Matthew Mark - Dark Days Rough Roads

“Start with the square ones Blake.” Blake started handing up bucket after bucket which made its way to the trailer. The first row was in, 48 of them fit. Labels read basmati rice, jasmine rice, par boiled rice, lentils, red beans, navy beans, split peas, black beans, barley, sugar, flour, and it went on and on.

They got four rows in before it became time for the round buckets; there were only two rows of round ones though. Next were cases of #10 cans and boxes of other supplies. Paper products too. Haliday grabbed his shirt and pulled it up on his head and started walking around with toilet paper. “I need TP for my bunghole. I need TP for my bunghole. I am Conrholio.” Nobody else got the Beavis and Butthead imitation though.

Haliday went into the spare bedroom he used as an office and walked over to the closet. It had a modular closet system in it. He yanked the pole down, grabbed a hold of the sides and pried them loose. Next he removed the back section and revealed some small shelves and more rifles and shotguns hanging in plastic bags coated I oil with desiccant packs in the bags. These were loaded up as well as some ammo that was in there.

After this was all loaded up, the stuff from the garage went in as well. There was barely enough room for Blake’s Yamaha, but they would make it fit. Roger told them to pull the Tahoe forward, load the bike up and close the trailer. They put Romeo and Max in a cage and put them in the trucks. They heard a whistle. Everyone grabbed a weapon and ran outside. There had been a crowd watching from nearby, but now they started getting really close.

“Randy, go around back and help. Kevin you watch out front. Blake get that garage door opened up and the rest of you get the drum of gas emptied into the vehicles and into any spare gas cans. Everyone stay calm, but on alert.” Haliday walked out toward the front to see what was going on.

He made a concerted effort to slap a magazine in his AR180 and jack a round in the chamber. This of course was for effect. He had unloaded it before he went out there just so he could put on a show and let them know he meant business. Besides, everyone else was locked and loaded already. “Get all of the vehicles hitched up and ready to roll,” he hollered.

As they were checking the vehicles and trailers to make sure they were ready to go, the crowd moved in closer yet. There were quite a few neighbors he recognized, but a lot of people he didn’t. They began demanding that they tell them what they had in the trailers. Haliday shouted out "it’s none of your concern." They kept yelling out that they wanted to know. Haliday slightly raised his rifle; he called the group from the back of the house to the front then and told them to watch the rear and sides from where they were.

“Go ahead and shoot us. You ain’t got the balls.” Haliday eyeballed the guy who said it and noticed he had a baseball cap on. River Bend Apartments was stitched on the front. Of course, half mile south he had 10 complexes of various sizes. He would take daily walks around the neighborhood all the time scoping out who lived where, who had what, who might be prepared or who might be problems. He figured the apartments would be all trouble.

“Look man, we’re leaving ok, no problems need to arise. We’re out of here in two minutes.”

The guy walked up a bit closer to the front of the crowd and said, “Bullshit; we ain’t letting you leave with that shit.” He turned around and took a shotgun from another guy in the crowd. He turned back around. “You look like you got plenty to share.”

Haliday said, “Look, that ain’t going to happen.” Haliday’s next door neighbor Phil was standing outside now watching. Haliday looked over at him and nodded. Phil nodded back. His kids walked out onto the porch and Haliday looked over at them. One of them was sucking on a pouch of peanut butter from an MRE. She was also holding a small doll. She didn’t grasp the lethality of the situation.

More and more people were demanding that they share. The guy from the apartment complex was the loudest. “We’re going to give you to the count of 10. After that we’re taking it, asshole.” Haliday quickly looked at his group. He then scanned the other group. Most were just standing around empty handed, a bunch had knives and a few had various guns visible.

Haliday noticed a neighbor across the street standing on his porch. He didn’t really know this neighbor, but had watched him closely over time and knew enough that he too was prepped for SHTF. He was surprised the guy hadn’t taken off himself. His son lived next door and he would catch them late at night unloading stuff into their small pole barn. The guy then went back inside. I don’t blame you, he thought, keep out of it. Remain unseen and unheard. Protect your own stash.

“You must be deaf or dumb you son of a bitch.”

Haliday was at his wit’s end. “Ok genius, this is what we are going to do.” He raised his rifle and leveled it at the man’s head. “We are leaving and that’s going to be good enough for everyone here. You understand?”

“Screw you ya bastard. There are more of us than you.”

“We’re all armed numb nuts. You aren’t. You’ll lose this one,” he told them.

Haliday whispered to David and Mike who then got in the vehicles and started them. He told Sarah to get in with Elizabeth and told Bev and Rich to get in as well. “Linda and Kayla, you guys walk up the street a ways. When they get down a few houses move the vehicles out. Watch your backs. Blake, close the garage and lock it. Then go with them and cover the rear.”

“I told you that ain’t gonna happen.” The group moved a bit closer. Haliday looked at Phil; Phil said, “You’re on your own man, nothing I can do.” Haliday knew Phil had a hunting rifle and plinker, but figured as much. Phil’s wife was standing next to him now. Thanks for the help neighbor. He heard the vehicles shift into drive. The crowd came closer yet, about 30 yards out now.

Haliday said, “Ok, I’ll tell you how it’s going to work.

“If you aren’t armed I suggest you step back now. The rest of you, well it’s going to be us against you if you want it that way. I’m going full auto, and so are these guys. You do not have enough firepower to win this. His rifle was full auto capable but he hadn’t finished modifying the others yet. “Now, I’m ready to kill. I already have and I will again. No doubt in my mind I can do it. I prefer not to though. You hear that?”

“If it’s food you want, my house was cleaned out. Phil there has it all. A good few months worth. He’s got five cases of MRE’s alone. Now he broke into my house while I was gone and stripped it clean of all the food.” He looked at Phil who had turned white as a ghost. He nodded at Phil again with a smirk on his face this time.

The group had separated a bit as some of the people backed off. The loud mouth said, “How you know that?”

“Well, the MRE peanut butter could be his, but I doubt it. He doesn’t know how to spell MRE. Now the doll his kid is holding is my daughter’s. It’s a one of a kind custom we had made for her at a doll show years ago.” Phil’s wife called him a bastard. “Look Heather, I’d beat feet away from the house.” She grabbed the kids and ran across the street away from the crowd.

Phil looked at Roger and pleaded. “Don’t do this Roger; I was just trying to keep my family fed. You can’t do this man.”

“Look Phil, your best bet is to walk away now. Let them take it when we leave.”

The loud mouth piped in, “How you know we’re going to let you leave? I keep telling you it ain’t gonna happen. Just more stuff for us.”

Roger said, “Look guys, you can live or you can listen to this loud mouth. My guess is you want to live. Take what’s in that house, split it up and move on. Don’t die like this man is going to.” Roger still had his rifle leveled at him.