by Ron Foster
“See what we will do is move everyone all at once over to that neighborhood little lake and you all just start setting up camp like it’s the most natural thing in the world to be doing. They can’t object much because your refugees from the island and Rod can square it with the police I bet or I will try to pull some emergency management crap if I can.” Zack said with a grin like he was going to pull off a master coup or something.
“That sounds pretty good, don’t they have homeowner associations or something for them places? I imagine it won’t take long to get a visit. Well that’s the beauty of it. Everyone already started open carrying around day one and I am guessing that president of the home owners association ain’t going to be too vocal when it comes to trying to evict anyone. Those people that live over their regular ain’t going to make it too long and I am guessing some vacancies will become available are already available. Rod should know if any houses are for sale around him. It’s kind of blatant and in your face but pick a place and squat. You basically have an armed gang moving in that is just trying to get by in a difficult situation and even those people will find themselves under a state of siege with other town folks surviving in the local area. They might even like having the preppers around if they don’t lose their minds first. The water will shut off over their soon enough and if I were you, I would keep water purification methods to yourself, course somebody will want to fish and you all need to just let them. It will get really interesting over there, believe me!” Zack said barely touching on the plan he had in mind but more than enough for Parker to visualize it.
“I don’t think anyone not of our community can even conceptualize how an armed invasion of a gated community is going to turn out. Hell, I am a big part of the prepper movement and I am having a hard time of it.” Parker said thinking about the brutal realities of it all.
“To say it ain’t going to be pretty is an understatement. Now Nick and Knobby might be up for a little extra security for the group as folks move in but I doubt they will be sticking around. On the other hand, we don’t know road conditions if they got a mind to try to make it home and they sort of got their eyes set on proposing some kind of security gig with Sloan. He has farm land not far from here also by the way. Its damn chemical fertilizer row crop land and he wasn’t planning on raising nothing but sorghum and millet this year but that’s something. People will be thinking about this place in the city also when the water shuts off and the food starts running out. I told him he better consider the notion of dropping a tree or two across the road and Knobby and Nick are supposed to be talking to security with him.
“Now that leaves you all and what you want to do. I am leaving the dingy and the kayaks behind along with half the fishing rods. You can try to run trotline and maybe even trade with Rods group and stay here in a tent or take your chances on housing over there behind the iron fence. Rod knows Bobby and I am going to suggest he borrow that big log skidder he has and park it in back of the gate at the community to block the road with. We got enough people with nothing to do they can play gate guard and get that association used to our presence and taking a few orders that way. Hell, for that matter call an emergency election and make Rod the president of the home owners association, he is the only one that has a clue about what’s going on and he might prove to be their salvation.” Zack said before saying he wasn’t going to get involved in all that except maybe help with the first move in show of force.
Zack was in a quandary as what he wanted to do in this apocalypse but his plans didn’t include a street by street neighborhood war if things got wonky. Nor did it include babysitting or trying to assist a bunch of less experienced and head strong people to survive. Too many people and not enough skills is what he was seeing. Now on the other hand his long-term survival depended on making a community-oriented decision that was very difficult for him. Things could turn out oh so wrong if he wavered or tried bugging in at home with light resources. That area around him although rural was the land of the great unprepared.
During an event like this, many farmers would be literally dying of starvation on their own farms because they lacked the knowledge and resources to home garden. You could drive for miles all over those back roads and highways and notice easily nobody had a vegetable garden! Ten, twenty years ago things were different and more people had them a little plot of ground tilled up to grow some vegetables even if they had hundreds of acres in cultivation but not no more! The few people that still took the time and trouble to do it hadn’t tried it organically before and used all the pesticides, weed killers and chemical fertilizers to do it they used on their fields. They didn’t remember many of them how to have a sustainable garden not dependent on such things anymore like their parents and grandparents grew!
“Those hundreds of acres they might have planted in hybrid GMO corn wouldn’t grow next year at all and the whole system was dependent on gasoline, abundant resources of water and timely applications of bug spray and side dress fertilizer anyway. It was doubtful anyone would produce any kind of crop this year let alone ever recover enough to feed the masses unless the government tried to centralize farming. Most of the ground in the heartland couldn’t be planted now because of unprecedented flooding and cold out west and massive starvation and worldwide crop failure was already on the radar before whatever this crap was had happened.
There were far too many problems for anyone to face alone and choosing which team you were on was what it was all about. One of Zacks friends Javon was a book author who was stuck in this mess with the rest but he was wheelchair bound and that presented its own set of difficulties.
