said to have a bug out bag ready. So they did as a precaution. They figured that those guy’s were experts about this so they  would have reasons that it was real important to have a bug out bag. If something happened that they were farther from the truck then they wanted and they had trouble getting to it for whatever reason they would be prepared for that too. They were quite smug thinking they had covered all the bases that could possibly be. They were prepared for anything and everything. Then reality smacked them up along side their heads. Nothing works, no vehicles, no phones, nothing.

They both panicked when they realized that an EMP had hit them. They never believed that the powers that be could ever be so stupid as to bomb us into the dark ages. No one in their right mind would do such a thing because they would have to live in darkness too. It was something they had never even really discussed as a possibility at all.

They both had been at work when the power went out. They didn’t work very far from each other. It had been part of their plan. They even lived in the same apartment building so they would be close when whatever was going to happen did happen. The plan was for Eric to get over to the truck as fast as he could when it happens. Mark would guard the truck and be ready to roll as soon as he got there. Then they would be on their way right then and there.

Then the power went out. It was no big deal. It happens from time to time. It was nothing to panic over or anything. They would just wait it out until the power came back on. No big deal.

When the power went out at Eric’s place of work he waited a bit to see if it would come back on quickly. He just hoped that someone hadn’t hit and knocked out a power pole like last time. It had been hours before they got the power back on. He hated just sitting around and doing nothing. After five minutes he decided to walk outside for awhile. There was not anything he could do until the power came back on anyways. He stepped outside into a very chaotic scene. Vehicles were stopped everywhere. People were getting out of their vehicles and standing around looking confused. Many vehicles had their hoods open with people tinkering around inside. The vehicles must have overheated. He thought it was very strange that so many would overheat at the same time. But he knew for a fact that most people didn’t take care of their vehicles as they should. Maybe they had been setting there with the engines idling for awhile waiting for an accident up the road to be cleared away. It was chilly out so most people would have had the heater going to stay warm. That should have helped their engines to run cooler. He looked up ahead but couldn’t see anything except stopped vehicles and people standing around. He shrugged his shoulders. Maybe someone had hit a power pole again and that is why they have been here so long. He looked at his watch and it had only been eight minutes since the power went out. The vehicles shouldn’t have overheated in that short period of time. He scratched his head and thought about this for a minute. He couldn’t come up with a reason that would cause all of this. He chalked it up to be another mystery that would be explained later. He watched all of this with as much confusion as everyone else standing around.

Mark was in the middle of a project when the power went out. He threw down the pencil he was using to make corrections to a printed report. “Damn, not now,” he said with frustration. He didn’t need this crap right now. He had to get this done right this second. It couldn’t wait. He sighed. He stood up and slammed his chair under the small counter that was his desk. It was the only way he could get out of the little space that was his work area. He grabbed his coffee cup and went to go get another cup of coffee before the pot cooled down. Last time they lost power he had waited and by the time he got to the pot it was empty. He was first this time. He smiled. He had beaten the hordes that would be showing up momentarily to fill their cups up. Last time this happened he had to settle for a soda pop. He really didn’t like drinking soda pop in the morning. Mornings are for coffee not that sweet crap he thought with irritation. He heard footsteps coming down the hall behind him. Yup, they are on the way over here right now. He stepped aside to let them see that there was about one inch of coffee left in the machine. He wondered who would be brave enough to take that last inch of coffee out of the coffee pot. It would have to a very brave person that was for sure. Accounting would be showing up real soon too. He smiled just thinking about the arguments that will be going on.

He watched Harry bravely walk up to the counter and reach for the pot just as Sue came out of accounting. She saw what was about to happen and screeched out to Harry, “Don’t you dare empty that pot. Don’t you dare even touch it Harry.” Harry just ignored her and grabbed the pot. Everyone watched as Sue ran over to Harry. He emptied the pot into his cup and handled the pot to Sue. She looked at the pot and then at Harry, then back at the pot. She said to Harry, “I will pay you back for that. Yes indeed, I will. Next time you have trouble with that printer of yours I will be much too busy to look at it for you. That was really inconsiderate Harry.” Harry laughed putting the coffee pot down and said, “Go upstairs and see it they have any left up there. Last time a whole pot went cold and unused because no one thought to look up there.” The others who had been standing there listening to the confrontation between them started for the stairs shoving and pushing trying to be first. The last they saw of them they were gripping their coffee cups tightly so they wouldn’t be knocked out of their hands. Sue said dryly, “Thanks a lot Harry. Now I will have to settle for a soda pop. Yuck.” Harry said, “Better luck next time, Sue.” Mark just smiled at them. Sue turned to Mark and said, “You find this amusing don’t you?” Mark answered, “Yes, very much so.” Sue said, “I don’t think this is funny at all.” Mark said, “Last time you took the last of the coffee and didn’t leave me any. Payback is a bit-h.” Sue huffed loudly and marched away. Both men stood there and watched her disappear through the doorway to accounting. They looked at each other and laughed. Harry said, “That was a good call, Mark. Way to go.” He reached out and lightly tapped Mark on the shoulder as he started to walk by him to go back to his cubby hole to await the power to come back on. Mark decided to go back to his own cubby hole and look over the report again. There wasn’t anything else to do.

Eric had been standing there trying to figure out a scenario of what could have happened to cause the scene in front of him. He glanced at his watch and noticed that fifteen minutes had pasted since the power went out. He finally decided that an accident must have happened up ahead earlier and the traffic had been backed up for awhile before the power went out. That was the only thing that made sense. Maybe one of the emergency vehicles accidently knocked out a power pole or something when they were attending to the accident. Ya, that made sense. He was just about to turn around and head back inside when he heard shouting down the street. He looked over there and several people were running after a guy who had a woman’s purse in his hand. Wow, that guy could really move. Eric stepped back to the entrance of the building so he would be out of the way when they ran by him. It was either that or he would get run over. Maybe they will catch him first. Eric looked around for a cop and didn’t spot one. Figures, they are never around it seemed when you needed them and they would be around in all over the place when you didn’t. He looked back at the running figures. They were almost to him. The guy with the purse was still in the lead. The others chasing him were getting closer to him now. Was this guy stupid or what? There are no alleys or anything around that he would be able to run into to lose the guys chasing him. Why doesn’t he just drop the purse? It was pretty stupid of him to keep going like this.

As the guy with the purse ran by without conscious thought Eric stuck his foot out and the guy with the purse went flying down on the sidewalk. He skidded a long while. Eric grinned. That had to hurt like he-l. The others gathered around the fallen guy looking down at him. They turned around and looked at Eric. Two of them walked over to him smiling and laughing between pants for breaths. One said, “That was nicely done. Thank you.” The other one shaking his head said with awe in his voice, “Nobody is ever gonna believe me when I tell them about this. That was really cool man. Just like in the movies.” Eric smiled at them and said, “No problem. I didn’t even think about doing it really. It just sort of happened.” The other two men laughed at that statement. They could hear the other men of their little group raising their voices. The two who had been talking with Eric turned and walked back to the others to see what had happened now.

