The Solitary Man’s Refuge (11 page)

Donald looked around the small store and
wondered to himself just what he would buy knowing the
apocalypse was upon him at present. Oil and transmission
fluid for that raggedy truck was one thing!

“Is there a regular grocery store up ahead?” Donald
asked the man.

 

“Yea, there is one in Wausau about 15 miles up the
road. Where you headed?” The old shopkeeper inquired.

 

“
Montgomery, Alabama” Donald answered digging
in his pockets to pay for the oil.

“
Just stay on 77 and you will run into 231
eventually, it twists and turns a bit but just keep following it
and you will get there.” the old man said, closing up an old
tin cash box and sitting back down on his stool.

Donald got back in his truck and estimated that
this little detour was going to cost him only about 40 extra
miles max and started thinking about what he was going to
be buying if he found a grocery store open.

“
Should have asked that old guy where the seed
and feed was also. I guess I can ask up here just as well,
whenever I find civilization. Now then, who all knows we
are now officially grid down and how extensive is the
damage is nationwide. This might just be a localized event
like the 1989 solar storm that blacked out Canada's
Quebec province for 10 hours, but no, if you think about it,
whatever hit the beach was stronger than that one
because it took out those 18 wheel tractor-trailer trucks.
He had a crank and solar powered radio in the glove box
that might have been possibly shielded from EMP effects,
but it might not be a good idea to try it at the moment to
see if those hardened AM transmitter site signals were
getting through from the National Emergency Network. No,
definitely do not play with a radio at the moment. Wouldn’t
hurt him physically none, but he might be jeopardizing the
only form of communication he had by exposing it, if it
wasn’t already damaged, to the sun at the moment. Cops
in the bigger cities would know a solar storm had taken the
power down. There was an emergency law enforcement
communication hard-line system that was somewhat
shielded from EMP that probably was working. That didn’t
do him any good though unless he saw a bunch mobilizing
or looking like they were loaded for bear. This was like
being in a Twilight Zone episode or something. Not
knowing the magnitude of the thing or its effects was
messing with his mind. He hoped it was just a localized
event but he couldn’t count on that being the case. They
got most of their power back on in Canada after 10 hours
but this thing had the looks to him of one of those10 year
restoration jobs the EMP Commission had speculated on
regarding the effects of a massive solar storm. Well,
nothing to do at this moment but pretend worse case
scenario for now has occurred and carry on as planned.
Let’s see, he had been on enough dry run prepping trips to
the grocery store to envision what all he should grab and
which grocery store isles to start on. He was hesitant to
spend any of his cash on bottled water because he didn’t
need it himself, but he did think about the many people he
might see stranded down the road and mentally committed
to buying a case of water so he could share

Damn, I might have a bunch of worries but I know
Janice is probably really going through the wringer at the
moment. Janice was a dialysis charge nurse and was sure
to have at least 9 patients on machines when this crap hit
and the power shut down. That meant the staff were trying
to manually pump the machines and the damn place didn’t
have an emergency generator backup. Just battery
operated emergency lights. They are hooked to the main
circuitry though. I wonder if they can survive this, being
wired like that? Donald mused while looking ahead for the
next town to come up.

He pulled the truck into the parking lot of the Piggly
Wiggly and walked up to the employees standing outside
gabbing.

“You open? “ Don questioned tentatively as he
approached the small group.

 

“What cha needing? We don’t have any power you
know. So no credit cards.” an old woman stated.

 

“I got cash and I will be quick. Just some groceries.”
Donald responded.

“Well, if you had said you needed diapers or
feminine products, I was going to let you in, but we’re not
set up to sell on the registers when the powers out. Sorry.”
The woman said curtly.

“Well thanks anyway.” Donald said and went back
to his truck.

