by Zack Finley
When I finally stopped buying, it only took about an hour to settle our bill. It took another hour for Craig and me to finish stuffing the truck full.
I started back home, dropping off Craig to help Tom and Pete finish up. Their store manager wasn’t quite as helpful. I topped off the box truck’s gas tank before driving up to the ranch and parking. I grabbed a bite with my mom to catch up on events.
There was a lot of grumbling about the rented fuel trucks, but my mom sweet-talked them into accommodating our emergency. The hay and feed deliveries were scheduled for this afternoon. They weren’t happy either.
All the valley fuel tanks were full. The owner of Huntsville Fuels delivered the gas and diesel himself. My mom confirmed that he was pretty suspicious. The owner asked whether he should wait to top off his own tanks until Monday. My mom told him she wouldn’t wait and left it at that. I knew the guy pretty well. I suspected he placed his own refill order before coming out to fill us up.
Since Craig wasn’t back with my truck, I took one of the ranch pickups and hitched up the flat-bed trailer. One of the farm hands completed his morning assignments and went with me to Tractor Supply. My dad sent me a short list of items, but I was sure there were a lot of other needs. I determined you couldn’t have too much chain, cable, or rope.
On the trip back from Jamestown, I stopped in to see Zeke at his gun store in Oneida. He told me the extra ammo was already on its way to the valley. He was usually open on Saturdays, and he was waffling over whether to open tomorrow or not. I suggested we’d be better off if he transferred all his inventory to the valley instead. I was worried about what might happen once phones became problematic. He called the local U Haul in Oneida, and while they didn’t have a box truck, they did have a large cargo trailer. Zeke told them he had a water leak and needed to empty out part of his store. We now had an alibi for closing his store. Oneida was never considered defensible. The plan was always for anyone in Oneida to fall back either to the valley or Huntsville.
He sent one of his guys to get the trailer, and I left them to it. We were lucky it wasn’t raining. I topped off the truck at the Stop and Go on the way through Huntsville.
I dropped off the veterinary supplies and the boxes of vegetable seeds with the farm hand. I unhitched the overflowing flatbed trailer and wondered where I was going to put all the rest of the stuff, I picked up at Tractor Supply. I definitely cornered the local market on chain and cable. Also, burlap bags and burlap fabric.
We considered our positions in Huntsville defensible, as long as we just dealt with locals. Most of dad’s era allies were well established in their neighborhoods.
Our biggest stronghold was the combined area of the solar store and the apartments. It was the fallback site for the rest of the Huntsville allies.
Most didn’t expect to leave their homes. In many ways, they were the cornerstones of their communities. Huntsville was more of a cluster of rural properties than a city. There was plenty of room for gardens, though most were currently planted in grass. A lot of people lived along the country roads outside of town. Folks were pretty self-sufficient.
I hoped our Huntsville crew was correct. I knew we could protect the valley from anything short of a full-on invasion by well-armed and disciplined troops. Even they would suffer casualties and depending upon how many attacked, might not succeed.
Most likely we’d see refugees from the city. In some ways, they were a more challenging force. It is hard to kill or even turn away hungry people.
I expected our first group of dangerous refugees would come from Jacksboro. Especially once they became overwhelmed by refugees escaping along the interstate from Knoxville.
What happened locally depended on how our neighbors reacted. If they stayed calm, planted gardens and helped one another, we might save some remnant of civilization in Mecklin County.
The valley could help, but that might just put a bullseye on our chest.
Sally called to say the NASA solar weather website was back up. She scrutinized the new data. There was no indication of any imminent problem. None of her contacts seemed disturbed. I thanked her for monitoring the situation and asked for future updates.
I texted Roger and Jules was still out of reach. Part of me wanted the grid to go down just so we didn’t have to acknowledge this might be a false alarm. But only a small part. Most of me was hoping this would be a training exercise. An expensive training exercise, but still an exercise. It wouldn’t help our dealings with Sheriff Lewis or Major Thomas, but so be it.
I called my dad to judge his thoughts.
“How do we know the data on the website isn’t bogus?” he asked. “We will watch and prepare. If everything is still normal on Monday, then we can stand everyone down. We will have a lot of cleanup to do, but so be it. Heck, we probably needed most of the stuff you bought, anyway.”
I was so sure based on the sound of Jules' voice, his inflection. The event may not hit us, but he believed it would. I was also not comfortable that no one could call him.
I got a text from Jennifer that they were having dinner with their great-grandma, while the grownups talked. I texted back that I was headed to my dad’s place.
I didn’t get a text back, so assumed that was as expected.
My dad lit off a bonfire in the large fire pit in the back yard. The logs placed around the firepit served as reasonable seats. We usually used this site for all-hands meetings if the weather was good. Not everyone was there, but every group was represented.
