by Pete Thorsen
There were people like Jack and myself, too. We had a sturdy home with heat. We had jobs, even if it provided almost no income. We had enough good, nourishing food to keep us well fed. And we had each other.
But time always marches on. Winter slowly gave way to spring. When I told Jack I wanted to double the size of our garden he put up no protest. I had plenty of seeds. I had leftover packaged seeds from last year plus I had saved seeds from most of what we grew last season.
We had run out of potatoes to eat over winter but I had set aside many to use for seed potatoes for this year, just in case we couldn’t buy any in the spring when we needed to plant. Potatoes are good producers here and I hoped to grow a lot of them this season.
All the newly-elected officials were supposedly working on solutions to all the problems across the nation. The new, local politicians really could not do too much. Few people were paying their property taxes, sales tax revenue was almost non-existent, and extra taxes like the bed tax on motels were now just a joke, so these local politicians basically had no money to work with.
The one thing most of them did was trim more people off the payroll. Before, when any public workers were laid off, it was always the workers at the bottom—you know, the ones that actually did the work. This time the layoffs were from the top. What money was left could then go to needed services in the counties or the cities.
This approach was also used at the state level, and even at the federal level. The federal government was cut to a fraction of what it once was. Whole departments and agencies were cut from the budget. This produced many more unemployed people around the country but it was obviously something that had to be done and should have been done years ago.
When the new President had taken office his first act was to send a proposal of changes to the new Congress. It had included many cuts. The new President had also publicly stated that if Congress was on the same track he would willing to work with them as much as needed to institute the changes they both thought necessary to turn the country around. In that vein he had met with many members of Congress throughout the process so they could exchange ideas on how to effectively implement the changes.
Bills passed through both Houses of Congress and were immediately signed by the new President. All the new bills took effect upon his signature with no waiting period. The old system of passing bills that took effect years down the road when many who sponsored the bills had retired was thrown by the wayside. Changes were needed immediately.
Any money saved was used to put unemployed people to work and get some basic services back into operation. The federal government also handed out free garden seeds that came with instructions on how and where to plant, how to water and nurture the growing plants, and how to cook and preserve the produce.
Federal funding was also used to get most of the tillable land across the nation planted and back into production. The feds also supplied or made workers available where there was need to assist in the planting and, later, in the production and harvesting.
Farmers and ranchers were urged to grow their herds and flocks as much as possible to supply the needed meat, dairy products, and eggs for a hungry nation.
When the economy started to tank, food prices had gone up and they continued to rise. With job loss and a poor economy people had cut back on everything, and that included food. While food prices were still high, the raw food product prices had gone down because, with demand down, supply had gone up, which lowered the wholesale food prices.
With farmers and ranchers getting lower prices for their products their expenses were going up at the same time, so they had cut back production. The cutbacks in production lasted for a few years and many producers and packagers had gone into bankruptcy and closed down. That then led to the food shortages. Now this had to be turned around again but it had to be done very quickly. America was hungry.
A program very much like the old WPA was put into use again, both to get all the unemployed people working and to get needed work done all across the nation. The WPA workers were used for everything from garbage men (and women), to bus drivers, road repair workers, grave diggers, and countless other jobs that needed to be done and had once been done by some level of government.
None of this got done overnight. It was talked about and voted on and then implemented like things had been done in years past. But this time there was a very big difference. All parts of the programs and operations were streamlined and expedited like never before.
And it was not just WPA workers that were put to work. Every inmate in every prison and county jail was put to work on chain gangs. The jobs they were given were not the best jobs, but instead the worst. And yes, they were forced to work or the penalty they received was severe and swift.
They chose their life of crime and now they were paying society back with their labor. We as a nation could no longer to house and care for the almost one percent of the nation’s population that was behind bars. With the now lower population across the country, the percentage of incarcerated people was likely much higher. Seeing the chain gangs at work was quite possible an incentive for many people to not break the law any more as well.
Over winter most schools across the whole nation had closed due to a lack of funding. This was also addressed. Federal funding was used to get all schools open again. Well, not all schools. There were now fewer students and school attendance was combined into fewer open schools, but all students were enrolled. Maintenance in the schools and on the grounds was handled by WPA workers.
Students were fed wholesome common foods. Class sizes were larger than was previously normal, but this seemed to cause no problems at all. A lot of the former problems were now gone. There was no social media anymore. There was no texting. There was just teaching and learning. Problem students were disciplined at the school. If high school students caused too many problems, they were shifted into the WPA where they just went to work every day instead of going to class. This straightened many of them out and showed them what really mattered.
