Whatever you decide, you better do it quick… The crunching is getting louder and that usually means that it’s getting closer… Hurry up dummy, what are you waiting for – decide!

 

   With thoughts of your wife and kids safety you decide against drawing additional attention to your specific home. Pulling your handgun clear of it’s well fitting holster and turning around as quickly as possible to face who or whatever is coming up from behind. Your sights come up and align on the figure that’s has been following you. With your finger on the trigger and already far tighter than you would have planned, you recognize loud mouthGaryabout 40 feet away.

 

  Garyappears startled by your quick reversal in direction and also that you have a gun leveled at him! His nose is set a little off center but has stopped bleeding; even if it were straight the blackened eyes would be a giveaway that it had been broken recently. He stopped his approach when you turned to face him but you see he’s holding a baseball bat and his eyes are narrow as he looks you up and down!

 

  Garystammers that you’ve broken his nose and stepped way out of line! People like you have been bringing down the neighborhood… How could you have brought the neighborhood down, it wasn’t exactly an old development, you thought to yourself? He continues to tell you that you’re going to pay for humiliating him in front of all the people that count on him to keep them and their property values safe! You struggle to believe what you’re hearing, who is this guy? Before this afternoon you hadn’t even known this guy even existed much less that you were dependant on him for protection of any kind?

 

   Since he stopped coming toward you when he started into his lecture, you just kept him covered and told him to drop the bat! It was as if he had forgotten that he even had a bat. He registered what you had ordered him to do by raising the bat to point in at you with it. His anger became renewed and he started toward you again! Another command for him to drop the bat caused him to pause momentarily but then he continued forward!

 

   He isn’t moving fast but he is closing on you and if you don’t get him to stop you’ll be forced to shoot him or very likely get your brains beat in by this obviously crazy individual… If he is such a central character in this neighborhood, he would know what house you lived in and that you are the crazy survivalist with a wife and kids…

 

   Thankfully, just as you are about to be forced to pull the trigger, a voice is heard calling his name from beyond his current position… It’s a female voice and you immediately assume it’s his wife. With great concern in her voice she’s shouting for him to stop, “Stop Gary, just stop right now, pleaseGary, please stop!”Garyhas stopped but failed to lower the bat or turn to face his wife… She starts in on you, “Please don’t shoot him, he’s really a good man but you embarrassed him today and his pride’s getting the better of him” – “Gary, stop this please stop this!”

 

   You would just love to seeGaryturn around and walk away but until he drops the bat he isn’t getting out of your sights! What seemed like minutes passed before he finally blinked? The bat slowly lowered and he closed his mouth, turned and began to walk back to where his wife was standing… You saw the perfect opening for you to make a quick break through your gate and the potential safety of your backyard…

 

   Quickly unlocking your gate and stepping through, you nearly knock your wife over as you hastily attempt to close and relock it behind you. She is almost as startled by your entrance as you are to see her standing there apparently not in the house where you had asked her to stay while you were gone! She was breathing hard and trying not to cry, she had obviously over heard what old loud mouth was yelling at you… It would have been worse if she had also seen how close you had come to shooting the idiot!

 

   You hustled the two of you back through the yard and into the house! Your boys are waiting right inside the door. As soon as you are safely inside your wife has broken into the sobs that thankfully she has held off until this moment. You hadn’t realized how tense she would feel with you out of sight doing who knew what. She had taken up a watch position in an upstairs bedroom window, watching until you were out of sight. Only then had she set about staying busy so she wouldn’t constantly be watching the clock.

 

   Your son had closed the door behind you and set the lock. With the drapes pulled back in place you could finally let your guard down enough to start processing all that had happened to and around you these past couple of hours. Adrenaline was still surging through you and you began to shake… the truth was it wouldn’t have taken much right then to start you sobbing along side your wife.

 

   So much had gone on that would need to be relayed that it would be hard to even know how or where to start. All four of you took a seat on the family room furniture… Without asking your son went and retrieved a sleeping bag. Your wife got it wrapped around you and helped you get into a reclined position. She was still dabbing at her eyes from time to time as she was able to get her emotions back under control. You watched your sons looking at the pistol that you had set down close at hand.

  

   It was clear that you hadn’t done anyone any favors by keeping the guns so removed from the boy’s reality. You should have found some out of the way place to allow them and yourself to shoot from time to time. Keeping yourself familiar with the gun was hard enough in this socialist nanny state, if it weren’t for economic reasons you would never have chosen to locate your family here! Sadly it seemed, those economic opportunities had evaporated when this disaster got started. No more job and yet you’re still stuck in the middle of all of these government dependant neighbors.

 

   Would the changes in all of your reality be enough to allow your neighbors to rationally come up with a plan to save all your skins? Would they be able to contemplate that it could easily come down to kill or be killed? To find a defensive solution that would allow for anything short of a massive amount of death would be nothing short of a miracle! Surviving this mess at all might also be a miracle… You had so much to think about and so little time to do it. The neighbors were now counting on you to come up with some sort of an action plan so they could continue there existence, even if that existence was now threatened by lack of food.

 

   Could you just load up your family and bug out? Was that a viable option, you didn’t owe these other people anything, did you? Where could you go? Would you be welcomed when you arrived, even if you had someplace to bug out to? You hadn’t thought that bugging out would mean anything more than heading out to the National Forest on an extended camping trip… The fact is, you hadn’t really spent as much effort getting ready for all of this as you had thought you did. You convinced yourself that you had the angles covered but it was becoming ever clearer that while you were far better off then the neighbors, you were still nowhere near prepared!

 

   The reality was coming clear to you and the looks on your families faces made you feel even less confident then you had before you left for the meeting at the park. Was that meeting just an hour ago? How could all of this have happened in the same day? You had to have time to think this through but your wife was on the edge of her seat waiting for you to fill them all in on what the heck was happening. It must be taking all she has in her to keep from jumping up and down demanding you start the storytelling! Thankfully she did control herself; another situation to deal with right now would have certainly broke you!

 

   Slowly you regain your voice and ask your son to get you a glass of water. Sitting back upright and clearing your throat, you prepare to start your report. Your wife demands that you start at the beginning… “Right after you left the gate, start right there and tell me everything! Don’t leave out any details!”.

 

 

Watch for another segment next Tuesday,

 

Prepper

 

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