Chapter 2

Vic German sat in his comfortable chair for the first time in a week and exhaled to show his pleasure. Nora his wife, the three grown children and their seven grandchildren kept him up and going almost all the time. In a few months there would be the start of a new crop of Germans when Ian's new wife, Pauline, would give birth to their first. The young children had just left and though it was good to see them, it was even better to get some peace once in a while too.

"Come on Vic, we have to get dressed. We were going out to the Feldman's tonight."

Vic was not happy with this arrangement. He was not home enough as it was and Nora wanted to go out every other night. It was the price he had to pay to keep the peace, but Isaac Feldman was a religious bigot trying to masquerade as a pious man.

"Usually the two of us argue all night and my stomach is not up to it."

"That's easy to fix, just agree with everything he says."

"He is an educated man, but he is no better than some of the uneducated Islamic zealots I have run into. A Zionist zealot has no inherent moral superiority simply by virtue of superior intellect. Each have their own religious dogmas and will not open their eyes to see anyone else's point of view."

"You must have your own dogma, because you are always arguing."

"I took a course in comparative religions and after a lot of thought, decided to be a devout naturalist. I believe in what is in front of me and what can be proven. Every religion has evolved as it grew. Some of the changes down the generations were not a pretty sight to behold. All of them preach one form or another of the golden rule, but all of them ignore it when it suits them best."

"Vic, people just need a crutch sometimes. I needed a wooden one when I had the operation on my knee and I needed the other kind when I was young and my father died. We all have to believe in something and you are no different because you believe in science and mathematics. If you didn't have all your degrees, you would probably be the same as the rest of humanity."

"Ha! The rest of humanity is being led by the nose by people spouting religion. The sanctimonious politicians have been using religion to control people as much as the priests have since we lived in caves. Terrorists or freedom fighters use it. Destitute third world countries or the very richest use it, and so do all the courts."

"Vic, they need some way to control people effectively, or there would be anarchy. I don't know why we are even talking like this."

"That's because religion is built into all of us. It lurks in the primordial portion of our minds where we are still cave people staring out at the lightning and thinking it's supernatural. At the same time, we are afraid of dying and need someone to tell us that we will go on to some better place after we die. People will believe anything, if it's their last hope. You've got to hand it to priests, they do know how to control people, especially those people that are poorly educated, or those that don't want to think for themselves."

"You are not getting out of going to the Feldmans. They made a beautiful meal. I'll try to keep Isaac from talking of religion, if you try to be diplomatic. You just have to circulate with the rest of the guests."

"Two hundred failures so far, but I will try once more."

"Good darling. Maybe when we get home we can unwind with some wine, music and each other."

"Hurry up Nora," I said as I jumped up. "We have a dinner to go to."

Later, Nora adjusted my tie as she stood in front of me. "You are one handsome man. You have not gained much weight since I met you."

"And you are one beautiful woman. I am glad I managed to get you away from all your other boyfriends."

"Boyfriends? I only had one, and that was before I met you."

"You are still beautiful. Your hair is white now, but I still see the brown it used to be. We both put on a few pounds, yet we are not overweight. You are almost as nimble as you were when we met at the tournaments."

"Nimble! Ha yourself! I was so low in the standings that not even my hometown paper put my picture in the news. You were the world champion though and I am happy that I got you as my trophy. If I remember rightly, and I do remember, there were simply dozens of girls flocking around you."

"Nora, Honey, I was waiting for someone like you to come around and when I found you the others didn't exist anymore."

"They better not have, or I would have scratched their eyes out."

"I was talking about living in caves a while ago and see that you are not far from that. In a way that's nice. You just drag me by the heals into your cave and have your way with poor little old me."

The party was larger than usual. There were seven more couples added. Numbered in the new additions were two large twin brothers. Both had diminutive wives. The men were all drinking and some had come to the party already partially in the bag. Jerry, the younger of the two twins, by fifty seconds, said, "Isaac tells us that you were into big time sports. You don't look that big to get into any sport a real man would get into."

