We come to the more open storage area of the barn. It has been sectioned off. There is a forty foot by twenty foot area that has been walled off and turned in to my carpentry shop, What still works, I wonder? There are no electronics in a table saw or planer. How about my power saws and drills? That can be left for another day, I decide, despite my desire to check things out.
We come to another large sectioned off portion of the barn. It runs perpendicular to the shop area, across the back of the barn. It looks like a normal storage area, with eight foot sliding doors secured by a heavy hasp lock.
"This is our food storage locker. What I am about to show you, you cannot tell anyone else about. Not your kids, not your spouses, no one. If word gets out that there is food stored here, it will bring desperate people here, people willing to kill to feed their families. We want to help as many people as we can, but our best chance to help the most people is for us to survive the short term and become a food producing farm in the long term. We need to help other farmers as well, and we will all need more manual labor, and security to make it all happen. Those people that are willing to help in the long-term goals, we will help through the crisis as best we can. But we cannot make this farm a magnet for scavengers and anarchists.
"Promise me you will tell no one of our food stores." Both nod in agreement. "If your spouses, kids or anyone close asks, tell them we are struggling to get by, but we should make it to spring. God willing, we will make it. God put us all here for a reason. I believe that reason is to stay strong through this crisis, and become a beacon of hope, as our farm grows, as this whole farming community rebounds."
I unlock the hasp, and after a quick look around to make sure we are alone, I slide open the door, and usher my son-in-law and daughter-in-law into the food storage area. After turning on a light, I close and secure the door behind us.
In front of them is what looks to be a huge mish-mash of bins, cases, pallets, sealed buckets, and boxes. Some things are stacked very orderly, others items seem to just be boxes and bins piled up on each other. There are shelves packed full, and areas where boxes are stacked six feet high. One corner is so packed with boxes and crates that many items are inaccessible. They both look at me in surprise, shock, wonder. Questioning looks cross their faces.
"Mark, what are we looking at?" asks Ken. Janie is still staring at the horded food, agape with confusion.
"I'd like to tell you this is a storage sight of a well calculated system to provide food for thirty people for six or twelve months, whatever. No, you are looking at six years of food hoarding, buying things on the internet, stuff brought out by my brothers. Some brought here by Zach. It is a hodgepodge of longterm food. Let me show you around a bit.
"This whole shelf right here, these are prepackaged meals, survival food you hear about on the radio, just add water, and boil and you have a gourmet meal, shelf life of twenty-five years. We tried some, and they're actually pretty good. These stacks here are canned goods, soups, beans, veggies. Stated shelf life is only three years, but so long as the cans aren't damaged, they will last twenty years, too. Over here, in these sealed buckets, rices and beans, no seasoning, just rice and beans. But I have stacks of spices over there." I indicate another shelf. "Their shelf life is only three years, and some of them may have lost some flavor, but they won’t actually have gone bad. We also have lots of fresh spices we grow every year, and many types of peppers, onions and garlic.
"Over there in that corner, that is the stuff that has been here the longest, that’s more prepackaged food and canned goods. That stack of boxes over there, Janie, those are from Zach, those are boxes full of MRE's. I didn’t ask where he got them, he just showed up with a truckload last year, said this would be a good place for them to be stored."
Janie looks at me a bit puzzled. "About a year ago he stacked about that many of those boxes in the basement. 'Just in case we need them' he said."
"What about flour, sugar, salt, coffee?" asks Ken
"Over on that shelf back there is instant coffee, it will last forever, but what is in the pantry is all we have of fresh coffee. There are also tins of sugar back there, and elsewhere. Next spring we'll tap the maples, and boil it down for more sugar and syrup. On the salt side, this is untested, but I figure we can boil rock salt, and then let it recrystalize. That should allow for the impurities to drop out and make it usable. Man has been purifying salt for centuries, so we'll figure it out.
