JDY Fiction - Gettin' Hot

[Jerry D Young]

Gettin’ Hot

Larry wiped his forehead with a bandanna and then retied it around his neck. “Gettin’ hot,” he said, rather needlessly.

The three men working with him didn’t say anything. They just grunted in response and guided the heavy electrical transformer into position on the threaded studs so Larry could start the nuts and then begin tightening them.

There was a thump when the transformer made contact with the concrete platform. Larry had the first two nuts on the studs to lock it in place with practiced ease. When the supervisor saw that he made a signal to the truck crane operator. The hoisting line went slack and two of the men unhooked the lifting harness.

With the fourth man helping, Larry had the base of the transformer bolted down, the nuts torqued to specification quickly. Next came the process of hooking the transform up electrically, but that was for the line crew to handle.

Paul, the foreman of the six man crew, waved his guys over. They could all tell what he was going to say before he said it. “Got another one, don’t we?” Larry asked.

“Yeah,” Paul said. “Stow the gear and let the line crew do their thing.” He walked over to the foreman of that crew. “You got it now, Stan. I guess we’ll see you on the next one.”

“If we don’t all collapse from the heat,” replied Stan. “It’s hotter than Hades and supposed to get worse.”

“That’s why we’re blowing transformers all over the place. Air conditioning. Everybody that has it is running it full bore, trying to stay cool. Everyone that doesn’t is wishing they did and running all the fans they have in the house.”

“Ready, Paul!” called Larry, from beside the crew truck.

“See you Stan,” Paul said and headed over to get in the truck with the rest of his crew.


One of the men refilled the Igloo water cooler with ice and water while the crane truck removed the ruined transformer and picked another from the rapidly disappearing stock of spares at the yard. With the transformer securely strapped down, the crew headed for the next substation.


“Aw, man!” Larry said as he walked to his truck after the twelve hour shift. It was just after seven in the evening and the heat was as oppressive as ever. “I’m going home, take a cool shower and sit in front of the air conditioner,” he said, as the crew headed for their individual vehicles.

“What? And help blow another transformer?” asked one of the guys.

“I blow it, I’ll replace it,” Larry replied, with a bit of a lame laugh.

“Come on down to Clancy’s for a beer first,” suggested another.

“Nah. I’m trying to cut down,” Larry said. Amid the cat-calls about being a sissy, Larry entered the old truck. It fired right up. He flipped the AC on and turned the fan on high, readjusting the vents to blow directly on him.

He did just as he’d said, taking a bowl of ice cream to the living area of the apartment to eat it with the window air conditioner blowing on his damp body, bare but for a pair of undershorts.

Larry watched the news, sitting in the same chair. The weather was the news. Going to be another one hundred ten degree plus day in the area. Larry sighed. More overtime. Which meant more money, but he was spending a small fortune on electrolyte drink mix to add to the water he drank from the Igloos on the work trucks.

He went to bed at eleven that night. The temperature was still in the mid-nineties. It was the same when he got up the next morning and ninety-eight when he got to the Power Company yard at seven, dreading the work they would have to do that day. Just as he’d feared, it was a long, grueling day.

And there was no end in sight. The experts were saying that Global Warming had just passed a benchmark and the average temperatures around the world were up by five degrees and going up faster every day. The one thing they didn’t say was when it might stop.

It didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be winters. There would be. And cold ones in places. Though it added nothing to the sea level, the Arctic sea ice was melting. On the other hand the glaciers in the mountains around the Arctic Circle were shedding ice floes faster than they could be tracked. That did add to the rising sea levels.

It was even worse in the Antarctic. It was shedding not only floes, but whole ice shelves, several square miles in size. Each drop of water or piece of ice that left the land and entered the ocean raised the level ever so much.

Larry finally got a break from work. The power company ran out of replacement transformers. Though he had seniority and wouldn’t be laid off, Larry took the time, partly to let one of the men with a family have the work. He did it in part because he wanted to get away from the city and its interminable heat. It was as much as ten degrees hotter in the city than in the outlaying rural areas.

He had a special place to go, a place he’d found when hunting with his father years ago, his father’s father’s place. Larry’s GranPa’s land. It was Larry’s now, though it wasn’t worth much. It wasn’t close to the river. The Interstate had been built several miles over, and the town, with the Interstate going in where it did, shelved its expansion projects worked on for eight years in anticipation of having at least one Interstate intersection near the middle of town, if not two or even three intersections.

GranPa had farmed the land early in the last century, but had given up on the farming during the 1930’s when the Dust Bowl caused so much hardship for so many people. Despite the tough time, perhaps because of them, GranPa had not sold the land back then. It just wasn’t worth much.

And Larry’s Father felt much the same way. Perhaps it would make them rich one day, but for the time, paying the taxes on it was no hardship and he kept it in the family. It was only when the tax bill came in three years previously, not long after his father died, did Larry even think about it.

Still not worth much, Larry decided to keep it. He was just getting into prepping and having a place in the boondocks should be an advantage. Larry hadn’t taken any vacation for several years and had plenty coming. So, with the layoff that wouldn’t hurt his seniority, Larry decided to visit the place and see what might be made of it. He really didn’t remember much from when he’d hunted that one time so many years ago. They hadn’t seen anything, much less shot any game.

With the last check he received, Larry did some research on the internet, partly in various prep forums where he lurked, and in camping websites to determine the best gear he could afford for ‘roughing it’ on the property. The only thing he had remembered about the place was the house and small barn were falling down, even that long ago.

It was one-hundred-eleven degrees in the city when Larry left, driving his older model Dodge truck. It was one of the four-wheel-drive one-ton crew cab pickup trucks that the Power Company once owned and used as crew trucks. The company was rotating the light vehicles out about every three years back then, and Larry got it for dimes on the dollar of its real resale value since he was an employee. The company was keeping vehicles a lot longer now, due to the economy.

Larry had added a good high-rise bed cap to the eight foot pickup bed, with the intention of turning it into his bug-out-vehicle. He just hadn’t got around to it yet. More a lack of time and ideas than money. He’d been making money hand over fist ever since his ex-wife had taken off with one of his ‘friends’, and the weather had become so bad, summer and winter, that he had all the overtime he could work.

The temperature dropped perceptibly when Larry hit the Interstate and got out of the city proper. Even the suburbs had been hot. But the diesel engine in the truck had a good air-conditioning compressor and the system was in good shape, so Larry was nice and cool in the cab of the truck as the miles rolled under the tires.

Since the property abutted a National Forest, Larry stopped in the town nearest to it and got a topographical map from the Forest Service. Asking a few questions he finally got the answer of just which little section of the map was his, based on the description and coordinates that Larry had.

It was one of those ‘you can’t get there from here’ kind of things. Deciding to get some lunch before he took the roundabout route the Forest Ranger had suggested, Larry stopped at a diner near the Forest Service Offices.

A cheerful greeting was called out to him by the woman behind the register, as well as the waitress. He took a second, very appreciative look at the waitress. She was more than just good looking. She was a real stunner.

He caught the proprietary looks of a couple of the men in the diner and decided to leave the locals alone. Including the waitress. But he really never had a chance. She was at his table by the time he sat down and her friendly, open smile captured his heart.

“Meatloaf okay?” she asked, studying his face rather boldly.

“Well, I… Is that what you’d recommend?” Larry managed to say.

“Sure would. Everything is good, but the meatloaf is excellent. And on special, so it’s cheap.”

“I’ll have the meatloaf,” Larry said.

“Coffee, iced sweet tea…” It was the standard question, shortened slightly. Why say it all when everyone knew what it meant?

“Just water.”

“I’ll bring a pitcher. It’s still free and it is hot out there, isn’t it?”

“It certainly is. But it is a bit cooler here than in the city.”

“Getting away from the city heat for a few days, are you?” asked the waitress. Her left hand made several motions while she was speaking.

Larry looked over at the tall counter behind the serving counter when what apparently was the cook said, “One meatloaf blue plate, coming up.”

Larry looked at the waitress again. “Uh. Yeah. I’ve a… I have a little piece of property up by the National Forest I inherited. Thought I’d check it out.”

“The old Waterman place?” asked the waitress. She was now sitting down across from him at the table. Larry’s eyes went to the same two men that had given him the eye earlier. Now they were giving him the evil eye. But his eyes were drawn back to the waitress.

Her cheeks were dimpled as she smiled at him. “Don’t worry about Les and Grant. They are my self-appointed protectors here in the diner. Think they have a responsibility to protect me from outsiders, and myself.”

“Oh. Yes… Well… Waterman? As a matter of fact, that is the place I’m going to see. It was my grandfather Waterman’s farm. I’m Larry Waterman,” Larry said. He held out his hand.

“Kimmie Latrell,” the waitress said, taking Larry’s hand in a firm handshake for just a moment. “I’ll get that ice water.”

And before Larry could say anything else, she was walking toward the counter. Larry couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. She moved so smoothly, almost effortlessly.

Larry didn’t believe the ‘Sorry’ muttered by either Les or Grant as one of them bumped against his chair as they left the diner. But he was glad they were gone. He could concentrate on Kimmie. He had to admit, the way she had treated him was pretty much the way she treated everyone. She brought the water pitcher and a glass, but was gone immediately, to help an elderly couple take their seats. Both had walking canes and Kimmie was very solicitous of their needs.

It was only when the cook dinged the service bell that Kimmie left their table and went to get Larry’s Blue Plate Special and bring over to him. “Here you go, Larry. Enjoy. It really is very good. Flag me if you need something. Going to get busy here in a minute.”

Kimmie was right. There was a steady influx of customers as Larry ate the meatloaf. It was excellent. With a sigh, Larry finished up without finding an excuse to call Kimmie over to the table again. But she smiled at him and gave a little wave when he was headed for the door after he paid at the counter.

“Don’t be a stranger,” she called to him, cheering him up immensely.

The heat hit him like an anvil when he stepped outside. It had been verging on cold in the diner. “Geez!” Larry said and gingerly touched the door latch to the truck to open the door. It was almost hot enough to burn his fingers.

He left the door open while he started the engine and let the fan blow a little before he got completely into the truck. But after a couple of minutes of the AC going he settled himself in the driver’s seat and put the truck in gear.

Larry had to back track a couple of times until he was sure he was in the right place. He checked the features on the map against what he was seeing. “Yep. Here it is.” Leaving the map on the seat of the truck, Larry climbed out of the truck, pulling his ball cap firmly down on his head to shade his eyes. Even with the sunglasses he wore the sun was bright on the grass and trees. And what must have been the house and barn at one time, but were now simply piles of rotting lumber.

With a sigh, Larry began to look around. Though he’d never heard the sound before, the sound of a rattlesnake of some kind warned him away from the remains of the structures. Glad he had on his work boots, Larry traipsed over the property, his eyes drawn to one patch of bright green against the dull green and tans of semi cooked vegetation.

What he found surprised him. There was a spring flowing from beneath a rock outcropping on the highest point of the property, right where the National Forest ground began. There was an old welded wire fence between the head of the spring and the forest.

The difference between the two was obvious. The growth of trees on the property was somewhat smaller and not quite as thick of a stand as in the National Forest land. Larry took a closer look at some of the trees that were near the spring flow as it disappeared back into the ground in a soft spot of low ground, grown up heavily with brush.

Working his careful way around the tiny swamp, Larry discovered he was the owner of a nice orchard. He could tell by the look of the trees they were fruit and nut trees. Many of them weren’t in very good shape.

And there were several very large trees on his property there, too. From the bare ground under four of them he guessed that they might be black walnut trees. He’d read somewhere, sometime, that black walnuts had something in them that kept most grasses and other plants from growing beneath them.

The others, not quite as big, he was sure were pecan. “Or hickory nuts,” he muttered. He was going to have to get some reference books to figure out what was what. Following the fence that ran behind the orchard, Larry finally came back around to his truck.

He went past and walked the remainder of the perimeter. It was difficult to tell that the bulk of the property had once been crop land. It was now a forest. Larry realized he’d been very lax not bringing a water bottle with him. By the time he got back to the truck again his clothing was soaked with perspiration.

Larry dug out a bottle of water out of the cooler on floorboard of the rear passenger area of the truck cab and drank it down in a few swallows. He followed the first with a second, more slowly, as he looked slowly around, to get the big picture.

