyle come in, this is Chuck over"
"Chuck this is Lyle over"
"Got a Fedex delivery here, notify Monty Python over."
"Fedex?"
"Correct, Fedex. Notify Monty over"
"Roger, hold position over"
"Roger."
"Murphy, need you to keep watch, I gotta call camp, Rick is dead and we need to sweep the area."
"I got it, you sure he's dead? Want me to take a look?"
"Yes, it's confirmed. I have to call camp."
"I figured you did at the start of this." Murphy said.
"No, I forgot, it was so hectic." Lyle replied.
Spring was finally here. It had seemed like an unusually long winter. Firewood was still holding out good. Jim had spent a considerable amount of time before the collapse convincing the rest of the crew about the amount of firewood that needed to be stockpiled for House 2.
"We live like we are talking about now. We never use "regular" heat. You guys really need to heed our advice on this, we are already living the way we would after the **** hit's the fan. You guys think this pile is going to last you one winter? It won't even last a few weeks!"
Jim and Kathy made the decision to live at their retreat in late 1999. The 14 years of being "on the ground" at the retreat gave them a good insight on what would be needed for the long term survival of the Group.
They grew a garden every year. They had around 150 fruit trees. Jim hunted every year. They raised chickens, rabbits, goats and kept bees. Even still, they only produced about 60% of the food needed for three people.
"I'm sure it will be different if something ever happened." Kathy had said. "We will have plenty of time to tend the gardens, fish and care for the fruit trees."
Jim's goal was to eventually be able to produce enough food from their homesteading efforts. Jim called this their "pioneer supply." Since pioneer's didn't have freeze dried food, they had to put up enough food from their farming and gathering activities to last them through the winter and into the next season. Growing enough for this year was never enough. Their had to be enough to eat during the growing season as well as until next growing season.
The trade with Mr. Hansen was certainly helping with the Group's food supply. Not long after the Meat for Protection deal was struck, the Group had built a small smokehouse. This was for bulk preservation of the meat. Jim also had a small freezer with their refrigerator. Since the retreat still had power from solar and gensets, this wasn't a problem. Still, the Group ate a lot of beef that winter. Everyone looked forward to some fresh vegetables. Jim's greenhouse produced a small quantity of vegetables, but not nearly enough.
_________________________________________________
The Op was going well. Reports of hand fulls of refugees on the road next to the pasture was becoming a daily occurrence. After the Op team was forced to fire on a pair of refugees attempting to kill one of the cows, Mr. Hansen made up signs saying that deadly force would be used against anyone trying to kill or steal a cow.
On the 2nd day of April, the Op team rotation consisted of Murphy, Lyle, Chuck and Rick. Almost to the end of two eventful days, Lyle commented that
"Dude, I've never been this bored in my life. I almost wish something would happen, just to give us something to do."
Later in the afternoon he got his wish.
The sound of small engines could faintly be heard in the distance. Murphy was the first to hear it and alerted the others.
"Sounds like engines keep sharp!" Murphy spoke into the headset.
Chuck and Rick were at the laying up position, a short distance from the observation points. The SOP was that the Op was always on 50%, which meant that half of the personnel were always on watch while the other half rested. This was rotated every few hours. They put their LBV's back on and held their position at the laying up position.
A pack of 4 ATV's, riding two by two appeared from around the bend in the road 3/4 of a mile from the Observation point. It reminded Lyle of a scene out of Mad Max or something.
The ATV's weren't traveling fast, but they seemed to hold this formation tightly. As they got closer, Lyle could make out 5 riders, most wearing camouflage clothing. 3 ATV's had single riders and one ATV had two riders. All looked to be dark skinned. Not blacks, but slightly darker than Puerto Ricans.
Lyle flipped open the scope covers on the Savage after removing the Eagle scope cover.
As they neared the corner of the pasture, two of the ATV's slowed. One stopped about fifty yards back from the second one. The second ATV to stop contained the two riders. ATV three and four continued about 100 yards ahead and stopped at the intersection of the dirt road. The rider of the third ATV made some hand gestures to the rider of the 4th, who dismounted and withdrew a large pistol from across the handlebars.
The third ATV then circled back to number two. Again, he made some hand gestures to the two riders and they walked to the fence. The fence was cut in two places and the two riders went forward into the pasture.
Lyle noticed that while the riders of the first, second and fourth ATV's had shut down the engine's on their bikes, the rider of the third ATV, obviously some sort of leader, had not shut off his engine. He also remained on his bike.
"Look at this chicken$hit! He's ready to get the heck out of here if something happens!" Lyle said.
"Waiting for instructions." Chuck said on the radio.
"Hold. Let's see what happens. May need you to run flank." Lyle replied.
"Roger." Chuck said.
"Lyle come in, this is Murph over"
"Murph this is Lyle, go ahead."
"Don't you think we should line up like in a far ambush? Over."
"Ah, roger, I was fixing to say that, over. Chuck and Rick move into position for far ambush over."
"Roger, already in position." Chuck said.
"Left to right, everyone know where they are at?"
"Roger"
"Roger that"
"On my signal"
Pablo Picante and Enrico Gonzales moved into the pasture and towards a group of cows closest to the fence line. Pointing to one, they looked back at Ramero Gomez for confirmation.
Gomez nodded.
Pablo wondered why Romero kept his ATV running. They had been told to shut down their engines as soon as they could.
"This one esse?" Pablo asked Enrico.
"Si." Enrico answered.
Pablo moved forward towards the cow with an SKS in his hand.