One guy was yelling that he could’ve tackled him if that guy over there hadn’t interfered. He was just a show off. Eric just smiled at them all. Several of the men dragged the guy up from the sidewalk. Another man picked up the purse. They all headed back the way they came. The two that had talked to Eric nodded to him as they went by. Eric watched them until they were lost in the crowd on the street. He was again just about to turn around and head back inside when a woman approached him. She looked pretty frazzled. She said, “Do you have the time? The battery in my watch died.” Eric looked at his watch and told her it was 9:30. She mumbled under her breath at that. Eric said, “What did you say?” He couldn’t have heard her right. She said, “This has been one he-l of a morning so far and it’s only 9:30. I’m running late, I got stuck in traffic, and then I get on this street and my car just stops dead and won’t start. Everyone else is having the same problem. My cell phone isn’t working. Then I notice my watch isn’t working either. I wrote a note and stuck it on my car window. I locked it up and started walking. I thought the place would be closer than it apparently is. A lady down the street told me the building I’m looking for is on the other side of town. This is the south Division Boulevard and I need the north side of Division Boulevard. How am I supposed to get to my meeting? I’m already late. She really looked harassed and like she might cry.”

Eric’s mind was reeling. What the he-l? He looked at her and saw how distressed she was. He said, “Would you like to come inside and sit down for awhile and rest. You are not going to make any meeting on the north side any time soon. Not walking that is. He smiled at her and then went on. Since you’re already late, what difference will a few more minutes make? I have hot coffee in my thermos. Would you like a cup?” She looked at him steadily for a few moments and then smiled. She said, “Thank you. That is very kind of you. Yes, I would love a cup of coffee. Are you sure it would be alright?” Eric said, “Sure, come on in.” He opened the door for her and they went inside. He stepped up beside her and said come this way and you can sit down. She followed him and he showed her a chair where she could sit down. She thankfully sat down and rested her feet. She took off her high heels off and rubbed her feet. He rinsed out a coffee cup at the sink in the corner. He dried it and filled it with hot coffee. He handed her the cup and said, “If you would like cream or sugar it is over there on the counter.” She said, “Thank you.” He turned and started to walk out and then stopped and said to her, “If anyone pokes their head in here just tell them Eric said it was okay.” She smiled at him. It was a very pretty smile too. As Eric went back outside he thought maybe he could introduce himself and find out if she was single or attached to someone. He shook his head. No, that would never work out. All the really pretty professional women he ever met always thought he was an insane, paranoid, lunatic for being the way he was. He sighed. He sometimes thought he would never find a nice sane woman he could like that thought about the same things he did or one that would even be prepared for an emergency. He wondered if he would grow old alone. He sighed again and reached for the front door to open it.

Mark had been over the report several times now. He had changed some sentences because they seemed fragmented. He substituted some words, anything else he could think of to waste time. He should have printed off more reports to work on. He chuckled at himself. Right, like he knew there was going to be a power outage. He sighed. He decided to look at every single scrap of paper here in his cubby hole and see if he could find something, anything to occupy himself with. He could hear the buzz of conversation all around him. It seemed everyone was standing around talking in little groups. He kept looking for anything to keep busy with. He would not go out there and talk to the idiots that worked here. If he looked busy they would leave him alone to finish it. They would be afraid he might enlist their help with whatever he was working on. So they would keep a safe distance from him. But if they saw him just sitting here someone would decide to come over to talk to him and all the other idiots in that huddle would follow right along. He sighed. It’s not that they were bad people or anything it was that they had nothing in common to talk about at all besides work.

When they were in these little huddles talking it would be about everything but work. Then the questions would start. Did he have a girlfriend? What was her name? Where did she work? Where they planning on getting married? What had he done this last weekend? What baseball or football or soccer team was he rooting for? And it would go on and on. But what he hated mostly about these little huddle conversations was when they would get to the gossip. Who was doing what to whom? And what so and so had done. The worst ones were the ones that started out with I heard from someone who will remain nameless that, whatever their shocking news was would be inserted at this point in the conversation. None of these people even considered for a minute that their world could change. If you tried to talk to them about anything serious it just fell on deaf ears. It was almost like you hadn’t said anything at all. Or they would say you are just paranoid. Ya, paranoid. Just like when he was talking to this guy who worked down in the mail room. They were having a really good conversation about being prepared for a disaster when a typist named Maggie interrupted them and asked him if he had taken a paranoid pill that morning. Well, that had ended that conversation right then. The guy wouldn’t even look at him when they crossed paths in the hallways now. Oh wow, he found that inventory report he was supposed to fill out about the office supplies he had in his cubby hole. “Thank you God,” he thought as started counting paperclips.

Eric stepped through the door. He wanted some time alone to think about what she said and what it might mean. He heard a lot of noise and looked around. It looked worse out here now. People were shouting and yelling at each other. Eric saw a lot of people standing in little groups talking loudly too. What the he-l is going on? He saw two policemen and they were surrounded by a group of people who were pretty mad. He decided to walk in their direction and see what they were saying. He was getting a very bad feeling about all of this. They were yelling at the policemen about that jerk he had tripped with the purse. The policemen were saying they couldn’t take him in to be arrested because their car wasn’t working either. They insisted the guy really needed to be taken to the hospital. Eric grinned. The guy had really been hurt then. He wasn’t sure. He didn’t get to see what damage had been done to him by that abrupt stop he had taken. The men had held him so close he only got a glance at his backside as the men had dragged him away. He had seen his jeans torn and scrapped. But that was all. He wondered if he could get close enough to ask the cops what was happening. They were leaving behind a very angry group of men. They were crossing the street. Eric started to walk down farther so he could intercept them as they came down his side of the street.

He saw his chance. He said, “Excuse me officer’s but I have a word with you?” One of them asked him, “What do you want?” He looked around and saw that everyone near was trying to hear what they were saying. Eric decided to change tactics. He said, “All the vehicles won’t start. I heard you say that your car won’t start either.” They stared at him and the other one said, “Our car won’t start.” Eric was thinking fast as he talked. He said, “I work over there.” He pointed. The officer’s looked at where he pointed. Eric then said, “It’s a long walk back to the station. Would you both like to come in and get a cup of coffee?” They stared at him suspiciously. Eric said, “I would really like to talk to you in private and I thought we could go to where I work to have our conversation. I also have some fresh roasted coffee in my thermos and I thought we could kill two birds with one stone. I’ll talk and you two drink coffee and listen.” They looked at each other and then at Eric. One of them said, “Sure we can use a cup right now.” The other one said, “We have to get back pronto.” Eric reassured him that this talk wouldn’t take long.

They followed him into the building. He led them to his work area. The woman was still sitting there. She stood up as they approached. She looked at the policemen and blinked her eyes. She looked at Eric and said, “Are you having me arrested?” Eric came to a dead stop and looked at her. He then laughed and said, “No, nothing like that at all. I invited them in for a cup of coffee too.” She sighed with relief and sat back down. He went over to the counter and got two more coffee mugs and rinsed them out and poured coffee in them. He turned back to the cops and handed them each a mug. He said, “Cream and sugar is on the counter over there if you want any.” Both said they were fine. They looked at him and the older one said. “Thank you for the coffee. Now you want to tell us why you had to get us alone to talk to us?” Eric cleared his throat. He said, “Please take a seat. I have something to run by you and I want your honest opinion on.”

