“Follow me. We need to get geared up if we want to survive the apocalypse.” I led them all down the stairs to the basement. The entertainment area still had the warm atmosphere of the cabin. It was inviting, but we ignored the entertainment center, billiard table, and ping pong tables. It was a fantastically large open rectangle of space. We moved on to the long hallway at the back of the entertainment area.
I motioned to the various doors in the hallway. “You guys know the first door on the left is a bathroom, with the second door being a laundry area. I need you all to go to the third room on the left. It will have food and related supplies. The first door on the right has ample camping supplies to cover well over a dozen people. The second door on the right will have weapons and protective gear. Lastly, the door on the back wall leads to the back garage. We drive the SUVs down around the back and open the garage. From there, we load them up as full as necessary. We won’t be able to get anywhere close to everything. That’s okay. We may be back here after trying to get our families. We have a few hours to get this all loaded up and down the road.”
I headed through the last door to reach the garage. The room had 4 garage doors, including a double-wide one on the far end. It was deep with some storage and an entire mechanic’s bay of tools. This is where we stored dirt bikes, motorcycles, and a jeep. There was even the massive wall of helmets to the left side of the door. We kept all the helmets that all of us cousins and the generations before had kept their old helmets. Mixed into that wall were also some old army helmets. Yet, it was different than I remembered from a year ago when I was last here. It was cleaner than I remembered, but that wasn’t a big deal. The four ATVs were new, but we didn’t need them for light off-road use. They must have been presents for my cousins. Those knuckleheads did love off-roading. The trailer was a pleasant surprise as well. We could hitch it up to one of the SUVs.
My heart swelled just a bit at the obscured vehicle on the other side of the trailer. The very front of the hood could be seen, and it was a big one. Most vehicles had much softer, rounder contours, but not this big front end. I stepped past the trailer with anticipation; anticipation that would be crushed when I saw the engine block suspended on a chain above the hood of Military styled original Hummer in some state of disassembly. “FUCK!”
Everyone following behind him seemed to notice the engine block at just that moment. The synchronized groan that emerged from 5 throats was both amazing in its unity and depressing the dashed hopes of a well armored future. We all looked at one another.
Billy chipped in, “It’s not like you all actually expected the universe to hand us a fully assembled armored vehicle. At that point, we should have expected a 50 caliber machine gun mounted up top.”
I looked at him and pointed to the empty turret. “This is a military version. It just doesn’t have a weapon currently in the turret. But it would have given us the ability to have someone fire an assault rifle from the relative safety of the vehicle while we drove. The only good news is that Dad even had this much of it reassembled already. He comes out and works on it when Congress is on a break.”
Chris asked, “Why do you even have a military grade Hummer sitting in the garage. It even looks like the side panels are different than what I’ve seen before.”
“There are perks of dad being on the House Armed Services Committee. This is a surplus Hummer from the Iraq invasion. The paneling comes from a military subcontractor lobbying my dad. He has been getting ‘gifts’ to retrofit this Hummer.”
“So, a congressman has been getting bribed by a military subcontractor so they can upgrade Hummers around the country. Well, at least I understand the corruption. Could be worse.”
“The outer layer upgrades would have tripled durability and lightened the weight. But it was the engine upgrade that was the big difference. Sadly, I am not a gearhead. My father and uncle are. Putting aside the armored SUV idea for the moment, we should get the garage open and utilize the trailer. It would be useful for hauling excess food and camping gear.” Everyone agreed with me quickly and we found ourselves diving into packing up our stuff and loading up the SUVs.
After packing my own stuff back up I went to tackle weapons and armor. We needed to have enough firepower and ammo for that firepower to survive for quite some time. How many bullets does it take to kill a demon. The armory, as my family affectionately called the room, was behind a locked, reinforced door. I stepped up to the steel door and punched in my code on the number pad set in the middle of it. Hopefully, all seven of my cousins haven’t raided it for hunting supplies recently. They did enjoy shooting guns even more than video games and sports these days.
