by Ron Foster
The class that Woodrow had been in formed a consensus on threats and risks that could not help but imagine all of the chemicals that millions of people around the world use to clean their kitchens, bathrooms, yards, cars, tools, manufacturing equipment… Next, the peace officers imagined other manufacturing plants in locations all throughout the world, all of them using manufacturing processes that mix chemicals and other additives to either concentrate or dilute their toxicity.
Woodrow mentioned to himself, “The final nail in folk’s coffins might just be that all those manufacturing processes were being controlled or manipulated by computers.” And then he shook his head in dismay that his country and the world had overwhelming odds against them and the fact he was like most law enforcement officers, limited in their daily work to only controlling active shooters and conventional explosive saboteurs.
The potential for disaster at the hands of cyber terrorists is huge he concluded.
“Hey! Those three men coming this way are not ordinary fisherman or hunters out for sport.” Woodrow thought to himself, as he observed from his concealment point three men sneaking along the bank wearing what appeared to have been the old style military woodland camouflage pattern and it appeared that they were armed with holstered Tokarev style pistols and what looked like AK47 folding rifles in their backpacks. The group set their backpacks down not far from his vantage point and huddled together conferring about something. Woodrow strained his ears trying to overhear any bits of their conversation, but caught only the snippets ‘at sunset’ and ‘ready here’ and felt a chill to his bones that was not related to the wind.
One of the men started talking in hushed tones on a hand held radio, while the other two leaned in closer listening for the response and Woodrow took that opportunity to creep closer and improve his position. A stroke of luck was seeing them move off uphill to get a better reception and momentarily forgetting their backpacks.
“I guess them boys are feeling pretty sure of themselves thinking they are all alone out here. All right now. Here’s what might be my only chance.” Woodrow said to himself, as he eased up closer to the wood line facing the reservoir bank and stood behind an old oak about 20 feet closer than where he’d been originally watching the miscreants from earlier and was now in a better position to hopefully prevent access to those hellacious AK’s and whatever other instruments of doom the packs might contain. “Whew, that there creep and sneak was just in time,” he thought, as he watched the men returning.
“Gooble, Gooble, you bunch of posturing turkeys, ole Woodrow has played this game before. Course most turkeys don’t tote guns.” Woodrow thought to himself envisioning years of hunting the backwoods of the bayou.
“Humm, are them boys armored like the shoulder gristle on old tusker hog.” Hell Woodrow had seen a 600 pound boar take a blast of double ought buck and keep a coming with them razor teeth. “Can’t be risking anything like that.” Even though he had his own bullet proof vest on, he was more than aware of his own vulnerable fleshy parts and those damn kinds of pistols they have might be loaded with some of that hot iron cored vest busting shit the Russians had come up with long ago. “Aheee! If only I could break radio silence and contact base for some backup.”
As they drew closer, he could see them gesturing towards the dam and each other as if divvying up points of attack or tasks while talking excitedly among themselves; but no matter how the sheriff strained his ears, he could not hear much more than ‘dams’ ‘teams’ ‘sunset’ and then when he managed to make out the words ‘Chicago’ ‘Atlanta’ and ‘Boston’ he realized this was definitely not to be an isolated event and instead was a precursor to something bigger or in line with a more concerted attack.
He knew that even if he pressed his ‘panic or officer down button’ no one would find him in time or would show up to thwart these guys’ plans. So heeding the motto ‘Semper Fi’ the old Marine ironed up his nerves, straightened his spine and made the decision he had to handle this threat on his own lonesome effort. Taking a deep breath and exhaling a silent prayer, Woodrow began to draw his .40 cal pistol and attempted to make his move.
The effort to slap leather caused him to move a bush prematurely and instantaneously the three terrorists started to draw their own weapons.
“Hands up, get on the ground!” he called out, while keying his police radio mike on his shoulder and aiming for their crotches instead of a bunch of bobble heads.
A fusillade of bullets answered his spoken command as rounds impacted the tree he was trying to hide behind and he systematically took out the men like steel targets at a cowboy shoot despite having received a grievous wound to his right leg. An extra “double tap” and a total emptying of his service weapon plus a reload settled their hash.
Woodrow leaned against the tree that had taken the brunt of their return fire and cursed himself for going into a horse stance instead of angling himself sideways behind the 100 year old oak that had mostly protected him from the onslaught of bullets. Bleeding profusely now from what might be a mortal wound, he limped cautiously towards his immobile attackers who were laying on the ground bleeding, in a last ditch effort to make sure they went to the hell awaiting them.
His efforts were not in vain as the leader tried to rise up one more time before going to meet his maker and Woodrow obliged him with a grin.
