Dystopia: The Beginning of the End (4 page)

Chapter 4

“Trouble this way comes”

“When written in Chinese the word “crisis” is composed of two characters – one represents danger and the other represents opportunity”

– John F. Kennedy

The people began to arrive and the chatter was for the most part centered on the bank holiday, it seemed that no one realized the issue at hand was really the Petro-dollar. 

Matt explained how it worked saying, “Nixon had bartered a deal with the oil producing countries of the world.  OPEC was started, and in that deal they agreed to use US dollars as the currency for oil trade.”  

“What does that have to do with the bank holiday?” Frank asked.

Matt continued, “The US dollar had been failing, it is no longer backed by gold and this deal ensured the dollar would retain its value. Nixon agreed to not print too much money.”

He paused to let it sink in and continued, “The US went back on that deal, and was printing money like it was going out of style.” 

There were some murmurs of understanding, but most still didn’t understand why it had anything to do with the current issue. 

Matt was becoming agitated as he tried to explain further, “The current administration had printed so much it was actually near worthless at this point. Without the oil to back it, it was just paper.”  Most of them, then began to understand the implications and agreed that it was likely that the banks would not reopen any time soon. 

They spent time speculating on how it would go down and the possibility of riots; they also discussed communication and security.  Everyone felt confident that they could shelter in place for now and they made a schedule that required each day 2 people would make the rounds to check on all of the families in their group.

They were concluding the meeting finishing up the snacks and coffee just visiting, so it surprised everyone when there was a loud pounding on the door. Dez went to answer it and as she did George burst in yelling something difficult to understand. 

They all heard him bellow as he burst in, “… My people I called a meeting and now I find everyone must have come here.” 

Aaron looked up and said, “Who the hell are you?”

Only Loel and Frank continued to attend his meetings this past week, and even at then it was mainly to keep an eye on him.  He wanted to kick Dez out of his group for a quite a while.  After she and Matt said they did not agree and could no longer attend, George began making remarks about them at the meetings.

This and his power issues had really shown much of the membership his volatile demeanor and many began to drop out over the past few days as well.  This angered George and he accused Dez of stealing his people. 

Dez shouted, “Who the hell do you think you are bursting into my home like this?” 

He yelled at her, “Shut up!”

Glaring at her and Matt he began again, “I knew you were stealing my people!” 

Loel stepped up and said, “Look around George, where is your membership?” 

George stepped back and looked and said, “Well, you’re here and so is Frank.” 

Matt was getting angry and snapped at George, “Because they come to visit us does not mean anything.  From what I understand they are probably the only two who still associate with you!” 

Loel cut in and explained to George, “These are my friends from my subdivision, they are not militia.  We were having a discussion on prepping George.  This has nothing to do with you.” 

George began to stammer, “Well, I called a meeting and when no one came I thought…” 

Dez snapped at George, “Well, you thought wrong, I never had a single word to say about your little militia.  I also know all about the things you have been saying about us.  Maybe they are as sick of your tyranny as I was.” 

George felt helpless and foolish, Matt could see this in his face and spoke up, hoping to save George from Dez.

“George why don’t you have a seat and chat with us for a bit, the others were just leaving but we were planning to contact you this evening anyway.  So it is probably a good thing you came over.” 

Matt gave Dez a look that meant, ‘Enough,’ and said, “Hey Dez, can you grab George and me a cup of coffee?” 

Dez, knew the look and lowered her tone and said in a dejected voice, “Sure.” 

George agreed and made apologies all around, everyone but Dez nodded in forgiveness. 

“Listen George” Matt started “I know Dez and I are not part of the group anymore, but we wanted to get with you and your guys about security for our town.  We feel like this banking holiday is just the beginning, and had hoped you would agree to organize the militia for patrols and get some security plans going.” 

George looked confused and said, “Do you really think that is necessary?” 

Matt continued, “I don’t know, but we should at least start thinking about it.  We know how good you are with this stuff and thought maybe we should talk to you about our concerns.”

Loel was watching the conversation and whispered to Sam, “Oh man, he is good, and he knows exactly how to get George in line.” 

George reluctantly agreed with Matt, and said he would talk with the others and get back with them tomorrow. 

As he left, he thanked Dez for the coffee and apologized to her personally. 

This shocked Dez, and she said, “I’m sorry too George, we just butt heads on things, but I know you know your stuff.”

Not really meaning it, but knowing Matt wanted to be certain George would not become a future problem.  She was willing to do what she could to try to diffuse the issue.  George nodded in acknowledgement and left. 

Chapter 5

“Preparing”

“There is no harm in hoping for the best, as long as you’re prepared for the worst

-Stephen King

              Jeremy and Toni did not want to waste any time and drove through the night.  They arrived at three o’clock that morning; they were exhausted and wanted to get settled in to try and catch a quick nap. 

They asked their friend Lynn to tag along.  Lynn Ryan, was a former Marine and quite outspoken. Everyone thought she was just a bit crazy at times, but not in a bad way, definitely an asset to their group.

She was a small woman with long straight hair, not what one would call the quintessential marine type.  She always made fun of herself about being OCD, and often times she would drive everyone crazy reorganizing things, but a very sweet person all in all. Everyone liked Lynn and she always knew she was welcome whenever she felt like stopping in. 

