The Big One II

[Fleataxi]

The Big One
A Short Story
by Fleataxi​

Chapter 1

Bret Wilson lived near Crystal Spring, Northwest of Mount Wilson in the Angeles National Forrest. He grew up in Glendale, graduated from Glendale High, married his high school sweetheart Maggie, who continued to work as a model for the first 4 years they were married, until they started having kids. Bret’s father was a successful Real Estate Broker, and his Grandfather was a distant cousin of the man that Mount Wilson was named after, so the Wilson family was well connected. Bret graduated High School, and instead of becoming a Lawyer like his dad had hoped, opened a small Auto repair shop in Glendale, and moved into an apartment near the shop with his new bride.

5 years later, his paternal grandfather died, leaving him a half-million dollars. Bret used part of it to buy 10 acres of property in the Angeles National Forrest near Crystal Spring and build a house, and used the rest to buy out his competitors. They were all well-run shops, but were short of the cash needed to upgrade their shops to compete with the dealerships repairing the new heavily computerized vehicles required by California’s draconian smog laws. With the infusion of cash, they quickly took business away from the dealerships, who charged outrageously for out-of-warranty work. Bret was soon what some would call wealthy, but not really rich. He bought a large Pacific Cruising Trimaran that they sailed on weekends when he had time. They made the trip every year to Catalina Island for the Catalina Jazz Festival.

The rest of the money went into his house, which had been dug into the side of a hill, reinforced against any perceivable earthquake risk, and equipped with a full AE system Then he had a deep well sunk into the aquifer, and installed 5,000 gallons of diesel and propane in buried tanks. His final addition was a aquiculture/hydroponic growing system, which produced Tilapia and vegetables year round. Maggie and Bret both had their Ham radio licenses, and a pretty nice ham shack. Bret drove a used Dodge Ramcharger 3500 with the 5.9L Cummins Turbodiesel, and the 4x4 set-up with BFG 33-inch All-Terrain tires, which slightly reduced his carrying and towing capacity over the 275's it came stock with, but he gained a ton of traction needed to get up the fire road which was the only access to his property, and could get very muddy in the spring. He’d pulled out more than 1 neighbor each spring who tried to drive the fire road in less capable vehicles, and got stuck in the mud. The big Ramcharger could easily tow Babe, which was a custom rock crawler he and his friend Steve built as a rare diesel-powered rock crawler just to prove it could be done. They selected a Class 4 roll frame from Chenowith, and picked it up in San Diego. They spent the next 5 years building it, then testing it on the Rubicon Trail, which was supposed to be the toughest 4x4 trail in the US, as far as hard-core rock crawlers were concerned. Bret made Babe street-legal, but preferred to tow it to any rock- crawling events. He’d already driven Rubicon twice, busted a bunch of components, and left sheet metal behind in the Big Sluice. He liked Moab Utah better, since he left less sheet metal behind. Bret built an extension bridge out of pierced planking that stowed on the ladder rack at 10 feet, and extended to 17 feet to bridge any small gaps. Next he built an A-frame so he could use his winch to pick up and move the extension bridge, or other small obstacles. It connected to the bumper with 2 huge pins, and used a come-along attached to the ladder rack to adjust the height and angle of the boom. The whole thing broke down and stored next to the extension bridge on his ladder rack. He had a box full of spare parts, straps, cinches, pulleys, and a cargo net made out of kevlar straps on the rack next to it.

The “bed” was really a sheet metal cover over a hidden storage compartment that still allowed him to carry fuel, spare tires, and other stuff in the bed. He had a Warn 12K electric winch installed, a dual 100-amp alternator set-up, a battery bank with isolator to keep the starter battery from draining the deep-cycle AGM batteries that powered his lights, CB and Ham radio. He had a full light rack on top with Hella off-road driving lights, and a pair of Hella street-legal fog lights on the massive front pipe bumper with a built-in pushbar. The undercarriage was fully skid plated with sliders to protect it from high-centering on a rock, and critical components were protected by diamond plate.

Steve was amazed when they were finished, they had taken a Baja 1000 Class 4 (full-size pickup) frame, and converted it to a very capable diesel-powered rock crawler. Steve knew it was partially due to the innovative transmission/transfer case setup which gave them a 3-speed transfer case, and a 4 speed transmission. Bret installed a Ford 9-inch rear-end with a Lock Right limited slip, and an ARB air locker in the Dana 400 front differential. All 4 corners had Warn locking hubs so it could be flat towed, or if he broke an axle or drive shaft, he could unlock the front or rear hubs and limp home. The granny/crawler gear was so low that they could idle the engine, and get out and walk next to the vehicle and keep up. Bret had climbed boulders that looked impossible between the torque of the diesel, and the huge granny gear. He got good gas mileage in the 2-high position, and could drive in 4-high fast enough to race in Baja if he wanted to.

He had purchased a matching pickup bed trailer with a combination standard/pintle towing setup with off-road tires and re-arched springs to match Baby’s lift. He could only tow an additional 2,000 pounds in the trailer, but he could keep it loaded and ready to go in a moment’s notice if he had to bug out from work. He parked Babe and the trailer in a heavily reinforced Steel building in the parking lot of his main business near Glendale Community College. He drove the Dodge 3500 back and forth to work, because it got better gas mileage than Babe, and was designed as a road vehicle, whereas Babe was a street-legal rock crawler with removable fenders using Dzus fittings to hold the fenders and body panels on. With the fenders off, Babe was a much more capable rock crawler since the fenders interfered with the maximum axle deflection the vehicle was capable of. He thought of going with a PTO winch, until someone pointed out that he could still winch himself out of a predicament with a stalled engine using an electric winch, so despite the advantages of a PTO winch, he went with the rest of the rock crawlers, who he hoped knew what they were talking about, and got a Warn 12K electric winch.

His house was better prepared than most people’s bug-out refuges, so he decided that bugging-in would be the preferred method of surviving an Earthquake or other SHTF scenario. He checked Timebomb 2000, and Frugal Squirrel’s forums weekly, and learned a lot about preparedness. He was royally upset that California had gone so Liberal so fast, and had come up with ingenious work-arounds to their stupid anti-gun laws. Bret was going to purchase an AOW Winchester shotgun until 1 of the Squirrels suggested a Mossberg 590 with a Shotforce collapsible 6-position buttstock, a 6-shot Sidesaddle, and a Ghostring/tritium sight setup. Bret called his friend in Reno, and asked him about what he should buy. Nick offered to purchase a Kel-tec SU-16B with the shorter barrel, and the Mossberg 590 with the Shotforce stock. All he had to do was drive to Reno and pick them up, since he didn’t want to ship them across state lines.

2 weeks later, Nick told him they were in. He had bought 20 20-round AR-15 magazines for the SU-16 since they were difficult or expensive to get in the People’s Republic, as Nick called California. Bret had to agree - the only thing they were missing were the Mao jackets and the pins. Even with the creature comforts of his Dodge Ramcharger 3500, it was a long drive from Glendale to Reno. He decided to get out of the PRC as quickly as possible, and took the 210 east until he got onto I-15N. He switched to US-395N at Hesperia, and followed it North all the way to Reno. He stayed a couple of days to rest and shoot his guns - there weren’t many legal outdoor shooting ranges in his part of California, and they were heavily controlled. Nick drove him out to the desert, and they shot up a bunch of ammo teaching Bert how to shoot the lightweight SU-16. He realized it would take a bunch of luck to hit a man-sized target much past 100 yards with the open sights. Still, the gun fired a .223 round, and folded into a small package that was much smaller than the shotgun. He drove carefully back home the next day, and put the shotgun and the rifle into his secret compartment of Babe. He included 10 loaded 20-rd mags in the LBV, 2 600-round combat packs of 5.56mm NATO surplus ammo on stripper clips, a bandoleer full of Federal Tactical 00 Buck and slug rounds, his E&E kit, a Level IIa vest, and a LBV containing a bunch of stuff that several Squirrels (the resident survival gurus on Frugal Squirrel’s forum) had recommenced. His E&E kit included a butt pack, a SAS drop-leg holster containing a Para-Ordinance Stainless P-14 in 45acp and 2 spare 13-round mags, He liked the Cold Steel LTC Kukhri and had a knife maker re-scale it in black canvas micarta with a finger-groove grip, add a lanyard hole and a thin steel guard. It rode in a Sheath Mechanic custom Kydex sheath with a large pouch mounted piggyback with a mini-survival kit and a Diafold sharpener.

Rick’s passion was cars, and off-roading, especially rock crawling, and indulged his passions whenever possible. Maggie accompanied him once on the Rubicon trail, and told him she was staying home from now on - the views might have been spectacular, but it wasn’t worth getting killed getting there. He guessed the near-rollover scared her more than he knew. He tried to explain that sometimes you had to put a couple of wheels in the air to get around an obstacle, the trick was to keep at least 1 tire on the ground, and avoid rolling. She said she’d rather go trail riding and camping than try to climb some impossible boulder just because it was there. 2 days a week, he taught Automotive Technology at Glendale Community College, and had to leave the house at 6 o’clock to get to Glendale by 8 o’clock, a 28 mile commute. When he was just going to the shop, he left at 10 o’clock, and made it to work between 11 and noon. Half the time he took surface streets, since they were usually quicker, so he became very familiar with the surface streets between work and home, and mapped out several routes that could get him home, and bypassed major bridges and overpasses that might fall down in a major quake.

He was teaching class at Glendale Community College when the earthquake hit, and he got his class evacuated onto the pavement in front of the shop, which was the safest place to be in an earthquake, since there were no surrounding buildings or anything else to fall on them. After several minutes, the shaking stopped, then the aftershocks began. He guessed the San Andreas fault had finally let go, and the aftershocks might be the rest of the major faults following suit. Once the excitement was over, he patched up any students who were injured, and told them that school was canceled, and they should get home before the barricades went up. He gave them several pieces of advice - Stay off the Freeways and away from bridges, and watch out for sinkholes and large cracks in the road that could swallow their vehicles.

With that said, he walked out to his Ramcharger, started the engine, turned on the radios to find out what happened, pulled his Kel-Tec P-11 “glovebox gun” out of the glovebox, and drove slowly and carefully to his shop less than 5 miles away in Glendale. It took over an hour to avoid all the debris and accidents blocking the roads, but he finally made it. His black shop foreman was in the process of shutting down and locking up. They talked things over, and decided the best thing to do was to take Babe and the trailer and head for Bret’s house. Leroy, his shop foreman, was a former member of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, and a Gunnery Sergeant. He was recently divorced, and lived in an apartment in downtown Los Angeles. Except for some clothes and stuff, he had nothing there of value since his ex got everything in the settlement. Bret was glad that Maggie was home with their boys, and knew they were secure for the moment. He didn’t even try the phone or his cell phone when Leroy told him that power and telephone lines were down all over LA County. He handed Leroy the SU-16 and told him he was riding shotgun. Since the SU-16 was similar to the M -16 and the AR-15, he didn’t need much time to figure it out. Bret put on his Level IIa vest with his plates and his E&E kit, and handed the LBV to Leroy since it held the spare mags for the SU-16. Bret took the shotgun out of the case, and mounted it to a bracket on the dash. Following several Squirrel’s advice, he left 1 round out of the magazine so he could quickly switch from buckshot to slugs if needed, and the chamber was empty. Leroy whistled and said “Nice shotgun. Might come in handy!”

As they started heading east, Leroy said “Take the next right - I need to make a quick stop.” When they stopped in front of a self-storage building, Leroy said he had some stuff inside he saved for a rainy day, and it was definitely raining. They pulled up to a door, and Leroy hopped out, took a key off his keychain, and opened the door. Inside were several boxes, and a familiar-sized case. They opened the top box, and Leroy unpacked an old USMC-issue Load Bearing Vest, and took Bret’s off and handed it to him. While Bret put his LBV back on, Leroy kept digging and putting stuff on, including Level IIa vest with plates, his LBV, a pistol belt with a butt pack and a USMC 1911 with the globe and anchor on the right grip panel, and finally a Colt M -4 carbine with a M -203 grenade launcher mounted. He took out a mag, locked and loaded, then pulled out the next box, which contained a case of 40mm HEDP grenades - 72 in total. Bret’s eyes got huge when he saw how many grenades Leroy had and said “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“You know I was in the Marines during Desert Storm #2. I was a Gunnery Sergeant serving in a Marine Recon team with the 1st of the 1st. My best friend went into supply. Over the years, he’s diverted obsolete equipment to his friends for safe keeping just in case we should ever need it. I took out this locker years before my divorce, and never told my ex about it - good thing because that witch got everything else I owned, including a couple of match-grade HBAR AR-15's. I was saving this for an emergency, and this qualifies. Let’s get this loaded, and get you home.”

“Leroy, I want you to stay with us, we’ve got the room, and if things get totally FUBAR, we could use the help defending the place.”

Leroy stuck out his hand, shook Bret’s and said “You’ve got a deal!”

They quickly loaded Babe, and headed East toward home.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 2

Once they got everything loaded, they pulled out on South Glendale Ave, headed toward the Community College on North Verdugo Road. As they reached the college, one of his students flagged him down. He stopped since he knew the student pretty well, and he was one of his best students, and he had already offered him a job upon graduation. “Mr. Wilson, the bridges are all down, our apartment’s flat as a pancake, and we’ve got nowhere to go!”

“Who’s we?”

“My Girlfriend Gloria and I. I’ve got my Jeep fully loaded with food, water, tent, sleeping bag, and some firearms for self-defense, but we’ve no place to go.”

Thinking quickly, Bret realized that 2 more adults would be an asset, and he had more than enough food and water for everyone. Since it was summer, it was warm enough to sleep outside in a tent, besides he though that Jim and Gloria could use some privacy - he remembered what it was like when he was their age.

“Ok, you follow me, but keep a sharp eye out for danger. We’ve got about 20 miles to go to my house in the Angeles National Forest. If you don’t mind sleeping in a tent, you’d probably have more privacy. I’ve got a deep well, solar power, and about 2 years worth of food, so we’re fixed. We’ve got to cross the 2 and the 210 somewhere, then get onto Angeles Crest Highway. Hopefully the underpass on 210 will be intact, but getting across 2 could be interesting.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you - all the overpasses and underpasses on 2 are all down. How are we going to get home?”

“I planned on crossing 2 near the hospital, we either go over or under 2 at that point. Babe can crawl over anything smaller than it in granny and I’ve got a winch and an A-frame we can use to move stuff with.”

“Ok, we’ll follow you -at least you’ve got a plan, most of these idiots are running around like a bunch of decapitated chickens. The Dean was trying to make everyone stay on campus where he said it was “safe” - yeah right! No water, power, sewer, most of the buildings are damaged and unsafe, and a limited supply of food - that’s a disaster waiting to happen!”

“OK, Jim, follow me, keep close, and don’t stop for anything or anyone. If rioting starts, drive through the crowds instead of stopping - remember Rodney King?”

“Ok, Mr. Wilson, whatever you say!”

“Jim, my name’s Bret. Away from school and the shop, please call me Bret - my Dad’s Mr. Wilson!”

“Ok, Bret...This will take some getting used to.”

They got back into their vehicles and continued past the College and the Country Club, and only had to stop 6 times to clear wreckage and debris they couldn’t go around, over or through. Leroy was pretty handy hooking up the winch, and leaving Bret behind the wheel sped things up, since he could pull stuff with engine power in Granny gear quicker than using the winch. Finally they cleared the last traffic jam, and drove past the Country Club with no further incidents. They looked, and the golf course was deserted, but the lot was full. He hoped whoever was in the lot survived the earthquake, he didn’t have the time or inclination to check. From North Verdugo Blvd they could see that Interstate 2 was a disaster area of piled up cars, downed overpasses, and general mayhem. Finally they turned right on Verdugo Blvd and headed toward the interstate. What he saw did not make Bret confident of his chances of getting home. There was debris all over the place, and massive concrete blocks that were too big to move blocked the underpass, and the bridges were down too. They stopped and discussed their options, and Jim suggested cutting the fence, driving across the freeway and down the other side, then picking up Verdugo again near the hospital. Bret wished he had a bulldozer to move the vehicles, then he remembered he had a push bumper, winch, and an A-frame crane to lift stuff with. He looked over at Jim’s rig, and he had a pretty stout front pipe bumper and a winch as well. He asked Jim about it, and he said it was a 10K receiver-mount electric Warn winch. That gave Bret an idea - he could hook both vehicles up to an obstacle to move it quicker if necessary, or they could winch two different vehicles out of their way. “Jim, we need to clear a path through the interstate when we get up there so we can get through. We might have to winch abandoned or wrecked vehicles out of the way. We can’t do anything for the accident victims, most of them are already dead or dying anyway by now, or they’ve left. If anyone tries to steal our vehicles, we have to shoot first and ask questions later - can you handle that?”

“Yes Sir, my Dad was in the Marine Corps, and taught me how to shoot, and instilled a survival mentality in me - I won’t let you down.” Jim and Bret broke out their universal keys, and started cutting the fence. They pulled it open far enough to get both vehicles through easily, then got back aboard their rigs. They crawled up the embankment in 4-wheel drive, and when they got to the top, they saw a mass of wrecked vehicles - some were on fire. They picked a spot away from the fires, and started moving cars. It took them a while to assemble the A-frame, but they found out that the time was well spent, since if they picked up a car and moved it instead of just dragging it, they could move it quicker and easier. Even with their winches and A-frame, it took several hours to get across the interstate. Jim almost lost his cookies twice when he saw the occupants, or what was left of them, in burned out trucks. Somehow they gutted their way through it, and made it to the other side before nightfall. Not knowing what lay ahead, Bret suggested they camp in the hospital parking lot between their vehicles and try to get some sleep. The 4 of them could each take a 3 hour watch, get up at first light and get moving home. Jim wanted to keep going, but after seeing the size of the cracks and fissures on the freeway, he realized if he ran into something like that in the dark, it could easily swallow his Jeep. Everyone had a pistol, and the watch stander would be sitting up where they could see out, and alert the rest of them at the first sign of danger, including anyone approaching their camp. They drove down the embankment, found an isolated area of the parking lot, and made camp. Around Midnight, Gloria awoke Jim, saying she heard something. He spotted a group of armed men about 75 yards away moving straight toward them like they were trying to be sneaky, and quietly woke Bret and Leroy. They both got out their carbines. Leroy loaded a 40mm grenade thinking “never give a sucker an even break.”

He slid behind a vehicle after everyone got behind as much cover as they could, and yelled “Halt! Drop your weapons, and advance slowly in single file, or we’ll shoot!”

“Don’t shoot, we’re just trying to get home.”

“Drop your weapons right now - you won’t be warned again.”

When the first guy in line raised his rifle, Leroy fired a HEDP round into the center of the group, decimating them. A couple of single shots rang out from Bret’s group as they shot the wounded. They couldn’t take a chance that a wounded enemy wouldn’t use his last breath to kill one of them. The rest of the night they huddled together with their backs to each other. At first light, Leroy went over to check on the group. They were loaded with gold and jewelry, and looked like they had been out looting and robbing. 2 of their AK-47's were in usable condition, so he removed them, and as many magazines and ammo as he could find from the bodies, and left them were they lay. Seeing that Jim was under-gunned, he gave the AK-47's to Jim and Gloria after showing them out to work the guns. Each AK and 3 loaded 30-round magazines with them, which was better than nothing. Bret was glad he put aside a case of 7.62 x39 ammo at his house even though he didn’t own an AK or SKS.

As soon as he finished, they packed up and headed home. They drove the rest of the way down Verdugo Blvd to Highway 2 - the Angeles Crest Highway. The 210 freeway was a disaster as well, and they couldn’t get through the underpasses, so they took the rest of the day clearing a route through the debris. Finally, with two hours of daylight left, they decided to try and make it to Bret’s home. Once they made it into the Angeles National Forest, the only problems they faced were downed trees and cracked pavement. The few large downed trees were quickly cleared by throwing a choker around the tree and dragging it out of the way with the winches. They carefully crossed several cracks in the pavement that weren’t wider than their tires. Jim watched Bret cross at a slight angle so he only had 1 wheel in the crack at a time and successfully cleared the ditch. Jim cleared the crack, but with his smaller tires, it was more exciting.

Finally they made it to Bret’s fire road. They stopped, broke out the 30-foot towing strap and connected the two vehicles nose to tail, with Bret’s more capable vehicle in the front to pull Jim through anything he couldn’t make it through. He told Jim to leave his engine in idle and neutral for the long hill climb until he saw Bret struggling, then to engage 1st gear in 4wd low only until he saw slack in the towing strap, then to ease the clutch back in so he wouldn’t ram Bret’s trailer. Jim said he could make it on his own, and Bret said that this was just a precaution since he didn’t know what shape the road ahead was in - there could be huge surface ruptures, the creek might have changed it’s bank, or there might have been a mudslide across the road. Either way, they were safer roped together. At that point, Jim realized he could also anchor Bret’s vehicle if he started sliding over a cliff or into a huge rupture. Jim put Babe into 4wd low range, locked the front differential, and turned on all his lights to make sure he could see everything since it was quickly getting dark. When they were a mile from the house, he turned on his Ham radio on low power and said “Honey, I’m home!”

Hearing Maggie’s voice on the radio brought tears to Bret’s eyes “Bret darling, the kids and I are fine.” He was glad to see she still used the old codes. Years ago, there was a rash of home invasion robberies in the area, and they developed that code to ensure that neither one of them was held hostage. If she’d said “the kids and I are great” she was in trouble. If he said “Lucy, I’m home” he was under duress. 10 minutes later the weary travelers pulled into Bret’s lot in front of his house and shut down the engines. As soon as Bret’s feet touched the ground, Maggie grabbed him and gave him a passionate kiss, then he was mobbed by his 3 boys. Alan was the oldest at 15, followed by Jeremy at 13, and Gary at 11. The 3 boys were home schooled, since the nearest school was over 2 hours round trip, and they weren’t too happy with the curriculum, the teachers, or the principal. All 3 boys were reading 1 grade level above where their peers were, and the had excellent scores on the standardized tests. Bret gave them weekly lessons in Survival, and a weekend together often meant camping, fishing, and shooting or hunting if it was in season.

Bret had over 2 years worth of food stored in his basement, and over a year’s worth of propane and diesel in his tanks. To backup his 20KW AE system, Bret bought a 5KW China Diesel generator optimized for battery charging, since he had a 100KWh battery bank. The AE system was by Outback Systems, so if he didn’t use the full 20K, the unused inverters would shut down and draw no power. He had a 15KWh bank of solar panels, combined with 4KWh of wind turbines to power his AE equipment. Since the house was literally blasted out of a hill, their heating costs were almost non-existent, since he had a huge masonry heating stove in the middle of the house for winter heat, and during the summer, they got a nice breeze. Even without the heater, it rarely got below 60 inside the house. They had a bunch of south facing windows for solar heat gain and light, and he had a set of half-inch armor plate steel shutters with muzzle ports built and hung to cover the windows at a moment’s notice that would stop anything smaller than a 50-caliber round.


Once they got everyone unloaded and situated, Bret asked Maggie to tell him what had been going on. She said that 2 days ago, the TV network affiliates were describing massive and widespread damage from North of San Francisco into Baja California, Mexico on every local channel she could get. The station meteorologist, who doubled as their “earthquake expert” was showing what happened on a Tele-strator. The San Andreas fault was the first to rupture, and it moved along it’s entire length. In places it only moved inches, and in others it moved up to 30 feet. The tentative magnitude of the first quake was set at 8.5 on the Richter scale. When all that energy was released, he said that several major faults let loose as a result, including the Rose Canyon fault in San Diego County (6.3), The Coronado bank zone offshore (5.5) which resulted in 50-100 foot Tsunamis washing up from San Diego to Long Beach. Further North, the Elsinore Fault Zone (6.1) failed in several places, destroying Elsinore, and swamping surrounding communities when Lake Elsinore displaced 1/3 of it’s volume as an inland lake tsunami. Near Santa Ana, the Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon complex (4.5) ruptured in several spots, causing moderate damage. The San Jacinto Fault (7.3) ruptured along it’s entire length, resulting in heavy damage in the built-up areas around San Bernardino and Riverside. Between the Chino(4.0) and Cucamonga Faults (5.0), Pomona was toast!

The news helicopters sent back vivid images of death and destruction, with apartment buildings, houses, and any unreinforced multi-story buildings knocked flat as a pancake in most areas. There was exceptions to every rule, like a house that was standing in the middle of destruction that was designed by an earthquake engineer. The entire building shook as one piece, and floated like a ship. When it was all over, all he needed to do was jack up the low corner, and shore it up to level the house again. All his connections to the utilities were via flexible connections, and the shell of his house was fireproof as well. Maggie saw the image of the house standing while it’s neighbors looked like a hurricane had struck and wondered if a Squirrel lived there. The entire LA basin looked like someone had nuked it between the collapsed buildings and the raging fires caused by gas leaks and downed electrical wires before the power was shut off. Without power, there was no water pressure to fight the fires, and the firefighters were overwhelmed.

Northern LA County didn’t fare much better between the Oak Ridge (4.5) and the Santa Ynez (5.3) faults, Ventura and Santa Barbara were reduced to smoking rubble. Between there and Cajon Pass, several previously unknown faults resulted in moderate to major damage in any built-up areas, and destroyed sections of I-15. The Meteorologist said that all major California freeways were closed until further notice, and travel was restricted to emergency vehicles only to keep the surface streets clear. All the populated areas between Santa Barbra and Morro Bay experienced moderate to major damage depending on their proximity to a major fault line, and the density and construction of buildings. All of the cities in the San Joaquin valley that previously experienced quake damage were heavily damaged by the huge earthquake along the San Andreas fault line. Survivors claimed that the shaking lasted for minutes between the main shock and the aftershocks. The bigger towns and cities were wiped off the map, including Hollister and Watsonville.

Several fault lines between San Jose and San Francisco completely ruptured, resulting in catastrophic damage and high fatalities as fires killed those trapped in collapsed buildings. Silicon Valley ceased to exist for all intents and purposes. Thousands of workers were fatally injured by flying glass from the art-deco buildings large panes of glass. When the San Andreas fault under the Pacific Ocean west of San Francisco ruptured, it resulted in an underwater landslide and a tsunami that flooded all the low-lying areas around San Francisco Bay. Combined with the collapse of every Bay bridge, and all the major structures in the area, San Francisco, Oakland, and the surrounding area experienced casualty rates as high as 100%. Anyone who survived in that area stood a good chance of winning the Lottery. Eastward toward the Sacramento Delta, the Tsunami reversed the flow of the rivers that emptied into the bay, resulting in Salt Water incursion, destroying thousands of acres of crop land, and flooding nearby low-lying areas.

Maggie told them that they experienced some shaking, and minor breakage and damage since the house was built much stronger than it had to be, and the worst damage was some minor cracking of the shotcrete they used to support the cavern that they excavated to build the house inside the hill. She told them that later the next day, the Meteorologist reported that the USGS was worried about Mammoth and Big Bear lakes in California, which showed signs of increased activity. Mammoth Lake was 280 miles to their North-Northwest, and Big Bear Lake with was 96 miles to their East, so Bret wasn’t too worried since the prevailing wind blew West-East.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

{Edited to insert chapter 3 - Oops!}

Chapter 3

When he heard of the level of destruction, Bret was glad he was already sitting down, or he might have fallen down. He knew that there were approximately 36 Million people in California, and if he included just San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Orange, and Alameda Counties, there were 23 million people affected by the earthquake. Even assuming a 50% Casualty rate, over 12 Million people were either dead or dying just in California. If Big Bear Lake, Mammoth Lake, or Mt. Shasta were to go active, and possibly erupt, the numbers could easily double or triple. What really scared him was the thought that this was just a trigger event for an economic collapse of the US, since the economy was in the tank already, and the rest of the US couldn’t make up for the productivity of California, even with the lost electrical demand. The San Joaquin Valley produced most of the vegetables and fruit consumed in the US. Without it, food prices would go way up almost overnight as the supply dropped and the demand rose. He thought about the 3 people he had added, and what they’d do to his food supply, and realized he needed to either purchase more food, or produce more. He had the ability to double his aquiculture setup using stored equipment, so that would be the first thing he’d do. Next he might consider an outside truck garden to trade with his neighbors for eggs and meat. He was glad he had 5,000 gallons of Diesel and propane, and the tanks were just recently filled. He had an adequate supply of ammunition for the weapons they had, and he hoped that they wouldn’t get overrun by hordes of refugees, especially the ones who were willing to take what they had by force. One thing he had going for him was that few people drove this direction to the Angeles National Forest, and even fewer realized it was populated, since the natural trees and chaparral weren’t bulldozed to make room for housing subdivisions.

Bret explained what he was thinking to the rest of the group. The key was how long it would take for California to recover from the damage, if it could ever. With twice as many people as he had planned for, his 2-year supply of food and supplies would now last maybe a year, and he was pretty sure that California couldn’t get their act back together in a year. Leroy suggested going back to the shop with Babe and getting his Ramcharger, then go salvage an abandoned Wal-Mart or a grocery store for enough supplies to last several years. If they unloaded Babe’s trailer, and filled the bed of the Dodge, they could carry quite a lot of stuff in cases or on pallets if they could figure out a way to get them from the floor level to the bed of the truck. Bret said he needed to talk to Maggie alone for a minute, and he’d be right back.

“I wanted your opinion about this without you having to talk in front of everyone else. The risk is pretty high here, but if we run out of supplies, we’ll be worse off - I was thinking it would be better to get stuff now while it’s available and unguarded, then later when it’s either guarded or gone.”

“Bret, this sounds like looting to me.”

“The difference between looting and Scavenging is whether the National Guard is watching.” There’s a better than 50% chance the owners of the property are dead, since the reported casualty rates were between 30 and 100%. I know which stores I’m going to try first, and hopefully we can get everything we need, and get back on the road home quickly. Unless someone has messed with our route, the route into Glendale should be wide open, and all we have to do is drive. Even the old Dodge Ramcharger can make it though the path we cleared. I was going to drive Babe back, and let Leroy drive the Dodge back.”

“Why not have Leroy ride shotgun with you, and have Jim drive the Ramcharger - that way you’ll have more people to defend yourselves if things go bad.”

“Good point, I’ll ask them. If we’re going to go, we need to leave first thing tomorrow morning, so we need to get some sleep.” Bret pulled out his Thomas Guide, and checked the route from the College to the Wal-Mart. If he went down North Glendale Ave. he’d have to cross the 134 freeway, but he’d have to cross it somewhere anyway. He wished there was a big department store in the same quadrant as the college. Maggie was looking over his shoulder, and said there was a Ralph’s Grocery store right down the street from the college. They should check that first. Bret stood up and gave her a hug and a kiss “I remembered why I married you - you’re so smart - I was going to drive all the way to Wal-Mart, and have to cross under another freeway when Ralph’s should have everything we need. If it already hasn’t been looted, we should hit it first thing in the morning.” He walked out and told the rest of them the good news. Jim volunteered to drive the Dodge back, and Gloria would drive the Jeep. Maggie needed to stay there with the boys, so that let her out. Maggie said dinner would be ready soon, and they all should take a shower while they could, and go to bed early so they could get an early start. Bret showed Leroy, Gloria and Jim the guest bathroom, and they flipped a coin to see who would go first.

Meanwhile Bret took a fast shower, got into clean clothes, and started writing a list of stuff they would need to extend their supplies a few more years if necessary. They’d need paper products, soaps and detergents, feminine supplies, basic medicines, canned foods including canned meats, staples, and spices. When he was finished, he almost filled a legal pad with his list. He showed the list to Maggie, who made some suggestions. Once dinner was ready, they all managed to sit at the dining room table, said grace, them ate quickly. Once dinner was over, they started heading to bed. Jim and Gloria decided to sleep in the living room tonight instead of pitching a tent, and Gloria told Maggie not to worry, if they needed some privacy, they’d pitch a tent - it’s just that it was too late already, and they were leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

The next morning, Maggie made breakfast of scrambled eggs and ham, then they used the bathroom and got ready to leave. It took them less than an hour to unload the trailer and put the stuff in the garage. Bret felt vulnerable riding without the supplies in the trailer, so he moved his BOB to the back bed of Babe just in case. They left early in the morning, but not until after Bret got a hug and kiss by Maggie, and a promise to be careful. Since the road was OK, and they were going downhill, they didn’t need to link up this time, and made it back to the Angeles Crest Highway, they made good time, and all their trees were still moved out of the way. Before he knew it, Bret was at the 210 overpass, and found their holes were undisturbed, and were surprised that there weren’t deep ruts running through the gap. They got back on the road, and drove past the hospital without incident. Next they tackled the 2 freeway, with the same results. Finally Bret turned on the CB and found out were all the police and NG units were - there was a huge riot going on at the Galleria Mall. He was glad they didn’t go to Wal-Mart because it was less than a mile from the Galleria, and the police would be on them like white on rice.

When they got to the other side of the freeway, Bret looked up and saw a U-haul store on the corner of Verdugo and Clifton Place. He made a hard right, but Jim managed to follow him, and was wondering what was going on until he saw where Bret was going. They cut the lock on the gate, and quickly hitched the largest open-top cargo trailer Jim’s Jeep could pull that short of a distance to his trailer hitch. They drove to Bret’s shop, retrieved the Dodge, loaded a bunch of parts, tools, oil, and stuff into the back of Babe, and Leroy drove the Dodge back to the U-haul place to grab an even bigger trailer. Finally they made it to the Ralph’s, which was deserted, so they drove around the back. Bret wasn’t worried about the alarm since the power was out, so he cut the lock with his universal key, and rolled up the roll-up door. The place was starting to smell from rotten meat, so they worked quickly and loaded cases of the supplies they needed onto the 3 trailers using pallet jacks and rollers. Later that afternoon, they were finished, and the 3 vehicles and their trailers were as full as they could get them. Bret spotted several large tarps and rope, so he covered the loads, tied them down tight, and rolled the door back down in case they could come back later for more stuff. Pulling the heavy trailers, it took longer to get home, but they made it before dark, and unloaded everything while Maggie made a list of what they had.

The next morning, Bret checked the CB, and there was still rioting at the Galleria. It was spreading along the 134 Freeway, but was staying on that side of it. Bret called everyone together, and asked them if they were up to raiding the Ralph’s a second time. There was a lot of stuff there they could use, and they might not be able to get it later. They agreed to go despite the risks when Bret told them the rioting had spread from the Galleria along the 134, and it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before it jumped the freeway. Bret gave Maggie a hug and a kiss, and another promise to be careful, and they drove the 3 vehicles back to Glendale. This time, as they passed the hospital, several shots rang out, but no one was hit, so he didn’t know if they were aimed at them. The route was wide open, so they drove as quickly as they could while maintaining a good lookout for ambushes and traps. Right as they got to the Ralph’s, a purple Mazda drove up next to them, and the passenger rolled down his window and stuck a gun out the window. Bret didn’t know what he was up to, maybe he wanted to carjack the whole convoy since he drove past the other vehicles, and tried to make Bret pull over. Instead, he grabbed the pistol grip of his shotgun, stuck it out the window, and pulled the trigger. The 00 buck shredded the passenger side, and obviously some pellets reached the driver, because he swerved and crashed head-first into a telephone pole. They decided to keep going, and pulled into the back lot of the Ralph’s . This time Gloria kept watch while the 3 of them “scavenged” anything that they needed and would fit in their trailers or vehicles. After the near-carjacking, they agreed this would be their last scavenging run. This time Bret concentrated on the pharmacy, grabbed the OTC meds and anything useful since they had cleaned out the paper products last time. Jim scored a case of instant “just add water” pancake mix, a case of TVP bacon, Spam, canned hams in the 1lb and 5 lb containers, “just add water” potato soup mix, a case of powdered scrambled eggs in #10 cans, a case of #10 cans of spaghetti sauce, and several cases of pasta, rice, and cheese and macaroni mix for the kids (at least that’s what he told Gloria). Leroy got several cases of quart canning jars with lids and rings, a stove-top canner and canning salt. He was wondering why a Ralph’s stocked canning supplies and canners, but decided to save the deep thoughts for later - they were in a hurry. If someone showed up, Gloria was to lean on the Dodge’s air horn, which could be heard for miles. She had her AK-47 and all 6 magazines just in case. The scavenging teams were only carrying their pistols, and their carbines were in their vehicles, so if someone came in the front, and they couldn’t persuade them to leave, they were to flee out the back for their hardware.

When they finished, the vehicles and trailers were down on their overloads, and were as full as they could get them. Bret rolled the door back down, and they drove slowly and carefully back to Bret’s house. The Mazda was still smoking when they drove past, and this time there was no shooting when they got near the hospital. 2 hours later they made it home, exhausted and glad that they were through scavenging. When they finished storing everything, Maggie finished her spreadsheet, and gave Bret the good news - they had 3-4 years worth of supplies for the 8 of them, without growing their own food. If they stretched it by growing vegetables and fish, they could easily get by 8-10 years. They’d have to be real stingy using paper products, and everything else would have to be reused and recycled. If they raised pigs, they wouldn’t need a trash can, since they were going to recycle everything including paper and cans. If the paper was too dirty to reuse, they’d burn it in the auxiliary water heater ( a home-built unit Bret saw on the internet that conveniently burned wood and paper trash, and used the heat to heat water - they used it to keep the water in the Tilapia pond around 80 degrees.) He had another idea about feeding the fish some worms he could grow in the inedible vegetable refuse and other stuff. The worms would make humus out of the junk, and the worms could feed the fish. His friend down the road was raising worms to sell for bait, but with the emergency, he could guarantee there wasn’t much sport fishing going on for quite some time. He made a note to check in on him, and see if he could buy enough worms to get started.

The next day Bret drove down the road to his friend Brad’s house. When he told him what he wanted to do, Brad gave him several large Styrofoam cups full of worms, and several racks to get started. Brad spent the next hour giving him detailed instructions in the art of worm growing, then sold him 2 bags full of starter since he didn’t have enough materials coming out of the hydroponic system right now to feed the worms. Brad said when the worms got too crowded, drop the dead bodies into the water, and the fish would take care of the rest. He told Bret that feeding the fish worm bodies was an inspirational idea.

“ If you want to get started, I can give you some fry once you have your pond built. You have to be careful with Tilapia since they’re temperature sensitive tropical fish, and do best in 80 degree water, anything below 70, they got lethargic and stopped growing, and they started dying at 60 degrees from the cold.”

Brad thanked Bret, and doubled the foam cups of worms, and gave him 2 more bags of starter. The fish got an early snack when he discovered some dead worms in the Styrofoam. Brad said that would happen, and he should just feed them to the fish.

2 weeks later, Brad stopped by - he had converted an old Hot tub to a Tilapia pond. He didn’t need the aquiculture part since his garden was outside, where God intended it. Bret netted a dozen smaller fish, filled a bag full of pond water, and stuck them in it after filling it full of air and tying a big knot. “Make sure there’s no chlorine in the water, or any residue in the tub, just a little chlorine or chemical residue can kill Tilapia.”

“Don’t worry, I only filled the tub with the water from my natural spring, so there never was any chlorine in the water. It’s wood heated, with a blend valve that I can set as low as 80 degrees.”

Later that week, Bret stopped by Brad’s house, and everything was going great, the fish were thriving, and were noticeably bigger. Brad told him that he fed them a whole rack of worms that week when the worms died. At that rate, they’d be to eating size in months.

Bret showed him how to spot the females, and told him never to eat more than half his females, or 2/3 of his male fish if he wanted to maintain a viable population. “It would be even better if you had 2 ponds to segregate the males and females, since the males are very territorial. 1 or 2 males can fertilize the eggs of a dozen females. One thing, you better get a good pump and filter system, because without the hydroponic system keeping the water clean, their crap will build up, and kill the fish.”

“Oops! Do you have any extra supplies so I can build a large enough hydroponic system to keep the water clean?”

“Lucky for you I’ve got several hundred pounds of hydroponic media in storage. All you’ll need is the trays, benches, and a good circulation pump.”

“Wouldn’t the pump on my Hot tub work?”

“Probably too well, you only need a couple of gallons per minute to filter the entire tank through the hydroponic system. At the kind of pressure your filter pump works, it might damage the hydroponic system.”

“Guess I’ll just have to work something out. I’ll call you when I’m ready for the hydroponic stuff.”

Two days later, Brad called on the radio saying his fish were all dead. Bret drove over, and commiserated with him, then theorized that the redwood tub might have absorbed detergents from swim suits, etc. over the years, and poisoned the fish. He told Brad that he could eat the fish if he wanted to, but they were too small to be worth the effort. Brad said that he already buried the fish in his compost pile.

“Bret, remember old man Miller’s place up the road - didn’t he raise horses?”

“Vaguely - what do you have in mind?”

“I’d like to borrow several of his galvanized horse troughs, they have to hold a couple of hundred gallons each.”

“If you could keep them all warm, that might work, since you could segregate the males from the females, and have a smaller fry tank to keep the fry in to keep them from getting killed by the bigger fish.”

“I was just barely utilizing that wood-fired water heater, I think it could easily keep 400 gallons of water at 80 degrees all day.”

“What about a pump?”

“You know me, never throw anything away - I found an old pump from a salt-water aquarium I used to have. If I flush it out with fresh water, it should be as good as new.”

