by David Wilson
Looking back at this moment I’m going to blame all my years in Iraq and Afghanistan for my slow comprehension of what was going on. Assassinations, protests, power black outs, explosions, glows on the horizon from fires were part of a normal day in Kabul or Kandahar. I just turned away from the window and went back to bed. Hey, I never claimed that I was a rocket scientist, I said I worked for a couple of three letter agencies, not four, and I had to be up early and into work for a staff meeting first thing. I needed my beauty rest and yesterday had been a long day.
SHTF plus 6 hours
I glanced at my Afghan special Rolex (which by the way has been going strong for over 9 years now) and wondered why my alarm on my iPhone had not gone off. I knew I had set it and had added a second alarm 15 minutes after the first to make sure I got up on time. My first alarm should have gone off at 0445 followed by the second at 0500. It was now 0505 and neither alarm had gone off. Slightly aggregated I reached over and punched the button on my phone to show me the time. Nothing, nada, the blank face of the phone just stared back at me. Now I was getting into one those moods, thinking Apple had pushed an update causing my phone to shut down after updating it. What if I hadn’t woken up in time to the staff meeting? That would have been great, the new guy late to his first staff meeting. Just great, I would have to go by the IT department later today and kick one of the nerds. Hey, don’t judge, it’s not like I would really do something like that, I do like to think I’m one of the good guys, but that doesn’t mean I’m always one of the nice guys. I have always tried to live by the rule; if you cannot do something smart, do something right. Anyway, I hold down the button on my phone to restart it, hmmm, nothing. Maybe I didn’t hold it down long enough, second try same thing, nothing, third and fourth try, nothing. Next I pulled out my iPad. Same thing, wow, sometimes I’m a little thick, next up I pulled out my laptop, no luck, by this time I’m cussing Steve Jobs and everything Apple. So by now I’m wide-awake and the gears are beginning to turn. Reaching over to the lamp next to the bed I attempt to turn it on with the same results as my electronics. Cussing to myself I stood and made my way to the curtains in the room and drew them open. Complete darkness met my eyes, but the darkness did confirm that all of the power was out in the area. Going back to my go bag I rummage around and pulled out my LazerBrite glow tube and switched on the white light section of the tube, while at the same time congratulating myself on packing it in my go bag.
After switching on my LazerBrite, I sat and pondered on the events over the last five or six hours. First the power went out around 1230 AM, I quietly cussed and wished I had checked my phone at that time. Second I realized that the power going out should not have affected the electronic lock on my door. It was battery powered. Following this line of thought was leading me down a path that I really didn’t want to think about. I got up again and went back to the windows and studied the skyline. It was still dark, really dark. There was not a single point of light anywhere. This sucked.
I decide first things first and headed into the bathroom to see if there is any water pressure.
SHTF plus 7 hours
After completing my rather lukewarm morning ritual of shit, shower and shave and getting dressed I headed back over to the window to take a look outside. I had dressed in my green CRYE pants after pulling the knee pads out of them, no use drawing anymore attention without need, my LOWA boots and a polo shirt, with the power out I wasn’t going to get dressed in a suit when my work building would be closed as long as the power was out. I also didn’t want to go full combat mode until I verified for myself that this was in fact an event worthy of being called a SHTF moment. The sun wasn’t over the horizon yet but it was light enough to see shapes. The first thing I saw were the columns of smoke pretty much across the whole southern horizon and than noticed a few people wandering around the hotel parking lot talking and gesturing to their cars with their hoods up. While no one has ever confused me with Einstein I can do basic math and can tie my own shoes without help most of the time. Power out, none of the electronics are working, cars won’t start, this is beginning to add up to one huge nightmare. The timing could not have been worse for me, 1,400 hundred miles from my family and home. Pushing that thought away as hard as I could, I knew time was very important and I needed to get more information quickly.
