Originally Posted By stimpy117: I just want you to know that I'm keeping my dog in an old fridge and he will only get air when you post another chapter. I await the next chapter, but the dog is in the fridge.

I might. I'm still kicking around a Part 2 that wraps up a few loose ends though.

Some of you story junkies can go to frugals(if you can stomach the stench) it was called,"The Giving" but it might not be there because I asked the web site owner to delete all of my posts and the fact I was ever there and a member. I then took a long hot shower.

Interesting the way a story can show one where they are at the time. Survival story? Maybe not. Lots of God and a little bit of a love story. So what? My first and as we all know......you never forget your first, eh?

Not a new chapter, sorry. I might add one later, as soon as I figure out a few more details. I'm still trying to figure out some transition to the next part of the story; it'll probably be a couple chapters before I get to the next part though.

I'm curious as to why people are so... enthusiastic, I guess, about my story. Is it the fact that the main character has all the survival toys anyone could ever dream of, the fact that it's realistic in that he doesn't know diddly-squat and does everything wrong, or just the simple lack of survival fiction?

Originally Posted By Swindle1984: I'm curious as to why people are so... enthusiastic, I guess, about my story. Is it the fact that the main character has all the survival toys anyone could ever dream of, the fact that it's realistic in that he doesn't know diddly-squat and does everything wrong, or just the simple lack of survival fiction?

Yes

Its great to think about what I would do in this and other exciting scenerios under survival conditions. Few of us have the resources or the means Jerome had. Seems like survival would be a breeze if we did.  Its when we are alone with very limited equipment we are the weakest. In time, even the best of equipment can fail & you need to be able to get along without it or create a way to solve the problem.  So often we become confused about what is a necessity and what is a luxury.

That and we probably shouldn't have stuff we don't know how to use in the first place. He didn't know any first aid or how to use his medical gear (not that it would have helped), he almost suffocated the first time he put on a gas mask to leave the silo, etc.

Swindle,

Come one man, it's survivors porn!

When does the Hooters girls bus pull up?

Originally Posted By stimpy117: Swindle, Come one man, it's survivors porn! When does the Hooters girls bus pull up?

Be careful what you wish for- remember the Arfcom curse.

Originally Posted By Swindle1984: Not a new chapter, sorry. I might add one later, as soon as I figure out a few more details. I'm still trying to figure out some transition to the next part of the story; it'll probably be a couple chapters before I get to the next part though. I'm curious as to why people are so... enthusiastic, I guess, about my story. Is it the fact that the main character has all the survival toys anyone could ever dream of, the fact that it's realistic in that he doesn't know diddly-squat i thought it was pretty realistic about him not knowing how to use the first aid stuff ...... most people laugh at what i carry for first aid "very little" ..... but i've never seen a need to carry a bunch of crap i have no idea how to use.....i often wonder when i see some peoples pics of their FAK if they know how to use all that stuff. Its great if you do but otherwise i just don't see the point... and does everything wrong While he has sliped up ..... i think living in isolation like that would wear on anyone ..... his real mistake seems to have been not gaining more knowledge before the event when it would have been easier to learn cosidering he had the financial resources to do so.... , or just the simple lack of survival fiction?

I like the story and look forward to the next chapter...... so hurry up

The above posts are so true. Things are always changing and when the SHTF you better know how to respond and overcome both the physical and mental extremes you will face. My father just passed away a few days ago and his funderal is today.  I was there holding his hand and comforting him as he died.
We will all die or lose someone we love sometime or other and it won't be easy for anyone when it happens but carry on we must.

Hope to see some more emotional issues in the following chapters too. Keep up the great work.

Everything everyone else has said, really, is why I like it.

Namely, your characters and reactions so far are very believeable, even if the main character didn't have much development (maybe a godo thing for a survival story like this - you can paint the character as yourself).

I've got the start of a story that really didn't have any guidance until recently, when I decided to make it a survivalist story. Have about 10 written pages (double spaced) so far, might post it somewhere... we'll see.

Keep up the good work! I've bookmarked this thread for later reading. :)

Aw now look what I've done! Did I just kick this BTT? I did didn't I, GEZZZZ! Sorry. What a klutz.

Enjoyed it so far ... So Tag

So when do we learn what the hell happened to the outside world?  Though I am not real fond of the "chest flowers" and "speaking" of guns (not nearly terrifying and visceral enough to convey his experience and trauma) the rest of the story is very intrigueing and the twists and turns unexpected. I just found this thread so I cant imagine the torture others have had waiting for individual chapters.

tick tock, tick tock, tick tock...