They looked around real careful like and then took a chair where they could see the doorway. Eric expected as much. He would do the same. He sighed. He got himself a cup of coffee and turned back to the officers. He took a deep breath and said, “I don’t want to sound like a nut case but I would like your opinion on what has happened this morning. I have been over it and over it in my head and nothing else makes sense. Has an EMP been set off?” The officer’s looked at each other and then back at Eric. The younger one said, “Why would you think an EMP had been set off?” Eric said, “Because it is the only explanation of the facts.” The younger policeman said, “And what facts would those be?” Eric took another gulp of coffee for courage. There was no other way to say this except straight out. He said, “First we lost power. He looked at all three of them. They all nodded their heads. He said, “At the same time all the vehicles stopped working, the cell phones went down, and the electronic watches stopped working. Your walkie talkies don’t work either do they?” The policemen exchanged a look. The older one replied, “Your right they stopped at the same time as everything else.” Eric threw his hands up in the air and said, “The only thing I know that could do that is an EMP. Do you know of anything else that could do that to everything? Am I misreading this situation?” The officer’s exchanged another look. The younger one said, “No, I think you have read this situation completely right.”

Eric was stood completely ridged in shock for a moment. He had hoped so very much that he was wrong. That he had made a very wrong turn in his thinking. He wanted to hear from them that he was over reacting or crazy or anything but a confirmation of an EMP. While the men were contemplating this the women said, “Excuse me, are you saying someone pushed the button and attacked our country with a nuclear bomb? Is it a terrorists attack or is it another government that did it?” The three men exchanged looks. The older policeman said, “There is no way to know for sure. We were on our way back to the station to find out what is known. People are starting to go crazy out there. The looting has already started on the other side of town. We couldn’t radio for help. All we could do was leave.” The woman gasped in shock. Eric said very carefully to the policemen, “You won’t be safe out there for long. Your uniform will attract anyone with a grudge against the police.” The two policemen looked at each other and thought about that.

Eric thought for a moment and came up with an idea. He decided that he would approach them with it. He told them, “I have a friend that I have been preparing for a disaster with. He works about a mile down the road. We have some clothes and things in his truck. I don’t have anything that will fit you with me. But at the truck we do. You are welcome to come with me and you can use his work place to change clothes in. Can you take this woman with you to help her get home?” The two policemen stood up. The younger one said, “Thank you. My name is Bill and this is Red.” Eric said, “I’m Eric.” The men shook hands. The woman stood up and said, “My name is Melody.” Red said, “We will make sure she gets home.” Bill said to Red, “I think we should take Eric up on his offer. These uniforms are attractors. Remember what that FBI guy said when we had that training and he explained how our uniforms could cause trouble all it themselves in a bad situation just like this.” Red nodded his head yes. He then turned to Eric and asked, “Why are you helping us?” Eric answered promptly, “I don’t have a weapon on me. Who knows what we will run into on the way to where we all are heading. The more we stick together the better chance we might have of getting to my friends truck before things get any worse.” They looked thoughtful and nodded. Eric said, “Hang on just a minute.” He turned to Melody. He asked, “What size shoe do you wear?” She blinked up at him with a puzzled look on her face and said, “Why do you want to know that?” Eric said, “You will never make it in those shoes. You would have a better chance if you were barefoot. But there will probably be broken glass all over the place soon. You need another pair of shoes to wear. Some of the women here bring their stuff to work with them and go to the gym after work. I will go ask some of them to borrow a pair of shoes in your size.” Melody said, “I wear a six and a half size shoe.” Eric said, “I’ll be right back.”

He came back in with a gym bag. He handed it to her and said, “Inside there is a pair of jeans, a tee-shirt and a size 6 and a half pair of almost new jogging shoes. I think the jeans and tee-shirt will fit you too. There is a bathroom over there.” He pointed down the hall. She got up and took the bag from Eric. She looked like she was in a daze. She walked down the hall and went into the bathroom marked for woman. Red looked at Eric and said, “You think fast on your feet. I like that.” Bill laughed and said, “Ya, he has called me a dumb sh-t more than once when I first got on the force.” Eric looked at them both and said, “Things are going to be very different out there now. I read about how it was estimated that it could take from five years to fifty years to get everything working again. That’s a long time. If I was you I would go home to my families and get them out of the city anyway you can. Get bikes if you have children. They won’t be able to keep up any other way. What if this is a prelude to an invasion from another country or something? It’s the cities they will hit now that they have us where they want us. We are basically defenseless. Only guns and small arms will work. Everything bigger we have will be useless now. They all have electronic parts in them. I sure hope if we are being invaded that those weapons can be fired by hand or manually. If not we’re screwed. And I’m pretty sure those weapons can’t be fired manually. So my opinion is we are screwed and better get out of the city as soon as possible. If you have any family that lives on a farm or out in the country you should head there as fast as you can. The food situation here in the city will get pretty desperate soon. Desperate people do insane things. I’m sure you know that better than anyone out there. You deal with desperate people all the time.” Both men nodded their heads yes. Eric said, “I don’t know about you but this scares the he-l out of me.”

Eric started laughing real hard. The others looked at him wondering if he was going to lose it. They had seen that too many times in situations that were not even close to this one. Seeing their faces made him laugh even harder. He finally got control of his self. He looked over at them and said, “I’m sorry I was just imagining my friends’ face when he realizes we prepared for everything but this. We were so sure, so very positive that we had every base covered of what could possibly go wrong. We were so very, very wrong.” He remembered his grandmother telling him a proverb. Pride comes before a fall. We were so smug so prideful that we knew what we were doing was absolutely right. Nothing could possibly happen that they hadn’t prepared for. They had prepared for any all scenarios. Right, all scenarios except this one. The reality of the situation they were in was just starting to dawn on him.

He walked around and picked up a few items he didn’t want to leave behind. Red and Bill were deep in their own thoughts so he gathered up what he would put in his pack. Melody came back wearing the jeans, tee-shirt and jogging shoes. She had her other clothes folded in her arms. She handed Eric back the bag he had brought the clothes and shoes in. He looked at her and said you will be more comfortable now. She smiled at him and said, “Thank you.” He took the bag and set it on the counter. He looked at Red and Bill and said, “Do either of you need to go to the bathroom or anything?” They both said no. Eric said, “I’ll be right back. I’m going to tell someone I am leaving.” Eric was gone for about 30 seconds and then came back. He grabbed his coat. He stopped for a few seconds and looked around. He was never coming back here again. Nothing would ever be the same again. It all seemed a bit unreal. He led all three of them to the back door down a long hallway. They went outside. He walked over to his car and unlocked the trunk. He lifted his bug out bag and closed the trunk. He looked at the three of them and said, “Let’s hit the road.” They started walking.

Mark had finished filling out the supply inventory sheet. He was bored. He couldn’t find anything else to occupy him. Everyone had by this time gotten really loud. Then he heard some shouting. He looked around wondering what was up. Everybody was going outside. He looked up at the clock at the end of the hall. That’s weird. It was obviously not working. It said the same time it had before when he had looked up when the power went out. Great, just great, the battery was dead. He was just getting up to go into the break room to see what time the clock in there said it was when he saw some people running outside holding their keys. There was no way it was lunch time already. What was going on? He got up and walked out to the hallway. Some of the guys from upstairs were standing around arguing. He heard one of them say something about none of the cars would start. He couldn’t have heard that right. He walked over and said, “What’s wrong with the cars?” They all turned to him and started talking at once. Mark held his hand up and said, “How about you tell me one at a time. I can’t understand what you are saying.” They all looked at each other and then Dave said, “None of our cars will start and there are cars all over the roads that just died and won’t restart. We are trying to figure out what could cause all the cars to stop working at the same time and what could cause our cars that weren’t running not to start at all. Mark just stood there looking at them. Is this some kind of a joke? What could they be talking about? He turned around and went and got his coat. He walked outside shaking his head thinking he must have somehow fallen into an episode of the Twightzone or the guys from upstairs had been smoking some funny smelling cigarettes or something.

