Cals quest

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The two men had just finished clearing away the lunch mess and were preparing to go outside, when Dog lifted his head off his paws and sniffed, ears at the alert. Then he got up and ran to the living room window. He was growling low, the hair went up on his back and his tail was shifting slowly from center to right. This was a clear indication that something was amiss in the yard. Had it just been a cat, squirrel or coyote, he would be barking his head off.

Cal walked up to the window and looked in the direction Dog was looking.

Shit” he said and ran for the ten power binoculars on top of the refrigerator. “There’s an SUV parked cross the laneway.”

He focused on the vehicle. All he could really tell was that were two figures in the vehicle and that it was a small black foreign made all-wheel drive.

“Keep an eye on them,” he said handing Old Guy the binoculars. He ran down stairs and first grabbed an automatic twelve gauge shot gun, loaded five in the magazine. Then he grabbed his .270 hunting rifle. Loaded the magazine and shoved it into the rifle. Next he shoved four boxes of bullets in his pocket for it. Grabbed his .45 Colt and shoulder harness, then a box of shotgun shells and ran back upstairs. He handed the shot gun to Old Guy.

“They’re just sitting there looking at the house,” Old Guy said. “Haven’t seen anybody else skulking around.”

“OK,” Cal said. Keep an eye on them. I’m going out the back door and into the trees. Keep Dog here. I’m going t load up the airtight, that should make it smoke and hopefully draw them in. keep them occupied with you and I’ll come in from behind. Stay safe Old Guy.”

Cal loaded the airtight full and closed the door, leaving he damper set at low opening. Then he donned the shoulder harness, picked up the rifle and slipped out the back door. The way the laneway curved, he was able to slip into the trees unseen from the road and slowly made his way toward the road. As he had predicted, thick white smoke was now belching out of the chimney and he crouched down as he heard the SUV start up and start driving slowly up the lane.

He could see that there were only two occupants, but he kept scanning around looking for movement in the trees. The SUV stopped about ten yards from the front door and the passenger came out her door standing behind the door and stated to yell at the house. Then the driver laid on the horn and Cal stepped out of the bush and sighted his rifle scope on the back of the drivers head, jacked a round into the chamber and waved at the house.

“Ya, whatcha want?” Old Guy yelled back. The woman said something Cal couldn’t catch.

“Both of ya come out of the car and stand in front,” Old Guy said. “Keep your hands where I can see em.”

Now the driver stepped out. It was a female as well. The one on the right was a brunette and about five ten. The one on the left was a red head and about five five. They were wearing cold weather gear, designed for comfort and warmth, not to look good. As they came around to the front of the car, arms raised, Dog began to bark and Old Guy cautiously edged his way out of the front door, keeping the barking Dog inside the house. Then he quickly raised the shotgun to his shoulder and fired a shot to the right of the women which caused both of them to jerk back a step.

“Just to prove I’m not bluffin,” Old Guy said. “I got five more waitin in case you wanna try sumtin funny.”

Meanwhile, Cal was quietly walking up from behind. He put the rifle across his back and drew out the Colt, slowly chambering a round. Then he motioned with his hand for the women to put their hands behind their heads and Old Guy told them to. Next Cal motioned Old Guy to have them walk to the wall beside the door and have them lean their hands against it, which he did, keeping his distance from them as they walked up. Cal looked into the SUV as he came up to it and quickly saw that everything but the front seats was packed to the roof with supplies and gear and he kept coming quietly behind them. The old guy stopped them a couple feet from the wall and had the woman on the left move three feet over, then both of them leaned over to lean on the wall.

Cal quickly shoved the pistol behind his belt at his back and went behind the woman on the left. Starting with her left arm, he ran his hands down the arm across her back and shoulders and up the right arm. Then he ran it across her head, down her neck and across the full front of her body, including between the breasts and made his way down to her belt, when he shifted to her back. He pulled the hunting knife from its scabbard on her belt and tossed it behind him. Then he went down each leg and between the butt. Now he moved over to the woman on the right and did the same thing, pulling an even larger hunting knife from her right boot and tossing it behind him as well.

He stepped back three feet and brought the pistol up to cover the women.

“OK,” he said. “Turn Dog loose.”

