Grid Down Perceptions of Reality
Page 27
“Where in God’s name did you find fuel to get that thing running?” Clint asked.
Bob laughed. “Remember that TV show, Doomsday Prepper?”
Clint looked at him like he was nuts. “No. Not really. Was it one of those reality shows?”
Bob nodded. “Something like that. Anyway, it showed a guy collecting mineral oil out of an electrical transformer. Each one holds like 12 gallon, and a diesel engine can run on that. I hit five transformers and collected the oil. I figure I have enough fuel to take the wounded back with me.”
“That’s great, but where did you steal the diesel semi from?”
He laughed and said, “That’s another long story. We got one of the 4x4s going with a gasifier, and when we were out on a salvage run, we came across a semi that was out of fuel. Meaning it had still been working, so we jump started it and bled the fuel lines and here we are. By the way the 4x4 is towing the cannon, so they will be waiting for you when you get to the meeting spot.”
Clint said. “When this is over I think we should have a meeting and share information.”
Everyone agreed that it would be a great idea. Bob went on to tell the story about Joe’s partner Preston and how this all started and came about from his idea of making the gasifier.”
They loaded all the wounded into the truck with them, with Doc, Jane and Amy tending to the men on the way home.
They were two days from Green Bay and they knew, from interrogating of the prisoners, that the Army had taken over a pier, where the food was kept, as their base. It was easy to guard as they were surrounded by water with the only access being the pier. They used empty shipping containers, three high, all of the way around the property as a barrier fence. And that the remaining 105 was facing the main gate. They had one M-60 machine gun nest located in a watchtower and everything else was small arms.
Clint’s plan was simple, use the 105 to take theirs out, and then pound the front gate open. They would fire on them until they ran out of ammo, hopefully for 2 hours straight. He didn’t want to waste any more of his men’s lives.
Joe was given the .50 Cal rifle back and his job was to take out the machine gun nest.
After getting the cannon to within 5 miles of the base, they stopped and spent the night. At first light, the recon and sniper teams headed out. Joe picked a building that was across the street from the machine gun nest, and Scott led the way up the stairs to the roof. It was a 10-story building and they walked out onto the roof. They could see the fires and smoke all around the base.
Scott said, to no one in particular, “What the hell is going on?” Using binoculars, Scott was scanning for life. Joe set up the .50 Cal and zeroed in on the tower. It was empty, not a soul in sight, and no machine gun in sight? Had they gotten bad information from the prisoners?
Scott said, “There is a large freighter leaving the bay right now, and it’s sitting low in the water.”
“Damn. They are making a run for it. I bet they burned the food to deprive us of it.” Joe said in disgust.
They called down to a recon team to pass the word that it looks like they flew the coop, and burned all of the food, and that there was no one in sight.
Clint sent four of the least wounded prisoners to enter and find out what was going on. The gate was wide open. They entered cautiously, expecting possible booby traps, but there were none. The area had been cleaned out. The freighter was only a tiny speck on the horizon now. They walked into the warehouse, which had been converted into a barracks, and everything was gone. They walked outside again, and in the bright morning sun, they looked at the smoke from 50 tons of grain floating across the bay.
Clint’s men entered, seeing the same thing. It was a hollow victory. No epic battle. A victory stolen from them. But the good news was he doubted they would ever be able to raise an Army to threaten their homeland again. A shipyard worker came up to some of the men at the gate, and asked to talk to the person in charge. He was patted down, checked for weapons, and then taken to Clint and John.
John asked what was so important the man had to say. He told them, “We loaded up that freighter with all the food it could hold. The left over grain is on fire, as you saw, but what you don’t know is that there are some storage units that have food in them. We ask that you not take it, but leave it for the people here.”
“How many people are still alive in Green Bay?” Clint asked.
The man said, “I don’t rightly know. Maybe 3,500 or 4,000 would be my guess.”
“Do you have troops to protect and distribute the food without causing a riot?”
“We are unarmed. But there are forty of us that have worked the docks our whole life. We can set things up and make sure the food is handed out fairly.”
“Why didn’t you go with them?” Clint pointed out into the bay.
“Because this is my home. I only worked for them to get food. Once they took control of the city it was the only choice any of us had.”
He called out, “Sergeant, take a detail of men and have this man show you the food storage.”
After the man walked out he asked John, “Do you think he is on the level?”
