The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning (15 page)

Chapter 8

April 27
th
turned out to be a beautiful day. We got a lot of work completed and felt good about ourselves. Just before we retired for the evening, we’re alerted to someone trying to enter Fred’s driveway when the motion-activated alarm and lights turn on. Whoever they are, they are blowing their horn to get Fred’s attention. They obviously want Fred to open his gate. After a five-minute standoff, the car sounds its police siren. I say to Lacy as we’re watching the ending of the evening news, “Shit, what do the police want with Fred at this hour?”

“Are you going to see?”

“I’m getting dressed in case there are problems. I think if we all show up the police will wonder what’s going on and how we knew they were here.”

“Good plan, I’ll get ready too.”

“Honey, I think we should err on the side of security, let’s wear our body armor and take our helmets. I don’t trust the local police showing up so late in the evening like this.”

Lacy nods her agreement.

We both get dressed in our battle armor, Lacy takes one of the silenced Uzis, I take my silenced M4. We wait by the door for the second alarm which means Fred needs us, when the phone rings. “Hello?”

“Jay, it’s Fred, I have a visitor who would like to speak with you. Is it possible for you to come by, dress blue.”

Dress blue meant no hostile actions have been taken or threatened against Fred and Cheri. “Lacy, I’m keeping my body armor on so I’ll wear a windbreaker over it. I’m leaving my M4 and sidearm. I’ll leave my phone on, listen to the conversation. If you hear anything unusual, come armed for bear and sound the general alarm.”

“Be careful.”

“You too, I love you.”

I drive our ATV to Fred’s house trying to think what the police want with Fred at 11:35 PM. There’s a single car sitting in front of his house. If it was serious, I’m sure they would have sent more than one car. My knock on the front door is answered by Cheri, “Jay, please come in.”

In their living room are two sheriff deputies. Fred, knows the officers, saying, “Jay, I’d like to introduce you to Sheriff Grover and Officer Johnson of the Cheatham County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff, Officer, Jay is a close friend of mine. He recently bought the Gladstone home next door and he’s the person who’s bought my farm and the other local ones. If you’re asking for something from the farm, you need to discuss it with the owner, which is why I asked Jay to join us. As I’ve told you, Cheri and I no longer own the farm.”

Sheriff Grover holds out his hand, saying, “Hello Jay, a pleasure to meet you. We heard someone bought the Gladstone home. You got a hell of a deal on it, and the local farms. We came to see Fred and Cheri because I know them and we need your help.”

“Sheriff, I’m listening.”

“Jay, the town is running out of food, we haven’t had a delivery truck in ten days. I know Fred and the other farmers store some crops to get them through the winter. This winter was very mild and the spring was a good growing season, we are wondering what you can share with the town.”

“Sheriff, what are you offering in trade?”

“Jay, with lives in the balance, you want to bargain?”

“Sheriff, everything has a cost. I spent well over $4 million on my properties and improvements. One of the reasons why I purchased them was to ensure my family had enough food in the crisis that’s now arrived. If I cut the supply of our available food without getting anything in return what does that say about my investment?”

“You’d be helping to save innocent lives. Many people in the local area are very low on food.”

“I think my coming here has already saved the families I’m helping. All would have lost everything they own and their farms if I hadn’t bought their mortgages from the local ‘very friendly’ bank. There’s good will and there’s being smart. We’ve prepared for the crisis. The town didn’t prepare so it's the town’s problem, why is it my problem? We no longer need anything the town has.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“What are you trying to say? I find it easier if both sides plainly say what they want and what they’re offering. I’ve asked you what you’re prepared to give us for our food. I’m waiting for an answer.”

Sheriff Grover stands up in anger, Fred says, “Sheriff, wait. Jay, can’t you meet him halfway?”

“Fred, I’m prepared to meet him more than halfway. All I asked him was what he was prepared to give us for some of our stored supplies. He seems to think he’s entitled to the fruits of our labor.”

Sheriff Grover walks up to within a couple of inches of my face, “You had nothing to do with growing the food. You didn’t sweat over it, you shouldn’t have a say in it.”

“Sheriff, I own it and everything else on the 900 plus acres around us. I’ll repeat my question, what are you willing to give us for the grain?”

“My protection.”

Thinking he made a joke, I smile, responding, “You’re not even Italian.”

“Jay, I just met you, I’d hate to have to kill you on our first meeting.”

“Sheriff, you may kill me, but if you do, neither you nor your partner will leave this farm alive. Of that I can assure you.”

Less than twenty seconds later Lacy kicks in the front door, holding her Uzi in front of her. “I’d suggest you not make any sudden moves, she gets pissy real easy and is a very good shot. By the way, that’s a real Uzi she’s holding.”

“Where the hell did you get a real Uzi?”

Ignoring his new question, I look into the Sheriff’s eyes saying, “I’ll repeat my question for the last time, what are you offering for our grain?”

“I told you, my good will.”

“Then, I bid you a fine evening. I suggest you leave my property. As no crime has been committed, you have no business here.”

“I came to visit an old friend. I can stay as long as I’d like.”

