Grid Down Perceptions of Reality

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  They patrolled more or less in a square, and if they didn’t see anybody around a homestead, they would ride up to the house until somebody let them know everything was okay. It was just a good neighbor policy.

  They stopped by a pond to have lunch, letting their horses drink and graze in the lush grass near the water. The talk among the men was mostly about hope that the electricity got turned back on, and girlfriends or wife problems. It might be the end of the world, but life keeps turning as normal in so many aspects. After lunch, as they were finishing the patrol, they ran into two lone men pushing a shopping cart. They rode up, surrounding them, with their rifles drawn. It was clear they had been on the road for a long time. They looked homeless, dirty, with filthy torn clothes. One had a rifle slung on his back, and the other had a double barrel shotgun lying on top of the shopping cart.

  Scott demanded, “What are you two doing in this area?”

  “We are just traveling through. We mean you no harm. Please don’t rob us, these are all the supplies that we have.”

  Scott said, “We aren’t bandits and won’t hurt you unless you give us cause. Where are you heading?”

  “We’re coming from Duluth. Those crazy Rainbow Warriors took over the whole city. We swung this way to avoid them, and then we planned on heading south.”

  “We will escort you through, but give us your weapons until we are clear of the area. And understand that you are to keep going and never come back. Do you understand?”

  “Kind of harsh don’t you think? We haven’t caused you any trouble and we haven’t harmed a soul. We’re just traveling through, and why do you want our weapons? We don’t give them up to nobody.”

  Scott responded, “We only want to hold on to your weapons for our own safety. We will give them back when we are out of the area. If you cooperate, then there won’t be any problems.”

  “The man looked frightened and asked, “Do you guys have any food that you can spare? We don’t have much.”

  “Sorry, we have none to spare, but will escort you through the area so no harm will come to you.” He then assigned four men escort duty. The men turned over their guns, and the rest of patrol turned around to backtrack, making sure that these two had caused no harm to anyone in their community. It was better to be safe than sorry.

  Preston asked, “Why didn’t you talk to him more? They might have valuable skills that the community could use.”

  Scott responded, “That may be true, but we have standards. Those two were not keeping proper hygiene. It’s the end of the world and the best they can come up with is a shopping cart? Don’t you think somebody that was smart enough to have valuable skills would have found a better way to travel?”

  “Good point. So why did you allow us in?”

  “Because you were clean and you obviously had the skills to rescue your wife. You knew the area and you had hidden food. All moves of a smart and capable person.”

  “How did you know about the food?”

  Scott smiled and said, “That was just a guess, but we figured a man like you wouldn’t risk traveling with his family, unless he had a place in mind with supplies already stashed.”

  Preston nodded. He was impressed with Scott’s deductive reasoning and how he was able to size up people and the situation.

  The patrol backtracked, stopping at different houses and farmsteads, making sure all the people were okay. Everyone reported the same thing that the two didn’t stop, and were just traveling through.

  Once they were sure the two guys hadn’t caused any problems in the community, Scott dismissed the rest of the men.

  He asked Preston to ride with him, saying, “I know of a house I think you might be very interested in. It’s a little off the beaten trail but once we get power on, it would be perfect for you and your family. It has a well and a garden area with a few fruit trees. It’s not perfect by any means, but it should work out well for you.”

  They rode up to a nice three-bedroom ranch style house that was a couple miles from the main highway. The main advantage was that it had a rocket stove. Rocket stoves were invented in the 1980s for use in the Third World countries, and were simple, high efficient designs that create virtually a smokeless fire.

  The house was well built for the area, with 6-inch walls and new insulation sprayed into them, making a total barrier. There were high efficient three pane windows, and heavy insulation in the ceiling. The only disadvantage was there was no way to get water without electricity.

  Preston said “Did you ever watch that TV show, The Colony?”

  Scott said, “I saw the one set in Louisiana. Those people would have starved to death if they hadn’t sent in that recon Marine to help them out.”

  Preston shook his head and said, “No. I’m talking about the one they did in Los Angeles. They had a generator and were able to design a wood gasifier to use as fuel for the generator. Now what they didn’t explain in the show was that the barrel they created the wood gas in needed to be piped so many feet over to the generator. Now the trick to this is you have to cool the wood gas to the right temperature in order for it to work. It’s going take some playing around to get the correct distance and temperature, but once it’s up and running it should run a generator and be a very good system to have.”

  Scott looked at him in amazement, “You know how to do that? Wow, that would be great if you could set all of us up like that.”

  “Well, I don’t see why not. Fred said we have an electrical engineer, right. I heard that just about all of the farms have generators, and it doesn’t have to be anything special; I mean really what do you truly need? Water to wash your clothes, a freezer to keep things frozen, and a battery charger to charge batteries for running lights at night. I think this is very doable. Once we get the first one figured out, we should be able to duplicate it for everybody’s place, but, and this is a very big but, I’ve never done it before, and it’s going to take some playing around to get everything correct.”

