A Brutal Reset

Of Our Society

Pete Thorsen

Released on Kindle June 2015

 All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher/author, except that brief selections may be quoted or copied for non-profit use without permission, provided that full credit is given.  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are used fictionally.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely accidental.

Prologue

“… I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.
No one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading I denied
That leaves only me to blame 'cause Mama tried.”

That’s as much of Merle Haggard as I heard as the car with radio playing very loud pulled out away from the pumps.  I guess I was doing a lot better than the one in that song as I was well over twenty one and I had not yet seen the inside of a prison.  I wonder if the two just coming in the door could make that same statement.

The other guy that worked the graveyard shift had warned me about two black guys wearing the ever present black hoodies who stole beer and threatened him while he was on duty.  I decided that would not happen on my shift.  I walked around the counter and started arranging the items on display near the door. 

Sure enough the two were coming from the back and each was carrying a case of beer.  As they got close I spoke.

“I’ll just be a second and I can ring you up.”

“Ain’t nobody gonna ring nobody up.  Get outta the way cracker.”

I stood up but stayed between them and the door.  Even though I knew he was speaking English he was somewhat hard to understand.

“Gentlemen of course I have to ring up the sale.”

The first one was close enough now and he actually swung the case of beer as a weapon!  What an idiot.  The case was too heavy and awkward to work for a weapon.  I just stepped slightly out of the way then stepped back in as the beer missed me and grabbed his other arm which I used for leverage to throw him on the floor.  I did not let go of the arm and applied enough pressure until I heard it break, only then did I let go.  And then I faced the other man.

The other guy was smart enough to put his beer down on the floor but he then pulled out a knife.

“I’m goona cut you up cracker.”

He made a very amateur lounge at my mid section with his knife which was very easy to evade.  I grabbed the hand with the knife using both of my hands and applied pressure to the back of his hand with my thumbs and the knife clattered to the floor.

Stepping into him I just pushed back and when he tried to step back to keep his balance he found one of my feet behind him which caused him to trip and fall backward.  I rode down with him and on the way brought my knee up to his mid section and allowed all of my over two hundred pounds of weight to fall on that one knee.  I heard at least a single rib snap when we hit the floor.

I got up and walked around the counter and called the police.  I told them that there was a robbery in progress at my location and please send someone as soon as possible because I was afraid for my very life before I hung up the phone.

I then walked back around the counter to keep the two guys company that were both still lying on the floor with both of them moaning.  When I walked back over near them both tried to crawl away from me and I believe I heard both of them tell me to stay away from them along with an extreme number of swear words of course.   

Chapter 1

My folks were rather poor and I was working to earn my own money before I turned sixteen.  When I graduated from high school there was no thought of college of course.  But I did want to get away so I joined the Army.

Believe me I was not the only one who was poor that signed up for the Army.  There were many different reasons people joined whether they were poor or not but that was mostly my reason.  Plus I did consider my self to be patriotic and I think I loved my country.

I found that Army life was not too bad.  I made a few acquaintances if not really friends and would get moved and make a couple more at the new location.  We were still fighting in Afghanistan and I did a few tours there and saw a small amount of action I guess.  Mostly for me it was rather boring. 

I did learn to fight though.  Not so much from what the Army taught me but a few guys knew stuff and we would fool around and I did learn quite a lot from them.  One guy was from New Orleans and he was amazing with a knife.  He taught me and a couple other guys quite a lot.

I was over there when my folks died in a car accident on the highway.  There was no drunk driver or anything.  My folk’s car swerved across the median and hit a truck head on in the on-coming lane.  My dad died at the scene but they took my mom to the hospital though she died the next day without ever regaining consciousness.  The truck driver was fine and walked away from the crash.  The county did an autopsy and said my dad probably died not from the crash but from a heart attack.

I never went back for the funeral.  An Aunt took care of the arrangements.  The house was sold along with the contents.  There was a big hospital bill from them trying to save my mom and nothing they had was worth much and there was nothing left after the hospital bill and the funeral expenses.

I stayed in the Army until they pretty much closed down the Afghanistan operation.  At that point I got out and came back to where I used to live near Atlanta.  There was nothing there for me anymore but that was the only spot I had ever lived and that is why I returned there I guess.  I got a very small apartment right on the edge of Atlanta and got a job as a clerk at a convenience store near the apartment.

Join the Army and learn a trade so you can get a real job, was the one of the ads for the Army.  Well I guess I did get a real job but a graveyard shift clerk at gas station does not earn much money I can tell you.

I had a bunch of money saved up from when I was in the Army and I lived so frugal that I could even save a little bit from the crummy job I had now.  I had no friends so that saved me a lot of money probably.  I had never been a drinker so I did not waste any money at the bars like many people did and maybe more than a few veterans did too I think.

The job was crappy but it was a job and I did not know what I wanted to do with my life now that I was back in civilian life.  I very briefly considered being a cop but that was not for me I knew.  Neither was being a gas station clerk.

So I just put in my time and thought about what I should do.  I could maybe go get some college now using my veteran’s benefits and that was a possibility but it just did not seem like what I wanted to do right this minute either.

I just did not know what to do and maybe that was fairly common I heard for guys when they got out of the military.  I think I was adjusting fine being back in the states and I certainly wasn’t suicidal or anything like that.  I guess there were many vets that just could not adjust and suicide rates were very high with vets.  At least I heard that on the news.

I did listen to the news and would read the newspaper at work.  It seems the whole world was a much screwed up place right now.  It seemed many places in the world were just teetering on going to war.  The Middle East was worse than ever right now and several countries there did not even have functioning governments anymore.

The Far East was a powder keg with China and several other countries fighting over some tiny un-inhabited islands in the middle of the China Sea for reasons known only to them.  I would not think that would amount to anything but I looked like China was ready to go to all out war over that worthless land.  I don’t know if all the islands together in that chain would have enough land for a couple of football fields. 

The only thing I could think of was maybe there something under the sea there as there was certainly nothing there above it.  Maybe oil.

Besides the Middle East and the China Sea being ready to start world war three there was Europe.  Seems there was a lot of stuff going on in a country called Ukraine.  A bunch of stuff happened in that country which resulted in the President being thrown out.  A coup.  And when they got the brand new President there was a lot of unrest to say the least.  There was a full fledged civil war and in the middle of it Russia annexed an area known as Crimea which was apparently fine with the people that lived there but not with the new Ukraine government.  So the USA put sanctions on Russia and the Ukraine civil war kept going and no one knows what will happen there next.  It could be the spot that starts world war three.  Who knows.  And all this war stuff is happening at a time when basically every country is stone cold broke and has no money.  Including the great United States.

Chapter 2

Well I don’t work at the convenience store any longer.  I got fired there.  There were a couple guys that tried to steal some beer and I stopped them but I got fired for saving the company money.

After I stopped the guys from stealing the beer and called the cops I went through a lot.  I guess when I stopped them from stealing I did hurt them a little.  I had to answer countless questions from the police.  A detective asked me a lot of the questions even though there was a surveillance video of the whole thing that clearly showed the two guys attacked me and I just defended myself.  Of course I knew about the cameras.

“So you were afraid for your very life you stated in the nine one one call?”

“Yes sir.  The first guy tried to kill me using that stolen case of beer.”

“Yes I saw that in the video.  At that point it was not stolen beer of course because they had not left with it.  You did not think you could get away from the two men?”

“No sir.  I can’t run very fast and I was sure if I tried to get away they would catch me and really hurt me or maybe even kill me.”

“So you were able to avoid getting hit by that case of beer and you broke the arm of that guy who swung the beer at you.  How did you learn to do that?”

“I really don’t know what I was doing and I’m not sure how that guy’s arm got broken.  I was so scared at that point I can’t even remember it very well at all.”

“Then after you some how broke the arm of that man, you were then attacked by the other man and he had a knife and said ‘he was going to cut you up real bad’?”

“I seem to remember him saying that sir.  Though I must admit when either one of them spoke it was very hard for me to understand what they were saying.  It was almost like they were speaking a different dialect of English.”

I think he smiled just a tiny bit at that statement.

“I see.  So it is a little hard to see on the video exactly what happened next when the man tried to stab you with that knife.  The knife is very plain in the video but what happened next is hard to follow even when we slow the tape way down.  It sure happened very fast.”

“I remember being very scared and then the man tried to stab me.  I guess I tried to get out of the way of the knife and somehow we tripped together and we both fell to the floor.  He was on the bottom and I guess I am pretty heavy and must have hurt him when we fell.  Do you think you will have to take me to jail?”

“I don’t think so.  It seems very obvious to me that you were viciously attacked by those two men and only through the grace of God you somehow came out of it without being hurt or killed.  I hope you can try to get past this and go on with your life.  I have your address and I might have to ask you more questions at some point but for right now I see no reason to even take you down to the police station.  I’m glad you are all right and did not get hurt.  I did run both of those guys’ names through the system and they both have long records with the police.  When they get out of the hospital they will be going directly to jail.  You are very lucky you did not get even a scratch on you through the whole ordeal.”

“I do feel very lucky to not have been hurt.”

“I suggest going home and trying to get some sleep.  Good day to you.  You are free to go.”

“Thank you sir.”

I did think it was kinda strange that the Detective did shake my hand before he left and he seemed to have a very small smile on his face when he did.  But he seemed like a nice man and likely he often smiled at people while doing his job.

I thought it was all done and over with at that point but boy was I ever wrong.  There were a million news people there but I refused to talk with any of them.  Though a couple of the reporters were very pretty and I admit I kinda wanted to talk with them but I didn’t.

The next night I went back in to work my shift and the boss was there and told me I was fired for my actions the previous night.  It was clearly against company policy to resist during any robbery and that was clearly stated in the employee handbook that I had signed a statement saying that I had received and read said the document I signed at the time of my hiring. 

That was it no notice, no nothing just I was out the door and among the many unemployed now.  This happened just a couple days before Christmas, not that it mattered to me but the news got wind of me being fired for only trying to protect myself and the store’s merchandise.  And right before Christmas too.

Well I guess it was picked up by the national news outlets and as they now say ‘it went viral’.  Luckily they did not have much of a picture of me but that apparently did not stop them.  A few days into the New Year there was a knock on the door to my apartment and when I opened it I could see a couple of cameramen and what I guess was a reporter.

“Are you Benjamin Anderson?”

“Yes.  What do you want?”

“Well after you lost your job for just trying to protect yourself right before Christmas there was some money raised by regular people that just wanted to help you.  The amount raised is now well over ten thousand dollars.   We just wanted to get your comments on getting all that money.”

“I have no comments as I will not accept any money that I did not work for.  I never asked for any kind of donations on my behalf.  I would only ask that any money raised be returned to the nice people who wanted to help.  If the money can not be returned then I would appreciate it if it could just be given to the Red Cross or the local churches.  Thank you.  Good bye.”

“Wait Mister Anderson don’t you want the money?”

“I thought I made myself clear.  No I will not accept that money.  I knew nothing about it or I would have tried to stop it sooner.  Like I said return it or give it to the Red Cross or the local churches.  Thank you.  Good bye.”

“Wait Mister Anderson don’t you need that money?”

“I’m sure I will get another job soon.  Thank you for inquiring about my welfare.  Good bye.  And no you do not have my permission to show any film or audio of this encounter.  Good day.”

I closed the door and hoped that was the end of it.  I do not know how they got my name and address.  Maybe they got a copy of the police report or maybe they got the information from my now previous employer.  I don’t really know.  If it was either of those two entities then I do not appreciate that they gave out my personal information.  I suppose it is possible that the police might not have had a legal means to hide my information.  I just don’t know.  No matter what I do not like it.  And I do not like that money was raised on my behalf and that I knew nothing about it.  It is certainly not fair to those that donated that money to me in good faith think I had asked for it when in fact I did not.  And that I will not accept it.  But if it goes to one or all of the organizations that I suggested then I suppose the money will eventually help someone who really is in need.  That person is just not me.  So those that did donate the money will be helping someone who deserves it.

Chapter 3

Well I got a new job!  It is the same as my last job only at a different place.  The boss here either did not know what happened at my last job or did not care.  I asked for graveyard shift and so that is what I am working again.  It pays a little better than the regular shifts do and I am used to working those hours now.

I started out making the same as what I was getting at the other place and this one is just a little bit closer to my apartment.  Though I live very frugally I do spend a little money at a gym.  It is actually a martial arts place.  I train there twice a week and on Saturdays it is open much of the day so I can go work out.  There is often someone else there to spar with to on Saturdays.  It keeps my in shape and does not cost very much at all.

Two weeks into my new job and I had to call nine one one again.  This time just because there was a fender bender on the street right in front of the place.  No one was hurt and it did not amount to much but I did call it in.  The cops came and I guess they got things sorted out fairly quickly.  One of the cops came in I guess to see if I had any more information about the accident.

“You the one who called in the accident?”

“Yes.  I did not see it I only looked up after I heard the crash.”

“Oh I remember you.  New job huh?”

“Yes I just started here a couple weeks ago.”

“I heard you turned down that money that was raised for you.  I know that a few of the guys sent in some money for you.”

“I hope they aren’t mad because I did not take the money?”

“No just the opposite.  It just reinforced the reason we donated the money to you.  I’ll let the Detective know you are working here now in case he wants to stop by.  You ever think about being a cop?”

“I did but I don’t think it’s for me.  No offence to you or other cops though.”

“No problem.  It’s not a job for everyone that’s for sure.”

“I’m not sure what I want to do.”

“Just get out of the military?”

“Yes.  It shows huh?”

“Hey not a bad thing.  Take your time and make the right decision.  Well I better get back at it.  Have a good night.”

“You too Officer.”

I fell into the same old routine at this job.  This place had a TV playing the news all the time too.  I’m not too sure it is always the whole truth we hear on the printed and broadcast news though but I listen to it anyway.  The economy is definitely not improving any despite what the news says.  Sometimes I stop at the library and use one of the computers there and get more news and information off the internet.  Can’t believe all of that news on the internet either but at least there you can find differing views on things.

They now say unemployment is only just over five percent but I do have a little trouble believing that is true.  But I have to admit I had no real trouble finding another job, such as it is, pretty quickly when I started looking.

On the internet they said most of the new jobs are just part time jobs.  Just like the one I have.  I read about all the financial trouble the European Union is having and Greece is in the news just about every day it seems.  Yet the stock markets here are setting record highs just about every week.  And it is not just American stock markets because across the globe the world markets are setting record highs also at the same time the economies are stagnant or even shrinking everywhere.  It sure makes no sense at all. 

In Europe you have to pay the banks just to hold your money for you.  They pay no interest and instead you have to pay them.  That is hard to believe and is just the opposite as the way it has been for hundreds of years.  No way is that right.  Things are really screwed up.

On the internet many regular people and also many economists are talking about a possible economic collapse soon, like maybe this fall.  I don’t really doubt those predictions though most of the economists do say the exact date is very hard to pin down and things might keep going the way they are now for quite some time yet.  I can understand that because obviously they are all just guessing about what will happen.  No one can see the future, all any of us can do is guess what will happen and when.