It was stocked as usual. Not only were there a few compound bows, two crossbows, and nearly two dozen hunting rifles of various calibers, but we had ample handguns, assault rifles, and hunting knives galore. I looked across all the weapons and wondered what caliber of bullet it would take to down those demons. If I had any idea what lay ahead, I could plan this out better. I immediately mentally discarded .22 rounds, whether for rifles or pistols. We were shooting interdimensional monsters, not rabbits. Since we did not have silencers, the compound bows and crossbows would sadly be coming with us. It felt like an odd choice, but when we can find decent silencers, we could ditch them or give them to others. This felt like I was going against my not rabbit season logic, but again, silent shooting felt important. Far too many tabletop and video games influenced this decision. I grabbed every arrow and bolt we had, over 300 in all. I filled the 6 quivers with 7 arrows each, and 4 crossbow quivers each with 8 each. The rest were packed up in cases under the bows and crossbows. I grabbed 18 hunting knives of assorted styles and sizes to try and accommodate everyone. In a close fight have a big knife was better than being barehanded. “Hey, can someone get some of this stuff moved to the trailer?” I shouted towards the hallway.
Not waiting for a response, I had to move on to rifles. I opted for longer barrels in the hope that it would give us much-needed sniping power. Shooting enemies before they got into close range sounded like a solid idea. We had several large-caliber rifles with effective scopes and minimal clips. I grabbed 2 of those, as most of us couldn’t shoot at range with enough accuracy to really make those effective. I then grabbed 6 assault rifles that all used the same caliber rounds. I wanted stopping power, yet with lighter weight and less recoil than those 2 larger rifles would have. I then fell into the singularly boring task of filling empty clips with ammo.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Mid-refill, Frank walked into the room. He stopped dead in his tracks just inside the doorway. “So this is how rich white people spend their money. You wouldn’t happen to have any .50 caliber pistols?”
“Yeah. There are two over there.” I pointed to a small display stand with both oversized handguns. “There are only about a hundred rounds for them. It isn’t like 7.62, 5.56, 45, or even 9mm, which we have a ton of ammo and a small crate of empty clips people could utilize. You will only have 4 clips that hold about 7 shots each. Oh, and don’t forget to grab the 2 riot shields in the garage. You are going to need those.”
Frank gave a smile before walking over to the display and checking over each gun carefully. “These are fantastic. Hopefully, these pack enough punch to bring down a lesser demon.”
“That’s the thing, though. We are still out of the loop of everyone else. Once we get a few miles down the road, we will get thrown back into the thick of things.”
“Yeah. I have to call my commanding officer at the University. I may only be going into my senior year at college, but I believe this to be a situation in which I will be called to service.”
“Tell them that you are currently escorting a state rep’s aide. See if that doesn’t delay your need to report in. You would be escorting me to my grandfather, and we should be able to figure out what the evacuation plans for civilians are. I know you will eventually fall in with the rest of your ROTC buddies. I don’t see a way entirely around that.”
“There isn’t. My CO will probably be too busy organizing everyone and assigning all of us future soldiers to protecting various people associated with the University.”
“Makes sense. If the Hummer were completely assembled with its upgrades, I’d tell you to take that and have the rest of us use the other 3 SUVs. As it is, we’ll load one of the motorcycles into the trailer in case you get recalled sooner rather than later.”
“Thanks man, but are you sure your family will be okay with that?”
“Yeah. They shouldn’t have a problem. There are no less than a dozen bikes here. Sadly, none of them is super heavy duty like a Harley. This place always ends up becoming the storage for excess goodies. It’s why the garage is double the normal depth. We haven’t even gotten into the fallout shelter. I don’t know the code for that door.” I nodded my head towards the excessively reinforced door at the back of the room.
“Wait. If you had a code, we could literally base ourselves out of the fallout shelter?”