“Let’s get started, we still have a lot to do. A lot of things came together today, I want to thank everyone for doing their part. I suspect those who went to work and pretended life was normal probably had it toughest. Some of you worked like dogs today bringing in supplies, I suspect you will sleep well tonight. We are going to send the final text to our inactive members in the morning,” my dad paused as the crowd began talking.
He held up his hand to regain their full attention. “I know you’ve heard the solar weather website is back online. There is a chance everything is normal, and this is just a field exercise. I put my faith in Jules’ hands. After all, he is an expert in solar physics, and he is a long-term ally. Yes, we’ll look foolish to those few we’ve advised to take precautions. Not good, but not the worst thing imaginable. The worst thing imaginable is for us to have received a warning and failed to act to protect our own. Most of those on the inactive rolls are family. Many can get here if they start tomorrow morning. I do not do this lightly. My gut tells me it is the right thing to do.” Then he turned the stage over to my mom. “Claire has a global update for us.”
Everyone was handed a CB radio channel schedule. Everyone was reminded the channels changed every two hours. They were also expected to limit what was said and use their designations, also on the channel schedule. The security forces carried FRC radios, but the range was too limited to use for coordinating across a wide area—especially with the local hills.
My mom briefed the group on actions already taken. The only surprise was that Sheriff Lewis and Major Thomas were actually going to top off their fuel and unplug electronics when not in use. Sheriff Lewis even confided that if the power grid actually crashed, he planned to take all the inmates to the county line and release them. He agreed to use the county maintenance crew to put up a roadblock at TN 297 to limit traffic through Huntsville to locals. Blocking US Highway 27 was a different kettle of fish. And it ran right through the middle of Oneida.
Our sheriff had less than 20 deputies, including court bailiffs and the same number of guards at the jail. Counting on his deputies to man roadblocks throughout the county was asking too much.
If we were lucky, the National Guard would help.
My mom went over what we expected of a CME. “These have historically been accompanied by solar flares and other solar disturbances. Having a coronal mass ejection from a quiescent sun would be unusual. The largest recorded CME from 1859 occurred during several days of upheaval. The
y estimated it took about 18 hours for the eruption to reach earth. Because we expect the effects to build, we should start to notice some disruption with cell phones and satellite communications. That is one reason we don’t recommend leaving the area on Saturday. I’m not even ready to declare the event over if we wake up Monday morning to the electric grid as usual. If you get an all clear, then we have made positive contact with someone we trust who knows something about space weather.”
“How bad will it get?” asked someone in front of me.
“The electric grid will crash, and many components will fail. There will be a lot of collateral damage to the grid going down. Some key components will be fried. The large transformers are particularly vulnerable. There aren’t many spares just sitting around. Without a grid, we can’t build new ones. So, we could be down for good,” my mom emphasized.
“Locally,” she continued, “Be sure to disconnect your house from the grid. The voltage swings when the grid crashes will be rough on anything plugged in. Unlike EMP most electronics, including cars and trucks, not connected to the grid will probably work after the CME passes. We should expect more than one burp in our direction. Remember, the 1859 event lasted days. We’ll know it’s over when the aurora borealis returns to the northern latitudes.”
She paused to make sure everyone was still with her. We all heard this before, but I could tell most hadn’t expected to need this information. Refreshing everyone on this was a good idea.
“We could get lucky. The CME could miss the U.S. altogether or only take down a portion of the US grid. It might just affect Europe, or another part of the globe altogether. If only half of our country is affected, the U.S. will treat this like any disaster such as a huge hurricane. Restoring power could still take a year, but repairs will come. I’m hoping the HAM radio network will apprise us of how bad it is. Until we understand the extent, we will keep all of our actions low key and within the confines of current laws.” Some looked surprised at that.
“In the affected areas, most emergency systems supporting everything from cell phones to the hospital will start failing once battery backup dies and they run out of fuel for their generators. Gas stations won’t be able to dispense fuel, so people will begin to run out of gas. Most people have less than a half tank on any given day. Trucks, planes, and trains will stop. I don’t expect planes to fall from the sky, but they may land at the nearest airport.”
Some looked surprised at this. It was one good way CME varied from EMP.
“It will depend on how widespread the CME is. At some point it will dawn on people they are out of water and have only a small amount of food in their homes. Communications will be toast. The CME won’t do much to fiber optic cables, but it will likely short out copper wires. So, landlines will be useless, too. Families with more than average reserves will likely sit tight. Others will panic. Looting will become an immediate problem, especially in cities. We’ve seen that happen even during simple power outages. How far and fast the civil unrest spreads will depend on a combination of people’s resources and the lack of information. A small number of our residents will think this is a great opportunity to enrich themselves. These will be the ones who rob their neighbors or loot the pharmacies, liquor stores, and big-screen televisions. The good news is while people might drive to Nashville or even Knoxville to loot, no one except locals will come our way, at first.”
