Clark Story #1

This is the 1st unedited survival story I wrote several years ago – It was posted on another site and if you have read it just disregard it. I will post the next 23 in due time as soon as I retrieve them. As always comments are appreciated. As soon as I post my older stories I will start posting the new ones I have just written.

Clark Story #1


The year was 2004, the economy news he was keeping up with sounded like a spawning of doom. He was 49 years old and single – His wife had died from cancer of the liver and there were no transplants available unless you were in the know or extremely rich – That left him and his woman out in the cold.

His 2 kids were 24 and 26 years old and had graduated from college on scholarships which was the only way they could have afforded to get a college degree. They had mates and lived fairly close to his small farm in the mountains of West Virginia.

He had developed diabetes about 3 years ago and had an extremely difficult time of keeping it under control, mainly due to his food and alcohol consumption. Clark was a fairly big man. 6 foot 2 inches tall – Not a lot of it muscle. He had let himself go for many years after he retired from the military.

Insulin was expensive if you bought it from the local pharmacy – The VA provided him with a monthly supply for 9 dollars a month – He always ran out because he needed more then they were supplying him and the 120 dollars a month he had to come out of pocket for the small amount he needed to get through the month was killing him. He had many consultations with the PA (physician’s assistant) that was his primary doctor at the VA who finally agreed to give him another prescription with an extra bottle to get through the month. He knew he could travel to the military base 225 miles away at Wright Patterson AFB and get it for free – But the cost of the trip just about offset any savings.

He was fortunate to be sent to a local eye doctor by the VA for a check due to his blurred vision. The laser surgery repaired his eyes back to 20 – 20. The burst leaking small capillaries in his eyes had been repaired due to the laser surgery. The eye doctor informed him if he kept his diabetes blood sugar under 140 he wouldn’t have any more trouble. He became a health nut that day. The small pricks in his fingers to monitor his blood sugar hurt after all the fingers had been punched repeatedly. He put up with the pain and kept his sugar under the 140 that he had been instructed to do.

The house that his Dad had built in the early 50’s had a bomb shelter due to the Soviet threat and was now used as basement storage. All the equipment that had been installed in the 50’s was still in working order and there were 12 filters for the hand crank air filter. He had marveled at the stuff his Dad had done and decided to keep the place ready for any emergencies, he even bought 4 new belts from NAPA that fit the air hand cranks and hung them on the handles.

When he moved in with his Dad and Mom after his wife died, he sold his house and had a fair bit of extra money. He bought some prep stuff and began to surf the internet for medicine and antibiotic supplies. He stumbled on a place called alldaychemist.com and purchased a fair amount of antibiotics and a 10 year supply of Humulin which he was on now. He always figured any insulin was better then no insulin. There was a small article that he had read that stated insulin kept at 34 degrees F would maintain its potency for 10+ years – So he rotated his supply out and kept all fresh insulin in a special small AC-DC fridge with temperature control set at 34 degrees. He bought 2 more cheap TV size AC-DC refrigerators as a backup. The price was right in 2004 at 110 bucks a fridge.

The thinking he was going through at the time resulted in him buying a decent sized generator and a 3000 gallon tank of propane to run the gen. He again thought through the problem of keeping his insulin cool and decided on a solar system to augment the generator. That cost several hundred dollars in 2005 for 4 solar panels and four 6 volt golf cart batteries.

The bomb shelter was cleaned up and organized for his reloading equipment and prep supplies. His dad was getting really old now and was 91 and told him he was trying to make it to 100 years old. Sgt Clark didn’t think he was going to make it due to the constant hip pain his Dad was going through and other medical problems he was having.

2008 brought in all kinds of problems – his Dad passed away in Feb and his Mom had all kinds of medical problems resulting in bed sores and it took a massive amount of bedside help to get her through the problems. She was 90 and had some other depressing problems, but her mind was still sharp. He never had any intentions of putting her in a nursing home. But, she kept on insisting because she would at least have people her own age to talk with. He sat on that problem and reminded himself to stay close to the house with her to maintain some continuous conversation. She was still ambulatory but needed help getting in and out of the bathtub for a shower or a long soak. He always wondered why his Dad never put in a shower. But he was second guessing a 93 year old deceased person. Not his business he thought.

