by Ron Foster
I certainly don’t want to risk the bypass exit. There are hotels on both sides of it and I bet they are going to be filled with stranded people and possibly a police presence. Montgomery has a bunch of cops and I would not put it past them to organize a receiving station or something.
Humm, if I was a cop in Montgomery and I broke down on the bypass, what would I do? I pondered while dodging disabled vehicles and feeling a bit lightheaded. Most of them would know what EMP was and many would just head for home to protect their families or a few might try for the supermarkets expecting trouble, but wanting supplies.
They got a bunch of bicycle cops in the city and some kind of response might have been organized by now, but what could they really do? I do not want my tractor commandeered by some cop that thinks he needs it more than me, so I guess I had better go in the back way to be safe.
Then, which direction should I go; I was thinking and mentally mapping out bad neighborhoods or possible traffic choke points etc. as I headed further down the road.
I see up ahead a few small groups of people heading towards Montgomery who are looking back at me evidently hearing me approach. I guess I am going to play shuttle service to town now, if they want to come in from the east instead of the center.
I slowed the tractor and asked a group of 5 people if they wanted to go to Eastdale Mall and they all enthusiastically agreed and climbed onto my trailer. I picked up 3 more a little further down the road and everyone looked bone weary and dirty. I wonder how many of these people knew each other or were together before they broke down in mass and left on the road. These particular folks must have been around 50 miles out to be still wandering in to town.
I made my turn and proceeded a few more miles before one of them hollered for me to stop, and with wave they continued on, grateful for the few miles I had saved them. I looked ahead on the road and there was no way I was going to make it much further pulling this trailer.
Traffic and wrecks were littering the road and as far as I could see were disabled cars and trucks that wouldn’t be moved for a long time to come. I zipped around some parking lots and got everybody as close as I could before dropping the trailer and making a convoluted path around traffic by riding medians and ditches and even had to turn around once or twice.
I finally shortcut through a neighborhood and even went through somebody’s backyard to get back on the road that would lead me to my first stop.
I was going to see Sherry and although we did not date anymore, we were very close friends. During the four years we dated, as well as afterwards, we had amassed preparations for almost every contingency and had a pact with each other to get through times like these.
I sure hope she was safe and had been close to home when the EMP hit. She always had her 72-hour kit in her car, so unless she had gone out of town for some unforeseen reason, she should be fine. One of her sisters lived close by to her, so I bet she was with her at the house. I am glad we were able to prep some for her also over the years, as Sandra didn’t believe in putting back much more than you would in getting ready for hurricane season.
Damn, that food store must have caught hell. I thought as I looked at overturned buggies littering the parking lot and a busted front glass door. I guess the shit has already started in some places here. As I was traveling, I saw many what I supposed were neighbors out talking to each other in the streets.
I knew all about how disasters will bring people together for the common good short term, but I had little academic knowledge about how they were going to act long term with the necessities of life getting in shorter supply daily.
I could only imagine how those neighbors would be acting in the coming weeks. Most people live paycheck to paycheck and rarely even have two weeks worth of food in the house and maybe a few days worth of water if they had any at all. Water, geez, I wonder if the water would be still on. Natural Gas, I know would probably stay on for a while; I had no idea if the water company had any contingencies except for generators that may or may not be hardened.
There are no governmental rules to force them to do anything and if the company had not made an investment, we were in deep doodoo. There are no mandatory procedures or required emergency actions that require them to do anything, although they have known the threats for years.
NASA's "Solar Shield" satellite-based detection system at the Goddard Space Flight Center monitors coronal mass ejections. The U.S. grid currently relies for its defense on warnings from NASA that would alert U.S. utilities to take actions to protect their systems, but they would only have a few hours advance notice.
The stockpile of spare transformers would fall far short of replacement needs. Urban centers across the continent would be without power for many months or even years, until new transformers could be manufactured and delivered from Asia. The transformers are not made in the United States so no telling if or when we might possibly get a shipment.
I just do not know at this point, until I start sifting through some news, how bad off we are. I considered as I abruptly swerved to avoid some people that did not have sense enough to not stand in the road. Damn people, though, are going to be their own worst enemies and I bet we already have catastrophic casualties.
The hospitals probably filled the morgues over night, as back up generators started running out of fuel, unless someone had the initiative and the equipment to siphon diesel out of some trucks.
I had better watch my ass out here as most people by now have figured out they could pretty much do what they want without worry about the law. I had better be sure to let Sherry know it’s me beating on the door or I might be looking at a 12 gauge or 9mm carbine, as a welcome home.
That neighborhood she is in is a strange one; you got professionals up and down the block and a few streets over various kinds of riff raff. On Fourth of July or New Year’s, it sounds like a war zone with fools shooting off all sorts of weapons, I can only hope they are short on ammo about now.
I think when I get over to Sherry’s house; I will hide the tractor in the garage and borrow her bike to go check on my Mother.
