Catastrophe in America

by Pete Thorsen

  With absolutely nothing at all to do I decided to go to the little grocery store and see if I could buy some stuff to eat for later. That electric company better get their act together and fix the power pretty soon. That reminded me that I could call them and they would likely have a recording that said when the power would be expected to come back on. I powered up my phone and after finding the electric companies phone number (on the electric bill) I gave them a call. The phone just rang and rang and their automated machine never even answered.

  I looked up the non-emergency number for the police and tried giving them a call to see if they knew when the power would be back on but all I got there was a busy signal. Well that was totally unproductive so I powered down my phone and got some shoes on for my walk to the grocery store.

  The walk to the grocery store was pleasant enough and again I listened to several conversations along the way. Many were talking about the cyber/terror attack and how or if they could survive if the power was out for a month or more. Sounded like more crazy talk to me but I must admit many people were saying about the same things. That did not make it true of course but it did make me wonder. I got to my destination and the door looked to be open with many people going in and out. I followed another man into the store.

  Inside it was a terrible mess. These people were just looting this store and apparently most of the food was already gone. When I saw the man ahead of me grab a few plastic bags at the counter I did also and then I saw who I thought was the store owner lying dead behind the counter. I just stared at the dead body for a few moments and then walked further into the store.

  I would have never considered looting but I started thinking about it and this store must have started being looted several hours ago at least and there were no police here and even that dead body looked like it had been there for some time but the police had never showed up. With the store already this empty it must have been, I would guess, around midnight when the looting started here. Maybe there was something to all the talk I was hearing. I decided I should maybe at least try to get a little food and water.

  Most of the shelves were bare and I could see nothing to drink anywhere. I walked to where the drinks were usually on the shelves and it appeared empty. Just in case I climbed up to look on the top shelf and there I saw a quart bottle of a sports drink which I took. After climbing down I wandered around a little and got a few canned goods that I thought I could eat without cooking them. But most of the food that did not need cooking was already gone.

  I did get a few cigarette lighters and a roll of paper towels but then I just left the store. I thought if things were as bad as people said I could at least light a cooking fire with the cigarette lighters. I started walking straight home again. I was most of the way home when a man stopped me.

  “What do you have in the bag buddy?”

  “Nothing for you, buddy.”

  “This knife says otherwise, buddy.”

  The man had a kitchen knife and as soon as I saw it I took off running. I ran pretty hard and after a block I looked back but no one was after me. The knife wielding man was likely seeking someone who he did not have to run after and catch just to get some food.

  I did walk a little faster the rest of the way back to my place and had no further problems. I decided the next time I went out I would have to have something as a weapon also. I had no idea what that would be because I did not think I had a weapon in my apartment.

  I got my treasures back into my apartment and securely locked the door. I had risked my life for four cans of food, a bottle of sports drink, lighters, and a roll of paper towels. Less than five dollars worth total and I could have lost my life for it. I realized that if I had been stabbed no ambulance could even get through the clogged streets to get to me and take me to a hospital. And getting mugged in broad daylight with many other people around was pretty bizarre.

  If this power outage lasted very much longer I think some people would very likely be killed besides just that grocery store owner that I saw in the looted store. Then I remembered the things I thought were gun shots last night just before I went to sleep. Now I was sure that they really had been gun shots and I think I will be hearing more again tonight.

  I stayed in my apartment all the rest of the day. I did not eat any of my valuable canned goods for the simple reason that I did not have a non-electric can opener. I ate more sandwiches and told myself that I should be using that perishable food up first anyway. I saved what little water I had left and drank wine again with my meals.

  I again just sat by my window and looked out at the City all day and into the evening until it was too dark to see anything. I heard gun shots several times throughout the day and assumed it would be worse at night. I also heard many screams from the people below and I am quite sure they were not happy screams. I never once heard any kind of a police, ambulance, or fire truck siren all day long. Looks like we all are on our own now I thought. What on earth will I do if those people are right and the power does not come back on for a month or even if it is only two weeks? How can I possibly survive here?

  In just one day the little local grocery store was totally looted of everything and the owner killed. People were obviously getting more violent already and I think that will only get worse and worse with each passing day. I had seen my first ever dead body today and also had my own life threatened.

  And this was only after about twenty four hours of no power when that stuff happened. What would it be like after a week with no electric power? What about after a whole month with no electric power? I did not even want to try to think about how awful the situation here will get. People in that first twenty four hours could not have been that totally desperate for food and water yet and still they had killed and looted. I think that in a week of no power violent death will be a very common place event here.

  I admit sleep came very slowly to me this night.