“It might not be much,” Larry decided, “But it’s mine.”

He thought about going back to the town to get a motel room rather than camping out on the property, considering the rattlesnakes and the heat. But bravado overcame the slight fear and he began to set up a camp on a relatively clear spot not too far from the spring.

As evening began to darken the skies, Larry prepared a Mountain House meal, using the tailgate of the truck as a table. Finally, just before dark, Larry dug a small hole, did his business, and then covered it back up.

He sprayed the inside of the tent with bug spray he’d barely remembered to bring, and settled himself inside, zipping the door up a few inches, but leaving the rest of the screened areas open for air circulation.

There wasn’t much of that until well after dark, when a slight breeze came up, cooling the tent down enough for Larry to finally fall asleep on top of his sleeping bag. Having not fallen asleep until the breeze during the night, Larry slept late. The heat woke him up and he quickly put on his boots.

He left the tent wearing just his shorts and the boots, carrying a washcloth and a towel. Again keeping a sharp eye out for snakes, Larry went over to the spring and dipped the washcloth in it. He shivered just a bit as he wiped himself down with the downright cold water, getting rid of the sweat from the day and night before. He didn’t even need the towel. A patch of skin was dry moments after he’d wiped it with the cold water.

Larry was tempted to drink right from the spring, but all the cautions he’d read about treating water came back to him and he decided to treat the water first. But feeling a bit ridiculous in just his shorts and boots, he went back to the tent and took out a fresh set of clothing from his duffel bag and put them on.

It was the work of only a few minutes to get breakfast ready, again on the lowered tailgate of the Dodge. After he ate, Larry took the shovel from the back of the Dodge, and headed for the spring.

There wasn’t much he could do about the little swamp right now, but he wanted a better look at where the spring came out of the ground. Some judicious use of the shovel cleaned out the grasses and other growths hanging down into the water. Larry discovered that the spring had been worked on and included a concrete spring box, with the wooden lid collapsed down into it.

When Larry finished clearing the spring box, he took some measurements and wrote them down. He’d get some lumber and make a new lid for the spring box. Even without the lid, the bottles of water Larry put down in the box became refreshingly cool to drink in only a few minutes.

For something to do, Larry continued to clean out the spring channel all the way to the marshy area where it disappeared. He wasn’t sure how much was simply evaporating, and how much was soaking into the ground, or if some of it was continuing its course back underground.

He worked slowly, but the day was another scorcher and he took frequent breaks to rest and drink water. Keeping his bottles in reserve, he used the filter he’d purchased as some of his camping gear and purified the water.

The unit was a purifier, but didn’t have an activated charcoal section like some, but the taste of the water was great without further filtration.

After he had a light lunch, he began to try to explore around the edges of the fallen buildings, but he ran into five snakes in the first few minutes, three of which were rattlesnakes. “So much for that idea,” Larry thought and decided to take a nap until it, hopefully, cooled off.

No such luck. Groggy with the heat two hours later, Larry gave up trying to sleep and decided to take a look around in the National Forest that bordered his property. With a bottle of the purified spring water in hand, Larry walked over to where a gate might or might not have been. There was no fence there, anyway.

Though shady, it was still hot in the forest. Making sure of his back trail so he wouldn’t get lost, Larry wandered around more or less at random. He had circled around one corner of the property when he found the brambles. There were huge clumps of the things in a large open area of the forest.

That was when his boots saved him. He stepped on a snake he didn’t see, and it struck him just above the ankle. But either the snake wasn’t poisonous, hadn’t erected its fangs, or they simply hadn’t penetrated the leather of his work boots.

He decided all of that later. At the moment it happened, he jumped away and, nearly falling in the process, made for the truck. That was when he discovered he wasn’t bit. But there were some marks on his boots. He wasn’t about to take them off to investigate further. “Time for this city boy to get back to civilization.”

He’d seen enough. Until the place was cleaned up, and the grass mowed around the large yard, and in the orchard, Larry had better things to do than get bitten by a poisonous snake. He would decide what to do with the overgrown crop fields later.

He took down his tent, carefully, and packed everything up. Larry finally retrieved his water bottles and put them in the cooler, his head on a swivel as he watched for more snakes. Then he wasted no time in leaving.

On the off chance that he would see Kimmie Latrell again, Larry stopped at the diner for supper. Sure enough she was there. She smiled at him and gave a wave when he entered. Feeling there was a foolish grin on his face, Larry quickly found a table and sat down, trying to control his grin.

It was only moments before Kimmie was at his table with a menu, pitcher of ice water, and a glass. “Still as hot out as it was earlier?” she asked.

“I’ll say. I’ve been a doubter about Global Warming, but this summer is changing my mind.”

“Yes, indeed. It’s the worst one my Grandmother can remember, even back to the thirties when it was so bad.”

Kimmie poured Larry a glass of the water and then stood with pen poised over her pad as he looked at the menu. “What would you recommend?” he asked, looking up to her face.

The dimples showed again when she grinned. “The spaghetti is always pretty good, but considering the heat, I’d suggest the Chef’s Salad. Nice and cool. Some ice cream for dessert.”

“I’ll have that. Blue Cheese dressing,” Larry said. He held up the menu and Kimmie took it after writing down the order.

It was only after Larry ate, slowly, first the Chef’s Salad, and then a dish of ice cream, did Kimmie come over and linger enough for them to have a short chat.

“How was the old home place, Larry? You find it okay?”

“Without too much trouble. Must say that there wasn’t much to look at. The old house and barn are just piles of rotting lumber. Loaded with snakes. Rattlers. I’m going to have to find someone to clean it up for me. I know there is no way to get a burn permit up there. It would be way too dangerous. And the fields are now a forest.

“Yes. There are open burn bans everywhere. The fire department here won’t even do a controlled burn. The last one almost got out of hand.”

“I understand. I don’t suppose you know anyone willing to take some equipment up there and clear up the mess? Bush-hog the yard so I can see a little better what I have. And someone to harvest the timber in the fields? Doubt if I’ll farm, but I’d like them put back into good shape in case I decide to sell.”

“Tell you what,” Kimmie said. “You e-mail me, and I’ll put you in touch with some people that will be glad to help you out. For a fee of course.”

Larry laughed and Kimmie’s dimples appeared again as she smiled. “I’ll get you that e-mail address while you’re paying.” She set the bill down on the table and hurried away when someone called to her.

Larry took his time getting up and going up to the cashier’s spot on the counter. He wasn’t about to leave without that e-mail address. But he did have to step back out of the way for a few moments after he paid, until Kimmie came by and handed him a piece of paper.

“Don’t forget, now,” she said with a smile.

“Don’t worry. I won’t,” Larry replied. He checked the address as soon as he was back in the Dodge. It looked like a real e-mail address, not something she’d just written down to get rid of him. “Why would she do that, anyway?” Larry asked himself. “She’s the one that brought it up.”

Pleased at the way the day ended, despite the heat, Larry headed for home, the paper with the e-mail address tucked carefully into his shirt pocket. He had memorized it, as well.

Larry slept late the next morning, having arrived home after midnight. But after a quick breakfast, he was on the computer. He sent the e-mail to Kimmie, with the list of things he wanted done that he’d thought of while driving home.

With that done, and nothing better to do, he began to look at the preparedness forums he was a member of. He hadn’t read much of the fiction on the sites, mostly because he wasn’t that much of a fiction reader. But one of the titles of a new story caught his eye and he pulled it up and began to read. It wasn’t very long, but by the time he’d finished, he’d come up with a few ideas on how to make a BOV out of the Dodge.

It wouldn’t be the super deluxe vehicle that was in the story, but it would do him nicely, he decided. Larry did a few searches on vehicle customization and noted down some addresses in the city.

When he checked his e-mail and nothing was there, he left the coolness of the house and hurried to get the Dodge started and cooled off. It was going to be another one-hundred-ten plus degree day.

Larry checked with each of the customizers. Two said what he wanted couldn’t be done. The third, listened, went out to look at the Dodge, and said, “I’ll do it on a cost plus basis. It’s going to take some tricky work to seal the cab to the bed and bed cover.”

“But you can do it?”

“I can do it,” the man said. He smiled. “Looks like it’s going to be a pseudo-Suburban, when you get finished.”

“Uh…” Larry said. “Yeah. I guess.” He was a die-hard Dodge fan and didn’t particularly like the reference to a Chevy product, but he could see how the man came up with the idea.

The changes weren’t really going to be that great. Larry planned on removing the rear bench seat and replacing it with a pair of custom single seats, leaving a large space between them in the center. The rear window glass would be removed and a slot cut down from the bottom edge to the floor of the truck, the width of the space between the seats.

Likewise, the front window of the topper would be removed and a similar slot cut down the front of the bed of the truck. The edges would all be finished and then a flexible sealing ring would go around the openings, between the cab and bed/topper, giving him full access to the bed of the pickup from inside the cab.

There were a few other details, but putting the opening between the cab and the bed was the main thing Larry wanted done. Satisfied that the guy could do the work, and could even start immediately, Larry called for a cab on his cell phone, having a bit of a problem getting a signal.

When he got home he discovered that the power was out. He called in to the power company and got the standard message that the problem was being worked on. “Hope they have enough transformers and switch gear,” he muttered. He knew full well how low the on hand supplies of the equipment were. At the rate they were going out, the city might just go dark in a couple more weeks. It was a scary thought.

He chaffed at the wait before he could get back on the computer to check his e-mail. His cell phone wasn’t set up to handle the internet, and with the problematic service now, it was doubtful that it would have worked, anyway.

Copyright 2010

 

[Jerry D Young]

With the doors and windows open in the small house to catch any breeze that might be blowing, Larry sat down with a pad of paper and a pencil and began to do a few sketches. A small house. Something off-grid. And capable of handling temperature extremes of a global warming or a new ice age.

When the power had not come on by five in the evening, Larry put aside the pad and pencil and called a cab. He put his laptop in its carry case and left the house to look for a place that had both power and free WiFi. He had to go to the other side of the city before he found a Starbucks that had both.

Not in the mood for a hot drink, he ordered one of their chilled specialties, found a table near an electrical outlet and set up the computer. In a few moments he was in his e-mail and a large smile curved his lips. There were not just one, but two e-mails from Kimmie.

The first was all business, listing three people and businesses that could do the work at the farm for him. He took his notebook from his shirt pocket and the pen and wrote down the particulars.

Then he opened the second e-mail. It contained a phone number and the words, “Call me,” and that was all. Larry pulled out his cell phone and tried the number. He had to look at the face of the cell phone. He didn’t even have one bar of signal.

As he was reluctantly putting away the cell phone, the sound of the air conditioning in the Starbucks faded away, and when Larry looked down, he saw that the computer had switched to battery power. The commercial power was out here now, too.

He had the cell phone out again to call a cab before he remembered that it was down, too. After unplugging the computer power supply from the wall receptacle, Larry cased the computer, drained his drink, and went outside to look for a cab.

He was drenched in sweat when he finally managed to flag one down. He went back home. Larry tried the land line telephone and got a dial tone. Quickly he dialed Kimmie’s number. He slumped slightly when he got her voice mail, disappointed.

Larry left a short message, including the fact that the cell service was down at the moment and he didn’t know how long the land line would be up. He gave both numbers and then hung up.

It was coming up on darkness, but the heat was still stifling. Larry put on a tee shirt and pair of jogging shorts and tried to make himself comfortable in the house. Having moved his living room recliner over closer to the open window, Larry stretched out on the leather and tried to get a nap. It was just too hot to try and eat anything.

Larry dozed intermittently, waking up after nine PM, hungry. He had to peel himself off the recliner. It was sweat soaked from his body. There was hardly a breath of air entering the window.

He flicked the lamp nearby without thinking about it. The power was still out. With a sigh, Larry went to the kitchen in the dark and took out a flashlight from a kitchen cabinet drawer and turned it on.

When he opened the refrigerator, the cool air felt good on his skin. But he quickly took out things to make a sandwich and closed the fridge door, not wanting to lose any more cold than necessary.