“Have you found anything for hydroponic trays?”

“How big do they have to be?”

“The commercial hydroponic tanks are 6" deep for shallow rooted foods, and up to a foot deep for carrots and other tubers. Mine are 2 feet wide by 10 feet long, and they connect in series as long as the benches are stepped progressively lower so siphon action transfers water from tray to tray.”

“How do you do that?”

“The tray closest to the source is the tallest, then each tray is 2-3" lower, and you clip several 1" plastic hoses between the tanks and siphon action drains the water from the higher tank. I’ll help you set it up once you get your tanks. The minimum set-up to keep the water clear is 4 10-foot tanks. If you don’t want the vegetables, 2 tanks full of cattails will clean the water just as well, but you waste the electricity making sunlight on cattails.”

“Forgot about that - the plants need to grow in winter to keep the fish from dying. Why don’t we just go fishing?”

“Someone might come through with a net and catch most of the fish at once, not thinking that he just killed off a renewable resource in his greed, or it could be too dangerous to leave our compounds if the stuff hits the rotating blade.”

“Ok, makes sense to me. I’d rather stay at home anyway. Ever since I quit the Sons of Satan and became a Christian, I’ve felt like I’m riding around with a big target on my back now that I wear a cross instead of my gang’s colors on the back of my leathers.”

“At your age, just riding that hog at the speed you drive could kill you - you don’t need to worry about any rival gangs taking you out!”

“I guess I could slow down, but it’s so much fun to ride fast in the desert.”

“Just how fast do you go?”

“Last trip I made with the Christian Motorcyclists Club, I was averaging right around 100. That’s slow compared to my Sons of Satan days.”

“Glad to see you’re slowing down in your old age!”

After they finished, they drove over to the old Miller place, and it was abandoned. There weren’t any horses around, and all the trailers were missing. The house was locked up, and they didn’t go any further. Out in the barn, there was 4 stacks of galvanized horse troughs. Bret shook his head when he realized they were almost exactly 2 feet wide and 10 feet long, and more than deep enough to use as hydroponic tanks. He suggested that they take all the troughs, which would give him 4 Tilapia tanks, and 8 hydroponic tanks if he wanted them. They muscled them 3 at a time into Brad’s and Bret’s trucks. 3 hours later, they drove back to Brad’s place. Brad thanked Bret, and told him it would take a couple of weeks to build the benches, so he’d call him when he was ready for the new fry. Bret suggested putting the tanks up on 12" CMU bricks if he was comfortable bending over, since that much water weighed over 800 pounds! Brad thought that was a good idea, if he could find enough bricks, he’d call him sooner. With that Bret drove back to his house.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 4

While Bret was visiting with Brad, everyone else was getting things organized. When Bret came home, Leroy pointed out that if they were to have any chance of repelling attackers, he needed to clear a 200 yard perimeter, and he had maybe 100 yards cleared right now. Bret was suddenly glad that there were 2 additional strong males in their group now - cutting, hauling, and splitting all that wood would be a lot of work! He called Brad, who offered his services and his chain saw if he could take some of the wood. Bret knew that if they felled all the trees in a 200-yard radius of the house, it would be more than 5 years worth of wood. Even if he gave Brad 1/3 of it, he’d still have several years worth, and he had over 10 acres of wooded property. He asked Brad if he could come over tomorrow, and he said he’d be there at first light, and he’d bring his hydraulic splitter. Bret forgot Brad had one - that would make things much quicker and easier. Bret was glad he had 200 gallons of stored treated gasoline - they were going to need maybe 50 gallons for this project. The next morning, Brad showed up with his old pickup, towing his splitter and a 4wd ATV to haul the wood out to where they would split and load it into the pickup beds.

They first cleared the brush using a couple of gas powered line trimmers using brush blades. Once the brush was cut, everyone else piled it off to 1 side to feed the waste burner later. The chaparral burned very well, but left too much creosote to safely burn in the fireplace. By the end of the day, all the chaparral was cleared and they could start logging tomorrow. The next morning they were back at it. Bret and Brad were going to operate the chainsaws, and everyone else would help limb and drag the logs over to the splitter. The burnable limbs would join the chaparral pile unless they were big enough to go into the stove pile unsplit. Since most of his property was various varieties of pine trees, Bret had to let the wood cure after he split it, or it would really mess up his chimney. Brad and Bret started on opposite sides of the clearing, and worked toward each other. When they got too close, they would alternate felling trees until they were all down. By the end of the day, they had felled several hundred 8-inch pines. Jim and Leroy were working up a sweat with their axes limbing the trees. Gloria and Maggie worked chaining up the limbed trees, and dragging them to the splitter with the ATV. Bret’s sons all helped carrying the limbs to the different burn piles.

By dark, everyone was exhausted, and Maggie went in to make dinner while everyone cleaned up. Bret came out with a 6-pack of Beer, and Brad had 3 of them by himself. Bret remembered that Brad used to drink beer like water, which explained his 6-foot 300-pound body. He had a beer gut on him, but he was as strong as an ox. When they finished the beers, Brad said he had to go home and work on his hydroponic system. He drove his old pickup down the road, and was out of sight within a minute. Jim talked to Bret, and they all pitched in pitching Jim and Gloria’s tent out front. Bret loaned him a shotgun with a light attachment to keep in the tent with them because Gloria was nervous around the “Assault Rifles” so Bret kept them in the house.

Right after breakfast the next morning, Brad showed up, and they quickly sawed the logs to length, and Brad showed him how to operate the splitter. It had a small diesel engine powering a heavy duty hydraulic pump, and a 1" ram with a 2-foot throw. At the end of the ram was a spike with 4 splitting wedges to divide the wood into 4 pieces. The operating valve either sent fluid to the ram, or bled the ram. A large return spring helped the ram to retract quickly so it only took a minute or less to split an 8" log that was less than 2 feet long into 4 pieces. The baseplate was self-centering, so any size log would be centered on the spike as it came down the ramp. Bret cut the wood to length, Brad split it, and everyone else either fed the splitter or stacked the wood. They filled Brad’s pickup first, then loaded Bret’s Dodge to drive it over to his wood shed. Bret switched saws halfway through when his blade got dull, and Jim stopped loading wood long enough to sharpen it, then handed Bret his saw back, and sharpened Brad’s. by the end of the day they had cut all the wood to length, and split it. There was a huge stack of split wood waiting to be loaded into Bret’s truck. Bret asked Brad if he wanted any more of it, and Brad said his woodshed would be full if he put up what he had, and he really didn’t have room for anything more, but if Bret couldn’t store it, he’d come back and put it somewhere under a tarp. Brad drank 3 more beers after they got cleaned up while Maggie made dinner. Bret finally had to ask him how he could drink 3 beers and drive like Bret did when he was stone cold sober.

“I drank so much when I rode with the Sons of Satan that I developed a tolerance for alcohol. Several of us drove drunk, stoned, and high all at the same time - we didn’t care. Now that I gave my life to Christ, I don’t drive drunk anymore. That’s how I lost Annie.”

“You were married?”

“Sort of, we never went before no preacher, but we always stood back to back when the chips were down. One day I was driving home from a ride with Annie on the back, hit a rock and started a high-speed wobble. I could have recovered if I were sober, but I didn’t. We crashed, I spent 6 months in the hospital, and a year in Prison, and Annie wound up dead. I met someone from the Prison Ministry when someone told them I was suicidal, and after spending 6 months talking with me, I gave my life to Christ, and realized he had forgiven me of everything I did. After that, I promised never to get drunk again, and that was almost 10 years ago.”

“So why didn’t you get remarried?”

“Never wanted to I guess I’m still mourning Annie.”

“Ok, bro, if you need some company, just give me a yell.”

When Brad gave him a bear hug, he thought he was going to break a rib. Finally he let go when Brad pounded on his arm. Brad waved goodbye, got in his truck, and drove home.

Brad called the next day, and Bret took several bags full of fry, most of his remaining hydroponic media, 8 hydroponic trays, and a year’s worth of non-hybrid seeds in case Brad didn’t have any. When he got there, Brad had the Tilapia tanks full of 80 degree water and had a huge aerator pump with a 4- way distribution panel to keep the water aerated. He had 8 horse troughs on blocks in a stair-step pattern just like Bret had told him. Brad had already cut some 1" reinforced plastic hose into 1' lengths and had clipped them between tanks to make sure the siphon action worked. Once he had everything installed and running, and the water temperature in the Tilapia tanks stable, he called Bret, who helped him get the Tilapia fry adjusted to their new home, and gave Brad detailed instructions about their feeding and care. With the Tilapia set up, they moved to the Hydroponic system. They filled the hydroponic trays with the media, immersed them in the tanks, and set bricks underneath them to hold them at the right level above the hydroponic solution. 6 trays were shallow, and 2 were deep for root vegetables like carrots, etc. Bret showed him how to plant, which was much closer than normal, since there would be no weeds, and no need for watering the plants, so he could plant them as close as he could without crowding them. By the end of the afternoon, they were almost finished. Bret went out to his truck, and removed a gallon of very smelly fish emulsion and showed Brad how to set it up for a slow drip to feed the plants until the fish took over. Brad laughed and said “I guess I never imagined eating fish poop!”

“You’re not eating it - the plants are. If you’re going to run this year-round, you’ll need to install banks of mixed warm and cool florescent lights with a good height adjustment to keep it close to the plants.”

“Already got them laying over in the corner. I’ve got 2 spare cases of 48 inch bulbs, 4 spare fixtures, and 8 spare ballasts. I copied your AE system when I met you years ago, so I’ve got plenty of power.”

“Want some help setting them up?

“No thanks, I’ve got to run power, and a mounting bracket over the tanks to make sure they stay put, but I can raise and lower the lights.”

“Do what we did - put the fixtures on 4 6-foot lightweight chains. Drive a heavy nail into the crosspiece above it, and hang the chain from the nail so you can move it up and down easily. That way all you need is 2 2x4's about a foot apart running the length of your tanks. You can even make the support columns out of 2x4's and connect them every 10 feet to the crosspieces.”

“That sounds almost exactly like what I was thinking. It will take me a day or so to build the supports, then if you want to help me hang them, I’ll give you call on the radio when I’m ready.”

That evening after dinner, Bret was listening to his Ham radio, and what he was hearing on the 10-Meter frequencies was not encouraging. Wells Fargo and Merryl Lynch had both declared Force Majeure and refused to honor any insurance claims. The next day, the CEO’s of both companies died in mysterious car crashes. Two days later, the companies declared bankruptcy and closed. Wells Fargo was also a Major Bank, which started a run on banks that rippled through the stock market, and set off panic selling. The President declared California a Federal Disaster Area, but even the US Government couldn’t afford the $30 Billion in estimated rebuilding costs, and Bret was pretty sure he was looking at the beginning of the end of the US. Later that night when he heard the news updates that China was selling US Treasury notes for whatever they could get for them, he was sure. If his buildings were still standing in a year, he’d be in good shape, since he owned his house outright, and the only things financed in his business was some equipment he was leasing, and some mechanics who were buying tools on credit. He hoped his shops wouldn’t get looted, then felt badly for looting the Ralph’s store. If Ralph’s ever got back in business, and he had the ability to pay, he vowed to make things right with the store manager. He walked back into the living room, and gave everyone the good news. They agreed that the world as they knew it had changed, possibly forever. They sat down at the table to plan what they were going to do to survive if things totally came unglued. Leroy volunteered to work on their security while Maggie and Gloria concentrated on supplies and stuff. That left Bert and Jim with no assigned projects. Even still, they made a list of things they’d like to do to improve things around the compound. Bret was tempted to go on another scavenging run until Leroy talked him out of it - the only thing worth getting was more food and supplies. They had enough tools and equipment, and any gun stores would either already be looted, or the owners would be armed to the teeth and protecting their stores. He called Brad on the radio and asked him if he had any ideas to improved their security. He said “not over the radio - I’ll come over there first thing tomorrow and talk to you about it.”

The next day, Bret and Brad met out front since Brad didn’t want to talk in front of everyone.

“When I was running with the SOS, they were into all kinds of stuff: weapons, explosives, drugs, you name it. Anyway, I set aside some stuff for a rainy day that we can put together to defend both our compounds from any Mutant Zombie Bikers.”

“Don’t you resemble that remark?”

“Not any more, I may be a Biker, but I’m not a Mutant Zombie anymore!”

“Ok, let’s go over to your place and you can show me what you’ve got. Any problem bringing Leroy, he was a gunny in Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, and might have some ideas.”

“Sure as long as you trust him with our lives - what I’ll show you can get us all sent up the river for at least 20 years.”

“Leroy’s my Shop manager, I’ve known him 10 years, and he’s a Christian Brother as well.”

“In that case, the more the merrier!” They loaded up, and Leroy rode with Bret in Babe. He didn’t get too many chances to drive Babe anymore, so Bret drove Babe whenever he got a chance. 15 minutes later, they were at Brad’s place. They hiked to a far corner of his lot, and Brad cleared some debris that was covering a hidden door into the hillside, and pressed several buttons, and the door swung open by itself. “Welcome to my Lair” said Brad in a lame Boris Karloff impersonation. When they were inside, Bret was amazed by what he saw, and Leroy felt like he was back in the Corps. 1 wall was lined with M -16/M -203 combinations, and the other side had several AK-47's, a couple H&K MP-5SD3’s, and a couple suppressed of MAC-10's and several cases of 9mm ammo for them. The other wall had wooden boxes with numbers stenciled on them, Leroy recognized several of the numbers, and said “You guys could stop a Regiment of Marines with this stuff!”

“That’s the whole idea - except we’re more worried about Mutant Zombie Bikers than the Marines.”

“It would work even better for them. Brad’s got Claymores, Bouncing Betties, anti-vehicle mines, and enough C-4 and det cord to blow us sky high! If we got these located properly, we could stop anyone from coming up the fire road we didn’t want to, and we could circle our compounds with a minefield, and an inner ring of Claymores if they got past that.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I’d set a command-detonated vehicle mine in the fire road, backed up by claymores, then a ring of bouncing betties in a Spider’s web configuration around our compounds, and an inner ring of claymores. Each of those boxes has 12 claymores, and you’ve got 6 of them. I’m willing to bet there’s 4 bouncing betties in each of those other 10 boxes too. Those smaller boxes look like detonators for the Claymores. I hope you’ve got the FM for the Betty, since it’s been years since I’ve played with one, and they’re pretty touchy once they’re set..

Brad pointed to a box in the corner, with several manuals in it. He told Leroy and there was 1 copy of each manual for each weapon in the bunker in that box. Then Brad pointed in a corner, and said “Those are Russian TM-62 Anti-tank mines - I wouldn’t use them unless it was a last resort.”

“Why not?”

“They’re just as likely to take one of our vehicles out by accident as take out an intruder. They’re powerful, and designed to destroy a tank by blast, instead of just knocking off a tread.”

“I think we’ll skip those for now - we can lay rows of Claymores on both sides of the road and catch any intruder in a cross-fire. Since they’re command detonated, they’re much safer. Now all we need to figure out is how to remote detonate them safely, and when WE want them to detonate. Leroy, that’s your department.”

“Gee Thanks Boss!”

For the next two weeks, everyone helped Leroy dig holes to emplace the Claymores and bouncing Betties. Leroy actually emplaced the mines, since that was the dangerous part. While he was working on that he asked Bret and Brad if they had any spare handy talkies or anything they could use to remotely detonate the mines. Neither of them had anything remotely useful, and Leroy didn’t know how to set up a single radio to detonate more than 1 group of mines. He knew it was possible, he just didn’t have the electronics knowledge necessary to do it. Both Bret and Brad were hams, but their knowledge of electronics was limited too. Once they were in place, Leroy left them alone, hoping they’d solve the remote detonation problem later.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 5

The next day, Bret checked the Yellow Pages, and sure enough, there was a Radio Shack at 2027 Verdugo Blvd, just east of the 2 freeway by the hospital. He called Brad, who said they carried all kinds of radio gear, and if they could get some of it, that would solve their problems. Bret thanked him, and said he’d get back to him.

“Leroy, I found a solution to our problem, but it involves another scavenging trip. There’s a Radio Shack right at 2027 Verdugo Blvd, just east of the 2 freeway. That would only take an hour or so to drive over there, get what we need and get back here.”

“What were you looking for?”

Radios - you needed radios to set up the remote detonating claymores. With a bunch of FRS/GMRS, or business radios, you could do it easily.”

“I wouldn’t say easily, but if we had a bunch of radios, it would make it much easier.”

“Let me talk to Maggie - I want to get her permission before we decide to do this.”

Maggie wasn’t too happy, but realized that the risk was necessary when he explained that without the radio detonators, the claymores required someone to stay with them 24/7 to be effective. With a radio detonator, either Brad or him could detonate the mines from a safe distance, and possibly inside their shelter.

The next morning, Bret and Leroy drove Babe to the Radio shack without incident. They took every radio, and all the batteries they had for them, then Leroy said they needed a relay and a deep-cycle battery to power the detonators, since the radios didn’t have enough power by themselves. Bret was scratching his head, but there on the shelf was 4 12vdc SPST relays, and he found a 12vdc 80Ah deep-cycle VRLA Marine battery in back on a charger, in a Marine battery case. He took all of it. While he was doing that, Leroy took a complete set of tools and parts including a couple soldering guns, multimeters, a bunch of tools, tape, solder, etc. and threw it in a box. Before they left, Bret told Leroy to take whatever they could use, no matter how trivial, so he loaded the rest of Babe’s bed full of stuff from the Radio Shack. They drove back to Brad’s house, and he told them he might be able to rig up something using the parts to remotely detonate the Claymores. He gave Bret 8 sets of the Motorola FRS/GMRS radios with chargers and spare batteries so they could talk to each other. Since they had over 30 of them, they wouldn’t miss 8 for any project Brad would want them for.

2 days later Brad called, and suggested that him and Leroy come over and inspect his work. When they arrived, Brad had modified 2 of the FRS/GMRS radios so they could transmit the full range of privacy tones on all the frequencies. He locked each of the receive radios onto a different single frequency, and wrote the frequency and tone on a sheet of paper. He connected the speaker leads from each radio to a relay, which would close the circuit to the marine 12vdc battery, sending enough voltage and current to the electrical detonators to fire the claymores. Brad showed them the setup, and connected the multimeter to the power leads coming off the relay. Even after several hundred feet, the voltage was still over 12vdc. Since it only had to work once, they weren’t worried about how much current made it to the detonators, since it was way more than the battery-powered clacker it came with provided. Once they verified all circuits were working, Brad installed a safety switch between the relay and the battery so they could replace the batteries, and test the circuits without detonating the claymores. He checked it again, and everything was working perfectly. Since it was only 3 miles from Bret’s place to where the Claymores were installed, either of them could detonate the claymores. Brad said “Just to be on the safe side, before you blow the claymores, contact me on the 2-meter just to be sure I’m not on the road. Also, we should both make a habit of calling when we reach the road when we’re coming home.”

“Good idea, I don’t want to blow you up by mistake!”

“I’m closer to the claymores, so I’ll check the batteries once a week. I’ll make sure I call you and let you know.”

“We might want to develop a code, in case someone else is listening, then all they need to do is wait for you to take the claymores off line to replace the batteries, and come charging in here unopposed.”

A week later, Brad called to say the claymores were in, and he had installed an infrared beam to notify him if anything was approaching the claymores up the road to give him time to get to the detonators in time to catch any invaders in a cross-fire. Bret suggested that if things got rough, they should either drop some trees in the road, or rig them to blow remotely like the claymores, and catch any invaders in a kill box. Brad said they should do both, and rig some trees to blow now, and mark some others to drop later. He’d take care of that tomorrow. Bret assured him they wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon, except maybe to his place, since they had all the supplies they needed, and it was too risky to go out anymore and scavenge.

Over the last couple of weeks, things in the US had gone from bad to worse. Once the banks started closing, the rioting wasn’t far behind. California experienced little rioting, since they had already looted and burned everything worth looting, and were now trying to survive from day to day. Finding clean water was now their highest priority. Without electricity, the pumping stations didn’t work, so people started camping around the reservoirs. Several clueless people managed to contaminate several reservoirs with human waste when they put their latrines too close to the water, and made several hundred people sick with Cholera and Typhoid. There were several incidents where survivors were shooting people who weren’t careful with how they treated the reservoirs after that happened. The entrance to each reservoir was now posted with a set of rules including no swimming or bathing in the reservoir, and to keep latrines over 200 feet back from the water, and on the other side of the containment area so when it rained, the waste couldn’t flow into the water. Several lakes were patrolled by armed Rangers and Sheriff’s officers using bass boats, but they had a limited supply of fuel and ammo. Bret and Brad’s immediate area survived the quakes amazingly well, but everything west of them was leveled and either burning or smoldering. With the houses so close together in Los Angeles County, a house fire quickly spread to the rest of the subdivision when there wasn’t sufficient water pressure to fight fires. The National Guard combed subdivisions looking for survivors willing to stay in shelters who didn’t have transportation to get there. Sadly, 2/3 of LA County was totally dependent on City and State services for their daily needs, and the busses were packed for the next couple of months. Football and baseball fields, even city parks were converted to tent cities for the refugees, who got 1 1,000 calorie meal per day- Usually an MRE, and a liter of water to drink per day unless they were working, then they got 2 MREs and a gallon of water each. The sick and injured were moved to other shelters. The work details usually involved either setting up more tents and shelters, or demolition/reconstruction of buildings suitable for future shelters. In Central California, once the refugees were rounded up, they started farming what little land was available because Arnold got word from Washington that once the stored MRE’s and food were gone, that would be it. The unrest had shut down the freeways and railroads, and no one could afford to buy food, so the manufacturers stopped their plants and laid off the workers, making a bad situation worse.

Financially, the US was Broke, and couldn’t afford to pay it’s bills. Naturally, the rest of the World tried to collect, until President Edwards told them that we had plenty of nukes, and weren’t afraid to use them on the first country that invaded the US. The European and Chinese bankers bitched and moaned, but their governments realized President Edwards was serious, and wouldn’t risk a nuclear war for some businessman’s losses. The world governments weren’t in much better shape than the US, as soon as the US markets dried up, the Chinese had no one to sell to, and the European tourism market dried up overnight. Food shipments to the 3rd world stopped, and aid payments to dictators stopped for the first time. The entire world was in a downward spiral, and no one knew where the bottom was.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 6

The next morning Bret heard a familiar voice on the radio “Breaker 1- 9, this is the Bear, is the Goose There?”

Bret laughed and picked up the microphone “10-4 good buddy, this is the goose, where are you?”

“Bout 2 miles from your place, we could use some help!”

“Be there in 15, Goose out!”

Maggie was wondering what was so funny, so Bret gave her the good news, his college buddy Bear was at the start of the fire road, and wanted some help getting to his place. Maggie hugged Bret and said “Well, what are you waiting for. Bring Leroy to ride shotgun just in case.”

“Ok, I’ll see you in a while. Leroy, let’s go, I’ve got a friend I think you’d like to meet.”

They drove to the end of the fire road and could see why Bear wanted help. He was pulling a huge 5th Wheel with a Dodge diesel 350 truck. After Bear gave him a bear hug, Bret hooked his towing strap to the towing hook at the front of Bear’s rig, and pulled him up the fire road with Babe. When they finally stopped, everyone piled out of Bear’s truck. Bear gave Bret another bear hug, then they all went inside to catch up. Once everyone was seated, and had their beverage of choice, Bear got them up to speed with their story.

“We were vacationing at Big Bear Lake when the earthquakes struck. God must have been watching out for us, because we’d be dead if we were home when this quake hit. We just bought a new house in Seal Beach that’s probably somewhere in the Pacific by now. We heard on the radio that a Tsunami had flooded or destroyed most of the coast from Mexico to Long Beach. I just got that new job working at Long Beach as a Crane Operator, so if I were at work, I’d be dead too- except I might have seen it coming! Once the ground stopped shaking, a Sheriff’s deputy made the rounds to check on everyone, and asked for volunteers to help search for survivors and clear the roads. I volunteered knowing Nancy and the girls would be OK on their own at the park we were staying at, especially since Nancy was an expert with my Mossberg 590. It took until yesterday to get the roads cleared, and that was after the deputy commandeered a huge bulldozer that was working in the area. Once the roads were clear, the deputy told us the USGS said the area wasn’t safe due to increased activity in and around the lava dome, and we should evacuate to the west if possible. I’m glad I still had the diesel tanks full when we arrived in Big Bear, because no one had any fuel for sale between here and there. The deputy told us to stay off the freeways because all the bridges were down, so I took out the map and plotted a route taking all the back roads to get here, and we just made it a little while ago. We were hoping to stay with you guys. You know I’m a gun nut and a prepper, so we have over a year’s worth of food for the 4 of us with us, plus 2 AR-15's for the girls, and 2 FAL’s for Nancy and me. If we could hook into your septic system, and maybe get some water and a 220 connection, we’re in business.”

“Forget it Bear, No way Jose! Pack your bags and get!”

Bear stood there stunned until he realized that Bret was kidding him, then walked over and gave him his trademark bear hug. Then he did his “Three Stooges” impersonation, grabbed him in a headlock, and started giving him an Indian Rub saying “Wiseguy, huh?” After a minute, he let Bret go, and it was like old times. Later that afternoon, they got Bear’s trailer leveled, connected his black water pipe to the septic system, connected his water system to an outside hose bib, and ran an extension cord from a 220 outlet to their power connection. Meanwhile the kids were getting acquainted. Bret’s 15 year-old son Allen immediately hit it off with Veronica, who was a foxy blonde 16-year old, who had just spent the summer at the beach, and had a killer tan. She realized her surfer boyfriend was probably dead, and it was either Allen, or take her chances later. She thought he was funny and kind of cute, so she decided to give it a try. 13 year-old Jeremy paired up with 14 year-old Natalie, who wanted to be just like her big sister, and 11 year-old Gary wasn’t really interested in girls just yet, he’d rather play Nintendo. Later that afternoon, Bret and Bear got together for a beer, and had a talk about the kids.

“Seems like your daughters and my sons are hitting it off pretty well.”

“Should we encourage or discourage them?”

“Bear, judging by what I heard on the radio and TV, it sounds like the world as we knew it has come to an end. We’re soon going to be in pure survival mode, and your daughters won’t be able to travel far to seek out husbands.”

“You’re right, they could do a lot worse. I know Veronica was having sex with Chad, since I had to sign the permission slip to put her on the pill. She asked me to sign because she knew her mom would freak out.”

“That’s awfully forward thinking of you - why didn’t you just say No?”

“She told me they were going to have sex anyway, and Chad didn’t want to use a condom, so I decided that I’d do what I could to keep her from getting pregnant. I’m pretty sure she’ll put a move on Allen within the week.”

“Ok, let’s see what happens, and if it looks serious, let’s talk to them together. If it’s love, I’d encourage it, but if it’s just sex, I’m pretty sure Allen’s still a virgin, and I would have liked him to stay that way until he was married.”

“I wanted Veronica to stay a Virgin until she was married, but casual sex is so rampant in her High School that I was up against unrelenting peer pressure, so I caved. Hopefully Natalie’s still a virgin, since her Junior High was more conservative, and kept the extracurricular activities down to a minimum with their dress code. Frankly I was shocked by what Veronica wore to school sometimes, and I was amazed that her clothes managed to stay on. Luckily, all Nancy let her bring was jeans and tee shirts that actually covered her belt line. She managed to sneak in a skimpy bikini, but she’s only wore it once.”

Later that evening, Maggie asked Bret how they got their nicknames. Bear started laughing, then explained that they met on the basketball court, when they were paired up as a 2-man team for a 2-on-2 half-court basketball tournament. One of the opposing players gave Bear his nickname, because he was so big, he blocked the lane like a big grumpy bear. He said that he gave Bret his nickname later when he saw him going up for a lay-up, flapping his elbows like a Goose trying to take off. Later that night, Bret explained that Bear didn’t like to be called by his real name, Herbert, because it was his grandpa’s middle name, and he was verbally abusive to Bear every time he’d come over. He said he didn’t cry much at his grandpa’s funeral.

Bear had underestimated his daughter, who was already putting moves on Allen by the end of the week. While Allen enjoyed kissing her, he wasn’t ready for sex just yet, and told her to cool it a little. Bear caught Natalie giving Allen a French kiss and a butt grope in the hall, and decided that he’d better talk to Bret again. 2 days later, they sat down with Veronica and Allen, and explained the facts of life to them.

“Veronica, we’ve been watching you two, and wanted to explain several things to you. One - you’re both old enough to get married. Two - once you run out of pills, there’s no more birth control, and you could easily wind up parents. Three - we have no objections to you two getting married if you’re serious about each other, but if it’s just sex, we’d prefer you both wait. Four - if you do get married and have kids, things are going to be rough for you. There’s no doctors anywhere, we don’t have much for medical supplies, and things are going to get worse instead of better, and life as we knew it may never return. With that in mind, if you want to continue this and get married, we need to talk to your moms about sleeping arrangements, etc. If you’re not ready, we both want you to limit yourselves to hand holding and kissing - No butt grabbing Veronica!”

Veronica turned beet red, she didn’t know her dad had seen her kissing Allen. Allen spoke up, and said he wasn’t ready to marry Veronica, but he really liked her. Veronica was disappointed because she was ready for a sexual relationship. She decided to cool it, and see if she win him over. With that settled, they went out on the porch and sat on the swing to talk.

Bret and Bear breathed a huge sigh of relief, then Bear said “You know we’re just delaying the inevitable here - eventually Veronica will wear Allen down, and they’ll be having sex.”

“I know, but at this point, that’s one less thing I have to worry about right now.”

“Agreed, let’s not bring this up to our wives unless they bring it up first.”

Veronica and Allen were on the porch swing cuddling with Allen’s arm around her shoulder.
Veronica laid her head into Allen’s shoulder and relaxed. Deep down, she really wanted to be held. She remembered it was Chad who wanted to have sex, and she went along with it because he was a popular senior, and was a good enough surfer to maybe go pro in a few years. Laying there holding Allen, she realized she didn’t love Chad, and that he was just using her because she had a stunning body, and she was young and naive. For some reason she felt safe and secure in Allen’s arms. Later that evening, she realized that if she slowed down and let Allen warm up to her physically when he was ready, that she might be better off. Maggie came out at 10 o’clock and told Allen it was time for bed. He stood up, gave Veronica a hug and a kiss, and told her he’d see her tomorrow, and thanks for holding him. She smiled, and gave him a sweet kiss instead of trying to give him a tonsillectomy. Allen’s gentle hug told her he appreciated it, then Maggie coughed discretely, and they went their separate ways.

Veronica took a shower, got into her nightgown, and climbed into the lower bunk bed in their 5th wheel. Her sister asked for a after-action report, and Veronica told her everything. Natalie told Veronica that she wanted to tear Jeremy’s clothes off. Veronica told her little sister to cool her jets, sex wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and told her about her relationship with Chad, and how in retrospect, she wished she hadn’t given in, since she felt used. She told Natalie that holding Allen was much more satisfying than sex with Chad. Natalie laughed at her older sister, saying “everyone’s doing it!”

“That’s what I thought too - then I realized that it was more talk than action. Besides, what do I look like - a Lemming?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lemmings are rodents who run in a massive pack over a cliff into the sea when there’s too many of them. It’s not in the individual lemming’s best interest to follow the pack, but they are overcome by the momentum of the pack, and get swept over the cliff whether they want to or not. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have had sex with Chad. You’re still a virgin, and I’d highly recommend staying one until you’re married. You and Jeremy make a cute couple, but he’s only 13. He’s got at least 4 years before he’s ready for marriage, and you’re still 14. Do yourself a favor, go slow, and be Jeremy’s friend first. Later when the time comes, you can be his wife if you want.”

“Thanks Sis, goodnight!”

Veronica rolled over and went to sleep, dreaming of Allen.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 7

The next morning, Bret awoke to the roar of straight-piped Harleys coming up the fire road. He called Brad to tell him, and he said he’d heard, and it only sounded like 3 bikes. They should get everyone inside just in case, and he’d act as the Welcoming Committee. Bret banged on Bear’s door, and told him to get everyone in their house ASAP, and bring their weapons. He yelled at Jim in his tent to do likewise, then ran back to the house to make sure everyone was awake and dressed.

Meanwhile Brad drove his truck out to the intersection of his driveway and the fire road and blocked the fire road with his truck. He picked up his AK-47 with a drum magazine already loaded, and got put the engine block of the truck between him and the fire road and waited. Less than a minute later, 3 choppers came into view, and he thought he recognized the lead rider, Motorhead, who was Sonny’s lieutenant. Sonny was the leader of the local chapter of the Sons Of Satan bike gang, so if he sent Motorhead out, it was important, and official business. Brad relaxed a little. They stopped 20 feet from his front bumper, shut down, and dismounted.

“Easy there Moose, we don’t want any trouble. I came here at Sonny’s request to offer you back your colors - things are going to hell and we need all the brothers to defend the club.”

“Sorry you had to come all this way for nothing Motorhead. I quit and I can’t take the colors back, even to save my own life. I gave my life to Christ in Prison, and promised Jesus and Annie I’d never go back to that life. You remember Annie and I got in that wreck? Once I got out of the hospital, they charged me with Vehicular Manslaughter for Annie’s death because she died while I was driving drunk. The judge sentenced me to 10 years in the pen. I met a preacher from Prison Ministries when I was in solitary on suicide watch, and over the next 6 months of talking to him, he convinced me I had an alternative to killing myself - I could give my life to Christ, and spend the rest of my life trying to serve others like Jesus did. The Judge made me promise to have no further contact with any biker gangs as a condition of parole.”

“Ok, Sonny was afraid you were serious. One last thing, there’s a bunch of rival gangs and renegades looting and pillaging in the area west of you - keep your head down and your powder dry. Nice setup you have here, I see you put those Claymores to good use!”

“You spotted them?”

“You set them too close to the road, and they’re not well camouflaged. Either move them back, or cover them with debris, they’ll work fine even with leaves and twigs covering them.”

“Anything else I should do different?”

“If you’ve got some land mines, use them to protect the fringes of the fire road from people on foot. Also, you might want to block the fire road from here on out with some trees to slow anyone else down.”

“Thanks Motorhead - you guys need some gas? I’ve got a 5-gallon can in the bed - that’s about all I can spare, I need the rest for the generator.”

“Thanks Moose, we could use the gas. We’ll fill up and be on our way.”

Motorhead took the can out of the bed, filled the 3 bikes as full as he could get them, then secured the can, put it in the bed of Brad’s truck, then turned to give Moose a hug.

“So long Moose, too bad about Annie. Hope I see you again.”

“Me too Motorhead. I’d highly suggest calling first from now on, so I know it’s you. I’ve got a ham radio and a CB, and I’m sure Sonny knows which channels I’m on.”

“Thanks Moose - see you later.”

They climbed back on their bikes, kick started them, and rode back down the fire road. Brad grabbed his Mobile Radio and said “All Clear, they’re gone, just some friends visiting. He did say the next group might not be so friendly, so I need to talk to you face to face.”

“Ok, Come on Up.”

Brad drove up the fire road to Bret’s place, who greeted him with his shotgun at port arms.

“Expecting Trouble?”

“Just wanted to make sure you didn’t make that last transmission under duress.”

“We need to work out some codes. Motorhead is Sonny’s lieutenant, and he offered me my colors back. I turned him down, and he warned me that some rival gangs and renegades were looting and pillaging west of here, so the next visitors might not be friendly. He highly suggested blocking the fire road, and doing a better job camouflaging those claymores. He told me to add some land mines to protect the fringes of the fire road from anyone on foot, and I’m going to plant that Russian Anti-tank mine since it’s not safe to go anywhere anyway.”

“I’d get Leroy’s help with that, he might have some suggestions.”

“Works for me - I don’t really know how to set the damn thing anyway!”

“Excuse me, I’ll be right back with Leroy.” Bret walked into the house, and came back with Leroy. They talked for a while, and he agreed to look at Brad’s setup, and help him plant some Bouncing Betties to cover the paths around the fire road, and help him set that big Russian anti-tank mine. They agreed that dropping 2 trees across the road would be enough to slow anyone coming in down, but not stop them from getting out quick in an emergency. They also decided to wire the two trees Brad had marked to blow and catch anyone trying to get to them in their Claymore kill box. Leroy asked Brad if they had any more claymores. He said he had another whole box stashed in another bunker, and Leroy asked if he could use them to back up the first set of Claymores, in case they needed two sets to get a big group that might send a large scouting force through first, then the main body later. If they fired their claymores, they’d take out the scouting force, and have nothing for the follow-on forces. Brad was glad that they had more radios than they needed. He was going to be busy fixing them to work as remote detonators. Before he left, Bret invited Brad and Leroy back in to discuss the security measures with everyone, since they were all assembled.

Once they were all seated in the living room, Brad told them about his meeting. “Ok, everyone, those bikers you heard were friends of mine who belong to the Sons of Satan motorcycle gang. They were here to ask me to re-join the gang. I turned them down, and they warned me of several renegades and rival gangs who were looting and pillaging west of us. I’d highly suggest we stay on low alert from here on out, drop a couple of trees across the fire road to slow anyone down, and we’re going to set some land mines along the fire road, and a Russian Anti-tank mine in the middle of the road. Everyone needs to stay clear of the fire road. Once the anti-tank mine is armed, it’s difficult and very dangerous to disarm it. From what they said, it’s not safe to leave here anyway, so we’re going to make it difficult as possible for anyone to get to us.”

Leroy spoke up. “Ok, Alert means EVERYONE goes armed outside from here on out. At least a pistol and 2 spare magazines, 4 would be better. Bret already has a neat E&E kit made up with a pistol belt, butt pack, canteen, knife, and a P-14 with 2 spare mags. I’d suggest adding a 2-mag carrier if you have room on your belt Bret. If you run out of ammo, that $600 pistol will become a $600 club.”

“I’ve got enough kits made up for my family, and some extras in case any of you don’t have a fanny pack or E&E kit already made up. Leroy’s right, we need to be armed when we’re outside from here on out. Also, there’s a ring of Claymores and bouncing Betties protecting the perimeter, so check with me, and I’ll show you where everything is. There’s just a few safe lanes through the mines to get to the perimeter, and they’re NOT marked for obvious reasons. Any questions?’

Jim spoke up “By everyone, I’m assuming you’re including Gloria and me. She’s not into guns, and I don’t think I could get her to carry.”

Bret locked eyes with Gloria, and lowered the boom on her.

“I took you and Jim in here with the understanding that you would pull your own weight. That includes defending the compound and yourself from attack. I don’t care WHAT you think about guns, you WILL carry and learn to shoot, or both of you are out of here right now!

Gloria started crying as the last walls of her invulnerability crumbled. Jim held her, then Bret took them outside and explained the facts of life to them.

“Jim, I’m sure your dad told you what happens in a war. Well we’re in something way worse. There’s no Geneva Convention, or any other higher authority to appeal to. I can guarantee that if Gloria gets captured alive, she’ll be raped and tortured before they kill her, either for the fun of it, or to get information about the compound. I’m sure Bear already gave his daughters this same lecture, or will shortly. Gloria, I’m sorry, but this is literally the end of the world as we knew it. I heard on the radio a couple of nights ago that the federal government is bankrupt and the economy has fallen apart. That means little or no outside help, and we are on our own. Whether we live or die is up to us and God.”

Bret went back inside to let Jim and Gloria talk. He prayed that Jim could get Gloria to listen to reason, he’d hate to lose the two of them. He couldn’t send Gloria out by herself in good conscience, but he could send both of them out if he had to.

Bret went back inside and talked to Bear “I hope you already told your daughters the facts of life. I don’t want to have to break the news to them about what could happen to them or your wife if they were captured.”

“I told them a while ago, but I’ll reinforce the lesson in our trailer tonight. We’ve got 4 Kimber 45's and 4 spare mags for each. Can I get a look at your E&E kit to make sure mine’s up to snuff?”

“They’re basically what we discussed 2 years ago. I sent you the list as an e-mail.”

“Ok, then we’re good to go. I even got those SAS drop holsters you recommended, except we put Cold Steel Recon Tantos on the belt instead of the Kukhris.”

“Ok, those will work fine. I’d make sure you’re carrying 4 spare mags each. I’m going to add a double-mag carrier to each of my kits.”

10 minutes later, Jim came in “Bret, I explained things to Gloria. She used to be what you’d call a Sheeple, but she’s willing to learn, and carry. I could use some refresher too - is there anywhere we can safely shoot around here without drawing attention to ourselves?”

“There’s an abandoned quarry a mile or two up the road that everyone used to go shooting at until the state closed it. They’re used to hearing gunfire around there. I’ll see if we can get everyone together and go shooting this afternoon.”

“We don’t have any pistols - you saw everything I owned at the Hospital.”

“I’ve got some Glock 21's in the safe, and several spare E&E kits in case we took someone in. I’ll go get them for you, and we’ll be ready to go.”

5 minutes later, Bret came back with 2 E&E kits with a .45acp Glock Model 21 in a Safariland SAS drop holster, and 2 double-mag spare magazine carriers. He told Jim they bought the Glocks because he realized anyone they might take in wouldn’t be proficient with guns thanks to California’s draconian anti-gun laws, and the Glock was the easiest pistol to teach new shooters how to shoot. With the 13-round magazine, it gave them 14 rounds on tap with the chamber loaded.