I certainly would not want to be a cop now.  There have been protests in several cities where cops have shot people.  Often it was white cops who shot black bad guys.  There were riots in a couple cities.  Many businesses were looted and some were burned down.  The National Guard had to be brought in just to restore the order.  That’s not good.  Makes me wonder what the spring and summer will bring, I think more riots.

There was talk on the internet about people being hired and paid to protest and to riot.  Who would pay for that?  And why would they would they want stuff like that to even happen?  Who benefits from chaos?  I can not figure it out and the sad part is that I think I believe its likely true that people are being paid to do these things even though it seems to make no sense.

When all the protests and riots had been happening in those other cities we had a few protests here in sympathy to those other cities.  This has me concerned and if things get worse this summer I will just leave town and go somewhere else.  Somewhere that is not likely to have riots or even protests.  That to me means to a smaller town and in a much less populated area.  I will head west until I find a place that looks good.

But I will stay here for now and just see what happens.  I have put on hold any big decision about what I am going to do with my future.  There is just too much turmoil right now.  I will just wait until things settle down and get more normal again before I make any big decisions about my future life.  That seems pretty reasonable to me.  Of course that assumes that things will settle down and get back to ‘normal’.

Chapter 4

The job is going fine I guess, such as it is.  I have not had to stop anyone from stealing so that is good.  I have been thinking about what I would need to have on hand if I decided all at once to get out of town.

When I got out of the military after all those years I had a fair bunch of money saved up.  I bought three things fairly quickly.  I bought an old Toyota pickup that was about the same age as me and looked like it too.  But the motor runs very well and that is really all I care about.

I also bought an AR-15 rifle and a Berretta Model 92 pistol in nine millimeter.  Those two guns were similar to the ones the Army used and I thought they should be good enough for me.  I did get a few accessories to go with the guns along with some ammunition.

Now I was thinking about what else I should have on hand for when I decided to leave.  So on one of my days off I went to a large sporting goods store near here to pick up a few things.  I got a reasonable tent that was one of the very few that was not a bright color (this one was fairly dark gray).  A sleeping bag and a few camping supplies.  They had some backpacking food and I bought a selection of that also.  They seemed to have everything you could ever want and soon my cart was overflowing.  I finally thought enough is enough and paid for everything and left the store.

A couple weeks later when I had three days off in a row I loaded up and drove well out of town and found a place where I could camp to try everything out.  Camping was no new thing to me after being deployed so many times.  Just the terrain and the equipment were different.  Everything went fine and when I returned back home again I took the list of little things that I had forgotten to buy and went and got them so I would have things a little bit better on my next outing. 

While things were going smooth in my life that was not happening world wide I can tell you.  The world was a mess and seemed to get worse daily.  There were war escalations everywhere with threats thrown by everyone at everyone else it seemed. 

On the economic front Greece missed their payment to the European Union for their bailout a few years ago.  They missed the payment and said they would be making no more payments for the foreseeable future.  This caused quite a debacle around the world even though I think everyone knew very well it was coming.  Greece had even made statements ahead of time saying that was their intention.

So stock markets fell, gold prices went up, the Euro went down in value, and the dollar went up in value but really not much changed all that much.  Like I said everyone knew what would be happening.  Now Portugal was talking about doing the same as Greece.  And if they did then you could likely expect other countries like Spain and Ireland to do the same.  This was not looking very good for the future.

Many banks in the United States reported their losses now that Greece defaulted on all their loans.  It seems like the banks here somehow thought it was wise to invest in Greece even though everyone knew that Greece was in dire financial straits and would very likely default at some point.  So our banks made it almost impossible for Americans to get a loan for a house but they would lend money to Greece?  Something was seriously wrong with that picture.

At home the GDP figures had been negative for the first two quarters of this year.  And everyone was making all kinds of excuses for this drop and kept saying our economy was strong and would grow the rest of the year for sure.  I think they must be trying to convince themselves because no one else believed it.

Many states were in financial trouble and Arizona was the first I think that put a cap on welfare in their state.  When there was not too much backlash five additional states did the same thing to try and balance their budgets.  Of course the federal government did not have to do any cuts because their budget was never balanced, it always ran a deficit.  The national debt would soon be waving eighteen and half trillion good bye.  A number that was impossible to comprehend and certainly would never be paid off or even paid down any.

Now more and more economists were warning a crash was coming and coming soon.  Many when asked what could be done to stop any crash just said it was too late and the crash was inevitable at this point.  The timeline for when a crash would happen ran the gamut from next week to five years from now though most would just say ‘soon’.

And just when the protests were done in America and things might get calmer for awhile a trial for a young police officer ended with an acquittal and the policeman walked out of court a free man.

The case was about two unarmed people (black, though it made no difference) that were stopped by thirteen police officers in Cleveland after a car chase.  A car backfired and at least one cop must have assumed he was being shot at by the two in the car and he shot his gun with what he thought was return fire.  Upon one officer shooting the other twelve cops also started shooting.  The scene ended with one cop jumping up on the hood of the car and firing fifteen shots point blank through the windshield into the occupants.  This was the officer that went to trial. 

A total of one hundred and thirty seven shots were fired by the policemen at the unarmed occupants of the car killing them.  The end result was civil suits against the police department (the result of which the taxpayers would have to pay) and some possible disciplinary action for the policemen involved.  The acquittal of that one policeman started all the civil unrest up again.

There were again protests not just in Cleveland but in many cities across the country.  It was not long after that a policeman in another city shot another unarmed black teen and this time it was ruled a justifiable shooting and no charges of any kind were brought against that officer.  Right or wrong this inflamed the protesters and now many of the protests turned into riots. 

Even before these events started to run down another trial came up from a much earlier cop shooting and again the policeman was acquitted.  Again it was a white cop and now dead black man.  It was just like pouring gas on a fire with the protests. 

The media seemed to be doing everything they could to fan the flames to keep their ratings up.  Even our President seemed to only make things worse with every speech he made.  No one ever mentioned that most blacks were killed by other blacks and had nothing to do with police.  No mention was made that as a percentage of population blacks caused way more crimes than whites.  No one mentioned that cops killed white people also.  I think facts in these cases had little to do with what was happening.

Maybe it was because blacks had way more unemployment than whites.  Maybe the police did target blacks more than whites (and if so maybe that was justified) though it could not be proven.  Maybe everyone was just frustrated and upset by the long drawn out economic downturn in the United States. 

Maybe the media and even the White House and Congressmen should not keep harping continually on the ‘income inequality’ in the United States.  That sure did not help when the economy was so bad that most everyone was hurting financially.  No one wanted to blame themselves for anything, always everything was someone else’s fault.  

Chapter 5

But what did I know about stuff, I was just a scruffy looking low wage, part-time night shift clerk at just another twenty four hour convenience store.  What could a poverty level worker know about anything?  I knew enough to watch the news daily because I felt things would come to head fairly soon and it might be bad times for almost everyone.

With the protests that were now often changing to riots the police were out in force to try and keep some order.  Naturally there were many confrontations between rioters and those police officers.  And there always seemed to be video of everything.  Now video is a great thing but like everything else it can be used in a negative way.  There were a couple videos showing cops using their batons on rioters.  The whole video showed what led up to the use of those batons but often just the very short section of the video was shown where the police were whacking people and often the narrative was ‘police beating protesters’.  Naturally this just led to more unrest.

The next escalation was when rioters threw Molotov cocktails at police and several of these police officers received severe burns.  In that city SWAT snipers were placed on certain rooftops and the population were told that the snipers would indeed be used to protect the officers on the street from being shot, burned, or otherwise injured. 

I don’t think anyone believed that those snipers would actually shoot anyone and most people believed there were no snipers to begin with.  Less than a week later when one of the rioters lit a Molotov cocktail he was shot and killed.  The shot that killed him went through the rioter after killing him and hit another rioter in the leg causing a severe wound.  Only the one shot was fired and two rioters were down.

In the days that followed this shooting by the police sniper the act whipped the rioters and protesters into a frenzy.  And it also made the ranks of protesters swell to amazing levels.  There were now protests in just about every large city in the nation.

Many were shocked that the police would even have snipers.  Even more were shocked that these snipers would be used against common citizens.  More and more the police were being compared to our military Armed Forces.  Often they were called ‘cowardly snipers’, I guess because they were located well away from the action on the streets.

And the more protests and more riots led to more and more confrontations.  Police reserves were called up and police from outlying more rural areas were called in to bolster the big city police forces.  When pictures of people hurt, arrested, or killed by police were shown on TV it was never mug shots but happy photos like graduation pictures or at birthday parties or whatever to try to show that they were innocent everyday people.  Often the pictures used were from several years ago showing much younger people.

It seemed everything was done not to calm everyone down but just to enrage them even more.  The rioters looted countless stores and burned many stores and cars in many different cities.

With just about every city in financial dire straits to begin with all these riots and protests were sapping what little money the cities had left.  It cost a lot of money to have all those police on duty and to call in extra help plus pay the overtime hours.  Then in many cases police cars were damaged or in many cases burnt up and ruined costing the cities even more money.  The stores closing from being burned or looted or even shortening their hours because of the protests was costing the cities even more with the loss of the tax revenue.  A surprising amount of revenue in most cities was from tourism and the protests and riots put an almost complete stop to that income stream. 

Chicago was hit very hard in all of this and before it all started they had their credit rating downgraded to poor because of their financial situation.  Now they were even way worse off and bankruptcy was being talked about.  Many other cites were in very similar financial situations.  The closed stores and businesses led to people to be either out of work or experiencing much shortened hours.  The workers then had to apply for unemployment and often welfare and food stamps.  Causing even more of a drain on the economy as a whole.   And still there was no end in sight to this madness.

Everything said or done seemed to just lead to more unrest and more confrontations.  Again and again the term ‘militarized police’ was used and the pictures of police in SWAT gear or riot gear were shown.  The armored vehicles that most every police force now has were always prominently shown in just about every newscast.

And it was not just police that were targeted either.  The firemen going out on calls were harassed, attacked, and sometimes fired on by protesters and rioters.  Many times the fire trucks would wait for police escorts before they would drive to the fires.  Often car fires never even got a fire department response.

With the riots expanding and becoming more violent that led to the National Guard being called out by several Governors to help maintain order.  Now people were really seeing what militarization looked like.  Many of these deployed National Guard troops had seen extensive combat in the Iraq and Afghan wars and they had all the same military gear that they had used in those foreign locations.  They were real combat troops and they looked the part.  Dusk to dawn curfews were enacted in many of the worst hit cities and now with the National Guard troops there they had the manpower to enforce those curfews.  Again and again on the street and in the news there was talk of this being Martial Law or at least had the look of Martial Law anyway.  Americans across the nation were not happy; whether they lived in those cities or not.  This was not the America that anyone wanted. 

Having protesters and rioters in cities being patrolled by well armed combat troops could only lead to deadly confrontations.  It was only a matter of time.

Chapter 6

All this was happening across the nation and Atlanta was right up there with the other hard hit cities.  This had started out to be a black protest thing and Atlanta had a very large black population.  When the rioting started here the looting soon affected a very large number of businesses in many areas of the city.  After all you could not keep looting the same store so the rioters would move to different streets or different areas of the city just about every night it seemed. 

Everyone had cell phones and I think these were used for wide spread and rapid communications between the rioters.  Police whereabouts were reported and the rioters would always seem to be a street or two away from the main police presence.  One or two police units were no match for a hundred or more quickly forming rioters and looters.

Luckily for me the convenience store where I worked was more on the edge of the city.  So far none of the riots or even the protests had ever come anywhere close to here at all.  Everything was several miles from this location.  But like many other places the rioting here kept getting worse and worse.  Again this did not really directly effect me in any way at least until things got so bad the National Guard was called out and put in place here in Atlanta just like in other cities.

When the mayor here had the National Guard to back him up he called for a curfew.  As soon as the curfew went into effect I was out of a job.  Of course I was not fired or anything.  I just was more like on furlough or temporarily laid off.  I was assured that when the curfew was lifted I would be working the same hours as I was now or I should say I had been working.   

America was not the only country having trouble.  All of Europe was getting deeper into financial trouble.  When Greece defaulted the Euro had fallen and still was way down.  The Euro was worth way less than the dollar now and that was hurting the European Union countries substantially. 

Then in the same day a rocket shot down an airliner in France and also one in England.  ISIS claimed responsibility for those actions and stated that was just the beginning as they were now ready to attack the west on their own soil.  A week later another airliner went down in Spain and international air travel while still moving was dramatically reduced with everyone afraid to be on an airplane.

The huge loss in tourist dollars had an immediate effect on the incomes of many countries that were already just hanging on by a thread.  Most greatly depended on this tourist money as a major source of their income and the loss of this income had a ripple effect in many areas.  The result was even more financial hardships for the countries and their citizens, both of which were already about at the end of their financial ropes.  Several countries that had received loans to just stay afloat defaulted on those loans.  This had an immediate effect across most of the world markets including the US markets. 

The DOW fell dramatically like it had in the past after any major terrorist attack.  This time it was a double whammy of both terrorist attacks and the other countries economic failures.  The market fell after the terrorists hit those planes then as it slowly started to creep up again the financial woes of several of the European counties pushed the stock market back down and changed the trend from slowly rising to steadily falling.

With the default in now several European countries several big banks in the United States admitted that they had been heavily invested in those countries that were now in default.  These too big to fail banks looked to Congress again for a bail out to keep them afloat.  There were closed door sessions and meetings in the Capital building and the result was no bailout like last time.  But the banks were not left high and dry.  The citizens of the United States learned a couple of new terms, bail-in and hair-cut.

Everyone with money in these major banks took a major hair-cut because the banks basically took the money out of Savings Accounts, Checking Accounts, Certificates of Deposit, Money Market Accounts, and any other cash deposits.  Supposedly these depositors were compensated for these deposits by receiving bank shares in place of the cash.  Of course these shares were basically worthless but it helped justify the seizure of the cash.  The cash seizures were limited to a sliding percentage of each depositors account balance.  The more money you had the more the bank took from you.  If you had less than one thousand dollars your money was not touched.  Amounts over one thousand had some money removed from the account on a sliding scale.

Congress then did act and temporarily froze all retirement accounts across the country.  With the falling stock market many people had seen the writing on the wall and had started closing out their IRA’s, 401k’s, and other retirement accounts which for the most part were all invested in the stock markets with some also in the bond markets (which they realized were really no safer than stocks).  That stopped when our government froze all those retirement accounts.  Capital controls were not instituted because the banks had already taken most of everyone’s money out of all the cash accounts.

The US stock markets were closed with no time given as to when they would be reopened.  America’s whole economy started grinding to a halt.  The protests and riots that had been about black lives and police brutality now were bolstered by a whole new group of people.  People who had lost their money to the banks or had their pension funds frozen by our government joined those protesters.  The loss of the cash in the banks caused many small businesses to close immediately.  They could not buy supplies or pay their employees so they had no choice but to close their doors. 

Even large businesses either had to cut way back or close down.  Huge numbers of people found themselves out of work and whatever savings they had stolen by the banks or frozen by their government.  The closing of businesses did not happen overnight (like the bank bail-in had done) but did happen pretty rapidly.  People were left bewildered and angry.  And they became very angry protesters. 

