Cities on Fire Page 11

  “It looks like a grocery truck. Hope it was delivering and not on the way back to the Distribution Center. George, fetch the bolt cutters.”

  George walked up and said, “No one locks empty trailers. I think we hit pay dirt.”

  He cut the lock and opened both doors to expose two full pallets of laundry and cleaning supplies.

  “Well, we’ll need this stuff to wash the clothes and keep the germs down. Load it up.”

  Greg backed the cargo trailer up to the back of the semi and lowered the tailgate to match up with the trailer floor. This allowed them to use the two hand trucks they had brought along to speed up loading.

  “Wilma, take my AR15 and stand guard while we load this stuff into the trailer.”

  “Greg, I’d put the bottles of detergent, bleach and other cleaning supplies in the back of the Suburban, so they don’t contaminate any food if one gets broken.”

  “Good idea.”

  They filled the back of the Suburban with the cleaning supplies and then placed the remainder on the ground. Greg climbed on top of the next pallet of cleaning supplies and yelled down. Now we hit pay dirt. There are canned goods, cereal, and some kind of hygiene or medical supplies further up.

  They had been loading for a couple of hours when Wilma yelled, “We’ve got company. Two men are walking towards us from the race track, and three more think they are sneaking up on us from the woods along the river.”

  “Grab your guns. Wilma, get your shotgun and give me the AR.”

  Greg walked to the front of the Suburban and stood behind the front of the vehicle for cover. The two men were fifty feet away when Greg yelled, “That’s close enough. What do you want?”

  The taller of the two men yelled back, “That’s our grocery truck, and we thank you for loading the food into our new Suburban and trailer.”

  The two men had stringy long hair that hadn’t been washed for months and had biker gang jackets on their backs. One had a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, and the other had a pistol.

  Greg whispered to his team. George, you and Tony take out the three in the woods. Wilma, shoot the short one, and I’ll shoot the tall asshole. Wait until I shoot.

  “My friend, this stuff belongs to us now. If you wanted it, you should have got off your lazy ass and took it before now. Now take your happy ass back to the rock you crawled out from and disappear.”

  The man started to raise the shotgun when Greg shot him, and then took aim at the second man. He was too late because Wilma’s blast of Double Aught Buckshot caught him square in the belly and knocked him back ten feet. Greg heard shots coming from his right and saw Tony and George gunning the other three down. Five bodies lay on the ground.

  “George, keep guard while we drag these men to the side of the road. Wilma, please get their guns, ammo and any other things they have that would come in handy.”

  After the men had been piled up on the racetrack side of the road, Greg hung a sign on the top one that said, “Robbers and Killers.”

  Wilma placed two shotguns, a 9mm pistol, and three .38 snub nose revolvers in the backseat floor.

  Greg saw the pile and said, “Thank God these creeps didn’t have any serious hardware.”

  “They only had a few rounds of ammo each. I think they wanted our guns and ammo more than the food.”

  They finished loading the trailer to the roof and headed back to the Horseshoe after Greg placed his own lock on the trailer. They made two more trips to the trailer that day, but it was empty when they arrived for their final load.

  Greg saw his broken lock on the ground and said, “I hope it was good people who took the food. I can’t blame them. Let’s drive on down the road apiece and see what we can find.”

  Harold drove the old GMC away from the two cops as fast as the old truck would pull the trailer. They traveled down Highway 141 and only saw one small straight truck that delivered fresh vegetables to quick pick stores, but it was empty. They got off 141 and took backroads south to State Road 24, and headed east toward Carthage.

  There were more stalled cars and trucks on this road since it was a straight line between Lebanon and Carthage.

  They had only driven a mile before Ned said, “Look up ahead. There are several people beside that straight truck. It’s a grocery truck. I guess they have already claimed the food.”

  The people saw the old pickup and started waving for Harold to stop. There were two men and three women, and all were dressed in business suits and nice dresses. Harold told his team to have their guns ready because he was going to stop.