“Isn’t it kind of dangerous to have the chamber loaded?”

“Not really if you obey Rule #1 and keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target.”

“Ok. If everyone’s good to go, let’s get loaded and head over there.”

They loaded Bret’s and Bear’s Dodge crew-cab Ramchargers and Jim’s Jeep full of people, and drove up the fire road to the quarry. While Allen and Jeremy unloaded the cased guns from the bed, Bret and Bear set up the targets. They decided to use B-27 body silhouettes for all the targets. Bret had never seen a round target that shot back. Once the targets were on their stands, Bret added a 1" orange sticker to the forehead, and a 4" one to the heart-lung region. They had a dozen targets set up, while Allen and Jeremy were setting up the shooting lanes. 6 were for pistols at 10-25 yards, and the rest were rifle targets at 100-300 yards. By the time Bret got back to the shooting line, they were ready to go. He gave everyone the “new shooter” lecture at once to save time, then his boys, Maggie and Nancy went to the rifle range with their AR-15's and started shooting once everyone had their eye and ear protection on. Bret took everyone else to the pistol range, and decided to work with Gloria, since she was the least experienced shooter. Leroy worked with Jim, and Bear was on his own, shooting at the far 25-yard target.

Before Bret started, he apologized for reading Gloria the riot act.

“It’s Ok Bret, Jim explained things to me. Up to that point, I was still hoping things would quickly get back to normal. My life revolved around school and working at the Galleria. Jim told me the Galleria is probably a smoking ruin by now, and the school would quickly either be abandoned or overrun by MBZ’s who wanted to kidnap the women. He told me in very graphic terms what would happen to me if we got caught. Frankly he scared the crap out of me. IS what he said true?”

“Gloria, if anything, he sugar coated it. I can’t begin to tell you the depths of depravity some of these monsters are capable of. From what I’ve heard and read, you’d be better off if they just shot you outright.”

“Thanks Bret - now I’m really scared!”

“Gloria, as long as you have a gun on you, there’s nothing to be scared of. All I can say is save the last round for yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve told Maggie the same thing - if you’re dead, they can’t hurt you. If you’re saved, you’re with Jesus in heaven instead of dying a slow painful death. If capture was certain, I told her to stick the barrel of the gun in her mouth, point it towards the roof of her mouth, and pull the trigger, she’d never feel a thing.”

“Why not stick the gun up to your head?”

“You might miss. With the barrel in your mouth with the barrel pointing up and back, you’re guaranteed to blow your brains out, which is exactly what you want to do in that case.”

“OK, I feel so much better!”

Gloria’s nervous laughter told Bret that he had gotten through to her.

“Ok, now I’m going to teach you what you need to know to keep that from happening. Let’s go up to the firing line. I wanted to start you at 15 feet, which is close enough to guarantee a center of mass hit if you use the sights, and proper technique. Now despite what you’ve seen in the movies, your gun will only fire once per trigger pull, and I can guarantee that it won’t be pointing straight up at the sky if you grip it properly. The recoil is like a soft push with a .45. You’re shooting 230 grain practice ammo, and when you’re carrying defensive rounds, they’re 200 grain jacketed hollow points which will kill anyone not wearing a vest if you do your job, and put the rounds in that big orange circle you see on the target. Later, I’ll teach you the best way to shoot a pistol, called the Failure to Stop drill. For now, concentrate on the big circle in the middle of the target’s chest. I’m going to have you dry fire until you’re comfortable, and sure of where the sights are when the trigger breaks. It doesn’t really break, but you’ll hear a snap when the firing pin falls when there’s no round in the chamber. This Glock has a last-round hold-open device that will keep the slide open if the magazine is empty, but I wouldn’t rely on it. You’re better off learning to count rounds. When you get to 14, it’s time to reload. After the first mag, it’s 13, because the chamber will be empty. Once you slam the magazine home, grab the back of the slide like this, and pull it back slightly, then let it loose so it can fly home, and chamber a round. It’s called sling-shooting the slide, and it’s the best way I know to actuate the slide on a Glock without getting your hand or body anywhere near the muzzle end of the gun. Are you right or left handed?”

Gloria said she was right handed, and Bret decided when he got a good look at her that he better teach her Weaver Stance. Jim was one lucky guy! He showed her the Weaver stance, then had her do it. He avoided touching her as much as possible. Finally she was ready to practice dry firing. He told her how to align the sights, and showed her how to cycle the slide manually so she could dry fire, and explained once the gun was loaded, every time she pulled the trigger, as long as there was ammo in the magazine, the slide should cycle itself, reloading the gun. After about 20 dry fires, he handed her a loaded mag, then stepped back and watched her. She loaded the gun like she’d been doing it all her life, grabbed the back of the slide, and pulled it sharply to the rear and let go. Once she was ready to shoot, she looked at Bret, who gave her a thumbs-up. She raised the Glock from low ready, and once the sights were aligned in the center of the circle, she squeezed the trigger just like she had done before. The gun roared, surprising her. When she looked at the target, there was a hole in the center of the orange sticker in the chest. She grinned, thinking “This is fun!” and proceeded to fire the rest of the magazine into the center of the target. Bret was impressed. Gloria was a natural shooter. He remembered something his shooting coach told him when Maggie outshot him the first time at the range about women being better at the start because they had fewer bad habits to overcome, no ego problems, and listened better. He did say that most men eventually surpass their wives because of their upper body strength, but in the beginning, most women outshot their husbands. He looked over at Jim’s target, and it looked like someone was firing at it with a shotgun with a bad doughnut problem at 25 yards - no holes in the orange sticker. He hoped Leroy could fix Jim’s shooting problems before they had to go home.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 9

The next morning, Jim and Allen looked worse for the wear, but Bret took 1 look at them and said “They’ll live” then promptly got up and made breakfast. After breakfast, they went back to the quarry for more shooting practice. Everyone was up to speed, and could shoot “minute of dirtbag” out to 300 yards with their scoped rifles. Leroy hoped that would be good enough.

Later that day, Brad called and asked Bret if he could help him hang the lights for his aquiculture setup. Bret volunteered Allen to help them since he was tall and could easily reach high enough to hang the chains from the nails while Brad and Bret held the fixtures. It took an hour or two to get everything hung, then Bret and Allen drove up the road to check out some of the neighbor’s houses. Several of them appeared abandoned, including 1 with 10 acres that was adjacent to Bret’s house. Bret took out his Electronic lock pick, and soon had the front door open. There was little damage to the house, and all it needed was a good cleaning. Bret asked Allen if they wanted this house, or if they wanted to keep looking. It was a stick-built house, which meant it wasn’t as secure as his dad’s place, but in an emergency, if they had enough time, they could make it back to his dad’s place.

The thing that got Allen’s attention was the massive central masonry heating stove with a separate cooktop. Someone was planning on surviving if the power and gas were disconnected. Allen realized that once the propane ran out, his mom and dad would be cooking on wood too. This house was looking better and better. The pantry was full of food and supplies, and as they checked out the rooms, there was more and more stuff they could use. Bret knew the owners, and knew they worked near the coast in Huntington Beach, and were probably killed by the quake and tsunami. They had plenty of radios to keep in touch, and the owners had a small 5KW solar power system for emergencies. In the office, there was a brand-new laptop and printer in good shape, and in the closet was a gun cabinet. Luckily it had an inexpensive lock on it, and Bret got it open after working on it 5 minutes. Inside were 4 AR-15's and 4 sets of deuce gear including 45 caliber pistols with 4 spare mags each, a butt pack, and 2 canteens. Hanging next to it were 4 LBV’s and 4 Kevlar vests that looked like they might be Level IIa or better.

They were rummaging through the kitchen when Allen spotted a set of keys hanging on a nail. One looked like the front door key, so he tried it while the door was open, and it worked the lock. There were several other keys on the chain, and Bret suggested checking out the garage. Inside was an old Jeep that looked at least 30 years old. It was a 4x4, and Bret guessed that his neighbor used the Jeep as a Bug Out Vehicle, or to get home during the spring mud, since it had big huge mud tires on it. Next to it was an old tractor with implements. They looked around back and spotted an above ground tank full of gasoline according to the sight tube. Bret hoped it was a 500 gallon tank, but there could be anywhere from 300-500 gallons of gas stored in the tank.

Bret turned to Allen and said, “Son, it looks like the Nichols were set up. They worked in Huntington Beach, and I’m pretty sure they’re dead, or they would have made it home by now. If you want, this place is yours and Veronica’s. They have 5 bedrooms and the office, so you have enough space for a family. They’ve got a huge garden out back, 500 gallons of treated gasoline, a tractor and a Jeep. His water is like ours, and connected to an Artesian well, so you don’t need power for the well, except maybe to pressurize it. Do you want to run Veronica over here and see what she thinks?”

“Sure Dad, I’d love to have my own home, and this just accelerates my plans -again. If we could come back to your place in an emergency, like if we’re under attack, I’m sure Veronica and I would love to have this place.”

“Son, you can always come home, especially if we were under attack, or any emergency. It will take us a day to move your stuff over here, so you two should spend the night in your room again.”

“Thanks Dad!”

They climbed back into Babe, and drove home. When Allen told her about the house up the road, Veronica was very happy. They drove up to see it, and found a bunch of new stuff, like canning supplies and a whole bunch of miscellaneous supplies stored in Rubbermaid totes in the basement. It would take them days to go through the basement by itself. Veronica decided they could move in tomorrow.

When they came back, Allen gave everyone the good news, then suggested to his dad that Jim and Gloria take his old room once he was moved out. He was sure they were getting tired of sleeping on an air mattress on the ground, and his room was well insulated. Bret talked to Maggie, who OK’d the idea, at least until Jim and Gloria could find their own house like Allen and Veronica did. Bret decided that after he got Allen and Veronica settled, they would check the next couple of houses up the fire road, and see if they were abandoned too.

The next day, they loaded all of Allen and Veronica’s stuff into the big U-haul trailer, and pulled it up the fire road with the Ramcharger. 2 trips later, they had everything transferred from Bret’s house to Allen and Veronica’s new house. Maggie and Nancy helped clean the new house, and put stuff up while the men hauled the boxes and furniture into the house. Later that evening, Maggie brought over a casserole for dinner. After dinner, they went to bed in the Nichols’ large and very comfortable King Size master bed.

The next day, they helped Jim and Gloria scout out a new house. The one right next to Allen’s was abandoned, but wasn’t suitable, since it was 100% electric, without any backup power source. The next house up the road was much more suitable, but smaller. It had a full AE system with a grid-sync inverter set, a nice battery bank, a roof full of panels, and several wind generators. It was only a 4 bedroom, Gloria didn’t mind, since they only wanted 2-3 kids anyway. It wasn’t set up as nice as the Nichols’ place, but they could make do. They had plenty of food and supplies stored, and they too had room for a garden. If they could borrow Allen’s tractor, they could both plant large gardens, and can enough to make it through the year. Bret knew there were small Mule Deer in these woods, and he could keep both Allen and Jim’s families in fish if he expanded his Tilapia tanks. He wished Allen’s place had a bigger inverter set so they could have their own aquiculture setup, but the 5KW system was too small to power the necessary appliances like the washer, and have enough power left over for a aquiculture setup. Between the 3 of them, they had enough supplies for several years. Their only problem would be paper products, which would run out eventually. Fortunately, the Nichols were preppers too, but not on the scale that Bret and Maggie were.

Once everyone was settled, they decided to go shooting at the quarry again. That afternoon, Natalie had returned to the house, and seeing a lone dog that reminded her of her pet that died a few years ago, walked over and extended her hand. Bret walked out of the house right as she got within petting distance, and he yelled “Natalie, NO!” Before he could react, the dog bared it’s teeth, lunged and bit Natalie’s extended hand. Fearing the worst, Bret pulled his P-14 from the holster, and shot the dog before it could bite her again. He kicked the dog away from her to make sure it was dead, picked Natalie up, and carried her back into the house. “Maggie, Natalie was bit by a dog that was acting funny. We need to get her wound cleaned as fast as possible, then see what we can do for her. Remembering the protocol for an animal bite, they cleaned the wound and the surrounding tissue with Betadine solution, then 70% isopropyl Alcohol. Bear ran in about that time, and Bret told him what had happened while Maggie read all the medical textbooks she had. The news was not good, if she was infected, without rabies vaccine, she was almost certainly going to die of encephalitis and extremely high fever. The incubation period could be anywhere from 3-8 weeks. Without the vaccine, all they could do was offer supportive care, antibiotics to prevent infection from the bite, and pray for her. Bear and Nancy quickly started praying for her as they moved her to the sick room in the basement where she could be isolated. Once she was resting comfortably, the 4 of them, and Leroy met in the kitchen.

Maggie gave Bear and Nancy the bad news “Without the vaccine, if she was infected, she’ll die in a month or two from very painful encephalitis. All we can do is pray.”

Bret took Bear aside and said “I hate to say this, but if she is infected, and gets fully symptomatic, the kindest thing we can do for her is kill her. I don’t have any narcotics or anything that would guarantee it will kill her painlessly. I couldn’t shoot her, and I know you can’t.”

Leroy overheard their conversation, and said “I might be able to help you gentlemen. I saw a boy in South America die from Rabies infection, and it wasn’t pretty. If I had to, I could shoot her in the head, and she’d never feel a thing.”

Bear and Bret looked stunned, then realized that Leroy was right. Bret looked at Bear, who nodded, but didn’t say a word. If Natalie had to be killed, Leroy would do it.

For the first week or so, Natalie was showing no symptoms, and her temperature was normal. On the 9th day, she started running a fever, and they feared the worst. Jeremy realized he might lose Natalie, and spent as much time as he could by her bedside, mopping her forehead with cold towels, and giving her ice water to drink. Over the next couple of weeks, she didn’t get any worse, then right at the 8th week, her fever spiked. Fearing the worst, Maggie told Jeremy to make sure he said goodbye to Natalie before dinner that night. He spent the whole day by her side, taking care of her, and right before dinner, he leaned over, kissed her on the forehead, and said “See you later Sweetheart.”

+++++

BANG!




Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Author's Note: Ooops, goofed again! Here's Chapter 8! I'm posting this on 2 seperate boards, and I keep forgetting that TB doesn't start a new thread for each chapter, like we do at Frugal's , so it's harder to keep track of what chapter you've posted.

Again, Mea Culpa!


Chapter 8

The next morning, Jim looked like something the cat dragged in, and felt worse. He made his way straight to the coffee pot, poured a large mug and sat down. Bret was working on the computer. “Rough night?”

“You don’t know the half of it. Gloria was acting like she was on her honeymoon, and I finally begged for mercy around 4 am. I hope we didn’t keep anybody up.”

“Nope, that’s why we pitched your tent where we did. It’s on the opposite side of the driveway from Bear’s trailer and the house is so well insulated the only way I’d know a bomb went off outside was if it blew in the windows.”

“Glad you did - I wonder what got into her?”

“I think we scared her half to death yesterday. She was shooting like Annie Oakley with that pistol, and the last time I saw a woman shoot like that, she was a rape survivor and later admitted she’d put her rapist’s face on the target. By the way, you need some more practice - your groups looked like someone had fired a shotgun full of buckshot with a bad doughnut problem from 25 yards. I don’t think 1 of your rounds was hitting the orange circle.”

“It’s been about 5 years since I last shot, and Leroy was making me nervous.”

“OK, how about I work with you today, and have Leroy teach Gloria how to shoot the AR-15 at the 100-yard target?”

“Works for me. Let me finish this coffee first, then I think we both need a shower.”

“Ok, by the time you get out, Maggie will have breakfast ready, then we’ll go shooting again.”

Just then, Gloria walked in wearing a nightgown and a bathrobe. She walked up to Jim and gave him a rather passionate kiss, even with Bret sitting right there. When she came up for air, Jim headed for the shower. Bret imagined he might need a cold one. Gloria grabbed a mug of coffee and sat down. Bret turned to her and said “I wanted to apologize for scaring you so badly yesterday. While things are really bad elsewhere, we should be fairly safe in the compound, surrounded by the land mines and claymores.”

“Bret, I wasn’t scared after I started shooting, actually, I felt in control for the first time in my life. I’m sure you saw Jim this morning. For the first time in my life, I felt sexually dominant last night, and I couldn’t control myself. I hope we didn’t wake anyone up.”

“We deliberately set your tent on the opposite side of the driveway from Bear’s. No one can hear normal noises, but if you scream, I’m sure Bear will hear you - so I wouldn’t scream unless it’s an emergency.”

“I’m NOT that loud!”

Bret started laughing, mostly from nerves. The only woman that he’d talked that frankly about sex with was Maggie, and they were virgins when they were married. Maggie chose that minute to walk in, much to Bret’s relief. He got up and gave Maggie a hug and a kiss, then offered to start breakfast while the girls got caught up. Bret was a really good cook, but rarely did any more since he was so busy between the shop and teaching. This morning, he made a “kitchen sink” omelet, which Maggie liked for 2 reasons: It used up left-overs, and Bret’s omelets usually tasted better than hers. While he was chopping, he rehydrated some diced potatoes to make hash browns on the side. When he was finished, the cast iron skillets were good and hot, and he added half the potatoes and a mixture of clarified butter and oil to each. He had a special omelet pan, and while he pre-cooked the ingredients, he reconstituted the dehydrated scrambled egg mix. He took a ladle full of eggs, a teaspoon of the butter/oil blend, added it to the hot pan, and swirled it to coat the bottom of the pan with eggs. Once the eggs were set, he added a small ladle of toppings, then took a plate and slid then flipped the omelet onto the pan, right as Jim walked in. “Perfect timing Jim, grab a fork, breakfast is ready.” Bret added a serving of the browned potatoes, and handed it to Jim, then started on the next omelet. Breakfast took longer this way, but Bret preferred to make individual omelets because they usually turned out. Every time he’d tried to make a family-size omelet, it broke. Gloria padded off to take a shower now that Jim was out, so Bret gave the next one to Maggie, then the rest of the crew as they showed up. Finally Bret got to eat, and everyone was telling him how great his omelets were.

Once breakfast was finished, the dishes cleaned, and everyone showered, they packed the trucks and headed back to the quarry. This time Gloria worked with Leroy on the rifle range with the AR-15, and Jim worked with Bret on his Glock 21. Bret told Jim that he was going to start at the beginning so he made sure that Jim knew everything, and if he knew what he was saying, he needed to pay attention anyway, just in case. He showed Jim how to operate the Glock, then had him do 10 dry fires while Bret watched his muzzle. Just as he suspected, right as Jim pulled the trigger, his muzzle twitched. He was either anticipating the recoil, or he had a bad flinch. Either way, he knew the cure, and handed him a nickel, and told him to do 10 dry fires in a row without the nickel falling off the slide. Every time it feel off, he had to start over. Finally an hour or two later, Jim told him he made it to 10 without it falling off. Bret stopped shooting, safed his gun, and walked back over to Jim’s lane. He handed him a loaded mag, and said to pretend the nickel was still on the slide, and not to squeeze the trigger until the sights were aligned right below the center of the big orange circle. Jim’s first round went right through the center, and Bret smiled, and told him to put the rest of the magazine into the center of the circle. Two minutes later, Bret gave Jim a High-five when the magazine locked open after firing 14 rounds. Bret handed him another mag, and told him to do it again, except this time in the 1" sticker in the middle of the target’s forehead. Jim knew it was impossible to fit 14 rounds in that little target, but instantly understood what Bret was trying to do when he remembered a line from Mel Gibson’s movie Patriot “Aim Small, Miss Small.”

It took longer, but Bret could see that all of Jim’s rounds were well-centered, and in a much smaller group than he had just shot at the 4" target. Jim was shooting at the 15-yard target, so Bret decided to ramp up the difficulty level, and get him to double-tap the center target.

“Ok, I’m going to teach you the first half of the Failure to Stop drill. Once you learn it, I want you to always shoot your pistol like that, unless whoever you’re shooting at is obviously wearing a vest, then follow G. Gordon Liddy’s advice - “Go for head shots!”

Jim started laughing until he realized WHO would obviously be wearing a vest - FEMA, or some other bunch of jack-booted Thugs. Until now, he never really considered the fact that his own government might be just as dangerous to him as a bunch of MZB’s. Bret talked him through the double-tap, then showed him how to do it “Just squeeze the trigger as quickly as you can, twice. Start lower on the target if you have to, so both rounds are in that 4-inch circle. Your actual target is much bigger, but if you can put both rounds in a 4" circle at 15 yards, you’ll put both rounds into center of mass when someone’s shooting back at you.” It took Jim the rest of the morning, but finally he was putting both rounds into the circle.

At lunch, everyone took a break for sandwiches and sodas. They were all talking, and Leroy was praising Gloria, who was now able to put most of her rounds in the kill zones at 100 yards standing and prone. She wasn’t sniper accurate, but she was also firing an open-sighted AR. Jim shook his head. Two days ago, Gloria wouldn’t even pick up a gun, and was forced by the bunch of guys who attacked them at the Hospital to shoot to defend herself. After lunch, Jim joined Gloria on the rifle range, and by the end of the day they both were shooting “minute of dirtbag” out to 200 yards. Leroy asked Bret what he did, and he told Leroy he got Jim to listen. “Well, it worked, Jim’s shooting rifle as well as his girlfriend. Too bad you don’t have scopes and red dot sights for those AR’s!”

“I’ve got both back home, on QD mounts, so we can switch from day to night. I got a deal on some Simmons 3x12x50 AO scopes from my gun dealer, and bought the rest of his stock. I’ve got a laser boresighter, so we can get them boresighted and shooting scopes if you think it’s worth it.”

“I think they both could hit a man-sized target at 300 yards with a good scope as long as they can shoot prone. Let’s get the scopes mounted and boresighted, and come back here tomorrow.”

They packed everything up, and headed home. After dinner, Jim and Gloria said goodnight, and Allen and Veronica asked to be excused. He told his dad they’d be right out on the porch swing if they needed him. The two of them sat down and snuggled up, and spent the rest of the evening talking. Everyone was surprised how quiet it was in Jim’s tent.

The next morning Jim looked much better than yesterday, and told Bret that they spent the night in each other’s arms, instead of having wild sex. Bret commented that he thought it was awfully quiet in their tent. Jim asked if he knew of anyone who could marry them. Bret said “I don’t know, let me ask Brad if he knows anyone.” He reached for the radio, called Brad and asked him “Do you know any ordained ministers? Jim and Gloria wanted to get married.”

“Bret, I’m ordained. It’s a mail-order ordination, but it’s legal. I’ll be over there in about half an hour to talk to everyone.”

Half an hour Brad showed up. Bret almost didn’t recognize him. His long hair was all tied up in a ponytail, and his beard was trimmed, and he was wearing clean clothes. “I came prepared in case they wanted to do it right now - I’ve got my Bible and everything.” Jim walked out of the house, and told Brad he looked totally different. “I got dressed up in case you two lovebirds wanted to get hitched now - After I got out of prison, I applied for a mail-order ordination. It’s legal, and under the circumstances, I’m just about all you’ve got.” Jim told him he’d have to ask Gloria, who came out of her tent a minute later, gave Brad a big hug, and said they wanted to get married after breakfast. Bret asked Brad if he had breakfast, and asked him to stay for breakfast to save the trip. Breakfast was boisterous, and Bret got the shock of his life when Allen asked if he could talk to him in private. “Dad, is it OK if Veronica and I get married?”

“I already said it was OK - what changed your mind?”

“We don’t have any guarantee about tomorrow, and Veronica and I are in love. As soon as she slowed down a big, I realized she was a really special woman, and I fell in love with her. We haven’t done anything except kiss yet, and I wanted to marry her before we had sex. I also wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and if possible, raise a family. The quarters will be a bit cramped for a while up here, but hopefully when things quiet down, we can take one of the abandoned houses up here, and move in. Veronica’s got 6 months left of birth control, so hopefully things will quiet down within a year.”

Bret gave his eldest son a hug, and said “Yes, you have my blessing, let me talk to your mother. When did you want to get married?”

“After breakfast with Jim and Gloria if they don’t mind.”

“I better go tell your mom right now!”

“Maggie, Allen asked me if it’s OK to marry Veronica. I told them it was OK by me, and they wanted to get married this morning.”

“Bret - this is so sudden, he’s just a boy!”

“Maggie, he’ll be 16 in a week, and Veronica will be 17 in a month or two. We’ve been treating them like adults since the shit hit the fan, and getting married would seal it. Frankly, I think that they’re more than ready, and we could all die tomorrow. Kids married young 200 years ago, and stayed married for life. We’ll probably be soon returning to a 1800's style life again when we run out of diesel and other petroleum products. Farming will be done by draft animal and plow. Already medicine and other services we used to depend on are gone.”

“Ok, if you think so dear. How about drinking?”

“Right now, if Allen asked for a beer, I’d give him one. We don’t have enough booze around here for anyone to get drunk, so that won’t be a problem.”

“How about Jeremy and Natalie?”

“If they’re smart, they’ll wait a few years. Jeremy’s too immature yet to handle the responsibility of a wife and family, and Natalie is still a teenager.”

“Ok, if it’s already a done deal, let’s get them hitched. Good thing the boys have their own bedrooms.”

“Allen mentioned homesteading one of the abandoned houses up here when things quiet down, so they won’t stay here forever.”

“Actually, I’m glad. It would be too crowded with infants around here.”

The 4 of them met after breakfast, and Allen said “Mom, I’m sorry I didn’t ask you first, but this sort of sprung up - with Jim and Gloria getting married, it pushed my plans ahead. Veronica reminded me last night that we don’t have tomorrow as a guarantee. I realized she was right, and asked her to marry me.”

Maggie held her eldest son and said “I’m proud of you son. You’ll make a good husband and father. Remember, if you have any questions, just ask us.”

“Ok, where’s everything go?”

The 4 of them laughed themselves silly, then Bret said “I’m sure you two will figure it out.” With that, they went to get dressed for the double wedding. Brad was surprised when he was told he would be officiating at a double wedding, but took it in stride. He decided that the two couples could get married together, and act as witnesses for each other. Once everyone was all dressed they assembled in the living room. Since no one had the appropriate music, the brides entered silently, and single-file. Gloria grabbed Jim’s hand, and Veronica grabbed Allen’s, then they turned and faced Brad.

“Dearly Beloved, we are gathered to join these two couples in Holy Matrimony.” It was a simple ceremony, he read from Corinthians, had the couples repeat their vows, then pronounced them married, since none of them had rings. He said that they really didn’t need rings, since they were an external cue to people they didn’t know that they were married, and off-limits, and everyone knew everyone up here. Finally they turned and kissed their brides.

Since they just ate, Bret decided to forego the reception until dinner, and asked the newlyweds if they minded going shooting on their honeymoons. All 4 of them agreed, so the got changed, loaded the trucks, and drove to the quarry. Jeremy and Veronica were both working with their scoped AR-15's on the 300-yard line, while Jim and Gloria got their scopes dialed in on the 100-yard targets, then gradually moved out to the 300-yard line by later that afternoon. Leroy was pleased when all 4 of them were hitting center of mass at 300 yards. No one was ready to make head shots just yet, and frankly 300 yards was almost too far for the AR-15 and the .223 round which was slowing down considerably by 300 yards, increasing the rate of drop.

Maggie and Nancy stayed home to make a special dinner for everyone. Bret and Bear got a chance to talk between rounds of pistol fire, and agreed that having Jeremy and Veronica married so early would take some getting used to. Bret hoped Maggie had set aside some cloth diapers, bleach, and baby stuff. Knowing her, he knew she probably did. She was a bigger prepper and pack rat than he was. Before the shit hit the fan, they’d go out to garage sales on weekends, and buy stuff like that for pennies on the dollar. Since Bret had the money, they tunneled and blasted deep into the mountain, and he had over 10,000 square feet between his house, garage/shop, and storage, with the storage in the “basement”. He paid a company to drill, blast and excavate a huge hole in the mountainside, then stabilize it with shotcrete and steel columns. The columns also supported the decking for the main floor, and there was 12 feet of vertical space underneath the main floor that they could use for storage, and his aquiculture setup.

Dinner turned out to be the last Prime Rib roast they had in the freezer, with all the trimmings. After dinner, everyone gave gifts to the newlyweds. Just like Bret suspected, Maggie had stored hundreds of cloth diapers, along with bleach in the form of Shock-it, soap, and baby stuff. She gave each couple 1/3 of the stored supplies, saving the 3rd for Jeremy when he got married. Bret made a present of the E&E kits and Glocks to Jim and Gloria, and gave Allen and Veronica a trailer-full of stuff they’d need to homestead one of the other houses in the area. He told them they were welcome to stay with them as long as they wanted, and he’d store the stuff for them. When they were ready to move, they’d all help them get established, and the supplies would help them survive. He gave Allen one of his National Match M-1a’s with a nice scope, 10 20-round magazines, and a case of .308 match ammo, and 1 of JHP hunting ammo. Bear and Nancy gave their daughter and Allen 100 Canadian Maple leafs, which was 1/3 of what they brought with them. Veronica already had her scoped AR-15, and a case of JHP ammo, and another of FMJ practice ammo. Leroy gave each couple 5 silver dollars, since he didn’t have as much stuff with him, but he wanted them to have something. Once all the presents were given out, the newlyweds retired to their tent and Allen’s bedroom.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 10

...BANG!...BANG!!

“Nice Shooting Natalie!” Jeremy walked over to Natalie, and gave her a bear hug. She had just put the entire magazine of her .45 in the kill zone of a B-25 at 15 yards. Jeremy was still amazed at how fast Natalie had recovered once her fever broke.

“Jeremy, you remember that night when you kissed me on the forehead? 10 minutes later Leroy walked in with his .45 and said “Sorry Natalie, but I have to do this. Suddenly your Mom burst in and said “Wait Leroy, she doesn’t have Rabies - I can prove it. One of the symptoms is hydrophobia from the restriction of the throat. Here, I’ll give her a glass of water.” Your Mom handed me a glass of water, and I drank the whole thing down like I didn’t have anything to drink for a week. Leroy lowered his gun, and his shoulders slumped with relief. It turned out I was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. Who knew that an allergic reaction would so closely mimic the symptoms of Rabies? Once your mom stopped the antibiotics, I immediately got better!”

In the weeks following Natalie’s brush with death, they got much closer. Jeremy was too young to get married, so they were “going steady” - it’s not like there was anyone else around their ages, so the point was moot, still Rick thought it was cute. The 2 of them were inseparable, and they both started growing up quickly, taking on responsibilities even though they were still teenagers.

Veronica and Allen had settled into their new house. They needed a lot of help getting the garden started, and Veronica was busy inventorying everything, and arranging their storage. When that was finished, she helped Allen with the outdoor chores. They had to cut wood for their stove, till the garden to raise vegetables, and a million other tiny details needed to keep a house running. The two of them were never more tired or happy in their lives. Jim and Gloria borrowed Allen’s tractor, and they both planted as big a garden as they could possibly handle. Brad drove his hydraulic splitter over to their houses, and everyone helped them cut enough wood to last several years while they had the gasoline. Brad suggested that they needed to get some horses and stock soon, and one of the farmers up the road raised chickens and pigs, and might be willing to trade. Another neighbor raised draft horses, and another raised quarter horses including Arabians and Palominos that had been featured in the Rose Bowl Parade. Bret was in a quandary - they had already buried the anti-vehicle mine, they might get there an no one was home, or they might be home, and already sold off their excess stock. The Russian Anti-tank mine was too dangerous to disable safely without blowing it, and they only had a couple. If they detonated it in place, the entire valley would hear the explosion, and the last thing they wanted to do was to attract attention!

Leroy spoke up “Bret, we didn’t put the mine in the center of the roadway, I deliberately set it in one of the ruts so a vehicle would drive over it if they went right down the middle of the road. There’s more than enough room to straddle it with your truck and trailer if you want to. I’ll guide you around the mine. We can’t do this too often, it’s dangerous, and the 2nd set of tracks could tip an invader off that there’s something amiss.”

“Brad, isn’t Jerry Lambert a Ham?”

“Yeah, I remember hearing him on the radio. It might be worth the risk to try contacting him using low power.”

Bret decided to try contacting him on the radio, made sure his radio was set to low power, and keyed the mike. “KG7ABD, this is KG7ADK.”

“KG7ADK, long time no hear Bret. What’s up.”

“We’re looking for some pigs and chickens with feed to trade. We could also use a couple of horses and some feed.”

“Glad you called, we’ve got a sow that just had a bunch of piglets, and no way to get them to market. I’ve got some laying hens you could have too. The guy up the road with the horses never made it back, I’ve been trying to feed them, so I’d appreciate if you could take some off my hands - they’re too much work.”

“Does he have a 4-horse trailer there?”

“He’s got several, and a gooseneck trailer to haul feed on. You could take the horses and feed in a couple of trips.”

“How many horses does he have there?”

“He’s got 6, 5 mares and a stallion. I really can’t care for them, I’m too old for this, so if you want them, they’re yours.”

“What do you want for the pigs and chickens?”

“How about you just owe me for them. I don’t want any gold or silver, I can’t eat it anyway.”

“You need any diesel or wood cut?”

“Now that you mention it, I could use 50 gallons of Diesel. I’ll trade you 6 pigs and a dozen laying hens with feed for 50 gallons of diesel.”

“You’ve got a deal, when do you want us to pick them up?”

“How about first thing tomorrow?”

“See you then, I’ll be driving my Dodge Ramcharger.”

“Ok, KG7ABD Clear and 73's!”

“KG7ADK Clear.”

“Well if that don’t beat all - Either he’s got way more pigs and chickens than he wants, or he’s giving us a sweetheart of a deal! It will take 2 trips to carry those horses here.”

“Let’s get the pigs and chickens first, then get the horses.”

“That will mean 4 trips over the mine.”

“Can’t be helped. Either way you have to make 2 trips for the horses, since he only has a 4-horse trailer. Be glad it’s not a 2-horse trailer, or you’d have to make 3 trips just for the horses, and another 1 for the feed.”

“Looks like you’ve got guard duty tomorrow Leroy, I don’t want anyone going Boom!”

The next morning, Bret loaded a 50-gallon drum onto the back of the Dodge, filled it full of diesel, then hitched the big trailer to it, and drove carefully over the Russian Anti-tank mine, praying the whole way. Leroy stayed there to guide him on his return trip. 20 minutes later, he drove up to Jerry’s front gate, and tapped the horn. Jerry walked down to open the gate, carrying a shotgun. Once he recognized Bret, he pointed the barrel at the ground and unlocked the gate. First thing Bret did was offload the diesel into Jerry’s above-ground tank, then he drove over to the pig pen, and the chicken coops, and shut down.

“Bret, nice to see someone for a change. Martha and I haven’t seen anyone since the Big One hit.”

“I don’t know if anyone else made it, all my neighbors except Brad are missing. I put Allen and his wife in the Nichols’ place, and Jim and his wife Gloria in the Smith place.”

“Isn’t Allen 16?”

“Just turned 17, and his wife’s 17 too. No point in waiting until they’re graduated from College, since most of them are flatter than a pancake.”

“Got a point there - I heard the news, and most of California is heavily damaged, and what the earthquakes didn’t get, the fires and looting did. Now Big Bear is acting up, and if that blows, that will cause even more problems.”

“Brad got some visitors last month who warned him that some biker gangs are looting and rampaging west of us, so you might want to stay off the radio unless it’s an emergency.”

“Ok, but we’re close enough to talk via Simplex on low power, I doubt anyone can hear us unless they’re within a 10-mile radius of the place. Besides Mount Wilson blocks the signal to the west anyway.”

“Still, I wouldn’t talk any more than you have to, it might attract the wrong kind of attention.”

OK Bret, let’s get the pigs and chickens loaded, then I’ll meet you next door this afternoon. I’ve managed to keep them fed and watered, but they need more care than I’ve got the time or stamina to do. Their hooves haven’t been cleaned, and they badly need to be washed, brushed and combed.”

“Maggie’s the resident Horse Lady, she’ll know what to do. She told me to bring all the tack and equipment while I’m at it. I’ll take what I can fit on each trip, so you won’t have to do this again tomorrow.”

They loaded the boxed hens, and Jerry herded 10 young pigs up the tail ramp into the bed of the trailer, then he loaded 10 bags of cracked corn into the bed of Bret’s truck, and said that would be enough to feed the chickens for a year, and he’d have to locate some more feed after that, or slaughter the chickens to keep them from starving. Bret thanked him, then drove back to their house. They already had a coop and a pig pen erected by the time he came back.

“We’re going to need more chicken feed by the end of the year, or we’ll have to butcher these chickens to keep them from starving. I doubt they had much feed for the horses on hand either.”

“Dear, we’ve got over 40 acres of good pasture land right across the road, and it’s already fenced. All we need to do is supplement their diets, and keep them clean.”

“Great, well that solves that problem. I’m going to get the horses next, and all the tack and equipment I can carry.”

“I better go with you when you get the horses, or it might take all day to get them into the trailer, or you might stress the horses.”

“What about the mine?”

“You made it so far, I’m hoping you can do it 3 more times, I’d hate to be a young widow!”

They drove carefully over the land mine, and made it back to Jerry’s neighbor’s house. Bret picked the lock on the gate and drove up to the horse corral right as Jerry walked over there.

“How’d you get past the gate?”

Bret held up his electronic lock pick “With this - I’ve used it in the shop to open locked doors when 1 of the mechanics locked the ignition keys in the car.”

“Just make sure you lock the gate when you leave.”

Maggie jumped down, and gave Jerry a big hug.

“How’s it going you old Codger?”

“Who you calling old Maggie?”

Bret remembered that Jerry was an old friend of Maggie’s dad, and was the reason they moved up here in the first place when he told them about the perfect lot for their “Survival Retreat”. With Maggie’s help, they quickly got the 4-horse trailer hooked up, and the mares loaded. Bret busied himself carrying tack from the shed to the bed of his truck, loading it as full as he could full of blankets, saddles, bridles, brushes, combs, a hoof pick, stall shovels, etc. They were finished about the same time, and Maggie told Jerry they’d be back for the Stallion and the other mare later that afternoon, so they were going to close the gate, but leave it unlocked.

When they got back to the fire road, Leroy was very careful lining them up, since the trailer had a narrower track than the truck, but they would still clear the mine by several feet. Bret put the transmission in low and idled over the mine, then drove up to a gate at the field opposite their house. Bret picked the lock, and Maggie led the mares 1 at a time down the ramp and turned them loose in the field. She smiled when she spotted the creek running through the property. She remembered that was a year-round creek, so they wouldn’t have to haul water. The previous owners had made a couple of holding ponds by damming the creek in several spots. Once the mares were settled, Maggie closed the trailer back up, and they drove back to get the rest of the horses. The Stallion was temperamental, but Maggie settled the big black Arabian Stallion down, and he allowed himself to be lead into the trailer. Finally they led the last mare into the trailer, and drove home. Once they got the Stallion and mare into the field, Maggie said Bret could handle the last trip by himself, she didn’t know if she could handle the stress of 2 more trips over an armed anti-tank mine. Bret dropped Maggie and the horse trailer off at their house, and drove back to pick up the hay and any other feed he could find. Bret was shaking his head when he got to the corral, and realized the last shipment of hay was still on the gooseneck trailer, so he installed his 5th wheel hitch, and connected to the trailer. There were bags of oats and other grains in the shed, so he filled the bed of the truck around the hitch, but low enough so it didn’t interfere with the free movement of the gooseneck, and once he was sure he had everything, thanked Jerry and drove slowly out to the gate, locked it behind him, and drove very carefully over the anti-tank mine while Leroy spotted for him. Once he was clear, he stopped, and let Leroy ride up front back home.

“Thanks for spotting for me. I don’t want to know how close I got to that mine. I’m sure Maggie’s worn out a set of Rosary beads by now. I’ll give her the good news.”

“Hi sweetie, I’m home.”

“Glad to hear that, we’re all fine here. See you soon.”

10 minutes they pulled into their driveway, and as soon as he was out of the door, Maggie hugged the stuffing out of Bret with tears in her eyes. “I pray we never have to do that again!”

“Sometime in the next year or so, I need to get chicken feed.”

“Why not just quadruple your worm farm, and feed the chickens the worms?”

“Good idea - I’ll buy a bunch of worms from Brad.”

“Better yet, trade him some worms for eggs.”

Once he got the gooseneck trailer parked, the bed unloaded, and his 5th wheel hitch removed, Bret called Brad.

“Hey Brad, how’d you like to trade worms for fresh eggs?”

“Sure, I’ve got way more worms than the fish can eat now, and all my tanks are full of Tilapia.”

“Jerry gave me a dozen laying hens and 10 50-pound bags of cracked corn. Maggie suggested quadrupling my worm farm and feeding the chickens worms.”

“Great idea. I’ll get going on building a worm rack, and I’ll bring all the worms I can spare over there. Once the chickens start producing, I’ll walk over there once a week and get some eggs from you.”

Maggie took a closer look at the “hens” and said “Dear, one of those Hens is a rooster, and there’s 14 of them, not 12.”

“Great, that means if we let some of the eggs mature, we’ll have a self-replicating flock. I wonder why Jerry did that?”

