The E.M.P. Chronicles (Book 1): 458 Miles & 24 Days

by McTatey, Zayden (Oz)

  “It’s been sixteen years since 9/11, fifteen years since we met Brian and Elizabeth, and ten years since we purchased our joint Bug Out Location,” Oz said to Randall.

  “Why did you just mention Brain, Elizabeth, and the Bug Out Location? Oh yeah, in today’s world something like the Spanish Flu could never happen.” Randall asked after they just finished watching a documentary on the 1918 Spanish Flu.

  “I was just thinking how lucky we are to have good, like-minded friends, and a Bug Out Location,” Oz said.

  He paused for a second before saying, “Randall, what do you mean it could never happen?” Oz said as he was trying to teach his sixteen-year-old son that life and the events that occur in life are not predictable.

  Randall was convinced that a pandemic of that proportion would not occur again due to modern technology.

  Oz educated Randall and stated, “Randall, the Spanish Flu of 1918 infected around 500 million people worldwide. It’s estimated to have killed 20 million to 50 million people including 675,000 Americans.”

  Randall countered, “But dad, with today’s technology we could quickly create a new vaccine and prevent a pandemic from occurring. Oh yeah, don’t forget that the United States government has millions and millions of vaccine doses in warehouses throughout the US just in case.”

  Oz explained, “Son, I’m going to read directly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. This is what our own government is telling us that you need to know about the flu.”

  “There is still much to do to be ready for the next flu pandemic. There’s a need for more broadly effective vaccines that can be made quicker. The global infrastructure to produce and distribute flu vaccines also must be improved. More effective, and less costly, flu treatment drugs are needed. It is also important to improve the surveillance of flu viruses in animals.” (Prevention, 2018)

  “Basically, your US government is telling you several things. First, they can’t predict when the next flu outbreak will occur but they know it will. Second, there is no perfect vaccine to help prevent or mitigate flu symptoms and if there was they could not be manufactured quick enough. Third, the ability to distribute them where they are needed is in question. Finally, there is no way to predict when and how the virus will mutate,” Oz stated.

  Randall was quiet while Oz continued.

  “Son, I understand you’re only sixteen, but you need to understand a little word called ‘normalcy.’ Normalcy is defined as ’the state or fact of being normal’ (Merriam-Webster, 2018). To make it easier on you I’ll use small words you can understand.”

  Randall gave a quick smirk, but Oz continued, “Status quo, normal, no change, every day is the same. Let me give you a great example. Remember when we lived in Illinois and I bought three different types of portable heaters? I was in trouble with mom because she didn’t understand why a family would need additional heating sources when the house had electric heat.”

  At this stage, Nicki chimed in, “No, dear, I was upset at you because the three heaters weren’t in our budget. You have a thing about spending money when you want to, yet I get in trouble when I do it.”

  Oz countered, “Not true, my love. Everything I do, I do for you and the family.”

  He continued, “Randall, I realized that Illinois was notorious for extremely cold winters and even though we rarely lost power, the possibility existed. Having power is normal and because it’s normal you, your brother, sister, and mom always think it’s going to be on. I don’t think that way. I’m practical and understand that there exists the possibility that the grid could go down for hours, weeks, or even years.”

  Randall thought a moment and then said, “You’re right, dad because we did lose power in the middle of winter one time. I believe it was -20°F and you simply smiled and brought out the heater. We had nothing to worry about.”

  “Well, while you’re talking about this, let me give you a little more detail about that comment,” Oz stated and continued. “I knew we would be okay for the short term because power normally comes back on; hence the word ‘normalcy.’ But in the back of my mind, I wondered what we’d do if it didn’t come back on. How would we stay warm? That’s why I bought three heaters each with a different fuel source. First, there’s an old saying that goes ‘Three is two, two is one and one is none.’ It simply means always have redundancy in everything you do. Using the heater example, if one heater failed I had two others. If I had two heaters and one failed I still had one available as a backup.”

  “Dad, I’m not stupid I can do the math and understand the concept,” Randall stated.

  “Of course, you’re not stupid. I want to be clear on the point of redundancy as it relates directly to ‘normalcy.’ Many of our friends will buy one of something and think it will always work and never fail. Why do they think that way, you may ask?”

  “No, I wasn’t thinking that at all,” Randall said.

  Oz raised his eyes and continued. “They think that way because of normalcy. Most things you buy in life do work for a long time and, therefore, you begin to think it will always work and that becomes your mindset or expectation. But what do you do when it quits or breaks and you can’t find another one or something similar? Many people would panic. In the case of heat, we won’t panic because we know that the power can and will go out and if it does we have three backup heat sources.”

  Nicki replied, “Once again, those three heaters were unbudgeted. You didn’t even talk to me about buying those. Stick to the budget, Oz.”

  Oz quickly dismissed his wife’s comments and continued, “Final lesson on normalcy and redundancy, Randall. If the power had stayed off for a week or even a month we were prepared not only because we had three heaters but each of those heaters ran on a different type of fuel: propane, kerosene, and wood.”

