Empty Aisles & Hardened Hearts

- Empty Aisles

- Midpoint

Empty Aisles and Hardened Hearts

Ron Foster

Alabama, USA

© 2013 by Ron Foster

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13:

978-1482669367

ISBN-10:

1482669366b

Printed in the United States of America.

Acknowledgements

SunRocket Kettles

Heliatos Solar Water Heaters

SUNRNR Solar Generators

Crank –A-Watt by Practical Preppers

Taylor Brand Knives

LowBuckPrepper

The Real Day Prepper Show

Canned Chaos

Dennis sat on his wooden backyard deck starring intently at his woods and thinking about all the things he had to do or should be doing today. His friend Charles had gone inside to check on how his mom and Monica were getting along with arranging his kitchen cabinets and to utilize the bathroom.

It had been seven days since an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) caused by a nuclear explosion high over the United States took out the electrical grid. Dennis reminded himself at this point that they were very lucky indeed that they still had running county water in the pipes. A lot of the big cities up north already had huge water shortages occurring and in many places people had no running water at all because of pump system failures. His little town had boil water warnings and be conservative usage advisories broadcast on the emergency channels, but as of yet no dire warnings were being issued by the water authority of when they had to quit pumping water because they lacked emergency power backup or fuel for the generators.

Dennis had started his day off with big plans for what he was going to do today, but he soon got sidetracked and overwhelmed mentally reviewing all the tasks at hand. He had decided on talking out all the possible projects which needed to be done and which one should get done first with Charles. He and Charles had managed to get a few chores done earlier, but after several beers worth of discussion, treating their situation as sort of a hurricane party for the rest of today started to seem logical to them in a fuzzy sort of way.

“Partying with so much to be done is not going to go over well with his mom but she needed to somehow realize that’s the way he and Charles got things done at times correctly. Play hard and talk all about it, get up the next day and do it with or without a hangover regardless and until it was fully completed. They didn’t have that much beer to consume anyway.” Dennis mused to himself.

Charles came out the backdoor of the house leading to the deck and Dennis turned towards him.

“Are the ladies having themselves some fun and playing nice in there?” Dennis asked speculatively.

“They are pretty much done organizing all that canned food and seem to be getting along great. I told them they really should take themselves a break and come outside and have a beer with us when they had a chance.” Charles said as he was picking up his half empty beer can he had left on the table.

“How did my mom act? She seems ok with it?” Dennis asked arching one eyebrow.

“That’s what I have been doing the last 5 minutes was standing around talking to her. She was telling me she would drink ONE beer and hadn’t drank one in a long time and wasn’t sure if she wanted a whole one. Then I heard about your grandmother when she was alive drinking ONE beer occasionally and saying she could feel the effects of it etc. and got a buzz” Charles told him with a slight grin that the conversation had pretty much gone as Dennis had suspected it would.

“Well eventually I will get her on the subject of some of my old relatives being bootleggers during prohibition of one of the funny stories about my grandfather getting a buzz and falling into the Christmas tree.” Dennis said hoping he could influence the conversations.

“You must take after your grandpa” Charles said chuckling as he bedeviled Dennis.

“And my father and his. There are a lot of hard drinkers on both sides of the family, men and women as well as a few hypocrites and abstinence followers. Mom knows I drink to excess and gives me hell about it when she decides it disrespects her or hurts me, so we in for interesting times in the future. She has got a lot of preconceived notions regarding the effects of alcohol on me as well as the mother’s trump card of a guilt trip so it won’t be no picnic.” Dennis said having second thoughts of having his mom hanging out around his “hurricane party”.

“Well me and Monica will play nice and I think if we watch the language and keep the brakes on the drinking a bit, I think your mom will be ok with it.” Charles said going off his first impressions of meeting Dennis’s mom. But moms were usually moms regardless he thought to himself and she wouldn’t approve.

“Well I will run the Crank-A-Watt and charge some batteries while sipping a beer and then you can spell me some on it as I get tired. That way it at least looks like we are doing something constructive while having a beer. That broadcast today of a summit at the UN and an emergency meeting of the US president and the Russian ambassador has really got me speculating on whats going on. I mean they didn’t say shit about what was up with the Chinese, Japanese, Iran, North Korea, and India, the UK or anybody else. They made a point to say we were talking to the Russians though and I don’t think I like that particularly much. you are I both cold war era boys Charles so you probably feel the same as me abut the communists.” Dennis said speculating and then sucked down his beer so he could get as close to needing another one as he could before his mom and Monica joined the little party on the back deck.

“Monica and your mom have finally got most of the food in the cabinets sorted out; I must say they were grumbling a bit though about your choices of menus.” Charles said sniggering somewhat which usually indicated he was going to kid Dennis about something.

“Hey, there is my suggested serving menus and me telling them to make up their own menus if they didn’t like mine.” Dennis began protesting to indicate his suggestions were not written in stone.

“I believe it had more to do with what they had to work with and the way you seem to have your food stores seem to bet set up based on your own personal tastes. What the hell do tamales in a can taste like anyway?” Charles asked innocently enough but kind of miffing Dennis that anyone even thought about turning their noses up at the selection of food he had managed to have stored up.

“Hey now Charles, buddy I will have you know those damn tamale things are good! Well, I mean they are nothing to write home about but they are a quick convenient meal and I at least get something approximating meat to eat. My mom and well I guess most women in general I know can make themselves a meal off just vegetables but me, I have got to have some meat in my meals! Ha! You know there is a whole yummy case of Sweet Sue’s Canned Whole Chickens, in there?

That might sound like hell now, but come one Sunday dinner I know who is going to be eating a drum stick and who might be lucky to share the other one. I don’t know, maybe I might not want to share a leg with anyone; those are awfully small chickens they fit into them cans. “Dennis said grinning as he teased Charles a bit.