“Bret, he was one of my Dad’s best friends, and I’m sure he’s just looking out for us. They aren’t getting any younger, and their kids lived near Huntington Beach, so they’re probably dead.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hard on him about using the radio.”

“No dear, you were right. All it takes is 1 dirtbag to intercept our calls with the right kind of gear, and we’ll have all kinds of trouble up here in a heartbeat. The more we use the radio, the better a chance they have of intercepting and locating the transmitter, or at least our general direction.”

2 days later, Brad showed up with a worm rack and 12 Styrofoam containers full of worms. They got the rack setup, and Bret gave Brad a beer, and they sat down to talk.

“How’s things going at your place?”

“Pretty lonely and boring. Some days I really miss Annie, then I remember God has a plan and a purpose for my life, and no matter how bad I feel, I need to keep on trucking.”

“I hate to say this Brad, but you need a wife. It’s not right for Man to be Alone.”

“I know, I read Genesis too. I guess I could fall in love again, but there’s no one around.”

“Let’s pray about this, and see what happens.”

Brad laid his big hands on Bret’s shoulders and started praying. 10 minutes later, the 2-meter radio came alive.

“KG7ADK this is KG7ABD.”

“KG7ABD go ahead.”

“I got an emergency call from up the road. One of the ranch wife’s husband didn’t come home, and she needs help.”

“Any idea about her specifics?”

“She’s got 2 young kids, and plenty of supplies, but she’s scared all by herself. She’s already shot 2 looters, and can’t handle it by herself anymore.”

“KG7ABD, wait one.”

“Bear, this could be the answer to your prayers. Even if there’s nothing romantic going on, here’s a woman in distress. You’ve got plenty of room at your place, and if I remember, she’s about your age. Her kids are out of diapers so you don’t have to go through that.”

“What if her husband comes back later?”

“It’s been almost 6 months, if he were alive, he could have made it home on foot from anywhere in LA County by now.”

“Ok, but I’m only doing this as a favor to you, and to protect an innocent woman with young kids.”

“Jerry, tell her we’ll be up there today. Bear’s a widower, and about her age, and a good Christian Man who’s willing to help her with no strings attached. He’s got enough rooms at his place for everyone, and we’re very secure around here.”

“Ok, I’ll tell her you’ll be there in a hour or so.”

“I’ll be driving the Dodge Ramcharger.”

“Guess what Bear - We’re going to drive up there right now.”

“Glad I bathed this morning.”

Bret told Maggie what he was up to, and said he’d be back later that evening. Bret and Brad climbed aboard Bret’s Dodge Ramcharger, and drove to the ranch house. A middle-aged beautiful redhead met them with a shotgun, saying “That’s far enough.”

Bret spoke up “Jerry sent us, I’m Bret, and this is Brad.”

She lowered her shotgun, and they got out slowly. After a few uneasy minutes, she invited them inside the house. Finally she said “Where’s my manners, I’m Kelly.”

“Kelly, Jerry told us a little about your problem. We might have a solution, but if we could get some details, we could know for sure.”

“Ok, My name’s Kelly Johnson. I’ve been married to Dan Johnson for 10 years, and we’ve two sons, Zack who’s 6, and John, who’s 4. Dan works at the Long Beach refinery, and I spoke to him right before the Tsunami hit. He said they were too close to the coast to bother running, and he told me he loved me, and to take care of the kids. He said there was a note in the cabinet above the refrigerator with a list of stuff I needed to know about. We had a year’s worth of food, and plenty of water, but no power. We made out OK, until last week 2 dirtbags tried to take over, and have their way with me. I made it to the shotgun, and buried them out back. I got sick later, and finally realized Dan wasn’t coming back, and I couldn’t defend this place by myself and raise the boys, so I’m open to suggestions.

“Kelly, my name’s Herbert, but all my friends call me Bear. I used to be an outlaw biker until I accidently killed my wife riding a chopper while I was drunk. I spent almost 10 years in prison, and was ready to kill myself when a Prison Ministry chaplain met with me, and convinced me I had an alternative to killing myself. I could give my life to Christ, and spend the rest of my life serving him. I’ve a huge house next to Bret’s with water, and an AE system so we’ve got electricity, and wood heating. I’ve got enough rooms so everyone can have their own rooms. I’m offering you to stay with me with absolutely NO strings attached. I’m doing this as a favor to Bret, and also because you’re an innocent woman with kids in distress. I’m still getting over Annie, but I could use the company.”

“OK, before I decide anything, I’d like you to meet my boys. Zack, John, could you come in here please.”

2 rambunctious boys ran in the room and skidded to a stop when they saw Bear.

He bent down to their level, and said “Hi Zack, John. I’m Bear.” He stuck out his hand, and Zack bravely shook it. 5 seconds later, he wrapped his arms around Bear’s huge leg and held on for dear life. His brother John did the same thing seconds later. Bear gently laid his enormous hands on their shoulders.

Finally Zack said “Mister Bear, are you our new Daddy?”

“No, but I’ll protect you and take care of you if you want. Your Daddy is dead. He died in the quake.”

“I know, Mommy told us. I still can’t believe he’s gone.”

“Part of your dad will always be with you - right here.” Brad touched their hearts with his index finger. “I can never replace your daddy, but I want to make sure you grow up big and strong.” At this point Kelly lost it, and threw her arms around Bear. Bret turned quietly to go outside for a while. Brad came out 10 minutes later, and said “Kelly agreed to move her family to my place. Thanks for bringing me here, they really need me. She’s got a running truck with more than enough room to pack all their stuff and stay at my place. I’ve got it from here. Thanks Bro.”

Bear gave Bret one of his trademark Bear Hugs, then turned to be with Kelly’s family again. Bret walked back out to his truck, thanking God that Brad was able to help, and praying that they’d work out OK. He drove home, and gave Maggie the good news.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 11

Over the next week, Brad got Kelly and her boys moved to his place, and settled. He was amazed at the list of stuff Dan Johnson had set aside. Kelly hadn’t even begun to go through the stuff he had stored in their basement, and it took several trips to bring it over to Brad’s place. When Kelly saw it, she knew Brad was a Bachelor, but she knew that within a week, she could have the place much neater. She really liked Brad, and was glad that he was willing to be her friend for now - she was still in mourning for Dan. She thought that his nickname should have been Teddy Bear instead of Moose - he was a Big Teddy Bear around her and the kids, yet she knew that if someone tried to hurt her or her boys, she’d see Brad’s dark side. She was scared of what she might see, but grateful that her protector was capable of some of the stuff Brad had told her about. He kind of reminded her of Dan in that regard. She hadn’t heard much of what he did in Desert Storm, but what he did tell her scared her to her core. She was amazed at the transformation in Brad. He had gone from a sociopathic killer to a gentleman in every sense of the word since he had given his life to Christ. When he showed her the contents of his cache, she said “Cool, I always wanted to fire a full-auto gun!” When he heard that, he knew he had a keeper.

He found Dan’s firearms cache, and realized Dan was into full-auto guns even more than he was, and must have been collecting illegal firearms for a long time. He asked Kelly about it, and she said something about him being in Desert Storm, but she never got the full story. One of the weapons was a SEAL armory conversion of the M - 60 Machine gun for 1-man use, with 2 spare barrels and 20 200-round belts of 7.62 NATO Combat mix. Brad knew he had found his personal weapon! Dan had several M-16A2/M-203's and 4 M -4/M -203 SOPMOD kits. He didn’t say anything to Kelly, but he suspected Dan might have been in Special Forces, because they were the only people during Desert Storm that had access to the SOPMOD kit. Next to the kit was 4 crates full of 40mm HEDP and HE grenades for the M -203's. With 72 grenades per kit, he knew that Dan had planned well to outfit his family in the event of TSHTF.

He called up Bret and suggested everyone meet at the quarry, he was going to divvy up the full-auto weaponry in his cache, since Dan had more than enough stuff for him and Kelly, and their two boys. The next day, they all met at the quarry. Kelly decided to keep her 2 boys in the truck so they wouldn’t be harmed by the loud noises, or in the way and possibly run in front of the firing line. Brad counted noses, and realized he had enough M-16's for everyone, so he gave Bret, Maggie, Allen, Jeremy, Bear, Nancy, Veronica, Natalie, Jim, Gloria, and Leroy. Leroy already knew how to use the weapons system, so he asked Leroy to teach everyone how to use it. Brad located 2 cases (24 rounds) of 40mm practice grenades, and hoped it would be enough to get them familiar with the grenade launcher. Leroy took almost an hour explaining how the M - 16 and M -203 worked, then let everyone fire it semiauto at the 100-yard target until the whole magazine was inside the kill zone on the B-25's they had put up previously. Eventually everyone learned how to shoot short accurate bursts using the burst position.

Later that afternoon, everyone got 2 practice grenades at a truck body about 150 yards downrange. Most of them were able to hit the truck, or at least close enough, by the second grenade. Finally Brad told them he had some other toys in the back, and he’d give them out to people who could use them, and were good enough to use them effectively. Allen selected a Yugoslavian Paratrooper AK-47 with the under-folding stock, and Natalie took an MP-5SD3. Gloria thought the little MAC-10 was cute with the suppressor, so they took 2 of them and a case of 9mm ammo. Bear and Bret selected MP-5SD3's for Jeremy and Natalie, since they were easier to control than the MAC-10. Brad gave Bret and Bear both a crate full of hand grenades, saving 1 of them for himself, since Dan didn’t include any hand grenades in his plans. Brad knew that a small baseball grenade was a great weapon for room clearing if you didn’t care if the occupants survived the encounter. He added a crate of 72 40mm grenades to Bear and Bret’s piles. Bret gave 36 of them to Allen and Veronica, and saved the rest for himself. Bear would give Jeremy and Natalie 36 grenades when they moved into their own house, hopefully a couple of years from now.

They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening practicing with their chosen weapons. Jim and Gloria were able to control their MAC’s and not waste the entire magazine after about the 3rd magazine. Jeremy decided to shoot the AK in semi-auto mode unless they were being overrun. Natalie fired a quick burst from her MP-5SD into the target, and everyone was amazed that the entire magazine stayed in the target at 15 yards. Leroy explained that the MP-5SD was designed to do exactly that. With the integral suppressor, the muzzle climb was minimal. Jeremy and Natalie both fired their MP-5SD’s with similar results. Jeremy talked to his dad, and asked him if he should switch to the MP-5SD as well, since they already had the M-16's. Bret thought it was a good idea, since the Paratrooper was basically a close-range assault weapon, and didn’t have the long-range accuracy that his AR-15 had. He traded Brad his AK for a MP-5SD3. His first magazine stayed in the kill zone, so he said he was ready to go. Everyone packed up to go home, and Brad asked Bret if he could get hold of Jerry and ask him if he had any more pigs and chickens. With 2 growing boys, they’d need a steady supply of meat. Bret had his mobile radio in his truck, checked to make sure the power was on low, and called Jerry. He said “Sure, I figured they’d need some pigs and chickens if Brad and Kelly moved to Brad’s place. Tell Brad to come over first thing tomorrow, and I’ll give him 10 pigs and 12 laying hens. I’ve got another rooster I can spare so his flock will reproduce.”

“Thanks Jerry, I’ll give him the good news.”

“Brad, he said come on over 1st thing tomorrow, and he’ll have 10 pigs and 12 laying hens. He’s got another rooster to give you. If you can spare it, you might want to give him some gas or something.”

“I’ve got another batch of worms, maybe he could use them to feed his chickens?”

“That might be a better idea - it looked like he was running low on Chicken feed.”

“Great, I’ll knock together a worm rack, pack enough worms to get him started, and give him a bag of Worm starter. In two weeks, his chickens will have all the worms they can eat.” Brad shook Bret’s hand, climbed into his truck with Kelly, and drove back to his place. Bret and Bear loaded their families in their trucks and drove them home. Bret dropped Allen and Veronica at their house, and Jeremy and Natalie road with Bear and Nancy.

The next day Brad drove over to Jerry’s place, gave him the worms, the rack, and the starter, and helped him set it up, then told him how to manage a worm farm. When he told him how many worms he could grow in 2 weeks, Jerry’s eyes lit up. “Thanks Brad, I was running out of ideas on how to feed the flock, now it looks like I can feed the flock, and get some great soil for the garden too. I’ve got a hog that’s ready for slaughtering I’ll give you as well as the other pigs and chickens.” Brad was glad he had bought those CD’s with instructions for slaughtering animals, and bought the special tools to do it right. He’d never done it before, but he was sure he could figure it out. He told Jerry he’d never done it before, and Jerry said that if he could help him, they could slaughter it together at Jerry’s place, then pack the meat and take it back to Brad’s place. Brad thought that learning from an old pro would be an idea, so he called Kelly and said he’d be home later, that Jerry was going to show him how to butcher a hog, then give them the meat. Kelly said to make sure he called from the fire road, so she didn’t accidently shoot him, or fire the Claymores. Jerry heard that, and his eyes bugged. No wonder Bret and Brad felt so secure! If he had a bunch of Claymores protecting his driveway, he’d be as snug as a bug in a rug.

Jerry showed Brad which hog they were going to slaughter, then they went of get the slaughter house ready for butchering the big hog. Jerry came back with a big sledge hammer, and before Brad knew it, he hit the hog on the head, knocking it unconscious. Jerry said “Grab a leg, and let’s get Elmer up and get his throat slit before he wakes up.”

Brad was a big strong guy, and between the two of them they got Elmer up on a gambrel by his hind legs. Jerry handed Brad a butcher’s apron, and said “I hope you’re not wearing good clothes?”

“Nope, I guessed I might be getting dirty, so I’m wearing an old shirt and pants.”

“Ok, you’re going to get stuff on you that might not come off. Now that we’ve got Elmer hanging from his hind legs, we need to slit his throat.” Jerry picked up a big butcher’s knife, and with 1 swipe, severed both jugular veins, and the blood drained into a huge basin. Once he had bled out, they picked up the basin, and replaced it with a clean bucket so they could use anything that fell into it. Jerry showed Brad how to skin the hog, then they removed the fat and saved it for lard. Once it was skinned and the subcutaneous fat removed, he took his skinner, and opened up the belly from the butt to the neck, and removed the neck and head. Jerry picked up and separated the organs and intestines he wanted, making sure the intestines had a big knot in both ends so the contents wouldn’t leak out. He threw the organs in a separate bucket, telling Brad that the intestines needed to be thoroughly cleaned before they could be used for sausage casings.

He took a big saw, and split the hog in half by sawing the spinal column in half, then removed the loins. He separated the legs from the carcass, and told Brad that he needed them to make ham and picnics, which needed curing and smoking. With that out of the way, he started sectioning the hog from the front to the back, cutting the ribs, brisket, and butt sections off the hog. Jerry said that he could make bacon out of the brisket if Brad could wait a couple of weeks for it to cure. Brad said he loved bacon, so he’d make another trip for part of the bacon and hams. Jerry turned on his meat cutter’s saw, and sliced the ribs and roasts into the right cuts, and wrapped them in butcher paper, then put them in a huge cooler with a couple blocks of ice. He asked Brad if he had a freezer that could hold all that meat. Brad said he had plenty of room, and thanks for the meat. Jerry said when he came back, he’d have some sausage for him. He needed to clean the intestines thoroughly, grind up all the edible scraps, and stuff them in the intestines, then smoke and hang the sausages until they were done. He said he’d call Brad when everything was done.

With that out of the way, Brad put the cooler in his truck, loaded the chickens and pigs, and drove home right before dark. He called Kelly when he turned onto the fire road, and was home 10 minutes later. They barbequed the ribs for dinner that night, and froze the rest of the hog. Kelly was amazed at how much meat they got from a 200 pound hog. Brad said that the hams, picnics, bacon and sausages were over at Jerry’s place, where he was going to cure and smoke them for him. That night Brad, Kelly and the boys ate really well! Before she went to bed, Kelly walked up to Brad, put her arms around him, said “Thanks for taking care of us” and gave him a hug and a kiss on the lips. As Brad held her, she started crying, so Brad kept holding her gently as she got it all out. Finally she looked into his eyes, and said “Thanks Brad” and turned around, walked into her bedroom, and closed the door. Once Brad’s pulse returned to normal, he took a cold shower and went to bed. Kelly was definitely a very attractive woman, and a good kisser!

The next morning, Brad awoke to the smells of breakfast cooking, got dressed, and Kelly was slaving over a hot stove. Brad walked up behind her, and she turned around, and gave him another hug. “Good Morning Brad. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m used to making breakfast for everyone in the house.”

“Heck no! I can’t stand my own cooking. If you want to make breakfast from now on, by all means go ahead.” Brad was amazed to see pancakes, eggs, and bacon on the stove, and a big pot of coffee. 2 minutes later, she said “Breakfast is ready” and before he knew it, Zack and John ran into the kitchen like a couple of miniature tornadoes. Kelly told them to wash their hands, then sit down for breakfast. 2 minutes later, they came back, sat down, and waited while Kelly put their plates on the table. Once Kelly was seated Brad said grace “Dear Lord, thanks for this food, and bless it and those who prepared it. Amen.” He was encouraged to hear 3 Amen’s in reply. 2 minutes later, the only noises were the two boys attacking their food. Brad noticed that breakfast was delicious, and told Kelly so. She smiled and asked “What’s on the list for today?”

“I need to tend the garden, the worms, chickens, pigs, and the aquiculture setup.”

“Ok, the boys and I can weed the garden.”

“Don’t throw out the weeds, we can feed the good ones to the fish.”

“I’m going to have to get used to not throwing out stuff. A couple of months ago, we used to get our food at the grocery store, and throw the packaging in the trash that was collected weekly. Now I’ve got to remember that all edible food scraps go to the pigs, all the good weeds go to the fish, and not to throw out any paper products that can be recycled or reused.”

“I know how you feel Kelly, I’ve been living up here by myself for years, and sometimes I still forget. Except now the consequences of forgetting are greater than before. Also, any time you’re outside, you need to wear a gun and a fanny pack kit.”

“What for?”

“The gun’s for self-defense. Natalie was bitten by a stray dog a while ago, and almost died. There’s no telling what’s out here, and outside the line of claymores, there could be anything out here. The fanny pack is in case you have to leave here in a hurry. There’s enough stuff in there for you to survive long enough to make it to the caches I told you about.”

“I thought we were safe here?”

“Once society as we knew it collapsed, safety is relative. There’s no cops or fire department to call for help, and I doubt even the military is in much shape to help. We’re on our own, and if we can’t defend ourselves, we die.”

“Gee Brad, nice to see you’re such an optimist.”

“Just a realist Kelly. I know what can happen when normal society’s restraints break down. They’re now gone, and it’s everyone for themselves. This place is relatively safe, but only because of the mines and Claymores. A smart enemy can still bypass those defenses and get to us. That’s why I distributed those automatic weapons the other day. Your ranch was nice, but totally indefensible. This place isn’t as roomy, but way more defensible, and we’ve got food, water, power, and heat.”

With that, Brad said “thanks for breakfast” and kissed Kelly on the forehead, then went into his basement, and came back with a fanny pack pistol belt with a Glock Model 21 and 2 spare 13-round magazines full of Corbon “flying ashcan” 200 grain JHP ammo. He opened the pack, and showed her the contents. She knew how to use just about everything, since Dan made sure that she knew everything he knew about survival. He closed the pack, handed it to her, and she belted it on. Bret told her the chamber was loaded, so she had 14 rounds on tap before she had to reload, there were 2 spare mags next to the holster, and 50 extra rounds with the loading tool in a ziploc bag in the fanny pack. Kelly was familiar with the Glock, and was comfortable shooting it. Zack said “Where’s mine?”

Brad looked at Zack, and said he’d have one first thing tomorrow. He could put some age-appropriate stuff in there, like juice boxes, granola bars, a Mylar blanket, whistle, and some stuff he’d talk to Kelly about. When everyone was finished eating, they cleared the table and went to get their chores taken care of. Brad was glad for the help, because what once took him all day got finished by 3:00, and they were able to spend the rest of the afternoon doing fun stuff. Brad talked to Kelly, and she said it would be OK to include a Swiss Army Hiker, fire starting kit, and a mini-fishing kit in Zack’s kit - he was a very mature 6 year-old. John’s kit contained everything Zack’s had except the knife, firestarter, and fishing kit. He even found 2 identical fanny packs to use. He gave the boys their kits at dinner, and they were acting like Christmas had came early. After dinner, Kelly sat down to talk with Brad.

“Brad, I know we’ve only been together for a couple of days, but I wanted to say I think I’m falling in love with you. I know you’re not Dan, but you’re really good with Zack and John, plus you know how to make me feel like a woman again, yet still remain a gentleman. I’m not ready for a physical relationship yet, but I want you to know if you want to hold me or kiss me, I won’t break your arm.”

Until I met you, I didn’t think I’d ever get over Annie. I still think about her, but the memories don’t hurt anymore. I think your decision to limit things to hugs and kisses is a really good idea. Even if we wanted to get physical, it’s too soon for Zack and John, who still need to get used to me. I know Zack misses his dad, and I’ll do what I can to help him deal with it, but I can’t replace Dan.”

“Brad, you’ve got a really kind heart, and I can tell you really like Zack and John, even though they’re not your kids.”

“Right now, if someone tried to hurt you or the boys, I’d die defending you if I had to.”

“You barely know me, how can you say that?”

“Kelly, I’m starting to feel things for you, and my protective nature is starting to kick in. I’ll try not to be overprotective, but ever since I was with Annie, I’ve always been very protective of women, and wouldn’t tolerate any of the Brothers mistreating women. I nearly killed a club member who was beating up his old lady.”

“You and Dan have a lot in common. I can sense something dangerous in you, right below the surface, yet I know that you’d never hurt us.”

“Dan was probably in Special Forces. After Vietnam, a lot of Veterans including Special Forces joined Bike Clubs, including outlaw gangs because they didn’t feel they fit in, so I’ve been around the type for 10 years while I rode with Sons of Satan.”

“I’ve heard of those guys - they’re almost like the Hells Angels.”

“Kind of, only smaller. Now the Hell’s Angels are trying to consolidate the outlaw biker clubs as chapters of the Hell’s Angels. There’s still several small outlaw clubs that haven’t joined up, and a bunch of renegades running around now that law and order is flat on it’s back. I had a visit a couple of months ago, asking me to come back to the gang, and warning me that there was a bunch of renegades running around. That’s when we installed the anti-tank mine and the Claymores on the fire road. They could come over on foot, but it would take forever, since there aren’t many trails around here and they’d have to go cross-country. Both our compounds are ringed with Bouncing Betty mines set up with trip-wires in a spider’s web configuration. If you hear a mine going off, grab Zack and John and head for the basement shelter and lock the door, regardless of where I am. If I make it there, I’ll knock “Shave and a Haircut” so you know it’s me.”

Kelly leaned over and gave Brad a big hug, and just held him for a while. He reminded her so much of Dan, it was scary. Dan was into preparedness, and had a contingency plan for everything. He even had one for if he died away from home, and hid a letter with detailed instructions in the kitchen cabinet above the refrigerator. The letter told her where everything was, and which neighbors to trust. That was what told her it was OK to call Jerry. Finally she got up to check on Zack and John, they were being too quiet. It turned out they were taking a nap, and were tired from a long day doing chores. Kelly agreed, she was tired too. She looked at Brad and fought the impulse to lead him into her bedroom and make love to him. Brad would make a good father, but they had to wait. She definitely wanted to have some more kids, and hoped Brad did too. She walked over to Brad, kissed him goodnight, and went to bed, all by herself.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 12

The next morning, Brad woke to the sound of many choppers. Knowing the Sons of Satan wouldn’t stop by without calling, he rolled out of bed, climbed into his insulated coveralls and boots, grabbed his AK-47, his binoculars, the detonator for the Claymores, and called Bret saying “RED ALERT - I’ll handle it.”

He set the radio down, and sprinted for the path through the woods that would lead him to a spot where he could observe the fire road section that was protected by claymores, got quickly prone and turned the radio on that would detonate the Claymores with a push of the PTT button. He scanned the road, and there were a dozen MZB’s on choppers trying to negotiate the fire road, and having difficulty due to the muddy road. They seemed determined, and Brad scanned their faces and jackets to make sure he didn’t know any of them. Their jackets sported a mixed bag of local small outlaw clubs, and some without any colors, so he knew they were part of the renegades Sonny had warned him about. He waited until the Tail End Charlie was past the first marked tree indicating the start of the claymore kill box, and switched frequencies to detonate 1 string of 4 equally-spaced Claymores set back 30 feet from the road. They had realized even with the extra separation, they had 100% overlap at the far side of the road from the claymores, and they gained another 30 feet of coverage by moving them back like Motorhead had suggested. Brad pressed the PTT button, and 4 Claymore mines exploded, throwing a deadly pattern of thousands of steel balls in an arc in front of the mine, mowing the motorcycles and riders down like a scythe cutting through a field of wheat. Seeing all the bikers were down, Brad turned off the detonator radio, putting the safety back on the detonator, then laid there listening for any more noises while he watched the road.

After 20 minutes, he radioed Bret “Situation resolved, condition yellow.” meaning that the immediate threat was taken care of, but they needed to be careful in case the bikers were a diversion. 10 minutes later, he carefully moved forward to check on the bikes and the riders. All the riders were dead, and their bikes were damaged by the blast. He recovered anything usable from the bodies, including weapons and ammo that survived the blast, and took them back to his place.

He called Bret later, and asked him what to do about the bodies. If he left them there, the cat would be out of the bag, and any other group attacking them could figure out they had Claymore mines protecting the road, and choose a different route to attack them. Bret agreed, and drove his tractor over to the site, dug a big hole nearby away from the claymores, and used the loader to dump the bodies in. Brad took the bikes and anything usable away with his truck. Bret covered the bodies with a bag of quicklime, and filled in the mass grave, then went home. Brad told Bret they could use scavenged parts off the bikes for other stuff later, like a 2wd market trike that used less gas than the truck, and could carry a light load of food to a nearby farmer’s market to barter with their neighbors. He could make their engines run on a blend of methanol and gasoline for a long time. They were free resources so they should use them. Bret kept the guns and weapons he took off the dead bikers, including a couple of sawed off shotguns, Bowie knives, and other nefarious devices that survived the blast. He was bummed when he found 2 AK-47's too badly damaged from the blast to function, but he saved them anyway for parts.

That afternoon, Bret walked over to Brad’s place with Leroy. They sat down to discuss their security arrangements. Short of posting an OP to watch the road, there wasn’t anything they could think of to improve their security. They discussed anti-vehicle trenches, etc, but didn’t have the bridging materials to bridge the trenches when they needed to use the roads, or an easy way to move them in or out. Bret had his extendable bridges, but they were designed for Babe, not a 5-ton load like one of the diesel pickups pulling a heavy trailer. Also the only way to easily place and remove them was using Babe’s winch and derrick. Once they were out of diesel, they couldn’t remove and replace the bridge. Leroy argued that they were probably done with the big vehicles for now, and their greatest threat was vehicles coming down the fire road. Brad had to agree, so later that afternoon, they dug two anti-vehicle ditches across the road 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep.

While Bret was digging the trenches, Brad was trying to think about what he could do with the salvageable parts of the Harleys. Most of the motors were wrecked by the pellets, but by combining parts from different motors, he was hopeful that he could build 1 or 2 working motors to power stuff with. He wanted to build a small light weight tractor-type vehicle for work around the ranches that would get better gas mileage than the tractor when the didn’t need the implements, or the trucks when they didn’t need all that power. The Harley V-Twin motors put out about 125 horsepower, and the belt drive made them adaptable to many different ideas he had. It took Brad several months, but he finally got 2 motors rebuilt to the point where he thought they were reliable enough to power something useful. He walked over to Bret’s house, and they decided to check out the rest of the houses on the fire road. They decided to use Babe, since it was the most useful vehicle, and was small enough to turn around on the fire road. As they searched the other abandoned houses, they made a list of anything that was useful for later scavenging.

Brad finally found what he was looking for at the last house on the road. They had an old Chinese tractor with a gasoline motor that had self-destructed, and blew a piston right out of the block, and just sat there. Brad checked it over, and realized it would be a perfect donor vehicle for a project he wanted to build, so the carefully towed the tractor home using Babe as tow vehicle with a tow chain connected between them. Brad was glad the tractor’s brakes still worked. When he got home, he took a closer look, and the tractor was a hydraulic drive system, and all the motor did was power the hydraulic pump that turned all 4 wheels, and operated the PTO devices. All he had to do was connect the drive pulley from the Harley’s crankcase to the hydraulic pump. Once he fabricated the motor mounts, welded them into place, and mounted the motor, he crossed his fingers and started the Harley motor. Good thing the old tractor’s muffler was still in useable condition, or he’d need ear plugs to run the tractor. He had already checked the hydraulics, topped off the fluid from Bret’s supply, and greased all the fittings. With the motor running, he checked the front loader, rear hitch, and finally engaged the drive. He was glad he had the Harley at quarter throttle, it was almost twice as powerful as the motor it replaced. He took off down the driveway much faster than he had anticipated, so he quickly slowed down and turned around to head back. Next he tried out the 4wd setting, and it worked perfectly. All 4 wheels got power in the deep dirt. He pulled it back on the driveway, shut it down, and called Bret to give him the good news - they now had 2 usable tractors as long as the gas held out. He still had another Harley motor that he could use, so he kept looking for stuff to build with it.

Two days later, Jerry called, and said the bacon, sausage, and hams were done. Brad asked him if he knew of any farmers or ranchers in the area that might have gasoline or fuel stored. Jerry said that a few up the road from Dan Johnson’s place had above-ground tanks, and he hadn’t heard or seen them since the Big One. Brad asked Bret if they could take Babe over to Jerry’s place, and check out if there were any available fuel tanks at the other ranches. Bret said OK, because he could definitely use the fuel, and he had more Pri-D and Pri-G than fuel in stock. They left that morning, checked out the farms first, and found 2 fuel tanks, 1 partly full of diesel, and the other partly full of gasoline. Bret emptied a quart into a coffee can, and smelled it. It must have been treated because it still smelled fresh. He checked the tank, and it was towable, and he also had 10 50-gallon drums and a low-boy trailer sitting in his back yard. Brad looked around, and found a whole bunch more stuff they could use, and started brainstorming. Bret saw 30 6x6 posts that were 6 feet long stacked up, and told Brad that they could reinforce the center of the anti-vehicle ditches with 6x6's if they buried them down 2 feet, they’d be flush with the surface, and easily support the weight of the loaded trailer. They decided to leave everything there, get the meat from Jerry, and build the ditches. Bret slapped himself, and said with the extra gas and the second tractor, they could fill in the ditches, cover them with sheets of 1" OSB, and drive over them, then dig them back out. Brad told him if they were going to all that trouble, then they better strip all the surrounding farms and ranches of anything they could use first. He wasn’t going to want to do this again. Bret suggested that Brad keep all the gas they found, and he kept all the diesel. They stopped at Jerry’s place, got the meat, and asked Jerry if there was anything he needed from his neighbor’s ranches.

“Yeah, about 100 gallons of diesel would just about fill my tank.”

“Ok, I’ll take care of it when we locate some.”

They shook Jerry’s hand, drove home, filled in the ditches and covered them with sheets of 1-inch OSB, then spent the next two weeks scavenging from their neighbor’s farms and ranches. They took everything they could use, because they didn’t know how long it would be before they could resupply, and divvied up the supplies between the 4 households, and set aside stuff for Jeremy and Natalie’s house. Bret thought he had located a perfect house for Jeremy and Natalie just on the other side of Jim and Gloria’s place - it was the one that had the broken tractor. The house was a fireproof combination of a fieldstone matrix core, stucco exterior and interior, and a fireproof composite shingle roof with PV shingles on the southern exposure. They must have been one of their more affluent neighbors, since they had a commercial grade kitchen with a propane-powered stove/range/oven combination, 2,000 gallon propane tanks that were mostly full, a huge masonry heater stove in the center of the living room, an Outback 10KW AE system, 4 400-watt Air-X wind turbines charging a 300KWh battery bank. Their system was stand-alone and included a China Diesel 5KW generator in case they needed it. They had a 5,000 gallon diesel tank just like Bret, but both their vehicles were missing, probably because they were at work when The Big One hit. He didn’t know where either of them worked, but vaguely remembered something about them working in downtown LA in the high-rises. From what Maggie told him, most of them collapsed during the earthquake, with few survivors. Anyone who survived the quake in downtown Los Angeles had virtually no way to get home, and soon would have to face rioting and looters, or just plain criminals who were willing to kill for what little they had. If they weren’t back by now, they weren’t coming back. Bret showed Bear the house he was thinking about for Jeremy and Natalie, and he agreed it would be perfect. Whenever they had spare time, they took care of the other house, and slowly got it to the point where Jeremy and Natalie could move in when they got old enough and married.

One of the big scores of their scavenging trips were several full or nearly-full tanks of gasoline and diesel they located. The tanks were too heavy to move loaded, so they off-loaded the fuel to the flat-bed trailer and 50-gallon barrels Bret had located at the first ranch. First they filled Jerry’s diesel tanks, which took about 150 gallons, then they put the rest in Bret’s tank, filling it. He had already treated the diesel with Pri-D, so he knew it was good to go. Next they towed the tank over to Brad’s house, since he didn’t have a remote tank, and transferred the gasoline in that tank to 50 gallon drums, then filled the tank again with treated gas. They located 2 more tanks, and transferred the fuel to Allen and Natalie’s house, and gave Jim and Gloria a tank full of treated gas. The house they were going to give to Jeremy and Natalie already had a diesel tank, so they topped it off with treated diesel from the other tanks. When they were finished, they all had a 500-gallon tank of gasoline or diesel, and they were full. Propane was another matter, and there wasn’t a dealership nearby - the nearest one was in Glendale, and Bret said there was no way he was driving one of those rolling bombs all the way here in what was sure to be chaotic conditions by now. Leroy pointed out that it would take a 50-caliber rifle to even have a chance to penetrate the tank, and the tanks were over ½" thick. Bret pointed out that they might just try to hijack him, and either way he’d be dead.

Brad called a few weeks later, and asked Bret to marry Kelly and him. Brad was a minister, but it was considered poor form to perform your own wedding. Bret agreed to marry them, and they all gathered the next day for the wedding. Brad had coached Bret and given him a cheat sheet to follow. He did the wedding perfectly, and Brad told him he should have been a minister. Bret laughed knowing he wasn’t that spiritual, and didn’t know the Bible that well. Brad said that now they had all the time, he should start studying his Bible. When he asked Kelly to marry him, he asked Zack and John if they wanted him to be their Daddy. Zack was now 7 and said “My Daddy’s dead, but you can be my best buddy!” Zack and John each grabbed a leg, and Brad took that for a “yes”. After the wedding, Zack and John stayed with Bret and Maggie, and Brad found out that the rumors of redheads being passionate were true!

They picked up the boys the next day, and Brad officially had a family. Kelly still wanted another kid or 2, and spent a couple of nights each week trying to get pregnant. Brad was more tired than he ever remembered. Finally Kelly missed 2 periods in a row, and they announced she was pregnant. The next week Allen and Natalie announced they were going to be parents too. A month later, Jim and Gloria were expecting. Bret turned to Maggie, who said “Don’t even think about it - we’re too old!” Bret was glad they had plenty of baby stuff in stock between what Maggie had put back, and what they had scavenged from the store and their neighbors. They all had huge gardens, and by late summer, they were all busy harvesting and canning like crazy.

During what spare time he had, Brad was building a weird contraption made up from the Harley motor and the differential, suspension, pickup bed, and front steering components from an Isuzu pickup, the hydraulics and loader off a Bobcat, and the wheels and tires off a wrecked ranch truck. Seems one of the “ranchers” places looked more like a wrecking yard with old cars, trucks and other stuff accumulated. Brad was in “Hog Heaven” since he was a dedicated scrounger. Their final vehicle resembled a small pickup with huge 33-inch off-road tires, a small dump bed, and a small loader. The cab was open for the most part with a full roll cage and tubular frame, and a bench seat with seat belts. The hard part was mating the Harley motor to the rear differential of the pickup. Finally he spotted a bevel gear set with 2 4-bolt flanges, fabricated a mount, bolted the universal from the drive shaft to 1 end, and a steel plate to the other that had holes drilled to accept the pulley that was on the rear wheel of the Harley. He fitted the hydraulic pump and a tensioner idler pulley to the same bracket, and crossed his fingers. He knew the 3/4-inch steel plate would hold the torque, but he wasn’t sure of the gearing. It turned out that the Harley’s first gear turned out to be a Granny gear, and fifth gear topped out at around 40mph. Brad was amazed when he realized that the Harley had a reverse gear, and took advantage of it. In order to have a decent fore-aft balance, he moved the battery and fuel tank up front, and covered them with sheet metal. He intended to give it to Jeremy and Natalie, but decided to use it on his farm until then. It was pretty powerful, and with the super-low gearing, had tons of pull-power. It didn’t have a PTO, but that was a small price to pay for the extra gas mileage he got from the motorcycle motor. He knew it couldn’t handle as much as the other trucks, but it could pull more than either tractor with the towing hitch he welded onto the frame.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 13

Once the gardens were all harvested, and the horses, pigs, and chickens had their winter shelters built, they got a well deserved rest. Bret was listening to the multi-band radio when he picked up the NOAA weather report. It was weird, because he was listening to an AM talk-radio show, then he remembered his radio was equipped with SAME technology, so whatever was on the NOAA weather report was bad news.

“USGS has upgraded the Volcano Advisory Alert Level Two at Big Bear Lake, California to Volcano Alert Level Three. Numerous swarms of micro-quakes indicating magma movement and increases in steam levels and temperature at steam vents now indicate an eruption is imminent within the next 24-48 hours. The USGS has declared a Volcanic Emergency and has called for a mandatory evacuation of a 25-mile radius of the caldera, and a recommended evacuation within 50 miles. Persons to the east of the caldera from Northeast to Southeast within 200 miles are encouraged to evacuate to outside a 200-mile radius due to anticipated ash fall ranging from two to ten feet. National Guard units will assist evacuees and provide transport if necessary. This is an URGENT WARNING and state and local officials are authorized to take any actions necessary to protect life and property.”

The warning started repeating, and Bret yelled for everyone to get into the living room where they could hear the warning. By the 3rd time through, he had the radio set up, the volume turned all the way up, and everyone in the living room. When everyone had heard it, they sat down and planned. They were over 100 miles west of the caldera, and weren’t in the danger zone from pyroclastic flow or lahars. They could get anywhere from an inch to a foot of ash depending on the wind direction. Bret thanked God that it was close to winter, and the dominant wind direction was west to east, and a low-pressure system to their north should keep the ash off them. Even still, he called Brad and Allen, and told them to bring their families over for a group discussion. While he was waiting for everyone to gather, he called Jerry and warned him. Jerry told Bret not to worry about them, they had an underground shelter with 3 months worth of supplies, and a NBC-type air filtration system. All their animals had barns or other shelters that he’d put them in, and figure out a way to filter their air supply. Bret suggested several ideas he had, and Jerry said he’d be able to come up with something.

An hour later, everyone had gathered, and had heard the warning. Allen suggested they keep the animals in their shelters for the duration, or at least the first 24 hours of ash fall and feed them. Brad said they had several spare wind turbine generators from their scavenging trips and they could use 1 to charge a battery to run a 12vdc exhaust fan in the horses’ barn on the other side of the fire road, and they could duct tape the door closed, and install a filtered air supply mounted low. Bret had exactly what he needed - several black ABS plastic Tee connectors and 6 foot sections of 4-in ABS plastic. They could cut a hole in the wall, attach the pipe to the wall, and stuff 2 two-foot pieces of plastic full of spun glass Aquarium filter media which should catch most of the ash, and not plug solid for 24 hours. He had enough materials to build 1 for the pigs and chickens as well, which could run off the AE system. They all agreed, and got to work. First they took the time to seal their houses as best as possible in a couple of hours. Later that afternoon, Bret had the filters built and installed, while Allen and Brad got the wind turbine up and running. Jim and Leroy wired and installed the exhaust fans, and everyone else chipped in. When they were ready, Maggie helped herd the horses into the barn, made sure they had enough food and water for 2 days, then locked the barn, and sealed the door with duct tape to try and keep the ash out. She made sure the exhaust fan was running, and went to check on the chickens. The girls were busy getting the chickens back in their roost, so Maggie started herding the pigs into their shelter, set them up with food and water, and sealed their shelter. Finally the girls got the chickens up, fed and watered, then locked and sealed the door as well. Right when they finished, they heard a huge “Boom” and Bret got on his radio and ordered everyone inside his house, which was set up to handle something like this. Neither Brad, Allen, or Jim’s houses were built to filter out ash. They had closed all their doors and windows and sealed them as best as they could before they left to take care of the animals, and packed enough stuff for a week.

“Ok, everyone, we should only need to be in here for the first 24 hours in case NOAA is wrong, and we get hot ash or pyroclastic flow this far west. We’ve done everything we can for the animals, now we just have to make arrangements for the next 24 hours.”

