“Well? What are your findings?” Granny B said as she held herself back from ripping the man’s throat out.
Jerry squirmed in his chair. “My dad always told me to keep my kids away from Grandpa Luke. That should tell you what we believed about his thoughts on other people, but we didn’t know you or how you’d react to us when we showed up. Good people would take us in and help us. We made it look like we needed help. We hid a truck full of supplies and could have made it to my uncle’s home if we had to do it.”
Tom reached out and offered his hand. “Cousin, glad to meet you. Granny B was Jonas’s wife and raised Jackie and me. You’re family and need to move into one of our two-room apartments. You’ll have much more space.”
They took Jerry out to the living room and called everyone together to introduce their family to everyone. Kate and Rick already knew in advance, but the others were surprised. They swapped stories about family and events leading up to and after the lights went out, and then went on about their duties.
Jack caught Tom and made a suggestion. “Tom, if these people can find us, others will. It’s getting crowded down here. June and I’d like to move out to my cabin, and James and Alice want to move into the old cabin. We can string phone wire and keep in touch without using the walkie-talkies.”
Tom’s first reaction was to say no. “It’s safer down here. Can you stay another month until the herd of people moving out of the cities and the die-off have passed?”
“Yes, we can use the time to string the wire and improve our defenses,” Jack said.
Tom thought for a minute and performed a headcount. “Jack, we have two more apartments that are made from two side-by-side twenty-foot long overseas containers that aren’t being used. You don’t have to move outside.”
“It’s just not the same underground. June is a bit claustrophobic, and I’d like a bit more privacy.”
Tom laughed. “Kate and I’ll be getting married, and I think I know what you mean.”
Tom thought, Whew! That makes more room for the rest of us. I’ll move into one of the apartments and have Jackie and Rick move into another. Tom said, “We’ll miss the company, and of course, if necessary, you can always move back into the bunker.”
Tom felt guilty, not telling Jack that three of the apartments had metal-covered windows with the same view that the living area had, which looked over the cliff and canyon below. Granny B had the first one, and he and Jackie could now move into the other two.
Greta called from the barn on the telephone that Tom and Jack had installed. “Granny B, please come to the barn. Our bunny mama just had babies. There are thirteen in this litter!”
This was the second doe to give birth out of the three breeding pairs of wild rabbits. The third was due to deliver any day. The total number of kits was now up to twenty-three, with ten bucks and thirteen does. Granny B and Doris arrived and saw the proud Greta and Lucy watching the bunny nursing her brood.
Doris said, “We’ll have fresh rabbit meat in eight to twelve weeks. We prefer the ones at about eight weeks because they’re more tender. We need to get some of our Californian and New Zealands down here. They’re healthier than wild rabbits. Maybe Tom and Jerry can go get some. I hope you like rabbit meat because three breeding pairs can yield five thousand rabbits in three years with only an average of six kits per litter.”
Greta said, “I don’t believe that. We’ll need a bigger cage!”
Granny B snickered and then remembered. “Ask any Australian about what happened down under when the colonists brought rabbits from England, and they escaped. There were no natural enemies, and rabbits did what rabbits do, and soon they were knee-deep in rabbits eating all their crops. They had to start a rabbit elimination program.”
They all laughed, and then Granny B said, “We’ll need to find some more darn recipes for rabbit. Tom grew tired of roasted rabbit on the trip from San Francisco. I’ll see if Tom can plan a trip over to your old home. Do you think they will be able to trap some of your rabbits?”
Doris chuckled, “We released several hundred of each breed plus two dozen pigmy goats. I would think some survived.”
“I think that fits into our next scavenging trip. I’ll get with Rick and Jerry and plan to leave in a day or so. I want to search for an old tractor and a couple of vehicles. I might even find us some ATVs,” Tom said as he studied his grandmother’s face.
“Good. That’ll solve our meat problem and let our cattle herd grow,” Granny B chuckled.
Tom snapped around. “Whoa, Miss Twigs, weeds, and salads! I’m going to have steaks and burgers at least once a week!”
Granny B became serious. “I’m not impressed with our cattle drive so far. We had a tad over two hundred cattle before the ‘fit hit the Shan’, and they’ve only tagged a buck fifty. Our herd should have increased with over fifty percent of the females being of breeding age. We had fifteen bulls and about one hundred seventy heifers and females that should have calved by now. Jack says the cattle he’d tagged so far are heavy in calves, but way short on cows. He did find fourteen bulls so far.”
Tom took in the data, and suddenly the light above his head switched on. “Someone’s rustling our breeding stock. They're leaving the bulls and calves since they want to slowly steal, hoping no one notices.”
“That’s what
