We’ll pickup where we left off on this story and have another update on the ugliness brewing in our neighborhood after the grid failed, taking with it the thin veneer of civility amongst many of your neighbors… Let’s see what happens next and who exactly is knocking on your door…

 

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

  You peer through the peep hole hoping to be able to identify the individual standing on your porch. A tingle runs up your spine as you make the discovery that either no one is there or at least you can’t see anyone. Your not sure who you expected or that anyone would be a welcome sight but this twist of events is actually worse than an unwelcome neighbor begging for food.

 

   Do you open the door or even move a muscle to alert a hidden individual that you are directly on the other side of this door? What circumstance could make this all end happily? You try to make your mind work faster but the thoughts become less clear the harder you try to decide what to do next. The term “vapor lock” keeps running through your head and this, if anything ever was, is a good example of this in action.

 

   You can’t just open the door as if this was just any other day in the neighborhood, or could you? No, that would be unwise but so was leaving someone outside doing who knows what beyond your line of sight… Alright, it finally clicks that if you peek through the curtains in the upstairs bedroom you would have a direct view of the front doorway… Almost instantly you are standing in front of the curtain and begin to pull it to one side ever so carefully. You did your best to not let the curtain wave or rustle to alert anyone watching know you were trying to flank them.

 

   With a gap of close to 2 inches you are finally able to see the front door clearly. However, this is still no better because you still don’t see anyone standing at or near the door. Alright, what could be up? You move to a slightly different vantage point and so you can use the gap you created to see out on to the street. There were a few neighbors out at the sidewalk but they were further up the road and certainly couldn’t have been the culprit that knocked. A moment later you spot a young man come down the walk in front of the house 3 doors up. He gets tback o the sidewalk and than you see him reach the next house and start for their front door… Of course under any other circumstance this wouldn’t be strange but who would send their son out to solicit funds for a school that was now closed or a boy scout camp that wouldn’t be happening, maybe ever again?

 

   As this scene was still soaking into what seemed to be a mind that wasn’t even yours anymore, you see the guy reappear again and move up the street to the next house. He couldn’t have been at the front door of the last house long enough to have even spoken to anyone. What’s he up to? It dawns on you that he may have left something on your door, at least that would fit with the situation you were seeing now…

 

   Before you opened the door, just to satisfy yourself you wouldn’t be opening it to actually find someone standing there now, you again take a look through the peep hole. After confirming that you were safe, you slowly open the door. There wasn’t anything attached to the door but there was a paper stuck under your welcome mat. A portion was showing so it would be seen but not easily blown away. You reach down and pull it out and then quickly glance up and see a similar scene at one of the doors further along the boys route… Paper in hand you duck back inside and secure the door behind you…

 

   Almost as quickly as you are able to see what it was, your wife begins the rapid fire questions… What is it? What’s it say? Who was the boy? Is he leaving this on everyone’s door? What else did you see? You just raised your hand in an attempt to get her to be quite long enough to read this hand written message.

 

   It was an announcement or maybe more of an invitation to a gathering that would be happening tomorrow afternoon. It didn’t give alot of details but it appeared that it was for all of the neighbors to attend and was to take place in the city park a mile up the road. You turned the paper over and saw that it was blank. So this was it, at least until tomorrow. Your wife read it over as well but didn’t catch anything you had missed. Unfortunately, this left you with more questions than answers. You did feel thankful that all this excitement was over something rather trivial and it wasn’t going to be necessary to fight for your supplies, at least not yet!

 

   The remainder of the evening was uneventful. There was a noted increase in the sidewalk activity for the remainder of the day but as much as you would have liked to get a better perspective on what this meeting could be all about, you decided to lay low. Keeping your head down was better than proceeding outside carelessly and possibly have another run in with a neighbor that had been using you as his comic relief over these last few years.

 

   As soon as the sun was all the way down, you set about building a well deserved fire in the woodstove. The family all came together in the family room, seeking the comforting heat and ready to spend a few hours all in the same room. The boys had grown very bored of the situation and other than when forced to work together to preform a chore, like moving that big pile of firewood, they would generally seek the solice of their own rooms.

 

   As you all gathered on the couch or on the floor nearer to the stove, your wife began to read aloud to all of you from a book that she had found on the book shelf. You set about giving your newly retrieved rifle a good cleaning, it didn’t really need it but it did make you feel better having it in your hands again. The pistol you had taken to carrying on your belt was a comfort but this was something all together different. This might be the only gun of it’s kind in your entire neighborhood or possibly any neighborhood in the vicinity. You all could hear the gun shots far off in the distance but the people around here were of the “Rule Following” type and guns were largely an unseen object in society these days. It would be interesting to see how anxious the neighbors would be to rush in and relieve you of your supplies when they saw what they could face when they came over the fence…

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Have a good weekend!

 

Prepper