American Meltdown: Book Two of The Economic Collapse Chronicles (17 page)

The men who had come to the checkpoint from Virginia slowly started to come out from their cover with their hands on their heads. Matt kept his rifle sights trained on them as one by one, Adam and the other militia men searched them, placed zip tie restraints on them and sat them to the side.

Matt continued to scan the woods to the north while the men were being processed through the border. He looked across the road and could see the man who lived in the farmhouse looking out the window at all the commotion. Matt wondered if the man realized he lived on the edge of tyranny and freedom?

Several militia members inside Virginia had launched small scale assaults against federal government buildings and ambushed federal agencies over the past few weeks, but Howe had sent massive responses and locked down the towns where the attacks had taken place. Virginia was now under a tighter lockdown than any other state. Matt thought that Howe probably saw its proximity to the capitol as being too important to tolerate any resistance. This left Kentucky and North Carolina on the border of the most occupied state in America. Right now, London Company was assigned to guard perhaps the most volatile piece of real estate in the world.

Matt’s shift had ended during the event. He came out of the tree line, walked up to Adam and said, “I’ll be milling around to be sure everything is going to be alright.”

Adam nodded as he continued to clear each man. Once all the men were processed and counted, their number was 27. Adam sat down with the man who led them here. Matt stood nearby to keep watch while Adam interviewed the young man.

“So, how did you Marines end up on our border?” Adam asked.

The young man explained
, “We were part of a supply convoy out of Quantico. The Marines had commandeered a dry food storage warehouse in Blacksburg, Virginia. Our convoy went there to make a pick-up. While the trucks were being loaded, we had two hours to go around town, get a bite to eat or whatever. The 27 of us had predetermined to make a run for it. We headed straight for the hills. We kept moving that night, then laid low for two days. On the fourth day we started toward this border.”

“Why did you abandon your post?” Adam asked.

“You don’t know what’s going on there,” The young Marine explained. “My First Sergeant tried to get a bunch of us to leave and join up with the Coalition. He told us what was going on. It was very different from what we were getting from most of the brass and the news. I don’t think we really believed him. He took the amnesty offer to leave the Federal forces and was supposed to go to the Coalition States. He said he was coming here to Kentucky to make a stand. He said he had a buddy that he served in Afghanistan with who was in the militia.

“They were sent to a processing center where they were supposed to be debriefed and let go. The center turned out to be a prison camp. They were all poisoned and died in the camp. I was part of the Hazmat team that had to clean up the corpses.”

The young man was starting to get choked up. Adam let up on the questions for a moment, then asked, “What was your First Sergeant’s name?”

“Hammer,” The young man said.

“What was his first name?” Adam asked.

“Carl. First Sergeant Carl Hammer.” The man answered.

Adam jumped up and called out to his brother. “Wesley, cut these men loose.”

Matt could tell Adam was upset. He thought he had seen a tear forming in his eye as he walked away.

The young man looked at Matt and asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

Matt replied
, “On the contrary, I think you just passed the test. Adam served in the Marines with Carl in Afghanistan. Adam is the one Carl was coming here to link up with. He’s just a little sad right now. He’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

Matt pulled out his Kiowa
folding-blade knife and cut the plastic wrist restraints off the young man’s hands. Matt and Gary walked them back across the border to collect their weapons.

Wesley took the initiative to get the Marines set up in an area adjacent to the militia camp. Wesley said to the men, “You guys set up your camp right over here. There’s drinking water inside that tent. You guys have been hiking a while. Is there anything else you need right now?”

The lead soldier said, “We are out of food. We had four days’ worth when we set out. We stretched it because we knew we wouldn’t be able to hunt or resupply. We made a forced march and covered about 30 miles per day.”

Wesley whistled. “That’s quite a feat. Most of that area is through mountains.”

The soldier nodded. “We wanted to avoid being seen on the roadsides. It took six days to get here, we have been burning a lot of calories.”

Wesley called out to JC and Jeff. “Can you guys go around and take up a collection from the militia members for food to give the Marines?”

The two gave a quick affirmative nod and got right to it.

Matt said, “Gary and I will get a fire going. Then, these guys can start cooking whatever they receive from the collection.”

