Crashed: The Death Of The Dollar (5 page)

“
What do you mean they're not done trying to destroy us? What more could they do? They killed our currency and entire economic system,” Taylor said, sounding a bit angry.

“
First off, they didn't kill our currency and economy. They just helped us in doing it to ourselves. As for what more they could do? Remember when I -”

"Okay you two," Jessica called out to them. "Time for me to steal him away."

"No, he's mine," Taylor responded jokingly.

As Taylor and Mike stood up, she gave him another tight hug. "Good night, Mike. See you in the morning."

Jessica grabbed Mike by the hand and started walking up to his place. "Where's Stacy?" he asked, feeling somewhat nervous about whatever it was they had planned.

"She's been up at your house since we finished eating." They were quiet for a minute before she continued, "You've had one heck of a day huh?" Mike nodded, with a slight grin.

"Well, I hope it was fun and relaxing for you, but the real fun is only just beginning,"she continued with a sly grin.

She looked at him as they walked, not letting go of his hand. He could see her eyes and smile sparkling in the moonlight. He had a funny feeling in his stomach. The only other time he'd felt that was the first time she'd kissed him a few weeks ago. He wondered if he loved her. He'd never thought about love before. He knew he'd never felt love before. Did he love all of them? He was confused and excited. A whole host of emotions was running through his mind.

As they got to his house, Stacy was waiting for them on the porch. She got up and took him by his other hand, and they both walked him to the outdoor shower. Candles and a pair of oil lanterns were lit and set out around it. Nothing was said as they started undressing him. Jessica turned on the water, and they led him back in to it before undressing themselves and joining him. Mike couldn't hide his excitement this time. Stacy pulled out some soap she'd made earlier in the week. He noticed a stronger smell than their normal soaps.
"Lavender,"
he thought. With Jessica on his right, and Stacy to his left, they began washing his body for him. They scrubbed firm, but not too hard. When they were done, they stood close against him as the water poured down, rinsing them off.

As Stacy turned off the water, Jessica pulled out three chairs and sat him in the middle one. They sat on each side of him in the cool night breeze. All three of them had goosebumps, and none knew whether it was from the chilly air after a warm shower, or the emotions filling their thoughts. Mike still felt a little nervous, but was starting to relax some. It was probably the longest time without talking he'd spent around them since they met. He certainly had never imagined Stacy could be so quiet.

Stacy got up, and took him by the hand. Jessica whispered into his ear, "No more fear, Mike. No more fear," as they led him inside. There he found his bed turned so it wasn't against the wall anymore.

"Welcome to your first spa treatment," Stacy said invitingly as she guided him to lay on his stomach.

"With a fun twist that'd be illegal anywhere outside Nevada if you paid for it," Jessica added with a giggle.

Chapter 4

Reaching Out

The next morning Mike awoke to the sound of his name being said softly. "Mike. Mike. Time to wake up sleepy head." It wasn't Jessica's or Stacy's voice though. It was Taylor waking him up. "Come on Mike. Wake up."

He slowly opened his eyes and realized that the other ladies weren't there with him anymore. It almost felt more like a dream than reality. Taylor pulled the covers off him and said in a louder voice "Come on Mike. Breakfast is on the table, and there's work needing tended to."

She had his clothes set out for him and walked out to sit and read. Mike came out to find a glass of milk, and some meat and toast getting cold waiting on him. He walked over to Taylor, gave her a gentle rub across her shoulders, and said "Good morning."

"Uh, huh. Pretty rare for you sleep in like that after an easy day."

He just smiled as he sat to eat.

After breakfast, the day kicked off similarly to most days. She went with him to the barn to gather eggs, while he milked the goats. Brad was there on his bike, waiting to join in on the daily routine of checking on all the animals. Jessica was at her place splitting wood, and Stacy working on laundry. Everything seemed like nothing had changed.

Once morning chores were complete, Taylor approached Mike. "Is there any way for us to check on how people are doing? Like besides the news. Um, like, could we go in to town?"

Mike was trying to get his chainsaw ready to take down a few dead trees for the coming winter's firewood, and to make room for new growth. "I'll think about it, Taylor," he said. "I really doubt we're going to go in to town, but we can probably get closer in to try and see what's going on with the binoculars or telescope. Maybe we can use a CB radio to talk to someone in town to see what's going on."

She nodded, not thrilled with his answer, but happy they might at least try to see what's happening. It had been almost a month since the crash, and it was really starting to weigh on her that others might be suffering while they lived what was a pretty normal and comfortable life.

