Sharecropping The Apocalypse: A Prepper is Cast Adrift (7 page)

David decided he would give the neighbors the old U.S. Army Survival manual he had gathering dust on the bookshelf   for whatever good it might do them. Without a seasoned instructor around to explain some of the principles to them of hazy illustrations he doubted they would get much out of it but it would damn sure keep them busy and maybe give them some hope or success while keeping them out of his hair.

Knowing that he was most likely only prolonging the inevitable by these actions and putting the curse of prolonged starvation on these folks weighed heavy on his mind, but he saw no other recourse. He had a very limited supply of commercially made modern snares and had already mentally committed to share some of this finite precious commodity with a different neighbor he had chosen as a hunting buddy.

His neighbor Mike had two young kids and a wife to tend to, as well as an elderly mother to care for at the end of the road. Mike had recently medically retired from the Army as a maintenance Sergeant and had come home to his country boy roots. Despite an occasional bad back ailing the man, his assistance would factor in heavily in David’s long term survival plan and keeping that family ahead on the survival game was on his pepper’s agenda.

David rarely saw or associated with these neighbors much except to wave to them as they drove up and down the mutually shared dead end road. David had spent some time talking to Mike and his wife about prepping and mutually helping each other out after a hurricane when the couple had first moved in, but nothing really more after that. Now it was time to renew the friendships and mutual assistance pacts before Mike ventured down to David’s on his own to ask him if he could most likely help him with some dire food shortage needs.

One thing that worried and concerned David quite a bit in these trying times was the levels of desperation people were reaching. Particularly of concern to him were the family men, the head of households who were hunters that lived in the cities and had families to feed. They must have been already rounding up their hunting buddies and holding meetings if they were able to meet up weeks ago. Some groups of hunters are just occasional friends from work that gather a few times a season, some have always lived in a neighborhood and grew up hunting with their country cousins. Hundreds of different backgrounds and ranges of experiences were represented, but starving groups of men were coming to the woods or were already in the woods silently praying for a shot at some game or trying to dream up some way to feed their brood.

Talking about moving out of the house to the country was being debated in earnest amongst the hunting club squires of the city who had country club like hunting retreats to consider going to as the city began to slowly tear itself apart.

The large and small elite private hunting clubs, big game guides, birddog handlers, professional anglers etc. all had them some personal and professional plans on occupying certain large tracks of prime hunting land.

“The unrealistic among these affluent hunter survivors was that they thought the land could provide for them and their family’s needs until the power came back on. Well to be honest, no one really knew or could say when the power would come back on.” David mused while thinking possibly that these people were just more optimistic than him about the chances of turning the nation’s great cities power back on again. There were lots of smaller cities in states to the west that had anything from regular to sporadic power still on and maybe they could throw some help this way.

Those cities with remaining operable utilities must be filled to beyond capacity as the destitute swarming masses of humanity from the east and west coast tried to converge on them in hopes of warm shelter and some food.

David knew better than try bugging out to get to a working city. There was nothing there for him, no future or self-reliant freedoms to retain. His only hope of surviving was to remain on his land and depend on his preps and luck to hold out where he was at.

He was sure that there were people right now who were making uninformed or mostly bad decisions right and left while making heroic efforts to get to these so called sanctuaries of modern living, but he was not having anything to do with it. Beyond the fact that a cyber-attack had wiped out infrastructure for the majority of the United States, as soon as that swarm of unprepared people hit a city and began to use up its scarce resources the first responders would be overwhelmed in short order and then what? Hell keeping that many first responders helping refugees and away from the rest of the nation and in the rear with the gear as it were, took all the manpower and resources this country had and then some.

You probably couldn’t even buy gas and oil within 500 miles of those places now anyway, even if you had the hard currency to travel cross country it was a suckers bet because there was no guarantee you would find any gas to buy. There were already government imposed travel restrictions and from what little bit of chatter David could pick up on the shortwave  channels of his AM/FM radio, gas stations as well as all refineries ,stocks and reserves of gasoline and oil were under federal government control. There was no gas around David’s small town except what folks had stored in a shed for the lawnmower or had dwindling rapidly in their vehicles gas tanks. Gas rationing for his particular county was thought to begin a month from now if they could get some trucks through and those rations were on a priority for fire and medical .There existed the unknown probability for civilians how much gas might be possibly allocated to them if any.

