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Part 3
"Man, I sure am thankful for you letting us in." Donnie said.
"Well, you probably remember how things work around here, it wasn't just "me" letting you in, everyone was involved in it." Jim replied.
"Good man, glad to hear everything is good with you guys. Ya'll been busy, you got a lot done around the place here. Looks like 3 new fighting positions, the inner wire is all new also isn't it?" Donnie asked.
"Yeah. We had planned to start breeding some German Shephards and Rottweilers at some point in the future so we put the inner wire as sort of a dog run. Kill two birds with one stone you know, security and functionality." Jim said.
"Man, I want you to know that anything you all need me to help with, just let me know. We are really grateful for a place here and I'll do anything to repay that." Donnie said.
Unfortunately, this didn't match up with previous actions and characteristics of the person Jim remembered from years ago. The person years ago was what they called a "taker." Giving very little back to the Group yet "taking" all the free training, quantity discounts on gear, etc. People like this rarely gave anything back to the group or to individual members and therefore it was never long before people noticed their attitude. Jim considered the possibility that he had changed. The problem was people like that rarely even understand how they come off to others and therefore never really deal with the problem.
"I know that. Hey, we are glad your here and made it out of Florida alive." Jim replied.
"It's o.k. to keep our weapons then?" Donnie asked.
"Sure, why not?" Jim replied quickly.
"Well, one time years ago we were discussing similar circumstances and one of the things brought up was disarming people if they were brought into the site as a precaution. I just figured you'd want to do that with us." Donnie said.
This was obviously a test of trust. To see if Jim and his crew trusted Donnie.
"No bro, we trust you. You would be disarmed if we didn't, hell, you wouldn't be here if we didn't trust you. There is only one or two people that I've ever worked with that I can honestly say I don't trust anymore. You know the deal, we are all pretty easy going here. I'll introduce you to some of the new faces in the next few days. I think their is 6, no 7 people you don't know from our crew, the rest are older people you remember, like Todd and Bill." Jim said.
"Man, if it's o.k. for me to ask... Who are those other folks from Florida?" Donnie asked.
"Barney and their crew? Just some old school guys from the original Group. Their a little backwards- they use AR's you know- but they are o.k." Jim said.
"I want you to know, if you need me to go on patrol with you guys, or pull a guard shift, I'm ready to do it. You'll just have to show me where all your holes in the wire are so I know where to watch. It would probably help to get me up to speed with your current SOP's also. You guys are probably just patrolling the close in area right?" Donnie said.
"No actually we've been expanding our patrols out already a good deal. Heck, we have full seismic detection for 300 yards out in every direction around the perimeter, plus PIR in key places as well. We were just really getting started training with patrol tactics when you were in, it's come a LONG way since then. Weaponcraft also, most of these guys are hitting moving targets at night from 150 yards with only a small lightstick taped to it. Everyone is qualified at 300 yards now during the day, even most of the women are qualified at 200 yards. We've been keeping busy. Listen, I gotta run, bring Michelle over something at the house and get my work started today, we'll BS more later." Jim said.
"Sure man, no problem, like I said thanks." Donnie replied.
No problem my arse, Jim thought as he went to the house. Dude's gone 6 or 7 years now, no contact, comes in and starts asking a million questions he knows he shouldn't even ask. Not good. Have to keep a line on this one, see what happens in the future. Paranoia or a real problem? Often times it's hard to tell the difference. Machiavelli would say that " A good prince should be able to ascertain future problems before they become problems."
____________________________________________
"Where the hell you guys been?" Todd asked Lyle and Steve.
"We were here, what do you mean?" Lyle replied, glancing around the room at the others in the room.
"No your weren't, you guys were gone for most of a day. " Todd asked.
"No, we were here." Lyle said, slightly emphasizing it and glancing around again.
"What?" Todd asked. Never one for subtleties , everyone joked that you had to write things out on an Etchesketch for him at times.
"Are you still just carrying 5 mags? Even now? Jim will beat the bejesus out of you if he sees that." Lyle said, quickly changing the subject.
