The Great Unraveling

Ron Foster

Alabama, USA

© 2012 by Ron Foster and Elemental Marketing

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13:

978-1481828949

ISBN-10:

1481828940

Printed in the United States of America.

Acknowledgements

Cheryl Chamlies

Heliatos Solar

SUNRNR

Taylor Brand Knives

Preppers Everywhere

1

A WORLD GONE TOPSY TURVY

Dennis casually peered out between blinds at his neighborhoods empty streets as he was spent his time just idly watching and waiting for the hundredth time today.

Waiting for what and watching for whom, he couldn’t really say or explain his actions to anyone. It was more of an uncontrolled and somewhat compulsive gesture on his part that was born out of his curiosity about what had happened to the electricity and also his deep abiding general boredom that ensued by being totally In the realm of the technologically disconnected.

The power had been out for over three long days now and he had not settled into any other more proactive daily routine than the harmful constant wait, watch and think rut he found himself in.

Stand and stare while aimlessly passing the time but also he watched warily from a corner of the window at the unusually quite neighborhood for some kind of a sign or portent maybe hoping that a new emergency planner’s idea would miraculously come to him out of the blue and some how help him solve this mess that he and the rest of his beloved America’s humanity now found themselves facing.

He had spent most of his waking hours pondering about all the various possibilities of what he could, or would be doing today personally in preparing his household in order to be better prepared and ready to face the grim unknown of tomorrow.

“What the hell exactly will tomorrow bring?” That was the ever present and looming quandary he was in. This not so simplified self-questioning that kept rolling over and over ponderously in his mind. I got to be working on some kind of solution but I don’t have a crystal ball to forecast with he had already decided.

It was really starting to frazzle his psyche to be continually dwelling on this subject. The old guns guts and glory slogan from his soldier days wasn’t going to solve this problem and neither would any known emergency management plan he had ever had the privilege to work on. What to do? What to do echoed in his thoughts.

“Maybe I can read between the lines and get some kind of clue what’s going on in the world from the upcoming emergency broadcast radio announcement.” Dennis murmured to himself as he turned to check the wall clock to see how much time was left until the scheduled transmission...

“Damn I got another 15 more minutes to wait until air time,” Dennis fumed to himself. It was the not knowing that was driving him crazy. What had actually caused the electrical grid to go down?

Not that he expected the emergency broadcast would say anything other than a scripted emergency warning message and maybe some kind of reassurance from one of those talking head commentators. The radio played 24 hours a day and exactly on the hour you would hear the emergency broadcast system go off with that loud beeping noise and then the warnings and commentator would cut in.

“You would think by now they could dispense with that loud blaring attention noise and just get on with the news or preparedness directives. We all know were in an emergency and you got our attention FEMA so just start talking and quit telling us that this as a emergency broadcast message and how to listen to it.

We got it ok Mr. Announcer! We mucho comprende already much more than we ever wanted too or ever thought we would have too listen to so much multi lingual transmissions of the same message.

After 3 full days of every hour on the hour of listening to that same message drone on and on, it became somewhat aggravating.” Dennis mused as he resisted the dumb urge to make sure the radio was going to function properly. Of course it would, he had put fresh batteries in it and checked it an hour ago.

The first time he had heard one of those “this is not a test messages” was still all too vivid in his mind.

“This is not a test; this is a service of the emergency broad cast system. Tune in to this station for emergency broadcast messages and directions. I repeat this is not a test. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other "federal, state and local authorities") have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. A federal emergency has been declared. I repeat a Federal Emergency has been declared. Stand by calmly and attentively for further official directions and news

.

“A explosive electromagnetic pulse of unknown foreign country origin has disabled our electrical grid system. Expect longterm power and communication outages as well as severe gas shortages for the duration of this event. Do not travel unless absoulutley necessary. Stay in your homes and collect clean water in appropraite containers. The president will declare a dusk until dawn curfew over the next few days as the nation prepares to respond to this disaster.Check on your family, your loved ones and help the disabled. Make personal preparations to take care of your family for a indertiminate amount of time until the electrical grid can be stabilized and the resume power. That is all.”

“Damn right that is all. That is about all they ever said and about all that he knew had happened other than personally he thought North Korea, Iran or both of them were probably the culprits and had used some kind of Mega EMP weapon on the US. Question was who had done it and what were we as a country going to do about it. If it was a nuke of some kind (and it probably was) that had been exploded about 50k above the U.S., then Dennis was really more worried about the level of retaliation at the culprits by America escalating it to a full blown nuke war of some kind than he was about the devastation and consequences caused by our own electrical grid collapse.

He knew from many articles on the web he had been reading that the North Koreans had had some Russian help in developing a super EMP bomb that was designed specifically to shut a countries lights out versus cause death and destruction by the blast effects of the bomb or missile.

The US would most likely retaliate soon, if they had not done so already. America might choose to EMP bomb North Korea and Iran just as the most likely aggressors especially if they were having any problems pin pointing exactly who was at fault. I doubt they would be able to pin point that any one country in particular was responsible at first. That is unless we managed to track a missile being fired from a specific launch pad. Most likely what hit us was a missile fired from a freighter just off our coast and the boat scuttled soon after. Plausible deniability and very hard to evidence exactly who was to blame for the alleged attack. This was especially true if some terrorist organization was scapegoated into taking credit for it.

If the US for some reason started blaming the Chinese or Russians for helping them build the damn thing, well then things really would get far out of hand. No telling what everyone might start shooting back and forth at each other then. Iran and  North Korea were pretty much agriculture based third world nations so shutting down their electrical grid systems was not near as devastating on their populace as it was on the United States.

The foreign countries had millions of folks who still lived off the land and were not dependant on technology the same as their forefathers of a not a hundred or so years ago. Time sort of stood still in those areas as 21st century technology expanded across the world elsewhere. The big thing was the Iranians wouldn’t give a shit if their power was shutoff, especially if they believed by attacking the U.S. it would hasten the return of their beloved prophet “The Mahdi.”.

al-Mahdi is "the rightly-guided one" who, according to Islamic Hadiths (traditions), will come before the end of time to make the entire world Muslim.

North Korea really didn’t have that much to lose themselves by attacking its old enemy the United States. The Korean countries people were already starving under militaristic rule and communist oppression. They might be capable of doing something foolish or it might have been an accident. The US suspected they might have 4 EMP bombs on a satellite they just recently launched and it was said the thing was wobbling in orbit like they were having problems controlling it.

The US could bomb all the players in this little scheme of foreign plotters to take down the so called “Great Satan” as they referred to the United States and she could very well nuke them until they glowed, but the threat of further aggression and mutually assured destruction amongst the bigger powers would make that a unfeasible and suicidal attack. You can’t have our nuclear radiation blowing across other uninvolved countries borders no matter what the provocation was from their neighbors.

“You know Dennis thought to himself, we are probably not the only ones that got attacked. No, I bet Israel must surely have been targeted also and think about it for a second, Russia and China has numerous Islamic enemies themselves so it may well be possible that World War III had just been started in earnest on many different fronts and for various reasons.

The world being what it is today, there is no telling who was allied with whom or against whom or for what for that matter. Well I can’t do anything myself to prevent that, but I can do something for myself about what we are facing right now.” Dennis concluded after shaking off a far more bloody apocalyptic vision than just living in America with out power for a long time to come.

