Trace of survival trilog.., p.60
Trace of Survival Trilogy, page 60
As Bennie and Phebe scavenged through the abandoned buildings within the vicinity of their new home they did find some things they could use. Some clothes to expand their meager wardrobe, some baby items, and farming hand implements were happily found. Occasionally, they found some food items. The discovery of some more heirloom seeds was extremely important. They had already planted what they had found at the farm but they planted some of the ones they found. If the seeds would sprout and grow, they would have more variety in their diet.
About half of the seeds they had found sprouted from the ground. They replanted from the seeds they had remaining. Again about half of these sprouted. With what came out of the ground they believed they would be able to produce enough vegetables to get them through to the next year and enough new seeds for the next year‘s garden. Fortunately, Phebe knew how to can and dry foods. With the fish and wild game they could make it. If it came down to a have-to situation, they could kill and butcher one of the cows.
They settled into their new life. They were concerned about thugs and marauders coming through, so they set some warning devices around the property. Hopefully, if any of these were tripped there would be enough noise to warn the couple. There were also some traps set that could injure an intruder if they went where they weren’t supposed to be. They did what they could and prayed it would be enough.
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“Pay attention, fellas,” Paul was telling his nephews, Tommy and Rand. “This little radio is one that I built from a kit I found a few years ago. I’ve been able to copy the plans and have built several of them. It’s a low band QRP transceiver that operates on just a few frequencies. It’s ideal for the type of trip you are making. It and its antenna fit in small box and is extremely portable. The battery for it is transported in another box along with a small solar charger for the battery. At night you can set it up, throw the antenna over a tree limb and give us a call to let us know how things are going. I‘m giving you two of the setups in case one malfunctions or you need to leave one with someone.”
“How does it reach long distances?” Rand asked. “The handheld and tactical radios we carry here won’t.”
“Those are VHF FM radios and work on line of sight.” Paul told him. “This QRP, meaning low power, radio is sideband AM. Its signal skips off the upper atmosphere and can reach hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles.”
“That’s super!” Tommy explained. “Show us how to set it up and let’s try it out.”
Carter was watching the demonstration and nodded with satisfaction. ‘The boys are getting excited about the upcoming trip.’ he thought. ‘Downey is looking forward to it, also.’ Downey was one of the Marines that had set up a community at Gordon. He had no family nearby. He had heard about the trip to southern Mississippi and asked Carter if he could go along. He had family along the Mississippi River in Louisiana and wanted to see if any of them were still there and alive. During the time that Larry had resided at Hope, Carter had given his brother-in-law some additional training in weaponry and security. Even though he was a man of God he knew that he had to be prepared to defend his family and friends.
He turned and walked towards the house where Susan and Larry were living. He wanted to check on his sister and the new baby, a girl that they had named Esther. She was born a week before. Larry had told him that morning that he thought they would be ready to travel in about two weeks. Carter wanted to check with his sister before making the decision about the date they would pull out.
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Susan was worried. Not about taking the baby on this trip. It was healthy and they would protect it. Besides, she had borne and raised Jacob in Africa where living conditions were worse than what they were living in now. She was worried about Pa. She prayed that his health was good enough to get him home and that he would have many years yet to live.
She was also concerned that Larry would want to stay with Pa and not leave him by himself. But if that was the way it was to be, then she would accept it. She knew that Larry had come to love this new home in Tennessee as much as she did. She knew in her heart that they needed to be here.
Through a window she saw her brother headed her way and went to open the door for him.
“Hey, sis,” he said. “How are you and the baby doing?”
“We’re fine,” She replied. Then, after making small talk she asked, “Have you decided on a date for us to head south?”
“That’s why I came to check on you. How does two weeks from today sound?”
“Good.” she said. “If everyone else is ready, we’ll be ready.”
“OK,” Carter stated. “I’ll pass the word.”
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The trip south by the group from Hope went without any problems until they were about fifteen miles southwest of Jackson, Mississippi. They had to stop for a couple of days when Larry’s double seated buggy broke it’s rear axle in the middle of an afternoon. Fortunately, they had Tommy with them. He was a blacksmith. They made camp and he got busy. He set up the portable smithy shop he had brought with him while the rest of the men worked on raising the rear of the buggy and resting it on some blocks they made from scrap lumber they found nearby.
Once the wheels were removed from the axle and the axle removed from the buggy, Tommy got busy. It took the better part of a day for him to weld the axle back together and for the axle and wheels to be remounted. It was late in the day of the second day when the repair work was finished. They rested the rest of the day and that night. Then they continued their journey the next day.
