Trouble in America: Five Apocalyptic Stories

by Pete Thorsen

  Shipments of all products ground to a halt for many reasons that all centered on the money being no good. Lack of shipments meant a severe lack of food in just about all areas of the nation. The National Guard and FEMA did not have the resources or manpower to move and distribute the huge amount of supplies that the whole nation depended on every single day.

  The President did declare a nation-wide state of emergency that gave the government many more powers; it was just shy of martial law and gave them the power to seize private property ‘for the good of the nation’. This included food supplies and fuel supplies and who knew what else they deemed necessary for the continuation of the nation.

  In theory this was a reasonable move to get warehoused supplies into the hands and mouths of needy and sometimes dying citizens. But like most theories they don’t work well in real life and this is always made worse when government is involved. And this declaration led to bloody clashes between government and private individuals who did not want their property ‘seized’.

  Down in the southwestern states they were having a huge problem with masses of illegals coming across the border. They were not coming ‘just to find work’ as was often touted before. These were coming to take advantage of the chaos in the United States to rape, steal, and pillage. Hundreds of citizens were trying to seal the borders to protect themselves and their loved ones.

  Governors in the southwestern states ordered the National Guard to close the border and allow no ingress into their states from the south using any means necessary. The desert sands were soon covered in blood but the horde from the south was stopped and citizens cleaned up many that were already in their states. Bodies were just left lying where they fell or were sometimes piled up. Buzzards and coyotes got fat feeding on the bodies of the dead Mexicans (we did haul away for proper burial all of our citizens who died in these border fights.

  After about another two weeks there came a big difference in the news that was seen on TV. There were no ‘bloody clashes’ reported at all. No cities were seen burning. They showed FEMA and National Guard troops passing out food boxes to very orderly citizens who were very quiet and polite. There was no local news at all. On the news it looked like everything was great in the nation.

  It was not mentioned about phone service being down or the lack of the internet service. At the ranch they all thought that the President was a coward for not even appearing on the government propaganda that was now all that showed on the TV.

  The least he could do was show his face and talk directly to the American people, even if everything he said was a total lie. Even when he had declared a nation-wide state of emergency he had only issued it as a statement, coward. They all knew he was still alive because he was shown talking to Congress and coming and going at the White House like everything was normal.

  At the ranch they had a quite long driveway with a ditch on one side. The ditch was rather deep up by the road then gradually tapered to nothing up closer to the houses. At the end of the driveway by the road there was a gate that they had always kept open and closer to the houses there was another gate that was always kept open. They decided to close and lock the gate near the road.

  People could always climb over the gate and walk in. The gate closer to the houses they decided to just shut and Al said he could make a simple alarm for that gate so if someone opened it they would know. When asked, Al said he could use a loaded shotgun shell and a mouse trap to make a simple noise maker.

  It wouldn’t hurt anyone and just to make sure he would remove all the shot and just leave the primer and powder. It should be loud enough to wake them if it happened at night and sure get their attention during the day.

  So the next day they put a chain and padlock on the end gate and after fiddling for about an hour or so Al hooked his ‘alarm’ on the inner gate. He had everyone go in their houses and then he opened the gate. There was a loud bang that sounded just like a gun going off.

  Everyone said they heard it easily in their houses. So Al rigged up another and showed everyone how to bypass it very easy if they wanted to open the gate. They all felt a little more secure now with the gates shut but in reality their precautions did not amount to much. The gate out front could be driven around if you just cut the barb wire fence. And the gate close to the houses had the noisemaker but by that time any bad guys would be already up amongst them.

  While they still had power Al spent all one day and half of the next in the shop, building and welding more gadgets out of some scrap metal that he found on the scrap pile (all farms and ranches have a scrap pile). He did not think they would ever need them but it gave him something to do and didn’t really cost much of anything to make them.

  Everyone was looking for things to do. All were used to working everyday and even though Art and Joy had quite a list of projects plus the regular things that had to be done on the ranch, with eight hard working adults things were done and soon no projects were left. Dean was somewhat of a mechanic and he spent a solid week going through all the farm equipment then when he finished that he looked over all the personal vehicles looking for problems and giving everything a lube job.

  Chapter Eight

  Then one sunny day Art happened to be looking toward the road and saw a white SUV stop out by the locked gate. He saw someone get out but it was too far to see what they were doing until the rig drove around the gate and started for the houses. He yelled that there was trouble coming and everyone ran for cover and rifles.

  Art walked over and deactivated their inner gate alarm and opened the gate then walked back close to the houses. The SUV drove slowly up the driveway and stopped near him. Painted on the side Art could see it said ‘Homeland Security’. Two people in some kind of uniform got out and one had a clip board.

  “What do you want besides cutting my fence up?”

  “Citizens are required to provide access and not hinder us in our official duties. We are here to inventory all supplies and equipment on the farms in this region for possible future use by our department. This is authorized by Presidential Executive Order number 583.

