Free Calamity in America by Pete Thorsen

you try to make it home.  You’re losing blood.”
    “I was very lucky and it is just a crease.  I can make it home.”
    “You have to be patched up either here or there and there is no sense in losing any more blood than necessary.  Sounds like you will likely need all your strength.”
    “I guess your right,” he said as he gingerly got off the cycle having shut it off.
    As I helped him up to the house I introduced Beth to him and he told us the rest of the story.
    “We couldn’t stand not having any news anymore so I decided to take the cycle into the city to see if I could get any information and to see just how bad it was there.  I never made it to town because I met a large mob of people, maybe forty of them, about four miles from your house.  They covered the whole road of course and I stopped some distance before I got to them.  As soon as I stopped at least two of them started shooting at me.  They were all just walking with no vehicles that I could see.
    I spun the cycle around to head back home and that’s when I was creased by one bullet.  I raced back here to warn you and the rest on this road on the way back to my home. 
    There are too many of them to fight, Chip.  You and Beth will have to take what you can and run.”
    “I am not being run off my own property by a bunch of hoodlums.  I don’t care how many there are of them.”
    “But you don’t stand a chance against so many of them.  You and Beth will just end up dead.  They started shooting at me for no reason.  They must be berserk because they could see I have no supplies on me.  You should run and try save yourselves.”
    “I won’t run.  I can at least slow them down so the rest of you can organize a force to counter them.  I’ll let Beth tend your wound while I start getting ready.  Beth will take our truck and follow you when you leave.”
    Without waiting for any answer I spun around and headed back out the door so I could start to gather gear and get ready for what Gavin said was coming.  No one was running me off my own land.
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
     
     
     
     
    I was still getting ready when I heard Gavin leave on his cycle.  Then Beth found me.
    “We can work together to load some food and supplies into the pickup then you can drive over to Jack’s place.”
    “I am not going anywhere without you.”
    “Yes it makes more sense for you to go.  I’ll meet you there later.  I will just stall them here and then fade into the woods and walk over to Jack’s place to be with you.  It would be easier to do that by myself.”
    “I will not leave without you and there will be no discussion about it.  Just tell me what needs to be done and we will face this together.”
    We had been together long enough for me to understand that look on Beth’s face.  So I did not argue even though I did not like the decision she had made, I just told her what needed to be done.  We separated to do the tasks I had laid out and then she met up again in one of the sheds.
    “Where on earth did you get that?  Does it work?  Do you know how to use it?”
    “I’ve had it for awhile.  I hoped to sell it and never once expected to actually use it.  Yes I do know how to use it and I have tried it out just for fun.  Less talk and more work though.  Our time is very limited if what Gavin said is true.”
    Beth asked no more questions and we kept working without any breaks even though some of the work was very hard.  I had figured we had at least an hour before the horde got here and we used every minute of it.  I sure wished we would have had more time but we didn’t and when we saw the mob coming well down the road we got into our positions.
    When the mob turned into our driveway I stood up behind the makeshift breastworks we had assembled and I yelled out to them.
    “Turn around.  We have nothing for you here.”
    Their answer was a couple shots my way with one of them coming very close