None of the smoke columns appear to be close enough to be a danger to the hotel so I slipped my Glock in its Tier One holster and struck two spare magazines into my left back pocket, I left my shirt tail out to cover the holster and grabbed my flashlight and headed downstairs. (Before all you 1911 guys toss this because of the Glock, I will explain. I am a 1911 guy, however since my near eyesight has gone, I had to switch to a Trijicon RMR on all my pistols. Also have you ever shot 3 Gun, it is hard as hell to keep up with 20 round mags versus 8 -10 round mags. Anyway, now I use a custom Glock 17 and 19 for most of my day-to-day carry.) After entering the hallway and shutting my door the darkness was complete. Pressing the button on the end of my Surefire flashlight I lit up the hallway and I again mentally cussed knowing I had not packed any extra batteries for it. But on the good side I guess that answers the question on whether LED bulbs would stand up to an EMP. Making note of how many doors were between the stairs and me in case I had to find my room in the dark, with that done and wanting to save power I spotted the stairway door and turned off the flashlight. Shoving the flashlight into my pocket I felt along the wall to the end of the hallway and entered the stairwell to head downstairs. I wanted to stock up on all that I could before it was all gone. Walking down the stairwell, I came out near the front desk and immediately headed over to the alcove where they had a fairly well stocked snack section. Grabbing all the bags of nuts they had and several of the Milky Way bars and bags of M&M’s, along with a Diet Coke that was still fairly cool I carried it all to the front desk. The clerk began to protest that he could not sell anything, as the cash register was not working. I waved a couple of twenties under his nose and told him to keep the change. Next I headed into the breakfast area and went over to the juice machine and checked to see if the machine was working. Jackpot, filling a cup I quickly drank the whole cup and refilled the cup a second time. There were bagels on the counter and I loaded one up with cream cheese. Carrying all of my supplies I headed back up stairs to my room. I had only been away from the room for a couple minutes but entering the room I set down the bagel and supplies on the bed and checked the room as it had been unlocked the whole time I had been downstairs. Moving one of the chairs over so I could see out the window I sat and ate my bagel and cracked open my diet coke. I took my time knowing it might be a while before I had either again. As I sat and ate I watched the guys in the parking lot attempting to start their vehicles. They were wasting their time switching out batteries, trying batteries connected in series, nothing worked and I thought to myself, those things are nothing but big paper weights. Finishing my bagel I began to think though what my own plans were. It was a long way to get home to my wife and kids down in Houston and to make things worse I was unfamiliar with the area I was in right now. My first priority was to get some better equipment and hopefully a long gun. That meant finding a sporting goods store before the hordes of people realize what was going on and the real rioting starts. Well that’s easy I thought, I know of only one sporting good store in the area that had everything I needed and that was the Bass Pro Store at the mall. Finishing off the diet coke I stood and headed over to begin organizing what little gear I had.
I first dumped all the gear in my bug out bag out on the bed. Than I began to seriously pack all of my gear, not that I have all that much useful stuff with me, back into the bug out bag. Being that my new job was in Maryland, I had planned on being very, very low key with what gear I carried in my bug out bag. Just what I had with me now would be consider a felony, as in go straight to jail and throw away the key, in normal times in Maryland. With martial law being declared in all the major cities I would need to be careful to avoid a
ny roadblocks. What I really needed was to find someone that knows what the hell is going on. I know at least a dozen people in Northern Virginia that would know what was going on, but they are all down in the Fairfax area or DC area and might as well be on the moon. It was clear that the attacks at the mall and around the nation were just the first stage of a planned attack with the second stage being an EMP type device or maybe we were just extremely unlucky and was hit with the mother of all solar flares and it was just a coincidence it followed the terrorist attacks yesterday. I can pretty much discount the solar flare theory as we would more than likely have seen some type of advance warning either from the government or from one of our allies. I cannot imagine that an enemy would only strike a part of the country, whomever had done this would have probably hit us with multiple strikes high up in the atmosphere or with just one massive EMP weapon at least 350 miles up over the center of the US. I could also not see just hitting the US and none of our allies, at least striking our major allies like the Brits and Aussies. I’m wondering now if our allies had been hit the same way with attacks against their minority populaces. Whoever came up with this plan knew what they were doing. Start civil unrest, then cut off all the power, an instant recipe for wide spread chaos.
Glancing out the window the columns of smoke had combined into one mass black cloud covering the Southern horizon. I have not been outside yet but I would imagine the same is to the North. Just my luck to be struck between two of Americas most violent prone cities. I need to get moving before the hordes of people begin moving out of the cities and into the countryside. Which I mused would not be long based on the smoke coming from the major built up areas. Once that happens it will be extremely difficult to move freely and any stranger would become a threat and target for the locals of the area.
It only took me a few minutes to divide the useful stuff from my meager supply of clothing and equipment. I could kick myself for not bringing more gear, but my original plan was to only be here for a few weeks than fly back home to Houston for a few days and return with more of my “stuff”. But to waste time right now playing the “what if” game was a complete waste of time and time is now one of the most important items that I could somewhat control. I mentally went over what I have on hand, my three day pack with an empty 100 oz water bladder, a 27 oz. stainless steel Klean Kanteen, a Sawyer Mini Water filter, my custom Glock 17, with one 16 oz Nagel bottle of HP 9mm ammo (about 120 rounds) and six loaded Glock magazines, my war belt with triple mag pouch’s for the pistol mags, one pair of LOWA Desert boots (a life saver at this point), a lensatic compass, my Petzl headlamp, a small flashlight with two spare batteries, my Warbonnet Blackbird XLC hammock with my Warbonnet Super fly tarp, a Solo camp stove packed in a one quart pot, 100 feet of 550 cord, a small roll of gorilla duct tape, a signal mirror, one firefly IR marker, a zip lock with some medical supplies, (a tourniquet, one large sterile bandage, one chest seal, several Band-Aids, some Neosporin, a half dozen tampons and some sanitary napkins), two small pocket knifes (neither suited for this situation) but better than nothing, my never leave home without them, my all around use everywhere TOPS Brothers of Bushcraft 6 inch knife and my Mercworx Shiva for those times you just really have to stick something or someone, and a non waterproof light jacket. Last but not least, strapped to my three day pack is my (what my wife calls) zombie ax but is called a Tramahawk by the makers out in Montana. She got it for me as a joke after I had shown her the website, but it has turned out to be almost indestructible and useful in so many ways it is hard to count. It’s a small hand ax, bigger than a normal tomahawk but not by much. Just an excellent all around tool to have when you need to bust something up. I next tested the headlamp after putting batteries in it. It worked fine as did the flashlight, there had always been a lively debate on whether LED flashlights would survive an EMP event, but so far both of mine had.