  Scott was very excited. “Really, if we can do this it means we can take it to the next step. We can get some of the older tractors and convert them to run on wood gas. Heck we could even rig up trucks to run on it. Oh my God, this would be great. You know how much better all our lives would be?”

  “Well, this is going to be a huge learning curve, but now we need to find all the supplies. We need some metal 55-gallon barrels, piping, generators for everybody, battery chargers and batteries, all kinds of pipefittings, a gas and oxygen torch, and the tools.”

  Scott was so excited as he said, “We’ll figure it all out. Wow, I’m so glad you came up here.”

  “Hang on a minute, don’t get all excited and telling everybody I can do this until we get one up and running. It seems to me when I watched the show; they had quite a problem getting everything set up just right for it to work.”

  That night, back at their place, Preston talked it over with Amy and Michael. Amy was very excited, saying, “Do you know how good our life will be if you can do this magic trick?”

  Preston laughed, “It’s not a magic trick. It’s science. I just hope we can run into somebody who has the actual book or plans on how to make one.”

  Michael had a big smile on his face. “You mean we will be able to put meat and fish away without drying them? No more trying to make jerky taste good? No more dried fish? We can live like real people again?”

  Preston laughed out loud, “Okay, okay. You two need to calm down. I only watched it on a TV show, that doesn’t mean I can magically make one. I know it’s possible, but we just need to get everybody together, put our heads together, and make it work.”

  Michael asked, “Why did this all happen. I just don’t understand.”

  Preston said, “Because we sat back for too long and allowed the control freaks to ruin America. Government was crushing small business.”

  Michael was confused, “What does that have to do with an EMP and whoever fired it?”

  “Our government was wa
rned and told it could happen, but they ignored it and took no preventative steps to save our electrical grid. We were due for some form of collapse, either the dollar going under, too many natural disasters, or an EMP taking America out. What we have as a result should teach the new generation the evils of big Government. For example, say you own a small ranch that you raise cattle on. Our government allowed the control freaks in the animal rights movement, to set policy for people that owned private land.”

  “What?” Michael said, “What right do they have to tell someone how to use their land?”

  “Exactly, that’s what I’m talking about. See, you’re smart and catching on. I read about different farmers and ranchers being taken to court for the clean water act requirements. They have gone after ranchers even when their property was about 5 miles from a stream, not hurting the stream one little bit. Lots of these regulations were based on Agenda 21.”

  “Agenda 21. What’s that?”

  A power grab by the UN and their supporters. They were the control freaks. They want to transform America into a big National Park, where all the animals had more rights than people. They wanted about 90% of the land to be turned back over to the animals.”

  Michael asked, “Are they the Rainbow Warriors?”

  “Maybe. It’s all the same thinking. Animals have equal rights to people. Total insanity.”

  “Why didn’t they want the cows drinking the water?”

  “Because the cattle pooped in the water, and they had some crazy theory that the feces in the water would hurt the native fish and animals.”

  Michael added, “Wait a minute. I learned in school that there used to be millions of buffalo. Did they hurt the water too?”

  “Good question Michael, you are smart for someone your age. Yes, there used to be 40-60 million buffalos, which is the best guess from the experts. And yes, they were leaving feces in the water too, and there are only about 31.5 millions cows in America. It was all a lie to force ranchers out of business. They also blamed cow farting and belching saying it was hurting the atmosphere. There is no end to what they came up with to pass their agendas.”

  “Why would the Government want to force people out of business?”

  “You see Michael, our government was slowly and quietly taken over from the inside. Some were like the Rainbow Warriors, psychopaths using the eco propaganda as an excuse to murder millions. Others were idealists that believe animals were more important than people, and the rest were just control freaks that wanted power and everyone under their thumb.”

  ‘So if I’m the future, what do I have to guard against?”

  “We must teach everyone that people come first. Never allow the government to get too large and allow the states use the power to control themselves. All laws must be written for the common man to easily understand and go back to an honest court system.”

  “Court system?”

  “That’s a long topic that we can save for another time.”

  Chapter 16

  Retaliation

  “The best fighter is never angry.”

  ― Lao Tzu

  The men raced after the wounded survivor of the battle. They occasionally caught glimpses of blood on the road. They knew he was wounded, but how bad was the big question preying on their mind. The thoroughbred horse was panicked and racing for his life. The smell of blood and screams of panic, told him not to stop until he was safely back in his own barn. His rider was not giving him any commands, so he ran for safety, he ran from fear, he ran to survive.

  The two men tracking him were never able to get closer than a mile from him. Their horses were no match for a thoroughbred, whose main purpose in life was to race. All they could report was that the man was leaned over in the saddle, and the blood traces became more evident. When they were within a couple of miles of the millionaire’s farmstead, they slowed down and started sneaking along the edge of the road. The wounded man made it to the farmstead. They had failed in their duties to stop him. Pulling out binoculars, they watched men race up to the wounded man.