“
Dang! Should have asked them about another
store or where the seed and feed is located.”
David
thought as he cranked up and then drove to the front of the
store to ask for directions out the driver’s side window.
They told him the seed and feed was down about 8 blocks
and to the right and he left hoping for better luck there in
making some purchases. He followed the directions given
to him and pulled up in front where two men were sitting
on a park bench in front of it.

“Are they open?” Donald asked.

 

“Yea, I am open. But cash only and no large bills,
ok? Powers out.” One of the men responded.

“Great, thanks.” Donald said starting to walk by a
vegetable plant sales display when he noticed a box full of
little yellow chicks and a couple hutches of black and white
rabbits. These critters were not on his shopping list but
mighty interesting to contemplate at this moment. He
hadn’t got around to building a chicken coup yet nor had
he considered raising any meat rabbits. He inquired of the
pricing on the chicks and rabbits and ended up with 9
chicks, 4 rabbits, a couple sacks of feed for them each and
two bags of high protein feed wheat. He loaded up his
truck and took off with the rabbits and chicks residing on
the backseat in separate crates.

“
This better be the big one or I am going to look
dang foolish having gone on the longest false alarm
prepper drill bug out ever.” David thought as he mentally
wished those chicks would stop peeping so much and that
the rabbits would quit jumping around.

Donald had some lumber next to his shed and an
old section of garden fence with which he figured he could
knock something together if need be for his newly acquired
livestock when he got home, but he wasn’t planning on
going directly home at the moment. He really needed to
get to his Mom’s house and also coordinate with Janice to
figure out their next moves. For him the answer was
simple. Everybody gather what you can and move in with
him in the country. Convincing his mom and Janice to do it
now would be the hard part of it. No, he couldn’t see them
bugging out for at least two weeks from now unless
something like a fire was threatening their homes at the
moment. David had guessed the power lines must be
made of some fire retardant material because the only fire
or smoke he had seen was at juncture points on the
telephone poles. He might as well just resign himself to
having to bug out of the city sometime in the future
because they were going to be stubborn for now about
leaving the city. He would stop off at his own house on the
way and drop his chickens and rabbits off with Michael and
Amy. Donald had asked himself several times if he was he
worn out by the end of the world scenarios he was
constantly considering before this trip, now it looked like
the fun was just getting started. Even if thinking about that
doomer crap all the time did make him a bit batty, it was
paying off now and he relaxed as he had a plan for most
things.

11
Motoring The Motor Home

Bubba and Kat had awakened early and headed for
their next video shoot in Mississippi. The scratchy AM
radio in the motorhome before it got out of transmitter
range or took a dump, said Arkansas seemed to to be
having a series of 7.0 magnitude earthquakes. The only
space weather news they gotten in the last 6 hours was
that the solar storm was building in strength. They hooked
up with Jack, who was their newest real prepper
interviewee for the Real Day Prepper Show, around 10:30
this morning and were just starting to shoot when the
power suddenly went out. Jack said he had heard off of
the Cometwatches YouTube channel that an X2 solar flare
was headed our way but nothing else since then. They
talked about what the researchers addressing this issue
and funded by NASA say that the solar storms that started
from March 8 and ended on March 10, 2012 dumped
enough energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere to power
every residence in New York for two years. The
thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree, it began to glow
intensely at infrared wavelengths as the thermostat effect
kicked in to the atmosphere. For the three-day period,
March 8th through 10th, the news said that the
thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy.

“Any way for us to tell if this power outage we are
having was caused by a CME?” Jack asked Bubba.

“Sure, just turn on something electronic like this
laptop” LowBuck said reaching for his and hitting its ON
switch

“See. Nothing, err humm…might be. Maybe
something to worry about. Hang on…” Bubba said
reaching for his cell phone and popping it open to see if it
functioned at all.

“Shit! We are screwed. Got NaDa! Not a damn
thing!” Bubba said showing the dark communication
device to Cat and Jack and then he looked up at the sky to
see if he could observe any phenomenon.

“Ah Man, REALLY?” Jack exclaimed, checking his
own cell phone while Cat did the same with hers and then
showing each other blank screens...