He walked to his truck and got in. He tried starting his truck but there was nothing. No sound, no grinding, nothing. He popped the hood and checked all the connections. Everything was good. It still wouldn’t start. He sat there for a minute trying to get his mind around the fact that his truck wouldn’t start either. He looked around. They weren’t kidding. There were vehicles all over just sitting there with the doors open and others with people in them trying to start them. No one was having any luck that he could see. His mind seemed to be numb. He couldn’t think of anything that would cause this. He got out and shut his door and relocked the truck. He walked back inside in a kind of a daze. He mind was trying to come up with a reason his truck didn’t start. He could hear everyone talking and it was getting down right chaotic in here. He heard one guy saying it had to be a government experiment gone wrong or something. He smiled thinking and they thought he was nuts. Then a guy said maybe it’s a terrorists attack. That stopped him in his tracks. What if it was? How did they do it? What did they do?

Something was niggling at the back of his mind but he couldn’t quite grasp it. He sat fiddling with his keys. His mind running around in never ending circles over this puzzle. Then what was being said penetrated his circling mind. Everybody’s watches weren’t working nor were their cell phones. The Feeling that he should know what all of this meant was very strong. All of a sudden the information slammed into his awareness. He thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Oh sh-t an EMP. We were hit with and EMP.” He looked up at the clock no wonder it wasn’t working. He started to laugh and thought what he would give to see Eric’s face when he found out it was an EMP. Damn they had prepared for everything but that. How do you prepare for and EMP anyway? Well, I guess you could buy some bikes or something. He chuckled for a few minutes. He got up and walked into the break room to get his stuff. He was going to go to the truck and go through what they had and figure out what they could carry. That wiped the smile off his face. It was a very long walk to the retreat. “Oh this is just great, we are going to have to walk to get there,” he thought. How in the he-l are they going to be able to do that?

All that money they had spent on his truck making sure it was always ready to go that could have been spent on supplies made him grunt in disgust. He got to the truck and sat down. He decided to wait for Eric and they would decide together what they would take and what they would leave behind. There was going to be a lot of stuff left behind, that was for sure. There was no way to carry it up to the retreat now. He sighed. All that money spent for nothing. All the over time hours they both had put in. All the things they had never been able to do because they couldn’t afford it. They had stayed on their preparedness budget no matter what. It was gone as if they had just thrown it in the street. He moaned and thought, “Sh-t.” He hit the steering wheel with his hand several times muttering, “Damn, Damn, Damn.”

And now here they were days later looking at the zombie movie scene. They both thought of what they had been through to get to where they were at this point. Everything that had happened since the day they knew we had been hit with an EMP. All the things that had happened and all the horrible things that they had seen went through their minds like a slide show. The future looked mighty dim from their point of view. They were still a long ways from the retreat. Mark hadn’t said anything to Eric but he was really worried about their ammo situation. After their very first fire fight they were down by twenty-five. He had one hundred three bullets left for the 30-30 and Eric had 67 shotgun shells left for his 12 gauge. They were going to have to avoid people and shootout situations as much as possible. Not that they were looking for any situations like that but now it was a top priority to avoid them at all costs. Well, not at the cost of their lives but just about anything else. If they ran out of ammo they would be dead meat, literally, no question about it. This scene proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

There were some people walking around in a daze. A lot of them were just standing or sitting down staring straight ahead. Most didn’t even notice that they were walking by at all. They just stared at them looking through them as they walked past as if they weren’t there at all. It was down right creepy. None of them spoke. They just stared at nothing. It was like these people were dolls or mannequins or something not alive. It gave them a chill. Bonfires and cars were burning. Up ahead they could hear some yelling and screaming now by a large bonfire.

As they walked they stayed about five paces apart. They staggered their steps to make harder targets to hit. They were disciplined. They had practiced this many times. This discipline was needed for their survival now. They stayed in the shadows as much as possible. They tried to avoid getting near anyone. No telling how people would react at any time they encountered them. They had already witnessed many scenes straight from he-l. This was a very uncertain world now.

Eric was in the lead when he stopped abruptly and looked at the overpass ahead. His spidey senses were tingling. He smiled thinking a moment of the Spiderman Movie. What he felt was just kind of like that. He had learned years ago to listen to his senses but he had learned to pay special attention to this kind of a danger tingle. He moved over to the ditch and used hand signals to Mark to indicate what he was doing. When Mark reached him he they both bent down looking all around. Mark asked, “What’s up?” Eric said, “Not sure. But something doesn’t feel right.” Eric looked around for a minute then said, “We should cut out into the field and go up on the hill over there then cross the road. This side doesn’t have enough cover for us.” Mark said, “All I can see is the bonfire there with punks hanging out being stupid. They’re just bums acting like they have the situation under control.” Eric said, “We can’t afford to fight too many battles. We can’t keep getting lucky. It’s better to be safe then sorry.” Mark nodded his head in agreement. They made their way about one hundred yards from the highway out into the field. They started slowly towards the hill. They paused when they reached it straining their ears to hear any sounds that they could. They also strained their eyes trying to see anything that represented danger of any kind. When they reached the top they stopped and did the same thing again. They each tried to find anything that would give them a clue to why Eric felt a sense of danger. Nothing. They heard nothing unusual at all.

One at a time they crossed the road. Like a well oiled machine each man knew what to do. The point man ran across the road first and the remaining man would cover him. Once the point man had had taken cover he was ready to provide fire support for the remaining man to come across the road. They made it across without a problem. They stayed low and headed out into the field on this side of the road. When they had gone about a quarter mile they swung back to the highway. Mark sighed thinking, “It is going to take forever to get to the retreat if we have to keep doing things like this.” But he reminded himself it was sure better than to walk into a trap. They had seen the evidence of others that had. It had been pretty bad. They kept walking in the darkness trying to get as far as possible before the sun started to rise. The darkness was their cover. It concealed them from others noticing them or seeing which direction they were going. The real problem was the bad guys used the darkness as cover too.

Sunrise would be soon. They stopped to find a safe concealed place to hole up during the daylight hours. They walked about a quarter of a mile from the highway into the shrubs and low ground bushes looking for just the right spot. They found it. They both would fit comfortably. It had a place they would be able to climb into and be concealed from prying eyes. One thing they had decided when they made their plans to walk to the retreat was that they would make sure to get enough rest so they would be able to stay alert and not have tired sluggish minds and bodies for their trek. They had to be able to think quickly on their feet. Each night brought more and more situations that needed fast thinking and stealth movements and reactions. Even though it was going to make it a very long trip with each of them sleeping a good five to six hours a day, it would be worth it if they could reach there in relativity good physical shape. Their only real concern was food supplies. They weren’t carrying enough to make it up there.

They quickly made camp. As the sun got higher in the sky they made a small fire. It was harder to see it when the sun was brighter. The bushes also help to conceal it. Plus there were so many fires burning everywhere no one would pay attention to one more. They made oatmeal and coffee. Mark put the rest of the left over coffee into a thermos for the rest of the day. It was Eric’s turn to sleep first while Mark was the guard. Mark got comfortable against a large shrub and Eric settled down to sleep. He reached into his backpack and took out his journal. He was writing everything down that happened to them. He wanted to keep a detailed account of events. He wanted the future generations to know what this situation really was like for those who had not lived through it. They would get their knowledge of events second hand. Mark felt they had a right to know exactly what it was like out here now. He wanted them to understand the chaos, the confusion and helplessness that everyone felt when they realized that no help was coming at all. We were all on our own now. It was up to each and every one of us to make this a livable, workable situation or a living hell. He realized that the old sayings of only the strong survive or that it was the survival of the fittest is not quite right after all. It was the smart ones that had good equipment and could think fast on their feet that were going to survive. At least it seemed that way to him after going through a lot of bad situations already and the trek up to the retreat was really just beginning.

