Anthony Newman - American Survivor

“Dear, calm down. We can’t fight men that have AK47s and military vehicles with machine guns. I think they were from the Middle East, but we can’t worry about that now; we need to butcher that deer and take anything that will help us survive. Save your crying, and we can both fall apart when we get that meat back to our camp. Suck it up and follow me,” Cobie said as she gently massaged her crying daughter’s shoulders.

Joe was out after lunch exploring the eastern side of his property hunting when he spotted several deer heading east through the woods. He hadn’t seen any deer so far so he decided he would follow them until he could get a clean kill. He knew he was at least a mile due east of his property when he lost the deer and began tracking them. He came to an extensive clearing that cut through the forest for power line right a ways when he saw the deer in a clearing ahead. He hated to shoot and field dress a deer so far from home because he couldn’t carry all of the meat.

He silently got closer to the grazing deer when a gunshot rang out, and one of the deer dropped to the ground. Joe fell to the ground and hid when he saw the family run out to claim his deer. Even though they shot the deer away from his property, he was pissed because he had tracked the deer from his property for miles. He wanted half of that deer but decided to remain hidden from everyone.

He watched as the man prepared to butcher the deer when several shots cracked from a long way off and the man dropped to the ground. He was revolted as the scene played out and the two women were thrown into the odd vehicles. He thought about shooting the men but there were five of them, and one stayed in the larger vehicle and manned the machine gun on top. He felt powerless but decided he would at least get fresh deer meat at these other poor soul’s expense. Joe was too far away to hear what the men said and guessed they were arguing over the women.

The vehicles sped off heading east, and Joe carefully walked toward the deer and two dead men when he heard a stick snap in the woods to his left. He dropped prone to the ground and waited to see if the men left someone behind to mop up the area. He saw two figures crawling to the deer and then stand as they watched the eastern horizon for the attackers. The pair pulled out knives, cut the two hindquarters from the deer, and placed them in cloth bags. Then they searched the area and took two rifles, a pistol, and several other items from the dead men. They took one of the men’s backpack and loaded it with their booty, slung the bags over their shoulders and turned toward him to leave.

Joe gasped and said to himself, “It’s that beautiful woman from Cobb’s Outfitters. She must have a cabin nearby the lake.”

He watched as the two women left with half of his deer. He wanted to catch her attention and see how they were doing since the crap hit the fan. He forced himself to stay hidden because the two women could be part of a larger group. She was beautiful, but he didn’t dare expose himself to possible danger. He watched the two small women struggle to carry the extra weight and followed them after he cut the front haunches from the deer and slung them over his shoulder. They made so much noise he could have been driving an army tank behind them, and they only looked back twice as he followed them from a distance.

The women stopped to rest, and he inched close enough to hear their conversation, “Baby girl, I’m sorry that you had to be exposed to that horrible cruelty back there. I hate those men, and if given a chance I will kill them, but I can’t risk endangering you. We have to concentrate on surviving ourselves, and I think that means staying hidden from others.”

“Mom, we could sneak up on them and kill them before they know we are there.”

“Darling, suppose we do that and twenty men come to find the others. These men were killers and not just in the woods surviving. They spat on the deer. They didn’t need the deer because they are well supplied. I don’t know who they are, but they are our enemies and enemies of our country,” the woman told the young girl.

The women were rested and headed up a steep hill until they arrived at their camp. Since they weren’t making noise, Joe slowed and stopped about 50 yards from their camp to listen in on their conversation. This obviously wasn’t their home, and he wanted to know where their home was and how far away it was from him. He then remembered her conversation with the man at the store and her saying something about being evicted. He wondered if she was just squatting out in the forest when the bombs dropped.

Cloe, walk Bennie so he can do his business away from our camp. Don’t go out of sight and take your guns with you while I cut off some of the deer for our supper and pack the rest in the snow.”

Cloe took the muzzle from Bennie, untied her dog from a tree, and began walking sideways across the hillside toward Joe. Bennie barked once, and Cloe admonished him to be quiet. He knew he couldn’t leave his position without alerting the young girl so thinking quickly he cut a small piece of meat from the deer haunch and pitched it away from him for the dog to find. Bennie caught the smell and drug Cloe toward the meat. The two made enough sound to cover Joe’s retreat away from the women’s camp.

Cobie waited until dark and made a fire to roast several pounds of the venison by holding strips of the meat over the flame, as one would roast hotdogs. The first batch was overcooked, but they ate it like ravenous wolves tearing apart an unlucky animal. They each ate over a pound of the cooked meat and gave Bennie the scraps. Their faces and hands were greasy from their meal, but their stomachs were full, and their eyes grew weary.

“We’ll head home in the morning since we have all of the meat and guns we can carry. I hated for those poor people to run out of luck, but we now have a decent Remington 30.06, a Winchester 30.30 lever action, a Glock 17 9mm pistol and almost 50 bullets for each. Baby girl, I don’t know if I could have gotten close enough to drop a deer with the slugs. These deer rifles may save our lives. You take the 30.30, and my .380 and I’ll take the 30.06 and the 9mm pistol,” said Cobie to a very drowsy young girl.

Cloe woke up the next morning and found her mother had everything ready to go. She also saw a weird looking set of bags tied together beside the dead campfire. They ate cold venison left over from the night before, and Cobie placed the odd bags on Bennie’s back and strapped them in place.

“Bennie has been promoted to pack mule. He’s a big dog, but I’m starting him with lightweight packs so he can get used to carrying a load. It will help us get back to the cabin without having to rest so much.

Joe left the women behind and headed back to the cabin taking a northern route while being careful to leave a few signs of his passing as possible. He doubled back on his trail every half mile and watched for anyone following him. He thought he heard faint voices several times but never saw anyone. He was a half-mile north of his property and a mile east of his cabin when he saw the first group of people heading into the mountains. He hid and watched as two families scurried in the valley below heading north along an old Forestry Service road. They were walking very fast as though someone or something was following them.

Joe stayed in his hiding spot for another ten minutes before stretching his legs to head on home when he heard voices again.

“Babe, we can’t stop, or those men will catch up to us.”

“Mike, I told you twice that I think they drove this way into the mountains when they left Ashland. We could be walking right into them. They killed all those people and wouldn’t hesitate to kill us, either.”