Forgotten Forbidden America: Rise of Tyranny (23 page)

“Hey, I’m all for it,” Nelson said with a smile.

Michelle looked at Nelson then back at Nellie. “I’ll try,” she finally said.

“I’ll take that,” Nellie said, picking up her plate and a few others.

“I’m going to walk around then head back for a nap,” Nelson said, leaning down to kiss Michelle.

As he headed for the door, Gerald said, “Hold on, Nelson. I’ll come with you.”

Matt stood up. “I’m going with them,” he said, kissing Ashley. Bernard just stood up and handed the baby back to Michelle and followed the others.

Walking off the deck, Nelson headed into his cabin and grabbed his rifle. Slinging it across his chest, he found the others outside. When Matt saw Nelson with his rifle, he trotted over to his cabin then came back with his. Bernard had his M-14, and as they walked by Gerald’s cabin, he got his AR.

As Gerald was in his cabin, Nelson looked around the farm and noticed four storage containers next to the barn. “Those Gerald’s?” he asked.

“Yep,” Bernard said, shouldering his rifle. “The last one was delivered the day I brought Nellie to your house. Then, there are thirty or so boxes in the barn.”

Gerald came out and saw everyone staring at the containers. “Yeah, they’re full,” he said, walking past them.

The others followed him across the yard and out the side gate of the chain-link fence toward the barn almost a hundred yards away. The main door to the barn opened toward the house with the containers on the right or south side. On the north side of the barn was the chicken coop and pig pen. Between the house and barn was a small, plain building the group had built the year before. It was their gym. It was double the size of Nelson’s and had much more equipment thanks to Gerald. One of the bases he visited was replacing their gym equipment, and Gerald bought all the old stuff though it wasn’t really old; none of it was older than a few years.

As they got closer, Nelson looked at the barn. The size of it had always amazed Nelson. Bernard’s fifty-horse John Deere tractor fit easily through the giant door. Nelson was certain he could put the house and all three cabins inside the barn and still have room for a yard.

Looking out past the chicken coop, Nelson saw all Bernard’s heavy equipment: a dump truck, excavator, and bulldozer. They were neatly lined up with Bernard’s one big and two little tractors. Everything Bernard owned was John Deere. Nelson remembered when everyone was about to build their cabin, and Bernard said he would buy an excavator. Well, Nelson had found one online and showed it to Bernard.

“That’s a Case,” Bernard had almost spat. “The only thing worth buying is Deere.”

Not able to argue, Nelson just started looking for a Deere excavator. Finding several, he and Bernard went to look at them, and Bernard bought one. Having never been around heavy construction equipment except when he got shot in the chest, Nelson just watched and learned as Bernard explained how it worked and what to look for. Now, Nelson could operate everything on the farm.

Reaching the containers, Gerald opened them up, and boy were they packed. “See, it’s going to take some time to empty them,” Gerald said.

“Why do you have paneling?” Matt asked. “Bernard has a sawmill.”

“Can’t make paneling, only boards. Besides, that’s PVC panel boards,” Gerald told him.

Nelson moved up to one of the containers. “Just how many sheets of steel do you have?”

“Seventy-two,” Gerald answered. “The machine shop at Fort Smith was getting rid of it, meaning throwing it away or scrapping it. I talked the sergeant into letting me have it.”

“What’s with all the steel rods?” Nelson asked.

“We’re going to make caltrops and place them in the moat and around the outside of the area,” Gerald told him.

Nelson thought about that and decided it was a good idea. “What made you think of that?”

“A movie I watched. I was going to just put punji sticks down there, but these will be much better.”

Turning around looking back at the house, Nelson started to picture the moat and earthen berm they were going to build. “Bernard, how long will it take to dig that moat around the house?” Nelson asked.

“Less than a day,” Bernard said without hesitation. “That excavator will make short work out of it.”

“Gerald, how long till we finish it off?” Nelson asked.

“All three of us working on it—about four or five days,” Gerald answered.

