by Ron Foster
Julie more than understood that animals were going to be soon hunted to darn near extinction like David had pointed out history had proven in prior disastrous hard times during the depression. However, she still longed for the missed opportunity to make the kill and fumed over the loss of food she would have been able to provide for them.
David had assured her many times over that by her being patient and not taking that “proving or being helpful shot” was a very wise and good thing she had done. Not insisting on taking that shot was paramount to their survival and that Julie had more than fulfilled her duty to “Prepper Shack” by using good judgment. She still retained some regrets and animosity towards David for not taking her prize, but she understood and was soon over it he thought.
“Hell! I bet David is now going to go give a bit of expert advice to the guy across the street on how to take a deer for the pot and he would probably shoot the one David had told her to let pass. Dang David! No matter how much she understood his reasoning for not shooting that deer she had in her sights it still irked her no end. That big buck had been right there in front of her and it would have been so easy! Humpf! Now after all that David was now asking her advice about giving away some more of their storage food to this couple who would be most likely shooting her deer tomorrow!” Julie fumed trying to evaluate it all.
That for some reason David had some kind of hunters natural innate or odd understanding with the deer was a given. He might not have hunted deer nor had the desire to in years, but he kept good track of the herds around his area. When they first met David had taken great joy in explaining to her how to read the faint tracks on the trails the deer used as they traveled criss-crossing trails on his property. David could tell you by the clock what time you could observe a deer slinking through the forest and pretty much exactly where it would appear on his little spread. He also messed with the deer by occasionally chunking a pine cone at them or something else suitable like a rotten stick if they got too brave or familiar when he was present and they didn’t politely retreat back to the woods after checking him out. He wanted the deer to not get to familiar with humans for their own safety.
It was that testosterone induced “No Worries” attitude of his that caused Julie so much frustration as well as intrigue with him.
A large graceful brown doe that David had shown her a time or two before had been known to be seen standing just outside his garden in midwinter at four in the afternoon as the sun started to go down before he corrected the animal’s s too close for comfort behavior. David had told her on the phone of this magical sighting occurrence more than once. But her not being a country girl and because of David’s penchant for playing jokes, she had never taken his clockwork sightings seriously. That is, until over a couple days he had proved it up to her twice for her own eyes joy and amazement to see this forest creature going about its natural state of affairs like it had its own way of telling time.
David had gestured slowly towards her as he put his finger to his lips to indicate for her to be silent and then showed her out the front door of his house and pointed carefully towards one corner of the fenced enclosure of his little raised bed garden. There it was! Julie thought as she beheld the wild deer’s magnificent beauty and her and David shared a wonderful Mother Nature moment.
“Calm! Be very calm Julie; don’t even think how exciting or lovely the deer is. Watch; just observe this forest being casually. Don’t talk to the deer except with your mind. We see each other and it’s Ok. No harm no ill will by our meeting, but wish with your mind that she leaves us for now. Watch her, your mind moved her and now she is nervous and scared and wants to take the first way out. David had whispered softly.
See the fence? See how it’s bent down in some areas? That’s where a panic exit by another deer had hit it a week earlier. Look now; look at her feeling our intents. A graceful leap and a clearing of the wire and a non destructive understanding of deer nervousness and humans had occurred.
“Hey Lady, by the way I ain`t the only one around here that can piss around fence posts to “Claim” space in the natural world by the way. You got your own plumbing to help out with the task of keeping critters away; yours just don’t aim as well as mine.” David said chuckling and reminding her that pissing around the backyard was not only a convenience but a duty at prepper shack and that lady like ways could be forgotten now as it was important to deter animals from the garden...
“I have been telling you all along Julie why I don’t need 10 ft fences to keep them deer or other critters out. I only need to be actively patrolling around the place more and mark my territory the same as the other animals, or it helps to be around and watching to war on the ones that don’t take the nature’s way of subtle or unsubtle suggestions to avoid an area.” David advised thinking about remedying any animal that tried to snub his claims on who was allowed around his gardens.
“You remember Julie; I showed you that deer scrape the other day in the middle of my orchard where I tried that experiment of raising vegetables out of a hay bale? That bale stayed intact and unmolested all summer and was producing yellow squash well before the drought hit. Then midwinter arrived and that big buck and his harem of does pawed it down ate most all of it in what looked like a feeding frenzy and then he left a big scrape to challenge any other male in the area. I pissed on his scrape and dug in the dirt a bit myself and left the message for him to indicate I claimed it as ‘MINE! No deer allowed this was my scary male human path they were messing with and so they diverted 30 ft away following on new trail but were still regularly using my road crossing. A week later they were back to where I wasn’t following up with “claiming” game and munched my lime tree because the game had now changed in their eyes and noses and I had not been around to mark or tromp up the trails.” David said flustered his analogy didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
“Well if I had of shot that deer those neighbors wouldn’t be on our door step so soon wanting food and you wouldn’t be asking me what to do with that couple outside” Julie jabbed back at him but then gave him a big hug and wistful eyes to acknowledge his plans might need support and considerations that she had yet to realize and waited on his kind reactions.