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Faraji wasn’t an old man, but he wasn’t that young either. He had a wife by the name of Ebele who was about fifteen years younger than he was. He had been married before but his first wife and their two young children had died in a typhoid epidemic that had swept through their home town in Uganda several years before. He had married Ebele just three years before they left Africa. They had met at Larry’s church. She, like Faraji, had lost all her family years before.
Faraji and Ebele had settled on one of the farms near Donaldsonville with another young couple. The other five people that had came with them settled on the other nearby farm. The group had planted the fields of the two farms months before and were nearing the time when they would harvest their first crop.
One morning, Faraji and Ebele were in the field furthest from the house where they and the other couple lived hoeing out weeds. Suddenly, they heard shots coming from the direction of the other farm. They looked at each other then started running toward their house. They had to go through a line of trees before coming into sight of their home. As they started to leave the line of trees Ebele saw several men around their house. She grabbed Faraji’s shirt and said, “Stop! Get down!”
Faraji saw the men at that time and did as she said. The men were dressed in dark camouflage clothing and were heavily armed.
Ebele looked at Faraji and asked in a scared voice, “Who are they? What are they doing here?”
“Quiet!” Faraji told her. “Let’s watch and see what they do.” Neither of them had a weapon on them except for large knives that hey carried for working on the farm.
Then the men at the house pulled the other couple that lived with them into the yard of the house. They then proceeded to rape the woman numerous times while her husband watched. When they finished they slit the throats of the couple and then beheaded them. They left the bodies lying on the ground where they had killed them. Then what appeared to be the leader of the group gave orders to the rest of his people in a language that Faraji and Ebele did not recognize. Some of the men grabbed baskets and large bags and farm hand implements and started harvesting the crops that Faraji and his people had planted The rest of the men started searching and ransacking the rest of the property.
Faraji tugged on Ebele’s arm and whispered, “Let’s get away from here and watch from a distance. If any of them come near us, we will need to leave.” They went back the way the way they had came, staying out of sight of the men who had attacked the farm. They found a spot several hundred yards distance where they could watch. The thugs quickly harvested all the food they could carry from the fields closest to the house. Then they headed to the west towards the other farm.
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They exited the Trace at Harriston and took the road out of town towards Pa’s farm. When they pulled within a quarter mile of the farmhouse, smoke was smelled coming from that direction.
“Halt, everyone,” Carter ordered the drivers of the two wagons and Larry driving the buggy. “Let’s check this out before we continue. Rand, you maintain watch here with the wagons. Tommy, Larry, you’re with me. Downey, follow behind us about 30 yards. You watch our rear. We’re going to check out the house before we go any further.”
While the others waited, Carter and his team moved off the road and into a wooded area and advanced towards Pa’s house. As they neared the house they encountered some fishing line with cans partially filled with stones attached to the line. Carter and Tommy disabled this warning device and they continued toward the house. When they reached the edge of the wood line they stopped and lowered themselves to the ground so their silhouettes would not be visible. Carter started carefully glassing the house and the surrounding area for any activity.
Nothing was seen for several minutes. Then a man came out of the barn. He went into the garden and started pulling weeds. Then Larry moved next to Carter. Larry had been watching the man without the benefit of binoculars, but something seemed familiar about him.
“Can I borrow those binoculars?” he asked Carter. Carter handed them to Larry and Larry raised them to his eyes. He looked closely at the man working in the garden when he raised his head from his work. The man’s face was scarred but he knew him. It was his brother, Bennie!
“That’s my brother!” Larry exclaimed. Before Carter could stop him, Larry jumped up and ran towards his brother. As he ran, he yelled, “Bennie, Bennie!”
Suddenly, several shots rang out and dirt was kicked up near Larry and he stopped. A female voice shouted out, “Don’t you take another step or I’ll shoot you dead!”
By then Bennie had recognized his brother and he shouted, “Phebe, put your rifle away. That’s my brother, Larry!” He then ran to Larry and embraced him.
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The reunion of Bennie with his father and brother was a cause for tears of joy and a celebration. There were a lot of introductions to be made and getting to know each other. Larry, Susan, and Pa could tell by the scars that Bennie and Phebe wore on their faces that they had been through some rough times.
Rand had killed a deer the day they had arrived at the farm. It was butchered so that it and other items could be prepared for a good meal for everyone. Susan and Angie worked with Phebe in the kitchen as they got to know her. Larry and Pa sat down with Bennie and they exchanged stories of the events of the years since they had parted ways. Carter mostly just listened. Jacob and Jack explored the farm. Rand, Tommy and Downey checked out the farm and maintained security watch while keeping an eye on the boys.
Thus began a time of repair and supply on the farm. Larry wanted his father, brother and new sister-in-law to be prepared for the future after he and the others went back to Tennessee. Tommy set up his smithy and repaired a number of items. Larry and Bennie went to the farm where Larry had acquired the buggy. They found a small wagon that a single horse could pull. Pa, Bennie and Phebe now had transportation when they needed it. They also acquired more saddlery that was needed.