Dennis had been thinking about just what to do about the calamity that he and his family were in for a long time now. Much, much more than he had ever wanted too consider.

But he still had a lot more questions than he had answers when he was faced with a new crisis occurring everyday. Just getting to his moms house had been an ordeal and he was very lucky to have been able to arrive home as quickly as he had to support her.

Dennis had found himself sitting his old ass in the Atlanta airport terminal waiting on a connecting flight from Georgia to Alabama when the power went out.

Knowing that this couldn’t be anything less than a major event occurring, he had made his way as quickly as possible out of the airport and hailed the first cab he saw. He wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination going to wait at a shutdown airport any longer than he had to. Airports don’t just lose power very often. The best idea was to boogie out onward quickly,

“Thank goodness and the good Lords blessings he hadn’t been in one of those underground passenger trains that take you around that huge airport like a subway system.” He repeatedly congratulated himself and his luck once again for about the millionth time today.

At first he had gave directions to the cabbie to take him straight to the Greyhound or Trailways bus station .He figured even if the power was off for only ten minutes at the airport, all flights would be delayed for hours and he would probably be in his home town of Montgomery before the scheduled plane even took off. As he and the cab driver were headed to the bus station he had remembered that there was airport shuttle service drop offs and pickups at a couple of the hotels nearby and told the cabbie to swing by these service areas first.

It was always cheaper to take a flight out of Atlanta versus starting out in Montgomery, so many people would op to pay 50 dollars for a ticket on a shuttle van which made the trip every few hours between the two cities. He was in luck and a van was in the service area and would be returning to Montgomery shortly, so he paid the cabbie off and bought himself a shuttle bus ticket for a quicker more comfortable ride home.

This ride home wasn’t going to stop at every little town along the way like the Greyhound bus does and it appeared it would be just him and the driver for this return trip.

While Dennis was waiting he and the driver speculated on what could have possibly happened to the power. It wasn’t until the driver tried to call back to talk to his home base that Dennis got a sinking but knowing feeling in the pit of his stomach that said something more than a local blackout was going on. Either a coronal mass ejection had gone off or a nuclear EMP had been exploded somewhere.

“The damn sirens would be going off it was nuke, there were hardened warning communication systems and underground wiring for that. But were the damned sirens themselves dependant on the electric grid? Dennis didn’t know the answer to that and began to get panicky and check the sky for a mushroom cloud or something.”

The driver looked at him suspiciously as he began to frantically look all around seeking some kind of answer to what was going on.

“You are looking up there in the sky for something in particular?” Bert asked trying to keep one eye on Dennis and have a look at the sky himself.

“You think those planes are going to have a lot of trouble landing if the airport doesn’t have any power?” Bert asked concerned and starting to scan the skies with Dennis for whatever mysterious thing he was looking for.

“Those planes that are still in the air probably will have to fly around in a wide circle for awhile or get diverted to another airport while they switch to emergency generator power. How many passengers are you expecting to ride back with us to Montgomery?” Dennis asked not wanting to stir up any unwarranted fears before he knew exactly what was going on.

“I got just one lady on the pickup list and she is 20 minutes late already. That’s why I wanted to call dispatch and see if she had called in before I took off back to Montgomery.” Bert replied watching the traffic start to snarl up on Peachtree Street because all of the street traffic signals had stopped working.

“If we don’t hurry up and leave soon you are never going to get out of here.” Dennis said watching the cars play a game of dodge each other at the intersections when somebody got impatient to cross and took the first gap between cars they saw.

“Yeah let’s go ahead and get going down the road. If she ever shows up and God bless her, she can take the next shuttle home in 3 hours. I am out of here as of right now.” Bert declared and for the next hour and a half they fought horrendous traffic to get to an alternate route home Dennis knew about.

After they finally got back on the highway and were about halfway home was when Dennis had heard the first Emergency of many warnings about the evidence of a nuclear EMP strike come in on Bert’s radio. The cabs radio up to this point had just said that it was a national emergency involving the power grid and to remain calm and try to stay at home. Dennis had been babbling away at Bert telling him what he knew about solar vs nuclear EMP up to this point and convinced him to stop at any store along the way to stock up on things they might not be able to get when they got back home.

He had explained to Bert that distance from a nuke EMP depended a lot on how your cars engine and computer system was affected, but a localized EMP event like what happened to Quebec from a solar storm could also be the reason their vehicle was still moving and planes still flying. If a solar storm had just overloaded some big transformers then you would only have localized damage that could be fixed. Now that Dennis knew the cause of the disaster he could do a little planning.

He only had about $75 in his pockets, his mom astutely kept cash at home so if they were lucky and could find any store open in town he could add to their preps.

“Hell! “ Dennis thought. That is if the panic buying zoo that will be forming up at the grocery stores hasn’t already started up big-time yet.

You would think a city the size of Montgomery that had weathered many a hurricane or tornado would have some plan to keep some stores open or the damn supermarket chains would have installed generators by now, but it had not happened to Dennis’s knowledge unless they did so after the hurricane of last year. It would probably be the same old routine of lock the doors, dump the meat and frozen food aisles and open up 4 or 5 days after the storm to sell some of what was left.

Dennis wasn’t too worried though about having to go to a store for food right away. His mom’s house had at least a month or two of supplies stored in it and he had more than a year worth of food out in the country at his prepper shack which was 30 miles outside of town. He was pretty well set to ride this apocalypse out or as well as he would ever be, because he had been putting his all into prepping for the past 5 yrs or so.

The end of the Mayan calendar and 2012 etc had all come and gone just as he knew it would. But he also knew we were going into solar maximum during this period and had been preparing for a grid down event like this along with a few other disaster scenarios.

He had a small solar light setup by SUNRNR and a solar hot water system by Helios at his cabin as well as propane or wood heat so convincing Mom to bug out to the country with him shouldn’t be a problem. Just common sense, low funds coming in now and rising utility prices had made him try to make his little homestead as self reliant as he could.

The land in back of his cabin had raised bed gardens that he had been organically building up the soil in for a few seasons. He had planted a small orchard a couple years ago and his land and the adjoining acreages woods had lots of wild edibles and game in it so chances were good he would live to see a few more years if people didn’t get too nutty.

“That’s just it, people WERE going to get nutty and soon be down right dangerous to be anywhere around. Deciding when to bug out, or how long to stay” bugged in” was what he had to hurry up and make up his mind about.” Dennis grimaced to himself and then went to listen to the latest radio announcement with his elderly mom.

2

The “Shut ins” and “Shut Outs”

The news on the radio was actually just more of the same. Dennis’s mother remarked that they could at least give a weather report along with the news and this started a conversation between her and Dennis about could the weatherman even accurately predict weather nowadays in a grid down situation.

“I have a very nice ship’s barometer down at my house to predict weather with, but it is not doing us much good here.” Dennis said broaching the subject that they would be moving or bugging out to the country soon. This had been a major point of contention and discourse with his mom the past few days. Bug in or Bug out? Each had their own arguments.

As far as Dennis was concerned they could have left for the country yesterday, but his mom was hesitant to leave that quick and he didn’t want to upset her or her bad heart if he could help it in anyway, so he just played along with her and tried to calmly wait

.