Late March or early April he rolled out his black leak through rubber garden sections that totaled out to an 80 X 80 foot garden tarp. The ground had been plowed in late November and a ton or so of cow manure and 10-10-10 fertilizer pellets was plowed in. He had started the plants that needed to be started early in the bomb shelter under hanging 4 foot florescent lamps and they were about a foot tall and ready to be placed in the fertile ground.

His 2 kids came around regularly and helped him with his Mom and just generally did some things he never had time to do – like run the vac or dust and just neat little things in helping him.

He didn’t really need the security guard job 2 or 3 days a week he had, but he felt the activity kept him sane. A new woman would be nice. But he kept his emotions under tight control and told himself God would help him someday on that option.

The elections were finally over and a Maniac was in charge of the White House. It didn’t bother the good Sergeant until the Maniac tried to pass a bill to cut his military retirement check in half and eliminate all retiree military peoples health care. The crazy person in the White House also wanted to raise his taxes to where he would not make a viable living. And what really ticked him off is his puny tax dollars would all be used to support the illegals and the total dead beats who would not work and who screamed for more money for their entitlements. This upset him to no end.

His Mom died late August and that was a really sad day because he missed his daily 2 or 3 hour talks with her. Just 2 months before she had drawn 8000 dollars out of her account and gave it to him for her burial fees. He was flabbergasted but kept his mouth shut. His brother who was an opportunist and a gambler was watching everything he did – He knew that his Dad had amassed several hundred thousand dollars during his life and his brother wanted it all. Sgt Clark was on watch for this deadbeat to do something stupid. Clark had taken his Dad and Mom to a lawyer and had an iron clad will drawn up to insure the crazy brother did not take the property over and sell it off. His Dad wanted to make sure that the bad brother would get 40 percent of the cash in the account to keep him satisfied and just maybe it would be enough to set him straight since there would be no more handouts.

It was cold and snowy late November 2009 when the real brown chunky stuff hit the fan. Clark had just gotten up from working a midnight 12 hour shift. It must have been about 4 pm. There were no lights and everything electrical did not work. The internet was down, the satellite TV did not work, His 2006 VW gas engine would not start, he had a new computer and electronic stuff to get it running in case of EMP. He knew then that brown stuff was rolling downhill quickly.

The farm was 45 miles away from any large city and 4 miles off the main blacktop roads with a cattle grate and a large iron lockable mining iron barred gate. Into the shelter he went. He pulled out a NOAA crank up radio and listened – Nothing. Some rechargeable batteries that had just come from a charger were installed into a cheap radiation detector and turned on. Walking back up the basement stairs he held it in his hand pointing in front of him. The meter flew to the peg. He charged back down the stairs and slammed the door shut hoping he hadn’t been irradiated because of his stupidness.

12 days later he opened the door and pointed the meter out in front of him – it was down to 25% of what it was before. He relocked the door and huddled down to wait another week or more – The NOAA radio had spat out nothing. The small Hallicrafter shortwave tube radio echoed nothing but static. He settled down and watched some movies and checked the temp in his fridge that housed his insulin – 35 degrees running off the solar system and batteries. OK, I am alright for medicine – He looked at his supplies in the 20 X 40 concrete shelter and decided he would be alright for a long while.

Wondering about his 2 kids – Clark finally left the shelter when the radiation detector needle did not move off its stob. The outside didn’t look any different – The sky had sort of an ominous overcast. The grass was still golden and the evergreen trees off in the distance still had that green winter time color.

