Coastal Event Memories

by A. G. Kimbrough

  As he crested the next hill, David saw a bedraggled figure walking along the road. As he approached, the man turned, smiled, and stuck out his thumb. He pulled along side, stopped, and said, “You look like you could really use a lift.”

  “I’ve been rode hard and put away wet, as my grandpa used to say. My name’s William Landon, but most folks call me Tiny. I would appreciate a ride, but I need something to eat. I ran out of food three days ago.”

  “I can help both ways, I’m David Russell.”

  They made a small fire on the side of the road, made a meal of canned ham and pancakes, and got acquainted.

  Tiny, was well over six feet, and a big boned man with a full beard. He was in route to a friend’s wedding in Reno on Day –1, and took shelter in a barn near Nashville. On Day 0, the barn fell down and crushed his Harley. The flood rushing out of the mountains washed away what was left of the town and he barely made it to high ground. He rode out the storm in the wreckage of a house, and started walking north when the salvaged food ran out. His family also lived in the Bay area, where he had an accounting firm.

  In less than an hour, the two men developed a friendship and agreed to work together to get back home. They drove on North up Highway 49 through the wreckage of El Dorado. When they reached Diamond Springs, they found a jack-knifed tractor-trailer blocking Highway 49 at the junction of Missouri Flat Road. Spray painted on the side of the trailer was the words: Trespassers Will Be Shot!

  The map showed a westbound on-ramp to Highway 50 from Missouri Flat Road, so they drove that direction. On the eastbound Highway 50 on-ramp was another will be shot message. Tiny commented, “looks like they don’t want any company.”

  “I guess they had trouble with looters,” replied David.

  Highway 50 eastbound was choked with wrecks and stalled cars. A few bodies were visible inside some of them. A sense of foreboding came over both men as they continued westbound.

  It was near sundown when they crested the last foothill. Instead of the valley and Sacramento stretching out before them, a vast Inland Sea covered everything.

  David stopped the truck, and gasped, “they’re all gone.”

  Tiny opened his door and stumbled down to his knees. With tears streaming, he exclaimed, “I can’t believe it. My family, all the people, why did I survive?”

  Both men sat on the ground on each side of the truck, trying to come to grips with the enormity of the situation. The day was ending when David spoke. “ With the water level this high around the world, we’ve lost the 80% of the people that live along the coast. This is truly the end of the world as we know it.”

  Tiny replied. : I don’t know about you, but I almost wish I hadn’t survived.”

  David stood up and said, “we can’t let our civilization collapse. Those of us left have to do what it takes to insure that the children of the survivors don’t live in the dark ages. We have to keep as much of the knowledge intact, so mankind can recover. To do that, we have to survive, and to prosper. I need you to be my partner, to help me make a difference.”

  Tiny stood, and embraced his friend, and said, “Your right. We better make some supper while there is some light left. Tomorrow’s not going to be any easier.”

  The next morning, they continued down the hill. As they approached the point where Highway 50 disappeared under the Inland Sea, David noticed something on a large building on the water’s edge. “That building has a big solar array on the roof. I’ll bet I can get some of it generating power.”

  They took the last off ramp and approached the building. It was a Best Buy warehouse electronics store, and the building appeared intact. In the same complex was a Furniture Warehouse, also mostly intact, and a Starbucks attached to a gas station convenience store, which were wrecked. The front windows in the Furniture store had blown out and a lot of the inventory in the front of the store had water damage. The offices and warehouse in the rear of the store were intact. There was a couch in one office, which Tiny claimed. David did not blame him, since his foam pad only was for one.

  “No problem, I’ll sleep on one of the beds outside. Lets check out the other building. I want to get up on the roof and see what shape the solar system is in.”

  The front of the Best Buy had steel roll-down doors over the entrance doors and windows. They drove around to the back and found a two bay dock, and a drive through vehicle entrance, all with roll-down doors. They did find two steel access doors. Three shots with the 357 blew out the deadbolt on one of them and they were inside.

  The next week was spent surveying and consolidating their new home. The Best Buy building was secure, after they found the open key safe and barricaded the door with the blown out deadbolt. It had daylight lighting through translucent panels in the roof and walls. That building would be the home of the Best Buy Trading Post. It was filled with all of the electronics and appliances that were presently useless.

  David had hopes to restore some of the solar power generation capacity from the roof panel array, but his initial efforts had proven unsuccessful. He did find a case of solar laptop chargers that would recharge a laptop, after two or three day’s exposure to the overcast daylight sky.

  They moved most of the inventory into the warehouse, and stacked it for long term storage. The batteries, lights, solar chargers, and a few other selected items were placed on covered display cabinets in the rear of the sales area. The salvageable items from the convenience store and Starbucks were also moved into the warehouse.

  With a recharged laptop and battery powered printer, David printed 25 notices.

