The World of Tom Stafford by D.A. Sanford - HTML preview

Chapter 4: Fort Nadean

Nadean is searching the neighboring houses. She could just walk to the them but she has her Nomad. Her reasoning is sound, to her. She needs to be able to make big loads rather than walk with hand loads. As long as it makes sense to her I’m okay with it.

The things that she found were things that, on my Gentry raid, simply did not enter my mind. we had a working bathroom. she took good towels, soap, shampoo and something that escaped me, every roll of toilet paper. When I got home with my load, our store house looked like a hoarder during COVID. Proudly she informed me that I needed to make shelves. I'll go to the grocery store and dismantle their shelving.

She turned out to be a great scrounger. Now that we had the box truck, I went with lists of what to bring from the super store. She liked what I brought but, as she told me, there were only so many cans of peas that we needed but dried peas, beans and such can be stored indefinitely. Nadean reminded me that we also needed dehydrators for next year’s crops..

I think that I'll take her on the next trip. Actually, I should have her drive the Nomad so that I can recover my pickup and the trailer. We still need it for the local salvage.

Besides, I like that truck. Better to do it now before people start to show up. I can also get more of the chain link.

For now, I find that I have enough fencing to surround the two houses. The extra rolls would join the lumber house to what I'm now calling Fort Nadean. With the post hole digger, I was able to put up the fencing around the two houses. I made temporary gates but want metal ones. Metal doesn't burn.

Gun guy had sniper rifles with top of the line scope including laser red dot. We also found binoculars. Maybe a more thorough search of his home will turn up night vision goggles. That would be sweet. This guy had to be a serious prepper. He may even have a bunker somewhere. A good reason to empty his house, just in case he has one and is riding out the storm, waiting to return.

Our storage house has a utility room. I gutted it and built a false wall to cover the entrance. We were able to move the gun stash in there. If I can get a welder, I'll make a metal door. I'll put in gas heaters for the winter to keep the stores from freezing.

Fencing is up, well-armed, with the emergency flood lights I am installing on our roof.

We will be able to see anything or anyone. We are now as secure as we can so, I feel better. A platform is looking good for the top of both our house and the store house.

Both are connected by a protected cat walk.

I can tell that Nadean thought it was overkill but I have the tendency to over prepare but hoping that I am wrong. Better to have it and not need it than needing it but not having it.

I need to discuss my next idea with Nadean. Traps, yes for animals but also for human animals. We have emergency stores stashed around the town that should have protection. As I said, I over think things but not this.

Food along with weapons are the currency of this new world. You can open a bank vault, take all that is stored there. Money, jewels, important papers, gold, anything stored in those safe deposit boxes They were all precious to someone but now are worthless when you need to eat.

We need to protect our fortune.

As far as the forest animals, we hunt and need to set traps. I now have a large smoke house I built. Deer meat is a good source of protein. Smoking it makes it last a lot longer. Salting is another way but, to me, having to soak the salt out before you can use it hurts the flavor.

I found where there are chickens roaming around. I have traps out to catch them, fresh eggs. I miss them at breakfast. One other thing, those cows that gave me the look.

Steaks would be a dream.

I haven't gone back to the wreck yet. With the confusion of the wreck itself, I never looked at the manifest. There is a need to go back but I would feel better with having a few others besides Nadean. It's a hard climb. Accidents can happen, bones can be broken so that can wait. It was almost hidden. There was no guard rail so a passerby should not notice it. I need to get there before the fall. Hopefully we will have a few new people by then. If we allow them to live here.

Nadean and I do a lot of talking while we work. I one time asked her if she remembered where she was going when I spotted her. She does not remember anything except for a dream like memory. She was going to her favorite lake in Gentry.

As a child she heard that it was part of a river the eventually ended up in the ocean.

She dreamed of sailing from the lake, down that river past all those cities and out to the ocean. Childhood dreams, maybe now, with all the time in the world, she would talk to Tom. Maybe next summer.