Prepper

Chapter Twenty-Six

This line moves slow, mired in tar slow, bureaucratically slow. Which is even slower than the previous line that. I feel there is a fair chance I'm still going to be standing in one of these insipid lines when the GFA show up. Death by red tape. Where's the sense of urgency? Where's the well-oiled machine? Where's the bathroom? The day is wearing on and the clouds appear to be threatening to moisten this entire affair.

"Boston, eh?" Jake says with a sneer.

"Heh, yeah - Heath loves them."

"Oh shit, that reminds me." He says, digging into his back pocket. He pulls out his wallet and fishes out a Bakugan card and hands it to me. "Ran into Ari and Heath this morning. They were out on 'patrol' according to Heath. When Heath heard I was coming up to Rose River for work, he gave it to me and made me promise to give it to you. 'For protection', he said. Never actually thought I would run into you."

"Thanks man - can't hurt." I say, tucking the dog-eared and faded yet colourful card into my peacoat pocket. The small treasure may offer little physical protection, but it makes for a powerful talisman, helping to liberate my spirit that has been trapped in a dismal bog since I awoke. "Patrol - heh, that's cute."

"Yeah, looks like they were also doing door-to-door egg delivery."

"Holy crap - I totally forgot about the chickens. Looks like Heath is the man of the house now." My heart swells with pride when I picture Heath stepping up and doing his best to manage the empty house without us. Although it saddens me too, that he has to do it, and then I start thinking about Kate and how devastated Heath will be when he finds out his mommy is hurt.

"Chin up man." Jake says, noticing my sudden mood change. "The little dude looked happy - Ari is taking good care of him, keeping him busy. He said that Raven gave him a Nintendo DS. Everyone is looking out for him."

"Thanks man." It does make me feel better knowing that there is a caring community back home, that Heath is surrounded by such good people. More than anything, it galvanizes my resolve to get back to him as soon as I can.

We finally make it inside the tent as the dwindling daylight signals the onset of another cold night. No chairs in this tent, which is a temporary armoury now. A half dozen soldiers are handing out weapons and other assorted gear. A couple other are providing cursory instruction to the fledgling militia members.

When my turn comes, I step up to a table and greet the young man. He's younger than Hartt, perhaps only a cadet and not even a reservist. How desperate they are for manpower. Behind him are racks of rifles, stacks of gear and piles of ammunition. It looks like they have been raiding sporting goods stores, as I can see scores of branded boxes containing non-military rifles and shotguns.

The cadet grabs a C7 from the rack, two magazines and three boxes of rifle rounds.

"Here you are sir." He says. "If you need assistance with the operation of the weapon, please see one of those guys over there." He adds, pointing to the other side of the tent.

I look down at the black rifle. "I think I got it, thanks kid." I pocket the ammo and magazines, sling the rifle and go find Jake. He scored a C8 carbine and a tactical vest stuffed with magazines.

"How did you get so many magazines?" I ask.

"I told him I'm here to kick some ass. I sure as hell ain't heading out there with only sixty rounds!" Jakes already wearing his usual camouflage hunting coat, he pulls the tac-vest over top and starts to adjust the fit.

We move outside the tent to escape the crowd and gain some elbow room. We inspect our weapons pointing out controls to each other. I'm reasonably familiar with the AR platform, thankfully, but have only handled a couple in all my days.