Rod had invited him and his family down to his house until they could retrieve their van and Rod said he had a job for him helping him communications if he had a mind too. Rod explained he would just turn the earphones up and let him listen to the chatter on the airwaves and see what he could pick up. Rod assured him that he valued that service because even the Air Force consulted with and paid apocalyptic authors for their opinions on various scenarios that took a visionary talent to predict what would or what might be possibly going on in a grid down world. Perhaps Javon’s insights could shed some light on new possibilities for the community or help them avoid certain disasters they hadn’t envisioned.
Zack liked the young man and thought he would be perfect for not just listening to bits of news but being able to put a mental picture to it all. The horror/apocalyptic author was very resilient and when it came to life seemed to follow the philosophy of the following quote.
Of course, Zack knew already he would get kidded to death if he applied it to himself as him possibly thinking about a shot glass, but that was neither here nor there.
Randy, Javon’s father was designated as the community’s sanitation engineer a title, he didn’t much like but he got it because he had brought to the campout everyone’s main form of water purification in the form of two big Berkey water filters which were part of his wares he sold at Prepper conventions. Now being stuck with that title also meant potable water continuity and resourcing so the burdensome job of reminding folks to use designated facilities away from his water collection points was also his responsibility.
Still, having such a position did have its perks. The cook section had to consult him first before undertaking a soup recipe etc. The water carriers were at his beck and call and the group was highly dependent on him to insure their health and longevity.
It could be if they had anyone balking or thinking twice on moving over to Rod’s Rest Area and Apocalyptic Prepper Emporium Zack advised “Where the water flows the people will go!” He figured if folks wanted clean water to drink, they needed to either purify themselves or follow the Berkey filters.
Zack had his own reservations and apprehensions about joining the herd per se or trying to rough it on his own at a much smaller scale of required community drain or assistance. He would tell Parker and the others about his back up plans later when he could find out more about the coas
tal areas and if they had been adversely impacted.
Meantime before he did or considered anything, he had to get home and he had to get things situated around here if they got stuck staying.
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12
Farm House Fantasy
“How are you making out on getting us a ride home.” Mack asked as Zack reeled in his fishing line because of him not having any luck
“I am waiting on Rod to get back over here. He has only been gone the day, maybe he will be here this afternoon sometime.” Zack replied.
“A bunch of other folks said they were coming back over here today. Do you know anyone in that bunch that might drive us to the house?” Mack asked.
“No not really. This wasn’t my regular prepper camping crowd and it was more aimed at the apocalyptic authors and their readers. A lot of the just day time attendees were from Rod’s prepper Ham operator group that live around here. If they got the radios up, they are all chattering to each other, I guess. I don’t know if them folks got a “Shit Hit The Fan Plan” or no other than communicating with each other. That’s why I never have showed much interest in learning all the technical licensing jargon or spending money on equipment. I have talked to a bunch of operators before and I have always been curious what it is they plan on talking about when the poo hits the fan. Now I know they will be relaying news and probably have some operators doing the community service thing, but if they don’t have first responders to interact with, what kind of service can they provide? It sorts of reminds me of the CB radio craze we had growing up. It was a form of entertainment; it was the opportunity to talk to someone you don’t know about nothing usually but it was fun. Everybody had radio and it was a phase there for a while, all the folks knew what the emergency channel was, but they also knew to be careful about what kind of help you get. The only profit I could see in it was when a restaurant put one in to talk in diners and truckers. Nobody was buying preps, just radios and if someone was chatting after a hurricane it was, where do I find ice at? Anyone got extra gas or I need my milk for my baby. Didn’t take 5 minutes for anyone listening to be there and deplete your local neighborhood stores in a swarm that wouldn’t normally think about looking there.” Zack said musing about what everybody could, should or was doing.
” I bet folks are going batshit about not being able to use their cellphones right now! I wouldn’t mind having me a CB or even my fire radio if it worked. Do you think that thing would work?” Mack said who had left his volunteer fire department scanner and radio at home for this trip.
“I don’t know if line of sight transmission works or not. I am guessing maybe it would but you probably get some hellacious static. You all know about them radios a lot better than I do. I was just making a point about bartering if you were thinking radio dependent, that’s kind of like painting targets on things unless you got a prior planned secure rally point or something to trade at.” Zack said.
“Well I for one need to be getting back and feeding my chickens soon. Why don’t you ask Ezra to drive us home? “Mack asked.
