Clark Story #1

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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.