He brought out the spare computer for the VW and the other electronics that he had purchased many years ago. After squeezing his chunky body up under the dash he got the old computer unplugged and the new one installed. He decided to see if it would start before doing any more maintenance. The engine fired right up. He left it idling and went in out of the cold to use the hand cleaner to remove the small amount of grease and dirt on his hands. He loaded 3 long guns on the passenger seat, a Remington 12 gauge pump, an AR15 223 caliber rifle, and a Remington 30-06 semi automatic with a 20 round magazine. He strapped on a 1911 45 caliber pistol, threw the alice pack in the rear - Checking to see if all the guns were loaded and extra ammunition was within reach he backed down the driveway and proceeded to his oldest child’s residence.

He parked in front of Harold’s house noticing their 2 automobiles were in the driveway. He had a bad feeling about this. Knocking on the front door there was no response. Going around back and down the steps to their storm shelter, he picked up a shovel and began to beat on the shelter door which was made of metal. He could hear some one faintly hollering - Waiting a few minutes, he again beat on the door and heard a faint reply. Must be something wrong in there was the thought that crossed his mind.

The back door of Harold’s house was easy to break open – entering the kitchen he found the tool chest. Cussing a few more minutes when he saw there was a padlock on the entry shelves. He searched the kitchen drawers until he found a ball peen hammer, didn’t take but 2 hits to knock the cheap padlock off. Gathering a larger hammer, some chisels and a pry bar, he headed back to the basement shelter door.

It took about 15 minutes to knock the lock out of the door and another 5 minutes using the pry bar to get the dead bolt out of the lock slot.

Entering the shelter he noticed the smell was really bad from body waste and just all in general a really nasty kind of make you want to puke smell. Harold was laying face down on his bunk and his mate was lying on her back in her bunk. Geesh what a mess he thought.

He approached Harold and noticed half of his head hair was missing and he had soiled himself and the bed. His mate was in the same condition. He left them there and went back upstairs and turned the propane stove on to the hot water tank/heater and walked outside and fired up the generator.

This is going to be a job was the thought that kept going through his mind, dragging Harold up the steps first. He got him to the back door and stripped all his clothes off him and carried him to the shower and left him. He didn’t think the water had heated up yet. Next he did the same to his mate. Laying her on the bathroom floor he put Harold in the shower and rinsed him off and soaped up some of the raw spots on his skin with a wash cloth - Getting Harold clean he drug him to the king size bed and put 4 or 5 towels and a large blanket down – Harold was lifted onto the bed and stretched out in a semi spread eagle position. 4 or 5 pillows were placed under his head/shoulders and a straw from a glass of water was placed in his mouth. Harold drank all the water. Clark left him and did the same for the woman. All of her hair came off in the shower and she had more sores on her body then Harold had.

The house was warm now and he had given them a few cups of instant chicken broth. He left them resting and went back to his house. He needed some anti-biotic and some of those anti radiation KI03 pills. His medical knowledge was limited but common sense here was better then doing nothing. The trip took about 30 minutes.

He checked on them and got them to take a KI03 pill and an antibiotic. Next he cleaned up the shelter – instead of washing that mess up he threw all the sheets, blankets and clothes in their burn barrel. Next he cleaned the bathroom up and settled down to keep a watch on them. All he could do about the sores was put Neosporin on them.

About 10 hours later, Harold asked Clark to take him to the bathroom so he could sit on the stool. This was accomplished and when Harold got back in bed he fell into a deep sleep. A little later the woman woke the napping Clark up and asked for help getting to the bathroom. After she fell asleep Clark lay down beside the bed on some heavy quilts and went to sleep himself. He still had another child to find. That would be his 1st job in the morning.

He fed them some chunky style vegetable soup in the morning and helped them to the bathroom – They could sit up now on the side of the bed but were not ambulatory yet. They were given the medicine and he told them he was going to check on Donna, Harold’s sister. He told them he would be back in a few hours

The trip to Donna and her mates’ house was about 45 minutes on some very curvy roads. During his travels he had not encountered anyone. When he pulled up to Donna’s house he saw a light on in the front room and breathed a huge sigh of relief. That sigh of relief was a little early. Donna and her mate were barely ambulatory and could do nothing but go to the bathroom and drink water. They were too weak and sick from the radiation poisoning to even cook or heat up food. Another geesh slipped out of Clarks’ mouth. He told them they could tell him what happened later.

