by Ron Foster
“Oh Shit! Game on!” Donald said to himself, not
needing a computer report to read these signs that the grid was going down this minute! First thing to do right now was getting the hell out of dodge and hope no power lines fell burning across the road he was traveling down.” He decided, maneuvering towards the center of the road somewhat.
The little bit of traffic in front of him appeared to not have noticed anything at all. But he knew there would be some knocked out traffic lights up ahead clogging up a major intersection and decided to turn off and try for back beach road even though he wasn’t sure if you could even get to it from where he was at the moment.
“ Damn! Both he and Janice were probably going to have a big laugh at his expense about him racing home like Chicken Little just because he had gotten a little spooked about a normal power outage. However, it also could be that the kind fates had dealt him a good handoff card this time and given him a little mercy in the form of two steps out the door and away from here. He was lucky indeed to be heading out of town at this very moment if it was indeed necessary to escape some major bullshit coming down the pike if the grid was down because of a CME. Donald then began to think about several different scenarios that just now might be starting play out worldwide. He was very grateful to the powers that be, if this was indeed some kind of lucky chance maybe an edge he now possessed to have got a little forewarning and be out on the road already.
Donald was basically navigating by the seat of the pants haphazardly through unknown neighborhoods and streets in the direction of Back Beach Rd. This road lead to the highway he needed to get homeward bound. He became a bit anxious as he pictured how many stoplights would be blacked out and the number of turns he had to make on the streets ahead. Turning right on Back Beach won’t be nothing, but trying to go left over 4 lanes of traffic onto Hwy 79 would be difficult at best and more than likely impossible. He decided he would just proceed straight if it was too bad and then, if necessary, he could go past it and then make a U turn and come back to make his turn, worse case scenario.
“ Uh oh! This isn’t no dream or normal power outage we are dealing with here now!” Donald said observing several stalled 18-wheelers on Back Beach that most likely had their computer controlled engines fried and wouldn’t be moving anymore. Three damn big rigs like that don’t just breakdown all at once in the same general area, no sir. No way! Mr. Sun is the cause of that little gotcha... Traffic was beginning to snarl up but it was at least moving forward, he mused.
“ Way cool! Looks like two motorcycle cops got it under control and are standing out there directing traffic. That’s right, the police station and Chamber of Commerce is right up from this intersection so they got right on it. Good for them and good for me” Donald related to himself as he zoomed over to the left lane as quick as he could to get in the turn lane.
His truck slowly stopped and started towards the intersection and after he was easing around a semi finally made it to the left turn lane where the cop was directing traffic, about another 5 minute wait he got waved on to make his turn and start cruising for home.
“ Hell yea! Donald thought to himself. “On my way now bud, yea, but which way should I be going here? The next town ahead wasn’t anything to worry about traffic light wise. There was a ton of construction going on though. Most likely all that diesel heavy equipment is still running; also seems like most cars are, too. Hard to say though, he hadn’t observed but a couple vehicles that appeared to have broken down so far. This road rarely gets a semi on it, but if anyone is stopped on portions of the two-lane road ahead, it’s going to be a real booger bear to get around. I got a map in the glove box, but I can’t stop to be reading it now. Somewhere to my right is Highway 231 north and that’s all 4-lane heading north straight to Montgomery area where he needed to be. What the hell, let’s see where this road leads me. I know I will eventually have to run into the highway, so lady luck please stay sticking with me on a little detour.”
There wasn’t any traffic hardly to speak of at all on this county road. Donald was making some good time down the road and contemplating his options pretty leisurely now.
“ I need to pull over here somewhere and check the map. Better yet, stop at a store somewhere and ask directions. I bet 99% of the folks in the US don’t have a clue what just happened yet. That is big time to my advantage right now. I got about $170 hard cash on me and if I can find a grocery store on this road somewhere, I can load up on the way home some stuff soon to be in high demand. Mean time let me pull into this wooden, looks like it’s going to fall down, country store and figure out where the hell I am at.
Donald got out of the car and was greeted by an elderly old man who immediately told him it was cash only because the power was out. Donald said that he understood and only needed a few things and the man welcomed him in. When Donald asked how long the power had been out, the man said it had been a few hours and he was thinking about going home soon and shutting the doors.
Donald looked around the small store and wondered to himself just what he would buy knowing the apocalypse was upon him at present. Oil and transmission fluid for that raggedy truck was one thing!
“Is there a regular grocery store up ahead?” Donald asked the man.
“Yea, there is one in Wausau about 15 miles up the road. Where you headed?” The old shopkeeper inquired.
“Montgomery, Alabama” Donald answered digging in his pockets to pay for the oil. “ Just stay on 77 and you will run into 231 eventually, it twists and turns a bit but just keep following it and you will get there.” the old man said, closing up an old tin cash box and sitting back down on his stool.
Donald got back in his truck and estimated that this little detour was going to cost him only about 40 extra miles max and started thinking about what he was going to be buying if he found a grocery store open.