In a sense this did bring the country together.  The protests now had blacks and whites protesting side by side with a common enemy- the government.

Chapter 7

When the curfew went into effect and I basically lost my job I only waited for my final check to clear the bank before I left the city.  I was ready to leave anyway before the curfew because of all the violence here in Atlanta.  I don’t really know why I waited as long as I did though the violence did take place some distance from my location.  At work I always parked my old pickup in a spot that I could see from the counter where I was always working.

Twice I did go out and run people off that showed too much interest in that old truck.  Neither time was there any altercation.  One look at the old truck and they knew it was not worth stealing and certainly would contain nothing of value.

I left town in the middle of the month and had to forfeit the remainder of that months rent though luckily they did give me back the damage deposit.  I closed out my bank account which I had never kept much money in anyway.  I trusted the banks as much as the next guy but wanted my cash close so if I wanted or needed to leave in a hurry I would have the cash on hand.

I did not really have much for personal belongings to pack up.  Half or more was all the camping gear I had just recently bought.  I bought some large plastic tote boxes at a couple of thrift stores and put everything in them so nothing would get wet in the back of my old pickup.  My last two purchases in town were a fill of gas and a new detailed road atlas of the United States.  I tied everything down well and left town heading west with absolutely no destination in mind.

I had never taken a road trip before in my life.  And other than going to a couple different military bases I had never traveled anywhere in the United States at all.  So this would be a whole new experience for me.  Traffic on the highway seemed lighter than I expected though I had no experience to judge it by. 

Since the terrorists had downed those planes all air travel had dried up with people afraid to get on a plane.  Of course many people now had very little money to do anything with, whether it was buying plane tickets or just buying food.  I found it rather pleasant driving and seeing new stuff all along the way.  I did not drive near as fast as the few other cars seemed to be driving.

I was in no hurry and besides this old truck was not exactly a race car.  But people did not seem to mind and just whizzed past me.  I was careful not to go so slow that I was a menace on the road but most it looked like they were traveling well over the speed limit.  They were obviously in a hurry for some reason known only by them.  I never saw any police cars on the highway, whether that is normal or not I don’t know. 

This pickup got pretty good mileage but I stopped fairly often to stretch my legs and top off the fuel tank.  I rather liked the old truck but it really wasn’t the best choice for someone my size I don’t think. 

I drove quite a ways that first day and picked the Tombigbee National Forest as my stopping point for the night.  I found a camping spot that in an area that looked like I had to myself though there were spots here for many other campers.

I set up my tent and decided to cook over an open fire instead of using the small camp stove I had purchased with the rest of the camping gear.  I got a very small fire going and cooked my meager supper on it.  Most people don’t realize just how small a fire you need just to cook a simple meal.  It does not have to be bigger than your cooking pot that’s for sure.

I had eaten and cleaned up what dishes I had used when another camper pulled in and parked about as far from my spot as they could.  Nice of them I thought to myself at the time though it was still was not very far away from me.

It was late when they pulled in and full dark when the noise started.  When I heard a woman scream I shoved my pistol in the small of my back and started walking that direction.  On the way I heard the woman scream a couple times and what sounded like someone being hit.  They had a lantern going and when I got close enough I could see the three of them plainly.

There were two men and a woman.  The woman looked very worse for wear and was only about half dressed.  When one man slapped her and shoved her down and then looked like he was about to kick her I spoke.

“It might be best if you did not treat a woman like that.”

None of them had any idea I had walked up there and all three looked in my direction at the sound of my voice.

“This is none of your concern.  Get lost so you don’t get hurt.”

“I don’t rightly see how I can do that.  Why don’t you just step away from the woman and we will see if she would rather come with me.”

“I will not warn you again.  Back off now or get dead.  Is that plain enough for you?”

As he spoke he pulled a pistol from his belt.  I assume he could see me but the bright lantern was between me and the three of them and it was much closer to them than to me.  When he started to bring the pistol up to point in my direction I drew mine and as soon as it was pointed at him I pulled the trigger twice.  The shots were not aimed as I could not see the sights but this close it was impossible for me to miss his large torso.  As soon as I shot the two shots into the man I turned slightly toward the other.  This one had a pistol also and by this time he had it pulled out and was swinging it in my direction when I shot two more times.  Both of my bullets struck home and he did fire one shot but it did not come anywhere close to me.

The woman was pretty quick and grabbed the fallen gun from the first guy I had shot.  She had her finger on the trigger and it was pointed directly at me.

“Easy.  I am not your enemy.  Keep the pistol pointed at me if you wish but please just take your finger off the trigger.  I won’t hurt you.”

As I was talking I put my pistol away again so it was out of sight.  She kept the gun pointed at me for I think a whole minute before I saw her remove her finger from the trigger.

“Thank you.  I can turn around and leave now if you want me to.  My camp is just a little ways away.  If you want I will stay for a bit and help you.  It is totally up to you.  I only came here because I heard you scream.  Do you want me to leave?”

“You killed those men.”

“Yes I did but they were hurting you and then it looked like they were about to try and kill me.”

“But you killed them.”

“Yes I did.  I’m sorry if that upset you.”

“They were awful men.”

“I gathered that fact all by myself, ma’am.”

“You killed them.”

“Look at my face.  You are safe now.  Safe.”

The woman moved her head slightly and looked directly at my face instead of just in my direction and said or did nothing for some time.  Then the blank look on her face changed and she dropped the gun.  When she looked like she was about to fall down I walked over to her and slowly put my arms around her.  That’s what they always did in the movies so that is what I did here.

She did not resist or really do anything.  I just held her for quite some time and at one point I realized that I was supporting most of her weight which was not much because she was very small and thin.  I don’t know how long I held her like that before I felt her stir some and I felt that she again was standing on her own and I was no longer holding her up.

Chapter 8

“OK you can let me go now.”

I immediately let her go and stepped back.  She pulled what remained of her shirt around to cover her top some.  I walked around past her and looked in the truck cab.  I saw a man’s shirt and grabbed it and handed it to her before I turned around and faced away from her as soon as she took the shirt from me. 

“OK I put it on.  Thank you.  And thank you for saving me from those two men.  They kidnapped me late this morning when I was waiting at a bus stop and they drove most of the rest of the day until they stopped here.  I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you had not come to help.”

When she said OK I turned around again. 

“I’m happy to have helped.  If you are OK now I’ll leave you be.  You can take their truck back to where ever you are from or to the closest town.  I’ll go back to my camp and pack up and leave.  I really don’t want to deal with the police.”

“I’ll tell them that you saved me and that they tried to kill you.  They shouldn’t arrest you.”

“I agree they shouldn’t.  But if it’s all the same to you I will just head on down the road now that you are safe.  When I grabbed the shirt I saw the keys are still in the truck.”

“We can’t just leave them here.”

“They deserve nothing from either of us.”

“I guess they don’t.  But what if a family comes here with kids.  I would not want the kids to find them.”

I walked back over to the truck and looked in the back of the box.  It was jumbled mess of stuff back there.  I saw a pair of gloves which I put on and then grabbed an old cheap blue plastic tarp.  I threw the tarp on the ground and drug the two bodies over on to it before rolling the bodies tightly up in the tarp.  I picked up both of their pistols and threw them in the cab of their pickup so a kid would not find them.

“That should keep any kids from seeing them.  Anyone that can move them would be old enough to stand the sight of two dead guys.  Good luck ma’am.”

“Thank you again for saving me.  Maybe I could just ride with you.”

“If that’s what you want I could drop you off at the next town.”

“They took all my money.  I have nothing anymore with me.”

I still had the gloves on and unrolled the tarp again.  I went through their pockets and took all their money which I then handed to the woman and took the two pistol holsters before again rolling up the two bodies.  It seemed like quite a bit of money.

“Now you have some money again.  It looks like a fair amount.  If it is not all yours then I figure they sure owed it to you anyway.  If I were you I would just drive the truck to a town, park it, and just walk away from it.  You should take one of those pistols with you for protection.  I think things are going to get pretty bad soon and everyone will need some form of protection.”

“You don’t want me to go with you do you?  I lost my job and don’t really have anywhere to go.  I don’t have any family close by.  That’s why I was at that bus stop when they grabbed me.”

“Ma’am I have nothing against you and I am glad I could help you get away from those two guys.  Like I said I will take you to the next town and drop you off there if you want me to.”

“I have no right to ask any more from you.  I will take that ride to the next town big enough to have bus depot then.  I think they threw my bags in the back of their truck.  I’ll get them and go with you.”

We both walked back over to the bad guys’ truck.  She pointed out two suitcases that were hers and I retrieved them for her.  I told her to wait a minute and I did a quick search of their truck, both the cab and the box. 

I took the two pistols and the holsters for each.  There was a rifle case that felt heavy which I took with without opening it.  There was a back pack that was mostly empty and I filled it with items from the truck.  That all done I locked the pickup truck and threw the keys for it off into the brush.

I put on the now heavy backpack, took the rifle case and the larger of her two suitcases and we walked back to my camp.

“I’ve already eaten supper would you like me to make you something?”

“If you are leaving right away then I can just wait and get something at the next town we come to.  By the way my name is Janet Brown but please call me Jan.”

“Nice to meet you Jan.  My name is Benjamin.  You can call me anything you want.  If you will excuse me it will only take a couple minutes for me to pack up so we can leave.”

While I was packing up she opened one of her cases and took out a shirt.  She then walked off a ways and changed before coming back and asking if she could help me.  I declined the offer of help and was soon done and everything was packed up, stowed in the back, and securely tied down.  We left as soon as I was done.  I considered myself lucky that no one else came by at the camp ground while I was packing.  That could have been awkward to say the least.

From the camp ground I went north to hit highway eighty two then turned west again.  I thought when I hit Interstate Fifty Five I could leave Janet there as it should maybe have a bus stop at that intersection.

As I was driving she talked some.  She did admit that she did have some money in one of her suitcases and a little more in the bank if they would give it to her (many people expected the banks to close at any time).  We had found her purse in the cab of the bad guys’ truck so she had that too with her ID and whatever else she carried in her purse.  She used a tiny flashlight from her purse to count the money I had taken from the dead guys; it was just over a thousand dollars she said.  She tried to give me at least half of that money but I told her she was the one they beat up not me so she deserved it.

She had been to college but had lost the better job she had when things started to go down hill.  She had eventually taken a waitress job but she had just lost that job when the place closed down after the banks took everyone’s money.

She said she did have an Aunt and Uncle that lived up in Michigan but did not know them very well.  She asked me several times where I was going and what I planned on doing.  Finally I told her that I had no plans at all and had just decided to head west where there were fewer people than in the bigger cities like Atlanta where I had just come from.

We talked the whole way to the junction of the Interstate highway where I pulled into a gas station to fill up and maybe get rid of her.  As I was filling the tank she went inside to the ladies room.  When she came back it was obvious she had brushed out her shoulder length reddish brown hair and washed up some.  She might have put on some make-up but I really could not tell.  She looked pretty nice whether she had make-up or not I thought.  Though she did have one black eye that kinda spoiled the look at least a little.

There was a fast food joint open near the gas station and I pulled over there so she could get something to eat before they closed.  As I pulled up I saw it said twenty four hours so I guess they were always open.  I sat with her as she ate just a little bit of the food she bought.

At the gas station I had asked about a bus stop and they had given me directions.  Jan had given me a look that I could not decipher when I had asked about the bus stop.  She stopped eating and started to talk again.

“I want to go with you.”

“You know nothing about me except that I am a cold blooded killer and now you have somehow decided that you best move is to come with me?”

“You are not a cold blooded killer and it is obvious to me that you are a nice man.  Neither one of us has a place to go and no one to go to.”

“Just because neither of us has a place to go does not mean we should be together.”

“It’s dangerous now.  You said so yourself.  You saved me once.  Don’t you want to keep me safe?”

“Just because I saved you once does not mean I have to be responsible for you.  You are a healthy and obviously intelligent adult.  You do not need me to watch over you.  I have no place to take you.  I have no plans of where to go.  I will be camping out all the time so it would not be the place for a lady like you.”

“I’m no stranger to camping.  I could buy a little gear and be comfortable camping out.  What else will I do anyway?  You know as well as me that there are no jobs at all anymore.  No one knows what is going to happen next but I agree with you that it is likely to get much worse and way more dangerous.”

“You can have one of those pistols.  When you were holding that one you looked like it was not your first time with a gun.”

“I’ve done some shooting before.  Why don’t you try it out and let me go with you.  If I get to be a burden I will admit it and you can dump me off at any town.  You have little to lose and maybe I could even be a help to you.”

“Maybe besides being a cold blooded killer, I might also be a rapist.  Did you consider that?”

“I’ll just have to take my chances then won’t I?  Why don’t you want me with you?”

“I did not mind helping you and would do the same thing over again but I really do not want to be responsible for you.  If I had a good plan or a real place to go it might be different.  Your not gonna let go of this are you?”

“No.  Have I wore you down yet?”

“Whatever.  Come with then if that’s what you want to do.”

She seemed pretty happy with herself as we left the fast food place.  We asked at the gas station about any place to buy camping gear and there said there was a Walmart in the town of Winona which is where we were.  Again we got directions and even asked about a nearby camping area and got directions to that too.   

Chapter 9

We drove to the local Walmart store.  Jan picked up a sleeping bag and we looked through the tents.  Again most were very bright colors but we found one that was muted earth tones.  Then she picked up several other camping items.  Several times I told her that item I had and there was no sense in us both having one.  Most of the time she agreed.  I bought a couple more boxes of ammo just because I guess.

Next we went to housewares and she picked out a few things including three more of the big plastic totes to hold most of her stuff.  Then a couple towels and wash cloths.  Next was a pair of hiking shoes for her.  From there over to the grocery section where we both bought several items.   By the time we left the store we had quite a pile of stuff that we finally got stowed in the back of my little pickup.  The box of the truck was now about full but nothing had to be stacked.

It was quite late but we drove to the camping spot we were told about that was just a few miles away.  We both set up our tents and turned in to try and catch at least a little bit of sleep. 

We both slept late in the morning.  I did not get up until after seven and Jan got up about an hour later.  We shared a breakfast meal and then sat together on the tailgate of the pickup looking at the road atlas.  Jan had never been west of the Mississippi.  Though we had no where special to go we still had to pick some kind of a route to drive.

We decided to continue west to cross the Mississippi River then angle north.  Our destination was Hot Springs, Arkansas or actually the Ouachita National Forest.  It was pretty big and we should be able to stay there for some time if we choose to do so.

Decision made we packed everything up and stowed it securely and hit the road.  As I drove we listened to the radio, picking out an all news station.  All the news was bad too.  Things were getting much worse both here in the United States and also abroad.  We should be safe enough out camping though I hoped.  That was the whole idea of camping out.  And to save money.