Finally have my computer set up in a seperate room so I can use it whenever the heck I want. Updates forthcoming.

Tag. Nice work. VERY enjoyable. I like it when the hero is not HE-MAN, but can screw up every now and then.

Originally Posted By anykey: Tag. Nice work. VERY enjoyable. I like it when the hero is not HE-MAN, but can screw up every now and then.

Expect a lot of that.

New chapter tonight.

He even has body bags.  Now THAT is prepared....

Originally Posted By Swindle1984: New chapter tonight.

AWww NOW he's gonna keep me up.

Does our hero use the super BOV to do a thunder run through Foat Wuth, or does he go after libzombies in Awsten?

PA

Originally Posted By James16688: He even has body bags.  Now THAT is prepared....

Believe it or not I have them too.  They are called leaf bags and are made by Glad

Originally Posted By James16688: He even has body bags.  Now THAT is prepared....

I'm pretty sure there was a link to a site selling body bags a few months ago...


Next chapter needed a rewrite, so it'll get posted tomorow morning if I don't get called in to work, tomorow evening if I do.

Originally Posted By Swindle1984: Originally Posted By James16688: He even has body bags.  Now THAT is prepared.... I'm pretty sure there was a link to a site selling body bags a few months ago...

Get your body bags here.

www.seaservices.com/t/

They're even American made!

Originally Posted By James16688: He even has body bags.  Now THAT is prepared....

With no training Im pretty sure they are going to need more of them if they engage any more opfor.

Looking forward to more chapters.

Bumpity bump.

This is why I always wait until the majority of the chapters have been posted...I'm checking back on this thread like a squirrel on crack.  Great Story Swindle...flows really nice and I like how you've incorporated every ARFCOMmers dream...Now get back to the Keyboard and crank out several chapters before doing anything else :)

Nearly done with the rewrite on the next chapter. Should be up tonight, since my plans for the evening were canceled.

Originally Posted By Swindle1984: Nearly done with the rewrite on the next chapter. Should be up tonight, since my plans for the evening were canceled.

Looking on pg5 posts #11823 and #11845

OH the DRAMA
OH the SUSPENCE
I hope it lasts

PA

Fire up a beer and Get R' Done.

Man I haven't been teased this much since highschool. I like your story and I'm waiting for more.

My dog is looking a little stiff.............ya' better hurry!

Bump. Any  updates on an update?

tag, great story line so far, well done!

tag

ETA: I split this chapter into two chapters to make it flow a little better since some time passes between them.




Three days had passed since the surviving people who had been staying in his house had fled to the safety of Blake's missile silo. He'd watched the cameras until he was sure the attackers had left, then gone up with the man who had been their leader to examine the carnage.

Most of their possessions were gone; what the attackers hadn't taken they had destroyed. They had also vandalized a good amount of Blake's home, including smashing a chair from the dining room through his big screen television. None of the attacker's bodies had been left behind, but they had stripped anything of value off their victims and left the corpses where they fell. It was the work of several hours moving the bodies, including the one down in the silo, to a large pit Blake had had dug to install a new septic tank for the house.

The other man, whose name turned out to be Frank, was bound and determined to burn the bodies. Blake thought that he was an idiot and told him so colorfully, explaining that he'd been nervous enough watching over his shoulder in case they came back while he was moving bodies and that he really didn't want to attract them or anyone else with smoke. Finally, Frank told him that if he wanted to bury them he could do it himself and stomped off back into the house.

Blake spent the next hour with a shovel moving dirt from the pile next to the pit onto the bodies and finally gave up. This was taking too long, and he was really sick of trying to look everywhere at once the entire time he worked. He went to the garage, retrieved a large package of lime (he had bought it for landscaping purposes originally, but then realized that he was stupid and just left it with the rest of his stuff in the garage) and dumped it into the pit, glad for the mask and eye goggles he had put on while moving three-day-old corpses. He threw the empty bag into the pit and made another examination of his surroundings before heading back to the house.

He was better equipped this time; instead of his hastily retrieved Kalashnikov, he had brought his select-fire FN FNC rifle. It was reliable, it had a folding stock, and it was full-auto. As far as he was concerned, that was good enough. He'd originally bought it because he saw it in a movie once, but the price tag had sealed the deal for him, even with the sort of budget he had to operate with.

Regardless of the firepower he slung over his shoulder, he was still quite uncomfortable out in the open, especially after spending so much time deep underground. He hurried back into the house, made sure Frank had gone downstairs ahead of him, and sealed the silo.