"Flour doesn't store long term, so what's in the pantry is all we have. But wheat stores for years! There's five one-hundred pound sacks of whole grain wheat stored back there in those sacks, and it’s two years old. I don't know how to grind it down to flour, but there is an actual millstone in front of the old farmhouse. We'll have to figure that out, too, but again, man has been doing it for thousands of years, we'll figure it out. There's also sacks of whole kernel corn, too. John brought all that here. It’s supposed to be heirloom seed, not hybrid, so it can be planted and will produce seed."
"So Mark, your warehouse here, how much food do you think you have?" Janie asks.
"No idea." I reply. "It looks like a lot, but I still don’t think it's enough. And the big problem is, I don't know what we have so I don’t know how many people we can feed, and how long we can feed them."
"And that’s part of the reason you're showing us this," says Ken. "You want us to organize and inventory this." He is smiling but shaking his head at the same time.
"Kenny, Kenny, Kenny, right to the point. It's a natural fit for you guys. Janie will be helping with the cooking, and you have that analytical mind of yours, that can sort this all out. Besides, you two got the most mouths to feed. Becca will help, too. She is antsy about knowing who we can help, how many we can bring into our little community."
Janie looks at me quizzically. "Zach brought out all the MRE's? Those stacks of family- sized cans look like his work too, so do a few other items I see around here. He knows all about this store room, doesn't he?" A tear starts to form in the corner of her eye. "That's why he was so insistent on us coming out here, he helped prep this for us!" She begins to cry, tears of sorrow, tears of respect, tears of joy. "He is such a good man," she manages to get out as she gives me a strong and deep hug. She steps back. "You and Becca raised a good man, thank you. Even though he is not here, he is still taking care of us."
"He is a good man, and he loves you and all the kids. Yes, he has seen this room, and all the other preparations. So have John and Paul. But we need to really know what we have. Over the next few weeks, we need to get this organized, and accounted for so we can figure out how many people we can support until next spring. Then we need to figure out how many we can support long term."
"I have to show you one more thing," I say as I lock up the doors, and lead them around the corner. "This may be a bigger problem. We need a way to store food. All those jars of jam we give you at Christmas, they are in short supply, the jars that is. We have a couple dozen cases, but that ain't much. From here on out, all food storage will be in sealed jars cooked off in a pressure cooker. These are going to be in high demand. We have to save every jar and lid like it is a precious commodity."
We head out of the barn, towards the old farmhouse. "You know about our gardens and fruit trees, the berry patches, we will need to nurture those, maybe plant some more fruit trees."
Becca, 30/30 slung over her shoulder, Glock on her hip, comes up from the new house. As she catches up to us she asks, "You showed them our food storage?" She turns to Ken and Janie, "He, we, have been gathering stuff for years, his brothers, too. I'm all for the self sufficient farming stuff, but all that food storage! I have no idea what's in there. And he and his brothers just kept bringing stuff out, saying they got some bargain here or there." She turns to Janie. "And Zach was in on it, too! He brought several truck loads of stuff out here that went into that storage room. I kept shaking my head then. Now I thank God." She grasps my arm gently. "Mark, all that food, it's still good, right,
did everything look good to you?" She says stepping back, addressing us all.
"I'm impressed," states Ken. "I don’t see any reason to question that food." Janie nods in agreement. "But we need an inventory," Ken says. "You're going to help us out with that, Mark says."
Becca gives me the look, then turns back to Ken. "It needs done, and Mr. Organization here will never get it done. Yes, I'll help organize it. Did Mark tell you we tried some of it, the prepackaged meals? It's really good." We banter back and forth, as we head up to the front porch of the old farmhouse.
As we come up to the front porch, Rusty and Blake are arguing over who had the highest level on the Halo video game, before the power went out. Janie quiets them, telling them it does not matter, that they need to concentrate on keeping watch, as they have been asked to do. Linc hollers from inside the house, asks us to come in, and see what he has set up.