The changes across this nation were extreme and they were needed. Our military was cut back and almost all foreign bases were shut down. Some military assets were used to deport all illegal aliens living in the country and assets were used to close our borders so they could not return. Once the borders were deemed sealed all illegals serving time in our prison systems were turned over to the countries where they came from. Our Navy was used to bolster our coastal borders.
Once a few exports started up again Navy ships were used to escort the merchant ships. Piracy on the seas was again quite popular, at least for awhile. Our Navy protected all US flagged shipping and pirates were dispatched when they were encountered. Those captured alive were questioned before being executed and buried at sea.
The mighty United States military was no longer used to police the entire world. Instead it was used to protect US citizens, US shipping, and US interests.
There were no longer any oil imports into the United States. Actually, I think there was very little oil shipping anymore anywhere around the world. There was some but production was way down because consumption worldwide was way down. With oil usage in the US severely reduced we were easily able to produce and refine everything we needed stateside without even coming close to our real production capacity.
The federal government also made many incentives to increase manufacturing here inside our country. The bad economic downturn had destroyed all the unions. None of them could supply the pension benefits that had been promised. Pension plans had been the very first things that had received cut backs. And when the first cut backs proved not to be enough, additional cuts were put into place. Eventually all (or at least most) of the pension plans folded.
With the loss of the pension plans and loss of almost all jobs, the unions had folded. Nationwide there were a lot of bad feelings over both the unions and the pension fiasco.
Of course, there were bad feelings about many things across this nati
on, and most of those feelings would likely linger for quite some time. And there would be more bad feelings about how many things were being fixed. You cannot take an axe to something and not expect the chips to fly. But very bold actions had to be taken. And likely there were mistakes being made along the way. But there was little choice.
Chapter 14
All the massive changes announced by those in Washington would maybe be a big help, but not overnight. Even though they had done what they could to streamline the process everything still took time and people were suffering now.
When spring fully arrived I had Jack double the size of our garden and I planted as soon as the weather allowed. I had plenty of time because even though we still had the gun shop open for business it was for only three days a week, and the hours were shortened to just six hours per day.
We sold very little but still bought guns from people who still had them. We gave cash now instead of checks. And we still sold a few things in the store. We had changed our policy some time back and all sales had to be cash only. Since we accepted only cash we thought it only fair to pay only with cash when we bought used guns.
I asked Jack what the point of buying all these guns was when it was pretty obvious that we could never likely sell all the ones we now had in stock anyway. He said that every single gun we bought was a gun that would not be used against us. And he also asked what else could we do with the money?
We were extremely careful with the gun shop. While driving there to open shop we always drove around the building once to see if anyone was waiting in hiding to ambush us as we opened. While open, we always stopped what we were doing when the door chime announced someone’s entrance. When a customer was in the shop we were never together. We always separated to make us widely-separated targets.
Both of us now carried two handguns on our persons. There was now a sawed off twenty gauge semi automatic shotgun under the counter at the register that could be shot with one hand. Technically, the shotgun was illegal because it was so short, but it was very wicked looking and it was just one more step toward our protection.
When we had gotten married, one of the first things we did was take almost all of the money out of the bank. We took it as cash and hid it at the shop and at home. Between what I had and what Jack had it was quite a lot of money. It was enough that we had to take it out of the bank gradually.
We had done so just in time. A bank holiday was called where all the nation’s banks closed. Long before this some capital controls had been put in place to limit how much you could withdraw from the bank at any one time. After the bank holiday this withdrawal amount was lowered dramatically. But honestly, by that time, I don’t think it made all that much difference to anyone.
Before this ‘holiday’, credit card usage had been allowed but credit limits on all cards had been reduced by a huge amount some time back. I never had a card but Jack did, and his credit limit had been reduced from eighteen thousand down to one thousand, even though he had never had a late payment.
After the bank holiday it was announced that credit and debit cards could no longer be used. Also, when the bank holiday was over, not all the banks reopened again. There were many banks that were now closed for good, which I don’t think came as a surprise to anyone.
Now after gaining some experience with gardening, my garden was growing fine. And mine was not the only garden that was planted this spring. Everyone that had even a small amount of space was growing a garden it seemed. They ranged in size from just a few flower pots full of vegetables in their apartment, to gardens much larger than the enlarged one I planted this year.
This garden explosion had been encouraged by the government and they had backed up that encouragement with the giving away of free garden seeds. Basically everyone took advantage of the free seeds and jumped into the gardening scene with both feet.
