A start of a new life.

As I stepped out into the bright sunshine, I had to raise my hand up infront of my face to see...
It was a cold sunny day in mid December, with a slight breese blowing across my face.

I reached down and grabbed my cup of coffee from the patio table. As I stood there taking a drink, I could hear the hand crank radio in the background telling of a failed economy and people fighting throughout the world.
I walked back into the house and turned it off, for it was a disruption to the beauty that I was able to see outside.
As I walked back outside I took out a cigarette and started to smoke, I was thinking about the days before and a time when I was around those that I loved. I was stuck here because of a woman that I had loved and had a great job...when jobs were not easily found.

I finished my coffee and stood on the back patio stairing at the mountains, they are a beautiful sight.
About that time I hear a church bell ringing, playing amazing grace...it sends chills down my spine.
Over the last few months or so, life had been changed here. The economy was in a down turn and the factories were laying off people left and right. I was lucky enough to not have to worry about job security.
Hundreds of people are now without work and searching for something, anything to help them get by.

Then a few weeks later we had several days of rain, that caused the creek and river beds to rise...they kept rising and rising until they over flowed there banks and just kept rising. The majority of the people in the area were evacuating, moving, and many said they would shelter in place..those poor people...maybe they were the smart ones, looking back at what was to be our future.

Today I was going to finish my final preparations for my long trip ahead of me. See over the last several months we have had a multitude of things go wrong and now, its to a point, well that I never thought it would be.
It all started in late june, when we didn't recieve any rain for months, then when we did..in early september, it didn't stop and everything flooded. It was so bad that it washed out entire graveyards and spills the bodies throughout the entire area. Thats when the sickness started. The water rose so high it washed away homes, factories on the river along with chemical manufacturing plants. The water wasn't safe to drink and we were isolated from the rest of the world by the surrounding mountains.
A state of emergency was called for the area and the National Guard was sent in, along with FEMA. The people welcomed them in with open arms, on the otherside of the river and a few towns down stream. At the time it was a good thing.
We had lost power and now had to boil water before drinking it, due to the chemicals in the water... I am glad that I had stocked cases of bottled water, to share with my old neighbor. I wish we could go back to those days again. While our little town was being flooded, the entire east and west coasts recieved a major suprise.

It is unclear of who all was involved but best we could tell is that, Iran, Pakistan and Russia teamed up and hit the east coast and Isreal with everything they had. On the west coast, China and North Korea unleashed hell and with the bombs they dropped, it made Nevada ocean front property. They say that it caused a major earthquake on the west coast from South America to Alaska. That caused the western sea coast to slip/ sink into the Pacific ocean. Millions of people died that day.
It has been quiet now for several weeks and the waters have gone down enough to be able to get around.
The town has held together quite well, all things considered. There was just this gut feeling I had, that was telling me to go...

I have been an outdoor kinda guy, my whole life. I grew up out in the corn fields of this great nation and had joined the military right out of high school. Once I finally got out, I could see that there were going to be big problems in the future with the actions that were going on around the world, over the last several years...luckily I was able to get about all that I wanted and needed. I purchased things for hunting, fishing, and camping.

Over the last few hours I had been staging my gear, double checking to make sure that I wasn't forgeting anything. I had my guns and some ammo, that will be on me and next to me in the cab. I placed 2 of my bags up there with me...incase I had to abandom the truck and everything in it, I just needed the 2 bags to go...I could get by on just what is in them, if I had to.
I had finished just in time to be able to relax a bit, before start my journey.
The truck was fueled up, I had several extra gas cans full of fuel, my bags were set and ready to be loaded, and my rubbermaid bins were filled with food and sealed with all kinds of extra's that I thought I might need.
The days were getting shorter because of winter, so I should be able to catch a nap before I head out...I layed down on the couch and drifted off to sleep.

I was dreaming of the woman that I loved, when all of a sudden I heard this pounding on my door...I jumped up and pulled out my pistol..a 1911 .45. As I made my way to the door, I heard my neighbor saying "hey get out here, There is something going on"...I looked out the window and saw a group of people down the street, about 3 blocks away...so I slowly opened the front door and saw John standing there...he was crouching down and kinda tring to hide in the doorway...so I let him in.
John was rambling on and on about people starting to riot and that martial law was now going in effect....I asked him what in the hell is he talking about, and he said that since the roads opened up the National Guard and FEMA have set up road blocks to keep us here. The reason that they are doing it, is because of the chemicals, to keep the contamination isolated to just here...they are doing it with every town within 20 miles of the river.

John paused for a second and looked at my living room, and then said...you know its better if you travel with 2-4 people....that way you always have someone watching your back...I could see where this was going and said yeah I know...but I am not really sure where I am going yet(I was lieing)...John then said look man, I have my stuff packed and staged...I am ready to go...actually I have Mike and Bill there now too. We are just waiting till dark and then heading out...
After talking for a few minutes longer, I desided that if we all left together, it would be safer. He said he would give me a hand loading the truck and I can park it in his machine shed over at his shop... with Mike and Bill's vehicles...so we got everything loaded from the living room to my truck that was parked out back behind the house.. the truck is now loaded will all my food and outdoor equipment for camping, hunting and fishing...and we rode over to his house through the back alley, away from the crowd down the street.
Now, John was a welder and had a big shop out on the edge of town, close to a creek that almost flooded his shop. He was about 200 yards away from the bridge that I was going to be going over anyway on my way out of town and this could give me a chance to check things out a little better for myself.

