Dystopia: The Beginning of the End by DJ Cooper

bandanas?” 
    Sam explained, saying, “I know you’re all wondering about it, but Matt and I felt that, while George’s group is needed.  George cannot be trusted, he would have likely felt like someone was stepping on his toes by taking out the bad guys ourselves.   If he ever becomes a problem we did not want him to know about the warning system.” 
    Matt continued, “George is on a power trip and his volatile nature will surely get men killed in the heat of things.” 
    Pausing for a moment he continued, “For the time being, we have to work with him for the good of the community and hopefully he will not go all crazy in this, but somehow I feel like that is exactly what he will do.” 
    Matt went on to explain that they felt George may have gone and told the police of the incident just to make sure he was boss man of the community militia and would probably like seeing them have problems. 
    As an afterthought, he added, “George is vindictive and does not forget a perceived injustice, by looking to him for protection, it boosts his ego and he believes himself as having more power.”  
    Everyone nodded in understanding, most knew George and he was not very well liked.
    Matt continued, “This will make him feel like our poor defenseless women needed his protection and hopefully taking Dez off his hit list. 
    Dez, Toni and Charleigh began to object and complain about not being defenseless. 
    Matt was waving his hands for them to calm down, saying, “Purely a strategic move on our parts, since our poor defenseless women took out these thugs without the help of anyone.” 
    Sam spoke up saying, “You all know that at some point George is going to become a larger problem, right?” 
    Matt said, “Yea, we know, one thing at a time I guess.” 
    Tawney got up saying, “What do you say I make some coffee and we check out what everyone managed to buy?”
    With a look of relief the nodding in agreement said that was a great idea.  Once the coffee was made and the vehicles were unloaded they spent the rest of their evening going over the bounty each had acquired and putting everything in its place. 
    All vehicles had been topped off and were full of fuel as well, which was one of the top priorities.
    Matt and Jeremy managed to get a lot of the things on their list at Home Depot, they bought five large tarps, painters plastic and twelve rolls of duct tape. They also got lucky and found 100 packs of various seeds on sale and work gloves for everyone, along with some five-gallon buckets.
    Although the varied items were of odd types and quantities, when at the checkout they made sure to go to the lady they frequently saw there and they knew she would ask.
    When she had asked about the daily dealings, as she always did to make conversation, they used Jeremy’s property preservation company as a reason for the odd purchases.
    Matt and Jeremy were always buying odd things to correct issues with these properties, and since they did many of them, it was not strange for them to do so.  It worked perfectly except she asked if they were planting this late in the season. 
    Matt said, “I just smiled at her and told her, Dez will think I am the king of the world with this score. You know she’s some kind of plant freak; I’m sure to get lucky tonight.”
    The comment made the slightly elderly lady blush Jeremy told them and they all scolded Matt for teasing an old lady but still laughed.
    Toni and Dez went to Walmart and found 150 packs of seeds, most were hybrid, but at least 50 packs were heirloom.  They picked up 6 super squirt guns and 3 of the swim noodles along with a case of pool shock.  All of these were on sale, which made them look like off-season bargain shoppers.  The pool shock and swim noodles were something of a mystery to everyone, but without explaining it they continued to reveal their goods.
    They also bought twenty-five pounds of flour, thirty pounds of dried beans, thirty pounds of sugar