Old Guy opened the door a crack and Dog burst his way out and right over to the SUV and in it. He sniffed around a bit then jumped back out and sniffed around the outside, finally raising a leg and peeing on a tire. Then he trotted over to the women themselves and starting with their feet and ending with their rear ends, he sniffed them over, then he trotted back to Cal and sat, tail wagging the ok.

“Alright,” Cal said. “Old Guy into the house and keep them covered. Girl on the right, once he is inside you go in then lady on the left.”

Cal kept the pistol pointed at them and Old Guy kept his distance on the other side of the kitchen from the two women, staying out of Cal’s line of fire and pointing the shot gun at them. He had them stop, facing the back wall and side by side and Cal came into the house trailed by a tail wagging Dog.

“Girl,” Cal said. “Take your boots off and toss them behind you to the right. Lady, take yours off and toss them to the left. Excellent, now take off your jackets place them over the chair closest to you and sit down.”

As they did that Cal motioned with his head to the coffee pot and moved around to the opposite side of the table from them and sat down laying the pistol down on the table and pulling the rifle off his back. He leaned the rifle against the wall and sat down laying his hand on the pistol. Both women were concerned, but not overly so. The girls was about twenty, the other one around forty. They had similar facial features, so must have been related somehow.

“What can we do for you ladies?” Cal asked, as Old Guy put a cup of coffee in front of both of them. “Sorry, no milk or sugar,” he added.

Old Guy came back and sat down with Cal, handing him a cup of coffee and putting his own and the table.

“Dog seems to think you are ok people,” Cal said. “So we will go with that for now.”

The woman on the left took a tentative sip of the coffee and then a full mouthful.

“Oh my God,” she said. “Real coffee.”

“Nothing but the best for our guests,” Old Guy said, then he cackled. He could be such a card sometimes.

“I am Denise Goodfellow,” she said. “And this is my cousin Catlin Bonchance. We come from…” Cal cut her off.

“It don’t matter where you come from,” he said. “It don’t exist anymore anyway. He’s Old Guy and I’m Not Old Guy. That’s Dog.”

“You are the first people we have seen since the happening,” Denise said. “We followed your tire tracks from the town.”

“So I take it you don’t know what happened either?” Cal said.

“No,” Denise said. “We were on a camping trip in the mountains and when we came back, everyone was gone. We have been driving around for the last year looking for people. You are the first one’s we have seen.”

“Ya, I was up in the bush myself,” Cal said.” Old Guy was on a bender and missed it all and who knows where Dog was. He don’t talk much.

“I tell you what, why don’t you grab some of your dirty clothing out of the car. You can wash them while we make you some breakfast. Then you can have a shower and clean up some. Sound good?”

Dog followed the two women outside and supervised them while they brought two garbage bags of clothing out of the SUV and brought them inside. Old Guy showed them where the soup and stuff was and how to use the machine. Then they came back and found Cal cooking eggs and some thin strips of deer meat that doubled for bacon.

“Real eggs and fresh meat?” Catlin exclaimed. Both women ate with relish.

The first load of clothing was done and in the dryer, the second in the washer

“You have fresh water and electricity?” Dianne asked the obvious. “Hot water too?”

“Ya,” Cal said. “Just don’t spend all day in the shower. It uses up a lot of juice to warm the water up and we still have to dry your second load.”

Both women folded and separated clothing and then Catlin went into the shower and Denise came back poured herself anther cup of coffee and sat down at the table. The rifle and shotgun had been put away, but the pistol was still on the table, Cal’s hand not far from it.

“So,” Cal said. “What were you before all this started?”

“I was a phycologist,” Denise said.

“Not much call for that anymore,” Cal said. Old Guy just grunted. “What else can you do?”

“I don’t understand?” she said.

“Well, if you want to stay alive much longer you are going to need some skills,” Cal said. “Not everybody you run into is bound to be as friendly as us. So, if you plan on staying here for longer than a day, you are going to have to work for your keep.”

She looked from one man to another, to the gun, then back to the men. She was getting frightened now.

“I…I, will do anything,” she said. “But I can’t ask Catlin to do the same. She is just eighteen. Please..”

Cal looked over at Old Guy who just shrugged his shoulders.

“Nah,” Cal said. “You’re both going to have to put out or this won’t work.”

He let her stew on that for a few seconds.