Trying to stem the flow of blood from the sheriff’s femoral artery was pretty much a futile effort using the ridiculous chin strap from his service hat, but a soldier does what a soldier can do.
His radio had been perforated by more than one round it appeared and there was no way to call base. He could only hope they had heard some of the exchange when he keyed his mike into open transmit mode.
Woodrow knew he was going to bleed out long before anyone found him. It was probably a mile and a half to his squad car and he was beginning to get dizzy from loss of blood already and was fading fast, but determined to satisfy his curiosity.
‘What the hell is in them packs?” he wondered aloud as he hobbled his way back to them mostly dragging his increasingly useless right leg.
“Looks like they got themselves some C4 explosive, primer cord, fuses, and what they hell is that ray gun looking thing? Is that an EMP gun that looks like something out of Star Wars crap?” was his last thought before loss of consciousness claimed him.
Epilogue
Randal finally managed to ‘shut everyone the hell up’ as he put it long enough to get them to shut down the party music and to pay attention to a radio broadcast he had been listening to on his earphones. It stated that bizarre power failures were evidently occurring throughout our country’s major cities at this moment. After much speculation and argument, it became apparent to the preppers present that something other than the residual effects of the ARkStorm were occurring. This was not just a general technological failure, but a dedicated attack on the United States. An abhorrent malaise of societal incomprehension and adversity became apparent to those in the know of our current plight.
“Sounds like to me that Israel and the U.S. may have attacked Iran some kind of way. The news said earlier that Iran was threatening to use its terror cells that were already placed on high alert to attack targets in the U.S. and Europe should Iran be attacked. Hundreds of terror cells have infiltrated America and, in collaboration with Hezbollah, are awaiting orders to strike American targets and they said they would bring the war to our shores also.
Military intelligence has already identified and reported thousands of terrorist cells have also been placed in Latin America for just that sort of purpose.
The news quoted some Iranian general as saying, “If America dares to destabilize the Islamic Republic of Iran, it should have no doubt that we will destabilize America.”
Another senior commander of the Islamic regime, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, recently warned America, “In the face of any attack, we will have a crushing response. In that case, we will not only act in the boundaries of the Middle
East and the Persian Gulf; no place in America will be safe from our attacks.”
“I think somebody has let the genie out of the bottle and pulled the pin on a hand grenade for WWW III to start.” Randal concluded to a somber, but pissed off audience as the threat of this happening began to sink in.
The pandemonium and explosive behaviors from this point on caused Randal to demand his fellowship of preppers to stop and listen to him for a moment longer.
He tried to state that all of them remember some basic premises of the prepper lifestyle. He reminded everyone present at LowBuck’s Prepper convention and fireside circle that in his personal outlook it was still somewhat hard for all of the prepper folk present to believe that many of the preppers at PrepperStock that many had lost so much, not just those people directly impacted in California, but something ominous and nasty was continuing to ruin lives countrywide.
“Together, we are all strong.” Randal said, trying to rally the troops. “Apart, we are weak. We stand as one, we fall as one. Neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers; together everyone could rearrange the pieces or come up with solutions. And every one of us preppers represented one of those pieces. And each piece puts the picture back together and makes it stronger. For we all know that there is hope…”
Be looking out for the continuation of the book ARkstorm and new featured products.
SUNRNR is coming out with a new smaller version of their solar generator called Phoenix
This is the prototype, and items could be changed for the production version, also color is not determined yet but what you see is a powder coated tan. Also since they look very similar in size please note the SUN110 is 260 lbs, and the Phoenix is 75 lbs. not counting the solar panel. The big differences are the amount of storage and inverter size, 245 amps vs 72 amps, 3500 watts vs 1500 watts inverter.
My Readers Might Also Enjoy:
THE RURAL RANGER A SUBURBAN AND
URBAN SURVIVAL MANUAL & FIELD GUIDE
OF TRAPS AND SNARES FOR FOOD AND
SURVIVAL
By Ron Foster
The Modern Day Survival Primer for Solving Modern Day Survival Problems! This book will teach you the techniques to not just survive, but to use ingenuity and household items to solve your problems scientifically with a bit of primitive know how thrown in. A complete and detailed section utilizing explicit drawings and easy to understand photographs covers thoroughly the topic of survival trapping using Modern Snares, Deadfalls, Conibear Traps, and Primitive Snares. This book is dedicated for long term survival in the country or the suburbs to insure you survive and thrive! Build a solar oven
or pasteurize water its all in here! Catch your dinner, then cook it or preserve it, too! Food procurement is the name of the game along with purified water in a survival or disaster situation. Are you ready?