“It wasn’t me that was the complaining one buddy.” Charles quickly assured him.

“Dennis you have got food stuff stored that I never heard of before, well none of us have before except you and we are just curious what its going to taste like. Of course I think that chicken will taste better than a possum, but I haven’t ever tried one of those either!” Dennis said joking around with Dennis who had been known to collect possum recipes for just such a SHTF situation like this.

“I don’t know about that, but at least you don’t have to skin that can in order to eat it!” Dennis quipped back regarding the possum comment.

“Seriously though Charles, that chicken is a high priced luxury now. Why it is worth its weight in more than just silver now, not that I would ever sell any of it. We need to be seriously thinking on how we can get us some real yard bird type chickens and feed for them ASAP! Then we need to think about how much it’s going too cost us in trade for them.” Dennis said thinking about how quick 12 cans of whole chicken could go to his hungry household and him being forced to barter them for more of a lesser valued food.

“I wonder how many pounds of rice or beans a can of chicken should bring?” Dennis began musing

“I been thinking on that chicken purchase subject, I don’t know anyone close by Dennis that has any and I don’t know where the folks live that I know do got them and might be willing to sell.” Charles said remembering folks we knew from the local country bar but not that close personally.

“Charles I am up for us taking my truck and cruising the back roads around here and asking whoever we see if they will sell some chickens to us before this shit gets really bad. Folks are not crazy scared out here on these back roads yet. I got a good bit of green cash, some silver, a lot of ammo but I ain`t trading any ammo just yet. I don’t have any booze stored but I do have an ace up my sleeve on that particular highly favored barter item. I have been ready for this day awhile.” Dennis began before a chuckling Charles reminded him that he knew that fact too well because of all of Dennis prepping talk over the years and had showed him a table top style alcohol still.

“Well before I was so rudely interrupted Charles, I was going to tell you how we are going to cook off a batch of hooch in about a day and a half.” Dennis said smiling.

“Oh, yea you got that turbo yeast you been keeping refrigerated. You bought some off that expensive 24 hour and some of that cheaper but still quick 72 hour yeast etc. You are going to have to brew and distill it here though, I don’t have anything to power that electric still except my truck and an inverter. I am kind of light on gasoline Charles also and that is even if we can mix the ethanol we making with gas to run it.” Charles said getting excited about the project and its tasty prospects.

“I could lend you a couple of 12v marine batteries to go with that one you already got. On a sunny day with solar panels you could get a couple hours run at 600 watts that alcohol still pulls. We need to put up that marine alternator with those homemade pvc blades we created also. That thing supposedly will put out 1500 watts of power in a good strong breeze. We never did get around to buying a piece of pipe for a pole fpr it, but we can mount our wind turbine on a fresh cut oak or pine pole temporarily until we find something more suitable to use.” Dennis advised.

“Why don’t you just tell your mom we making gasohol and we clue her in on it being drinkable later?” Charles asked regarding the best place to run the still.

“That is a damn good idea! Simple enough reasoning and it’s not a lie actually. This first run though I want to do it using straight table sugar. You can keep that bread mash of yours going at home and I will do the insta booze vodka here. I got enough battery juice in that SUNRNR solar generator to maybe make 6 gallons if we don’t get any sun to help the solar panels out charging. Let’s see, my math tells me that will give me something like a case of quart jars (4 quarts to a gallon, 12 jars) so that is three gallons, then we got two pints to a gallon so I can get 6 pints out of the remaining three gallons. That is if my calculations are right, that tabletop still pulls a lot of power and has a very small capacity. Its fine for home use, but it is not for any kind of manufacturing or big distilling jobs. If we plan to use it as fuel we must further purify it running through the still a second time. We should now have ethanol near 98% pure. By soaking it in or filtering it through 'Zeolite' you can have pure alcohol. This product will absorb the water out of the alcohol leaving you with 100%, 200 proof Ethanol. I say we leave that stage out and just make sipping whisky or vodka. I can trade that shit for chickens if we can locate any of the bar buddies who have some for trade.” Dennis stated.

“Let me do that, no sense you getting around them and they start remembering you are a prepper.” Charles said in slight admonishment to Dennis for him talking prepping at the bar so much.

“Hey that was part of my marketing plan. I had to make a living and prep you know by being a talkative prepper. Well it’s all hind sight now and we normally just talked in terms of homesteading with a prepper label put on it. You are right though; no sense me getting around anyone. I got plenty to do around here and you know more folks than I do anyway. I think I will get busy guerilla gardening once we finish our distilling of some barter and pleasure goods.’ Dennis said flinching as the back door opened and Monica and his mom came out to join the party.

“Hey Mom! Would you like a cold beer?” Dennis said with fake happiness and enthusiasm.

After a bit of back and forth about her saying we should save it for ourselves, Dennis and Monica finally got her to drink a few and loosen up, but she soon left them to their own devices and went back in the house.

“Well that wasn’t so bad.” Dennis said smiling a moment or two after his mother had closed the backdoor.

“I told you it would be alright, course she hasn’t seen you howling at the moon when you get on one of your whiskey trips yet.” Charles said reminding Dennis that whiskey was known to have some strange effects on him when consumed it in mass quantities.

“Ain`t none of us any kind of angels when it comes to the effects of that firewater.” Dennis retorted but he did hang his head and reminded himself to watch his imbibing limitations.

Got to be a morning after

“How you feeling today Charles?” Dennis said in greeting to his friend early the next morning.

“I am fine, how about you? “ Charles asked as he came around the wooden back deck and had a seat.

“Your out and about pretty early today Charles. I was just about to make some coffee, do you want some?” Dennis said pointing at an odd gadget he had on setup on the picnic table.