"Naaah dood, I just have to make room for the extra MRE's" Todd said.
"Extra MRE's?" Lyle asked.
"You don't remember Jim telling us that story of the old guy Don years ago telling him that he wasn't too worried about getting a chic cause "after the **** hits the fan, women will be a dime a dozen. I've stored some extra MRE's to trade for sex AAARRRRRR!" Todd said.
"Oh yeah, the AARRR guy, I remember that story." Lyle said. "Hey, your supposed to go see Jim." Lyle added.
"Where da hell are you going?"
"To sleep." Lyle replied.
"Don't you have guard duty in a little while?" Todd asked.
"Jim is taking up my shift today, I don't know why he wants to. But they are only 3 hour shifts now. Guess that's one thing nice about having forty six hundred people here." Lyle said.
___________________________________________
"Lyle said to see you." Todd said.
"Yes, listen, I want you to take Rusty and do a patrol."
"No problem."
" I want you guys to do the "medium" patrol route." Jim said.
"Medium, that will take us all day!" Todd said. Todd was known to everyone as notoriously lazy. More than a few people had come to Jim privately and shared their concern over Todd "doing the right thing" when the time came. Yet Todd thought everyone loved him and no one saw his flaws.
"Yes, probably." Jim replied. Come to the map here, we will go over the route again. I want you to stay out of this area right here all together." Jim said.
"Why?"
"Isn't enough that I asked you not to? Seriously, stay out of this area right here, don't take any shortcuts through it, leave no tracks in that area whatsoever." Jim said.
"Are you going to be tracking us like in training, looking to jump us."
"No smart***, like I said, I have my reasons for it. I wouldn't even send you guys out right now but I'm a little concerned about something." Jim said.
"What?"
"I can't tell you right now." Jim replied
Todd always the one to pester continued to ask.
"It's probably just my paranoia, but I'm a little concerned we may have a rat in the house. Possibly doing a little recon. Just being cautious."
"Donnie.
"I didn't say a word. You don't hide your emotions very well, which is why I didn't want to say anything until I had a better idea." Jim said.
"Damn dude, I told you about that guy." Todd said. Publicly Todd had always acted like he was Donnie's best friend but that was anything but the truth.
"Did I say he was a chevato? We don't know that. All we can do right now is let him feel welcome and trusted, and give him the mushroom treatment. I want to believe he's changed and isn't totally just out for himself, but that's up to him to prove that to us. We've done plenty for him both in the past and now. The onus is on him to prove himself to us, not vice versa.
"Mushroom treatment?"
"Yeah mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed crap!" Jim said.
"Hey, what's the deal with you taking Lyle's guard duty shift today? I thought their was to be "no switching"?" Todd said.
"We are not switching, I'm doing his and mine. He's kinda feeling bad. Back to the subject at hand... Anyways, carry packs, even if you want to stuff them with cardboard or something, plus your normal field gear. I'd take binoculars also and one of the J pole antennas. If you get into trouble, break contact under any circumstances and pull back to this rally point. I want it to look like you guys are just two lone guys in the boonies. Wear sterile fatigues..."
Todd interrupted, he wasn't the patient type, having a mild case of adult ADD- "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Normal stuff we did on practice patrols, check roads and trails, check for sign of attack on any of the houses you come near- I'd do that from a distance-, your basically checking for the potential presence of another crew." Jim said.
"Oh geez, this is going to be fun." Todd said.
"I can do it if you have a problem with it." Jim said, it was a test.
"Yes I'll do it."
"You just couldn't do it without complaining about it first, right?" Jim asked.
"Ha ha ha. Is Rusty gonna be cool with this?"
"Should be, you know him, he's a darn good guy. You know, he's got a lot more experience that you and I with his military career. He's a good leader and his hunting skills are excellent. He won't steer you wrong." Jim said.
"Dude, I know, he knows his stuff, without a doubt. I meant, will he be cool going on this little mission of yours?"
"Well, we will find out soon enough eh?" Jim said. "This is a serious thing, take your time, a half way job won't do us any good." Jim said.