  At this time we will just be doing an inventory and will need access to all buildings and structures. You are welcome to accompany us while we do this inventory work.”

  “No.”

  “That’s OK if you are busy we can just as easily work alone and do not require your help.”

  “No. You are getting back in your rig and leaving this property right now.”

  “You are required to grant us access. Failure to do so is a serious criminal act with a stiff punishment.”

  “If this is so legal why is the Sheriff not with you?”

  “The Sheriff decided not to obey a legal order from the President of the United States and has been removed from office.”

  “You mean he was killed, right?”

  “I believe the Sheriff resisted arrest by Homeland Security officers.”

  “Get off my property right now while you still can. It’s against my better judgment to let you leave here alive so you better hurry.”

  “Enforcement officers will come back and arrest everyone here. You will be sorry for this rash decision and bring unnecessary harm to your family.”

  “You had better not mention my family again. In one minute I am going to shoot you dead if you are still here. 59. 58. 57. 56. 55….”

  Both men walked rapidly back to the vehicle and left much faster than they drove in. When they were out of sight the others came out from their firing positions. Each was carrying a rifle.

  “I’m sorry if I handled that badly. I might have just signed all our death warrants.”

  “No you handled it just right. We are either free or we are slaves. None of us want to be slaves.”

  “We have an awful lot of work to do before they come back. If we are going to fight, we have to try to even the odds. I doubt if they will come back today but I think tomorrow or the next day we will see them here. Does anyone want to leave and not figh
t?”

  Everyone shook their heads no. They had all talked about this and thought it might come down to protecting themselves and their way of life. The kids could go into the root cellar. It was made as a tornado shelter so it wasn’t creepy or anything and the kids sometimes played down there now anyway.

  Everyone went into the house and sat at the kitchen table to make their war plans. Over an hour later they all went outside and got to work. Everyone had a job and when they finished their job they helped with the next step. Supper was eaten only to try to appear normal for the kids. Everyone worked well into the evening until it was too dark and all were tired. There was too much risk of accidents trying to work in the dark when you are tired. They went to bed and started again at first light.

  They finished before noon and had a hasty lunch. After lunch they grabbed their gear and went to their spots to wait. Ann was with the children and would take them to the root cellar at first sign of trouble. She was supposed to stay there with the children at the request of the other seven members of the family but she wanted to be on the ‘front lines’ with the rest.

  At the end it was decided she should remain at the root cellar but could use her rifle to stop anyone from flanking the rest of the family. Nobody had to wait very long because just an hour or so later five of the white SUV’s were seen driving toward them on the road.

  They all stopped at the end of the driveway and there was a very brief hope they would not turn in towards the ranch. They had made hasty signs warning them away and that those on the ranch were honest law abiding citizens and what the government was doing was totally unconstitutional. It made no difference and the SUV’s started to drive through the gap where the fence was cut that they had never fixed.

  The lead vehicle had driven in about sixty or seventy feet when it stopped abruptly and a couple muted bangs were heard. Then when the others drove around the stopped vehicle those trucks also stopped abruptly and more quiet bangs were heard until all of the SUV’s were dead and doors opened and the uniformed ‘soldiers’ started running towards the houses. They must have had some training because they spread out some instead of staying bunched up. When they got roughly about a hundred yards out the soldiers started falling down and at that time the family opened up with their rifles.

  The soldiers were falling because the family had put barb wire on short stakes so it was about three inches off the ground in a random crisscross pattern. This covered a fairly large area. It was hard to see the wire because the hay had started to grow up a little and was about five inches high hiding the wire. The men were getting all tangled up in the barbs and the family had stepped off the range so they knew exactly where to aim at that distance.

  The twenty soldiers were being cut to shreds. Seeing those ahead falling in the field some ran up the driveway where there was no barb wire. But there were fine strings across the driveway that tripped 12 gauge poppers similar to the gate alarm but these had short sections of three quarter inch pipe attached that made them into regular shotguns filled with buckshot.

  When the strings were touched the buckshot went off killing or wounding those on the driveway. Some of the buckshot even hit those in the field. It only lasted about two or three minutes. When everything was quiet for ten minutes Al told the others to stay put and he walked out into the killing zone.

  Three times they all heard his pistol go off. He walked carefully all the way to the trucks to make sure they were empty. Then he walked up the driveway to one side and unhooked all the poppers that were still live so none of the family would get hurt. Their plan that everyone contributed to worked better than they had ever thought.

  They had pounded in steel fence posts at severe angles so they were only sticking up about one and a half feet. On top of the posts were more 12 gauge rounds that had only three inch barrels. When the pipe was pressed hard the cartridge primer was pressed against a very short nail and would fire. That might have helped stop the vehicles but it was mostly the posts that stopped them.