With sandwich in one hand and bottle of water in the other, Larry went back to the recliner and sat down. There was a slight breeze blowing now, but it seemed as hot as or hotter than before.

Larry ate the sandwich slowly, not really enjoying it, but drank the cool water eagerly. At midnight, he finally went to bed, with all the windows open. The bedside lamp coming on woke him at a little after three.

He shut the windows to allow the air conditioning to begin to cool the house. He was able to sleep the rest of the night and into the early morning. The telephone ringing woke him up this time. It was Kimmie.

“Kimmie! Hi. Glad you called,” Larry said.

“Are you all right? You sound funny,” replied Kimmi.

“Uh… Well, the power was out last night and didn’t come on until three. I didn’t get much sleep before so…”

“So you slept in,” Kimmie finished for him. She chuckled. “The reason I called… besides just to talk to you, was that Smith & Jones called me and needed to know if you wanted them on the job. They are about to get tied up on another job, but have time to do yours if they start tomorrow.”

“You think they are the best choice?” Larry asked.

“Considering the circumstances, I would say so.”

“If you’ll let them know, I’ll get ready and be there tomorrow morning.”

“Stop in for breakfast if you get here early,” Kimmie said. “They’ll be here in the morning. Usually are if they aren’t on a remote job.”

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Larry said. He was grinning when he hung up the telephone. He took a leisurely shower, did some laundry, and started to carry out his suitcase and camping gear to the truck, only to remember that the truck was in the shop.

“Well, nuts!” he said and set down his gear. A quick call had a rental car delivered in an hour and he was on his way. Larry didn’t push. He just wanted to get there in time to get a motel room for the night. Seeing Kimmie would wait until the next morning.

He was one of the first people at the diner the next morning. Kimmie’s dimples showed when she smiled at him. “I see you made it bright and early,” she said.

“I came down last night and got a room. Good to see you. Thanks for helping me out with getting the work done I need.”

“Sure. No problem. Oh. Here come the guys.”

Kimmie introduced Larry to Jim Jones, and Stanley Smith. They were both young men, fit, and eager for the work.

“Remember the snakes,” Larry cautioned them after they’d had breakfast and were about to head out to the property, Larry leading the way.

“I’ll see you this evening?” Kimmie asked Larry when he paid for the three men’s meal.

“Plan on it,” Larry said. “Uh, what time do you get off? You want to get a bite somewhere else?”

“Sure. I’m working the early shift this week. I’m off at three. We can discuss where when you pick me up.” Kimmie wrote down her address on a slip of paper and gave it to Larry. Larry didn’t think he’d smiled this much in years. He was almost grinning when he got into the rental and headed for the property. Smith and Jones were each driving a ten wheel dump truck pulling a trailer. One trailer carried a backhoe tractor with front bucket, and the other carried a wheeled front end loader.

Again Larry cautioned them about the snakes when they arrived and parked the vehicles out of the way. “Not a problem,” Jim said.

Larry stayed out of the way as the men unloaded the equipment and started the demolition process. It went a lot faster than Larry thought possible. With both dump trucks full of the demolished material, the two men drove them away to dump, leaving Larry behind to keep an eye on things.

The house and barn were gone by dark, with very little sign they’d ever been there. The only delay in the process had been when the loader dropped a wheel into the old cesspool. Stanley gave a bit of a push with the back hoe and the loader was out. Stanley went ahead and dug the cesspool out and Jim filled the hole with dirt he scraped up on a high dob that Larry pointed out.

More than once Larry saw snakes slithering away from the commotion. More than a few wound up in the dump trucks with the demolished materials. But the main job was done. The two would return the next day with a tractor with a bush hog to mow the yard area.

That evening, Larry took a shower and changed clothes. The heat had been stifling most of the day. The equipment Smith & Jones were using was all air conditioned. Larry had been standing out in the sun most of the day. At least he’d brought his broad brimmed hat this time. The tops of his ears had been sunburned a little the last time when he’d worn a baseball cap.

Kimmie came out of the apartment building before Larry could get to the door to ring for her. “Hi!”

“Hi,” Larry replied, his eyes going over the Kimmie. She was dressed in a flowing sundress. “You look great!”

“Thank you! You feel like pizza or burgers?”

“Uh… Pizza?” Larry replied.

“Pizza it is,” Kimmie said. She stepped into the car when Larry held the passenger door open for her. “You were in a truck last time,” she said when Larry was behind the wheel.

“Yeah. Having some modifications made to it. This is a rental.”

“Nice.”

That was the way the conversation went the rest of the short evening. Kimmie had to be at work early, and Larry planned on being there, too, so they didn’t linger. Kimmie touched Larry’s hand when he walked her to the door of the apartment building. “Thank you for a pleasant evening. See you in the morning?”

“Absolutely!” Larry said, feeling the soft touch of Kimmie’s hand on his as she slid it free.

“I’ll see you then. Good-night.”

“Good night,” Larry replied. He walked back to the car and went to the motel, smiling all the while.

The next day went about the same as the first, with Smith & Jones mowing the shrubs and weeds that covered the acreage around the house site. Larry wrote a check when the job was done and gave it to Stanley Smith and the two men left shortly after three in the afternoon. They gave him the name of a contact at a lumber company that would probably be interested in harvesting the timber that had grown up in the fields the last seventy years.

Watching his footing for snakes, Larry walked over the property again, with pad and pencil, doing a sketch. It was a little surreal to see it denuded of trees and brush. The only constant was the spring. Smith & Jones had kept clear of the point where it appeared, though they were able to use the front end loader to clear out the little swamp and make a small pond to catch and hold the runoff.

When he had the drawing done, with paced off distances, Larry went back to the luxury of the air conditioned car and headed for town. He had a date with Kimmie again and wanted to shower and change before he picked her up that evening.

It was another nice time. Again Kimmie touched hands with him when he took her to her apartment house front door. “I had a great time, Larry. Would you ask me out again when you come back?”

“I sure will, Kimmie. And I had a good time, too. I’ll call when I get a chance to come back. Might be soon. Depends on when I can get back to work.”

“Are you thinking of moving down here?” Kimmie asked. “Or are you going to sell the property now that is cleaned up?”

Larry could tell the questions and answers to them were important to her. He was silent for a few moments. “I am thinking of keeping the place, at least as a… ah… kind of place to come to in times of trouble. I would need to find a job first. I do plan to spend quite a bit of time here, getting the place ready. I don’t plan on selling. I’m just not sure when or if I would move any time soon.”

Kimmie bit her lower lip. “You’re making a BOL?”

“You know the term?”

Kimmie smiled. “Yes. I’m something of a prepper.”

“Wow. I never suspected.”

“I don’t broadcast it.”

“I’m really just getting started,” Larry said. “Other than a pretty good pantry at home, and the work on the Dodge, the property is my first real attempt to get things squared away for the future.”

“I’ll be glad to lend a hand,” Kimmie said. “I wouldn’t mind having a place to run to in case of serious trouble.”

“You can count on it,” Larry replied. He decided on the spot that he would be moving to the property as soon as he could arrange it.

“You’ll call me once in a while?”

“You bet I will,” Larry replied.

“Okay. Good-night.”

“Good-night, Kimmie.”

Larry decided to drive back home that evening. He wanted an early start the next morning in getting things ready so he could get the property ready to move to as soon as possible.

The first thing he did the next morning was call the mechanic and ask about the Dodge. It would be another two days before it was ready, so Larry kept the rental car to run his errands. He checked with the power company to see when he might be able to go back to work.

He wasn’t surprised when told that he might not get to come back at all. It really didn’t bother Larry too much. With his plan to relocate, he would have had to give notice soon, anyway. He signed the papers to get his 401(k) money and went home for a while.

There, he called the lumber company that Smith & Jones had recommended and arranged to meet them at the property on Monday of the next week to get a bid on the work. That done, Larry went online to check for possible work near the property.

When he didn’t find anything he called and left a message on Kimmie’s cell phone to call him when she had a chance. He’d barely hung up the phone when it rang. It was Kimmie, returning his call.

“I just went on break, Larry. What’s up?”

“I need to find a job around there. Any suggestions? I couldn’t find anything online.”

“Let me make a few inquiries,” Kimmie said, her voice sounding excited to Larry. “I’ll call back this evening.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Larry closed the cell phone and went to get his pad and pencil to continue to work on sketches of what he would like to do with the property.

Saturday he dropped off the renter car and took a cab to the mechanic’s and picked up the Dodge after paying for the work. Then he went shopping for a travel trailer. Something he could live in on the property until he decided on a final design and had a house built. It took a couple of stops at dealers before he found what he wanted. He wrote a check for it. The dealer would have it ready for him first thing Sunday.

Next, he went by the real estate agent’s office and made arrangements to put the house up for sale, thankful he hadn’t done very much in the way of prep work on it yet. With everything in the works, Larry went home. And found the place was without power again. He shook his head. It was time to get out of the city.

If global warming was real, cities were going to become ovens, and that meant a great deal of civil unrest. People weren’t happy when it was too hot to get good rest at night. And Larry knew full well that the infrastructure was not in good enough shape to keep electricity flowing in the amounts that would be needed in the coming years.

At least his cell phone was still working when Kimmie called back that evening. “I have a couple of things for you to look at when you come back down,” she said. “Do you know when that might be? One of the jobs needs to be filled right away.”

“I’ll be down late tomorrow, and then I’m meeting a lumber company guy to see about harvesting the timber on the property. I should be able to meet with someone shortly after twelve Monday, if things go okay.”

“That’ll be great!” Kimmie said, obviously pleased. “I’ll see you Monday then.”

“So far, so good,” Larry said. He stripped down to shorts and tee shirt and again tried to find some relief from the heat in front of an open window. He managed to get enough sleep to be able to drive safely the next day. He picked up the travel trailer and headed for the property.

He had enough time before dark to set the trailer up near the spring. Larry fired up the generator and turned on the trailer’s air conditioner. He went to bed early and slept well in the relative cold of the trailer compared to the heat in the house the night before.

Larry was up and ready the next morning in plenty of time to meet the two men from the lumber company. He walked the property with them and then listened to their offer. It sounded low to him and he said so.

“Okay. Twenty percent more,” said the man that had been doing most of the talking. “But that’s as high as I go.”

“Good enough. I’ll mark individual trees I want to keep. There won’t be any problem leaving the windbreaks around the fields, will there?”

“No. We’ll mark those off, with your help, before we begin. Our guys know what they’re doing. They won’t take anything you don’t want them to take.”

“Okay,” Larry said and the men shook hands. “I’ll be in to sign the contract tomorrow.”

“And we’ll gear up and be here Wednesday. Just be sure you’re here to help us mark the fence rows where you want them.”

“I will be.” Larry watched as the men left and then quickly took a shower and got ready to meet Kimmie. She was at a table in the diner, in her uniform, talking to a guy.

She smiled and waved to Larry when she saw him come in. “Over here.”

Larry joined the two, his eyes going to the man sitting across from Kimmie. He had a rugged look about him, but his eyes were twinkling as Kimmie introduced him.

“Larry, this is Joe Patterson. Joe, this is Larry Waterman. I have to get to work, so I’ll leave you two to your discussion.”

Joe rose as Kimmie got up. Larry took the chair she’d been sitting in. “Kimmie tells me you might have a job for me.”

“That’s right. She said you were a field installer for the power company in the city.”

“That’s right. Ten years of experience. Right out of high school,” Larry said.

Joe nodded his head. “Pretty hard work, I take it.”

“It sure was most of the time.”

“You ever drive any heavy equipment?” Joe asked.

“Some,” replied Larry. “Front end loader, Bobcat, the big service trucks, RT and truck cranes.”

“Sounds good. How much in the way of wages are you looking for?”

Larry told him approximately what he’d been making at the Power Company. “I really need at least that. I was due for a raise and promotion in the near future.”

“I see. Let me talk to the boss, my wife, and we’ll see what we can do.” Joe rose and held out his hand. Larry shook it and then watched Joe amble toward the diner front door.

Kimmie came over as soon as she could and asked, “How’d it go?”

“He’s going to talk it over with his wife. You know, I never did ask what the job would be. He asked me about running heavy equipment.”

