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Posted: 3/17/2009 11:37:01 AM EDT
[#1]
Originally Posted By Gripy:
Originally Posted By k12lts:
It's Alive!!!!! Fuck yeah, its been too long. yeah I procrastinated on this, I even had people IMing me asking WTF? |
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MO, USA
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Posted: 3/17/2009 4:39:39 PM EDT
[#2]
I thought this story was over. Thanks for the new chapter.
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Posted: 3/17/2009 7:58:50 PM EDT
[#3]
Originally Posted By SEMO:
I thought this story was over. Thanks for the new chapter. 
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Posted: 3/21/2009 3:20:04 PM EDT
[#4]
Chapter 24 Jack knew exactly what he wanted at the store, and quickly found a pair of khaki pants, a tweed sports coat, gray shirt and a military pattern tie for his wedding outfit. Blue dockers and a cream shirt would have to do for the rehearsal dinner, the entire process took less than 10 minutes. Dana had just come back from the bathroom to find Jack at the counter settling up with the cashier. “Yeah I’ll take 500 rounds of 308 ball ammo as well” Jack said to the clerk, he looked at Dana. “This place is great, true one stop shopping, you can even get your whiskey and ammo here as well!” Jack was offered a choice of Lake City 308 in M60 links or Australian L2A2 in 5 round strippers. Jack chose the Aussie since he could strip it straight into his FAL mags. Dana checked her watch, “We’d better head back over to my place so I can get ready for the rehearsal and dinner”. “Where’s the rehearsal at?” Jack asked as they drove back. “The Sacred Heart Catholic Church” Dana replied. Jack wasn’t familiar with it, “Big place?” Dana shook her head no, “place hasn’t been used in years, we spent a month of weekends cleaning it up. We found a lay preacher in Paulden who’s going to do the service for us, but he’s not a Catholic. Well at least the church is.” They arrived back at Dana’s house “Make yourself at home Jack, I’m going to shower and stuff.” I’m pretty tired Dana, I was up early this morning, all right if I sack out on the couch for a half hour or so?”. “Yeah sure Jack”, it wasn’t what she’d had in mind, but if they did that they’d be late for the rehearsal. Dana came back downstairs about an hour later. She was dressed in s blue suede skirt suit with a white blouse, gray hose and heels. Her hair was up and swept over her right side, she looked sophisticated, yet at the same time very approachable. “What do you think?” she asked him. Jack was silent for a minute, “You look absolutely gorgeous! Where did you get that outfit from?” “Oh I use the same tailor you do.” She looked at her watch, “We’d better be going”. Jack shook his head affirmative as he followed her out to his car. He was amazed at the transformation and was trying to figure out whether he preferred “lunch in the park Dana” over “night at the opera Dana”. In the end he decided he’d just get both. Everyone else was already at the church when Jack and Dana arrived. Jack took a seat at one of the pews towards the rear of the church. He’d never been a particularly religious man but he felt a kind of a calm come over him as he sat there. Marisol sat down beside him, “You must be Jack, right? Hello I’m Marisol”. Jack had seen her on TV but had never seen her in person before. There was a sort of a happy glow that emanated from her, Jack couldn’t quite figure it out but she seemed to make people happy just by being there. “Are those your kids?” Jack asked her, she shook her head yes. “Yes 2 of them, Danetta is 5 and Ted Jr. is 3 and a half. I’ve got a 2 year old as well, but she’s at home with her dad”. Ted Jr. was distracted by something and the best man, Jim Olsen, wasn’t too interested in keeping him occupied. “So how are you and Dana getting along? You know she’s like a little sister to me. We had some good times when we first met up, we had some rough times as well but on the whole it was fun. Look at her with Danetta, you know she’s so good with children.” Jack felt like he was getting a sales job from Marisol, but he didn’t mind. He was enjoying listening to the sound of her voice, she still had a kind of husky Mexican accent that was just dripping with sex appeal. He wasn’t actually listening to her, he was just enjoying the sounds of her voice and was looking at Dana and the rest of the wedding party. Jack hadn’t had a formal wedding, he and Lindy had gone to Las Vegas and were married at a drive thru wedding chapel. He’d wanted to be married by the Elvis impersonator, but it was his day off. They’d had 4 wonderful years together before she’d passed, it had all happened so quickly, he’d left to go on a business trip and she’d been fine. He came back 3 days later and she was sick, dying 2 days after that. Lindy had gone early on in the sickness and Jack was able to give her a proper burial. Most of the people still lay where they’d died. “So when are the 2 of you going to get hitched?” Marisol asked in an off handed kind of way. “Uh, what?” Jack spluttered out, he hadn’t been really listening to Marisol and she had been yammering on for quite a while. “Well you gotta admit she’s a hell of a catch, I mean any man would be lucky to have her. She’s got her own business, she’s a great cook, good with children, has a wonderful personality, great sense of humor, well respected in the community, I mean what’s not to love?” “So when did she hire you to be her PR pitch person?” Jack asked. Marisol thought she detected a hint of humor in Jacks voice so she went with it slapping him gently on the arm and giving him her most winning smle, “You know what I mean, silly. She’s my best friend and all I hear are wonderful things about you, so of course I want the 2 of you to be happy together”. Jack smiled and laughed back, Marisol was relieved. Dana was walking towards them with Danetta and Ted Jr in each hand, they both ran to Marisol and she scooped them both up. “Come on then you 2 we’re going to have to head back home and get plenty of rest before the big day tomorrow” she said to the kids. “You’re not coming to the rehearsal dinner then?” Jack asked her. “No I gotta get these 2 to bed at a normal time, otherwise they get over tired and grumpy. I’ll see you tomorrow at the wedding and we’ll all have a good time”. “We’ll walk you to your car” said Dana. The three of them walked out to the parking lot, “I call shotgun” shouted Danetta “No not fare, you always do” responded Ted Jr. They got to Marisol’s car, it was an electric blue Subaru WRX. In a dash mount was Marisol’s short barreled Winchester 120 shotgun. “Are they not in baby seats?” Jack asked. “No just their seat belts, its more important that they’re able to get out of the car if needs be. I live out near Congress hill and we’re on our own. It’s going to be dark in about 15 minutes and you never know what’s out there. I usually drive with the lights off using NVG as soon as I’m out of town. This car has a really good muffler system on it so I’m not announcing my presence and the speed I drive it’s unlikely anyone could catch me.” Marisol said this in a matter of fact kind of way, but it was not something Jack had ever thought about and it was kind of a sobering moment realizing that he could soon have to be worried about more than just himself. Jack put his arm around Dana’s waste as they watched Marisol and the kids get settled in the car. Marisol maneuvered out of the parking lot and Jack, Dana and the kids all waived furiously until they were out of sight. “Was she serious about all that?” Jack asked. Dana shook her head yes “We strongly suspect the Crown King MZB crew were very active in that area a couple of years ago. It’s been quiet for a while but you’ve got to figure if business slows on the freeway then they’ll look for other opportunities”. Jack escorted her to his car and they got in and drove to the Palace. There was a lively crowd in the Palace as there always was on a Friday night. Jack held the saloon style door open for Dana as she made her entrance. There was a loud chorus of whistling and whoops from a big card game just inside the door. “Pay no mind honey, it’s just a bunch of drunk ass cowboys that don’t know how to treat a lady” said the bar tender “holy cow is that you Dana?” he continued as he recognized her. “Some of those boys look like they need their heads washing, I’ll send Sheriff O’Neil over to give them a hickory shampoo if they don’t shut the fuck up” Dana quipped back. The Wozniak party was upstairs in the Hasayampa room and they made their way there. Dana opened the door and they entered the room. Jack looked around to see about a dozen people in there, most of whom he kind of knew, a man who looked to be about 50 approached him with his hand outstretched. “John Wozniak, I’m pleased to meet you”. Jack shook his hand. Dana kissed him on the cheek, “Hiya pops” she said as they hugged. “Jack I’d like you to meet my wife, Liz, my son David and his future wife Hortensia Gonzalez”. Tensie rolled her eyes and said “I usually go by Tensie” she said. “Yes I know, you put 3 stitches in my left leg a couple of years ago after I got gored by a Javelina. I paid you with 10 pounds of venison steak” said Jack. “That’s right I thought you looked familiar to me. Dana has told me all about you, but I didn’t know who you were until now”. “Jack you look like you could use a beer, come on lets go get one “, John said to him. They walked over to the self service bar area. “Jack I’ve heard a lot of good things about you” John said handing Jack a beer. It was a Prescott brewing company summer ale, a bit out of Jack’s usual price range. Jack sipped it and whilst it was a nice drink he didn’t think it was worth the extra cost over their standard brew. “I know most of the farmers and ranchers out in your area, and they all speak very highly of you. John O’Neil speaks very highly of you too Jack.” John said lowered his voice, “I know what you’re doing for him and I’m in on the deal as well. I understand you’re going to Phoenix on Monday, I want you to go to this address and retrieve 2 large crates that are in the garage” John handed him a business card, Jack took it and flipped it over. There was an address on the back of it, it was a residence in northern Glendale. He vaguely knew where it was and put it in his pocket. “Care to tell me what’s in the crates? So I know how to handle them properly?” Jack asked. “Mostly M67 fragmentation grenade, also some flash bangs and 40mm HE and anti personnel rounds. You needn’t worry too much about them since the grenades are not fused yet and the 40mm stuff spin arms when it’s fired, but be careful with them. Another thing, I’d prefer that Dana not know about this, so if you can separate from her when you get them then that would be best. I’m sending one of my guys down to help her load up the trailer and you can take my 5 ton as well”. “So how did you come by this address?” Jack asked. “It is a house across the street from where I lived. The guy that lived there had worked at a munitions plant on the outskirts of Phoenix that made airbag components and other propellant actuated devices. The grenades were one of their product lines. He was a kind of SHTF guy and had been squirreling these things away for years. I don’t know what he’d planned on doing with them, but I’m glad he did it. There’s also a company called IHL near the Deer Valley airport, they used to specialize in high performance dry lube coatings. They did a lot of work on the Dillon M134 mini gun. I can’t say for sure but I’d bet there is a lot of stuff there that we could use. Here’s the address for them, again it’s a very un assuming place that no-one not in the know would look twice at. We’d better go join the rest of the crew we can talk more about this tomorrow, I know Liz is dying to meet you”. They re-joined the rest of the family, Jack sat next to Dana and she lovingly squeezed his knee. She was very happy that everyone was warming towards Jack. She was especially glad John seemed happy, even though he wasn’t really her dad he was the closest thing she had and his approval meant a lot to her. There was lots of family talk, with old stories being re-told. One in particular about John and David trying to clear out an old tree stump with dynamite, the tree trunk was in a septic system leach field and the dynamite had blown up the septic system holding tank and covered them both in shit from head to toe. Maybe it was the wine, or just the atmosphere of the night, but Jack had never laughed so much at a story in his life. Jack woke up the next morning just as dawn was breaking, Dana was lying next to him snoring very softly. The party had been a fabulous time, with some great company. Jack liked all the people and Dana’s family were just the type of people he would like to be friends with. They had left at about 9pm and Jack had intended to drive back to his place since he hadn’t had much to drink, but he’d ended up going back to Dana’s for a night cap and one thing had led to another. It had been a while since he’d been with a woman and even longer since he’d been with one he’d loved. The sex had been great, gentle un hurried and very natural. Jack looked over at Dana, thinking he could let her sleep for a while longer. He looked around the room and found his shirt and pants and decided to go down stairs and see if he could find the coffee pot. |
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Posted: 3/22/2009 10:14:28 AM EDT
[#5]
Nice job picking up where you left off.
