Curtain Fall: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 1) (7 page)

John wondered how many nukes it would take to bring America to its knees without also destroying its vast and vital resources. Or worse yet, how many nukes would it take to destroy America altogether. Nuclear explosions meant radioactive fallout, and the more fallout, the more it would spread around the world. There was a point of diminishing returns when it came to nuclear exchange. A man-made pandemic was more likely. But even then, only a madman would consider any option that could return the favor.

John didn’t think one nuclear detonation would stand America on its head, but he thought ten or twelve of them might do the trick. It wasn’t a comforting thought, knowing the potential destruction of nuclear devices like he did, but John reasoned it was low on his overall threat list.
“Then again, so were super volcanoes until this morning,”
thought John.

John rose from his chair and walked to the window. He looked out across the city and took in the hustle and bustle of city life as it moved along on the streets below. The problem with natural disasters, he knew, at least to our current, modern mode of thinking, was that none before have ever communicated a national level threat.

No hurricane, earthquake, volcano, flood, or severe weather pattern, has ever impacted America enough to stand it on its head. No disaster has ever resulted in large scale social chaos, that being a sure sign of the absence of law and order. America has faced disruptions in food, water, fuel and electricity, but those events were, at most, regional in nature. There had always been someone, somewhere, to come to the rescue of those in need in other parts of the country.

John’s cell phone rang with Jenna’s telltale ring-tone. He walked over to his desk and picked it up. “Yes dear?”

“You busy?”

“Not at the moment. Why? What’s up?”

“I’m on my way to Dallas for the JDRF fundraising meeting. Just thought I’d check in on you.”

“I’m actually glad you called. What do you think of me staying home tomorrow? I’ve asked for some time off . . . the next couple of days to be exact.”

“Really?” Jenna sounded suspicious but thrilled. She knew John never took time off outside of yearly scheduled family vacations, at least not without a good reason. “Is everything okay? You didn’t get in a fight with your boss did you?”

“Ha ha. Funny babe. Nope, I just need some time away from the office. I’ll fill you in when I see you.”

John recognized Jenna’s pause for what it was - concern. She knew it wasn’t the right time to push him for more information, so she let it go. “Okay. It’ll be nice having you around during the week. I could use your help in the yard. A couple of areas need your attention,” she said.

John was about to counter her request with a list of things he needed to do, but thought better of it. He recognized her ability to bait him into revealing the real issue behind his need for time off, so he said, “Sure thing, just as long as I can sleep in tomorrow.”

“You don’t even sleep in on Saturdays,” she teased.

“Yeah, well, tomorrow I’m gonna try it out.”

“If you say so . . .”

“Oh, and one more thing,” interrupted John. “I told Rebecca I need the time off because mom’s in the hospital.”

“Your mom?”

“Yeah. I just wanted you to know in case it comes back around to you . . . somehow, that’s all. You know, like a condolence or something,” added John.

“Wow, you lied to your boss so you could spend some quality time with me in the yard. I feel special. What’d you tell her about your mom that would warrant a condolence?”

“Just that she’s sick is all . . . but you’re definitely special. And the yard is not somewhere I want to spend my quality time with you,” said John silkily, and with as much romance as he could muster at the moment.

“Hmmm. Now I know there’s more to your story than you’re letting on. But I can wait to hear the rest of it later. Gotta go . . . I’m at my exit. Talk to you later.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you too, bye.”

John glanced at his smart phone, touched the screen once with a finger, and placed it in his front pocket. He returned to his desk, and sat down while running his fingers through his hair. With his thoughts back on the possible disasters, John considered his plans for the next few days.

An eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera would devastate the country. It would destroy resources, and leave most of the population untouched until the ash started to fall. How people would react to such a disaster filled his mind.

When it came to preparedness, John knew that it wasn’t as much about preparing for any one type of disaster, as it was about being able to survive without any assistance for an extended period of time. Self-sufficiency wasn’t just about having a 72-hour kit, as encouraged by the American Red Cross, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It was good to have a 72-hour kit, but surviving a disaster of Yellowstone Caldera proportions would require much more.

In fact, surviving any national disaster would take much longer than seventy-two hours. Why the government held their preparedness recommendation at such a rudimentary level was beyond John. That meant the government either didn’t believe a national disaster could ever happen, or that they wanted the population to remain dependent on them for help when a disaster happens. Either way, it was irresponsible and self-destructive logic.

Having worked with several government agencies at different levels, John knew that it was most likely the first explanation, but he wouldn’t put the second one past them. It seemed self-service was the new standard for government.

For all the people who think they’re prepared because they followed the advice of the DHS, FEMA, and even the American Red Cross, they will be sorely disappointed when disaster strikes and those agencies can’t come to their rescue. People who hinged their survival on the government, or anyone else for that matter, were selling their lives for nothing.

John wondered why people thought help would always come. Didn’t they realize they’d be on their own with a national disaster? Those government agencies were little more than crutches for a dependency minded populace.
“Take your life in your own hands!”
thought John.

John knew the government, or any non-profit relief agency, wouldn’t be available to help if they themselves were caught up in the disaster. Not because they don’t want to be, only because they couldn’t. Besides, they were barely able to respond to the needs in one region, and even then they couldn’t manage the relief effort without the help of the army. Hurricane Katrina and Rita proved that.

