Small Town Survival -Eight

8

Gracie, Maggie and Tucker all crowded around Sammie and the box.

"What did you find, Sammie?" asked Gracie.

"Big ole walkie talkies!!!" answered Sammie as she held up an old crank radio walkie talkie bigger than her head with both hands.

Tucker took the walkie talkie and said "These look like those they had on that old show MASH. We sure can use these. I think there has to be some kind of wire though. Let's look in the rest of the boxes."

Gracie sighed "Ya'all go ahead and look and I'll see if I can go find someone from the VFW to come and take a look; plus some strong young backs to haul this stuff up into the light of day."

After all the boxes were hauled up and opened, the group could not believe what they had been blessed with.

There were indeed thirty walkie talkie crank radios, better known as TA-1 field phones. Along with all the WD-1 commo wire they would need and all other parts to set the whole town up with relay/report stations in a ten mile radius at least.

There were survival knives that had fishin' line, hooks, wet/dry matches (that still lighted) and even a saw line in the handles.

There were old flashlights that burned forever on batteries, with the changeable lenses. There were books and manuals on survival that obviously had been part of someone’s private library, stuck in the boxes also.

There was rain gear for ten men and a pair of moccasins that fit Tucker as if they were made for him. And in one big box there was a solar oven/dryer. Handmade with a lot of care.

There was one box with five Russian Makarov's with the rest of the box filled with ammo to go in them. Another box was nothing but 45's and there were two boxes filled with ammo to go in them.

There were a couple of boxes with old maps of Russia, France, Germany, Europe, Korea and even military bases around America. Very detailed maps. A couple of hand made maps also. Those were going to take some figuring out to see where they showed and what.

There were two boxes filled with camouflage netting. Packed in tightly.

There were girly calendars from the 40's, 50's and early 60's. Some two dozen National Geographic’s and five coffee cans filled with coins.

About a dozen or so golf balls thrown in with everything.

"whose stuff is this?" asked Maggie.

"I think it must have belonged to Lucille's husband. He was president of the VFW about 15 years ago and she was in charge of the library then and Walter fought in WW1 and Korea I believe" replied Gracie.

"Tucker, I think you should take charge of most of this stuff, especially the guns, ammo and radios" said Gracie.

Maggie piped in "don't give him the golf balls; we won't see him for days if you do." They all grinned.

All together, they had made quite a find and word was spreading about everything. A crowd was starting to fill the library. They quickly locked up the guns and ammo in the library office and that's when the mayor walked in to see what was up.

By the time they showed him everything, a couple of the young men had rounded up the leaders of the newly formed militia. They quickly agreed to get started on setting up the radios and also agreed that outlying homes should have one, especially those closest to the roads.

They also agreed that everyone that could hold a gun, would get trained on one and get one. Man, woman and child! Now that they had plenty to go around.

They were just about done when there was a big ruckus at the door.

"There's a gang of thugs headed our way from Jonesboro!" Cried a young man who was out of breath from running to warn everyone.

"They'll be here within 30 minutes or less..."

Immediately the militia leaders took control.

"Let's get going folks, and meet those thugs on our terms!"

The men all rushed out of the library leaving Gracie, Maggie and Sammie to lock up.

"Well, let's get over to the clinic and get prepared in case some one needs some medical attention tonight" said Gracie.

Most folks had all drifted home by now, although there were enough men to go meet the trouble. Gracie saw that most of them had the guns that Momma Sue had brought. She also saw that the Mayor and Tucker were in the lead. Maggie looked kind of worried; but, gave a smile and said "I know he will be ok".

"Of course he will, silly." quipped Sammie, "he's Mr. Tucker!"

"Let's get some sandwiches and coffee ready too, those guys will be hungry when they get back" said Gracie.