Dez set up the sofa for her after Jeremy phoned earlier in that day telling his mom that Lynn was with them.  He said that they would be in sometime in the middle of the night and she tried to have things prepared. 

The house was filling up quickly it seemed, and they were going to have to get sleeping arrangements settled.   Dez was pleased everyone would be there, but had anxieties about how crowded the house was becoming.

Charleigh and Connor arrived later that morning.  Dez was tickled to see Ariel and immediately went to fussing over her.  Ariel, who was Dez’s first grandchild was spoiled rotten every time she came to her Mimi’s house, and as usual Dez went right to spoiling her.  She kept a secret stash of chocolate that only she and Ariel knew about and of course Dez sent her right to it with a wink and the customary smooch.

Ariel was an exceptionally pretty baby and was getting prettier by the day it seemed.

Dez would laugh about it saying, “Of course I’m not bias at all.”   

Dez was worried about getting everyone settled in, commenting that this was going to take some doing, with Sam occupying the spare room.  Tawny offered to have Lynn share the cabin with her and Dylan, which made accommodations a little more comfortable and seemed to ease Dez’s anxiety some. 

Once everyone arrived safe and sound they congregated around the table for the usual Saturday brunch.  Jeremy, always very insightful, he was only twenty-nine and sometimes wise beyond his years.  He was tall, right about six feet with dark hair that he kept in a buzz cut. He and Toni had been together for almost 10 years now and she fit right in as family.  Dez was almost beaming that day having the kids all there, but with a bit of sadness because of the circumstances.

Jeremy spoke up to describe his trip from Pittsburgh saying,

“Listen, I don’t think it is going to take long at all for stuff to go to hell.” 

Matt asked him, “Why is that?” 

Jeremy began to explain, “There were a few times we had to look around for gas because some of the station owners had already raised the gas prices to take advantage of people’s fears.  About half of the places we saw were still pretty much the same, but in a few places some had raised prices to over five dollars a gallon.  One place we saw near Cincinnati was over eight dollars!”

Charleigh added, “When we stopped to get some juice for Ariel that it was four dollars for a small bottle of juice.” 

The murmurs around the table grew in volume, until Tawny chimed in, “Listen up!  We need to make a plan, I think all the cash we have on hand will be worthless in a much shorter time than we thought. “

“I know we all had our bill money and spare cash put aside for when this is over myself included.   Honestly, I really feel like we need to stock up as much as possible right now. We need to head out this morning and get things, mostly barter items and anything else we need to add to our supplies.” 

Everyone nodded in agreement and began to chatter about what most thought would be needed.  

Dez got up and went to the island in the kitchen, pulling open the cabinet she pulled out a box of writing supplies and began to hand out some paper and pens for everyone to make some lists.

They were to write down ideas of what they might need or could use this morning and they would go out in groups this afternoon to gather what they could.  As she did, she mentioned to Matt that she could not help but feel grateful they had spent the past few years stocking up on non-perishable items and other things.

Dez had always been what one would call prepared, she raised the kids alone and often had to make due.  She recalled stories her grandmother would tell of the great depression and passed them down to her children.  Matt however, she thought just liked playing with guns.  She would tease him about it often, but he was actually learning a great deal about bush craft and other outdoor skills.  She found him quite handy, she would say.

They sat to compile their lists of what they thought would be needed or good to stock up on.

              Some of the things on the list were common to all of the lists, including fuel, ammo, tobacco, coffee and liquor.  These things were all at the top of the lists that everyone had made. 

More food and paper goods along with seeds and garden tools were added.  Dylan added he wanted wire for snares, as his trap had been as yet unsuccessful.

This surprised everyone and was immediately added to the list.  Tawny was all smiles with pride over how her son was being so helpful and that he had been so grown up.  They added over the counter medicines and extra first aid supplies to the list, along with masks or pandemic safety items. 

Toni spoke up, “I think we need to get more organized and prioritize, first and foremost, get under control the main things, water, food, shelter and security.  Then we should branch out from there.” 

They all nodded, “Ok”

Matt said, “First, water, what do we need?” 

Dez said, “I think our water is pretty well covered with the well and rain barrels, some extra barrels wouldn’t hurt and we could use some purification methods, just in case.”

They added water purification tablets, iodine, extra filters and bleach to the list.

Matt again spoke, “Next, food, how are we on that?”

Most agreed that the food was mostly taken care of but to look for more spices and things to make the couple hundred pounds of dried beans and things taste better and anything else nonperishable. 

Matt said, “I think that shelter is pretty well covered, but I think we should get some tarps and plastic sheeting they can be handy for shelter and many other things.” 

There were murmurs of agreement and they moved forward to the topic of security.  Most had.22 or 9mm hand guns as the 9mm was the decided handgun for the group. 

Except Lynn, who carried a.45, it was discussed that she should swap it for a 9mm so ammo would be the same.  She only had 200 rounds of ammo for it and also noted that it was more expensive than 9mm, but they would have to look into it because 9mm ammo had been hard to find lately. 