Even when a capable government response is available. It would take time and resources to respond, and that’s assuming the responders have conquered their own local challenges. “
No,”
thought John,
“if the Caldera blows there will be no federal government response in Texas. Maybe at the State level, or possibly even local, but it would still depend on whether or not the people responsible for responding even decide to show up for work. Because they are, after all, only human.”

John knew, from experience, that most people were oblivious to their individual responsibility to survive a disaster, be it local, regional or national. The average person believed that someone, somewhere, would always come to their rescue. They couldn’t imagine ever having to survive on their own, or experience a long-term interruption of any of their essential services. Food, water, electricity, fuel, and sanitation would always function.

As for food, John knew grocery stores didn’t carry more than a one to three-day supply. For most stores, food arrived on a daily basis. They no longer maintained a back-store inventory – everything was either on the store shelves, or headed to the floor. Modern technology streamlined ordering, and made inventory management nearly instantaneous from distribution centers, to stores, to homes. Nothing was left to chance.

John massaged his neck muscles and sighed. Americans were ignorant of their food and water dependency, and were oblivious to the risk they assumed by not have at least a one-month supply of food and water on hand. John also doubted that most people were even aware of how long they could live without food or water, because if they did then they would certainly prepare. American’s have grown so accustomed to walking into grocery stores and buying what they want that they’ve given no thought to how the food even gets to the stores in the first place, or that our tap water actually could stop flowing.

John leaned back and whispered to himself, “When food and water are scarce, it will turn ugly really fast.”

John didn’t know if he was like most other preppers, but he never felt he had enough food or water on hand. But he was certain he was better off than his neighbors. But the problem with that was, if he was the only one prepared in his neighborhood, it would be really hard to hide that fact for long. When everyone around you was hungry and thirsty, prepared people tended to stand out. That meant the prepared family either had to share what they had, or defend it.

John didn’t want to stand out, and he knew the best way to avoid standing out was to encourage his neighbors to prepare. About a year ago, John attended a Homeowner’s Association (HOA) meeting, and offered to present a lecture on preparedness during an upcoming meeting. The committee president, a short, round, former civil servant who was also named Tony, argued against John’s proposal. He said it was too extreme, and that the neighborhood was not a survival community, and that John was an alarmist. John countered that he wasn’t pitching
survival, or fear, but self-sufficiency. Tony replied, “Same difference,” and thus ended the conversation by moving on to another topic.

After the meeting, several people came up to John to express their interest and support in preparedness, but overall, John left the meeting feeling angry, frustrated, and dejected. Tony’s ignorance was apparent, but John felt one man shouldn’t be able to dictate the future of others, especially when it came to something like preparedness.

From that point forward, John avoided all future HOA meetings. He resigned himself to the fact that he would be the only prepared person in his neighborhood, and that he couldn’t save people from their own, or Tony’s ignorance.

Worried that his neighbors would label him a “survivalist nut-job,” John gave serious thought to establishing a safe house or cache-site away from his home, something like a cabin near a lake, or some other remote location. He eventually decided against it, mainly because Jenna didn’t support the idea, but he wished he had.

At the time, John really wasn’t interested in managing two properties, especially if one was remote. He would certainly head there now if he had such a place, especially since his some of his neighbors knew he was prepared, but that option was long gone.

After considering all other options, John decided to stick it out and continue building up his preps. They would stay home as long as the situation allowed, hoping a disaster would never test their plans, or their preps.

J
ohn glanced at the wall clock and noticed that it was time to head downstairs and meet up with Terry for lunch. He reached down to open his gun safe, grabbed the pistol, slid it in the holster at the small of his back, and stood to pull on his sports coat.

After checking for his sunglasses and phone, John looked around the office, noting the details of everything; where things were sitting, and how they were arranged. He spent the most time studying the items on his desk, taking in the details of everything sitting on the polished hardwood surface. The practice was a hold-over from his counterintelligence days, but he wasn’t able to let it go regardless how hard he tried. Those who knew him best accepted his quirky army habits, but to everyone else he probably just looked indecisive.

It didn’t matter that he was cautious, or even paranoid, he just wanted to know if someone entered his office when he was out. For John, those habits were proof that you could take the boy out of the army, but you couldn’t take the army out of the boy.

After pulling the door shut, John headed for the stairs. He couldn’t help but think of the true health of his mom, and then cringed a little. What was it that Jenna liked to say, thought John,
“Think it, and it will be so,”
or something like that. John doubted that his lie would actually make his mom sick, that using her as an excuse to take time off from work would really put her in the hospital, but he was sure Jenna would rib him about it anyway.

John considered calling his mom, to check in on her, but the reception in the stairwell was terrible, so he decided to wait and call her later.
He wondered how she would take to his lie, or for that matter, the news about the Caldera. John knew she’d probably laugh about it all – she was very laid back. She’d probably tell him to relax, that he worried too much. But he felt prompted to call her and share the story.

In all actuality, John wasn’t convinced something serious was going to happen with the Caldera anyway. The whole thing, the idea of it erupting, still felt very surreal. He knew he was missing some important part of the puzzle, and until he could put it together, he vowed not to excite anyone with his concern.