The Power went off last night and is still off this morning. I take Jack and Mindy out to the work shop and show them how to switch the power to internal and then how to start the generator. We decide that if the power isn’t back on by noon we should turn off the generator to conserve fuel. I found an old battery radio in the garage but the only thing we could receive was music. Every hour on the hour there is 10 minutes of static. I guess the music is on a tape loop and when it's time for the news to be read there is just "dead air ". At the neighborhood meeting several people expressed their intention to leave. One guy and his wife were going to start south on highway 5 and try to get to their daughters place near LA. Another fellow said he was going to drive to Canada. Someone else was going to try to get to their Mother and father in Colorado. Five or six families had already left. They had pulled out about two days after the first reports of the virus were on the news. I called the meeting to order and introduced myself. I asked if anyone knew of neighbors who were unable to attend due to age or health. A couple of people raised their hands; I said maybe they could fill those others in after the meeting. The ones who originally raised their hands agreed to do so. First I gave a quick description on the attempted raid for gasoline at my place on the second night. Next, I outlined the ideas I wanted to cover.
Then I opened up the floor to discussion of these and any other ideas. We decided to set up a gate to stop vehicles and to man it with two volunteers. The patrols would consist of two individuals just patrolling the three mile long street for the time being. The alarms could be made from two foot sections of iron pipe suspended from posts every 100 feet or so along the street. After agreeing on these points I opened up discussion to any questions from the floor. There was general chaos at first but after a few minutes everyone settled down and started taking turns asking and answering questions. One neighbor, "Johnny" said his cousin lives next door to the county road crew staging yard maybe we could "borrow" fencing and fence posts from there. One of the farmers volunteered to use his tractor to auger fence post holes as well as the ones for the road gate. Johnny said he would be here tomorrow with a trailer at 9:00 to go get fencing material. Two other guys said they had trailers and would also go.
There were about 35 people total in our neighborhood that would volunteer for gate guards or patrols. If we took turns in 8 hour shifts we would be "on" an 8 hour shift every three days. I mention the unoccupied houses that I found. We need to check and make sure they are empty, and then mark them as empty. We don’t want "squatters" to sneak in without our being aware of them.
As I turn to walk away from the group a young guy grabs me by the arm and yells "Who the hell do you think you are? You can’t come in here and start ordering us around. You’re not in charge". My hand goes to the .38 in my coat pocket, "Let go of my arm" I tell him. "I’m not ordering anyone; I made some observations and recommendations. Everyone agreed to some things I recommended, other people made suggestions of their own." I said. "Well, I’m not volunteering for anything and you can’t make me" he said. In a loud voice I ask "does this young fellow belong to anyone here?" No one gave any indication that they knew him. He angrily stared at me and said "I don’t belong to anyone." "OK, just calm down" I told him.
I consider using my .38 to end this here and now. But in a effort to show everyone we need to work together, I asked "what’s your name?" "Rob Mathews" he said. "Well Rob, have you seen the infected other than on the news"? "I have, I’ve been attacked, and I hid and watched as they killed and turned everyone in the ER of the hospital where I worked. If you want to see them for yourself.
Be at my place tomorrow I want to checkout Chico anyway. I would like to know if the virus has made it this far north yet. So, if you want you can come along. Bring a rifle or pistol if you have them and plenty of ammo ".
"I’ll be there, just don’t try to order me around" he said.
When I returned home I filled Jack and Mindy in on the outcome of the meeting. "That’s a lot of work and materials needed" said Jack. "Maybe you can go to the old drying shed tomorrow about 9:00 am and help with the acquisition of building materials" I suggested. I’m going to run down to Chico and check it out. If it is still relatively normal there maybe I can buy some more supplies and ammo. "You just be careful" said Mindy. "Sure, besides I will have company" I said. Then I told them about my run-in with the kid at the meeting. "You make sure you keep an eye on him, You'll need to watch your front and your back." said Jack.