Jim and Gloria volunteered to sleep in their tent in the basement, and Bear said they had 2 tents as well. Bret knew they had plenty of room, but realized the couples might want some privacy. An hour later, they heard what sounded like hail on the roof, and they looked out the window, and it appeared to be snowing ash, and what sounded like hail were small pieces of pumice stone. Bret checked the thermometer, and the outside temperature was still what it was before the ash shower started, so he felt safe knowing that if they were anywhere near the pyroclastic flow, the air temperature would go up drastically due to the hot gasses. After a couple hours when things died down, Bret suited up in a Tyvek suit, heavy rubber boots, goggles, and an N -100 filtermask, and went outside to check on everything. There was only an inch of ash on top of the hill the house was dug into. His house was built to withstand a near-miss from a 500 pound bomb, or a nearby nuclear explosion, so an inch of ash wasn’t going to phase it. He cleaned the solar panels off with a broom, and checked on the horses, chickens and pigs. Their filtration system was working fine, and they weren’t getting much ash, so they’d be ok in a couple of days. He went back inside the house, stopped in the mud room, took off the tyvek suit and boots, which were covered with ash, and hung them up for later. He gave Maggie the good news, that the ash fall should taper off in a day or so, and everyone would be OK to go outside wearing a poncho, goggles and a filter mask to protect their airway.

With that out of the way, he called up Jerry to check on him, and he said that they were fine, the animals were in their shelters, and he an the missus were playing cards. They agreed that it should be safe to go out in 24 hours if nothing else happened. The next 24 hours seemed drag on forever. They weren’t used to being cooped up so long, and the strain started to show the next morning. Finally Bret relented, and let everyone but the pregnant women outside for a couple of hours if they wore protective gear. He called Jerry, who said that they’d only gotten 3 inches of ash so far, and they were in the process of sweeping off their roofs. He reminded Bret not to wet the ash down unless he had a steeply pitched roof, because wet ash weighed much more than dry ash, and might collapse lightweight construction. Bret was glad he had bought all those push brooms, and they used them to clean off the shed roof of the pig sty, chicken coop, and horse shelter. None of the ventilators were plugged, and the animals seemed OK. The ash was still coming down, so instead of letting the horses out to graze, he fed them some more oats and hay, and refilled their water bucket. Everyone was busy outside cleaning ash off solar panels, windows, and roofs.

Finally Bret called everyone back inside with the FRS radios. They reluctantly agreed, and they all met inside. Bret checked his multi-band radio, and the NOAA weather broadcast indicated the eruptions had stopped, and the ash should move off within 24 hours as the onshore wind blew everything eastward. The good news was they were supposed to get a moderate rain shower tomorrow, which should wash all the ash off the grass, so they could let the horses out to graze. Right after dawn, it started raining, and it stopped around 3pm. Bret and Maggie let the animals out, then everyone drove their vehicles back to their houses. Bret made everyone wear masks and goggles when they entered their houses. Allen and Veronica’s house was almost airtight, so a quick vacuum with a shop vac took care of most of the ash around doors and windows. Jim and Gloria had a little more work to do, so everyone pitched it, and got it clean enough for them to safely spend the night without wearing filter masks.

Bret was thanking God that they had come through a major volcanic eruption without anything more than a minor inconvenience. He wondered how the rest of the country was handling it, and turned on an AM Talk Radio show. The news was not good. FEMA wasn’t prepared to handle a multi-state emergency of this magnitude. Besides that, a USGS Geologist was wondering aloud if Mammoth Mountain, the Long Valley Caldera, and possibly Yellowstone would be effected by the recent eruption at Big Bear. That got Bret’s attention. If Yellowstone blew up as a Supervolcano like he had been hearing about on the Internet, he would need to borrow Bear’s REM album, because it would be The End Of The World As We Know It. He could remember singing the song in the late 1980's, not realizing that 20 years later, he might be singing it for real! He wondered what Michael Stipe was thinking when he wrote the song.

The next morning Bret realized several things. 1) He had 3 pregnant women in the compound, and they were sorely lacking on Baby supplies, just diapers and cleaning supplies, and a limited supply of food and clothes. 2) The ash fall had stopped, and hopefully the Sheeple had acted like the good Sheeple they were and evacuated a much greater area than was necessary, possibly leaving Glendale a ghost town. 3) If he hustled, he might be able to “salvage” baby food, supplies, and clothing from nearby abandoned stores. 4) The ash was making him replace air and oil filters more frequently than he planned on - he needed more Auto Parts. 5) He needed as much Diesel fuel and Pri-D as he could get his hands on. 6) Jeremy and Natalie would eventually need a vehicle - he’d have to keep his eyes peeled for a big running Diesel truck. 7) They all could use more Bug Out Gear in case they were forced to evacuate the mountain.

With that in mind, Bret decided that they needed to do a Scavenging Run ASAP. Since Allen was now a Man, he didn’t have to worry about Maggie insisting he stay home with her for the trip. He was needed because Gloria was too pregnant to safely scavenge, or even be out in the ash and dust for as long as this trip was going to take. He also decided to ask Brad to join them, and make it an armed convoy including him and Allen, Bear, Jim, Leroy, and Brad. With 3 vehicles (Both Dodge trucks and Babe) they would have a driver and gunner per vehicle, and 3 vehicles that could tow over 10 thousand pounds each. Bret talked to Maggie, who wasn’t happy about them going out again, but agreed that they needed all the stuff on his list. Bret talked to Leroy, giving him a choice of trying to disarm the anti-tank mine in place, or destroying it. Leroy said he’d feel safer destroying it. Bret called Brad, who agreed, and suggested a shotgun slug from the bluff overlooking the fire road would be the safest way to detonate the mine. The 1oz slug hitting the pressure plate should have enough energy to detonate the mine, then they could quickly fill in the hole, and place a piece of OSB over it until they decided to permanently fill in the hole, or place another Anti-Tank mine in the road.

Bret assigned Brad and Leroy to destroy the mine and fill it in while he let his fingers do the walking. He grabbed his local Yellow Pages, and made a list of the places they wanted to visit. He located a Kragen Auto parts in Altadena, that was on their side of the 210 Freeway, so he added it to his list - they should carry a good selection of auto parts. He looked in New Dodge Dealers, and they all were in the wrong areas, across several freeways from them. H checked the Used Car listings, and found Banner Auto Sales in La Crescenta, which was on their side of the 210 freeway. He’d check them first for diesel trucks. He was thoroughly discouraged by the lack of fuel distributors in the area. The only thing he could think of was the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, on the other side of I-5 from Glendale, but it was only 12 miles away. If they could find a fuel truck, locate a large quantity of diesel fuel, and drive it back, they could fill all their tanks full of diesel and gasoline. He knew where he could locate a couple of 1,000 gallon trailer tanks at the Caltrans yard, and possibly snag several diesel work trucks from them as well.



He checked the Grocery Store ads, and realized the Vons Market was right near the Ralph’s in La Crescenta. Between the two, he should be able to come up with all the food and supplies they’d need. He made a list of where they wanted to stop, and then he prioritized it, then organized it so they wouldn’t have to double back, or drive all over town. Their final stop would be the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, if they couldn’t locate a fuel tanker and some portable tanks anywhere else because it was so far away, and driving a fuel truck that far could be suicidal. He showed the list to Maggie, who made some suggestions, like converting the route into loops so they could drive back home and unload after hitting so many places. Bret knew that he married her for more than her looks. She was one smart cookie. He re-organized the stops into 4 big loops, and then called Brad and asked if he’d be willing to ride shotgun for some scavenging trips over the next couple of days. He explained his reasoning, and Brad agreed that they needed more stuff with 3 pregnant women in their group, and Natalie a later possible 4th. He volunteered to build a pintle mount for his machine gun to mount it on the hood of Babe so Bret could drive, and Brad would have a limited field of fire while he was seated. He would design the mount so he could quickly detatch it, and fire out to the passenger side if necessary. Bret thought that was an excellent idea.

The next day, they hitched the biggest trailers they had to the two Dodge Ramchargers, and a smaller one to Babe. Everyone was wearing their bullet-resistant vests and their LBV’s full of ammo and grenades. They weren’t expecting Trouble, but Bret knew that Trouble had a knack of finding you at the least opportune moment. Maggie gave Bret a big hug, and told him to be careful. Bret drove Babe with Brad riding shotgun with his M -60 on a pintle mount, and Bear drove his Dodge Ramcharger with Allen riding shotgun with a M -16/203 combo and a LBV full of 30-rd mags and 40mm grenades. Jim drove Bret’s Ramcharger with Leroy riding shotgun with another M -16/203 combo. Both Ramchargers were towing huge trailers, and Babe was towing Jim’s smaller trailer for now. Leroy had already destroyed the anti-tank mine, and Brad filled in the hole, and covered it with OSB plywood so they wouldn’t sink in. They made great time to the 210 freeway, then headed to their first stop. They took some side streets to Foothill Blvd northbound to La Crescenta, and started working their way north. 2 miles north on Foothill, they came to the Ralph’s. It looked damaged, but un-looted. The only way to find out was to drive around the back. The rear door was off it’s hinges, but looked like earthquake damage instead of vandalism.

Way in the far corner was a Tractor-trailer combo with a single long trailer. Bret grabbed his FRS radio, and held a quick conference with Bear and Jim. They agreed it was worth the effort to get a whole trailer full of stuff if they could get it running. Bret thought they needed to make sure there was a trailer full of stuff in Ralph’s that was worth taking. He pulled Babe up to the loading dock, left the engine idling while Brad kept watch with his machine gun. Bret carefully opened the door, and was amazed that there were still hundreds of cases of food on pallets in the back of the store. He ran through the back, and the front of the store was a mess, and looked like it had been very poorly looted. He turned down 1 aisle, and saw the dead body of a teenager with a couple of cans of food. Bret shook his head, and turned to go back to the back room. He got on the radio, and gave them the good news. Brad drove over to the 18-wheeler, picked the door and ignition locks using Bret’s electronic lock pick, and tried to start it. The engine tried to start, but wouldn’t turn over, so he opened the battery compartment, pulled Babe up to it, and connected the jumper cables. He was glad that the rig was 12 volt instead of 24-volt, and the truck’s charging system should be able to provide enough power to start it.

He turned the ignition to on, and this time the Kenworth spun and roared to life. He hopped out of the cab and disconnected the jumpers, leaving the rig to idle. Once he had Babe parked, he carefully backed the trailer up to the loading dock, where Bret was waiting with about a dozen of pallets of food, medicine, and supplies. They used the pallet jacks to load the trailers, then once they were full, Brad drove the rig back to their house, and unloaded. They made 2 more trips to empty all the pallets they wanted to take from Ralph’s. On their final trip of the day, the huge Kenworth suddenly swerved to the left and stopped. Brad got out swearing a blue streak.

“Now I know why that truck was sitting there - that front tire was bad. I hope to God they’ve got a spare.”

Muttering to himself, he checked, and underneath the trailer was a spare tire. That was good news - the bad news was he couldn’t find a jack to pick up the front end to replace it. He explained the problem to Bret, who said he could get a 10-ton jack, and a heavy duty air impact wrench from work. He hoped the compressor on the truck could keep up with it. Bret was back an hour later, and took a look at the tire, and said “Brad, that spare’s a Bias-ply!”

“So?”

“That’s a REAR tire. You can drive with it up front, but not fast, and not for long - we need to find another front tire somewhere if we plan on keeping this rig.”

“Ok, just go ahead and put it on for now - I’m sure there’s a tire dealer around here somewhere with the right kind of tires.”

Brad and Bret worked feverishly to get the truck jacked up, and the wheel off. They had to wait almost half an hour for the reserve tank to fill up again so they could torque the new wheel back on. It took them almost half an hour just to muscle the tire and wheel into position, and hand-tighten the lug nuts down with a huge socket wrench. Finally they were finished, and Bret gunned the lug nuts down to around 200 foot-pounds, which was the maximum for that impact wrench. He checked the air pressure in both front tires, then the rear tires. The fronts needed some air, but the rest were OK. Finally they put everything back together, and Bear started the truck up again, drove the loaded truck home, and unloaded it before they sat down for dinner.

Between the 3 trailers and the tractor/trailer combo, they had managed to unload every pallet, and all the useable cases of canned foods, supplies, and staples out of the Ralph’s. They had over 70 pallets full of cases still in the shrink wrap, and over 100 cases of loose boxes where they had already broken down the pallets at the store, so Bret decided to take loose cases and put them in the three trailers to save room in the 45-foot trailer. Jeremy and Natalie were going to help the women relocate and repack the cases while Bret and the rest of the men went out to scavenge some more.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 14

The next morning everyone was up at first light, showered and dressed. Maggie made a quick but filling breakfast for everyone of oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins in case they didn’t have time for lunch. She kissed her husband goodbye as they left, and they were back in La Crescenta within an hour with their 4-vehicle convoy. Leroy moved to Bret’s vehicle to man the machine gun, while Brad drove the 18-wheeler, Bear drove his truck, and Allen drove his dad’s Ramcharger with Jim riding shotgun. They made it to the Von’s shopping center without incident, drove around the back, and found the place locked up tight. There were no lights on in the building, so Brad carefully picked the lock, and everyone but Leroy went with Bret carrying either suppressed Mac-10's or H&K MP-5SD’s. They didn’t want to make any extra noise, so they left the M -16 combos in the truck with Leroy watching the vehicles carrying the M -60 using the sling in the assault position. He liked the way the old broad balanced, and wished he’d have one of them instead of that wimpy 5.56mm SAW the Marine Corps issued in Desert Storm. Leroy kept a sharp lookout, and everyone had their radios on to broadcast a warning if they spotted anyone, Bret was the first through the door, and they stacked right behind him and moved as a group just like a SWAT team. Leroy’s MOUT training suddenly came in handy as they tried to safely clear the building before they took everything that wasn’t nailed down. Half an hour later, and several nervous moments later, Bret sounded the “All Clear” as they cleared the upper office rooms. The store was deserted, locked tighter than a drum, and the shelves hadn’t been touched, so no one had been in there looting. There was stuff on the floor, and broken glass containers, but the shelves weren’t bare like they were at the Ralph’s. Maybe looters didn’t shop at Vons?

They went back out, backed the trailers to the loading docks, and quickly emptied the loading and storage area in 4 trips. This went much faster than the Ralph’s since they didn’t have many open pallets to load by hand. Bret made an executive decision to come back for a 5th load of all the open cases of canned goods and supplies they could find. They loaded up the 3 trailers attached to the pickup trucks, and left a little over an hour later. On their way home, Brad was looking down side streets, and spotted a gas station. He looked again, and it looked like a double trailer fuel hauler was parked in the back. He broke squelch twice and said “Follow me - I found something.” He made a right at the next corner, and drove back to the gas station. They parked and checked out the fuel truck. The front tanker was mostly full, and the back piggyback tank was almost totally full of diesel. If Brad guessed right, that was almost 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel, plus whatever was in the front tanks. They didn’t want to leave any of the trucks loaded with stuff there, so Brad suggested he drop the empty Ralph’s trailer next to the fuel hauler, uncouple the other diesel, which was out of fuel and wouldn’t start anyway, and hook his running tractor to the fuel tankers and drive them home. They’d come back tomorrow for the trailer, and maybe the other tractor if Brad could get it running quickly. He unhooked the brake lines from the trailer, lowered the outriggers, and disconnected his 5th wheel, then slowly drove out from under the Ralph’s trailer, then backed up and connected to the fuel tankers. He connected the brake lines, and raised the legs. He put the Kenworth in low, and slowly rolled forward until he had both trailers moving, and was sure they were connected properly. Bret drove ahead of him, and led the way back home. Allen took up the tail end Charlie of the convoy, and paid close attention to his rear-view mirrors. It took a long time to get the dual-tanker fuel hauler home, but they made it right after sundown. Bret showed him where to park the tanks so they wouldn’t have to move them too much, then Brad disconnected the trailers from the rig so he could get the trailer, and maybe the other tractor unit first thing in the morning. Finally when everyone was finished, he opened the fill caps on top, and used the tank stick to check how full the tanks were. There were 3 tanks up front, and all 3 were half-full of various grades of unleaded gasoline, and the rear tank was almost full of diesel. Checking his numbers against a sheet he found in the cab, they had 5,350 gallons of gasoline, and 4,875 gallons of diesel in the tanker. When he told Bret how much fuel was in the tanker, he decided to skip the fuel tanks, and check the Caltrans yard for anything else useful, like a big diesel truck for Jeremy and Natalie.

The next day, they drove back to the gas station, picked up the Ralph’s trailer, and Brad spent an hour trying to get the diesel started. Finally he emptied the fuel tank, put 10 gallons of diesel in the tank from his side tank, found a can of ether, and shot a squirt into the intake while Allen cranked the ignition. On the second try, the engine caught, and rumbled. Brad gave it another shot of ether, and it started running better. Brad closed the hood, transferred 50 gallons to the saddle tank of the other diesel, then they pulled up to the pump to fill the other rig. Bret brought his 5KW generator with him, located the power terminals for the pumps, and managed to get the pumps running. The station sold diesel, so they filled the saddle tanks of both rigs, and the gas tanks of all their trucks out of the station’s tanks. It took a couple of hours to fill all the tanks, and the sat nervously on guard, but never saw anyone. Finally they were finished, and the diesel tank was almost dry. Bret disconnected his generator, put it back in the trailer Babe was pulling, and they drove off to their next stop on their scavenger hunt. They turned northwest up Foothill Blvd to check out the Kragen Auto Parts store. Bret had a huge list of stuff they wanted, and he hoped it hadn’t been looted. When he got there, they had a loading dock, so they backed up to it, then unlocked the loading bay door, and spent the next couple of hours loading oil, additives, parts, several cases of PRI-D and PRI-G (Enough to treat twice the amount of fuel in the tanker), and all the tools and miscellaneous stuff they thought they could use. Bret checked the list, and there were 2 Medical Supply stores within a mile of the Kragen, and they had the room, so they went to them next. They took everything they could use, and filled the trailer of the 18-wheeler.

Bret checked the list, and they could stop at the Sport Chalet at 975 Foothill Blvd on their way home. He hoped the underpass on Foothill was open, or they’d have to go around on the Angeles Crest Highway. He knew the route was open that way, and grabbed his FRS radio, and told the convoy they would take a slight detour to take advantage of a known open route across 210. They turned north on La Canada, and made the 2nd right back onto the Angeles Crest Highway. Bret turned onto their “overpass” and they all made it through without too much effort. Bret knew that they might need to hook Babe to the Kenworth like they had done before to get over the inclines on either side of the freeway overpass With Babe pulling in granny low, the truck made it easily the last 3 times they did it. They stopped at the Sports Chalet, and took what they had - they weren’t into guns and other weapons, but they had great hiking, camping, climbing gear, and clothing. They loaded the pickup’s trailers and what spare room there was in the Kenworth’s trailer, then headed home. Maggie was overjoyed to see so much medical supplies, but doubted the usefulness of some of it. The outdoor clothes, polypro underwear, boots, and heavy jackets would come in handy, since no one thought to include winter gear in their emergency kits except for Bret. It took everyone several hours to unload everything, then they sat down to dinner and went to sleep soon after that - totally exhausted.

Bret decided to take the next day off, and get organized. Maggie had made an inventory program and spreadsheet, and had entered all the food and supplies into the list, and was in the process of issuing supplies to Brad, Allen, and Jim’s families since Bear’s family was still living with them and using the supplies stored there. When it got cold, they took 2 available bedrooms in Bret’s house, and closed up the trailer for the winter, which was getting crowded and cold. Bret was worried when he saw how much power they were drawing off his system just to heat Bear’s trailer, and suggested they move in with them for the winter. Bear took him up in a heartbeat. While everyone was recuperating from the heavy work of the last couple days, Bret updated his list, and made some notes to himself. Tomorrow, he wanted to check out the Caltrans lot in Glendale near his shop, check his shop again to see if they missed anything, then hit a couple of stores in the southern end of Glendale if they had to. He wanted to locate some Compound bows and arrows to save ammo, and keep the noise down when they were hunting. He knew in a year or so, the resident deer population would be booming, and they could safely take as many deer as they wanted to supplement their meat lockers. He checked the Yellow Pages, and the closest Archery store was in Monrovia. He’d either have to check some sporting goods stores in Glendale, or wait until later for the archery equipment. He looked under sporting goods again, and spotted Landry’s Sporting Goods in Montrose, which was just north of the college. He could hit that on his way to the shop, then check the Caltrans lot after that. Hopefully Landry’s carried archery and other hunting equipment.

The next day they drove down to Landry’s, and hit the jackpot. The place hadn’t been looted, and was full of firearms, archery equipment, outdoor gear, and other stuff they could use. Bret decided to clean out the store since they had the space in the trailers. 6 hours later, they decided to head home, the 18-wheeler was full, and the trucks and trailers were as full as Bret thought was safe. They even took the furnishings, since he used florescent lighting, and had a bunch of fixtures, spare ballasts, and a case of tubes. Bret thought the name was familiar, then realized where he had heard it. Mr. Landry liked to take his long lunch breaks at Venice beach, and leave the store in the hands of his son. Unknown to Mr. Landry, Mike shut the store down for an hour for lunch, and was probably at Del Taco when the quake hit. Bret didn’t feel too badly stripping the place when he remembered the news story about Mr. Landry getting picked up for soliciting a 13-year old girl for sex at Venice Beach.

As they got almost home, the road buckled and swayed. Everyone stopped in place to wait out the quake. When the shaking stopped, Bret talked it over with everyone, and decided to scout ahead. 2 miles up the road, a small bridge over a dry creek bed had finally failed. There was no way the Dodge Trucks or the 18-wheeler was making it across that gulch. He drove back, gave everyone the bad news, and suggested they make camp. He would drive back into Glendale to check the Caltrans yard for any heavy equipment and bridging materials they might have so they could get home. They pulled the trucks so they were blocking the road in front and behind the Kenworth and set up a defensive perimeter. Allen was grateful that Maggie had insisted they pack their E&E kits, but wished he’d brought his BOB with the tent and sleeping bag. Laying on the ground in a Mylar bag wasn’t Allen’s idea of fun. They each took a 4-hour watch from dusk to dawn, and the next morning Bret showed up with Brad, and they were driving an old Army deuce-and-a half towing what appeared to be a Caterpillar Backhoe loader. Brad told them it was the big loader, a 466D, and it should make short work of filling in the creek. The deuce and a half was the lot queen at the Caltrans yard because it only went 40mph, had a 6-speed stick shift and a dual-speed transfer case instead of an automatic, and was an open canvas covered cab with a 7-yard dump truck and a 10-ton PTO winch on the front. Bret told them he found it hitched up to the loader’s lowboy trailer full of all the accessories for it. It took them until dark to get the truck running, so they decided to stay overnight in the relatively secure Caltrans lot instead of driving after dark.

Brad located a suitable spot to remove dirt and rocks from to fill up the hole where the bridge collapsed, lowered the rear ramps, started the Cat, and backed it off the trailer. Meanwhile Bret was disconnecting the trailer so they could use the dump bed of the deuce and a half to haul dirt and fill in the hole. Brad used the bucket to lift dirt and rocks by the bucket load, and dump it into the truck. When it was full, Bret drove the truck to the gully, backed it up, and dumped the load. Meanwhile Allen was giving his mom a progress report, telling her they should be home that afternoon after they got the gully filled and compacted. 3 hours later, the gully was full, and they used the bucket to start the compacting process. Once he had used the full downward pressure of the bucket, Brad had Bret dump another load of rocks on top, and re-compact it. They needed a solid roadbed for the 18-wheeler to make it across. Once they were finished, Brad took some bigger boulders, and laid them on both sides of the temporary bridge, so it wouldn’t wash away in the first rain. Bret knew they’d have to replace the bridge sooner or later, and added bridging materials to the scavenging list. Finally they were done around 3 o’clock, and Bret drove Babe over first, connected to Bear’s truck just in case. He drove back and forth over the roadbed, compacting the whole width further. Finally Brad was satisfied that the Kenworth could make it, and they started over in convoy. Bret drove over first, parked his trailer out of the way, backed up to the bridge, and connected his winch to the front of the 18-wheeler just in case. He anchored Babe to a couple of nearby trees just to be safe, then engaged the winch while Brad motored across in idle. The tractor/trailer combo handled it just fine, and didn’t need the winch. Bret unhooked the winch, waited for Bear and Allen to drive across, then re-connected his trailer, turned around and headed home. About 2 more miles down the road, Bret saw a tree blocking the road. He could tell it fell by itself by the way the base was cracked and splintered, so he wasn’t worried about an ambush, and got out, hooked a choker to the tree, and hooked the choker to his winch, and dragged the tree out of the way. They were home an hour later, and Maggie ran to Bret and practically picked him off his feet “You scared me half to death! I hope you’re done scavenging!”

“Almost, Maggie Dearest - we need to get some bridging materials to build a permanent bridge before the next rainy season, or we’ll be cut off.”

“Bret, that might not be a bad thing - maybe you can find some temporary bridging materials you can use to cover the gap with when we need to. After all, you’ve already cleaned out the grocery stores and anything else we can use. We’ve got several years of fuel, food, and supplies now, and we don’t need to go back to LA for anything.”

“I forgot to get some fabric and supplies while we were out. Instead of buying clothes, if we got enough fabric and stuff, we could make our own. The nearest Wal-mart and K-marts are over by the Galleria, and I’m pretty sure they’ve been looted by now.”

Maggie told him “There’s Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts on Foothill Blvd. You’ve probably driven past it several times. If we could take Babe and the smaller trailer, the two of us could clean them out in an hour or so. I know what I need, you can do all the heavy lifting.”

“Gee Thanks Dear!”

“Guess this means you’ll be riding shotgun - ever fired an M -60 before?”

“Yeah - Right!”

“I’ll have Brad take it off, and we’ll carry our M -16 combos instead.”

“Works for me.”

Before he left, Bret asked Brad to remove the M -60 and pintle mount from Babe. They were going to make 1 more scavenging trip to the fabric store in La Crescenta, then they were through. 5 minutes later, Brad had the machine gun removed from Babe with only 4 holes in the sheet metal where the mount went. Bret wasn’t worried about holes anyway, so they were good to go. The next morning, they drove to Jo-Ann Fabrics and cleaned the place out. Maggie took all the fabrics they had in stock, if it had any use at all for making clothes, draperies, or repairing furniture. She took 8 sewing machines, so they each had a spare, and all her thread, needles, and sewing equipment, boxed them up, and hauled them with a dolly out to the trailer behind Babe. Later that afternoon, Maggie decided they had everything they could use, and drove home. Bret was glad, because he was dog tired.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 15

After the last incident with Big Bear, Bret was paying more attention to the USGS website, and what he saw did not make him happy. It appeared that his worst nightmare was coming true, 1 volcano at a time. He was reading reports of increased activity around Mammoth Mountain, which was the Southwestern border of the Long Valley Caldera that Interstate 395 followed from Crowley Lake to about 20 miles south of the town of Lee Vining, just south of Mono Lake. The really scary factor was the sudden increase in activity after Big Bear erupted. As he did more digging, he noticed previously dormant or inactive volcanoes were now showing activity, including Mount Shasta, Rainier, Lassen, Medicine Lake, and Mt. Hood. Even Mt. St. Helens was showing increased activity. The USGS wasn’t ready to sound an alert, but the overall picture didn’t look good, especially since they all increased activity after The Big One. All he needed to complete his doomsday scenario would be for Yellowstone to show increased activity, or something in the area where that Indonesian quake occurred last year to start rumbling.

He started working out his worst-case scenario, and realized that his family wasn’t safe anywhere in the US if his worst -case scenario came true. He could either move or dig in. He owned the whole hill that his house was dug into, and he could expand his living quarters to accommodate everyone - but for how long, and would the food last? First he made a list of everything he’d need to blast and dig more space under the hill, and secure it against the massive expected earthquakes, then he made a list of all the supplies that they’d need to live 5 years without being able to grow anything outside. Finally he made allowances for the animals. 5 years of hay and oats would take up an enormous amount of room. The pigs and chickens weren’t very efficient utilizers of the food they ate. At least the pigs could eat garbage, and their waste could be used for fertilizer and to make methane. He had some very hard decisions to make, and little time to make them if his hypothesis was right.

That night, before they went to sleep, Bret told his wife everything he was thinking of. She rolled over, turned on the light, and asked Bret how long he thought they had.

“Anywhere from 3 months to 3 years depending on how fast the geological dominoes fall into line. My best-case was that nothing further happened after Big Bear, but from what I’m reading on the USGS website, all the nearby volcanic regions showed increased activity right after the Big One, and again after Big Bear let loose. My Worst-case was that the Long Valley Caldera would let go, followed by Yellowstone letting loose as a Super Volcano. Judging by the size of the magma pool and the enormous gas pressure under Yellowstone, all it could do would be to become a Super Volcano. There’s another Geologist that was theorizing that the Long Valley Caldera between Mammoth Mountain and Lee Vining might be a dormant super volcano as well. IF the worst case happened, we wouldn’t be able to grow anything outside for 5 years, and the solar panels would quickly stop producing electricity. We don’t have the means of storing enough diesel to keep a generator running for 5 years, and the winds are too unreliable around here to produce enough power to make up the difference.”

“How much diesel would you need to keep the hydroponic system running?”

“Good question, I’ll crunch the numbers tomorrow, and figure out a bare-bones power consumption figure.”

“You know dear, we can heat and cook with wood - why don’t you include that into your figures. Or maybe you can locate a propane distributor and grab 1 of their delivery trucks - that ought to hold a couple thousand gallons of Propane.”

Bret knew that Propane wasn’t a big thing in Glendale, but if he went to the other side of the mountains via the Angeles Crest Highway, it dumped out near Wrightwood and Apple Valley. He hoped there would be propane distributors in that area with a 2500 gallon delivery truck.

The next morning, he went back to the USGS site, and located a report on the Yellowstone Caldera that said that if Yellowstone were to blow, it could only go as a Supervolcano due to the super high levels of dissolved gasses in the magma, being held in suspension by the intense pressure. Any release of the pressure would cause an explosive expansion in the neighborhood of around a million to one. The article stated the magma pool under Yellowstone was at least 30km by 60km but under intense pressure. He called Jerry and gave him the good news. They talked for a while, and Bret explained his problem with making enough electricity to keep the hydroponic system running for 5 years. Jerry said he had a friend in the Valley that was into steam engines, and he’d like to go see him, if Bret could give him a ride, and maybe he could get a usable steam engine to run a generator. Bret asked him when he wanted to go, and Jerry said “No time like the present - I can’t get hold of him anyway to tell him we’re coming.”

“Ok, I’ll be over in an hour.” Bret decided to take Babe and the big utility trailer, which would be the easiest one to get a steam engine aboard since it had a tail ramp. He kissed Maggie, said he was going with Jerry to hopefully pick up a steam engine, grabbed a bag of silver dollars, and headed out the door. He drove over to Jerry’s place, and Jerry looked at him funny.

“Expecting Trouble?”

“You never know WHAT we might run into between here and there.” Bret was wearing his vest and LBV, and had his loaded M -16/203 combo in a rack between them. Jerry looked in back and saw a huge backpack full of stuff.

“What’s that?”

“I brought a complete BOB instead of just my E&E kit. Like I said, you never know what we might run into, and I might have to walk back home if I can. I hope your friend has what we need, I’m taking a big risk driving all the way out there.”

“He’s been into steam engines for as long as I’ve known him. If he’s not there, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind us taking what we need to survive.”

They drove for 2 hours, and finally Jerry said “Turn here.” Bret turned down the road, and turned again when Jerry pointed out the driveway. The gate was locked, so Jerry yelled “Hello the house!” Meanwhile, Bret turned all his radios on, and heard over CB channel 19 “Who are you, and what do you want?”

“Larry, it’s Jerry - I brought Bret Wilson with me.”

“Jerry, that you? I didn’t know if you survived or not. Hang on a minute, I’ll get the gate open.”

“Larry, it’s Bret, I can get the gate open without damaging the lock if you don’t want to walk down here.”

“Bret, go ahead, I’m not feeling too good today.”

Bret got out, grabbed his electronic lock pick, picked the Master lock in seconds, opened the gate, drove through, and re-locked the gate. They drove up to the house, and were greeted by a elderly man wearing an old-style train engineer’s uniform. Jerry jumped out as soon as the truck stopped, ran up to his old friend, and shook his hand.

“Where’s Mertyl?

“She died 6 months ago. We saw the Doctor last year. Seems smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day for 30 years causes lung cancer and emphysema. Doc said I’m terminal too.”

“Sorry to hear that Larry.”

“Don’t mind me, I’ve lived a good life. Mertyl’s already in Heaven, and I’m fixin to join her. So why you two come all the way out here for - just to check on me?”

“Bret thinks the Long Caldera and Yellowstone are going to erupt in the next 3 years. Most of his place runs on solar panels for electricity, and if they put up enough ash, he won’t be able to make enough electricity to power his lights for his hydroponic setup.”

“Huh?”

“Larry - I built a home by digging into a hill. My Dad was really into Preparedness. When Grandpa died, he left me a ton of money, so I built a house that would withstand anything. Problem was I can’t make electricity from sunlight if we don’t have any sunlight. I’d need over 10 thousand gallons of diesel to generate enough power to run the hydroponic farm for 5 years, with not much left over. Jerry here tells me you’re into steam engines, and I was hoping to buy or trade you for 1 so I can power a 20KW generator, which would be more than enough to run everything.”

“Bret, I’m dying. Anything you guys need to survive, go ahead and take for free. I’ll just ask you I favor. If you can, could you come back and bury me next to Mertyl when I die. I’ll call Jerry on the HF radio when it’s close. I’ll show you were Mertyl’s grave is then you can help yourself to anything you need here.”

“Ok, If we can make it. Thanks for everything.”

“Don’t mention it - I’m just glad someone will get some use out of these old engines.”

Larry got up, and Jerry and Bret each took an arm, and he led them to Mertyl’s gravesite. He showed them were his headstone and casket were, then led them back to the house. They set Larry back down on the porch swing, and went looking through his back yard. Bret never realized how huge steam engines were until he was up close to them. The smallest one belonged to a tractor that was 12 feet high, 30 feet long, 10 feet wide, and probably weighed 10 tons. They walked back to Larry, who said, “That darn old tractor should run, it’s just that it never went much faster than 5mph under it’s own power. It’s got a primitive transmission, so you can lock it in neutral and tow it with your truck. It skid steers, so Jerry’s going to have to drive it back while you pull with that strange looking truck of yours. It sounds like a diesel, but it doesn’t look like any truck I’ve seen.”

“Babe’s a specialty vehicle built for rock crawling. She will go anywhere, and climb anything smaller than herself.”

“I know a man who loves his truck when he names it. I remember a few steam locomotives we’d named over the years.”

“How tough would it be to convert the tractor to running a generator?”

“The whole thing runs on a big leather belt - I’ve got dozens of spares so take as many as you like. To run a generator, uncouple the belt from the tractor’s drive pulley, and connect it to a pulley on the generator. I’ve got a bunch of belts and pulleys in the shed, please take them all.”

Bret was wondering how he was going to get a 10-ton tractor home without leaving the trailer, when he spotted a pintle hitch on the back of the tractor. He had a pintle hitch connector on the trailer instead of a ball so he could go off-road with the setup. Inside the barn, there were tons of belts and pulleys, and a huge heavy chain that looked like it was set up for towing. He backed the trailer into the barn, loaded everything including all the implements onto the trailer using Larry’s chain hoist setup, pulled Babe around as close to the rear of the tractor as he could get it, muscled the trailer hitch onto to the back of the tractor, drove in front of the tractor, and connected the towing chain between Babe and the tractor. Jerry hopped up into the tractor seat like he’d driven one all his life (he had) and figured out the controls. This would be a long slow trip, but 10-20mph beat 5mph by a long shot. Bret was pulling between 15 and 20 tons, but he knew the engine and transmission could handle it. Jerry could do his own braking, so he didn’t have to worry about burning out the brakes. They’d driven almost 30 miles to Larry’s place, so it would take 2-3 hours to get home if they were lucky and didn’t have any complications. Just to be on the safe side, he looked around the barn, and spotted another tow chain, and threw it on the utility trailer. Once they were ready to go, they drove up to the house, and Jerry radioed Bret to stop. Jerry jumped down out of the tractor, ran over to his friend, and bid a tearful goodbye. 15 minutes later, he climbed back up and said “let’s go.”

Bret knew from experience to break out the tractor in granny low 4wd with the hubs and front differential locked, and slowly build up speed. They stopped at the gate to unlock and open it. Once they were clear, Bret ran back and locked it. It took forever to get to the main road, but finally they were on hard surface, and managed to speed up to 10mph and unlock the front differential. Once they crested the grade, Bret had an idea, and called Jerry, who agreed. Jerry stopped the tractor and set the brakes, Bret disconnected, and reconnected the chain to the rear of the trailer to help slow the rig down going downhill by using compression braking. As Jerry released the brakes, Bret could feel the tension being taken up in the chains, and slowly released his brakes with the transmission in low. They slowly sped up to 10mph and crawled down the hill as slowly as they crawled up. Bret thought “man this is going to be a long day!”

Finally 4 hours after they started, they made it to the fire road. Right after Bret had hooked Babe up to the front of the tractor, and started pulling, he heard a “Bang” and felt the tension give as he suddenly lurched forward. He stopped and got out to investigate. The 2" forged-link towing chain had finally parted in the middle. He was thanking God he had wrapped the chain with the spare broken leather strap he found in the barn, it probably saved his life. That chain was under almost 20 tons of pressure when it parted. Jerry climbed down, asked him what had happened. When he told him the chain had broken, they debated driving the tractor the rest of the way under it’s own power until Jerry realized it would take over an hour to build up enough steam to have the tractor move under it’s own power. They were only a mile from Bret’s house, and Bret told him he had a spare chain, but it was lighter. Using the remains of the broken chain, they connected the rigs together using a double-chain setup, which was shorter, but less likely to break. Bret climbed back aboard Babe, and when Jerry said he was ready, pulled him up the fire road in Granny Low 4-wheel drive. It took almost an hour to make it home from there, and by the time they dragged the tractor into the yard, everyone was outside looking curiously at it. Finally Bear said “You didn’t tell me you were coming back with a steam locomotive!”

“Real funny Bear - according to Jerry’s friend Larry, all steam engines are big. The locomotives he had were 2-3 times the size of this tractor, and those were small yard engines. We need to get the generator head off that old military diesel generator and connect it to the steam engine of this tractor.”

“Why not just run the military diesel?”

“I guessed that the effects of my Worst Case scenario could last up to 5 years. Running that big 20KW generator for 5 years non-stop would burn 10-20 thousand gallons of diesel. Frankly, I’d rather harvest enough wood for the steam engine and our wood stove than risk running out of diesel. The trees will grow back. Once we’re out of diesel, we’re out. Besides we could later use the tractor to plow fields instead of horse-drawn equipment. Also, I spotted a Propane dealer on our way back home - it’s amazing what you can see when you’re driving down the road at 10 miles per hour.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I’ve got a spare propane burner, pilot light, and regulator from an old water heater that I can rig up to act as a back-up heat source for the boiler if we run out of wood, or can’t get any for some reason.”

“Also it would speed up getting the boiler up to temperature instead of waiting until the fire got hot on its own, we could turn on the propane and accelerate the process.”

“Not only that, but it would really stretch out the propane. If you rigged the propane to come on automatically if the batteries got low, and another thermostat switch to cut the propane when it got up to operating temperature, we could feed the boiler in the morning, or let the propane kick in if there’s too much ash or snow to go out. The generator’s got an autostart function anyway, and we could connect that to a solenoid switch to open the gas valve, and another solenoid switch to close the valve at a preset temperature.”

“Wouldn’t you need a timer somewhere to keep the generator running long enough to charge the batteries fully?’

Here’s what I’d do. The first solenoid is connected to the low-voltage autostart, and is on a timer. Once it opens, it stays open as long as the timer is set, the second solenoid opens and closes based on the temperature of the boiler. The propane would cycle on and off as long as the timer had time left. Once the timer ran out, the fuel wouldn’t kick back on until the battery was discharged, or the load was greater than the batteries could handle. If we were feeding it wood, the second solenoid wouldn’t open, and we’d be running solely on wood heat. If stopped or forgot, and the autostart started, the propane would open and heat the boiler.”

“The water heater should have a thermostatic solenoid on it - maybe we could use it?”

“I don’t know how what temperature the solenoid works at. I’d need it to shut off at 300 degrees.”

“The thermostat is nothing but a switch, I’m sure I could fix it to work at that temperature.”

“Make sure the temperature solenoid is normally open - the other solenoid would take care of everything else.”

“Let’s check that thermostat, and find out if it’s a single or double contact thermostat. The single-contact thermostat would keep the water hotter, but burn more propane. The double-contact one would give you wider swings in temperature. Hopefully it’s a single.”

“Even if it’s a double, we can wire it as a single-contact, right?”

“Duh!”

“Ok, that’s solved - so when are we going to get the propane?”

“Let’s go tomorrow - I’m pooped!”