The decision to transport them to the farm was an easy one to make. He bundled them up in some winter clothes and put them in the back seat of the VW. He then locked their house up and shut the generator and propane off.



Arriving at the farm he cooked them some chunky chicken soup and started them on a regimen of medicine that Harold and his mate were taking. After getting them settled down in a bedroom – He went back to Harold’s house. They were well enough to be helped out to the car. He had his family home again he was thinking.

A week later they were none the worse for wear and they looked kinda cute bald-headed. He told them in a few days they could tell the story of how they got irradiated. He already had a good idea but kept his mouth shut. Another decision was made that day. They would all live at the farm since there was more safety in numbers and the large garden would hopefully supply them with some food the following summer, unless the nuclear winter and nuclear summer theories didn’t do something to jolt that.

The farm was set up for long term survival in that the primary heat source was wood and there were 2 air tight quality stoves to heat the sprawling house. Wood was everywhere just for the taking and there was about 30 cords cut and stacked in the 40 foot long tin covered wood shed. When the propane ran out to run the generator several years from now that would create a problem with electricity. He had a solution to that problem but had not yet implemented it. After the sick ones were well enough they would have to help to insure their long term survival. He had made a small list of things to accomplish in the next several months. Not necessarily in the order listed.

Solar panels
Batteries
Material for greenhouses
Meat animals/chickens/rabbits/cattle/goats
Food for animals
Stock the pond with fish
Transportation/namely diesel and flat bed trucks
More treated fuel and more fuel tanks
Extra sheds for storage
Farm tractors and implements

Harold and Donna had large reserves of long term food at their house and it would eventually be transported to the farm. Their weapons would also have to be brought here. Since Clark had not seen anyone on the roads he assumed their 2 houses would not be ransacked anytime soon.

Several days later the 2 men and Donna had recuperated enough of their strength to retrieve their property. Harold had an older diesel pickup that Clark thought would run. That was the first stop they made and the truck did run. They stopped at several of the closest neighbors to check. The occupants were all dead. Clark noticed the solar array and the large antenna on the back of one of the wealthier resident’s house and noted it in his to be recovered book.

They had found a 20 foot tow along dual wheeled wood sided homemade trailer at one of their stops. It was attached to the pickup. It took the 4 of them 3 days to bring all the supplies and guns from the 2 houses and be packed away. Clark noticed that storage space was rapidly being used up so they decided to relocate several of the neighbors sheds to the farm. That was an easy job. Harold took the 20 foot heavy duty tow along to a mine he had once worked at and drove a diesel forklift up onto the tow along. Clark noted the mine golf size buggies and had Harold drive the forklift back off and found some tow chains. They hooked the tow chains onto the batteries and lifted them into the bed of the pickup. They only took 4 this trip the things were heavy.

They dismantled 6 of the neighbors sheds and used the forklift to put the parts on the tow along. 5 days later in a snowstorm they got the last shed assembled and placed. A 3 day break was called for and everyone recuperated from their strenuous activities. Clark noticed the flab was slowly disappearing from his body and his insulin usage was down by half.

The snow had not stopped for the past 3 days and it looked like they were going to be snow bound. They played board games and cards for a week until a warm spell blew through the mountains and melted most of the 4 foot of snow.

Joe, Donna’s mate, hair was growing back and looked like a tan cue ball with black spikes sticking out of it. Clark always chuckled when he saw it. The 2 girl’s hair was also slowly returning. Clark wondered how much damage had been done to the 4 people’s reproductive organs. He had always wanted little grandkids bugging him to do things. All he could do was say a small prayer for them and hope everything worked out.