  Chapter Four

  In the morning I had the last of my bagels and the last of my warm orange juice. I had my canned goods that I could not even open because I only had an electric can opener which was now useless. And my apartment was not smelling all that good anymore because the toilet did not work without water. I was in sad shape indeed. I had one more bottle of wine, a full pint bottle of water and one water bottle about half full and I had that quart of the sports drink that I had not opened yet. I could easily drink all that stuff in just one day and then I would have nothing.

  I had some crackers, some bread, the four cans that I could not open, and some condiments. For weapons I had a set of cheap steak knives that would maybe scare someone but in use they would likely break and the handles were too small to grip well anyway. I did have a couple of sharp paring knives and two larger kitchen knives that were fairly sharp.

  I did not even have a baseball bat which I would have felt much more comfortable with. I folded some paper around the blade of one of the paring knives so I would not poke myself with it and taking that I again left my apartment in search of I know not what but I felt I had to do something instead of just staring out the window all day long and feeling sorry for myself.

  I was almost all the way down to the street level when I met Jack (who lived here also). He was carrying a big pan of water which I stared at.

  “Where did you get the water?” Was the only thing on my mind and it popped out of mouth right away.

  “Quiet Lee. Follow me and I’ll show you but please do not tell anyone else.”

  So I followed him as he turned around and headed back down. He did not stop but opened a door that said ‘maintenance only’ which I found led to a basement. He took me to a couple of tanks.

  “These are the water heaters for the apartments. They have clean water in them. Do not waste it and use it only for drinking. This one is about empty but the other is still full I think. Keep quiet about the water and again do not waste it.”

  With that he left me alone with the tanks. I immediately went back to my ap
artment and grabbed what I could find that would hold water and that I could carry and I went back down to the basement. I filled what I had brought and went up with them and then returned with more containers and filled them up also. It wasn’t much but I did have some water now.

  I had filled the empty wine bottles and the empty water bottles I had in my trash. I had also filled the carafe from my coffee maker and the two cooking pots I owned. While filling the water bottles I had drank all I could hold also. I now had at least some water and a source to get more that would last a day or two at the most. I wanted to wash but I agreed with Jack that the clean water was just too precious to waste for washing.

  For lunch I had bread and some moldy cheese I found in the refrigerator (I cut the mold off the cheese). Supper was the last of the bread with ketchup on it. Along with a few of my crackers it made for a big meal. Tomorrow I would just be hungry.

  I went to bed wondering what the next day would bring but I doubted any of it would be good. During the night I heard gun shots both in the distance and close by (or what I thought were gun shots at least) and I heard many more screams than the night before.

  In the morning I used a small amount of the precious water to brush my teeth. Then I stared at the four cans of food that I had no means in which to open. For breakfast I had the last of my crackers and washed them down with the last of my wine.

  I again sat by my window for most of the day. There were many gun shots both near and far away and more screams even during the day. The screams were the worst because they were close and there was no mistaking them for something else. Also I could see dense smoke from fires rising in the two directions I could look at from my window. I never heard the sirens of any fire trucks though and where would the firemen get any water to fight the fires with anyway?

  In the late afternoon I went back to the basement to refill what containers that I had now empty with water. I could see where others had been there getting water also. There was enough water left to fill the containers I had brought with but the water came out slowly now and I knew this would be the last of the water that I would get here out of these tanks.

  That night was when I made the decision to leave my apartment the following morning. I had no food (that I could use) and only what small amount of water that I had in my bottles. I would die if I stayed here and I was not yet ready to die.

  Granted it would be very dangerous leaving but I had no choice. If I stayed here I would die for sure. I had no place to go and no idea if help was on the way. If I knew help was coming in a day or two I could easily last that long here but there was no communications at all. There were no police in the street with loud speakers telling everyone to remain calm and help would be arriving very soon.

  No directions telling all of us to go to the nearest school to receive food and water. Nothing at all. If I stayed here I would only get weaker and the people around me would only get more desperate and likely more violent. My choice of staying or leaving was really no choice at all. Stay and die or leave and at least have a small chance for continued survival. So I will be leaving in the morning with no destination except to just get away.

  Chapter Five

  I was up quite early this morning but I had to wait for the sun to get higher because it was too dark in my apartment at first to see well. I saved time with breakfast because there was none. I did open the sports drink and have some of that for breakfast. My first move was to go through every cupboard and every drawer and the closet looking for anything that I could use to help me survive on my journey.

  I put everything I found that I thought I should bring with on the bed. Then in the closet I found what would turn out to be a life saving tool. I had won this at an event once and had no use for it and I had thrown it in my closet. On the package it said it was a Gerber multi-tool. I still did not know what to use it for but it seemed like it should be useful now so I read the package.