I understood why Janet wanted to come with me.  Obviously things were falling apart and getting worse and if she had no place to go camping might be a viable option for her.  I don’t know how much money she had but camping would certainly make that money stretch for a lot longer.  Plus with the situation deteriorating everyday a woman alone could face a lot of trouble as she had already found out though why she seemed to trust me, I had no idea.

“So you said you had shot a gun before, right?”

“Yes.  I have shot rifles and pistols but never a shotgun yet.”

“If we find a good spot maybe we should have you shoot one or both of the pistols we picked up.  Then you can pick one of them to carry if the situation gets much worse.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me.  Things seem to be going downhill fast.”

“I got some ammunition for both of them at Walmart when we were there.”

“So what’s your story?  Why are you hiding out in the middle of no where?  In trouble with the law?”

“No.  No one is after me.  I was working at a nothing job in Atlanta and the place cut way back on when they were open due to the riots and they laid me off.  I thought it was good time to get out of the big city anyway so here I am.”

“Were you in the military?  I would say yes just by your haircut.”

“Yes I spent a lot of time in the Army and had only recently got out.  I was working at that nothing job while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.  What about you?  A college graduate?”

“My college major was Anthropology and I can tell you there just was not that many places hiring for that line of work.  I did have a fairly good job for awhile after college but it ended and no other jobs were available.  I kept lowering my standards and finally took that waitress job until that ended also.  At that point I was at a total loss as to what to do.  I had decided to go up to find my Aunt and Uncle as a last resort to see if they would take me in and that’s when those two guys grabbed me.”

“I’m not sure why you trust me enough to want to go with me.”

“You saved my life.  I owe everything to you.  Plus you have been very nice to me.  Add the fact that I have very little in the way of options as what I can do right now.  With things getting much worse, at least I know you will protect me if the need arises.”

“That’s why I want you to get comfortable with one of those pistols so that you can protect yourself.”

“Like I said that sounds like a very good idea.”

“There are likely many people like us right now.  People who have lost their jobs, have no hope of getting a job in this situation, and don’t really know what to do or where to go.”

“I think we will be much better off than many of them.  It is going to be a nightmare in the big cities.  With no jobs most of those people are trapped there.  They are frustrated, desperate, and scared.  I think things will get real bad in the big cities no matter how many police they have on duty.”

“I think you are correct.  Even the wealthy are mad and some might even be getting desperate after the banks and government took most all their money.  Even if the former wealthy are broke the masses will think they are still rich and really be resentful and envious of them.  It will be a bad situation for sure.”

We did not stop much today, only very briefly for a quick lunch meal and for fuel when needed.  Again I filled more often than needed to keep the tank fuller in case getting fuel became a problem.  I did buy a crank powered radio so we could listen to it without being in the pickup.  It also had a light on it which might be handy.  

It was still afternoon when we reached our destination of the big nation forest.  We stopped in one deserted spot and Jan did some shooting with those two pistols.  She liked one of them better than the other and would be carrying that one in the future.  I was glad I had taken the holsters off the two the bad guys. 

Leaving the shooting spot we took our time finding a spot for camping.  We drove well off the main road and found a nice spot with a small stream about a hundred yards away.  In Walmart we had both bought a case of bottled water and several one gallon bottles of water each also.  Though we both had small water filters we could use to purify the stream water if we needed to do so.

Using our bottled water for just drinking and cooking it would last a long time.  We could use the stream water for washing.  I did not know what the policies were here in the park but we would not be staying here all that long I did not think anyway.

We took our time and cleared the spots very well to place our tents.  There were many rocks around and we worked together to build a good fire ring.  There would be more things we could do to make it a better camp but that was it for the first evening here.

We cooked and shared a good evening meal and afterward just sat and looked at the stars with very little conversation.  When it got late we both turned in to our separate tents for the night.

Chapter 10

The next day we stayed around camp all day doing little things to make it a nicer stay.  A distance back in the woods I dug a trench latrine and wove some branches together to make a nice screen for privacy.

Jan saw the heavy blanket inside my tent on the floor and asked me about it.

“It’s a moving blanket.  It is used to pad furniture and such when it is being moved.  I bought this cheap at a thrift store.  It makes a nice pad on the floor of tent and I just shake it out every couple days to keep it clean.”

“I’ll have to try and find me one.  I can see it would be nice to have in a tent.”

We each picked up small branches and brought in to use for firewood.  We would be having no big bon fires.  I was somewhat surprised when Jan made the small cooking fire the previous night instead of the big fire most people make to cook on.

After a light lunch we both listened to the crank up radio for awhile.  There was nothing good on it.  In the afternoon I took a long hike circling our camp sight just to see what’s what in the area.

While I was gone Jan rearranged the contents of several of the totes to make things easier and handier for us.  When I got back I saw she had found two large rocks with fairly flat tops which she had placed close enough together so a pot or a fry pan could be placed on top but still had some room between them for a small fire to cook with.  Looked like it should work very well.  Especially since we did not have a grill rack to use over the fire.

When I got back from my hike I opened the heavy rifle case I had gotten from the dead guys.  Inside was I though two AR15’s then I saw that one was actually a Ruger twenty two auto that looked very much like an AR.  There was also some ammunition for both guns in the case though I did have quite a bit of the 223 ammo already for my rifle.

I asked Jan if she had ever shot an AR rifle and she said no.  So I spent some time with her showing her the ins and outs of the rifle.  We did not shoot it but she practiced loading magazines and inserting and removing them from the rifle.  We both had to learn about the twenty two rifle because it was new to both of us though it looked so much like the AR rifle.

Over the next several days we got camp life down pretty well.  We used the stream for all of our washing including washing our clothes and bodies.  We often went hiking together and would soon cover several miles on each trip.  During all this time we saw no one at all which suited both of us just fine.

When Jan saw me working out on some martial arts routines she asked if I could teach her.  So daily training and workouts became the norm for us.

After two weeks in the same location we were very comfortable with each other and there was no friction between us.  We talked some but more often we sat or walked in a companionable silence with no need to speak just to hear ourselves talk.  I was now not sorry I allowed her to come with me.

A couple times I shot a rabbit for us to have for supper.  Jan not only ate the rabbit meat but cooked each of them after I had skinned and gutted them.  We both enjoyed having the fresh meat though Jan said that she would pick up a few spices next time we were in a town to enhance the taste.  She also suggested that we should buy a fishing rod and a little bit of tackle in case we had the opportunity to fish at some point.

We still listened to the radio for a short time just about every evening.  Terrorists had downed three more jets and one of them had been in Pennsylvania with the other two in different countries.  Rioting in the bigger cities had gotten worse just like we both thought it would.  There was talk of banks stopping the use of credit cards and debit cards soon.  If that happened the EBT cards used for food stamps would also no longer be functional.  With no food stamps the riots would be unstoppable. 

Even now National Guard troops were guarding many grocery stores.  Because of the riots and looting of many types of stores a large number of stores in every city had been closed.  As expected when you had fully armed troops in the cities there had been many cases of rioters being shot.  And not with rubber bullets either.  In the worst case twenty seven rioters had been shot and killed in one night.  Over sixty others had been wounded at the same time.

Supposedly Congress and the White House were working together to come up with plans to ease tensions and get everyone back to work.  That is what they said but no evidence was coming out that they were really doing anything at all.  There were many protests everyday in Washington DC.  Not that they were doing any good that anyone could see.  Some were wondering if the President and Congressmen were even in Washington anymore as they were making themselves scarce and unreachable.  Which had people even more worried.  Everyone was used to Congress doing nothing but usually they would still be around trying to bolster their image.  But now no one was seeing hide nor hair of them.

We stayed another week where we were before packing up again.  It had been a very nice and secluded campsite but we could now use a little more supplies and were ready for a change of scenery even though it was very pretty here.  Though it had been peaceful at this camp we had both wore our pistols everyday.  We packed very carefully and tried to place things so if we wanted to camp out somewhere for only one night it would be quick to grab just the items needed for a one night camp.

When we had things to our satisfaction we got in the pickup and headed out.  The night before we had again gone over the road atlas carefully trying to decide where we should go and talked some about longer range plans of where to go or end up.  The thought of winter coming at some point was discussed also.

We had decided for now to head for Colorado and spent the next three days getting into the state.  We could have driven it in one day but we were in no hurry and drove on mostly secondary roads bypassing all the larger towns which were very few anyway in this area of the nation.  The land became wide open and you could see for miles most of the time.

We stopped once at a likely looking out of the way spot and Jan shot the AR 15 rifle we had acquired.  She did well enough with the gun.  She also shot the twenty two rifle some which she really enjoyed.  We had plenty of ammunition for all the guns but when we had the opportunity we bought considerably more of the twenty two ammo plus a little more for the AR rifles also.  Even another box for Jan’s carry pistol.  We did not know if ammunition would be available in the future so we now had plenty to last quite some time.  

We stopped the first day and bought enough groceries to last us awhile.  When we crossed Interstate Forty we stopped at big truck stop and we each took advantage of the showers that they had available there.  It was certainly way nicer than washing in a creek.  We had lunch there to and listened to the truckers talking amongst themselves.  Apparently there was very little work for truckers now.  With so many stores shut down and so many people out of work and broke there was not much buying and selling happening so trucking had slowed tremendously apparently. 

We did have a little altercation at the truck stop.  Jan and I were apart and I happened to see her and it appeared like three guys were talking to her.  She did not appear agitated or worried but I headed in that direction anyway.  When I got close enough so I could hear the conversation I stopped to listen.

“I think we will take you with us little lady.  We need some entertainment and you look like you have some potential.”

“Sorry boys I don’t have time to play today.  So if you will excuse me I’ll be on my way.”

“You don’t understand.  It was not a request.  You can come with walking or we can drag you.  It is your choice.”

I was about to get involved even though Jan still did not look worried even though she could not see me where I was standing.

“Please don’t come any closer.  It would be sad to get your blood stains all over this nice clean place.”

I could see the three guys were confused because they obviously expected her to start screaming in fear or something instead of standing confidently in front of them and giving them orders.  I was curious myself so I just waited to see what would happen.

When one of the guys stepped forward Jan calmly reached into her purse and pulled out her pistol that I had not realized she had with her.

“So you will be the first one to start leaking blood.  Well good enough let’s see just how fast I can do all three of you shall we.”

Her confidence was amazing.  And the three guys were now all quite sure they would need either serious medical attention or a casket if they continued.  They all started to back off quickly at almost a run.

“We were just kidding around.  No need for violence lady.”

One of them shouted as he was at a fast trot in retreat.  I saw Jan then calmly put her pistol away and high tailed it without her seeing me.  She mentioned nothing about it the rest of the day and seemed to be her normal smiling self.    

When I saw a Harbor Freight store in one town we stopped and Jan picked up a moving blanket like the one I had for the tent floor.  I picked up just a couple things while we were there too.

For camp spots we just drove off on small side roads and picked remote spots to camp.  We were never bothered by anyone.

Chapter 11

When we crossed the border into Colorado neither of us were very impressed.  The land on both sides of highway one sixty was flat and barren with not a tree in sight.  Not really what either of us expected.  We had expected towering mountains covered in dense stands of tall pines trees with streams flowing down the hills everywhere.  Along with vast herds of deer and elk convorting playfully while being careful not to step on the bunnies hopping around under their feet.  Or something like that anyway. 

What we saw instead was almost perfectly flat land with many vast fields stretching off into the distance.  Where there were no fields the ground looked to be flat barren wasteland with no living creatures of any kind other than an occasional lonely bird.  There were sometimes farm buildings and big silos but spaced far apart.  All I said was that it must have been easy to build a road here in this flat land though very boring.  Janet just nodded her head in agreement.

Seeing this land made us wonder if we really were in the state of Colorado.  With nothing else to do we pushed on down the straight as an arrow highway.  We drove through Trinidad and took a smaller highway to the west.  It was not long and we found land that was more like we had been expecting.

Big trees and big mountains.  This was what we were both expecting and looking forward to seeing.  We found many small side roads and picked one at random to drive back on looking for a campsite.  It did not take long to find something we liked and had our camp setup and ship shape in no time.  Both of us were anxious to get out for a walk after driving for a few days and it was still plenty early in the day.  The walk was not a long one and we leisurely took our time.  As was our custom we spoke very little and managed to see a couple deer and several rabbits.  The walk seemed to melt away any tension we had from hearing all the bad news everyday on the radio.  By the time we got back to camp we both had smiles on our faces and were happy just to be alone in such a pretty place like this.

That evening we did not listen to the radio.  I don’t think either of us wanted to break the mood with the bad news that the radio was sure to bring.  We sat outside and just looked at the huge number stars visible in the sky here.  The moon was not up yet but the stars were so bright that you could actually see around a little. 

We did not know how long we would be staying at this location but in the morning we did what we could to make our camp a little more usable and handy.  We had found and bought a simple flat grill to use over the camp fire which was nicer than the rocks Jan had found at our first long camp (though the rocks had worked very well).  Gathering our small amount of firewood that we used and clearing the area around the fire pit so there was no chance of our small cooking fires ‘getting away’ from us and becoming a wildfire kept us busy for awhile in that first morning.

Next it was back to our regular martial arts and hand to hand training and workout.  I had also started showing Janet a little simple knife handling.  I had allowed her to pick out a knife to carry from the many styles and sizes that I had with.

That evening we again turned on the radio to hear all the bad news.  And it was very bad news indeed.  Many of the larger banks were closed due to severe hacking attacks they reported but you could hear the skepticism in the voice on the radio.  With big banks shut down the credit and debit clearing banks were closed so most all electronic banking and all credit and debit card usage was halted.  So with most people out of work, the banks having taken most of everyone’s cash away from them, and now their credit cards and debit cards were worthless too.  That also meant all the millions of food stamp EBT cards were now useless also.

Of course that was not all they reported.  The loss of card usage had started that morning and by evening when we were listening to the radio the streets in almost all cities were packed full of protesters and rioters with countless numbers of people taking to the streets, curfews in effect or not.

There were no real solid numbers yet but it was common knowledge that crime all across the nation had skyrocketed in the past few months.  Unfortunately they expected this trend to continue.  The police and National Guard troops had been busy and everything from small local jails to federal penitentiaries were packed with prisoners.  The police at this point had no place to put anymore people they arrested in many instances even with the large numbers of early releases for non-violent criminals that were taking place to try and ease the over crowding in the jails and prisons.

Everything was stacking up higher and was just ready to fall.  All government entities were literally broke at a time when their expenditures were at their peaks.  There was virtually no tax money or fees of any kind coming in to fill all the empty government coffers.  They found they had no credit available to them anymore and when the bank accounts ran dry their checks would bounce just like anyone else’s checks. 

Police, firemen, and all other government workers below the federal level found out they were no longer getting paid in many cases when their payroll checks bounced.  And it wasn’t just wages, it was everything.  No money to buy the food to feed the prisoners at jails, no money to buy the fuel for all government cars and trucks.  In many cases there was no money to even pay the electric bills. The unthinkable was happening and it was not just in isolated cases but almost across the board in the whole nation.            

