Withdrawal Chapter Nineteen part one
Withdrawal 19
“Man this is a nice mutha****in’set up they got here.” Ira was talking to Brian, both men were in the O.P. Brian was standing, scanning the area around the farm with the binoculars while he talked. Ira was seated to Brian’s left; both men had their weapons close at hand. They had been talking for some time but the level of conversation never reached a point of interfering with the sentry duty. “Yeah, no shit, I mean, they got food, water, security and power.”
The last word spoken with an almost mythical overtone to it as Brian lowered the binoculars to rest his eyes for a moment. A person simply couldn’t look through them for long periods and still be able to see effectively. Having dealt with the lack of electricity while trying to work and then again at home, the men thought it truly amazing to once again be able to flip a switch, presto, power. How fast it was to have to get used to not having power and now to have it again, even at a reduced level was something worth commenting on.
Ira’s people had been given a tour of the farm the day before, following lunch and the extensive debriefing. They all marveled at the well-stocked shelves in both the house and barn. The defenses were of particular interest, the visitors repeatedly commented favorably on the recently improved bunkers as well as the stout bullet barrier the double-stacked railroad ties created across the front of the O.P. The solar power set up impressed the newcomers as well. There was something to be said for planning ahead and having the means to do something about it. Ira and Allyson had always tried to keep as much food in the house as possible, but what the Hamilton’s had…wow, now that was something, it was very obvious that there had been a serious amount of work, time and money spent on making the place into what it was.
Following the tour the new arrivals had gotten together and had spoken at length among themselves. A question was tentatively raised, discussed then decided on. At that point Daryl had been approached by his former employees. He was asked if they could stand some guard shifts to repay the hospitality they had been shown. The men were told that he thought it was a real nice gesture and that he would go and ask Jim. The head of the Hamilton household was moved by the request and after talking about it with Daryl agreed. It would be nice to give some of those at the farm a break from standing guard. It had been several weeks since the beginning of the security watches, a relief from O.P. would certainly be welcome and Jim suspected, needed. Those newcomers who wanted to take a turn at O.P. duty were fitted into the schedule immediately with the next watch after all of them were given a run down on procedures. Those at the farm were indeed grateful for the respite from duty. They all knew it was necessary to stand guard, but having done it without interruption for an extended period, the sudden freedom from it was like being let off a leash.
Ira reached out and touched the nearest railroad tie, admiring the simplicity of the design. The ties were stacked double thick along the edge of the roof to allow for both maximum space atop the roof and for the sturdier construction of the wall to support the weight. The heavy wood provided a measure of serious ballistic protection. Brian noticed the movement and used it to pass on some commentary, “Nice to have those, huh?” His friend nodded. Ira wasn’t actually scheduled for O.P. duty till the next morning, but wanted to sit in for part of a shift to better familiarize himself with the job. The view was excellent, you could see north all the way to the trees, to the west it was mostly open fields broken only by lines of trees that bordered the now unplanted farming sections. To the south you could see the top of the silo at the farm a bit down the way and a good amount of the road as well. All in all, a good position giving whoever occupied it the high ground, which was critical. The nice weather didn’t hurt either, the sun was warm but not baking them and there was a nice, constant breeze to keep the men comfortable.
“Feels nice to be able to sleep with both eyes closed too, huh?” the men shared a not so humorous laugh. It had been an unfunny joke at Ira’s place in town describing how all of them felt as if they had to sleep with one eye partially open due to the lousy local security situation, despite having the extra people staying at the house. The older four-bedroom ranch style house was comfortable, but it was in town with houses close by on either side. The Harris’s property lot had a good size back yard, but the front of the house was only about 30 feet from the street, which didn’t allow for much defensive depth at all. Someone running toward the dwelling could cover that distance in a matter of seconds. The group tried to keep two people on watch all the time, one near the front of the house and the other in or near the kitchen, which had a nearly unobstructed view of the backyard. Both of the houses on either side of them were empty, which added to the security headaches. One neighbor had left weeks before, heading out of state, and the other had hastily departed in the night a few days earlier with no word on their destination.
Getting everyone situated at the Harris home had taken a bit of organizing, but they had managed. Gabriel was moved in with Randy while Brian and Dorothy took over the youngster’s former room. The remaining bedroom was emptied of furniture and used as a collection point for all the goods that wouldn’t fit in the kitchen or pantry. The supplies were roughly divided into piles of like items…food, household supplies, spare parts, etc. The group knew that they were better off than most in town, but for how long was the question that had come up often.