“Oh. He’s a farmer. Farms quite a bit of his own acreage, but does custom work for a lot of the other farms around here that are hard pressed to get done what is needed with the equipment they have. Times are hard and equipment is expensive. Joe is probably the most successful farmer around here.”

“I see. I’m sure I could learn to drive a tractor,” Larry said musingly.

“Of course you can,” Kimmie replied. “Gotta get back to work. Late dinner tonight? I don’t get off until ten, when we close.”

“Sure. I’ll be by at a little after ten to pick you up. You pick the spot.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.” Larry got up and went out to the truck. The sun was still glaringly hot. He decided to go back to the property and do some more planning. He wanted to mark some of the trees that had grown up in the fields to keep. He had printed out some things from the internet on useful trees and had the information in the truck. Along with a couple cans of spray paint.

It was hot work, but Larry had the trees he wanted to keep marked by dark. He took a shower and laid down for a nap before going in to have supper with Kimmie.

This time the evening ended with a peck on the cheek for Larry. “See you tomorrow?” she asked.

As much as Larry wanted to say yes, he knew he needed to go to the lumber company offices on Tuesday, and that would take most of the day. “I’m sorry. I can’t tomorrow. Wednesday?”

“Okay. Call me.”

“I will.”

With the contract for the lumber signed on Tuesday, Larry was up and about Wednesday morning, waiting for the lumber crew to show up. They arrived at just before seven and Larry was busy all day, staking out and marking where he wanted to leave windbreaks for the four fields he wanted to have.

The property was an irregular shape, as well as being somewhat rolling, but when the lumber trees had been cleared, and the stumps removed, Larry would have four fields of approximately forty acres each, with the other seven acres the home site.

Larry had just returned to the trailer to get some supper and take a shower when Joe drove up and parked next to the Dodge.

“Hello, Larry. Got a minute?”

“Sure,” Larry replied. “Come on in out of the heat.”

“Yeah. This weather can be a killer. Nice trailer. Not permanent, I hope.”

Larry laughed. “No. Just until I get a house built. Got some things to take care of first.”

“Good planning. Wife says you’re hired, as long as you treat Kimmie well.”

“Kimmie? What’s she got to do with this?”

“She’s my wife’s niece. And my wife is very protective of her. We can’t have children ourselves and Kimmie is like a daughter to us.”

“I see. Well, I don’t know how things will work out, but I’ll never do anything to hurt Kimmie. You have my word on that.”

“Good enough. When can you start?”

“Tomorrow. The lumber crews don’t like me hanging around while they’re working.”

“Dangerous job. Got a map?”

“Yes,” Larry said and took out the topo map he’d picked up when he first came down.

Joe pointed at a spot on the map. Need you there at seven in the morning. That okay?”

“I’ll be there.”

The two men shook hands and Joe went back out into the early evening heat to his truck. “I guess I’ll get the pay I asked for,” Larry mused. Joe really hadn’t said.

When Larry showed up for work the next day at the appointed place and time, he found out he wouldn’t be driving a tractor. He was assigned to drive one of the service trucks that Joe used to keep the equipment running in the field. He would be mechanic’s helper and driver. A tractor was sitting in the field, with a broken axle. Larry would be operating the crane on the service truck to handle the heavy weight of two big tractor tires and the broken axle as his first job.

Larry was used to hard work and working in the worst of conditions. Every evening before showering, eating supper, and going to bed, Larry checked the progress of the lumbering and stump removal. The fields would need some dirt work done to fill in some of the tree stump holes.

They weren’t all that big, but after his experiences working for Joe, Larry knew how important it was to have as few disruptions in a field as possible. The rolling ground was hard enough on equipment. Holes in the fields would just make it worse. So Larry budgeted the money to get the work done after the lumbering was finished.

Larry usually watched the news on the satellite TV as he was falling asleep in the evening. The heat was relentless in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere was having the warmest winter on record.

Many cities had to go to rolling blackouts to conserve power and avoid overloading the electrical systems. Crime was up significantly, especially smash and grab looting in the cities during the blackouts.

The only time the heat broke was when one of the massive storms developed and dropped inches of rain on one area after another. The air was thick with moisture from the melting and evaporating of ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Even the many lakes in the northern hemisphere were losing water by evaporation because of the heat. The heavy rains would bring them back up in a matter of days when a weather system stalled and dumped rainfall heavy enough to cause floods.

There was sudden concern about the Gulf Stream subsiding beneath the fresher waters in the North Atlantic caused by the melting of the Arctic Ice and the ice pack on Greenland.

Copyright 2010

 

[Jerry D Young]

Larry continued to work on the plans for the property as the logging continued into fall. A very hot fall. As the harvest season came up, the damage to crops from the heat of the summer, compounded by heavy rains and hail, became obvious. More than one farm barely made enough to meet expenses.

Joe’s equipment was kept busy, as the rates he charged were often less than what the farmer would spend on harvesting the crops himself. There was equipment for sale everywhere, at ridiculously low prices. Even good farmland was also coming onto the market as small scale farming became less and less profitable, due to the weather and competition from commercial farms.

Even the big commercial farms were having trouble growing and harvesting enough to meet the demands. In many cases, they didn’t. Grain shipments overseas had begun to taper off years before. Now they stopped completely, by government edict. The agricultural products the US was now growing would be kept at home to feed US citizens.

After the lumber harvest was over, and the stumps removed, Joe insisted that Larry use the farm equipment to do the work on Larry’s fields. For a nominal sum to pay for the bio-diesel fuel consumed that Joe made.

At the same time, Larry hired an arborist to clean out the windbreaks of underbrush and dead trees and plant replacements to keep the windbreaks effective, and act as a coppicing woodlot. Some of the wild blackberry brambles were added to the windbreaks. The various lone trees in the fields, all large nut trees, were trimmed to maximize growth and production.

The arborist also cleaned out the orchard, removing dead, diseased, and non-productive fruit trees, keeping the quality trees that had grown up naturally over the years, thinning and trimming them for maximum growth and production. Additional fruit trees were added.

Like the originals, the new trees were standards, despite the arborist’s recommendations to go with dwarf trees for quicker production. But with the bearing trees still productive, Larry decided he had enough production for a few years until the new trees began to bear fruit. They would be long lived trees, unlike the dwarfs, which had a much more limited life span.

At the same time, Larry contacted a local apiarist to get honeybee hives set up in the windbreak fence rows and the orchard. He would get the bees stabilized and teach Larry how to handle them and the honey production.

The grapevines were put back into prime shape and their trellis work rebuilt. Additional vines were added.

To aid in the crop production, Larry had four wells put in. The old shallow well that had supplied the house and barn had been pulled during the demolition. So there was one new well for the house and separate garage, another for where the new barn and garden would be, one at the orchard for irrigation, and one at the juncture of the four fields to irrigate them.

It cost a bundle, but Larry decided the expense would be more than worth it in the coming years if the climate continued to get warmer. Despite the occasional massive storms, there would be long periods of no rain. Irrigation would make the difference between having a crop and not having anything.

The well driller was also had a plumbing business and Larry had him put in a septic system for the future house, garage, and barn. Larry had to do some talking to get the man to put in the size system he wanted. It was much larger than needed for the two structures and Cary thought it was a waste of time and money, but he finally installed the system the way Larry wanted.

With a solar pump in the house well and the new septic system in place, Larry was able to hook up the trailer to both so he didn’t have to pull it to the nearest Interstate rest area to dump the holding tanks and refill the water tank.

At Joe’s suggestion, Larry began a program of acquiring all the manure and other compostable material available in the area to create a ten acre composting field, with the intention of using the material on his other fields eventually. It was similar to what Joe did with one small field of his own, using the compostable material that was produced on the acreage he farmed.

Most of it Larry got for free, though he paid for the highest quality manure from some of the cattle and horse operations in the area, as well as one honey wagon load after another of liquid manure from three pig farms in the area. Most of the charges were only the cost of getting the materials to the farm and dumped, so Larry again decided to keep it up, as the increased production in future years would more than pay for the efforts made now.

The house in the city sold in October and Larry had the money in January. With temperatures running much higher than normal, Larry started construction on the house. Over the many evenings that Larry and Kimmie had spent together, she had added her input to Larry’s own thoughts. Between them they came up with the house design. She was also helpful in the design of the garage and barn. All three would be earth sheltered and set up to be as self-sufficient as possible, not just off-grid.

The money from the sale of the house in the city was more than enough to build the house, garage, and the barn on the rural property, just the way Larry and Kimmie had designed them. With Kimmie beside him, Larry watched as the contractor’s backhoe began to dig out the spot where the basement of the house would be.

He turned to her and asked, “When the house is done, will you marry me?” He opened the ring box he took from his pocket.

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask!” Kimmie said, leaping into his arms to give him a tremendous hug and several kisses, before Larry set her back down onto the ground.

“I didn’t want to ask until I was sure we could live here and I could take care of you no matter what happens.”

“Oh, Larry! I’ve so been wanting you to ask me. I almost asked you when we went out to celebrate the sale of the house.”

“Really?” Larry asked. He’d been totally clueless at the time.

“Yes. And as far as taking care of me, I plan to do the same for you. I’m not coming to this marriage destitute.”

“What do you mean?” Larry asked.

“I’ve been a prepper for a long time,” Kimmie said. “I have quite a bit of equipment and supplies in climate controlled storage in town.”

“Wow!” Larry replied. “I knew you knew about preps. I didn’t know you had many.”

Kimmie smiled. “Gotta remember OPSEC. Operational Security is important. Especially for a woman. I didn’t want you to want to marry me just to get my preps.”

Larry smiled in return. “Oh, I have much more salacious reasons to want to marry you.”

“Well, that’s good. ‘Cause I have a few of those same reasons to marry you, too. But, they’ll wait until we’re married.”

Kimmie said it matter-of-factly, but Larry took the statement to heart. At least now he didn’t have to ask to know how she felt. She’d stated it very clearly. And that was okay with Larry.

Larry went on a reduced work schedule for Joe, to have the time needed to supervise the work on the house and barn. Both should be finished by the time spring farm work picked up. Kimmie came out every so often as well; getting a feel for the place and seeing to it that Larry kept hydrated and fed. She’d learned of his tendency to not eat much when it was hot, and it was hot sometimes, even in late January and into February.

The temperatures were starting to soar in mid-March when the two structures were finished. It was nice to go into any of the earth sheltered structures and feel so cool without the need for any air conditioning, though the house was so equipped. If there was ever really cold weather again, both the house and barn were prepared for that, too.

The fountain in the open air atrium of the house, furnished by a solar pump with water from the spring, kept the atrium as cool as the inside of the house, and would, even on the hottest days of summer. Larry and Kimmie both thought it wise to enclose the spring, though the spring house was still intact and could be used. The drainage pond for the spring had been enlarged and when it was, the outlet in the rock where much of the runoff disappeared was uncovered.

With it cleared out, the pond wouldn’t fill. A carefully cemented in stand pipe was added to the outlet and the pond quickly filled from the spring. Water could be pumped from the spring to the fountain, or diverted directly to the pond through a pipe from the spring house.

Larry moved in when the house was finished and he and Kimmie made their marriage plans. They would be married the First of May, come rain or shine. In the meantime, they began to furnish the house, and move Kimmie’s preps from town to the house. Larry was amazed at what she’d accumulated.

The 401(k) money Larry had been sitting on began to disappear as Larry duplicated the things Kimmie had, and added a few things she didn’t have.

Much to Larry’s surprise, many, if not most, of the wedding presents he and Kimmie received were prep related. Kimmie came from a relatively large family, all of whom seemed to be preppers, including even the more distant relatives. And Kimmie was very popular with just about everyone in the family. She was the last un-attached marriage age adult within the family and they went all out to welcome Larry into the fold.

They had to go outside to see the three stock trailers parked on the civic center parking lot that contained several of the presents. In their discussions before the marriage, and during the planning of the barn, it was decided to have a couple of milk cows, space to raise a couple of hogs, and an area for chickens.

They wouldn’t have to buy any of the animals. Between the three trailers there were fifty chickens; three piglets; and two milk cows, both ready to throw calves.

“Don’t worry, Larry,” Joe said. “We’ll take care of the animals until you get back from the honeymoon.”