My Mom, she has to be freaking by now. She will be worried about me in Atlanta, as well as my brother in Texas. Not so much Bob, she knows he has been prepping for years the same as me and he is the one with his bigger salary that stockpiled some of her house. She wouldn’t allow the level of stuff we wanted in the house, didn’t see the need, but she did get on the bandwagon enough to bring in about a month and a half worth of supplies and various survival tools.
I got a bunch of stuff stashed in my closet and the majority of my guns there. I have sufficient ammo too, but not all. I got to thinking once again of my treasure trove of preps over at my storage building.
I got a good assortment of essentials over at Sherry’s, I started thinking. Thank the Lord, she allowed me to stage some supplies over there that my dear old Mom would not allow me to, not seeing the expense or need, as well as her tenacious need for everything to be picture perfect in a room.
I do not have any pressing need to get to my storage building and I considered just leave it as it sits. The laws of natural selection will be taking over soon and in a month or two I will have less or greatly weakened folks to deal with.
On the other hand, though, if the State does organize some sort of response, it is going to be hard to get to with any kind of curfew in place. Damn, David I said fussing at myself, if anyone should know what they are going to do, you should, but all your degrees and licenses don’t mean shit when you know they going to fly by the seat of their pants, even if they do manage to make an effort and organize something. Martial law will be a given, because of the stupid Patriot Act, but who will enforce it? No, it is going to be dog eat dog for awhile until humanity emerges again and civilization reforms itself just like it always historically does. What that will be only time will tell I guess.
No sense dwelling on it I guess until you get your facts I mused. The main thing is water, is it on or off
. I was halfway tempted to pull the tractor over and try somebody’s faucet on the side of their house the question was nagging at me so much.
I had less than 15 gallons at my Mom’s. Sherry was ok, her neighbor Helga next door had a pool and between filtration devices and all the knowledge, she accumulated off me for years there was no problem there, except for our garden in her backyard and these series of droughts we had over the years were going to be taking a toll on my efforts to permaculture.
Sherry’s backyard garden with 20 raised beds was a valuable commodity now and I had heirloom seeds in sealed cans to keep it going for some time to come. That was a funny thing about us, we always bought stuff in twos knowing that someday my job would take me away from her and we would separate as equals on the preps.
I supplied the larger portion of our food and safety insurance by using my school refund checks from studying emergency management and she allowed me to do this by paying for her house and helping me when I got low on daily living expenses. Looking back on all the arguments, we had on this odd couple arrangement we were both more than satisfied by the final outcome with a safety net or savings account we could have never produced alone.
The majority of the food had 25-30 yr shelf life and we were in our fifties so what would a can of Mountain House be worth in 20yrs if we needed it? Double, triple, quadruple the prices we paid? I already have seen the price of the stuff go up 35% since we started collecting it.
NASA said 2012 to 2014 for the Solar Storm to hit; various others prophesy for thousands of years said 2012 watch out. I saw economic collapse as a possibility or pandemic as not a possibility but a probability of happening and we decided to be as prepared as we could through part hobby, part necessity.
That reminds me, Sherry’s old somewhat anti prepper friend Betsy will be finding her way to Sherry. There was no way in the world to hide our ever-mounting pile of goods and survival equipment from her, but it eventually just became a David and Sherry thing that was no longer talked about like a friend that had eccentric hobbies.
Well, I knew this day would come, I sighed to myself. Sherry and I were going to stop our constant monthly expenditures after the shear bulk of supplies reached a year apiece, but our Prepper hearts knew we must share and therefore just kept adding on in order to be not caught short when sharing with those that had not taken our path towards preparedness.
Now this day was upon us and we had what we had to ameliorate some misery with no re-supply in sight. I remember how many times I thought, probably wrongfully on the credit card scale, do I need anything else, will my shipment get in on time, etc.
Well, if I do not have what I need now, chances are I cannot find it again. I resolutely assured myself that I had taken prior proper actions.
23
The Arrival
Ok, final turn coming up, not a whole lot I can do about my appearance, but I start fiddling with my hair and trying to get the sweat off my face anyway before I turn in her driveway and zip around her car to get it ready to go in the garage. I smell wood smoke I am thinking, as my favorite cat dog appears to great me. Sally Cat always runs to say ‘hi’ to me and sounds like she is saying ‘Davie! Davie!’ In her meow meow voice.
We call her a cat dog because she has dog like tendencies and follows me around like a pup if I am in the area.
“Hello, Sally Cat, where is mamma?” I say as the back gate opens and Sherry and I rush to great each other.
“David, you’re safe!” Sherry says hugging me and flinching at my whiskered face, as I nuzzle her back.
“Hey, Betsy. Sandra.” I say over Sherry’s back at the two faces appearing around the entrance to the gate and looking startled at my odd entrance on a tractor, but nonetheless looking pleased.
“Hi.” the two chorus and step out as I put my arm around Sherry and escort her back towards them.