Liking the sound of that, Nelson turned to look at the others. “We are still going to dam up that small creek to the south and put that hydro turbine in, aren’t we?”

“Can’t afford not to,” Gerald said. “We need the power, and I really don’t want to set up more solar panels. I really don’t want to advertise to anything flying we could be preppers. And when we dam up that creek, it goes from a small, six-foot-wide creek to a fifteen-yard-wide creek like the one behind us to the west. That will limit just how people can come at us.”

Thinking about that, Nelson asked, “Bernard, how long till we have to harvest?”

“October,” Bernard answered.

“We should be done by then hopefully,” Nelson said. “Guys, not to be mean but I’m going to go and relax.”

“Sounds good to me,” Matt said.

They all headed back to their respective cabins, and Bernard headed to the house. Entering his cabin, Nelson took off his AR and didn’t see anywhere he could put it in the living room. He wasn’t really worried, but Olivia had just been introduced to guns this year. Taking Olivia out to shoot had been fun, and Nelson loved to teach his kids. Even though he felt confident Olivia wouldn’t touch it, Nelson wasn’t so sure about Brittany, Matt’s daughter.

Not saying Matt didn’t teach her about guns, but Brittany hadn’t been introduced to them yet. Discretion being the better part of valor, Nelson took his AR into the bedroom and put it in the top of the closet. Heading to take a shower, he made a mental note to get a gun rack and put it in the living room.

Thinking about it, Nelson decided they needed one in every room that had a door to the outside. He had a gun safe downstairs, but Nelson wanted weapons available without putting in a combination and opening a door.

Feeling better after a shower, Nelson dressed and headed outside to the truck. He pulled out his gear bag and, seeing the large black box he took out of the cop’s trunk, carried them both inside. Digging in his bag, Nelson found his clip-on holster and mag pouches. Sliding them on and holstering his 1911, Nelson admitted he felt better. Nelson grabbed two magazines for his pistol and rifle and loaded the mag pouches on his belt.

He carried his tactical bag to the bedroom and put it in the closet then got his and Michelle’s tactical vests off the floor and hung them in the closet, wanting them close in case they were needed. Walking back in the living room, he grabbed the black box and carried it to the small kitchen table.

He opened it and was again impressed with the gold and silver inside. Granted, he and Michelle had ten times that amount, but Nelson was impressed someone else had taken the time to prepare even though they only had it taken away. That thought made him infuriated.

Wanting to investigate the stamps, Nelson pulled out the thick sheets at the back. He spread them across the table to look at them and noticed a few baseball cards. All the stamps and baseball cards looked old, but he knew nothing about them, and like paper money, he didn’t trust such items.

Hearing the door open, he turned to see Michelle walk in. “Hey, babe,” she said quietly and carried a sleeping Devin down the hall to his room. When she came back, she looked at the stamps and baseball cards on the table. “They look old,” she admitted then looked inside the box. “Nice start,” she admitted.

“I wanted to talk to you about this,” Nelson said, waving his hand across the table. “I want to propose to the group that what we take off of those we attack belongs to the group. That way, everyone will have something when this ends.”

She thought about it as she studied the stamps. “That sounds good,” Michelle admitted. “I know for a fact Matt and Ashley have next to nothing in assets now. They might have a few ounces of gold and a hundred ounces of silver. Bernard and Nellie have this land, and I’m sure they have some hard assets. I know Gerald has hard assets, but I won’t even make a guess how much.”

“So you don’t mind then?” Nelson asked, making sure.

Turning away from the table with a scoff, she said, “Please,” as she walked to the fridge. “We have what, a thousand ounces of gold, half that in platinum, and something like two hundred pounds of silver. We’ve been collecting for over a decade.”

“We have more than that,” Nelson said. “But you don’t mind?”

She shook her head as she pulled out a bottle of water. “No, it’s a good idea,” she admitted. “It lets everyone know we are in this together.”

The door opened, and Gavin came walking in and stopped at the table, looking at the stuff. “What’s this?”