“We will be going to your place in a few days Dennis. I haven’t forgotten. We have got to work on closing up this house first and also eat up some of this food in the freezer before we go though.” Dennis’s mom said trying to rationalize the situation.

“Oh sure I know that Mom, I just wanted you to consider something though... I have a portable ice maker down at the house that we could use to keep some of this meat fresh a little longer.” Donald said playing his trump card.

“That runs off that solar thing of ma jig you got?” His mom said suspiciously.

“Yea it runs off my solar generator, also I can run my bread maker, my food dehydrator and a bunch of other things.” Dennis said proudly thinking about the bright yellow SUNRNR solar generator he had installed in his utility room.

“Does it run your hot water heater too?” His mom queried

“Oh no, I have a totally complete separate setup from Helitos that heats the water. It has its own solar panel that runs the pump that circulates the water.” Dennis explained.

“You think the city water will get turned off here anytime soon because of that, what did you call it? That EMP thing?” his mom asked worriedly.

They had plenty of water in the house for their immediate needs and it was readily available. His mom upon hearing the emergency warning had filled up the bathtub, all the sinks and several containers with water. Dennis had a 15 gallon container and a 5 gallon jug full of water stored in his metal shed office in the back of the house that he used for an office when he was home. His mom had a few big cases of bottled water stored in the cupboard. It could have been better water prep wise, but that was all he could convince his mom to have on hand. They also had the 55 gallons in the hot water heater if need be.

They had plenty of storage space but his mom had a habit of what she called “working things down” which meant she preferred empty space and not cluttered up with preps Dennis would have rather had around.

“Well the waters still running for the moment, I guess they are using backup power down at sewage and sanitation so I would give it another week or so left before water shutdowns start occurring. It depends on if they can or can’t get anymore fuel to run the emergency generators. Seems to me they would be using very large diesel generators so they might be able to scrounge more fuel from somewhere and keep them running for a period of time longer than I can speculate on.

The Water authority issued that boil and conserve water warning over and over on the radio so I guess the main purification plants are already down or running at reduced capacity. We still got natural gas to cook with, which reminds me we are light on charcoal but I need to use it up to cook that freezer full of meat. I think we got another 3 or 4 days before I got to either lose some of that meat or cook it up. As it is, we have more than we can eat and those bags of ice and containers we got in the freezer are melting fast.” Dennis said thinking about the upright freezer he had wrapped in blankets for insulation.

“How much food do you have in your freezer at home Dennis?” his mom asked.

“About a weeks worth, that’s another thing. I am sure it’s all probably mostly unfrozen by now.” Dennis said leaving the decision and facts with his mother to mull over as he got ready to go fire up the grill.

“Well I hate to leave here, but it looks like we need to go down there or you go and come back before it starts to spoil.” Mom called after him.

“Hey Mom, I explained to you we got to really conserve on the gas now, I doubt we will see anymore gas available for a long time to come. I can’t see myself wasting gas on a round about trip just so we can stick around here a bit longer.” Dennis replied a bit testy at the notion.

“Well I am just thinking out loud! You could go cook your food and bring some back and while you’re gone I can finish packing up some things around here.” His mom whined at him upset at his tone for whatever reason.

“Well if you hadn’t taken all those cans of food out of boxes and rearranged the shelves we wouldn’t have that to do that now.” Dennis wanted to say to her but caught himself and treaded lightly.

“True that’s a thought. I guess my old truck will make it fine for another few trips. I could run up to the country and come back in the afternoon if I got an early start out of here. I don’t know if I should cook what’s in the freezer up there or bring it back here to grill it. I could bring some more charcoal back with me I suppose Mom. I have extra stored there.. You know I got that neighbor friend of mine up there that’s supposed to team up with me if we ever had this kind of disaster. I don’t know how fixed for fresh food he and his girlfriend are though. Unfortunately all they have are cell phones; some telephone landlines still appear to be working if you have a non electronic phone by the way. I got one in my cabin and I am curious about seeing if it works or not, not that I have anyone to call, It seems everyone is cell phone or electronic phone dependant these days.” Dennis said speculating about who he might be able to contact.

“So Dennis, would you be staying the night in the country or would you be coming directly back here? Don’t you have some things up there you need to get ready before I come down?” His mom asked. not sure if she liked the idea so much now that Dennis might decide to spend a day or two there before returning for her.

“I got a thousand and one things to do as soon as I get there, but not anything pressing that needs to get done right now. I keep that place pretty much ready to just walk in the door and start regular daily living. I do need to be seen some around the local area though. There are several people around there who know I got preps of some sort on hand and might possibly think of breaking into my house if they were getting desperate for food.” Dennis said worriedly.

Dennis made his living by selling books on prepping, so that meant as part of his marketing campaigns he told people about what he sold and wrote about. He was known as a prepper. That fact could come back to bite him one day but he was also sure the folks who might consider taking something from him probably thought he was pretty well armed and would think twice about trying to rob him.

“Dang that reminds me! Dennis thought, he had promised his neighbor Charlie and his girlfriend Monica he would lend them some guns and ammo if the poo ever hit the fan. Well Charlie already had that old 20 gauge single shot shotgun his uncle had given him so he wasn’t totally defenseless. The ties of society hadn’t really started breaking down too much yet, so he would be alright until Dennis supplied him some better fire power. I best get those weapons out of the gun safe and also grab something for mom to use if need be. She didn’t know how to shoot yet, but he had a revolver he could tell her to just point it forward and keep pulling the trigger in an emergency. I wonder if I can borrow a dog off Charles. He had those three big hounds of his and Dennis figured maybe he could sort of temporarily adopt one and  put it in his house for security for a day or two, or maybe to temporarily adopt and keep around fulltime  to make his mom feel more secure. She liked dogs; she just didn’t have one because she didn’t particularly like them in the house. Feeding three big dogs was going to be a bitch now so he thought Charles would go for it if he said he could feed and care for one.

“Dennis, I was talking o you! Would you pay attention please? I said are you going to be staying overnight at your house in the country?” his mom said looking a bit put out that his mind had wandered far from the conversation and he wasn’t listening or paying attention to her.

“I haven’t said I am going to go without you yet. Give me a couple minutes to think about it while I get the chicken on the grill.” Dennis replied apologetically and went to do the task at hand.

Dennis knew that most folks were most likely only sitting around waiting for the government to come save them and these people would soon become unglued mentally when it didn’t happen.  That is in his opinion, “FEMA “had become a generic name for 'nobody's solved our problems.'" and people would start the rioting and looting before too long demanding aid and wanting it right now.

He had to absolutely get himself and his mom out of city long before that started happening. Not that the country would be much safer to live in. People in the city had no idea how their food was produced and would start looking in the county for farms thinking that the people there had lots of food available. Plenty of transportation was still available with whatever gas a vehicle had in it, so they would migrate to the countryside fleeing the big cities.

“His house was too small and off the beaten path to be an obvious target to the swarm of locusts that would soon be fleeing the city Dennis thought. Now dealing with his starving neighbors out in the country would be another matter entirely.” He thought dejectedly.