“Honey, I can’t say your right or that I am wrong at the moment darling, but it might help us to look a bit crazy when we go out to talk to them.” David declared while fidgeting with the pistol he insisted on strapping on two weeks ago to alleviate his sense of vulnerability or for increased security he didn’t know which.
“I believe you got that line of thinking covered already. You already got that crazy look about you David; lighten up a bit and relax some if you can. I can see your cautions but let’s try not to be looking so fierce today. I will back you up and tell Sally in no uncertain terms they got to talk to you about working some fields and doing some hunting if they expect morsel one from us from now on.” Julie said patting David assuredly who just said “Damn’ and tried not to fidget further with his holster.
“Come on girl we might as well wing this thing and get it over with.” David said after his exclamation and made a point to have his own shotgun in hand for looks sake.
Once outside, David looked over at the couple looking at them google eyed like aggressive lost sheep sitting at his picnic table waiting for the outcome of the mysterious discussion that had went on inside his home. Sally noted the casual way Julie was toting a wicked pistol handled shotgun they had not seen before but things seemed ok as she beamed her normal infectious smile.
“Greetings!! You all doing well?” Julie said giving them brief each one handed hugs while still holding the shotgun as David regarded them with a more reserved standoffish sort of alert scrutiny.
“Hey man David, why all the hardware? Are you that worried about us? I didn’t mean anything by calling you a Doomsday Prepper” Will said eying all the guns and he hoped Julies friendly greeting might have some influence on David’s suspicious and aggressive nature.
“No
I am not particularly worried about you, we started carrying guns a week ago just as a precaution and you never know when you might see some game. Anyway, I told you Julie and I had to get in agreement on our food stores and this time you’re in luck Willie.” David said as happy as a clam that his one handed grip on his own shotgun made everyone a bit nervous as he looked at their eyes when its barrel accidentally pointed in their direction. He mumbled an apology and adjusted it to point up and down range.
Nobody felt right about this meeting and you could cut the tension in the air with a knife as David and Julie settled down at the table and propped their long guns against it just out of reach of the self-assuming neighbor’s, but still handy enough for themselves to get to.
Both Julie and David wore pistols on their belts that they could also access easily. They seemed very at ease with their surroundings and armaments while David’s “Devil may care” attitude and too familiar handling of his shotgun sort of unnerved the neighboring couple.
“Willard and Sally there is something you need to realize before I give you any more food. We are giving you something to eat don’t worry. This world we find ourselves living in has gotten really mean and really crazy. I mean absolutely topsy turvy evil and maniacal crazy and regardless of what you believe are the causes of this blackout and who were the participants, we live in a world where anything can and will happen. You best be deciding where your best chances of long term survival lay and be working on heading in that direction if you don’t already have the supplies to hang on here and I will tell you why if you will give me a few minutes.” David advised and then looked to the couple for permission to speak further.
“Well we hadn’t considered going anywhere David but I am all ears if you have heard any news or can offer any advice. After all you’re the prepper author! I said that right didn’t I” Will said catching himself after using a term David seemed to scowl about previously.
“Yea I am a prepper author I suppose Will. All the term prepper means is someone who prepares, hell everyone prepares for something, but back to what I wanted to tell you. You remember I said that anything could happen now? Well back in my college days I used to study Emergency Management and terrorism and we looked at all kinds of potential risks or threats. Have either one of you given any thought to the nuclear power plant up the road and what might be going on up there at the moment?” David advised them and answered Julies unsaid question with a dismissive look to tell her not to worry about what he was going to say next.
Sally and Will looked at each other momentarily and then warily asked David if he had heard any news or knew anything about the safety of such Atomic power plants when they were shutdown.
“I haven’t heard anything about that particular plant Will. I can only assume and hope the utility company has shut it down safely and are running emergency generators for core cooling or something. I sure hope they have enough fuel for them damn things to stay running until they get re-supplied.” David advised but didn’t bother to mention the possibility of some of the 440 nuclear power reactors in this country running short of backup generator fuel before the reactors had time to completely and safely undergo an emergency SCRAM shutdown and subsequent cooling. Surely most will successfully shut down – but all of them, too many screwups and operator errors for that. And to maintain cooling? David reminded himself to put batteries in the old Geiger counter he had.
“I know from the radio news that they are having some issues and problems of shutting down a similarly designed plant up in the Midwest, but they say they will have it under control soon. Now let’s think outside the box for a minute everyone.” David said getting ready to lay more doom and gloom on his listeners.