Fred responds, “Sheriff, I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to leave my house.”

Grover looks between Fred, myself and Lacy shaking his head. “You haven’t heard the last of this. I’ll be back and we’ll take what the town requires. You can’t sit up here on this hill and dictate starvation terms to the town. The town won’t accept it and as their Sheriff, it’s my duty to provide security for the town. I don’t understand why you don’t want to be neighborly. You just moved here, you don’t know sharing is the Southern way of life. Any of the good people living here can tell you that. I’ll give you a day or two to sleep on my offer. Goodnight Jay.”

“Sheriff this entire conversation has been recorded. Hence, let the record show that I haven’t dictated any terms. I simply asked what you were willing to provide us with as a trade. If you take what’s ours without payment, that’s stealing. Stealing, by the way,
IS
a crime. With the shortages and rising price of food, it would be a felony. The only one making threats is you, the only one trying to commit a felony is you. I’d be happy to give the recording to the local radio stations, I’m sure the entire town would be interested in hearing their Sheriff trying to shake us down. Who in town will be next? By the way, Sheriff, as I’m sure you know. My property straddles the county line, my house is inside the county, most of the farm is outside the county. The farm is outside of your official area. You technically have no jurisdiction outside of my house. If you’re willing to make us an honest offer, I’m all ears. If you’re here to pressure us to give you what you want. You may leave the same way you arrived.”

“By the way, the gate at the end of your driveway is a safety hazard. If the fire department had to answer a call for help, they couldn’t quickly get in. If I were you, I’d remove it before someone does it for you. All in the name of safety.”

“Sheriff we can open the gate remotely. Thank you for your concern for our safety.”

After the two police officers leave, Fred asks me, “What do you think that was really all about?”

“He wanted our stored grain and anything else he could get from us. If we easily gave in, they would hit all of the other farms in the area. He most likely was going to take ours and sell it to the town, pocketing the sales price.”

“Do you think they’ll be back?”

“I’m sure of it, next time don’t open the gate until you call me. We’d better warn everyone else.”

Fred looks at Lacy, “Would you really have shot them?”

“If they harmed Jay or you and Cheri, I would have shot them dead.”

Fred shakes his head saying, “Jay, by the way, would Lacy have fired on them?”

“In a flash, she would have killed them without blinking.”

Jay, “You married a cold-hearted woman.”

“You don’t know the half of it. Don’t ever piss her off.”

“I’ll remember that!” laughed Fred. Cheri and Lacy hug each other as we leave. On the way home, Lacy asks, “What do you really think was going on here?”

“Fred’s friend isn’t a friend. He wanted to twist his arm for our stored inventory of grains, which he most likely planned to rip the town’s mayor off for a huge payment.”

Fred asks, “Do you think he’ll be back?”

“Yes, with force to take what he wants.”

Cheri looking very worried, asks, “What are you planning on doing?”

“If he tries to take what’s ours, I’ll kill him,” I said, walking to our ATV. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Cheri says, “Jay, you can’t kill a police, sheriff.”

“Why can’t I? The rule of law is failing as we watch. When he came here tonight, he was the same as a common thief. I’ll deal with him the same way we’d treat any thief we catch in the act. He thinks he can profit from the current economic crises by the fruits of your labor.”

Fred nods, saying, “Think we should go on full alert?”

“Not yet, it’ll take him a couple of days to get up the courage to return. We should make sure the lights that cover our front fence and the driveways are on in the evenings. We should also plan to meet them with some surprises for when he returns. He might send some thugs to convince us we need his protection. It’s a racket that’s as old as time.”

Fred smiles nodding, “Jay, I agree, we’ll be ready tomorrow night.”

We went two nights without any uninvited guests. Late in the afternoon on the third day after the Sheriff tried to shake us down the company who offered to build our shelter showed up. He made us an interesting offer. He said he’d build the shelters if we took his family into our group. He said he had two sons, both in their twenties, his wife passed away a year ago. He has the digging equipment and other tools, plus the designs for shelters and access to steel plates. He and his sons have some food supplies and rifles, which they know how to use. I asked him why he wanted to move in with us and he said his home isn’t in a good area, rioting had broken out a few blocks away from his home. He expected to shortly lose his home and he doesn’t have any other place to go. He expected trouble sooner versus later. We took a vote; all agreed to take him in. I told him we had plenty of bedrooms he could stay in until we built him a house. He said he would arrange for their own mobile home to be delivered to a plot of land behind us.”

The next morning I was woken at dawn by a truck’s horn honking. I looked at the monitor to see a couple of construction equipment trucks waiting to enter our compound. I smiled thinking,
our new neighbor Franco and his sons, Lou, and Sandy are here.

Franco sat at our table with Lacy, myself and our three neighbors, he said, “I’ve looked at your plans. Digging under the barn which is already up is too difficult. In addition, the shelter will not be large enough to hold everyone for more than a very short time. Everyone will have to be jammed into a single room. It’s not going to work for a long-term shelter. Anything over a few hours and everyone is going to start going crazy.”