John said, “I would guess so. I mean we took the base without a shot being fired.”
Clint smiled. “It has been my experience in life that nothing comes free, or too easy. I say we leave the food, just in case it was poisoned and this man is a liar that is setting us up. I say we leave and go home. Let’s call it all over. But just to be safe, pick the top men you have for recon scout to stay and watch the area for a week. Spread them out across the city, with strict orders to not interfere. Do not engage unless fired upon and the first sign of troops, they are to hightail it back to let us know.”
“Are you sure? We could use the food?”
Clint had a serious look on his face when he said, “If there are 4,000 people here, and we are talking 800 of us, do you really want to give them a reason to come find us for food in six months, or next fall?”
“Good point, but what about the so called Governor?”
“Militarily speaking, he is down to 200 men. They must have had scouts out and saw what happen to their main Army. I would guess he is going to sail a couple of hundred miles south and take over a small city with a port. He may even sail across to Michigan. Either way he doesn’t have the manpower to threaten us again, and we can’t chase him down. Who knows, maybe he is going to try and sail out to the ocean. Either way, I don’t think he is a threat to us anymore.”
He added, “The other thing was that there were no booby traps. That tells me he isn’t planning on coming back.”
All of the locals that came out, told the same story, they had spent two days packing the freighter up and left when they saw us moving up to take their base.
Chapter 32
Back At Home
In three words, I can sum up everything I've learned about life:
it goes on.
Robert Frost
Leaving Green Bay was a relief to the troops, as it was a depressing city. Nothing but death and destruction was left and everything laid in ruins. The riots, the looting and the aftermath of the survival-of-the-fittest was seen everywhere in the dreary, dirty town with streets of burned out buildings. The one good thing that the Rainbow Warriors had done was cleared out the traffic jams and stalled cars blocking the roads. The people they did see looked weary, tired, and worn out. They were thankful for everything they now had.
The men that Clint had sent to locate the food lockers had returned and the dockworker asked what he was supposed to do now.
“That’s up to you.” Clint said. “Elect a leader and get to work rebuilding your city.”
“What about protection?” he asked, “Are you our Militia, to call on the next time we are invaded?”
“It’s up to you to rebuild your community. You have more manpower than we do. Build up your own militia. You have smart people here, so get everyone together and find your leaders, the peopl
e with skills to help you rebuild. You have plenty of cleared ground along the highways, so turn it in to food production. You have seeds for replanting, but make sure you save some for next spring. It’s all up to you. We are heading North to rebuild what we have and when you have established your community, maybe we can come together.”
Clint and all of the men left Green Bay and headed back to their families. Joe and Scott returned home on horseback, with a third horse carrying the .50 Cal rifle.
Joe said, “It was honor to fight next to you Scott.”
Scott replied, “Same here Joe. Now what do we do?”
“First, we survive this winter and then we have to come up with a plan for rebuilding. My thinking is that tribes were originally set up so that everything was shared equally. They made sure everyone ate, or everyone starved. The entire tribe had mutual protection, with everyone doing their parts. Children were taught their roles earlier in life. The tribe ran like a machine, if you will. We are sort of like a tribe in a way; we come together for planting and harvest, with mutually shared work in the fields. Food dictates everything else. Once food is covered, the next thing is sex and babies, to ensure the tribe lives on. You have your warrior class, which are the hunters and protectors, and they make sure the tribe can function.”
“Okay, but we both know that is not going to do it for us. We must come up with a money system. An honest money system.” Scott stressed.
Joe said, “What we need is gold and silver standard that has a set value, with true weights and sizes, and that is going to take some time. Then we need to set up schools, but we must do a lot of rebuilding before that. The one thing I can’t figure out is how to rebuild those transformers. I think Brett can figure out how to get the big windmills going, but that isn’t enough unless we can step the voltage to what we need for each house.”
Scott asked, “Okay, where do we get the gold and silver to even start making coins? Are we supposed to find and use pre-existing coins like, the silver dollars?”
“I don’t have an answer to that, but I think we need to take care of our need for food and make sure we have that well organized. One bad crop year and we are all starving. We also need to set up some hunting regulations too. We can’t allow people killing the off all of the deer in the spring, when the fawns are born to replenish the herd. That is why we need to get the whole state up and working as a team, but this is going to take some time. We have to talk to Clint about expanding our community. Maybe even setting up trade routes or something like that”
Meanwhile, back at the cabin, Preston finally heard the good news that his leg was almost healed. Amy’s pregnancy was going well and the Doc said she was in good health.
