(Everything) Join with your knowedge & imagination to tell the story. THE AWAKENING

Tuesday.

Six of us were at the turnoff to greet the NG patrol. At first it was a little tense until each of our intentions became known! The young 2ND Lieutenant's name was Aaron Masters. Really a pretty decent guy as it turned out! He was from Albuquerque N.M. He mentioned that the light to our east wasn't from a nuke, but from fires purposely set to burn down N.M. He also told us what the situition was in AZ.

Foreign troops had been staged below the border. Chinese, Cuban, and Nicaraguan. Gee, Red Dawn was closer to the truth then anyone ever figured! They invaded when the nukes went off on the west coast. Chinese nukes btw, thanks Bill!!!!!

The enemy met fierce resistence in Graham county in the south east part of the state. What the residence lacked in numbers they made up in firepower and determination!!! One crazy with a quad 50 took down a whole squad of Hinds before the fast movers took him out!!!! They are holding despite being outnumbered 2 to 1!!!!

West of Phoenix, their light armor rolled up past Wickenburg until the terrain slowed them down. That's when the ambushes started. A mine here, a trip wire there, and the enemy slowed to a crawl. The snipers would take down anyone who showed themselves!

Masters told us that the military was going to make a stand at the Mogollon Rim south of Payson. Williams and Luke Air Force bases had been wiped out along with most of the fighter jets stationed there. About thirty had gotten airborne and about 25 escaped the first nuke blast. They were going to come back from Colorado with a vengence to offer air support to the ground troops!

The next few days would be very telling as to what areas were ours and which ones were theirs! I still wasn't getting much comms except by satellite. The President was telling people not to panic (YA) and to stay where they were. He kept saying help was on the way! We could see our fast movers screaming overhead going south. Almost as many came back as went!!!

The rad meter was starting to pick up a little radiation, but nothing to worry about so far. We all took our KIO3 and went about our business as usual around the farm. We didn't turn the goats out to pasture but kept them close in. I further sandbagged all the entrances to our house and all the outbuildings. I checked our cisterns and sealed them off. I put plastic sheeting over our 1/4 acre garden. What a hassle!!! Camo net went over all our vehicles. Our dirt bike, atv, and my beemer were safe in the garage. I brought as much wood inside the house as would fit without getting in the way.

By evening the radiation had doubled since morning. I told everyone to take a long look as this would probably be the their last time outside for a week or two!!!! The sunset was beautiful, but the dust carrying radiation causing the beautiful colors was suspect. I checked the stock one more time to make sure they had enough food and water for 2-3 days and went inside.

Spirits were reasonably good considering the situition. We tried to use up our fresh veggies by making a large pot of stew. I told everyone to savor the flavor of the meat, as we won't be seeing much in the future!

I stood guard until midnight. Robert took over then and I relieved him at 4:30 am. Things were quiet. Too quiet!!!!!

Thurs. May 9th
I awaken early , as usual. The rest in the house are still sleeping. The number here grew yesterday when my sis, BIL, neice and nephew arrived with their 2 dogs in tow. I guess those "few extra cans of tuna" that sis had finally ran out. The rest of the food in their fridge had gone bad since they had no way to keep it cold and could not eat any more,
They wanted us to come up to their house (1.8 miles away) since they had more room and they would be more comfortable and they had a fireplace. My answer was 1-it was warm weather and no need for the fireplace that they had no extra wood for, 2-the food was at my house, 3-I had the water.
They did bring some food for the animals, but did not have much left. One little dog, like mine did not eat much, but the other is a greyhound. My other dog is a mutt and the only watchdog among the 4 dogs.
Set the boys up digging out grass to plant more veggies-still early enough here for more plants to grow before the end of the growing season. Still had fertilzer and sent BIL home to get whatever "things" he could bring back that might be useful. Also told him to bring back the marine batteries from the boat that had not yet made it into the water and was sitting in the backyard. DH had told me that he had secretly purchased 3 solar panels to suprise me with a small generator, He actually did read and start to gather for the generator that I printed off the net for him-will wonders never cease!
Had another block meeting last night and in the middle a police car drove thru announcing what the president had said and that there was a cerfew and martial law had been declared, they would not stop and answer any questions. Some of the other men had gone to the local police office yesterday and had found nobody there, the doors locked tight.
Still no elec adn no water. Set up the solar shower in a protected (read hidden) spot so DH and DS could have a quick wash after digging all day. They were so happy for even that small amount of water to get cleaned up and were suprised at how little water it really took to take a shower if you were careful.
Set up large plastic barrels under the drains in the corners of the house to catch the rainwater, added some clorox and covered with some screening to try to keep it as clean as possible.
I know that there is more that I should be doing, but I am sooooo tired-OH, how could I have forgotten, The cellphone. DD told me one day recently that it had internet access and I never paid attention to her.
Getting the phone and turning it on-still has power (can recharge tomorrow if needed, so glad the DH spent the extra money for the long life battery). waking up one of the kiddies as DH and I have no clue. They manage to connect us to the net and TB. I slowly read what is going on and am in a state of disbelief that this is happening. I am glad that at least for now, we seem to be forgotten in my little town. Post a message that if anyone knows what really did happen in NY and post it. Have not been able to confirm anything and have no cllue what to watch for. Disconnect from the net, missing the contact of cyber friends and their support immediately. Hopefully, TB will still be up tomorrow and I can take another look.
Time to turn in and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be another long and challenging day.

Thursday morning

Today seven angels will play "In The Mood" on their harps and Peter will give us the Key to the Gates. If not that, I'll have another slice of that pecan pie…

We set Billy and his brother Jamie on watch while their father, Andy and I quickly ransacked the county barns of whatever looked like it might be of value and we could move. Place damn sure would have made a nice base but it was compromised so we had to go. Of the available trucks in the barns we picked a big crew-cabbed Ford with a capped tool body and dual wheels and another Ford used to fueling and oiling that had tanks for various fuels and lubricants. We picked up four chainsaws and some log handling equipment, a portable generator, gas and electric welder and every radio in the place we could find including the ones out of the Hummers and ambulance. We threw so much smaller stuff into the back that I'm not sure what all we got but we managed to do it all in less than an hour. Using gaffer's tape we covered the lights on the truck but for small slits that would provide dim running lights then we lit out for JimmyJohn's east of Alachua and north of Hague.

With no moon and so little light to see by it took us nearly until dawn to reach our destination. Jimmy's getting old and doesn't see too well anymore but if he was still there I damn sure didn't want to surprise him because he'd had several days to think up and install all sorts of nastiness. We stopped the trucks about a half-mile from his place then Andy and I walked to his gate talking loudly. I'd just set my hand to his gate when I heard his voice, "You fellers just hold still." and we did. Without moving I said, "Jimmy, it's Alan and Andy. We've got a couple of trucks down the road apiece with three others in them. We're wondering if maybe you could help us out?"

A flashlight flicked on, shown briefly on our faces then flicked out again. "I reckon y'all are yourselves just as you said." Jimmy drawled. "What's got you boys up into these parts in times like these anyways? I'd heard you'd moved out west of Archer?"

"Well, Jimmy, I did. We're here now because we're ducking and dodging after knocking over one of the enemy's convoy's. If you're willing to help the sun's going to be up soon and we'd really like to get our trucks under cover."

JimmyJohn said nothing for a spell and the silence hung heavy between us. "What leads you to believe that I want to get involved in this, Alan?", he observed, and my stomach gave a bad acid squirt. I waited a moment myself before replying, "Jimmy, we shot together for a long time and I think we know each other pretty well. We all know what each other's about but if you've decided this isn't your fight then I'll apologize for bothering you and we'll move on. Come on Andy, we need to be getting on down the road."

"Now just wait a spell Alan," Jimmy interrupted, "no need to be so hasty. I reckon you've got me fair and square that this is my fight after all. You boys bring your trucks on up and we'll shut them up in the barn. The missus was just beginning to rustle up breakfast, would y'all care to set to the table with us?" My stomach leapt up and said, "Yes, thank you!" before I could fairly get my mouth open. The sky was definitely getting to be pinkish so we trotted on back to the trucks and got them up to Jimmy's and into the barn.

Looking at the trucks Jimmy asked, "You workin' for the county now?" to which I replied, "No, but seeing as how the county's not doing any road maintenance just now we figured to requisition them for the cause. My truck's a bit beat up over to Wacahoota Station after a gunship jumped us. The old heel and toe is a bit slow for this modern day warfare"

As we were walking towards the house one of Jimmy's grandsons came out the kitchen door with what looked like a 20 gauge Browning auto in the crook of an elbow and a couple of biscuits in the other hand. He looked to be about twelve as he went on down to near the fence and stepped into a thick azalea hedge as another of his boys stepped out of the bush who looked to be maybe fourteen and began walking towards us. "Looks like you got the whole family here Jimmy," and his face clouded. "No," he replied, "the kids were here visiting but Tommy and Maria were down to Tampa for a conference." I gave a polite, "I see." and said nothing more about it.

Miz Kate and her two granddaughters (fourteen and sixteen, I think) set out as nice a breakfast as we could have paid money for before the war and we purely wiped it out. Afterwards they treated us all to some much needed baths. Once we felt more civilized Jimmy called his family in, two grandsons (the third was watching the gate), two granddaughters, his wife and a daughter who came over from her own place down the road a piece. We told them about what we'd seen and done and Jimmy brought us up on the news of which he had a considerable amount. He's one of a dying breed of old time electronics and radio buffs and has held his General class license for longer than I've been alive. The EMP took out his TV and stereo but it didn't touch his radios.

"Well, as you fellers are probably aware by now," he explained," the enemy is primarily Cuban with a leavening of other Central and South American nationalities. That is, I should say the enemy *here* in Florida and the other Gulf and Southeastern coastal states. Over to the West Coast they seem to be Chinese and Korean, at least so far as the more credible reports tell me. In the Midwest and Northeast the picture is not so clear but I think they're Russian, or at least that's the way they sound on the radio and what those who have survived contact have claimed they were. I'm not hearing squat in the way of traffic coming out of Europe, I fear they may have been attacked themselves. Never could get much out of the Far East. Damn sure a lot of traffic coming out of Central and South America and a fair amount still from here in the States." Jimmy was the son of Baptist missionaries who spent most of their careers in Colombia and Venezuela in the Forties and Fifties. He himself had done electronic and radio work for various government agencies across Central America and Northern South America for years before settling down to work for the University of Florida and raise a family. He could speak Spanish like a native of several nations and a couple of Colombian Indian languages as well.

"According to Radio Havana they're claiming the attack is a U.N. mandated military action against an aggressive imperialist power that has set itself above international law and needs to be forcibly brought back into the fold. A couple of minor nations like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and North Korea are repeating this line but I haven't heard any station that claims to be an official voice for the People's Republic of China, or the Russian Federation say this. In fact, I'm not hearing much from the Nuclear Club Powers at all other than second hand indirect reports of an attempted revolution underway in Pakistan. Israel came right out and broadcasted a clear warning to other MidEastern powers that any incursion on Israeli borders would meet with a nuclear response. The Palestinians seem to be frozen with shock. The U.S. government has made it very clear they hold the P.R.C. and Russian Federation primarily responsible and says they are using the other nations as cat's paws. Satellite comms have been working very strangely and a lot of them don't seem to be there anymore. I think the reason we're hearing so little from the Chinese and Russians is that we've nuked them. After the initial surprise attack I think they got a rude shock when they tried to nuke us back and very few of their I.C.B.M's got through. Most of what they did get through were air lauched or sub launched. Would have been a lot more of those but the Navy and Air Force rained on their parade. Just at the moment the war is teetering this way and that. If we can't stop them from getting men and material to the various fronts they'll cut the nation into two, maybe three pieces and that will likely be that. If we can slow them down long enough for us to retrieve sufficient of our overseas forces I think we can still win this war."

We sat for a while digesting this huge lump of news and drinking coffee. Presently Jimmy said, "Why don't you boys show me what you've got in your trucks and what your plans are. Mayhaps I can help you a bit more than just providing breakfast, a bath and some shuteye…"

TO BE CONTINUED.

Thursday morning, continued.

We walked with Jimmy out to his barn and showed him what we'd salvaged out of the county barns. Just being trucks they wouldn't take any sort of direct fire but he thought they'd make for a pretty good mobile command and signals surveillance post once we installed the radios we had with us and a couple of scanners that he had. We set into unloading the trucks, installing the radios and doing the rewiring with him telling us what needed to be done and how. John turned out to be a welder and former electrician so the work went pretty fast. Jimmy's son-in-law came over as we were working and helped out. He's got a prosthetic leg as a result of an automobile accident so felt constrained from joining the resistance forces but when he saw one of the two M-60 machine guns we'd brought with us (the extent of our heavy weaponry) he suggested that it might be worthwhile to weld a mount for the gun to the roll bar of his dunebuggy. We discussed it for a bit and decided that since our trucks were anything but speedy it might not be a bad idea. When he drove it in we found that this was not your ordinary VW powered buggy but instead was a Porsche engined overpowered monster that he liked to run the woods with. It could do 120 on flat, level pavement and insane speeds on sand in the woods. He said with him driving and one of us to man the gun it ought to make a fair scout car. No glass packs on that thing, it ran nearly as quiet as a golf cart. Said he didn't like chasing off the wildlife when he was woods running. Andy allowed as to how he could man the gun so we set about putting in the mount and a radio.