  That was all they needed to see, so they snuck back until they were out of sight. They rode hard and fast, back to warn the others. They didn’t catch up to Joe until they got to Phillip’s homestead. Joe started barking commands, “We need two men up in that barn loft. Put some square bales of hay in front of you to help protect against bullets, and open the door to make sure you have clean targets. Wait until we start shooting down here, before you open up. Do you understand?” The man nodded and raced off. “You two men go gather everybody else, and don’t stop until you get back here, and make it quick. If the battle has already started, listen to me carefully, you’ll sneak into a good covered position and together you open up on them, as a team. Do you understand?” The men both nodded at once. Joe said, “Good. Now get out of here.”

  He turned to Philip and said, “Get your house sealed up and have Mattie run food and water up to the men in the loft. Jacob, I want you to be our sniper. Get up in one of these trees, preferably a thick spruce tree. You’ll need a good field of fire, giving yourself plenty of camouflage. You don’t start shooting until the battle begins. Space your shots out so they can’t zero in on where you’re at. Make sure you grab some jerky and a canteen of water to take with you.” Jacob nodded and headed towards the house to get his ammo, jerky and a canteen.

  There were six men armed and ready for what might come, and they waited. Their minds were racing, would they be facing 10 men, 20 men, or more? Joe was extremely worried that these men weren’t really trained soldiers and didn’t know how to fight. Were they confident in using an AR 15? Waiting for someone else to react, and trying to plan for it, is an impossible task. There are just too many variables.

  The minutes ticked by and the tension built, as the anxiety mounted. Where are they? How long would it take for them to get here?

  An hour later, the rest of the men arrived. Joe spaced them out, hidden in the woods, but still nothing.

  Another hour went by, and still nothing. Joe walked outside and up to the two scouts. “Get two fresh horses. We need recon to find out what’s going on. Do not engage. As soon as you have any information come back and report.”

  It was 2:34 in the afternoon and there was plenty of daylight left.

  At the warlords place, the guards saw the horse and wounded man coming. They opened the gate and allowed the horse in, which headed straight for the barn. The horse stopped in front of the barn and the man slid off, falling to the ground. The men started yelling for a medic and raced to the wounded man side. He was unconscious, but still breathing. The warlord, unable to get any information, had a second patrol assembled and sent them out, with strict orders to find out what happened to the other men - by any means necessary.

  The gloves were off. If these peasants wanted an uprising, they would have a war. He wanted to find out who the leader is, and kill all that stood with him. The millionaire told his men before they left, that they are free to rape, murder, and pillage the first closest homestead to find out what’s going on. He wanted a full report before dark.

  The nearest homestead was the Johnson farm, which Mr. Johnson had inherited only a couple of years ago, and being so close to the warlord’s property, the others didn’t trust him. He had no idea what was going on.

  Mrs. Johnson was a good-looking 36-year-old woman with a 14-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. The troops raced into the yard, and Mr. Johnson had no clue what was going on. He walked out of the barn as he heard the horses, wiping his hands on a rag. As he looked up, two men raced towards him, shooting him in the chest. These men were mercenaries with no moral compass, and once off their leash of control, they lost their humanity. Several of the men went into the house and they all took turns raping the mother and 14-year-old daughter. Afterwards, they dragged them out into the yard naked. Through her bruised face and tears, she saw her husband lying in a pool of blood. They kept demanding to know who was in charge, and who had killed their
men?

  Neither she nor her daughter could answer their questions. They threatened to burn her house to the ground if she didn’t answer. She begged and she pleaded, telling them repeatedly that she had no idea what they were talking about. Naked, bruised, and beaten, her whole world had just been destroyed, and now they were going to take her beloved house. She begged over and over again for them to not burn her house. The man in charge told her, as her house was set aflame, “Go to your friends tell them what happened here and find out who killed our men. Tell them that if we don’t have an answer by tonight, this is what will happen to the rest of them.” Her 12-year-old son had been hiding inside and came running out when the flames began engulfing the house. He made it as far as the front steps before the man shot him.

  The merc and his men herded the naked women down the road. They stopped about a half mile from the next farm and told then, “You tell em we are coming. Tell them what happened to you and your farm. Warn them this is what happens to peasants who dare challenge us.” The men then turned and rode back to the warlord’s place. They were confident that they would have an answer by nightfall. They were convinced that the “sheep” would start bleating and spill the beans.

  The warlord wondered what happened to his other nine men, and wondered if there was a new threat moving into the area. If so, what they just did could very well backfire on them. He dismissed that, having no signs or rumors of any large group in the area. It had to just be these uppity sheep. It had to be, he kept telling himself.

  The scouts found the mother and daughter and quickly covered the women with their coats, taking them back to Phillip’s homestead.

  News of what it happened spread quickly. Joe angrily said, “Gather every man, boy, and woman that’s willing to fight, and bring them all here. That warlord wanted an answer by tonight, by God, we will give him our answer with hot lead.” Jane reminded Joe to calm down, and not let his anger do his thinking. He took a deep breath and said, “You’re right. I need to put together a plan that will keep all of our people safe.”