“What’s for dinner and who has a beer?” I said to an immediate response of laughter and giggles
“Where did you get the tractor, Dave?” Betsy said sort of beyond herself with my strange arrival.
“That is a story unto its own, I take it we lack alcohol?” I said to my familiar tribe of friendly faces.
“Not a drop, we went through it almost day one.” Sherry said dejectedly.
“I got a half gallon of George Dickel that a man named Donnie donated to the cause in that tool box on the side of the tractor...” I barely got out before volunteers a plenty started to go retrieve it and Helga came out of her house to see what the commotion was all about.
“David, welcome home! She boisterously said.
“Good to see you! You want to join us?” I offered following Sherry and a bottle I did not want to lose sight of.
“Maybe later.” she called back and returned to her own home.
“We got water?” I said immediately reaching for the tap once inside the kitchen.
“Don’t try to drink that!” came the admonishments from the girls and horrified looks from all around.
“We got boil water warnings David,” Sherry said heading towards a 5-gallon bottle and a Harbor Freight pump set up.
“We heard it on the radio but there is an Army truck that comes by broadcasting it to” Sandra pointed out.
“That little crank EPSON is receiving then?” I directed my question towards Sherry
“See, darling, I do listen, it was in the steel file cabinet and works fine.” she said looking pleased with herself.
“I noticed the guns, you just prepared or having problems,” I said inquiringly.
“Well, you occasionally hear someone shooting one off, but I locked and loaded every one in the house as soon as I managed to get home, just like you said to do if this ever happened David.” Sherry said confident of her leadership role.
“Were you at work when it happened?” I asked Sherry
“No, Betsy and I were working on our side entrepreneurial business and got caught totally unaware.” she began before Betsy interjected her comments.
“Sherry made me lug that 2 quart canteen FULL of water all the way over here, even after I showed her the taps still worked.” She pouted
“I already told you why you had to.” Sherry began before Betsy cut her off.
“But, I had my clothes bag with me, too, and that canteen is heavy.” She said indignantly.
“Coffins are heavier.” I began but let the subject drop picking up a clue to do so from Sandra.
“This stove thingy you bought Sherry works real good.” She said motioning towards a Stove Tec rocket stove.
“Does that water pasteurizer kettle thing work good, too? Sherry got me one off the same web site also, that funnel shaped water jacket inside of it is supposed to make it very efficient.” I responded looking at what looked like a giant stainless steel two-gallon teakettle.
“I can’t imagine being without it, it seems to be heating water for something all day.” she said in her best ‘told you so’ voice.
“I can certainly see its uses.” I conceded and thought how nice it was to be back amongst this happily bickering trio.
“David, I biked over to see your Mom yesterday and she is doing fine. “ Sherry told me while placing a hand on my leg briefly and looking at me compassionately.
“Hey, I really appreciate you doing that, it means a lot to me.” I said thankfully and reached for the drink Betsy was handing me.
“I am really glad you spent the extra money and got the wood/charcoal model of that stove, Dave. We cook the big meal using charcoal and use the extra burn time to heat water to wash the dishes in sometimes, but I want to save as much charcoal as we can, and besides with the right wood in it, it makes its own charcoal.” Sherry said gesturing at the various piles of sticks and twigs everyone had collected.
“You all have been busy.” I said admiringly looking at all the efforts that had taken place in the privacy-fenced back yard.
“She has been ordering us around to do some project or another every day. This morni
ng’s project was to take those green tarp like sheets out of those British personal protection units you bought a pile of and cover the windows so our lanterns don’t shine out as a beacon to the street thugs.” looking suspiciously on a self approving Sherry. “David, did you really buy sandbags, too? What the hell for?” she said looking at me.
“They go under the windows of this wood frame house if there is a need, but I will talk on that later. Right now I want more news and another drink, does anyone else want one?” I asked while heading towards the backdoor.
Various “I am ok” responses come back and I peeked into the living room to see the latest transformations. Not a whole lot had changed; it was in typical hurricane party configuration with extra bedding for guests and various lanterns or flashlights in handy places.
Hey, I get to use a real bathroom! I better check to make sure Sherry didn’t block the pipe with rags through the rotor rooter access in the front of the house, thinking sewage could back up in the sewage system went down before I tried it though.
No garbage bag lining the bowl, must be all right I thought. So nice to have water, any kind of access to water and indoor plumbing I considered finishing up. I walked outside and rejoined the party and for once, my audience was waiting to talk to me instead of me listening to them.
“David, they say they are going to start having food distribution points next week, you think FEMA can take care of this?” Sandra asked and everyone’s gaze turned in my direction.
“That’s not FEMA responding most likely, although it might be.” I considered. “The headquarters for the State National Guard is here in Montgomery and we have that dedicated but pitifully sized 24 man response team stationed here. They will have communications with the Governors office and the Alabama Emergency Management bunker in Clanton but since there is no plan and they got to be super short staffed, its most likely a independent effort from one of the Guard officers.” I said sipping my drink and trying to wrap my head around what really might be going on.