“Can you at least use a shovel or a hoe?” he asked. “If you guys are going to stay here, we are going to have to double the size of the garden and Old Guy and I have to plant crops, break a horse, and slaughter a cow and such this year. Plus keep everything running.”

“Oh…” she said. “I thought you meant something else.”

“Cheerist!” Old Guy said. “What do you take us for a couple of perverts? I might be crazy and he might be a bit phsyco, but we aint no preversts!”

“Well..I..” she said.

“You been hanging around women’s lib anti men people to long lady,” Old Guy said. “Your nice enough looking an all, but you aint my type and the other one is way to young. Sheeit!”

Cal was just looking at both of them a quizzical look on his face.

“An look at that dumb yokel,” Old Guy said pointing at Cal. “He’s so dumb he don’t even know what we are talking about.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Catlin said coming out of the washroom. She was barefoot and had a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt on and was drying her hair on a big towel. “I feel great now that I’m clean and have clean clothing on.”

“We were just discussing how you two could help us out around here,” Cal said. “We have a lot of work to do starting soon. Garden to plant, barn needs to be fixed, stuff like that.”

“Oh I can help,” Catlin said. “I can use a hammer. I’m not very good at it but I am willing to help out.”

“Tell you what,” Cal said. “Let Denise clean up, then we will take you on a little tour of the place. Then you can take a couple of days and make up your minds. You can use my room, I’ll bunk out on the coach. There is only the one bed though so you will have to share.”

While Denise had her shower, Cal stripped the bedding off the bed and showed Catlin where the new stuff was. Then he moved some of his clothing out to give them some space for theirs. By that time, Denise was back out looking fresh and invigorated and they went outside.

Cal showed them the pump house and electrical system. Pointed out the windmill and the solar array. Then they walked over to where the garden plot was, the granaries, Old Guys work shop, Cal’s work shop and finally the barn and chicken coop. Then finally the pasture with the cattle and horses grazing.

“Right now, we have twenty cattle and nine horses,” Cal said. “The little bull won’t be breeding age until next year, maybe. The little stallion colt the same thing. That big black one there? He’s ten and he will most likely breed all the mares this year, we have four.

“One of my priorities this year, is to find another bull so we don’t have to much inbreeding. Right now it’s not much of an issue, but it will be in a few years. The laying hens and rooster are getting a little long in the tooth, so we are going to have to incubate and hatch a few new ones this year so we can still have fresh eggs.

“Like I said, lots to do this year.”

While Cal was cooking supper, during and after the meal, all four discussed plans and how each of them hoped to contribute. Both women were excited and actively contributed to the discussion. A schedule was worked out for who was going to cook. Each person was responsible for cleaning up after themselves and their own clothing. The women could be heard whispering together far into the night.

Cal was up well before daybreak. He went downstairs and made sure all the guns and ammo were secure. It would take a lot of effort to break the chains he looped through the guns. Not that he thought the two women would try something, but better safe than sorry. By the time he was finished, he heard Old Guy walking around upstairs and the both of them headed to the barn together to begin the daily routine. The sun was well up by the time they were finished and trooped back into the house. Today was Denise’s turn to be cook and breakfast was started as soon as they walked in and the coffee was already ready.

Today, they would help the two women get settled in. The gear was unloaded from the SUV. A lot of it was tossed away, being worn out, old or just not needed. While they were sorting all that out, Cal took the rest of his clothing out of the room and over to his work shop. He had decided to bunk in there temporarily. It had plenty of room and using the yard tractor bucket, he brought a box spring and mattress over from the storage area and set it up.

What remained of the day, Cal spent attaching the large rototiller to the yard tractor and lubing it up and making sure it worked. The next morning after chores and breakfast, he rototilled the garden and pruned the blue berry bushes. Then stopping only for afternoon chores with the animals, he planted the cuttings to increase the capacity of the now growing large patch.

He could smell food and his stomach growled, so he stopped work and put the tools away for the day and headed for the house and dinner. He stopped as he heard Old Guy praising how hard Cal worked, how smart he was and how much he had accomplished on his own. As Cal walked in, the talk changed to something else.

The mud from spring thaw was mostly gone. The two women decided the vegetable patch was theirs and began planting. So Cal went to work getting the big field tractor and seeding equipment working. None of it had been used for two years and it took a while to get everything up and running smoothly. Cal and old guy went over the math, using past figures of production per acre and thought that twenty acres of both barley and wheat would be enough for their needs for the coming year. They would also plant twenty acres of peas. They would never eat that many peas, but the crop rotation would help and they could use the excess for green feed for the livestock. It would be a four year crop rotation, with one year left open and untilled.