  Attention

  The Proprietors of the Best Buy Trading Post announce our Grand Opening Fair. We will open our doors on Saturday, October 20. We are located in El Dorado Hills at the end of Highway 50, in the Best Buy Building. We have a secure place for you and your trading goods, out of the rain, so you can stay overnight. Bring anything you have to swap for something you need. We have some batteries, lights, solar chargers, and a few other selected items. We will trade for most anything, since if we don’t need it someone else probably will. We want food, bicycles, seeds, fishing gear, tools, ammo, pumps, and solar equipment.

  We also can provide a slow recharging service for small battery powered devices. We could charge your cell phone but it still won’t work.

  Our world has changed beyond our understanding. We have all lost too much. Now is the time for those of us who have survived, to start rebuilding our lives, and working together. It will take our, and our children’s lifetimes to remake this corner of the world, but what choice do we have?

  There are some that have preyed on others since the Event. That behavior will not be tolerated here.

  Thieves will be shot…

  David Russell and Tiny Landon

  Early the next week, David loaded up and headed back up Highway 50 to bring the Frombachs back to their new home. Tiny stayed behind to guard the property. David left several notices at the Missouri Flat off ramp and the junction at Highway 49. He left one notice at every crossroad all the way up to the Frombach’s cabin. Elmer and Alice were overjoyed to see him, and David felt like he had come home. They were excited when he described the trading post idea.

  Later, over dinner, David described so far unsuccessful efforts to get any power out of the solar system. Elmer smiled and said, “you didn’t have any power on the service side did you?”

  “No, that’s why I am trying to get the solar system up, “ David replied.

  Elmer continued, “You have to have voltage on the load lines before the converter will turn on, it’s a safety feature, to prevent someone down the line from getting g shocked by the solar panel. You need a small battery powered converter to energize the load side of the solar converted so it will turn on. Then you can switch on the real loads and the solar system will drive it.”

  David shook his head, and said, “I have all the engineering book learning, but not enough real world experience to know that. I’m glad to hav
e your help, and your experience.”

  The next morning, they started loading the truck and a small trailer with everything that might be needed in their new home. David assured them that there was plenty of furniture to pick from. Elmer did have a good selection of tools, some fishing gear, and some heritage seeds. Alice had a kitchen full of stuff as well as bedding, an old sewing machine, knitting supplies, and family pictures. They also took the wood stove and the hand pump for the well.

  They were ready to leave by early afternoon of the next day. David turned to Alice and asked, “any regrets about leaving?”

  She shook her head and replied. “No, no, we were not safe there anymore. We have had a good run, but we need to move on. Elmer needs medical attention. His arm is not healing. I’ll miss my roses, but I took some cuttings.”

  They saw that most of the notices were gone, and David considered that a good sign. They arrived just before dark, and just pulled into the warehouse. Unloading would wait until the next day.

  Tiny had seafood stew and pan bread supper ready to prepare, and within an hour they were sharing a meal by battery lantern light.

  Tiny also had news of two different groups of visitors. The first was two men from the other side of El Dorado Hills. They promised to return for the fair.

  The second group of three heavily armed men arrived yesterday afternoon on bicycles. They had come down Highway 50 from the Placerville area. They were wary, but impressed, especially with the security and the shelter offered by the furniture store. They also said that a large group from their area would come down the hill for the fair.

  The next day, everyone worked to get the Frombachs settled in the big furniture store office.

  David finally was able to address the solar system problem. It was almost sundown when he connected a converter powered by the truck battery to a single panel and converter. The green LED indicator on the panel converter flashed on, and when he connected the AC output to a flood lamp, it illuminated. It went out a few minutes later as the sunlight faded. It was a major milestone on the road back.

  During the next few days, everyone but David worked to prepare for the weekend fair. David worked to disconnect the damaged panels from the rooftop grid. When that task was completed, two thirds of the panels were available for power generation. Using the single panel he had been able to use the forklift charger to charge an array of a dozen batteries salvaged from car on the eastbound Highway 50. He used three small converters supplied by the battery array to provide the startup power.

  Early Friday morning, a school bus pulling a trailer arrived with the first group from Placerville. After they had unloaded, it went back up the hill for another load. By the end of the day, 27 different family groups had arrived, some on motorized vehicles, a few on wagons, and several walking.

  The fair was a huge success, and the last of the visitors did not leave until Monday afternoon. David promised to hold another every other month, and everyone promised to return. David had set up a bulletin board with a place to list things they needed and things they had to swap. He decided to include the listing on the back of the next fair notice.

  When it became obvious that the listing was going to be more than one page, David was complaining that he might as well be trying to publish a newspaper. Alice overheard his comment and replied. “Why don’t you?”

