The Day America Died Trilogy Read online

  “Ladies, calm down. We’ll lock them in their rooms until we figure out what to do with them. I’ll lay down the law to them and let them know they can’t stay here.”

  “And I’ll be by your side,” Ally exclaimed.

  “Yes, Dear, and I’ll ask Mike to go with us.”

  Mike and I entered the room where the two wayward women were held. Ally stood in the doorway.

  “What part of our rules didn’t you understand? You were told to stop trying to steal another woman’s man, and yet you went ahead and made another play for Zack. You’re lucky you weren’t shot.

  This won’t be tolerated, and as soon as possible we will take the two of you to Rolling Hills, and you can stay there or go where you want, but you can’t stay here.”

  The red head got up off the bed, walked up to me and stared at Ally as she said, “Can’t me and your bitch share you. Two women in bed is every man’s dream.”

  Before I could react, Ally tackled the girl and was beating her senseless before Mike, and I could pull her off. Ally was a raving madwoman, screaming, hitting and kicking the girl. Hell, she hit me twice before she realized she was hitting me.

  “Ally, calm down.”

  “You calm down, I’m going to kill that slut.”

  “Whoa. You can’t kill an unarmed woman.”

  “Watch me. I’d kill her just like the cockroach that she is,” Ally replied through clenched teeth.

  “Mike, lock these women in their room and don’t let them out. Only let them out to use the bathroom.”

  “Ally, come with me. We need to talk.”

  Ally was still seething, and mumbling under her breath as we went to our room. I closed the door behind us, took her in my arms and kissed her passionately. Then I took her to bed and lay with her in my arms as she calmed down.

  I was looking in her eyes when she spoke for the first time since we entered our room, “Zack, I love you and won’t live without you. No woman is going to take you away from me.”

  I kissed her and said, “I love you, and you are right; no woman can take me away from you. You can run me off, but no one will ever take me from you. Joan ran me off. I would have never left her otherwise.”

  “Darling I believe you, but seeing that……that…..hussy trying to seduce you drove me crazy. Keep them locked up.”

  “They will stay locked up until we dump them on Rolling Hills.”

  Ally started kissing me, and one thing led to another. We were getting dressed when I heard, “I wonder if Callie and Paul are using protection?”

  “Damn, Ally, that was a buzz kill, but, yeah, I hope so. Please have a talk with them.”

  “No, you talk with Paul, and I’ll talk with Callie.”

  “So I just walk up to Paul and say. Paul, practice safe sex with my daughter?”

  “Yeah, well, something like that. You’ll find the right words. I’d really like some grandchildren, but not until things get stable.”

  I had spoken before I thought, “Or, we have a baby in nine months.”

  She smiled, looked up to me and said, “A baby is welcome any time, but yes, we need to be more careful.

  Well, that killed any further romance. I got dressed and went out to check on the guards.

  Chapter 8 - Intruders

  The snow was now 30 inches deep with snowdrifts as high as 10 feet. We plowed with the tractors three times a day to keep up with the falling and drifting snow.

  We were now two weeks into this seemingly unending snowfall. There had been only a few scattered days without snow falling, and even then, snow was blown around making ever-deepening drifts.

  Most of the clan was balking at pulling guard duty during the heavy snowstorm. Mike and I held firm and reminded them that a surprise attack could wipe us out, besides, what else did they have to do?

  Damn, it was boring, to say the least. Callie and Joan organized a bean bag league, canasta tournaments, and several ongoing board games. My favorite was Risk. I was the master of strategy, warfare and general cheating to win. The games helped pass the time between our chores and guard duty.

  I even continued the Bug Out Drills, which were even more unpopular than guard duty. I really liked this place, but knew we were open to attack from all sides and was eager to find a more secure location when the snow subsided.

  ***

  The blonde quietly loaded food and water bottles into two backpacks while the red head took Lynn’s pistol and stole cold weather gear. They dressed, slung the backpacks on their backs and left just after midnight.

  The blonde asked, “Jackie, how will we find our way in the snow?”

  Jackie answered, “Easy, see the tops of the fence posts on both sides of the road. We turn right at the end of the driveway and stay between the posts until we hit Highway 231 and make a right. That takes us into Rolling Hills. They will take us in, and we will find some men to take care of us.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I was raised in Idaho, and we had snow drifts every year. We had snowmobiles and played in worse storms than we’ll ever have here. Let’s go.”

  They made it to 231 in short order and started trudging towards Rolling Hills.

  “Jackie, I hate those people, and if we get a chance, I want to get even with those bitches.”

  “Yes, I’ll kill that whore Ally. Zack liked me, and I know it.”

  They kept walking for the next several hours until the sun came up.

  “Jackie, let’s take another break. My ass is dragging.”

  “Yeah, I’m tired, too.”

  They were talking when Jackie pointed to smoke rising from the woods on the left side of the road about half a mile away.

  “Come on. Let’s find out who has a warm fire. This time we need to be careful trying to take a man away from his wife. Maybe she needs to have an unfortunate accident. A few weeks without female companionship and our problems go away.”

