Chapter 10:
Both Abe and Allen sat and listened for hours, they talked with others they knew from around the world and they learned the extent, or at least the opening extent of what was beginning to transpire around the globe. Once he felt he had heard enough, Allen went to find Abe, he found him in his outbuilding sitting quietly with his head in his hands, leaning on his elbows intently listening to the radio chatter though an old set of headphones. Allen reached up and switched the radio power to the off position, Abe looked up and solemnly nodded at Allen with a tired but knowing look. Allen looked into Abe’s eyes and said, “30 minutes there will be a family meeting in Sam’s kitchen, get cleaned up, find mom and head on down”, with that he turned and walked out of the shed.
Allen walked into his house and found the girls all in the kitchen sitting around talking with their mother about the recent events. Sam was stunning as usual as she calmly led the conversation and reminded everyone that we as a family were settled and prepared for the current events. Allen walked over and gave Sam a light kiss on her forehead and then announced to all present that there would be a family meeting in 30 minutes that everyone on the Farm was required to attend. All eyes fell on Allen and the questions came from everywhere, he simply held up his hand and let everyone know now wasn’t the time. Sam instructed the girls to get some hot dogs and buns out of the pantry freezer and she would grab some chili out of the kitchen fridge and whip up some coleslaw. Lauren went to grab the dogs and buns while Claire and Janie started grabbing condiments, chopping onions and getting some chips ready. Faith was given the task of getting Paper plates and cups from the pantry.
By the time Abe and Olivia showed up there wasn’t much to do but sit down and eat some good hot dogs with chili, slaw, mustard and onions as the toppings, Sam added ketchup to hers and caught a contorted look from Allen, she chuckled lightly because this argument had no expiration date. With Prayers said everyone dug in and talked lightly about the world and the farm.
With the meal out of the way, everyone gathered around the big farm table as was the custom in this and most other southern households. Allen started laying out the information he had gathered on the shortwave this morning. Sam squeezed his had a little more with each passing moment. “Guys, it’s very serious, possibly even a little worse than I thought and we are going to have to get this farm prepared for the worst”! Said Allen. Faith was now hugging her mom tightly, Clair and Janie were nearly sitting in each other’s laps while Abe and Olivia sat silently across the table.
Allen continued and started giving details of the things he had learned while Abe filled in some other spots here and there. He explained the hackers and how they had started taking control of utility companies around the country and how the banks were locked out of their own systems. Rumors going around the shortwave communities were saying that the President and Vice President had both been killed while taking off on Air Force 1, rumors were also bouncing around stating that both Chinese and Russian Navy assets were all leaving port and headed out to the big water. Allen looked into every eye in the room and said “if the rumors are true, we are about to go to war! China and Russia seem to be looking for a fight, and with the news stations being hacked and unable to broadcast, there is a good chance we won’t get any warning until the mushrooms start growing on the horizon”! Enough was enough and Sam looked into her husbands eye and asked the question on everyone’s mind, “What did you just say”? Sam continued, “Are we all going to die on this ridge or do you have one of those magic plans worked out”? The room was silent, it felt like time stopped and all eyes were on Allen. He looked at each person, some had wetness in their eyes, some had pupils and no whites, but all were trained on him. Allen broke the silence, startling Sam just a little, “I have a plan worked out but we need to move, no more questions, no more talk for now, lets just get the task at hand done”.
With that he pushed his chair back and gave everyone a direction to head. Claire was instructed to get the tractor, hitch up a trailer and head to her grandparents house, Lauren, Faith, Abe and Olivia were to start loading everything important from Olivia and Abe’s house onto the trailer, all food, guns, ammo, personal clothing, toiletries, medications, bibles and anything really personal to them. Once the trailer was loaded Claire was to bring the tractor to the basement doors to be unloaded. Abe and Olivia really didn’t understand how living in the Reed’s family room was going to make anything better, but Allen looked serious and no one wanted to ask questions. After every left Sam was instructed to open the shelter and start getting it ready for occupancy, turn on the propane lines, open the water lines, switch to solar and batteries and make sure bedding was placed on each bed. Janie was instructed to carefully gather every gun in the Reed household and bring it to the shelter, then start bringing ammo to the shelter. Allen assigned himself the task of switching off the propane to both households, killing the electric mains, and closing the steel shutters on every window and door on both households. He also went and closed the main gates to every access on the property, not just the farm gates but also the heavy drill steel pipe gates and securing them with American locks in the recesses.
Later after everyone returned and learned the secret of the shelter, the livestock would have to be secured for the coming storm, as Allen watched the family quickly loading the trailer at the second home, he finished his chores and went to check on Sam. Storm clouds were forming and the wind was starting to pick up. He knew that he had more to tell the family, he had held back and hadn’t yet let them know how close this actually was to their door, once settled he would let them in on the rest of the information. For now he had to get them secured and ready to face what was coming.