After five days of travel they were both getting concerned about their food supplies. They were going to be in trouble physically if they went on half rations or even less to make them stretch longer. They would loose their mental alertness too. That is something they had to avoid at all costs. Their alertness and quick actions had been the saving graces of many situations already. Every day more and more dangerous situations seemed to develop. The bad guys were banning together and becoming more and bolder in their actions against others. It was a game of playing king of the hill only this was in a very deadly way. The losers did not survive for long. The whole pack of them turned on the loser like a pack of rabid dogs. They had seen this up close and personal too. The loser of one of these take over’s almost ran into them where they were hiding in the bushes. Mark and Eric’s hearts leaped up into their throats and the adrenaline was pumping through their veins so loud they could hear it and feel it. When the bad guys finally tackled the loser they were close enough to reach out and touch. They dragged him away. It was a horrible sight to see. It was not one that would be leaving their minds for some time to come. The thing that was hard to grasp was the vicious savage way they seemed to enjoy it. It was very plain to see that every single one of them got off on it too. In many ways it was like watching a movie or playing a video game. It was just very hard to know that this was real and that they totally liked it doing it. Both Mark and Eric decided they would take out as many of these psychos as possible if they could. They didn’t deserve to live. They forfeited that right as soon as they started killing with such gleefulness and malicious aforethought. They weren’t killing to defend themselves or property or anything like that. They killed because it gave them a happy buzz and thrill. That realization gave them a primal chill down their spines.

They had settled in a concealed place for the day and Eric was on first watch this time. He was thinking about their food situation and had decided that they were going to have to find some place farther away from the road to hole up in for a couple of days so they could hunt and maybe trap or snare some meat. It couldn’t be helped that they were going to get way behind schedule to do it. They needed food now. He would discuss this with Mark when he awoke. Eric was leaning against a pretty large shrub branch contemplating the food situation when he heard a branch snap. He looked over at Mark and he was still asleep and hadn’t heard it at all. He looked all around their concealed spot trying to see what was out there. He had a clear view of three sides. The brush behind them was really thick and he didn’t think anything could come at them from that way. He kept looking around. He could feel that something was out there. He held the shotgun right in his lap so it would be handy and ready if he needed to use it.

He strained his ears to hear any little sound. Then he heard what sounded like two steps. Then there was complete silence. He looked all around franticly to see what or who was sneaking up to them. His breath panted in and out in his desperate attempt to see what or who was there. He finally realized that the sound was coming from behind him after all. Then he heard two more steps. Someone was out there for sure now. He waited for more noise to alert him to this person’s intensions. He waited and waited. He could hear nothing. He thought, “What the heck? This person really knows how to come in real slow and quiet like.” It made the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. This was someone smart and dangerous. He brought the shotgun up higher to get it ready to shoot fast. He then heard steady steps walking right for them. He slowly turned his head so as not to alert anyone to his presence. He finally turned far enough around to be able to see in the direction that the steady walking was coming from. He was able to peer around the bush he was by and he spotted what had been stalking them. It was a doe sneaking along a trail that was in the ditch below them. He smiled very relieved that it had not been a person coming after them for their stuff.

He raised the shotgun up and aimed at the deer. He clicked the safety off as quietly as he could. It made a small click sound. It was just loud enough to spook the doe. The last he saw of her was her white tail flashing as she ran out of sight at warp speed. “Oh well, at least I tried.” he thought. He sighed. It would not be good to make that much noise and alert anyone in the area that they were there anyway. It was better to keep a low profile. He felt bad about spooking the deer and missing a chance to get more food for them. They really needed to think about some way to get some before it turned into a critical situation. He thought about that problem for awhile. How do you get food and not make any noise to alert other people that you are around? How can it be done so you don’t spook the deer too?

It finally hit him right between the eyes. He softly smacked himself. How could I be so stupid to forget? Oh ya, I know how to get that deer. He quickly pulled his pack over and pulled out his Emergency Snare Kit. He opened it up and took out one of the cam lock snares that were in there. They were in the kit as an Emergency Deer Snare. He quietly sneaked down the trail to a narrowed part of the trail. That is the best spot to set the snare up at. He quickly set the snare up and placed a large stick slanted up above the snare. That was to ensure that the next deer would duck their head down under it to pass along the trail. The deer wouldn’t see the snare that was set up to catch it. They would have fresh meat to eat tonight he hoped. He quickly made his way back up to their camp to wait the results of his efforts. He had been gone a total of two minutes. Why take the chance of giving away their position to others if you don’t have to? The snare will work silently and effectively in taking down that deer for their food. No one in the area will even know anything about it at all.

He was thankful he had run across this “Buckshot” guy. He knew what he was talking about. Every time Mark or he had researched about survival stuff they kept coming across references to him. They started reading his articles. It taught them both a lot about getting food quietly and with equipment that worked for you 24/7. This method was silent and you didn’t waste value calories while doing it.

About an hour later he was sitting in his lookout spot enjoying the sun when he heard a lot of thrashing around. He looked over at the spot it was coming from and he could see a deer was caught in the snare. The deer was twisting around and its’ legs gave out and then it fell down. There were a couple of more kicks and then it lay still. By the time he got over to it the deer was laying down still with the snare around its neck. It was dead. “Oh my God,” he thought. He had no idea snares were so effective. They were more effective than hunting. That had just been proven to him. He was so very thankful he had learned this life saving skill. He had watched Buckshot’s Survival Snaring DVD and learned how to set the snare properly. The deer did exactly what he said it would do. He smiled and his heart filled with relief. The food crisis was over for them. This should last them until they reached the retreat.

He walked back up to their camp. He shook Mark’s shoulder. Mark sat up real fast looking around. Eric said, “Relax, I woke you up so you could help me drag a deer back here. Our food crisis is over. We will be eating real food. We are having fresh venison steaks today.” He smiled hugely at Mark. Mark blinked at him a few times trying to make sense of what Eric had said. Mark said, “How did you get a deer? I didn’t hear any shots. I wasn’t that deep asleep. I would have heard if there were any shots.” All of a sudden Mark’s brain went into high gear. Mark tried to get out of the sleeping bag really fast and all he did was tangle himself up in it and the zipper got stuck. He looked franticly at Eric and said, “Eric we agreed not to make any noise when the other one was asleep. We have to move right now. Someone will be coming to investigate the shots you fired. How far away were you from here?” Eric was busy pouring Mark a cup of coffee from the thermos. He turned to him and said, “I told you to relax. I did it silently. No one heard a thing.” Eric handed Mark the cup of coffee. Mark took it and gulped down a big swallow. Mark was confused now. How did Eric do that silently? Did he jump on the back of a deer and slit its throat or something? Like you see in the movies? How in the he-l did he do that? “No way,” he thought. He looked hard at Eric and tried to figure out how he could possibly take that deer silently and not have blood all over him. Finally he asked, “How in the world did you take it silently? This I have to hear.” Eric explained all that he did. Mark looked at Eric incredibly and said, “No sh-t? It really works just like the DVD said? Eric said, "Yup, exactly like it said.”