It was Nora who said before I could respond, "Vic is not that big, but he is fast and very strong. I am confident that he can still beat anybody in this room except me."

"Why not you? You are not very big either."

"He's my husband. He touches me and he goes hungry and he loses quite a few fringe benefits too. I trained in karate and still do. Vic was a world champion in his class."

The wives nearby tittered a bit, then Jerry asked me, "How could you beat anybody?"

This time I got in there first and said, "I was good at wrestling and karate before it became popular over here. I was good enough to get a full scholarship when I got my first degree in Chemistry."

"Usually chemists are small guys with thick glasses that live in their little labs instead of out in the open."

I had to smile at them due to the fact that I had lived in the open for a great many months in all kinds of weather and in many climates. Dad was a Canadian veteran of the American army. He fought in Vietnam and was already a bit around the bend before he joined the war. He believed all the bullshit about the cold war. He and his childhood buddies wanted their families to survive the coming holocaust and trained their children to succeed. If it weren't for learning to fight while still in diapers, I would not have been good in wrestling then in unarmed and armed combat.

I said, "Some chemists are like the way you said, but others are bigger than you or your brother. Some of us have learned to do things that most would not be able to do. Not many of you have learned how to eat grubs, snakes, insects or other unsavoury dishes. We slept outside in the winter as kids with little protection except what we could provide for ourselves. I think I qualify as an outdoorsman."

Isaac came over now and looked worried. "How are you guys getting along? Vic, here gained his championship in karate and many other awards in using old weapons. Vic, these two guys were into football and a lot of teams had them at their training camps. You have to be good to get that far. They were heroes in college."

Isaac was not tall and held my arm and urged me away. "Excuse us," he said to the group, "but Marty was having a problem and Vic will probably know the answer."

When we were just a few metres away I asked, "What was that about?"

"Those two are the nicest people until they get drunk then they get mean. I just don't want my house trashed."

"You were the one to invite them, Isaac."

"No I wasn't. They came with some other guests. I wasn't told their names."

I said, "There would be no fight if I could help it. I do have some managerial skills. I'll try to get them to talk about their sport instead of their inflated egos at my expense."

After talking to Marty a few minutes, Nora and I circulated, then to save Isaac's party, went back to slightly more inebriated Jerry and Jeff. We talked about football for an hour and I tried my best to get them to stay away from the booze. I tried to be subtle and said it was not good during training.

When the two couples finally left, Isaac came over. "Thanks Vic. I hear those guys are not that amenable to just talk. You have a gift at being able to stroke their egos without being blatant."

"It's important to learn that with my job. A lot of chemists and administrators are up in arms when I come. I have to take a budget and get every person to work together. Most times it is only me holding them together. That's why I get paid the big bucks."

Just before we left the party, I went into the washroom and took out a small blue pill to ensure that I was able to keep up my end of the bargain. That night Nora was just as receptive as her promise. Nora had the same glassy eyed look when we were done as she had as a young woman. I was pleased with myself for making my wife feel this way.

Energized, I was up earlier than usual the next morning making breakfast. I cooked up some moose sausage I had made after I last went hunting. Usually I used a bow and though I had to use glasses, I had lost little of the skill I had gained as a boy and young man though I did not have the speed.

Part of being in a secluded community of survivalists meant that I had to learn to do everything the hard way. Hunting was great with a bow. But, I had to learn to set traps that would catch the game I needed without killing unsuspecting people walking the woods. Colin was one of the twelve men that went off to war to fight with the Americans in Indochina. He had taught us many tricks when he came back and the bow was a good way to silently kill. Not all twelve came back though and dad turned out to be the glue that kept them together afterward.

Dad had his lower leg blown off from a landmine. That didn't stop him from planning on the next war that thankfully had not come yet. There were seven men that stayed in Markam, north of Toronto, while it was still just farm land. Their wives and children helped form a commune of sorts. It was socialist in that we shared a lot. But, that was more because we all worked toward the same goals than from any eco-political ideology. Mentioning socialism to my father and his friends would mean a war because they were ardent anticommunists.