“Thanks, Joe. I’m going to need some instruction on how to handle the stock when we get back.”

“I suspect you’ll have some information sources by the time you open all the wedding presents,” Joe said.

“Oh. That’s good,” Larry replied.

Kimmie grinned over at him. “And I did my time in the barns when I was growing up. I told you I wasn’t coming to the marriage destitute. I bring vast knowledge, too.”

Larry and the others laughed.

It wasn’t until their return from the honeymoon, a two week cruise in the Caribbean, that Larry and Kimmie realized the full value of the presents. Everything had been taken to the house for them, since they left the reception to go straight to the airport. When they began to open the presents and write thank you notes that they discovered the gold and silver. There were several one-ounce Gold Eagles, quite a few more in smaller denominations, and several rolls of pre-1965 silver dimes and quarters, packed in among the other items in the packages, including many books on self-sufficiency and sustainable farming.

“Holy cow, Kimmie! This doubles what I’ve already bought!”

“Not me. I have that and more. I’ll get it from Uncle Joe and bring it out. I’d forgotten about it.”

“You have gold and silver?”

“Sure do. Every birthday and Christmas, my high school and college graduations… I got PMs for every one while my parents were living. And then I inherited all of theirs.”

“Wow,” Larry said. He saw the sad look on Kimmie’s face. “You don’t like to think about them, because of losing your parents.”

“No. They were always such special times. And when I was little, I was sworn to secrecy about my ‘treasures’. Made it even more special.”

Larry held Kimmie for a while. She didn’t cry, but it was a close thing. But soon Larry was back to opening presents as Kimmie filled out the thank you cards when he told her the names and the item.

The weight of some of them surprised Larry at first. He’d not handled any of the wrapped packages before. When he opened the first really heavy gaily wrapped box he found a thousand rounds of Winchester .308 FMJ ammunition. In total the couple received over eight thousand rounds of various ammunition types.

“More than doubles our ammunition supply…” Larry said. “Or does it?” He looked at Kimmie.

“Uh… Well, Uncle Joe has most of my ammunition stored. I always bought some when the family put in a bulk order. It was easier to leave it with Uncle Joe. What I brought from the storage room was just my working supply.”

Larry shook his head. “Boy. I sure am glad I didn’t marry just any good looking girl. I’ve got a real treasure in you. In more ways than one.”

“Flattery will get you almost anywhere, my dear,” Kimmie said, grinning. “But for the moment, let’s get this task finished.”

“Okay, Okay. I’m curious, anyway.”

The task was done, the cards written and signed, and everything put away before suppertime. They turned in early, for both had to be at work the next morning.


For a year not much changed, except for getting into the swing of handling the stock. The two milk cows had to be milked twice a day, the eggs gathered and all the animals fed and watered. The last task was fairly easy, since the barn incorporated both automatic feeding systems and watering systems, operated electrically from power provided by the barn’s independent solar power system.

Larry, with Joe’s equipment and other hands, prepped and planted one of the forty acre fields half in wheat and half in oats. The second field was planted half feed corn and half hay. The third field was sowed with a green manure cover crop and left fallow. The other thirty acres were kept as pasture for the stock. The uses of the fields would rotate yearly, with forty acres fallow, twenty acres in wheat, twenty in oats, twenty in corn, twenty in hay, and thirty as pasture with movable fences, with the one ten acre plot a continuous giant compost area.

The large garden grew potatoes as a staple, and some few vegetables for their vitamins and mineral content. Dedicated strawberry towers were built and planted. Some of the blackberry brambles in the National Forest were transplanted onto the property around the house as a living fence, as were wild roses. Both grew thick, with thorns, and produced fruit in the case of the blackberries and rose hips in the case of the wild roses.

Everything was kept watered religiously every ten days or so. Larry was using some of Joe’s extra pivot irrigation systems on a lease purchase plan to water the crop fields with. A stationary generator running on biodiesel supplied power to the field irrigation well pump.

The one unending constant over that year was the heat and storms. When it wasn’t hot as blazes, which was most of the time, howling rain lashed the area and tornadoes swept the land. Larry managed to get enough wheat for seed for the next year and to provide for his and Kimmie’s use. The oats fared a bit better. Enough for seed and plenty for feed for the stock. The pasture did just fine, as did the hay field, fallow field and the composting field.

Watching TV in the evenings, in the coolness of the house, Larry was glad he’d made the changes he made when he did. The cities were becoming terrible places to live for most people. Electrical power continued to dwindle as more equipment failed and new production didn’t come anywhere close to keeping up with it.

Another year passed before the taint of the cities began to show up in and around the town. People were looking to get out of the cities and they thought the rural areas would somehow be cooler. They were, to a degree, but with the double whammy of heat stress on the crops and the occasional driving hail storm, growing enough crops to feed everyone was becoming problematical.

The people brought the worst of the city to the town. Kimmie, with Larry’s wholehearted support, left the job in the diner to spend her time at the home site. She’d been propositioned too many times and had too many men try to put their hands on her for her to be comfortable at the diner anymore.

Hank, the diner owner, hired three men to act as servers, to cut down on the problems. They were men needing work to support their families and Hank was happy to help out. He seriously considered closing the diner and starting up a farm again, he told Kimmie before she left.

Larry and Kimmie were watching the Weather Channel one evening after a long day of canning some of the produce from the gardens Kimmie had picked clean, and the butchering Larry had done that day.

Both sat up a bit straighter when the meteorologist began describing what was happening in the North Atlantic. The fear that the Gulf Stream would lose buoyancy and sink under the fresher waters of the Atlantic had been well founded. The Stream was sinking, and already the effects were being felt in Europe and Eastern Canada.

Over the period of a week, temperatures had dropped sixty degrees. From highs up to one-hundred-ten Fahrenheit to highs in the fifties. There was Global Warming, but it was affecting some areas in the opposite manner. It was still cold above the 45th parallel, and without the moderating weather effects of the warm Gulf Stream, Europe was going to go back to cold winters unmatched since the Little Ice Age of the Middle Ages.

“There is no way that Europe is going to be able to feed itself,” Larry said. “And the New England States are going to be hard pressed during the coming winters, too. Their temperatures were also somewhat moderated by the Gulf Stream. And with all the moisture in the air… The winter of 2009/2010 may be a fond memory compared to what is coming.”

“How will that affect us, do you think?” Kimmie asked.

“With the overall warmer weather, Canada and Russia might be able to begin producing enough grains to feed them. I’m sure Canada will ship to England and the rest of Europe. But Russia? I don’t know. They might just see it as a chance become the dominate force in Europe.”

“War?”

“Possibly. And if there is, China will jump on the band wagon. She wants control of all of the Pacific regions and might just see it as the opportunity to do it without European influence. Only the US I think, and Australia, would pose any threat to the possibility. Australia would have to. China would take them over in a New York minute if they thought they could.”

“I’m more worried about right around here. I hate going into town anymore. There are so many new people. City people that have no regard for our small town values and ways of doing things.”

“I know. That’s why we’re going in next week to apply for concealed carry permits. You know I’ve been open carrying here and when I’m on the various farms we’re working. So far no trouble. But it is as likely to happen when we are in town, or on the road, as it is on private property where we can carry.”

“That’s a good idea. I need to get a little more practice. We haven’t been shooting since not long after we got married.”

“One thing about the rural life, there is no shortage of work needing done. I’m not sure I could manage if I wasn’t working for Joe on a cooperative basis, where I work for him in return for help here, plus some salary. With his equipment it only takes a few hours to do what needs to be done in the fields. If I had to get by with a small tractor and pull type equipment, we’d probably be a lot worse off than we are now.”

“I know. Our grocery bill for the two of us is less than what I was spending when I lived in town. And we’re eating better. Plus putting up the extra for the lean times, on top of the LTS foods we have.”

“How is the rest of the family doing?” Larry asked.

“So far, so good. Everyone is cutting back on everything not necessary. We all think that there are bad times coming. Soon. Because of this terrible heat.”

“Yeah. It is getting dangerous to work outside for any length of time now. It was a hundred five yesterday. Wait. Look at that…”

Larry’s attention went back to the television and Kimmie’s eyes turned that way, too. A series of reports started about the many deaths from the continued heat, plus one on the increasing cases of looting and other crime here in the US.

“That settles it,” Larry said. “We start carrying all the time. And we take extreme care when we are outside not to get over heated.”

“I’m thankful we have this place. I sometimes forget how hot it gets outside with it so comfortable here in the house, garage, and barn. I think the animals, if they could express their appreciation, probably would, too.”

“I know they are more than eager to get back inside after they’ve been on the pasture,” Larry said, smiling.

With the decision made, Larry and Kimmie both practiced heavily with their chosen carry pistol, took the required safety and training course, and had their concealed carry permits in less than a month. The weather had finally moderated to reasonable temperatures for November, though they were still setting the occasional daily record for high temperature. At least it was below seventy during the day and down into the fifties at night.

While it was good for most of the US, the north east coast was already getting cold temperatures and heavy snows. The loss of the moderation of the Gulf Stream was already beginning to have a serious effect on the weather of the countries bordering the North Atlantic.

And while there were good crop harvests in Canada and Russia, they had yet to ramp up to grow more in the northern sections of their countries that were now warm enough to do so. Between the lack of food and the extreme winter in Europe, millions died. It wasn’t as bad in the Northeast of the US, but the death toll there was extremely high, too. As bad as the 1918 flu epidemic.

Going into the next spring, which was earlier even than the last one, Larry and Kimmie had not had any trouble. But as the temperatures soared, and tempers grew short, the Federal Government began to take steps to curb the violence and distribute food to those that didn’t have it.

The first step was a total ban on the sale of guns. The manufacturing stopped, and dealers were raided, their inventories confiscated. More than one gun battle occurred in the attempts. The ban included the private sale of firearms, too, but it was largely ignored, though several people were made examples of and the sales became very clandestine.

Food rationing went into effect shortly afterwards, and when the harvests began to come in, farmers’ crops were seized and the farmers given a token price for them. Hundreds of farmers would not have the money to plant the next year.

Larry and Kimmie slipped under the radar, since they were farming less than one-hundred-sixty acres. Joe, on the other hand was hit hard. With the large acreage he farmed, and his successful production methods, he was the key farmer in the area and was chosen to be made an example of.

Not only were his crops seized and a pittance paid for them, but Joe was ordered to plant specific items the next year. He flatly refused. Threatened with the seizure of his property, Joe stood his ground. It was still in the courts the next spring when Joe, coming out of the courthouse after yet another hearing, was shot at close range by a person protesting in favor of the government actions.

Larry and Kimmie made it to the hospital in record time when Joe’s wife called and told Kimmie about it.

“Oh, Uncle Joe!” cried Kimmie when she saw him in the hospital bed. He’d taken a .357 magnum bullet in the chest. It had missed his heart, but tore out a large chunk of lung, as well as breaking two ribs right near the spine.

The doctor took Joe’s wife Amy out of the room to talk to her. Joe’s eyes opened and finally focused on Kimmie. His wan smile visible beneath the oxygen mask, he tried to talk, but fell silent immediately. He wasn’t up to talking.

Kimmie took one of his hands in hers and Larry put his arm over her shoulder. They simply stayed and prayed until Amy came back into the room.

When Amy came back into the room she was wiping tears from her eyes. She took Kimmie’s place and held Joe’s hand.

“I want to find out what is being done about the shooter,” Larry said as he and Kimmie went back down to the hospital parking lot.

“You know good and well the police aren’t going to give you any information, Larry,” Kimmie said gently. “I appreciate the effort, but we have more important things to do than beat our heads against the wall.”

“What do you mean?” Larry asked.

“Think about it for a minute. The police are sure to search the house, looking for anything that might aid their case now that Uncle Joe isn’t there to try and prevent it. I don’t want him coming off as a survivalist nut out to topple the government.”

“And they would quite probably do that, wouldn’t they?” Larry mused softly. “But what can we do? You know they have people watching the place.”

“Yes. But there is a way. Let’s go.”

Larry followed Kimmie to the Dodge and held the door open for her to climb in. When he was in the driver’s seat and the truck was running Kimmie said, “We’re going to Uncle Joe’s to get anything that might make him look like a crazy survivalist.”

