Viral Survival

by Pete Thorsen

  I never explained the reason I wanted the diesel pickup other than telling her that regular gasoline would likely go bad fairly quickly if it was not used up on a regular basis. The colder temperatures of winter might slow that process down but I did not know that to be a fact. Better to have another option at home just in case.

  Chapter 12

  I took my rifle out of the diesel truck and locked it up. Bea got in on the passenger side of my old truck and I drove while she rode shotgun. She turned to me and started talking.

  “Do you really expect trouble?”

  “Actually, no. But it would be dumb not to be prepared for it. Anyone left alive should be spending all their time right now plotting and getting ready for a long, cold Minnesota winter. I have a feeling that most of them are not doing that….”

  “Do you still think the electric power will shut off?”

  “I’m very surprised that it is still on. Someone, or more likely several people, must still be alive and trying to keep the power on. I hope they keep it going but I doubt they will be able to much longer. When the power goes, everyone that is still dependent on it in this town is going to be in big trouble.”

  “Yes. They will get cold fast unless they have a fireplace with a bunch of firewood.”

  “It’s more than just that. They will have no water and no sewer and no way to cook their food.”

  “I’m sure many here in town have gas kitchen stoves like us.”

  “No, they have natural gas stoves. And that natural gas has already stopped running. Or it will as soon as the power goes off.”

  “Oh. I forgot about that.”

  She was quiet for a bit before speaking again.

  “Many people are going to die this winter aren’t they?”

  “Yes I’m sure they will. We will get by but even we will face hardships like we have not seen before. There are plenty of cars and plenty of fuel though, so anyone could take a brand new car or truck and drive south where it does not get cold. Or any other place they may want to go. No real reason for them to stay here and face the coming winter unless they want to.”

  We came to a hardware store which was to be our most important stop today and the conversation ended when I pulled into the lot. I backed up as close to the door as I could and I already had the tailgate on the pickup down, ready for loading.

  This time the door was not smashed but we found it would open with a simple pull so it had been unlocked. Maybe the owner or manager was smart enough to see that a lock would only lead to more damage now so he just unlocked the door and left it that way.

  We each took a cart to start our shopping. We wanted at least two oil lamps and I hoped to get an oil lantern that could be used outside as well. We would of course then need a fair amount of lamp oil to go with it. Though we already had the camping lantern that we got from the sporting goods store we would get the oil lamps as well. We got a bunch of candles which might be handier than an oil lamp at times. Then, for something to light them we found a bunch of those long handled butane grill lighters that would work perfect. When I found some of the old fashioned strike-anywhere matches I got several boxes of those also.

  In housewares we got a hand meat grinder that looked just like the old ones that had been around for decades. We each took a couple different knives from the sporting goods store as well but here we got a couple of good kitchen knives and another sharpener too. The knives and meat grinder would be used when I shot a couple of deer in the near future.

  Bea was surprised at a few things I took. In the canning section I took a big pressure cooker and an extra sealing ring to fit it. I filled the canner with boxes of canning lids. I took all the lids and there were way too many to fit in the cooker. When I started to leave that area Bea asked a question.

  “You’re not taking any canning jars? The other stuff is no good without jars.”

  “Later. For right now this is all I want of this stuff. The canning lids will be like having gold coins in the future I’m betting.”

  I went to the outdoor tool section and got a couple of bow saws and all the bow saw blades in every size that they had. I also picked up a nice new axe. I found some fuel stabilizer for gasoline and took a bunch of that with us. They had none for diesel fuel though.

  We each got a couple more good flashlights and quite a pile of batteries in different sizes. I saw some solar powered flashlights and we took four of them with us for when batteries were no longer available.

  Near the front of the store there was a fair amount of different things to eat. Apparently no one thought of looking in a hardware store for food. Much of it was candy type stuff but we took all the jerky and a bunch of other food items. Bea took a box of her favorite candy bars I noticed. When she saw me watching her she just gave me a big smile. She is so pretty it still takes my breath away when I look at her sometimes.

  With most of the items that were on our list now found and in the carts by now we decided to take another empty cart and slowly toured the store in search of items we missed or had never even thought about. We filled the cart with stuff we could likely use and only thought of when we saw them.

  We had a lot of stuff and we pushed the carts out the short distance to the pickup. Bea again watched while I loaded and returned the empty carts to the store. When I returned the carts I came back out with six five-gallon gas cans that I had a tough time carrying all at once. But I managed to get them into the back of the pickup and on top of the load.

  Our next stop was just a few doors down. It was an automotive parts place. This time Bea stayed next to the pickup with her rifle while I went inside and got several items. They had fuel stabilizer for both diesel fuel and gasoline, so I got a bunch of it. I got two of the portable jump starters. I picked up two rotary fuel transfer pumps with hoses. Two of the tire inflators that ran off the cigarette lighter outlets. They had a fold up solar system by the counter that was not very big and I took that too. I also got a power inverter.