We welded another mount to the top of the cap of the toolbodied truck with an appropriate hatch cut into the cap for the gunner. While we were working on the radios and mounts Jimmy set his eldest grandson to cutting two foot lengths of well casing and another to mixing concrete. I asked him what all that was for and he said "one shots." When the casing was cut to length he then welded a cap of heavy plate to one end. With the concrete mixed he poured nine or ten inches into the bottom of a metal five gallon bucket then set the capped end of the casing in then poured the bucket the rest of the way full. "When that's dry we'll drill a touch hole through the side for either electric or powder fuses.", he said by way of explanation. "Loaded with ball bearings, nuts and bolts over a few ounces of black powder and packed newspaper wadding it'll take out most soft skinned vehicles at ambush ranges. Use a half-gallon of thickened gasoline instead of nuts and bolts and you might even stop armored vehicles if they're not buttoned up tight. You'd want to use several at a time for certainty, of course."

"Jimmy," I said, "that's a better idea than any I've had. How many buckets and how much pipe do you have?" He grinned and said, "Did you ever know a survivalist that lacked for five gallon buckets?"

We ate lunch standing up, unwilling to stop work. We pretty much spent the whole day prepping and reinforcing the trucks which we gave radio call signs of Daddy and Mama Gator and christened the dune buggy Speed Gator. We also built more one-shots and even some caltrops. from rod stock. Jimmy's son-in-law Mike left around lunch to call on some friends of his and came back later a couple of late teen volunteers and two cases of dynamite donated by one of the volunteer's fathers who was a general contractor. We were glad to see it since we had no explosives at all. Not much blasting done around here. We still didn't have anything that was going to swat a helicopter gunship for us, nor anything that was going to win a pissing match with even just an APC, much less a tank but we were a sight better armed than we'd been the day before. With a little planning and luck we should be able to upset a few enemy plans.

Along about the time it was dark we were all so damn tired that I was beginning to hallucinate so we stopped and went inside for supper. Miz Kate said, "We're cleaning out the last of what's in our freezer so we can unplug it so I'll have to apologize for the catch-as-catch-can meal." Something like fifteen people sat down to eat at sawhorse tables on the back porch where we had Southern pot roast, fried catfish and pork chops, rice and gravy, greens of several sorts, field peas, butterbeans, fried squash and okra. For dessert it was pecan pie, peach dumplings and blackberry cobbler. We fell on it like a pillaging army and ate every scrap!

Well, a meal like that that put an end to any further rational thought so we decided to turn in so we could be up by 3 a.m. to move out and set up our next ambush. Before we could get up Jimmy's eldest granddaughter, Sarah, spoke up and said, "Grandaddy, are you taking Aaron with you tomorrow?" Miz Kate's lips thinned away to nearly nothing but she didn't say anything.

Slowly Jimmy said, "Yes Sarah, I am. He's fourteen and old enough for a man's responsibilities. Why do you ask?"

"Well, sir," she replied, "because if you're taking Aaron with you then Becky and I are going too!"

"Sarah, we're going to be fighting and someone might get hurt, even killed. This is not the kind of thing for a girl to be doing." I thought Jimmy sounded a little weak when he said this.

"Yes sir, I can understand how you'd feel that way but Becky can shoot ever bit as good as Aaron can and I can shoot better than any of them!" The boys went red in the face at that but didn't dispute her words "Who was it that busted my butt when ever I forgot safe gun handling? Who was it coached me so I could win those matches? It was you! You know we can shoot! If Aaron can go then we should be able to as well!"

Poor old Jimmy looked like he was dying. John's two boys, the same age as Sarah and Becky and having already seen their first combat which Jimmy's grandkids well knew watched in closemouthed fascination. "Child," he croaked, "if'n your mama found out that I let you go and fight she'd skin me out and hang my hide on the barn. I'm not going to cross her!"

"Grandaddy!," she retorted, "I'm only sixteen it is true, but I know as well as you do what it means that mama and daddy were in Tampa this weekend. I listened to the radio with you and took notes, remember?" She glanced at her younger siblings and apparently thought better of what she'd been about to say, "Mama won't know about any of it until long after the fact. It'll be academic by then."

Jimmy was clearly holed below the waterline and going down fast. He put the best face on it that he could but he was hoist on a petard of his own making. He looked despairingly at his wife and sighed, "Damn it all! This is the twenty first century and she's right. I taught them girls to shoot every bit as good as the boys. If they want to claim their rights I'm going to have to let 'em or tell Aaron he can't go either." At that Aaron looked like he was about to cloud up and storm himself so Jimmy quickly said, "OK, Aaron, Sarah, and Becky, you can go…. IF Alan say's he'll take you. It's his trucks after all!"

That rotten old bastard had slid that one in between my ribs clean and cold! My stomach fell out and my gorge rose at the same time. Ten heads turned like the turrets of tanks and bored holes in me with their eyes. No matter what answer I gave I was in the shits with somebody! Fine, you old goat, "They can come", I said, "They'll stay with the trucks and stand guard." The three younger grandsons raised Hell after that but Jimmy and Miz Kate mollified them by telling them that someone had to stand guard over the homestead. They weren't really happy with that but they bought it.

Sure hope Miz Kate doesn't put rat poison in my coffee in the morning!

Whew! Thank goodness for the Jimmy's of this world. We sure are going to need them. That was the only REAL news that I have heard re our neck of the woods. Maybe all that Cuban chatter I hear on the SW radio isn't from Cuba, but instead is from Florida. I will have to listen more carefully, thats for sure. I wonder if I were to tape the Cuban conversation and then play it back more slowly if I could then understand it. Think I will try that. Can hit the pause button and look a word up in one of my Spanish dictionaries. It comes in really clear during the night, so will try that while CH is returning to the house tonight. Won't be able to sleep until he gets back anyway.
I spoke to him re my concern of forest fire. We have a friend that works at Emergeny One in Ocala where they build and rebuild fire trucks. When a rebuilt truck goes out it goes out with all new hoses. So we have a half dozen fire hoses and CH had fixed it up so I could throw a sump pump into the swimming pool and pump water in case of wild fire. So I guess he will bring those back with him. The pond/swamp is only about 75 ft from us. Hell for skeeters, but great for water. Sure glad that Alan chose to hit the trail or we wouldn't know anything. I wish he would return home and get his family and make his way down this way. Think its safer than the way he is headed. He is going to have to go home soon and check on his wife and baby.

Taz

Back in tick-infested hell...

Days without power weren't much different than days with power. There was nothing on the teevee either way.

Every day helen and the mule hauled thermos jugs of coffee to her cousin, the deputy, and his men. The roadblock wasn't really necessary. Most people were retired. The ones who worked knew they didn't have to show up, so everyone pretty much relaxed into vacation mode.

The third day after They Finally Nuked California -- TFNC for short -- Orville and Ellie found a group of young men in miserable shape hiding in their barn. Orville went to his neighbor's house with a request for antihistamines, and that neighbor went to HIS neighbor, and by nightfall half the valley was over at Orville and Ellie's house to take a look.

It was impossible to say what race they belonged to. The ticks and chiggers had got 'em, and got 'em bad. They looked like they had run through poison ivy trying to get away from the vermin. Orville was of the opinion they looked kinda wormy too.

Ellie and the other ladies stripped the poor boys naked and and the crowd gasped. From the neck down, each boy had almost no skin visible through the tightly packed ticks. Everything, and I mean everything, was covered with ticks.

The women suggested hotwax treatments to strip the ticks quickly. The men thought tick dip would be quicker and less painful. And if the boys died in the dip, the old men said, at least they would be out of their misery.

Ellie didn't want tick dip in her bathtub, so a cattle trough was emptied and washed out and refilled with the dip. Each boy was submerged for one minute each. After the ticks started to drop off, the women carefully soaped and rinsed the boys several times so they wouldn't be poisoned to death.

They completely forgot they might be dealing with the enemy.

It was just getting daylight and Johhny was awakening to the sound of a rooster crowing. He rolled over holding Laura and drifted in and out of sleep then it happened again. A rooster crowed. They both shot up out of bed! They only had hens and this was definately a rooster crowing Johnny shot into his clothes and ran outside. There was Mr. Leroy with a young rooster he had just let loose with my hens. He had also gathered some eggs for us, I was glad to see our hens had finally survived the stress of the move and started laying again. "I thought you were gonna sleep all day" "well sir it would be nice but I guess I'll do fine" "did you find your way to Flat Rock Ridge? " yes sir thanks for the directions" I filled him in on the details and what I had done to try to establish an internet connection but it was over his head. He said he had chores to do and was headed home. I asked what I owed him for the rooster and he told me my boys had dropped off some catfish the day before and moved some stuff in the barn for him, we were even. He headed home.

I went back inside and started scramblin' some eggs, there were some day old biscuits to go with them and that was breakfest. It was full daylight now, time to climb a tree.

Laura was anxious for Johnny to get an internet connection going so she could check in with her family. Before they left she had sent e-mails to here brother and parents in Mississippi. She was concerned for them. About an hour later Johnny came back in the house, the kids were still asleep.

"Thank goodness for cable ties and duct tape" "those are your favorites, did you get us connected?""Let's see", they powered up the laptop.Sure enough they were connected. They couldn't decide where to go first they had multiple windows woking, e-mails from all over poured in. Friends in Birmingham, Montgomery, Atlanta all were in trouble and were desperate. We had tried to awaken all of them before but we were just seen as nutcases. Laura cried for their situations. Lauras brother Mike had e-mailed and was on his way with his wife and 2 girls they lived in Booneville Mississippi and this e-mail was 3 days old. They sould of already been here. Lauras mom and dad lived in Jackson Ms and had e-mailed the day before. He had rejected the idea of coming to our cabin and thought they would be just fine. Beside Lauras mom was coming down with what seemed like the early stages of the flu. They would just stay put. This was ominious news but we both just picked up and continued to gather info.

We were finally able to log onto TB2000. We literally couldn't believe what we were reading, we just sat there stunned. All the destruction, the terror, the war.

What was immediately important to us was the invasion up the Mississippi river. The enemy had commanderred barges after the battle of New Orleans and were making their way up river. It read like many Civil War battles. They had taken Vicksburg, Natchez, and the battle of Memphis was ragin' on even now. The 101st Airbourne from Ft Campbell Kentucky had taken a defensive position along the Tennessee River about 90 miles south of Nashville and along the Mississippi River at the Tn, Ky stateline.

Another invasion force headed up the Mobile River and was now in the Tombigbee waterway. It appeared as though both forces would converge on the 101st at the same time. As suspected from Lauras dads e-mail a bio-attack had occured. Mass outbreaks of disease were occuring all across the south. Laura was ripping out another e-mail to her dad with instructions on where to find the bob we left for them and what meds to take. Her only hope was he would/could open his e-mail in time to make a difference. They logged off.

Now they needed to decide for them what to do next. Neither said a word, they were be grieving for their country. They knew their choices and either way there was still preperations to be made and daylight was burning.

Sitting around in the state forest made us both antsy to the point of being irriatble to each other. We had to make a conscious effort to calm down and be polite. But it really paid off,because we could concentrate more on what the real enemy was,not each other.
I insisted that we start taking multiple vitaming almost immediately. Stress will drain a lot of minerals that are necessary in our bodies and we sure had our supply of stress along!
Again another smart purchase came to fruition. We had a power failure years back and had bought a device for the genny that pipes the exhaust up and over the top of the RV. It clamps on the tailpipe of the genny and then also muffles the sound considerably of the genny. I had to take it down when we travelled but it didnt take up hardly any room at all.

Thank you Lord for the Michigan county atlas we had used for years in vacationing! We had bought a couple of updates over the years and this was an extremely valuable tool in moving through the state. It showed every back road and the curves in them and even the elevations. About the only thing it didnt show was the individual houses.
We had DW's laptop with us as well. The CD atlas for that was good but not always to refer to when we were moving. We studied that though on our rest times,just to get more familiar with the layout of the land.
I was also making a Ghillie suit. An old 3/4 coat (Kinda blah green) and some loose fitting pants was the starter. From there I used what I had to make me look like a small brush pile. I fitted a cheese cloth to them and then wove natures items and old unbraided twine into it to soften the image. It wasnt the best in the world but I figure it gave me a better chance to sneak around in the woods. Had to rig up a separate hood for it as well.
The radio wasnt much for these resting days. Seemed to have a lot of atmospheric background noise. The nuclear blasts maybe?
Whatever it was, it made us both feel like we were walking around in a hall of mirrors,trying to figure out the best way to go.
Another little thing but not, was the rechargeable batteries. Never have enough of them. The Motorola w/t's used 3 AA each. Now we were not talking at all on them but they still drained fairly fast.
I had several small flashlights that used AA batteries as well so we could go through our supply quite fast. Flashlights were used even in the RV rather than having a lot of lights on.
Sentry duty was draining. With only the two of us,and in strange territory it was spell on and spell off. Again,using the dogs came in handy but we sure couldnt use them by themselves.
Thankfully this war had happened in May and not February so it wasnt all bad to walk around outside. Michigan was having its usual goofy spring with rain,wind and 40ish temps though. But a lot better than 40ish below!
Sitting outside and with the wind right at times we could hear heavy rigs moving on the highway. Had no idea what they were. I had planned on going out to the edge just before we left and take a look around just to be cautious.
Time to head out! Our next jump was only 25 miles to Quanicassee State land West of us so we decided to wait until after 1AM to take off. We had noticed that a lot of the motor traffic noise subsided to almost nothing after 12AM.
Going out to the road on the M/Cycle I checked and things were quiet. I did the two clicks on the w/t that was our pre-planned signal to move the RV out.
After a couple of zig zags on back roads we were going to make a run down a state highway. This was a risk,but we had to take it because of the lack of back roads through there. This was right at the bottom of Saginaw bay and there is a lot of wet land through here and not a lot of population as compared to what we had just gone through.
Everything was great for the 25 miles and we holed up at the state lands that night and the next half a day.
The next day was the test. We had changed our mode of night travel because we had to go through our first big town,Bay City.
Not real big compared to something like Detroit or Dallas but definitely very urban.
Going through the city we would be right together,no scouting on my part out ahead.
Getting there though was the first "uh oh".
Thats what I said as I came around this short curve and right into a road block! But not a regular police road block but a couple of flat farm wagons drawn across the road with 3 guys with long guns standing there! I slammed on the brakes and zagged over to the shoulder and into the ditch. Not very deep,thank you,because that M/cycle was no dirt bike. They started yelling towards my way, so I know I was spotted! I turned and shot that bike out of the ditch and yelling on the w/t to stop and find a hidey hole for the RV! The heck with radio silence now. I heard a boom behind me and figured it out that it was a shotgun or a very bad shot from those guys because I kept going. It didnt take me long to get back to the approximate area of the RV. I looked around with no one in sight. I punched the w/t and got the answer that DW had pulled behind an abandoned store beside the road.
Pulling in I got off the bike and gave my DW a big hug and hugged all the dogs. I was shaking! I had been shot at before but not when I was trying to ride a m/cycle like a maniac!
Well,I say,now what?
Too far to go back to find a cut over from here. We would end up going back well over 50 miles and even then I wasnt sure of our route West. Time for an on foot scouting mission.

