Chapter 1

Mike is seven years old. It's late spring of 2019. He has a baby sister named Mary Ames Mathews named after her maternal grandmother. Shirley and I continue to live our life together in Preservation and enjoy being with our friends and family.

The Sinclair's have a daughter, Jennifer, who is two years younger than Mike and follows or tries to follow him everywhere. It's fun to watch. Jim has become the head radioman. He is also our most traveled community member.

Janice and Bennie haven't had any children. Doctor Anne says she may not be able to have any. Janice dotes on our two and Jen to the point where they go to her as if she were their mother. Shirley and I call her, "Daughter" even though she's not ours by birth. I gave her away at her wedding to Bennie and she is at our house when she's not with Bennie at the machine shop or out in the woods. She has developed into quite the outdoors person and a very capable shooter. She is so good at hand﷓to﷓hand combat that no one in Preservation will take her on. She's quick and strong. Our Janice is, according to Shirley, a passionate, intelligent woman who does everything with that passion and intelligence fully applied.

For instance, we had a man come to Preservation who became drunk and made the mistake of making a pass at her. She didn't kill him but did break his left arm and his nose plus gave him a few interesting bruises and contusions on other parts of his body. He doesn't drink any more.

The other thing about Janice is that she is stunningly beautiful. She was pretty as a teenager when we met her. At twenty-three, she was even more a beauty than ever. She is a bit too quick to take a dislike to being ogled and Shirley finally sat her down and explained that, just because a man stared at her, didn't mean he had designs upon her. Now, she lets them made a first, mistaken move before she hammers them unconscious!

Bennie has told me more than once that he is lucky to have her as his wife. She is devoted to him and every man in Preservation envies him. Bennie is no slouch himself in any area.

They make a dynamic couple and compliment each others' skills quite well. Both have become excellent in the woods, practice their shooting, and work on hand-to-hand combat skills. They enjoy it as good fun. It allows me to utilize them to check out any issues on the fringes of our land as well as act as cops on the very rare occasions that need has arisen. In my opinion, we have a duty to protect all who we accept as part of our community.

Other items of news are that the Internet is pretty much gone. Power outages around the country and the rest of the world have removed many connections and made most sites simply go away. Battery back ups only last so long. Preservation has a number of smaller water generators and we power almost every house in the community as well as a few things in town. Michael and Ben have the machine shop. It is a hard working place with its products in much demand.

We still run our radio nets, both local and distant. In the old United States, we only hear the Salt Lakers now. It seems everyone else with a radio is a member of Preservation. We have a strong two-meter net for local news and information and to be sure our outlying people are okay. Our two﷓meter repeater situation is composed of four linked repeaters to allow complete coverage of our area. It made for a lot of traffic until Jim added some more localized repeaters for each area. By design, they are not as powerful and are just to cover a section of Preservation.

We maintain a loose listening watch on HF and on our main repeater at the house. Our office has a feed from our radio room for us when we're in it instead. Shirley has a similar feed into the kitchen. I carry a HT when outside working on the farm, as does Shirley.

We have expanded down the I-85 corridor toward Alabama and toward Macon to our east. Very little movement had occurred to our north beyond I-20. We make occasional trips to Atlanta since it is still a great source for parts.

It was mid August when we started hearing the first suggestions of some trouble. One of our south and eastern most farms reported that they were having trouble with their crops being raided. After some discussion, I asked Janice and Bennie to go over there and scout around.

They left on horseback the next morning. We would have made gas available for this trip but they preferred horses for their ease of mobility. As Bennie said, "A horse doesn't care about roads and can travel in narrower places than a vehicle."

They would be in constant contact via two-meter radio so we would have information on a regular basis. They had HT's with them as well as a HF station to set up with a good dipole antenna. Dan, the farmer down there, and his wife, Cheryl, were looking forward to Janice and Bennie visiting and, hopefully, locating their problem.

Bennie reported in that afternoon that they had reached Dan's farm and had made a first glance at the damage. He said, "It looks like animals but there is something more going on because it's so orderly. Janice and I will go out tomorrow morning and check further south. We checked out Newnan on the way down to be sure no one is living there now. It's empty. We might check out some other places though we will try to track where the raids are coming from first. Dan and Cheryl's farm is our outer﷓most farm so we need to find out. I think you said something about some folks heading beyond them soon. Is that right?"

"Correct." I agreed. "There are two couples who want places and there's some good land down there. Keep me informed and thanks."

Bennie signed off and I went about my other duties for the day.

Bennie and Janice reported that another raid took place that night and more crops were gone. Bennie told me that it looked like the crops were harvested though crudely. They felt there was a pattern as the most harvest ready crops were the ones taken. He and Janice would follow the trail of the raiders, which was clear to them though Dan hadn't able to track them much at all. They felt that they were tracking animals from the tracks though there was an intelligence issue that they didn't like.

Bennie and Janice were out on the trail when they called in. Bennie said, "Jack, we are worried. The tracks are all animal but there is intelligence at work here. Janice and I don't understand it. I know you're not here but tell us what you think."

"Bennie, I trust your sight on the tracks. This does present a new issue perhaps. We won't know until we see our raiders. We know that zoo animals were released and escaped both. Monkeys and chimps are both smart. Could they be somehow directing the activities?

"Tell me what types of tracks you are finding."

"Poppa, there are animals that we can't identify in this group. Also, it is a pack and there are many different types of animals' tracks mixed in. You've started my mind on a different track." Janice said.

"Jack," asked Bennie, "what should we do when we find this pack?"

"I would be very, very cautious. Sneak in and sneak out. Don't be risking yourselves. Try to figure out what's going on and how they are led. Then, report back and let's talk. You two have the skills and experience so I will lean heavily on your advice."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I hope we can manage to deserve it without too much pain." Bennie said dryly.