“ Should have asked that old guy where the seed and feed was also. I guess I can ask up here just as well, whenever I find civilization. Now then, who all knows we are now officially grid down and how extensive is the damage is nationwide. This might just be a localized event like the 1989 solar storm that blacked out Canada's Quebec province for 10 hours, but no, if you think about it, whatever hit the beach was stronger than that one because it took out those 18 wheel tractor-trailer trucks. He had a crank and solar powered radio in the glove box that might have been possibly shielded from EMP effects, but it might not be a good idea to try it at the moment to see if those hardened AM transmitter site signals were getting through from the National Emergency Network. No, definitely do not play with a radio at the moment. Wouldn’t hurt him physically none, but he might be jeopardizing the only form of communication he had by exposing it, if it wasn’t already damaged, to the sun at the moment. Cops in the bigger cities would know a solar storm had taken the power down. There was an emergency law enforcement communication hard-line system that was somewhat shielded from EMP that probably was working. That didn’t do him any good though unless he saw a bunch mobilizing or looking like they were loaded for bear. This was like being in a Twilight Zone episode or something. Not knowing the magnitude of the thing or its effects was messing with his mind. He hoped it was just a localized event but he couldn’t count on that being the case. They got most of their power back on in Canada after 10 hours but this thing had the looks to him of one of those10 year restoration jobs the EMP Commission had speculated on regarding the effects of a massive solar storm. Well, nothing to do at this moment but pretend worse case scenario for now has occurred and carry on as planned. Let’s see, he had been on enough dry run prepping trips to the grocery store to envision what all he should grab and which grocery store isles to start on. He was hesitant to spend any of his cash on bottled water because he didn’t need it himself, but he did think about the many people he might see stranded down the road and mentally committed to buying a case of water so he could share
Damn, I might have a bunch of worries but I know Janice is pr
obably really going through the wringer at the moment. Janice was a dialysis charge nurse and was sure to have at least 9 patients on machines when this crap hit and the power shut down. That meant the staff were trying to manually pump the machines and the damn place didn’t have an emergency generator backup. Just battery operated emergency lights. They are hooked to the main circuitry though. I wonder if they can survive this, being wired like that? Donald mused while looking ahead for the next town to come up.
He pulled the truck into the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly and walked up to the employees standing outside gabbing.
“You open? “ Don questioned tentatively as he approached the small group.
“What cha needing? We don’t have any power you know. So no credit cards.” an old woman stated.
“I got cash and I will be quick. Just some groceries.” Donald responded. “Well, if you had said you needed diapers or feminine products, I was going to let you in, but we’re not set up to sell on the registers when the powers out. Sorry.” The woman said curtly.
“Well thanks anyway.” Donald said and went back to his truck. “ Dang! Should have asked them about another store or where the seed and feed is located.” David thought as he cranked up and then drove to the front of the store to ask for directions out the driver’s side window. They told him the seed and feed was down about 8 blocks and to the right and he left hoping for better luck there in making some purchases. He followed the directions given to him and pulled up in front where two men were sitting on a park bench in front of it.
“Are they open?” Donald asked.
“Yea, I am open. But cash only and no large bills, ok? Powers out.” One of the men responded. “Great, thanks.” Donald said starting to walk by a vegetable plant sales display when he noticed a box full of little yellow chicks and a couple hutches of black and white rabbits. These critters were not on his shopping list but mighty interesting to contemplate at this moment. He hadn’t got around to building a chicken coup yet nor had he considered raising any meat rabbits. He inquired of the pricing on the chicks and rabbits and ended up with 9 chicks, 4 rabbits, a couple sacks of feed for them each and two bags of high protein feed wheat. He loaded up his truck and took off with the rabbits and chicks residing on the backseat in separate crates.
“ This better be the big one or I am going to look dang foolish having gone on the longest false alarm prepper drill bug out ever.” David thought as he mentally wished those chicks would stop peeping so much and that the rabbits would quit jumping around.
Donald had some lumber next to his shed and an old section of garden fence with which he figured he could knock something together if need be for his newly acquired livestock when he got home, but he wasn’t planning on going directly home at the moment. He really needed to get to his Mom’s house and also coordinate with Janice to figure out their next moves. For him the answer was simple. Everybody gather what you can and move in with him in the country. Convincing his mom and Janice to do it now would be the hard part of it. No, he couldn’t see them bugging out for at least two weeks from now unless something like a fire was threatening their homes at the moment. David had guessed the power lines must be made of some fire retardant material because the only fire or smoke he had seen was at juncture points on the telephone poles. He might as well just resign himself to having to bug out of the city sometime in the future because they were going to be stubborn for now about leaving the city. He would stop off at his own house on the way and drop his chickens and rabbits off with Michael and Amy. Donald had asked himself several times if he was he worn out by the end of the world scenarios he was constantly considering before this trip, now it looked like the fun was just getting started. Even if thinking about that doomer crap all the time did make him a bit batty, it was paying off now and he relaxed as he had a plan for most things.