“Better check on the motor home’s generator,
Bubba...” Cat began before both men jumped up and
thought screw that and went to see first if their vehicles
would start. They both did fire up, thankfully, and the group
reassembled after a mild dose of solar storm inspired
panic was relieved by the engines functioning properly.

“Are we bugging back or bugging in?” Cat asked
hesitantly trying to anticipate either option they were
blessed or cursed with.

“You can stay here man!” Jack said a bit too
jubilantly because he was thinking about how awesome
and useful it would be to have the mighty LowBuckPrepper
and his wife Cat the prepper as his post apocalyptic house
guests.

“Thanks buddy, hey look, I got to think this thing
through for a minute. I will be back in a few.” Bubba said
going to his motor home to mix himself a stiff drink.

“I hope y’all stay. That biosphere I built can
produce food year round. I know that I am in the suburbs
but there is a lot of wildlife around here if you know how to
get it.” Jack said as Cat was gathering up the show
materials that had just got cut short.

“We will see what Bubba wants to do. Most likely,
he will want to bug home as quickly as we can, I am
thinking.” Cat replied and then looked over at Bubba
coming out of the motor home with a big drink in his hand
and walking towards them purposely with something on his
mind.

“Jack this is how I see it. I appreciate your offer
and kind hospitality but me and cat are about to get the
hell out of dodge. I am thinking it’s one hell of a long
distance to my bug in location and I would go there now,
regardless, but Arkansas is having earthquakes and this
shit happening at the same time, so I ain`t going to be
crossing that state for a while until the dust settles.
Donald’s place is only 5 hours away and we were going to
go in that direction anyways. I think I will go and bug in
with him for a month or two as I review my options.” Bubba
said giving Cat a hug and Harley a pat...

“I hope you all don’t play hell getting there, you
know all the street stop lights are out from here to there
and traffic will be horrendous.” Jack said disappointedly
and hoping to dissuade LowBuck from leaving so soon.

“Exactly, that is why I got to go now. The longer I
wait though, the harder it will be, I am thinking, to get out
of town and onto the highway. You will see more wrecks
on the roads leading to highway exits as more people get
out in that screwed up traffic to go retrieve friends and
family from somewhere. If I drive careful now, there is a
good chance I can get on relatively clear interstate and
make some distance.” Bubba explained while picking up
his now defunct laptop and offering it to Jack with a grin in
a “Here you want it?” gesture...
“Oh gee, thanks LowBuck, just what I always

wanted. Now I got me a new paperweight.” Jack said
smiling and reaching for the fried laptop as a memento.

“Not a problem brother. You take care of yourself
man!” Bubba said reaching to shake Jacks’ hand and get
on the way.

“You too, buddy! Tell Donald to write down your
adventure in one of those crazy post apocalyptic books he
writes. I’d like to read about that someday.” Jack said
laughing.

“Let’s hope we can!” Jack said, a bit more somber
but still smiling all the same.

“You ready to Adios, girl?” Bubba said hugging Cat
as she walked up beside him and gave him a pat and put
her hand on his shoulder.

“As ready as I will ever be!” Cat replied, hugging
him back.

“Jack, you take care and stay safe. I hope our
roads cross again someday.” Cat said and then leaned
forward and hugged his shoulder in a farewell gesture.

“Stop by anytime. Bubba, are you going to try and
come back this way if you decide to bug home in the
future?” Jack said looking at him pleadingly.

“Definitely man, might even be sooner than you
think. Anything preps wise you real short of now to put on
my list to try to acquire if I can?” Bubba said looking
around to be sure he wasn’t leaving anything behind
himself he might need later.

“Nah man, I am a prepper remember, well, least
ways I wouldn’t have to check all of the above on a list of
essential preps I don’t have like most of the sheeple who
will be waiting on FEMA to come by and rescue them.”
Jack said looking around his property and already thinking
about security.