Catastrophe in America

by Pete Thorsen

There was a second chimney on the other end of the house in the living room but it was not now used. On the roof was a new looking modern electric heat pump that would have provided both heating and cooling. That had apparently replaced the wood or coal stove that had been in the living room that used to heat the whole house. We looked but the old wood stove was not on the place anymore.

  Our first week or so went pretty smooth but naturally that could not last.

  Chapter Seven

  I had urged Bill to be our security chief and he did not take that position lightly. It did not surprise me a bit when he called out that people were approaching. We all got armed and when the people were close enough to hear me I yelled out a warning.

  “This is private land. What do you want?”

  “The state owns this land not you and we are here to see if that windmill works.”

  “I say again that we now own this land and we will kill anyone and everyone to defend it. But I am a reasonable man and will let anyone come up here one at a time to get as much clean water as they can carry.”

  When the group started walking towards us I fired a single shot very near them. Very near them. That stopped them.

  “I said one at a time and I will not waste another valuable shot as a warning. So one at a time or I will start to pick you off one at time. It’s your choice.”

  They huddled together and then one man approached. I was the only one of us visible as per our previous agreement. The others were all at ready in firing positions and Debbie was watching little Jon with the little 22 pistol in a holster on her side.

  The man came up the old driveway and stopped about twenty feet from me. I had never lowered my rifle and the safety was off with my finger resting lightly on the trigger.

  “You can’t just steal this place.”

  “Possession has always been nine tenths of the law. At least I have always heard that said anyway. We both know there is no law anymore. We have this place now and we will remain here until we all die here.”

  “I only see you. We could easily take this place. I will let you leave in peace or we will take this place over your dead body if that is what you want.”

  I never said another word. He wanted this fight but he was not very good at it. I shot him without a second thought then turned to the others and dropped two more where they were waiting. As they were running away I got lead into one or two more.

  Bob came running out and right to me.

  “You just shot him for no reason.”

  “He threatened me and everyone on the ranch. I could have been polite and sent him back to the others so they could have snuck up on us when we were not ready and likely killed all of us. Would that have been a better outcome?

  I will kill anyone who threatens us or who I view as a threat to us. You better think about the new world we live in now. I offered to share all the water they wanted but they wanted everything. I was the reasonable one, not them.”

  With that I went over to the man I shot and checked for sure that he was dead. Then I went through his pockets to see if he had anything we could use besides the pistol he had on his hip. Next I went into the house and put a fresh magazine in my rifle and grabbed a daypack with just a few essentials in it and left again. I got my quad and I tied a short rope on the dead guy and drug him behind me as I headed towards the others I had shot.

  Once I got to them I again checked to see if they were indeed dead before gathering their weapons and what they had in their pockets. One had a back pack with a bunch of ammunition for his rifle and pistol along with a few other items we could use.

  I made a pile of what I would be keeping and then using the quad I drug all three bodies another several hundred yards or so down the road towards the little community where I once lived. They would serve as a warning for others. I drove the quad back to the pile and left it there so I could follow the blood trail I had noticed some of the others had left.

  I followed them for some distance and finally found another body. He was very dead by the time I got to him. The others had just left him and he still had a rifle and pistol which I took along with everything else he had on him that I thought we might use including his leather belt.

  He had some cash in his pocket but like the others I left it in their pockets. Cash was now worthless except maybe in the outhouse. Two of the bodies had rings which I did take with me. At some point precious metals might again actually be precious metals but I am guessing that time is a long way away from now.

  Carrying the extra rifle and pistol and other items made a load for this old man and I headed back to home. I doubted that those left alive would make a sneak attack on the ranch right away after they saw the losses from this one.

  I did expect those still alive to remember the offer I had made to get free water but it was obvious that it was too far to travel all the way to the ranch to get that water. So we would have to maintain a very good vigil at all times but I had some ideas to help with that little problem.

  When I got to the quad I loaded up all the gear I took from the bodies and went back to the ranch. We now had plenty of guns for everyone at the ranch. We also had some new enemies. I don’t think that was a very fair trade but only time would tell.

  I was not looking forward to the meeting we would have to have in the house. I don’t know if I was handling all this the best way or not but I could only do what I thought was best to keep all of us alive as long as I could. I knew that things would soon drop down to dog eat dog and every man for himself when things did go bad and I had done some time thinking about how I thought people might react and how I would deal with them if it came down to it.

  One thing I had decided early was that anyone who threatened me or my family would be dealt with immediately. I would not let them threaten me and then walk away to plan their attack for when I was not ready for it. I assumed things would only get worse and I was not looking forward to it. Both Meg and I early on had realized that being prepared had many facets and only one of those was having some food on hand.