11
Motoring The Motor Home Bubba and Kat had awakened early and headed for their next video shoot in Mississippi. The scratchy AM radio in the motorhome before it got out of transmitter range or took a dump, said Arkansas seemed to to be having a series of 7.0 magnitude earthquakes. The only space weather news they gotten in the last 6 hours was that the solar storm was building in strength. They hooked up with Jack, who was their newest real prepper interviewee for the Real Day Prepper Show, around 10:30 this morning and were just starting to shoot when the power suddenly went out. Jack said he had heard off of the Cometwatches YouTube channel that an X2 solar flare was headed our way but nothing else since then. They talked about what the researchers addressing this issue and funded by NASA say that the solar storms that started from March 8 and ended on March 10, 2012 dumped enough energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York for two years. The thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree, it began to glow intensely at infrared wavelengths as the thermostat effect kicked in to the atmosphere. For the three-day period, March 8th through 10th, the news said that the
thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy.
“Any way for us to tell if this power outage we are having was caused by a CME?” Jack asked Bubba. “Sure, just turn on something electronic like this laptop” LowBuck said reaching for his and hitting its ON switch
“See. Nothing, err humm…might be. Maybe something to worry about. Hang on…” Bubba said reaching for his cell phone and popping it open to see if it functioned at all.
“Shit! We are screwed. Got NaDa! Not a damn thing!” Bubba said showing the dark communication device to Cat and Jack and then he looked up at the sky to see if he could observe any phenomenon.
“Ah Man, REALLY?” Jack exclaimed, checking his own cell phone while Cat did the same with hers and then showing each other blank screens...
“Better check on the motor home’s generator, Bubba...” Cat began before both men jumped up and thought screw that and went to see first if their vehicles would start. They both did fire up, thankfully, and the group reassembled after a mild dose of solar storm inspired panic was relieved by the engines functioning properly.
“Are we bugging back or bugging in?” Cat asked hesitantly trying to anticipate either option they were blessed or cursed with.
“You can stay here man!” Jack said a bit too jubilantly because he was thinking about how awesome and useful it would be to have the mighty LowBuckPrepper and his wife Cat the prepper as his post apocalyptic house guests.
“Thanks buddy, hey look, I got to think this thing through for a minute. I will be back in a few.” Bubba said going to his motor home to mix himself a stiff drink.
“I hope y’all stay. That biosphere I built can produce food year round. I know that I am in the suburbs but there is a lot of wildlife around here if you know how to get it.” Jack said as Cat was gathering up the show materials that had just got cut short.
“We will see what Bubba wants to do. Most likely, he will want to bug home as quickly as we can, I am thinking.” Cat replied and then looked over at Bubba coming out of the motor home with a big drink in his hand and walking towards them purposely with something on his mind.
“Jack this is how I see it. I appreciate your offer and kind hospitality but me and cat are about to get the hell out of dodge. I am thinking it’s one hell of a long distance to my bug in location and I would go there now, regardless, but Arkansas is having earthquakes and this shit happening at the same time, so I ain`t going to be crossing that state for a while until the dust settles. Donald’s place is only 5 hours away and we were going to go in that direction anyways. I think I will go and bug in with him for a month or two as I review my options.” Bubba said giving Cat a hug and Harley a pat...
“I hope you all don’t play hell getting there, you know all the street stop lights are out from here to there and traffic will be horrendous.” Jack said disappointedly and hoping to dissuade LowBuck from leaving so soon.
“Exactly, that is why I got to go now. The longer I wait though, the harder it will be, I am thinking, to get out of tow
n and onto the highway. You will see more wrecks on the roads leading to highway exits as more people get out in that screwed up traffic to go retrieve friends and family from somewhere. If I drive careful now, there is a good chance I can get on relatively clear interstate and make some distance.” Bubba explained while picking up his now defunct laptop and offering it to Jack with a grin in a “Here you want it?” gesture...
“Oh gee, thanks LowBuck, just what I always
wanted. Now I got me a new paperweight.” Jack said smiling and reaching for the fried laptop as a memento. “Not a problem brother. You take care of yourself man!” Bubba said reaching to shake Jacks’ hand and get on the way.
“You too, buddy! Tell Donald to write down your adventure in one of those crazy post apocalyptic books he writes. I’d like to read about that someday.” Jack said laughing.
“Let’s hope we can!” Jack said, a bit more somber but still smiling all the same. “You ready to Adios, girl?” Bubba said hugging Cat as she walked up beside him and gave him a pat and put her hand on his shoulder.
“As ready as I will ever be!” Cat replied, hugging him back. “Jack, you take care and stay safe. I hope our roads cross again someday.” Cat said and then leaned forward and hugged his shoulder in a farewell gesture.
“Stop by anytime. Bubba, are you going to try and come back this way if you decide to bug home in the future?” Jack said looking at him pleadingly.
“Definitely man, might even be sooner than you think. Anything preps wise you real short of now to put on my list to try to acquire if I can?” Bubba said looking around to be sure he wasn’t leaving anything behind himself he might need later.