Don't wait so long next time. 
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Posted: 3/22/2009 11:35:18 AM EDT
[#6]
Originally Posted By KOW:
Nice job picking up where you left off. Don't wait so long next time. thanks, I'll try and keep up with it. 
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Posted: 3/28/2009 1:12:25 PM EDT
[#7]
OK here's another one.
Chapter 25 Jack wasn’t sure how strong to make the coffee, so he went for a kind of medium strength. It didn’t take long to brew a pot and it tasted pretty good. He looked around the kitchen for a tray and found one. The tray looked a little bare so he went outside and picked some wild flowers from the path way and set them in a used beer bottle. Well it’s not perfect he thought, but it’s the thought that counts. He took the tray upstairs and into Dana’s bedroom, she was awake and smiled at him as he came in the room. “Hi, I made coffee. I hope it’s not too strong”. Dana took the cup from him and he placed the tray on the night stand next to his side of the bed. “I like the flowers, that’s a real nice touch”. There was a comfortable silence between them, that neither of them felt the need to break. Jack slouched down on the bed and Dana leaned her head on his shoulder. He turned his head towards her and gently kissed her on the lips. They both felt comfortable with the direction their relationship had taken. Finally Dana spoke, “What are your plans for this morning, I mean before the wedding?” “I’ve got some things to take care of back at my place, oh and a wedding gift as well. I guess you’ll have your hands full with wedding prep?” “Yeah, it’s Tensie’s big day, still I suppose we’ve still got a little time for each other” she said pulling back the sheets exposing her beautiful naked body. Jack didn’t need a formal invitation and 20 minutes later they were both basking in the warm after glow. Jack was heading east on highway 69 about an hour later when he heard a siren in the distance, he checked his rear view mirror and saw flashing lights closing rapidly on him. He slowed and moved into the right lane, a couple of seconds later the Sheriff’s Mustang blew by him at an easy 120 mph. “Shit he’s in a big hurry somewhere, I hope it’s nothing too serious” he thought to himself. Jack down shifted 2 gears and accelerated to try to keep up with the Mustang, if the sheriff was in this much of a hurry he might be in need of some help. He caught up with him in Mayer. The sheriff’s Mustang was parked sideways in the parking lot of the gas station, the sheriff was taking cover behind the front fender with his AR15 pointing into the gas station store. Jack stopped 50 yards away from him out of view of the store and hollered out “Hey John, do you need any help?” “Hostage situation inside the store, I might need you help with negotiations” he shouted back. John motioned to Jack to take position around the side of the store. Jack popped the trunk release lever and exited through the passenger side door. He still had his Glock 22 holstered and he push checked it to make sure there was a round in the chamber. Then he reached into the trunk and took out an under folding Polish AK47. He extended the stock and inserted a magazine, charging the gun. He threw a shoulder bag over his shoulder that had 3 more magazines in it. As an after thought he popped ear plugs in, his ears had rung for days after he had shot at the MZBs with his FAL, and the AK was even louder. Jack took position and looked over to the sheriff for direction. John motioned Jack to go around the back of the store. Jack figured the sheriff wanted him to try and flush the bad guys out through the front. It seemed like a bad plan to Jack, as he was bound to be the one doing the shooting, since no-one in their right mind would come out the front directly into the path of the sheriff. Fuck, he thought, this is really harshing the buzz I was still on after last night and earlier this morning. “Inside the store, come on out. We’ve got you surrounded. No-one needs to get hurt” the sheriff shouted out. There was no reply, he waited for a minute and shouted again “There’s no need for this to end this way, come on out peaceful and we’ll work this out”. No reply, “Swat team 2 move in now, GO, GO, GO” he shouted at the top of his voice simultaneously firing 3 three round bursts into the glass window front of the store above head height. There was no Swat team 2 backing him up but he figured he had taken the initiative and that was what counted he figured as he ran towards the front of the store. The back door to the store opened and a petrified 16 year old girl came blindly running out. Jack saw her and the small caliber revolver in her hand. She ran directly towards him apparently not seeing him, he let the AK slide down on it’s sling and punched her as hard as he could in the face. She folded like a cheap tent at his feet, he took the revolver from her and re-shouldered his AK heading towards the door, meeting the sheriff as he exited it. Jack was about to give him a piece of his mind until he realized that it had been the sheriff who had taken the real risk. The store owner, Candy, came out behind the sheriff. “Yes that’s her, she came in the store demanding money, I told her we didn’t have any money this is just a barter store, but she wouldn’t listen” she said pointing at the girl. The sheriff went over to the girl, “Oh hell” he said in a resigned way. “Oh shit, no. not you girl, why did you go do this”. He picked the girl up in his arms and turned to Jack “Thanks for not shooting her Jack, I kind of had a feeling it might be her from the description with the 911 call”. “Who is she John?” Jack asked. “Her name’s Sunshine, she’s one of the survivors from the Arcosanti massacre. I’d placed her with an old couple that live in the trailer park the other side of highway 69. I guess if’n we go over there we’re probably going to find something bad as well”. “Oh fuck, I really don’t need this today” Jack thought to himself, again. “Well I guess I’d better go get this over with, Jack you don’t need to be here for it you’ve already done your civic duty. I’ll catch you later at the wedding”. John started back round the outside of the store carrying a still unconscious Sunshine. “John I’ll come with you” Jack replied. He’d said it unconsciously and as the words came out of his mouth he wondered why he had just said that. As the two of them rounded the side of the building a plump red faced old man and woman came running across highway 69. John turned to Jack saying “You know sometimes it’s really fucking nice to be wrong”. He turned to the woman and smiled, “It’s OK Mrs McGruder she’ll be fine, she just bumped her head”. Sunshine was beginning to come around and Jack figured that now was a good time to leave. He bade everyone farewell and walked back to his car. He unloaded the AK47, folded the stock and put it back into the gym bag in his trunk. He got into his car and the rest of the drive back was uneventful. Jack had already showered and had breakfast with Dana, so he went straight to the barn to see how things were. There was no sign of Spencer, jack checked the fridge and noted about a dozen new eggs. He checked round the back of the barn where the chicken coup was and everything looked good. There was a small matter of the pump in the south section to take care of , Jack threw his tool bag onto the back of his quad and rode off to take care of it. There were 3 pumps in the south section, each of them pumped water to a header tank on the side of a hill. This tank then fed the irrigation lines by a gravity feed. As he approached the first one he could see the vanes and drive shaft turning so he figured it was OK and moved onto the next. This was an electric unit that was powered by a solar panel. It was quiet and obviously not working. Jack checked around it and found the culprit, a rat had gnawed through the PVC covering of the cable and shorted the wires, causing the circuit breakers to trip. The rat was dead at the scene from electrocution. “Serves you right you little fucker” Jack thought. He quickly repaired the damage and the pump was soon up and running again. Jack spent the next couple of hours checking the drip lines to the orchards and was pleased with the progress of the apricot trees, no-one else was growing them in the state to his knowledge and he was hoping to do well out of them. He figured he would need the extra income soon since neither he nor Dana had wanted to take any steps to prevent her from getting pregnant. Jack got back to the barn and left Spencer a note telling him he would probably be spending the night in town and that the pump and drip lines in the south section had all been checked out. He went up to the house to wash and get changed before heading back for the wedding. He cast his eye around the house, it was OK he thought. It was a 3 bedroom double wide trailer about 1400 sq feet in total with a finished basement underneath. It was in pretty good shape and Jack had always kept it clean. He could imagine him and Dana raising a family here, it wasn’t as big or as fancy as her place, but Spring Valley was where the orchard was and there was no moving that. Jack arrived at the church in plenty of time, he sat towards the back on the brides side. He took a quick head count and it looked like about 50 people or so. That’s quite a turnout he thought. Liz Wozniak sat down beside him, “Hiya Jack, how you doing. Say that was quite a party last night, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.” You have no idea how much I enjoyed last night Jack thought to himself. “It sure was nice visiting with you and John. How is the happy couple this morning?” “Oh David’s a little fragile, him and that dumbass Jim Olsen went out partying pretty hard last night. I don’t like him or that piece of trash girlfriend of his. Tensie is fine, Dana has her squared