Carter, Rand, and Downey started scavenging for things the farm needed and anything extra that they could take with them. They had a lot of area that could be searched with nearly all the people gone. The years had caused a lot of decay but they found things occasionally that could be used.
They met the other three families still living in the area. Tommy repaired a number of items for them, also. The decision was made to leave the extra radio at Pa’s farm. That way they could maintain communication with Larry and the others when they returned to Tennessee.
When a couple of the people from one of the other families still surviving in the county brought some farm implements that needed repairing, Larry and Carter had a long discussion with them about events over the years since the Collapse. It seems that when FEMA and DHS started their roundup of the populace that they had moved quickly into the area and made their roundups. They had done two major roundups and had collected the majority of people living in the county. Where they were taken, no one knew. None of them ever returned. Over the years there had been some groups of thugs that had came through and killed some of the people that remained. Some people had just decided to move away and some had committed suicide. The three remaining families didn’t even know that Pa had survived until they encountered Bennie.
They started making plans for a trip into Louisiana. Larry was concerned about the friends that had came from Africa with them. He wanted to see if Faraji and the others were making a good life for themselves where they had decided to settle. That area was also near the place that Downey wanted to visit. His sister and her family had moved there before the Collapse. He had only visited her there once. He wanted to see if they were still there and how they were surviving.
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As they were scavenging the town of Harriston for any items they could use, Downey and Rand planned on checking out a big lot store near the Trace. Even though the store’s front doors had been ripped off long ago, they hoped they could find an item or two that was still usable.
As they entered the store, Rand caught a faint odor of smoke. He whispered “Someone’s in here.” They then went into defensive mode and separated until they were about ten feet from each other but remained in sight of each other. They started a systematic search for anyone that might be hiding there.
Suddenly, a crossbow bolt whizzed by Downey’s head and bounced off a metal shelf. Downey saw where it came from and who had shot it. He rushed to the location before the crossbow could be reloaded and shot again. He grabbed a smaller person and lifted them by their collar. “Drop the bow!” he commanded.
The smaller person turned out to be a girl. She didn’t drop the bow but started kicking at Downey. Rand came up and put his 9mm handgun in the kid’s face and said, “Do what he says and stop kicking. We don’t intend to hurt you.”
The girl stopped kicking, dropped the bow and started crying. Downey sat her down and said, “What are you doing here by yourself and why did you try to shoot me? What’s your name?”
“My name is Ruthie.” she said. “and I’m not by myself. My mom is here with me but she’s hurt. I‘m just trying to protect her.”
“Take us to her,” Downey replied. “But don’t try any more of your shenanigans.” He kept his grip on the girl’s collar in case she tried to run.
Ruthie led them to the back of the building where they found the girl’s mother lying on an old, dirty mattress on the floor. She was unconscious when they found her. Downey released the girl and went to check on the woman. She had two gunshot wounds in her right leg. They appeared to be several days old and had became infected and the woman had a fever. If she didn’t get some proper treatment soon she could die.
“Rand,” Downey said. “Go get one of the wagons and bring Carter. He has medical training. We need to get this woman back to the farm and try to save her.”
Rand quickly left the store, mounted his horse and headed for the farm. Downey started cleaning the wounds and talking to the girl at the same time. “How old are you Ruthie?” he asked.
“I’m fourteen,” She said through her tears. “Is my Mom going to die?” she asked.
“Not if I can help it.” he replied. Even though she was dirty and in the feverous state she was in, he could tell that the woman was attractive. His heart went out to her and the girl. “What’s your Mom’s name, Ruthie?” he asked gently.
“Naomi,” she said through her tears. She was poking a stick at a little fire that was burning on the concrete floor. Downey handed her crossbow back to her. He could tell that it was handmade and very well made.
“Who made the bow, Ruthie?” he asked.
“My dad,” she replied. “He was killed when some bad people attacked our home and took Mom and me.”
“How were you able to keep the bow if you were captives?”
“I didn’t have it with me when I was captured. It was in the house and I was outside fetching wood. It got left there. When Mom and I escaped a few weeks ago we went by the house to get some things before we left the area. The gang of bad people were still around and had control of a large area. We went by the house to get some things we needed and headed in this direction. We were trying to get to Grandpa’s house when a man tried to rob us a week ago He’s the one that shot Mom.”
“What happened to him?” Downey asked.
“I killed him with my bow.”
“What did you do with his gun?”
“It’s here,” she replied. “It’s in Mom’s bag. It’s a pistol. There’s not many bullets for it.”
