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car. I was hoping Ruth Ann would say
“Let me do the talking.” But she didn’t.

 
    T he lead Humvee stopped near us. I watched with
dismay as two of the M60’s turned in our direction. A tired looking lieutenant
exited the Humvee’s passenger side. One hand rested above his undrawn side arm.
His other held a clipboard. I got even more nervous as clipboards can be more
dangerous than guns.
    “Mr. and Mrs. Handsman?” he said half looking at
us half at his clipboard.
    “Yes, that’s us. How can we help you?” I said
sounding like an idiot.
    “I am Lieutenant Mancheski, Wisconsin National
Guard. Who are your friends?”
    “Looters. They did those three houses
yesterday,” I pointed, “and came for us at three this morning.”
    “I see,” he looked at the looted homes then at
the corpses. I could see in his face he was done thinking about three dead
looters.
    “Mr. Handsman, sir, this is our last time
through the area. If you wish to come with us, we can escort you to the safe
zone. The number of walkers we are running into is increasing quickly. We
cannot protect you out here...” He nodded towards the bodies.
    “Thanks for your offer Lieutenant. My wife and I
are committed to riding things out here at home. We’ll be fine.”
    “Mr. Handsman, sir, you do know what is coming
right? You know what’s been going on?”
    “We do. Maybe “riding things out” makes it sound
like we aren’t being realistic. We know what is coming. We want to be in our
own home when it gets here.”
    “OK. I understand. I need you to sign this sir,
if you please.” I could see in his face he was done thinking about two crazy
homeowners too.
    He handed me his clipboard. I removed my bloody
gloves and took the clipboard to read over. It was a waiver of liability.
    Both Ruth Ann and I signed the waiver that said
we had refused the government’s offer of “limited liability” sanctuary and if
anything happened to us we couldn’t sue for damages.
    When I had handed the clipboard back to
Lieutenant Mancheski he said, “Maybe you folks are making the right choice. There
are too many people at the airport already. There is talk of hordes forming in
the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Illinois. How are we supposed to defend against
them?”
    He looked exhausted and sad.
    “It’ll be OK young man. Things will work out,”
Ruth Ann, the kindly woman who had just killed three guys, comforted the man
sent to rescue us.
    We parted shortly after. The Lieutenant offered “free
haul away service” of our four unwanted guests. We did not volunteer the rifle
we already stowed in the car and the Guardsmen politely didn’t ask for it. Each
of the Humvees left with a mason jar of Ruth Ann’s homemade strawberry
preserves.

 
    I want to revisit and expand why Ruth Ann and I had
decided days ago that we would refuse every invitation to go for a ride. As I’ve
described before, it isn’t that we didn’t trust the government. We didn’t trust
our fellow citizens.
    Why would we leave? Surrounded by concrete we
had more than 1200 square feet of solar electric panels on a flat parapet style
roof. Shielded by the parapet wall, we could be on the roof hidden from anyone
or anything on ground level.
    The solar array fed battery storage in the
basement. Used judiciously, power was not a problem.
    We are on well and septic. The water pump only
took 600 watts. We could top off the bathtubs, sinks and other containers each
day without killing our power budget. We use stored water rather than the taps
for routine usage.
    Next to the solar panels, Ruth Ann kept a small
greenhouse useable all year round. She grew various greens, onions and a barrel
full of potatoes. These were hardy, resource efficient and mostly
self-sustaining crops.
    We stored up a large amount of homemade canned
goods. We had all the survival food we recently purchased in addition to stores
we had accumulated over the years. A prudent California family keeps some
emergency food in