  “Can you give us some food and water? We’ve been stuck on this road for three days.

  Harold told his boys to hand them five bottles of water and said, “Where are y’all from?”

  A woman spoke up, “Those two are from Austin, and the rest of us are from Sacramento.”

  “California?”

  “Of course California.”

  “Hey, Sacramento, Kentucky is only about a hundred miles northwest of here. What do y’all do for a living?”

  “We work for a Chinese company that makes computers for all of the major computer companies.”

  Harold motioned for his son to cut the lock off the truck and said, “I knew y’all weren’t from around here because people with common sense would have walked to Carthage or Lebanon by now instead of starving to death with a truckload of food beside them.”

  Harold opened the door, and the truck only had four pallets of food and several stacks of empty pallets. There was a pallet of Gatorade and a pallet of Spam at the back of the truck.

  “Hell, that’s enough to feed you five for a month.”

  “We don’t eat that stuff.”

  “Then you won’t mind if we load it up and get it out of your way.”

  “We’ll take a couple of cases of the Gatorade.”

  Harold dropped several cases of the blue Gatorade at their feet, and a case of bacon flavored Spam and said, “You get real hungry, and you’ll eat the Spam.

  “You can drop us off at the Nashville Airport. We need to catch flights home.”

  “Lady, are you blind or just plain loco? There are no more planes flying. Most cars won’t run. Hell, your damned computers won’t work. There has been an EMP blast or nuclear bomb set off high in the sky, and it fried all electronics. Welcome to 1850 America.”

  “Where are the police? Someone has to take us to Nashville and feed us.”

  “Lady, didn’t you hear me, or are you as dumb as a box of rocks.”

  The woman dropped to her knees and started crying. Her world of high technology had disappeared in a flash and had gone for her lifetime.

  “We’re heading toward Carthage and can drop you off a couple of miles from town if you would like.”

  One of the men replied, “That would be great.”

  The woman snapped back, “Charles, we are going to Nashville, and that is the end of the discussion.”

  The man replied, “Look bitch. I quit. Our company doesn’t exist anymore. Who’s with me?”

  The other man and a woman joined Harold’s sons in the back of the pickup and Harold drove off and left the two women mad and cursing.

  It was only six miles over to Carthage, but Harold’s goal was a sporting goods store on this side of the river. Harold pulled into the store’s parking lot and stayed close to the street. He didn’t want to spook the owner. He stopped the truck and then pointed to Carthage. The man and woman took their bags that were now filled with Spam and Gatorade and walked toward the bridge to Carthage.

  Harold raised his hands in the air and walked toward the sporting goods store’s front door. He saw movement through the windows, and soon a man poked a shotgun out the door, aimed it at him, and said, “What the hell do you want?”

  “We need some guns and ammo. I have some silver to trade.”

  “Don’t need any silver. Go away.”

  “Do you need food?”

  “What kind of food do you have?�
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  “Can goods, canned meat, and Gatorade.”

  “Tell your friends to lay their guns in the back of the pickup, and we’ll take a look at your food.”

  An older man, a young man, and a girl came out of the shop armed with shotguns. The young man had a Keltek KSG 12 Gauge that held 14 rounds. The girl had an AR. They walked up to the truck, and Harold pointed to the back of the trailer.

  He lowered the ramp exposing the boxes of food and Gatorade. The three now had smiles on their faces.

  “We’re short on food, and the Gatorade could come in handy. What do you want?”

  “We need ARs, 9mm pistols, shotguns, magazines, and ammo.”

  “Whoa, son. You ain’t got enough food to get all of that. I’ll take all of the food and give you two ARs and one each of the others with a hundred rounds for each gun.”

  “That’s a deal. Would you take fresh meat or more groceries for more guns and ammo?”

  “What are you trying to do, build an army?”