The Op team lined up on the riders in the order they were laid out. Rick was on the far left so he would shoot at the man on the far left, directly in front of him, and so forth. From training, each man knew he would drop his target then proceed to cover the other sectors as well. This won't not be a "mad minute." Nor would it be a race to see who could empty a magazine the fastest. This was to be precised aimed shots. The distance to targets averaged a little over 300 yards. This also happened to be about the maximum effective range of the AK's. The Op team did have one of the scoped Savage's plus an M1A.
"Don't shoot up the bikes unless you have to, we could use them." was Lyle's last command.
Pablo's shot rang out. Murphy, Chuck and Rick all assumed that Lyle had taken his shot and commenced to open fire.
Enrico was hit in the gut with a round Murphy fired from the M1A. He went down and curled up on the ground. Murphy put two more rounds into the clump on the ground, hitting Enrico in the spine with one shot and just missing with the other. Murphy got a square chest hit on the 1st rider, putting him out of the game.
Pablo was hit in the upper thigh by a round from Chuck's AK. He fell to the ground and lay still. Chuck placed two more shots into the clump on the ground, hitting Pablo in the shoulder with one round. Pablo lie still.
Rick's first shot at the 4th rider was off and sent the rider scrambling to the ground. The rider tried to reach his bike but as he neared it, Rick put half a magazine into the ATV, effectively disabling. The 4th rider went into a shallow ditch for cover. Their was essentially nowhere to go. Rick kept his rifle trained on the area and called out for assistance.
When Pablo shot the cow, Lyle turned for a brief moment to see if one of his crew took the shot. As he got the scope up, he saw Ramero already gun'ing the throttle on the ATV. One quick pull of the trigger produced a round grazing up past the ATV.
Lyle stood up with the rifle as Romero raced down the road. Lyle took a precision stance, acquired a good lead on Ramero and took another shot. It felt good, it sounded like a hit? Yet Ramero's ATV raced off around the corner.
Rick's voice boomed on the radio.
"I got one pinned down in the ditch."
"Where? Can you mark?" Lyle replied.
Rick reached into his LBV and pulled out a 20 round AK mag containing tracer rounds. Rick bracketed the area with tracers for marking of the target.
Lyle scanned the area with the Savage while Murphy kept watch on the pasture.
"Alright, we gotta get this guy right away. Chuck, I want you and Rick to flank this guy, I'll cover." Lyle said into the radio.
"Roger, will do. Stay alert and watch our butt." Chuck replied.
It was not shaping up to bed a good day for Dejesus. Earlier today old man Gomez kicked the **** out of him again for trying to get with one of the girls. Then the bas%ard sent him out to get some meat with the rest of these madecone's (sp) and they got shot up.
Now he crawled on his belly along the ditch trying to hide from these gringo farmers. Didn't they know who Gomez was? Surely he would cut their genitalia off and feed them to the dogs after this. He would come back with the ears and gonads of these *******s and old man Gomez would finally have to give him some respect. "This is for derassa" (sp) he thought as he crawled up the ditch. If he kept himself low he could probably move up alongside them and get a shot at them. He kept his Tec 9 in his right hand as he crawled. Enrico had converted it to fire full auto for him and so now Dejesus had "the power."
Chuck and Rick moved by bounds towards the dirt road. They had no choice but to try to cross the road. They would have to do that in order to move up on the 4th rider and still have some concealment. They picked a spot at a bend in the road from which to cross, a few hundred yards from where the 4th rider was, down in the ditch.
As Rick got mid way across the road, Dejesus opened up with his Tec 9, spraying a whole magazine towards Rick. Two bullets hit the mark, catching Rick in the gut and thigh.
Chuck still didn't have a shot but realized that the 4th rider was much closer than expected. He changed positions and shot off through the pasture in a semi-circle. Realizing the 4th rider was now further up, Chuck had now just cut him off from his bike.
Maybe now that he shot Rick, he would try to get the hell out of there?
The ditch was deep and easily 10' lower than the pasture side of the fence. It was overgrown. Someone could crawl through the bottom and never be seen. Chuck bided his time.
Dejesus didn't move from the position he shot Rick from. He sat there expecting others to run out from the same point to check on their friend. It was only after a few minutes that Dejesus realized his Tec 9 was empty. His other magazine was on the ATV. The only other weapon he had was a butcher knife he kept in a homemade sheath.
"These gringo's are cowards, they aren't coming" he told himself and decided to dash out and get the rifle off the guy he shot. "Looks like an AK, that's worth a run" Dejesus thought, figuring he could grab the rifle and continue to run, get in the treeline and then find his way back to Gomez.
He raised up from the ditch, looked around, then threw a rock out in the road. Chuck smiled at this. After a few seconds delay, Dejesus got up and ran towards Rick's body.
From a range of only 50 yards, Chuck put three rounds into Dejesus' back as he got within 10 yards of Rick's body. Dejesus turned as the bullets impacted and spun to hit the ground.
"Lyle come in, this is Chuck over"
"Chuck this is Lyle over"
"Got a Fedex delivery here, notify Monty Python over."
"Fedex?"
"Correct, Fedex. Notify Monty over"
"Roger, hold position over"
"Roger."
"Murphy, need you to keep watch, I gotta call camp, Rick is dead and we need to sweep the area."
"I got it, you sure he's dead? Want me to take a look?"
"Yes, it's confirmed. I have to call camp."
"I figured you did at the start of this." Murphy said.
"No, I forgot, it was so hectic." Lyle replied.
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