“You hungry, boy?” Derek asked.
Roadie cocked his head. Derek went to the pantry and scooped a cup of Roadie’s food. He poured it into Roadie’s bowl. The dog bounded over and began to crunch loudly. Derek leaned against the kitchen table with his arms folded. He could hear the others talking, but didn’t pay attention to their words. He couldn’t figure out why he was so flip-floppy today. He started the day perfectly normally, then that news story threw him off. He could see why both Matt and Buckle didn’t trust the media’s spin on things, and when Derek thought hard about it, it did seem weird that how the story was buried when it mentioned smallpox, which was such an unusual thing to bring up. At the same time though, how likely was it really that this one thing could turn into a full-blown pandemic? Derek didn’t want to turn into one of those doomsday preppers on TV who have it take over their whole lives, and despite all the little jealousies, he didn’t want to turn into Buckle.
Buckle hadn’t always been a prepper. He’d had a great job. He was an engineer, really accomplished, and was engaged. It seemed like he had it all. Then he started reading about prepping, economics, and disease. He got really into history and was reading a book a week. Of key interest to Buckle was the influenza epidemic of 1918 when between 50 and 100 million people around the world died. He was fascinated by how the virus actually preyed on the strong immune systems of young people and used it to destroy its host. Also interesting to him was how the media handled it; WWI was going on and in order to not depress people any further, Germany, France, Great Britain, and the US all underestimated just how severe the epidemic was. Buckle’s fiancee became frustrated with him, saying he was becoming obsessed and neglecting their relationship. She wanted to get married and start a family, but Buckle became very reluctant about having kids. He didn’t want to risk bringing a baby into such an unpredictable world, where (as Buckle saw it) anything could happen without much warning. Eventually, Jenna broke up with Buckle and moved out. Buckle’s response was to take the money he’d been saving for their life together and buy land in Mineral Point, a tiny town near the Mark Twain National Forest. He started prepping seriously, abandoning almost all contact with everyone from his old life, except Derek and his family. It became hard to imagine Buckle doing anything else as memories from his old life faded away. He never talked about Jenna or anything from before Mineral Point. It was like the old Buckle had died and someone new had taken his place.
Derek didn’t think that Amy would ever leave him for any reason, but the mere idea of doing anything to get her thinking about it was enough to stop Derek in his tracks. Derek also knew he was prone to getting carried away with things and letting fear dictate his actions, so avoiding anything that might provoke panic was probably a really a good idea. This smallpox thing was exactly the kind of thing he didn’t want to think about, but it was everywhere he looked. As Derek thought, Buckle came into the kitchen. He had removed his hat, his hair flattened out in a few places.
“Hey,” he said. “Need any help?”
“Nah, it’s good. It’s just spaghetti.”
“Yum.”
Buckle just stood for a moment, rocking back and forth on his heels like a kid. Derek could tell he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure how to start. Derek waited.
“So….are you mad at me?”
It was not what Derek had expected Buckle to say. Derek stared at his brother, a smile forming.
“Huh?”
“About this smallpox thing. I don’t want you think I’m trying to scare Adam or anything. He’s curious, so I’m just letting him know what I know. Having some knowledge actually helps get rid of fear, y’know? Lets you feel like you aren’t totally out of control.”
“Buckle, let’s just say this thing is all real. What can any of us really hope to do? Isn’t it pointless trying to fight against fate?”
“I don’t believe in fate,” Buckle said firmly. “I believe every man chooses his own destiny and I want my destiny to be that I survive. Nothing is completely new. Wars, disease, whatever. It’s all happened before, and people always survive. I want to be one of those people, and I want you guys to be that, too.”
Derek was quiet for a moment. Whatever he was feeling now, deep down, he knew Buckle was right. The men’s conversation was interrupted by Roadie suddenly barking. He saw a cat in the yard and was furious about it. After Derek got him to be quiet, the water was boiling and Amy came in to cook the pasta. She started telling a story about work and the conversation shifted. It was too hot to eat outside, so the family ate around the TV and watched reruns of Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond. Some of Adam’s friends came over to ride bikes. Amy cleaned up in the kitchen while Derek and Buckle sat in the living room. Buckle picked up the conversation right where it had left off.