Larry had no clue how they were going to do that, but headed for Joe’s place. They saw several vehicles sitting on the highway where the driveway to the house connected. No one tried to stop them on the way in.

When they reached the house, Kimmie took a key ring out of her pocket and got out of the truck. A few minutes later she had one of the garage bay doors open and Larry drove inside. Kimmie closed the door and led Larry to the house from the detached garage. Once inside they were greeted by eerie silence. Since the trouble had started, Joe had laid off the hands and even the woman that helped Amy at home.

“Come on. Follow me,” Kimmie said, an eagerness in her that had not been visible before. Kimmie led Larry down to the basement and into a small unfinished area that held a work bench and a tool cabinet.

“Help me with this,” she said and went to one end of the workbench. The two lifted the bench and set it away from the wall. “Now help me slide the tool cabinet behind the bench.” The cabinet moved much easier than Larry thought it should and when he looked discovered that the cabinet was on Teflon furniture skids.

“Oh,” he said when he looked up. Kimmie was working the combination of a vault door. In only a moment she swung the door inward and went into the opening. “Uncle Joe’s and Aunt Amy’s fallout shelter,” she said.

Kimmie couldn’t seem to slow down. She was over at a bank of gun safes lined against one wall of the shelter on the far side of the large room, the ceiling of which was supported by concrete columns here and there.

Copyright 2010

 

[Jerry D Young]

“We move this one,” she said, indicating the third safe from the right. It slid forward, and Kimmie then slid it sideways. There was another vault door. Kimmie had it open in only seconds and then she turned around to face Larry.

“We could probably get into a lot of trouble doing this,” she said. “We’re taking most of Uncle Joe’s weapons and ammunition to our place. That door leads to one below the garage. We can move everything without being seen and load up the Dodge.”

“Clever,” Larry said. “This where you got the idea to put the tunnels in at our place?”

“Yep,” Kimmie said, managing a short lived grin. “Come on. We don’t want to take too much time or the Feds… and whoever else might be out there watching, might get suspicious. Our cover story is we came by to feed the dogs, cats, and fish. Remind me to do that before we leave.”

“Okay. Let’s get this done.”

Leaving only a token assortment of basic hunting guns in the gun vaults, Larry and Kimmie carried the rest through the tunnel and up into the garage, where they were carefully placed in the bed of the Dodge.

It took several trips to get them and several cases of ammunition moved. The last four trips Larry and Kimmie made they were carrying heavy canvas bank bags containing most of Joe’s accumulation of precious metals, plus one bulky, but much lighter bag. When Larry checked it, he discovered it was full of cash. Mostly bundles of hundred dollar bills, but with quite a few twenties, tens, and fives. No ones.

Closing the door and moving the one gun vault back into place, Kimmie looked around to see if there was anything else that might make Joe look like an enemy of the state. She couldn’t see anything, so they went out into the basement and set things back in place.

If the place was searched, and the shelter found, at least there wasn’t a small armory in it, or all the gold and silver. “They might not even find it,” Kimmie said, “but I feel better to be moving it, just in case.”

“As long as we don’t get caught.”

“Yeah. There is that. Come on. Let’s check the dogs, cats, and fish.”

The fish were fed, the cats’ litter box emptied and refilled, and the food and water dishes washed and refilled inside the house. Then the two went out to the kennel where Joe kept his dogs. They played with the animals for a while. They seemed to sense something was wrong. Finally, with the dogs food and water checked and replenished, Larry and Kimmie went back to the garage from the kennel and Kimmie opened the garage door so Larry could back the truck out.

When they went down the driveway, they saw someone with a powerful telescope watching them. Where he was positioned, he’d had a view of the garage. “We ought to challenge him,” Larry muttered. “He’s on private property.”

“Uh… Let’s not,” Kimmie said. She did glare at the guy when they drove past. There were cameras in evidence when they pulled onto the highway. A state trooper followed them all the way to their drive way, but stopped at the end of it.

Doing the reverse of what they’d done at Joe’s, all the guns, ammunition, and PMs were taken from the Dodge parked in the garage, through the tunnel to house, and placed in their shelter, hidden much like Joe’s was.

Kimmie cried herself to sleep in Larry’s arms that night. Larry’s mind was in turmoil and he didn’t sleep much, trying to figure a way to right the wrongs that were being committed almost daily now by a US government slowly embracing the workings of a dictatorial socialist country.

Joe lay in the hospital for weeks, until he was able to get around again. In the meantime his farm and equipment had been seized by the federal government. Since there was no mention of any weapons, ammunition, or PMs, Larry was fairly sure that the people that took over the house had not found the shelter or tunnels.

In that same time frame the government enacted legislation requiring the surrender of all assault type weapons and all ammunition useable in them. Following right on the heels of the edict came one that outlawed the private ownership of bullion type gold and silver coins, including pre-1965 US 90% silver coinage other than that in standard numismatic collections. And then only two of any one type of coin collection was allowed per person if it contained silver or gold.

Since all of Larry’s and Kimmie’s guns, ammunition, and PMs had been face-to-face private sales, or cash only with no names in the case of the ammunition and PMs, neither turned in any of what they owned.

Even though Joe was never convicted of anything, the government wasted no time auctioning off his property. All but one hundred sixty acres of the land that Joe and Amy owned outright, which included the home site, was auctioned off. It went fast and at high prices.

Larry’s hope of retaining some of it in the family faded when the first parcel went for three times what Larry had to bid with. It was some of the money from Joe’s stash of cash. It was a different story when it came to the farm equipment.

Most of the locals refused to buy anything in protest, and the equipment wasn’t really suited for the big commercial flatland farms. So the equipment went cheap. Using some of the cash from Joe’s stash, Larry managed to buy up enough items to be able to work his and Kimmie’s property easily and efficiently, as well as equipment that Joe could use on his own one-hundred-sixty acres. The rest of the cash went back into Joe’s money bag.

The only thing that the government did that was to Joe’s advantage was to leave him with only the one-hundred-sixty acres. Since it included the home site, he would no longer come under the new programs that applied to commercial farms. Had they let him keep more land, he would still be subject to their rules.

Not long after Joe was able to return home, Larry and Kimmie returned his guns, ammunition, PMs, and the major portion of the cash. Larry was apologetic about having used some of the cash to buy back the equipment, but Joe stopped him.

“You did the right thing,” Joe said. “I’m glad you thought of it. I did, but I was too out of it too often to get a chance to ask you to do that very thing. At least I have enough left to stay fairly self-sufficient, maybe even earn a slight profit. I’m hoping you’ll continue our agreement to help one another. Between the Feds intimidating them, and those that now own the acreage hiring them, I don’t have but one hand to help me.”

“You know I will, Joe,” Larry replied. “You’re family to me and family does for family. I’m sure some of the others will lend a hand when needed.”

“I’m sure they will for planting and harvesting. They simply can’t do the daily routine work a farm requires to stay in good shape. Even if I can get Henry to come back, which is possible, I can’t have more than two hired hands on the one-hundred-sixty acres or I come under the commercial farm rules again. I can’t believe after all they did to me they didn’t give me a hundred-sixty-one acres just to try to keep me under their thumb.”

“Well, I think the example they made of you probably got the message across to those that they meant it for, and dealing with you on a long term basis might work against them. You’re basically a non-entity now.”

“I know. I don’t like it and would like to become more involved in the national movement, but I don’t want to put Amy through any more than I already have. I doubt if she told you, but her heart began acting up when I was in the hospital. She can’t take much stress or it could kill her.”

“Oh, Uncle Joe! She never said a word!” Kimmie cried.

“I didn’t think she had. Didn’t want anyone worrying about her while I was in the hospital. She won’t want a fuss.”

Kimmie nodded, but had a determined look on her face.

“On another subject,” Joe said, looking at Larry. “Any word on the guy that shot me?”

“Nothing. I have a feeling the Feds have told the locals to leave it alone. I don’t think they want him found,” Larry said. “Might be some things that happened they don’t want known.”

“Well, you just leave it alone, too, Larry. I don’t want you out there seeking revenge. The guy will get his someday. God meets out justice in the end.”

Larry nodded. The thought had been in the back of his mind. If he happened to stumble upon some information he would act on it. But he wouldn’t go looking, since Joe asked him not to do so.

Larry made sure Joe didn’t overdo things through the winter, getting the equipment ready for the spring planting, and carrying for the farm stock. At least Henry agreed to go to work for Joe again. He was almost as big an advocate as Joe was and had resisted the attempts to get him to leave Joe in the lurch.

With things as they were, neither family was in much danger of starving. Both places were highly self-sufficient, but Joe wasn’t making the money he had been, and was afraid he might not be able to pay Larry the base salary he’d done initially.

So, to generate some cash income of their own, Kimmie went back to work. But not at the diner. She’d done volunteer work at the town library for several years and with the current librarian retiring, Kimmie got the job as the librarian at the branch library in town. It would provide for their limited cash needs and take the pressure off Joe to try and generate enough extra income to pay Larry.

They had the same arrangement as before, except Larry didn’t get the salary. He did get more help from Joe, Henry, and the other hand, Ralph, to keep his and Kimmie’s property up in tip top shape.

For additional money, Larry and Kimmie sold some of their abundant fruit and nut crops for cash to one of the local markets. Besides the tree fruit, blackberries, strawberries, and grapes Larry and Kimmie also grew in their garden watermelons and cantaloupe, far more than they could use.

Also potatoes. Larry and Kimmie raised proportionately more potatoes than most home gardeners and were able to sell even more than they kept for replanting, root cellared, and canned for their own use. Their garden was relatively specialized and Larry and Kimmie actually bought most of their vegetables from other family members’ gardens, or the store in town.

With two milk cows, even using some of the milk to feed the hogs and chickens, there was excess cream, which was turned into butter, and milk, from which cheese was made. Both items had a ready market in town and brought in a few more dollars every week.

But the two were working themselves harder than was good for them. Kimmie put an ad in the town’s newspaper for a part time domestic helper. She had five women and one man stop in the library to ask about the job the day the ad came out. It was a difficult decision to make. All of them, from their looks, really needed a job, especially one where they could get some free food in the process of working.

Finally Kimmie decided on Sally Markham. Sally was a single mother, with a three year old, struggling to make ends meet. Kimmie agreed that Sally could bring her daughter out to the house and take care of her as she worked.

Once Sally started taking care of the household chores, Kimmie was able to help with the stock more, which gave Larry more time in the fields and at Joe’s.


The predictions of severe weather and high numbers of deaths in Europe were correct. And it looked more and more like Russia, though with troubles of her own, might just try to take advantage of the fact.

China was quiet at the moment, but those in the know were getting uneasy. Taiwan was talking independence again, and Australia was being hit hard by the hot, dry weather interspersed with massive storms. Australia was no longer exporting food.

The domestic scene in America was like a powder keg. The attempts to disarm citizens and recall precious metals were meeting stiff resistance, with gunplay often an ingredient in the mix in some more isolated cases.

What seemed to put the US into open civil warfare was the passage of generous rewards programs for neighbors to turn in their neighbors for having firearms and precious metals. More and more armed resistance occurred, with the newly enfranchised Safety & Public Resources agents getting killed right and left. More than a few gun and PM holders were dying, too.

They weren’t the only ones. Some of those neighbors that were turning in others began to disappear or were openly killed in retaliation. When public officials supporting the programs began to be assassinated the president called for nationalization of all fifty state National Guards to quell the acts of violence.

Several state governors refused and some shots were exchanged between State National Guards and Federal troops. Even some of the states with Civilian Militias called them out to man Observation Posts to watch for troop movements.

With the US on the verge of civil war, both Russia and China decided to take advantage of the situation and further their plans for expansion. Russia to their west and China east and south. Russia began to mass troops on the western border, with a buildup on their border with China to ensure China didn’t interfere.

The Chinese did basically the same thing, with a holding force against Russia, and troops on the move to help North Korea take South Korea, an invasion force to retake Taiwan, and a fleet to bottle up Japan.

When the US failed to aid South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, Australia went into defensive mode. It was likely they would be next after China had control of their first targets, and then took Indonesia, which was almost certain.