  “Look man. I don’t know what you know about our situation, but we are in for some bad times. The looting in the big cities has started. Hell, look over your shoulder even Carthage has several fires burning out of control. It’s just a matter of time before the criminals try to steal all of your guns and our food. Why don’t you move in with us? We farm all of the land in the Horseshoe and will have plenty of food if we can hold the land from the gangs.”

  “No, we have a place out in eastern Tennessee, and we are leaving as soon as we finish loading the rest of the guns. If you can deliver the extra food, I’ll trade more guns.”

  “Could you meet us at the bottom of the Horseshoe and we could bring the food across in boats. By the time we drive all the way back and get back here, you will be long gone.”

  “Yes, but we will be leaving at 4:00 pm sharp. What time do you want to meet us by the river?”

  “Okay, we’ll be on your side of the river at 3:00 by the Highway 24 Bridge across that big creek.”

  “Be there on time, or we’ll be gone.”

  They traded all of the food for the weapons and left to hightail it back home. One of Harold’s sons reminded Harold that he could use one of the walkie-talkies to contact Bob when they got to the bottom of the Horseshoe.

  “Damn great idea,” Harold replied.

  He called for Bob but got Betty Lou on the walkie-talkie. He told her the situation and asked her to relay the info to Bob so he could round up two boats, the trade goods, and men to row the boats across the river. Betty Lou contacted Bob an hour later, and he got several of the team selecting the trade goods and fetching two boats. They even found one with an old Johnson Outboard that ran.

  Harold headed back to Highway 141 and warned the team that the trip back through Hartsville might get a bit dicey. This time everyone had an AR with several shotguns ready in case needed.

  The ride back to Hartville was touch and go with several groups trying to get them to stop. Harold actually had to run through a barricade while the others trained their ARs on armed men. A running truck with a trailer looked too tempting to some of the fine law abiding citizens of the area. Running low on food made for desperate and dangerous people.

  Harold drove across the bridge and quickly saw that a barricade had been set up on this end of town, and he saw the same cops manning this checkpoint. He pulled up to the sawhorses and stopped.

  “Could y’all move the saw horses so we can get back home?”

  “No, the Police Chief wants all people that travel through Hartsville to check in at the police station and tell him why you need to travel through our town.”

  “Look, we have three ARs and a 9mm trained on the two of you. Move the sawhorses, or I’ll gun the motor and knock you and them out of the way. Boys shoot to kill if these want to be cops go for their guns.”

  The two cops moved the barricade while mumbling, “The Chief ain’t going to like this. There are three more barricades on your way home. You will be in jail tonight.”

  “Tell him we’ll stop in and see him on the next trip.”

  “Damn, I’m turning east on the next backroad, and we’ll go around Hartsville altogether. By the time they figure it out, we’ll be far away from the city.”

  Bob and Jack had been busy that morning helping a crew string barbwire across the top of the Horseshoe. Jane pitched in and dug holes with the post hole digger, pounded t posts and strung wire just as the men did all day. They placed two six-inch wooden posts every 60 feet and fastened them together with 2x6 boards to give a strong and tight fence. They pounded t posts in every 10 feet between the large posts. Bob insisted that they place red or orange flags between every post on the top wire. He didn’t want a horse or deer to be maimed.

  “Jack we have eight men…err…people pounding t post and four digging and setting the wooden posts. We should have this done by tomorrow night,” said Bob.

  “And one woman who works more than any two of the men. Tomorrow let’s keep the scavenging teams at home to get this done as soon as possible. What are your plans for a gate and checkpoint?”

  “We’ll use one of those 16-foot cattle gates and fix wheels on them. The checkpoint will actually be a bunker where our guards can see 360 degrees without being exposed. I’m going over to the old TVA nuke site to borrow some concrete blocks and a shit load of bricks. Greg still has a ton of concrete mix at his store. We’ll make a strong guardhouse and bunker. I want to find some body armor for our roving guards. I’m afraid some idiot will take pot shots at us when they figure they can’t run us over.”