“What in the world is that?” Charles said standing up and going over to the decks railing for a closer look.

“Isn’t that cool as hell? It’s a SunRocket Solar Kettle. You seen it before but probably didn’t know exactly what it was when it was closed up. I had it hanging off a backpack when I went to the beach last summer.” Dennis said pointing at the unique device.

“Come on and I will show you how it works. That is one useful gadget let me tell you if you have some strong sun to work with. Check this out; it’s a solar thermos and kettle in one! It is really pretty ingenious. The SunRocket is an amazing way to heat and boil water by simply using sunlight. Depending on the weather conditions, The SunRocket can heat water in as little as 60 minutes and this thing will work anywhere the sun shines! You see they use a shock resistant evacuated tube just like the ones on expensive roof mount solar hot water systems, boosted by reflective panels to absorb solar heat. I like it because its so portable. When opened it can heat water in as little as 30 minutes the company says and then when closed it can keep hot for hours.  The contents only come in contact with pure clean glass making it safe and healthy to use. It holds 17 ounces of water and weighs about 2 pounds.” Dennis said explaining some of the wonderful features the device had.

“That’s pretty neat. Who makes did you say makes that?” Charles said examining the solar kettle closer.

“It is made by a company called Sun Cooking who is Australia’s largest retailer of solar cooking products and accessories. They make all kinds of things using the latest in solar thermal technology. Remind me to show you a solar oven later. Let’s go get you a cup and get ready for some coffee, I need it this morning. “Dennis declared and started heading towards the backdoor.

“Before you do that, I wanted to tell you that Monica’s brother Floyd came in last night from Birmingham.” Charles said watching Dennis stop in his tracks and give him an inquiring look.

Floyd had recently got a job about 85 miles away from Dennis working in the big city doing IT work after a long spell of unemployment. The reason for Dennis’s questioning look Charles was sure was one of a bit of trepidation. Dennis and he had not planned on having a extra mouth to feed and Dennis’s preps were going to be stretched thin as it was.

“Ah, hell, we got to play adopt a puppy then?” Dennis questioned? He liked Floyd well enough on normal days and they had talked a bit of prepping in the past, but having him suddenly thrust in their midst with little to no preps of his own sort of freaked Dennis out a bit.

“He will most likely be moving in with me eventually, he is going to stay in that old trailer down at the trailer park for awhile first though.” Charles said thoughtfully.

Floyd and Monica had inherited an older three bedroom trailer and had not sold it yet. It was parked in a mobile home park about 10 miles away from Dennis and Floyd had stayed there until he took his new job. Dennis and Charles looked at each other for a moment with neither one of them wishing to talk first.

Charles finally broke the silence by assuring Dennis that it would be alright and they would all muddle through somehow.

“I guess your right Charles, we can certainly use his help on a lot of projects, but he is a pretty big boy with an appetite to match.” Dennis said stating the obvious.

“Look Dennis, I am not asking you to feed him much. It’s not fair at all to you to take on so many people. Monica and I will share rations with him and we will just have to make do and hunt more to make up the difference.” Charles suggested.

“That sounds agreeable now but we don’t have our bellies trying to touch our backbones yet. There is going to be some jealousy issues as well as other emotions going on amongst us all soon enough over food.” Dennis said trying to foresee some of the squabbles that might go on over sharing the least little thing.

“I got it under control, you just tell me how you want things done and we do them that way.” Charles declared in voice that said he was the patriarch of that side of our little tribe.

“I know you do buddy, shit that means I got to arm him too with something. Well we will sort that out later. If I remember right he has been deer hunting before so that old 303 British Enfield of mine might be the ticket. Damn I sold off a SKS and a Shotgun last month curse my luck, oh well I got some kind of outfit for him. I just got to ponder it. I got that short Mossberg cruiser but it’s not a hunting weapon. It’s a good carry for him though if he is doing some field work putting in some gardens though. We got a lot of tilling to do and no friggin fertilizer for the crops by the way.” Dennis said thinking about their situation.

“Are you going to talk to talk to Lomax about planting some wheat on his land?” Charles asked referring to their neighbor at the entrance to the dead end road. Lomax had some open fields and a couple fish ponds that were probably going to be a point of contention soon enough with the neighbors all along this road wanting to fish ot get drinking water from.

The ponds consisted of one small catfish pond that Lomax fed the fish on and one somewhat larger so called wild pond he didn’t feed that had a variety of fish in it.

Dennis and Lomax had talked about a “what if” hypothetical SHTF situation and mutual cooperation when Dennis originally moved in years ago but outside of an occasional neighborly chat the subject had not been brought up again. Lomax had said he wouldn’t mind sharing fish but he wanted something in trade for them. He wasn’t just going to let anybody and everybody have access to them.

Dennis knew Lomax had a tractor as well as a tiller and he had eyed all the open land around Lomax`s ponds for sometime as a community survival resource. Lomax and Dennis both knew that in order to survive it takes a community and no one household on its own could survive where they were at on this road so getting Lomax to agree to Dennis’s agricultural plans shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

Dennis had cans of wheat he could plant down there as a cereal crop. He had bought most of his wheat as food rations but his studies of survivalism had shown him that a community could not exist with out some type of grain crop to depend on.

“Yea we need to go and talk to him in depth, I have no idea how we are going to help him handle security on that place but we need to dream up something. He sort of got in prepper mode after I talked to him that first time and was going to fill up his pantry some, but I have no idea what he has down there food wise or even how many family members he has around at any given time. Seems like somebody is always coming or going around his house and he just set a double wide trailer down on a pad 6 months ago for his son and family to use.” Dennis said getting agitated a little bit about how little he actually did know about this neighbor.