The Middle East appeared to be stable as the rest of the world exploded, but those looking to bring about the New Persian Empire were able to convince enough of the leaders of the Arab and Islamic nations to begin on that course. A concerted, surprise attack on Israel was the first step.

And the last. Israel used her nuclear forces to good effect, bringing the war to a quick close, but not without a huge price. Iran had built seven nukes without the US or Israel knowing, and used them all on Israel’s major cities, except for Jerusalem. It was left intact, though laden with fallout.

That was the start of the nuclear exchange. When a coup in the US by hawkish generals occurred and the US forces immediately put on a war footing, with strategic aircraft and carriers dispersed and nuclear weapons readied, Russia didn’t hesitate. She launched a massive pre-emptive strike. Fearful of China taking advantage of the new situation, Russia also launched on China.

China retaliated on Russia, with a few of her nukes sent over the Arctic to hit the US as well. North Korea used her two nukes to bring South Korea to her knees, the South Korean’s unable to stand the onslaught without US help.

Much to the Chinese leadership’s surprise, Japan had a secret nuclear weapon program active for many years before the attack. The Chinese fleet keeping Japan isolated in order to cut off import of food and fuel was destroyed. But, like Israel, Japan paid a price for the retaliation. China’s nuclear submarine fleet launched on Japan.

Even Brazil and Venezuela got in on the nuclear action. But instead of Chavez launching on the US, he targeted Brazil, the only nation in South America that might have a chance at taking over the continent if there was no outside interference. Chavez made an error in judgment, as he was prone to do. Brazil, as quietly as Japan, had created her own set of nuclear weapons. With the rest of the continent warned not to interfere, Brazil launched on Venezuela with four devices, neutralizing it and destroying most of its oil production capability.

The new US military government launched on warning when the Russian missiles triggered the warning satellites. It was all or nothing for the new régime. Every land based missile that was ready got off the ground and the majority of the warheads hit their targets and worked.

Most of the war was over in hours, with the last of the nukes flying two days later as dying leaders made a last effort to prevent any further attacks, nuclear or non-nuclear.

Japan returned to a feudal society almost overnight and China to a warlord controlled land. The Russians were back to an Empire, crippled, but with a new Czar.

Brazil dominated South America, embroiled in small wars for years to come, with no interest in expanding beyond the Panama Canal. Central and Southern Africa, spared the nukes that hit the northern countries, once again erupted into tribal warfare. But much of it was put down hard when European countries, unable to feed their populations due to the harsh weather caused by the lack of the Gulf Stream, began new colonial actions, moving populations of whole cities to various countries in the more habitable sections of Africa. They took what infrastructure they could, and enough of their military to make sure they were able to stay and prosper.

The remaining Europeans hunkered down and prepared to live through the rough times until once again Europe would be a warm and welcome place to be.


Larry started in surprise when the NOAA NWS Alert radio sounded an alarm. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky at the time. It was only when a frantic sounding announcer managed to get the words out that people should find and take suitable shelter from incoming nuclear warheads that Larry realized what was happening.

Larry was driving the tractor with a disc, working in the latest loads of manure into one end of the ten acre composting field when the alarm sounded. Joe was in his pickup, sort of supervising, while Henry and Ralph drove tractors, one with a manure spreader and the other with a honey wagon, laying down the materials that Larry was working into the field.

Larry stopped the tractor, lifted the disc, and headed for the opening in the fencerow. One hand was on the steering wheel while the other gripped the microphone of the two-way radio in the tractor.

“We’re being nuked! You guys head for shelter!”

Henry and Ralph hurriedly drove over to where Joe was parked, the truck engine now running and both passenger side doors of the crew cab truck standing open. Taking only enough time to shut down and secure the tractors, the two hired hands joined Joe and Joe took off for his place.

When Larry parked the tractor near the barn, he saw Kimmie and Sally putting the stock that had been grazing in the pasture inside. Larry secured the tractor and hurried to help them. Kimmie looked grim and Sally looked terrified.

“What do we do?” Sally asked Larry when they’d closed the doors of the barn.

“We get into shelter,” Larry said. He looked at Kimmie and then back to Sally. “Unless you want me to take you home,” he added.

“I don’t know what to do!” Sally said. It was nearly a scream.

“You’ll be safe here,” Kimmie told her, taking Sally’s arms in her hands. “Think, Sally. Do you have a fallout shelter at home?”

Sally just shook her head.

“We do. You and Trudy stay here with us. You’ll be okay.”

“You have a shelter? Are you survivalists?” She looked even more scared than before, if that was possible.

“We’re preppers,” Larry said. “We’ll all be okay.”

The ground shook and Sally screamed. Larry looked at Kimmie again and then took one of Sally’s arms in hand. “We need to go!”

Kimmie nodded and took Sally’s other arm. By the time they got to the house, Sally seemed calmer. Larry scooped up Trudy, who was asleep, oblivious to what was happening. The movement woke her and she began to cry as Kimmie led the way over to the basement stairs. Larry handed Sally Trudy and helped Kimmie get the cabinet moved that hid the entrance of the short tunnel to the shelter. He let Kimmie guide Sally and Trudy into the shelter while he went upstairs to secure the house and bring down items from the kitchen and pantry.

Kimmie moved to help, but Sally grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave me here!”

“Okay, Sally. Okay. Settle down. You and Trudy are safe here with us.” Kimmie looked over at Larry and asked, “Is there much more?”

Larry shook his head. “No. I can get it. Go ahead and get things fired up.” Larry made two more trips and then locked the shelter door behind him. He could feel the cool dry air moving and the very faint sound of the blowers running.

For Sally’s and Trudy’s benefit, Larry was sure, all the lights were on in the shelter. Sally was looking around, Trudy asleep in her lap now. “I never knew this was here!” Sally said, looking at Kimmie when she came back into the main room of the shelter from one of the other rooms.

“Only a few people in my family know about it,” Kimmie said.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we? Radiation. Even here…”

“No, Sally. Death isn’t inevitable. If you follow our lead and do as we ask, you and Trudy will be fine.” Larry spoke reassuringly. “Unless a warhead goes way off course and hits within a few thousand yards, we’re safe.”

“Yes, Sally,” Kimmie added, “We have the shelter and we have food and water and everything else we need to get by for as long as we need to stay inside.”

“Oh.” It was a simple statement, but Sally finally seemed calm and able to understand the situation. “What do we do?”

“For the meantime,” Kimmie told Sally, “Nothing much but take care of Trudy. We’ll take care of what needs to be done for our safety and comfort.”

“Can I lie down and take a nap with Trudy?” Sally asked.

“Of course you can,” Kimmie replied. “Come on. I’ll show you where.”

While Kimmie got Sally and Trudy settled, Larry checked the communications center. It was completely shut down and grounded, as always. He didn’t bother opening the front of the faraday cage that enclosed the equipment.

He did take out a remote reading radiation survey meter and hook up the outdoor probe. There was nothing showing at the moment, but Larry marked the time and zero reading on a clipboard hanging near the faraday cage.

He checked the other systems in the shelter. All were on standby or operating as designed. Then he sat down at the communications desk and waited. There was still no radiation when Kimmie prepared a light supper and Larry sat down at the kitchen area table.

Sally looked better after her rest, and Trudy was energetically coloring in one of the activity books Kimmie and Larry had stocked on the off chance they would have a child by the time things got bad.

Larry decided to get some sleep after their supper. He would take over the watch from Kimmie during the night. He wanted either him or Kimmie monitoring the radiation meter to find out when the radiation started and when it peaked at their location. With that information, Larry could use the seven/ten rule to figure how long they would need to stay sheltered.

It was almost midnight when Kimmie woke Larry from a troubled sleep. “Honey! Larry! Wake up! The fallout is here. The meter just began to show some activity.”

“Okay. Thanks. I’ll be there as soon as I go to the bathroom.”

Kimmie went back to the communications desk and looked at the meter again. The needle had moved considerably since it first lifted from the peg.

Larry was there in just a few minutes and Kimmie gave him the chair. “I’m going to bed. Wake me up if there are any problems.”

“I will. I don’t anticipate any, but I’ll wake you if there are. This isn’t looking too bad, but only time will tell,” Larry said as he watched the slow progression of the meter from no radiation to higher levels. He had to switch ranges shortly after Kimmie went to bed. The readings began to climb again, but stopped rising and held steady for a few minutes shortly after three in the morning.

Larry felt a sense of relief. If this was the worst they got, it wasn’t going to be too bad. But there was always the chance of additional fallout from other targets hit after the initial strike.

The meter showed the gradual decay of the radiation over the next several days. There were no additional spikes.

Sally was terrified of the fallout and flatly refused to leave the shelter and go into the basement and then through the tunnels to the barn. Kimmie thought it would give her something to do, but Sally was just too scared. Fortunately Trudy didn’t pick up on it and was calm and curious through the whole process.

The animals were restless in the closed up barn and Larry spent a lot of time with them, besides the regular milking of the cows and feeding all of the animals. His presence and soft words and touches seemed to settle them down.

A week after taking shelter Larry was able to contact Joe on the radio. They were doing all right, too.

When the radiation dropped below 0.5 r, Larry suited up in protective gear and went out into the open for the first time to check on everything. There were no signs of anyone having been around since they’d sheltered. There was some fallout particle buildup on the solar panels and Larry carefully swept them clear.

He thought about starting the decontamination, but even at the radiation level as low as it was, he decided to wait until it was below 0.1 r, unless something happened in the meantime that required him to go out.

His first action after the radiation had fallen to the acceptable level was to decontaminate the atrium, around the house, garage, and barn. He let the animals out for a while, but until the radiation was down even more, the milk cows would be limited to stored hay and grain and would not be allowed to graze in the pasture.

Larry was glad the attack had come so late in the fall. It made it much easier to decontaminate the large garden plot, and the twenty acres that would be planted with wheat the next spring and the twenty acres that would be planted with wheat the year after. It simply wasn’t practical to decontaminate all the fields. But with the fields for the primary crops for upcoming human consumption cleared, he felt better about the future.

After arranging it over the radio, Larry went over to Joe’s to lend a hand with the decontamination around his place. With several of his fields leveled and graded, Henry, Ralph, and Larry were able to decontaminate them much more easily than Larry’s more rolling fields.

All during the days that they worked on the fields not another person had shown up at either farm, despite Amateur Radio contact with several people in the area. When some did show up at Joe’s, Larry was there. He’d been going armed since his first venture out of the shelter, so when three pickup trucks drove rapidly up the driveway, Larry was ready for them. He, Joe, and Ralph were working on a piece of equipment outside the barn at the time.

The trucks stopped and three men jumped out of each one. Each man was armed with a rifle or shotgun and they began firing as soon as they were clear of the trucks. Larry’s PTR-91 was leaning against the tractor and he grabbed it as Joe and Ralph lunged for their long guns, also close at hand.

Copyright 2010

 

[Jerry D Young]

With bullets whistling past, some of them striking the tractor, Larry went prone and began to fire back. The men weren’t even trying to find cover or concealment. They just charged, firing wildly. Absently Larry noted five AR platforms, three AK-47 clones, and one pump shotgun.

He grunted when a bullet grazed his shoulder, but it didn’t spoil his aim. He dropped a second man and two others fell as Ralph and Joe opened up. They, like Larry, had dropped to the ground behind a piece of equipment.

Suddenly two more men dropped, and one of the remaining men looked toward the house. Just in time to see Amy firing her carbine again. At him. He went down with a bullet between the eyes.

As suddenly as it started, it was over. The nine men were all down, and after Joe went from one to the other putting a bullet into their head, all nine men were dead. Larry heard a groan and looked over at Ralph. His face and chest were covered with blood.

Fearing the worst, Larry hurried over and helped Ralph over to a tool box so he could sit down. “How bad is it, Ralph?”

“Crimeny! That hurts!” Ralph said, putting a hand up to his head.

Larry was searching for a wound, but could see no sign of one.

“Busted my nose when I went down and then jerked and banged my head on the frame of tractor when a ricochet screamed past my ear.”

“You aren’t shot?” Larry asked, beginning to feel relieved.

“No. Don’t think so, anyway. But you are,” Ralph replied, pointing at Larry’s shoulder. “You got blood oozing.”