"You know I'm not doing stuff like that anymore."
"We'll all of us have made mistakes in the past and it's important to realize that all of us have to "prove" ourselves to each other again now that it's for real. Don't make a production out of leaving. Slip out by OP3 using normal SOP, plan on leaving in 45 minutes. I'll brief Rusty." Jim said.
Just then the intercom from OP1 came alive-
"Mister Clean, Mister Clean. White truck coming through the field, one person in truck, I got them." Murphy was on duty at OP1.
Jim pushed the button on the intercom. "Roger that, everyone was alerted. The normal procedure had been practiced hundreds of times during "bug out weekends."
A older model white Ford truck came slowly along the rutted field towards the main gate of the retreat. A women driving stopped suddenly after seeing a small STOP sign with a small placard reading "Drive no further forward, exit your vehicle slowly with your hands up." Had she continued in the vehicle she would not have made it another 30 yards.
"Boy, Jimmy's taking this thing seriously, none of this was here two weeks ago." Debbie said out loud to herself. She took a long drag off her cigarette and started to open her door.
"Murphy, she's cool, it's my uncle's neighbor. Same stuff applies, gonna Condeleeza Rice, again Condeleeza Rice." Jim said into the intercom. "Let's give her a little show though, it will get around."
"OK. Will do." Murphy said.
They had weird nicknames for everything, every SOP. This one was for meeting a known person. The weird names oftentimes helped everyone remember what the SOP was.
A PA boomed- "Step away from the vehicle towards the gate, keep your hands up. STOP. Turn around. Walk forward to the red pole. Put your arms around the pole, interlock your fingers and face me." Murphy was clearly having fun with this.
Jim moved up to the fence and towards the gate. He squatted down and had a good look around before going over to next to the gate. He stayed in the shadows in the woods next to the gate and probably 25 feet from it.
"Debbie, that you?" Jim called out.
"Jimmy, yeah it's Debbie. Can I let go of this damn pole?" Debbie asked.
Jim glanced around again, looked again at her vehicle. Still from a hidden position he called out, "Yes and come forward 20 feet."
Debbie was sweating now, despite it being winter. She meticulously counted out about 10 steps and stopped, still scanning around for Jim. "This good?"
"Yep that's fine. Don't get too jumpy, these guys shoot the crap out of anybody that comes around here, we've already had to get rid of 5 bodies. I try to tell these guys that not everyone is unfriendly, but they won't listen."
"I'm friendly, I'm friendly!!" Debbie said in rapid fire Southern dialect.
Jim laughed. "Oh I know, so what's up?"
"Just wanted to see how you were doing and bring you some news." Debbie said. She eyed the handpainted sign "Will trade firewood for food" placed next to a measly pile of rotten looking wood outside the gate. "That killed one of the reasons I'm here", she thought.
"We are getting by, pretty low on food, we had about 40 old friends drop by, so what little food we had is almost gone now with all the extra people. You wouldn't know where we can trade for some food would ya?" Jim asked.
"No, pretty much everyone is running low. Forty people Jimmy?" Debbie said.
" Yep, a little overcrowded, too many bullets, not enough beans. What was the news?"
"You know old Mr. Hansen down the road?" Debbie asked.
"I don't think I've ever met him, but I've seen him a lot, waived to him and such, why?"
"Well, someone stole a bunch of his cows." Debbie said.
"How much is a bunch, doesn't he have several hundred of them?" Jim asked.
"Damn near thousand I think. He isn't 100% sure how many yet, but he thinks six of them. They also shot six more of them, just left them dead in one of his fields."
"Didn't eat them, just shot them? Doesn't make sense. Jim said.
"Well, he doesn't know what to do, he can't pen them all up and he's got hundreds of acres to watch over. He can't do it all himself."
"How well do you know this guy? No Bull$hit." Jim asked.
"He's my Momma's step cousin. He's a good man."
"We might be able to help him, find who did it, etc. Think he'd be interested in that?" Jim asked.
"I'm sure he would be, those cows are all that old couple has."