“At some point,” my mom continued, “people will get hungry, and the local markets will be out of food. At this point, the social fabric will begin unraveling quickly. The great exodus will begin as people leave the cities in droves. This will be the time of greatest danger for us. Some will still have gas and will drive, others will be on foot. Many will be armed. We do not have the resources to feed a large population, either immediately or long term.” With that, my mom sat down.
It was my turn.
“We are heading into winter. If we can get our neighbors organized, between what they have stored and help from our livestock, the area around Huntsville could be okay. People will get hungry, but they won’t starve. By spring every household could have extensive gardens. Neighborhoods could have a few chickens or goats. Many of our neighbors already have solar systems, giving them a few hours of electricity each day. That could easily make this region a target. We can’t defend Huntsville. We can block the main road, but the town is basically a loose grouping of houses. As little as I want to say this, we may have to fall back to the valley and wait out the die off,” I said. “You know who you can count on in your neighborhoods, if it comes to that we can take them in. They will have to work, and if they follow instructions, they will eat. Let’s be clear, troublemakers will not be tolerated,” I said.
“My neighborhood has one family who will be trouble, but the rest can be counted on,” Joe said.
“I’d like to tell you to shoot them and move on,” I said, “But, I can’t. Especially not until we know how bad the situation is. If this is a short-term problem, you could be tried for murder. If your community is solid against this household, isolate and monitor them. If they try to rob their neighbors, then deal with it.”
“What should we do next?” someone shouted.
I said. “I want to buy up all the fruit and vegetable seed packets, plus all the dormant fruit trees available from the Walmarts in Jacksboro and Jamestown. They are open 24 hours so we can hit them tonight. Even the hybrid seeds will help out for at least the first season. Make sure you have enough clothes, especially underwear and socks. We may all end up wearing buckskin, but I want to put that off as long as possible. Tomorrow, if anyone knows of someone with German Shepherd or Rottweiler puppies, that is one area I didn’t get a chance to fix. Guard dogs will come in mighty handy. You may want to check out a bunch of books from the library. Our books are mostly school books, reference, and how-to manuals. Not very entertaining. We have a few chess sets and board games, but that is mostly it for fun.”
My mom stepped in to coordinate tonight’s Walmart raids. She organized a contingent for the Walmarts in Jacksboro and Jamestown. She added canning jars and bolts of cloth to their lists. She suggested they buy a few gas cans and top them off before returning. I agreed to lead the Jacksboro trip. We ended up with four pickup trucks and several cars for each trip. Everyone agreed to buy their own clothes and personal stuff. Shoes, especially boots were also on the menu. My dad would buy the common items in Jamestown. I’d do the same in Jacksboro. My mom wanted to come with me. I suspected we were buying out the store.
Everyone wanted to come on the outing. We convinced a few to stay behind and mind the valley. The group wanted to stop for pizza. I couldn’t blame them. We agreed to meet for pizza in Jacksboro and then spread out.
I went by to kiss my girls and tell them I’d be home late. They informed me they were staying at granny’s place overnight for a big sleepover. My grandma baked pies. She broke up the kids into a girl’s club and a boy’s club. Each contingent had a DVD player and a stack of movies of their choice. My grandma told me not to worry and shooed me out.
I suspected we sent the Walmart inventory system into overdrive. We virtually cleaned out all the rugged clothing. I couldn’t resist buying ammunition, fish hooks, more knives, binoculars, and more. We were still hoping the Amazon supplies came in as promised, but the timing was too close to count on. We ended up with a steady stream of shopping carts leaving the store, with the goods piling up in the back of pickups. Once filled, the vehicles left for home. We were lucky, there were very few people in the supercenter to wonder about what we were doing. Walmart swapped out cashiers to give them a break before we were done. I don’t think there was a pair of jeans or a sweatshirt left in the store. I know the work clothes section was cleaned out by the time we went.
Once we got home, we emptied the pickups into one of the storage containers. My dad, my mom, and I then went to Oneida. Craig was a glutton for punishment and went with us. We took three pickups and were much more selective, although
we still bought bolts of cloth, canning jars and lids, seeds, and fruit trees. My dad went for the duct tape and gloves. I went for the WD 40 and gun oil. It was a more leisurely trip, even though we completely filled the pickups. I felt I could now stay at home until we knew.
When we finally got home, I was shopped out. My stuff would either arrive from Amazon, or it wouldn’t. My dad sent out a text that those who stayed behind tonight would leave before 6 a.m. to raid the Clinton Walmart and to text them for any last-minute items. Everyone else was urged to stay home.
Saturday was another glorious October day in Tennessee. The leaves were finally starting their change. The high temperature was in the 70s. Last night the temperatures were in the upper 50s, so the leaves weren’t in any hurry to turn. The sumac and poison ivy were bright red. The oak leaves were still mostly green. I walked to my grandma’s house to bring my girls back, but they talked me into having pancakes and bacon with them. It wasn’t a hard sell.