  One thing stuck out to me right away when it said ‘can opener’ and it even showed how to use it for that purpose. There was also a knife and a saw and something called an awl that was apparently used to make holes. It came with a holster and I put it on my belt so I would have it with me all the time. The instructions for it I put on the bed to take with.

  I decided I should bring a complete change of clothes and some extra socks and underwear. I thought a blanket would be nice but it was just too bulky to carry. I had my water and those four cans of food and my kitchen knives. It was a pretty big pile on the bed and obviously too much for me to carry. How I wished for a backpack like I had seen so often on the backs of people even here in the City.

  I decided first to see it there was still any water in the basement and ran down there with the one empty bottle I had right now. The big tanks in the basement were completely empty and that sure did not surprise me. I was using the flashlight app on my cell phone to see and it was just about dead. Turning back to the door I did see a heavy duty mop and bucket. With hardly a thought I grabbed the heavy mop because I thought I could cut the handle with my new found saw and make a good club out of it. It might not be as good as a baseball bat but certainly would be better than nothing, which was exactly what I now had to use for defense.

  Back up at my apartment I looked at my supplies on the bed and the mop I had brought up. I thought I could make a spear by taping a kitchen knife to the mop handle so I would have a more intimidating weapon. I took one kitchen knife and tried taping it to the mop handle but it looked stupid and would certainly fall off if any amount of pressure was pushed against it. A total fail.

  I used my new multi-tool knife to cut the tape off the knife and mop handle. When doing so I remembered the saw and I thought of a plan. First I used the saw to cut the mop head off and leave the handle a reasonable length for a short spear. Then I looked around my apartment for something I could use as a hammer and found a heavy paper weight that would work. I laid one of my two kitchen knives on the floor and beat the plastic handle with the paper weight until it busted the handle completely off. Now I had the knife with just the flat metal shaft for a handle. It had several holes through it they had used to hold the plastic grips on it.

  Next I used the saw to cut a slot down in the center of the wood mop handle until the non-sharpened part of the knife would fit all the way into it. Then I got the awl tool out and made marks on the wood matching the holes in the blade shaft. I then used the awl to make the holes in the wood to correspond to the holes in the knife ‘handle’. When I slipped the knife into the wood handle slot I could see light through the holes so I knew they lined up. Then I started looking around my apartment for pins or bolts or something to go through the holes and hold the blade securely in the wood shaft.

  I could find nothing until I looked in my silverware drawer. The tines on a fork were tapered and if I could break them off I could pound them in through the holes I had made to hold the blade tight. The multi-tool had pliers and with some effort I broke off four of the fork tines and used the paper weight to pound those tines into the wood to hold the knife in place. I pounded the tines that stuck out on the back side over flat so now they could not fall back out and because the fork tines were tapered they were in very tight.

  When I checked it the blade was very tight on the wood shaft with no play at all and it did indeed look pretty wicked. It had about five or six inches of knife blade protruding from the end of the heavy wood shaft. I hoped just the sight of this formidable weapon would cause any attackers to run away so I would never have to use it. It would give me a much longer reach than someone with just a knife in their hand.

  The spear and a hand held paring knife would be my two weapons of defense. Then I again looked at the big pile of stuff on the bed wondering how I could carry it all. Plus I needed my hands free to hold and wield my spear to intimidate any would be attackers.

  I looked at what I had on the bed to take and then I saw the pillows and I had another idea. I took two pillow cases and two of my nec
k ties and I tied the neckties to the corners of the pillow cases. I could now have a pillow case in front and one on my back with the neckties used as shoulder straps.

  The pillow cases hung way down low and I had to retie them several times until both of the now shortened pillow cases would hang the way I wanted but it seemed to work OK even when I put all my junk I wanted to take with in them. Maybe it looked pretty dumb but it did seem to work pretty well. With the tops of the pillow cases now folded over it provided flaps or covers to help hold the stuff in better.

  After all this I thought it was late enough and happy with my progress so far today I splurged and used my multi-tool to open one of my cans of food for an early lunch. After my feast for lunch and donning my double ‘pack’ I left my apartment and wondered if I would ever see it again as I started my trip to my unknown destination. I admit I did feel a little self-conscious carrying my home made spear but at the same time I was very happy to have it with me. I think just having the spear will stop most or hopefully all confrontations before they even get started.

  I had thought some about where to go and had narrowed it down to two directions; either east or west. If I went east it would be a very short trip to the ocean and my thought was to steal or get a ride with others in a boat. The problem was I knew nothing about boats and the thought of being out on the ocean was not very comforting to me. So that only left heading west out of the City.

  I thought there would likely be many other people also fleeing the City heading west and that could be either a blessing or a curse. With many people I would be lost in the crowd so to speak and not as likely to be singled out by attackers. The whole safety in numbers type thing.