They would do the same with the pasture and hay land, but on a larger scale and rotating every year between pasture and hay land. Next Cal used the front end loader of the yard tractor to load all the manure that had been collected in a pile behind the barn over the winter and loaded it into the old manure spreader. Then he distributed it over the land he was going to plow. His days were full and busy, the only free time was supper time, then he was back at it until the sun went down, falling exhausted to bed each night.

Finally the crops were planted, the machinery lubricated and put away and now he put the big portable fuel tank into the back of the five ton. One of the diesel tanks was now empty. Cal had another idea and they decided to go to the same town they had gone to the day before the two women had found them.

After breakfast the next morning, Cal threw his rifle under the seat and put his Colt in his shoulder holster. Old Guy tossed his shotgun in his pickup, Denise jumped into the pickup with him, Catlin and Dog jumped in with Cal. Dog of course making sure he was in the middle so he could get attention form both of them.

Catlin chatted happily the whole way there, with Cal making non-committal noises to let her know he was listening. She was the same age he was, but was a big city girl, as was her cousin. They had decided to get away and do some spring camping and discuss what Catlin would do after high school. Like Cal, she was conflicted, but had thought that computer sciences was the way for her. Then everything had changed and they had been going from town to town ever after that, just trying to obtain enough food to stay alive. They were always able to find a vehicle with keys in the ignition and lots of gas, so had never learned how to do what they were about to do.

There had always been plenty of propane for their camp stove, lantern and tent heater and plentiful supplies of canned goods. Water they obtained from rivers and streams boiling it before putting it in their drinking bottles. But the winter had been hard on them, many nights sleeping in the cars with the engines running. At one point, they had gotten stuck in the snow and it had taken two days for them to get clear.

Now things had changed. Life was somewhat normal again. Then Cal stopped the truck and shut it down on a small hill that overlooked the town. He spent half an hour glassing it with his binoculars and knew Old Guy was doing the same. Then he got out and walked back to Old Guys truck.

“Looks clear,” he said. “Got one medium sized dog pack, but other than that it looks good. Why don’t you and Denise head over to the other food store and load up, while we load the fuel tank? It’ll save us some time.”

They split up and Cal drove to the bulk fuel station, while Old Guy went to the supermarket. It took only minutes for Cal to rig up the hose and pump and to cut the lock of the underground storage containers lid. Soon diesel fuel was flowing into the portable tank and Cal sat on the back of the truck and looked around relaxing. As usual, Dog was off doing whatever Dog did and Catlin sat down beside him.

“This must have been a bustling town,” she said.

Duncan told her about ten thousand people had lived there. There was a lot of service industry work and manufacturing done and it even had a small community collage. Now, it was quiet except for the wind in the trees, the birds and the sound of the fuel being pumped.

Catlin told him she was still getting used to the quiet and Cal laughed.

“Complete opposite with me,” he said. “Can’t stand all the noise in the towns. I don’t think I could have made it in the city if I had gone to university.”

“Do you miss her?” Catlin sked. “Your girlfriend. I’m sorry, there are pictures of you and her all over the house.”

Cal thought for a few minutes.

“You know, I haven’t even thought about her for over a year now,” he said.

He told her how Caroline was the most popular girl in school. She was very cute, not a bobble head like most popular girls were, very smart and very rich. She had had their whole lives mapped out for them. But something just didn’t seem right for him. That’s why he had gone camping and fishing for spring break while she was off with her parents. He needed time away from her, from her parents and from his parents. He needed to really find out what he really wanted out of life. Not what someone else wanted him to do.

He had made the decision to take the fall university semester off and just work on the farm until the spring session started. That would give him a break, not only from school but from her and her big plans. Then he had come home to find all this and his life was really changed. No more school, no more girlfriend, no more parents. No one anywhere. Luckily he had his animals to care for, so that gave him something to do. Then he remembered the horses on his girlfriend’s house and the fact her dad had a lot of guns and a large fully stocked pantry. So he went over there and collected everything he needed. That he had fired up his girlfriend’s laptop just to see if maybe they had an internet connection of some kind and that the laptop had opened right up into her last received email.

