Curtain Fall: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 1) (16 page)

“It was a big . . . the crater I mean,” she said.

“It’s actually a Caldera, which is a volcano that collapsed in on itself after it erupted. Did you know that of the twenty-three largest Calderas in the world, the Yellowstone National park Caldera is the biggest one that’s active?”

Abby shook her head to indicate a no.

“Well, it is. It’s about thirty by forty miles wide, which makes it a ‘super’ volcano. And when it erupts . . . well, we’ll feel it all the way down here,” said John.

“No way,” said Abby.

“Yes way,” quipped Adam.

“Adam, I got this,” John remarked to his son curtly.

Abby shot Adam a smug look and said, “Daddy, I thought Yellowstone Park was in Idaho. Isn’t that way up by Canada.”

“You’re right. It is next to Canada,” said John. “It’s more than twelve-thousand miles away . . . in a straight line. But it’s a really big volcano, Abby. It’s many, many, times bigger than the one in Hawaii. So when the Yellowstone Caldera erupts, it will send ash all the way down here to Texas.”

“That’s cool,” sighed Adam.

“It’s not cool,” said John. “If the ash falls on us here, in Texas, try to imagine how much of it will fall north of us.

“Ash will cover our crop lands, and fill our lakes, rivers, and streams. Our drinking water will become dirty and potentially toxic. The air we breathe will be filled with ash the consistency of powdered glass, so we’ll have to protect our lungs whenever we go outside. And the skies . . . they’ll be dark for several days, perhaps even for weeks and months. That means . . . life as we know it will change. The eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera will not be cool,” finished John.

John could see, by the looks on their two faces that he went a little too far in describing the effects of such a terrible natural disaster, but he didn’t regret having done so. He wanted them to know what they were in for when it erupts. He wanted his family to understand such an eruption would change everything. They deserved to know the truth and prepare themselves mentally.

After a short pause, he said, “Now, to answer your question, Adam. We’re going to prepare.”

“I thought we were already prepared,” replied Adam.

“You’re right, we are prepared, but we’ve been given a little more time to prepare, so we’re going to take advantage of it.”

Abby expressed all her doubt and concerns with one simple question, “Daddy, but how do you know it’s going to happen?”

John wasn’t surprised by her question. In fact he was more surprised that it hadn’t come from Adam. “That’s a good question, Abby. And it’s
one I’ve been struggling with all day. The Caldera was in the news this morning and it caught my attention. Then, after thinking about it for a while, I recalled the dream I had a few years ago. I made a connection between the two, the news and the dream, and I concluded that the Caldera was an imminent threat. Once I made the connection, I had a confirming feeling about my thoughts on it. I have no doubt now that it will happen, and happen soon.”

“What do you mean? What’s a confirming feeling? Can you tell me about your dream?” asked Abby. And at the same time Adam said, “I have dreams, too.”

John turned to both in turn, surprised at Abby’s interest in his dream, and Adam’s declaration that he’s had dreams of his own. But first things first, so he said to Abby, “I’ll let you read the dream when we’re done here. I don’t know how to explain the confirming feeling I get, other than to say I’ve had it before, and it either saved my life, or proved the truthfulness of something I was thinking about, or working on. It’s sort of like a gut feeling, but for me it’s a bit more personal and real . . . like a feeling of truth. I know that sounds strange, but I trust that feeling.”

“So . . . when do you think it will erupt?” asked Adam.

“I’m convinced it will erupt this year, which leaves us about seventy-five days. But I think it will be much sooner than that,” added John.

“Why now? Why all of a sudden?” asked Adam, with genuine concern in his voice.

“I know it’s hard to understand, to relate to, but you have to trust me, because I don’t know all the details. All I know is that the news and my dream came together for me today, when I was at work. I don’t know why, but I know it was for a good reason.”

Adam looked at his mom and asked, “I guess you already know?”

John said, “She does. We talked about it earlier,” and he squeezed her hand and they exchanged a quick, knowing glance. Turning to Adam, John added, “I know it sounds strange, and you’re right to be confused and concerned, but I want you to trust me that we’ll be alright, that we’ll
make it through anything if we stick together. When the Caldera erupts we’ll have a lot of work to do, but we can make it. We can survive.”

Jenna added, “I want you guys to know that I love and trust your father with all my heart. I believe him, and think we should do everything we can to prepare before the disaster comes.”

Adam looked at his sister, his mom, and then settled back on John, “So . . . what do we do next, dad?”

“That’s my boy,” said John.

“Me too, daddy. I trust you,” said Abby, and she leaned over and wrapped her arms around John.

“Brown-noser,” teased Adam.

“Adam!” snapped Jenna.

“Sorry, mom.”

W
hile at dinner, and much to John’s tolerable annoyance, the family voted to temporarily suspend any discussion of emergency preparedness. As difficult as it was for him to shelve the topic, he relented. After all, it was only dinner, and he didn’t want to turn their last few days before the disaster, their last few
normal
days, into some kind of by-the-numbers military operation.

The hard part was done. He managed to convince them of the approaching danger, so a few minutes of denial wouldn’t hurt. John let them eat, and talk, and quickly lost himself in thinking about what he wanted to accomplish during the next few days.

The first thing he wanted to do was update his food inventory list. It had been more than a year since he last updated the spreadsheet, despite having added food to his storage nearly every month. That meant he would either have to find the receipts of the recently ordered food, or conduct a completely new inventory. He didn’t like the idea of doing a new inventory because it would consume too much time – time he wanted to dedicate to more pressing matters.

