A Rocky Demise

by Pete Thorsen

  I know neither one of us ever expected that all that stored food would make a huge difference in our everyday existence.

  Even after we heard what was coming Donna did not think much about it.

  Chapter 10

  NASA announced that they had found a couple of new rocks flying through space that would be passing close to Earth. No impacts were projected and they would both pass so far away that without a telescope they would not be able to be seen.

  Ho hum, literally nothing to see here. Or so everyone thought.

  Then something else happened when another similar piece of space rock moving at a relatively high rate of speed and, at a tangent, managed to miraculously impact one the two previously announced meteoroids or asteroids. A fragment from that collision then struck the second meteoroid or asteroid. And while this might have been a big deal to astronomers it certainly meant nothing to anyone else.

  NASA later made another announcement that, because of that collision way out in space, the Earth would likely see a meteor shower due to the debris striking the Earth. Still certainly no big deal. And even if there did turn out to be a meteor shower, an incredibly small amount of the population would be up at night to watch it or even be interested to watch if they did happen to be awake.

  But then there seemed to be more and more talk about these two meteoroids and the debris field now surrounding them that was still heading our way. Now NASA said those two large rocks would be passing much closer to the Earth than previously thought due to the freak collision pushing them slightly off their original course.

  Finally we were all given a one day warning that indeed there would be at least one of these meteoroids (that they sometimes referred to as asteroids) striking the Earth. And it would likely cause considerable damage at the impact point.

  They also said that the impact would very likely be a water strike, simply because most of the Earth was covered in water. Most people thought that would be way better than it striking a city or something but that was not necessarily true.

  It turned out that both of these asteroids struck Earth. One of the large pieces of space rock hit in the Atlantic Ocean and one hit in the Pacific Ocean. Even though the friction of hitting the Earth’s atmosphere burned away some of the mass from each of these, there was enough left to cause a considerable impact.

  It turned out the strikes were not really cushioned at all by striking the water like many people assumed. When they struck they instead pushed the water aside and struck the ocean floor, vaporizing some water and rock alike. By pushing the water aside, they each produced very large tsunamis in all directions. Water then rushing back into those huge voids produced additional tsunamis.

  Coastal areas all around both oceans, including countless cities, towns, and villages, were completely inundated with ocean water, killing untold masses of people around the globe. The tsunamis varied greatly in size but still caused untold damages and loss of life everywhere they struck land.

  Either from the trailing debris field, or from debris ejected from the two major impacts, superheated rocks fell to the earth and started fires in some areas, causing additional impact damage across many parts of the world (though mostly in Asia and the far eastern parts of Europe).

  Finally the space rocks quit falling and the huge tsunami waves stopped rolling onto the land. Fires were still burning in many places and people were still dying from the effects of the tsunamis but now the worst was over, so rescues and clean up could begin.

  Then we were told that the earth might receive a cooling effect from these impacts, possibly followed by an increase in the Earth’s surface temperatures some point later. Also, weather in general would be changing in unknown and possibly drastic ways before eventually settling back down to a possibly new ‘normal.’ There turned out to be so many conflicting theories about just which weather conditions to expect that none of us really knew what might happen next.

  At first, for us, we saw spectacular sunsets and sunrises. It was winter here and it was difficult for us to know if our temperature was colder because of the impacts or if we were instead just getting a little colder winter than usual. But we were certainly getting much more rain (and snow) than normal, but that was not a problem because we lived in the desert and any added rain was always a blessing.

  Donna’s satellite internet no longer worked and regular TV broadcasts were quite difficult to watch due to how snowy the pictures were from interference caused by all the extra debris and particles now in the atmosphere. Radio was also filled with static. We put up with the very poor reception just to garner whatever information we could happen upon.

  This was certainly an unprecedented catastrophe for the coastal states, let alone the entire nation. But so far it really had little direct effect on Donna and me at our home. We did drive all the way in to the closest city, and we put up with the crowds in each store to do some massive shopping.

  I had a smaller enclosed trailer now and we pulled that behind my truck. We bought everything we could think of, just like everyone else was doing at the same time. The grocery stores were being mobbed and they were taking in the brunt of the shoppers compared to other stores but we already had quite a supply of food so we were not nearly as worried about groceries as most everyone else was at the moment.

  So instead we bought extra work clothes, extra shoes and boots, several more cases of toilet paper, piles of hand soap, dish soap, shampoo, laundry soap and much more at a Sam’s Club and at a Costco. We bought memberships to both of these club stores just so we could go there for this one massive shopping trip.

  And there was almost no end to the supplies that Donna insisted we buy. Countless over-the-counter medications, toothbrushes and toothpaste, many razors, and two hair clippers. Donna got a cart full of feminine supplies, extra spices, more condiments like salad dressings, ketchup, bbq sauce and salsa, along with what we could still find of sugar, flour, rice and other common food items that we could not produce ourselves at the homestead.