The militia all chipped in enough to feed the Marines well. The men who had finished their watch were curious to hear all about the Marines’ journey. Adam radioed Franklin Johnson to send several trucks out to pick up the Marines the next day. They would set up a camp at Lt. Joe’s until they found them more permanent places to live.

CHAPTER
37

“One man with courage is a majority.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Paul Randall sat his bags by Larry Jacobs’ front door.

Larry said, “Paul, I hope this isn’t about you being afraid you’re wearing out your welcome. If there is anything I can do to be a better host, let me know.”

Randall took Kimberly’s day bag off his shoulder and sat it near the other luggage. “You could write a book on hospitality, Larry. You have made us feel right at home. I feel it isn’t wise to have too many high value targets in one place.”

“I see your point, Paul,” Larry said, “but we have a very good security plan here at the ranch. If you return home, you’re going to have to make some serious modifications.”

Randall replied, “The general said he will take care of all that. We have to think about continuity of leadership. The security here at your ranch is fantastic Larry, but nothing is impregnable. Do you think Howe wouldn’t hit us with a drone strike? One missile from a reaper could eradicate all of us.”

“We can catch a reaper with our radar,” Larry said.

“Can you pick up a RQ-180?” Randall asked.

“Those are just for surveillance,” Larry answered.

Paul continued to build his case. “How hard would it be to put a payload on it? You could strap one AGM 114 Hellfire to the RQ-180 and hardly increase the radar signature. If you stripped out the interior of all the surveillance equipment, you could put in a bomb bay and not increase the radar signature at all. It only takes one, Larry.”

Larry nodded in agreement. “Well, you’ll be missed. It has been nice having you around. Promise you won’t be a stranger.”

“You won’t miss me, Larry,” Randall kidded. “You are at the halfway point between the general and me, so the face-to-face meetings will all be here. You’ll be charging us rent by the time this conflict is over.” 

Larry laughed but insisted that it was no trouble.

Larry and his wife, Allison, walked them to their SUV. General Allen Jefferson had arranged for a military security motorcade to escort the Randalls back to their ranch. Sonny Foster accompanied them back to their home.

The ride home was pretty exciting. Part of the security protocol was to drive quite fast. This made it difficult for a planned attack to time an impact or explosive device.

When they arrived home, Kimberly stated, “This house is a mess.”

Military contractors were all around the property. The lead contractor approached the Randalls. He greeted them and began to explain what was being done. “We
’re installing ballistic glass in all the windows. A safe room has been installed as well as a below-ground bunker. The bunker has been placed adjacent to the house. We dug a short tunnel under the concrete footer of the garage. It’s accessible via a trap door in the garage. The bunker also has an exit tunnel that leads out to the cattle barn.  General Jefferson instructed us to spare no expense in making you safe.”

Paul said, “We sure do appreciate all of the hard work.”

It was the first time Kimberly had been home since Robert had been killed. She walked into his room, sat on his bed and began to cry. Paul followed and sat down beside her. He pulled her close to comfort her. After several minutes of crying, Kimberly took a deep breath, looked at Paul and smiled softly as she embraced him.

Sonny came to the doorway. “I am so sorry to interrupt, but there is a phone call for Paul.”

“I’ll take it, Sonny,” Paul said. He kissed his wife on the forehead and got up from the bed to answer the phone.

“General,” Paul said
, “the house looks great! This is fantastic. The contractor showed me the door to the bunker. We just got home, so I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, but it’s the next thing I’m going to do.”

“I’m glad you like it, Paul,” Jefferson replied. “I’ll be by in a few days to point out some of the extraordinary features. The below ground bunker has its own oxygen source so you can’t get smoked out or have tear gas injected into the ventilation system. There is enough oxygen to last you about a week. The airlock feature has to be engaged for the oxygen to kick in. There
’s enough food and water to keep eight people alive for three months. I took the liberty of placing a pretty serious weapons cache down there as well. I know how you like to shoot. Hopefully you’ll never need any of it, but if you get bored and decide to shoot your way out, you’ll have that option.

