John Wideman sighed and sat on the porch of his ranch, satisfied. Ranching in the Texas Panhandle could sometimes be hard, but this year had been very good indeed. He had bought several trailer loads of feed hay for the remaining herd, which should last well into next spring. With what they could get from the grass and the hay, there was more than enough to keep the herd happy until the spring grass grew in.
John had let a lot of his hands go, as the winter months he didn't need as many as he did in the spring and round up time.
He still worked the ranch as it had been since his ancestors first did it. They rode horses wherever they had to go on the ranch. True, he had vehicles; but when driving a herd, you needed to do it from horseback.
A couple years ago during a drought scare, John had decided to drill a new deep water well, not far from the house, to water the herd. He had been surprised to hit a natural gas pocket instead. He had had it capped off very quickly and called in a specialist in natural gas. He was told that with the amount of pressure coming up and from the quality of the gas, the specialist thought he had several decades of gas to use, at the very least.
He had quickly had a system set up to run all the buildings at his headquarters with this gas and stopped ordering propane. He also upgraded his generator, which he'd had for emergencies to a larger one. It was capable of producing enough electrical power for the big house, the bunkhouse, and the barns. The new generator had been designed to run on natural gas.
Whenever a strong storm or tornado blew through, the ranch usually lost power for several days at a time. The longest he had been without power had been close to two weeks. This would not happen again.
Besides the cattle, he also had chickens, a couple milk cows, and a huge truck garden. His wife, Clarissa was into canning. This resulted in their having all sorts of vegetables and jellies for the entire winter.
While it rarely snowed where they were at, it did get cold. Right now, the weather was nice. He had sold off the majority of his herd, and had made a nice profit. He'd bought supplies from town, which was eight miles away. Living out in the middle of nowhere, you bought large amounts of basic supplies, to last you.
Life was good and then the news started getting strange. Reports came out of the cities, about a flu that seemed to be very dangerous. Also, none of the flu shots worked on it. In fact, nothing seemed to help at all.
John called his two sons and invited them and their families to the ranch, until this flu thing cleared up. To John, it seemed dangerous. He thought everyone would be safer at the ranch. His oldest son, Jason, agreed to send his wife and two children; but he, himself, could not get away.
His other son, Michael, was agreeable. He told his father that he would fly in with his family. Michael had a twin engine Cessna, which he used as part of his business, and would use that to fly himself and family to the ranch.
John heard his wife come out and she joined him on the porch swing.
"I was just listening to the radio, and they say that people who get this flu don't seem to recover from it. John, they say it is very contagious and they are talking about closing the interstates and cities, to try to contain this thing. Oh John, I am so worried about the boys and our grandchildren," Clarissa said tearfully.
"Well, everyone has agreed to come, except Jason. Since he is a doctor, it is doubtful he can get away, but at least his wife Karen and the twins will be able to come and be safe," John replied.
John thought about what they would need to survive if things got bad. They had cattle so meat was no problem, and they could always hunt. They had chickens for eggs, and a couple of milk cows. He thought that they should buy more sugar, flour, salt, and other items for household use.
He had six hands who stayed with him all year round. A couple of them were really good with tools. John himself knew how to shoe horses, so that would not be a problem. He decided to check out the old house, and make sure it was still sound, as they might need it to put people in.
The original house still stood. That was mostly due to the quality of the materials used in the building of it, but his family also had taken good care of it all these years. He got up and retrieved the old fashioned key for the lock on the front door of that house.
His wife followed him and they walked to his family's historical house. They walked around the house first to see if anything needed attention. It had been a few months since the last inspection.
He noted that no new wood rot had developed and that everything seemed solid. He went up the porch and to the front door, and unlocked it. As he went in, he was hit by a musty smell. He really had to air this house out more often.
It was on the dark side inside, as the windows were covered with the heavy curtains that his grandmother had made for them so many years ago, replacing the ones his great grandmother had made.
"John, I think the weather stripping needs replaced on the doors," his wife spoke out.
"I think you're right," John responded, looking at the evidence on the stained floor before him.
Besides the weather that had gotten in via the poorly sealed door, there was evidence of bugs, spiderswebs, and flies. Well, that was easily solved. They moved through the house and John was pleased at how well it was withstanding time. The glass in the windows had been replaced years ago, but the frame and structure of the windows were still what had been originally built.
The kitchen was as he remembered it. A Franklin stove was against one wall, an oak table standing in the middle of the room with four chairs ready for use. The three small bedrooms were also musty.