Mark finally got himself out of the sleeping bag. They went down to the trail to the deer. Mark gutted it. They dragged the deer about a hundred yards away from their camp. They put a slit in the tendon of the back legs of the deer. They lifted it up and tied each leg to a large branch to hold the deer up off the ground. They skinned it together. They decided to eat the heart and liver first to celebrate. Mark told Eric, “Good job. We now will have enough food to make it to the retreat.” Eric said, “We have stay here an extra day to dry the meat to preserve it for the trip.” Mark said with a laugh, “You mean after we stuff ourselves full a few times, don’t you?” Eric joined him in a quiet laugh and said, “Most definitely, that is what I meant.” After being on the road for over a week they were ready for some fresh food and rest.

Mark busied himself with making a small fire to cook up the heart and liver. Eric started making a woodland smoker to dry the meat with. He had learned how in Buckshot’s Wilderness Survival DVD Volume 3. He made a teepee style with branches about six feet around and about six feet tall. He then covered the outside with long grass he cut with his knife along with leaves and weeds. He inter wove branches that circled the teepee from bottom to the top. He started cutting long thin strips of meat and hanging them on branches of the teepee. He had to be careful of the fire he made to dry the meat with. He wanted a little fire that smoked a lot. “Man, these are going to be real tasty too,” he thought. His stomach growled from the smell of what was cooking and Mark laughed and said, “Food will be done in a few minutes.” Eric’s mouth watered just at the thought and smell of the fresh meat cooking. When Mark said the food was done he covered the meat with a garbage bag to keep the flies off. He washed up in the river that was down a few hundred yards from them.

Eric sat down and Mark handed him a plate piled with half the liver and heart on top of rice. They both quickly ate the food on their plates. As they ate they both sat in their thoughts about how relieved they were to have more food. They had plenty of rice and oatmeal left but had run out of just about everything else. Now they would have venison to go with it. They were going to make it. They were confident in their thoughts about the trip now. They dried the meat all that day and the next. When darkness started to fall on the second day they were packed up and ready to hit the road. There was nothing like eating real well and getting plenty of sleep to freshen your outlook on life. They approached their trek north with a bit more of a spring in their steps now.

It was a little over a week ago when the lights went out. The thin veneer of civilization was gone from everywhere. By now everyone had realized and understood that the world had radically changed forever. There was no authority, no one in charge of things. There were no rescues or anyone left to come to the rescue of anyone. No relief from the horror that each new day brought. There was no word from the government. Even if there had been a way for the government to give help to the people they would first have to go in and establish order. How would they get to the cities to do that? That was on the minds of almost everyone. They hadn’t even been able to do so when the cities had been rioting and this, this was a thousand times worse. Everyone everywhere was on their own to survive in any way they could. There were no laws nor were there any rules to guide people through the things they faced each day. This world that they lived in now was a crazy dangerous place. It was like the mask of humanity had been torn off and a rotted evilness underneath had been exposed into the very air affecting everyone everywhere. Mark and Eric found out later that night just how crazy and radically different and evil this world was then the one they had lived in before.

They were approaching another over pass on the highway. They followed the same plan as before. They moved off the main road about one hundred fifty to two hundred yards farther out from the highway. It was way safer this way to get by them. They had seen people up on them just shooting at things and people on the road for no reason. This world they lived in now was a very strange and alien place indeed.

The bonfire by this particular one was a very big one. They were all standing outside of a mobile home a little ways down from the overpass. They could see about twenty to twenty five in the reflection from the fire on their faces. They were all men and they were a mixed ethnic group. There were a few black men, some white, oriental’s and hispanic men. They were drinking and passing bottles of liquor and shooting out on to the road. They were yelling and screaming and having one hel-l of a party. They all wore a green patch on their jackets. They couldn’t quite see what was on the patch just that it was green and that they all had the same kind sown on their jackets.  They must be a gang or something like that. They wanted to avoid them. They started to creep even farther out from the road. They didn’t want to be hit by a stray bullet.

As they were slowly and quietly making their way farther from them they heard a few women start screaming in terror. Mark and Eric stopped and exchanged a look. Mark said, “It sounds like they are torturing the women.” Eric nodded his head in agreement. Mark continued talking low, “We should go take a look.” Eric said, “Yes, we should. We should help them.” Both of them were remembering what had happened to Pam. They started making their way out onto the overpass quietly staying in the shadows. They reached the side and looked down on a horrible scene. There were six women of various ethnic groups tied up to the front of a car. They were all strung together like a chain gang would be. They were mostly naked, their clothes hanging in tatters. They were dirty and several were bleeding from various cuts and wounds. When they saw the condition the women were in it hardened their souls and gave them the fortitude to help them. One guy was over by the women and he had a knife in one hand and his other hand had a bandana wrapped around it. He was cutting the face of one of the women and laughing. He told them, “I told you not to bite me. I told you I would cut you into little pieces and feed them to the fish in the river if you did it again. Now are you going to be polite and not bite me anymore?” He laughed again evilly. Some of the other women were crying and screaming too. He reached over with the hand that held the knife and slapped a women across her face saying, “Shut up bit-h.” He left a bloody trail across her face. He said to the women laughing, “Be nice to me bit-hes. Remember you can and will be replaced. There are plenty more from where you came from.” Two other guys came stumbling over and grabbed two of the women and untied them. They wrapped leaches around their necks. They were smiling drunkenly as they dragged the screaming women along the ground towards the mobile home. Mark and Eric exchanged a haunted look.

They backed away slowly. When they had gone a good distance they stopped behind a truck and bent down. Eric whispered to Mark, “There must have been a lot of food stored in that mobile home for the thugs to stay here.” Mark said, “They could have carried some with them when they left the city. But I don’t think so. They aren’t the type. These kinds of men just take what they want.” Eric said, “I agree. But we have to help these women.” Mark said, “Yes, we will. We have to come up with fool proof plan.” They remained in thought for a few minutes. Eric said, “The two of us can not take on thirty guys. We will have to wait until the party winds down and most of them pass out. I will sneak down and cut the ropes on the women and lead them up ahead. We’ll sneak out into the field. You stay up here and cover me with your rifle.” Mark said, “Okay, sounds like a good plan. Just remember not to get yourself killed trying to save them. If it comes down to saving them or yourself please pick yourself. I won’t be able to make it to the retreat alone.” Eric smiled at Mark and said, “Well at least I know where your priorities lay. I can’t die so that you can make it to the retreat.” Mark smiled and said, “Ya, and don’t you forget it either.” They settled down to wait for the party to die down and the men to start passing out. They did their best not to think of what was happening to the women in the mean time.

Mark and Eric went through their meager clothes they had with them seeing what they had that would fit the women. They each had three t-shirts and two pairs of jeans and three pairs of socks. One set of clothes for each of them were dirty. They had one clean t-shirt and one clean pair of socks each. Well, they would just have to make do with what they had. They transferred all the clothes into Eric’s backpack. He could give them to the women when they got away and they would have to sort out who got what. Maybe they could find some clothes or something along the way for them. They also had two blankets that could be worn too. Eric also grabbed their medical kit to have it handy for the women. They were going to need it. He just hoped they had enough bandages with them for the women.