“Well you got your raised beds and I got my garden spot for veggies but most of the other land we got is so poor you can’t raise a fuss on it. We are going to have to think on how to solve our fertilizer problem on mine because it’s not setup to be organic like your raised beds are.” Charles said as watched Dennis pour hot water from the SunRocket kettle into their mugs of instant coffee.

You know Charles This SunRocket is a useful part of any emergency preparation kit – not only can it heat water for drinking but it can also kill water borne bacteria through heat treatment, be used to rehydrate freeze dried food and even to melt snow!” Dennis said refilling the chamber with water for the likelihood of having a second cup of coffee this morning.

“I like it because we don’t have to worry about building a fire! What is our OpSec on open fires going to be anyway Dennis? I mean everyone is cooking around here already on firewood, charcoal or propane if they got it, but pretty soon they ain`t going to have anything to cook and you know how cooking smells travel. By the way, I told Floyd we were going to eat lunch at my house and have a little talk. He said Birmingham has already started turning to pure Bedlam already.” Charles said raising one eyebrow in Dennis’s direction.

“Hell I don’t doubt that for a minute, ten to one it started in the 5 points area of town didn’t it?” Dennis said referring to a notorious crime ridden and gang infested area of the city.

“You’re probably right, but he was just talking about the city in general. He said fights broke out in the grocery stores, regular looting had already begun and it was all too common to hear lots of gunfire through out the day and night. That’s why he shagged ass down here. He said they had an IT bunker for the electronics up there, but with nothing but reserve power and no food for the workers running it that it was pointless to try to hang around or go to work.” Charles declared

“Damn idiots in IT always talk about “disaster recovery” but never think about the employees not being able to get food, fuel, water or having to bed down in the place because its too dangerous to drive to work. What was he working on anyway? Banking records? That would be a joke; you can’t even cash a check these days.” Dennis said glumly.

“I know what you mean; I am not sure what he works on. I know he has something to do with the Colleges academic records being stored and their email and such, but that is a huge server bank he works on with about a 100 other technicians. Damn Dennis can you imagine all the poor students we got stretched out across this country right now trying to get home with no gas pumps working and no money even if they found a station with a generator running? Just that segment of the population itself is so screwed. Hey did you with your emergency management connections ever find out what the plan for prisons were in a situation like this? “Charles asked as he watched Dennis start pacing around as he was apt to do when he had a lot on his mind.

“ No my friend I haven’t and God help the millions of them men and women as well us at this dark moment. I got a feeling that a lot of them convicts are being shot or starved to death at the moment. It’s really too horrible to think about. I don’t mean to change the subject on you so quick, but I cant even wrap my head around that scene. The prisons in the south that raise most of their own food might carry on for awhile. Hell holes like Angola prison in Louisiana are used to operating before, during and after a disaster, but who knows about the rest? I guess if the wardens or sheriffs have a soul they release all the non violent prisoners but how about the hardcore criminals? Damn! Let’s just change the subject man to our little piece of the world. We got problems aplenty ourselves just considering the good old boy law abiding folks that will soon be desperate enough to do anything to feed their families. Every dang one of the houses around here have guns aplenty and more than likely are already in the woods trying to hunt game. There are some crazy bastards living around here as you well know and I got to wonder if folks are going to be hunting each other as well as animals in these woods.” Dennis said ominously.

“It won’t take but one stray bullet or one back woods confrontation to set a feud off with these rednecks around here. Every one is going to be now “tribing” up or forming family clans about right now. Hell old Sikes down the road has 10 deer hunters as relatives for his own little private army not counting the wives or children under nine armed with 22 rifles that live within a half a mile of each other. If you count the neighbors that will fight with them you got a couple platoons or a company size force to deal with. You think ever think about that Dennis?” Charles asked sagely.

“Yea I did and I didn’t. The human mind is a strange thing in a survival situation as you well know. You and me are reverting back to our military discipline and camaraderie, but those who never experienced that kind of discipline or thought processes tend to do a lot of authority challenging or internal quibbling amongst themselves when the chips are down. That’s our only advantage and for all I know the likelihood of every house within 10 miles of us having at least one blood kin relative who has served in the armed forces is almost assured. Just in National Guard troops Alabama has more soldiers serving than any other state in the union. Christ we used to say if they started the Civil war again we would win by sheer numbers. We in deep deep doo doo my friend if anybody gets the ass with us or wants to take what we got.” Dennis said fatalistically.

A dark look went over Charles face that Dennis well knew and his mind raced to get his friend out of the “thousand yard stare” status of a Vietnam vet with post traumatic stress syndrome.

‘ We ain`t going to war brother.” Dennis said quietly fighting off his own nightmares and regrets.

Charles looked at him hard and after contemplating a moment upon seeing Dennis’s look of resignation his own heart took over and he murmured the old soldiers lament of “War No More” and grasped his friends shoulder momentarily with a gaze that could have betrayed either one of them’s thoughts of shedding a tear for fallen comrades or lives ill spent.

“You and I Charles have already identified the “problem people” on this road we need to watch out for. I know of others that live somewhere back here, but exactly where I don’t know but there is always a neighbor that could tell us if we coalition together. Let’s just kick the ball around a moment and talk about this ok?” Dennis said wondering when, not. why or if some armed group might start going house to house trying to take whatever they could get so their children could live another day.

“Dennis I always thought you were sort of full of shit with your academic studies of sociology and disasters, but you had years of time in school to study and discuss how people were going to act in this situation, what kind of an F ing solution or hypothesis did you come up with?” Charles demanded.

Dennis’s eyes flared black for a moment as the anger of the challenge affected him like a slap in a bar. Then his countenance softened and he diplomatically but sheepishly said “He never had come up with much better than “all or none”.