“Did you buy the water and TP because of what we talked about last night?”
“Yeah…” Derek admitted sheepishly. “I got kind of jarred at work, so I just bought it. I know it’s not nearly enough though.”
“Hey, it’s a start,” Buckle said, slapping Derek’s knee. “Your thinking is in the right place! Water and TP are super important.”
“I don’t even know what else to get,” Derek continued, glancing down at the list Buckle had left on the coffee table.
“Let me help!” Buckle cried, his eyes lighting up. “I love lists. It helps make it all less overwhelming. First though, we gotta find good spots for the stuff.”
Buckle leapt up. Derek followed him as Buckle opened cupboard doors and looked under sinks. Amy said nothing, but watched curiously.
“See, you got some nice room under here,” Buckle said, pointing into the shelf where they kept tupperwares. “If you push all this back?”
Buckle went around to the laundry room, garage, and even the bedrooms.
“Under the beds is a great spot for supplies,” he explained. “They’re out of the way and aren’t taking up space that you use for more everyday stuff.”
The more Buckle talked, the better Derek felt. He had been putting off the idea of prepping because he always imagined filling his house with stuff and messing up the family’s routines, but now he could easily see how prepping fit into normal life. Buckle took the two cases of water and pushed it under Derek and Amy’s bed.
“Just don’t drink any more of it,” he suggested. “Try not to use any of the supplies you buy specifically for prepping.”
“Right.”
Buckle stood smiling at him. Whenever he got excited, Buckle always changed from a 39-year old to a 10-year old.
“I’m real glad you’re doing this, brother,” Buckle said. “You don’t know how good that makes me feel, knowing you’re taking your safety seriously.”
“Well, I’m gonna need your help through all of this.”
“You bet!”
Buckle patted Derek’s arm as they left the bedroom. Amy was curled up in her armchair, looking at the supply list again.
“Hey, Ams!” Buckle cried, as if making a huge announcement. “Your guy’s a prepper now!”
Chapter 3
Derek glanced at the clock in his office. Almost 4pm. Buckle had said he would be at the store around 4 to help Derek with prepping supplies. Adam was supposed to come, too. When Derek had told Amy about his plans to get serious, she was surprisingly enthusiastic. She had spent a good part of the evening on her computer and phone, speaking in low whispers to Ming, her best friend from the hospital. Derek suspected she was gathering information on the Mexico story. It made sense that Amy would be supportive of emergency prepping now that Buckle’s story had been essentially confirmed by “real news.” There wasn’t anything else of note on CNN or any other outlet, but the prepper blogs were abuzz. Some people were planning on leaving their cities already; the people in the Mexico area were definitely ready to get out of dodge. Buckle didn’t seem too worried yet about Missouri, so Derek squashed down his own anxieties. He would watch Buckle for his cues.
Derek
twirled a pen in his fingers and spun slowly in his chair. The day had seemed to go on forever. He just wanted to get his hands on some supplies and feel more secure. Just a little after 4, there was a knock on his door. Buckle stuck his head in.
“Are you the manager around here?” he asked in a fake gruff voice.
Derek laughed. Buckle entered, Adam in tow.
“Ready?” Derek asked, rising.
“Whoa, hold yer horses,” Buckle said, pulling a chair to the desk. “Slow down. There’s a process to this.”
He turned to Adam, who took out a yellow legal pad from his backpack. Buckle picked up a pen from Derek’s utensils cup and clicked it dramatically.
“What are we doing here?” Derek asked, leaning forward.
“Making a list. You gotta know all the essentials. I like to divide up my supplies into categories.”
Buckle drew a horizontal line across the top of the pad and then several vertical lines, making columns. He wrote 7 words: Water, Food, Medical, Sanitation, Camping, Weapons, and Bartering.
“Now you have an idea about the kinds of things you’re looking for, and it’ll be harder to forget something. Let’s fill out the list. What do you think you need for water?”