“Before I get sidetracked here, that’s not why I’m calling. The House Judiciary Committee is pushing to have the President impeached and subsequently detained. It couldn’t get any traction because all of the representatives from the Coalition States have dropped out of Congress to serve in their states.  It’s really just a fistful of establishment Republicans from both houses that are trying to let the
President know they still have a say. Howe isn’t having it. He’s had them all detained. This might be a good time to see who else we could get to make a commitment to the Coalition. There are still a lot of red states out there that are trying to stay neutral.”

Paul joked, “Well, the Ides of March is next week. I suppose if anyone is trying to proclaim themselves ‘Emperor for Life,’ this is a good time to be locking up any dissenters in the Senate.”

General Jefferson laughed. “Put out your feelers and see who is interested in joining the Coalition. Arizona had a few representatives detained. West Virginia had one very popular Senator locked up. Don’t make anyone any promises about dedicating military support to evict federal offices or take over military bases in their states. We are going to be focusing all of our attention on taking Minot Air Force Base. Once that is out of the way, we can discuss what’s next on our agenda.”

“
Sounds like a plan, General. I’ll call around and see where the leadership is at. The more the merrier. Take care.” Paul finished and hung up the phone. It operated via encrypted VOIP. His next calls were to the Governors of North and South Dakota. They had just joined the Coalition and there was much to discuss with them. Paul need to speak about border security, shutting down federal offices and taking control of the military bases in their states. Unfortunately, they were not yet set up with the encrypted VOIP software that the rest of the Coalition leadership was using.

Paul told the governor of North Dakota, “Governor, I’ll be sending a delegate from the Coalition to meet with you this week.”

This “delegate” was actually the Coalition security IT specialist that would be getting them set up with the encryption software so they could have private conversations. Traveling across the Federal States was too risky for leadership, but communication was vital to the effort.

The governor of North Dakota agreed to receive the delegate just as the governor of South Dakota did
.

Next, Paul Randall called the governors of Arizona and West Virginia.

The governor of Arizona said, “We’re sympathetic to the Coalition, but we’re just not ready to make a commitment.”

The West Virginia Governor said essentially the same thing. “The state legislature is just unsure at this particular juncture. I
’m sure you understand.”

Paul understood alright.
I understand that you are choosing tyranny because you are a bunch of cowards,
he thought to himself.

CHAPTER
38

“The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals… it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Matt sat on his porch and drank his coffee quietly in the cool mountain air. He considered how much life had changed all over America. Nothing about it looked the same as six months ago. The decline had been coming steadily for years, but the past few months brought about a sharp crash that changed the living standards of every American. Even the rich felt it. They could no longer go to their favorite restaurant in the hot part of town. Restaurants were nonexistent. The restaurants that had clientele who could absorb the rapid increases in prices held on until the dollar completely failed, but after that, they locked the doors.

The news told stories of home invasions that had erupted in upscale neighborhoods. The days of picking up the phone and calling 911 were long gone. Those
who had the foresight to have items available for barter could hire former police officers or former military personnel for security. There was a growing market for security work among the affluent who had something to pay with. Unfortunately, before the crash many of the so-called upper class were living above their means to keep up appearances. A large portion of those who were truly wealthy prior to the collapse had all of their wealth tied up in the stock market or in cash. Those with vast sums of cash in the mattress were no better off. If they hadn’t converted their dollars to hard assets before the dollar bit the dust, their money was useful only for kindling or wallpaper.

Then Matt considered the working class like Karen and himself. The middle class was entirely wiped out. There were no more jobs and suburban landscapes had been transformed into wastelands run by gangs and criminals. Those that had somewhere to go, left. Those
who didn’t, weren’t able to survive. Food was pretty much gone in all metropolitan areas. The last remaining bits of food in warehouses and convenience stores were stripped out by gangs and looters.

The news showed that the military was doing everything it could to keep the soldiers fed, but millions of civilians were dying of starvation. The gangs turned to cannibalism and were feeding on other humans to survive.

Rural areas were a different story. Those fared much better depending on whether they were in the Federal States or the Coalition States.