“Oh, that’s still on the table. I was just saving you all a ride in back of an open truck. I can’t never tell last few days if it’s going to rain cats and dogs or knock the ground out from under my feet.” Zack replied.
“Well we can always hide under ponchos. I would say we could park under a under pass but I don’t want nothing that big or hard over my head at the moment!” Mack replied.
“Damn you got that right! I am going to tell who ever drives us to go slow! I can’t imagine what it’s like driving down a shaky road. Hey guess who is back! That’s Rod’s truck and the other one is Franklins.” Zack said seeing them coming into the entrance of Spectre Island.
“Well let’s go hear something” Mack said ready for some news.
Sloan joined them as they walked over to the Bivouac area to where the men were parking their trucks.
“You going to try to get him to take you all back? I was kind of wishing you would stick around for a while Zack.” Sloan said.
“I don’t know yet, kind of depends on road conditions. We will be back though. We got me and Ann’s vans plus Mack’s wife’s truck and everybody else’s rides to retrieve eventually. Depending on what’s happening will depend on how long it takes me to get back here.” Zack said.
“You were asking me earlier if I wanted to stay over here or go to Rods camp and I sort of think we will stay and wait it out here. There is a lot less drama going on around here and I sort of like it that way. I was talking to Dee earlier and we were thinking if necessary, we could run a shuttle service over there and maybe consider doing some share cropping. We got some clear land over here; we got enough gas to use the tractor for a crop if we can find seed and we could use some of those people for workers if we need some pickers or something.” Sloan said.
“Well the big question is where do you first find that much seed at? People rotate crops around here mostly soybeans, then cotton then peanuts etc. Looked to me on the way over here a lot of fields were going to be left fallow this year and the others were just getting scarified for pasture or hay. I got some vegetable seed but I think its best used turning Rod’s neighborhood into front yard backyard plots after digging up the lawns and cleaning out the flower beds.ost of the extra seed I got is old and needs nurturing and pampering to get it to germinate.’ Zack said.
“He is working on it he said. He is about our best bet for getting any kind of sustainable farming going on. I am half way considering staying over here and helping him with it. Hell, my Daddy was a sharecropper! There is more to knowing how to do it than which end of the hoe to use or which seed to plant. It takes a certain degree of business savvy and hometown politicking to pull off an economy like that, but it can be done and has been done for centuries. Thing is, we ain’t got much of a choice of folks to hire as field hands and this bunch of survivors we got ain’t getting any younger or more fit by the minute these days.” Sloan said of the shortage of able-bodied men and women who were used to the rigors of that hard life even when it was the best of times.
“I don’t envy you that chore. You could do something like a community garden but that won’t grow enough to feed everyone and these folks don’t look like they could grow blisters faster than they could food for a couple months until you started to get something to eat. I was considering giving it a go over here also particularly if you found some livestock besides goats but I want my own roof over my head.” Zack replied.
“I am thinking the same thing! I always sort of planned on trying to survive on my own land if some bad crap went down but listening to you all the last few days got me to thinking just surviving a few months ain’t going to get it. There has got to be a bowl of porridge at the end of the rainbow even if it ain’t nothing but millet mush and sorghum syrup after we use up that last chicken or can of food we got.” Mack said meaning if they could work out the housing arrangements he might consider coming back over here with a promise of a job and food for his family.
The group cut their conversation short as Rod and Franklin came over to meet them half way.
“Well we are back; we are starting to hear some chatter on the radio but evidently there is still a geomagnetic storm of some kind disturbing most transmissions. Funny thing is if you got an old land line phone like I got you can pick it up and hear the emergency broadcast system. Seems we are having major earth changes occurring that may or may not indicate a pole shift. A coronal mass ejection rocked the earth a day or two ago and continues to influence our magnetosphere. That’s pretty much the short version of what we know going on nationwide, as for local news most of our National Guard is out on tour of duty and those that were left sort of got left on their own awaiting orders. The police are mostly just trying to keep the pawn shops and drug stores from being looted and ain’t responding to calls. Stores are all shutdown and they got curfew but nobody is paying much attention to it. Not much to know about the roads except they are a mess but
no huge earthquake rents or anything until you get up around the Georgia border. Mobile flooded though just like they had storm surge from the hurricane but roads are open and no evacuation has been called. That’s the good news.” Rod said.
“So, you thinking since the coastline got spared, we should be ok on the island up here also? “Sloan asked.
“Well your guess is as good as mine but I am hoping so. Bobby is saying in his opinion the water is going down faster than usual so you can get a lot more people out of here that are eating up your supplies.” Franklin said.