Amy and Jane were still working at the hospital and Amy was being trained to be a nurse. They had too many wounded for Jane and the Doc to handle on their own.
Preston and Michael were back at work getting the winters firewood in, and Michael was bugging the heck out of him about going bear hunting. He had made the rounds of the closest neighbors and asked everyone to save their grease, bones and table scraps for bear bait.
When Joe returned, he spent a day cleaning the .50 Cal sniper rifle. Gun cleaning solution was becoming a thing of the past, so he headed to the junkyard and talked it over with Bob. Bob remembered a homemade formula, so they began experimenting and came up with a mixture of kerosene and automatic transmission fluid to clean the bore. The kerosene provided a good lubricant coating to protect the weapon from rust, taking the place of gun oil.
Joe returned the rifle to Philip and thanked him. Philip was most interested in how the battle went and Joe gave him all of the details.
The daily events were turning into an enjoyable routine and life was good. Now they just had to deal with the struggle to survive.
During the first week of November, the first snow began to fall. Preston and Amy were standing in the living room in quiet reflection, lost in thought as they looked out and watched the snowfall. The snow danced along the porch in little swirls as the snowflake slowly fell to earth. They felt at peace as Preston stood behind her, with his hands around her waist. He reached up and rubbed her growing stomach.
“I think we are going to make it. Our son is going to be a part of rebuilding America, with freedom first.”
Amy smiled and said, “And what if it’s a girl?”
Preston laughed. “Well her boyfriends are going to hate me.”
“Why’s that? Are you going to be cleaning your guns when they pick her up?”
“Yep, and she is going to be just as tough as any boy, out hunting, fishing, trapping and kicking ass.”
She turned around and kissed him. “Thank you. I love you.”
He said, “I love you too, and no matter what, we are going to survive and thrive.”
Michael came in from the garage with greasy hands from scrapping the fat off his very first bear hide.
Jane was in the kitchen cooking and said, “Don’t you dare touch anything before you’ve washed your hands.”
He frowned and said, “Yes Mom. Jeez. It’s like having two mothers. When is dinner going be done, I’m starved.”
Joe said, “Tell us something new.”
Reference Page for Grid Down Volume 2
Author web site-
Professional grade self-locking snares
www.prosts.com
Kel-Tec KSG 15-Round shotgun
http://www.keltecweapons.com/our-guns/shotguns/ksg/
McMillan Tac-50 Tactical Rifle http://www.mcmfamily.com/mcmillan-rifles-tactical-tac-50.php
Ram water pump
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=ram+water+pump&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
http://www.greenandcarter.com/main/img/ram_diagram.gif
Berkey Water Filter systems
http://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/
Corn harvest and making cornmeal
http://www.food-skills-for-self-sufficiency.com/making-cornmeal.html
Types of corn: http://www2.kenyon.edu/projects/farmschool/food/corntyp.htm
Doomsday Preppers Show
View full episodes
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/
Homemade Gun Cleaner
http://home.comcast.net/~dsmjd/tux/dsmjd/tech/eds_red.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~dsmjd/tux/dsmjd/tech/cap_ball.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~dsmjd/tux/dsmjd/tech/clean_lube.htm
Using charcoal lighter fluid
http://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=85441
Reusable Canning Lids
http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/
Wound Care
http://www.woundcaresolutions-telemedicine.co.uk/wounddressings.php#CarbonCharcoal
In the Crimean War, soldiers who suffered a gunshot wound would extract gunpowder from bullets and pack the residue into the wound to prevent infection.
Read more: How to Treat a Wound With Gunpowder | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7429632_treat-wound-gunpowder.html#ixzz2IL4r2bIh
Smoke Grenades
http://www.onlinefireworks.com/pullstringhandgrenades.aspx
Approx. 60 seconds of thick white smoke screen
Slow Burning Fuses
http://www.onlinefireworks.com/20footrollfuse-2-1-4-1-1-2-2-3.aspx
65 foot roll 1/8 inch Diameter Falling Fish Green Fuse. Burn rate 54 seconds per foot.
FEMA Wood Gasification
http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/fema.woodgas.pdf
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