TEOTWAWKI: Beacon's Story by David Craig Read Free Book Online
Authors: David Craig
trucks were driven to a point next to a stream about 500 yards from the nearest hill then they and the group's MultiCam vehicles formed a circle around the fuel truck like an old west wagon train circling the wagons to camp for the night only the beer trucks would be staying behind in the morning.
"I pre-selected this spot," Doc informed Beacon, "as a secondary laager location during a scouting mission years ago due to that stream running down the center of the valley and the fact that the surrounding hills are too far away for all but the best of shooters to engage with readily available civilian rifles."
"Military machine guns," he quickly pointed out to a criticism he imagined coming to Beacon's lips, "would have been a game changer but our psychological experts think rouge military units will likely still be in the throes of birth and consolidation this soon after TEOTWAWKI so the gamble is worth taking now that it's too late to make it to our primary planed bivouac point before dark."
"Machine guns or a Barrett sniper rifle" Beacon amended with a smile.
"Touché!" Doc conceded red faced.
The beer trucks were parked across the dirt road where it crossed the line of vehicles entering and leaving the laager. One truck snuggled up against the bridge abutments where the road crossed the stream and the other blocking the dirt road on the other side. They'd be roadblocks across the road on which the outlaw bikers had presumably entered the valley. The LLC clearly felt the beer trucks were more expendable than the LLC's tricked out trucks and feared a ramming by some rogue survival militia or the motorcycle gang's stragglers.
Beacon's pickup and Trudy's cars were placed behind the officer of the day's 4X4 just behind the beer truck blocking the road on the side they'd all entered the valley from.
Beacon volunteered for a turn at sentry duty, but was rejected on the grounds that he didn't know the LLC's full chain of command, standard operating procedures or attack reaction plan. Since he'd be leaving the group the next day there was no sense teaching him the group's secrets.
Beacon, the female members of Trudy Peace's clan and the two rescued girls were designated reserve reserves and placed under the immediate command, and watchful eye, of the Sergeant of the Guard. Later, when there was time, the women would be integrated into the group's defensive structure. Trudy Peaces’ boys however were in the process of being integrated in to the LLC’s security protocol and served as secondaries with the early evening sentries under the tutelage of the Sergeant of the Guard.
Beacon didn't mind being rejected for sentry duty but he felt he had to volunteer because he was partaking of the group's protection. There's no such thing as a free lunch; if he was willing to accept the group's protection he should be willing to participate in the group's defense. But he didn't want to be traveling or camping alone tonight so he stayed.
The ruckus raised by the fire fight would have alerted any marauders in the area of their presence. Traveling tonight he'd be like a moth flying into a bat cave, but by laagering with the stronger group he'd be as safe as an armadillo sleeping in a pile of porcupines.
Trudy had brought alone a cardboard box of pots and pans which she was busily unpacking when the Sergeant of the Guard informed her this would be a dark camp with no camp or cooking fires or lights of any kind and asked her to put the pots and pans away as quietly as possible.
That evening Beacon was impressed by the group's light discipline. The LLC vehicles had been modified so that a flick of a switch prevented interior dome lights from coming on when vehicle doors were opened. The trucks and Trudy's cars had their dome light bulbs removed and stowed away before it was full dark.
Noise discipline was practiced too. There was no
"I pre-selected this spot," Doc informed Beacon, "as a secondary laager location during a scouting mission years ago due to that stream running down the center of the valley and the fact that the surrounding hills are too far away for all but the best of shooters to engage with readily available civilian rifles."
"Military machine guns," he quickly pointed out to a criticism he imagined coming to Beacon's lips, "would have been a game changer but our psychological experts think rouge military units will likely still be in the throes of birth and consolidation this soon after TEOTWAWKI so the gamble is worth taking now that it's too late to make it to our primary planed bivouac point before dark."
"Machine guns or a Barrett sniper rifle" Beacon amended with a smile.
"Touché!" Doc conceded red faced.
The beer trucks were parked across the dirt road where it crossed the line of vehicles entering and leaving the laager. One truck snuggled up against the bridge abutments where the road crossed the stream and the other blocking the dirt road on the other side. They'd be roadblocks across the road on which the outlaw bikers had presumably entered the valley. The LLC clearly felt the beer trucks were more expendable than the LLC's tricked out trucks and feared a ramming by some rogue survival militia or the motorcycle gang's stragglers.
Beacon's pickup and Trudy's cars were placed behind the officer of the day's 4X4 just behind the beer truck blocking the road on the side they'd all entered the valley from.
Beacon volunteered for a turn at sentry duty, but was rejected on the grounds that he didn't know the LLC's full chain of command, standard operating procedures or attack reaction plan. Since he'd be leaving the group the next day there was no sense teaching him the group's secrets.
Beacon, the female members of Trudy Peace's clan and the two rescued girls were designated reserve reserves and placed under the immediate command, and watchful eye, of the Sergeant of the Guard. Later, when there was time, the women would be integrated into the group's defensive structure. Trudy Peaces’ boys however were in the process of being integrated in to the LLC’s security protocol and served as secondaries with the early evening sentries under the tutelage of the Sergeant of the Guard.
Beacon didn't mind being rejected for sentry duty but he felt he had to volunteer because he was partaking of the group's protection. There's no such thing as a free lunch; if he was willing to accept the group's protection he should be willing to participate in the group's defense. But he didn't want to be traveling or camping alone tonight so he stayed.
The ruckus raised by the fire fight would have alerted any marauders in the area of their presence. Traveling tonight he'd be like a moth flying into a bat cave, but by laagering with the stronger group he'd be as safe as an armadillo sleeping in a pile of porcupines.
Trudy had brought alone a cardboard box of pots and pans which she was busily unpacking when the Sergeant of the Guard informed her this would be a dark camp with no camp or cooking fires or lights of any kind and asked her to put the pots and pans away as quietly as possible.
That evening Beacon was impressed by the group's light discipline. The LLC vehicles had been modified so that a flick of a switch prevented interior dome lights from coming on when vehicle doors were opened. The trucks and Trudy's cars had their dome light bulbs removed and stowed away before it was full dark.
Noise discipline was practiced too. There was no
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