The two men cleaned up in the showers shortly afterward. Blake wished the silo had come with private showers or that he'd at least installed dividers when he renovated the place. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable showering in front of other people; he'd done it enough in high school gym class and his college dorm that it wasn't a big deal. He simply didn't want to be around Frank at the moment.

Blake severely disliked Frank. The man was argumentative, stubborn, rude, and everything always had to be his way. That in itself wouldn't have been a major issue with Blake, who figured he'd have to spend a lot of time seeing Frank in close quarters and that he'd better get used to it. What bothered him was that Frank gave off a vibe that gave him the willies. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about Frank just made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He'd made a mental note to keep wearing his handgun as he always did in the silo and to lock up his other weapons when he wasn't using them. Frank still had the little compact pistol, but Blake didn't want to give him anything better he could use.

The other three survivors had made less of an impression on Blake. The woman turned out to be nearly the same age as him, and was named Beth. She was the most sociable of the four survivors, and after she'd taken the time to wash up and had put on some clean clothing, she was really quite attractive. She seemed to find Frank as offensive as Blake did, but was much more charitable in her behavior toward him.

The children were Michelle, eight years old, and Sarah, twelve years old. Blake had helped Beth get them cleaned up and calmed down after dealing with the body after they first arrived. Both had been unhurt, minus some bruising on Michelle's thighs, but both were shell-shocked. After three days, they were more responsive, but Michelle refused to speak and Sarah was still withdrawn. Understandable, considering what they had been through.

From what Frank and Beth had told him, they had all met through random chance. Walter, the man with the .22 pistol, had had a shelter he had built during the Y2k panic. When he saw on the news that several cities had been attacked, he had gone into the shelter and stayed there until he ran out of food. He had been spotted by a gang while foraging, and they followed him back to his shelter and promptly attacked him. He managed to escape relatively unscathed and still armed with his little target pistol, and encountered the others.

Michael, the young man with the shotgun, his friend Steve, and his girlfriend Gloria had been traveling on a road trip when they heard the news and had gotten stuck in traffic from all the people fleeing the cities. They'd abandoned the car after it ran out of gas idling on the freeway, and walked to the nearest town, which was busy being looted by the people who had fled the big cities. Anything of value such as batteries, sleeping bags, and food was being stolen and the three had run all over town trying to find their way back out without running into a horde of looters when someone spotted them and let them inside his store for shelter. It turned out to be a sporting goods store, and the elderly man who ran it gave them supplies and his last shotgun as well as directions out of town. They had thanked him, offered to pay and were refused, then left as quickly as they could, running into Walter and aiding him after he had collapsed in a ditch by the road from exhaustion.

Beth had simply stayed at home rather than go in to work, and watched the news. At least, as long as there was news. She'd finally left her house to see if she could reach the rest of her family and had wrecked her car when a man tried carjacking her, frantically screaming that he had to get somewhere before it was too late. He'd left after she ran off the road and plowed into a telephone pole, and she had wandered dazed until she found the children. Michelle, Sarah, Brad, and Augustine had been on field trips at a science museum down town when it was bombed, presumably by the same terrorists who had knocked out most of the electricity. They'd been unable to find their way home and hadn't received help from any of the frantic people in town. Their parents had never come to get them and they simply wandered the streets looking for food. Beth had taken them under her wing and begun walking home with them when they encountered the others.

Collectively, they'd decided that the town was too dangerous to remain in, relating the past experience of Michael and the others several days earlier, and had struck out for the countryside, begging rides when they could. That was when they met Frank. His home had been burned by vandals while he was getting groceries in town, and he had wandered on his own since then. He had immediately declared himself the leader of the group, and since none of the others wanted to argue he got the position. He'd led them all the way across the state, sheltering in abandoned houses or with others who were generous enough to share food and shelter, never staying in one place for very long. Frank had a goal, a destination, and he was going to reach it.

Frank's goal turned out to be a small ranch owned by a relative, who was very adamant that "an asshole like Frank" wasn't going to stay with them and they didn't have enough food or beds for the others. His wife convinced him to offer to let the children stay, but they insisted on staying with Beth and so the group left. Frank, obviously, was angry at being left out in the cold by "his own kin" and became even more untolerable, but somehow they had dealt with it. They wandered as they had before, until they arrived at Blake's gate. After months of travel, mostly on foot, and their rejection at the ranch, Frank insisted that they break in to whatever was protected by such a big fence and tried shooting the lock off like in the movies.