Some of this we had heard before but it just continued to get worse and worse everyday that we heard it.  The closing of the banks and the loss of credit card use was a big thing.  It was not a surprising thing because it had been talked about many times on the radio.  They did not really say but obviously if government workers were not being paid they would not go in to work.  That meant the loss of police and fire departments in many cases I’m sure.  No wonder they did not want to say that over the airwaves.  If people knew they had no police protection they would do who knows what.

I knew what the bad guys would do if they had to no longer fear getting caught by police and that was do absolutely anything they wanted.  And it was not just career criminals either.  There was always a certain amount of any population that while toeing the legal line they still had criminal leanings.  Once the fear being caught and incarcerated was removed from the equation these borderline people would quickly act out on all their pent up desires.

If anyone thought criminal activity was high before wait until they saw what total anarchy was like.  Where it was literally every man (or woman) for himself.  And where literally anything goes.  Once anarchy were to take hold in the land all lifestyle as we had known would cease to function. 

All commerce would cease because the strong would simply take what they wanted from whoever they wanted.  The old saying ‘only the strong survive’ would be proved true everyday all across the land.  It would be ugly and brutal beyond comprehension for most people.  Many people would die from violence and even starvation.  If commerce stopped so would all those food trucks that deliver the food every day.  Jan and I talked it over well into the dark and decided to pack up in the morning and go into the nearest town and buy as much food and supplies as we could while hopefully things were still calm and those supplies were still available to us.

Chapter 12

The next morning we were up early and quickly packed everything up and left. We headed back to the town of Trinidad that we had passed through just a couple days ago.  On the road as we neared our destination everything certainly looked perfectly normal.  Arriving in town we stopped first at a gas station where I filled the gas tank and asked for some directions.

First we went to a Farm and Ranch store where we each bought heavy duty work clothes, heavy work parkas, thermo underwear, gloves, warm pac boots and lighter insulated boots.  Also a couple of heavy wool blankets.  We each also bought a spare pair of hiking shoes.  Next to a large Walmart store where we bought a lot of food (even though we had quite a bit left from our last shopping trip) but mostly dry things like a huge amount of rice that would not be harmed if it froze though we did buy quite a bunch of canned goods that we could use up long before winter set in and we had to worry about it freezing.  They had many dry soup mixes that we bought along with many other items.  Janet was surprised at how much salt I bought.  She remembered to buy some spices that she had talked about earlier.  And of course plenty of water.  More large plastic totes to hold everything and two five gallon gas cans along with countless smaller items. 

At the truck we had to now stack many of the totes into double stacks so everything would fit in the back.  Securing the load was a little harder but not too much with the ratchet straps I had the foresight to purchase.  Next we then stopped and filled the two gas cans I had bought and I added some fuel stabilizer to the two gas cans.  The gas cans were sat on the back bumper and strapped down securely.  That way if they leaked they could not contaminate any other of our supplies. 

It was still summer and warm but winter would be coming and we both thought we should be ready while supplies were still available.  We did not think we had enough food to last us both all winter but now we did have quite a lot.   

We also had lunch in town and talked about where to go next.  One option was back to the area we had just camped at.  It was nice there and certainly off the beaten path.  Or we could continue west which is what we decided to do.  About three hours later after leaving Trinidad we came to a small town called South Fork where we only stopped to fill the gas tank before continuing our journey west.

The road atlas showed national forest for a long way on both sides of the highway now.  We drove several miles farther before taking a small side road to find a place to camp; at least for one night.

There were plenty of likely camping spots and we just picked one where it looked like we could be alone.  We set up a good camp but did not make it very elaborate because as yet we did not know how just long we would be staying here.

After our evening meal and clean up we again turned the radio on.  We had also listened while we were on the road today.  There was no good news at all.  Many people were wondering when the federal government would step in with bail out money for all the local governments to keep their services going.  At the very least to cover payroll for police and fire departments across the country.  But there was again only silence from Washington.  No one was even spouting that everything bad was all the other party’s fault.  There was just silence.   

And things were certainly bad.  In several big cities many rioters had been shot and killed by the National Guard troops who had now been mainly assigned to protect grocery stores from looters.  When the rioters showed up at the protected stores and did not halt their advance when ordered to do so by the troopers many shots were fired.  In just one instance in one city thirty three people were killed and many more wounded before the crowd turned back.

Many complained that no one should be killed just to protect a store but were countered by the fact that in most cases the troopers were trapped between the store and the crowd of rioters and likely shot to really protect themselves and the store was only secondary.  Plus the fact that in most areas where there had been many grocery stores now there were only one or two.  If those were looted then all the people in those areas would have no place to get any food at all.

After several cases where grocery delivery trucks had been hijacked, most deliveries were now were being protected by Guard troops in Humvees for the entire trip.  More troops were stationed at shipping terminals and food distribution hubs along with the factories producing and packaging the food.  The whole food train from start to finish had to now be protected so that food could be available to everyone.

This was obviously taking a lot of troops and apparently they were not all just National Guard troops but also regular US Army troopers were often seen.  Either Congress had repealed the Posse Comitatus Act of eighteen seventy eight or the federal government did not care if it was illegal.  This act had made it illegal for the federal government to use military personnel for domestic law enforcement.  This act could easily have been repealed by just another act of Congress and signed by the President but we were all left to wonder because Washington was still silent.

The term Martial Law was heard many times on the radio.  If it had not been declared by Washington then most people thought it soon would be.  No one was sure what that would all entail but it would give the federal government almost unlimited power over US citizens with the possibility of suspending all of everyone’s constitutional rights.  It was a wait and see situation.  In the mean time the nation was falling apart at the seams with things getting worse daily.

I was bewildered about things and so I asked Jan about it.  She was a college graduate after all so she might have a handle on things.

“I just don’t see how everything could go down hill so fast.”

“It did and it didn’t go fast.  You were in the military so you were shielded from what was happening here I suppose.  But when we had the real estate collapse in ’08 is when it started.”

“But that was years ago.  We have had a recovery from that.”

“No we didn’t have a ‘recovery’.  A lot of stuff went on since then.  First we had to bail out the banks immediately.  Next was a couple of huge ‘stimulus’ packages.  The bank bail out was simple, we just handed them the money but the stimulus deal was different; there was no one to just hand the money to.  So all that huge amount of stimulus money was piecemealed out to many, many places and entities.  There was basically no over sight of those funds.  Like most government money it was given to cronies, political friends and donors, even foreign companies.  It did nothing for our economy at all, just padded the pockets of a select few.”

“But a lot more than the stimulus was done and it helped.”

“Yes and no.  The Federal Reserve then stepped in and screwed things up worse.  They injected huge amounts of money into the banks through Quantitative Easing.  And they also dropped interest rates to zero.  Now banks could borrow money at or close to zero percent.  So what to do with all that money?  The banks looked at the stock market which had fallen a lot but was now slowly rising at that point.  So the banks poured money into the market.  With all the money going into the market it started to rise faster and faster.  When the market went up the banks made huge amounts of money.”

“If they made huge amounts of money why did the banks just go broke again?”

“With the huge profits they paid their employees big wages and huge bonuses along with paying their shareholders.  The CEO’s made many, many millions of dollars per year.  Even with the big profits the banks wanted more and started to manipulate the markets.  In at least some cases they were caught and while not a single person ever went to jail the banks were fined billions of dollars.  Yes, billions of dollars in fines that had to come out of their profits.  When the market reached record highs many started to get edgy but they still had money to invest and they wanted maximum returns on that money.  In the old days the banks put a lot of money in US bonds but now those paid very little interest so the banks looked elsewhere.  Foreign bonds were very risky but because of the risk they paid big interest rates.  So the banks put a lot of money into them.”

“I see the banks made investments instead of making loans.”

“That’s right.  When a bank makes a loan there is something tangible there, like real estate or a business or a car.  Investments are often just bets, not much different than laying down money at a casino.”

“Then some of those investments started to go sour on them.”

“That’s right the economies both in the United States and in Europe never recovered at all, only the world stock markets went up thanks to everyone doing the Quantitative Easing not just the United States.  But with bad economies just teetering on the precipice it took very little to push them over that edge.  When it started to go it was a steep slope and things picked up speed fast.  Europe was first and when Greece defaulted it really was a big down hill push.  The banks here and there lost huge amounts of money from defaulting foreign investments at the same time the stock markets were falling and they were losing huge amounts in their market investments at the same time.  Like they say the rest is history.  It really was way more complicated than that because of the derivatives market but now you have the basics.”

“So it was the same old things greed and corruption that led to this?”

“I guess those two things where ninety nine percent the cause.  Maybe add a little stupidity and just a tiny bit of bad luck into it.  And now because of all that we are sliding into total chaos.”

Chapter 13

“What’s the deal with all these houses in the National Forest?  I thought these areas were federally owned and free from houses.”

“I really don’t know.  I am surprised also.  I did not expect to see houses in the National Forests either.  It’s certainly less than in the private areas but we still see quite a few.”

“Most of them seem to be either vacation homes or summer homes.  They don’t look to be permanent homes that people live in year ‘round.”

“I noticed that many look like no one lives there, at least right now.”

“If we are here when winter hits then maybe we will have to commandeer one of those empty houses for the winter.”

“It would certainly be better than trying to camp outside in the winter.”

“I was thinking maybe we should try to go south far enough so there is not much winter.  New Mexico or Arizona or California would maybe work.”

“It would certainly be warmer but there could be other problems.”

“Like what would be different than here?”

“With the United States becoming lawless I could see a horde coming up from Mexico just to loot and pillage up here. There is a lot of stuff that could be stolen from the southern our states and sold down in Mexico.”

“I guess your right.  Maybe if the US falls apart they might just come up from Mexico and try to take over those southern states.”

“We could still go south and just find an out of the way spot to spend the winter.  It would be an option.  And be a warmer option.”

“My pickup is not four wheel drive and if we are in a spot that gets just a foot or more of snow we will be trapped until it melts.  I really don’t like the thought of not being mobile for the whole winter.”

“How cash strapped the local governments are now I don’t think they will have enough money to keep any but maybe the most major highways open and then just for movement of supplies like food and fuel.  I see what you mean about being trapped in the winter.”

“That’s why I was thinking of going south.”

“If we found a good place to stay up here in the mountains the snow would also keep us safe if there was little or no travel.”

“I guess that’s true.  But I still would rather be mobile so I have more options.”

We looked again at the road atlas and decided to continue on the highway we were following for awhile longer.  Basically we were just putting off making a decision on where to go.  So we packed up and got back on the highway and continued driving now going southwest at least for awhile according to the map.

There was almost no traffic on the highway.  Then we met someone and they flashed their headlights repeatedly at us.  When they stopped I first grabbed my pistol then slowed and stopped next to them.

“Don’t try to go any farther.  Some guys have the road blocked up ahead and I think they are just killing anyone who stopped at it.  There was a car ahead of us and when they stopped I saw a man walk up to their car like he was going to talk to them and then he just shot the driver in cold blood.  That’s all I saw before I made a quick U-turn and tore out of there.”

“How far up ahead?”

“About four miles or so.  Don’t try it, they are killers.”

With that the man rolled up his window and took off again.  I turned to Jan.

“I won’t just let someone kill innocent people.  I have to try to put a stop to it.”

“Count me in too.”

I just looked at the odometer and started forward again.  After three miles of driving I slowed way down and told Jan to keep an eye out.  Almost two miles farther we saw the road block way ahead of us.  They had set it up on a curve so those coming from the other direction would have no chance to see them ahead of time.  From this direction if you knew what to look for you could see them about a half mile ahead.  I stopped and turned around and when I was well out of their sight I found a side road where I drove up a ways and stopped well out of sight of the highway.  We both got out and I started to get my rifle and some gear together.

“I am going to hike back there through the trees and sneak up on the road block.  If it is what that guy said I will try to put a stop to it.”

“I’ll take the other AR rifle and go with you.”

“No.”

“Yes I will go with you.  You have no idea how many guys are there.  Obviously there is way more than just one.  You will need me to help shoot.”

“I was trained for this.  I will not take any chances.  If necessary I will just snipe and run.  I need you to take the other rifle and get back in these trees a little way and guard this truck.  If we lose this truck and all of these supplies we will be in big trouble.  It is imperative that this truck has to be guarded.”

“And if there is too many you will not take any chances?”

“I do not have a death wish.  I will try to stop them but I am just one man and I know my limitations.  If I am successful I will honk three long blasts on a vehicle horn.  You can likely hear that from here.  If you hear the horn signal you can drive on up there.  I will take my time and it might take me well over an hour or better just to check things out.  If it looks too bad I will just come back here and we will go back the way we came.  Even if you hear a lot of shooting just stay here and wait either for the horn signal or for my return.  If I am not back in four hours go back to our last campsite and stay there for a day or two.  If I do not show by then you are on your own.”

“I don’t like this at all.  You better be careful and not get hurt.”

Then she surprised me when she stepped over to me and hugged me for awhile before finally stepping back.  I got my rifle and gear ready and took off through the woods.  Jan had the other AR rifle with a little gear and went the other direction to find a hidden spot from which to watch the truck.

I stayed close enough to just see the highway off to the side.  When I guessed I was getting close to the roadblock I went deeper into the woods some.  After more walking I snuck back toward the highway.  I could see the road block almost right in front of me.  There was a meadow on the other side of the road here and that was apparently where they were parking the vehicles they were stopping.

I watched for awhile trying to see how many guys were here.  There were three at the road block itself that I could see from here.  I watched a little longer then faded back into the woods and so I could come up at a different spot. 

When I again could see the highway area I saw from this spot another man with what looked like a shotgun.  It appeared like he was guarding four women.  He had them sitting on the ground and he would occasionally walk around them in a circle.  From this spot I could only see one of the men at the road block.  I again faded back into the trees farther so I could make a different approach. 

This time I came up to a spot and I could easily see the three at the road block and could see the other guard also but he could easily get out of my sight by just lying down or even just ducking down.  I was counting on him not knowing that fact.

I had crawled up to this spot so I was already lying down.  I pulled another loaded rifle magazine out and laid it just in front of me but I doubted that I would need it.  I had a thirty rounder in the gun and did not think it would take more than that to finish this one way or another.

I was just getting ready to make my move when another car came around the curve from the other direction.  They hit their brakes when they saw the road was blocked.  When the car stopped one of the men walked out from the road block to approach the stopped car.  He had no rifle but had a pistol shoved in his waistband behind his back so those in the car could not see it. 

I could not let the man just shoot those in the car but I would have to be careful not to hit the occupants myself if I started shooting.  When the man got closer to the car I saw the driver’s window go down so they could talk.  I had to act now or never.

I drew a bead on one of those behind the road block and shot him then shot the one standing right next to him.  They did not know I was there and they expected no one behind them.  When I swung on the man next to the car he had turned to look at where the shots had come from as from his position he could not see his two buddies lying on the ground.  I think he maybe thought they had done the shooting.

When he turned back to the car and pulled his pistol and started to bring it to bear on those inside I aimed carefully and shot him in the head just as he had the pistol pointed at the driver.

The guy guarding the four women had apparently started running up to see what all the shooting was about.  As soon as he got up on the shoulder of the highway and I was sure I would not hit any of the women prisoners I put two bullets into his torso and he went down hard. 