There were no communications coming over the airwaves and they were completely in the dark. All Clark’s shortwave radio could pick up was static. They decided to venture out to the wa1mart 32 miles away. They took the tow-along and the VW. When they got to town they saw one man running down a side alley carrying lots of stuff. The Walmart glass doors were broken and they did not see anyone in the vicinity so they went in. The pharmacy door was laying about 10 feet from where it should have been. The rest of the store looked pretty tranquil in a dark sort of way. Their lists were brought out and they began shopping. Clark knew what he wanted – a LeupoldMark 3 or 4 scope because when he had bought his guns he went cheap on the glass. Still kicking himself over that. Everyone had a battle rifle except Clark. Clarks semi auto 30-06 didn’t technically qualify as a battle rifle, but since he had been raised shooting an 06 and he never in his wildest dream after leaving the military even considered getting in a drawn out fire fight. His bolt action gun was a Weatherby Vanguard plastic stocked 26 inch stainless barrel with an older 4X12 Redfield scope. He wanted to replace the 3X9 Bushnell scope on his Remington semi-auto with a Leupold. If he found another good Leupold he would consider replacing the 4X12.

All the guns were gone but the scopes were still in the display cases. He found just what he was looking for. The night vision was still in the case and he said, “why not”. He loaded his buggy. The only ammunition was 5 or 6 550 packs of .22 and 10 or so boxes of 30-06 180 grain Remington. He took all of it. He stopped at the Levi section and loaded 10 pair of gradually smaller waist sizes. He looked again at his list and went back to the sporting goods section where he gathered up 10 trotlines and some of those neat curled hooks, may as well stock up on some fresh monofilament and metal line. Him and his Dad had always been avid fishermen and had tons of fishing gear. His shopping completed, he followed the lights of the others to see if they needed any help. The tow along was full 3 hours later and they headed back to the farm.

Over the next month they acquired most of the things on the short list plus some extra things they picked up here and there along the way. Running a self sustaining farm was hard work and they tried to get every implement that made that work easier. Clark knew now that his insulin would last 20 years due to his getting super healthy. They had picked up enough vitamins to be stored in a freezer that should last them for 40 or more years. The only thing they had not found was a live cow or goat. They had gone to the river and put out minnow traps and carried the minnows to the 1 and a half acre stock pond. Donna and Joe had caught about 16 eight inch or so sized bass and dumped them in the pond which was fed by a small creek from the mountains. Chickens were everywhere and they had used the fork lift to bring several tons of cracked corn to the storage bin. Clark figured mice would soon be a problem but Harold had taken each 100 bag of corn and tied it from an 8X8 inch barn rafter 8 inches from the ground. There were 95 bags hung from 9 rafters out of the walkway. This would feed the chickens for more years then he wanted to think about. Clark told Harold that he would make a bet he would have to put a metal aluminum flashing ring up about 6 feet from the corn to keep the mice from climbing down the rope. They went and picked up 40 galvanized 30 gallon trash cans for other storage things or a busted bag of corn.

Everyone had a specific job – one fed the rabbits – did I mention we picked up 6 tons of rabbit pellets. One fed the chickens – one fed the fish every other day with worms from the rabbit droppings area. Some of these worms went to the chickens – One took care of the garden and everyone would help if there was going to be a crop, too early to tell in April. Everyone rotated on the cooking and clean up chores – But mostly everyone cleaned their own mess and plates up.

Finally in late May some foreign language broadcasts were picked up on the shortwave that they had removed from the wealthy farmer’s house along with the solar panels. He had a nice system, forty 200 watt panels with an elaborate charge system and 26 of those Trojan batteries. That coupled with the 12 mine buggy batteries and they had an abundance of power.

The 30X50 greenhouse was finally constructed in June. It had a passive solar heating system with a large wood/coal burning stove in the middle for bad winters. 3 dump trucks full of coal were brought from the mines where the batteries were found and dumped right by the door.