"Alright, tell him we will come and see him tomorrow afternoon, that you will come and pick him up and bring him for a meeting." Jim said.
"You want me to bring him here?"
"No, we will set up a meeting place. I will send one person along with you to get him, "ride shotgun" you know. Then we can meet and discuss this." Jim said.
"OK, any way I can help I will." Debbie said.
"We will see you tomorrow. When you leave stay on the road, back up the first 50 yards, then turn around at the tree with the red paint on it or you might ruin your truck."
"Why's that?" Debbie asked.
"Their are things that go boom out there."
"Jesus Jimmy! I'm standing in a frickin minefield!" Debbie said.
"Be careful. See you tomorrow." Jim said.
Hey, why not let her think that, she'll spread the "word" around- Jimmy's always been crazy, but now he's got an Army of kill crazy people down there with landmines. Hell, by time she finishes embellishing it, we will have tanks! Jim thought. Stuff had a way of getting around in the country and when you had this many people it was hard to "hide." Therefore the next best tactic was for people to absolutely know they did not want to screw around. Rumors like this got the process started and as the time progressed, actions would fill in the gaps.
The Group's food supply was far from tenuous, however the future had to be planned for. Many of the "unexpected" or rather no so expected arrivals had not pre-positioned food at the retreat. All of the regular members plus numerous old members had left at least some amount of storage food at the retreat. Most had brought some with them as well. However their was always the discrepancy of what one person thought would be "enough" and what would prove necessary during a long term stay.
The retreat produced a fair amount of food, but hardly enough for the large number of current inhabitants. Jim had donated space for regular members to plant fruit trees, make garden space, even put in beehives. Chicken coops and rabbit pens were prepared ahead of time specifically for group members use, but none were used ahead of time. Jim's plan there had been to use his family's stock as more or less "starter seed" to get group members started towards raising animals, etc. after an event. A couple of rabbits out of a new litter wouldn't set Jim back much, but over the course of a year would get other group members started in breeding them. Ditto with chickens.
continued in part 4
"Man, I sure am thankful for you letting us in." Donnie said.
"Well, you probably remember how things work around here, it wasn't just "me" letting you in, everyone was involved in it." Jim replied.
"Good man, glad to hear everything is good with you guys. Ya'll been busy, you got a lot done around the place here. Looks like 3 new fighting positions, the inner wire is all new also isn't it?" Donnie asked.
"Yeah. We had planned to start breeding some German Shephards and Rottweilers at some point in the future so we put the inner wire as sort of a dog run. Kill two birds with one stone you know, security and functionality." Jim said.
"Man, I want you to know that anything you all need me to help with, just let me know. We are really grateful for a place here and I'll do anything to repay that." Donnie said.
Unfortunately, this didn't match up with previous actions and characteristics of the person Jim remembered from years ago. The person years ago was what they called a "taker." Giving very little back to the Group yet "taking" all the free training, quantity discounts on gear, etc. People like this rarely gave anything back to the group or to individual members and therefore it was never long before people noticed their attitude. Jim considered the possibility that he had changed. The problem was people like that rarely even understand how they come off to others and therefore never really deal with the problem.
"I know that. Hey, we are glad your here and made it out of Florida alive." Jim replied.
"It's o.k. to keep our weapons then?" Donnie asked.
"Sure, why not?" Jim replied quickly.
"Well, one time years ago we were discussing similar circumstances and one of the things brought up was disarming people if they were brought into the site as a precaution. I just figured you'd want to do that with us." Donnie said.
This was obviously a test of trust. To see if Jim and his crew trusted Donnie.
"No bro, we trust you. You would be disarmed if we didn't, hell, you wouldn't be here if we didn't trust you. There is only one or two people that I've ever worked with that I can honestly say I don't trust anymore. You know the deal, we are all pretty easy going here. I'll introduce you to some of the new faces in the next few days. I think their is 6, no 7 people you don't know from our crew, the rest are older people you remember, like Todd and Bill." Jim said.
