Prepper

Chapter Ten

"This will have to change, there will come a time when you will need someone else and you will have to trust them. You will find that in order to get through the tough times, you have to band together with people who believe in the things you believe in."

This gets me wondering what I actually do believe in? The right of children to watch Saturday morning cartoons? The right to disco? The right to be a sarcastic pain-in-the-ass? All these I suppose, in a nutshell I believe in freedom. I believe my family has the right to be happy and safe and I believe I have the right to do everything in my power to ensure that happens.

"Make allies Connor." He advises. "Sooner rather than later, and leverage them to your advantage. Use them, learn from them, help them and keep them close. You likely have more than you know." He pauses. "I almost forget - I have something for Heath." He retrieves a small box from a drawer in the kitchen and hands it to me. "It's a good little radio, solar, dynamo, battery, weather band, am, fm, shortwave - he'll have lots of things to discover and listen to."

"Thanks Ari, you really don't have to give him stuff."

"It's nothing. I know he's bored without his TV and computer."

This is true, Heath is slowly adjusting to life without connectivity, but it makes the world so much smaller. Even my smartphone only gets connectivity sometimes, luckily the ability to make and receive calls has be fairly solid. We have a radio he listens to from time to time, but we aren't picking too much up on FM and only a handful of AM. I'm sure he will get a kick out of having his own radio.

I take the long way home, by way of Jake's house. I figure he's got to be an ally and I already know what he can do for me. I need a trailer for the bike. After I pound on the front door for some time, Jake finally answers.

"What the hell do you want?" He answers, grouchy and apparently half-awake. He's dressed in wrinkled clothes that I guess he was sleeping in just moments ago and he reeks of stale beer and something else unpleasant I can't quite place.

"Sorry man, late night? You sleep in a dumpster?"

"Fuck-off. What time is it? Never mind. Lemme grab a beer, you want one?"

"Sure." (When in Rome...)

We go sit in the garage for the usual ritual, cold beer, smoked meat, small talk. I delay bringing up my more important topics until the hair of the dog thing takes hold. It doesn't take too long for Jake to even out and get back to his normal self.

"I want to learn how to use a bow." I just blurt out in the middle of a conversation about Jake's coworker who somehow caught himself on fire while welding. Which means I missed the perfect segue to ask about that damn bike trailer, again.

"Well, first you need a bow."

"Yeah, I was kinda hoping you could help me out there too. I've shopped around and I can't afford eight hundred dollars. Seems like all the entry-level stuff is sold out."

"I can ask around, I'm sure something will turn up. Why the sudden interest?"

"Just something Ari said, made me think I could use more hunting skills. Deer season is coming up, I could put some meat in the freezer."

"Sure enough, don't forget ducks, geese and turkeys. If you want some meat, the season is upon us. What's up with you and that old guy anyway? You've be spending a fair bit of time with him lately. Got a bit of a bromance brewing?"

"Oh, he's be kind of coaching me, getting me in better shape, showing me some self-defence stuff. He's not old. Sure he's older, but not like old old."