In Dennis’s mind he knew he couldn’t defend against a inevitable attack. He couldn’t even depend on obscurity because he had shot his mouth off too many times talking about the prepper community publicly as part of his marketing. Oh yea, the folks around here would not directly confront him because they knew most preppers were well armed and didn’t think it was worth the risk to see if he had extra food because he appeared to lack financially unless it came to drinks in the bar. But someone would and could come looking for him and take a cowardly shot at him just to get a lifesaver candy if they thought he had it and the probability they were talking to their friends while building up group courage to do just that was high. Charles wanted to go on the offensive and use every nasty special forces trick they both knew or had heard about to lessen the threats before a knock at the door or a sneaky ass shot ended their worldly worries but Dennis couldn’t live with himself like that.

“Think! Think Dennis think!” He admonished himself, how in the hell do I get through this? Concertina and booby traps along the wire wasn’t an option. Neither was a seek and destroy mission. No if they were all going to survive on this one small piece of a road and this little segment of society was going to make I,t then it was going to be in musketeer mode.

“Yea right! All for one and one for all with this bunch of hillbilly rednecks and factory worker mentalities was doomed to failure unless he sold the prospect to them of being attacked by outsiders from beyond the neighbors. That was no far stretch of the imagination; city folks would be coming to the country and exiting the big cities in droves. These were country folk though, we already sort of knew who was mean worthless and sorry in our own rural landscape and were watching them close. Community, Community and how to establish a sense of it supporting all its members was the quandary. It would be like a chain, from the paved interstate turn off leading in here to the dirt road exiting it. Where do you start at? Luckily back in the day when Dennis wore the Green Beanie of Americas Special Forces he knew. The Green Beret were not the Billy bad asses that Hollywood tried to make of them like some sort of over muscled Rambo types. No, their job was to jump with a seven man team in 150 miles behind the lines and teach the friendly civilians how to resist who ever we as the United States of America were at war with.

Our motto was “De oppresse Libre” It is US Army tradition that the phrase is Latin for "to free from oppression" or "to liberate the oppressed". Dennis was damn proud to ever have anything to do with this elite unit.

The bad asses or dumb asses depending on who you talked to, were the Airborne Rangers who would force march walk 50 mile in through the enemy lines fighting much of the way at company or platoon strength. They the ones with the giant muscles and funky buzz cut hairdos, not the teachers, diplomats and linguists from the beret who made friends with the locals and that lived daily with the indigenous peoples they fought beside.

Superior guns, Super-defenses, are meaningless. If people think they should steal your things, that you're profitable in some way – they will try. It's only a question of time and the amount of guns and hands which side has that influences outcomes and tactics.

Grocery Store Grumblings

“Lets go do us some “wandering and pondering” Charles!” Dennis said referring to his personal way of doing a little work here and there on the property, while spending more time planning and observing the land than actually working on it.

“Sometime today we need to do a little wander and ponder around my place also. I want to show you what I got setup to start making a little mash.” Charles said as he walked towards Dennis’s small orchard.

“This will be the second year since I put these trees in so I doubt we are going to get hardly anything fruit wise this year,” Dennis said as he walked down the hill on a small trail leading towards a selection of peach, plum, apple and pear.

“Well at least you got hell of a start on next year, some of the trees might begin producing by then shouldn’t they?” Charles asked

I should think so, I have a few early bearing apple trees that might make crop this year and some plums also, but I really don’t know for sure. They don’t get much in the way of fertilizer because I haven’t really been able to afford to buy any yet. I did dump a 50 lb bag of manure and spread it in each of the 10 raised boxes I have trees planted in. The ones that I have just planted in holes along the path to the orchard are just on their own. “Dennis said surveying his little cleared orchard area about a hundred yards from the house.

“Looks like you got yourself some deer damage.” Charles said examining a bunch of peeled bark on the base of a sapling apple tree.

“Damn those pesky deer! Looks to me like they might have killed it. Dennis said seeing how girded the trees trunk was from their nibbling of the bark.

“That’s going to be my number one project for this morning. I got a bunch of daffodil bulbs to plant around these trees drip lines. Deer don’t like daffodils or rosemary; they are supposed to be good repellants for them and help keep them away from my fruit trees. I meant to have already done that particular job but I just hadn’t got around to it. I also have a bunch of onions and garlic I am going to plant around the orchard to mess with the bugs and maybe repel a field mouse. I was going to make this kind of a forest garden this year and plant grapes next to my apple trees etc. but no time for that now unless I can find some small wild muscadine grapes to transplant.”

“That shouldn’t be much of a problem, I got a backyard full of wild grapes that I think have just been to young to produce. They are all over the wood line” Charles advised.

“I will check them out when we go over there. Did Floyd say what town looked like as he passed through?’ Dennis asked as they headed to his storage shed to get some plant bulbs.

“He said he saw the guard troops and cops hanging out in Lowe’s parking lot and the Tractor supply store center but otherwise it was quite.

“I would like to spend what cash me and mom have left, but I have no desire to get anywhere near a store. Folks are going to be raising hell they can’t use charge cards and be in various levels of desperation. Hell I doubt the stores got much of anything left in them anyway. Still, A fiat currency has no value in post-disaster realms all too soon if there are no goods to be had. I think we ought to just either stay here or go spend it on whatever and wherever we can.” Dennis said as he handed Charles a shovel and grabbed a pickax for himself.

“Everyone’s world is now suddenly dark and dangerous, electricity is out for the foreseeable future and life is getting more primitive everyday. I say we either go now while there might be something to buy or forget about ever going to town for a long while.” Charles said as they walked back to the orchard.