James Delaney feathered the throttle of the 2000 Freightliner flat top and dropped into neutral, paused a half second as the rpms dropped, and slid it smoothly into sixth gear reapplying throttle as he approached the Red River Bridge south of Bosier. The reefer trailer with its load of oranges bounced slightly and weaved as he crossed the apron of the bridge approach, jarring his already aching back. Fricking rough ass Louisiana roads, he thought. Next time I'll stick with the Interstate even if it is 20 miles further. Once again he hit the left turn signal, trying to change lanes from behind the moron in front of him who seemed hell bent on setting a new record low speed for crossing Louisiana, and once again the traffic on his left ignored him and kept him crowded in the right lane. "Why in the hell is anybody hauling around a huge satelite dish in the middle of the night anyway?" he wondered.

Pressing a little harder on the gas he inched to within a few yards of the ancient pickup with its cargo, trying to intimidate him into speeding up a little. Half a mile above him the first of the aim 9 sparrow missiles had burned out its engine and was coasting straight down at 2000 mph. Within a second it had closed the distance and struck its target, the satelite dish, missing center by only twelve inches to the right. The old chevy disentigrated with a blinding flash, taking the front of the freightliner and the upper torso of James Delaney with it. The missile blasted through the truck, then through the bridge, spraying red hot shrapnel and concrete fragements directly into the gasoline barge passing underneath at that moment. Within another second the resulting fireball and explosion had severed the bridge and the rain of bodies and automobiles began.

Ten miles to the South the inbound Russian missile suddenly started to climb, going into a pop-up maneuver as it approached its target. The 25 megaton hydrogen warhead it carried was already armed and in final countdown. A ground penetrator, it was intending to dive into Barksdale AFB, plow a couple of hundred feet into the ground, then detonate, destroying both the airbase and its subteranean bunkers. The fallout would be tremendous to the East but most of Shreveport could concievably survive the blast. Fate had other ideas though.

Rodrigues' second Aim 9 took out Alltels digital cell phone tower.

His first sidewinder blew the smithereens out of Tony's doghnut bakery. Completely ruining the first batch of eclairs. His fourth and final missile evaporated a Harley Davidson Heritage Low Rider and the hell's angel riding it along Clyde Fant parkway.

Rodrigues cursed and hauled full back on the stick as he crossed through five thousand feet, simultaneously rolling the F16E back into an upright attitude. He could now see the missile as it climbed from below him four miles away. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to correct in time to cut it off. "Shit, I'm not even going to be able to pull out in time to avoid pancaking" he thought glumly. Slowly the nose of the F16 rose but the plane continued to hurtle towards the ground at nearly fifteen hundred miles per hour. The engine stalled as it's air intake was cut off by the angle of attack and alarms began to sound in the cockpit. Catching the wind fully the nose of the F-16 flipped back suddenly and Rodrigues was now plumeting towards the ground backwards. Losing sight of the missile as his horizon obscured it he hit the trigger of the Vulan cannon. He got off 257 rounds of 20 millimeter high explosive and tracer in the remaining half second before he fireballed squarely in the middle of Interstate 45. Fifty miles to the South the first warhead detonated squarely over Ft. Polk. Two hundred miles to the South the Russian boomer fired its last remaining missile and began a high speed turn to take it back out into the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico. From his 40 ft. cabin cruiser Thomas Sanderson and his wife Cloe watched the 20th missile erupt out of the waters of Sabine Pass and roar skyward on a wall of flame. "I can't believe the sonsofbitches came right into the river to launch." He said. "Those missile will be on target in ten minutes or less."

256 of the Vulcan rounds completely missed the Russian missile approaching Barksdale. But one, just one, struck the booster rocket and detonated the fuel load. The warhead was blasted loose and continued to climb on inertia. The timer ran out at 7000 feet, initiating the nuclear explosion. Shreveport, Bosier, and every single person within a 10 mile radius were vaporized in a matter of seconds. The shock wave flattened trees and houses for another ten miles even as they erupted in flames from the fireballs thermal pulse. Thirty miles to the NorthEast the four B-52s' of Warparty flight hugged the ground with blast screens down, putting their lives in the hands of the terrrain following guidance system.

Well, I either looked like an idiot or this Ghillie suit works. I put it in sneak all the way up the road going towards the two farm wagons (flat beds) and the 3 guys. I did this because I thought that they might be sneakin back up towards me.

It was a swampy wooded area through here once you went past the ditches. Move. Stop. Listen. Move. Stop. Listen. About every 5 paces or so. It took me until later in the afternoon to get back that mile to the road block. Didnt like it though. Had the later afternoon sun in my eyes. Wearing glasses you didnt need more glare.
DW wasnt all that excited about me going back. In fact, her Italian kicked in and she raved for quite awhile. Then cried. I wanted to cry too. I did not want to do this. But,no choice. We finally hugged,kissed,hugged and I told her what to do if I'm not back by dark.
I had my Enfield .303 scope mounted and the plastic stock I had on it was green taped in places to break it up a little. Didnt have time to "Ghillie" it as well. I had even put some green tape pieces on my boots and face to break up the lines there. Didnt have any camo paint. Streaked my face with some grease off the bottom of the motor home too.
First sight of the road block getting back. I crouched behind a tree about 30 yards back in the swamp and checked it out.
Four guys! I check more and cant discover anybody else around.
They have a older pickup sitting back a little from the wagons on the side of the road. I notice tracks from the wagons going to either side of the road like they have moved them several times. Wonder if these guys are doing this part time. There still may be police coming around and they could just push these wagons back into the brush and play hide if the cops showed up. They didnt look like they were camping there. Maybe they had a place somewhere near and just came out and did this when their supplies ran low. Bad boys they were. A little out of shape,but hey,arent we all? Three had shotguns,pumps I think and the other guy had a rifle,a lever action. I had my binoculars with me but just the little ones so wasnt sure on the particulars.
Well, I only had until dark to get this done so I better move. They showed violence to me so I guess they get violence back. But not in a quick draw contest. Sneaky and tricky for me.
I edged back further into the swamp and head further west trying to get the sun at my back and in their faces.
It takes me another slow hour to go another 200 yards beyond them. I wish I had a little elevation on them to help my position but no such luck.
I do find two big trees close together that I can stand behind and shoot out between them. Have to stand for the shots because if I tried a prone position I'd drown in the swamp. Even kneeling will put me a little lower than them and I dont want that.
I figure to take out the guy with the longer ranging rifle first. They are just standing there,leaning on the wagons. Two to a wagon,shooting the breeze and sometimes I can hear one of them barking a laugh,like this whole thing is a big joke. Not for long for them.
I'm sweating and breathing hard. I close my eyes,say a prayer for me and mine. I wipe my eyes. I have 10 shots before I have to reload. I cant use stripper clips with the .303 because of the scope. I have to change magazines. I have practiced this several times in the past but not under these conditions for sure.
Raise the rifle. Get my first one centered on his mid chest and squeeze the trigger slowly. Crrrraacccckkk! I dont even wait to see if I hit. I bolt another round in and go to the guy on his right.
He is just standing there looking in my direction. Mouth open,gun just coming up. I fire again. Time between shots is at most a second. I get my sight picture in another second and this time I see him grab his chest and then stare back at me. I swing the rifle to the next one as he is stutter stepping forward and peering over the end of his shotgun trying to find where I am. He's looking way to close to his position and not the 150 yards or so away that I am. I center the scope on him and fire. He goes down with a head shot like a sand bag. Must have got him right in the forehead. That would be the only shot that would put someone down like that. The last guy is sprinting for the truck. He is firing his shotgun in my direction. I can tell its a semi-auto because his right hand isnt moving as with a pump shotgun.
I try to lead him. I really havent practiced much on lateral moving targets and my first shop goes wide. I then swing to the truck and blow out the front tire. He is still running and just as he gets to the hood of the truck my shot hits him low in the body and he spins like a dancer,making a full turn and goes down. He is still visible and I fire 2 more shots and think I hit him with both. He aint moving. I remember to pop out the magazine and put in a fresh one. I wait. I dont move from my spot. I scan the area with my scope looking for any movement. Quiet,dead quiet. Birds and frogs have shut up even. Of course, my ears are a little numb as well. I quickly pop out my spongy ear plugs and listen. Nothing.
I wait even longer. For no other reason than I am not sure I can move my legs. They feel numb and I still am breathing like I ran a marathon. For some silly reason, I start listening for sirens. Like now my backup will show up and everything will be great. And thinking that through,I am relieved that I dont hear any sirens. I have taken the law into my own hands. Not easy for a cop,retired or not. Four people I presume are dead out on the highway and I'm standing here with the smoking gun.
Years of experience and all my lectures to rookies is keeping me steady,not calm,just steady. My 'third eye" is working overtime. That's the one I use in this mode. It's somewhere about 5' behind me and about 10' over my head. Its looking down at me and the scene,staying very calm and taking in everything. Timbo down below is still panting and shaking with the adrenaline that has pumped into him but he's holding on.
I start forward in a lateral way rather than straight at them until I am closer to the edge of the swamp and to the cleared area of the ditch. I then move forward but still on an angle to get the truck between me and the bodies. As I get to the far side of the truck, the guy there isnt moving. I slowly move forward and nudge the top of his head with my foot. Dead. I can tell. Seen dead bodies before and know he's dead. All the thoughts that I was the one that did it wont hit me until hours later. Now, I am just doing a job. That's what is keeping me calm and cautious.
I go back around and slide along the truck side watching the other three bodies. No movement. The .303 is a military round and I am confident that all of them are dead also. I really should have slung my rifle and got out my Ruger 9mm but I just stayed with the rifle. It gave me a lot of comfort with its power and accuracy right then.
After making sure they were all dead,I went over and leaned the rifle on the truck and started dragging the bodies into the swamp a ways. I didnt really care about a crime scene but DW was going to be driving up when I called her on the w/t and I really didnt want her to look at that. It was going to be bloody enough without the bodies lying there also.
After removing the bodies, I slowly pushed the trailers down into the ditch. They moved quite easy,like I had assumed they would. I gathered up the weapons. Two of the shotguns were good semiautos. The third gun was a single shot .410! Talk about being undergunned. The rifle was a cheap lever action,but looked in good shape. I gathered them up and scrounged in the truck,picking up ammo and several MRE's they had there. Nothing else to speak of. Nothing in the back of the truck either. They must have had a near by hideout. I wasnt going to bother looking for that.
I turned on the w/t and spoke the one word I knew DW was waiting for,"Okay".

Travis leaned back in his chair and considered the last few days. They had been lucky. VERY lucky. He remembered easing his way up to S.R. 40. As he looked out of the brush he knew that all of his caution hadn't been in vain. Not five yards away was the wreakage of a road-block. This time the uniforms were Cuban. He walked carefully up to the remains, ready to waste a bullet on any "corpse" that looked like it wasn't one. After a quick inspection of the bodies, he began to search the equipment to find anything still serviceable. The haul included, 3 A.K.'S with ammo, several full canteens, A full medics' kit, with everything labeled in spainish,which he couldn't read but he took it anyway. It was when he ran across the explosives and R.P.G.s that he decided to rig a sled to drag it back to the waiting vehicles and his family. After loading it with these and a number of other items, including a radio and what he thought was a code book, he started back.

As he approuched the last turn he heard a man shouting in spainish. Then Sherry screamed and the man started shouting again. He dropped his load and was reaching for one of the ak's when he her Shane shout,

" LET HER GO" Then a shot. More shouting and two more shots. Followed by the sound of Sherry crying.

As he rounded the curve he gave a short barking noise. The signal Shane and he used to signal to each other while in the woods. Shane snapped around with his shotgun at the ready, then relaxed and welcomed his father back.

Travis looked at the cuban lying on the ground and asked,

"What happened?"

"I waited like you said, but after awhile I had to take a leak. I walked to the back of Moms' car to do it when she started to holler. When I looked he was pulling Mom out of the car. I told him to let her go, and he started to point his gun at me. So I shot him in the arm. Dad, he tried to shoot me again, so I killed him. Where did he come from?"

Travis told his son about the road-block.

"Oh." Was all he said. Travis looked at his son. He was so much older now than before.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Son."

"This isn't like the movies."

"I know."

"Why do they do that? Make movies that way, I mean?"

"Money. Son I learned a long time ago that questions that start with why do they... the answer is almost always money."

"Oh."

Travis sent Shane to retrive the load he had been dragging, and went to his wife.