They had only seen that one man several months ago. Clark wasn’t so sure that he was an only survivor. Where had all the guns disappeared to? Who broke into the pharmacy and stole nothing but narcotics? These questions weighed heavy on his mind in the coming times.

Things at the farm were under control and the garden was slowly progressing. Clark wanted to make a long range recon of the area. He asked who wanted to go. Of course everyone wanted to go. He told them to play rock, scissors and hammer to find out who would go. Donna won.

They drove off the farm at daybreak the next morning in the VW. They went in the opposite direction from Walmart and decided to stay on the black asphalt 2 lane roads and would not venture into any cities unless they were all together. They were exactly 53 miles from the farm according to the trip meter when they saw a toddler sitting by the roadside. Clark told Donna to look sharp this may be a trap. He backed up 75 yards and tooted the horn. The little person just sat and glanced at them – he was playing with something and in his mind did not want to be bothered. A lady came running up from the hollow behind him – she was carrying what looked like a single shot shotgun. She hollowed out “What do you want?” Donna got out and hollowed back that they were checking around the countryside for survivors and if she wanted to talk, fine if not we will be on our way. The lady sat down in the middle of the road and started crying. Donna asked her if it was safe for her to come and sit with her. The lady lay the shotgun down beside her and hollowed back “Yes, Please come here.

Clark just leaned back in the seat with his hand on his 06 and waited for anything. 20 minutes went by before Donna came back and said “Dad I don’t want to be a matchmaker, but this looks like one made in heaven for you.” Clark just stared at his daughter. Donna continued, “This lady is 42 years old and that toddler is her young sisters kid. Everyone including her sister, her husband and her sister’s husband and 3 of the little tot’s siblings are dead. The woman is having a hard time feeding themselves and they almost froze to death last winter in her little storm shelter. She cannot get any machinery running and is at the end of her wits. I invited her to come live with us, we can spoil the little one.” “You did what?” bellowed out Clark. “Ah, come on daddy, at least talk with the lady.” Clark knew he had lost when she called him daddy.

After the long talk the lady whose name was Patty Lou went back to her shelter to gather up her pictures and important papers and some clothes. Donna and Clark went with her. He ended up carrying the little one – The little one fell asleep in his arms and he got kind of misty eyed just thinking about having a little one on the farm.

The trip back was all a question and answer period. Clark did find out that she had heard motorcycles on the road several times. Ah chit he thought a gang. But he couldn’t visualize a city gang out here in the boonies unless they had taken over someone else’s farm and were using them as slave labor. Come on Clark get it together where did you hear that stuff and he remembered the post apocalyptic stories he had read.

Patty Lou was the same size as Brenda, Harold’s mate. They soon had her cleaned up and in serviceable clothing. Clark studied her for a few minutes from where no one could see what he was doing. She had black hair, a fairly large chest, 5 foot 9 or more, 145 pounds of solid body and she was pleasing to the eye. Maybe romance was in the stars again for the retired Sgt.

They ruined the little boy whose name was Jacob in the 1st 24 hours he was there. It would take Clark and 25 belts to ever get the boy to mind anybody. He helped ruin him too.

Things were just too tranquil going into the end of July. Clark had them install some of the ding dong security sensors around the farm. Firing points were set up around the house/farm and people did a bit of practice out to the 600 yard range of the 30 calibers. The 4 night vision monoculars which were a generation 2 were dusted off and security became an important part of their lives. The gate was kept locked with giant master padlocks and a person would need a torch to get thru the ½ inch steel covering plates to cut them. A video camera was set up 20 yards from the gate in a grove of trees and a transmitter running off of a small solar panel and a marine 12 volt battery sent the signal back through 8 short range repeaters 4 miles to the monitor in the farm kitchen. The outdoor camera was a real find at an electronics store – mainly because all the parts to get it running were in the box minus the big battery and solar panel. The repeaters used rechargeable NiCad batteries and there were 32 in the kit and a NiCad/NiMh recharger to charge 16 batteries at a time. After 1st testing it out for a week the batteries ran down quickly and Clark thought about all those little solar lights in yards and wondered if there was a way to hook into them. He had 26 all around the farm on the walkways so at night his dad wouldn’t stumble around and hurt himself. They all still worked many years after he had stuck them in the ground – He remembered he had to change one bad battery in all those years. Hmm he thought I betcha its time to change all of em to get a little more light out of those 4 led’s.

