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First attempt or not this was definitely a grabber of a story.
For goodness sakes don't stop now! :D
I am a free man!
I always was.
I always will be.
I have always advised my children not to mistake having manners and being polite as being a sign of weakness. An individual with strength and confidence in him/herself will naturally be mannered and gracious to others.
Looks like a good start, so please keep going. I like the everyday details you are including in the story, eg, food will store in the freezer for about 4 days when the power goes out.
BANG-BANG-BANG!!! BANG-BANG-BANG!!!.
“What in the world” I hollered. Being woke up at 2:00 in the morning is not enjoyable. Especially when you are SUPPOSE to be standing watch.
“My heavens, I fell asleep”. How much longer can I do this I asked myself becoming wide awake. Quickly going to the bedroom I gently woke Carlene, my wife up, whispering to her, get the shotgun and get in position.
BANG-BANG-BANG!!! BANG-BANG-BANG!!!.
“Dwight, please open the door, it’s me, Doug!!!
Quietly going to a small side window I looked outside and sure enough, Doug and Connie were standing outside the back door, looking like the Hound of the Baskervilles was pursuing them.
“Come on Dwight, let us in please” Doug pleaded. By now Connie was almost hysterical with fright and sobbing, “we’re going to die, we’re going to die”!!
Inside the back door (solid two inch oak) there is a one inch hole drilled in the floor and the ceiling beam above it and solid stainless steel rods are inserted into theses holes. This prevents the door from being opened more than one inch until they are removed.
Unbolting the door and opening it slightly, I asked Doug, “Anyone else with you”? “No, no, only Connie and me. Can we come in”?
If a man or woman can count the number of true friends they have in this world on one hand and still have fingers left over, they are fortunate. Doug and Connie are two of those fingers.
After forty five minutes of calming down, the bits and pieces were being put together.
“The electricity went first, heck it is the first time in nine years we have lost power for even a few minutes”, Doug explained. “By the morning we still did not have any power, then we lost water”!!
“Tried calling the power company, cell phone said all lines were tied up, tried for over four hours calling both the power company and the water company, phones never cleared up”.
Connie added, “By 1:00 in the afternoon we lost our cell phone. First we lost the signal, then the phone died. I guess the phone lost its’ charge not having any power. Luckily we did have propane in the grill and was able to cook some canned stew and vegetables. Ate off of paper plates since we didn’t have water either”.
“Found out later that the cell towers batteries finally died, it wouldn’t have mattered though, the central processing center also lost power and could not process the calls” Doug stated.
“What are you doing here, it is at least fifty miles between here and your house. How did you get here? Where’s your vehicle” asked Carlene
“Well nothing happened Saturday night, we were still expecting the water and power to come back on. We still had food in the freezer, (hated to lose all that food) and plenty of propane for the grill. Sunday morning came and still no power, water or phone service. Got ready for church, drove there but services were cancelled. On the way back home from the church we noticed that small groups, I guess you could call them gangs, were hanging out at the intersections with lights. When we stopped at the second light, four of five of them started busting out the windows in the car and screaming, kill em, kill em. Luckily, I hit the gas and got out of there. Connie got some scratches. I think I may have run over one of those people, gosh they couldn’t have been much more than teenagers “, Doug explained.
“Made it home in record time, I guess I will be getting a ticket from the speed cameras. Wait a second, maybe they aren’t working either. Couldn’t call the police, didn’t even see any police. Heard a LOT of sirens. About 2:00 in the afternoon heard sirens coming down our street, looked out and police and fire trucks are pulling in two houses down. Seems someone set the neighbors house on fire because they had a generator they were using for lights and cooking. Shots ensued and three people ended up getting shot. Wasn’t two hours later more shots started and pretty soon it seemed like the whole neighborhood was at war. Four fireman and one policeman were shot and wounded. They lost the house, more police came, even the SWAT team. The police claimed it was gang activity and it was now getting out of hand.”
“I guess the last straw to fall was when we lost power and water, we did not realize that it would affect the sewers. About 7:00 that night the sewers started backing up in the bath tub and showers. The stench was horrible. The house was getting to the point of being unlivable, no power or water; our food was quickly going to go bad”.
“I guess we should have had a canner, jars and lids and canned the stuff. We could have used the grill for heat, and used the water from the water heater to can it with”, Connie flatly intoned.