Dez spoke up, “I think we need to consider non-lethal forms of defense, we may have to defend, but could run into legal issues if we use lethal force in the beginning.” 

Again, they all nodded in agreement, there were murmurs of questions, and asked what she had in mind.

“Well, I’m thinking outside the box here but I do have a few ideas.  First is pepper spray.  Also, super soaker squirt guns.”

Sam almost shouted, “What the hell good are they?”

Dez laughed, “I figured someone might ask, we can fill them with ammonia, ever try to breathe when you get ammonia in your face?  It will surely slow down a thief or attacker, and make them think twice.” 

That got everyone going, Jeremy laughingly said. “Oh yeah, or if things get worse fill em with something flammable, that and a match would save ammo as well.” 

Toni added, “Aerosol hair spray and a match make a good flame thrower.” 

Everyone laughed and agreed these things would surely not raise suspicion either. 

It was also agreed that they were not to spend all their money, if the banks opened on Tuesday, they might need to pay some of the bills till they could recover the rest.  If the banks did not open they hoped the stores would not realize it was worthless for a little while anyway.  This was a point of contention back and forth, because some thought that it would lose a lot of its value even that soon. 

Jeremy was adamant, “Store owners will immediately begin raising prices, and we were already seeing it on the way here.  I say we need to get whatever we want or need right away.”

Dez trying to diffuse some of the arguing suggested they buy whatever they could and thought they would need and not worry about the money.  She told them not to buy things in excess that they would not need if things did not go bad.  This way they could return things or use them over time.

They split into groups and took all of the vehicles. One of the first things determined to be important was fuel.  They had wanted to use the tanks in the cars as fuel containers and fill all of them along with anything else that would hold fuel.

Each had specific destinations, all were to look for ammo, lighters or matches, seeds and non-perishable foods and buy what they could.  Everyone was reminded to not discuss the strange purchases and that they were to make something up to explain it.

Suggesting they say things like, “It was such a good sale I could not resist.” 

“We don’t want people knowing we have anything stocked up here.” 

Each group was given a list and type of store to visit, that would make purchases look like whomever was shopping just had some kind of a project, like gardening, building or they were simply going on family campout or hunting trip.  No one wanted to raise eyebrows and set off suspicion or panic.

              Charleigh said she would stay behind with the kids, but as the afternoon wore on, she was beginning to get anxious that everyone was gone so long.   She gathered some bags and figuring to make themselves useful took the kids outside to gather acorns.

She was good with herbs and natural things.  She was already anxious and planning on trying some of the things she learned lately about foraging and said to the kids,

“No time like the present to start the acorn flour.” 

Dez, did like leaving them without another person for protection, but for the most part they all thought things were still ok. 

When Dez and Toni pulled into the driveway, they saw Dylan screaming in the yard.  They both jumped from the vehicle and ran over to Dylan, who had tear streaked red cheeks and motioned to the back yard. 

Dez told Toni to call Matt and Jeremy to get everyone home as soon as possible.  She ran full speed and rounded the corner of the house where she was horrified to find two guys struggling with Charleigh and one holding Ariel. 

Toni went straight through the house and grabbed the .22 rifle as if grabbing a light jacket while passing through the room. It was her favorite and one she could shoot very accurately.  Remembering what they discussed about non-lethal force earlier, she thought it was a good choice. 

Toni was an excellent shot with the.22 and knew it.  She was not as tiny a woman as Charleigh but was still not what one would call formidable at first look.  She was but two weeks older than Charleigh and quite pretty, with very long straight dark hair that made her seem sometimes almost mystical. 

She crept quietly out the back door and poised herself behind the waist high stone wall and began taking aim on one of the attackers.  Dez shouted as she approached at a march, 9mm in hand.

“HEY! Get your hands off of her!” 

The guy that was holding Ariel spat out, “What do you think you’re gonna do bitch?” 

Dez, took aim at the guy’s knee, nodded once in Toni’s direction and simultaneously she and Toni shot him in both knees.  As he crumpled to the ground Ariel tumbled across the lawn sprawling only a few feet from Dez.

  From what seemed to be nowhere, Dylan ran over and grabbed her by the arm and almost dragging her pulled her inside. 

As soon as the shots rang out one of the other two that were struggling with Charleigh, a dirty looking man, whom was obviously the leader said,

“I will kill her if you don’t put that gun down!” 

He motioned to his companion to go get Dez.  None of them realized yet Toni was behind the wall.  They began to move toward Dez, the mouthy one roughly held Charleigh’s arm while she still struggled to break free. 

Charleigh was strikingly beautiful and always had been, with long dark hair, slender and petite.  Dez always worried for her, early on, taking steps to make sure she was capable of defending herself.  It was no surprise to Des when she wriggled her arm free and hit the leader in the groin while also bashing his nose with her head.

This startled him just enough and he pushed her away, smacking her in the face.  Holding her by her wrist at arm’s length, preparing for another blow he began shouting orders to his two accomplices,

“Just remember I get first run at both these bitches.”

“Stupid man” Toni mumbled, as she took aim on the arm he was holding Charleigh with; she fired a single shot and caught him right at the elbow forcing him to release her.