He got the four trees dropped, and hauled two to his house before taking the other two to them. Jessica and Stacy met him to help unload the wood, both giving him a quick hug and kiss before getting started. He wondered to himself if this was going to become a regular part of life or not. And if so, would it change anything for the worse?

"I was starting to wonder if we were going to see you before lunch time," Jessica quipped.

He tried not to smile too big.

"So, we were talking last night after you went to sleep, and we were wondering about taking a lot of the produce we would normally sell and see if there's anyone in town really in need of the help that we could give it to," said Stacy.

"Yeah," Jessica added, "It's hard to imagine that a government that couldn't keep it's money stable could do an efficient job of keeping everyone well fed. It'd just be the right thing to do."

Apparently Taylor wasn't the only one concerned about everyone else. Mike wondered why he wasn't giving the rest of society much thought, other than being upset about what had happened to the nation he once served. He suddenly felt guilty for not thinking much about helping. But, he reasoned with himself, his first priority was keeping them provided for and safe. Venturing too close to town could risk the safety that their isolation provided them.

"Taylor was asking about the folks in town too. I told her I thought we might could get close enough to look in on them from a distance, and maybe talk to someone on the CB to see what we can find out."

"Yeah, but that's not really doing anything to help them," Stacy said.

"I know. But it would be a way to find out if help is needed, while letting us keep a safe distance. I don't want to take any chances with y'alls safety. We'll go after lunch. Maybe we could try first with the smaller towns, like Hurricane. Anyone we could reach there would know what's happening in Cedar City or Saint George."

After lunch they all piled in to Stacy's Suburban. Mike was very insistent that they pack a few days worth of food and water, and that they all had a gun with several loaded magazines, just in case.

"Where are we headed to?" Taylor asked.

"We're going down closer to Saint George. Hopefully we can get in touch with someone from Hurricane or Toquerville on the CB and find out what's happening."

As they got about fifteen miles outside of Hurricane, just a few miles north of the town of Virgin, they encountered a group of around twenty or so people walking along the dirt road. They stopped, and a man stepped up to introduce himself. He was a tall and lanky man, around six feet tall, but probably didn't weigh an ounce over a hundred and fifty pounds. He was very clean cut with dark hair, and a few strands of gray. They guessed he was in his late 40's or early 50's.

"Hello," the man said, seeming annoyingly jolly. "I'm Bishop Christensen. What bring you folks out here?"

"Well, we've kind of been out of the loop since things went down about a month ago, so we thought we'd come to see how everything was going." Mike turned off the Suburban so he could better hear the man, and conserve fuel. "I almost expected to see towns burning down from riots over supplies, but from the overlook all appears pretty normal."

"We got close to that happening I think," he replied. "The first ten days or so were organized chaos at best."

"What happened?" Jessica asked.

Bishop Christensen turned to his group and told them to go ahead, that he'd meet up with them at camp. "At first, when the semis would roll in, instead of backing into the loading docks at stores, they had the national guard escorting them, and the guardsmen would hand out food and toiletries to people. It was first come, first serve, so there were a lot of fights over things as silly as toothpaste. There were even a few shootings over food. The guardsmen were ordered to shoot anyone fighting or trying to cheat to get more than their share."

"Oh my God!" exclaimed Stacy.

The Bishop clearly didn't care for her choice of words, but continued. "Well, like I said, it was organized chaos at best. They ordered that stores be taken over, and then assigned some arbitrary value to everything and everyone. I guess the NSA databases tracking us all came in handy," he chuckled uncomfortably. "Now, people shop using their drivers licenses. They scan the bar code or swipe the magnetic strip. I hear they're testing using people's smart phones for ID like this too now in some areas. I don't know that anyone really knows what they're considered to be worth."

"And people are putting up with this?" Mike asked.

"Well, at first there were a lot of people who didn't have licenses that were being left out, so they reinstated food stamp cards to fix that for most of them. And a lot of the once wealthy folks have come to find that they can't afford a lot of the things they used to. But other than that, yeah, most people were just glad to have some type of structure back in life."

The Bishop looked at all of them and hesitantly asked "Are you guys from that HLDS group east of here?" referring to the Holy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A polygamist group formed by a few former FLDS members after Warren Jeffs was convicted.

"Oh hell no," said Jessica. "The three of us and my son all live together. He's our neighbor."

"So that's just where things stand now?" Mike wanted to know.