Check Out The Original Prepper Trilogy
Preppers Road March
A solar storm has just hit the world causing an EMP event. A emergency manager visiting Atlanta GA must find his way back home after this electromagnetic pulse has stranded him away from his vehicle and his beloved "bug out bag". With 180 miles to go to his destination, David must let his street smarts and survival skills kick in as food and water becomes scarce and societal breakdown proceeds at an unrelenting pace. An interesting and often funny cast of characters from the Deep South helps the displaced Prepper on his way, as he shares his knowledge of how to make do with common items in order to live another day. Ultimately, he acquires an old tractor and heads for home on a car-littered interstate. This is book one of the Prepper Trilogy.
BUG OUT! Preppers on the move!
Book two of the Prepper trilogy finds the disaster planner and emergency manager Dave faced with the choice of bugging out with his cohort of friends and family as he watches the societal collapse and demise of civilization around him after an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) solar storm has taken out the grid. A post apocalyptic fiction series that takes you through the trials and tribulations of survival after the predicted NASA 2012 solar super storm unravels the lives and lifestyles of a group of modern day survivalists. The preppers decide on a lake front bug out with bags in hand as well as a unique group of operating vehicles from a bobcat loader to a lawn tractor. Will they survive? Could you? Let us find out, and join the party down the desolate dystopian landscape of a new beginning in a world without lights or technology.
The Light in The Lake
Book three of the Prepper Trilogy finds our band of refugees from a solar storm safely moved into a several lake cabins and trying to work on their short term and long term survival. The lake is a beautiful place for a survival retreat, but is it safe with roving groups of lake residents all looking for what meager food resources remain after a EMP event has shut down society as we know it. Can society be recreated and restarted here, or will starvation and anarchy take over? Can a simple light in the lake be the solution to survival and the reconstruction of society, or is it merely a symbol of what has been and might be yet again?
Introducing a new series of books for the home library. These books will be consolidated under the Prepper Archeology Project. Website will be up soon.
The Prepper Archaeology project is a joint venture between Ron Foster, Cheryl Chamlies, Goat Hollow Press and Elemental publishing to establish a collection of historic preparedness research and information books under the banner of Elemental Publishing. We search the antique book stores and the archives for old tomes of forgotten knowledge contained in out of print or forgotten books and make arrangements to republish them as a resurrection into good quality modern books.
Meticulous care and detail in reproduction is undertaken to preserve and honor the author’s original works and preserve the old time secrets and methods used by great pioneers and woodsmen.
The republishing process utilizes good quality low acid crème colored paper and modernized high gloss book covers for durability.
The books included in the collection are hand selected by experts in their field for the Prepper community’s enjoyment, so that this historical lore will not be lost and may be reused again to face the disasters of an uneasy world once more.
A BLOCKADED FAMILY: Life in Southern Alabama During the Civil War
(Elemental Historic Preparedness Collection)
A Blockaded Family by Parthenia A. Hague is a testament to the ingenuity, adaptability and inventiveness with which a community cut off from outside resources resorts to fending for themselves and utilizing natures bounty. Less about politics and more about enduring; it contains tips on surviving and making do. From making a coffee substitute from okra seeds, watermelon syrup for sugar substitute, and persimmon seeds for buttons, this book captivates the reader with timeless wisdom.
Deadfalls And Snares ( Elemental Historic Preparedness Collection) Annotated (Prepper Archaeology Project)
The old ways of trapping and snaring are forgotten by most today and the times to remember them are once again upon us in these times of economic and disaster uncertainty. This old style survival book of trapping and snaring lore, contains one of the greatest descriptive and applicable primitive and modern ways of acquiring game for food and sustenance. The book that was originally published in 1907 has been digitalized painstakingly, not a cheap scan like some offer that is blurry and hard to read. This volume contains information on building deadfalls, snaring with the bits of string you can find or using commercial grade wire snares, portable traps, bear and raccoon deadfalls to name a few. Specific animals are covered and their habits which include, Otter deadfall, Marten Deadfall, Stone Deadfall, The Bear Pen, Portable Traps, various trap and Snare Triggers, Trip Triggers, How to Set, When to Build, Where to Build, The Proper Bait, what to do about traps knocked down, Spring Pole Snare, Trail Set Snare, Bait Set Snares, The Box Trap, The Coop Trap, The Pit Trap, Number of Traps, When to Trap, Season's Catch, General Information, Skinning and Stretching, Handling and Grading, and From Animal to Market.
Shelters,Shacks, and Shanties (Elemental Historic Preparedness Collection) [Kindle Edition]
Although this fine book was meant orginaly for boys to build something beyond a scrap lumber club house, or create something more interesting out of a pile of loose brush, than a child's imagined fort, the wisdom is ageless for all to apply as a survival skill, or a temporary refuge. This is a practical, hands-on guide by one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America and a joy to read.Over 332 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow text make this an invaluable book