away. They’re really close, almost like sisters. We all lived together down in Phoenix for a while before moving up here. Dana moved up first and then John and the rest of us moved up a couple of years later after that really hot summer. Well I’d better go make sure the father of the bride isn’t getting too emotional” Liz said and left. A man in his early 40s leading a very pretty 2 year old girl who was dressed in her best outfit approached him. “Mind if we squeeze in beside you?” the man asked. “Please do, I’m Jack Warner of Spring Valley” “I thought you might be. Ted Griffin, Marisol’s husband” Ted replied. “You have 3 beautiful children Ted, I met the older ones last night but I think this little girl is prettiest little thing I’ve ever seen”. “Thanks Jack, I think my Anna is the cutest thing ever. Marisol gets most of the credit for that. I’m just the ugly old bastard that was fortunate enough to marry her. Marisol’s with the kids in the back”. The wedding march music began and Jack and Ted turned to watch David, Jim and Ted Jr enter the room and slowly walk up the aisle. Jim seemed to be making more of an effort with Ted Jr and everyone felt better about this. At last Tensie made her appearance with the famous wedding dress, she looked radiant and the dress really was exquisite. She was flanked by Dana and Danetta. Danetta had a beautiful white dress on and Dana had an outfit on that looked like it belonged in a 1950s era fashion magazine. Jack pretty much daydreamed through most of the ceremony, he caught Dana’s eye a couple of times and mouthed “I love you” at her. She smiled back at him but had to have her attention on the bride. Jack drove his car over to Dana’s house after the ceremony, and he walked the 2 blocks to the Palace for the reception. He had stayed around after the ceremony to watch the photographs be taken. He and Dana had posed for one together on Liz’s insistence. It was pretty obvious to Jack that Liz was as interested in seeing them together as he was. Jack walked into the main bar at the Palace, it was brightly lit and today it looked more like a church hall than Arizona’s oldest saloon. Marisol handed him a flute glass, “Champaign?” He enquired. “No, sparkling apple cider, but the effect is the same” she replied.”Save it for the toast, if you want a beer instead there’s a whole lot of them at the table in the back” Marisol gestured towards it. Jack headed over to the beer table but was waylaid by Janice from the courthouse and Dolores the dressmaker. Jack complimented Dolores on the quality of her work, he wasn’t much of a clothes horse himself but he did like the way the flirty 50s style outfit looked on Dana. Dolores had wanted to go more for a Betty Page, B17 bomber nose art look, but Dana had wanted something a little more practical and didn’t think she had the figure to pull it off. Jack thought about this for a minute and agreed with Dolores that Dana did have the figure to pull it off. . Janice hadn’t known about the Jack/Dana relationship but was pleased for Jack, opining that they’d make a lovely couple. The entry of the main wedding party distracted them and Jack slipped away to get a beer. Jack was seated with a table of people he didn’t really know for the meal, they were mostly business associates of John Wozniak. He was glad when the meal and toasts were over and the party moved to a tent outside on the courthouse lawns. He sort out Dana and they found a quiet corner table to sit at in the tent. They were engaging in casual chatter and enjoying the atmosphere of the party. David and Tensie came and sat down at their table. Jack congratulated them both and asked if they were going on a honeymoon. “We’re going to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days hiking and camping” David replied. “Tensies never been there and last time I was there was with the boy scouts when I was 14.” “I didn’t even know it was open anymore, I mean is there anything up there? I’ve only been one time myself and that was probably 20 years ago with my parents” Jack said. David explained “There are a couple of families ranching the area, I talked to the Coconino county sheriff and he said there’s cabins up there we can use. We’ve got to take our own water up because there’s no guarantee that the water system will work and of course there’s no power. We’re going to call in on him before we go to the park and then again on the way out”. It was time for the new couple to leave and the reception to wind down. Dana caught Tensie’s bouquet, it was hard to miss since Tensie had thrown it directly too her. Liz had been standing next to Jack at the time, “Well I guess that settles that” she said to him. It was getting dark and so Jack and Dana decided to leave and go back to her house. |
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Posted: 3/28/2009 7:55:06 PM EDT
[#8]
Nicely done.
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Posted: 3/30/2009 1:26:26 PM EDT
[#9]
A SHTF romance novel almost
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Posted: 3/30/2009 3:19:22 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Seadra_tha_Guineapig]
[#10]
Originally Posted By beakerello:
A SHTF romance novel almost yes there are some romantic elements in it as there are in real life. When I started out writing this I intended it to be more escapist fiction than a true SHTF "how to" manual, which is why the 2 main characters are a tomboy and a stripper. My vision of post EOTWAWKI involves a period of extreme chaos leading to a re-birth (Renaissance) of society. I'm hoping that people will pick up and things will kind of get back to what they were. So this means men and women meeting each other as well as tire smoking car chases and graphic shoot out scenes with MZBs 
edit for spelling |
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Posted: 4/8/2009 11:47:46 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Seadra_tha_Guineapig]
[#11]
Chapter26 Jack woke up early the next morning, he’d been in less of a rush the night before and had folded his clothes after taking them off. He slipped into them quietly and went downstairs. He had brought some of his precious tea bag stash with him and intended to use Dana’s spare coffee maker to brew it in. first he had to thoroughly clean the coffee pot to get the coffee taste out of it, as he was doing this there was a knock on the front door. Jack got his glock 22 and went to answer the door. Peeping through the spy hole he saw it was the sheriff, so he opened the door. “Morning Jack, I saw you moving around as I drove by, so I thought I’d stop in and say hello. Thanks for helping me out yesterday, I really appreciated the way you handled the situation. She had a gun and you would have been well within your rights to have shot her. I’m glad you’re clear headed enough to know when the right level of force is required.” “You’re welcome John, she was just a scared confused kid, I could see the look of pure panic in her eyes and just did what I thought needed to be done. Would you care to come in and have some tea or coffee?” John nodded affirmative and Jack led him into the dining room off the kitchen. It was well away from Dana’s bedroom so Jack figured they wouldn’t wake her if they kept their voices down. He thought he detected from John’s body language that there was something fairly serious that he wanted to discuss. “Jack, we need to get some better intel on the compound up at Crown King. I don’t just mean times of delivery for the deuce and a half, although we do need that as well. I mean we need a detailed map of the place with distances between buildings and accurate distances from known land marks. As you know we’re going to raid the place at some point in the near future and the stuff you’re getting for John Wozniak is an integral part of it. We’ve got to figure out how to get a large force in there, in complete surprise so we can take the place without losing anyone un-necessarily.” “So are you planning on smuggling an attack force up in the back of a deuce and a half?” Jack asked. “Well that was one of the plans we were considering, you don’t seem too enamored with it” John responded. “It’s a little too obvious John, I think even the MZBs might be able to work that one out. We’ve got to figure that there’s at least one person up there that has their shit together. It stands to reason so, otherwise this crew would never have lasted as long as they have. It may be that the best course of action for us is to blow the bridges in a spectacular way to let them know that we’re on to them and that we’re waiting for them on the road. That will mean we give them 2 choices, either to come down the road when their supplies run out and face our guns, or to make a run for it down the south side of Crown King, which would mean abandoning their vehicles and going on foot. They’d stand a better chance initially going out on foot down the south side. However they’d be screwed after their water ran out in about 4 to 5 days, because you can’t carry much more than that much water on your back this time of year.” “It sounds like you’ve given this quite a bit of thought Jack. What is the state of the washes that the bridges cross, is it possible that they could just detour around the bridges albeit at a much slower rate?” “Yeah they probably could, but in that time we could rain down a shit load of 40mm grenades and frags on them if we were there. Another possibility is that they simply wouldn’t wait for us and would try and take the fight to us. They would probably figure rightly that we couldn’t maintain a long term siege. There’s really no telling just how much they have in supplies or where the supplies are. If it was a single store house then we could send in a 3 to 4 person team to destroy it. I think you could probably get a small team of motivated individuals up there to do that and probably destroy their