  By the time we left the city my truck was so loaded down that I had to tarp the load so I would not lose any of it. And the trailer was packed full, too. We had also stopped at a place and bought what seemed like a literal ton of ammunition.

  The next day we went to the small local town and we bought many items at the hardware store and the lumber yard, just to have on hand. We again filled the pickup and trailer with additional supplies. We also bought a considerable amount of chicken feed on that trip. By the time we were done with all the frenzied buying our checking account was way down and looked about like it did when I was just barely getting by while building my house.

  Of course, even though the news said there was no need to panic shop, everyone with an extra dollar or a valid credit card was buying whatever they could now. No one knew what to expect but I think almost everyone expected the worst.

  The grocery areas of the stores we saw were mostly empty of the all the regular food. The stuff we bought was mostly things others had passed by. Of course, the stores restocked themselves from their normal warehouses each day so the shelves in the stores got at least some stock added to them again just about every day.

  We also bought a fair sized fuel tank and filled it so we would have stabilized fuel at home for future use if it was ever needed.

  The huge panic buying spree that we (along with many thousands of other people around the world) participated in proved mostly unnecessary because when the shelves were bare the stores just restocked again, back to about their normal inventory levels because warehouses everywhere were still full of food and other merchandise. And the countless delivery trucks were still moving. After a week or a little more the stores looked back to a more normal state, both in the number of shoppers and the amount of stock on the shelves.

  And then there was all the damage and loss of life done along the costal areas of the United States. Besides the countless dead there was trillions of dollars of loss due to property damages. Life insuran
ce, vehicle insurance, home insurance and business insurance companies suffered such huge losses that they just could not cover, and so those insurance companies folded up and closed down.

  Our federal government stepped in to help the victims of the tsunamis but the dollar amounts were staggering, and then there was the loss of valuable and necessary infrastructure in those coastal areas. It was hard to even get into many of the hard hit areas other than by helicopter. National Guard units, along with regular US military, were sent to the stricken areas.

  Then there was Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands took the full brunt of more than one tsunami. While the islands were not a complete loss it was about as horrible as it could possibly get there. The majority of the population was either dead or missing, and the loss of infrastructure was huge.

  For the rest of the nation there was an immediate loss of fresh seafood because most of the commercial fishing fleet was gone after the tsunamis had hit all the seacoasts, both in the west and the east. Ports on both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean were badly damaged or completely destroyed. And the ruined shipping ports were not just in the United States but worldwide. With seaports ruined and most ships damaged, destroyed, or lost at sea, world shipping came to a complete halt.

  The huge loss of life and the incalculable economic loss to the United States just could not be absorbed. The stock markets here and around the world closed. The New York Stock Exchange had been struck by the tsunami and though the building itself was still there the entire area was now devoid of people. Everyone knew that at this point the banks were most likely bankrupt, even though our government allowed (or forced) them to at least temporarily remain open, which I have to admit I think was for the better.

  There was so much wrong with everything that the list of problems for this country alone was almost endless. Our Navy, the greatest in the world, had suffered huge losses. Many Congressmen from both Houses of Congress were either deceased or reported missing. The President was still alive and he declared a State of Emergency for the nation.

  Troops stationed around the world were being called back to the States. But first, many of those troops were busied with trying to rescue others from our hard-hit foreign bases along the coastal areas of many countries. Weapons at these now mostly-destroyed bases had to be accounted for then either returned to the US mainland or destroyed on site.

  There had been many earthquakes around the world and many airports, both military and commercial, had suffered damages from them, as well as damage or destruction from the tsunamis. Many roads and highways almost everywhere also suffered these tremendous damages. Travel became very difficult in many places. Port facilities were mostly all destroyed or at least severely damaged, both here in the United States and all around the world.

  Many nuclear power plants around the world had suffered fates similar to what had happened to the Fukushima plant in Japan several years ago. Many nuclear plants had been built near the oceans to have convenient, ready access to the cooling waters available there. The tsunamis laid waste to many of those nuke plants.

  The world ran on oil, and now it was just gone. The huge oil transport tankers suffered many losses. Those well out at sea had mostly survived but those near shores were often thrown way inland and were now hopelessly stranded high and dry.

  The oil filling and oil offloading ports were mostly all destroyed and would need major repairs or often have to be totally rebuilt from scratch to start the flow of oil into and out of the big tankers again.

  The huge oil reserve tanks for many countries were all located near the oceans. In most cases these huge tanks were now destroyed and the oil was carried well inland to leave huge, toxic oil spills there.

