by Ira Tabankin
Major General Smith, the head of logistics asks, “General, I don’t want to broach the subject, but I feel I have to. Sir, have you considered removing the CIC from office?”
The room and conference call falls silent. General Smith breached the one subject that was on everyone’s mind, yet no-one wanted to mention. General Dunford replies, “General, I know this question is on everyone’s mind. I’ve fought with myself on the issue. We’ve all been in countries where the military took over the government, we’ve seen what happens, we’ve all seen the damage left behind when the elected governments have been overthrown. I don’t think the American people will stand for a military coup. I think the economy is on the edge of a large cliff. The economy can’t be saved, it's going to tip over very soon when it does we’ll be needed to help our people put the country back together. I’ve spoken to the other Joint Chiefs, all are going to tender their resignation tomorrow. We’ve ordered a complete withdrawal of all of our combined people from every international OA. The recall orders will be issued in 55 minutes. We’re bringing everyone home. We’re going to release any who want to go with their personal weapons. A very well-armed militia is being formed whether the President likes it or not.”
General Black asks, “General, we’re just going to leave?”
“Yes, the President wants the budget cut, he’ll get what he wants and the repercussions will be on his head. I suggest we plan to connect every Friday at 0900 which should allow those on the west coast enough time to get up and have their first cup of joe.”
All agree and the recall orders are issued to America’s troops around the world. Most are confused but obey. The world wakes to video of American troops leaving their international bases. The news is being watched in Moscow where the senior staff is horrified to see thousands walking off of military bases carrying their weapons and driving armored vehicles home. They know these armed soldiers and Marines are going to be a major problem when the time comes for the Russians to land on American soil.
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Tony and Nancy arrive at our house at 3:30, “Tony, you’re early.”
“No one’s on the road, the price of gas has stopped almost everyone from driving. I saw stations posting new prices on the way over, three stations posted a price of $30.00 a gallon, and signs saying, cash only, no credit. With the dollar crisis we can’t import oil, we’re not drilling a lot here at home due to the President’s executive orders. We’re running out of oil which is driving the price per gallon up. Station owners are raising the price and will continue to do so as long as they have gas and people will pay them for it.”
“That’ll be another nail in the economy’s coffin.”
“You’re right, let me see the shelter.”
We walk to the back of our homes where the large hole in the ground is open, Tony looks down saying, “The foundation looks good. It looks like it’s cured, can I go down and see it?”
“Sure, when is your construction manager arriving?”
“Should be here any minute.”
“Should we wait for him?”
“Good idea. Here he comes now, I see his motorcycle.”
“No pickup truck?”
“Motorcycle uses a lot less gas than a large pickup. Jay, this is Jack O’Sullivan, my construction manager.”
“Jack, a pleasure to meet you.”
Jack is a large Irishman, dark red and gray hair. He looks like a football lineman, 6’7” tall, must weigh close to 275. Jack climbs down the ladder to inspect the Shelter’s foundation. He walks across the entire foundation, looking at the pipes, wiring and metal brackets for the walls and support beams. “This looks very good. Frankly, I’m surprised. I was expecting to have to tear everything up and redo it. Why did you decide to build your own and not order a premade shelter?”
“Jack, none of the premade shelter companies I contacted could deliver a shelter within a year, they were all back ordered. I decided we’d build our own.”
“I’d like to see the latest plans to ensure no one’s made changes from the original ones I reviewed for Tony.”
“Thought you would. Here they are, you can use my dining room table to review them.”
After reviewing the latest plans Jack nods towards Tony saying, “These are good plans, you’ve caught some of the mistakes I was going to point out. I can help accelerate the building. Tony, for the second shelter I’d suggest you contact a couple of your friends, I’m sure one of them can break loose a premade shelter. I don’t think we’re going to be able to locally find the concrete and premade forms to finish a second one in a timely manner, or at all. I think every concrete company in the area has closed. Tony, one out of the box idea I have is, have you considered buying one of the bankrupt concrete plants?”
Tony looked surprised, “OK, give me a couple of company names, I’ll make the calls. Why don’t you locate Franco, who you’ve worked with before to see what support you can give him right away? After all, your family is going to be using one of the shelters if things get out of hand. Jack, while you’re with Franco look at my land to check what you need to install the premade homes, I think we’re going to need at least ten of them very quickly. The homes are in the parking lot at my south street warehouse. I’ll arrange security to move them here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jack leaves to find Franco, “Tony, where the hell did you find ten premade homes to install on your land?”