That’s when he had found out that she not only had a very serious relationship going on with another rich guy, but that he and his family were being used just so her father could gain access to the oil beneath his dads property. It had all been set up right from the very first day, they had accidently bumped into each other in the school hallway.

“So no I don’t miss her,” Cal said. “And please don’t take this the wrong way. You’re a very nice girl and fun to be around. But I am afraid I don’t trust women all that much anymore. Sorry.”

He looked at the tank in the truck and saw it was almost full. So he shut the pump off and rolled up all the tubing, closed the lids on both tanks and started the truck. Just as fast as he had disappeared, Dog came running back and jumped into the cab, once again into the middle, Catlin jumped in and they drove to the supermarket, where they found the pickup almost loaded to the brim with supplies.

Waving Old Guy to follow him, Cal drove to the other side of town, to a light industrial section and drove into the back of one yard. There, lined up in a row, were several guest houses, fully completed. Cal walked up to one he fancied and in a few seconds he had jimmied the locked door and they were inside. It had two fair sized bedrooms and a full bath. A decent sized kitchen counter and cupboards, complete with a sink and faucet and a small eating area and a living area. It was about the size of a double car garage, but plenty of room for him. He saw it was wired for sixty amps of power and had a small airtight wood stove in a corner of the living area.

“Ok,” Cal said to an imaginary sales man sticking his hand out and making like he was shaking hands. “You strike a hard bargain but I’ll take it.”

“Hey buddy,” Old Guy said. “What kind of deal could we get if we bought two of these things?”

There was an almost identical one just a few over and Old Guy said he wanted it. They found the truck that was used to move the small homes and it still had the keys in the ignition. It needed a boost, but the diesel engine finally caught and the big truck rumbled to life. Then they found a flatbed trailer that had also been used to haul the houses. Bonus, they could move both houses at once!

It took a couple of hours to figure how and to load the houses on the trucks, but it was finally done. Old Guy didn’t trust himself driving the big heavy load and neither of the girls could drive a standard transmission vehicle. So Old Guy drove the five ton, the girls the pickup and Cal with Dog riding shotgun, the big rig hauling the two houses.

The came back to the yard just before dark and just left everything in the trucks. The men fed the animals while the women made dinner. Everyone cleaned up and everyone went to bed tired that night.

The next morning, Cal was out measuring and planning. They would put both houses by their own workshops. Now Cal attached the backhoe attachment to the yard tractor and dug trenches for the water and sewer lines. Then the hooked them up to the supply lines. Cal dug footings and built the concrete forms. Then all four of them started mixing concrete and pouring the concrete. By the end of the week, they were ready to place the two small houses on the footings and two days after that both houses were in place. Another day to run power cables over to them from the pump/power house and they were ready to move into.

They got rid of the conventional gas water heater and forced air furnaces and installed an instant heat water tank in each. This gave them a small storage area as a bonus. Small electric space heaters were installed in the kitchen and both bedrooms and they were all set.

Now the women had the house to themselves, except for the common meal times which they all felt they should keep doing.

Cal and Old Guy taught the women how to ride, saddle and care for horses. As the summer progressed, both women spent free time riding around the area. Cal and Old Guy made a plan to obtain some coal for the forge. Cal knew of an area where the coal seam was right at the surface and once again the trusty old work horse yard tractor was loaded on the flat deck behind the five ton. They were gone for two days, the women left back at the homestead. They came back with the five ton loaded with coal and the next week, Cal and Old Guy built a coal shed next to his work shop and dumped all the coal in it.

Then it was haying time. The first crop was ready. With all four of them working, the job was done much faster this year. Cal had done it all on his own last year and the hay was put up in the loft. All year Cal and Old Guy had been replacing one or two beams and girders per week and although not finished yet, all of the worst of the old rotten ones had been replaced and it was already much stronger than it had been the year before.

Cal had begun teaching the two cousins how to shoot. At first they had been reluctant to learn, but on one of their two trips to town to scavenge for clothing, the two women had run into a fairly large pack of dogs. Luckily they had been close to their little SUV and had been able to save themselves and slowly drive away. Then they had seen the evidence of what wild dogs could do when they witnessed the frenzy after a deer had been killed by dogs. These were no longer the cute cuddly pets, in fact, there were no small dog breeds seen at all. These were all the bigger, stronger and more nimble breeds.