I pulled the truck into the machine shed and John quickly closed the door. Inside the shed there were several other vehicles loaded with all kinds of supplies. There was even an RV with a jeep hooked up with a tow bar.
Off to the right side inside of the shed Bill came walking around the side of the RV. We worked together on the same shift for about 4 years...he looked at me and said.."see John, I told you he has his # together" he stuck out his hand and said that he was glad that I desided to come along.
Mike was out behind the shed watching to see if anyone was headed our way..I knew Mike from when I was in the military, he got out and got into contract work. We would go shooting together whenever he was around, out at his range on occasion.
John headed over to the house and had several women and children come out...they all had there back packs on and everyone from about the age of 12 on up was armed. I was kinda suprised at that sight...
They all came into the machine shed and wow we had a crew ...there was John and his wife, Bill with his wife and 3 kids...2 of them early teens and 1 that looks about 6. Mike had his live in girl friend with him along with his to boys they are 8 and 10....and then there was me.
We all introduced ourselves to the females and children...then we started talking about the plan to get out of the area. Mike went to a small window to watch for anyone out and about and was talking to himself...which was normal...as long as he didn't answer himself...lol.
The women asked if we had been listening to the radio in the last hour. John said no...why whats the damn thing saying now? What his wife said sent goose bumps down all our spins...
The NOAA radio said that the US military was enforcing Martial Law, due to the enemy troops on the ground..they listed the areas and it was basically everywhere in the eastern time zone... and martial law was so that only enemy troops would be out and about, thus could be shot on sight...This gave us all a huge pucker factor, with us planning to leave tonight.
It was about 4pm and starting to get darker out...Mike came over and asked me what all I was bringing with me in the truck...I asked why it mattered, he went on to say that we needed to make sure we had plenty of fuel for all the vehicles and some gardening tools and seeds for planting, because it might be a long time before we come back...if we ever do.
I realized that he was just checking to see how prepared I was, it was something we had never talked about before.
I then asked Bill and John what all they had and were taking... I told them what was in my truck, we desided to move some things around alittle. We put first aid kits in the front seats and weapons with clips loaded with ammo in the sides of the door, for easy access, a few bottles of water within arms reach, that way it was more evenly loaded throughout the vehicles...that did make sence to me, I even put a few cases of mre's and rubbermaid bins in the RV for safe keeping.
John handed 5 gallon cans of gas to me, there were 5 total, for me to carry in the bed of the truck.
We all talked for a few minutes and had a load plan and vehicle order set, then the guys said to get your gear on..I was thinking why at first, but then I realized that we will be fighting anyone we see...not just enemy troops, since they enacted martial law....and if we needed to get out of the vehicles, we need to be properly equiped to defend ourselves to include being armed at all times now.
We all loaded into the vehicles and started out as the sun was setting. All the drivers had night vision head gear on and all our lights were duct taped by the kids....even they had jobs to do.
As we pulled out of the shed, John closed the door once we all were out and climbed into the suburban and took his spot as lead vehicle..we were on our way.
About a mile down the road we turned off and headed up an old log road that took us to the other side of the mountain...it was a narrow road and branches scrapped the sides of all the vehicles as we went along.
We circled around in an open area once we hit the other side and did a quick check of the gear tied down in the back of the vehicles, the kids checked the duct taped head lights...its a good thing they did, because the left front of the RV had had the tape ripped off from the branches on the log road...it was a quick fix and we were back on our way.
As we slowly eased down the back side of the mountain we could see the lights from check points in the road off to the right side of us...about 5-6 miles away. John pointed it out as lead vehicle via the hand held radios in the cabs...I am glad he gave me one of them to use.
It took about an hour to get where we were and turn down a gravel road...now we were moving good.
John sped up to scout out the road ahead, as we let him get a good 1/4 to 1/2 mile ahead of us...I noticed a huge explosion behind us..it looked to be back in town...on the otherside of the mountain.

All of the other vehicles had seen the explosion to. We have no idea what caused it or who had done it, we were just glad that we weren't there now.
The gravel road we were on was wider than the log roads we just turned off of, but they were not as wide as a regular road. We continued on our planned route, heading to a piece of land that John owned out west.
As we traveled down the road, the wash boards rattled the trucks and made for a bumpy ride. We continued on into the night, taking mainly back roads and a couple of times, we even cut through a few fields to avoid as many paved roads as we could.
John was in the lead still, and he said earlier that he had reconed the route several times over the years...I guess he did. Everytime I thought that he was crazy for turning into a field and running through irrigation ditches, we always ended up back out on a gravel road, and generally headed the same direction...due west.
It was about 5am when he pulled into this heavily wooded area and stopped his vehicle. The rest of us were still about a half mile away...as we caught up to John, we could see it was a small open area, big enough for all the vehicles and yet we had big trees all around for good cover. This is where we were going to hold up for the day, and wait for night fall.
We all got out and stretched our legs...and started to look at what we had to do, to help hide the vehicles.
Bill sent his kids back the way we just came, with rakes to hide the vehicle tracks and the 3 ladies got out some burlap and camo netting to hang from the trees to help hide the RV.
Mike said to get some chow because we were going to be on 50% us men...until we took off tonight.
The women had a crock pot with a roast in it...it was started before we even pulled out of the machine shed. These guys really had a good plan.
We all ate our fill and Mike and I took the first watch...as the women and kids started to eat. We were out about 100 yards from the circled vehicles...on opposite ends. This worked out great, because while we ate, the work that the kids and women did, allowed us to relax for a few minutes and then when they came toeat, we were done and could set up camp security for them to relax and sleep.
It was about 10 am when I heard Bill walk up to relieve me. He said the girls were monitoring the short wave radio in shifts right along with us, except for they were in the RV. The ladies set up 2 cots for us to use and that they would wake me, when it was my turn again. Bill and I had talked some before about what if and what would you do...type of things, while at work over the years, but we never really said what all we did or didn't have...looking back on the conversations we had, I see that he was looking for others to assist or join him, when or if something like this happened. I am glad he was good friends with John and thought of me for this.
I headed over to the cot and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. It had been a long couple of days, getting things ready to go, and with the stress of everything..It was nice to get a few hours of shut eye.
I woke up at about 2pm, to the smell of fresh hot coffee, the ladies were really on top of there game, with doing all these little extras, wow... it wasn't like I was imagining bugging out would be like at all.
Mike was up and gone a few minutes early, and had told his girl friend to have me wait and talk to John before I went back out on watch...so I had a 2nd cup of coffee and waited.
About 5 minutes later John came up to me and said that the route was going to change alittle. He asked if I had a problem with another person riding with me once we got out of here tonight. I had noproblem with that, I asked him who it was. He told me it was his sister, she is a nurse, and we are taking a detour because of where we are picking her up. The plan was to have her meet him a mile outside of a town, about 30 minutes from where we were currently at. However, due to the martial law being in effect, he didn't wanna get that close to town. His wife had got ahold of her via the short wave radio and she knows where to be. I told him that I had no problems with his sister riding with me...and that it would be good to have an extra set of eyes in the truck.
I went out to take over the watch for Bill.
I asked Bill if he knew about John's sister, and he just smiled and said, yeah....she is a nice lady. Why are you asking about her? I then told him what John had asked me..again, Bill just smiled and said hey, you'll like her she's a nice lady.
Bill walked away smiling bigger than he normally does, so that got me thinking, about this sister of John's. I was thinking about her in the back of my mind now...because of Bill. I figured she would be some 300lb moon pig that talked like a trucker and could make a sailor blush...so I prepared for the worst.
Bill came up to get me and said we are leaving soon, so I could come back down to the vehicles.

