When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same

by Xavier Bruehler

  The shaft of the wheel turned several things, a generator shaft so we had power for both cabins and the mill, and the grinding wheels. That required shaping two large stones and mounting them on a shaft connected to the whole thing.

  A potter's workshop was built off the mill with several potter's wheels, driven by a second shaft to throw clay dug from a deposit not far away. A simple wood fired Climbing Kiln, based on ancient Japanese techniques was built into the hillside.

  It was built in steps with the fire at the bottom so that the objects fired on the lowest level were fired the hottest like ceramics and simple pottery was fired in the upper cooler cambers. Additional oxygen was injected into the fire chamber by a bellows turned by the water wheel to get it hot enough to fire ceramics.

  We are all happy in our little haven and hope that the old habits of our pre-quake world don't find their way into ours. We have taken every precaution to ensure that doesn't happen, so far so good.

  Chapter 51: New Orleans

  We never joined the Rocky Mountain Republic and it was a good thing. In their sixth year one of the larger militia groups brought about a coup and took them over. One of their first actions was to go to all the registered settlements and impose their rules on them, fortunately they never found us. The rest of the country is a mixed bag of hope and despair.

  The Northeast Region has held together very well; they still have a working government and have been able to hold their border to the west, but only because of overwhelming force. Philadelphia had been looted but after the post apocalypse zombies had left, the people that had bugged in were able to take it back and restore order. All the Urban Preppers, that people had made fun of, turned out to be right. If they had not built up their own arsenals they could never have retaken the city. Take that gun control nuts.

  The Southeast was a different story. Cuba continued moving north and took over most of Georgia and Alabama before the Northeast Region stopped them. The Midwest is still a very large no man's land. After the Chinese were run out of Chicago that left a huge void that was never filled. The uncontrolled area spanned from Ohio's eastern border region to the east border of the Rocky Mountain Region. After the Rocky Mountain Region fell, the militia was unable to control the east border so fighting rages still today.

  The entire west coast was obliterated, so order was never restored from the Canadian border to Mexico. There were reports that after the dust settled, and the ash washed away, that large areas of the Northwest were repopulated with small pockets of people who moved in to the area. These adventurous few found a lot more of the land was still useable then anyone ever could have thought possible.

  Many of the new settlers lived in downed buildings, sewers, and even in the remains of the aqueduct that used to bring water into southwest California. The area east of the Sierra Nevada's and the Cascades was spared the total destruction of the quake but not the rioting or militia control.

  Montana had always been a hot spot for large militia groups and those groups were able to secure new borders and declare their independence from any other rule. Before the quake a huge number of the population of Montana had belonged to militias. Because of this, the only real fighting in the state was between the various groups. Militia groups fought between each other, and smaller groups fought the bigger ones who wanted control of their territory.

  Texas was doing well. The Republic of Texas expanded into part of the no man's land of the Midwest as well as a small section of New Mexico after the fall of the Rocky Mountain Republic. Texas played a big role in protecting parts of the south and partnered with other states to benefit themselves and those they joined forces with.

  At firstNew Orleans did not fare well after the quake, just like after Katrina gangs took over the city. When the famed hurricane had roared towards the coast, the population had plenty of warning and large numbers had evacuated. New Orleans ended up unprotected and open to gang rule. That was not the case after the quake, instead when the rioting began people took shelter and bugged in to wait out the chaos.

  When the gangs started to go house to house trying to get whatever they could they found people waiting for them. These people were armed to the teeth and ready to take back control of New Orleans. Bit by bit sections of the city were retaken from the gangs. Gang members that fought back were killed, and their bodies were hung from bridges to show other gang members what was coming.

  Eventually it was the harshness of winter, no electricity, and no heat that broke the hold the gangs had on the New Orleans. By the first spring after the quake, New Orleans was back in the hands of its citizens. But unfortunately they still had no power, gas, or any means of doing anything to rebuild.

  The newly elected leaders of New Orleans heard Texas had declared their independence and that Texas was making trade agreements with their neighbors. Up until that point Texas would not have even considered talking with New Orleans about any kind of deal, due to their state of affairs. But the recovery of New Orleans not only opened the doors to negotiations with the Texans, it also showed what could be done, and several other cities in Louisiana were bolstered by their example.

  Pearl River, Slidel, and several other smaller cities joined forces. The people of these small communities were hell bent on taking their cities back and keeping the gangs out. They barricaded roads and put up signs saying looters would be killed on site.

  With gangs under control, the leaders of the lower Louisiana Coalition were able to offer Texas access to the Gulf ports and unmolested access to the Mississippi. They were also able to offer seafood and other commodities to trade for power and fuel. The bond between Louisiana and Texas was strong enough that many citizens of Louisiana were offered jobs in the Texas Defense Forces, where they were deployed to protect Texas's assets.