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 16


The next morning, Bret and Leroy drove Babe, and Bear and Allen took Bear’s Dodge Ramcharger. Bret had Brad’s M -60 mounted again, and Bear was pulling the big utility trailer. They made great time over the hill, and a little over an hour later, pulled up to the gate of the propane company. The building appeared to be deserted for a long time judging by the dust on the vehicles there. They had a delivery truck, and a utility truck with alight crane and a flat-bed trailer in the lot, so they checked out the delivery truck first, and the tank was almost full. Bret took out his electronic lock pick, opened the office door, then the key rack for the trucks, and as a bonus, located the keys for the storage tank’s dispenser system to fill the big truck.

Meanwhile Bear and Allen were looking around the back, and located almost 20 500 gallon tanks. They were small enough that they could load 6 of them at a time on the utility trailers, and the lightweight crane on the truck could pick them up easily. They put 6 on Bear’s rig, then 6 on the trailer behind the utility truck. Bret found some useful stuff, including plumbing supplies he’d need to connect the tanks together, and connect them to his regulator. Bear had worked 1 summer at a Propane company making deliveries, so he topped off the delivery truck then got voted to drive it back home and fill the tanks after they got them situated.

Allen drove Bear’s rig, and Leroy took the utility truck. They locked the gate on the way out, and drove back over to their place. It took them several hours to get the tanks located and plumbed, then Bear filled the tanks as full as he dared, about 400 gallons each. It really didn’t get hot enough there to need a desert fill, but he wasn’t comfortable filling the tanks to 100% of capacity either. They decided to go back the next day and take the rest of the tanks, and anything else they could use. They took the M -60 off Babe and gave it back to Brad since it didn’t make sense to only be able to use it on the way out.

The next day, they both took trailers, and would stop anywhere they felt was useful on the way home. They brought back 15 more tanks of various sizes, or about 6500 gallons extra. They decided not to stop when they located the extra tanks, giving them over 11 thousand gallons of propane available. Bret convinced the rest of them to make 1 more trip, fill the tanker and bring it back with another 5,000 gallons of propane, and this time they’d stop at the ranches along the way and scavenge. They were specifically interested in antique farm equipment that could work with the steam tractor, or horse drawn, and checking the farms for seeds and livestock, or any specific equipment they might have. Bret hoped that someone had a good library, or a selection of tapes/DVD’s and a big-screen TV because they might be stuck indoors for over a year. If he had time, he wanted to locate the local libraries and grab any how-to books and stuff they might need later. They had already scavenged some computers, but they could use some more laptops.

Jerry called the next morning, and said that Larry had died, and Bret told him that they were going out that way anyway, and if he wanted to come along for the ride, he’d pick him up in an hour. When he finished, Bret said “Change of plans - Jerry’s friend Larry died, and I promised we would bury him.”

“OK, we’ll get the propane and clean out anything useful there, then meet you back at Larry’s place.”

“You don’t know where he lives!”

“Leave Allen on the intersection off the main road, and tell him which driveway it is. It won’t take me more than an hour to load the tank again and take what little stuff we left there.”

“Ok, see you there.”

They left a few minutes later, and Bret dropped Allen off on the intersection with his rifle, E&E kit, and a camelback bag. Bear continued on to the propane company lot. Bret left the chain unlocked last time, so Bear just opened it and drove on in. An hour later, he had the tank filled, everything useful removed from the office, and was heading back to Larry’s place. Allen was sitting at the roadside with is thumb up. Bear laughed his head off, remembering the Summer he hitchhiked across California. He opened the door, and helped Allen in, then they drove over to Larry’s place. They’d just gotten Larry into the pine box, and needed help getting it into the grave. Bret, Jerry, Bear and Allen picked it up and carried it to the grave Bret had dug with Larry’s backhoe. They gently laid him in his grave with ropes, then started filling in the hole. Jerry stood there, then read the 23rd Psalm, and asked to be alone for a while. Bret and the rest of the guys took that opportunity to go through Larry’s stuff. His barns and outbuildings were full of antiques including farm equipment and other stuff. Jerry joined them a while later, and they went through Larry’s barns. Bret offered Jerry anything he wanted, and he said “What, and have more junk to store! I’ve already got enough junk for 2 junkyards. Take whatever you want!”

Over on a workbench, Bret opened the drawers, and decided that Larry had a nice collection of old hand tools including chisels for both wood and metal, all kinds of planes, files, rasps, knives including a couple of drawknifes that Jerry said were for making wagon wheels and other items like that. Bret boxed them up and put them in the bed of the vehicles. He walked back into the barn and noticed all kinds of machinery. On the left was a belt-driven metal lathe, and next to it was a belt driven wood lathe - he could tell it was made for wood because it didn’t have the screw feed for the tool. Behind it was a complete blacksmith setup including a nice anvil, all the old tools, and a propane-powered forge with an electric blower and a huge exhaust hood. Next to that were a couple of treadle operated sewing machines that Maggie would like, and one that looked like it was heavy enough to sew leather or shoes. Nearby, he found a whole tool box full of leather working tools. Hanging on the far wall was a bunch of primitive 1800's era Lumber jacking and woodworking tools including a two-man saw, a one-man saw, a set of axes, adzes, and planers that Jerry said would be used for hewing lumber by hand. Jerry pointed out a diesel-powered sawmill with a 4-foot diameter blade mounted on its own trailer, and next to it was a hydraulic log splitter that could run off the same diesel motor just by flipping some switches. Bret thought it was ingenious, but he’d never seen a hydraulically powered saw like that before. He guessed it would be a great idea, and would have terrific power to spin that massive blade.

Bret started assembling stuff they wanted to take home with them, and stuff they could come back for tomorrow or later. He used the chain hoist and gantry to lift the heavy stuff and set it on the trailers, and once they were full, they switched to the house. Most of the contents of the kitchen and pantry they could come back for later. Jerry was in Larry’s bedroom, when he called Bret “Look what I’ve found!

In a closet in a back room, they found several very rare and antique rifles including a very old European Drilling, a double -barreled rifle in .385 Weatherby. He also had a .455 Webley revolver in a satin case. There was a strong box in the bottom with a collection of rare gold and silver coins. Bret told Jerry to keep them.

“Bret, you take the coins, I don’t have any use for them. The guns have sentimental value - I remember the last time he shot them when we were on vacation.”

Bret looked at the coins, and just on face value, there was almost $10 Thousand worth of gold and silver coins. Their numismatic value could be several times that much. “Are you sure, there’s over $10 thousand worth of coins here!”

“I never told you this before, but Larry wasn’t the only 1 dying around here. I’ve got Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and maybe 6 months to live. Margaret had a major stroke a while back, and I got her out of the nursing home right before the Big Bang hit. She’ll die within a couple of days after I do, if she lives that long. Please take the gold - I’ve got no use for it. Just make the same deal with me that you made with Jerry, and bury us together on the lot if you can.”

Bret stuck his hand out with tears in his eyes “Deal you old Codger you!”

Jerry smiled, remembering Maggie called him “Old Codger” every time she saw him. He remembered the first day Maggie floated into their house and announced she was engaged to Bret Wilson. Jerry knew the Wilson family, and knew Bret’s father George personally. They used to go golfing together once a week when they were younger and in better shape. Maggie’s dad Steve and him went all the way back to high school. He was a wealthy contractor with 6 crews working for him. It was a darned shame when he died in his late 40's of a heart attack. Maggie adopted Jerry as a father figure, and she spent most of her last two years of high school hanging out with Jerry’s family. That was how she ran into Bret. Jerry was a member of the Country Club, even though he didn’t golf much anymore, but he taught Maggie how to play.

One day Bret, his dad, and another friend of theirs showed up needing a fourth. The pro said that Maggie’s handicap matched Bret’s so they asked her to play. Bret was smitten by her beauty, and had seen her at High School, but never had the nerve to approach her. When his dad asked her to play golf with them, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven. Maggie had seen Bret around school, thought he was cute but shy, and never got a chance to say anything to him. George paired them up to share a golf cart, and while driving around the course, they hit it off so well that George kept asking Maggie to play with them instead of his other golf partner, who was unreliable anyway. After that summer, they were going steady, and Bret asked her to marry him on her 18th Birthday, after they had graduated High School.

She thought the “Big Deal” date at the fancy restaurant was just to celebrate her birthday until he took out a ring box, got down on 1 knee and proposed to her. By now he had 1 shop open, and was making enough money to support them. Their apartment was above the shop, so the rent was practically free, and she was working as a model, and bringing home good money. She looked at him, wordlessly picked him up off his knee, and laid a lip-lock on him that screamed “Of Course I’ll marry you Darling!” When they came up for air, he nervously said “I take that was a Yes?”

“Of Course it was silly, now let’s see the ring.”

Bret extended the ring box, it was a pretty ring, but not a large one. Maggie didn’t care, she would have married Bret if he’d given her a Cigar Band for a ring. He held the ring out gently, and slid it onto the 4th finger of her left hand, and she gave him an even bigger kiss. The next day, they went to see Jerry and give him the good news. Maggie’s mom was in a nursing home by now suffering from Acute Pancreatitis caused by years of heavy drinking, and emphysema caused by years of smoking, and was totally bedridden. She smiled at them, and moved the cannula aside so she could talk to the young couple, and motioned them closer.

“Maggie, I won’t make the wedding, so I just wanted to give you two my blessing now while I can.” She reached out with both hands, and held theirs while she cried. They both gave her a hug and wished her well, then the nurse came in to shoo them out the door. After they saw Maggie’s Mom, they drove over to Jerry’s house, and he could tell by the way her feet barely touched the floor it was good news. Bret’s ear-to-ear grin confirmed his suspicions. Maggie asked Jerry if he could give her away since her dad was dead. Jerry snapped back to the present, and Bret was standing there asking him about the other guns in his collection.

“Take anything you need - I’ll take a few sentimental items while we’re here.”

“We’re going to have to come back a couple of times anyway to get everything we can use here.” Bret helped Jerry collect everything he wanted, then they loaded the trailers with what they wanted to take today, and drove home.


The next day, Bret decided to take everyone he could, and all the vehicles that could tow trailers, that included both Dodge Ramchargers, Babe, Brad’s truck, Jim’s Jeep, and Allen’s old Jeep. Maggie and Nancy came with them, leaving Jeremy and Natalie to protect Veronica, Kelly and Gloria. Jeremy took his duties seriously, and watched as his Dad showed him how to detonate the Claymores, and how to run the radio. He said they’d call when they reached the end of the Fire Road, so he wouldn’t blow them to Kingdom Come. Jeremy grinned nervously when his dad said that, then he realized that if he did accidently fire the Claymores when he shouldn’t, he would blow them to kingdom come. Bret was glad Jeremy was sitting down, judging by the look on his face, he would have fallen down if he weren’t already seated.

“Son, under the circumstances, we need you to grow up fast! Natalie almost died doing something that wouldn’t have mattered 6 months ago. Now something as simple as getting bit by a dog can kill you. I wished you would have more time to grow up, but we’re going to need as many adults around the house as possible. I’ve seen you and Natalie, and I’m proud of the maturity you’ve shown. As you continue to show me you can handle adult responsibilities, you’ll get Adult privileges. Please think twice before you do anything around here. Some actions could possibly kill us all. Ordinarily, I’d have you and Natalie accompany us scavenging, but someone has to stay home and protect the pregnant women. They’re the future, and if my worst case scenario happens, we’re going to need to be fully dependant on ourselves for the next 20 years, which includes raising a new generation to help farm and defend the place as we get older.”

Bret held his son for a moment, then ran out to get the convoy organized. Jeremy sat there at the radio bench, listening for any transmissions from his dad and occasionally glancing at the driveway buzzer and the remote detonator for the Claymores. Meanwhile the convoy motored down the fire road, and once they had cleared it, Bret radioed “All Clear, if you hear the buzzer before I radio you - it means someone that’s not supposed to is coming up the fire road. Do what you have to, but protect the women.”

“Right Dad, have a safe trip.”

They drove as quickly as the could to Larry’s old house. While the women stripped the pantry and kitchen of anything useable with Jim and Allen’s help, the rest of the men went on a Scavenger hunt of Larry’s property. The first thing they did was locate the trailer for Larry’s backhoe they used to dig his grave. Larry also had a diesel tank, so they filled up everyone’s vehicles so they could tow it back with them. When they found the trailer, Bret loaded the backhoe onto the trailer, plus any accessories Larry had for it. It was a smaller backhoe than his, so they connected it to Jim’s Jeep, which could tow the smaller Kubota backhoe easily. Maggie found a note in the kitchen behind a false panel in the pantry, and called Bret after she read it.

“Bret, you might get in here, according to this note, Larry’s got stuff stashed all over the property in caches and other hidden spots.”

Bret ran back to the house, looked over the map, and got everyone concentrating on locating the caches. When they located them, they varied in size from a Conex box to several bucket caches out on the perimeter of the property. They dug up all the bucket caches and put them on the trailers, and Bret used the backhoe to unearth the Conex box. Inside the 10 foot square box were a bunch of 30 caliber hunting rifles with scopes packed in heavy gauge plastic with desiccants and a light coating of gun oil. Next to that were 10 pounds of smokeless powder, and enough rifle primers, bullets and brass to make thousands of reloads. Next to that was a nice Dillon progressive reloader with 3 die heads. One looked like it was set up for .308/7.62 NATO, and the other for 30-06, and the third for 7.62x39. Bret knew that Larry had a nice setup. The rest of the conex box contained Food, clothing, medicine, 2 Bug out Bags, and a small bag full of gold and silver coins. They reloaded the contents into a box and loaded it on a trailer.

Between the Conex and the bucket caches, Bret knew Larry was into survival, and asked Maggie to check the basement more carefully. They walked down there, and checked every wall, and found a false wall. Maggie called Bret, who ran down to the basement, and spent an hour trying to figure out the false wall, when Nancy stepped on a board in a corner, and the wall slid open. Bret said “Thanks Nancy” and she gave a little bow then they went into the hidden room. It looked like a bomb shelter, and there were tons of useful stuff stored in it like a year’s worth of food, Geiger counters, 2 MOPP Suits, a dozen NBC filters for their gas masks, a small generator with 20 gallons of stabilized gasoline, a couple of Katadyn water filters, and a small armory including 2 SKS rifles, 2 Colt Commanders, and a Remington 12 gauge pump shotgun with an extended magazine. Underneath was a case of ammo for each weapon, 2 older style sets of Deuce gear, and 2 backpacks that looked like they were set up for extended Bug Out Bags.

Once they had located everything, they formed a human chain and loaded everything into the vehicles. Nancy thought the 2 huge canning sets with a dozen cases of jars and lids were the best score of all. When they left later that afternoon, every vehicle and trailer was loaded as heavily as Bret thought was safe for the short trip over the mountain. Bret thought they could come back later for the windmills, stock tanks, and some other big stuff since they were so big and heavy, and they didn’t need them right now. Bret called Jeremy on the radio when they got to the fire road, and he was proud when Jeremy answered a second after he cleared the frequency. By now the fire road was dry enough that all the vehicles safely made it up the road to Bret’s house, where they unloaded. When they were finished, Dinner was ready, and Bret invited everyone to dinner. It was real crowded, but after they brought out an extra table, everyone fit. After dinner, Bret said he needed to talk to everyone.

“You’ve probably been wondering about this latest round of scavenging. I’ve been checking the USGS website after the Big One hit, and the news is not good. The Long Valley Caldera is active, and several dormant volcanoes to the north of us are suddenly showing signs of activity. This ordinarily wouldn’t be a big issue, except they started getting active after the first quake hit, then when Big Bear let loose, the Long Valley Caldera really started acting up. The USGS thinks somewhere in the next 3 years, they could all erupt, either together, or over a period of months or years. My major worry would be if Yellowstone would erupt as a result of all the nearby tectonic activity. If the Long Valley Caldera let loose, it could release 750 cubic kilometers of ash. If Yellowstone were to erupt, it could release over 2,000 cubic kilometers of ash. That would be enough ash to bury everything within a 100 mile radius with up to 25 feet of ash. The main threat here is the Long Valley Caldera, since we’re only 280 miles north of Mammoth Mountain. We’d get 2-3 times the amount of ash that Big Bear threw out, and the sky would be darkened for years, making growing food outside difficult to impossible. What I propose is that we build another building into the mountain big enough to house everyone that’s currently living in the other houses here, and store enough provisions to last everyone 5 years. The steam engine will be used to make electricity for the Aquiculture setup and lighting. We need to find a steel building, or better yet, a huge Quonset hut, dig out enough dirt from the hill next to us to bury it, spray 6-12 inches of shotcrete on it for reinforcement, build a huge masonry heater/stove for heating and cooking, and enough rooms to house everyone comfortably. I need everyone’s help here. We’ve got a bunch of stuff to scavenge, and little time to build if I’m right, and we still need to raise gardens to put away canned vegetables to last as long as possible. Our front yard is going to become a construction zone, so Bear will need to move his trailer to either Brad or Allen’s house.”

“Dad, they can stay at our place for now. We’ve got enough room.”

“Ok, now anyone know where we can get about 10-12 cases of 40% dynamite, some det cord, and blasting caps?”

“What the heck do you want that for?”

“Once we get the overburden off, we’ve got to blast some rock to get a big enough trench to hold a 30x100 foot Quonset hut next to ours. 40% dynamite will break the rock without throwing pieces everywhere, or damaging our dome.”

“Dad, why not call Jerry, he might know!”

“Thanks Allen, I was thinking of calling that old codger.”

The meeting broke up with everyone in agreement. Brad and Bear figured that if Bret was willing to risk damaging his home to build enough shelter to house them, he was pretty serious and concerned. Bret called Jerry on the radio.

“Jerry, I need some explosives to dig a huge trench, and a huge Quonset hut to set it in.”

“What in God’s name for?”

“I’m afraid this is just the start of a season of major tectonic activity, and I’ve been checking the USGS site, and there’s a sudden increase in activity around the Long Caldera and several previously dormant volcanoes between here and Washington. That’s bad enough in itself, but what if the activity causes Yellowstone to erupt?”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph! That could spell the End of the World!”

“Maybe, but just in case it only lasts 3-5 years, I wanted to build another sheltered house next to mine to house Brad and Bear’s families. We’ve got enough supplies, now all we need is a 30x100 Quonset hut, and enough explosives to blast some rock that’s in the way.”

“Larry was telling me they were mining just north of his place. You might check a map, and drive over there. If they were actively mining, they might have over 20 cases of dynamite, det cord, and detonators, plus some more heavy equipment to make the digging faster.”

“Thanks Jerry - if you think of anything, please give me a call.”

Bret talked it over with everyone and checked his maps. His USGS topo map clearly showed several mines to the north of Larry’s place, and a mine road to get to them. They decided to take 2 vehicles with them and 4 men. Bret and Leroy would take Babe, and Bear and Allen would take Bear’s truck, and they both would pull trailers. Brad volunteered to mount his machine gun on Babe again just in case.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 17

The next morning, they left for a quick survey trip. What they found made then come back with everyone who could drive a vehicle. There was a mine less than 10 miles from Larry’s place that had been abandoned after the earthquake, and all the heavy equipment, explosives, and several tanks full of diesel were just left there. Bret knew with the explosives, monster loader, excavator and dump trucks they used for mining, digging a spot for the “room addition” would be a walk in the park. The bonus was when they located several suitable buildings on the property. All they had to do was disassemble them and move them. Bret and Maggie argued about using Kelly, Natalie and Gloria to drive until Gloria overheard them and said “I’ve got 4-5 months before I’m due, and even if I only drive a pickup, I can help.” Maggie knew that Gloria had a point, but stipulated the women would have to volunteer, and their husbands had to approve. With the ash a distant memory, there wasn’t as great a risk to their babies.

Bret called Brad and Allen, and explained the situation, they might only get 1 shot at removing all the heavy equipment before someone might notice all the equipment moving out, and wonder what was going on. They fully well intended to return the equipment when they were done, but the owners might not see it that way. Bret was convinced the owners were dead or had left, since it was almost a year after the Big One. Kelly surprised Bret when she told him that she used to drive haul packs at that very same mine, and was qualified to operate anything on the lot. She could drive any of the transports if they could get the equipment on the flatbeds they kept for relocating the equipment. She even told him where the keys to the vehicles were kept. Natalie agreed to drive a truck, and even Jeremy and Natalie would get a “crash course” in driving. Bret hoped that wouldn’t be too literal.

When they got to the mine, and Kelly saw the size of the Quonset huts Bret wanted to use, she suggested instead of digging a trench, taking the whole side of the hill down, installing the 30x100 hut next to them for the Steam engine, then the 60 x 120 foot Quonset hut, covering them with shotcrete, then backfilling over them. That way, they wouldn’t need the Excavator, and they could take the huge bulldozer and another loader instead. Bret was glad that Kelly had worked for the mine, because he didn’t have a clue. She also suggested using the loader to pick up the Connex box they were using for a powder house, and set it on a lowboy and take the whole thing instead of trying to unload and reload it. Bret opened the powder house, and was amazed. They had over 50 cases of dynamite, tons of Ammonium Nitrite, and several thousand feet of det cord. Next to it in a smaller bunker was a box of blasting wire, several twist detonators, and a couple of boxes of electrical detonators in a shock/explosion proof box,. Bret commented that only an idiot would stick their detonators in the same area as the explosives. Kelly guessed they were in a hurry to leave, and get back to their families, so they stuck it in the closest secure location. Bret removed the box of detonators, and stuck them in the bed of Babe. He’d haul the lowboy with the explosives at the rear of the convoy, so if he went “Boom” everyone else could still get home.

While the men started disassembling the huge Quonset huts, Kelly started loading the heavy equipment on lowboys while Brad got the tractors running. They grabbed a huge work truck from the mechanic’s lot with a light crane, welder, fueller and air compressor. They used air ratchets and impact wrenches to disassemble the components, and the lift to lower them to the ground and stack them. The Quonset huts came in 4-foot sections, so they had 55 sections to deal with. Working like Beavers on Speed, they had the buildings disassembled and stacked on a lowboy right before dark. Brad had all the vehicles running, and was able to help out for the rest of the afternoon, while Kelly gave the women a crash course in driving a diesel rig. They were taking 2 7-cubic yard wheeled loaders, a huge dump truck with a 21-cubic yard bed, and a large D-9 tracked bulldozer with a 10-foot blade. They filled all the equipment and topped off the hydraulics, then filled the 18-wheelers to lighten up the tank as much as possible. Brad called, saying he had located a huge fuel truck, so they off-loaded the remaining diesel into the fuel truck and took it with them, after filling it as full as they could get it from the tank, then from the storage tank in front of the maintenance facility. When he was finished, Brad guessed they had over 5,000 gallons of diesel in the huge tanker.

Bret counted noses, and realized that if they wanted to get all the vehicles home in 1 trip, there would be no one riding shotgun, so he told everyone to lock and load, and call out if they spotted trouble. 12 drivers grabbed their M-16's, pulled back on the charging handles, then flipped the safety to “safe”. In Kelly’s vehicle, Zack was having the time of his life riding up front on the passenger seat of the big Kenworth while his younger brother took a nap. Kelly was glad that Zack and John had taken to Brad so well. They both called him Daddy, and Zack understood that he was soon going to have a new baby brother or sister. Leroy lead the convoy with the maintenance truck since it had a huge PTO winch on it. Next came Kelly, Maggie, Gloria, and Nancy driving the lowboy haulers with the heavy equipment. Brad followed with the fuel truck, then came Allen driving a lowboy with the disassembled Quonset huts and the hardware. Natalie was driving Bear’s truck with a Bobcat loader mounted on a lowboy with all it’s accessories, including an auger and a rock boring drill that could come in handy if they had to drill and blast. Bear was driving another huge maintenance truck with the rest of the tools needed to work on the heavy equipment, and Jeremy was driving a mixing/pumping truck and trailer with enough shotcrete mix to cover the Quonset huts, and Natalie was driving Bret’s Dodge Ramcharger pulling the trailer with the fuel tank on it. Bret was far to the rear with the lowboy with the conex and the high explosives. Babe was up to the challenge to haul the heavy load. Bret just hoped he didn’t sneeze, or he’d be strumming a harp.

Over the long trip home, he had a chance to think back over the time since the Big One. He realized how lucky they were. Once they had cleared the freeway, they hadn’t seen that many dead bodies or wrecks. The freeway was still packed with wrecked cars, it was just they didn’t have to face the faces of the dead in their cars, so they mentally blocked them out. Once they got onto the surface streets, they had to clear an occasional accident or traffic jam, but after the first week, they were fewer and fewer. Once the volcano alert was issued, the streets were deserted - probably because the survivors fled North and South to get away from the Volcano, even though they would be perfectly safe where they were if they could get into shelter for the worst of the ash fall and protect their eyes and airways. Even a pair of goggles and a simple N -95 filter mask would work if they had to be outdoors for any reason. Bret guessed that the FEMA shelters weren’t releasing people once they checked in. Kind of like a “Roach Motel” - They checked in, but they couldn’t check out!

If that were the case, they needed to grab the rest of the stuff to build the shelter and rooms while they had the chance. Bret had a twinge of conscience, thinking “You’re a looter” then he realized that instead of stealing TV’s and jewelry, they were taking stuff they needed to survive from business that he doubted the owners were still alive. If it later proved that they survived, he’d pay them back if he could. The radio ended his musings when Leroy called to say that he was turning onto their road. Bret acknowledged the call, then concentrated on his driving. “Bret, you better pay attention - you’re hauling enough explosives to blow you into orbit.”

Bret was amazed that they had made it so far without any mishaps. The only driver who had any experience driving tractor/trailer combos was Brad. Kelly had driven a haul pack, which was better than no experience, but the biggest truck his wife had driven until now was the Dodge. He checked his speedometer, and realized that they were only doing 20mph. Bret knew that if they kept the speed down, it would be easier to drive the massively heavy rigs, and it would minimize shifting. Finally it was his turn to drive up the fire road. When he got home, he was glad to see Leroy was out directing traffic, and guided Bret to an isolated spot away from everyone else. Once they shut down, Maggie jumped out of her cab, met Bret halfway, and fell into his arms, relieved to see her husband again. From the passion of her kisses, Bret knew he was in for a long night.

They spent the next morning getting everything off-loaded and learning how to run the equipment. Between Brad and Kelly, they were able to figure the controls out, and they taught everyone else except Gloria and Natalie, who were relegated to safer duties. Between Brad, Bret and Leroy, they were able to figure out how to properly use the explosives. The mine’s powder monkey’s notebook helped immensely, especially the recipe for ANFO, and how to rig a shot that would bust up the dirt and rock without throwing it all over the place, or damage Bret’s house. The recommended method was to drill a 2" hole 6 feet deep, add 4 feet of ANFO, and use a 1/4 stick of dynamite as an initiator charge, backfill and tamp real well, otherwise the shot would go straight up like a shotgun. If they bored them 6 feet apart, and linked the shots with det cord, the resulting explosion should lift the rock and soil, breaking it up so the loaders and bulldozers could work easier. Bret checked his supply of building materials, and realized they would come up short for enough 2x4's and sheet rock to build enough rooms so each family would have private bedrooms. Luckily, they were used to communal living from the time everyone spent in Bret’s house until they located their own houses. He’d have to locate a lumberyard to grab enough materials to build 8 bedrooms. That would give him 2 spares if Zack and Ron wanted to share a bedroom. He’d also have to locate enough brick to build another masonry stove/cooktop, and build chimneys for the new buildings. Bret added them to his “to do” list, but the first thing they needed to do was start excavating the spot for the Quonset huts..

Brad drove the D-9 bulldozer to the top of the hill, and started pushing dirt down the hill, and Kelly started the wheeled loader, and started picking it up and dumping it in the dump truck. Bret was driving the dump truck, and between the 3 of them, they made good progress cutting a big enough pad on top of the hill to safely blast the next day. The next morning, they used the Bobcat with the 2" auger to bore 6-foot holes 6 feet apart at the recommended distance from the edge of the slope. Once the holes were bored, they made a slurry of AN and diesel fuel and poured it into the holes. Bear made up the 1/4 stick initiator charges and inserted the electrical detonator, Bret cut the det cord to length to connect all the charges while Brad laced the det cord through the charges and connected them in a daisy chain, then stuck another detonator in the last dynamite charge and connected the wires to the detonators. Bret unrolled enough blasting wire to be safely away from the explosions, then took a whistle, blew it three times then connected the wires to the twist detonator, blew his whistle 3 more times, and yelled “Fire in the Hole” then twisted the handle. Less than a second later, he saw a dozen explosions in a line, and when the dust had settled, the dirt and rocks were at the bottom of the hill. Bret and Brad were grinning like idiots - this was much easier and quicker than bulldozing the stuff over the side. They spent the rest of the day using the bulldozer and loaders to clear the dirt away and pile it off to the side so they could fill it back in when the erected the Quonset huts. Once they were finished, Brad started drilling more holes further back, and Bret made up more charges. Now that they knew what they were doing, the second drilling and blasting sequence went much quicker. Right before dinner, Bret fired the charges, then they went home for dinner.

They were back at it by first light, and quickly cleared the debris. Bret and Brad drilled and set a 3rd set of charges, which would take care of the rest of the top of the hill. This time, he unrolled more blasting wire because there was no safe place to stand on top of the hill. When the charges blew, the hill looked funny, with the dirt over Bret’s house almost 20 feet higher than the surrounding dirt. This time Brad drove the bulldozer up the hill and pushed all the loose dirt off the hill to build another flat spot to drill and blast. By the time Brad cleared the debris, they were almost halfway down the hill. Leroy and Jim were taking turns operating the dump truck and loaders, so Kelly could rest. She still wanted to run the loader, but Bret limited her to half a day. Neither Natalie nor Gloria showed any interest in operating heavy equipment, so Maggie and Nancy kept them busy doing other stuff. They both learned to make clothes, sew, and other skills they’d need now that “modern conveniences” meant having a wood fired stove to cook on, and running water instead of hauling your own wood and water. Maggie taught them medicine while they were sewing to keep their minds off being uncomfortable. When Kelly came in the afternoon, she was exhausted, and would take a long nap. Finally Maggie talked to Bret who reluctantly took her off Heavy Equipment because Maggie was worried she was working too hard, and could compromise her pregnancy since she just entered her 3rd trimester. She joined the “Sewing Circle” as she derisively called it - Kelly was a tomboy growing up, and would rather fish and hunt, or “Kill it and Grill it” then sew or any other “girly stuff”. Still she needed to learn, but she didn’t show the enthusiasm the other women did for it. She guessed they showed the same enthusiasm for guns that she showed for sewing. She liked the medical training, and showed a good head for it, so Maggie let her read her medical books.

Once she got the basics down, Kelly confessed she’d rather study the medical books than sew. Maggie could tell that Kelly had about as much enthusiasm for sewing as she did for rock crawling, and told her she could spend as much time as she liked studying her books and working on the Internet while they had it instead of sewing. Kelly didn’t make a habit of hugging other women but made an exception in Maggie’s case! She dropped her sewing like a snake, and started in on the Merck Manual. Without Kelly, the dirt work went much slower until Bret remembered that Allen was available. Kelly was allowed back onto the heavy equipment just long enough to train Allen on the loader, dozer and dump truck. Allen was a good student, and by the end of the day was almost as good as Kelly on the equipment. The next day Allen’s presence was definitely felt when Leroy, who was operating the dump truck had to hustle to keep up with him on the loader. Allen was loading the truck by himself almost as fast as when they had both loaders operating. Eventually, Bret let Allen operate the bobcat, and he was running the skid-steering like a natural, and whether he was drilling, loading, or using the backhoe, he was one of the quickest operators on the Bobcat. Bret knew that if things ever got back to normal, Allen would make a very good living as a heavy equipment operator because he had excellent eye-hand and foot coordination.

Two weeks later, they were down to the same level as Bret’s house. While Brad drove the fuel hauler back to the mine to refill it, they started preparing the foundations for the Quonset huts. They didn’t have much equipment, so they had to use a 2x4 and a home built screed to work the concrete, which took longer, and looked like heck, but they weren’t worried about looks, only that they’d done it well enough to hold the Quonset huts in place until the shotcrete cured, then they could bury the building. Once the concrete was set enough to start working on the Quonset huts, they started lifting and bolting pieces into place using the cranes on the trucks. Once they had the pieces bolted in, Bret and Allen would scamper up ladders and connect the sections together. It took longer to assemble than it did to take it down, and a week later, the buildings were up and secured. Next they laid a mesh of concrete reinforcing wire on top of both buildings. Finally they started mixing and pouring shotcrete from the shotcrete truck using it’s built-in boom.

While the shotcrete was curing, they took their trucks into town and took all the building supplies they would need to build 7 bedrooms, with some extra. Brad located a tire store that carried the size tires he needed, and had all the equipment and safety equipment to safely remove and install the tires. He took the Kenworth over there, and swapped out both front tires, and put the spare back on the spare hanger, then did the other truck the next day since they had tires to spare, and he wasn’t busy scavenging. Brad asked Bret if any of their trucks needed new tires while they were at it, since they had a good selection of BFG off-road tires in stock. Over the next couple of days, all their vehicles got new tires, and they saved the old ones for spares. Finally the shotcrete was at full strength, and they spent the next week carefully backfilling the dirt around the buildings. The Quonset design was an arch, which would make it very strong. Adding 6 inches of shotcrete and reinforcing wire made it even stronger.

Once the buildings were set and backfilled, they carefully pushed the steam engine that Brad had coupled to the 20KW military generator head all the way back into the back of the building, and mated it to fittings they had installed for water and steam circulation and a vent pipe that went through the roof of the Quonset hut, through the dirt, and 6 feet above the top of the hill to vent smoke and excess steam. Bret wasn’t too worried about it getting buried with snow, since he estimated the heat out of the stack would be between 80-100 degrees by then, and would easily melt any snow on top. Before the steam exited the building, there was a huge 100-gallon open stock tank full of water and a water/water heat exchanger to convert the steam back to water. The tank was circulated through heat exchangers in the water heaters in both houses, and a smaller delivery tube warmed the Tilapia water with another heat exchanger. There was a thermostat on the Tilapia heater, and cold-water blend valves on both water heaters. Bret hoped he could stop using the masonry heater for heating water, and the waste material burner for heating the Tilapia tanks. They used the backhoe and loader to dig another septic system for the new shelter, and started building the bedrooms when they had time.

Bret’s next scavenging trip was to buy all the bricks and materials needed to build a huge masonry heater stove and cooktop. The bricks that were lining the firebox had to be special refractory bricks due to the intense heat the Masonry heater stove was designed for, but the outer bricks could be anything he wanted. The system worked by storing the heat from the firebox in the mass of bricks or stones surrounding the firebox, and releasing the heat over time to keep the house warm. At the higher temperatures used, creosote buildup wasn’t a problem, and the wood was almost 100% combusted. Bret had already installed a steel chimney pipe through the roof of the Quonset hut and out to the surface through the deep layer of dirt and rock, so all he had to do was mate the chimney for the stove to the existing chimney pipe. One of the building supply places had a brick yard out back, and he recognized a huge pile of refractory brick, and took it all, along with some conventional bricks that he could thread ½ inch rebar through to reinforce it to make it earthquake resistant. He took twice as much brick as he thought he needed, all the mortar mix they had, and all the ½ rebar they had in stock, along with all the tools they needed, and anything else that they needed that could fit on the trucks.

None of them were Masons, but luckily Bret had copied step by step directions and the plans for his existing Masonry Heating Stove and saved them to disk. They made a couple of mistakes, but nothing catastrophic, and slowly assembled the masonry heating stove while everyone else worked on building the rooms and stocking everything. Once they were finished building rooms, Allen suggested that they take the extra 1" OSB sheets and construct an enclosed walkway between the two houses in case that proverbial 9-foot Indian needed to stand on another Indian’s shoulders to have the snow up to his butt. Once they finished that project, Bret decided they needed to stock as much wood as possible into the middle building with the steam engine. Bret thanked God he had sited the propane tanks were they were, and running a line to the steam engine and the new building was relatively easy.

Allen realized why his dad selected a building 10 times bigger than they needed when Bret suggested filling the building with cut and split wood. The steam engine and everything else only used the last 30 feet of the building, leaving over 30 thousand cubic feet of storage space inside for wood. Allen told his dad they could have used a building a quarter that size, and Bret explained that the 100-foot building was closer in size to the 120-foot building, which made the construction much simpler, and meant both buildings could share the load equally of the dirt piled on top of them. Allen kind of understood, but didn’t bother his dad by making him explain it.

Once they were finished with the heavy equipment, the men took several days driving them back to the mine property. Bret kept a couple cases of dynamite, the rest of the det cord, blasting wire, detonator caps, and two twist detonators and towed the rest back in the Connex box. They decided to keep the diesel fuel just in case, and located a couple more trailer tankers, and filled them full of diesel using the fuel truck. Bret wanted to return the fuel truck, but Brad pointed out that if the owners showed up, they could return it, but they needed it for now to scavenge fuel, since the dual-tanker truck couldn’t siphon fuel, and this tanker truck had a pony pump that could. Brad suggested they return the dual-tanker trailer to the gas station, and keep the tractor in case they needed it. That mollified Bret’s conscience, who thought their front yard was beginning to resemble a used heavy equipment lot. By the time they had returned everything they weren’t going to need immediately, they were down to 1 tractor-trailer combo from Ralph’s, 1 tractor unit, a fuel hauler, the bobcat, a backhoe loader and the deuce-and-a half from the Caltrans lot, and the stuff Brad had made. They still had more than enough to tackle any job around the compound.

With the coming of Spring, Kelly gave birth first to a beautiful girl named Annie, then Gloria gave birth to a boy they named Nicholas, but Jim told everyone to call him Nick. Finally after several false starts, Natalie gave birth to a healthy boy they named Richard. Allen told everyone to call him Rick instead. The mothers and babies were doing fine. The animals were all doing well, and the stallion had a couple of mares pregnant. Maggie was looking forward to raising a couple of colts, and expanding their herd of horses. The chickens were laying eggs like crazy, and they set aside 20% of them to get fertilized and raise more chicks. Brad, Allen and Jim all got their gardens in as soon as possible, and were bone tired at the end of the day. Bret called Jerry and asked him if he had a boar that he could mate to one of his sows, especially an unrelated boar. Jerry said he’d better hurry up, he was just about to slaughter him. Bret asked if it were better to bring the sow to the boar or vice versa. Jerry told him boars were tempermental, and the sow would be much easier to handle. Jerry suggested bringing 2 sows just to be on the safe side. That afternoon, Bret loaded 2 sows aboard the trailer for a visit to Jerry’s farm. 2 days later, Jerry called back and said that the sows were probably pregnant, because Wilbur had a big grin on his face, and wasn’t mounting them anymore. Bret drove over to pick them up, shook Jerry’s hand, and drove home.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 18

The next morning, Bret was listening to his favorite talk radio show when the NOAA Emergency Weather notification kicked in.

“USGS has just updated the Level I Volcano Alert to a Level II Volcano Alert for the Following Areas: Mammoth Mountain and Long Valley Caldera, Northern California. The caldera has recently started forming a bulge that is expected to form a cone and erupt in the near future. With an estimated discharge of 750 Cubic Kilometers of ash, the USGS has ordered mandatory evacuation of a 50 mile radius, and highly recommends evacuation of a 200-mile region from North-northeast to South-southeast of the caldera due to prevailing easterly winds at altitude which could carry anywhere enough ash to bury everything from 30-50 feet deep up to several hundred miles east of the Caldera. People to the North, South and West of the caldera within a 100 mile radius could experience ashfall of up to 10 feet deep outside the 50-mile evacuation zone. If prevailing winds shift, then areas that would ordinarily not be in danger might be. Local and State Authorities are authorized to use any means necessary to preserve life and property. This message will repeat.”

Bret yelled for everyone to get in the living room, then he called Brad, Allen, and Jim, and asked them to turn on their AM radios, or get over to his place ASAP. They all decided to come over anyway, and 15 minutes later they were all gathered in the living room. The message repeated again, and when it finished, Bret turned the radio off to let it sink in. After 10-15 minutes of silence, Bret faced the group and said “Unfortunately, this was what I expected to happen. It’s happening sooner than I expected, but we’re in pretty good shape. My best guess is we have anywhere from a week to a month before the Long Caldera erupts. We need to prioritize activities that make the buildings more habitable over the long haul, and accelerate our scavenging plans. If we get over a couple of feed of ash in Glendale, I can guarantee that any commercial building with a flat roof will have a collapsed roof, and the stuff inside will be destroyed. Second of all, we need to put a roof over the fuel storage area in case we get a lot of ash or snowfall. We have to move everything we can use out of your houses and into storage, either in our house, or the new one. I’m not sure any house besides the two we’ve built will survive a foot or more of wet ash. Maggie, we’re going to need as many people as possible working, that means the new moms will have to work something out between the three of them so 2 of them are available for scavenging or relocating stuff, so you’ll have to babysit each other’s newborns. Any Questions?”

“Dad, if we get a 100x60 or 100x30 building for the fuel storage, we can use the extra space to house the livestock. I don’t know how long the horses can last with what feed we have, but they won’t last a month out in their fields once the ash starts falling. The Chickens and Pigs should be fine in a small enclosure for as long as we have to, but the horses will probably get restless from being cooped up so long.”

Maggie spoke up. “I ‘ve been thinking about this since the last time this happened. What if we stuck a burlap sack over their nose and mouth like a feed bag? That should at least protect their airway.”

“Sure, but they can’t drink or eat with them over their heads. Besides, it does nothing to protect their eyes.”