I turned to walk back over to join everyone else and said, hey I need a few minutes to fill up my truck with fuel. Bill said don't worry about it...my kids need things to do to...besides, I already had them fill it up for you.
He was right, they did. One of them was covering up a hole in the ground with a shovel and raking the dirt, while another started throwing leaves and twiggs on it.
I looked at Bill and John laughing. I said what? I was informed that they had set up a few places with fuel over the last 3 years...because of a conversation Bill and I had at work...I never thought that that would really work, but in theory, it seemed like a good idea...and man, it was. Bill said that he talked to John about it, about a week after I mentioned hiding things along the way...and this is what they came up with...They really thought this through.
We all loaded up and started out down through the field and back down to a gravel road. The night air felt a little chilly, but was still a nice crisp breese. After about 45 minutes we turned into a field and headed for the tree line about a 1/2 mile away. John stopped and got out of his vehicle and said to look for a light in the woods, it would be his sister. It only took about 30 seconds and we spotted a couple quick flashes of light from the tree line ahead. John went over and was talking to her as a few kids and ladies grabbed 4 bags and put them into the RV and 1 into the cab of my truck.
As John walked over I could see what looked to be a little kid with him, as it turned out, it was his sister. She was maybe 5ft tall and about 100lbs soaking wet. John introduced us and she climbed into the truck and we got on our way.
We headed out of the field and back to the gravel road, she started talking to me, making small talk. It was nice to not be riding alone anymore. We got back on our original route of travel and had smooth sailing through the night.
We came to an area at about 5:30am when John came to a stop in the trees and said, this would be our last stop before we would get to where we were going....later that night.
It was just like before, with the kids and rakes, food was ready and so it was like clock work again. This time Bill went out first and I was able to rack out.
I was woken up to a very cute little red head that handed me a cup of coffee. It was John's sister. It had been dark and we were running blacked out all night, so I never got to actually see her face. She just smiled and said she hoped she hadn't talked my ear off last night.
I smiled and said nope they are both still there.
Then I got up, finished my coffee and went to take over for Bill.
Bill was all smiles when I got to him. I asked what was so funny, he said you remember when I asked you about 2 years ago, to go on a blind date with my wifes best friend from high school? I thought for a second and said yeah...why?
Well what do you think? I couldn't believe that he would try to play match maker in a time like this.
I told him he was full of it and that John wouldn't approve and she wouldn't go for a guy like me anyway, I told Bill to get the hell out of here and get some rest....he laughed.
About an hour later I got a visit from John's sister, Wendy. She brought me a cup of coffee and said that Bill had been telling her about me, for about 2 years and she's glad we finally met.
I had seen that she was an attractive woman, and she was thin, but when she turned to head back to the vehicles, it was the first time I was able to see her in the sunlight. She was very well put together.
Bill came to relieve me about 2 hours later and messed with me alitttle about Wendy, I just kinda laughed and he said, how do you think that I got hooked up with John? My wife and his sister have been best friends for over 20 years...Wendy left the town for a nursing job and got married to her high school sweet heart..my brother...he was died about 12 years ago...you didn''t know that...did ya?
I told Bill "no" I didn't know that...Bill never told me about his brother, I never knew, because I didn't grow up in the area and he never talked about it to me before.
He told me that I reminded him a lot of his brother and Wendy had said the same thing to him earlier in the day.
I just kinda smiled and shrugged my shoulders and said, I am just me....then I headed back to the vehicles for a little more rest.
Once again the kids were busy doing a lot of the little things that make our trip go so much smoother, like fueling the vehicles, checking the duct tape on the lights, and covering any tracks to show we were there...they were good, smart kids.
I woke up to the sound of vehicles in the distance, everyone was moving quickly and quietly around packing things up for our departure. I asked if they heard them, and Mike said it was a convoy, that was headed down the road, and Bill has spotted them.
I grabbed my gear, threw it on and took off with my rifle to check out who it was.

Bill was kneeling down behind a tree when I got up by him. He said that we haven't been spotted and they appear to be headed in a different direction than us. The problem was, that they were coming from where we were going.
John came over to us and wanted to see what were up against as far as vehicles and who it was that we were going to be avoiding.
They continued on past us and stopped a few miles down the road. John ran back to the group and said to keep the camo netting up and to add a few branches more around the trucks...so the kids got right on it.
We watched the convoy for about an hour and they didn't move. We talked about getting out of there, but didn't want to take that chance, so we just stayed put for the time being.
We were a good 150 to 200 yards into the woods with the vehicles and had good overhead and all around cover, so we desided to just stick it out for the night. That wasn't a problem except for it was starting to snow and the temp was about 25. We couldn't build a fire because it was getting dark and the smell of smoke could give us away...so we used a jet fuel stove in the RV with the roof vent cracked to make coffee and hot chocolate to help stay warm. There were 8 adults, so we had the ladies join us on watch tonight, 2 men and 2 women up at all times. We had hand held radios to talk back and forth, and we used them to wake our relief, when our watch was up, but none of us slept.
It was about 3 am when we heard the first aircraft. It came in fast and fired at the convoy. The explosion was seen and then heard a few seconds later. We all were watching as the second wave came in and repeated the same thing. John was on the side of the hill under a big blue spruce tree about 20 feet away from me. He said that we might not be safe at his retreat, because its only a 3-4 hour ride from here. he asked me if I had a place that I was headed to and I told him, yeah...to join up with my family out farther west. He asked where exactly and if we needed to could they all go there if his place wasn't any good.
I told him yeah, you all can come, but its not my choice who gets to stay, because it wasn't my farm....but I know that you can hold up there for awhile...that I knew for sure, since you all have done all you have for me, the family wouldn't even think twice about helping you however they can...I just wasn't sure about how long that you all could stay there.
He told me good enough, and we watched for about another hour as the fires burned in the distance.
We were relieved and headed back to the RV to look at a map and get a new route for our new destination.
As we looked at the map, he showed me where he was headed again, and we looked at were my parents were from there...we figured 6-7 hours from his place...that means a full night of travel again.
The snow kept falling and the wind picked up a little, but all in all for mid december, it wasn't bad weather.
As the sun started to rise, we could see that there was nothing moving around the burnt up convoy. We all were talking while trading spots with each other, so we could inform the others of what the new plan was...and see if everyone was onboard.
The kids were busy making a snowman with the fresh 3 inches of snow, it kept them busy, and it was done in the center of our circled vehicles...so they didn't leave tracks all over our outer area....they are all good kids.
Everyone agreed that, if John thought his place wasn't safe...then we should try to go to mine and see what happens, and go from there. They all knew they didn't have a whole lotta choices if John's farm was to dangerous.
We waited out the day with small chit chat and lots of security watching for anything. I was about to curl up in my bag when Wendy came over and sat next to me. She was tired, scared and just kinda felt alone, like me. She even mentioned that everyone had someone...except me and her. I said yeah, it sucks, but hey we are here together now. I just wanna live through this and get to where I can feel semi normal again...like that will ever happen. She agreed and layed her head on my shoulder as we sat there looking at the circled vehicles with a snowman in the middle.
We must of been exausted, because when I woke up she was snuggled up next to me, and our arms were holding eachother...I was actually suprised that I slept that way. I hadn't had someone to hold in a long time...let alone sleep that way...I did actually feel very well rested.
John came walking up and said, get your butts up, we stood your watch because you both looked comfortable, and we need you fresh for the drive tonight, I think we are heading out ...provided we don't have any crap like yesterday happen again before we go. I had the ladies pull security so we could get some sleep too...all of the guys need to be ready for a long night tonight.
We got up and got around, packed the few things back into the vehicles and got ready to go...

