006: Hunt and Seek

Jimmy's Diary
7th of September, 2000

Caleb and I made five carbide/match-head fragmentation grenades

I've made a scavenger's list of things that can potentially go "boom" and I'm going to be sending everyone out to burgle more local businesses later. We're giving a somewhat more circumspect list to the grandkids so they can pick up some of the ingredients on the way home from school.

We told them to grab an AP Chemistry book if they could—bombmaker's primer if there ever was one; less likely to get you killed than what you'll find in TM-31-210, the Improvised Munitions Handbook.

[Maria: Naturally, we won't expose our legals to anything more dangerous or suspicious than sending them to pick up flour and hydrogen peroxide along with grandma's groceries.]
[Steve: Indeed. Though you can get a decent blast with just that.]


Maria and Steve did well enough with the Hendersons. They wanted half the cargo plus a 30% finder's fee, they were talked down to 65% of the cargo on the condition that we all meet in the rock quarries on the ninth to show what we can bring to the table.Steve wanted and received full run of any salvageable components from the train itself, including the fuel.

[Steve: this is going to be a slightly lower grade diesel than what you could buy at the gas station; too thick and dirty to safely use in a standard automobile. So what can we do with bunker fuel? Plenty.]

They also plan on trying to find a truck for us. I suggested going to a neighboring county and stealing one off the DOT parking lot, but Steve wants to tow a junker back here and rebuild it. Seems like a waste of effort, but fair enough.

Caleb brought a small possum home from his hunt, but found no wild edibles. He said that he found the possum treed by a pack of coyotes, and chased them all off before shooting it. I asked him why he didn't shoot the coyotes, and he said that he would never eat dog. And yet, he has no problem eating an oversized rat? I swear, that boy...

Kate did a bit better, having more skill and having spent twice as long on her hunt. She brought back a large basket loaded with three days worth of greens and bagged four coyotes, the same coyotes whom Caleb had passed up earlier. This was accomplished with quite a bit of excitement, which I won't go into just yet.

Kate:
But I will, because "a bit of excitement" doesn't quite cover what I went through to bring a bit of meat home.

I was in this excellent little poacher's holler. High ridges and thick foliage to keep the report of a rifle from traveling, hard to reach by anything but foot, plenty of game trails and a nice creek to follow. The thing about perfect places, though, is that you're seldom the only one to find them. I ran into two other hunting parties in the area. Steered clear of them as instructed, though I noticed one was wearing fatigues and carrying at least one military-style rifle. Fellow partisans, perhaps?

I came upon the aforementioned pack of coyotes, drew a bead with my Winchester Model 70 and fired. One went down, the other six sniffed the air, one more went down, they found my scent and surprisingly bolted towards me, seeking vengence on whomever attacked their friends.

It took seconds for them to close the hundred meters between themselves and I. I fired two more times, killing one more and wounding another. A third shot missed and at this point one of them collided with me, chomping down on my rifle and wresting it from my hand.

I pulled my S&W 1911 and fired twice, I also drew my hatchet and cleaved the animal's skull. Another coyote dove at me but I dodged and fired into it as well. At this point they must have decided I wasn't worth it; I equipped my .243 Browning BLR and opened up on them as they fled, dropping one more.

I finished off the wounded, gutted my kills without delay, left what I couldn't carry hanging in a tree and made Steve go back to get it. Maybe that wasn't such a great hunting spot after all.

[GM Note: I had my niece and nephew roll on a random encounters table to represent the outcome of their hunts. Caleb encountered "3D6 dogs", which the guide said could be interpreted as 2D6 wolves but which I interpreted to be a pack of 2D6 coyotes (coyote-wild dog mixes more likely; they're actually something of a problem in the Eastern United States). He was willing to shoot wolves, but not coyotes. So I gave him a small possum as a consolation prize.

The dice were likewise unfriendly to Kate, so I gave her the same scenario. Naturally, she blasted the biggest meatbags she could get in her crosshairs. Good girl.]