John spent some time opening windows, which were reluctant to open at first. His wife opened the front and back doors, letting in what little breeze there was. John decided to clean out the chimney and the iron pipes for the kitchen stove's exhaust.
The place was dusty and needed a good cleaning. Clarissa took the broom and started sweeping and John took a bucket out to the old well and drew some water. He smiled as he did that. This well had never failed the family, in almost a century.
He and his wife spent the day cleaning and he did small repairs to a few items that needed it. All in all they were pleased with what they had done to the old house. John looked over the buildings of the ranch from the porch of the old house.
There was a huge old barn that held a lot of hay for the horses and the two milk cows, the chicken feed for the chickens, and riding tack for the horses. There was the old carriage house, which still held some of the old horse drawn buggies and wagons. John kept them all in repair out of respect for the memories he had of riding in them as a child, and for his great grandparents, who'd had them as their only means of transportation.
There was the chicken coop, the old smoke house, which they still used occasionally, the old and the new machine sheds. The old shed was where the old horse drawn plow, disc, harrow, and rake were kept.
The new machine shed was where the tractor and the modern counter parts were kept. There was also the blacksmith shop where John took the horses to be shod. He did not have the experience or knowledge to operate all the equipment in the shop, but it was there and if someone knew what they were doing, it could be used.
Then there was the long bunkhouse. Right now it housed the six permanent hands he kept year round, but it had bunks in it for up to twenty hands. John was not only the owner, but he was also the foreman, right now.
Then there was the new ranch house his father had built when John was seven. Moving into the new house had been exciting to John, as it had electricity installed. That was the first time the ranch had electricity, and it had been an exciting thing at the time.
There was also the old outhouse, and finishing it off were the new generator shed, and an old shed which had become the storage place for just about anything that might be useful in the future. John saved whatever was still capable of working, something he had learned from his parents.
John was waiting three quarters of a mile away from the house with a buggy hitched to a horse. The grandkids loved it when they got to ride in the buggy, and John loved spoiling them.
He watched as the plane came in and landed on the grass airstrip. It was kept mowed short and the ground was kept level, just for this purpose. He watched as the plane roared with the props reversed, and finally came to a stop.
He flicked the reins on the horse and it started forward. He watched as a door opened on the plane and people started coming out. First was his daughter in law, Rachael. Then came his granddaughter Tracy, then his grandson Mark, and finally his son Michael came out.
He pulled on the reins and stopped the buggy.
"Did someone order a horse drawn carriage?" John asked with a smile.
"Grandpa! Can you give us a hand with our bags? We packed way more than we normally do," Tracy asked with excitement in her voice.
"Hmm, if you have a lot, we might have to send a truck back for it. Not a lot of luggage space on this buggy," John responded thoughtfully as he got down from the buggy.
He got a hug from his grandchildren and then Rachael, who also kissed him on the cheek. Finally he hugged his son to him tightly.
"Glad you could make it Mike. From what your mother is saying, its getting bad out there," John stated.
"You don't know the half of it dad. We almost didn't get away at all. If I hadn't done some fast talking and then ignored the radio later in the flight, I think they would have forced me down a couple hundred miles from here," Mike responded seriously.
"So, how many bags did you bring?" John asked, changing the subject.
"Enough that you had better have a truck come down for them. I think Rachael packed everything but the kitchen sink," Mike said with a fake groan and holding his back.
"Now be nice. You don't want us walking around naked in a couple months do you?" His wife asked.
"Now that might be fun!" Mike said grabbing his wife.
"Daddy! That's disgusting!" Tracy said and rolled her eyes.
"Can I drive the buggy back to the house grandpa?" Mark asked eagerly.
"I don't see why not. You haven't been drinking, have you?" John asked his grandson.
"Grandpa don't be silly. I'm not old enough to drink yet," ten-year-old Mark responded with an exasperated sigh.
"Hey! That's not fair! I wanted to drive the buggy!" Tracy almost shouted.
"Tracy! Your brother asked first. I'm sure you will get plenty of chances to drive the buggy while we are here. Now take one bag and get into the buggy, Missy," Rachael said quietly but firmly.
"How about I drive the buggy back to the plane and get the rest of the bags after we drop off mom, dad, and Mark? That way you don't have to waste gas grandpa," Tracy said, already plotting for a better and longer drive than her brother.
"Sounds like a plan," John responded genially.
"Dad, I am going to have to drive some pretty big stakes into the ground to make some tie down points for the plane. Got anything that would work" Mike asked his dad, while Mark was driving them back to the house.