The vehicles were up and running as everyone started to come into camp. The sun set about 30 minutes ago and we were all anxious to leave.
We sent out John first again to kinda scout out the area ahead of us, and as he was making his way down to the road, we all fell in behind him. He hit the road and put some distance between us. Wendy was sitting next to me talking and telling me about her former life, what her dreams use to be and how she had always thought that nothing like this could ever happen here. It was a great conversation that we were having.
I had added in bits and pieces about me and my life, when she would ask. It was just nice to be able to spend time with her....she made me smile, and I hadn't done that in a long time.
We were driving for about an hour when, we saw what looked like town lights...lighting up the sky.
There were no big towns or cities anywhere around though, so we knew something was wrong.
John pulled over and stopped, he told us to come upto him. When we got there, he said that this is all wrong, we had to find another way...something wasn't right.
About that time we had saw several explosions, about 3 miles ahead of us. We all knew that this wasn't going to be good.
We turned around and headed back down the road a little faster than usual, and turned down a road about 3 miles farther back. We continued down the road for about 5 miles and came across a interstate overpass.
We had been talking on the radio's back and forth while tring to find a new route, and desided to skirt the interstate about a mile or 2 to its side, provided we had a road to travel on.
We went under the overpass and kept going till we came to the first road and turned to skirt the interstate, we all knew that we a big chance to take, but we were running out of choices fast.
The road was paved and about 2 miles up went onto the interstate, so we kept going, wanting to get out of there as fast as we could.
The snow was slowing us down and there were no tracks on the road ahead of us, so we kept pressing on...sticking to the interstate to get some distance between us and the explosions.
We got to interstate 680 east of Omaha before 3am.
I called John on the radio and told him that i was able to take the lead from him. We were already about 2 hours west of were his farm was since we stayed on the interstate. I drove up around the others and took the lead. John went back to my old spot, to keep the others in the same order.
We turned off 680 and headed north. using gravel roads again. I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when we did that.
We headed towards Souix City but wanted to avoid the towns, so we did some zig zagging around and managed to stay to the back roads. The biggest thing I was worried about, was crossing the Missouri River. We had managed to get across every other river with bridges around real small towns. This was the largest city we had dared go by. I knew once we crossed the river we would be home free, since I knew the back roads and there was no other major bodies of water to cross after that.
At about 4:45am we got just south of town and only had about 5 mile to go, when we started to see tire tracks on the road. They were from larger trucks, because there were duel wheel marks thrrough the snow. Was it military, farmers with grain trucks? We didn't know.
We were talking on the radio's and desided to make a run for the bridge...and to just get across to the other side.
I noticed a railroad bridge going across that was still standing and quickly turned onto it.
As I drove across the river on the railroad bridge, I felt like me insides were getting shook out of me. I looked upstream to the bridge that I had used many times and saw vehicles all along the east side of the bridge.
About that time Wendy asked if that was a tank setting there by the edge of the river. It was, and it was turning towards us.
I stepped on the gas and got off the bridge, I watched the other vehicles slowly do the same, it was like watching everything in slow motion. Right as Mike exited the bridge, the tank fired a shot and hit the center of the bridge, ir was behind all the vehicles but destroyed the bridge, making it impossible to use again.
The radio was going crazy, with everyone checking to see if everyone was ok...we all put the peddles to the floor and finally everyone was across the river and off the bridge.
I think the main thing that saved us was the fact that the kids had covered up all the lights and so nobody knew we were there until we were already gone.
We stayed on the gas for about 30 minutes, but it seemed like forever. I was tired, stressed, exausted and yet I found a new burst of energy, for I was almost home. Wendy could see that I was anxious and I was telling her what was up ahead of us, tring to describe what home was like.
The sun was coming up as I pulled into the driveway, it was about a 1/2 mile long..which led to the house, when all of a sudden gunshots rang out

Please tell me you are going to post the rest of this short story soon. You had me hooked from the first sentence! Plllleeeeaaase, finish it soon!

reply to post by lokin


I will continue this story soon..that is if you all want me to.

reply to post by saltdog


please do! and if you could, please im me and let me know when you do. how long do you think it will be? hmmm? maybe tomorrow? kidding, but seriously, please finish it!