The battery problem was brought up at a family meal and Patty Lou spoke up. I have 3 years of college in electronics and electrical engineering. I was waffling between being an electric or electronics person. Clark almost bit his tongue in 2 pieces when she said that. This lady was looking better everyday he thought.

The next day she removed 8 of the solar lights and hooked the solar panel section into the repeater batteries with no problem. He watched her do it and said to himself – I cudda done that if somebody had shown me how and then he chuckled – Knowledge is where it’s at in this and the past world.

For the past week Clark had been hanging around Patty Lou helping her do some chores. One day she sidled up to him and asked him, “If he would like to court her?” He simply said, “Yes.” She replied with, “Well let’s go a courting.” And the romance began.

The garden was producing enough to keep them busy canning – The midget seedless watermelons were a hit with everyone. Clark counted out 60 more seeds – That ought to last 10 or more years before they become something you dream about. Finally the garden had slowed down enough for everyone to take some time off. Clark got restless and asked his new mate if she wanted to take a look around the countryside. They left the next morning.

29 miles by the trip meter in the 3rd different direction he had taken since the bombs fell. They stopped at a small house on a ridge and walked up to it. They were all nosey and always on the search for anything that would help them. Behind the house down a steep cliff in a huge valley Clark’s heart skipped a beat. There were 3 cows a bull and 2 calves walking around the valley. Patty Lou said, “Oh there is some meat, milk and cheese on the hoof.” Clark said, “Yep”. Now all we have to do is figure out how to get to them and transport them back to our neighbors fenced in farm that has a large barn and enough acreage to feed them during the summer months. They immediately went back to the farm and reported their finding.

Harold and Joe both said it at the same time – the bull is going to be a big problem. They talked about it for a while and Donna came up with a possible solution. Go to the Vet’s office and get one of his tranquilizer guns. “Then what, Patty Lou asked?” Harold said, “I don’t know how feasible it would be, but we can take the diesel fork lift and a few pallet crates and slide the bull up on the tow along, or into one of the caged animal tow alongs.” “Sounds like a plan,” Clark said. “We can refine it after lunch.”

The plan was revised and the solution was to get some tow along straps and tie them around the bull after he was tranquilized and use the fork lift to lift it on a caged carrier. They had to make some more modifications when Harold told them the forklift would tilt over if they tried to lift that much weight without the heavy weights on the back. Joe said, “Why don’t we just pull one of the truck bumpers over the weight carrier on the back of the fork lift and have someone back the caged tow along up to the fork lift and we can drop the bull onto it.”

Three days later the bull was in its own pasture and the 3 cows and 2 calves were on their pasture. They had the rest of the summer to gather up some stored hay on the other farms and transport it to the 2 barns they were using. Clark told all of them at supper that someone was going to have to learn about cows and bulls, because he knew nothing about them except they ate hay. Joe took on that task after a trip to the vets office and the local library. Patty Lou said she knew a little bit about goats because she had one as a pet many years ago. So Patty Lou and Joe became the soon to be experts on cattle.

End of August/early September another scavenging trip was planned to round up some things they had not thought about – snow shoes, snow mobiles, skis, clothes for the toddler and some pregnancy test kits.. The 2 couples were speculating heavy their reproductive organs had not been damaged. The ladies still had a regular menstrual flow and the men were just as ready for sex as they could be.