I keep pushing away thoughts of my wife and the triplets. Did this event effect down into Texas also? If it only affected the East coast than they are fine, if not there is nothing I can do other than get there as fast as I can and just hope that her brother and Father each had headed that way to get her and the kids. I know because of the timing of the event that she and the kids would have been home and the neighbors will help out for as long as they can. Thank God my next-door neighbor was a good old boy and knew which way a round goes into a gun. There is food and water in the house to last for several weeks, but not enough for the winter. I also knew that Father-in-Law would move heaven and hell to get to my wife and kids. I reassured myself that her Father would get them to his ranch and that he was pretty well supplied for an event such as it was. I push it away, no time for this right now, I needed to move.
I checked the time and saw it is already almost 7 AM. I need to get moving to secure some of my immediate needs before I begin my trek back to Texas. I wish now that I had stopped by Bass Pro at the mall last night. Of course that is a moot point now, but I had planned on stopping and didn’t because of the traffic and now I’m in the worst possible position I could be in. My first concern is to get my hands on water and a map of the local area. While the hotel still has water pressure I would really prefer to get some bottled water for the bladder. I’m sure I had seen some bottled water down in the breakfast area that I would grab on my way out. After that I need to hike over to the Bass Pro Shop about 3 miles from here. It is the only place I know of around here that will have most of the things I need. As I am not familiar with the area and on top of that this is Maryland home of some of the worst anti gun laws in the land (well that might be a slight exaggeration but not much of one). The how of getting the gear that I need from a closed store I will have to deal with once I get there and assess the situation. This could be a real problem if the looting had already started but I don’t think it will start for another day or two. I hesitate for a few seconds before reaching over and grabbing the knee pads I had taken out earlier, stuffing them back into their proper places, I next pulled out my inner belt to my war belt threading it into my pants loops, than throwing on my combat suspenders and drew those on over my arms and shoulders. After securing the suspenders to my inner belt, I slung my war belt on and settled it into place. I slide the other spare mags into their mag pouches, before putting on an oversized lightweight long sleeve shirt. Hopefully I won’t be stopped and searched as this would lead to a straight ticket to the local jail. Maryland is death on concealed carry and what I am carrying would be considered an “arsenal” in this state, but if this event is what I think it is I don’t have time to stand around waiting to be sure.
I carried my two suitcases down to my now worthless car and threw them into the trunk of the car on the slight chance I was wrong about what had taken place. After making sure my rental car was in fact dead, I locked it up and shouldered my pack. My first stop was the lobby to check and see if they have any maps of the local area. Entering the lobby area there was a small group of people gathered at the front desk giving the clerk a hard time. One man in the group stands out, as he is the loudest and also the fattest, directing a string of foul language at the dis-leveled clerk behind the counter. As I walk in the conversation dies down for a second, than the fat man begins yelling again at the clerk, “Listen bitch I want a shuttle van here NOW! I have a flight to catch in one hour and I have to be on it!” I’m immediately impressed on how well the young lady is handling the irate man, she simply replies in a calm tone, “Sir, all of our vans will not start and until the phones begin working again there is nothing I can do to assist you getting to the airport.” This reply at least temporarily shuts up the obnoxious fool as he moved away muttering to himself.
As I approached the counter the young lady immediately began to tell me, “Sir, we do not know when the power or phones will come back on line.” I just smiled at her and said, “I know, would you happen to have any maps of the local area?” She relaxed slightly when she realized I wasn’t going to yell at her or ask for impossible things, “Sir we h
ave these,” pulling out a pad of large scale area maps. “Is it ok if I take a couple of these,” I ask. “Of course,” she said and pulled two copies off of the pad and handed them to me. I once again smile and said, “Thank you, also do you have any bottled water available?” At this she also smiled and just pointed towards the breakfast area. I walked over to the breakfast area and checked out what they had put out since I was down earlier. It looked like the hotel had pulled out all the stops in an attempt to appease the disgruntled customers. There were large containers of several different types of dry cereal lined up on the counter and several pitchers of milk and orange juice. I walked over to an empty table and drop my daypack. Reaching into the bottom pouch I pulled out a couple of quart zip lock Baggies. Moving over to the cereal I filled both bags with Frosted Mini Wheat’s (my favorite), again don’t know when these might come in handy or when I would get a chance to have them again if ever. While they might not be the highest in nutrition, it would provide calories and fill my stomach in the coming days. Stuffing them back into the bottom pouch I returned and filled up a bowl and added milk and grabbed a large hand full of sugar packs. Retrieving another zip lock I dropped in the sugar, returning to the condiments area and grabbing a couple of hand-full of honey packs, this while receiving a couple of dirty looks from the surrounding tables. Oh well, you can’t please everyone all the time and right now I needed to get what I could to survive the coming hard times. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do to survive.