“I agree with you Charles. Me, I just soon not find out first hand what its like to be around a crazed mob and say we just stay here. Tell you what though, if Floyd is up for it. I say we give him a few hundred bucks and send him to town to pick over what is left for his and our benefit. A couple hundred bucks worth of food is not really worth the trip, but if he can find any fertilizer or vegetable plants then we need to try. Hell insecticide and another hundred useful things might still be able to be purchased. I think I will follow him in my truck and see just what. if anything I can buy.” Dennis said contemplating which stores would just be closed most likely permanently and what might be still open.

“I will go with him Dennis, then you can stay here with your mom and work on other projects.” Charles offered.

“Damn that’s tempting, thanks. But I am wondering if my preppers eye and brain would be better used doing one more store run. I look at things different or multi use things than most people.” Dennis said waffling between wanting to stay at home, or the excitement of going on one last big prepper buying spree if he could.

“Don’t you think we need to keep some cash put back? I mean you never know what we might be able to buy later in the future and we haven’t even tried to buy any chickens yet.” Charles said logically.

“Tell you what, I will keep a little mad money back at the house for a rainy day and you go try to buy some chickens now from the neighbors. Send Floyd and Monica to the stores together to see if they can get anything. Monica has been listening to me talk preps for years and she has borrowed a lot of knowledge from my prepper fiction library in the past so she has a general idea what kind of things I would be looking for.” Dennis said as he leaned down to plant garlic and onions as fast as he could before they had to go back to the house and get some money together and share ideas on the shopping trips list.

“Sounds like a plan. It is hard to imagine all the people who suddenly have no money, no car or fuel for it, no phones, no electricity, no food or water and now are standing in orderly lines for long periods of time hoping to make a purchase.” Dennis said ominously.

“Your right buddy, hells look at the idiots at Walmart on a black Friday sale. It takes little or nothing to set off a stampede in some areas. If the crowds are too big or look the least bit unruly tell Monica and Floyd not to even bother getting close to the parking lot.” Dennis warned.

“You know neither one of them has a pistol permit.” Charles said raising one eyebrow.

“Ah hell back to me then. Tell you what, me and Floyd will go and Monica can stay with my Mom. You won’t be gone too long and you can help them with something when you get back... Dennis declared no longer that enthused about even attempting to go on a shopping trip.

“How much food do you think they have in the grocery store warehouses around here?” Charles asked as they went to put up the garden tools in the shed after they finished the plantings.

“The nation’s food system has many tiers Charles, and the “food stored in cities” level is but a minor component. The system encompasses many different levels of intermediate food storage components such as farms, cooperative grain-storage towers, processing plants, warehouses, shipping in transit, and distribution centers, each holding or supplying a significant percentage of our food supply and operating over a timeframe of weeks and months. It is a system in which flow makes up more of the capacity than storage.

Now the peanut processing plant here always has a lot more around than is used locally or maybe even regionally. Most of those farmers will still get a crop in this year of some sort so I imagine some enterprise will still go on as long as we can hold out for several months. But I bet the government is going to control it. Problem is there is no plan and depending on the level of societal breakdown, there is not a promise of any enterprise being able to operate safely or at all.” Dennis said trying to guess what a month or two months from now would be like.

Right now under the present conditions, he recognized that something was wrong and that they were facing several specific threats. Using the pistol analogy, in this condition you would chamber a bullet, though still keep the safety on. The mindset he had adopted is, "If that person does 'X', I will need to stop them," and we must be fully prepared to do just that. But what about in the future, safety off cocked and locked? It would be a matter of WHEN person does 'X', and he would need to stop them before they become a threat.” That’s the thought he didn’t want to deal with at the moment. Moving to less threatening environs was pretty much the only rational choice that is if he could manage it. But with the whole world gone to hell, he knew there was no where safe to bug out to for his little group. Arms, ammunition, candles, lighters, antibiotics, gasoline, batteries and food was the concerns. People will fight for these things like animals. In these situations, it all changes. Men become monsters. It will soon be a much more seriously disgusting and horrific world to survive in.

“Dennis they are going to do a radio announcement in 5 minutes.” His mom called out the backdoor to him breaking his thought processes.

“Be there in a minute!” he called back.

“Come on Charles, let’s go find out just how deep this doo doo we are in is.” Dennis said and hurried towards the house. He already knew how deep they were, the rule is at first, the weak perish. Then the rest fight.

Game Changer

“Ok the very first things we will need to do is close and lock the driveway gates. I admit that it is merely a symbolic gesture because I only have that chain link fence run across the front of the property more for ascetics than true security, but it does send the right message. It represents when I don’t want visitors, open these gate at your own risk” Dennis said talking about attempting to do what little he could to increase his homes security

Dennis’s little band of Post-apocalyptic survivors gathered around the little portable radio with deep apprehension waiting for the next promised emergency broadcast report in 15 minutes.

Monica and his mom had listened to the previous broadcast and had breathlessly told Charles and him about a suspected bioterrorist release of smallpox virus in Chicago. The military and the CDC were trying to contain it and the whole nation was on high alert.

“Lord help us, that’s probably the start of Iran and Korea doing a little” tit for tat” because we EMP`ed their countries. I know friggin Iran has been messing with weaponized Smallpox and probably has no qualms about retaliating with some kind of nasty chemical or biological weapon. Of course you got them crazy bastards in Al Qaeda that will start up their own jihad with, or without approval of the Iranians. Everything is going to come unglued now, here is the big problem. Al Qaeda doesn’t have any mail home address or certain country so we can’t just obliterate the son of bitches. Israel already told Iran they would retaliate with nuclear missiles if they got attacked with any kind of WMD (Weapon of Mass destruction” so I imagine right now everybody’s got their fingers on some triggers I just soon not think about. Let’s hope sanity prevails and we don’t end up in a worldwide nuclear winter or something trying to turn Tehran into a glass parking lot.” Dennis said worriedly.

