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M1 carbine, water, small amounts of food, and a sidearm.04:20 Day 3
Once home you fuel your genny which to your surprise isn’t empty. The better half remembered what you had said, never let it run completely out.. You plan to run it for an hour to cool your freezer and fridge, have your pump fill your system full of water, your water heater heat water so you can take a shower and allow your better half to make her coffee and cook a meal for everyone as you charge everything rechargeable.
You get the fuel in the genny and turn the radio on just in time to hear the group communicate at 04:30. And as your watch turns to 04:30:02 the radio comes alive, :check, check check” a voice calls out. Then a roll call, “Mr. Red?”, “Red” is the reply, “Mr. White?”, “White” is his reply, “Mr. Yellow?”, “Yellow”, “Mr. Blue?”, nothing.. Again, “Mr. Blue?” nothing.. “Mr. Purple?”, nothing.. Again, “Mr. Purple?” nothing.. “Mr. Grey?”, nothing.. Again, “Mr. Grey?” nothing.. “Mr. Red you have the comm.” As Mr. Red (Sarge) starts into his message, you write it down word for word. Nothing makes any sense but then it’s not supposed to without the codes. At the end of his message Mr. Red says “Fella’s I would like to introduce you to Mr. Green”, you are not sure if you should reply or stay silent. You quickly look through the code book to find the word hello, it’s garbage. You key the mic to say hello just as Mr. Red says, “Hello Mr. Green?” and you end up walking on his transmission to which Mr. White says “did not copy last” and Mr. Red says again, “Hello Mr. Green” and then you reply “Garbage.” You hear laughter and then Mr. Red (Sarge) say “you can say hello for know and report back when you have more.” You remember what Sarge said, “secure comms are for vital information”. You reply “Hello” and then the group says hello back in the same order as roll call. Then Sarge says “any other messages?” and pauses for about 5 seconds, no one spoke so Sarge says keep your powder dry and your butt safe..”
You lay down to rest, have your better half listen to the radio and write down messages. There seems to be 5 distinct men on the calls and never anything from Mr. Grey. He is your neighbor down the street. Your better half tries to de-code the first couple messages but it takes her a long time to find the words, write down the coded word and thus translate the messages, with them coming in every 45 minutes you wonder how long before you have the code book memorized.
You wake up and delegate the chore to your oldest child, now 17. She listens and writes everything down. When you wake up shortly after Noon there are tons of messages to decode and a few have been.
You find that there are 5 men communicating. Mr. Red sounds like Sarge, there is a Mr. White, a Mr. Yellow, a Mr. Blue and a Mr. Purple. You surmise that since the radio you were given is only a handheld it more then likely isn’t more then 4 watts of output. There is either a repeater system setup or all the men are close to you and that the equipment must be ex-military because all other civilian frequencies are either silent like someone left a mic open or are white noise static.
After an hour of reading the decoded messages you realize that no one has heard from Mr Grey, the neighbor down the road. You decide to be true to your word and try and find out his status. You also realize that Mr. Purple has issues with his septic system and is bucketing waste already. You aren’t sure if he is on the municipal system or his own.
Your leaving in 30 minutes to go check the neighborhood and see if you can find the old guy.
What do you take?
With all due respect, I started this scenario thread to get folks to think.