“Well Charles and his girlfriend were sworn to help protect his stash of prepper food supplies. Not much consolation in that, but it was some added security knowing they would go to a gunfight with him. The idea now was for him to go as low profile as he could get and keep his food preparation and cooking indoors so as to not alert anyone to how well he was prepared to be eating for awhile. Trash and light suppression would be important too. Can’t be producing too much trash or burning it off or that could tip people off he was eating regular. He had bottles of propane for his camp stove and alcohol fuelled stoves he could get by with, but he hated the thought of using up those diminishable preps when he had a whole forest of wood around him to be cooking with. He would rather save the propane for the rainy and cold days ahead when he had to be stuck inside.

Blending into the community really was the best strategy for survival right now, but it was going to be difficult on that dead end road he lived on. You pretty much knew if your neighbors were coming or going and to keep up appearances he would have to look and act as destitute as those less fortunate or prepared. He would have to be seen going out to look for food, if he met anyone he knew he would also be asking where to find it. That sucked because the whole idea of being prepped was so you could avoid the mobs and food riots and didn’t have to get out on the road. Then you got to worry about folks seeing you leave your house unattended and that seriously complicates matters.

He would have to work out all the little nuances of safety, security, surveillance and putting on a charade of seeking food in town. Damn that charade unnecessarily burns up gas he would need for lots of things like running his garden tiller and chain saw. Maybe Charles could be seen coming and going between their houses and town on his motorcycle and they could seriously cut down on fuel. Of course if he ran any kind of machinery the whole neighborhood would know he had fuel. Car pooling with the neighbors to go to town in search of food made total sense but he barely knew any of them. That was liable to change though as things worsened.” David considered as he was waiting on the coals in his grill to get hot enough to cook up some of the thawing meat he was making for dinner.

Dennis had one of those big old round Weber grills and when he was done cooking he would close the vents on the lid and place it back on the grill to snuff the coals out. He reused the coals from his previous fires and just added a little more charcoal when necessary. This really saved on the charcoal consumption using this conservation method.

“The whole neighborhood must be cooking out.” Dennis thought while sniffing the air and looking around for puffs of tell tale smoke drifting from backyards.

“Good nobody is starving yet, well at least not around here anyway by the looks and smell of things.” He mused as smoke and food cooking smells filled the air.

Dennis had explained to his mom after he finally got home from Atlanta that there were now truly just two types of people to think about in the world. The “Shut Ins” and the “Shut Outs”.

The “Shut Outs”. Were a group that he had almost become a part of if he hadn’t of found a lucky ride home. Those were the people who were far from home and had no way to get there and were essentially shut out of a safe environment and thrust into a dangerous one. The “Shut Ins” was those that shut everyone else out to protect what little they had as times got harder. You started seeing both kinds of groups the minute the disaster hit. Restaurants and grocery stores shooed their customers out and locked their doors. Without communications or computers for flight schedules the airport must have turned into a mad house with all the stranded travelers milling about looking for answers to where they would stay the night or how to try to get home another way.

“Dennis had sympathy and compassion for both groups. However, he couldn’t dwell on others misfortunes at this time. He had to concentrate on the here and now and his own families survival first and foremost. From here on out, every single decision he made had a bearing on that. One bad or good decision and his and his mom’s chances for survival were either enhanced or reduced disproportionately. Darn he wished she would just go ahead and bug out with him to the cabin. Maybe he could coax her a bit more he decided as he put chicken legs and thighs on the grill to cook.

Dennis pondered all the upcoming problems he foresaw for social unrest and violence and decided he would take a little quick run to his farmstead, arm Charles and his girlfriend Monica, see to any food needs they might have and then he would haul ass back to the house. He would load as much stuff as he could in his truck this go round from his mom’s house and make the best of using up some gas. Cleaning out the pantry tonight and boxing up the emergency stores would leave little for his mom to do and thus hasten her departure. Moving all that stuff now would allow him room in the truck for the next trip to add a bunch of useful crap he was going to have to leave behind otherwise.

“Now next trip what do I need to bring back to the homestead with me?” he was considering while fixing his and his moms dinners plates so they could sit down to supper.

“Mom we need to box up all the toilet paper, bug spray, blankets towels etc. we need to basically start a new house up with. Those are the type items we will need or the goods we will most likely run out of first. I mean take the paper off the dispensers in the bathroom, take a run through every drawer and cabinet in the house and look for items we might be able to use. Take the dish liquid and soap but leave all those household cleaners here. We don’t have room for them and I got some already at my house. Oh yea, take the bleach and laundry soap. Charcoal starter, you name it and we see how much of this kind of stuff we can get into the vehicles when I get back. I am going to take some of the firewood you got stacked out on the patio and fill up my deer rack basket on my trailer hitch. We need to try to take as much of that seasoned firewood as we can in order to get help get us through winter.” Dennis said between mouthfuls of barbecued chicken.

“I need to look through my clothes and choose what might be best to bring along. I remember you have almost zero closet space at your farm.” Mom said getting into the spirit of a permanent move for the best while putting on a brave smile.

“There you go! I will see how much I can get loaded tonight and I will leave out first thing in the morning. You keep that pepper spray handy tomorrow Mom, even though I am sure you won’t need it while I am gone and then look for me and my truck about dark thirty tomorrow night.” Dennis said elated that the subject of when they were going to be leaving had finally been resolved

“You need to be back before dark Dennis, the government said they were starting curfew soon and I don’t want you in any trouble.” His mom said putting her plate aside and coming to hold Dennis’s hand.

“Will do mom, back way before dark, don’t you worry, we are going to be just fine.” He said giving her a firm but gentle hug and holding her a moment to reassure her.

3

A World At The End Of A Rainbow.

Dennis finished loading his truck and was sweating like a race horse from the exertion but he still managed to be out of the house and on his way by 7.30 the next morning.

The town was very quite but he did see one police car and was wondering if they had gotten the National Guard mobilized yet to keep folks acting civilized.

“Curfew! Good old state governor mandated curfew orders. Damn that’s just about a half step from the President  declaring full blown martial law and he wanted to be as far away from here as possible if that occurred. Probably got the same thing curfew thing going in the small town next to his farm but they were a whole lot less police and a bunch more friendlier people than in the city of Montgomery.” David reminded himself as he headed towards his country home down the highway.

Dennis decided he would take one of the country boy local backwoods alternate routes home and turned off the highway and slowly drove down an intersecting dirt road all the while checking out his distant neighbors land and homes. He had been down this little stretch of dirt road hundreds of times and pretty much knew who kept chickens or a cow or two but he did not know the owners at all, other than waving to them occasionally as he passed by. Charles had said he knew a few people back over this way. He certainly hoped that was true, because they sure were going to need to be networking with these bigger small farms that might produce some kind of surplus they would be willing to trade for.

Dennis didn’t even stop at his neighbor’s house as he drove by it and instead went directly to his home to reassure himself that all remained in order. The house was exactly as he had left it and he went directly to his gun safe and opened it. One 12 gauge shotgun, one SKS rifle and a CZ 52 pistol is what he had as loners for Charles at the moment. These firearms he carried out to the truck along with a few bandoliers of ammo. Next he went and filled his ice machine with water and then plugged it into his SUNRNR solar generator. He looked at the dripping thawed mess in his freezer and decided it was still good enough to eat and began loading it into an empty ice chest.

“Hey anybody home!” a woman’s voice called out coming down his driveway and startling him.