"I want to go home." She said, "Things like this don't happen in Gainesville. I want to go home."

"We cann't do that honey."

" I want to go home.I want to go home.I want to go home.I want to go home." As she spoke her voice became more and more hysterical untill she was screaming again. Travis had no choice. He hit her. She collasped in his arms. As he looked up, he saw Shane looking at him.

"I understand." he said.

It wasn't long after that they were on the road again. Travis in the lead with Shane driveing the suv with his unconcious mother beside him. The trip started quietly but soon they saw a helicopter that wasn't friendly and took cover. Unfortunetly, it had spotted them and dove at them. They managed to miss the first volley of weapons fire by turning into the woods. The chopper passed them and swung around for a second pass. Travis greeted it with one of the R.P.G.'s.

After that they made their way to his parents house without incident. That was two days ago. They had been greeted like heros.

The supplies they had brought with them had been gratefully welcomed, the weapons checked, wounds cleaned and bandaged, and they even found someone to read the labels on the medical supplies. They scanned with the radio to see if they could find out any news, but with little success. It was plain however that there was some fighting going on near-by.

As he continued to thank God for their good fortune, Travis made it a point with himself to try to find Taz. He knew she was supposed to be near-by, but after all this, who knew where she was and what had happened to her.

"In the morning." he promised himself, "In the morning."

Wed morning

I lay awake in bed. It's now 5:30 and way pass time to get up. I woke everyone and Linda and Stacy started breakfast. I put on a pair of gym shorts and thongs and donned my gas mask and rad meter. The house was sealed tight and already getting stuffy.

I went out side and put the camp shower up on a hook in front of the house. The rad meter read that the radiation was down to almost a third of what it had been. Great news!!!!!! Maybe Kali had not been hit very hard after all! I gotta get some info from shortwave, tv, ham, or something!!!!

Despite some really strange looks from the goats, I was able to replenish their water and feed. The chickens wanted out of the coop real bad, but none escaped.

If the radiation drops again, I'm giving the all clear sign! I showered off with the camp shower and dropped my gym shorts and thongs outside. The gas mask was rinsed off and set aside. I pitched the canister outside.

I gave the good news to the folks and got on our ground line to the neighbors. The one neighbor had a rad meter and reported finding a decrease also!!!!

I finally got my satellite link to work and reported in to TB2K. Not much good news on the forum!!! I fired up the ham radio and started checking the repeaters. Whow!!!! Talk about conversations, the airwaves were full of reports from everywhere!!!! It seems one of our fighter/bombers had knocked out the jamming device early this morning!!!

Now to the news. The Arizona Militia had come forward and took over the main defense of the Mogollon Rim with some armor and a bunch of NG artillary for backup. They established a HQ and had decent comms for their area. This freed up the Army to assist the people down in Graham county who were so hard pressed by the invaders! Other units went to cut off the enemy force moving northward above Wickenberg.

The bad news was that Tucson was lost. They put up a good fight, but there were just too many sabatours to keep things going!!! They got overrun and it was not a pretty sight!!!! Rape, murder, and looting were just the tip of the iceberg!!! The enemy had set up their HQ there and were sending reinforcements to all areas. The conflict here was still much in doubt despite the many good signs present! Damn, I wish I was 25 again and not 51!!!!

Forgot lunch in all the excitment, but we had a good evening meal. We tried the tv again and the Prez came on and told everyone to hold out the best that they could and that help was on the way. Not really much to go on! He also mentioned the bio attacks and martial law that was imposed. He made a good case for doing this so that maybe a few people would heed the warnings and not spread the illnesses further along. Made sense to me!

We read from the Bible to all present and said a prayer for those in need. We put the grandkids to bed and broke out the brandy. Eight ounces each was all that could be spared. Robert was antsy so he took the first watch and promised to awaken me around 4:00 am.

See ya tomorrow!!!

Thursday.

I awoke with a start!!! I looked at the clock and it read 4:45!!! Where was Robert?

I jumped up and woke up Linda. I donned my camos and boots and grabbed my S&W M-28 and holster as well as my Mak-90! I told her to wake up quick, that something was not right!!!! I went to the window and peered out. The dawn was just starting to break over the mountains. Robert was nowhere to be found!!!!

I didn't see Brandy, my #1 guard dog who I insisted be present when Robert was on guard! Instead of going out the front door, I went to the back door and slowly easied it open. Nothing to be seen or heard. I went into the trees to the west of the house as quietly as possible. I let my eyes adjust to the coming false dawn.

When I got about 20 yards out, I looked back at the front of the house. There were three men crounched down looking toward the entrance!!!!! Not good!!!! I worked my way to the edge of the tree line and scanned the area. All I saw was the three men with weapons at ready facing the house! I decided right then that they were up to no good and that they had to be dealt with immediately! I took a position behind a tree and opened fire on them! One, two, three, they when down just that quick! As I approached, one of them started to roll over, he caught a bullet to the head!!!!

I checked all three and removed their weapons, a 30-30 Winchester, a Mossberg pump shotgun and a 38 revolver. The Mossberg had been Robert's!

I found Robert and Brandy. Their throuts were slit!!!! They must have fallen asleep on guard! I also found a pint of cheap whiskey half gone in Robert's jacket!!!! I told him to stay inside and not take any chances. Brandy must have growelled and they both went to investigate. Half asleep he must have fallen into their trap. I did noticed a nasty gash on the leg of one of the intruders! Brandy must have gotten in one good bite before the old girl when down!!!! I will miss her dearly!!!

By now everyone was awake and armed to the teeth! I told them "all clear", but don't come out just let! I took Robert's body and placed it by the garage and covered him with a tarp. I laid Brandy beside him. I took Linda to Robert's body and explained what I thought had happened. She understood. Robert, despite being her brother, was not exactly liked by her! Brandy's death on the other hand made her cry!

The funeral was short and quick. A short prayer was said for Robert's soul and we went to bury Brandy. They both had a place on the hill over looking the valley below. I hope that it will someday be my resting place also, just not too soon!!! I talked to the neighbors and explained what happened. I told them to double their guard as more of this was sure to happen until our area got a rep for handling intruders!

The day went by quickly, as everyone was in a daze after what happened. Some had never seen a dead body before and were quite shaken by the experience! I checked the rad meter and the radiation was down noticeably!

Linda was assigned Robert's duties as a guard. I didn't sleep well at all and was glad when Linda woke me at 4:00 am.

Btw, the intruders bodies were dumped in a ravine just over the hill. I hope the coyotes have a feast on them. That's too good for their kind!! They were three indians down from the Rez north of us. Drunk and looking for a good time and the spoils of war!!!! They got what they deserved!!!!

I don't believe my watch reads mid-day Friday. The last thing I REALLY remember before this morning is curling up under some trees on a back-of-beyond back road in Western PA., to lick our wounds and sleep. Yesterday and the day before are a blur of sleep and eating. We spent WAY too much time in one place, and we did it without playing sentry go, alternating watches or anything. Somehow I think there is a pair of very tired angels in the Celestial Barracks right now, having had to guard us for the last two days.

We finally came to consciousness this morning at sunrise, and decided that it would be a good idea to move out. The weather the past couple days has been a definite help, though NOT to my sinuses. Now that it had cleared up (and my sinuses too) it was time to hit the road. We did another cold breakfast, and got ourselves into the trucks and SLOWLY pulled out from our wooded hidey-hole, after letting the GPS program boot and start up. MIRACULOUSLY there are still 5 satellites up there working. We are working our way toward WW's place in Central North PA. This morning has been pretty uneventful, more like a calm quiet ride through the Allegheny Countryside.

We DID have a brainstorm (well RELIC had one) and we were fortunate enough to find a U-Haul Hitch shop open in the outskirts Cory. We were able to trade a box of 9mm, a spare sausage grinder, and a couple silver Dollars for a bumper hitch for the 4x4 so that now we can alternate driving, and can tow the 4x4 behind the 6x6 tool bed. I THINK I overpaid by about a half box of ammo but I ain't gonna complain. I was REAL surprised that Cory looks and feels like it has every other time we have been through. It has been completely untouched by the current madness, except that they don't have any power or radio or TV. ALMOST made me want to stop, and settle down right there.

We are about an hour east of Cory now, and RELIC is driving and I have had a chance to really LOOK at this computer, so I am posting this as we ride. This rent-a-body had the Wireless T-1 back pack for his computer, which is how we are able to post now. How the comp fell into my hands is one of those stories buried in the kaleidoscope of blood, fire, running, and noise that is my memory of Monday and Tuesday. Some day when I have sat still for a week, and have access to LOTS of Stout, I will sit down and TRY to sort out those two days of madness. As it is, every time I try to open that particular box and go back over what happened, I freeze. RELIC says I freeze for quite a while. I suspect that I am not going to be proud of what I find buried there. I know enough about PTSD and CISD to know that sooner or later I have to open that box and air it out, but not right now. For now, we are on our way, it's a beautiful late spring day and we are enjoying being alive.

WW, hang out a flag or something, 'cause here we come.


Chuck, roaming across unspoiled northern PA.

I thought back to yesterday morning when exCop had called. I was just about to dial his number when the phone rang. He agreed to call the others and we were both pretty sure that Jimmy Splinters and his family would try to make it to my house. We hoped he could get to Lee Anne and bring her along. Jimmy would probably have to take all the back roads and move fast. I told ExCop to make sure Jimmy told the guards at the barricades (which I knew would be in place by the time he made it to my town) that he was headed for my house. There would surely be someone on guard there who knew me and would let him through.

D would definitely settle in where he was, as would Kathleen and family. Sammie would probably choose to stay where she was, as well.

ExCop told me he had talked to Brooks and she was no doubt already on the road to his place.

I asked him if he had received Lee Anne’s “package” and he said yes. I was relieved. That was good. Very good.

ExCop and I agreed that if communications were out, we would meet at a certain time and location three days hence.

I had been able to get a brief internet connection to check TB2K for long enough to find out what was happening in other areas. I cried as I thought of Amazed, on vacation at Disney World.

That morning I learned the true meaning of “militia.” The news spread almost instantaneously and heavy equipment—graders, backhoes, bulldozers, dump trucks—moved to the four strategic entrance points to town. We couldn't block all the entrances, but we’d need the back roads to keep in contact with other natives in neighboring towns. It was the refugees that would be a problem. My stomach contorted with the moral dilemma we were facing and the phrase “no room at the inn” flitted through my mind, along with something like, “As ye do to the least of them, you also do to Me.” I never could get the quotes right, but I seemed to be able to remember the messages.

Power and phone were gone by 8:00 A.M.

The police soon became irrelevant. Leadership sprang from the grassroots of the town, not from the power structures that had seemed so almighty just a half a day before. The idiot loudmouths were simply ignored as they ranted and raved and tried to establish “control” of the situation and set up “command centers.” It was the fire department that had the experience, personnel and attitude to establish a loosely organized network of communication and coooperation. The most obnoxious of the town “officials” disappeared after one of the firemen looked him in the eye and very quietly said, “You know, the rules have changed. And it's open season on assholes.”

I was trying to take it all in. I didn't feel panic. I felt sadness. But I also felt a sense of purpose unlike any other I had ever experienced.

People weren't racing around madly or chaotically. They gathered in small groups at intersections of streets and roads and started to make plans. The natives knew intuitively that conservation, of everything, would be paramount. The pickups that were on the road weren't carrying just the driver, as was normal. Rather, each was carrying six to ten men and teenage boys. All were armed with multiple weapons. Most had at least two pistols at their hips, and some also had one or two shoulder holsters. Deer rifles were slung over backs, and shotguns rested over forearms. Pockets bulged with ammo and bandoliers decorated chests. And they still didn't know who the enemy was. They only knew that we would stick together and defend each other against whatever came to our door.

I walked over to check on Peter, my elderly neighbor. He was surprisingly calm and matter of fact. He said his son was coming from ExCop’s town, and that his grandson would be coming back to the farm, too. I told him we would see that they had enough drinking water if the town supply went out. I was pretty sure fuel had already been gathered to keep the generators going at the town wells.

I was already thinking about food. It was too soon to know what we were facing. The clear blue sky belied what was happening elsewhere. We could only hope that we were too unimportant to get a chem, bio or nuke attack. Gardens weren’t in yet and I wondered if we had enough hand tools and frozen heirloom seed to feed ourselves, Jimmy's family, and LeeAnne. If we put the garden in too soon we could lose it to frost. We couldn't afford to waste seed, but we couldn't afford to delay the harvest either. I was very sorry we didn't have a barn, livestock and horses. But I thought perhaps those things might be remedied before the summer was over.

Firewood was almost gone. I wished I had made the effort to get the old two-man saws sharpened. Maybe we could get enough fuel to use chainsaws, but just maybe manual labor would be more plentiful. I remembered that I had printed out instructions on saw sharpening just before “rollover.” We'd definitely need more wood if we were going to have to use it for cooking and heating water— and be ready for winter. We could run the genny and the furnace to heat water, but it wouldn't be very efficient. Time would tell.

Jimmy and company limped into the driveway at about 1:00 P.M. I almost didn't recognize him. I had never before encountered such an image of near-total despair. Lee Anne helped his wife out of the car and his boys exited quietly. I had expected them to be screaming and crying. But they were silent as they clung to Jimmy’s legs. I knew they would like the dogs, and that the dogs would be good “medicine” for them.

Mr. Senses On had gone to the barricade where Jimmy was most likely expected, so Jimmy had no trouble entering town.

Jimmy looked around. “It's so quiet. So clean. So alive. It's hard to believe that this is all really happening.”

“Well, Jimmy,” I said, “The only thing we can do is deal with the world that's here. Let's get you folks something to eat and drink, then I'm going to need some help cleaning out some junk and getting you folks settled in. Think I can burn all those copies of income tax returns?” Jimmy laughed, and perhaps for the first time in my life, I felt free.