  ***

  The Campground

  “Zack, they’re gone.”

  “Who’s gone?”

  “The two girls that were locked up. They overpowered Lynn last night, tied and gagged her and then ran away. They stole food, guns and cold weather gear.”

  “Is Lynn okay?”

  “Yes, her pride’s hurt, but she wasn’t injured.”

  I thought for a minute and said, “Good riddance. We probably couldn’t track them and unfortunately, they will die walking in circles in the woods. Call everyone together and let’s let them know about the escape.”

  Everyone except the guards was assembled in the dining room when I walked in; I opened by saying, “Ladies, your men are safe now. The two captives escaped last night and are now wandering around in this foul weather. We are not going to put lives at risk searching for them.”

  I looked over to the four friends of the two wayward women, and said, “I’m sorry, but your friends will probably die out in this snow.”

  One quickly replied, “Those two were a pain in the ass, and none of us liked them. They were both scum before the lights went out and are still scum. Good riddance.”

  “Well then, they won’t be missed.”

  There were two days of calm with no snow and hardly any wind before another blizzard came roaring in. The snow fell, the temperature dropped, and the wind blew the snow sideways for three days.

  We kept plowing through the storm but now had to use the bucket on the tractor to move snow down the hill since there was no place to push it to the side. This was now a full-time job; we had to rotate the work through our group along with guard duty. Everyone hated the task after the first day, but actually, it did break the boredom.

  Just as suddenly as the fierce storm arrived, it left on the fourth day. The sun was out, and the temperature hovered just below freezing. The sun was welcome, and several of the ladies sat by windows and let the sun stream in on them. I joined Ally in the sunlight; the warmth and bright light made me feel great.

  I was napping the second
afternoon as the sun went down when I heard a shot, then several more. I put my cold weather gear on, grabbed my rifle and charged out the door with Mike, and Paul, behind me. We trudged up the hill towards the direction of the shots and saw Roger shooting at something. I looked in front of Roger and saw a dead deer and two wolves.

  “Zack, keep an eye out. There is a wolf pack out there trying to get this deer. I saw the deer and shot it for the meat when the pack ran out of the woods and charged us. Lynn and I shot several, and they ran back into the woods.”

  “I saw three dead wolves, and another was trying to get up when Lynn shot it.

  “Paul, would you go get the tractor with the bucket and take the deer down to the barn so we can dress it out?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Ally, Joan, and Sally had joined us, and I asked them to guard Paul as he took the deer to the barn. These wolves were starving and would attack us for their supper.

  Suddenly over a dozen of the pack charged our position and we began shooting them as they closed the distance. We missed as many as we hit with the ARs, but Mike and Joan had shotguns with double aught buck and nailed any we missed. It was a massacre, and soon there were six more dead, and wolves were lying all around us.

  “Hon, what are we going to do with the carcasses? They will attract more predators if we don’t dispose of them.”

  I replied, “Damn, the ground is frozen so we can’t bury them. What the heck can we do with them?”

  One of the girls replied, “Put them in the metal garden shed, let them freeze and douse them with diesel fuel to cover their scent until we can burn or bury them.”

  “Great idea. Let’s load them into the bucket and move them to the shed.”

  I doubled the guard for the next several days in case the wolves came back, and I was glad I did. They tried to pick off one of our guards, but we killed them for their efforts. We had killed another four before the attacks stopped.

  There were several other narrow escapes, but I was the only one who was actually injured by a wolf, and that was because I fell down as one leaped at me. I shot it, but the bastard fell on me causing me to sprain my ankle.

  We went from boredom to sheer terror back to boredom in a week. Boredom wasn’t so bad after all.

  ***

  The house was a two-story Colonial that would make any millionaire proud to own. It was on 125 acres, had a large stable, enormous garage, tennis courts and an indoor riding arena. The owner had sold his logistics company and retired at 55 to raise Paint horses and collect classic trucks and cars.

  The two women watched the house for several hours before approaching. They saw four men and a woman come outside in the sunshine and thought they saw another woman through a window. The men carried firewood into the house while the woman watched.

  Jackie looked over at her friend and said, “We need to have a good story to tell these people. I don’t think they’ll like the truth about us being kidnapped, raped and then thrown out of our rescuer’s camp for trying to steal their men.”

  “The blonde replied, “We were up in Indiana visiting a dear friend when the lights went out. It’s taken months to walk home. We’ve fought off attacks by criminals and wild animals. We finally got home, and our families are dead. What can a girl do to survive? Boo hoo.”

  “I like that. Let’s add some detail and then walk in like we own the place. I’ll tuck the pistol into my pants in case these people become a problem.”

  The women walked up to the front of the house and yelled to catch the owner’s attention. Jackie didn’t want to be shot because of any misunderstanding. They saw the door open, and two men with rifles walked out on the large porch.

  ***

  “Hey George, I hear someone yelling out front. Grab your rifle.”

  “It looks like two women. Be careful.”

  George walked out onto the porch with Wes right behind him. They saw two women dressed in expensive snow gear waving at them.