  “Let me see if I understand,” Randall stated. “If you run out of propane you have plenty of kerosene, and of course, our house is surrounded by trees so that’s easy enough; plenty of wood to burn.”

  “Absolutely correct,” Oz stated. “But in addition, by having multiple types of fuel for our heaters, we won’t panic if, say, we can’t get propane. Why? Because we still have kerosene and wood that we could barter or trade for.”

  Oz’s biggest concern was that his family wouldn’t act when an SHTF disaster occurred. He feared they would react like the masses and have the mindset that everything would be okay. He did his best to constantly point out SHTF events that occurred throughout the world and use them as a training and learning exercise. He showed them how everyday people were physically and emotionally affected by life’s events they thought would never affect them. His family did not recognize the intent of the exercise but would insist he always pointed out the worst in people and times. It was a challenge, but Oz never gave up on his family.

  5

  Getting Organized

  OZ FELT ‘TRAPPED’ AT HIS CURRENT JOB. EVERY DAY WAS THE same thing. Wake up, shower, drive forty-five minutes, work twelve hours, come home, eat, and repeat. He was looking for . . . Well, he didn’t know what he was looking for, but it wasn’t what he was doing. In early spring of 2018, Oz quit his job and because he and Nicki had a six-month emergency fund was able to take three months off and explore new opportunities.

  “Oz,” Nicki yelled. “To be clear, you get three months off and then back to work. We have tuition, a house payment, and retirement to save for. We’ve worked hard to get to where we are, but we still have some ways to go before the finish line.”

  “The finish line,” Oz thought to himself. “The finish line is death and I’ll be working until that day. There has to be a better way.”

  “Nicki, we only have Randall left at home and he’s a junior in high school. Why can’t we just sell everything and homestead? Let’s significantly downsize and change our lifestyle. We’ve always talked about living off grid. It will
be cheaper and we can finally live ‘as one with the land.’ We have the skills to garden, preserve food, hunt, collect, store, and treat water. Our house has a septic system so that’s not tied to the grid. As far as electricity, we can look into solar and wind options.”

  “Oz,” Nicki stated. “We have two kids in college and one getting ready for college. We committed to help our children through their bachelor’s degrees. We have a mortgage, rent, food, tuition, car maintenance, insurance, cell phones, and a ton of other expenses we pay for them. When we had children we committed to give them the tools to be successful. The finances are our burden, not theirs. What I will tell you is that we need to continue to prepare. Though I’m not a ‘prepper’ like you, I’ve always supported you. You have three months off. Why don’t you organize and catalog our existing supplies? As of right now, they’re everywhere; in the garage, in the shed, in the house, and I believe you even buried some. What did you call them? A cache? Once you have that list we can quickly identify any gaps and create a budget. Over time we can purchase more of what we need. And yes, you must continue to look for a new job. It has to remain at the top of your list!”

  Oz knew Nicki was right. Though he dreamed of living 100 percent off grid, it was simply not a possibility now.

  After prepping for almost sixteen years, Oz was amazed at how unorganized he had been. He and Nicki had collected years of preparations with absolutely no organization. They didn’t know how much of each item they had or where it could even be found.

  During Oz’s first week off he took inventory of all his medical supplies. It was most definitely a challenge as there were medications and supplies everywhere. He first started in the garage where he went through all his bins and boxes. He placed the medications and medical supplies on his workbench and began to sort the supplies.

  “How should I sort them,” he thought to himself. “Do I do it by the name of the medication or what it treats? How do I classify medical equipment such as an otoscopy or suture kit?”

  Even though his wife was a nurse and would easily know what to use, the kids or other family members would only know the symptoms. He made it foolproof and made two lists: a list of medications and medical supplies that he would sort alphabetically, and a list of symptoms that would correspond to the necessary medication(s) or medical equipment.

  As Oz read one of the medication labels they had filled at a pharmacy some time ago, he observed that its expiration date was quickly approaching. Oz knew of a 2012 study involving the California Poison Control System and the University of San Francisco School of Pharmacy that studied medications found in a pharmacy that expired 28 to 40 years prior to analysis. These were old medications. The study found that there was sufficient evidence that many prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications, “retain their full potency for decades beyond their manufacturer-ascribed expiration dates” (Lee Cantrell, Jeffrey R. Suchard, Alan Wu, & al, 2012). As a matter of fact, many of the expired medications still had the fully declared dosage available after the 28- to 40-year expiration date.

  “Now,” he commented, “to properly store the individual medications for long-term storage.”

  As he had in the past, Oz now needed to take all medications that came in a plastic bottle, either from a pharmacy or over-the-counter packaging, and preserve each individual medication for long-term storage.

  As Oz and Nicki’s children grew up, many years ago, they loved drinking Capri Sun® fruit drinks which came in pouches. They were a quick and easy drink for the kids, but Oz took careful notice of the silvery packages the drinks came in. Upon careful inspection, Oz realized that the drinks came in mylar pouches, the same material he used to store other food for long-term storage including oats, corn, rice, flour, and sugar.

  He knew that the pouches, once cleaned and dried, could be used to store smaller quantities of items such as medicines. These mylar pouches would protect the medication from Mother Nature’s wrath that made all supplies go bad.