It was my family shooting at us...I hit the horn and yelled out the window to them.
They kept there guns up and on us till they could see it was me.
I yelled all the way up the drive way ...don't shoot, don't shoot its me...I am your son...thank god dad wasn't shooting like he use to when I was growing up...or we all would be in trouble.
I had a different vehicle now, one they had never seen, so they didn't know it was there son coming home.
Mom heard me yelling and told them that she thought it was me yelling at them...so don't shoot anyone yet.
Once our hearts slowed back down to a normal pace, we all got out of our vehicles and I introduced my family to my friends.
We pulled the vehicles into a pole barn and then went into the house to relax and find out whats going on.
Dad and mom were so happy I was home again, since they hardly ever see me..maybe once every few years, that was the norm since I left for the Corps right out of high school....many years ago.
Everyone was eager to hear of our travels and news from the east.
We all sat down and started telling our versions of the trip here and of a few funny things that had happend in various vehicles with each other, while traveling here.
Dad said that enemy forces were all throughout the east coast and down south in texas.
He wasn't sure if I was safe or if I was headed back home...he told mom the other day, that he expected me to be rolling up any day, provided I wasn't at some camp...then he laughed, cuz we had talked about what we would do if something like this ever happened.
All the kids were in the kitchen with my sister, nieces and nephews making bread, cookies and cakes for us to eat.
Wendy was sitting quietly next to me and just tring to take all of this in, when my mother asked if she was my girl friend...before I could answer, she said well we aren't sure yet, but I am working on it....Bill about died laughing, John's jaw hit the ground and I about fell out of my chair...
Wendy just smiled and started chatting with my mom, without even missing a beat....
We were all exausted and I asked if we could get some sleep. Dad said sure but wanted to talk to me first.
Dad and I went out for a smoke and he started asking about the others with me, I told him how I knew them and that they were good to go..and of there situation...he just couldn't believe I was home again...he gave me a hug, then started to tell of all the things happening around the quiet little town.
I guess it was the natioal guard that was manning the tanks at the Missouri River...he said.
Its been real quiet around here except for all the military aircraft last week that flew over.
The people from East and West coasts haven't really headed in there direction, since they are in the middle of nowhere....seems most stayed to southern warmer routes. They were all happy about that.
It was about 10am when I finally got to lay down and get some sleep...it had been a long time since I slept in this old bed...it sure felt great to be home again.
Wendy came into the room to wake me at about 3pm. She said that my dad wanted all the men to get up and come with him.
Bill, Mike, John and I all got into the tahoe and dad drove down through the farm. He started telling us where to get water from, and what animals he had and in which barns they were in.
Dad went on to say he's getting to old to farm and if they wanted to stay, they could stay as long as they like...however they have to do all the labor/work on the farm....dad wanted to be a rocking chair quarterback...so to speak. All the guys said they had no problem with that, and asked for how long they could stay...he said damn, boys...don't you listen? As long as you like, you just need to work to earn your keep around here.
They all were so happy to hear that, it was such a huge unknown factor for them...with how long they thought they could stay here...they were worried that it would only be for a week or so...they almost started to cry.
We went around the farm, down through a few fields and dad showed them the property lines, the farm ponds and the creek over on the other end of the property.
Then dad headed back to the house and we all started getting a list of chores to do, once we got unpacked and settled.
When we got back to the house, mom wanted us to come down stairs to see what they had done. The ladies and kids, had went and set up the basement into 4 bedrooms...the only area that they didn't change was the bathroom and the canning room.
The girls even had a list of what they had, to add to the supplies from the vehicles...and the vehicles were almost completely unloaded.
This was great, John's family had a room, Mike's, and Bill's too...even Wendy had her own room...mine was upstairs on the opposite end of the house from my parents. It was quickly becoming a home for all of us.
I headed upstairs to my room and started digging through my closet, when mom yelled out that its dinner time.

We all gathered in the living room and dining room for supper...it was quite a spread that they had cooked up for us. Fried chick, mashed potato's homemade bread, green beans, corn, gravy, plus the cake, cookies they had started making when we first got there...it was nice to be home.
At supper we started talking security and what could we/should we do, for setting up defensive positions around the farm.
We added that to a list of several things to do over the next few days. As we finished supper, all of the guys went out to the garage with dad. He opened up an old set of wall lockers he use t store paint in...it was filled with all of my things that he gathered from my room, when all this happened...see dad didn't hunt or camp much, but I did and I had guns/ammo and pieces of gear and several sets of BDU's from when I was active duty and deployed, that I had left there for him to use... now for dad his passion...fishing.
He went on to say that he thought it would be a good idea if we all got the security set up sooner than later for the farm. We all agreed that it should be set to the top of the list...except for feeding the animals and daily chores.
Mike and I stepped out on the front porch alittle later chit chatting, and he asked if we could also checkout the little cabin over by the creek, that I use to stay in when I was camping....I thought that would be a great idea to get it back up to liveable conditions again....I hadn't been in it for several years.
We all got much needed sleep that night...except for my dad...he's a night owl.
The next few days were great, we all pitched in and set up seveal spots throughout the barnyard for security, that you couldn't hardly tell were there. Mike and I went to the cabin...its on the other end of almost 4000 acres of farm land. We had several boards and nails with us. We had the cabin back in great shape within 3 days....even better than I had it probably 15 years ago.
It wasn't anything special, but it was next to the creek, it had a pot belly stove and a hand pump for water from the well. As we were working on it, Mike asked how much wood we had for building on the farm. I said we had our own saw and cut our own wood from trees that we clear for pasture and that we clean up...from storms, cuz the wind does knock a few over every year.
He said we should build more cabins like this, so we all have our own space and won't get on each others nerves as easy that way...plus it would help with the security of the farm...by setting cabins out on the edges of the property in several different directions. I thought that was good idea.
Once we finished up at the cabin, I went and checked with dad to make sure it was ok to build a few more cabins...he had no problem with it...provided that the rules stay the same...they work the farm first...the cabins were a good idea and great for security, but the farm is the life blood for us all, so the farm takes priority #1...we all agreed.
We were there about a week before Wendy and I spent much time together. The ladies had been busy getting things settled in the house, and with all the stuff we had and rooms being changed around, the women had there work cut out for them, with making it a home for them. They all got along great together and they would share the household chores like us men were doing on the farm. It was all coming together better than any of us expected it too.
I was getting wood loaded in the back of the truck a few days later, when Wendy asked me if I was building a cabin for her. I said if she wanted one, then she would have to help with some of the construction of it. She had no problem helping out, she said...but she said she didn't want to live alone in a cabin, and asked me if I was going to build one for me or if I was going to stay in the house. Now we only had known each other for a very short time, so I just smiled and said...well I don't know, I hadn't tought about that...and kinda laughed it off.
We got in the truck and drove to the cabin site and started to unload all the wood. We were putting up simple structures 2x6 framed cabins....kinda like the ones you'd see for hunting cabins at a cabelas or bass pro shops...that they sold in kit form for about 20k. 12ft by 20ft...maybe 24ft...depending on the wood available to us.
The next several weeks went by and we were able to get a lot of the things on our list done... a lot faster than we thought we would. We had 3 stoves in the barn that we needed to clean up for the cabins, so they could cook and heat them...the women started doing many of those things, once the meals were prepared and the laundry and cleaning was done each day. We all really worked good together...we were like one big happy family.