As they waited Mark thought about his poor man’s night sight he had on his rifle. He had bought glow in the dark red paint to put on his front sight and green for his back ramp. In the moonlight he could make the shots if the figure was in the open and not in shadows. He should have spent the money on a real night vision scope when the world was still together. Well, it was too late now.

Eric had made his way slowly down into the ditch earlier. He had waited until it was time. It had been an hour since things had settled down. All the women were back in front of the car tied up. It was 4:00 am. He was about fifty feet from the girls. Eric made his move. Staying low to the ground he slowly crawled his way over to the women. The sound of his clothes scraping across the pavement seemed very loud to him. It surprised him that the sound didn’t alert the women that he was there. The women were huddled together for warmth and they were dozing. He approached the one on the end closest to him. He reached up and put his hand over her mouth and whispered in her ear, “Shhh, I am here to let you all go. Quietly wake up the other women. Make no noise. We don’t want to wake those men up or draw attention to what we are doing. I’m going to remove my hand now and cut the ropes that bind you. We will make our way out to the field up ahead. Do you understand me?” The woman nodded her head that she understood. Eric released her and started cutting the ropes attached to her. The woman nudged the woman that was beside her and whispered, “Some guy is behind me cutting my ropes. He said he was going to let us go. Tell the others quietly.” She could feel Eric cutting the ropes that connected her to the others. The third one down nudged the next woman and that woman jerked and screamed out, “Leave me alone.” Eric dived flat on the ground. They all heard someone in the distance yell for the women to shut up.

Eric laid there gripping the shotgun ready for anything. He waited for a few moments listening for approaching footsteps. None came. He carefully cut the ropes from the women. He whispered to all of them, “Come with me if you want to live but don’t make a sound.” They started to make their way across the pavement to the ditch when one of the women spotted a guy sleeping in a sleeping bag on the hood of a car not far from where the women had been tied to the car. She freaked out and grabbed a rock and running back to the sleeping man she screamed, “I’m going to kill you.” She brought the rock down on his head over and over again. Eric quickly jumped up and told the others to run into the field. Then make your way the top of the hill. He jumped over a fence and lay down to give the women covering fire.

The camp woke up real quick. A guy ran to the woman who had climbed up on the hood and was beating the sleeping guy’s brains out with a rock and grabbed the woman by the hair and yanked her off the man. A 30-30 shot rang out and the man fell to the ground. All of a sudden the camp was alive with the men running around screaming and yelling all over the place and wild shots were firing everywhere. The traumatized woman that had attacked the sleeping guy on the hood was scrambling around like a deranged animal grunting and ran straight up to another guy to bash his head in with her bloody rock. The guy fired at almost point blank range. She stopped and slowly fell to the side and dropped down to the ground. The 30-30 fired again and Eric heard a grunt of pain. A few of these guys were so drunk or disoriented or whatever but they were firing on their own guys. It was time for Eric to make his escape. It was past time to get out of Dodge. This Wild West show was over.

He couldn’t believe it. None of them had seen the other women getting away. There were no shots fired in their direction. He stopped at the bottom of the hill to listen for any pursuit of them. He heard a lot of shots but couldn’t tell who was shooting at whom. The darkness breeds confusion. He headed up the hill towards the women.

Mark up on the over pass watched as Eric snuck over to the women. After a minute he heard one yell out something. He couldn’t quite make out what she had said. He held his breath thinking for sure they were all going to wake up and start shooting. He couldn’t see Eric. Then he saw Eric’s head pop up as he started moving down the line cutting the ropes. Nothing moved. They took off across the pavement. He had just thought, “It can’t be this easy” when one of the women bent down and grabbed a rock yelled something he couldn’t make out and attacked a guy sleeping on the hood of a car. Then all he-l broke loose. There were guys running around all over the place shooting, yelling and screaming in the matter of moments. A guy grabbed the woman who was up on the hood beating the sleeping guy’s head in with the rock by her hair. Mark aimed and fired. The man dropped to the ground. The crazy woman with her bloody rock ran back towards the guys instead of taking off to be free. She went to attack another guy with the rock and he shot her almost at point blank range in the chest. Mark couldn’t shoot because she had been in the way. As soon as she dropped Marked shot the guy. He fell straight over. He saw the other women and Eric heading for the hill. It was time to leave this party. He swung around his gun arm holding on to the rifle and turned to leave when he felt his rifle jump in his hand. He instinctively gripped it tighter. It had almost been ripped out of his hand. He thought, “What the he-l was that?” There wasn’t time to look. He just took off going as quickly as he could but staying in the shadows. He wanted to go down and see if any of those guys were following Eric and the women.

Eric reached the women up on the hill. He said, “We have to keep going. They will come looking for all of us. Follow me. We have to get off the road and into the woods up there.” He pointed towards north. He looked at them and said, “It is your decision to come with me or not.” He took off walking real fast. The women looked at each other and then started to follow Eric. When they had gone about a half mile Eric stopped. He turned around and saw that all of them had followed him. He said, “You can rest now. We will wait here for my partner.” They all dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings were released. He walked around checking the area out.

When he got back they were all lying down except one. She was sitting up against a tree. He walked over to the one sitting up. She didn’t look up or anything. Eric’s heart lurched in his chest. Had she been hit with a bullet he hadn’t seen come their way? Was she dead? He reached down to feel for a pulse on her neck. She grabbed his hand and threw it away and screeched, “Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me again.” Mark was so startled that he had jumped back when she grabbed his hand. She looked at him with fire in her eyes. Eric backed up even more now. He thought, “Oh wow. Is she going to go crazy like that other woman had and try to kill me?” Then he thought of what she had been through and realized she probably didn’t want any man to get near her. He understood as best he could. He opened the backpack and took out the clothes and laid them on the ground, he next placed a bag of dried venison down, he next laid down two blankets and last he set down his canteen at her feet and said, “Can you please give some to the other women?” He asked her. She stared at him for a few minutes not moving.

Eric could see she was thinking real hard. She picked up the canteen with shaking hands opened it and sipped a little water. Eric could see that her lips were bleeding. He wondered how long she had been without water. She then took a little longer drink. She then reached down and grabbed a pair of socks. She took one and wetted it and crawled around and wetted the women’s lips with it. The women were whimpering for more. She then lifted their heads and gave them a little water. She had to fight with them to keep hold of the canteen because they were trying to drink all the water. Eric felt sick to his stomach at how these women had been treated. He snapped out of his daze and told her, “I have to go find my partner. He should have been here by now.” He turned and walked away. She said real quiet like, “Are you coming back or are you going to leave us out here by ourselves?”

Eric stopped for a moment and said, “I will be back as soon as I find my partner. I would not leave you all out here alone in the condition you all are in by choice. I guess the question is more like, do you want me and my partner to come back and help you?” She looked steadily at him as if she was judging his words and said, “I can’t care for these women on my own.” Eric said, “Then I’ll be back to help you.” She nodded her head at him and returned to pick up the bag of jerky and reached inside. Eric started walking again back the way they came.