fuel stores as well.” “I like the sound of that Jack, how soon do you think you could get a plan together for doing a raid on their supplies?” “Well I didn’t actually volunteer to do this John, if you remember I said you could probably get a team of motivated individuals up there to do it. I don’t have any military experience at all and it sounds like what you need is an A-team or something like that. ” “Jack, you know the lay of the land up there better than anyone else that we have. I really think you should go on any raid we do. How about I see if I can find someone with the right kind of experience to lead a team? Someone who can maybe do a crash course in team fighting or something like that? What do you say? Would you be interested in something like that?” Jack thought about it for a while, “Yeah I guess so if you had a group that were fighters. I was up there as a hunter, and it’s real easy to slip into places on your own. I figure it’s a whole different game going in with a group.” “Alright Jack, thanks for giving it some thought. I’d better go before Dana wakes up. Do you have any plans for today?” “I think we’re going over to John and Liz Wozniaks for a celebratory brunch or something” “OK I’ll be back in touch with you Jack.” And with that John left. Jack heard movement upstairs, he poured out a cup of tea for himself adding a shot of milk to it and waited for Dana to come down stairs. She entered wearing a huge pink bath robe, Jack wondered whether she had anything on under it for a moment. “Who were you talking to? She asked. “John O’Neil stopped by to say hello, he saw the light was on and me moving around.” Jack handed her a cup of the milky tea. “Oh, so what did he have to say for himself?” She asked in a non-committal kind of way. Jack was kind of sick of hiding the truth from her so he just told her “He wants me to act as guide for an A-team that’s going to do a raid on the Crown King MZBs and destroy their food and fuel supplies. That way they’ll be forced to come down and we can take them in a fire fight at the time and place of our choosing”. “An A-team?” Dana laughed, “Where are you going to get the van, and who the fuck is going to be Mr T?” She laughed for quite a while at her little joke, Jack thought it was funny as well but not as funny as she did. He was going to remind her that Mr T was the actors name and that his character was B. A. Baracass, but thought better of it. They spent the rest of the morning drinking tea and swapping stories of their lives experiences. There were a couple of holes in Dana’s life that she didn’t elaborate on. Jack felt they must have been pretty bad so he didn’t push her on it. At around 11am they headed over to John and Liz Wozniak’s place for the brunch. Dana drove them over in her A to B car, it was a Miata. Jack commented that he didn’t think it was her style and she responded that whilst she loved the sheriffs office Mustang, the Miata was fun in a different kind of way. They pulled into the Wozniak place upper parking lot. The Wozniak place had been a custom office building that had been the former home to a firm of engineering consultants. The building was two stories built into the side of a hill on Iron Springs road. It had a choice view of Thumb Butte, Prescott’s most famous landmark. The upper floor had been a series of offices the John, Liz, David and Tensie had converted into a home. The bottom floor was a 3000 square feet workshop. They both entered the back door into a living room. David and Tensie were there already. Jack gave David a knowing look, he figured David had probably gotten more action than he had last night and Jack had had plenty. John came in carrying a couple of beers, he handed one to David. Turning to Jack he said “Well I figure the sun is up over the yard arm somewhere, do you want a beer Jack?” Jack took it. sensing the women probably wanted to talk about women stuff John said “How about I show you the shop Jack” John led Jack and David out the front door and down a flight of steps to the shop. It had a full height roller door on the front that led out to a loading dock that could take a 28’ bed semi. Inside the shop was like immaculately clean. Over in the far corner was a 3 axis CNC mill and a CNC lathe. There was also sheet metal fabricating tools, a heavy duty punch press and CNC break. Towards the front was a computer work station and an electronics bench. On the bench was a device hooked up to a bunch of lead acid batteries. “What does that box do?” Jack asked pointing to the batteries. “That’s our future, Jack. We’ve found a way to restore the charge carrying capacity of lead acid batteries” replied John. Jack paused, ”So how does it work John?” He asked. “It’s kind of rapid pulsing of positive and negative charges to the plates, and it lifts the solid deposits that form an insulation layer on the plates. Then you have to flush the cell and replace the electrolyte. It takes about an hour per cell, but it works like a charm. Easily extends the life by another 5 years. I figure by then someone will be making new cells, so this product has a shelf life. In that 5 years we’ll have the time and income to develop another product.” Jack felt that the “our” and “we’ll” somehow included him, and he had to clear the air. “John, this is great and I hope you make just an obscene amount of profit on it and all, but I’ve kind of got my own thing going on.” Jack I understand that, and I’d like to talk to you about maybe you opening a franchise up to service batteries? You’ve got a lot of contacts out in your area and I’m sure that maybe if we sat down with you and Dana that we could come to an arrangement? I assume your intentions towards my daughter are honorable?” “Well, yeah obviously they are” Jack replied. “Good, then we’ll talk about it another time then. Jack I want to show you something else out in the lot next door.” They walked out the shop to the adjacent lot, Jack noticed a 5 ton truck with a tarp over the cab area. “This is the truck I want you to ride in down to Phoenix tomorrow. You can hook your personal vehicle up to the back of the trailer, or you can put it in the trailer on the way down.” John reached up and tugged the tarp off the cab of the truck. On top of the cab was a ring mount. In the ring mount were a pair of 50 cal M2 machine guns, with a 45 degree sloped shield in front, that rotated with the guns. “Charlie is going to be going down to Phoenix with you, and I’d prefer it if you let him run the 50s. You can drive or Dana can, it’s up to you. But I’m not negotiating on Charlie manning the guns.” “OK John, but I told Dana what’s going on with the Crown King MZBs”. “Well if that’s the case you should take her with you to pick up the grenades and other items I told you about. She might enjoy seeing the old neighborhood again.” “Sheee-it, I do believe it’s the war wagon!” Came a loud voice from behind them. Jack, John and David turned to see Steve Cooper approaching them. John turned to Jack and said “Jack, this is Steve Cooper, the city manager, he’s another one of our partners in crime.” “Is Jack on board with everything then, John?” Steve asked.”Yeah, yeah most things” John replied. Jack didn’t get a good feeling from Steve, he was about to say something when Liz appeared walking down the driveway towards them all. Jack had never really looked at her, she was extremely attractive in that voluptuous kind of late 50s/early 60s James Bond girl kind of way that left you in no doubt that this was the figure of a woman and not a 12 year old boy. “Are you boys done playing with your toys, only food is getting cold up here?” They all “whatever’d” her, and Liz headed back up the driveway. “Dude, if she wasn’t so hot I’d have told her we’d be up there when we’re good and fucking ready” Steve said to John. “Sure you would have Steve, and after she’d slapped you like a bitch we’d have done what she said” John replied. The men all laughed, knowing that what John had said was really the truth. Brunch was great, tamales and runny eggs, heuvos rancheros and sausage patties with lots of bacon and fresh orange juice. A heart attack on a plate as John described it. Jack and Dana excused themselves when they were done and headed back to Dana’s. Jack packed up his things and headed back to his place. He had some things to sort out at the orchard before the trip down to Phoenix. Dana and the rest of the convoy was meeting him at 3 am the next morning at the Spring Valley turn off on highway 69. |
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CA, USA
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Posted: 4/9/2009 2:12:06 AM EDT
[#12]
YES!!!!
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 4/22/2009 12:34:10 AM EDT
[#13]
Glad you're continuing the story! I read it a year or so ago, about up to the point where Prescott came into the picture.
I have lived in AZ on and off for the better part of a decade, including Prescott, Flagstaff, and now Tucson. Pretty cool to be able to picture these areas in my head as I"m reading the story. |
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Posted: 4/22/2009 3:36:24 PM EDT
[#14]
Originally Posted By Primos:
Glad you're continuing the story! I read it a year or so ago, about up to the point where Prescott came into the picture. I have lived in AZ on and off for the better part of a decade, including Prescott, Flagstaff, and now Tucson. Pretty cool to be able to picture these areas in my head as I"m reading the story. Yeah, you're supposed to write what you know about and I've lived in AZ since '91. the story moved up to Prescott because I don't think Phoenix would be viable after TEOTWAWKI |
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WV, USA
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Posted: 4/23/2009 12:21:06 PM EDT
[#15]
Just started and finished reading this. Good stuff. Now i can't wait to read the rest.