The farm looked like a parking lot for a large truck stop. 8 10,000 gallon propane tanks, 6 10,000 gallon diesel tanks, 7 10,000 gallon gasoline tanks and numerous new pick-ups and automobiles were parked in a neat parking lot fashion. They were fortunate in that they found enough Stabil, Pri-G and D product to stabilize all the fuel. A spare new propane generator was placed in the barn and many more dry batteries were accumulated with the battery acid in case any of the solar batteries failed. They had went back to the mines and brought 4 of the newer mine buggies that still had the battery in it to the farm for transportation. A 4 rack solar panel was installed over the open sided garage they were stored in to keep the batteries charged. They had lots of Stuff as Donna called their supplies.

Wondering how many people were left alive in the US, Clark and Harold began talking with the few ham operators that would talk with them. It sounded like the world was just about empty of humans. The radiation had been horrendous and if you were not sheltered anywhere in the world for the 1st 10 to 14 days, you did not survive. Harold, Donna, Joe, and Brenda had been irradiated before they got into their shelter and were lucky enough the dosage they received did not kill them outright. Clark’s administration of the KI product and the anti biotic kept them from developing a major infection and killing them. The North Pole and the South Pole camps had also received several multi burst nuclear warheads, Russia and china had many more then the US thought and they used all of them as did the USA. Russia made absolutely sure the Middle East Muslims would get to see their 72 virgins early. China hit Australia, USA, India, Japan and Pakistan with a vengeance. The US targeted North Korea, Viet Nam, China, Russia, Cuba and all the outlying islands off both countries coast where they had set up military operations, and those South American countries that were hostile to US interest. The gamma radiation from all those air bursts took out the rest of the world. Due to the US bases on the southern border, Mexico was all but neutered. Even Canada with all its vastness and empty land was struck with no less then 18 multiple war heads effectively killing just about all the population. Alaska did not survive the 24 Russian multiple warheads or the 31 multiple warheads from China.

Well, Clark thought there are a lot of survivors if they were near a shelter. He was wrong, 99% of the world population was dead and it would be hundreds of years before anything resembling a modern society would once again be in place on the American continent.

The 7 survivors went about their daily lives working the land and living a decent life. There were 7 children, 4 girls and 3 boys, born in the next 4 years to Donna and Brenda. Clark and Patty Lou raised little Jacob until he became a fine young man.

The end

Thank you so much for posting these stories, scrachline! It's really nice to be able to go back to the beginning of them and read them again from day one! I'm sure we also have readers who have never read them and will appreciate them!

Oh, and as far as I know the editing is a problem because the software only allows you a few hours (not sure exactly how long) to go back and edit. I'll see if there's any way to change it for our authors. If not, as an admin, I can edit so would be able to do it for you if needed.

Scratchline

Glad to see you over here -- I am one of many who got banned from the tree - seems the head squirrel just does not appreciate how much survival info can be learned from the stories. Plus sometimes we just need to escape from all the doom and gloom.

I am enjoying re-reading the Clark Stories and since this is an open style Stories Forum AND open to the public, the Sci Fi Clark story is more than welcome here, if you haven't already posted it.

Since no new members are being allowed in Patriot Fiction, you might want to let the other authors know about this as a home base. Deena in Ga can give you the particulars on how to contact her to get membership, since only members can post.

As for editing, you have 24 hours after the initial post to edit then you have to whine and whimper and cry <G> to get a Mod to do the editing. That is the reason so many of my posts read like they were typed by a third grader with broken fingers --- that's my story and I'm sticking to it -- the old members here are now snorting soda out their noses as they know I am the TB2K Queen of Typos.

Welcome, again,
DustMusher

Thanks for posting your stories on Timebomb. I am also a cast-off from FS. I am enjoying re-reading your stories and look forward to more of them. I don't understand what the head of FS is thinking, but I think he's being totally unreasonable.

Carly

scratchline,

I've enjoyed your work. Post the rest of your stories will ya please?


Cat

scrachline,
Good to see you stories again. I'm not sure if I've reead this one and as always I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reading more of your stuff when it gets posted.
alangator

I had read some of the Clark stories, but never the first one. Thanks for posting it here!