Mark had been taking his time sneaking around seeing if any of the scum bags were around. The last he saw of them they were shooting at shadows. He couldn’t help but laugh at that sight. Some were yelling that they got one and then they would run up and it would be one of their own guys. He deduced that they had trained themselves to always wear their patches so they could see who to shoot and who not to shoot. Most were running around without their jackets on so that meant they didn’t have their patches on. He was slowly making his way up to the hill. He would stop every couple of steps and listen to see if any were coming his way. So far none were following them. He stopped to listen and he heard a faint sound. He waited to see what it was. After a couple of minutes he didn’t hear anything else. He decided it was probably a rabbit or something. Just as he was going to take a step he heard a sound again. He waited.  He looked around and could see someone slowly making their way towards him. It couldn’t be one of those scum bags. Besides they were traveling the wrong way. He watched this person closely. Damn they were good. They went a few steps and stopped to listen too. As this person got closer he finally realized it was Eric he was seeing. He could tell by the way he walked and carried himself. He stepped out of the dark so Eric would be able to see him. Eric whipped around to him aiming the shotgun. He saw it was Mark and lowered the shotgun walking over to him.

When Eric reached him he said, “What took you so long?” Mark said, “I was making sure none of those scum bags followed you and the women.” Eric said, “Well, did they follow us?” Mark smiled, “No. They were too busy shooting each other to worry about you all. They were totally confused about whom or what was attacking them. They never even noticed that you took off with the women.” Eric said, “Good. Let’s get back to the women. They are in pretty bad shape.” “How is the one with the cut face,” Mark asked. Eric said, “I don’t know. I don’t think they are going to let us get near them to look at the cut.” Mark asked, “Why not? We saved them didn’t we?” Eric said, “It is going to be a lot more complicated then that I think. They were brutalized and raped. They are not going to trust us because we are men. I was thinking about this on my way to find you.” Mark grunted, “Oh that is going to be just great. How in the he-l are we supposed to help them if they won’t let us near them?” Eric said, “This is a delicate situation Mark. We don’t want to make it any worse then it is. One of them talked to me sort of. I got too close and see almost took my hand off. But I left her caring for the others. We need to get back and get them moving before those bozo’s realize we took the women and they decide to come look for us.” Mark said, “Right.” They took off walking slowly.

Mark showed Eric his rifle. Eric said, “What happened?” Mark said, “One of those assholes shot the stock. The bullet was aimed for me and the stock got in the way. It saved my life.” Eric was amazed. He said, “I thought that crap only happens in the movies?” Mark said, “So did I.” Eric said, “Are you all right?” Mark said, “Yes, it will keep. Nothing serious.” They continued walking.

They reached where the women were. They were all sitting up and chewing on the dried meat. Some were gorging themselves. Eric and Mark looked at each other in amazement. They had never seen women eat so fast. They looked back and then Eric stepped over and grabbed the rest of the dried meat. As soon as he stepped closer the women screeched and crawled backwards to get away form him. He stepped back away. He sat down thinking maybe he would look less threatening that way. He spoke softly so he wouldn’t startle them again. He said, “Calm down. We won’t hurt any of you.” He noticed that several wounds and cuts had been covered with bandages. He was glad for that. He continued softly saying, “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just getting the dried meat so you wouldn’t eat anymore of it.” They looked upset at this statement. He and Mark exchanged a look. Eric sighed and softly said, “That didn’t come out quite the way I meant. If you eat too much too soon it will make you sick and give you really bad stomach cramps. I was just trying to help you not too over eat at first. Do you understand what I meant? I didn’t mean to scare you.” They looked at each other and then one by one they nodded their heads.

Mark bent down next to Eric and said, “We have to go. They will come looking for us.” The women started to whimper at that news and some started to cry. Mark looked at Eric as if to say, what did I say that upset them? Eric closed his eyes and said, “Ladies help your selves to the clothes that are on the ground.” Some of them were trying to hold their clothes together to cover them selves. They were all shaking. Eric didn’t know if it was that they were cold or if it was from nerves or what. He slowly scooted over and grabbed the backpack. He took out the two blankets. The two that hardly had any clothes left on really looked cold. He threw each of them a blanket down by their feet. The two women snatched them up so fast it was almost a blur. They helped each other to open them and put them around their shoulders. Eric and Mark exchanged another look. It was real hard not to feel very sorry for these women.

Eric said, “I know you all are not really up to this but we have to leave here.” Those scum bags may come looking for us. We have to get farther away from them before you can really rest.” Eric stood up and took off his coat. He placed it on the ground and said, “One of you are welcome to wear this. Walking will keep me warm.” Mark stood up and took off his coat too. He placed it on the ground. He looked at the women and said, “One of you can wear my coat too. I don’t really need it.” Eric said, “Ladies choose quickly who will wear what. We have to leave.” Eric turned around and motioned for Mark to do the same. He didn’t know what to do but figured they would not want them watching their every move.

He heard whispering and some rustling of fabric. They waited for it to quiet down before they turned back around. When they did turn around all the clothes were off the ground and on various ladies. They were wearing the coats too. Eric said to them, “We have to leave here. Do any of you need me to carry you? Or help you to walk?” They all looked at each other then back at him and Mark and they shook their heads no. Eric and Mark looked at each other and Mark said, “I’ll lead and you bring up the rear, okay?” Eric said, “Okay.” Mark started walking farther from the road. He was heading at an angle trying to find the easiest places to walk for these women. They all followed after him. They women started to stumble when they only had gone about a half mile. Mark stopped. He said, “Sit down over here.” He pointed to a place that had a lot of bushes together. He took a drink from his Canteen and then capped it and set it on the ground by the women. They each took a drink. When it got to Eric it was almost empty. He got a couple of sips and that was it. They let the women sit for fifteen minutes then Mark said, “We have to go again.” The women helped each other up and took off after Mark. Eric trailed behind.

They had gone about another quarter mile when the women started slowing down. Mark stopped and found a place for the ladies to sit down. He indicated where to sit. They all sort of flopped down. Eric thought they are not going to be able to go much farther. They looked all done in. Mark said, “Rest. I’ll be right back. He took the canteens and walked off.

Mark remembered from the map that there was a stream over here somewhere. He hoped he could find it quickly because they had to find somewhere to bed everyone down for the day. Morning was going to be here real soon. He almost walked right into the stream. He filled the canteens up and added some germicidal drops to sterile it. He walked back to the where everyone was waiting for him. He passed them a canteen and they all drank deeply. He handed the other one to Eric. Eric took a long drink. It had been a long night and it wasn’t over yet. Mark said, “I know you all are exhausted. We have to go only a little farther and then we should be far enough away to find some place to bed down for the day. Does anyone need any help?” They all shook their heads no. They stood up and Mark led them out again.

He was looking for the perfect spot to be safe for the day. The sun was starting to rise. At least it made it a littler easier to see what was what. But it also made them stand out like sore thumbs too. He saw up ahead a spot that looked like it could be a good spot for all of them. He walked over and peered around. Eric walked up to him and looked around too. They looked at each other and grinned. It was a perfect spot. It was a large stand of bushes and shrubs all around and a little hollow in the middle. And it had another little hollow part a few steps away from the first one. Mark opened up the sleeping bags and zipped them together to make a really long blanket. He put a tarp on the ground and laid the sleeping bag on top of it. There wasn’t anything left to make a pillow out of so this was going to have to be good enough. He turned to the ladies and said, “You all can sleep here for the day. We will move out again when it is night.” They looked at him and then at the bed he had made for them and then one asked, “Where will you sleep?” Mark showed them the other little open spot and said, “Eric and I will take turns sleeping there. One of us will be awake at all times to keep watch for anyone coming near us. It is not safe out here now.” They all fell down on the make shift bed and was soon asleep.

Eric and Mark stood there looking at the ladies sleeping. They looked at each other with real concern in their eyes. Mark asked Eric, “How are we going to get them and us to the retreat now?”

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