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Posted: 4/23/2009 2:54:15 PM EDT
[#16]
Originally Posted By TURNSKULL:
Just started and finished reading this. Good stuff. Now i can't wait to read the rest. oh crap, I guess the pressures on now
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 4/24/2009 10:48:29 AM EDT
[#17]
Originally Posted By Fourays2:
Originally Posted By Primos:
Glad you're continuing the story! I read it a year or so ago, about up to the point where Prescott came into the picture. I have lived in AZ on and off for the better part of a decade, including Prescott, Flagstaff, and now Tucson. Pretty cool to be able to picture these areas in my head as I"m reading the story. Yeah, you're supposed to write what you know about and I've lived in AZ since '91. the story moved up to Prescott because I don't think Phoenix would be viable after TEOTWAWKI You live in the valley? |
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Posted: 4/26/2009 9:43:56 AM EDT
[#18]
Originally Posted By Primos:
Originally Posted By Fourays2:
Originally Posted By Primos:
Glad you're continuing the story! I read it a year or so ago, about up to the point where Prescott came into the picture. I have lived in AZ on and off for the better part of a decade, including Prescott, Flagstaff, and now Tucson. Pretty cool to be able to picture these areas in my head as I"m reading the story. Yeah, you're supposed to write what you know about and I've lived in AZ since '91. the story moved up to Prescott because I don't think Phoenix would be viable after TEOTWAWKI You live in the valley? yup, I worked in Prescott for 5 years and drove up there every day. I figure I'll be here for a couple more years until the youngest kid is done with school, then I'd like to move somewhere that's got flowing rivers and trees again. The idea for the story came about as I was speculating about how you could survive a long term bug in under the premise of the story, and I eventually came to the conclusion that you couldn't. So the location of the story moved to somewhere more suitable. |
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TX, USA
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Posted: 4/27/2009 8:06:26 PM EDT
[#19]
I am up to chapter 21 and wow I am impressed. I love the stuff around Prescott some of my best friends are from Dewey and they are cousins to the owners of Youngs farm.
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Posted: 4/29/2009 6:22:56 PM EDT
[#20]
Originally Posted By tsonda4570:
I am up to chapter 21 and wow I am impressed. I love the stuff around Prescott some of my best friends are from Dewey and they are cousins to the owners of Youngs farm. unfortunately the Young family doesn't survive the sickness, the farm is under new management now . Glad you like the story.
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TX, USA
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Posted: 5/13/2009 10:01:37 PM EDT
[#21]
Originally Posted By Fourays2:
Originally Posted By tsonda4570:
I am up to chapter 21 and wow I am impressed. I love the stuff around Prescott some of my best friends are from Dewey and they are cousins to the owners of Youngs farm. unfortunately the Young family doesn't survive the sickness, the farm is under new management now . Glad you like the story.They never liked them anyway.
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Posted: 5/19/2009 7:56:40 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Seadra_tha_Guineapig]
[#22]
Chapter 27. Jack had parked his truck just off to the side of the road hidden in the trees and he checked the luminescent dial on his watch, it showed a little before 3 a.m. He was planning on loading his truck onto the flat bed trailer that John Wozniak’s 5 ton was towing. We walked the 10 yards back to his truck and took a thermos from the cab. He poured himself a half cup of milky tea and sat down to wait for Dana and the convoy. He heard the sound of a vehicle in the distance coming towards him from the west. It sounded like a regular pick up truck and it seemed to be travelling at a reasonable speed. He quickly finished his tea and went back to the concealment of the trees, just in case. Jack put the thermos back into his pack and grabbed his FAL from behind the driver’s seat. He positioned himself behind the front fender of the truck, placing the engine block between himself and the road. He flicked the safety off as the truck slowed to a stop, it had shown no lights so Jack figured the driver must have some kind of NVG. The truck engine stopped and a woman’s voice called out “I’m looking for Jack Warner. My name’s Carla Fiorenti, Dana told me to meet you here, I’m with the convoy”. That was good enough for Jack. “I’m coming towards you from the north side of the road” he called back to her. Jack lowered his FAL to a low ready position and advanced towards the road. As he approached the truck the interior light came on for a moment, just long enough for him to recognize the woman before she turned it off again. “Hey, how’s it going. I recognized you from the wedding, you were with the group from Ash Fork, right?” Jack asked her. She shook her head yes. “Yeah, I think we’ve bumped into each other a couple of times before as well. Dana will be along in a few, we got going and she had to wait for some stragglers in Dewey. She told me to come ahead and let you know. Are you riding down with her, or are you driving your own truck?” Jack figured she had seen the truck with her NVG, “I’m riding with Dana and hitching my truck on her flat bed” he replied. “Hey, why don’t you park up behind me and have a cup of tea while we wait for her?” “Thanks, I don’t mind if I do” Carla replied. She parked her truck alongside Jack’s, he’d wanted her to park in the trees but it seemed pointless since she’d seen him anyway. He lowered the gate on the bed of his truck and sat on it while he poured the tea. Carla walked towards him, he looked up at her. She was an attractive woman all right. She had an olive complexion, Italian or Greek he guessed, average height, probably about his age he estimated. It was hard to tell what her figure was like since she had a bulky jacket on and had a handgun of some type in a shoulder holster under her right arm. Must be a lefty Jack thought to himself. She sat next to him “English tea with milk. Kind of an acquired taste, some people like it with lots of sugar. This stuff’s kind of old but still good” he said as he handed her the cup. She took it from him, “Yeah I’ve had it before, there used to be a fish and chip shop down on Bell road and they sold it. I went there a couple of times with an ex who was a total Anglophile. They had a bunch of pictures of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana on the walls and some weird coins and bank notes. Frankly I thought the food was terrible.” Jack wasn’t going to argue that point with her, his parents were English but they didn’t eat much English food. “Yeah I know what you mean, my folks came over from England in the 1960’s and we never ate much English food either. Mind a good joint of pork with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and parsnip is pretty good.” The wheels were turning in Jack’s head, and he was remembering where he had last seen her. “Hey, you know I won this belt buckle for best trophy Elk at the Rodeo 2 years ago” he said gesturing towards his belt. “Oh really, that’s a very nice belt buckle” she replied in a cautious way, as if she had a feeling where this was going. “Yeah, you know there was an ass kicking party afterwards on the lawn by the courthouse. We all got drunk as hell and my buddy hooked up with the chick that won the wet tee-shirt contest. I don’t suppose you’re still dating him are you?” Carla laughed in a slightly awkward kind of way, “No and the son of a bitch never called me back afterwards. Well hey, what can I say, it had been a long hot day and as you said we’d all had a fair bit to drink.” Jack smiled to himself, yeah they’d been pretty impressive alright. Totally fake as his buddy had confirmed, but Jack felt as long as you can put your hands on them they’re real. “So are anymore of your jack-ass friends going to be going down to Phoenix with us today?” she asked in a sarcastic kind of way. “No, no. And I promise I won’t mention it again.” He replied. There was silence for a while until Carla spoke, “So what are you after in Phoenix?” “Did you ever hear of a salsa company called El Sol?” Jack said, she shook her head yes. “Well I’m going to the plant that makes it to get as many of the canning supplies as possible. I make a range of chutney’s and other fruit preserves from the fruit in my orchards and I’m going to sell them over the winter. I need the jars and lids and any portable equipment to sterilize and seal the jars. How about you?” “Oh you know, just some bits and pieces” She looked away from him when she replied, he thought it was strange and was about to enquire further when the sound of an approaching large truck stopped him. “Sounds like they’re here” Carla said as she jumped down off the tailgate of the truck. They both walked towards the road, Jack could make out the silhouette of the gun turret on top of the 5 ton although none of the trucks were showing any lights. The 5 ton drew up to them and Dana waived to him through the side window, “Jack load up your truck as quick as you can so we can get going” she called to him. He went back over to his truck as Charlie was lowering the ramps on the trailer. Jack had to turn his side lights on so he could see where the ramps were and Charlie guided him up and onto the trailer. They secured Jack’s truck and he retrieved his pack and his FAL from the cab. He climbed up into the passenger seat next to Dana. He leaned over and gave her a good morning kiss “Hi Hon, everything OK?” he asked. “Yeah sure, I just want to get us past the danger point as quickly as possible before any of the MZBs wake up”. Dana picked up the mike to the CB and keyed it “Princess Daisy to all, it’s time to go gather mushrooms”. And with that she put the truck into drive and accelerated slowly away. “So, Princess Daisy?” Jack enquired. “Yeah I know it’s kind of corny, we’re using characters from Super Mario brothers for our call signs. So we’re Princess Daisy and Carla is Peach”. “Peaches more like” said Charlie from the back, Jack snorted with laughter. Dana looked at him “What?” she asked, “Oh nothing Hon.” He replied. “Jack here you’d better put on the electronic ear protectors like Dana and I have, it’ll cut out the background noise and amplify our voices. You can plug it into the 12V outlet in front of you”. Jack put it on and instantly it blocked out the noise of the truck. “Oh yeah that’s great. So did you hear anything yet from the spotter at the bumble bee turn off?” Jack asked. “No, that could be a good thing or a bad thing, his instructions were to maintain radio silence unless there was something critical to report. So either nothing’s happening or his radio is down. I’m going to try and raise him when we’re at sunset point. Everyone else is going to switch over to the northbound lane there and we’re going to run down the southbound side. One of the guys from Dewey has an old Maxim 08/15 that they got from the local VFW post mounted in the bad of his truck, so he’s going to be the sweeper in case there’s any problem when we split. I honestly don’t think there will be, but you never know”. “Yeah hopefully we don’t get to use the armor plating on this truck, it worked real well in testing against standard rifle caliber, 30-06, 308, 8mm, 303 British. But I’d rather not press my luck in case they’ve got anything heavier” said Charlie from the back. “How’d it do against 50cal?” Jack asked “Not so good” Charlie replied glumly. It took them 30 minutes rolling at a steady 45mph to reach the sunset point rest stop. Dana pulled over and set the gain switch on the CB to the low setting. She keyed the mike “Princess Daisy calling Yoshi, do you read me Yoshi?” Silence, except for static. Dana paused for a few moments and tried again “Princess Daisy calling Yoshi, do you read me Yoshi?” again nothing. She looked at Jack and Charlie, “maybe he’s asleep Dana or the battery has gone out on his quad? It’s not likely that they’re on to him, I don’t think?” Charlie replied. Dana switched the gain back to high on the radio and tried again “Princess Daisy calling Yoshi, do you read me Yoshi?” Again no reply, she repeated “Princess Daisy calling Yoshi, do you read me Yoshi?” Nothing. She looked at Jack and Charlie, “I think it’s time for us to go”. “I here you loud and clear Dana” Charlie said as he stood up and raised the armor shielding on the side and front glass before climbing into the gun turret and charging both 50s. Dana picked up the mike again and keyed it, “Princess Daisy to all, Elvis has left the building, repeat Elvis has left the building”. Dana eased down on the throttle as the remainder of the trucks crossed the median to the northbound lane. |
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UT, USA
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Posted: 5/20/2009 4:03:35 AM EDT
[#23]
Thanks for the new Chapter..