Finally able to get on! Need to report, "it's" hit here in Central Vt.

We were at work Tues. the 7th, had a short meeting, management said we were converting completely to Mil. needed all available employees to try to come in everyday, with everything that was happening all over the country "they were issueing" us special passes because of the roadblocks up at all borders and key intersections. That was it, back to work.

Then, two hours later it started happening, everyone was called into the sunroom, plant manager and plant nurse was there. Seems there was an "incident" at our "sister" plant in the city (we are outside city limits) Maintainence had discovered several cylinder type containers leaking some type of gas or chemical, apparently loped over the security fence at the back of the plant near the railroad tracks. There were uncomformed reports of immediate illness, but could give no details. The plant manager said if we were uncomfortable we could leave, but wanted to let us know that they believed it was contained to the city. Roadblocks had been set up at city limits and no one would be allowed to enter, so they would make provisions for those who lived in the city if necssary. They had made arrangements with the St. Police to allow us to leave on any of the southern routes or the 4 lane to the west, all we had to do was show our badges and special passes, with the passes they would provide a signed form that we were not from the other plant!!!!

We got our forms, left and as we went by the security gaurd we could see the flashing lights and roadblock set up at the city limits. I said to DH, how do they know it was contained? What about all the material and paperwork etc. between the plants on practically an hourly basis?

Have spent the last few days prepping, trying to contact family and trying to get on here to report. Have BIL that works at IBM in Essex, can't contact him yet, heard rumor that same type of incident happened up there.

Will report back when I can.

Friday morning - dawn.

It has become apparent that at least here in North Florida who ever it was that decided to use our Interstate Highway System for his invasion transport corridors knew what he was doing. If you don't have ground attack aircraft, helicopter gun ships, heavy artillery or tanks then stopping a heavily armed convoy moving up the Interstate is a real son-of-a-bitch.

As we sat around a table yesterday studying the maps John pointed out to us that having been ambushed repeatedly up and down the road from Tampa to the front lines (according to Jimmy presently near to Cordele, Georgia) further jumping Charlie's convoys was going to become increasingly more difficult to do. As he approached any place that had a higher potential for him to be bushwhacked he would become that much more watchful and ready to instantly react. We ultimately decided that if we couldn't actually *destroy* much of Charlie's goods we could at least eat up his manpower and maybe some of his armor and aircraft by having to provide ever increasing amounts of protection for the vital supplies that he needed to prosecute his invasion - classic partisan activities in other words. In fact, we figured to make our first attempt at the I -75 Santa Fe river bridge from the Columbia county side. Plenty of heavy woods in the river bottom itself with overhanging banks to hide under once we had to run and not open for maneuver by any sort of vehicle.

We took country roads to reach the Columbia county side of the river just above the I-75 bridge at about 4:00 a.m. There's a big cattle pasture on the east side of the highway with a clear view of the bridge and several hundred yards of highway on the other side. A band of oaks and pines crosses the pasture from the dirt road we approached on down to the river. We set up an M-60 in that tree line and several scoped rifle since the distance was better than three hundred yards. West of the highway on the Alachua county side we had Speed Gator set up under cover near to another dirt road. In the river itself we had a half-dozen One-Shots filled with soap and styrofoam thickened gasoline and set up inside the grates of the storm drains in front of the bridge. Their detonators were wired to an FRS radio tuned to the frequency of the one in my pocket, a trick that Jimmy rigged up.

Naturally, Charley hasn't been so obliging as to run his convoys to any set schedule so we waited and waited and waited. Later turns out that one was attacked yesterday down to Pasco county. Mr. Charley was mad as hops about that but an invasion is a hungry beast and must have fuel and supplies to stay alive so up the road he had to go. Finally about four in the afternoon Sarah came swarming up on her mountain bike to tell us she'd spotted one coming several miles down the road. She'd been up a tall pine on a nearby hill with her grandaddy's Swarovski spotting scope looking for us. I told her to scoot and get back to Daddy Gator and her, Becky and Aaron were to leave immediately to meet us at the rendezvous point.

Unfortunately, what she hadn't seen was the two gunships flying flank scout that came over the river about four minutes after she'd left. I prayed they had the sense not to try to move the truck from under the thick stand of trees where we'd hidden it. They were well out of the zone where they could be fired on from the road but if they moved the truck they were quite likely to be spotted from the air and possibly fired on.

The convoy itself came along presently and approached the bridge. I looked at John for a decision as to whether we should do it. He looked thoughtful for a few seconds then nodded his head. I studied the lead vehicles, one tank and two APC's behind to get a feel for their movement speed and when I thought the time was right keyed the little FRS radio twice - click - click. The hot Florida afternoon sun worked in our favor, the two APCs had their front and top hatches open. The tank commander must have been a real hardass because he was buttoned up. The One-Shots went off a bit raggedly, you could almost make out six distinct booms but they did all go off. A gout of fire shot out of the storm drains in the middle and sides and sprayed burning Hell across the highway spattering the two APC's and the back half of the tank. Almost immediately we heard Speed Gator's M-60 open up in a long burst of fire as he raked the cabs, fuel tanks and tires of the captured semi-trucks of the convoy and John opened up with our gun. The boys with us opened up with their deer rifles and I got about my own business as well. Each machine guns was to fire one belt as fast as the operator could usefully control the gun and the riflemen were to fire five *aimed* shots at the windshields and grills of the trucks. No one was to waste ammo on shooting at armor we couldn't penetrate.

What happened next was exhilarating, almost sexual, in its intensity quickly giving way to terrifying. The home-made napalm did little to the tank except cause it to suddenly surge across the bridge as its turret turned to look backwards. The APC on the near side swerved to the right and banged through the bridge barrier to plunge into the river. We think the gas must have splashed the driver directly. The second APC stopped dead and men boiled out, one of them on fire and screaming. At three hundred yards away I had told everyone not to shoot at individuals and stick to targets they were likely to hit in the heat of the moment. The two machine guns and the rifles raked the soft-skinned trucks mercilessly and several began to burn. I had just fired my fifth and last round when the lead tank fired its main gun and my heart sank. From our vantage point it looked like a hit dead on Speed Gator's position. The APC's doing drag duty began raking that area with their machine guns as well. John was shouting "Go! Go! Go!" at us as he ran like hell down the hill through the trees for the river with the M-60 and the rest of us remembered to stop staring and do the same! I only *thought* I could run until I began to hear the beat of rotor blades! I'm sorry to say John and those boys beat me to the river. I could hear bullets chattering through the trees behind me as I leapt off a low limestone ledge to hit the river bottom and began running as hard as I could to the east into thicker and thicker trees hugging the bank as closely as I could.

It was well after dark by the time I made the shallow limestone cave three miles away. John, his boys and the two other boys (Rick and Nick, brothers) were there. Andy and Norm in Speed Gator haven't reported in yet. Sure hope they're just having to take the long way home. Daddy Gator pulled up along about midnight and we loaded up. Sarah said they'd been still and quiet for hours until they were sure it was safe to move the truck. Thank God for that but the next time we'll leave the truck at a greater distance. That was a foolish chance to have taken.

.....Alan.

President George “Dubya” Bush sat deep within an abandoned Minuteman missile silo somewhere in the Midwest. He had barely managed to escape Washington. With him were Vice President Cheney, his national security advisor Condoleeza Rice, and SecState Colin Powell, and a small group of Secret Service agents. Three days ago, Mr. Bush had been awakened at 3:30 am by the inward crash of his bedroom door, as the SS agents rushed in.

“Mr. President, the United States is under direct attack on multiple fronts. The situation room has reported that there are inbound ICBM tracks headed for California. Come with us NOW sir!!” One of the agents threw a pair of sweatpants and a shirt at the president, who caught them in midair. At the same time, Laura Bush had bolted upright in the bed, trying to recover from the completely unexpected shock of so many strange people in their private residence. Another agent grabbed an outfit for her as well.

Neither Bush had any opportunity to say a word, as the agents propelled them out of the bedroom and down the corridor. They headed for the south lawn, where a Marine helicopter, its rotors already at full speed, awaited them with its door open. The group leapt through the door, which hadn’t even closed by the time it lifted off for Andrews.

Headsets were handed to the president and his wife, who immediately put them on. “Mr. President,” agent Dan Avery said into his mic, “we have reason to believe that Air Force One has been sabotaged, so we’re going to fly you out on a generic G7. We’ve detected that Washington is in the early stages of a bio-attack, so it’s not safe here at all.”

Mr. Bush adjusted the mic on his headset. “I understand. Thank you. We have got to get my cabinet and staff out of here ASAP!”

“That’s being done as we speak sir,” replied agent Avery. “We’ll fly them out on separate aircraft within the hour.”

As the helo landed on the tarmac at Andrews, the door was yanked open by a very businesslike Marine in full BDU’s. Mr. And Mrs. Bush were taken at a stiff trot to a waiting Gulfstream G7, its engines already spooling up. Already inside were several more Marines, as well as three more SS agents. The Bush’s were strapped in as the door slammed shut.

Engines screaming at full power, the G7 was airborne in seconds.

“I’ve got to find out what’s going on. Agent Avery, patch me through to the situation room. And where are we headed?”

“Mr. President, we’ll land in Omaha in about two hours.”

“Fine. Thanks.” At that moment the connection to the White House situation room came on-line. “This is the president. Who’s on duty there?”

“Mr. President, this is General Franks. The current situation is grave. We have inbound ICBM’s headed for California. There are thousands of troops exiting from container ships all over the east coast. Total strength as yet unknown. A multi-divisional attack is underway in Texas. Currently, we have no idea who the players are sir.”

“General Franks, go to Defcon One immediately. Spool up the bombers, and send a full activation alert via ELF to our strategic submarines. Stand by for authentication.”

The president looked to the SS agent who carried the nuclear authentication codes in a locked briefcase known as “the football”. The agent unlocked and opened the case, and handed Mr. Bush a large plastic “snap” cassette. The president quickly broke it open and extracted the contents. “General Franks, authentication is: Tango, Zulu, Oscar, Oscar, Delta, Foxtrot, Whiskey. Please confirm.”

General Franks opened his own cassette, and began reading: “Tango, Zulu, Oscar, Oscar, Delta, Foxtrot, Whiskey. Authentication confirmed. The alert will go out immediately sir. I’ll call you back in 10 minutes.”

“Thank you General, I’ll be waiting.” The connection went dead as Mr. Bush hung up the phone.

Immediately the Defcon One alert went out. Squadrons of aging B-52 bombers began the fueling and arming process, which, since the cold war was over, would take over an hour. Flight crews were rudely awakened by the sound of klaxons that hadn’t sounded for over 10 years. A global Extremely Low Frequency FLASH message went out to the entire US Navy. SSBN’s headed for periscope depth to receive the full text of a message that brought news of the End of the World…

(Super Excellent, Dennis!)

Day Two....Enemy War Room

The General received a nod from a predatory looking individual sitting at the head of the war desk. Bringing the assembled dignitaries, (visionaries" as the General so liked to call them) to order... General Chenkov began the first official conference since the Alliance's attack on the U.S.

Enough intel had finally trickled back in to make some qualified assessments and launch into phase two. Chenkov stood and cleared his voice....

"Thankyou."

"Yesterday....we dared the unthinkable. We attacked the United States of America. Never before in our shared histories, has any coalition ever accomplished, on the massive scale, what we have wrought. We brought the Evil Empire...to her knees. Many have tried, many have dreamed. We...actually....did...it."

Applause and shouting in multiple languages enthusiastically errupted in response. The General allowed a few minutes to elapse and the chaos to naturally die down to workable levels.

"Today. Today, we begin phase two. As we all know, this will be a lengthy period. We have crippled the Americans....and her allies...but, she is not to be underestimated or counted out of the fight. Not yet. It may seem redundant of me to continue bringing these points up...if I do not however, we will not succeed. I cannot alloy any of us to become comfortable/ or complacent. A partial victory is unacceptable. America, is a wild and unruly land, not far removed from her "Cowboy" roots. The U.S. government did become complacent, and thereby allowed the openings that we needed to launch our cleansing....but, her citizenry, once it gets over its shock...will be formidable to conquer. When the last American conforms to our rule, or his head sits on a pike...we may begin to rest.

General Chenkov continued...."To the raw data. Yesterday, we launched a comprehensive multi-faceted attack. Of the 500 various warheads we jointly launched...81 found their targets. Successful destinations reached, as follows: 57 America and her territories, 10 United Kingdom, 4 Canada, 9 Australia, 1 Israel. Additionally...though ongoing...to date, CONUS infiltration has been a complete, and unmitigated success. As of yet, the U.S. infrastructure has not recovered. We see some preliminary, feeble rallying of airships and subs ...but, nothing to merit our concerns.

The contagion program has also been initiated. There has been some worries by some of you here on that point...however, rest assured all of our people on the ground have been properly protected. There will be no casualties for our troups via that attack route. Intelligence has confirmed 102 dispersals. Success rates remain to be seen for the majority. We will know more over the following weeks. For those of you who chose to abstain from the contagion meetings and planning sessions: Anthrax, of course was employed, along with hybridized Plague and 3 nerve toxins. We have several other viruses that may yet be activated and used in our mission, however; those are reserved for wave two, if we choose to continue on that route."

Chenkov cleared his voice and paused...."At this point, I ask that you turn your attention to Mr. Secretary who will conduct the remainder of this meeting. Mr. Secretary....." Motioning, in a properly respectful manner, The General bowed to the imposing figure positioned at the head of the war desk...