“Finally around 9:00 that night, we heard more sirens and gun shots and decided to leave”, Doug continued. “We knew we had to get out of here but the question was where to go? We didn’t want to get stuck in the city and we only had a quarter tank of gas in the car. The only place we both could agree on was here, we couldn’t call, heck we didn’t even know if we could or would make it here. We almost didn’t”.
“Packed up what we could, it is still in the car, and left in the dead on night at about 3:00 in the morning. Stayed on only the back roads, luckily did not come across any road blocks. We did come across two police stops. They were looking for looters and I was concerned they might think our belongings were from looting. Held up for hours at both. That is one reason it took us so long to get here. I was really worried about the bridge over the lake that it would be blocked off. Luckily it wasn’t. We have had to drive all the way to Abingdon and around the lake to make it here. We would not have had enough gas to make it. There are no gas stations open, no supermarkets, nothing between here and our house.”
“The gas finally gave out about one and a half miles from here. Just had to pull the car off the road, tried hiding it. I don’t think anyone will find it. Hoofed it up here and we finally made it”, as Doug finished.
“Aren’t you armed”? I inquired, noticing the apparent lack of any firearms.
“No, the police confiscated it at the first stop, I protested but they said the county mayor signed some sort of order prohibiting firearms outside the home. Illegal as all get out as far as I am concerned but what could I do. The cop said I was lucky that he didn’t arrest me on the spot”. Doug replied.
“What’s left in the car” I asked.
“Some food, we had to throw out the meat from the cooler, as long as it took to get here it finally went bad. We grabbed our camping gear, tents, sleeping bags, things like that. With fall and winter coming on we packed some winter clothes. A couple of picture albums, our Bibles and I did put our small fire proof safe with our important papers in the trunk,” was Doug’s reply.
“Well we need to get down there ASAP and get it. There has not really been too much problems over here YET, but I am sure it will not take long for it to spread here. You feel up to going now,” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s get it done, better not wait,” Doug and Connie agreed.
“Carlene, give Doug the shotgun, I’ll take the pistol. We will take my truck. Do you know which road you hid it on and where?” I asked.
“It is on Cold Springs Road right before it crosses Blevins Creek, I hid it about 20 yards off the road,” Doug explained.
“Okay, about
Chapter 6 – Down but Not Out
“The house is powered by twelve 180 watt solar panels feeding a battery bank of sixteen 6-volt golf cart batteries. We also have a backup diesel generator that runs two hours every two or three days when it is not sunny”, I explained to Doug and Connie.
They were wondering why we still had power since every else the grid had died. “We decided to install the solar powered system about five months ago, their power here was unreliable and just getting too expensive. The total costs on the system was right at $18,000.00 dollars. Had the grid system pulled out!! Both the power company blew a couple of circuit breakers on that. They said, “You can’t do that”.
Contacted our lawyer who wrote them a nice letter. The next week, they came and pulled the meter. “Guess we did it just in time, but boy were they ever PO’d about it. Along with the solar power, we went with an on demand propane water heater with the ability to switch over to solar hot water heating when the sun shone for a decent amount of time. We even went with a new fashioned wood cook stove, makes great bread and heats the house”. I explained.
“What’s going to happen when word gets out that you have power and they don’t”?, Doug asked.
“I haven’t spread the word about it and security issues are something we need to discuss and plan on”, I said with concern on my face. It had only been six days since the markets went seriously south.
If you listened to the available radio stations, as the power went off in the cities, riots erupted soon afterward. First over the most trivial things like, believe it or not, not being able to surf the internet or watch TV or use your cell phone. Once people realize that maybe this was a SHTF scenario and food, water and sanitary was gone, (maybe permanently) things exploded.
“Only one week and people have gone crazy”, Carlene observed. “Two hundred forty three dead in riots in Charlotte, one hundred seventeen in Roanoke, Va., what has happened to people.”
“How safe are we here”? asked Connie. “Do you think people will be rioting here”?
“Well, if you didn’t have food, water and no means to get those things, I would think sooner, not later, things would start to happen, especially if you were dependent on the authorities whether local, state or federal for your means of subsistence. I think that is why it was best for us to get out of the city asap and come here”, Doug replied.