He went to his wide open front door and saw Charles and Monica walking down his driveway with two of their three big dogs on leashes.

“Hello my friends!” Dennis called back to them and waited on them to finish approaching his house.

“Come on in! Charles you want a hot beer?” Dennis said heading towards the refrigerator and removing one.

“Don’t mind if I do.” Charles said reaching for the one Dennis was offering.

“Monica? Want a hot beer? Sorry I don’t have any wine.” Dennis said holding up another can in her direction.

“That’s ok Dennis, well yea why not I will take one too. Thanks!” She said reaching for the proffered beverage.

“We saw you drive in. I was wondering when you were going to show up. Actually, I was starting to worry about you a little bit.” Monica said sitting down next to Charles on the couch.

“I darn near got stuck in Atlanta but that’s another story. I have been at my mom’s house looking after her. How have you all been making out?” Dennis gushed happy to see them while sitting down in a chair and making a face from his first sip of a hot beer.

“We have been ok. Well man you sure were right, the shit has definitely finally hit the fan.” Charles said meaningfully fixing Dennis` glance at him.

“Yea it damn sure has. This is one time I wish hadn’t of been right about that NASA solar storm warning affecting us this year or terrorism or anything else. I got you some guns and ammo in the truck by the way and I was just loading up some fresh meat to share with you. It’s thawed out now but it will be ok if you will cook it soon.” Dennis said hopping up to finish filling and closing the ice chest.

“I will throw whatever you got on the big smoker and cook it up for us. I assume you are here to stay or you going back today?” “Charles said questionably, most likely wondering what Dennis was doing arriving here without his mom.

“No I am dropping off a load of supplies and then I am heading back to Montgomery in a few hours to retrieve my mom. We will be coming back to stay for the duration together with the other car. I will be back sometime tomorrow or the next day hopefully.” Dennis said watching Monica lighting up what was most likely one of her last few cigarettes she had left. Dennis hadn’t been too long quit smoking himself and felt for her being forced to quit cold turkey sometime in the near future.

“You want us to be doing anything besides cook up that meat in the cooler Dennis?” Monica asked still looking at the nuclear survival manual.

“No, we will have plenty time enough in the future to figure out what we are going to be doing when I get back down this way. Cooking up all that meat or smoking it for storage is the most important thing for now. Have yourselves a big gigantic feast and eat up whatever you want. I don’t care if you choose rib eyes or filet mignon. I got my portable icemaker running by the way and I will give you some ice to refrigerate what’s left over before I leave. We should be able to get at least 3 meals for the four of us I figure out of the amount of meat represented in the cooler. I didn’t realize I had so much in my freezer. However, I am just guessing, feed them dogs the cheaper cuts if you have too. “Dennis said deciding this hot beer wasn’t so bad after you got past the first sip.

“Charles you got plenty of water stored up?” Dennis asked looking out the window towards his neighbor’s house across the street that sat about an acre back from the road on a slight hill.

“Yea you might say I was a good prepper and did my part just like we talked about. Day one I took my lawn tractor and trailer down to the creek and used that marine battery you gave me to run a sump pump and sucked up 50 gallons of creek water. I even added a tiny amount of Clorox to it. How long do you think we will still have county water to depend on?” Charles asked.

“That I don’t know, if we are lucky I would say maybe longer than anyone else. They got that big water tower over by the volunteer fire department and they could gravity feed all the folks around us but I don’t know what their emergency plan is. I will stop by the fire house on the way out and see if anyone’s around to ask if they going to open the lines when the backup power generators run out of fuel in a week or two. That reminds me, I need to stop off and talk to the “gopher “ brothers on the way out and see if they want to do a little job for us. “ Dennis said and then walked over to his open gun safe in the adjoining room and surveyed his weaponry.

Dennis had nicknamed them the “gopher brothers” because when he had first met them, their mom had told him the story about how she had gone off and left the 17 year old and the 14 year old  at home while she did a business trip for a week. When she got back they had dug several giant holes out in an old walnut orchard on the property for a root cellar and a tornado shelter. She had them fill them back in because they were a hazard to mowing the lawn and the next time she went somewhere they started a 8x8x10 hole they ended up having to fill back in because no one could afford the lumber to finish it. They had both told Dennis if he ever needed a hole dug to call on them and that’s exactly what he planned on doing now.

“Do you want them boys to come help you build some sort of fall out shelter; is that what you got in mind? You think we might really be needing one? “Monica asked scared there could be a nuclear war to worry about next.

“God I hope not! But it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I am not too worried about that at the moment but it is a concern to think about. No I just run out of funds to get me a tornado shelter or bunker built and I figure this summer I will need a root cellar anyway. I am going to build the damn root cellar like a fall out shelter though. By the way Charles, being former military and all, you probably don’t need to read it but there is a book over their on the shelf of Nuclear war survival skills. You might want a review on improvised shelters until we get my shelter constructed.” Dennis said but then handed the book to Monica first who looked like she couldn’t wait to get her hands on it.

“I doubt that it will escalate into a global nuclear war. There would be no winners and only all losers so I am not worried about being obliterated. There will be some dirty bombs going off in the U.S. though I bet if we did do a full blown military retaliatory strike against Iran. Those suckers got their terrorist cells infiltrated in the states all over the place for just such an occasion. There is good chance of bioterrorism also. But hopefully we might have them scared enough of our nuclear power not to do that, well I doubt they try bioterrorism openly anyway.

Israel has already told Iran if the used any of those missiles they said they have loaded with biological and chemical warfare agents that they could expect probably to get nuked in return. The bible says something about the total destruction of Syria in one day so that may well come to pass.

“I am of course still quite curious if somebody in the U.S. wasn’t messing around with H.A.R.R.P and somehow short circuited our own grid. That would be the false flag attack of the century! Every time they experiment with that thing for weather manipulation or whatever else they do with it, there in Alaska. There are far too many strong readings of electromagnetic energy emanations in odd places. I can only guesstimate at what might actually be going on until we get an official causation confirmation or the government and the media false flag us into whatever we are supposed to believe about it.

Remember my friends that they admitted the Gulf of Tonkin incident with the Vietnamese was staged” Dennis said thinking about an entirely new twist and turn that might explain the national emergency they were in.

“Damn Dennis! I wish you didn’t know so much sometimes, some of those conspiracy theories or terrorist capability assessments you come up with scare the hell out of me.” Monica said rapidly glancing through the survival book she had been given.

“You asked the question and I gave you some answers.” Dennis told her smiling and ignoring the poke at his prepper knowledge that might throw a wet blanket on something in the conversation.

‘Hey Charles I got a little crappy radio that can receive the shortwave band. Maybe we can pick up what’s happening in the world and get a little heads up. Dennis said going to get it and then after putting batteries in it trying to tune to a station.

“Here you fool with this for me and see if you find a station, I got sidetracked for a minute.” Dennis said handing the radio to Charles and going back to his gun safe.

Dennis knew the Gopher brothers only possessed a single shot .223 Remington rifle and a single shot 12 gauge shotgun so he thought he had the ideal barter material for them to consent to dig out and work on his new root cellar. He had an old Russian 5 shot bolt action Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifle that was chambered in 7.62 x54. It was only a hundred dollar gun before the poo hit the fan, not telling what it was worth nowadays. It and 100 rounds of ammo for it to shoot were worth a good down payment on a little hard excavation work to Dennis.