  “Light, temperature, humidity, and oxygen are the key drivers that make medications and food spoil,” Oz said to himself.

  If the mylar pouches could be stored in a temperature-controlled environment, for example, in a cache underground or air-conditioned shed, and an oxygen absorber was placed in each pouch, he knew that these medications could potentially be good for 50 years. Over time he had collected hundreds of mylar drink packages and knew that one day they would come in handy. Today was that day.

  To properly store the medications for long term storage Oz cut the top off several dozen Capri Sun pouches and washed them. Once dry he placed the contents of the medication bottle in a pouch careful to never mix medications even if they were the same. He would then carefully remove the label with the prescription directions and placed it on the mylar pouch. The next step was to seal the mylar pouch. To do this he carefully pressed a hot iron on the top of the mylar pouch which instantly created a heat seal preserving the medication until needed. Though this was a time-consuming exercise he had high confidence that his medications would be good for decades to come.

  “After all, you never know when you’ll need them,” he said to himself.

  Now that he knew exactly what medical supplies he had, and they were properly protected for long-term storage, Nicki questioned him on how to best categorize their location. Her concern was they needed to be easily found.

  Nicki stated, “Nice job Oz, but in an emergency, we will need to have quick access to the medications and supplies. I’m not sure how you plan on storing them but they need to be easy to find. Oh yeah, don’t forget that we need to know how much we have of each medication. It does us no good to have a list of medications if we don’t track its usage.”

  Oz just smirked and stated, “Just like a woman to show up when I’m finishing and tell me what to do.”

  Nicki patted him on the butt and explained, “That’s why I married you!” With a quick smile, Nicki left the garage and headed back into the house.

  While trying to determine the best way to categorize their location BJ popped in and asked, “What ya doing dad?” and quickly realized his father was doing that ‘prepper’ thing.

  BJ was the oldest son of Oz and Nicki. At twenty-four years old he was a graduate student at Southern Illinois University (SIU). Of all the subjects in the world to study he, of course, would choose Biology, and more specifically marijuana. Though Oz never asked, he knew that in high school BJ partook more than once of the forbidden fruit, weed. But he also knew that BJ was a very responsible young man and that he would never drink or smoke and then drive. Later Nicki and Oz would learn that medicinal marijuana was the only solace BJ had to help him sleep at night when the intense pain of Crohn’s disease would affect him. It relaxed him and helped with the pain. Within the family, and several friends, he became jokingly known as 420.

  “Dad, you really think we’ll need to use those medications down the road?” BJ said.

  “BJ,” Oz started but before he could continue BJ interrupted him.

  “I know, normalcy, the same thing you’ve told us for years, yet nothing has happened.”

  Oz said loudly, “Let’s not go down that road right now. I need help figuring out an easy way to categorize the medications and medical supplies so we have quick access and it doesn’t become a manhunt.”

  Without missing a beat BJ explained, “First, you go out and buy bins that will fit on your storage racks. It’s best to use bins that fit the dimensions or width of your shelves. You want to use the same bin size but don’t want them hanging over the edge off the shelves. I would tell you the smaller the bin the better because mom will have a hard time moving them to and from the higher shelves if they weigh too much. Second, buy bins that are a solid color. In our dorm, I have the clear bins which make them easier to see in, but it also makes it easier for others to see in them which you don’t always want. Third, buy those smaller plast
ic containers that can be placed inside of the bigger bins. You’ll probably end up with something like four to five smaller containers per bin. I would recommend that these containers be clear plastic, so you can easily see the contents. These will be in the bigger non-see through bins, so you’re protected.”

  Oz interrupted, “protected from what?”

  BJ answered, “We’ll get to that in a minute.”

  Oz was perplexed. His son, who had no interest in prepping suddenly became an expert on how to organize long-term storage items and categorize them.

  “Where is all this coming from?” Oz thought to himself but BJ continued.

  “Place a large label on each bin with something like Christmas supplies, mementos, baseball cards, family pictures, automotive parts, you get the picture. This is where your question of protection comes in. It’s not really protection as much as it is camouflage. Let’s say we’re in an SHTF and someone breaks into the garage or shed or we’re not home and someone breaks in. Whoever breaks in is going to be looking for the obvious quick things to steal. If you see a bin labeled Christmas supplies, you’ll never know it contains medication unless you open it. Someone who is looking to move quickly will not open it and move on to something easier. You’ve heard of a ‘gray man,’ well this is a ‘gray bin.’” BJ smiled and continued. “Next, place like items in the clear plastic containers by name or type. For example, place all acetaminophen medications in one container and all codeine medications in a separate clear container. This will help you track where and how much you have of each item. Next, place a label on each clear container. The label should contain two things: a sequential number and the contents of the container. For example, let’s say our bin labeled Christmas supplies holds four of those smaller clear containers. Each of the smaller containers has its own label with either a 1, 2, 3, or 4. The contents of each container are also listed on the label. It’s yet another way to quickly identify what you’re looking for, but the most important part is that it will help anyone who understands this simple code find what they’re looking for.”