Over the next few weeks we all pitched in and had 3 cabins ready for use. We had taken some tin from a few old buildings and used that for the roofs and we were able to take a couple of old windows from the calf barn and clean them up for a new use in the new cabins. Life was really looking up for all of us. I don't think that there was a day that went by, where I wasn't thanked for letting everyone come to my home and have this wonderful new chance, a start at a normal life. It was great to know that I was able to help them...like they helped me. I never would have made it there if it wasn't for them.
Its now the begining of March and the snow is melting, the fields are getting muddy and spring calves are starting to arrive. The kids help with pulling calves and get mother natures lesson of the birds and the bee's....life is really looking up for us all.
We all talked and thought that if each family wanted to move to a cabin, that we could start doing that anytime.
Mike asked who wants what cabin, and said that he would be happy with any one of them. I told them, we have 3, so the 3 families could figure it out between themselves as to who gets which cabin. Bill asked for the largest, since he has the most people, and everyone agreed. John and Mike didn't care and flipped a coin.
The next day we all packed them up and headed to the respective cabins, and man those kids though it was cool to have there own house again,
Wendy stayed at the house with my parents and me, because we didn't have enough stuff for another cabin...which was ok by me. I got to see her more that way. We would set on the front porch swing and talk, snuggle most nights....we would gaze off into the stars and remember what life use to be, and yet be thankful for what it is now. We really spent a lot of time together over the winter...we both were thankful...that we had each other...we weren't so alone anymore.
It got to be like a normal life again for us all, and thats all we ever wanted. As winter turned to spring we started planting crops and growing gardens...we each had our own that we maintained, plus everyone helped my parents with there garden...it was nice to see even the kids had chores every day....they milked the cows, fed the chickens, and hogs...they even helped with gardens and vehicle maintenance of farm equipment.
It had been 6 months since we arrived at the farm and we had carved out a new life for us all.
It was early June when a friend of my parents came out and asked if we had any livestock missing. At first we thought a fence was down and the cows got out, but that just wasn't the case. He said that he had 2 head of cattle that were out in the field, and they were all killed. They had been gutted and they left nothing but blood and guts in piles where they butchered them...right in the field.
That was the first time anything like that happened around there. We got everyone together and started setting a barnyard security watch with the other families. The next day, our neighbor to the north said that his hogs ...he had 3... were taken a couple of day earlier. He went out to find them but found a large camping area. He said it looked like a few fires had been burning and atleast 20 people had been there. Then he asked if we had seen anything on our farm. We hadn't seen anything, then told him about the cattle from the other day. We desided to set up a night patrol around the farm. 2 men at a time, for listening and observation of the area. Mike and I went first. We headed out at around 7pm. we slowly made our way through the fields and around the barns. Stopping every 20-30 yards to listen and look. Everything was quiet until about 11pm. I spotted a flashlight about 200 yards away in the trees. It was headed towards the barn yard. We headed over towards the barn and posted up on each end...we took up prone possitions using the walls as cover.
As the flashlight came into view, I could see 5 men with axes and a couple hunting rifles enter the road coming out of my field. Mike could hear them but couldn't see them, so he came over to my side of the barn. I watched then open the door and go inside.
As they were killing a cow, we snuck in the barn and each got in a different stall. They were people from the city, that were just taking whatever they wanted, from whoever they wanted....Mike and I aimed in and I spoke up.
I asked what are you doing to my cow...as I did that, the 2 men with rifles turned and shot in my direction. They couldn't see me but got damn close with there shots, Mike fired first, I was just a slpit second after him. The 2 men with rifles fell to the ground. The others stopped and had a terrified look on there faces. I said drop your knives, and ax. They didn't...Mike shot the man with the ax...the other 2 did as they were told from then on.
We tied them up and loaded the dead men in the bed of a pickup. We put our 2 tresspassing, stealing, thugs in the bed with them.

We headed up to the house to try and figure out what we wanted to do with them...and then I said to Mike...didn't they say that there were 20 or more in the group the other day?
We pulled the 2 men out and started to ask them questions. We wanted to know who they were and how many they had waiting for them to return.
One started spilling his guts to us...telling us that they had 30+ men at camp and that they were from St.Louis mainly. they headed out a month ago, because there was no food left in the city and gangs had control of the streets. They all were wanting to get out of the city and just go live in the woods...they thought it would be safer and easier for surviving that way. They had 5 guys that were leading the group, and had mainly hunting rifles. As the one was telling us this, his partner in crime was yelling at him...telling him to shut up.
Mike butstroked him with his AR...it knocked him out and laid there unconcious and bleeding on the ground.
We had radio's and called the rest of the guys in and they all came to the truck.
We found out that they were camped out about 1/2 a mile from Mikes cabin, over the hill and were waiting for the food fromthese men.
We thought we might just give them a suprise instead. We had all the families come upto the house and stay there with dad pulling security for the night. Mike and I told Bill and John what we knew and we desided to take the dead men back to there group...via an old hay wagon.
We tied the dead men to the wagon and pulled it with the truck to the top of a hill that went down through the area we were told that they were at. We put the bleeding butstroke boy on the front of the wagon, still tied up and the last one, was gagged and facing backwards on the wagon. We unhooked the old wagon and gave it a push. It went rolling down the hill and crashed into some trees down by the creek.
We could hear all kinds of yelling and screaming from the group down there.
We then split into 2 2man teams and each team went headed down the hill to see if they were going to do anything.
Mike was with John and went left side...Bill and I took the right side. As we went down the hill, we could hear them talking to the one that spilled his guts to us. He told them what he told us and they laughed....there was way more than 30 men down there, we thought that he was lieing to us. He was and they had an ambush set up for us if we would have went to confront them. We stayed back for a few minutes and listened to the leader..who made it easy to pickout...out of the 60-70 men down there. Mike and John each had cans on there weapons and began to pick off the men below. Bill and I kept heading down the hill using the trees for cover and several of them ran straight towards us.
We opened up on them as they were scrambling around below us. There was a wash out on the edge of the hill that we use to pile junk into as I was growing up and we stopped on top of it and kept firing at them. They had a few AK's and AR's but mainly hunting rifles...they were all armed with guns and knives...Mike and John had them running scared and when Bill and I opened up again they had only 1 way out that wasn't through us...it was the creek, and where they were its 12-15ft deep so we had them pinned down good. They were on a sand bar on the edge of the creek and had no real cover from the shots we all fired at them.
I felt a sting in my left arm but thought it was from using a tree as cover. When we stopped firing, everyone of them was laying on the ground bleeding, wounded, or dead. It tool about 3 minutes to wipe them out, but it felt like hours...everything was in slow motion...so it seemed. The 4 of us made our way down to the sand bar that was now red with blood from these thugs. As we looked over the wounded and dead, we were covering each other and dis arming those that were still alive. I sent Bill to get the truck, that we used for the wagon and had him bring it down to the creek. We were taking all there guns ammo and weapons from them...they were now ours.
We had no medical supplies to patch then up with, and none of them were going to make it long with out medical help, so we showed the wounded ones mercy...by winning there hearts and minds....every one of them left alive got a bullet to the chest and head that night.
My arm started to ache more and more as we piled up the bodies. I went to the fire and saw that I had blood running lightly down my arm. I had Mike cut my sleeve to look at it, and he said well brother...you got shot. I was very lucky though, it was a small caliber that did it and it went right through...When we got back to the house Wendy saw my shirt and the blood...she started in on patching me up right away. After she was done patching me up, we desided to burn the bodies and finish the slaughtering of the cow...for us for food.
We waited until daylight to go and light the fire. We had security patrols, every night after that.

reply to post by lokin


This is just a story that I made up after seeing countries around the world go into riots and with the threat of terror attacks, due to the unstable world we all live in. Its a mixture of several stories that I have read or videos I have seen from History and Discovery channels on TV. I in no way shape or form wish for any of this to ever happen, I Just wanted to try my hand at writing...I know my grammer sucks...but I have always wanted to try my hand at writing...who know. Someday mabe I can make millions from books or movies...LMAO. That would never happen, but you never know until you try....I hope you enjoy reading the new material. Its not done yet..there is more to come.

reply to post by saltdog


Thanks for the late night additions last night! I checked right before going to bed and there the next chapters were. I stayed up longer than I planned, but well worth it. I love how the story is going, the little love story unfolding, and it's great how you show the children being an important part of the group. Keep it coming!!

