When the Power Is Gone: A Powerless World - Book 1 (8 page)

“I see four people casing the Nelson house. It doesn’t look like they have broken in yet, but we don’t know that for sure. We also don’t know if there are any more with them, maybe in the back of the house, or even at a different house we can’t see from here. For now, we’re going to watch these guys, but we are also going to look for any others. I’ll take the front, Bob is going to take the back, Brian will watch the side closest to his house so he can keep an eye on his place as well. I want you guys to first go around to all the windows and make sure the blinds are closed, front side up. Then draw the curtains tight. After that, head upstairs and do the same with the windows up there. I’m hoping if they can’t see in they won’t break in – for now. At some point, they will start breaking in to all of them looking for food and water, possibly a place to squat for a while if there is a good amount of supplies. They’ll hit the ones they know are empty first. Then they’ll move on to the ones someone else is in. That’s when it will get ugly. That’s why we want to be gone before it gets to that point. Each of you take a side of the house from up there, but be careful not to open the blinds. Just slide one slat up at the edge to look out through. It’s pitch black out there, but they seem to all have a light source of some kind, so you can find them that way. You’ll be able to see further from up there, so look out past the next house or the fence. Keep track of how many you see. If nothing happens and they just move on, we’ll meet up in about an hour to compare notes. If they break in to the Nelson place, or any other you can see from up there, come down and let us know. Any questions?”

Everyone shook their head no. “Alright, then head upstairs as soon as you check the windows down here. If you see anything outside of them just looking into houses, come get us.”

We each headed to a separate room downstairs. We had installed plantation blinds on all the windows in the house, along with pretty dark curtains. With the blinds closed up, no one could see in the house. Since everything had shut down, we had made a habit of checking them at night before we went to bed, as we were apt to open them a bit for the natural light source during the day, at least on the back side of the house. Even though I was sure we had checked before going to bed a few hours ago, we checked again. Better safe than really sorry. After we verified the blinds were closed downstairs, we headed up. From the second story we could see for a pretty good distance across the whole area. It was a good spot to use to check the neighborhood.

When we got upstairs, Janet took the front of the house. That would give her a view of the Nelson house, as well as the houses on either side of theirs. I took the view over the garage, which also let me see Bob and Janet’s place, and the street coming into the neighborhood. Rusty took the opposite side, which covered Brian’s house, and the end of the street. It ended just past his house. Ben took the back of the house, which didn’t include other homes, but did have a good view of the woods past the backyard fence. Between the four or us, we had a pretty full 360-degree view of the surrounding area. If anyone else was out there, we should be able to see them, if they were using a light source.

While we were getting situated upstairs, the guys were positioning themselves on the first floor. We didn’t have a view to Bob and Janet’s down there, because of the garage, so they only had three directions to monitor. Russ had the front, Bob the back. Brian had an unobstructed view of the side to his house. He didn’t have binoculars, but with no light noise, his eyes adjusted pretty quickly to the dark. He peered through the slat in the blinds, trying to see something, anything, in that direction. There was no movement that he could detect. Not that he had left anything over there for anyone to loot, but if things didn’t stay like they were now, he’d like to have a home he could move back into without a lot of work – you know, broken windows, kicked in doors, that kind of thing.

Bob had the back, which wasn’t a lot to see, since he was looking at the backyard, that was enclosed in a privacy fence. He wasn’t seeing past that fence. He could, however, see anyone who climbed over the fence into the backyard. Lord help them if they did. He took a chance and went out into the sunroom to give a listen. With no electrical sounds, or vehicles, any other noise would carry well. He heard something, but it wasn’t anything discernable, or close. He decided to stay out there for a bit. As dark as it was, no one was going to see him anyway, unless they shined him with a light.

Russ had the most action out front. He didn’t see any more people, and the ones at the Nelsons didn’t actually break in. They seemed to be doing reconnaissance for some future expedition. When they finished, or it looked like they finished, they moved to the house next door to the Nelsons. Were they working one side of the street, then moving to the other side, our side? Just in case, we had plantation blinds behind the shutters, so there was no chance they were seeing inside. We had tested it ourselves. Russ would see them coming – or Brian, depending on which side they came to first. They’d have to climb the fence to see in the back, and Bob would see them before they saw him. He only had to slip inside the door, and he was shielded from outside view.