“I know what smallpox is but what is weaponized smallpox?” Monica asked.

“It is some extremely deadly shit !It is like the Russian scientists took an already very deadly virus and added horns and teeth to it for shits and giggles and made it even more contagious and designed it to kill you in a much shorter time .” Charles declared looking poignantly at Monica.

“That shit is going to go through and kill a minimum of 60% of the people around the release site even if it was normal smallpox. If Chicago got hit, you can be sure they did other releases in major cities. The next announcements I can pretty much tell you already but the main one is, IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE SMALLPOX DON’T GO TO THE HOSPITAL! “Dennis roared for effect.

“Damn ignorant people are going to flock to the hospitals anyway.” Charles said shaking his head.

“They better listen and learn about Quarantine. I seen a lot of quarantine signs growing up, you alls generation was spared that.” Dennis’s Mom said nodding her head

“Isolation, quarantine and eventually a vaccine is the only thing that is going to save us now. Meantime, except for us going out to buy them chickens off the neighbors , we all are officially self-quarantined and when I talk to the folks with the chickens I am keeping my distance. Dennis said adamantly.

Smallpox is an unbelievably deadly disease. It is the most contagious disease known to mankind – spreading literally like smoke. In the last known outbreak in Europe, a man early in the throws of smallpox, against doctor’s advice, opened his hospital window. In the cold German night, his exhalations went out the window, up the wall of the hospital into an open window on another wing and killed several nurses. That’s contagious. Get the picture?

Phones were an iffy situation at best these days. Sometimes you could get a line out but most times not.

Dennis dreaded every time the phone rang and when he picked up the receiver and spoke it sounded like he answered it gruffly with a tired attitude of “hurry up and tell me what you want.” It wasn’t that Dennis in anyway begrudged giving advice on what to do in this situation, it was the having to repeat he “just didn’t know or couldn’t help so many times.

Acquaintances, business partners, friends, fellow preppers, you name it, had all somehow seemed to just now remember his phone number for “all things regarding the end of the world” and were seeking him out like he had some kind of magical prepper lore to teach them at this late state in a catastrophe to help them survive.

The conversation always started with the same question, how do you treat smallpox at home? The only thing Dennis could say most of the time was that it was a just “Live or die” situation and keep the patient comfortable and God be with them.

Two phone calls received today were expected, dreaded and welcomed all in the same wave of passing emotions. First was his ex-girlfriend turned lifelong prepper buddy Charlene. She and Dennis had been talking on and off for years on what to do in this kind of situation. Dennis had a permanent open door policy to her in case she needed to bug out and now was the time with the encroaching threat of smallpox in the cities. Sanitation would be almost nonexistent and government attempts to control the disease by travel restrictions and forced quarantines would soon make bugging out on anything but a less traveled back road very difficult and dangerous.

Charlene had her own preps and lots of them from when she had followed the road of prepperdom with Dennis. The food stores and medicines she had stored away were desperately needed to augment his supplies as well as provide for herself, but there in lay the quandary of what she was bringing, how she was going to load it all, when she was coming etc.

The original plan she and Dennis had for Nuclear or Solar EMP was for her to “Bug IN’, help out her sister and mother as things developed and bug out to her relatives in the country with her family or separate from them and and just she would bug out to Dennis’s location. These type of decisions were heart rending and mind numbing, but the option of leaving the mother and sister with country farmer relatives was practical from a survival point of view, but distasteful on a ,moral or blood kin basis.

Dennis and Charlene had been over the finer points and pitfalls to all these problems so much in past prepper conversations that it was decided that inevitably Charlene would end up joining him to face the apocalypse together and at the end, just be secure in their hearts they had done everything possible for her relations before leaving them on their own.

It was never a cruel or cold hearted decision to decide thus. This is what Charlene and Dennis had prepped for and had on more than one occasion been laughed at or been belittled by friends and relatives for spending so much time, money and energy on preparing for these types of disasters.

Dennis thought that it really sucked that it had taken them both over 5 years to each put together enough food for the two of them to have over a years worth each of food stored and now that food was being divided amongst so many hungry mouths that depended on them now because of their own lack of preparations.

Dennis had resolved himself to the fact that it was a live together, die together world now and that his humanity and soft heart could do nothing about. He really didn’t have it in him to deny others if he could give a shred of comfort. Oh he knew it was easily his downfall and prepper logic said it was the ultimate mistake, but it put him right with his feelings about his relationship with the man upstairs.

He felt it was better he spend his time keeping up everyone’s spirits sharing meager rations fairly, than ever carrying the memories of a out right cold hearted denial to a starving or thirsty man or women. His conscience would kill him long before the loss of any morsel of food or unshared canteen. Oh he would fight like a deranged demon to protect what was his and protect his extended family and friends survival from those usurpers and beggars that challenged it, but he had a sixth sense on weighing hearts also.

Dennis could look a man or woman in the eyes when he was clear headed and tell if their hearts carried evil or they would share with him if in the same position. He told everyone he knew for years some Native American wisdom that related to being truly happy with ones self. He stated that “You live by your first instinct and you die by you last.” If you remembered that and followed your first instinct, then you wouldn’t be second guessing or questioning yourself all your life about what was right or wrong.

Dennis was known to say “the doctor smacked you on the ass and your first instinct was to breathe, your last is not to. Don’t worry about whether or not you had a decision with either. Live life, follow your instincts.”

Charlene would divide up her food stores and preps as she saw fit. The remainder would be moved by them both if possible to Dennis’s Prepper shack and nothing more would be said about what they were ultimately left with. No bitching about “Should of, Would of, Could of” What was left was all they had, what was given away was all they had. Simple, nothing left to do but fight death or starvation the best they could and try to remember to look at it as the big adventure in resourcefulness it was and attempt to smile while doing it.