“Well, actual water.”
“Yep.”
“Isn’t that it?”
“Hmm, well, let’s think about that. Let’s say shit hits the fan…” Buckle glanced at Adam, who didn’t react. Buckle winked and continued, “...and you leave home for a couple days. You have water with you, but you run out faster than you thought because it got really hot. You’re by a lake. What do you do?”
“Drink from the lake?” Adam asked.
“It’s dirty. You drink it, get diarrhea, and get dehydrated. You die.”
Adam winced. Buckle put the pen back on the pad and wrote “Lifestraws,” and “Purification tablets.”
“Ohhhhh,” Adam said.
“Exactly. With a LifeStraw, you can drink right from the lake and the straw cleans out all the gross, bad stuff. You could drink from a toilet.”
“That’s so cool!” Adam exclaimed.
“What are the tablets?” Derek asked, pointing.
“I like tablets to purify a bunch of water at once. LifeStraws are great for travel, but if you gotta use water for cooking and stuff, tablets are best. Sometimes they can make the water taste weird, but that’s a brand thing.”
Buckle moved his pen to the next column. As he wrote, Adam took out his phone and took a picture Buckle of writing. Derek smiled. Adam was so enraptured with his uncle. Who could blame him? Even though Derek felt a little jealous of how much Adam admired Buckle, Derek had always looked up to Buckle in the same way. When they were kids, Buckle was always the one who made the family proud in just about everything. He was good at math, science, and sports. Derek was just ok.
“So, for food, there’s a ton of stuff you can buy, so this is just a sample list of what we can probably get today. Rice, canned beans, canned vegetables, canned fruit, and canned meat. If it’s in a can, it’s probably a good option. Canned things last a while. You won’t be eating fresh fruit salad when it all goes down, bro, but you don’t want to end up with scurvy either.”
“And we could live on just that, if we absolutely had to?” Derek asked.
“If you had to, yeah, but you’d get so sick of it. Variety is where it’s at, like different kinds of veggies and fruit. Different protein sources are important too, so I like getting big bags of whole, unsalted nuts on wholesale. I just buy a ton of stuff on wholesale, actually.”
“Cause it’s cheaper?”
“Yeah.”
“I get a discount here.”
“Sweet! Yeah, do the actual math, some things actually end up being cheaper at regular stores if they’re on sale or something. Wholesale doesn’t always mean cheaper.”
Buckle moved on to medical. They had talked about it the previous evening and Amy already kept an emergency first aid kit in the cars and at home, so all Buckle wrote down was some more specific items like gas masks, hazmat suits, anti-diarrheal medication, and a clotting product.
“It’s real good that Amy is a nurse,” he remarked. “Most people will be screwed when they can’t get to the doctor or a hospital. It’s scary how many people don’t even know how to put on burn gel.”
“How do you put on burn gel?” Adam asked.
“Well, first you gotta rinse the burn and dry your skin around the burn, and then put a layer of the gel on. Most people think that’s it, but after, you have to put loose gauze on it, and not an absorbent gauze or it’ll soak up the gel. All gels have instructions; folks just don’t read.”
For the next half-hour, Buckle walked Adam and Derek through the rest of the list. Derek hadn’t thought about just how important sanitation was and knowing how to get rid of waste the right way. Indoor plumbing was something he really took for granted; he couldn’t imagine consistently having to poop in a bucket or something and bury everything. Buckle got especially excited going over the Camping section and got distracted talking about the different types of knives he had. Derek had to interrupt him and suggest they get shopping before it got too late. They bought rice, beans, and one of the large water containers Brett had talked about the day before. Katie was working the register that night and smiled when she saw Buckle.
“Hello, miss,” Buckle said cheerfully.
“Hi! What’s all this, Mr. Evers?” she asked, the question directed at Derek.
“My brother convinced me to get into prepping,” Derek explained, almost bashfully. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to go crazy with it.”
“Aw,” Katie said, feigning disappointment. “So you’re not going to move out to the boonies and get replaced by a tall, dark, and handsome stranger?”