It was evident to David that strife and brutal lawlessness would soon get the upper hand in the general population and whichever terrorist or state sponsored agency that had hacked our computers was sure to exploit things as best they could by making things much worse.

The world hadn’t ended yet for the rest of the nation, but as far as David was concerned, the shit had already hit the fan on his end of the road and was here to stay. When hard winter hits a several months from now, it was a given that untold millions would soon be dead, much sooner for those in snow prone states. He didn’t have any second guesses about his status or geographical location, winter kills north or south. I guess the lists of the dead will be getting longer now as each hour passes.

David had anticipated deaths shadow coming for a visit weeks ago, now was the time for him to start barring his door to it. The first door being locked of course was to the neighbors. They would just have to make do until he figured something else out or hopefully they would leave for greener pastures on their own. Putting the fear of God in them about that nuclear plant up the road was hopefully just a mean trick and not a portent of his own need to flee the area.

David and Julie said farewell to Will and Sally and returned to the house and the chores of reorganizing it.

2

Chapter 2

Death Rides A Cold Horse

Whoever had unleashed that cyber-attack or whatever it was that hit America including the possible use of scalar electromagnetic pulse weapons on the US infrastructure, hadn’t as of yet, well that was as far as public knew anyway, taken any credit for doing it at this time or given a reason. A Cyber-attack is not the very clear and definable smoke plume coming out of a missile on somebody’s foreign shore. ... Also one must consider it’s not just the idea of the detection part of it; it's also how you choose to respond, or maybe rather when you respond. ... You may want to watch an attack play out inside your system so you understand more about it, or you might be seeing if it left any backdoors or Trojan viruses on your computer server if you are going to setoff a major counterattack. ... You may not always want to let the other side to you know “know that you know” that they are the ones attacking you and you caught them at it.

Your response may be that you want to hit them back immediately, or maybe you want to let it settle a while and design something particularly devilish or a cyber and electronic attack of your own as a response that totally overwhelms any counterattack...

Whatever was going on in the darkening big world, David knew to wait on several other shoes that were going to drop as battle plans now were most likely being scaled up to what is called increased asymmetric warfare. Something is coming, and the executive branch of our government has been planning for it for a long time. Whether this attack is from without or from within, the chance of a violent end to our way of life is scary real.

Asymmetric warfare deals with vulnerabilities, leverages, and our centralized power grid was America’s greatest vulnerability. The enemy, whoever they were, had just played their first card in this little game of snuffing the candle out on civilization and David’s military background understood asymmetric warfare as the following steps.

(1) A long
insertion phase
in peacetime, when the WMD/weapons-of-mass-destruction and teams are inserted, and then

(2) An
operations phase
, when the inserted teams start unleashing the weapons of mass destruction (anthrax, smallpox, nuclear explosions, whatever).

“
The operations phase is now upon us
, and the next month or so to use a Chinese phrase – will be “interesting times”.
Well we know we had state sponsored terrorists and spies running around in the US of every ilk for some time, just what kind of crap they were going to release now and how we were going to respond militarily was anybody’s guess. It is almost certain that some of these portable weapons have also been inserted into the U.S”.
David mused shuddering and went back to his tasks at hand after one final thought.

“
So this next year or so if he and Julie could somehow survive all its hardships would be almost biblical in scope and its scale
of misery and death. These coming bad times will certainly be falling into the realm of what the Chinese so laconically refer to as “
interesting times
”.

He and the Prepper community for years had been warning others that there are plenty of ingenious evil minds out there that are at work daily finding nefarious ways in which they can wreak terror and havoc upon other nations…It’s a real threat, very tangible and that’s the reason why we have to intensify our efforts to prepare, and that’s why it is so important to be vigilant and advocate for more safeguards to our power grid system.