John pretty much stopped tracking his food storage inventory when he reached a year’s supply for his family. But after spending so much time thinking about what food he needed to add over the years, he had a pretty good handle on a majority of his inventory with or without a list.

He knew how many pails and cans he had, and what was in them, but not what he had in terms of his mid-range food storage; the regular food he purchased from grocery stores. Clearly, John understood the need to have an accurate inventory list, but not nearly as much as
needing food. For John, it was more about cramming for an upcoming test, so the inventory sheet would have to be updated.

When it came to calorie counting, at least for determining their survival needs, John used the food storage analyzer he found on-line at “Emergency Essentials.” The analyzer helped him determine how long his food supply would sustain his family, within reason, and allowed him to better consider their nutritional balance.

Given the caloric intake requirements of a family his size, John learned that he had enough food stored in both his long and mid-range food storage, to feed his family for about fourteen months. He realized the analyzer only calculated an average daily intake of calories, which in his book meant the minimum, so he continued to add food to his storage.

John wasn’t into the idea of just barely surviving. He knew he and his family would burn more calories during survival than at normal times. Simply put, survival demanded more energy. John knew, from experience, that increased levels of activity and stress could make every meal seem like a banquet. Not to mention the effect it had on morale. People worked better when they were well fed. He also figured he’d end up sharing his food with family, and perhaps even friends, and neighbors.

With time, John eventually stopped ordering food from on-line food storage providers and began packaging it himself. He would order food-grade plastic buckets, lids, Mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers, and then buy bulk dry foods at Costco. John and Jenna packed everything from dried grains and legumes, to sugar, salt, milk and other survival essentials.

When John realized how easy it was to pack his own products, he got creative and began packing things like hard candy and Chiclet gum. Those items he sealed in large pails with oxygen absorbers, and moisture absorbing desiccant packs.

But his favorite and most unique packaging effort was what he called, sundry cans. Using new, one-gallon, paint cans, John sealed up
body soap, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss, shampoo, and other important bathroom supplies. He calculated that each sundry can would provide sufficient personal hygiene supplies for his family for about a month.

As far as he was concerned, things like candy, gum, and especially toothbrushes, would be considered luxury items when they were impossible to find.

As for their ready food, or the store-bought, short-range, perishable food stuffs, John didn’t include them on his inventory sheet. Though some of the grocery store foods had a shelf-life longer than what was stamped on their label, they still required rotation to guarantee freshness and nutritional value. The store bought food, at least in John’s pantry, had a way of getting buried, and on more than one occasion, he caught Jenna throwing away canned goods that could still be used. After redesigning the pantry, John was better able to rotate the food and spare the waste.

The main reason he only tracked the long-term food was because he didn’t really need to rotate it. He didn’t touch it every day, so he needed a system to keep track of what he had. It also helped him decide what to order. But when food had a ten to twenty year shelf-life, it just didn’t require the same hands-on attention as the more perishable, short-range foods his family enjoyed every day.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in tracking what he had stored in his pantry, only that he mentally managed it. John understood the importance of keeping a well-stocked pantry. For him, it was like keeping the gas tank on his truck at least half full. Having everyday food items, or the stuff they enjoyed eating all week, like peanut butter and jelly, was an important part of their physical and mental health. John maintained a well-stocked pantry so he could more easily transition his family into their long-range food storage when the time came.

Mental food storage management definitely had its challenges. John loved tuna, and since it had a relatively long shelf-life, he bought a bulk pack at Costco every time he went. That meant there was a lot of tuna in
his pantry. In fact, there was more tuna than he could hope to keep up with under their normal rates of consumption. That irked Jenna, but not as much as having to throw away food.

To defend his position, John researched expiration, use-by, and best-by manufacture product markings. He was surprised to find that baby formula was the only food product that was required, by law, to have an expiration date on its label. Expiration and best-if-used-by dates were more a production tracking mechanism than a consumer courtesy. From a marketing standpoint, manufacturers actually wanted people to throw away outdated product and buy new, supposedly fresher product. The dates were typically well below the point when most foods began to lose their nutritional quality.

John started looking at expiration dates while shopping, and he was surprised to discover that table salt wasn’t marked with an expiration date. When he read about salt, he learned that if it was properly stored, it would last nearly forever. Sugar was marked, but it too could last for a very long time if properly stored, as could distilled clear vinegar, pure maple syrup, honey, pure vanilla extract, cornstarch and rice. All those items could last well beyond their expiration dates.

Foods with the shortest shelf-life were those that were highly processed, or composed of pre-mixed ingredients that contained fats. Anything with fat in it had a short shelf life, because fat has a short shelf life.

John never before considered the importance of fat in his diet until he read an account of Arctic explorers who died for want of fat in theirs. They died because they only ate the lean, or fat-free parts of a seal, or maybe it was rabbit, but the point was they eventually starved themselves to death. Since reading that account, John maintained a supply of fat in his pantry, in both solid and liquid form.

John looked up from his plate and saw that no one noticed he was lost, deep in thought. Jenna and the kids were talking about the release of some upcoming movie, so John immediately allowed his mind to return to his food storage.

Most of the food he kept stocked in the pantry was food that had anywhere between a two to five-year shelf-life. Most store bought canned foods had a shelf-life that averaged somewhere between twelve to sixteen months. So anything that lasted more than two years was something that interested John, and he tended to lean toward those items when grocery shopping.