  Jane pointed at the numerous stands of trees between the fence and the first farmhouse outside of their community and said, “It’s 750 feet from the fence to the nearest farmhouse. If we cut down all of those trees, we get firewood for this winter and an unobstructed field of fire. No one could get across that without being seen.”

  “Or shot. That also gives any sniper a much longer shot. A good sniper wouldn’t have any issue with 250 yards, but most people couldn’t hit a bull in the ass with a base fiddle at that range,” added Jack.

  Bob replied, “Yep. Let’s do it. It’s a shame we can’t find a bulldozer that works.”

  Jack laughed and said, “Maybe we can.”

  Bob had to leave to attend to the trade deal, and Jack asked Jane to go with him to the old TVA nuclear plant to see if they could find something to make a more permanent fence for their community.

  Jack and Jane rode over to the TVA site in one of the ATVs and took their rifles with them. Jack turned off the road about half a mile before Dixon Springs and cut east across the fields to the abandoned power plant. They drove around the massive industrial park and checked out every business that sprung up at the site after the power plant was scuttled. There were transportation companies, manufacturing, and warehouses.

  They found a Tennessee DOT building that had thousands of the steel roadside barriers stacked to the ceiling.

  “Jack, we could stick steel posts into the ground and weld these barriers to the posts. Do you have acetylene torches?”

  “Yes, but we’ll bolt them together and save the gas. That’s a great idea. We just need to figure out how to drive the posts into the ground. Let’s explore the TVA maintenance and equipment shed,” suggested Jack.

  Jack opened the man door and found it was pitch black inside. Jane fetched two flashlights from the ATV, and they entered the building. The shed was an enormous building that held the trucks, heavy equipment, and large electrical equipment. The building had a complete machine shop, maintenance bays, and the storage area. They had entered the heavy equipment storage area and then went through several doors to walk through the other sections.

  The maintenance area was well lit with skylights. Even the supplies storage area had enough light so that they could walk around without the aid of the flashlights. They went back to the equipment storage area and walked around bulldozers, track hoes, dump trucks, Bobcats, Ditch Witches and a dozen ATVs
of all sizes.

  “Jack do you think any of this equipment will run. A dozer and a backhoe would come in very handy.”

  “I doubt it but why let this equipment set here for years only to find out it would run all along.”

  “How do you start a bulldozer?”

  “Pretty much the same as a car; you have to make sure the vehicle is in neutral and blades, buckets, etc. are on the ground. Let’s try this dozer.”

  Jack showed her the forward-reverse lever, the controls for the blade and the ignition, and then tried to start the engine. They were both surprised when the engine started, and black smoke rolled out of the exhaust pipe. Jack shut the engine off since they were in an enclosed building.

  “Damn, that’s good news. Let’s open the overhead doors and get some light in here; this is like a tomb.”

  “That’s why the equipment still runs.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a metal building with no windows. It’s a perfect Faraday Cage.”

  It took both of them to pull the chain to raise two of the large doors to open the building up so they could try the engines.

  “Damn, we need to get as much of this equipment home as fast as possible before someone else finds it. I’ll try the radio.”

  “Betty Lou. Can you hear me?”

  “Yep. Loud and clear. Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, all is okay, but we need as many people as can be spared to come up to our location. Load up a pickup and take the route I said I was going to take this morning. This is urgent.”

  “Okay, that’s kinda scary, but I’ll get some volunteers.”

  Jane and Jo started several more of the various types of heavy equipment and then fired up five of the ATVs. Every piece of equipment ran as good as new. Jack then hitched up several dump trucks to the numerous heavy duty trailers and loaded a bulldozer, a track hoe, and eight ATVs onto one trailer. Several pieces of equipment were already on trailers.

  Jane said, “Jack, please load that large forklift on a trailer. We can use it to unload the metal to build the wall. There is another in the back corner to load the metal on.”