I did not move and waited to see if any other men were around that I had not seen earlier.  The stopped car did not wait around and was backing up the way it had come from at an impressive speed.  The driver actually was able to spin the car around to face the opposite direction just like in the movies and I saw no more of him.

When I saw no more movement I got up changed magazines and walked slowly toward the dead looking men I had shot.  I was still scanning around looking for any more men hidden in the forest but if any were there they did not show themselves. 

I checked all four men I had shot and they were all quite dead so I walked to the nearest vehicle, reached inside, and did three long honks on the horn.

Chapter 14

Jan obviously heard the honking horn because she wasted no time driving my truck up to the roadblock.  Again she gave me a hug and I pointed at the four women who still just sitting well off to one side.  Jan understood and went over to the women and started to talk to them.

While that was going on I looked in the two pickups blocking the road and both had the keys in the ignition.  I moved both off the road and into the meadow area where the other ‘captured’ vehicles were parked.

Next I gathered all the guns and any other useful items (including their money) from the four men I had shot and put the stuff in the cab of my truck, which I also moved off the road.  Then I drug the four dead men out of sight into the woods.

That done I and seeing Jan still talking with the four seated women I went through everything that was in the two trucks that I assumed belonged to the bad guys.  All guns and ammunition I transferred to my pickup.  Next I removed everything from one pickup and reloaded it with only items that I felt were useful to Jan and I. 

I had not yet decided but thought we might take one of the two pickups.  They were both four wheel drive models with extended cabs.  And being bigger than mine they would be able to haul much larger loads.  That done I just waited for the women.  I was not sure what to do about them.  A quick look in the other vehicles showed dead bodies in each of them.  One car had four dead bodies inside.  I wasn’t sure what to do with all the bodies either.  The bad guys deserved nothing but the others should receive a decent burial at least.  I had no shovel other than the little foxhole shovel and I did not think I was up for digging that many graves with just that tiny shovel.

I looked again at the women and Jan got up and walked toward me. 

“One of the women said she was OK to drive and would drive the others back to Pagosa Springs.  Please clean up one of the cars for them to use.  Do not use one of these (she pointed out four vehicles) because those were the ones the women were in. I better stay with them until you have a car ready.”

She did not wait for an answer but turned and walked back to the others.  Every car was a mess because at least one person had been shot in each rig.  There were even dead kids, two in one car and one in another.  There were nine vehicles total. 

I took the easy way and drove one of the bad guys’ trucks up on the road (not the truck I had picked for us to use) facing in the correct direction.  I went to the four rigs that Jan had pointed out and moved some of the personal items from each one into that pickup.  The pickup had four doors so there would be plenty of room for the four women.  When I was done I went over to all the women. 

“I have the pickup ready for you to use.  I loaded some of your personal items into the pickup for you.  I’m sorry for your loss.”

Two of the women thanked me and one looked at me and nodded.  The last never looked up.  All had been crying.  The three women worked together to help the two that seemed weak to the pickup and soon the four were all seated and belted in and the driver took off driving slow.  Jan came back to me.

“What an awful situation.  The one I could never get to even talk to me.  The driver’s name is Jenny.  She said she will try to get the police to come out here and get the bodies but she was unsure if they would.  If not then she said she had enough friends there that they come out and bury the bodies here.”

When she finished speaking she again came to me and hugged me but this time it was different.  Jan was crying.  I held her until she was all cried out.  I did not mind.  When she backed away I spoke.

“I think we ought to take the other truck the bad guys were using.  It contains some useful things that we might use and the truck itself is much bigger and more powerful than mine.  It could make a difference in our survival. Do you think you could drive it?”

“No but I can drive yours.”

“Good enough.  There are a couple of gas cans that are empty but I will siphon gas from the other rigs to fill the cans and both pickups.”

“OK.”

“Will you be OK?”

“I am OK just very sad that things like this happen.  Some people are such animals.”

“Bad situations like we are now in bring out both the very best and the very worst in people.  I’m sad to say that we will likely see much more of things like what happened here in the days ahead.”

“Thank you for putting a stop to it.  At least no others will be hurt by this bunch.”

“There will be others bad men.”

“Next time we will fight them side by side.”

“I’ll get to work so we can leave this place behind us.”

There was a siphon hose with a squeeze pump on it in the pickup and I used that to get the fuel tanks and gas cans full.  I then checked out the some of the other vehicles for useful items.  I did not look in the four survivors rigs.  There was not much but I did transfer a few things to the pickup I would be driving.  One thing I did take was the two mountain bikes that were on the back rack of one of the cars.  I put the bikes in the back of the bigger pickup.  Next I took my rifle and extra magazines from my truck to the one that I would be driving and then finally we were ready to go.

It was not very far to the town of Pagosa Springs and we just drove on through without stopping.  About twenty five or thirty miles after the little town I pulled onto a small forest road and we drove back a ways to find our campsite for the night.

We set up camp for just a one night stay and Jan was quiet the whole time of setup and after our evening meal.  She went to her tent early but I stayed up for some time thinking and for awhile quietly listening to the radio.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and after clean-up I asked Jan if she wanted to go for a little hike with me.  She nodded (she had been quiet all morning) and we left for a walk after each of us grabbed a loaded fanny pack that we always took with on any walk.

We walked a large loop around our camp and because we were in no hurry and stopped often and we were gone for around four hours.  We listened to the radio a bit then had a light lunch.  After lunch I turned to Jan.

“I am going to try out one of those bikes.  I have not ridden one in a lot of years.”

“Do you want some company?”

“Only if you don’t laugh at my riding abilities.”

“I promise only to laugh if I find your antics amusing.”

“I don’t know if that was the answer I wanted to hear.  But let’s go.”

I lifted out the two bikes and took the time to adjust the seat height on both of them to make riding more comfortable for both of us.  Again we both put on our fanny packs (we had refilled the water bottles that we had used in the morning) before leaving our camp.  We were both armed with our normal carry pistols even though we seemed to have the place to ourselves.

First we rode farther back down the road we had camped on.  It petered out about a couple miles past our camp.  Then we rode just about all the way back to the highway before turning around again toward camp.  There were four houses or cabins on this little dirt track road.  The four places were grouped fairly close together (roughly a hundred yards apart or so).

On the way back to camp I stopped in front of each place and looked them over from the road.  None of them seemed to be currently occupied.  There looked to be quite a disparity of ages of the four homes.  The newest appeared to maybe be only a year or maybe less old.  While the oldest had obviously been there for quite some time.  I did not turn in the driveway and approach any of the houses but looked for a couple minutes at each from the road then continued down the little road. 

Back at camp even though we had not ridden very far my legs were fairly sore.  I thought I was in very good shape but that bike made me use different muscles than I was used to using.  When Jan saw I was hobbling around camp after getting off the bike she spoke.

“You OK there Grandpa?”

“I think I have walk around a bit to work out these cramps.  Other wise I’m fine.  You seemed to have no trouble.”

“I used to ride bike quite a bit until just recently.  It was rather nice getting back on one again.  I had only ridden in the city though.”

“I think I might ride a little just about everyday for awhile to try to build up those certain muscles some.”

“I’m glad you grabbed these two bikes.”

“I think I am too but not right this moment.”

I walked around camp some and the muscle cramps soon went away.  Those bikes might be very handy indeed in the future.  It might be great having a way to travel that was quiet and required no gas.  Who knows what the future will bring with everything so screwed up right now.  Much better to have the bikes available to us even if we never used them.  They were like an ace in the hole.

Chapter 15

The next day we both did a few things around camp to make for a nicer stay while we were here.  On our hike we had found a small spring about hundred and fifty yards back in the woods.  The water was bubbling right out of the ground there and was likely safe to drink as is but I would always filter or boil it first.  Best not to take chances with our lives over something like that.  I’m sure the water would not kill us but it could possibly make us sick and that we could not afford.

Again I dug a latrine ditch and made a natural screened barrier out of pine branches.  I also took my small shovel down to the spring and made that a little nicer for us to use while we stayed here.  The spring water was very cold.

We did some hand to hand training in the morning and again rode bikes that afternoon.  This time we went out on the highway and rode for a ways before turning back to our current home.  We saw no traffic in the relatively short time we were on the highway.

That was how we spent our days over the next couple weeks that we stayed at this camp site.  Hiking, riding bike, working out and training took up our time and kept us in peak shape.  Every other day or so I shot a rabbit for supper.  And one day I shot two squirrels for supper.  In the back of our new pickup we had found a heavy cast iron Dutch oven that Jan used to make some different meals. 

Gradually Jan got over the sadness she felt from the road block incident.  She was now back to her happy self again but she did seem to take our training much more seriously.  One day she asked about more gun training and we took my little truck some distance from camp and I showed her a few more things and we both did some shooting.  Like so many things shooting is a somewhat perishable skill so practice is always a good idea for everyone.

There were both deer and elk around here because we had seen both.  It would be easy enough to shoot either one but with the warm temps we would lose most of the meat from spoilage.  In winter it would certainly be a viable option to shoot a deer or elk for meat and let nature freeze it for us.  I had bought extra salt so we could salt cure some meat if necessary.  But so far I had not considered shooting a big game animal because we had plenty of food and supplemented it with the rabbits.

We still would listen to the radio often in the evenings after we finished supper.  Things were apparently getting worse and worse.  Things were getting very dire indeed in the cities with literally countless casualties almost every calendar day.  Then there was a big change in the reports that we heard.  The reports basically changed to just ‘local law enforcement in conjunction with US military forces now have controlled the rising discontent of the populous down to acceptable levels’.  Whatever that was supposed to mean.  From then on other than weather reports and other mundane items that was it for the news.  Tada and magically no more bad news just like that.  We mostly stopped listening to the radio after that.

Speaking of the weather, that Jan sure is a trooper because the weather here turned rainy for several days in a row and mostly because of the duration it was rather miserable here camping.  But Jan never once complained at all.  Even when I was in the military in a situation like this I would have heard a lot of whining from other troops but Jan just took it in stride.

Then the weather straightened up and it was again picturesque sunny skies.  The muddy ground dried out rather quickly and we washed out and washed up all of our gear to get the mud off everything.  I must admit it was sure nice to see the bright sun shining again everyday and watch the stars at night.

When things had dried out nice we rode down near the highway and just sat and watched it while we remained hidden in the woods.  With basically no real news, we both wondered what if anything we would see on highway.

The answer was not much.  Though we watched for most of two days there was very little traffic of any kind on the highway.  We saw no normal cars or pickups but did see a few semi trucks and box trucks.  That was it.  No cars, no motorcycles, and not even anyone on bicycles went past our location.  And no military vehicles either.  Watching the highway was a very boring job.

Neither of us knew what to make of it.  We waited about a week and again spent the bulk of two days watching the highway with about the same result.  No personal vehicles at all just a few commercial trucks of various sizes.

Then we saw the lone bicycle rider coming toward us in the distance.

“We should go down to the highway and see if he will talk to us.  You stay here and I will go try to flag him down.”

“That’s a good idea but if I was riding a bike in the middle of no where and a wild looking armed big hulk of a man tried to flag me down my only thought would be to try and get away.  You stay here and cover me and I will go.”

I did not like her plan even though it was obvious that everything she said was true.  Jan did not even wait for me to answer but left her rifle and calmly walked down to the highway.  On the way she shook out her hair to make it plain even from a distance that she was in fact a woman.

The bike rider saw her and stopped some distance away and Jan neither made any yells or motions but stood calmly on the shoulder of the highway.  After a minute the rider continued to come closer.  When the rider came near Janet they stopped and the two were obviously talking.  I could not hear anything being said by either one and at this point I did not yet know for sure if the rider was male or female.  After maybe two minutes I saw Jan wave to me to join her.

The rider visibly stiffened when they saw me approaching but made no effort to ride away.  I was carrying both my rifle and Jan’s and they rightly assumed I’m sure that I could have shot them at any time.

“Ben this is Jason.  Please say hello and tell him that you will not shoot him.”

“Hi Jason.  Thank you for talking with us.  And I have no intention of harming you in any way.”

“When I saw you with the rifle I realized that you could have shot me as I rode past without me ever seeing either of you.  There has been plenty of shooting and I have seen the results.”

“We have been camping here and there for awhile and are very hungry for news.  Is there Martial Law?  We have seen very little traffic.”

“Yes and no.  The regular military is trying to keep order and are acting as police normally do.  But they are not stopping anyone from doing normal lawful things that I know of.”

“But why is no one on the roads then?”

“There are many shortages of just about everything.  Food and fuel being the hardest to find.  And prices have skyrocketed, especially on those two items.  People are mostly just walking now or riding bike like me.  If you have gas you can drive where you want like always but most are afraid to leave home and go very far.  They know if they use what gas they have they will be unlikely to get more anytime soon.  Plus there have been a lot of horror stories about bandits and highwaymen killing and doing bad things to people just out of towns where there is no law.  So the ones that do have a little fuel use it just to go to the store to try and get food or other supplies.”

“Are the military taking away everyone’s guns?”

“Not that I have seen or heard but communications are not very good.  Cell phone service is gone and land line service is spotty at best.  I do not know what roll the government has in that if any.  Most every business is closed.  I think the military is keeping at least one gas station and one grocery store open in the towns where there is some military presence anyway.”

“We listen to a radio and it stopped really having any real news.”

“Obviously the government is responsible for that.  I think they are trying to limit everyone’s knowledge about just how bad it is across the nation.  I don’t know if that is a very wise move.  Though TV stations are all shut down now except one that the government is keeping up and going.  It is likely the same with the radio stations.

Not letting us have news is allowing everyone’s imaginations to run wild and they are many wild or even bizarre rumors floating around.  I think people are just making all of those up.”

“You are obviously taking a big chance riding bike.  Where are you going if I may ask?”

“I was going to college in Durango and I finally decided to try and get back home to my family.”

“Are they rationing food and fuel?”

“The fuel I think is, you can only get five gallons at a time.  With food some is no limit and some items are limited.  Mostly you are limited with how much money you have.  Prices are way high.  I heard that some places only take silver or gold but that might just be a rumor.”

“If we drove to town do you think we would have any trouble?  Is it OK to be armed in town?”

“Many people carry guns all the time so that should not be a problem.  Once you get into the town proper you would not likely have any trouble but getting there and back could be an issue.  I rode through but everyone could see that I have almost nothing with me.  That is probably the only reason I am not dead.  That and this bike does not make noise so I might have slipped through some spots without being noticed.”

“We see trucks going past sometimes.”

“Most delivery trucks no longer have escorts to save fuel but are always heavily armed.  If you look close you will see gun ports cut into the sides of the boxes for shooters in the back.  And there is always an armed shotgun rider too plus the driver will be armed.  Always.”

“We will run out of food at eventually so we will have to try it at some point to re-supply.  Thank you for all the information.  I hope you make it home in one piece.”

 “Thank you for not shooting me and good luck to you two.”

We watched Jason ride off and then went back to our hideout spot to watch a little longer.  As luck would have it we only had to wait a short time before another truck went past us.  Looking closely we both now saw the row of cut outs that those inside could use to shoot out from.  We had just never noticed them on the earlier trucks we saw go past.  We left back for camp after that truck had gone past.  We had learned a lot and talked about everything well into the evening.