"Man, if it's o.k. for me to ask... Who are those other folks from Florida?" Donnie asked.
"Barney and their crew? Just some old school guys from the original Group. Their a little backwards- they use AR's you know- but they are o.k." Jim said.
"I want you to know, if you need me to go on patrol with you guys, or pull a guard shift, I'm ready to do it. You'll just have to show me where all your holes in the wire are so I know where to watch. It would probably help to get me up to speed with your current SOP's also. You guys are probably just patrolling the close in area right?" Donnie said.
"No actually we've been expanding our patrols out already a good deal. Heck, we have full seismic detection for 300 yards out in every direction around the perimeter, plus PIR in key places as well. We were just really getting started training with patrol tactics when you were in, it's come a LONG way since then. Weaponcraft also, most of these guys are hitting moving targets at night from 150 yards with only a small lightstick taped to it. Everyone is qualified at 300 yards now during the day, even most of the women are qualified at 200 yards. We've been keeping busy. Listen, I gotta run, bring Michelle over something at the house and get my work started today, we'll BS more later." Jim said.
"Sure man, no problem, like I said thanks." Donnie replied.
No problem my arse, Jim thought as he went to the house. Dude's gone 6 or 7 years now, no contact, comes in and starts asking a million questions he knows he shouldn't even ask. Not good. Have to keep a line on this one, see what happens in the future. Paranoia or a real problem? Often times it's hard to tell the difference. Machiavelli would say that " A good prince should be able to ascertain future problems before they become problems."
____________________________________________
"Where the hell you guys been?" Todd asked Lyle and Steve.
"We were here, what do you mean?" Lyle replied, glancing around the room at the others in the room.
"No your weren't, you guys were gone for most of a day. " Todd asked.
"No, we were here." Lyle said, slightly emphasizing it and glancing around again.
"What?" Todd asked. Never one for subtleties , everyone joked that you had to write things out on an Etchesketch for him at times.
"Are you still just carrying 5 mags? Even now? Jim will beat the bejesus out of you if he sees that." Lyle said, quickly changing the subject.
"Naaah dood, I just have to make room for the extra MRE's" Todd said.
"Extra MRE's?" Lyle asked.
"You don't remember Jim telling us that story of the old guy Don years ago telling him that he wasn't too worried about getting a chic cause "after the **** hits the fan, women will be a dime a dozen. I've stored some extra MRE's to trade for sex AAARRRRRR!" Todd said.
"Oh yeah, the AARRR guy, I remember that story." Lyle said. "Hey, your supposed to go see Jim." Lyle added.
"Where da hell are you going?"
"To sleep." Lyle replied.
"Don't you have guard duty in a little while?" Todd asked.
"Jim is taking up my shift today, I don't know why he wants to. But they are only 3 hour shifts now. Guess that's one thing nice about having forty six hundred people here." Lyle said.
___________________________________________
"Lyle said to see you." Todd said.
"Yes, listen, I want you to take Rusty and do a patrol."
"No problem."
" I want you guys to do the "medium" patrol route." Jim said.
"Medium, that will take us all day!" Todd said. Todd was known to everyone as notoriously lazy. More than a few people had come to Jim privately and shared their concern over Todd "doing the right thing" when the time came. Yet Todd thought everyone loved him and no one saw his flaws.
"Yes, probably." Jim replied. Come to the map here, we will go over the route again. I want you to stay out of this area right here all together." Jim said.
"Why?"
"Isn't enough that I asked you not to? Seriously, stay out of this area right here, don't take any shortcuts through it, leave no tracks in that area whatsoever." Jim said.
"Are you going to be tracking us like in training, looking to jump us."
"No smart***, like I said, I have my reasons for it. I wouldn't even send you guys out right now but I'm a little concerned about something." Jim said.
"What?"
"I can't tell you right now." Jim replied
Todd always the one to pester continued to ask.
"It's probably just my paranoia, but I'm a little concerned we may have a rat in the house. Possibly doing a little recon. Just being cautious."
"Donnie.
"I didn't say a word. You don't hide your emotions very well, which is why I didn't want to say anything until I had a better idea." Jim said.