  I was done and put everything in the back of the truck, which was getting pretty full by this point. But there was still a little room so I drove to our next stop which was again close by. It was a dollar store. We did not expect to get much here but we thought that as long as it was close we would stop and shop. There wasn’t all that much room left in the pickup anyway.

  So we stopped and I first went in alone while Bea kept watch outside. I made sure the store was empty of people and quickly went up and down every aisle and got a few things. Next I was on my way outside when I heard Bea shoot.

  By the time I ran to the door Bea had shot several more times. I had my pistol in my hand (I had left my rifle in the pickup) as I went through the door. I found Bea aiming her rifle and still shooting. The truck was in my way and I could not see what she was shooting at but no one was shooting at her that I could tell.

  Just then she stopped shooting and turned towards me before she spoke.

  “There was a pack of dogs and I thought they could get at you through the busted entry door. I just started shooting and expected them to run away at the first shot but instead they started running towards me! I kept shooting and the red dot sight worked really good to use for the moving targets! I killed them all then put another bullet in each one, just to make sure they did not suffer any from just a wounding shot.”

  “You probably saved my life.”

  After putting my stuff from the store in the truck I took the rifle from Bea and she went into the store to shop. The first thing I did was put in a freshly loaded magazine. There was only one left in the magazine I took out of the rifle. With the one bullet in the chamber she only had two shots remaining. I dug in the glove box and got a partial roll of black electrician’s tape and taped two magazines together so when one was empty I could just eject and turn the magazines upside down to insert a freshly loaded one and be ready to shoot thirty more rounds.

  Bea was in the store quite awhile and finally came out with two carts that she unloaded into t
he pickup before returning the carts to the store. We got in the pickup and left to head home. The back of the pickup box was full and there was a bunch of stuff in the cab with us also.

  We stopped at the gas station to pick up our new diesel truck and I took the time to fill all the gas cans that I had picked up at the hardware store and all of them that were in the convenience store where we were parked. I filled all of them with gasoline and I had the gas fuel stabilizer there and added a little to each can before I filled it. The full gas cans were put in the back of the diesel pickup. There was not enough room for just a single layer and some of the gas cans had to be double stacked.

  “Why so much gas?”

  “We will need it to run the generator off and on if the power does go out during the winter. That way we can use the regular water well two or three times a week using the generator. Even doing it that way will still take quite a lot of gas. It will be way better than using that old hand pump though, that is for sure.”

  “I agree. Running hot and cold water means we could take showers even if the power was off. Good idea.”

  Next I dumped a lot of the fuel stabilizer into the station’s buried tanks in the hopes that the fuel would last longer. I did add some of the diesel stabilizer to each of the tanks on the diesel pickup too.

  With both pickups now having full loads we hopped in and drove back to our house. We both thought we were set up pretty good for the long winter ahead of us.

  Of course, we couldn’t think of everything, and we would only find that out much later.

  Chapter 13

  Bea and I discussed the merits of making another trip into town but both of us knew we had enough food and other supplies to last us now here at home. It was safer here at home too. It was getting quite cool most days and then there would be a day once in a while where we got nice weather too.

  On the nice days I went to the lake and fished. Twice Bea went with me just to keep me company. We enjoyed the fish that I caught and those fish helped out with our food situation a little bit too. Sometimes I also just walked from home doing a little hunting. I usually took the shotgun and I brought home a few pheasants that Bea really liked and a few ducks that Bea did not care for, but she ate them without any real complaints. When I brought home a couple ducks or a goose she would always make a comment of some kind.

  “You couldn’t find any pheasants today?” Or, “Sure would be nice if you shot a couple grouse sometime.”

  She was pleasantly surprised when I returned with a turkey one day. That provided three meals. I also used one of our twenty two rifles on occasion to bring back a rabbit or a couple squirrels. Bea said the squirrels tasted fine but there was not too much meat on them. She never complained about them though and they were plentiful in the area.

  When the electric power went off neither of us were surprised. It never flickered or went off and came back on a little later or anything. It just went off and never came back again. It was a day of nice weather so it was not a weather-related outage. The electric power was just done. For good. Or at least for a very long time.

  We had been expecting this and had everything setup and ready for this to happen. We really missed the power for the first while. It took quite some getting used to not having it always available.

  We used the generator every third day. When the generator was running we had running water so we took turns taking a shower while the other person filled buckets and jugs with water to hold us over until we ran the generator again. Another thing we did was always fill the tub with water to be used for flushing.

  We used buckets of water for flushing the toilet and for washing. The water we used for washing was usually reused for flushing also. Sometimes when the generator was on we would do a load of laundry, but we had to air dry everything.

