Chapter 2

The first month after things got real had definitely shown me that it was a good thing I had prepared for the worst with my cabin here. The central Texas area as a whole was considered pretty urban, Austin was only about an hour drive away, after all. I had the cabin built on a decent sized plot of land off the beaten trail about 20 minutes from the Army base and an hour from Austin. Stillhouse Hollow Lake was a nearby body of water and living on the south side meant I wasn’t as packed in as if I lived in the more urban parts of the county. It almost made it feel like a more wooded forest area.

The view and area were nice. I think it had also helped having fewer people in the immediate area as the superflu worked its disastrous magic. Staying away from other houses was one area where being relatively solitary had helped. That said, too much solitary coupled with staying in the cabin was starting to give me a case of cabin fever. Sure, the cabin and my security fence perimeter gave me some freedom from most threats, but it was also like a prison in that manner. It kept me in. Safe, sure. But stuck inside.

I should take a minute here to describe the cabin. I’d been living in it for some time before the superflu ravaged the population. It had what I would consider 2.5 floors. An abnormal something for this area of Texas was a below ground basement that I had installed a commercial deep freeze stocked with a variety of beef, fish, and chicken. The basement also had unfinished rooms that would end up being the storage for my ammo and MRE cases and enough room that in a pinch could also be 2 more unfinished bedrooms with a full bathroom. The main level had 3 bedrooms, livng room, dining room, kitchen, and 2 bathrooms including my ensuite. Outside I had a 1000 gallon gasoline tank, a large propane tank, and 3 car garage that was for my truck and workshop area.

When it had been a month since I’d really been anywhere, fresh food was running down. I had vegetables and some fruit fresh still with my garden and fruit trees but meat was quickly being depleted. Sure, I had frozen meat a plenty and it wasn’t anything to complain about (at least on the chicken and beef) but fresh fish wasn’t even a comparisom to frozen fish. Sure, I could survive on frozen fish, but I could do better with the lake nearby. My canned food and other non-perishables were still well stocked, but it was always nice having a fresh steak or trout. The MRE cases were a nice bonus, but I kept from eating those to save for what they were good for: easily portable food that could be heated up all in it’s own ‘container.’

So it was that a Saturday found me packing a few things into my truck. Fishing gear, AR-15 with a combat load of ammunition in magazines (7 magazines of 30 rounds each), a 5 gallon jug of water to refill from, 1 liter drinking bottle of water, and 2 boxes of MREs. Overkill for a short trip to do some hunting and fishing, of course, but I was an admitted prepper and former Boy Scout. “Be Prepared” as they say. What would happen if the truck broke down or if I were cornered and couldn’t make it back to the cabin for a while? I had already proven to myself that preparing for the worst was not a bad idea, this was just taking that attitude and applying it to a hopefully short day trip.

The lake was just a short drive away, nothing that under normal circumstances you would even think about as an issue. These were far from normal circumstances, though. In addition to taking one of my rifles I also had a 9mm pistol with 2 spare magazines. Hopefully none of that would be needed unless on some wildlife, but it was definitely better to have and not need than need and not have. Once loaded I started the drive out. Although it was hot I started the drive with my windows down to be able to hear anything I might need to pay attention to.