Small Town Survival -Twenty Four

24

Gracie and Sammie had a quiet breakfast that morning. They had quickly done the chores and fed all the animals. Sammie couldn’t even manage a smile for Spice when the silly fox snuck a bit of biscuit from her.

“Honey, you know that your dad will do his very best to find your mom. Why don’t we do something different today?” said Gracie. “Before we go into town.”

“Ok” replied Sammie in an indifferent tone.

Thinking that some drastic measure was needed to cheer Sammie up; Gracie said “Ok, I know what we can do. Let’s get some really old clothes on and go make sure that those berry bushes are going to give us some berries this year. And maybe we can find some clay to make your mom a pretty vase that she can enjoy when she gets home. Does that sound good to you?”

Finally Sammie lifted up her head and got a sparkle back in her eye, “Oh yes, mommy will love a new vase. And can we pick some wildflowers? And can we go wading in the creek when we get clay? And can we take a picnic? And….” Gracie had to cut her off with a “you betcha! Today will be a girl’s day!”

“Yahoo!” cried Sammie and she ran off to find some oldest clothes. There was a tote full of older clothing that Gracie kept in the mud room for occasions just like this and Sammie had a favorite shirt she would wear. It was kind of long, but a deep pink with huge white flowers on it. She could tie up the ends after she buttoned it half way down and she would wear it over an old tee shirt. Gracie loved the shirt because she could always see exactly where Sammie was.

The girls changed clothes, packed up a small soft cooler with plenty of food and water. Just as they were about to go out the door, Gracie asked Sammie what were they forgetting.

“We need our hiking BOB’s, Miss Gracie. We almost forgot!” declared Sammie.

“We sure did, it was great that you remembered, what if something would have happened to us?”

“We would be in some big trouble….BIG!”

They quickly opened up a cupboard in the mud room that was behind the door. From there they removed two backpacks. One pack was smaller and fit nicely on Sammie without being too heavy. Sammie felt very important wearing this pack since she knew exactly what was in it:
6x8 tarp
Three black heavy duty garbage bags
Small mess kit
Flashlight
Batteries
Water proof matches
First aid kit
Fishing kit
Whistle
Rain poncho
A couple packages ramen
Dried jerky
Bottle of extra water
Small folding knife, just for her
And most importantly: the chocolate bars

Gracie’s pack carried similar things plus a couple of flares, two knives, a bigger first aid kit and more food. She then remembered that there were radios in there so in case they were separated; they could still talk to each other.

“Sammie, let’s see if the flashlights and radios work” said Gracie.

Quickly they took the pack off of Sammie and they went outside to the porch to see if they could get the radios to work and whether the flashlights were any good.

“Testing one, two, three” said Sammie confidently in her radio. Gracie had to giggle and say “You’re too fast for me, let me turn mine on.”

“Testing, testing, one, two, three” Gracie could clearly hear Sammie’s voice over the radio. Wow, she wondered how in the world they managed to work. All she knew was that her husband always told her to keep the BOB’s in that cupboard. Unknown to her, the cupboard was lined heavily with steel, under the wood that shown, by her husband when they built the house. There were also a few other cupboards and closets that had been done the same way. So when the EMP hit, the packs were safe.

“This is going to be great!” exclaimed Sammie. The flashlights worked also. They repacked their packs, hooked the soft cooler under Gracie’s pack, and set off with their walking sticks in hand. Of course all the Kids had to come too.