  About an hour of running was enough for everything, though if we did a load of laundry we sometimes ran the generator a little longer. It was a hassle but it worked, and we both knew it was way better than most people had it with the power off.

  We the two propane space heaters mostly to heat the place. It was cold enough outside that we could use a cooler on the porch in place of our refrigerator. We brought it in at night so the contents wouldn’t freeze solid.

  With the cold weather and only a trace of snow I went out and shot a deer. We had planned it out and we used our oven to make all the deer into jerky. When we were finished making jerky (which turned out fine) I went and shot another deer and we went through the same process again, making even more jerky. Even at the low temperature setting for making jerky the oven heated the house while we made it.

  Before the heavy snows came I ended up shooting five deer which were all almost totally turned into jerky. Except for the last deer which, by that time, it was cold enough to keep it frozen solid by just storing it outside. We cut it all up and wrapped it and instead of putting it in the freezer it just went in one of our coolers that stayed outside on the north side of the house.

  Even with all the deer meat I continued hunting for other birds and animals to give us some variety in the meat department. The jerky was mostly not used other than as an occasional snack. It would keep and would be used in the spring and summer. It was all stored in plastic sealable containers that we kept in the cold garage. Some was stored in the house to be handy and to check if it really would store fine at room temps.

  It was a very long winter. They were all long up here but let me tell you, with no electric power and no travel and no work, it was really long and boring. I at least got a break by going hunting most days until the snow got too high. Then both Bea and I stayed inside almost all the time. That made the days drag on with really nothing to do.

  We each did a lot of reading and both of us wished we would have thought to get a bunch of books from town when we were up there. We had some games at home and some decks of cards and we used them to pass the time. Bea made elaborate meals sometimes just to take up more time in the kitchen.

  Entertainment was the biggest thing that we forgot when we went shopping in town. We thought only of our survival but never once thought about how to keep busy during the long winter.

  I braved the deep snow once and walked over to the closest neighbor’s place. I was sure no one was there and I was right. The snow around the house was unbroken and no one answered my many knocks on the door. The door was not locked and I guessed it likely meant that the owners died here and were still here. I never looked and just went through the bookcases and brought home almost all the books I found there.

  I had worn one of the big backpacks that we had taken from the sporting goods store on that first trip in town. I even brought back all the magazines I found so we would have more to read. One of those living there must have liked crossword puzzles because they had a few of those little books of crossword puzzles that I also took home. It was a worthwhile trip and gave me some needed exercise too. I thought about going to some of the other neighbors’ places that winter but I never did.

  Over the long winter we talked about our situation and that of the nation. Early in the winter I told Bea that it was just not very feasible for us to remain here. “We should move in the spring.”

  “You mean, like move to a house farther out in the country? Move to a farm? Move to a house on a lake or river or something?”

  “No. I mean move out of this state. I mean move out of the Midwest completely.”

  “Why would we do that? What would be gained by moving someplace we know nothing about? I would think it would better to stay someplace that we are much more familiar with.”

  “It is just too cold here and the summers are just too short to positively grow enough food to eat each season. While conceivably we could make a go of it here the chances are better for our survival if we moved to a more temperate location farther south.”

  “That’s why you brought home that other truck isn’t it? You knew this all along. Right?”

  “Yes. That is why I got that o
ther truck. I knew we could stay here over this first winter but it would be way smarter for us to move farther south. But the decision to move or stay is not just mine alone. If you insist we stay then we will. We could do a lot right here at our current home and maybe make it long term.”

  “So we would stay if that’s what I wanted?”

  “I would never leave you and you know that. I would never make you move either if that would make you unhappy. I just want you to carefully think about it for a couple days. Think about how rough we would have it here in the winters to come. Think about how short the growing season is here. No matter where we would go we will have to grow our own food.”

  “Where would we go if we did leave? Would it be safe to move?”

  “My first choice of a place to move to is maybe Texas or Florida. They both have about year-round growing seasons. Obviously we would face dangers along the way if we did move. We could also face dangers when we arrived at either place. Fresh, clean water could be an issue at either place. Somewhat in Texas and more so in Florida we would face the possibility of hurricanes. There would be no warnings that one was coming anymore either. We might see a rainstorm approaching and it would turn out to be a hurricane instead. Whether to move somewhere or stay here in Minnesota is not a decision to be taken lightly. I have thought about it an awful lot and now you should also, so that we have two perspectives.

  “I think we could stay here and live, though I do think I would want to look for a house in a different spot that is better for the situation we now find ourselves in. We both have to think long-term. Not just one or two years but the rest of our lives. While it would be possible to move to a distant state later it would be best to make the decision now whether to stay or go. But, after thinking about it for many weeks, I believe we might be best to move on elsewhere.”