Welcome back! I hope you all had a great weekend. I was able to get over to the BOL and spend some time working on a few projects and catch-up with a few of the neighbors. I’ll have a BOL update post later in the week but today we’re going to do another episode in the MZB story. It was my plan to do just a couple of these MZB posts per week but since the stories already in my head, it makes for easy material. We’ll see how it goes and I hope I don’t lose your interest without more variety…

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   Morning came early. You woke up with a serious crick in your neck. Everyone had decided to sleep in the family room near the stove. The kids had started out on the floor but one of them eventually found his way up on to your couch with you and that left you sleeping in an awkward position. It wasn’t as though you were expecting to be completely comfortable but this sore neck would assure you would be in a foul mood until it worked itself out.

   The boys were mopey and that added to the weight you felt as a father with few options to take care of his family. Your wife was moving around in the kitchen and doing her best to put something together for all of you to eat. She was a good wife and generally had a smile on her face, even during these trying times. She was able to even keep herself looking put together, several of the women that had came to your door looked as though they had given up making any attempt at staying clean and kept. As much as you appreciated the efforts she was taking to stay positive, you could see the toll this situation was taking on her.

   All of a sudden you remembered the meeting or gathering that was suppose to take place that afternoon… What could it be? You had your doubts that it would be positive as there hadn’t been any radio transmission received after the end of the first week. You assumed that it was do to the radio stations running out of fuel for the back-up generators. If they hadn’t found a way to get back on line than that means the government hadn’t brought in additional fuel. You concluded that if the stations still had no fuel than the possibilities of food relief arriving were nill. Door to door handmade flyer’s were also a sign of something local at best.

   The thought had passed through your head that it might not even be a good idea to attend the meeting. Could it be a ploy to get people out and away from their homes, allowing someone the opportunity to get in and steal any supplies left unattended? This had to be taken into consideration but your curiosity would almost certainly get the better of you. You could leave the wife and boys home to stand watch. You even had the nagging thoughts of your being capable of shooting a hungry burglar yourself, if that time indeed come. How could you expect your wife to do that. On the other hand she might just be the better candidate as the theft of food would put her boys in jeopardy and she would never allow that to happen if she could prevent it, even if that meant shooting someone… This would require some additional thought but you were being summoned to the kitchen to eat whatever she had created from the available food.

  Breakfast was oatmeal and one egg each. The oatmeal supply was deep but those eggs were not going to last much longer and then it would be canned meat for protein. That was unless you decided to start setting some traps or sneaking around the wooded areas looking for small animals stupid enough to stick their heads up at a time like this. The idea of drawing attention to yourself with the sounds of even small caliber gunshots wasn’t something you wanted but it would come to that eventually if something didn’t change soon…

   After you had all finished your meager morning rations, you decided to bring up the meeting. You explained that it wouldn’t be possible to go and leave the house unprotected, especially now that some of the neighbors had been seen for the low down scoundrels that they must have been all along. Thoughts kept jumping into your mind about the infrequent personal interactions you had with these people over the years. How could you have missed the fact that they saw you as some kind of joke or survivalist freak? Anyway, that wasn’t going to get a decision made about what was actually at hand today, now.

  Your wife was disappointed at the idea of not being able to get out and see first hand what was going on. The idea of having some personal interactions of her own was what she was looking for. She conceded that she didn’t know or trust these neighbors anymore than you did but it would be a break in this home-bound monotony that she was craving. She also was adamant that you couldn’t leave the boys alone at the house… This didn’t give you anymore options than you had initially? It was going to have to be that you go alone or no one would be able to go. You were alright with that but all of your desires for additional information would probably win out. You would be sent with instructions from your wife to take good notes and get back quickly to give the in-depth report she would require!

   As the morning hours past slowly, you busied yourself with cleaning your handgun and watching to see what was happening outside. A vantage point in the living room was found that allowed the shades to be almost completely closed but you could still see out adequately to make out the street activity. This morning was pretty similar to the other morning since this thing started. People coming and going on the sidewalk. Arm gestures and a few people point at this home or that as their conversations went on. The only thing out of the ordinary was that a truck was sitting in front of a house 6-7 doors up.

   You recognised the vehicle as one that did indeed belong to that family. It was only strange to see it out front. It hadn’t been seen in the last week or more. These details weren’t something you had found yourself thinking about, you must have just dismissed these trivial items as part of all the other changes that had taken place. It was possible that the truck had been put in the garage and the door was closed all the time anyway. It didn’t really matter but it did seem to fit with the scene you had been watching this morning that someone was going to be driving it somewhere, the meeting more than likely.

   Even though you did have the fuel in your own truck to make the trip without any issue, you hadn’t considered driving. The last thing you wanted to do now was draw any additional attention to yourself and your families condition. The walk would do you good and might allow you to keep your options open if you had to make a break for it. On foot you could run between houses and make it back home fairly quickly but a vehicle could slow you down if someone decided to try and waylay you…

   Afternoon came and you checked your gun one last time. It had to be securely holstered, just in case you did end up needing to make a run for it. You made the final instructions to your wife and boys. The typical don’t open the door, no matter what. The shotgun was placed in easy reach of your wife and she was familiar enough with its operation that you felt confident she could hit wherever she aimed, at short distances anyway…

  With a final hug and promise to return within 2 hours, no matter what, you were off. You had decided to make your exit via the back door and through the rear gate. Hopefully this was all legit but it might be possible that if someone was watching your house they wouldn’t notice you had even left. As tempting as it was to get to the meeting, some folks would stay home and if you could fool even a few people into thinking you had, all the better. With the gate securely locked again, you started up the street. You made the corner and saw what was waiting just up the street…

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Prepper