  Wes looked and George and said, “This looks interesting.”

  “What do you want?”

  The women walked closer and the red head said, “Sorry to disturb you, but we’re from about 10 miles south of here and are trying to get home. We’ve been on the road since the lights went out.”

  “We still want to know what you want.”

  “Just some water and a place out of the snow so we can rest up. Your barn would be ok.”

  A voice came from inside the house, “George, bring those girls in right now before you all die from pneumonia.”

  “Follow us.”

  They followed the men into the house, and the woman introduced herself, “I’m May Owens, and this one is my husband, George. The other is my son Wes.

  Y’all must be frozen. Come on over to the fireplace and warm your bones. We ain’t had any company since fall. No one travels much, and a lot of them are thieves and scoundrels. Let’s get those heavy clothes off you and get you warm.”

  May was a plain woman dressed in a long skirt and a fancy white blouse. She wore no makeup and looked like she could kill you as soon as look at you.

  They took off their heavy gear and sat down by the fire. May brought them a bowl of soup and a glass of tea.

  “Ma’am, thank you so much. We camped about five miles north of here in an old barn, but couldn’t get much sleep because there were bad men roaming around. We’ve been eating jerky and cold soup for days. This is like heaven having a warm fire and a bowl of hot soup.”

  “Don’t worry, you’ll sleep good tonight. We ain’t fancy people, but we are hospitable.”

  Jackie knew something was wrong as the drug dulled her senses. She slid her hand under her blouse and tried to pull the pistol free when she passed out.

  “The last thing Jackie thought as the drug took effect was that these people don’t match the house. Hillbillies don’t own mansions.”

  “Mom, why did you knock them out? They weren’t hurtin’ nobody. I want the skinny blonde for me. You can sell the red head.”

  “Wes, stop thinking with your dick and use your head every now and then. Don’t these girls look familiar?”

  “Mom the red head looks just like the one Uncle Alf has. I’ll bet they’re sisters.”

  “Dumbass, it’s the same girl. Look at the bandages on her ankle. The last time I saw her and the blonde they were chained to a bed. Your dad and Alf were taking turns with ‘em.”

  “Mom, why would my uncle let them go?”

  May rolled Jackie over, and she saw the pistol on the floor.

  “This bitch must have shot Alf and escaped. We’ll have to go visit my brother and see if’n he’s okay. Meanwhile, chain the red head to your bed and the blonde to my bed. We might as well have some fun with them until we see what happened to Alf.”

  Wes replied, “Maw, that’s why I love you so much, you let me have pretty toys.”

  Her husband replied, “I like toys.”

  “Yes, and it keeps you from rooting around on me all the dadburn time. Enjoy her until we have to give her back to Alf.”

  Jackie woke up with the younger man on top of her and knew she’d jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Those other people weren’t so bad, and now she wished she’d stayed with them and behaved. She heard her friend scream from the room next door and began thinking of ways to kill these people.

  ***

  The Campground

  The worst of the snow storms were over with only occasional flurries for the past week. The sun was shining, and it had been warm enough the past few days to begin melting and packing the snow.

  The problem was that at night the water froze and left a sheet of ice covering the driveway. I busted my ass several times walking out to fetch firewood. I was much more careful now. Even though I wasn’t the only one, I was still the one that everyone saw. My friends are a cruel lot.

  “Paul, please make some channels in the snow on the driveway so the water can run off.”

  “Good idea, may
be then you won’t bust your clumsy ass in the morning.”

  “Paul, you were my favorite son in law, but now you’re in last place, asshole.”

  I turned to walk away, slipped on the wet ice and nearly fell again.

  My best friend Mike yelled out, “You look like a chimpanzee trying to roller skate for the first time.”

  “Screw you.”

  “It’d be the best you ever had.”

  A snowball hit Mike in the back and another…splat…hit him in the back of the head.

  “You’d better correct that statement. I have another snowball in my hand,” Ally replied.

  I looked up, and Davi was throwing snowballs at everyone. She winced every now and then, but she was up and moving around.

  Suddenly there were snowballs filling the air hitting anything that moved. I started making snowballs and tossing them to Ally so she could throw them faster. She nailed Mike several more times before switching to Paul then Callie. We frolicked in the snow for over an hour until Joan called us in for lunch. Play, such a novel idea in this new world.

  ***

  May had George bring the two girls to the kitchen table and chain them to the table leg.

  “Good morning ladies. I hope my men weren’t too rough on you last night. Blondie, I’ll tell George not to hit you in the face. Hell, you look like shit, and we won’t get much for you when the slavers come through in the spring if you’re all bruised up.

  You two need to do what we say and exactly what we say, and you will survive this. If you want to avoid daily beatings, you’d better make my men happy.

  Now eat your bacon and eggs and tell me about the people at the church campground.”

  Jackie looked up and said, “What campground.”

  May slapped Jackie and knocked her to the floor as she said, “Lie again, and I’ll have George come in here with his toys and show you what real pain is. Now tell us about the people in the campground.”