“It was originally a nuclear fallout shelter. My uncles expanded it about 15 years ago. Down there is some sort of antenna that would connect us to most cellular networks and create a massive area of Wi-Fi around the shelter. Yet, I don’t have the access code: Grandpa does. So, getting to him should be a priority if we want this place to be a decent fallback position. I don’t know if it will require falling back from major cities, but the initial message was more than a bit scary.”
“Yeah. Having this as some sort of fallback place with some security would be good. And you’re right, we really have no clue how bad it is out there. For all we know it isn’t all that bad.” He paused and looked over at the massive pile of bolts and arrows. “I guess I’ll get on loading that up.” With that last statement, he started taking bows and quivers of arrows.
I then returned to the task of prepping our weapon options. I filed clips for longer rifles, assault rifles, and pistols. I know I grabbed more weapons than we could carry, but I figured better to err on the side of caution and overkill. I spent over an hour getting ammo and weapons situated while Frank made trips to the trailer and back. At a certain point Frank pivoted to helping Billy and Nora move large boxes of MREs.
I finally finished in the armory and moved over to check on what was left of the long-term pantry. I walked across the hall and ducked my head inside the doorway. I found the shelves lining the walls to be almost half empty of jars, cans, and dry goods. Most importantly, the stacks of MREs boxed up as a central isle were all gone. I smiled. We could hopefully get out of here soon. As I turned around, I spotted Joe. “Hey, how are we on camping and survival supplies?”
“We’re fine. We can camp out with double our number and have enough meals for at least a few months. We have fishing gear if we get the opportunity, and I got to see the bows and hunting knives. We are ready to live off the land for an extended period and have enough weapons to wage a small war. We hooked up the trailer to my SUV since I have experience driving while pulling one. I think we are down to odds-n-ends in the upstairs kitchen.”
“Did you grab the solar-powered batteries?”
“Yup. I saw the big one in the back of the garage and couldn’t resist. That will keep all our cell phones powered. I also saw the folding solar panels. If we can get those set up, we could probably keep a mini fridge up as well.”
“Why don’t you help me with the last boxes of spare ammo. Fair warning, I opted for larger-caliber weapons over lighter-weight ones. I have this feeling that a 22 just isn’t gonna cut it.”
“The bows and crossbows are for what, then? Hunting? Or just because your family never bothered buying and registering silencers?”
“Mostly the second one. None of the larger caliber weapons I selected had silencers, and the Glocks should have them, but I couldn’t find them. I have another reason, but it feels silly at the moment.”
“I kinda want to know. It probably isn’t silly.”
“Well, if we exist in a universe filled with magic, what are the chances our enemies will have compatible ranged weapons for us to steal? If they have had magic for eons, then certain types of technology would have never really gotten anywhere. Magic would have solved those problems. But basic ranged weapons for grunts and scouts would more likely be bows or crossbows. So maybe, just maybe, if we can take out a few scouts with magic arrows or bolts, then we have access to those magic items for our own use. It is just a thought. I don’t think we are going to all use them just yet. But I wanted enough for one for each of the six of us, just in case it gets to that point.”
“That’s not a bad thought. But I can still see firearms developing in a magic rich world for those that don’t have access to decent magical affinities. Without a fire affinity, then no fireball.”
“While that is true, I doubt 9mm is the universal bullet size. So, this is my attempt to anticipate a potential problem before it becomes one. I could be totally wrong, and there are cool technological marvels that also incorporate magic. That would be awesome, but I bet it is more likely that simpler weapons would have enchantments than a complex weapon as a modern-day firearm.”
“I bet Nora could design and build a magical firearm. She seems smart enough to figure out enchanting spells to make a magic rifle that imbues all bullets with a magic enchantment.”
“Of all of us six, Nora is my bet too. She graduated from college once already and designed some of the earliest game apps for the iPhone. Anyone who can do that has a technological understanding that, if paired with any kind of decent magic understanding, is going to be the kind of person to make major advances for us. Anyhow, I guess we should put on the bulletproof vests in the armory. There are plenty of them to spare.”
We both knew that once we packed up the last few things and put on vests, we would have to leave to rejoin the world.
Keep this chapter?