We decided not to wait for the situation to get any worse and would go to town for supplies the next morning.  In the morning we unloaded most everything from the larger pickup.  We would take all our empty water containers with to hopefully get them filled with city water in town.  I also cut a few straight branches and taped them sticking out from the box in back.  From a distance they would look like gun barrels I was hoping and would maybe deter anyone from attacking us.  It only took a few minutes and was worth a try.  As soon as we were ready we left for town.

Chapter 16

It was still quite early when we left camp and we really did not have all that far to go.  I had Jan driving so I could ride in the back and be free to shoot in any direction.  Jan had her rifle up front with her but I told her to concentrate on driving.  If shooting started it was her job to get us out of there while I tried to keep them busy ducking instead of shooting.  I had her roll down all the windows so if there was shooting there was less chance of her getting cut with flying glass. 

It was cool this early in the morning riding in back but I had expected that and wore a jacket.  Only once on the way into town was there a half hearted attempt to stop us and just a few shots from me brought that attempt to a halt. 

Jan pulled in to the first gas station but it was obviously not open for business with all the doors and windows smashed.  Closer toward the center of town there was a much better looking station and we pulled up to the pumps.  A man came out of the building and spoke to us.

“The power will not be on for about a half hour or so.  You can’t get any gas until then.”

“Are you using a generator or something?”

“No but we now have rolling blackouts on the power supply here in town.  Six hours on and then six hours off then on again.  If it is on schedule then it should be on in just over a half hour.”

“How much is gas?”

“Seventeen dollars per gallon with a five gallon limit.  Cash only, no barter.”

“Is there a grocery store where we can buy some food near here?”

“Yes it’s only a couple blocks (he pointed).  They of course will only be open when the power comes on also, just like me.”

“Are we safe here in town?  I heard the military was watching over things but we have not seen any so far.”

“You’ll see them at the grocery store.  Things are fairly calm here.  Disputes are settled very quickly, if you get my drift.”

“I do.  Thank you for all the information and we will stop back here for gas before we leave town again.”

“I’ll be here.”

Jan drove the little ways to the big grocery store.  We parked in the mostly empty lot.  There were people here waiting for the store to open but apparently most just walked to the store.  There was quite an assortment of carts and wagons that people had brought to transport their groceries.  We locked the truck with our rifles out of sight behind the seat and walked over to get in line.  We did both have our pistols and several of those in line I noticed also were visibly armed, with both pistols and long guns.  Some folks had only a pistol, rifle, or shotgun while others carried both a short and long gun.  Many had visible knives and I would guess that many also had concealed weapons of one kind or another.

There were also several military vehicles and armed troopers stationed around the store.

No really appeared hostile.  More like just careful.  I asked the next person ahead of us a couple questions.

“We have not bought food for a long time has it went up much in price?”

“I would say you are in for shock when you see the prices here then.”

“What do people do who do not have any money?”

“There is a government run soup kitchen over a block.  They are open every day and anyone can get a free meal there.  One meal a day per person.  They are usually open from around ten in the morning to about four in the afternoon.”

“So people live on just one meal a day?”

“Many do because that is all that is available.  None of them are fat I can tell you but they stay alive.”

“So they have to walk to the ‘soup kitchen’ once a day to get fed?”

“Yep.  At first the military would hand out a box of food to everyone but that did not last long.”

“They ran out of food?”

“No I think they had the food available but everyone was getting their food stolen as they walked home.  Often they would be hurt or even killed so handing out food boxes was seen as counter productive.  So they started the soup kitchens.  No one could steal what was in your belly.  Not as handy but it does save lives.  You really haven’t been in town for a long time.”

“No when things got bad we bought a bunch of food and have camping in the hills.”

“Smart if you can handle the outdoor life.  Might want to have another plan for the winter though.”

“Yes we have been talking about going farther south for winter.”

“You could stay here in town.  There are a lot of empty houses for the taking.”

“People just take over empty houses?”

“Many have died in every town and city.  So there are many empty houses and apartments.  A lot of people from the surrounding area have moved into town so they can get the free soup kitchen food.”

“There are a lot of deer and elk in the area.  Why don’t people just hunt for food?”

“Many do I’m sure but you need more than just meat to survive.  And most people no longer have any transportation to get out to the hills to hunt and then back here to town.”

“I see.  And the highways are dangerous.”

“I guess you found that out on your own.  You are planning to get a free meal as long as you are in town aren’t you?”

“We can buy our own food.  We can leave that for the people who can not pay.”

“Suit yourself but most everyone gets that free meal everyday.  Even if they have food at home.  You might change your mind when you see how much everything costs now.”

“Anything is possible.  Thanks for the info.  I see we can go in now.”

The line was moving and then it stopped.  I guess they limited how many people could be in the store at one time.  Much easier to maintain control that way I’m sure.

When our turn came we went in and started shopping.  The store had way more than just groceries but not a lot of any one thing.  I suppose with the extra space because of limited food available they had space for other items now that they did not before. 

The food prices were very high.  Similar to the rise in the gas price.  Between us we still had a fair amount of money and bought a pretty fair amount of the food.  Jan also picked up a scissors and told me I would receive a hair cut when we got back to camp.  She urged me to buy some razors too.  I guess maybe I did now look like a wild man and it would not hurt to get cleaned up some.  We also bought more soap and several other mundane items besides the food. 

We did not know when we would be able to come back to town if we got a big snow so we did try to buy plenty of whatever we needed.  We each had a heavily loaded shopping cart and it made a considerable dent in our finances to pay for it all.  The men at that road block that I had killed had quite an amount of money on them that I had taken before I dragged them into the woods.    That money would likely come in handy with the prices we now had to pay for everything.

After we checked out and paid I asked if there was someplace nearby where we could fill some containers with drinking water.  The lady at the check out said there were spigots on each side of this building and no one cared if we got water there.  They had put the handles back on the spigots for just that reason.  She did ask us to please bring the carts back into the store again.

We loaded all our purchases into the truck (we had brought several empty totes with us for that purpose) and I returned the carts to the store.  Jan then drove to the side of the building and parked next to a water spigot.  It took us quite awhile to fill all our empty water containers.

That done we went back to the gas station and filled the truck with fuel.  It did not take even five gallons to fill it but I wanted it full just in case.  Everything done we drove back out of town and headed for our campsite.  We had no trouble at all on the return trip.

Chapter 17

When we got back to camp Jan was about to start unloading and I stopped her. 

“I think we should move into one of those houses near here.  We know they are all empty and apparently squatting in empty houses is the new normal.  It would make our lives much easier living indoors and we will have to do it before winter anyway.”

“OK you talked me into it.  Let’s go pick one out right now so it’s done.”

We drove the already loaded pickup down to where the four houses were located and parked it on the road in the middle of the bunch.  We looked at all four houses before making up our minds as to which one we wanted.  All of them had been broken into so we could just walk in with no problem.  All of them had power (until the rolling blackout) and so all had running water too. 

When we had made our choice I drove the pickup in and backed up near the house door and we unloaded everything.  It turns out we would not have had to fill all those water containers after all but better safe than sorry.  We took the truck back to camp and loaded everything else we had (after taking down the tents) into the two trucks and drove back to our new house where we unloaded everything. 

There was an empty two car garage so I put both pickups inside and out of sight.  The house we picked did have a wood stove and there was a big pile of wood outside but if the electric stayed on we could heat mainly with the electric baseboard heaters.  There was an electric range and a microwave for cooking when the power was on and in a pinch we could cook on top of the wood stove in the winter.

Food had been taken from the house of course but those that broke in to steal the food apparently wanted only easy fix food.  Things like flour, sugar, and other baking supplies that just about everyone has some of in their house remained in this one.  Seeing that I went to the other three houses and found about the same supply of baking supplies and brought them all to our new house over the next couple days.

It was like staying in a mansion after camping for so long.  We had talked about using a vacant house on several occasions but that was all we did was talk about it.  When we both found out that it was now a more acceptable act in this crisis that we all faced we no longer hesitated and had moved in the same day we heard that it was now common practice.  It still did not seem right to us to live in someone else’s house but we did accept that it was necessary.

Staying in the house was just like using the baking supplies in the houses here; better to use them rather than just let them go to waste.  I did repair the doors in all four houses the best I could so the houses could be closed up tight and keep the vermin out.

With us moving into this vacant house our standard of living took a major boost.  We are now living about the same as we were before this crash happened (and before we ever met).  We found a hair clipper in the house we now called home and Jan used that and a scissors to cut my hair.  I also shaved and now I looked like my old self again which I think Janet appreciated.

In one of the houses I found a small chest freezer which I transferred to the house where we are staying.  Soon I will shoot a deer or elk and then we will have a steady source of quality meat.  I found little freezer paper to wrap the meat but did find a large quantity of plastic wrap and almost countless zip lock bags of various sizes that we can use to put the meat in for freezing. 

I also gathered many books from the other houses for us to read and study on many different subjects.  There were several cook books and Jan said we could easily turn much of the meat into jerky.  This would be a good idea as we would have no loss from spoilage if the power went out for an extended length of time, something I was concerned about.  With that decided I wasted no time and two days later I shot a nice doe deer which I gutted, skun-out, and then with Jan’s help we de-boned all the meat. 

Jan had made a simple dip using a recipe she found in one of the cook books that we used on the thinly sliced venison.  Then we used all four ovens in the four houses to turn the fresh meat into jerky.  That way all the meat we wanted to jerk was done in one day.  Some of the meat was frozen to be used later and that night we had fresh venison chops for supper.        

The jerky turned out very good and was handy to take with on extended hikes.  With the freezer available I also shot a couple of the local wild turkeys.  They made a nice change from the venison and rabbit that we had been eating.  Janet tried cooking and baking many different things using what food stuffs we had on hand.  Many recipes were limited due to the fact we had no eggs as they were called for in many recipes.  We also had no milk, cheese, or butter.

We did have various cooking oils and a large supply of many different spices from what we bought and we found in the four houses.  I must admit I thought Jan did a great job cooking using what we had available.  Naturally I told her so on several occasions.

   The one food we had plenty of and was fairly easy to replace was meat.  So meat was a major component of our diet.  We had planned for that when we were shopping for food and did have a fair supply of other foods.  We had bought a lot of dried soup mixes and always bolstered those mixes with added meat from our stocks.  When the venison from that first deer was running low I managed to shoot a large cow elk.  This provided a much larger quantity of meat than the deer. 

Again we jerked some of the meat and froze the rest of it.  The jerky could be used in cooking just as well as the fresh or frozen could.  The jerky had the benefit of not requiring refrigeration which was still a worry with both of us though the nights now often went below freezing temps.  Soon we would be able to keep anything frozen outside by just keeping it in the shade.

With the colder temps we used the electric heat in our new house.  We kept it fairly cool in the house and we had closed off the unused rooms and did not heat them.  It had snowed several times now but so far there was no build up on the ground.  We both thought that snow covering was coming though neither of us knew how much snow to expect during the winter.

While we were not getting fat and sassy and had kept up our training sessions and hikes we both felt very secure here.  When nothing happens for a long while people always get lax in the jobs they do or are supposed to do.  This also happened to us.  Seeing no one and feeling so secure I let our security lapse. 

Chapter 18

We had been out for a relatively short hike of just a few miles and came home to have lunch in the house.  We both just walked in the front door and were taking off our small day packs when the two men stepped through the kitchen doorway with guns pointed at both of us.

“You can also very, very slowly remove those pistols and drop them on top of those packs.  Whether you live or die will be determined by just how well you can follow my orders.  So slowly drop those pistols now.”

I was cursing myself out in my mind for being so very careless and allowing this to happen.  Our safety was totally my responsibility and I had let both of us down.  And now Jan would very likely pay a terrible price for my actions.  I wanted to draw and shoot but I knew I would have no chance what-so-ever against the already the drawn and aimed guns of the two men.  I took a different tack.

“Please don’t hurt me.  We will do anything you want but just don’t hurt me.  We have food.  Lots of food.  You can take it.  There is good meat in the freezer too.  Take it all just don’t hurt me.”

“What a pathetic loser.  How could someone like you have that good looking woman?  Yes we will take all your food and maybe if this woman plays her cards right we may just take her along too.  You, I don’t know if I will even waste a bullet on.  Get over in the living room both of you.”

Both Jan and I walked into the living room after dropping our pistols.  The men stepped much closer to us now that we had no guns.  Jan I think suspected I was just waiting for any opportunity and she took her jacket off then her hat and shook out her long hair.  Jan was a beautiful woman and as I think she suspected the two men both turned and looked directly at her.  They also allowed their guns to droop down so they were no longer pointed directly at us.

When one of the men took another step closer to Jan and opened his mouth to speak I struck.  When I saw their attention was on her I had slowly moved my hand to one of my knives.  When I made my move to attack I drew the knife and threw it in one smooth motion.  The throw was not a very strong one but should be adequate for the intended soft tissue target.  The knife struck the victim in the throat but while the knife was still in the air I was moving in on the other man. 

Reaching out with my long arms I grabbed the man’s gun and just tipped it up enough to be pointed at his head.  As soon as I thought any bullet shot may strike him I pushed down on his finger that was on the trigger.  The gun went off two times and at least one of the shots entered the man’s chin and passed into his likely small brain cavity.  The bullet did its job very well. 

As that man was falling to the floor I turned back to the man I stuck with my knife.  He was still alive and making gurgling noises through all the blood coming from his throat.  One glance at him and I knew the noises would cease momentarily with no further action from me.

When I looked at Jan she had drawn her knife and was in a fighting stance but had a shocked look on her face.  I took the two or three steps over to her and wrapped my arms around her.  When I did so I turned her body so she was facing away from the dead and dying men lying on the floor.

“I’m so sorry.  I should have been much more vigilant and should never have put us in this danger.  Did you get hurt?”

“It happened so fast.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No I am not hurt.  You were so fast.”

“Thank goodness that you are OK. I am so sorry to let this happen.”

“No, you saved us.  You are not at fault.  You saved us both.  Are you hurt?”

“No I’m fine.  But I should have been much more watchful.  I am so thankful that my screw up did not get you hurt.”

“Stop that.  You did not do anything wrong.  You saved our lives.  I would have helped but you were so fast there was nothing for me to do.  I knew you would act when you thought we had a chance and that is why I put on the little show.  But then you were so fast that I hardly had time to get my knife out.”

“You did great.  You knew just what to do.  I am so lucky to have you with me.”

All this time I had been holding Jan tight to me.  I did not want to let go.  I had heard the last wheeze of breath leaving the man I used the knife on and knew he was now dead.  I led Jan out of the living room and into the kitchen.  I had her sit at the table where she could not see into the room with the dead men.  I then quickly retrieved our handguns and gave hers to her.  Then I made a quick cup of instant coffee and set in front of her.  I noticed two rifles that must have belonged to the two men leaning up against one cabinet.  After again making sure Jan was alright I went back to the two men.