He had 223 NATO rounds that were militarily loaded too hot with smokeless gunpowder for that .223 Remington of theirs, so that caliber wouldn’t help them any. He had stored tons of 12 gauge shells for himself, so he added several boxes of buckshot and slugs to his barter pile to sweeten the deal. Speaking of sweetener he went and got two 10 LB bags of commercial deer attractant out of his stores and gave one to Charles and added one to the pile the Gopher boys would be receiving. Jack and Clyde could now have a good chance of keeping themselves and their mother feed by hunting deer on their back pasture and in the wood line.

“Charles you might as well go set you up a saltlick on your back property somewhere with that trademarked Deer Cocaine stuff and get ready to feed you and those big dogs with some game. By the way I wanted to talk to you about borrowing one of your hounds as kind of security around here for me and my mom. We can talk about that when I return. I will get you set up with some traps and snares when I get back also and we can work out how we are going to run our trap lines for food procurement.” Dennis told him ticking off a mental list of things he and Charles had talked about doing before if a big disaster hit.

“Sounds like a master plan to me, Hey Dennis you got any mash started yet?” Charles asked knowing Dennis had an alcohol still and a few hundred pounds of sugar stored, as well as assorted turbo yeasts packages packed in mason jars in his refrigerator for the purpose of making some white lightening should he decide the world was ending.

“No that’s on top of my ever expanding “to do” list. How about we carry the mash buckets and some sugar over to your house and you can get started on that project while I am gone? I don’t want to clue my mom in just yet on my plans for moo shining for us to drink or as a barter item. She is going to fuss like hell when she hears about it. I drink too much for her snooping around already” Dennis said over his shoulder as he went to get the paraphernalia necessary to make some high proof drinking vodka.

“How long until you can brew a batch off and it be drinkable once you start the mash?” Monica said perking up at the thought of having some liquor available.

“I got some turbo yeast to speed the process up, so about three days until I can run the still and make us a few quarts of drinking whiskey. We can also mix that ethanol alcohol 50/50 with gasoline if we need to use it in the vehicles. But that’s such a waste.” Dennis said laughing at their shared love of some good stiff drinks sometimes.

“I am wising now you had started that mash three days ago. You got another hot beer buddy?” Charles asked

“Yea sure you can, go help yourself Charles. I got a case of it that I will split with you all. Glad that won’t be our last call for alcohol when that beer is gone.” Dennis said grinning that he would have access to some hooch for what he hoped was a long time to come as Charles and Monica laughed at his statement because of their already having heard about  his preps and plans to insure just that.

“You got any particular kind of timeline in mind on when society will really start to unravel Dennis?’ Monica asked worriedly. She had been listening to Dennis’s doomsday prepper tales for years and knew a lot about society and what he predicted might happen during a societal collapse.

“That’s really hard for me to say with any precision Monica. Most likely it has already started or is happening at various degrees in some places. I say I would give it another week or so before the violence and looting starts going mainstream and also before it really starts to get out of hand. It all just depends. If the U.S. was the only one that got EMP bombed then other countries could help us out and get the transformers we don’t build here to repair our electrical grid. I am sure that who ever thought of attacking us probably has already or will bomb those overseas factories that build the electrical parts we need in order to add to the chaos.

Of course if America and our allies were the only ones in the world to have an EMP problem that fool of a president of ours might bring in the UN and foreign soldiers to help quell the social unrest and that action might even provoke or start a civil war here stateside. I know a lot of patriots who have said they won’t tolerate foreign troops doing police actions on American soil.” Dennis said ominously.

“You are just full of good news today Dennis you old damn doomer.” Monica said rising to go get herself another beer and muttering to herself.

“Grab me a beer too please.” Dennis called after her good naturedly.

“Charles I am going to finish this next beer and then I need to get the truck unloaded and get myself back on the road.” Dennis said wishing he had more time to spend with his friends today.

“No problem, we will help you. You got lots of time, its only 10.30, in the morning, when are you planning on leaving and going back?” Charles questioned.

“I guess about 12 noon or so. I need to go talk to the gopher boys and get them started if they want to do the job. That is a touchy situation for me to start getting back in contact with them right now. They know I am a prepper and they were becoming ones themselves, but I have no idea if they started storing much food. There is not a lot of extra money around that house, so I don’t know what progress if any they have made. They are good hardworking boys though and we will need their friendship a lot in the upcoming months to help us if we are going to try and pull through this as a community. I just don’t really have hardly any extra food to share with them.” Dennis said watching conflicting emotions go across Charles face.

“Yea you need to really think it through before you go inviting them over here right now.” Charles said returning Dennis’s scrutinizing look.

“I just thought of something I want to add to their barter pile, hang on a minute.” Dennis said. Taking a slug out of his beer and rising to go get something.

“You keep adding to that pile and I might just have to try to dig that pit for you!” Monica said laughing.

“Oh I got lots more to trade with folks, this just gets them started on the right track.” Dennis said s he opened a cabinet and removed 3 big rat traps and a jar of peanut butter.

“You are thinking about them boys trapping some Squirrels?” Monica said arching an eyebrow at him because she was never quite sure what prepper trick he was up to.

“Yup, you got it! You want your half dozen Rat traps now or latter?” Dennis said grinning wickedly and holding up a big paper sack full of them.

“You always been one crazy man Dennis, but all your preps sure don’t seem very crazy to me now.” Monica said as Dennis bagged up some traps and peanut butter for her and Charles to use for trapping squirrels in their own backyard.

“Hey tree rats are good to eat. I will show you how to make squirrel fricassee and biscuits someday.” Dennis said laughing.

“I know how to make gravy!” Monica said grinning

“By the way I haven’t forgotten that when I gave you that knife last year you promised me and Charles if we caught it you would clean it if the poo ever hit the fan.” Dennis declared.

Dennis had given her a Schrade Old Timer woodsman model 165 OT a great classic knife that had stood the test of time in usefulness and reliability.

“I will skin and clean, you might have to show me how to do it a few times but I will help out and do my share.” Monica said not too pleased about the way she perceived Dennis was reminding her of that promise.

“We will all be sharing tons of chores we rather not be doing pretty soon; we will figure it all out as we go and we will all get through this ok.’ Dennis offered and returned Charles’s knowing nod of being in agreement that soon they would be all very busy indeed.

Both realized cleaning game with a shortage of water was a very nasty job indeed that Dennis would spend many hours teaching how to do it.

4

SAVING GRACES

Dennis wrapped up the rest of his morning conversation and libations with Charles and Monica and headed over to fetch the Gopher boys and cut a deal with them for digging out a root cellar. Their mom said they were out hunting and were not expected back home until late unless they got lucky. After a bit of chit chat about how things were and were going to be, Dennis was pleased to find out the family had bought lots of rice and beans over the past year and were not going to starve for awhile. Rather than bring all the trade goods he had brought over back to his house, Dennis went ahead and left them for the boys use and told their mom he would cut a deal with them later when he returned some other day.

Dennis went by the fire house on his way back to town in order to check on the water situation, but to his dismay nobody was around to ask any questions of. He saw a large National Guard convoy headed towards Montgomery on the highway but he couldn’t figure out what kind of specialized unit they were. They had a lot more trucks manned fully than he thought they could put together so quickly and wondered if they had been put on some kind of threat alert before the EMP event occurred.

