by Ron Foster
Cat and Amy were busy gossiping and emptying out the shelves in the refrigerator and freezer while getting to know each other in the kitchen. The conversation at the moment was about how Donald’s previous planning had managed to touch everyone’s lives somewhat and how he seemed to naturally fit into all of this now, where as before he was almost hermit like trying to get things ready himself.
“I got another question for you if you don’t mind.” Michael said, sitting down at the kitchen table with LowBuck as Harley stood in front of him wanting some more attention.
“What’s that? LowBuck asked, smiling as Cat and Amy opened a couple of hot beers and offered the guys one too, if they wanted it.
“Why not!” was the consensus of the two men sitting at the table and each tried to out do each other making the foul hot beer face from the first sip as they resumed their conversation after taking big swigs. “You know Don has a gun safe in here. I am kind of curious if he gave you the combination to it. That’s another thing he said he would share if there was a need. I don’t have a need right now but I might sometime in the future.” Michael said, intimating his relationship with Donald included the honor and trust of gun sharing between old soldiers. “I got the combination for the safe if need be, but I
can’t really see myself lending you a gun until we get to know each other a bit better or some different
circumstances warrant issuing it.” Bubba said, not comfortable at all with the possibility of being asked for the loan of a weapon and one that was not his to boot.
“Like I said, I don’t need anything right this minute. I got an old 20 gauge but I am light on shells. Donald has a shitload of 12 gauge shells but no 20s, I might want to borrow a squirrel or deer rifle sometime in the future, maybe that scoped SKS if need be for two and 4 legged bigger critters if I need to put my war hat on.” He said looking intently at the understanding Bubba facing him.
“What is your lay of the land around here for if there is anyone we should watch a bit closer in the coming days of this little disaster?’ LowBuck said conspiratorially.
“No one in particular comes to my mind at the moment. Oh, we got us a few rowdies and lots of hunters to later contend with on these back roads, but all in all, most folks around here are harmless to everyone but themselves. I am just considering later when the deep Kimchi starts up and we need to pull back our borders and mind our perimeter a bit better.” Michael confided.
“Well, we will jump that creek when we get to it. I brought a few things that can go bang with me and we got enough chow not to have to get out in them woods hunting for a while. You think maybe we need do anything more than just camp out the next few weeks or should we be doing something more productive?” Bubba asked his new bugged in buddy.
“Hell, that crazy Donald forced me to listen to him all day one time as he explained the need to get some kind of wheat in the ground as soon as possible for this kind of event. I guess me and you need to go down to see Bobby and talk to him about ploughing up some of that cleared land he has for a crop.” Michael said, grinning that the crafty old weasel named Don had managed somehow to give his instructions to everyone to remember in the event of his demise or disappearance, just how to save their sorry butts if he wasn’t around to make some inspired suggestions. He sure could be a character at times, particularly if you added several beers; Michael had to give that to him and shook his head in humorous disbelief that the guy had actually pegged this bit of mayhem to a tee and had been getting ready for it.
“So it’s decided then, we are going to plant some wheat. Does he have a sack of wheat seed around here or what?” Bubba asked, thinking that Michael actually might have more rights to this place and some of its preps than he did because Donald had seemed to have made several plans already.
“I am not sure, he has some canned wheat he mentioned he could use if need be. But I have no idea of the differences between hard red wheat, soft white wheat, feed wheat or any variation in-between, when and how you plant that shit, let alone harvest it. You know much about it?” Michael asked speculatively.
“I don’t know much about it although I got a few cans of wheat myself packed on that trailer out there. I can tell you one thing though… You can be assured I bet that he has a book or an excerpt from an article around here somewhere that will tell us exactly what we need to know in order to plant and harvest wheat.” Bubba said, standing up and wandering across the room after deciding to check out the couple of book cases in the living room that turned out to be filled up with prepper fiction, gardening and various animal husbandry and assorted survival books.
“He has a pretty good library for such a small space, if you don’t mind, I want to borrow that book of his on herbalist recipes he has in those blue binders. He mentioned it to me the last time we visited and I forgot to take it with me.” Amy said, rising and going directly to the section of books she was curious about.
Amy perused the bookshelves with interest and also smiled to herself at the thought of her and her husband having a picture or two they had taken for Donald to put in one of his books listed. She wanted to show her newfound friends a particular chapter to where Donald had added their photography work into one of his stories.
“I wonder where all of Donald’s books he had written were, they weren’t on either one of the
bookshelves? Now where were those distinctive black and green covers she had become so accustomed to seeing over the years as sort of his hallmark? Ah, there they are on his dresser next to his bed. They were post apocalyptic adventure stories, but he had managed to record a lot of survival tricks and tips in them that she thought needed to be remembered.
There was a nicely framed picture on the wall over the books she noticed that said, “Dare to Dream”. “ Well, Donald, you certainly have managed to do just that.” Amy mused as she selected the book with their photography in it and went to show it to Cat.