Janie settles down on the porch with her boys as Becca, Ken, and I head in to see what Linc is so excited about. Linc has an old twenty-four inch Apple monitor set up on the large coffee table in the living room. He explains to us that he has four cameras working, and displaying on a twenty-inch screen in the new house, and has duplicated that display on this monitor here. He also has the wireless com link set up so whoever is in the farmhouse can ask for the picture displayed to be switched by whoever may be monitoring the screen in the new house. His wife is down there now, watching the kids. He runs us through a demo of moving from camera to camera with her running the controls. It is not Fort Knox, but it is impressive. He wants to have Rusty and Blake help him run a line out to the road. He already has everything lined up to do it. I tell him we will keep watch, and to get it done.
I sit back on the couch, looking at the monitor, as it flicks from scene to scene every three seconds. Becca settles in next to me. We see the lower pasture, three steers are grazing, and then it switches to the chicken coop area. Kim is down there with the young kids, feeding the chickens as the kids run about in an impromptu game of tag. The scene changes to a camera pointing from the new house, up past the barn to the old house. We see Linc and his crew heading towards the barn for the wire and tools to run new cameras out to the county road. The scene switches again to the view from the front porch. We see a vacant gravel road heading out past the lilac bushes, and through the fence line, rising between the cornfields, before it trails off to the unseen county road.
Thinking of all the people that have been thrown into chaos, and looking at the peace and security we have here, I am overwhelmed. "Wow, Becca! So much has happened in the past three days. But, look at us, we have the kids and grandkids here, we have found two good people we were able to help, and we have helped the town move towards some kind of stability. All the preparations we have made over the years, they are working. God has truly blessed us."
"He has, Mark, he has. I just pray for Mellonie and Brad. And Zach, too, what is he going through? What do they have him doing? And we don’t know about your family. Do you think they will be able to make it out here? So much has happened, so much has changed. But God put us in a good position, Mark, and I pray that we can follow the path he wants us to follow."
"I worry about all that, too, baby doll. I'm sure that Zach's reserve unit could only put a skeleton crew together. I am not sure what they will be able to do and, more importantly, where their orders will come from. Mellonie and Brad are in a good place. Game is plentiful in those mountains, and they have good neighbors. Paul and John, and their wives, that’s more of a concern to me. How are they going to make it fifty miles from Pittsburgh to here? We talked about it, but no solid plans were made."
I feel my eyelids getting heavy, it's been a long few days. I doze off on the couch, leaving my worries in God's hands. I silently pray that we have been righteous, that we all have done the right thing in his eyes.
Chapter 27 Wagerlys' Compound, September 13, 2018
Frank is not in a good mood. Things aren't going as planned. It is the third morning after the power went out, and his plans of domination are bogging down. He has a large group, over fifty people now, some camped out in tents, some taking shelter in the run down out buildings. He has been able to feed them, thanks to the tribute he is getting from some local farmers, whose women he has captive. And he has enough booze and drugs to keep his thugs motivated.
But some hard headed vigilantes from the local towns are screwing with his plans. Two of his boys getting killed took a toll on him, and left a gap in dependable leadership. The roadblocks that have been set up are better than he ever thought they would be. Instead of owning the roads, they have to skirt around on the back roads to get anywhere. Even the local farmer boys have set up positions to stop anyone from coming onto their farms. He lost two guys just to get one cow!
It is time to start some extreme violence, he thinks. Time to turn things to the way he thinks things should be run. But he needs information, he needs to know what the locals have set up. He spends the day sending out scout patrols, two trucks with serious fire power, and a couple of bikes as cavalry. They are to run at the roadblocks, see what resistance they face. They are to shoot things up as best they can, put fear into the townsfolk. They are to do the same at the farms, run up and shoot, see what happens, find the weak spots. Any farms that are weak, his guys are to pillage, bring back food and women, booze, if they have it, anything else his guys find as useful. Anything they see on the roads, they are to eye it up before committing to violence. He doesn't want to see losses like happened yesterday. That will be his plan for the day. He smiles at the havoc he is about to unleash.