According to reports on alternative media sites, in
the Federal States the military had begun going house-to-house to collect supplies to distribute to the needy. The needy ended up being the military. Cattle, pigs, poultry, eggs, and stored food were commandeered for the “good of the country.” Farmers were left enough to survive on so they could continue to produce goods. They were promised compensation once the new currency was established.

In the Coalition s
tates like Kentucky, barter networks were developing. People pitched in to help each other out. Many folks had taken Paul Randall’s advice and converted their dollars into silver, gold, ammunition, tools, storable foods, toiletries and the things they would need to get by until manufacturing and trade with other nations could be reestablished. In London, Kentucky, and many other small towns, people were setting up flea markets in the abandoned parking lots of Walmarts and other big box retailers. Few people had enough stored fruits and vegetables to trade, but spring was just around the corner.  With the high demand for canned vegetables at the flea markets, you could be sure lots of farmers would be devoting large plots of land to produce.

Meat was priced high, but was available if you had the right currency. Many cattle farmers
, like Adam, killed cattle to feed their own families. They would often end up with more than they could store, so the flea markets made a good outlet to get rid of the extra meat. They would typically sell it to someone at the market with a booth.  As this trend continued, entire booths became dedicated to butchers. Butcher booths were often run by the very butchers who lost their jobs at the big box grocers and retailers. Besides beef, the butchers regularly carried venison, rabbit, chicken, pork and various other wild game. There was no FDA to regulate the butchers, however the free market quickly weeded out anyone who sold foul-smelling meat or failed to keep a tidy workspace. Customers simply chose another vendor.

At the flea markets, large transactions typically took place utilizing gold. Gold coins were common, but gold jewelry was accepted by merchants who had scales and the time to figure out the value of the pieces. Jewelry traded at a very slight discount to gold coins. The coins were standardized and weighing wasn’t necessary, so the jewelry was viewed as an inconvenience by merchants.

Midsized transactions were most likely to be made in silver one-once coins. Fractional silver had also become popular after the price passed $50 per ounce. In the years leading up to the crash, private mints produced one-half, quarter, and tenth ounce silver rounds. This made silver available in the same denominations as gold. While fractional silver had been around for a while, the premiums were too high to bother with until the price shot up. Pre-1965 US silver coins were used as well. While not quite a tenth ounce of silver, pre-1965 silver dimes would buy the same as a tenth ounce silver round. Matt figured that it was a convenience factor, or it may have been the fact that the dimes were old and would never be minted again. Silver dollars, quarters and half dollars were subject to the merchant. Some accepted them at the value of a quarter ounce, half ounce or ounce, but most discounted them to their actual silver content. One dollar face value of pre-1965 silver coin contained only seven-tenths of an ounce of silver.

Smaller transactions used ammunition for a standardized currency. Different caliber shells held differing values. Other popular barter items were soap, razors, deodorant and makeup.

Utility services varied widely across the country as well. When payment for utilities became impossible because of the dollar collapse, military personnel were assigned to keep them operational. The boards of the utility companies signed them over to anyone who could take care of them as they were completely useless as profit centers without a currency.

Franklin Johnson told Matt that the services in Texas were uninterrupted. Texas had their own power grid and were completely energy independent and capable of producing all of their own water. The Texas State government assumed operation of the utilities until order and trade could be reestablished. Texas promised to hand control back to the utility companies as soon as they felt they were ready to take over. 

The eastern electrical grid initially had major problems when maintenance workers and operators began not showing up for work. Many large cities had intermittent service or regular outages during the day despite military personnel keeping the plants open. Some northern cities were completely dependent on electricity for heat. Matt read that over one hundred thousand people froze to death that winter.

An alternative news source reported that President Howe was looking for ways to have the Coalition States cut off while keeping the power on for the Federal States, but the interconnectivity of the Eastern Grid made that impossible.

Matt learned from a Kentucky National Guardsman that the Southern Coalition States were working frantically to tie together a centralized grid of their own. The Northwest Coalition States worked hard at building their own independent grid as well. They had a bigger challenge as most of their states were part of the western grid, but the new members of the Coalition, North and South Dakota were connected to the eastern grid.

Matt finished his coffee as he recounted the recent events that were creating the new landscape of America. It was barely recognizable as the same nation it had been only months ago.