“That’s something he really needed to find out about. The very next approachable Guardsman he saw he decided then and there that he would try to engage them in conversation and find out what they thought about was really going on. Dennis had been in the National Guard himself for many years before he got out and thought he would find it easy to talk to the younger soldiers and gain their confidence to speak plainly to him what they thought about it all.

Nothing for him to do now but watch the scenery on the way home and look for opportunities to spend some of his green  cash at one of the little country stores dotting the highway if he could find one that was open along the way.

“GEEZ! There is a hell of a lot more traffic moving around today than I would have expected!” Dennis said to himself watching the highway. No eighteen wheelers at all though… which was weird because this highway was normally full of them.

“. Where were all these folks buying gas or getting some gas at? Or in all probability they were just running their gas tanks empty getting as far as they could go on what they had just like he was. Everyone must be trying to get somewhere to buckle in at and ride the coming storm out.” Dennis surmised.

The nation was literally peppered with preppers just like Dennis. The last published statistic he had seen had put the count at about 4 million preppers in the United States. How the media arrived at that number Dennis didn’t have a clue.

“I would bet about 20% of these cars and especially some of these trailers and recreational vehicles are preppers bugging out to parts unknown.” Dennis said to himself.

“Then there is about 70% traveling who are most likely normal folks going to move their family in unannounced with relatives like Aunt Sally or Grand Pa Fred out in the country and ain`t got a clue what to do when they get there. Well best of luck to them. Best of luck to them all. At least they had sense enough to get themselves out of the bigger cities. Those type of folks worried Dennis and he hadn’t thought about them until now. Hell everyone around him had plenty of kinfolk and relations around. Luckily the houses around him sat on small acreage and were small in size themselves so he didn’t think the neighborhoods population where he lived directly would expand much, but it was something to consider.

“Ten per cent of these drivers on the road were probably the clueless wonders that every disaster brings out. They are out on the road on some stupid errand burning up gas and sight seeing, or they are out looking for food because they had none stored and up to possibly mischief to acquire some.

“Then there are the displaced ones. The now huge class of homeless people that got caught up in the disaster from another city or state miles away from their support groups and these people would be soon a tragedy in the making. The new “Shut Outs” that would soon be trying to learn how to survive life on the streets in a world gone mad while they are trying to get home would be more people than he could count. Oh did Dennis’s heart go out and pity them poor souls!

He thought sadly to himself about how forlorn and miserable those folks would be after having been stuck out on highways and in cities as the gas ran out and made travel impossible. Most likely these people were already destitute and without means or survival gear thus putting them in them very desperate straits indeed.

Dennis slowed his truck down some before he got to an old tin top café and looked over at it for any signs of life. The café was sort of a gathering place for locals and the owners had a small farm and several houses for the family in back of it. They raised all the vegetables served in the joint and the place looked like it been there a 100 years.

Dennis didn’t see anyone around and no cars were parked out in the café’s lot.

The same owners had a gas station and general store about a mile up the road and Dennis sped up to go check it out.

“Store looks open to me. Let’s hope it is!” Dennis thought to himself as he turned off the highway on to a huge pothole littered gravel parking lot leading up to the store.

“Cool they open!” Dennis thought seeing movement behind the stores glass doors as he pulled by the front.

Donald got out of his truck and greeted the stores ancient owner.

“Hi Pops! I didn’t expect to see you folks open today. You are open aren’t you?” Dennis said eying a large pot bellied man sitting over in the corner with some Real Tree camouflage overalls on who seemed to be studying him a bit more than would be considered normal if he had wondered in on a different more normal day.

“Yea we are open son, come on in. You been doing all right? Haven’t seen you come around for a good while.” The craggy faced and weathered looking little old man asked

“I have been helping my mom out in Montgomery some. Looks like you have been doing a good business.” Dennis said joking with man.

“Yea can’t complain much, don’t know when I will see another delivery truck though. Seems there is a problem getting gas these days” The old man that went by the name Pops wryly joked back.

“You find out when a delivery truck is coming you tell me!” Dennis’s said engaging in the normal friendly banter he and the old man did when he came in the store regularly but albeit infrequently.

“That big boy over there is my grandson Silas. I forgot your name boy; I remember you said you lived down by Kings Mountain though.” Pos said pointing at the stout bearded man who gave Dennis a gap toothed smile and shook his hand with a big leathery one as he introduced himself.

“Silas here is my watch dog. Lots of strange goings on these days don’t you know?” Pops said adjusting his wire rim glasses on a beak of a nose.

“Tell me about it. Hey I just saw a big convoy of military trucks, you have many passing this way since the lights went out?”  Dennis asked leaning on the wooden store counter.

“It has been busy as a beehive for the last day or so, but nothing coming by before that but a couple military vehicles here and there.” The old man said looking up in the air and thinking back in to his ever vigilant memory of watching the traffic flow.

“You think they are carrying any relief supplies on them trucks?’ Silas asked cocking his head towards Dennis.

“You know we are kind of far out in the country and county for them to remember us and I told daddy we might need to think about going to town to get a share of some relief goods.” Silas said as he raised his, must have been 380lbs by Dennis’s eyes estimation of his bulk, off a rusty old iron barstool whose padding had seen its better days.

“Those trucks are usually only carrying supplies and equipment specific for and assigned to the brigade, division or whatever unit they are a part of. My old self used to be in the Guard and we always had to off load our unit gear and go to a warehouse if we were using one of our trucks to distribute relief to the civilians. Usually, they just used to have us stand guard on a civilian painted truck while things like ice or water are distributed at shopping centers to the populace after a hurricane. I tell you, I sure am damn glad I am out that crap now and won’t be required to be doing no food truck guard duty any time soon.” Dennis said flashing back to his long enlistment with the National Guard responding to many years of hurricanes, floods and tornados all along the Gulf Coast.

“We had us a couple of them young buck officer types stop in here today. The way they were strutting around and not wanting to answer any questions you would have thought they worked for the CIA!” Pops said putting on his best old sour puss face.

“I tell you them danged boys acted like they had stick up there butt and I should be pleased to meet them!” Pops said evidently still fuming over the encounter.

“You set them straight though! Ha! Ha! Didn’t you Paw Paw?” Silas said laughing and waiting for his grandfather to tell Dennis some humorous tidbit about Pops probably giving them a piece of his mind about lack of southern manners.

“Well I told them; sort of like I am going to tell you right now Dennis that this store has new rules. Let me sit down a minute. Just thinking about them asshole officers got me in a tizzy.” Pops said as he sat down on an old clerks chair behind the register.

“Grand Pa was a sergeant in the Marine Corps in Iwo Jima during World War two.” Silas said proudly as he was leaning forward beaming great admiration at his veteran relative and maybe wishing to hear a piece of a war story that hadn’t been said yet.

“I didn’t know that Pops. Honored I am sure. Thank you for your service.” Dennis said extending his hand to grasp the old mans.