Laughing, Tony replies, “That is my secret. As are the solar panels for each roof and five additional windmills. I’ve lined up all of the available concrete trucks to start pouring the foundations in five days. Bulldozers are already clearing and leveling the land. Tomorrow a drilling company will dig a few additional wells.”
“I see you don’t let any moss grow under your feet.”
“Jay, we both know time isn’t a resource we have. Give me a minute to make some calls, Jack texted me the list of shelter companies and the name of the law firm to discuss buying the concrete plant. I’m about to steal a shelter out from under some of their existing customers.”
Twenty minutes later, Tony returns to the kitchen, smiling, “Atlas Shelters just agreed to sell us eight 12' X 83’ galvanized corrugated pipe shelters. They will be on the way from Montebello, California in a day after my deposit arrives which should be in three to four days. I have to supply security for the transportation which I’m working on. I’ll hire a team from my counterpart in California, I’ll pay his people and provide them with fuel and food to return home after the delivery is made. Each will have their own generator and air filtration system. We’re going to interconnect them together and them with your shelter. We’ll have our own underground city. Each shelter is going to cost me a little more than three times their normal price. Shelter cost, transport, and a year’s supply of freeze-dried food for forty people is setting me back a nice round $1.5 million for each shelter. I also have to pay double the fuel cost to deliver them and return the trucks to the factory, the fuel cost alone is going to be steep. I’m supposed to overnight prepaid fuel cards so they arrive tomorrow. I have to arrange $5million in gold to arrive before they ship the shelters.”
“Frankly, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”
“The real problem is going to be the install. We’re going to have to dig a hell of a hole. Your neighbors are going to be pissed.”
“How long will it take them to get here?”
“Figure two days for the gold to arrive at the factory, a day to arrange their shipping paperwork and arrange for the in-transit fuel. They think they might have to send a fuel truck along with the shelters. I figure the trip from California to Nashville is going to take them five days, say they will be here ready to install in ten days. Which assumes they don’t run into any attacks on the road here. I’m going to leave Nancy here to have dinner with you and Lacy. I’m going to my office to make the necessary arrangements.”
“Ten days is good, it gives us time to bring in
most of the crop before the holes are dug. Tony, I do need a favor before you leave.”
“What do you need?”
“Can you get the sheriff off my back?”
“That’s a hard one. He has a hard-on for me too. What’s his problem?”
“He wants our crop so he can sell it in the city.”
“That I can stop, I’ll report him for black marketing supplies.”
“Jay, we’ll talk later, I’ve got to leave so I can make arrangements. I’ll be back later to pick up Nancy.”
“See you later, we’ll keep your dinner warm for you.”
Lacy says, “Tony wait, take this.”
“What is it?”
“Fresh sandwich and coffee for your trip.”
“Thanks.”
Five hours later our phone rings, “Jay, Tony. I have a problem. I can’t get out of my office, is it OK if Nancy spends the night at your place?”
“Don’t give it another thought, of course, she can. We have one guest room unused, she and Lacy are close enough in size that I’m sure some of Lacy’s stuff will fit Nancy. I promise you, we’ll take good care of her. What about your kids?”
“I have two people taking care of them, plus they have a full-time nanny who cooks for them.”
“If you want, send them here, just do it. Just give us a heads up so we won’t attack the car bringing them.”
“Thanks my friend, I owe you another one.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Nancy is happy to spend the night and she calls her children to assure them everything is OK.
Tony says he’ll join us for breakfast with Jack and his construction people.
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At dawn, we’re woken by the sound of trucks and the alarm at our gate ringing. Getting up to check the monitor, I’m surprised to see Tony’s black S-class Mercedes in front of a line of trucks at the gate. I hit the button to open the gates. Tony pulls up at our front door while the trucks and construction people continue on to the shelter. Tony and I grab a cup of coffee while walking out back to see forty-five men start working on building our shelter. A flatbed truck brought small cranes which lift the premade walls while Jack’s people bolt them to the mountings embedded in the floor. The walls are going up right in front of our eyes, it’s like watching a fast motion video. People are swarming all over the shelter. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Tony turns to me asking, “Happy?”
“Holy shit, I can’t believe it.”
“Told you I’d bring value.”
“You did that with the small crate that arrived two days ago.”
“Happy you got it without any problems, it’s to your satisfaction?”
“Very much so.”
“I’m not even going to ask where you put them.”
“It’s OK, wasn’t going to tell you.”
We smile at each other as we sip our coffee watching the shelter go up right in front of us.
