It's been 3 weeks since our neighbors were attacked. So far our side of town had been pretty quite but we still hear occasinal gunfire going off. The neighbors came back a few days after Steve had shown them the "cowbell" alarm system wanting to know if we had any more ideas for protecting our homes. Steve brought them in the house and showed them how I had taken screws and screwed them in to the window frames so the windows could only be opened a few inches. He showed them the chime alarms that Nikki had come up with. He talked about how I had gotten the tower antenna taken down so no one could get on the first floor roof to get in to the second floor. How we had used metal and plywood to block all the windows to make it harder for people to break in. And he showed them the boards with nails sticking up out of them that intruders had already stepped on when they tried to get in the windows. The neighbors thanked us for the tour and said they were going home to do the same to their house. The neighbor acrossed the street said he had a tower antenna but did not know how he would get it down by himself with his back messed up like it was. Since we knew he had back surgery twice before everything went to hell Steve, Mike and JR offered to take it down for him and carry the pieces down to his basement to keep people from using them to get into their house. Our neighbor did not have a garage.
The guys are going to make a water run today. We have enough water to last about a week and that is it. Both neighbors are out of water to now so the one that lives behind us is going to follow in his truck and haul back water for his family and the neighbor across the street. Since he worked at a propane company before all hell broke loose he said he can get us some more propane if the guys want to make a run with him tomorrow and if he can come up with gas for his truck. He has just enough left for today. Mike checked our gas and thinks we can spare 5 gallons for the neighbor in exchange for the propane so we are going to let him have the gas.
Steve, Mike and JR left to go get water. They were only gone about 15 minutes when we heard them and the neighbor come roaring back in the trucks. I looked out and saw Steve jump out of the truck and run to the house of our neighbor across the street while Mike and JR ran for our house. Our back neighbor roared his truck around the corner and we heard him slam on his brakes and his truck door slam. Mike came in the back door and hollered for us to hurry and open the front door for Steven. I opened the front door just in time to see Steve and our two neighbors run across the road and head for our front door with guns in hand. Mike said there was a large gang of maybe 50- 75 people headed our way and they looked heavily armed. They had seen them coming down the highway when they had went across the overpass. Mike said we needed to hurry and get ready for them.
The guys, Jen and Nikki grabbed my laundry baskets and ran out to the garage. They hurriedly fill the baskets with wood for the heater and grabbed as much kerosene as they could. Once that was done they started pushing all the furniture up against the outside walls to try to give us extra protection from bullets. Steve pulled me aside and said he was sorry that he didn't check with me and his dad before bringing the neighbors but they did not stand a chance on their own. I told him not to worry he had done the right thing.
Mike, Jen, Steve and Nikki grabbed their guns and ran upstairs. JR and Tammy took one bedroom downstairs and I took the other. The bedroom they took had windows on two sides where the one I took only had windows on one wall. Johnny and the neighbors took the livingroom and diningroom while Dave took the kitchen. It looked like we were in for the long haul so I hurriedly grabbed some food for Julie to feed the kids. It was going to have to be cold food but we had no other choice right now. I grabbed the bread I had made that morning, the peanut butter and jelly and some dry cereal and applesauce. Maci could now eat Cheerios so she would not go hungry. I grabbed energy bars and bottles of water and passed them out everyone else. I had a big pot of rabbit stew on the heater but we would not have time to eat it so I pulled it off and placed it on the warming rack that the guys had made next to the heater. About 10 minutes later we started hearing a lot of gun fire.
We were not sure how long it would take them to reach our place if they came this way. They had three ways they could go. One would take them on to the next town. One would take them further out into the rural area. One would bring them straight into our little town. Once they reached our town they would have several ways to go because of all the houses in town. We were a mile from the highway with about a 100 homes they could pick and choose from. It might be a few days before they made it to us if they did. After about 20 minutes the gun fire stopped so we figured they must have gotten a place where they could crash for awhile. We relaxed a little bit and I left my post to dish up bowls of stew for everyone. We would need our stength if we were going to fight. After I had passed out the stew to everyone. Made some coffee and hot tea and passed that out to I went back to my post. Not long after that the gun fire started again but it sounded a little closer. Some of the house between here and the highway were empty. The owners had been long gone or where attacked when the first gangs came through.