“Horses have huge eyelashes, that should give them some protection once the ashfall has slowed down.”

“Ok, but we’re still going to need a year’s worth of oats and hay for the horses.”

“Well, let’s add that to our scavenging list - check all the abandoned farms and ranches, take all their hay and oats, even if it’s spoiled - the pigs can eat spoiled feed just fine.”

With that settled, they got into groups and quickly organized what they had to do. Bret had impressed the urgency of getting everything done as quickly as possible. The only people who would be getting anywhere near their normal sleep for the immediate future would be the new moms. Bret told everyone else “We can sleep once the ash starts falling.”

They all sat at the tables and started making lists of stuff they needed. Bret got out the yellow pages, and checked to see if there were any stores they had missed in their previous scavenging runs, and found a few in Altadena and some further north in La Crescenta. They would also try to clean out the hardware and lumberyards of any building supplies they might need to fix or rebuild the other houses once the ash stopped falling. Kelly took Bret aside and told him there should be a couple of Quonset huts on the property that they were in the process of dismantling and moving. Bret decided that Brad, Kelly, Leroy and him should go back to the mine and take anything they needed. Brad guessed Bret wanted Leroy along to ride shotgun, and suggested that he mount the M -60 again to Babe. Bret told Brad they should take his Dodge Ramcharger with a flatbed trailer to load the Quonset hut components on. Brad said he’ d see them first thing the next morning. Meanwhile Maggie was organizing getting all the supplies, furniture, and people inside the buildings as quickly as possible. They decided the fastest way was to do 1 house at a time, starting with Brad’s since he had the Tilapia and worm farms that they desperately needed for the group to survive. If they relocated it to the steam engine room, they’d stay warmer, which was a good thing for the fish and plants. Bret suggested relocating their AE setups as well if they had time, especially the battery banks to store the power generated by the steam powered generator, and inverters to power stuff.

The next day, under grey cloudy skies, Bret and his team drove to the mine and spent the rest of the day finishing disassembling the 30x100 foot Quonset that Kelly pointed out to him. Maggie took everyone else over to Brad’s house, where they packed and moved everything to the new house over the period of several days. The next day, Kelly joined them to organize packing their personal affects. While the moving teams were busy moving everything, Bret got as many of the men as he could spare to help erect the Quonset hut. First they set footings for the hut, since they didn’t have the time or materials for a poured slab concrete floor and footings. Once the footings were set and the bolts emplaced, they started erecting the Quonset hut. With the tools and cranes they had, and the practice of assembling 2 already, the third unit went up in record time. They only got to sleep an average of 4 hours per night, except Sunday, which Bret declared would be a day of rest. Brad started leading impromptu services in Bret’s living room Sunday morning, and soon everyone was showing up and participating in his Bible Study/Worship Service. Gloria turned out to be a good guitarist, and had a good voice to match. She had a bunch of lead sheets in her guitar bag for popular modern Christian songs, which totally amazed Jim.

“Just because I was a total Sheeple didn’t mean I wasn’t a devout Christian. I’d played in our Church’s pop band for the 10 years before I met you.”

“Why’d you stop?”

“When I moved in with you, we were living in sin, and I didn’t feel right about Worshiping God on Sunday, and fornicating with you the rest of the week.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me we had to get married first - I would have married you in a heartbeat!”

“Never thought about it.”

“Anyway, we’re married now, so let’s praise God.”

Gloria gave her husband a big hug then started crying. Not knowing what she was crying for, Jim just held her. Finally she stopped crying and dried her eyes.

“What was that all about?”

“For the first time in years, I’ve felt close to God.”

“Me too, let’s go rejoin the rest of the group.”

The next day, they started moving all the fuel tanks and the tankers into the back of the Quonset hut, leaving a 30x90 foot space up front for the animals. Bret told them to leave a lane available so they could get the fuel trucks in and out if they needed to. Before they put the shotcrete on the building, and covered it with the remaining dirt from their previous projects, they cut 2 holes in the roof for ventilation pipes. One of them had a turbine ventilator fan, and the other was just a straight ventilator pipe with a high-wind hat on top. Both of them were 10 feet above the top of the hut, and secured with guy wires. Finally they poured the rest of their shotcrete over the building and the reinforcing wire mesh to a depth of over 6 inches. Once the shotcrete cured, they backfilled over the building with all the dirt they had. They managed to get a foot or two on top, and 6 feet on the sides. Meanwhile Maggie called Jerry and asked him if he knew of anyone with enough feed to feed their horses for the winter, or two. Jerry laughed and said that there was a huge horse ranch right next to Larry’s place, and he was sure it was deserted, because Larry never mentioned seeing him. Right before he put the phone down, Jerry told her that his wife died the other day, and he wasn’t feeling too hot. Suddenly, she heard a gasp of breath, and a moment later, the phone hit the floor. She repeated his name several times, but got no response. Fearing the worst, she yelled for Bret, who told her that Jerry was dying from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and would probably prefer to die quickly this way. “Jerry made me promise to bury him and Margaret, so I’ll go and do it.”

“Hold on there a second Bret Wilson, Jerry was like a father to me - I want to be there.”

“Ok, but handling dead people can be smelly and gross.”

“I raised 2 boys, I think I can handle Smelly and Gross.”

“Glad we didn’t eat breakfast yet.”

They drove over to Jerry’s place, and found Jerry slumped on the floor. Maggie checked his pulse, and he was dead. Margaret’s body was in her bed, and had started to decompose, and had soiled the sheets. Bret suggested using the sheets to support her body, and sling her into the simple casket Jerry had prepared for her. Bret carried the pine casket up the stairs to her bedroom, while Maggie cleaned up her body as best as possible without gagging. They undid the corners of the sheets, and using it like a sling, picked up Margaret’s body and slid it into the casket. They muscled the casket out the door and to the edge of the stairs. Bret said “Stand back, I’ve an idea.” He tied a rope around the casket, and pushed it over the edge of the stairway. Once the balance point was passed, the casket slid down the stairs like a toboggan, and stopped near the front door.

“Bret Wilson, don’t you ever do that to me!”

“Maggie, she’s gone, this is just the shell. I’d rather not get a hernia picking them up.” Bret went outside, got the backhoe loader started, dug 2 graves next to each other near a nice shady tree, then tied the rope to the casket, and picked the rope up with the loader, and carried it to the first grave, then gently lowered her into her grave. While he did that, Maggie did what she could for Jerry’s body. They rolled him into a blanket, and picked the body up and put it in the other casket. They got the casket out the door with some strain and sweat, but finally got it close enough to use the loader, and Bret hooked another rope to Jerry’s casket and carried it with the loader bucket to the gravesite. Once both bodies were in place, Maggie stood there, then kneeled down to pray for them. Finally she recited the 23rd Psalm, then told Bret “You’re right, they’re not there anymore. Let’s get them buried and get back home.”

Bret made short work of burying the caskets with the loader, and checked out the house and barn. There was tons of stuff they could use, but decided to come back tomorrow since Maggie was obviously upset, and might think looting their place before their bodies were in the ground 24 hours to be in very poor taste.

They drove home in silence, lost in their thoughts.

When they got home, Bret handed Maggie a letter he found on the Kitchen table at Jerry’s house addressed to her. She went into their bedroom and sat down on the bed to read it.

Dearest Maggie:

If you’re reading this, Margaret and I are dead. Bret promised to bury us, but don’t be mad at Bret or yourself if you can’t. Don’t worry about us, we’re both in heaven. I wanted you to know you were like a daughter to me, and I’m really proud of you and Bret. As far as the house and everything goes, use whatever you can to help you survive. From what Bret’s told me, you’re pretty well fixed. I know part of that is because of you. Anyway, here’s a list of some spots you might check, and things you might need. Feel free to help yourselves.

Love Always,

Jerry

Maggie broke down and cried for the first time. This was worse than losing her father, who didn’t pay that much attention to her, and would rather golf than spend time with his only daughter. Jerry became a replacement father for her after her dad died, and did everything with Jerry’s family on weekends and summers. She remembered going hiking, fishing, camping and hunting with Jerry and his family. Funny thing was she never spoke to either of Jerry’s kids after she married Bret. She remembered the first day she met him, then the time he proposed to her, and the look on Jerry’s face when she told him, and asked if he’d walk her down the aisle. Bret knocked on the door, breaking the spell.

“Come in Bret.”

Bret walked over to Maggie and gave her a big hug. “Sorry I handled the bodies like I did. I missed them too.” Maggie reached over to give Bret a big hug, and he held her while she cried some more. When she dried her tears, she told Bret that Jerry had told her to take anything they needed from his house. Bret nodded, too choked up to speak. Finally he regained his voice.

“Maggie, we need to get as much horse feed as possible, and we need to check Jerry’s place. If I know him, he was even better prepared than Larry. I wanted to send Bear and Nancy and the 4 kids to Larry’s neighbor’s place to get all the hay and feed they have, and anything else we can use, while we go through Jerry’s stuff. Would you be OK with that?”

“Jerry said we could have the stuff - so I’m OK. I think Allen and Veronica should stay with us, I’m pretty sure the other rancher won’t have much stuff we need besides the hay and horse feed, unless he had a huge fuel tank and some other stuff we can use. Either way, they’ll be out of radio range, so they can’t talk to us until they crest the hill.”

Bret and Maggie got to Jerry’s place first, and went through the house, room by room, packing stuff they could use, including food, spices, kitchen stuff, towels, sheets, soaps, detergents, and other small stuff. They would have to come back later with a bigger trailer or the tractor-trailer combo if they wanted the appliances or any big furniture. Bret found Jerry’s gun collection and ammo stockpile, and put everything in the truck. They made a list of the big stuff they wanted, and decided to come back later with help and a much bigger trailer They took all the tools and stuff out of his garage and barns, then loaded the backhoe loader onto the trailer and drove back to their house. An hour later, Bear showed up with a huge trailer piled high with hay, and the bed of his truck stuffed with bagged feed. He told them they had a huge diesel tank full of fuel, and some farm equipment that they might want, but he didn’t have any way of towing them home since all the ranch’s vehicles were missing. Bear told Bret that they were probably out somewhere when the quakes hit. Bear backed the trailer into the Quonset hut that they were storing the fuel tanks in, and dropped the legs, then unhitched and drove out.

Bret talked with everyone, and they agreed to strip Jerry’s house of anything useful including furniture, etc. so they wouldn’t have to strip their houses to make the “shelter” habitable. The next day, they took the tractor-trailer combo and both trucks hauling their biggest trailers, and loaded them full of stuff. They took the furniture, furnishings, fixtures, appliances, cast iron stoves, sinks, counters, cabinets, and basically stripped Jerry’s house to the bare walls. It took several trips, but they felt is was worth it to avoid doing the same to their houses. The new shelter had a huge common room with a huge masonry heating stove/cooktop for cooking, eating, and recreation. The bedrooms were set off to the sides, and set deep into the hill where it was more temperate. The common walls were well insulated for privacy, and each bedroom was really a master suite with it’s own bathroom.

The furnishings from Jerry’s house were enough to fill the common room, and provide the bare essentials for the bedrooms. Bear reminded Bret there was a bunch of useful stuff at the ranch next to Larry’s, and if they could all drive over there, they could get it all in 1 trip. Bret checked, and the diesel tanks could stand some fuel, and the tanker was almost empty. Brad volunteered to drive it to the mine while they were there and fill it up with diesel. They took off right after breakfast, and made great time. Brad continued on to the mine by himself while everyone else stripped the ranch of anything useful. Bret spotted a pipe horse corral, and they descended on it with their air ratchets, and quickly had it disassembled and stowed aboard a flat bed trailer. Bret spotted 2 500 gallon storage tanks, and found out they had diesel in them, so he emptied the tanks into any convenient containers, including filling all the tanks on the trucks, then set the tanks up to be towed back to their house. While Bret, Bear, Jim, and Allen scavenged his lot, barns and sheds for useful stuff, the womenfolk packed everything in the house they could use up for the men to carry out to the trucks. Bret was glad he remembered to bring the dollies with him, or their backs would be killing them. Later that afternoon, Brad showed up with a full fuel tanker and some news. He was listening to the radio to pass the time, and the USGS had upgraded several volcano alerts in Northern California, Oregon and Washington State from Level I to Level II due to increasing activity. He said some of the volcanoes included Lassen, Rainier, Shasta, and Mt. Hood. Bret realized they were already doing everything they could, so he didn’t tell everyone else about what Brad told him. That evening, they got home and took the next day unloading everything and moving it into the shelter.

Bret checked his prioritized list, and realized they needed another scavenging run into town, and got everyone together the next morning, and handed out assignments. They’d stay in touch using their radios, and they split up into 3 groups. Gloria was assigned to stay home with the babies, since she was breast feeding and producing the most milk. Brad fired up the tractor-trailer, and Bear and Brad drove their Dodge Ramchargers, while everyone else followed in their vehicles. They cleaned out all the grocery stores they could find of usable products. Bret’s team cleaned out any hardware and building materials stores of anything they could use. Bear’s team hit any miscellaneous stores that they missed the first time. By the time they met at home later that afternoon, Bret hoped they had everything. He checked their supplies. The diesel tanks were full, the tanker was full, giving them over 10,000 gallons of treated diesel. Brad, Jim, and Allen’s tanks were full of treated gasoline, giving them around 1500 gallons of gas. Between the tanks and the full propane tanker, they had over 11,000 gallons of propane. Looking at all the empty space, he realized they needed A LOT of wood, and made that Priority #1.

Meanwhile, Maggie and a couple of helpers were inventorying the food and supplies. The news was good but could be better. They were short in several critical areas, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. They had about 10 years worth of food for their group, and about 5 years of supplies. They’d either have to enact draconian conservation methods, or else learn to make their own. Maggie and Nancy were both in their mid-forties, so hopefully they would go through menopause soon and that would stretch their sanitary supplies. Maggie hoped the women would all have large families because they had plenty of diapers and cleaning products, and they didn’t need feminine sanitary supplies for 9 months, which would further stretch the limited supply. Maggie vowed next time that the women would do the scavenging and leave the men at home. Later that afternoon, when they compared notes, Maggie was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had more paper products than she thought. The women had moved larger quantities to their houses than she realized, so they were set. She gave Bret the good news at dinner.

After dinner, Bret gave everyone the good news that they were turning into lumberjacks again, and asked them if they knew of any large stands of trees they could quickly and easily fell. He wanted to cut them down and limb them on the spot, then load them on a trailer as 30-foot or shorter logs then cut them to length, split and stack them in the room with the steam engine. Bret gave them the good news that they had 2400 square feet of storage space available, and the roof was 15 feet high. When they imagined how many cords of wood it would take to fill that room, the groaning and complaining started.

“Look people, we need enough wood to keep us in power for 5 years, plus what we use for cooking and heating the buildings. I don’t like it any more than you do, but at least we have 4 chainsaws, and a bunch of axes and hatchets to limb the trees, and a backhoe to lift and haul the wood onto the trailers, and a hydraulic splitter to split the wood. Imagine what this job would be like if we had to do it by hand. You should be grateful we have modern tools and the fuel to use them.”

After Bret’s dressing down, the grumbling went down considerably, but didn’t go away. Nancy mentioned she saw a large stand of trees near Jerry’s place that was close, and looked to be a couple of acres of lodgepole pine. Bret thought that would be a good place to start, because lodgepole only grew branches at the top, and they could easily get 30-foot logs out of a mature lodgepole. The next morning, they loaded up their tools and equipment, and drove over to the plot of lodgepole pines. First they cleared all the debris and chaparral from around the trees, then later that afternoon, they started felling trees. They ran out of room and daylight at the same time, so they left everything there and drove home. The next day they were either chopping or felling trees. Kelly got to run the backhoe, and Allen drove the Bobcat to handle the smaller stuff. With all the equipment, they got a lot done that afternoon, and drove a loaded trailer full of 30-foot logs back to the shelter. Unloading was easy but dangerous, and they went back the next day for another load. It took them almost a week to fell and de-limb all the trees in the 5-acre stand of trees. The next day Bret decided they needed to cut and split the logs and stack them in the building. They developed a system using the backhoe to set a log onto a set of saw horses and push it forward as they cut it into 14" lengths to fit inside the masonry stove’s firebox. The men took turns feeding the splitter and piling wood onto the trailers pulled by the bobcat and the Harley-powered mini-truck Brad built. With everyone pitching in, it took several days of hard work to saw, split and stack the wood they had cut. Even with all that work, they had filled the building less than 1/3 full. Bret said “Back to work” and everyone groaned.

Maggie said there was another smaller stand on the far side of the horse’s pasture. They went and checked it, and they located another 5 or so acres of lodgepole pines. The horses were moved into their shelter, and the spent the next week clearing, felling and de-limbing the trees. Once the work area was clean, they released the horses, and went back to splitting, cutting and stacking the wood. When they finished this time, the good news was they had a 8-foot high stack of wood that filled 2/3 of the available space in the room. Bret wasn’t in the mood for more wood cutting, so he gave them a reprieve.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 19

The next day, Bret was curious about how many cords of wood he had stored, so he logged onto the internet, checked his online converter http://www.onlineconversion.com/ and discovered that 1 cord of wood equaled about 128 cubic feet. They had 2400 square feet of storage available, and they had filled it about 2/3 full, and about 8 feet high, and higher in spots where Allen had started throwing chunks of wood on top of the pile to see how high he could get it. He used his calculator to figure out that they had about 15000 cubic feet of wood stored, and that meant about 117 cords of wood. They barely used a half-cord last year in their masonry heater, and that was a cold winter. Between over 11 thousand gallons of propane, and 117 cords of wood, they had to have enough fuel to make it. According to Maggie, they had enough food and supplies stored to last almost 10 years, not including what they could raise in their aquiculture system, or raise in chickens, eggs, and pork. With Brad’s aquiculture system and worm farm set up next to the steam engine, the fish were thriving, and the plants were growing faster due to the warm environment. Even the worms were growing faster. Bret was tempted to relocate his system next to Brad’s, then remembered a wise old saying about not leaving all their eggs in 1 basket, and decided to leave his where it was.

While he was on the internet, he had a brilliant idea. He checked, and they had scored a case of blank CD-ROM and DVD disks from the Radio Shack, and several laptops with a CD/DVD high-speed burner. If they could connect them to the internet, Jeremy and Natalie, who where the most internet savvy of the group, could search the Internet for sites to copy stuff they might need later. Bret had a huge library, but he knew there was more stuff out there. When he asked them, they agreed in a heartbeat, and they quickly connected 2 more laptops to Bret’s system using the built-in Network Interface Cards and some cable that they picked up at Radio Shack. They now had 3 computers connected to the internet, and Bret made it Jeremy and Natalie’s job to surf the internet for usable information like how to do stuff, and anything else they could come up with, and burn a copy to CD-ROM or DVD. He wanted them to use the DVD’s first, because they held more data, and were more durable than the CD-ROM’s. Two hours later, they showed Bret a preliminary list of what they could get, and Bret showed it to everyone else, who thought it was a great idea, and added suggestions to the list.

Bret had already purchased an entire library of stuff, and he was sure they might be duplicating efforts he already had, but realized they didn’t feel very useful right now, because they weren’t strong enough to haul wood all day. Besides, they might find something that he hadn’t considered, like how to build a heliostat, or some esoteric medical knowledge.

Between the solar panels and wind turbines, they were able to keep up with the new load, and they ran the steam generator just enough to keep the batteries topped off, make enough hot water for the fish and their hot water heater. If the ash started falling, they’d first lose the photovoltaic panels, then they might lose the wind turbines to damage from the abrasive nature of the volcanic ash. That brought Bret to a full stop. They had enough power without them, and it was stupid to risk damaging them for power they didn’t need, so he added taking them down and storing them to the list. Bret wondered if there were any other items he should bring in to protect them from damage by ash. The last ashfall was just a matter of inches, but this time, they could get up to 10 feet! With that figure in mind, he looked around the yard, and checked the height of anything that was outside. The chicken and pig enclosures would be buried, but they would be inside. Bear’s trailer needed to be moved into their garage, along with any other vehicles that could fit.

Bret made a unilateral decision that morning - everyone needed to move into the shelter starting that afternoon, and get everything under cover that was liable to be damaged by ash. He also decided that everyone would bring all their weapons and supplies over and store them, because if their houses collapsed under 10 feet of ash, they might never get to their weapons and supplies again. When he was finished, he called a meeting, and told them they needed to move into the shelters.

“ Everyone, according to what Brad heard on the radio last week, and what I’ve seen on the Internet, the volcanism is escalating, and soon the USGS will be forced to issue a Level III alert, and we need to move everyone into the shelters starting this afternoon. Bear, you need to move your trailer into our garage, and rearrange things to get as many vehicles in the garage as possible. Also, we need to start moving the animals into the fuel storage building ASAP. Any Questions? Great, let’s get started now!”

With that, the meeting broke up, and everyone started moving their stuff to the shelter in earnest. The rest of the day, people were driving up and down Bret’s driveway with vehicles and trailers packed full of stuff. Once they had unloaded everything, they went back for more. Bret and Maggie went to get the horses, and move them to their corral inside the fuel storage building. When they finished, they started with the chickens and pigs. Finally when it got dark out, Maggie told everyone they were eating dinner at their place, she had a huge pot of stew on the stove. She didn’t get any objections from anyone, and after dinner, they walked back to their new bedrooms in the shelter, and went straight to sleep. The next morning, Allen grabbed his dad “We forgot to extend the outside cover to the barn. What if we need to feed the animals while it’s snowing or raining ash?” Bret’s “Oh Shit!” look said it all. They quickly dropped everything they were doing to extend the enclosure to the opening to the barn/fuel storage room. While they were there, Allen suggested they park all of the smaller vehicles in the barn, since they weren’t going to be used for a while. Bret told him to make sure the Bobcat loader was fully fueled and parked right inside the door with the loader bucket on it. They’d need it to clean out the corral, and to move ash and snow. Allen told him they needed to make sure the roll-up doors were clear so he could get it out. They stopped the enclosure at the man door, and built an awning over the roll-up so they had a cleared area to get the door up.

When they finished, Maggie came out yelling “Everyone get under cover - it’s started.”
5 minutes later, everyone was gathered around the radio when they heard and felt a huge “BOOM” and the building vibrated like a Chinese Gong. Next came a rolling motion, then minutes later, it was silent. Bret pulled his Surefire Aviator flashlight out of his pocket, and checked on everyone. They were OK, but he was wondering why the power went out. Right as everyone got to their feet, another shock wave hit them, then several more.

Bret yelled “Everyone lay down on the floor, protect your head and curl up into a ball if you can. This building is stressed to take it, but we might be in for a bumpy ride.” 2 minutes later, the shaking stopped, and Bret said “Everyone stay down, I don’t think it’s over yet.” When there were no more shocks for 5 minutes, he checked Maggie and she was OK. She was wearing her fanny pack, and he asked her to check on everyone else. Bear was fine, so Bret asked him if he’d help him check on the power situation. When they made it downstairs, water had sloshed all over the place, and they put as many fish back in the water as they could. They dried their hands, then checked on the power rack. One of the bolts had torn loose, and a connector had popped loose. Bret made sure his hands and feet were dry, and reconnected the connection, and the power came back on. He pulled his radio out of his pocket, and asked Maggie if the power was on upstairs.

“Yes, the power’s on, and except for some bumps and bruises, everyone’s OK. The kitchen’s a mess - everything on the counter is now on the floor.”

“Ok, if that’s all that’s wrong, I’ll take it and be glad. Could you and Nancy check out the pantry. We’ll keep checking things out down here, so leave your radio on.”

“Ok Dear.”

Some stuff had been knocked off shelves, and some glassware was broken, but the pantry upstairs was in pretty good shape because Bret had insisted on several anti-earthquake features, like retainers across the shelves to keep everything on the shelves. Downstairs, everything was OK, but several shelves had been rearranged. Nothing was broken, so they could rearrange it later. He called Maggie and said they were going to check on the Animals. Maggie said she’d better go with him and check on the horses, who were liable to be scared out of their wits. They opened the man door carefully, and several horses had escaped the corral, and one mare was limping. The Stallion was laying on his side breathing hard, and his eyes had a glazed look. Maggie recognized the signs of shock from panic, and reached into the Veterinary Emergency Kit mounted on the wall, quickly prepared a syringe of tranquilizer and injected it into the Stallion’s shoulder muscle. She was careful to approach from above where he couldn’t see her, and she slipped the needle in and backed out before he knew she was there. 1 minute later, she could see that the tranquilizer was taking effect as his breathing slowed, and he visibly relaxed. Bret had rounded up the mare, and led her back to the corral, opened the gate, and led her back inside. He handed her a carrot and she ate it from his hand and followed him to a quiet corner. Maggie went over to check the mare, who had a cut on her leg, but it had stopped bleeding already. She took a bandage out of her kit, put some antibiotic ointment on it, and covered the wound, then wrapped 2 turns of Coach Wrap over the bandage to hold it in place. Nancy and Bear said the chickens and pigs were OK as far as they could see, and there were no injuries or escapees. Bret called Allen on his radio, and he said everyone else at the house was OK. The mothers were in the nurseries checking on their infants, and Allen suspected nursing and cuddling them, partly to calm the infants, and partly to calm themselves. He told his dad Natalie and Jeremy were OK too, and Brad had Kelly’s two sons with him playing a game. He heard an update on the radio, and the Long Valley Caldera had exploded violently, then Lassen, Shasta, Rainier, Hood, and even Mt. St. Helens were in the process of erupting. Bret knew that anyone within 25-50 miles of any of the volcanoes would probably die from either pyroclastic flow, lahars, flooding, lava bombs, or any one of a number of causes. He prayed that FEMA had gotten everyone out. They were over 100 miles from the nearest volcano, even where they were the shock waves and earth tremors could have leveled any unreinforced buildings, ripped open roads, and caused a bunch of problems all by itself. Bret checked the feed containers, and was glad the chicken and pig’s feed containers were full of feed. He knew that the worms could supplement the chicken feed for the chickens, so they should be OK. He’d set up a set of lights in the chicken coops that would simulate the light levels and duration of late spring/summer to keep them laying as long as possible. Bret had left instructions earlier that 1 out of 20 eggs weren’t to be disturbed, and were left to get fertilized and hatch. They already had a bunch of chicks that were growing quickly, and would soon be either laying eggs, or slaughtered once they reached optimum size.

By the time they had finished with the animals and checking the storage, Allen was on the radio telling Bret that the ash had started to fall. The good news was that the temperature wasn’t rising. Bret hoped that Yellowstone wouldn’t erupt, so they could come out of their shelters in a year or so and hopefully get a crop in before anything else happened. In their travels, they had increased their supply of non-hybrid seeds by 5 times, and had sufficient stock to plant huge gardens on each property that had water, even if the house wasn’t standing anymore. Bret knew that Jeremy and Natalie’s house would survive, since it was built almost as well as his. Hopefully the roofs wouldn’t collapse at Brad and Allen’s houses. Once it was safe to go outside, he’d get together work crews to clear off roofs as best as possible and pile the ash away from the houses. One item he was glad to find was a case of N -100 filters, and another case of USGI surplus gas masks with current NATO spec NBC filters. Unless things were really bad outside, the N -100's and goggles should be sufficient.

Bret walked back in the house and accidently walked in on Jeremy and Natalie making out. He was glad that they were still dressed, and backed out without disturbing them. He was surprised by what he saw, and realized it would only be a short while before they wanted to get married too. He thought about that, and decided to bring Maggie and Nancy into the discussion this time after dinner. He checked with everyone else, and they were busy cleaning up damage from the earthquakes, so he decided to check the Internet and radio for any new news. He realized that the Internet would quickly stop working like it did last time when the ash in the air was too thick to permit microwave transmissions. He was reading the USGS site when the signal was interrupted, and the carrier light went out on his DSL router. He turned on the radio, and the signal strength was down, but still readable. He checked out the front door, and the ash wasn’t coming down that hard, so he put on a dust mask and goggles, cleaned off the dish, and checked again. The DSL light came back on, and he logged onto the USGS site. They had a list of all the volcanoes that had erupted, and the estimated damage zones. Anything within 50 miles to the east of the Long Valley Caldera was destroyed by the blast wave. Snow on the Sierras melted instantly forming huge lahars. Bret couldn’t get any data on the other volcanoes because the DSL connection chose that minute to go down again. He checked outside, and the ash was much heavier than last time, and he said “the heck with it” and went back inside to try the radio.

The USGS radio was just repeating the previous information, so he shut it off, and went to go start dinner. After dinner, he asked Bear, Nancy and Maggie to meet him in the office, they needed to discuss Jeremy and Natalie.

“Bret, what’s this all about?”

“A little over a year ago, Bear and I had a discussion about the kids, and I wanted to include you two in the discussions, since I think that it will only be a matter of time before Jeremy and Natalie want to get married.”

“What are you talking about - he’s only 14!

“Natalie’s 15.”

“Maggie, I’m going to tell you something you can’t discuss with Jeremy, you’ll probably embarrass him to death. I walked in on them making out in the office when I came back. From the looks of things before I made myself scarce, it looked like they were barely able to keep their clothes on. They might be ready to have a physical relationship, and hopefully Jeremy will ask to get married first.”

“Bret, they’re still kids!”

“Maggie, they stopped being kids shortly after the balloon when up, and we asked them to take on adult responsibilities.”

“Still, they’re awfully young.”

Bear jumped between the two of them and suggested “Why don’t we bring them in here and ask them like we did with Allen and Veronica?”

Nancy looked at Bear, and he shrugged. What could he say - pleading the 5th would be the best right now. Bret looked at Maggie, who looked at Nancy and finally nodded her head. Bret ducked outside the door to bring them in the office.

“Jeremy, Natalie, we need to talk to you. Instead of telling you what to do, we’re going to treat you like adults and ask you what you want to do.”

“What’s wrong Dad?”

“Nothing’s wrong - I accidently walked in on you and Natalie this afternoon, and I think it’s time we talked about some stuff.”

“If you mean the Birds and the Bees, we already know that stuff.”

“No, I mean about taking on Adult responsibilities, and making adult decisions.”

“OK, go ahead.”

“You and Natalie have been dating for quite a while, and managed to behave yourselves. I don’t want to be blunt, but if you’re planning on having sex, you need to consider the consequences, and decide on whether or not you want to spend the rest of your life with Natalie if you get her pregnant.”

“Gee Dad, we really haven’t been doing anything more than necking and stuff.”

“From the looks of what I saw, it looked like the two of you were barely able to keep your clothes on.”

“Sorry Mr. Wilson, that was my fault. I wanted to see how far I could push things. Right after you left, Jeremy asked me to stop.”

“I’m glad to hear that Natalie. You two aren’t much younger than Allen and Veronica when they got married, but my gut feeling is you should wait a few years to get married.”

“Mr. Wilson, Jeremy and I already discussed this, and we’ve decided to wait a while. If things change, we might want to push things up, but for now everything’s OK.”

Natalie, you can call me Bret, Ok?”

“Sure Mr. Wilson...er...Bret.”

Bret laughed his head off, and told them to let them know if they decided to get physical. With that, they stood up and went to bed.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 20

** Later that Day, Washington DC The Situation Room **

“Tom, give it to me straight, how bad is it?”

“Mr. President, our preliminary estimates show extensive damage from the Long Valley Caldera eruption, and the eruption of Mounts Lassen, Shasta, Hood, St. Helens, and Rainier. The exact dollar amounts or casualties haven’t even been estimated as of yet. What we do know is that the Military and FEMA managed to evacuate most of the civilians, except those who refused to go.”

“Why in God’s Name would anyone stay?”

“Who knows, maybe they didn’t believe the warning, or like that one guy in Mt. St. Helen’s that didn’t want to leave his home even if it meant his death.”

“OK, what are we facing long term?”

“I’ve got a report from the USGS, but it’s only projections and estimates. What we do know is most of the Western United States is either being covered with ash, or has been destroyed by either pyroclastic flow, lahars, lava, and mudslides as the Sierra Nevada snowpack melted. Frankly Mr. President, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Just last week the Sierras got another 10 feet of snow, and it’s been the third consecutive year of record snows all up and down the Sierras. When the hot ash and gas hit the Sierra’s, all the snow melted almost instantaneously, resulting in avalanches, mud and rock slides, flooding, and huge loss of life. We weren’t expecting that to happen, so we didn’t evacuate people in the Sierra towns, or Northwest Nevada.”

“Nevada, what cities were hit?”

“Everything from Reno south along the 395 corridor including Bishop California.”

“My God Tom, there’s Millions of people along that road.”

“We weren’t expecting it, and I’m sorry we didn’t see it coming. If you want, my resignation could be on your desk in an hour.”

“Tom, I need you here - we’re facing the worst natural disaster this Country has ever faced.”

“Very well Mr. President.”

“Condi, what can you add to this conversation?”

“Mr. President, we are re-tasking all available photo-reconnaissance birds, and we’ll have imagery soon. If you wish, we can give you a live feed now from the KH-11 that’s over the US, but it’s not directly overhead of the West coast right now.”

“Anything’s better than nothing - please set it up.”

Condoleezza Rice nodded to an aide, who dimmed the lights, and flipped a switch, sending the take from the KH-11 to the Situation Room and projecting it on the big screen in front of them.

“Mr. President, what you’re seeing now is real-time imagery of the Western US from the viewpoint of 25,000 miles over the Mississippi. The gray haze is an increasingly deep layer of smoke and ash from the Volcanoes, and several forest fires started by them. Switching to Infrared, you can clearly see the Volcanoes are still erupting, spewing lava, ash, and deadly gasses into the atmosphere. My best guess is nothing 25-50 miles east of any of those volcanoes survived. The water is polluted, the soil will soon be covered with up to 50 feet of ash, and the plants and animals dependent on sunlight will soon die off, that is the ones that survived the initial blast, pyroclastic flow, flooding, etc.”

“Is there any good news?”

“So far Yellowstone hasn’t erupted yet - if it does, we’ll lose everything West of the Appalachians.”

“Why wasn’t I told of this?”

Tom Ridge spoke up “Mr. President, we didn’t know ourselves until the US Geological Survey Vulcanologists started issuing alerts. Most of the time the Level I and Level II alerts are ignored, but this time, they turned out to be accurate. Luckily my deputy in charge of FEMA took action as soon as the Alerts started coming in. They were already strapped by dealing with the earthquake damage in California, but they were able to get regular Army units rolling into the area for a mass evacuation.”

“Where are the refugees now?”

“Montana, Colorado, the rest of the Midwest. It depends on how much time we had, and how far they had to go. We didn’t want to relocate them any farther than we had to in case this was just another Alert.”

“OK people, we got caught with our boxers down on this one, but I won’t let it happen again. If Yellowstone shows any indications of getting ready to erupt, we need to relocate everyone out of it’s path and to safe zones.”

“Mr. President, that would mean moving over 50 million people thousands of miles.”

“Would you prefer they were dead?”

“No, Mr. President.”

“Very well you have your orders. Form a working group to plan contingencies starting now, and get the ball rolling. The next time the USGS posts an Alert about Yellowstone, I expect to see every Green-painted truck we have rolling in response - is that understood!”

The entire room chorused “Yes Mr. President.”

“Very Well, meeting adjourned!”


*** Earlier that morning in Roseburg, OR ***

“Jodi, get the kids and head to the shelter!”

“What’s wrong Paul, I thought we were safe here, Mt, Hood’s over 200 miles Northeast of here?”

“Just heard on the radio - the USGS issued a Level III Volcano Alert for the Three Sisters.”

“Crap, that’s just 100 miles away from here. What about Crater Lake?”

“No word yet, but we should start preparing for the worst.”

“Good thing the kids are home from school today. I’ll go round them up, and have them start bringing stuff into the shelter.”

“Concentrate on food and water. Make sure they bring some games and books - scratch that - no Battery operated games, we don’t have the batteries to spare on entertainment.”

“How about rechargeables, we have to run the generator anyway to power the air filtration system.”

“Ok but NO alkalines, I’m saving those for our emergency equipment. Get the kids moving, I’ll park the vehicles under the pole barn - that has the best chance of not collapsing, and I’ll take the Bug Out Bags and stuff out of the vehicles.”

“Ok, dear see you in the shelter in an hour or so.”

“Take the portable radio with you, and if they start broadcasting an Eruption Warning, call me on the FRS, and I’ll drop what I’m doing and get inside. Remember, even at this range, the concussion from the blast can cause damage, and break windows, so stay away from windows. The flying glass could kill you.”

“Ok, we’ll start packing now.”


*** Somewhere in Winnemucca, NV, later that morning ***

“Herbert, forget the cattle and get into the storm shelter.”

“Martha, how many times have I told you, it’s NOT a storm Shelter, It’s a Fallout Shelter.”

“I’ll call it a Storm shelter if I want - all my relatives think you’re nuts!”

“I hate to bring this up Martha, but all your relatives are in California - We haven’t heard from them in weeks - they’re probably dead! Who’s “Nuts” now?”

“You’re right Herbert - now forget the cattle - the ash is getting heavier. We don’t have enough hay to feed all of them for 2 years, so they’re going to die anyway.”

OK Dear, I’m just moving several pregnant cows and a bull into the barn. We should have enough feed for them, and they can repopulate the herd later.”

“Good, thinking, now hurry up and get inside.”


*** Somewhere near Grass Valley, California,
just west of the Sierra Nevadas, early that morning ***

“Hurry Dear, get into the raft with the kids. It’s your only chance of survival. The flood waters will be here any second.”

“Please Larry, come with us!”

“I’d love to Melissa, but which of the kids would you leave behind for me? The boat can’t take the weight of me, the kids, and a minimal amount of supplies. Everything’s lashed into the raft, including the kids in their life preservers. The supplies are in waterproof River Runner Bags. I love you, take care of the kids - See you later!”

Larry took what little time he had, inflated the raft, threw his BOB and some food into a couple of River Runner bags, lashed them to the raft, then put their 3 boys into their PFD’s, and lashed them to the seats so they were sitting on the floor of the raft with their backs to the seat, so no matter what happened, their heads would be above water unless the raft overturned. There wasn’t anything he could do to prevent that but pray, and he hadn’t stopped praying since he heard the warning.

Melissa cried knowing she’d never see Larry again. He had his own PFD, and a small survival kit strapped to his waist. NOAA weather radio had broadcast a warning about half an hour ago that a 10-foot wall of water was headed down river, and would reach them in the next 30 minutes. Larry thought fast, grabbed the river runner raft they had purchased for running the Sacramento and Kern rivers. He knew within a pound the maximum weight the boat was designed for, and realized with Melissa, the three boys, and a weeks’ worth of food and supplies, they’d be 250 pounds overloaded with his additional weight. He loved his wife and kids desperately, and this was the only way he knew they had a chance to survive. High ground was over 20 miles and 3 bridges away, and the radio was reporting massive traffic jams as everyone tried to get to high ground at the same time. He knelt and prayed with Melissa that God would see them through this, then he held and kissed each of his young sons.

None of the boys were strong enough to paddle, so Melissa would have to try and steer the raft away from any big boulders or snags, then once the flood had passed, find a safe spot to beach the raft, and try and help her husband, who was going to tie a 50-foot rope to the back of the raft and attach the other end to his PFD. This way, even if they died, they’d die together. Unknown to Melissa, Larry had his River Runner Knife on his PFD, and at the first sign that he was endangering his family, he’d cut away and leave his fate up to God. He’d already made his peace, and knew that if he died he was going to heaven.

He heard a roaring in the distance and yelled over it “Melissa, I love you - Hang on and Pray!”

Two seconds later, the wave overtook them and Larry was jerked off his feet. He held his breath and prayed. The last thing he did before the wave hit was to tie a good knot in the rope from the raft to the D-ring on his PFD. He knew it wouldn’t take much strain, but would hopefully keep them together if they survived.



*** Later that Morning, Seattle, Washington, at the Starbucks ***

“I’ll have a double latte with sprinkles to go.”

Suddenly the radio switched from the Talk Radio Program they were listening to, and the emergency tones sounded.

“USGS has issued a Level III Volcano Alert for Mt. Rainier. Pyroclastic flow, and Lahars are expected to sweep into Seattle and surrounding areas. This updates previous warnings and includes the Seattle Area in the Warning Area. Please stay tuned for updates.”

“Ken Dear, what’s with all these Alerts - they’re not going to cancel the Gay Pride Parade today?”

“I don’t know Sammie, why not call Ronnie and find out.”

“Ronnie, it’s Sammie, it’s still on, great see you then sweetie.”

*** Later that afternoon in Downtown Seattle ***

The marchers were all lined up, and starting the march when a huge explosion rocked the area. The people who were able to looked up and saw a huge plume of ash coming out of Mt. Rainier. Sammie’s final thought right before he was enveloped in the pyroclastic flow was “Oh Shit, this is gonna hurt!”

*** Later that afternoon, Antelope Valley, CA ***

“Mr. Andrews, I found a ranch right up the road. It’s abandoned, and has a fall-out shelter underneath the basement with plenty of food and water.”

“Good Job, Ricky, let’s gather the rest of the troop and get secured before the ash starts falling any harder.”