Cal started them off with the little .22 rim fire rifles they had accumulated. They were light, easy to use, not hard on the ears and no recoil. Not only that, but there was a lot of ammunition for them. Once they were competent on those, Cal moved them up to the twelve gauge shotguns. More recoil and louder, but accuracy was not critical and in the case of dog packs, the shotguns were preferred as the pellets would spread out and hit more animals.

Now on their scavenging trips to the farmsteads in the area, they brought back all kinds of different types of rifles and shotguns and a few handguns. Most of the rifles were of the hunting variety in the more common calibers, 30.06, 308, 270, 7mmMag, but there were a few old Lee Enfiled 303’s, Winchester lever action 3030’s, AR15 assault rifles in 223, a couple of FN assault rifles in 308 and a few AK47 assault rifles.

The shotguns were 12 gauge, some automatic, most pump. There was a lot of practice light shot shells, plenty of bird shot and buck shot as well as the more powerful slugs. They even had five hundred tactical shot shells. These had five .32 caliber pellets in them. That gave Cal an idea.

All four of them drove into town the next day. It was raining so not much outside work on the farm could be done anyway. They were driving the 4X4 crew cab pickup they had scavenged from a local farm site, it had a diesel engine and all four of them could fit comfortably in the large cab. They parked in front of what had been the local police station and Cal pried open the door with his crowbar. Then using the same crowbar, they broke into all the lockers, which netted them six more Glock 9mm pistols and belts with holsters, spare clips and four Tasers.

The armory was a little harder to break into. Cal had to bring in the hydraulic jack to bend the door frame enough for the door to spring open. Then had to drag in the portable gasoline powered generator to power the electric grinder to cut open the big gun safe. Inside were six twelve gauge pumps, six AR15 assault rifles and a 308 sniper rifle. There were also six night vision goggles, four pairs of ten power binoculars, a spotting scope and two infrared scopes.

One thousand tactical shot shells, one hundred .308 rounds for the sniper rifle and one thousand 223 and 9mm bullets. Ten empty clips for the rifles and six Kevlar vests. One hundred pepper spray bottles, twenty smoke grenades and twenty tear gas canisters.

They started loading all the booty into the back of the pickup and suddenly Dog came running back at high speed. He had blood on his mouth and along one flank and twenty dogs were right behind him. The dogs skidded to a stop when they saw the four humans, but set up a semi-circle perimeter in front of the truck about ten yards away and paced back and forth growling and barring fangs. More and more dogs joined, they were building themselves into a frenzy now.

Cal tossed the automatic shotgun they had brought with them to Old Guy and grabbed one of the newly acquired police pumps and loaded it to capacity with the tactical shells, both women followed suit. Without thought Cal pointed in the middle of the pack and started firing, shell after shell, as did Old Guy. Whatever fight or bravado the pack had died and they started to scatter and run. Cal ran out of shells and pulled out his Colt pistol and hit eight more dogs as they ran and then the pistol was out of ammo.

More than twenty dogs were outright dead. Fifteen more were badly wounded and more than a few of the rest had suffered some kind of wound. Cal picked up one of the newly acquired Glocks, loaded a full magazine in it and dispatched the badly wounded animals he could reach. Dog got his revenge on a few of them himself.

Cal wet down a piece of cloth he found in the police station with the can of water they always carried with them and cleaned the blood off Dog. Most of the blood was not his, but he did have two bite marks along one flank, which Cal treated with a first aid kit that was at the old information counter. That gave the woman an idea and they found five more large first aid kits which they added to the booty.

None of them had thought about that before. There was still room in the pickup, so they drove down the street to the large veterinary complex and loaded up on surgical tools, bandages and whatever drugs were on hand. Now the box and a lot of the cab were full and they headed back home.

The next day, they came back with the five ton and the crew cab pickup and looted the hospital and one of the drug stores. Once again, the dog pack came at them and this time suffered more as both women did not hesitate to attack. The following day they looted the medical clinic, the remaining drug store, one dental office of its equipment and drugs, the other just of its drugs. That day the dogs kept a wary watch on them. They were much thinned out, only about ten of them were left now.