Upstairs, we didn’t see any other people besides the four at the Nelson house. That was good news – this wasn’t a big crew. We hoped it stayed that way. There was strength in numbers. That’s why we brought Brian into the fold. The bad guys, the desperate, they’d all figure that out as well. As time went by, there would be less single family units, and more multi-family groups. The thing is, family isn’t necessarily blood. We were all family in this house – us, the Hoppers, now Brian.  When other “families” got together, they wouldn’t always be for the good of others. Things like that were why we were planning to leave and head to the farm when we felt it was relatively safe. Although there would come a point where nothing, nowhere was safe.

After about an hour, we met up downstairs. We all reported no more sightings, other than the four at the Nelson house. Since Russ had the best view from downstairs, he relayed his findings first.

“I only saw the four. They didn’t break in, that I saw, but I’ll bet they’ll be back. The Nelsons didn’t keep their blinds drawn, so those folks should have been able to see in pretty easy. Whether or not they have anything worth taking, we don’t know. But soon it won’t matter. All those houses that burned up by the mall had people living in them. Any of those people who happened to be home when this went down, or were able to get home, are looking for food, water, and shelter. That place represents two, possibly three of those needs, depending on how big their hot water heater is, and if they had any bottled water over there. Once those resources are used up, they’ll move on to the next house. That could be ours. No, I’m not ready for us to bug out yet, but if we don’t go soon, we may be put in a position that we have to defend this place. These guys could be a part of a larger group. They could have been scouting the area for a migration. If that happens, we absolutely want to be gone. Did any of you see anything from upstairs, anyone else?” We all shook our heads, as we hadn’t seen anyone, besides the four. No activity at any of the houses we could see.

“Ok, then we need to try to get some sleep, at least a couple of hours. Bob is on watch, but I’m going to stay up with him, just to have another set of eyes on the side of the house that leads out to the road. Janet, if you’ll bunk in with Anne, we can put the boys in your room, and I can use their room to keep an eye out from upstairs. Is that cool?” Janet nodded. I really didn’t think we’d be getting a lot of sleep, but at least we could have some girl time, talk about what had happened. The boys could sleep through anything.

“Can we at least make you guys a fresh pot of coffee?” I try to take care of my man, my men.

They both grinned at me. Bob responded first. “Yes dear, you most certainly can.” We laughed, a much needed laugh, and Janet and I headed for the kitchen. It had been a long night already, and it wasn’t over. Unfortunately, it looked like this might be the first of a whole lot of long nights to come. What we didn’t know, or expect, was that the latest challenge would come from a source closer to home. Because of that, it would be a lot more personal, for all of us.

The Baxters lived on the other side of Bob and Janet. We were not friends with them. Dan and Lucy had bought the house in a foreclosure sale. When they first moved in, Dan had been running a landscaping business from home, while Lucy was an elementary school teacher.  They had a grown daughter who lived with them, Lacy, who had a 12-year-old daughter herself, Laney. Their grown son, Don, lived with them as well. It wasn’t too long before Dan stopped landscaping, and Lucy stopped teaching. Neither of their kids had jobs. It was a mystery in the neighborhood how they lived with four grown-ups in the house, none of whom worked. We had our suspicions that Don was dealing drugs, as there were cars coming and going all hours of the evening and night. Between that and the state aid Lacy would be getting for Laney, it was possible they could have held on to the house.

They were what we called “white trash”. The grown up kids would scream at each other inside the house, yet you could hear it two doors down at our place if you were out in the yard. They didn’t come out of the house until later afternoon or early evening, except to take Laney to school. They seemed to go to the grocery store every evening. This was the part we felt would be a problem in the situation we now found ourselves in. If they had to go to the store every day, they would have little to no food stores in the house. When what little they had was gone, they would be looking for “help”.

When we had sat down together with Bob and Janet and tried to think about what all could happen here at home, the Baxters always came up. Russ and Bob were adamant that we would not be helping them in any way. Janet and I were concerned for the child, but the guys were firm.

“Anne, we have our own kids to take care of. She isn’t our responsibility. If something happens and it lasts for months, or even years, we can’t take them on to raise. Our families come first. I’m sorry if that’s harsh, or that makes me an asshole, but there will be a lot of people out there like the Baxters, who never did anything in the way of planning for a disaster. We can’t take care of all of them, so we won’t take care of any of them.”

I could hear that discussion like it was yesterday. At the time, I think I believed nothing would really happen. Now that it had, I knew what he meant. If my giving them food because they had a child meant Rusty went without, it was a no brainer.

We hadn’t cooked anything outside since the day before, when Russ let us know how far away the smell had been picked up. However, this was day three, so the Baxters were probably out of food. None of us had brought them up, but when the knock came at the front door, and the guys went to see who it was, I can’t say I was surprised to find out it was Dan. He had Don with him.