Major Carstens was too shocked to feel anything. His training took over, and like an automaton, he began the notification process that would bring the creaking US military, gutted by over a decade of near criminal neglect, into action. His first calls went to the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the four services, using the “special line” whose ring meant only one thing: War.

***

General Franks watched in silent horror as the first deadly nuclear blooms erupted over the west cost. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco dissolved into huge glass-lined craters. Millions of Americans were vaporized in their sleep by the fires of hell. At least for them, it was quick and painless. More detonations followed, turning the entire California high-tech corridor into a smoking mass of flame and death.

Many of the brightest engineers and scientists in the world were flashed to elementary particles as the nukes continued to fall. The entire base upon which America’s “smart” weapons technology, as well as her technological leadership of the world was built upon, vanished without a trace.

A series of new hell fires blossomed in the Puget Sound area of Washington state, as the navy base in Bremerton was reduced to radioactive rubble.

The total elapsed time was only 30 minutes from the first warning from NORAD….

The Russian invasion force was flowing like a flood tide from myriad containers on various ships and docks in the northeast. They quickly assembled into operational units. The first groups off were Spetznaz, the Russian equivalent of US special forces. There were a dozen groups of 20 men each, highly trained for their current assignments, which were to seize the federal government’s key personnel.

These teams now began their work, heading for the homes of the director of the CIA, as well as his DDO and DDI. Another team headed for the homes of the Justices of the US Supreme Court. The third team was targeted on the FBI’s hierarchy. The remaining teams fanned out toward various objectives, including airports, train and bus stations, D.C. television stations and communications centers.

At that moment multiple cruise missiles were launched from Russian subs stationed a few miles off the US coastline, inbound for Andrews AFB. The chemical warheads on these missiles were the deadliest ever developed in the history of the Soviet Union. Just a minute amount of the agent either touching the skin or inhaled would cause death in minutes. Hugging the earth, they went undetected by military RADAR, and detonated as planned over Andrews. The base was completely unprepared, and death was widespread and immediate.

It was now 4 a.m.

Immediately following the Spetznaz, the Russian “A” divisions came boiling out from their transports. They headed for their heavy equipment, which was rolling off the ships at that moment. Hundreds of diesel engines sprang to life as the elite of the Russian Army began its task of taking control of America’s economic and governmental institutions.

Friday morning they awakening to a new day, same problem. They had fallen asleep to the sound of distant cannon fire. Initially they tought it was the 101st at the Tennessee river but Johnny stepped out to look at the moon and the sound was coming from the north and east. the direction of Cincinatti. They were worried but this was a far distance. They discussed what to do the next day while they sipped some bourbon. They finally fell asleep. Somehow they realized they better get sleep while they can.

Friday they were loading half of everything and all the winter gear and moving it all to the cave, they suggested to Maggie and David to do the same but they were reluctent. About half way through the day David showed up at the cave," Johnny you have to come see this""what, what is it?" "just come." they followed David back to his homestead knowing they had too much to do to waste time doing this. Maggie Greeted them at the edge of the garden and had some iced tea for refreshment. This was thi first Laura and Maggie had to visit and the fellowship was a great stress reliever for both. Daivid prompted them to continue forward and they made their way to the next knob. From there they could see I-65 north and south from Louisville to Nashville. The sight was unbelievable! Astonished They had no words. The refugges from all the cities were there in a 200 mile traffic jam. they had set up a refugee city all along the pavement some had tents some did not most were out of their cars, moving about. The natural resources were quickly disappearing and disaster was on the horizon.

"I guess the sheep finally began to move"
"Lord have mercy" is all Laura could say. All knew it was just a matter of time before these hoards started roaming the countryside. They all had left the city to escape the riot but the riot had come to them. Decisions needed to be made. They all were able to make a haul of gear back to the cave for David and Maggie,and Johnny and Laura continued on back to their homestead. it was about 3 pm.

As they crested the ridge before the place the most ominious buzzing sound could be heard distanctly from the west. As they turned they couldn't make out what was happening. The buzzing was getting louder and louder and the sky was growing dark as with smoke. A giant noise making tornado, buzzing, chewing, pulsating cloud. The sky grew dark from it.

"what in the hell?'

Laura said," Revelation chapter 9"

When we got to the house Mr. Leroy and Mrs. Josephine were there and had their great-grandson Colin there with them. He had come to their house from Lexington where he was a student at the University of Kentucky. His parents lived in California and he was very out of place in his leather pants and body piercing, but I thought to befriend him.

"what's up with all the bugs?' Colin said. Mrs Josephine said the samething Laura said ,"Revelation 9." He had been stung numerous times and was boiling up.

Shelter in place was called to order, the Winders followed orders well, Colin was visibly scared.

We went inside to escape the eternal swarm. The locusts have been relentless all day. They know we've been sheltering a non Chistian here. You can hear them in the air ducts: "Let me in! Let Me In!"
We boarded up the windows, and all the air conditionong ducts.
Its their faces that get to me. So...Human.
We can go out anytime. They won't touch us. But the minute we open the door, they rush the house. They want Colin
I don't know WHY he is still reluctant to accept Jesus. He's been there all thru the prayer meetings with his great-granparents, hears us reading all prophecies. Why is he still blind? Once darkness fell, the locusts were no longer around Colin went home with the Winders.

The plane came in rather low but headed straight for its target ....releasing the button the pilot released the bomb ...watched as it speeded torwards its goal ...BAMMMMMM....making a wide turn he came back around to see the damage ....a dust cloud rose in the air ,and that was all!!!! surely he hadn't missed ? ........but no , a wet stain began to spread over the surface , .........at first a trickle , then a stream, till a crack developed and the whole side split open , ......the water began to rush through tearing more wall as it gained momentum................the Hoover Dam had been smashed!!!!! That would effectively cut off the main east /west roads in the southwest ...since California was pretty much glass now they could concentrate more on the heavy population in the midwest and east...........presumably the other squad had reached Glen Canyon Dam..... the land looked to inhospital to live in anyway ....let the earth reclaim her water ....

Finally, a chance to get this out to TB2K! I’ve been writing when I get a chance and am going to send it out next time there is any access. Our emergency team on the island has been rotating power for one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon from the hydro plant to various neighborhoods in order, so that we can pump water and other necessities. They sure aren’t when if ever we will be getting more diesel in, so that is being saved to power the emergency gennies for the hospital and fire dept, if needed. Also, most of the fishing boats run on diesel, so we may need to conserve it for getting fish to eat. It’s daylight from 4:30 to 10:30 now, so we don’t really need lights.

The fact is that we have received no supplies since Monday, and no likelihood of any for the foreseeable future. Seattle is sure not sending any barges. Anchorage has house-to-house fighting, although a lot of people have left for their shacks in the boonies- hunting cabins, summer cabins, fishing cabins, and so forth. There is a big military base in Anchorage, resistance is centering on the hill there.

Here on the island, the groceries and our one Walmart sold out in 2 days. The ATM’s aren’t working, and while people still have cash, lots of people keep their money in bank accounts and there is no way to tell if a check is good, and credit cards sure are worthless. The base PX has a fair amount of food, so the Coasties are not a strain on the system. A lot of people have spare food on hand, but some few don’t, and there has been a run on the food banks. It’s so cold here in summer that growing a lot of food is hard if you are not set up for it. Nonetheless, I hear reports that there’s a lot of digging going on and that people are hauling seaweed to make potato beds. It is worrisome that it is so dry, but if it does start raining, people better be out there defending their food from the voracious slugs!

You may be wondering about our hazardous Chemical alert the first day- it turned out that when the war news came in one of the listening skippers in the harbor didn’t pay attention and ran his boat into the fueling dock, knocking off one of the fuel pumps and spilling gas all over the channel. Fog factor.

I finally found our shortwave Baygen. It is irritating to listen to the whirr it makes, but we are getting some news. All flights are grounded in Alaska. The Russians have occupied Barrow and Nome and Fairbanks, and have landed overland craft at the big military base there. There was one heck of an air battle, and our aircraft have been re-based in Juneau. However, I don’t think the Russkies are going anywhere soon from Fairbanks because our forces prudently bombed the heck out of the two roads going south, and the railroad to Denali, and made some very impassable terrain out of the only breaks through the Alaska Range. Those are some BIG mountains. It seems the Anchorage Russkies are being stung by our fighters and do not have a secure airfield. Guess they landed paratroopers, forgot to back ‘em up.

We are concerned that the Russkies or the Chinese might try to work their way up the Aleutians. In WWII the Japanese actually OCCUPIED two of the islands, a fact most people don’t know. (no kidding!)

We have no idea what will happen next. The one sure thing is winter will come. The red salmon run should start soon, and the Dept of Fish and Game people have already passed the word along that anyone fishing for their family will not be prosecuted. I hope that we can combine with some other families nearby and pool our fishing and catch. One thing that is a problem is smoking and drying all that fish, for ourselves and for the dogs. It may be one of the main things we eat this year. Thank God for stored grains and beans.

I have been cautious about revealing how much of our edible landscaping is edible to folks around here. I am offering to swap showing how to make a garden bed with seaweed fertilizer and starts from some of my plants for fish and for people to haul seaweed to me. One person is cutting up some deadwood for firewood for me in exchange for learning how to garden and getting starts. Showing people some of the wild foods is also swappable info.

One sees very few cars anymore. It is a big deal to use gas- and no trip is ever made without careful planning to do as much as possible (i.e. go to church (a great comfort), get seaweed for the garden, go to the newly sprung up flea and swap market in the parking lot at our closed Walmart, etc.) Neighbors ask each other if they need a ride in, and for the most part will pick up hitchhikers they recognize. (it’s a very small town here!) Of course, so many people have concealed carry permits here that there have been no bad incidents doing this that I have heard of.

I forgot to mention; this is an island. No planes are flying, the ferry is not running, and few fishing boats are going anywhere, at least until the reds run. We are effectively in quarantine for the foreseeable future. My estimate is that we are on our own for the next year or two. Folks, we are going back to a lot more primitive! We’ll have running water if we can have some power some of the time, but will have to heat with wood. Once the propane runs out, even with our two big tanks, cooking on wood, too. Better start flushing with grey water, or watering the garden. My hand crank washing machine is going to be invaluable. Better get used to heating all our water with wood, too.

Your Alaska correspondent.

Whew, its hot. Its 4pm and we have all been asleep all day. Have to get up and get something cold to drink. We have the frige on propane but thats all we are using re energy. I was up all night trying to understand the Cuban chatter on the windup SW. No luck at all. Between their screaming into the mike and the static I just couldn't make out enuff to make any sense of it. I did on one occassion hear gun fire in the back ground and then they REALLY started screaming into the mike.
Chubby Hubby and Bud got back just before daylight. Said there was no one around or in the house. Everything was just as we left it. He decided to take the chance and he fired up the generator and plugged in the compressor and made short shift of painting the two trucks. While he was doing that, Bud got on the computer and printed out TB2k. Took longer to do that than paint the trucks. They went through the house and picked up a few things. CH and I each had some extra new boots that I had bought for y2k, he grabbed some jackets, more shirts and all the socks and underware he could find for the both of us. Also grabbed all my shorts, jeans and tee shirts out of the drawers. Lordy...where will I put it all? Our drawers in the RV were already full of clothes, both summer and winter. They grabbed up all the buckets of wheat that we had left for lack of space and all the canned goods, etc.,that had been left behind. They came back to camp with two full pick up loads. Also brought some hand tools, some sheets of tin, every odd half can of paint he could find, oil, grease, airfilters etc., for trucks. Some of this stuff is going to have to be cached under a fallen palm tree nearby. It won't all fit into rigs or our "patio" between the trailers. He did make a run down the road to Cedrics. Said they were gone and most everything in the house was gone. But he did find some pieces of camo netting out by the horse barn and while it was in pretty bad shape figured we could make use of it. Well we sure can. Tomorrow Bonnie and I will get out the roll of hay twine and put that netting together again and maybe weave in some palm fronds or dried saw grass. I think there is probably enuff to cover the two pick ups. Painted dull gray they hardly show as it is. Unless we show color or reflection, no one will see us from the air. The forest canopy here is too heavy for them to see through. Its on the ground that we have to be careful and we have to be careful to not make any noise. Hubby has two chain saws...I don't know what he thought he would do with them. YOu can hear them a mile away. Old habits will be hard to break!
Before the guys left the house this morning they both took a good swim to get the sweat off. CH had turned the pump on while the genny was going and threw in a packet of shock for the pool. I wish I had gone with them. I sooooooo need a bath. I hate to put any clean clothes on over this yukky body. But will have to get a spit bath this evening before bed. I could go to the swamp but the mosquitos will eat you to death early am and evening.
So far we have been lucky. We have seen or heard no one. But we have to be realistic and know that others are just a little slower getting started than we doomers were. The forest will soon be full of people. Some will be prepared and some won't. We are going to have to make alliances with others that are prepared...mentally and preps. I think I would rather see the enemy come walking down the road than hungry families. That is my biggest fear and sorrow. I don't know where its going to end. We have to have a community to survive. We have to have guards out. But we 4 cannot do it by ourselves. I can only hope that Travis comes this way and decides to stay.....or perhaps he will have information where we decide we need to move. But right now all we can do is hunker down and keep a low profile. Tomorrow I will set Bonnie to grinding wheat and corn and teach her how to make corn bread in a dutch oven. Don't know how we will bake bread of any kind if the Okeefenokee swamp fire goes out. This smoke gets really heavy at times and really isn't much fun to breathe. But it allows us to have a small fire for cooking without worrying about someone smelling our smoke. I have to figure a place to set up the solar oven without it reflecting into the sky. I am not sure that is possible. Will talk with CH when he wakes up. Right now everyone needs their sleep, including me.
Taz

Been too busy to post on the TB2K board 'till now but will report in from my NW Wisconsin vantage point in our hunkered down shelter. So much has been happening up this way since Monday morning according to my SW(Grunding YB 400PE).