  The shotgun rounds were there to try to disable the motors so they couldn’t just back up and go way around. All the family were behind hastily made barricades containing twelve inches of dirt to stop any bullets and provide a solid rest for very accurate shooting. It looked like way more people behind the barricades because they had made simple dummies with pieces of black pipe in front of them to look like gun barrels.

  Ann was a nurse and they had expected some of the family to be wounded and wanted her safe so she could do what she could to heal them. But things had gone very well at the ranch and no one was wounded. Liz walked back to tell Ann that it was over but to keep the kids in the house or the cellar so they wouldn’t see. The rest would clean up and remove the mess.

  Art got the tractor that had a loader on and several tow chains and tow straps. He also hooked up a small trailer behind the tractor. Al brought his pickup down by the road and unlocked and opened the front gate. Bob and Dean went to the bodies and started making a pile of items taken from them that might be useful at the ranch.

  Two of the Homeland Security’s guns were damaged but they were still added to the pile to be fixed or used for spare parts. Joy, Amy, and Liz went to the stopped vehicles and went through them taking anything that might be useful out even including spare tires and the jacks. Two of the rigs were still in running condition but were stuck on the posts.

  Al used his truck in low range to pull the all the rigs free from the posts. Then using tow chains they hooked the SUV’s together so the running ones could pull the non-running ones down the road. Before they left the ranch they drained all the gas out of the non-running trucks and got almost all out of the two that still ran. They ended up getting over sixty gallons of gas which they filled one empty fifty five gallon drum then dumped the remainder in ranch vehicles.

  The batteries from the non-running SUV’s were also salvaged for ranch use. They drove the SUV’s four or five miles down the road and left them in the ditch off the road so to not impede any traffic that did drive down the road. The drivers then all piled into Al’s truck for the return trip to the ranch.

  At the same time the dead bodies were thrown into the trailer and hauled down the road a ways to a spot Art remembered. There was a dirt bank in one spot and the bodies were thrown next to it and Art used the loader on the tractor to cover the bodies with a fair amount of dirt. Then they also drove back to the ranch.

  Al stopped and loaded everything from the SUV’s and the bodies into the back of his truck on the way back. Art used a garden hose to clean the blood and gore from the trailer before he put it and the tractor away. The usable guns and ammo were distributed amongst the family members and the other items were used or put into storage.

  Chapter Nine

  They talked about the events of the day that evening. None were proud of the fact they had to kill fellow Americans but all realized the choice was made by those who had died not the family. The ‘soldiers’ had all known that what they were doing was wrong and had made the choice to follow their illegal orders to attack and rob from honest American citizens. The family did not attack, they had only defended and that was the big difference. Talk then changed to the repercussions of the day.

  “I wonder just how many they will send out next time and if they will have air support or something.”

  “I don’t know if there will be a next time. We are in the middle of no where out here. Homeland Security can not have millions of troopers and equipment. I think we ended their reign of looting the citizens in this area.

  You can bet we are not the only ones who fought back against tyranny. I would hazard to guess that the days of the Homeland Security Department are very limited. I think we will never hear from them again.

  I think we may very likely will face other dangers out here but at least this one is over. Of course I am only guessing but it seems reasonable to me.”

  “I have to agree with Al. I think they have to have very limited numbers, especi
ally in the rural areas like this. I would also guess that many honest citizens are fighting back, in the rural areas for sure.”

  “Even though I did not hesitate to defend the ranch and our children, I hope I never have to go through that again in my lifetime. I don’t know if I will be able to sleep for a long time.”

  Talk continued well into the evening and then everyone left to go to bed. Even though most thought they would not be able to sleep their bodies were weary from all the work and the little sleep they had the night before and sleep came not long after their heads hit the pillows.

  The next day they fixed the fence out by the road and relocked the gate. Al reloaded the all the shotgun shell defenses but did not hook up the poppers along the driveway. No one wanted to kill any innocent people that might walk up the driveway. They did hook up the inner gate alarm again and had to redo some of the angled posts that had stopped the SUV’s because they were bent and those were reloaded and left operational.

  Life on the ranch went on. They raised many rabbits there and often butchered rabbits for supper. Fall was coming and soon it would be hunting season, not that seasons had to be followed anymore. Their fruit trees were producing and the ladies canned and also made jellies from the fruit. They also made many pies and cobblers which everyone enjoyed.

  One of the three milk cows at the ranch was coming into heat and Art went to the neighbors and ‘rented’ his old bull back for awhile to service the cow. He traded some of the ranch’s stockpiled hay for the bull’s services. There were never any repercussions from the short war that they had fought just as Al had predicted.

  The electric went off several times but never for more than about twelve hours. They still checked the TV for news but it had been reduced to just one station that was only on for a few hours a day. It had been just government propaganda but one day that changed and had local news with no national news at all.