“You can’t keep a good man or woman down! Where there is a will there is a way and if I got a pocket knife and a piece of string I will amaze you!” Dennis had joked to Charlene regarding some trapping prowess he hadn’t demonstrated in 30yrs that they were now forced to rely on him teaching to all.

A odd mixture of old southern gentleman and hell raising redneck, Dennis was well suited to try and lead this little group of possible survivors through the murky depths of modern man mastering forgotten skills before it was too late.

“You just thought I was getting eccentric.” Dennis had said many times over on showing off his constant add-ons and tweaks to his preps in the form of aircraft cable modern snares and steel Conibear body hold animal kill traps.

“Everyone here is an eater or consumer in some way, so everyone here has to be a hunter, a trapper, a cook, etc. Why it will take me 10 days to even set out and teach you how to run two short trap lines. First off, never touch my damn traps! Charlene, you and you in particular remember that. You got a bad habit of having to touch or point to closely to anything you are talking about. These damn things are dangerous for one, but also remember I don’t want you scenting up my traps! Animals will be getting smarter by the day once I start looking at them as other than nice furry creatures and we all are about to live in the realm of hunter and prey.

We can’t lose one critter by stupidity, have anyone break or lose a hand or finger to a trap or miss a meal because you don’t listen to me. We got food now but it ain`t going to last long and when these reserves are gone its only what we manage to preserve or get for ourselves. “Dying times” started a week ago in the hospitals when the lights went off and they were the lucky ones. Now we got plaque, disease, starvation, dehydration and social unrest and violence just cracking out of the egg. Keep your composure, keep up each other spirits, above all keep your humanity and don’t bicker about what you can’t change because the only lifeboat we got takes all hands to keep from sinking. This house was not designed to support all of us and living conditions are going to be a cramped as hell soon enough but, remember the stories of heroism in P.O.W. camps, the survivors of the holocaust who managed to live under worse conditions than we will ever face.” Dennis said before being pointedly asked by Monica what freedoms or rights Dennis was leading up to that they would no longer have.

“You all know I have been a “public prepper” on the internet and somewhat locally for years now. I got “stuff” folks want and it will soon be people are crazy desperate. That means visitors of various bents on mischief. So, security first. Get ready for a big freaking confrontation and wanting what food they think I got. The unwanted visitors can come upon us at anytime day or night. You got the ones that will start neighborly and those who are scared of my known affection for guns and and my assurances I don’t mind using them if we feel threatened. The later visitors will come at dusk, dark of night or predawn to take our wares. I can’t be trying to trap the woods for animals when I should be setting a few mantraps and guards on our perimeter for safety sake.

Everyone will have a work schedule and a guard schedule, I see no other alternative. Community meals will be out and we eat in shifts soon enough so we ain`t all bunched up and ready targets. It takes awhile to get into this mentality and we are all going to be scared of our own shadows and picking at each other for not observing basic security rules until it feels commonplace. Me and Charles will fall back in the zone of our military war skills, but me and him freaking you out to make sure you are not sleeping on guard duty or observing light and noise suppression is going to drive you ballistic.

“No one, and I mean it when I say it, starts the crap about saying we ain`t in the military or this isn’t basic training because it is for awhile. It’s a new way we got to live now folks. No calling our business loudly to each other like its time for dinner or I am going to take a poop etc. Don’t holler at me in the woods “where am I at?” if we get separated when I am running point or trapping. Talk low, keep visual distances, watch and wait when in doubt and for all our sakes be very safety conscience in regards to your field of fires should you want to pop some caps at something. More folks die off of friendly fire than enemy fire, I can’t stress that enough. Basically you ladies guard the house while men folk forage and hunt like a bygone era and we try to outlast the known threats and prepare for the future ones. Everyone is going to be dependent on his or her tribe of brothers and sisters and individuality will be put on the shelf until a “way of being” is established.

We are all very talented but a division of labor and security is to be considered as effective until we can all surmount this learning curve we are forced to deal with in adapting to this strange society we find ourselves in. Hey I know I sound all caveman or something but it’s like this, I hunt, you clean what I catch, while you cleaning I am doing security. All the neighbors might be figuring out that gunshot they heard was me getting a deer and wanting a rear haunch of what I got when their hunting efforts are not feeding their families. I need to be out of the woods and close to home as soon as I can. There is wood to gather for the cook fires, gardens to tend etc. I can be tired from the trail carrying back meat or from sitting in the rain waiting for Mr. Animal to pass by for an opportunity to feed us. Up at dawn for me to go hunting or trapping don’t mean we sort out personalities or problems until the wee hours of the morning if it can someway be overlooked. The grand thing we got to do is put the tribe common welfare first beyond petty jealousies or personal problems.

We sacrifice for the community or tribe, not to one another. It is the focus of a common goal and existence that must take precedence. Be a believer in that. The extra cracker or choice portion of meat goes to best hunter or forager. It is up to them to decide the disposition of that item for themselves or sharing with others. If someone is lacking in skills due to age, talents or otherwise then community support is needed and not harassment. Common goals and ideals, common defense, do you get me? Feel me? Or whatever it is I am supposed to say in this day and time? “Dennis said as he finally finished his diatribe about how they should show each other kindness and understanding in a world gone topsy turvy.

All the pieces of a "perfect storm" are lining up over the next few days in a manner such that I believe next week will be like no other. From man-made natural and unnatural disasters to the chaos in Washington NOTHING happens by accident anymore. Get ready to hear the term Quarantine and Isolation being tossed around like popcorn by the media.

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper. – T.S. Eliot

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Midpoint