First, a thumb nail sketch of our layout here. We've been preppers since the oil shortage days back in the 70's. So we picked up 40 "secluded" acres 20 miles SE of Superior,Wi.. Began building an earth sheltered - passive solar home on week-ends (started in'81 and moved in in '86).

So far the extent of the enemy action has been limited but major as far as we're concerned. The Duluth,MN airport (about 25 miles NW of here) has a 10,000+ ft concrete runway , so it was sucessfully targeted with a small yeild nuclear bomb. The Norad alert scrambled the local MN Air Nat. Guard (F16's) and their only favorable results were to knock out a Cruise type missile headed for Clam Lake,WI (location of the ELF facility----Extremely Low Frecuency communication system used to relay messages to our Nuclear submarine fleet). Half of the squadron concentrated on protecting ELF and the other tragically were vaporized over Duluth trying to save the airport and the Twin Ports of Duluth& Superior. Clam Lake is 50 miles SE of us.

After the initial shock wave passed I figured I had about 2 hours time before I had to deal with fallout. I used that time to put a 2' layer of sand I had stock piled over the carport floor (10" of reinforced concrete over a 24'x24' room beneath(reachable from the house) Used my farm tractor with a front-loader bucket. All preps are in this room plus lots of sawdust cause it doubles as my wood working shop.

Wife and I are hunkered down for at least two weeks ! Will post again if the phone line stay up and my China diesel genny behaves itself (so far it's running like a champ) PTL

Best Regards,
GGK

Saturday - 8:00 a.m.

Andy's been ribbing me about these journal entries telling me that I'm a "frustrated novelist" which has made me self-conscious so I'll be keeping future entries brief.

We all made it back to Jimmy's by dawn Friday except for Andy and Norm in Speed Gator which spent the night sunk in a swamp in their effort to shake the gunship that was dogging them. Minor damage and Norm had slight wound from tank shell shrapnel.

Word has gotten around of what we're doing and volunteers are starting to come in. This breach of security concerns me that Charley may hear about us too so expect we need to move out before someone comes and shoots up Miz Kate's house.

One of the volunteers claims to have been a Special Forces captain in Vietnam. No way to check his bona fides but John says he sounds like the real deal so we're going to go with him. Of course, he's over fifty years old and is missing a leg but we won't ask him to lead from the front. I was beginning to sweat what to do with all the help that's coming in.

Held a war council and decided that we'd best lay off the convoy ambushes for a while since Charley is surely going to be expecting them everywhere now which means we'd run a very good chance of getting our ass shot off. We are going to continue doing at least preliminary recon of every place we can find that Charley stops at. They've got to fuel, repair and use the john somewheres.

Jimmy thinks the reason Charley is running so much traffic the length of Florida heading for the Mississippi Valley is that he's afraid of making long trips across the Gulf with his shipping. Says he can't decode it but there's a lot more traffic on the Naval frequencies these last few days than there has been prior. I'm taking this as a hopeful sign.

He also reports that the advance up through Georgia has stalled just below Albany. It seems the remnants of the 27th Mechanized out of Ft. Stewart, troops from Ft. Benning(?, the fort in Columbus, Georgia near to the Alabama line), reserve, national guard, "state militia" and volunteers have managed to block them from going further. Of course, so far as we can tell Charley's real effort is along the Mississippi and he still seems to be rolling forward there.

Had a mystery Friday night. Got word of major fireworks about an hour after dark out on the Interstate just north of Santa Fe Community College. Eased out that way in Speed Gator and footed the last three miles till we could find a vantage point that overlooked the area. Charley had all sorts of big wreckers and equipment clearing up a mess. Looked like one tank and four A.P.C.s burned out and better than a dozen trucks? Sure as Hell wasn't us! Maybe we have another partisan group in the area? Local fella said there had been all sorts of shooting going on up and down and helicopter sounds but Charley always runs gunships with his convoys. Whoever it was he sure rained on Charley's parade last night!

........Alan.

We had decided to jump on the 4 lane and beat it home, only 13mi. As we came up on the small (and I mean small) rest area, there had to be 25-30, 18 wheelers there! In the darkness we could see they had formed a protective barrier to the actual picnic area itself and there was a campfire and a definte community meeting area.

As we slowed to a stop, 5 big burley guys came out from behind the rigs. All toting guns and flashlights. Big Burley Guy 1 said, "nothing to interest you here folks, better move along." Mr. Arubi quickly explained who, what and where about us to him. Other burley guys were flashing the lights in the Jeep and keeping the lights right in our faces, blinding us.

Mr. Burley Guy 1 said that they had been convening here as the days had passed and knew thru the CB's there was no other choice. Said they had ample supplies with what they hauled and a couple of the old timers had found water supplies up on the Mt.

We asked if they knew what had happened in the city? He shook his head, only knew 4 people dead and 30-50 sick. Said one of the guys that had climbed up to the tower on the Mt. had heard a guy reporting that he had just left that plant a few hours ago and was headed back to Canada.

The guy on the Mt. also heard from someone coming down Rte 22A from Burlington. The guy said The Queen city was a mess, seems that some luxury yacths coming down Lake Champlain from Canada, landed in Burlington Harbor and Shelburne Harbor and they were full of Ruskies!!!

Big Burley guy said that they were being very cautious but felt they had a definete advantage. Said as any new rigs come in, they're setting them up in the mediam for a week or so to be on the safe side.

Tugged on Hubby's sleeve, "we got to get home". Said goodbye and wished them safety.

Only 6 miles to go.

Not bad, Travis thought, not bad at all. Once they had finally reached his parents home in the forest, things started to get straightened out a bit. It turned out that they had been able to get some intell. from the captured radio, once they found someone that spoke spainish. There were a number of vet.s present that understood military lingo. Between them they had found that the enemy hadn't advanced quite as far as was feared. And the resistance had been fierce. The enemy had paid dearly for the land they had conquered so far.

Near as they could tell the landings had been on the gulf coast near Tampa, Pensicola, and a couple of places further south. The had advanced up I-75 from Tampa and eastward from Pensicola down I-10. Joining forces at the intersection near Tallahasee, they had turned north and advanced into Georgia. There they had gotten aways, but stalled out in the face of American forces, near Albany.

On the Florida front, things were serious, but not hopeless. Invasion forces coming in from the Bahamas had been sunk before reaching shore by missles and bombers from the Space Center, and Jacksonville N.A.S. before Jax was taken out. That left the eastern half of the state still in American hands. However they were trying to push forward from the bases they had already set up on the gulf. And they WERE making progress, but slowly. Unfamiliar with the terrain, and not expecting large parts of the population to fight back, they were suffering losses they did not expect.

On top of that there were a number of vet.s that knew what had to be done, and were already in the process of putting together a resistance force. Tricks from Viet Nam were pulled out, dusted off and taught to newer recruits. Selection and security were the two main concerns. The first patrols sent out had been made up of older men that knew one another for years, and their sons, or other male relatives.

It went well. The first patrols that ran into trouble managed to ambush the enemy before they were seen. Result, captured weapons, vehicles, and supplies that could be used against the invaders. There were also improvised weapons showing up in larger numbers. These proved to be supriseingly effective. Since they were unknown to the enemy, they didn't know what to look for, and the died before they could figure it out. One really effective weapon proved to be explosives disgised to look like firewood. When tossed into the fire by the unsuspecting, the results were most satisfactory. Another was planting explosives that were painted so they blended in with the guard rails on the sides of the road, bridges and other places that were blown by tripwire, or command.

Still, several times a day Travis would get on the cb or one of the captured radios and send the same brief message.

"Taz, this is DL, do you copy?"

So spooky, dark, no other traffic, like we're the only people out here.

Got off at our exit, the 4 corners of our town is just to the left. Town cops and St. Police are blocking the 4-ways. DH pulls to a stop, lights flashed in our eyes, it's Gordon! Our next door neighbor (temp cop and full timer at our work place) he said "Hi guys on your way home?" Mr. Arubi explained to him what had happened. He said he knew all about it, he was called to duty and the city was no place to be. Told us to head straight home and hunker down. He'd have Sarah come over with with any info as they get it and if it's safe to.

Thanked him, 2 miles to go.

Made it, hit the garage door opener, it worked, still had power! Told Hubby to grab the camp shower and clorox. Fill it 3/4 with water from outside faucet and dump in some clorox 'til it smelled strong and go out behind the house under the big apple tree, strip and shower, then I'll do the same. Then go jump in the pool, figured those chemicals would only help, too.

Ran in the pool house and got 2 big towels. Wow, home, how safe are we and for how long? One day at a time, got to let the furry kids out and get lots of hugs and kisses, then we'll go from there.

Friday, day 4


I was dead tired. Working all day and standing watch half the night was wearing me down quick. Fatigue almost cost me dearly! I started to feed the chickens and then the goats when I remembered that I hadn't taken a rad meter reading or called Steven to see what his read. I promptly went back to the house and got the meter out. Oh $hit !!! Ten rads an hour!!!!! I immediately got rid of my clothes and showered in front of the house. I went in and got on the ground line to Steven. He confirmed my worst fears with a reading of 8 rads an hour!!!! We both called around and warned those hooked up to our ground line system. Nine families spread out over 10 square miles of boonies!

Steven was also a Ham and had heard someone claim that the Chinese drove a tractor trailer across the border with a nuke concealed amongst fresh vegtables right into downtown Phoenix and set it off. No missiles, no rockets,no ICBMs, no bombers, just one truck!!!! Out of the 3 million people living in the Valley, maybe 100,000 from the outer areas survived unharmed!!!!

WE hunkered down and prayed alot that day for the winds to shift and piled even more sandbags in front of doors and windows. What were our troops and militia doing? Not good!!!! Apparently the winds didn't bring the radioactive dust our way at first. I'm now hearing via my ham radio, that nukes hit all over southern Kali and not much was left! We are praying that the jet stream either goes way south or north. Whatever!!!!!

The garden was still covered and by feeding the stock every day they still had food and water for 2-3 days. It was still cool up here at 6500 ft. At least I'll be able to sleep tonight, exhaustion and worry will take care of that. What we'll do in three days if the radiation is still there could be a problem. The three grandkids hate being cooped up all day and the adults are only doing a little better. I wanted to go to St. Johns and see what was happening there. No way now!!!!

It was the dry cough from my son's room that pulled me awake. It had been three days since California was nuked. The Pacific NW seemed unscathed except for the silence.

The telephone line is dead, power out. Water ran intermitently. We left a tap open a little to know when it had been turned on again for 20 minutes or so.

But then the coughing began. I stirred Ferrum Phos 200c into a cup of water. The homeopathic remedy would last longer even diluted. I doled a dose to my son, then checked on the rest of the sick children. I don't understand. The adults aren't sick.

We held a neighborhood meeting last night in our living room. Looking around the room at the men and women, I wanted to cry. Only about half were there, 15 men and teens were standing watch over the lone road that entered our area.

ALL the kids are coughing and feverish. It came on within 72 hours. Have we been sprayed with an influenzia virus? With my medical training, I am put in charge of triage and emergency medicine. I have an LPN and two former EMTs to help. Why just the kids?

The South China Sea, noon, local time.

The Captain of the tramp freighter Hai Phong, Chinese registery, watched from the bridge as the two F-14 Tomcats receded into the distance. As expected the carrier had dispatched them to recon his vessel when he came within one hundred nautical miles of the battle group. "All engines stop." he quietly ordered. "Open the missile doors and arm the missiles." A flury of activity ensued below decks as the orders were carried out. Within five minutes his exec reported back, "Sir the Sunburns are hot and ready."

"Lower all life boats and have all the crew except the radar officer and fire control technician abandon ship." He responded. "How far to the carrier now?" he asked the radar technician.

"I make it 83 miles, Captain." he responded. "They aren't going to get any closer."

"Mr. Li, target two missiles on the carrier and one on the guided missile frigate."

A pause, then, " ready sir."

The Captain remianed silent for at least a minute, then wiping perspiration from his forehead he ordered, "Fire".

All three missiles erupted out of the side of the freighter simultaneously. With a deafening roar they accelerated to 4000 mph while holding an altitude of only ten feet over the waves. Within a few seconds they were over the horizon and out of sight. "Ready the second salvo." the Captain said. "Target one missile on the carrier and one on each of the Aegis destroyers."

After a moment. "Ready sir."

"Fire." he replied. Three more 5 kiloton nuclear warheads rocketed away from the freighter. "Gentlemen, you are excused. Please join the rest of the crew in the lifeboats."



The USS Cole, five miles to the West of the Carrier Kennedy.

Petty officer Tommy Brandt stared at the radar screen with his mouth hanging open for at least five seconds before screaming, "Inbound missiles.!!" He hit the battle stations alarm so hard it nearly broke his and cursed as he reached for the microphone. "Kennedy, Kennedy, 3 Missiles inbound, mach 8, sunburn profile. ETA ....30 seconds Jesus Christ!!" The missiles had closed to within fifteen miles of the Carrier before the radar even picked them up because they were flying so low. The ship shuddered as the Phalnyx guns opened up on deck. One missile dissapeared off the screen, only to be replaced by 3 more trailing the first group. Ten seconds later the remaining two missiles of the lead group screamed past the Destroyer faster than a bullet, the sonic boom shaking the ship in their wake. Fifteen seconds after that they detonated.