  And oil refineries in many instances were also located near the oceans. Many of these suffered the same fate as any man-made structures hit by the tsunamis. They too would have to be rebuilt to refine the crude oil into usable products.

  It was all just too much and world economies and governments collapsed.

  Chapter 11

  Being clear of any ocean meant that we were safe and not seriously or immediately effected by the tsunamis or the extremes in the weather where we lived. But the collapse of the economy and the mostly-collapsed government affected every American. Banks finally closed and that immediately caused countless businesses to close their doors.

  So, as to the panic buying that at first seemed silly due to all the stores just restocking after that initial buying spree was done, now with stores and other businesses closing because of the system collapse, it seemed like, instead of being silly, that buying spree was a good idea after all for the people who had done so.

  By the end of winter the once great United States of America was now descending into total chaos and anarchy which started, of course, around the devastated coastal states but soon spread. Even states in the very center of the nation, which were mostly rural, were not spared. Not with the banks shutting their doors and businesses mostly all shutting down. This was not totally because of just the shutdown of the banks though.

  Freight transportation was shutting down also, mainly due to the very little fuel that was now available due to the refineries and crude oil shipments being shut down. With banks closed, the business that could remain open had to deal strictly in cash (which in our plastic world most people did not have) and not receiving new merchandise to replace what was sold? So doors were shut, locked, and in many cases, boarded up to hopefully prevent the looting that most people knew was coming and was already happening in most of the cities.

  When the banks handling all credit and debit card transactions closed down no one could use their plastic cards anymore. This included the EBT cards that were for those on food stamps. Most of those people had no cash money and now those cards would no longer work and many had little food in their houses. So they were almost instantly desperate.

  Riots promptly ensued in almost every larger city and even many smaller cities. Of course, the riots included looting because they were rioting because they could no longer get ‘stuff.’ Now they were just taking it and wrecking everything else it seemed like.

  States, counties, and cities in the central portion of the country sent many people to help in the stricken coastal areas. Those helpers were soon needed even more back home. All levels of government, from the small towns to the federal government, found themselves shorthanded and without funds.

  When banks closed there was no money other than cash and no government entities ever dealt in cash. So they could do little at that point. Government workers just stayed home or joined the rioters or took everything they could of value from the government buildings where they worked.

  While the winter was colder and wetter here where we lived it was terrible in many northern areas of the country (and I guess the whole world according to the news). Here a lot of the extra moisture was mostly rain, but the more northern areas got snow.

  A whole lot of snow. Record amounts of snow in countless northern areas. Roofs full of snow collapsed. Roads were unable to be plowed. And it was colder than normal by a wide margin. Not always ‘record’ cold, but certainly a much colder season than normal. This cold and snow caused more Americans to die.

  Spring came slowly at our place. It was a much later spring than normal, but it did indeed get warm again. We had received more moisture over the long winter than usual and that was certainly a good thing. I tilled up the garden but never tried to get additional manure this year. We strictly stayed at home, both of us.

  At least all the precipitation cleaned the air of everything. There was talk of all the particles in the air clouding the sun and making it a colder summer. So far that looked to be incorrect. At least to us the sky looked clear and the same as always. That was just one of the countless varying predictions we had heard on the news. Our solar power system was working well so it was getting plenty of sunlight now.

  During the winter we had run the generator a few times to charge the battery ba
nk when there were too many cloudy days in a row. That had used some of our very precious fuel but it could not be helped.

  It finally warmed enough and we planted the garden. Everything was pretty normal now, just a later spring than normal. The TV no longer worked and we both assumed that was because the stations were no longer broadcasting anything. It was the same with the radios, though those had stayed up and running longer than the television stations had.

  So now we knew nothing about what was happening and, while curious, we had no intention of driving (not even into the closer, smaller town) to see what was going on. We were safe here and we needed nothing from anyone except to be left alone.

  With the garden planted and the weather warmer we had plenty to do in that big garden to keep the weeds in check. I thought there would be fewer weeds this year because of no new manure in the garden, but the weeds came in about the same as last year.

  The chickens were busy running around and finding their own food supply. Everything was peaceful and pleasant here. I tried to find odd jobs to do to get out of some of the weeding but I’m sure Donna saw right through my flimsy excuses. We still wore our pistols every day, all day long, even though we had not seen or talked to anyone in a few months. I had wanted to be alone way out here on my property and now, except for my Donna, that’s just what I was.

  That evening Donna and I sat and watched the sun go down as we often did. Even Donna did not talk nearly as much as she used to. This time I turned to her and spoke.

  “So is this what you expected the end of the world to look like?”

  “I’m not sure just what I expected but no, this peacefulness I find sitting next to someone I love never entered my head. But before I found you my home was in town. And though it’s a small town I am quite sure it was not so peaceful there when everything broke down and collapsed.”