  The arrangement between Louisiana and Texas worked well for all. Louisianans were able to stay close to home and defend their own homes and land and Texas did not have to send their citizens to man remote areas. The people of southern Louisiana were especially grateful as they had work that was close and that allowed them to provide for their families'.

  As New Orleans fought back gang violence, and worked at providing for the needs of their citizens, they also had to deal with Mother Nature. Early in the first spring after the quake, several storms slammed the coast and almost overwhelmed the levees. In the past, the Army Corp of Engineers would have worked to keep the floodwaters out of the city, but without their assistance, areas of the city had flooded again. While the floods were not nearly as bad as those experienced after Katrina, city officials knew it was only a matter of time before another storm would come along and cause more damage.

  With that in mind, the leaders of the city came up with a radical idea. Instead of fighting nature and trying to keep out the water, they decided they would allow the city to flood. But they were going to take steps to deal with the flooding BEFORE the water began rushing through the streets. Planners looked at the many buildings, which had been looted and destroyed. They decided that rather than trying to rebuild the structures they would instead repurpose the materials to further their new proposal.

  Materials salvaged, from buildings lost, would be used to reinforce the ground level of still valuable buildings expected to be flooded. Places, where erosion would wash away the base of a building or destroy the foundation, were covered with the rubble from the destroyed buildings. The extra reinforcement was further enhanced, whenever possible, with concrete foundations. The plan was to ensure that the buildings would have a solid foundation even under water.

  Reuse was a key component of the plan. Instead of making more concrete from quarries, blocks of concrete were broken up and remixed into new concrete. Any building that could not be made safe was dismantled and used to make something new.

  After the city had removed unsafe buildings and reinforced those that they could, they began working on a walkway system. To avoid having people walk at ground level, bridges were built between
buildings. The bridges connected on the second floors and were built as arches for strength and to allow travel underneath them.

  The plan to dismantled unsafe buildings, and to reinforce or create new, stretched beyond the core of the city and branched out to the French Quarter and other neighborhoods as well. Entire neighborhoods were rebuilt using repurposed material, and a new way of thinking. Rather than asking for trouble by building houses on stilts, the approach was to build houses that would float when the water started to become a problem.

  Using GIS disaster planning software, planners were able to predict flooding. The data allowed them to map out where the water would be an issue and provided information on the best places to construct new roads and bridges that would ensure ease of transit. Additionally, areas expected to be covered with deep floodwaters, were circled with huge piles of concrete, which were designed to create a fish habitat. When flooded, fish from the Mississippi would migrate to the area and thrive in the habitats.

  As construction continued, all gasoline storage tanks were removed from the ground. When possible the tanks were relocated, but the requirement was to prevent any fuel from leaking in to the water. The city learned from past mistakes and attempted to protect the environment from future contamination. For those areas already damaged by fuel leaks, the city covered the ground with layers of clay in order to create a barrier, and then added concrete rubble on top of the clay.

  It took almost five years to change the face of the city. When all the buildings were built and reinforced, the walkways were completed, and the area was deemed ready, officials then slowly began to allow the water to flood the city of New Orleans. The process was slow in order to make sure nothing was missed. People all over the city and suburbs watched to ensure there would be no surprises and problems were dealt with before the water flow was allowed to continue.

  After several weeks of slowly raising the water level, it eventually matched that of the Mississippi River. The process forever changed the landscape; the city of New Orleans would never look the same again, and the French Quarters was saved and ready for their new lease on life. New Orleans became the Venus of the south and everyone applauded parade floats, which became boats that really were floats.

  Not only was New Orleans the showcase of the south, it also provided lessons on how a society that pulls together can succeed. Because of their deal with Texas the city had all the fuel they needed. The fuel had been used to run the heavy equipment needed for all the dismantling as well as for the new construction. And as the city began to take shape, everyone that wanted to live there was given a home with electricity and water. Food was distributed at work sites, so everyone had all their needs met in return for the work they did to rebuild their city.

  No one got rich on the backs of the workers. Every able body was put to work, if they were not involved in the building they provided other services needed like childcare, and sorting and distributing supplies as needed. If someone didn't work, they had to leave. That kind of incentive kept people motivated to work. More importantly most of them loved their city and wanted it to thrive.

  As New Orleans rebuilt, the mobs in the north continued to leave the region alone because The Texas Republic was protecting it, in order to have use of its ports. The Republic of Texas had made a treaty with Cuba to stay out of Louisiana and any other area of its interests. They also made a trade agreement with Cuba for more of its commodities.

