Rick and Tom put gloves on and carried the first body into the cabin and then into the cave. They pitched the body into the pit but never heard it hit bottom. Rick asked, “Are we just setting up a rat infestation problem?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. I don’t want to dig six graves in this hard-assed rocky soil. We’ll find some rat poison and pitch it down into the pit.”
Rick high-fived Tom, and they didn’t stop until all six of the rustlers had been disposed of that evening. They came out of the cabin and washed up before joining the women at the table. Tom saw three ARs, an AK47, and an assortment of wheel pistols and semi-autos. “Let’s distribute the 9-mm Glocks and Berettas but place that .357 Magnum and the two .38s in the arsenal.”
Granny B wasn’t upset that no one wanted to eat her foraged plants or rabbit vegetable stew. She did make them sit through a class on poisonous and edible plants. She even told them how to make more potent poisons from the already toxic plant life.
After supper, Tom filled the others in on their trip back to the ranch. “Jack and Bill were a bit surprised when our cattle came wandering back to the ranch. Jack is getting Bill and James to help put up a fence in our northern pasture to keep them out of sight. We’ll need to make a scavenging trip to get more fencing for the project. They were impressed that the first group of rustlers killed themselves. They’ll laugh their asses off when we tell them Granny B’s supper story.”
Granny B laughed. “The best thing you youngsters can learn from today’s events is that you make the best of every situation, and anything can become a weapon.”
Tom scratched his jaw. “I just remembered the Hogans left us a bunch of equipment and a couple of radios in the other cabin, trailer, and barn. There are two ATVs, some camping equipment, and several cases of liquor. They had quite the setup over there. Apparently, they’ve been raiding as well as rustling in the area. I’m not familiar with Ham radios or radios at all. Granny do you know anything about Ham radios?”
*
Chapter 16
Granny B’s land – The cabin in the valley.
Early the next morning, Tom led the effort to sort through the rustlers’ supplies and equipment while Granny B completed her list of supplies needed to stock the cave. Tom and his grandmother compared notes after lunch, and they hauled most of the Hogans’ supplies over to the cave to store for later use. They found more weapons and ammunition of all types. Tom and Rick placed most of them in plastic bags and put them in the supply chamber at the cave's front.
Tom and Rick went to the mouth of the cave to join Granny B and the others. His grandmother had one of the Ham radios sitting on a rock. The girls had an antenna tied to a tree limb about fifty feet up above the cave’s entrance. The ladies took turns cranking the portable generator. There wasn’t any sound, not even static. Tom examined the apparatus and found two batteries hidden under the cover of the generator’s dynamo. They were very similar to ones found on a motorcycle or lawn tractor. “Granny, I think we need new batteries. The generator only charges the batteries, which supply constant voltage to the radio. I’ll fetch the batteries from those ATVs the rustlers left for us and see if they’ll work.”
A short while later, Tom had changed the batteries, and Rick and he took turns cranking the generator. Tom saw a light begin blinking on the generator’s control panel, which indicated the batteries were charged. He flipped a switch sending electricity to the radio. Nothing! Granny B frowned and then turned a knob, and they heard static. She turned the tuner knob, and they heard voices faintly in the background. She kept turning the knob, and a voice came across but had a lot of static.
“… taken over Seattle, Portland, and Eugene. They aren’t safe. Pistol Pete, any news from the south?”
“Yes, I saw a Navy ship off the coast this morning. It sailed through the channel and into the bay. A helicopter flew over for a while and then went back to the ship.”
“Where are you?”
“Shut up with questions like that. Listen to the rules, idiot!”
“Sorry.”
“This is Frisco Joe. Several wanna be dictators have their men and women fighting turf wars down here. I also saw an aircraft carrier and several smaller ships off the coast yesterday. Three helicopters flew over, but shagged ass away when several machine guns opened up on them. An Apache came back and took out the machine guns. Nothing else new.”
Granny B keyed the microphone. “This is Granny B. I’m new to this. Anyone know who’s in charge of the country?”
There were several rounds of laughter, and then she heard, “Lady, duck and cover. No one’s in charge. Navy ships have been seen from time to time, but nothing else. Listen every morning at 7:00 am for updates and rules.”
All of the conversations stopped abruptly. Then a voice said, “Those people are paranoid. I’m located in Ashland, Oregon, and all is going smoothly here. We have banded together to form a group to protect the area and are on our way back to normal. Where are the rest of you located?”
Another voice said, “Hey Ashland Asshole! You’re still spouting lies and BS as usual. Ashland has been taken over by a mexican drug gang. You’re not fooling anyone.”
A dozen other voices