The next day, they drove to the town in the north with the large build transport flat deck truck and its flat deck trailer and picked up two halves of a building. This they would make into a medical surgery. They were confronted by two larger dog packs on their way out and either shot or ran them over until they ran. The next day they raided that towns police station and the local gun shop.

The gun shop was particularly important. It provided much needed ammunition, powder and other reloading materials as well as manuals for repairing and maintaining firearms and bullet making.

Once again they had to fight their way out, leaving dead and wound dogs lying in their wake. They no longer had any pity for these animals. They had reverted to being predators and were treated as such.

The next day, they travelled with the moving vehicles to a storage area the Old Guy had remembered. They loaded two shipping containers and drove back with them. These were nine feet high and four feet wide and were weather proof and made of thick steel. The next day while Cal and Old guy retrieved two more, Denise and Catlin stayed behind and inventoried and began stacking medical supplies in one of them.

Now that they had four of these containers, the yard was becoming full of buildings, and they had not yet built the medical building. Harvest was coming and winter would be right on its heels, so priority was made to at least get the medical building set on foundations and utilities hooked up to it. They would have all winter to outfit it.

By the time that was done, it was harvest time. Cal and Old Guy got the barley and wheat crops off and in bins, while Denise and Catlin, harvested the vegetables and berry and apple crop. All of them picked enough peas to last and then the rest of the field was baled as green feed and stored. The second crop of hay was cut and bailed as was the straw from the grain crops.

Caitlin, Old Guy and Denise started preserving and canning the fruits and vegetables and Cal and Dog took the five ton into the woods and began collecting dead fall and standing dead trees. He made two trips before he started cutting the eight foot lengths into stove length and staking them into ten one cord stacks. He built four more one cord storage bins and placed one in front of each work shop and the two new residences. Then he split the remaining two cords of firewood from last year into burnable pieces and spread them out between the five buildings. After that he did the same with the new wood until each rack was full. He did the same with the remaining five cords and stacked them in the same place he had the last year. It had enough room for another five cords and while it was colder there was still time and he took the five ton and made one more load with it and had that load chopped up into stove lengths and stacked when the first late October blizzard and deep freeze hit.

The blizzard lasted three days. Old Guy busied homslef in his work shop, experimenting with the forge. Cal was transferring excess weaponry and other fre arm supplies into one of the steel storage containers and building racks for the rifles and cupboards and racks for the other supplies. Not only for the weaponry, but for the medical supplies.the morning after the blizzard, Cal saddled up his gelding and checled the perimeter fencing of quarter section of pasture and hay fields. He had to replace some pulled out staples, but for that, the rest of the barbed wire fencing was in good shape.

The light covering of snow showed him something else. Something he didn’t like. A single grizzly bear track and a pair of wolves prints. Where there were two wolves a pack was not far behind. Both the wolves and the bear would most likely not be an immediate problem, but as winter wore on, the cattle might be to tempting for them to pass up. As he continued his fence check, Cal contemplated this potential problem. Night time would not be a problem, because the animals always came back to the barn for the night. But during the day they could be vulnerable, especially the pregnant mares. They could institute a revolving guard, but there were only four of them to do that. An idea began to form and that night he drew out a rough map and did some calculations.

He would first, fence off the farm yard, then gradually, the rest of the farm with the containers. They were tall and designed to be stacked end to end. This would not only keep his animals from escaping, but the predators from coming in and the moose and deer from coming in and eating their berries and vegetables.

The next day, he and Old Guy began bringing and placing containers end to end around the farm step. They could only make three trips a day at first, but soon as they gained experience, were making four. By the end of November, they had the farm yard enclosed and had begun enclosing the pasture and hay land. This they started at the far end and worked their way back on both sides toward the farm yard fence already in place. They finished just in time for the first pre-Christmas deep freeze and snow and Cal and especially Old Guy welcomed the break. They were both tired.

The day after the storm broke, Cal had everyone let the fires in their stoves burn out and he cleaned the chimneys of the accumulated creosote to remove a chimney fire hazard. The next day he went hunting.

It took two days, but he finally spotted a bull moose and knocked it down. He field cleaned and quartered it. Luckily it had been close to the road and early morning when he had shot it, because it was well after dark as it was by the time he returned back to the farm with it. They feasted on the fresh heart that night and both women helped Cal butcher the remaining meat over the next few days. Now they had enough meat to last them until spring.