“I thank you for your service also son. Our nations free because we both decided to wear the uniform and serve the country. Anyway a butter bar and most likely a sneaky newly promoted captain came in here with an attitude wanting driving directions to Montgomery. They said they were going to the headquarters building over by the coliseum and could I tell them an alternate way because they had heard on their radio a big rig had jackknifed at the bypass. I told them I might be able to tell them a few possible routes but as long as that 18 wheeler wasn’t carrying any hazardous material the road should be clear time they got there. Told them it happens all the time and that CB radios seem to be working fine so a wrecker would probably still be going out handling stuff for the city. Well that butter bar got pretty snotty then and told the captain he would go get a map. The captain told him to go ahead said he rather try a alternate route rather than depend on a wrecker appearing seeing that everyone had no electricity and all the communication problems going on, which was more than reasonable so I told him there were two ways around the wreck right at the intersection and a turn off into the city 5 miles before. That didn’t seem to please him either and started asking about other county highway routes as soon as that 90 day wonder lieutenant got back with a map. That’s where Silas got in on the fun.” Pops said pointing to his grandson.

“Yea Man, that’s the ticket! What they were asking about made no sense what so ever to me. Why do you want to go by L.A. by way of Omaha if you don’t have to?” Silas replied looking at Dennis sure that he picked up on the old famous singer song writer and musician named Charlie Daniels whose fiddling and song lyrics highlighted the point he was referencing.

“Well I guess they are the ones that flipped like in the song because they kept wanting to know if there were any dirt road short cuts or such I knew about.” Silas said looking exasperated. But looking pleased that now he could hand the conversation back to his grandfather who took up the rest of the story.

“I asked them boys straight out then and there! I said to them that they sounded like a bunch of government revenuers looking for a still and what the F word was wrong with that so called truck as well as what they were doing!” Pops said sternly.

Dennis glanced at Silas with mock disbelief on his face.

“Oh he said the word and then some!” Silas said smugly and waved his hand towards his Grand Pa giving him back the floor to continue this tale.

Pa, Pa or Pops as non family members knew him was an old curmudgeon and a half when it came to cussing in his presence or establishment. You shouldn’t even think about uttering a curse word. He was hell on wheels if you ever even thought about or made the ultimate mistake of ever cussing in front of a lady or a juvenile. That old man was feisty and profoundly outspoken and took he took great delight in shaming you if you transgressed one of his taboos.

Pops took a minute to calm himself and then turned his rheumy old blue eyes towards Dennis and said “listen up my friend and boy you listen close”.

He explained how he had been born right in the back of this store 87 and half years ago and at his age he had nothing better to do but come to work and he planned on doing it as long as the Good Lord would let him and he had stock enough in the establishment to sell. His pleasure in life he said was not making the money, but waiting on and interacting with the customers and community. Because of his ties with the community he said not everything in the store was for sale. If Dennis or them damned Army officers wanted to buy something for cash they were welcome to as long as it wasn’t reserved for a customer or they wanted too much of any one commodity.

He apologized to Dennis for lumping him in with the military cadre and went on to explain that since he considered Dennis a local he would also offer him some store credit because times were tough and you couldn’t even show a dollar if you had one in the bank. The deal was, don’t take it or buy it if you could get by without it because lifelong customers in the community who had no where else to shop depended on what goods he had and as long as they lasted.

Dennis gazed at the man for a second and said “I guess I am pretty well fixed for food at the moment, I would like to buy a six pack of beer for old time sake though.” Dennis replied.

“Buy as much as you want. I would love to run out of beer before I run out of food.” Pops proclaimed.

“Make it two cases then and thanks” Dennis replied and paid for the merchandise and left.

“I am not even going to bother with the stores. If I ain`t got it by now, I guess I won’t ever get it.” Dennis thought to himself.

The intersection coming in town was clear and no signs of wreck appeared.

“I wonder what those two officers were up to. Usually the only reason you would need to know all the back roads to a city was if you wanted to quarantine it. Either they were just taking precautions or somebody decided to amplify the disaster by realizing some kind of bio weapon was probably being used. This was not looking good. Stupid trucks radio don’t work, oh hell I forgot my 9 band world receiver radio.” Dennis was thinking to himself as he was approaching the intersection before the only grocery store on the way home.

“Well they ain`t open and nobody has tried to loot them it appears. The grocery store probably has got a dumpster full of stinking maggot ridden rotting meat in the back unless they somehow got the city to pick it up. Most likely the city government is diverting all the gas they got to police cars and such. I know residential garbage isn’t being picked up and this city is starting to reek. I sure will be glad to get my happy butt out of here.” Dennis mused as he pulled up into his driveway.

“Hey Mom! I am Home!” Dennis called out as entered the house.

“You made very good time, glad to see you made it back early. Did you come back early because of the news?” His Mom asked.

“What news? You forgot that I don’t have a working radio in that truck of mine. I never got around to replacing that portable transistor one I screwed up by leaving the batteries in it I was using when the main one went out.” Dennis said a bit exasperated but very attentive.

“Oh I am sorry; I did forget you had that problem. You should have carried that one you got in your office.” His mom declared.

“I forgot it, I never even thought about until I got to the edge of town what with loading up and remembering all the rest of the stuff I was hauling with me. What did you hear? They finally tell us who did this?” Dennis said starting to get dark eyed and evil looking.

“The United States has declared war on Iran and undertaken a nuclear retaliatory strike. But that’s not all, China, Russia, France, The UK, Japan and Israel all had attacks and they are pointing fingers at North Korea and Egypt as well as  Al Qaeda as having something to do with it.” His Mom said emotionally.

“Oh my God! That is some serious bad news. Mom we need to realize the world has just gone to hell in a hand basket.” Dennis concluded and reached for her hand to hold to reassure who he didn’t know.

“What happens to us now Dennis? I am scared.” Mom said with tears welling up in her eyes.

“I don’t really know Mom. It scares me to think about it. We will get by somehow; I have tried to plan for us for so long now.” Dennis said getting distraught and teary eyed himself.

“Sometimes I could have done better if I worked harder, but this is all I have and what we got to work with.” Dennis said hating to explain further while berating himself over past decisions he could have assuredly spent more time on.

THE END OF BOOK ONE, A PREPPERS PERSPECTIVE

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A solar storm has just hit the world causing an EMP event. A emergency manager visiting Atlanta GA must find his way back home after this electromagnetic pulse has stranded him away from his vehicle and his beloved "bug out bag". With 180 miles to go to his destination, David must let his street smarts and survival skills kick in as food and water becomes scarce and societal breakdown proceeds at an unrelenting pace. An interesting and often funny cast of characters from the Deep South helps the displaced Prepper on his way, as he shares his knowledge of how to make do with common items in order to live another day. Ultimately, he acquires an old tractor and heads for home on a car-littered interstate. This is book one of the Prepper Trilogy.

BUG OUT! Preppers on the move!

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The Light in The Lake

Book three of the Prepper Trilogy finds our band of refugees from a solar storm safely moved into a several lake cabins and trying to work on their short term and long term survival. The lake is a beautiful place for a survival retreat, but is it safe with roving groups of lake residents all looking for what meager food resources remain after a EMP event has shut down society as we know it. Can society be recreated and restarted here, or will starvation and anarchy take over? Can a simple light in the lake be the solution to survival and the reconstruction of society, or is it merely a symbol of what has been and might be yet again?

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Table of Contents

Copyright

Acknowledgements

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4

Other books by the author