The sleeping arrangements at the farm had taken no less to work out, but with the use of camping gear, both the Hamilton’s and that of the visitors, everyone had someplace reasonably comfortable to sleep. Allyson had asked to sleep in the front room so she would be near the injured soldier and the others had no problem with that. The basement was, for now, nearly full of people, but at least they could sleep more securely than they had been able to for some time. Some blankets were secured to the ceiling to provide at least the illusion of privacy.
Brian bit his lip while considering the question he’d been wanting to ask his partner but then decided what the hell and just asked it. “So, do you, uh, still think that heading down to Allyson’s uncle’s place is the best plan?” Brian resumed scanning the area while he waited for an answer to his question. After several moments when he didn’t get any kind of a response, Brian lowered the glasses and looked over at his friend. Ira was quiet, his face skewed into a mask of quiet concentration. A minute or so passed before Harris spoke. “Been thinkin’ ‘bout that, alot.” Brian didn’t say anything while waiting for Ira to continue. This ought ta’ be interesting, he thought to himself, he knew how he felt but Ira was more or less the leader of their group and so the logical person to ask. About that time, the duo heard Daryl shout from the base of the ladder that he was coming up. Without waiting for a reply, he started up the aluminum ladder, rifle slung across his back to allow him use of both hands. He made quick work of the trip up the familiar path to the Observation Post.
Once he was up and over the rail, Daryl said hello to both men. They returned the greeting warmly. “Anything going on?” Brian was quick to alleviate any concern about that. It was quiet and that was what he told his former employer. Daryl nodded and relaxed a bit more, he knew that Brian was competent, but history of recent events kept him wary. He eyed the other chair and Brian waved his hand in a permissive gesture, he wanted to stand to better see what might be coming. He was very serious about his turn at sentry duty. The others had talked about it and felt strongly that being allowed in and given shelter that they wanted to give something back for the trust and hospitality. Daryl un-slung his rifle and settled into the chair placing the rifle across his legs, making sure the muzzle was pointed in a safe direction. He asked the men what they were doing. Brian started to say something, but stopped…figured if Ira wanted to say something, it would be better coming from the older man. Brian returned to glassing the area looking for any signs of trouble.
Ira was a bit hesitant to speak on what the two had been discussing. Daryl sensed something had just occurred, but waited before saying anything. What’s going on he wondered. He leaned forward a bit in the chair, an unconscious effort to get a little closer to the issue. Daryl looked at Ira, who avoided his eyes at first but then looked at his friend. In for a penny, in for a pound or whatever the damned saying was Harris told himself. Taking a deep breath he launched into what was uncharted ground.
“Several of us been talking since the tour the guy, uh, Jim, gave us yesterday. I mean this place,” Daryl nodded his understanding; his friends had built a hell of a place. That he had helped with some of it was immaterial, this was Jim and Michelle’s place. Ira pushed on with his thoughts, “is really something. Better than any other place I ever seen. Going down to Henry’s place, ya know, the uncle’s.” Daryl simply nodded.
“Well, that was the best place we knew of at the time but we were wondering, hoping I mean, that maybe if something could be worked out, what would the chances be of staying here, more or less permanent?” There he had said it; the question was in the open. Brian and Ira shared a look, here we go…
For his part, Daryl was a bit surprised by both the request and the length of it. That was the nearly the most he had ever heard Ira say in one sitting. And after a few seconds, realized it wasn’t such a crazy request as it might have appeared on first glance. The situation here would be a vast improvement over whatever the group would have down in Gaines County, if they could even get there at all. It would be a risky trip, no doubt. Hell, going down the road to the Holski’s could be dangerous, shit, clear down to Gaines County? Yikes. As he started to open his mouth, Daryl realized it wasn’t his place to say one way or the other. He figured he knew what his response to the question would be, but it wasn’t his house.
Holding up one finger to signify the nearly universal message of “Wait one”, Daryl grabbed up his radio mike and called Jim. “Unit One, can you come to the nest when you get a minute?” Jim, who was out in the shop area heard the radio call, acknowledged and went about finishing up what he was doing, which he knew wouldn’t take long. While they were waiting, the three men passed the time with light conversation, avoiding the question of staying, which now hung in the air waiting for the one man who could answer it.
