The Liddy Scenario by Jerry D. Young Page B

better to crawl in a hole with supplies, and pull the entrance in behind you.”
    “Ranger is right, Ms. Baumgartner. I have supplies for another month for the three of us, but it could be many months… even years… before the city is safe again.”
    “But what would I do? I can’t live off you. It’s not right.”
    “You have two good hands and a head on your shoulders. Will mean helping out on a working farm, but I believe you could handle it,” Ranger said.
    Brody was nodding. “Toby will find a spot for you at his place, if you’re with us.”
    “Who is this Toby? Where does he live?”
    “He’s in the more rural area outside the city about fifty miles,” Ranger said.
    “Has a primitive farm. Kind of like the Amish, but he’s not Amish,” Brody explained.
    Ranger added a little more. “Farms. with horses and oxen. Has a huge garden and a couple of greenhouses. Milk cows, pigs, chickens. Real old fashioned operation. We sometimes go out during harvest and lend a hand.”
    “Toby lets us keep supplies there,” Brody said. “Does several of us preppers. We consider it our Retreat, though it belongs completely to Toby. He keeps the place going on minimums just to make a living, but the place will support quite a few of us, if we all help.”
    “And you say I would be welcome? I’m not a prepper, the way you are. I don’t have anything to offer,” Julie Anne said.
    Both men could see she was wavering, but hated the idea of charity. Ranger addressed the idea directly. “Believe me, it wouldn’t be charity. You would be working every day, except Sunday. Only the absolute necessary things are done on Sundays. Toby is big on observing the Sabbath.”
    Brody added his thoughts, “Cooking, washing, cleaning… You’re a management type. You could help with the books and record keeping. There is a lot of it, because Toby has a very precise breeding plan for all his animals. He does all that himself, now.”
    “What if the place is full when we get there?” Julie Anne asked. “You said there are several of you. Won’t they all be there, if that was the main plan?”
    “We have reserved spots,” Ranger said. “That included Brody and me, and a companion each.”
    “Oh. I see,” Julie Anne said, frowning slightly. “You understand that I don’t plan on being anyone’s companion, don’t you?”
    “Of course,” Brody quickly said.
    Ranger agreed just as quickly. “But since neither of us have anyone, that means there is space and supplies for you.”
    Julie Anne sighed. “I don’t think I could survive on my own. Do you think we’ll be able to make it, with things going the way they are?”
    “We’ll make it,” Ranger said, rather grimly, Julie Anne thought. “If we’re going, let’s get to it,” he added.
    “First we consolidate the supplies. I think we can take everything be-tween us we have left.” Brody looked over at Julie Anne. “Anything else in your apartment you need?”
    She shook her head.
    “Ranger?”
    “Nope. I left the house the other day without expecting to come back for a long time.”
    “Then let’s get to it.”
    It took three hours to get everything rearranged and loaded into Brody’s truck. Julie Anne said nothing when Ranger and Brody came down with the last load, wearing handguns, with long arms. slung over their shoulders.
    “I’m going to top off the fuel,” Brody said when they were in the cab of the truck and he’d started the engine.
    “It’s on the way, anyway,” Ranger said. He chambered a round in his Bushmaster M-4 carbine, and held the carbine with the barrel just slightly out the window on his side of the truck.
    Brody had put his rifle behind the seat when he got in the truck, but he took the pistol from the holster on his hip and stuck the barrel between the seat and seat back so he could get it if needed.
    There was no trouble on the way to the cemetery. Brody was fueling the truck from the cemetery tank when he said, “I’m