“Just a scratch,” Larry said, hoping that was all it was. He was beginning to feel the pain of the wound, but steeled himself to help Joe resolve the situation.

When he walked over to Joe, he was holding Amy in his arms. She was crying, but held her carbine in one hand, ready for more if it was necessary.

“Go on back to the house, Amy. You don’t want to see what happens now.”

“Larry! You’re shot! How’s Ralph?”

“He’s got a bump on the head and a bloody nose, but he’s okay. This is just a scratch. Looks worse than it is, I’m sure,” Larry replied. “How about you and Amy?”

“We’re fine,” Joe said. “Go on inside Amy. Get the first-aid kit ready. Minor or not, we’re going to treat Larry’s wound.”

Amy headed for the house and Joe went to one knee to go through the dead men’s pockets as Larry, grunting with the increasing pain, gathered up their firearms. Larry saw Ralph heading into the barn to the bathroom to get cleaned up some as he stacked the weapons by the tractor.

“Look at this,” Joe said when Larry walked back. Joe was bouncing several shiny gold coins in his hand. “Every one of them had at least two full ounces of gold on them. And look at the trucks. You recognize that old Ford?”

Larry looked at the classic 1959 Ford truck in pristine shape. Well, except for the two bullet holes in the open passenger door. “That’s Clark Sampson’s pride and joy!” Larry exclaimed. Larry looked at Joe. “You think they hit him and took his truck?”

“No. I don’t. I think that you know what is behind this. He’s the one that bought up most of my land. He wanted it from way back, but I wouldn’t sell. And he courted Amy before she married me. Got more money than Midas, and is always looking for the cheap, easy way to get what he wants. I think he paid these men to attack me to get the property. And Amy.”

“They must have been watching us for a while. It isn’t common knowledge that we’re preppers.”

“Not totally true,” Joe said with a sigh. “My one and only slip of the tongue was to Sampson. He happened to show up, to offer me a bit more for the property than the last time, when the truck delivering a load from Walton Feed was here. He saw the buckets and boxes and put two and two together. Accused me of being a survivalist.

“Well, I got mad, because he saw what he saw, and said what he said. ‘I’m no survivalist! I’m just a prepper looking to make it through rough times.’ I told him. That’s when he grinned and said, ‘In that case, I’ll make the offer in gold. I bet you’d like to have some of that, wouldn’t you?’

“He offered to buy me out in gold, half an ounce an acre. He could give me a fourth of it the next day, and the rest in a week.”

“So he had gold at the time,” Larry said.

“Almost had to have had,” replied Joe. “I suspect this is some of it.” Joe jingled the coins in his hands. I think I’m going to go pay Clark Simpson a visit.”

“Easy, now, Joe. We don’t want to go rushing in to something. They obviously did some surveillance on us… Oh, crap! Kimmie! What if they hit both places?” Larry paled and ran to his Dodge. A moment later he had Kimmie on the radio.

“Get Sally and Trudy, and the three of you get in the shelter and lock it down. We were just attacked here. I’m afraid they might be there, too!”

“Nothing happening here, but we’ll lock down. You okay?”

“Got a scratch, but I’m okay. I’ll be home in a little bit.”

“Okay. We’ll be in the shelter.”

Larry looked around at Joe. “I’m going to run over there. You don’t do anything until we can scope this whole situation out.”

“Okay. You don’t have to involve yourself in this feud between Sampson and me.”

“I got shot, probably by one of Sampson’s men,” Larry said. “I’m in it. If he thinks he can get away with taking you out, Kimmie and I can’t be far behind. I hope we’re wrong about this whole thing… That these were just some goons that did it on their own.”

“You know better,” Joe said.

“Yeah. I’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll put together a plan.”

“I’ll hold off until then. And look, if there is trouble at your place, have Kimmie radio me. We’ll be over there, with bells on, ASAP.”

“Thanks, Joe. I’ll see you tomorrow… Oh. The bodies…”

“We’ll handle them when Henry gets here,” Joe said. “You don’t worry about them.”

Larry nodded and got into the Dodge. He was careful approaching his property, more than a little worried that there might be an ambush laid for him. But he saw nothing and was soon at the house. He contacted Kimmie on the intercom and she came out of the shelter. Sally opted to stay inside with Trudy.

“Oh, Larry! Your shoulder!”

“Yeah. Amy was going to clean it up and bandage it, but this other thing came up.”

“I’ll get the first aid kit. You sit down and take off your shirt.”

Knowing it was useless to refuse, Larry took the time to let Kimmie clean and dress the wound. He blanched a bit when he saw the long rip in the back shoulder area of the shirt. The bullet had just nicked him, but had ripped the shirt as it passed.

It would have been much worse if it had been half an inch lower. He’d have a destroyed shoulder at the least, dead at the worst. With the wound clean and bandaged, Larry got another shirt and put it on. “I’m going to do a little look around. We may have been under observation.”

“Oh, Larry! Be careful!”

“You know I will.” He had carried his rifle in with him. Larry stopped at the truck on his way out and put on the LBE vest with additional magazines before he went to the barn. He checked on the animals and then made his way into the forest behind it.

It wasn’t until he had almost completed the circle around his property that he found the spot where someone had been, obviously to watch the house. There were cigarette butts around, and empty cans of food. From the looks of the spot, it had been used several days. Larry felt a chill down his back. He, Kimmie, Sally, or even Trudy could have been sniped at any time.

“Well,” Larry said firmly, “It won’t happen in the future.” He spent the rest of the day with helping Kimmie around the house and barn, weapon always at hand.

He was at Joe’s the next morning, early, to discuss strategy. Amy served him a cup of tea and then left to allow the two men to talk privately.

“What do you want to do?” Larry asked.

“What I want to do is give what I got. But we could easily wind up just as dead as those that attacked us. He’s bound to have more men ready to kill.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Larry replied. “I do think we should do a little surveillance ourselves, first.”

“Okay. You know I’m not going to be patient enough to just watch if I see an opportunity.”

“Yeah. I figured as much. I’ll do the surveillance and report back to you.”

“You be careful, Larry. Kimmie will do me bodily harm if I let you get hurt.”

“Don’t worry. I plan on being with Kimmie for a long time to come.”


Larry was good as his word. He was careful, but he found out what he and Joe needed to know. Clark Sampson had survived the nuclear attack and set up a small kingdom for himself. But his security was severely lacking. Apparently he’d sent the bulk of his men to attack Joe’s place. The six Larry saw still around the Sampson mansion were nothing to write home about.

And Clark wasn’t at all security conscious. He was often in view through a window, or outside, talking to one of the men guarding the house. Larry was sorely tempted to take a shot at Clark, but he really felt he needed to be surer that he’d ordered the attack.

He found his chance the third day he was watching the house. Totally oblivious to the risk he was taking, Clark took a stroll around the edge of his estate, a cigar in his mouth and a heavy tumbler of whiskey of some kind in his hand.

Larry eased forward from his hiding place, pistol in hand. When Clark was about to go past him, Larry stepped out from behind the tree he was hiding behind and pulled Clark around behind the tree with him, the pistol going to the back of Clark’s neck.

“I’m going to give you a chance,” Larry said. “Call off your dogs or Joe will kill you.”

“What do you mean? They haven’t come back…”

“That’s all I needed to know,” Larry said. “They won’t be. Send another group and they won’t come back either. You’re really lucky I don’t just pull the trigger and put you out of our misery.”

“I’ll have you killed before…”

Larry gave Clark a shove, causing him to fall, dropping the glass and cigar both. Clark bellowed for help and Larry made himself scarce. The guards were firing randomly into the wooded area where Larry had been hiding, but none came close to him. Larry beat it back to Joe’s and told him what had happened.

Coldly, Joe said, “I would have shot him then and there.”

“I just couldn’t, Joe,” Larry said. “Not just like that. Not even knowing he was the one that sent the men. If he’d only threatened Kimmie, I probably would have.”

“So, what do we do?” Joe asked. “He’ll obviously take you up on your challenge and send even more men this time, as soon as he can round them up.”

It was Larry’s turn to look cold. “That’s exactly what I want. Him trying to get ready for another attack. In the meantime, we sneak in again, and take out the guards and then deal with Clark.”

Slowly Joe grinned. “You set him up! He’s thinking we’re here trying to get ready for an attack, and we’re going in to get him before he can!”

“Yeah. Like… right now? I think the sooner the better. Just me and you. I don’t think we should involve Henry or Ralph.”

“Ralph won’t be happy. He didn’t just bloody his nose when he went prone, he broke it. He’s aching for some revenge.”

“Still, better just the two of us. I doubt if Sampson has spread around the fact that he’s attacked us once already. If we pull this off without anyone knowing, the better off we’ll be.” Larry had that cold look on his face again. It was matched by the one on Joe’s.

The two men wasted no time gearing up and heading for Clark Sampson’s. Larry chose a different route up to the house, expecting the one he’d used before would be being watched. He was right. Two men seemed to be concentrating on that spot. Two others were wandering around the estate together, carbines slung over one shoulder.

Wishing he had a suppressed weapon, Larry took aim on one of the two men on roving patrol. Joe sighted the other. He fired just after Larry did and the two men died on their feet. Swinging their guns around, two more shots took out the two guards now running toward the house.

There was no return fire as Joe and Larry made their way to the house. At least at first. They’d no sooner than stepped up to the front door, which Larry intended to kick in, when a burst of automatic weapons fire splintered the center of the door. Larry and Joe both ducked back as bursts came on each side of the door. The door slowly swung open, the latch destroyed by the firing.

Larry caught a bunch of wood splinters in his stomach, but they did no damage. There was silence for a few moments as Joe looked over at Larry. Larry suddenly nodded and both men went to one knee, in front of the open door and began to fire at the three men standing near the stairs that faced the front door.

One man went down immediately, but the other got off a burst, just missing Joe’s head. Joe could hear the bullets pass his ears again. He was really beginning to hate that sound. Two of his rapid fire shots eliminated the danger from that second man.

The third man was Clark himself. He held a classic Thompson Sub machinegun, with a fifty round drum in it. He was struggling with the drum, trying to remove it so he could reload when Larry and Joe both stepped inside. Larry was checking all around as Joe advanced on Sampson.

“Shouldn’t have tried to kill me, Clark,” Joe said. “This community needs resources that it can depend on. Not some feudal lord claiming everything for his own use.”

Clark dropped the Thompson. “Yeah. So. What are you going to do about it. Shoot me in cold blood? You don’t have the guts.”

“Yes. I do.” Joe pulled the trigger of the M1A and a hole appeared in Clark’s shirt, right over his heart. Clark dropped like a sack of feed, dead before his body hit the ground.

“What now?” Larry asked.

“I meant what I said. The community needs resources. I’m not above taking what Clark has and distributing them to those that need them. But first, let’s search the rest of the house, just in case.”

They didn’t find anyone else, but they did find room after room stacked with canned and packaged foods, toilet paper, and many other consumables. Sampson’s cohorts had not been idle in the days after the attack. Everything not tied down, and some things that were, had been salvaged for Sampson’s and his men’s private use.


It took three days to move everything that Joe and Larry didn’t want for themselves to the community center for distribution by the new town council that had been organized by the survivors. The products would keep the greatly reduced population of the town supplied with food until Joe, Larry, and three other local farmers that had survived could get crops planted and then harvested the next year.

The large amount of gold, and smaller amount of silver, that Joe and Larry had recovered from Sampson’s safe, after they got into it, was spread around during the next few months, mostly as payment for manual labor at the farms.

The nuclear exchange did nothing to mitigate the higher temperatures of the times. But the climate change had some advantages. Except in Europe, the temperatures stabilized and allowed for longer growing seasons, with plenty, sometimes too much, rainfall. It would be a thousand years or more before the trend reversed and ‘normal’ temperatures became the norm.


End ********

Copyright 2010
Jerry D Young

 

[SavageEagle]

Man I love these stories. They remind me of just how unprepared for these kinds of situations I really am.

 

[45-70]

Another good one Jerry. Thanks my friend.

 

[mms]

wow that was looooooooooooooooong but good

 

[emclean]

thank you for posting

 

[mitchmoore1989]

that was a great story! could be non fiction in the not to distant future