“Yes, our security is going to become an issue, no, it is an issue right now. I really don’t know how long it will be before WE start seeing people trying to get out of Dodge, so to speak, we it will happen. Right now there are the four of us. Our daughter and two granddaughters are suppose of their way here now from Greeneville, TN., should be here today. That will give us a total of five adults.” I said unconsciously looking at the calendar on the wall.
It had been four days since we had spoken to our daughter, telling her that it was time NOW to leave Greeneville and get here. With two young daughters to help her pack their small car, they had left on Saturday the 15th of October. A short four word email, (the last email we would ever get) said, “We’re gone. Love you.”
We live one and one-half miles off the closest county road. One lane in, dead end. The nearest neighbor is a half a mile away, also on this dead end road. The road is cut into the side of a mountain, steep enough that it requires all four to climb up, and if you go off the side, well, it is a long way down with very little to stop you. Any vehicle that approaches can be heard at least one half mile away and with the leaves off the trees can be seen at the same distance. I am glad the leaves have fallen off.
“Dwight, I hear people talking, someone is crying”, Carlene exclaimed. She was looking out over the area with her binoculars when she practically shouted, “It’s Chelsea and the girls, but they’re on foot”.
“Does it look like anyone is hurt”, I asked. “I can’t tell from here, just go get them”!! Carlene shouted.
“Get the shotgun Doug, I’ll take the rifle”, I said picking up the AR-10. We both check to see that we were fully loaded and started out to meet the girls. Stalking in single file, ten yards apart, it took us approximately 15 minutes to cover the distance between us. We hid about 15 feet off the side of the road on the uphill side and let the girls pass us to make sure there was no one else following before we popped up. Doug covered our back side, while I calmed my daughter and granddaughters down.
It was good to have them home!!
We made it back to the house and thanked the Lord that he safely guided both Doug and Connie and our daughter and granddaughters to us. Details would be filled out on Chelsea’s escape (what else could it be called). About 5:00 that evening, in what would be the last radio broadcast for a long time, the radio announcer gave the news.
“As of 2:00 PM, EST, October 17th, 2011, Martial Law has been declared in the United States. There is a mandatory curfew between the hours of 6:00 pm and 7:00 am. Any and all civilians caught looting will be shot on sight. All food supplies exceeding a five day maximum is to be turned over to federal, state and or local authorities. All fuel supplies, (gasoline, kerosene, diesel, etc) exceeding 10 gallons is to be turned over to federal, state and/or local authorities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be establishing assistance facilities for all civilians in disaster relief aid. At the present time Habeus Corpus is being suspended. Your Federal Government fully expects this period of martial law to be temporary and upon restoration of order to be rescinded.”
Anyone ever heard the saying, “We’re the government and we are here to help you”!!!
I'm so glad I have pre-escaped the city, I still have to commute in every day, but then that means that each day I can choose to NOT take the risk of the commute, or bail out early and beat the rush (riots).
I'm still trying to figure out how FEMA will get enough goons to raid country homes for food, when it will cost more lives in goons than it will save in food stolen? Goons may be stupid, but still when you go out a dozen in the morning and only 4 of you make it home at the end of the day, just how many days will you be willing to make the bet "YOU" will be one of the 4, no matter what the head count is on the other side? Molone Labe can apply to more than just weapons.
Fanderal
All civilizations rise, rule, decline and fall. Most of us have lived through the tail end of the "Rule" part, and now happen to be living through the decline, and may see the fall. There is nothing really to be upset about, as long as your are prepared for it; it is a natural process, the trick is to not get caught up in everyone else s panic, and the governmental reaction.
Bring It my friend. Excellent beginning to a great story. Everybody in TN knows that greeneville is spelled GreenEville :) Sorry, but I couldn't help it. I have friends that live there and that's how they spell it. The rest of the story is believable.
Welcome to Tennessee, patriot state of shootin' stuff.
I have seen this portrayed in other stories and I really wonder how people would respond to the demand that they hand over 'excess' supplies to the gov.
I know on my side of the world the sound of raucous laughter would be heard miles away from my place.
With a 'like H*ll!' follow-up.
I am a free man!
I always was.
I always will be.
I have always advised my children not to mistake having manners and being polite as being a sign of weakness. An individual with strength and confidence in him/herself will naturally be mannered and gracious to others.
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