“No such luck, Katie.”
Katie rung up their items, filling bag after bag.
“That’ll be $102.00 even.”
Geez. Everything is expensive.
Derek paid and accepted Katie’s offer to help them carry out their bags. They filled Derek’s trunk and the backseat of Buckle’s truck.
“See you at home!” Adam called, leaning out of the truck window as they drove past Derek.
It was another warm evening with clear skies. Derek drove slowly, right on the speed limit, and rubbed the steering wheel with his thumb. His family now had enough food and water to last them several weeks. They just needed a supply of dog food and everyone would be ok.
Derek pulled into the garage and saw that Buckle had left the rice and beans on the shelves next to the weedwacker. Derek put the rest on the shelf below.
Looks good.
Derek went inside, satisfied with the day’s accomplishments. Amy was waiting for him, holding a receipt.
Uh oh.
“Derek, did you spend over a hundred dollars on rice and beans?”
“It’s for prepping,” Derek said, feeling that his answer was rather dumb-sounding.
“That’s my whole grocery shopping budget for a week!”
“I’m sorry, hon, I didn’t know it was going to be that much.”
“Couldn’t you tell? Don’t you look at prices?”
“I wasn’t thinking about it.”
Amy crumbled the receipt in her hand, clearly frustrated. She tossed it on the counter. She looked very tired and was still wearing her scrubs. Pale purple with panda bears. Derek could see Buckle in the living room, trying not to spy in on them through the pass-through window. Derek suddenly felt annoyed at him. Stuffing his cart with rice and beans. It wasn’t Buckle’s money. Derek felt mad at himself, too; he had just gone along with it.
“I’m on board with this prepping thing, Derek, I really am,” Amy said, her voice soft. “But you can’t spend all our money on it. We still gotta live, y’know? Let’s make a budget, for how much we spend on prepping a week. It’ll be a regular expense.”
Derek felt like a kid getting a lecture from his mom. He just nodded and went to
the bathroom. He had just gotten a lesson in basic financing from his wife. Derek peed and washed his hands. He kept the water running and splashed his face. His eyes were burning.
This is a bad idea. Bad, bad idea. You don’t know what you’re doing, and Buckle has a different life. He does things his way. He doesn’t have family. All his money goes into this, but you got bills. A real life.
Derek took a few deep breaths before joining his family. Everyone was back to normal. Amy was taking a casserole out of the oven while Buckle and Adam set the table. Roadie had settled underneath the table and watched the humans move around.
“You want anything special to drink?” Amy asked.
“Water’s fine,” Derek replied.
He sat down at the table and rubbed Roadie’s head. The family gathered around the table and started eating. For once, the conversation didn’t turn to prepping or deadly diseases. Buckle could tell he had caused a bit of trouble, and kept his mouth shut. Adam controlled much of the talking and explained the plot of a movie he had seen recently. He loved Sci-Fi-movies like Independence Day and District 9, which he had seen on TV when Amy wasn’t home. He didn’t read very much unless it was for school, but all the books he did choose to read were sci-fi or had aliens in them. Amy had read A Wrinkle In Time aloud to him and he loved it.
“Do you think aliens are real, Uncle Buck?”
“Probably,” Buckle said casually. “I’ve seen some weird lights in my camping days.”
“Really?? Like UFOs?”
“Who knows?” Buckle replied, drawing out the “o” sound and twitching his fingers.
“Were you scared of being abducted?”
“Aw, I figure they would just let me go. I’d annoy them.”
“Why do you think aliens abduct people?”
“Aliens probably aren’t real, sweetie,” Amy said.
“Ok, but if they were, and if they were abducting people,” Adam clarified, rolling his eyes at his mother.
“Humans are interesting,” Buckle said. “We have lots of weird stuff in our bodies, our brains especially. If aliens could abduct people, they’d probably just hook us up and read our thoughts, try to figure out why people do the things they do. Aliens are supposed to be really logical, right?”
Band of Preppers: A Prepper Fiction Novel (Book 1) Page 3