David sat up in his deer stand quietly but still impatiently awaiting an animal to come by. He normally didn’t hunt so close to the house, instead preferring for deer to think the paths that crisscrossed his backyard and orchard as a free zone to be safely traveled so that he could observe their wanderings and migratory movements. Today though he needed to bag one and he knew their traditional approaches to his property well. He had observed the deer utilizing various trails so many times that if he put his mind to it you could almost set a clock on his predictions of when and where they would be seen.

The squirrels suddenly stopped thumping in the litter. The blue jays quit their shrill piping. And there he was. A beautiful six point buck. The deer didn't weave through the saplings or step into the clearing as he was normally was apt to do. He was just suddenly there on the edge of the woods tentatively looking around and listening. Fifty yards ahead, a bit farther than David liked with a shotgun but fine all the same. David didn’t want a chance for the deer to get spooked and return to the scrub so he took the shot. BANG! And it was over and David climbed down from his tree stand after waiting a bit to be sure the animal died and didn’t run off wounded before he went to check out his prize.

David positioned the deer’s head laying downhill so that when he cut its throat the carcass would bleed out more quickly and thoroughly. While performing the task he grumbled to himself about how hard this pioneering living was if you were trying to stay clean and preserve water. He wiped his knifes blade clean with some fallen leaves and headed back towards the house to inform Julie of his successful hunt.

He followed the winding wooded trail back to the house and hollered” Hey Julie’ cautiously before starting to unlock the door.

“I am in the kitchen” she called back nonplussed before coming to meet him half way into the house.

“I saw your happy self coming down the trail through the window as I was finishing up the dishes. I take it you had some good luck?” Julie said having heard the shot and noting David’s lopsided grin.

“Yea no problem, that fat deer was just where I said he would be. Hey you still got any water in the sink?” David inquired. One of the things that changed a lot when the shit hit the fan is the fact that everything became really dirty, really fast and cleaning anything up was now a calculated chore in efforts and scrimping on the  materials used.

Preparation of food was all about “how to make it with less firewood” and trying to use less water. Rocket stoves worked for the first part, but clean up and preparation was a never ending task of hauling and purifying water.

Because David had himself a pretty good store of freeze dried and dehydrated food, most of the preparation was simple and took about as long it took to fix boiling water.

“Yes sinks still full of water, but it’s kind of dirty and greasy from washing all the pots and pans, the rinse water is alright though. What do you need water for darling? I can heat up some more water for you if you need me too.” Julie said bustling back towards the kitchen and pausing before starting to ladle up some water with a saucepan out of a 2 1/2 gallon bucket that was sitting on the floor.

Julie had already been through the slow process of adjusting to the water shortage and the accumulating trash. At first people tried to keep themselves and the yard as clean they could, but without all the normal services, like garbage trucks, running water and all other community services that make normal living simple, soon it became impossible to not value even dirty water and as far as the trash went it either got piled up on a curb or got burned.

“Maybe later I will have you heat some more up but not right now. Just leave what you got water wise in the sinks for moment and maybe I can use it. Mike and I have a deer to clean and it will get kind of nasty and dirty around here for a bit. Come to think of it, let me go talk to Mike first and then we may just decide to put that carcass on my Deer cart and drag it on over to his place. That rationale of doing it off property sort of makes sense to me for a number of reasons at the moment. I won’t go into the wisdoms of it all, but I want to get his input on doing it. Julie, I want you to please stay here and hold the fort down for a bit sweetie and I will go walk on over there and roust that rascal Mike for some help butchering that deer.” David said glancing at the dirty grey dishwater in the kitchen for a moment and then grabbing a Clorox wipe instead to remove the last traces of grime and blood on his hands. At least getting rid of guts and garbage in the country wasn’t that big of an ordeal. David could just imagine the garbage in the cities as it began piling up everywhere, when you add to that broken down or out of gas vehicles on the street, human waste and dead bodies it was a very ugly picture that he was glad he and his nose had some distance from.