Colin had taught all of us about traps and the weapons he found when he fought in Nam. I remember his saying ad nauseam, "Traps are harder to make for men, but they can be effective." Another thing he said a lot was, "One day you will run out of dependable ammunition or just have to save what you have until it is really needed. You have to learn how to make primitive weapons and then master how to use them."

This was not hard because John German, my grandfather, was still running Northern Sporting Goods Inc. His factory was not that far away over in Orangeville. He made very expensive weapons for the affluent. It was only the wealthy that could afford them. They were all world famous items. He even got some contracts to make sniper's weapons.

Northern not only made rifles and pistols, but also bows and their own brand name arrows. They were not cost effective or competitively priced. Regardless, when anything had the name on the box as being made by our family, it sold. Those firearms, incidentally, were made from steel we Germans mixed, cast and forged ourselves. This too was cost prohibitive as to pricing, but the customers paid anyway.

Nora was singing to herself when she got up to have a shower. She kissed me quite passionately and invited me into the bath with her. I was not the type of man to let a lady down when I was up.

When we got out of the bath, Nora said, "Where are you off to, today?"

"I was going to go to the farm and take Gary and Phil with me. You're more than welcome to come too. Sam would like to see you."

"Thanks, but those old men will want to talk about war, fighting in general, and of course killing. If your dad were alive he would be there with them and encouraging them to go on a patrol of the farm. That's beyond ridiculous. I think I will gladly do some shopping. If you had given me enough warning I could have packed a good lunch."

"Thanks Honey, I think we may stay over but I will ask to find out. Sam probably needs some company and supplies. They like the Vietnamese food and I think it is just to let them remember when they had so much fun being killed and shot at."

"Men! I will never understand them, but I think you're right."

Gary Piper was born in '31 so it made him seventy-six now that we were half way through 2007. He was living with his second wife and I stopped in to chat a while. A few minutes later, Phil Maxtor came over and he was invited in. Phil was a year older and looked younger. He attributed it to not remarrying twenty years ago, but never said this in front of a woman. He was brave, not stupid.

We left soon after but not before leaving a message to Nora that we would not be eating at home that night. Instead of the range where we usually went, our goal was the old farm. The trip would take over an hour to get there. That was OK. It was fun to go back to where I had so many fond memories.

The farm was seven hundred and thirty acres. Most of it was rock, bush, lakes and swamp. It was productive enough. All of us had made a living off of it, but it had other purposes. Phil got out his set of keys and unlocked the barriers across the private road we used. The trail had not become overgrown since the men had kept it clear of trees. There were quite a few ruts in it now.

We stopped at the old homestead and picked up Sam Watson. He lived here full time. The three old men were all that survived out of the original eight that returned. We stayed in the house and had some coffee and caught up on some family news and talk of how badly the world was currently being run.

Eventually the four of us went much further back to where a small tool shed was. It looked as if it were ready to fall down-quite on purpose. It had been constructed that way. I know that to be true because I had built it. This was an alternate entrance or exit to our depot.

Around the back of the shaded hill was a rock overhang large enough to hide a truck and, in fact, it hid much more. The front of it had camo netting.

Dad and seven others had built a bunker inside that would make anybody in the Third Reich proud. The custom made blast doors were massive and took all three of us to open them though they were well maintained. Sam not only provided security, but he did much of the work even at his age.

Gary went in and lit a lantern and used the light to see so he could start the generator. When the lights finally came on, I saw what would be keeping us alive if WW III came to pass. If they caught me with any of it now, I would spend a lot of my remaining years in jail.

Military vehicles were pointed at the doorway ready to go. Two had machinery capable of manufacturing biodiesel fuel once the existing stocks were depleted. There was a field gun with thousands of rounds of ammunition of all types and mortars along with what they threw. Six heavy machine guns and again lots of ammunition. Flame throwers were mounted on two of the armoured personnel carriers and smaller machine guns.