“Tony, one other small issue we need to discuss, the National Guard was here for our crops if they return…”
“Don’t worry about them. I think I’ve already taken care of them. I’ve spoken to their commander, who you’ll be meeting shortly.”
Chapter 16
With the people and equipment Tony’s supplied, the main shelter is finished in three weeks. Most of the interior furnishings were installed before the roof was installed. Beds, tables, stoves, fridges and freezers and large crates of supplies were lowered into place. Last night we completed the last interior delivery. Many of the interior items have to be installed, but everything is at least inside the shelter. Today we start covering it with the soil that was removed from the hole. Next we’ll plant crops on top of the shelter.
The bad news is Tony’s purchase from Atlas shelters is taking a lot longer to arrive than anyone thought. The shelters weren’t as ready as the factory led Tony to believe and the transport from California wasn’t going smoothly. While the roads weren’t busy due to the cost of fuel, if it hadn’t been for the fuel truck accompanying the tractor trailers they would have run out of fuel a day outside of California. The convoy was attacked three times in transit, Tony’s security people beat the attacks off with the cost of five of his people. Tony wants us to dig the holes to prep for the shelters so they’re ready to install when they arrive. We want to wait until the shelters are here to give us the most time before we have to harvest our early crops. We reached a compromise, we agreed to wait for the shelters to arrive in case not all of them made it. My neighbors are happy with every day delay of the additional shelters, it gives the crops another day to reach maturity. Tony’s worried the shelters won’t arrive at all. He sends another security team out to assist the original team. We later learn if he hadn’t sent the second team, he would have lost his shipment because they were attacked just outside Memphis by a well-organized, heavily armed group. John, Tony’s security chief led the counterattack that broke the attacker’s backs and secured the shelters.
July 8th, 2015 was a dark day for America. The government lied about making reduced welfare and social security payments. In fact, no payments were made at all, leaving over one hundred million people without any funds. Millions took to the streets protesting the lack of payments, they expressed their anger by destroying and burning everything in their path. The mobs are angry with the government, the banks, and every business. They think they’ve been robbed. There’s no logic to the mobs destruction. What little fuel remained at gas stations is set on fire when the pumps are turned on and lit. The explosions destroyed entire city blocks. The riots causes hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. They stripped every food store bare, they flash mobbed restaurants stealing all of their food. Tony lost three people when a violent flash mob attacked his restaurant. The angry mobs in Nashville set the Grande Old Opry on fire, then they blocked the fire department from arriving to put the fire out. Lacy and I watch the smoke cover the southern horizon. Watching the news, we decide the bottom’s dropped quicker than we expected. We’re interrupted by our front gate alarm, we have uninvited visitors. “Shit!”
“Jay, what’s wrong?”
“The army’s back, this time with the sheriff.”
Opening the gate a matte tan colored Humvee and the Sheriff’s car drives up our driveway, parking in front of our house. The Sherriff looks at the back of the house where eight large holes are dug in our fields.
“Sergeant. Sheriff, how nice to see you again.”
The Sherriff shakes his head, “Jay, what bullshit is this? What the hell happened to your fields? Who gave you permission to dig up your food producing land?”
“Sheriff, I’m sorry, I was under the impression I owned the land and I could do with it what I wanted. Did you happen to buy the land from me and forget to hand me a check?”
The Guard Sergeant replies, “Jay, under President’s Obama’s executive order 13891, it's illegal to damage any food producing land. You, sir, are in violation of said order.”
“When did he sign this one? I’ve never received any notice about it. How can I be liable for committing a crime when I’m not aware something is a crime. In fact a minute before he signed this executive order, I owned my land and could do with it as I saw fit. You can’t declare today something illegal which yesterday was legal.”
“I have a copy of the executive order right here.” Handing it to me, the Sergeant says, “You can see right here in black and white, you’re in violation of the executive order.”
“Sergeant, what’s funny is when I went to school and studied civics I learned only Congress can pass laws, the President either signs or vetoes them, he doesn’t make them. His executive orders apply only to his executive branch departments.”
“This is a national emergency. The President has to do everything within his power to save the country. In extraordinary times, extraordinary actions have to be taken. We have a starving country. Fuel is too expensive to transport food across the country so we need every loca
l farm to supply their local areas. You’ve been warned before. You’ve been told you have to turn over your crops for the betterment of the people living in the local area. By destroying your farm land, you have removed tons of food from the people who need it the most. Are you going to tell us why you’ve dug up your farm?”
“I bought a new toy, a metal detector. I got readings in those places, so I bought a backhoe and a steam shovel to find my buried treasure.”