  As time went on Texas was shaping into a leader in the country but did not want the responsibility of areas that were still in chaos. The bad part is that even now, ten years later, there is still no single stable government to control order. You never really know when, or if, some rogue Navy Ship Captain will fire another weapon at someone.

  Chapter 52: The World

  Most of the Northern Hemisphere was not much better off. Europe had no central government and chaos still ruled huge areas of the continent. Most of the small isolated little hamlets faired okay because they did not rely on the insane trade infrastructure that led to an inability to provide food for more than three days, which was a major problem in the United States.

  How Asia faired depended on which part you were in. After Texas and Canada beat the Chinese in Milwaukee, and after Beijing was nuked, China fell. With the fall of the Chinese government, maintenance on the Three Gorge Dam ended and left it susceptible to the ravages of nature. Several years ago something snapped in the climate and storms became much more violent. A group of massive storms converged over the headwaters above the dam. With no maintenance, and a massive amount of water entering it, the dam could not hold back the water.

  The dam failed and flooded every mile of the Yangtze all the way to the China Sea. Oddly enough the failure of the dam was a good thing for anyone that survived. The flood washed away or covered all the industrial plants, and all their waste, and left a new fertile plain perfect for farming. And because the Chinese population had dropped below a hundred million, it became much easier for them to feed themselves.

  Australia was one of the few countries that never lost control of their people. They were smart and stayed out of all the chaos and kept to themselves. However, they too had to change the way they provided for themselves. With little to no imports coming in they had to redefine the way they lived. They were also lucky that the changes due to climate change brought more rain to their desert and started to provide more farmland for them.

  All the governments of South America fell and many died in fighting, but when all the dust settled most of the people that survived fared very well. Unlike the U.S. the vast majority of their population were subsistence farmers who were able to provide for their families, so they never went as nuts as their North America counterparts.

  Oddly enough Vancouver B.C. was mostly abandoned but it didn't stay that way. It is now inhabited by wild animals and many resourceful people who survived the mayhem and prospered by taking only what was needed from their environment. Many live quite comfortably in the ruins of the city, amazed sometimes at what they find.

  In the end almost six billion people died. After the initial loss of life to the quake, many more lives were lost to mass killings, famine, and disease. Even with that many dead there are still too many people living on the planet, but at least it has a chance to repair itself. Oil no longer rules the world as people found new ways to live and get around after the supply was cut cold turkey.

  Even though some areas were able to restore power, it is not as reliable as it was before. With the world population so much smaller it stands a chance of repairing the scars that us humans have inflicted on it. It still amazes me that so many cannot believe that we had affected the planet on such a large scale, probably the ones that raped it in the first place.

  Chapter 53: What's Next

  Life has been good to us here in Little Haven. Even after ten years we have had very little crime, and have not lost a soul in five years. Our population has grown a bit more than any of us ever thought it would, but as word of our village spread so did the number of people that wanted to live here. I was not surprised by how many changed their minds when they learned they had to carry their weight but we didn't want them anyway.

  Fred is happy in his retirement sitting on his dock fishing with his dog next to him. He and I go there almost every day to enjoy a pipe and not catch fish, catching them is too much work so we never bait the hook, but I hope Ann never finds that out.

  We lost George the cook a few years back; we think it was his heart. The rest of us original eight have all settled in and love life. Living deep in the wilderness has been the best thing in our lives. Now as we sit around the fire we look back at the last ten years and I'm content to live out the rest of my life right here. I have no desire to go out into the hell that still boils so long after the quake. I have made some incredible friends here and know that things can only get better.

  We have been able to keep the location of our village mostly secret and hope that never
changes, but we are ready either way. We have rigged multiple layers of booby traps all the way down the valley to the big waterfalls just in case someone decides to venture up even further than before. We have our own military helicopter with twin .50 cal machine guns and a very large arsenal, but we hope we never have to use any of it.

  No one in Little Haven lacks for anything, we all have all the food we need, we have many of the best parts of the twenty-first century and have cast off all the crap that supposedly made our lives better. We have built a community that is as close to a utopia as we could ask for.

  We do still head out into the rest of the world but only on a limited basis. A couple of years back we saw the first of only a few flights over our heads. We figured they must be pilots with their own plane and airfield. Every now and then we hear something on the radio, mostly ham operators talking between each other. Generally, what we've heard are reports of more violence and death and destruction. Because of that we have maintained radio silence and won't change that until we think it is safe to come alive.

  Sandy gave us twins, a girl and a boy. Tammy only wanted one and gave birth to a boy a week after Sandy's twins. The three of them have grown up as best friends and time will tell what is ahead for them.

  In all dozens of babies were born over the years, which has insured a generation will grow up not ever knowing the horrors of our past except what we teach them in school. After the third year a nice one-room schoolhouse was built that needed an addition added on only a few years later.