When All Hell Breaks Loose (2 page)

Head Candy

M
any of the chapters in this book are fairly short in length, allowing you to peruse for just the information you require. The chapter subjects are based upon what will most effectively help keep your family alive during a disaster. When the topic changes within a chapter, the heading above the new paragraph will tell you what it's about. Obviously, your training will be most effective if you read the entire book in the order that it's presented.

Surviving a life-threatening scenario is largely psychological on the part of the survivor(s). Get this fact into your head now that living through a survival scenario is 90 percent psychology, and 10 percent methodology and gear. Because of this, the "head candy," or psychological pep talk designed to inspire confidence and a "can-do" attitude is presented first. It will assist you in honestly evaluating, and then improving upon, what your family's
presence
will be under stress and fear and when doing without normal creature comforts. Countless survival stories from around the world and even science itself support the fact that a positive attitude and mind-set are paramount to your living through a survival situation.

Your cheerleader, "Mr. Head Candy," appears throughout the book, delivering encouraging, thought-provoking, humorous, and at times uplifting quotes of wisdom and wonder from various people and cultures around the world. His role is to reinforce the writings in which he appears, and to remind you that you are not alone in your process of preparation and to never give up.

Don't blow off the head-candy part of this book as it will give you the common-sense foundation upon which to base your survival plan. Survival supplies don't mean diddly if you're too scared stupid to use them.

Hand Candy

The "hand candy" or material goods that I recommend to keep your physical body alive are presented in the second half of the book. Specific chapters on emergency sanitation, water, transportation, food, communications, and others are presented in the most practical detail as possible. Entire books have been devoted to each of the above subjects, so please don't expect this book to cover every possible aspect of these skills. If, after contemplation, you feel your particular living situation requires advanced emergency communications training, for example, then locate the more specific information you and your loved ones require. This proactive mind-set is the hallmark of healthy self-reliance, so don't lean on this or any other book or instructional source as your one-stop shopping guide to surviving everything.

Within each chapter category are several options that more or less all perform the same intention. For example, under the lighting chapter, several options are given to illuminate the night including flashlights, chemical light sticks, candles, lanterns, oil lamps, and even solar photovoltaics. After reading and digesting the many options, choose which lighting option(s) best fits your family's needs and budget. Resist the temptation to go on autopilot and buy stuff suggested in this book because I recommended or implied that you should. THINK about your family's situation and needs and YOU decide what is necessary to have on hand and what is not.

Super Simple Summary

At the end of each "hand candy" chapter is a super simple summary illustration flagging a section highlighting the critical points of the chapter. This condensed version is ideal for those who are short on time, those who want to refresh their memory on key points, or lazy family members with limited attention spans who feel that you're a paranoid doomsday freak.

Helpful Hardcore Hints

The Helpful Hardcore Hint sections present advanced survival information related to the chapter in which they are found, but beyond the basic needs of most families. Enjoy the options they may provide for you and your loved ones.

A Brief Introduction To Da' Gang

Vinny the (Uptown) Cockroach

Without a doubt, cockroaches are one of nature's ultimate self-reliant creatures and convey innate and uncanny guidance in teaching others the art of survival. Their adaptability and talent for enduring hardships, in both town and country, is legendary.

There are nearly 4,000 known species of cockroaches whose existence dates back more than 400 million years. Of these species, only a dozen or so are considered pests to people.

Cockroaches can live for a week without a head, dying only of dehydration because they lack a mouth to drink, as their brain is scattered throughout the body. They can hold their breath for forty-five minutes, eat literally anything (they have a separate set of teeth inside their digestive system in case they need to eat on the run), run up to three miles an hour, and withstand an amount of radiation equivalent to that of a thermonuclear explosion—between 90,000 and 105,000 rems for a German Cockroach! (A lethal dose of radiation for a human is 800 rems or more.)

Cockroaches have one big nerve connecting their heads to their tails, similar to a motion detector, thus alerting them to danger from behind. The claws on their feet enable them to climb walls, while their eyes, made from over 4,000 individual lenses, allow them to see in all directions at once. When getting out of harm's way, their highly sensitive and specialized antennae, containing between 150 and 170 individually jointed sections, allow them to make up to twenty-five body turns per second—the highest known rate in the animal kingdom—and they do it all in pitch darkness. They sense minute changes in air currents around their bodies—like a foot about to squish them—with the assistance of tiny hairs on two appendages that feed into a network of fourteen vital nerve cells that process the information.

The cockroach heart is a simple valved tube that pumps blood backward or forward within the body. The roach can slow down or even stop its heart altogether without causing harm. If it loses a leg while out on the prowl, unlike some insects which gradually regenerate a leg over several molting cycles, the cockroach will delay its next molt in order to regenerate its leg first, thereby assuring maximum get-out-of-dodge speed and agility. The roach also excels at the ability to turn valuable nutrients into an energy source that helps it neutralize or lessen life-threatening chemicals.

Always wise to conserving calories, cockroaches spend 75 percent of their day lounging around. Current research has shown that they possess certain complex behavior methods such as group-based decision-making when it comes to divvying up food resources. Most cockroach species give birth to live young—an anomaly in the insect world—to prevent other critters from eating their eggs and if food gets tough to scrounge, the cockroach kids can live by eating their parents' poop.

A dapper survival guide, Vinny's humorous, can-do positive attitude and confidence reflect generations of wisdom and leadership gained from harvesting the trash cans and kitchens of some of the world's better known personalities. His vast, real-time field experience allows him to radiate a natural affinity, awareness, and intuitive knowledge for surviving, and thriving, during and after catastrophic disasters. He's gifted with being able to read situations and the motives of people before disaster strikes, thereby allowing him to devise strategies for successful survival based upon the cause of an issue, rather than its effect. He has a love for authentic Brie cheese.

Robbie Rubbish

Robbie Rubbish was birthed in a county landfill south of Arivaca, Arizona. We summoned Robbie for his help with this project due to his active persistence in doing more with less. He's known and admired as somewhat of a legend in the landfill and dump crowds for his inventive creativeness and willingness to wing-it on a budget. His intimate knowledge of back-alley resources in urban and suburban surroundings and their wealth of garbage, coupled with his skill at improvisation, make him invaluable when needing to make cheap, multiuse survival gear. Robbie is dedicated to the facts (he abhors survival fads and gimmicks) and is able to convey complex terminology and detail-oriented skills in a practical, no-nonsense fashion. His motto is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it is broke, fix it yerself!"

Trevor

Trevor is a constant reminder to strive for simplicity in all things. If there is an easier way to accomplish a task, Trevor will find the natural way, in a calm and collected manner. His open heart, unselfish motive, and eager willingness to learn allow him to continuously improve upon his skills for the benefit of all. This fresh outlook provides needed flexibility in anticipating changing needs of the moment, minimizing static, knee-jerk "stay the course" training methodologies and responses. Although some may attempt to prey upon his good nature, childlike innocence and a lack of ego and bias are his natural protectors, along with a genuine desire to know and follow the truth.