I'm really enjoying the story.
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WI, USA
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Posted: 5/20/2009 5:35:46 PM EDT
[#24]
I don't mind hearing about fake breasts. Maybe the romance isn't so bad!!!! Great update!
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Posted: 5/21/2009 1:40:11 PM EDT
[#25]
Originally Posted By WIDeerHunter:
I don't mind hearing about fake breasts. Maybe the romance isn't so bad!!!! Great update! if you can touch them they're real
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KY, USA
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Posted: 7/10/2009 12:40:13 AM EDT
[#26]
This gonna get finished? I hope so, it's a great story.
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Posted: 7/10/2009 9:33:20 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Seadra_tha_Guineapig]
[#27]
Originally Posted By FIELD_MP:
This gonna get finished? I hope so, it's a great story. wow, you must be a mind reader, I was just (finally)finishing off another chapter
Chapter 28 “Elvis has left the building doesn’t really fit with the super Mario brothers theme, does it?” Jack quipped. “That was my contribution” replied Charlie “I thought we’d add a bit of variety to the mix”. Dana halted the truck before the road started down into the cutting, “I need to adjust my vest and put the plates in front and back. Jack there’s a vest and plates for you behind the seat.” She swung the driver’s side door open and got out, jack followed her with the vest and they both geared up. “Jack I’m real nervous about this, I’d just hate for something bad to happen”. Jack was relieved, he was shit scared and praying no-one would notice. “I know Hon, I’m worried too. I figure once we get past the Bumblebee turn off we’ll be good though.” He was trying to sound upbeat, but it just wasn’t happening. The last time he’d been involved in actual shooting it’d been different, there’d been no time to think about what could happen. Also the odds had been a lot better against the 2 MZBs in the truck, plus they’d only been firing bird shot at him and were pretty much out of range. He nervously adjusted the chest rig holding his spare FAL mags hoping she’d say something up lifting. She took 3 sharp intakes of breath and punched the top of his vest just above the ceramic plate “Let’s just do the fucking job” she hollered out with as much bravado as she could muster. “Ooh-rah” Charlie hollered back at her. It was time to go and they got back into the truck. “Jack if we make contact you’d better get set to open up one of the firing ports in the back window in case we need rear security” Charlie called down from the ring mount. They had about 3 miles to go to the Bumblebee turn off and it was pretty twisty, nowhere was the visibility more than about 400 yards and the embankment was mostly on the driver’s side, Dana hoped the armor in the roof was as good as the door and glass was. She was letting the truck pretty much coast down the hill, avoiding using the brakes and trying to make as little noise as possible, if anyone was waiting for them she wanted to give them as little notice as possible. Jack was sat in the passenger seat tightly gripping his FAL praying silently under his breath. He was seriously scared and hoped to God that he didn’t freeze up when push came to shove. The next 5 minutes seemed like an eternity to him, he hoped Dana was concentrating on her driving and not looking at him. “I can see the junction, there’s nothing blocking the road. I don’t see anyone around either and the road looks clear as far as I can see. Dana, I think we’re clean and green so we’d best put the hammer down and put as much distance as possible between us and the junction” Charlie called down from the turret. Jack felt a wave of relief and almost elated, he looked at Dana, “Works for me, hell yeah. Dam straight, let’s just get the fuck out of here” Jack said to her. Dana wasn’t as gung ho as the others. “Charlie I think I’m going to keep it at this pace, there’s still a couple of potential ambush spots between here and the bottom of the hill. Jack I need you on rear security, just in case someone sneaks up behind us from the Bumblebee road”. Jack swallowed hard. Oh fuck he thought, she doesn’t think it’s over. Jack climbed into the back seat of the truck, slid open the firing port in the rear glass armor and pushed his FAL through it. Dana felt like it had been too easy. Charlie had rotated the twin 50s so they were pointed towards the top of the embankment, feeling sure that the road wouldn’t be blocked. The best place for a road block would have been round a corner just past the Bumblebee junction. This way the MZBs could have easily deployed a force behind them and boxed them in. Dana was aware of this and it was why she’d had Jack covering their rear. The rest of the convoy had had a much easier time of it and were already down the hill parked up on the road about ¼ of a mile this side of Black Canyon City waiting for the truck. The truck passed through the junction and Dana continued letting it coast down the hill. The road was a little straighter following the junction and the curves were a little more gentle. Coming up was a deep cutting though which formed a natural choke point. Here is where she would stage her ambush if she was a MZB. Charlie sensed this as well and rotated the turret so it was facing forward again. Nothing happened, they sailed cleanly through the cutting and once out on the other side they could see plainly the rest of the road down to Black Canyon City. “Well that ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be” she said to no-one in particular, continuing “I guess they were up partying last night. Although I would have thought somehow they would have known about us coming since the notice of the trip was on the board at the town hall for 2 weeks, and I doubt our op-sec is that good”. Jack heard her, but he was still concentrating hard on what was behind them. He thought he’d seen something a little ways back but it hadn’t re-appeared after the next set of bends. Maybe they’d had a tail but the tail was onto them too late to do anything about it. They reached the bottom of the hill without incident and Dana pulled back to the head of the rest of the convoy parked up outside Black Canyon City. She stopped the truck. “I think we can lower the shields from the windows and take off our armor, what do you think Charlie?” Dana asked . “Yeah I reckon so, I thought we were going to make some contact up there at the junction for sure, and I’d forgotten about that cutting. That would have been a meat grinder if they’d blocked the road and hit us from both sides of the top of the embankments” Charlie replied. Jack didn’t say anything, he was hoping a little color had come back to his face. He didn’t want to go through that again anytime soon. It almost would have been a release to have had someone to shoot at. Dana opened the driver’s door and got out she stretched herself and took off the vest. Jack climbed out of the truck and his knee buckled. “Are you OK?” She asked him. “Yeah I’m fine, it was just a little tight back there and I had a kind of a cramp in my knee” he lied to her. He steadied himself against the side of the truck and consciously stopped his knee from trembling. “You look white as a sheet Jack, are you OK?” “Yeah I’m fine I just need a bit of air that’s all”. He walked around the side of the truck and as Charlie came out of the passenger door he handed him a flask and winked at him. “I was thirsty Jack, you might like some too”. Jack took a pull from the flask and it burned on the way down. He handed it back to Charlie, “thanks” he said and dropped his vest in the back of the truck. Dana came back from talking to some of the other drivers. “I figure it’s safe for us to split up now and everyone can go at their own pace. There’s not been any activity between here and Phoenix, and since its open desert any roadblocks will be visible for miles”. “Sounds good to me” Jack said, he was feeling more like himself thanks to Charlie’s flask. As they were getting back in the truck most of the convoy passed them accelerating to their own pace. The sun was coming up and it was noticeably warmer in Black Canyon city due to the drop in altitude. Jack judged it to be probably about 70f. “I never lived in Phoenix, how hot is it going to get to be today?” he asked. “Probably no more than 100f if we’re lucky” Dana replied. Jack put his chest rig on the floor of the truck and took off his sweater. “I don’t suppose this truck has air conditioning in it does it?” he asked. “No I’m afraid not” came the reply from Charlie They were trucking along at a decent pace, and Dana wanted to hit the plumbing supply places first. The plan was to find one and then leave Charlie there to load up whilst Jack and Dana went off to take care of other business. It only took them 45 minutes to get to the Phoenix loop road and they headed west on it. The roads were still in really good shape, with not having to endure freezing and thawing there wasn’t really anything to damage them. “Carla is still behind us, any idea where she’s going?” Jack asked casually “Well she’s taking some of the stuff back for us from John’s survivalist cache. I’m not sure what else she’s down here for” Dana replied. “Do you know her at all, you know what does she do?” Jack continued. “I’ve got no idea what she does, she must be doing alright though. I’ve seen her around plenty, she was a pretty regular party animal around town. I got to talking to her one night after I arrested her boyfriend and it turns out she was a Scottsdale Princess, I don’t think she’d ever worked a day in her life before it all happened. She had lots of different boyfriends and……why are you so interested in her?” “I was just wondering, that’s all” Jack replied innocently. Dana pulled off the loop freeway at the 2nd exit and swung the truck into the parking lot of a huge strip mall. Jack saw their destination was a home depot store at the end of the strip. Dana pulled the truck around the back and shut off the engine. Carla pulled up behind them with her engine still running. Jack, Dana and Charlie all got out of their truck and Dana went to talk to Carla. “Come on Jack, let’s see if we can get the loading bay roller door open” said Charlie shouldering a large tool bag. They walked up to the pedestrian door next to it and Charlie took a lock pick gun out of his bag, he turned to Jack and said “Never leave home without it”. He put the fingers of the gun into the kwikset type lock and squeezed the lever a couple of times. He then twisted the gun as though it was a key and the door opened. “Open sesame, eh?” Jack quipped “I’m not going to ask how you came by that skill, but I know who to call if I ever lock my car keys in the car”. They went inside and found the roller shutter door was electric powered but had a manual over ride chain pulley on it. By the time they had the door open Carla was leaving the parking lot in her truck and Dana was walking up to the loading bay. “I told her to meet us back here in 3 hours, I figure that’ll be plenty of time for us to get the stuff we need her to take back. Let’s take a look inside and see what we’ve got in the way of pipes and fittings.” The men grunted their approval and Dana led the way. She’d been to this store before with John Wozniak back in the early days when they’d been working on converting the Phoenix house to run mostly on DC electric to avoid conversion losses from the PV cells they used to power it. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Charlie I want all the 20 feet lengths of schedule 40 PVC pipe in ½”, ¾” and 1”. Also I want all the fittings that go with them. Let’s just take all the bins they’re in, no need to unload and load them again. I figure we’ve got 5 or 6 hours before it starts to get real uncomfortable in here and that should be enough time for us to get all of this cleaned out.” “OK, how about you get your truck off the trailer and back it up to the loading bay Jack and I’ll find a suitable cart for moving the pipe from here to there” said Charlie. Jack left to do so and Dana started a rough count of the amount of pipe there was. “It’s not going to be enough for the Brown co-operative project Charlie, we’re going to have to get another supply, probably need as much again I think”. The Brown co-operative project was going to be Dana’s next big deal. It was structured the same as her other deals, she installed and maintained the irrigation system for a cut of the harvest, in this case it was mixed root crops, potatoes, beets, carrot etc. In fact if things worked out the way she hoped they would it would be the last installation project she did and she and Jack would be able live off her cut and the proceeds from his orchard. “Are you going to be OK without us Charlie?” Dana asked. Charlie shook his head yes “I’ve got Mr Colt here to keep me company” he said patting his holstered 1911 “and Mr Garand is in the truck if I need him”. “OK, we’ll be back in a couple of hours, call us on the CB if you need us”. And with that she left. Jack was stowing the tie downs that had secured his truck to the trailer. “Come on we’ll go get the grenades and other stuff from the house, it’s real close to here. Do you want me to drive?” Jack acquiesced. “I grew up around here, I’ll take you past the high school I went to if you like?” Dana pointed the truck out onto the street and started driving. “When my mum and dad moved here from Poland they said this area was all orange groves, you can still see the remains of some of them in between the housing sub-divisions and industrial buildings. That was an interesting place” she said gesturing to a very drab and uninteresting looking building. “An old boyfriend of mine, his dad worked there. They made communications satellites and the like there. We went round it one time as part of careers day in my junior year. OK over here is my old high school, I never got why our team was the “sea hawks”, I mean it’s 350 miles to the coast!” Dana turned off the main road and into a maze of side streets. The streets were very dusty and it was obvious no one had been down them since Dana had left. Unfortunately they were leaving a trail behind them. Dana turned into the final cul-de-sac where the Wozniak house was and she stopped 3 houses away from it. “That’s where I lived with the Wozniaks, this house here is what we came for. I think the sooner we get in and out the better”. |
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WA, USA
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Posted: 7/11/2009 2:34:22 AM EDT
[#28]
Great story, I was wondering when they were gonna make it back there.
BTW did your sig. come from where I think it did? (Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!) |
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Posted: 7/11/2009 3:00:33 AM EDT
[#29]
dang, i thought you'd forgeten about this!
thanks for the udate! MOAR 
K. |
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Posted: 7/11/2009 10:11:06 AM EDT
[#30]
Originally Posted By DFARM:
Great story, I was wondering when they were gonna make it back there. BTW did your sig. come from where I think it did? (Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!) yes, it's from the documentary Office Space. |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 7/18/2009 8:53:16 AM EDT
[#31]
lovin it. more please
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Posted: 7/18/2009 7:43:03 PM EDT
[#32]
115f outside today, too hot be out shooting. It's even too hot to be reloading in the garage, so here's another chapter
Chapter 29 Dana reversed the truck into the driveway and parked with the tail gate of the truck about 5 feet away from the garage and turned the engine off. It was a typical suburban house, two stories, 3 car garage, with one large double door and a single door next to it. Dana opened her driver’s door and got out of the truck, reaching behind the seat she picked up her M4. “This is where I got this from” she said to Jack using the rifle to gesture towards the house they were about to enter. “This guy had a ton of stored food and a large collection of rifles and ammo. I didn’t realize what any of them were at the time. He also had a bunch of parts kits and John Wozniak built a couple of sub guns from them, I think Tensie still carries hers in her truck. It’s funny I don’t remember there being boxes of grenades here when I checked this place out first”. Jack got out of the truck and went to the single garage door. He twisted the handle in the middle of the door, but it wouldn’t open. “Any reason why this would be locked?” he asked Dana. “John has a habit of doing that, I bet our house is all locked up as well” she said gesturing to the house up the street. Jack looked at the double door, there were the rounded heads of coach bolts visible on both sides of the door down near the ground. Jack assumed that there were locks on the inside of the door that probably engaged with the door surround. “I guess I’ll have to force an entry, am I going to find anything nasty in there?” he asked. She handed him her rifle and went to the bedroom window next to the front door, it was a sliding type. She took out a Kershaw ken onion knife from her pocket and opened the blade. She slid the knife blade up between the 2 panes of glass whilst pushing slightly on the moving pane. The lock popped and the glass slid open. “Every teenager knows how to silently open the windows in their own house, and these are just the same as mine”. She hopped through the window and went to open the front door after closing the window. The front door was a little stiff but it opened eventually. “We cleaned this place out, it was used as a store house for our excess dry stuff and other non-perishables. I wonder if John had found the grenades hidden somewhere else and put them in the garage?’ Dana pondered. “Well lets go find out” Jack replied. The garage was part of the house and the door to it was off the laundry room. Dana opened the door and went in. it was dark and she couldn’t see much in the gloom. Jack walked over to the double door and felt for the locks. They were a simple turn bolt style and he unlatched them and slid the door up. This bathed the garage in sunlight and the boxes were obvious. They were nailed shut and Jack looked around for a wrecking bar or something to open them up with. He found one on the work bench at the single door side of the garage. He gently pried up on the lid of the first box and the nails came out with a little effort. The box was full of M67 fragmentation grenades. They were individually wrapped in vacuum sealed bags and the fuses were wrapped similarly. Jack picked one up, “It’s OK, these things are perfectly harmless until you put the fuses in them” he said motioning to the fuses with the grenade. “It says “contents 200 units” on the box and these things probably weigh about ¾ of a pound each. Let’s see if we can easily manage it between us or if we have to get something to help us lift it.” Jack was struggling to pick his end of the box and he knew there was no way Dana could lift hers. “This isn’t going to happen Jack” she said. Jack agreed, they had to work smarter, not harder. There was a nylon rope coiled up in the corner of the garage and some 4x4x10 lumber. Jack took two of the 4x4x10 studs and angled them between the floor and the tailgate of his truck. He then took the rope and looped it around the roll bar in the bed of his truck. “Two simple machines Dana, a ramp and a pulley. This should make it easier for us to load.” They dragged the box to the base of the ramp made from the 4x4x10s and Jack tied the end of the rope to the handle on the box. The 30 degree angle of the ramp effectively halved the weight of the box, and the pulley effect halved it again. They easily loaded both boxes into the bed of the truck. “I’m going to check the place out, see if John left anything else behind that he’d salvaged from elsewhere” Dana said. “You’d have thought he’d have mentioned if there’d been anything else worth bringing back when he told us to get the grenades” Jack stated. Dana shrugged her shoulders and went to explore. Jack returned to the truck and began securing the load, mindful that he’d need to bring the rope and 4x4 studs to get the things out again at the other end. Dana came back into the garage, “Hey there’s a good score in there. This guy had a complete set of Le Creuset pans” she said excitedly. “Am I supposed to be impressed?” he asked. “If you knew anything about cooking you would be, these are like the Snap-on of kitchen ware. Also there’s a door without a handle that won’t open under the stairs”. Jack was more interested in this last item, doors without handles that didn’t open normally didn’t for a good reason. He followed her into the kitchen and helped her wrap up the pan set. He figured this would be for their new life together and he would ultimately be the beneficiary of her cooking, so it made good sense for her to have the best tools to do the job. They loaded the pans in the back of the truck and turned their attention to the mysterious door. Jack ran his hands over the joint between the door and the walls, trying to find any evidence of a hidden release mechanism. “Any idea what happened to the guy that lived here, I mean where did he die?” Jack asked her. “I think he must have been out of town when he died, we never found his body or anything, why?” she replied. “Well it kind of looks like this might be a “safe” room. A lot of survivalist types had a secure room that they could retreat to in case of a home invasion or other SHTF situations. Mostly though they’re off of a bedroom or somewhere similar. This is right in the main entry way and in the case of a home invasion it’s unlikely you’d be able to reach it easily. Could it be the way to