They were both dead and I went through their pockets and took everything that we could possibly ever use.  They did not have much stuff and only a little money.  I did make sure I got the holsters and belts the men wore.  That done I drug the two out the front door.  There was a big area rug in the living room and it had soaked up most all of the blood.  I rolled that up and threw that outside also before going back to check on Janet.

She seemed pretty calm now and was sipping the hot coffee.  I told her I was going to make a quick sweep and make sure it was just the two men.  I would also look for their car or how they came here.  She said she would be fine and I grabbed my rifle from where it was kept and left the house.

Once outside I scanned the whole area looking for someone or anything out of place.  Then I walked a big loop around the area.  At the first house that was closest to the road I found two bikes.  One had a make-shift trailer attached to it.  There were also two big backpacks leaning against the two bicycles.  I hooked the two packs on the handlebars of the bike with the trailer and wheeled it up to our house.

I went back inside to check on Jan.

“Are you OK?”

“Yes.  Things just happened so fast; I guess it took me a little bit to catch up.  I’m sorry I was not more help to you in taking care of those two.”

“You did a great job.  The little act you did to get and hold their attention was perfect.  It was what allowed me to act.”

“Did you find their car outside somewhere?”

“They came on bicycles apparently.  One of the bikes had a trailer attached to it.  They also had two big backpacks.”

“I’ll go clean up in the living room if you want to do something with the bodies.”

“I can do the clean up.”

“No, I’m fine now and I can handle it.”

“OK if you’re sure.  If it bothers you just leave it and I’ll finish.  I will throw away that big rug that was in there.  I don’t think we could ever get it cleaned up enough to use again.  I’ll get rid of the rug and bodies now and then help with the clean up when I get back.”

I left the house and got my little truck.  I used that to haul the bodies down the highway a couple miles and I just tossed them in the ditch.  I was going to toss the rug there too but it just didn’t feel right to me.  It bothered me not at all throwing the two dead guys out but the rug seemed like littering or a waste or something and I just couldn’t do it.  I brought the rug back with me and burned it in the middle of the dirt road past our house a little ways a couple days later.

When I got back inside Janet had the living room all clean.  She looked a little pale but seemed fine.  I asked if she wanted to go through the stuff the bad guys had brought with them.  She said yes just to keep busy I think.

The trailer had two sleeping bags and a tent along with a little food and some water.  I was surprised at how little food was there.  The backpacks contained a little more food and extra clothes for each man.  One of the guys had been about my size and I kept some of the better looking of his clothes out to be washed so I might wear them.  One pack had a cloth bag with some silver coins inside.  There was not that many of them but were the only silver we had, at least as far as I knew (maybe Janet had some).

We brought the food in and added it to ours.  I put the bikes and the trailer in a neighboring garage.  The two empty backpacks we put in a spare room in our house along with the guns and ammunition the two had.  One of the rifles was a scoped bolt action hunting rifle and I would use that for any more deer or elk hunting I would do.  The 223 caliber rifles that Jan and I had were really too light for the big game hunting.  The scoped rifle was a 30/06 which was a much better choice for big game hunting.  There were only 24 cartridges for it but they should last me quite awhile if I was careful.

We did get what supplies the two bandits had with them but I would be feeling much better if we had never laid eyes on the two men.

Chapter 19

It snowed hard for two days and that pretty much closed the road to all traffic.  Three days later I was surprised when a snow plow made a pass through on the highway but realized that with the highway closed no one would be getting any more food deliveries or any other deliveries for that matter.  Apparently whoever was in charge thought that was unacceptable and had at least one lane opened on the highway.

Winter continued just like that.  When we received too much snow a plow went through on the highway to keep one lane always open.  Towards the end of March I was able to shoot another elk so we had plenty of meat for most of the summer months I think.  Most of the meat was made into jerky.  When Jan said the jerky would make a good trade item or even something we could give to those in need I shot another elk and we jerked almost the whole thing.  It worked good jerking the meat in the kitchen oven.  It warmed the kitchen up nicely and we took our time and processed the meat over several days.

Over the long winter we started listening to the one radio station that was available to us.  Gradually they started to have some real news again. In many areas of the northern United States people were having a very hard time surviving due to the winter cold and snow.

Many lives were lost over the long winter months and that coupled with all the lives lost previously meant that now the population of the United States was much reduced from what it had been just one year ago.  On the radio they admitted that no one really knew what the current population was and all anyone could do was guess.  By closer to spring the US government said that by their estimates the population had fallen by at least twenty five percent possibly by as much as fifty five percent.

The government also admitted that stored food supplies were now dangerously low across the country and they were urging everyone, everywhere to plant and tend their own gardens for their future survival as soon as the weather permitted that gardens be planted in their areas.  Garden seeds would be provided free of charge and would come with instructions for planting, tending, harvesting, and seed harvesting. 

The government said that commercial farming would be promoted and fuel would be provided to those farmers for that food production.  Even with that citizens were told to rely on their own gardens for the bulk of their needs.  In no uncertain terms everyone was told that they would have to be personally responsible for their own well being.  The government would provide limited help to everyone but that help would be very limited. 

Neither Jan nor I was familiar with gardening and neither of us had ever grown garden or even helped someone else with a garden.  When the announcement came that everyone should plant a garden and that seeds would be provided we decided to again make a trip into town.  The snow had melted off enough (thanks to early spring rains) so we could now get out to the highway without problems. 

Before we left for town I told Janet that I did have one more very important task to do and it had to be done before the trip.  I asked her to marry me.

Luckily she did say yes and we agreed that we would try and get married while in town on this trip.  She seemed both excited and relieved that I asked her to marry me.  I guess I was feeling the same things because she had said yes when I asked.  With a twinkle in her eye she did say that it would have been a much warmer winter if I had asked her last fall instead of waiting for spring.

When the radio said the government sponsored seed was now available in our area we made an uneventful trip in to town.  Once there we presented our driver’s licenses to receive our gardening kit.  The kit was only a selection of seeds and several pages of detailed instructions on how to raise a garden from start to finish.  There were several boxed kits and the one we received had a number two stamped on all sides which we guessed was because we had a family of two.

After we had our seeds and had asked about a local church we made our way to a nearby church where the Minister agreed to marry us on the spot.  He said that he could not provide the legal documents because the county courthouse was not functional.  We assured him that if we were married in the eyes of God that mattered much more to us than being married in the eyes of the government.  It was a very short and simple ceremony that was only attended by the three of us.  The Minister asked for nothing for performing a duty he took pleasure in as it showed promise of the future but we gave him a donation in the hopes he could continue to provide what he could for everyone in the area. 

Before coming to town we had searched all four of the properties near us and had found plenty of hand gardening tools along with adequate garden hoses to water our future garden.  We stopped at the grocery store and were shocked at just how little they had in the way of food.  We bought nothing with the money we had brought with us.  We would use what little we had left at home and hope for the best with our gardening skills.

We talked to several people in town about news, both local and elsewhere.  Like we guessed after a look in the grocery store they all said that supply trucks were now few and far between.  Many had died in town over the winter from starvation, disease, violence, accidents, and mixed other causes.  Everyone also assumed there was considerable loss of life in the rural areas over winter due in part to most of the roads being impassable all winter long.

Everyone expressed real concerns for all our future survival but most also expressed hope and determination to get this country back up and running.  We actually stayed in town most of the day having brought plenty of food and water with us. 

There was a flea market type thing going on in the parking lot of the open grocery store.  While cash was used most items were purchased by barter or trading.  Items for sale ran the gauntlet from valuable to about worthless but overall there was really very little there.  We found nothing we wanted.  We understood that people were just trying to get by anyway they could. 

The soup kitchen was still open though we did not partake for ourselves.  We asked about it and were told that it was just supplying enough calories to each person to barely survive everyday.  Many wondered just how long they could depend on even that meager food supply to be available to them.

Sentiment among those in town varied widely from despondent to hopeful and some just happy to see spring arrive on more time.  Looking over the people we saw way fewer older people than before the crisis and thought that it was very likely that many older folks just did not survive over the winter.  We had been told that drugs were about non-existent now and that likely caused the deaths of many people.

We also saw very few kids and hoped that was just because they were at their homes.  Neither of us voiced that fact both the very young and the very old were usually the first to lose their lives in survival situations.

Finally we returned to the truck and drove back to our home.  What should have been a very joyous day because we had gotten married was tempered somewhat by everything we had seen and heard while in town.

Epilogue

We were both much happier now with our band new marital status.  Everyday was literally filled with hugs and kisses.  And a lot of work.  We put in two separate gardens.  One next to our house and one next to the closest house to ours.  We had talked it over and had decided that it might be somewhat safer to do it that way and it caused us very little extra work as it was only a short walk between the two places.

In spite of our inexperience both gardens grew well enough over the summer.  The produce was canned using supplies gathered from the four houses in our area.  Some produce was dried using instructions found in our seed box provided by the government.

The radio actually was having some good news to report with those left alive in the nation banding together to help their neighbors.  The garden seed box distribution from the government had apparently been a huge success in most areas.  Naturally there were exceptions caused by Mother Nature in the form of flooding, hail, or to a lesser extent, drought but overall people had worked hard for themselves to use what was provided to grow their own food supply.

Canning supplies like lids and to a somewhat lesser extent jars caused some storage issues but again neighbors helping neighbors helped a lot to make the situation workable.

Gradually the nation healed and production of all goods and supplies returned.  Like in our history our nation grew and built what was needed on American soil and very little trade was needed or even wanted with other nations.  Naturally there were a few things that just could not be grown or made here but these things were few.

The End

Thank you for reading this short story of mine and I hope you found it enjoyable.  If it was something you liked please watch for more of my stories to follow.  Below are some of my already published stories that you might also enjoy.

Pete Thorsen

Finding Hope

When an awful pandemic sweeps across the world killing the bulk of the human population one man who has no one and does not care whether he lives through the pandemic or not, does survive.  Alone he wonders why he of all people survives when so many with loving families did not.  Then he finds a purpose to his life when finds and befriends a little girl.

Three Strikes

And You’re Out

America

When three nuclear EMP missiles explode high above the United States it causes extreme devastation by taking out the whole electric grid and all electronics.  People are left wondering what to do while society totally breaks down.  One lone man has his own plan to survive and refuses to let anyone stand in his way to achieve his goal of personal survival.

An Economic

Firestorm

      This story is about the economic collapse of the US Dollar and the economy of the USA as seen and lived through by a family in rural Arizona. Naturally in the troubled times they face some hardships but having suspected something like this would happen and then being prepared saved them from the unimagined horrors and hardships that many Americans had to suffer through. 

What?

The sun did all this!

In this story the sun sends out a massively strong CME that strikes the earth.  Similar to the one that struck in 1859 that is now known as the Carrington Event it did some damage back then but we did not have electricity back at that time.  With all the electric wires running everywhere and our total dependency on electronics this time the human population took a catastrophic hit.  Follow the new life of a single man who tries to unite with his family who unfortunately live in different states and the hardships he faces on his journey.

Surviving in Trying Times

When the recession hits an older man loses his job and can not find another.  His wife and him try to cope by starting a simple home-based business but the economy continues to deteriorate.  Able to read the signs of the road ahead the couple does what they can to prepare for what they think will be similar to the Great Depression.  When the economy totally falls apart their preparations provide them with much greater comfort than the unprepared souls living around them.

Hard Times

Multiple terrorist attacks within the United States leads to the loss of life for thousands of American citizens.  The terror attacks also disrupt the delicate and fragile US economy which was likely the terrorist’s real target.  When a hurricane is then predicted to hit the east coast it is the last straw for one man and he starts a journey to find someplace he can ride out the storm- -both the hurricane and the economic storm. 

Global Warming

(It’s real this time)

      When mankind accidentally triggers global warming at an incredibly rapid pace the whole world changes with the change in the weather.  Things are not like they once were and this story follows the life of a young man who lives in this now turbulent, changed world.  Can people still survive after this near extinction event?  Read how this young man and those in his loose community survive in this different world.

From Civilized

to

Barbaric

When the electric power goes out and does not come back on it causes unimaginable problems in the United States.  Lee Rosen is living in New York City and has a hard time believing the drastic changes he sees all around him caused from just the simple lack of electricity.  He had never thought about the ramifications that a prolonged power outage would cause and just how dependent we all were on having that power come on with just the flip of a switch.  He soon has no food and no water and just sees chaos everywhere he looks.  This story follows this young man as he comes to grips with the new environment where he now finds himself; a violent and chaotic environment where only he is responsible for his own well being. 

Cruel End

To a

Great Country

The once great United States slowly crumples from within due to the gradual declining of our service based economy.  Slowly but steadily our economy winds down until it finally can not support itself any longer.  A simple janitor watches the decline of his country and like others can do nothing about it.  Instead he retreats to his own little slice of rural property as everything crashes all around him.  This is the story of a simple man just trying to live out his simple life.

Just Another Day

      Just Another Day is a story about a semi-retired couple who gradually come to the conclusion that the world economy is very likely to collapse into financial ruin.  They then begin to plan and prepare somewhat to hopefully get the two of them through that catastrophe if or when it might happen.  When five of their family are visiting from a distant state a far different and much worse catastrophe hits instead in the form of an EMP or a solar flare which takes out the power grid and most all electronics.  Now with seven to provide for instead of just two they wonder just how they will ever survive this life threatening event.  This is the story of how they all try to cope with the now incredibly harsh world in which they now find themselves.     

The Cruel

New World

When a Corneal Mass Ejection from our Sun ruins all or most of the electrical equipment across the globe it devastates mankind.  Without all of the tools, equipment, and gadgets many people in our modern society do not have a clue about how to survive in the new world in which they now have to try and live.  On a different track this story follows not a hero or even a person but instead this story is centered on and follows a gun, from its manufacture through its many owners.

A warning- this story is somewhat more violent (and therefore likely more realistic in that sense) than some of my other stories.  Everything in this story is not just rainbows and roses and instead shows a much harsher world.  We all currently live in a rather violent world and I believe after a major event like the one portrayed in this story the world would be much more violent than it is now.

Relax It’s

Just the Flu

This story centers on a pandemic of a very virulent and deadly strain of the flu.  So deadly a strain of the flu that much of the population succumbs to this new disease.  A small group of survivors in a hospital in Montana face the situation in which they now find themselves.   They each have to decide for themselves what they will make of the future as they come to the conclusion that their safety and very survival is now just in their own hands. 

Thar She Blows

When Yellowstone Erupts

This is a story of what happens to a few groups of people when the Yellowstone Caldera erupts and devastates a huge portion of the United States.  Everyone in the most effected states have to run for their very lives to escape the copious amounts of toxic ash that spews forth from the new super volcano.  The story characters face adversity and hardships in their attempt to escape the volcano and then to try and restart their lives in a new location. 

Nice Day

For Armageddon

When an unknown country launches multiple advanced EMP strikes against the United States it spells doom for most Americans and severe hardships for those few who manage to survive.  To the surviving Americans it really matters not who launched this crippling cowardly military strike against this great nation or what the US does as a response to this act of war, for they are way too busy just trying survive the after effects of these EMP bursts. This is the story of a few of those survivors.