“Guess who is coming down the road right now” Michael called from the open front door while pointing his finger towards the far driveway.
“Hot damn! Don has made it home!” Bubba said as everyone tried to crowd out the door simultaneously. Donald drove in the far driveway and parked in back of the motor home. He got out of the truck wearing a world record Cheshire cat grin and hollered hey to LowBuck and exchanged hugs and handshakes with the group in free for all welcome to one another.
“You all come around to help me with a chorus of “It’s the end of the world as we know it!” Donald said, singing the song lyric a bit off key and still wearing the same silly grin.
“You know it, man. Good to see ya! I take it you didn’t have any trouble on the road?” Bubba said equally happy that this day was turning out so well.
“No, but I might have brought some with me. Tell Harley to quit checking out my truck. I have some baby chicks and some rabbits in the backseat that have been noisy as hell all the way here and I would sort of like to keep them in one piece for a while.” Donald said as Harley put his paws up on the trucks window to get a look at its occupants.
“Harley, you get down from there right now! I bet he don’t know what to make of them birds, he has never seen a chicken before.” Bubba said chasing Harley away from the window and then having a look at them for himself.
“Where are you going to put those yard birds?” Michael asked peeking in the opposite window. “ Dunno off hand, in the garage for now, I guess, is as good of a place as any. We need to build a coop or a hutch or something for them. I got some scrap lumber and wire around here that should be just enough to do the job. Maybe you and LowBuck won’t mind doing that little project for the group while I go into town and check on my mom and Janice.” Donald said just happy to be off the road for a minute and the possibility of getting away from that incessant “cheep cheeping” for a while.
“Sure, I can knock something together. When are you leaving and when are you coming back, anyway?” Bubba asked him.
“Well, it will be get
ting dark in an hour or so and I don’t care to try driving around at night if I don’t have to these days. Besides, we have got lots of things to discuss before I take off so I guess I will leave very early tomorrow morning. “When” I am coming back here is going to depend on several things. My Mom probably will not want to leave until I start throwing a fit about it. I am not worried about the first week or two of this shit. Most everyone is used to a week or two without power from living with the hurricanes. There will be some ice available for a bit and maybe some groceries for a while here and there. You all try to see what you can accumulate in town. How are you set for cash? I got about $300 put away here you can use and I know Mom has some cash put away at her house.” Donald said, accepting the offer of a hot beer from Cat.
“We got about $400 in green cash ourselves, I will get with Michael and we can do a laundry list of things will try to get on a store run if we can.” Bubba said, sitting down at the table.
“I am going to try to make it back here ASAP but I guess you can figure three weeks as my limit. I don’t care to be moving around much in desperate times as people start to really feel some pressure and weigh options.” Don said.
“I think it’s going to depend on when everybody figures out why the power’s out. When or how do you think the government is going to tell us about the solar storms effects?” Cat asked.
“That’s a good question. They are going to try the emergency broadcast network for one thing on AM radio, whether anyone has a working radio or not to receive news or instructions is another matter entirely. They could use patrol car PA systems or mega phones if they still operate or since vehicles seem to be working, the post office could deliver notifications. They will find some way though because they want to announce dusk to dawn curfew eventually, I bet. The President can impose travel restrictions if he wants to but I doubt he will for some time. Mostly all government is going to go shelter in place somewhere for a while and not do too much for its citizens. The Emergency Managers will be having conniptions because there is no plan for something like this or the manpower and materials except maybe if they can use something like the plan of feeding 5 million people for a month they developed for the Madrid earthquake scenario. No communications or very limited communications was not built into that plan much though, as a contributing factor. I give it about six weeks before things start really becoming unglued and the major cities start to burn. The food riots will start just as soon as somebody doesn’t think the government will give them a happy meal on time.” Donald said, glad he wasn’t going to be manning a desk in some Emergency Operations Center (EOC) this go round.
“Yea, the idiots will probably burn down LA and the crips and bloods and whatever other gangs they got over there are going to have a field day whacking each other in turf wars and looting every store in sight.” Bubba said disgustedly.
“How many folks do you think will be stealing
electronics?” guffawed Michael who made a bug-eyed face that got everyone snickering. “Most likely about half of them fools will be!” Donald said, laughing at a mental picture of people hauling away worthless TV’s and stereos just about any way they could.
“That was funny as hell!” Cat said, grinning at her own mental picture of people running down the street whooping and hollering with stacks of shiny DVDs clutched to their chests.
“Besides making something for those chickens and rabbits to live in, you got any other projects to work on?” Bubba asked.
“Well, I got a couple extra 4 x 4’s you might be able to use to build us some kind of outdoor kitchen shelter. You are going to have to cut some tree limbs to rig a tarp, though. I don’t have enough lumber to do anything else.” Donald said and wandered around to the back of the house to decide where they were going to put it.
“Might sound crazy at the moment, but I got a bunch of sand bags you can start filling if you get bored.” Donald said as they walked to the spot he thought the cook shelter should go.