  Chapter Eight

  The meeting was not as bad as I expected. Apparently I had two allies in Meg whom I fully expected and in Sue which I had not expected. When I returned with all the guns Sue looked them over and picked out a rifle and a pistol and asked if she could use them from now on. I of course said yes.

  She seemed to be determined to protect herself and her family which I whole heartedly agreed with. While I was gone on my gruesome detail the rest had had been in deep conversation about what happened and what to expect in the future. They came around to my thinking, at least mostly so anyway.

  The day was shot and we just had our supper and went to our beds. I laid awake for some time thinking and trying to make plans that were completely out of my area of expertise. There just wasn’t much use for a day trading market analyst anymore now was there?

  In the morning I walked around the ranch both inside all the buildings and around a hundred yards out or so. I also looked out all the house windows, spending a few minutes at each window just looking out. After a couple hours I had some loose plans and enlisted the help of both Bob and Bill. I gave each of them a pair of leather gloves from my stash and we started working.

  We grubbed out and cut down a few bushes that had grown up around the place and trimmed up a couple of the scrub trees that I did not want to cut down. Like most any old farm or ranch place there was scrap laying around here and there and we picked through and found many short pieces of metal pipes, rods, and shafts which I directed them to pound in the ground at certain locations using a couple of old mauls that were on the place.

  They both thought I was crazy I’m sure but neither said anything about it. When we got the old used rusty barb wire rolls from a scrap heap they maybe started to see what I was trying to do.

  We ran the barb wire from post to post on the metal pipes and such we had pounded in so the wire ended up less than a foot off the ground. We had plenty of that old rusty
barb wire and we ran some at diagonals also so it ended up in a criss-crossed pattern in many places. I think they knew the purpose of the wire but I told them anyway that it was to slow down or trip anyone that trying to attack us.

  Next we took some old boards and pounded in some rusty nails of which we had also found a good supply of. The boards were laid out in certain places with the nails pointed up and then lightly dusted with dirt and dried plant debris. I went and got the all the others and showed them exactly where each board was so no one would step on them by accident.

  Our next project was a couple more posts and a mixture of string and fine wire that was used in conjunction with three old cow bells and some cans with a few rocks in them as noise makers. These we placed at random spots to help alert us at night if we had intruders. We just did not have the man power to have a around the clock security guard. The couple things we did that morning would have to do us for security.

  After lunch we kept working by picking out a plot for a large garden with input from all the adults as to where it should go. We wanted it as close to the house as possible to help safe guard it from both two and four legged critters and it had to be in an easy spot to water it from the big water tank next to the windmill.

  Once the plot was decided on and size guessed at we started to turn the dirt over with a couple of shovels. It was slow work at best. After just an hour or so we gave up. I hooked up the garden hose we had brought from home that Meg had used to water her flowers and watered down the garden area for quite some time. The next day we watered down the garden area again and also the day after before we tried digging anymore. After three days of soaking the ground was much softer and we were able to actually get a lot done.

  Whenever any of us were outside we never forgot to stop whatever we were doing at random intervals to scan all the surrounding area. I had warned everyone more than once about the very real possibility of an attack. When possible one person was dedicated just for security which turned out to be most of the time. All of us took turns on watch.

  Once all the dirt was turned with the shovels in our garden I hooked up an old one horse cultivator that was in one of the sheds to the quad. We used that to further break up the soil in the garden and made passes in two directions. When we finally got done it actually looked pretty good and my hopes for a producing garden went up a notch.

  Whenever we were working all of us were armed with pistols and made sure a rifle was nearby at all times. We had now been on the ranch for quite awhile with no attack and I was starting to think we were home free. It had been around a month I think since the electric power had gone off but none of us were keeping track of the days. We had the garden totally ready to plant and as soon as the weather got a little warmer we would plant it.

  We had pounded in regular steel fence posts around the garden plot and put up some woven wire fence completely around the plot to hopefully keep out all the critters. There were rabbits around but their numbers had dropped dramatically since we started to eat them on a regular basis. The rabbit meat had helped stretch our food but we had been going through our food supply fast.

  Bob went out one day and returned with a deer which we immediately cut up and the two women with Debbie’s help turned almost all the venison into jerky so it would not spoil. Only the back straps did we eat fresh. The jerky was a big hit with everyone even though the ladies had used very little spices.

  Once we had the jerky it often showed up cooked in soups and stews. Because it worked so well Bob shot another deer and it got the same treatment.

  We were all in high spirits the day when Debbie, who was on watch yelled out a warning.

  Chapter Nine

  Everyone knew what to do because we had done practice drills on several occasions. All went to their assigned spots with their favorite rifle and extra ammunition. Only Debbie was not a dedicated shooter as her job was to keep Jon down in the innermost spot of the house where we thought it would be the safest for both of them.