Chapter 28 Wagerlys' Compound, September 14, 2018
Frank Wagerly is in a much better mood today. He stayed away from the wine, and stuck to the whiskey and beer, no raging hangover. A group from his primary suppliers in Pittsburgh has shown up, increasing the numbers of his small army. There was an incident the night before, when a few of the women they had grabbed revolted. But that had been taken care of. His patrols have brought back food and good information. He knows where there are weak farms. He knows the layout of the town's barricades. And, most importantly, he is finding information on the vigilante who had murdered his sons; a guy named Mark, who has a farm outside Central City.
He is about to reveal his plans to his two remaining sons and some trusted lieutenants when he hears some farm trucks roll up outside. He smiles, thinking he has more recruits. He turns and heads out to see what's up. He walks outside only to see his people scrambling, ducking for cover, grabbing firearms. He looks out the farm road leading to his makeshift roadblock, and sees three unfamiliar trucks. Several armed people exit the trucks, and bear arms in a ready stance. These are not new recruits to his kingdom.
A large man he recognizes as the fire chief from Hooversville steps out, He has a semiautomatic rifle held across his chest. He hollers for Frank to come out, to give himself up, and to stop his ravaging of the countryside. He begins to say something about taking care of everyone there, but his voice is drowned out as Hairy, in a strategic position in the barn loft, unleashes with his 60 cal machine gun. Others in Frank's group start firing, too. Frank yells encouragement to Hairy, and everyone else, to kill the bastards intruding on their property.
The intruders make an attempt to regroup. Their leader is torn up in the initial blast. The first truck in line has been riddled with bullet holes. Quickly, the two trucks behind hit reverse and get out of the fire zone. Fire continues on the retreating trucks until they drop over a rise, and are out of sight. Revving engines can be heard as they try to turn around in the narrow lane and flee the killing zone.
Frank looks up to the hayloft, and receives a thumbs up from his friend, Hairy. Hairy hollers at him, "Ain't no pussy townsfolk gonna mess with us, boss!" Frank waves for Hairy to come down, and they both walk out to survey the carnage. A follower points out the fire chief as the one who killed Frank's nephew. There are three other people dead at the scene. Frank smiles.
"Thi
s will let them know we mean business. You can't roll up on Frank Wagerly and not pay for it." He lets out in a tirade of cuss words about how the towns and farmers will pay. He gathers his men to let them know his plans to start more chaos. They devise a plan on how to deliver a gruesome message to Hooversville.
Frank has more than just a few military grade machine guns, he has lots of stuff that will show the townsfolk and farmers that he means business. He orders two trucks and ten men, along with two bikes as scouts, to go to a local farm. He knows they have pigs. "Kill everyone, bring back some pigs. If they have women, bring them back, too. Let’s have a pig roast!" He shouts. He is met by cheers. He orders people around. "Get a fire pit going, get another keg tapped, let's get a party going here, you sluggards!"
Hairy issues a few more orders, makes sure the 60 cal gets cleaned and oiled, sets up some scouts, and sets a better roadblock. Hairy suppresses his thoughts about Frank. He makes sure the guys he brought in are seeing to getting things more secure.
Chapter 29 Farmstead, Day 4, September 14, 2018
It is quiet. It is dark. I look at my bedside clock, and it is dark, too. My long sleep has not changed anything. I look over at my wife, and thank God for all the blessings in my life. Reality comes rushing in, and I think of the many Bible verses that extol us to praise the Lord, even in our times of trouble. When we are surrounded by a storm, as the apostles were, Jesus walked on water, and calmed the storms, calmed the waters. I think about it a bit, and the storms have been calmed. My children and grandchildren, those that I could help, they are all here with me. We are all safe. We have food, water, and shelter. A storm is raging about us, but here we have a calm in the storm, just as Jesus provided on the Sea of Galilee. I take comfort in that thought as I hear a rooster start to crow.
Righteous Gathering: Book 1 of the Righteous Survival EMP Saga Page 19