The superstructure of the Carrier Kennedy was blown completely off , most of the flight deck went with it. The shock wave rolled the ship past horizontal and water flooded in as the shock wave from the second warhead hit. The Kennedy was done for. The second missile had hit the Guided Missile Frigate Arleigh Burke and very nearly completely vaporized her. Both Shock waves combined to hit the Cole just as the guns were engaging the remaing three missiles. She staggered in the water , listing heavily to port, then slowly began to right herself just as the missiles struck.

In the space of one minute 7856 men were killed, 97 aircraft destroyed, twelve ships sunk including the carrier, and the Chinese had not lost a single man in the battle. No one even thought to fire a missile back. And that is why the Russians scrapped their surface navy.

Its day light and I am up. We slept through the better part of the day and all night. Feeling much better and maybe I can begin to cope with the situation. Last night I didn't think I could. We will all feel better for having caught up on the sleep. None of us were even capable of decision making yesterday. Today we will have to do some real brainstorming and make some plans. Guard duty being one of them.
What the hell? Just wound up the SW radio and I am hearing a message from DL asking where I am. Wow! It has to be him, no one else would have a clue as to where we are. At least no one intent on doing us harm. But how can I get back to him? We have no SW transmitter. I have no way of knowing how close he is. He could be just on the other side of the swamp or 40 miles from here. I suspect he is close because otherwise all I get are the screaming Cubans. Going to get CH up and maybe DL has a CB. We have one in each truck and one here in the trailer but its not hooked up to the batteries. Please dear God, let him be close and let us make contact with him without harm to any of us.
CH is out in one of the trucks and I am trying to put some breakfast together for the rest of us. We have plenty of eggs with our chickens and that is another problem we have to discuss today. We have to get them into some kind of pen where they have room and can scratch up some of their own food.
Come on DL...answer the CB. Better be thinking of him and whomever is with him. They too will be hungry. Better put another corn bread on to bake and get a pot of beans going in the bush box. I have several cases of canned ham hocks for beans. Canned 'em up for y2k. Think I will add some rice to the beans to make a change and increase the protein factor. Need to set some TVP to soaking. Will use that for "meat" in spaghetti sauce for for midday. Need to take an hour this afternoon and get into my reference books and get some recipes for survival. I know for tomorrow's breakfast there will be cooked whole wheat and honey. Damn...never thought I would want to go to McDonalds.
Oh thank God.....thank you God. CH just came in and said that DL is just up the way on this side of SR 40. CH is going to hike out to the road and DL and his group will come down the road staying in the tree line. CH will hide out until he sees them. They have set up a signal with CH using his turkey call. Gotta go rouse Bud and Bonnie, going to need some help in the "kitchen". Wonder what kind of shape DL's group is in? One thing they will need for sure is food and rest. We can give them both here as we can all stand guard. Better get busy. And its best I stay busy and keep my mind on today's immediate needs. I still can't cope with tomorrow. Maybe DL will have some good news for us. Just having another body/brain that we can trust is soooooooo meaningful at this time.

Taz

Returning to tick-infested hell...

The deputy had heard there was a group of enemy soldiers holed up in Ellie's best parlor, but the miserable lot of swollen faces before him were unrecogizable as far as ethnicity. He still didn't know who had Finally Nuked California, so he didn't know how to proceed.

Ellie and her sister-in-law had a book of children's songs and nursery rhymes on the table in front of them. They had run through Frere Jacques, O Tannenbaum, and were trying to muddle through Adeste Fidelis. The boys had given no sign of recognition.

"Maybe they're from the U.N." the deputy suggested. "Have you got anything in that book that's got European words in it?"

Ellie sighed. "They're all European words, but I don't know how to pronounce them. And I don't know a word of Chinese other than egg foo young, and I tried that already."

"Maybe they're just too sick right now," said the deputy. "Keep an eye on them and let me know if they start talking."

As he left, the deputy failed to notice helen's mule lurking near Ellie's best parlor window.

...cough... it isn't the flu...

.........reports are..........anthrax...........

two children dead...half the adults coughing now...

....Dave (a neighbor) broke into the Cenex 'borrowed' the Doxycycline....Not enough for full treatment for all.... cough...

.........Need more antibiotics......

...raining today...cough..................

Well, we'll find out soon if that was Tazs' Dear Hubby on the cb.I don't know why He wanted to go all the way up to 40 to meet, but I guess that's convienent for them.

I've got dl jr. on right flank with one of his uncles, Tommy between them and me, with some kid named James to the left and Eli and my other brother on the left flank. They all are listening for that turkey call, but man these packs get heavy in the sun.

Don't know if Taz and co. need the meds from the Cubans, or the extra food we brought, but better safe, ect. I'm sure they can use the radio that the Cubans so generously donated. Have to caution them about radio security though.

Where is the turkey call?

This will be short,don't know how long this link will stay up.Nw.got hit . Hard. Bio release in Portland,Salem, Eugene,Spokane. Seattle does not exist anymore,same with sub base @ Bremmerton.No organization,now, but the people here have, spontaiously,formed extremely efective small tribes/miltia. Attempted chinese landing in Coos bay.....attempted.6000 front line troops wiped out by remains of N.G. troops and deer hunters,nam vets,and pissed-off locals.New twist on suicide-bombers. Men who have "the cough",have a special platoon,hand- deliver welcome to ore . gifts to our vistors

My 'Tribe' is ok. got enough for now ,and we hope the winter.Will post again if I can....snuffy

Where the hell is Chubby Hubby and DL? They were supposed to work their way south on CR 314-A until they heard Hubby's turkey call. Thats only about 4 miles. They should all be back here by now. Maybe they had problems up by SR 40. CH will probably sit in the bushes until dark waiting for them. Have a big pot of spaghetti waiting on all of them, but it will keep until they get here. Bud was getting anxious and starting to pace. But I told him he is not going anywhere. ONe man out of camp at a time now is plenty. Little while ago he took the dog and his 410 and went off through the woods. He promised he would stay in close enough to hear if anything happens in camp. So I guess its really better to have him out on the perimeter. He is woods smart...born and raised just down the road about 10 miles. Hunted and fished this forest all his life. Also did all the surveying of it for the National Forest Service. OTOH he got us all lost in the forest a week or more ago. Its hard...it all looks alike and its all flat. NOt like the forest that CH and I are accustomed to where its all mtns and one has a sense of direction by looking at the mtn peaks. All we can do is sit and wait. Bonnie is taking a nap. Its terribly hard on her. She had a quadruple bipass a couple of years ago and was in a coma for 21 days. She has no stamina. I am sitting here in the heat trying to keep from nodding off in my camp chair. I have my 12 guage laying right next to the chair. Anyone I don't know comes through the camo will get turned into a crowd real quick. Wish the guys would hurry up. Its the fear that takes the greastest toll right now.
Taz

I'm going to try and summarize the past few days, now that we are home. I've switched to the laptop for pretty much all our computer-use, since it has a lower power requirement.

Wednesday:
We leave for Ferriday early, awaiting the "official" lifting of the curfew. No sense in taking chances on a roving Apache putting a Hellfire through the engine-block. We've heard no reports locally about any riots or other nasty business in our area, so I think the kids will be okay while we are gone. The truck is empty, now, awaiting its cargo of chickens and the couple of goats she promised us. We are armed only with pistols - a 9mm and a .22lr - since anything longer would be almost unmanageable. We're hoping to beat the "river push" that looks to be forming up in New Orleans. Hard to imagine the port city fell so quickly - there must have been a fair-sized army of sabateurs in place for months, making their preparations and just waiting their activation calls. Our trip is going to be mostly backroads for quite a ways, so I doubt we'll see much of anything.

afternoon:
We made it to Ferriday in fair shape. Several towns have begun setting up "traffic control" measures - mostly cops sitting at the edges of town, eyeing people as they come in. We told them we were just passing through on our way to my wife's grandmother's house to check on her and they waved us through. We tried again - and were unsuccessful again - to convince Grandma to come back with us. She said Ferriday was her home and that's where she was going to stay. Uncle Jimmy was out of town - probably visiting his kids in Dallas - but when he got back, (DW and I just gave each other "Yeah, right" looks) he'd be able to help her out. In the meantime, she had a lot that needed doing. Sure, she could do it all herself and *would* do so given time, but we could help her get a lot further along if we helped out.

We could hear heavy guns firing over around Natchez and that made us work faster. I wondered if they'd fell the bridge or leave it in place to use later. There's supposed to be a Coastie station with a real-live armed cutter in Natchez...

We ended up leaving late - so late I was afraid we would be out past curfew. We tossed the crate of chickens in the bed of the truck and tied it down, then got the goats in. Grandma also gave us a table-top brooder and some nesting boxes that she wasn't using. She also passed along a couple of rolls of chicken-wire, some more canning jars, and a hand-cranked meat grinder with all its attachments. Bec managed to talk her out of a few heavy crockery bowls that she could use for making her sourdough bread, among other things.

Out on the highway, we raced for home as fast as we could. Several of the police we passed were the same ones who had been on duty earlier and remembered us. Everything was going well, until we got to Sicily Island. The local red-necks had set up a roadblock at the far end of a bridge leading into town and were manning it with a motley assortment of weapons. We stopped on the bridge and waited while a couple of grungy characters ambled out to look us over. They may not have been the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, but they had their fair share of animal cunning. The livestock in the back of the truck was living gold, with the truck and assorted hardware extra coins in the pile. I could see they weren't too inclined to let us pass, no matter what we said. They didn't know us, after all. I don't think Skuzz 1 had yet realized my Ruger was out of its holster and pointed at him, albeit I'd be shooting thru the truck door "from the hip" if he tried anything. After that, who knew?

The boys were starting to get a little overly insistent about us getting out of the truck when DW leaned out the window and yelled at the only female manning the barricade. Turns out they knew each other from high school. Skuzz1 and Skuzz 2 looked more than a little disappointed, but everyone else on the barricade seemed to relax - a lot. Charlotte rode with us through town - such as it was - and her and DW managed to catch up a bit. She promised to be sure all the folks standing guard knew we were "good folks" in case we needed to make another run to Ferriday.

Thanks to the roadblocks, we were a good 45 minutes past curfew before we saw the lights of home. A quick call on the FRS let Caitlyn know it was us coming it. Didn't want a replay of Stonewall Jackson. Donny and Rodney were both outside working in their yards. Looks like a bunch of lawn is about to disappear into garden beds...


Thursday, May 9-

Been online just a little - reporting that we'd successfully made the trip and returned with livestock and checking to see how much worse things had gotten. Then, outside to get stuff squared away. After getting the goats staked out, we got busy on the chicken yard. We dragged the rest of the "dog-run" panels down from Curtis's place and set them up. I decided to go on and use all of them on the chicken run and let the goats live inside the yard with the chickens. We ended up having to clear a good deal more trees and brush, but we ended up with a stockyard 20 feet wide and 40 feet long, fenced 6 feet high by chain-link fence and then wrapped in chicken-wire up about 4 feet. I figure the goats will help discourage snakes, coons, and other chicken predators. We built a coop out of landscape timbers sunk a couple of feet into the ground, wrapped in chicken wire, and topped with roofing tin acquired from Rodney. It needs a "real" door on it, but it'll do for now.

We have a serious problem. Locusts. They are everywhere and are making an eerie warbling noise that drowns out almost eveything else. DW is afraid we'd not hear traffic turning off the pavement and onto the gravel road leading to us. I don't have any brilliant ideas yet - I'll hafta let that one stew for now. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open for them. Everyone here is still going to work and school, almost like normal, so we are short on manpower during the daytime.

I had the guys gather up wooden pallets in town so I'd have some sort of platform to stack stuff on up underneath the trailerhouse. DW is worried about insects, so we sprayed the pallets down with deisel first. Curtis and Rodney claim this will keep the termites off for years. I sure hope it works. We moved all our "storage goods" up underneath the house as far in towards the center as we could and then spread tarps on them. I'm sure we'll be getting rid of things we don't need as time goes on, but for now it is all safe and out of the weather.

Friday, May 10-

More garden-work. Plus, today I got the solar panels mounted and the batteries wired into a battery-bank. YESSSSSS!!!! Boy, I feel like I've really accomplished something with this. Sure, it took me nearly all friggin day, but now, just in case our power goes out, we have a little bit of backup.

And if power goes out...we are fried. Man, Louisiana is hotter than Hades. We had hoped to get the trailer roofed-over, but things fell apart before we could manage it. Now, we just have to hope for shade-trees and maybe use a fan hooked to the inverter and battery-bank. I've got plans for a passive-solar "air mover," but I'm kinda short on building supplies and the cash to buy them.

Saturday, May 11-

No power. Dunno what happened where, but we have no power. We'll keep the house shut up until afternoon, trying to hold out the heat. Then we'll find out if the battery-bank and inverter will handle the "tornado"fan.

Thanks to the winds, outside and up under the trees is the place to be. We've got lots of clearing to be done and the goats have already made a marvelous difference. We stake them out in the areas we want cleared and they nibble away. Awesome.

We've got a little pocket-radio outside tuned to a local station, just in case they had any useful news. Thankfully, they pass on information about our blackout. Seems the invaders have hit several power-plants and the load-demand far exceeds the ability to supply the grid. Technicians are trying to reroute power supplies, but we are definitely in for rolling blackouts. Actually, it's more like we are in for rolling periods of available electricity.

The phones are still up, so I can still get all the rumormill info from TB2K. I just wonder how long they'll stay up, since the electricity is going to be spotty. Everything is interconnected and I know electricity is the lynchpin...but how long do we have?

We unplug the clocks, the tv, the vcr - everything that is useless without electricity and that doesn't count for anything when the power is on. Maybe we can help reduce the load on the system. I set the kids to boxing up all this "non-essential" stuff so we can get it all out of our way. The movies go in a different box - if we get lucky somehow and acquire a 12-v tv, I want to be able to dig them out for the kids...