Of course, many of the gardens amounted to nothing. Gardens are a lot of work and even if there was enthusiasm, there was still some amount of knowledge necessary to successfully grow and harvest a garden. There is considerably more to it than just putting a seed into the ground and then sitting back and waiting to pick the resulting produce.
But with the sheer number of gardens being put in all across the nation a lot of garden produce was a surefire result. Many might fail but many would also produce. Every little bit of extra food would help our crippled nation.
So while things looking forward seemed like they would be better, in the here and right now it was not so rosy. Many people were still in desperate straights. And maybe that is why the next thing happened to us, again.
It was one of the only days we were open and let me tell you, there was very little to do at the shop now. You can only clean and dust and wipe down the guns so many times. So when we heard a car pull into our parking lot we both got excited enough to look out the window. We were curious if it was a real customer or just a friend stopping by to say hello. Either would be a welcome change from doing nothing.
Looking out, it was neither. Four guys got out of the car and were approaching the door. Two were obviously carrying long guns. They could be described as hard cases or gang bangers or low lifes or maybe some similar description. It was immediately obvious to both of us that they were not friends or customers. They were trouble with a capital T.
“Take cover and arm up,” was all Jack said as he turned and went behind the counter. I went behind the gun safes and drew my big pistol. It was kinda big because it was a full sized Beretta nine millimeter, like the military used, only it was a well used civilian model. I looked over to Jack and he had the cut down twenty gauge automatic in his hands. It was loaded with five rounds of number three buckshot which was the heaviest load available for it at our store. My pistol had fifteen rounds of hollow point ammunition in the magazine and one more in the chamber.
When the door opened and the first guy started walking, in Jack yelled very loudly.
“Get out!”
At the yell, I could see the first man through the door start to bring up the sawed off double barrel shotgun he had in one hand. He never completed leveling the shotgun as I heard the loud explosion of Jack’s twenty gauge going off. The man with the sawed off shotgun took the load in the chest and was pushed back by the blast.
By this time another man had made it through the door but was directly behind the first man who now fell against him. The second man had some type of long gun up and leveled and, when his buddy fell against him, he triggered the gun but the bullets went high and most struck the ceiling. By this time I was lined up and was pulling the trigger on my big Beretta.
My first shot went into the man falling down and my next two were body hits on that second man. The second man was going down and I heard two fast shots from Jack’s twenty gauge again. I think one hit the second man and the other shot went over him and out the door.
The first two guys were now on the ground and Jack fired the last two shots out of the twenty gauge through the door. I heard him drop the shotgun and I assumed he drew one of his pistols. I could not see out the door from where I was so I kept my gun on the two men now on the floor but neither looked alive anymore. I risked a look at Jack and he had one of his pistols in his hand and was now stepping out from behind the counter and looked like he was about to go outside.
When I saw that he was heading into possible trouble facing the two who were still outside I came out from behind the gun safe and headed for the door also. By the time I made it to the door Jack was outside and firing his pistol as I heard the car pulling away. I saw the third man on the ground and the car spinning gravel, trying to pick up speed for his escape. Jack was firing at the retreating car so I took aim as best I could and started firing into the car also.
The car made it out of our parking lot but never made the turn onto the asphalt road. Instead it just went straight into the ditch on the other side of the road. Jack was holstering his pistol and drawing his left hand gun as he headed for the now-st
opped car. Without looking at me he just yelled as he was running towards the stopped car.
“Make sure they are all dead!”
That was sound advice, and not knowing how many shells I had left in my Beretta I holstered it and drew my old revolver which I knew was loaded. Then I approached the third guy who was on the ground outside. He was lying face up and looked very, very dead. He had obviously taken a couple loads of the buckshot from Jack’s shotgun. I kicked him in the lower leg (about the only spot that did not look bloody) and got no response, which is what I expected.
I then turned back to the two lying near the store’s doorway. I could see them both and neither were moving any but I held my revolver steady, pointing it between the two just in case. I did not get any closer but I could see no movement of either chest so I was quite sure both were all done breathing. The first one had a big hole in his chest. I then turned and ran toward Jack and the stopped car.
I saw Jack raise his pistol as he was now standing next to the passenger side of the stopped car. Next, he fired two shots, and then I saw him lower the pistol again. He walked towards me and we stepped into each others arms.
Chapter 15
We hugged each other for some time. When we broke apart Jack called the police. This time when the police showed up it was quite different than before. On the phone Jack told them the action was all over and only one police car was dispatched. After this single policeman radioed it in, a coroner’s wagon came. That guy and the single policeman loaded all the bodies into the back.
Our complete police interview and questioning lasted only about twenty minutes, and a lot of that time was just waiting for the coroner to get here. Then they both left and we were alone.