“Don’t sound crazy but it does sound like a lot of work. Might just wait on that little chore until you get home for that. ” Bubba said, laughing.
“I also got some cinder blocks we can fill with sand and maybe put under the windows too for added protection. Doubt we need to go to that much trouble but we are going to have lots of time on our hands and I can make some ballistic defenses if need be that just look like planters.” Donald said, wondering if he was going a bit overboard with security by fortifying the house or as he saw it, just being extra cautious in case there turned out to be a real need for it.
“Sounds like you have given your home security some serious thoughts. I guess it should be reasonably calm around here for a while at least, so we can work on that project later.” Bubba said and went back to discussing building the outdoor kitchen and the rain collection system it would have utilizing the shelters roof as a collector.
19
Mom’s House
Janice drove towards Betty’s house steadily fuming about how stubborn her mother was being about bugging out. Her mom thought that since she lived close to an Air Force base and also in a good neighborhood, it might be safer to stay where she was at and was totally ignoring her two daughter’s pleas for her to leave. Her sister Susan was working on her still, but it looked like Janice had the reluctant mother problem now and not Donald.
Too bad Betty can’t call and talk to her. Maybe someone from her own generation could help convince her of her stupidity in wanting to stay in the city. Well, she shouldn’t be saying she was stupid, but there was no way that continuing to live there when she had lots of relatives in the country willing to take her in made any sense whatsoever in Janice’s opinion.
Her sister Susan had said she would get up with her later on in the day, but was going to go by her own house and empty out her fridge first. They were to do some more plotting and scheming on their own on the subject and try to dream up some way to convince their mom to leave the city, with force if needed later on, if they ended up having to do so.
“ Shit! This is all I need at the moment. Change of plans I guess. Maybe Susan and I should move a bunch of preps over to our Mom’s? Her mom had plenty of food in her pantry for a while so maybe adding to it wasn’t such a good idea. It would be better for her to see herself slowly running out food than have a stockpile of it delivered to her doorstep, if she had any hopes of dissuading her. Hopefully, they could wear her down in a few days.” Janice thought, as she pulled into the driveway of Donald’s Moms’ house.
“Hi! Thanks for coming back. I have been busy since you left, come and see.” Betty said and led her to the enclosed back porch to show her boxes and pillowcases filled with canned goods and other nonperishable foodstuffs.
“Wow, you have been busy. What’s that over there? Is it your bug out bag? Donald is going to be so proud of you when he gets here!” Janice said and gave her a hug.
“I hope so; I am worn out from doing all of that. I guess we will cook up some chicken, if that’s all right with you. How did your Mom take the bad news?” Betty said, settling down into a chair.
“Well, disbelief at first, then anger and now she is being stubborn about moving to the country with my sister, Susan. She will come around eventually.” Janice said, hoping she would.
“I bet she does, she is probably in a state of shock right now that something like this has actually occurred and she will come around once she has had time to think about it more.” Betty said, trying to comfort her.
“I guess so, but it’s very frustrating that she doesn’t see that leaving the city is her best option. I am going to go get the barbecue fired up. You have any kind of special seasoning you want to use?” Janice asked.
“Donald usually does most of the cooking, so he has all kind of spices and rubs we can try. I haven’t packed them up yet, they are still on the shelf in the pantry.” Betty advised.
“Well, speak of the Devil, that sounds like Don’s truck pulling in.” And she and Janice r
ushed to greet him with open arms and big smile.
After having greeted his Mom and Janice and making some small talk about his happy homecoming, Donald began to explain his plans for staying in the city longer than he anticipated at first.
“I don’t think we will be leaving for a little while. I am in sort of watch and wait mode. Kind of a morbid fascination thing, you might say, to sit here and contemplate and watch for when I think the next shoe may drop. Folks who live here on the hurricane prone Gulf coast are more resilient to long power outages than say folks in the Midwest who do not have that type of weather threat. People who have been through hurricanes before have community experience as well as a disaster culture generational wisdom to draw upon during these times of hardship in order to survive.
Most of the people in this city have been through at least three hurricanes in their lifetime, so they are mentally prepared for living under adverse conditions like we are currently now experiencing. Only problem is, we would normally have access to several places or stores that had power as recovery was going on or the few places that had emergency generators operating while waiting to get our own personal power back on in 2 weeks or more.
Garbage probably will still get picked up even if it’s every 2-3 weeks versus twice a week for a while. A lot of those government buildings downtown have emergency generators so there will still be people going to work and government is functioning. Hell, probably sneaking their families into the cafeterias, too. They are probably going to have food for a while. Lots of security guards will be around those places, too. Those assholes from TSA will not have anything better to do at the airports since civilian air travel is basically null and void for sometime to come. Maybe not though, they will come up with something eventually to move all those displaced people stuck in the airports. No radio communications means no flying, none at all. And I bet it was a bitch to get all those planes landed safely on an airfield without a flight controller in charge of traffic. I bet there were some tragic accidents around here on tarmacs.