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to look around more later. But if there's no blood or anything, I'd guess a bird got him. Maybe a hawk, or I've been seeing a few golden eagles around lately. As big as he was getting, an eagle would be more likely. It happens, kid."
     
    After breakfast Taylor cleaned the table and dishes while Brad took some table scraps to the chickens and went to empty the compost bucket. Mike was standing by the canyon again when Stacy came up from behind him, pressed her body firmly against his and kissed him. He froze again for a moment, then he heard Jessica giggling.
    "Sorry, I told her to," Jessica said as she walked up and kissed him too. "Happy birthday."
    Stacy laughed and added "Happy birthday to the best, grumpy, reclusive, bastard, of a neighbor we could ask for."
    "Wow! Um, okay. So...," Mike was on cloud nine and at a total loss for words.
    "Okay, so today is all your day to do anything you want," Jessica told him.
    "Yeah, today is yours. But tonight, we've got something planned for you," Stacy added, as they both grinned.
    "Wait, what?"
    "Don't worry about that," Jessica said.
    "So what is the birthday boy going to do today?" Stacy asked.
    "I think I'll put some holes in those targets down there. Then maybe we can all enjoy an afternoon swim at the reservoir."
     
    Down the canyon, beside his mountain, Mike had set up a target practice range. Shooting and reading were his favorite ways of passing the time. He had targets set up starting at one-hundred yards, all the way out to a mile. He was very consistent out to a thousand yards, but beyond that his hit percentage went down sharply at the one-mile range.
     
    Since he was celebrating his birthday today, he decided to pull out his home built .50 caliber. He had taken a partially finished AR-15 lower receiver, machined it himself, and paired it with a modified kit to give him such a strong caliber rifle for a fraction of the cost of the popular Barrett rifles he was too cheap to buy. He also decided to get out his old .270 as well. It was his first rifle, so it would always be sentimental to him. It didn't have the power for the long range shooting he wanted to do, but he enjoyed using it out to the six-hundred yard target. He had fun spending his time shooting, and even landed a few hits on his one mile target.
     
    After a good lunch of elk stew Jessica cooked up, and an apple pie from Taylor, Mike asked the others to join him for a swim at the reservoir. They were all having a great afternoon. Stacy and Brad left as it started getting closer to diner time. Brad wanted to grill some goat meat for dinner, and she'd agreed to supervise him and cook some fried potatoes on the side. The others decided to swim for another hour, and then get out to dry off in the late afternoon sun.
     
    As they laid there, Taylor spoke up and asked, “What's happening in the rest of the world? You guys are still listening to the news, right?” Jessica and Mike had been monitoring the ongoing events as best they could.
    “Well,” said Jessica, “the president has ordered that the government take over just about everything. All banking, food, fuel and medical care was nationalized in the first week. Pretty much all businesses, housing, and everything else was nationalized about a week ago."
     
    Mike added, “A lot of farmers are still told they own their farms, but they can only farm what they're told to, and they're not paid for selling it anymore. They just don't have to pay for anything, and are provided food and power and allowed to continue living in their homes. It sounds like it's the same for all businesses. And if they try to do things their own way or get paid for what they're doing, the government completely takes it from them. It's gotten harder to follow though because the news has stopped reporting on any of it. I'm guessing the government took over the news too. Most of what we're hearing is from Amateur Radio, and I'm sure the government is trying to locate their signals to