As the women from the group were bringing the meat for the cow up to the house, we loaded up some gas and in cans and got ready to head back down to the creek.
The children didn't know what all happened and we wanted to keep them away from that area...so they didn't have to see the horrable site.
We we headed out to the creek, we started talking, and all knew that we had to do what we did, because they were a band of savages and would have tried to kill us all and take everything on the farm for themselves.
We all agreed that it was the right thing to do...we had no real law enforcement around with martial law in the cities and a war being fought here in America...so we had to revert back to the days of us policing our own and doing swift justice...it was a place we all never wanted to be...but yet for our own survival...we had to.
We pulled up to the sand bar and were gettong ready to throw gas on the bodies and I said to wait for a minute....these bodies needed to be stripped of anything useful first...there were shoes on there feet that the kids could use in the near future along with belts, pants and a few shirts that were not stained with blood. We could also use some of these things for trading with others...to get things we might need in the future. They had knives and various other things in there pockets that we did find as useful tools....so we kept everything that we could, and burned the rest.
We burned them, so that animals wouldn't feed off them and to help keep the smell down. It took all day before the fire was burned down enough that we could head back to the house...on the way back we stopped at a shed and emptied all the things we aquired from them and locked it up...so the kids would hopefully never see what was in there...until we had a chance to clean it up and have all the blood out of eveything.
My arm was tender from the bullet and Wendy cleaned it out again when I got back and put a fresh bandage on it, after she put some salt in it....that hurt like hell...but she had to make sure it was cleaned out and what meds we did have needed to be saved for something more serious...so I had to just deal with it...man did that suck.
While we were gone, the women informed us that the neighbors had stopped by, because they saw the smoke from the fire. They told them what had happened and several other families wanted to join up and do a community watch...or patrol...to include there farms.
The girls said to come back tomorrow and talk with us men, once we were rested and we could have a meeting to see if it was something that was possible for us to do.
Wendy stayed up with me on the front porch and was resting her head on my shoulder, talking about how clear and beautiful the stars and moon were tonight.
We were both just happy to be sitting next to each other again.
Dad came out with a cup of coffee and handed it to me. Now he was a retired minister and I couldn't mention how beautiful the stars were without getting a 2 hour sermon from him...lol. Thats just how he has always been...he finds the best out of everything and always turned it into a way to preach to me...at times I hated it, but needed it.
Wendy was chatting with dad about the night sky, and he started in..I just sat there and smiled. She has been officially welcomed into the family if hes doing that!!
The next morning around 8am we had several visitors come to the house. After hearing what had happened with the thugs the other day. We all sat down for a meeting and the women went and fed the animals with the kids, while we started filling in everyone of what had happened.
We came up with warning signs for everyone to know when a farmer was in trouble, and needed help. We also figured out that with all the able bodied men...that we could have a work force and a security force, so it would help with us getting rest and not being out every other night keeping watch over the farm. It required other farmers to come do work on other farms and not just there own, but they would in return get patrols through there property by us, to help keep them and there farms safer from the roving bands of thugs out there.
We all agreed to everything and had now set up the start of us getting the area back to a more of a normal place and time...when we all helped out our fellow brothers and protected our neighbors.
The next few weeks went by and life wasn't to bad. Mike, Bill, John, and I were in charge of the security for the surrounding farms and did most of the patrols. We did have a few other younger guys that wanted to help us, and we needed the bodies with all the extra land to cover, so it was a win, win there for us all.
We were needing to get some fuel for the vehicles we had, because the bulk tanks we had were getting low on fuel. Don, one of the other local farmers had an idea that was sounding like it would work...we had 2 options.

Option 1 is that we go to the next town over and get some fuel(ethenol) in bulk tanks we had for chemicals and fertilizers on the farm and resupply that way, or option 2 is we build a stil and make our own alcohol. I suggested that we do both...that way we have a better chance of success.
We all pitched in and had a stil up and running in less than a week. we had to get pieces and parts from several farms, but it was finally completed after a few of the older men argueing about how to make the best moonshine. We needed to watch some of them, because I think they liked to do quality tests a lot more than they let on...lol.
While the stil was up and running, it wouldn't make enough to resuppy us completely, so got 3 trucks ready to head across the county and see about getting fuel from the ethenol plant. We headed out and it took about 45 minutes to get there. When we pulled upto the plant, several men pointed guns at us and had us stop our trucks. Now I knew a few of the men, but dad knew almost all of them. He talked for a few minutes and then when we asked for fuel, they said that they would trade for it. We started talking about things that they wanted or needed and how many gallons we could get for each item. We were bartering with them...just like 150 years ago when this area of the country was first getting settled.
They needed some corn for making the fuel and wanted any type of clothing we would be willing to trade...we worked out our deal and had to send a truck back to get a few things for the swap.
Mike was in the truck that went back along with me and we were so glad that we saved the shoes from the thugs, and took all we could from them. It was going to get us seveal hundred gallons of fuel...that we really wanted, because it made life alot easier. We gathered up the items we had and headed back to the plant...it took us a good 3 hours, well dad was sitting inside the plant entrance with several of the guards listening to him spill out a sermon...I had to laugh...he was still the same man I always remembered him to be. When we unloaded the items, one of the guards asked Mike, did you really have 70 men...that you...Mike looked at him and he went silent. Mike said do you always believe every thing you hear?...the guard said no...but its from a preacher.
Then Mike looked at me smiled and said I guess its true then....but I think it was more like 100 if you ask me.
That guard about crapped his pants, he was just a local farmer, tring to help do the right thing and had hardly ever left the county, so he was in shock of some of the things that had happened...and the only news we all ever got was word of mouth...since the bombs went off.
We gave them some shoes, a few rifles and some clothing we had taken from the thugs. It was a fair trade for both sides. Plus with dad telling them about what had happened...they knew that we were the good guys...that helped a lot for us to do future trades with them.
We headed back to the farm, the tanks full and all in pretty good moods when we got back. We had accomplished a task that a year ago was only a phone call and some cash from the bank or the swipe of a credit card...now we were able to do the same thing...except for using trade items instead of cash or credit...it was nice to feel like things there were holding together in the small local areas so well.
We pumped the fuel over to the bulk tanks in the sheds and then headed back up to the house for supper.When we got there, everyone was happy to see us back with a fresh fuel supply and our stil in full production.
We all sat around and played a few card games with the kids outside catching fire flies. It was almost as if things were normal.
The group that went out on patrol that night was suddenly brought back the reality. They were on a hill top in the pasture when they noticed light in the distance. They went over towards it to investigate what it was.
It was a group of about 25-30 people camped out a few hundred yards from the far end of the property.
Bill and John were leading the patrol and got about 200 yards from there camp and just sat there and listened to the men and women sitting around the fires. They were armed and looked like they had been traveling for awhile.
They called on the hand held radio to the rest of us back at the house, to informus of there find. We all geared up and headed out to meet up with them.
Once we got to where Bill and John were, we listened for awhile longer and saw that they were all acting very nice and being polite to each other. It wasn't like the group we had before. We continued to listen in on there conversation and they were talking about how much farther they had to go, till they would be at the ranch. Everyone from what we could see...was loaded down with backpacks that they had.
After talking to Bill and John, we desided to just sit tight till sun up and see what they do then.