After Jim arrived at the Observation Post, that conversation was resumed and the request made again. The two former security officers explained to Jim how they were not sure that the long drive to Allyson’s uncle place was the best idea. As they had covered in the meeting the previous day, the move was essentially an all or nothing proposition. They simply didn’t have enough fuel for a round trip, their resources, while modest, were it and so wondered if the other two men had any ideas.
Daryl, who had been sitting quietly as Jim and the others talked, suddenly seemed to be struck by a thought. Brian noticed the change in posture and expression causing him to stop talking in mid sentence, which forced the others to look at him and then at Daryl. Jim had seen that look before; there was something important trying to work its self out. The three men sat quietly for a few moments as the former Marine chased the thought down, grabbed it and looked it over more closely. The more he studied it, the more he liked it. He was so deep in thought that it took a bit to realize the others were staring at him. “Sorry, an idea jumped in and…”
“…was amazed at all the empty space.” Ira rarely missed an opportunity to needle his one time employer. The four shared a laugh as Daryl held up his hands and waved them in the universal gesture for “okay, okay, you win” then gave a one fingered salute with a laugh.
Daryl turned to look over at Jim and said a single word, “Petr’s?” It took the senior Hamilton a second or two to realize what his friend was alluding to. Once he got it, the idea had immediate appeal. Both of the other men didn’t say anything. They wanted too, but held their tongues. Brian lifted the binoculars for another look around. Ira kept looking back and forth between the two until he could no longer contain his curiosity.
“What? What are you two talkin’ bout?”
Ignoring Ira for a moment, Jim directed his gaze and response toward Daryl. “That could work ya know.”
“Yeah it could, especially if we split the numbers. Part here, part there; improvement for both groups.” The other two men hadn’t been able to figure out yet what was being discussed, but figured out that they were the focus of the conversation. They recognized Petr’s name from meeting the man the day before, but didn’t understand the context it was being used in. Brian and Ira figured it was easy to wait till the conversation came back to them, which judging by the flurry of the ideas going back and forth might be a bit. Hastily raising the binoculars again to his eyes, Brian checked the area as a way of killing some time, even a few seconds was something. No activity to be seen.
Jim nodded, which gave Daryl the approval. He looked over at each of his, he still thought of them that way, men and filled them in on what the idea was. “You guys met Petr yesterday…” Ira nodded and Brian said, sure. ‘well, what if instead of all of you guys staying here, which realistically would kinda overload the place, if say half of you – or probably most of you, went down the road and lived with Petr. See, they’re farmers, don’t have a great deal of manpower and there is still the chance that, according to him anyways, they will be able to harvest in a good size crop, which means of course, more food for all.” Daryl briefly explained to them the conversation that he, Jim and Petr had a few days earlier regarding the Holski’s situation: the choices were the Holski’s could either farm on a very limited basis with having an inadequate security presence or lots of farming and no security or lastly all security and no farming. The elder Holski explained that they had more than enough fuel, fertilizer and seeds to do a modest planting next year since this year’s crop was already planted. Petr told the men that this is what he would rather do because they just didn’t know what the conditions were going to be, so saving part of their resources seemed the best choice.
The four men began to talk about the idea in more detail. Thoughts and suggestions flew back and forth for nearly half an hour until they felt that they had the rough details worked out enough that Ira could take it to the others in his group. They wanted approval of the idea before approaching Petr about it. Another meeting was hurriedly called with Jim and Ira each taking their respective groups aside to explain the basics of the plan before they sat down collectively.
Surprisingly, there was little opposition to the plan and only a few details that were raised. The biggest was arrangement for who would sleep where, which wasn’t adequately explained, but the topic didn’t keep the conversation from continuing. The prevailing opinion was that it was a good idea, but that it really depended on the Holski’s. The entire meeting took about twenty minutes and then they called Petr using the radio, asking if it was all right to come down to discuss an important matter.
They were told to come down at their convenience. Daryl said that they could take his truck; he, Ira, Jim, and Dorothy chose to go. Josh suggested that they raise the alert level some since they would have people “outside the wire”. Daryl laughed at the phrase his friend used not because of the usage; it was the proper term, but more from whom it was coming from. He agreed and asked Josh to take his usual place in the center redoubt. Randy was assigned to the bunker near the chicken coop and everyone else made sure that they had weapons handy just in case. None of them were anticipating trouble but didn’t want to take any chances.
Continued...