"Unfortunately not," said the Bishop. "All the major news networks, even the cable news, got shut down. Now we have only one news source. They call it 'New America News Network.' NANN. We now have a truly state run media.

"Also," he continued, "the government has been hoarding the good foods and stuff, and a lot of the fuel, for the big cities. I guess they're more concerned about keeping control where there's millions of people. The only meat we've been able to get down here for the last two weeks has been the cheap logs of ground meat. A few people are getting other meat by hunting illegally and killing off what livestock is in the area. Some farmers from up around Enterprise tried bringing down some sheep and cattle to help out, but the Guard caught wind of it and took everything, leaving them stranded here. My sister and her husband, who live over in Santa Clara, ended up taking those poor guys home. Dang Guard even took their truck."

"So all the good stuff goes to the cities now huh? Mike asked.

"Yep. Word is though, that people's values can't buy much of it. If a family wants some good steaks, they practically have to give up a weeks worth of other food. Unless they have guns or bullets to trade in," Bishop Christensen said, with a somewhat depressed tone to his voice. "The guns aren't worth so much, but since all sales of ammunition were suspended when they assigned the values, bullets have become a hot commodity. People started using it some for barter, and the government caught on quickly. Another Bishop I know up in Provo said he traded in a brick of .22LR shells for a month's worth of fuel and fifty pounds of good cuts of meat."

"Disarm the people, without telling them you're disarming them? Well, smart I guess," Mike commented as he shook his head is disappointment.

"Yeah, but if I know him, he's got fifty more bricks of shells hidden around his place," the Bishop said, referring to his friend. "This won't go as far as the government hopes up in the city. At least not around the Salt Lake Valley. They're probably giving out steaks and fuel like crazy in cities like Los Angeles or Chicago, and up in the north east. And I don't think they'll ever get ammo for goods in smaller towns, unless it's the residents shooting to take the supplies."

"I hear that!" Mike replied with a slight smile. "Well, I don't want to keep you from your group for too long Bishop. Where are you guys camped?"

"Um, well, if you were to take that turn to the right back a hundred yards," the Bishop pointed back the way they had come. "We're down about two miles. There's a nice cove of cedars that we like to come to."

"It was nice meeting you," Mike said as he got back in and started the truck.

"Would you like a ride?" Stacy offered.

The Bishop looked at Mike and said it wasn't a bad walk.

"I insist," she replied. He nodded and hopped in the back next to Brad, who just silently and stared at the man as he attempted to make small talk.

"He doesn't say much," Taylor told him as she rubbed her hand on Brad's head.

When they returned to the ranch, Mike asked Stacy and Taylor to load up four baskets of produce from the gardens. "Jess, Brad and I are going to grab a lamb. We're going to take those folks some good food."

They got one of their largest lambs loaded up in a crate in the back of Mike's pickup, and put their baskets of produce beside the crate. "Why don't you and Brad stay here and cook up some dinner," Jessica said to Stacy. "Brad, you're the man of the ranch while we're gone, so you take charge of that grill, okay bud?" Brad gave a slight smile, then went stone-faced hoping to look more manly. He stood proud to be the "man of the ranch," as his mom had said. Taylor and Jessica slid into the truck and went to deliver the food with Mike.

It was still only mid-afternoon when they arrived back at the camp. Some of the men had their guns in hand, not recognizing the truck coming. "Bishop! Bishop Christensen!" Mike called out. Another man approached the truck.

"He should be back in just a few minutes," the man told them.

Mike pointed to the bed of the truck. "You guys want some food?" Jessica and Taylor got out of the truck and grabbed the baskets. The others in the group had overheard Mike's offer and gathered around. "I'm assuming at least one of you know how to tend to it?" Mike asked of the men. Several of them nodded and said they did as they hurried to unload the lamb.

As the men got to work killing and gutting the lamb, the Bishop walked up. He had a huge smile on his face as he saw what they had brought them. "Oh, praise the Lord!" he said excitedly. He looked at the trio who delivered the small feast. Jessica was holding Mike's left hand, standing at his side. Taylor was leaning her head against his shoulder. "Just neighbors I see," he remarked. Jessica and Taylor just looked at each other and smiled.

"I'd like to talk to you again if you've got a few minutes to spare," Mike asked of him. The two men stepped off to the side, while the ladies all hugged each other and made small talk. "Look, I've got a ranch the government hasn't taken over yet. I'm sure the man who used to take my livestock to market won't be coming back anymore. And we certainly have far more than we need to feed ourselves. We've got some big greenhouses and a few acres we keep planted as well."