"I think I can find something. I have some rebar that we can bend one end for eyelets. They're about three feet long, and half an inch in diameter. Will that do?" John asked.
"Perfect," his son responded.
They got to the house, and the kids rushed to hug grandma, who swept them into her arms. She then hugged her son fiercely, and then hugged Rachael and kissed her on the cheek
Tracy came running back to the buggy after putting her bag in the house, and off they went, to get the rest of the bags from the plane. John chuckled to himself at his granddaughter's eagerness to drive the buggy.
They got all the bags loaded into the buggy and Tracy drove back to the house, chatting about her friends, what was happening at home. John listened and followed only a few of the things she talked about. Had the world changed that much?
After the evening meal, the kids went outside to explore and see what had changed, since the last time they had been here. John had already listened to the reports of his hands who had written back in.
It was time to restock a couple of the line shacks. John frowned at that. He was thinking someone was stealing supplies. It had happened before, but he never begrudged a starving man a meal. He told one of the hands to load up the ranch pickup and to make the rounds and restock all the line shacks the next day.
"Still coming up with missing supplies at the line shacks dad?" Mike asked his father.
"Yeah. Probably someone who is homeless or illegals heading north. I don't really mind so much, but it can make for a hungry camp for a hand who finds himself out there at night," John replied.
"Dad? I have been doing some very serious thinking about this flu thing. It appears to be a very deadly strain, and most people who get it don't recover. People are going to start fleeing the cities and looking for places in the country to live.
"Dad? We need to consider what to do if people start showing up here. As much as you might want to feed them, you can't feed the entire state of Texas, or Oklahoma if they show up here. We need to consider what to do with people and how to treat them. We also need to figure out a defensive plan," Mike said quietly.
"Oh, come on. We are basically out here in the middle of nowhere. The nearest city with more than ten thousand people is four hours drive from here. As for Oklahoma, well, there is no direct road from here to there," John replied.
"Dad, I'm telling you! This is a very serious situation. People are going to be desperate and the law is going to suffer during the coming panic. I saw the same thing when I was in Africa, and people heard there was food somewhere. They would descend like locusts. They overran and killed the guards that guarded the food," Mike said heavily.
The next day dawned bright and clear with a slight breeze coming from the north.
"Clarissa? What say we do a BBQ today? Most of the hands are back already, and the other two will be back later today. We can put on a good feed for everyone. Maybe Karen and the twins will show up today," John said while drinking a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.
"I think that's a fine idea. We can shuck some corn, grill hamburgers and hot dogs, make potato salad, and do up some nice steaks. What a wonderful idea," his wife replied, beaming with a smile.
"What's a wonderful idea?" A mussed Rachael said as she entered the kitchen.
"We are going to BBQ today! We have not had a BBQ for such a long time, that we decided to do one in your honor," Clarissa said with a smile.
"My honor? Come now, there is never a need for an excuse to BBQ. It should be done because it's a beautiful day, or just because you can. What can I do to help?" Rachael asked.
The woman started making plans and John excused himself, taking his coffee with him. He went to the front porch and looked out down gravel drive to the state road. He snorted to himself at that. State road. It was a damned dirt road, and the state had even stopped pretending to care about paving it years ago.
As he looked out, he noticed a vehicle headed his way. He frowned as this was pretty early for visitors. As it got closer he saw it was a Clinton deputy sheriff's car. Now what would they want way out here?
As it got closer he saw it had more than just the driver in it. As he concentrated, he saw it was his daughter in law Karen and the twins! Now what on earth had happened to have a deputy sheriff drive her and the twins out here?
As the car came to a stop the rear doors opened and two bundles of energy shot out and ran calling to him.
"Grandpa, grandpa! We got shot at! Our car is dead!" Both boys shouted at once.
"What? What happened?" John gasped out.
"Mr. Wideman? I am deputy sheriff Haskins. We came up on your wife and grandsons hiding out while some people were shooting at their car. They put a couple rounds through the radiator, flattened all four tires and basically were going to strand them after stealing all they had from them.
"Fortunately we heard the shooting and investigated. The perpetrators are now in the Clinton township jail, and it was the least we could do to give your kin a ride out here. Also, I have a proposition from the mayor and town council of Clinton," the deputy said.
"Well, you better come inside and have some coffee, officer," John said disentangling himself from the rowdy ten-year-old twin boys.