As the sun started to rise, we watched the group start to mill around. They gathered there things and headed out about right after they packed there things.
They headed out and were walking and talking throughout the group. They seemed to just be minding there own buisness and they had cleaned up the camping area before they started out.
I felt bad for them, they had mentioned getting to Montana to the Flathead Indian reservation..that was a couple of weeks of walking for them..they looked weak and tired.
We all slide back away from the overwatch possition and headed back to the house. I went and grabbed about 100lbs of meat and headed out with Mike in the truck..he knew what I was doing. We went out to the far end of the property and waited for about 30 minutes and we spotted the first couple of the group coming around the bend by the creek.
They came about 75 more yards and looked up and saw us and stopped in there tracks. I said its ok..you have a friend here. I talked calmly and slowly started to walk towards them. They were on edge...that was easy to see, and I wanted to be careful to not get shot.
As I approached them they started to relax and I told them that I was not here to harm them in anyway.
They all started to gather around and I took them to the truck and said that I had seen them at one of there campsites and realized they were just tring to get to a safe place and were not a band of thugs.
I handed them the packages of meat and said that I hope they make it to where they are headed.
They could hardly believe there eyes when they saw the food I was giving to them.
They all thanked Mike and I several times, then we started to talk more and they were from Kansas City area. They had been walking for a few weeks and were exausted from walking and were rationing food for the last 4 days. They were avoiding farms, houses, towns and everyone...to increase there chances of making it safely, because a lot of people were shooting first, because of the roaming gangs and thugs out and about.
The group seemed to be good people just tring to excape the horrors of the city and wanted to get out away from the madness.
After about 45 minutes with them down by the creek, Mike and I left them and headed back towards the farm house. The group had began to move out after they packed all the meat in there packs. You could see there eyes light up as they realized that they now had a good chance of making to there mountain retreat.
Mike looked over and smiled at me, he said man it felt good to do something nice for someone else and to really help realize how good we actually have it here...we are living like kings compaired to a lot of other people.
We got back to the house and Mike told the others what we had done. Dad had figured it out right away and told the others what we were doing. They all asked about what had happened and if we had any news of what was all going on in the world.
Wendy came over to me and gave me a huge hug and kissed my cheek. She also said that was so happy that inspite of all thats happened...that I was able to do what I did for those people, an act of kindness...in a world gone crazy. She was so happy that we hadn't lost our morals and values in a world gone mad.
We told them what the group had said to us and we told them about how thankful they were for the food.
Everyone was begining to realize in there own way, about how truely lucky we all have been to of made it here and to have a group/family that worked so well together, plus we had plenty of food and shelter for all.
My dad said he was glad that we showed up too, because there was no way that he could have defended the farm against the first group we encountered.
We had a small feast that night and everyone wanted us to tell the story and information over and over.
It was nice to hear about what was happening in other areas.
The kids went out and played horse shoes in the backyard, while we all sampled the brewing fuel from the stil.
We were on the back patio and Wendy came over and sat on my lap. I held her close and rubbed her back at times. When everyone else headed out for some sleep and a patrol she stayed on my lap and we talked for a little while. After about an hour she grabbed my hand and took me out behind the shed and we made love for the first time...it was such a great feeling to truely have someone that truely fit...in my life. We laid in each others arms until late in the night and then went to our rooms and went to bed. I could hardly sleep....with her on my mind and all that had happeneed not only with us, but with the group of travelers earlier that day.
When we woke up in the morning. Wendy was all smiles and very energetic today. It was a great start to the day.

I'm not sure if you want to go for maximal realism in your story but I just can't help pointing out something that is missing from most doomsday scenarios. If you're interested in telling a story as theoretically plausible as possible, and there is major attack on the USA, you should account for all the nuclear reactors on the west and east coast of the united states. It would only take a handful on the west coast to make human life on the continental united states uninhabitable (everyone else is downwind of the west coast).

Because the USA has so very many reactors (~100), in your scenario the amount of melted down reactors would make the entire northern hemisphere uninhabitable - and many people sick and die in the southern hemisphere too.

Anyway, this would continue to have a domino effect. It would cause all the European nuclear plants to melt down too (with no one from the southern hemisphere to be able to go in there and run them. Plus, there wouldn't be enough people from the southern hemisphere that knew how to operate all the European reactors anyway). With all the northern reactors melted down, enough radiation will enter the southern hemisphere that it would be unliveable as well. As humanity dies off down there, their few reactors would melt down too to finish the job faster. This would be the end of humanity along with the rest of the mammals, birds and fish. Not sure whether some insects may survive. Radiophilic fungii would have an awesome time though.

reply to post by OceanGeek


I would add the nuclear plants but if the east coast went into the ocean, there gone, the east coast has several, but they have back ups for back ups for back ups, and plan for emergency things like going off line and safe shut downs...we have stricter codes here than many other countries...I know because I use to be in that industry and worked around reactors for the last several years. We aren't Japan and we have more and better safties with ours than them...so if anything happened to them...chances are it would be localized ...worse case would be maybe 10 miles...thats a fact.