  There were several men and Bob wasted no time and dropped one when they were still well over two hundred yards out. I knew if it came down to protecting his family he would not hesitate to shoot. The attack was from more than one side and I heard shots from I think Meg and Sue’s rifles also. I still had no clear shots from my location but was ready and guessed soon I would also be shooting.

  I almost missed the one who was actually crawling towards the place because he blended in so well. When I did see him I waited just a few moments for a more clear shot and made a nice slow squeeze on the trigger and was rewarded with him slumping to the ground. I put one more bullet into the body to be sure but it barely jerked with the hit of the bullet.

  There were now many shots from both inside and outside the ranch house and I could hear bullets hitting the house many times. We had built small dirt boxes just big enough to offer each shooter some protection. The boxes were about four inches thick and packed with dry dirt and I thought they would stop most bullets.

  I had another target but just could not get a clear shot at him. And it almost sounded like some of the shots were now coming from a much farther distance. That could only mean that the attackers had got reinforcements. Things were starting to seem rather grim.

  I knew even though we had enough rifles, the ones we had ‘acquired’ from those guys I had shot we only had a few shells for. Meg and I had plenty for our Mini 14’s and Bob had enough for my old deer rifle but Bill and Sue would soon be out if they weren’t already. And now the attackers had reinforcements.

  Surprisingly the shooting seemed to be letting up and when I saw the guy I had been trying to get a shot at raise up and look behind him I took a quick shot and got some lead into him.

  He was still alive and dropped back to where I could not get a clear shot again. Then I heard another distant shot and the man rose up and fell in my plain view. He looked dead but I put another round into him to be sure. I could not understand who had shot him. I was sure no one else in the house had a clear view to that spot.

  The area was now quiet. Then I heard a few more spaced out shots from outside somewhere but heard no bullet impacts on the ranch house. Then everything was quiet.

  Then I heard something I had only barely hoped I would ever hear again.

  “Mom, Dad if you hear me hold your fire. I think it’s over.”

  I let out a whoop that I bet people two states away plainly heard and jumped up and ran for the door.

  There walking towards the house were my two sons, both looking fit as a fiddle and carrying rifles. Meg was right beside me somehow and all four of us embraced like we would never let each other go. Before we could start talking Bill ran out.

  “My Mom’s been hit.”

  Meg and I ran from our boys to help tend Sue. We found her lying on the floor near her shooting position with Bob fussing over her. She was moving and moaning some so she was at least still alive.

  Meg had a little bit of medical knowledge and pushed Bob aside to examine Sue. Her face was covered with blood and Meg yelled to Bill who was hovering nearby to get a clean wash cloth and some clean water.

  When the water and cloth appeared (along with a clean towel) and Meg got some of the blood washed off and all she could find was a crease from a bullet (or a fragment of the house) near Sue’s hairline.

  Meg washed it off and put on some antibiotic ointment and said there was nothing else to do. Sue was mostly or totally out of it during this process and then at Meg’s directions Bob and Bill carried Sue to their bed and tried to make her comfortable. Bob would not leave her side so Meg just told him to call for her if there was any change at all.

  The rest of us went to again meet with our two boys (Don and Del) who had showed up at a very opportune time. Don was outside just bringing what appeared to be at least his second load of guns and gear from the dead attackers.

  Del showed up a few minutes later on a quad pulling a trailer that looked huge compared to the quad. I could only imagine
the tale they would have of their adventures from the last month and the long trip from their home in a different state.

  But first things first and we had to get rid of the dead bodies and check over the house and ranch for any damage that might require immediate repairs. The boys unhooked their trailer and with me on my quad we drug the bodies well out into the desert. While we were doing that Meg and Bill checked over the house to see how bad the damage was and if anything critical was damaged (like the kitchen stove). They also checked on the outside propane tank and the windmill and its tank.

  By the time everything that needed doing was done it was almost sundown. We went inside and found that Debbie had also been busy and had a fine supper laid out for all of us. The boys made a quick visit to Bob, whom they had not seen for several years, before sitting down to a meal.

  Over the meal and well into the evening we exchanged our stories of what had happened after the event.

  The two boys were together when the event happened and had just stayed put for many days. They had checked and the old quad they had bought when they first moved up there would still run fine but it was very cold yet up there and the house they rented together had a fireplace so they stayed there and melted snow for water.

  They had walked into town the first day and did manage to buy a few things but about a week later when they went back it was a totally different place. Every store or business had been broken into and looted. Even places like offices had been broken into for no good reason that they could think of.

  There were dead bodies actually lying in the streets in many places. They had both went armed with pistols hidden under their coats but when they saw the carnage they both drew and carried the pistols in their hands for quick action. Both wished they had brought their rifles. There was nothing in town for them and they soon left to go back to their house.