"Thank you for having us, Papa. Jason is sorry he couldn't come, but he was needed at the hospital," Karen said with a catch in her voice.
John went over and hugged her tightly.
"You and the boys are welcome for as long as we have a roof over our heads," John said.
John led the group inside and soon the boys were repeating the same statement they had given to John to their grandmother. Another explanation followed and Clarissa hugged everyone tightly, while Tracy and Mark looked on wide-eyed at what they were hearing.
"Would you like some breakfast deputy? You must have headed out very early, and restaurants are non-existent out this way," John offered.
The deputy said he could use something. The new arrivals, and everyone who had not eaten yet were seated at the huge dining room table, while Clarissa, Karen, and Rachael were in the kitchen keeping a huge supply of food coming.
Soon everyone was eating scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, butter, three different types of jellies, coffee or orange juice. After they finished, the kids helped the woman clear the table. The deputy, John, and Mike went into the room that served as the ranch office.
"Sir? I was told to tell you that Clinton stands ready to render support and aide to your ranch during this difficult time. We are already providing support in that the northern route to your ranch is being guarded by us.
"Another thing we can do is to provide you with a bit of technical assistance. We have a few extra night observation devices that the state issued us, and we can let you sign for a set, and a battery charger to go with it.
"Also, we would like permission to drive some pressurized tanker trucks down here and fill them at your natural gas well. About five trucks a month. We will also provide repair services to any electrical, heating, or air conditioning problems you might have.
"We will provide roofing materials for replacing any roof on your property that is damaged in any way. We would also like to send a cattle truck occasionally and have you ship us about five cows.
"We know that most of you ranchers have already sold off the majority of your herds and are in the process of rebuilding them, which is why we want to take only a few cows from each ranch. That way no rancher is hit harder than any other supplying beef to Clinton residents. What do you say?" The deputy asked.
"See dad? I told you things were worse off than the federal government was letting on. This proves it," Mike interjected.
"Your son is right. We had received word to block all access to the interstate from our end, and to block the off ramps too. Clinton is quite a ways from the interstate and we don't access it directly.
"Also, we have been warned not to let anyone unknown to us through, as it is possible they could be carrying the flu which has been classified as highly dangerous. Basically, the roads are now closed into and out of the state.
"It's only luck that your daughter and her kids got through when they did, because otherwise they would have been turned back at the Texas Oklahoma border. Also, we have a small medical facility at Clinton which you can use if you can get there," the deputy added.
About then Karen came in.
"Dad? Can we drive up and pick up the other stuff that's still in the car? We didn't get everything, and I want to make sure we have the traveling case," Karen said casually.
John knew what this 'traveling case' was. It was an emergency supply of medications of several types that would come in useful in the event of an emergency. Jason had always said he was going to send some serious medications in the event of a national emergency.
"They have probably towed the car to the impound lot by now. If you will follow me, I can get you in with no problem. Then you can give your answer to the mayor yourself," the deputy said with a smile.
Four months later it was a cold January day. John and his extended family were snug and warm in the house. They now had twelve full time ranch hands and they were busy everyday.
To take the strain off the main house, Mike moved his family to the old ranch house after he had run electric and gas lines to it. The ranch now ran off the big generator, the electricity having stopped coming over the power lines, six weeks earlier.
Again they saw evidence of cattle rustlers, but this time a hand had gotten a bullet into one of them. They tracked him to a small ravine in which he had a tent set up out of the wind, and was trying to treat his wound.
Mike Wideman had taken over the job of ranch foreman from his father, and his standing order was to kill all rustlers. John had wanted to take a more gentle approach, but his son told him that word would get out that the JW ranch was a soft touch, and every rustler in the county would be after their cattle. Mike's argument won.
The men who tracked him questioned him for a few minutes, but the man refused to answer any questions. They took him out and shot him, and buried him by caving in part of the ravine on him.
They went back to his tent and looked through the meager belongings. There were a couple of rusty cans of applesauce, some pork and beans, and some raw beef that the man had cut off the cow he had killed.
His personal effects turned up a few old letters, a wallet with ID in it, credit cards, drivers license, red cross blood donation card, and a couple pictures of a smiling family. He had apparently gotten separated from his family due to the state borders being closed, and was trying to sneak back home.
It was his unfortunate luck to try to rob the JW ranch. All the ranches in the area now had a reputation of being harsh with rustlers, and thats the way it had to be.
If the man had just come to the ranch house, John would have seen to his being fed and even put up for the night.
Edited by TeNderLoin