The gun fire went off and on durning the night and each time it started up again it was a little closer to us. At daybreak we started hearing loud laughter. It sounded like it was coming from down the street. Sure enough we heard gunfire again and this time it was real close and the laughter was getting closer and louder. All of a sudden our neighbor hollered out that he saw them. They were coming down the street and firing guns at houses. The house that was next to our neighbors had smoke coming out of the chimmey so they stopped at that one and rushed it, firing as they went. The people inside were firing back and we knew they would not last long if we didn't help. The gang was just to big for one house to hold off. We could not just leave our neighbors to die so we started firing on the gang.
The guys are going to make a water run today. We have enough water to last about a week and that is it. Both neighbors are out of water to now so the one that lives behind us is going to follow in his truck and haul back water for his family and the neighbor across the street. Since he worked at a propane company before all hell broke loose he said he can get us some more propane if the guys want to make a run with him tomorrow and if he can come up with gas for his truck. He has just enough left for today. Mike checked our gas and thinks we can spare 5 gallons for the neighbor in exchange for the propane so we are going to let him have the gas.
Steve, Mike and JR left to go get water. They were only gone about 15 minutes when we heard them and the neighbor come roaring back in the trucks. I looked out and saw Steve jump out of the truck and run to the house of our neighbor across the street while Mike and JR ran for our house. Our back neighbor roared his truck around the corner and we heard him slam on his brakes and his truck door slam. Mike came in the back door and hollered for us to hurry and open the front door for Steven. I opened the front door just in time to see Steve and our two neighbors run across the road and head for our front door with guns in hand. Mike said there was a large gang of maybe 50- 75 people headed our way and they looked heavily armed. They had seen them coming down the highway when they had went across the overpass. Mike said we needed to hurry and get ready for them.
The guys, Jen and Nikki grabbed my laundry baskets and ran out to the garage. They hurriedly fill the baskets with wood for the heater and grabbed as much kerosene as they could. Once that was done they started pushing all the furniture up against the outside walls to try to give us extra protection from bullets. Steve pulled me aside and said he was sorry that he didn't check with me and his dad before bringing the neighbors but they did not stand a chance on their own. I told him not to worry he had done the right thing.
Mike, Jen, Steve and Nikki grabbed their guns and ran upstairs. JR and Tammy took one bedroom downstairs and I took the other. The bedroom they took had windows on two sides where the one I took only had windows on one wall. Johnny and the neighbors took the livingroom and diningroom while Dave took the kitchen. It looked like we were in for the long haul so I hurriedly grabbed some food for Julie to feed the kids. It was going to have to be cold food but we had no other choice right now. I grabbed the bread I had made that morning, the peanut butter and jelly and some dry cereal and applesauce. Maci could now eat Cheerios so she would not go hungry. I grabbed energy bars and bottles of water and passed them out everyone else. I had a big pot of rabbit stew on the heater but we would not have time to eat it so I pulled it off and placed it on the warming rack that the guys had made next to the heater. About 10 minutes later we started hearing a lot of gun fire.
We were not sure how long it would take them to reach our place if they came this way. They had three ways they could go. One would take them on to the next town. One would take them further out into the rural area. One would bring them straight into our little town. Once they reached our town they would have several ways to go because of all the houses in town. We were a mile from the highway with about a 100 homes they could pick and choose from. It might be a few days before they made it to us if they did. After about 20 minutes the gun fire stopped so we figured they must have gotten a place where they could crash for awhile. We relaxed a little bit and I left my post to dish up bowls of stew for everyone. We would need our stength if we were going to fight. After I had passed out the stew to everyone. Made some coffee and hot tea and passed that out to I went back to my post. Not long after that the gun fire started again but it sounded a little closer. Some of the house between here and the highway were empty. The owners had been long gone or where attacked when the first gangs came through.
The gun fire went off and on durning the night and each time it started up again it was a little closer to us. At daybreak we started hearing loud laughter. It sounded like it was coming from down the street. Sure enough we heard gunfire again and this time it was real close and the laughter was getting closer and louder. All of a sudden our neighbor hollered out that he saw them. They were coming down the street and firing guns at houses. The house that was next to our neighbors had smoke coming out of the chimmey so they stopped at that one and rushed it, firing as they went. The people inside were firing back and we knew they would not last long if we didn't help. The gang was just to big for one house to hold off. We could not just leave our neighbors to die so we started firing on the gang.