"Damn dude, I told you about that guy." Todd said. Publicly Todd had always acted like he was Donnie's best friend but that was anything but the truth.
"Did I say he was a chevato? We don't know that. All we can do right now is let him feel welcome and trusted, and give him the mushroom treatment. I want to believe he's changed and isn't totally just out for himself, but that's up to him to prove that to us. We've done plenty for him both in the past and now. The onus is on him to prove himself to us, not vice versa.
"Mushroom treatment?"
"Yeah mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed crap!" Jim said.
"Hey, what's the deal with you taking Lyle's guard duty shift today? I thought their was to be "no switching"?" Todd said.
"We are not switching, I'm doing his and mine. He's kinda feeling bad. Back to the subject at hand... Anyways, carry packs, even if you want to stuff them with cardboard or something, plus your normal field gear. I'd take binoculars also and one of the J pole antennas. If you get into trouble, break contact under any circumstances and pull back to this rally point. I want it to look like you guys are just two lone guys in the boonies. Wear sterile fatigues..."
Todd interrupted, he wasn't the patient type, having a mild case of adult ADD- "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Normal stuff we did on practice patrols, check roads and trails, check for sign of attack on any of the houses you come near- I'd do that from a distance-, your basically checking for the potential presence of another crew." Jim said.
"Oh geez, this is going to be fun." Todd said.
"I can do it if you have a problem with it." Jim said, it was a test.
"Yes I'll do it."
"You just couldn't do it without complaining about it first, right?" Jim asked.
"Ha ha ha. Is Rusty gonna be cool with this?"
"Should be, you know him, he's a darn good guy. You know, he's got a lot more experience that you and I with his military career. He's a good leader and his hunting skills are excellent. He won't steer you wrong." Jim said.
"Dude, I know, he knows his stuff, without a doubt. I meant, will he be cool going on this little mission of yours?"
"Well, we will find out soon enough eh?" Jim said. "This is a serious thing, take your time, a half way job won't do us any good." Jim said.
"You know I'm not doing stuff like that anymore."
"We'll all of us have made mistakes in the past and it's important to realize that all of us have to "prove" ourselves to each other again now that it's for real. Don't make a production out of leaving. Slip out by OP3 using normal SOP, plan on leaving in 45 minutes. I'll brief Rusty." Jim said.
Just then the intercom from OP1 came alive-
"Mister Clean, Mister Clean. White truck coming through the field, one person in truck, I got them." Murphy was on duty at OP1.
Jim pushed the button on the intercom. "Roger that, everyone was alerted. The normal procedure had been practiced hundreds of times during "bug out weekends."
A older model white Ford truck came slowly along the rutted field towards the main gate of the retreat. A women driving stopped suddenly after seeing a small STOP sign with a small placard reading "Drive no further forward, exit your vehicle slowly with your hands up." Had she continued in the vehicle she would not have made it another 30 yards.
"Boy, Jimmy's taking this thing seriously, none of this was here two weeks ago." Debbie said out loud to herself. She took a long drag off her cigarette and started to open her door.
"Murphy, she's cool, it's my uncle's neighbor. Same stuff applies, gonna Condeleeza Rice, again Condeleeza Rice." Jim said into the intercom. "Let's give her a little show though, it will get around."
"OK. Will do." Murphy said.
They had weird nicknames for everything, every SOP. This one was for meeting a known person. The weird names oftentimes helped everyone remember what the SOP was.
A PA boomed- "Step away from the vehicle towards the gate, keep your hands up. STOP. Turn around. Walk forward to the red pole. Put your arms around the pole, interlock your fingers and face me." Murphy was clearly having fun with this.
Jim moved up to the fence and towards the gate. He squatted down and had a good look around before going over to next to the gate. He stayed in the shadows in the woods next to the gate and probably 25 feet from it.
"Debbie, that you?" Jim called out.
"Jimmy, yeah it's Debbie. Can I let go of this damn pole?" Debbie asked.