“I told you that right now you need to be thinking that anything could happen and just might happen from now on to make the situation infinitely worse. What if for example, What if those terrorists stepped up there attacks on us and launched a coordinated virus attack on our nuclear power plants. They could you know, they have the capabilities and no qualms about using what’s considered weapons of mass destruction or biological warfare if it increases their own political agenda. It wouldn’t take much toxin to infect a few workers here and there and instead of just causing a power outage we could face multiple nuclear meltdowns... I mean it’s easy to bump into folks at bar or at the beach all the time that say they work for one of the plants. The workers at those plants are freely accessible by anyone once they leave work. Or maybe we should think about the cyber attack we have already experienced, were the Nuclear plants themselves directly or indirectly hacked also? Those plants could now be leaking radiation because of mechanical or technical difficulties that we are unaware of and rather than them being restarted to try to turn the lights back on, we could be dependant on workers scurrying to prevent a major meltdown somewhere. Damn utilities and the government will hush that up long as they can I bet once one starts leaking.” David said watching his audience intently for their reactions.
“Hell David, are you saying that the terrorists are going to be releasing some kind of viruses?” Sally said looking around like she might see a poisonous pink fog shaped like a skull or something drifting their way.
“That’s not what he meant at all Sally. Let me explain it differently. He was saying that the nuclear plant up the road might be having technical problems now that we don’t know yet about it or for that matter, whether or not any plant in the country might be experiencing major difficulties. Nuclear plants are not made to be shutdown and moth balled without a lot of ongoing work and preparation before you hit the switch. What he was saying about the viruses was that whoever attacked us is capable of doing anything and it’s not like waiting for the utility truck after a hurricane to get your lights back on. I think the gist what David was talking about is to expect more attacks and expect more technological failures to make life a whole lot harder on us all. Am I right David?” Julie asked looking in his direction for affirmation.
“Yea something like that Julie, but the point I am trying to get across is we got to hope for the best, but expect the worst to happen and plan accordingly. You know Sally; you might want to think about this for a moment. Let me ask you a question. What do most people do when they are at home and the power goes out?... They wait. They wait for the government or state to send help and they wait for the power to come back on. Just sit and wait” ” David said letting the notion sink in that a lot folks were still waiting for the Cavalry to arrive and would keep on waiting around for the government to come rescue them.
“What I am saying to you and Mr. Will here is that the two of you, or should I say the 3 of you counting your Grandpa need to start making your plans and prepare for yourselves before the rest of the folks stop waiting on the lights to come back on and eventually start thinking for themselves to go after the same resources you need now for your own survival. Get a jump or head start on the competition if you know what I mean. Anyway, back to the actual situation we have at hand. Those cities which are still operating with electricity out in the Midwest might just be living on borrowed time. I mean there is no guarantee they will remain unscathed and unmolested by who ever attacked us. The power could go out for them also after a progression of cascading electrical events just like it has every other time we have had a major blackout in the U.S. or Canada. The grid system is an antiquated, bulky and weak linked thing. Dosent takes much to throw things out of sync. Think about also when this food shortage we are in worsens because farmers can’t get fuel for their tractors or they don’t have electricity to power their water pumps for irrigation in order to grow crops? If you can’t get the crops out of the fields or ship what ever excess there is that might somehow be grown depending on the rain this summer to a distribution point we got more problems. Lots of things will cause no aid to be coming. No aid to be coming ever for that matter. From fuel shortages, crop failure, disease etc. we must consider that we might also no longer have anyone who can work at the power plants, d
rive the trucks etc. for the same reasons. I could go on and on but I am not here to try and scare or worry you more than I already have. What I am saying to you is that you best be thinking quickly and hard about how and where you’re going to be trying to live out your days, because chances are that whether power stays out for 6 months, a year or 2 years you need to deal with your food requirements for the foreseeable future now.. I don’t have any more groceries to give to anyone and this will pretty much be our last food donation we can give you. I mean that now, this is all there is unless I happen to shoot a deer or something if there is any left around here after everyone and their relatives try to do the same thing.” David told them resolutely and watched the warring emotions of astonishment, anger and confusion takeover the couple’s faces as shock and angst set in that David was basically telling them to starve to death or leave the area. But go where?
Will and Sally looked crest fallen for the moment before their southern pride took over and they slowly regained their composure.
“David I am really sorry I even had to ask you for food and I can say for myself and the family that we are very grateful to you even if we haven’t showed it much. Knowing what I know now about our situation and everyone else’s around sort of makes me ashamed that I even had to come over here asking the second time. But that’s the way it is, we really truly need those supplies. We wont bother you no more after this lot, don’t worry about that. You are still going to help us out one more time aren’t you David? I mean think of it as giving us a little food to get by on just for now until we can make us a plan to survive for ourselves I mean. I reckon me and grandpa will be talking pretty deep about moving on somewhere, I don’t know just what he might suggest, I just hope he has got more ideas than me at the moment.” Will said hopeful whatever David was going to give him would last more than a few days while gently reminding David of his feelings about his friendly but aloof relationship with his grandfather.