S Ison - Russian Doomsday

He was trying to keep it together for Margo; he knew she was trusting him to get them there. He’d never had that kind of responsibility before, and it was overwhelming. A year ago, he’d never have pictured himself here, and yet here he was, making a huge commitment to a home and a lifestyle.

Pike was really pleased. He’d just received his realtor’s license and was hired by Maryville Realty.

“Look Margo, I got it! I got my license! And Maryville Realty have hired me!” he crowed.

“Pike, that is fantastic! I’m so proud of you, Margo exclaimed. “When do you start?”

“I have to go to orientation day after tomorrow. I want to go out to purchase a couple books. Do you want to come with me?”

“Sure, and can we go by and pick up my weapon?”

“Yeah, the guy said he’d have it today, didn’t he, so might as well.”

He grabbed his keys to the truck and they went out. They first stopped by the bookstore. Margo went to the gardening section and he went to look for books on economics and strategies. He remembered the ones Johnny and Bev had. He was highly motivated now, and needed to make money both for the new mortgage he was about to take on and for buying equipment, weapons and ammunition for prepping.

“I got my books, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible and Mini Farming, ” Margo grinned, holding up the two books.

“I got Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies and Your First Year in Real Estate . I figure if I can get through those, they will help me and guide me to other books.”

“Cool. Now, let’s go get me a gun,” Margo laughed.

An hour and a half later, they were with the seller, Richard. He had a .38 Special for Margo.

“Hold it in your hand and see if that feels good,” Richard said.

Pike watched as Margo handled the weapon. She opened it up, pulled back the hammer, aimed, fired a couple times. She looked at Pike and shrugged.

“It feels okay. Not too heavy. I like that it fits my hand well.”

“You want something that you’ll be comfortable with. For you Pike, I think you will like this Sig Sauer P227. It’s a good weapon and dependable.”

Pike took the weapon gingerly and held it in his hand. He worked the slide and ejected the magazine, then put it back in.

“Now, if you find that after a time you don’t care for it, bring it back and we can see about something else,” Richard said.

“That sounds good. We’re going to go the shooting range and make sure we get a lot of practice in. I think I do like this weapon, though. It feels good in my hand,” Pike said, grinning at Margo.

“All right. Now we’ll get the paperwork filled out and then I’ll get you some ammo. I’ll set you up with target practicing and rounds you’ll have for defense,” Richard said, and pulled out registration forms.

An hour later, they were on their way home. They’d spent quite a bit of money, and Pike felt almost breathless.

“I never knew guns cost so much. It is almost frightening,” Margo said. She held both boxes containing their guns in her lap. The boxes of ammunition were in a bag at her feet.

“Yeah. I think I will be putting in more hours at the hardware store,” he laughed.

“Yeah. Boy, oh boy. Do you think we should have gotten the shotguns?”

“Yeah, but for now I think we should get used to these guns. Set up some times and go to the firing range. I really want to get comfortable and good with the weapon. Our lives might depend on it.”

“I know. Just kindof seems overwhelming.”

“At least we’re going forward. And we have each other, Margo. You aren’t alone in this.” He smiled over at her.

“I know, and I’m glad. Thank you for doing this.”

“It has to be done, Margo. I don’t know any other way than to just keep planning and getting things we need.

“Do you think we’ll ever get caught up? I mean, we’re putting a lot of money out there.”

“I think that, once we get to the cabin and put everything in place, we can see what we need from there. Maybe take it slower. We have food now, a lot of food. We’ll need more, but that’s okay. We have shelter, and we move in soon. We now have weapons to defend ourselves. We’re gradually gaining the knowledge we need to survive.” He wanted to reach out and hold her hand, but didn’t.

When they got back to the apartment, they took their guns and books and dropped them on the kitchen counter. Margo went and got a bottle of wine.

“What is that for?”

“A mini celebration, for your license and your new job. Let’s go out to the pool and relax,” she grinned.

“Now that is a damned fine idea.”

They sat out at the complex’s pool. There weren’t many children around, so it was quite nice. School would start soon, he thought, if it hadn’t already. Maybe that was why there weren’t kids around.

“This is nice, no screaming kids.” Margo sighed and let her feet float in the water.

“Yeah, wine is good too. I’m feeling so much better.”

“It seems like each thing we do just makes us feel better,” she said.

“Yeah. I want your opinion,” Pike said, looking into the wine, afraid to look at her. “Sayer is a really nice guy and I want you to meet him and his girlfriend, Joy. She’s a nurse, apparently. They have a small farm near Lincoln, which is a big city and kinda spreads out. If, or when, hell breaks loose, I was thinking that it might be good to have two more people guarding our place and helping with growing food. And, if Joy was there, it would help in case we got hurt or sick. Also, Sayer is a mechanic, and that might come in useful as well.”

He knew it was a lot to ask, having other people move in. He was hoping when she met them, and then if they were in agreement, they could offer for Sayer and Joy to come to them should the shit hit the fan. If they could make it. He hadn’t met Joy, and didn’t know if they would all get along. It was a big unknown. That was scary.

“I won’t say yes right now. Let me get to know them. Hopefully we will have time to get set up.” She paused, and her brows knotted. “You know, I feel really bad that I’ve no real skills to survive.”

“Me too. I feel exactly the same, almost useless. But I’m learning from the guys at the hardware. I was thinking too, if there is an EMP from the detonations, we may have the solar panels and such set up, but it might fry them,” Pike said.

“So, what do you have in mind?” Margo asked, taking another sip.

“Once we move in, we should build a faraday cage within the room that houses the batteries and the inverter. I read about them online some time back. We can even buy a couple extra solar panels and put them in the faraday cage. That way, if something happens to one of the panels, we’ll have a replacement.”

“That is all good, but how on earth would we build a faraday cage big enough? And really, how in the heck does one build one?”

He rubbed his hands together and grinned. “I’ve been watching a lot of videos on DIY faraday cages. Really good stuff. We can go to salvage yards and find old metal lockers or sheets of metal. Then fit them in the room using the tape they use for ductwork in air conditioning and heating. That’s aluminum I believe. Trust me, they have a bunch of those kinds of videos on YouTube. There are different variations, but the main issue is sealing the room well. I think layers would work. We can even line the walls with industrial heavy-duty aluminum foil, then the metal sheeting, and seal it all together with the tape,” he said, blowing a rush of air out after saying so much. Then he laughed at himself, his eyes squinting with humor.