“You know those neighbors across the street are going to see you if you start dragging that deer down the road on a cart.” Julie stated raising one questioning eyebrow.

“I am trying to decide what to do about that particular bump in the road now. I hate having to deal with them and be all friendly just after trying to put the fear of god in them about keeping their distance from us. Well we will figure it out and if you would please, why don’t you spy on their house a bit with the binoculars as I walk past it and see how much attention they give me while I am passing by. They shouldn’t even notice me and be out somewhere engaged in their own woods building snares or something but you never can tell.” David said opening the front door and glancing off in the distance at what bits he could see of their houses front porch.

“I really think that they took your message to heart David and they will be minding their P`s and Qs trying to fend for themselves or getting ready to bug out. I bet you that they are probably out in the sticks right this moment trying their hand at trapping, but then again they might be curious about that shot you fired and be watching over here out of general or hungry curiosity.” Julie said peering over David’s shoulder and looking in the same direction for any signs of movement.

“I will probably end up giving them a little roast or something anyway from the deer. But for now they are on their own and best mind their own business until I can talk to Mike.” David began saying before catching a glimpse of a figure approaching on the far side of his circular driveway.

“Well damn Julie! Speak of the Devil and guess who comes walking up to my door! “David said before stepping out on his door stoop and waving at Mike who was beginning to walk down the somewhat steep dirt and rock graveled driveway.

Mike was carrying what David knew to be a nice 4x powered scoped bolt action wood stocked .270 rifle slung across one shoulder and he had on a colorful mismatched assortment of multi-layered clothes in order to be bundled up for the chill of late March.  As far as David knew that hunting rifle was his sole possession of the firearms hunting or defensive nature unless he or his wife over the years had acquired a pistol that he knew that she and her husband had on their wish lists.

Times were tough and military disability pay and odd jobs didn’t go far. David knew the couple had hopes of doing some prepping and he had given them a SilverFire Rocket stove and a nice Smith and Wesson Knife from his extra preps that he had accumulated as an occasional survival gear reviewer and evaluator when they first moved in as his housewarming present to them and prepper buddy introduction years ago, but he hadn’t kept up with their efforts to acquire goods or more survival tools for themselves over the years. He guessed now was the time they had decided to see if he was serious about his intentions of providing each other mutual aid if the poo did hit the fan as they had previously agreed upon. Mike had probably heard David’s gun shot and was coming over to check out what it was he had been shooting at.

“Hello there Mike my friend! Long time no see, you old soldier.” David said walking out a short distance to the driveway and enthusiastically shaking the man’s hand.

“Hi there David, nice to see ya buddy. I heard the shot and thought I would come check on you and see what you were firing at.” Mike said before Julie gave her friendly greetings and customary hug for all well-wishers or friends of David’s. .

“No worries buddy, matter of fact I was just about to walk up to your place and come get you. I shot myself a nice deer and I figured that you might possibly be in the mood to help field dress him in trade for half the meat, but we need to talk more about how we are going to divvy it up before we start fleshing it out.” David said stopping a moment before telling him any further details in order to ask him if he wanted some hot coffee on this cold blustery day.

“ Coffee would be great, that is if you already got some made” Mike said before being quickly assured by Julie that it would only take her a minute to make a fresh pot  and then asking the boys if they were coming inside for a visit or staying out in the cold to deal with the deer.

“We are going to go pick up that deer in the woods first Julie and move him closer to the house. He surely should be bled out by now and it won’t take us but a minute to fetch him home. We will come in the house for coffee with you and warm up when we get back before getting started field dressing on him. Come on Mike! Let’s quit fooling around and go get that part of the task out of the way. I need to go over here and get my deer cart out of the shed first though. That tasty deer is laying only about 75 yards away from here close to the stand. Won’t take us more than 10 minutes to go grab it and haul it back.” David said fetching his shotgun and leading Mike to the backyard to unlock and open a 20x14 metal storage shed. Mike slung his rifle over his shoulder and followed along scanning the wood line.