Ricky and Mr. Andrews blew 3 times on their whistles, waited 1 minute, and blew 3 times again - their whistle call for “Rally here”. Slowly the mixed group of teenagers walked back to where Scoutmaster Bob Andrews and Eagle Scout candidate Ricky Hernandez were standing. They were Explorer Scouts on a Desert hike when the warning came over the radio. Their van broke down 5 miles east of there, and they started hiking and checking out ranches for suitable shelter. Scoutmaster Andrews explained what they were looking for. “We need good overhead cover, water, food, air, and enough space to sleep, eat and use the bathroom with some comfort. Any place you find food or water, but not enough shelter, get some help, and carry what you can. When you locate a good shelter, come back to me on the road, and we’ll rally everyone. You need to work fast, because the ash will start falling heavier and heavier, and once it’s a couple of feet thick, we won’t be able to walk anymore.”

Once everyone was assembled, Ricky led them to the ranch he had found up the road. Scoutmaster Andrews would have liked something bigger, but this basement shelter was the entire width of the building, well equipped with plenty of food, water, a pretty nice air filtration system, a propane powered generator to charge the batteries that ran the low-power DC lights and water pump. It even had a small bathroom with a commode and a stand-up shower. Bob knew that out here it was tied into a septic tank, and he hoped the water was from an artesian well. Between what food they had scavenged from other ranches, plus what they had there, they should be OK for 6-12 months if they limited their food intake to 1 meal per day. Looking around, Bob spotted a CB and a 50-watt mobile 2-meter ham radio connected to a large deep-cycle battery, and hoped it was fully charged. It was kind of pointless to call for help right now, so he decided that they’d shelter here, and hope the ash would settle down before their food ran out.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 21

*** Later that Same day near Mt. St. Helens, Washington ***

Kenneth Mason drove his brand-new Dodge Ramcharger to Swift Reservoir and backed down the boat ramp at 0600 that morning, like he did 3 times a week for the last couple of years. “Good thing I like fishing, or I’d get bored with retirement” was Ken’s favorite saying. He received a lump-sum retirement offer from his employer, and took it. His house was paid off, his kids were grown, and his wife had died a couple of years ago in a traffic accident. The license plate bracket on his Dodge said “Fishin’ Fool” and several bumper stickers included such nuggets as “The worst day fishing is better than the best day at work!” When he finally got the trailer in the water, he got out, set the chocks behind the wheels of the truck, and waded into the cold water to back the boat off the trailer and beach it while he parked the truck and trailer. He started the 25 horsepower Evinrude motor, and backed the 15 ft Alaskan Smokercraft off the trailer. Once he had it beached, he walked over to the truck, removed the chocks, and drove back up the ramp to park it in his parking spot. As a joke, the manager of the reservoir had Ken’s name painted on his favorite parking spot the last time they painted the lot. Everyone thought it was funny, but no one parked in “Ken’s spot”.

Ken knew the reservoir like the back of his hand, and was hoping to finally catch a record 7 pound Kokanee. He’d caught several 5 -pounders, but the record had eluded him. Today he knew he could catch the record. The conditions were prefect, and he had his favorite lure and fresh line on the reel. He motored over to his “secret fishing hole” and started trolling with a wedding ring spinner and white corn for bait. Several hours later, he felt a bite, and waited a few seconds, then set the hook. He fought the fish for over an hour since he was using light tackle to make sure a 7-pound Kokanee would be a record. Finally he got the fish to the surface, carefully reached out with his bare hand, grabbed the fish by the tail and hauled it aboard. He was busy taking the hook out, and just confirmed the fish’s weight at 7 pounds 6 ounces when a ominous “Boom” echoed behind him. He turned around, and Mt. St. Helens had blown her top for the second time in 50 years! The lake was only 7 miles away from the summit, so Kent knew that running was pointless, so he watched Death come pouring down the mountainside in the form of a massive Pyroclastic Cloud. He had enough time to say a quick prayer, then the lake, boat, trees, and Ken were destroyed in an instant by superheated gasses and ash in the pyroclastic flow.

*** Later that day, somewhere about 20 miles west of Grass Valley, CA***

The wave swept over their raft, picking it up and throwing it forward. Unknown to either of them, the drag caused by towing Larry was what saved their lives, or the boat would have been pitched forward by the wave, where they would have overturned, swamped and drowned. Instead, Larry acted as a sea anchor, keeping the back of the boat in tight to the wave, and they surfed it downstream until it ran out of steam as the riverbed widened. With the wave spent, and the boat floating safely, Melissa checked on her two kids, who were crying hysterically, but otherwise OK. Fearing what had happened to Larry, she found the rope that attached Larry to the raft and pulled frantically. Larry’s unconscious body floated to her side. Melissa screamed, and started mouth to mouth resuscitation. After what seemed an eternity, but was only maybe a couple of minutes, Larry sputtered, coughed up a bunch of water, and took a deep breath. Melissa cried, held her husband, and paddled like mad for the nearest shore. She jumped out, beached the boat, then got Larry ashore and comfortable, then checked on her kids. Larry was breathing OK, so he started making a fire in case he was suffering from hypothermia, then got his wet clothes off, and got him into a Mylar sleeping bag next to the fire. She held him until he fully regained consciousness, praying her husband would live.

*** Later that day, near Winnemucca, NV ***

Martha was in the “storm shelter” waiting for Herbert when the door opened, and the ash-covered form of her husband staggered inside, fighting for breath. Martha helped him get off the ash-covered coveralls, cleaned his face as best as she could, and wheeled the emergency bottled oxygen over to him, made him sit down at the table, gave him the nasal cannula, set the flow for 3 liters per minute, and watched him breathe for 5 minutes until his color returned, and his breathing was less labored.

“Herbert - that was the dumbest thing you’ve ever done - you know anything like dust or pollen makes your emphysema worse! Now sit here and get your breathing under control, or I’ll make you take a Nebulizer treatment.”

Martha was a retired nurse, and Herbert was a retired hard rock miner with a minor case of silicosis. As long as he took it easy, took his meds, and wore the proper protective gear when he was around dust or pollen, he was fine. This time he ran out to save the herd without thinking, and nearly paid for his haste with his life. Herbert had designed their shelter based on Midwest designs for tornado shelters where the occupants could get buried in, and made the outer door to open outward, counterbalanced it, and mounted it flush with the ground on a 45-degree slant with 4 huge bolts that slid into the steel frame to hold the door securely. At the bottom of the 20-foot staircase was a huge pit and a steel grate, so any debris on the door would fall through the grate and fill the pit instead of block the door. The inner door was upright and opened inward with 8 1" bolts and a locking wheel like a bank vault. He constructed a Sally Port between the staircase and the inner door by offsetting the staircase and inner door by 10 feet, and incorporating a double-ninety degree bend to trap any fallout that made it through the outer door in the corridor. 1 security feature that his shelter had that most of the Midwestern ones didn’t was the steel grates that covered the corridor could be charged to over 100,000 volts by flipping a switch. If anyone touched the metal walls or the door when the grate was energized, they’d ground themselves and would get blasted out of their boots.

Once he recovered, Herbert showed Martha some hidden features of their shelter, including the Armory.

“It’s a good thing you didn’t show this to me until now, or I would have known you were nuts - what are you planning on doing, starting WWIII?”

“Dear, need I remind you we live along a prime invasion route. If there was a nuclear exchange, and the Chinese decided to invade while we were recovering, we’d need all the firepower we could muster to survive. Also, what if something like this happened, and thousands of starving people descended on our ranch, willing to kill us for the little bit of supplies we have?”

“Why would they do that?”

You’ve lead a sheltered life Martha. Remember when I did that tour in Vietnam?”

“Vaguely, we were both much younger then.”

“Well let me tell you - desperate people will do desperate things to survive, including killing and possibly eating us to survive another day. Also, if law and order fail, the Criminal Element will soon be on the loose, looting pillaging and raping because that’s what they do best. They don’t know how to live as decent citizens, and without the restraining hand of the law to stop them, they do as they please. Hopefully you remember everything I taught you about shooting a rifle, because I can’t defend this place by myself.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then why in God’s Name did we go into this shelter? We could have just sat outside and died! You had it too easy growing up in an affluent neighborhood, where the police would come every time you called, the trash was always picked up, and nobody really did anything to harm anyone else, and if they did they were sent to jail or prison for a long time. Well, let me tell you - the trash won’t get picked up anymore, the police won’t come when you call, and if the place catches fire, you better be prepared to put it out yourself.”

“You’re such a Gloom and Doomer!”

“No dear, just a realist! I knew that the party couldn’t last much longer, and something somewhere had to break. Fortunately for us, it was a distant set of volcanoes and earthquakes that brought reality crashing back down. Life as we know it has changed, at least for our lifetimes.”

“I want my old life back!”

“That’s gone forever, you either adapt or die, and frankly I’d rather live even if we have to step back to the 1800's than die. I need you and want you to live, so you’re going to have to come up with a reason to want to live. Maybe you can use your nursing skills to save some lives after the worst of this is over.”

Martha brightened appreciably when Herbert told her that - she thought she’d spend the rest of her life in this cramped shelter eating MRE’s and waiting for the end.

*** Early the Next Morning, near Antelope Valley, CA ***

Once everyone had a good night’s sleep, they were feeling better, and started exploring the shelter that would be their home until the ash fall slowed down enough to allow them to travel. Bob was impressed that the 8 teenage Explorer Scouts had started inventorying their supplies shortly after they got up. It was an evenly mixed group of boys and girls, and the lowest ranking Explorer had just earned his Star Scout rank, and he had 4 Eagle Scout candidates in his troop. They were as well prepared as they could be, and came from rural families, so they were used to hard work. Ricky wasn’t only an Eagle Scout candidate, but Valedictorian at his high school with a 4.0 grade point average. He was also a natural leader, and right now the other scouts were looking to him for leadership. Bob took a minute to reflect on what had happened, and the fact that his family, and the families of his scouts were now probably dead when the Long Valley Caldera let go. They only survived by being far enough South from the caldera to escape the worst of the eruption. They heard on the radio that the snowpack on the Sierras had melted almost instantly from the hot gasses, and they were pretty sure that their small town on the western foothills of the Sierra would be buried under hundreds of feet of mud. They were going to have to survive for quite a while with what they had in their packs, their survival knowledge, and what they could scavenge.

Ricky broke Bob’s reverie by telling him he found a locked cabinet. In a basement shelter, that could only mean 1 thing - gun cabinet! Bob asked if anyone knew how to open it, and Ricky sheepishly raised his hand, and admitted that he wasn’t always the squeaky clean kid he appeared to be, and his buddies in his old East LA gang had shown him how to pick locks and break into cars. Bob told him to go ahead - their survival was depending on any skills they had regardless of how they acquired them. Ricky spotted a large paper clip, bent it in half, bent a couple of funny shapes into it, and used them to pick the lock of the cabinet. 5 minutes later, the door was open, and Bob was standing there open-mouthed. Whoever owned this ranch was really into guns and rifles. He had a Remington 7mm Magnum with a really nice Leupold scope, an AR-10T with a Redfield high-magnification scope, 2 Match-grade AR-15's with the heavy barrel and the flat top receiver and a target scope mounted onto a rail. Behind that was some second line equipment including a scoped 8mm Mauser, 2 SKS’s, and a Mini-14 with a folding stock. On the top were several .45acp pistols including a nice Kimber, a Para-Ord, and 4 Glocks. Bob was curious about the Glocks, but figured that they were second-line equipment like the rifles that he could give to neighbors to arm themselves and not take much training to get up to speed.

In the bottom of the cabinet was a box full of military manuals, including FM 7-10 “THE INFANTRY RIFLE COMPANY”, FM 23-10 “SNIPER TRAINING”, FM 3-06-11 “URBAN WARFARE”, and several other books including medical manuals, and the Anarchist Cookbook. Bob wondered what that was doing in there, then he realized that whoever owned this place before was anticipating the possibility of guerrilla warfare, or was a member of one of those Patriot Militias he read about. When he read the inventory sheet Ricky handed him, he was sure he was a member of a militia. All the first aid supplies were in large enough quantities to serve a field hospital, or at least an aid station, and he had way more ammo than he needed for his guns, plus reloading supplies to make even more. At the very least, all the reading material should keep everyone occupied until they could come out in a couple of months.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 22

*** Early the next morning, somewhere 20 miles west of Grass Valley, CA ***

Larry woke up at first light, and wished he hadn’t. He felt like someone had stuffed him in a gunny sack and beat it with a baseball bat all afternoon. Every time he breathed something hurt. He knew his ribs were bruised, and by slowly moving his arms and legs and wiggling his fingers and toes, he realized his arms and legs weren’t broken, but he was going to have an interesting set of bruises for a while. When he moved, Melissa stirred, and seeing Larry was awake and alive, wrapped him in a bear hug. Larry barely stifled a scream of pain, and realizing her husband was hurt, she let go quickly. Turning to her kids, she was grateful they were sleeping peacefully.

“You Ok Larry?”

“My ribs... think they’re bruised or broken - don’t touch.”

Melissa could barely hear him over the noise of the river, but understood he had hurt his ribs. She opened one of the river runner bags, took out an air mattress, inflated it, and helped him lay down on the much more comfortable surface. It was worth the agony of moving, because as soon as his body settled on the air mattress, he felt much better. She removed his fanny pack to make him even more comfortable, and was amazed that his Glock 21 had survived the trip. The Kydex holster was scratched, but the gun didn’t look worse for the wear, and the magazine was still seated. She took it out of the holster, field stripped it, took out the cleaning kit and ran the enclosed bore brush down the barrel to clean the dirt out of the barrel, wiped off the rest of the parts, lubricated it with a couple of drops from the small bottle of CLP and reassembled it. Before she put the magazine back in, she racked the slide and made sure everything worked. Finally she replaced the magazine and stuck the gun back in the holster and turned to check on her kids. They were finally awake, and needed to go to the bathroom. She pointed out a nearby tree, and told them to go ahead and water it, but not to go any further away from her. 5 minutes later, they were back, and Melissa gave them a bar of hotel soap, and told them to wash their hands. They cleaned up in a nearby quiet pool, and came back to the fire. She took some oatmeal out of their kit, and made a pot for the 4 of them. Larry was hurting so bad that he didn’t dare move his arms to feed himself, so Melissa fed him some oatmeal, and 4 Advil. He went to sleep shortly after that, but before he did, he told Melissa to keep the fire burning, and to wear his fanny pack. If someone approached them and she didn’t trust them, she should protect herself and the kids by any means necessary.

Melissa was stunned, she’d never fired the Glock in anger before, or even pointed it at someone. Defending the family had always been Larry’s job. Suddenly she realized Larry couldn’t lift a finger in his current condition, and it was up to her to defend them. She took the Glock out, cycled the action, and topped the magazine from the ziploc bag full of ammo Larry had in his kit. When she finished, she carefully reholstered the Glock, and checked on her kids. They were looking at her with wide eyes, so she explained that Daddy wasn’t feeling good, and he told her to make sure everyone was safe. She told them to go find some pieces of wood on the ground so they could keep the fire burning. With all the driftwood deposited by the flood, that wasn’t too hard to do. They brought back armloads of wood, and she chopped the larger branches to a more convenient size using their Gerber hatchet. She built the fire into a signal fire, in case someone was looking for survivors.

*** 0900 the same morning, near Winnemucca, NV ***

Herbert and Martha got out of bed, used the bathroom, then started planning what they were going to do for the next couple of weeks until the ash stopped falling. Martha had stored plenty of crafts for her to do, and her favorite Bible. Herbert had brought down a box of books, a checker board, a pack of legal pads and pencils in case he felt like writing a journal, and a deck of cards. Martha started breakfast. She took several minutes to check out the pantry, and wished Herbert had consulted with her when he made up the pantry. All he had were long-term storage foods in cans that had been nitrogen packed. She wasn’t used to cooking with dehydrated foods, so she asked Herbert for help. He showed her a notebook with recipes that used the dehydrated food, along with rehydration instructions. She decided that the easiest thing to make for breakfast would be pancakes and eggs using the scrambled egg powder, which looked like it was the easiest to use. She started the propane stove, got her cast iron griddle hot, added a little oil to the surface, and while it was getting hot, she mixed the batter, and added the right amount of water to the egg mix, and let it sit to rehydrate.

When the griddle was smoking hot, she added a small ladle full of pancake batter on one side, then did it again on the other. The griddle was just big enough to make 2 pancakes at a time, which was OK for them, they didn’t eat that many anyway. In a small Teflon pan, she heated some butter, and added the egg mixture and seasoned it well. As the eggs started to set and cook, she was pleasantly surprised that they behaved just like regular scrambled eggs. Minutes later, breakfast was ready. Herbert set the table, and they had pancakes with real maple syrup and scrambled eggs for breakfast, and a pot of coffee they had staying hot on the stove. Herbert said grace, and they ate quietly. When breakfast was over, Martha took out her bible, and Herbert pulled out a favorite ranching magazine, and they sat down to read.

*** 0800 the same morning, near Antelope Valley, CA ***

As soon as everyone was up, they started breakfast, and checked the roster for showers. They didn’t have the fuel for everyone to shower every day, so they agreed to let the girls shower every day, and the guys could skip a day between showers since they weren’t working up a sweat. The Girls were told to limit their showers to two minutes each. They started complaining, and Bob told them it was either two minutes each day, or two minutes every other day like the guys. They piped right down after that. Once the showers were finished, breakfast was served. When everyone was finished eating, they cleaned the dishes, and checked the roster for their daily assignments. They cleaned the shelter top to bottom, washed clothes and hung them up to dry before anyone sat down to read or anything else. Bob called a meeting in the central room when they were finished.

“Ok, gather round. I’ve been reviewing these books he had stashed and come to the conclusion that life as we knew it ended when the Long Valley Caldera blew its top. I’m not going to sugar coat it - you’re probably the only surviving members of your families, and you need to learn how to defend yourselves, how to shoot, and how to act as an organized team as we move further west once the ash clears. I’m going to make reading assignments, and we’re going to quiz each other on this. We need to know this cold, it might save our lives out there. Any questions?”

“Who gets what rifle?”

“I’ll assign weapons based on shooting scores. Anyone who doesn’t think they could look someone in the eye when they shoot them, let me know right now, and I’ll assign you the short-range weapons. I need 3 long-distance shooters that can take out a threat with 1 shot, and 2 medium range shooters that are good with scopes. The rest of you will be the cleanup committee and get whatever gets past the long range shooters.”

One of the girls raised her hand “Mr. Andrews, I don’t know if I can shoot anyone.”

“Ok Diana - let me lay things out for you. Civilization as we knew it is gone, maybe for good.

1) Anyone you see could be a possible threat.

2) Women are going to be at a premium - men will fight and die over them.

3) Some men won’t care whether you want to have sex with them or not.

4) In the event we’re attacked and defeated, you could be either raped and killed, or raped and taken prisoner for more abuse later.

5) The only way to prevent #3 and #4 from happening is to kill them first.”

Diana and the other two girls huddled together shaking at the images in their minds. Ricky was sitting next to them, and protectively wrapped his arms around them. He whispered to them “Diana, don’t worry, as long as I’m alive, I won’t let that happen to you, but I need your help. Can you try to learn how to shoot?”

Diana wiped a tear from her eyes and nodded. Ricky tenderly kissed her on the forehead then got up to speak privately with Scoutmaster Andrews.


“Mr. Andrews, let’s go slow about the idea of shooting people for now - let’s try to get the girls interested in the first aid stuff first, then when the ash clears, we can teach them how to shoot.”

“OK Ricky - I think I overplayed my hand. You know I was in Desert Storm II?”

“I remember something about that - what was it like?”

“Hell on earth - the damn Iraqis used mines and improvised explosives to slow us down, kill or maim us. Most of the men in my patrol were wounded at 1 time or another by IED’s or mines. We’ll have to be careful out there.”

“OK, let me know what you want me to do.”

Ricky walked back, and they were passing out manuals. He made sure the girls got the first aid manuals first. They spent the day reading the manuals and playing games when they weren’t cleaning and organizing. Dinner was usually chilli or a pot of rice and beans. A couple of times a week, Bob opened one of their limited cans of SPAM and made a special dinner or breakfast.

After dinner that night, Bob fell asleep and was dreaming about how they got where they were. The Lakeshore, CA Explorer Scouts were camping in the desert between Edwards AFB and Fort Irwin, heard the warning on the radio, and packed up quickly as Big Bear erupted. Once it stopped, he knew the safest direction was through the ash west into Los Angeles because the USGS had issued a warning about Mammoth Lake, which was right next door to their community of Lakeshore, about 40 miles northeast of Fresno, CA. There was nothing to their east but open desert, with little or no fresh water or shelter. They loaded up the van, and made it southwest on 395 as far as Hesperia when a CHP cruiser blocking the road detoured them west toward Pinion Hills, saying the road ahead was blocked by a lava flow. They got gas in Hesperia, and drove as far as they could, looking for a route West away from the ashfall, which was getting heavier by the hour. Everyone was wearing a bandana over their mouth and nose, and the windows were rolled up in the van despite the suffocating heat. Scoutmaster Andrews and Ricky Henderson were checking the map as they drove, and located the Angeles Crest Highway that went through the Angeles National Forest. They made it to the road right as the engine gave up the ghost. They still had gas in the tank according to the gauge, and Ricky told Mr. Andrews that the carburetor probably ingested too much ash and couldn’t breathe, which would prevent the car from running. Even if they removed the air filter, they’d only get another couple of miles before the ash destroyed the engine. With the ash getting heavier, they weren’t in a good position to do a roadside repair, even if they could fix it, because opening the air cleaner under those conditions would just allow more ash to get into the carb and make things worse.

Bob made an executive decision that would later prove to be the one that saved their lives, and ordered them to abandon the vehicle, taking everything they could carry that was even remotely useful. He reminded everyone that they needed to protect their airways, and they all took their bandanas off, smacked them on their thighs which knocked the dust off. Everyone was wearing sunglasses, eyeglasses, or goggles, whatever they had available. Still they were getting ash in their eyes, and they stopped more than once and wash someone’s eyes with Normal Saline from their kit. As they cleaned out the van, they distributed the load between their backpacks and started hiking up the road. Bob told them to check out every ranch on the road, and if they found an abandoned one, to stop and check it out to see if it had an emergency shelter with enough food and water for all 9 of them for up to a year. They paired off into teams and started walking up the road. Some ranches were occupied, but couldn’t take them in. They did allow them to take as much water as they could carry, and they filled their canteens and water carriers every chance they could. Several gave them food and water. Each night they found a ranch that gave them permission to camp in their field, and they pushed on the next morning heading West on the Angeles Crest Highway. They didn’t find a suitable abandoned ranch until almost a week later, when they found 1 that later turned out to be 1 of Larry’s neighbors who was gone too.

Bob woke the next morning feeling poorly, so he took a pill from his dwindling supply of heart medicine, thinking to himself “I’m too old for this Sh#t!” Years ago, the Army discovered Bob had heart problems in a routine physical that were bad enough to get him medically discharged from the Army and get a small disability pension that paid his rent, food, and medical bills. He spent his free time as an Explorer Scoutmaster since he was single and didn’t have any children of his own. He enjoyed working with Teenagers, and related well to them. Over the years, he had formed friendships with the scouts. The local scouting district awarded him the Outstanding Scoutmaster award several years ago when he had 3 Eagle Scouts in his troop. Now he had 4 Eagle Scout candidates, but when things went Kablooey, they were pretty sure they’d never receive their Eagle badges. Bob explained to them that they now had a higher calling, and needed to help him make sure the troop survived.

Ricky and the other candidates understood in that instant their lives had changed forever. They were all from Rural families that hunted, fished, and camped on a regular basis, so they were comfortable outdoors. The scenario they were facing was so new to them that Scoutmaster Andrews had to sit them down on a regular basis and explain things to them when he saw them going into shock. It wasn’t physical shock, like you’d treat someone for, but psychic shock, or shell-shock, and they needed a head-check every now and then to keep them focused on what they needed to do to survive. Over the weeks in the shelter, they read all the manuals, and learned quickly. They had zero practical knowledge since they couldn’t go outside yet and practice. Bob decided that he’d fix that once the ash stopped falling.

*** Bret’s house in the Angeles National Forest ***

They tried to keep busy during the enforced confinement. Bret made up a duty roster to keep everyone as busy as possible. Jeremy and Natalie were assigned keeping the steam generator full of wood in the morning, and check on the Tilapia and hydroponic system while they were there. Allen used the Bobcat to clean out the horse corral every morning, and spread clean hay for the horses while Veronica, Margie and Nancy took care of the horses, chickens and pigs. Bret, Brad and Bear were assigned the toughest job of keeping the ash off the solar panels as much as possible, and other outside cleanup chores. 2 weeks later, the ash fall slowed enough that Bret decided to send everyone out to check on their houses and clean off their roofs. He had plenty of brooms, rope and ladders for everyone, and the couples worked as teams, with the men sweeping, tied off by a rope draped over the other side of the roof, with their wives belaying them on the opposite side. Their wives literally held their husband’s lives in their hands! It took the whole day, but everyone came back reporting their roofs were still intact. Allen was holding onto Veronica and kissing her, so Bret asked him what happened. “I slipped on the roof, and if it weren’t for Veronica sitting down on the other side belaying me, I would have fallen off the roof and seriously hurt myself.”

Bret laughed in spite of himself, and said “I guess that’s one way to make you trust your wife!” Allen realized his dad was teasing him - he trusted Veronica with his life already. He had to admit that having her hold onto the rope that kept him from falling definitely made him appreciate her even more. Kelly was teasing Brad, claiming that he either needed to lose weight, or they needed a tractor to tie off to the next time he cleaned off the roof. Bret laughed, thinking how much fun Kelly had belaying Brad. She weighed maybe 120 pounds soaking wet, and on a good day Brad tipped the scales at right around 300 pounds. The Sons of Satan named him well when they called him Moose! Gloria and Jim had an uneventful trip, cleared the ash off their roof, and checked the interior - there wasn’t as much ash as last time, probably because they had more time to prep their house, and knew what to do differently when they cleaned their house last time and noticed cracks in windows and doors they didn’t see before. This time they sealed the house practically air tight, and there wasn’t much ash inside the house, but the outside was covered almost 6 inches deep. Bret hoped the ash wouldn’t accumulate much faster than that - and especially that it wouldn’t rain while the houses were covered with ash, since volcanic ash could absorb up to 10 times it’s weight in water.

Bret put the cleaning supplies up, and they gathered in Bret’s house for dinner. Every Sunday they got together for a Worship Service and dinner, which helped keep them together as a community, and kept them caught up with everyone’s lives. After dinner, they retired to the living room to talk and play games. Later that evening they went back out the door, walked under the enclosed walkway, and went to bed in their new shelter.

Fleataxi

 

[Fleataxi]

Chapter 23

The next morning, Brad had a brilliant idea, and sat down with Leroy to design a command-detonated anti-vehicle mine. He had several pounds of C-4 and several spare electrical detonators since he only used 1 per mine instead of the recommended 2. He got an idea from the Claymores to build an improvised anti-vehicle mine, and when he told Leroy, he knew it would work.

“Leroy, I’ve got an idea for a command detonated anti-vehicle mine. We’ve got several pounds of C-4 that we really don’t need for anything else, since a couple of turns of Primacord wrapped around the truck of a tree will drop it as well as a chunk of C-4. I saved some electrical detonators and I wired some spare radios to act as detonators.”

“Sounds like a plan - the Iraqis were pretty good with IED’s and I remember some of their designs were pretty primitive, but worked great. What did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking I had a 12x12 sheet metal box, a couple of 1/4" steel plates and a bunch of quart jars full of miscellaneous nuts and bolts. I’m sure I’ve got a big jar of epoxy cement somewhere.”

“I get it, kind of like an oversized Claymore mine, but mounted so the blast goes upward - Cool!”

“If I use a pound of C-4, that gives us 3 pounds left, plus the Primacord. I imagine just the C-4 would wreck anybody’s day. If we add a plate full of large nuts and bolts on top, that should get the occupants as well. I need to get over to my place as soon as the ash stops, and put this together. Since it’s command-detonated, it will be perfectly safe to drive over, until we decided to detonate it - but that means someone will have to have eyes on the mine to successfully detonate it as a vehicle drives over it.”

Between Leroy and Brad, they sketched out a workable design. Leroy knew from his days in the USMC how a Claymore mine was put together, and based their design on that. They’d have to be careful fitting the lid. The bomb should be waterproof, or at least water resistant to make sure it would fire after being buried for a year or more.

***That same day, near Antelope Valley***

CREEEEEK...GROAN!!!

“What was that?” Ricky yelled at Scoutmaster Andrews.

“Probably nothing good - I remembered reading something about how much moisture volcanic ash could absorb. That rain shower last night might have overloaded the roof. We need to get out of here right now, and I’ll clean off the roof while you and the rest of the Scouts belay me with 2 ropes.”

They climbed out of the shelter, wearing their bandanas and goggles. Bob could see the roof sagging, and knew that they had to get that roof cleared off right now before it collapsed any further and buried the entrance to their shelter. They quickly tied two ropes to Bob’s waist, and taking a grain shovel, he quickly climbed the extension ladder. When he reached the top, he threw the rope over. He’d already told both belay teams that 1 tug meant tension, and 3 tugs meant slack. Once he was sure the other side had the rope, he pulled on it, and the rope went taut. He tugged 3 times on Ricky’s rope, and he got some slack so he could move. He climbed carefully onto the roof, and started shoveling ash off the roof. Unknown to the rest of the Scouts, Bob ran out of his medicine a while ago, but wasn’t symptomatic because he wasn’t exerting himself. Now between shoveling, and breathing hard through the clogged bandana, Bob could feel the onset of an Angina attack.

He knew that he needed to get the roof cleared off for the kids to have a chance to survive, so he ignored his symptoms and kept working, and got most of the roof cleared off before a crushing chest pain reminded him why the docs told him to take it easy and take his meds. As he fell unconscious to the roof, Ricky saw him fall and knew something was wrong, and ran around the other side, and yelled at them to lower Bob down NOW. As he ran back around, he could see Scoutmaster Andrews’ body hung up on the gutter. He grabbed the ladder, set it next to him, freed his body and guided it to the ground, where he immediately began CPR. As soon as they saw what had happened, the other scouts gathered around, and began 2-man CPR, knowing that they might be working on a dead man. Almost 10 minutes later, Diana came running around the corner carrying a medical bag. None of them had any medical training past First Responder, so all they could do with the bag was to use the stethoscope to listen to Bob’s heart and what Ricky heard made him break down and cry - there was absolutely no heartbeat when he put it to Bob’s chest. Just to make sure, he put it to his own chest, and clearly heard his heartbeat. Next he felt Bob’s neck for the jugular vein, and he had no pulse. Ricky broke down crying, and closed Scoutmaster Andrews’ eyes. The rest of the scouts immediately knew their beloved Scoutmaster was dead, and they were on their own. They gathered together in a group hug for mutual support, then got a tarp and some shovels and buried Bob’s body. Ricky read from the Bible, then they went inside.

The next morning, they debated what to do - they were low on food, and were totally on their own. Ricky told them there was a CB and a Ham radio in the shelter, and the last time they were out, he checked the antennas, and they were still connected. They agreed to use the radios, and voted that Ricky would use them, since he had the most mature-sounding voice of all of them. Ricky knew if 1 of the girls got on the radio, it might attract the wrong kind of attention.

First they tried the ham radio, and had no luck. Ricky remembered that a 2-meter radio, which was what they had, only worked by line of sight, but CB frequencies behaved more like AM radio, and might get over the mountain and reach someone who could help.

Reaching for the microphone, he flipped the channel selector to Channel 9 - the CB emergency frequency and made sure the power was on. “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!” He repeated the call 5 times when he heard a man reply “Go ahead Mayday, you’re scratchy but readable.”

“Thank God someone heard us. This is Ricky Hernandez with the Lakeshore Explorer Scouts Troop 15. Our scoutmaster’s dead, and we’re just about out of food.”

“How many are there?”

“8 total, we’re all teenagers”

“Everyone OK?”

“Just scared.”

“How much longer can you hold out - how much food do you have?”

“Maybe a couple of weeks. If we eat all of it, we can’t hike out - there’s almost a foot of ash on the ground and it’s slow going.”

“Where you from Ricky?”

“Lakeshore California.”

“Oh My God - how’d you survive?”

“We were camping near Edwards AFB when Big Bear let go. We heard the warning about Mammoth mountain and decided to head West on 395. We made it as far as Hesperia when the CHP diverted us North, and we found the Angeles Crest Highway went west. Scoutmaster Andrews decided the safest route out of the ash fall was to the west, and we almost made it. The Van died right as we started climbing the hill, and we’ve hiked about 5 miles since then.”

“Ok, don’t say anything else. I know about where you are. Stay off the air, and I’ll call you back on this channel in an hour.”

“Maggie, get everyone together in the living room - right now!”

Once everyone was in the Living Room, Bret told them what had happened.

“I need to tell everyone something. I made contact with an Explorer Scout troop from Lakeshore California. If anyone doesn’t know, it’s in the western foothills of the Sierras, and probably got wiped out when Mammoth blew. Anyway, they made it to a ranch house near where Larry’s was, and their Scoutmaster died, and they’re low on food. I need to know what you want to do.”

Nancy spoke first “I don’t know about you, but if they’re legitimate, I want to help. They’re probably the only surviving members of their families, and they probably won’t survive if we don’t help.”

Allen spoke up “Aren’t Explorer’s co-ed?”

“Normally - I get it, you were wondering if there would be any problems assimilating that many male teenagers?”

“Not exactly dad - I was more worried about the long-term survival of our community. It seems so far as we’ve traveled we’re the only thriving community, and we’re still way short on people, especially ones young enough to raise families. Without more kids, we’re eventually doomed. You said something about 8 Explorers - we’ve got enough room to easily add them, how about food and supplies?”

Everyone looked at Maggie - she hated it but it came down to “can we feed them and not starve ourselves?”

“We’ve got enough food stored for our existing population for 10 years, if we can grow more vegetables, and the chickens and pigs keep reproducing we should have enough meat. The only thing we’re going to run short of is grains. We can raise potatoes for starch, but eventually we’ll run out of grain to feed the horses. As far as supplies go, we could conserve more.”

Moose stood up “There’s no way I could just let a bunch of kids die - Adults maybe - but not kids. I’m willing to take the risk.” He looked down at Kelly, and her smile indicated she agreed with Brad.

“OK, now I’m going to need a show of hands - do we bring them here or not?”

Bret was grateful when all the hands in the room went up, even Zack and John’s.

“I guess that settles that - I want you to listen in to the conversation when I contact them, but don’t say anything until I tell you it’s OK. Let’s gather around the radio, and I’ll call them back.”

“Hello - Ricky, are you there?”

“Thank God - Yes whoever you are - I’m here!”

“We decided to come and get you.”

“Who’s We?”

Bret decided to risk it, and motioned Maggie to the microphone.

“Rick, this is Maggie, Bret’s wife. It’s OK. We’ve got family and friends staying with us, and more than enough room and food to take you all in - you said there was 8 of you, right?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“We’re pretty sure we know where you are. We’ll come and get you tomorrow, so make sure you’re by the radio around 9 o’clock tomorrow morning. We’ll be driving a big deuce and a half and a four-wheel drive diesel rock crawler called Babe. Don’t be alarmed by the machine gun on the truck - it’s for our protection. If you want to come out by yourself first to verify we’re who we say we are, that’s OK.”

“Thanks Ma’am - see you tomorrow at 9!”

“What was that all about?”

“I assumed you would want Brad’s machine gun mounted in case this was a trap. We’ll drive Babe with the Machine Gun, and Bear and Nancy will follow in the Deuce and a half if they agree.”

“What about Kelly and me?”

“Sorry Brad, but I think you’d scare them half to death!”

Everyone started laughing, knowing that Brad could look pretty menacing very easily.

Bear told Bret that they’d drive the deuce and a half, and Bret told them they would stay back a safe distance until he called and said the coast was clear.

The next morning, Brad had the M -60 fitted to a pintle mount on Babe. Bret was in a quandary - should Maggie drive or shoot? He finally decided he’d be a better shot with the gun, and there wasn’t any terribly difficult terrain between here and there that required any special driving skills, so he let Maggie behind the wheel of Babe, something that only happened twice before. He showed her how everything worked, what all the levers and switches were for. Before they mounted up, he had everyone put on the body armor and LBV’s. Bear and Nancy each had a M-16/M -203 combo, and their LBV was loaded with loaded magazines and grenades. Bret had already gone over the radio codes for this trip, and knew what to do if he heard something over the radio. They all had their 2-meter handi-talkies set to the same frequency, and hoped that Ricky’s compatriots weren’t on that frequency. Bret assumed they knew next to nothing about radios, so he set the radios to an unused simplex frequency that wasn’t near any of their local repeater frequencies, and made sure everyone’s power switch was set on LOW, which would give them about a 5-mile range.

Two hours later, they called Ricky - they were at the turn for Larry’s place. When Ricky heard them on the radio, Bret let go a blast on Babe’s air horns. Ricky said he heard them, and Bret suggested Ricky meet them by the road side. 5 minutes later, Bret spotted a young man wearing a poncho, goggles and a bandana. As far as Bret could see, he wasn’t openly armed. He nodded to Maggie, who put Babe in gear and drove up the corner. Ricky walked up, and stuck his hand out to shake Bret’s hand. “You must be Bret, I’m Ricky Hernandez. There’s 7 other Explorer Scouts in the basement of that ranch house.”

“Ricky, I don’t know how to ask you this without sounding like a creep, but how many girls are with you?”

“We’re a coed Explorer troop, I’m the oldest, and there’s 4 boys and 4 girls.”

“Thank God, we were afraid that you were just 8 teenage boys. The 4 girls improve our odds for long term survival.”

“Why’s that Bret?”

“The more unrelated couples you have, the less likely a community would suffer from in-breeding. Just in case we’re the only one’s left around here, and have to survive on our own, some more unrelated women greatly improve our odds.”

“Ok, I understand. You must be Maggie!”

Maggie reached over and shook Ricky’s hand. “We need to get you back to our place and out of this ash fall. If you want, we’ll come back later for anything you want to bring that can’t fit in the trailers or the back of the deuce and a half behind us.”

“The guy who owned this place must have been really into survival. He’s got guns, ammo, first aid supplies, food and stuff. I don’t know if we can bring it all today.”

“Let’s back the deuce and a half up to the basement door and get everybody and everything loaded quickly.”

Bret grabbed his hand held radio “Bear, All Clear.”

Moments later, a huge Army Surplus truck came driving up the road. Ricky hadn’t seen anything that big since MASH. Bear and Nancy got out, handed paper filter masks and goggles to anyone who needed one, and after introductions were made, Ricky told Bret “We’ve decided to stay with you guys, at least until this blows over.”

“Why, where are you going to go - Glendale’s a ghost town. I’ve been all over everything east of the 134 and it’s either deserted, flat as a pancake, or on fire. The earthquake did even more damage west of Glendale, and I doubt anyone within 10 miles of the coast survived the Tsunami.

“What Tsunami?”

“You said you were camping in the desert - Before Big Bear let loose, did you feel an earthquake?”

“Yeah, but we thought it was just another quake.”

“This was The Big One - the entire San Andreas Fault let go, resulting in an 8.5 plus quake, and most of the other fault lines in California let go as well. Several underwater landslides caused 100 foot tsunamis that flooded most of the coastal areas. What they didn’t wreck, Big Bear and Mammoth Mountain finished. Now it looks like Yellowstone might go too!”

“Holy Chit Bret! If that let go - it would be the End of the World as we know it!”

“Good thing Bear brought his REM CD!”

Ricky glanced at Bear who shrugged and gave him a sheepish grin.

“Besides that, we’ve heard rumors that FEMA is gathering up the survivors and putting them into camps, and get this - NOT letting them go!”

“Kind of like the “Roach Motel” - They Check in, but they don’t check out.”

“Exactly, except in this case, I hope they don’t feed them poisoned bait.”

“Ok I guess this means we’ll be staying a while.”

Ricky introduced everyone around, and they started packing the trailers full of stuff they were bringing with them. When Ricky came out staggering under the weight of a case of .223 ammo, Bret told him they had dollies to take care of that. He asked Ricky if they had checked out the ranch house. “Not Really Bret - we were kind of in a hurry to get into shelter and get out of the ash.” Bret decided to investigate, opened the front door lock with his electric lock pick, and Maggie and him went through the house. It was pretty much intact, and was a treasure trove of supplies. Bret called Bear on the radio, and said they’d concentrate on packing the house while everyone else stripped the basement shelter bare. Bret found some old moving boxes in a closet, and took advantage of them and packed them as full as possible. Later that afternoon, the Explorers started helping pack the house, and by 3:00pm, they were done. Bear told Ricky the ride home might be little harsh, since all they had for seats was a bench he set it the bed of the truck, which was packed to the top with stuff. They secured the load, opened a sleeping pad to sit on, and leaned up against the load to make themselves comfortable. Just to be safe, Bear tied 2 ropes to the stakes to act as a seat belt for everyone. They slid their legs under the first one right above the bench, and the second one was about waist high. They were packed into the truck like sardines, and Bear made sure everyone went to the bathroom before they left, and gave them a liter bottle of cold water and some sandwiches for the trip.

Fleataxi