It didn't work, and they'd been stuck until Walter remembered he had a spare blade for a hacksaw in his pack and they had made an improvised saw to cut open the padlock and chain on the fence. After that, opening the automated gate was simple but laborious, and they were in. Blake finally knew how they had gotten into the house; when he made his check of all the doors and windows, he'd forgotten the garage door. They simply entered the garage, forced the door into the house, and moved in. The group had decided to stay when they discovered the house had working water and gas and had been there two days when Blake first noticed their presence.

The rest of the details Blake knew, and for Walter, Michael, Steve, Gloria, and the other two children, the story was over.

Blake shut off the shower, toweled dry, put on clean clothes, and left before Frank could say anything, which he wasn't likely to do anyway. He checked to make sure the others were doing okay, then went to bed early.



Blake normally slept with the door to his room shut. Even though he was alone and the silo was virtually impregnable, he was simply uncomfortable sleeping with all that yawning blackness beyond him. The first time he had spent the night in the silo, he'd been severely creeped out until he realized the weird noises were from the ventilation and the water pump coming on.

Blake found himself suddenly awake and he didn't know why. A glance at the clock revealed that it was nearly one in the morning. Then he looked at the door and realized that not only was it open, but there was someone standing in his room! In a moment of panic, he swept the MAC-10 off his nightstand, clicked the safety off, and aimed it at what looked to be center of mass, all in one smooth, adrenaline-charged motion.

Then his mind caught up and he turned the lamp on.

Sarah stood at the foot of his bed, dressed in one of his t-shirts as a nightgown. He put the safety back on, set the gun back on the nightstand, and rubbed his eyes to relieve the stinging from the sudden light.

"Uh? It's after midnight. What are you doing in here?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"So what do you expect me to do about?"

Sarah shrugged and continued to stand there, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"Look, I really want to go back to sleep. What do you want?"

"Can I stay in here?"

Blake was silent for a moment while his sleep-addled brain worked.

"Couldn't you, you know, stay with Beth?"

Sarah shook her head and replied, "her room was locked."

Blake silently reflected that his was going to be locked from now on too.

"What about Frank? You can't stay with Frank?"

The stare he received told him the depths of stupidity that he had dredged the question from.

"Right. Fine. Whatever. I just want to go back to sleep. Push the door to. And you're going back to your room when I get up; I'm used to getting up earlier than you guys have been."

Sarah nodded and Blake made room in the bed for her to get in. As he turned out the light, she snuggled up against him and quickly fell asleep.

Blake stayed awake for most of the night and listened to her breathing. Some times she talked in her sleep, and Blake gently comforted her when she seemed to be having nightmares. Eventually, he fell asleep as well.



In the morning, he got up, carried her in to the room she shared with Michelle, tucked her into bed, and went to make breakfast. Beth was the first to arrive and he told her about the events of the night. She laughed and said she did the same to Steve and herself. Blake was still feeling kind of weird about it and said so, which prompted more laughter. He felt sort of detached then; it was good to hear somebody else laughing after spending such a long time alone.

His introspection was interrupted when Frank began cussing loudly down the hallway.

"Now what's that asshole's problem?"

ETA Thanks Swindle

IBDR

PA

Bump for the day walkers.

I think Frank also needs to become intimate with quicklime.

Originally Posted By SP10: I think Frank also needs to become intimate with quicklime.

Frank is just misunderstood, he may need some time to adjust.  

PA

I think Frank is going to kill them all.

pretty good read,

i think its as good as Shatter :) although different :)

Frank isn't going to do anything until it is written , that is the "god hand" at work , however I would but one in his head, drag him outback bury him deep and claim he left with a bunch of supplies. Luckly for Frank, I am not the godhand, Swindle is .

By the way good read so far

Survival story fix satisfied. I think Frank needs to be put in a hole with a bottle of lotion. Then get sprayed with a hose a few times.

Originally Posted By rno172: Survival story fix satisfied. I think Frank needs to be put in a hole with a bottle of lotion. Then get sprayed with a hose a few times.

Now you've got that song stuck in my head.

It rubs the lotion on its skin...


By the way, is the dog out of the fridge yet?

Working on the second half now.

Still liking it, keep it coming

Originally Posted By Swindle1984: Originally Posted By rno172: Survival story fix satisfied. I think Frank needs to be put in a hole with a bottle of lotion. Then get sprayed with a hose a few times. Now you've got that song stuck in my head. It rubs the lotion on its skin... By the way, is the dog out of the fridge yet? Working on the second half now.

LOL,
Lets just say I cracked the door. He is looking a litte better today.

the story line is excellent, keep it up, you may end up with somthing to send to a publisher. hell, be well critiqued by the time your finished...

Tag for the rest of the story.

20

cool, im liking it.  kill off frank, he is wasting food and oxygen.