Russ opened the door, with his pistol openly in the holster. Bob and Brian joined him, equally openly armed. They all walked out on the porch and closed the door behind them. I knew why. None of them wanted the Baxters to see inside our house, to see what we had. Janet and I decided to make sure we kept the view from the front door in mind going forward, when we had supplies out. For that matter, we’d mind the view from the back door, too.

Russ took the offensive. “Can we help you fellas?” Dan looked at Russ with a bit of a cocky tilt to his head. “Yes you can. We got no idea what’s going on, but we haven’t had any power for three days. I got no notion how long this is going to last. We can’t even get a car to turn on so we can check the radio for info. Do you guys know what this is all about?”

Russ shook his head. “We are in the same boat you are. We don’t know anything and haven’t been able to get anything on a radio either.” Not really a lie, since we had a radio that worked, but we hadn’t heard a damn thing on it. Bob and Brian nodded in agreement.

Dan continued. “Well, since we don’t have a car that runs, we can’t get to the store to get any food, and we’re pretty much out. Can you all help us out? Just give us something to tide us over a few days until everything gets fixed?” Yep, clueless, just like we thought. In their defense though, I would bet less than 25% of the population had any idea what was really happening. Everyone was so used to electricity, cable TV, wifi, and running water, they couldn’t fathom life without it. At least not for very long.

Russ shook his head a second time. “Again, we’re in the same boat you are. Everybody is. We don’t have anything we can spare. I’m sorry.”

Don decided to jump in. “We smelled your grill cooking the other day. You have food. You should do the decent thing and share it with your neighbors.”

Bob jumped in himself. “Have you smelled it since then? We cooked what was in the freezer thawing out so it wouldn’t ruin. We’re doing ramen noodles now, and those are about gone.”

Dan was eyeing the guys’ side arms. “Why are you guys carrying guns? What do you think this is, the Wild West?” He and Don shared a laugh between themselves.

Brian replied, “Not yet. But what do you think is going to happen in a few more days if nothing comes back on? How many more people do you think are out there like you, trying to get someone to help them? What do you think they’ll do when they don’t get any help? They’ll try to take what other people have. You’ll have to fight to keep what you have, to survive.”

Don sneered at Brian. “What do you have that you need to protect? This isn’t even your house. Don’t you live over there?” He jerked his head in the direction of Brian’s house.

Russ took over. “Brian is staying with us, so we can watch each other’s back. Things will very likely get ugly, in the not too distant future, and we are going to deal with it together.”

Dan spoke up again. “Well, we can help you fellas with that. We can watch out for each other. You help us, we’ll help you. Like him.”

Bob stepped forward, getting into Dan’s personal space. “We don’t need your help. We’re covered. You boys need to get on home and try to figure something out for your family to eat. Maybe you could set some snares in the woods back there and try to get a rabbit or squirrel. We can’t help you.”

Dan took a slight step back but didn’t give up his ground. He stared into Bob’s eyes. “So, that’s how it is then? We know you got food in there – none of you look hungry. You just gonna stand by while my granddaughter starves to death? She’s just a little girl. She didn’t ask for this! You could at least give us something for her.”

There it was, the last card they had to play: the guilt card.

Russ had heard enough. “Do you think for one second I care more about your granddaughter being hungry than MY SON?? You and your people mean NOTHING to me!! You are NOT my responsibility. It is not my fault that you planned no further ahead than the next day when you went to the grocery store. I’d suggest you go figure out some way to feed your family that does not include taking from mine. I think it’s time for you to leave. NOW.”

With the anger in Russ’s voice, and the threatening stance he had taken, Bob and Brian closed ranks with him. Dan and Don back pedaled off the porch into the yard.

Don had a look of pure hatred on his face as he sputtered, “You can’t just let us starve! You have to help! What about those chickens and rabbits you got out back? You could give us a couple of those!”

Bob walked down and stuck his face in Don’s. “Like Russ said, we got our own kids to feed. You are NOT our problem. And if any of those animals come up missing, your door is the first one we’ll be at! You understand me, boy?”

Dan put his hand on his son’s arm and pulled him back. “We understand. We’re going. To hell with all of you.”

They turned and headed back down the street toward their house. Every few steps, Don looked back over his shoulder at our house. Right before he went in the door, he turned back and flipped the guys off. Real mature.

The guys watched them all the way, until they were back in their own house. Bob looked at Russ. “You know this isn’t over, right? They just aren’t hungry enough yet.”

Russ nodded. “Yep, you’re right. They’ll be back, and they won’t be knocking on the door. Let’s move the animals into the garage. This just keeps getting better.”