Jim glanced around again, looked again at her vehicle. Still from a hidden position he called out, "Yes and come forward 20 feet."
Debbie was sweating now, despite it being winter. She meticulously counted out about 10 steps and stopped, still scanning around for Jim. "This good?"
"Yep that's fine. Don't get too jumpy, these guys shoot the crap out of anybody that comes around here, we've already had to get rid of 5 bodies. I try to tell these guys that not everyone is unfriendly, but they won't listen."
"I'm friendly, I'm friendly!!" Debbie said in rapid fire Southern dialect.
Jim laughed. "Oh I know, so what's up?"
"Just wanted to see how you were doing and bring you some news." Debbie said. She eyed the handpainted sign "Will trade firewood for food" placed next to a measly pile of rotten looking wood outside the gate. "That killed one of the reasons I'm here", she thought.
"We are getting by, pretty low on food, we had about 40 old friends drop by, so what little food we had is almost gone now with all the extra people. You wouldn't know where we can trade for some food would ya?" Jim asked.
"No, pretty much everyone is running low. Forty people Jimmy?" Debbie said.
" Yep, a little overcrowded, too many bullets, not enough beans. What was the news?"
"You know old Mr. Hansen down the road?" Debbie asked.
"I don't think I've ever met him, but I've seen him a lot, waived to him and such, why?"
"Well, someone stole a bunch of his cows." Debbie said.
"How much is a bunch, doesn't he have several hundred of them?" Jim asked.
"Damn near thousand I think. He isn't 100% sure how many yet, but he thinks six of them. They also shot six more of them, just left them dead in one of his fields."
"Didn't eat them, just shot them? Doesn't make sense. Jim said.
"Well, he doesn't know what to do, he can't pen them all up and he's got hundreds of acres to watch over. He can't do it all himself."
"How well do you know this guy? No Bull$hit." Jim asked.
"He's my Momma's step cousin. He's a good man."
"We might be able to help him, find who did it, etc. Think he'd be interested in that?" Jim asked.
"I'm sure he would be, those cows are all that old couple has."
"Alright, tell him we will come and see him tomorrow afternoon, that you will come and pick him up and bring him for a meeting." Jim said.
"You want me to bring him here?"
"No, we will set up a meeting place. I will send one person along with you to get him, "ride shotgun" you know. Then we can meet and discuss this." Jim said.
"OK, any way I can help I will." Debbie said.
"We will see you tomorrow. When you leave stay on the road, back up the first 50 yards, then turn around at the tree with the red paint on it or you might ruin your truck."
"Why's that?" Debbie asked.
"Their are things that go boom out there."
"Jesus Jimmy! I'm standing in a frickin minefield!" Debbie said.
"Be careful. See you tomorrow." Jim said.
Hey, why not let her think that, she'll spread the "word" around- Jimmy's always been crazy, but now he's got an Army of kill crazy people down there with landmines. Hell, by time she finishes embellishing it, we will have tanks! Jim thought. Stuff had a way of getting around in the country and when you had this many people it was hard to "hide." Therefore the next best tactic was for people to absolutely know they did not want to screw around. Rumors like this got the process started and as the time progressed, actions would fill in the gaps.
The Group's food supply was far from tenuous, however the future had to be planned for. Many of the "unexpected" or rather no so expected arrivals had not pre-positioned food at the retreat. All of the regular members plus numerous old members had left at least some amount of storage food at the retreat. Most had brought some with them as well. However their was always the discrepancy of what one person thought would be "enough" and what would prove necessary during a long term stay.
The retreat produced a fair amount of food, but hardly enough for the large number of current inhabitants. Jim had donated space for regular members to plant fruit trees, make garden space, even put in beehives. Chicken coops and rabbit pens were prepared ahead of time specifically for group members use, but none were used ahead of time. Jim's plan there had been to use his family's stock as more or less "starter seed" to get group members started towards raising animals, etc. after an event. A couple of rabbits out of a new litter wouldn't set Jim back much, but over the course of a year would get other group members started in breeding them. Ditto with chickens.
continued in part 4
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