Chapter 56

Laura's jeep was at the entrance to the property, along with another vehicle. It looked like an antique military vehicle. A man who looked to be in his forties was leaning against it, talking to Laura. He was big, taller than Scott, who was not small. Stoutly built too. He was wearing military camouflage pants bloused into combat boots.

Ex-military? Looks pretty rugged. About our age. Laura said he was retired.

They had all ridden in the TrailBlazer. Jessica parked behind Laura's Jeep and they got out.

"Hi guys," Laura said as they approached. "This is Gilbert. Gil, Scott and Michelle, Alex and Jessica. Alex and Jessica are looking for something out here."

"Like the Power Wagon," Scott said. "What is that, '55 or '56?"

"It's a 55," Gil replied. "The chassis anyway. The driveline is from a '73. It'll last forever though. Or longer than I will."

"They'll do that." Scott said. "Dodge trucks were underrated. Up until the last thirty years or so. Everything later is junk too, though."

"Yeah, we're dinosaurs. Ready for a tour?"

"Ready."

"It's gonna be a pretty good hike." Gilbert said. "Laura, if you need to get back I can show them around. Probably be three, four hours."

"You feel up to it, Michelle?" Scott asked.

"I wouldn't miss it."

"OK, if you're all set I'll leave it with you." said Laura. "You can give me a call later."

"We'd best lock our vehicles." Gilbert said. "There's not much of anything out here, but these days you never know when some societal derelicts will be roaming around."

He opened the door of the Power Wagon and took out a shoulder holster rig with a large pistol, strapped it on, and retrieved a rifle from the cab and handed it to Scott.

".30 M1 carbine." he said. "You good with that?"

"Fine. Got a couple myself. Twenty, thirty years ago they were selling these for not much over a hundred bucks. Not they're five times that, if you get lucky. Alex, you've got a couple too. And a lot of the guys in our group have at least one."

"I bought several back then too." said Gilbert. He took a second gun from the truck, handed it to Alex, along with a belt pouch containing two magazines. He put another in the pocket of his field jacket. He handed a similar one to Alex, who found a place in the the pocket of his jacket.

"I've got a couple more, a 12 gauge pump and a .22 Ruger, but if the ladies feel safe with what we've got this should be enough. Or do you want the shotgun, Scott?"

"I'm good." Jessica said.

"Me too." said Michelle.

"Might as well take the shotgun." Scott said.

Gilbert handed it to him, with a box of shells.

"Mossberg 500." Scott said. "Another good choice."

"Looks like we have a similar view of life." said Gilbert. "You guys in a prepper group?"

"Yeah. Pretty loose, actually several smaller groups that get together some."

"Best way. Too much organization gets complicated, wastes time and money.

"Well, let's get with it."

They walked across a couple hundred yards of grassy rolling land dotted with trees. A couple of small ponds, about an acre in size, were surrounded by large trees, mostly willows as was usually the case.

"Pretty good fishing here." Gilbert said. "But the big one further down is even better."

Before long the big one was in view. The land sloped downward slightly to the nearer bank.

"This one looks to be somewhere around ten to twelve acres." Gilbert said. "I never tried to calculate it. You can see a draw coming down from the south corner back there, and if you look over at the north corner there's another one. They drain the upland into the lake."

Skirting the lake they could see the woods ahead. The ground was beginning to rise again. Before long they were among the tall trees, spring leaves beginning to shade the forest floor.

"Lot of old trees." Gilbert said. "With the price of wood, if I was building here I'd probably cut the lumber here, have it cut to specifications, if there was a sawmill handy. Better wood anyway. I've harvested a lot of deer here. Some of us keep a lookout while the others hunt. Game wardens don't come out here anyway, but if they do we'll see them in plenty of time. Use a .30-30 here, close as you have to be. Not much noise."

"About like my place." Scott said. "That's what I did. It's cheaper, and definitely better."

They walked on to the boundary of the property.

"That road is on the line." Gilbert said. "So the east and west ends are clear. You probably want to have a survey done, in case you want to up markers or a fence on the north and south sides."

They made their way back to their starting point. Gilbert put the guns back in the truck and took out a cigarette. He had a cigarette case, something Alex couldn't remember ever seeing.

But not because of my memory loss. Somehow I know that isn't normal. But who smokes cigarettes anyway?

"Smoke?" Gilbert asked.

"Nay, I smoke little cigars." Alex said. "Might as well have one."

"I roll my own." Gilbert said. "I only smoke three or four a day, and I get organic tobacco and paper. Theoretically healthier."

He grinned.

"And if you know the right people, you're not paying the government anything."

Sounds good to me.

They lit up and smoked while Michelle and Jessica chatted. After thouroughly grinding the remains of their tobacco fix into the damp grass they talked for a while.

"Seen enough?" Gilbert asked.

"Yeah, looks good. I'll give Laura a holler after we talk it over some. Thanks for showing us around."

"My pleasure. I'm probably gonna miss Arkansas. Lot of natural beauty here."

"There is that. You girls ready?"