  That answer sparked the beginning of the Inland Sea Beacon, a three page, legal paper, sized document that included news, opinion, advertising, and a comic strip. The first issue was printed on an inkjet printer and then reproduced 100 times on a laser photocopier. Each paper sold for one nickel, and two boys who delivered and collected for it got to keep two cents for each copy. Only pennies, nickels and pre 64 silver coins were accepted. They were waiting on the Monday morning before the next fair when the print run was completed. With their bicycles loaded, they made their way to every known residence in the area.

  Chapter 12

  David has found that the electronics still in their original conductive foam packaging had survived the EMP Storm. At the bottom of one box he discovered a wide band scanner. He hooked up an antenna on the roof, and turned it on every afternoon, while he worked on other projects. All he ever heard was static across all bands, but he kept listening. On one Saturday evening at 6:00 PM, he heard “ Breaker Breaker, This is Sutter Butte Base Any Station, Please come back. We will try again next Saturday, again at 6:00 PM” on Channel 16 of the CB Band.

  Even with the large Best Buy electronics inventory, there was no CB gear. David worked unsuccessfully to attempt to repair the CB radio from the truck while Tiny made the rounds looking for working equipment. He found an old tube type CB base station in the wreckage of a trailer in Diamond Springs.

  David had it set up and tested by Saturday afternoon, and that evening established a communication link with the settlement at Sutter Butte. They reported that their battery power was limited, but that they would send the Wild Goose to the next fair.

  Thursday afternoon David and Tiny were up on the roof watching for their new arrivals, when they saw the sail on the horizon. Someone waved from near the top of the main mast. David returned the wave and then hurried down to the dock. The ship dropped the mainsail, and slowly approached the dock under the jib. David saw a freckled faced wisp of a girl fearlessly slide down a ratline to the main deck. She was wearing shorts and a tank top and looked about 13. She caught the line he threw, and snubbed it to a cleat. An older man was at the helm, and said, “You must be David Russell. I’m Doc Hanson, and this imp is Rebecca Thompson, and her father Delbert.”

  The introductions continued, while the Goose was secured to the dock. The visit was productive in several ways. Aaron Johnson asked for a ride back to his house, and was pleased to find it had not been salvaged. He filled both David’s and his trucks with furniture, tools, toys, and household items. David asked him if he ever planned to come back to live there.

  His reply was short. “There are too many bad memories here, plus we have a big garden on the Butte. We will be completely self sustaining in another year.” He left his truck, also an old diesel, with David, asking only that it be available when anyone from Sutter Butte came to the Trading Post.

  During the fair that weekend, the participants had an extended series of discussions on salvage and property rights. General agreement was reached on several points and David published them in the next issue of the Inland Sea Beacon:

  Inland Sea Property Rights

  This agreement, by a majority of the known population, will be the law for all property rights.

  1. Any physical property owned prior to Day 0 shall remain the property of those surviving owners, or their children. If no one has established a valid claim before Day 0 of year 2, that property will be considered abandoned. A valid property claim must be occupied.

  2. Any property unoccupied for 6 months, may be claimed by individuals or families, by occupying the property, salvaging or improving it, marking the borders, and posting that claim on the Property Database at the Best Buy Trading Post.

  3. Property claims shall not exceed 160 acres for agricultural property, 5 acres for residential property, 1 acre for business or salvage property.

  4. Property claims shall not include streets, roads, bridges, navigable waterways, schools, hospitals, or other property with significant potential for public good.

  5. Property may be sold or given to another by having both parties’ record the transaction on the Property Database.

  6. The Best Buy Trading Post will maintain the Property Database on a separate computer with backup. There will be no charge for an individual’s initial claim entry. Any additional entries or changes will incur a pre 64 dime, or mutually agreeable equivalent payment to Best Buy Trading Post.

  7. A jury of citizens in a trial shall settle any disputes, where both parties directly present their case.

  Chapter 13

  Zeke was ecstatic, his family was healthy, secure, and happy. The
ir farm, Casa Jacoby, was providing most of their needs, and the first batch of apricot brandy was ready for barter.

  The Wild Goose had appeared one late summer day, and Zeke learned about the other settlements North of them. They traded some junk silver for some empty bottles, six hens and a rooster. He also found out about the Best Buy Trading Post Thanksgiving Fair in El Dorado, and resolved to be there that fall. While the range was too great for CB radio communications, both vessels had 10-meter systems on board. Because of power limitations on both vessels (the sun was never more than a dull glow), they agreed to communicate briefly, every Saturday night at 9:00 PM.

  It was great, being able to communicate with the rest of their limited world, and all their excitement grew as Fall season approached. Finally, they departed, four days before Thanksgiving, with the harvest surplus, apricot brandy filling every available container, fuel tanks full of bio-diesel, and everyone but Hector, who insisted on looking after the homestead.