the basement?” “I doubt it, none of the houses around here had basements. I don’t know anyone that has one, I think it’s something to do with the ground being too hard or something” Dana replied. “And yet everyone has swimming pools?” Jack countered. “Yeah I don’t know what to tell you Jack, that’s just the way it is” Dana replied, suddenly distracted by the dining room hutch. She walked towards the hutch, the dining room looked out to the back yard. “Well this guy didn’t have a pool, although he did have a first rate dining set.” Dana picked up one of the dinner plates on display on the hutch, it was part of a full size Portmerion floral pattern set. She blew the dust off it and admired its obvious quality. “Yeah, Jack we’re going to need these as well, see if you can find a box and something to pack them in”. The dining set was wrapped up in hand towels and table linens and put into a plastic storage tote, ready to go into the back of the truck. Dana had lost interest in the door but Jack was still trying to get into it. Dana looked at her watch, “Hey Jack it’s been nearly 3 hours, I think we’d better get a move on back to see Charlie and we still haven’t got you canning stuff yet.” Jack agreed, it wasn’t like the mysterious door was going anywhere. They locked the house back up and began the short drive back to meet Charlie at the home depot. When they pulled around the back of the home depot Carla was already there. She and Charlie were sitting under a shade tree near the loading dock. Dana parked Jack’s truck next to Carla’s truck and they both walked over to the shade tree. Charlie and Carla were exchanging pleasant conversation. Carla had changed into a t-shirt and shorts and Jack noticed she looked older than he’d thought. He’d only seen her with his beer goggles on before and assumed they were about the same age, but now he saw her in the daylight he realized that she was probably more like in her mid 40s. She was still a very attractive woman though for her age, she leaned over and offered them oranges from a bag. “I picked these about an hour ago, they’re truly excellent, very juicy and sweet”. Said Carla in a very sensual way. Jack took the orange from her “Thanks, don’t mind if I do”. “Carla, Jack Charlie and I are going out west to a couple of more places for some more pipe and some canning supplies. You’re welcome to tag along with us, I don’t know if you got what you needed but there’s bound to be plenty of targets of opportunity along the way” said Dana. Carla pondered for a while, “Thanks I think I will. I didn’t have any fixed plan to get back, maybe I’ll just follow you guys back”. “You’re welcome to do that. The plan for now is to head east up to a couple of places near the Deer Valley airport and then work our way out west to the canning supplies place and then back eventually through Wickenberg and Congress to avoid the Crown King MZBs.” said Dana. It was too early for lunch so they decided to head on to the next location. It was another home depot about 5 miles east of their last location and it only took 10 minutes to get there. Carla had wanted to leave her truck at the first location but Dana didn’t want to have to return to the same place twice. She was pretty sure there was no-one else around watching but it never hurt to be cautious. Once again they pulled around to the loading bay at the rear of the store and Charlie affected entry in a similar way. Dana made a quick survey of the store and calculated this would more than satisfy their plumbing needs for the rest of the Brown co-operative project. Charlie and Carla got to work loading the pipe and fittings onto the trailer and Jack and Dana decided to go to the IHL place that John Wozniak wanted them to visit. Once again Dana drove, it made sense since she had the local knowledge. It took just a couple of minutes and they were looking at a drab looking single story building. “It doesn’t look like much to me” Dana commented. “I think that’s the idea, if you were making machine guns in an area like this you’d probably want to keep it quiet as well. Let’s pull round the back and see if we can find a way in”. Dana pulled the truck around the back of the building and out of sight of the road. Jack got out of the truck and walked up to the back door of the building. It looked fairly sturdy. He backed up a couple of steps and motioned Dana to bring the truck forward. “Pull it up as close as you can get to the building, I’m going to climb up onto the roof and see if I can open one of the skylights and get in that way.” Dana pulled alongside the building and Jack got up onto the roof of the truck. He then jumped to the roof and pulled himself onto it. it was a gently pitched roof and there was a skylight about 30 feet away from it, he couldn’t believe his luck, it wasn’t locked down. He came back to the edge of the roof. “Dana, would you throw me that rope that’s in the back of the truck, I’m going to need it to get down into the interior of the building”. With the rope secured around a stout post on the roof he opened the skylight and dropped it down into the interior of the building. It was fairly dark inside but it looked like there was nothing beneath the skylight. He lowered himself through the skylight and slid down the 15 feet to the floor level. He looked around in the half light and could see all manner of machine tools, he could recognize the common ones like lathes and mills, but there were a lot of vats that had one contained liquids of some sort. He made his way to the roller shutter door and found the chain opening device was padlocked shut. Well this was an engineering shop of some sorts so there had to be a set of bolt cutters around somewhere. He saw what looked to be a tool crib over in the far corner and found a set of cutters. With these he cut off the lock and opened the roller shutter door. The sunlight bathed the workshop and exposed what looked to be a 40 feet long shipping container in the far corner of the room. jack guessed that must be the secure storage area and whatever was worth have was probably in there. Dana looked around the place, “It’s a bit smelly in here even after all these years. What did you say this place was again?” “It was a chemical coating place. John said they’d developed some kind of hard plating that didn’t require lubrication for fast moving mating parts, kind of like the coating on Teflon frying pans. Anyway they were doing a lot of military stuff for use in the Iraq war and he’d heard they were doing parts for the Dillon mini guns and other weapons” he replied. Jack went over to the shipping container. It was locked and there was no way to simply cut the lock off. The lock was recessed in a hollow that made it impossible to get in with the bolt cutters. “Crap!” he thought o himself. He’d need an angle grinder to get in to cut through the lock. He was sure there would be an angle grinder here, so he just had to find a way to power it. The simplest way to do that would be to find a gas generator and siphon some gas out of his truck to get it running. Good he thought, that was definitely plan A. Plan B would involve finding a truck tire that was still inflated and using it to power a pneumatic grinder. Luckily they found a generator and got it working because Jack was doubtful the plan B would have worked, after all plan Bs were definitely inferior, otherwise they would be plan As. They eventually got the door to the shipping container open and it was like an Aladdin’s cave in there. |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 7/19/2009 9:32:11 PM EDT
[#33]
AWESOME :-)
more please
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TX, USA
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Posted: 7/19/2009 10:03:41 PM EDT
[#34]
Please keep this one going.
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 8/1/2009 7:31:40 PM EDT
[#35]
aaaaaaahhhh what's in the shipping container!@!!!!!????
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USA
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Posted: 1/5/2010 3:27:39 AM EDT
[#36]
Originally Posted By Primos:
aaaaaaahhhh what's in the shipping container!@!!!!!???? bump |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 1/5/2010 6:00:48 PM EDT
[#37]
I loved this story.
Fourays, PLEASE finish it . . . |
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TX, USA
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Posted: 4/22/2010 10:53:43 PM EDT
[#38]
Originally Posted By BroncoMafia:
I loved this story. Fourays, PLEASE finish it . . . This! I reread this for the umpteenth time and need more! |
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Posted: 4/23/2010 12:55:00 AM EDT
[#39]
Originally Posted By tsonda4570:
Originally Posted By BroncoMafia:
I loved this story. Fourays, PLEASE finish it . . . This! I reread this for the umpteenth time and need more! +1 |
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 5/3/2010 3:35:04 PM EDT
[#40]
thanks for all the kind words guys, unfortunately the hard drive this was stored on died and I'm going to have to re-create the story first before I add any more to it.
regards, Alex |
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USA
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Posted: 5/3/2010 3:58:11 PM EDT
[Last Edit: cpaspr]
[#41]
You probably already know this, but you should be able to highlight each section in this thread, hit CTRL+C, then paste into Word or Notepad by hitting CTRL+V.
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AZ, USA
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Posted: 5/4/2010 9:42:25 AM EDT
[#42]
Originally Posted By cpaspr:
You probably already know this, but you should be able to highlight each section in this thread, hit CTRL+C, then paste into Word or Notepad by hitting CTRL+V. yeah I know, thanks. It just destroys the formatting. I needed something to do over the summer anyway. |
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Posted: 5/5/2010 10:24:49 AM EDT
[#43]
Originally Posted By Fourays2:
Originally Posted By cpaspr:
You probably already know this, but you should be able to highlight each section in this thread, hit CTRL+C, then paste into Word or Notepad by hitting CTRL+V. yeah I know, thanks. It just destroys the formatting. I needed something to do over the summer anyway. If you change your mind and decide you don't want to mess with the hassle of reformatting . I've got it already copied in Word and can mail it to you. |
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WY, USA
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Posted: 12/9/2011 11:06:37 AM EDT
[Last Edit: WDS]
[#44]
Bump to the top for update request.......
WDS |
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WY, USA
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Posted: 11/15/2012 3:55:44 PM EDT
[#45]
Another Bump, just hoping to see some more work from the author.
Thanks WDS |
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