Michelle looked at Nelson and nodded. “Gavin, this is the stuff the cop took from some people and sent them to jail,” Nelson told him. Seeing Gavin look at the baseball cards, Nelson smiled. Gavin had his own set of cards. He kept them in excellent condition in three-ring binders.

With a heavy sigh, Gavin nodded. “He won’t tell the cops about you taking it, will he?” he asked, looking at the cards.

Nelson put his hand on Gavin’s shoulder. “No, son, he won’t be talking to anyone,” he answered.

Feeling relieved, Gavin looked harder at one of the baseball cards and slid the thick sheet closer. “Dad, this is a Lou Gehrig,” Gavin said and looked at the next card on the sheet. “Holy cow, Dad, this is a Babe Ruth!”

Nelson grabbed the sheet, looking at the cards. “Son, they can’t be worth much. The cards have tobacco companies’ names.”

Shocked, Gavin looked up. “That’s how baseball cards were first given out,” Gavin said, shocked his dad didn’t know. Looking back at the table, Gavin pulled down a cardboard sheet with only one card on it. “Never heard of Honus Wagner,” he said and ran back to his room and came back with a rather large book.

Seeing the book, Nelson smiled. It was a collector’s book of baseball cards. He remembered the day he bought it for Gavin at the bookstore. That was one thing Nelson always gave his kids when they asked: books. If they wanted to read, he would do everything to encourage it. He and Michelle were both big-time readers and wanted to pass that along to the kids.

Looking through the book, Gavin paused. “Oh man,” he mumbled, and Nelson stepped over, looking at the page Gavin had stopped on.

Studying the picture in the book and the card on the table, Nelson felt his knees get weak. “Someone paid two and a half million dollars for a baseball card?” he asked.

“What?” Michelle shouted, running over. Like Nelson, she looked from the book to the card. “It can’t be. Someone with this kind of money would have much more precious metals than that.”

Sitting down, Nelson looked up. “What if this was what they just had at the house?” he asked.

“Nelson, anyone with that kind of money wouldn’t have to be worried about the cops,” she pointed out.

Nelson shook his head. “Only the super wealthy have that honor, babe, like multibillionaires.”

Turning through the pages, Gavin looked up. “The other two are worth a lot too,” he said. “The last Lou was sold for two hundred thousand, and Babe was over five hundred thousand.”

Nelson stood up. “Well, since you never got to cash your check for winning the gun shoot, I think you can have these,” Nelson declared.

Hearing that, Gavin lost all cool and started jumping up and down shouting, “ALRIGHT!”

“What about the others?” Michelle asked.

“No, we split the rest with them,” Nelson said, smiling at Gavin. “He earned this.”

When his celebration was over, Gavin looked up at Nelson. “Dad, can I put them in the safe downstairs?”

“How about we put them behind the wall?” Nelson asked, and Gavin’s face lit up.

Nodding, he admitted, “Yeah, that would be better.”

“In the truck console is a velvet bag. Will you run and get it?” Nelson asked, and Gavin took off running.

Glad to see the joy from Gavin, Michelle stepped over and kissed Nelson. “Can we tell him that’s part of his birthday present?”

“Hell, I was going to throw them away,” Nelson admitted. “Be damned if I throw any of this crap away now. But yeah, we can tell him it’s part of his present.”

In a flash, Gavin was back with the velvet bag Nelson had left the last precious metals in that he had bought. Nelson and Gavin walked down into the basement, which was wide open. On the right wall, a work bench went from one end to the other. A small lathe and end mill sat on the heavy duty work bench with tools hanging on the wall. Under the stairs were two massive gun safes. Bookshelves covered the entire left wall.

Walking to the far end, Nelson reached under a shelf and released the catch. A four-foot section of bookshelf moved back, and Nelson pushed the bookshelf door, revealing a room. After he and Bernard had dug the hole for his foundation, Bernard and Nellie went on vacation. Michelle and Nelson came out, and Nelson started building the cabin. He used the excavator to extend the basement’s left side another twenty feet.